I was stopped at a red light with traffic and another car came in slammed, I was rear ended, into the back of my car and caused damage to my trunk, bumper, possibly suspension, and possibly the tail pipe. I ended up contacting my insurance, Progressive, and they said I would need to pay $1000 for the deductible and that they would "try" to get the $1000 back from the at fault driver and they recommended contacting the at fault driver's insurance, USAA, and file a claim through them. Fast forward to now, USAA called me and basically said they were "liable" but due to "coverage issues" they would likely issue a denial on the claim, but have not made the final decision yet.
Here are the facts:
-I did obtain a police report.
-the accident happened in the morning.
-The at fault driver admitted to me, my partner, and law enforcement that she was 100% at fault and caused the accident.
-The police report does state that my car was parked at the red light with traffic and she continued to drive and did not stop and hit the back of my car at 20mph and that they did a field sobriety test. She passed, but they still believed she was intoxicated but could not do a blood draw. Just to clarify, the police report basically shows she is at fault.
-I have pictures of the damage she caused and of her license plate. I also have a picture of her insurance card.-This happened in IL.
-I was not harmed and nor were my passengers currently.
I have been getting conflicting advice and my questions:

1. Should I get estimates, 2 to 3, of the damage, send a certified letter asking her to pay for the damage or that I will take legal action, and take her to small claims court if she refuses to pay?
2. Should I pay the $1000 and file through my insurance and hope they get my money back? (My other concern with this is that my insurance is going to go up even though I am not at fault)

Any help is greatly appreciated and please let me know if more info is needed.

I am watching the new episide and Scott talks about being in a car accident - btw this is also interesting, his car hit a curb and did a somersault. how fast was he going for this to happen?!
Anyway, he then says that after he got out, Penelope wiped the blood off his face. How did this happen and why? He says he was driving to pick up Mason. No one was in the car with him. So it is not like Penelope was there. So I assume he drove back to the house and his daughter brought him a 'wet rag', as he says. Ok. Why? Why did he show up to the house with blood on his face? Knowing these people's resources and the number of assistants they have and the fact they all live close to each other, wasn't there a possibility of getting his face cleaned up before going to see his daughter?
Yes, I am overanalyzing, but how can you scare your child like that? The poor girl could be traumatized now. What sort of parent behaves like this? And this scene ends with jumping to a clip where Kris says 'Scott is a great dad'. Dude wtf.

So I've run into some issues with my PS4 Pro 1TB drive. The issue is that it requires updating and I could do this but then all of my saved gaming clips and whatnot would be deleted forever. I can't log in to save the data onto an external drive. Now I understand that the easy fix is to just forego the gaming clips and pics that I have, but these are years of memories and moments from throughout my time having this console, I don't want to lose everything. Anything you guys can say to help me would be greatly appreciated.

Alright y'all... here's the final piece. It's 15 Google Docs pages, so it's a long one. If you don't want to read and are wondering what the takeaway is, it's this: Jenelle has so many different health "issues" that have popped up and disappeared over the last 10+ years, received diagnoses for some, has had tests done for most, and has ultimately ignored all of it. Sometimes she focuses on her esophagus. Sometimes it's her neck cracking. Sometimes it's her lungs. Sometimes it's her bloodwork. Sometimes it's her hemangiomas. Nowhere in any of the testing, medications, unofficial or official diagnoses is there a solution she's happy with. It never ends, and it never will. I'll eat a very tall sandwich if she ever announces (another) official diagnosis that explains all of her ailments (not necessarily one blanket one) and demonstrates treatment or lifestyle changes that she's making to try to make herself feel better.
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January 2022 - Posts a TikTok video saying she’s been taking things easy lately and has lost her spark and motivation because of her health issues. She says, “I’ve recently been diagnosed with two tumors in my spine, and they recently found out that I also have a tumor in my neck, which hurts pretty bad. We don’t know what we’re doing about this yet, but I’ve just been in a lot of pain lately. My neck is just killing me.” She hashtags the video "syringomyelia," "hemangioma," and "spinetumor." In another video, she says these tumors are different than the cysts she’s previously mentioned and lists out what she has: cysts in her spine and head, two small tumors on her vertebrae and “thoratic” spine, another tumor at C3 in her neck, called hemangiomas. More on that in a bit.
January 2, 2022 - Posts a TikTok response to a comment that said, “I have a cyst on my brain. Actually, a lot of people do. They call them ‘don’t bother me cysts’ because they are so common. Your absolutely fine.” Sarcastically, Jenelle says, “You know what you’re so right; it doesn’t cause any issues until you go paralyzed or can’t hold your bowels anymore or have left arm weakness like I do, or have a nerve study done and show left side weakness in your body.” She says we shouldn’t compare whos worse and that it’s not a competition, and wants to clarify that she has cysts and tumors. She says cysts elsewhere aren’t a big issue, but they are when they’re on your spine. “Just use Google.” She points out that the video is shaking and says it’s because of weakness in her hands. She says the commenter is right that they won’t do anything about it until the symptoms get worse.
Posts another response to a different comment that says, “I know it’s been a long road to this discovery. Can you share with us the journey such as exams they had to conduct to find these tumors?” Jenelle says every time you get an MRI/CT scan done, you should ask for the image disk and bring it with you to every doctor you go to, as long as it has a diagnosis. She shows a picture of her “thoratic” spine and points out two little tumors and a cyst. She shows the MRI of her sinuses and shows us that cyst. She says she got another MRI that she doesn’t have the image disk for, but it showed she had another hemangioma.
January 5, 2022 - Posts a TikTok with someone else’s audio that says, “how do you know you can’t OD on cannabis? Because I try! I try every fucking day Barbara.” It could be argued she only posted this because her mom’s name is Barbara, but her cannabis addiction is well documented.
January 6, 2022 - Posts a dancing TikTok and a commenter says, “That’s good for the back.” She responds, “Staying positive and dancing until I can’t anymore.”
January 8, 2022 - Says in a TikTok comment that she was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and just has anxiety.
January 12, 2022 - Posts a TikTok with the caption “When your husband asks if he got you sick,” and the audio says, “Umm… yeah.”
Random thoughts YT January 2022 - talks about her implants and says, “They say to get them redone every 10 years, but I don’t have any problems right now.” She says she asked 2 different doctors, and both told her that she has so many other health issues that they don’t think she has BII and aren’t concerned about it.
January 2022 - Seventh video, with footage starting in October and going through January. It’s been six months since she found out about the cyst. Her back hurts really bad, yet still went on a fair ride (which made her nauseous, despite her “never” having motion sickness before). She has nerve pain in her shoulders, back, and ribs. Headache, neck cracking, ear popping, feels like she can’t breathe. She Googled what she shouldn’t be doing: no trampolines, no scuba diving (“which I’m certified in scuba diving, so that really sucks”), and no roller coaster riding. So. ENT said to see the neurologist again; the neurologist suggests seeing a new ENT. The neurologist assumes the neck cracking isn’t caused by the cyst. Goes back to the neurosurgeon - they’re going to repeat the MRI and look for any changes. The results show it’s getting longer but is the same width. Mentions her heat issues again; she’s getting red patches on her chest and breaking out and itching when she’s in the sun. She says she’s getting neck tightness, extreme pressure headaches, and blood pressure rising when she stands up and sits down. The doctor suggests an MRI of her neck. Now claims arm & fingertip numbness. Refers to her cysts as tumors, benign vertebrae tumors, and hemangiomas. The neurosurgeon suggests pain management, but she wants to try herbal remedies and some fruit that cures cancer. The neurosurgeon says the hemangioma is fine and that her neck is normal. Jenelle suggests she may have thoracic outlet syndrome. She thought her neck was cracking due to the hemangioma, but the doctor tells her that wouldn’t cause the neck cracking. She has an EMG scheduled and will get a blood study done to detect her blood circulation.
February 2, 2022 - Posts a negative review for another doctor on Facebook. She says she was told by the PA to “go to the ER if you become paralyzed or lose bowel movements due to the cyst in your spine.” She was referred elsewhere for TOS syndrome (thoracic outlet syndrome). She says she’s been crying for months about her problems, and the practice didn’t care to look into it further when her problems are “very apparent” on her MRIs. She doesn’t recommend this office and ends the review with, “Not to mention my cyst in my spine is growing in length 1mm per month.”
This same day, someone comments on a TikTok video asking how her back is doing. She responds by saying, “Lots of pain, and my neck always cracks but waiting on second opinions.”
February 8, 2022 - Posts a TikTok with the caption “Nerve Study Day” with star emojis. She starts her voiceover by saying, “Time for another dottor’s appointment.” She explains the nerve study tests her nerve impulses with shocks and acupuncture pokes. She says, “Don’t worry, I wore a mask, I was sick.” She says she felt like shit after and took a bath and then laid down after because she had a bad headache. She had to help Kaiser with homework, though, because being a mom doesn’t stop. Ate dinner but still didn’t feel well, so she went to sleep.
February 2022 - Eighth video. Got a new opinion from a new neurologist who sent her for another MRI and a nerve study. Claims her symptoms have gotten worse. Says her cervical MRI was at C3, C5, C6, & C7. She has a hemangioma in her neck, degenerative disc disease, and a disc bulge. The thoracic MRI showed T7, T8, & T9 - has a syrinx & hemangiomas there. And the cyst in her sinus. Says her thumb on her left side is losing grip, and her arm doesn’t feel like it’s attached to her body. Her brain pain has been getting worse and worse. Claims the new doctor says it’s weird no one is doing anything. She looked at her CT myelogram scan from 2021 and says spondylosis is her new diagnosis and that the neurologist didn’t tell her about it. Her neck has been cracking even louder - she’s being referred to another neurosurgeon for her spine cyst. She’s going to have her lungs checked for more cysts. After the nerve study, says she has problems at C6 in her spine and is waiting for the neurologist to look at the results. She has had nerve pain in her arm and back since the study, as well as double vision.
February 20, 2022 - Posts a TikTok about her health and mentions she will get checked for ALS and has been crying a lot. She’s getting all of her tests redone and her nerve study redone. She says she’s having trouble breathing, and since she has cysts “popping up everywhere,” they want to check to see if they’re also on her lungs. She hashtags the video “ALSAwareness” and “PrayersNeeded.” Responding to comments, she says, “Yeah, I asked my doc about MS, and she said nope, I don’t have that based on my brain MRI” and “I wish I did have MS and not ALS… but she said she looked at my brain MRI and there were no lesions.” Someone comments that the shaky hands and poor thumb grip could be caused by phone use and gaming controllers, but Jenelle says, “No… I’ve had a nerve study to prove weakness. I am having atrophy in my thumb. My thumb is losing muscle.”
February 23, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story selfie from a doctor’s office captioned “Good news but bad news… blood work is normal”
February 24, 2022 - Posts a TikTok captioned “freaking out on the inside” and “Life tough at the moment :( #NerveStudy.” She says she had to get another nerve study done because the other person who did it wasn’t her doctor’s office. She shows us her medical shorts and her laughing at herself but says she was “tearing up.” She says the electricity part was good but waited on needles. She shows us the equipment they used. Then she shows us herself crying when she got home because she had such bad nerve pain and then went to bed. A comment asks what she takes for the nerve pain, and she says, “Hot baths.” Another asks if she has fibromyalgia, and she says, “Nope.”
March 6, 2022 - Asked in the comments on a TikTok video how she’s been feeling and when she’s going to the doctor again. She responds, “Thanks for asking! Have a lot of double vision, neck pain, and headaches everyday.. Going this week for my check up.”
March 10, 2022 - Posts on Instagram that she has a diagnosis. The next day she sold the story to E! News and said she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. From the article: “For as long as I can remember, I would get extremely bad tension headaches and full body aches - like I had the flu, but was not sick. My entire body gets in so much pain, and sometimes I lay in bed and cry.” She says, “Living life every day is challenging because of having only a little bit of energy to be able to get my work done and then having to go to bed early due to headaches or body aches.” She claims to be changing her diet to manage her symptoms.
March 11, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story that says, “I’m still so sad. Even tho I have a diagnosis… still doesn’t explain my neck cracking, double vision, and throat pain. I feel so hopeless. Something is def wrong with my neck, and it’s severely tight 24/7.”
March 12, 2022 - Posts a TikTok captioned “Hiii #LungCheckup #HealthUpdate #fibromyalgia.” She says she hasn’t been feeling good and took a break from TikTok for a few days. She shares her diagnosis and says she told her neurologist a few months ago that she couldn’t breathe, so she had a checkup with a lung doctor. They did a FeNO test on her, and her score was abnormally low, like “way too low.” She exclaims it measures the nitric oxide that you exhale on your breath. She’s now been prescribed an inhaler, nitroglycerin for her esophagus spasms, and a full lung checkup. She was going to skip her lung appointment, but good thing she didn’t! A quick Google search tells us that a high FeNO score is when you should be concerned.
March 13, 2022 - Posts a TikTok showing off weed merch someone sent her. In the comments, someone asks, “But do you think smoking is contributing to your lung problems? Hope you get answers soon!” Jenelle responds and says, “.....yeah I know :( but thank you.”
Same day - Posts a TikTok discussing her health, and in the comments, someone says one of her results can indicate a certain type of asthma. She responds, “or COPD, anemic, cystic fibrosis, etc. lots of issues.”
March 14, 2022 - A commenter on TikTok says, “My boyfriend rolls his eyes when I tell him my health issues.” Jenelle responds, “David does too.”
Same day - A commenter asks why she doesn’t feel good, and she replies, “The middle of my chest has been hurting for days extremely bad.”
March 16, 2022 - She posts a video captioned “Peak Flow Meter - Lung Reading” and starts it off by saying, “This is your sign to get your lungs checked.” She said she just woke up and has been told to keep a diary of how her lung function is and is going to see how good it is based on her age and height. She blows into the device for about a second and coughs afterward, gasping for breath. She shows us her level is at 410, and for her height and age, it should be at 475. She says she has the lungs of a 70-year-old. She’s going to continue to do readings 3 times a day and report back to her lung doctor. In the comments, she mentions her average is 400. There are multiple comments telling her the correct way to administer this test and that she’s doing it wrong.
She posts a second video responding to a comment telling her to stand up straight, take a big deep breath and blow out as fast and hard as she can. She does it three times and shows it’s 410 each time. Someone comments, asking if she’s sure it’s not stuck, and asks if she quit smoking. She responds, “I’m going to try breathing exercises.”
March 17, 2022 - Posts a video in response to a comment saying, “I thought you said you had a stiff neck and couldn’t breathe?” She’s lipsyncing to Eminem’s “Hailies Song,” specifically the lyrics “I act like shit don’t phase me, inside it drives me crazy. My insecurities could eat me alive.”
March 20, 2022 - Makes a video responding to a comment saying, “Whatever treatment plan your doctor has you on must really be working. You went from uncontrollable neck pain to this in no time at all.” Jenelle says she’s not going to be the most depressed bitch on this app every single day and is going to show us good and bad days. She says some people are in pain more than others. She says she’s been up since 1 in the morning because of her esophageal spasms, feeling like she has a heart attack. She’s not going to film herself every single time she feels like shit. There’s no treatment plan because they don’t know what’s going on. The only treatment plan she has is for her esophagus. She’s going to dance until she can’t no more.
March 26, 2022 - Makes a video with the caption, “I’ll give y’all more of an update soon. If you see bruises on my arms… you know why #myastheniagravis.” She’s crying and breathing heavily and captions herself saying her chest hurts. The text on the video says, “2 months ago: can’t breathe when waking up.” A clip of her in the bath says, “Tried to relax and rest since this began.” Posts a clip of herself in the ER that says, “2 days ago: hospitalized for extreme chest pain and difficulty breathing” and shows off her IV and pulls down her gown to show the monitors taped to her chest. The first clip is taken at 3:05 PM, and the second is taken at 3:49 PM. This one says, “Recently had 2 antibodies related to Myasthenia Gravis show up on blood tests.” Another says, “Had 2 EKGs, they stuck me 4 times for blood, stuck me 2 more for IVs, chest x-ray, CT scan,” and shows off all of her taped IV/blood draw locations. She posts another clip in the hallway outside of the x-ray room that says, “My blood clotting test came back high, but they said images looked ok.” We got a full picture of her IV in her arm that says, “resting for now but following up with neurologist ASAP”
March 27, 2022 - A commenter on TikTok mentions that weight gain can affect her mobility and says it happened to someone they know. Jenelle responds, “I can’t hardly walk 5ft without my legs burning like I’m doing squats, but I have been trying to take walks around my land lately.”
March 28, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story of someone else’s video explaining Epstein-Barr and Jenelle captions it “Yes, I do have Epstein Barr nuclear in my system too lol. This is crazy to think about yall… I had mono in middle school and was hospitalized for it (mind blown emoji)”
April 3, 2022 - Posts on her (shortly thereafter) defunct blog that she’s switching to wine from beer. She says, “With all my health issues happening my stomach and esophagus have not been agreeing with me. Since possibly having Myasthenia Gravis, there’s a huge diet and foods to avoid that can trigger GI symptoms and/or problems.” She claims that “Since switching to wine, my stomach has been a lot calmer, and my burping also has decreased significantly! Super happy I’m making healthier choices for myself.”
April 4, 2022 - Posts a video making and eating a homemade breakfast sandwich (English muffin, bacon, eggs, mayo).
April 26, 2022 - Shows her coffee order again - trenta iced coffee with vanilla sweet cream cold foam, classic syrup, and sweet cream.
May 2, 2022 - In an Instagram Q&A, she's asked how she’s doing lately and asked for health updates. She responds, “Health? It’s put on hold until June when I see my new neuromuscular doctor.”
Mid May 2022 - Starts her OnlyFans.
June 3, 2022 - Posts a picture in her pool exposing her entire rump and captions it “Summer tip: Idk why but switching from beer to wine has shrunk my stomach sooo much!”
June 3, 2022 - Posts a TikTok response to a comment that said, “weren’t you almost paralyzed a month ago? It’s a miracle you’ve recovered.” She says you can’t recover from a cyst in your spine. She says she needs an MRI check up to see how long it’s gotten. She clarified that she said she could go paralyzed any day now. “If I go paralyzed or lose any bowel movements without trying, then I have to immediately go to the hospital and get emergency surgery. So yeah, really, I’m like a ticking time bomb over here, just waiting to give up, I guess you can say. So next week, I’ll be going to see my new neuromuscular doctor. Still have a lot more genetic testing to do and blood work, so we’ll see what’s going on, but they’re thinking an autoimmune disease.” She hashtags it “syringomyelia” and “syringomyeliaawareness.” She also clarifies that she’s leaving health content on the back burner until she has answers.
June 7, 2022 - Posts a video once again showing her scans of her spine and sinuses. She hashtags this one “syringomyelia,” “sphiehemangioma,” and “sinuscyst.”
End of June 2022 - She and David go to St. Thomas. In the Youtube vlog she posts, she explains she’s wearing a portable fan around her neck to help cool her down since her various illnesses make her sweat/hot. In the airport, she mentions she’s relieved that she’s “so far not sick,” or in other words, not experiencing esophagus spasms. Once they land, she tells us she didn’t get sick on the flight.
June 26, 2022 - Posts a TikTok explaining the wearable fan more. She says she’s been having an overheating issue and that her face has been red, so if she looks burnt, she isn’t. Nevermind the fact that she posted pictures of herself extremely burnt from their vacation.
July 1, 2022 - Posts a video of her on an alpine coaster.
July 4, 2022 - Takes the kids on a trip to the mountains. Posts TikToks over the week of herself hiking and reaching the top of a lookout point. No health mentions.
July 22, 2022 - Posts about her Invisalign. Responds to a comment saying her jaw and teeth hurt and that she has headaches at night.
August 9, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story selfie showing a heart monitor taped to her chest and captions it “Heart monitor for 48 hours :(. This is following up from a high D Dimer test.”
August 10, 2022 - Posts a health update to TikTok. She reminds us she went to the ER in March and that while she was there, she had a high D Dimer test. The text on the screen says, “also had abnormal ECG in ER, sinus brachycardia (sic), & sinus arrhythmia.” She explains D Dimer tests are for blood clots or heart disease. They saw she didn’t have a blood clot and that her “lungs were fine” but told her to follow up with her doctor. She says the chest pain has been on and off for the last 3 months so she’s been ignoring it. She finally got ahold of her primary care doctor, who told her the chest pain is still happening, told her about the test results, and got a referral to a cardiologist. She shows us the heart monitor she has to wear for the next 48 hours (her exact words are, “so now, I’m on a chest monitor for the next 48 hours”) and says she has a heart ultrasound tomorrow and a stress test in September.
August 11, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story that says, “I told the tech ‘I feel like it might be stress from my kids but idk…’ She said ‘no you’re not crazy when it comes to your pain, I see it happening right here.’”
August 24, 2022 - In another Instagram Q&A she’s asked how her health is going. She says, “Just taking things easy and trying to stay stress free but waiting on test results from my cardiologist still and stress test next month.”
August 31, 2022 - Takes a big bite from a tall sandwich.
September 27, 2022 - Posts on Instagram/TikTok that they’re flying to Bar Harbor for their “honeymoon.” No mention of esophageal spasms on the plane. On this trip, she completes the Beehive Summit hike in Acadia National Park. She also showed us when she took a ginormous bite of a lobster roll and a breakfast sandwich.
October 1, 2022 - Rants about her golf cart that broke. Explains that she needs the golf cart so she doesn’t have to “break her back” “running” to the kids. No mention of mobility issues or because of her illnesses. Does mention her life was at risk since the brakes went out.
October 16, 2022 - Buys herself & David new dirtbikes. Bought herself two - one that is too big and powerful for her to ride yet and another that is more manageable for her.
October 19, 2022 - Posts a TikTok about getting mono in middle school. She explains her throat was so swollen and inflamed that she went to the hospital and was admitted. She had IV steroids. Said her body “could not handle” mono and that she was severely sick. She says mono is REALLY severe and that it is the Epstein-Barr virus. She’s “stitching” someone else’s video and references it when she says that E-B can cause so many other diseases when you’re older without you realizing it. There are 3 blood tests that can see if you actively have E-B. Jenelle says it’s crazy to think it can cause all these health issues. She says she can’t breathe and has bad mucus problems lately in the morning. She’s on an inhaler and seeing her lung doctor. They’re going to do a “bronoscopy” and she’s really scared. She tells people she thinks all of her health issues are from E-B. She must’ve forgotten she already explored this avenue in March. And in August of 2021.
October 26, 2022 - Posts a TikTok that says, “My stomach feeling great… but then… *warning triangle emoji* Esophagus Spams *warning triangle emoji*” and the video of her like errors out? The audio that goes with it says, “Everyone underestimates me but then…. *error noise*” so this is a trend that Jenelle is jumping on to make her esophagus spasms relevant again.
November 2, 2022 - Posts a selfie to her Instagram stories and captions it “sick with the flu..”
November 8, 2022 - Posts a selfie and captions it “In bed today, feeling bad AF. Had 4 lung biopsies yesterday and SO sore :(“
Same day posts a TikTok saying, “y’all have you ever had a bronchoscopy where they stick the camera down into your lungs and they take biopsies?” and tells us she had 4 biopsies done yesterday. She’s lying down with her heating blanket and says she feels sore on the inside. She asks again if we’ve ever had it done before, again. She says she had one taken on her voicebox as well, so 4 lung biopsies and that. They did something to her right lung and they cleaned it out with saline water. She says she’ll get results this week. She has mucus built up in her system, and they don’t know why. She captions it, “I can’t stand this #lungbiopsyrecovery”
She got her hair done for 4 hours the next day.
November 12, 2022 - Posts on her Instagram stories, “Connecting the dots with my health issues. One more blood test, hopefully that’s it. :(“
November 14, 2022 - Posts a TikTok of her using her inhaler. The caption says “#Combivent Inhaler hopefully some of my mucus production is cut down” She’s making goofy faces while she puts her inhaler together and looks giddy to have an actual physical toy to play with.
November 17, 2022 - David posts a picture of them and captions it “Yall pray for my beautiful wife, she has been pretty sick lately”
November 17, 2022 - Posts an Instagram story “Y’all, Predisone (sic) is working wonders right now for my entire body, thank god! #Grateful”
November 27, 2022 - Takes the kids to the mountains for Thanksgiving.
November 28, 2022 - Went tubing in the snow. Snow tubing?
December 2, 2022 - Posts on Facebook “Sorry if I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been in so much pain with my health. Not feeling good enough to make any content.”
December 9, 2022 - Says she lost 20 lbs without trying and thinks it’s from health issues. She says she’s had a harder time eating and is eating smaller meals. She then goes on to explain how she’s been losing weight and says, “So if you’re wondering how I’m losing weight: smaller meals, eating healthier, cutting out fast food.”
December 15, 2022 - Posts on Instagram “If I could find the smartest doctor on this planet, that would be fantastic.”
December 19, 2022 - Her birthday. She and David fight, she calls him a “narcissistic asshole” and took off her wedding ring. Two days later, posts a TikTok and claims the argument was about luggage. There’s speculation this fight was drug related. In her TikTok defending their argument, her pupils are huge. They’re at the mountains with the kids when all of this is going on. She posts another video saying she has PTSD from past relationships and always assumes David’s cheating because she’s been cheated on in the past. She asks if she’s the only one that experiences this.
December 26, 2022 - Posts a selfie and captions it “I think I’m sick FML”
December 28, 2022 - Posts another selfie and captions it “Still sick AF. Yeah.. y’all are right I’m always sick idk why”
January 10, 2023 - Posts a video eating a chia bowl and captions it “Happy dance after fasting for 12 hours.” She has what looks like a blood draw wrap around her arm. In the comments someone asks if it helps and she says she’s doing it for blood work.
January 12, 2023 - Posts a picture of a digestive system poster from a doctor’s office and captions it “FML.”
January 14, 2023 - She and David take a trip to New Orleans. Posts an entire TikTok of what she ate and drank. She takes a giant bite of a crepe. She had 8 alcoholic drinks throughout the day.
January 17, 2023 - Posts on Instagram, “I have mycoplasma pneumoniae” and asks if anyone else has ever suffered from it.
February 2, 2023 - Lipsyncs to a song about smoking weed.
February 4, 2023 - In comments on another video, someone asks if she lost weight, and she responds, “Eating smaller meals, honestly haven’t been trying. I have a hard time eating.”
February 4, 2023 - Posts a TikTok captioned “Weirdest medicine I’ve ever taken! #MethyleneBlue #mycoplasmapneumonia.” She explains she’s trying to figure out her lung problems and says she found out she has long-term pneumonia and has had it for “pretty long.” Her antibodies are pretty high. Treatment is antibiotics for three months, then retesting her antibodies. She calls methylene blue her other medicine/treatment and says it’s an antioxidant if you use a little and if you use a lot it’s anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and boosts serotonin and dopamine. She’s also using a redlight watch that is supposed to kill the bacteria in her veins once the dye is in her system. She claims in the comments this was all prescribed by her doctor.
That same day she posts another TikTok where she says she’s been seeing a functional medicine doctor out of Nashville that she found on YouTube. She had one video call visit and said the doctor sent one test to LabCorp and found her diagnosis. She was diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia, as mentioned in the previous video, and neutrophilic asthma. He’s who prescribed the methylene blue and wants her to use it with a nebulizer. She says she’s done a lot of research on it and that it has more pros than cons and seems very beneficial. She says she has shortness of breath but is hoping the combination of antibiotics, methylene blue, and redlight therapy will help her feel better in the long run. She’ll let us know how she feels in 3 months. In the comments she claims she wakes up in the morning with panic attacks because of clear mucus.
February 7, 2023 - Answers a question on Instagram from someone asking how her breathing treatment is going and says, “It’s helping a lot! Since I’m gaining back my ability to fully breathe I’m about to sign up at the gym next.”
February 8, 2023 - Posts another video responding to someone’s comment that asks who diagnosed her and says that before she says who it is she wants to make sure that all of her problems are taken care of and that it’s the root cause of her issues. She found out with a blood test. She shows us her results and that her count for mycoplasma pneumonia antibodies is very high. You can see a doctor’s name on the page, which I’ve covered to protect their privacy. She says if this treatment doesn’t work, next to try is IV antibiotics.
February 10, 2023 - Posts another video referencing smoking weed/being high all the time.
February 10, 2023 - Posts a picture of Ensley and says, “She told me she’s sick… idk if she’s lying, off to the doctor we go.”
February 14, 2023 - Answers an Instagram question where someone asks about her health with “Getting much better!”
February 20, 2023 - Posts a picture in gym clothes outside the gym with the caption, “Here’s a cheers to my new journey to lose my ‘Mommy Pouch’ and love handles. Started working out today and it feels great!”
February 23, 2023 - Takes a giant bite of a birria taco.
February 24, 2023 - Posts a TikTok that she captions “#GymDay.” Based on what she’s wearing & her hair, this looks to be from 2/22. She says it’s an arm and chest day. We see the chocolate peanut butter protein shake she gets after and the Epsom salt bath she takes to soothe her muscles from yesterday’s workout.
March 1, 2023 - Posts a TikTok response to a comment that says, “Hope all is well. Miss ya video’s.” She says she’s been in a shitty mood. She thought her health was getting better, it was getting a little better, and she interrupts herself with a big cough. She says she’s finally seeing her new lung doctor and is having a sleep study done, is on a new inhaler, is having old CT scan results looked over, and her mind is “boggled” because she has to redo all of her esophagus tests again because they’re so old. She has to redo the catheter test with it down her nose/throat.
March 13, 2023 - Posts a TikTok with text on it that says, “Won’t be available in 1 week because I have esophagus testing but still drinking this alcohol like I’m A-OK” and captioned “#truth but kidding at the same time.” She says in the comments that it’s a trend. I don’t know or understand the trend, but she said it herself, truth.
March 22, 2023 - She and David take a trip to Key West without the kids.
March 23, 2023 - In response to criticism of her stomach, she says she had three kids, had her appendix removed, and had a hernia repaired. Her last child was born in 2017, her appendix was removed in 2013, and the hernia was repaired in 2018. Her significant weight gain started around 2020 and was unrelated to any of these events.
March 25, 2023 - Posts on Facebook that she had an esophageal spasm episode from deep sea fishing and wants to know if anyone else has experienced this so she can share experiences.
March 26, 2023 - Shows pictures on a TikTok video of how sunburnt she and David both got. She says she used “so much” sunscreen.
March 27, 2023 - Posts a TikTok telling us her seasick story from when they went deep sea fishing. She says they chartered their own boat and were talking about how neither of them had ever experienced seasickness before. She says they have their own 18 ft boat, and she’s never gotten sick on it. She says the waves were super choppy, and they were rocking so hard that her esophagus started acting up. This was around 12:30, and she just laid on the boat until they docked at 6:30. She tells us to be careful if we go deep-sea fishing because we can get seasick. She thinks that’s what happened to her, anyway. In the comments, someone tells her to take Dramamine, and she says it makes her sleepy. Which like, yeah…
April 6, 2023 - Posts on IG “Been MIA for a few days because my breathing isn’t so great and random chest pain as usual. Literally been resting for 3 days now.”
April 9, 2023 - Posts on Facebook “Positive ANA. Maybe there will be answers soon.” Someone responds in the comments that it could mean Lupus or Sjogren’s syndrome and said a rheumatologist can do further testing. Jenelle responds, “yes, being referred. My endo found out for me.”
April 17, 2023 - Posts a TikTok going to get Vitamin B12 injections. She says she has to give them to herself once a week for 4 weeks, then once a month after. Her vitamin D is also low. She went to the store to get syringes and stopped for her usual coffee. She shows us her order, which is now a Trenta iced coffee with no classic syrup, hazelnut syrup, ½ sweet cream, and vanilla sweet cream foam topping. Someone in the comments points out that a doctor on TikTok said those injections are just to make money, and she responded, “well, my vitamin B12 and D is low, and my ANA is positive, which means now I go to see a rheumatologist.”
April 18, 2023 - Posts a TikTok this day and the next day with her catheter in for her acid reflux test. She posted a picture on Instagram where we can see she’s driving 80 mph and captions it, “Going alone to get a procedure done for my esophagus today and I’m really scared. Have no support so any prayers are appreciated.” Through her postings about this procedure, we learn she stayed in a hotel by herself overnight.
In the video from the 19th, in the comments, she says she has a spot on her lung that hurts. The doctor says it’s caused by vaping, but she claims she never vapes. She’s definitely posted videos and pictures of herself with weed vape pens and has been a known weed smoker for over 10 years, as well as smoking cigarettes throughout the years and smoking heroin out of wooden pipes, which she had addressed by a doctor in 2012. Curious if she mentioned that this time. She’s up and down the comments claiming she doesn’t vape weed because that’s illegal where she lives.
April 24, 2023 - She and David travel to Virginia to buy a boat and start their multi-day journey sailing through the ocean back home. She claims she purchased this $57,000 boat with money made on OnlyFans.
April 30, 2023 - Posts on Instagram that they made it back home. Someone commented asking how long until she has esophageal spasms again. Jenelle responded, “I’ve had them the whole time I was gone…”
May 2, 2023 - Not health related but still fun; she posts that the turbos need to be replaced.
May 4, 2023 - Posts on Instagram “Good news: I don’t have acid reflux. Bad news: they still don’t know why I have esophagus spasms”
May 7, 2023 - Posts on Instagram “#HealthUpdate Found out I have thymic hyperplasia and lesions on my liver, and no I don’t have MG like they thought. Don’t know why this is happening. Discussing these results next week with my doc and the next steps.”
May 16, 2023 - On an Instagram Q&A, answers two questions about her health. To the first generally asking how she is, she says, “Seeing my rheumatologist this week for a positive ANA. Maybe I’ll get an answer.” To the second that says, “Any word on your liver results?” she says, “My doctors do not care at all. Told me I’ll get another CT scan in a year to check on that and my thymus.”
May 19, 2023 - Posts on Instagram “#HealthUpdate: My rheumatologist is retesting me for things like arthritis, lupus, etc., for having a positive ANA. Might be referred to another lung specialist soon. We will see what my results show in 2 weeks.”
May 28, 2023 - Answers two more questions in an Instagram Q&A about her health. One asking how she’s doing, she says, “I’m doing good, just not feeling too great lately.” The other asked about her health, she says, “I had DNA testing done and honestly shocked but will share the news soon.”
May 31, 2023 - Posts a TikTok of them taking their smaller boat out onto the Intracoastal Waterway. In Part 1, posted on the 30th, she says she was starting to feel seasick. We learn their “new” boat is still not working.

Postgame Thread 5/31/2023

Final Score: Guardians 12, Orioles 8

Line Score - Game Over

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
CLE	1	0	2	3	5	0	1	0	0	12	17	0	9
BAL	0	4	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	8	12	1	8

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
T1	Guardians challenged (other), call on the field was upheld: Jose Ramirez doubles (15) on a sharp line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Steven Kwan scores. Jose Ramirez to 3rd. Jose Ramirez advances to 3rd, on a throwing error by shortstop Jorge Mateo.	0-1
B2	Jorge Mateo doubles (7) on a fly ball to right fielder Gabriel Arias. Aaron Hicks scores. Ryan O'Hearn to 3rd.	1-1
B2	Ryan McKenna singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Ryan O'Hearn scores. Jorge Mateo scores.	3-1
B2	Adley Rutschman singles on a ground ball to second baseman Andres Gimenez, deflected by pitcher Shane Bieber. Ryan McKenna scores. Adam Frazier to 3rd.	4-1
T3	Andres Gimenez singles on a line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Jose Ramirez scores. Josh Naylor scores. Josh Bell to 3rd. Andres Gimenez to 2nd.	4-3
B3	Ryan O'Hearn doubles (3) on a line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Aaron Hicks scores.	5-3
T4	Josh Naylor homers (8) on a fly ball to center field. Steven Kwan scores.	5-5
T4	Josh Bell homers (4) on a fly ball to left field.	5-6
B4	Anthony Santander homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Adley Rutschman scores.	7-6
T5	Josh Naylor doubles (8) on a sharp line drive to center fielder Aaron Hicks. Cam Gallagher scores. Steven Kwan scores. Amed Rosario scores.	7-9
T5	Gabriel Arias homers (4) on a fly ball to center field. Josh Naylor scores.	7-11
B5	Ryan O'Hearn grounds into a force out, second baseman Andres Gimenez to shortstop Amed Rosario. Gunnar Henderson scores. Aaron Hicks out at 2nd. Ryan O'Hearn to 1st.	8-11
T7	Josh Naylor singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Terrin Vavra. Jose Ramirez scores.	8-12

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
Bullpen availability for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Guardians at Orioles - May 31, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Josh Naylor's home run	0:16	Video
Josh Naylor's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
Josh Bell's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
The distance behind Anthony Santander's home run	0:16	Video
Anthony Santander's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
Gabriel Arias: Home Run Statcast Analysis	0:12	Video
Visualizing Gabriel Arias's swing using bat tracking technology	0:09	Video
Breaking down Shane Bieber's pitches	0:08	Video
José Ramírez rips an RBI double off the wall	0:32	Video
José Ramírez advances to third after a review	0:29	Video
Jorge Mateo dunks in an RBI double	0:18	Video
Ryan McKenna rips a two-run single	0:25	Video
Adley Rutschman's RBI infield single	0:20	Video
Andrés Giménez slashes a two-run single	0:29	Video
Ryan O'Hearn rips an RBI double	0:21	Video
Josh Naylor drills a two-run home run	0:30	Video
Josh Bell crushes a solo home run	0:25	Video
Adam Frazier makes a great diving play at second base	0:21	Video
Anthony Santander crushes a two-run homer	0:27	Video
Josh Naylor's bases-clearing double	0:30	Video
Gabriel Arias cracks a solo home run	0:30	Video
Henderson scores on fielder's choice	0:16	Video
Shane Bieber strikes out Gunnar Henderson	0:07	Video
Josh Naylor slashes an RBI single to right	0:14	Video
Aaron Hicks' first hit with the Orioles	0:14	Video
Bryan Baker Ball to Myles Straw	0:13	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Curry (2-0, 2.45 ERA)	Givens (0-1, 11.25 ERA)

Continued from Pt. 1, which can be found at:
Pt 1: https://www.reddit.com/Horror_stories/comments/13wymkl/ghost_word_pt_1/
WARNING: This story contains depictions of non-consensual sex and gun violence.
---------------------------------
Lyle found himself on foot, the valise at his side, the night air crisp and noisy. He realized he was ravenous. No surprise there, he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in twenty-six hours. The late evening traffic was brisk around the campus, and as he passed a roving pack of students Lyle realized it was Thursday night*. Thirsty Thursdays*.
In keeping with ancient tradition, the majority of undergraduates avoided Friday morning classes at all costs, preferring to begin their weekend revels on Thursday nights. Lyle followed his feet. He imagined power emanating from the briefcase at his side, thrumming up his arm. He felt, for perhaps the first time in a life of shrinking uncertainty, boundless.
And it felt extraordinary.
Somewhere inside of him a notion was forming that he did not dare articulate. But he followed his feet. The easy ebb and flow of walk signals, the pleasantly cool night air, the passing chatter, even the occasional car-horn—which in the past had never failed to startle him, jittery as he was—seemed buoyant and agreeable. The night was his. He realized he was sloping gently downhill, as he followed his feet. He realized he knew exactly where he was going. He found himself before O’Flaherty’s Pub, with its sandwich-board blaring LADIES NIGHT 1/2 WELL DRINKS -- TRUST ME YOU CAN DANCE in electric pink loops. It felt only natural to step beneath the awning, swing wide the knotted mahogany door, and enter the din.
The ham-hock manning security—probably a redshirt lineman in his off-season—turned toward Lyle on autopilot, one hand reaching out as a question formed on his lips, lemme see some ID. Lyle made no attempt to reach for his wallet because he knew the inevitable would happen when the bouncer took in his face, which he did a half second later. A tiny beat of recognition flickered and was gone, and the bouncer turned away. No need to card the old dude. Good luck navigating the vicissitudes of adult life, you Mongoloid, Lyle thought. The jag off had a Black & Mild tucked up behind one ear, Lyle felt an insane urge to snatch it off his head and break it in half. He did not do well with the pretend authority of chunky, dead-eyed adolescents.
But I’m not here for him.
Lyle wove his way into the evening crush with the delicate, shuffling little steps he always used in crowds. By fits and starts he made his way deeper, deeper, winding toward the back bar, the one with the full-length mirror. That was her favorite. O’Flaherty’s had a Crosley jukebox, wood-paneled and coin-operated, reaching for vintage but stuffed to the gills with Bluetooth and wi-fi and digital memory and whatever else. A woman’s voice was booming out of it, an empty pop ballad gussied up by her big, operatic sound. Lyle tried to think of the singer’s name, but couldn’t. He squeezed into a narrow gap at the back bar.
Darby was flirting as she mixed a rum-and-coke for a gawky, dough-faced kid in a flat-cap and a Harrington jacket. On the few occasions he had come out on Darby missions, Lyle had stayed well back from the bar, waiting for drink service at one of the small cafe tables lining the billiard room. But tonight, he wasn’t here to watch.
Darby handed off the drink and caught sight of Lyle. He winced—he could read the surprise, even discomfort, on her face. But she was tending bar, and she was quick on her feet, and she rearranged her expression into a smile. She held up a finger—*one sec—*to which Lyle nodded, as she took flat-cap’s (father’s) Amex back to the register and opened up a tab.
Lyle enjoyed watching her walk. Enjoyed looking at her from the back, or in profile. He usually saw her face, in class, big brown doe eyes and very pale, freckled skin. A shade away from clear, he had heard her joke once, to James, as she had invited him to touch the roadmap of blue veins on her inner arm. That had enraged Lyle—the sudden, unwelcome image of James with those long creamy legs locked over his waist, his long, slow thrusts.
Because he restrained himself from ogling her in class, it was a pleasure to come to O’Flaherty’s during her shifts and watch her as she worked. Darby was not the first of what Lyle thought of as his “favorites”. Every year or two there was a fresh, irresistible young thing, for him to think about, alone, late at night. One of the unspoken perks of professordom was the constant influx of eye-candy, of short skirts and long legs and high asses and pert young tits. In his mind’s eye it was an endless profusion of imagined aureoles, of wondering about their panties—boy-briefs or frilly little whatsits or g-strings or none at all—and even if Lyle never slept with them there was an intense eroticism in holding power over these girls he could never have bedded in his own college years. In pushing that term paper over the failing line and waiting, deliciously waiting, for them to come to his office hour and plead. Only Darby’s work was reasonably competent, so even that grimy thrill was denied him.
Darby finished up with the register and came over, the pale of her neck stark against her tight black t-shirt. O’FLAHERTY’S was printed on it in green, the name stretched to accommodate her bust. Her hair frazzled at the temples; she’d been working hard.
Just a little dirty, that’s how I like you, he thought.
“Dr. L! We missed you today, thought maybe you caught the gunk. You all right?” Darby beamed her big smile at him, a gift of the gods (and of immaculate orthodontics).
“I’m fine, Darby, thanks. Just a communication mix-up. I’m sorry you all waited.”
She kept smiling, seemed to be waiting for more. He didn’t give it to her.
“Well—can I get you anything?”
Lyle hesitated, trying to think of a manly drink, something urbane and—professorial.
“Scotch-rocks. A double.”
Darby continued to stare at him, expectantly. “Any… particular poison, or-?”
Lyle glanced up, made a show of studying the bottles arrayed behind her. He knew nothing about scotch. Stupid. He settled on Johnnie Walker Black, and Darby poured his drink.
Lyle realized his heart was racing. Darby set the drink in front of him and he downed half of it in one swallow. He managed to keep his face neutral as the liquor seared his throat.
“This is a—little bit of a departure, for you, huh?” Darby indicated the scotch.
“What?”
She must have known he heard her but she raised her voice anyway. The music had changed to a British pop group with a lot of electronic undertones, trying to sound haunting.
“The scotch,” she said. “Don’t you always order lemon drop martinis? When you come in?”
Busted. Two bright red circles appeared high on his cheeks.
“You know, it, it depends,” he replied. “Depends on my mood. And you—you make a hell of a lemon drop martini, here.”
Fucking idiot, he thought. They make the same Goddamn lemon drop martini as everybody else and she knows it.
Darby was smooth, though. Graceful. She rolled right past it. “I wondered why you never came over and said hi.”
“Well I don’t want to, you know, be a bother. You’re working. It’s always busy. And I’ve been coming here for years, off and on. You get used to seeing students out on the town. I try to give them their space.”
“Oh.” Her smile reappeared. “Well I’m glad you came over. Let me know if I can get you anything else?” She was already angling away.
“How was class today?” Lyle didn’t want to let her go. She glanced down the bar, she had customers waiting.
“It was great, really great,” she hurried her answer. She was giving him the brush-off. “James did great. He’s an awesome teacher. Awesome guy.”
“You know, I’d been meaning to ask you, about James…” Lyle leaned in, conspiratorially. Darby’s smile was faltering, but courtesy won out and she leaned in to hear.
“Are you fucking him?”
Darby recoiled, as though he had spit on her.
“What?”
“Do you laugh at me, when you do it? When you fuck, do you laugh at the scabby, horn-dog professor?”
Darby’s breath hitched in her chest, she looked like she was about to cry. She took a step back. She looked down the bar, and then past him—toward the door.
Bouncer, he thought. She’s looking for the bouncer.
“I think you need to—” she began.
Then Lyle said the Word. The alien Word, meant to be moaned, easy as pie, really, when you thought about it, how the sounds flowed together. The Word that meant libido.
Darby froze. Her pupils flickered, Lyle saw, they constricted down to pinpricks, and then dilated as wide as they could go, swallowing the puppy-dog brown of her irises. Her face went slack. That wide, expensive smile vanished, and her mouth hung slightly open.
“Moisten your lips, Darby,” he said.
Her tongue slid out, pink and supple, and she obeyed.
Oh, my God, she OBEYED.
Lyle’s penis twitched in his pants, he realized he was painfully erect, his balls aching. He realized he had been, had been since—since I said the Word—since he had her and a cruel, savage sense of triumph shook him, he felt his pulse hammering in his veins, he felt like standing up on the bar and—
ROARING I want to ROAR at this dewy twat and all her imbecilic peers—
But instead, he took his cock firmly in his hand, through the cheap fabric of his Ross trousers, squeezed himself, and said—
“What are we going to do with you, Darby?”
#
Lyle fucked her in the alleyway behind O’Flaherty’s. That meant hurrying more than he liked, the dumpster provided cover but the blocks surrounding the campus were too well policed. It was all right, though. Now that he was armed with the libido-Word, the next time could be more leisurely.
He took her in. All of her. The small, surprisingly dark nipples, nothing like he’d imagined. The fine, black hairs on the nape of her neck, the peach fuzz of her freckled low back, her inner thighs. Her panties were white briefs with green stitching, they were covered with tiny frogs. He tugged them down, and nuzzled her there. He left hickeys, on her ass, her mons. Her smooth, exquisite young cunt.
Lyle took her from behind and saw the groggy confusion in her dilated eyes, the amazement*—*and through that the pleasure, the unsuspected, unwanted, violating pleasure that jolted moans out of her.
Lyle sucked her neck, bit it, hard enough to sting. She gave a tiny mewl as she came, and her spasm triggered him also. Lyle buried himself to the hilt in her, finished in her, and felt—
Like a king. Like a GOD.
They stayed there as the minutes stretched out, panting, still joined. He savored her, until his own tumescence vanished, and he slipped out. Lyle patted her derriere.
“Get dressed and get back to work, Darby,” he said. “We don’t want you to get in trouble.”
She jerked her head, drunkenly, from side to side, as though she were trying to shake water out of her ears. Lyle breathed deep, in through his nose, the fine scents of the city. Fried food nearby, probably the Thai joint catty-corner to the pub. He stood and admired, as Darby tugged her frog-panties back up those long pale legs.
“I’ll see you in class.”
Darby stared blankly at him as he took up his suitcase, turned, and strode into the night.
#
When Lyle opened his eyes the next morning, he was only mildly surprised to discover that he felt no guilt at all. The sun streamed in, the world was up and running, coffee was calling, and by God he felt fine.
He sat up in bed, stretched. He glanced at the alarm clock, that hateful sentinel, now toothless—10:27AM. The mattress was bare, beneath him. He’d never washed the sheets. Puddled on the floor were yesterday’s clothes. He resisted the urge to tidy them up. Later. He padded to the bathroom and went about his ablutions, brushed his teeth, took out his shaving kit. He had used the sleep-Word on himself again, last night. After.
After! He let the memories wash over him. Her smell: the tang of sweat, bar-odors, the undercurrent of peach soap. The taste of her! And then the feast, afterward. He had followed his nose to Great Elephant Thai, wolfed down a plate of kai thot, fried to a crisp and dripping oil*.* It may have been the finest meal of his life.
And he had had such dreams! Dreams of Darby, and of favorites past. Dreams of fucking and of wealth and of slights avenged and of respectful, deferential looks, dreams of voices falling silent when he entered a room, of every eye on him. A song lyric drifted into his head, something from his childhood, a favorite of his father’s one long summer, repeated ad nauseam on the fourteen-hour drive down to Savannah.
“Twenty years a’crawlin’… were bottled up in Tommy… he wasn’t holding nothin’ back, he let ‘em have it all…” Lyle sang, full voice, into the morning. A stupid grin spread over his face, as he wicked away the last patch of Barbasol, the careful spot right over his Adam’s apple, and rinsed his razor. He took a long look at Mirror-Lyle, looked into his eyes. He almost always avoided a close examination of his reflection, force of habit, but today he was a new man, and he wanted to take that man’s measure.
“Everyone… considered him… THE COWARD OOOF… the COUNTYYYY…”
Something else surfaced, then, in his memory, something that cranked the wattage down on his smile. He didn’t get all of it, just a glimpse, like a dorsal fin rising above the water. He had dreamed of more than power and sex. There had been something else. Lyle had a vague red recollection of tangled depths and faceless figures. His mind offered up a fleeting image of a crumbling stone structure, of keening wind and squat pillars; and of a great broken vault overhead, through which could be seen a blasted sky.
Lyle charged his phone as he brewed up a fresh pot. It had run out of juice somewhere during yesterday’s festivities, and when it finally powered up again it began to vibrate against the Formica tabletop in his dining nook. He ignored the first two pulses, but the phone insistently continued, not with the regular rhythm of an incoming call, but rather the inconsistent bursts of message notifications trickling in from the cloud. He tapped the touchscreen, and saw he had seven missed calls: one from a colleague, yesterday; and six from James, each one with a voicemail attached. The most recent of these had come just twenty minutes ago.
Lyle sipped on his coffee as he retrieved the briefcase from beneath his bed. He sat at his dinette and removed the fascicle, easily finding the rigid page. He opened it, and this time the new Word was waiting for him below the first, long entry: the entry corresponding to the letter “A” itself. This Word was angry, Ks and Zs, a hornet-word, serpent-word. Lyle looked to the white space, where the definition would arise. He pricked his forefinger with the tip of a steak knife and squeezed out two droplets of blood.
der zorn
Lyle sipped. Lyle thought. Greek, then Latin, now German. Was it moving forward in time? He wondered again about those first shapes he had seen, in the library. The more he tried to remember the more he doubted they had been in Greek. Something older, maybe. Phoenician syllabary? He would likely never know. But the Words were changing. The book was changing.
And there was this: both of the—*spells, they’re spells, let’s cut the shit—*both of the Words it had given him so far had been…
“Intuitive,” he said finally. “Useful. Like it knew.”
Lyle took down the last foil sleeve of blueberry Pop Tarts from his cupboard. Pauper’s breakfast, he thought, but not for much longer. He searched through his contacts until he found the number for the Chancellor’s office. He thumbed the little blue phone icon beside it.
#
Lyle had just started boxing up his things when James burst into his office, perfectly symmetrical face distorted by fury, his generous features made ugly. Ah, the righteousness of youth. James took in the dense sheaf of Staples boxes, waiting to be folded; took in the bare walls, the stacked diplomas and photographs.
“What the fuck is this?” he demanded.
“Emergency leave,” Lyle answered with a dismissive wave. “I’ve had a family crisis. I’m afraid I have to attend to it. Professor Chole will be taking over my workload for the remainder of the semester, I’m sure she’ll be in touch—"
“What did you do to Darby? What the fuck did you do?” James spoke with the husky, quaking tone of pure adrenaline. He was just barely restraining himself from lunging across the desk, Lyle realized. He took the younger man in with bemused calm. He let the moment stretch out.
“Therese called me,” James continued, the words throttling out of him. “Darby’s roommate. She came home last night, she has—bruises, all over her, little, little *bites—*she won’t speak, she just sits there and cries, but she said your name. It’s the only thing she said. What did you do to her, Lyle? Did you rape her?”
“Dr. Hereford,” Lyle replied.
James craned forward. “What?”
*“*You don’t get to call me Lyle.”
Lower, now, almost a whisper: “Tell me what you did to her.”
“I made her come,” Lyle said. “And she fucking loved it.”
James did lunge then, he screamed and he leapt across the desk, coming down on Lyle in a tangle of thrashing limbs and rabbit punches, the two of them toppling Lyle’s chair, compressing awkwardly into the tight space between desk and wall. James kicked hard off of the gray metal drawers, managing to end up on top. His hands found Lyle’s throat and began to squeeze. Lyle felt himself constricting, felt the energy draining out of him, pinned, as he lost oxygen. He noticed the curds of spittle at the corners of James’s snarling mouth. He started to see spots in the periphery of his vision, and as he slapped ineffectually at James’s face he thought am I going to die here—?
Lyle dug down for the last of his strength. The Word chose me. This wasn’t the end. Couldn’t be the end. He extended his leg as far as it would go, and used the distance to drive his knee, hard, into James’s crotch. A grunting exhale was propelled out of the younger man*.* Lyle pulled back to do it again; James squeezed his thighs together to block, and when he did, he compromised his balance. He took one hand off Lyle’s throat and thrust out his arm to catch himself as be began to roll, allowing Lyle to draw in a long, ragged breath.
Then Lyle spoke the Word.
The der zorn-Word.
The word that meant anger, that meant rage, that meant WRATH.
#
“Son. Son, you’re bleeding, let me—let me help you, come on. Son, it’s gonna be okay, come on, now— “
The campus policeman approaches James like a dog that might be rabid, that slow hunched posture with arms wide, except for the policeman it’s only one arm because his right hand is flush up against his service weapon and his thumb snaps the little thumbsnap and it’s a very small noise but it’s so loud in James’s head and he shakes it, his head, does James, from side to side, in herks and jerks, like a dog that might be rabid, now, like there’s water in his ears and he’s trying to shake it out, is James, and the policeman is coming on and speaking in clear precise syllables that explode behind James’s temples, clusterbomb-words, and the cop is speaking but he’s hearing another voice, is James, and it’s Lyle’s voice, it’s Dr. L’s voice, not Lyle never Lyle, and Dr. L’s voice is saying snakebit you’re snakebit she fucking LOVED it and James touches his own face now and it must be true because there’s blood on his face and when he blinks his blink is heavy and liquid like he just dropped Visine in there but the thing is but only but except it’s blood and he’s bleeding from the eyes, is James, and now the policeman is right on top of him saying “son what happened can you hear me respond if you can hear me” and James hears the exploding words all right and he blinks and blood oozes from the corners of his eyes and the cop is changing now, in the blood, his face is BOILING and now it’s Darby’s face on the policeman and she opens her mouth and her head cranes back and she’s ruined inside OH FUCK SHE’S RUINED INSIDE SHOT HERSELF SHE SHOT HERSELF SHE’S SHOT and now it’s DR L IT’S DR L SCREAMING SNAKEBIT SNAKEBIT SNAKEBIT—
James rears back and head-butts the campus cop as hard as he can, the smooth acne-less center of James’s forehead connecting with the soft cartilage of the policeman’s nose. A sick crunch echoes in the lobby of the Humanities building, a young woman close enough to hear it vomits on the floor, it is the first puking incident of the day but not the last.
The cop recoils with a sick moan, in his surprise clapping his hands to his shattered nose; in that moment James bellows, an awful inarticulate animal sound of hate, and yanks the policeman’s service piece free of his holster.
The handful of rubbernecking students freeze as James shoots the policeman in the face.
The policeman’s name is (was) Lou, the students know, and he is (was) genial and well-liked. A silent second passes in the lobby, and then the screaming begins.
James dips down and pulls two spare clips out of Lou’s belt. He pockets them. When James looks up, he doesn’t see fleeing students.
He sees Dr. L.
A gaggle of Dr. L’s. A school, a clutch, a murder. He sees laughing Dr. L’s running in every direction, diving behind furniture, breaking for the street or hurtling into the stairwells. One Dr. L dives behind the reception desk. James starts after him on wooden legs.
When he reaches the desk, there is Dr. L beneath it, a cell phone in his hand, cackling. James shoots him in the stomach. Dr. L keeps right on laughing, howling with it now, whatever it is must be hilarious, a real knee-slapper, then James remembers its him, Dr. L is laughing at him so James shoots him again, shoots him so he’ll stop but there are so many more—
#
Lyle Hereford, Ph.D., rested his browning forearms on the wrought iron railing of his third-floor balcony. He looked out over the Gulf of Mexico. The breeze was warm and gentle, suffusing, but it no longer calmed him. He took no notice of it. He was lost, as he was always now lost, in thought.
The one, lone thought.
It had taken a little less than two weeks for James’s horrific shooting spree to drop out of the news. The demands for GUN CONTROL NOW (or, conversely, for guns in every classroom) receded and were shelved for the next go-round. Politicians took to the field and unfurled their heraldry for the usual pro-forma skirmishes. Then, mercifully, a Cabinet official fucked somebody he really shouldn’t have and the national discourse (such as it was) barreled off, like a dog chasing a ball that its owner had only pretended to throw. As to why a handsome, popular, well-adjusted student should suddenly snap and murder sixteen of his fellows? The theories ranged from medically reasonable (an inoperable tumor which could not be verified via autopsy, as James’s brains had been removed by the responding tactical unit); to the paranoiac (James had been the subject of a Manchurian Candidate-style CIA/NSA/Acronym-of-your-choice experiment gone horribly wrong); to the Occult (the Devil made him do it).
Lyle had enjoyed that last one.
What Lyle had not enjoyed was that some of the conspiracy theorists, and even some of the legitimate press, had mentioned him by name. He had disappeared, after all, on an auspicious and chaotic day, to manage a crisis no one could verify involving a family no one could find. It had not been difficult to remain ahead of any enterprising investigators, though. Not with the Words.
And there had been so many more Words. Words in French and Finnish and Russian and Spanish and Mandarin. Words that meant envy and silence and fear and blindness and, perhaps the most potent yet, a Word that meant stupid. Lyle had employed that one against a statie who pulled him over as he crossed the Louisiana line, coming through Vicksburg. The guy had been six-two, maybe two-twenty, with sharp, curious eyes sunk deep in his skull. Lyle hadn’t liked the way he had looked at him, so he used the Word. Now the statie—*Edmonds was his name, Trooper Edmonds—*was six-two, two-twenty of drooling simpleton, probably staring at a wall somewhere in the nearest brain injury ward and driving the resident neurologists absolutely bugshit.
By the time Lyle made it to a quiet, lazy town on the Cajun Riviera and decided to set a spell, he had traded in his Acura for a Beemer and was carrying close to a hundred and twelve thousand dollars in cash. He had also acquired a 9mm Ruger and a shotgun with a pistol grip (the dealer had called it a snake charmer just before Lyle killed him).
None of that matters now, though.
All that mattered was the Word. Which, he had come to realize, was the last Word.
Because the book was alive, of course, had always been alive, Lyle knew that. Hadn’t let himself come right out and say it, but he knew. It had slept, maybe, possibly, until he woke it, with his touch, with his blood, but if it slept, it woke up thirsty*.* The book was always ready with the next Word, the next thing he would need. The book was collaborating with him. It was dancing with him, and at first he had thought he was the one leading, but now he knew better.
Lyle felt it. Felt it—pulling on him. All the time. Felt it in the room behind him, pulling, knew that he would go back in, sooner or later, go back in, and open the book, the book that has been leading him. Knew that he would open its hundreds of pages, because it was longer now, because it had grown, because it was three inches thick and the front plating had vanished and it wasn’t pretending to be a dictionary anymore.
He knew that he would open it and on every single page, centered, would be a single Word, the last Word, the Word that he will say, that he must say, sooner or later, and under it swirling in blood, blood that must be the book’s own, the final explication, the final command, the final meaning, and God, oh God, Lyle was afraid, because the last Word was
DOOR

Line Score - Game Over

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
TB	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	4	5	2	6
CHC	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	0	6

Box Score

CHC		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
DH	Hoerner	3	1	1	0	1	1	.285
SS	Swanson	4	0	0	0	0	1	.265
LF	Happ	4	1	1	1	0	2	.278
RF	Suzuki, S	4	1	2	0	0	1	.293
CF	Tauchman	2	0	1	1	1	0	.355
1B	Mervis	2	0	0	0	0	1	.188
1B	Mancini	1	0	1	1	0	0	.253
PH	Rios	0	0	0	0	0	0	.080
3B	Wisdom	4	0	0	0	0	0	.213
2B	Mastrobuoni	3	0	0	0	1	2	.149
C	Barnhart	2	0	0	0	0	0	.164
PH	Morel	1	0	0	0	0	1	.282
C	Gomes	1	0	0	0	0	0	.270

CHC	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Steele	3.0	0	0	0	0	1	29-19	2.65
Wesneski	3.2	1	1	1	2	4	59-35	4.81
Leiter Jr.	0.1	2	3	3	1	1	14-7	2.78
Alzolay	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	15-11	2.33
Merryweather	0.2	0	0	0	3	1	22-6	4.43
Fulmer	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	4-3	7.36

TB		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
1B	Díaz, Y	5	0	0	0	0	1	.310
LF	Arozarena	3	0	1	0	1	1	.297
DH	Ramírez, H	3	0	0	0	0	1	.288
DH	Lowe, J	1	0	1	0	0	0	.304
3B	Paredes	4	0	0	0	0	1	.269
RF	Margot	2	1	1	0	2	0	.248
2B	Lowe, B	4	1	1	2	0	2	.204
C	Bethancourt	4	0	0	0	0	1	.248
SS	Walls	2	1	0	0	2	0	.244
CF	Siri	3	1	1	2	1	1	.245

TB	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Eflin	6.0	4	3	3	1	5	90-55	3.30
Poche	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	12-7	2.29
Adam	1.0	1	0	0	1	3	24-12	3.09
Kelly	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	16-10	4.15
Beeks	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	13-7	4.45

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
B1	Ian Happ singles on a ground ball to center fielder Jose Siri. Nico Hoerner scores.	1-0
B1	Mike Tauchman singles on a sharp line drive to right fielder Manuel Margot. Ian Happ scores.	2-0
T7	Brandon Lowe homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Manuel Margot scores.	2-2
B7	Trey Mancini singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Randy Arozarena. Seiya Suzuki scores. Trey Mancini out at 2nd on the throw, left fielder Randy Arozarena to second baseman Brandon Lowe.	3-2
T8	Jose Siri homers (10) on a fly ball to center field. Taylor Walls scores.	3-4

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
David Ross talks about the Cubs' great bullpen, more	1:37	Video
Bullpen availability for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Rays at Cubs - May 31, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Hayden Wesneski's pitches	0:08	Video
The distance behind Brandon Lowe's home run	0:14	Video
Visualizing Brandon Lowe's swing using bat tracking technology	0:09	Video
Breaking down Zach Eflin's pitches	0:08	Video
Zach Eflin's outing against the Cubs	0:22	Video
Breaking down Jose Siri's home run	0:18	Video
Analyzing Jose Siri's home run through bat tracking	0:09	Video
Ian Happ hits an RBI single give the Cubs a 1-0 lead	0:16	Video
Mike Tauchman drills an RBI single to right field	0:16	Video
Brandon Lowe crushes a two-run homer to tie game at 2	0:26	Video
Trey Mancini hits an RBI single to give Cubs the lead	0:24	Video
Justin Steele fans Randy Arozarena in the 1st inning	0:06	Video
Jose Siri crushes a two-run homer in the 8th inning	0:30	Video
Jalen Beeks gets final out	0:11	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Poche (4-1, 2.29 ERA)	Leiter Jr. (1-1, 2.78 ERA)	Beeks (1 SV, 4.45 ERA)

Game ended at 4:16 PM.

This is driving me crazy and I cannot find it.
During BFA I remember being in Zuldazar and surrounding areas and hearing this frequent noise that sounded like "Doo". I don't know if it was a bird or not that made the sound. Someone please tell me you know what I'm talking about and if you can find a clip of that sound, I would be FOREVER greatful.
​
Thanks! ^_^

You might remember my post from a couple weeks ago, where my power steering pump randomly decided to go on the fritz.
For a first gen speed3 (and so speed6 aswell since it is hydraulic not electric) with my symptoms the power steering pump was definitely the problem. I think if you had groaning and problems only when turning the wheel (and a leaky steering rack) then it might be a rack issue but since mine was noisy even just driving straight it was definitely the pump.
I tried ordering a reman OEM pump, but they were on back order until halfway through July! That was too late for me since this is my daily. So what I did is I ordered a used pump from a different car, rebuilt it with an OEM power steering gasket kit, and slapped it onto my car.
While I was at it, I disconnected the lowest portion of the steering line return going to the front cooler and flushed the system completely. I honestly think not doing this when I replaced my steering lines is why my pump went out as soon as it did, other than the previous owner running it dry because he was too cheap to replace the steering lines or top it up frequently enough. The fluid was absolutely filthy and full of sparklies!!
There are a lot of great guides on YouTube detailing the rebuilding of these pumps, some of which are one uncut shot which I found extremely helpful, but once you see and learn how the pump works it is really easy to understand and simple to do, atleast once you deal with the C clip holding the pulley wheel to the pump.
Here’s some pictures detailing the process, but this is not a guide on it. I used this video for the process as it was all one shot and was well explained.
The new to me used pump, fully disassembled
Matching the gaskets, other than taking off and putting on the C clip is the most tedious part. For the smaller ones you need to make sure you are getting them exactly right by comparing between the ones you take off and what you put on, else you’ll have leaks. Some places are obvious because gaskets just won’t fit.
Putting it back together is easy enough once you know what the aligning marks mean. There is a dot on the vane wheel, that faces the backing plate of the pump (away from the belt pulley). The vanes for the wheel are not specific so they don’t need to be put back in the same place. And there are two S marks on the other two large pieces that come out, these face each other. And they are supposed to have a specific orientation within the housing, the aligning pins won’t go all the way in otherwise.
Some carnage from the old pump! Shows some bad grooving on the vane wall, and bad grooving also on the backing plate. Some marks are probably normal considering it’s metal spinning on metal, even in a lubricated environment there will be some wear. But it should never catch on your finger nail like these marks are!
These power steering pumps are all pretty much identical internally as far as I can tell. The gasket kit shows it works with most pumps from similar years. I stuck with a Speed6 pump since it had the same pulley wheel. A speed6 pump will have a tank mounted directly which a speed3 won’t, but the neck from the speed3 pump can be swapped on no problem they use the same gasket.
I can’t confirm it seeing how some other styles of this generation 3 do it since I believe some will have electric pumps, but you should be able to take apart the actual pump housing, and piece together a good one from the good pieces of yours if getting one is more difficult.

Guardians (24-30) @ Orioles (35-20)

First Pitch: 3:05 PM at Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Team	Starter	TV	Radio
Guardians	Shane Bieber (4-3, 3.04 ERA)	BSGL	WTAM
Orioles	Keegan Akin (1-1, 4.85 ERA)	MASN	98 Rock

Game Preview
Sub Rules Message the Mods 2023 Streaming Information

Line Score - Game Over

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
CLE	1	0	2	3	5	0	1	0	0	12	17	0	9
BAL	0	4	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	8	12	1	8

Box Score

BAL		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
2B	Frazier	5	0	1	0	0	1	.246
C	Rutschman	5	1	4	1	0	0	.289
DH	Santander	5	1	1	2	0	0	.277
1B	Mountcastle	4	0	0	0	1	2	.233
3B	Henderson	4	1	0	0	1	2	.201
CF	Hicks, A	2	2	2	0	1	0	.211
LF	Vavra	2	0	0	0	0	1	.245
RF	O'Hearn	4	1	2	2	1	0	.279
SS	Mateo	4	1	1	1	0	0	.228
CF	McKenna	4	1	1	2	0	1	.246

BAL	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Akin	1.0	2	1	1	0	1	25-20	5.14
Voth	2.1	5	3	3	3	3	58-33	4.71
Pérez, C	0.2	3	2	2	1	0	22-12	4.87
Givens	0.0	2	3	3	1	0	15-8	11.25
Baumann	2.1	4	3	3	0	3	32-22	4.20
Baker	1.2	1	0	0	0	3	25-16	3.55
Coulombe	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	12-8	2.18

CLE		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
LF	Kwan	6	3	3	0	0	1	.263
SS	Rosario, A	5	1	0	0	1	0	.233
3B	Ramírez, Jo	6	2	3	1	0	1	.277
1B	Naylor, J	5	3	4	6	0	0	.251
DH	Bell	4	1	1	1	1	3	.224
RF	Arias, G	3	1	1	2	2	2	.198
2B	Gimenez	5	0	4	2	0	0	.242
CF	Straw	4	0	0	0	1	2	.231
C	Gallagher	5	1	1	0	0	2	.131

CLE	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Bieber	4.0	8	7	7	2	4	82-51	3.72
Curry	1.0	1	1	1	1	0	21-13	2.45
Hentges	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	21-10	3.38
De Los Santos, E	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	13-8	1.71
Stephan	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	20-12	1.93
Clase	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	9-7	3.33

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
T1	Guardians challenged (other), call on the field was upheld: Jose Ramirez doubles (15) on a sharp line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Steven Kwan scores. Jose Ramirez to 3rd. Jose Ramirez advances to 3rd, on a throwing error by shortstop Jorge Mateo.	0-1
B2	Jorge Mateo doubles (7) on a fly ball to right fielder Gabriel Arias. Aaron Hicks scores. Ryan O'Hearn to 3rd.	1-1
B2	Ryan McKenna singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Ryan O'Hearn scores. Jorge Mateo scores.	3-1
B2	Adley Rutschman singles on a ground ball to second baseman Andres Gimenez, deflected by pitcher Shane Bieber. Ryan McKenna scores. Adam Frazier to 3rd.	4-1
T3	Andres Gimenez singles on a line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Jose Ramirez scores. Josh Naylor scores. Josh Bell to 3rd. Andres Gimenez to 2nd.	4-3
B3	Ryan O'Hearn doubles (3) on a line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Aaron Hicks scores.	5-3
T4	Josh Naylor homers (8) on a fly ball to center field. Steven Kwan scores.	5-5
T4	Josh Bell homers (4) on a fly ball to left field.	5-6
B4	Anthony Santander homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Adley Rutschman scores.	7-6
T5	Josh Naylor doubles (8) on a sharp line drive to center fielder Aaron Hicks. Cam Gallagher scores. Steven Kwan scores. Amed Rosario scores.	7-9
T5	Gabriel Arias homers (4) on a fly ball to center field. Josh Naylor scores.	7-11
B5	Ryan O'Hearn grounds into a force out, second baseman Andres Gimenez to shortstop Amed Rosario. Gunnar Henderson scores. Aaron Hicks out at 2nd. Ryan O'Hearn to 1st.	8-11
T7	Josh Naylor singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Terrin Vavra. Jose Ramirez scores.	8-12

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
Bullpen availability for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Guardians at Orioles - May 31, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Josh Naylor's home run	0:16	Video
Josh Naylor's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
Josh Bell's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
The distance behind Anthony Santander's home run	0:16	Video
Anthony Santander's home run through bat tracking data	0:09	Video
Gabriel Arias: Home Run Statcast Analysis	0:12	Video
Visualizing Gabriel Arias's swing using bat tracking technology	0:09	Video
Breaking down Shane Bieber's pitches	0:08	Video
José Ramírez rips an RBI double off the wall	0:32	Video
José Ramírez advances to third after a review	0:29	Video
Jorge Mateo dunks in an RBI double	0:18	Video
Ryan McKenna rips a two-run single	0:25	Video
Adley Rutschman's RBI infield single	0:20	Video
Andrés Giménez slashes a two-run single	0:29	Video
Ryan O'Hearn rips an RBI double	0:21	Video
Josh Naylor drills a two-run home run	0:30	Video
Josh Bell crushes a solo home run	0:25	Video
Adam Frazier makes a great diving play at second base	0:21	Video
Anthony Santander crushes a two-run homer	0:27	Video
Josh Naylor's bases-clearing double	0:30	Video
Gabriel Arias cracks a solo home run	0:30	Video
Henderson scores on fielder's choice	0:16	Video
Shane Bieber strikes out Gunnar Henderson	0:07	Video
Josh Naylor slashes an RBI single to right	0:14	Video
Aaron Hicks' first hit with the Orioles	0:14	Video
Bryan Baker Ball to Myles Straw	0:13	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Curry (2-0, 2.45 ERA)	Givens (0-1, 11.25 ERA)

Game ended at 6:18 PM.

Streams
Tracker	MLB.com	Game Graph

Guardians @ Orioles - Wed, May 31

Game Status: Game Over - Score: 12-8 Guardians

Links & Info

• Current conditions at Oriole Park at Camden Yards: 79°F - Sunny - Wind 6 mph, Out To LF
• TV: Guardians: Bally Sports Great Lakes, Orioles: MASN
• Radio: Guardians: Guardians Radio Network, WTAM 1100, Orioles: 98 Rock FM/HD2 97.9, WBAL NewsRadio AM/FM
• MLB Gameday
• Game Graphs
• Savant Gamefeed

	Guardians Batters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	AVG	OBP	SLG
1	Kwan - LF	6	3	3	0	0	1	2	.263	.345	.346
2	Rosario, A - SS	5	1	0	0	1	0	2	.233	.280	.327
3	Ramírez, Jo - 3B	6	2	3	1	0	1	4	.277	.348	.465
4	Naylor, J - 1B	5	3	4	6	0	0	1	.251	.304	.443
5	Bell - DH	4	1	1	1	1	3	3	.224	.330	.350
6	Arias, G - RF	3	1	1	2	2	2	4	.198	.298	.385
7	Gimenez - 2B	5	0	4	2	0	0	0	.242	.305	.344
8	Straw - CF	4	0	0	0	1	2	4	.231	.313	.295
9	Gallagher - C	5	1	1	0	0	2	5	.131	.169	.164
	Totals	43	12	17	12	5	11	25

Guardians

BATTING: 2B: Ramírez, Jo 2 (16, Akin, Baumann); Naylor, J 2 (8, Voth, Baumann); Gallagher (2, Givens). HR: Naylor, J (8, 4th inning off Pérez, C, 1 on, 2 out); Bell (4, 4th inning off Pérez, C, 0 on, 2 out); Arias, G (4, 5th inning off Baumann, 1 on, 2 out). TB: Arias, G 4; Bell 4; Gallagher 2; Gimenez 4; Kwan 3; Naylor, J 9; Ramírez, Jo 5. RBI: Arias, G 2 (6); Bell (25); Gimenez 2 (12); Naylor, J 6 (40); Ramírez, Jo (29). 2-out RBI: Naylor, J 2; Bell; Gimenez 2; Arias, G 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Straw; Bell; Gallagher 2; Kwan. Team RISP: 5-for-15. Team LOB: 9.

	Orioles Batters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	AVG	OBP	SLG
1	Frazier - 2B	5	0	1	0	0	1	0	.246	.316	.406
2	Rutschman - C	5	1	4	1	0	0	0	.289	.411	.443
3	Santander - DH	5	1	1	2	0	0	4	.277	.354	.503
4	Mountcastle - 1B	4	0	0	0	1	2	1	.233	.269	.441
5	Henderson - 3B	4	1	0	0	1	2	2	.201	.332	.370
6	Hicks, A - CF	2	2	2	0	1	0	0	.211	.291	.282
	Vavra - LF	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.245	.315	.245
7	O'Hearn - RF	4	1	2	2	1	0	1	.279	.333	.512
8	Mateo - SS	4	1	1	1	0	0	3	.228	.273	.386
9	McKenna - CF	4	1	1	2	0	1	2	.246	.286	.369
	Totals	39	8	12	8	4	7	13

Orioles
BATTING: 2B: Mateo (7, Bieber); Frazier (8, Bieber); O'Hearn 2 (4, Bieber, De Los Santos, E). HR: Santander (9, 4th inning off Bieber, 1 on, 2 out). TB: Frazier 2; Hicks, A 2; Mateo 2; McKenna; O'Hearn 4; Rutschman 4; Santander 4. RBI: Mateo (23); McKenna 2 (8); O'Hearn 2 (13); Rutschman (28); Santander 2 (33). 2-out RBI: Mateo; Santander 2; Rutschman; O'Hearn; McKenna 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Santander; Mateo; Henderson; McKenna. Team RISP: 3-for-9. Team LOB: 8.
FIELDING: E: Mateo (7, throw).

Guardians Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P-S	ERA
Bieber	4.0	8	7	7	2	4	1	82-51	3.72
Curry (W, 2-0)	1.0	1	1	1	1	0	0	21-13	2.45
Hentges (H, 5)	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	21-10	3.38
De Los Santos, E	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	13-8	1.71
Stephan	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	20-12	1.93
Clase	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	9-7	3.33
Totals	9.0	12	8	8	4	7	1

Orioles Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P-S	ERA
Akin	1.0	2	1	1	0	1	0	25-20	5.14
Voth	2.1	5	3	3	3	3	0	58-33	4.71
Pérez, C (BS, 1)	0.2	3	2	2	1	0	2	22-12	4.87
Givens (L, 0-1)	0.0	2	3	3	1	0	0	15-8	11.25
Baumann (BS, 1)	2.1	4	3	3	0	3	1	32-22	4.20
Baker	1.2	1	0	0	0	3	0	25-16	3.55
Coulombe	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	12-8	2.18
Totals	9.0	17	12	12	5	11	3

Game Info
Pitch timer violations: Pérez, C (pitcher).
Pitches-strikes: Bieber 82-51; Curry 21-13; Hentges 21-10; De Los Santos, E 13-8; Stephan 20-12; Clase 9-7; Akin 25-20; Voth 58-33; Pérez, C 22-12; Givens 15-8; Baumann 32-22; Baker 25-16; Coulombe 12-8.
Groundouts-flyouts: Bieber 7-0; Curry 1-1; Hentges 2-0; De Los Santos, E 2-1; Stephan 0-0; Clase 1-1; Akin 1-1; Voth 1-3; Pérez, C 1-0; Givens 0-0; Baumann 2-1; Baker 0-1; Coulombe 1-0.
Batters faced: Bieber 22; Curry 5; Hentges 5; De Los Santos, E 4; Stephan 4; Clase 3; Akin 5; Voth 15; Pérez, C 6; Givens 3; Baumann 11; Baker 5; Coulombe 3.
Inherited runners-scored: Pérez, C 1-1; Baumann 3-3; Baker 1-0.
Umpires: HP: Ramon De Jesus. 1B: Lance Barrett. 2B: Doug Eddings. 3B: Alfonso Marquez.
Weather: 79 degrees, Sunny.
Wind: 6 mph, Out To LF.
First pitch: 3:05 PM.
T: 3:11.
Att: 11,304.
Venue: Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
May 31, 2023

Inning	Scoring Play	Score
Top 1	Guardians challenged (other), call on the field was upheld: Jose Ramirez doubles (15) on a sharp line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Steven Kwan scores. Jose Ramirez to 3rd. Jose Ramirez advances to 3rd, on a throwing error by shortstop Jorge Mateo.	1-0 CLE
Bottom 2	Jorge Mateo doubles (7) on a fly ball to right fielder Gabriel Arias. Aaron Hicks scores. Ryan O'Hearn to 3rd.	1-1
Bottom 2	Ryan McKenna singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Ryan O'Hearn scores. Jorge Mateo scores.	3-1 BAL
Bottom 2	Adley Rutschman singles on a ground ball to second baseman Andres Gimenez, deflected by pitcher Shane Bieber. Ryan McKenna scores. Adam Frazier to 3rd.	4-1 BAL
Top 3	Andres Gimenez singles on a line drive to left fielder Ryan McKenna. Jose Ramirez scores. Josh Naylor scores. Josh Bell to 3rd. Andres Gimenez to 2nd.	4-3 BAL
Bottom 3	Ryan O'Hearn doubles (3) on a line drive to center fielder Myles Straw. Aaron Hicks scores.	5-3 BAL
Top 4	Josh Naylor homers (8) on a fly ball to center field. Steven Kwan scores.	5-5
Top 4	Josh Bell homers (4) on a fly ball to left field.	6-5 CLE
Bottom 4	Anthony Santander homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Adley Rutschman scores.	7-6 BAL
Top 5	Josh Naylor doubles (8) on a sharp line drive to center fielder Aaron Hicks. Cam Gallagher scores. Steven Kwan scores. Amed Rosario scores.	9-7 CLE
Top 5	Gabriel Arias homers (4) on a fly ball to center field. Josh Naylor scores.	11-7 CLE
Bottom 5	Ryan O'Hearn grounds into a force out, second baseman Andres Gimenez to shortstop Amed Rosario. Gunnar Henderson scores. Aaron Hicks out at 2nd. Ryan O'Hearn to 1st.	11-8 CLE
Top 7	Josh Naylor singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Terrin Vavra. Jose Ramirez scores.	12-8 CLE

Team	Highlight
CLE	Bullpen availability for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles (00:00:07)
BAL	Bullpen availability for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians (00:00:07)
BAL	Fielding alignment for Baltimore, May 31 vs Guardians (00:00:11)
CLE	Fielding alignment for Cleveland, May 31 vs Orioles (00:00:11)
BAL	Starting lineups for Guardians at Orioles - May 31, 2023 (00:00:09)
CLE	Breaking down Shane Bieber's pitches (00:00:08)
CLE	José Ramírez's RBI double (00:00:32)
CLE	José Ramírez advances to third (00:00:29)
BAL	Jorge Mateo's RBI double (00:00:18)
BAL	Ryan McKenna's two-run single (00:00:25)
BAL	Adley Rutschman's RBI single (00:00:20)
CLE	Andrés Giménez's two-run single (00:00:29)
BAL	Ryan O'Hearn's RBI double (00:00:21)
CLE	Naylor's two-run home run (8) (00:00:30)
CLE	Josh Bell's solo home run (4) (00:00:25)
BAL	Adam Frazier's diving play (00:00:21)
BAL	Santander's two-run homer (9) (00:00:27)
CLE	Naylor's bases-clearing double (00:00:30)
CLE	Gabriel Arias' two-run home run (4) (00:00:30)
BAL	Henderson scores on fielder's choice (00:00:16)
BAL	Bieber strikes out Henderson (00:00:07)
CLE	Josh Naylor's RBI single (00:00:14)
BAL	Hicks' first hit with the O's (00:00:14)
BAL	Bryan Baker Ball to Myles Straw (00:00:13)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E	LOB
Guardians	1	0	2	3	5	0	1	0	0		12	17	0	9
Orioles	0	4	1	2	1	0	0	0	0		8	12	1	8

Decisions

• Winner: Xzavion Curry (2-0, 2.45)
• Loser: Mychal Givens (0-1, 11.25)

Division Scoreboard

TB 4 @ CHC 3 - Final
MIL @ TOR 07:07 PM EDT
CIN @ BOS 07:10 PM EDT
NYY @ SEA 09:40 PM EDT
^{Last Updated: 05/31/2023 06:18:01 PM EDT}

--- Table of Contents ---
Spring 4985, 18 Buromoth
The road to Hamerfoss was north out of Smilnda. By horse, the journey took only two days, one and a half if ridden hard. By foot, it generally took four days, but escorting a heavily loaded wagon would take the squires six.
On the first day out, Thom and Rerves released their excited energy through constant chatter. Talking about how happy they were to finally be on their way to real training. Occasionally Shon would join in.
On the second day, they spoke about how much easier it would be to concentrate without the girls around. Shon didn’t join much in this conversation.
On the third day, they confessed to missing Daisy and Ania. Suspecting they missed the conversation, Shon attempted to chime in more often.
The fourth and fifth days were plagued with spring rain, and the boys did little more than complain, particularly about their new leather armor chafing when wet. Shon couldn't help but grumble in affirmation. He'd hated the armor from the first day.
The sixth, and final, day saw a stop to the rain. The boys spent their walk beside the wagon carefully dodging puddles after Thom submerged his entire boot in one deeper than expected. There was very little talking between them now, all three too nervous and excited for their imminent arrival.
The road outside the city had been the only part with flat fields and open skies on either side. For the rest, they'd traveled through forest, with only the occasional clearing maintained explicitly for travelers to camp. Tall evergreens growing close together blocked the view of anything beyond the road at their feet, giving Shon and the others very little to look at as they marched.
Two sturdy horses pulled the wagon of supplies for the fortress. Barrels of food and crates of scrap metal as well as sacks of letters and the Squire's personal bags, weighed down the laden wagon, the wheels carving deep channels in the muddy road.
Shon had already sketched the wagon, the horses, the Paladin driving them, and his fellow Squires many times over. He even managed a few landscape drawings, for lack of better subjects. He had no idea how the other two managed to calm their excitement before sleep. Perhaps that was why they talked so much every night.
Walking ahead of him, Rerves readjusted the hilt of his short sword while Shon pulled at the neck of his armor for what seemed like the hundredth time each. They hadn’t been trained in the proper use of either, and Shon wondered again why the Paladins had insisted the Squires wear them. They'd been ordered to guard the wagon, but who would be stupid enough to waylay a Temple cart so close to a fortress full of knights? Of course, monsters such as the draken and drakwalves were always a threat, but what were three untrained boys supposed to do against something like that?
Shon sighed, letting his hand fall limply from the gorget. It was no use. No matter how many times he tried to shift it, it would just rub somewhere else until he grew uncomfortable enough to try again. He attempted to distract himself, letting his eyes unfocus and picturing himself going through his kata as he walked in a daze. Master Veon-Zih always said that mental practice was just as important as physical training, though in this case, Shon was just glad it gave him something to focus on besides his nerves and discomfort.
He was about to start the second kata when he nearly ran into Rerves. The taller boy had stopped walking, and Shon arched an eyebrow at him before realizing that the wagon had also stopped. There was no way they were there already…
Stepping to the side, Shon saw what had stalled them. A man in what looked like poorly kept half-plate stood in the middle of the path. A large war ax strapped to his back.
The stranger scratched at his short beard, scraggly and peppered like his hair, “Ho traveler, where you headed?” He called.
The three boys looked to the Paladin driving the wagon, watching as his eyes narrowed, “We are bound for Hamerfoss, good ser…”
“Ah, so the toll you’ll be payin' will be comin' out of them coffers then,” the stranger called, his face splitting into a grin as the boys looked back his way.
“There is no toll on this road, good ser.” their Paladin stated. As if their heads had been placed on a swivel, the Squires returned their gazes to him, but only for a moment as the stranger answered again.
“There is now.” the bandit lifted his hand, the Paladin stood, and the boys looked between the two with wide eyes, not sure what they were supposed to do. The bandit whistled, a sharp sound that sent birds flying from the trees as four hooded figures exited from the gloom to surround the wagon and its three terrified Squires.
The Paladin drew his longsword, ordering the boys, “Protect the wagon!” They turned frightened eyes on each other for only a moment before looking back at the bandits. Each now holding swords of their own.
The knight lept from the wagon and charged the leader, who'd reached for his ax. Thom and Rerves fumbled for their short swords, and Shon dropped into a low stance, his fists held at the ready and heart beating furiously.
“Shon, sword!” Rerves yelled, his voice somehow steady as the four hooded bandits stalked closer.
Shon actually felt himself blush despite the situation and pulled his sword from its scabbard like the rest. He felt off-balance, the weight of the weapon throwing off his well-rehearsed stance. He didn’t have time to adjust before the bandits charged. Two went for Rerves, leaving one each for Shon and Thom.
Shon tried to relax, to stay alert and ready to move, as he'd been taught. But his palm was sweating and he clinched the hilt tighter than intended. Focused on the bandit heading his way, the chaos around him blurred, becoming indistinct, like a drawing left in the rain. Shon held his ground and lifted the sword to one of the ready positions he'd seen the Paladins practice. His attacker was quite a bit taller than he was, and Shon lifted the sword above his head as the first swing came down hard from above.
The hilt shook in Shon's hand, and his attacker didn't hesitate to swing again, this time sweeping around and aiming for Shon's left leg. Clenching his teeth, Shon pivoted the sword down to block again but misjudged the length of his blade. The bandit's long sword passed below the point of Shon's block to strike just above the knee. He felt the impact, but could only imagine the damage, refusing to look and thanking Hengist the limb hadn't buckled. As the shock of the hit ran its course, the attacker flicked his sword up from inside Shon's failed guard, knocking the weapon from his hand.
The short sword flew free, but Shon had already begun his counter, aiming with his free right hand at his attacker’s extended wrist. The hit would have knocked the attacker's arm aside at the least, but with his now empty left hand, Shon struck the same arm from the outside at the elbow. In an instinctual effort to save the joint, the bandit twisted awkwardly, but predictably, bringing his head lower and closer.
Cartilage crunched beneath his knuckles and Shon's attacker reeled back, gripping his nose under his hood and cursing loudly enough for others to hear over the clang of metal and chaos.
One of Rerves' attackers disengaged from his two-on-one fight to aid his friend, who was now backing away from Shon as fast as he could. Shon hesitated a moment then dashed to his fallen sword.
Again Shon felt unbalanced with the weapon in hand. He tried to shift his weight to offset the difference but barely had enough time to bring the sword to bear as the second attacker swung his two-handed greatsword at Shon's right side.
Taking his own weapon in both hands, Shon managed to absorb some of the force of the blow, but he still wasn't strong enough to fully block the strike. His arms buckled, giving way for his opponent's longsword to hit his upper arm. This second hit hadn't fully registered in Shon's mind when the new attacker shoved his shoulder into Shon's chest, trying to push him over.
It worked. Shon fell to the ground with a splash and smack as he habitually swung his hands down to slap the ground, dropping his sword again, but breaking the energy of the fall. Just as Master Veon-Zih had taught him. Perhaps expecting Shon to be winded, the attacker didn't follow through with another attack on the prone boy; instead, turning to look at the companion Shon had punched.
Shon didn't hesitate. Still on his back, Shon twisted his hips, scissoring his legs to either side of the bandit's leg and kicking him behind the knee and inside the shin. The bigger man went down, and Shon swung his legs up, rolling onto his shoulder blades before jumping directly to a standing position. Or at least trying to. The leather armor was heavy and awkward, and he wobbled when he landed on his feet. As he attempted to regain his balance, another whistle rang out from the front of the wagon.
As one, the attackers disengaged from their respective defending Squires. The one Shon had knocked down rolled away and was helped up by his companion sporting a bloody nose. The Squires didn't pursue. Their hands shook with adrenaline, and their eyes tried to dart every way at once.
"Stand down, Squires," it was the Paladin. The knight had sheathed his sword and was moving back towards the wagon, but the boys could barely manage a glance at each other before focusing back on their attackers. Still very much on edge. It wasn't until the attackers in question also sheathed their weapons that the Squires began to slowly straighten, looking between the Paladin, the lead bandit, their attackers, and each other in quick succession.
"You all did very well," the knight said, reaching out to ensure the horses were still calm. They'd hardly moved, causing Shon to determine they must be warhorses, perhaps one was the knight's own partner.
"Not bad, not bad." the lead bandit started forward, slinging his ax back over his shoulder as he moved. Rather than being reassured by the gesture, the Squires dropped back into their fighting stance.
The Paladin snapped, "It was a test, boys. Relax and sheath your swords before you hurt yourselves." The lead 'bandit' laughed out loud at that. It was a booming sound like a bark straight from his belly as he threw his head back and planted his fists firmly on his hips.
"First time seeing battle, even a mock one, and you can't help but be on edge. It's the same every year," he said, the strange speech pattern he'd used before completely gone. He gestured, and his four underlings removed their hoods. The one with the bloody nose still had it pinched, his head tilted forward.
Mock battle… Shon's leg and arm throbbed painfully with every heartbeat, and his knuckles stung as he clenched and unclenched his fists to try and relax. But now that it was over, he realized that both hits had been with the flat of the blade.
The ringleader continued, "These fine Squires are going to be the newest Paladins of Hengist. After their vigil next month." the four attackers saluted and the younger Squires exchanged glances again before finally putting their swords away. "And I," the man slapped his chest, "am your new Weaponmaster. Master Daunas Mung. It will be my job to train you in combat at Hamerfoss."
Rerves was the first to recover. He smiled, but his voice held a hint of sarcasm, "I wish I could say it's nice to meet you, Master Daunas," he tried to laugh, "perhaps once my heart has stopped trying to beat its way out of my chest." That caused the Weaponmaster to bark his own laugh again. Thom smiled nervously at Shon, who was taking slow, measured breaths to calm his own heart.
The Paladin took a moment to examine their various bumps and bruises but only used his magic to heal the senor squire's broken nose. The much larger party continued together towards Hamerfoss, Master Daunas riding with the Paladin in the wagon while the older Squires chatted amongst each other. Thom and Rerves didn’t join in the chatter, both looking as anxious as Shon felt. He could hear the two uninjured seniors making fun of the two who had fought him and wasn’t sure if he should be embarrassed or proud. He'd hardly used his sword, -dropped it twice!- and the sword was the sacred weapon of Hengist. The symbol of the god himself.
Eventually, -finally- they left the woods and immediately saw the fortress situated in the middle of a vast field. Hamerfoss was one of the oldest structures still being utilized in Clearhelm. As such, it wasn't nearly as visually impressive as some of the newer Temples in the cities. Even so, as they approached the south gate, the three new Squires gaped at its great stone walls in awe.
The outer curtain wall was twenty stones high, -at least four of the boys stacked one on top of the other- with two layers of iron portcullises, their bars as thick as Shon's forearm. Walking through the first, the boys looked up and saw the faces of Paladins looking down at them through holes in the ceiling, built for dumping hot tar or oil on invaders trapped between the portcullises. They moved a little faster through the second.
Beyond the wall was one of two open courtyards, with training dummies, archery targets, and sparring rings separated by neat stone walkways. The smell of hay and horses wafted over the whole place from the stable against the south wall to their right, and the ringing "tink, tink" of a hammer on metal filled the cool air from the smithy built into the side of the fortress proper.
"Welcome to Hamerfoss!" Master Daunas gestured widely to all before them, and Shon fixed his eyes on the fortress itself, rising up like an indomitable mountain before him. It was about fifteen feet taller than the curtain wall, with one great tower in the center jutting up another fifteen feet above that. The roof was lined with battlements where archers could rain death on an invading army.
Turning his head, Shon could see three of the four bastions at the corners of the curtain wall and the armored figures that must be more Paladins standing guard. His left hand twitched as he longed to unpack his journal and draw every detail. The bare, dead-looking vines covering the face of the west wall, he was sure they would bloom in a few short weeks and cover the stone in green; the squat smithy coming out of his workshop to wipe the sweat from his brow in the cool air of early spring; and the slack-jawed expressions of awe on his companions' faces as they tilted their heads waaay back to try and see the top of the fortress's tower. But there would be plenty of time for that. After all, this would be his home for the next four years.
"Well. Don't just stand there gawkin'! Unload the wagon." Shon jumped in surprise and glimpsed Thom and Rerves doing the same. Master Daunas must have startled them out of their awe as well.
Shon was grateful as Rerves cleared his throat and took charge. His habit of speaking first and taking control had annoyed the girls back in Smilnda, but as Thom was used to it and Shon didn’t like giving orders, it worked out well for the boys. "Thom, you get the horses settled. Shon, you start handing me things out of the wagon." Without a word of argument, Thom nodded and went to the horses, murmuring gently as he began removing their harness and Shon climbed into the bed of the wagon to lift one crate at a time down to Rerves.
Master Daunas snorted, turning away from the new boys to give orders Shon couldn't hear to the older Squires. The young men saluted in unison, one moving to help Thom and two coming back to the wagon to help Shon and Rerves. The last jogged to the blacksmith, who waved him towards the smithy. He returned a moment later, carrying a small box and marching towards the smith, who was speaking quietly with Master Daunas.
"Shon, come on!" Rerves whispered, gesturing with both hands impatiently. Shon shook his head to clear it, handing Rerves another crate. He'd been paying a little too much attention to Daunas and the smith.
"Sorry," Shon murmured, but if Rerves heard him, he just took the box and set it with the others. It didn't take long for the four Squires to finish with the wagon. Shon hopped down with his own pack over his shoulder just as Thom came out of the stable with the senior Squire to meet them.
"Horses taken care of?" Rerves asked, and Shon blinked at him, thinking, Of course, they were; Thom wouldn't have come out otherwise…
"Yep, all settled and ready to go," Thom answered with a smile. Shon would've simply nodded. He was never one to waste words on things that didn't need to be said, and now more than ever, he found himself so focused on taking in everything around him that he could hardly think of words to say.
It seemed Master Daunas had been waiting for something to be said out loud, though, because he turned towards them at the sound, "Alright lads, this here is Nangran Flintchest. He's our resident Smith, and he'll be making all your equipment." The man was only as tall as Thom, but his shoulders and chest were broader even than Master Daunas, with hands the size of shovels and a beard that hung to the middle of his chest.
"Line up, smallest... largest…" As he spoke, Nangran pointed first to the right, then to the left of Shon, and didn't bother to see if they obeyed before turning away from them to open the box the older Squire had brought. Taking out a long measuring tape and a ratty-looking notebook, the smith tossed the young man the notebook without explanation and headed toward Thom with the measuring tape. Thom quickly positioned himself to the right of Shon with Rerves on Shon’s left.
Nangran motioned with his hand, grumbling only "Arms…" Without need for further explanation, Thom stepped forward and lifted his arms like a 't', visibly swallowing down his nerves. Shon watched closely as the smith took the smaller boy's measurements. Around his chest, his bicep, lower arm, from shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist, neck to waist, and much more besides. Thom stood stiff, following the old man's clipped instructions with hesitant jerky movements. Shon thought it should be awkward to work around their armor, but Nangran didn't seem to notice.
"Sword?" Nangran asked, and Thom made a confused sound. But the smith waved a massive hand in his face, "Not you, boy. Daunas, what sword?"
Master Daunas had his arms crossed over his chest and was tilting his head back and forth from one side to the other, absently scratching his beard before he finally said. "Two hands." he then pointed at Shon, saying, "Bastard." Shon wrinkled his nose, but the offense was short-lived when Daunas pointed at Rerves, saying, "One hand."
Nangran sniffed, "One each..." he stepped over to Shon and motioned for him to raise his arms. Shon stiffened but obliged, keeping his eyes fixed forward as the old man ran his measuring tape all across Shon's body, fighting not to flinch each time the Smith brushed against him.
"Yep," Daunas answered. They were talking as if the boys weren't even there, and the older Squires just watched. Didn’t they have anything better to do? "And that one," Daunas continued, nodding towards Shon, "is a lefty." Nangran snorted without comment and continued measuring, while the Squire with the notebook scribbled a little something extra besides the numbers Nangran mumbled to him.
But then the smith ran his hand down Shon’s forearm, touching the skin of his wrist, and pulled away in surprise. Shon jerked his hand back but quickly returned it with a nervous swallow. The smith stared at him, his brow furrowed, "You're cold as ice boy. Nervous?"
Shon shook his head, but the smith continued to stare, so he added, "No sir. I'm always cold."
The smith hummed and went back to measuring around Shon's wrist and back up his arm, "They say cold hands make a warm heart," Nangran muttered.
Beside Shon, Rerves and Thom snickered. "Whoever says that has never met Shon," said Thom, who had relaxed noticeably once the smith had finished with him. Face forward, Shon glared sideways at him, but there was no real anger in it, and Thom snickered again.
Master Daunas let out another bark of a laugh, "I see you get along well! That's good; you'll want friends in training." Shon tried to relax, taking a deep breath through his nose and letting it out through pursed lips. He did get along with his fellow Squires. He felt his lips tilt up in an almost imperceptible smile. He would even go so far as to call them friends. Even if they did poke fun at each other. Or maybe it was because they did.
Smith Nangran moved on to Rerves, and Shon looked from the larger boy to the smaller and back again before focusing his gaze on Master Daunas. It seemed neither of them was going to ask the adults to clarify what they meant by the sword assignments, so he would have to. Feeling more at ease, he asked, "I thought we were going to be trained in all weapons…"
Daunas must've seen where Shon was going because he spoke at the pause provided, "Oh, you will, boy. But I was watching you fight back on the road. You didn't think we staged that little raid just for fun, did you?" Shon didn't answer. He had thought it was just for fun. Perhaps some kind of hazing ritual. When Shon didn't say anything, Daunas continued, "You boys haven't been trained, so your movements were on instinct, giving me an idea for what fighting style you may lean more towards." he pointed at Shon, who crossed his eyes to focus on the finger, "You, boy, are going to be a problem. You're the one old man V's been training."
Who? Shon refocused on the Weapon Master's face, arching an eyebrow in confusion. When Master Daunas didn’t respond to the look, Shon guessed, "Master Veon-Zih?"
Daunas continued, "He's got you jumping around with no mind to the armor you'll be wearing or the weapon in your hand. You'll have to work twice as hard to adjust some of those habits." Shon was taken aback, shocked, and a little afraid… He didn't want to lose what he'd already learned… but Master Daunas continued, "But with a hand-and-a-half sword, you'll be able to switch between one and two-handed maneuvers." he smiled softly, and Shon realized his emotions must have been showing on his face more than usual because the Weapon Master seemed to be comforting him. "You mark my words; you'll favor the bastard sword for sure."
Nangran finished with Rerves and began rolling up his measuring tape. He turned his back on the boys but spoke to them as he took his notebook back from the senior Squire, “Take that leather off and put it in the wagon. I’ll have better ready for you by first watch week.” The Squires exchanged looks, then began following the command, stripping off the leather armor and thick gambeson and trying in vain to straighten the sweaty wrinkled uniforms underneath.
“You four,” Daunas addressed the seniors, who moved from parade rest to attention in perfect unison, “show these three around and give them the rundown of how things work around here. You three,” he looked over his shoulder at Shon and the others, scratching his neck again, “this is your last day of freedom, enjoy it while you can.” all seven Squires saluted and Daunas sighed, giving a lazy salute in response before walking off, muttering to himself, “I need to shave…”
The older Squires approached the younger, two of them snickering after Daunas was far enough away not to hear. Shon arched an eyebrow at them and, seeing the expression, the tallest explained, “He’s normally clean-shaven. He let his beard grow out all week for the wagon raid.”
“You’ll be doing one too, in your last year.” another of the four added.
“Sorry about your arm,” the one who had fought Thom said, holding out his hand to the younger boy, “You really did do well, considering.” Thom shook the young man’s hand with a grateful smile at the compliment.
The two who had fought Shon exchanged looks with each other then looked at him, their expressions expectant. Shon arched his other eyebrow instead. Did they really expect him to apologize? They had attacked him. And he was four years younger than they were.
“So…” the one Shon had bloodied started, drawing the word out.
“Who taught you how to fight?” the second interjected.
“Master Veon-Zih.”
When Shon didn’t elaborate further, the two exchanged silent shrugs. Shon looked away from them, frustrated. They could communicate with each other fine in gestures and expressions, yet, he was expected to explain details they didn't need? Would they even know what a Monk was? Did it even matter? He was here to train as a Paladin now.
The only one who hadn’t spoken yet cleared his throat, and the other three turned his way immediately. Apparently, he was the unofficial leader of this group, just like Rerves was the unofficial leader of theirs. “We'll show you the barracks first. You should shower and change your uniforms before we walk around the rest of the fortress.”
“You have showers here too?” Rerves blurted in amazement, then snapped his mouth shut, blushing.
The two who were prone to laughing did so again, “Why wouldn’t we?”
“I bet we need it more than most of the official Temples.” the two laughed again.
Thom shuffled his feet nervously but said, “They told us things would be a lot rougher here.”
“They were probably just trying to scare you,”
“They were talking about the work,” the leader said sharply, then turned towards the fortress.
Shon and the others quickly grabbed their bags and rushed to follow. The leader continued to talk as they fell into step behind him, “Your day will start just before sunrise, at fifth bell. You will get dressed, make your bed as quickly as possible, then gather with the others in the courtyard,” he gestured with one hand at a wide-open spot on the training grounds, “From there we run. Around the fortress ten times in formation. After that are drills and then breakfast. After breakfast, we have prayer, followed by lectures, then heavy weapons and armor training, then lunch.” they made their way into the fortress and up a long flight of stairs to the third floor, “After lunch, there's more classwork, then light weapons and combat training. You’re then given an hour of free time to shower and rest before dinner. After dinner, there is mandated study or prayer time, then another hour of free time before lights out at ninth bell. Once every season, we take four weeks to stand watch, one week for each shift.”
He took them down a long hall lined with doors on one side. Shon tried to listen and count the doors at the same time and was glad he did when the leader stopped beside the ninth, “These three rooms are yours. Go ahead and get a new uniform and meet us back out here.”
One of the nicer boys stepped forward to open the first door, “This one is Rerves, followed by Shon and Thom.” Shon entered to find a small room barely six feet square. Directly across from the door was a bed that took up the entire wall and a small high-set window that looked out over the training field. Beside it was a small desk with a single wooden chair. Under the bed, Shon found a long shallow box full of neatly folded uniforms. His name was embroidered in the lining of each piece, and on top was a pinned note with instructions detailing the laundry procedure. Shon only skimmed it, it was the same as the fortress in Smilnda, and most likely the same the Provence over, perhaps even the kingdom.
He left his pack by the desk and returned to the hall with one of his uniforms to find it empty. Glancing down either side of the hall, he shrugged at Thom’s questioning look when he was joined by his two fellows. They waited at least ten minutes before the seniors returned, without their armor and holding their own spare uniforms. They looked nearly as disheveled as the juniors. The leader gestured for them to follow again and said, “Once you get your armor, you will keep it in your room. It's your responsibility to keep it oiled or polished as appropriate.” well, they would be good at that at least… Had they been left to wait while the seniors cared for their armor? Shon didn’t bother to ask, following the four deeper into the fortress.
They were taken to the showers, a single large room with spigots set into the walls and drains in the floor. The seniors started to strip down, placing their dirty uniforms in a basket by the door and setting their clean sets on the benches set along the same wall. Thom, Rerves, and Shon all exchanged looks before following their lead.
There were only ten showerheads, and Rerves finally asked, “How many Squires are there here?”
The seniors each moved to their own showerhead, and the room was quickly filled with hot steam, “Twentyone, including us, but we will be gone in a month, so that will leave seventeen.” one of them answered, stepping under the hot water with a grateful sigh, rinsing the sweat and dirt from the road off his surprisingly well-muscled body. Shon counted the shower spigots again as he moved towards his own. Almost twenty Squires and only ten showers at a time… it sounded like a nightmare. But at least they had hot running water.
Though he had above-average cold tolerance and preferred the winter chill far more than the summer sweat, Shon always enjoyed a truly hot shower. Master Veon-Zih liked to argue that baths were far superior, but in Shon's experience, baths always cooled off too quickly, which was why most ordinary citizens of Clearhelm used the public steam baths.
After they were washed and dressed, the real tour began. They were shown the hall with the officer's rooms, the infirmary, the mess hall, the library, and the classroom. “There’s only one?” Thom asked, peeking into the room with a blackboard across the far wall and long tables situated in front.
“Tomorrow is the last real day before the watch weeks start. You'll spend those four weeks catching up on foundational stuff. Kingdom-wide law, and your assigned sword dills, that sort of thing. After that, the lessons are given in a four-year rotation, so your first classes after the watch weeks will be new to both you and everyone else." the leader explained.
The nicest one elaborated, “You’ll have the same schedule we did, so comparative law, followed by history, then theology, then comparative cultural studies.” Shon wasn’t sure what he looked forward to least on that list. Though all would be better than fighting for a shower…
"There's also etiquette, monster studies, combat tactics and command, and war history and theory." his friend added, and Shon was relieved that at least most of those seemed more interesting.
Next, they were shown some of the less-used rooms. The war room, full of charts and maps and only used for large-scale tactics training, and an indoor sparring room that looked like it was never used.
“This is supposed to be for heavy weather.” one of the laughers said with a snicker.
“But Master Daunus says your enemies won’t let you move a fight inside, so why practice there,” added the other. Shon happened to agree, but also wasn’t looking forward to training in the rain after having walked in it for two days.
Lastly, they were shown the chapel, not as fine as the one in Smilnda but with the same sweet incense and warm comfort. The atmosphere seeped into Shon’s bones as they approached the head altar for a brief prayer and a blessing from the resident Cleric. He was a young man with pale brown hair and green eyes. He smiled warmly down at the new boys, saying, “Welcome to Hamerfoss, Squires of Hengist.” which in turn made each of them glow with enough pride to banish the nerves of their first day and daunting future.
***
--- Part 2/2 ---
--- Table of Contents ---
All comments and criticism is welcome.

Rays (39-18) @ Cubs (24-30)

First Pitch: 1:20 PM at Wrigley Field

Team	Starter	TV	Radio
Rays	Zach Eflin (7-1, 3.17 ERA)	BSSUN	WDAE, WQBN (ES)
Cubs	Justin Steele (6-2, 2.77 ERA)	MARQ	WSCR, WOJO 105.1 (ES)

MLB	Fangraphs	Baseball Savant	Reddit Stream	IRC Chat	Channel Finder
Gameday	Game Graph	Strikezone Map	Live Comments	Libera: ##baseball	Channel Finder

Line Score - Game Over

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
TB	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	4	5	2	6
CHC	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	0	6

Box Score

CHC		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
DH	Hoerner	3	1	1	0	1	1	.285
SS	Swanson	4	0	0	0	0	1	.265
LF	Happ	4	1	1	1	0	2	.278
RF	Suzuki, S	4	1	2	0	0	1	.293
CF	Tauchman	2	0	1	1	1	0	.355
1B	Mervis	2	0	0	0	0	1	.188
1B	Mancini	1	0	1	1	0	0	.253
PH	Rios	0	0	0	0	0	0	.080
3B	Wisdom	4	0	0	0	0	0	.213
2B	Mastrobuoni	3	0	0	0	1	2	.149
C	Barnhart	2	0	0	0	0	0	.164
PH	Morel	1	0	0	0	0	1	.282
C	Gomes	1	0	0	0	0	0	.270

CHC	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Steele	3.0	0	0	0	0	1	29-19	2.65
Wesneski	3.2	1	1	1	2	4	59-35	4.81
Leiter Jr.	0.1	2	3	3	1	1	14-7	2.78
Alzolay	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	15-11	2.33
Merryweather	0.2	0	0	0	3	1	22-6	4.43
Fulmer	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	4-3	7.36

TB		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
1B	Díaz, Y	5	0	0	0	0	1	.310
LF	Arozarena	3	0	1	0	1	1	.297
DH	Ramírez, H	3	0	0	0	0	1	.288
DH	Lowe, J	1	0	1	0	0	0	.304
3B	Paredes	4	0	0	0	0	1	.269
RF	Margot	2	1	1	0	2	0	.248
2B	Lowe, B	4	1	1	2	0	2	.204
C	Bethancourt	4	0	0	0	0	1	.248
SS	Walls	2	1	0	0	2	0	.244
CF	Siri	3	1	1	2	1	1	.245

TB	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Eflin	6.0	4	3	3	1	5	90-55	3.30
Poche	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	12-7	2.29
Adam	1.0	1	0	0	1	3	24-12	3.09
Kelly	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	16-10	4.15
Beeks	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	13-7	4.45

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
B1	Ian Happ singles on a ground ball to center fielder Jose Siri. Nico Hoerner scores.	1-0
B1	Mike Tauchman singles on a sharp line drive to right fielder Manuel Margot. Ian Happ scores.	2-0
T7	Brandon Lowe homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Manuel Margot scores.	2-2
B7	Trey Mancini singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Randy Arozarena. Seiya Suzuki scores. Trey Mancini out at 2nd on the throw, left fielder Randy Arozarena to second baseman Brandon Lowe.	3-2
T8	Jose Siri homers (10) on a fly ball to center field. Taylor Walls scores.	3-4

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
David Ross talks about the Cubs' great bullpen, more	1:37	Video
Bullpen availability for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Rays at Cubs - May 31, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Hayden Wesneski's pitches	0:08	Video
The distance behind Brandon Lowe's home run	0:14	Video
Visualizing Brandon Lowe's swing using bat tracking technology	0:09	Video
Breaking down Zach Eflin's pitches	0:08	Video
Zach Eflin's outing against the Cubs	0:22	Video
Breaking down Jose Siri's home run	0:18	Video
Analyzing Jose Siri's home run through bat tracking	0:09	Video
Ian Happ hits an RBI single give the Cubs a 1-0 lead	0:16	Video
Mike Tauchman drills an RBI single to right field	0:16	Video
Brandon Lowe crushes a two-run homer to tie game at 2	0:26	Video
Trey Mancini hits an RBI single to give Cubs the lead	0:24	Video
Justin Steele fans Randy Arozarena in the 1st inning	0:06	Video
Jose Siri crushes a two-run homer in the 8th inning	0:30	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Poche (4-1, 2.29 ERA)	Leiter Jr. (1-1, 2.78 ERA)	Beeks (1 SV, 4.45 ERA)

Game ended at 4:16 PM.
Remember to sort by new to keep up!

Hello new/returning player! Whether you're considering buying or you've just installed it and don't know where to start, there's a good chance you have some questions about the game. I've been playing pretty much since launch, and since the Discord imploded and the in-game tutorial kinda sucks, I figured this would be a good place to put together a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about Railroads Online. Feel free to scroll through the headings to find what you're looking for!
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Is it worth the money?
Railroads Online is exactly what it says on the tin and exactly what you see in the trailer. There are railroads, they are online, and you do have complete freedom to build your own railroad in a sandbox environment. If that's your cup of tea, try it! Steam's refund policy allows you to refund the game if you have less than 2 hours played and you've owned it for less than 2 weeks, so even if you don't like it when you start, you have a safety net. That said, this game is in early access. And, the regularly-updated branch is a beta to the early access, so it is seriously lacking polish in certain areas. This game is physics-based, and that can take a toll on performance for trains longer than a dozen cars, and the Beta branch reportedly has some people's GPUs on their knees. Updates also regularly introduce bugs, ranging from mildly amusing to make-sure-you-back-up-your-save-file. For some people that sort of thing is understandably not worth $35, while for others it gives the game character. I've gotten close to 10 hours of playtime for every dollar I spent on it, so obviously I'd be inclined to say it's worth it, but everybody's experience will be different.
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Note: The following guide is geared towards the Beta version of the game. This version has the most features, looks the best, and receives regular updates, though there are a number of known performance and stability issues. The majority of it still applies to both versions of the game regardless, though the largest changes have been to track laying.

Getting Started

Warning: Remember, this is Railroads Online. There is no "offline" mode, strictly speaking, but you can drag the "player limit" slider down to 1. If you're going to play with other people, use a password. If you ever forget to, and someone comes in and undoes all of your hard work, you will never forget again. You have been warned!
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Your first railroad
So, you've launched the game! Congratulations! Now what? Well, it's probably good to get yourself oriented first.
The game spawns you in on the spawning platform. The three tracks you've spawned next to are permanent, and they are where new equipment spawns when you purchase it. You are given Betsy, a flatcar, and $2000 for free, and the rest is left up to you.
Before you run any trains, you'll need to build some track to run them on. Take care here, because there is no edit tool; if you build something, the only way to change it is to delete sections and rebuild. Measure twice, cut once, and make it look nice the first time so you don't have to redo it later. Or something.
Press G to bring up the majority of your sandbox tools: Track Construction, Facilities, Locomotives (the shop), Demolish, Rerail, and Logging, plus the Respawn button. I will cover all of these tools in time, but for now, all you need to be familiar with are the Track Construction tab, the Demolish tool, and the Logging tool.
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Track Construction
Track laying in this game has been... fucky... for a long time. It's a LOT better now than it used to be, but I still recommend downloading RROx (Railroads Online Extended) and using the fast sprint cheat when you're building. It will save you hours (not to mention the other features it offers).
First of all, everything in this game except for rolling stock is FREE! Go nuts! Want to triple-track the main? You can! Want to fill the entire southern half of the map with water towers? Your call! Fun first, safety third. Anyway:
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In the Track Construction menu, you will be greeted by a bunch of track options. Feel free to place them wherever to get an idea of what they are.
The first row is, of course, 3 foot narrow-gauge rail. The I, II, and III varieties are identical except for the amount of ballast. I has some, II has a bit more, and III has a lot. On cliff faces, too much ballast can cause ugly clipping, so it's best to use tier I when you can and step it up if it's too short. The game will not let you place a node if the spline is not supported by ground or some other structure at every point.
The default building mode is spline mode. Click once to place the first node, and click somewhere else to place the second node. Boom! You've placed your first track segment. If you click on the ground, it will face whatever direction your UI currently says it's facing, but if you click on another piece of track it will do its best to connect to the other node as smoothly as possible. This can result in some janky turns if you're not careful, so keep that in mind. There are keybinds to rotate the endpoints to face the direction you want them to. Track will not snap to another track unless you see the glowing chain link icon above it. If you don't see it at first, walk around a little, staring at the desired connection point until you trigger the hitbox.
The other building mode is circle mode. It does what it says on the tin– your track will follow a circular arc with the radius you specify. Use smaller segments if you can, because for some reason the angles get weird if you try to do more than 90° in a single segment. In this mode, you can snap to existing track on your first click, but it will not snap to another track for your second click because it only cares about following the circle. This build mode is useful for a number of reasons, not least of which being the ability to see what your maximum turning radius is. A 30 meter radius is the minimum, but on your main line you should aim to stay above 60-100 meters to avoid derailments at high speeds.
Next in the menu: switches. If you know what trains are, you probably know what switches are. In RRO, if a switch is pointing one way, and you come in from the other, it will automatically align with you to let you through, unless A.) you are in a handcart, or B.) it is the 3-way stub switch. Also note that they are not perfect mirror images of each other (not sure how they managed to mess that up but oh well), which may cause problems when creating complex structures like yards.
The 90° crossover piece is your friend when designing parallel tracks. You can chain them together to ensure equal spacing, matching angles, or you can simply use them as placeholder nodes to snap your track to if you need to delete part of it. Two crossover pieces are far enough apart for two trains to pass each other comfortably, so it's handy for smoothing your double-tracks, if you choose to build them. The 45° crossover piece is also good, for when you want a spacer piece that's slightly longer than the 90°, or if you don't want your simple wyes to be a hundred feet across. (Still waiting on that 10° crossover, Astragon.)
Turntables are what you expect them to be. The plain Turntable I is small enough to fit in some tight spaces like yards, but a lot of locomotives will only fit on Turntable II. Turntables have historically been a bit buggy, particularly if you reload a save while something is on it, so be wary.
The bumper is a bumper. 'Nuff said.
Embankments are ballast without the rail. They're nice as decoration around the base of certain structures, or as filler in between the tracks in yards, or as ballast for bumpers and crossovers. You can also access a similar trackless version of the stone wall by using its drop-down menu.
Bridges and stone walls work exactly the same as ballast track: they will not allow you to place a node if the spline is not supported everywhere. However, there is a workaround for this: nodes can be supported by ballast. If you use small enough segments, 3 Ft Rail III can be used to cross gaps using just the previous segment's ballast as support. If you fill the gap with ballast, you can place your bridge on top of it, and then remove the ballast later. You can pretty it up with some stone walls as supports, if you want to.
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And that's everything currently in the Track Construction menu! The Engine Shed and the Coaling Tower also have small pieces of track, but they are kept in the Facilities menu.
Note: You can make it to pretty much every industry in the game with less than a 3% grade. In real life, this is considered pretty steep, but in-game you can get away with even steeper track if you can't be bothered to work out the best path.
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Demolish Tool
The demolish tool is delightfully simple. It deletes things! By default, it only deletes rail, but that can be changed with the drop-down menu. Be very careful using the "All" option-- you could accidentally delete your rolling stock.
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The Logging Tool
The logging tool will probably be your second most-used tool, right after track construction, because everywhere you want to place track, there are trees in the way. You can click almost anywhere on the tree to remove it, and it does this for free, but you might have trouble removing a tree if the bottom two-thirds of it are buried in ballast. If spam-clicking feels tedious, you can hold down the mouse button until the saw finds a part of the trunk that it likes.
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That should be everything you need to know to build your first railway!
​

Industries

In Railroads Online, your objective is money. Moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney. But u/Embite, I hear you ask, how do I GET money? Well, I'm glad you asked! The answer is industries.
There are 9 industries in RRO, which you can see on the map: the Smelter, the Sawmill, the Logging Camp, the Freight Depot, the Iron Ore Mine, the Oil Field, the Ironworks, the Refinery, and the Coal Mine.
Each industry has inputs and outputs. For example, the Logging Camp has two output platforms: one for logs and one for cordwood. To load a car with the output, simply position your railcar where the crane drops the cargo and click the crane to start loading. For some outputs like the iron mine, there's a chute instead of a crane, but it's the same idea. When you unload a car, the cargo teleports to the side you clicked on, so make sure you're standing on the platform that you want to deliver to.
The inputs and outputs for each industry is listed in the table below.
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Location	Input	Output
Freight Depot	Anything	Nothing
Logging Camp	Nothing	Logs, Cordwood
Sawmill	Logs	Beams, Lumber
Iron Ore Mine	Beams, Lumber	Iron Ore
Smelter	Iron Ore, Cordwood	Raw Iron, Rails
Coal Mine	Beams, Rails	Coal
Ironworks	Lumber, Raw Iron, Coal	Steel Pipes, Tools
Oil Field	Beams, Steel Pipes, Tools	Crude Oil
Refinery	Lumber, Steel Pipes, Crude Oil	Oil Barrel

You should notice a few things:

1. Logging Camp has no inputs. This is where the supply chain of RRO starts. The lumberjacks do all of their work for free, and they will never run out of logs, or cordwood.
2. Freight Depot (the big warehouse near spawn) has no outputs. This is where you can return to sell whatever products you've collected and turn them in for straight cash. You get the same amount of money regardless of which buyer you send cargo to, so it's recommended that you try to deliver to another industry whenever possible, since you get money AND more cargo to sell, rather than just the money. If all you need is money though, the Freight Depot is where to go.
3. There is a clear progression from one industry to the next. I've ordered the table so that once you've connected to one industry in the list, your railroad will have access to all of the cargo needed for the next industry down.

While it's best to try and deliver to new industries whenever possible, sometimes (especially early on) you will simply run out of money for all the new railcars you need to haul the stuff. For the early game, my best suggestion is to run beams from the sawmill straight to the freight depot. Stake flats (which carry beams) are among the cheapest rolling stock, and each carload is worth $72, compared to $60 for a flatcar of logs. You only need 3 beams per car, so it's fast to load and unload. While cordwood is also easy to do, with each carload worth $80, each flat is much more expensive to buy, and each car carries 8 units of cordwood, making the loading time much longer. Plus, many more industries use stake flats than the cordwood flats, so you will be investing in the future of your railroad as you go.
Another way to make money in RRO is via Firewood Depots and Coaling Towers, which brings us to the next available construction tool,
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Facilities
Facilities are buildings you place down yourself to facilitate the management of your railway. At the top of the menu are the Sand House, the Firewood Depot, and the Coaling Tower. They're very self-explanatory: The Sand House contains sand to refill your locomotive's sander, the Firewood Depot is where you restock on firewood, and the Coaling Tower is where you restock on coal. The Sand House is, as far as I can tell, unimplemented as of 5/29/2023, but the others are very important. In RRO, you need to produce the fuel that runs your railroad.
Firewood Depots are easy to stock, not least of all because they spawn in full of firewood, in case you run out in the middle of nowhere. To refill a Firewood Depot that has been exhausted, you simply unload any form of wooden cargo (logs, lumber, beams, or cordwood) onto the side of the platform that doesn't have firewood on it. When designing your yards, it's always smart to make space for a firewood depot, because the platforms are spaced far apart and most locomotives in RRO run on firewood.
Coaling towers do not spawn in stocked with coal, and coal is not available until about half of the map is connected by your railroad, so coal-fired locomotives will be a late-game commodity. Once you have access to them, though, they are restocked in much the same way as firewood depots.
Water towers are also important. Without water, your trains have no steam, so place these wherever they're convenient. They refill slowly on their own.
Engine sheds are purely cosmetic in this game, since the locomotives don't require servicing or shelter. They are, however, available in a variety of nice paint schemes, and a roundhouse is a great way to spruce up any boring-looking switching yards.
The last facility is the Telegraph Office, which is the most convenient structure in the game. Wherever on the map you place one, your map will be updated with a brown box with a T in it. Clicking his box allows you to teleport to any telegraph office from anywhere else in the game, saving you a lot of walking between industries and yards.
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Locomotives (the shop), and Companies
The shop is where you use your hard-earned money to buy locomotives and rolling stock. You can check your funds in-game by pressing P. The "tier" of an item is the level your player needs to be in order to purchase it. Your level increases every time you deliver cargo to an industry. When other players join your game, they can join your company by pressing Tab and clicking "Join Company" next to your name. When they do this, any delivery they make will count as a delivery for you, not them, which increases your money and XP much faster than doing it all alone. Employment is forgotten when the player relogs.
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Rerailing
Rerailing is finicky. Basically, you click "rerail," spam LMB on whatever you're trying to rerail until its name appears in the UI, and then walk around looking at track until it appears where you want it to. You can flip it around with LMB, and then drop it with RMB. Rerailing on switches currently seems to be a little broken.
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Respawning
This option will send you back to the spawn yard if you ever manage to get stuck. It was more useful before telegraph offices were added, and most of the gamebreaking ways to get stuck have been patched, but if you want to use it you simply click and hold until you respawn.
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Trains!!!!!!1!1!!!

Now, with a line of track connecting your spawning yard with the logging camp, you're ready to finally fire up your Porter 0-4-0 and run some trains! In case you're new to operating a steam locomotive, here's a quick rundown of the controls:
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Controls
First, open up the firebox and throw a few logs on the fire. Pick up logs with LMB, look at the firebox until the UI displays its temperature in the top left, and throw with RMB. You can throw logs back onto the pile if you picked up too many (you can hold up to 5 at once). Now you have to wait for the fire to heat up, which then makes the boiler heat up, and then you will finally see the dial on your pressure gauge increase. Once you've got pressure, you can move the locomotive.
The big lever above the firebox is the regulator, aka the throttle. It basically controls how fast your built-up steam enters the cylinder, or in other words, how much power you're sending to the piston, and by extension, the wheels.
The lever coming out of the floor is the reverser (or the Johnson bar), which controls at what point in the cylinder's stroke steam is allowed to enter the chamber. All the way forward means that steam comes in anytime it would push the wheels forward, and all the way back means that steam comes in anytime it would push the wheels backwards. In between, it controls whether the steam flow is constant, or if it comes in short bursts. Or, at least, that's how it works in real life. IRL you can achieve more efficient steam usage by setting the reverser bar near the middle and letting the regulator stay open; however, in RRO, as far as I can tell it simply multiplies the % the regulator is open and the % that the reverser is set and uses that number as the "go amount." So, for all intents and purposes, the reverser is just another regulator (in RRO).
The lever to the right of that is the brake. Betsy (i.e. the Porter 0-4-0) has a mechanical brake, meaning it applies braking force as long as you have it on. In some locomotives, though, the brakes are powered by a steam-powered compressor, which you need to activate yourself via a valve somewhere, or else your brakes will have no effect.
The whistle and the bell do as you expect. There is another handle which opens the cylinder cocks, which as of 5/29/2023 is purely cosmetic, as are the sanders. IRL, cylinder cocks are used to blow condensed water out of the cylinders, and sanders are used for extra traction in slippery conditions.
Finally, most locomotives have lamps that you can turn on and off with LMB, or by using the steam-powered generator, if it has one.
And that's pretty much it! Different locomotives have different features, and levers are often in slightly different places, but they all operate on the same general principles. Locomotives are also often specialized for a particular job. For example, engines like the Eureka are specialized for high speeds with low power, while engines with shorter wheel bases like the D&RGW Class 48 are specialized for sharp turns and yardwork, while the geared locomotives like shays and heislers are specialized for steep tracks in mountainous terrain. You can find a number of resources online to find statistics for each of the different RRO locomotives.
​
Coupling
The 3 foot narrow-gauge railway in RRO uses what is called "Link and pin" coupling, which uses, unsurprisingly, links and pins. To couple two cars together, you need enough space to fit a link between them. Press LMB to insert a link in the coupler. Only one car should have a link. Once the link is in place, push the cars together and use RMB to place a pin in both couplers. Et voila! Your train is now longer.
Tender locomotives have unique couplers. First of all, instead of a link, tenders are connected to the cab by a drawbar. Press LMB on the tender, then back up the locomotive and use RMB to hitch it to the drawbar with a pin. For locomotives with cowcatchers, the front is outfitted with a drawbar as well, which can be extended and retracted with LMB. This link is weaker than the usual link-and-pin, so only use this for short, slow trips or yardwork.
​

External Tools

While straight-up modding RRO is currently very difficult, there do exist certain external tools to help provide you with a more enjoyable experience with a game that is, at times, excessively grindy.
RROx
RROx, or Railroads Online Extended, is by far the most useful RRO extension I've come across. It offers a real-time minimap (that maps your rail lines for you!), remote control of locomotives, cranes, and switches, unrestricted teleporting, cheats like free money, fast-sprint and flight, as well as optional access to all of these features for other RROx users that join your game. It even provides everything necessary to create a plugin of your own, if you're so inclined.
​
Railroad Studio
railroad.studio is a free online save file editor for RRO. With it you can replace trees, rename/repaint locomotives and rolling stock, delete track, cheat in money, etc. Currently the go-to save editor.
​

Technical Bits

Just some extra technical bits that are worth knowing:

• A lot of the game's files are stored in your AppData/Local folder under the name arr, a name inherited from the devs' previous game, American Railroads.
• Your save files are stored in %localappdata%\arr\Saved\SaveGames.
• A number of config settings are stored in plaintext .ini files in arSaved/Config/Windows, where you can edit settings like the maximum view distance beyond what is usually allowed. The maximum setting typically allowed is 3, but I've increased this to 10 without any notable performance drop. Nevertheless, edit settings beyond supported values at your own risk. The game needs to be restarted for settings changed in this way to take effect.

​

Miscellaneous Tips

• All controls can be rebound in the controls menu.
• You can change your POV with V, and you can lean left and right with R and T.
• If you prefer to drive with the GUI instead of in first person, you may have an easier time finding the button prompt by standing in front of the locomotive rather than inside it.
• Placing a switch, then a 45° on the turnout, and finally another switch so that the straight edge is parallel with your first switch, creates two lanes that are far enough apart to fit the switch's lever on the inside.
• If you back far enough away, track and ballast hitboxes will despawn and let you place things inside of them.
• There is a large, flat plateau northeast of the smelter that is a convenient place for a yard connecting the smelter, iron mine, and coal mine.
• There is a lot of space for a yard just over the hill west of the freight depot.
• The un-deletable track southeast of the spawning track is for the shop.
• The game keeps a list of every tree you've cut down and uses this to load the map, which (allegedly) makes the game take longer to load if you cut more trees than you need to. Use a save file editor like railroad.studio to replace missing trees.
• The walkway on Bridges II is always on your left as you build it.
• You can snap track to turntables if you rotate it to where you want the connection to be.
• Firewood depots only replenish the piles if every pile is missing at least 5 logs.
• If you're strapped for cash, loading a car with logs and then immediately unloading that car to a firewood depot on the other side is fast, easy money. This is pretty cheaty though, so you might as well save yourself some time and just use a save file editor.
• A switch's turnout is about 10 degrees.
• Locomotives don't respond to changes in the controls until a 1-second timer counts down. The timer resets every time you make a change, but letting go (releasing left-click) applies the change immediately.

​
That's pretty much everything I've got. I hope that this guide has been of use to you! If I forgot something, got something wrong, or you have an idea for how to improve this guide, feel free to leave it as a comment below. Happy railroading!

Thanks to u/cmdr_shadowstalker, u/TitanSweep2022, u/An_Insufferable_NEWT (For trying), u/AlienNationSSB, u/Kazevenikov, u/LordHenry7898, u/Ravenredd65, u/Adventurous-Map-9400, u/Swimming_Good_8507, and u/Death-Is-Mortal. As always, please check out their stuff.
Previous First
------
“War Room”
Imperium Claimed Fuies Space - The Coffer
Twenty Earth Years Prior to Liberation
​
“No, no, no. I won't humor any more of this,” Captain Mar’lu Moravi exasperatedly protested.
Despite this, Admiral Jar’mson soldiered on with presenting her opinions. “That’s too bad. Your cousin has requested my fleet be present, and seeing as I outrank you, your opinion is secondary to my orders..”
He heard an audible sigh emanate from Captain Moravi’s microphone, but she did not attempt to stop the Admiral for the time being. It was a source of immense entertainment to be a fly on the wall for these conversations. It was truly magnificent to see the mighty Imperial war machine's attempt to scheme its way out of a mess that it itself had created.
“It is a well-known fact that the Imperium’s vessels far surpass anything the Alliance can hope to make. Moreover, from your early engagement it’s clear that the only reason these so-called mercenaries were able to win is because they acted with the element of surprise. Now that we have the advantage, I am going to suggest to the Duchess that we engage and destroy the Edixi fleet so that we can begin orbital bombardments of enemy positions.”
There was silence on all lines. Personally, while he believed the Admiral’s choice to be rather rash, he was not necessarily in disagreement. The Alliance’s vessels never won in any simulations he had ever seen unless they had a three to one advantage. There was no doubt in his mind that when it came to war, the Imperium ruled the waves.
Stars… The Imperium ruled the stars. He doubted that there were any pre-space naval vessels left in the arsenal.
Back on topic, the state of the Duchess’s original invasion fleet was pitiful at best. Only four vessels remained, and one was a requisitioned blockade runner that was more concerned with funneling supplies to the front than it was with dealing a crippling blow to the enemy fleet.
“Admiral Jar’mson,” Captain Moravi began with clear frustration, “since I have humored you, would you humor me?”
“Certainly.”
“I’d like you to look at your external feed at heading three-three-five and-”
“Why?” the Admiral interrupted.
“Because it’s important!” Captain Moravi snapped.
Jar’mson remained unconvinced. “I don’t see how looking out at the stars will help us deal with the enemy fleet.”
“There’s a watchstation! There is an Alliance watchstation! It’s far out, not in this system, but if I fucking squint I can see the blinking from it’s lighthouse!” Captain Moravi shouted, her voice becoming distorted with the increase in decibels forced upon her microphone. “We aren’t in core. We aren’t even in the frontier! This is the periphery! We are right on the border with Alliance space.”
While Mar’lu Moravi descended into her tirade, he attempted to find this supposed watchstation. Watching the heading on his feed, he saw nothing but distant, glittering stars. Heeding her instructions, he squinted and waited, but still nothing. He was ready to dismiss the woman as delusional, but then there it was, a faint blink of bright light in the distance. It appeared again four seconds later, then again after another four. There was a watchstation out there all right, and fairly close too.
“Let's suppose we do crush these mercenaries. We drive them out of the system, bombard their remaining ground forces, etcetera, etcetera. There’s gonna be a bigger fleet with a ‘contract’ from the Fuies Diarchy out here in a week!” Moravi lamented.
“We can-” Jar’mson started, only to get a taste of her own medicine as she was interrupted.
“It took you nine months! Nine months! It’s going to take ages to replace any losses we suffer out here! It will only take the Alliance a week!”
Finally feeling a need to add his own input, he attempted to defend their slow arrival. “Captain, we were requisitioned by your cousin from the opposite end of the Imperium. Of course it took us months to arrive. If Admiral Jar’mson makes a report detailing just how dire the situation is here, a far closer fleet can be pulled to aid us.”
“I reported the dire nature of the situation last time. I lost three quarters of my fleet for Empress’s sake!” Captain Moravi exhaled, grumbled something inaudible, then returned to the microphone. “The reason you’re here is because all the other fleets have more important tasks. Tasks I doubt will be aborted to deal with what amounts to a property dispute.”
She sounded utterly defeated, and yet they had not yet begun to fight. There was still hope of a turn around here, he was sure of it.
“The only way we win here is if we take the whole planet and eliminate any and all leadership. That way the Alliance mercenaries can’t claim to be helping anyone,” She explained tiredly to a semi-silent audience.
“Why do we have to respect this charade at all?” Jar’mson asked. “We all know that the Alliance is just funneling their poorly disguised armies here.”
He actually knew the answer to this one. Saving his fellow Captain the strain, he answered, “Because if we don’t respect the Alliance’s ‘mercenary companies’ the Consortium will cry foul about us not respecting businesses. There was a big stir after a fleet refused to allow these mercenaries to honor their contract during a campaign some hundred years ago that almost became a proper war after the Consortium found out we were ‘prohibiting honest and ancient business practices.’”
“Right, moving on,” Captain Morvai said, forcing them back on topic. “Everything depends on the ground game right now. So, how many Marines did you bring?”
Marines? This was a security fleet, designed for protecting the Imperium from pirate raids and detaining defectors. They only brought enough Marines to conduct boarding actions and shore up city garrisons in the event the rabble they battled ever made it planet side.
“Ten thousand?” Admiral Jar’mson replied, most definitely highballing the estimate.
“Ten thousand…” Captain Moravi repeated hollowly, her voice sounding like her soul had left her body.
“Affirmative. They’re mostly trained for boarding actions, but they do have some experience defending cities during pirate raids.”
“This is a war, not a raid…”
An awkward cough emanated from the Admiral’s line. “We were told to arrive as soon as possible and be prepared for orbital combat, not a ground war.”
“I ferried a million woman army. It was all we could afford…”
Jar’mson tried to salvage the situation. “We could turn back and-”
“I’m bringing my cousin into this meeting.”
------
Kayta had just finished polishing his boots when an alert pinged on his datapad. Picking it up, he was informed that he was to report to the ship’s small hangar bay for an immediate briefing. The ping also awoke his sleeping son once again, who vocally decried the datapad and all it did.
Slipping into his uniform, he threw on his freshly polished boots and marched over to the crib. Picking up Janis, he realized he didn’t exactly know what to do with him. There was no way he was bringing a child whose favorite activity was crying to a briefing, but he couldn’t leave the child alone, could he? No, even if everything went swimmingly, that was going to earn him an earful from Janis’s mother and he didn’t desire a lecture on child rearing from a common woman. Janis was his son, and he had put the effort into making him, she just helped.
Carrying his boy in one hand and his datapad in the other, Kayta wondered if the Coffer offered a daycare service. Certainly someone should have thought of it. No, that was wishful thinking. He certainly wouldn’t have considered it. He would have just shamed the offending fools for not using protection.
The crying continued as he made his way through the bowels of the ship. Before, he had joked that Janis was trying to become a cliff singer, but with ever offending decibel Kayta began to wonder if his son was seriously considering a life in the arts. “You’d better not try and make a career out of this,” he scolded while descending a flight of stairs. “A man with dreams of singing is destined for a dingy bar. If they’re lucky that is.”
Clipping his pad to his belt, he drew his sidearm, a HSW-16 ‘Hand-cannon’. Showcasing the weapon to Janis, he cooed, “Wouldn’t you rather grow up with a more regal job, like an officer? You get great pay, plenty of useful idiots to boss around, and a cool gun. I personally like the cool gun.”
His son looked at the pistol, eyes growing wide while he chewed on his fingers. Blinking, Janis reached out and tried to touch the pistol with his slobbery hands.
“No,” Kayta forcefully reprimanded while holstering his weapon. “I’m not cleaning spit off my pistol.”
The crying resumed. Did children have a ‘mute’ option? If they did, Kayta really needed to know what it was. There had to be some way to solve his problem, otherwise he’d be suffering more stares than usual from his fellow servicewomen.
As he turned a corner down the final stretch to the hangar bay, the Goddess saw fit to offer him an out. Walking out of the hangar bay soot covered and sweat drenched was the ever ignorant Gallenuis Le’vang. He was foolishly waving goodbye to a group of women who were most definitely gawking. Kayta wanted to reprimand him, but it would be a far better lesson for the engineer to learn the consequences of fraternizing with the wrong women the hard way. He had to learn that way, and he was all the better for it.
Kayta waited for the amazing display of ignorance to end before striking. Slipping beside Gallenuis, he politely tapped the oblivious engineer on the shoulder. When Gallenuis turned around to greet Kayta, he happily deposited Janis into the unsuspecting man’s arms.
“Terribly sorry,” Kayta said, not being sorry at all, “but I have an important briefing that doesn’t allow for infants. I’d be eternally grateful if you just watched over him for a few minutes.”
Gallenuis was too busy being stunned to offer a proper reply, but that was all Kayta needed. If push came to shove, he’d just claim he had ordered the engineer to watch over the child while he partook in exercises critical to Marine success. It wasn’t the worst excuse he could come up with on the spot.
Moving towards the hangar, he was able to hear Gallenuis finally find his words. To his surprise, the engineer was more concerned with talking to Janis than trying to escape his new task. “I, uh… Oh! There’s soot on you! Time for a bath.”
Ignoring any further remarks from down the hall, Kayta slipped into the hangar bay and proceeded to ignore the flurry of remarks from the common enlisted women as he made his way over to a section designated for officers. After one lewd remark almost penetrated his mental shield, he reminisced on tales he had heard of Edixi discipline. An army of indoctrinated women more concerned with following orders than their own libido just sounded too good to pass up. Alas, the Imperial Marines had little concept of such discipline.
What he wouldn’t give to have just one woman who followed orders. That was just a pipe dream though. The day he found a competent woman who cared more for service than sex was the day that the Deep burst into flames.
Finding his place in the formation of officers, he desperately hoped that none of his peers noticed that he had been the last to arrive at the assembly. It appeared that their briefing had already begun and Kayta was only catching up midway through. Colonel Sho’task was busy going over a map of the planet and pointing out a multitude of points while blittering on about strategies.
For a moment, he actually felt secure. That was until the eyes of the old Colonel fell upon him while talking about terrain. She stopped midway through her sweep and glared at him while finishing up her explanation. The moment she did, she pointed directly at him. “Lieutenant, care to elaborate on where you’ve been? Officers should know to arrive at a briefing fifteen minutes before it’s set to begin.”
With the eyes of all his fellows now glancing at him, he tried to play for sympathy. “Colonel, I was taking care of my son when I got that alert. I had to find a temporary babysitter before arriving here.”
The Colonel scoffed. “If having a child was going to impede your ability to serve, maybe you should have used some protection! Your irresponsibility is not my problem, nor is it the problem of the rest of the officer corps!”
He froze in shock and indignation. How dare she say that to him! What gave her the right to mock him?
Satisfied, the Colonel relaxed her pose. “If you are late again you will be issued a citation. Now, as I was saying…”
While she resumed her lecture like nothing had happened, Kayta stewed in silence. That insult would not go unanswered, he swore it. Pulling out his datapad, he started taking notes. Not on the Colonel-that would come later-but rather on the planet and its primitive inhabitants. Petty revenge would not be enough. He needed to outshine her first. Then, and only then, would he be satisfied enough to ruin her.
------
Tardiness was rarely tolerated in the navy. If you said you were arriving at a certain time on a certain date, you were going to be there. There was no discussion. No ifs, ands, or buts. The only acceptable excuses were one with proper documentation. If your equipment was failing, if your ship was under attack, or if there was a serious mutiny, those were some reasonable excuses for a delay.
For years the Captain had grown used to that level of expectations. It had been expected of him, and he grew to expect it of others. It was only when he found himself screaming at his three year old daughter for failing to leave the playground on time did he finally soften his stance. While his crew was not his daughter, he did start to extend them similar courtesies. He hadn’t given up on discipline, but he couldn’t allow himself to fall down that hole again, it was a slippery slope he feared that he would never re-emerge from.
Duchess Moravi was seriously testing him though. When her cousin had informed the conference call of Captains that the Duchess would be joining the call in fifteen minutes, he had expected the Duchess to arrive in around fifteen minutes.
“Do you think it would be alright if I used the bathroom?” Admiral Jar’mson asked for the third time.
“Just give it a minute,” Captain Moravi replied. ”She’ll be here soon.”
“But it’s been an hour!”
Captain Moravi remained unfazed. “Yep.”
Pretty soon he’d be asking to be excused to the restroom as well. He had spent his unexpected free time reading up on the local peripheral news and sipping on his remaining ruk, and his favorite drink was finally starting to catch up with him.
A brief electronic wail signaling the arrival of a new member emanated from the console. Despite the wail, he could hear his fellow captain sigh in relief that their plight might finally be at an end. He even heard Captain Moravi grumble out some sort of thanks to the Goddess, though what it was would forever be a mystery.
“Thank you all for being so patient with me,” the sickeningly pretentious voice of Duchess Alvanti Moravi greeted them. “My dearest Molin’ari was suffering from another crying fit, and I had to attend to that first. I do hope my cousin has been keeping you entertained in my absence. She’s very good at riling up a crowd with her soldier of fortune stories.”
“She’s been informative, if not a bit obtuse madam,” Admiral Jar’mson replied hastily. “I was hoping that you could authorize our fleet too-”
Before Jar’mson could finish her thought the Duchess interrupted, “Oh you’ll have to speak to my cousin about that. I don’t know the first thing about your fancy boats. I’m more of a boots on the ground woman myself.”
He didn’t need to hear more. None of them did. Yet they were subjected to it.
“I’ve been slogging it out down here with my women, bravely leading them from my palace. There have been some setbacks, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. Soon I’ll capture Barras and the whole planet will capitulate!”
Jar’mson asked the question on everyone's mind. “Then why were we called here…?”
“Because my cousin suffered a horrible loss of her fleet and you’re the replacement pieces in this great game!” The Duchess spoke with neither care nor concern. It was as if she didn’t know just how dire her situation was.
But the Duchess wasn’t done yet. “Oh, Mar’lu! You remember how yesterday you told me to send a general to oversee affairs on Chipuan?”
“Ye-”
“She lost it! I told you this is why you stick to managing the boats and I stick to the soldiers!” Just as quickly as the sudden angry outburst had appeared the Duchess mellowed out again. “But it’s okay. We’ll call it a learning lesson. I know more than these old hags anyway.”
“I told you that Chipuan was lost and that you should be sending generals to oversee these kinds of operations in the future-”
“We. Will. Call. It. A. Learning. Lesson,” the Duchess dictated with a thinly veiled snarl. ”Now, I’m off to plan this siege. Have fun up there!”
There was another wail, then the Duchess’s line left the call. The Admiral made a noise as if to protest, but with the intended target now gone, there was little she could do but sputter awkwardly before falling into silence.
Captain Moravi, exasperated once again, brought the meeting to a long overdue end. “Just go to the bathroom Admiral. I never even got to tell her about her reinforcements.”
Standing up, he waved for Officer Maraz to disconnect them. Nothing more was going to be gained from sitting around awkwardly. If the Admiral needed him, really needed him, she’d hail him.
He was ready to sit down and just observe the feed of space again, but the hiss of his bridge doors opening drew his attention once again. Walking in was one soot covered senior engineer Gallenius Le’vang. In his arms he carried a swaddled baby that most definitely did not belong to him.
Passing the Captain with a quick salute, he walked over to Officer Maraz and deposited the child on her console. “Tell Kayta sorry, but I can’t bring children into the engine room. I did give him a bath though, but I think I just got soot on him again.”
Giving the child a quick pat on the head, and ignoring the now cooing bridge crew, Le’vang casually walked towards the exit as if he hadn’t caused an unnecessary disruption. Turning to the Captain as he left, he informed, “The bridge door locks are broken. I’ll fix them later.”
The Captain looked to the unfolding scene of women crowding around Officer Maraz’s console, then back to the engineer.
“No,” he said, “you’ll fix the door right now.
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
Forgive my tiredness, I may have stayed up a tad bit too late last night playing the Unification mod for Dawn of War with some old friends. At least I can say I won...
Against the survival A.I.
After three hours.
To all you wonderful readers; have a good day/night/whatever wherever you are, and I will see you...
Next

Not every town is on the map.
"Daddy, I gotta pee."
Dale Thornton looked over his shoulder at his six-year-old son belted into the back seat of their Jeep Cherokee. As the boy squirmed around, Dale looked at his wife in the passenger seat beside him. "Didn't he just go?"
Carol glanced at her watch. "That was over an hour ago." She twisted to look into the back seat. "Can you hold it?"
In the rearview mirror, Dale saw Jesse shake his head. His wife checked her watch again. He could almost see the wheels turning inside her head. She was the family mediator, and she had just come up with something that made perfect sense. One of the reasons he loved her so much was her ability to change gears. In himself, Dale recognized his single-mindedness as a drawback. He admired her flexibility. In more ways than one, he thought. She was a good wife and a good mother.
"It's almost five," Carol said. "Let's stop at the next town. We can all use the restroom and get something to eat."
Dale tugged the spiral-bound road atlas down from where he had wedged it between the visor and the roof. They had left Tulsa that morning, headed for Mardi Gras, and he hoped to be in New Orleans by 10 p.m. Looking at the LOUISIANA page, his eyes traced the route he had highlighted in yellow. They had detoured down old U.S. 167. Rural America was disappearing and Dale wanted his son to see something of it before it was completely gone.
They were somewhere south of Ruston. He couldn't remember if they had passed Jonesboro or not, so the next town was either that or--if they'd already passed it--Winnfield. The gas gauge was on a quarter of a tank. They needed to stop anyway. "All right, honey," he said. "We'll take a break."
Carol laid a hand on his leg. "I'm glad we came this way. You can't see anything from the Interstate."
Ten miles later they sprang upon a small town. There was an old-fashioned, carved wooden sign posted beside the highway. Dale read out loud, "Welcome to Batesville. Population 875."
"What's that mean," Jesse asked.
Dale glanced at his son in the rearview mirror. "That's how many people live here."
"When somebody dies, do they change the number on the sign?"
Carol smiled over her shoulder at Jesse. "I bet they change it when a baby is born."
Just like her. She didn't like to talk about death or dying. Instead, she liked to focus on the good things in life, babies, birthdays, and family vacations. She had always been like that but more so since her grandfather passed away last year. She had been very close to him, closer than she had ever been to her father.
Dale sneaked a glance at her. She was his angel but an angel with dark secrets. She had shared some of those secrets with him but not all of them, probably because she knew the abuse in her life disturbed him so much. "That sign probably hasn't been changed in twenty years," he said.
"Why put it up if it's not right?" Jesse asked.
Good question. "I don't know, son."
As they got into the little town, Dale was impressed. The side streets that cut off of the highway were lined with neat wooden houses, most of them with white picket fences. A lot of the little towns they had passed through looked run down and dirty, but not this one. Batesville was clean and pretty.
When they came to the town's only traffic light, Dale saw a business on each corner: a hotel, a gas station, a restaurant, and the Batesville General Store. Before the light turned green, Dale pulled the Jeep beside the pumps at the gas station. A middle-aged man wearing oil stained coveralls stepped out from the office. "What can I do you for?" he asked. His tone was friendly, something you didn't hear at many gas stations these days.
Dale stepped out of the driver's seat and stretched. "I need a fill-up and some food." Then he jerked his thumb toward the back seat. "And my son needs to use the head."
The man wiped his hands on a rag he pulled out of his pocket. Then he shook Dale's hand. "Dudley Simpson. I can help you with the gas and the bathroom for your boy, but as for food, afraid all I got is potato chips and sodas." He pointed to the restaurant across the street. "Right over there is the best food in town." He laughed. "Only restaurant we got, but I wouldn't kid you. It's really good. Restroom's not too bad either."
Jesse said he could hold it until they got to the restaurant, so Dale sent him and Carol across the street to get a table. When he reached for the gas pump, Dudley Simpson stopped him. "I don't charge extra for full service. Every car comes through here I pump the gas, look under the hood, and check the tires."
"Don't see that too much anymore," Dale said.
"Guess I'm kind of old-fashioned."
After Dudley finished, Dale added a couple of bucks to the bill. He felt a little awkward, unsure if he could tip the owner of a gas station without insulting him. But Dudley took no offense, just said thank you and asked him to stop in again on their way home.
When Dale turned the key, nothing happened. He turned it again and still nothing happened. Just a click. No dash lights, the motor didn't turn over, nothing. Dudley told him to pop the hood again. After Dale turned the key a couple more times with Simpson's head buried under the hood, Dudley said he'd found the problem. "Alternator's shot. You must've been running on battery for a good while."
"Can you fix it?"
The gas station owner looked at his watch. "Not today. Parts store is closed 'till tomorrow."
Great, just great, Dale thought.
"I could arrange a tow to somewhere else, next town down the highway has a Goodyear Service Center," Dudley said, "but even they won't get to it until tomorrow."
Dale nodded, his mind stuck on having to spend the night in Batesville instead of New Orleans.
"I'll get to it first thing," Dudley said. "Have you out of here by ten o'clock." He pointed at the hotel. "Mrs. Jensen has a nice place. A-C, cable TV, and no bugs."
Great. No bugs.
Dudley told Dale that he could leave the Jeep right where it was. No need to worry about it, he said. They had a town marshal but nothing ever happened in Batesville. So quiet the state police never even came by.
"Sorry I'm blocking your pumps," Dale said.
Dudley shrugged. "Other side's open." Then he looked at his watch. "Besides, it's five-thirty. I close in half an hour."
As he crossed the street, Dale remembered his gun. A Smith and Wesson .357 revolver that he always brought with him on road trips. You never knew what could happen. They might break down on the highway and get attacked by a drug-crazed motorcycle gang. The gun was in the cargo compartment, wrapped inside a cloth and tucked between the spare tire and the side wall. It would be safe enough.
At the restaurant he told Carol the news and in typical Carol fashion she looked on the bright side. "It'll be fun being stranded in a small town," she said. "Who knows what'll happen?"
"Do they have TV?" Jesse asked.
A cute young waitress served them. The plastic tag pinned to her blouse said her name was April. When she brought out their food she set Jesse's down first.
"That's the cutest little mark on your face," she said. "Almost looks like lipstick."
Unabashedly, Jesse pointed to the red oval shaped birthmark set high on his right cheek. "It means I'm special."
She smiled. "It looks like a kiss."
"Really?" Jesse asked.
Dale saw a look of contentment on Carol's face. Jesse's birthmark was something she'd never wanted their son to be shy or embarrassed about.
The waitress set out the rest of the plates. "I heard a mark like that means that right before you were born an angel kissed you."
Jesse turned to his mom. "Is that true?"
Carol smiled at her son and nodded. "I think she may be right."
April bent down and kissed Jesse on the top of his head. "I'm not an angel, but there's a kiss from me."
Dudley Simpson had been right; the food was excellent. After they ate, Dale got up to use the bathroom. "You need to go again, Jess?"
The boy shook his head. "No thanks."
Dale handed Carol a credit card. "Let's save our cash."
She nodded. "All right, baby."
"Back in a sec," he said as he turned away.
***
When he came out of the men's room, Carol and Jesse weren't at the table. The waitress had been quick. Most of the dirty plates were gone; the only ones left were his. Dale looked for his family near the front door, then up by the cash register, but they weren't there.
Maybe Jesse had changed his mind and Carol had brought him into the bathroom with her. So Dale waited, but after several minutes passed and they didn't come out, he decided to check outside. They might have gotten cold or Jesse could've gotten restless and they were waiting out front for him. But they weren't out front, either.
Across the street the lights were out at the gas station--Dudley was closed for the night. The Jeep Cherokee sat at the pumps. Anxiously, Dale looked at the hotel. Maybe...but they wouldn't do that, wouldn't have gone without him. That wasn't like Carol. Smart and independent, but she liked her husband doing the man things, and in her mind, checking into a hotel was a man thing.
Back inside he knocked on the door of the women's restroom. No one answered, so he cracked it open. "Carol?" No answer. "Carol, Jess, you there?"
"Can I help you, sir?" It was their waitress.
Embarrassed, Dale forced a laugh. "I seem to have lost my wife and son." He nodded toward the men's room. "While I was in there."
"Your wife and son?" She looked confused.
"When I came back they were gone."
She had a blank look on her face.
Annoyed, he said, "I ate with them."
The waitress furrowed her brow. "Sir, I didn't see you with anyone else."
Dale stared at her. For a second he thought that maybe he was wrong, maybe this wasn't his waitress. He checked her name tag, saw it said April. "You waited on us." Dale pointed to his right cheek. "My son has that little birthmark. You said an angel kissed him."
She shrugged. "I think I'd remember that."
He pointed to himself. "You remember me?" Then at their table. "We were sitting right there."
She nodded. "Yes, sir. I remember you, but you ate by yourself." She turned to the table where Dale's dishes still sat. "I was just bringing you your bill."
He raised his voice. "Is this some kind of a joke?" People began looking at him.
April took a step back and raised her hands. "You need to talk to Mr. Simms."
"Who's Mr. Simms?"
"The owner."
"Well that's who I want to see."
Mr. Simms was already scurrying over. "What's the problem?"
Dale turned to him. "I can't find my family." He pointed at the girl. "She was our waitress and she's telling me she doesn't even remember them."
Mr. Simms looked at April.
She shrugged again. "I'm sorry but he was alone. I've never seen his family."
Simms looked like he didn't understand. April tried to explain it again, but Dale cut her off and pointed to the table. "My family and I ate right there. I went to the restroom, came out, and they were gone."
Mr. Simms clapped a hand on Dale's shoulder. "Maybe they're outside waiting for you."
"I've checked outside," he barked. "They're not there."
Simms glanced at the waitress. "Why don't you get back to work. I'll handle this."
Dale grabbed her by the arm. "She knows where they are."
Everyone in the restaurant stared at him.
Mr. Simms jerked Dale's hand away from the girl. "Sir, she said she doesn't know where your family is."
April pleaded with her boss. "He didn't have his family with him."
"She's lying!" Dale said, as he inched closer to April.
Simms stepped between them. Looking at Dale, he said, "Have you checked your car?"
He nodded. "It's broken down at the gas station across the street. We've got to spend the night at the hotel."
Mr. Simms smiled. "That's probably it."
"What?"
"I bet they're at the hotel."
"He was by himself," April said.
The restaurant owner snapped his head towards her and pointed to the dinning area. "Go."
She looked at her boss for a second, a half-formed protest on her lips; then suddenly she spun on her heel and stomped away.
Simms looked back at Dale. "Have you checked the hotel?"
"They wouldn't do that."
"Have you checked?" Insistent.
Dale could feel himself losing control as the sweat dripped from his armpits. He took several deep breaths, trying to force himself to calm down. "No, I haven't."
"Maybe your kids got tired."
The deep breathing had made him light-headed. "Just the one boy." As Dale turned toward the door, Simms patted him on the back. "I'm sure everything's going to be fine."
But things weren't fine. At the hotel, he woke up Mrs. Jensen. Turns out she and Mr. Jensen had an apartment behind the office. Dale had banged on the glass door of the office for five minutes before a light came on.
Mrs. Jensen had come out first. A white haired old lady, covered in a paper-thin pink housecoat, imprinted with blue flowers the size of a quarter. A minute later, Mr. Jensen, looking about seventy, dressed in a full set of dark green, silk pajamas and a pair of matching slippers, stumbled into the office, smelling like he'd taken a bath in Jack Daniel's.
Dale's heart sank. He went through the story anyway, but as he expected, the Jensens said that no one had checked in or even come by since mid-morning.
Walking back to the restaurant, he looked at his Jeep. Still empty and no one near it.
A marked police car was parked near the restaurant's front door. As he got closer, Dale read the decal on the side, BATESVILLE TOWN MARSHAL. Maybe now he could get some help.
Just inside, near the cash register, Dale found April the waitress, Mr. Simms, and a heavyset man in jeans and a T-shirt, talking. As he walked up, all three stopped and stared at him. He felt like a freak in a boardwalk exhibit.
"Did you find them?" Simms asked.
Dale shook his head. "The people at the hotel haven't seen them."
The big man in jeans took a step toward him. "Mr...?
"Thornton. Dale Thornton."
The man stuck out his hand. "Jerry Stillwell. I'm town marshal."
"Saw your car outside." Dale shook the marshal's hand. "My wife and son are miss--"
"I understand there was a problem here earlier."
"Yeah there's a problem. My family disappeared."
The marshal and Simms traded glances; then he looked back at Dale. "So I heard. What do you think happened to them?"
Something didn't feel right. "If I knew that, they wouldn't be missing."
Marshal Stillwell stuck his belly out. "No reason to get smart. You all ready scared some customers. Don't make--"
"Scared some customers. Is that why you're here, because I scared some customers? My wife and son are MISSING!" Everyone in the restaurant had stopped eating and was watching the soap opera at the door. With a sharp edge to his voice, Dale said, "What are you going to do about it?"
The marshal jabbed a finger at him. "You better calm yourself down or I'll do it for you. Now I need to ask you some questions," his eyes swept the customers, "and I don't think this is the place to do it."
"I'm not going anywhere." Dale pointed to the completely cleaned off table where they'd eaten. "Half an hour ago my family and I ate right there. Now they're gone. Someone in here knows what happened to them."
The marshal dropped a big hand on Dale's shoulder and tried to guide him out the door. "We're going to find your family, but not here, not like--"
Dale pulled away. He pointed to Simms and the waitress. "They coming with us?"
"I don't see the need for--"
Dale reached out for April. "She's lying!"
With surprising speed, the town marshal slipped behind him and clamped a meaty forearm around his throat, sealing off his windpipe. Dale grabbed at the hairy arm and tried to twist it away as the marshal whispered in his ear, "Take it easy, son." Then something jabbed him in the kidney that sent waves of pain shooting up his back.
Seconds later, Dale was on the floor, his cheek pressed against the cool tiles, as the marshal handcuffed his wrists behind his back.
***
"She said it was the kiss of an angel, huh?" Marshal Stillwell asked. Things had calmed down some. Dale and the town marshal were alone in his office. Dale was still handcuffed, but the marshal had moved them to the front. He sat in a chair in front of the lawman's desk, watching him fill out forms with a ballpoint pen. Stillwell touched his finger to his right cheek. "That mark you're talking about is right here?"
Dale nodded.
"That's strange."
The handcuffs were uncomfortable. Dale twisted his wrists, trying to get some circulation back. "What's unusual about it?"
"We had a preacher in town few years back with the same kind of mark on his face." Stillwell traced a small circle on his cheek. "Heard him say once during a sermon it was from an angel's kiss."
Dale stared at the marshal, his flesh suddenly crawling with goosebumps.
"But he was a strange one. Lots of rumors. Guess it goes with the territory."
"What territory?"
"Young, good-looking preacher. Single. Moves into town, starts preaching all hours of the night." He gave Dale a knowing wink, like they were sharing a secret. "Giving special counseling sessions to half the women in town."
Grasping at straws, looking for anything. Dale said, "Is he still here?"
Marshal Stillwell shook his head. "Church burned down."
"What about the preacher?"
"We never found his body."
"He was the only one in the church?"
Stillwell looked down at the form on his desk and pressed his pen to it. "He had six or eight ladies in there with him. Supposed to be some sort of social club. Fire was so hot, we couldn't tell one body from the next. That was when the rumors really started."
Dale flexed his fingers. His hands hurt. "What kind of rumors?"
The marshal laughed. "Just gossip. People 'round here are simple minded, superstitious, that's all."
"What kind of gossip?"
Stillwell looked up. "Not everybody you understand, but some people have been talking about how the preacher isn't really dead, about how he's gonna come back some day."
Dale needed to get out, to find Carol and Jesse. There was something terribly wrong here. "Am I under arrest?"
Stillwell nodded.
In the corner stood a single holding cell, the door gaping open, waiting. "What's the charge?"
The marshal jerked a thumb in the general direction of the restaurant. "Disturbing the peace."
"What about my family?"
The man tapped the pile of forms in front of him. "I'll forward these missing persons reports to the state police in the morning; then I'll call the judge and try to get a bond set for you."
Dale sprung to his feet. "I've got to find my family tonight!"
Marshal Stillwell eased out of his chair and stood up. "Just calm down. Soon as I get this information to them, the state troopers will be on the lookout." He jerked his thumb toward the south. "Their office is just five miles down the road."
Dale nodded at the phone on the desk. "Call them now."
The marshal shook his head. "Can't do that."
"Why not."
"I got procedures to follow."
Dale Thornton squatted and shoved the desk into Stillwell. The marshal's chair rolled back on its casters but snagged on something and tipped over, spilling Marshal Stillwell onto the floor. Dale scrambled over the desk, knocking papers, pens, and a near full cup of coffee on top of the lawman, then dropped a knee into the man's big belly. The marshal curled into a ball and moaned.
Stillwell didn't have a gun on him, at least not one Dale could find. The way he was dressed it looked like he had been called out from home. Maybe he forgot his gun, or maybe he just didn't carry one. Dale grabbed a handful of shirt and dragged the marshal into the open holding cell, then kicked the door shut. It locked automatically.
By the time Stillwell staggered to his feet Dale was searching his desk. The marshal tried to rip the steel bars apart with his bare hands. "Let me out of here, you crazy bastard!"
Dale ignored him. In the bottom right hand drawer he found a gun, a .38 caliber, five-shot Smith and Wesson. Stillwell started shouting for help. Dale leveled the gun at him. "Shut up."
Stillwell quit yelling.
Dale kept searching.
A few seconds later, the marshal said, "You'll never get away with this."
Holding his wrists up, Dale rattled the handcuffs. "Keys?"
The cop pointed to the desk. "Bottom left."
After he got the handcuffs off, Dale finished going through the desk, then did a quick search of a filing cabinet that was set against the wall. There he found keys to the holding cell and a roll of duct tape.
As Dale approached the cell, Marshal Stillwell backed against the far wall. "What are you gonna do?"
Aiming the revolver at Stillwell's belly, Dale ordered him to lie on the floor. A few minutes later he relocked the cell door, leaving the marshal with his hands cuffed behind his back and a strip of silver duct tape wrapped around his head that sealed his mouth shut. On his way out of the marshal's office, Dale tossed the revolver back into the desk drawer and kicked it shut. That was trouble he didn't need.
The state police. "Their office is just five miles down the road," the marshal had said.
Darkness had settled over the Batesville. How long had he been in the marshal's office? Everything in town was closed and locked up tight. There wasn't a light to be seen, and not a soul on the street. He didn't see any payphones.
He had to get out of town. Which way had the marshal pointed when he mentioned the state police? Thinking about it, Dale decided it had to be south. They'd driven in from the north and he was sure they hadn't passed a state police troop.
The night had turned cold. If he was going to walk for five miles he needed a jacket.
It took just a few minutes to make it to the gas station. His Jeep was right where he'd left it, but when he reached into his pocket for the keys they weren't there. An image flashed through his mind. A close up shot just like in a movie. His hand reaching toward Dudley Simpson's, and in his hand, his keys.
Damn!
He looked into the rear window, saw their luggage lying in the back. Dale thought about breaking the window and getting a jacket, maybe his gun, too. Not the gun. He was in enough trouble all ready for what he'd done to the town marshal. Assault, kidnapping--maybe not kidnapping, he hadn't taken him anywhere, just locked him in his own cell--but something like kidnapping. Desperation had driven him to it. That's the only reason he had done it. Because he had to find Carol and Jesse.
He could make it without a jacket.
Old Highway 167 south. Dale Thornton started walking. Ten minutes later he saw headlights behind him, coming from town. He crouched in the bushes beside the highway, but the beat-up pickup glided to a stop next to him. An old man sat behind the wheel, alone in the truck. "You need a ride?"
Feeling like a complete fool, Dale stood. "Yeah, I guess."
"Where you headed?"
"You know where the state police office is?"
The old man nodded, then jerked his head toward the passenger side. "Hop in."
As he climbed into the pickup truck, Dale shot a glance at the old man. Probably at least seventy, with long ghost white hair and a bushy mustache, wearing a stained undershirt and a pair of denim overalls. Dale scanned the dashboard for a clock but didn't see one. "What time is it?"
The old man shrugged. "Haven't worn a watch in thirty years. Do things as quick as I can. A timepiece strapped to my wrist ain't gonna make me move any faster."
The drive was torture. Never did the old man go over thirty-five miles an hour. Only good thing was that he didn't ask any questions. Just dropped Dale off in the parking lot of the state police troop. As he walked through the door into the police station, Dale glanced over his shoulder and saw the old man's pickup rumbling down the highway.
Inside, sitting behind a chest high counter, was a uniformed trooper, sergeant stripes on his sleeves. Mid-40's, with an iron gray crew cut. "Can I help you, sir?" the sergeant said.
Dale spat out the story as fast as he could, leaving out the part about how he'd handcuffed the town marshal and left him gagged in his own jail cell.
The sergeant's face had remained inscrutable while Dale talked. "What was the name of that town again, sir?"
"Batesville."
The sergeant wheeled his chair over to a map hanging on the wall. "And where'd you say it was?"
The state cop demonstrated the same bureaucrat mentality as the town marshal. Any minute now he'd break out a sheaf of forms and start filling them out. Dale pointed north. "Five miles that way."
"What'd you say your name was again?" The sergeant glided the chair back over to his work area and pulled a pen from his shirt pocket.
"Thornton. Dale Thornton."
As soon as the sergeant finished jotting Dale's name on a pad, he looked up. "There's no town named Batesville."
"I was just there!"
The sergeant stood up. "Take it easy, sir. I'm sure you just got the name mixed up."
Just like in the restaurant.
"...get to the bottom of it." The desk sergeant was still talking, but Dale hadn't heard everything. He felt dizzy. Was everyone around here crazy? "We ate dinner there," he mumbled. "I left my car at the gas station. Dudley Simpson's gas station."
The sergeant nodded as he walked around the counter. A big man, at least six feet, with the beefy build of a weightlifter. "I know Simpson's place. Old 167 and Highway 90. But there's no town there, just the gas station."
"The gas station's smack in the middle of the town. There's a restaurant, a general store, and a hotel, too."
The sergeant closed on him, his body bladed, his gun side away from Dale. "I need you to put your hands on the counter, sir."
"What?"
With his right hand resting on his holstered pistol, the state trooper took hold of Dale's wrist with his left hand and pushed it to the top of the counter. Dale's other hand followed. The sergeant said, "Pull you feet back."
"What are you doing?"
"You have any weapons on you?"
"No! Of course not." Glad he'd left the marshal's gun, glad he hadn't gotten his own out of the Jeep.
"I'm just gonna pat you down."
"Why?" Dale said. "I haven't done anything. My family's missing?"
The sergeant slid his hands over Dale's waist and the outside of his pockets. "It's for safety, sir."
"Whose?"
"Yours and mine," the trooper sergeant said as he stepped backward a few feet.
"Something's happened to my wife and son. I came here for help."
"What happened to them?"
"I don't know," Dale said. "That's why I need your help."
"Mr. Thornton, I've worked this area for nineteen years. There is no town called Batesville."
"I don't care what you call it, but there's a town five miles away and we need to go there right now."
"Closest town is twelve miles from here and it's south."
The gas station. At least the sergeant knew about the gas station. Dale looked over his shoulder at the big cop. "Can I stand up?" After getting a nod, Dale pushed away from the counter and stood straight. Arguing wasn't getting him anywhere. "Look sergeant, maybe I seem a bit confused, but I know my wife and 6-year-old son are missing. Our car broke down at Simpson's gas station. Can you drive me there and help me look for them?"
The sergeant took his hand off his pistol and relaxed a little. "How'd you get here?"
"An old man in a pickup gave me a ride."
"You get his name?"
Dale's mouth opened but nothing came out as he realized he couldn't remember a thing about the old man or his truck. No details at all.
"What's the matter?"
Dale shook his head. "He...he just gave me a ride. I didn't get his name."
The trooper sergeant held up his hand. "Stay right here. Soon as I get someone to cover the desk, I'll give you a ride back to Simpson's."
Ten minutes later Dale climbed into the passenger seat of the state police car. The sergeant looked over at him. "Put your seatbelt on." Dale strapped himself in but noticed the sergeant didn't.
On the highway the trooper asked him to go over the story again. As Dale repeated what had happened, the sergeant asked several questions about Simpson's: what time of day, what was wrong with the car, who had the keys; but he asked nothing about what happened in the restaurant. The restaurant that wasn't there, according to the sergeant.
A few minutes later the police cruiser's headlights lit up the darkened gas station and Dale's Jeep parked at the pumps.
There was nothing else--absolutely nothing else.
The sergeant slowed down as he turned into the parking lot. "That your Cherokee?"
Stunned, Dale couldn't answer. Staring out the window, struck dumb by what he saw, or didn't see. No restaurant, no hotel, no Batesville General Store--no town. Just empty farmland and a few trees surrounding the gas station.
The trooper pulled his car up behind the Jeep, leaving a car-length gap between the two of them. "Stay here," he said as he pulled a flashlight from a charger mounted to the dash.
Dale leaned his head against the window and watched the sergeant creep up to the driver's door of his Jeep Cherokee, flashlight held out in front of him, his other hand on the butt of his pistol. The state cop opened the door--the locked door--and poked his head inside the passenger compartment of Dale's Jeep. The trooper backed out and held up his hand, Dale's keys dangling from his fingers. "Keys were inside," he shouted.
With legs quivering, Dale stepped out of the police car. He couldn't understand this. The Jeep had been locked, Dudley Simpson had the keys. He stumbled toward the trooper.
The sergeant shined his flashlight into the back, into the cargo compartment. Suddenly, his face turned to stone. He dropped the keys, drew his gun, aimed both it and his flashlight at Dale. "Don't move!"
Dale stopped dead. What the hell was...
"Get on the ground!"
Not comprehending, Dale just stood there.
The trooper screamed at him, "Get on the fucking ground--now."
Dale Thornton dropped face down onto the pavement. From the corner of his eye, he saw the sergeant side-stepping around him until he was behind Dale and to his left.
The trooper said, "Turn your head to the right."
Dale did as he was told. Then the sergeant closed in and cuffed his hands behind his back. Just the second time in his life Dale had been handcuffed, both on the same night.
After backing up a few steps, the sergeant keyed the radio clipped to his belt and called the state police troop. When the dispatcher answered, the sergeant said, "I need back up units," Dale heard him take a deep breath, "and notify the corner."
The tinny voice from the radio said, "What you got, sergeant?"
"Homicide," the trooper answered. "Suspect is in custody."
Homicide?
The sergeant hooked Dale's elbows and jerked him to his feet, then picked up the keys and opened the tailgate of the Jeep.
Lying in the back, in the cargo space, arms and legs twisted into a torturous configuration, was the naked body of his wife, Carol. At the back of her head, her golden hair was tangled and caked with dried blood. Her face chalk white, her forehead blown out where the bullet had exited. On the carpet next to her was a .357 revolver--Dale's .357 revolver.
She was alone.
"Jesse!" Dale screamed at the dark and empty fields.
***
In 1885 the town of Batesville, Louisiana burned to the ground. Scores of people were killed in the predawn fire that swept through the town. Among those reported killed in the blaze was the town's only minister, but many bodies were so badly burned that positive identification was impossible.
The fire started in the Batesville church and was allegedly set by a preacher from a nearby town. The preacher, a God-fearing and righteous man, was said to have been outraged at the evil deeds going on in Batesville, which he had called a modern-day Sodom.
The town of Batesville was never rebuilt.
THE END

I passed my instrument checkride yesterday (yay!) and I thought it might help other folks who are working on instrument or thinking about it for the future if I shared my write-up. My flight school sends pretty much all of their students to the same DPE, so they had a tremendous amount of information about past checkrides to share with me, and they asked me to do a write-up of my own. An edited version of that is what follows!
TLDR: I started instrument training three months ago, did the written before any flight lessons, added 50 hours to my logbook in those three months, and passed the checkride with just barely enough instrument hours to qualify (I had to time build a bit in the past month). DPE said I did great, even though I had some nerves and we changed the flight plan a lot in the air!
​
Background: I began my instrument training about three months ago with the Sporty’s videos for ground school, Sheppard Air for test prep, and a perfect score on my written before my first instrument lesson. I started instrument training with another flight school in a simulator for a G1000 Cessna 172 for two lessons before I decided I wanted to be able to fly the Cirrus SR22, so I switched to NoVA Pilots (Leesburg, Virginia, KJYO) for instrument plus Cirrus transition training. I came into this training with about 110 total hours, most of the 50 PIC cross country I needed, but only 4.0 of the 40 hours of instrument time I would ultimately need. Zero hours in Cirrus aircraft, though I did have my high-performance endorsement from Cessna 182 training.
Instrument training: I started flying as much as possible throughout the end of March, all of April, and the first half of May. I did a total of 22 flight lessons, plus a handful of flights on my own or with a safety pilot once I had enough experience to solo the SR22. I did two flights that qualified for the long cross country, with the one I highlighted for the checkride going from Leesburg to Charlottesville, Baltimore, Harrisburg, and Martinsburg, with two ILS approaches, one VOR, and one RNAV GPS. I went into the checkride with 3.7 hours of actual instrument and 38.6 simulated, or 42.3 total. My logbook ended up with 160 total hours.
Checkride prep: I did four total mock checkrides, two each with two different instructors. The flights were exactly what the DPE planned for us to fly, though different from what we ended up flying! For the oral, I had all of the materials the DPE asked for in his email from ten days prior to the checkride, and I printed out everything that would otherwise be electronic (mainly a copy of my Foreflight logbook, the flight plan, performance calculations for the scenario flight, personal minimums). I arrived to the conference room an hour before the scheduled start time and arranged materials in four areas:
· Pilot qualifications: Pilot certificate, medical certificate, ID, knowledge test results, ground school certificate from Sporty’s, SFRA training certificate, Cirrus icing course certificate (not required, but nice to have), logbook with endorsements, printed copy of my IACRA form.
· Airplane qualifications: Engine logbook, propeller logbook, airframe logbook with Post-It notes for the relevant sections (annual / 100 hour, pitot-static inspection, transponder inspection, etc.). I also had the NoVA Pilots binder to show current hours on the engine, plus the POH (since no one else was flying the plane that morning).
· Documents for the flight scenario: Weight and balance, aircraft performance (takeoff and landing distances), ICAO flight plan, NAV log from Foreflight, Leidos Flight Service full briefing report including weather and NOTAMs (80 pages). I don’t think we used any of this during the test – for the flight plan we used Foreflight on my iPad, and we just talked through the rest.
· Reference materials: Physical copies of the FAAIM and ACS, printouts of diagrams for electrical, fuel, and pitot-static systems, PilotsCafe reference sheet. The latter came in handy and the DPE liked it – he had a copy of his own on hand.
Oral examination: We took around two hours total for the oral, starting with the qualifications and electronically signing IACRA. The DPE explained what he would ask about, the ability to take breaks, the plan for the day (oral, then a lunch break, then flight).
Questioning was straightforward. Beyond my flailing on whether the transponder inspection was required every 24 months or 12 months for a minute, I was able to answer questions satisfactorily. Lots of focus on risk and options.
· Always keep fuel in mind – if given a hold with a 30 minute EFC time, how does that affect planning? I might request a route elsewhere, and I would definitely let ATC know if I’m in a “minimum fuel” situation, which is different from “emergency fuel”.
· If my glideslope fails while on an ILS, I can fly it to localizer minimums, and I need to let ATC know about the equipment failure.
· Know about icing and where it can form. If there’s no AIRMET Zulu for icing even if it’s cold enough, there’s still risk of unexpected moisture or perhaps it’s only light icing, which doesn’t get an AIRMET but is still a problem. If there are no PIREPs, maybe that means no one else is foolish enough to fly! And even though I’m flying a FIKI certified aircraft, if I encounter icing the plan has to be to get out of it.
· If an ADAHARS fails, this aircraft automatically uses the other as a backup, showing an appropriate notification. What does the POH say about continuing flight in this scenario? Go to the Abnormal Procedures section and see.
· If Alternator 2 fails, what happens? Alternator 1 will keep things going, but the aircraft isn’t approved for IFR flight on one alternator, so getting to the ground where you can get it fixed is important.
· If the static ports somehow both become blocked, there’s an alternate air source.
· MOCA would typically only be used if I need to get low to avoid ice, for instance.
· If I’m flying on Victor airways using GPS and there’s a GPS failure, I can use VOR navigation.
· If I have a passenger who really needs to get to their destination, I’ll make sure I have an alternate way of getting them there (flying commercial, driving). GA means you need to be prepared to scrub a flight for safety at any time.
· Know about circling minimums, circling radius, and the inverted C (white C on the black background). Similarly, know about the inverted T symbol and inverted A symbol (bonus points for inverted A with NA – not authorized for use as an alternate airport, likely because of a lack of weather reporting).
· In the debrief, the DPE pointed me to AIM 1-1-17 to talk about being able to use an expired navigation database if you verify that your waypoints are all correct. I was extra conservative on that question, saying that I would need to update the database before flying.
Flight portion: The DPE fully briefed me on the flight plan ahead of time:
· Depart Leesburg on runway heading, climbing to 1,200 MSL (he originally said 1,300 in the conference room but said 1,200 in the runup area). Expect vectors to Martinsburg airport.
· Fly the ILS 26 at Martinsburg to minimums, expecting to go missed.
· Fly the published missed into the hold at MRB VOR.
· Fly the VODME-A approach to Winchester, circling to whichever runway is in use. Plan to go missed there and then expect vectors to the next approach rather than the published missed.
· Fly the RNAV GPS 32 approach to Winchester, likely starting at either JASEN or DORGY depending on which direction we went after the VODME. Expect to fly this one partial panel with no autopilot. Fly this all the way to a landing – full stop, taxi back.
· And then done! Fly back to Leesburg with no foggles.
That was the briefing, anyway! The DPE explained that he would play the role of Potomac Approach throughout. I didn’t realize at first that this meant that he wanted me to “check in” with him after departure (he had to prompt me for that when I asked if I could climb once we were past the 1,500 foot Bravo shelf).
I tuned Martinsburg weather in COM2 active in the runup area and Martinsburg tower in COM1 standby, with the hope of getting info about which KMRB runway was in use as early as possible. On departure from runway 35, we climbed out on vectors and then direct MAPEL for the ILS 26. No chatter on KMRB tower, and winds were light, but slightly favoring runway 8. As we approached MAPEL and the DPE had “cleared me for the approach” we heard another aircraft check in and receive runway 8. Mild oaths ensued from the DPE, and he “cancelled my approach clearance” and had me “request” the VODME-A to Winchester.
I flew that approach, starting at MRB VOR. Lots of traffic working out of Winchester, and runway 14 was in use. We were in a rough spot for actually squeezing into the pattern for landing, so I descended to pattern altitude (above minimums), turned right to enter left downwind for 14, descended to minimums by the time I turned base, and flew a low approach at minimums over the runway and away to the east.
One approach complete.
The DPE gave me an altitude to climb to and a vector, and cleared me for the ILS 32, cleared direct JASEN. I got myself re-situated with the foggles and the autopilot back on. As we approached JASEN he said we would actually fly this as a localizer approach instead of ILS (so, non-precision). I think this was largely so we wouldn’t get in the way of conflicting traffic coming back off 14, staying higher. I reset the minimums to LOC level and noted my step-down fixes and time component.
Between JASEN and CLADD, the DPE “failed” the autopilot and “failed” the PFD by covering it with an opaque film. I went to reversionary mode and flew the localizer approach by hand, using the MFD. As we got to minimums, another aircraft took off from 14 straight toward us without making a radio call of any sort until they were 200 feet above the ground. We diverted around them to the left (safety pilot call), then turned right over the airport and back to CLADD to fly the published missed.
Two approaches complete.
This was all still hand flying, and the DPE was figuring out his next move as I hand-flew the teardrop hold entry at CLADD. I did a second full lap in the hold (the first one I had to extend a bit to avoid traffic), stressing the whole way about maintaining altitude, airspeed, and the holding course, but I did it!
Hold complete (x2).
Finally, the DPE said that since we were flying a nice, fast SR22, we could fly all the way to the other side of the airport and do the RNAV 14 to LPV minimums for our precision approach (for the purpose of the checkride). Autopilot back on at last, as I navigated us off to the west.
Along the way, the DPE took me through a couple of unusual attitudes. I screwed up the nose low attitude at first, adding power before realizing my mistake and reducing it, but correctly leveling the wings and bringing the nose up. He noted that I jumped the gun a little there but I fixed my mistake, and he was satisfied. He then did a nose-high attitude, which I did fine with. Then back on course with the autopilot.
Unusual attitudes complete.
I had loaded the full RNAV GPS 14 from SOGBE, but the DPE cleared me to ZENDI, originally at 3,700. I requested 4,200 at ZENDI, which he gave me. From there, things were much easier! I correctly configured the autopilot in APR mode, confirming that GP mode was armed, and I babysat the speed and the checklist usage to get us fully on course. I flew the approach to LPV minimums, at which point the DPE told me to go visual and land. This was probably the best landing I’ve ever had in the Cirrus – super gentle and smooth.
Three approaches complete.
I did a full stop taxi back and pulled into the runup area to run my checklist to prepare to return to Leesburg. Then a nice, simple, visual flight back with no drama. The DPE actually pulled out his iPad to take a picture of the airport as we approached 17 on a three-mile final – it was a lovely day. One more nice landing at Leesburg, taxi to park, and my instructor met us at the hangar as the DPE congratulated me! Two hours on the Hobbs for this flight.
Debrief: After putting the plane in the hangar, refueling, and cleaning it up, the DPE and I drove back to the school and my instructor met us there. The DPE had surprisingly little for me in the debrief. He shared a couple of recommendations for continuing my IFR education – IFR Magazine and the Aviation News Talk podcast. He suggested I make my personal minimums a little more conservative. He explained the expired database usability issue. He noted that I could have used FPLN when in reversionary mode to have better awareness of when I had passed each checkpoint (I was a little unsure when hand-flying and started my next descent a bit late, but still got to minimums). That was really it! He complimented my flying and printed my new certificate, and posed for a picture shaking my hand. Wonderful day!

Rays (39-18) @ Cubs (24-30)

First Pitch: 2:20 PM at Wrigley Field

Team	Starter	TV	Radio
Rays	Zach Eflin (7-1, 3.17 ERA)	BSSUN	WDAE, WQBN (ES)
Cubs	Justin Steele (6-2, 2.77 ERA)	MARQ	WSCR, WOJO 105.1 (ES)

MLB	Fangraphs	Baseball Savant	Reddit Stream	IRC Chat
Gameday	Game Graph	Strikezone Map	Live Comments	Libera: ##baseball

Line Score - Game Over

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
TB	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	4	5	2	6
CHC	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	0	6

Box Score

CHC		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
DH	Hoerner	3	1	1	0	1	1	.285
SS	Swanson	4	0	0	0	0	1	.265
LF	Happ	4	1	1	1	0	2	.278
RF	Suzuki, S	4	1	2	0	0	1	.293
CF	Tauchman	2	0	1	1	1	0	.355
1B	Mervis	2	0	0	0	0	1	.188
1B	Mancini	1	0	1	1	0	0	.253
PH	Rios	0	0	0	0	0	0	.080
3B	Wisdom	4	0	0	0	0	0	.213
2B	Mastrobuoni	3	0	0	0	1	2	.149
C	Barnhart	2	0	0	0	0	0	.164
PH	Morel	1	0	0	0	0	1	.282
C	Gomes	1	0	0	0	0	0	.270

CHC	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Steele	3.0	0	0	0	0	1	29-19	2.65
Wesneski	3.2	1	1	1	2	4	59-35	4.81
Leiter Jr.	0.1	2	3	3	1	1	14-7	2.78
Alzolay	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	15-11	2.33
Merryweather	0.2	0	0	0	3	1	22-6	4.43
Fulmer	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	4-3	7.36

TB		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
1B	Díaz, Y	5	0	0	0	0	1	.310
LF	Arozarena	3	0	1	0	1	1	.297
DH	Ramírez, H	3	0	0	0	0	1	.288
DH	Lowe, J	1	0	1	0	0	0	.304
3B	Paredes	4	0	0	0	0	1	.269
RF	Margot	2	1	1	0	2	0	.248
2B	Lowe, B	4	1	1	2	0	2	.204
C	Bethancourt	4	0	0	0	0	1	.248
SS	Walls	2	1	0	0	2	0	.244
CF	Siri	3	1	1	2	1	1	.245

TB	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Eflin	6.0	4	3	3	1	5	90-55	3.30
Poche	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	12-7	2.29
Adam	1.0	1	0	0	1	3	24-12	3.09
Kelly	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	16-10	4.15
Beeks	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	13-7	4.45

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
B1	Ian Happ singles on a ground ball to center fielder Jose Siri. Nico Hoerner scores.	1-0
B1	Mike Tauchman singles on a sharp line drive to right fielder Manuel Margot. Ian Happ scores.	2-0
T7	Brandon Lowe homers (9) on a fly ball to center field. Manuel Margot scores.	2-2
B7	Trey Mancini singles on a sharp line drive to left fielder Randy Arozarena. Seiya Suzuki scores. Trey Mancini out at 2nd on the throw, left fielder Randy Arozarena to second baseman Brandon Lowe.	3-2
T8	Jose Siri homers (10) on a fly ball to center field. Taylor Walls scores.	3-4

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
David Ross talks about the Cubs' great bullpen, more	1:37	Video
Bullpen availability for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Chicago, May 31 vs Rays	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Tampa Bay, May 31 vs Cubs	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Rays at Cubs - May 31, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Hayden Wesneski's pitches	0:08	Video
The distance behind Brandon Lowe's home run	0:14	Video
Visualizing Brandon Lowe's swing using bat tracking technology	0:09	Video
Breaking down Zach Eflin's pitches	0:08	Video
Zach Eflin's outing against the Cubs	0:22	Video
Breaking down Jose Siri's home run	0:18	Video
Analyzing Jose Siri's home run through bat tracking	0:09	Video
Ian Happ hits an RBI single give the Cubs a 1-0 lead	0:16	Video
Mike Tauchman drills an RBI single to right field	0:16	Video
Brandon Lowe crushes a two-run homer to tie game at 2	0:26	Video
Trey Mancini hits an RBI single to give Cubs the lead	0:24	Video
Justin Steele fans Randy Arozarena in the 1st inning	0:06	Video
Jose Siri crushes a two-run homer in the 8th inning	0:30	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Poche (4-1, 2.29 ERA)	Leiter Jr. (1-1, 2.78 ERA)	Beeks (1 SV, 4.45 ERA)

Game ended at 5:16 PM.
Remember to sort by new to keep up!

Nothing smells similar to the interior of a running main battle tank. Every breath in though your nostrils bring a mix of mechanic odours that in the beginning of one’s career as an armoured crewman, seemed foreign, pungent and almost offensive. It’s burnt oil mixed with the sickly-sweet scent of hot, boiling coolant. If you’ve managed to make it to the position of being able to stick your head outside the tank like I have, you also get the sulfuric smell of diesel exhaust. In the beginning of your time as a driver, such aromas are exotic, scary for some, but you notice it with every breath. After having spent almost ten years or more on them, the smell of the running, gunning Leopard 2 main battle tank is comforting, relaxing, and ease to my mechanical sub-conscious that everything is working properly.
I’m standing on my crew commander seat as I lean over the front of my hatch, squinting as hard as I can as I keep my right eye glued to my MNVG (monocle, night vision goggle). The small, 5-inch tube is my only way to see through the murky darkness of a western prairie night. My only way to see and navigate in this nocturnal world is by the toilet paper tube sized view I get from the night sight. I scan the horizon slowly, working my way across the ridge 1.2 kilometers to the front of my tank. I see an odd, straight box like shape outlined between the blackness of the night sky and gray rolling hill.
The left earpiece of my headset crackled to life and the voice of my seasoned, battle tested Troop Warrant Officer, the second in command of our 4-tank troop, echoes in my ear.
“One-One, this is One-One Alpha, contact, enemy tank platoon centered on grid nine-three-five-four-one-five, radius four hundred meters.”
A quick look down to the map held against my hatch confirmed that is where I spotted my target. A voice sounds in my left ear again, this one different, young and eager. This is the Troop Leader, three years my junior but with three times the responsibility. He bears the burden of commanding and running the entire troop.
“One-One, acknowledged, engage while Bravo and myself begin our jockey.”
The radio message ends abruptly, and I grasp for my intercom/radio switch clipped to my frag vest, anticipating what is coming next. I drop down into my hatch and check my radio box to ensure I’m on the right channel. A message in all capital letters appears on my computer interface beside the “B” net: “NON-SECURE MESSAGE” flashes across the small monitor and I hear my Warrant’s voice in my ear again.
“One-One Alpha, roger, One-One Charlie, you start right and work inward, I’ll start left, over”
I press the two-position switch against my left breast to the “transmit” position and energetically exclaim: “Charlie!”
I honestly cannot contain my stress, anxiety and excitement; four tanks driving around at night, firing sabot darts and high explosive shells “down range”. I have been training 10 years for this moment, and I’m terrified to fuck it up.
“One-One Charlie, this is One-One Alpha, engage now, Out.”
I flick my radio switch to “intercom”, drop down to the turret floor and begin the sequence of engagement.
“Driver, prepare to adopt a hull down position, driver advance, gunner take over.”
With a squeal of metal pulling metal and the increased hum of horsepower being drawn from the engine, my 60-ton tank begins to crawl up the ridge I have hid my tank behind.
“Willy, stop the driver when you have crest clearance.”
I hear a muffled “OK’ through my noise-cancelling headset. We continue to creep forward for what seems like an eternity. Suddenly, the voice of my gunner is heard over the intercom.
“Driver prepare to halt and…driver halt.”
The tank slows to a stop, the turret rotates right with a whine and comes to a jarring halt. Willy suddenly explodes over the intercom with excitement.
“Contact tank! One-two hundred!” he cries, describing the target and giving the range given by our laser range-finder.
“Ready sabot!” I scream into the fighting compartment below me.
“Sabot, ready!” is the reply from Cody, my loader.
I fight with my vest which seems to get caught on everything possible as I drop down into my seat. My knees smash against my gunner’s back as I drop into my commander’s chair and press my head against the Commander’s sight. In a green tinted thermal picture, the silhouette of a tank facing us in centered in the sight. I flick my head and eyes right and confirm the ammo selected is correct as well as the range. Pressing a button on my commander’s computer unit, the ammo type and range appear on the tablet-sized screen. Small thin yellow letters spell out: “TPDS” (Training purpose, discarding sabot), below it reads “1200.” I swing my head left 180 degrees and make eye contact with Cody to ensuring he is clear of the breech. All my safety checks done, I jump back up to stand rigid with my head and eyes looking out the hatch. I feel my 9mm Browning pistol strapped to the outside of my right leg bang against something as I pull myself up. “Stupid fucking pistol!” I scream in my head and twist the entire holster so it’s on top of my leg and out of the way.
I flick on my intercom switch and yell the command tankers work their entire careers to yell:
“FIRE!”
The first thing that hits you when you have your head up when the 120mm cannon fires is a tsunami of heat and pressure. The tank itself seems to leap backwards and then rock forwards. My eyes are blinded by the fireball created by the ignited powder exploding out of the barrel. In the time it takes me to register the gun has fired, a steel dart 4 inches thick, and 18 inches long, has departed the barrel at 1700 meters per second. Two blue pedals, the “sabot” which allows the thin, lengthy dart to be hugged against the tube, peel away and all your left with to observe it’s path of flight is a small glowing phosphorus ball on the tail of the dart. Even though my white-dotted eyes, I see the shower of sparks as the steel dart impacts and shatters.
“TARGET!” comes a shout from my feet. Willy confirms what my blurred eyes cannot: a dead center hit. I drop onto my commander seat and jam my right eye into my commander’s thermal viewer. With the ease of countless hours practicing in simulators, I move my independent sight using a small, stiff thumb pad. The center of my screen slides onto a target to the left. With one flick of my thumb, over 15 tons of metal move with a low electric whine as the gun is brought in-line with my sight.
“Stop! Next target left! Tank, On!” I scream over the intercom. The deafness report of the cannon combined with the exhilaration of seeing a hit on a target more then a kilometer away has completely removed my professional composure.
“On! One-two hundred!” screams Willy as he slowly moves his sight into the center of the target. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Cody slam a new shell into the breech and hit the READY switch. The gun, which automatically elevates and holds steady to allow ease of loading shells into the breech, drops with such force that the turret vibrates as it levels with the gunner’s point of aim.
“SABOT, READY!” shouts Cody, as he grabbed two handholds, ensuring he is clear of the path of recoil. The loader only has about a foot and a half of room separating himself from the gun. During firing, one misplaced limb or appendage could easily be ripped off during the breech’s recoil.
I run though my checklist again: Ammo select, correct, proper range, scan left and ensure the loader is clear…
“FIRE” I scream and squeeze my brow and helmet against the sight.
“FIRING N-!” Willy’s cry is drowned out by the sound of the shell firing. My entire body lurches backwards as I press my head into my sight. Less than 3 inches away on my left side, with only a thin metal cage to protect me, the breech crashes rearward. As it moves though its recoil, the base of the fired round (commonly called an “ashtray”) shoots out and lands smoking in the gun basket.
Through my sight, the fireball created by the ignited propellant causes my thermal sight to pop in bright green, followed instantaneous by a small bright green dot appear on the metal tank target. Immediately, a victorious cry echoes from below my knees. “TARGET!”
My blood is up now, we may be on a target range in the middle of Wainwright, Alberta, but in my head, we are on the Latvian frontier wiping out a Russian tank platoon.
“Charlie, it’s Alpha, one enemy tank in the low ground, engage! Out!”
My Troop Warrant’s voice snaps my hand back to the commander’s palm control. Hitting the “integrator” switch, my sight traverses left at double its normal speed. I scan past a wooden target made to look like a broad sided BMP at the bottom of the far ridge. I flick my thumb and feel my stomach roll as the turret spins to the left.
“Stop! Sabot, Lase, Tank, On!” I thunder the fire command out as loud as possible. Every crew member is wearing noise-cancelling headsets like myself and I make a point of using the intercom as little as possible during engagements.
“ON! Nine hundred!” comes the reply, followed quickly by a scream from my loader.
“SABOT READY!”
I run though my checks again, and scream “FIRE!”
I don’t even hear Wily shout as he squeezes the triggers. My entire world is that target, that piece of plywood that represents my enemy. Every target I hit is like a booster shot of confidence as a young, inexperienced commander. I have worked my entire career to get exactly where I am now, and it’s the best goddamn job in the world.
The center of the wooden target disappears as the dart smashes though and embedded itself in the earth, launching a column of dirt 15 feet into the air.
“TARGET!” comes another adrenaline-fueled scream from Willy. I hear the roar of a desiel engine outside and I jump up and jerk my head left to see my Troop Leader cruise past my tank and drop into the low ground as he bounds forward.
“TARGET, STOP!” I scream, and Willy enters his “start mode” ensuring that we are ready from the next engagement. Cody slams another round into the breech, in under 7 seconds, a great time from an inexperienced or rusty loader, and yells “SABOT LOADED, GUN SAFE!”.
“Communicate!” A voice in my head screams and I jam down on the radio transmit switch.
“1-1 Charlie, three times tanks engaged and destroyed, Out!”
We are in training and it’s a safety rule that once we have friendly tanks in front of us we have to make our weapons safe to avoid any friendly fire accidents. I watch the Troop Leader and his fireteam partner or “wingman” roll through the low ground in front of us, firing Sabot rounds on the at targets hidden on small crops of trees and brush. I check my watch; it’s been 55 seconds since my tank rolled up and started firing and we are just getting started…

Was looking through the Tesla charger map and noticed some of the new Tesla charging locations based on votes in the South East. What stands out is generally how good the choices are for the ones I have first hand knowledge of which is most of them as 7 out of 12 of them are near me. Here are my thoughts on the locations but I'd love to hear what everyone thinks, especially about the locations not covered by me. Is this voting for chargers a good thing or not solving real problems?

• South East
  • Appalachian Mountains
  • Sylva, NC - Q4 2022 - Probably the most important addition to me personally but also to anyone that owns a Tesla in the greater Atlanta area. Anyone that lives in Atlanta tends to take weekend trips north to the Great Smokies National Park, Asheville, NC or north of Asheville to ski. There are two ways to generally travel north; Via i85 in the dead of night when the traffic is down to a dull roar or more commonly via GA-400 and then through winding mountain roads. I've yet to be able to take I85 without adding 2 hours to the trip because of traffic. It's a 209 mile trip with significant elevation changes. If you want to arrive with some driving around charge, or if you intend to head back the same day you need to hit a charger on the way in or out. There are zero chargers between Atlanta and Asheville unless you take the I85 route. To say this charger is needed is a huge understatement and it was 1st place in the first ever vote in Q4 2022 for a reason. How Tesla missed this in their own analysis over the years I do not know.
  • Dalton, GA - Q4 2022 - This is the same case as the Sylva, NC just when going North-West. While MUCH less of an issue, you tend to avoid I75 for traffic reasons getting out of Atlanta and it fills in a nice gap. I wouldn't have voted for this one, it's just not a big deal that I can see but would love to hear from anyone that understands it.
  • Helen, GA - Q1 2023 - This is a VERY popular day trip destination for all of Atlanta so no surprise. It's out of the way when going to Asheville so it stands on it's own as a needed charging location.
  • Future - In general there is a pretty big hole north of Atlanta, home to 6m+ people so I expect more wins in future rounds of voting in this area.
  • Florida
  • Destin, FL - Q1 2023 - Big vacation destination location with limited ability to easily drive out to any of the locations on I10 for charging. You'll see more of these show up like this in FL where the barrier islands get chargers.
  • Cape Caneveral, FL - Q1 2023 - Another barrier island location that really needed a charger. I personally have had to go 60 miles out of my way to Titusville and Melbourne, FL on many trips because there wasn't a charger in Port Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, etc. Super excited for this one.
  • Okeechobee - Q4 2022 - Not hard to see why this one won.
  • Key West - Q1 2023 - Having gone to Key West recently, I get why this location won, but it isn't 100% needed. I would have MUCH rather seen one in Key Largo or Islamorada instead. That said, I consider this another string in the 3 out of 4 in FL being on barrier islands.
  • Future - No surprise here. More chargers on the barrier islands or peninsulas with limited access to the mainland.
• Eastern Canada
  • Bromont, QB - Q1 2023
  • Future ???
• North West
  • Kalispell, MT - Q1 2023 - Seems very obvious, fills a massive hole. We really need more winners like this for sure.
  • Future - ???
• North East - No Wins
  • Future - This area of the US seems to have some of the worst lack of Tesla chargers. Not sure why they aren't winning more locations.
• Central US - No Wins
  • Future - Lots of holes to fill but not a lot of population so hard to see them winning votes outside of maybe TX and IL, both of which have good coverage already.
• California
  • Lee Vining, CA - Q1 2023 - ???
  • Morro Bay, CA - Q4 2022 - ???
  • Big Bear Lake, CA - Q4 2022 - Came in 2nd place in the first vote Tesla held so very popular. It plugs a hole near a big destination but I don't have local knowledge on it.
  • Future - It seems CA is well covered but also seems to have the most capacity issues. Maybe Tesla should add an option for adding capacity to existing locations in future votes?

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
COL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	0	9
AZ	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	0		5	6	0	3

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
B1	Ketel Marte homers (8) on a fly ball to left field.	1-0
B1	Evan Longoria homers (7) on a fly ball to center field. Christian Walker scores.	3-0
B4	Gabriel Moreno out on a sacrifice fly to right fielder Kris Bryant. Corbin Carroll scores.	4-0
B6	Corbin Carroll homers (9) on a line drive to right field.	5-0
T9	Nolan Jones homers (1) on a fly ball to right field.	5-1

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
Bullpen availability for Arizona, May 30 vs Rockies	0:07	Video
Bullpen availability for Colorado, May 30 vs D-backs	0:07	Video
Fielding alignment for Arizona, May 30 vs Rockies	0:11	Video
Fielding alignment for Colorado, May 30 vs D-backs	0:11	Video
Starting lineups for Rockies at D-backs - May 30, 2023	0:09	Video
Breaking down Evan Longoria's home run	0:11	Video
A deep dive into Evan Longoria's home run	0:09	Video
Breaking down Ketel Marte's home run	0:16	Video
Kyle Freeland's outing against the D-backs	0:25	Video
An animated look at Corbin Carroll's home run	0:09	Video
Breaking down Corbin Carroll's home run	0:10	Video
Breaking down Kyle Freeland's pitches	0:08	Video
Breaking down Zac Gallen's pitches	0:08	Video
Zac Gallen's outing against the Rockies	0:23	Video
The distance behind Nolan Jones's home run	0:09	Video
Ketel Marte drills a leadoff home run in the 1st	0:21	Video
Evan Longoria smashes a two-run homer to center field	0:17	Video
Jake McCarthy makes a nice sliding catch in right	0:10	Video
Ryan McMahon makes a great diving stop at third	0:19	Video
Gabriel Moreno lifts a sacrifice fly to right field	0:25	Video
Corbin Carroll swipes two bases in the 4th inning	0:26	Video
Corbin Carroll drills a long solo home run	0:24	Video
Zac Gallen strikes out 7 over six scoreless innings	0:41	Video
Nolan Jones breaks up the shutout with a homer	0:27	Video
Jurickson Profar called out on strikes.	0:10	Video

Decisions

Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher	Save
Gallen (7-2, 2.72 ERA)	Freeland (4-6, 4.22 ERA)