King soopers fuel center
IT Infrastructure administrator
2023.06.01 21:34 Plenty-Investment231 IT Infrastructure administrator
1. PERSONALIA
submitted by Plenty-Investment231 to BESalary [link] [comments]
- Age: 31
- Education: IT Bachelor
- Work Experience : 7,5 years ( 2 in-house network and system administrator then 5,5 years consultant same field)
- Civil status: legal cohabitation
- Dependent children (Kinderen ten laste/enfants à charge): none
- Current job title/description: IT infrastructure administrator
- (Ancienniteit/Anciennité): a few months
- Official hours/week : 38 Real hours/week
- SectoIndustry: Public Sector - healthcare
- Gross wage (brut): 4080
- Net wage (incl. net fees): 2550 + 220 if you enroll in on-call system (1 week per month)
- 13th month (full? partial?): Full
- Mobile phone? Laptop?: laptop + mobile phone + mobile subscription. Still have my own smartphone cause employee is giving us low end phone.
- Meal vouchers: for each day worked : 4€ (sad noise)
- Ecocheques: no
- Group Insurance (% part employer): yes but don't know % yet.
- Hospitalisation Insurance: No, but free healthcare if I go to my hospital, also, no extra charge if single room hospitalization0
- Other advantages (bonus, 14th month, stocks...): Nursery with priority for employee, free access to hospital fitness center, you can apply to get "education day-off" meaning if you're still going to university or high school, you can get days-off to go to class or exams. We also have a mess hall, with discounted price for food (complete hot meal, + soup + bottle of water + dessert is like 6€. Free flu shot. We can enroll in program that allow us to have nice discount to a lot of shop/services, like discount when shopping to Brico or stuff like this.
- City/region of work: Hainaut/Henegouwen
- Distance home-work (km's): 4
- Distance home-work (time): 6’ by car, 17' by bus
- Do you need your own car?: no, employer has a car pool that we can get a car to travel between sites.
- How is the travel home-work compensated: free public transport, if using own car (not mandatory) to travel between site, you get some compensation. €0,25 per km if you commune on bike.
- Company ca-bike (what's the budget, do you have fuel card?): None.
- Amount of official holidays: 24
- (ADV, RTT) : none
- Other extra holidays: 6 if not sick last year + 4 fixed extra legal
- How easy can you plan a day off: depends on team, but quite easy. Never had an issue, even for taking the afternoon off and asking in the same morning.
- Shiftwork or daytime job? Daytime
- Flexible working hours: yes
- Amount of stress (standby for troubles at work)?: 95% of the time, pretty low. 5% of the time, moderate to high if issue happens or deadline must be met for project.
- How often does overtime happens: It depends on ongoing project.
- Education possibilities: a lot internally
- Teleworking (besides corona-period): max 2-3 days a week of the agenda allows it
- Responsible for personnel (reports): None
2023.06.01 21:31 Clay_Bricks Every retiring LEGO set (June 2023 update)
Another month, another retirement update! A lot of sets changed dates this month, and even more new sets got added! Which reminds me, I'm considering making a /legoleak Discord server in order to expand more on leaks, answer questions, and provide daily retirement updates. If there's interest in that, I'll work on having it done before the next list!
As always, we owe a massive thanks to ZombieYeti from the BrickHound Discord for providing this valuable data. If you're looking for real-time in-stock/deal alerts for Lego.com and other sites, make sure to check out his server: https://discord.gg/BwezK2t5qf
This information is scraped directly from Lego's website, and all dates are subject to change. ZombieYeti is currently developing a website to host this data and offer real-time updates. In the meantime, here is a list of every set and their corresponding retirement date as per LEGO's system!
FULL LIST ON GOOGLE SHEETS HERE <--
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Due to Reddit's character limits, we can't include everything here, but the full spreadsheet contains every set.
CHANGES IN JUNE:
NEW SETS ADDED:
SETS RETIRING IN 2023:
submitted by Clay_Bricks to Legoleak [link] [comments]
As always, we owe a massive thanks to ZombieYeti from the BrickHound Discord for providing this valuable data. If you're looking for real-time in-stock/deal alerts for Lego.com and other sites, make sure to check out his server: https://discord.gg/BwezK2t5qf
This information is scraped directly from Lego's website, and all dates are subject to change. ZombieYeti is currently developing a website to host this data and offer real-time updates. In the meantime, here is a list of every set and their corresponding retirement date as per LEGO's system!
FULL LIST ON GOOGLE SHEETS HERE <--
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Due to Reddit's character limits, we can't include everything here, but the full spreadsheet contains every set.
CHANGES IN JUNE:
| Theme | Set # | Set Name | Old Date | New Date | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avatar | 75577 | Mako Submarine | Dec 31, 2024 | Dec 31, 2023 | -1 year |
| Avatar | 75578 | Metkayina Reef Home | Dec 31, 2024 | Dec 31, 2023 | -1 year |
| Classic | 11020 | Build Together | Dec 31, 2024 | Dec 31, 2023 | -1 year |
| Duplo | 10966 | Bath Time Fun: Floating Animal Island | Dec 31, 2024 | Dec 31, 2023 | -1 year |
| City | 60388 | Gaming Tournament Truck | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Creator | 31143 | Birdhouse | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Friends | 41735 | Mobile Tiny House | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Harry Potter | 75969 | Hogwarts Astronomy Tower | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Icons | 10306 | Atari 2600 | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Ideas | 21331 | Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76946 | Blue & Beta Velociraptor Capture | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76951 | Pyroraptor & Dilophosaurus Transport | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Marvel | 76226 | Spider-Man Figure | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Marvel | 76241 | Hulk Mech Armor | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Marvel | 76243 | Rocket Mech Armor | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Marvel | 76245 | Ghost Rider Mech & Bike | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Marvel | 76256 | Ant-Man Construction Figure | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Speed Champions | 76906 | 1970 Ferrari 512 M | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Speed Champions | 76907 | Lotus Evija | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Star Wars | 75333 | Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Star Wars | 75344 | Boba Fett's Starship Microfighter | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
| Technic | 42138 | Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 | Dec 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | +1 year |
NEW SETS ADDED:
| Theme | Set # | Set Name | Retirement Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| City | 60381 | City Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41758 | Friends Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76418 | Harry Potter Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76267 | Marvel Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71777 | Kai's Dragon Power Flip | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71778 | Nya's Dragon Power Drift | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71779 | Lloyd's Dragon Power Spin | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75366 | Star Wars Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Batman | 30653 | Batman 1992 Polybag | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Batman | 76224 | Batmobile: Batman vs. The Joker Chase | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Batman | 76252 | Batcave – Shadow Box | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Batman | 76264 | Batmobile Pursuit: Batman vs. The Joker (4+) | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Batman | 76265 | Batwing: Batman vs. The Joker | Dec 31, 2024 |
| City | 60367 | Passenger Airplane | Dec 31, 2024 |
| City / 2K Drive | 60395 | Combo Race Pack | Dec 31, 2024 |
| City / 2K Drive | 60396 | Modified Race Cars | Dec 31, 2024 |
| City / 2K Drive | 60397 | Monster Truck Race | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Creator | 31144 | Exotic Pink Parrot | Dec 31, 2024 |
| DREAMZzz | 40657 | Dream Village | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Friends | 41756 | Holiday Ski Slope and Café | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Friends | 41760 | Igloo Holiday Adventure | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Harry Potter | 76419 | Hogwarts Castle and Grounds | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Harry Potter | 76421 | Dobby the House-Elf | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Icons | 40634 | Icons of Play | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Mario | 71422 | Picnic at Mario's House | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Marvel | 76249 | Venomised Groot | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Marvel | 76261 | Spider-Man Final Battle | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Marvel | 76262 | Captain America's Shield | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Marvel | 76263 | Iron Man Hulkbuster vs. Thanos (4+) | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Marvel | 76266 | Endgame Final Battle | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Minecraft | 21247 | The Axolotl House | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Minecraft | 21248 | The Pumpkin Farm | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Minecraft | 21249 | The Crafting Box 4.0 | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Minecraft | 21250 | The Iron Golem Fortress | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71789 | Kai and Ras's Car and Bike Battle (4+) | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71790 | Imperium Dragon Hunter Hound | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71791 | Zane's Dragon Power Spinjitzu Race Car | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71792 | Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71793 | Heatwave Transforming Lava Dragon | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71794 | Lloyd and Arin's Ninja Team Mechs | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71795 | Temple of the Dragon Energy Cores | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71796 | Elemental Dragon vs. The Empress Mech | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71797 | Destiny's Bounty - Race Against Time | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Ninjago | 71798 | Nya and Arin's Baby Dragon Battle (4+) | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Sonic | 76993 | Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75359 | 332nd Ahsoka's Clone Trooper Battle Pack | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75360 | Yoda's Jedi Starfighter | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75365 | Yavin 4 Rebel Base | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75368 | Darth Vader Mech | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75369 | Boba Fett Mech | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Star Wars | 75370 | Stormtrooper Mech | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Duplo | 10987 | Recycling Truck | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Duplo | 10994 | 3-in-1 Family House | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Duplo | 10997 | Camping Adventure | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Ninjago | 71799 | NINJAGO City Markets | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Technic | 42161 | Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Icons | 10323 | PAC-MAN Arcade | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Technic | 42160 | Audi RS Q e-tron | Dec 31, 2026 |
SETS RETIRING IN 2023:
| Theme | Set # | Set Name | Retirement Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | 11015 | Around the World | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31123 | Off-Road Buggy | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 10780 | Mickey and Friends Castle Defenders | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43203 | Aurora, Merida and Tiana's Enchanted Creations | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41962 | Unicorn Creative Family Pack | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71404 | Goomba's Shoe | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71407 | Cat Peach Suit and Frozen Tower | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71409 | Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71412 | Big Bad Island | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Mindstorms | 51515 | Robot Inventor | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21187 | The Red Barn | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71738 | Zane's Titan Mech Battle | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71754 | Water Dragon | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71756 | Hydro Bounty | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71759 | Ninja Dragon Temple (4+) | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71762 | Kai's Fire Dragon EVO | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71770 | Zane's Golden Dragon Jet | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71773 | Kai's Golden Dragon Raider | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42129 | 4x4 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck | Jul 31, 2023 |
| Minifigures | 71038 | LEGO® Minifigures Disney 100 | Aug 31, 2023 |
| Architecture | 21054 | The White House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Art | 31203 | World Map | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Art | 31205 | Jim Lee Batman Collection | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Art | 31206 | The Rolling Stones | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Art | 31207 | Floral Art | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Avatar | 75571 | Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Avatar | 75573 | Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Avatar | 75577 | Mako Submarine | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Avatar | 75578 | Metkayina Reef Home | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Batman | 76181 | Batmobile: The Penguin Chase | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Batman | 76220 | Batman versus Harley Quinn (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Brickheadz | 40540 | Lion Dance Guy | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Brickheadz | 40541 | Manchester United Go Brick Me | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Brickheadz | 40542 | FC Barcelona Go Brick Me | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Brickheadz / Avatar | 40554 | Jake Sully & his Avatar | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40377 | Donald Duck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40378 | Goofy & Pluto | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40476 | Daisy Duck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40477 | Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey & Louie | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40550 | Chip & Dale | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40553 | Woody and Bo Peep | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Disney | 40622 | Disney 100th Celebration (Oswald, Mickey, Snow White, Tinker Bell) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Harry Potter | 40495 | Harry, Hermione, Ron & Hagrid | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Harry Potter | 40560 | Professors of Hogwarts | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Minecraft | 40624 | Alex | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Minecraft | 40625 | Llama | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Minecraft | 40626 | Zombie | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Star Wars | 40539 | Ahsoka Tano | Dec 31, 2023 |
| BrickHeadz / Star Wars | 40623 | Battle of Endor Heroes | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 30590 | Farm Garden & Scarecrow Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 30638 | Police Bike Training Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 30639 | Dog Park and Scooter Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 41723 | Donut Shop | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 41726 | Holiday Camping Trip | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60253 | Ice-Cream Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60313 | Space Ride Amusement Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60314 | Ice Cream Truck Police Chase | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60315 | Police Mobile Command Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60317 | Police Chase at the Bank | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60318 | Fire Helicopter | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60319 | Fire Rescue & Police Chase | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60320 | Fire Station | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60321 | Fire Brigade | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60322 | Race Car Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60323 | Stunt Plane | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60324 | Mobile Crane | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60325 | Cement Mixer Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60327 | Horse Transporter | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60330 | Hospital | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60332 | Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60333 | Bathtub Stunt Bike | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60335 | Train Station | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60338 | Chimpanzee Smash Stunt Loop | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60339 | Double Loop Stunt Arena | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60341 | The Knockdown Stunt Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60342 | The Shark Attack Stunt Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60343 | Rescue Helicopter Transporter | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60346 | Barn & Farm Animals | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60348 | Lunar Roving Vehicle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60349 | Lunar Space Station | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60350 | Lunar Research Base | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60351 | Rocket Launch Centre | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60353 | Wild Animal Rescue Missions | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60354 | Mars Spacecraft Exploration Missions | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60355 | Water Police Detective Missions | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60356 | Bear Stunt Bike | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60357 | Stunt Truck & Ring of Fire Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60358 | Cyber Stunt Bike | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60359 | Dunk Stunt Ramp Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60360 | Spinning Stunt Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60361 | Ultimate Stunt Riders Challenge | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60371 | Emergency Vehicles HQ | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60381 | City Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60382 | Vet Van Rescue | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60385 | Construction Digger | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60390 | Park Tractor | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60393 | 4x4 Fire Truck Rescue | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60394 | ATV and Otter Habitat | Dec 31, 2023 |
| City | 60398 | Family House and Electric Car | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11014 | Bricks and Wheels | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11018 | Creative Ocean Fun | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11019 | Bricks and Functions | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11020 | Build Together | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11021 | 90 Years of Play | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11022 | Space Mission | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 11031 | Creative Monkey Fun | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Classic | 30510 | 90 Years of Cars Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 30641 | Panda Bear Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 30644 | Vintage Car Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31111 | Cyber Drone | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31118 | Surfer Beach House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31127 | Street Racer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31128 | Dolphin and Turtle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31130 | Sunken Treasure Mission | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31131 | Downtown Noodle Shop | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 31132 | Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 40461 | Tulips | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 40469 | Tuk Tuk | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 40568 | Paris Postcard | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Creator | 40646 | Daffodils | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 10777 | Mickey and Minnie's Camping Trip | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 30646 | Moana's Dolphin Cove Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 40521 | Mini Disney The Haunted Mansion | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 41168 | Elsa's Jewellery Box | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43187 | Rapunzel's Tower | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43189 | Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43194 | Anna and Elsa's Frozen Wonderland | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43196 | Belle and the Beast's Castle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43197 | The Ice Castle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43198 | Anna's Castle Courtyard | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43199 | Elsa's Castle Courtyard | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43202 | The Madrigal House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43204 | Anna and Olaf's Castle Fun | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43207 | Ariel's Underwater Palace | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43208 | Jasmine and Mulan's Adventure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Disney | 43209 | Elsa and the Nokk's Ice Stable | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 30560 | Pineapple Photo Holder & Mini Board Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41801 | My Pets Bracelet | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41802 | Unicorns Forever Bracelet | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41803 | Extra Dots series 8 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41805 | Creative Animal Drawer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41806 | Ultimate Party Kit | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41807 | Bracelet Designer Mega Pack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41947 | Mickey and Friends Bracelets Mega Pack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41948 | Cute Banana Pen Holder | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41950 | Lots of DOTS - Lettering | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41951 | Message Board | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41957 | Adhesive Patches Mega Pack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41959 | Cute Panda Tray | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41960 | Big Box | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots | 41961 | Designer Toolkit - Patterns | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots / Disney | 41963 | Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Stitch-on Patch | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots / Disney | 41964 | Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Back-to-School Project Box | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots / Harry Potter | 41808 | Hogwarts Accessories Pack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots / Harry Potter | 41809 | Hedwig Pencil Holder | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Dots / Harry Potter | 41811 | Hogwarts Desktop Kit | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10411 | Learn About Chinese Culture | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10872 | Train Bridge and Tracks | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10882 | Train Tracks | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10930 | Bulldozer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10938 | Dinosaur Nursery | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10944 | Space Shuttle Mission | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10948 | Parking Garage and Car Wash | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10949 | Farm Animal Care | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10955 | Animal Train | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10956 | Amusement Park | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10964 | Bath Time Fun: Floating Red Panda | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10966 | Bath Time Fun: Floating Animal Island | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10968 | Doctor Visit | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10972 | Wild Animals of the Ocean | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10973 | Wild Animals of South America | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10974 | Wild Animals of Asia | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10977 | My First Puppy & Kitten with Sounds | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10978 | Creative Building Time | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 10979 | Wild Animals of Europe | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo | 30648 | Whale Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo / Disney | 10899 | Frozen Ice Castle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo / Disney | 10960 | Belle's Ballroom | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo / Disney | 10962 | Buzz Lightyear's Planetary Mission | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo / Holiday | 10976 | Santa's Gingerbread House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Duplo / Marvel | 10963 | Spider-Man & Friends: Funfair Adventure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 30633 | Skate Ramp | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 30634 | Friendship Flowers Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41443 | Olivia's Electric Car | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41677 | Forest Waterfall | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41696 | Pony-Washing Stable | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41697 | Turtle Protection Vehicle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41699 | Pet Adoption Café | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41703 | Friendship Tree House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41704 | Main Street Building | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41705 | Heartlake City Pizzeria | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41707 | Tree-Planting Vehicle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41708 | Roller Disco Arcade | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41711 | Emma's Art School | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41712 | Recycling Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41713 | Olivia's Space Academy | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41714 | Andrea's Theatre School | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41715 | Ice Cream Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41716 | Stephanie's Sailing Adventure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41717 | Mia's Wildlife Rescue | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41718 | Pet Day-Care Center | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41719 | Mobile Fashion Boutique | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41720 | Water Park | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41721 | Organic Farm | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41722 | Horse Show Trailer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41729 | Organic Grocery Store | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41732 | Downtown Flower and Design Stores | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41733 | Mobile Bubble Tea Shop | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41741 | Dog Rescue Van | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41742 | Cat Hotel | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41743 | Hair Salon | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41751 | Skate Park | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Friends | 41758 | Friends Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 30435 | Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 30651 | Quidditch Practice Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 75968 | 4 Privet Drive | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 75979 | Hedwig | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76386 | Hogwarts: Polyjuice Potion Mistake | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76398 | Hogwarts Hospital Wing | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76399 | Hogwarts Magical Trunk | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76400 | Hogwarts Carriage and Thestrals | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76401 | Hogwarts Courtyard: Sirius's Rescue | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76403 | The Ministry of Magic | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76406 | Hungarian Horntail Dragon | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76408 | 12 Grimmauld Place | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76409 | Gryffindor House Banner | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76410 | Slytherin House Banner | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76411 | Ravenclaw House Banner | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76412 | Hufflepuff House Banner | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Harry Potter | 76418 | Harry Potter Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 40426 | Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 40522 | Valentine Lovebirds | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 40523 | Easter Rabbits Display | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 40570 | Halloween Cat and Mouse | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 40571 | Wintertime Polar Bears | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 80110 | Lunar New Year Display | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday | 80111 | Lunar New Year Parade | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday / Creator | 30584 | Winter Holiday Train Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday / Creator | 30642 | Birthday Train Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday / Creator | 30643 | Easter Chickens Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Holiday / Icons | 10293 | Santa's Visit | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10265 | Ford Mustang | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10266 | NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10273 | Haunted House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10276 | Colosseum | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10289 | Bird of Paradise | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10290 | Pickup Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10292 | The Friends Apartments | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10299 | Real Madrid - Santiago Bernabéu Stadium | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 10497 | Galaxy Explorer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons | 76989 | Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons / Modular | 10255 | Assembly Square | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons / Modular | 10270 | Bookshop | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Icons / Modular | 10278 | Police Station | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ideas | 21325 | Medieval Blacksmith | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ideas | 21326 | Winnie the Pooh | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ideas | 21329 | Fender Stratocaster | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ideas | 21337 | Table Football | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76943 | Pteranodon Chase (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76945 | Atrociraptor Dinosaur: Bike Chase | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76947 | Quetzalcoatlus Plane Ambush | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76948 | T. rex & Atrociraptor Dinosaur Breakout | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76950 | Triceratops Pickup Truck Ambush | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Jurassic Park / World | 76956 | T. rex Breakout | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Lightyear | 76830 | Zyclops Chase (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Lightyear | 76831 | Zurg Battle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Lightyear | 76832 | XL-15 Spaceship | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 30509 | Yellow Yoshi's Fruit Tree Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71406 | Yoshi's Gift House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71413 | Character Packs Series 6 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71414 | Conkdor's Noggin Bopper | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71415 | Ice Mario Suit and Frozen World | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71416 | Lava Wave Ride | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71417 | Fliprus Snow Adventure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Mario | 71418 | Creativity Toolbox | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 10781 | Spider-Man's Techno Trike (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 10784 | Spider-Man Webquarters Hangout (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 10790 | Team Spidey at Green Goblin's Lighthouse (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 30652 | Doctor Strange's Interdimensional Portal Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76187 | Venom | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76193 | The Guardians' Ship | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76206 | Iron Man Figure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76207 | Attack on New Asgard | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76208 | The Goat Boat | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76209 | Thor's Hammer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76211 | Shuri's Sunbird | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76212 | Shuri's Lab (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76213 | King Namor's Throne Room | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76214 | Black Panther: War on the Water | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76215 | Black Panther | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76216 | Iron Man Armory | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76225 | Miles Morales Figure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76230 | Venom Figure | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76242 | Thanos Mech Armor | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76253 | Guardians of the Galaxy Headquarters | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76255 | The New Guardians' Ship | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Marvel | 76267 | Marvel Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21164 | The Coral Reef | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21170 | The Pig House | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21172 | The Ruined Portal | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21177 | The Creeper Ambush | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21180 | The Guardian Battle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21181 | The Rabbit Ranch | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21183 | The Training Grounds | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21184 | The Bakery | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21185 | The Nether Bastion | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21186 | The Ice Castle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21188 | The Llama Village | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 21190 | The Abandoned Village | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Minecraft | 30647 | The Dripstone Cavern/The Stalactite Cave Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Miscellaneous | 40174 | LEGO Chess | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Miscellaneous | 40382 | Birthday Set | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Miscellaneous | 40393 | LEGOLAND Fire Academy | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Miscellaneous | 40584 | Birthday Diorama | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 30656 | Monkey King Marketplace Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80008 | Monkie Kid's Cloud Jet | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80030 | Monkie Kid's Staff Creations | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80032 | Chang'e Moon Cake Factory | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80033 | Evil Macaque's Mech | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80034 | Nezha's Fire Ring | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80035 | Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80037 | Dragon of the East | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80038 | Monkie Kid's Team Van | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Monkie Kid | 80039 | The Heavenly Realms | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 30649 | Ice Dragon Creature Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71757 | Lloyd's Ninja Mech (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71760 | Jay's Thunder Dragon EVO | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71761 | Zane's Power Up Mech EVO | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71763 | Lloyd's Race Car EVO | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71765 | Ninja Ultra Combo Mech | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71766 | Lloyd's Legendary Dragon | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71767 | Ninja Dojo Temple | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71768 | Jay's Golden Dragon Motorbike | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71769 | Cole's Dragon Cruiser | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71771 | The Crystal King Temple | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71772 | The Crystal King | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71774 | Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71775 | Nya's Samurai X MECH | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71776 | Jay and Nya's Race Car EVO | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71777 | Kai's Dragon Power Flip | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71778 | Nya's Dragon Power Drift | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71779 | Lloyd's Dragon Power Spin | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Ninjago | 71781 | Lloyd's Mech Battle EVO | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 30657 | McLaren Solus GT Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 76900 | Koenigsegg Jesko | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 76901 | Toyota GR Supra | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 76910 | Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 76911 | 007 Aston Martin DB5 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Speed Champions | 76912 | Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger T | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 30654 | X-wing Starfighter Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75288 | AT-AT | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75292 | The Razor Crest | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75300 | Imperial TIE Fighter | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75301 | Luke Skywalker's X-wing Fighter | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75309 | Republic Gunship (Ultimate Collector Series) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75312 | Boba Fett's Starship | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75317 | The Mandalorian & The Child | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75318 | The Child | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75320 | Snowtrooper Battle Pack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75322 | Hoth AT-ST | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75323 | The Justifier | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75324 | Dark Trooper Attack | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75326 | Boba Fett's Throne Room | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75327 | Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75329 | Death Star Trench Run Diorama | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75330 | Dagobah Jedi Training Diorama | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75332 | AT-ST (4+) | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75334 | Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75335 | BD-1 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75336 | Inquisitor Transport Scythe | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75338 | Ambush on Ferrix | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75339 | Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75342 | Republic Fighter Tank | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75343 | Dark Trooper Helmet | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Star Wars | 75366 | Star Wars Advent Calendar 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 30655 | Forklift with Pallet Polybag | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42096 | Porsche 911 RSR | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42107 | Ducati Panigale V4 R | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42111 | Dom's Dodge Charger | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42117 | Race Plane | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42118 | Monster Jam Grave Digger | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42122 | Jeep Wrangler | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42123 | McLaren Senna GTR | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42125 | Ferrari 488 GTE 'AF Corse #51' | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42127 | The Batman - Batmobile | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42128 | Heavy-Duty Tow Truck | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42131 | Cat D11 Bulldozer | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42132 | Chopper | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42133 | Telehandler | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42134 | Monster Jam Megalodon | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42135 | Monster Jam El Toro Loco | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42137 | Formula E Porsche 99x Electric | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42139 | All-Terrain Vehicle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42140 | App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle | Dec 31, 2023 |
| Technic | 42144 | Material Handler | Dec 31, 2023 |
2023.06.01 21:24 RandomAppalachian468 Don't fly over Barron County Ohio. [Repost]
The whirring blades of my MD-902 throbbed against the warm evening air, and I smiled.
From 5,000 feet, the ground flew by in a carpet of dark forests and kelly-green fields. The sun hung low on the horizon in a picturesque array of dazzling orange and gold, and I could make out the narrow strip of the Ohio River to my left, glistening in the fading daylight. This time of year, the trees would be full of the sweet aroma of fresh blossoms, and the frequent rains kept small pockets of fluffy white mist hanging in the treetops. It was a beautiful view, one that reminded me of why being a helicopter pilot trumped flying in a jumbo jet far above the clouds every day of the week.
Fourteen more days, and I’m debt free.
That made me grin even more. I’d been working as a charter pilot ever since I obtained my license at age 19, and after years of keeping my nose to the grindstone, I was closing on the final payment for real-estate in western Pennsylvania. With no debt, a fixer-upper house on 30 rural acres all to myself, and a respectable wage for a 26-year-old pilot, I looked forward to the financial freedom I could now enjoy. Maybe I’d take a vacation, somewhere exotic like Venice Italy, or the Dominican Republic. Or perhaps I’d sock the money back for the day I started a family.
“Remember kleineun, a real man looks after his own.”
My elderly ouma’s voice came back from the depths of my memories, her proud, sun-tanned face rising from the darkness. She and my Rhodesian grandfather had emigrated to the US when they were newlyweds, as the violence against white Boer descendants in South Africa spiraled out of control. My mother and father both died in a car crash when I was six, and it had been my grandparents who raised me. Due to this, I’d grown up with a slight accent that many of my classmates found amusing, and I could speak both English, and Afrikaans, the Boer tongue of our former home.
I shifted in my seat, stretched my back muscles, and glanced at the picture taped to my console. Both my parents flanked a grinning, gap-toothed six-year-old me, at the last Christmas we’d spent together. My mother beamed, her dark hair and Italian features a sharp contrast to my father’s sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Sometimes, I liked to imagine they were smiling at me with pride at how well I flew the old silver-colored bird my company had assigned to me, and that made the long, lonely flights easier to bear.
A flicker caught my eye, and I broke my gaze away from the photograph.
Perched in its small cradle above the controls, my little black Garmin fuzzed over for a few seconds, its screen shifting from brightly colored maps to a barrage of grey static.
Did the power chord come loose?
I checked, ensuring the power-cable for the unit’s battery was plugged into the port on the control panel. It was a brand-new GPS unit, and I’d used it a few times already, so I knew it wasn’t defective. Granted, I could fly and navigate without it, but the Garmin made my time as a pilot so much easier that the thought of going blind was dreadful.
My fuel gauge danced, clicked to empty, then to full, in a bizarre jolt.
More of the gauges began to stutter, the entire panel seeming to develop terrets all at once, and my pulse began to race. Something was wrong, very wrong, and the sludge inside my bowels churned with sour fear.
“Come on, come on.” I flicked switches, turned dials, punched buttons, but nothing seemed to fix the spasming electronics. Every gauge failed, and without warning, I found myself plunged into inky darkness.
Outside, the sun surrendered to the pull of night, the sky darker than usual. A distant rumble of thunder reverberated above the roar of my helicopter’s engine, and I thought I glimpsed a streak of yellowish lightning on the far horizon to my left.
Calm down Chris. We’re still flying, so it must just be a blown fuse. Stay in control and find a place to set her down.
My sweaty palm slid on the cyclic stick, and both feet weighed heavy on the yaw pedals. The collective stuck to my other hand with a nervous vibration, and I squinted against the abyss outside.
Beep.
I jumped despite myself, as the little Garmin on my panel flared back to life, the static pulling aside to reveal a twitching display. Each time the screen glitched, it showed the colorful map detailing my flight path over the ground below, but I noticed that some of the lines changed, the names shifting, as if the device couldn’t decide between two different versions of the world.
One name jutted out at me, slate gray like most of the major county names, appearing with ghostly flickers from between two neighboring ones.
Barron County.
I stared, confused. I’d flown over this section of southeastern Ohio plenty of times, and I knew the counties by heart. At this point, I should have been over the southern end of Noble County, and maybe dipping lower into Washington. There was no Barron County Ohio. I was sure of it.
And yet it shown back at me from the digital landscape, a strange, almost cigar-shaped chunk of terrain carved from the surrounding counties like a tumor, sometimes there, sometimes not, as my little Garmin struggled to find the correct map. Rain began to patter against my cockpit window, and the entire aircraft rattled from a strong gust of wind. Thick clouds closed over my field of vision like a sea of gray cotton.
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and I sucked in a nervous breath.
Land. I had to land. There was nothing else to do, my flight controls weren’t responding, and only my Garmin had managed to come back to life. Perhaps I’d been hit by lightning, and the electronics had been fried? Either way, it was too dark to tell, but a storm seemed to be brewing, and if I didn’t get my feet on the ground soon, I could be in real trouble.
“Better safe than sorry.” I pushed down on the collective to start my slow descent and clicked the talking button for my headset. “Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, over.”
Nothing.
“Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, requesting emergency assistance, over.”
Still nothing.
If the radio’s dead, I’m really up a creek.
With my hand shaking, I clicked on the mic one more time. “Any station, this is—”
Like a curtain pulling back, the fog cleared from around my window, and the words stuck in my throat.
Without my gauges, I couldn’t tell just how far I’d descended, but I was definitely very low. Thick trees poked up from the ground, and the hills rolled into high ridges with flat valley floors, fields and pastures pockmarking them. Rain fell all around in cold, silvery sheets, a normal feature for the mid spring in this part of Ohio.
What wasn’t normal, were the fires.
At first, I thought they were forest fires for the amount of smoke and flames that bellowed from each spot, but as I swooped lower, my eyes widened in horror.
They were houses.
Farms, cottages, little clusters that barely constituted villages, all of them belched orange flames and black pillars of sooty smoke. I couldn’t hear above the helicopter blades, but I could see the flashes on the ground, along the road, in between the trees, and even coming from the burning buildings, little jets of golden light that spat into the darkness with anger.
Gunfire. That’s rifle fire, a whole lot of it.
Tiny black figures darted through the shadows, barely discernable from where I sat, several hundred feet up. I couldn’t see much, but some were definitely running away, the streaks of yellow gunfire chasing them. A few dark gray vehicles rumbled down one of the gravel roads, and sprayed fire into the houses as it went. They were fighting, I realized, the people in the trucks and the locals. It was horrific, like something out of war-torn Afghanistan, but worse.
Then, I caught a glimpse of the others.
They didn’t move like the rest, who either fled from the dark vehicles, or fired back from behind cover. These skinny figures loped along with haphazard gaits, many running on all fours like animals, swarming from the trees by the dozens. They threw themselves into the gales of bullets without flinching, attacking anyone within range, and something about the way they moved, so fluid, so fearless, made my heart skip a beat.
What is that?
“Echo Four Actual to unknown caller, please respond, over.”
Choking back a cry of shock, I fumbled at the control panel with clumsy fingers, the man’s voice sharp and stern. I hadn’t realized that I’d let go of the talking button and clicked it down again. “Hello? Hello, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot out of Pittsburgh, over.”
An excruciating moment passed, and I continued to zoom over the trees, the fires falling away behind me as more silent forest took over.
“Roger that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, we read you loud and clear. Please identify yourself and any passengers or cargo you might be carrying, over.”
Swallowing hard, I eyed the treetops, which looked much closer than they should have been. How far had I descended? “Echo Four Actual, my name is Christopher Dekker, and I am alone. I’m a charter flight from PA, carrying medical equipment for OSU in Columbus. My controls have been damaged, and I am unable to safely carry on due to the storm. Requesting permission to land, over.”
I watched the landscape slide by underneath me, once catching sight of what looked like a little white church surrounded by smaller huts, dozens of figures in the yard staring up at me as I flew over a towering ridgeline.
“Solid copy on that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot. Be advised, your transponder shows you to be inside a restricted zone. Please cease all radio traffic, reduce your speed, climb to 3,000 feet and proceed north. We’ll talk you in from there. How copy, over?”
My heart jumped, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Roger that Echo Four Actual, my altimeter is down, but I’ll do my best to eyeball the altitude, over.”
With that, I pulled the collective upward, and tried my best to gauge how far I was by eyesight in the gathering night, rain still coming down all around me. This had to be some kind of disaster or riot, I decided. After all, the voice over the radio sounded like military, and those vehicles seemed to have heavy weapons. Maybe there was some kind of unrest going on here that I hadn’t heard about yet?
Kind of weird for it to happen in rural areas though. Spoiled college kids I get, but never saw farmers get so worked up before. They usually love the military.
Something moved in the corner of my eye, and I turned out of reflex.
My mouth fell open, and I froze, unable to scream.
In the sky beside me, a huge shadow glided along, and its leathery wings effortlessly carved through the gloom, flapping only on occasion to keep it aloft. It was too dark for me to see what color it was, but from the way it moved, I knew it wasn’t another helicopter. No, this thing was alive, easily the size of a small plane, and more than twice the length of my little McDonald Douglass. A long tail trailed behind it, and bore a distinct arrow-shaped snout, with twig-like spines fanned out around the back of its head. Whatever legs it had were drawn up under it like a bird, yet its skin appeared rough and knobby, almost resembling tree bark. Without pause, the gigantic bat-winged entity flew along beside me, as if my presence was on par with an annoying fly buzzing about its head.
Gripping the microphone switch so tight, I thought I’d crack the plastic, I whispered into my headset, forgetting all radio protocol. “T-There’s something up here.”
Static crackled.
“Douglas Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, say again your last, you’re coming in weak and unreadable, over.”
“There’s something up here.” I snarled into the headset, still glued to the controls of the helicopter, afraid to deviate even an inch from my course in case the monstrosity decided to turn on me. “A freaking huge thing, right beside me. I swear, it looks like a bat or . . . I don’t know.”
“Calm down.” The man on the other end of the radio broke his rigorous discipline as well, his voice deep, but level. “It won’t attack if you don’t move too fast. Slowly ease away from it and follow that course until you’re out of sight.”
I didn’t have time to think about how wrong that sounded, how the man’s strict tone had changed to one of knowledge, how he hadn’t been the least surprised by what I’d said. Instead, I slowly turned the helicopter away from the huge menace and edged the speed higher in tiny increments.
As soon as I was roughly two football fields away, I let myself relax, and clicked the mic switch. “It’s not following.”
“You’re sure?”
Eyeing the huge flapping wings, I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I’m well clear.”
“Good. Thank you, Mr. Dekker.”
Then, the radio went dead.
Something in my chest dropped, a weight that made my stomach roil. This wasn’t right, none of it. Who was that man? Why did he know about the thing I’d just seen? What was I supposed to—
A flash of light exploded from the trees to my right and shot into the air with a long finger of smoke.
What the . . .
On instinct, I jerked the cyclic stick to one side, and the helicopter swung to avoid the rocket.
Boom.
My world shook, metal screeched, and a dozen alarms began to go off inside the cockpit in a cacophony of beeps and sirens. Orange and red flames lit up the night sky just behind me, and the horizon started to spin wildly outside. Heat gushed from the cockpit door, and I smelled the greasy stench of burning oil. The safety belts dug into my shoulders, and with a final slip, the radio headset ripped free from my scalp.
I’m hit.
Desperate, I yanked on the controls, fought the bird even as she spun toward the ground in a wreath of flames, the inky black trees hurtling up to meet me. The helicopter went into full auto-rotation, the sky blurring past outside, and the alarms blared in a screech of doom. Panic slammed through my temples, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and for one brief second, my eyes locked on the little black Garmin still perched atop my control panel.
Its screen stopped twitching and settled on a map of the mysterious Barron County, with a little red arrow at the center of the screen, a few words popping up underneath it.
You are here.
Trees stabbed up into the sky, the belts crushed at my torso, glass shattered all around me, and the world went dark.
Copper, thick, warm, and tangy.
It filled my mouth, stank metallic in my nose, clogged my throat, choking me. In the murkiness, I fought for a surface, for a way out, blind and numb in the dark.
This way, kleineun.
My ouma’s voice echoed from somewhere in the shadows.
This way.
Both eyes flew open, and I gagged, spitting out a stream of red.
Pain throbbed in my ribs, and a heavy pressure sent a tingling numbness through my shoulders. Blood roared inside my temples, and stars danced before my eyes with a dizzying array. Humid night air kissed my skin, and something sticky coated my face, neck, and arms that hung straight up toward the ceiling.
Wait. Not up. Down.
I blinked at the wrinkled, torn ceiling of the cockpit, the glass all gone, the gray aluminum shredded like tissue paper. Just outside the broken windows, thick Appalachian bluegrass and stemmy underbrush swished in a feeble breeze, backlit by flashes of lightning from the thunderstorm overhead. Green and brown leaves covered everything in a wet carpet of triangles, and somewhere nearby, a cricket chirped.
Turning my head from side to side, I realized that I hung upside down inside the ruined helicopter, the top half burrowed into the mud. I could hear the hissing and crackling of flames, the pattering of rain falling on the hot aluminum, and the smaller brush fires around the downed aircraft sizzling out in the damp long grass. Charred steel and burning oil tainted the air, almost as strong as the metallic, coppery stench in my aching nose.
They shot me down. That military dude shot me out of the sky.
It didn’t make sense. I’d followed their orders, done everything they’d said, and yet the instant I veered safely away from whatever that thing in the sky had been, they’d fired, not at it, but at me.
Looking down (or rather, up) at my chest, I sucked in a gasp, which was harder to do that before.
The navy-blue shirt stuck to my torso with several big splotches of dark, rusty red. Most were clean slashes, but two held bits of glass sticking out of them, one alarmingly bigger than the other. They dripped cherry red blood onto my upturned face, and a wave of nausea hit me.
I gotta get down.
I flexed my arms to try and work some feeling back into them, praying nothing was broken. Half-numb from hanging so long, I palmed along my aching body until I felt the buckled for the seat belts.
“Okay.” I hissed between gritted teeth, in an effort to stave off my panic. “You can do this. Just hold on tight. Nice and tight. Here we go . . .”
Click.
Everything seemed to lurch, and I slid off the seat to plummet towards the muck-filled hole in the cockpit ceiling. My fingers were slick with blood and slipped over the smooth faux-leather pilot’s seat with ease. The shoulder belt snagged on the bits of glass that lay just under the left lowest rib, and a flare of white-hot pain ripped through me.
Wham.
I screamed, my right knee caught the edge of the aluminum ceiling, and both hands dove into a mound of leaf-covered glass shards on the opposite side of the hole. My head swam, being right-side-up again enough to make shadows gnaw at the corner of my eyes.
Forcing myself to breath slowly, I fought the urge to faint and slid back to sit on the smooth ceiling. I turned my hands over to see half a dozen bits of clear glass burrowed into my skin like greedy parasites, red blood weeping around the new cuts.
“Screw you.” I spat at the rubbish with angry tears in my eyes. “Screw you, screw you, screw you.”
The shards came out easy enough, and the cuts weren’t that deep, but that wasn’t what worried me. On my chest, the single piece of cockpit glass that remined was almost as big as my palm, and it really hurt. Just touching it felt like self-inflicted torture, but I knew it had to come out sooner or later.
Please don’t nick a vein.
Wiping my hands dry on my jeans, I gripped the shard with both hands, and jerked.
Fire roared over my ribs, and hot blood tickled my already grimy pale skin. I clapped a hand over the wound, pressing down hard, and grunted out a string of hateful expletives that my ouma would have slapped me for.
Lying on my back, I stared around me at the messy cargo compartment of the MD-902. Most of the medical supplies had been in cardboard boxes strapped down with heavy nylon tow-straps, but several cases had ruptured with the force of the impact, spraying bandages, syringes, and pill bottles all over the cluttered interior. Orange flames chewed at the crate furthest to the rear, the tail section long gone, but the foremost part of the hold was intact. Easily a million-dollar mess, it would have made me faint on any other trip, but today it was a godsend.
Half-blind in the darkness, I crawled along with only the firelight and lightning bolts to guide me, my right knee aching. Like a crippled raccoon, I collected things as I went, conscious of the two pallets of intact supplies weighing right over my head. I’d taken several different first-aid courses with some hunting buddies of mine, and the mental reflexes kicked in to help soothe my frazzled mind.
Check for bleeds, stop the worst, then move on.
Aside from my battered chest and stomach, the rest of me remained mostly unharmed. I had nasty bruises from the seatbelts, my right knee swelled, my nose slightly crooked and crusted in blood, but otherwise I was intact. Dowsing every scratch and cut with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol I found, I used butterfly closures on the smaller lacerations that peppered my skin. I wrapped soft white gauze over my abused palms and probed at the big cut where the last shard had been, only stopping when I was sure there were no pieces of glass wedged inside my flesh.
“Not too bad.” I grunted to myself, trying to sound impassive like a doctor might. “Rib must have stopped it. Gonna need stitches though. That’ll be fun.”
Pawing through the broken cases, I couldn’t find any suture chord, but just as I was about to give up, I noticed a small box that read ‘medical skin stapler’.
Bingo.
I tore the small white plastic stapler free from its packaging and eyeballed the device. I’d never done this before, only seen it in movies, and even though the cut in my skin hurt, I wondered if this wouldn’t be worse.
You’ve gotta do it. That bleeding needs to stop. Besides, no one’s coming to rescue you, not with those rocket-launching psychos out there.
Taking a deep breath, I pinched the skin around the gash together, and pressed the mouth of the stapler to it.
Click.
A sharp sting, like that of a needle bit at the skin, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the cut itself. I worked my way across the two-inch laceration and gave out a sigh of relief when it was done.
“Not going to bleed to death today.” I daubed ointment around the staples before winding more bandages over the wound.
Popping a few low-grade painkillers that tumbled from the cargo, I crawled wriggled through the nearest shattered window into the wet grass.
Raindrops kissed my face, clean and cool on my sweaty skin. Despite the thick cloud cover, there was enough constant lightning strikes within the storm to let me get glimpses of the world around me. My helicopter lay on its back, the blades snapped like pencils, with bits and pieces of it burning in chunks all around the small break in the trees. Chest-high scrub brush grew all around the low-lying ground, with pockets of standing water in places. My ears still rang from the impact of the crash, but I could start to pick up more crickets, frogs, and even some nocturnal birds singing into the darkness, like they didn’t notice the huge the hulk of flaming metal that had fallen from the sky. Overhead, the thunder rumbled onward, the feeble wind whistling, and there were other flashes on the horizon, orange and red ones, with crackles that didn’t sound quite like lightning.
The guns. They’re still fighting.
Instinctively, I pulled out my cellphone, and tapped the screen.
It fluttered to life, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get through to anyone, not even with the emergency function designed to work around having no service. The complicated wonder of our modern world was little better than a glorified paperweight.
Stunned, I sat down with my back to the helicopter and rested my head against the aluminum skin of the craft. How I’d gone from a regular medical supply run to being marooned in this hellish parody of rural America, I didn’t know, but one thig was certain; I needed a plan. Whoever fired the missile could have already contacted my charter company and made up some excuse to keep them from coming to look for me. No one else knew I was here, and even though I now had six staples holding the worst of my injuries shut, I knew I needed proper medical attention. If I wanted to live, I’d have to rescue myself.
My bag. I need to get my go-bag, grab some gear and then . . . head somewhere else.
It took me a while to gather my green canvas paratrooper bag from its place behind the pilot’s seat and fill it with whatever supplies I could scrounge. My knee didn’t seem to be broken, but man did it hurt, and I dreaded the thought of walking on it for miles on end. I focused instead on inventorying my gear and trying to come up with a halfway intelligent plan of action.
I had a stainless-steel canteen with one of those detachable cups on the bottom, a little fishing kit, some duct tape, a lighter, a black LED flashlight with three spare batteries, a few tattered road maps with a compass, a spare pair of socks, medical supplies from the cargo, and a simple forest green plastic rain poncho. I also managed to unearth a functioning digital camcorder my ouma had gotten me for Christmas a few years back, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to do any filming in such a miserable state. Lastly, since it was a private supply run from a warehouse area near Pittsburgh to a direct hospital pad in Ohio, I’d been able to bring my K-Bar, a sturdy, and brutally simple knife designed for the Marine Corps that I used every time I went camping. It was pitiful in comparison to the rifle I wished I had with me, but that didn’t matter now. I had what I had, and I doubted my trusty Armalite would have alleviated my sore knee anyway.
Clicking on my flashlight, I huddled with the poncho around my shoulders inside the wreck of the chopper and peered at the dusty roadmaps. A small part of me hoped that a solution would jump out from the faded paper, but none came. These were all maps of western PA and eastern Ohio. None of them had a Barron County on them anywhere.
The man on the radio said to head north, right before they shot me down. That means they must be camped out to the north of here. South had that convoy and those burning houses, so that’s a no-go. Maybe I can backtrack eastward the way I came.
As if on cue, a soft pop echoed from over the eastern horizon, and I craned to look out the helicopter window, spotting more man-made flashes over the tree tops.
“Great.” I hissed between clenched teeth, aware of how the temperature dipped to a chilly 60 degrees, and how despite the conditions, my stomach had begun to growl. “Not going that way, are we? Westward it is.”
Walking away from my poor 902 proved to be harder than I’d anticipated. Despite the glass, the fizzling fires, and the darkness, it still held a familiar, human essence to it. Sitting inside it made me feel secure, safe, even calm about the situation. In any other circumstance, I would have just stayed with the downed aircraft to wait for help, but I knew the men who shot me down would likely find my crash site, and I didn’t want to be around when they did.
Unlike much of central and western Ohio, southeastern Ohio is hilly, brushy, and clogged with thick forests. Thorns snagged at my thin poncho and sliced at my pant legs. My knee throbbed, every step a form of self-inflicted torture. The rain never stopped, a steady drizzle from above just cold enough to be problematic as time went on, making me shiver. Mud slid under my tennis shoes, and every tree looked ten times bigger in the flickering beam of my cheap flashlight. Icy fear prickled at the back of my neck at some of the sounds that greeted me through the gloom. I’d been camping loads of times, both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but these noises were something otherworldly to me.
Strange howls, screeches, and calls permeated the rain-soaked sky, some almost roars, while others bordered on human in their intonation. The more I walked, the softer the distant gunfire became, and the more prevalent the odd sounds, until the shadows seemed to fill with them. I didn’t dare turn off my flashlight, or I’d been completely blind in the dark, but a little voice in the back of my head screamed that I was too visible, crunching through the gloomy forest with my long beam of light stabbing into the abyss. It felt as though a million eyes were on me, studying me, hunting me from the surrounding brush, and I bitterly recalled how much I’d loved the old Survivor Man TV series as a kid.
Not so fun being out in the woods at night. Especially alone.
A twig snapped somewhere behind me, and I whirled on the spot, one trembling hand resting on the hilt of my K-Bar.
Nothing. Nothing but trees, bushes, and rain dripping down in the darkness.
“This is stupid.” I whispered to myself to keep my nerves in check as I slowly spun on the spot. “I should have went eastward anyway. God knows how long I’m going to have to—”
Creak.
A groan of metal-on-metal echoed from somewhere to my right, and I spun to face it, yanking the knife on my belt free from its scabbard. It felt so small and useless in my hand, and I choked down a wave of nauseas fear.
Ka-whump. Creak. K-whump. Creak.
Underbrush cracked and crunched, a few smaller saplings thrashed, and from deep within the gloom, two yellow orbs flared to life. They poked through the mist in the trees, forming into slender fingers of golden light that swept back and forth in the dark.
The soldiers . . . they must be looking for me.
I swallowed hard and turned to slink away.
Ice jammed through my blood, and I froze on the spot, biting my tongue to stop the scream.
It stood not yards away, a huge form that towered a good twelve feet tall in the swirling shadows. Unpolished chrome blended with flash-rusted spots in the faded red paint, and grime-smeared glass shone with dull hues in the flashes of lightning. Where the wheels should have been, the rounded steel axels curved like some enormous hand had bent them, and the tires lay face-down on the muddy ground like big round feet, their hubcaps buried in the dirt. Dents, scrapes, and chips covered the battered thing, and its crooked little radio antenna pointed straight up from the old metal fender like a mast. I could barely make out the mud-coated VW on the rounded hood, and my mind reeled in shock.
Is . . . is that a car?
Both yellow headlights bathed me in a circle of bright, blinding light, and neither I nor the strange vehicle moved.
Seconds ticked by, the screech-thumping in the background only growing closer. I realized that I couldn’t hear any engine noises and had yet to see any soldiers or guns pointed my way. This car looked old, really old, like one of those classic Volkswagen Beetles that collectors fought over at auctions. Try as I might, I couldn’t see a driver inside the murky, mold-smeared windows.
Because there wasn’t one.
Lightning arched across the sky overhead, and the car standing in front of me blinked.
Its headlights slid shut, as if little metal shades had crawled over the bulbs for a moment and flicked open again. Something about that movement was so primal, so real, so lifelike, that every ounce of self-control I had melted in an instant.
Cursing under my breath, I lunged into the shrubs, and the world erupted around me.
Under my shoes, the ground shook, and the car surged after me in a cacophony of ka-thumps that made my already racing heart skip several beats. A weather-beaten brown tow truck from the 50’s charged through the thorns to my left, it’s headlights ablaze, and a dilapidated yellow school bus rose from its hiding place in the weeds to stand tall on four down-turned axel-legs. They all flicked their headlights on like giants waking from their slumber, and as I dodged past them, they each blared their horn into the night in alarm.
My breaths came short and tight, my knee burned, and I crashed through thorns and briars without thought to how badly I was getting cut up.
The cheap poncho tore, and I ripped it away as it caught on a tree branch.
A purple 70’s Mustang shook off its blanket of creeping vines and bounded from a stand of trees just ahead, forcing me to swerve to avoid being run over, my adrenaline at all-time highs.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.
Slipping and sliding, I pushed through a stand of multiflora rose, and stumbled out into a flat, dark expanse.
I almost skidded to a stop.
What had once been a rather large field stood no taller than my shoestrings, the grass charred, and burnt. The storm above illuminated huge pieces of wreckage that lay scattered over the nearly 40-acre plot, and I could just make out the fire-blackened hulk of a fuselage resting a hundred yards away. The plane had been brought down a while ago it seemed, as there weren’t any flames left burning, and I threw myself toward it in frenzied desperation.
Burned grass and greasy brown topsoil slushed underfoot, and I could hear the squelching of the cars pursing me. Rain soaked me to the bone, and my lungs ached from sucking down the damp night air. A painful stich crept into my side, and I cursed myself for not putting in more time for cardio at the gym.
Something caught my left shoelace, and I hurtled to the ground, tasting mud and blood in between my teeth.
They’ve got me now.
I clawed at the mud, rolled, and watched a tire slam down mere inches from where my head had been. The Mustang loomed over me and jostled for position with the red Volkswagen and brown tow truck, the school bus still a few yards behind them. They couldn’t seem to decide who would get the pleasure of stomping me to death, and like a herd of stampeding wildebeest, they locked bumpers in an epic shoving match.
On all fours, I scampered out from under the sparring brutes, and dashed for the crumpled airplane, a white-painted DC-3 that looked like it had been cut in half by a gargantuan knife blade. I passed a snapped wing section, the oily remains of a turbo-prop engine, and a mutilated wheel from the landing gear. Climbing over a heap of mud, I squeezed into the back of the ruined flight cabin and dropped down into the dark cargo hold.
Wham.
No sooner had my sneakers hit the cold metal floor, and the entire plane rocked from the impact of something heavy ramming it just outside. I tumbled to my knees, screaming in pain as, once again, I managed to bash the sore one off a bracket in the wall.
My hand smeared in something gooey, and I scrabbled for my flashlight.
It clicked on, a wavering ball of white light in the pitch darkness, and I fought the urge to gag. “Oh man . . .”
Three people, or what was left of them, lay strewn over the narrow cargo area. Claret red blood coated the walls, caked on the floor, and clotted under my mud-spattered shoes. Bits of flesh and viscera were stuck to everything, and tatters of cloth hung from exposed sections of broken bone. An eerie set of bloody handprints adorned the walls, and the only reason I could tell it had been three people were the shoes; all of them bore anklebones sticking out above blood-soaked socks. It smelled sickly sweet, a strange, nauseas odor that crept into my nose and settled on the back of my tongue like an alien parasite.
Something glinted in the beam of my flashlight, and my pulse quickened as I pried the object loose from the severed arm that still clung to it.
“Hail Mary full of Grace.” I would have grinned if it weren’t for the fact that the plane continued to buck and roll under the assault from the cars outside.
The pistol looked old, but well-maintained, aside from the light coating of dark blood that stained its round wooden handle. It felt heavy, but good in my hand, and I turned it over to read the words, Waffenfabrik Mauser stenciled into the frame, with a large red 9 carved into the grip. For some reason, it vaguely reminded me of the blasters from Star Wars.
I fumbled with a little switch that looked like a safety on the back of the gun and stumbled toward a gap in the plane’s dented fuselage to aim out at the surrounding headlights.
Bang.
The old gun bucked reliably in my hand, its long barrel spitting a little jet of flame into the night. I had no idea if I hit anything, but the attacking cars recoiled, their horns blaring in confusion.
They turned, and scuttled for the tree line as fast as their mechanical legs could go, the entire ordeal over as fast as it had begun.
Did I do that?
Perplexed, I stared down at the pistol in my hand.
Whoosh.
A large, inky black shadow glided down from the clouds, and the yellow school bus moved too slow to react in time.
With a crash, the kicking nightmarish vehicle was thrown onto its side, spraying glass and chrome trim across the muddy field. Its electro-synth horn blared with wails of mechanical agony, as two huge talon-like feet clamped down on it, and the enormous head of the flying creature lowered to rip open its engine compartment.
The horn cut out, and the enormous flying entity jerked its head back to gulp down a mass of what looked like sticky black vines from the interior of the shattered bus.
At this range, I could see now that the flying creature bore two legs and had its wings half-tucked like a vulture that had descended to feed on roadkill. Its head turned slightly, and in the glow of another lightning bolt, my jaw went slack at the realization of what it was.
A tree trunk. It’s a rotted tree trunk.
I couldn’t tell where the reptilian beast began, and where the organic tree components ended, the upper part of the head shaped like a log, while the lower jaw resembled something out of a dinosaur movie. Its skin looked identical to the outside of a shagbark hickory but flexed with a supple featheriness that denoted something closer to skin. Sharp branch-like spines ranged down its back, and out to the end of its tail, which bore a massive round club shaped like a diseased tree-knot. Crouched on both hind legs, it braced the hooked ends of its folded wings against the ground like a bat, towering higher than a semi-truck. Under the folds of its armored head, a bulging pair of chameleon-like eyes constantly spun in their sockets, probing the dark for threats while it ate.
One black pupil locked onto the window I peered through, and my heart stopped.
The beast regarded me for a moment, with a curious, sideways sniff.
With a proud, contemptful head-toss, the shadow from the sky parted rows of razor-sharp teeth to let out a roar that shook the earth beneath my feet. It was the triumphant war cry of a creature that sat at the very top of the food chain, one that felt no threat from the fragile two-legged beings that walked the earth all around it. It hunted whenever it wanted, ate whatever it wanted, and flew wherever it wanted. It didn’t need to rip the plane apart to devour me.
Like my hunter-gatherer ancestors from thousands of years ago, I wasn’t even worth the energy it would take to pounce.
I’m hiding in the remains of the cockpit now, which is half-buried under the mud of the field, enough to shield the light from my screen so that thing doesn’t see it. My service only now came back, and it’s been over an hour since the winged beast started in on the dead bus. I don’t know when, or how I’m going to get out of here. I don’t know when anyone will even see this post, or if it will upload at all. My phone battery is almost dead, and at this point, I’m probably going to have to sleep among the corpses until daylight comes.
A dead man sleeping amongst friends.
If you live in the Noble County area in southeastern Ohio, be careful where you drive, fly, and boat. I don’t know if it’s possible to stumble into this strange place by ground, but if so, then these things are definitely headed your way.
If that happens . . . pray that they don’t find you.
submitted by RandomAppalachian468 to u/RandomAppalachian468 [link] [comments]
From 5,000 feet, the ground flew by in a carpet of dark forests and kelly-green fields. The sun hung low on the horizon in a picturesque array of dazzling orange and gold, and I could make out the narrow strip of the Ohio River to my left, glistening in the fading daylight. This time of year, the trees would be full of the sweet aroma of fresh blossoms, and the frequent rains kept small pockets of fluffy white mist hanging in the treetops. It was a beautiful view, one that reminded me of why being a helicopter pilot trumped flying in a jumbo jet far above the clouds every day of the week.
Fourteen more days, and I’m debt free.
That made me grin even more. I’d been working as a charter pilot ever since I obtained my license at age 19, and after years of keeping my nose to the grindstone, I was closing on the final payment for real-estate in western Pennsylvania. With no debt, a fixer-upper house on 30 rural acres all to myself, and a respectable wage for a 26-year-old pilot, I looked forward to the financial freedom I could now enjoy. Maybe I’d take a vacation, somewhere exotic like Venice Italy, or the Dominican Republic. Or perhaps I’d sock the money back for the day I started a family.
“Remember kleineun, a real man looks after his own.”
My elderly ouma’s voice came back from the depths of my memories, her proud, sun-tanned face rising from the darkness. She and my Rhodesian grandfather had emigrated to the US when they were newlyweds, as the violence against white Boer descendants in South Africa spiraled out of control. My mother and father both died in a car crash when I was six, and it had been my grandparents who raised me. Due to this, I’d grown up with a slight accent that many of my classmates found amusing, and I could speak both English, and Afrikaans, the Boer tongue of our former home.
I shifted in my seat, stretched my back muscles, and glanced at the picture taped to my console. Both my parents flanked a grinning, gap-toothed six-year-old me, at the last Christmas we’d spent together. My mother beamed, her dark hair and Italian features a sharp contrast to my father’s sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Sometimes, I liked to imagine they were smiling at me with pride at how well I flew the old silver-colored bird my company had assigned to me, and that made the long, lonely flights easier to bear.
A flicker caught my eye, and I broke my gaze away from the photograph.
Perched in its small cradle above the controls, my little black Garmin fuzzed over for a few seconds, its screen shifting from brightly colored maps to a barrage of grey static.
Did the power chord come loose?
I checked, ensuring the power-cable for the unit’s battery was plugged into the port on the control panel. It was a brand-new GPS unit, and I’d used it a few times already, so I knew it wasn’t defective. Granted, I could fly and navigate without it, but the Garmin made my time as a pilot so much easier that the thought of going blind was dreadful.
My fuel gauge danced, clicked to empty, then to full, in a bizarre jolt.
More of the gauges began to stutter, the entire panel seeming to develop terrets all at once, and my pulse began to race. Something was wrong, very wrong, and the sludge inside my bowels churned with sour fear.
“Come on, come on.” I flicked switches, turned dials, punched buttons, but nothing seemed to fix the spasming electronics. Every gauge failed, and without warning, I found myself plunged into inky darkness.
Outside, the sun surrendered to the pull of night, the sky darker than usual. A distant rumble of thunder reverberated above the roar of my helicopter’s engine, and I thought I glimpsed a streak of yellowish lightning on the far horizon to my left.
Calm down Chris. We’re still flying, so it must just be a blown fuse. Stay in control and find a place to set her down.
My sweaty palm slid on the cyclic stick, and both feet weighed heavy on the yaw pedals. The collective stuck to my other hand with a nervous vibration, and I squinted against the abyss outside.
Beep.
I jumped despite myself, as the little Garmin on my panel flared back to life, the static pulling aside to reveal a twitching display. Each time the screen glitched, it showed the colorful map detailing my flight path over the ground below, but I noticed that some of the lines changed, the names shifting, as if the device couldn’t decide between two different versions of the world.
One name jutted out at me, slate gray like most of the major county names, appearing with ghostly flickers from between two neighboring ones.
Barron County.
I stared, confused. I’d flown over this section of southeastern Ohio plenty of times, and I knew the counties by heart. At this point, I should have been over the southern end of Noble County, and maybe dipping lower into Washington. There was no Barron County Ohio. I was sure of it.
And yet it shown back at me from the digital landscape, a strange, almost cigar-shaped chunk of terrain carved from the surrounding counties like a tumor, sometimes there, sometimes not, as my little Garmin struggled to find the correct map. Rain began to patter against my cockpit window, and the entire aircraft rattled from a strong gust of wind. Thick clouds closed over my field of vision like a sea of gray cotton.
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and I sucked in a nervous breath.
Land. I had to land. There was nothing else to do, my flight controls weren’t responding, and only my Garmin had managed to come back to life. Perhaps I’d been hit by lightning, and the electronics had been fried? Either way, it was too dark to tell, but a storm seemed to be brewing, and if I didn’t get my feet on the ground soon, I could be in real trouble.
“Better safe than sorry.” I pushed down on the collective to start my slow descent and clicked the talking button for my headset. “Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, over.”
Nothing.
“Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, requesting emergency assistance, over.”
Still nothing.
If the radio’s dead, I’m really up a creek.
With my hand shaking, I clicked on the mic one more time. “Any station, this is—”
Like a curtain pulling back, the fog cleared from around my window, and the words stuck in my throat.
Without my gauges, I couldn’t tell just how far I’d descended, but I was definitely very low. Thick trees poked up from the ground, and the hills rolled into high ridges with flat valley floors, fields and pastures pockmarking them. Rain fell all around in cold, silvery sheets, a normal feature for the mid spring in this part of Ohio.
What wasn’t normal, were the fires.
At first, I thought they were forest fires for the amount of smoke and flames that bellowed from each spot, but as I swooped lower, my eyes widened in horror.
They were houses.
Farms, cottages, little clusters that barely constituted villages, all of them belched orange flames and black pillars of sooty smoke. I couldn’t hear above the helicopter blades, but I could see the flashes on the ground, along the road, in between the trees, and even coming from the burning buildings, little jets of golden light that spat into the darkness with anger.
Gunfire. That’s rifle fire, a whole lot of it.
Tiny black figures darted through the shadows, barely discernable from where I sat, several hundred feet up. I couldn’t see much, but some were definitely running away, the streaks of yellow gunfire chasing them. A few dark gray vehicles rumbled down one of the gravel roads, and sprayed fire into the houses as it went. They were fighting, I realized, the people in the trucks and the locals. It was horrific, like something out of war-torn Afghanistan, but worse.
Then, I caught a glimpse of the others.
They didn’t move like the rest, who either fled from the dark vehicles, or fired back from behind cover. These skinny figures loped along with haphazard gaits, many running on all fours like animals, swarming from the trees by the dozens. They threw themselves into the gales of bullets without flinching, attacking anyone within range, and something about the way they moved, so fluid, so fearless, made my heart skip a beat.
What is that?
“Echo Four Actual to unknown caller, please respond, over.”
Choking back a cry of shock, I fumbled at the control panel with clumsy fingers, the man’s voice sharp and stern. I hadn’t realized that I’d let go of the talking button and clicked it down again. “Hello? Hello, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot out of Pittsburgh, over.”
An excruciating moment passed, and I continued to zoom over the trees, the fires falling away behind me as more silent forest took over.
“Roger that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, we read you loud and clear. Please identify yourself and any passengers or cargo you might be carrying, over.”
Swallowing hard, I eyed the treetops, which looked much closer than they should have been. How far had I descended? “Echo Four Actual, my name is Christopher Dekker, and I am alone. I’m a charter flight from PA, carrying medical equipment for OSU in Columbus. My controls have been damaged, and I am unable to safely carry on due to the storm. Requesting permission to land, over.”
I watched the landscape slide by underneath me, once catching sight of what looked like a little white church surrounded by smaller huts, dozens of figures in the yard staring up at me as I flew over a towering ridgeline.
“Solid copy on that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot. Be advised, your transponder shows you to be inside a restricted zone. Please cease all radio traffic, reduce your speed, climb to 3,000 feet and proceed north. We’ll talk you in from there. How copy, over?”
My heart jumped, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Roger that Echo Four Actual, my altimeter is down, but I’ll do my best to eyeball the altitude, over.”
With that, I pulled the collective upward, and tried my best to gauge how far I was by eyesight in the gathering night, rain still coming down all around me. This had to be some kind of disaster or riot, I decided. After all, the voice over the radio sounded like military, and those vehicles seemed to have heavy weapons. Maybe there was some kind of unrest going on here that I hadn’t heard about yet?
Kind of weird for it to happen in rural areas though. Spoiled college kids I get, but never saw farmers get so worked up before. They usually love the military.
Something moved in the corner of my eye, and I turned out of reflex.
My mouth fell open, and I froze, unable to scream.
In the sky beside me, a huge shadow glided along, and its leathery wings effortlessly carved through the gloom, flapping only on occasion to keep it aloft. It was too dark for me to see what color it was, but from the way it moved, I knew it wasn’t another helicopter. No, this thing was alive, easily the size of a small plane, and more than twice the length of my little McDonald Douglass. A long tail trailed behind it, and bore a distinct arrow-shaped snout, with twig-like spines fanned out around the back of its head. Whatever legs it had were drawn up under it like a bird, yet its skin appeared rough and knobby, almost resembling tree bark. Without pause, the gigantic bat-winged entity flew along beside me, as if my presence was on par with an annoying fly buzzing about its head.
Gripping the microphone switch so tight, I thought I’d crack the plastic, I whispered into my headset, forgetting all radio protocol. “T-There’s something up here.”
Static crackled.
“Douglas Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, say again your last, you’re coming in weak and unreadable, over.”
“There’s something up here.” I snarled into the headset, still glued to the controls of the helicopter, afraid to deviate even an inch from my course in case the monstrosity decided to turn on me. “A freaking huge thing, right beside me. I swear, it looks like a bat or . . . I don’t know.”
“Calm down.” The man on the other end of the radio broke his rigorous discipline as well, his voice deep, but level. “It won’t attack if you don’t move too fast. Slowly ease away from it and follow that course until you’re out of sight.”
I didn’t have time to think about how wrong that sounded, how the man’s strict tone had changed to one of knowledge, how he hadn’t been the least surprised by what I’d said. Instead, I slowly turned the helicopter away from the huge menace and edged the speed higher in tiny increments.
As soon as I was roughly two football fields away, I let myself relax, and clicked the mic switch. “It’s not following.”
“You’re sure?”
Eyeing the huge flapping wings, I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I’m well clear.”
“Good. Thank you, Mr. Dekker.”
Then, the radio went dead.
Something in my chest dropped, a weight that made my stomach roil. This wasn’t right, none of it. Who was that man? Why did he know about the thing I’d just seen? What was I supposed to—
A flash of light exploded from the trees to my right and shot into the air with a long finger of smoke.
What the . . .
On instinct, I jerked the cyclic stick to one side, and the helicopter swung to avoid the rocket.
Boom.
My world shook, metal screeched, and a dozen alarms began to go off inside the cockpit in a cacophony of beeps and sirens. Orange and red flames lit up the night sky just behind me, and the horizon started to spin wildly outside. Heat gushed from the cockpit door, and I smelled the greasy stench of burning oil. The safety belts dug into my shoulders, and with a final slip, the radio headset ripped free from my scalp.
I’m hit.
Desperate, I yanked on the controls, fought the bird even as she spun toward the ground in a wreath of flames, the inky black trees hurtling up to meet me. The helicopter went into full auto-rotation, the sky blurring past outside, and the alarms blared in a screech of doom. Panic slammed through my temples, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and for one brief second, my eyes locked on the little black Garmin still perched atop my control panel.
Its screen stopped twitching and settled on a map of the mysterious Barron County, with a little red arrow at the center of the screen, a few words popping up underneath it.
You are here.
Trees stabbed up into the sky, the belts crushed at my torso, glass shattered all around me, and the world went dark.
Copper, thick, warm, and tangy.
It filled my mouth, stank metallic in my nose, clogged my throat, choking me. In the murkiness, I fought for a surface, for a way out, blind and numb in the dark.
This way, kleineun.
My ouma’s voice echoed from somewhere in the shadows.
This way.
Both eyes flew open, and I gagged, spitting out a stream of red.
Pain throbbed in my ribs, and a heavy pressure sent a tingling numbness through my shoulders. Blood roared inside my temples, and stars danced before my eyes with a dizzying array. Humid night air kissed my skin, and something sticky coated my face, neck, and arms that hung straight up toward the ceiling.
Wait. Not up. Down.
I blinked at the wrinkled, torn ceiling of the cockpit, the glass all gone, the gray aluminum shredded like tissue paper. Just outside the broken windows, thick Appalachian bluegrass and stemmy underbrush swished in a feeble breeze, backlit by flashes of lightning from the thunderstorm overhead. Green and brown leaves covered everything in a wet carpet of triangles, and somewhere nearby, a cricket chirped.
Turning my head from side to side, I realized that I hung upside down inside the ruined helicopter, the top half burrowed into the mud. I could hear the hissing and crackling of flames, the pattering of rain falling on the hot aluminum, and the smaller brush fires around the downed aircraft sizzling out in the damp long grass. Charred steel and burning oil tainted the air, almost as strong as the metallic, coppery stench in my aching nose.
They shot me down. That military dude shot me out of the sky.
It didn’t make sense. I’d followed their orders, done everything they’d said, and yet the instant I veered safely away from whatever that thing in the sky had been, they’d fired, not at it, but at me.
Looking down (or rather, up) at my chest, I sucked in a gasp, which was harder to do that before.
The navy-blue shirt stuck to my torso with several big splotches of dark, rusty red. Most were clean slashes, but two held bits of glass sticking out of them, one alarmingly bigger than the other. They dripped cherry red blood onto my upturned face, and a wave of nausea hit me.
I gotta get down.
I flexed my arms to try and work some feeling back into them, praying nothing was broken. Half-numb from hanging so long, I palmed along my aching body until I felt the buckled for the seat belts.
“Okay.” I hissed between gritted teeth, in an effort to stave off my panic. “You can do this. Just hold on tight. Nice and tight. Here we go . . .”
Click.
Everything seemed to lurch, and I slid off the seat to plummet towards the muck-filled hole in the cockpit ceiling. My fingers were slick with blood and slipped over the smooth faux-leather pilot’s seat with ease. The shoulder belt snagged on the bits of glass that lay just under the left lowest rib, and a flare of white-hot pain ripped through me.
Wham.
I screamed, my right knee caught the edge of the aluminum ceiling, and both hands dove into a mound of leaf-covered glass shards on the opposite side of the hole. My head swam, being right-side-up again enough to make shadows gnaw at the corner of my eyes.
Forcing myself to breath slowly, I fought the urge to faint and slid back to sit on the smooth ceiling. I turned my hands over to see half a dozen bits of clear glass burrowed into my skin like greedy parasites, red blood weeping around the new cuts.
“Screw you.” I spat at the rubbish with angry tears in my eyes. “Screw you, screw you, screw you.”
The shards came out easy enough, and the cuts weren’t that deep, but that wasn’t what worried me. On my chest, the single piece of cockpit glass that remined was almost as big as my palm, and it really hurt. Just touching it felt like self-inflicted torture, but I knew it had to come out sooner or later.
Please don’t nick a vein.
Wiping my hands dry on my jeans, I gripped the shard with both hands, and jerked.
Fire roared over my ribs, and hot blood tickled my already grimy pale skin. I clapped a hand over the wound, pressing down hard, and grunted out a string of hateful expletives that my ouma would have slapped me for.
Lying on my back, I stared around me at the messy cargo compartment of the MD-902. Most of the medical supplies had been in cardboard boxes strapped down with heavy nylon tow-straps, but several cases had ruptured with the force of the impact, spraying bandages, syringes, and pill bottles all over the cluttered interior. Orange flames chewed at the crate furthest to the rear, the tail section long gone, but the foremost part of the hold was intact. Easily a million-dollar mess, it would have made me faint on any other trip, but today it was a godsend.
Half-blind in the darkness, I crawled along with only the firelight and lightning bolts to guide me, my right knee aching. Like a crippled raccoon, I collected things as I went, conscious of the two pallets of intact supplies weighing right over my head. I’d taken several different first-aid courses with some hunting buddies of mine, and the mental reflexes kicked in to help soothe my frazzled mind.
Check for bleeds, stop the worst, then move on.
Aside from my battered chest and stomach, the rest of me remained mostly unharmed. I had nasty bruises from the seatbelts, my right knee swelled, my nose slightly crooked and crusted in blood, but otherwise I was intact. Dowsing every scratch and cut with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol I found, I used butterfly closures on the smaller lacerations that peppered my skin. I wrapped soft white gauze over my abused palms and probed at the big cut where the last shard had been, only stopping when I was sure there were no pieces of glass wedged inside my flesh.
“Not too bad.” I grunted to myself, trying to sound impassive like a doctor might. “Rib must have stopped it. Gonna need stitches though. That’ll be fun.”
Pawing through the broken cases, I couldn’t find any suture chord, but just as I was about to give up, I noticed a small box that read ‘medical skin stapler’.
Bingo.
I tore the small white plastic stapler free from its packaging and eyeballed the device. I’d never done this before, only seen it in movies, and even though the cut in my skin hurt, I wondered if this wouldn’t be worse.
You’ve gotta do it. That bleeding needs to stop. Besides, no one’s coming to rescue you, not with those rocket-launching psychos out there.
Taking a deep breath, I pinched the skin around the gash together, and pressed the mouth of the stapler to it.
Click.
A sharp sting, like that of a needle bit at the skin, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the cut itself. I worked my way across the two-inch laceration and gave out a sigh of relief when it was done.
“Not going to bleed to death today.” I daubed ointment around the staples before winding more bandages over the wound.
Popping a few low-grade painkillers that tumbled from the cargo, I crawled wriggled through the nearest shattered window into the wet grass.
Raindrops kissed my face, clean and cool on my sweaty skin. Despite the thick cloud cover, there was enough constant lightning strikes within the storm to let me get glimpses of the world around me. My helicopter lay on its back, the blades snapped like pencils, with bits and pieces of it burning in chunks all around the small break in the trees. Chest-high scrub brush grew all around the low-lying ground, with pockets of standing water in places. My ears still rang from the impact of the crash, but I could start to pick up more crickets, frogs, and even some nocturnal birds singing into the darkness, like they didn’t notice the huge the hulk of flaming metal that had fallen from the sky. Overhead, the thunder rumbled onward, the feeble wind whistling, and there were other flashes on the horizon, orange and red ones, with crackles that didn’t sound quite like lightning.
The guns. They’re still fighting.
Instinctively, I pulled out my cellphone, and tapped the screen.
It fluttered to life, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get through to anyone, not even with the emergency function designed to work around having no service. The complicated wonder of our modern world was little better than a glorified paperweight.
Stunned, I sat down with my back to the helicopter and rested my head against the aluminum skin of the craft. How I’d gone from a regular medical supply run to being marooned in this hellish parody of rural America, I didn’t know, but one thig was certain; I needed a plan. Whoever fired the missile could have already contacted my charter company and made up some excuse to keep them from coming to look for me. No one else knew I was here, and even though I now had six staples holding the worst of my injuries shut, I knew I needed proper medical attention. If I wanted to live, I’d have to rescue myself.
My bag. I need to get my go-bag, grab some gear and then . . . head somewhere else.
It took me a while to gather my green canvas paratrooper bag from its place behind the pilot’s seat and fill it with whatever supplies I could scrounge. My knee didn’t seem to be broken, but man did it hurt, and I dreaded the thought of walking on it for miles on end. I focused instead on inventorying my gear and trying to come up with a halfway intelligent plan of action.
I had a stainless-steel canteen with one of those detachable cups on the bottom, a little fishing kit, some duct tape, a lighter, a black LED flashlight with three spare batteries, a few tattered road maps with a compass, a spare pair of socks, medical supplies from the cargo, and a simple forest green plastic rain poncho. I also managed to unearth a functioning digital camcorder my ouma had gotten me for Christmas a few years back, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to do any filming in such a miserable state. Lastly, since it was a private supply run from a warehouse area near Pittsburgh to a direct hospital pad in Ohio, I’d been able to bring my K-Bar, a sturdy, and brutally simple knife designed for the Marine Corps that I used every time I went camping. It was pitiful in comparison to the rifle I wished I had with me, but that didn’t matter now. I had what I had, and I doubted my trusty Armalite would have alleviated my sore knee anyway.
Clicking on my flashlight, I huddled with the poncho around my shoulders inside the wreck of the chopper and peered at the dusty roadmaps. A small part of me hoped that a solution would jump out from the faded paper, but none came. These were all maps of western PA and eastern Ohio. None of them had a Barron County on them anywhere.
The man on the radio said to head north, right before they shot me down. That means they must be camped out to the north of here. South had that convoy and those burning houses, so that’s a no-go. Maybe I can backtrack eastward the way I came.
As if on cue, a soft pop echoed from over the eastern horizon, and I craned to look out the helicopter window, spotting more man-made flashes over the tree tops.
“Great.” I hissed between clenched teeth, aware of how the temperature dipped to a chilly 60 degrees, and how despite the conditions, my stomach had begun to growl. “Not going that way, are we? Westward it is.”
Walking away from my poor 902 proved to be harder than I’d anticipated. Despite the glass, the fizzling fires, and the darkness, it still held a familiar, human essence to it. Sitting inside it made me feel secure, safe, even calm about the situation. In any other circumstance, I would have just stayed with the downed aircraft to wait for help, but I knew the men who shot me down would likely find my crash site, and I didn’t want to be around when they did.
Unlike much of central and western Ohio, southeastern Ohio is hilly, brushy, and clogged with thick forests. Thorns snagged at my thin poncho and sliced at my pant legs. My knee throbbed, every step a form of self-inflicted torture. The rain never stopped, a steady drizzle from above just cold enough to be problematic as time went on, making me shiver. Mud slid under my tennis shoes, and every tree looked ten times bigger in the flickering beam of my cheap flashlight. Icy fear prickled at the back of my neck at some of the sounds that greeted me through the gloom. I’d been camping loads of times, both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but these noises were something otherworldly to me.
Strange howls, screeches, and calls permeated the rain-soaked sky, some almost roars, while others bordered on human in their intonation. The more I walked, the softer the distant gunfire became, and the more prevalent the odd sounds, until the shadows seemed to fill with them. I didn’t dare turn off my flashlight, or I’d been completely blind in the dark, but a little voice in the back of my head screamed that I was too visible, crunching through the gloomy forest with my long beam of light stabbing into the abyss. It felt as though a million eyes were on me, studying me, hunting me from the surrounding brush, and I bitterly recalled how much I’d loved the old Survivor Man TV series as a kid.
Not so fun being out in the woods at night. Especially alone.
A twig snapped somewhere behind me, and I whirled on the spot, one trembling hand resting on the hilt of my K-Bar.
Nothing. Nothing but trees, bushes, and rain dripping down in the darkness.
“This is stupid.” I whispered to myself to keep my nerves in check as I slowly spun on the spot. “I should have went eastward anyway. God knows how long I’m going to have to—”
Creak.
A groan of metal-on-metal echoed from somewhere to my right, and I spun to face it, yanking the knife on my belt free from its scabbard. It felt so small and useless in my hand, and I choked down a wave of nauseas fear.
Ka-whump. Creak. K-whump. Creak.
Underbrush cracked and crunched, a few smaller saplings thrashed, and from deep within the gloom, two yellow orbs flared to life. They poked through the mist in the trees, forming into slender fingers of golden light that swept back and forth in the dark.
The soldiers . . . they must be looking for me.
I swallowed hard and turned to slink away.
Ice jammed through my blood, and I froze on the spot, biting my tongue to stop the scream.
It stood not yards away, a huge form that towered a good twelve feet tall in the swirling shadows. Unpolished chrome blended with flash-rusted spots in the faded red paint, and grime-smeared glass shone with dull hues in the flashes of lightning. Where the wheels should have been, the rounded steel axels curved like some enormous hand had bent them, and the tires lay face-down on the muddy ground like big round feet, their hubcaps buried in the dirt. Dents, scrapes, and chips covered the battered thing, and its crooked little radio antenna pointed straight up from the old metal fender like a mast. I could barely make out the mud-coated VW on the rounded hood, and my mind reeled in shock.
Is . . . is that a car?
Both yellow headlights bathed me in a circle of bright, blinding light, and neither I nor the strange vehicle moved.
Seconds ticked by, the screech-thumping in the background only growing closer. I realized that I couldn’t hear any engine noises and had yet to see any soldiers or guns pointed my way. This car looked old, really old, like one of those classic Volkswagen Beetles that collectors fought over at auctions. Try as I might, I couldn’t see a driver inside the murky, mold-smeared windows.
Because there wasn’t one.
Lightning arched across the sky overhead, and the car standing in front of me blinked.
Its headlights slid shut, as if little metal shades had crawled over the bulbs for a moment and flicked open again. Something about that movement was so primal, so real, so lifelike, that every ounce of self-control I had melted in an instant.
Cursing under my breath, I lunged into the shrubs, and the world erupted around me.
Under my shoes, the ground shook, and the car surged after me in a cacophony of ka-thumps that made my already racing heart skip several beats. A weather-beaten brown tow truck from the 50’s charged through the thorns to my left, it’s headlights ablaze, and a dilapidated yellow school bus rose from its hiding place in the weeds to stand tall on four down-turned axel-legs. They all flicked their headlights on like giants waking from their slumber, and as I dodged past them, they each blared their horn into the night in alarm.
My breaths came short and tight, my knee burned, and I crashed through thorns and briars without thought to how badly I was getting cut up.
The cheap poncho tore, and I ripped it away as it caught on a tree branch.
A purple 70’s Mustang shook off its blanket of creeping vines and bounded from a stand of trees just ahead, forcing me to swerve to avoid being run over, my adrenaline at all-time highs.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.
Slipping and sliding, I pushed through a stand of multiflora rose, and stumbled out into a flat, dark expanse.
I almost skidded to a stop.
What had once been a rather large field stood no taller than my shoestrings, the grass charred, and burnt. The storm above illuminated huge pieces of wreckage that lay scattered over the nearly 40-acre plot, and I could just make out the fire-blackened hulk of a fuselage resting a hundred yards away. The plane had been brought down a while ago it seemed, as there weren’t any flames left burning, and I threw myself toward it in frenzied desperation.
Burned grass and greasy brown topsoil slushed underfoot, and I could hear the squelching of the cars pursing me. Rain soaked me to the bone, and my lungs ached from sucking down the damp night air. A painful stich crept into my side, and I cursed myself for not putting in more time for cardio at the gym.
Something caught my left shoelace, and I hurtled to the ground, tasting mud and blood in between my teeth.
They’ve got me now.
I clawed at the mud, rolled, and watched a tire slam down mere inches from where my head had been. The Mustang loomed over me and jostled for position with the red Volkswagen and brown tow truck, the school bus still a few yards behind them. They couldn’t seem to decide who would get the pleasure of stomping me to death, and like a herd of stampeding wildebeest, they locked bumpers in an epic shoving match.
On all fours, I scampered out from under the sparring brutes, and dashed for the crumpled airplane, a white-painted DC-3 that looked like it had been cut in half by a gargantuan knife blade. I passed a snapped wing section, the oily remains of a turbo-prop engine, and a mutilated wheel from the landing gear. Climbing over a heap of mud, I squeezed into the back of the ruined flight cabin and dropped down into the dark cargo hold.
Wham.
No sooner had my sneakers hit the cold metal floor, and the entire plane rocked from the impact of something heavy ramming it just outside. I tumbled to my knees, screaming in pain as, once again, I managed to bash the sore one off a bracket in the wall.
My hand smeared in something gooey, and I scrabbled for my flashlight.
It clicked on, a wavering ball of white light in the pitch darkness, and I fought the urge to gag. “Oh man . . .”
Three people, or what was left of them, lay strewn over the narrow cargo area. Claret red blood coated the walls, caked on the floor, and clotted under my mud-spattered shoes. Bits of flesh and viscera were stuck to everything, and tatters of cloth hung from exposed sections of broken bone. An eerie set of bloody handprints adorned the walls, and the only reason I could tell it had been three people were the shoes; all of them bore anklebones sticking out above blood-soaked socks. It smelled sickly sweet, a strange, nauseas odor that crept into my nose and settled on the back of my tongue like an alien parasite.
Something glinted in the beam of my flashlight, and my pulse quickened as I pried the object loose from the severed arm that still clung to it.
“Hail Mary full of Grace.” I would have grinned if it weren’t for the fact that the plane continued to buck and roll under the assault from the cars outside.
The pistol looked old, but well-maintained, aside from the light coating of dark blood that stained its round wooden handle. It felt heavy, but good in my hand, and I turned it over to read the words, Waffenfabrik Mauser stenciled into the frame, with a large red 9 carved into the grip. For some reason, it vaguely reminded me of the blasters from Star Wars.
I fumbled with a little switch that looked like a safety on the back of the gun and stumbled toward a gap in the plane’s dented fuselage to aim out at the surrounding headlights.
Bang.
The old gun bucked reliably in my hand, its long barrel spitting a little jet of flame into the night. I had no idea if I hit anything, but the attacking cars recoiled, their horns blaring in confusion.
They turned, and scuttled for the tree line as fast as their mechanical legs could go, the entire ordeal over as fast as it had begun.
Did I do that?
Perplexed, I stared down at the pistol in my hand.
Whoosh.
A large, inky black shadow glided down from the clouds, and the yellow school bus moved too slow to react in time.
With a crash, the kicking nightmarish vehicle was thrown onto its side, spraying glass and chrome trim across the muddy field. Its electro-synth horn blared with wails of mechanical agony, as two huge talon-like feet clamped down on it, and the enormous head of the flying creature lowered to rip open its engine compartment.
The horn cut out, and the enormous flying entity jerked its head back to gulp down a mass of what looked like sticky black vines from the interior of the shattered bus.
At this range, I could see now that the flying creature bore two legs and had its wings half-tucked like a vulture that had descended to feed on roadkill. Its head turned slightly, and in the glow of another lightning bolt, my jaw went slack at the realization of what it was.
A tree trunk. It’s a rotted tree trunk.
I couldn’t tell where the reptilian beast began, and where the organic tree components ended, the upper part of the head shaped like a log, while the lower jaw resembled something out of a dinosaur movie. Its skin looked identical to the outside of a shagbark hickory but flexed with a supple featheriness that denoted something closer to skin. Sharp branch-like spines ranged down its back, and out to the end of its tail, which bore a massive round club shaped like a diseased tree-knot. Crouched on both hind legs, it braced the hooked ends of its folded wings against the ground like a bat, towering higher than a semi-truck. Under the folds of its armored head, a bulging pair of chameleon-like eyes constantly spun in their sockets, probing the dark for threats while it ate.
One black pupil locked onto the window I peered through, and my heart stopped.
The beast regarded me for a moment, with a curious, sideways sniff.
With a proud, contemptful head-toss, the shadow from the sky parted rows of razor-sharp teeth to let out a roar that shook the earth beneath my feet. It was the triumphant war cry of a creature that sat at the very top of the food chain, one that felt no threat from the fragile two-legged beings that walked the earth all around it. It hunted whenever it wanted, ate whatever it wanted, and flew wherever it wanted. It didn’t need to rip the plane apart to devour me.
Like my hunter-gatherer ancestors from thousands of years ago, I wasn’t even worth the energy it would take to pounce.
I’m hiding in the remains of the cockpit now, which is half-buried under the mud of the field, enough to shield the light from my screen so that thing doesn’t see it. My service only now came back, and it’s been over an hour since the winged beast started in on the dead bus. I don’t know when, or how I’m going to get out of here. I don’t know when anyone will even see this post, or if it will upload at all. My phone battery is almost dead, and at this point, I’m probably going to have to sleep among the corpses until daylight comes.
A dead man sleeping amongst friends.
If you live in the Noble County area in southeastern Ohio, be careful where you drive, fly, and boat. I don’t know if it’s possible to stumble into this strange place by ground, but if so, then these things are definitely headed your way.
If that happens . . . pray that they don’t find you.
2023.06.01 21:02 jasoncrawford Links and tweets, 2023-06-01: Richard Rhodes, illegal floor plans, and cyborg insects
2023.06.01 20:55 Son_of_Ibadan CT - Master of the Ajogun
The user has the ability to command the Ajogun. The Ajogun, or 'warlords', are evil spirits that haunt the world in Yoruba (Nigerian) mythology. The greater the CE output, the greater the power the user has over a wider radius. There are 200 Ajogun, but the user has command of the 8 most powerful Ajoguns, which are:
1) Iku (Death) - This is the de facto leader of the Ajogun. Using this ajogun, the user can access 'death sense', i.e., see when everybody will die and how. The user can also inflict death, and by doing so, he feeds Iku, making the warlord stronger. In order to conquer Death, the user must not only defeat the 7 remaining warlords but also survive Iku at every turn whilst attempting to tempt the other ajoguns. Iku can not be defeated because Death is unconquerable. Additionally, Iku can not be summoned on his own. Other 7 warlords must be activated in some way, minimum 1 warlord if the opponent is close to death. If the opponent is not close to death, more warlords will be needed in order for Iku to be ultilised to his fullest.
2) Arun (Disease) - The user has the ability to inflict or enhance diseases of any kind on their target. The larger the CT output, the more widespread the disease is.
3) Ofo (Loss) - The user can inflict or enhance loss on his opponent, be it emotional, physical, or spiritual. In battle, it could also mean the opponent's momentary loss in the ability to control or access CE.
4) Egba (Paralysis) - The user has the ability to inflict paralysis on any of his targets. However, this is purely physical in nature.
5) Oran (Big Trouble) - The user has the ability to cause destructive chaos, inflicting badluck on the target.
6) Epe (Curse) - This gives the user a momentary boost in CE output, thus making the effect of the other warlords more powerful.
7) Ewon (Imprisonment) - Unlike Egba (paralysis), this can be physical only in regards to trapping the opponent in a building of some kind. It is also mental imprisonment, which is the most effective use of this warlord.
8) Ese (Affliction) - The user has the ability to cause suffering. Again, this warlord is only stronger if it is used in conjunction with other warlords.
As noted, the warlords can be use in conjunction with each other, making the user more dangerous, for example Epe (curse) can be use to boost the user's CE, which can be transfered to Oran (big trouble) to create chaos, which in turn can fuel Ofo (loss) or Arun (Disease) which will then fuel Ese (Affliction), and Iku (to strike the killer blow). Thus, in order to use this CT effectively, the user has to possess high ingenuity and be strategically and tactically gifted.
MAXIMUM TECHNIQUE - The user can use reverse curse technique to reverse the effects of the warlords, e.g., reverse near death to bring life, reverse imprisonment to bring freedom, reverse curse to blessings, and so on. Note: The user does not have the power to create life through CE, but he can do so by commanding Iku to take away their power from the target.
This is very important as the user is basically a divine mediator: if he uses the Ajoguns too recklessly, life will slowly self-destruct and die out, and Iku will begin to slowly consume the user, eventually taking over the user and possess him, unleashing a nightmarish hell on the world. If the user does not use the Ajoguns enough, life will become a 'cancer'. Thus, the user acts as an enforcer and brings balance to life.
DOMAIN EXPANSION - HEAVENLY JURISDICTION - There is a barrier with a binding vow that can be expanded if the user decides to unleash bad luck. The user is clothed in the attire of Esu, the true king of the Ajogun, in red and black. He is seated on a throne and ajudicates on the target. In the domain, the user as access to all 200 warlords, and can choose to order them not to attack the target, thus granting the target good luck, or he can decide to unleash the might of all 200 Ajogun, led by Iku, completely overwhelming the target. This is a surehit.
submitted by Son_of_Ibadan to CTsandbox [link] [comments]
1) Iku (Death) - This is the de facto leader of the Ajogun. Using this ajogun, the user can access 'death sense', i.e., see when everybody will die and how. The user can also inflict death, and by doing so, he feeds Iku, making the warlord stronger. In order to conquer Death, the user must not only defeat the 7 remaining warlords but also survive Iku at every turn whilst attempting to tempt the other ajoguns. Iku can not be defeated because Death is unconquerable. Additionally, Iku can not be summoned on his own. Other 7 warlords must be activated in some way, minimum 1 warlord if the opponent is close to death. If the opponent is not close to death, more warlords will be needed in order for Iku to be ultilised to his fullest.
2) Arun (Disease) - The user has the ability to inflict or enhance diseases of any kind on their target. The larger the CT output, the more widespread the disease is.
3) Ofo (Loss) - The user can inflict or enhance loss on his opponent, be it emotional, physical, or spiritual. In battle, it could also mean the opponent's momentary loss in the ability to control or access CE.
4) Egba (Paralysis) - The user has the ability to inflict paralysis on any of his targets. However, this is purely physical in nature.
5) Oran (Big Trouble) - The user has the ability to cause destructive chaos, inflicting badluck on the target.
6) Epe (Curse) - This gives the user a momentary boost in CE output, thus making the effect of the other warlords more powerful.
7) Ewon (Imprisonment) - Unlike Egba (paralysis), this can be physical only in regards to trapping the opponent in a building of some kind. It is also mental imprisonment, which is the most effective use of this warlord.
8) Ese (Affliction) - The user has the ability to cause suffering. Again, this warlord is only stronger if it is used in conjunction with other warlords.
As noted, the warlords can be use in conjunction with each other, making the user more dangerous, for example Epe (curse) can be use to boost the user's CE, which can be transfered to Oran (big trouble) to create chaos, which in turn can fuel Ofo (loss) or Arun (Disease) which will then fuel Ese (Affliction), and Iku (to strike the killer blow). Thus, in order to use this CT effectively, the user has to possess high ingenuity and be strategically and tactically gifted.
MAXIMUM TECHNIQUE - The user can use reverse curse technique to reverse the effects of the warlords, e.g., reverse near death to bring life, reverse imprisonment to bring freedom, reverse curse to blessings, and so on. Note: The user does not have the power to create life through CE, but he can do so by commanding Iku to take away their power from the target.
This is very important as the user is basically a divine mediator: if he uses the Ajoguns too recklessly, life will slowly self-destruct and die out, and Iku will begin to slowly consume the user, eventually taking over the user and possess him, unleashing a nightmarish hell on the world. If the user does not use the Ajoguns enough, life will become a 'cancer'. Thus, the user acts as an enforcer and brings balance to life.
DOMAIN EXPANSION - HEAVENLY JURISDICTION - There is a barrier with a binding vow that can be expanded if the user decides to unleash bad luck. The user is clothed in the attire of Esu, the true king of the Ajogun, in red and black. He is seated on a throne and ajudicates on the target. In the domain, the user as access to all 200 warlords, and can choose to order them not to attack the target, thus granting the target good luck, or he can decide to unleash the might of all 200 Ajogun, led by Iku, completely overwhelming the target. This is a surehit.
2023.06.01 20:53 ResponsibleAge2134 The Ancient Kingdom and Luffy’s Dream
While reading Chapter 1085 something very small stuck out to me. When Lily said in her letter “Raise the flag of Dawn” it made me think of this theory.
Throughout almost the entirety of One Piece flags have been used to signify pirate crew (with the exception of the WG flag). Seeing the words “Raise the flag of Dawn” made me think of a pirate crew more than a country.
Since we have known about the Ancient Kingdom we have thought about it as a country, but what if it is just one massive pirate crew.
The beginning of Doffy’s speech about justice backs this up by saying “Pirates are evil? Marines are just? These labels have been passed around heaven knows how many times!” With someone as knowledgeable as Doffy saying these words we can assume he knows there was at least once when pirates were good.
We also have no idea where the Ancient Kingdom was located but what if it wasn’t an island at all and was actually just a massive ship and that’s why no one knows the location.
I also believe we have seen the “Flag of Dawn” before in the story here . I believe this is what the Dawn flag would look like because it is a sun in the center of the flag. We thought at the time that this moment was important because it signifies the burning of the WG flag but what if it actually shows the WG flag being replaced with the flag of dawn to show how the WG will be replaced again by the Dawn Pirates.
I also believe that the members of the D clan are descendents of the Dawn Pirates.
Finally to tie this to luffy’s dream I believe that luffy’s real dream is to have everyone in the world join his crew. This lines up in a few ways.
Straw hat luffy will become the king of the pirates and the entire world will join him under 1 crew.
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Throughout almost the entirety of One Piece flags have been used to signify pirate crew (with the exception of the WG flag). Seeing the words “Raise the flag of Dawn” made me think of a pirate crew more than a country.
Since we have known about the Ancient Kingdom we have thought about it as a country, but what if it is just one massive pirate crew.
The beginning of Doffy’s speech about justice backs this up by saying “Pirates are evil? Marines are just? These labels have been passed around heaven knows how many times!” With someone as knowledgeable as Doffy saying these words we can assume he knows there was at least once when pirates were good.
We also have no idea where the Ancient Kingdom was located but what if it wasn’t an island at all and was actually just a massive ship and that’s why no one knows the location.
I also believe we have seen the “Flag of Dawn” before in the story here . I believe this is what the Dawn flag would look like because it is a sun in the center of the flag. We thought at the time that this moment was important because it signifies the burning of the WG flag but what if it actually shows the WG flag being replaced with the flag of dawn to show how the WG will be replaced again by the Dawn Pirates.
I also believe that the members of the D clan are descendents of the Dawn Pirates.
Finally to tie this to luffy’s dream I believe that luffy’s real dream is to have everyone in the world join his crew. This lines up in a few ways.
- A running gag of luffy is to ask almost everyone to join his crew, but what if it isn’t a gag.
- People have been asking for Bon Chan, Vivi, Carrot, Yamato, etc. to join the crew and they all will along with the rest of the world.
- When sabo, ace, and luffy were sharing the sake they all told each other they should join their crews. They also seem annoyed then laugh as if they are laughing at the idea that they would join his crew. Soon after luffy says his dream. What if this moment made luffy come up with his dream and that’s why those two reacted in that way.
- Read the reactions after luffy says his dream. They all line up with how each straw hat has reacted when he has asked others to join his crew. Also they all say it’s impossible and he says he has to be king of the pirates for it to happen which makes sense because…
Straw hat luffy will become the king of the pirates and the entire world will join him under 1 crew.
2023.06.01 20:42 myopinion1956 Co-Create to Recreate MetroParks
Co-Create to Recreate
Thursday, Jun. 8, 2023; 6:00 – 7:30 pm at STAR Center
Free admission, no pre-registration necessary
Participants will find out what’s happening, meet the staff, and share ideas! The event will include refreshments, ice breaker & brainstorming activities and an opportunity to give feedback and recommendations on programs, the community center and events.- Connect with people in your community
- Enjoy a meal together (dinner served at 6 pm, no pre-registration necessary)
- Share your ideas and priorities to help guide future park projects and programs
- Learn about the process for updating the parks and recreation plan for the next six years and opportunities to get involved
Co-Create to Recreate Summer Events
Co-Create to Recreate – STAR
Thursday, Jun 8, 2023; 6-7:30 pm
STAR Center
3873 S 66th StTacoma, WA 98409
Co-Create to Recreate – Eastside
Tuesday, Jun 13, 2023; 6-7:30 pm
Eastside Community Center
1721 E 56th StTacoma, WA 98404
Co-Create to Recreate – Norpoint
Tuesday, Jun 20, 2023; 6-7:30 pm
Center at Norpoint
4818 Nassau Ave NETacoma, WA 98422
Co-Create to Recreate – People’s Center
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2023; 6-7:30 pm
People’s Community Center
1602 Martin Luther King Jr. WayTacoma, WA 98405
2023.06.01 20:39 xtremexavier15 TSWT 26 (pt 1)
Girls: Izzy
Boys: Ezekiel, Mal
Episode 26: Hawaiian Punch
"Previously, on Total Drama World Tour!" Chris said, the first clip of the recap showing a pan from the wrecked plane to Izzy, Mal, and the host himself. "The Final Three took off like bats out of Drumheller," Chris continued as Mal was shown ducking behind a rock with a smirk, Izzy and Topher took off into the air in a makeshift hot air balloon, and Ezekiel was reading a newspaper in the train's passenger car.
"Unfortunately, Izzy brought Topher the plane-wrecker along for the ride," Chris added as the two teens were shown flying into the hailstorm. "Even more unfortunate? A broken yeti heart." Mal was shown being disgusted by the yeti kissing him.
"Thankfully, Ezekiel Clone made things less crappy to watch," the host conceded as Ezekiel Clone was shown chasing Ezekiel around the dessert cart. "Good times!" the host added as Ezekiel's boat hit a naval mine and were blown into the air.
"In the end, Mal the Mayhem King reached Hawaii first," he said as Mal's triumphant arrival on the beach was shown. "And Captain Canada and Princess Destructo tied for second place," he added as Ezekiel's boat was shown crashing into Izzy's, sending both finalists and Topher flying onto the beach at the same time. Chris laughed as the Final Three reacted with shock at the tie.
"Who will Mal face in the final challenge?" Chris asked, the recap ending with a flash to the beach, where the Final Three were lined up behind him. "And who will go home with a million dollars?!" he exclaimed in a dramatic emcee's voice. "Iiiiiit's finale time! Right here, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
XXXXX
"Welcome to the live finale of Total Drama World Tour," Chris said, a triumphant tune already playing as the camera zoomed in on him, the finalists, and Dawn and Harold standing on the beach. "Moments ago, these guys tied for second in a boat sandwich," he said, the shot zooming in on the finalists before he stepped over to join them. "Tasty!" he added.
"During the break, we sent them to vent in the confessional. Check it!" Chris told the camera.
Confessional: Izzy
Izzy was first, and the new Hawaiian confessional seemed to be a roofless wooden outhouse set up somewhere in the jungle, based on the vines that were drooping into it.
"Finale time!!! I can't wait to purchase my very own race track and monster truck!" she cheered. "Granted, I tied with Ezekiel to the finish line, but I think I can handle him."
She paused for a moment. "It's Mal that's the most challenging. He shouldn't be in juvenile detention. That guy belongs in jail!"
Confessional: Ezekiel
Ezekiel's confessional started with a whoop of joy. "I can't believe how close I am to the million dollars! With that amount of money, I can hire more teachers to homeschool me and buy new and advanced books to study from."
He facepalmed his head. "I just have to beat Izzy and Mal in order to reach that goal."
Confessional: Mal
Mal was next. "Getting rid of the fifteen past losers was like scraping gum off my shoe. A bit sticky, but oh so satisfying! And with Mike trapped in my subconscious, that million dollars is mine!"
He delved into maniacal laughter once more, with the background fading into a fiery inferno before the shot zoomed into his subconscious again.
Mike, Manitoba Smith, Vito, Svetlana, and Chester have reached the top, panting in exhaustion from the stairs they had climbed.
Mike, who still had Chester on his back, walked over to a red button in the center of the room. "Oh, come on. We came all the way up here for a lousy button?" Mike complained.
"It's a destruction button, you ninny!" Chester stated.
"What? What does it do?" Svetlana asked.
"You see this tower here?" Chester started. "You press this button, and the tower goes kaboom!"
"Why would Mal have a self-destruct button?" Vito asked incredulously.
"Mal made this tower and since his head is all swelled up, he put this button there just to mock us for not being able to stand up to him," Manitoba deduced.
"But what if it hurts all of us?" Mike asked in concern.
"It's not going to kill us. That's not how DID works!" Chester moaned. "Mal will lose control of his body when his tower is destroyed."
"And after that, Mike and Mal will have to go one-on-one to see who'll claim control!" Svetlana realized.
"Hold up. I have to fight Mal?" Mike said in shock.
"You two are the most dominant out of us," Vito reasoned. "If me or anyone else tried to face him, we'd lose immediately."
"And if Mal defeats you, we'll be back to being under his control, and so will you, for the rest of your life!" Manitoba emphasized.
"That means I won't see my family or friends ever again," Mike gasped. "I have to do this!"
\
"Go Team Ezekiel!" Sadie cheered, drawing attention to the stands just off to the side where most of the rest of the cast were seated. "Your team is rooting for you!" she said, waving a small flag with the home-schooled guy's face on it.
"Why are they in teams?" Mal asked Chris, stepping towards him and shooting a skeptical look towards the gallery. "And why do I not have one?"
"The Peanut Gallery's playing a major role in choosing a winner," Chris explained, earning a cheer from those in the stand.
"Sweet," Duncan grinned. "I guess we're all voting on the winner again."
"A vote?" Mal said blankly and nervously.
"Yep. If you can't tell, you're done for," Noah smirked.
"We are here for you Izzy!" Owen said. "So show them you're the boss!"
"But first," Chris said as the music turned tense, "we gotta break a tie. Mal," he turned to the evil personality, "you won the race to Hawaii, so, your reward is this advantage: you can select the tiebreaker yourself, or you can let Izzy or Ezekiel do it."
"Like I'd give these short sacks a choice," Mal said with a chuckle. "I'll do it!"
"I was hoping you'd say that," Chris said with an ominous laugh that caused Mal to raise an eyebrow.
\
"Ta-da!" Chris said as the footage skipped forward to a close-up of a clear glass booth with some sort of yellowish bulb filled with small balls on top. "Each ball inside our challenge booth has a different tiebreaker written on it," he said, gesturing to the bulb as the shot pulled back to show the Final Three on the left and the Aftermath hosts behind the booth on the right. "So, take your pick!"
"This is going to be such a thrill," Mal said cynically before walking into the booth.
The door was closed and the machine whirred to a start, challenge music playing as Mal was pelted with the white golf balls of the challenge booth. "Are these golf balls?!" Mal yelled, wincing with every hit and causing the Peanut Gallery to laugh.
"I know for a fact that we only put ping pong balls in there," Harold said nervously, Dawn nodding in agreement.
"I know," Chris told them, "and I'm not mad. Just disappointed. I had to dial it up to meet my usual high standards!"
"Enough!" Mal said, still wincing with every hit. "This should stop right-" he said, tilting his head up as he tried to reach for the bottom of the bulb – the source of the balls. He was cut off abruptly, and suddenly put a hand to his throat. His eyes starting to bulge, he barged his way out of the booth and began to gag.
"No ball, no exit," Chris told him. "Back you go!"
Mal stayed put, grabbing his throat as he coughed and choked about. Eventually, he spat up a ball, and it landed in a small pool of spit in the sand.
"Dawn, Harold, go ahead and read that, would you?" Chris asked them.
"Yuck," Dawn winced, crouching down to pick up the spit-covered golf ball in two fingers. "Mal has selected the Traditional Hawaiian Fire Dance of...Death?" she announced, ominous music playing as Ezekiel frowned at the news while Izzy clapped for it.
\
The same Hawaiian tune that had been used in the past couple of episodes was playing as the footage skipped ahead to Ezekiel and Izzy standing on opposite ends of a wooden platform in the ocean, each dressed in coconut bras and grass skirts and holding padded jousting sticks. Between them was Mal, tied up tightly to a pole in the center of the platform.
"Why does a male warrior have to wear a coconut bra," Ezekiel commented, motioning to the odd piece of equipment.
"Forget about tradition?" Mal griped as the Hawaiian music cut out. "I'm stuck to a pole!"
Those in the gallery laughed. "He's funny when he's tied up and can't hurt me!" Owen laughed.
"Once I win this finale!" Mal countered, "you will all treat me with the utmost respect! I will not be forgotten again!"
"Right," Chris told him, the shot cutting to him and Chef on the beach – the hulking man in a floral-print skirt with a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows on his back. "The first person to free Mal wins the last spot in the Final Two," Chris announced, "and a shot at the million!"
"I have one more question," Izzy spoke up. "If no one frees him, would that make me and Ezekiel the Final Two?"
"Hey!" Mal said in outrage.
"Won't work, I already checked," Chris answered. "Chef, would you do the honors?" he asked his assistant, the man drawing back two flaming arrows and releasing them with a twang. They struck a darkened patch on either side of the platform, just behind each competitor, which promptly burst into blazing fires that startled Izzy and Ezekiel.
"Oh, and stay out of the water," Chris added. "Starting...," Chef shot off another pair of arrows, these ones tipped with steaks, "now!" The arrows landed in the water where a pair of shark fins were already circling; one rose up and swallowed an arrow just as it plunked into the water.
"Good thing we're out of the game," Ella whispered over to Sadie.
"And rekindled our friendship in the process," Sadie agreed as challenge music began to play.
The gallery began to cheer and holler as the camera zoomed in on the platform, Izzy quickly taking the offense by swiping at Ezekiel with her jousting stick. "Prepare to go down!" she said, slamming her stick down hard against his as he tried to block.
"I'm too young to die, eh. I'm gonna take you down!" Ezekiel glared and blocked Izzy.
"Stay on your guard, Zeke!" Topher encouraged him.
"Go for her legs! It's easy!" Shawn spoke out as well.
"Alright, Izzy! You can pound him into meat!" Eva shouted.
"I'd ask any of you for my encouragement, but it'd be useless," Mal mumbled.
"I don't support people who mess with my best friends!" Sky said firmly.
Mal scowled back at her, and an arrow from Chef hit the pole he was tied to, causing it to burn up while Mal tried to blow it away.
His view was covered by Ezekiel having the upper hand on Izzy and thrusting her back. "Save yourself the trouble and let me win!" he said and continued to push his jousting stick onto Izzy and send her closer to her edge.
"Someone better win or I'm going to burst into flames!" Mal yelled impatiently.
Izzy struggled under Ezekiel's stick, but an idea formed in her head. "Hey Ezekiel, I see a hawk that's flying towards you," she fibbed.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Ezekiel said. "Nice try."
"Darn it!" Izzy cursed under her breath.
Ezekiel pushed her to the ground, and just as he was about to swipe her off, Izzy lifted her stick and hit Ezekiel's foot with it. The homeschooler howled in pain and let his guard down, and Izzy used the opportunity to jab the padded end of her stick at his chin, knocking him a couple inches into the air and allowing his jousting stick to sink into the water.
He landed on the platform on his back, and Izzy quickly ran over to Mal. The camera angle switched to show her hands darting to the knot on the back, already partially undone, and seconds later the ropes slid off Mal as the challenge music ended.
"It's about time you got me out!" Mal whined. "You took too long to beat Ezekiel of all people."
"You leave him alone!" Izzy snapped. "He's proven himself to be more capable than any of us this season, and he is twice the person you will ever be!"
Ezekiel, still lying on his back, took the moment to smile. "That really means a lot coming from you," he told Izzy.
"Sorry I had to defeat you just to reach the finals," Izzy said as he helped Ezekiel back on his feet. "Are you going to be fine with taking third place?"
"I'm not going to win the cash prize," Ezekiel admitted, "but I've made friends, improved my views on the outside world, and gained a girlfriend from this show. That's more than enough for me now!"
Mal rolled his eyes, and someone in a hazmat suit appeared on the platform with a fire extinguisher. As they began putting out the flame on the fallen charmer's side, the former Final Three made their way to the edge of the platform to the general cheering of the unseen gallery.
\
The scene skipped forward to Izzy (back in her usual clothing) and Mal standing on the beach with Chris, the person in the hazmat suit clinging to the burning and sinking wreckage of the platform in the background.
"Now that we have our Final Two," Chris said with a broad smile, "it's my pleasure to announce the Peanut Gallery will not be voting for the winner."
"Yeah!" Mal said in triumph.
"Wait," Topher spoke up. "You said we were supposed to be playing a major role."
"Yep," Chris told him. "Just not in a vote-y kinda way. Prepare to have your minds blown out by the most lethal challenge in Total Drama history!" he announced dramatically.
"Izzy," he said as a shot of The Psycho Hose Beast smiling goofily against a red background, "versus Mal," a shot of The Malevolent One grinning darkly against a bluish background took over the screen, "versus the Volcano!" The shot changed to a distance shot of a volcano as it belched out a plume of smoke.
"Back in the day," Chris said as the scene cut to him standing between the two finalists; Mal on his left behind a light blue rug, Izzy on his right behind a light red rug; "human sacrifices were tossed into Kilauea volcano to appease the Gods. Sadly, the lawyers won't let me use real people as sacrifices. So! Mal and Izzy will have to make sacrifice stand-ins, using the island's most abundant resources."
The camera followed off-screen, landing on a pile of "Pineapples, and driftwood!"
"And to make it nice and symbolic," Chris continued as the shot cut back to him and the finalists, "you guys have to make dummies of each other to dump in the volcano. Now, you each get to pick two helpers."
"I'm not letting either of you pick me," Duncan immediately told them.
"I'll pick Eva," Izzy said immediately.
"Great!" Eva said standing up. "We'll win this one!"
"Exactly," Izzy smiled. "And my second choice is Noah."
"I normally don't care about contests, but this is one I can't sit out on," Noah said with a smile of his own.
"Sorry, Big-O! I need Team E-Scope for this part!" Izzy told her boyfriend.
"No problem. I want you to win with the best of the best," Owen told her.
Mal looked at the Gallery nervously, the camera panning across Peanut Gallery, all its members glaring at him. "Do I have to pick two?" Mal asked the host.
"Definitely! And all of them hate you." Chris snickered.
Mal groaned under his breath. "In that case, I'm choosing Sky first!"
"I'll help…but only for Mike!" Sky enforced.
"And lastly," Mal scanned the Gallery again, "I'll take Shawn!"
"I would refuse, but the rules won't allow me to do so," Shawn shrugged.
\
"Okay! We have our helpers!" Chris said as the scene flashed back to the two colored rugs; Izzy by the light red with Eva and Noah, Mal by the light blue with Shawn and Sky. "Now, Izzy and Mal, you have to stay on your mats and direct your helpers to bring you logs, driftwood,and pineapples that resemble parts of your opponent. And to make things a little more rhymey~!" He added with an excited smile as the all-to-familiar dings sounded and the musical note icon appeared on-screen.
///\
[A reverent, almost chanted riff opened as Sky and Shawn looked up and back, and the colors of the scene shifted to something more animated: the two in blue, against a background of reddish-pink flowers. The shot changed so that it seemed to be looking up at a blue volcano as it erupted against the floral background, and a blue and almost larger-than-life Mal emerged from its peak and with a laurel wreath on his head.]
"Hey peons, you should head straight! Don't ask, it'll make me ache!"
[He sang commandingly as a hip-hop tune began; holding out his arm as if to catch something before an almost cartoonish thunderbolt appeared in his hands. He threw it, and the camera followed it down to Shawn and Sky. They were forced to flee before the bolt struck where they'd been loitering along the ground.]
"You two, get me; wood shaped, like Izzy's tiny fe~et!"
[His helpers ran to a titanic pile of neatly-stacked blue logs, and the shot cut back to Mal idly examining his fingernails before turning to his helpers and smirking as he finished the line. The shot panned to the right to a red volcano as it, too, erupted; a red Izzy emerged from it, also wearing a laurel wreath.]
"Come on, come on, move it fast! Hurry, hurry, won't be last!
[She sang as another cartoonish thunderbolt appeared in her hands, casting her opponent a disparaging glance then throwing the bolt over her head down at the red Noah and Eva below. They too were forced to flee before the bolt struck where they'd been loitering.]
"Find wood that looks like him, so pencil-like and sli~im!"
[The camera continued to follow Eva and Noah as they ran past Sky, who was securing a rope to a peg on the side of a large hunk of wood. She briefly turned her head to watch them, then turned back and tugged the rope extending up off-screen.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The two finalists sang, together even with the chanted words in the background. As they dueled the shot moved from Mal, his hands alternately throwing lightning bolts at his helpers, to Scarlett, throwing only one bolt, to both as they turned to one another and sent their god-like abilities at each other, resulting in an explosion of purple smoke that took over the scene.]
"Are these legs thin enough?"
[Eva called out, the smoke dissipating into her close-up before the shot zoomed out to show her standing on a pale gray scaffold next to another large chunk of wood suspended by a rope tied to a peg.
"Uh-huh!" Izzy replied from off-screen.
"H~ey!" Mal sang, the camera panning up to a higher level of the scaffold where Shawn was standing next to a rather thin piece of wood, also suspended point-down on a rope.
"Man, is this neck squeezed enough?" he asked, receiving a red thunderbolt for his trouble.]
"Whoo! Now it's psycho versus insane; Mal and Izzy cause some pain and!"
[The purple smoke cleared to show Shawn in his Drama Brothers outfit and a mic in his hand; the beat changed slightly as he began to rap from a small pillar of rock between the two finalists. The camera rotated about him as he gestured over his shoulder first at the finalists.]
"All this tension for the million; to that I have no opinion!"
[The camera zoomed in as he smirked and threw a dollar bill in the air, then zoomed back out as he got in front of Izzy, who threw a thunderbolt at him.]
"That is good, hurry back; I need arms weak and slack!"
[Mal continued in a commanding tone as Shawn, now riding atop another cone-like piece of wood as it was carried along by the attached rope, met up with Sky who was in a similar position and the shot cut back to Mal.]
"Her butt is su-per flat; And don't forget that!"
[Mal sang. He then turned to Izzy and shot her a mocking smile.]
"Get me two stringy knees; and hands like flat cheese!"
[Izzy responded, throwing another thunderbolt at her two tiny followers. Eva quickly ran away but Noah stayed in place and looked at her.]
"One more thing should be said; Don't forget his big head!"
[She pointed to a pile of giant red pineapples. Noah nodded then ran off.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The two finalists repeated, once again sending their lightning towards their respective helpers before turning their god-like powers on each other.]
"All of this hard work; won't make me go berserk!"
[Eva sang, the smoke dissipating to show her on the scaffold once more next to a long and surprisingly arm-like piece of wood. The shot zoomed out to show it already affixed to her team's effigy – currently a long piece for the chest, a slightly bulkier piece for the waist, and two skinny legs; all pieces were connected by the shorter wooden pegs the ropes had been tied to. On the other side of the scaffold was the effigy Mal's team had created – two small, thin pieces for the chest and waist, two thin arms and a somewhat curvy leg; the effigy was kept upright by a rope tied around the short peg where the neck would be.]
"Now place the head right there; Pineapple, not pe~ar!"
[Izzy told her, looking down before the shot cut to Noah trying to push a massive red pineapple across the ground.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The finalists repeated a third time, sending their lightning towards their helpers at a slightly faster pace than before. And still, they ended up turning their god-like powers towards one another to cause another purple explosion.]
"I'm gonna cash it! (Yeah!) You'll never win it! (No!) You should trash it! (Yeah!)"
[They continued as the smoke dissipated to reveal Eva and Noah carrying their red pineapple, before gaping in shock as Sky managed to slot her team's head down in its proper place.]
"'Cause I just did i~it!"
[Mal sang triumphantly, the shot pulling back to show Sky sighing in relief, Shawn on the other side wiping the sweat from his face. The scene finally cut to reality as the song ended, Mal smiling smugly with Sky and Shawn beside him, the two of them not looking at all enthusiastic.]
///
"And Mal takes the lead!" Chris announced over a shot of Izzy squinting at her opponent. "Next step, haul your sacrifice to the top of Kilauea and toss her into the volcano, like so!"
The shot quick-panned away from the host all the way up to the crater where a person in a hazmat suit tossed a crash test dummy into the magma below. This, however, caused molten rock to splash back up, partially coating the person in the hazmat suit. They screamed in pain as fire engulfed them, and ran away scorched.
"Yeah," Chris said as the shot cut back to him, "watch out for the back-splash. We'll be right back with all the hardcore lava-riffic sizzling finale action," he told the camera, "here! On Total! Drama! World Tour!"
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(Commercial Break)
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submitted by xtremexavier15 to u/xtremexavier15 [link] [comments]
Boys: Ezekiel, Mal
Episode 26: Hawaiian Punch
"Previously, on Total Drama World Tour!" Chris said, the first clip of the recap showing a pan from the wrecked plane to Izzy, Mal, and the host himself. "The Final Three took off like bats out of Drumheller," Chris continued as Mal was shown ducking behind a rock with a smirk, Izzy and Topher took off into the air in a makeshift hot air balloon, and Ezekiel was reading a newspaper in the train's passenger car.
"Unfortunately, Izzy brought Topher the plane-wrecker along for the ride," Chris added as the two teens were shown flying into the hailstorm. "Even more unfortunate? A broken yeti heart." Mal was shown being disgusted by the yeti kissing him.
"Thankfully, Ezekiel Clone made things less crappy to watch," the host conceded as Ezekiel Clone was shown chasing Ezekiel around the dessert cart. "Good times!" the host added as Ezekiel's boat hit a naval mine and were blown into the air.
"In the end, Mal the Mayhem King reached Hawaii first," he said as Mal's triumphant arrival on the beach was shown. "And Captain Canada and Princess Destructo tied for second place," he added as Ezekiel's boat was shown crashing into Izzy's, sending both finalists and Topher flying onto the beach at the same time. Chris laughed as the Final Three reacted with shock at the tie.
"Who will Mal face in the final challenge?" Chris asked, the recap ending with a flash to the beach, where the Final Three were lined up behind him. "And who will go home with a million dollars?!" he exclaimed in a dramatic emcee's voice. "Iiiiiit's finale time! Right here, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
XXXXX
"Welcome to the live finale of Total Drama World Tour," Chris said, a triumphant tune already playing as the camera zoomed in on him, the finalists, and Dawn and Harold standing on the beach. "Moments ago, these guys tied for second in a boat sandwich," he said, the shot zooming in on the finalists before he stepped over to join them. "Tasty!" he added.
"During the break, we sent them to vent in the confessional. Check it!" Chris told the camera.
Confessional: Izzy
Izzy was first, and the new Hawaiian confessional seemed to be a roofless wooden outhouse set up somewhere in the jungle, based on the vines that were drooping into it.
"Finale time!!! I can't wait to purchase my very own race track and monster truck!" she cheered. "Granted, I tied with Ezekiel to the finish line, but I think I can handle him."
She paused for a moment. "It's Mal that's the most challenging. He shouldn't be in juvenile detention. That guy belongs in jail!"
Confessional: Ezekiel
Ezekiel's confessional started with a whoop of joy. "I can't believe how close I am to the million dollars! With that amount of money, I can hire more teachers to homeschool me and buy new and advanced books to study from."
He facepalmed his head. "I just have to beat Izzy and Mal in order to reach that goal."
Confessional: Mal
Mal was next. "Getting rid of the fifteen past losers was like scraping gum off my shoe. A bit sticky, but oh so satisfying! And with Mike trapped in my subconscious, that million dollars is mine!"
He delved into maniacal laughter once more, with the background fading into a fiery inferno before the shot zoomed into his subconscious again.
Mike, Manitoba Smith, Vito, Svetlana, and Chester have reached the top, panting in exhaustion from the stairs they had climbed.
Mike, who still had Chester on his back, walked over to a red button in the center of the room. "Oh, come on. We came all the way up here for a lousy button?" Mike complained.
"It's a destruction button, you ninny!" Chester stated.
"What? What does it do?" Svetlana asked.
"You see this tower here?" Chester started. "You press this button, and the tower goes kaboom!"
"Why would Mal have a self-destruct button?" Vito asked incredulously.
"Mal made this tower and since his head is all swelled up, he put this button there just to mock us for not being able to stand up to him," Manitoba deduced.
"But what if it hurts all of us?" Mike asked in concern.
"It's not going to kill us. That's not how DID works!" Chester moaned. "Mal will lose control of his body when his tower is destroyed."
"And after that, Mike and Mal will have to go one-on-one to see who'll claim control!" Svetlana realized.
"Hold up. I have to fight Mal?" Mike said in shock.
"You two are the most dominant out of us," Vito reasoned. "If me or anyone else tried to face him, we'd lose immediately."
"And if Mal defeats you, we'll be back to being under his control, and so will you, for the rest of your life!" Manitoba emphasized.
"That means I won't see my family or friends ever again," Mike gasped. "I have to do this!"
\
"Go Team Ezekiel!" Sadie cheered, drawing attention to the stands just off to the side where most of the rest of the cast were seated. "Your team is rooting for you!" she said, waving a small flag with the home-schooled guy's face on it.
"Why are they in teams?" Mal asked Chris, stepping towards him and shooting a skeptical look towards the gallery. "And why do I not have one?"
"The Peanut Gallery's playing a major role in choosing a winner," Chris explained, earning a cheer from those in the stand.
"Sweet," Duncan grinned. "I guess we're all voting on the winner again."
"A vote?" Mal said blankly and nervously.
"Yep. If you can't tell, you're done for," Noah smirked.
"We are here for you Izzy!" Owen said. "So show them you're the boss!"
"But first," Chris said as the music turned tense, "we gotta break a tie. Mal," he turned to the evil personality, "you won the race to Hawaii, so, your reward is this advantage: you can select the tiebreaker yourself, or you can let Izzy or Ezekiel do it."
"Like I'd give these short sacks a choice," Mal said with a chuckle. "I'll do it!"
"I was hoping you'd say that," Chris said with an ominous laugh that caused Mal to raise an eyebrow.
\
"Ta-da!" Chris said as the footage skipped forward to a close-up of a clear glass booth with some sort of yellowish bulb filled with small balls on top. "Each ball inside our challenge booth has a different tiebreaker written on it," he said, gesturing to the bulb as the shot pulled back to show the Final Three on the left and the Aftermath hosts behind the booth on the right. "So, take your pick!"
"This is going to be such a thrill," Mal said cynically before walking into the booth.
The door was closed and the machine whirred to a start, challenge music playing as Mal was pelted with the white golf balls of the challenge booth. "Are these golf balls?!" Mal yelled, wincing with every hit and causing the Peanut Gallery to laugh.
"I know for a fact that we only put ping pong balls in there," Harold said nervously, Dawn nodding in agreement.
"I know," Chris told them, "and I'm not mad. Just disappointed. I had to dial it up to meet my usual high standards!"
"Enough!" Mal said, still wincing with every hit. "This should stop right-" he said, tilting his head up as he tried to reach for the bottom of the bulb – the source of the balls. He was cut off abruptly, and suddenly put a hand to his throat. His eyes starting to bulge, he barged his way out of the booth and began to gag.
"No ball, no exit," Chris told him. "Back you go!"
Mal stayed put, grabbing his throat as he coughed and choked about. Eventually, he spat up a ball, and it landed in a small pool of spit in the sand.
"Dawn, Harold, go ahead and read that, would you?" Chris asked them.
"Yuck," Dawn winced, crouching down to pick up the spit-covered golf ball in two fingers. "Mal has selected the Traditional Hawaiian Fire Dance of...Death?" she announced, ominous music playing as Ezekiel frowned at the news while Izzy clapped for it.
\
The same Hawaiian tune that had been used in the past couple of episodes was playing as the footage skipped ahead to Ezekiel and Izzy standing on opposite ends of a wooden platform in the ocean, each dressed in coconut bras and grass skirts and holding padded jousting sticks. Between them was Mal, tied up tightly to a pole in the center of the platform.
"Why does a male warrior have to wear a coconut bra," Ezekiel commented, motioning to the odd piece of equipment.
"Forget about tradition?" Mal griped as the Hawaiian music cut out. "I'm stuck to a pole!"
Those in the gallery laughed. "He's funny when he's tied up and can't hurt me!" Owen laughed.
"Once I win this finale!" Mal countered, "you will all treat me with the utmost respect! I will not be forgotten again!"
"Right," Chris told him, the shot cutting to him and Chef on the beach – the hulking man in a floral-print skirt with a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows on his back. "The first person to free Mal wins the last spot in the Final Two," Chris announced, "and a shot at the million!"
"I have one more question," Izzy spoke up. "If no one frees him, would that make me and Ezekiel the Final Two?"
"Hey!" Mal said in outrage.
"Won't work, I already checked," Chris answered. "Chef, would you do the honors?" he asked his assistant, the man drawing back two flaming arrows and releasing them with a twang. They struck a darkened patch on either side of the platform, just behind each competitor, which promptly burst into blazing fires that startled Izzy and Ezekiel.
"Oh, and stay out of the water," Chris added. "Starting...," Chef shot off another pair of arrows, these ones tipped with steaks, "now!" The arrows landed in the water where a pair of shark fins were already circling; one rose up and swallowed an arrow just as it plunked into the water.
"Good thing we're out of the game," Ella whispered over to Sadie.
"And rekindled our friendship in the process," Sadie agreed as challenge music began to play.
The gallery began to cheer and holler as the camera zoomed in on the platform, Izzy quickly taking the offense by swiping at Ezekiel with her jousting stick. "Prepare to go down!" she said, slamming her stick down hard against his as he tried to block.
"I'm too young to die, eh. I'm gonna take you down!" Ezekiel glared and blocked Izzy.
"Stay on your guard, Zeke!" Topher encouraged him.
"Go for her legs! It's easy!" Shawn spoke out as well.
"Alright, Izzy! You can pound him into meat!" Eva shouted.
"I'd ask any of you for my encouragement, but it'd be useless," Mal mumbled.
"I don't support people who mess with my best friends!" Sky said firmly.
Mal scowled back at her, and an arrow from Chef hit the pole he was tied to, causing it to burn up while Mal tried to blow it away.
His view was covered by Ezekiel having the upper hand on Izzy and thrusting her back. "Save yourself the trouble and let me win!" he said and continued to push his jousting stick onto Izzy and send her closer to her edge.
"Someone better win or I'm going to burst into flames!" Mal yelled impatiently.
Izzy struggled under Ezekiel's stick, but an idea formed in her head. "Hey Ezekiel, I see a hawk that's flying towards you," she fibbed.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Ezekiel said. "Nice try."
"Darn it!" Izzy cursed under her breath.
Ezekiel pushed her to the ground, and just as he was about to swipe her off, Izzy lifted her stick and hit Ezekiel's foot with it. The homeschooler howled in pain and let his guard down, and Izzy used the opportunity to jab the padded end of her stick at his chin, knocking him a couple inches into the air and allowing his jousting stick to sink into the water.
He landed on the platform on his back, and Izzy quickly ran over to Mal. The camera angle switched to show her hands darting to the knot on the back, already partially undone, and seconds later the ropes slid off Mal as the challenge music ended.
"It's about time you got me out!" Mal whined. "You took too long to beat Ezekiel of all people."
"You leave him alone!" Izzy snapped. "He's proven himself to be more capable than any of us this season, and he is twice the person you will ever be!"
Ezekiel, still lying on his back, took the moment to smile. "That really means a lot coming from you," he told Izzy.
"Sorry I had to defeat you just to reach the finals," Izzy said as he helped Ezekiel back on his feet. "Are you going to be fine with taking third place?"
"I'm not going to win the cash prize," Ezekiel admitted, "but I've made friends, improved my views on the outside world, and gained a girlfriend from this show. That's more than enough for me now!"
Mal rolled his eyes, and someone in a hazmat suit appeared on the platform with a fire extinguisher. As they began putting out the flame on the fallen charmer's side, the former Final Three made their way to the edge of the platform to the general cheering of the unseen gallery.
\
The scene skipped forward to Izzy (back in her usual clothing) and Mal standing on the beach with Chris, the person in the hazmat suit clinging to the burning and sinking wreckage of the platform in the background.
"Now that we have our Final Two," Chris said with a broad smile, "it's my pleasure to announce the Peanut Gallery will not be voting for the winner."
"Yeah!" Mal said in triumph.
"Wait," Topher spoke up. "You said we were supposed to be playing a major role."
"Yep," Chris told him. "Just not in a vote-y kinda way. Prepare to have your minds blown out by the most lethal challenge in Total Drama history!" he announced dramatically.
"Izzy," he said as a shot of The Psycho Hose Beast smiling goofily against a red background, "versus Mal," a shot of The Malevolent One grinning darkly against a bluish background took over the screen, "versus the Volcano!" The shot changed to a distance shot of a volcano as it belched out a plume of smoke.
"Back in the day," Chris said as the scene cut to him standing between the two finalists; Mal on his left behind a light blue rug, Izzy on his right behind a light red rug; "human sacrifices were tossed into Kilauea volcano to appease the Gods. Sadly, the lawyers won't let me use real people as sacrifices. So! Mal and Izzy will have to make sacrifice stand-ins, using the island's most abundant resources."
The camera followed off-screen, landing on a pile of "Pineapples, and driftwood!"
"And to make it nice and symbolic," Chris continued as the shot cut back to him and the finalists, "you guys have to make dummies of each other to dump in the volcano. Now, you each get to pick two helpers."
"I'm not letting either of you pick me," Duncan immediately told them.
"I'll pick Eva," Izzy said immediately.
"Great!" Eva said standing up. "We'll win this one!"
"Exactly," Izzy smiled. "And my second choice is Noah."
"I normally don't care about contests, but this is one I can't sit out on," Noah said with a smile of his own.
"Sorry, Big-O! I need Team E-Scope for this part!" Izzy told her boyfriend.
"No problem. I want you to win with the best of the best," Owen told her.
Mal looked at the Gallery nervously, the camera panning across Peanut Gallery, all its members glaring at him. "Do I have to pick two?" Mal asked the host.
"Definitely! And all of them hate you." Chris snickered.
Mal groaned under his breath. "In that case, I'm choosing Sky first!"
"I'll help…but only for Mike!" Sky enforced.
"And lastly," Mal scanned the Gallery again, "I'll take Shawn!"
"I would refuse, but the rules won't allow me to do so," Shawn shrugged.
\
"Okay! We have our helpers!" Chris said as the scene flashed back to the two colored rugs; Izzy by the light red with Eva and Noah, Mal by the light blue with Shawn and Sky. "Now, Izzy and Mal, you have to stay on your mats and direct your helpers to bring you logs, driftwood,and pineapples that resemble parts of your opponent. And to make things a little more rhymey~!" He added with an excited smile as the all-to-familiar dings sounded and the musical note icon appeared on-screen.
///\
[A reverent, almost chanted riff opened as Sky and Shawn looked up and back, and the colors of the scene shifted to something more animated: the two in blue, against a background of reddish-pink flowers. The shot changed so that it seemed to be looking up at a blue volcano as it erupted against the floral background, and a blue and almost larger-than-life Mal emerged from its peak and with a laurel wreath on his head.]
"Hey peons, you should head straight! Don't ask, it'll make me ache!"
[He sang commandingly as a hip-hop tune began; holding out his arm as if to catch something before an almost cartoonish thunderbolt appeared in his hands. He threw it, and the camera followed it down to Shawn and Sky. They were forced to flee before the bolt struck where they'd been loitering along the ground.]
"You two, get me; wood shaped, like Izzy's tiny fe~et!"
[His helpers ran to a titanic pile of neatly-stacked blue logs, and the shot cut back to Mal idly examining his fingernails before turning to his helpers and smirking as he finished the line. The shot panned to the right to a red volcano as it, too, erupted; a red Izzy emerged from it, also wearing a laurel wreath.]
"Come on, come on, move it fast! Hurry, hurry, won't be last!
[She sang as another cartoonish thunderbolt appeared in her hands, casting her opponent a disparaging glance then throwing the bolt over her head down at the red Noah and Eva below. They too were forced to flee before the bolt struck where they'd been loitering.]
"Find wood that looks like him, so pencil-like and sli~im!"
[The camera continued to follow Eva and Noah as they ran past Sky, who was securing a rope to a peg on the side of a large hunk of wood. She briefly turned her head to watch them, then turned back and tugged the rope extending up off-screen.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The two finalists sang, together even with the chanted words in the background. As they dueled the shot moved from Mal, his hands alternately throwing lightning bolts at his helpers, to Scarlett, throwing only one bolt, to both as they turned to one another and sent their god-like abilities at each other, resulting in an explosion of purple smoke that took over the scene.]
"Are these legs thin enough?"
[Eva called out, the smoke dissipating into her close-up before the shot zoomed out to show her standing on a pale gray scaffold next to another large chunk of wood suspended by a rope tied to a peg.
"Uh-huh!" Izzy replied from off-screen.
"H~ey!" Mal sang, the camera panning up to a higher level of the scaffold where Shawn was standing next to a rather thin piece of wood, also suspended point-down on a rope.
"Man, is this neck squeezed enough?" he asked, receiving a red thunderbolt for his trouble.]
"Whoo! Now it's psycho versus insane; Mal and Izzy cause some pain and!"
[The purple smoke cleared to show Shawn in his Drama Brothers outfit and a mic in his hand; the beat changed slightly as he began to rap from a small pillar of rock between the two finalists. The camera rotated about him as he gestured over his shoulder first at the finalists.]
"All this tension for the million; to that I have no opinion!"
[The camera zoomed in as he smirked and threw a dollar bill in the air, then zoomed back out as he got in front of Izzy, who threw a thunderbolt at him.]
"That is good, hurry back; I need arms weak and slack!"
[Mal continued in a commanding tone as Shawn, now riding atop another cone-like piece of wood as it was carried along by the attached rope, met up with Sky who was in a similar position and the shot cut back to Mal.]
"Her butt is su-per flat; And don't forget that!"
[Mal sang. He then turned to Izzy and shot her a mocking smile.]
"Get me two stringy knees; and hands like flat cheese!"
[Izzy responded, throwing another thunderbolt at her two tiny followers. Eva quickly ran away but Noah stayed in place and looked at her.]
"One more thing should be said; Don't forget his big head!"
[She pointed to a pile of giant red pineapples. Noah nodded then ran off.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The two finalists repeated, once again sending their lightning towards their respective helpers before turning their god-like powers on each other.]
"All of this hard work; won't make me go berserk!"
[Eva sang, the smoke dissipating to show her on the scaffold once more next to a long and surprisingly arm-like piece of wood. The shot zoomed out to show it already affixed to her team's effigy – currently a long piece for the chest, a slightly bulkier piece for the waist, and two skinny legs; all pieces were connected by the shorter wooden pegs the ropes had been tied to. On the other side of the scaffold was the effigy Mal's team had created – two small, thin pieces for the chest and waist, two thin arms and a somewhat curvy leg; the effigy was kept upright by a rope tied around the short peg where the neck would be.]
"Now place the head right there; Pineapple, not pe~ar!"
[Izzy told her, looking down before the shot cut to Noah trying to push a massive red pineapple across the ground.]
"I'm gonna win it (Yeah!) And you can't take it (No!) I'm right here in it (Yeah!) But you just fake it! (Oh!)"
[The finalists repeated a third time, sending their lightning towards their helpers at a slightly faster pace than before. And still, they ended up turning their god-like powers towards one another to cause another purple explosion.]
"I'm gonna cash it! (Yeah!) You'll never win it! (No!) You should trash it! (Yeah!)"
[They continued as the smoke dissipated to reveal Eva and Noah carrying their red pineapple, before gaping in shock as Sky managed to slot her team's head down in its proper place.]
"'Cause I just did i~it!"
[Mal sang triumphantly, the shot pulling back to show Sky sighing in relief, Shawn on the other side wiping the sweat from his face. The scene finally cut to reality as the song ended, Mal smiling smugly with Sky and Shawn beside him, the two of them not looking at all enthusiastic.]
///
"And Mal takes the lead!" Chris announced over a shot of Izzy squinting at her opponent. "Next step, haul your sacrifice to the top of Kilauea and toss her into the volcano, like so!"
The shot quick-panned away from the host all the way up to the crater where a person in a hazmat suit tossed a crash test dummy into the magma below. This, however, caused molten rock to splash back up, partially coating the person in the hazmat suit. They screamed in pain as fire engulfed them, and ran away scorched.
"Yeah," Chris said as the shot cut back to him, "watch out for the back-splash. We'll be right back with all the hardcore lava-riffic sizzling finale action," he told the camera, "here! On Total! Drama! World Tour!"
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(Commercial Break)
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2023.06.01 20:19 BCooper78 Xerxes’s Bad Rap
 | Found this in my Instagram feed… recent history seems to maintain a more Frank Miller view (minus the outfit) of Xerxes. Has anyone else found some positive historical accounts beyond what Matt has shared? submitted by BCooper78 to tmbhpodcast [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 20:18 UnDead_Ted Bad, Good, Better, Best
 | submitted by UnDead_Ted to TheDailyDose [link] [comments] 06/01/2023 Warm-up Questions: On A scale of 30 mph to 110 mph, how busy have you been this week? How fast have you been running down the road of your life? An intriguing Word Picture: The discussion today will center around what things get our time and attention versus what gets left out. Read this analogy titled "The Full Life:" Ephesians 5:3-20 EVER SINCE GOD gave the ten commandments some have been tempted to think he enjoys making people miserable and taking away their happiness by denying then earthly pleasures.Now lets read the main Scripture: Ephesians 5:3-20. As we go through this passage, take note of which things are "sand," needing to be dumped...and which things are "gold coins" to be tightly clasped. Talk About It1) What "sand" items did you hear along the way?2) What "gold coins" did you notice? (If you're not quiet getting the concept, go back to "The Full Life" and reread paragraphs 1,2,4, and 5. This should spell out the clear distinction) 3) In all what we talked about so far, what connects to your personal situation? What "exchanges" would you like to undertake? 4) What help does this passage offer us in making these changes for the better and best? (see Eph. 18-19 especially) Looking Ahead
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2023.06.01 20:18 moogman2268 NYC H+H Work
Hello, I'm just curious what NYC H+H is paying its travelers right now, and is it still being done through RightSourcing? It would be at these facilities:
Bellevue Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, Harlem Hospital, Lincoln Hospital, North Central Bronx Hospital, Jacobi Hospital, Kings County Hospital, Woodhull Hospital, Queens Hospital Center, Elmhurst Hospital, South Brooklyn Hospital (Coney Island Hospital), Gouveneur, Henry J. Carter, Gotham Health.
submitted by moogman2268 to TravelNursing [link] [comments]
Bellevue Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, Harlem Hospital, Lincoln Hospital, North Central Bronx Hospital, Jacobi Hospital, Kings County Hospital, Woodhull Hospital, Queens Hospital Center, Elmhurst Hospital, South Brooklyn Hospital (Coney Island Hospital), Gouveneur, Henry J. Carter, Gotham Health.
2023.06.01 20:02 Scottishgal03 Was shorted on my Methylphenidate by 6 pills
I have been on 30MG Methylphenidate ER and recently switched to King Soopers Pharmacy as Walgreens could no longer get this drug where I live. I picked up my prescription which I take every morning. I thought the bottle looked as if it contained less than it should so I counted the remaining pills 2 days after refilling. It was short by 6 tablets. I am guessing there is not much I can do about this? Are we supposed to count these medications out on the counter when picking up? Missing almost a weeks worth of this necessary medication is not great!
submitted by Scottishgal03 to PharmacyTechnician [link] [comments]
2023.06.01 19:59 Mission-Raccoon9432 Character Study: The Full Truth about Gorou Amamiya or Aqua Hoshino PART III
PART III of our Character Study of Gorou Amamiya is an intermezzo chapter. We'll rehash some content from the previous parts and try to understand them on a basic structural level . This is more of an extra edition I allowed myself to write down since this was impossible to fit into the main study without unnecessary distractions . Last but not least some conversations that followed from the previous releases had been ever so fruitful for the creation of either new or advancing preexisted ideas .
This is an Analysis of the Good and the Evil, the Heroe's Journey, the Problem and the Solution.
SANATORIUM - DISEASES - TREATMENTS
In Part I we discussed Gorou's loner existence in a rural city that would mainly revolve around the mountain hospital he works at. Due to low patients frequency Gorou had lots of free time to hang around mostly in patient rooms. Besides of highlighting a selfish reason for his behaviour, the general assumption was that his arrangement was convenient. Just a doctor hanging around at his workplace, right?
Now I'd like to flesh this picture out for you. This previous one was actually pretty dull, it allows too many variables in a story that is actually very intentional. Since Aka Akasaka - as well known - had figured out the beginning and the ending of the story he wants to tell before the manga even started, it's obvious that the beginning scenery is thrilled with symbols, metaphors and meanings for both the Heroes but also the meta plot itself and is interconnected with the story's ending in which all those pre-established elements will meet a final resolution to its opposite: In principle this is what you all know as the "Hero's journey".
First lets talk about location location location, as real estate agents love to say. And indeed the location is essential to the plot. Our story begins in a rural hospital. Stop. Actually "hospital" is already too arbitrary of a word and misses the significance of the location. A more accurate word for a rural hospital on a mountain is the Sanatorium. A Sanatorium is an antiquated name for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are tradionally located in healthy climate, usually in the countryside. In the 19th and 20th century these were popular centers for tuberculosis suffers. Some of you might be familiar with Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" (german: Der Zauberberg) which is the most prominent novel revolving around such an institution. Magic Mountain, huh? So we have our Sanatorium, we have our countryside Mountain and certainly we have our magic through the sanctuary of Ame-No-Uzume Goddess of Entertainment and the reincarnation on top of that mountain.
Now that we have established the location lets look at our most prominent patients. What's so special about their condition that they would need treatment in a specialised hospital? How are they all connected to each other? Our most prominent patients are Sarina Tendoji, Ai Hoshino and ... well ... Gorou Amamiya.
Since we established Aqua's trauma to be inherited from Gorou and explored the tragic nature of his birth and the abuse he suffered during his childhood, his inclusion is reasonable. But this - only way later in C75 unvealed background - is already visible right from the beginning with intentional symbols, metaphors and hidden meanings. There are two levels for the representation of his illness.
https://preview.redd.it/ewasnfmvnd3b1.jpg?width=2571&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fed46b24063b90c79df20a7a1231eaca9208bc2
What actually shocked me was that EP 1 of the ANIME basically might have proven my Theory especially from PART II. The moment Gorou dies we get to see exactly two flashback frames. The Ai-Keychain Sarina gave him and a picture of his Grandmother and him... With the missing Grandfather. I feel pretty vindicated about the importance of this photo and as you know in my theory actually his Grandfather is on that photo kinda too... That irony!
https://preview.redd.it/fo97javmgg3b1.jpg?width=2575&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2031410c5ab4e10faad18f4cb87ae9d52a48568d
She has a symbolic double function as both a sick dying child but also as physical representation of Ruby's, Aqua's and Gorou's mental situation. To quote PART II for that matter:
The true meaning of Entertainment is joyfull fullfillment and the exploration of new uplifting expressions of cultural life. It's a healing power in the most innocent and human-loving way, it's first and foremost an enrichtment of the soul, not of the pocket. The industry however inverted this relation: Now the money dictates the art. As a consequence talent get's blocked, content is cheap and underwhelming, instead of uplifting humanity, the mere consumer gets just as much exploited as the performer. The consumer is conditioned to waste his limited precious lifespawn with the consumption of the most primitive motives of entertainment. This is a form of exploitation through the industry and it has rotten everyone to the bone. The artist gets either drained or he himself corrupts and uses the same sort of schemes, trickes and deceptions to climb to the top. But the higher they climb the further they uproot from the essence of true entertainment ... And those who oppose and try tu succeed with honest and uplifting ideals will literally killed on the way.
🚬
We have diagnozed the problem, the chronical disease. A disease which is the very reason for this story to exsist, a disease that will embark our heroes on their journey and a disease that will ultimately be cured. And indeed the location has proven to be essential to this plot. Our story begins with a Mountain Sanatorium in the heart and on top of the Goddesses of Entertainment's realm. A symbol for The Cure of Entertainment.
Thus the antagonist is created: It's a demonic force of industrialized Entertainment that has rotten down Art to the bone and occupies Tokyo as it's center. Kamiki however is for now the most malicious and excessive release of this evilness. While the industry tries to just drain, corrupt and exploit stars, he literally kills stars out of personal envy. In order to cure Entertainment our protagonists have to be embarked on a journey to Tokyo. In this antagonistic relation Aqua and Ruby are ultimately Heroes blessed by the God of Entertainment to cast out the Devil that holds "Entertainment" in his death grip.
Ai Hoshino's story begins with her escape from the Devil. She flees Tokyo and tries to find protection and cure in Takachiho in at least 3 meanings.
I promised to talk about another connecting layer, the very reason why it must be exactly SARINA and GOROU who are chosen to wield the sword against the devil. But we will delay this topic for another time. PART IV will get us to the THAT CORE. They are not chosen because they have Trauma, this would be absurdly dull. The Trauma or chronical disease they suffer are the result of a "crime" against the blessings of the Goddess of Arts. That's a small hint from my side.
Thank to the faithful readers and brave souls who dived back again into another of my essays and also thanks to every new face here as well.. Hopefully I'll see you all again for the next Part!
***
submitted by Mission-Raccoon9432 to OshiNoKo [link] [comments]
This is an Analysis of the Good and the Evil, the Heroe's Journey, the Problem and the Solution.
For thosee who are new here and haven't read the previous parts: You still can just enjoy MYTHOLOGICAL LORE! Scroll down until you see all the Hyperlinks or better start a bit earlier at "3. Entertainment"
SANATORIUM - DISEASES - TREATMENTS
In Part I we discussed Gorou's loner existence in a rural city that would mainly revolve around the mountain hospital he works at. Due to low patients frequency Gorou had lots of free time to hang around mostly in patient rooms. Besides of highlighting a selfish reason for his behaviour, the general assumption was that his arrangement was convenient. Just a doctor hanging around at his workplace, right?
Now I'd like to flesh this picture out for you. This previous one was actually pretty dull, it allows too many variables in a story that is actually very intentional. Since Aka Akasaka - as well known - had figured out the beginning and the ending of the story he wants to tell before the manga even started, it's obvious that the beginning scenery is thrilled with symbols, metaphors and meanings for both the Heroes but also the meta plot itself and is interconnected with the story's ending in which all those pre-established elements will meet a final resolution to its opposite: In principle this is what you all know as the "Hero's journey".
First lets talk about location location location, as real estate agents love to say. And indeed the location is essential to the plot. Our story begins in a rural hospital. Stop. Actually "hospital" is already too arbitrary of a word and misses the significance of the location. A more accurate word for a rural hospital on a mountain is the Sanatorium. A Sanatorium is an antiquated name for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are tradionally located in healthy climate, usually in the countryside. In the 19th and 20th century these were popular centers for tuberculosis suffers. Some of you might be familiar with Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" (german: Der Zauberberg) which is the most prominent novel revolving around such an institution. Magic Mountain, huh? So we have our Sanatorium, we have our countryside Mountain and certainly we have our magic through the sanctuary of Ame-No-Uzume Goddess of Entertainment and the reincarnation on top of that mountain.
Now that we have established the location lets look at our most prominent patients. What's so special about their condition that they would need treatment in a specialised hospital? How are they all connected to each other? Our most prominent patients are Sarina Tendoji, Ai Hoshino and ... well ... Gorou Amamiya.
- Gorou Amamiya
Since we established Aqua's trauma to be inherited from Gorou and explored the tragic nature of his birth and the abuse he suffered during his childhood, his inclusion is reasonable. But this - only way later in C75 unvealed background - is already visible right from the beginning with intentional symbols, metaphors and hidden meanings. There are two levels for the representation of his illness.
- The general representation of his life in this rural area and his habitual lurking around patient's rooms, like when Sarina was around and so on. Just sitting their while looking out the window at the beautiful landscapes. On the surface this is of course just a Doc with a qurik and a lot of free time. But no, the actual meaning is here that he's seeking a cure too. That he is sick. Patients are naturally bored in hospitals, they have a lot of free time because they are sick. They also enjoy the countryside's view. It's one of the main healing attractionto Sanatoriums and made them so popular in the 19th and 20th century. In this specific case the countryside he observes is sacret and related to entertainment. Keep this in the back of your head for now.
- The second, now tangible representation of his diseases is what we already established in Part 1: his obsession with Ai, the inner void he tries to cure with his active measures of "medicine" in a patient's room. While technically he could've watched her literally elsewhere, he decided to hide away in a patient's room. This is a symbol. His first scene in the Manga ever starts exactly in such a room. The sister came in to check - metaphorically speaking - on the patient Gorou Amamiya. This illustration is completely intentional and meaningful to flesh out the double-sided irony of his employment at this particular hospital as a doctor and admission to the Sanatorium as a chronically ill patient.
https://preview.redd.it/ewasnfmvnd3b1.jpg?width=2571&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fed46b24063b90c79df20a7a1231eaca9208bc2
What actually shocked me was that EP 1 of the ANIME basically might have proven my Theory especially from PART II. The moment Gorou dies we get to see exactly two flashback frames. The Ai-Keychain Sarina gave him and a picture of his Grandmother and him... With the missing Grandfather. I feel pretty vindicated about the importance of this photo and as you know in my theory actually his Grandfather is on that photo kinda too... That irony!
https://preview.redd.it/fo97javmgg3b1.jpg?width=2575&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2031410c5ab4e10faad18f4cb87ae9d52a48568d
- Sarina Tendoji
She has a symbolic double function as both a sick dying child but also as physical representation of Ruby's, Aqua's and Gorou's mental situation. To quote PART II for that matter:
In a sense the image of the handicapped Sarina living in the hospital is the quintessential metaphorical representation of Gorou himself. She shows upfront what was the psychological state of Gorou's soul. When he realized in C119 that Sarina's life must've been like hell he reflected his own experience too.But in order to apply these 3 characteristics to Gorou we first have to explore another symbolic layer to why all of our proganists revolve around this particular hospital. For this we have to step back and look at the most dominent theme of the story: Entertainment...
3. Entertainment
... is our PATIENT ZERO. Entertainment itself in this Story is chronically ill. It's existence - the very nature of art - is handicapped and crippled by cold hearted and ultimately in opposition to the essence of entertainment standing particular business interests. Their practice of entertainment harms both artists and art enjoyers and thus the meaning of entertainment itself. Entertainment as a mass-produced industry is a disease to entertainment as the realm of the truth-seeking, philanthopic and graceful expression of the uttermost passionate creative minds who enjoy the blessing of the goddess and share her blessing with the community.The true meaning of Entertainment is joyfull fullfillment and the exploration of new uplifting expressions of cultural life. It's a healing power in the most innocent and human-loving way, it's first and foremost an enrichtment of the soul, not of the pocket. The industry however inverted this relation: Now the money dictates the art. As a consequence talent get's blocked, content is cheap and underwhelming, instead of uplifting humanity, the mere consumer gets just as much exploited as the performer. The consumer is conditioned to waste his limited precious lifespawn with the consumption of the most primitive motives of entertainment. This is a form of exploitation through the industry and it has rotten everyone to the bone. The artist gets either drained or he himself corrupts and uses the same sort of schemes, trickes and deceptions to climb to the top. But the higher they climb the further they uproot from the essence of true entertainment ... And those who oppose and try tu succeed with honest and uplifting ideals will literally killed on the way.
🚬
We have diagnozed the problem, the chronical disease. A disease which is the very reason for this story to exsist, a disease that will embark our heroes on their journey and a disease that will ultimately be cured. And indeed the location has proven to be essential to this plot. Our story begins with a Mountain Sanatorium in the heart and on top of the Goddesses of Entertainment's realm. A symbol for The Cure of Entertainment.
- Ai Hoshino
- Lucifer: pride
- Beelzebub: envy
- Satan: wrath
- Abaddon: sloth
- Mammon: greed
- Belphegor: gluttony
- Asmodeus: lust
Thus the antagonist is created: It's a demonic force of industrialized Entertainment that has rotten down Art to the bone and occupies Tokyo as it's center. Kamiki however is for now the most malicious and excessive release of this evilness. While the industry tries to just drain, corrupt and exploit stars, he literally kills stars out of personal envy. In order to cure Entertainment our protagonists have to be embarked on a journey to Tokyo. In this antagonistic relation Aqua and Ruby are ultimately Heroes blessed by the God of Entertainment to cast out the Devil that holds "Entertainment" in his death grip.
Ai Hoshino's story begins with her escape from the Devil. She flees Tokyo and tries to find protection and cure in Takachiho in at least 3 meanings.
- AS AN IDOL : On the surface level it's because an Idol can't justify promiscurity towards her fans and because the Agency can't justify pregnancy of a Teenager, so she has to flee where nobody knows her. This is besides also a metaphor that indeed the Town of God is where nobody knows the filth of the rotten Tokyo-World. But this is just again the convenient explanation the characters verbalize towards us, as proven many times there is also a hidden symbolic dialectic to it. The IDOL as the Evening Star VENUS is an object of LUST (Asmodeus, one of the seven deadly demons). You might be familiar with the VENUSBERG) from european folklore. "In German folklore of the 16th century, the narrative becomes associated with the minnesinger Tannhäuser who becomes obsessed with worshipping the goddess Venus**.**" But what AI seeks is real love, somethinf that can be loved. And thus she steps down from the Venusberg ("Venus Mountain") in other words steps down as an Idol of Lust to become a Mother, It's a purification - "I am Maria" she sings in the OP song. There is a metaphorically similar transformation which starts Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" Opera. Tannhäuser: The world of Venus is dedicated exclusively to LUST. Tannhäuser found his way here as a mortal, but is increasingly weary of the enjoyment (“If a god can always enjoy, I am subject to change”). Trying to persuade her knights to stay, Venus prophesied that the people would never forgive Tannhäuser for dwelling with the pagan goddess of love: he would never find salvation there. However, Tannhäuser sticks to his decision: “My salvation rests in Maria!” When Mary is invoked, the world of Venus disappears and Tannhäuser sees himself transported to a lovely forest valley in Thuringia at the foot of the Wartburg. The Beginning of Wagner's Tannhäuser basically sums up AI'S ESCAPE from her VENUS-TRAMMEL to her MATERNAL HAPPINESS. Even that this purification situates Tannhäuser in a lovely forest valley at the foot of a mountain-castle fits the narrative. Our Sanatorium in the lovely rural japanese backwaters is a powerful castle which gives her ultimate protection to bear her children. Just like that Ai "spawns" into the our plot. A minute before that she was the worshipped VENUS obsessed over by Gorou on his TV, but became the MOTHER when she entered the Castle. Gorou became her KNIGHT. Gorou had a Tannhäuser-Transformation himself, when he realized that the IDOL Ai needs him as the future MOTHER Ai and therefore overcame his lewd interest and served her as the protector of her maternity.
- AS A BRIDE: Lucifer's wife is also associated with the she-demon LILITH, the child murderer. Ai flees her relationship with Kamiki and therefore flees from the fate of a child murderer. She was pregnant with "soulless Children" which means: Stillbirths. In german we also say "Sternenkind" (Star Child) for stillbirth. So she metaphorically flees the "marriage" between Evening Star and Morning Star and eventually opposes her fate as the child murderer LILITH who carries Sternenkinder with the help of the Knight and Hero Tannhäuser-Gorou. As Takachibo is the realm of our blessing Goddess of Art and the Sanatorium her Castle on the Magic Mountain it's fair to assume that also soul migration is only possible there in the center of her purifying power. The Devil Kamiki maybe can't even enter the Castle himself because it shields itself from Evilness...
- AS A SAVIOUR: Just as RUBY and AQUA our AI gets send back with a Mission: To Cure Art and Entertainment. There is a lot we can say about her involvement in this but I want to cut it down to one essential plot-line: Her association with Gotanda and the following shoots for a documentary with him. Gotanda for that matter is a very, very important figure. He is the man who only wants to hear the TRUTH, a man who is capable to see through LIES instantaneous, he who CAN'T BE DECEIVED. As long as he doesn't stop the recording it is a proof for the verisimilitude of the content. He is the "NOTARY" who witnessed her TESTIMONY but also her TESTAMENT (in german we also say "LETZTER WILLE" instead of Testament, which means LAST WILL or LAST WISH... Ai's Wish). She was killed but she archived everything she needed to archive: Found true Love and passed down her LEGACY through the recordings with Gotanda. Ruby and Aqua received everything they need to fight the Evil. Ai's KARMA as a result led for her soul to enter NIRVANA and break out of the cycle of rebirth which in Buddism is called "SAMSARA" - Thus "her soul collapsed and returned to the stars and the sea. It will never be reformed again. Death is Death. Ai Hoshino doesn't think of anything anymore, nothing is on her mind" -> NIRVANA. But as far as the content of the movie goes it's obviously a big exposure of the corruption and wrong doing that is happening in the Industry. She, Goatanda but als Aqua want to archive a social phenomenom with the movie. They want CHANGE. Thus she came to Takachiho to heal and left as a HEALER and MOTHER MARIA with her Twins as the SAVIOURS of ART. In PART I and PART II we identified in full extent her role as a saviour for Ruby and Aqua in the form of Ruby's muse and mother-figure and Aqua's unconditonally loving mother that reenacted his innocence in the tragic death of Gorou's mother.
I promised to talk about another connecting layer, the very reason why it must be exactly SARINA and GOROU who are chosen to wield the sword against the devil. But we will delay this topic for another time. PART IV will get us to the THAT CORE. They are not chosen because they have Trauma, this would be absurdly dull. The Trauma or chronical disease they suffer are the result of a "crime" against the blessings of the Goddess of Arts. That's a small hint from my side.
Thank to the faithful readers and brave souls who dived back again into another of my essays and also thanks to every new face here as well.. Hopefully I'll see you all again for the next Part!
***
2023.06.01 19:40 magical_af_629 My (38F) husband (38M) says he's depressed. I don't know if he is or is just playing the victim.
We have been married now for more than half our lives. We have 3 kids together and have been through a lot in our relationship (death of a child, military service away from our home state, etc). He has always been the provider and I have been the stay at home, homeschooling mom. Throughout it, we have had ups and downs obviously. Years ago, he came to the conclusion he "used to be" a narcissist. He cheated numerous times through the first half of our marriage, was very self centered and very controlling. Then he "woke up". Since then, I feel he's still controlling in as far as if myself or our kids don't agree with him, he will get angry. Anger runs his life most of the time. He has distanced me from my family by pointing out all of their faults, saying I'm being played by them, showing aggravation if I speak to them, yet saying "I'm a grown ass woman who can do what I want." I can forgive and forget, he can't. Not my family or his. He super protective and has been ever since he "woke up". Always worried about other people (especially other men) whether online or offline, doing/saying something wrong to me. Yet, when he's in a good mood, things are good. He can be super sweet and has always been there for me when my family hasn't. Albeit, he doesn't really have a good relationship with our kids since they started reaching puberty awhile ago. I think it's because if they buck anything he says is true, he can fly off of the handle. So, they don't really conversate with him much anymore. They are all teenagers for context.
Recently, things have been more rocky than usual. The mood in the house has always ebbed & flowed with his moods. The kids have always been more open with me than with him. I admitted to him recently (not for the first time) that we all walk on eggshells hoping not to upset him. That his angry responses are too extreme and I feel uncalled for. That I will or won't say/do things because of the response he gives when things don't go his way. I feel like that is my biggest fault, I'm a people pleaser and he's always been the one I try to please the most. I've tried time and time again to have open, honest, adult conversations with him but they always turn to yelling and mudslinging from him. This obviously upset him. He was quiet for a few days...then acted like everything was fine. I couldn't put on a face and he could tell I was still upset. So, he got quiet again. He then brought up the whole ordeal (which never happens btw...it's always me who has to bring it up). He now says he's been depressed for years and he's the bad guy and he wishes he could just disappear. (Not suicidal...just thinks it would be better for everyone else if he wasn't around. Yet, he doesn't want to leave or be alone.) This isn't the first time he's said these things (other than the depression part)...yet things will change for a while and then I feel they go right back. I've mentioned therapy for him before (he is a veteran and he says he suffers from PTSD), he'll agree and then it just becomes a lot of excuses. I suggest exercise to try to up his mood, he says he's in perpetual pain (he has back issues from his military time) and is scared to make his back go out again. When asked why he hasn't really spoken to anyone in the house other than a few words in a long time, expect for when it's some serious world problem he wants to talk about, he says he feels like he walks on eggshells as to not piss anyone off. He doesn't have any interests outside of research and sex. Which is another sore point between us because if I don't respond to his advances the way he wants then I get passive aggressive responses and the silent treatment. Another thing I recently pointed out to him. Our son recently got me my first Mother's Day gift from him specifically...yet he told me he has no clue what his dad would like for Father's Day because he doesn't really have any interests and he doesn't know much about him. I mentioned that to my husband and he says he doesn't like getting gifts or birthdays or anything where he's being celebrated. To me, it's almost like he feels he doesn't deserve it. He also never shows excitement for anything anymore. Not birthdays, holidays, nothing. I don't have any friends to talk about this with...I've rarely left the house in 8 years. He has his work buddies, but he hates his job and says he doesn't have any real friends either. Yet, I think he does talk and joke around with them if he's in a good mood. I don't know how he acts with other people because I don't get to see him outside of our house. He comes home from work and doesn't have any hobbies or outside interests. Even if I did have family/friends to talk to...I don't think I would because I don't want others to think poorly of him or me. He says he doesn't keep me from having friends, but I know in the past me being away from home or talking to others can make his jealousy and overprotectiveness kick in. Now, I'm too anxious to even try to establish relationships outside our own because of fear I won't know how or I'll make a fool out of myself. Hence, why I am on Reddit asking for advice.
I understand something is wrong. Is it chronic depression or is this just a way for a narcissist to play the victim? I feel bad just questioning whether his depression is real. I couldn't imagine bringing it up to him. How can I tell? Can depression cause all of these things? I just don't know. What should my next step be? Confront him or try to help him through his depression. If it's depression...I need to be there for him and be a light in the darkness. If it's not...then I would only be adding fuel to the fire, I feel, and validating a narcissist's tactics.
submitted by magical_af_629 to Marriage [link] [comments]
Recently, things have been more rocky than usual. The mood in the house has always ebbed & flowed with his moods. The kids have always been more open with me than with him. I admitted to him recently (not for the first time) that we all walk on eggshells hoping not to upset him. That his angry responses are too extreme and I feel uncalled for. That I will or won't say/do things because of the response he gives when things don't go his way. I feel like that is my biggest fault, I'm a people pleaser and he's always been the one I try to please the most. I've tried time and time again to have open, honest, adult conversations with him but they always turn to yelling and mudslinging from him. This obviously upset him. He was quiet for a few days...then acted like everything was fine. I couldn't put on a face and he could tell I was still upset. So, he got quiet again. He then brought up the whole ordeal (which never happens btw...it's always me who has to bring it up). He now says he's been depressed for years and he's the bad guy and he wishes he could just disappear. (Not suicidal...just thinks it would be better for everyone else if he wasn't around. Yet, he doesn't want to leave or be alone.) This isn't the first time he's said these things (other than the depression part)...yet things will change for a while and then I feel they go right back. I've mentioned therapy for him before (he is a veteran and he says he suffers from PTSD), he'll agree and then it just becomes a lot of excuses. I suggest exercise to try to up his mood, he says he's in perpetual pain (he has back issues from his military time) and is scared to make his back go out again. When asked why he hasn't really spoken to anyone in the house other than a few words in a long time, expect for when it's some serious world problem he wants to talk about, he says he feels like he walks on eggshells as to not piss anyone off. He doesn't have any interests outside of research and sex. Which is another sore point between us because if I don't respond to his advances the way he wants then I get passive aggressive responses and the silent treatment. Another thing I recently pointed out to him. Our son recently got me my first Mother's Day gift from him specifically...yet he told me he has no clue what his dad would like for Father's Day because he doesn't really have any interests and he doesn't know much about him. I mentioned that to my husband and he says he doesn't like getting gifts or birthdays or anything where he's being celebrated. To me, it's almost like he feels he doesn't deserve it. He also never shows excitement for anything anymore. Not birthdays, holidays, nothing. I don't have any friends to talk about this with...I've rarely left the house in 8 years. He has his work buddies, but he hates his job and says he doesn't have any real friends either. Yet, I think he does talk and joke around with them if he's in a good mood. I don't know how he acts with other people because I don't get to see him outside of our house. He comes home from work and doesn't have any hobbies or outside interests. Even if I did have family/friends to talk to...I don't think I would because I don't want others to think poorly of him or me. He says he doesn't keep me from having friends, but I know in the past me being away from home or talking to others can make his jealousy and overprotectiveness kick in. Now, I'm too anxious to even try to establish relationships outside our own because of fear I won't know how or I'll make a fool out of myself. Hence, why I am on Reddit asking for advice.
I understand something is wrong. Is it chronic depression or is this just a way for a narcissist to play the victim? I feel bad just questioning whether his depression is real. I couldn't imagine bringing it up to him. How can I tell? Can depression cause all of these things? I just don't know. What should my next step be? Confront him or try to help him through his depression. If it's depression...I need to be there for him and be a light in the darkness. If it's not...then I would only be adding fuel to the fire, I feel, and validating a narcissist's tactics.
2023.06.01 19:25 ilcowy show me the (janelle) monae
new album next week, us tour in september and october that closes out 10/18 in la at the youtube theater, a live nation show. seems like this would make her less likely than more, but curious what the sub thinks.
feels like shes another bon iver type that is bound to sub again instead of headline, unless this album is hugely received.
https://pitchfork.com/news/janelle-monae-announces-2023-north-american-tou
08-30 Seattle, WA - WAMU Theater
08-31 Vancouver, British Columbia - Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
09-02 Portland, OR - RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
09-06 Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
09-07 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09-09 Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
09-11 Minneapolis, MN - Armory
09-13 St. Louis, MO - Stifel Theatre
09-14 Chicago, IL - Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09-17 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway
09-18 Philadelphia, PA - The Met
09-20 Montreal, Quebec - Mtelus
09-21 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
09-24 Washington, DC - The Anthem
09-26 New York City, NY - Radio City Music Hall
09-28 Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre
10-02 Charlotte, NC - Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
10-03 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
10-04 Birmingham, AL - Avondale Brewing Company
10-06 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre Atlanta
10-09 Dallas, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
10-10 Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center
10-11 Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater
10-15 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre
10-17 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10-18 Inglewood, CA - YouTube Theater
submitted by ilcowy to Coachella [link] [comments]
feels like shes another bon iver type that is bound to sub again instead of headline, unless this album is hugely received.
https://pitchfork.com/news/janelle-monae-announces-2023-north-american-tou
08-30 Seattle, WA - WAMU Theater
08-31 Vancouver, British Columbia - Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
09-02 Portland, OR - RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
09-06 Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
09-07 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09-09 Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
09-11 Minneapolis, MN - Armory
09-13 St. Louis, MO - Stifel Theatre
09-14 Chicago, IL - Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09-17 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway
09-18 Philadelphia, PA - The Met
09-20 Montreal, Quebec - Mtelus
09-21 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
09-24 Washington, DC - The Anthem
09-26 New York City, NY - Radio City Music Hall
09-28 Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre
10-02 Charlotte, NC - Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
10-03 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
10-04 Birmingham, AL - Avondale Brewing Company
10-06 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre Atlanta
10-09 Dallas, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
10-10 Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center
10-11 Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater
10-15 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre
10-17 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10-18 Inglewood, CA - YouTube Theater
2023.06.01 19:22 magical_af_629 My (38F) husband (38M) says he's depressed. I'm not sure if he is or is just playing the victim.
We have been married now for more than half our lives. We have 3 kids together and have been through a lot in our relationship (death of a child, military service away from our home state, etc). He has always been the provider and I have been the stay at home, homeschooling mom. Throughout it, we have had ups and downs obviously. Years ago, he came to the conclusion he "used to be" a narcissist. He cheated numerous times through the first half of our marriage, was very self centered and very controlling. Then he "woke up". Since then, I feel he's still controlling in as far as if myself or our kids don't agree with him, he will get angry. Anger runs his life most of the time. He has distanced me from my family by pointing out all of their faults, saying I'm being played by them, showing aggravation if I speak to them, yet saying "I'm a grown ass woman who can do what I want." I can forgive and forget, he can't. Not my family or his. He super protective and has been ever since he "woke up". Always worried about other people (especially other men) whether online or offline, doing/saying something wrong to me. Yet, when he's in a good mood, things are good. He can be super sweet and has always been there for me when my family hasn't. Albeit, he doesn't really have a good relationship with our kids since they started reaching puberty awhile ago. I think it's because if they buck anything he says is true, he can fly off of the handle. So, they don't really conversate with him much anymore. They are all teenagers for context.
Recently, things have been more rocky than usual. The mood in the house has always ebbed & flowed with his moods. The kids have always been more open with me than with him. I admitted to him recently (not for the first time) that we all walk on eggshells hoping not to upset him. That his angry responses are too extreme and I feel uncalled for. That I will or won't say/do things because of the response he gives when things don't go his way. I feel like that is my biggest fault, I'm a people pleaser and he's always been the one I try to please the most. I've tried time and time again to have open, honest, adult conversations with him but they always turn to yelling and mudslinging from him. This obviously upset him. He was quiet for a few days...then acted like everything was fine. I couldn't put on a face and he could tell I was still upset. So, he got quiet again. He then brought up the whole ordeal (which never happens btw...it's always me who has to bring it up). He now says he's been depressed for years and he's the bad guy and he wishes he could just disappear. (Not suicidal...just thinks it would be better for everyone else if he wasn't around. Yet, he doesn't want to leave or be alone.) This isn't the first time he's said these things (other than the depression part)...yet things will change for a while and then I feel they go right back. I've mentioned therapy for him before (he is a veteran and he says he suffers from PTSD), he'll agree and then it just becomes a lot of excuses. I suggest exercise to try to up his mood, he says he's in perpetual pain (he has back issues from his military time) and is scared to make his back go out again. When asked why he hasn't really spoken to anyone in the house other than a few words in a long time, expect for when it's some serious world problem he wants to talk about, he says he feels like he walks on eggshells as to not piss anyone off. He doesn't have any interests outside of research and sex. Which is another sore point between us because if I don't respond to his advances the way he wants then I get passive aggressive responses and the silent treatment. Another thing I recently pointed out to him. Our son recently got me my first Mother's Day gift from him specifically...yet he told me he has no clue what his dad would like for Father's Day because he doesn't really have any interests and he doesn't know much about him. I mentioned that to my husband and he says he doesn't like getting gifts or birthdays or anything where he's being celebrated. To me, it's almost like he feels he doesn't deserve it. He also never shows excitement for anything anymore. Not birthdays, holidays, nothing. I don't have any friends to talk about this with...I've rarely left the house in 8 years. He has his work buddies, but he hates his job and says he doesn't have any real friends either. Yet, I think he does talk and joke around with them if he's in a good mood. I don't know how he acts with other people because I don't get to see him outside of our house. He comes home from work and doesn't have any hobbies or outside interests. Even if I did have family/friends to talk to...I don't think I would because I don't want others to think poorly of him or me. He says he doesn't keep me from having friends, but I know in the past me being away from home or talking to others can make his jealousy and overprotectiveness kick in. Now, I'm too anxious to even try to establish relationships outside our own because of fear I won't know how or I'll make a fool out of myself. Hence, why I am on Reddit asking for advice.
I understand something is wrong. Is it chronic depression or is this just a way for a narcissist to play the victim? I feel bad just questioning whether his depression is real. I couldn't imagine bringing it up to him. How can I tell? Can depression cause all of these things? I just don't know. What should my next step be? Confront him or try to help him through his depression. If it's depression...I need to be there for him and be a light in the darkness. If it's not...then I would only be adding fuel to the fire, I feel, and validating a narcissist's tactics.
TL;DR!...Husband is claiming depression. Not sure if it's real or just a narcissist's way of playing the victim. I know he has hard things to work through and we have had a tough life...but I don't know which is true. Do I take it seriously and help him through his depression or call out his playing the victim?
submitted by magical_af_629 to relationships [link] [comments]
Recently, things have been more rocky than usual. The mood in the house has always ebbed & flowed with his moods. The kids have always been more open with me than with him. I admitted to him recently (not for the first time) that we all walk on eggshells hoping not to upset him. That his angry responses are too extreme and I feel uncalled for. That I will or won't say/do things because of the response he gives when things don't go his way. I feel like that is my biggest fault, I'm a people pleaser and he's always been the one I try to please the most. I've tried time and time again to have open, honest, adult conversations with him but they always turn to yelling and mudslinging from him. This obviously upset him. He was quiet for a few days...then acted like everything was fine. I couldn't put on a face and he could tell I was still upset. So, he got quiet again. He then brought up the whole ordeal (which never happens btw...it's always me who has to bring it up). He now says he's been depressed for years and he's the bad guy and he wishes he could just disappear. (Not suicidal...just thinks it would be better for everyone else if he wasn't around. Yet, he doesn't want to leave or be alone.) This isn't the first time he's said these things (other than the depression part)...yet things will change for a while and then I feel they go right back. I've mentioned therapy for him before (he is a veteran and he says he suffers from PTSD), he'll agree and then it just becomes a lot of excuses. I suggest exercise to try to up his mood, he says he's in perpetual pain (he has back issues from his military time) and is scared to make his back go out again. When asked why he hasn't really spoken to anyone in the house other than a few words in a long time, expect for when it's some serious world problem he wants to talk about, he says he feels like he walks on eggshells as to not piss anyone off. He doesn't have any interests outside of research and sex. Which is another sore point between us because if I don't respond to his advances the way he wants then I get passive aggressive responses and the silent treatment. Another thing I recently pointed out to him. Our son recently got me my first Mother's Day gift from him specifically...yet he told me he has no clue what his dad would like for Father's Day because he doesn't really have any interests and he doesn't know much about him. I mentioned that to my husband and he says he doesn't like getting gifts or birthdays or anything where he's being celebrated. To me, it's almost like he feels he doesn't deserve it. He also never shows excitement for anything anymore. Not birthdays, holidays, nothing. I don't have any friends to talk about this with...I've rarely left the house in 8 years. He has his work buddies, but he hates his job and says he doesn't have any real friends either. Yet, I think he does talk and joke around with them if he's in a good mood. I don't know how he acts with other people because I don't get to see him outside of our house. He comes home from work and doesn't have any hobbies or outside interests. Even if I did have family/friends to talk to...I don't think I would because I don't want others to think poorly of him or me. He says he doesn't keep me from having friends, but I know in the past me being away from home or talking to others can make his jealousy and overprotectiveness kick in. Now, I'm too anxious to even try to establish relationships outside our own because of fear I won't know how or I'll make a fool out of myself. Hence, why I am on Reddit asking for advice.
I understand something is wrong. Is it chronic depression or is this just a way for a narcissist to play the victim? I feel bad just questioning whether his depression is real. I couldn't imagine bringing it up to him. How can I tell? Can depression cause all of these things? I just don't know. What should my next step be? Confront him or try to help him through his depression. If it's depression...I need to be there for him and be a light in the darkness. If it's not...then I would only be adding fuel to the fire, I feel, and validating a narcissist's tactics.
TL;DR!...Husband is claiming depression. Not sure if it's real or just a narcissist's way of playing the victim. I know he has hard things to work through and we have had a tough life...but I don't know which is true. Do I take it seriously and help him through his depression or call out his playing the victim?
2023.06.01 19:06 Leading_Average6621 Selling my 1970 V Tail Bonanza. I have owned and pampered this plane and spared no expense. Always hangared in the heated space. Spent over $27k on the annual by a well known Bonanza shop. Plane is flown regularly and I change oil every 30 hours. No metal in oil analysis. Asking $150,000 OBO
 | submitted by Leading_Average6621 to TheHangar [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 18:56 Aggravating-Ring-845 2026 Lexian Parliamentary Elections
Background:
Lexia is a Democratic Republic, governed under a parliamentary democracy. There are elections every 4 years under a proportional system calculated via D'hondt.
Some History:
In 1956, the communist United Socialist Party overthrew the government, and established a communist dictatorship. They abolished the monarchy, exiled the Royal Family, and crushed the Labour Party, the former bastion of the centre-left, when it attempted to oppose them, absorbing its remains. Forcing the remaining opposition underground, the USP ruled with an iron fist. Although initially helping the country out of an economic depression through a programme of nationalisation, public works, and military build-up, the USP took out massive loans to fund its projects, essentially bankrupting the nation, leading to default in 1964. This ruined the nation's international economic reputation. In a bid to rescue his collapsing popularity, First Secretary of the USP, Kroku Maskara, fueled hateful rhetoric against the country's neighbours, and launched a military incursion into nearby Antara in 1966. This invasion was simultaneously an utter military failure, and a reputational disaster. The army faired miserably, and Lexia's international reputation was ruined. The USP swiftly ousted Maskara, and he was replaced by Jorn Kerkrusha. Kerkrusha tried to rescue the economy and Lexia's reputation. He did this by adopting a more monetarist economic policy, and pursuing a policy of peaceful coexistence with Lexia's neighbours. This was intended to settle the economy and allow it to recover from the 1964 default, and attract foreign investment. However, hardliners within the Party were unhappy with these policies, seeing them as pandering to western imperialists at best, and outright rejecting Marxist principles in favour of capitalism at worst. Kerkrusha attempted to assuage their fears, but failed to do so, resigning in 1970. This led to a succession of weak leaders over the next 17 years, who failed to even attempt to rescue the party's popularity, and continued to pursue brutal repression of any dissent. Then, in 1987, seeing the communist world come apart, the USP, in a final bid to rescue the regime, appointed Stev Shlobistka as their new First Secretary. Shlobistka desperately implemented liberalising reforms, allowing limited private enterprise, creating new democratic local government structures, opening up the press, and creating a more transparent government. However, this simply allowed the populace to see just how corrupt and repressive the regime had been over its lifetime, and how much it had failed to achieve. Thus, over the course of 1989 and early 1990, mass protests and strikes paralysed Lexia, demanding democratic elections and an end to USP rule. Shlobistka caved, allowing for the first multi-party elections in over 30 years, and resigning as First Secretary, leaving his second in command, Prut Lekr, to oversee the transition. In the 1990 elections, the opposition won in a landslide, wiping the USP from the electoral map, and from Parliament. The Christian Democratic Party, for the first time since 1951, was elected to form the new government. The USP would afterwards be banned, and Lexia would go on to have democratic elections, forming a thriving democracy.
The Parties:
Left Wing:
Green Party: Emerging from environmental protest movements in the late 70s and early 80s, the Green Party is an environmentalist party, focussing largely on environmental issues and social justice. Formed in 1984, and the largest party on the left, they have held this position since the fall of the USP regime. During the regime, the protest movements from which the Greens emerged were heavily suppressed. This assisted in the coalescence of these groups into an organised party, as they came together to ensure their continued effectiveness and survival. Since the end of the regime in 1990, they have headed 3 of 5 governments, and been in power for 17 (between 1998-2010 and 2018-present) years of a total 33. Their utter dominance sets them apart from other Green Parties across the world, and sees them hold the title for the most successful Green Party on the Continent.
Lavender Group: The Lavenders are a socialist party, with a social justice tint, formed from several queer rights organisations and protest groups in 1979. They were seen as a subversive force by the USP regime, and queer rights protests were heavily suppressed, with many activists being arrested and/or killed. The Lavender Group formed as an organisation to direct the various groups as one unified force, allowing them to stand united, and become more effective. Initially little more than a coordination group for multiple organisations, they became a fully fledged political party (albeit underground) in 1986 after seeing the success of the Greens within the underground opposition. They have been long-time allies of the Green Party, and have supported all three Green administrations. Many political analysts and much of the public consider them to be effectively one party, but the Lavenders' more socialist tilt, and greater emphasis on social justice, especially queer rights, as well as an utter dominance of the LGBT vote, have kept the Lavenders distinct enough to remain their own force.
Socialist Workers' Party: Following the end of the USP dictatorship, the USP was banned, and fractured into multiple small squabbling socialist parties, unable to reach a compromise, see unity, or shake off the stain of the old regime. Thus, in the years following, none were able to cross the 3% electoral threshold to be elected to Parliament. However, many left wing voters, both those who had once supported the USP and those who had campaigned for its end, were becoming disgruntled with the Green Party's moderate economic policy, and focus on social justice, rather than class struggle. The Lavenders, though socialist, were often unable to appeal to this base. Thus, in a congress of the 6 major factions, alongside disgruntled members of the Greens and Lavenders, the Socialist Workers' Party was declared in 2004. In the years since, it has gained popularity, however due to its often radical and populist tilt, alongside its association with the former USP, a cordon sanitaire has been erected by the other parties around the SWP. However, as it gains in popularity, and it becomes more difficult for the left wing parties to govern without them, it may yet be that the SWP could enter government…
Right Wing:
Christian Democratic Party: The Christian Democratic Party is the second of the two major parties, and the second oldest political party in Lexia. Formed in 1932 in a conference of Conservative and Christian political parties, as well as intersectional faith leaders, and Christian moralist Unions, the CDP was intended as a cross-faith, centre-right party in support of traditional values and moralist paternalism within the short-lived and radical First Lexian Republic. Once the monarchy was restored in 1936, the CDP solidified as the major party of the right-wing, as the Labour Party did the same on the left. Ruling from 1936-1944, and from 1948-1953, they solidified as the natural party of government. In 1956, following the USP revolution, the CDP was rapidly suppressed, and once Labour was crushed in 1957, the CDP was forced fully underground. They became the main party of the underground opposition during the late '50s and '60s, however suffered a split in 1972, as many conservatives on the right of the party felt they had lost track of their Christian and Conservative roots. Despite this, the CDP maintained its position as the largest opposition party. Dismissing the formation of the initial Lavender Group in 1979, it wasn't until the formation of the Green Party in 1984 that the CDP faced real competition over heading the opposition. However, contrary to the predictions of many within and without the two parties, and to the hopes of the USP, the Greens and CDP came to an agreement, cooperating with each other to organise a united opposition. This compromise was stroke of pragmatic genius, and allowed the CDP to still appear flexible and willing to change, while also allowing it to appear strong, as they continued to head a more united and powerful opposition. Thus, in the October elections of 1990, the CDP was the largest party in parliament, and formed the new government under Shrod Kriner, winning again in 1994, but losing in 1998 due to poor economic conditions. The Party spent 12 years in opposition, becoming the largest party in 2006, but lacking the support to form a coalition. Becoming an election winning machine in the 2010s under their leader Gordo Krintaia, they were unseated in 2018 again due to the defection of the Liberals, but remained the largest party until the 2022 elections. They have proven themselves a powerful force, and may yet return in 2026.
Christian Conservative Union: The Christian Conservative Union sees its roots in the CDP split of 1972. Unhappy with the moderate wing of the party seemingly being less committed to Christian social values, a faction on the right of the CDP broke away to form a new party, the Christian Conservative Union. The CCU declared itself "committed to true Christian values, a return to the traditional way of life, centred on the home, family and community". In practice, they became effectively a more conservative counterpart to the CDP, offering a more ideological criticism of their centrist pragmatism. During the USP regime, the CCU saw little prominence. They remained significant enough to not be snuffed out by the regime, or simply fade away over time, but not so large as to attract the regime's attention, or that of democracy activists. The CDP mostly ignored their wayward cousins, viewing them as able to be reasoned with, but unimportant and too ideological in a time when pragmatism was key to the opposition's survival. However, following the collapse of the USP regime and the October 1990 elections, the CCU emerged as a larger presence in Parliament than many had expected. Although not officially a part of the first Kriner administration in the 1990-94 Parliament, they were in a 'confidence and supply' arrangement; becoming a full fledged coalition partner after 1994. They have formed a crucial part of all CDP administrations since, and hold great sway on the regional level, often leading coalitions in their own right over the CDP.
Centre:
Liberal Union: The Liberal Union is the oldest party in Lexia. Formed in 1892, the party has been in continuous operation since. Initially forming as a merger of several previous liberal parties and liberal intellectual organisations, the Liberal Union allowed liberalising reformers to control the agenda following the democratisation of Lexia in 1894, winning a majority in the first elections. The Liberal Union continued to be a dominant force, swapping control of the government with the centre-right establishment Conservative Party. However, following the Royal-endorsed military coup in 1924, the Liberals were forced underground. After the death of King Konkas III in 1926, his young son took over. He conflicted with the military government, and this allowed for revolutionaries to overthrow the government in 1929 and establish the First Lexian Republic. The Liberals were thus able to return to the political scene, but they and their former rivals had been weakened by their years in hiding, and the new Labour Party took over the prominent position on the left. Whilst the Conservatives collapsed, a remnant faction joining the CDP, the Liberals held on. They managed to position themselves as the third party of Lexian politics. They supported the 1936 restoration, mostly in the interests of political stability, and often sat as the kingmaker between the CDP and Labour. They had supported Labour into government in 1953, after several years of political turbulence and successive elections. However, following the USP coup, they were targeted as allies of the rebellious and subversive counter-revolutionary Labour Party. This saw the Liberals persecuted severely, and almost saw their eradication. However, they survived, mostly falling behind the CDP, supporting them as head of the opposition. They remained steadfast in this support, although they criticised the 1972 CDP split, and the CDP's dismissal of the Lavender Group, wishing to integrate all potential allies into the opposition alliance. They heavily supported the deal with the Greens in 1985, and helped to unify the sometimes fractious alliance. The Liberals took their place in the first democratic government after 1990, entering coalition with the CDP. In 1998, following the Green wave, the Liberal Union entered coalition with the Greens instead, continuing this until 2006, when the Greens fell to second place. The Liberals were able to be enticed into a confidence and supply agreement, but this severely harmed their relations with the CDP. Despite this, they supported Krintaia in 2010, and entered coalition with the CDP. Although tensions oftentimes ran high, Krintaia's charismatic personality and good relationship with the Liberal leader, John McGranan, managed to hold the coalition together. However, McGranan's resignation as leader in 2016 opened up rifts in the coalition, and in the Union itself. This saw the CDP lose the 2018 election, despite remaining the largest party, as the Liberal Union, in an attempt to keep its warring factions together, joined with the Greens. This exposed the divisions within the Liberal Union to the public, as its Social Liberal, Libertarian, and National Liberal wings fought more publically. They suffered in the 2022 election, seeing a fall in their poll ratings due to their infighting and perceived betrayal. Despite having been a part of every post-1990 government, with relations with the CDP extremely fraught, the Greens potentially looking to replace them with the SWP, and the internal divisions of the party, the Liberal Union's future looks uncertain.
Apologies for the length of the post, this is merely to establish background. If this has a decent reception any future posts will be much shorter, I promise.
Parties are arranged from left wing to right wing
View Poll
submitted by Aggravating-Ring-845 to imaginaryelections [link] [comments]
Lexia is a Democratic Republic, governed under a parliamentary democracy. There are elections every 4 years under a proportional system calculated via D'hondt.
Some History:
In 1956, the communist United Socialist Party overthrew the government, and established a communist dictatorship. They abolished the monarchy, exiled the Royal Family, and crushed the Labour Party, the former bastion of the centre-left, when it attempted to oppose them, absorbing its remains. Forcing the remaining opposition underground, the USP ruled with an iron fist. Although initially helping the country out of an economic depression through a programme of nationalisation, public works, and military build-up, the USP took out massive loans to fund its projects, essentially bankrupting the nation, leading to default in 1964. This ruined the nation's international economic reputation. In a bid to rescue his collapsing popularity, First Secretary of the USP, Kroku Maskara, fueled hateful rhetoric against the country's neighbours, and launched a military incursion into nearby Antara in 1966. This invasion was simultaneously an utter military failure, and a reputational disaster. The army faired miserably, and Lexia's international reputation was ruined. The USP swiftly ousted Maskara, and he was replaced by Jorn Kerkrusha. Kerkrusha tried to rescue the economy and Lexia's reputation. He did this by adopting a more monetarist economic policy, and pursuing a policy of peaceful coexistence with Lexia's neighbours. This was intended to settle the economy and allow it to recover from the 1964 default, and attract foreign investment. However, hardliners within the Party were unhappy with these policies, seeing them as pandering to western imperialists at best, and outright rejecting Marxist principles in favour of capitalism at worst. Kerkrusha attempted to assuage their fears, but failed to do so, resigning in 1970. This led to a succession of weak leaders over the next 17 years, who failed to even attempt to rescue the party's popularity, and continued to pursue brutal repression of any dissent. Then, in 1987, seeing the communist world come apart, the USP, in a final bid to rescue the regime, appointed Stev Shlobistka as their new First Secretary. Shlobistka desperately implemented liberalising reforms, allowing limited private enterprise, creating new democratic local government structures, opening up the press, and creating a more transparent government. However, this simply allowed the populace to see just how corrupt and repressive the regime had been over its lifetime, and how much it had failed to achieve. Thus, over the course of 1989 and early 1990, mass protests and strikes paralysed Lexia, demanding democratic elections and an end to USP rule. Shlobistka caved, allowing for the first multi-party elections in over 30 years, and resigning as First Secretary, leaving his second in command, Prut Lekr, to oversee the transition. In the 1990 elections, the opposition won in a landslide, wiping the USP from the electoral map, and from Parliament. The Christian Democratic Party, for the first time since 1951, was elected to form the new government. The USP would afterwards be banned, and Lexia would go on to have democratic elections, forming a thriving democracy.
The Parties:
Left Wing:
Green Party: Emerging from environmental protest movements in the late 70s and early 80s, the Green Party is an environmentalist party, focussing largely on environmental issues and social justice. Formed in 1984, and the largest party on the left, they have held this position since the fall of the USP regime. During the regime, the protest movements from which the Greens emerged were heavily suppressed. This assisted in the coalescence of these groups into an organised party, as they came together to ensure their continued effectiveness and survival. Since the end of the regime in 1990, they have headed 3 of 5 governments, and been in power for 17 (between 1998-2010 and 2018-present) years of a total 33. Their utter dominance sets them apart from other Green Parties across the world, and sees them hold the title for the most successful Green Party on the Continent.
Lavender Group: The Lavenders are a socialist party, with a social justice tint, formed from several queer rights organisations and protest groups in 1979. They were seen as a subversive force by the USP regime, and queer rights protests were heavily suppressed, with many activists being arrested and/or killed. The Lavender Group formed as an organisation to direct the various groups as one unified force, allowing them to stand united, and become more effective. Initially little more than a coordination group for multiple organisations, they became a fully fledged political party (albeit underground) in 1986 after seeing the success of the Greens within the underground opposition. They have been long-time allies of the Green Party, and have supported all three Green administrations. Many political analysts and much of the public consider them to be effectively one party, but the Lavenders' more socialist tilt, and greater emphasis on social justice, especially queer rights, as well as an utter dominance of the LGBT vote, have kept the Lavenders distinct enough to remain their own force.
Socialist Workers' Party: Following the end of the USP dictatorship, the USP was banned, and fractured into multiple small squabbling socialist parties, unable to reach a compromise, see unity, or shake off the stain of the old regime. Thus, in the years following, none were able to cross the 3% electoral threshold to be elected to Parliament. However, many left wing voters, both those who had once supported the USP and those who had campaigned for its end, were becoming disgruntled with the Green Party's moderate economic policy, and focus on social justice, rather than class struggle. The Lavenders, though socialist, were often unable to appeal to this base. Thus, in a congress of the 6 major factions, alongside disgruntled members of the Greens and Lavenders, the Socialist Workers' Party was declared in 2004. In the years since, it has gained popularity, however due to its often radical and populist tilt, alongside its association with the former USP, a cordon sanitaire has been erected by the other parties around the SWP. However, as it gains in popularity, and it becomes more difficult for the left wing parties to govern without them, it may yet be that the SWP could enter government…
Right Wing:
Christian Democratic Party: The Christian Democratic Party is the second of the two major parties, and the second oldest political party in Lexia. Formed in 1932 in a conference of Conservative and Christian political parties, as well as intersectional faith leaders, and Christian moralist Unions, the CDP was intended as a cross-faith, centre-right party in support of traditional values and moralist paternalism within the short-lived and radical First Lexian Republic. Once the monarchy was restored in 1936, the CDP solidified as the major party of the right-wing, as the Labour Party did the same on the left. Ruling from 1936-1944, and from 1948-1953, they solidified as the natural party of government. In 1956, following the USP revolution, the CDP was rapidly suppressed, and once Labour was crushed in 1957, the CDP was forced fully underground. They became the main party of the underground opposition during the late '50s and '60s, however suffered a split in 1972, as many conservatives on the right of the party felt they had lost track of their Christian and Conservative roots. Despite this, the CDP maintained its position as the largest opposition party. Dismissing the formation of the initial Lavender Group in 1979, it wasn't until the formation of the Green Party in 1984 that the CDP faced real competition over heading the opposition. However, contrary to the predictions of many within and without the two parties, and to the hopes of the USP, the Greens and CDP came to an agreement, cooperating with each other to organise a united opposition. This compromise was stroke of pragmatic genius, and allowed the CDP to still appear flexible and willing to change, while also allowing it to appear strong, as they continued to head a more united and powerful opposition. Thus, in the October elections of 1990, the CDP was the largest party in parliament, and formed the new government under Shrod Kriner, winning again in 1994, but losing in 1998 due to poor economic conditions. The Party spent 12 years in opposition, becoming the largest party in 2006, but lacking the support to form a coalition. Becoming an election winning machine in the 2010s under their leader Gordo Krintaia, they were unseated in 2018 again due to the defection of the Liberals, but remained the largest party until the 2022 elections. They have proven themselves a powerful force, and may yet return in 2026.
Christian Conservative Union: The Christian Conservative Union sees its roots in the CDP split of 1972. Unhappy with the moderate wing of the party seemingly being less committed to Christian social values, a faction on the right of the CDP broke away to form a new party, the Christian Conservative Union. The CCU declared itself "committed to true Christian values, a return to the traditional way of life, centred on the home, family and community". In practice, they became effectively a more conservative counterpart to the CDP, offering a more ideological criticism of their centrist pragmatism. During the USP regime, the CCU saw little prominence. They remained significant enough to not be snuffed out by the regime, or simply fade away over time, but not so large as to attract the regime's attention, or that of democracy activists. The CDP mostly ignored their wayward cousins, viewing them as able to be reasoned with, but unimportant and too ideological in a time when pragmatism was key to the opposition's survival. However, following the collapse of the USP regime and the October 1990 elections, the CCU emerged as a larger presence in Parliament than many had expected. Although not officially a part of the first Kriner administration in the 1990-94 Parliament, they were in a 'confidence and supply' arrangement; becoming a full fledged coalition partner after 1994. They have formed a crucial part of all CDP administrations since, and hold great sway on the regional level, often leading coalitions in their own right over the CDP.
Centre:
Liberal Union: The Liberal Union is the oldest party in Lexia. Formed in 1892, the party has been in continuous operation since. Initially forming as a merger of several previous liberal parties and liberal intellectual organisations, the Liberal Union allowed liberalising reformers to control the agenda following the democratisation of Lexia in 1894, winning a majority in the first elections. The Liberal Union continued to be a dominant force, swapping control of the government with the centre-right establishment Conservative Party. However, following the Royal-endorsed military coup in 1924, the Liberals were forced underground. After the death of King Konkas III in 1926, his young son took over. He conflicted with the military government, and this allowed for revolutionaries to overthrow the government in 1929 and establish the First Lexian Republic. The Liberals were thus able to return to the political scene, but they and their former rivals had been weakened by their years in hiding, and the new Labour Party took over the prominent position on the left. Whilst the Conservatives collapsed, a remnant faction joining the CDP, the Liberals held on. They managed to position themselves as the third party of Lexian politics. They supported the 1936 restoration, mostly in the interests of political stability, and often sat as the kingmaker between the CDP and Labour. They had supported Labour into government in 1953, after several years of political turbulence and successive elections. However, following the USP coup, they were targeted as allies of the rebellious and subversive counter-revolutionary Labour Party. This saw the Liberals persecuted severely, and almost saw their eradication. However, they survived, mostly falling behind the CDP, supporting them as head of the opposition. They remained steadfast in this support, although they criticised the 1972 CDP split, and the CDP's dismissal of the Lavender Group, wishing to integrate all potential allies into the opposition alliance. They heavily supported the deal with the Greens in 1985, and helped to unify the sometimes fractious alliance. The Liberals took their place in the first democratic government after 1990, entering coalition with the CDP. In 1998, following the Green wave, the Liberal Union entered coalition with the Greens instead, continuing this until 2006, when the Greens fell to second place. The Liberals were able to be enticed into a confidence and supply agreement, but this severely harmed their relations with the CDP. Despite this, they supported Krintaia in 2010, and entered coalition with the CDP. Although tensions oftentimes ran high, Krintaia's charismatic personality and good relationship with the Liberal leader, John McGranan, managed to hold the coalition together. However, McGranan's resignation as leader in 2016 opened up rifts in the coalition, and in the Union itself. This saw the CDP lose the 2018 election, despite remaining the largest party, as the Liberal Union, in an attempt to keep its warring factions together, joined with the Greens. This exposed the divisions within the Liberal Union to the public, as its Social Liberal, Libertarian, and National Liberal wings fought more publically. They suffered in the 2022 election, seeing a fall in their poll ratings due to their infighting and perceived betrayal. Despite having been a part of every post-1990 government, with relations with the CDP extremely fraught, the Greens potentially looking to replace them with the SWP, and the internal divisions of the party, the Liberal Union's future looks uncertain.
Apologies for the length of the post, this is merely to establish background. If this has a decent reception any future posts will be much shorter, I promise.
Parties are arranged from left wing to right wing
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2023.06.01 18:51 ResidentGrape9517 S3 COMING SOON
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2023.06.01 18:28 MadKittenNicky Need your opinions on this.
u/Serbian_Slav and I have decided to try and worldbuild together. We've got two nations for the world conceptualized and we need your opinions on them.
Nation 1 - Queendom of Djirea
Djirea is the part of the world I work on. It draws some inspiration from Ancient Egypt, and as such its territory is a big-ass desert with few oasises (what the fuck is plural for oasis?). As the name implies, it's ruled over by a queen who's yet to be named. Religion of Djirea is centered around falcons, who are considered to be divine animals. Each settlement is built around an oasis, and the (yet to be named) capital is built along the shores of a large river.
Nation 2 - Kingdom of Udrea
Udrea is the part worked on by u/Serbian_Slav. It's mostly inspired by the Roman Empire with a few things taken from Mesopotamian cultures (most notably Sumerian). Udrea's territory is mostly mountains and forests with a few smaller deserts mostly to the northeast (where the nation borders Djirea). The king isn't named yet. Udrea officially has no religion, but animals such as weasels are being revered for their determination. Settlements and cities are build around rivers, lakes and the nation's shorelines.
In both nations, elves are despised and being an elf can get you killed. The two nations are on friendly terms with each other and are willing to cooperate to solve an issue that might negatively affect them.
Your opinion?
submitted by MadKittenNicky to worldbuilding [link] [comments]
Nation 1 - Queendom of Djirea
Djirea is the part of the world I work on. It draws some inspiration from Ancient Egypt, and as such its territory is a big-ass desert with few oasises (what the fuck is plural for oasis?). As the name implies, it's ruled over by a queen who's yet to be named. Religion of Djirea is centered around falcons, who are considered to be divine animals. Each settlement is built around an oasis, and the (yet to be named) capital is built along the shores of a large river.
Nation 2 - Kingdom of Udrea
Udrea is the part worked on by u/Serbian_Slav. It's mostly inspired by the Roman Empire with a few things taken from Mesopotamian cultures (most notably Sumerian). Udrea's territory is mostly mountains and forests with a few smaller deserts mostly to the northeast (where the nation borders Djirea). The king isn't named yet. Udrea officially has no religion, but animals such as weasels are being revered for their determination. Settlements and cities are build around rivers, lakes and the nation's shorelines.
In both nations, elves are despised and being an elf can get you killed. The two nations are on friendly terms with each other and are willing to cooperate to solve an issue that might negatively affect them.
Your opinion?
2023.06.01 18:24 Ecstatic_Put_7078 The Michigan Glass Project. Glass Blowing, Art, Music, and Food for a good cause.
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2023.06.01 18:20 lilStankfur Jerry Bird's New NPK car Revealed
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