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Hi everyone, I'm currently renovating my rented apartment, and after listening to the same 30 songs on repeat on the radio for 3 days straight, I'm in dire need of a/some good audiobook(s).
I want something about a pandemic, or a viral outbreak, preferably where everything goes slowly downhill. Doesn't necessarily need to feature zombies, but that's certainly okay to have.
Please don't recommend me WWZ, or Mountain Man, I checked them out and I didn't like them.
I tried Christina Kersey's books, but the characters were flat and boring, and the plot felt like someone tried to sell me a water-cornstarch mix as a sauce hollondaise.
I did enjoy R R Haywood's The Undead (for the most part).
Got anytthing for me?

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18 years old high school student (bac) let's say i moved out of my parents home (there's already a place where i can go) so technically i won't be paying rent and bills at first My question is can i manage to get a job there no matter how little the pay or how hard it is because it's only gonna be temporarily for the fact that i didn't complete my studies and i don't have any diploma yet

So I live in a shared house and this one lady is a bitch from hell. We basically ran out of electricity so I asked everyone to help put towards more. And because I asked she went on about how it's all my fault. I shower to much, I cook to much basically blaming everything on me. I use a gas stove most of the time and shower every 3 days and I've always been very aware of my usage. I've already paid the extra units but she hasn't now we have 5 kw left and this morning she went off at me again for how it's unfair they have to pay for me.
On Friday she went at me for the second time as well as my partner and the other guy who said he'd pay once he gets paid but no one wants to put in because she's the only one refusing to pay extra and we'd essentially all have to pay for her. She's 65 and unemployed do we don't even know if she's gonna pay rent etc and the landlord refuses to get involved. But she refuses to pay us utilities so we're in a tight spot.
Electricity talk is very triggering for me because I got kicked out for supposedly raking up a 2k bill at my grans house from using a computer. My uncle wanted me gone and all the blame was placed on me. He has 5 consoles and 3 TVs but my shitty can barely run anything 300watt pc was causing all the problems I was currently working online and studying as we were on a farm and they didn't want me to pay more because they'd go up a tarrif so I had to leave. So her blaming me alone and not taking into consideration the fact it's winter down here set me off into a complete hysteric episode on Friday. I tried to stab myself to death with a key and run out the house. My boyfriend had to wrestle the key out of my hand and pin me the floor until I calmed down. Basically screaming that everything is my fault and that they must just kill me if they hate me so much. Basically I was screaming begging for death she heard this. Well I left the room and then have brief memories of the episode. It toon a while to calm down and I chain smoked like 6 cigarettes. I've been trying to avoid her and just run into my room when she approaches me. We've all basically decided we'd rather not have electricity for a few days than live with someone like her so we're not gonna replace the units if only enough for the fridge until she pays her part. Not sure if we will have to go to the police because I'm scared I'm gonna flip and I have no idea how to handle it as of yet only been in therapy for a few months. I was thinking of just taking a ton of weed to try and forget she exists and go numb but I can't go into the kitchen to eat and stuff without her coming in and harassing me. I did mention that if she speaks to me again like that I'm gonna take it further.
We all feel like prisoners in our own place because of her and the landlord won't do anything. I've been searching for a new place everyday but it's hard in this area :(

I'm a reality shifter
Here's a subreddit about it:
https://www.reddit.com/shiftingrealities/
I recently had two glitches or mini-shifts in this reality
I was first in a rented apartment (a room, a small kitchen and a bathroom), the bathroom was in the corridor, and to get there you had to go through a plain brown door.... The first day was nothing unusual, I closed the door for the night (I say this, to let you know that I was very close to that door)....the next day, when I approached the door for the second time....they had a plain gray key in the lock....I stared at it for a few moments in surprise, wondering if did I miss this key? It wasn't there before...
The second time I had it was the turn of the night....I was writing something in a journal on my computer, so I looked at the date....it was close to midnight - 11:53?, I don't remember the exact time, but it was definitely a few minutes to midnight, so I wrote it down the date of the next day instead of the previous one....
Moments later, I look at the clock on my laptop....11:35 pm! The clock on the phone showed the same .... as if I went back in time by about 20 minutes ....
Sorry for posssible mistakes, English is not my first language

This is Part 2 because of the character limit, go here to get caught up: https://www.reddit.com/TheDarkGathering/comments/13urkbj/the_thing_in_the_cracks_part_1/
Talbot awoke in a round corridor. At least he thought that’s what it was. The corridor seemed to be made of dark stone, rough and ridged like a worm’s tunnel, but on a massive scale. Despite no visible light source, Talbot found he could make out every detail in the space around him.
Talbot shakily stood up and considered his situation. His hands were shaking. He supposed nearly getting killed by lethal injection and then shattering the very fabric of reality itself took a toll on the psyche. He reflexively reached for his notebook to note that down, and with a pang remembered that it was gone. He would likely never see it again.
Glancing around, Talbot wondered at how normal everything looked, considering he was in the fifth dimension. There was likely more going on under the surface, but from his vantage it just looked like an oddly lit cave.
Talbot noted that there was no sign of Willis. He’d distinctly remembered the other man getting pulled through time and space with him, but at some point during the traversal his hand had been wrenched away from Talbot’s wrist. Had he been shunted back to their reality, or was he here somewhere?
A deep rumble began to grow beneath Talbot’s feet. The entire cave shook like an earthquake as Talbot scrambled to the side of the tube.
Confused, the man glanced around. He saw no probable cause for the rumbling, no subterranean vehicles or even geological fissures that could explain the vibrations.
Turning, he realized with a start that the rumbling was slightly stronger on one side of him. If it was directional, there was an actual source, not just a general shaking of the environment.
Talbot began moving away from the rumbling, as it continued to grow stronger.
Eventually, he broke into a full run as everything around him shook. He felt like his skull was going to burst. It felt like something was chasing him, a massive subterranean beast.
As the rumbling kept growing, Talbot tripped. Out of nowhere, his foot slipped and he sprawled to the ground, crying out as he landed on his arm. He tried to get back up, which was when he realized there was something right behind him.
Talbot hit the deck, right as something zoomed directly above his head. Wind pulled at his hair and it felt like he was directly under a train.
Talbot screamed, but it was drowned out by the impossibly loud whoosh of the thing above him. He gingerly flipped onto his back, barely staying clear of the surface of whatever was making the sound, in order to see what was above him.
There was nothing but empty space.
Then, he could suddenly see a long gray tube rushing past impossibly quickly. Then it was gone again, but the rushing was still there. It was blinking in and out of existence, only appearing for short bursts, but still there in its invisible state. Talbot realized that it must be dipping in and out of the Fifth Dimension, his own limited perception unable to comprehend its greater state.
Eventually, the thing slowed and stopped. As it was still, Talbot got a better look at it.
It was definitely organic. The exterior of the tube had a pale gray color, with a texture not unlike skin. However, as opposed to the neat, even lines separating cells on human skin, the striations on the thing seemed almost random, forming a surface that, although smooth, had the jagged impression of rough crags.
As Talbot examined the thing and wished he’d brought a camera, he heard something. From the object’s direction of origin, a deep groan emanated from lord-knew-where. Talbot winced as it hit his ears, the bellow deafening. He could immediately detect three things about the cry, judging by the cadence and the way it had slowly grown from an origin point. First, it definitely came from a living thing. Nothing artificial made that noise. Second, it came from very far away. And thirdly, it came from something massive. Impossibly so.
From the other direction, so comparably quiet he barely heard, Talbot made out a shriek that was horribly human.
The thing above him shifted and despite having almost a foot of clearance, Talbot instinctively sucked in his gut.
The tube… the limb began moving in the opposite direction, back towards its origin point.
Like a train, it started slowly but accelerated quickly, beginning to blink in and out of Talbot’s vision once again.
Talbot heard the scream again, closer this time. It seemed likely that whatever this thing was had found and grabbed another person.
After several long moments, the end of the limb finally reached Talbot, shooting past and above him like a tape measure shooting back into its shell when a button was pressed.
After it passed, Talbot sprang to his feet and finally got a good look at the end of the thing’s limb. The actual tube rounded off, dispelling any predictions about a monstrous tentacle. However, what was on the end of the limb may’ve been even more horrible.
Four long finger-like appendages were arranged around the limb radially, each one emerging from the edge of the flat tendril end. They were unnaturally thin, and despite somewhat resembling fingers, they had no visible knuckles and were tipped with sharp claws that appeared to be made of bone. They bent in, each holding their prey in place. Their prey in question was Tim Willis, currently pulling against the monstrous cage. The four outer digits pressed on each of his limbs, drawing blood where they poked him.
The limb, and Willis with it, disappeared around a bend in the tunnel. Talbot ran after it. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, or if he was going to save the man, but he knew that no matter what happened, he wanted to see it.
For a long while Talbot chased the thing, barely keeping pace due to his cardio experience. During the run, whatever existed here continued bellowing, getting louder each time. In addition, each time he set his foot down, the ground felt slightly warmer.
Eventually he fell back, and lost sight of the thing completely. It was impressive that a man of his age and lifestyle had managed to follow the thing for so long, but he had to take a knee as exhaustion racked him. He continued following its path, but at a slower pace.
Eventually Talbot emerged into a much larger chamber. The air here was blistering, and the intermittent bellows had grown so loud that Talbot had to cover his ears every few minutes to keep from suffering permanent damage.
This cavern left him speechless.
Unlike the passage, with its unidentifiable neutral lighting, this cavern was dark, intermittently lit by what appeared to be giant glowworms, each perched on a rock surface and oozing an ugly orange aura into the space around it.
Less than half of the room was lit, but it was enough for Talbot to see that the remaining more-than-half was taken up by a monstrous… thing the same shade as the limb.
It was like a spider, in the same way that a massive dragonfish from the bottom of the sea is like a goldfish. Its main body was shaped like a blimp, and about the size of one too. A large abdomen sagged beneath it as it hung in the exact center of the room, and eight radially symmetrical limbs stuck to eight points around the cavern, suspending it in the middle of the room, and making it look like the center of a giant wheel, each limb serving as the spokes.
This facsimile was somewhat broken by the auxiliary limbs attached to its thorax, countless smaller tendrils identical to the one that held Willis. Some hovered around the thing’s ‘face’, while others darted towards countless holes in the rock around the cavern. As they moved, they blinked in and out of Talbot’s vision as they tapped into primordial forces beyond his eyes.
The cavern was dotted with holes, all exactly the same size and shape as the one Talbot stood in the lip of now. He realized that this thing and its countless appendages must’ve bored into the stone around it, creating a labyrinthine lair not dissimilar to an ant’s hive, but with one crucial difference. Rather than hundreds of tiny workers, this entire place had been built by, and for, one monstrous being.
Talbot was so stunned by the beast that he didn’t notice one of its many tendrils coming straight for him.
It appeared directly in front of his face, resulting in a jumpscare that sent him tumbling backwards, falling onto his back.
The thing moved like a snake, if a snake was constantly flipping between visible and invisible.
It struck, speeding downwards towards the chemist. Talbot braced for impact, but just before it could hit him it disappeared.
Talbot sat relieved, as it had apparently teleported somewhere else.
That was until it reappeared with the fingers around his torso.
The tendril had re-manifested just past him, the fingers clipping partway into the floor as they cradled him. Talbot felt four small pricks in his back and the backs of his thighs, where the claws had pierced his flesh.
The thing pulled him upwards, the fingers embedded in the ground breaking out of the stone beneath him and sending chunks of rock several feet in all directions.
The tendril shot up towards the ceiling of the cavern, rising what must’ve been 60 feet in half a second. Talbot could barely see the ground around the tendril, far enough below to dizzy him.
Talbot saw stars.
Talbot wished he could see the stars.
The tendril took him, in a daze, towards the thing’s face. As Talbot grew closer, he heard a ragged hissing, like an oxygen tank leaking. He realized it was the monster breathing, but immediately was unsure once its head turned toward him.
Its head was roughly human-shaped, but utterly inhuman in every other way. Five dark pits, facsimiles of eyes, were arranged in a pentagonal shape on the top half of its face. The bottom half was flat skin, but flat skin that seemed to be vertically stretched, as though it’d been draped over some opening. That was possibly where the breathing was coming from, but there was no way to tell with no actually apparent orifice.
The thing seemed to sniff Talbot, despite having no nose. Then it turned, and brought another piece of potential food to its head.
With a start, Talbot realized Willis was still alive. Or at least, unconsumed. He hung limp from his tendril, held in place by the finger-things and seemingly unconscious.
But the Thing wasn’t interested in either of them, not yet at least. It brought one of its tendrils up to its head before plunging it directly toward a nearby rock face. Right before it made contact, it disappeared.
Talbot reached towards Willis, but he was just outside of his reach. He didn’t want to yell to the man. The thing had no ears, but there was no guarantee that it couldn’t hear somehow.
The tendril that the thing had sent away reappeared, seemingly partially buried in the rock face. The thing wrenched its tendril from the rock, leaving behind a shallow pockmark in the cave.
Skewered on the spine was a small man. He flailed wildly and screamed something in a language Talbot didn’t know. He was wearing a business suit, but his pants were around his ankles, with baby blue boxers underneath.
Talbot wondered where he’d come from, then realized with a start that he’d likely originated from the real world. Meaning that this thing could reach beyond this reality and into their reality. Oh shit. Maybe he should’ve listened to Talc. If he and Willis hadn’t breached the Fifth Dimension, maybe the thing couldn’t’ve done the same, and this man might still be safe out there.
The thing brought the man towards its face and did the strange sniffing motion again. Satisfied, it brought him even closer. Talbot, despite himself, was curious to see how it consumed prey, and so paused in his attempts to wake Willis in order to watch.
The man screamed as the tendril brought him right up to the thing’s face, and then the thing’s face disappeared, moving through the Fifth Dimension in the same way as its tendrils.
When it reappeared, it was halfway inside the man, the smooth layer of skin clipped through his abdomen.
The thing pulled its head back.
Talbot turned away as a bloodcurdling scream and a terrible ripping sound reverberated through the cavern. He reached for Willis again, and to his surprise, found that he could reach him. He tapped him on the shoulder, and when he got no response, he slapped him in the face. Willis stirred, and slowly opened his eyes. He put a hand to his face and frowned. “Ow,” he said quietly.
Talbot put a finger to his lips and indicated the beast’s head with his eyes, and the gruesome consumption of the poor man.
Willis seemed to get the message. He quietly started prying each finger off of his body, praying that the thing had no nerves in the spines.
Talbot turned back towards the creature, which had repeated the teleportation maneuver a few more times before finally swallowing what remained of the man. Seemingly not quite satiated, Talbot’s tendril began to move as it pulled him closer to its face.
Talbot’s eyes widened and he looked back at Willis in fear. The man made a motion that suggested Talbot should try to stay calm, and that Willis would be along as soon as he’d freed himself.
Talbot tensed as he was pulled along, not wanting to be brought any closer to the monster. The thing brought him up to its face, and seemed to study him with the light-sensitive divots in its face. Talbot glanced back at Willis to see that he’d moved 2 of 4 fingers out of place. The larger man shot him a reassuring nod.
Turning back to the monster, Talbot realized that the other man wouldn’t get here in time. The thing was already lunging its head forward, and it blinked away.
It reappeared with Talbot’s shins inside its face. Behind the skin, Talbot’s feet could feel a damp cavity, so there was presumably a mouth of some sort behind the surface, and it wasn’t just solid flesh. A row of teeth closed around his legs, but not hard. They worked more to keep him in place than to actually damage his legs.
Talbot took a second to wonder why the hell he was considering the consumption mechanics of something that was actively chopping off his legs.
The tendril moved backwards, pulling Talbot away from the thing.
These last few lucid seconds, Talbot’s brain reverted to factory reset settings. Instead of hearing the wet tear of both his legs, or the strangely cartoonish wet pop as the bones in both his shins were yanked away from his kneecaps, he found himself focusing on the strangest things.
Talbot considered the glowworms. Were they native to the Fifth Dimension, or had they come here from his, or another, Earth? If they were native, the convergent evolution with Earth glowworms, especially in an environment so alien, was coincidental to an unfathomable degree. If they had originated from Earth, however, why the orange glow? No glow worms on Earth glowed orange. Also, if they were Earthly, why did the thing not eat them? Did it only eat humans? Was it that cunning? That cruel?
Oh, Talbot realized, I’m falling.
He blacked out before hitting the ground.
Talbot’s first thought upon waking up was, Holy shit, I’m still alive. His second thought was, Holy shit, how the hell am I still alive?
His inner ear told him he was prone, but it’d been on the fritz ever since he’d arrived, so he opened his eyes to make sure. They confirmed what his ear was saying, and he took a quick second to thank all his organs for functioning so well under stress.
Willis sat next to him, notably more intact. He was wearing no shirt, and both his abdomen wound and Talbot’s stubs were bound in the fabric of an Anderson Innovations janitor’s uniform.
Talbot started staring at his abs, which caused Willis to glance down at him.
The other man cleared his throat. “Oh, you’re still alive?”
Talbot nodded softly. “Does it not know where we are?”
“Not yet,” Willis shrugged, “It has no eyes and didn’t see us escape, so it’s sending out tendrils through each passage, and hasn’t picked this one yet. I guess we got lucky when I dragged you in here.”
“Yeah. Why is that, by the way? You were just about to kill me before I trapped you in a hellish cave dimension.” He considered his words. “Which would only be more reason to kill me.”
Willis shook his head and chuckled tiredly. “Call me an idealist, but I didn’t join a group called the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity to kill people. I’m not good at holding grudges.”
“Then why were you gonna kill me when we were still out there?”
“It’s different. I had orders. Now Talc isn’t here, so it’s my decision. The real question is how are you still alive even with my intervention?”
Talbot shrugged, which made him dizzy. “ I’m on my way out. That blood loss will kill me in a couple minutes, if that thing doesn’t find us first.”
Talbot glanced around the environment for the first time, and realized they were once again in one of the small side tubes. Loud bellowing filled the air as the thing presumably scoured its domain for the two men.
“Well, at least our sacrifice will save the rest of humanity.” Willis proclaimed.
Talbot chortled.
“What?” Willis responded.
“Didn’t you see the other guy get eaten?”
“What?! There was another guy?!”
“Yeah, it stole him from our world.”
“Goddammit Talbot, Talc said that would happen!”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Talbot said, in a tone that didn’t sound very sorry.
“At least it was just once. Talc has your notes, so he’ll keep it from happening again.”
Talbot almost guffawed.
“Goddammit, what am I doing that’s so funny?!”
“No, it’s not you. Well, it is you, a little, but it’s mostly the fact that I… may’ve doomed humanity anyway.”
Willis was silent, which Talbot regrettably took as a prompt to continue.
“Cause you see,” the scientist slurred, getting more light-headed by the second, “before I tried to ship off the notebook to Johnson, I ripped out the most important parts and sent ‘em to Vincent Anderson, my boss.”
Willis remained silent.
“So, you know. Hopefully someone publishes that in a journal somewhere so that people can actually remember me.”
Willis punched him in the face, hard.
Once he recovered, Talbot nodded. Blood ran from his nose. “I deserved that. I’m sorry, I didn’t know that learning how to break reality would allow a Great Old One to start eating people.”
Willis shook his head in disgust. “Talc told you not to. Do you really think your legacy is more important than the survival of our species?”
Talbot didn’t respond. Whether it was because he was speechless or dead was unclear, and didn’t really matter in any case.
Willis turned and limped away.
Two days after Willis and Talbot disappeared to the Fifth Dimension, Talc said goodbye to… himself and Willis-2, and used a Seal of Traversal to return to his native dimension. He reported to his boss that Willis was gone and would not be returning, before going to Talbot’s house and opening the door with the key they’d taken from the scientist.
Talc went into Talbot’s kitchen and fetched a can of tuna and a jar of mayonnaise. He mixed the two together and filled the pet bowl on the counter. Noting that there was some left, he made himself a tuna sandwich and sat next to the bowl.
It took Ozymandius a while to approach Talc, and even longer to warm up to him. However, the cat was curled up against the delicate man, purring like an engine, by the time the sunset rolled around and they both watched it out the large windows at the back of Talbot’s house.
Talc’s phone rang.
“Yello?” Talc said to the unknown caller.
“Hey.”
Talc immediately tensed. The voice was, undeniably, Talbot’s.
“What is this?!? Where are you?!?”
When the Talcs and Willis had reviewed the CCTV footage, they’d realized exactly where Talbot and Willis had ended up, and had naturally concluded that they were dead.
“I honestly don’t know. I was just in the Fifth Dimension with Willis, but now I’m unsure. It’s dark, and my legs don’t hurt anymore.”
“What does that mean?! Are you still alive?! Is Willis still alive?!”
“I don’t think so. I think I’m dying. Already dead?”
“Then how are you talking to me? Are there phones in the fifth dimension?”
“Nah, I can just hear you. My hypotheses are that this is either a feverish hallucination in my dying moments, or that the Fifth Dimension can somehow…” Talbot’s speech sank into bleary muttering, and was unintelligible for several words. “...subsurface conduit.”
“Talbot, you’re delirious. That makes no sense.”
“Good, so it’s the other hypothesis. Just cause I know you won’t actually hear this, take care of my cat.”
Talc moved to speak, but Talbot continued.
“Oh also,” He added, almost as an afterthought, “I sent my notebook to Anderson, so watch out with that.”
“Wait what, excuse me?!”
The line went dead.
Talc heard a thunderous snapping sound. He whirled around to face the window, pressing his face against the glass and staring up at the sky.
A horrific ripping sound filled the air as the very fabric of the Fourth Dimension was rent apart, the sky above Talc yawning wide. The thing’s tendrils emerged from the rift in the atmosphere and descended towards the ground, each one darting around erratically as though tasting the air.
Talc did not know what Talbot, or Anderson, or whoever had done, but he knew that they had forever changed the world around them, and doomed a large portion of the human race.
You haven’t just opened Pandora’s box, you fool, Talc thought bitterly of the foolish chemist, You’ve blasted it apart with plastic explosives.
Talc returned to the couch and cradled Ozymandius. There was little to be done now.
Talc felt almost relieved that his decades-long vigil could finally come to an end.
The Cracks in the world had finally become holes, and through those holes came a flood.

By Fin
“Holy crap.” James Talbot stepped back from his handiwork. It was beautiful. It made him want to scream.
Talbot was a chemist, the modern form of an alchemist, and he’d discovered something as wondrous and terrible as the most extreme postulations of his forbearers.
This was it. The culmination of all his works. This is what he’d fought for decades for, why he’d abandoned connections with everyone he’d ever known. But now it was all worth it. He would reveal the Masterwork at the Grand Chemistry Convention. It would steal the show, and he would be revered beyond every other human being who had ever lived.
It had taken Talbot long enough to assemble the Masterwork that he’d shed the title of ‘young’, not to mention most of his non-gray hair. Although it was hard to tell whether that was from aging or from what he’d beheld in his long sojourn. He was only 45, after all, and the rest of his body still held firm from decades of outdoorsmanship.
Talbot stood before a wall, upon which was painted the most intricate design any human had ever seen. It was a diagram of… unknown things. A chart of runes, maps, and artfully painted lines. There was no text in any living language on the diagram, but the harmony within the full tapestry visually sang, imparting something unfathomable in a way that Talbot could somehow fathom. The man who’d made it, who’d studied it for 15 years, barely understood it himself. But he knew that it was the ultimate solution to the entirety of philosophy, containing the answers to every question humanity had ever seen fit to ask. It had existed in his notebook for a while, in bits and pieces, but today had been its first full assembly, and it was magnificent.
He had to keep it hidden, or someone would take it from him.
He retrieved a tarp and threw it over the wall, nailing it in at the top so it hung down to cover his designs. Just to be sure, he moved his desk to block the wall, then locked the door to his office when he left for the day. James Talbot was more excited than he had ever been, and he celebrated that night with a fireplace and a large bottle of whiskey.
Of all the people at his office to commit espionage, Talbot never would’ve suspected the night janitor. This may stem from the fact that he also never suspected the night janitor to be part of a massive secret organization dedicated to keeping humanity as ignorant as possible in matters of the Higher Order.
But no matter what Talbot suspected, Tim Willis was indeed part of this society, and after he’d entered Talbot’s office with his master key to do some routine cleaning, the obvious secrecy surrounding the wall at the back of the room worried him. So he moved the desk out of the way, lifted the tarp, and inhaled sharply.
This was bad. A tapestry of the Higher Order more complete than any he’d seen before, or any reported by the other Censors of the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity.
Willis quickly replaced the tarp and desk. As soon as he’d locked the room, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number for an Alexander Talc.
Talbot arrived the next morning with a song in his heart and a latte in his hand. The former died horribly as soon as he entered his office only to find someone sitting in his chair, and the latter died horribly as it fell from his fingers, limp in shock.
The person in question was a short, slight man who wore thick glasses and a dark gray suit. He was sitting on Talbot’s office chair, facing the now uncovered back wall with all of its eldritch calculations. Talbot’s desk had been moved to the side of the room, left askew with the tarp crumpled up on top.
As Talbot entered, the stranger spun the chair around so he was facing the chemist, a broad smile on his face. He was undeniably attractive, in a delicate sort of way.
“Ah! You must be the aspiring alchemist?” He spoke softly and cheerily, but with an unnerving edge. Talbot couldn’t identify any specific aspect of his voice that disturbed him, but upon further consideration he concluded that it was the incongruity of the situation, the warm friendliness of his tone grating against Talbot’s unease.
Talbot took a step back, shaken. “I don’t… what-”
“Quite an impressive display here. You’ve managed to glean a quite large amount of knowledge about the Higher Order, especially considering you’ve never consulted us at the APH.” He pronounced it phonetically, like Aff.
“What are you-”
Talbot heard a click from behind him, and turned to see Tim Willis, the night janitor, closing and locking his door. He could barely register the betrayal.
“Ah, yes. Tim is working for me. For us. The Agency for the Protection of Humankind really frowns upon anyone attempting to learn the Higher Order.”
Talbot, finally able to form a full sentence, asked, “What’s the Higher Order?”
“You know what it is, of course, although you may not have heard the term. It’s what we call the mechanics of the very fabric of the universe itself. The questions about ‘why are we here?’ and ‘is there a god?’ and all the stuff like that. All theoretical philosophy, basically. And you, apparently through sheer dumb luck,” He turned to admire the mural again, “have managed to find more of it than any human being ever, including us! Quite impressive. Big hand.” The man slow-clapped for Talbot. The small sweet-looking man being sarcastically condescending was jarringly incongruous.
Talbot felt a surge of anger, and it helped him produce a full sentence. “Dumb luck?!?” He advanced on the man. “My Masterwork is the product of 20 years of research and experience! This is the greatest thing anyone has ever done, and how dare you say I achieved it through dumb luck!”
The man raised his hands placatingly. “Okay, okay!” He chuckled. “Years of research, whatever. You found the Higher Order. That’s where we come in.”
“Why?”
“Ah. Well, you see, the reason that no one’s found the entire Higher Order is simple. It’s because we stop them.”
Talbot was incredulous. “What?! Why would you stand in the way of progress like that?!” As a scientist, the possibility that there could be anyone actively against gaining knowledge was incomprehensible to him.
The man grimaced, as though he was about to break some terrible news. “Well… there are some parts of this tapestry you’ve assembled, specifically here...” The man pointed at a small segment of the diagram, a thick horizontal line with four thin lines crossing perpendicularly that turned into five lines on the other side, “That grants access to some other planes of existence. Planes of existence that are home to some very dangerous things. And due to some logistical aspects of the Higher Order,” He gestured at another segment of the diagram entirely composed of square symbols, “if you muck about in their domain, they are able to muck about in ours. The Law of Equivalent Interference.”
“But… how would our finding answers count as ‘mucking about in their domain’? If we knew the danger, we just wouldn’t go there.”
The man was silent, then answered Talbot’s question with a question. “Tell me, Talbot. If humans discovered another dimension, do you really think they’d be able to stay out of it?”
“Fine. But then why do you have to censor the whole thing? Why not give them the benign parts that would still forward human progress by centuries?”
“Because the Higher Order is like Algebra. Or a logic puzzle from Highlights magazine. If you give someone smart enough just a few clues, they’ll eventually assemble the whole picture. Which we desperately want to avoid.”
There was a long and heavy silence.
“Ok.” Said Talbot, wrapping his head around the new information. “So the APH stops people from finding the answers to these questions so our world isn’t destroyed by Fourth Dimensional entities?”
“Exactly!” The man nodded, delighted at Talbot’s comprehension. “Well, they’re technically Fifth Dimensional. The existence of time in our reality means that this is the Fourth Dimension.”
There was another silence.
“Sorry, what was your name again?” Talbot asked.
The man looked utterly devastated. “Oh no! I can’t believe I was so rude!” He vaulted the desk and approached Talbot, stopping just short and shaking his hand. “Alexander Talc, Class 2 Censor Operative for the APH.”
“Censor as in… ?”
“Yes, I censor things. People too, if necessary.”
“So what,” Talbot asked, “You’re here to kill me?”
Talc gasped. “What?!?! No! As if we’d be so barbaric! We’re here to recruit you.”
Talbot’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?”
“Of course! You know more about the Higher Order than any human outside of the APH, and probably more than a majority of those inside of the APH. Your expertise could be vital in preventing a breach in our reality!”
“What would this job entail?”
“Well, we’d need you to fake your death, change your name, burn your research-”
Talbot recoiled.
“Now I know that sounds like a lot,” Talc backpedaled, “But allow me to let you in on a little secret.” He leaned in conspiratorially, then glanced around as though to make sure nobody was listening. Satisfied, he whispered, “The dental is off-the-charts.”
Talbot shook his head. “What happens if I don’t take the job?”
Talc winced. “Things get considerably less pleasant. I have to call in a Class 3 Purge Operative, and that’s always a hassle.”
Talbot chose not to inquire into the purpose of a ‘Purge Operative’.
Talc gently laid a hand on Talbot’s shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. How about we move to some place more hospitable and you can think it over?”
Talbot nodded, his mind elsewhere. Talc gently guided him out of the room, Willis following and closing the door behind them.
Talbot stared down into his conical paper cup, filled with water that tasted plasticy. The three men were in the lobby of Talbot’s workplace, leaning against a table adorned with donuts and a water cooler.
Talc bit into a day-old bear claw as Talbot swirled his water and considered the situation.
If he accepted the offer, he would be shipped off to another state, away from his home in Bedford, where he would join whatever on earth APH was. Talbot hated the idea of working for an agency whose entire purpose was to destroy knowledge. On the other hand, if he didn’t accept the offer, they’d likely kill him.
Purge Officer…
Would working for the APH really be so bad? Talbot liked Talc enough. Maybe they could be friends. Or… more than friends. And if the APH truly wanted Talbot to be able to suppress the Higher Order, he’d have to know the Higher Order. Which meant research. He could essentially continue on exactly as he was.
Except he would never be recognized as the genius he was. Talbot involuntarily crushed his paper cup as he realized that, if he took the offer, he’d never win a Nobel prize. He’d never present at the Grand Chemistry Convention. He’d never write a revolutionary scientific paper. He would be forgotten.
He knew what he had to do. He couldn’t say no, or he would be killed. He couldn’t accept, or he would be forgotten, which was worse. He had to escape.
But how? This was some sort of world-ruling secret agency. They probably had eyes everywhere. What could he possibly do to get away?
His eyes wandered towards the stairs. The stairs that led to his office, which held the key to every single natural law.
Talbot tossed his cup in the trash, then approached Talc.
“I think I’m ready to make my decision. But first, can I go to the restroom?”
Talc nodded. “Of course! Take all the time you need!”
Talbot nodded and jogged toward the restroom. In the tiled floor under him, he saw Willis’s warped reflection following him discreetly.
He entered the single restroom and quietly opened the window. He could see Willis’s shadow under the door as the man hovered just outside.
Talbot waited a couple seconds, then flushed the toilet, turned on the sink, and silently crept through the window. He fell a few feet to the alley below, and had to suppress a grunt.
Now what? He needed to escape, but his notebook was still upstairs. All his research was in there, and he couldn’t leave it to the APH.
The only ground level entrance to the building was the main lobby door, which was directly in Talc’s sightline. However, who said he had to enter on ground level?
Talbot’s gaze rose to the old fire escape above him. The bottom of the structure was a platform that lined up with the second floor. A ladder was folded up on the platform, an old rusty latch keeping it from reaching ground level. Talbot couldn’t reach the latch from where he was on the ground, so he looked around for a solution.
He had a bum throwing arm, so he couldn’t toss anything up to break it. Unless…
Talbot considered Talc’s words. The very mechanics of the universe itself... He felt a flare of pride as he realized how little Talc truly understood.
The sigil that granted access to the Fifth Dimension was just one of several such Seals. Over all Talbot’s years of study, those portions of the Higher Order were the most applicable. They did not just show universal aspects of reality. They represented those aspects. They were symbolic, and like all symbols, they were powerful.
They were simulacra of natural laws, and could be manipulated in order to manipulate those laws themselves. It allowed anyone who knew the Seals to weave a sort of magic, ignoring the laws of time, space, or gravity by sketching and then destroying the corresponding runes, temporarily destroying that Law’s influence over oneself. Talbot’s hypothesis was that there was a single Greater Seal for each law that controlled that law anywhere and everywhere. If that one was found and destroyed, the laws of reality would change forever.
For greater, wide-scale application, Talbot had scrawled in his notebook, The Greater Aspects must be located and manipulated.
Talbot dropped to the ground and dragged his finger through the alley gravel. He assembled the rocks into a facsimile of a tiny part of the Higher Order, one that he’d experimented with a lot. He looked around for a suitable vessel, settling on a rock. He poured all his mental energy into the stone, and used his hands to scatter the pebbles that made up the Seal of Velocity.
The rock sprang from the ground and soared upwards, clanging against the ladder before anticlimactically falling into a dumpster. From inside, Willis banged on the bathroom door and said something indistinct. Talbot’s second telekinetic toss hit the ladder before falling onto the platform itself. He broke another Seal, and his third throw smacked into the latch, splitting the rusted thing and shooting the ladder downwards.
It made a lot of noise, and Talbot could hear Willis pounding on the bathroom door inside. He seemed to be breaking it down, as Talbot heard wood split with a crunch. Talbot quickly mounted the ladder and climbed up to the platform, trying not to think about the alarming creaking sounds the old construction was making. From there, he took the stairs two at a time, spiraling up and up until he reached the sixth floor.
Six flights of stairs only had him a bit winded by the time he reached his floor. He tried the door to the inside, and found it unlocked.
Talbot entered the hallway outside his office quietly. He considered how this would play out. Willis and Talc would be storming up here at any moment. He had to move quickly.
Talbot entered his workroom, dragging his desk over to block the door. He took a moment to gaze forlornly at his Masterwork, because he would never be able to take it with him. All the same pieces and diagrams were in his notebook, but the full Masterwork was a thing of beauty, one that he would never behold again.
He snapped a picture of it with his phone. It wasn’t the same, but it’d have to do.
Talbot grabbed his notebook, its leather-bound pages bulging with decades of research. Some of the sheaves of paper stuck out at odd angles, newspaper snippets and glossy photographs glued into the most faithful companion Talbot had ever had.
Was there anything else he needed?
The door began to rattle.
Talbot grabbed a sheet of blank paper from his desk and rapidly sketched as many Seals as he could. He had an idea of how he could escape, but he needed to harness his work to do it. Using the Masterwork as a reference, he scrawled the Seal of Time, the Seal of Space, the Seal of Gravity, and, after considering it, the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Just in case. He thought.
With a crack, his door burst open, shoving the desk out of the way. Talc and Willis stood there, the latter looking enraged, the former strangely calm.
“Talbot, this doesn’t have to happen this way.” Talc appealed, but Talbot was done listening. He would not be forgotten. He would be immortalized, through his work.
Talbot ripped a corner off of his Seal sheet, and glanced down at the Seal of Time. With a glare at Talc, he stuck it in his mouth and began to chew.
Talbot disappeared with a pop, as Willis lunged towards where he’d just been.
Willis stopped short, then turned to Talc. He was noticeably upset at losing their quarry.
“What do we do now?”
“Well, we follow him.”
“How?”
Talc approached the Masterwork. “It’s simple. I’m sure Talbot understood that time travel doesn’t work the way everyone thinks it does. Cause and Effect are inextricably linked, and cannot be put out of order. Traveling through time actually just creates another dimension, a splintered facsimile of your original where things play out differently.”
“So… to follow him do we just use the Time Sigil?”
“Seal, Willis. And no. That will just create another splinter plane. Now that the reality has already been established, we need to follow him. Using this.”
Talc’s thin fingers traced the outline of another Seal, one Talbot hadn’t thought to inscribe.
“There are many ways to traverse the Multiverse.” Talc said, “Using Seals to rip open the barriers between planes is one of the simplest.”
Talc sketched down two copies of the seal, then separated the two and handed one to Willis. The two locked eyes and nodded in unison. They both rent their sheets in half and disappeared.
Talbot didn’t ‘land’, per se, but he still felt off-balance when he blinked into existence in his office. He staggered, but caught himself before he could fall. The world felt… different here.
Out of everything Talbot had discovered, Multiversal travel was his least considered. He’d been too cowardly to experiment with anything but the Space, Gravity, and Velocity Seals, so this experience was new to him. Naturally, as any scientist does when faced with something unfamiliar, he started taking notes.
Effects of Time/Universe Traversal:
–Slight nausea. Somewhat noticeable. Temporary?
–World overall feels discordant. Silence sounds different than back home. My tinnitus is in another key. Feels like I don’t belong.
–Different frequency hard-coded into every reality?
Before he could assemble an entire thesis on the underlying resonance within the multiverse, he realized with a start that he had to get out of here. Talc and WIllis were likely following him, and even if they weren’t, there were copies of them in this dimension.
Talbot had willed himself about 10 minutes back in time, and it seemed like that’d worked. His Masterwork was complete and the desk and tarp were off to the side. The trio were likely downstairs in the lobby, where Past-Talbot was thinking over the pros and cons of their offer. At least, he thought so. Time travel seemed to create a splintering reality, one that maintained consistency with his original up until the point where he showed up. There were plenty of unfamiliar worlds out there, but the Seal of Time created one quite familiar. Right now Past-Talbot-
Past-Talbot doesn’t sound right. Pretty soon it’ll be my present, then my future. How about Talbot-2?
After settling upon a name to call his double, Talbot exited his office and left through the door that led to the fire escape, in too much of a hurry to close it. He scrambled down the stairs, knocked the latch off the ladder, climbed to the ground, popped open the bathroom window, and climbed inside. Right as he got his arms through, the door opened.
Talbot-2 walked in, then stopped short as he saw himself dangling halfway through the window. Talbot put a finger to his lips, and indicated Willis-2 with his eyes. Talbot-2 silently shut the door, locking Willis-2 outside.
Talbot-2 opened his mouth to speak, but barely got out one word. “What-”
“I’m you, from the future. Well, not from your future, but from a future.”
Talbot-2’s confused expression was replaced with excitement. “So the Time Seal Worked?! Fantastic! What’s it like?!”
“I’d tell you all about it, but I’m currently stuck in a bathroom window and being hunted down by two government agents. Although I don’t actually know if they work for the government…”
Talbot-2 pulled him through the window into the bathroom. “Sorry.”
Once he was in, Talbot glanced at the door behind Talbot-2.
“Okay. Here’s the thing. Some version of Talc and Willis will be here any minute. Whether mine followed me from the future or not, yours will catch on soon. We need to get out of here, and get the Masterwork to somebody else.”
“Wait, which Talc and Willis will show up?”
“One of them… or both of them. It doesn’t really matter! Do we know anybody we can send our notes to?”
Talbot-2 considered it. “Davis?”
Talbot frowned, and opened his notebook to an early page.
Dr. Wilson Davis
–Spineless fool. He calls himself a chemist, but refuses to venture outside the conventions of the industry. No true scientist works a cushy chemical production job! We journey! We endeavor!
Talbot shook his head. “He’d never publish something like this. If they tracked him down, he’d probably take their oppressive offer.”
“Johnson?”
Dr Monica Johnson
—Chemist and conspiracy nut. Super gullible, but generally a good person.
“She’ll believe anything.” Talbot said. “...Which is actually probably a good thing in this case. If she thinks it’s real, she’ll distribute it, and she’s earnest enough to leave my- our name on it.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Actually, it sounds like an idea, not a plan. What is our plan?”
Talbot thought for several seconds. “Here’s what we do. You pretend to accept their offer, and do whatever they tell you. If all else fails, you’ll get a cushy job working for the government. Meanwhile, I get this,” Talbot indicated his notebook. “To Johnson, and then…” He paused.
Someone knocked on the door.
“And then?” Talbot-2 prompted in a whisper, glancing behind him.
“Then… I’ll figure something out.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Alright. Are we ready to go?”
“I think so.” Talbot replied.
Talbot slipped out of the window, and Talbot-2 opened the door to greet Willis-2.
The man peered around him. “Who were you talking to in there?”
Talbot-2 shrugged. “Myself. You know, crazy scientist stuff.”
Talbot dropped to the ground, then produced his sheet of Seals. He picked out one specific design, a circle bisected by a thin line. On one side of the line, a stylized forest thrived, and on the other a pictographic city loomed. Talbot ripped the Seal of Space from his paper and stuck it in his mouth, once again disappearing with a pop.
Talc and Willis appeared in Talbot-2’s workroom, and quickly exited. Both spun in the hallway outside, and both spotted the wide-open door to the fire escape. They both moved down the rickety metal construction and found themselves in an alley behind the building.
“See that?” Talc pointed at the window.
“Yeah. Did he go in through it?” Willis asked.
“Of course. But if he used the Seal of Time to try to come back and alert himself, I’m guessing he came through here to talk to him…self, but he couldn’t have left. The only point at which he was in the bathroom, you were right outside. He popped in, popped out, popped another Seal.”
“Is there any guarantee that he came back to alert himself? He could’ve gone to any point in time.”
“I know his type. The out-there intellectual. He’s been burned by everyone but himself. He’ll only trust himself. And if he came to himself before we’d arrived, he wouldn’t believe him.”
“Sorry, who wouldn’t believe him?”
“Him! Aren’t you-” Talc took a moment to consider the context. “You know what, nevermind. The point is that this reality’s Talbot is now in league with our Talbot, and that’s not good.”
“What do we do?”
“Well firstly, we need to cut it down to one Talbot. Two is too many to deal with.” Talc pushed on his earpiece, then spoke. “Hello? Can you hear me, Talc?” There was silence, until something dawned on him. “Ah, dammit. I can’t call my own earpiece.” He adjusted something on his earpiece. “Willis! Do you copy?” Willis heard Talc both from right next to him and through his earpiece. He didn’t hear the reply, but his earpiece buzzed as its exact copy broadcast something. Willis took his earpiece out and squinted at it, curious about the exact Multiversal properties that bonded it to its clone.
“Yes, this is Talc. But not your Talc. Listen, Talbot ran off to this dimension, and we believe he’s working with your Talbot. We need to meet up, then dispose of the dupe.”
Talc listened for a response, and Willis’s earpiece vibrated as his double presumably replied.
Talc turned to Willis. “Alright. They’ll meet us back in Talbot’s office. There we can get rid of the redundant one and track our quarry.”
Their quarry was currently depositing a large package of brown paper in a big blue mailbox.
Talbot paused as he lowered the boxy parcel. This was his life’s work, his notebook and all his scattered papers, and was the second-most important thing he owned, next to the wall that contained the Masterwork itself, which was likely being dismantled by his enemies at that very moment. This was the last 20 years of his life, and he was about to gamble it away to a crazy woman on the off-chance that his legacy might live on. Talbot wished he’d spent more time with reasonable scientists, if only to expand the pool of people he could mail his book to.
With a deep breath, Talbot released the book, wincing at the gentle ‘paff’ sound it made when it fell onto the envelopes at the bottom of the box.
His job complete, Talbot slipped the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and disappeared into the afternoon.
Guns are inelegant, Talc told his subordinate often. They’re loud, messy. Tools of thugs and soldiers, not agents of a higher purpose.
But there’s a downside to not carrying a gun, Willis countered silently. The difference between shooting a person and being forced to kill them more intimately is palpable, and not often a positive.
Willis considered this as Talbot-2 stopped struggling and finally went limp in his arms. Willis released the garotte from around the man’s throat, then lowered him to the floor of the office.
An irritated sigh came from behind him. Willis turned to see Talc shaking his head and walking toward him.
“No, you need to finish the job.” The man said. He kneeled, took Talbot-2’s forehead in one hand, his chin in the other, then jerked his head to the side, snapping his neck.
“If you stop garrotting when he goes limp, he’s just unconscious.” The other Talc, Talc-2, stated.
Willis nodded, numbly. He didn’t really hear the man.
“I know this is hard,” Talc said, shifting into a gentler tone, “But this is all for the good of humanity. If we let these ideas run wild, we’d all be dead.”
“Worse than dead.” Talc-2 added helpfully. “Our very essences would be consumed by dark beings from beyond our world.”
Willis nodded again. He’d heard it all before. So why did he still find it so hard to hurt people?
“So where’s the other one?” Willis-2 asked, seemingly unaware of his double’s predicament.
“That’s the big question, isn’t it.” Talc-2 mused, “However, before we can ponder it, first things first. We need to get a CC team in here to handle that wall.”
All four men were familiar with the APH Cognito Containment Teams, mysterious individuals in surgical masks that took away artifacts of forbidden knowledge to be stored or disposed of.
Talc-2 clicked his earpiece, then said a series of numbers and codes that were unintelligible to either Willis. He finished by saying, “Please send a Class-4 CC team. Over.”
He turned to the others. “They’re on their way. We need to secure Talbot’s place of residence.”
“Do we know that’s where he’ll go next?” Willis-2 asked.
“Not necessarily,” Talc-1 responded, “But it’s quite likely he’ll at least stop there to retrieve personal effects before going somewhere else.”
Both Willises nodded, almost in sync. The logic made sense. They would lock down Talbot’s house first.
All was silent in the small house several miles outside of town that Talbot called his abode. Then frantic footsteps sounded from outside, as someone ran up the footpath leading to the front door. Then, a faint scratching as Talbot scrambled to fit his key into the lock. A quiet clacking came next, as Talbot’s cat descended his cat-tree and approached the door to see what was happening.
Talbot swung the door open and gently pushed the cat out of his way with his foot.
“Sorry Ozzy,” he muttered.
He produced his debit card and snapped it in half, having extracted all the money from his account before arriving here. He pulled several thousand dollars from his pockets and shoved them in his wallet, his backpack, the pocket on the inside of his jacket, and his shoes.
He grabbed a spare toothbrush and tube of toothpaste from the master bathroom, shoving them into the backpack as well. He was going on the run, for god knows how long.
He paused as his eyes fell on his set of keys. He wouldn’t be taking his car or his house, so they’d likely not be necessary.
But I might as well just in case. Talbot grabbed the jangling key ring and slipped it into the inside pocket of his pants.
His cat mewed at his feet. After a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed his carrier and bowl, both monogrammed with a matching ‘Ozymandius’.
He knew bringing Ozzy was objectively a bad choice. It was impractical and stupid. The cat was loud, and would slow him down. But Talbot couldn’t bear leaving his baby here to be subjected to whatever evil ideas Talc and Willis had in mind.
Talbot coaxed Ozzy into his crate, then picked up the cat and donned his backpack. He took one last look around his house before he opened the front door and was immediately grabbed by both Willises, one of which held a chloroform rag over his mouth until he went limp.
Talbot awoke with a start. He glanced around, disoriented, and immediately registered that he was in some sort of interrogation room. His chair was metal, and bolted to the floor. Before him was a table, and above that table a blinding light mounted on the ceiling shone directly into his eyes. On the wall across from him, very much breaking the theme, was a ‘Hang in there!’ poster and a wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser.
Talbot tried to stand, only to find that his wrists and ankles were strapped into the chair. He strained against the bonds, cursing as the straps held strong.
He thought he heard faint snickering.
He turned to glare at the mirror to his right. “What are you planning to do to me?!”
Silence.
“What are you planning to do to my cat?!?”
More silence.
The Talcs and the Willi were standing behind the one-way mirror on Talbot’s left, looking at the back of his head as he shouted at no one. Talc looked mildly amused at Talbot’s complete misunderstanding of the room’s orientation.
Willis-2 glanced at Talc-2, who shrugged and motioned for Talc-1 to enter the larger room. Talc-1 did as asked.
The door at the front of the room opened, and Talc stepped out. He took a seat across from Talbot, and cleared his throat.
“First off, the most important thing. Your cat will be well-cared for, no matter the outcome of this conversation. Great name, by the way.”
Talbot refused to thank him for the compliment.
Talc cleared his throat, and there was a long silence.
“What about my first question?” Talbot asked, his voice trembling.
Talc sighed, then reached below the table.
Several seconds later, he came back up, notably with some difficulty. He slammed Talbot’s notebook down on the table. Next to it, he laid the sheet of seals Talbot had used to traverse space and time.
Talbot was stricken. “How did you-!?”
“Find this? Simple deduction. I’m frankly insulted that you didn’t consider that we’ve been tailing everyone you know for months. Johnson was the only person you could send this to.”
“What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing! We’re not the bad guys here, Talbot. We pulled the package from her porch before she ever got involved. We’d never hurt anyone.”
“Then where am I?” Talbot spat, then rephrased. “I mean… where is the version of me from here? Wait, are you from here or there?”
“I’m from there, assuming you mean your original reality. And Talbot-2 is fine. He’s in the next room.”
Willis winced behind the mirror.
“You never actually answered my question.” Talbot said quietly.
Talc pursed his lips regrettably.
“Well… here’s the thing, Talbot. What I’d like to do is offer you a chance to redeem yourself. I’d like to let you join the APH and help us protect humanity. But you’ve made it clear that that’s not what you want, and if we let you into our fold now, we’d forever be looking over our shoulders, wondering whose side you were truly on. And we can’t just let you go, no no. Your theories would largely be regarded as crackpot, but there are ways to prove these things, and you would certainly find them.”
Talbot swallowed. “Couldn’t you just… you know… erase my memory?”
Talc stifled a laugh. “Unfortunately, this is not Men In Black. Actions have consequences. There are no take-backs. And I’m sorry, Talbot, but this is it for you.” Talc stood, turned on his heel, and left.
“Why the hell’d you wake him up just to tell him that?” Willis muttered behind the glass.
“Hey, wait!” Talbot screamed at him as he departed, but there was no response.
Talbot tried to stand again, but slammed back into his chair as the bonds held.
Willis entered a few minutes later, holding a syringe. He winced at the sight before him. Talbot was hunched over, resting his head on the table. His shoulders were bobbing as though he was sobbing quietly.
Willis approached Talbot and tightened the strap on his right wrist. He moved around him and reached for his left hand, only to see that the strap had been sawed apart, and Talbot’s hand was free.
Willis grabbed his elbow, but Talbot struggled against the man’s grasp. The scientist was trying to keep it firmly on the table under his face.
Frustrated, Willis grabbed Talbot’s head and lifted it back, so he was sitting up straight.
As he beheld Talbot’s face, Willis felt a bolt of fear lance through him. The man was smiling, but it was not a happy smile.
It was the smile of a trapped animal that knew it would take a limb before it went down. With his eyes, Talbot indicated downwards. Willis slowly lowered his vision to the stainless steel tabletop. In Talbot’s hand was a housekey, the teeth worn down from sawing through the leather strap and scratching a symbol into the table. Right under his hand, the surface was pockmarked with the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Willis lunged for Talbot’s wrist, but it was too late. The alchemist brought the key across the symbol, carving another scratch to break the Seal and the boundaries between their reality and one far darker. Neither man had time to scream.
Talbot felt himself slip free of the chair, and out of the leather strap around his wrist.
Willis’s grip loosened, and it felt like he was flung across whatever intermediary pathway connected the fourth and fifth dimensions.
Part Two posted promptly!

Hi, I would like to hear your experiences and advices. Last year in March me and my partner bought a new apartment that was under construction in a capital of one Europian country with the aim of moving there, starting a family etc. My MCS symptoms started last year in October after having mold problems in rented apartment and treating walls with antifungals and painting with paint for mold. My symptoms were tingling and numbness in hands and feet, brain fog, burning feeling in head and general sick feeling. Since then we moved to my partners parents until the new apartment is finished. My MCS symptoms since then were changing, sometimes I could tolerate smells with no pain/burning feeling and sometimes not. Usually a sleep would help to recover. I am also following a Medical Medium protocol to decrease the load on the liver and I am doing weekly acupuncture for nerve pain. Which both helps however very slow. I also monitor the progress with the bioresonance diagnostics every 2 months and my pesticide/insecticide/fungicide load as well as mercury/lead/cadmium and mycotoxins is slowely lowering in liver, brain and central nervous system. We got the keys from the new apartment at the end of March this year, however I was experiencing a lower back nerve pain and hands tingling in the apartment after 5 minutes of being there. The building is reinforced concrete, insulation is rockwool, harwood oak floors with 0-voc oil, 0-voc hardwood adhesive, paint is low voc, knauf rigips plasterboards also comply with voc regulation. Partly furniture is mdf from a european company that has almost 0 formaldehyde, we also have a solid wood furniture, wool carpet, linen curtains, all the fabrics in sofa, bedding etc comply with ökotex 100 standard (free of harmful substances). We have airthings air quality monitor which measure good air quality except pm2.5 are higher when windows are open. Also, we have an IQair 250 air purifier that deals with pm2.5 but also has carbon filter for odors. The apartment smells new but it is not strong. Few days ago we wanted to make some dinner and watch a movie in the new apartment however since then nerves in my back and legs burn and hurt very badly that it is hard to stand or walk for me for the past days and no amount of sleep did help. However after a miscarage 2 weeks ago my MCS symptoms are the worst thus far. Did anybody successfully moved to a new home while dealing with MCS? What was the process and how long did it take for everything to off-gas? What were your symptoms and did you know what is causing MCS symptoms? Do you have some advices for me, how to off-gas or anything that would help us move to a new apartment?

Hi all 2 19 year olds ( I'm working full time and the other is in full time education) looking for a roomate in the Marston area to share a town house Rent approx £600 pcm including bills and council tax.
It has a front and rear garden, kitchen, bathroom and space for bike/motorbike
If anyone's interested it would be great to hear from you :) If you contact me here i'd be happy to send alot more details.

This is a question for the families, I’m just looking for perspective.
I went away for 2.5 weeks, 2 weeks into my trip I got a message that my hours were being cut from 24 to maybe 6-10 (1 day a week) and the temp nanny was going to have my other hours until she starts full time with her own part time family in a few months. This was/ is my only job, and I CANNOT survive on it, I couldn’t pay my rent this month, or my phone bill, or car insurance, or even put fuel in my car to get to the one day a week.
Anyway, nothing happened to cause this, at least not for reasoning in the email she sent me other than she “doesn’t want to upset G2.5 with changing nannies again” despite it being only a 2.5 week holiday, for the first time in the year I’ve been working for them. I’ve worked every holiday, weekends, every extra hour she’s asked for. She asked me if this reduction in hours worked, and that she could make it up for me with casual work in the week if she had it, but even though she had those casual hours (daycare pick up dinner, bath etc) she gave them to someone who isn’t me or the other nanny in this situation. I told her it wouldn’t work and explained that I rely on this job and live pay check to pay check.
Do you think she’s just wanting me to quit? Would you ever think of putting your nanny in this position? I’m honestly heart broken and so upset and angry. I’m going to have to quit this job after all of this as I can’t possibly trust them and I absolutely am not holding those hours for them for 10 weeks as she won’t pay for it.
But I’m just wondering what would drive you as a parent and employer to do this to the person who care for your babies for long hours all week? I just need to understand.

Hi, I would like to hear your experiences and advices. Last year in March me and my partner bought a new apartment that was under construction in a capital of one Europian country with the aim of moving there, starting a family etc. My MCS symptoms started last year in October after having mold problems in rented apartment and treating walls with antifungals and painting with paint for mold. My symptoms were tingling and numbness in hands and feet, brain fog, burning feeling in head and general sick feeling. Since then we moved to my partners parents until the new apartment is finished. My MCS symptoms since then were changing, sometimes I could tolerate smells with no pain/burning feeling and sometimes not. Usually a sleep would help to recover. I am also following a Medical Medium protocol to decrease the load on the liver and I am doing weekly acupuncture for nerve pain. Which both helps however very slow. I also monitor the progress with the bioresonance diagnostics every 2 months and my pesticide/insecticide/fungicide load as well as mercury/lead/cadmium and mycotoxins is slowely lowering in liver, brain and central nervous system. We got the keys from the new apartment at the end of March this year, however I was experiencing a lower back nerve pain and hands tingling in the apartment after 5 minutes of being there. The building is reinforced concrete, insulation is rockwool, harwood oak floors with 0-voc oil, 0-voc hardwood adhesive, paint is low voc, knauf rigips plasterboards also comply with voc regulation. Partly furniture is mdf from a european company that has almost 0 formaldehyde, we also have a solid wood furniture, wool carpet, linen curtains, all the fabrics in sofa, bedding etc comply with ökotex 100 standard (free of harmful substances). We have airthings air quality monitor which measure good air quality except pm2.5 are higher when windows are open. Also, we have an IQair 250 air purifier that deals with pm2.5 but also has carbon filter for odors. The apartment smells new but it is not strong. Few days ago we wanted to make some dinner and watch a movie in the new apartment however since then nerves in my back and legs burn and hurt very badly that it is hard to stand or walk for me for the past days and no amount of sleep did help. However after a miscarage 2 weeks ago my MCS symptoms are the worst thus far. Did anybody successfully moved to a new home while dealing with MCS? What was the process and how long did it take for everything to off-gas? What were your symptoms and did you know what is causing MCS symptoms? Do you have some advices for me, how to off-gas or anything that would help us move to a new apartment?

How would y’all go about this,if y’all ain’t got money in your bank,but don’t gotta pay rent or nothing, 19years old.Don’t wanna work for another person but yo parents stressing u to get a job.How would y’all go about it to manifest money without worrying and fully having faith? To get like $10,000 to start a business

Hi,
I’m a graduating student and is going to work in Ortigas near UB Plaza on August. What do you think is a livable wage? Is 20k net pay okay? Also, should I rent near UB Plaza or get a place that is cheaper but far from the place (like 1 to 2 Mrt station)? Because I saw that some of the condosharing does not allow cooking or don’t have the space for it. I just plan to cook for my meals to save money.
Also, do you have any other tips for me about adulting or living in Ortigas hehe
Thank you

This is going to be REALLY long so please bear with me. Before I begin about the manipulation I need to give context about GF and I. We’ve been together for almost 1 year and 6 months, are both introverted, have very different friends, and go to the same college.
I’m a pretty introverted gamer on my college’s esports team and I usually like to stay in the comfort of my room. It’s my personal space and my comfort zone, so I rarely like to leave. My housemate and I are upperclassmen compared to the rest of our friend group so get-togethers and parties are always hosted by us.
My GF is sweet, caring, and insanely smart but she has a hard time making friendships that last. Her housemates basically abandoned her last year and didn’t tell her they excluded her from their group until the last day of housing selection, so she had to scramble to find a new housemate. She’s still friends with those housemates, and I think some of them were pretty dismissive of her and treated her badly when they lived together. She says they aren’t like that, but that’s my impression.
Emily, my GF’s new housemate, quickly became best friends with her once they started living together last Fall. Prior to this my GF was warned by her summer program roommate that Emily is a serial liar and not to trust her. That may not be exactly what she said but that’s the gist of it.
Our relationship has been a bit rocky over the past school year. I didn’t come over to her house nearly as much as I used to, and there was a general lack of effort on my part. Because of this Emily pretty much never had a chance to get to know me, and my GF would complain to her about our relationship issues. My GF discussed our issues with her friends and the consensus was that we needed to talk, and Emily even said that I was “toxic and abusive.” That was in February and our relationship got better, I started trying a little harder and went over once or twice. However, every single time I would interact with Emily she’d make a comment about me being a shitty boyfriend. If my GF and I had any banter she’d go “omg you guys are so toxic!” Or if the two of them were sitting outside she’d say “Come hang out with us! Be an actual boyfriend!” If my GF didn’t come over to my house, then she was 100% hanging out with Emily; and each time I would go out of my comfort zone to spend time with my GF I would be met with Emily’s passive-aggressive comments. So I just wouldn’t go over to her house. I hated being around her just waiting to hear what new insult she could come up with.
Emily and my GF were also in a senior capping group together. They needed to rent an AirBnB and my GF took the responsibility of renting it. The morning that they needed to check out my GF was freaking out because it was 1:30am, the AirBnB was 40 minutes away and an Uber this late didn’t sound very safe. Emily had a car, but she didn’t want to drive my GF because she was exhausted. My GF called my hysterical crying so I ran over to comfort her. A few minutes after I got there Emily cancels the Uber and tells my GF that she’ll drive GF to the AirBnB, that she isn’t mad, loves GF and she just wants GF to be safe. Once they get there Emily tells my GF it’s super unfair to make her drive so far this late, that she’s a bad friend and that she shouldn’t do this to her. I was in shock and told my GF that is textbook manipulation, which she agreed and thinks Emily can be over the top sometimes.
Fast forward to the last few weeks of classes, my housemate and I have one last get-together to get rid of all our alcohol before the year ends. My GF asked if she could bring Emily, because Emily was going through some things and needed a pick-me-up. I of course said yes, not wanting her to hate me even more, and they arrived shortly after.
Before everyone came over I was playing video games with a very antisocial friend. He’s on the team with me and despite inviting him to social events he never attends when there’s too many people. I didn’t want to abandon him when our friends came over so I decided to play one more match (30-40 mins) and then join the party. My GF was pretty annoyed, and everyone at the party joked about me being a typical introverted gamer not socializing. Emily was apparently really pressed and kept complaining about it, and how she wouldn’t tolerate that.
A few hours after the party dies down my GF, Emily, a few friends and I are all in my room chatting. Emily left the room for a few minutes and then came back to sit on the bed with my GF and I. After she came back everyone who wasn’t inside my room left. A few minutes pass and Emily begins texting my GF. I glanced over to read what she was saying on my GF’s phone and it read “Dude. We need to talk.” I stopped reading and then Emily shot up and made some excuse that she had an assignment to do and left. My GF continued receiving texts after Emily left and was visibly upset. GF texts me saying she needs to talk to me alone, and I asked my two other friends to leave so we could talk. My GF showed me the texts and Emily said that everyone not in my room was talking serious shit about me and GF, that I’m a horrible person and I always treat her like shit. I had one experience in HS where fake friends bad-mouthed me behind my back and I was really hurt, so experiencing it again made me extremely mad. The way the texts were phrased I thought they were talking shit about my GF and I, but in reality it was just me. Emily said that most of the shit talk was from the only other girl in the group, and that everyone in the room agreed with her. I immediately sent a text to the other girl, telling her it’s not okay in the slightest to do that and banned her from my house.
The next morning the other girl texted me back saying she had no clue what I was talking about and wanted to know more. I didn’t text her back because I wanted to get the full picture before I said anything else. My GF talked to Emily and she basically did a retelling of how I’m “toxic and abusive” and that she needs to break up with me. They talked for an hour and my GF said it was really bad. Emily’s points were based in truth (I never come over to their house, lack of effort, etc.) but she twisted them so much to describe me as abusive.
Later that night I had two of the people who were in the other room come over to tell me and my GF what happened. They explained that none of what Emily said ever happened and she kept trying to engage in conversation when everyone was tired, and that she couldn’t take a hint. The whole time my GF was texting Emily back and forth, and she found out GF was at my place. Emily started attacking my GF over text, threatening to text me and tell me how horrible I am, and to even come over and say it to my face or do who knows what. Emily said “you’re ruining all your friendships over a fucking GUY.” Emily sent paragraph after paragraph and my GF was in tears. My GF decided to go back home and talk to Emily in person because she cares for Emily a lot, they’re best friends and all. GF left and didn’t text me for hours. I got worried about her safety since Emily was so hostile over text that I had one of my friends Johnathan text her, to which she responded that she was okay. Johnathan and my GF came over so we could all talk and he gave his perspective on the matter which seemed to ease her mind.
My GF and I have talked this over many times, and she’s told me that she made her choice to stay together but that she’s still going to stay friends with Emily. I have expressed to my GF my feelings on how psychotic it is that Emily would lie about all of my friends saying I’m a horrible person, which my GF has acknowledged. However, she still talks to Emily and plans to let the friendship fade as time goes on, and Emily is still invited to her grad party in June where I’m gonna have to see her.
I have told my GF how much Emily bothers me countless times, that I’ve never done anything to this girl and just want to be left alone, but it really stings that my GF is still friends with her. Last week my GF told me the things Emily said still gave her doubts about us, and I explained that I did not want to be in a relationship where she is constantly questioning me because of someone so manipulative. I’m having a hard time wording it correctly, but this whole thing has put a huge strain on our relationship and I constantly feel hurt each time she brings up Emily. I don’t know how to proceed with our relationship. Is our relationship not worth it anymore? Are my feelings valid? Am I not taking her needs into consideration with mine?
TL;DR - My GF’s best friend lied and told her that my entire friend group said I treat her horribly and that I’m a piece of shit, but my GF is still friends with her and still has doubts about our relationship based on those lies.

I'm 21(M) with ADHD and Autism, I used to live with in my parent's house.
I have a part time Job and currently attend college so I'm usually out of the house most of the time. Notably I did not contribute to paying rent or bills while I was staying there.(I never really asked if they would like me too.) I'm a hobbyist PC builder and I use my room as my work room for that.
I have personally paid for almost every item in my room besides the furniture and some paintings.
My room is organized in such a way that makes sense to me. However my parents don't think so.
Every so often when I'm out of the house(At least once a week) they will come into my room COMPLETELY reorganize everything in it and wont tell a soul. They will even take items out of my room and put them in a completely different part of the house.
Because of this I have to often ask them where most of stuff went when I cant find it and the only response I usually get is "I don't know" and "Why are you asking me" I have lost hundreds of dollars worth of Merch, Spare PC parts and other very important things like even my wallet(Which contain my credit cards and ID). Simply because they moved it somewhere I don't know where.
After 2 years of this constantly happening I snapped yelled at them to STOP doing this. In which they immediately told me to just "shut the f*ck up" and "stop being ungrateful"
They went into this whole sepal about how my room makes them look like bad parents and It ended in them saying that If I don't like it like this then I should move out. So..I did one night I took all the stuff I could find and I moved out without telling them. They have since constantly tried to call and text me about my whereabouts and I've only ever replied with "You told me to move out."
So AITA?

My girlfriend(25F) and I(24M) have been renting a semi-detached apartment in my university town.
We agreed at the start that I would pay for a full month for the first month even though we would only occupy the place on the 15th and then we would vacate on the 20th of June as I did not know my final exam dates yet. I have since learned that my final exam is on the 2nd of June and would like to vacate on the 3rd. I don’t feel comfortable paying the full 20 days when we are leaving on the 3rd and she has actively been looking for new tenets to fill out spot. I’m even less inclined to pay the extra 17 days after the ordeal we’ve been through dealing with her.
The rent is on the expensive end for the town but we figured that it would be worth it as the place has a pool, garden, braai area, electricity and water is included, and a battery backup for the WiFi (we live in South Africa so we get 4-6 hour electricity cuts almost every day).
This would all be great if it wasn’t for our landlord. She’s a sweet old lady but not suited to be a landlord, the house it starting to see signs of neglect as well as the garden, this has lead to the house wiring deteriorating and switches tripping all the time, the hot water sometimes not working, as well as a rat infestation that she will do nothing about.
Both doors to our apartment are sliding doors and have come off their railings/keep coming off no matter how many times we put them back meaning that we have been stuck in the apartment more than once with both doors jammed shut. She will also not fix these as they would be too expensive to fix.
We also found out the week after we arrived that the pool is used by a local swimming class for kids to learn how to swim most days of the week which means we don’t have access to the pool or most of the garden in the day.
The landlords dogs also bite and have bitten both my girlfriend, myself and pretty much all of our friends at least once (The dog isn’t big so for the most part we have been unhurt but he has left holes in clothing and a lot of sore ankles and feet) the landlady does nothing about this, and watches on without saying anything even when it happens right in front of her.
We could probably deal with most of this (probably not the dog biting) but as the price of the apartment is not on the cheap end I assumed that some of our rent money is meant to go towards upkeep of the property and apartment.
The worst is that the apartment is semi detached from our landlords with a door the she has the key to and keeps unlocked, in the first few weeks we moved in she let herself into the apartment multiple times or knocked and let herself in without waiting for a response and got angry at us when we confronted her about it, we have since pushed a heavy chair in front of the door.
We do not have a lease, this was okay because we only needed a short term rental as I only have 3 months left before the completion of my degree. This is also the reason that we haven’t just left as it is very hard to find a place to rent, let alone a short term rental in a university town in the middle of the year.
Should I pay the 17 extra days? Am I legally required to bearing in mind that no lease has been signed and the place is not as it seemed when advertised.
Thanks

So a gopher decided to move in to the chicken run we have and he doesn’t even lay any eggs to compensate as rent, so he gotta go. He dug two holes, one in the chicken run and another about 30ish feet from the run so I can imagine his pad is very spacious. I was thinking about using water to flush him out and using a shovel or a BB gun to take him out mafia style but I think the water may take too long if his burrow is huge. I was going to wait for my stepdad to do it but I think it’s stressing out the chickens and we think the SOB has been eating their food.
I killed a rooster on Friday and I’ve never felt so goddamn country in my life.

Hello all I am looking to rent a space for parking my car for the summer (shaded area preferably a basement )

Does anyone know of a place near downtown Ottawa-area that rents an e-bike like this?
My partners 88 year old father is visiting and she wants to tour him around for a day.
https://www.bruyere.org/en/newsroom?newsid=1460