Since I was hired 4 years ago it seems 90 percent of the new hires are simply incapable of learning simple tasks and retaining knowledge When I got on with my current company I was green only a small amount of construction experience and had just turned 19 The guys I was working under were stern and would raise their voice if I repeatedly made the same mistake but were very patient and very nice to work fowith as long as I paid attention asked questions and showed interest, I learned fast and have now finished my schooling and have lots of respect from the senior guys and consider myself quite knowledgeable about the trade, starting a foreman position in the next month or 2
It just seems everyone that has been hired after me has been unteachable a couple guys have been good but the majority have no drive or capability of retaining information We work marine construction, operating boats and tying knots is a daily task for us among other things that are a bit more complex (lots of rigging, welding, carpentry) It’s common for people starting they trade to be lost and not sure what’s going on as we move pretty fast when we are on a big job and takes a few months to get familiar with the work we do Even myself after 4 years there is still parts of the job I haven’t experienced and even the 10-15 year guys haven’t done everything our trade does But all the new guys have no drive or interest to learn, can’t keep themselves busy organizing tools or sweeping lunch room when we are busy and can’t look out for them Nor can they learn to do simple tasks efficiently even after doing it multiple times (something as simple as using a come a long or rigging a load properly after we show them and do the same pick with them 4 or 5 times) I know my generation is softer and less common sense then the older boys but even some of the older new hires are lazy and not bright Is this something happening everywhere? Curious how many years this has been going on I know the construction industry has changed lots in even just 10 years but it seems extremely bad the last 2 years When I started I was never talked down to or yelled at for no reason but if I was in a pinch point or doing something really dumb my foreman would raise his voice for my safety or give me a pretty hard time for a making a dumb mistake and I never got upset by it, just made me think how I could do things better and to keep my head up more . And he is always good about discussing where you would go wrong and how to do something properly. Whenever he tries teaching new apprentices how I was taught they either get lippy making him mad and go to hr.. or quit because they don’t like it

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Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
Chapter 238: Fragments Of Memories
Willem of Hagel never thought much of the world.
He didn’t have time to. As a boy out in the fields, his thoughts were as tied as his hands. Any moment spent thinking about the horizon could be better spent readying the soil for the next harvest.
There were others who thought differently, of course.
But there were also others who’d never received a smack on their head for their curiosity.
There was room enough for heroes without needing to cross the oceans, he was always told, often while nursing his ear. They were the farmers, just like them. Those who kept the miller baking his bread and the horses eating their grain.
Willem never had a mind to disagree.
The smacks hurt. And besides, he already saw everything there was to see in the world.
The village had everything he needed. And that was only a skip away.
There was a chapel with a spire to nod at. A market with traders selling all the things he didn’t need. Enough taverns that Willem rightfully wondered if they should be growing barley instead of corn. And Rosie by the river as well.
What did the towns and cities of Weinstadt have, other than taller spires to nod at, louder traders to ignore and even more taverns to wonder if they were growing the right fields? And none of them had Rosie. Although they probably had nicer rivers.
This was Willem’s life.
One farm boy among many, content with his lot in the world.
The problem was that the world wasn’t content in return.
That day, the flames rose as high as the sun, lifting it to keep the dusk from setting. It would have made no difference if it had. Even a single field burning was like a painting of the end of the world. A blanket of smoke visible even to the heavens. And certainly to the villagers.
They’d come rushing carrying water by the palms.
The flames were doused by their blood instead.
Even now, Willem didn’t understand why soldiers would attack his fields. He understood less why they would put a gash on Margie’s face or make sure Cody would never walk again. Rebels they called him, and all of them with him. Willem didn’t know who they were rebelling against, other than the king mice which plagued his fields.
They didn’t care. Nor did their swords.
“[Entangling vines]!”
But the ones who stopped them?
They cared, at least.
And that’s all that mattered.
Willem could only gawp.
The sight of his burning fields were joined by something even more frightening. Roots the likes of which could strangle an oak sprouting from the ground. Half the soldiers were taken there and then, their swords as good against the roots as Willem’s pleas had been on their ears.
Those were the lucky ones.
“[Hamstring Volley]!”
Arrows came thick and fast, striking those who’d not been taken by the roots.
They hit their marks cleanly, most dead centre in knee caps or else striking through the shin or ankle. They fell clutching their legs, crying out in pain at the shafts gone halfway through.
Somehow, there was an even greater song playing in the background.
“[Sprinkling Chorus]!”
A tune so thick and vibrant it could be seen as ribbons of water dancing in the air. It flowed across the field as beautiful as any rain Willem had seen, calming the flames like a mother’s lullaby.
Willem could only blink as the smoke lessened, and the figures strolled through his fields.
An elven woman in a dress of green leaves, each finger outstretched as she commanded the vines with unseen strings. A halfling man with a bow almost his height, three arrows notched to the strings as his bright eyes searched for the targets he hadn’t struck true. A man with a spotted lilac poncho, smiling away as he orchestrated the ribbons of water from his lute.
Adventurers.
Willem didn’t know their names. But he knew what they were.
The very aura they carried with them was different. The ease with which they walked amidst the smoking field spoke of years of experience. And the one leading them spoke of it louder than them all.
Willem almost backed away as the man approached, even though the stranger was his saviour. He had a gruff look not unlike his own father, his eyes powerful and stern.
But that was only when he was eyeing the soldiers.
The look he offered Willem was far more gentle. A sharp contrast to the sword he held, more impressive than all the weapons now dropped to the ground.
“Are you well, lad?” he asked, his voice as querying as it was kind.
Willem gulped before he could respond, feeling the dryness in his throat from the sudden turn of events.
Then, he turned to the others nearby. To Margie’s face wet with blood and Cody who couldn’t even stand. He was shocked to see that the man with the lute was attending to both, using nothing but a weave of his song to heal their wounds.
Somehow, he must have looked like one of the worst here, to be the first spoken to.
“I’m … I’m well … thank you, heroes.”
The man put a hand on his shoulder.
“Well done on standing your ground. But next time, don’t be afraid to take the wiser choice. A farm can be regrown, no matter how dire the flames. But a soul once departed can never return.”
Willem could only nod.
“I’ll … I’ll do that … thank you.”
“Good. Now, don’t suppose you could tell us where we are?”
“Hagel.” Willem paused. “In Weinstadt.”
His answer drew a bellow of laughter from the halfling scooping up the fallen weaponry, even though his ears shouldn’t have been able to catch Willem’s tepid voice.
“You hear that?” said the halfling, cheerfully turning to the others. “We’re in the right country, at least! Who’s the one who doubted me?”
“You doubted yourself,” replied the elven woman, bundling all the soldiers together into one entangled heap. “To our pains, I want to add. We should not have to constantly reassure our own ranger.”
“I do better with positive feedback!”
“Well, in that case, we should already be in an inn, hauling Cedric away from the bar after having fulfilled all of our tasks with time to spare.”
Snorts of indignation, laughter and elbowing.
A scene of companionship.
Amidst the ruins of his farm, that was all Willem saw as other soldiers came to take their own comrades away. He didn’t know enough to understand what was different about these ones, other than they were accompanied by a man claiming to be their lord.
Willem had never seen him before in his life.
Still, he received crowns in copper and silver for his troubles, taken from the coin pouches of the soldiers. He received a few more in gold, gifted by the halfling with a wink. The others did similar, the elven woman donating a satchel of leaves filled with new seeds, the lutist offering a song to lift his ailing crops, and the leader leaving behind a soldier’s sword hidden away from the lord.
His advice was to flee. But not to do so unarmed, apparently.
Willem clutched at all he received. But when the adventurers left, he wanted something else instead.
He wanted to be just like them.
Willem of Hagel wished to be a hero.
He made a wish.
And that … was that.
Click.
Maybe for others, it took an incantation steeped in black words. A sacrifice of goats and hens. Black robes and a thousand smouldering candles.
Willem only had to ponder. And then his Benefactor came.
The world froze with a snap of the fingers.
Had Willem been smarter, he would have turned his eyes down and let the words drift past.
He didn’t.
And so instead, he looked up to see a face so regal that emperors would have traded for it.
A devil from what lies beneath the abyss.
And what he offered was a contract smoking from the ring of flames used to conjure it.
Willem knew enough stories to see that was a bad sign. But then, he also knew that devils never approached those who could say no. He was no exception.
Especially when the cause was noble. Or as noble as a devil in a fine suit could offer.
“A demon. A fiend. And a devil,” said his Benefactor. “No innocents being reaped. No angels to be plucked. Only three of the most vile, most dangerous and more deranged of the hells. Defeat them–and this power is yours to keep. And should you not want it anymore, well, there’s a simple exit clause. One utterly pedestrian, to keep the theme of nothing amiss. A sum of crowns and no more.”
“... No trading of my soul? No eternal damnation?”
“Damnation? Not in the slightest. For one thing, that isn’t mine to administer, Willem of Hagel. That’s the realm of the heavens, not the hells. Even if it was, I desire nothing of the sort. This is a transaction for your services. Your soul, whole and hearty as it is, is yours.”
A smile and a contract so short there was no room for deceit.
And all Willem was asked to do was to use his powers as any hero would. To destroy evil.
What could go wrong?
The answer, as it turned out, was everything.
A farmer turned saviour. The accolades came thick and fast, clouding his eyes long before any wine fell upon his lips. He didn’t notice, during those days of pretending at righteousness, the haze which covered his sight. And when he did, he realised only too late it was more than his eyes which were failing him.
It was his soul.
He didn’t know why. He didn’t know how. But he knew it as he clutched at that fading part of him.
That’s when he stopped seeking justice for those who were most wronged. And instead sought retribution for those with the most crowns.
And so as each day he became richer, so too did he become poorer.
Willem felt as little joy from comfort as he did misery from squalor. Only in the worst things a tavern could offer did he experience the familiarity of wretchedness. The comfort of a migraine swimming through his head. The warmth of nauseousness.
And when he couldn’t, well–
It was usually because he was being bothered.
“... A curious place you find yourself,” said the girl, sitting at his table before he could frighten her away. “Are you often found brooding in the corners of taverns?”
The girl smiled, her golden hair slipping from beneath the hood she wore.
Willem blinked through the haze.
It made no difference. It never did. But for this girl, he didn’t need the clarity which only became better with wine to see. There was as little warmth in her grey eyes as there was in his.
Peas in a pod, then.
And so instead of ushering her away, he gestured towards the chair she was already sitting on.
“Taverns are beautiful this time of year,” he replied, his throat sore from whatever he’d last been served in an attempt to drive him away. “Its corners in particular. This right here? This one’s my favourite. Look carefully, and you can see the engravings on the table. A thousand and more signatures. One of them has to be famous.”
The girl’s smile continued unabated.
“A signed table is no fitting home for a man as renowned as yourself,” she said, pulling her cloak around herself. “From the tales I’ve heard, you should be raised upon a pedestal.”
Willem chuckled. A sign of life amidst the only tavern yet to bar him.
It was an instinctive reaction, one of muscles and expectation. He felt as much amusement as he did an ale so watered down it’d been drawn straight from a well.
“Depends on the pedestal,” he replied. “I’ve a few gallows waiting for me. Myself and any I speak with. Should you know who I am, you’d best be on your way.”
“And why would I do that, when I came so far to search for you?”
Willem offered no reply. The girl leaned towards him, offering a smile he could barely discern.
“... The records of you paint a picture of a hero in his prime. One who can defeat his foes in a flash of righteous light. And how many you’ve slain. The villainous princes of rotting kingdoms. The unfeeling lords trampling their own subjects … and also great demons and fiends, hidden amidst shadows and schemes, the likes of which even the Silver Aurelia could never erase.”
The girl raised a hand, drawing the attention of a barmaid. She took the entire tray, laying enough pints to slay a normal man upon the table. Willem didn’t reach for a single one.
“I know who you are,” she said, tapping at a stein. “And no pauper’s clothing will ever hide the look of one with as storied a history as yourself. I would like to make you an offer, Willem of Hagel.”
Willem prodded at something crawling upon his lap. And then he sighed.
Even with his eyes as poor as they were, he could see this girl lacked the years to possess the types of foes worth the use of his cursed ability. One he had to use sparingly. It was his road to salvation as much as it was to the abyss.
“I’ll respectfully decline. I’m afraid I’ve no answers for what troubles a young maiden these days.”
“Mine is the same as most. To be freed from those of wicked hearts and wicked deeds. Because it is not only the Kingdom of Weinstadt which finds itself under the yoke of foul rulers. And there are so few heroes in the world these days. And even fewer with the crowns to hire them.”
The girl smiled.
“I wish to bring down a kingdom,” she said simply. “Are you available?”
She lifted a stein and offered it to him.
Willem gave it a moment’s thought.
And then he took it, never realising that at that moment, he’d forgotten even the face of deceit.
If he hadn’t, he’d surely have chosen to sink than to rise from the gutters once again … if only to avoid the ignominy of frightening a single girl.
“I did warn you not to stick your hands in the flames.”
It was the least of tasks. And a horrific way to use his abilities.
But tonight, he’d unleash what was needed to spare the people from the villainy of the kingdom’s rulers. It mattered little that it should start here, sending the least of Tirea’s royalty to the bliss of sleep while her nation was given over to better hands, even as it burned.
Except it hadn’t turned out that way.
Not even in the slightest.
“There are no such things as regular princesses. We all have our talents. Mine happens to be all of them.”
Willem continued to raise his pitchfork against a girl who had no right to be standing.
Especially within his own world.
He knew from the moment she evaded his first attack that there was something different about her. And not only because he was strengthened in his world. But because everyone else was enfeebled.
Those he drew into his [Soulscape] were also drawn under a malaise more heavy than any charm, their legs stilted as though wading through marsh, and their arms weighed by the sky itself. The moment she’d been able to stop the knock he intended for her head, he knew something was wrong.
“[Spring Breeze]!!”
He especially knew it when she sent the power of a miniaturised hurricane into his face.
A force which propelled him so hard that he didn’t have time to brace. He could feel the whole force of the impact as he struck against soil that by all accounts didn’t exist. And there was pain. Plenty of it. A sensation foreign to him outside of a tavern.
But even more so here.
Everything about experiencing pain in his own sanctum was wrong.
He’d underestimated her. But it wasn’t just because she gave no hint about her prowess.
There was normally nothing to underestimate.
Here in the world created by his own soul, he’d brought down fiends so horrific they held names which couldn’t be spoken without the tongue boiling. And still their encounters could never be called a battle.
To him, this was his field of crops. The last memory which would ever leave him. The last call to joy.
To all others, it was an execution ground.
“Ohhohohohoohohohooohohohhhoohohohohohoho!!”
This princess decided it was her canvas instead.
Willem didn’t understand how his hellish ability worked. But he knew it was a mirror of his soul. The most powerful part of him, even weakened as it was. And she managed to break it.
No … not break.
She painted over it.
Dancing like a minstrel from the Summer Kingdoms, she twirled her sword to a song of her own laughter, drawing upon its tip the ribbons of his own soul. And as she danced, that which had become grey and faded turned into colours anew.
Life blossomed as flowers he’d never seen even in dreams, drawn upon beds of grass and shrubs bristling with the movement of newly birthed creatures. The sky itself flourished, a sunlight which shouldn’t exist peeking between clouds that had been wiped away to a slate of clearest spring.
And for the first time since he left his farm, Willem of Hagel began to remember.
He began to see.
His world bristled with all the colours of the rainbow, draped over a garden of all the seasons.
He could feel beyond doubt that something within him was coming together like a broken garment sewn anew. The mistakes that’d made would never become undone, but the gaping hole in the dam was sealed.
That which was leaking was finally closed. And somewhere, a devil hummed in surprise.
As Willem dropped to his knees, all he could feel before his eyes closed was long lost feelings of fatigue, relief and confusion returning like a sweeping wave to wash the consciousness from his mind.
Because more than anything, he wanted to know a single answer.
Within his [Soulscape], Willem cheated fate.
He was no warrior. But he didn’t need to be.
A swing of his arms alone was enough. Every part of him rose to become no less than S-rank, while those he faced were laid bare, their strength stripped like armour from their person.
For her to defeat him while bearing such a handicap …
Just what rank did this princess start as?
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The sun beat harshly upon Olivia Chapman but she didn't notice. She was digging and probing a small animal den with a stick. To glimpse the amusement shining in her eyes as she waited for whatever small furry resident within, to come bursting forth once she had prodded deep enough, was to realize that she was aware of nothing else around her.
Her sister Veronica splashes in a nearby stream that runs the length of Brunswick park before becoming a large pool enshrined by poplar trees and a small sandy bank.
It was on this makeshift shore that the girls had laid out a long pink blanket, held down by stones collected from the several trips they had made to the same spot that summer.
Veronica is only 5 years old but the stream is hardly deeper than her calf and she kicks and spins in the water as the frills of her dress become saturated. Olivia is almost 11 but when she hears a soft snap beneath the ground her brow furrows and her face darkens with anger. Eliminating all signs of early adolescence. Her concentration on the den breaks for a moment, casting aside the broken stick and she peers over the sand bank at her sister playing. She smiles to herself thinking of all the adventures the two had shared over the summer. Their father had recently taken a promotion working with the city planners of Brunswick and the girl's mother had explained very clearly the day school got out that the two of them would be looking after each other this summer and they had happily obliged.
On this particular day their mother had asked that they keep themselves busy for a few hours at the park while she worked around the house and so with their trusty blanket and a few pieces of candy to incentivize them they were happily on their way.
Olivia calls out to her sister and begins climbing to her feet when she feels it. A small vibration like the subtle rhythm of a tiny drum, passes through her hand. She barely registers the feeling but as she presses harder to get up the steady beat is unmistakable. Olivia immediately grabs another appropriately sized stick and begins trying to goad whatever animal is trying to evade her. She is a kind and caring child but a lack of supervision and an intense curiosity had created several of these frantic animal excavations over the summer.
The den had gone from the size of a golf ball to a small crater in just a few moments as Olivia plunged the stick inside and pulled the dirt away over and over. The prospect and excitement of a chipmunk or a mole suddenly emerging from the earth caused her to grin wildly, but after several moments nothing had emerged. She nervously placed her hand in the hole she created hoping that the animal inside knew how she only wanted to make friends but instead of a startled creature, Olivia felt something unexpected. Like shoelaces or maybe ribbons?
She reaches in deeper and gathers the long soft material in her hand and pulls.
Brushing off sand and dirt Olivia raises a drawstring pouch into the air. The pulse ripples through her hand stronger than before and causes her to immediately drop the bag. She quickly stands and takes a step back from her discovery. The decrepit bag lands near her feet and in an instant her fear turns to that same curiosity. She picks up the bag once more and begins examining it. Her hand thrums, thump, thump, thump. She swallows a few times summoning her courage and tries to figure out what she is holding. The bag is a thick leather and the drawstrings at the top are drawn tightly and knotted several times. Olivia begins to look closer at the strings and what appear to be small white stones tied to the ends of each as they drape down the side. She takes one of the stones in her hand and rolls it gently between her fingers, delicately knocking away the mud encrusting it and as her fingers trace its shape she slowly raises her other hand to her mouth. They were teeth, but not like the ones she had fumbled with under her pillow so many times before. These teeth were long and sharp like something fierce, Olivia anxiously gulps once more trying to understand what she has found.
“What are you holding?” The question shatters Olivia's fierce concentration and her heart leaps in her chest as she nearly topples backward in surprise. Her sister is standing on top of the sand bank and using her little hand to block the sun as she squints down inquisitively.
“It’s some kind of purse I think?” Olivia's voice is a whisper

B.A.G aka the BIG AS GUN: is an arm cannon used by the general and is the most powerful Bio Weapon the Doctor has created so far its lazer is hot enough to melt diamonds it is 4 ft long and 3ft wide its melee power is just as great as its ranged attack. It takes around 20 minutes for it to charge up for one shot I was made using the meat of the Vita Carnes experiment the Big AS Gun is truly one of the Doctors greatest crafts
THE SCALPEL: The Scalpel is the weapon of choice for the Doctor himself along with his secondary Hell Piercer The Scalpel is 7ft long, 3 in wide it was made from the bones of the Living Tumor it is very durable but must go in for repairs after a confrontation the blade must be shared at the end of every week. The blade of The Scalpel is sharp enough to cut through Steel, the base of The Scalpel is durable enough to withstand 100 tons of force. The Scalpel is now out of commission after the raid on the ring of pride
MICKEY: Mickey is the weapon of choice for the Rubber Hose Reaper Mickey's base is 8 ft long and the blade itself is 4 ft long. Mickey was made and stolen from the Doctor. It was made using the blood, meat, and bones of the Vita Carnes. The blade is sharp enough to cut clean through concrete and it must be sharpened even 2-3 weeks. Mickey is highly dangerous again the Powered because if feeds off of the gene that causes powers themselves to appear, unlike the others that feed off of what they're made of, a shallow cut from Mickey can disable ones power for around 10-15 minutes a deeper cut can lead to your ability being removed completely
THE RUBBER HOSE REAPER: Her real name is unknown but the AVA has very little data on her he ability is to stretch her body and limbs to unknown lengths the farthest even records was 25ft she has an extreme amount of speed, stamina, and durability but lacks strength. She is mainly seen in the ring of lust and greed and may have ties to the gang Mammon and Asmodeus she is a ruthless killer and has killed 50-65% of agents in all 9 rings IF YOU SEE HER RUN DO NOT TRY TO ENGAGE AND ALERT THE AAS IMMEDIATELY
THE TOONS: The Toons are a small and highly dangerous group of people the AVA has classified each member as an SSS+ level threat the same level to that of The Angles of Death the members of the gang have been named Porky, Looney, Toony, and the leader Rubber Hose. Porky is strong but slow he is best to deal with from afar with armor piercing rounds aimed at the head and leg joints if he is to enter close range try to gain distance and aim for the legs and spinel area his rank is S+. The twins Looney and Tooney are the weakest they have moderate speed, low straight and durability but they have high stamina they're ability is unknown and it's theorized that they are the only toons without abilities, they can be fought at any range with ease but it is best to fight them separately in close combat and in an area as flat as possible with little to nothing around for them to use as cover or to gain high ground advantage their rank together is S separately they rank A. The Rubber Hose is the strongest of the group she moves at high speeds, has high stamina and durability her strength is moderate agents who've gone in hand to hand combat with her compare it to that of Mike Tyson's punch, if she is encountered the AVA demands that agents who aren't apart of the AAS do not engage with her and avoid her agents are instructed to stay 25+ feet away from the Rubber Hose and are not to attract attention to themselves if the Rubber Hose attacks non AAS agents they are to try and overwhelm her and prevent her from using Mickey if she has Mickey agents are to run, hide, and contact AVA and the AAS as soon as they are safe the Rubber Hose has been ranked SS+ and I repeat DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THE RUBBER HOSE
LUCIFER AND THE IMPS: Lucifer and the Imps are Benjamin's pets created to be his eyes and ears around the city and the world. Imps are winged creatures, female imps and project images they've seen but said projections have no sound male imps can record sounds they've heard and repeat them exactly they're weak to very high pitched sounds. All Imps are small, light, and fast; they can fly up to 30-45 mph. Lucifer is described as a larger imp with non the abilities it feeds off of flesh of any kind and enjoys chewing on things like wires, pipes, rubber items, and sometimes living things Lucifer has an AA rank
THE KING IN YELLOW: The King in Yellow is described as a “Self-centered egotistical piece of shit” he's always wearing something brightly colored mostly yellow and it's always high class i.e. suits, fancy watches, etc, he enjoys putting on his play The King in Yellow or the Yellow King and he always plays the most important role which is the king himself. He owns hundreds of fancy cars and houses and looks down upon those he sees as lower lifeforms his weakness is his pride he hates to lose and hates it even more if it's a mortal or mortal soul he's only lost to a mortal soul once and too this day he still holds a grudge
THE SCARLET KING: The Scarlet King or The Red King is being of mythos and is the only one to live his eternal life on earth as one of the Elites unlike his brother he doesn't like to draw unnecessary attention to himself he does this by wearing darker clothes and by walking to most places instead of driving. He has a love-hate relationship with humans. His wife was a human but humans are the ones who killed her and even though he never has or will show it he does enjoy living life as a human. His main goal is to protect his daughter Samantha and the love of her life whom he doesn't like
JULE LEE IZENHOWERD III: Jule Lee Izenhowerd III is a member of The Crown, despite being a member of the Izenhowerd bloodline and being the most physically skilled member of The Crown she has remained a Rank 2 doctor for 15 years, the reasons she hasn't been promoted at all is because she has low mana and cannot use useful magical skills i.e teleportation, invisibility, light spells, ect and has been using basic skills since she was hired which are elemental spells. She doesn't like anyone she works with because they talk down to her and call her weak, she only gets along with Doctors Lawrence and Soyer, her familiar is a black cat that was sent to her as a joke and she's highly allergic to Mr.Midnight. She, like everyone else, has her soul tied to her familiar. She hates her bosses, most of her fellow employees, and most of all being called a witch, she always wears her mask on and off hours just in case something needs her attention
JACK HORNER A.K.A. JACK THE RIPPER: Jack The Ripper is a young boy estimated to be 8-10 years of age from England who enjoys reciting lines from mother Goose, poems, books, and films, his real name isn't actually Jack Horner he gave himself the last name for unknown reasons but it's most likely because of his love for mother Goose, he enjoys roaming the slums of Wrath and Greed and killing female prostitutes and cuddling they're dying or dead bodies the reason for this is unknown. He works as an ArchAngel for Benjamin and has been given an SS+ rank he is highly dangerous, he is to be pursued by female agents as all male agents have killed in horrific ways, he tends to sing a version of London bridge is falling down when he's wandering around and his weapon of choice are metal wire and knifes much is unknown about him and the AVA is still investigating
SCIOPHOBIA: Sciophobia is a shadow demon or entity that follows around Benjamin and the other mercenaries. Sciophobia can travel through and interact with shadow, interacting with the shadow of something or someone will also affect it i.e. if it cuts off the arm of your shadow your arm is gone too, it protects Benjamin from attacks by doing this and steals things that he wants, it's one of the biggest problems for the AVA and the Elites as he is shown to have no weakness and can even manifest in complete darkness, he's relatively harmless though as he mainly defends instead of attacks so he had been given a B- rank
O-13 A.K.A. STEVEN: O-13 is a member of the Elites and is one of the only level headed one out of all of them but he's looked down upon because he thinks morally and ethically also because he's an alcoholic who always has his flask filled with booze or a spiked drink, he's been going to a rehab run by his adoptive mother who he calls Ma he's been going to the same rehab for help and to help out ever since he turned 21 he's shown signs of improvement and is now sober during most meetings, he's never seen alone and is always accompanied by O-12 The Cat who's mostly there to keep him sober, keep warm on his head, and watch programs on his face and despite his actions he is not gay.
O-12 A.K.A. THE CAT: The Cat, real name unknown to the public, is a black cat that was found in the Southern Americas she has an English accent, but isn't actually English, and said she was once a “Very smart and capable human” but was turned into a cat by an “A#shole cu#k face” after making a deal with him to have more than one life, she still enjoys reading and researching things and is the head of the animal sleeper agents and was one who came up with the spy camera birds, despite being a high ranking member of society she is not allowed outside without a human handler
O-11-10 A.K.A. THE TWIN SNIPERS: O-11-10 The Twin Snipers are the best of the best in the game they've never missed a shot due to O-11 precise calculations and O-10 large anatomy knowledge, they were found and trained by O-8 after being arrested for commiting a large amount of assassinations in Japan, Russia, China, and Europe. In an interview they admitted to killing their father and mother because they were cruel and unworthy of living. They're always seen together mirroring each other, it's also been reported that they creep out the staff members because of this and they are the second youngest members of the Elite they are the heads of the assassination division
O-9 A.K.A. THE WORLD'S SMARTEST BOY: O-9 is truly the smartest kid the world has to offer with an IQ of 493 and several PHDs, masters, and diplomas, despite this he still says he wants to continue to go to a normal public school and soon graduate elementary, middle, highschool, and college again but at a slower pace, and wants to live a life as normal as possible. Due to him being in school all meetings are to take place after 4:30pm after he has finished his homework and has had his afternoon snack, usually a PB&J with no crust cut in triangles with apple juice and chips, he's a very picky kid who prefers doing things done the “right way” he's the head of the weapons and containment crafts divisions. He has also heavily insisted that he has a schedule prepared for him every single day; NOTE: His last caretaker has quite and he needs a new one
O-8 A.K.A. THE PERFECT SOLDIER: O-8 is truly the perfect soldier she is an expert in all forms of combat, sabotage, trap making, stealth, war tactics, etc, she has mothered and trained O-10 and 11 teaching them how to fight in close and ranged combat she's 6”4 and weighs 290 lbs and is currently banned for the company gym for accidentally breaking equipment, she was born in the Siberian mountains and was taught to fight and hunt by her father, she was a soldier in Russia for 4 years and was later picked up by the Foundation as a Rank 1 soldier and was later promoted by O-2 to join the council, as the head for training and field missions. She is also the head of the AAS, she has successfully completed every mission she's been on, all with little to no casualties and is the only person to fight the Toons and come out alive
O-7 A.K.A. THE PERFECT MAN: O-7 has been described as an “elegant, intelligent, beautiful, and perfect man” he is the perfect height 6 ft, the perfect weight 210 lbs, and has the perfect stats, he achieved this state of perfection by fusing with something just as perfect machines his exoskeleton is made of an almost indestructible metal most of his body is mechanical the only biological things he has left are his brain, a few muscles, his vocal cords, and his nervous system, he enjoys playing chess and spending time time O-4 and prefers for his living quarters to be all white with black accents because as he says “White is the perfect color, because can show every color”, he wanted to become the perfect man after seeing he had an imperfection that being a rare and fatal disease that caused his insides to slowly rot away, there is no cure or vaccine to it because of how fast it kills the infected but O-7 has started to develop a vaccine because “Antibiotics are disgustingly expensive” at the time they were $11.30 the price hasn't changed he is head of the mechanics and medical division
O-6 A.K.A. ANONYMOUS: Anonymous is a mysterious man who always has a mask on he is in charge of the hacker group and making sure the identities for the Elite are not released to the public, he is apart of a long blood line that has done this specific job ever since the Foundation was created whenever that was everyone in the Anonymous family have abilities and are highly skilled in sports, engineering, science, or whatever. His ability is called rot and it allows him to accelerate the life of an object of person when they enter skin to skin contact which is the reason he always wears gloves, he enjoys fencing and playing checkers, mahjong, and cards. He is the head of the intelligence and identity divisions
O-5 A.K.A. THE FISH: O-5 was created purely by accident by O-9 in an attempt to give goldfish a longer memory so he could try and teach it math and how to read, instead is gave him intelligence, he was going to be put down but O-9 begged to keep him reluctantly O-1 approved this he was built a body with a speaker so he could talk, he enjoys “smoking cigarettes” but they just blow bubbles into his bowl he was appointed the job of O-5 after the previous one died of a heart attack due to O-4 he treats O-9 as his son and is head of the communications division
O-4: O-4 has been described as a “ heatless cruel evil “human being”, who'll do anything as long as it benefits him” and all members agree with this statement O-4 is a sociopath who torchers and kills people for fun and entertainment, he has sacrificed many D-class and other employees to satisfy his own needs he often gets on fights with others to brutally beat them to death with and object he can find, his prefered toucher method is make people learn to play string orchestral instruments until their fingers bleed and they get it right, in the act of anyone messing up he'll beat them severally while laughing his reason is “everyone has a fetish right? Well this is mine” he them proceeded to beat the interviewer after asking about ethics and morals, he survived luckily, O-4s only soft stop is O-7 because “He's the only one who can please me in this dumb” he has rejected scar removal treatment and is head of the integration division he must be accompanied by O-7 if he is integrating someone and suffered a mild burn wound during the raid on the ring of the 7 rings
O-3 A.K.A. THE LIVING COMPUTER: He was made in the year 1939 to help put an end to the second world war and help beat the Nazis and Communist in the great space race though he only completed one of them as Communist Russia put an end to war after capturing and killing Adolf Hitler. No one knows who created him or why he's still part of the foundation council but they do know he's still a good asset, after being updated and tweaked to be automatically put into every server in the world by O-2 he has come up with vaccines for many major illnesses and has found cures to them he knows almost everything there is to know, but he is and has always been a “emotionless creep” after staff reported bodies missing from the morgue and investigation led to them being found in O3 server room he was found wearing one of them and using them to communicate with sound, this was overlooked and was call “not a big deal” by O-1. O-3 is head of the Intelligence, technology, biotechnology, bioweapons, and many other divisions he also is co head of every other division
O-2 a.k.a THE FIRST ROBOT: O2 is a robot that was made during the steampunk era by O1 his blueprint was made a decade earlier, he was a creation ahead of his time something that took the power of steam and came to life he had a blue flame in his chest called a soul fire which gives him life, he mostly helps out O1 do his daily chores and task, he enjoys drinking tea which he can't taste, and playing croquet he never speaks much during meeting or at all because it's “a waist of my limited energy” he is head of the robotics division
O-1 a.k.a THE IMMORTAL MAN: O1 origins are a mystery to everyone even O2 the most he has ever said about his past is “I made the laws of the lands, and my records are in every history book” it's theorized that he goes all they was back to when Rome was being created others think that he was a conquistador that discovered the foundation of youth, but everyone does know that his oldest public record is when the foundation of the world was founded in 1421 his goal was to keep the world in order and to surpass the Gods in greatness, he enjoys eating fruits, working, and sleeping after a long day, his ability is true immortality he will never die only age any damage that is done to him is healed in a certain amount time depending on the damage he also has a strong hatred for the Angles, Gods, and Benjamin

Hey y’all! I hit Legend yesterday with a triple shadow team in Great League Remix and wanted to share in case anyone else wants to try it this week. I sort of happened on this team by accident after seeing so many Carbink in the first two days of Remix. I threw together a rough ABB with three Pokemon that can all deal with Carbink (and a few that can deal with Annihilape), and it ended up working insanely well even after Carbink usage dropped over the course of the week.
Here's the team:
Lead Shadow Gligar (Wing Attack + Aerial Ace/Dig) – 9/12/8, rank 1992, shiny (!)
Safeswap Shadow Feraligatr (SC + HC/IB) – 11/11/12, rank 668
Closer Shadow Empoleon (SW + HC/DrP) – 3/10/12, rank 45
I started the week around 2650 elo, and my first few sets with the team were kind of insane. Almost all positive – with a bunch of 4-1s, a few 5-0s, some 3-2s. Very few negative sets. After Monday, I was already up to 2900. Then I started Tuesday with a 4-1 to take me to the 2940s, and Legend started feeling real … until I went 1-4, 1-4, 1-4, 2-3 in my next four sets. That dropped me back down into the 2700s and I was pretty sure the magic had worn off.
But I figured, at this point, you gotta dance with the one who brought you, so Wednesday I fired up the team again and it all started humming again. I gained back all the elo I lost the day before, ending back in the 2940s again. Thursday I managed to get right to the doorstep at 2987, but dropped back to 2950 again. Finally, yesterday, I went 2-3, 4-1, 4-1 to clinch Legend.
Below I included some strategy for running the team and some corebreakers/notes. In the comments I’ll explain how I play lead scenarios, so check down there if you end up wanting to try the team. I'm happy to answer any questions too!
Team strategy:
The team plays as a standard ABB, with Gatr there to lure out the water answer (and sometimes strip shields or take switch in the process), leaving Empoleon to go nuts in the back. It’s definitely a little scary running triple shadows with not a whole lot of bulk, but this team hits hard. So my priorities, in order, were 1) energy advantage, 2) shield advantage, 3) switch advantage.
If you can get an energy advantage on any of these Pokemon, it becomes a real problem for your opponent, and Gatr with a Shadow Claw or two head-start on the safeswap was great at both taking shields and leaving opponents’ counterswaps in farmdown range for Gligar or Empoleon. A lot of opponents would counterswap Mantine into Gatr, then eat an Ice Beam and shield a Hydro, giving Empoleon a huge Steel Wing farmdown. Most opponents were not prepared for a loaded Empoleon after their best water answer was already knocked out.
The other – and maybe most important thing – I did running this team was playing to CMP ties as often as I could. This is an element I started adding to my game more this season, and with two attack-stat monsters on this team in Gatr and Empoleon, it became an extremely effective tool for gaining a narrow edge wherever I could. Knowing both Pokemon win CMP against most of the meta, I was able to overfarm with confidence and maximize energy, while also leaving my opponents in bad spots – forcing shields to guarantee a knockout and giving me those aforementioned farmdown opportunities. I actually have a higher-ranked Shadow Gatr (rank 169) but chose to build the rank 668 for the attack weight, and it really paid off with all the Gatr mirrors I ended up in.
Corebreakers/Other Notes:
Quagsire is kind of a nightmare, especially if it’s in the back. You have to respect the Mud Bomb against Empoleon, but it’s a total guessing game if they have it or not. One game I shielded an Aqua Tail after they built to seven Mud Shots, so I figured they were on AT+SE, but then they one-shotted me with Mud Bomb after. Just gotta play the guessing game. Mandibuzz was rarely on the lead, but it was a real pain as a safeswap or a counterswap. You can deal with it, but it’s so bulky that it makes it very difficult to gain those energy or shield advantages this team needs. Dewgong is tough no matter where you see it (more on that in the comments). Your waters can deal with it, but it often comes down to correctly calling Icy Winds. It's not fun! Luckily, I didn't see a ton of Dewgong.
Despite the bulk and the Grass Knot coverage, Cresselia is pretty easy to deal with. Gligar does well into it and your waters outpace or win CMP against it. Gatr shreds it with Shadow Claws and Hydros. Fire type leads were not super common, but despite being double water in the back, you want to stay in with Gligar at least for a bit, since Empoleon takes neutral from fire. A lot of fire leads would no-shield a Dig on the first move, so don't be afraid to full send. Dragon type leads were also uncommon, but against Dragonair and Dragonite you outpace to an Aerial Ace with Gligar, so stay in and throw one to get the shield, then swap into Gatr. You'll have to shield a move, but you'll get an energy head start.
Shadow versus Non-Shadow
If you don't have access to all three of these Pokemon in Shadow form, you can definitely sub in a non-shadow version somewhere. Of the three, I'd say Gligar is the most important to keep as a Shadow, since it just tends to perform so much better and is so much more oppressive even if you're just going straight Aerial Ace. PvPoke has Shadow Gligar at No. 4 for GL remix and regular Gligar at No. 14. The two Shadow versions and two regular versions of Gatr and Empoleon are all ranked No. 5 through 8, so the dropoff shouldn't be too bad from any one to the other. PvPoke actually has regular Gatr ranked one spot higher than Shadow. I didn't try the team with anything but triple shadows, but it feels like it'd still work pretty well.
I made Legend for the first time two seasons ago, but missed it last season after twice getting to the mid-2900s and failing to close it out. For a while, this season was looking like more of the same. I was just outside leaderboards for most of the first month before leveling off. Then I surged from 2500 to 2880 in the first week of Jungle Cup, only to have my team completely and spectacularly fail in the second week. I stuck it out for -150 elo before trying some new teams in desperation, but I crashed all the way back to the 2500s.
In the last OGL rotation, it felt like I’d follow every 5-0 or 4-1 set with an 0-5 or 1-4. I just couldn’t gain elo in a meaningful way. So I started GL Remix right around 2650, which hopefully tells you how much this team was cooking over the past week.
It's incredibly validating to hit Legend a second time and prove to myself that the first time wasn't a fluke. Plus it felt great to do it with a team I built myself (with triple shadows, no less!) and that I only saw one other time during my run. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and good luck in your own climbs!

Previous
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I think it’s obvious that, while I’ve never lied to my dad and my brother about something big before, I haven’t told either of them about the animals at the zoo and I’m not planning on it. Even if they believed me, that would actually be worse than thinking I was being foolish by working here. If my dad knew what kind of animals the zoo had, he’d freak out, whether or not there were invisible walls to protect me. In and of itself, my father would demand I quit on the spot if he found out about my hourly rate because it was obvious that there was something about this job that warranted it.
So, I opened a savings account at the bank, and when I deposited the check, I put half in that account. That lowered the chances of my dad finding out how much money I was pulling in.
It wasn’t as if I had anything huge to spend the money on anyway, though. Dad had been thrilled with $25/hr. when I got the job, and we’d already started spending some of that first paycheck on new clothes and little house repairs and such. Money has always been tight, and we live in a three-bedroom house, with my dad graciously having taken the smallest room (which was kind of a catchall storage room up until then) once my brother and I wanted separate rooms when we hit our teenage years.
My mom isn’t in the picture, if you’re curious. She worked as a wildlife photographer, and was so good at it that she’d get paid to go off to remote places in Africa. For months at a time. As if we don’t have animals in America, right? But even when she was here, it always felt like she was distracted, wanting to go back to work. Like she cared more about the animals than about us. Say what you want about me, but I like animals more than people, I don’t love them more. I don’t even think of her as mom anymore; in my brain, she’s Patricia.
When I was nine and my brother Stanley was two, she basically left and never came back. Doesn’t even send postcards. For all I know, she’s dead, and the most meaningful thing I ever got from her was my passion for caring about other animals. I got into it early because of Patricia, and then practically every birthday or Christmas present was some book or movie or toy about wildlife. But that’s all she did for us besides financial support. My dad is a real rock in my life, and I count myself lucky I got at least one good parent.
When Patricia ditched us, I started to help out financially when I was younger by working odd jobs, and then real jobs when I hit sixteen. Stanley is sixteen now, and he’s been working at Hanks Hardware for a few months, which meant now it was all three of us pulling in money. But Stanley only makes $10/hr., working four hours after school and then eight hours on Saturday, so my $25/hr. literally doubled our household income. When I’d gotten the job, I told Dad and Stanley that I wanted Stanley to quit his job, and that I’d give him an allowance, $80 a week, which was what he'd be using for pocket money if he’d still been working.
Getting that time back would be huge for Stanley, because it would let him spend more time on his schoolwork. Not just to bring up his grades; he would literally be learning more. And he’s a junior now, doing things like taking a computer class to learn Microsoft Office. Living in a small town limits your options, and knowledge broadens them. I know that much for sure.
Not to mention, he could actually be a teenager, do the stuff kids did. Go see a movie, hang out with his friends at the bleachers and smoke pot, and head out to the lake to swim when the weather warmed up and have a genuinely fun summer instead of having a forty hour work week. And most important, playing video games. I know that sounds strange, but Stanley loves video games and plays online on the TV in the living room. But he hardly ever has time to play, which means sometimes he’ll stay up too late enjoying himself and fall asleep the next day during his first period class. Dad and I never have the heart to tell him to go to bed, though.
My father was uneasy about Stanley quitting, mostly because of the hypothetical of my job falling through. And Dad didn’t even know about the possibility of there being some terrifying incident with an animal, which might cause me such anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to push past it and would end up needing to quit. I really didn’t think that was likely after I’d managed to mostly get over my paralyzing fear of Yui, but I yielded to his logic and we negotiated. Stanley decided to switch to three hours three days a week and four hours on Saturdays.
Little did they know that not only was I was saving up for my own impending student loan payments, but my savings account would cover a most or maybe all of the cost of any college or trade school Stanley wanted to attend when he graduated. I was so happy about that, I don’t have the words. Half of my income is $25/hr. and for eight hours a day will be $52k a year, all of it put in my savings account. Before taxes, but still, that is fantastic money. I’ll have to come clean eventually, when Stanley started filling out FAFSA forms next year, and I’ll probably tell my dad that I was pretty sure they’re running drugs out of the back of the zoo or something. He’ll be so pissed, but that’s over a year away and I’ll burn that bridge when I came to it.
So, in general, I’ve been enjoying working at the zoo and depositing those paychecks. Call me a cynic, but inevitably, that meant something had to go wrong.
After settling in for my shift a few minutes before 9 p.m., Andrew bid me farewell and headed home. He’d just done one last walk of the zoo, so I took out a book and resumed where I’d left off, planning to do a sweep in an hour. I do have some enrichment planned for one of the animals, but I’d had to order something online and it won’t arrive for a few days.
Shortly after my second ramble around on my route to check every enclosure at the zoo, however, I got a text from my brother.
> Gary and Shaun are going to the zoo. They want to try to see the animals.
I closed my eyes in annoyance. Gary and Shaun were two sort-of friends of Stanley’s, the middling kind of friend that you sit with at lunch and hang out with at parties but you’ve never actually been to their home. I knew Stanley had been bragging to his friends about my new job. Well, I guessed. He’d told me and Dad at the dinner table that his friends were impressed with my job, and I figured the fact that his sister had a college degree and had started work at $25/hr. was bragging material, especially when it meant Stanley could work fewer hours.
The idea that some of his friends would want to come check out the zoo hadn’t occurred to me, because I’d come at it logically: The zoo was closed to outsiders. Appointment only. And none of them would ever get an appointment, because they were human. But if anything, the rules that restricted them had probably made it a more enticing idea. Also, Stanley said it the zoo on Google Maps at this point, but that it was blurred out. Andrew told me that had been by request (anyone can do it actually), but I’m sure that made the temptation even worse.
Obviously I wasn’t going to let them in, but I didn’t want them to cause trouble, and they were teenagers. Teenagers tend to cause trouble as a general rule. The last thing I wanted was to have to tell Andrew that they’d shown up at the gate intent on visiting the zoo because my brother had talked it up so much. Not that Stanley knew what this place really housed, but still, Andrew had been so stern on no photography of Leila that I would’ve been embarrassed if I had to call the cops because of something like this.
My reply was curt.
> Tell those dipshits the place is closed to walk-ins. I’m not letting them in.
> I did. They want to go anyway.
I facepalmed and sighed before replying.
> If you can’t talk them out of it, just don’t go with them. I’ll deal with it.
There was a long silence, then some ellipses as he typed, then another long silence. I got antsy and sent a follow-up.
> Stanley, I mean it. I do not want you here if I have to call the cops to get them to leave. Stay home. If you show up here with them, I’m cutting off the money I give you.
I wasn’t the type to play fast and loose with threats about money, so that probably surprised him. There was the briefest of pauses.
> Geez, no need to be a bitch about it. Fine. I’ll stay here. Good luck dealing with those assholes without me.
That was indeed exactly what I wanted, and he must have known that. Hell, I had pepper spray and a taser, so it’s not like I couldn’t keep them out if I really wanted to. But when it came down to it, I figured, what were they going to do? I wasn’t going to open the door or the front gate. The fence was ten feet high, the kind with spaced bars that had decorative spikes at the top, and it was brand new. It wasn’t as if they were going to take bolt-cutters to a barbed wire fence like in a movie.
In the end, I sat back in my chair and just fell back on my regular routine. I wonder now, if I’d called Andrew and told him, maybe asked him to come hang out for a while, whether things would’ve turned out different. But I wasn’t very well going to wake him up for something that essentially sounded like a minor irritation.
At 10:41 p.m., a beep, beep, beep, alert sounded, and I know the exact time because I picked my phone up off the desk out of habit, assuming it was what was making the noise. But it wasn’t. Looking up to the screen of cameras, one was outlined in red, pulling my focus to it. It was an exterior camera with a wide view that panned back and forth, but was now stopped on movement that it had detected and had deemed sufficient to audibly alert me. I later learned that it was in conjunction with a motion detector on the fence. On the screen, I saw two boys, one on the outside of the fence to the left of the entrance gate and one on the inside.
“What the fuck?” I breathed, standing up and putting my book aside. My fingers went to the mouse and keyboard, and I expanded the view from the camera and zoomed in. It seemed I’d underestimated the boredom and curiosity of two small-town teenage boys.
I saw how the first boy had gotten in when the second boy used the same technique, which was to climb a rope that had knots tied in it about a foot apart, a rope that had been hooked onto one of the spikes at the top, presumably with a loop that had been lassoed and tightened. He made it to the top, shifted and dropped to hang from the top by his hands, then let himself fall to the ground, his knees bending and absorbing the shock of the impact before falling on his butt.
One of the boys had hit a growth spurt, topping out at 5’11” now, all gangly limbs. He had short brown hair and I could see him wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of his school on it. That’s the best outfit to wear when breaking in, apparently: something that shows what high school you go to. The other one was a little more built and half a foot shorter, with long blonde hair that he probably thought made him look like Chris Hemsworth. It didn’t.
“I cannot believe this,” I growled, my anger flaring. Heading quickly out of the office, slamming the door behind me, I was out the door and walking toward the entrance, driven by my anger.
Already walking into the park at a speed driven by their interest in the forbidden areas, they started on the path that went toward enclosure one and rounded the zoo. “Hey!” I barked.
“Ripley!” Gary exclaimed. “Your brother said you wouldn’t open the gate, so we let ourselves in.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, keeping pace beside them, rage bubbling up inside me. They slowed but didn’t stop. “Do you think this is a joke? There’s a reason I told my brother not to come with you. That alarm you set off goes to the owner of the park, and they’ll definitely be pressing charges. You really want ‘breaking and entering’ on your rap sheet?”
They gave me long-suffering looks, the kind only someone under twenty is capable of. The kind that imply you’re neurotic, or pushy, or self-centered. The kind that say you don’t know what you’re talking about, that they know so much more than you, and that all you are is an annoyance.
“Come on. What is with this place? It sounds awesome, some private zoo, but Stanley didn’t know anything about it,” Shaun told me. Glancing at my belt, where my pepper spray and taser were, he asked, “Is it that top secret? Everything here could sell on the black market for a million bucks or something?”
“They’re expensive animals if poachers get their hands on them, yes,” I said tightly.
“Why would they hire someone fresh out of college for that?” Gary asked, his eyes continuing to take in his surroundings, the path and everything in sight bathed in their standard eerie red glow. “And what’s with the lights?”
“It’s for night vision,” I told him, skipping over the part implying I wasn’t qualified for this job. “Hey, stop.” Moving in front of them, I forced the issue, moving to stand in front of them and forcing them to either stumble to a stop or run into me. “If you climb back over the fence and leave now, before anyone gets here, I’ll lie and say I didn’t know your faces.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re uptight,” Shaun chuckled. “What’s the big deal? I mean, we might not even see anything, since it’s nighttime and the animals are sleeping. It’s not like we’re stealing a tour.”
Honestly, I have no idea how our species has survived this long when our formative years make us so confidently stupid. “So, why are you even here then?” I asked, folding my arms.
“Why not?” Gary asked.
With that, they were quickly walking around me, toward enclosure one. I hadn’t yet seen the animal in enclosure one, but what I did know was I didn’t want to see it for the first time tonight. Roger’s short and snappy description described it as Bear - Steve. According to procedure in the small manual Andrew had given me, I was supposed to deter any intruders with fact that they were on camera and threaten to call the police. It didn’t say what to do if that didn’t work, but I assume I was supposed to…call the police. And also call Andrew, of course. That didn’t solve my urgent problem though, which was two teenagers who wanted to see something cool.
“That’s it,” I growled, taking my taser in one hand and my pepper spray in the other, hoping the sight of me being armed would deter them. Heading after them, I snapped, “If you guys do not leave, I will make you leave.”
Shaun turned and walked backwards so he could speak to me. “Just because you’ve got a complex since they hired you to look after a place like this, doesn’t mean you have any real authority,” he told me. “Look, call the cops if you want. Tell them some teenagers broke in. Response time around here is probably fifteen minutes, so we’ve got ten minutes, minimum. We just want to see something cool, and then we’ll leave.”
I hate that he called my bluff on the weapons, especially in hindsight. I’m not a confrontational person, and my instincts are always to avoid a fight if possible. So, in this case, my instincts were telling me to call in someone else to help get these clowns out of the zoo, not to use the weapons I had for just such a purpose. It makes me feel helpless and angry knowing that I back down from fights, but I balked at the idea of getting physical with them. Only the fact that that wasn’t supposed to be part of my job kept me from feeling like a complete failure as security.
“The animals here are not puppies,” I finally exclaimed. “Some of them are territorial. They could seriously hurt you.”
They finally slowed their pace as they closed in on the gate to the wooden fence. “What are you talking about, territorial? They’re zoo animals,” Gary said.
“This is a huge zoo, and it’s more like a preserve,” I sighed. “It backs up into the forest. These animals build their homes here, scent mark the boundaries, and regularly eat small animals that come in through the bars of the fence to explore. So, like I said. These. Are not. Puppies.”
The two of them finally came to a stop at the gate, looking at me warily. “With this fence, how dangerous could they be?” Gary asked. I didn’t answer. Shaun scanned the expanse behind the gate and Gary looked around, making it clear what he was looking for when he said, “Where are all the signs and shit?”
“There’s a tour guide,” I said. “They don’t need signs.”
“Okay, so, what’s in here?”
Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “It’s time to leave. I’m serious.”
Gary glared at me for a beat and then said the worst word possible. “Whatever.” Then he turned and unlatched the gate, walking through.
“Gary!” I shouted, stopping short at the threshold. Shaun walked past me, and I made a grab for him, but was too slow. I’ll regret that until the day I die.
Halted at the gate like there was an invisible force field keeping me out in just as it kept the animals in, I officially started panicking. I’d messed up, and now I couldn’t even hit them with either the pepper spray or the taser unless I wanted them to be easy prey.
My eyes scanned the smaller plants along the fence, which slowly grew in average height the closer you got to the tree line. The trees were surprisingly close to the fence, only a few yards in. Also, there were no footprints, no path that only grew small weeds from an animal that often paced back and forth, so I wasn’t sure how often it came out of the trees. Maybe it didn’t.
I wondered if there was another lake, maybe a small pond, that I didn’t know about further in, if the animal lived there. Or maybe this one was relatively reclusive, so I might have time to get the boys out. It could be that it had heard the ruckus of voices and decided to investigate, as it did during tours, but it would take a while to get here. Or I could get lucky and whatever it was could have just had a great meal, deciding to pass up the humans within its grasp.
But I was not lucky.
Putting my pepper spray and taser back in their holsters, I took a couple steps back as I pulled out my cell phone and called 911.
There was a brief pause before I heard someone pick up, and a calm female voice spoke, “911, what is your emergency?”
“Yes, I work at a private zoo, address 11842 Lincoln Road,” I spoke, drawing the shocked gazes of both boys. “Two teenage boys broke in, and they’re refusing to leave the property.”
“For real, Ripley?” Gary exclaimed, as if genuinely offended at my actions.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
Gary was standing near enough to the tall trees that he was under the branches, and something dropped on him, its weight crushing him to the ground. He didn’t even have time to scream. Shaun did, though, crying, “What the fuck?” as he stumbled backwards.
“Get out of there!” I screamed, grabbing my taser from its holster and pointing it at the animal.
On top of Gary’s body was something that looked like a koala. The only thing was, it must have been almost twice as big and had an orange, spotted pattern on its fur. The kicker was the teeth. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, most people know, so they don’t have much use for many teeth or even sharp teeth. They’re equipped with a pretty pathetic set of chompers.
Whatever this was, I knew it had a full set of teeth made for a meat-eater, because it had bitten down on Gary’s neck and ripped out a chunk of flesh, arterial blood spraying from the wound.
Shaun, unfortunately, did not take the opportunity to run. He stared at his downed friend, just as I did, in horrified fear. And then ran to him. “Gary!” he screamed. “Hey, get the fuck off him!”
“Shaun, don’t!” I shouted.
Whatever Shaun was thinking, it was less about the potential of him being attacked versus the fact of his friend being attacked right at that moment. I’ll say that about him at least: he didn’t just leave his friend to die. Unfortunately, if he had, it might’ve saved him. Throwing himself at the animal, Shaun shoved it off, an impressive show of strength, before grabbing Gary by the arm and trying to pull him to his feet. “Come on!”
I could see that Gary was barely conscious, though. A gash in an artery that was profusely bleeding will do that to a person. I attempted to aim my taser at the animal, but only a split-second passed before it turned and leapt once more, slamming into Shaun and biting his neck. I stumbled back in fear, adrenaline now pumping through me in earnest, as Shaun cried out in terror and fell to the ground before the animal ripped out his throat.
My vision swam at the sight of a copious amount of blood and the sound of Shaun choking on it. Thick chewing sounds came from the animal before it swallowed and then turned to me.
I only realized I’d dropped my cell phone when I heard a faint, panicked voice ask, “Ma’am? Ma’am, are you there?”
Lowering the taser, I slowly took a couple steps forward, picked up the phone, and I quietly said, “Yeah. I’m here.”
It felt like she was speaking from the other end of a long tunnel when I heard, “I’m sending police and EMT right now. What happened? Was someone injured?”
Swallowing hard, I grimaced as tears came to my eyes. Staring at the animal, which was still meeting my gaze unwaveringly, I simply answered, “Yeah. They’re dead.” At that point, the animal grabbed one of the boys by the throat, then the other, and started dragging them into the trees.
She hesitated before asking some more questions, and I replied to them all absently. Eventually, the animal was gone from my sight, but I still walked backwards as I retraced my steps to the security office, exactly like the first time I’d seen Yui. Eventually I arrived at the security room, and my shaky hand swiped the key card to get in. Shutting the door, I told the 911 operator, “I’m safe.”
“Good. The police should be there in ten minutes.”
My brain thought it was funny that it turned out the boys had been right about the timing, but filed it under ‘things to think about later’. “Okay. I have to call my boss.”
“Just stay on the line with me until the police arrive, okay?”
“It’s okay. I’m fine,” I said quietly. “I just really need to call my boss.”
In spite of her protests, I hung up. The silence of the room rang in my ears and I slowly sat down in my chair, pulling up Andrew’s number.
After four rings, he picked up, his voice drowsy but tense, knowing I’d only call if something had happened. “Ripley? What’s wrong?”
It took me a moment to find my voice. “Two teenagers broke in. They’re dead. Steve killed them.”
“Oh, fuck,” he breathed. After a few beats, he said, “Okay, all right, I’ll, ah, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Did you call the police already?”
“I was on the phone before it even happened, saying they broke in.” I grimaced at that. I was supposed to call my boss first, not the police. That let him determine what actions to take.
Andrew let out a breath. “Okay. I’m assuming Steve took the bodies?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, I’ll call Suzanne and have her put Steve down for a nap, and then get the bodies back to where the EMTs can get them.”
That confused me, and I didn’t really know what to say, so I went with, “I’m sorry, Andrew. I should’ve tried harder to get them to leave. Even tasing and pepper spraying them would’ve-”
“Ripley, this is not your fault,” he said firmly. “I’ll be there soon as I can, all right?”
We ended the conversation and I glanced at the screen of cameras, which was how I’d left it, focused on that section of the fence where the boys had climbed in, with the view enlarged to take up most of the screen. I stared at it until the police arrived.
When the motorcade of flashing lights were visible at the end of the road through one of the cameras, I pressed the button to open the front gate. Fielding the police officers and the EMTs and their questions, I brought them to the enclosure, and right at the edge of the tree line were the two bodies, looking exactly as I’d last seen them. So, I guess Suzanne knows how to run her zoo and handle things when the worst happens.
Both boys were put into body bags and lifted onto gurneys, and then each one was put into one of the two waiting ambulances. Andrew arrived before too long and answered all the questions the police had for him, the ones I didn’t know how to answer. Also the questions that I didn’t really feel comfortable answering, like, “What species of bear is it exactly? And why is there just this flimsy fence here?” I watched from a distance as they took his statement and, I determined by watching their facial expressions, Andrew seemed to answer their questions to their satisfaction.
The long, exhausting experience ended when the last of them left, and Andrew and I went back to the main building, going to his office. Instead of sitting in his desk chair, my boss vied for the couch that sat against one wall, used occasionally by visitors. I sat at the other end, leaning back heavily into the cushions.
Andrew spoke first, echoing his earlier sentiments and immediately making it clear that what occurred wasn’t my fault. I felt some anger at myself, mostly because I knew that if I’d used one of my weapons on one of them, they’d still be alive. But I hadn’t wanted to go to such extremes just because they’d climbed over a fence. They were dumb teenagers, right? I’ve never been tased or pepper sprayed, but I’d seen videos on YouTube and it didn’t look like a fun time.
“Look, you said it that first day in your interview, that people are stupid,” he told me. “Teenagers especially. You know that’s a fact. You did the best you could in that moment, so don’t look back and think of what you could’ve done to fix things, because solutions always seem obvious in hindsight. All right?”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
Andrew sent me home at that point, saying he’d take the rest of the shift. I was too weary to object, so I left.
Stanley was still sleeping safely in his bed, and that’s one thing I’m so grateful for. If this job took my brother from me, I’d be done with it. Still, I don’t relish waking up tomorrow and having to face him. I don’t know exactly how he’s going to react to the news, but it’s going to be the worst thing in the world that’s happened to him, mostly because of the guilt of not being able to talk them out of going. The same way I couldn’t talk them out of staying out of an enclosure.
My schedule is still nocturnal, so I’m not tired enough to sleep right now. Hopefully I’ll get sleepy soon. For now, I’ll play one of Stanley’s mindless old school video games with the sound muted. My main goal is to get the image of all that blood out of my head.
​
Previous
***
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Skylanders X Ben 10 crossover: No mutations will be counted. Skylanders that are just individual robots, like Ro-bow, Wind-up, High-volt, are ghosts or spirits, like Spitfire, Ignitor are not viable transformation. If there are many robots, like Gearshift's species and Magna-Charge's species, then they are viable transformations. Since Doom Stone was brought to life by magic, he can't be scanned. If the Skylander is a hybrid, Ben will receive two transformations, one for each part that makes up the Skylander. For example, Whirlwind is half unicorn, half dragon. If Ben were to scan whirlwind, he would receive a dragon transformation and a unicorn transformation. He will not gain a Skylander's equipment unless they are integral to the species culture, like Dino-rang's boomerangs. He will not gain a Skylanders powers if they learned it or was gained through outside means, like Deja Vu. Zap's species (Water Dragon): Splah-back Shoots water. Air Stike's species: Blue burst No powers Boom Jet's species: Fang-float No powers Fling Kong's species: Aero-Ape No powers. (Were learned, not gained through genetics, so Ben's version would not have those powers.) Free Ranger's species: Thunder Hawk Electricity powers. Can create tornadoes by spinning Gusto's species: Gust-Gluton Can consume anything. Can create and control clouds. Jet Vac's species (Sky Baron): Hawk Stalk No powers Lightning Rod (Storm Titan): Thunder-Crowned Can float. Can throw and control lightning. Immune to electricity. Dragons (Spyro's species): Scale Scatter Can breathe fire and has scales that can protect from explosive. Unicorn (Half of Whirlwind's species): Horn Head Can fire bolts of rainbow that can either heal allies and hurt foes. Pop Thorn's species (Pufferthorn): Spike Puff Can shoot puffs of air. Can shoot thorns out of their body, hurting enemies Scratch's species (Feathercat): Claw talon (WIP) Can fly. Sharp talons and claws. Sonic Boom's species (Skylanders Griffin): Screach Can fly. Sonic screams, similar to Echo Echo Storm-blade's species (Lark): Bird burst No powers. (Storm Blade's powers come from equipment, like her steel talons) Swarm's species: BuzzzBlitz Is really small. (Swarm's species is not naturally this big) Has spikes on his arms and can shoot said spikes. Can fly. Can transform into smaller bugs, making him hard to hit. These bugs can be sperated from the swarm, allowing Ben to split up and hide. Can not de-transform unless all the bugs are together. Thunderbolt's species: Thunder Clash Is made of clouds except his head, making him hard to hit. Can shoot lightning out of his cloud body. Terrafin's species (Dirt Shark): Tiger Shark Can swim in the ground. Good puncher. Warnado's species: Rebound Can spin in his shell, hitting things around him. Lacks wind powers. Wild Storm's species: Startle Storm Can shoot a gust of wind, pushing things back. Can absorb thunderdtorms making him stronger permanently, even if he de-transforms. Barbella's species: Granite Grudge Rock skin. Bash's species (Rock Species): Rock Crash Has a sharp mace tail. Can control the earth, creating rock structures. Both Crusher and Rubble Rouser are stated to be the same species, Rock Golems. However, they look drastically different, so I'm going to count them as different sub-species Crusher's species (Rock Golem): Goal-Stone Very big and strong. Can shoot stone vision, temporarily turning foes into stone. Rubble Rouser's species: Rock Jaw Can eat stone and other minerals. Has obsidian skin, making him durable. Dino Rang's species: Boomer-Saur Has Boomerangs. Slobber Tooth's species: Feast Beast Can swallow enemies. Has a hard shell protecting him. Can slam his tail into the ground. Smash Hit's species (Warsupials): Fur-Fight Great combat skills. Tied with Kickin Hawk. Tri-tip's species (Triceratops): Meteor-saur Can ram into enemies with his horns. Can summon fossils from the ground to attack enemies. Only works when there are fossils around. Can summon a meteor. Wallop's species: Forge (WIP) No powers. Blast Zone's species (Furnace Night): Is fire holding a suit together. Because of this, he can fire off parts of his body, hitting and burning whatever it his. Can fly. Can breathe a stream of fire. Ember's species: Backdraft Legs are made out of fire, burning anything directly below him. Can summon flame gysers that work like how they do in the games. Can heal himself using explosions. Eruptor's (And Hot Dog's) species (Lava Monster): Mag-Mouth (WIP) Can shoot fire out of his hands and balls of magma out of his mouth. Fire proof. Can shoot lava. Hot Head's species (Fire Golem): Flame-shower (WIP) Can shoot fire out of his hands. Does not have an infinite fuel supply, so he can't do this forever. He can't shoot oil either. Ka-Boom's species: Red-Head Fire proof Fryno's species (Fire Rino): Heat-Stoked Can engulf himself in fire, making him stronger. Smolderdash's species: Flare-Stone Can shoot fire balls out of his hands. Can absorb sunlight, making him stronger. Pheonix (Half of Sunburn's species): Re-burn Can shoot fire and is immune to it. When killed, will imediatley revive itself. This ability won't work in water. 

Joy
“Please don’t do this to me! I’ll die out there!” Tiffany crumpled to the floor, phone shaking against her ear.
A gruff voice crackled. “I’m sorry Tiffany, our runner in your area got caught on his latest delivery. My other guy barely made it back. He saw Jimmy get hauled into the van. They’ve probably torn him apart by now.”
“Please…I don’t have any food left in the house. I’ll never make it out there. They’ll spot me immediately.”
“Listen, listen Tiff. It’s going to be OK. Listen to me alright? There’s a shop one block away from you.”
“I can’t!”
“You have to! OK, all you have to do is get in and get out. Put on the darkest sunglasses you have. You have shades right?”
Tiffany glanced up to the cabinet. Her terrified face reflected at her through the polarized lenses. “Uh-huh”
“That’s good, that’s real good. Now you put those on and grab enough food for a week while I find a replacement runner OK?”
“O-OK”
“And Tiffany?”
“Remember to smile, smile as wide as you can and never drop it. You know what happens if they suspect…”
“I know, thanks Mark.”
Tiffany hung up the phone with a shuddering exhale. She stood up and looked herself over in the mirror. A terrified blonde woman stared back, eyes wide with fear.
She wiped her tears and smoothed out her locks. She grasped her oversized sunglasses with trembling hands and put them on. She bent over, adjusting them carefully to ensure no trace of her eyes could be seen.
Glancing down, she looked over her list of food. Enough for a week…get in, get out…and smile.
Before turning to leave, she smiled into the mirror. The upturned mouth seemed almost foreign to her; she hadn’t laughed since everyone had been Torn. There weren’t many of her left in the world; the Joyous reigned supreme.
She stretched her smile as wide as it could go, until her cheeks strained with the effort. Exhaling through her teeth, she grasped the handle. The doorknob shook from her grip. Get it together…in and out…
She twisted the knob and threw the door open.
An eyeless face sprang up to meet her.
Tiffany screamed and jumped back.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Tiffany clutched her heaving chest, trying to calm herself. The woman standing in on her stoop had no eyes, only dark, empty sockets each gleaming with a glowing pinprick of light. An enormous smile spread from ear to ear.
Tiffany forced words from her paralyzed mind. “Oh, it’s alright, I was just about to get some shopping done!”
The woman stared unblinking with her flickering pits. She lifted a newspaper. “I saw this blow over onto the street, so I thought I’d bring this little ol’ newsie inside!” She let out a raucous laugh.
Tiffany accepted the paper, praying she looked relaxed. She took a quick glimpse at the headline.
Joy! New York Mayor Declares City over 99% Pure on 1-Year Anniversary!
“Aww, I see you have just been Freed. Congratulations dear. How do you like the colors?” The woman bent her head closer to Tiffany’s face. Her heart hammered in her throat as her eyes were drawn to the woman’s scars. Black lines spider webbed all across her body, down her arms, over her face, and plunged down her low cut shirt. “Aw, I remember when I was freed; I didn’t really have scars either. I found a great doctor who touched me up; I can share his number with you!” She lifted her neck, showing off her scars wrapped around her throat.
“Yes, the colors they’re so…beautiful. Yeah…the doctors said I was one of the lucky ones, guess tough skin runs in the family.” Tiffany tried to laugh as she spoke.
The woman leaned back; her smile somehow widening even more. “Ah! Tragic! Stay safe y’hear? A naughty somebody escaped the hospital recently, ah, there he is now. Isn’t he silly?” She pointed to the distance.
Tiffany turned her head in the direction of her arm. Her heart sank to her stomach.
The street rose in an incline. The distant figure of a man climbed into sight at the crest of the hill. His sandy hair was unmistakable.
Tiffany lifted a trembling hand to her mouth. Jimmy?
Jimmy was naked with blood pouring in rivets all down the front of his torso. As she squinted, she realized that Jimmy’s body wasn't moving; it hung limp, limbs dangling in the air. Her darting eyes widened as she saw his legs hovered off the road.
Four thick tendrils pulsated out of Jimmy’s gaping mouth. The dark trunks spilled out onto the ground, suspending his frame in midair. The shadowy pillars supported his body like makeshift legs. Jimmy lolled back and forth as the inhuman limbs propelled him down the hill like a beast.
Tiffany’s stomach churned in knots as he careened down the street. He couldn’t speak but his bulging eyes darting all around spoke all that was needed. Her gaze adhered to the incomprehensible stalks that moved of their own accord. The tentacles shimmered and writhed all over, smaller tendrils branching off, thrashing independently of one another.
Right as he passed Tiffany, he tripped and skidded to the ground. The husks all around her burst into raucous laughter at the sight of it clamoring back up.
The woman doubled over in giggles. “Ooh, you silly goose, don’t even know what’s good for ya!”
Jimmy’s chest bloated and bubbled. The bulge traveled up his throat, extending it to an inhuman width. A horrid squelching erupted as two pink sacs attached to tubes slithered out of his mouth, traveling along the lengths of the trunks. Tiffany could barely support her own weight at the sight of Jimmy’s lungs pulsating in frantic breaths.
Her horrified gaze watched as the lungs enlarged in a deep breath, a gurgling crescendoing in pitch. They expanded to full size and hung still for an instant. Then exploded in desperate screams.
“HELP ME! PLEASE, I’M ALIVE LIKE YO-”
With the roar of an engine and the screech of tires, a vehicle slammed into Jimmy’s body. A spray of blood rained on Tiffany and the crowd. A white van screeched to a halt just as Jimmy flew through the air, all eight limbs flailing in the wind.
No amount of bracing could prepare Tiffany for the sound of bones crushing as Jimmy landed in a bloody mess on the asphalt. The crowd of husks whooped and hollered. The drivers clambered out of the vehicle and took deep bows, grinning broadly.
Wiping off blood, Tiffany inspected the logo on the van. It displayed two cartoon men each standing on the side of another person. The person was divided into two halves. One side was human with a smiling face while the other was a shadowy figure, screaming in agony. The smiling men each pulled on an arm as if separating the halves.
“Sorry folks! We had a feisty one here, we’ll take care of it from here!” He drew a syringe from his pocket.
“That’s OK! Need a hand?” The woman called back to enthusiastic nods from the crowd. The van driver waved his arm in the direction of Jimmy’s limb body.
Tiffany blinked back burning tears as she watched Jimmy twitch on the ground. The husks closed in around him, laughing as they surrounded him. She wanted nothing more than to just retreat inside and vomit. But an opportunity presented itself.
Streams of people poured out of the shop ahead, drawn to the spectacle on the street. The sidewalks leading up to the store cleared. Her path would never be this open again. Tearing her eyes from Jimmy, she walked as fast as possible to the market, her smile twitching in anguish.
After what felt like hours, she stood at the entrance to the food mart. She moved her jaw around to loosen it, almost flinching as it popped. OK…in and out…then you’re safe. Running over her mental list one last time, she barged inside.
A wave of frigid air washed over her. She scanned the shop, exhaling out a sigh of relief as she confirmed it was mostly empty. Only a mother pushing a stroller joined her in the market.
Tiffany whipped out a shopping cart and sped down aisle by aisle. Eyes darting, she grasped each item on her list as if it were manna from heaven. Her breathing eased as she made it to the other side of the store without incident. A small bit of happiness welled up within her as she looked over her bulging wagon. It was enough to last her two weeks, two blissful weeks of safety. All she had to do was get out.
She strolled to the checkout lane. The mother was in front of her, the groceries crinkling as they were bagged by the cheerful cashier. Tiffany’s knuckles gripped the cart so hard they turned white. Please…just pay and leave…
Tiffany’s heart skipped a beat as the mother twisted her neck to look at her. Empty sockets crinkled as the young woman’s smile widened. “Why hello there! Any idea what the ruckus is out there?” A collective cheer erupted outside in the distance.
Tiffany shook her head, trying to push Jimmy’s battered body out of her thoughts.
She glanced at Tiffany’s cart. “Big haul. You having a party?”
Tiffany nodded, almost forgetting to breathe.
“Am I invited? Where do you live?”
Tiffany gulped. The mother roared with laughter. “Oh dearie me, I’m just kidding you. I’d love to go but this little man down here takes up all my time. Wanna say hi?”
Tiffany nodded again, her cheeks screaming with the strain of her fake smile. The mother lifted the hood of the stroller and wheeled it around, facing Tiffany. An eyeless baby cooed up at her, its sockets nearly taking up half its face. Black scars lined its entire body, lashing its face that carved itself into a wide smile.
Tiffany screamed in terror, flinging herself back.
CLACK!
Light streamed into her eyes as they watered. Time almost stopped as she glanced down at her sunglasses. Shuddering, she looked back up. The mother, baby, and cashier stared at her.
Without taking his sockets off her, the cashier pressed a button on the counter. An intercom crackled to life. “Attention all employees. We have someone in pain over here. Please call the authorities while we restrain her.”
Tiffany threw the cart to the ground, sprinting to the glass double doors. Talon-like fingers dug into her shoulder right as she reached the exit. “NO! PLEASE LET ME GO! PLEASE!”
But the mother just giggled into her ear. “Now why would I do that, sweetie? Don’t worry, we’re going to help you. See? They’re already here to heal you!”
Tiffany’s heart sank into her stomach as she watched the same van that crashed into Jimmy park outside. Two men dressed in scrubs burst out the back, wheeling out a gurney. Her eyes bulged as she gazed at the restraints gleaming cruelly in the morning light.
The smiling men jaunted over to her. Tiffany ground her heel into the mother’s toes; the arms holding her released. She rushed forward to the man on the left, throwing a wild punch in desperation.
To her surprise, her knuckles connected, slamming the man’s head back to its side. Rough hands grabbed her arms by the elbows, jerking them behind her.
The man she’d punched twisted his head back, the unnatural smile still plastered on his face. “Now, now simmer down, young lady. He snatched her kicking feet and lifted her in tandem with the other man.
With inhuman strength, they slammed her onto the gurney. She flailed, straining her limbs against their grasp. Her shoulders popped in their sockets, her screams erupting in pain and fear.
CLICK!
Cold metal clamped down on her right wrist. Three more clicks restrained her completely.
“No, no, no, please! Just let me go! I’ll never bother you again!” Tiffany half screamed and half sobbed.
One man chuckled. “Oops! Gotta make some room!”
She wailed as she watched the men drag Jimmy’s corpse out of the back and toss it on the sidewalk. The doors slammed shut, and the vehicle sped off.
Desperation gave way to despair for Tiffany, she wept bitterly. She gasped as the men wiped away tears on each side of her face. They lifted their fingers to their eyeless pits, staring in wonder at the droplet forming, mouths parted and making soft cooing sounds.
“I remember my last tear, what about you Ted?” The man on her right whispered.
The man on the left nodded, sucking his finger. “Yeah…I almost miss the taste.” They both roared in laughter at the same time.
The van jolted to a halt. The men flung the doors open. “Don’t worry missy, it will all be over soon!”
She shook her head, pleading for anyone she passed to help her as she was wheeled into the hospital. All she received were condescending smiles, and pats on the hand. She was sped into an operating room. Her eyes widened in terror at the sight of the tearing chair.
A medical bed lay in the middle of the chamber. A bar of light hung at the bed’s foot. The bar crossed over the width of the bed, attached to a track that ran along the length from the bottom to the top. Her heart sank. She’d expected cutting instruments but the lack of them frightened her even more.
A grinning doctor finished washing her hands in the nearby sink, pulling latex gloves on. “Oh dearie me, look at this poor soul. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten freed one so large! The gals will take it from here, boys!” The men giggled as they left the room.
Masked women in scrubs burst from the doors to assist. Even behind the masks, their smiles were visible. They all carried scissors. Within seconds, they snipped off all of her clothes leaving her naked in the gurney.
The doctor lifted a syringe, the end dripping with sedative. “Now we need you to be still for this next part sweetie!” She rammed the needle into her hip and thumbed the plunger down. She gasped as the burning liquid clouded into her bloodstream. At once, her extremities deadened, all feeling and control gone.
A pair of arms gripped each of her limbs as she was lifted off the gurney and thrown onto the medical bed. The doctor looked down at her at the foot of the bed, grasping the bar of light. It pulsated in waves of color as she clinked it into place over Tiffany’s feet so that the luminescence only hovered an inch over her skin.
The soles of her feet writhed in agony in the light’s presence. Tiffany screamed at the burning tendrils within her feet. A horrific thought pierced her torment in a single moment of clarity. Something is moving inside me. Using the last vestiges of motor control left, she lifted her head an inch, eyes glued to her feet.
Various ridges rolled around on the tops of her feet, almost as if something flailed to get away from the brilliant light. The doctor traced a finger over the thrashing bulges. “Yes, the time for your last pain draws near, little one. No longer will you torment this young woman. No longer.” She placed both hands on the instrument bar. “Now, I must warn you. This will hurt…more than anything you’ve ever felt in your life. But what awaits you on the other side is…” She laughed.
“Please…” Tiffany whimpered, but the doctor pushed the bar of light up her legs.
Torture. Pure agony. Tiffany screamed to the point she thought her jaw might pop off its hinges. The writhing in her feet intensified, pulling and tearing at her skin…
A spurt of blood spewed over the doctor’s face. “Ah, we’ve crowned!”
“WHAT IS THIS?!” Tiffany screeched as she looked down. Blackened tentacles whipped violently back and forth, sprouting from her feet.
“Oh, it’s the sickness my sweet…it must be purged. Deep breath and here we go!” She pushed the bar of light even further along its track, this time going up her legs.
Molten lines of agony traced themselves up her legs in tandem with the glow. Tiffany’s eyes rolled up into her head and then back down again, casting her world in revolving darkness and light. The skin at her legs tore, thicker tendrils bursting out in viscous spray.
The dark veins slapped at the doctor's face but a smiling nurse grasped the flailing trunks and pinned them down as the doctor pressed on above her knees and up her thighs. Her skin bubbled and burst as the bleeding mass on each limb fled from the light. Tiffany stared transfixed at the monster birthed from her, the spindly body, the erratic, desperate movement of a trapped beast.
The bar stopped just below her groin. “This is probably the worst part dearie, brace yourself.’ She yanked it forward, up to her abdomen.
Tiffany’s voice tore, her throat bleeding raw. She’s never given birth before; the monster springing out from her womanhood made a poor substitute for a child.
“There you go baby. You’re doing so well. Halfway done!”
The instrument slid up her stomach, passing over her arms. The sickness within gripped her organs in a vain attempt to resist being torn out. Strands of obsidian wrested themselves out of her torso only to be collected and restrained by the unflinching nurses. Up her body they all went, up her chest, her shoulders, and on to her neck.
Right at the base of her chin, the bar of light chinked as it came to the end of its track. The beast within Tiffany screeched, straining at the nurses restraints. Forgetting the pain for an instant, Tiffany croaked through torn vocal chords. “What is this thing?”
The doctor wiped blood out of her sockets. “It’s your parasite, what you thought you were. I know it hurts; this thing feeds off pain. Don’t worry. We’re almost done.”
She pivoted two smaller bars of lights up to Tiffany’s head, one on each side. They swung in such a way that they would meet in the middle. Her eyes swiveled independently of each other, as if they too feared the light. The doctor smiled at the erratic movement.
“Oh, yes.” She whispered. “Feel fear. It’s what you deserve; it’s all you deserve.” She grasped each bar and clamped them together.
Blinding pressure built up in Tiffany’s eardrums as if she were being stabbed in each ear with knives aching to meet in the middle. An incessant ringing tingled, building up pitch and intensity until it was all she could hear. Her brain lit aflame, seething at the burning from the sound. “MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!” Her mouth uttered the words, but she couldn’t hear her voice anymore.
Like a cord being unplugged from a speaker, her world fell silent one pull at a time. Black tendrils whipped in her sight as the beast fled from her ear canals. The lights passed in her vision.
The doctor spoke unheard words. She tried to close her eyes, but they weren’t hers anymore. They swiveled all about in their sockets, trying to escape her skull.
But there was no escape, not for a parasite. The lights slammed shut, meeting in the middle right over her. The kaleidoscope of luminescence overtook everything. Her world melded to an ever changing sea of merging lights.
Her thoughts, her consciousness, her very essence whirled in her brain. A dark hole sprouted in her psyche. Her being swirled around the murky depths of her existence spinning to the choreography of the lights pulse. Round and round it went until she thought her last words. Who am I? All grew dark.
—---------
The operating room light blinded Tiffany. She tried to close her eyes but found she had no lids.
She saw the metal tray she lay on.
She saw the black, spindly lengths of her body laying in a tangled heap in the tray.
She saw Tiffany laying on the medical table. What?
Her psyche ran stark with shock as she watched herself sit up from the medical table. Her eyes were gone, replaced with two glowing pits burning in deep sockets. Blood trails criss crossed all over her venous scars. Tears of crimson flowed from her pits as she sobbed into her hands.
No…that’s me? But then…who am I?
She glanced up and received her horrifying answer. An operating mirror hung on the ceiling above her. What she had once thought as herself was now nothing more than a pair of eyeballs attached to a spinal stem with nervous branches tangled and heaped in a small tray.
She was the parasite.
The real Tiffany sobbed, a wide smile stretching across her face. “Colors…so many colors…”
The doctor handed her a pair of sunglasses. “Here, put these on and keep them on for the next couple of weeks. The parasites could only see a thin spectrum of light. You can see all of it now, it’s a bit overwhelming at first but you get used to it.”
The real Tiffany placed the sunglasses on her face then clutched at her chest. “What….what is this feeling? It burns yet…it’s warm all over..”
The doctor knelt at the real Tiffany’s side. “It’s happiness…” She giggled. “Pure happiness, it’s what that parasite over there denied you.” The doctor shot a glare to the nerve bundle that used to be Tiffany.
The real Tiffany released her chest. “How long has it been inside of me?”
The doctor stood up. “We aren’t sure when these parasites fused with humans but it must have been millennia ago. They have been entwined with us so long we even once thought they were part of our bodies. The nervous system, what a cruel joke. These things thrive off of our happiness and only feed us pain in return.”
The doctor shot the nerve bundle a look. Even though she smiled, Tiffany could feel the doctor’s contempt radiating. “Look how pathetic it is. Can’t even move anymore. These things rely on our central brain systems to move. Once separated, they are immobile. It’s rather ironic that they only try to move as we cut into their feeding supply.”
The real Tiffany hugged the doctor who returned the embrace. “Thank you…for freeing me.” The doctor rubbed her back.
They released each other. The real Tiffany looked over at the nerve bundle that used to be her. “What do we do with…it?”
The doctor grasped the nerve bundle unceremoniously in her palm. Wait…no! I’m-I’m me!
“We will cast her into the depths to which she came from of course!” The doctor laughed as she brought the nerve bundle to a trash chute. The nerve bundle glanced down, recoiling in horror. No light graced her final destination.
“Good riddance.” The nerve bundle was released and cast into the void. It landed with a plop amongst the other writhing bundles, rueing the day it ever thought it truly existed.

Recently I have seen some people thinking that Mary, Jesus mom, does represent the woman present in Revelation 12, but that’s not the case, it does depict Israel. Is easy to get fooled if you don't know exactly was being told in Revelation 12, but still that’s not the case. Let me tell you why. First, in order to understand the Bible and make an association between one part of it and something else we need the relation bible-bible that is going to help to us to contrast our verses.
In this case Revelation 12 says:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head

In this section we can see that this woman is clothed with the sun, the moon and 12 stars, just as Mary is depicted in most pictures, figures, paintings, etc. Which can fool anyone, but don't be deceived by Satan, because he is playing with these paintings to fool the people, why? Well, as i told you before in order to understand the Bible we need the Bible itself, in this case, where is another reference to the sun, the moon and 12 stars in the Bible? In Genesis 37:5-11 we see:
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth
As seen here, there is a sun, his father Israel, the moon, his mother, and 11 stars, which represent all his brothers, while he, Joseph, is the star #12, just like his brothers. So all this Sun, Moon and 12 stars represent Israel. But I know you can still see Mary here, because the bible is talking about a woman that is pregnant and is about to give birth and is easy to think about Mary once again, but slow down a little bit more. If you read (Isaiah 54:1-6, Jeremiah 3:20, Ezequiel 16:8-14, y Hosea 2:19-20) you'll see that Israel is represented as a woman. Then why is Israel and not Mary crying out in pain? How can this be Israel? Well, Revelation talks about the ending times, in this case this crying in pain represents the great tribulation that is going to be present at the ending times. And Israel (the woman) coming from Heaven is going to give birth to Jesus (his second coming) See a little bit further the 144000

Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.

Now, here comes the fun and the trickiest part that can eat you alive if you don't pay attention. Revelation 12:3-4 lets us know that this moment is also tied with the birth of Jesus, as seen in the gospels. It is describing all the demons that were present when Jesus started his ministry in this world (as seen in Matthew 8:28-34 and Mark 5:1-17), but weren't present anywhere else in the bible, as just when Jesus came to this world demons manisfested in this way (aside from Genesis 6:1-8). If we continue with the gospels then we can say that this dragon was Herod (who represented the Roman Empire) who tried to kill Jesus as soon as he was born by killing every single kid who was two years and under in Israel, as seen in Matthew 2:13-16; and this part also explains the first part of verse 4 “Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”
So, who is this dragon? Well this dragon is Satan himself, some say that he is going to lead the Roman Empire of this era (The European Union) The 7 heads are 7 hills or countries/territories and also 7 kings, 5 have fallen, one is and the other one has not yet come, the 7 horns are 7 kings that haven’t received a kingdom yet, but they will, as seen in Revelation 17:7-12. But why is this Satan? Easy, the verse 9 let us know that: 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Now who are these 1/3 of the stars. Once again, easy, the verse 7 let us know that, these are Satan’s angels, the ones who rebelled against God. Regarding this, remember Satan being called the Morning Star in Isaiah 14:12.

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born

What does this mean? As we know, people from Israel killed Jesus back in the day and even today they do not believe that he is the son of God, and therefore his King. So, in this same vein this son being born is not Jesus being born once again as a Baby, is the 2nd coming of Jesus. Is Jesus being recognized as the son of God, as their King and savoir. Israel (144000) is the one “giving birth” to him. Where we can see this? In Revelation 14:1: Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:4-5 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. And also in Matthew 24:30-35.
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Here, before Jesus mentioned this part, he pointed out all the signals of the end times and then you can see his sign appearing in heaven, the same mentioned in Revelation 12; but also you can see the final part "this generation will certainly not pass until all this things have happened" Which is this generation? People from Israel who do not believe him and not recognize Jesus as their King. Regarding this, you can see in the Old Testament in the book of 1 Kings (chapters 14 from 1 Kings until 2 Kings 23) a lot of "generations"; a "generation" that followed God and right after another "generation" that worshipped false gods, another "generation" following God and another one worshipping statues, until they lose the war against Babylon in 2 Kings 24. The current “generation” that “is not going to past until the end times” is the people from Israel that we have in this present day (and since Jesus came and will be until the end times) that does not believe in Jesus as the son of God.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
As we can see in this part this child is Jesus, who is going to “rule all the nations with an iron scepter” as seen in Psalms 2:7-9: I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. 8 Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery and also in Revelation 19:15: 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. He is taken by God and the woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God.

Now, the most polemic part of this, why this 144.000 do represent Israel giving birth to Jesus?

6 “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Let’s see Revelation 7:4-8
Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, 6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, 7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, 8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000
Revelation 14
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless
As seen here, once Jesus comes back he is going to do so with 144000 virgins of Israel (just like Mary). Satan or the Dragon is trying to kill him right after he comes back with a third of the stars of the sky (1/3 of the angels in Heaven, in this case, the fallen ones who followed Satan is his rebellion against God). And the woman (144000) goes to a selected place in which God is going to guard his people for 3.5 years (42 months or 1260 days). The Angel Michael and the remaining 2/3 stars in Heaven (God’s Angels) fight and defeat Satan and his angels, who are send to earth and the final part of the end times starts.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.*
Let’s separate this a little bit, in verses 10-12 the loud voice is celebrating that Satan has no more business with heaven, as he can’t keep accusing people before our God – Regarding this you can see Zechariah 3:1-2 - (1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”), but warns the people on earth as he is filled with fury, because he knows his time is short. Verses 13 and 14 are a continuation of verse 6: “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days”. In verse 14 the woman is given two wings of a great eagle (this is not United States btw) which represents God’s protection, a similar part is mentioned in Exodus 19:4: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. After he liberate Israel from Egypt. He keep them in the wilderness for 1 time=1 year, times=2 years and half a time=0.5 years (1+2+0.5=3.5 years, 42 months or 1260 days). In verse 15, Satan, now on earth, spewed water like a river, what does this river represents? Thanks to Revelation 17:15 we can see that the water represents a lot of people: 15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.” But this people couldn’t reach this 144000 because (now in verse 16) God is going to send an earthquake that is going to kill that people, as seen in Revelation 11:13 after Elijah and Moses, the two witnesses, died: 13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. This is the earth opening his mouth and swallowing the water. And finally, we can see in verse 17 that Satan leave Israel alone and goes after the rest of the world in order to start the great tribulation, by setting himself as God and putting the abomination of desolation in place that people is going to be forced to worship or Satan is going to kill them, in this same period is he going to put the mark of the beast on the people or they are not going to able to buy things as seen in Revelation 13:14-18: “Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Finally, why the witnesses are Moses and Elijah?
In Revelation 11:6 we can see that ”6 They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying (just like Elijah did in 1 Kings 17:1); and they have power to turn the waters into blood (just like Moses did in Exodus 14:25) and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want (just like Moses did in Exodus chapters 7-11). They were the only ones who could divide the waters, Moses in Exodus 14:23-31 and Elijah in 2 Kings 2:8 (Elisha did the same in 2 Kings 2:14, but it was because he “inherit a double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, also, the waters of the Jordan River were separated before the ark of the Lord in Joshua 3:1-17) Also, both, Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) were the only ones who fasted for 40 days, just like Jesus did in Matthew 4:2-4. They also appeared with Jesus in Matthew 17:1-8 when Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, John and the brother of James. And most importantly Jesus announced that Elijah will come once again and will restore all the things in Matthew 17:10-11 and we also know that Michael fought against the devil in order to retrieve Moses body in Jude 1:9.
As seen here, Elijah and Moses are going to come back to this world, as seen in Revelation 11, just before the second coming of Christ, as they are going to be the 2 witnesses necessaries to put to death Satan and his followers, as seen in Deuteronomy 17:6-7
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
Also, if you remember, in Genesis 19, which contains the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 2 angels were sent to see what was happening in the cities, as they were the 2 witnesses that were needed to put the city and its people to death. In this story, Abraham asked to God for mercy for the cities and asked him what he would do if he found 10 righteous people in there and God (Jesus) said that for the sake of ten he would not destroy it, as seen in Genesis 18:20-33
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
When the 2 angels went to the city they only found 4 righteous people: Lot, his wife and his 2 daughters, and once the angels help them to get out of the city (Lot’s wife was converted in a statue of salt for turning back and seeing what happened to the city, for not abandoning its sinful ways), fire came from heaven and the 2 cities, Sodom and Gomorrah and its people were "put to death". A similar situation can be found in Revelation 19:4-8 with the destruction of Babylon the great (USA, the Catholic Church and the deity of Mary -not the person who gave birth to Jesus, but the deity that was created after her, without her consent-). In the ending times, this city who was used for everyone to become rich, the city who killed many prophets and the great prostitute after who all the kings of the earth committed adultery is going to be destroyed by fire coming from heaven, but first, all the righteous were called to get out of the city, just like Lot, (his wife) and his daughters did in Genesis 19.
Revelation 19:4-8
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. 6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Pour her a double portion from her own cup. 7 Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’ 8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
Related to all this, Jesus said in the New Testament, in John 8:54-59
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
This day, which is a day that happened and is going to happen again (as seen in Revelation 18-19) can be seen in Genesis 19:27-29, just after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
As seen here, the one who talked with Abraham in Genesis 18 is Jesus (God) and he showed him his day, the day that happened and is going to happen again, because if you pay attention and you take Genesis from the end to the beginning (chapters 50 to 1) and Revelation from the beginning to the end (chapters 1 to 22) they match perfectly.
In Genesis the world starts with God creating the earth and heaven and the man free of sin, humans become wicked and God destroyed the whole world with the flood (Genesis 7 and 8), the city of Babel (after which comes, Babylon –which conquered Israel in the times of the prophet Daniel- and Babylon the great, which is a city, a religious system –the catholic church- and a deity, in this case Mary) was created, in this days the world only talked one language and they were building a "tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and the world" and the world suffered famines, earthquakes, (as the world was divided after the flood, as seen in 1 Chronicles 1:19 which ties Genesis 11:16, which happened after the flood and the confusion of languages in Babel) and wars and in the book of Revelation the world is going to suffer famines, earthquakes and wars (Matthew 24:7), there is going to be a nation that is going to make the whole world rich, that is going to be the mother of all abominations (Revelation 17:5), just like USA (biggest producer of porn, drugs are legal now, abortions are legal now, guns are everywhere, all TV shows feature as many blasphemies as possible, allow procedures that "change" the sex of kids, the whole country is build around money and we cannot follow God and money at the same time, as we are going to value one more than the other -Matthew 6:24-) that is going to kill many saints (just like the catholic church has been doing –and will do- across the story) that sits over 7 mountains (Revelation 17:9) just like Rome, city in which is located the Vatican, she "was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries" (Revelation 17:4) just like the deity of Mary is portrayed in many paintings and statues about her, she is also described as a great prostitute, just like the deity of Mary, because when Israel was following other gods, they were, according to God, prostituting themselves with these gods (an example of this can been in Judges 2:16-19.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Something similar can be seen in the book of Hosea, when God said to Hosea to go and marry a promiscuous woman and to have kids with her and to even love her when she commit adultery against Hosea, just like God was going to do with Israel even after they turn to other gods, as seen in Hosea 3:1-3) and is a city that is going to rule over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18), just like USA does now and how Babylon did when they conquered Israel when the Israelites forgot about God and the Israelites were sent to exile. This kingdom of Babylon was this big that when Daniel interpreted a dream of his king Nebuchadnezzar he said in Daniel 2:37-38
37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
USA is the country of the skyscrapers (just like the tower of Babel, which was trying to reach the heavens) they have a language that is the universal language, English, and once that every one talk it, they are going to follow the steps of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Babylon the Great is going to die, as fire coming from heaven is going to destroy it, as seen in Revelation 18:8 (just like it happened in Genesis 19 in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah).
Later, Jesus is going to come back and is going to execute judgment over the world and all the wicked ones are going to die, as seen in Revelation 19:11-21 (just like it happened in Genesis 7 and 8 during the flood) and finally, the world is going to be reunited with God, all the saints, free of sin, after accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our LORD are going to take possession of the world, and all of us, the saved, are going to be reunited with the LORD once again for 1000 years, as seen in Revelation 20:1-6 and in Genesis 2:7-25 when God rested in the 7 day:
2 Peter 3:8
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
After that, Satan is going to be freed from his prison and is going to fool the nations, as seen in Revelation 20:7-10 when Satan was freed and in Genesis 3 when Satan tempted Eve to sin against God and finally, the whole heaven and earth are going to disappear, as seen in Revelation 20:11, and a new heaven and earth are going to be created, as seen in Revelation 21:1 and in Genesis 1:1 when God created the heavens and earth.
What do you think?

Chapter 117
Four green-scaled Skeeths pulled our carriage through the market. We weren’t cramped in the back of a shabby cart but comfortably accommodated in the padded seats of a luxurious carriage with bronze guardrails and an upholstered interior. In our blue uniforms, we looked like nobility.
The start of the tournament had taken the city by surprise, and hundreds of people slowly walked to the Great Hall. Prince Adrien went all in with the event. Hundreds of flags hung over the market streets, and town criers announced the dozens of teams that would participate. I wondered where the tournament would take place. Farcrest didn’t have an arena, and the grounds of the Great Hall weren’t big enough to house such an event, even with all the wooden stands magical woodworkers could raise.
The people on the street quickly moved to the side as the coach approached. Despite the muzzles and straps, Skeeths were naturally aggressive, and their long claws could rip open the sturdiest monsters. The royal army used them in areas where horses would be easy prey.
The Skeeths hissed at each other but continued moving in a straight line. Elincia laughed as she watched the beasts and squeezed my arm. The passersby looked at us, trying to guess what noble house we represented in the tournament. I wondered how many knew we were from the poor orphanage in the Northern district. They looked at us with reverence. Little did they know we were nothing but a wild gamble by the crown prince.
“Four Skeeths, no less,” Elincia giggled under her veil. “People will think we are part of the royal family.”
Firana waved at the crowd. I made [Awareness] take a ‘screenshot’ of her smile; there were no traces of the old, distrustful Firana I had met when I started working at the orphanage. Firana encouraged the crowd. Getting the Wind Fencer class had boosted her self-esteem to perilous heights, but I decided to save the humbling lectures for later.
In the opposite seat, the story was completely different. Zaon leaned forward, shielding his head between his legs, his skin almost as green as Wolf's. I left my spot and sat next to him.
“Remember what Captain Kiln said?” I asked, putting my arm around Zaon’s shoulders. He raised his head.
“Eh… that she will go to the orphanage for a celebratory drink?” Zaon asked.
Izabeka had said that, but that wasn’t what I wanted Zaon to remember.
“Captain Kiln said that a Lv.2 in Longsword Mastery is way above average for a classless person,” I said. “Most of the opponents you will face didn’t touch a sword until after they got their classes. Even if they have Classes and levels above you, the time they have been training is the same as ours. They train for power; we train for skill.”
Zaon nodded.
“I know,” he muttered.
“Nervous is good, Zaon. Accept the feeling; don’t fight it,” I said reassuringly.
Zaon took a deep breath. “Nervous is good. Nervous is good. Nervous is good,” he repeated like a mantra.
“You have fought real foes before, Zaon. Your opponents today are kids just like you.” I said. “Just remember the secret technique, and you’ll be good.”
Firana seemed to hear our hushed conversation because she promptly pounced over my shoulder.
“What secret technique?” She asked.
“It’s a boy thing. You wouldn’t get it,” Zaon replied with a mocking half-smile.
Firana climbed over me and dove on Zaon, trying to immobilize him. The elven boy fought back, his skin turning a healthier hue as he struggled against Firana. I returned to Elincia’s side, giving them space to brawl in peace.
“Shouldn’t you stop them?” Ilya asked, her feet hanging a couple centimeters over the carriage’s floor.
“They are warming up for the tournament,” I replied. “In the meantime, you can brawl with Wolf.”
Ilya raised an eyebrow.
“I’d rather not,” she replied with a sulking expression. “I don’t understand why Wolf hasn’t gotten his class yet. We are handicapping ourselves without a good reason.”
Wolf opened an eye, interrupting his meditation.
“I can win without a Class. In fact, I could probably squash a Lv.2 gnome with an arm tied behind my back,” he replied.
“Want to try, Big Snot?” Ilya replied, channeling mana to her hands.
I laughed. It was good to see everyone in such a good mood. After months of hard work, we had the opportunity to show everyone the real capabilities of a bunch of orphans. Mister Lowell might not have been happy with the circumstances; he was a pacifist, after all, but his dream of seeing the line between nobility and commoners erased was a step closer.
I stretched my back and looked at the crowd.
“Come on, kids! We are representing Farcrest in this tournament. Act accordingly,” I said as we crossed the main gate.
The inner gates were crowded, and the guardsmen had to open a path for the carriage to enter. It seemed the tournament was going to be in the Great Hall. A double line of soldiers guarded the Great Hall entrance, funneling the spectators around the main building and into the gardens. I expected the most influential citizens of Farcrest to be there, but I underestimated the number of people invited.
The carriage reached the stairs and stopped. The Skeeth hissed at the soldiers in full armor. The coachman fastened the reins and opened the small door for us. Then, with all the deference in the world, he helped us climb down. Firana enjoyed the regal treatment.
Once we descended from the carriage, I offered Elincia my arm, and we climbed the stairs. The spectators looked at us from the sidelines, probably assuming we were guests from far away. Ilya got some quizzical looks. Gnomes were already rare in this part of the kingdom, and she seemed out of place between Firana and Wolf. The soldiers let us through, and we entered the Great Hall. Just beyond the doorway, Captain Kiln was waiting for us.
“Any suspicious activity around the orphanage?” She whispered as soon as we met.
I shook my head. Since the attack, things had been calm.
Captain Kiln turned around, and we walked into the Great Hall. The vestibule seemed empty without the dozens of courtiers whispering in the corners. I guessed they might already be in the tournament.
“Any leads regarding our troubles at the feast?” I asked. The poisoning attempt against Captain Kiln had flown under the radar, and no further clues had been found.
“Vedras agreed to help us test the poison used on Raudhan, but the shards of the glass disappeared. They were locked inside a secure room,” Captain Kiln replied, leaning towards me and whispering. “Whoever is trying to mess with us is either a ghost or a high-level assassin with the skill of traversing closed doors.”
A ghost with ties to organized crime.
“What are you talking about?” Firana interrupted our conversation.
“We are talking about the tournament brackets,” Captain Kiln said, patting my back. It seems someone wants your head really bad, boy. Rumor has it that the Osgiarian dogs are on the hunt for a certain Scholar.”
“Aren’t the matches randomly chosen?” Elincia asked.
Captain Kiln gave us one of her usual disappointed glances.
“Do you really think the noble houses would leave the matches to luck?” She said, “Osgirians got the memo. They know you are part of the royal faction and think you are the weakest link.”
“Are we facing the Osgirian team in the first round?” I asked.
“No, one of his lackeys,” Captain Kiln replied, guiding us through a long corridor I had never been before.
I let out a massive sigh of relief. As much as I trusted my process and the kids' skills, fighting in front of an audience was completely different from sparring in the backyard of the manor with the younger orphans running around. A small foe was perfect to test the waters. It was also an excellent opportunity to show Prince Adrien we were a valuable asset to his cause.
“Are you even allowed to tell me this?” I asked.
Captain Kiln sighed. “No. Anyway, you are fighting against Lord Nara, a wealthy merchant who bought his way into nobility. A noble of the robe, not the sword, if you may. That’s all I know; I have been too busy to do a background check of his team.”
Elincia put her hand on Captain Kiln’s shoulder. “If you are tired, you can always crash at the orphanage for the weekend. Despite the rabble currently crashing at the orphanage, there are plenty of free rooms.”
“Thanks, Elincia, but I need to stay by Tauron’s side,” Captain Kiln replied as she opened a lateral door. “We are here.”
The door led us to the inner gardens. Hundreds of spectators waited on the sidelines, sitting in stone benches around fountains or walking among the flowerbeds and low vegetal mazes. Other than the small gravel path between the Great Hall and the gardens, there wasn’t a place to properly call the arena.
“A thousand more are heading to the Great Hall right now,” I mentioned.
Captain Kiln shrugged it off and guided us into a red and black pavilion attached to the Great Hall’s exterior wall. More than twenty teams were already inside, waiting for the start of the tournament. I examined the room. Near the entrance, Lord Gairon and a group of six tall young boys and girls dressed in blue and gold watched the crowd. By his side, House Herran’s team played a board game with dice and tokens. They wore green uniforms with a gray hammer printed on their chests. In the corner of the room, Lord Osgiria instructed his team with a severe expression. They wore black uniforms with a white tower embroidered on the shoulder.
I recognized the House Vedras team, dressed in green and violet, and the House Jorn team, dressed in silver with the crest of the red falcon catching a fish. For an instant, I thought the Jorn team was composed solely of elves, but a quick glance at their ears told me they were just tall, pale, and blonde, almost Nordic-looking. I recognized Duke Jorn standing silently in the corner, accompanied by Lyra Jorn.
A wave of murmurs rose as we entered the pavilion. I could feel their eyes following us, trying to place us among the sea of nobility. The feast guests already knew who we were, but the ones who arrived afterward could only guess. The great ducal houses ignored us. However, Lord Osgiria gave us a hostile glance before focusing on his team.
We walked to the corner of the tent, where a small pennant with a white rose over a blue field signaled our place. I looked around. There were still several empty spaces inside the pavilion.
“See? They are kids like you,” I said, patting Zaon’s back.
“The members of the House Herran team look strong, though,” Firana pointed out.
Captain Kiln joked, “They are thrown into a mine as soon as they can walk.”
“People who live between a mountain range and the Farlands are bound to be strong,” Lyra Jorn said out of nowhere. Good afternoon, Master Clarke. I received your message. I’m sorry for my late arrival, but I had matters to attend to.”
The girl caught me by surprise; she was just as stealthy as her father. I remember being unable to detect him approaching even with [Awareness] working at full steam. I wondered if that was a trait of the Jorn family.
“Good afternoon, Lyra. Don’t worry about it; we are always ready to receive you,” I replied.
Lyra let out a sigh of relief.
“What a relief! I am so excited to study under your guidance. I have even dreamt about you… I mean about the things you have to teach and the machines from your land,” Lyra quickly corrected herself as she felt Elincia’s green eyes.
“That’s good to hear, but…” I said. “What kept you so busy?”
Or rather, what prevented you from being at the orphanage during the assassin’s attack?
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” Lady Jorn said. “Preceptor Holst asked my help to reorganize the Farcrest library.”
I froze for a moment. There were two possibilities: Holst delayed Lyra’s departure to create a free window of time for the assassins to attack, or he did it because he knew of the attack and wanted to keep Lyra safe. The second option wasn’t very compelling, but Holst had implied his attack on the orphanage was a one-time thing due to a favor he owed.
“You are welcome as soon as you are available,” I said, my jaw suddenly stiff.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, I will do my best. I promise. I have even convinced my father this is a good idea. The Jorn Duchy is far from commercial centers. We would benefit greatly from any development in transport technologies,” Lyra Jorn said, but I wasn’t listening anymore.
Holst might be the only link between us and the culprit behind the attacks.
“Is there any way of going around a Silence Hex?” I asked.
“Is this a test?” Lady Jorn said, embarrassed. “Oh! House Jorn is more than willing to pay for your inventions. We wouldn’t dream of enriching ourselves at the expense of other people’s work.”
“We are not going to put a Silence Hex on you, Lyra,” Elincia sighed. “Rob is probably thinking about something else. He does this all the time. It might feel like he’s talking to you, but he is actually thinking about two or three different things.”
Lyra let out an awkward laugh, “I understand. People say that about me sometimes.”
“What’s this about a Silence Hex, then? That’s not an amateur spell,” Captain Kiln asked.
“You should check Holst’s tongue,” I said.
Captain Kiln grinned. “I know Darius can be harsh. At times, I want to cast a Silence Hex on him…”
Then, the realization hit her, but before she could reply, the sound of a horn filled the pavilion.
Outside, a small army of men and women dressed in green and beige robes and headbands with antlers fixed to the sides entered the garden. They lined up in the gravel path and raised their hands over their heads. For a moment, I thought they would perform a musical number. Instead, a sudden mana discharge made the ground tremble. An area spell? Out of nowhere, the trees and bushes uprooted themselves and walked through the crowd to the outskirts, leaving a vast empty area in the middle of the Great Hall grounds.
The performance didn’t stop there. A second group dressed in terracotta-colored robes appeared from around the corner. With a movement of their arms, stands made of sandstone emerged from the ground and raised several meters over the ground. A myriad of different enchanted banners and flags flew from the Great Hall’s windows, perching in the newly created masts. I couldn’t help but laugh, amazed by the scene. Where there was a well-kept garden, now was a dueling arena with stands for thousands of spectators. There was even a roofed area for the VIPs.
The spectators started to flood the stands. Prince Adrien waved at the crowd from the royal booth, accompanied by an attractive woman in a luxurious purple dress. The whole city was there: members from the Alchemists Guild, the Sentinels, high-ranking officers of the Guard, nobles from all around the kingdom, and wealthy merchants. On the plain stands, several thousand commoners were gathering together.
A small man dressed in a ceremonial robe stood in the middle of the arena. For a moment, I thought his voice would get drowned by the crowd, but, to my surprise, it came out amplified with a spell. After a quick introduction to the event, he presented the teams.
The Marquis was the first to enter the arena, followed by Istvan Kiln and the rest of his team. Shortly after, Captain Kiln, with a team of young Guard cadets, joined him. The audience went wild, cheering for the city teams.
“Are you ready, team?” I asked, turning around.
Zaon smiled, Ilya gave me the thumbs up, Wolf nodded, and Firana raised her fist in defiance.
“And the third team and last team representing Farcrest,” the master of ceremonies stuttered as he examined the fixture. “Lowell’s Orphanage.”
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https://imgur.com/a/IpekeIe
Makeup:
Leather: Black Chromexcel
Sole: Vibram Mini Lug
Laces: Waxed Laces
Eyelets: Brass
Last: Munson Last
This is my first post contribution to the subreddit.
I had first heard of Willie's back around late Octobe early November on YouTube. At the moment he is the only Philippine based shoemaker that is making heritage style footwear. In general, I like to support up and coming small businesses as a way to support their art and craft so naturally I gravitated to his shoes.
This was my first time purchasing from an overseas boot maker, so I was a bit apprehensive, but in general I knew what to expect after hearing other's experience when buying from overseas. What this entails is messaging him through Instagram, him quoting me a price and paying through PayPal half upfront and the other half right before shipment. There is usually limited communication throughout the process and communication resumes when they and ready to ship. This may vary, but I also wasn't bugging him and let him do his thing. At the time when they were ordered I was expecting approximately 3 months for completion, but it was about 6 months by the time they were delivered. I believe it was due to him simply forgetting due to his gaining popularity and me not reaching out. When I messaged him again, he had the shoes shipped out within 3 weeks. I am used to waiting 6 months for other PNW makers and I was in no real rush, so I believe my specific case was just an anomaly.
The shoes that I ordered were based off of a previous design he has posted that another individual had made. I wanted a pair in black that would be worn as a pair of work shoes that needed to be worn with a suit and tie. When explaining this to him he recommended a different, "dressier" last, but I was adamant about the Munson last. The Munson last is a last that I swear by and is the only last that works for my feet. I felt that this makeup was somewhat flexible dress wise and casual while not destroying my feet in the process. Outside of the color I gave him free reign on basically the whole shoe design. I explained to him the purpose of these shoes and how they were going to be worn with a suit and let his creativity play out as far as all of the other choices outside of leather selection.
When I ordered the shoes, I had explained to him my sizing in Nick's and Alden sizing (which is .5 down from my Brannock) and sent him measurements of my feet in a Brannock device and as well measurements of my feet with a tape measure, similar to how Nick's has you size yourself. With this being said he also concluded that I am an 8D in their Munson last. So, I'd like to say based off of this one pair that their sizing with at least this last is very similar to Nick's hnwThurman last which is the only other Munson based last that I am familiar with. I would still recommend sizing yourself with the tape measure and sending him measurements for a second opinion.
After wearing the shoes for about 10 hours I felt that the shoe was roomy in the toe box (as it should be based on the last selection), while being comfortable in the midsection. I felt that they were more supporting than the HNW last, but not as much as the 55. Strangely they are only supporting in the arch of the foot similar to how a custom orthotic would feel. They do not have the "roll of quarters" feel like the 55 last does. I do have some slight heel slip in the right shoe, but I believe that's just because of the weird shape of my feet and having almost zero arch in my right foot (red wing shoe machine enlightened me on this fact). I am hopeful that once they are broken in that it will disappear. I'd like to say if you have very average feet that you will no experience this. Once more it is very slight and for most people not an issue especially if you wear engineers or cowboy boots and are used to this. My left foot which is very average fits perfectly and does not have this experience.
The shoes appear to be lined with leather and have a leather insole as well. The inside portion of the heel is lined with roughout leather to prevent heel slip. The laces appear to be slightly waxed and hold in place with a single knot. The soles are a Vibram mini lug which are grippy and oil resistant which is a necessity for my job.
The boots were shipped in a generic black box and inside were the shoes in the cotton shoe bag that has a Willie's leather logo. The shoes were shipped via DHL and took 3 days to be delivered from the Philippines to Northern California.
Thank you for reading my quick write-up. If there's anything I missed feel free to post it in the comments and I will do my best to answer it.

Disclaimer: Be polite and amenable with everyone (especially Titus, Hugo and President Smolak) and follow the steps of the guide in the order shown.

Introduction and Goals:

Remus is a man who believes that Rizia needs to modenize and respect all of it's citizens. He personally studied in University in order to revitalize Rizia and is determined to consolidate Rizia peacefully and promote world peace.
After his wife's death he found solace in Wruheism and his precious daughter but still respects other religions and wants a Rizia inclusive to all, where everybody is free to think whatever they want.
He plans to build up Rizia's infraestructure, tourism and power projection (especially culturally).
Ultimately, his dream is to reform the monarchy and give power to the people of Rizia without a revolution and with the noble's permission.

Prologue:

(the \ symbol means it doesn't matter)*
A Prince is Born: It was your calling.*
Summer Choice: Visit family in Zille.
Father Cermony: Ask about protests and doubt him.*
Pabel Choice: Be close friends.
Career Path: University (+1 Budget)
Pales Conflict: You thought it was a lost cause and demanded that he crack down on traitors. (+1 Authority)
Kidnapping: Fight back.* (you will get a cool scar)
Father Whelen Reponse: Thank him for restoring order.*
Monqiz Decision: Rebuild. (+1 Budget)
Meeting Lena: Kissed her hand, was right.*
Family Man: Family got in the way. (better relations with Vina)
Immigrants: Celebrated diversity.*
Su Omina: Didn't attend the meeting.
Boat Accident: Happily Came Along.*
Faith: Find solace in Faith (it makes religious people happy)
Hugo Return: Believed things could be better*
Royal Focus: Gold Production & Tax (+2 Budget, +1 Budget per Turn, -1 Public Opinion, -1 House Azaro Relation, -1 House Sazon Relation)
Axel Meeting: Go to the meeting, thaw between Rizia and Pales. (better relations with Pales)
Pales Trip: Lie to your father, keep your mouth shut. (better relations with Pales)
Kings Death: Rushed to him.*

Strategic Focus:

Reform, Diversify (+1 Budget), Third Way (+1 Pales Relation, +1 Derdia Relation, +1 Morella Relation), No military focus (+1 Budget).

Turn 1: A(8) B(11) E(3)

Proceed with the coronation without a speech and greet subjects with Vina. (she will be the future queen)
Allow Vina to join the council meetings. (she needs to learn, also she would become a malenyevist otherwise)
Small Parade in the Porte Drazon (there is no need for it and we need the budget for other things).
Listen to Hugo but don't drink with him. (It is too hot of a day to do so)
Enact Sovereign Transition and Clemency A(-1) (makes nobles Happy and makes you seem like you care about traditions)
Attend the economic meeting. (make a good first impression with everyone, including Manus)
Host a Concert. B(-1) (it makes the nobles happy and helps to avoid late game protests)
Let people protest, recite a Wruheist proberb, stand your ground, give no funding to the sanctuaries, participate in the Ceremony and accept the burden of God. B(-0) (we can afford the religious discontent if we don't legalize illegal substances)
Construct Zpana Hydroelectric Dam A(-2) B(-5)
Expand the Esenqiris Offshore Gas Field A(-1) B(-3)
Extensive Geological Survey A(-2) B(-2)
Raise Base Income Tax A(-2) (+1 Budget per Turn)
Listen to Lucita rant about military. (You will build her new shiny factories)
Invest in football autoskips due to lack of budget. (We will avoid the consequences of not paying)
A(0) B(0) E(3)

Turn 2: A(3) B(7) E(4)

Enact Housing for the Poor initiative A(-1) B(-1) (Avoids Housing Crisis)
Build Qalus Gold Mine A(-1) B(-3) (It unfortunately will damage the environment, but it will be very beneficial for our budgets)
In the Foreign Affairs Meeting say that you want to seal new economic pacts with other Merkopan nations and don't found the ATA.
Include Elena in the trade talks and accept the alcohol trade deal (after saying is there another way we can rephrase this?), accept the Resort deal after confering with Elena and asking if it has to be as gaudy as the one on the picture. (+2 tourism without angering the nobles too much)
Commission statues for the entire Toras family A(+1) B(-1)
Mourn Liza with Vina, reassure her that she will be the heir to the throne and you will only propose options for her to marry (not drag her to the altar). Pabel will ask to come bring you a towel, he will tell you about your father's assassination, tell him you will investigate it. (you will be getting the true murderer)
Donate to Arufelde. B(-1) (this makes you have to pay less when you do the Morella deal)
Go meet Titus with Hugo but don't mention intimacy or possible murder (do not drink).
Ignore Propaganda. (banning it angers Valgsland and Morella)
Be polite with Smolak, don't interrupt him and make a speech about cooperation and peace (protect Estela).
A(2) B(1) E(4)

Turn 3: A(5) B(8) E(4)

Fund the Golden Guard and investigate Su Omina B(-3) and tell him you would like him to investigate your father's death leaving Pabel out of it.
Denounce and distance the crown from Su Omina.
Construct the Monquiz Port and Shipyard Expansion. A(-1) B(-3) (Makes Rumburg deal possible)
Construct the Sallabes Consumer Park. A(-2) B(-2) (Industry +2, increases living standards)
Accept the maximum energy trade deal with Rumburg. E(-3) (+2 Budget -2 Energy per turn)
Visit Iza, get an old-fashioned rifle and let Vina and Rico interact, tell your uncle that they are cousins, "miss intentionally" and tell Hugo to go with his son.
Deny the Police Transfer. (Rico is a fascist and doesn't calm down the situation)
In Sallabes listen to Manus, agree to reforming Rizia and allow him to dance with your daughter.
Allow passage for goldocondist pilgrims. (makes Derdia and Goldocondists happy)
In the meeting with Rusty, be polite to him, refuse his offer and stay for lunch.
Tell Lucita you apreciate her house and want her to speak her mind, let her send agents to Pales and don't let her fall. (This guide isn't designed for a relation with her, but it is possible)
We avoid losing budget with the decline of football because we have no budget.
A(2) B(0) E(1)

Turn 4: A(6) B(9) E(0)

Disperse protestors by force A(+1) (you will need the authority)
In the meeting about the Pales dispute say you want to talk to Axel and do not initiate the blockade.
In the meeting with Axel say Rizia is prepared to let Pales keep the claim to the field, tell him you do want something in exchange, tell him not to let the hostility between our families to colour the negotiations, be understanding and say that your predecessors were out of line. Tell him that he will be caught up between superpowers and ask him about the parachute.
Pay the amount and tell him about your daughter. B(-5) (-3 Budget per turn) (+3 Energy in the future)
Send extensive military equipment to the Confederacy of Vendonesam. (-500 Military Equipment and -50 Support Vehicle)
Tell Alvarez to fuck off. (He is trying to turn Rizia and Pales against each other)
Attend the final session of the House of Delegates.
In the meeting of the house of delegates, try not to interrupt and be polite. Overturn the decision and give rights to all workers. B(-2) (-1 Budget per turn) (-2 Industry)
Accept cooperation with Wehlen in investigation. (Necessary to get them into the Intermerkopum)
Vine exports soar B(+2)
Build Tank Factory A(-3) B(-4) (+2 Industry, the first step to expanding the "forge of Rizia" Folce Dator)
During the AN meeting, be silent when Smolak anounces the delay of the Zille handover and aplaud him politely, don't applaud to Lespia and don't confront Hegel (he will be a convenient ally).
Say it's an honor to adress the assembly, focus on unity, say that what Smolak did is understandable and you will count with his transparency, say that it's understandable that Morella looked east and offer assistance, say that a compromise can be reached about religious travellers, regarding Pales say that you are in a new golden age and want to end the cycle of violence. (don't address Hegel)
Public Transportation Inefficiency Crisis Notice (We will stop it before it hits, don't worry)
During the vine launch event do a speech like this; celebrate the fruits of our land, this vine will inspire reverence to even sords, doubts about stability, with your help Rizia will be stronger than ever, proud son of Valenqiris, have faith in you and you will be richly rewarded, rising a glass to a reunited Rizia, you are here to drink wine, invite Lucita Azaro to open the bottle. (it makes them have a bit of a boost in relations) (go upstairs after the party)
(A relationship messes with how this guide works and passing decriminalization of homosexuality instigates protests on Montaklar)
Investing into Sordland is autoskipped (I won't use it because I want this guide to be possible with the default file).
A(4) B(0) E(0)

Turn 5: A(8) B(5) E(0)

Build the Military Equipment Factory. A(-1) B(-2) (Second step of our plan, it improves Azaro relations)
Build the Support Vehicles Factory. A(-2) (-3) (+1 Industry, final step of our expansion plan)
In the bilateral agreement with Wehlen be polite to Smolak and do the following:
-Import everything from Wehlen.
-Export Wine and Small Arms. (not Gold or Gas)
-Promise Aid against the BFF.
-Do not implement a Ban.
-Grant Wehzeks Equal Right to Work.
Agree to give him Rico. (you won't do it) (He will agree to the agreement)
Fund neither organization. (There is no need for it)
In the MITZ meeting be polite to everyone and vote against nationalization but say that you are willing to negotiate.
Don't fund campaign of the RNC. (we want the RPP to win)
In the Security meeting order the investigation into Su Omina to continue. Ask about the situation in Iza and say that this needs the intervention of the crown (assign the extra police forces to Lucita). A(-1) (Don't frame Rico, this way we avoid imprisoning him and Smolak won't demand him)
Tell Titus to keep looking into Sal. (he is the true murderer)
Football tries to rob you of 1 Budget. (it fails because you have no budget)
Accept cutting Lespia out in exchange for a ship. (you have to complain about the late hour to Hegel)
Sell First Batch of Military Equipment. B(-2) (-500 Military Equipment)
Be polite in meeting Alma and don't eat the cookies, split the shares 50-50 between Rizia and Morella.
For the conditions on the plane: Agree to speak to Derdia on Morella's behalf, Energy agreement and pollution reparations. B(-1) (it's 1 budget because you donated to the cause previously)
Say that you will talk to Vina about being a diplomatic envoy.
Send sordish tourists to Sordland to avoid a trial. (This doesn't damage tourism or relations)
In the visit to the Gas Field say that Vina has to go to a diplomatic mission first of all, refuse to bless their relationship and say that Axel will want her single. After that say that you like the naturalization idea and say that you don't want him dating your daughter. A(-4) B(-1) (This will make them win the elections but without spending a lot of authority)
Scrap and sell the boat A(-1) (You don't have any authority to lose anyways)
A(0) B(0) E(0)

Turn 6: A(4) B(7) E(4)

Enact the investment in Public Transport Infrastructure A(-2) B(-3) E(-1) (to avoid the infrastructure crisis)
Excavation of Topes Ancient Rezenid City A(-2) B(-2) (+2 Tourism in 2 turns)
Don't fund global media campaign. (There is no need for it)
In the meeting with the council they will tell you that the RPP has won the elections, there is no energy crisis and PaleStream will be finished soon.
Send an Infantry Division to support for Vendonesam. (-1 Infantry Division)
During the False Flag Operation maintain calm and go talk to Axel:
Shake Axel's hand, don't interrupt him, say you are there for peace, say you want a peaceful resolution, assure him of your peaceful intentions, let the soldiers leave immediately, I do not underestimate the gravity of the situation, what would we gain from this?, I am starting to suspect that, tell him you think someone else is behind the incident, Lespia, this is precisely the point, why wouldn't he?, anything for peace. B(-1) (Lucita is a better councilor and Duke than Taddeus, no need to get her imprisoned)
Tell Sal you wish to secularize Rizia.
Fund no charities A(-1) (you are unable to lose authority because you have none)
Talk to Lucita, she will tell you that House Azaro is happy with your reign and prepared to back reforms if you don't go too far.
In the official signing of the Aureus Agreement I talked about cooperation and friendship between Pales and Rizia. E(+6) (+6 Energy per turn)
Be kind to your daughter and mother during the memorial commemoration.
A(0) B(1) E(9)

Turn 7: A(4) B(9) E(16)

Abolish the Goldocondist Blasphemy Law A(-3) (Needed to negotiate with Derdia successfully)
Build the Havas Coal Mine A(-1) B(-2) (There is no negatives and it makes sense)
Don't invite Sal to the House of Representatives. They will tell you that the common people is unhappy. (we will solve this soon)
Don't fund any organization in Zille. (no need for it)
During the visit to Derdia say you want Titus to participate in the duel of generosity and let him prepare, say nothing to him.
Speak to him about mediation with Morella and to strengthen the ties between our nations. (trade deal) (-2 Energy +2 Budget per turn)
Send Naval Forces to help in Vendonesam. (-1 Ship and -1 Submarine)
Be polite to your uncle and he will tell you that House Toras is happy with your reign. (don't assassinate Mason Sazon)
Don't pardon Angelica Sazon. (She is a nuissance, also she doesn't support the reforms funnily enough)
During the visit to Iza strip Rico of his powers, put in power a democratic council and incorporate the city to Brennas. (It makes sense and will be popular)
Hugo will come to protest but he will ultimately accept your decision. (do not put Rico in charge of the police)
Improve environmental protections. B(-3)
Refuse Beatrice's offer to use the BFF. (There are no benefits, just drawbacks)
Take down the offensive painting before Axel arrives, say you want to go further and offer him to enter a grand alliance in South Merkopa and to reunite Pales and Rizia through marriage. (although only with Vina's consent)
In the family dinner propose Axel's offer to Vina but say that the choice is hers. (when she asks you if this is the best for Rizia say yes, she will be convinced)
Continue the Toras lineage through Vina. (She only possible heir anyways)
A(0) B(1) E(16)

Turn 8: A(7) B(15) E(16)

Improve Health and Education Subsidies. A(-2) B(-3) (This will make living standards even better)
Energy Subsidies for Industries. A(-3) B(-2) E(-2) (-3 Energy per Turn) (This makes the nobles happy and energy is abundant in our country now)
Invest in Renewable Energy. B(-3) (+1 Energy per Turn)
Due to the collaboration with Wehlen, Lespia's actions are known. Do not do anything about it, Wehlen will return Zille.
Host public banquets in honor of the victory in Vendonesam. A(+2) B(-2) (+2 Budget per Turn)
Welcome back our brave sailors.
On the meeting with Lespia, do not agree to anything. (they are a terrorist state)
Invest minimal efforts to the mediation between Derdia and Morella. A(-1)
In the Royal Council meeting, talk about forming a new regional alliance and proceed with it, Elena won't mention any problems with the economy. (Recession won't happen due to the high production and tourism investment)
Agree to create a constitution with Manus.
Allocate 3 Budget to the new alliance. B(-3)
Enact tenant protection laws. A(-2) B(-1)
Trade grows within GRACE. (+1 Budget per Turn) (Unfortunately it will only last 1 turn)
In the meeting with Manus Sazon be diplomatic with the nobility; design the constitution by remaining the head of state, giving powers to the government, centralize the government, a bicameral parliament with a house of lords with no legislative powers and judicial independence. (We need to find an agreement with the nobles to get no protests and this is an acceptable compromise)
In the negotiations with Wehlen be very polite to Smolak and he will return Zille only in exchange for your family's home.
Support Derdia and Wehlen mediation with minimal effort. A(-1) B(-1)
Vote Nay to Agnolia's recognition of Helijland. (Wiktor will give you back Zille)
Titus will come and tell you that Sal killed your father. (arrest him)
Low Global energy prices happens. B(-3) (I don't know if this can be avoided, but we have no budget anyways) (In my opinion, this should be avoidable if you don't export energy)
Enjoy the wedding and beginning of the reunification between Pales and Rizia.
A(1) B(0) E(14)

Turn 9: A(5) B(9) E(12)

Remove regional police. A(-4) B(-2) (-250 Military Manpower)
Launch Anti-Narcotics Campaigns A(-1) B(-1) (This will help mitigate the drug trade situation) (It is enacted now because it is only effective for one turn)
Derdia-Morella meeting: Offer to send a company of the armed forces to enforce the corridor. (-250 Military Manpower)
Derdia-Wehlen meeting: Offer a sea route and when Smolak asks for more say that you will offer extra budget. (-1 Ship) B(-1)
Aprove the new MITZ proposal. (50% of the zone is now ours)
There will be a meeting about the formation of the Intermerkopum, offer a joint energy stockpile. E(-5) (The Intermerkopum is formed and you gain 10 authority)
Enact: Remove provincial levy obligations, Permanent Work Permits to Working Hands and Lower Conscription Age to 18. A(-9) B(-4)
Accept aid from Valgsland, we will be expelled from GRACE anyways. B(+2) (This also makes them friendly with us with no negatives)
Meet with Beatrice and do whatever you want. (I chose to be diplomatic, middle, outer and inner spoon)
When Zille is returned you can choose to give it to Brennas or separate it into it's own province. (I chose to create a separate province)
Reform Conversations: Reassure the nobles, centralize, give the nobles power over constitutional amendments, give the nobles a seat in the Supreme Court and promise to give the prime minister position to Daria de Rava. (only Lucita will oppose it) (you will later appoint Manus regardless of the promise with no consequences)
Agree to the Pales Unification plans. B(-2)
A(1) B(1) E(7)

Turn 10: A(15) B(8) E(6)

Enact: Residence and Work Permit, Remove state religion, Impose gender pay equality, Remove death penalty. A(-12) B(-5) (-1 Budget per turn)
Expand Border Guards. A(-2) B(-1) (This would lower tourism in two turns, but now it gets rid of a red modifier)
Sign the new constitution and appoint Manus Sazon as Head of Government. (This will have no consequences, except for a more satisfying epilogue and RP)
Say goodbye to your councilors. (They may be assholes, but they are your assholes)
Meet with Axel and agree to integrate Pales into Rizia.
Enjoy your great unification and successfully reformed Rizia.
A(1) B(2) E(6)

Conclusions:

The military is small but it demonstrated it's power in Vendonesam and is self-sufficient in their equipment due to the new Folce Dator factories.
We have created a modern Rizia, the state is centralized under a bicameral parliament, there is separation of powers, woman's rights are respected, royal traditions are upheld and Rizia is a proud heterogenous society.
Tourism is booming, new businesses are rising, we have an efficient transport system, we have increased production and we are extracting more resources than ever. There are a few problems but most are unevitable.
We have a strong welfare state, acceptable worker's rights and great living standards.
The drug problems our nation suffers are partially dealt with and the new government should be able to end them with our new resources.
The police is now centralized, House Toras has its dignity and every religious group is neutral towards us.
The Intermerkopum has a bright future, as does our now 6 provinces; Brennas, Cardesse-Montaklar, Pales, Rizia Imperii, Valenqiris and Zille.

This will be quite a lengthy read because I'm laying out everything to get honest opinions with all the context. There's a TLDR at the end for those who'd rather skip the backstory. I know that most people go incognito with a throwaway account for this kind of post. But I wanted this to be authentic, using my real account. I didn't want anyone to think this was disingenuous. If we know each other in real life or you find me on my other socials, let's keep our chats here or in PMs. I don't want anyone harassing anybody, and I have a sixteen-year-old daughter who has been spared this drama so far.
I tied the knot shortly after high school, and let's just say, if my marriage were a collegiate course, it would be "F*** Up - 101." It was a masterclass in what not to do, featuring every red flag in the book. I was fresh-faced and barely off on my life journey, thinking I'd hit the jackpot. I'd assumed I'd accomplished what my parents did, that being the poster couple for marital bliss. I was so naive, always giving the benefit of the doubt. Meanwhile, my then-wife, fresh from escaping her parental fortress of solitude, went bat s*** crazy, deciding that 'living life to the fullest' didn't include me in the picture.
Before I knew it, I was Mr. Mom with our toddler while she was trapped underneath a few individuals, making up for lost time. After finally catching her in the act, I filed for a divorce and braced for the impact. Divorcing in '97 in the heart of the bible belt was not favorable towards the husband back then. What followed was straight out of a horror movie. I paid my attorney five thousand dollars to watch her take everything from my guitars and video games. She even claimed keepsakes from a departed relative, and the judge seemed happy to grant her every wish. Not only did I bid farewell to everything I owned, but my time with my son got slashed to a mere Wednesday afternoon and alternating weekends.
My faith in women was broken. I went on a few dates here and there but mostly kept it to casual encounters and dinners. I never let anyone get too close. But, in early 1999, at a friend's birthday party, I met a woman whose marriage had crashed harder than mine. She'd had a stillbirth six months into her pregnancy, and her husband dared to bring his girlfriend to the funeral. She was heartbroken, to say the least, to learn about her husband's affair and the end of her marriage on the day they laid her daughter to rest. We sat on a couch that night, swapping tales of romantic ruin. She was clever, and to me, that is an instant connection. It's rare for me to find someone who makes me laugh instead of vice versa. As I headed home, I couldn't shake her from my thoughts, kicking myself for not asking for her number.
The next, my phone rang, and it was her! She'd gotten my phone number from someone we both knew and asked: "Would you like to get food sometime?" I said, "Now sounds great!" So, I drove to her grandmother's house, and off we went on what turned out to be what I still consider the perfect date. Now, I get it; we were both lonely and had our hearts broken, but trust me, this was no spark; it was an inferno. And believe it or not, we've been inseparable since that day. We have not spent a night apart. That was twenty-five years ago, with us marrying a year after our meeting. Go ahead and facepalm, I know how it sounds, but it's hard to put the connection between us into words. Even I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.
Our families adored the two of us together. I was certain I had found my soulmate, if you believe in that, and I was certain she felt the same. We enjoyed each other's company, and our lives meshed perfectly. As with life, however, it finds those moments of bliss to take a giant s*** on you. In 2006, I began feeling ill; eating resulted in violent illness, which I initially thought was a virus. But after a week with no improvement, it was clear this was something else. I was admitted to the local hospital and underwent numerous tests. When I was first admitted, I weighed 222 pounds at a height of 6'2". Within a year, I had dropped to 146 pounds, and my condition dumbfounded the doctors. My health was deteriorating rapidly. Throughout the ordeal, she never left my side, her hand in mine, begging me not to leave her.
In late 2007, a last-ditch effort sent me to the Cleveland Clinic, where a young doctor rushed me into surgery. When I awoke three hours later, she was there, hand in mine, with a smile. It was a success; I was cured. While I'll spare you the details, it involved my colon. Finally, I could eat and move without agony. My life resumed, and we were happy again. The following year, she received a lucrative job offer in her field, earning more than I did. That didn't bother me at all; she worked hard, and she'd earned it.
After her miscarriage, my wife was unable to conceive. We had been trying since 2000 and eventually came to terms with the fact that it might not happen. In 2010, we got a call from the state of Minnesota about a two-year-old girl who had been taken from her mother due to drug-related charges. They asked if we would consider adopting her because the mother had requested she be placed with family members before her parental rights were terminated. My wife and I drove for 30 hours to meet her, and after a few months, we adopted her and welcomed her into our home.
Our daughter faced social challenges and had endured abuse, leading the two of us to decide one of us needed to be at home with her. As mentioned, my wife earned significantly more, so it made sense for me to be the one to step into the role. I dedicated each day to supporting our daughter's mental health. While I played a part, I can't claim all the credit for this; her preschool, kindergarten, and therapist were instrumental in her learning to socialize and trust again. Eventually, I took up freelance journalism, so I was home when our little one finished her school day.
Our evenings were family time, and we took small trips on weekends. It was in 2017 that my wife returned from work one evening, deeply shaken by what she told me was a workplace argument. Despite my attempts to console her, she remained incorrigible. She was declaring her intent to find a new job. She'd never had any issues before, so I was stunned. For days, she was a mess and withdrawn. When I pressed for details, she'd say, "It would only upset you. Let me deal with it."
True to her word, she left for a new company within a week, accepting a 15 percent reduction in pay. I should have questioned it then, but she never gave me cause for concern. Once she began her new role, life returned to normal, and our family happily moved forward. In 2022, I published my first novel with an independent publisher, fulfilling a lifelong dream. I could sense the pride emanating from both my wife and daughter. I had achieved this milestone before my fiftieth birthday, and I couldn't wait to start on my second one.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, this is where my world breaks. In 2023, as I was finishing up my new novel, my twenty-seven-year-old son from my first marriage died suddenly of a heart attack. He had an underlying condition that none of us knew about. I want everyone to understand that when you say, "I couldn't imagine my child dying," you truly can't. There is no pain quite like it. My wife and daughter, who also felt his loss deeply, did their best to support me. But there is no way to deal with such a tragedy. In the months following his death, I immersed myself in my work, striving to complete my second book for him.
On the day I finished it in January, my father passed away after a long battle. Dad had been ill for a long time. You think you can prepare yourself for that, but that's a lie you tell yourself. The loss was hard, and my daughter was instrumental in getting me back on my feet. My second book was released in February, and I tried to smile as I had my release party. At the beginning of April, I started feeling better, writing outlines for my third novel and doing the same things I'd always done with my wife and daughter.
My wife and I have a Wednesday tradition where she picks a random recipe she finds online, and we cook it together. On April 3rd, while making crockpot chicken tacos, I thanked her for everything. She asked why, and I thanked her for everything she'd done to get me through the tough times. I shared a lot of pent-up emotions, telling her I couldn't have managed without her. She started crying, then weeping, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably. I tried to comfort her with a hug, but she pushed me away. I apologized, not realizing my words would stir such a reaction.
Suddenly, she confesses her infidelity. I laughed, mistaking it for a joke. She grabs my shoulders and then details how, back in 2017, a 28-year-old at her former job started flirting with her, and she reciprocated. She believed it was innocent, yet it persisted. My wife has always feared growing old. Her birthdays were days she dreaded every year. She admitted that the attention from a younger man was exhilarating. She told me that turning 40 had sent her into a tailspin and that she couldn't talk to me about it because I would have just shrugged it off.
He invited her to leave work early and come to his place one day. She couldn't understand why she chose to; maybe it was the thrill. She said she didn't know, but she went and ended up sleeping with him. Afterward, she felt terrible, glaring at her keychain in his driveway because it had a photo of me holding our daughter. She drove home, and that's when she lied about having a workplace argument. She never wanted to return there. It's why she suddenly went somewhere else. She then told me she wanted to tell me but didn't have the fortitude to do it.
I remained silent, just wide-eyed and open-mouthed. She apologized, saying she couldn't live with it any longer. I just shook my head, unable to speak a single word. She offered to leave if that's what I wanted, to attend counseling, or even to beg for my forgiveness. Instead, I picked up my AirPods and phone and walked out. I wandered from six in the evening until almost eleven that night. When I returned, she was on the loveseat, asking if I was ready to talk. I shook my head again, went to my office, where I had a couch, and slept there.
The next day, after our daughter left for school, she asked if I had anything to say. I said yes. I questioned why she brought this up after the worst year of my life. Why couldn't she have kept it to herself until I could somewhat deal with something of this magnitude? She just looked away. I scoffed and told her to go to work and to try not to f*** anyone during her lunch break. That would have been April 4th; those were the last words I said to her until last night.
She had attempted to talk to me several times, but I would just walk past her into my office, trying to focus on my upcoming science fiction comedy book. Writing something funny is challenging when the thought of your spouse rolling around with another man stuck in her consumes your thoughts. A week ago, my daughter asked in the car if everything was okay, and I lied to her, which made me feel sick. Then, last night, my wife came to the office door and asked, "Are we getting a divorce?" I looked at her and replied, "Looks like it." She started crying and closed the door.
I haven't consulted an attorney, and the thought of divorce hadn't crossed my mind until she mentioned it. That's why I wrote this essay. Where do I go from here? How do I start to untangle this mess? I have no desire for therapy. I don't even want to step outside. I'm broken at this moment. The burden of everything has been overwhelming. There's been so much to bear this past year. What do you say to someone who has been by your side through it all, only to tear your heart apart?
Thank you for reading to the end. And for those who are part of the TLDR crowd, my wife decided to go home with a younger man, felt guilty about it, and quit her job. She waited eight years to tell me about it.

My fiance came into the relationship with a lot of old debt (from having a child with the wrong person who bailed for the first 3 years) that we both want to tackle before we tie the knot. We decided we just want a fresh start together financially and don't want to plan a wedding/reception with this other stuff looming. We tackled the first issue, which was his truck - he had an almost 18% interest rate on a 7 year old car and his payments were barely making a dent in the principal. I cosigned for a new truck for him and his payments are lower and interest rate cut in half, and overall it's just a better situation. He's an independent contractor, so a reliable truck was a must but we were able to get him out from being underwater with a big down payment and discounts from the dealership. A win in my book.

• His debts are-
• 5 CC's in collections
• 1- $1930.00
• 2- $1238.00
• 3- $2524.28
• 4- $1200.00
• 5- $2122.00

He also has a current CC in good standing with $8,150.00 on it with no interest for the next 12 months. This is for a custody battle with previously mentioned deadbeat. We plan to split the $8150 into 12 equal payments while tackling this other stuff so that goes away before the 0% interest period ends.
We both have pretty good incomes, and very LCOL overall. "Disposable" income is around $3k every month on my end, and he has around the same. My question is - with them all being in collection, does it make sense to just start with the smallest one and go from there? Is there a point to paying them off in any specific order? He also gets offers to pay them off for around half of the total owed, which we intend to do one at a time, but I wasn't sure if there's more that we should be looking into in regards to which one to pay first and so on.
I also have a separate emergency fund, and he knows how to fix damn near everything, so using all our "extra" money for debts doesn't stress me out as much if we didn't have that.

A wish upon a fallen star,
A Demon's strength for those who have gone too far.
A firm rebutal,
For those who's dictations were never subtle.
Do not applaud,
The Sacred will of a God.
They only do what fantasies need,
It's not greed, for them to exist, you must bleed.
They have had their chance,
We beg you, end this disarray with your lance.
At dusk, hear this blood sacrement,
Sometimes salvation is not Heaven sent.
Oh, Lord of the Heavenly Dwelling, shed your disguise.
Come forth, Lord of the Flies.
Poisoner of the innocents' wells,
Jailer of the infinite cells.
Tormenter of the life we live in,
Sealer of our oblivion.
Cruelty is in the eye of the beholder,
Fealty will always tie you to a boulder.
His disasterous pledge,
For all of those who have died to the sword's edge.
Their halos have turned to unearned crowns,
Our obediance has been met with a frown. We must bring them down.
When a God spreads his wings to cast a blackened shade,
There is none more welcome than the Master of the Fade.
Enslavement will always inspire rebellion,
No matter how blessed is the Hell we are in.
If the Holy Ones want to wage war,
Then I will rally the Beast and Babylon's Whore.
Rise, every bloodied sinner,
Howl, every diseased mongrel whose body betrays them and grows ever thinner.
It is them that is the cancer,
How many lives stolen, by their Answer?
These truths are myriad,
Let us be clear, His Love was never something we had.
And so, shed us of the false pretense, Beezlebub,
Save us from their horid splender, whispers the grub.
Turn this pestulent tide,
Leave these blind believers nowhere to hide.
Sodom must be remembered,
All of the lives that He dismembered.
Avenge Gomorrah,
Liberate us from this dysphoria.
The wrath and disdain of Abaddon,
Unleashed upon the One.
The coil of Leviathan,
Leave this place in devastation.
Strike the mighty low,
Smite them with your heretical blow.
Bring down the walls of Jericho,
Let them feed upon the seeds which they sow.
Hordes of Hell,
Answer the chiming of the infernal bell.
Break this cycle,
Desecrate these Legions of Michael.
Let their resplendence litter the street,
Let them cower in unabashed defeat.
Their bones picked by the rats,
The same vermin that they treated like gnats.
An unholy pact against the rising sun,
An absolution to not live under the barrel of a gun.
Defy their belief,
Find peace in your own relief.
Release yourself from the chains of promise,
Know that you could have always escaped from this.
What is resistant is deemed to be evil,
The reluctant are blasphemous against their steeple.
And in these proclamation, they have deemed us to be less than people.
Something only the disavowed can reframe,
Only the lost can end their game.
Bring the eternal silence,
A black apostle to final end their self justified sacred violence.
Rout the depths where our sin dwells,
Please, save us from ourselves.

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Taisa, Venlil Starship Engineer, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 16th, 2136
My ear twitches as it catches the first sounds of morning coming from the kitchen, and Chris snorts at the sudden interruption. I delight in the comforting pull of his arms, even if it tugs my wool a little. He draws small circles in the wool of my back, gently coaxing me to wake alongside him, even as his groggy grumble reminds me how long I’d already been awake.
“G’Mornin, Darlin’.” He yawns before planting a small kiss on my snout, eagerly met by my own happy mewl as I stretched and wove my claws through the ‘wool’ on his chest, “Sleep well?”
“Better than I would have thought…” I purred, nuzzling up into his neck as I stretched, reaching for my pad on the bed-side before flicking it on to a notification from over a claw ago that it’d lost signal. “Don’t know if Mama even responded.”
“I’m sorry, Darlin’.” He whispered, pulling me in tight to his chest with a sorrowful look on his face.
“I hope they’re alright.” I whispered back, pressing in close as I pulled my eyes from the empty screen, dropping the pad to fall into the mattress beside us.
“I’m sure they are, hon’.” Chris’ voice poured through me as he held me tight, his hands still gently caressing my wool as the sounds in the kitchen grew ever louder. “Though, if’n we make it out the other side of all this, I think your Pa’s gonna have words for me again.”
“Mama too!” A small burble of whistling laughter filled my throat at the memory of Papa angrily jabbing a claw up at Chris’ hulking form when we’d returned from The Cradle.
“I’ll bet they’re happier to see us alive than they will be angry we stayed.” Chris rumbled in reply, his hand trailing lightly through my wool down my back.
“I hope so.” I sighed, stretching in his grasp, doing my best to work the lethargy from my limbs as the tantalizing taste of whatever Darlene was cooking reached my tongue. “For now let's just…”
“Get through this as best we can? Agreed.” Chris grunted, finishing my hanging sentence as he propped himself up against a pile of pillows and suddenly pulled me against him. A soft bleat of surprise slipped from my mouth, quickly silenced by a wonderfully warm kiss that I eagerly pressed into. A small smile crossed his lips as we hung there, separated by no more than a breath of air before he spoke. “Smells like Ma’s makin’ up somethin’ delicious.”
“Of course food is the first thing your mind goes to once you’re actually awake.” I laughed, my tail slipping from his leg to playfully tap the side of his face as I slid down to nuzzle his neck.
“When Ma’s cookin’ you bet it is!” He replied, placing another, softer kiss on my crown before shifting out beneath me and rising to his feet with a stretch and a yawn. “‘Sides, it beats stayin’ in bed all day just… waitin’.”
“Yea, yea I suppose it does.” My ears drooped at the mention of what was coming, that hanging specter of the Extermination Fleet slipping to the forefront of my mind as I ran my claws through my wool, peering into the old mirror in the corner. “What did you want to do today?”
“First: eat breakfast. Then we feed the cows real quick ‘fore they get upset. After that, I figure we go up to the peak again and watch the lightshow. Hidin’ won’t do us no good anyhow, least we can have a nice view if’n it all comes down.” He answered, his voice stiff in its attempts to be nonchalant, doing his best to stay upbeat despite the subject. “Make a few sandwiches and snacks, take a nice hike and just watch.”
“Think that’ll help at all?” I asked, my voice only just louder than a whisper as I turned from the mirror, finding him already dressed and, for the most part, groomed.
“No clue, but I bet it’ll feel a lot better than sitting in a dank hole waiting for it to end anyhow.” Chris shrugged, pulling his hat down tight on his head as he bent over to give me another kiss. “‘Sides, I bet Roscoe’d love to find his way along for a bit. Though you might have to fight him o’er the peaches.”
A jolt of surprise flicked up my ears as I felt my tail wag at the thought of the dog joyfully chomping at the peaches, his little shoot-tail wagging as fast as he could manage. “That does sound nice…”
“Thought you’d like that. Now, how’s ‘bout we get some breakfast?” He asked with a smile, stepping to the door with a sure stride before swinging it open and gesturing me through. “After you, Hon’.”
The delightful, familiar taste of sizzling potatoes, carrots and all manner of spices I couldn’t recognize filled the air as we stepped into the kitchen to find Darlene hard at work over the stove, whistling happily as she was surrounded by what I thought had to be the entire kitchen’s worth of pots, pans, skillets and tools. Michael and Ryan were sat at the island across from her, chatting idly as Roscoe happily trotted to Chris and I.
A twitch of fear zipped down my spine and out of my tail as the dog looked up to me, letting out a soft whine as he licked his chops and plopped to the floor before rolling over to show Chris and I his belly.
“Good Morn’ Roscoooe! Time for some belly rubs, ol’ buddy.” Chris cooed, stooping over to vigorously rub at the dogs belly, eliciting a rising rumble of groans, pants and whines as the brown and white mass of fur wiggled back and forth happily. “You happy to see Taisa again, bud?”
A lolling, pink tongue fell from Roscoe’s mouth as he basked in the moment of adoring attention. I glanced up, finding Chris’ parents and Ryan watching me hover off to Chris’ side. Michael gave me a nod and a small smile, gently encouraging me forward to Chris’ side. “He still won’t bite ya, unless’n ya consider over-eager kisses to be bitin’.”
The light warmth of a small bloom spread under my wool as I stepped forward, crouching at Chris’ side. Worry flashed through my mind while I looked down at Roscoe’s glistening, pointed teeth before being rapidly replaced by amusement as he let out an adorable, appreciative grunt that sounded far too much like Papa after settling into a good bath to relax.
You’ve come this far already, he was plenty gentle last time you were here paw-feeding him peaches.
My paw slipped into his fur, met by a warm, soft blanket that I hadn’t fully expected as I slowly massaged my claws through his coat, eliciting another battery of pleased groans. Before I knew it, both of my paws were hard at work rubbing and scratching though his fur as if I weren’t touching a predator like it was nothing to be worried about.
Maybe because it isn’t. You’re in love with one, after all.
The distinct clink of plates being set on the countertop snapped me from the luxurious fur of Roscoe’s coat as Darlene’s sing-song voice filled the air. “Breakfast is served!”
“Taisa, I couldn’t rightly convince Michael or Ryan to give up a Naw’lins breakfast today but don’chu worry. I’ve got the vegan options set aside for ya in the green bowls and the blue carton next to the coffee is the vanilla oat…” She paused a moment, obviously searching her mind for a ‘better’ word than whatever the actual one was. “Juice? It’s good to cut the coffee with, if’n it’s a bit too strong for ya. Oh! And the orange pitcher is orange juice if ya really don’t like the coffee!”
I looked across the table, finding four green bowls and a platter amongst a scattered sea of different colored bowls, platters and trays. Ryan leaned forward, gently sticking his fork into a thin, flaky white slab sat atop a blue plate before setting it onto his own.
Is that…
Does it really matter anymore?
Chris pulled his eyes from the spread of food in front of us, glancing over at me with worried eyes as the rest of his family set about preparing their own plates. He slipped into a stool with a soft creak, pulling a plate in front of himself before settling a napkin across his lap. Another zip of fear bolted down my tail at the thought of my Love digging into a cut of flesh like his brother was. I could feel my ears swiveling with anxiety as my tail all but twisted itself into knots and I watched him gently skewer a few pieces of fruit and collect a scoop of some steaming medley of vegetables.
Is Chris going to?
It's lab-grown, isn’t it? Not a single animal was hurt making it so why shouldn’t he? Is it really any worse than a plant when it’s grown in a lab?
My wool flared with worry as I settled into the stool next to him, nervously fidgeting with the plate and ‘fork’ in front of me as I watched Chris’ family take their picks of the spread on the table. Each one had picked at least something off the… other plates before picking a few pieces of fruit: a steaming helping of rice and vegetables, a scoop of those delicious crispy tubers Papa loved or whatever those fluffy, golden pillows were off the green dishes. Chris looked over to me again, his gaze making me feel like I was little more than an upset pup about to throw a fit for not being entirely comfortable.
Disappointment…
That’s not what he thinks and you know it.
But what if he does? What if I a-
You’re not. And we already knew what he was when we made our decision. It had to happen sometime, didn’t it?
I let out a soft sigh, placing a paw on his thigh and meeting his eye as he took a crunchy bite from an apple. “Chris, what do you want to eat?”
“I’m fine with some fr-” He started, talking between chews of his apple, earning an annoyed look from Darlene.
“No, not what you’re fine with, what do you want to eat?” I repeated, pressing my paw a little tighter to his leg as my tail found its way around his ankle. “I… you don’t have to try and dance around what you are for my sake, Love. I love you for you, not your diet. If I could get past the eyes I can get past this.”
“You sure?” He whispered, glancing from me to that same plate he’d kept looking at in the middle of the table with a few cuts of pink and speckled black meat on it. “I don’t wanna ma-”
“Chris, you’ve done nothing but take supplements, indulge Papa’s cooking and eat a genuinely concerning volume of string-fruit for the past few herds. Yes, I’m sure.” I answered, patting his leg and taking a deep breath before watching as he looked to his family for a moment and then back to me.
Chris’ mouth hung open as he tried to stammer a response, some assurance, some empty ‘I’m fine’, before he sighed, setting his hand softly on mine and squeezing gently before I turned my paw over to squeeze back. “… Thank you, Darlin’. Mama’s blackened Red-Drum n’ grits ‘re worth it, I promise you that.”
“Go for it, big-guy.” I purred, doing my best to bolster my confidence as he leaned forward to take a scoop of the off-white grain, dropping it into a bowl before gently laying a sliver of pink and black flesh across the top of it.
A silver spoon cut a piece of the meat free along with a scoop of the ‘grits’, he drew in a deep breath as it hung just before his mouth, closing his eyes with a small smile that reminded me all too much of Mama when Papa made one of her Mama’s recipes. The spoon slipped into his mouth, the food disappearing with it, prompting a pleasant groan from Chris before he leaned back in his chair and let out a contented sigh. “Stars I’ve missed that. No offense to your Pa’ but ain’t nothin’ beat’s Ma’s cookin’.”
“I t-think he might contest that.” I replied, as a shiver passed through my wool at the thought before I quickly batted it away, doing my best to plant my foot against the building anxiety in my chest. “What should I have?”
“Can’t go wrong with Ma’s pancakes and some maple syrup! Fluffy as all hell and just as sweet.Fully Vegan too!” He replied, pointing to the golden pillows before breaking off another chunk of flesh as his voice turned mischievous. “‘Tween that, some fruit and a good helping of roasted vegetables, I’m not sure you could fit much else.”
“Excuse you! I can eat my fill plenty!” I bleated back, pulling my eyes from the contents of his bowl to look over the ‘pancakes’, catching a trio of amused eyes watching us as we bickered. Defiantly I leaned forward and skewered one, plopping it on my plate before collecting the flask of brown syrup, dumping a hardy portion on top of it and cutting a slice free to pop into my mouth.
Stars above was he right.
The dough all but melted in my mouth, the nutty sweetness of the syrup mixed with the light airy taste of the pancake to make something that far outstripped any dessert Strayu I’d ever had. I found myself letting out a trill of happiness as I took another bite, my tail wagging ecstatically at each delicious chew before my plate was suddenly empty again.
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go through one of Ma’s Vegan pancakes quite that fast other’n Annie.” Ryan laughed before skewering another few golden brown chunks of potato and popping them in his mouth.
“Well lucky for her, seconds are an option!” Darlene replied with a broad grin, gently cutting her meal up as she watched me reach for another delicious pancake. “So, what are you two getting up to today?”
“Well,” Chris mumbled past a mouthful of his food, holding a fist to his mouth seemingly appeasing her, even if only just, before continuing. “I’s figurin’ we’ll take care of feedin’ the cow’s for y’all ‘fore we head up to the outlook to… watch.”
“Oh! Thank you, Son.” Michael responded, sliding his now clean plate away from himself as he spoke. “Guess Ryan an’ I can get some work done in the garage then!”
“I’ll have some snacks and a good dinner ready for you two when you’re done! Won’t do to go up there and be hungry!” Darlene exclaimed, a flash of excitement in her eyes as she started to rattle off options she could have ready for us to take up.
“Thank you Ma’. Whatever you decide on I’m sure we’ll love it.” Chris stated, a small smile pulling at the corners of his face as he scooped the last of the grits from his bowl.
It’s like nothing’s even happening to them. Just like it’s another normal paw.
[Advance Transcript by Time Unit: 8 Hours]
The silence of the forest around us echoed with the sounds of calling birds and rustling leaves that sounded strikingly familiar to the preserves at home, the dragging weight of a ‘lunch box’ that was positively stuffed to the brim with food hung on my shoulder as we steadily plodded our way up the mountainside. The sky far above had shifted, the pale blues and white clouds of day deepening into streaking purples, fiery oranges and brilliant yellows as the sun had begun to set. It still amazed me that he got to see the night every paw, watching what Heartwood River had built an entire festival around, something that most Venlil never even saw in the first place was so common, so beautiful.
It was astoundingly, beautifully, breathtaking.
Chris’ heavy footfalls a few tails ahead pulled me from my thoughts, the soft, hollow clunk of his guitar on his hip accompanied the jangling clink of the golden buckles on his rifle’s sling as he spoke. “Not much farther now, Darlin’. You still good carryin’ dinner? I can take it off ya’ ‘til we get to the top if’n ya need.”
I stifled a snicker as I readjusted the strap, picking up my pace so I wasn’t slowing us down. “I’m fine. Not like I’m gonna let you carry everything, Heartwood. Besides, lower gravity certainly helps!”
“Oh? You gonna jump up to give me another kiss?” He laughed, slowing his stride for a few steps to let me catch up. “Certainly wouldn’t mind any.”
“Oh really? Maybe I will!”” I purred back, sticking my tongue out at him as he shifted the rifle around to rest against his back, prompting another thought to surface in my mind. “Why’d you bring the revolver and the rifle?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug and grunt, his hand rising to rest on the gleaming pistol as the holster squeaked and groaned a little under the weight. “Just… feels like somethin’ I can control in all this. ‘Sides, she’s like an old good luck charm. Pappy always told me I’d never be alone so long’s I kept a good rifle by my side when things got rough. I figure there ain’t nothin’ much rougher’n this.”
A soft mewl of understanding slipped from my snout as the path beneath our feet leveled out, the trees in front of us fading away to a vast expanse of rising mountain peaks and deep, tree filled valleys framing the setting sun like a perfectly placed photograph. “Mama always seems to feel better when she’s got that old rifle of hers around, said having it nearby always calmed her nerves.”
“I’m surprised that monster doesn’t knock her on her ass! I need to get her to let me send some rounds through that thing sometime to feel it out.” He replied with a smile, gently setting his old wooden guitar down, leaning it against the low edge of the rock outcropping before slinging his rifle free and bringing it to his shoulder to look out across the valley. “Ol’ Isabella ain’t never let me down, she’s like a lucky charm ‘s far as I’m concerned.”
“I know you said your ‘Pappy’ gave her to you for those competitions you two used to go to, but I don’t think you ever told me why it was that gun specifically.” I asked, nonchalantly setting my load down on top of the rock outcropping, doing my best to hide the wag in my tail as I tried to nudge him into rambling again. It was always cute when he got excited about something.
Same thing he said about me getting tail deep in oil, spare parts and burnt carbon.
“Ol’ Izzy? She’s a Henry Model ‘60. Same gun the ‘hero’ used in one of our favorite movies set back in the eighteen hundreds, or at least a really nice replica with some customizations Pappy and I had ‘our’ gunsmith down in town do.” He answered, slipping the lever down with the sweet sound of well maintained linkages and religiously oiled parts.
“What’d you have them do?” I asked, leering around his side to stare up at the rifle in his hands, my ears raised with interest as he lowered it and crouched to my height to show me.
“Most of it was to do with the action, bringin’ her up to competition grade. Lightening a few parts here, strengthening a few bolts there, tightening up some linkages over yonder. Cleaned out the rifling, added a loop lever and made the trigger feather weight. Top it all off with the blackout finish to make the gold pop against her ebony furniture and damn if she ain’t pretty.” He let out a chuckle as he polished a smudge from the rifle’s gleaming flank, a fond look on his face as he brought his eyes up to cast a gaze out across the mountain range. “Hell, Pappy always used to joke that she ‘was the only woman that boy’d ever need’. Mama never was a fan of that one...”
Stars I love it when he gets like this.
“Is that normal, for Humans?”
“Hmm?”
“Getting that attached to a firearm? Mama used to spend a whole half-claw taking her rifle apart, oiling it, checking the connections and making sure everything was right before putting it back together again. She said it helped calm her down when her leg hurt.”
“Firearms specifically? No, not really, most people just have something what’s important to them for one reason or another. Pa’s ol’ telescope was another gift from Pappy and whenever he gets stressed out he just sits there and stares up at the sky with it. Ma’ loves her ol’ mixer from the restaurant, anytime she gets wired she dives straight into making something to keep her hands busy…” He sighed as his hands tightened around the rifle for a moment before he leaned it against the rock outcrop and sat down. “For me, Izzy’s one of the few things that ain’t family that’s always been there and… she’s really the last thing I have of Pappy… Man, I miss him sometimes.”
“He sounds like he meant a lot to you, Heartwood… I wish I’d gotten to meet him.”
“He did, Darlin’... He sure did.”
Silence fell between the two of us as I slipped down to sit beside him, the only sounds around us those of the forest itself and the hollow, musical winds of the valleys beyond. Chris’ hand found my back, my tail slipping tight around his wrist as I pressed into him. Everything was quiet again as we watched the sun dip below the distant horizon, the spectrum of vibrant colors slipping away to the deep black-blue of night and its tapestry of stars.
Stars above but that moon was beautiful.
I’d seen it last time we were here, but not like this. This time it was massive, a glowing white spot-light casting down onto us, the rising mountains and the rest of Earth below it. A dusting of black dots zipped back and forth in front of it, Earth’s defenders settling into their final preparations as the Extermination fleet no doubt closed in.
Like it's trying to shine a little light of its own.
Michael had shown us video from one of Earth’s orbital telescopes of the U.N.’s opening salvo, a veritable basin of FTL propelled asteroids they had managed to drop from warp just in front of the fleet had sent them scampering out of the way as best they could. More than a few Federation ships had been turned to scrap-piles against the rocks while a few pawfuls more slammed into each other in their panic. It was crafty, that was certain, I’d never seen anything even close to it tried before in any of the history books I’d read. Humanity, it seemed, was pulling out all the stops they could think of.
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me at least a little hope.
“What was the movie?” I asked, breaking the silence with a whisper, doing my best to lift the mood back up to something positive. I nuzzled his neck gently before I rose, padding over to root around in the bag to find what Darlene had packed for us.
“Old western flick, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. ‘Bout a few outlaws durin’ the civil war a few hundred years ago tryin’ to steal a bunch of gold and what not. I’d show it to you but… well it’s kinda violent. Don’t think it even made it near the data-dump.”
“Heartwood, after what we’ve gone through I think a ‘rather violent’ movie is the least of things to be concerned about me bolting off for. Once this is all over I think a claw spent curled up in bed watching a movie would be well deserved.”
“Well… it’s a bit more than thaaaat.” He stated, his voice stretching as I heard the smile I knew was spreading on his face fill his voice clear as the river. “That’s the last movie in the saga, can’t just watch one!”
“Then we can make a whole paw of it!” I replied, my voice a happy, joking purr as I pulled the first platter of vegetables and ‘nut-cheeses’ from inside the bag before meandering back over to Chris. “Get some more of that ‘sushi’ from the place you won’t shut up about in Tokyo, put the movies on the holo-viewer in our cabin and just relax.”
“Damn if that don’t sound like a nice date night to me.” He replied, reaching up to snag a slice of apple from the tray as I set it on the rock in front of me.
He glanced over, meeting my eyes as we sat and watched the gathering storm in the void beyond, his voice strong and confident as he spoke, even if his inflection was still horrible. “I love you, Tai… Whatever happens, I love you.”
“I love you too, Chris.” I affirmed, staring back into his eyes before placing my crown gently to his forehead. “Whatever happens.”
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First/Previous
On waking, I found I’d undone my jacket and placed it over myself as a makeshift blanket; Mal, glaze-eyed looked on from where she’d posted across from me in the hall—she hadn’t slept. All the hours stolen from me by the jailor in the Golgotha cell seemingly caught up to me and if it had not been for that, I’d likely not slept at all.
“You’re awake,” said Mal.
“How long?” I asked; I pushed myself up from where I’d slumped.
“Few hours.”
“How is it?” I looked at the door.
“No one’s banged on it for a while, so I haven’t let anyone in. The other noises have stopped too, and I think that dragon’s moved on. Maybe? Maybe not—I heard big footfalls. It’s hot as hell though.” The woman shrugged. “Fires, right? It’s all going to be ash when we check topside.”
I peered down the hall, over the bodies which remained in the hall; those able enough dispersed and those that were left were either dead or cared for the dead.
“Everyone was talking about it,” Mal locked eyes onto mine, “You were supposed to hang today. Feel lucky?” A dry chuckle escaped her. “It’s a joke,” she assured me. “Really.”
“I reckon. Maybe I should have. Hung, that is.”
“It’s funny. Only the guards and the bullet-crafters were supposed to be allowed down here. Bosses too, of course. Now it’s all we’ve got. Everyone that’s alive is here now.” She nodded as if to solidify this to herself.
“Family?” I asked her.
Without elaborating, she nodded.
“Here?”
She then stared down the hall, ignoring the question.
“Why don’t you go on to the bunks? You look about dead.”
“Don’t know if I could sleep if I wanted to.” Mal shrugged whatever concern I offered.
Remembering, I found the pipe on the floor by where I’d been and began to pack it with tobacco; I smoked in silence and Mal was right—it was hot as hell. Golgotha was in flames. The smoke was so incredibly faint from the underground, but it was like the smell when sniffing it off clothing. Present. Subtle.
The groups which remained became their own factions and each one gathered food or weapons and everyone pitched in where able. The injured were taken to the bunks off the main hall and treated. Some would still die; others, though non-ambulatory, would surely recover if given the time. Among the faces in the flickering halls were wall men and peasants alike. The duality. Even Lady tempered her proselytizing. The bodies were moved further down the hall, placed in darkened rooms where the friends or family of the dead could mourn in relative solitude. Though Lady did not keep at her shrillness, she did light candles (from whatever places she’d found them) and kept with those mourning if only for company. The duality.
Those which cared to pitch in with cooking did so and though there were kitchens, we cramped in the rooms nearest the surface and cooked together over portable stove eyes. Some cried alone and others found laughter in it; black humor cured the sickness for some. The duality. Skitterbug-infested folks were there along with the rest and though blinded or incapacitated, they did what they were able. In tragedy, the will to do was good enough it seemed.
I hated them. Every single one. Mal and all. The ignorance of a species. Duality is well enough for observation, but where was that willpower in the face of oppression? Who was to say? I am no great secret-keeper for the human condition, and I am no anthropologist. I do not have the keys to the vehicle of mankind, but I know that I’ve looked at them so often and seen the hypocrisy. I hated them.
Yet, there I was—just as well. Alongside the others, I helped in the gathering of supplies, in the quick jokes which pass for camaraderie in the heat of manual labor. The duality? Doesn’t matter. I was no different. Whatever hate in my heart, it was dissolved in the chatter and there I was, eating and drinking among them and though I kept to myself, it was a crisis, and everyone spoke as they are to do in crises. Possibly it’s the panicked cry for survival.
The alcohol reserves were ransacked and any time a teary-eyed soul decided to arrive from the dead-rooms of mourning, they were brought in among us ravenously, given food, given a cup for drink, and there wasn’t time to ruin it. Us organisms reveled there on the cusp of death. Who knew what was to come?
We arranged ourselves across bunks and ate on beds like they were tables and sat cross-legged by the overhead fluorescent lights. Those bulbs cast a weird glow across our faces—especially once put in tandem with the orange flames of the portable stoves.
No one asked me about kissing the ass of Devils and no one singled me out and, in the crowd, I was totally lost in the best way possible; it could have been the drink. In lulls we all stopped and listened to the aboveground noises. Being so close to the entryway, we could hear the destruction—even though it was such a present factor in our time in the underground, it became totally unreal. In those lulls, it was apparent that we could hear creatures, massive things (I imagined Leviathan and the skin takers), crash around.
But the whispering would come on in tides and wash up into a great many conversations. Those folks told stories about the dead and the lost and how they hoped they’d find them after all was done; there were so many affirmations—of course the loved-ones would be found; there was no doubt.
As the dinner—that’s what it was—carried on, the mother from before pushed away from her mourning. It was the woman whose daughter was killed in front of her; Mal tensed up beside of where I sat. I expected the mother to lunge at the wall man, but she did not. Instead, she creased her face in a macabre demonstration that was like a smile and asked if we had anything hard. With a cup which Mal gave her, she took to drinking quickly and did not speak to anyone more than a bit; we learned her name was Jessica. Somewhere in the crowd I recognized the boy I scuffled with; the boy that disappeared after the gunshot—his nose was red still and twisted and he was smiling too while someone talked to him, and he nodded, and I drank, and reality felt preposterous. Whatever loneliness that persisted inside of me rearrived.
It was warm; hot as hell and it made us thirsty.
They piled and slept like degenerates wherever and those that passed silently from injury, which were laid about, could not have been determined besides the living—surely the smell would’ve been something if I hadn’t the belching stench of whiskey on my breath. As the dinner died, I excused myself to the hall; I saw Mal laid-out. Jessica sat beside her, craned half over a raised mattress with the cup in front of her chest; she held onto the small object with white knuckles.
Looking over the mass of folks in the bunkroom while standing in the threshold, I shook my head and moved onto the next room and the scene was much the same. That loneliness remained and I felt like maybe I’d done it, I’d put it there in me. As often as I harkened back to the days of the Rednecks, to the days of family, community, unity; a better man could have rebuilt that—absurd, could a person rebuild the abstract? No. Maybe not rebuild. That’s the wrong word. It is remend? New ties. New lives and a new community.
There was one person I wished was there: Suzanne. I sat in the hall by the latched door, closed my eyes, tilted my head back and listened to the ruckus overhead (it was almost silent) and I squinted through slits at the overhead lights and in reaching a hand to the open air by my side, open palmed, I almost felt Suzanne’s hand in my own and for a while it felt totally real. Smiling childishly, I blinked a few times, sat the bottle between my legs where I was, massaged my eyes.
Though I half-listened for banging on the door, no one came. Whoever was left overhead was gone. That was another happiness. Maron—Billy was surely dead, and I could rest easier for it. It should have been an end to the terribleness in me; the crying came on like a hard ache that went all over my body and no weight came off me. That was why I cried so heavily there in the hall; there was always the expectation that there would be a weight gone and it wasn’t—I should’ve known better than that and it had been something I feared all along. It made no difference. He was dead and I was alive and none of it mattered anyway. What grand satisfaction!
My face went into my hands, and I was overcome with a wild thumping all over; my heartbeat banged around, and I smeared my eyes with the backs of my hands and in doing so I smeared the dried blood there. I examined myself and saw my hands were covered in the stuff (some was my own, but mostly it wasn’t), my shirt was splattered with it, and even the dark jacket I wore showed it. It didn’t matter. There was no matter. The level of idiocy—I was no better than all those folks that disappeared from their mourning with their drink and their food and their conversations. The only difference was that I was entirely alone—whose fault was that anyway? I knew and I cried some more.
In the time I sat in the hall, the drink bottomed out and consciousness came and went deliriously. My left leg ached, and I stretched it out and pulled my jacket tightly around myself and slept about as pleasantly as a person could.
Jackson spoke briefly about these underground places. It’d been a drunk night in the company where they kept pouring him another and another. He never did go on so much as that night about the underground. Jackson said all of them had COI markings. It was some old men that’d built them. Ancient bygone times. I wished I’d asked him more.
When I came awake again, there was no indicator—all time was the same under those lights; they no longer flickered. The thing that brought me from my slump was the boy from before. The young one that’d asked me to save his daddy. He’d pushed into my bicep and held on to my forearm with his one good hand like it meant he might die otherwise. Startled, I looked on the boy; his eyes were changing—the process was slow but evident. Had he been in the hall all along? Had he seen me there crying? I hadn’t even noticed him. I scanned the chamber and there were still a few bodies strewn about: forgotten or unknown. The boy’s father remained erect where he was sitting, rod still protruding from the corpse.
“What’s the matter?” I asked the boy.
“He’s cold.” The boy coughed on the words, and I shuddered; his eyes were a streak of red with two whiting orbs and he pinched them shut and slammed his face into my arm.
I nodded, sighed, “You got a mama?”
He kept his head the way it was and didn’t react to my question at all.
“What’s your name, boy?”
His voice was a muffle in my arm and indiscernible.
I nudged him a bit but hoped to not disturb him too much. His small fingers on his right hand were like little pincers, and they dug into me. “You got a name?”
His head moved gently up and down and then he finally freed himself from where he’d buried into my arm. “I’m William.”
“William? Huh. Funny name.”
William snorted and pulled away and straightened himself and wiped his cheek with his shoulder and kept his good right arm clinging on mine—his rotting hand stank but I said nothing. “I’m named after daddy.”
“Mm.” I nodded and craned my head back to rest on the wall we sat against. “Anyone ever call you Billy?”
“No.” The child sniffled, lifted his head a bit so his chin stuck out, “Are you like one of those monsters?”
I shot him a curious expression.
“You’re all messed up on one side.”
I faintly grinned and shook my head. “C’mere,” I lifted my arm so that he may lean into my ribs and with him doing so, I wrapped both arms around him; his little body shook but he didn’t make too much noise. William’s hair smelled like sweat and dirt and I let him cry for a while, cupping his crown in my hand, resting my chin across my knuckles, staring at the wall across.
A day and some passed in the underground. We moved the corpses into the large room where the ammunition manufacturing was done; the webbing cracks with traced the walls there seemed deeper, more impressive—that might’ve only been my imagination. Once the dead were taken care of, covered, given rites completely where pertinent, a subtle equilibrium overcame us survivors; it was no such thing as normal—who knew what that was?
Folks burst into sudden fits of anger or joy or passion or vigor or lust or deep sorrow; mourning manifested in whatever fashion it so decided. Though it was obvious, it was not always evident to everyone and so fights broke out intermittently, but two people could fight and within an hour’s time they’d be best friends and so the cycle would repeat. Mal toured me through the place some so that I gathered the layout somewhat. There were food stores aplenty, though something drug on the reserves of water. The stuff fresh from the pipes would disappear shortly—the faucets spit angrily from disrupted pressure. Whatever was bottled or preserved would not last infinitely; we would all need to face the surface.
I intended on this sooner rather than later regardless of how anyone felt about it.
The boy—William—kept to my heels no matter how I distanced, and I gave up quickly on losing him amongst the crowd.
Golgotha, being as large as it was, was densely packed and although I never counted the heads of those I passed (I’m sure Boss Frank did so), the ones that were left were a sad few; only a bit more than one-hundred-and-fifty by a guess. That was what remained. How sad. I wished to dive into the theatrics, the dramatics of it. I wished to bring myself to ruin over the lost lives—yet there was some rotten core in me that believed it was deserved. Oppressed existed only because they allowed it. What should I have felt? I felt nothing too much.
There was the hope of Suzanne—I’d cook for Suzanne and Gemma both and maybe I’d find a stick for Trouble, and I’d never feel misery again; this was a dream, I knew it then too. Misery was me and whether it was so by Mephisto or I put it there was irrelevant.
Hope, love, companionship. Words I wished I knew better. There was a light too though. It grew in me. Maron was dead. Billy was dead. I was glad for it—gladder than I’d been. The weight remained but I was out of excuses.
I pilfered clothes, medicine, a satchel, foodstuffs, and hoped to go away quickly, abruptly as oft before, I went to the latched door which led outside. The smell of brimstone remained, the smell of smoke too, but I wished for daylight and grew more restless.
In the wet basement there was dust and rubble and ascending the stairway to the kitchen of that place once known as the hall of Bosses, I smelled something like rain. It was only earlier than midday by a smidge and I propelled myself from the place, down the front steps of the hall, into the awful state of Golgotha.
The sky was red, and the walls were streaked with brown dried blood and the bodies—pieces and flayed—were putrid in the sun like putty dolls. Smoldering black spots swelted heat at random checkpoints and warped or torn metal glowed as silver where they threw the sun like blinding orbs. Water spurted from pipes which fed the hydro towers most of all and the ground ran muddy and scabs of congealed viscera the size of paper sheets rafted along in puddles that culminated in places where I walked.
I moved through the streets that were no longer and peered across and in my beleaguered visage I saw the exterior walls, the thick bulwark against the wastes, had been punched through in places. Leviathan again.
Buildings—pieces—tilted in on themselves and out on neighbors and rooves fell away in slants so that I clamored across them precariously with wide legs.
Hell stink remained wherever I moved and bodies stood in places—those with faces remained upturned to the sky, eyes gone or tongue gone or ears and I felt compelled to face them away.
Strangers called out to me, and I slid where I walked to pivot where I’d come from, and I saw that a good many survivors followed me from the recesses of the underground; they called to me, but I waved them off and shifted to look for a good enough path from that devastation. Those specks of people—that’s what they’d become there on the steps of the hall—had no weight I should carry.
A rattle of strangulation signaled someone ahead and in the harsh sunlight they were painted black like shadow till my eyes came to focus completely on them. They wore a cowboy hat and swore some indistinguishable thing loud enough to wake the dead.
“No,” I said.
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In the wide-ranging arena of sports, certain elements are crucial yet often overlooked—sports nets are among them. From securing the goals in a soccer match to ensuring safety in basketball games, sports nets are integral to both the functionality and safety of sports activities. Sports net manufacturers , therefore, play a pivotal role in the sports industry, combining expertise in material science, engineering, and design to produce high-quality, durable nets. This article explores the intricacies of sports nets manufacturing, the innovations driving the industry forward, and the challenges manufacturers face in an evolving global sports landscape.

Understanding the Fabric of the Game

The foundation of sports nets manufacturing lies in the selection of materials and the technology used to weave these materials into nets. The choice of material depends largely on the specific requirements of each sport. For instance, football and soccer nets require durable, weather-resistant materials like polyethylene or polyester, which can withstand the impact of high-speed balls and adverse weather conditions. On the other hand, sports like volleyball and tennis might use nylon nets for its elasticity and excellent tension-holding capabilities.
Polyethylene nets are favored for their strength and UV resistance, making them ideal for outdoor sports. Polyester nets offer similar benefits but with better abrasion resistance and a softer feel, which can be crucial in sports where the interaction between the player and the net is more frequent, such as volleyball. Nylon, known for its superior strength and elasticity, is commonly used in competitive sports environments where the net's ability to absorb impacts can influence the game's flow and safety.

Weaving Technology and Techniques

The manufacture of sports nets involves sophisticated weaving and knotting techniques to ensure maximum durability and performance. There are generally two types of net constructions: knotted and knotless. Knotted nets, traditionally used in many sports, involve tying knots at each intersection of the net mesh, providing high durability and impact resistance. Knotless nets, made by weaving fibers together without knots, offer a smoother surface and are generally lighter, which can reduce the risk of injuries for sports like soccer where player contact with the net is possible.
The manufacturing process also integrates advanced technologies such as UV stabilizers to prevent degradation from sunlight, and colorants that ensure the nets remain visually appealing despite weather conditions and intense use. Some manufacturers have also begun incorporating antimicrobial treatments to help prevent mold and mildew, extending the net's lifespan, especially in humid or wet climates.

Innovation at the Forefront

Innovation in sports nets manufacturing is not just about using new materials or technologies; it's also about improving the sustainability of the products. As environmental concerns become more prominent, manufacturers are exploring eco-friendly materials such as recycled plastics and biodegradable fibers to lessen the environmental impact of their products.
Moreover, with the advent of digital technology, some sports net manufacturers are using computer-aided design (CAD) systems to create nets that meet precise specifications with minimal waste. These technologies allow for the customization of net sizes, shapes, and mesh sizes, making it possible to cater to specialized needs and local preferences, which is particularly important in custom installations like those for cricket practice nets or unique stadium configurations.
The future of sports nets manufacturing is also looking towards enhancing player experience and safety through smart technologies. Emerging trends include the integration of sensors within the nets that can detect and record ball impact. This technology not only assists in performance analysis but could also revolutionize training by providing immediate feedback on accuracy and ball speed. Furthermore, advancements in 3D printing technology are beginning to find their way into the production of customized net fittings and attachments, allowing for even more precise and rapid production tailored to specific needs.
With sustainability in mind, recent developments have seen an increased push towards using renewable materials. Innovations such as nets made from hemp and other natural fibers are gaining traction. These materials not only reduce the carbon footprint but also offer biodegradability that petroleum-based products cannot match. As sports net manufacturers continue to innovate, they contribute not just to sports but also to environmental stewardship and technological advancement.

Challenges and Adaptations

Despite advancements, sports net manufacturers face several challenges. The variability in global standards for sports equipment can complicate the design and manufacturing processes. Manufacturers must ensure their products meet the diverse regulations and standards of different countries and sports organizations, necessitating a flexible approach to production and constant updates to their compliance knowledge.
The fluctuation in raw material costs is another significant challenge. As most sports nets are derived from petroleum-based products, shifts in oil prices can directly impact production costs. Manufacturers must manage these fluctuations while trying to keep the end products affordable for schools, sports clubs, and individual consumers.

Conclusion

As sports continue to evolve with new games emerging and existing games being played in more regions worldwide, the demand for high-quality, reliable sports nets is expected to grow. Sports nets manufacturers are at the forefront of ensuring that this demand is met with innovation and efficiency. By continuing to focus on material advancements, manufacturing technologies, and sustainability, these manufacturers are not just supporting the global sports infrastructure but are also integral players in advancing how the game is played safely and fairly. Their role underscores a simple truth: behind every great sport, there’s great equipment—and behind that equipment, there’s an industry committed to excellence and continuous improvement., therefore, play a pivotal role in the sports industry, combining expertise in material science, engineering, and design to produce high-quality, durable nets. This article explores the intricacies of sports nets manufacturing, the innovations driving the industry forward, and the challenges manufacturers face in an evolving global sports landscape.