Body paint swimsuit

I've been looking at warmoths custom bodies but the shipping to the UK is far too much. All of the UK sites Ives looked at don't offer a finishing/painting/dyeing service. Any suggestions would be great thanks.

I've been looking at warmoths custom bodies but the shipping to the UK is far too much. All of the UK sites Ives looked at don't offer a finishing/painting/dyeing service (I'm looking to get a body similar to Adrian Smith's green signature Jackson). Any suggestions would be great thanks.

“Out of everyone, I never thought it would be you,” Dad murmurs. His head is tipped back, eyes closed from exhaustion or pain. He sounds tired, but his laboured breathing, the frail cadence of his voice, fills me with rage. Suddenly, the degree in my hand feels worthless, just like all my past attempts to prove that I am enough. “If it were up to you, it never would have been me,” I snap and then wince. That’s not what I want to say, though it is true. I’m dancing around the pain that ties us together, that has always connected us in a way that no one will ever understand. Who would have thought that the man who hurt me most, who broke me so thoroughly that I would be fit for no one but him, would also be my only ally left in the world. I bite my lip and look away. Crying is all I’ve ever been able to do when faced by you, but now my tears feel cheap, feigned. Tears have never gotten me anywhere so why do they appear now, when they cannot fix you or all you have done? I feel your hand move to cover my own. Your skin is like old paper; dry and thin. I want to squeeze the knuckles on your fingers as tightly as I can. I want you to flinch away from my touch. I want you to feel pain because it is proof you are still alive, and because hurting each other is the only way we know how to be. I have never been honest with you a day in my life. I know I will return home tonight and lie awake thinking of what I wish I could have said. I imagine teary reunions where you apologize for what you did to me. I dream it is enough while knowing it isn’t. Your words will never be enough. Why is it that even now, knowing this will be one of our final visits together, all I can do is fight? Old habits die hard. “Do you hate Ian?” you ask me, and your breath wheezes in and out of your chest. I can see your collarbones beginning to show through your t-shirt. Your face is swollen from the medication and painkillers, but your bones and veins are stark beneath your skin. It’s as if your body is deflating from your toes, and all that’s left to do is push the air out of your head before you collapse to the ground like an empty balloon. You open your eyes briefly, and I see that familiar brown gaze. You have hazel irises with a slightly green hue; it is a colour that brings a bitter taste to my mouth for it reminds me of blood and fear. But now you are pitiful, feeble. And I love you more than when you were well. Cancer has made you human when physical strength and a life of success never could. I do hate Ian. I want to scream it from the rooftops and spray paint it on the streets. I hate Ian. I hate that he is your brother, and I hate that he is weak. Though he has never raised a hand to me, his words are biting, as is his certainty that I don’t deserve your love. I much prefer your anger to his. “Ian… Is struggling,” is what I tell you instead and I want to throw my fist through the dry wall. I’m protecting you again, the way I have since I was a child. I’m refusing to say what deserves to be spoken aloud, refusing to acknowledge the rage that is smothering this house and everyone in it. I think Ian is too much like you, but what’s the point in saying so. Is it habit? Is it my despair? Perhaps, I don’t know how to tell the truth; I don’t know how to speak to you when I know you cannot harm me anymore. “He’s scared,” you say, as if that is enough. As if one man’s pain is justice for all the hurt he has caused. How unfair of you. Fear never mattered before, never stopped you though I begged and cried. You are different now, a stranger to who I knew. No, this is all wrong. Why do we spend our breath pretending we are people we are not? If I could be honest for a second, I think I would finally tell you the truth. If we were alone, and I could not hear your brother hovering beyond the doors, monitoring you. Maybe, if I could bear to remind you of who you were before you got sick, I would be able to say what needs to be said. I think in another world, in a universe just like ours, you’d understand too. I’m scared, Dad. I’ve been scared my whole life. I swallowed my pride; I debased my soul. I never told another person what you did to me, though my pain was all the proof in the world. I craved your hateful touch that smothered and burned. I found a place among the horror, found meaning in being spurned. Before you, I was in an orphanage; I have been unwanted since I was born. And now you are preparing to leave, and I cannot follow you to the place you will go. After all this time. After all we have done. You are going to die, and I don’t want to be alone. “Are you afraid?” I ask. In my mind, I say ‘Daddy, I’m terrified. Please don’t go.’ “No, I’m ready,” you whisper, and a tear slips down your swollen cheek. I think it should be me, not you; I am weighted by my grief. “That’s enough,” Ian steps into the room. He saw your tears; he knows I have upset you. “Your Dad is tired, visit another time,” he says and there is no room for discussion. Suddenly, I’m embarrassed. I stand and rub at my eyes. I didn’t mean to make you feel sad, I wish I could spare you from the hurt I feel every moment of every day. I regret my time spent here, though I cannot bear to be away. Honestly, I regret being born into the world. I wish I had been drowned as a babe. “Promise me that you won’t hurt yourself,” you say before I can go. “Promise that you’ll stay alive,” you demand and catch me by the wrist. Your head hangs heavy, your chin drifts towards your chest. “I promise,” I say, and my voice breaks around the word. I want to argue, ‘You promised that you would love me, and wasn’t that a lie?’ You drop your hand, and my skin prickles in the absence of your touch. “Goodnight, Dad,” I whisper because I know I won’t return. This is the last time we will be together, our final memory before you go. “I love you,” you say, before I step out into the frosty night. “I love you too,” but you know I do, and it was never enough. I love you so much, Dad. A love that was always pure and true. I love you, but you don’t know what love is, though you think you do.

I've been looking at warmoths custom bodies but the shipping to the UK is far too much. All of the UK sites Ives looked at don't offer a finishing/painting/dyeing service. Any suggestions would be great thanks.

I've been looking at warmoths custom bodies but the shipping to the UK is far too much. All of the UK sites Ives looked at don't offer a finishing/painting/dyeing service. Any suggestions would be great thanks.

I've only posted on this subreddit a few times before and I have been going back and forth on it for a long while now. I think maybe it's because of the fact that if I did, I would be fully admitting to myself just how lonely I actually am. But there's really no point in trying to mask and run away from the glaring truth, so, here I am again. Taa-daah!
As most people on here are, or I assume, given the context of the subreddit, I am a person who's unfortunately lived the forever alone lifestyle, well, for most of my life. The last person I was close with was way back in the 6th grade (I'm a fourth year in college), and the closest I've had since then was those types of friends that would talk and hang out with you during class time, but the second the bell rings, instant transmission, they gone now. And if we're talking about my love life, well, let's just say the fact that I still haven't had my first kiss yet, should paint a good picture (or lack thereof I suppose) of that.
But I'm not trying to make this some sort of pity party for me, but rather to shed some background as to what I hope, fingers criss crossed, twisting and turning, and looping around each other, for what I want to potentially get out of this. Of course, having a girlfriend would be spectacular, but the second part in the word "girlfriend" is just as important, if not even more so. I'm tired of getting up everyday, doing college work, video editing (small time Youtuber), watching YouTube and playing video games, going to work (if I have a job at a given time if I'm not focusing on university), and going to bed, and rinse and repeat all alone.
I want that to change. I want to spend time watching stupid things with someone, having my butt kicked in Smash even though I've been playing it for years, arguing over which anime opening is better than another for no reason other than it being a means to spend time hearing each other's voice. To go out dates, to laugh, to explore, to cuddle, to do the things that come after that if you catch my drift (or technically before the cuddling, or both), and so much more. But every attempt I made well ehhhhh, well its led me to here.
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Here's a little bit of description about me 😁:

• 22 years old, though that one is probably already known given the title of this post
  
• Black, 6 foot 1 inches, and real skinny (119 pounds), with black hair and glasses (no facial hair and no body hair to speak of; I guess I can say I'm like semi-femboyish)
  
• Don't do drugs, don't have any STDs, don't drink, don't actively smoke, but have before, and are okay if you do so, but I do indeed vape, which isn't really a problem to most people, but figured I should still mention it
  
• Do have 1 tattoo, just in case that's a thing you may care about. It's a Kingdom Hearts heartless and keyblade tattoo where my heart is.
  

https://imgur.com/a/KDvNYqx (A few more face pics are avaliable in the link provided)
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My hobbies and interests ❤:

• Literally all things gaming 🎮. And no, I'm not talking 2K or Fortnite or COD or whatever, but JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, platformers like Crash Bandicoot and definetly Sonic the Hedgehog, adventure games like Zelda, etc. I'm open to pretty much all genres and my favorites include Mirror's Edge, Shadow the Colossus, No More Heroes, Asura's Wrath, etc. So kind of a jack of all trades I like to think
  
• Love anime, and like video games, I'm open to all genres but there's definitely ones I prefer more than others (mostly don't watch a whole lot slice of life, and seinen type shows). Favorites include Fate, Neon Genesis, Konosuba, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Chainsaw Man, etc
  
• Love movies 🎬 but haven't been watching as much as I'd like to, but hey, only so much free time in the world. But I'm one of those people that likes to put on subtitles and rewind a lot, and I know that can be quite annoying so....I'll try not too? 😅
  
• Enjoy video editing for my channel, and watching YouTube mostly centered around gaming and anime content. I love listening to music, but once again, my library consists of mostly just anime and video game OSTs (I am a simple guy I suppose)
  
• And this is a weird one to end off on, but since this is a dating subreddit, I suppose it should be said, I am very sub oriented, and have a high libido, but I am also very very open minded, and won't shame you if you have a particular unusual fascination with something most wouldn't find attractive.
  

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I feel like a bit of an ass writing this next part, as if I'm placing some kind of order on what kind of people I accept or don't accept, and that is not my intention in the slightest, but there are things that I am looking for in a person, just so I know that we can get along quite well, instead of me ending up talking to someone I have very little likelihood of jiving with. I don't waste anyone's time, including whoever is reading this.
Some of the things I'm looking for 🔍:

• A gamer, and I mean more than just Animal Crossing and Just Dance, like an ACTUAL actual gamer. We don't need to play the same type of games, and like I said before, I'm really a jack of all trades. So whether it's an RPG, a casual game, a puzzle, a platformer, a shooter, a fighter, a rhythm game or whatever, so long as we're NOT hoping off of Battle Buses or the Gulag, I'm sure anything will work. This one is the most important because it's the thing I want to be able to connect to someone the most, because it's the thing I'm most passionate about. Can't have long late night cozy gaming sessions if my potential partner doesn't game now can I?
  
• Anime lover, weeb, otaku, whatever term you wanna call it. This isn't a necessity per say as the gaming one is, but it'd be nice to have none the less. There's a whole great of wall of anime/manga that I wanna watch/read, and I hope to be able to do that with someone. But if not, live action shows on Netflix or HBO is a okay with me.
  
• Someone who is more than just a copy of me, and can respect when I want some alone time. I tend to do the exact same, and know that not everyday, at any time, are we going to have the energy to socialize or hang out, and some days, we're just going to want to spend some alone time to focus on work or ourselves. And I want someone who doesn't just think the same way as me. I love discussions and find what seperates a person from another special, and what makes them unique, so long as we respect each other's opinion and don't get toxic with it (not trying to date a Twitter stand here)
  
• Someone who is preferably around my age, though if you're on the more older side, please don't let that stop you from messaging me if this post catches your interest. The older the grape, the finer the wine as they say. 😅
  
• Fit/healthy body weight, no offense to any more heavier body types, but that's not really what I'm looking for. Also no drugs, but it's okay if you drink or smoke or have tattoos, just so long as you're disease and drug free, you do what you consider your best and happiest you, and I won't mind in the slightest.
  
• Someone who is....uhhh...how do I phrase this, "sexually driven", but not like a lot (but it's even better if it happens to be a lot), but has a sex drive you know? You don't need to have a high libido, but I also want you to have some libido too. Also, like I mentioned before, I am very sub-like, so hopefully, you can be the dominant one if this turns out blossoming into a relationship.
  
• Someone who is close and can host is a huge plus as well (though as with the whole age thing, I'm totally not against long distance). I can host as well, but those times aren't always avaliable, as I do currently live with my family while working on my college degree in Computer Game Design in the next year or so.
  
• Someone who's looking for a MONOGAMOUS relationship. Not really a debate on this one. I'm not against those who like to have multiple partners, but is that something that I wanna engage in? Yeah, yeah, that's a hard no.
  

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• Finally, preferences, NONE OF WHICH ARE REQUIRED ❌️, buuuuuutt, still, if you fit into any one of these, I very much hope this post catches your interest:
  
• Dominant woman, both in the relationship, and in the bedroom, and who is open-minded to experimentation
  
• White, which feels weird to say, just, I like white girls I mean, what can I say, as well as Asian, and or UK/British, they're accents just...AAHHHHHH! 😖
  
• Short haired, tomboish, and packed full of energy. I'm very animated, so hopefully you can also match the vibes, and bring me up mood wise when I'm down
  

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And that's about it for now. Like I said before, I've only ever posted on here a few times before, so I don't know if I checked off everything that I should have said in a post like this, but hopefully (man I've been saying that word a lot here), this was enough to catch your attention and be willing to give a potential friendship/relationship with a guy like me, and if not I understand, and hope you find whatever you're looking for in someone else here. But if I have caught your eye, feel free to message me. It's been a long and lonely 22 years, and you'd probably make a wonderful change of pace.
Until then, bye! 🤗

Timestamp: https://i.imgur.com/hn4iG7D.jpg
Leica M4-P Silver - Pics: https://imgur.com/a/muJvq2v - Comes with original box and body cap - Shutter speeds are accurate - Rangefinder patch is bright and focuses accurately - No fungus / haze in viewfinder
Some minor cosmetic imperfections (photos in gallery): - Small piece of leather missing next to the lens mount - Some marks near the shutter button - Some pieces of dust inside the viewfinder, but they are not visible when looking through - Some bubbling on the paint near the viewfinder - A few scratches on the bottom plate - Tiny dent on bottom plate on rear side
I am unsure of the last time it had a CLA, but one was never necessary since everything was working correctly.
Price: $1900 shipped
Voigtlander Ultron 35mm F2 I Lens - Pics: https://imgur.com/a/hTF8y6i - Lens is in excellent condition. - No scratches, haze, or fungus in glass. - There may be a few pieces of small dust, but they will not affect image quality. - Comes with original front and rear caps.
Price: $525 shipped
Nikkor S.C Nippon Kogaku 50mm F1.4 Rangefinder Lens - Pics: https://imgur.com/a/GgNfxWj - For Nikon Rangefinders (S, S2, S3, S4, SP) - Lens is in excellent condition - There are no large marks on the glass that affect quality - Aperture ring is smooth and clicky - No fungus or haze - Some light dust - Aperture rings have some oil, but won't affect performance
Price: $250 shipped
Nikon 24mm F2 AI Lens - Pics: https://imgur.com/a/mC9050l - Glass is in very good condition - No haze/fungus. Some normal very light dust - Comes with front and rear caps
Price: $215 shipped

“Out of everyone, I never thought it would be you,” Dad murmurs. His head is tipped back, eyes closed from exhaustion or pain. He sounds tired, but his laboured breathing, the frail cadence of his voice, fills me with rage. Suddenly, the degree in my hand feels worthless, just like all my past attempts to prove that I am enough. “If it were up to you, it never would have been me,” I snap and then wince. That’s not what I want to say, though it is true. I’m dancing around the pain that ties us together, that has always connected us in a way that no one will ever understand. Who would have thought that the man who hurt me most, who broke me so thoroughly that I would be fit for no one but him, would also be my only ally left in the world. I bite my lip and look away. Crying is all I’ve ever been able to do when faced by you, but now my tears feel cheap, feigned. Tears have never gotten me anywhere so why do they appear now, when they cannot fix you or all you have done? I feel your hand move to cover my own. Your skin is like old paper; dry and thin. I want to squeeze the knuckles on your fingers as tightly as I can. I want you to flinch away from my touch. I want you to feel pain because it is proof you are still alive, and because hurting each other is the only way we know how to be. I have never been honest with you a day in my life. I know I will return home tonight and lie awake thinking of what I wish I could have said. I imagine teary reunions where you apologize for what you did to me. I dream it is enough while knowing it isn’t. Your words will never be enough. Why is it that even now, knowing this will be one of our final visits together, all I can do is fight? Old habits die hard. “Do you hate Ian?” you ask me, and your breath wheezes in and out of your chest. I can see your collarbones beginning to show through your t-shirt. Your face is swollen from the medication and painkillers, but your bones and veins are stark beneath your skin. It’s as if your body is deflating from your toes, and all that’s left to do is push the air out of your head before you collapse to the ground like an empty balloon. You open your eyes briefly, and I see that familiar brown gaze. You have hazel irises with a slightly green hue; it is a colour that brings a bitter taste to my mouth for it reminds me of blood and fear. But now you are pitiful, feeble. And I love you more than when you were well. Cancer has made you human when physical strength and a life of success never could. I do hate Ian. I want to scream it from the rooftops and spray paint it on the streets. I hate Ian. I hate that he is your brother, and I hate that he is weak. Though he has never raised a hand to me, his words are biting, as is his certainty that I don’t deserve your love. I much prefer your anger to his. “Ian… Is struggling,” is what I tell you instead and I want to throw my fist through the dry wall. I’m protecting you again, the way I have since I was a child. I’m refusing to say what deserves to be spoken aloud, refusing to acknowledge the rage that is smothering this house and everyone in it. I think Ian is too much like you, but what’s the point in saying so. Is it habit? Is it my despair? Perhaps, I don’t know how to tell the truth; I don’t know how to speak to you when I know you cannot harm me anymore. “He’s scared,” you say, as if that is enough. As if one man’s pain is justice for all the hurt he has caused. How unfair of you. Fear never mattered before, never stopped you though I begged and cried. You are different now, a stranger to who I knew. No, this is all wrong. Why do we spend our breath pretending we are people we are not? If I could be honest for a second, I think I would finally tell you the truth. If we were alone, and I could not hear your brother hovering beyond the doors, monitoring you. Maybe, if I could bear to remind you of who you were before you got sick, I would be able to say what needs to be said. I think in another world, in a universe just like ours, you’d understand too. I’m scared, Dad. I’ve been scared my whole life. I swallowed my pride; I debased my soul. I never told another person what you did to me, though my pain was all the proof in the world. I craved your hateful touch that smothered and burned. I found a place among the horror, found meaning in being spurned. Before you, I was in an orphanage; I have been unwanted since I was born. And now you are preparing to leave, and I cannot follow you to the place you will go. After all this time. After all we have done. You are going to die, and I don’t want to be alone. “Are you afraid?” I ask. In my mind, I say ‘Daddy, I’m terrified. Please don’t go.’ “No, I’m ready,” you whisper, and a tear slips down your swollen cheek. I think it should be me, not you; I am weighted by my grief. “That’s enough,” Ian steps into the room. He saw your tears; he knows I have upset you. “Your Dad is tired, visit another time,” he says and there is no room for discussion. Suddenly, I’m embarrassed. I stand and rub at my eyes. I didn’t mean to make you feel sad, I wish I could spare you from the hurt I feel every moment of every day. I regret my time spent here, though I cannot bear to be away. Honestly, I regret being born into the world. I wish I had been drowned as a babe. “Promise me that you won’t hurt yourself,” you say before I can go. “Promise that you’ll stay alive,” you demand and catch me by the wrist. Your head hangs heavy, your chin drifts towards your chest. “I promise,” I say, and my voice breaks around the word. I want to argue, ‘You promised that you would love me, and wasn’t that a lie?’ You drop your hand, and my skin prickles in the absence of your touch. “Goodnight, Dad,” I whisper because I know I won’t return. This is the last time we will be together, our final memory before you go. “I love you,” you say, before I step out into the frosty night. “I love you too,” but you know I do, and it was never enough. I love you so much, Dad. A love that was always pure and true. I love you, but you don’t know what love is, though you think you do.

I was expecting a creepy painting or a scary doll. Instead, the haunted/cursed objects that were being carried into the gallery were surprisingly modern: a plasma TV, a recliner armchair, a turquoise necklace, a miniature fire station, and even an animatronic singing fish. Without additional decor, the exhibit looked more like a yard sale.
The haunted/cursed objects exhibition was another low-effort stunt by professor Eric Melvin. He asked us student assistants to help with setting up the show, but we all politely declined. I was not going to touch any of those cursed things.
​
I was an art student at a community college near Shady Grove, Maryland. I applied for a job as a student assistant so that I could have a place where I could put my things down between classes. My jobs were to make photocopies, answer the phones, and look after the art gallery on the first floor. Other student assistants and I also took turns guarding the gallery until 8 pm.
​
Professor Melvin was one of those professors who thought he was too good for this little community college. I took his art history class once. His teaching slides were just blurry photos that he took of the pages from a textbook.
Even this haunted/cursed exhibition stayed true to his minimal-effort brand. All the haunted/cursed objects in the exhibition belong to a single person, an art collector in New York.
​
The owner had a list of rules for her objects, but Melvin never bothered to look at it. I decided to read the rules aloud so that the professor can hear.
​
Dear profesor Melvin. Thank you for your interest in my collection. All of these objects have caused numerous misfortunes and deaths in the past. It is my sincere wish to not add any more tragedy to the collection’s history.
​
Melvin shook his head and scoffed. If this guy was not a believer then why did he host this exhibition, I wondered. I hope he wasn’t planning on breaking the rules to prove a point.
​

• Rule 1: Do not be in the same room as the objects when the lights are off.
• Rule 2: Do not allow pregnant women anywhere near the haunted/cursed objects.
• Rule 3: If one of the objects makes a sound or lights up without anyone touching it, the best course of action is to just ignore it, EXCEPT for the miniature fire station.
• This is unlikely to happen, but if the little light bulb above the front door of the miniature fire station starts to flicker, cover the entire thing with a piece of cloth that I provided and call me immediately.

​
The most dangerous object in my collection is the plasma television.
My collection contains both cursed objects and haunted objects. Haunted objects are possessed by spirits and can cause fear, while cursed objects are deadly to anyone who interacts with them. This plasma TV is both.
I guess it is pointless to ask you to not plug it in and turn it on. If you must turn it on for your show, then pay close attention because the plasma TV has its own set of rules.
​

• Plasma TV’s Rule 1: Do not change the channel. If you or someone else did, you must change the channel back to channel 33.
• Plasma TV’s Rule 2: Do not connect any other device to the TV.
• Plasma TV's 3: This is the most important rule. Do not let any person with the last name Sutter go near the television.

​
On the first night, I was guarding the gallery with another student assistant. We behaved just like any other night as we just sat in the mailroom and watched YouTubers play Dead by Daylight. We could see what was going on in the gallery next door through the CCTV monitor.
​
At 7.50, both of us heard a very loud thud coming from the gallery. I didn’t see anything abnormal on the CCTV, so the other assistant and I both walked over to the gallery to check.
​
A bird with a broken neck was laying dead right in front of the plasma TV. It must have flown into the building and hit its head on a column. That was enough for me to freak me out and call it a night.
​
I had to turn off the lights and realized that the light switches were at the back end of the gallery. Not wanting to break rule number 1, I told the other student assistant to keep the door open and light the room up a bit with her phone’s flashlight. I shut off all the lights and ran out the door.
​
The other student assistant asked me what I would do the next night when I have to guard the gallery alone. I told her I would probably just leave the gallery’s lights on for one night.
​
I got to the mailroom the next day at around 10.00 AM and there was a commotion. One of the haunted/cursed objects, a turquoise necklace, was missing. I asked our supervisor bluntly if it was our fault, but one of the professors said he saw it early that morning which means that it wasn’t stolen overnight. Melvin could not be reached by phone, so I just went to class.
​
In the evening, it was time for me to guard the gallery alone, and I just watched Ohm plays Dead by Daylight to pass the time. I looked over at the CCTV monitor and saw a lanky man in ragged clothing staring at the plasma TV. Normally, a strange person walking into a gallery would not be a cause for concern. I mean, that was the point of having an exhibition.
​
But, two things made me run to the gallery. One, I could see that the man had a flickering glow on his face, which meant that the TV was turned on. It wasn’t supposed to be plugged in and turned on until the official opening on Friday. And two, he was changing the channel.
​
The man did not notice me despite the fact that I made a lot of noise. He kept staring at the plasma TV with his mouth slightly opened, seemingly in a trance. Upclose, I could see that he was unshaven and his eyes were bloodshot red. His fingers kept pushing the button that changed the channel.
​
I did not know what to do. The man broke the rules, but no one knows the rules except us assistants and Melvin. I can’t tell the security guard to kick him out just because of his disheveled appearance. This is a public college, so he has the right to be there as much as anyone else.
​
When it was near closing time, I realized that the man was not going to leave. I called my supervisor and she said to ask the security guards at the front of the school for help.
​
I brought two security guards back with me to the gallery. Once we arrived, we found the man seemingly strangling himself on the floor in front of the plasma TV. The TV screen showed a very old black-and-white clip of a man strangling another man. One of the security guards rushed in to help the man while the other one radioed his superior to call for an ambulance. I didn’t know what to do and just backed away from the chaos.
​
Then, an elevator next to the gallery made a sound. Something was coming down from the fourth floor. No one should have been upstairs since this was already past 8 pm, and our building did not have any night classes.
​
Once the elevator door was opened, a cleaning lady turned around. Her eyes were gouged out and there was blood all over. She held her hands up and ran out the elevator toward me. She tried to grab onto my shirt collar but her hands missed, and she collapsed on the ground. She was wearing the missing necklace.
​
I was so scared, I was on the floor and didn’t even remember falling. The security guards, who looked shocked and traumatized themselves, told me that I didn’t have to wait for the paramedics with them. And so, I just bolted home.
​
The next day, there were a lot of professors gathered at the dean’s office. I thought this was going to be about the cleaning lady and the man, who I later found out was named James Sutter. But, this was about professor Melvin.
​
Another professor found professor Melvin dead in his house. He fell down the stairs and broke his neck. She said his body was contorted in an unnatural way, with his legs twisted and wrapped around the stairs’ railings. He died with his eyes wide open, glaring intensely at whoever would walk through the front door.
​
While everyone was talking about all that went down, I glanced over my shoulder and saw a reflection of a small blinking light from within the gallery. I didn’t have to look, I knew that it was the light coming from the miniature fire station.

Chapter 1:
Jerry Brenson was having a hard time not getting pissed off at the way the car kept jerking around, making it damn near impossible to roll his tightly held cigarette. What a piece of shit it was anyways, it looked like the cross between an impregnated white pill and a scarecrow with all its frayed edges of tobacco poking out like straw.
"Would you stop driving like a goddamn animal!" he bellowed at the driver. Then he resumed his work on unraveling the piece of shit and evening everything out. The tip of Brenson's tongue stuck out of his mouth as he worked at it. Within a few seconds the passenger side front tire plunged into a half-foot pothole and Brenson's jaw clenched shut on that tender red meat sticking out of his face. In an instant it resembled a tiny pink balloon swelling up and getting ready to pop.
"FUCK!" Brenson screamed after a long second of seething white pain, which was now commencing to roll like waves through the bottom of his jaw, and somehow up into his fucking forehead! Before he had time to return from the moments that threw his whole being into a chaos of agony, he knew with dreadful certainty that he had bit off a chunk of his tongue. He would see it there if he opened his eyes and looked down. And with that, an image of a huge bulging red thing on the floor that was flopping around like a decapitated fish came to him. With wide eyes that seemed to burst open like fireworks, both hands flew to his mouth so that Brenson suddenly looked like a little girl getting the best birthday present of her life.
And then, hallelujah, he thinks, praise Jesus, God, the Buddha, anyone and anything that saved his precious tongue. It was still there. Hurt like hell but it was still there. He looked around on the floor in a sudden surge of paranoia (maybe a part of it really was down there) and to his blessed relief the only thing he saw were a pair of work boots stuffed onto his oafishly large feet.
All of this occurred in about 3 seconds, after which Brenson's brow contorted into a fierce angle of rage, and a powerful sense of the injustice and incompetence and of all the damned stupid negligent habits of this buffoon of a partner settled on him. He turned to the driver and smacked Dale Enrsten upside the head.
"Ouch!" Dale wailed in his deep Mississippi drawl. The car swerved to the left when Dale's arm instinctively went up to protect his face. "What the hell was that for?" He asked stupidly.
"For nearly getting my tongue bit off asshole. Now drive."
Dale returned a frown towards Brenson, and tried as he may to appear the least bit intimidating, Dale looked more comical than anything. There was something about his fat head and thin brown hair on a receded hairline that gave the air of an overly large boy preparing for boarding school.
Dale turned back to the road and decided that what would cheer him up would be a couple of chili dogs, add the cheese please, with a bud light and a pack of skittles. There ought to be a gas station in the next mile or so, god knows when the last time they saw one passing through this shit hole was. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a smoke, no two smokes, then handed one over to Brenson.
"My apologies captain. This road's covered in more potholes than your mom's vagina."
Dale cackled out a wheezing laugh and then lit up his smoke. He puffed out a large plume of white smoke that was torn away by the passing air out Dale's open window. He looked out that window, and glanced nervously at all the red stone. Their surfaces were inundated with marbled cracks. Every so often he'd see a pale bush growing between a couple of rocks. They looked more like skeletons than plants. Yes it was true, Dale Ernsted hated the desert. He hated all deserts. They made him feel like a clock was always ticking, and when it went to zero baby, oh my oh my, Dale baby if you’re out here, you gonna be fish food. Well not out here I wont, he retorts back to his own morbid fantasy, more liable to be lizard food, or coyote. Yeah, that's right, Dale thinks there probably are coyotes out here, and if the car broke down, well not a lot to eat out here but a couple of dehydrated dying men. What would be a better treat for a pack of hungry canines?
And following this train of thought Dale wonders what it would be like if Brenson and he really were surrounded by a pack of coyotes, how many would it take, maybe five? Six? Would Dale watch Brenson go first, or would it be Dale who Brenson catches a glimpse of getting his arm torn off from the shoulders down when the wolves begin demanding his own full attention. Look at that, now they turned into wolves. He didn’t think there were wolves out here. His expression changes into a frown of contemplation.
"Are you listening to me?" Dale hears Brenson angrily ask. The wolves go away. He realizes Brenson had asked him something.
"What's that?"
"Find a place to pull over I need to take a leak"
Dale's small eyes dart around at the escarpment and mesas and the fine layer of brown dirt swirling over the two-lane highway.
"No, I think there's a gas station up a bit. Not too much farther now."
Dale doesn't say anything else. He turns the knob on the radio until Bon Jovi is playing We’re Not Gonna Take It, and guns the Camry down the long stretch of desolate waste before them.
The desert sun was lowering in the west, making the car’s long shadow race ahead of them. By the time they see the dusty gas station with a white roof and big red letters painted on a discolored sign reading QuikStop, the sun was almost touching the horizon and Brenson had to pee like a mad horse. One or two stars could be seen faintly wavering in the turbulent purple sky fading into black.
Dale pulled up to a gas pump and he and Brenson got out of the car.
“Well” Brenson stretched out the word just as he was stretching out his back, leaning heavily into it with his arms on his hips, “Give me the money and I’ll get some food and beer. You get the gas”.
Dale reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty.
“Two cheese chili dogs and skittles” he said miserably. Brenson did a quick nod and walked off.
Dale found that he wasn’t doing anything but standing there watching Brenson walk closer to the gas station when the thought popped into his head: you know I think might kill that fuck, yeah I might. And then he turned around as if it was just a cloud passing by.
He was listening to the gulping sounds of gasoline filling up his tank when he saw a white toyota pull up and park on the side of the gas station near the ice chest and propane tanks. There were two people in the car. They looked like Mexicans to Dale. A man and woman. They got out of the car, shut the doors, walked around the corner, and entered the gas station. Dale wasn’t particularly interested in them but then something caught his eye. He thought he saw movement in the backseat of the toyota.
There it was again.
He realized it was a child.
It was a girl with long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. A little Mexican girl. Kids shouldn't be left in a hot car all alone he thinks righteously. But what should he expect from these people? Look at that piece of shit rig. He realized again that he was in a trance, staring angrily at the back of the Toyota.
Dale's eyes surveyed from the Toyota to the gas station entrance. The glare of the sun reflected everything outside so it was impossible to see in through the windows. Then something inside him went on autopilot. He had something to do he realized, and he had to do it fast.
He fastened the nozzle back onto the pump and briskly walked over to the white Toyota. His heart began racing. He peered in at the girl in the backseat. No one else was in there. She was wearing a blue tank top and black shorts. There was a doll, something from a disney cartoon in her hands, Dale insanely thinks, but is barely aware of any of these thoughts as the door of the Toyota slowly opens up and the girl turns her head away from her doll, up towards her mama with a smile, and sees Dale’s huge head lurching in like a troll plucking a princess from a tower.
Her face shrivels into a scream but before she can let out the breath, Dale’s meaty hands are over her mouth, and without any effort he pulls her out of the car and clutches her entire body in a bear hug. There's a heart pounding moment when she sounds like a grunting dog struggling in a trap and he knows her scream will escape from his sweaty armpit. Then there's an instant of pure lucid absurdity where he seemed to see himself from the outside. What would the girl's parents do if they walked around the corner right now? He couldn’t just put her back in there and go about pumping gas again could he? Oh I'm just ole friendly Dale giving your girl here a nice good hug cuz I could hear her cryin' for mommy.
Then he kicks the Toyotas door shut for god knows why and scrambles to his car. He hustles to the trunk, realizes the switch is up front, and skids to his knees at the driver's side door. He’s pressing the girl so hard against his chest he can almost feel her head bouncing off his beating heart.
Then he hears the satisfying click of the trunk unlocking, and with surprising speed he places the girl in the bed of the trunk, takes a bandana out from his back pocket and ties it like a rope around her mouth. The girl’s eyes, shaking with terror, watch grimly as the troll closes out the darkening sky with a metallic clink.
Then Dale jumps into the driver's seat, turns on the engine, and cranks up the radio. Another song by dear old Bon Jovi by god! Dale feel’s exhilarated. He doesn't even know it yet. All he knows is this music sounds better than anything he’s ever heard before, and why wouldn’t you look at that, he’s not even sore with Brenson anymore for slapping him in the face earlier. He can’t wait to have a beer! And there's ole Bren heading back towards the Camry now.
But then Dale realizes with a jolt of panic, the parents! The girl’s parents are going to be out any minute! With the mother of all anxiety attacks Dale’s car speeds towards Brenson as he walks out of the gas station at a magnitude that probably made Brenson think oh fuck I’m going to die by the look on his face, but Dale’s car screeched to a halt just a few feet away.
“What the fuck’s that about” Brenson sneered. The sneer was more one of habit than anything else as Brenson was so surprised that there wasn’t really room for anything else. His arms were full of supplies and he almost dropped them all over the ground.
“Get in now!” Dale yelled. He reached his arm over and threw open the passenger door. Brenson sat down and before he could shut the door, Dale shut it himself by accelerating in a curve out the gas station parking lot, and wouldn’t you know it, he didn’t even use his turning signals when he brought the Camry onto the highway and raced into the black eastern sky.
Chapter 2:
“Jesus man, you think I robbed the place?”. Brenson was unsure what had gotten into him. “Shut up for a minute. Give me a beer”.
Brenson had never seen Dale so serious. The man’s face looked like a machine. His thin lips were pressed so tightly you could barely see them. And he was scowling at the road. His eyes kept bouncing to the rearview mirror. Brenson could see beads of sweat rolling over Dale's pockmarked forehead. And the odometer was reading 95 mph. He sure as hell hoped he wouldn’t suddenly get another dose of Dale’s special potholes. He made sure his tongue was planted firmly on the roof of his mouth and his seat was buckled.
“Uh Dale..are you alright there partner?” Brenson asked.
“You seem like somethin just bit you in the ass.”
Dale guzzled down his bud light, burped and wiped his mouth, then reached for another one. After he cracked it open and took a good long gulp, he bellowed “Wooo! Lordy..oh yeah” He was heaving deep breaths between each word. Then his gaze turned away from the road and locked with Brenson's eyes.
“Pal, when you were over in that gas station there..” he paused and glanced towards the backseat of the car as if someone were sitting back there. He couldn’t keep it hidden from Brenson now could he? They had 100 miles left to drive.
Brenson looked back and then over at Dale again.
“ain't quite sure how to say this", the look on Dale's screwed up face as he thought about what to say next made Brenson think of a large boy again, one that was trying to work out a hard math problem like how much his groceries would cost.
"I may have picked up a passenger,” Dale finally said.
“What?” That came out of left field and Brenson didn't know what it meant.
“I just kind of..took her” he said this last as if Dale himself was surprised at what he was saying.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Brenson was getting a sick feeling. What fuckup did Dale just get him into now? He knew Dale liked cats and sometimes he would take them off the streets or out of people's yards if he liked how they looked. And he knew Dale had about 9 cats stuffed away in his trailer, but Brenson wasn't hearing any meows coming out of the back seat now was he? And Dale's eyes were looking at something far away, unfocused on something so far away like Venus.
And then Brenson noticed a muffled sound like there was a load of groceries rolling to the side in the trunk as Dale took them around a tight bend. For just a moment he was worried that maybe he had put the beer back there and it was gonna get all fizzy, but then he remembered the beer in his hand and the rest on the floor by his feet near that imaginary chunk of meat flapping around down there. He felt the tip of his tongue and took a swig.
"What the fuck did you do" Brenson remembered the two Mexicans that walked into that gas station. He had eyes on them the whole time.
“Dale?” Brenson asked with a looming understanding that sped towards him like a Mack truck. Dale had done something magnanimously fucked up.
“What the fuck did you do!”
“She was boiling back there!” Dale pleaded. He was an eight year old child again, explaining to an angry stepmom why she had found a drowned cat in the bathtub. He didn’t have any choice, it had bit him and that was not okay, that was not okay by any standards of civilized man. What else could he do?
“Dale!”
“I saved her Bren!”
They were both yelling now.
“She was gonna be dead back there! You saw those mexis didn’t you?”
“Pull over!” Brenson demanded.
“No.”
“Pull over now!”
Dale kept on speeding. The odometer read 105. To Brenson it felt like the flimsy car could at any moment flip over a hundred times if the slightest gust of wind brushed against them.
“Pull over right fucking now or I’ll beat the shit out you right here!”
Brenson’s fists were clenched into a barb of hairy knuckles. He was really going to do it Dale observed, and then they’d both be piles of scrap strewn all over the road.
Dale gave a defeated sigh and took his foot off the accelerator. He was going to have to show Bren one way or another. They were already miles past that shit hole station anyways. What the hell. The Camry disengaged from warp speed and soon Brenson could hear the crinkle of gravel under the tires as the Camry pulled off onto the shoulder.
Outside the night was as silent as the land was empty. A brilliant splash of stars painted the canopy of the sky in a way that gave Dale a cosmic sense of his own importance. He shuffled over to the back with Bren, a disappointed look of guilt was likewise splashed across his face, why no mah, I’m not the one that drowned Muffin, but ya know, she wouldn’t stop biting. But Dale remembered the feeling of her slick fur bunched up between his fingers and the way her intricately delicate neck felt like so many scrawny bones. A jolt of disgust seemed to roll through him like a shockwave and he tried to shake off the memory of that limp cat as fast as possible.
Then that cave of darkness opened up and it was nighttime outside, and the girl saw with a cold panic that made her cry that there were two trolls looming over her now. They were both huge and disgusting. The one on the left looked like a giant baby with patches of wiry fur in tufts up and down its neck and chin. Its teeth were yellowed and it was smoking a cigarette. She didn't like how it was eyeing her, like she was some kind of precious crystal that it wanted badly.
The other was just as big, not as fat though, more muscular. He had a mop of scraggly black hair and a full beard covering the mouth. He looked like a biker. And he looked like he was really mad at her. She heard herself crying.
"Mamá" She tried squeaking through the rope. "Donde mi mamá"
And then, no, no please, everything was getting dark again. She howled and squirmed but the lid of the trunk did not care.
Brenson was biting his bottom lip. He was supremely pissed off now. What the fuck was this lunatic thinking! He looked at Dale and was about to begin a royal case of pummeling his fat ass into the ground for getting Bren caught up in this bullshit, lord knows he's had a clean record apart from a mild six months in Kentucky State Penitentiary when he was twenty two years old. And this asshole, this stupid fat asshole made him an accomplice to whatever crazy bullshit was flying around in that fat fucking head of his!
But Bren noticed that far away in the direction they had come were a pair of tiny headlights. They were heading this way.
Instead of beating Dale into a mess worthy of the crime of getting Bren caught up in kidnapping charges, he said "Lets get the fuck out of here". And then jumped back into his seat, slamming the door.
"Come on!" He yelled out when he saw that Dale was still standing on the side of the road like an idiot. Dale hurried up, revved on the engine, and the Camry was back on the highway doing 92 mph. Bren cracked open another beer and drank the whole thing in one go. He didn’t complain about the speed.
Chapter 3:
It was about two in the morning when they pulled up to Bren’s trailer. Bren got out and walked around to Dale’s side. He was mildly drunk. Bren put his hands on his knees and bent down as if he was going to say something to Dale, but in the end he turned around and left without saying anything. He was too pissed off.
“See you in the morning.” Dale called out after him in an annoyingly loud voice, but Bren didn’t turn around. His thin white door shut loudly and Dale pulled away and drove off to his own trailer at the end of the gravel road.
At this point he had a conundrum on his hands. He had to get the girl inside without her making a lot of noise. And then once inside..what? Tie her up? Keep her in his bathroom? It’s not like he had a basement to put her in. And what the fuck was he doing anyways? His hand reached for his forehead. He was thinking. Then he unlocked the trunk and when the dim light in the trunk came on he saw with stabbing horror that the girl was dead.
“NO!” He shouted at her as if it were her fault.
"Oh dear Jesus no!”
He felt like he was about to cry. It was the cat all over again. He really didn’t want to kill it. But then he saw the rhythm of her small diaphragm. She was sleeping. Dale oh dale oh dale, what are you doing?
He wiped the sweat off his brow, then reached in and picked her up. She weighed about as much as a pillow, and when Dale opened the door of his trailer, a cat seemed to catapult itself outside making him trip over his own feet. "Shit! Henry!" He gave an involuntary yell over his shoulder when he saw which one did it. Then, understanding that he totally did not have anything under control, he stopped in his doorway and simply stood there with the little girl cradled in his arms. She felt warm. His girl. Yeah, that sounded right. It was his girl now. His little Mexican girl.
A few more hungry cats came out of the shadows begging for food. He shushed them and kicked his leg around without putting any real effort into it just to make them go away.
He had to secure his girl.
But how was he going to get any sleep tonight? He had to be absolutely sure that she could not get away. Then as he was walking in, thinking about how he would tie her up (he did have some duct tape, rope, maybe some wire ties..oh but he didn't want to hurt her wrists), he felt a sudden uneasiness about Brenson. Did Dale think he'd go to the cops? Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut and the music loud. He should have slowed down when Bren asked and he should have… Wait, just wait one cotton pickin minute Dale, he says to himself. The girl. The girl first, then Bren. Maybe Bren was still awake and he'd pay him a little visit, have a little chat just to make sure they were square, just to see if everything was cool, but only after he was sure the girl could not escape.
But should he actually leave her alone?
"Get moving!" he said to himself. And then walked into the back of the trailer where he kept a tool shed. The girl was still sleeping in his arms. Whatever nightmares she could possibly be having, would she really want to wake up?
He chose duct tape, the principle reason being it was easiest to reach while clutching a small human being. And although she felt like a feather before, the longer Dale held her in that death grip, the heavier she seemed to get.
He laid her gently down on a Layzee Boy and found himself holding his breath and needing air when he was certain she was still sleeping. Dale unfolded the leg rest, and then very delicately began unwinding the duct tape around her legs. This turned out to be a bitch because the duct tape was prone to making offensive scratching sounds as it was unpeeled from its spool.
About an hour later the girl was strapped in the chair in an extended position. Mounds of duct tape secured her arms, legs, torso, hands and feet. He took special care to untie the bandana from her face, knowing that she could suffocate in her sleep if it stayed on there. That special feat gave him a sense of pride for remembering. He already got one point in the game of taking care of her by damn. Though he'd have to figure out how to keep her quiet. Lastly, he strapped down her head using a generous supply of tape.
Now he surveyed his work like a skilled practitioner, his mouth closed, eyes narrowed, and giving short nods of satisfaction. Yes he did do a good job. Both on the tape job, and on the girl. She was adorable. He was imagining what it would be like three years from now, when she had forgotten all about that old shit hole family she had, a fact that Dale would NEVER bring up, and how happy they would look playing in a park, eating hotdogs. He's pushing her on a swing and look at that! At the very end of the pendulum's arc she leaps through the air, legs pointing like arrows in perfect form! She glides through the air and lands on her feet. Both arms reach up into the sky, she beams at Dale saying look what I just did daddy! Then she's running, his little girl is running right at him! She leaps into his arms and oh god how he hugs her, squeezes her, suddenly he notices that her skin is so soft, there's a gleam in her eye, he looks at her mouth
Somebody knocked twice on his front door.
The force of that sound coming from that door made Dale almost scream. The cloudy glaze over his eyes burned away as fast as if Jesus Christ had just now ripped open a hole in the sky and let all of heaven's mighty armies come march on through.
His head jerked up and banged against the corner of a kitchen cabinet that he had been standing near but he barely felt it because panic and paranoia were through the fucking roof ladies and gentlemen. That's right, Dale Ernsted was about to melt into a puddle and seep into the floor.
But he had to do something about the door. He crept slowly, as if the slower he moved the more invisible he would become. At this point he was trying to make himself as flat against the wall as possible so he could peek out the curtains without the intruder noticing. He quickly poked his face into the curtains and looked out the window. There was a man still standing at Dale's door. And the man instantly turned towards Dale and looked him in the eyes.
Dale screamed and put a hand over his mouth.
It was Bren. It was just fucking Bren. He pulled away from the window and noticed he was breathing like he had run a half marathon.
Dale opened the door and there was Bren pissed off as ever before. He didn't ask to come inside but came inside he did, brushing past Dale without saying a word. He stood in Dale's living room, hands on hips, something like concern on his face, and was just standing there gaping at that girl stuck in all that mound of duct tape. He was shaking his head in disbelief. Then Bren turned around and said in whispered tones, "What in fucking Christ is going on here Dale?"
They both walked outside and Dale shut the door.
Inside the trailer the girl remained taped to the Lazee Boy, breathing those deep occasional breaths that are only ever seen in people deep in REM sleep. Then she opened her eyes. If Dale could see those eyes now he would say they looked evil. To Bren, who had a larger vocabulary than Dale, he would say cunning.
In truth she had never been asleep. And although she heard only a little of the conversation between the two ogres that captured her, she knew that Baby Face, as she thought of Dale, believed she was asleep. And for this she thought he must be the dumbest person imaginable. What moron would think anything but a tranquilized rhinoceros was asleep after all that had happened to her.
She played through the sequence of events that led her to this terrible situation. It was an unreal situation. How could this happen to her? But that's not useful, she thinks, it isn't useful to wonder about why, only how and what to do about it.
She took the opportunity while the two trolls were outside to scan as much of the room as possible. Looking for doors, windows, anything that could be used as a weapon. Although she knew she had little chance of using anything but a gun against either of those two guys. They were big and mean looking. But she thought Baby Face probably had a gun, either on him or by his bed, maybe in a closet.
She would have to escape. She knew there was a door in the back, though she couldn't see it, because Baby Face had brought her back there and she could feel the outside air coming in. It seemed to be some kind of extension to the trailer. And when Baby Face had stood on his toes reaching high up to get something off a shelf, she stole a glance and saw that it was some kind of shed that led outside. There were at least two doors. It was going to hurt so bad to take this tape off. She didn't know what to do about that yet. She could barely move any part of her body.
Then she heard one of the men approach the door and the hinge began to squeak open.
Dale poked his head in and stared at her for a good ten seconds. She was still sleeping. Good. Then the door closed.
Her name was Mariana and her eyes were now looking up at the ceiling, lips quivering, trying to hold back the tears from escaping. One did though and it traced a small trail down her cheekbone before it finally fell to the floor. She hoped her cheek would dry before the trolls came back inside.
Chapter 4:
That same morning Bren woke up to a pounding headache that felt like a vein was about to burst from the left side of his head. His bones creaked as he got out of bed and he walked to his refrigerator and pulled out a beer.
He wasn't trying to get drunk, those days were long past him. It was just to get rid of the headache. He had work today. And it was Bren's turn to drive so he was gonna have to waltz over to dumb fuck Dale's house and drag his ass out of bed. Although he wasn't so sure how much stock he put in folk traditions and rules of the game, so to speak, now that his relationship with Dale has been, shall we say, tested.
Although he wasn't as angry as he was just a few hours before while he chewed out Dale for being the stupidest motherfucker he ever laid eyes on, he still felt he should give him an ass pounding after he, Bren, resolved this entire state of affairs. Because it would be Bren, not Dale, who would have to do that. As much as he wished he could abandon Dale and just say fuck it, he was deeply concerned about his own involvement in what transpired the night before, and he was gravely imagining getting fifty years behind bars because of some lunatic he decided to take up a business deal with. Who was the real retard here, Bren thinks in a self deprecating way, who would get into business with someone like Dale?
Never mind all that, he would have to do something about this. He could not allow Dale to go off on his wild fantasies. Bren's chief concern was that Dale would fuck up somehow and land Bren in prison. He was slowly shaking his head back and forth as he sipped his beer, realizing just how deep the sinking sand really went in this case, all the anger he felt the night before came rushing back tenfold as he realized what he would have to do. What he would make Dale do. As punishment.
Meanwhile Baby Face was still sleeping. Mariana heard him snoring. She decided to let herself sleep after he had passed out on the floor near this duct tape prison. She would need her strength and people need to sleep as much as they need to eat was what she convinced herself with to even allow her to try to sleep. It wasn't even a guaranteed deal. Who could sleep during something like this?
But she found that when she closed her eyes and knew that Baby Face was drunk out of his mind, and that meant he would probably be asleep for awhile, then she could sleep. And oh how she drifted down, pulled down just as she was pulled out of that car, with a monster waiting for her at the bottom. A monster that looked like some huge grotesque baby thing that had snot pouring out of its nose like a fire hose held her, its decaying fingernails scraped at her, and it cackled at how amazing she was, licking her back and purring like a cat.
She screamed and then she was back in her car with all her things! Not in a dream, she was actually back in the car and her parents had told her they would pick her up a snickers.
She knew Baby Face was out there. Scrambling up on her elbows she looked for him out the window. He was pumping gas and smoking a cigarette at the same time. What a stupid freak! Yuck! But he was going to come over here. She watched him looking at something over at the entrance, and then his head was turning towards her. She ducked. And then slowly peeked her head up and saw that he was walking over here. He looked like some kind of rodent, like a rat that was sniffing out cheese.
She needed to leave. Mariana grabbed the door handle and shaked at it but it wouldn't open. None of them worked. She was trying to remain calm, kept finding her right hand reaching up and twirling her hair and then stopping herself. She licked her chapped lips. She had an idea.
The door opened and before Baby Face stuffed his stinking head in through the open door, Mariana turned around and asserted herself. She loudly and very clearly said "Dale! Where is your gun?"
The monster stumbled backwards as if shot, and fell slightly to its knee. The way its knees popped back and forth and the way its elbows gesticulated in erratic ways made Mariana think it wasn't even alive. It was some kind of zombie. And when its head rolled back up, and it looked at her, its teeth clacking together like a puppet being pulled up by the strings too quickly, she saw that Baby Face, Rat Baby Face, had long white whiskers and huge front teeth. They were stained with cigarette smoke but they still looked sharp.
It said in a gravelly voice choked with beer and chili, "under my bathroom sink, where I always keep it.", driblets of chili dripped down its white gums, which also held a healthy portion of gooey chewing tobacco. Beer froth dripped out its eyes as it jumped into the car with Mariana and began stroking its long bony fingers through her hair saying all the while in the voice of a corpse "How pretty..how pretty..how pretty". She wanted to puke and get away from it but - then Rat Baby Face opened its mouth and bit into her neck.
Mariana woke up blinking away tears. She swallowed and took in a deep breath through her nose, somewhat rocking back and forth, but otherwise totally immobilized.
That's when she heard Baby Face snoring. That's also when she noticed the bathroom out of the very furthest edge of her peripheral vision.
Mariana knew what she had to do.

My lo contains Ussep Campfire Survival mode ussep Ars metallica Frost fall Frozen electrocuted combustion Elden scrolls ui Mia Goldenglow is yours Wearable lantern Expanded jewelry crafting Violens Guild leader perks Children of coldharbour+ survival mode vampire patch Scales like broadswords 50 pct perk points True dragonborn Ordinator+apocalypse with the patch The notice board Summermyst Heavy armory new weapons and enchanted Omen armor Wear multiple rings Cloaks of skyrim+ survival mode patch Rebalanced encounter zones Improved bandits Diverse dragon collection 1k Celtic alchemy music mod Sounds of skyrim Obsidian 2021 Wander Kynes weather and seasons True storms+ patch for all 3 to work together Atlantean landscapes Fantasy flora takeover redux Remove misc flora Animated clutter Dar npc & player animations Gritty animations requiem 2.0 Cinematic dragon soul absorbtion Visible favorited gear Lovergirl skin 2k Divine skins and body for men and female Elsopa potions painted road signs guard shield hd anvil hd smelter hd workbenches hd grindstones unique cion bags Renthals tanning rack Underground caves mine forts and ruins Underground dwemer ruins apocrypha ratways Sivaas raan V2 Magical forces and fx bundle full Vibrant weapons lite Vae + patch for vibrant weapons Amazing followers tweaks Wet and cold + survival mode patch There will be blood and bubbles Headhunter Divine people of skyrim Imperious Bandit lines expansion Vampire lines Talkative dragons Enhanced enemy ai No bs ai projectile dodge 2021 magical blackreach Elfx Embers patch for elfx Elfx shadows hearthfire light fix Elfx shadows enhancer Elfx shadow enhancer - sounds of skyrim patch Bridges of skyrim Ryn's bleakwind basin Ryns saarthal Ryns snazzy last vigil ebony warrior aio Ryns mist watch folly Ryns lunds hut Ryns crabbers shanty and titanclaw lair Ryns halted stream camp Ryns robbers gorge Ryns secundas kiss Ryns karthspire Ryns bleakfalls tower +burrow Ryns whiteriver watch Ryns western watchtower Ryns valtheim towers Ryns goldenglow estate with goldenglow is yours patch Ryns alchemy shack Ryns anise's cabin Draco's heljarchen upgrade Draco's windstad upgrade Winstad mine Draco's lakeview upgrade Town of pinewatch Ryns standing stones Ryns farms aio +standing stones patch Dungeons revisited aio The great cities towns and villages bundle Ai patch for the great cites Elfx patch for the great cities More bandit camps Easierriders dungeon pack Unslaad maar-dragon priest overhaul Hunterborn Legends of aetherium At your own pace aio (ussep version) Ai overhaul Xp32msse fixed scripts Belt fastened quivers + patch for both xp32 and bfq Realm of lorkhan aio Skyrim is windy Fps eternal

Hello all! After a long time thinking and being stressed out, I think I've finally come to the realization that I am a true romantic. I'll share my journey in case anyone else is going through something similar-- it can be very difficult to see ourselves and really embrace our natural bodies.
Let me begin by saying that ever since puberty I have struggled to find flattering clothes. Many of the clothes in my wardrobe didn't work for me. I looked overweight when I wasn't, I wore the same clothes over and over, I felt bad about how big my bust was, my hips looked so small in the clothes I had to wear.
I remember many shopping trips as an older teenager, trying to find dresses, swimsuits, professional wear, which felt both flattering and stylish. We would usually begin at Target or Walmart, and when inevitably nothing there worked, we would move on to Loft, Old Navy, and then eventually end up at JC Penney. I have felt the continual frustration of only really looking my best in expensive brands.
So I started reading about the kibbe types, in a desperate attempt to gain knowledge and dress myself better. I started out thinking I was a soft classic because those were the shapes I could sometimes wear. But then I felt too wide. I considered soft natural, because I felt wide, but then I didn't have the sharper lines. I swung into soft gamine, but breaking my silhouette didn't work either. My body still didn't feel proportional. I almost gave up at that point to be honest. I felt ugly, like I didn't fit in anywhere.
And then I started reading up on true romantics. I realized that I do in fact have curvy hips, but my waist is higher up on my body. I tried romantic lines, and something clicked. The combination of draping and soft fabrics, waist emphasis without breaking up my shape-- I felt feminine. I had hardly ever felt that way before, despite my big bust and general softness.
Another point of honesty, I still feel like an imposter sometimes. I still struggle to see myself objectively, and some days I feel better about my body than others. But finally I have an idea of what clothes will work in my favor, and for me that is a big game changer. Unfortunately I still have to go to more expensive places to find those clothes so if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!
I would also love to hear if this is relatable to any others here. Regardless of whether you are a romantic, have you ever gone through a period where you had no idea where you fit in, or felt wrong in your own shape? What helped you?

This is a repost since my last post is almost a week old and no one will see the previous price drops I've already made for the camera. Timestamp is for today's date though.
Timestamp
Local trades ZIP: 30318
Got a Panasonic GH5 for sale with a Metabones XL 0.64 EF to MFT for sale. The camera is in very good condition with some very minor sensor dust. Nothing major. Everything works as it should. Getting rid of it as I have no need for it. I'm missing a spare charger for the battery but I'll charge it before shipping it out. Just make sure to have your own battery charger since I only have one dock to charge my S5 batteries and need it. No box.
The Metabones adapter is pretty scuffed but it works fine. The element is in great condition. I don't have any caps for it, but I'll wrap it up to protect it from dust as best as possible during shipping.
TLDR:

• Panasonic GH5 ($700 local, $740 shipped with insurance and signature requirement)
  • Comes with one battery (will be recharged before shipping out), missing charger, will need to order order your own
  • Includes V-Log L
  • Includes body cap
  • Minor sensor dust (can be cleaned if you plan to), minor paint scuffs on bottom of camera
• Metabones 0.64XL EF to MFT Speedbooster ($170 local, $190 shipped with insurance)
  • Scuffed near the tripod mount plate (Check timestamp for more details)
  • Missing front/rear cap
• Bundle and pay $840 local, $870 shipped. I'm open to offers if you are local to my area. Shipped prices are firm because of the cost associated with it.

Thanks for any interests. Feel free to ask me any questions.

Part 2
I fell backwards through the portal, landing on the ground back in the reality of hell. The dread spiked as I got back up on my feet. I thought the two blond maniacs would follow me back in, but they didn't. The portal closed, offering me a view of somebody crying over the phone on their porch across the street. Did they notice the flash of light? They're probably too caught up in their own business. The attacks being as gruesome as they are, I'm surprised I haven't died yet.
I stepped back into the house and closed the door behind me. William and Jason sit on the couch, faces pale and mouths hanging open as they watched helicopter footage of wild tentacle creatures running down streets and tackling people. A tighter dread overtook me.
Was this really it for me? Was I going to die here because my parallel self thought revenge would somehow fix things? Do I think that way? No, I don't. If she thought nobody should feel trapped, she wouldn't have been okay with making me feel trapped. I guess that's because he only cares when she's the one feeling trapped. People are human to her until they do something she doesn't like, then she lowers her standards and treats them like animals… Somehow that's supposed to make peace. It doesn't.
I asked Jason if there was a room I could stay in. I was given a spare bedroom down the hallway. Once I found it, I layed down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, hoping I'd be alive for more than another 24 hours. Any moment, some creature was probably going to crash through the window or something, or a giant monstrosity was going to smash the house to the ground. I had never been more afraid of death in my life.
About 20 minutes later, I decided I had to distract myself from all the mayhem and fear in any way possible. I pulled out William's spare phone and Googled various things I was interested in. I assumed TikTok would be filled with video clips of the attacks, so I wasn't downloading that. I watched some YouTube videos though. My adrenaline decreased, but I knew that if I ran out of things to enjoy, I would get bored and the adrenaline would shoot back up.
I'm not sure I'd say putting autoplay on was a mistake. It kinda was, but it kinda led to something interesting for me. The third video to play automatically was a video of a news report from the day the attacks began.
It started with Ontario politicians answering questions from reporters, then the Breaking News animation flashed across the screen. A video taken in Sharon, Ontario showed one of the giants moving down a street, smashing houses along its way. The uncanny look of the thing and how it moved sent chills down my spine. I tapped the screen. The title appeared on the screen.
"First news reports of the giant attacks - Full news broadcast 11 AM to 12:30 PM"
This was the very first attack. Interesting. Morbid curiosity overtook me. The attacks were historical, and if I was going to die here, why not know more about what's going to kill me.
I kept watching. Video footage taken from the Newmarket Community Center was played. It showed two giants smashing buildings down Main Street. The white church blew up, with debris flying all around. The buildings to the south were also reduced to rubble and dust. It was saddening to watch. As the giants began smashing buildings beside the Community Center, the camera operator let out a shaky "Oh my god" then backed away. They aimed to their left. A dozen of the bystanders were slowly turning away. As if they wanted to run but were too curious. A couple of them ran. A few other people from up the street ran by with pale faces. After the giants had passed by and smashed the buildings further to the south, some people in the crowd began to have a conversation.
"What is going on today…? why is this happening…?"
"We don't know why they're doing this… have they been reported elsewhere?"
"I checked the news five minutes ago. Nothing."
"I'm checking it again… nothing"
"I just checked CP-2-4 and they have footage of one in East Gwillimbury"
As they're talking, the giants smash the churches to the south, then they knock down the grey apartment building. Explosions can be seen inside as it crumbles and a plume of smoke rises up.
The next video I watched was of the two giants knocking the apartment building down but from an angle to the south based on what I knew about the location.
The next video began with the camera pointed to the ground. The camera was aimed up and a bit shaky. The camera was aimed at two giants standing a mile away. Flames were thrown at an area obscured by trees. This is Aurora, isn't it? I guessed it was since it was the first of two places to be torched. The giants torched side to side then back and forth, then the trees obscuring the area caught fire. The camera operator turned around and ran without hesitation.
Another video was taken near the Burlington Skyway Bridge. Two giants knocked the bridge down from north to south. My gut clenched watching cars fall into the water below.
As terrifying these videos were, it was interesting to see the beginning of the attacks this close. The news mostly only played footage taken from news helicopters and the same bits of footage over and over. Many of the videos I had seen on the internet so far were videos I hadn't seen yet.
I looked up videos of the attack on Central Manhattan.
One video was taken from a window somewhere to the east of the Empire State Building. One of those horrifying giants seamlessly smashed its way through the skyscrapers, leaving expanding plumes of smoke behind. Once it reached the Empire State, it focused a ton on smashing it to the ground. A plume of smoke rose up against the oncoming plumes of smoke created by the destruction of the nearby buildings.
I had seen many things like this over my journey throughout the different realities, but this just seemed too familiar to me. Nothing about this reality was different until the attacks began. Not even some detection of the Godzilla-like giants beforehand. I'm in this reality where these attacks are happening and I can't escape. I sank in a pit of dread as that dawned on me. I had to deal with the craziness of the I was in. I needed to learn as much about the attacks as possible.
I looked up a more recent attack. The one in Bradford parallel me mentioned. I found multiple videos of it. The first video I watched showed a giant leveling a two story facility as people ran by and screamed. It was sad to see a place I was so familiar with be destroyed. The second video was shaky camera footage of two giants leveling some other facility, also with people running by and screaming. One was crying. The third video was helicopter footage of four giants smashing and attacking the town. Carving up the southeastern and northern areas. As sad as I felt, I noticed they didn't attack the part of town I lived in.
Wasn't that attack supposed to kill me? Or was it just supposed to scare me? Either way, I wasn't there to witness it. Of course, I could've been killed in a part of the town that was destroyed. Maybe my parallel self was playing coin toss. Either I live or die. Either way, he'd be benefited by the fact I would be fearing for my life in the event I'd survive. Then he visited me where I was miles away, after the attack on the town. He brought his cronies with him. The evil alternate versions of two people I knew of and liked very much. I'm still not comfortable specifying who.
As I continued my watch through the footage, I found some videos of the creature dump on the place I was just in. Watching the giants pour the creatures onto the city… the creatures running all over the place… down roads… across the roofs of buildings… through parks… just chill inducing and gut wrenching. I couldn't get through one whole video. Flashbacks of escaping that thing just kept popping up in my head as I watched.
I looked up some discussion threads about the attacks. Of course, everyone expressed how they didn't know what they would wake up to the next day, how they didn't know where they would be safe… some speculated hiding out in the mountains or down in subways would be a safe bet to stay alive. The subway part of the discussion was shot down later on in the thread by one claiming the creature dumps would render that idea hopeless. Others said bomb shelters would work. I needed to know if there were any bomb shelters around. Probably useless though, as the government probably wouldn't just let anybody in. The closest mountain that could keep anyone safe would be 4 hours away. There was another comment though, one that brought up Iran and Belgium being wiped off the map entirely by dozens of miles wide giants, and they suggested any country could be next to be destroyed by giants that size. The middle of the ocean would be a safer bet.
What about Lake Ontario? The eastern half of it. It's not an ocean but it's a pretty big body of water. As long as I don't go near any shoreside cities I'll be good. I ran over to William and asked him if he had a boat. I explained to him eastern Lake Ontario may be too big a body of water for the giants to care about. Unfortunately, he, nor Jason, nor anybody they knew had a boat. At least I had some relief for a moment. I fell back into the pit of dread and walked back to the spare bed.
As I browsed through Reddit, I came across a post about a rare angle of the attacks. The video was taken from a live stream that was held in a suburban area not too far away from where the giants were standing. Chills overtook me, seeing the giants again. They were holding their giant bags of creatures. The streamer said he didn't know what the giants were holding, then the giants tilted their bags and the thousands of creatures came raining down. My gut clenched hard. The last words of the streamer were what one would expect, but they chilled me due to the context.
"What the hell? No… god… please…"
He turned around and sprinted down the road. He aimed the camera up at the incoming creatures. They blocked the view of the sun and everything was darkened by shade. The streamer aimed the camera back out in front of him. You could see the sky on the horizon, but then a wall of blackness obscured it. My gut began to ache. The streamer fell to the ground and screamed. Nothing could be seen. Loud thuds were heard, then the stream ended. Then the video ended.
The people in the comments were freaked out. Many of them mentioned the chills they got watching the video. One comment thread went like this:
"I can't imagine standing there. Thinking you'll live, then just seeing that and KNOWING with great certainty you're about to die. Chilling. This is probably the most up close video I've found of this."

• "I know more videos will surface, especially because the attacks are still going on right now, but this video will be something that always sticks with me" (I pressed the link and it took me to a YouTube video showing a livestreamer in an office. She tells her viewers she's in the Empire State Building. She aims her camera out the window towards Central Park. "It's 1 PM right now and…" A giant pops up in the middle of Central Park. I jumped while watching it. Chills ran straight down my spine. "What the hell is that?" The giant walked south, smashing through the buildings along Park Lane. It knocked down the world's skinniest skyscraper, then it smashed its way through some more buildings, including the Museum of Modern Art.

"Oh my god," the streamer says with a shaky weak voice.
She puts the camera down and you could hear quick footsteps and the creak of a door being swung open. The giant continues its straight faced rage through Central Manhattan, smashing down the Rockefeller buildings, the East Times Square buildings and battering Times Square in dust and smoke, then it stumbles a couple blocks to the east. A man over the intercom tells everybody to evacuate immediately.
The giant smashes the low rise buildings two blocks away, the low rise buildings one block away, then the room shakes. Loud crashes echo from below, along with light crashes somewhere behind the camera. Then the office light goes out. It looks as if the giant is rising, but then you can see its triangles, then the sky. The section of the building the room was in was falling. The camera started spinning, then the livestream ended. Then so did the video.)
"Absolutely terrifying. Imagine that being the last thing you see… this stuff going on right now is probably the worst, most insane stuff to happen in a long time. You should see the video where people are hiding in a room from the literal Lovecraft-like wild creatures.
Edit: here" (I opened this link and it took me to a YouTube video showing three people, including the camera operator, in a small toll booth room. The two others, one woman with blond hair who looked to be in her 30s and an adrogynous looking person with black hair who looked to be in his 20s, were both shaking, glancing between each other and the camera operator, then there was a loud bang at the door. Adrenaline rushed through me, hoping those people could be rescued. The camera was aimed at the door, which had multiple cracks in it. There was another bang. The door shook and the cracks got longer. One of the two people on the left began to cry. With yet another bang, pieces of the door flew across the room. The door itself began to loosen off its hinges. Then with one more bang, the bottom half of the door was pushed in by a round dark gray beast with about 10 long tentacle-like appendages. It was so uncanny looking, adrenaline shot up through me. My eyes were wide open watching it. It ran up to the camera operator, who moved to his right then backed up. The creature climbed up on him. He struggled, then the camera fell face first on the ground. Nothing could be seen, but loud painful screaming, growling, and a couple wet crunches could be heard.
Further down the thread was something even more terrifying but interesting.
"I wonder why we haven't seen any videos of the aftermath of the creature dumps."

• "Those videos are probably very NSFW. They likely haven't made it past content filters."

"Some pictures were posted to MorbidReality and somebody found a video of a creature attacking somebody's back and legs. If you can't take that kind of stuff do not look at it. It's very gruesome."

• "There's some on Archive.org, along with many other videos I haven't seen anywhere else. Here's a link to an archive somebody is making."

I opened the link. I was taken to the page with the archive. The first video was titled Footage From Upper Canada Mall. It began on the roof of the mall. All that was heard were sirens and the sounds of helicopters. The camera operator aimed up at two giants being circled by two military helicopters. The giants appeared to be holding people. The giant on the right was holding two people who I can only describe as looking like a man and a woman, while the giant on the left was holding a woman. The giant on the right tossed the woman. She glided through the air. She hit the roof of the mall with a loud bang and turned into a red mist. I gagged and twitched. The camera operator kept the camera still. He had to have been in shock. He panned to the left a bit and caught the man landing on the roof of the mall with a loud thud while also turning into a red mist. I gagged again. What the hell? The camera was aimed up at the giant on the left, who was getting ready to throw the person it was holding. It tossed them towards the roof of the mall. They too landed with a loud bang while turning into a red mist.
That was something I never thought I'd ever see. People exploding into a bloody mist like they were nothing. Or just bags of blood. That's not something anyone should ever have to see. I'm glad that stuff won't make it past content filters. Hopefully, nobody who doesn't want to see that will ever see that ever. It's okay to be morbidly curious, and yes, it's historically significant, but I hope people are careful with footage like this.
The next video was titled "Seattle Explosion" and began on a freeway in what seemed to be the late afternoon. A man off camera said he was driving towards Seattle. He said he was driving down highways and filming in case he catches anything historic, and added that all his friends are doing the same in various parts of the US such as Houston, Texas. I was beginning to think about skipping this one due to anxiety. I didn't want to see people explode, but I assured myself it wasn't filmed close enough to capture such things. A minute into the video, the Seattle skyline could be seen in the distance. Seconds later, balls of yellow and orange erupted from every building.
These giants sure are making it a point to scare everybody. Dumping deadly creatures, torching entire areas, EMP Bubbles, Godzilla-like smashing, and now blowing up entire cities.
I don't know which one of those is going to happen to me.
What the hell do they want?
I'm afraid of having my guts sucked out by a creature
I'm afraid of being caught up in a torching
I'm afraid of being gassed
I'm afraid of being crushed to death
I'm afraid of being in an exploding city
I'm afraid of being tossed to the ground from high up in the air
Where are they going to hit next? Where are they going to hit next? Where are they going to hit next?
Where do I go?
I was hyperventilating for a couple minutes there. I paused the video and attempted to not judge my thoughts or feelings, then I wrote the above to acknowledge my feelings. Now I'm really starting to understand why people write sad songs about depression and anxiety. More so than I already did.
I looked at some of the titles of the next few videos in the archive. I hesitated to watch them, but I'll list the titles I read for curiosity's sake.
"SEATTLE EXPLOSION - East angle"
"Naypyidaw attack"
"Manila attack"
"Manila attack from north"
"Bradford attack from helicopter"
"Bradford attack angle 7"
(Six more Bradford attack videos, two of which are probably the ones I've already seen)
(Ottawa attack videos #27 to #2)
"Ottawa attack angle 1 - filmed by a Canadian Minister"
"Aftermath of Creature Dump in Niagara Region, Canada"
Out of curiosity, I decided to watch that last one I listed. It started in the backroom filled with boxes. The camera operator walked out of the room, into a smashed up restaurant. The front windows were shattered, tables and chairs were strewn everywhere. The camera was aimed to the right. Two bodies covered in blood were laying in the corner. It was unsettling to see. The camera was aimed back towards the windows. The operator moved up to them. A body was laying under an outdoor table.
After exiting the shop, the camera operator took a right and walked down the sidewalk. As he walked, he briefly looked inside different stores and multiple cars, all of which had shattered windows and thrashed items. No cars drove by. Not even police, fire department, or paramedics. No people were around at all. My breaths became shallow as I anticipated the worst. Something like a creature popping out of nowhere or another body.
A couple more blocks down the road, sirens began blaring in the distance. The camera operator walked by a store that had music playing from inside. It was something I hadn't thought of. Music that was being played as background noise was still being played through all the death and roaming creatures. They stepped through the shattered window, and as they walked to the center of the room, the music got clearer. It was a slow piano ballad about a woman telling her lover to go easy on her. It was weird hearing the song play in a smashed up deserted room with the world crumbling all around right outside. The words made it sound eerie in the context it was playing right in the middle of. As the song played, the camera operator moved broken table pieces out of their way and dug through some piles of table debris along the cracked wall on his left.
What is he looking for?
As the camera operator continued looking under knocked over tables, he began to sniffle. The song changed to a sad pop song with a high pitched piano melody. I knew the song. It was eerie too. It was about a breakup, but the lyrics about taking a metaphorical final bow echoed what I was feeling. The end of civilization, or at least the end of the civilization I was used to. I was getting very settled into this reality.
The camera operator walked to the back wall and looked around at the wreckage again. An ambulance drove by outside. The camera operator walked into the bathroom. It was reduced to rubble. Stalls ripped apart, toilets shattered, most of the mirrors were cracked… and blood was smeared across the wall near the back. The camera operator stood in one spot for a couple of moments before turning around and stepping out the door and back into the restaurant. They took some steps through the restaurant, then they aimed the camera at the ceiling. Then at the picture frames. One of them was lying on its face. Another one of them was tilted and ripped in half. Some happened to be in good shape.
After the tour of each of the paintings, the camera operator started rummaging the debris on the left side of the restaurant. As he did so, the next song began. This one was upbeat, juxtaposing the context it was playing in. It kinda creeped me out. It was supposed to be played for people's enjoyment, but nobody was enjoying anything. At least the lyrics were about persisting through absolutely anything. I guess that kinda fit, but things were too dark to think straight. The camera operator stopped rummaging about halfway to the back of the restaurant and stared on at the rubble that he would be digging through next. He zoomed in on what was clearly a shoe being worn by somebody unmoving under the rubble. He zoomed back out, turned around, and walked to the front of the restaurant.
As they looked at the buildings across the road, a creature crawled into view from the right, climbing above each window before climbing in through the window of a bike store. The camera operator moved back a bit. A minute later, a military jeep pulled up in front of the building the creature climbed into. Three soldiers climbed out and entered the store through its shattered front window.
As the camera operator zoomed in on the building, the next song began to play. It began with a whistle melody then led into lyrics about not being worried. Another upbeat song that juxtaposed the seriousness of the situation, which unsettled me more so. Inaudible shouting echoed from inside the building. Gunshots followed. A moment later, two of the soldiers stepped out of the building, uniforms stained with blood. They stood around, talking into their radios. Then the video ended. A couple seconds of the next video, titled Incoming Creatures, played before I paused it. That video began on an elevated platform near a forest. I was done watching videos of the attacks, so I wasn't going to stick around for more.
I checked the time. 10:58 PM. I slid the phone into my pocket and walked out into the livingroom to see what the others were up to. They were discussing what the giants may want while the news played on the TV. A woman was talking about the destruction of Town Zero… Sharon. Footage was played of a colossal giant popping up just north of the town, then with two swoops, the giant smashed the town to dust and rubble. My heart sank. We're getting colossal giants here too? I mean, of course we are. They're not just going to reserve certain things for certain areas. Clearly they will attack just about anywhere, right?
William asked me to help him get something from the shed out back. I told him I'll go out and wait for him there. I got my shoes on and stepped outside into the warm dark night. There was an eerie calmness to it. Like nature hadn't been going nearly as insane as we humans have. I stepped around back and spotted the shed. As I stepped towards it, two colossal silhouettes formed in the sky some distance away. They contrasted the light polluted light orange glow. I don't want to under describe how massive they were. Not tall enough to reach above the clouds, but tall enough to make my chest drop to the point I thought I was about to have a heart attack. They moved in my direction, their silhouettes growing, obscuring the light orange glow of the sky.
Why here? Who's here that they want? Unless it really is me. They aren't going for some random people I don't know. This is an alternate reality in which they're coming after me. But that theory seemed to small minded. I wasn't possibly going to be in multiple places in the US, China, North Korea, Belgium… maybe they're also going for my relatives… but I don't know anybody who would ever be in North Korea of all places.
I thought about it as I sprinted for my life over the fence into the neighbors yard, then over the next fence, then over the next… I kept hopping fences until I made it to the corner of the town. It was just a field. Thumps shook the ground. Car alarms began going off. I fell to my knees due to the heavy vibration. I avoided looking to my left, at the giants' massive silhouettes. I stared at the ground and hoped for the best with the worst pit of dread I ever felt.
Loud booms and crashes blew out my ear drums. I never heard loud sounds like those so up close. I covered my ears, but the piercing sounds still hurt. The smashing lasted a couple minutes, getting quieter and quieter as the giants moved further away from me. My curiosity got the best of me and I glanced at the giants. They had to have been 500 meters tall or something. For some reason, not being able to see them was more dread inducing than being able to see them. A cloud of dust hit my face. I coughed like a motherfucker and walked forward, finding my way out of the choking smoke.
William and Jason…
I looked in the direction of Jason's house. It was too dark to see anything but some fires a couple houses away. Whatever was left of those houses anyway. The giants were still smashing their way through the town when I heard a fast plane. I looked up and saw a light flying towards the giants.
Fighter jets? Missiles?
The missile struck the giant in its midsection and exploded in a ball of fire. The giant continued smashing. It didn't move differently after the hit. It continued eliminating the town. Another explosion occurred near the head of the other giant and it was the same outcome. The attack continued on for another minute, with more explosions that didn't faze the giants. Maybe the missiles made a mark. It was too dark to see those marks if so. Finally, the crashes and booms stopped. The giants stood in one spot, not moving at all, then they vanished into thin air.
That was seriously screwed up. I almost died. I want out of this. Who in the multiverse would wish this on their worst enemy? The idea of possibly being crushed, gassed, blown up, thrown to your death… I walked back to Jason's house. It only took a couple of minutes. When I got back there, it was a pile of wood, broken up walls, unrecognizable rooms, scattered roof tiles, and bricks. I hurried around to the front. When I saw Jason's arm crushed under a pile of bricks and wires, I almost gagged. I looked away and stepped to where the front door was. William's hand laid beside a growing fire.
Where am I supposed to go? I'm a refugee now. I should check the news. Any news outlet that hasn't had its data center destroyed. I haven't heard of that happening but it has to have happened by now.
I pulled out my phone and opened CNN.
"THE GIANTS CONTINUE TO BERATE THEIR ROOTS"
"Ontario, Canada is ground zero for the attacks. Everyone is still wondering why"
"WATCH: See Seattle explode in a ball of fire"
"The black chemical agent sprayed on multiple American towns and Chinese cities may not be of this world"
"Bomb shelters, caves… even sewers. Americans are desperate for safety, but some Americans claim all they need to do is stay armed and ready"
MILITARY: "Civilians shouldn't push their luck thinking standard rifles are enough to defend against Giants"
"Security camera footage shows Manila attack"
"Ukraine is free, but for how long?"
""I'm tired of living through history" The attacks from Gen Z's perspective"
It was always interesting to go into an alternate reality and look at the top news headlines. This time though… it's very serious, as I'm a full on victim of the wild stuff that's going on in the alternate reality. I sat down and read all the news articles I could. I read all the Reddit threads about every major development in this whole event. I also felt it was important enough to go back to that archive on Archive.org and download all the footage posted there for archival, especially in the case I ever made it out of here. There was a ton of interesting things I saw in the various realities I traveled to over the years. If I get the device back, I can go back and download some footage from those realities. I could become an archivist or something. But it hit me that I was more likely to die than fulfill any dream I ever had.
At around 1 AM, I heard my name being called by a familiar deep voice.
"You were supposed to die!" he said. "How are you still alive!?"
"I saw them pop out of nowhere… so I ran like hell."
"Well now we're going to have to take you somewhere else."
"Why not shoot me?" I asked, frustrated. "Why not end my life right now?"
"True Nicole said you needed to be weighed down by the stuff going on in this reality," he said, resting his hand on his hip. "Either you are scared of the giants or you are killed by the giants."
I stood up, slid my phone into my pocket, and walked away. I didn't think I was going to make it far without confrontation. A couple homes down, a pain hit my neck. Before I could process it, I woke up in the trunk of a car. All I could hear was the news. All I could feel was the car bumping up and down. All I could see, other than the interior of the trunk of course, was a light morning sky. One right before the sun rose above the horizon.
"...still no word from British officials after the attacks on London and Cheltenham, England. Reports of giants being present in London and Cheltenham came out just after 4 this morning. The number of casualties is unknown, and the British Prime Minister is still missing…"
"She's awake."
"What's up fake Nicole?"
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Williamsport, Pennsylvania," alternate me said. "We're going to Washington DC."
"How do you know anything is going to happen there?"
"She never said anything would," Ian said.
"You said I was supposed to die," I said. "You knew the giants were going to strike the place I was in."
"I traveled to a reality where it was this timeline, but one month after the attacks began," alternate me said. "Then I copied a list of everything that happened in these attacks. I know what happens next."
I froze. They really did have this planned out, didn't they…
"Now, I want you to stop talking," alternate me said. "Don't breathe too loudly either. Also, if we catch you calling for help, I will stop on the side of the road, Ian will inject you with fire ants and Billy will inject you with steroids."
"To keep you awake and energized so you feel the pain more intensely and for a longer amount of time," she said.
"Yes," alternate me said. "And you can still go on the internet if you want."
I stared up at the blue morning sky, strangled by dread. I realized I had cold sweats all over me. I pulled out my phone and Googled some more Reddit threads. 20 minutes into reading comments, the news channel on the radio switched to a Pop music station. At first, I assumed alternate me changed the station, but when I went back to the Giant Attacks search results, they had all changed to results about some unrelated game.
My hopes went up. Could it be? A slip? I was ready to believe it, even if it was mostly to ease my anxiety. I went to CNN's website. To my relief, the headlines were about job layoffs.
I don't know how long I'll be back in our reality. If I even am back here… I guess you will know if you see this update.
Alternate me is swearing. I think she caught on to what happened… Now she's turning the car around. I'll update again when I'm back.

Hello everyone! I'm here again to present on of my theories for feedback. This time it's about the growing discussion that Cassidy is NOT the Vengeful spirit after all!
Lemme know what you think in the comments!
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(also, this is a video script, so forgive me if there are in-text notes placed in the following)
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• The almost universal explanation for the identity of the vengeful spirit is that of a girl named Cassidy. She gets her first mention in the novel trilogy, in the book The Fourth Closet, Being described as little girl with long black hair and is depicted with the MCI kids. And later, in the Logbook, we see a girl who seems to match the description of the book oddly well. And lo and behold, if we are to solve the “my name” cipher in the logbook, we get the name “cassidy”. Boom, Cassidy is obviously the second spirit in the logbook, the one talking to the crying child. And then judging by the fact that in the stitchwraith stingers for the fazbear frights stories, we see two kids possessing the same animatronic body, one vengeful, angry one who is in control and another kinder, benevolent one who is blind to the world around him, and the fact that we see one spirit in the logbook who can’t see and one who obviously can, we can easily piece together that the Vengeful Spirit in UCN.. is cassidy. Because the Vengeful spirit is very obviously inside of Golden Freddy, and it makes no sense for the vengeful spirit, to be The crying child (show list of reasons why it doesn’t make any sense). And since the crying child is obviously blind to the outside world like the benevolent kid in the stitchwraith stories, there has to be another spirit controlling golden freddy in UCN, just as the vengeful kid does in the stitchwraith. And who else could there be to fill that role, but the second logbook spirit Cassidy..
• ​

But… As much as I love that theory… over the last couple of years, there have been some major problems popping up around it…
Because- it looks like we have been neglecting the possible existence of an even better candidate for the vengeful spirit, Andrew.
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In the aforementioned Stitchwraith stories, we are introduced to a kid named Andrew, who’se the vengeful and angry spirit inside of the stitchwraith, and while he’s long been considered to be a simple stand in for cassidy in the books, there are some major details in the books and games that make that are making me question that assumption
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Because you see, Andrew is a perfect parallel to the vengeful spirit, unlike almost every other parallel in the books which have at least SOME major differences from the games. In terms of parallels, Andrew arguably is more up there with William and Henry than the other “close parallels” in the books like Hudson in What we found(Micheal Afton) and Jake in the real Jake (The Crying Child)
Because, we know Andrew is killed by William and hidden in a Golden Freddy suit in the books, while Cassidy is only directly referenced in the logbook, and was INFERRED to be in Golden Freddy with the crying child, based on the evidence we mentioned earlier.
Andrew is the one who latches on to William Afton’s soul during the fnaf 6 fire in fazbear frights, yes, THAT fnaf 6 fire, and keeps Afton alive in a perpetual state of nightmares as revenge.
Andrew is also a young BOY with curly black hair, long enough to stick out of Golden freddy’s neck while he is stuffed inside (show fnaf 4 minigame scene with big question mark on it) and not only that, but the vengeful spirit in UCN is referred to with exclusively male pronounce in the game: (show UCN quotes)
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And it’s appearance? Well, the Vengeful Spirit is represented by none other than Scott’s SON.
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But it doesn’t end there, because in the aforementioned fnaf novel trilogy, which is yet another separate canon from the fazbear frights books, Golden Freddy is NOT cassidy, in that book series, the series, which I mind you, is Cassidy's formal INTRODUCTION to the fnaf franchise, she is just another one of the Missing children's incident kids. Instead, Golden Freddy is possessed by an oddly unrelated young boy named Michael Brooks. In those books, Michael brooks was a sixth kid who was killed separately from the rest in 1985 by Willaim Afton, and his body hidden in Golden Freddy.
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And while these books may be an alternate universe take, they still have some major similarities to the games, especially in regards to the characters, with almost all game characters having similar book counterparts, and said counterparts are usually in the books for the sole purpose of telling us new information about the versions of their charecters in the games (show William, Henry and Charlie)
But, what about that part about him being a sixth missing kid? In the games AND most of the book stories, the Missing Children's incident is very clearly stated to only have FIVE victims, but, key word here is on MOST, because in perhaps most famous book story, Into the pit, we get taken back in time to a weird twisted version of the 1985 location, and the story has William show us his accomplishments of that Era: which compose of not five, but SIX dead kids, all on display for us the protagonist to see
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But wait, how can we reconcile SIX dead kids with all the other lore sources we know? And, why should we trust a book with a time traveling ballpit in it anyways?
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Well, I think I have found the answer to both of those questions, and the answer comes from none other, than matpat
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In his second episode of his Ultimate fnaf timeline, Matpat is finally able to piece together exactly what the toy Chica anime cutscenes in UCN were supposed to tell us. Because while it has been generally agreed upon that the cutscenes are about William rather creepily stalking and killing his victims, we.. really didn't learn anything new from it at the time.
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But in his theory, Matpat proposes that the Toy Chica anime cutscenes are there to give some more context on why the Vengeful spirit, is so vengeful.
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Because for Toy Chica’s last Murder, she… goes a bit off the rails, compared to her previous killings..
(show UCN quote)
So basically, the Toy Chica anime cutscenes in UCN being there to tell us that the vengeful spirit's death was extra gruesome and excessive, with Willaim going too far in his brutality. And while I genuinely believe Mat is correct here, even then, his theory would fit Andrew just as well as Cassidy.
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That’s because, like he said, the Vengeful spirit WASN’T killed in Freddy’s! He was kidnapped and killed after school!
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The vengeful spirits body was hidden in the Golden Freddy suit AFTERWARDS, but, while he WAS an afton victim he was NOT an MCI kid!
Most people don’t realize, but Into the pit isn’t actually about a time traveling ballpit, it’s about Eleanor tormenting a kid with illusions and showing him the evils of William afton. This is a theme that actually constitutes the bulk of the Fazbear frights stories, with the remnent/dream demon thing Eleanor screwing with peoples reality to torment them while showing them (and us) many of the unknown history of the Fazbear franchise before trying to lead them to a usually gruesome end.
That’s why there are SIX bodies in that story, because Ealanor is showing all the bodies that were HIDDEN in that Pizzaria, NOT just those of the five kids who went MISSING in the Pizzaria, dubbed the Missing childrens incident by the media. Five killed in the backroom, and one killed separately, but hidden in there with the rest anyways…
Eleanor seems to be preoccupied with the truths that aren’t well known, doesn’t she? Most serial killers in real life have a list of confirmed or heavily suspected kills, but most ALSO have a number of deaths that CAN’t be specifically linked back to them, because they don’t always kill in the same way. Except for in the case of neat and concise storytelling, why would William be any different?
And, all this considered, the fact that Cassidy is depicted with four confirmed MCI kids in the novel trilogy, that also gives credence to the theory that she is NOT the vengeful spirit, because if the previous theory is true, the vengeful spirit is NOT one of the official five MCI victims either!
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And not only that, but the evidence against Cassidy doesn’t end there:
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Because I'n Fnaf SB, we get to play a series of Princess Quest minigames that not only take through much of the old game lore, but directly change the outcome of the game and lead to the Vanny ending. It's been generally agreed upon that that these minigames follow the spirit of Cassidy, as she, now permanently latched onto Willaims soul just like Andrew was latched on to Afton in the books, is revived along with him in Glitchtrap and sets off to destroy him once and for all. And if we beat these minigames... she succeeds, and the now glitchtrap free vanny lays down her mask and helps Gregory out of the pizzaplex.
It all just works too well. Heck, we even got confirmation that we were playing as Cassidy from the game files... Or so we thought, as soon after the filename was discovered... in a notable first for the fnaf franchise, it was actually REMOVED.
But... Why? And why would this be the first time a filename has been changed like that in the series? Was it because it gave away the mystery? Well, the secret had already been out, fnaf has a history of giving hints or even reveals in the filenames just like that.. and on top of THAT, the fact the were playing as Cassidy was ALREADY abundantly obvious in the minigames. Because if the fact that we play as a little Golden Girl fighting Dark bunny creatures with Old man consequences in the background wasn't obvious enough I don't know what is.
Well, despite all the confusion around it, I’m gonna put in my controversial two cents and say that I really think the only plausible reason why this filename would be removed... is if it was WRONG… (”*HEAR ME OUT” disclaimer) Hold on everyone, this explanation is gonna need a LOT of background context, but trust me, it leads into something critical for this whole theory:
Because you gotta remember... Steel Wool is a full, professional game studio with many employees going in and out of the company on a regular basis. It is standard protocol for studios not to share sensitive story information with ALL of their employees, if they did, it would become leak-topia. They usually only share it with the ones that NEED to know it, and even then, fnaf lore is extremely intricate and difficult to understand, and even some of the game's lead producers seemed to be confused with the lore at times (show ray macaffy quote, with emphasis on "the fans will understand").
For all we know, the filename "cassidy" was just added in by a lower rank programmer or graphic designer who was confused about what the minigame meant or just didn't know exactly what he was talking about. And... this kind of thing isn't uncommon in the gaming industry. You know the famous "Project Dread" teaser in Metroid Prime 3? Well, that wasn't sanctioned by Nintendo.. at all. That was added in by a lower level employee who had been reading too many internet rumors about a leaked fifth metroid game called Dread,and while the game was real,the rumors were not, and it was one that the studio he worked at had never even HEARD of before. And that's why nothing about the so-called "teaser" ended up being correct in the end. It was just tiny bit of misinformation added in by a guy who thought he knew what he was talking about, one that even a company as big and draconian as Nintendo was with quality assurance accidentally let slip though the cracks.
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So, I think that's exactly what happened with Cassidy here. With the sprite name being retconned out for the simple reason that… it was misleading.. In the first place.
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But if this character we play as in Princess Quest isn't Cassidy, then the real question is... who is it??
And that leads us to what I think is.. Almost the smoking gun of my theory:
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In Security Breach, in the basement we see this mural of what is obviously Cassidy painted on the wall. This mural shows her in a hospital bed with the same checkered patterns as the fnaf 4 bed, and the fnaf 4 lamp and IV next to her. What's notable about this image, apart from the fact that it has zero connection to the other murals on the walls, is that it has a big red X over the top, along with a big slash across the image.
The image is extremely confusing for a number of reasons, and it’s EXACT meaning has not yet been deciphered, but the premise of the message it’s putting across, is pretty dang clear: "not cassidy…" or “cassidy is not..” but.. the question is: "Cassidy is not" what? Is it saying she is NOT the bite victim? Well, duh, she isn't. Is it that she is NOT the person having the nightmares in fnaf 4? It would seem like it... Except that, not once in the eight years have I been in the community have I even heard someone even INFER that she was the one we play in fnaf 4. If Scott is trying to tell us something about the lore, why would he try to correct us about something nobody ever really thought in the first place? I mean, you might as well tell us that Henry never possessed ballora, because the community would get the same amount of value out of that statement as well (0+0, is still 0)
No, I think the message here is meant to read out more like "Cassidy is not” and then “something related to fnaf 4" or, perhaps more accurately “Cassidy is not related to” and something about the Crying Child, since this is his bed and surroundings. Sure, it could also be “Cassidy is not related to some aspect of Micheal” since the fnaf 4 gameplay is probably about him having nightmares about what he put his brother through, I still think it is about the crying child, since cassidy.. Is in a hospital bed. NOT the regular sleeping bed that Micheal dreams is in the room in the fnaf 4 gameplay.
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So, in a nutshell, if all the supposed references to Cassidy in the classic games are vague enough to fit a different spirit,
and if the person we play as in Princess quest, who fights against William and takes advice from Old Man Consequences isn't Cassidy, and last but not least: the message of "not cassidy" in regards to some aspect of fnaf 4 or the Crying child is directly displayed in the game. I think that finally, we have enough evidence to tilt the scales, and to say that the vengeful spirit, isn't Cassidy. And who else could fit the mold for that role anywhere near as good, as Andrew…
But alright alright, I'm sure you all dislike it as much as I do, because IF that theory is true, then, just who the heck IS Cassidy?? Why is she mentioned in the logbook? And.. Just what purpose does she serve in the fnaf story anyways?... And the answer to that.. is we just don't know.. Obviously, she has to be important, right? Not only because of her mention in the novels and the logbook, but because Scott once intended to write an ENTIRE FNAF MOVIE ABOUT HER. Yup, a couple of years back, while discussing old screenplays for the fnaf movie, Scott revealed that the movie was going to be about her at one point, but that he scrapped the idea because it was, quote "too complicated, taking place over may time periods and locations throughout the franchise's history".
But to me, that... only makes things more confusing, as Cassidy's perceived story in the games was.. rather simple. She is a girl who gets killed by William early on, and she only really does anything besides cameos as Golden freddy when William gets burned in UCN.
So, what did Cassidy do in the lore that was too long and complicated to portray in a movie? Was it a movie about Golden Freddy, and the entire fnaf sage from his point of view?
Bit.. if it was... then why didn't Scott say that it was a Golden Freddy movie?
he had no problem saying that other screenplays were about the puppet and the funtimes, so he wasn't afraid of letting people down with his scrapped ideas
And on top of THAT, when this screenplay idea was revealed, the community wasn't even sure if a character named Cassidy was even CANON, much LESS that she was the Vengeful spirit we saw in UCN. So to me... this is only further evidence that we've probably been mistaken about Cassidy's role and character... since the beginning
And.. Honestly, as much as I hated the idea of Cassidy not being the vengeful spirit, I really wanted to leave my theory there. I had all the evidence against Cassidy right in front of me, and.. I had even managed to find some more evidence on my OWN.. But.. there were some major details in the games and books… I just couldn’t reconcile with myself..
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-EVIDENCE AGAINST THIS THEORY:
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• If The vengeful spirit is male, then why would he be portrayed as a princess in Princess quest? Is that supposed to be Vanessa? If it is, then why does her story in those minigames mirror the vengeful spirit so perfectly?
• If andrew is canon to the game universe, then why is Jake from the real jake an OBVIOUS crying child parallel? (list similarities between the Crying Child and Jake that Matpat mentioned in his “reddit solved Golden Freddy” theory)
• Why does Andrew wear an Alligator mask? We all though that that was a reference to Happiest day, but the Ultimate guide strongly implies that the one we see in that minigame, is actually just a happy frog mask.
• Is it that SOME aspects of the frights series are identical to their variants in games, while other are fictionalized? Kinda like how Willaim and the fnaf 6 fire were identical between the frights books and the game canon, but but aspects like Elanor were not (at least we hope..). Or how springtrap and fazbear frights are almost identical to their game counterparts in fnaf 3 in the story “what we found” but the protagonist and corpse inside springtrap are completely different? Does this mean that likewise, Andrew is exactly the same between the book and game canons, but Even is replaced by a completely different kid named Jake in Fazbear frights?

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In my second to last theory, I stated that, based on the evidence from the latest books, that I think ALL of Tales from the Pizzaplex is canon to the game canon (which is terrible), and that it seems like at least SOME of Fazbear Frights is too (although “some” is already too much”) However, for now I’m gonna be optimistic until we get out smoking gun for or against that theory and say that the Frights series is probably just loosely related to the game canon. Probably being fictionalized stories based on real events in the fnaf canon, like the fnaf games we see in help wanted that were made by steve, a guy who didn’t even really know much about Freddy Fazbears Pizza. So, maybe the Stichwraith stories are canonically just embellishments of the Golden Freddy story. Maybe Andrew was real, but they turned the crying child into jake and put them both in the crazy contraption that is the stitchwraith just to make the story more interesting.
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But then… even if my “solution” for the last problem is true, there is still one more big problem here…
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In Fnaf 6 and the ultimate guide, the controversial theory of Molten MCI is all but confirmed. Where the classic animatronics from Fnaf 1 were melted down and their remnant injected into Funtime freddy.
Silly, but not a problem with this theory right? However, the problem is that, the ultimate guide and Candy cadets stories say that FIVE animatronics were melted down into the one that became Funtime Freddy. So, that would leave us Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and… Golden Freddy…
And.. we more evidence for this in fnaf 3, where there are FIVE ghosts in the follow me minigame, despite only four animatronics being visibly destroyed. And in UCN, we get this line from Orvil the Elephant:
"He tried to release you, he tried to release us, but I won't let that happen, I will keep you here, I will hold you here, no matter how many times they burn us."
And.. that’s important.. Because that implies that the vengeful spirit is actively burning in the fnaf 6 fire as WELL. And, who else could the spirit be in but inside Molten Freddy?
So, if Cassidy is a MCI kid, and Andrew is the Vengeful spirit inside Golden Freddy.. Then just where the heck is Cassidy in Follow me? Is she just off hanging out in the back with the crying child while all her friends deal with William or something? Wait a second, if there are two souls in Golden Freddy, then why ISN’t The crying child there? I get that he would be sympathetic to his dad, but if so, then why would he just let the other spirits torment his dad? Gosh that incredible set of minigames has been retconned to mush-
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Now, as… regretful as I am to say it… there is SOME minor evidence for a “three spirit” golden Freddy, because in the stitchwraith stingers, it is shown that there is yet a THIRD presence inside the stitchwraith with Jake and Andrew. And.. whether this is Willaim Afton fused to Andrew’s soul, or eleanor causing more mischief again… isn’t EXACTLY clear… But regardless.. Any way you look at it, the stitchwraith has THREE spirits inside it… But.. even then, the “Cassidy isn’t affiliated with fnaf 4” message in SB would SEEM to contradict that, but… It’s at least a vague (but awful) possibility..
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And honestly… the biggest problem we have here is that, with the way the modern fnaf lore has degraded, we can no longer judge theories on whether or not they make sense, or how well they fit the overall story. You know what? It DOESN’t make any sense for Andrew to be the Vengeful spirit, heck, it doesn’t even make sense for him to be in the game canon at all, he should just be a cassidy parallel just like Jake is a crying child parallel. But yet… We keep getting more evidence that Cassidy isn’t who we thought she was.. And, at current, no one else remotely fits the bill except Andrew. The unfortunate truth is, that ever since Help Wanted came out, we’ve been shown time and time again NOT to expect fnaf’s writing to be good, but rather, for it to really be BAD . And, as awful as making a random book character canon and having such a seemly important and well liked character such as cassidy thrown to the wayside and made pointless is,if one is to read just how poor the writing is in The Tales Books and SB timeline.. This.. just seems like a normal thing that Scott would do at this point…
Back in the early days of fnaf, reason... was one of the few things had to decipher the lore. Back then, with so little and such vague pieces, you kinda just had to do the most reasonable conjecture and run with that. And thankfully, we almost always got it right (show Scott fnaf 4 quote "it seems there was nothing I could hide!). Nowadays, however, the fnaf story has become more and more unglued. Now, we mostly have to throw reason to the side and see just see what absurd explanation from the books we can try and use to fill in each gap. Things have gotten SO crazy, in fact, that over the course of two out of nine games, fnaf went from a series legendary for its lore, to one that is infamous for it
Honestly I’m 40-60 on the whole thing…. Ok, more like 30-70. I think that Cassidy makes complete sense as the Vengeful spirit inside of Golden Freddy… but the ONLY concrete connection she has to ANY of those roles is the fact that she’s seems to be communicating with the crying child in the Logbook. And now that SB is hammering in that we got something majorly wrong about Cassidy and her role means that at least SOMETHING about our interpretation of her has to give..
And on the other hand, Andrew fits the bill of the Vengeful spirit even better than Cassidy does. We know he’s a boy, he has a direct connection to Golden Freddy, is murdered by William, and keeps him alive in a perpetual state of nightmares after the fnaf 6 fire. And unlike Cassidy, where all these things are conjecture, they are indisputable fact with Andrew. Andrew.. Makes for a better Cassidy, then Cassidy. Not only that, but he also would be a sixth kid, which would line up with the number of bodies we see in the 1985 location in into the pit, and he also just aligns far better as a parallel to Micheal Brooks, a sixth kid killed separately by william and stuffed into the Golden Freddy suit in the 1985 location in the Novel trilogy.
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• But, even with all of THAT going for him, there are some major factors that just make no sense with Andrew. Andrew is in the book canon, in a story that’s just as much alternate-universe take or parallel as it is a depiction of the game canon
• In Princess quest, we pl one who is going through the story of the vengeful spirit is female, a Golden female, no less.
• And lastly, if Andrew is inside of golden freddy, then why isn’t HE the one talking to the crying child in the logbook? Why is it Cassidy? What role would Cassidy even have in the story anyways if she isn’t the vengeful spirit?
• ​

And.. worst of all I think… how do we know if any of the previous contradictions to Andrew have any good explanations.. Or they just bad writing? And ditto with the contradictions to Cassidy?
So again, right now I am.. Only a bit more certain about Andrew being the vengeful spirit in the games then I am Cassidy.
Andrew has the most direct evidence.. But makes the least sense. Cassidy Makes the most sense… but has the least direct evidence..
And again, my biggest fear here is that now that sense has been thrown out the window in the modern fnaf timeline, is that “sense” may not be justifiable evidence in any of these theories anymore.
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Anyways, this is shycrow, signing off

My sweet sweet dog lost the battle to cancer last week. We had to euthanize her on Thursday and I'm absolutely devastated. I'm starting week 4 post op today; she had surgery 4 days before I got my RNY to remove a tumor and we were recovering together. I feel like part of me died with her.
That being said, I'm grateful I have this tool to process things in a better way than I would have. If I hadn't had this procedure done, I would have turned to comfort food, relapsed on smoking, and getting black-out drunk. Instead, I've been going on walks and crying a lot; I've allowed myself to feel everything without any filters. It's painful, but it's a thing I have to do to actually get better and not just throw this at the corner of my brain.
I'm a bit frustrated with my body, though. We decided to build my baby a little garden this Sunday. After removing shrubs and working on the flowers, I almost fainted twice. My brother (who is a doctor) says its because right now the amount of food I'm eating amd what my body is burning covers the basics for living, breathing, and moving around, not strenuous physical activity. It makes sense, but I feel like a failure. I couldn't even take proper care of my dog on her last days because I couldn't lift her up or play around with her because of nausea and exhaustion. Now that she's gone I can't even give her a proper memorial.
I'll be moving within two/three weeks to a place that doesn't remind me of her absence every day, but now I fear I may collapse while painting or moving things around and I really need to get out of here. It's too painful.

Well, I've been sitting on this for a bit now, so thank you to u/cmdr_shadowstalker, u/BruhMomentGEE, and u/Kazevenikov for their editing help. I know these past few chapters have been heavy, but they are crucial to the long road ahead. Life truly is the journey for we all know our eventual destination. Without any further ado, the newest chapter.
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FIRST ---- PREVIOUS ---- [NEXT]
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Sera sighed as she looked up at the ceiling. It had been almost a week since Cain had left and she could feel his absence taking its toll. She had sometimes woken up, eager to make him breakfast, only to be greeted by silence as she tore the blankets off. Allison had come by a couple days ago for a movie night, but she had left early as her posting was being moved around and she was being called back to help train new Marines, on Earth this time.
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So…here she was, staring up at the ceiling thinking about Cain. Sera had thought that the time would fly and she would get a message from him on a courier ship but…nothing.
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The beeping of her omnipad shook her out of her funk a bit, the digital bell grating a bit to her more sensitive ears.
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“Hello?” Sera asked, her voice tired.
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“Hey girl! How’s it going?” the enthusiastic voice of Meli said from the other end of the line. Sera sighed as her more upbeat tone gave her something to focus on.
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Sera sighed as she deflated a bit on the bed. “Fine. Just…great.”
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She could hear Meli frowning from the other end of the line.
“Sera…you don’t sound fine. You can tell me girl, it’s okay. You and Cain only recently made up and…well, it got bad between you two if I remember what Allison told me. I could come over if you want,” Meli offered, her tone becoming gentler and more caring.
Sera shook her head and curled up on her side, boring imaginary holes into the drywall opposite her. Wanting nothing more than to just not talk about those awful two weeks. “N-no. It’s fine. I just…it’s a bit of a funk, okay? I’m fine Meli, truly I am,” she warbled, the memories of all the restless nights and painful memories beginning to well again.
“I’m not convinced Sera. You sound hurt. I’ll be over as soon as I can, and I may have a surprise for the three of us. See you in a bit!” Meli chirped before ending the call.
“I-wait! Meli? Meli? Damnit!” Sera cursed, her brief outburst leading her deflate more and more. She sighed as she thought about the brief things that had flashed in her mind. How Meli should have left her alone, how she still needed Cain-
The thought hit like a freight train, waves of sorrow crashing over her like a grotesque wave as she thought back to the things she had called Cain. How she had lashed out at him, driving him away when they needed each other the most. Sera felt herself grow weak at how she nearly tore herself apart in front of him, content to destroy the life they had built together.
She didn’t even care that she was still naked, the sheet offering little to nothing in terms or protection against the cold air of the AC. Sera shivered as the malaise took over, her bed now offering only cold comfort instead of the warmth of her fiancé by her side. She sniffled as another synthetic ping echoed from her omnipad, reluctantly rolling over to look at the message.
>Allison: Sent: 2:12 PM
Sera wanted to sink into the bed at Allison’s message, wanting to just be alone. A part of her scolded her for closing herself off, inwardly saying that she needed Allison and Meli now more than ever. But deep down another, more primal part of her kept her closed off and isolated. She had failed as a woman, to protect her man, from her own choices to boot. She deserved this.
Sera could feel the tears well up again as someone knocked on the door. Sniffling, she stumbled out of bed and navigated through the tight hallway. She coughed from a bit of spit going the wrong way and finally landed at the door, steeling herself before twisting the knob and opening up.
“Hey, did you get my mess-?” Allison began, stopping and fumbling a bit as Sera propped herself up in the doorway, her body in the nude.
“I…what is it?” Sera asked, her tone sad, almost defeated.
Allison swallowed. “Uh, well, you’re naked.”
“Huh? Oh, I didn’t notice,” Sera sighed about to close the door again. Allison reacted quickly and stopped Sera from shutting herself off again, the amazonian hybrid slipping inside.
“Hey, c’mon Sera, this isn’t you. Why don’t we go out for lunch? You look like you could use something to eat,” Allison tried, pointing to where Sera had slacked, her once fit yet plump body now looking more like the fresh recruits Allison saw at the newly established garrisons around the state.
“So? Does it matter?” Sera groaned, shuffling her way back to the bedroom, Allison following close behind.
“Yes, it absolutely does! Sera, Cain wouldn’t want this for you. Just, please, reach out. I’m here for you,” Allison sighed, Sera ignoring her.
“Y’know what, I don’t care. You and I are going to lunch whether you like it or not.”
Sera slowly turned to face Allison, her face a mask of sadness. “I…I just want to be alone.”
“No. This…you are not going to become one of those sob stories they write about on the datanet. Here, let me pick something out for you,” Allison asserted, striding over to the rather small walk-in closet and pulling aside some of the garments from the bar.
“Hmm, what about this?” Allison said, emerging after a few minutes of digging, a yellow sundress in her hands.
“That was Cain’s favorite. He always said I looked so nice in it,” Sera deadpanned, flopping onto the bed, spread-eagle and mumbling into the mattress.
“Sera, you know he will be back. It’s required that he at least-”
“And if he doesn’t? What if he never comes back, Ali? What if he just used this as an excuse to dump me?” Sera mumbled, her words unclouded after rolling over to stare at the ceiling again.
“Would he have given you so much grief about you tearing into yourself if he was just going to leave you? Would he have been so adamant about taking his engagement band with him if he was just going to dump you? Sera…Cain loves you. He is strong in his own way. Now, it’s your turn,” Allison huffed, hanging the sundress on an open spot on the rack that hung over the bedroom door.
“But…but..” Sera sputtered, the cold beginning to nip at her thoughts again, her body shivering from a lack of clothes.
“No buts Sera. Now, what do you think of this little number?” Allson smiled, showing off a rather nice looking mauve blouse, the shirt looking much more form fitting than the dress.
Sera slowly propped herself on her elbows to look at the piece and sighed. “Cain…I…can we try something else? I…I don’t want to wear Cain’s color.”
Allison raised an eyebrow at the statement but put her thoughts about on the side for now. After a little more digging she found a sea foam green blouse, complete with a sea turtle on the front.
"I think this one looks cute. Where did you get it?"
Sera sighed as another cold blast of air hit her exposed body, not wanting to do anything but sink into the mattress. "Cain…got it for me at the aquarium. He…looked so nice that day…"
"C'mon Sera, please? Can…can you just try it on?" Allison weakly smiled, offering the shirt to Sera. The Nighkru sighed as she sat up, taking the shirt and putting it on grumpily.
"There, happy now?" Sera bit back, her tone rather icy and pointed. Allison didn't let it worry her.
"Hmm, yeah. Though…you should wear a bra…and, well…finish getting dressed. I'll go start the truck," Allison chirped, Sera looking down at the brown shag carpet of the bedroom.
"Bu-but he's…"
"Sera, I swear, if you don't get dressed, I will tickle you until you pass out again," Allison threatened, eyeing Sera as the Nighkru's eyes went wide with fear.
"You wouldn't dare-"
Allison giggled. "Course I would. Now, get dressed. At least do it for me, okay?"
Sera finally relented and slid off the bed, slowly resigning herself to the idea of leaving the house. She dug through her drawers, the pieces of furniture dangerously close to being empty, the small mountain of discarded clothes a testament to Sera’s attitude for the past week or so. It loomed in the corner of the room like a specter, the smell sharp and acute of tears and sweat. Sera tried to ignore the increasing scent but she wrinkled her nose out of reflex and got a full whiff of her laundry. Sera sighed at her neglected laundry pile, the stench becoming more acute.
She reached for the bottle of air freshener and squeezed the trigger, the aerosol mist releasing a pleasant smell of fresh sheets and sunshine. Sera couldn’t help but smile a bit at the memories the smell invoked, reminding her of when she washed clothes with Cain at his uncle’s, the wash drying for hours in the hot South Texas sun, the smell of wildflowers on the breeze as her and Cain shared a few cans of beer on the back porch. While the pool was still absolutely infested with algae, Sera did smirk a bit as she remembered chasing him around with a hose, squealing like a little kid when she managed to spray him down in the icy mist of the hose.
Sera smiled for a moment more than felt herself hollow out again. The memories were pleasant, but without Cain…it felt like she was missing a piece of her. However, she couldn’t dwell on the past forever and Cain would be back. An awful thought always scraped at the back of her head though. What if…what if he brought someone else home? What if she wasn’t the first anymore?
Cain…he wouldn’t…he never would. He…he didn’t even pursue Allison. Why do I think he would do that to me?
She mulled the thought over as she slid one of the last few pairs of underwear on, a rather skimpy black number she had bought for one of her date nights. She rolled her eyes at the irony of the garment now, but only just. Her only remaining bra followed, one of the tighter fitting ones as she struggled to squeeze into it, the straps loosening just enough to support her assets. She shook her head as she looked at herself in the mirror, her once toned yet supple arms now more spindly and Sera swore she could see a few veins showing through her skin. Speaking of, her skin was no longer uniform in color, with several dark bruises in her arms and core from when she ran into things around the house, whether it be the countertop or the massive oaken desk with their newly installed computer.
Her muscles were less defined than before, and Sera wanted to sob as she saw the now emerging gut where lean and trim abs used to be, the weight of her letting herself go on full display. She shook the thought off though, hardening her resolve as she slipped the aquarium shirt on, the garment loose in all the right places. Sera then opened the closet once more and dug around for her favorite pair of jeans…only to find her back up pairs and the pair she bought tight out of basic at a ridiculous markup since some trader had “exclusive access” to Earth. They weren’t even real blue jeans, probably some mystery fabric spit out by a fabricator, one way too rough to be denim and almost midnight black. Sera rolled her eyes at the ridiculous bottoms, pinning the idea to just give them away as a pair of women’s dress pants or the like. But that was for later.
It took a bit tucking and wiggling into but Sera managed to slide on a pair of her backup jeans, her butt looking absolutely enormous as the fabric clung to her behind. Sera shook her head as she walked out of the closet, the jeans still a bit too tight in the thighs for her liking. She did however love the deep pockets on the pants, having ample room for her credit chit, wallet, keys and QualQuartz dataslate that Meli had gotten her for Christmas.
Sera took a look back at the disheveled room, her things strewn all over the place. Some of the pillows on the bed had a mix of dried tears and alcohol, the sheets stained and dirty after her outpourings of grief. She sighed at the sorry state of the room, the mental fog thick at times, overwhelming at others. She took a deep breath as she felt for the light switch from her, letting as much of the pain flow out of her. She counted to ten after every breath, slowly calming down, and when she was ready, she turned out the light to the bedroom, the mess shrouded under a thick mist of darkness.
Sera patted down her pockets one last time while she made her way through the hallway, confident she had all her things. As she rounded the corner into the living room, Sera briefly considered grabbing her purse, but, after a bit of internal deliberation, decided against it. She had enough with her wallet and chits as it was, so bringing the bag would be unnecessary.
She took a long, sweeping look at the small living space, the place nearly untouched ever since Cain left. She was about to shed a tear when Allison honked from outside, the blare of the horn startling her out of her thoughts. Annoyed for a split second by the reminder, Sera huffed and made her way outside, closing and locking the door. The hallway was spotless, and she could hear the sounds of construction echoing from other parts of the complex as the new Shil’vati owner renovated the property. The minor Noble who now owned the land needed an outlet for a recent glut of wealth, and with popular opinion falling with some of her other…choice assets, the family had chosen to go on a renovation spree. Soon Sera would have to start packing things to move into an empty unit in order for the construction crew to bring the block up to code and make it more open and furnished. It also helped that the old mall attached to the front side of the complex got bought out as well, the same family hiring multiple firms to liven up the old, nearly abandoned place.
But none of that was Sera's business. For now, all she had to do was take things one step at a time. She stepped out of the hallway, Allison already drumming her fingers on the steering wheel of her truck, the vehicle oversized for Sera but perfectly sized for Allison. She thanked the goddess that the runner was low enough for her to climb in, Sera feeling like a teenager again as she flopped down into the seat.
"So, any place in mind?" Allison asked, smiling down at her.
"Uh…hmm…how does Chili's sound?" Sera offered, a shy smile spreading across her face..
Allison rubbed her shoulder, firing up the engine. She tuned the radio to an old country station, checking the backup camera as she hummed along to the nearly ancient songs.
Sera couldn't help but smile, her prospective girlfriend giving off some of the same energy Cain would have if he had arranged a date for just Sera and him.
​
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​
"So…any idea of what you want for lunch?" Allison asked as the two of them slid into a booth, the Human server quickly bustling off to get their drinks. Sera was going to be going light, maybe a single margarita and some water. She didn’t want to overdo it today. Allison had settled on a craft beer of some kind that Sera didn’t recognize, Allison saying that it was rather good. Sera chose not to comment, her past few weeks had been filled with too much beer already, so just the one drink felt better.
Besides, I need to start weaning off the booze anyways. I have to go back to work at some point. And classes. Sera thought to herself, sighing as Allison looked over the menu. Her electric blue eyes peeked over the top edge of the laminated paper, much more alert than before.
“Sera? He-llo, Earth to Sera?” Allison asked, lowering the menu a bit, her expression more concerned than before.
Sera blinked a few times and let a small, nervous laugh escape. “Y-yeah, just…just thinking about some things.”
“Mmm. So…you wanna talk about it?” Allison asked, her concerned expression dissipating as her normal happier demeanor reappeared.
Sera tried to not giggle a bit, Allison being very easy on the eyes, almost like she had some of the more brutish features of a Shil’vati toned down a bit. “Ah, not really. It’s mostly about work or not drinking too much,” She admitted, blushing a bit as Allison nodded her head in acknowledgement.
“I get that. I have a pretty good counselor at my disposal if you want to talk to someone other than myself,” Allison smiled contentedly. The light of the midday winter sun gave ample light and Sera swore she caught the light hitting at certain angles; Allison’s eyes sparkled, the electric blue of her eyes making it clear she had implants of some kind.
Allison looked up and past Sera, a massive smile growing across her face. “Meli, so good to see you again!”
Sera nearly choked on a stray glob of spit, the Rakiri looking down at her old friend. “Allison invited me, Sera. Sorry to crash your date.”
Meli slid in beside Allison, the Shil’vati handing her the menu so she could look over it. “I…date? Allison…is this what this is? Why didn’t you just tell me?” Sera sputtered, Allison flushing blue at the observation.
“I uh…well…” the Shil’vati sputtered while Sera set down her menu and clasped Allison’s somewhat larger hands. She choked up a bit as Sera rubbed them gently, a deeply hidden smile crossing her features.
“Thank you Allison,” Sera sighed happily, breaking off the connection and pulling back; setting her menu aside, already decided on what she wanted.
“Welcome to Chili’s, my name is Bella and I’ll be helping you today. Can I get you started with any appetizers?” a cheery feminine voice asked from beside her. Sera looked towards the source of the voice, only to be confused at the dusky yellow alien that stood with an apron and notepad next to their table. She looked near Human, the only noticeable differences being of course the color of her complexion and what seemed to be very, *very* fine interlocking scales, her skin looking more beaded than scaly, but very smooth and polished. Almost like a dragon’s scales from old Human myths. Her hair was also stark black, and she had long, almost talon-like fingernails, painted a lovely shade of white.
“Uh…yeah. Can we get a Tripler Dipper and a Skillet Queso?” Allison asked, the waitress jotting it down almost like she was being timed.
“Alright, one Triple Dipper and a Skillet Queso. Is there anything I can get for you three while you wait? Refills, another beer perhaps?” the waitress asked, waiting expectantly. Sera was thrown off a bit by her sudden rush to get things out to them, the establishment nearly dead this time of day.
“Can I get a Dr. Pepper please?” Meli asked, the server nodding and noting it down in a flash.
“Of course!” Turning her attention to Sera, Bella asked, “Anything I can do for you ma’am?”
She gulped as Bella lowered her gaze to her, her eyes glinting and seemingly predatory. “I, uh…can I get some water?”
“One water. Got it. Do you three need some more time on what you would like to order?” Bella asked, addressing the three women.
“Yes please. Oh, and can we get chips and salsa too?” Meli replied, shooting a smile over to Sera.
“Sure thing! Those appetizers will be out in a few. Let me just run these to the kitchen and we’ll get you helped,” Bella confirmed, nodding before striding off to the kitchen, pad in hand.
“She seems nice,” Meli idly noted, seemingly glued to the page with the ribs being advertised on.
“Meli…tell me, why are you here?” Sera asked, trying to not sound offensive to her long time friend. Meli simply looked over the edge of the menu while Allison began to idly check the matching QualQuartz dataslate she had.
“Well, aside from seeing you? Brel wanted to surprise Junior with a surprise hunting trip up at Choke Canyon. Nothing too fancy, but his birthday is coming up soon. Brel really wants to take him up to the Maritimes, meet a few old friends and fish. Course, he wanted me to go, but after Cain left he ordered me to stay. Believe you me I tried to argue back, but he wouldn’t have it. But, my sister is planning to meet them there once they cross the border. Now, enough about me. How have you been?” Meli said, eyeing Sera. Allison coughed a bit, trying to look anywhere else besides the awkward conversation.
Sera sighed. She had to face this sooner or later, though a part of her desperately wanted to delay the inevitable. It wouldn’t help in the long term but…Sera steeled herself and took a deep breath.
“It’s been bad. I’ve lost sleep, I was drinking heavily, and I didn’t want to eat. Allison was the only one keeping me together, and even then only just as I felt at times that I wanted to waste away. Part of me wanted to deny Cain to anyone. If they took him away, then so did I. Looking at it now, it’s stupid and foolish. I was hurting no one but myself and Cain, and the feelings still come back from time to time. Sometimes it’s hard getting up in the morning, knowing he’s not there. That the man of the nest has been taken from you,” Sera sighed, a frown dominating her face.
“Well, we are here for you. You don’t have to hide away from us Sera. We care about Cain as much as you do. We’ll make it through together, okay?” Meli admitted, the wolf woman offering a look of shared understanding, Allison still engrossed by her dataslate.
“Thank you Meli. Allison?”
Allison looked up quickly, shutting the screen of her dataslate off, quickly stashing the device in her pocket. “M-yeah?” she stammered out, her face flushing blue as she tried to not look embarrassed.
“Thank you for inviting Meli. I…I needed this. Now, what are you feeling like, *girlfriend*~” Sera smoldered, giggling a bit at the cheesy pick up line. Allison rolled her eyes.
“Come on, you have to admit, we do make a cute couple Allison. Plus…I’ve seen how Cain looks at you sometimes. Once he gets back…I think we can seal the deal. If you want to, that is,” Sera offered, taking a sip of her margarita.
“I…I’d like that.”
​
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​
Missive from Alliance Special Intelligence Agent Bella Brus follows:
Ma’am the current operation in the Coastal Plains region of the state has borne much fruit. We have several junior agents working key Humans and Imperial officials, and my own operation still remains undetected. As of now, thirty Hyperion assets have been identified. All look Shil’vati on the surface but have tell-tale markers of blended genetics. Smaller tusks, more refined features, non-natural eye colors. You and the Council were correct, Hyperion is making strides never before seen. I will continue to work my current target; she seems especially pliable after an unrelated event. My plans and contingencies will be updated and sent to Command.
As a side note, my…partner has uncovered a dirty Interior agent. He has pried a decent amount of information from her through a combination of conventional and unexpected means. I am requesting permission to factor this angle into my current outlook.
-Agent Brus
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MISSIVE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PROJECT HYPERION FOLLOWS
HANDLER N’KET, YOUR PRESENCE IS BEING REQUESTED AT OUR FORWARD OPERATING BASE. GENERAL LANKET HAS FULL AUTHORIZATION TO CONDUCT OUR FINAL STRIKE ON GOVERNESS BOUDRA. HAVE YOUR GEAR PREPARED BY THIS FRIDAY.
MAY THE GODDESS BLESS US.
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