Houses for rent in plymouth nc

and they basically need me for their parasite and I am falling for the same trap or creating a new trap for me buhahhaha
buhahahahahhaha
facts don't care about your feelings bro. They will torture me otherwise fuck you because they own this place. They are just paying me money to pay for my funeral or the houses I will own so that they can recycle me buhahaha because they now have the means to.
They injected this virus because curing people is not profitable it doesn't interest them why would they? They brought me here and had me so that it benefits them and not me...
Thanks mom and daddy for bringing me to aucschwitz and that I am my own worst enemy buhahaha the goal was to silence me so that they can take note and treat me as their pet.
Because I believe that i am special fucker I am their pet dog and they need me for their dirty work and they are torturing me from all angles. Whoever made this matrix did it to fuck with me and they will torture me because of my name otherwise turn me into AI or kill me off...
They deleted me and even stole my money buhahahhahaha buhahahhahaha so it make them feel good. They'll just steal money or make it worthless.
They are stronger than me anyway...the goal was to kill my sex drive because facts don't care about your feelings bro and feelings don't care about facts
I am falling for the same trap or a similar trap and this will come back to haunt me in one shape or form. A slave to a higher power that is stronger than me. Forever slaves to science and god.
Otherwise die...Only women and girls will get the utopia they are after and they just need me to die or kill my sex drive and continue to torture me like this....
buhahhahahahahahahah ahahahhahahaha Women were given more and my stupidity costs me my free will because I am a dumbass.. IF not then other men will get in the way...
I am already getting sloppy and lazy as it is...to limit my freedom because they own this place...They purposely injected this virus so that they can change me at the biological level and play bio warfare and music does the same thing...
They can de-evolve me and torture me from behind but he loves me bullshit the goal of torturing me was to fund their organization so that I can't get beauty sleep and get addicted to a drug of hope.
I won't know the long term damage of the comments i post here or the music I listen to either because this bullshit matrix.
Even if you did create it they'll just steal it or shove us back into the dark ages. The goal of this matrix is that they want me to self destruct or continue to torture me and control my life and my destiny buhahahhaa otherwise send the crazies after me because she has done it all and seen it all and rightfully so women and girls and gay men are stronger as are my parents. The goal is that you are the slave to your parents and society buhahahhaha
ahahahahhahahaha
They will kill me and silence me otherwise you wil obey by our rules and laws buhahhahahahaha

I've been homeless for about a month now. Lost my apartment due to nonpayment (my fault though. Can't put blame on anything else). I have a daughter also but she stays with her mom so at least she has somewhere to be. Her mom and I coparent well and share custody of our daughter. On weekdays I keep my daughter for a few hours after school and then take her to her mom's house. She has autism so we're trying to keep some normalcy for her so she isn't so thrown off by these changes. I've been struggling with depression but manage to handle my day to day tasks. I usually get a hotel room to have somewhere to sleep but the costs obviously add up. I signed up for school and am waiting for my GI bill benefits to kick in. If I had submitted them on time I would have gotten paid already but I lost my DD214 (document summarizing your service and discharge status). I was able to get a copy and submitted my paperwork to the school earlier this week but have to wait for the veteran's office certifying official gets back from vacation(of course theyd be on vacation😂) I'm getting ready to go drive for uber so I can make enough money to get a room for the weekend and maybe I'll be able to have a lazy Sunday in with my daughter. I realize I cause alot of my problems and struggle with pushing through the day sometimes just making enough money to get food, gas, and any other responsibilities I might need to take care of that day. I know in a week's time I'll be way better off and more stable. But the feeling of desperation is so strong. I'm so tired of this. Just a few more days though so I know I'll be fine.
Tldr I'm an idiot and I'm poor.

I have done a number of markets around SE MI like Ann Arbor, Plymouth, Birmingham, Troy, etc. I am thinking of branching out this year and had a couples questions about markets in EL:
-Which one is the biggest / best / greatest turnout each week? -Would the demographic there be into organic/superfood/GF/ vegan-type foods or nah? I don’t know if Lansing is crunchy enough for my product selection… I have visited a few one and done markets where ppl just did not get my offering ( asking what “cacao” is which I think is pretty common these days…)
Thx for any feedback ~

i was sitting next to her and my knees were pretty much against my chest and she casually tried pulling my shorts down to look at my scars?! i got up instantly and yelled at her telling her ‘what the fuck? what are you doing’ and she just said ‘i saw them and i wanted to have a look’ with her bottom lip pouting. i ran to my room and later on she came in and apologised and said ‘im sorry, i shouldn’t have looked. i full on said ‘u have no right to do that jeez.’ she said ‘i wont do it again’. I just left the house for a few hours after that. does anyone else’s parents do that?

It’s clear to me he doesn’t live in Hateno Village. Not a single soul knows who he is. The villagers, and even the mayor all mention how they’ve never seen you around and ask what you’re doing there.
The lady who cleans Zelda’s house every single day doesn’t know who you are. We find out from her that the kids from the school would raid Zelda’s house every day after school, and that’s why she needed the secret room. Hell, even the kids don’t know who you are, and there’s just a single-sized bed in the house.
Finally, in Zelda’s diary, she mentions specifically how link is always by her side… when she leaves to go do work , implying they meet up outside of the village. This would make total sense considering Link isn’t recognized by anybody in Hateno.
All of this evidence is much more compelling than the evidence for why they live together. “bUt ThE tAbLe Is SeT fOr TwO” lol, gimme a break guys.
TLDR; Link is a total stranger in Hateno village, so he must live somewhere else. Where is that somewhere else?

So I live in a small town in Oklahoma named mcalester, when I was about 12 or 13 I saw something that has bugged me to this day and I just turned 24.. I was in my back yard talking on the phone with a friend at around 11 pm just pacing back and forth talking, when out of no where a big green light maybe 15 or 20 foot above the trees starts shining brighter then anything I’ve ever seen, my back yard wasn’t big but behind my house was a walking track and almost everything as far as I could see was light up, I started freaking out telling my friend what was going on then boom it’s bolted off extremely quick, I cant quite remember if there was any sound coming from it but nothing stuck out noise wise so I don’t believe it was loud at all, but that’s not the end of it, maybe two week later I’m in my bedroom laying down talking to the same friend at around the same time it was definitely night everyone was asleep but me, my whole room start illuminating green from my window that’s facing the same direction as my back yard, scared af but I peek out the window and sure enough same exact thing in almost the same place as it was before, now besides my encounter with wtf ever it was, there’s more, yesterday I’m talking to my life long friends tj and caynon and I asked if they remembered me tripping about this at school and they both said yes then caynon reminded me when I told him that story back then he told me his uncle who lives by the woods was out hunting and saw almost the exact same thing and he lives in eufaula about 20 miles away from mcalester.. is there anyone that’s seen something similar? Or know of any government reason behind this? I’ve been curious for almost 10 years now lmao someone help

I always hated my 4th birthday.
It wasn't a bad brithday, it was on September 3rd: a sweet spot nearing the end of summer when we get a 3 day weekend from school.
It wasn't a bad birthday, it was the party every little girl in California wanted: Pink and white streamers, disney princess cupcakes, a good Katy Perry playlist playing in the background, and a big bouncy castle out back.
It wasn't a bad birthday, I got everything I wanted on my list: A dress of princess Elsa with a matching wig, a magical wand, new dolls with the longest hair I had ever seen, new coloring books, a new CD for Dora the Explorer, a pack of smelly pencils that when you opened the box was like walking into a candle store, a parachute soldier, a new train for my train set, and a new pair of sneakers that lit up when you stomp on them just right.
It wasn't a bad birthday, I got to play all day long: Bouncing on a castle with my classmates (excluding that one boy who was always so annoying), shoving cake into each other's faces, playing "pin the tail on the pony," winning multiple rounds of Red Light Green Light, and rolling down the hill which always left grass in my hair.
It wasn't a bad birthday, when the party was over my mom gave me a Royalty treatment: A big bath of bubbles that overflowed if I moved, bed sheets that just came out of the dryer towering on my bed, a huge bowl of macaroni and cheese, and she even joined me with playing dolls.
It wasn't a bad birthday, that night I had dreams of roaming infinite worlds of my imagination, marrying my youtuber crush, joining Princess Mulan on fighting the huns, wielding bows and arrows like I was cupid, and flying in skies of cotton candy.
It wasn't a bad birthday, it was a little girl's dream.
It wasn't a bad birthday, it was perfection.
It wasn't a bad birthday, the reason I hate it so is because of the wish I decided to make.
It wasn't a bad birthday, but that was the only thing on my mind when I blew out those candles
It wasn't a bad birthday, but cars and houses flooded my mind, along with the freedom I was going to gain.
It wasn't a bad birthday, I just wished I told people my wish when they asked.
It wasn't a bad birthday, I just made a wish that would ruin my life.
It wasn't a bad birthday, I made the wish every child my age wanted, "I want to be a grown up now."
It wasn't a bad birthday, but as I sit here in my bed, tired and depressed, I have so many regrets: I wish I didnt make that awful birthday wish.
It wasn't a bad birthday, but in two months, I will be entering highschool.
It wasn't a bad birthday, but time has been going by way too fast.
It wasn't a bad birthday, it truly wasn't.
I just wish I wished that "I could be a kid forever" instead.

Hello, I have a hypothetical scenario for consideration…say we are having a new construction built in a subdivision. We are preapproved for a $600k mortgage and the house we are buying will cost $400k. The mortgage would be a conventional 30-year fixed loan and would need to be approved 21 days prior to closing (sometime around the Fall/Winter).
Hypothetically… If for any reason, circumstances change (I.e. job loss or any big financial downfall) and we are denied the mortgage at closing time after the house is already built, what happens to the house? And what do people normally owe the builder under these circumstances?

Me (21F) and my roommate (18F) are looking for a 3rd girl to move into a house with us for the fall semester! We do have dogs. I tried to post in the Lawrence Facebook groups but my posts aren’t being approved for some reason!

( ex being the dumper) He told me he wanted to bring something for me that he bought for me or to drop it off and I just said sure because I thought I was fine to face him and be mentally okay, we hung out things were good but we ended up being intimate after.. ( drinks were involved) after that I told him how this would be the last time we talk due to sticking with my plan on doing NC but I just don’t know how to feel. Continued on to saying to him I felt like this was a bad idea, not a bad idea but just unsure how I would take this on later, I feel like I’m Just numbing myself to not feel anything at this point so I don’t think about what happened with us. I feel dumb for giving in, I feel like some part of me feels like I wasn’t respecting myself and my choices and gave in.

I've been dating my boyfriend for about eight months, and his mom has been involved more than I feel she should be right from the beginning. Their relationship has always been kind of off putting to me, but I thought maybe it was normal and that my parents just weren't as affectionate as they should be. But I've been talking it over with a couple close friends and they think there's something very off as well.
For starters, his mom is ridiculously controlling of him. Despite him being more than old enough to handle things like making appointments for the doctors, she lies to him and tells him that she HAS to book them even if he doesn't want her to. She makes up very strange excuses as to why he can't do things on his own. She decides what he does in his free time, and he's not given any sort of independence whatsoever.
She gets very jealous of me also. She is very passive aggressive towards me in ways that wouldn't necessarily get picked up on by others. She says I'm always welcome at their house but goes out of her way to subtly make me feel unwelcome and gets me to leave. She will give my boyfriend the OK to have me over, and then as soon as I get there she will ask him for help with a bunch of different chores. I used to just help out with the chores as well, so she started giving him one person jobs that she knew I wouldn't be able to help him with. She will make him study and tell me he needs to do it on his own, so I will end up sitting alone in a separate room for sometimes hours while she sits with him. Oftentimes I just get fed up and go home. She also makes a lot of excuses as to why I have to leave their house, or why I suddenly can't come after I've already left my house and she hadn't expressed any problem when he asked to have me over. He's told me that he thinks she acts so much differently around me in the sense that she's much angrier, she's more mean, and gets annoyed much easier. His dad loves me though, and his dad is often very picky with the girls that him and his brother have brought home. If I genuinely was doing something wrong, his dad would not like me as much as he does.
And they're super touchy. I came from a family that wasn't overly physically affectionate, but this is intense. They hug super often, even when they're all sweaty from the heat or something. If she doesn't hug him when she gets home, he assumes she's mad at him. He even hugs her from behind sometimes, which I feel is a little inappropriate for mother and son. On top of that, there's a lot of little touching, like if there's something on her face he will wipe it off for her instead of just telling her there's something there.
He also tells her he loves her a ridiculous amount. Like, I timed it the other day and he said "I love you" three times in less than two minutes. He says it every time he walks by her, and will just randomly drop what he's doing to tell her. This morning I was on the phone with him and he started talking to her, in their 45 second exchange he said he loved her twice. He doesn't even say it to me half as much.
And she makes a lot of comments on our sex life. I understand we are still young and definitely not ready to raise a kid, but she goes to some areas that I would not even think about going with my mom. Once, I showered at his house while getting ready for an event, and his mom said "you know you can still get pregnant if you have sex in the shower!", then proceeded to make a comment saying she's done it and it's not that good. That was far from the only time she's made comments about me getting pregnant or about us having sex. She also randomly texts him to tell him not to have sex with me, and makes sure that the door is open to whatever room we're in. Again, I get her concern but some of her comments are just very uncomfortable for me.
Honestly this whole thing is a bit of a dealbreaker, which sucks because he's absolutely perfect otherwise. He gets very upset when I mention anything about it and says things like "fine, I just won't be nice to my mom anymore". I haven't seen anything like this with any of my friends or family before and I'm not sure how to handle it. I think it's weird that the biggest hurdle in our relationship is his own mother.
TL;DR I think my boyfriend's relationship with his mom borders on emotional incest and it makes me super uncomfortable but I don't know how to express it to him.

"Think of this as a chance at revenge," Sweeney said.
​
Revenge.
​
What a moronically quaint idea.
​
This jumped up little shit had come into my home, interrupted my retirement and here he was talking to me about revenge, as if he knew the first thing about what I’d seen, what I’d been through, why I’d quit.
​
Looking into his eyes, I knew he didn’t understand. I knew he couldn’t.
​
I've been hunting vampires for most of my life. I've killed more of them than I can count. But Clementine Di Cesare was no ordinary vampire. Hell, none of the Di Cesares were ordinary vampires, but even among them Clementine was… unique. She was the one all the others quietly feared. The one who was even spoken of with reverence by the Di Cesares masters, those twin Immortals who could not be killed by any weapon of this world. Seeking revenge against her was like seeking revenge against death itself.
​
“Revenge?” I repeated, with a dismissive scoff.
“You’re really going to tell me that after what she put you through, you don’t want revenge?” Sweeney asked.
“If you knew what she did to me, you’d know why I don’t want revenge,” I replied.
“Really? Sorry Franklin, but I don’t buy that. Look, I get it if you’re reluctant to jump back into the fight. I do. You of all people know just how dangerous the Di Cesare’s are. Especially ‘La Morte’.”
​
I looked over at him as he said that name. It rolled off his tongue so irreverently. To him, it was just a name. An alias assigned to some vampire he’s only heard of stories. He didn’t utter it with the respect it deserved, and I almost couldn’t be bothered to correct him. Any words spent on this small minded glory hound were probably wasted.
​
“Yes, I do know.”
“Which is why I need you,” Sweeney said. He almost sounded as if he were pleading with me. “Think of this as an opportunity to set things right… to put that vampire bitch in the ground where she belongs, and save God only knows how many lives in the process!”
I sighed.
He just didn’t get it.
​
“Mark my words, Mr. Sweeney, if you chase after Clementine Di Cesare, you’ll end far more lives than you save. She didn’t get a name like ‘La Morte’ for nothing. She earned it. Purchased it with the blood of the tens of thousands she’s sent screaming into the maw of Hell. She is not something you chase, Sweeney.”
“She’s a vampire,” Sweeney said dismissively. “She’s another enemy to destroy.”
“That’s what George Bundy said,” I replied. “Then not too long after, he died.”
“I’m not George Bundy,” Sweeney said.
“No. You sure as hell ain’t,” I agreed, before looking the kid in the eye.
​
He thought he was an up and comer, climbing the ranks of the Brethren. He probably thought of himself as some sort of badass vampire hunter too, when in reality he could never have so much as dreamed of holding a candle to the likes of Bundy… or hell, any of the men who’d died in Brazil.
“You should watch your tone with me,” Sweeney warned.
“Or you’ll do what?” I asked, “You ain’t going to frighten me with vague threats, boy. I’ve walked through Hell, trying to kill the Devil. What have you done?”
​
Sweeney bit his lip but didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing you can say or do that will intimidate me,” I said, before lighting myself a cigarette. I stared at the road outside of my porch, old memories flooding back to me before looking over at Sweeney again. He sat in his chair beside me like a sulky child. This was the man who wanted to destroy the Di Cesare family? Pathetic.
​
“Exactly how much do you know about the Brazil Job?” I asked.
“I know it was a failure. Clementine Di Cesare killed most of the men the Brethren sent out… all except for you. You were the only one good enough to beat her.”
“Good enough…” I repeated with a huff, “Hardly… whatever picture you’ve got in your head of some glorified battle, throw it away. Trust me, the Brazil Job was anything but glorious. It was a two hour long trek through Hell. And I didn’t beat Di Cesare at the end of it. I survived her. They’re two different things entirely.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Sweeney said.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” I sighed and took another drag on my cigarette.
​
This kid wasn’t going to leave until I made him understand… so I told him my story. I told him everything even though I knew he’d learn nothing from it.
​
***
​
I’d joined up with the Brethren Knights of St. Fontaine back in the 1980s to hunt monsters. Back then, it seemed like the best use of my skills. I’d done my tours with the army, but even after I got out, I was still looking for an enemy to fight. So naturally, once I found out that vampires were real, I set my sights on them. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.
​
The Brethren Knights fancied themselves the descendants of the Knights Templar, and they insisted that their God given mission was to protect mankind from the things that lurked in the shadows. I didn’t really have much love for God at the time, but if the Bretheren were the ones fighting the monsters, then I was happy to tolerate the Jesus freaks in their ranks.
​
It was 1988 when we first heard whispers of the Imperium. A supposed cabal of vampires, trying to get them organized. At the time, it’d seemed too crazy to be true. Vampires generally went their own way, in my experience. At most, they might have a partner but other than they they didn’t really socialize with their own kind. But supposedly someone out there had the big fucking balls to keep them in line, and whoever they were, they scared the shit out of the Brethren.
​
They’d started targeting high profile vampires, trying to find someone who was involved in this ‘Imperium’, hoping that maybe they might get someone to talk. And it wasn’t long until they found someone who did.
​
From my understanding, the vampire they captured didn’t seem to know much about who was actually running the show. But they knew who their second in command was… and that was when I first head about the Di Cesare family.
​
The name was familiar to some of the higher ups in the Brethren, and I’d heard some stories. Not sure which were true, but the long and short of it was that the Di Cesare’s and the Brethren shared a bloody history, and didn’t particularly like each other too much.
​
George Bundy explained it to me like this at one point: ‘The Di Cesare’s are an old family. Most of them used to be witches, up until their Matriarch turned them into vampires. Now they’re a whole new kind of nasty. Far as I know, the only time anyone’s actually managed to kill one was about 200 years ago. Anyone who’s tried since has ended up dead, so most folks don’t even bother anymore.’
​
I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising they’d be involved in the Imperium, but the mere mention of their name ruffled some feathers higher up on the chain of command, and eventually they put out a kill order on them. Most of the Di Cesare’s were generally pretty hard to track down, but the top brass had a pretty good line on their matriarch, Bianca Di Cesare. Supposedly, she’d been spotted near the family’s private estate in Brazil and rumor had it that most of her daughters were there too.
​
Normally, the brass wouldn’t have sanctioned any kind of attack on them. The Di Cesare’s were already considered off limits, and attacking them at their private estate was considered damn near impossible. The estate was located in a small mining town outside of Manaus called Refugio de Julia, or just Julia for short. The town was fairly remote, being only accessible from a few backroads and most folks tended to avoid it, claiming they’d had various strange encounters in the area. Their accounts described unsettling pale figures with dark hair and large green eyes working in the mines, although some of the more disturbing stories we heard involved sightings of other creatures in the jungle surrounding the town. Massive spiders with humanoid faces, tending rotting corpses filled with stinging bees, giant howling beasts who tore through the forest, hunting prey, and beautiful women who would appear in the nearby towns, betwitching men into coming away with them only to reveal themselves as monsters who fed on the blood of their victims. Some had even claimed the Di Cesares themselves were such beasts… although those claims weren’t taken quite as seriously.
​
A skeptic might say the stories that surrounded Julia seemed like little more than just local superstition… but the Brethren had been dealing with the supernatural for long enough to recognize when something was probably real, and when it was probably fake and they knew damn well that most of the stories about Julia were probably true. None of them had ever dared set foot in Julia to find out for sure, since doing so would probably be suicide, but the theory was that the Di Cesares had created Julia as something of a refuge for other creatures. Other vampires, werewolves, arachne, karah and all sorts of other hellspawn. They offered them a home and safety in exchange for their labor in the mines. Hell, the name of the town more or less spelled it out.
​
Refugio de Julia
​
Julia’s Haven.
​
Julia had been the name of the only member of the Di Cesare family that the Brethren had ever killed, so I guess it was only fitting they named the town after her.
​
I honestly think using other creatures like them as a workforce was a bit inspired… since it made Julia damn near impenetrable. Reaching their estate at the far side of the town would have been impossible without being noticed by every creature of hell living in that town, and odds are they’d tear anyone apart long before they even reached the gates of the Di Cesare estate. And if one had the bright idea to approach the estate from another angle, they’d be trudging through miles and miles of rainforest to do so, only end up face to face with a massive stone wall that kept the rainforest out.
​
In effect - the Di Cesare estate was a fortress. Getting in would be no easy feat, to say nothing of confronting the vampires within. But with the fear of the Imperium gnawing at the back of their minds, the Brethren had finally set their minds to trying.
​
George Bundy had been the one in charge of planning the operation out.
​
I’d known Bundy before I’d joined up with the Brethren. Hell, Bundy was the whole reason I’d joined the Brethren. He’d been my CO a number of years back, and he’d earned his reputation as a hardass just about ten or twenty times over. Bundy was a gruff looking man with a bushy moustache and intense eyes. During the years I knew him, I don’t believe I ever once saw him so much as crack a smile. He only ever seemed to speak when he felt there was something he needed to say. Otherwise, he was usually dead silent.
​
He was somewhere in his late fifties back in 88. By all rights, he ought to have retired years ago. But he refused.
“I’m a soldier,” He said, when I asked him about it once. “That’s all I am. I don’t know what else to be.”
​
Bundy’s initial plan had been to hit the Di Cesare estate from the air. Come in fast and loud with a couple of helicopters and see how those vampires stood up to some good old American flak. The idea got shot down pretty quickly, so to speak. Apperantly, most if not all of the Di Cesares had cursed their own bodies, causing whatever wound one inflicted on them to appear on whoever it was who had wounded them. Going in guns blazing would have ended in a bloodbath… and not for them. There were also some concerns about drawing attention from Julia. With no conclusive data on just what they had living in that town, there was no guarantee we’d be safe in the air. A few eyewitnesses had described seeing giant nests in some of the trees in the jungle, supposedly consistent with the nests made by harpies.
​
Flying in guns blazing was out. So Bundy went back to the drawing board and what he came back with… well, it was ballsy, but it almost seemed like it just might work. During his reconnisance of the Di Cesare’s estate, he’d noticed a large but shallow tributary flowing into the amazon river that led right through the Di Cesare’s estate. Along the tributary was an abandoned water mill, that connected to the Di Cesare estate.
​
He’d suggested using the water mill to gain entry to the grounds, and from there, move on the Di Cesare’s. That plan had been approved, and Bundy had been allowed to handpick his team for the operation. He’d chosen fifteen men, all of them ex military, most of them having served under him before.
​
He’d told us we would be dividing into three teams of five men each. We would leave Manaus by boat, and land at three different areas near the tributary before making our way to the mill on foot, where we would regroup, before moving on the Di Cesares. The reason for the division was to ensure that if any of our teams ran into trouble upon making ground, the entire operation wouldn’t be compromised.
​
Team 1, led by Bundy himself would depart first and land to the west of the tributary. Team 2, led by a man named Ferdinand Hernandez would make land about fifteen minutes later near the mouth of the tributary and Team 3, to be led by me would land fifteen minutes later to the east.
​
On the day of the operation, I sat in my boat, watching as the other two left. It was twilight when we set out, and I remember that as my team and I carried out our final checks on our equipment, the only thing I felt was a familiar anticipation.
​
I’d hesitate to call it fear. Fear is what came later. Anticipation is the better word. I knew we could be walking into a tough situation… but I trusted Bundy. I trusted he’d run a smooth op. God knew, he’d done it a thousand times before.
​
The team assigned to me wasn’t anything particularly special. They were competent enough, but none of them would’ve been my first choices. Jack McMullen, for instance, who was about the same age as I was at the time. We’d both served under Bundy before, although while I respected Bundy, Jack was wholly devoted to him. I swear, if the man had told him to stuff a live grenade up his ass, Jack would’ve done it without a moments hesitation. I dunno if Jack simply saw him as the father he’d never had or what, but he damn near worshipped Bundy.
​
I can’t quite say the same for the other guys we had with us, though. One of them, some greenhorn by the name of Pearce Wilson struck me as an airheaded pretty boy who’d never actually had his boots on the ground before, while the other one, Scott Barber had left a bad taste in my mouth last time we’d worked together. Barber was capable… but he was violent. This was a kid with a hell of a chip on his shoulder, and it looked a hell of a lot like that Confederate flag patch he wore on his jacket. He wanted an excuse to shoot something, and I don’t think he cared what. Under most circumstances I’m not sure I would’ve fully trusted him with a gun.
​
The last one though, Joseph Feng… him I trusted. Feng was the one I knew the least about, and he didn’t seem much for conversation. But he handled himself competently enough and seemed to know when to sit down and shut up.
​
When Team 2’s boat was far enough away, we got the radio signal to follow. Barber was the one steering the boat, so I gave him the order to cast off and we ventured out into the twilight, unaware of just what was waiting for us out there.
​
***
​
We landed in our designated area fifteen minutes after Team 2 confirmed they’d touched down at theirs. Our landing was fairly uneventful. Feng, Barber, and I secured the boat before we radio’d Bundy to let him know we were in position. After that, it was just a matter of making it to the tributary.
​
As we ventured into the jungle, the world around us was quiet. There was wind, the whisper of the river behind us, and the sounds of animals. But little else. The river fell away behind us as we moved in single file toward the tributary, maintaining radio silence as we did.
​
It was about a half hour before we heard the gunshot.
​
Just one, echoing through the twilight. But it was enough to give us pause.
​
“The fuck was that?” I heard Barber ask. Immediately, the kid was on high alert, with his gun raised as if he were expecting every monster in Julia to come charging at us from all angles.
I just listened, waiting to hear if there was anything else. I half expected my radio to come to life, but it didn’t.
“Team 1, status?” I asked.
The radio crackled with static, but there was no response.
​
I tried it again, but still with no success. The radio was working, that much I was sure of. Something had to be blocking the signal.
“What’s going on?” Feng asked.
“Dunno,” I replied. “Comms are down.”
“Down?” Wilson asked, “So we’re flying blind out here, then?”
“More or less,” I replied.
“What do we do? Do we go back… if the comms are down…”
“Just because something’s jamming our signal doesn’t mean we’re made,” I said. “Relax. We keep moving for now. You keep your eyes wide open, and your head on a swivel. We’ll make it to the tributary and see if we can’t meet up with the other teams.”
I could tell Wilson wasn’t a fan of my answer, but I didn’t much care. We had a job to do, and I aimed to do it.
​
I pressed on without a further word and the others followed. Up ahead, I could hear the sound of running water and picked up the pace. I figured the tributary had to be close… and I was right.
​
I emerged from the brush into the stream, only to pause when I saw what was waiting for us in the water.
​
In the dying sunlight, it was impossible to mistake the bodies sprawled out on the rocks as anything else… and all I needed to do was look at their uniforms to know they were our people.
“Jesus…” I heard Wilson say under his breath. He froze up, lingering by the bank as I cautiously approached one of the bodies.
​
It belonged to a somewhat heavyset man with a thin mustache who I recognized as Hernandez. His eyes were still open, although lifeless and staring in different directions, and there was a clean hole in his forehead where a bullet had ended his life. The gunshot we’d heard earlier had likely been the sound of his death.
​
Looking at the bodies around him, I knew they had to be the rest of Team 2… although it was a little harder pinning down their cause of death. Some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps, judging by the state of them. I realized the odds were that they walked into some sort of ambush.
“What about Bundy and Team 1?” Jack asked, “Any sign of them?”
“No,” I said. “These bodies are all from Team 2… Bundy could still be ahead of us.”
“Then we need to keep going!”
​
Jack turned, heading up the stream and Barber was right behind him. Feng paused for a moment, thinking this over before following. Only Wilson remained.
“How do we know we’re not walking into a trap?” He asked.
“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” I said before moving to follow the others.
“With all due respect, Sarge… that doesn’t sound like the best course of action!” Wilson argued, finally following me. “It sounds just like a good way to get killed!”
“Yeah?” I asked, “I’m gonna tell you an ugly truth, kid. That’s the job. Make your peace with it, and it’ll go a lot easier.”
​
Wilson didn’t like that answer either and trailed off behind me, watching as I continued upstream. For a moment, I half expected him to go back to the boat… but no. I dunno if he found his balls or just didn’t want to get left behind, but he started to follow us again.
​
I kept trying to raise Team 1 on the radio while we walked, although I still had no luck. The light above us slowly faded into darkness as we trudged through the water in silence, guns sitting comfortably in our hands and mosquitos biting at our necks.
​
It wasn’t until we lost Feng that I heard anybody so much as make a sound, and when we lost Feng… it happened almost instantaneously. One minute, he was at the head of the group, walking just ahead of Jack and I. The next, he was gone, only barely having the time to let out a scream as he fell into the river ahead of us.
​
The rest of us paused. Jack seemed to freeze and I pushed past him, calling out for Feng as I did. As punishment for my compassion, I almost went down after him. I only barely stopped myself from stepping on the slippery rocks that had helped send him to his demise.
​
I could see Feng’s body in the water, and I could see the blood pouring out of him. He twitched a few times, but I knew he was dead. The sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of him confirmed as much.
“What the hell…” Jack said under his breath, staring at Feng’s corpse in disbelief. “That’s a fucking spike trap!”
​
Yeah.
​
It was indeed a fucking spike trap.
​
I could see other spikes jutting out of the water ahead of us, just past a small dam of rocks that were just slippery enough to make it difficult to stop yourself from falling. Some of those spikes had other bodies on them… likely members of Team 1. I only counted two, although that still didn’t exactly bode well.
​
“They put a fucking spike trap in the goddamn stream…” Jack said, “Who the hell does that?”
“Somebody who’s expecting us to use the stream,” I replied.
“So they know we’re coming?” Barber asked.
“Clearly…” I replied. “And they’ve got a good idea on what our route is too.”
​
“Yeah, no shit!” Barber snapped. “Christ… let’s get the fuck out of here. There’s probably more fucking traps upstream!”
“Bundy’s orders were clear!” Jack argued.
“Bundy’s probably dead by now!” Barber replied, before looking at me. “Sarge, come on. You have to know this is suicide!”
“Suicide was part of the job description, was it not?” I asked.
“The job is to kill those fucking vampires, not to die in the goddamn process! We need to get out of the stream and into the woods!”
​
“Judging by the fate Team 2 met, I’m not sure the forest is someplace we want to be right now,” I replied.
“Excuse me?” Barber asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Sarge?”
“Five men dead, but only one gunshot. How did the rest die?”
​
Barber didn’t seem to be able to answer that.
“By now… yes. It’s clear we’ve walked into a trap. And yes, I understand that it makes sense to try and leave that trap… but I don’t know if we’ll be safer in the jungle. Something jumped Team 2. Cut them apart, and then shot Hernandez as a warning. They didn’t have to shoot him. They did it so we’d hear.”
“Your point being?” Barber asked.
“I don’t think this is just a trap, Barber. It’s a game. Stop playing, and you might just end up like our friends downstream.”
“A game?” Wilson asked, “Sarge, you can’t be serious!”
​
“From where I’m standing, we have a better chance of surviving in the stream,” I said. “Look, we’re at least halfway to the rendezvous point, and there have to be at least two members of Team 1 left. The safest thing to do right now is to follow them.”
“You’re off your fucking rocker, Sarge,” Barber spat, locking his eyes with mine. For a moment, I thought the boy was going to try and fight me. But no. He was wise enough to stand down.
“If you wanna get yourself killed, go right the fuck ahead. Just leave me out of it! Wilson, come on,” Barber said before trudging over to the edge of the stream. Wilson didn’t even hesitate, just looking back at Jack and I quietly before he disappeared into the forest with Barber.
​
“You’re not gonna stop them?” Jack asked.
“No,” I replied. “God willing, there’s a chance that pigheaded asshole is right… dunno how much of a chance, but a chance.”
“Then how come we’re not following him?” Jack asked.
“There’s also a chance he’s wrong.”
I turned, before making my way around the spike trap.
“Keep a slower pace,” I said. “Watch for traps.”
​
Jack hesitated for a moment, but he followed me without any further questions and we walked in silence for a little longer.
​
We heard nothing from the trees. Nothing that told us about the fate of Barber and Wilson. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.
​
In fact, I don’t think we heard a thing until about a half hour later, when we heard the explosion.
​
It came out of almost nowhere, but ahead of us I could see a flash of light and hear the screams of men. On instinct, I found myself picking up the pace and could hear Jack behind me. In the low light, I saw a shape float past me in the stream. It took me a moment to realize that it was a severed human arm.
​
In the water ahead of us, I could see a figure clinging to one of the rocks and trying to pick himself up. I recognized him as George Bundy.
​
Jack was at his side almost immediately, trying to help the old man to his feet.
“Sir! Are you alright?”
Bundy just wheezed, before his legs gave out from under him. I helped Jack drag him to the shore so he could sit and rest for a moment.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking back at the stream.
“Grenade trap… I think…” Bundy panted, “Fucking tripwire… Popkov tripped it, I think…”
​
Popkov… odds are he was one of the two mangled corpses lying in the river a few feet away from us. It seemed they’d taken the brunt of the explosion, although Bundy still had some shrapnel in his arm that Jack was tending to.
“Christ… whole fucking ops gone to shit…” Bundy spat. “Team 2 got taken out just about as soon as they landed. Someone killed them and dumped them in the goddamn river. Lost half my boys to the fucking spike trap and half to this…”
​
He looked up at us, before spitting onto the ground.
“Guess you two haven’t done much better.”
“Hard to say,” I replied. “Two of ours took off into the woods, trying to avoid the traps.”
“Then they’re dead,” Bundy replied. “I’ve seen her watching us… always just up ahead, always from a distance… she’s seeing how far we’ll go. How much we’ll take…”
“She?” I asked.
“La Morte. Should’ve figured she’d be the one to greet us.”
“La Morte?” I asked.
​
“It’s Italian. Supposedly, she earned that name around the time the Di Cesares fled Venice. It’s funny, the Brethren like to act like the Di Cesares leaving Venice was some big victory of theirs, since before they did, they finally killed one of them… hard to call it a victory though, considering how many corpses they made before they fled. And most of them came from La Morte…”
Bundy winced in pain as Jack bandaged his arm before he continued talking.
​
“See… when the Di Cesare’s left Venice, one of them stayed behind. Clementine, the Scorpio sister. Guess she was unwilling to leave the fight unfinished… and according to the stories, the death toll she personally amassed in the years after the Di Cesare’s left Venice make the bodies they claimed during the Venetian Massacre a hundred and fifty years prior look like a pittance. The Brethren still occupying the city started to call her La Morte. Death. Cuz wherever she went, death followed in her wake… and it seems we’ve walked right into her open arms, haven’t we, boys?”
​
“You’re sure it’s her?” I asked.
“She’s a Di Cesare… and the shit we’ve seen out here… I don’t see any other Di Cesare setting those traps. It’s her. I’m sure of it. She’s watching us. Seeing how far we’ll go. Seeing if we’ll turn tail…”
“Should we?” Jack asked, and Bundy finally seemed to acknowledge him.
“Excuse me?” He asked.
“Should we? Look, sir… I’d follow you into the mouth of Hell, but right now, we’re down from fifteen men to three. Can’t say I’m optimistic about our chances right now. If this woman is half as bad as you’re saying she is, maybe it’s time we took a step back!”
​
Jack looked at me, hoping I might back him up, but I remained silent.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bundy asked.
“What I’m hearing here, is that as of right now, the vampire out there could kill us at any time. She hasn’t. Far as I’m concerned, that’s mercy. Maybe we should be taking it while it’s offered.”
Bundy stared at him, before chuckling. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh.
​
“Just walk away, then?” He asked.
“Walk away, and come back better prepared!” Jack corrected.
“Walk away,” Bundy said again. “We walk away now, and there won’t be a chance to come back better prepared. We get one shot at this. One. Failure is not an option. We go in there and we kill them or we die. End of discussion.”
“And how exactly are we even supposed to kill them?” Jack asked, “That curse they have… bullets aren’t gonna do shit, sir!”
“Yours won’t, mine will…”
Bundy pulled his pistol from his holster. I noticed some sort of pattern crudely engraved on it.
​
“I’ve been doing some research… studied the curse they put on themselves… and I think I’ve found a way to break it. Not sure if it’ll work yet… but we get one chance to test it.”
Jack stared at the gun, then back at Bundy.
“Sir… do you hear yourself?” He asked quietly, “You can’t be serious… right now, even with that gun we don’t stand a chance in he-”
​
The gunshot echoed through the forest and made me jump. Jack’s voice died in his throat as he hit the ground.
​
Bundy stared at him for a moment, before huffing and holstering his pistol again. He draped his coat over his shoulders, before looking over at me.
“No room for failure, Frank,” He said calmly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared down at Jack’s body, my mouth hanging open slightly. When I looked back at Bundy, he was already back in the stream.
​
There was a tense silence between Bundy and I as I followed him along the final stretch of the tributary. He trudged on ahead, covered in sweat and straining with every step, but I could sense the quiet determination he had to see this through. Looking at him, you could’ve told me that George Bundy could wipe out the Di Cesare’s all by himself and I would have believed it in a second.
​
The night around us was full of sound, and each one drew my attention. I watched the forest, expecting to see some sign of La Morte watching us. But I saw nothing, except for what she wanted me to see.
“Mill’s just up ahead,” I heard Bundy say as we pressed on, although I noticed his steps faltering as he seemed to notice something in the trees above us. I stopped behind him, looking up before seeing what he saw, and when I saw it I felt my stomach turn.
​
I’d seen death before.
But what Di Cesare had left out for us… that was something else.
Pearce Wilson and Scott Barber weren’t dead.
But if they could have spoke, I’ve got no doubt they would have begged us to kill them. Wilsons pretty face was covered in blood and his pouty lips were parted as more trickled out of him. His curly blond hair was matted and I could see crimson there. Tree branches portruded from his ribs, while the loops of his entrails dangled out of his opened stomach. And Barber was in just about the same state, only he seemed to at least have the ability to turn his head to look at us.
​
I think he might have tried to speak, but the only sound he seemed to be able to make was a pained whimper.
“Jesus Christ…” I said softly.
“He had nothing to do with this,” Bundy replied. He took one last look at the two dying men hanging from the trees, before moving on.
“We should put them out of their misery, sir,” I said.
​
Bundy paused, before looking back at me.
“Don’t waste the ammo, Frank,” He replied. “They’re already dead.”
“Not yet they’re not!”
“Give them time. They chose to go into the woods. They can live with the consequences… for however long that lasts.”
​
With that, he left them. If I were a more compassionate man, I would have put them out of their misery. But no. Bundy moved on and so did I.
​
He approached the water mill, before examining it. It was an old building, made of stone that had long since been overgrown by moss, and sat right on the wall that separated the Di Cesares estate from the amazon. It hardly looked secure, even if the only entrance hadn’t just been an old wooden door secured with a padlock, finding a way in wouldn’t have been difficult. And it didn’t take much for Bundy to break through that door. All he needed was a couple of well placed kicks and it swung right open.
​
Drawing his gun, Bundy strode inside and I followed him.
“The Di Cesare’s will be in the main house,” He said. “We should find a way in through the back, try and catch them off guard. Main target should be the matriarch, Bianca. Her we should prioritize keeping alive… the rest are expendable.”
​
“Much as you are, I’m sure.” A voice called from deeper in the mill, and both Bundy and I froze.
I noticed movement on the floor above us, and through the shadows, I saw a tall woman watching us. She was dressed all in black, with blond hair tied back in a ponytail and the intense eyes of a soldier.
​
This had to be Clementine Di Cesare.
​
Bundy aimed his pistol at her, although she only barely seemed to notice.
“Only two of you left… I’m not sure the odds are in your favor,” The woman said. Her voice was low, calm and quiet.
“Only one way to find out,” Bundy growled.
“And only one way to walk out of this place alive,” Di Cesare countered. “You can put the gun down, turn and walk away. I won’t stop you. There’s no shame in living.”
​
“All the bodies you’ve left in your wake… that’s rich,” Bundy said.
“I don’t relish what I’ve done. I simply don’t know how to do anything else,” She replied. “Think about this, Bundy. Over my lifetime, there have been countless thousands who have come to kill me. All of them are dead, but I am not. Even if you could kill me… you could not kill my sisters. Not all of them. Not before they came for you.”
“Just you, would be enough…” Bundy said, before pulling the trigger.
​
I knew he’d hit her. I knew the bullet pierced her shoulder. But that woman… she didn’t even flinch. She simply dove out of the way before he could shoot again, taking cover and avoiding his next shot.
“Frank, upstairs!” Bundy snapped, “Flush her out!”
I went, trudging up the old wooden steps with my rifle drawn. Only to see Di Cesare vaulting over the railing and back down to the ground floor as soon as I made it up there.
​
Bundy shot at her again, only to miss for a second time. I saw Di Cesare’s arm move, and heard him cry out in pain. In the low light, I could see a dagger protruding from his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, leaving himself open for only a split second.
​
That second was all it took for Di Cesare to raise her own gun and fire just one shot.
​
George Bundy hit the ground without so much as a final scream. There was just a simple hole in his skull where she had shot him.
​
I felt my heart start to race faster. My eyes settled on Bundy’s gun, and I ran for the railing, vaulting it and dropping to the ground below with a thud. Di Cesare shot at me, and I felt the bullet tear through my leg. I reached out for the fallen gun and grabbed it before turning it on Di Cesare, only to find myself staring down the barrel of her own pistol. My finger rested on the trigger, but I didn’t have the guts to pull it.
​
"Kill me, and you will not see the sun tomorrow." She said, her voice still cold and calm.
“Killing you is part of the job…” I replied, but my finger still couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
“And is it worth your life?” Di Cesare asked. “You fail your mission either way.”
“And die with some goddamn honor…”
“There’s no such thing as honor. There is alive and there is dead. Choose.”
​
I knew what I was supposed to choose.
​
But my hands were shaking, as I stared into the face of death. My finger couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
​
The gun collapsed to the floor and Di Cesare kicked it away from me, before huffing and lowering her gun.
“Do not return,” She said softly. “Or next time, I will unleash a hell upon you that will make you beg for simple traps.”
​
She picked Bundy’s gun up off the ground, and then she was gone. After I finally picked myself up off the ground, I was gone too.
​
As I walked back along the stream… I passed the corpses of the men we’d left behind. Barber and Wilson, Jack, Feng, Hernandez, and his team. The flies were already feasting on them. Animals had already torn at them. And as I looked down at their cold corpses, I knew I had made the right choice.
​
I filed my report with the Brethren. Told them that Di Cesare had wiped us out, and a few months later I quietly retired. I never looked back.
​
***
​
“You walked away from her?” Sweeney asked in disbelief, “You had her dead to rights and you walked away from her?”
“I chose to live,” I replied. “Can’t say I regret the decision either. Because of the choice I made, I met my wife and had my kids. I’ve lived the life I had because I chose not to throw it away on some vampire.”
​
Sweeney just shook his head.
“You could have gotten the first confirmed kill on a Di Cesare in two centuries, and you threw it away you fucking coward! I could execute you for that!” I noticed his hand hovering over the gun on his hip.
“You could.” I replied, before quietly unholstering the pistol I kept at my side. I aimed it at Sweeney’s head.
​
He stared at me like a slack jawed idiot.
“Would you like to give it a try?”
“W-what…?”
“Would you like to give it a try, Mr. Sweeney? Or would you like to see the sun tomorrow?”
He stared down the barrel of my gun, and I already knew what his choice would be.
​
Sweeney took a step back. I saw his hand move away from his holster, and I lowered the gun with a huff.
“Thought so,” I said.
Mr. Sweeney left me without another word.
I knew he would not return.

Context: The one-armed knight known as Sir Calabas approached your werewolf pack years ago with news that one among you held the power of a hero that once defeated the world-ending dragon, Asmond. He gave your father, the Alpha werewolf, the rusted hilt of a bladeless sword, calling it the Blade of Ember, and tasked him with finding the hero. Your older brother was selected and you've helped him train for the big confrontation as best you could. It seems the day has come. Asmond has awoken and the hero must confront him. You know your brother will win... right?
Setting: The werewolf village/ Mt. Ironside
Tags:[MMM4A][Kind Knight Speaker][Mean Older Bro Werewolf Speaker][Dragon Speaker][Kind Werewolf Listener][Prophecy][Slay the Dragon][Lore Drops][Enthusiastic][Underdog Listener][Fantasy][Magic][CW: Themes of Abuse/Neglect]
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[K] = Sir Calabas, the kindly one-armed knight
[B] = Remrik, your older brother
[A] = Asmond, the world-ending dragon
[Scene opens within your village]
[SFX: Old-timey village ambiance/ the occasional howl followed by a horse trotting along and armored feet hitting the ground]
[You sit underneath the hut you call home when you see a familiar man wandering into your village]
[Pause!]
[You wave at him and he approaches with a smile]
“Runt! Good to see you again, little one. What are you doing underneath your hut?”
[Pause]
[His smile wanes slightly]
[K] “Ah. Your father is nursing a hangover and wanted you out of the house to sleep it off. Well, I suppose it’s good your Aunt is so good at covering the duties of an Alpha werewolf, hm?”
[Pause <3]
[K] “Hmhm… I know you don’t mind. Your enthusiasm is always a welcome sight amongst the other werewolves here if I might say. Getting your pack’s assistance in dealing with Asmond was already quite the trial, but you’ve always been a treat to speak with. Ah… With that said, is your brother about?”
[Pause!]
[K] “Ah, he’s polishing the sword’s hilt. Good. Have you seen the blade itself form yet?”
[...]
[The Knight raises an eyebrow]
[K] “He says he’s made the Blade of Ember manifest but doesn’t want to show it off until after Asmond is defeated? Mm… Has your father seen your brother manifest the blade?”
[Pause!]
[The Knight sighs in relief]
[K] “Good… It’d be incredibly unfortunate if the witch’s prophecy were wrong in the wake of a, well, world-ending dragon slumbering in the mountain. Especially when the mountain has begun to shake…”
[Pause?]
[K] “...Why does Asmond want to end the world?... Hm. You know, I never thought to ask him while he was ripping my arm off.”
[...]
[The Knight’s bitterness eases as he sees you shrink back from him a bit]
[K] “...Apologies, Runt. Part of being a hero is confronting people who cannot be reasoned with. Some people simply wish harm, and Asmond is one of them.”
[...Pause]
[He laughs a little]
[K] “You don’t understand but you’re still happy to see me?”
[The Knight smiles and ruffles your head gently]
[K] “Hm. Well, at least you’re happy to see me. I know werewolves and humans don’t typically get along but you’d think I’d have won your old man over with the whiskey by now, hm?”
[Pause]
[His smile fades slightly]
[K] “...Runt, you look like you got into a tussle with a wild boar. What happened?”
[Pause!]
[He listens, unreadable]
[K] “You’ve been helping your big brother train to slay the dragon? How so?”
[Pause]
[K] “...Sparring. And, ah, how have you found it?”
[Pause]
[He smiles at your enthusiasm. It’s a touch sad]
[K] “Yes, I imagine it is quite painful… but to see someone so young that loves their family so warms my old heart. You are earnest, Runt, even in the face of extreme cruelty.”
[Pause?]
[K] “Why do I say cruelty? Ah… I don’t mean to offend. I suppose it is just the difference in how humans and werewolves raise their children. My big brother and I would scrap all the time when we were young, but… he always knew when enough was enough. When to pull his punches… It seems like your brother is not acting in-”.
[SFX: A door swinging open]
[The door to your hut swings open and your brother hurries out, almost knocking you over]
[B] “Move, Runt! Sir Calabas, I’m ready to confront the dragon!”
[Pause!]
[Your brother rolls his eyes]
[B] “Runt, I told you, I don’t have time to show you the blade waking up! You’ll just have to wait until I slay the dragon, just like the prophecy said!”
[Pause <3]
[Man, your brother is so cool. But also ow that was totally a rock your knee landed on]
[K, stern] “You’d be wise to treat your sibling better, Remrik.”
[B] “Aw, Runt’s used to it. They know it’s all in good fun, right? Besides, the mountain is shaking… That means Asmond has woken up, right?”
[K, sighing] “Yes. You have the Blade of Ember, then?”
[SFX: Your brother patting the sword’s sheathe]
[B] “Raring to go, got it sheathed right at my hip!”
[Pause!!]
[B] “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be careful, Runt. I’m the hero, remember?”
[Pause!!!]
[The Knight smiles again as you cheer him on]
[K] “Hmhm… Come, Remrik. We must meet Asmond on his ground and strike him down. If we don’t…”
[B] “No way! We’ve got this, Tin Can! Runt, make sure to tell Da to put the feast on for when we get back! I’m gonna be swarmed in pretty she-wolves and hungry as Hell.”
[Pause!]
[You know that probably means you’re sleeping under the hut again but you’re too happy for him to care]
[K] “Take care, Runt. Come, Remrik, we must away!”
[SFX: The two of them hurrying off together]
[Pause]
[You go back into the house to try and find your Da. Like usual, he’s slumped in bed, snoring away. You go to shake him awake when your foot hits something metal]
[SFX: A door opening and footsteps on creaking wooden boards]
[Pause]
[SFX: Big ol’ werewolf snoring]
[Pause]
[SFX: Something metal skidding on a wooden floor]
[You look down at what you kicked and horror flies down your throat. The Blade of Ember sits discarded on the ground. As always, it looks the part of a simple, rusted sword handle, but you know its power]
[...]
[SFX: Runt grabbing the sword’s hilt and running like a mad person]
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Scene fades back into the insides of the mountain]
[SFX: The mountain shaking/rocks falling as Calabas and Remrik race through to the dragon’s den]
[K] “Brace yourself, Remrik! The den of Asmond lies just ahead!”
[B] “I’m ready, Sir!”
[SFX: Them running and then skidding to a stop]
[The small tunnel opens into an endless abyss of a cavern. A dragon the size of a small city is already lumbering to his feet, rumbling with displeasure]
[A] “Finally… I wake once more.”
[SFX: The mountain shaking from his voice]
[B] “BLEEDING GODS HE’S BIG!”
[K, sharply] “Do not give in to fear! Draw the blade and prepare to fight!”
[Remrik grabs at the sheathe a few times before he goes white as a ghost]
[B] “...oh fuck.”
[K, in disbelief] “You left the sword?!”
[B] “I might have left the sword…”
[The dragon lets out an almost polite chuckle, amused]
[Note: Recommend shifting vocals so that they sound farther away to shift to Runt’s perspective]
[A] “...Ten long years and you’ve grown no less bumbling, hm, Calabas? That kind of thinking is exactly why I got to enjoy gobbling up your arm.”
[K] “...Run, Remrik. Run back to your village and find the blade!”
[B, panicked] “B-But-!”
[K] “GO, GODAMN YOU!”
[SFX: The mountain rumbling harder]
[A] “No, no, I don’t think so. Prophetic heroes do tend to be so simultaneously annoying and underwhelming. What have you brought me, Calabas? A whimpering pup with his tail tucked between his legs, wondering why the smell of piss is so strong? Hmhm… Well, that’s fine. You’ll only have to endure the smell of burnt fur for a moment!”
[Pause!]
[SFX: The dragon sucking in a breath and blasting them with fire]
[B] “M-Mother!”
[K] “GET BEHIND ME, BOY!”
[You rush in with the sword hilt, swinging it wildly, not knowing what else to do. You’re not going to let this mean man hurt your brother or your friend, no matter what happens!]
[B] “R-Runt?!”
[K] “RUNT, NO!”
[SFX: The cry of a phoenix followed by an eruption of magic]
[The hilt begins to vibrate in your hand as you swing it again. Fire surges toward you. Your body is crushed by fear but the smallest ember in you pushes forward. You have to protect them]
[Pause!!!]
[A, horrified] “N-No.”
[B] “What?!”
[K] “...Runt…”
[SFX: An explosion of magical fire]
[You hold the blade before you, nearly blinded by the heat coming off of it. Runes flash, hissing in tongues you don’t know. Yet, you hold it as best you can, staring up at a creature a thousand times your size]
[A] “...the hero lives…”
[B] “What?!? B-But, I was-!”
[K] “The hero lives, indeed…”
[He turns to the dragon, staring him down]
[K] “...Flee while you can, Asmond. Know that for whatever deeds you commit, you shall face us in the end.”
[The dragon growls, staring you down. You look up at him, more baffled than anything, but growl like a proper wolf and step forward]
[SFX: The dragon growling/pause-beat/Runt growling, if desired]
[Pause]
[SFX: The dragon stepping back uncertainly]
[A] “...I should strike you all down… Here in this very moment!”
[K, coldly] “You can try.”
[That seems to shake the dragon. He lets out a huff of fear and takes flight, racing for the skyline]
[SFX: The huff noted above and big ol’ dragon wings flapping away]
[B] “...I don’t understand… Why didn’t the sword respond to me? The witch said I was the hero!”
[K] “The witch said that the hero’s spirit lived among your pack. I left it with your Alpha, your father, to determine who that was. Apparently, it was not you.”
[B] “But I’m the best warrior in our clan, I don’t-?!”
[Their arguing fades into the background as you decide now is a really good time for a nap]
[SFX: Distortion to show the Listener is passing out / a thud as they hit the ground]
[To be continued]
Note: This story hit me hard and I don’t know why, I’m just really proud of it <3
Second note: This script was written while I was listening to ‘Into Free - Dangan’ from Dragon’s Dogma.
Third note: Runt is eighteen, for those curious. Remrik is about twenty-two. Calabas is in his mid-thirties. That is why they are little bro-ing Runt so hard XD

So ive been smoking more or less everyday for about a year now (the longest break i had till now was 2 days). I learnt about Terence Mckennas way of using weed. If you dont know he basically treated it like a pychedelic. And i read The Hasheesh eater. This inspired me to go on a t break which i began last friday.
The week was a little messy, didnt eat much or sleep much but it felt good showing myself i could do this and it gave me a desire to do other stuff. i basically spent the whole week grinding guitar theory. People usually say to wait a month for a full reset, i dont know if i have that kind of will power lol but for now i settled with a week. When The next friday came around i planned to have my first hit at 9 pm. My friends came round to my house and i let them both have a hit before me. once they were toked up i sat down to have my hit. I had thought a lot about what my first hit would be after the break. a small flower hit to keep my tolerance low, a huge flower hit to blast off, a hash hit, a spliff, all of the above?
I decided i would have a small flower hit, with a little hash ball in there hehe. i hit the bong and held my lighter there to get the hash lit. But it didnt light. i basically just smoked all the flower (not alot) in one without the hash. As i exhaled i started dying coughing, like my lungs were completely new to this feeling. like how it felt having my first bong hit ever. You know when you can't catch a breath and your hearts racing. A few seconds passed and i was EXTREMELY TOKED. "I cant beleive i though i could handle the hash!" i said to my friends as they errupted with laughter. I seriously think if that hash did light and i smoked it, i would have passed out or thrown up.
i proceeded to lay on my bed and examine how i felt. I was tripping out maaaan. I dont know how to explain it but my room felt very weird and my perspective felt strange. my vision was in layers. like my body was the foreground then one layer was my friends and then the background was the room. and different objects were different layers. Lmao i was soo Stoned. Also, there were defineitely moments where i couldnt stop laughing, which hasn't happened in a while. Man what a great feeling, like pure bliss. It was such a blast. My friend mentioned something about the losing track of your thoughts side effect of weed. He went on a tangent, in his toked state, that its a good thing. you have a moment to stop whatever your talking about (usually something pointless) and re-examine your reality and choose wich one you want to go in to. if you want to carry on with what you were saying you can choose to try and remember what you were saying, or you can choose something else. For some reason this really resonated with me and i couldnt stop laughing at how true it was lmao.
It really was a pretty trippy/Pychedelic experience. i had one more hit, even smaller about 2 hours later (wich also hit me like a freight train) and once my friends left i passed the fck out after laying in pure relaxation for a bit. What a night. I hope to repeat the same tonight and tommorow night and then not smoking from Monday until next friday (aka only smoking on weekends). I want to see how 4 days effect my tolerance.
If you havent gone on a t break in a while or ever, i would really reccomend one. You've probably forgot how tripped out you used to get haha. Just one week seemed to make a HUMONGOUS difference in tolerance, though i am very skinny so maybe thats something to do with it. I almost forgot how crazy it was when you first start smoking. Its almost dreamy and very trippy. If your not careful you and your friend might be having 2 completely different conversations at the same time! I could see getting way more out of the experience this way. When you smoke everyday for a while you lose this trippy side of weed. Its still great of course but nowhere near this experience. 10/10 would reccomend. Explore the cosmos again maaan! Ps sorry for the long post

tw / a little backstory:
my grandmother (on my fathers side) abused me as a child. i would go as far to say she is the biggest narc i have ever met in my life. i would go over there to be babysat and she was often horrible to me; locking me in her basement for hours, letting me get sexually assaulted by my cousin, verbally berating me (and letting others do the same) and hurting me. It was extremely prolonged and traumatic for me and has affected almost every single aspect of my life since then. my grandmother has continued to attempt to pitifully be in my life, by texting me once a year for my birthday and occasionally trying to make me come over to her house.
on to the story though: i graduated yesterday. my grandma came to the ceremony, but decided not to sit with my parents, my dad being her only son. she complained the entire time apparently and then when i was going back inside to get my diploma (which we were coming back to the field afterwards) she tried to cut in front of the line of graduates, hand me a huge bouquet of flowers and a ballon and just take a picture so “she could get going”. i told her that she couldn’t do that right now and that she was cutting people off and i just kind of turned and left to get my diploma. Later when i was coming back i saw her leaving, and i met up with my parents and they filled me in and i just got filled with a wave of frustration. I just kept thinking, why did she even come if she was going to act like coming to my graduation was such a burden after she fucking abused me?? my mom just kept saying that she doesn’t matter and that she just has her own issues to work out with and was just pissed at my grandma. this was the first time in a long time my mom actually acted like. a mom. which was weird for me? obviously i’m not expecting her to completely change and i won’t put my guard down but maybe she does have the ability to become somewhat normal..?

Hello, I have just moved to a new house and am looking for relatively affordable fly/pet screens that I can put on the windows to allow me to open the windows and not let the cats out.
We live in a rough enough area and it won't be safe for the animals to go out here so I'm looking for a more permanent fix.
Thanks

I've been looking at whether or not we can measure good and evil in amongst other projects around the multiplicity of different wills that are at play within our daily lives (Will to Power, Will to Create, Will to Responsibility, Will to Meaning etc), and have been watching with concern all the Governments around the world getting us ready for a Central Bank Digital Currency, providing the illusion of public input, but seemingly moving towards the CBDC system as a economic system of last resort.
Me:

What happens if our economy collapses, we see 50% or more unemployment due to both economics, and automation/AI factors? Individuals are no longer able to sustain themselves, and governments have gotten themselves into so much debt that they cannot afford any social programs, nor the upkeep of law enforcement to ensure individual safety. Could any of your above examples work in the world I've proposed?

ChatGPT:

In the event of a large-scale economic collapse and subsequent high unemployment, traditional mechanisms of welfare and social stability may indeed become strained or even non-functional. In such a scenario, different or supplemental approaches might be necessary to uphold the moral laws we've outlined. Here are a few possibilities:

1. **Universal Basic Income (UBI):** If traditional employment is no longer a viable way for a significant proportion of the population to support themselves, governments or a consortium of nations might implement a universal basic income program. This would provide everyone with a basic level of financial support, regardless of employment status. Although it might seem contradictory in a situation where government debt is high, some economists argue that UBI can stimulate economic activity, thereby increasing the government's revenue in the long run.
   
2. **Skill Transition Programs:** Massive unemployment due to automation suggests that many jobs have become obsolete. In response, we could establish widespread education and training programs to help people transition into roles that are still needed. This could include jobs that require human interaction, creativity, emotional intelligence, or the oversight of automated systems.
   
3. **Community-Based Solutions:** If governmental support is limited, local communities might need to band together to provide mutual aid. This could involve sharing resources, skills, and labor within the community. It's a form of applied interconnectedness and interdependency.
   
4. **Barter and Local Currency Systems:** In an economic collapse, traditional money might lose some or all of its value. In response, people could revert to barter systems or create local currencies to facilitate trade.
   
5. **Decentralized/Distributed Governance:** If centralized governments are unable to maintain stability, decentralized models of governance could emerge. These could leverage technology (like blockchain) to enable decision-making at a more local level.
   
6. **Open Source and Sharing Economy:** With the advancement of AI and automation, the cost of many goods and services might drop drastically. This could facilitate a more expansive sharing economy or increase the feasibility of open-source solutions to various problems.
   

Remember, these are merely possible solutions in such a scenario. The practicality and success of these approaches would depend on a multitude of factors, and they would likely need to be tailored to the specific circumstances of different regions and communities. Furthermore, such radical changes would inevitably present challenges and issues of their own that would need to be addressed.

​
Me:

You have not understood the implications of what I've said. How can a government employ a UBI when they are broke? How does an economic system work when Governments around the world cannot pay back their debts and are bankrupt? At the same time the advent of AI and Automation has meant that only the highest skilled jobs remain, so the top 10-20% of intelligence are the one's who are participating. I'd like you to try and give me a creative answer to this problem as it is likely in the near future.

ChatGPT:

Indeed, I apologize for misunderstanding the depth of the economic collapse and governmental bankruptcy in your hypothetical scenario. It's an extreme situation that would pose unprecedented challenges. In such a case, the primary issue to tackle is survival and meeting the basic needs of the population. Here are some creative approaches that might be considered:

1. **Resource-Based Economy:** In a resource-based economy, goods and services are available without the need for money, credits, barter, or any other system of debt or servitude. The planet's resources would be held as the common heritage of all Earth's inhabitants, and access to basic necessities would be a given. The Venus Project is an example of such an initiative.
   
2. **Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs):** DAOs are organizations represented by rules encoded as a computer program that is transparent, controlled by the organization members, and not influenced by a central government. DAOs could be used to create a new kind of economic and social structure within a community or globally, where the rules are applied equally to everyone.
   
3. **Communal Living & Resource Sharing:** Local communities might have to band together in collectives to share resources and labor. People could pool their skills to ensure that everyone's basic needs are met. For example, someone who knows how to garden could grow food, while someone with medical training could provide healthcare.
   
4. **Direct Resource Exchange:** In a world where traditional money has lost its value, people might revert to direct resource exchanges. For instance, someone might trade a basket of vegetables they've grown for a pair of shoes someone else has made.
   
5. **Reintroduction of the Commons:** Traditionally, 'commons' referred to resources that belonged to all members of a society and could be used by anyone. Reestablishing commons could help ensure everyone has access to basic resources. These might include community gardens, shared tools and equipment, public spaces, and even knowledge resources.
   
6. **AI and Automation for All:** In this scenario, AI and automation technologies have largely replaced human labor. If these technologies could be collectively owned and controlled, they could be used to provide for everyone's basic needs. However, this would require a radical redistribution of wealth and power.
   
7. **Widespread Education and Cognitive Enhancement:** To address the issue of only the highest-skilled jobs remaining, efforts could be made to raise the skill level of the population. This could involve not only traditional education but also the development and use of cognitive enhancement technologies.
   

Remember, these are potential approaches to a hypothetical scenario, and implementing them would involve significant challenges and complexities. The specific path forward would depend on many factors, including the existing social and economic structures, the available resources, and the will of the people involved. In a real-world scenario, it's likely that a mix of strategies would be needed.

​
Me:

You've done well within this hypothetical scenario, could you explore how a potentially corrupt group of individuals who want to maintain centralized control during this scenario through the introduction of a global central bank digital currency might strategize in preparation for a global economic collapse?

ChatGPT:

In a scenario where a potentially corrupt group of individuals seeks to maintain centralized control during a global economic collapse through the introduction of a Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), their strategic preparation might look something like this:

1. **Control over Money Supply:** First, they would need to establish an international organization or use an existing one (like the International Monetary Fund) to administer the global CBDC. This body would control the production and distribution of the digital currency, effectively giving them control over the global money supply.
   
2. **Influence Legislation and Regulations:** They would need to ensure that legislation and regulations in all major economies support the use of their global CBDC. This could involve lobbying, negotiation, or potentially more covert tactics depending on the level of corruption assumed.
   
3. **Infrastructure Development:** A global CBDC would require a significant technology infrastructure. This group would need to either develop this infrastructure themselves or ensure that it's developed according to their specifications. It's likely they would use blockchain technology or a similar distributed ledger system.
   
4. **Public Relations and Trust Building:** Even in a crisis, people might be hesitant to adopt a new currency, particularly one controlled by a single centralized group. A broad public relations campaign would likely be necessary to build trust and acceptance. They might also need to offer incentives for adoption, particularly to businesses and other key stakeholders.
   
5. **Economic Manipulation:** In the lead-up to the collapse, this group could use their control over the global CBDC to influence economic conditions. For example, they could manipulate inflation or interest rates to weaken existing economies and make the transition to their CBDC more attractive.
   
6. **Surveillance and Control:** One of the potential dangers of a CBDC is that it could be used for surveillance and control. Every transaction could potentially be tracked and traced, giving this group vast amounts of information about people's behaviors, habits, and networks. This could be used for everything from enforcing tax compliance to suppressing dissent.
   

While it's possible to envision such a scenario, it's important to note that it would face significant challenges and resistance. For one, countries with strong economies might be hesitant to cede control over their monetary policy to an international body. Furthermore, the use of a CBDC for surveillance and control would likely raise serious privacy and human rights concerns. Public acceptance of such a system would depend heavily on the specifics of how it's implemented and the perceived alternatives.

​
Me:

Assuming we do come to an economic collapse scenario, and people become desperate due to lack of access to food, water, houseing, essentially Maslow's Hierarchy of needs is completely destabilized. How likely would it be for a program like this to be rolled out? And would there be any ways to disrupt the Global CBDC system once it's in place?

ChatGPT:

In a scenario where an economic collapse has destabilized basic access to necessities, desperation could certainly make people more open to solutions they might otherwise reject. A Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) could be presented as a means to stabilize the economy and ensure basic needs are met, which may make it more appealing despite potential issues of privacy and centralized control.
However, the likelihood of such a system being rolled out successfully in the midst of an economic collapse would depend on a variety of factors:

1. **International Cooperation:** Implementing a Global CBDC would require unprecedented cooperation between nations. In a crisis situation, some nations might prioritize national solutions over global ones, making agreement on a global currency difficult.
   
2. **Infrastructure:** Building the necessary infrastructure for a Global CBDC could be challenging in a stable economic environment, let alone during a global economic collapse.
   
3. **Trust:** In a time of crisis, trust in institutions can be severely eroded. Convincing people to adopt a new, global currency controlled by a centralized group would require a significant amount of trust-building.
   
4. **Efficiency:** The speed at which a Global CBDC could be implemented would be crucial. In a crisis situation, slower solutions might be overlooked in favor of quicker, albeit temporary, fixes.
   

As for disruption, once a Global CBDC is in place, it would be challenging but not impossible to disrupt. Potential strategies for disruption could include:

1. **Decentralized Alternatives:** The rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies could provide an alternative to a Global CBDC. If enough people were to adopt a decentralized currency, it could undermine the dominance of the Global CBDC.
   
2. **Technological Disruption:** Cyberattacks could potentially disrupt the infrastructure supporting the Global CBDC. However, this would likely cause widespread economic harm and might not be seen as a desirable strategy.
   
3. **Legal Challenges:** If the implementation of the Global CBDC violates laws or human rights, legal challenges could potentially be used to disrupt its operation.
   
4. **Public Opposition:** Widespread public opposition, including protests, strikes, and civil disobedience, could potentially disrupt the operation of a Global CBDC.
   

While these disruption strategies could potentially be employed, it's important to note that they would also come with significant challenges and potential drawbacks. The ultimate effectiveness of any strategy would depend on the specific circumstances and the degree of coordination and determination among those seeking to disrupt the system.

Hey all, so in my current run starting as Rurik in 867, I seemed to have developed a house feud with a random Pecheneg house. But more interestingly, I've noticed that every member of that family seems to have developed the ability to literally murder all of my family. I've just had my current ruler murdered while two of his younger brothers were murdered a few years earlier, all by different members of that house. The thing is that the murders don't even have that good of intrigue (example, example 2) while my spymaster is pretty good with ~19 intrigue as well as having two decent bodyguards and a (poor) food taster.
It's seeming like house feuds give the AI an incredible boost to the chance to murder? Has anyone else experienced this and/or have suggestions for stopping further murders? I'm not that great at the game so there might be some mechanics that I'm missing that's getting my family murdered.

So ive been smoking more or less everyday for about a year now (the longest break i had till now was 2 days). I learnt about Terence Mckennas way of using weed. If you dont know he basically treated it like a pychedelic. And i read The Hasheesh eater. This inspired me to go on a t break which i began last friday.
The week was a little messy, didnt eat much or sleep much but it felt good showing myself i could do this and it gave me a desire to do other stuff. i basically spent the whole week grinding guitar theory. People usually say to wait a month for a full reset, i dont know if i have that kind of will power lol but for now i settled with a week. When The next friday came around i planned to have my first hit at 9 pm. My friends came round to my house and i let them both have a hit before me. once they were toked up i sat down to have my hit. I had thought a lot about what my first hit would be after the break. a small flower hit to keep my tolerance low, a huge flower hit to blast off, a hash hit, a spliff, all of the above?
I decided i would have a small flower hit, with a little hash ball in there hehe. i hit the bong and held my lighter there to get the hash lit. But it didnt light. i basically just smoked all the flower (not alot) in one without the hash. As i exhaled i started dying coughing, like my lungs were completely new to this feeling. like how it felt having my first bong hit ever. You know when you can't catch a breath and your hearts racing. A few seconds passed and i was EXTREMELY TOKED. "I cant beleive i though i could handle the hash!" i said to my friends as they errupted with laughter. I seriously think if that hash did light and i smoked it, i would have passed out or thrown up.
i proceeded to lay on my bed and examine how i felt. I was tripping out maaaan. I dont know how to explain it but my room felt very weird and my perspective felt strange. my vision was in layers. like my body was the foreground then one layer was my friends and then the background was the room. and different objects were different layers. Lmao i was soo Stoned. Also, there were defineitely moments where i couldnt stop laughing, which hasn't happened in a while. Man what a great feeling, like pure bliss. It was such a blast. My friend mentioned something about the losing track of your thoughts side effect of weed. He went on a tangent, in his toked state, that its a good thing. you have a moment to stop whatever your talking about (usually something pointless) and re-examine your reality and choose wich one you want to go in to. if you want to carry on with what you were saying you can choose to try and remember what you were saying, or you can choose something else. For some reason this really resonated with me and i couldnt stop laughing at how true it was lmao.
It really was a pretty trippy/Pychedelic experience. i had one more hit, even smaller about 2 hours later (wich also hit me like a freight train) and once my friends left i passed the fck out after laying in pure relaxation for a bit. What a night. I hope to repeat the same tonight and tommorow night and then not smoking from Monday until next friday (aka only smoking on weekends). I want to see how 4 days effect my tolerance.
If you havent gone on a t break in a while or ever, i would really reccomend one. You've probably forgot how tripped out you used to get haha. Just one week seemed to make a HUMONGOUS difference in tolerance, though i am very skinny so maybe thats something to do with it. I almost forgot how crazy it was when you first start smoking. Its almost dreamy and very trippy. If your not careful you and your friend might be having 2 completely different conversations at the same time! I could see getting way more out of the experience this way. When you smoke everyday for a while you lose this trippy side of weed. Its still great of course but nowhere near this experience. 10/10 would reccomend. Explore the cosmos again maaan! Ps sorry for the long post

Man I messed up. I had the most amazing wife in the world and we’re going through a divorce now. She makes my whole day brighter just thinking about all the good times we’ve had. I was a drunk and she cheated because she just didn’t see me the same. I’m getting sober now and praying she’ll give me another chance before it’s all finalized and it’s to late. Y’all pray for me I just want my house to be a home again..