Nc lottery scratch offs

Who is that visitor? I think we all know. So, instead of moving time around for the sake of the narrative, a trope we might be using a bit too much but have no intention of stopping before we're through, we're going to just pause a moment as we allow the players to take their marks. Everyone ready? Let's rejoin the scenario proper.
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“Amelia!” Gerard exclaims, interrupting the presumed conversation as he reaches for her.
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“Father!” Emilia returns as she jumps up and lets the body fall to the floor while embracing her sire.
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“My daughter, I was so worried. You mustn‘t…” Gerard’s words trail off, as he catches sight of the corpse that is now standing. “What, what…”
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“Father,” Amelia begins as she breaks of his embrace. “This is Mary Anne. She may or may not be the mother of the man on the floor.”
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It’s a little hard to take in, but Gerard does his utmost. “I see,” he starts as though there is nothing strange about a walking corpse and eyes the anomaly. “And what exactly transpired here? And is the man dead?”
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“Well, he’s not dead,” Amelia endeavors to explain as she refocuses on her parent. “At least I don’t think he is. There was another man who may, or may not have been, her husband. He banished that man’s soul to Tartarus.”
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“Where?” Gerard queries as a confused look crosses his face.
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“Tartarus. He said it was a place of eternal torment,” Amelia continues before turning serious. “Father, I don’t know why, but I believe my destiny and this man’s are intertwined. So, I need to help him. I have to go to Tartarus.” She thinks a moment. “Do you know where that is?”
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“Tartarus? No. I don’t believe I do,” Gerard informs her, before turning to the crowd outside. “Does anyone know where a place called Tartarus is?”
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No one knows.
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“I’m sorry my dear,” Gerard addresses his daughter as he turns back around. “It seems no one knows where this Tartarus is.”
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Just then the two princesses enter.
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“Cassandra! Erica!” Amelia exclaims as she embraces her sisters.
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“You have a lot of explaining to do,” the green knight admonishes her sibling and puts her to arms length.
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Amelia’s head droops.
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Cassandra raises it. “It’s okay,” she assures her and gives a warm smile. “You just take your time and tell us, when you’re ready.
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Amelia brings them up to speed. Both are shocked.
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“Now, it's time we depart for the castle,” Gerard breaks in and puts a hand on Amelia's shoulder. “There is someone there who needs to talk to you.”
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“Can we bring these two along?” Amelia asks, indicating the lifeless man and the reanimated corpse.
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“Of course my dear,” Gerard speaks before turning to his soldiers. “I need two men and a stretcher.”
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The soldiers carry out the command, putting together a makeshift stretcher, made of two long, sturdy, smoothed branches for handles and several shirts for the bed.
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The sun is hanging low, casting long shadows, when the entire group departs. Since there's no need for the king to take point at this he surrenders the position while he and his daughters take to the middle for security sake, much to the relief of his personal guard. All stop dead, when they hear a blood curdling scream.
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It’s Mary Anne. She has just stepped out into the light, ignorant of the pain the sunlight would inflict upon her body. It feels as though her entire body has been thrown into a fire. She curls her body into a ball as the agony radiates to her very core and her limbs twitch from the degree of the suffering that builds all the more.
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The intensity drops dramatically once a cloak is wrapped around her fragile frame. The corpse looks to her rescuer, a simple soldier who gives a nod. She then checks on herself and is surprised to find not a single scratch or burn on her pale skin. All is now well once again so the march resumes in earnest, through the dense forest and back to the castle grounds.

Right AirPod randomly starts buzzing at times ant wont stop until put back in case for a few minutes. Usually triggered when nc is activated but not necessary. Well taken care off, clean, no warranty bought in summer 2021. Any ideas, or similar circumstances? Also do you think this could be covered in the AirPods Pro replacement program I keep hearing about?

I know this isn't really something the players should be concerned about, but I am continually thinking about how weak this game's monetisation strategies are.
In the past few years, there has been so little in the way of monetisation for the game. Escalation, the game's biggest ever update and player spike (a record it will likely keep until the game dies) included LITERALLY ZERO MONETISATION. Not a single cosmetic item or new system to spend money on.
And the trend has scarcely improved since then. There have still only been a relatively minor number of cosmetics, and many of them are often confusingly targeted. Why was the NS-7 PDW targetted for a full (and admitedly very sexy) remodel, while some of the most used guns in the game only got a simple camo variant?
There's also the pricing sometimes. Why is the most recent St. Patrick's Day bundle FORTY DOLLARS? It contains a camo, a decal, and one LMG for each empire. A simple reskin of each LMG too, not even a remodel. Take a look at the PlanetSide Legacy bundle, for comparison. It contained three remodels, with unique sounds and attachments, it contained a profile frame and banner, three Perfect implants, a title, a drop pod remodel, and a 6 month boost. For the same price.
There's also a marked reduction in events and FOMO that help drive impulse purchases. What happened to the 30 days of Auraximas? Why are all Anniversary bundles (10-year aside) available all-year-round? Could we not have a better version of the sales system? I do personally really like what games like League of Legends do, where rather than having singular daily sales you instead get several items on sale at once that rotate on a bi-weekly basis.
Why are there so little standalone cosmetics nowadays? Was there no interest inside RPG in expanding the coloured laser sights to all weapons? Especially now that the Advanced Laser Sight model is unused. What about producing some cosmetic variants of other attachments, like a cosmetic variant of the Darklight Flashlight, or the Suppressor, or the Forward Grip, that are DBC only? Optics from other weapons series available on normal weapons for DBC only (eg. Doku weapon sights on old weapons)? New optics entirely for DBC only?
Fully-loaded bundles for old weapons? They were first introduced with the NSX weapons, but they're entirely unused for older guns. The entire NSO arsenal got it, but then that's the arsenal least likely to get bought (because it's horribly balanced). What about the pre-NSX TR, NC, and VS guns? Why not tie the Weapon Trials system into it, and allow people to buy a weapon's fully-loaded bundle at a small discount after trialing a weapon? Why not also promote the trial system more in the store or elsewhere?
Can missions not be pushed harder? Many players utterly forget they even exist, let alone that members get a bonus to them. No on-login prompts (that can be turned off) possible? Or a UI element directing you to the Missions tab?
Why do we not receive more weapon remodels like the Apex ones? They were stellar, and made the guns they were on feel SO much better. But they're on relatively low-demand guns. Why not on the TAR, H-V45, and the GR-22 or Carnage AR? Why not on the MSW-R, LA1 AnchoGD-22S, and Orion?
I could keep going on... but I do feel that this game's monetisation continues to be weak. Are we just relying on construction players to whale out for everything? I used to spend tons of money. I've scarcely bought anything in the past couple of years past membership, though.

This story goes a little ways back, but I'm gonna try to explain everything. I met my JNMIL after three months of my SO, and I was dating. From the moment we met, she wouldn't talk to me and expected me to talk to her, and when I did, she would ignore me, give me one-word answers, or roll her eyes at me. I just let it slide because I really wanted to try to have a good relationship with my possible future in-laws. Every time I was around her, she would always ask about my SO's finances, and then she would ask about mine, then proceed to tell us how they suck, but she would never do the slightest thing to help us. Yet whenever she needed anything, we would run to the grocery store and buy her what she needed out of our pockets. She has treated my SO--her son--like absolute garbage since I've known him, and he constantly seeks validation.
They are in extreme debt--this is important; I promise I'm not just being a bitch. She got upset when my car took a dump, so my fiance, a mechanic, took it to her house to fix it because they have a big driveway. And he did get permission from his stepdad. My car might not be the nicest car ever, but I worked extremely hard to afford the car that I have. She proceeded to tell me that if I don't move my "disgusting car," she would get the "piece of shit towed." She has also told me she prefers his exes and friends over me and has openly admitted to thing me because she's jealous of me.
I have also always been there for my fiance's sisters. I would help the older sister with her issues with her deadbeat father, and I would literally be her therapist; I was there for her when no one else was. I would pick his youngest sister up from school so she would have to ride the bus because she didn't want to and her mom wouldn't pick her up. I would go get our nails done together, and I'd take her shopping, and I'd go take her on little food or coffee dates because her mom or sister never wanted to do any of that.
On his birthday, we did something for lunch that day, but his family was hosting a big dinner later that night, and I have IBS, and I had an episode later that day. So I, unfortunately, was not able to make it. His mom was asking him, "Where is your little girlfriend at?" He told her that I was having a flare-up, and she just kept saying, "Yeah, I bet. You wouldn't tell us the real reason anyways."
Here's where I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or not: I found out that his mom and his oldest sister were talking about me behind my back to one of my best friends at this party. His sister kept leaning over, saying things to my best friend like, "I think it's a little pathetic that the bitch couldn't even come on his birthday just because they probably were fighting." And his mother said things to my best friend like, "That fucking bitch isn't gonna come anyways because she doesn't love my son," or "He's not gonna tell us that the real reason that that little bitch isn't coming is that she started a fight with him."
When I found this out, it broke my heart because I have been nothing but cordial and kind to their family. I confronted my SO about it, and he told his family off and disowned them. When he texted his sister, she said, "Maybe the bitch should get her facts straight. How am I supposed to know what shit I talked about her if I don't know who told her all of this? Sorry but I'm gonna need more information. Maybe you shouldn't let her influence what you think of me before you let her ruin our relationship, just like you let her do with you and mom. My SO told her that he chose to go NC with his mom because of relationship tensions between her and him and because of her actions towards us, and not because of me. He left her with this: "And, no, if you didn't wanna ruin our relationship, insert sister's name, maybe you should've thought about that before you started talking shit to my fiancee."
Because of this, I have decided that I am done trying to appease his family, and we have decided to move across the country to my home state. We're both devastated because our best friends are here, but I feel that this is the best option for both of us because we were both constantly harassed by his family. We're both nervous and excited for this new period in our lives, but also unsure what backlash we could possibly face from his family. Some advice on the situation would be so appreciated :)

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Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 4)
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The screams of monsters who unfortunately were no longer beyond my comprehension echoed through the eternal night. I looked up to see one of the nearby warped buildings buckling, as the familiar shape of the Crab Nightwalker hefted its weight on top of it.
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It looked considerably different from when I’d last seen it in Puriysk. It's now ill-fitting shell was adorned by glowing flowers, with red vines clinging to it like a sickness and hanging off of it like tendrils. In those tendrils, I could see screaming men, being pulled toward its maw. Pulsating flesh oozed out of the Crab's armor, as if it had overstuffed itself to the point where that armor could no longer contain it.
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I watched as the Crab began to pry into the building it stood on, and as its tendrils probed through the windows, dragging out screaming men who shot hopelessly at it as if they stood any chance of killing it.
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In the distance, I could see the beginnings of an orange glow as somewhere in Parsons a fire spread… not started by Nina this time. Progress? Looking down toward the street, past the out of place hardware store that Calhoun had escaped into, I could see various Nightwalkers fleeing for their lives, as their former brethren, newly marked by the Rosen Prince pursued them.
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It was like something out of a nightmare… impossible horror after impossible horror, melded together and left to tear at each other's throats. The hellish monsters I’d known all my life versus the oppressive militia who I’d long since learned to fear, while a floral parasite ran rampant through the streets, consuming them all. The fact that the backdrop to this madness was now the twisted result of intersecting one town on top of another seemed trivial compared to the insanity that dominated the streets.
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I turned, about to descend the stairs of the clock tower to throw myself back into the chaos when from the corner of my eye, I noticed Dom scrambling up the makeshift stairwell that Calhoun had formed out of the collapsed roof of the church. He had Gretchen slung over his shoulder, and Nina was coming up behind him. She hastily swapped out the magazine in her shotgun for a new one, before looking down frantically.
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I ran to the far side of the tower to help Dom and Gretchen up through the broken clock face. She went first, followed by him.
“What’s going on down there?” I asked.
“Good news, the Bat thing is dead. Bad news, the Rosen Prince got it.” Dom said, reaching back to pull Nina up behind him.
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Almost on cue, I heard yet another demonic screech from the hole in the church roof behind us and I saw another familiar face clawing its way up Calhoun’s makeshift stairwell.
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For the most part, it looked like the same Horned Nightwalker we saw in Calhoun’s courtyard although now I could see the glowing flowers of the Rosen Prince adorning its arms and shoulders. Its hands had changed too, with jutting blades now protruding from its wrist. Gretchen looked back at the Horned Nightwalker with a grimace, before giving a sweeping motion with her hand. As the Nightwalker reached the top of the makeshift stairwell, I saw it buckle, then collapse, sending the creature crashing back down to the ground floor along with a significant portion of the roof. I hoped that might keep it down for a while longer.
“Holy fucking shit, what the hell happened here?” Nina cried, looking out over Parsons.
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“The mist was already moving the town, I had to make do,” I said. “Don’t ask me how I did it, I don’t know! I don’t think any of the locals came through, though.”
Nina looked back at me, before shaking her head in exasperation.
“Well I hope to fuck they didn’t,” She said. “Cuz I do not have any kind of rescue plan.”
“What about Calhoun?” Dom asked.
“Wounded and on the run,” I said.
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“Well let’s track his ass down and get the fuck out of here,” Nina said. “How badly did you hurt him?”
“I shot him twice in the stomach and he fell out the window,” I said and pointed to the broken clock face. Nina looked at it again, before looking straight down.
“Christ… and he survived that?” She asked.
“Evidently… since this pocket reality is still holding together,” Gretchen said. She rubbed at the back of her neck, wincing in pain as she did.
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“How bad is it?” I asked.
“I’ll survive,” She said, “But let us deal with Calhoun first. If he is wise, he will recognize the futility of this engagement and seek to return to the Eldest. We cannot permit that to happen. Then he may be lost to us.”
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I stared out of the clock tower again, looking toward Calhoun’s House a short distance away.
“Can you get there alright?” I asked.
“I’ll manage,” She assured me, although before we could decide how to proceed, another inhuman scream echoed from the Church below.
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Nina screamed back at it in a condescending tone, then added: “Shut it, you vegetable fuck! We’re having a conversation!” As if in response to that, several crimson vines latched onto the sides of the hole in the roof, slithering outward to grab purchase onto the sides, before beginning to pull something up.
Gretchen sighed, rubbing at her temples and shaking her head.
“Why are you the way that you are?” Was all she asked.
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A massive claw appeared on the edge of the roof, as the Horned Nightwalker… or at least what it had become, attempted to climb its way out. Its hands had already changed into sickle like claws that reminded me of the Horselike Nightwalker I’d seen in Puriysk. Several spider like legs rose out of the hole in the roof, lifting the new creature out of the ruined church and onto the roof as it dragged itself toward us.
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“Such a bounty laid out before me!” The voice of the Rosen Prince snarled, “And I have you to thank, Gretchen Di Cesare! Yet, my hunger is not yet sated… for you have not yet joined with me, child!”
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Nina readied her shotgun, firing into the new creature's face. Batlike wings unfurled from its back, closing around its body and taking the brunt of the fire.
“I grow ever stronger, from the wonderful creatures I have dined on. They offer me little in knowledge, but much in strength!”
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As The Rosen Prince advanced on us, I noticed something else from the corner of my eye. The Crab Nightwalker was drawing closer to us as well. I know that Gretchen saw it too. Nina stopped shooting while shimmering blossoms with pale yellow eyes inside opened on the Prince’s wings as the fires quickly died down.
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“Ah… ironic, is it not? To find you now in the same position you were in when you invoked me here. Cornered… Helpless... Desperate…”
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Gritting her teeth, Gretchen gently pushed Nina aside, staring down the coming Prince.
“You presume far too much, my old friend…” She panted, before looking at us. “Grab something, hold it tight, and pray to whatever God may be listening.”
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With a wave of her hand, Gretchen brought down more of the roof beneath the Rosen Prince. It did little to slow it down, but it did enough. Gretchen turned, grabbing the metal frame of the turret clock and letting out a cry of exertion.
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I felt the ground move beneath us again, although this time it wasn’t something in the tower she was moving.
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It was the tower itself.
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In one swift motion, the clock tower had detached from the rest of the church and launched itself toward an adjacent building. The lower part of it lodged itself into the roof of that other building completely, causing part of it to crumble. Somehow though, the clocktower remained intact… for the most part. I imagined that had to be thanks to Gretchen.
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“What the fuck are you trying to do?!” Nina cried, looking over at Gretchen with a new fear of God in her eyes.
“You told me to learn…” Gretchen hissed, “I’m learning…”
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She strained again, looking back as the Rosen Prince spread his wings to take flight. Nina, Dom, and I grabbed hold of the frame of the turret clock since it seemed like the sturdiest thing to grab as Gretchen moved the tower again, launching it into another building, this one closer to Calhoun’s house.
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The impact was too much for me this time. I lost my grip and was thrown to the ground, rolling toward one of the broken clock faces.
“Cam?” Nina called, before letting go of the clock to dive after me. She wasn’t fast enough.
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The wind rushed past me as I fell out of the window, landing hard on the roof of the building below. I saw Nina looking down at me from above, before leaping down after me. She landed with a little more grace, and unevenly stumbled to my side, hastily putting a hand on my shoulder.
“You alright?” She asked.
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I gave a half nod since despite being in considerable pain I was pretty sure I hadn’t broken anything.
“CAM!” I heard Dom cry, and saw him going to the window next. For a moment, I was sure he was about to jump down too, although Nina waved an arm to stop him.
“Don’t!” She said, “Stay with Gretchen! Get to the house, and kill that one eyed motherfucker if you see him! We’ll catch up!”
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Dom hesitated, before looking to see that the Rosen Prince had launched himself onto the last building we’d been on. The Crab Nightwalker was almost on top of him now, and I watched as the two pressed together, their features sliding together as they formed into something new. Pieces of the crab's armor slid onto that twisted amalgamation of bodies, partially reinforcing its spiderlike legs. The batlike wings on its back grew larger to accommodate the new size of this creature, then split to form new wings. It morphed and changed, adapting to the prey it now hunted, becoming something draconic, arachnid, equine, humanoid, and floral all in one unholy mixture. Such a thing should not have ever been… and yet it was and when the change was complete, what was left was an armored creature three times taller than a man with several chitinous horse legs, segmented like a crab or a spiders protruding from its bulbous lower body. It had a hunched-over torso like a human’s, with thick arms ending in chitinous claws and a head that split open like a flower, with gnashing teeth in its center and antlers adorning its shoulders like pauldrons.
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Of all the horrors I had seen in this world… this was by far the worst.
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The flesh and armor it did not take from the Crab Nightwalker slunk away, pulsating and trying to reform into something new, while the body the Rosen Prince had made for himself spread its six draconic wings to give chase to Gretchen.
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The tower moved again, launching itself toward another building and Nina grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the hole in the roof of the building we were on that the tower had left. I had just enough time to see the Rosen Prince take flight in pursuit of the tower before we made it inside the building.
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After all the noise out there, the silence inside was almost jarring… and if I wasn’t absolutely terrified by the fucking flower dragon made out of every horrible thing that had tried to kill me in the past few days chasing after my friend, I might have even found it calming.
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The building we were in looked as if it’d once been somebody's apartment. Nina looked around for a bit, before finding a door leading out into a hall.
“Come on, we should hurry,” She said, gesturing for me to follow her. I was certain that she had no idea where she was going, but to be fair I didn’t either so I followed her.
“Do all of your jobs go this badly?” I asked, as we headed for a door at the end of the hall.
“Not this badly, no,” She said. “This right here is a brand new record.”
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We went through the door, heading down a flight of stairs, and out into the lobby of the building. Nina paused by the front door, looking out onto the street to ensure the coast was at least somewhat clear before moving ‘Somewhat clear’ being the operative term here.
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The streets of Parsons were reduced to little more than complete pandemonium. I could see the burning corpses of the Rosen around us, along with one lone member of the Sheriff’s Boys who seemed too dazed to even realize we were there.
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As the flames of the dead burned around him, devouring ruined cars and blackening the bricks of the buildings around him, he wandered aimlessly.
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We all paused as behind us, one of the buildings that Gretchen had hit when she’d decided to turn a building into an airplane began to collapse. I could hear people screaming and felt a knot in my stomach tighten. The lucky sounded as if they’d been crushed outright… the unlucky just kept screaming.
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Both the man on the street and I stared at the ruins of the collapsed building, and looking back at him I was hit with the knowledge that everyone in this miserable city probably knew that this was the end. They were all going to die here… whether it was at the hands of the Rosen, the Nightwalkers, or the destruction, they were all going to die. Maybe they all hadn’t accepted it as my friend on the street had… but it was a chilling truth.
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This that had once been their paradise was now their tomb… and once Calhoun was dead, even that would no longer remain. I wondered if we were just as doomed as they were… and I wondered if we were just in denial about it.
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Well… no time to think too hard about it now.
I felt Nina pulling at my arm.
“Let’s go,” She said. “I think the road up ahead is clear!”
The other man was looking at me now.
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From behind us, I could hear the cries of the Rosen and looked back to see them sifting through the ruins of the collapsed building, looking for survivors. The man on the road just laughed, before calmly taking out his gun and putting it under his chin.
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I heard the gunshot but didn’t see him die. By then we’d already moved on. But it still made me flinch.
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The gate to Calhoun’s House was just up ahead, although it was not unguarded. I could see several more trucks, like the one Kevin had driven parked out front, with a few of the Sheriff’s Boys stationed around them.
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As far as I could tell, the courtyard was pretty secure… perhaps they were waiting for Calhoun’s return. The clock tower was lodged in a building half a block away, and I saw it make its final push toward the twisted house, crashing into it head-on and shattering its malformed architecture.
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In defiance of all laws of physics though, the clocktower still held together, despite jutting out of the front of that twisted building. The Sheriff’s Boys at the gate watched it with slack-jawed awe, before a familiar voice on a megaphone brought them back to attention.
“GUNS UP BOYS! COMPANY’S COMING!”
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Between the cars, I could see Kevin holding his megaphone and pointing toward the building the clock tower had just jumped from. Of course Kevin was still alive. This day just hadn’t gone badly enough…
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The Sheriff’s Boys manning the guns on their trucks got to work immediately, spinning to take aim at the Rosen Prince as he loomed over the nearby building, regarding the assembled prey with every eye on his sickly, pulsating body. I saw his wings spread wide as he began his final descent toward the courtyard. The bullets tore away chunks of his writhing flesh, but they did not slow him down. Instead, he simply folded his wings over his torso, shielding his body from the hail of gunfire as he made his advance.
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The Rosen Prince lunged forward with one jagged claw, crushing one of the nearby trucks like it was made of paper. I saw Kevin take a step back, grimacing in rage before tossing his megaphone aside. Some of his men fled, but he stood his ground… probably because he physically could not run.
“You sonofabitch…” he growled, before pulling a gun from his holster. My eyes widened as I recognized it.
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Gretchen’s revolver.
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Kevin must have found it after we’d left!
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I wondered if he knew what it did, and I got my answer only moments later. He pulled the trigger, striking one of the wings of the Rosen Prince.
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The creature shrank back, letting out a hiss of pain, although seeming more confused than hurt. Pink mist rose up from its wing, and I saw the flesh begin to bubble and sear. The Rosen Prince recoiled, its flesh twisting as every eye on its body widened. Kevin kept the gun trained on the Prince, but didn’t fire again. The Rosen Prince retreated back up on top of the building. Its burning wing detached itself, although that didn’t quite seem to be enough. Entire chunks of what I suspect used to be the Bat Nightwalker sloughed out of its body as it tried to shed whatever flesh that Gretchen’s blessed bullet had destroyed.
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“Keep shooting!” Kevin called, starting to limp back behind the remaining trucks. “Governor Calhoun is on his way! And get me somebody to help deal with that fucking flying tower!”
I looked over at Nina and saw her eyes narrowed as she watched Kevin leave. I watched her grip her gun tightly and put a hand on her arm.
“Don’t!” I warned, “Those trucks will tear us to pieces!”
​
I could see in her eyes that she wanted to argue, but clearly she knew better. Her eyes then darted toward the wall and I could see her doing the math in her head.
“Left side of the street, move fast, keep low,” She said. “We’ll jump the fence.”
That sounded like a slightly smarter idea, and I let Nina take the lead.
​
The trucks didn’t even seem to see us, and kept shooting at the Rosen Prince. I could even see a few crimson flares shooting up from some of the Sheriff’s Boys, catching the Prince’s body and setting his flesh alight as he retreated back atop the building again. Nina reached the fence first and I boosted her up to the top. She straddled it for a moment, reaching down to help pull me up before we dropped down into the courtyard together. She grabbed her shotgun again, keeping at the ready for when the inevitable shooting began.
​
The courtyard was in an even worse state than we’d left it in. The fountain was almost completely destroyed and had soaked the ground beneath us, turning anything that wasn’t protected by the cobblestone into mud.
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Countless bodies, belonging to men, Rosen and Nightwalkers along with a few blackened things that I think were Nightwalkers, littered the ground. The truck that Kevin had used to attack us was crashed into a nearby wall and looked more or less completely totaled. We could see Kevin limping over toward where the clock tower was, looking up at it as he barked orders.
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“Where’s my fucking explosives? We need to get back inside the house without letting any more of those things out through the fucking door!”
Nina stifled a laugh.
“Oh man… I forgot about the portal to hell…” She said under her breath, as if it was the funniest joke she’d ever heard.
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The clock tower shifted, as the section of the house it had embedded itself in began to crumble. The tower sank down to the ground, still remaining intact. I took that as a sign that Gretchen and Dom were still inside.
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“MOVE!” Kevin cried, ushering his men back as a cloud of dust flooded the courtyard. Nina and I shielded our eyes for a moment, although I realized as soon as she did the kind of opportunity that had just appeared for us. She gestured for me to follow, leading me toward the house under the cover of the dust.
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“Whoever’s in that thing, I want them fucking dead!” Kevin said, coughing through the dust. He turned away from the clock tower, waving a hand in front of his face to try and escape the dust. Nina and I were almost at the front door now, and I already knew what she planned to do.
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Honestly, I thought it was a terrible idea. But at this point, I was still on board with it.
​
Kevin looked up, noticing us just as we reached the door. Through the dust, I could see his eyes widen as Nina reached the front door and pulled it open.
“NO!” He cried, reaching out as if he could somehow stop us.
He couldn’t.
​
On the other side of the door, I could see reddish sands. I could feel the acrid heat and burning wind on my face. And I could see dark figures amongst the sands, looking up as soon as the door opened.
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Not Nightwalkers… not Rosen.
​
Something else.
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Nina fired a few rounds from her shotgun, forcing Kevin to try and run. He dove to the ground, crawling behind the shattered remains of the water fountain, as the Sheriff’s Boys turned to see that on top of all their existing problems, they now also had to deal with a portal to actual literal Hell. Because why not? I’m sure it really sucked to be them at that moment.
​
I saw the first of the blackened Demons charge through the door, snarling like a wild dog. It was torn to pieces by some gunfire from one of the Sheriff’s Boys almost immediately, but more followed.
​
There weren’t a lot of demons that poured out of that door… but there were enough.
​
I saw one of them leaping onto one of the Sheriff’s Boys. Its entire torso split open vertically, revealing a velvety mouth, full of teeth that clamped down on the poor man before he could do more than scream. As the Sheriff’s Boys tried to deal with the demons, Nina unleashed burning death upon them all, mindlessly shooting anything that moved. She paused only to pull the door closed, since I guess it made sense not to just leave that hanging open and unattended. I suppose it’s not like she needed even more Demons.
​
Behind the fountain, I saw Kevin struggling to stand as he tried to escape the carnage… and I started toward him.
​
Kevin saw me coming and hastily reached for Gretchen’s revolver, but I was faster. I raised my gun and fired twice, hitting him once in the arm and once in the chest. Kevin let out a cry of pain. The revolver slipped out of his hand and clattered uselessly to the ground. He left it where it lay, trying desperately to pull himself back as I pulled the trigger again, shooting him in the stomach two more times.
​
Finally, I was on top of him and pressed my foot down on his injured leg, earning a final cry of pain from him.
“What was that you said to me the other day?” I hissed, “When I kill you, I’ll have my boys do it… I’ll let them have their way with you first…”
My eyes burned into Kevin’s, and though he tried to keep a defiant face, I could see the fear in them.
​
“Where are your boys now, Kev?” I asked.
“It’s… Kevin…” He rasped, although I could still hear the fear in his voice.
I’ve gotta be honest… it was kinda funny.
“I know,” I replied as I squeezed the trigger one last time.
​
I might have only been using a .22, but it did the job perfectly. Kevin’s head jerked backward and he sank down into the mud, his eyes still open and staring quietly into infinity. I’d remember those eyes… but they would not haunt me.
​
I looked over at Nina, who gave a wide berth to the Sheriff’s Boys and the Demons trying to maul them as she ran to my side. She looked down at Kevin’s body, and I saw a wry smirk cross her lips, though as she reached down to pick up Gretchen’s revolver.
“Guess he shouldn’t have run for office,” She said, before looking toward the clock tower.
​
Through some of the crumbling bricks, I could see two figures limping out of the ruins.
“Dom…” I said, running toward him.
Gretchen was slung over his shoulder, but it was hard to say who was supporting who at that point. He collapsed down into a sitting position, and let her flop down onto the ground. The only indicator I could hear that she was still alive was her slight groan of pain.
​
“Oh my God, you’re okay?” I asked.
Dom just gave me a meek thumbs up.
“Next time… let’s… let’s not do… whatever that was…” He said, pointing vaguely at the clock tower. I pulled him into a hug, that he weakly returned.
​
“Hey… you good?” Nina asked, looking down at Gretchen and giving her a slight kick.
“Test results… sub-optimal. Do not recommend second attempt,” She groaned.
“Yeah, you’re fine. Get up, you big fucking nerdy baby.”
​
She reached down to help pull Gretchen to her feet again.
“Hot tea…” She murmured, as she leaned against the crumbling clock tower for support. “Hot tea… and a bath…”
She looked over at Nina.
“What are you doing when this is all over?”
“Oh, I’m gonna get fucking drunk and buy a lottery ticket,” She said. “I do not know how we’re all still alive right now, but I’m feeling pretty damn lucky.”
“Alcohol… yes… in tea…” Gretchen agreed, “You’re buying.”
​
With a trembling hand, she took her journal out of her jacket, turned to a fresh page, and in letters large enough for me to read wrote: ‘TOWER. NO.’
​
A distant roar pulled out attention back toward the gate. Above it, I could see the Rosen Prince descending from the building again for round 2. He was smaller this time, and had shed his wings… yet his form was otherwise unchanged.
Gretchen just closed her eyes in exasperation before sighing.
“Right… him…”
​
Through the gate, I could see the Sheriff’s Boys in the trucks trying to fight the Demons and the Prince to no avail. One of the trucks hastily sped off into the night. The other one stood its ground, shooting vainly at the Rosen Prince as he came for them. He brought one claw down like a hammer, crushing the men in the truck like it was nothing, then drawing it back to hit them again out of rage.
​
Hissing in satisfaction, we watched as the Rosen Prince continued toward the gate, his many legs going over it as he advanced into the courtyard.
“This night draws to its close, my old friend.” He snarled. “It seems you can run no more… while my strength, is everlasting. It is time… come into my ocean, as you were always meant to.”
​
“Oh fuck off already,” Gretchen huffed, before noticing Nina out of the corner of her eye, offering her the revolver. They traded a look before Gretchen took it and aimed it at the beast that advanced on us. The moment it realized what was being aimed at it, I heard it snarl with rage. Its body tensed as it lunged for us, trying to close the distance before she could shoot.
​
But it was already too late.
​
The gunshot echoed through the courtyard as the bullet hit the Rosen Prince square in the chest, and I saw his body begin to seize up. He clawed at his chest, many eyes going wide. A pained scream escaped him. Pink mist rose from the wound, causing its flesh to bubble and squirm. The Rosen Prince’s eyes fixated on Gretchen again as his body began to die.
“WRETCHED WOMAN!” It hissed, throwing its weight toward us as its body convulsed and boiled. “THIS WORLD REMAINS MINE… YOU SHALL NOT RUN FROM ME AGAIN!”
“Yes, this world is yours,” Gretchen agreed. “Enjoy it while it lasts. I imagine it won’t be for much longer. Your services are no longer required here. But thank you for your assistance.”
​
“TREACHEROUS WITCH!” The Rosen Prince snarled, desperately trying to crawl toward us. I saw the lower half of its body break away. Its legs curled in on themselves, twitching weakly in death. Only the Prince’s rotting torso remained now and Gretchen stared into its countless eyes, cold and unblinking.
​
As it tried to pull itself closer to us, one of its claws broke off. It’s movements slowed, as the amalgamation of corpses the Rosen Prince had assembled melted away. I could see the luminous flowers on its body starting to die, as the eyes turned white and fell away. In a few moments, the body of the Rosen Prince lay still as the flesh melted off of its bones… and silence filled the air.
​
“Is it dead…” I asked quietly, “Really dead?”
“No,” Gretchen replied. “The other drones will still be active, and I suspect he’ll be coming back for us shortly, once he can build something even worse to throw at us. We should leave now, while we still have the chance.”
“What about Calhoun?” I asked.
​
“If he’s not dead already, I vote we leave him to the Rosen Prince,” Gretchen said. She checked the cylinder of her revolver, “Seems whoever had this wasted the last of my ammunition… luckily I had foresight. Camille, you still have the bullet?”
“Right here,” I said, reaching into my pocket to take it out.
​
“Good,” She handed the revolver off to me, before turning away and heading toward the door. Her gait was slow and she gave the Rosen Prince a wide berth.
“I’ll remove the rune on Calhoun’s door. If we can find the room with the Eldest again, we should have a way out. We can use the last bullet on him, and see if it works… no promises, but right now I we’re low on options so it will have to suffice fo-”
​
A sudden onslaught of gunshots interrupted her. I saw Gretchen hit the ground with a pained cry, clutching at her side. Nina ran to her immediately, dragging her behind the ruins of the fountain, while Dom and I ran back toward the clock tower.
​
A single figure stood under the gate, shuffling past the ruined trucks with a heavy pistol in his hand.
​
Governor Calhoun looked significantly worse than when I’d last seen him. His skin looked a shade paler and his good eye seemed sunken. He’d stripped off both his shirt and suit jacket and I could see the bullet wounds in his stomach from where I’d shot him… although that was not what stood out the most. His skin was adorned with fresh cuts, with streaks of blood flowing from them like rivers. In his other hand, he held his ritual dagger.
​
“Leaving me for dead?” He asked, his voice hoarse and cold, “After all you’ve done… to ruin my world… to burn my temple and salt the earth upon which it was built, and you can’t even finish the job? Disappointing.” Nina tried to pop out of cover, but Calhoun shot first, grazing the stone by her head and sending her back down.
​
“It’s a shame it had to come to this,” Calhoun said. “I would have saved your world. I would have saved each and every one of you. But now after you’ve gone and wasted everything I’ve done… decades of good… I see now that there is no salvation for you people. There never was. I built paradise! And you’ve burned it! Corrupted it! Unleashed plague upon it! Why? I did no harm to you! I left you people be! And yet in stubborn defiance of my efforts to resolve this peacefully, you’ve-”
“Kill yourself,” Nina called, and Calhoun trained off.
​
“Excuse me…” He hissed.
“We’ve got you four to one, and you’re already looking like death warmed over… so cut the speech, Calhoun. Cut the theatrics… and let’s just get this the fuck over with you self-righteous fuck!”
I saw Calhoun actually crack a smile there.
“Ill-mannered until the end,” He said, before finally lowering his gun and tossing it aside, “Well… at least you were consistent, in life.”
​
He took another trembling step forward before sinking down to his knees. I saw Nina rising out from behind cover, while Dom and I did the same, our guns remaining trained on him. Calhoun looked at us, before slowly taking his knife and turning it toward his stomach.
​
Was… was he actually going to do it? Just like that?
​
Nina seemed surprised, pausing as she locked eyes with him.
“If there’s no salvation,” Calhoun said, “Then all that remains is death…”
With that, he drove the dagger into his stomach, sucking in a breath as he did. Nina actually flinched at the sight of it, but I stayed still, watching as Calhoun buried the dagger deep into his body, and as the blood dribbled down his hands.
“Holy Lugal,” he rasped, “I have no home to defend… no souls to offer. And so, I offer my own. Grant me retribution and I shall become yours.”
​
My eyes widened, and I could see Nina's doing the same. We understood all too late why he’d mutilated himself…
​
We fired on Calhoun, but it was too late.
​
A blinding crimson glow had already spread through his body, traveling along the carvings he’d made in his flesh and I could feel the air around us rippling. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Calhoun screaming, followed by a faint voice over all of the noise. A voice I only barely recognized as Gretchen’s screaming:
​
“RUN!”

Part one: https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/123lxe7/behind_you/
​
​
My brother turned slowly, eyes wide open.
His flashlight left my car, slowly panning towards his.
Nothing.
My brother opened his eyes in amazement, gazing into the empty road with a look of amazement.
"Dude!!! Let's get the fuck out of here!" I screamed, motioning to his car.
He snapped out of his trance like state and quickly made his way back to his car.
He turned the key and to my relief, his car turned on and finally, I felt safe.
He locked the doors and we sat there for a few minutes evaluating what to do.
We decided we would go home, then return for my car the next day.
My brother peeled out and drove home faster than we should have, but slower than we liked.
We walked in the door and we locked all the doors.
I dialed 911 and sat on the phone with the police, although there was a chance they wouldn't believe me, I thought it was best that I told someone.
Two officers came to investigate and question us, filed a report, did a search around the property and left.
The following weeks were mainly sleepless. I decided to not go back for my car, as I didn't want to leave my house. I had my sanity in mind, and not leaving my house was better than risking someone keying my shitbox 1997 civic.
I installed security cameras around the outsides and insides of the house, got new locks for the doors and obsessed over my personal security. I would sit in my room for hours watching those cameras, forgetting to eat.
My brother came to me and told me he needed to go on a vacation to "find himself". He said he would be back in a few weeks. I begged and pleaded for him not to go but it was no use, he packed his stuff into a backpack and left.
I invited a friend to come stay with me while my brother was gone. He helped me and finally I was able to get some sleep. I just couldn't shake that face out of my mind, and I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me.
I was finally feeling better since my brother had left and told my friend that he didn't have to stay with me anymore.
My friend left and the next few days were better. I was able to leave the house, going for walks, etc.
One night I was watching a hockey game on TV. I heard footsteps approaching the front door, followed by a scratching. I grabbed a pocket knife I had on the table and stood up. I was tense, but comfortable and knew if someone was trying to get in I was ready.
The door swung open hard, my brother stood there smiling.
"Holy shit man, you scared the fuck out of me." I said, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Hey buddy! How are you? Oh god, put the knife down." He said, still smiling.
Something was off, that smile, it was too wide for a human. I rubbed my eyes and the smile seemed to be normal again, was probably suffering from some sort of PTSD from what happened a few weeks prior, I thought.
My brother locked himself in his room the entire day. Weird behaviour but he wanted to rest, I thought.
Throughout then day, the silence was broken with occasional screeches and bangs from my brothers room.
That night I was in my room, four monitors monitoring the cameras. My anxiety was back, and with that, I knew that the next week would be sleepless.
I was in my room writing down my experience when my LED light strip around my desk went dark, power was out... I had a power supply unit hooked up to my setup which gave me around two hours of power.
I decided on staying at my desk until the power went out and hopefully I would be asleep by then.
I had just started to nod off and that's when I saw some movement in the living room. I looked closer and saw a figure standing peaking it's head around the wall leading to the bedrooms. It was dark, and I could make out features, but nothing concrete. I leaned in to get a better look and that's when it approached the camera.
It revealed itself, smiling again, with its wide smile, eyes milky white like I remember. It raised a long, skinny white arm with long fingernails, each decorated with a thick, crusty fingernail.
It let out a little wave before tilting its head and forming its fingers into a pointing motion.
It was motioning behind me.
I flipped around to see my bedroom completely empty.
When I turned back to the camera, the figure was gone.
When I looked at my peripheral vision on one of my monitors, my bedrooms camera showed a tall, white figure standing behind me, waving at the camera with its same smile.
---------------------------------
My name is Detective Bannock of the Dakota County Police department. The above text was found when investigating a missing persons case at a rural home in south eastern Minnesota.
Tyler Edwards and his brother Liam Edwards were both reported missing by their parents. After searching the house, there was no signs of forced entrance. The computers were left on, a notepad was left open on the desktop containing the above text, whilst the cameras remained filming.
After reading the notes and watching the cameras, we cannot confirm a "figure" in the house. The power of the house went down between 2:37AM and 3:12AM, and during this time, the camera footage was frozen.
The brothers left without taking any of their belongings.
Tyler's car was found with a destroyed battery on a rural road south of his home.
Tyler's room was filled with tons of security equipment, weapons, and multiple locks on his door.
Liam's room was completely empty. Repeatedly drawn on the walls was a depiction of a smiling face, with the mouth being too big for the face.
If you have any information on the brothers whereabouts, please contact the Dakota County Police department non-emergency line.

Manitoban here who had a used vehicle written off for 28k from MPI leaving 5k for my loan remaining. I went inside a dealership today to see what my options were for my replacement vehicle and all they offerened was GAP protection to cover the remaining loan and wanted me to finance another vehicle from scratch. Here's the thing, I bought the companion asset protection - replacement vehicle value as apart of my contract and within the contract it states the following:
For Used Vehicles – the replacement vehicle We provide to You when fulfilling this Policy based on the Purchase Price, indicated on the Policy, of the Vehicle plus a maximum of five percent (5%) annual indexation calculated pro-rata by the number of days. The Replacement Vehicle is a used vehicle of same or similar age, make and model at time of purchase. If the Purchase Price of the Replacement Vehicle is less, there will be no reimbursement (cash or otherwise) to cover the difference. The replacement of Your Vehicle must be completed within 60 days of the date of the Total Loss.
- My finance manager attempted to say I was only alloted the annual indexation, which is roughly 1400 thus causing me to use the GAP protection as it's "greater", but as I understand it it would be the price of the vehicle PLUS the annual indexation.
​
COMPANION ASSET PROTECTION PLAN Following a Total Loss, We will arrange for You to receive either the “Gap Protection” (6k for remaining loan) or “Replacement Vehicle” benefit (28k for vehicle), whichever value is greater:
“Replacement Vehicle” Benefit: Including a Replacement Vehicle from the Dealer, a credit applicable towards additions to the Replacement Vehicle equal to the deductible contained in Your Standard Insurance Policy to a maximum credit of $500, and a rental vehicle from the Dealer, in the event that Your Standard Insurance Policy provider’s rental vehicle benefit has terminated, and you have not received your Replacement Vehicle yet, to a maximum of $50 per day (including taxes), and maximum aggregate amount of $1,500 (including taxes) or 30 days whichever comes first.
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Essentially they're trying to only pay the GAP protection as opposed to the Replacement Vehicle Benefit when that value is easily greater.. am I getting this all wrong because I cannot see where they're coming from. Any advice on how to proceed? I'm about to stop talking to the dealership and just the third party insurance for clarification as the claim just opened today. Apologies if wrong sub and thank you for making this far.

Let me start by saying that lessons were learned.
Wife and I have been in the house coming up on five years and have always wanted to redo the pantry, but it always found itself on the back-burner until other things were taken care of. I've learned quite a bit over the last few years -- I've always had the aptitude to do trade/craft/etc-work, but not the tools or opportunity. Since we've had the house, I've redone flooring in multiple rooms, re-drywalled and mudded the garage (was left a clusterfuck from previous owner), am comfortable with electrical work having replaced all outlets and switches and replaced a bathroom vanity, the list goes on. However, this was the first real build-from-scratch type of project I took on. I had recently gotten myself a tablesaw for my birthday, so the pantry idea was a'cookin' in my mind.
Long story short, wife was going out of town for a week for work and I had the harebrained idea that I'd be able to pull this off, alone, by the time she got back as a surprise. Turns out my timeline got cut down to 2-3 days due to circumstances outside my control after I had tore out the shelves and started framing and mounting cleats. It took longer than three days.
I'm one of those weird people that like to make sure their cuts are right the first time, so I measured once, then twice, then another eight times, then twice more, then thrice again, until I finally arrived at the final measuring of the space, the walls and depths and the material -- then I made my cuts and brought everything back in and started framing to confirm. Let this serve as a PSA (or reminder) that due to how things move and settle in Houston, nothing is flat, square, level, plumb or any semblance of geometry that makes logical sense to a rational human being.
The fucking walls were wrong.
The surface of the walls were wavy to the point there were .25 to .5in depth differences along the expanse of the back wall -- easily missed due to the wall texture unless you're pressing your face against the wall to the point your eyeball's making sweet, sweet love to the paint. The high points likely being the studs pushing against the back of the sheetrock.
Beyond that, the floor sloped back-right to front-left which was visually apparent once the original shelves were removed. This impacted the shelf leveling across the space to the left which required shims to be set to mitigate the rise/run decline. Additionally, the top extrusion extending down from the ceiling is also not level and runs top-right to bottom-left at what seemed like a 1.5in difference in height right-to-left. So despite all my measuring and attempt at preparation, it was dashed by the reality that was Houston being Houston mixed with a side of potentially shoddy work done in the past.
Many beers and many obscenities were had. But, I eventually got there.
As one of the image tags says, this final photo is ~97% complete, there were some minor touchups and finishing tweaks that needed to be done. All material is a mix of 3/4in plywood, whitewood, MDF and 1*2s for trim and cleats. No prefabbed cabinets or shelves were used, everything custom sized, cut, and fit. Countertop is acacia butcherblock. All wood material from Lowe's, counter sealed with Waterlox Original from Woodcraft.
Material overall was ~$700, beer not included. Counter was the biggest chunk due to needing two boards cut down to size. Local estimates for walk-in pantries around our size looked to be in the $3,000-5,000 range, so I'd call that a win.
Apologies in advance for the photosphere warping.
Hope you enjoyed the ride.

As I said, this is going to be super long, so the TL;DR is that I'm very much in love with my partner, but am starting to feel like I'm in one of those "love isn't enough" situations because of the issues that keep piling up, with the main and latest one being that she wants a kid and I do not.
​
We've been together two years, met in state A and moved to state B a year ago so she could be closer to family (my family is still in state A, but I only have one living immediate family member left). We were looking at houses in state A, but the house next door to her brother went on the market, which seemed serendipitous. That's the house we live at now. Her parents helped out and bought the house outright and transferred it to her; she paid them back and took out a home equity loan, which I am paying back (I pay her monthly) and she pays for utilities and animal costs. This makes our costs break even and really benefits me more because the dog stuff can fluctuate and I would be paying at least $750 more per month renting. GF is ADHD, which causes a fair amount of strain because it's combined with some deep Catholic guilt that makes her constantly feel the need to do something. I'm naturally very laid back and value my downtime, but I also had a super fun medical condition manifest in 2019 that naturally fatigues me on top of the meds I have to take for it. So, I workout in the morning, work during the day, and am perfectly happy to just chill on the couch unless I have an evening event, which is about twice a week.
We met about a year after her divorce was finalized; I have never been married and neither of us have any kids, but I had one dog and she had a dog and three cats. About three weeks into us dating, she rescued another dog on a weekend trip to visit a friend. At the time, she asked me if it was okay with me and I told her it wasn't my place to make that decision, so she kept the dog. Since the move, two of the cats have died (one was an obese 12 yr old and the other was 18 yrs), so we now have three dogs and one cat. I'm mentioning this because I had never lived with pets as an adult until I got my dog ~1 year before we met, and often feel overwhelmed by having to deal with so many animals - and honestly, I don't think it's fair to the dogs since they don't get enough activity because our attention is divided amongst them all.
The place we moved in to is a fixer-upper. I had my own company when we moved to our current location, but it made sense to shut it down, so I spent the first four months gutting the house and making improvements (I did all of the big stuff, but GF and her family have always been more than willing to help however they can). I am absolutely fried on the home improvement stuff for now, especially since starting a new job in October that I'm still adjusting to, but GF's ADHD has her constantly making lists of things to do to the house, so there's this perpetual push-pull between us (her pushing me to do projects and me pulling away because I don't want to), which always goes down as her starting a project and me getting roped in to helping because they're not one-person jobs. I'm also of the mindset that we should just be saving money right now, but she fixates on getting stuff done to the house and so just starts things. She's mentioned that it bothers her that I don't help her out on these projects and that I increase her stress level because of how I react. For example, she decides we need to install a storm door to get more sunlight in the living room and asks me about it, so I say we can't just install a new door without installing a new frame and about five other things before we can get to the actual door. She interprets this as more tasks that she needs to complete while I see it as explaining the proper order of operations. I'm assuming this is a combo of ADHD, my phrasing/demeanor, and it being well-known that my default response is no. I want to be clear that these things bother me, but they're not dealbreakers - they are solvable issues if/when we can communicate properly.
Aaanyways, that's all background noise at the moment because about a month ago she just up and walked into my office while I was working and said she wants a kid. This was one of the first serious conversations we had after meeting. I said I don't want kids, but that I could see myself having a kid if all the stars aligned - and made it very clear that there's a metric fuckton of stars that need aligning and one of them would be winning the lottery. She said essentially the same thing. I've actually become even more entrenched in my no position after living with so many animals. When we properly discussed the kid thing, she explained that she was honest when we first talked about it, but now she does want a kid because she finally met the right person (me). It got to a point where I said it sounds like we need to break up because if you want a kid, I'm not the right person for that. As you can imagine, that went over well (/s). She said she didn't want to have a kid with just anyone, but me specifically, and that she's not looking for a sperm donor, but a partner to raise a child with. She then explained that it's essentially me or no one else because she wouldn't want to start dating again after me anyways. I was trying to be purely logical about it (I don't want kids + she wants kids = we need to break up because of biological time), but I get it now. This conversation ended with us saying we'll just try to be a couple for the next year, which seems, I dunno, weird? Not ideal? Can't quite enunciate it exactly.
Since then, it's come up a few times and she's obviously trying to change my mind about it. For example, my dad said it's a bit selfish of me to shut the door on kids, and she jumped all over that one. Apparently I'm being selfish because I'm worried that my medical condition will become debilitating, that I/we won't be financially secure enough, that the world is in a pretty fucked up state and doesn't seem to be improving, and that I just generally don't think I would do well as a parent. Well fuck me, because the whole time I thought I was putting her and the hypothetical kid first. She did eventually apologize for calling me selfish after I explained my reasoning.
I feel like I've been pushed and pushed and pushed into these "stuck between a rock and a hard place" situations: getting a new puppy, the move, shutting down my company, the house projects, and now the kid thing. I think we're approaching "one toke over the line" territory, and it's made me wonder if the main reason she loves me so much is because I always capitulate to what she wants for the big life decisions. I'm not resentful yet, but I feel it building up in the vein of I've sacrificed a hell of a lot and it's still not enough, AND you're moving the goalposts on life's literal biggest decision? And, of course, I'm now worried that she'll become resentful towards me if she really wants a kid and I deprive her of that.
Finally, I'll just say that I truly love this woman and that I'm on a whole ass spectrum of devastation about this because I thought I had FINALLY found my person. We've talked about getting married and how lucky we both are to have found each other. And frankly, I can't see myself dating or being with anyone else besides her anyways. But it seems like it's going off the rails here. I've lurked on here long enough to know that disagreements about children are the number one killer of relationships, sooo... has anyone survived this type of situation? If so, could you please elaborately explain to me how you made it work? I'll also just throw out a generic, "please help!"

Growing up my brother and I weren't allowed to do chores. Even as a teenager she was controlling over our laundry, she would put our clean clothes next to her on the sofa where it was under her watchful eye, and it pissed her off every time I'd approach her, stinking in pyjamas, to ask her for clean clothes. It took me about a decade afterwards to get out of the habit of wearing my clothes as long as possible before changing to fresh ones.
I am 30. I currently live with them as I was disabled throughout my 20s and got a full time job just in time for the cost of living and housing crises to kick in. The older I've gotten the more I've come to realise that my mother, as abusive as she was, was not the actual root of the problem so much as the main symptom of it, and today made it more apparent. I now do my own laundry but fuck if I can't get to the machine fast enough after it beeps, she will fucking RACE to it and transfer it to the dryer for me. I fought for every bit of independence I have; my brother is completely agoraphobic. When I leave I will be VLC with her and NC with my dad.
The bathroom is leaking water into my room because my father tackled it as one of his endless abandoned refurbishment projects over ten years ago and never sealed it properly. I got some sealant and my mother is like, "you should seal the inside of your room instead so he won't notice you doing it."
And I'm sitting there thinking, yeah, it is annoying as fuck to do stuff around him, because he'll start taking control and he'll always take control badly, and you have to either suffer through it or, if you tell him you're fine, he'll ignore you until he can't ignore you any more, then he'll start yelling and having meltdowns.
And I think. hm. wait. that's actually probably not normal. that's probably pretty fucked up. wait, that is fucked up. It's fucked up that this man's wife feels she has to sneak around behind his back and is giving me that same advice.
And then I remembered this story she once told me and my therapist, laughing about it, about how before I was born they were arguing and my dad threw a saucepan or frying pan at her. It ended up in the wall beside her head. He threw it hard enough it was embedded there.
And then I remembered how every time the subject of my dad's retirement comes up, she speaks about it with dread.
And it just suddenly hit me that maybe she always worked so hard to make my brother and I dependent on her so she'd never be alone with him again.

My ex and I have been broken up for almost 4 months. We talked on and off until a month ago we had one last in person talk where she told me she could only see me in the “black” sense and associate me with all the negative in our relationship. And she wasn’t sure when she’d be able to change how she thinks. To me it’s odd that she’s aware of it but still in a way embraces it. We’ve been NC since.
For context she’s a heavy pot smoker and instead of facing her feelings she numbs them by smoking multiple bowls a day. I love her a lot and still want the best for her but it hurts me a lot for her to easily ghost me and pretend I don’t exist.
Should I expect this for the foreseeable future or will she ever stop thinking in the black and white way?

Hey Reddit!
I will try to keep this short because I tend to ramble, so sorry in advance!
Back in 2020, I decided to try my hand at freelance copywriting. I studied for a while and created an UpWork profile while working full-time at a local retail store that I absolutely hated.
I was able to get two gigs writing emails within the span of two weeks, then I got EXTREMELY lucky and was reached out to by a CEO asking if I wanted to be a full-time copywriter for his startup.
I agreed but made sure to mention that I had essentially no experience--he was alright with that and promised that he would train me, so I took the job. (He didn't really train me)
Up until that point, I was also studying front-end web development on and off for a bit but stopped doing it consistently once I started working there.
I was recently laid off due to budgeting and realized that despite having two years of working experience in the field, I'm having a very difficult job finding another copywriting position.
It wasn't until after I was laid off that I really noticed how little variety of experience I was getting working there, and as a result, my portfolio is pretty dull and mostly the same type of copy (B2B proposal outreach messaging).
This has left me feeling disheartened--almost as if the last two years were essentially a waste of time because if I had been freelancing or working on my portfolio myself, I would have a (probably) much easier time looking for work.
It was ultimately my fault for growing complacent, but I am unsure as to whether I should invest more time into building up my portfolio or if I should just make the switch to web development.
In terms of my studies, I'm only about a week away from being confident enough to apply for jr. positions, but I don't have a portfolio yet, so I would have to build that as well.
TL;DR I have spent two years as a copywriter, but my portfolio is pretty poor anyway. Should I stick with copywriting and try to leverage my experience and rebuild my portfolio, or should I make the switch to front-end development and build a portfolio?
I am unsure if it would be harder to build a spec copywriting portfolio from scratch and get a job or "break into" web development with my first position.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

So I’ve been manifesting a scratch off lottery ticket win since December of last year. I have been manifesting for a very very long time and nothing but success for me but this one has been a little rocky for me. I know it’ll happen but until the universe “let’s me know” when the time is right to buy the ticket, how do I know? When will I know? Ughh I have not had this happen to me before! I have faith and again like I said I know it will happen as it already has in another reality. What do I do? Any advice is appreciated!

Selling off a bunch of random belongings here. Selling everything at significantly less than I will have it listed on Etsy and Ebay - below and well below market price compared to Ebay and elsewhere.
All prices include Paypal fees. Shipping will be about $8-14 anywhere in the US.
Timestamp
Zhiyun Crane M3 - $174
The M3 is basically like new and has never really been used. It didn't fit my DSLR so I just haven't had any use for it. Fully functional
Pentax 67 Left Hand Wood Grip - $134
No issues to speak of. Cosmetic condition visible in photos.
Minolta Spot Meter F - $134
Really great meter I haven't been using much lately. No issues, viewfinder has I think 1 spec of debris but otherwise clear. Accuracy has been tested.
Pentax 6x7 Takumar 75mm f/4.5 - $48
The manual - auto switch on this lens has broken off, but the lens functions normally in auto mode. I shoot a Pentax 67 more than any other camera and literally never ever use "manual" mode. The front element does has a good bit of scratches on it which will affect images. I quickly tested it on a digital camera with an adapter so you can get an idea of what affect there will be. In indirect light image quality is solid/sharp. In bright light theres a bit of flair.
Good way to see how you like the 75mm focal length (about 35mm equivalent).
7 Rolls In-box Expired Color Film - $45
4 Rolls Kodak Max 400 - 03/2009
1 Kodak Gold 200 - 10/2003
1 Elite Chrome Extra Color 100 Slide Film - 11/2002
Custom Canon Canonet QL17 Giii - $278
Canonet is in near mint condition and has had a full CLA and new light seals. The lens and viewfinder are crystal clear with minimal dust. The rangefinder patch is about average for these Canonets, not a Leica but fine to compose your shot. Everything has been fully tested, light meter is accurate.
Nikon FM2n - $314
The FM2n is in excellent condition and fully functional/tested. The viewfinder is clear, but the previous owner apparently tried to clean the focusing screen like a baboon, so it appears dirty through the viewfinder. It's not a problem functionaly, and changing the focus screen takes 10 seconds if you ever want to replace it. I actually love this particular focus screen, as its just a wide circle where you simply turn your lens until your focus is where you want it. No unnecessary dividing line in the center.
This will sell quickly around $370, so i don't to come down too much here.
Custom Yashica Electro 35 GTN - $134
This camera is in good cosmetic shape with fresh light seals. There are some cleaning marks on the lens which could possibly show in photos in direct light, but will most often/most likely not be an issue. The rangefinder patch is average. Camera fully tested/functional.

Hi, i have a cockatiel who’s age that’s unknown since he’s a rescue. he is a white face and he often gets a lot of pin feathers, mostly around his neck and head behind his crest. i wanted to know if this is a health issue or if it’s normal and some cockatiels are just more ‘crusty’ than others. i usually help him out and scratch them off for him but there’s just so much, it’s unbelievable, and they come back so often and so quickly. he seems like a very happy and healthy birdie but i just wanted to see if it’s something i should be worried about or not. thanks!

Hi all, so update #3.
I applied for my passport! Step one scratched off the list. Also, I now have a sponsor! Adelaide Blasting is sponsoring my plane ticket to get out there (California to England). I’m extremely excited to have their support. The owner of the team, Fern GP, is sending me out personalized gear which will have Adelaide’s name embroidered on too.
As far as the season goes, it very much looks like the team wants me on their 2024 roster. Again, we are starting small with the week of testing out in England first, but I’ve been on two podcasts already and had an article come out covering all this. So, Fern is definitely getting the publicity.
The personal training is going well! I’m actually starting to put a little weight on! Have another few months of training though.
Anyways, I’m very grateful for everyone’s support on this. I never thought this would be possible for someone like me. Cheers everyone~