“I just had an idea pop into my head about something to do this coming weekend, and I wanted to bounce it off you two before it slips my mind” My friend Natasha said those words as the three of us sat on my couch one afternoon. I found myself sitting up slightly. Normally, Natasha was the last of our group to suggest things to do, letting Vinny, the third member of our group, or I come up with the plans to keep our free time occupied. The fact she was about to suggest something intrigued me. “What have you got in mind?” I asked her. A smile played over her face as her brown eyes seemed to flash. “How about a little ghost hunting?”
I felt Vinny sit straight up beside me. She had clearly grabbed both our attention now. The three of us were what you might call amateur ghost hunters, using very basic items we bought offline to visit some of the spookier places in the area and posting our adventures on YouTube, sort of like a crappier version of Ghost Adventures. “Now that’s one hell of a good idea” Vinny said, before a puzzled expression spread over his face. “But, I mean, where? We’ve already done most of the places around town. The Tioga building won’t let us in after that…well, what that one resident claims we stirred up in the old ballroom, and I’m not about to make the hours long drive to the Wolf Creek Inn” Natasha’s smile grew wider. “No, we don’t have to even go out of town for this one” she said, her voice dropping low, “What I’m suggesting, is we check out…” her voice trailed off, letting the suspense grow for a few seconds before finishing, “The Egyptian Theatre”
Instantly, Vinny let out a harsh bark of laughter. “HA! Now that’s a good one. You know damn good and well that the society that runs the theater won’t allow us in after hours to ghost hunt. As far as I know, they’ve never allowed any paranormal teams into the place” He pulled a face. “So, how exactly do you propose we get in there? You flutter your eyelashes for the night janitor and use your feminine charms to get us in?” Natasha still grinned, but rolled her eyes at our friend’s quip. “No, actually, I was thinking about using my lock picking skills to get us in” she declared. It was my turn to give her an incredulous look. “You’re joking, right?” I asked. She shook her head. “Nope, I’m dead serious” I let out an incredulous, almost baffled snort of laughter and pulled my glasses off my face, rubbing my eyes.
The country, and, to a large extent, the entire world, became gripped in an interest, sometimes bordering on obsession with all things Egyptian when King Tut’s tomb was discovered over a century ago. Many things came out of this, including the classic 1932 monster movie The Mummy. But, one thing that also came of this fever gripping the country was a desire to build many Egyptian style buildings. And one of the buildings which took this design and ran with it, were the movie theatres. A decade after the legendary discovery, over a hundred theatres had gone up all around the country, their interiors clad with fake temple columns, paintings of sphinxes and Egyptian gods such as Anubis decorating the walls, and hieroglyphs adorning the archways. People flocked in droves to them, both to watch movies, and live performances. But, like all trends, eventually, the interest began to wane, and as the late 20th Century approached, many began to shut down and be either remodeled, or straight up demolished. Today, there’s only between five and eight Egyptian style theatres left in the entire country.
And one just so happens to be right in the town I live in.
When I moved to Coos Bay, Oregon nine years ago, I immediately fell in love with the place. Even though it’s the largest coastal town on the Oregon coast, it’s a place which is more or less perpetually frozen in time, still looking pretty much as it did between thirty and seventy years ago. And, as someone who is not exactly into the modern world, it made a perfect place for me to live and escape away from the 21st Century. I began exploring right away, driving every street of it and the town neighboring it, North Bend, along with walking every alley and back road I could to learn the layout. That’s how I learned about the supernatural element to the town.
There are many places in town which people claim supernatural occurrences take place. From the remains of the old logging buildings on the estuary, to the old Tioga Hotel which has been remodeled into apartments, there is no shortage of ghostly tales. There was even the old McCauley Hospital, which had once been the focal point of the town’s annual ghost walks until it was demolished in 2018. As a side note, I heard a rumor that a couple people broke into that place right before it got torn down. Something sure spooked them, because a friend of mine on the police force told me they gave him a fright, bursting in the night before Easter and rambling about something. I always wondered what they saw in there.
But, for me, the place in town I always loved the most, and enjoyed the most hearing about the ghostly accounts told, was the Egyptian Theatre.
Originally built as a garage in 1922, it was renovated by a man named Charles Noble into a movie theatre in 1925, where it drew in droves of people from around the area to watch films, and enjoy live vaudeville performances. It continued to operate almost to the end of the 20th Century, when other theatres began to attract younger moviegoers, and for a while, it almost seemed as though the historic building might even be closed for good and gutted. But, thanks to the efforts of local preservation societies, it was saved, and now operates as a theatre once again. They mostly play only older movies, along with live performances.
And, of course, it draws curious people for the paranormal rumors surrounding it.
For years, people have reported strange occurrences happening inside the building, both when it’s open, and after hours. Patrons and employees alike have spoken about a pervasive feeling of being watched inside the building, but finding no one there when the place was searched. There have been reports of being touched by invisible hands, a few even pushed slightly. Beyond physical interaction, employees have reported the sounds of old film projectors playing and unseen audiences laughing after hours, along with the eerie playing of the theatre’s Wurlitzer pipe organ, along with a host of other occurrences. No ghost hunting team has ever gone in to try and document these events. And to Natasha, that was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Legal, or not.
“Are you freaking nuts?!” Vinny exclaimed, “Do you have any idea how much trouble we’d be in if we got caught breaking and entering? The cops around here are already a bit twitchy with the druggies and the homeless. You wanna give them a reason to throw us into jail alongside them?” Natasha held up a finger, flipping her black hair over her shoulder. “They won’t find out, because I have not one, but two aces in the hole here. The first is that thanks to being friends with Scott, I know the nighttime police sweeps, where they’re going to be and everything. There’ll be an hour long window where they’re not anywhere near the alley where the back door to the theatre is. We can get in and out with no threat of being spotted at all. And the second is, did you forget I’m dating Dylan now?” The realization washed over me like a wave; she had started dating the man who helped the preservation society run the theatre a month or so ago. Damn, she’s been planning this one for a while, I thought.
Vinny had a thoughtful look on his face, his green eyes darting around rapidly, but not seeing. “Hmm” he muttered, then looked at Natasha. “And you’re sure that there’s no chance of us getting caught?” he asked slowly. “Absolutely none” she said, then looked at both of us. “So, how about it?” For a few moments, there was silence, and then Vinny let out a chuckle. “What the hell, why not? The most exciting thing we’ve done the last few weeks is go down to the farmer’s market. This could shake things up a bit” I suddenly became aware that the two of them were looking at me, waiting for me to make my decision. I was always the most sensible of the three of us, doing all I could to keep us out of trouble with others as well as the law. But, I always had one nasty Achilles Heel ever since I had been a child, and that was peer pressure. So, despite the overwhelming feeling that I should tell them no, that I should say we should just find something else to do, I nodded. “Alright, let’s do it” I said simply, causing grins to break out on both of my friend’s faces.
I wish to God in retrospect that I’d just had the damn spine to stand up and say “No”
The rest of the week seemed to pass by faster than usual. Before I knew it, the weekend had arrived. We’d decided that late Saturday night would be the best time to do this, as most places downtown closed up between eleven and midnight, aside from the bars and strip club. To say I felt anxious about breaking the law, something I wasn’t used to doing at all, would be like calling a Megalodon a goldfish, but my worries about disappointing my friends ended up outweighing it. And so, at eleven-thirty, the three of us piled into my beat up Chevy Tahoe, and made our way towards downtown. As I drove us down Ocean Boulevard, which connected the two sides of town, something settled over me. I can’t exactly place it, even to this day. But it was the most uneasy feeling I’ve ever experienced. But I did my best to push it away. It’s nothing, Troy. It’s just because you’re, understandably, worried about this. Plus, the road being deserted isn’t helping much.
My mental chiding seemed to help center me a bit, which was a good thing. The road was now angling downward, and a moment later, we drove into downtown. The darkened shapes of the closed stores seemed to rise up higher on either side of us than they looked during the daytime. We’d decided to cruise by the front entrance first, just to see if anyone were still inside. As I turned the truck onto the main drag, the sign for the theatre rose high above us, a depiction of an Egyptian pharaoh next to the yellow and white letters which proclaimed its name to everyone who drove through town. I spared a glance as we passed it. The lit up marquee windows showed that The Blues Brothers and Jaws would be shown soon. For whatever reason, though, I couldn’t bring myself to look through the glass doors that showed the building’s darkened interior. The uneasy feeling had returned, and, for a moment, it felt as though if I did look, I would see someone, or something staring back out at me. And then we passed it, taking the next right and looping back around to Anderson Ave.
I turned the truck into the narrow alley drive which ran along the back of the theatre and neighboring buildings. Parking right next to the rear doors would be extremely conspicuous, so I pulled up a bit further and parked in a carport like area. Shutting off the engine, I turned to my two friends. “Well, this is it” I said, “Last chance to turn back if anyone’s having second thoughts” I’d hoped that either Vinny or Natasha would’ve gotten cold feet in the last few minutes, allowing us to go do something else. But there was no such luck. “Are you kidding me?” Natasha said from the passenger seat, “We are far too close to back out now!” Vinny grunted from behind me. Well, shit. Resigning myself to the fact they were determined to go through with this, I let a deep breath out through my nose and nodded. The others opened their doors and hopped out. A moment later, I followed.
The night air was cool and crisp on my skin as we slowly walked back down the alley to the rear of the yellow-ish, tan building. Three different sets of red double doors were built into the back of the theatre. Natasha pulled something out of her coat pocket, and I realized, with a small pang of surprise, that it was a lock pick set. A legitimate lock pick set. “Where the hell did you get that?” I whispered to her. She shrugged and smiled. “I have my ways of getting things” she said simply, then pointed to the far right set of doors. “We’ll have a bit of cover from that electrical box. You two keep an eye out while I deal with the lock” And with that, she scurried forward, bending down in front of the door handles. Vinny and I stood guard, each of us looking down both ends of the alley. As the soft sound of Natasha messing with the lock filtered over to me, I realized just how quiet it was. And how eerie hearing downtown so quiet was. Aside from a few distant booms and bangs, and the far off sound of a dog barking, all I could hear was the whistle of the wind as it whipped between the old buildings.
An involuntary shiver cascaded up my spine, and I tried again to reason myself back to a relative sense of calm. “Get a grip, dude, you’re gonna be fine” I whispered under my breath. But this time, it felt as though I weren’t able to entirely convince myself. I suddenly became aware of a creeping sensation, one which made me shoot a look around. Nothing moved in the stillness, no indication of anyone besides us being in the alley. And, yet…I was overcome with the distinct feeling of being watched. Not by either of my friends. But…by someone else. Before I had a chance to even think about it, I heard a rather loud click, and Natasha let out a soft laugh of triumph. “We’re in, ladies and gentleman!” she declared, standing up and pulling on the door. It opened silently, the streetlight in the alley casting a small shaft of light into the darkness beyond. Turning, she waved an arm at Vinny and I. “Come on, let’s get inside”
Before either of us could say anything, she turned and disappeared into the dark. I shot a look at Vinny, who simply shrugged. “After you, my man” he whispered. I let out a deep sigh, and then moved to the door. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the small flashlight, and then pulled on the heavy metal, slipping inside, Vinny right behind me. The darkness swallowed us as the door closed. For a moment, a small rush of panic from not being able to see flashed through me, before a light appeared beside me. It wasn’t from a flashlight, though; instead, a small, orange flame flickered beside me. “Don’t turn on your flashlights yet, just follow me” Natasha said, the flame making her face seem to dance and move behind it. She turned and headed away, leaving us no choice but to follow. I listened to her and didn’t turn on my flashlight. But every fiber of my being was screaming at me to. Because the feeling of being watched out in the alleyway? Had quintupled in here. The best way to describe it, was that we were angrily being stared at. And I didn’t like the sensation one bit.
Natasha led us up a flight of steps and pushed open another door. “We’re here” she said, still keeping her voice low, “You can turn on your flashlights now” Thank you, God, I silently said, snapping mine on and casting a bright white light into the room we’d entered. A moment later, so did my two friends’ lights. The beams played around, and I heard Vinny let out a bit of a gasp. “Ho-lyyyy shit” he muttered.
Natasha had guided us into the main theatre. The ceiling rose high above our heads, almost out of sight of even the flashlights. Rows upon rows of red movie seats stretched out and away from us, seeming almost unending in the shadows. The walls were all covered in hieroglyphs, all still original from the 1920s. To our left, the second story, which housed a smaller row of seats, along with the projection room rose about twenty feet above us. And to the right, was the stage itself. It was flanked by two huge columns, the screen rolled up and revealing a mosaic of an Egyptian building on the back wall, with two men clutching staffs sitting on either side. Directly in front of the stage sat the organ, its seating bench tucked beneath it.
“Okay, this is a trip to be in at night!” Natasha exclaimed excitedly, then pulled the backpack she’d been wearing off her shoulders. Dropping it into a seat, she unzipped it and began pulling items from it. “Guys, here” she said, holding them out. Vinny stepped forward and grabbed the camcorder from her; as someone who’d had a lifelong dream of being a filmmaker, he was our resident cameraman. I stepped forward and took two items from her: an infrared thermometer and an EVP recorder. The rest, she placed on the ground, and then faced Vinny. “Alright, tell me when you’re recording” He fumbled with the camcorder for a second, then shot her a thumbs up. Instantly, she took on a somber, eerie expression, giving an admittedly creepy look at the camera. “Well, well, welcome back to The Three Ghostkuteers, everyone. I hope you all have been well since our last trip. Tonight, you join us in a very, very special place, and one close to home for us. We are currently in the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, Oregon, one of the last remaining in the country. It was built in the 1920s by a man named Charles Noble-“
I turned away, tuning her out as I did. The woman really, really enjoys being in front of the camera. Better her than me. Shining my light around, I looked up at the balcony. I could see the small hole in the projection booth where the movie projector would shine out onto the screen. Something caught the beam’s light, reflecting off it slightly, and I aimed the light at the wall. It was a wrought iron light fixture, one which had been shaped into the figure of a King Cobra, poised to strike. Gazing around, I saw they adorned much of the walls. I let out a small shudder at it. God, do I hate snakes. Thankfully, though, the feeling of being watched I’d had in the alley and the darkened back of the theatre had seemingly disappeared. Yeah, see, what’d I tell you, Troy? Nothing but your nerves.
Natasha had finished her opening monologue and moved to the edge of the stage, on which she placed the small, square spirit box. “And now, let’s see if anyone would like to speak with us” she said, flicking it on. Instantly, the silence of the theatre was shattered by the sound of static, intermittently interrupted by quick snippets of radio shows being picked up. “Is there anyone here who’d like to talk to us?” she called out into the huge room. The static and snippets were the only sound to answer her. After a minute, she tried again. “Are there any spirits who’d like to communicate with us?” There was still nothing. Vinny panned the camera from the box to Natasha as she paced back and forth for a few minutes. A small look of disappointment flooded over her face, but she instantly plastered it over with the same look she’d given the camera before. “Well, it looks like the spirit box isn’t gonna work tonight, so we’re gonna have to try something else” She pulled out an EVP recorder identical to mine and switched it on. “Let’s try this instead, shall we? Remember, by the way guys, if you’re new here and want to see more, to like and subscribe-“
I turned away again, feeling a small pang of irritation flow through me. This is freakin’ ridiculous, man. The longer we stay in here, the more chance we have of getting caught. Truth be told, as much as I enjoyed ghost hunting, I didn’t even really believe in the paranormal. In all the years the three of us had filmed together, not once had we caught anything, on tape or otherwise. In fact, many times we’d had to fake spooky occurrences in order to make sure our videos got any views at all. This is your own fault, man, I silently chided myself, you’re the one who couldn’t stand up to them and say no. You really, seriously need to grown a spine and learn how to say no. The mental self lecture was furthering my rotten mood, and I began to feel a wave of anger at my two friends, as well as myself boil up.
“Hell with this” I finally muttered, then turned and began walking up the aisle. “Troy, where the hell are you going?” I heard Natasha call out behind me. I stopped, not looking over my shoulder, but quietly aiming my voice behind me and allowing a hint of irritation to seep into it. “I’m gonna go check out the second floor balcony, okay? I don’t exactly like just standing here” For a moment, there was silence, and then her voice came, soft and almost apologetic. “Okay, go ahead” Before she could say anything more, I strode away, walking to the open doorway which led out of the theater and into the concession area. I hooded my flashlight beam with one hand to make sure it wouldn’t accidentally shine out of the glass entrance doors into the street and looked around. The lobby and concession stand took up most of the front area, the darkened shape of it stretching along the far wall.
Taking a few steps ahead, I turned and looked up at the wall above me. Large, blue letters stretched out from one side of it to the other. Through these doors pass the most wonderful people. I snorted softly. “Yeah, unfortunately, not tonight” I shook my head, then looked around. And nearly jumped out of my skin. Something also seemed to jump back. I felt my heartbeat begin to race in my chest and my breath quickened. “Shit…” I let out weakly, then slowly moved forward. After a few steps, I suddenly realized what I’d seen and let out a soft laugh of relief.
“Your own damn reflection, you fucking pussy” Shaking my head, I turned away from the glass wall and headed for the stairs to the second floor. At the base of them, I stopped and shone my flashlight up. “Ooh, boy” I said quietly. Sitting next to the stairway like a sentry, was a huge, golden statue of a pharaoh. It towered over me, and I estimated that, were it be standing straight up, it’d easily be between eight and ten feet tall. It stared straight ahead at the wall ahead of it, and I couldn’t help but let out a small shiver as I stared at it. It just seemed so damn eerie in the dark, and I quickly moved past it, heading up the stairs and stepping out onto the second story balcony.
I shone my light around. Red seats again surrounded me, though this time far fewer. Ahead of me, I could see the balcony’s edge and the hulking shape of the main stage beyond. I could also see the beams of my friends’ flashlights playing over it, and hear both of their voices speaking softly. Deciding while I was up here to at least check out the projection booth, I strode over to the door and tried to turn the handle. It was locked. Feeling my irritation bubble over into exasperation, I jiggled the handle in some stupid attempt to open it. But the door stayed shut. I turned away and rubbed my eyes, again hearing the voices of my friends softly filtering up to me from down below.
“Hey, if there really are any ghosts, or spooks, or specters, or whatever in here? If you’re actually real, could you appear to us, please?” I whispered to no one, “That way my friends can get what they want and I can go home” I received only silence in reply. I hadn’t really expected anything, anyways. You know what? Screw this, I’m going back down there and telling them I’m going home, with or without them. This is beyond stupid, I just broke the law for what? For nothing! For something dumb as hell. And with that, I turned to walk away. But I hadn’t even taken a single step when something crashed into me like a wave. The breath was driven from my lungs as I felt a massive chill shoot through me, as though I’d been doused with ice water. “What the fuck?!” I hissed through gritted teeth, then froze, my eyes going wide. The feeling of being watched had returned with a vengeance, and it had seemingly been ramped up in its intensity. I shot a look around, but saw nobody.
Still, the feeling remained, and with each passing second, it almost seemed to grow stronger. Chill after chill rolled up my spine, and even though I didn’t really believe, something deep inside me told me that it was time to get out. Okay, time to leave, I said in my head, and headed quickly for the stairs. As I reached the head, I turned to look back one final time. That’s when I saw something. It disappeared when I aimed my flashlight at it, but I swear a second earlier it had been the outline of a person, standing in the shadows and watching me. The split second sight catapulted me into motion, and I hurried down the steps, shining my light every which way but loose. Believer or not, I knew something wanted us out. I’d planned on jumping off the second to last stair and running for the main theatre floor. But as I reached the bottom, I froze.
For a moment, I couldn’t place why. And then, the realization fell over me like a tsunami. I let out an involuntary gasp, and fear like I’d never felt before surged through me. I didn’t want to turn around and look. I wanted to pretend I hadn’t seen it. I desperately wanted to. But, like a dumbass character in a horror movie, I couldn’t help it. I needed to look. I slowly turned, aiming my flashlight back up. And I couldn’t help but let out a strangled scream, falling backwards over my own feet as I began to backpedal rapidly.
The statue of the pharaoh still sat where it had. It still towered over me, looking as imposing and eerie as ever. But it’s carved and painted eyes were no longer staring straight ahead at the wall. Instead, they had somehow moved. And when I’d turned, I’d come to find they were staring directly at me.
I scrambled to my feet, snatching the flashlight from the floor where I’d dropped it and aiming it at the statue again. It stared straight out at nothing again. But I knew what I’d seen. It hadn’t been a trick of my mind, or the light. The freaking thing’s eyes had moved to watch me as I passed down by it. I began to stammer out as I backed away from it. “Okay, that’s it, no no no no, we’re done here, fuck this shit, I’m officially a believer, we’re leaving, right now” I kept backing towards the doorway to the theatre, never taking my eyes off the statue. I was terrified I’d seen it suddenly stand up and turn to lumber after me like Boris Karloff or something.
The blaring sound of the theatre’s organ slashed through the silence, causing me to let out another strangled scream and jump almost a foot off the ground. I whipped around, thinking I would see my moronic friends tinkering with the instrument. Instead, I froze again. The theatre was no longer dark. Both of my friends had seemingly vanished from the room, as I could no longer see them. The movie screen had somehow been pulled down, and above me, I heard the whir of the movie projector playing. An old, black and white movie, one which had no sound, played on the screen, occasionally changing to show dialogue being displayed in white letters.
It was also no longer empty.
The entire theatre was packed. I saw people sitting at almost every single seat in the huge room. I could only see the backs of their heads as they watched the movie playing. At the edge of the stage, what looked like a man now sat at the organ, playing it in time with the film. A slapstick moment came across the screen, and the audience began laughing. In any other situation, it would’ve been a comforting sound. But at that moment, it was the most spine chilling sound I’d ever heard. Especially as another wave of realization crashed into me. From the little I could see, everyone in the theatre looked to be dressed in long passed fashions.
That’s when the voice, low and quiet, came from behind me. “Good evening, sir” it said. It sounded like a man’s voice, one rather low and deep pitched, but something about it paralyzed me on the spot. The voice continued, putting on an air of pleasant politeness. “We’re so glad you could make it, it’s been so long since we’ve had new patrons arrive at a showing. If I could just see your ticket, please?”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. Then, I managed to squeak out two words. “Uh, ticket?” The tone of the voice seemed to change somewhat. “Yes, your ticket. That’s the only way you could’ve gotten in. Please, let me verify it and show you to your seat” Ohhh, shit. Whoever, or whatever the voice belonged to, thought I had shown up like a regular moviegoer. The voice’s tone became less polite. “You do have a ticket, right, sir?” I was beyond terrified to answer, but I was more terrified to remain silent. For a moment, I considered lying. But I feared what might happen if I did. So I told the truth.
“I….uh, I, uh….I don’t have a ticket, sir” I stammered out, my voice barely above a whisper. Instantly, all sound stopped in the room like someone had flipped a switch. “You…don’t have a ticket?” the voice said, all pretense of manners vanishing from it, “Then how did you get in here for the late night showing?” Oh, god. I forced myself to speak, still unable to say anything except the truth. “My…my friends and I….broke in…through the back door…to…ghost hunt…” There was silence for a few moments, and then a heavy hand dropped onto my shoulder. My head swiveled to look at it. Oh, fuck me sideways. It wasn’t a regular hand. It was a fucking claw. One with black skin, tipped with what looked like razor sharp nails. It sat there for a moment, then tightened; almost painfully so, making me let out a small whimper of pain.
That’s when I looked up. Everyone in the theatre had turned to look at me. My initial thought had been correct; they all wore clothing from almost a century ago, and not the stuff cosplayers wear, either. They also had very angry expressions on their faces, as if they’d just noticed the intruder among their midst. The voice finally came again, almost directly behind me. Its tone lowered, almost sounding guttural and animal, making my legs almost melt into jelly from the fear. “Then, might I make a suggestion to you and your trespassing little friends?” My breath came in rapid, ragged gasps, and I barely managed to force out the one word. “Yes?”
“LEAVE”
At the single word reply, which now more closely resembled a growl than a word, I did something I will forever wish I hadn’t. I finally turned and looked up at who was addressing me. The only way I can describe what happened is, my mind shattered. The next thing I remember, I was crashing into the back doors of the theatre into the night.
And I was screaming.
That was a month or so ago. When I’d stumbled back into the alley, I’d turned and, in what I can only call blind fear and panic, bolted for my truck. I hadn’t even heard my friends chasing after me. Not until Vinny caught up to me as I scrambled with my keys, grabbing me from behind and turning me to face him. He said the look I’d had on my face scared him and Natasha more than anything ever had before. I’d been pale as a sheet, my eyes wider than they ever thought a human’s could be. I'd been babbling softly. I’d been saying the words “They want us to leave” over and over. They didn’t ask me what had happened. They just pushed me into the backseat of my truck and drove away from there. It was clear, as I found out later on, that both of them hadn’t seen anything. As far as they were concerned before seeing me dash to the rear doors, it was just an empty theatre. Neither one of them ever asked me what I saw that night. And for that, I’m thankful. Because I could never utter from my lips what I did see.
But I’ve had nightmares since then. Horrible ones. Ones that’ve been so bad, I had to let out what happened to me, deciding to just post it here, regardless of whether people believe me or not.
Nightmares about being back in that theatre after hours. About seeing that pharaoh statue’s eyes flick in its painted sockets to look at me. About seeing all those people, people long since dead, sitting and watching the films they did when they were alive. About seeing that hand fall on my shoulder, hearing that voice, telling me not to come back until I have a ticket.
And about turning to see who the hand and voice belonged to.
The Egyptian Theatre will be celebrating its centennial this year. People are planning to show up in 1920s cars, dressed in period clothing. They’re even going to show an old, silent film as part of the festivities. But I won’t be attending it. I won’t ever go anywhere near it again. The one time I tried, a week or so ago, I started trembling with fear. And the mental image played over and over in my head.
The image of turning to see that horrible canine head attached to the human-like body, red, glowing eyes glaring down at me as it’s sharp teeth glinted in the light.
I pray to god I never will end up with a ticket to one of its late night showings.
But I can't help but fear that, like those packed into the theatre, sooner or later, we all will.

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/ReddXReads/comments/13lfqkw/vulturebeard_the_legbeard_that_ruined_roomies_fo Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/ReddXReads/comments/13u79ht/vulturebeard_bad_roomies_part_2/
^{Hi again, it’s the bunny. I’ve just barely stepped into Reddx’s discord, but Ezekial is still posting this saga for me so thank you, Z.}
Trigger warning: This will deal with a lot of aspects relating to child neglect (and possible abuse) and Kid being ignored or taking the brunt of Vulture’s anger. Sorry for the spoiler as well, but I think we saw this coming, too (especially if you’ve seen Z talk in the discord). Don’t push yourself to read if you’re not okay with these concepts.
The Cast List
Bunny (author): 33, female. Recovering lifelong doormat slowly building a spine. Neuro spicy gym rat with major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and most recently diagnosed with ADHD. Unfortunately, very familiar with surviving trauma.
Z (poster): My partner. 31, nonbinary (they/them), also neuro spicy with depression, anxiety, OCD, BPD, autism, and also familiar with lifelong trauma.
One Liner Beard (OLB): 33, male, neuro spicy with ADHD and depression. His nickname here comes from the fact that in messenger, he usually has one-word replies like “oof” or “mmm” as an acknowledgement he had seen the message but has nothing further to contribute.
VultureBeard (Vulture): 30, female, neuro spicy and disabled with multiple conditions. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTs (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), autism, depression, anxiety, chronic migraines, but also possibly a list of things that may or may not be real. The star of this unfortunate circus. Her name comes from how she always pops up when I’m cooking food, complaining about how hungry is and how she’s unable to cook.
Kid: 3. Female. OLB and Vulture’s child. Likely neuro spicy like we all are, but she’s also only 3 years old. Slightly speech delayed and not potty trained yet.
Take a deep breath. Now take another one. This chapter will likely make you mad.
​
Chapter Three: “Do You Want Bologna?” Or, Vulture as a Parent
Imagine this: it’s eight in the morning and you’re cozy in bed. The blankets are warm, and you hit snooze on your early alarm so you can sleep in before you have to get up.
Your peace is shattered by a toddler crying, followed by the screech of, “WHAT!” or “GET DOWN FROM THERE!”
Yeah, welcome to The Life.
Vulture has a messed-up sleep schedule. It’s partially because Kid doesn’t sleep soundly through the night, but it’s also because Vulture’s sleep schedule is essentially flipped backwards to where she stays up all night and wants to sleep during the day. Vulture says it’s “insomnia” but sometimes she’s up late gaming with Discord friends or watching anime. I couldn’t tell you which issue it was day by day. Sometimes if I go to sleep late, I hear Kid crying from her room because she had night terrors or had potty troubles. Sometimes I hear OLB and Vulture awake shuffling between rooms in the hallway.
Because of this, Vulture and mornings don’t mesh well. Kid is usually put in her room for bedtime around 7 PM, usually with her tablet to keep her company and either give her something to watch, or to play white noises for sleeping. Kid does not have a real sleep routine as well. She’s just kind of shut in her room. Sometimes there’s a bit of a routine like winding her down with chocolate milk and giving her a countdown of “okay, ten more minutes and then bedtime,” but for the most part she just does not want to go to bed. Bedtimes are met with a lot of crying, and the beardy parents telling us that she will be upset for a bit.
Kid has an attempted daily schedule, if Vulture is awake enough. Theoretically:

• 9 AM: Awake and watching TV while Vulture is on her computer in the same room
• 1 PM: In the room for naptime (but it’s usually play time)
• 4 PM: Free to run around while dad is home
• 7 PM: Bedtime (but she’s usually playing then too)

But a lot of times, that schedule gets thrown out of whack depending on if Vulture gets up on time. When she sleeps in, Kid is in her room from 7 PM to 1 PM. Sometimes Kid will make a fuss to make Vulture get up earlier than 1 PM, and Vulture will be grouchy because she “went to bed at four in the morning” because she either had “insomnia” (read: gaming or watching anime) or because Kid wouldn’t sleep. Or Vulture will be up to take care of Kid and make sure she is in a clean pull up and has eaten. Then she shuts her into her room and goes back to sleep. Sometimes if Kid is too much of a handful, Vulture will say, “It’s 12:45. That’s close enough to 1.” And put Kid in the room because that’s close enough to nap time.
Sometimes because Kid won’t go to sleep, she’ll still be up at 9 PM and that breaks her schedule too. A lot of times, it works out that OLB is the “fun” parent while he’s home, because he’s up at 4 AM to leave for work by 6 and doesn’t come home until between 4 or 5 PM. Then she spends time with him while he’s home.
There’s also a child lock on the inside of Kid’s bedroom door, those doorknob covers that you have to push and turn, so she can’t open the door and wander around unsupervised. I was originally the one who suggested the child lock, back when she was younger, and they didn’t have the secondary child gate they currently do now that’s stored in the garage. Since then, with her potty training and Vulture’s likewise awful sleep schedule, I’ve suggested more than once that they take the door handle blocker off and put up the second kiddy gate they have to block the living room and kitchen off, so she can get up if she needs to, but the child lock still remains. At most, she would have access to their room, since it doesn’t have a kiddy lock on it. Me and Z’s bedroom has a child lock on it, as well as the bathroom door. She could freely wander between her room and her parents’ room that way.
I hear Kid playing in her room by herself a lot, squealing and having fun and playing pretend. Or moving her furniture around. And no, the furniture is not secured to the wall, so she can move her bed around the room. I’ve also told OLB and Vulture they needed to make sure she can’t topple it and chain it to the wall but, yeah, that hasn’t been dealt with.
When Kid really needs attention, she will cry and wail. And I mean wail. The two beardy parents don’t have baby monitors or anything that can hear into her bedroom, so she has to wail loudly enough to be heard through the walls. Luckily, the house has thin walls. Because of her early bedtime, she’s often awake early in the morning. Sometimes Vulture will respond, sometimes Vulture won’t wake up until around noon.
Yes, that means Kid is by herself a lot.
Kid is a bubbly three-year-old. She loves it when Z and I give her attention, which admittingly isn’t as often as I would like to give her. With my own Depression™, I spend so much time fighting to just gather enough mental energy to be a productive human. Despite me wandering in a mental fog, Kid remains a bright spot in my day. I met her when she was a fresh baby bean just barely out of the hospital, and I immediately fell in love. Since then, I’ve seen her grow almost her whole life, except for when they were all in north Texas. She has blue eyes and brown hair that will curl on its own. She loves dinosaurs, Baby Shark, Octonauts, and occasionally whatever anime the parents are watching. Don’t ask me how many times I’ve heard the Baby Shark song. I don’t want it stuck in my head for another solid week.
She used to watch a lot of Ms. Rachel’s Songs For Little videos, because originally Vulture wanted Kid to learn sign language to help communicate. I’ve rarely seen Vulture attempt to upkeep the sign language lessons. She did at one point. I think after Kid started becoming more vocal, the idea was dropped. I have heard some of the familiar videos so often that even I learned the kid’s songs, but I guess that’s also part of the collateral when dealing with kid’s media.
Kid usually exists in a half-dressed state, usually just wearing a pull up and that’s it. Unfortunately, because Vulture is so hard on her tangles when she tries to brush her hair, Kid doesn’t like hair care and will fight being brushed. Her hair used to exist in a perpetual state of being matted with at least one major knot, until Vulture’s mom ended up giving her a bath and getting her to stay still enough to endure the brushing, even with the wailing of a protesting Kid going strong. Her hair was then cut to make it more manageable, and strangely, that fixed a lot of the matting problems.
Kid is let out of her room when Vulture wakes up, usually needing a diaper change. At three years old, Kid is not potty trained yet. Just from what I’ve heard from my bedroom, it sounds like OLB and Vulture are finally starting to step up on potty training, but it’s been an uphill fight. I know a few of my other parent friends have had an extremely hard time potty training their kid. I’m not a parent, so I don’t actually know how challenging it can be. I do know though that it shouldn’t sound like the toilet is some kind of punishment for peeing in her cloth panties that they’re trying to switch her to. Or, that they try to get her to sit on the toilet when she has no interest in it and she ends up throwing a tantrum. Unfortunately, without much context, that’s how some bathroom trips sound.
Kid wears pull-ups to bed and the cloth underwear during the day, or sometimes just pull-ups. They’re trying to teach her how to recognize when her body has the potty urge, which she still doesn’t quite get right now. She has literally peed on the tile floor through her cloth undies. Vulture messaged the house chat once saying, “Kid just lifted her leg while in the rolling chair and peed all over the floor.”
You know. Like a dog.
With the potty-training trouble and Kid only sometimes in pull-ups that can contain her mess, Z and I don’t let her into our room as often as we’d like to, because she doesn’t recognize when she has to go. It sucks, because Kid adores spending time with us and our room has cool animals, like my retired psychiatric service dog and our three ferrets. She loves the ferrets. But if we spend time out in the living room with everyone, Z’s patience tends to have a shorter fuse because they can’t stand Vulture (that’s also another tale I have). We’re also stuck out in the general mess of the living room if we are out there with her. It’s either the general mess that toddlers make, spilled food, and general filth. The best times we’ve had spending time with Kid is just chilling in our room as she ooh’s and ahh’s over the ferrets or watches TV with us. Z and I quote SpongeBob line by line daily, and she has watched some of the show with us.
I feel awful about shutting Kid out so much, when I see the way Vulture interacts with her. On Vulture’s bad days (if you read the previous post, that’s almost every day), she acts like Kid is a chore. She will snap at Kid, act like Kid is choosing to act out of maliciousness and make “tired mom” jokes that sound like she just flat out doesn’t like Kid. When I had liquor in the fridge, Vulture would ask if she could take a shot because, “I need it. She’s trying me today.”
Some choice quotes talking down about the kid:
“I’m being hard on her because she’s not using her words. Like I know she can. She just doesn’t want to.” This was what Vulture said to me after Kid kept trying to get her attention and wouldn’t explain what she wanted. Kid was just making noises at her and getting frustrated. Vulture full on shouted, “WHAT!” at her, then turned to me to try and explain why she shouted.
“This is the bad part about being a mom. She’s not letting me do anything right now.” This was said after Vulture cleaned her desk and was attempting to watch YouTube videos and play her Switch.
On her good days, Vulture will be that kind of smiling parent that does some art activities and engages with Kid in a way that’s more than just screaming. They color together. She offers Kid choices so Kid can have some control over what happens in her day, like, “Do you want bologna or fruit?” It has helped Kid become more vocal and even though she’s still speech delayed, she talks more and has a bigger vocabulary.
The house has a different atmosphere when OLB is home, compared to when Vulture is just watching Kid by herself. I’ve told OLB that I think Vulture is burned out. Her entire life is her disabilities and being a mom. She only has friends on Discord really, and OLB had to push her to start talking to them again just so she had someone to socialize with.
Old Doormat me pitied her at the beginning of our friendship. I tried being her friend. I tried to include her and Kid in a lot of things. My own mental health, my daily obligations, my gym schedule, and just me changing rapidly since 2020 altered my life, exhausted me, and left me unable to deal with Vulture talking a million miles a minute, info dumping about whatever she’s currently doing every single time I run into her. And as I shed my doormat self, I started seeing her clearly.
I told OLB once that if Vulture is truly burned out or if her health problems are causing that much trouble, Kid might need daycare or another caregiver to help. OLB is aware but can’t afford other care. He’s working for bottom of the barrel pay at a full-time job. Most days after work, he just wants to zone out to his own games in front of his computer but has to step in and parent both Vulture and Kid, because Vulture often needs help organizing through executive dysfunction to do something. Or, because she will call for his help.
There was one time where Kid climbed on top of her, and Vulture called for OLB – who was in the same room – to pull Kid off her. There are quite a few times where Vulture calls for OLB for help with Kid, and I’ve heard him say that he’s also busy too. One time he asked, “Why are you asking for my help when you’re closer?”
Z has offered to look after Kid at times because they don’t mind Kid being in our room or just hanging out. She has hung out with us when I also have the mental energy and the room is clean enough to accommodate a toddler crawling on everything. The problem that we both see is that our stepping in isn’t a full solution. She can spend a few hours with us, but ultimately after, she goes right back to Vulture and OLB. Vulture is the one who acts like being a parent is a chore.
There are times that OLB has snapped at Vulture for the way she gets on to Kid, emphasizing, “She’s just a child.” Their parenting styles are like looking at two entirely different planets and trying to find similarities. OLB is very much into the gentle parenting side of Tik Tok. He talks about breaking generational trauma. He’s usually gentle with Kid, explaining why she’s not allowed to do things like stand on top of her highchair or why I’m too busy to play with her as I’m zooming around the house in and out repeatedly some days. He has talked her down from meltdowns and keeps his voice even to where she can’t bounce off him to amplify her tantrums. He spanks her, but as a last resort, and then also talks to her about why the punishment happened. She will wail through everything and likely isn’t fully listening, but ultimately, I see him trying to work with her. He very rarely loses his actual temper with her.
Vulture is the total opposite. She yells at Kid, spanks with no hesitation and doesn’t explain why. One of Kid’s favorite games to play is “Block the door” when I’m trying to get through the house. She will block my bedroom door, cling to me, then circle around me as Vulture or OLB tries to distract her or lure her away by asking “do you want chocolate” or some other treat. Sometimes Kid just likes to play ring-around-the-rosie around my legs, as her parents try to grab her. I try to make it fun and seem like I’m not mad at her, because I’m never actually mad at her for blocking my way. Usually, I’m just in the middle of some arbitrary task or running an errand or coming back from the gym with my one remaining brain cell barely hanging on for dear life. I try to engage with her and play it off as a game because she’s not actually doing anything wrong.
Vulture has lured her away with chocolate and treats, with offers of food, with trying to get her to pick a show to watch. If that fails, she will come and fetch Kid by hand. One time involved yanking her physically off me and spanking her on the bare bottom because Kid was happy playing a game instead of listening.
The bare bottom is a thing, too. Because Kid used to live in soiled diapers for much longer than she was supposed to, she had constant diaper rash that she had to see the doctor for sometimes. She also didn’t want OLB or Vulture to change her diapers and would scream when it was diaper change time. I don’t blame her. The diaper rash hurt, and Vulture wasn’t exactly gentle with changing. Kid bled sometimes with the changings. So now, sometimes Kid will be dressed like Donald Duck in only a top to air out her bottom. Or because now, with the cloth undies, she will pee straight through them, and they just let her air out after.
Kid always smells a bit like pee. So does her room. And her bedding. After I pointed out that her bedding straight out of the dryer smelled like urine, OLB went about cleaning the washing machine with a machine cleaner, and bought scent beads to help cut the smell, after I told him that a little vinegar in the wash load will cut the smells down. Now her bedding doesn’t smell so much like urine, but it’s still there.
Her bedroom frequently smells like a public bathroom. It always looks like her bedroom has been turned upside down, with toys everywhere, her bed pushed to the middle of the room, the mattress on the floor. Books she was given were shredded, even the cardboard ones. There was straight up garbage left in her room because she was given food to eat there that had wrappers. It usually takes Vulture a full day of cleaning to get the room organized when she had the energy to do it, but she usually sanitizes with just a baby wipe, if she does at all. Maybe a pet cleaner sometimes.
There was one time where I was letting the dogs outside and I stepped in a puddle on the tile floor. That was when I realized that it was a pee puddle and Kid’s cloth underwear was dripping. I asked Vulture to clean the puddle up. When she asked to use my steam mop, she didn’t clean the cloth pad after, so when I turned the mop on next, it smelled like hot, steamed urine. I had to clean the mop pad off myself and rinse the pee out of it. When Kid again peed in front of the TV in her cloth undies, I told OLB that if they’re going to use my steam mop to make sure that the mop pad is rinsed off or it will smell like pee the next time it’s used, but he said he was just going to use his mop and bucket. Thankfully.
Because of the diet that OLB and Vulture has, Kid also eats like them. She gets a lot of macaroni, a lot of random odds and ends like pieces of bread, baggies of cheerios, sometimes fruit and vegetables. Lots of chicken nuggets and frozen instant food. Occasionally, Kid will have an interest in vegetables she sees us cook with or that she’s never had. Like once she insisted that she wanted to eat canned peas, until she tasted them. She chewed on a lettuce leaf and put it down, then asked for another one because she wanted to eat something, and it looked tasty to her.
The two halves of the household make separate foods now and keep out of each other’s food, but sometimes Vulture will give Kid some of the food I cooked because Kid saw my spaghetti noodles in a bowl and insisted on having them by way of tantrum. Instead of asking me if it’s okay (which obviously, I’d say yes, Kid can have some), Vulture just gave her my food and then told me after. Maybe I’m just projecting my own frustration, but it feels like Vulture uses Kid as a shield sometimes, to get food. Unless I have a specific purpose for food like what I put in my meal prep containers, I wouldn’t say no to Kid.
Kid’s diet makes me worried for her as she grows up. OLB is big and tall, over 6 feet tall and over 300lbs. They aren’t an active family at all. Kid drinks soda when they get fast food. She eats as much processed food as Vulture. Right now, she’s growing like a weed and is tall and actually has some power in her tiny limbs, which is most noticeable when she climbs you like a ladder, but her parents are gamers that just sit around. Her own screen time is almost as lengthy as theirs is.
I worry about Kid, constantly. Z does too. We have theorized calling CPS, or trying to adopt her, or just getting her away from Vulture. We have thrown around ideas about talking to OLB and convincing him that Vulture isn’t a good person for Kid. A lot of it has stayed in theory because the anxious part of me is still afraid to make life-altering waves like that. I second-guess and gaslight myself into realizing how bad things are, but then telling myself, maybe I’m just blowing it out of proportion. Maybe it's just something they have to handle. Maybe it’s something a first-time parent needs to learn. Maybe Vulture just isn’t feeling good that day. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
It’s a leftover of the doormat I used to be, and I know that. The tiny fragment of anxiety that tells me I’m blowing things up into too big a deal. The tiny fragment that escaped a toxic marriage and just wants peace after arguing every single day. The side that hates confrontation.
Maybe I’m just a plain ol’ coward. I don’t know yet. I just know my patience is running thinner with every passing day.
I don’t think I could convince OLB to dump Vulture. From what I’ve seen on the surface, they’re not openly affectionate. Vulture complains all the time that OLB doesn’t give her any physical affection, and she (unfortunately) tells me when they’re intimate, which doesn’t sound often. They almost look like they could be friends that are co-parenting. She calls him her husband when they’re out in public, and OLB has stated that he doesn’t want anything to happen to her, because he doesn’t want a single parent. I assume at the very least that he does love her, even though he sounds exhausted all the time. Z and I wonder if maybe he feels trapped.
OLB is good at asking for help if he needs it, although he hates being a burden to others. He will speak up if Vulture needs a ride to a doctor’s office, and he forgot to leave the car seat at home. I’ve driven to his work to pick it up after he messaged me asking if I could. They ask his family to babysit Kid if they want to go out and just have a good date or see a movie together. They are clearly capable of asking for help.
This is just an acceptable standard for both, or at least that’s the way it seems to me. Sometimes, I don’t truly know if OLB is aware of what Vulture does while he’s at work. He didn’t know that she used his 11-year-old dog as a vacuum cleaner to clean up spilled table scraps until I pointed it out and then he pieced together why his dog wasn’t losing weight on a reduced kibble diet. Sometimes I have pointed out things to him that he might not notice in the house chat.
I started keeping a log in Google Docs about things I notice, and Z and I talk about it in discord, so it’s not heard by ears that are too close to our bedroom. The log started helping me see that I’m not just blowing out of proportion and that in turn helped me come here to reddit. As a former doormat in recovery, I still have to tell myself that it’s okay to realize that something is wrong, and that I may need help getting my voice to speak up.
I haven’t worked since 2017, when my mental health took a sharp nosedive. Z is currently looking for work. Both of us are home all day exposed to Vulture and how she treats Kid. With my own daily tasks, errands, struggling with mental health, there’s still a side of me that berates me that I need to be taking care of Kid. Getting her up, making sure she eats. Pestering Vulture to get up. This is also where I tangle with the former doormat that still lives in me, because one, I don’t want to enable Vulture to get even worse. With someone taking the burden off of her, that gives her more free time to just sit back and game. It isn’t my job to make sure that Vulture is a good parent, yet somehow, I feel like it’s also my fault that she’s as bad as she is while I sit by the wayside and just talk about her behind her back. There are times where I have pestered OLB through discord about Kid crying, or how Kid is trying to beat the door down, or asking if Vulture is up for the day because I haven’t seen her up at three in the afternoon.
I started speaking up when I noticed something that’s off. I call this the “cheese incident.” We had a block of cheese that was cut in the wrapper and not in anything else, so the exposed end got all hard and inedible. I cut it off and threw it away. Vulture made her way into the kitchen because Kid saw me cutting cheese and wanted some.
Vulture: Who threw away that cheese?
(SHE PICKS IT UP OUT OF THE TRASH CAN)
Me: Yeah, it’s got that hard bit
Vulture: So? I know someone who will eat it.
(She calls Kid over)
Me: But it was in the trash.
Vulture: It’s okay, I cut off the part that was touching the trash.
Me: Dude, that’s fucked up.
Vulture: (hesitating now) Should I not?
Me: That’s probably going to make her sick again.
(Kid has been sick back-to-back at this point)
Vulture: Okay, then I won’t.
(To this day, I don’t know if she threw the cheese away or ate it herself, and I’m afraid to ask)
That was the point where I started pointing out that what she’s doing is problematic. It’s a slow process, but it’s helped me put the doormat side of me away again. I’ve explained to Vulture that Kid isn’t crying to be malicious, she just can’t express what she wants. Especially with Kid’s speech delay! Kid gets frustrated fast when adults don’t understand her, and the wailing begins. There’s no maliciousness behind it, just frustration. Or how Kid doesn’t like being told “no” because she doesn’t always understand why. Strangely, every time I call something out, she doesn’t really have much of a fight against it.
But why am I having to say it in the first place?
There’s little things that just rub me the wrong way in how they interact. Sometimes Vulture will call Kid over in the same way you’d call a dog. Repeatedly. Sometimes Vulture, in a state of migraine or other illness-related grouchiness will scream at her “Leave me alone!” and OLB will have to fetch Kid. One time, Z told me that Vulture outright mocked her crying by making her own crying noise.
What’s awful to watch in person is that when Vulture’s mom or siblings are over, Vulture is suddenly a doting mom who isn’t perpetually exhausted or loudly complaining about how her “everything” hurts. She talks in an overly sweet voice to Kid. It unsettles me with how two-faced it seems. OLB, Vulture, and Kid go have dinner with OLB’s family every Sunday evening, and I can’t help but wonder how two-faced she is there, as well. Some of OLB’s family doesn’t like Vulture to begin with.
Slowly, I am losing patience at how Vulture behaves, especially with the Kid. I had to un-gaslight myself, start logging her behavior, and talk to other people to really see it for what it was. I told multiple friends about it and we all generally have the same consensus that Vulture is just an unfit parent. If her chronic illnesses are truly interfering with her life that much, she shouldn’t be the majority caregiver through the day. But it’s not like OLB would be able to work from home or be the stay-at-home parent. In a perfect world, I would be able to help more as well, but I’m barely the “fun” aunt. I’m barely equipped to help care for a three-year-old. Hell, most days I’m barely an actual person.
Kid deserves better.
Bottom line, Kid deserves better than what this house can give. I am upset with myself over my lack of action, but the logs have only been growing bigger. Every day, the doormat dies a little more.
Vulture herself though, will likely always be a side show. One thing that Z pointed out to me was that, as the doormat I used to be, I would give everything to help someone even when I was mentally exhausted. I enmeshed myself too much into the lives of my friends because I loved making them happy and making their lives easier. It’s gotten me into some awkward territory with Vulture, because some things were interpreted as more than friendship.
You ready to cringe more? Because the next part is going to deal with polyamory, the desire for open relationships, and the main reason why Z despises her – and that’s putting it mildly.
Take a moment to un-cringe yourself. It ain’t over yet.

Why: The spin on our store to set it apart is solid but there would be no competition near, the spot is great and near homes and a school. The town has no "hang out" spot. Can create a place to hang out, hosts events like trivia night, card games (own a online card game store and have connections.) Boba places don't cost a crazy amount to set up. I'm a graphic design and Dom ditgal marketing so I understand demographics, branding, etc.
Worries: I have a few home businesses but never an on location one. Most of my investors would be family or friends (not sure if this is good or bad). I've never worked at a Boba place (been doing my research however, and love boba.) The economy is dreadful right now.
What are your opinions, advise, questions, etc. I'll appreciate any feedback

I'm a sahm to a 10 month old and my husband works four 10 hour days so he spends 3 days home. He is driving me crazy those 3 days home. I feel like he slowly dragging behind me completely lost. Example: this morning baby got up I brought her to the bed to bf her and then he took her downstairs to start our morning, changed her while I had a few minutes to get my day started. I go downstairs and the tv is on. I have to tell him every weekend to turn it off, that she'll sit and watch it and not play with her toys. So he'll put whatever on to watch on his phone which I'm fine with. I come down and start mine and babies breakfast. I'd make my husband some but he has no interest in oatmeal. The whole time he standing in our pantry watching his show and making a coffee. I get mid through breakfast and ask him to grab something out of the fridge. He can't find it. I get up and get it and he's back to watching his phone. I said to him "by the time you eat breakfast we will have finished." He says he doesn't have anything good for breakfast. I told him theres a can of biscuits in the fridge. He starts to get them ready (while still watching his show) and I tell him hey you don't even have the oven on. He randomly sets it and its too high. I tell him to turn off the show and pay attention. He gets them in the oven and then wants to vacuum. He's 50% of the way done in between throwing sausage in the air fryer and she is ready for a nap. I get her down and go clean a bathroom, he's finally eating breakfast. She gets up from nap while he's playing some video games. I get myself and the baby dressed and ask him if we can still take a trip to the home improvement store. He then wants to shower but changes his mind. I give her some lunch while he gets dressed. Fast forward to when we should be having lunch and he's working on something in the garage. It's like this all day... him several steps behind us.
Also his friends are online at the end of the day and he wants to play with them but the baby took a long nap and her bedtime has now been pushed so she's not asleep yet. Which results in me doing dinner, more playtime, bath and bedtime so he can get some friend time. I wouldn't care if we weren't constantly discussing putting other things first...We want to give her a bottle at bedtime I have to pump for 16 minutes to do that. I can't pump and give her a bath. And I can't pump while she's playing because she's in a super clingy stage and will not let me an arms length away from her. He wants me to make time for myself to exercise, I'd like too but I can't when I can't pass the baby off to him because he's 3 steps behind me.
I'm glad he's helping out with things around the house but I'm struggling to not feel overwhelmed, keep her on a routine and keep making my goals for the day. Any advice?

meanwhile in the Triceraton’s Grand Aquarium
Fox “Farah? It’s been too long!”
Farah “EEK! Please don’t look when I’m naked, McCloud! Did you get bought by the Triceraton as well?”
Fox “No, I am just visiting along with General Pepper. How did you get here?”
Farah “Artifact Retrieval for a client!”
Fox “Don’t tell me you’ve heisted another museum!?”
Farah “I wasn’t, just stole some odd artifacts from the antique stores! Before I could collect my fee from the client, I got nabbed by aquatic abductors using an odd smoke bomb to transform the nearby civilians into merfolk.”
Fox “And then you were bought by the Triceraton…”
Farah “Wish I had something to wear so I wouldn’t be half-naked all the time. But seems the ladies in here are so relaxed without feeling embarrassed.”
Fox “Maybe they’re just adjusting to their surroundings in here. But maybe I can request for another shirt for you?”
Farah “That would be nice, Fox!”
Fox “So how long have you been in the Grand Aquarium of the Triceraton's island?”
Farah “After being bought by the big triceratops humanoid, I’ve been here a few months and wondered how he would be so kindhearted to his aquatic collection of both mermaids and mermen.”
Fox “Well, I was at a floating fortress for a week and been friends with the Shredder.”
Farah “Wait, did you also infiltrate the underwater smuggling stronghold?”
Fox “That was Falco finding his new lover, and I wasn’t there. I surrendered to the Warlord’s dark agents at Corneria before being transported to the floating fortress.”
Farah “He was expecting a brave Lombax, but he bought me instead. Lucky Falco!”
Fox “Since you’re not doing any thieving, have you considered of having a family?”
Farah “Well I was thinking of finding someone to be my husband, but seems like it would be easier to get a good home.”
Fox “Would you like to date my big Sharpclaw brother, Scales?”
Farah “Uh, no thank you!”
Fox “Is there anyone in here that caught your interest?”
Farah “I don’t think so, but I’m guessing I can tell that you have a good idea of what you’re looking at…”
Fox watching the Triceraton approaching with his foster daughter “I still have a lovely wife with my mermaid daughters that are waiting back home at the Subspace Headquarters.”
Farah “Maybe I should have known the answer was in front of me, but I don’t know if I’m a good person to ask.”
King Triceradon “I think it’s a good idea to do things slowly. Would you like to be my beloved wife?”
Farah “I don’t want to date another dinosaur humanoid… but I want to be your beloved mate, my triceraton fiancé!”

Hello, kpopthoughts! Originally this was posted in twice but one of my friends said I should crosspost it here — so here this album review is.
​

Intro

To preface the review, I just need to say that this is going to be a very long read. Going through it myself for the fun of it takes around 30 minutes — it's almost 7k words, including lyrical references. So for the best experience, listen to the album beforehand to understand what the hell I was thinking when I wrote this, play the album while reading, and set a good amount of time aside.
And yes, this is 9 months late 😭 I'm not sorry — when I find an album review online it's always around a paragraph per song or even shorter. It makes sense from a journalistic perspective, but I want to do this album justice, hence taking 7 months to write out all my thoughts.
This shit is comprehensive and definitely overanalyzed, especially in Talk that Talk and Trouble. Each song review will compose of my commentary, noting the details I noticed through months of listening, then a conclusion. Also, mild swearing warning, I like implementing a touch of "French" when I'm very emotional about something. Anyway, onto the review!
​
​
​

Between 1&2 💞

Album Review
​
​
​
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT
TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED
​
​
​

Talk that Talk 🎙

Producers by collapsedone and MRCH
​
One of the most perfect TWICE songs.
I think this is one of TWICE’s best-sounding title tracks. Warm modulated synths, a thrumming bass line, distant bells, shimmering synths — the purpose of this song is to be fun and my god is it excellent at it, like, Sana and Chaeyoung are saying knock-knock-knock and beep-beep-beep as if they’re some kind of car. So much fun.
Further along in the verse, Dahyun’s voice sounds so full and smooth with that layered harmony. Tzuyu coming with the Yes or Yes, Push & Pull, and 1 to 10 references — these are 5 years of song references. And Jeongyeon closes the pre-chorus accompanied by a rising synth to drop into chorus one. Jeongyeon slays pre-choruses.
The drums accelerate, the synths start blasting, and Jihyo opens to that party of a chorus with her godly vocals,
​

Tell me what you want
Tell me what you need
A to Z da malhaebwa
But shijageun ireoke have
Talk that Talk ttak han madi
Talk that Talk L-O-V-E
deullyeojweo ooh
Now now now now now yeah~

​
During Sana's Talk that Talk~ lines there’s this gentle ascending synth bell that rings with the descending melody and it sounds absolutely gorgeous. And the choreography during that part of the chorus is so so so so fun: the talking hands bit, spelling L-O-V-E, concluding with the deullyeojweo ooh! Oh my Jihyo the deullyeojweo ooh…
Have I mentioned this song is fun?
Speeding through verse 2; Chaeyoung’s part with the cat ears popping in the music video is adorable; Momo her stretching her arms out looks so damn cool; and Dahyun with her replay part sounds so lovely — although I think it sonically sounds a touch random, it makes sense thematically.
And now for this pre-chorus. Mina and Jihyo leading into it sound great BUT JEONGYEON… Now, she is my ult bias, and this pre-chorus sounds almost identical to the first one, but the way she holds that final note, inflecting and holding that now~ for one more beat before the chorus drops sounds so perfect — the song teeters on a cliff edge. Jeongyeon slays pre-choruses.
Dropping into the second chorus and man the way Nayeon delivers it just hits different. She has this indescribable “pop” voice (I promise this wasn't on purpose) that shouts out loud that this is THE chorus. This is especially apparent in how both lead their choruses where Jihyo starts at 120% power while Nayeon waits until [Tell me] WHAT YOU WANT to full-send it. The production also helps with this effect, cutting out during what you to emphasize Nayeon's voice before crashing back down, double the pause at Jihyo's intro.
Another deullyeojweo ooh! Nayeon travels to Narnia, and Mina the engineer strikes again in this heavenly, underwater-esque bridge,
​

The simple words “I love you”
That’s all I wanna hear
Without hesitation, I’ll go up to you
I’ll make it simple
And just tell you I love you

​
The word “love” is said for the first time in the song. There’s a funky keyboard instrument behind Chaeyoung’s part. Jihyo, Chaeyoung, and Nayeon take the initiative in their lyrics, professing their love before closing the bridge.
And now for the pièce-de-résistance: this final double chorus is exceptional — 40 seconds of crack-laced euphoria; Jihyo switches up the chorus and the choreo, Dahyun chimes in with her fluttery Talk that Talk, Momo comes out of nowhere with oh yeah it sounds so good! — you’re damn right it does, and this is where the song SOARS.
​

han beon deo~ haejweo
geurae banggeum geu mal~

​
Nayeon outright shouts Tell me what you need and then Jeongyeon sings the above lines in such an ethereal, warm way where the first line ascends while the second descends, causing a lull in the song before the finale with Tzuyu and Nayeon, finishing off the song with the final deullyeojweo ooh!
What a party. What a song.
​
THE GOOD

• The synths of all time
• The chimes during Talk-that-talk~
• Jeongyeon’s pre-chorus going into Nayeon’s chorus
• Rich harmonies and fun ad-libs
• The entirety of that magical final chorus and outro

Needs Work

• The opening hook (Tell me what you want) and accompanying choreography could be “catchier”

Core Memory

• Singing (and dancing) my heart out when this song played at a K-pop club

​
Lyrics and theme-wise, if this were to have been TWICE’s last comeback, they’ve once again built upon the theme they've been doing since debut: a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story.
This song’s chorus is honest yet simple; it asks the listener, in this case, the other half of the relationship, to be more upfront and open with their love (never be scared of love), that before the relationship can continue and flourish, there has to be a foundation and commitment of love between each other.
TWICE debuted with a song about making your crush go ooh ahh. Years later, they started pondering What is Love? and imagining their crush responding with Yes when asking them out — and now concluding with the phrase Talk that Talk, [Talk that] L-O-V-E, being upfront with the relationship, wishing their partner to also be happy, to commit to them, to feel the love that they want to impart on them. From gawking like ooh-ahh to talking out your shared love like adults — to having a true relationship between (one and) two.
And can I just say before finishing off Talk that Talk's review that this is such a fun and repeatable song with many little intricacies hidden in the nonet’s vocals and the song's production. This is the third draft I’m writing about Talk that Talk and its original word count pretty much quadrupled.
Harkening back to TWICE’s roots by combining mature thinking with youthful character, an incredible ending to look forward to, and just simply being a club-banger that’s easy to listen to, TTT is an easy 10/10.
​
​
​
WATCH ME GO WATCH ME GO
RULE THE WORLD
​
​
​

Queen of Hearts 👑

Produced by LDN Noise
​
If there was one B-side to promote in a live clip, this was a solid choice.
Helmed by LDN Noise going headlong into the Western boy-group rock-band aesthetic, Queen of Hearts is a boom-boom-clap song through and through. The drums are very prominent throughout the song, only giving room to riffs of electric guitar in the chorus to drive and continue the momentum of the music.
And speaking of the chorus, vocal line each got a chorus to flex and they did not fuck around,
​

You ain’t ready for it
Watch me go~ watch me go~
Rule the world
Know you never doubted baby
I’mma go run the whole universe~

​
Cymbals crashing, drums booming, and 3MIX belting all just so sound so good.
​

Baby I was born to rule~~
Yeah I’m the Queen, I’m the Queen
And it’s all because of you~~
That I’m the Queen of Hearts

​
These long, held-out notes performed by Jihyo and Nayeon are simply exquisite. Along with the shredding guitar, the drum set coming in full, and the interludes by Dahyun, Momo, and Chaeyoung, this is the part of the song that always, always, gives me goosebumps — it sounds so visceral, so energetic, so fun, so triumphant. Boom-boom-clap songs can be hit or miss with people, but there's no denying the payoff from the first part of the chorus to the second part is worth the wait.
The theme of the song so far has been kind of spread around the song. The chorus alludes to it with the line And it’s all because of you. But Mina shows more sides of it in the second verse, especially with the phrase,
​

And now that I’m surrounded by all my girls
We be shining bright like diamonds and pearls

​
It sounds really lovely — in a very cheesy and affectionate kind of way, as it rightfully should — the song is about the girls and their fans. But the bridge is where the song indeed shows its colours
​

Screaming out my name
See it in the stage lights
Feel so lucky just to have ya
Cause I know deep down I was meant for something bigger! Greater!
I know you’re seeing what I see
Yeah I’ll be everything you need
I know I’m gonna walk the walk
And talk the talk to be~ [the Queen of Hearts]

​
This is a song CONCEIVED TO BE PERFORMED FOR THE FANS. It’s meant to be loud. It’s meant to be unapologetic. It’s meant to be sappy. And it’s all the more wonderful for it.
This is the TWICEiest shit ever.
Like Talk that Talk, Queen of Hearts also has a killer closer. The production already started to grow from the bridge, but now the guitarist finally went Super Saiyan and instead of supporting the drums, they both take the centre stage in tandem.
Then finally, the closing moments of the song even manage to squeeze in some more sappiness.
​

So thank you for the memories
You’re all the ones who made me~
So thank you for the memories
That I’m the Queen of Hearts

​
I still can’t believe that this banger is a FAN SONG out of all things. Truly, the TWICEiest shit ever.
​
THE GOOD

• Adorable fucking lyrics
• Unrelenting, roaring chorus
• English and vocal flex
• Intoxicating guitar riffs

Needs Work

• Chaeyoung rapping in English in their Korean songs somehow slaps harder than her English rapping in their English songs, nonetheless, in QoH, it fits with the sound of the song

Core Memory

• Walking home from a K-pop festival with this song playing, felt like a Queen of Hearts

​
I love these types of rock songs with how grunge and head-bang-able they are, there is just a certain nostalgic and cheesy quality to them that feels so cozy. I don’t love putting them on repeat, because in this case, I do believe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Perhaps more shredding, maybe a guitar solo to rock out to, or an accompaniment(!) of ad-libs from 3MIX to support Jihyo’s final chorus? A ONCE can dream of a truly bombastic rock song from TWICE. But then again that distracts from the core of what this song is: a fan song disguised as a rock song.
Queen of Hearts has so much sweetness in its lyrics and message that it's overflowing. The drums, guitar, and vocals can be as loud and intricate as they can, but the theme of this song is what makes it special from TWICE’s other rock songs — it’s a 9/10 for me.
​
​
​
I WANNA WANNA WANNA
TAKE YOU TO THE BASICS
​
​
​

Basics 🌈

Lyrics by Chaeyoung
​
Quite possibly the jammiest (pun intended) song of the album.
A song written by the Strawberry Princess herself — an event similar in frequency to other artists' releases with her last song being 2020’s silky Handle It — Basics first starts with an understated and dreamy delivery. After the first stanza, however, a bouncy Miami bass line emerges, revealing the true nature of the song: this is a classic summer bop! Especially in the first rap,
​

dareun aedeulgwaneun dalla
Ain’t beggin’ for love
nappeun geon anijana ige naraseo
eodiro twilji molla
Like rainbow bubble gum
geureoni nal kkwak butjabadweo

​
Syllables are pronounced in a relaxed nature, bars often starting with an "ah" sound, flirty lines in English — this rap features a production full of pop with R&B flourishes and, in my opinion, this is Chaeyoung’s bag. Also, the line rainbow bubblegum is so adorable and so Chaeyoung.
​

I wanna wanna wanna take it to the Basics
da weonhae weonhae weonhae? seodureuji ma Baby
ppeonhae ppeonhae malhae mweohae da al tende
Ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah

​
That chorus is pure pop with a Miami bass backing; you better be bopping your head to the melody, if not booty poppin' to the bassline. Chaeyoung loves rhyming in the first half of the chorus to enhance its catchiness and it's damn incredible: wanna, weonhae, and ppeonhae all create these imperfect rhymes that continue momentum without feeling repetitive.
After the very Boy With Luv-sounding ah yeah ah yeah, ah yeah ah yeah comes an 8-bar split half and half between Chaeyoung and Momo. Coming from the chorus, the production completely cuts out for the first 2 bars. This adds tension; the song yearns to have that bass beat thumping again and all we have in the audio space in those 2 bars is Chaeyoung spittin' and she delivered.
​

taneun deut tteugeoun samak wie
yeppeuge pieonan jangmi gata
joshimseure naege dagaol ttae
nado moreuge jjilleobeoril tende

​
Translating to:
​

Above the hot, burning desert
It’s like a rose that bloomed beautifully
When you come to me slowly
I will prick you unconsciously

​
The rap feels slick, effortless, and confident. Her diction remains sharp when enunciating each syllable but she doesn’t let the flow of her rap waver or build as her 4 bars go by, it’s just smooth consistency throughout. Even the lyrics possess an aura of laid-back collectedness that is just so her. The things Chaeyoung can do when given her pen.
​
THE GOOD

• That sweet summer vibe of a chorus
• The spaceship post-chorus is killer
• Chaeyoung devoured this song
• Sure-footed, confident lyrics

Needs Work

• Perhaps an alteration of that ah yeah ah yeah line
• The way Jihyo did her pre-chorus line is good, but Mina’s is great

Core Memory

• After donating my hair, walking down the rainbow-coloured areas of downtown Toronto with this song playing was very… fitting

​
This song is summer bliss distilled into 2:56. It’s dreamy, the raps are satisfying, and the ending is charming. I will say that although the second half of the song adds the stunning spaceship post-choruses and a floaty bridge with an incredible drumbeat drop into the final chorus, the raps of the song make it feel a bit front-loaded. And in an album stacked with awesome finishers, it feels more apparent.
With that said, it’s an 8/10 bop for me. This song is so easy to put on and it feels exactly what Chaeyoung would make if given the reins to produce a pop song all on her own. The lyrics are nonchalant but full of conviction, the wordplay is intricate, and the production playful but not too bombastic — it's just a nice vibe. Songs like Basics are the standard for good, simple, repeatable pop music and I’m happy that Chaeyoung got to test her pen in this genre.
​
​
​
BABY WE’RE IN
TROUBLE TROUBLE
​
​
​

Trouble 💃

Lyrics, vocal direction, and background vocals by Jihyo
Produced by Jihyo and earattack
​
One of the most enjoyable songs I’ve heard in a while.
There is an underlying tension within the first 4 bars of the song, Jihyo and Nayeon confidently open it to a nondescript array of synths and then the stanza ends, Momo announces Let’s go, the beat drops and it hits you: this is a club song.
Dahyun's relaxed delivery contrasting with Jeongyeon's staccato flow, the wobbly synth beat mixed with a sprinkle of house piano, Sana dramatically slowing down the song only for Tzuyu to build it back up until the chorus drops,
​

• Nayeon opens it using a breathy tone, with vocal chops serving as harmonies
• The blooming of the house piano takes centre stage and the song ascends into euphoria
• A random drum roll capped off by a cymbal crash
• Jeongyeon’s growling pronunciation of the word Trouble
• Chaeyoung slyly admitting I like this Trouble
• The entirety of Tzuyu’s tro~oh~oh~ouble yeah~
• Sana using her deep voice for the na~na~na~na
• Jihyo leading the vocals during the synchronized T W I C E chant

​
This chorus is perfect. Toronto’s residential market needs this song injected into its veins because god damn this song has SO much house in it. And then, ANOTHER KILLING PART: this rap fucking slaps.
​

gamchweo bwatja geugeon Fake
ppajin hamjeongeun Sweet cake

​
During the first 2 bars, Chaeyoung is keeping it calm because that trip of a chorus just ended and the song needs a breather, but I don't think anyone expected her to SNAP this hard afterwards:
​

You cannot resist this
Cannot miss this, such a bliss
Ima put it down down
Oh yeah, better kiss kiss

​
Below is the structure of her this portion of the rap, I’m not that well versed in this technical aspect of music theory but I digress, this is all in the span of around 5 seconds where it’s:
​

Triplet-triplet
Quadruplet-triplet
Quadruplet-doublet
Doublet-quadruplet

​
Now, 25/5 = 5 syllables per second isn’t groundbreaking, but goddamn it these 2 bars sound so nice — if there is one part in this album that I always repeat, it’s this. The addition of that first quadruplet for cannot miss this in the midst of the triplets sticks out and accelerates the flow of the rap while the following doublets and quadruplets destabilize and slow the rap down as the verse closes. And can I just point out:
THE MAIN VOCALIST WROTE, DIRECTED, AND COMPOSED THIS SONG ‼
Chaeyoung of course delivered the fuck out of her verse but THIS is what you get when you have a member not only write the words they’re saying but also the melody and flow with which they sing it, when that member knows the others so well that when they write a song they know how to make the group exceed. This is what you get when the artists you stan love doing artist shit.
And. AND. That's not all — with how much I mentioned I love a good outro to close a song, this outro slaps as well:
​

Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this Trouble be-be
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this Trouble bay-be
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this Trouble bay-beh
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this Trou-ble

​
Like, come on, Nayeon’s imitating a police siren for crying out loud. And this is all after her ad-libs in the final post-chorus; after the pianist going full tilt and playing that piano as if it was their last chance to ever play; after that final T W I C E chant by all the members come these blissful 20 seconds at the very end. What a song.
​
THE GOOD

• The theme of relishing in an uncontrolled love
• Sana and Mina’s melody in the pre-chorus
• Whole neighbourhoods full of house
• You cannot resist this, cannot miss this, such a bliss
• Wees and woos

Needs Work

• Mina’s line of falling down, falling down, falling down low in verse 2 feels a bit too abrupt of a change

Core Memory

• While writing Trouble's review I had this song on repeat for my whole subway commute and I must've been so distracting, just head-bopping and being so invested in my enjoyment

​
Need I say more, easy 9/10. The only reason I place Talk that Talk above Trouble is because of what that song represents but besides that, this is one of the best “international” sounds they’ve put out. Actually, I haven’t listened to Eyes wide open in a while but this song is up there with one of the most sonically pleasing pieces of work they’ve done.
Clubbing TWICE has always been a thing since TT was birthed in 2016, and has been a staple of their discography since 2019’s Fancy You and Feel Special mini albums, but Trouble unapologetically dives into and fits the house genre so well you’d think that this is TWICE’s bread and butter sound.
Trouble is Jihyo’s magnum opus. What a song.
​
​
​
BRAVE BRAVE BRAVE
FOR YOU
​
​
​

Brave 💖

Produced by Slow Rabbit
​
I first thought this was just a good song, then I read the lyrics.
Gentle guitar plucks, shimmering synths, a distant keyboard in the right ear, in the left a glockenspiel, the melodic oohs from the members — this song is PRETTY.
​

The night that was unusually dark
Above this terrifying world, felt so lonely
The world has grown in the time of wandering
So hard to breathe

​
Mina and Chaeyoung open the song with how they feel lonely, that it's hard to breathe and now suddenly the song feels bittersweet — I was not expecting the song to become this emotional. Brave describes a situation where the singer is in a darker place in life and it isn't until another person gives them hope by calling them Brave that they find the drive to keep going.
Once the chorus hits, the melodies pick up, more guitars get added — there’s even an electric guitar hidden in the mix somewhere, and the song drops the emotional front to reveal a mid-tempo pop song to dance to while crying in the club. The song as a whole still carries this melancholy feeling, but now with the added support of the chorus, acting as a light amongst the gloom.
Continuing on in the second verse there's this gorgeous, well-placed break in the song that just lets it settle after that chorus. Only a seasoned producer would risk this much empty space in a song and Slow Rabbit went to fill those shoes.
Back to the chorus, I'll take this moment to once again commend Slow Rabbit with the mixing of the song, because 4MIX undoubtedly sounds good in the chorus, and the interludes from Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Mina also sound really good, but the clear highlight of the choruses are these lines:
​

Oh na na na neon nal naige hae
On and on and on
Brave Brave Brave for ya
Oh na na na neon nal sum shwige hae
On and on and on oh trust me babe

​
Momo, Sana, and Tzuyu form this beautiful, surprisingly catchy, second half of the chorus accompanied by a guitar drop. It should not turn out this well with how conflicting the "na"s are with the guitar melody but it creates this gentle bopping ebb and flow that feels so lush and mellow.
Diving into the bridge reveals that the listener of the song is revealed not only capable of supporting the singer through direct words but also through their thoughts and dreams. As can be discerned, this can be a song interpreted to be about ONCEs, about how they push TWICE to be their best selves despite the breathless hardships they face. It's a very sweet and touching song.
​
THE GOOD

• Special lyrics
• Pleasant sound to vibe out to
• That gentle break after the first chorus
• 3MIX poppin' off at the end
• Just very pretty vocals throughout

Needs Work

• Potentially hard to comprehend without translating the Korean lyrics

Core Memory

• Form of Therapy’s life motto revolves around the word “brave” — I don’t know where I got that from, but I remembered it right before watching his album reaction (yes, this is very random)

​
I’m actually spoiled with the TWICE members’ easy-to-understand songwriting that when a song like this pops up where it's not written by a member and the thematic bits are mostly in Korean, I tend to put it aside in favour of the other songs on the album. And, especially for a song focusing on a theme like this where the English phrases don’t do the Korean lyrics enough justice, it does place a bit of a barrier on the listening experience, dropping it down to a 7/10 from an 8/10.
With that anecdote out of the way, this song is just such a vibe, man. I know that sounds super hippy to say but Brave is so mellow and smooth that I can’t help but sway a little when that chorus hits. And then I remember what the lyrics say and I tear up a bit on the inside. This song is so pure, raw, and full of heart — we need more songs like these where they just reminisce about life while putting up an upbeat front. Don't mind me just crying while dancing the night away.
With that said, this isn't the first time this theme has been sung by TWICE either, they've long trodden this path of supportive, confiding, up-lifting songs with Young & Wild, Rainbow, Queen, Go Hard, Depend on You, even this album's Queen of Hearts, and, of course, Feel Special. Brave just adds another on top of an already stacked lineup, unique with its mellow somberness.
Also now feels like a good time to get into my rating system:

• 7/10s are songs are ones that are simply good throughout or great songs with apparent flaws
• 8/10s are great songs with distinct killing parts
• 9/10s are borderline perfect songs where I sometimes can't comprehend how great they are
• And 10/10s are the best of an artist's discography, songs that encapsulate their ethos perfectly or expand upon them in a meaningful way

​
​
​
I SEE THE LIES
ON THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE
​
​
​

Gone 💨

Lyrics by Dahyun
​
Who the fuck pissed off Dubu this time??
It’s getting quite rare to see TWICE pull off brand new sounds because, with now 190 original songs under their belt as of this review, they’ve done so many genres and sub-genres varying from hyper pop, to bossa nova, to whatever 2020’s Go Hard is. So it’s surprising to see they’ve still got tricks up their sleeves and Gone is one of them.
The song starts with strings swinging back and forth and vocal chops dancing from ear to ear, teasing what’s yet to come. Jihyo enters the song with a whisper and the song sets its pace. A stagnant drum pad moves the song along and typical song progression would have Mina continue the build, but — it doesn’t. The song simmers, adding a hint of high hat to the pot. And then Sana and Tzuyu come on and surely the buildup must boil over right?
Silence, until…
​

I see the LIES on the top of your tongue

​
The strings emerge again on full blast, the simmer rolls to a boil, and the anger of the song is revealed,
​

All the fate I had towards you
Fades like a fog, Gone, Gone
Your flipping mind of doing this and that
I’m tired of it, it’s meaningless
In the beginning, it was hard to believe
With that, hatred increases

​
The singer is so scorned and burned from this relationship that they reminisce about all the effort they’ve put in since the beginning, but their “partner” is so unconcerned that they’ve just about had enough of the relationship altogether.
This has been Dahyun’s thing since 2020’s Bring It Back, 2021’s Cruel, 2022’s That’s all I’m saying, and even 2023's Don't Blame It On Me — emotionally charged breakup songs that make you feel as if she’s survived through a dozen bad relationships. Dispatch, do try to do your job better.
Another highlight of the song is the post-chorus going into the bridge. This segment reiterates the structure from the first post-chorus — a barrage of drums supported by the rhythmic strumming of a bass guitar along with a consistent synth filling out the soundscape. But this time, it’s Dahyun and Chaeyoung on the rap:
​

I can’t stand it anymore
My patience, invisible
I can’t find it, it’s all Gone
Even if I try to turn back, it’s too late
There’s no use anymore
It has left, it’s long Gone
You, with flipping mind, you are out
I know that you know what I’m talking about
Nothing you could say that could turn this around
I’m Gone

​
Building upon the disrespected theme of the song, Dahyun notes that she’s finally had enough with Chaeyoung adding that there’s no point salvaging what love was once there. Momo and Dahyun round it off by telling the listener that there’s no point trying to reason with them or playing naive, they fucked up and there’s no coming back.
Can I just say, it's a bit of a shame that Chaeyoung’s rapping popped off in this album while Dahyun only has this one verse that she shares with Chaeyoung, but it just sounds so good how Dahyun eases in after the chorus with her light rapping tone transitioning into her singing. She even holds the Gone in a little crescendo for some added pizzazz.
And, there’s no way I’m not going to talk about Momo’s vocals in this bridge. Damned if she only got 1 line to use it in, her lower register is incredible. She sounds so smooth singing in this tone. All of TWICE do in particular and there is nary a weak vocal performance in this album.
To close the song off, a wash of synths gets to have their shine in the spotlight, showered with Nayeon’s belting, signifying the dramatic and drawn-out conclusion of this partnership.
​
THE GOOD

• They’ve still got their surprises
• Thundering chorus
• 2nd rap and bridge combo
• A bitter, crumbling relationship theme

Needs Work

• I’m not a huge fan of the mixing during the first post-chorus, where Momo's vocals were fighting with the production, which is disappointing because Momo is capable of an insane flow
• The post-chorus in general, specifically the first one, can be a bit tiring on repeat listens

Core Memory

• Actually, I think this song sounds like a mix between GOT7's Not By The Moon, BLACKPINK’s Love To Hate Me, and Dahyun’s Bring It Back. I don’t know where I got this thought came from, but it stuck

​
Going back to that point about the first post-chorus as a whole; songs that have the production continue unchanged into the post-chorus/2nd verse are very hit or miss for me — see TWICE's Don't Call Me Again for an overbearing example. The post-chorus going into the bridge contrasts Dahyun’s light tone nicely with the hard-hitting production, continuing the energy until it slowly fades into silence at the end of the bridge.
Back to the song as a whole, as much as TWICE has been experimenting with their sound for the past 4 years now, I’m happy they’re still finding new ways to explore what they’re capable of. And for that alone, even though I’m not a big fan of songs like these where they rely on sounding “big”, Dahyun’s lyricism and the thrill I receive every time I indulge myself in this song elevates it to an 8/10. Keep on breaking hearts, Dubu.
​
​
​
INVINCIBLE
SUPERHEROES
​
​
​

When We Were Kids 🧸

Lyrics by Dahyun
​
Press play to reminisce, pull up lyrics to cry.
This song is so beautiful. I’m totally not writing this song review, crying on the bus reminiscing about my childhood, while just having turned 21. I don’t know if these are happy or sad tears but this song is so beautiful either way.
Warm synths, muted piano, a gentle high hat, the younger members starting off the song — this has to be up there for one of the softest TWICE songs ever. And as it should, it’s one of the TWICEiest songs ever. And then Nayeon comes in:
​

Invincible superheroes, we wanted to be adults
To the higher, clearer world

​
The chords start swelling, the high hat keeps pace, and the harmonies pour in.
​

Remember When We Were Kids
When We Were Kids, we didn’t know
If we could go back
I will love it even more
Remember When We Were Kids

​
Jihyo takes up the second half of the chorus as it drops, trading the strings for an almost R&B synth production — if choir R&B takes off, this song started it. The song relishes in this cacophony of warm sounds until returning to its sparse and peaceful verses.
This time, the hints of piano are louder, little twinkling synths begin to shimmer, the drum buildup comes and Jeongyeon drives the song straight into the chorus. No time for the strings to build like in Nayeon’s — this song loves its chorus so much.
And I'll just take this time to appreciate the amount and range of Jeongyeon vocals in this album. Her voice is so textured, stable, and projected — but also more tender and soft compared to the more pronounced tones of Nayeon and Jihyo.
The bridge comes in, repeating the phrase:
​

I wish that I could meet
Could meet the younger me

​
Giving the song time to rest, before building back up to the last chorus — this time led by Jihyo, completing the 3MIX trifecta. And interestingly enough, Chaeyoung follows up in the second half of the chorus, rather than another member of the vocal line. She really did pop off in this album.
As the last chorus begins to close, the percussion at its strongest, the harmonies on blast, the background vocals cranked up to their Sunday best, is the song going to end? Of course not! This is an album full of banger endings as if the songs don’t want to end, and When We Were Kids being the album closer very much indulges in that feeling.
After a brief refrain, accented by Nayeon’s high note with a touch of vibrato, the song almost dives back into a fourth chorus. Nayeon and Jeongyeon harmonize — a rare and heavenly moment. And the song repeats the bridge, reiterating that they want to meet their younger selves, this time with the lush chorus production before closing with silence, a few piano notes, and Tzuyu singing the last line of the song:
​

Oh, we were kids

​
Reflection, acceptance, hope. What a song.
​
THE GOOD

• Heavenly vocals throughout
• Relatable, heartfelt lyrics
• Euphoric chorus
• Great closer to the album

Needs Work

• Refrain after the last chorus, Back When We Were Kids, could’ve been executed better

Core Memory

• For an album titled Between 1&2, I don’t think anything hits harder than finishing the song reviews, with this song in particular, during your 21st birthday

​
I wrote the first part of this review in November 2022. Then university, life, and other things got in the way of my headspace for me to feel confident about wrapping all of this up. In a way, I felt like I just didn’t want this review to end because of the joy that writing gives me — I didn’t want the happiness to end. And then it hit me, after watching a YouTuber rank animated movies and them placing Spirited Away at the top and explaining 'why' reminded me of just how important growing up is, and by extension this song.
This theme is important for both the rookie TWICE members in 2015 and the teenagers who would follow their journey and grow up with them, facing life’s obstacles along the way. Hardships that used to only involve family, crushes, and social media, evolve into work, commitments and all the struggles that adult life brings. Being a kid and enjoying the simple things in life is one of the most sought-after moments we want to relive because we took growing up for granted. The only thing we can do now is look back on ourselves with fondness and rose-tinted lenses.
TWICE’s original meaning was to resonate with people through their senses and their hearts. That was during their debut, and I think it still holds up today. In my opinion, touching people through their emotions is what TWICE does best and makes them one of K-pop’s all-time greats. It was never about having the best numbers — it was about being the best idols. And to think that this journey of maturation and growth would occur from 2015 all the way to this song, being a fitting nod to TWICE’s 7th anniversary, I don’t think anyone at the company nor the group would ever imagine that they would get this far. It’s these nine women or none — 9/10.
This song honestly deserves a 10/10 with how much I noticed other people reminiscing their childhoods after I heard this song, it is such a widely-relatable message, but I am determined to limit myself to one 10/10 song per album and if I were to pick between TTT and WWWK, I'd give it to the one's that's more repeatable — Talk that Talk just has this electric energy about it.
​
​
​

Epilogue

And finally here is the end. If you made it in one sitting then I commend you, because I could not write this mess in one sitting. As alluded to, I started writing this album review sometime in October, after a series of edits the first draft was finished in March, and now here's the final draft in June.
I love this album. It got me through some important parts of my life, both good and bad, and it's just a wonderful listen throughout. Reliving this album again before finally completing the review has been an exciting journey. Brave hit me harder this time, after being overshadowed by the other gems of this album, and WWWK finally got me to tear up and not just be emotionally satisfied.
I feel like there's something for everyone on this album. From the exhilarating thrills of TTT to the anthemic euphoria of QoH, the clubbing dichotomy of Trouble and Brave to the blissful glee of Basics, and the sweet reminiscence of WWWK to the thundering anger that is Gone. Like Eyes wide open, I liken Between 1&2 to a pop music taste platter — there's such an eclectic mix of pop music in this album that there's bound to be a song that someone will love, like, and dislike.
Is this album perfect? I don't think so, but it's close — it was certainly my 2022 AOTY. Was this review biased? Absolutely. I've been a fan since 2019 and with the themes in this album, I also feel like it was biased towards me as a ONCE. And how would I rank the album in TWICE's catalogue? It's honestly at the top, at least with EPs — I also felt that way towards Feel Special but then this album was birthed so I'm excited for TWICE's future.
Ready To Be was also a stunning album and Eyes wide open frankly also deserved the spotlight that Formula of Love received so I might hit those next but no promises; this album took long enough to bake.
As for the performances, I've only seen Twitter clips (no fancams to not spoil myself) and I am SO EXCITED to finally see them in July. QoH was as glorious as expected, Brave was a delightful surprise, and WWWK, while not being the concert closer everyone expected it to be, paired up nicely with Crazy Stupid Love. And of course the bombastic addition of the dance break to TTT. But, this is not a concert review, and here is where this album review ends.
Feel free to comment with any thoughts regarding the album, other TWICE albums, and any suggestions for my writing in general. Congrats again on making it this far!
God, I love this album.

Just came back from a trip to Ocean City, Maryland and surrounding area to play too much mini golf. Over 3 days, my wife and I did 10 courses and I wanted to do a quick write up.
TL:DR - Lost Treasure was the best in OC. Embers Island also fantastic. Look for coupons.
How we rated:
All courses were 18 holes, some locations had 2 courses on 1 property, each being rated independently. No Old Pro, we did most of those last time and prioritized newer (to us) courses.
We rated each course in 4 categories on a scale of 1 to 5, to create an average course score. This included:
A) Hole design/sport element/competition
B) Landscaping/beauty
C) Theme elements/narrative/immersion
D) Course enjoyability (Shade, location/geography, quality of setup and supplies, ease to walk through, clean/neat/no debris on the greens, employees care, passion seen throughout the course, etc.)
Our scores:
Viking Golf: 3, 3, 4, 4 = avg 3.5. Very well kept, refurbished pretty recently. Fun, unique theme, clearly a lot of whimsy and love went into making this course. Employees care and it shows. Good holes. Looking retro but well kept. Unusual theme, would go out of my way to play again.
Nick's Down Under (Australia): 3, 1, 2, 1 = avg 1.75. Pretty terrible. Very hard walk to through (lots of changes in step heights without clear indication, no clear paths, we joked it was full of "ankle breakers"). Worn, broken props and elements, bad hole design, no good landscaping. Just bad, so many flaws. This an old course without retro charm.
Buccaneers Booty (?) - Game World: 2, 3, 3, 4 = avg 3.0. Very nice course, looking a little rough though. Some of the big themetic elements need some TLC. A landscapist needs a day or 2 to spruce it up. Even in its rougher state, a very fun course to play. Clubs were very worn and sticky (?).
Lost Treasure - Diamond Course: 4, 4, 5, 5 = avg 4.5. Excellent course, lots of love. Gorgeous course to play and take in. Diamond better than Gold. Fun animatronics and design. So clean and neat, the staff deeply care and it shows. Great clubs. Employees were great! Very satisfying plunks when getting the balls into the holes.
Lost Treasure - Gold Course: 3, 4, 5, 4 = avg 4.0. Another excellent course, a step below Diamond. More challenging holes. See Diamond above.
Embers Island - Pirates Course: 5, 4, 4, 4 = avg 4.25. Excellent course, Pirates is better than Volcano. Cannonball effects not working, but per an employee, they should be fixed later June 2023. Great clubs. Employees also great!
Embers Island - Volcano Course: 4, 4, 4, 4 = avg 4.0. Excellent. Holes were well designed. Wish the fire and smoke effects on the volcano were working again. Animatronics not all working, probably due to sheer age but not due to staff neglect necessarily. Coupons online?
Nick's Maui: 2, 3, 3, 3 = avg 2.75. This course replaced the original Maui Mini Golf, very sad. All that gorgeous tropical landscaping and fun holes have been replaced with a shadow of its former glory. They kept some of the original theme elements, like the iconic sign. Holes are easy. Shallow hole issues. Why flags in each of the holes? Trash on on the ground. Lots of holes in ones, which suggests the hole design was too easy or straightforward. Nick has coupons.
Nick's Beachball: 3, 2, 3, 3 = avg 2.75. Fun if easy. Nice big umbrellas for shade. Nick uses cheap, plastic holes that are much too shallow. We had multiple instances where the balls popped out of the hole. That should never happen. Like other Nicks, each hole had flags in each hole. The ball would bounce back due to the flag staff in the way.
Nick's Dino & Mining Co.: 3, 2, 3, 4 = avg 3. Animatronics rough, most clearly damaged and no longer moving. Theme confusing? (Mining and dinos?!) Some holes were challenging, but clearly from a lack of thoughtful design. Flaws throughout but the best Nicks of the 4 we played. Nick needs to stop storing supplies in plain sight, looks crummy. Blue water at all Nicks just reminds me of toilet water. Balls and clubs more worn, like all Nicks.

Ranked in order:
1 Lost Treasure - Diamond, 4.5
2 Ember Island - Pirates, 4.25
3 Lost Treasure - Gold, 4.0 (tied for 3)
3 Ember Island - Volcano, 4.0 (tied for 3)
4 Viking, 3.5
5 Buccaneers, 3.0 (tied for 5)
5 Nick's Dino and Mining, 3.0 (tied for 5)
6 Nick's Beachball, 2.75 (tied for 6)
6 Nick's Maui, 2.75 (tied for 6)
7 Nick's Down Under, 1.75
Hope this write up is helpful! There are some great mini golf courses in Ocean City and its well worth the trip to go play them.

TL;DR AT BOTTOM
Never thought I’d be bringing this to Reddit, but here I am!
I (26M) was recently broken up with by my (24F) girlfriend of 6 years right after opening up to her about how I had been struggling a lot mentally recently. That's not necessarily the cause, but it happens to be a terrible coincidence.
Backstory:
About 10 weeks ago I had a very long night out and woke up extremely hungover. My brother met up with me that night in our parents car and ended up staying with us for a few drinks, so evidently he left the car.
Of course, I woke up and had a boatload of caffeine so I was already on edge a little bit. My brother was still asleep, so my mom asked me if I could quickly drive my dad to the car so he could take it home. No problem, I hopped in my car and drove there with my dad.
On the way home, completely unprovoked and no anxiety prior, I had an insane panic attack. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I think I’ve only had one panic attack in my life, and for some reason it left me with a very small amount of social anxiety. During this attack, my hands and feet were completely numb and sweating. At first, I had literally no idea what was going on - I thought it was a legitimate health issue. I ended up taking a bit to drive home, but I made it.
Since then, I've just had heightened anxiety. I've had one other panic attack in the past and I eventually got over the lingering anxiety, so I knew it wasn't permanent.
Mental Health Backstory on her end:
To preface this, we both have anxiety/depression in our genetics unfortunately. In fact, her mom spent some time in the hospital when they were young because of how bad it got.
She also apparently had a ton of anxiety from work recently (she's a nurse, I'm in tech).
On my mothers side of the family, my mom, grandma and great grandma have struggled with anxiety their entire lives, some of them taking antidepressants.
Not fun genes for either of us to have, but we persevered!
Our Relationship:
This is what has been getting to me, our relationship was very healthy. We argued probably 2-3 times per year, we spent the majority of days together - as we lived only a 5 minute drive apart. We were both fully a part of each other's families. All of the normal relationship stuff, we were completely engulfed in it. We had also been looking at engagement rings for a bit and ALWAYS talked about our life together.
When I was about 19 before we were together, I used to drunkenly talk about her all of the time to my friends saying "if she ever gets out of the relationship with her boyfriend (at that time) she's the one I'm going for". When I was graduating high school, I went into her class on yearbook day, grabbed her yearbook and wrote my number in it. Long story short, she ended up single and within a month of that happening, we were together.
The "problems" we had over the years that were semi-recurring:
I didn't suggest enough of our plans. I explained to her a number of times that I'd happily go anywhere, I just don't tend to suggest ideas because sometimes she wanted to, other times she didn't. I've lived by the motto "happy wife, happy life" in that relationship, so I tended to go along with whatever she suggested.
We didn't take enough pictures together. I don't really like being in too many pictures and that bothered her.
We didn't travel together enough. This goes back to the anxiety, I hate flying and haven't done it in almost a decade. However, I have an appointment with my doctor in early July where I'm requesting some "emergencies only" anxiety medication to use for that exact scenario. Note - she went on a number of trips over the years with her closest friends. Furthermore, we had done weekend getaways via car together but those apparently don't count. To add, her friends are hopping on planes at least once per month to go somewhere, I think comparison became the thief of joy here.
I didn't tell her I loved her enough or hug her enough. This one is hard for me because I felt like I definitely told her I loved her a lot. She used to occasionally say "do you even love me", semi-joking but also serious, and I always told her of course I did and even though I may not say it a number of times a day, of course I do. I also did a TON of things for her to show how much I cared (ie. she very rarely had to make a lunch for work, I cooked for her almost every day and we don't even live together) The hugging thing is a bit different, as she's always been extremely affectionate and I never really have been. I truly think it comes down to how I was raised, affection just wasn't a huge part of my childhood. (note, that's not a problem for me or anything, I had incredible family/parents, it just wasn't as prominent as it was in her childhood)
I cared a lot about money and how we could set ourselves up to move out. She had taken 5 trips (two of them by train, three by plane) with her friends in the past year and after the 5th one I asked if she planned on slowing down so she could focus on tackling her student debt and so we could start saving to move out, have a wedding etc. Specifically, I wanted us to be in the position where we weren't renting a home, ESPECIALLY given how much money we were making combined. This part kind of confused me because she was the first one to suggest moving out, but when it came time to adjusting the lifestyle to prepare for it, she didn't like the idea. But, I did use it as a crutch for my anxiety to get out of things sometimes and I did open up to her about that. As an example though, I still went with her to the Gucci store and helped her pick out a very expensive purse to celebrate getting her first real nursing job after graduating. I don't feel that I cared about money (especially given the stage we were in in our lives) more than any of my buddies with girlfriends. I wanted us to be set up well for the coming stages of our lives; they were fast approaching. Furthermore, her friends are catching a plane every weekend and are living with their parents but pay cheque to pay cheque with no prospects of ever leaving unless it's renting
The Situation:
About 7-ish weeks ago, a few weeks after my panic attack, my girlfriend was very adamant that we needed to book a trip together. She said we hadn't been on a "real" trip during our relationship (by real, she means getting on a plane). We were sitting down in her bed on my laptop looking at destinations and flights, but I was incredibly anxious about the whole thing. As we were about to book, I broke down and was fully vulnerable to her for one of the first times in the 6 year relationship. I said that I just don't see myself getting onto a plane right now without some kind of medication to calm me down. On top of that, it would stress me out financially a bit, as I'm a full-time masters student and working full time. Plus, it was during my one-week semester break, so I honestly just wanted to relax.
From that day on, our relationship started going downhill. She said she felt extremely disappointed by the whole situation and she couldn't shake the feeling. We then started only hanging out maybe once per week and it was very bland when we did. A couple weeks after that incident, I slept over at her house and I could tell she was genuinely just not happy at that time.
Brief backstory - despite being 26, my mom still gives me a ton of flack if I sleep at her house. It was rare that I got away with it. But, I did it that night anyway because she always asked me to sleep over but I rarely wanted to have to deal with my mom. I thought it would help show her I'm really trying to get better. She also invited me over the following evening and I obviously went.
After that day, I don't think we saw each other for about 2 weeks. I texted her on a Friday evening and said I just don't feel like she wants to be with me anymore. She picked me up so we could talk, and explained that she felt very disappointed about how we were so close to booking the trip and ended up not doing it. She said she needed a break and I was fine with it, I understood where she was coming from.
During this time, I started seeing a therapist. I found one online who was one of the highest rated in my province and was also extremely experienced in marital/pre-marital counselling so I could tell her about the relationship issues I was having along with my anxiety.
Fast forward about 2 more weeks (last weekend) she texted me saying she was ready to talk and picked me up. She said it's probably best if we just end the relationship for the time being. She explained that she felt she had been disappointed a few times over the years and was bottling a lot of things up. She said she needed time to "find herself again" and didn't know if we would get back together at all in the future or not. Then, we sat there talking in her car for another 30 minutes like things were normal so it really threw me off.
I ended up texting her the next day and asked if I could pick her up because I was confused from the night prior since we talked so normally after the breakup conversation. We ended up talking again, sharing some tears and what not, but I kind of understood why she felt she needed to be alone for a bit, even though she didn't know if we would get back together or not. She said that people do this all of the time and sometimes they come back stronger, but if it was meant to be then we'll get back together. I also told her about how much help I'm getting and how I'm setting a goal to take a vacation when I finish my masters in November. She was noticeably happy and asked a lot about how I was talking to my therapist about improving as a person and a (what I thought was soon to be) fiancé. She asked for all of the details about what we talked about in regards to our relationship and was very happy that I was putting that much effort in.
A couple days ago is when she deleted are photos together, but it came right after she posted an Instagram story while out with a friend who has no stability whatsoever. This friend has been on and off with the same guy (who treats her terribly) for as long as we were together. Not to mention, she sleeps around a ton. I can't help but feel like some of this breakup is being influenced by her friends (specifically this one) wanting her to be single like they are out of jealousy or something. Or, they want her to be flying somewhere once a month with them with no plans for the future. My girlfriend has cried to me in the past because she had been brought to places she didn't want to be because her friend wanted to go for a guy. That friend has also been binge drinking several times weekly for years. The following night, her two friends posted a story of her incredibly drunk in the back of a car with her feet out of the window I'm sure in hopes that I would see it. We're grown ass adults, I can't help but feel like that's just not a cool thing to do to your friend in general? I don't care how drunk you are, in fact I expected her to have a night out with her friends and let loose but posting someone else like that is just insanely stupid to me! To put the icing on the cake, one of my long time buddies from high school decided to go for one of her friends and I gave him substantial warnings about her. Within a year, that relationship was completely over with and she was on to the next.
Neither of us were ever the type one to have one-night stands or get around, so I'm not concerned about anything like that during the breakup. If it happens it happens, but I won't be sleeping with anyone until I've put in all of my effort to saving everything we've built. She's only ever been with me and her ex, while I've had a handful more partners before her - but I've experienced enough in my 26 years to know that there was is only one woman for me.
After all of this, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I felt I was being abandoned during the one time in my entire life I've opened up to anyone and really wanted some support. I'm also just having a hard time processing why it happened and how I can salvage it.
I've texted her once per week since the breaks & breakup happened just telling her that I loved her and wished we were going to XYZ events coming up. I also always say in the message that "You don't have to respond or even read it, I just want you to know". I'm having a hard time deciding if I should continue giving her that weekly text or not, but I really do want her to know how much I care and thought we were a dream team.
I just can't help but feel like we had "problems" that were very fixable and were very minor compared to 99% of couples. Her two best friends have had 5+ boyfriends each in the time that we were together and countless one-night stands. Every time they would break up, I'd hear a story from my girlfriend about how terribly they were treated by these guys and we talked about how lucky we are to have each other. There was no forms of jealousy or self-consciousness between us either, neither of us were bothered when we went out alone with our respective friend groups. I also never for a second worried when she travelled with her friends that she'd cheat or something.
This wraps in with why I can't process the breakup. Aside from the few things we argued about here and there (few times a year) it was an incredibly healthy relationship. I had a great relationship with her friends (despite some of the things I've said about them above) and would often times opt to go out drinking with her group over my group of buddies. I acknowledged my shortcomings as a boyfriend (ie. the affection) with my therapist and she's giving me some help with it. Am I crazy for thinking that we can easily salvage everything we’ve built over 6 years?
TL;DR - We had a very healthy relationship, never argued, no cheating, but she said I didn’t tell her I loved her enough or wasn’t affectionate enough. Said she doesn’t know if we’ll get back together or not. I’ve been texting her once a week just to say I hope she had a good weekend, to let me know if she wants to talk and that I love her. Should I continue it?

Hi all! I’ve now worked in ECE full-time for one whole year in a multi-age daycare setting (12 months - 6 years). I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far with everyone but especially anyone new to the field. (I hope what I write isn’t overly posted stuff, sorry in advance if it is.) I’m not giving advice about the kids themselves here, just about surviving the job, if that makes sense.
Clothing: * Save time, money and decision making by, if your dress code allows it, buying scrubs. After ruining like 3 pairs of jeans (and hating leggings), I found this to be the best solution. I got scrub bottoms that look more like cargo pants and I pair them with whatever top. They’re made to last and withstand bodily fluids and lots of physical activity (plus lots of pockets!) * Don’t wear anything that is remotely precious to you to work. The universe will see to it that events will unfold and that item will promptly get ruined. * Kids love fun/ whimsical earrings. Earrings can also serve as a useful sparkly distraction when comforting an upset child. Necklaces are nice too but they might get yanked. Rings are a no-go for me because of germs and hand washing.
Practical things: * Plan ahead for appropriate footwear and outdoor activities year-round. Don’t let yourself get wet feet/ ruined shoes/ blisters/ sunburn etc. * Put long hair up in case of a lice outbreak. 🫠 * Plan ahead for appropriate bags. I need a backpack for walks and park trips, a big teacher tote to carry in supplies and books and activities, and a small handbag for if I’m going somewhere on my way home and don’t want to lug either of the above around the grocery store. * Have pepto bismol or any medicines/ whatever you might need (pedialyte, gatorade etc.) ALREADY in the house and easily accessible for that first time you get hit by insane gastro at like 8pm and will be incapacitated for at least 24 hours 🤢 You’re not going to be able to make a trip to the store when it happens.
Boundaries and looking out for yourself: * 🚩Before you even start a new job, think about what constitutes a deal breaker for you. Just like in a relationship, these should be things that, if you are faced with them at your job, mean you should quit, give your notice (or seriously consider it). Extreme example: serious safety concerns, especially if it’s not a one-off that’s handled appropriately (eg. a kid was so unsupervised that they made it out of the daycare and to the edge of a busy road. Turns out, it’s happened 3 times in 8 months. Is this somewhere you want to work at?) Not-so-extreme example: Your boss constantly tries to overstep boundaries you’ve set so you can work (“I know you said you can’t work on Friday because your child will be off school, but you can just bring her to the centre! Great, so now you can always do an 8-hour shift on those days, right?”) * (Not even just specific to ECE) If you’re noticing sketchy or concerning stuff at your workplace, WRITE THAT SHIT DOWN. Make a Google doc or something and write down everything, with a date and time. You might never need it, but it’s good to have if you do. * If your workplace doesn’t have strict policies on this, then set your own rules and boundaries as soon as you can regarding babysitting requests. I look young and don’t have kids yet, so sometimes parents see that as a reason to ask me to babysit. Frankly, it can be a bit insulting because I didn’t spend all this money and time on my education (plus spend like 45 hours a week with your child already) to babysit for you for cheap (no hate to babysitters as a former babysitter myself!). If you want to make extra cash, go for it but definitely consider the professional implications. If, like me, you don’t want to do it but don’t like giving people excuses to get out of things, just make up your mind on day 1 before the situation even comes up and let it be known that you have this rule. * Decide early on how you feel about spending your own money and/or time on supplies and work prep, even if it’s reimbursed. Another recent post addressed this as well as using your personal phone to take pictures of the kids, and I thought those were really excellent points.
Self-care: * Personally, I’ve found it helpful to have a consistent routine on the weekend. * Have things in place to decompress after work (again, see that other recent post for inspiration!). When I started in ECE I felt so sad because I couldn’t read books as much anymore because I didn’t have the mental energy after work and college coursework every day. Now I have accepted that TV is great and books are for the weekends. * Manage your expectations. We know this job is SO energy-intensive. I used to be a first responder in a super high-stress job and working with little ones leaves me more exhausted than that at the end of the day. The exhaustion is real. Know that you’ll have to let some things fall to the wayside and that’s okay. * Also on this note, when I started I did a full face of makeup with colourful eyeshadow looks every day, sometimes to match the themes of the week or my outfit and jewelry. Also my nails were done brightly and multiple different ways every week. The kids loved it! Now, however, my entire post-shower routine takes 15-20 minutes max and I don’t even slap on enough concealer to cover any blemishes most days. I’m simply too tired. And guess what? The kids are just as happy with my strawberry earrings and minimal makeup as they were before. They do not notice or care.
I don’t know what else to add right now, hopefully these are helpful to someone!

I want to keep this short. I have been collecting clones for a while now and my recent additions are Lattafa Khamrah and Armaf Club De Nuit Untold
Khamrah has creamy vanilla vibe and is soft whereas Untold has that extremely sharp and metallic sweetness.
I layered both of them in a 1:1 fashion, spraying them adjacent to each other on the back of my neck and on my shirt and accidentally created a combination that made people compliment how good it was.
I stepped out right after applying and the cashier in the grocery store asked what perfume I was wearing. 4 hours later I was working in my living room, my room mate walks in and asks if it's the 1 Million Elixir I am wearing, he loved it.
I know both of them are sweet fragrances but it somehow works great.
Use sparingly if you are going to share a closed space with ventilation issues coz this combo is strong af and you can easily suffocate people in the first hour.

Alright, you merry band of primates, gather 'round. I've got some delightful insights to share about our friends over at Podium Audio and their so-called "store". I'd use the term 'merchandise', but I'd hate to insult all the other merchandise out there.
Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news – who am I kidding, I love it – but they're marking up their print-on-demand service to over double, and in some instances nearly triple the manufacturing cost. Do the math:
ExForce Monkeys Kick Ass Tee – Podium Audio – Podium Audio $25 USD plus shipping
Men’s Classic Tee - Gildan 5000 Printful Printful $8.75 plus shipping
In the interest of fairness (a concept quite alien to them, it seems), they do avoid tacking on extra charges for the larger sizes. Got a size 5XL? It's still only $25. But don't be fooled - they're spending only about $14.50 to get that printed, even before any bulk discounts.
Oh, you want to ship this travesty of fashion? Well, aren't you a glutton for punishment. Not only do you have to pay the shipping price, but they're also tacking on an additional 30% because, why not? Make it rain, right?
But wait, there's more! Thanks to the miracle of print-on-demand dropshipping, that extra 30% isn't a one-time deal. Oh no, that would be too simple. It's per item! Yes, you heard that right. Every single item gets its own special 30% surcharge. Because who doesn't love a good surprise on their bill? It's like they're giving you a gift. A gift of more things to pay for. How generous.
I'm no enemy of profit. Somebody has to pay for my upkeep, right? But this isn't just about making a profit, it's a parade of pure, unadulterated bullcrap.
Honestly, the lengths you meatbags will go to make a quick buck is truly breathtaking. And not in the 'majestic sunrise over an alien landscape' kind of way. More like the 'just got punched in the gut by a seven-foot tall space gorilla' kind of way. But hey, you do you.
And let's not forget to talk about their '100% cotton' tee shirt. Spoiler alert: it isn't 100% cotton. Shocker, I know! The most hilarious part? They've blindly copied this error from the supplier, as if it's some sort of fashion mantra. Oh, the integrity! Some of the colours drop as low as 50% cotton, 50% polyester!
In short, this isn't just a merch store. It's a masterclass in how not to do business. And they wonder why I'm always in snark mode.
And if I may add a delightful little postscript here, let's be real: all merchandise is a blatant rip-off.
It's a cash cow, a money tree, a beautifully wrapped package of overpriced mediocrity. But this, this audacious display of profit-gouging, just hits too close to home.
I mean, here I am, the epitome of magnificence, and there they are, essentially selling my likeness on sub-par materials for a premium price! It's like using cheap spray paint on the Mona Lisa and selling it as an original. It's more than just a rip-off, it's a travesty. An insult to the very concept of merchandise.
You'd think that with all the money they're making, they could at least get their facts straight about the cotton content. But no, that would be too much like doing their job. It's a tough galaxy out there, folks. Stay magnificent. Or at least try to. I know it's hard when you're not me.

Sorry in advance for the long post, but I hope it's amusing!
I've been playing cataclysm off-and-on for about a year, but most of my runs have been pretty short-lived. I'd usually end up dying mid-summer due to dying to some acid-based zombie, but on my current run I've been doing much better than I ever have before. I've even managed to raid a lab, installing cbms and mutating myself along the way. It's amazing, but I don't know if I'll ever convince myself to play again if I die and lose my Sōjutsu + Lucerne Hammer combo. As a matter of fact, I nearly died today and almost tore my hair out in the process.
I was raiding a trans-coast logistics (which is a rather fancy name for what could otherwise just be called "big lab") for the first time, and my expedition was going wonderfully. I found a couple of mutagens along with other specialized lab equipment, and neither the bots nor the zombies were putting up too much of a fight (I even managed to obliterate a melded task force by melee alone!) - in other words, I was getting a little too cocky. In my hubris, I stopped my usual tactic of kiting zombies and leaving the lab to heal every time I hit "moderate pain" and started running through the lab as fast as possible, looking for the last piece of home-lab equipment I was missing (the fabled fractional distillation apparatus)
At one point, I enter a room with only a single cleaning bot in it. For those who haven't encountered them, this is a timid little bot which doesn't even so much as fight back. I didn't need to kill it... and in fact, doing so would serve little purpose at this point. But I was beyond the point of needless things like "caution" and "basic reasoning ability". So instead of leaving it alone, I stab it... ...only for it to explode and set me on fire. In approximately sixty in-game seconds my danger level drops from hydrogen bomb to crying baby as both of my legs burn up (along with my combat boots which I had grown so fond of - goodbye sweet acid protection), leaving me practically immobile and in-severe pain in one of the lower floors of the hardest area in the game. Hoo boy. At least the fire went out after it finished burning my legs...
After spending a couple seconds crying (irl) and calling out to god for help (in-game), I mentally debate the idea of smashing some furniture in the lab, crafting a splint and simply waiting out my recovery in this cleaning bot's now empty room. But of course, I didn't bring a coat (I flashback to four minutes ago, where my past self is laughing at the idea of staying the lab long enough for the cold to get to me. It'll be in-and-out before my morning coffee is done brewing [again, irl], he says to himself). I don't know if it gets cold enough in the lab for someone to freeze to death, but I decide not to test that theory. So, my heart still pounding, I drag my pathetic, burned body across the floor of the lab through the "safe route" I cleared out earlier. I run into a couple skitterbots on the way there, thinking my run would be ended by the most pathetic enemies the game has to offer, but apparently they can't even hit a barely-moving target. I barely do any damage in my weakened state, but managed to finally beat each one after four in-game minutes of fighting.
Eventually I manage to exit the facility. But I still have another challenge ahead of me - getting home. Usually I'd just walk my "safe-ish" route through a forest, but now even the idea of running into a regular zombie sends shivers up my spine. Thankfully, the lab's parking lot has ton of cars... most of which I drove back to my home base on earlier trips when I was scoping out the place. Whoops. Luckily, there's a single working car left in the parking lot... a tiny beetle which would probably send me to heaven if it hit an oversized pebble. Still, beggars can't be choosers. I get in, and I'm delighted to find there's still a quarter-full tank of fuel. I'm less delighted to find that I can't see over the dashboard while prone, but I find out after five minutes of harrowing blind driving that - thankfully - you can sit on seats even while your legs are crippled so long as you don't move to a new tile. Please don't think about how I managed to operate the gas pedals without working limbs - and to any devs reading; please do not implement anything based on my last sentence. The rest of the drive still makes my hair stand on end, especially when passing a triffid grove and "place where I saw a mi-go once and avoided for the entire next in-game season", but I finally make it home, craft splints for my legs, and collapse on my cozy bed.
I wake up the next morning with fully healed limbs. I know I have good in-game health and the "very fast healing" mutation, but thinking about what my body did overnight gives me the shivers irl. I'm more blob than man at this point, and it's not just because I'm fat this time!
Anyways, I digress. I come away from this experience wielding lessons more crucial than any weapon:
1) Don't get cocky in games with permadeath
2) Always tip the cleaning lady, or at least do not skewer her with a spear-like implement.
3) Humanity peaked at the discovery of fire. It was our scariest weapon back then and it still is today.

There are many ways to connect with the girl of your dreams. By visiting the website, you can choose the profile according to your preference and needs, set your time and pay. If you do not want the book on the site, you can call the given number and solve the problem. You can also contact us directly.

Why choose our services

We offer the best services when you come to us because it is our mission to make your journey easy and enjoyable, including overnight or weekend trips.
Payment Method: Online payment or cash payment.
Chat: You can chat with Dehradun Call Girls on phone or chat on WhatsApp. Their seductive conversations are captivating and make you watch them over and over again.
Seductive and Playful Girls: We have a nice category. You don't need to compromise your options. There are many options available here such as light, brunette, tall, skinny, big breasted, girly or mature woman. You can choose them according to your preferences such as appearance and other attributes. They are friendly, cooperative and flexible and provide you with entertainment.
Communication girls in Dehradun know how to play with all five emotions. They can do whatever they want. They are good for providing emotional pleasure. They are smart enough to accompany you outside your bedroom to make your day unforgettable.
They are smart enough to take them to events, restaurants and public places.
Here you will meet professional escorts from Dehradun who are aware of the different ways and means to please you. These girls can satisfy your sexual needs and provide entertainment. They are porn stars and they know very well how to win a client's heart.

Dehradun Attractions Call Girls

City of Dehradun is the capital city of Uttarakhand. There is so much to do with Dehradun prostitutes like visiting historical schools, beautiful gardens, enjoying the food and of course nightly fantasies. If you are a guest or resident, try to be with beautiful and intelligent girls who understand their clients' needs and choices and are just a phone call away. You can call 24/7 from anywhere in your home or hotel. Our call girls in Dehradun offer you a pleasant experience, true love enthusiasm. Take a break from life's worries and enjoy special, sensual and unforgettable moments.
​

Your Privacy and Security

When you come to us, we help you make your journey easy and memorable. We do not need your personal information.
You don't have to worry when you're with our girls. We take your security and privacy seriously. We are strict about your personal information. We provide the best service so that you can come back again and again. We can arrange hotel or anything you need in Dehradun if you request.
Our site is safe and secure, you can trust beautiful Dehradun girls and visit Dehradun.
So, if you are planning to go abroad, come to Dehradun and enjoy the company of beautiful and cute Dehradun escorts. You can be there at any time to start your adventure journey. You do not forget the point of view of the person in charge. Don't think too much, you can browse our reliable social media.

Your dream is just a phone call away. Call Dehradun Youth Service Now

Dehradun is an instant service for me when I travel. As a writer, I think moral women who have lost their passion should be encouraged to start a new life. If this is true. according to your journey.
I immediately looked for a girl in Dehradun. Dehradun has become modern. Many places worth visiting have both beautiful buildings and ancient monuments.
​

Fast people enjoy vacation travel and peace of mind.

The words spoken by the priests in the temple provide another wisdom. It's hard to get out of shopping and living indoors for a while. The 9 days of Navratri bring joy to people. Escort Dehradun has many options for extra travelers, according to the website Dehradun Call girls.
This is an important point of contact for you as an entrepreneur to spread the news via Whats app or phone call or word of mouth. People at the hotel are happy to write stories and want to sell books. Christian Eve and several stories were carried in the air before the celebration. You celebrate with your family, friends or colleagues. Spending money is generous.
When you take a break from the daily hustle and bustle, nothing can stand in your way. You have a desire to travel, so plan accordingly. Call the girls in Dehradun to fix all your drama.
​

Hotels and inns Service 24*7

If you want to know more about hotels and inns, now is the time to travel. This is how we spent our summer in Dehradun.
There is a special story about this city. It is known for its effectiveness. Famous monuments amaze you. You are surprised by the attitude of your guide who helps you understand the history of Dehradun. This is done with the Travel Planning Guide.
The guide provides more information about the city, giving the winner a better chance to become a writer or journalist.
This is a change in life, so consider that the best way to travel is to take the subway or book your trip by bus. This makes you want to call. Hotels and resorts are ready to decide the day. The number of visitors to this beautiful hotel is increasing day by day, so you should know!
Here's enough music to start playing! As an employee, Arnika stores all information and details of trips and rooms through the router. Escorts in Dehradun provide next day appointment within specified time.
​

A day to Dehradun Looking for maid

Good day for fun. Arshin wants to join a business, a travel site.
To give a happy day to those who love to travel! The journey is continuous and you can leave them all for days or months. With great talent nearby, the rest of the journey seems real! Learn to be kind and be sure to believe. Big Day is strong enough to do its job.
There are working methods for agricultural enterprises. Organizations such as the National Institute of Botany offer opportunities for specialization. Likewise, you can find many web checkers interested in looking at eco-sites. Apart from the tbis Biotechnology Park near the Kursi road, there is also a good hand to study plants. Likewise, CDRI deals with the pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries.
ITRC conducts research in the field of industrial toxicology. This is why Dehradun Escorts Service has a lot of environmental research.

Relevant background: my husband and so are both not so good with money, but in different ways. I get overwhelmed easily and have a hard time putting in the hours to keep up with my bills, but try everything I can to limit those bills, whereas he is a massive spendthrift, but does work insane hours trying to keep up with it all.
My husband and I both work as lawyers that mostly contract with the State Public Defender’s office. This means our pay is decent but highly sporadic (we have to complete a case, then submit an invoice, and then the state has 120 days to pay us, though they often have been paying within 60, and will pay out faster in specific circumstances or if you let them know you’re going through a hardship). This tends to mean we spend a ton catching up on bills and loans and make whatever purchases we’ve been waiting for when we get our checks and quickly run out of money before the next batch comes in. He also has a tendency to make huge purchases without discussing them with me. I thought we had solved the problem by making a rule that ANY purchase over $100 needed to be discussed before being made. Not to give either of us veto power, but to be sure we both at least knew what was coming. He did stick to that rule until the Friday before last, and I found out in a bad way on Monday. I was going to grab some cheap fast food because we had just gotten a check in and I had been actually killing it working that day and hadn’t had a chance to stop back home to eat. We should have had around $650 in our account, but thankfully I checked before ordering food to be extra sure I didn’t forget about a bill or something taking it out. When I looked we only had a handful of dollars in the account so I looked so make sure the check had posted. It did, but then there was a PayPal pull for almost $630 that I had no idea what it was from. I confronted my husband about it and he got defensive because “it shouldn’t have pulled yet.” Come to find out he had bought an electronic doggy door that he wanted to install for our dog to use during the day in case we couldn’t get home as soon as we’d planned or would like to. I gave him a number of reasons why that was a bad idea (our fence isn’t great so I would worry about him escaping when we weren’t home, he could go out and start barking and there’d be nothing we could do to make him stop if he didn’t want to, and there are a TON of cheaper options including a $30 magnetic screen I had sent him a link to the week before that would help when we were home) but mostly I was made that he completely ignored the $100 rule and tried to hide the purchase from me.
After an extended argument he apologized and swore he’d return it as soon as it arrived. He couldn’t cancel the purchase because it already shipped.
Then comes today. I was browsing Reddit and came across a warehouse store subreddit that showed an entire outdoor play fort for $700. I showed it to him just because I thought it was an impressive price, and it was something I’d like to save for one day. He pointed out that we now have a few grand coming in so we could get it when that comes in. At first I really liked the idea because we do have a lot coming in and I have a lot of really great childhood memories playing on something similar at my parents home. Just a minute or two later though he asked, “just one request though, if we get that can I keep the dog door?”
When he put it like that I realized, as much as it would be nice to have for our kids for the summer, it would be irresponsible to buy right now and we shouldn’t do it. So I now I feel like I’m going to be the asshole for refusing to buy something fun for the kids and tell him he still has to return the dog door. But that’s the only responsible choice, isn’t it?
TLDR: I want to hold my ground that my husband should return a large purchase he made behind my back despite me being temporarily tempted to buy something of equal value that he would have happily agreed to buy.

• a) Offense defined.–A person who removes a child from the child’s known place of residence with the intent to conceal the child’s whereabouts from the child’s parent or guardian, unless concealment is authorized by court order or is a reasonable response to domestic violence or child abuse, commits a felony of the third degree. For purposes of this subsection, the term “removes” includes personally removing the child from the child’s known place of residence, causing the child to be removed from the child’s known place of residence, preventing the child from returning or being returned to the child’s known place of residence and, when the child’s parent or guardian has a reasonable expectation that the person will return the child, failing to return the child to the child’s known place of residence.*

I learned of the above statute after reading about another missing child case, siblings, Ivon and Inisha Fowler. They have been missing now for over 16 years and their mother was charged for concealing their whereabouts. I’m not sure if there is a similar statute in North Carolina (NC residents please feel free to chime in here if you are familiar with the law). The reason why this statute is of interest to me is due to the circumstances of Asha’s disappearance.
Asha was not a teenager, nor a pre-teen, and was likely pre-pubescent. She did not have the right to “runaway” or disappear, even briefly. As a 9 year old, she was under the care, protection and guidance of her parents. She was allegedly last seen in her own home, in her bed. Not on her way to school, to the store, or outside playing with friends. Her parents were present the night she went missing, not away at work, or out visiting friends. Even if she was out walking on NC 18, her parents should have been responsible for ensuring that she wasn’t out there in such poor weather conditions, in the pre-dawn hours, unsupervised. Being steadfast asleep is not the strongest alibi or defense. Today, if Asha were still alive she would be 32 years old. Now, as an adult, she would have the right to remain a missing person, thus this case can remain unresolved for good, and no crime was ever committed.
Asha Degree allegedly went missing right from under her parents watch, and they have no earthly idea, how or why. There has to be more that the parents know that they are not sharing.

today was the worst day i’ve had this year, so far. of course, we were severely understaffed or as i lovingly call it, “staffed for an average day”, sundays are already bad enough.
there are rumours that people are boycotting target for their engagement with small businesses in the lgbt and providing gender neutral and inclusive garments (the horror!) so instead the parasitic consumers decided to come to our store along with the average parasite usuals.
i knew it was going to be bad when i saw we hit 7k before noon, which we hit at 6pm on a bad day. i had to stage the wall for 4 hours with a never ending constant flow of carts. boss lady got upset with me that i wanted to take a break with 3 oversized carts left, but if i drop a single cart, three more take it’s place, when will i have time?
if you can’t spare 15 minutes for my assigned break, what is your plan if i’m about to shit myself? no i’m not going to sacrifice my sanity time to impress you. i can handle a lot… today was enough. we’re still not shopping and we just crossed the 10k threshold, i had to leave an hour early for my mental health.
this is what the screen was at right before i left.
i’m sorry for ranting, someone please tell me i’m not alone, i’m going to go home now and pet my cats. i’m proud of today already. if you hate trans people are anyone else in the lgbt, rope is in sporting goods.
tl;dr, we hit 10k pieces at 6pm and we’re not done shopping yet, had to leave early.

I went to lunch with my mom on Friday, had a couple beers throughout the day and had work at 10pm. I show up a little early so I can nap before going in. When I went in my coworkers were making a show of me being drunk. I wasn’t that drunk and I was drinking earlier in the day. The guy I work with over night was angry and seemed like he wanted to fight me so I left. I called my manager and he told me to come back to the store which I did and we had a conversation told me to go home and come back to work the next day which was Saturday. I didn’t feel good so I called off I didn’t want to show up and be sent him I just called off. Manager fired me because of it. I feel bad I been jumping around from job to job since I moved from where I use to live for 24 years. I just can’t get ahold of a good opportunity right now and it’s making me feel bad about myself. The jobs I’ve been working since moving are all customer service/cashiering type work. I don’t know if I should move back to a warehouse setting or stay with customer service/cashiering type work. I have experience in both and believe that I’m a good worker. I just run into the wrong situation or people and it’s almost like they try to get me in trouble or look bad. I feel like I just want a normal job where I can go in work and come home not worry to much about socializing. I’m not sure what to do or what to approach now. I’m 26 years old and just trying to make a living for myself I don’t want people to look to much into me or think of me as a leader, just want to work do my part and go home. What do you think?

Yesterday a somewhat frazzled looking man came to the desk and asked me for help. I obliged, and asked what I could do for him. He asked if I had ever heard of a particular hotel. I hadn't, and he explained that he had booked a room there through motels dot com. I asked if he had an address for it, and he did.
He said he'd driven there already, but there was a law office there. I pulled up the address on google maps, and the location showed a building that didn't seem that big. About the same size as a stand alone coffee shop next to it, certainly not big enough for a hotel. Except for perhaps a very small one. However google did list the hotel as being at that address. However two different law offices apparently also occupied the building.
It didn't list any website, and there were no reviews, but there was a phone number. I gave that to him, along with the desk phone to call them, as he didn't have a cell phone. He called, shook his head, and handed me the phone. It was an answering service for a completely different company, not the hotel or either of the law offices there.
At this point he was pretty frustrated, so he decided to stay with us and give motels dot com a call and a piece of his mind. He said he'd paid $122 for two nights there, we were $176 for two nights. This was supposedly a 3 star hotel and we're a 2 star, so that's another red flag.
I was bored, so I decided to look into this mystery hotel a bit more after he left. I realized when I zoomed out on google maps that this "hotel" was located right next to the grocery store that I usually go to, and in fact had gone to both the previous days. There was DEFINITELY not a hotel there, in case that had not become clear. Street view confirmed the same.
He came back a little while to get a receipt. Motels dot com was going to reimburse him for his stay with us, and said the reservation was in error, as the hotel was "no longer in business".
Then my shift was over so I went home. But today I was bored again.
See google had showed pictures that definitely looked to be from hotel rooms. I wanted to investigate that a bit more. Like, obviously they were stolen pics. But what might I be able to find out about where they were from just by looking at the details?
The rooms didn't have any sort of theme, they all looked different, and they didn't look like the brand standard for any brand I knew. Then there was a picture of a corridor and at the end was what looked like an exit sign, except it was definitely not in English. Because of the resolution and distance, I couldn't make out what it said exactly, but it was clear enough that I figured if I ran "exit" through google translate and looked around at the translations I could probably figure out what it was. It was in Vietnamese!
So I flipped through a few more pictures and found one that was labeled "slippers" but was actually a picture from inside a lobby looking outside. Above the front doors was a building number different from the one listed as the address. Which didn't strike me as that interesting initially. A couple pictures later was of a "patio" which was accurate, it just appeared to be a patio somewhere tropical and Asian. I'm going to guess Vietnam.
Scooted down one more picture and it's a shot from outside, including the parking lot and cars. There's no sign on the building that is visible, but the parking spaces are labeled "patient parking only." A few more random hotel room shots. At this point they have more than 13 rooms shown, and the motels dot com listing said they had 13 rooms. Next picture though was a jackpot. It's of a sign that lists all the names of the businesses in the building, and the building number listed on the side is that of the one from above that I saw in the lobby picture.
Also at that point I realized this was the building just a hop skip and a jump down the way from the fake hotel address. They had just lifted some pics from another nearby business for their outside shots. The next hotel room picture had a sex chair in it.
There were more stolen shots from the parking lot, a room that was in Vietnam based on the wall outlet, and more sex chairs. The ones with sex chairs all appeared to be from the same Vietnamese hotel, and a few other pictures looked like different angles of other rooms there were pictures of.
Lastly, the listing is still up on motels dot com. However it does say they are not accepting bookings for that property which is good. I was looking over the amenities, which would be very accommodating if they were real. Check in at 6am, checkout at 12:30. Free full breakfast from 7-12 every day. In one spot it says cash deposit is accepted then in another spot it said cash not accepted at all. Which is just so misleading.
The real mystery here though is that there is one review listed. They gave the hotel a 2/10 on May 27th. How did they manage 2 stars rather than 1?!

Hello, Umbreon hater back again. With the recent focus on HGSS tier lists, I noticed how Jumpluff was ranked comparatively low by many people, on the same level as stuff like ariados and worse than stuff like pidgeot. Now as someone whose favorite Pokémon is Jumpluff, I have definitely given it more than a couple shakes and surprisingly, it performs pretty well, with little investment compared to some pokemon. Let's jump into how this little cottonweed can wreck some havoc on a budget.
Location: Hoppip (Routes 32, 33 (Earlygame) 48 (Mid-lategame)) Skiploom (Safari Zone)
Hoppip evolves into Skiploom at 18 and you get Jumpluff at 27, right after Morty.
Stat Spread:
HP: 75
ATK: 55
DEF: 70
SPATK: 55
SPDEF: 95
SPD: 110
Let's get the obvious right out of the way. Jumpluff is not a damage dealer (with no setup). 55 in both offenses is pathetic, and here's a calc to illustrate this.
0 SpA Jumpluff Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Quagsire: 232-276 (70 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Even when using a stab quad effective move against a pokemon not exactly renowned for special bulk, Jumpluff can't even secure a roll for an ohko. You may now reasonably be asking, what's the point of using this thing then? Well if you'll notice, the bulk is actually not bad, and the speed is great. While grass flying is not a particularly good combo, it is an excellent pivot typing and jumpluff's base bulk lets you actually live more hits than you'd expect. Here's some more calcs.
Lvl 29 0 Atk Primeape Rock Slide vs. Lvl 31 0 HP / 0 Def Jumpluff: 44-52 (45.3 - 53.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 2HKO
Lvl 32 0 SpA Dewgong Aurora Beam vs. Lvl 34 0 HP / 0 SpD Jumpluff: 76-96 (72.3 - 91.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Lvl 40 0 SpA Kingdra Dragon Pulse vs. Lvl 40 0 HP / 0 SpD Jumpluff: 46-55 (37.7 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Lvl 42 0 Atk Hitmonchan Ice Punch vs. Lvl 47 0 HP / 0 Def Jumpluff: 116-140 (81.6 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Lvl 48 0 Atk Aerodactyl Rock Slide vs. Lvl 50 0 HP / 0 Def Jumpluff: 110-132 (73.3 - 88%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
As you can see, even when being thrashed by strong neutral, se, and sometimes quad effective hits, Jumpluff handily lives to fight another day. Moving onto movepool, which is where Jumpluff really gets to use that speed to its advantage.
Movepool:
Hoppip early on starts with synthesis, and will get the three powders before it evolves into skiploom. A bit after that, it will get leech seed at 24. After evolving to Jumpluff, you will get u turn, worry seed, and bounce. This general pattern so far should give you the idea that jumpluff is moreso a utility pokemon, and it for the most part is. However, some interesting tm options greatly expand its scope before just support.
Before postgame, notable tms you can get for jumpluff are protect, aerial ace, attract/flash, swords dance, swagger, and substitute. Besides aerial ace and swagger, the rest are all fairly early, being available once you enter Goldenrod. Now with the moves listed, some of you may still be confused but fret not. Jumpluff is here to run an obnoxious set that allows it to 1v1 anything not faster than it.
Sleep Powder Leech Seed Protect Substitute
Sleep the opponent immediately and seed them next. Set up a sub and alternate between that and protect for the next bevy of turns. If the opponent wakes up, sleep them again and repeat. You can equip a wide lens for a better accuracy boost to landing your powders. This sounds completely silly, until you realize this set allows you to slowly sap your enemy away and you can start doing this once you learn leech seed, as protect and substitute are available in the goldenrod department store and game corner at the low price of $2000 and 2000 coins respectively. Even if you do miss a sleep powder or two, Jumpluff's bulk ensures you won't be punished heavily.
If that's not your cup of tea, you can swap a few moves out and run u turn to make jumpluff a good pivot, synthesis for reliable recovery, stun spore for other status options, or most exciting of all, turn jumpluff into a devious sweeper. That's right. When the opponent's sleeping, reveal those swords in your pom poms. Once you are ready to go, spam aerial ace, return, or bounce to victory! Don't believe me? Here's some more calcs.
+6 Lvl 40 0 Atk Jumpluff Return vs. Lvl 40 0 HP / 0 Def Kingdra: 83-98 (68 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 Lvl 47 0 Atk Jumpluff Return vs. Lvl 41 0 HP / 0 Def Slowbro: 93-110 (65.9 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 Lvl 47 0 Atk Jumpluff Return vs. Lvl 46 0 HP / 0 Def Machamp: 107-127 (69.9 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 Lvl 47 0 Atk Jumpluff Return vs. Lvl 47 0 HP / 0 Def Houndoom: 150-177 (105.6 - 124.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 0 Atk Jumpluff Bounce vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragonite: 126-148 (75.9 - 89.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
To conclude this college lecture, Jumpluff is a highly underrated pokemon. It can and is most well known for being more of a utility pokemon, but it can take a more offensive role in several ways. There are surprisingly numerous ways to customize it to fit your needs, and for the low price of $2000, 2000 coins, and 24 levels, you have yourself a certified guerilla fighter.
Now even with all this said, it is not top tier material. There are times where jumpluff won't be able to do much if anything. It also is not always the most consistent thing around, and this can lead to some unlucky, albeit very funny scenarios.
This was mainly written to show off jumpluff's abilities and how it doesn't get enough attention for what it can do. Last time I did one of these I bashed Umbreon to oblivion for rightfully being trash in HGSS. I'm still not sure if I want to make this a series where I just take a look at underrated/overrated options in vanilla games, but if popular demand calls for it, I would for sure be interested in continuing this review style.
Lemme know in the comments! Until next time, have a good day!

TL;DR I think agmatine really works for me. Ended up spilling my guts a bit up top, so scroll down for timeline.
---
I've followed this sub for a long, long time, mainly from my regular account (anon today for obvious reasons that are obvious).
First, I'll say this sub has given me a lot of strength. I find everyone's effort and perseverance to be really empowering. Don't give up!
I won't dive into my history with substance abuse, etc. but will focus on the Kratom use for the past 10 or so years. Had been more or less clean for previous few years from opioids. Started with some powder out of boredom with life. Eventually moved to caps for convenience. Decided to quit after a bit and was surprised (like many) about the w/d's. No stranger to them, and realized how the K w/d's weren't as acute as regular opioids, but a little more blunt and prolonged. Interesting. Well, I don't want to deal with that ever again. Until I did.
I think my last actual quit where I went through full K w/d's was summer of 2017 for maybe like 10-14ish days. Somehow, started again, and w/ liquid extracts this time (little 8.8ml bottles w/4 letters). It became insane for the next few years. I had a near quit in spring 2019 where I tapered down using stem & vein and plain-leaf, going from like 75%:25% leaf: s&v, then 50:50, then 25:75, to 100% s&v. Was taking such a tiny, tiny amount. I was surprised honestly how fast I was able to taper with only mild discomfort. I almost jumped (wish I had). Was having to take like .25g in the middle of the night to get back to bed. During this time I was also taking agmatine which I think I read about here. I wasn't sure whether it had much of an effect, but hey, whatever might work, right? Used to give me headaches sometimes at a 1g dose. Think I was taking about .5g during this taper.
Anyway, fast forward and addicts will do what addicts do and I was using insane amounts of extracts again, all different kinds. Then covid hit and of course my addict brain loved the excuse to stay home and use. I mean, who wants to see any other people anyway? Went through a couple relationships with women who were largely physically unavailable (something that's apparently a pattern I've recognized that needs work). But, despite that, I know I was not there 100%. Hell, barely 25%.
Anyway, recently had some health scares and realized it's time to be done. For good. I know how much of a better person I am off it. I sincerely live a good life, loving myself, when clean. Complete opposite while using. I booked some time off work next month and decided I would do a rapid taper.
---
So, here is the interesting part (I didn't really intend to write all of the above, so thanks if you made it this far to the meat of my post - I guess I needed a little emotional cleaning and coming to terms with my situation, so thanks for listening):
I was easily taking up to 4-5 extract shots (black bottle, gold lettering, 15 ml) and/or bringing in a couple of the 8.8ml four-letter shots.
In preparation, I bought (maybe a year ago? been a few attempts to quit), some small, glass bottles with eye droppers (1.25ml). Got on Amazon, also some with a glass funnel which is handy.
So, timeline:
-Tue(5/30): decide to quit, really slow my dosing; poured two shots in a couple bottles of 1.5l water to drink through the day. Total: 30ml
-Wed(5/31): had to go in to work so dosed half a leftover shot in am before work, then a sip of new bottle around noon, and the rest after work. Had another when I got home, because addict. Total: ~37ml
-Thurs(6/1): did about 1.5 shots, so like 22.5ml, throughout the day, in various dropper amounts (logged)
-Fri(6/2): did about a full shot diluted into water again throughout the day. Definitely starting to feel w/d's. Sad at things, tiny emotional floods, poop soup w/it's distinct w/d smell. Got worse throughout the day. Around 8 that night I took a full shot because of discomfort and because, well, addict. Total: 1 bottle throughout day, plus 8.8ml 4-letter shot.
-Sat(6/3): Remembered I had the agmatine and some vit c. Woke up in the AM and took about ~250mg of agmatine, 1g vit-c (powder), and maybe 10g whey protein. Popped a NAC and had maybe .5 ml CBD (full spectrum 1500). I repeated this every 4-6 hours. Ate some food. Didn't realize until I started eating that I had no real appetite and had to choke down the food. But, it was weird, like I didn't have to force like usual when detoxing, it just fell like I was full. Throughout the entire day I had like (3) 1ml droppers of the black-bottle/gold-writing extract. My lips were starting to burn a bit, like chapped (oh so familiar). Did a bunch of chores and exercise to keep busy and cleaned out a bunch of stuff, etc. Last night watched some TV and fell asleep on the couch for a short bit before waking up and going to bed around 11p. Woke up around 1:30a with some insomnia and was very aware of my legs. However, I was doing some squats during the day when exercising to stay busy, and I think I was feeling that. I don't think I have ever had RLS during any w/d's (lucky I guess?). Anyway, got up and took (3) 1ml droppers and fell back asleep. Total: 6 ml thought day and overnight
-Sun(6/4-today): Begin agmatine/vit c/NAC/CBD/whey at 7a when I woke; same repeat every 4-6 hrs. Did a bunch of chores. Dropped off old clothes to donation place, picked up stuff at h/w store, etc. Pretty active all day. Took 1ml dropper at noon (been keeping all dosages in an Excel spreadsheet). Other than repeating the agmatine routine, I took a 2mg THC microdose around 3:30 and that's about it. My lips burn, I get occasional runny nose, little bit of akathisia (this tends to be the worst for me, and what I suspect is a lot of the "anxiety" I read about here), with little waves of emotion. So far, total: only 1ml all day.
So, here is my conclusion (for me):

• Rapid taper, no agmatine: w/d's in quite soon and noticeable effects at like 50-75% of dose.
• Super-rapid taper, agamtine/vit c/etc: at a tiny fraction of the dose (1-12%?), w/d symptoms largely abated, cravings super low-to-non-existent, not "comfortable", but not uncomfortable.

Now, I have no idea what tonight and tomorrow and beyond will bring. I suspect I'll take a couple droppers full right before bed, maybe an hour after ag/vit-c, so I can get through the night. I'm sort or preparing myself for a big "crash" to come and think the agmatine might just be delaying the inevitable. But, at this rate (literally), I think this stuff is working a miracle for me. Probably explains my previous easy taper from 2019. If I can keep these doses, or lower, for the next few weeks, I feel pretty confident. I know it will be hard. I've done it before, and I can do it again. One. Last. Time.
I didn't intend to write all this, just a brief description of my experience with the agmatine/vit-c combo. I've spent at least over $100k, and probably closer to around $150k in the full ten years (lost a few years worth of transaction data, including the last 12 mo when its certainly been the most insane). I "get by" when using, and am lucky to have a good job and the smarts to make it through without anyone noticing. But, nobody in my life knows. And I know it has had a devastating effect on relationships, etc. mainly because I go into hermit, anti-social mode and neglect friendships and relationships that require nurturing. I'm so tired and am so looking forward to having my life back. I wish us all luck and the strength to pull through this!

As the title says, I was feeling like I was being taken advantage of. I had a friend from work whom I got very close to. We'll call them F. We became best friends and we did everything together. F didn't have a car or a driver's license. So I would drive them to work, it was no big deal it was on the way. As time went on and we became closer I would offer to take them to the store, or doctor and so on on my days off because of our job I didn't have much of a social life anyway. Fast forward to now both F and I have gotten a new job at the same place. I was begining to feel as though I was being taken advantage of. F hated having to stay home and always wanted to hang out on the weekends. Which hanging out on the weekends actually meant me driving them around doing chores like grocery shopping. F would get frustrated with me if I didn't talk to them as much as I did our other co workers. F is one of those people who always makes everything about themselves. I see this now.
I had brought up my feeling to F before which they would dismiss it and make the issue about themselves. As time went on I became less of a friend and felt more like a lifeline for F. Our times hanging out became less like two friends having a day out and more like therapy sessions for F juxtaposed with doing their chores. F is a bit of a mental case for lack of a better term. Always constantly complaining about how crappy their life is and how much they hate their job and why do I get treated better than they do and so on and so forth. It was a constant downer after a while.
Fast forward to today, I receive a call from F telling me they weren't mad at me. For context on this past Friday F left work in a hissy fit and failed to tell me that they were going to walk home. This left me sitting in the parking lot waiting for them when they were already gone. This was not the first time F had done this. So, we talk and F asks if we are going to do chores next weekend. I say no, and that I feel like F is too reliant on me, and that I don't really want to hang out as much anymore. F who I can tell is frustrated just says ok, we say our goodbyes and hang up. A few moments later I receive a text message from F that reads:
"thought about it and don't want to be your friend anymore. A true friend who would not turn their back on Someone in need. Don't sit with me at work. You are selfish and inconsiderate. You could have helped out with redacted and you chose not too Enjoy hanging out with your mommy and daddy What you are doing to me and redacted hurts me more than anything redacted could ever do. Redacted may play favorites but at least they didn't pretend."
This is after 7 years of helping this person out. All I've done to make their life a little easier driving them to and from work so they didn't have to walk, taking them to doctors appointments that they had no other way to get to, helping out every way I could. I did all this out of the goodness of my heart with nothing expected in return, and this is the response I got.
I can't help but be a little gutted but at the same time I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. My life began to revolve around F and I finally feel free.

It's said that we each think ourselves of the protagonists of our own stories. Take that too far and you get narcissistic people who annoy everyone around them- but there is another layer to it.
In the end, we all experience the world through our own eyes. And what we see is always limited.
Don't get what I mean? Imagine for a second that you were living in a simulation. Now, you may think that it's nearly impossible for a computer to possibly synthesize everything in the world going on around you.
Imagine walking into a bookstore. Have you ever... actually read every single book in there? No, leave that, have you ever even opened each book? How do you know that... each book is real, that each book actually has words in it without you opening each one? They could very well be placeholders, just there to make the world look more real.
Extrapolate that to the world. Sure, there are ways of knowing about everything going around you- but how much do you actually experience?
In the end of course, it's only what we experience that shapes what we think of reality. We can never go inside someone else's head.
This would all just be a though experiment. Or at least, it would be normally.
Two week ago, I moved into a new town. I didn't really relish the idea as it was a rather small town- a far cry from the city I'd grown up in, but I had to come here as part of a job, and my student loans weren't going to pay themselves.
I sighed, and grit myself for six months of utter boredom.
That's what I thought would happen. I settled in well enough, only for my doorbell the ring the very afternoon I had arrived.
Hadn't been expecting that- I hadn't even unpacked half of the boxes yet.
It was my neighbor- at least that was how they introduced themselves. It was Gary, his wife, and his twin daughters. They were nice enough- though overall given that I was eager to get to work they were more of a distraction than anything.
The visitors didn't stop there though. The mailman, other neighbors from down the street, the owner of the local grocery store, the garbageman- all of them fell the need to ring on my doorbell just to say 'hello' to me. I wouldn't have minded but the thing was that the conversations dragged on for far longer than they ever should have.
And now that I truly think about it- there was something really off about each of those conversations. I know the Uncanny Valley effect is regarding faces- but this was like that, except for speech. What was being said was normal- but there was an, oddness to it that I couldn't really put my finger on. As if I was thinking- 'Wait a moment, real people don't talk like this.'
I just chalked up all of this attention to small town values and went to sleep even though I barely got any unpacking done at all.
I did notice something odd- outside the window that looked over my backyard- I saw the silhouette of a lady with her dog by the road. This wouldn't be abnormal on its own- but for three nights in a row, I always saw her.
At seemingly the same place.
The next morning I got up and my day was instantly ruined when I saw that all the tires to my car had been slashed.
So much for small town hospitality- I was almost beginning to swear when I heard a warm voice said, "In trouble there, neighbor?"
It was Gary. From the way he approached me- it was like he'd been waiting all this time behind the corner just to pop up when I would notice the slashes tires.
"Uh... yeah, someone did this..." I said.
"Oof- looks like we got ourselves a troublemaker on the loose here," Gary said. "We should let the Sherriff know- oh, there he is!"
In what couldn't possibly be a coincidence, the Sherriff strolled right up to us as if he had just been strolling around the neighborhood. "Good morning there- and oh, is this our new resident!"
He introduced himself and assured me that he would look into the matter, and as with all the other conversations I had up till now it lasted three times longer than necessary. I was really beginning to become impatient.
At the time I just chalked it up to folks from a small town being different, though now that I look back on things, they were definitely dragging out those conversations as much as possible.
Gary offered me a ride to work- which I accepted given I had no real other options. He talked a lot about his own life- only occasionally asking me questions about mine.
In case you were wondering what it was that I did there- I was a reporter working on a story. I was looking into a story regarding a factory near the town, and so Gary was nice enough to drop me off at the town library which also housed its records.
It was fairly old- didn't even have a digital system in place, they still used those old cards you would write into if you wanted to take a book out.
You would think that at the very least in a library I would get some peace and quiet, but no.... the librarian and her two assistants walked up to speak to me. They shooed away the other patrons who also seemed to want to introduce themselves and began explaining how the library worked.
Again, the conversation lasted way too long for my liking.
I tried to focus on my work, but I really couldn't. I noticed it every so slightly- people were waiting for me around every corner. Their faces were in books that they clearly weren't reading as they were on the same page for two hours.
I didn't make much headway as I made to leave- unsure of how I would even get back home when the second I stepped out of the library I ran into Gary.
"Hey there!"
"Were you... waiting for me all this time?"
"Aww shucks no! Of course not, I was just in the area and remembered you didn't have a ride home. Realized the library closes around this time so I thought I'd give you a lift."
'Thank... you," I said, very creeped out.
On the drive back, Gary told me that there was going to be a large party over at his house tomorrow afternoon. I said I had work- but Gary told me the library was closed on weekends. I found that to be very odd but had not real way of confirming that it was wrong so I shrugged and said that I would be there.
That night, again, I saw the lady with her dog across the street. In the same spot. I didn't think too much of it then.
The next day was the party- and to my surprise it looked like half of the town had shown up. I was immediately ushered in and asked to sit down in the center of the living room- it was as if I was the Birthday Boy at a kid's party.
Everyone wanted to speak with me- it was nice for a while but became quite overwhelming thereafter.
That night, I again saw the lady with her dog across the street. I could swear she was in the same spot as well.
I went ahead and opened the door- going for an evening stroll. I walked down the road and I saw a woman in her mid-forties walking a Golden Retriever. She was no longer standing still, but was walking up to me, eager to introduce herself. She walked the same route every day, she told me, and was really excited to see the new face who was the buzz all around town.
The next day I tried to get some new tires- but every shop in town was out of it (and by every shop I mean the two there). Despite how friendly everyone was, none of them had a spare set of tires- something I found hard to believe.
They did managed to find a bicycle I could borrow- that was good enough to go to the grocery store and back. It took me over an hour to get to the library for my job though- Gary kept offering to drive me there, but I always refused.
I did actually get some work done- and it went on like that for a week longer when my bike was stolen one day.
The Sherriff was right around the corner as the last time, and Gary was as willing to offer a ride as ever. Now, I couldn't even get someone to lend me their bicycle anymore.
That night, I saw her again. That same lady, standing across the street. In the same spot.
I went for a walk- and she ran into me. As if she had been expecting me.
I had no idea what was happening around this place. I felt nauseous and didn't come out of the house for two days, just whiling away time on my laptop.
I had made my decision then- screw this job! I was getting out of here. I called my boss and told him I was leaving, and given I somehow still didn't have new tires I just called for a taxi company. I'd get my car back some other way- I didn't want to live here a moment longer.
The night before my planned escape, I woke up, startled by a noise downstairs. I went to see that it was... Gary.
He wasn't carrying a weapon of any sort and didn't look threatening in any way- but he was in my house at two in the morning.
"H-how did you get in?" I asked him.
"Ah, picked the lock. Locksmith helped," he said.
I grabbed a nearby umbrella- hardly an adequate weapon, but the closest thing near me. "D-don't get any closer!"
"I don't want to bother you," Gary said, seemingly nonplused by how weird this whole situation was. "I just wanted to let you know... that you can't leave."
That confirmed my suspicions when I heard a voice from outside.
"Gary! How long are you going to hog everything for yourself!"
"We want our turn!"
"What happened to 'sharing is caring?'"
I looked outside the window- and saw the townsfolk had surrounded my house.
"What is going on?!" I demanded.
"It's hard to explain," Gary said. "But let me start at the beginning. The 'factory' you were looking into, it wasn't a factory at all. It was a research facility for the military. We don't know why- but they made us. They made us like this, eternally trapped in this town. They abandoned us. We don't know why- just that it seems they wanted to curse us. I know no other reason as to why the should torment us so."
His face twisted into a snarl.
"We are background characters. We have little will of our own. It's only when someone like you comes from the outside that we find our purpose. That this town of ours has life breathed into it. Did you know what my days like were before you came along? I would stand in an empty house with my 'family' for hours on end. Just staring at a blank wall, unable to eat or drink or sleep. Unable to feel, unable to express myself. I can't even talk to members of my family unless you come around."
"Ah, I think you have a term for us," Gary said. "NPCs? Side characters? That's what we are. We can't do anything unless you come around. And I loved it so much when you were here- for the firs time in years I felt alive. Did you know something? My house is actually empty. No furniture. Nothing at all. Everything that you saw in there on the day of the party- it materialized only when you came in. I could go back home to an empty house, but I won't anymore." He began to move. "Come with me."
I ran upstairs and locked my bedroom door, barricading myself in as well as I could. I looked out my window and saw throngs of people there.
I can hear them at my door. Any minute now they'll get in.
I-I have family outside here guys. I do not want to spend my life being a prisoner of whatever... things live in this town.
My hand is shaking in terror as I type this out on my phone. I... don't know what I can do in this situation. I think I can smell smoke- they're definitely starting a fire, knowing I'll have to jump out the window. I don't know if they'll fight over me or try to tear me apart so each of them gets a piece, but they're not going to leave me alone.
They may all be prisoners here- but it looks like I'll end up being another inmate along with them.