I know it's not laziness, it's decision fatigue and perfectionism and overwhelm and exhaustion and having too many ideas all at once and not finishing what I started. But goddamn, I hate myself so much for it.
I moved into a bigger apartment in October. I was so excited about the move! More space, green surroundings, shorter commute to work, bright sunny rooms, I had so many plans! I have a well-paying job, so my plan was to ditch all of my second-hand and cheap Ikea furniture and buy some quality solid wood furniture, paint the walls fun colors (they're bright white) and decorate with purpose.
Oh, well... Now it's July and all I have is a matress, a washing machine, a tiny fridge and bathroom cabinets. What's missing is... basically everything else. No kitchen, no bed frame, no couch, no dinner table, no closet, no decoration, no color on the walls, nothing. I basically live on the floor and on my matress. I'm so goddamned paralyzed by all the stuff I have to do.
I want a colorful apartment, but not *too* colorful because that's visually overwhelming. So i have to decide on a concise color scheme (can't decide though!). I bought Susan Pinsky's book on organizing solutions because I want my apartment to be ADHD friendly (have I managed to read more than one chapter? haha, no). I currently have about 30 neon pink post-it notes on the walls with ideas. I also have about 300 notes brain-dumped in my to-do app. I started several pinterest boards and have even more notes in OneNote. I need to merge them all into one place. I learned from several decluttering YouTubers that everything needs a home in a nicely labeled see-through container. So now my living room is currently littered with several piles of cables and electronics that I tried to sort but got bored halfway through. I still need to give my new adress to every insurance and acquaintance and there's several unopened important-looking letters piling up on the floor.
I know sometimes "good enough" instead of "perfect" is ok. But I will likely stay in this apartment for years, maybe decades, so I want to optimize it as much as I can, I want it "perfect".
And here's the kicker: I just had two weeks of vacation and wanted to hyperfocus on my apartment, because at the end of a normal work week I'm just too exhausted to get anything done. What have I done in those two weeks you ask? Played the newest Monkey Island (fun!), sleep and lay in bed (still tired), sat on my balkony to soak up the sun and read a book for aprox. 45min (should do that more often!), played roughly 50 hours of Merge Mansion and Project Makeover (yay, dopamine!). What have I *not done*? Get anything done in my apartment. Literally nothing. FML why does this have to be so hard!?

Hey everyone! I'm applying this cycle. I graduated in May 2022. I'm looking for some feedback on my school list. I'm planning on applying broadly to MDs and some DOs.
​

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.6 cGPA, 3.45 sGPA, and 4.0 post-bacc GPA (24 credits completed so far, all science)
2. MCAT: 516 (128, 127, 130, 131)
3. State of Residence: New York with ties to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
4. ORM/URM: ORM (Asian) + Female
5. Undergraduate: Top 40 Private School
6. Clinical Experience: 160 hours COVID-19 clinics; 600 hours scribing/medical assistant (300 hours completed, 300 hours projected); 40 hours volunteer program with Alzheimer's patients
7. Non-Clinical Experience: 250 hours soup kitchen volunteer, 150 hours Crisis Text Line
8. Research Experience: 100 hours Alzheimer's Disease research; A semester-long research project in genetics class (1 poster presentation)
9. Other ECs: Vice President of Cooking Club for 2 years; Cultural Club; Mental Health Organization
10. Relevant Honors or Awards: Dean's List for several semesters
11. Anything Else: N/A
12. LORs: Committee Letter (includes letters from humanities, public health, biochemistry, and genetics professors); LOR from scribing physician
13. Hobbies: Cooking/Baking ( I have a food blog lol); Reading

​
Current School List
MD

• Albany Medical College
• Albert Einstein
• Boston University
• Creighton
• Drexel
• Emory
• Geisinger
• George Washington
• Hofstra
• Temple University
• New York Medical College
• NYU Long Island
• NYU (very unrealistic but yolo)
• Stony Brook
• SUNY Downstate
• SUNY Upstate
• Tufts
• University of Buffalo
• University of Massachusetts
• University of Rochester

DO

• NYIT
• PCOM
• Touro (Harlem)

I've read over and over in multiple spaces, so many people with ADHD commenting that one positive thing they get from their ADHD is the capacity for creative, outside-the-box thinking and problem-solving. I am one of those people, to the nth degree.
I'm going to use concrete examples to float my theory with this community, just cuz it's easiest to explain. This is long, so skip to the bolded "Here's my theory," if you want.
I have a ridiculous capacity to figure out how to use completely unrelated materials, articles, etc. to build/create/fix something, For example, I live in a province that is nothing but rock. If you're able to dig a hole 6" deep, you've achieved the unachievable. Add to that annual hurricanes. Punctuate that with a gross shortage of/lack of building materials at the start of the pandemic. I needed to build a privacy wall to block the view from the neighbours to my firepit area. I couldn't sink wood posts deep enough to support them. Even if I could have, there were none, and when there finally were, you needed to take out a second mortage to buy an 8' 2x4. So how was I going to build a privacy wall that wouldn't fall over? That wouldn't wouldn't get pulled down by high winds, blizzards, ice storms, and hurricanes?
Well, I took concrete pile forms, sunk them as deep as I could (about 6") and cemented in ASB pipe, with the cement forms also 6" above ground. With ABS, I build two separate frames (think TinkerToys, for anyone old enough). Once my frames were done, I attached chicken wire (so so far, we've got stable and low wind resistence/wind-proof) and capped the tops so they wouldn't fill with water, freeze, expand and split open. Then I planted vines. Cheap, effective, light-weight. Even my 'can-make-anything' BIL said it was a stroke of genius.
Another example-- I built a large kitchen island (a massive chopping block). I cut a 6" hole to the right, and beneath that was a little shelf with a bucket, so I could swipe compost from chopping straight into the bucket. But how to create a funnel that would put the scraps in the bucket so they wouldn't fall around the sides? It had to be the right size, and *flexible* to pull the bucket in and out. I wandered through all the sections of Home Depot, through Canadian tire, etc. Then EUREKA! The rubber end of a toilet plunger!
Here's my theory-- maybe many ADHD folks' brains didn't 'fully develop' (/s). As children, we can imagine a thousand ways to use something. A blanket isn't just a blanket-- it's a tent, a cape, a magic carpet, etc. As we grow older, we grow out of this, and we can only see items for their intended purpose. A paperclip is a paperclip, and hammer is a hammer, etc. This is known as "functional fixedness." So maybe in that area, our cognitve development got stalled...making us super creative problem-solvers?
I Read this afterward (it touches on the above). I'm still curious, though, about how it's connected to brain development. If someone rabbit-holes this one, can you post here?

I've read over and over in multiple spaces, so many people with ADHD commenting that one positive thing they get from their ADHD is the capacity for creative, outside-the-box thinking and problem-solving. I am one of those people, to the nth degree.
I'm going to use concrete examples to float my theory with this community, just cuz it's easiest to explain. This is long, so skip to the bolded "Here's my theory," if you want.
I have a ridiculous capacity to figure out how to use completely unrelated materials, articles, etc. to build/create/fix something, For example, I live in a province that is nothing but rock. If you're able to dig a hole 6" deep, you've achieved the unachievable. Add to that annual hurricanes. Punctuate that with a gross shortage of/lack of building materials at the start of the pandemic. I needed to build a privacy wall to block the view from the neighbours to my firepit area. I couldn't sink wood posts deep enough to support them. Even if I could have, there were none, and when there finally were, you needed to take out a second mortage to buy an 8' 2x4. So how was I going to build a privacy wall that wouldn't fall over? That wouldn't wouldn't get pulled down by high winds, blizzards, ice storms, and hurricanes?
Well, I took concrete pile forms, sunk them as deep as I could (about 6") and cemented in ASB pipe (plumbing pipe), with the cement forms also 6" above ground. With ABS, I build two separate frames (think TinkerToys, for anyone old enough). Once my frames were done, I attached chicken wire (so so far, we've got stable and low wind resistence/wind-proof) and capped the tops so they wouldn't fill with water, freeze, expand and split open. Then I planted vines. Cheap, effective, light-weight. Even my 'can-make-anything' BIL said it was a stroke of genius.
Another example-- I built a large kitchen island (a massive chopping block). I cut a 6" hole to the right, and beneath that was a little shelf with a bucket, so I could swipe compost from chopping straight into the bucket. But how to create a funnel that would put the scraps in the bucket so they wouldn't fall around the sides? It had to be the right size, and *flexible* to pull the bucket in and out. I wandered through all the sections of Home Depot, through Canadian tire, etc. Then EUREKA! The rubber end of a toilet plunger!
Here's my theory-- maybe many ADHD folks' brains didn't 'fully develop' (/s). As children, we can imagine a thousand ways to use something. A blanket isn't just a blanket-- it's a tent, a cape, a magic carpet, etc. As we grow older, we grow out of this, and we can only see items for their intended purpose. A paperclip is a paperclip, and hammer is a hammer, etc. This is known as "functional fixedness." So maybe in that area, our cognitve development got stalled...making us super creative problem-solvers?
​
Read this afterward (it touches on the above). I'm still curious, though, about how it's connected to brain development. If someone rabbit-holes this one, can you post here?

The Spongebob franchise is widely known and loved by many. But many things in the series don’t make much sense. I am going to try to explain a lot of it. Spoilers ahead.
THE ANIMALS
Spongebob Squarepants, as we all know, is a sponge, specifically an “Aplysina fistularis”. Sponges are in the Porifera phylum and were the first animals to appear on earth. But he is very inaccurate to a real-life sea sponge. For one thing, sponges can’t move. They only move in larvae form. They are asymmetrical animals, lacking definite shape. Spongebob is rectangular shaped (like a sponge you would have in your kitchen), which doesn’t happen in nature. They are the most primitive multicellular animals, as they lack internal organs, nervous tissue, limbs, circulatory systems, respiratory systems, and digestive systems. They are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive parts. They procreate by shooting their reproductive cells into the sea. Sponges can also regenerate body parts, which is shown in the show’s theme song.
Squidward Tentacles, despite his name, is actually an octopus. You can tell by the bulbous head. Octopuses are part of the Cephalopod class in the Mollusk phylum. They are highly intelligent and can camouflage, regrow limbs, jet-propel themselves, and spray ink when in danger. And since octopus lack bones, they can easily squeeze in and out of tight places. They often feed on clams, crabs, and fish. Octopuses have a lifespan of about 2 years, and their lives usually end after mating. The male will die from dementia or being cannibalized by the female, while the female will die from starvation because she sits on the eggs full time. Only about two of the thousands of eggs will survive to adulthood. Not an easy life. Might explain why Squidward is so miserable. Squidward also has a mouth instead of a beak, six limbs instead of eight, and his nose might not actually be a nose.
Patrick Star is a pink starfish, part of the Asteroidea class in the Echinoderm phylum. Patrick is noticeably more humanoid than a normal starfish. Normal starfish have their mouths in the center of their bodies and use their many tiny hydraulic feet to crawl around. Starfish have no blood or brains, and sense through their feet and small eye spots. They reproduce similarly to sponges, but most aren’t hermaphroditic. Starfish feed on oysters, snails, and also sponges. So SpongeBob should have been Patrick’s dinner.
Plankton is a plankton (hence the name). They are microscopic plants (phyto) or animals (zoo) found in water all over the world. He is specifically a crustacean-like species known as a Copepod.
Crabs are Crustaceans in the Arthropod phylum, with jointed appendages and exoskeletons. Mr. Krabs is specifically a red crab, which is about 6 inches long. Larry the Lobster is a spiny red lobster.
Pearl Krabs is a Sperm Whale and Mr. Krabs' (adopted) daughter. Sperm whales are the largest toothed predators in the world, at around 50 feet long, as well as having the largest brain. They are also the loudest animals in the world, and use echolocation to navigate the ocean. Before the discovery of petroleum, whales were hunted for their oil to use as energy. They have a large diet and are famously known to hunt the giant squid. They have four stomachs filled with methane gas, and old perfumes used to be made from ambergris, which is actually aged and hardened sperm whale feces. I bet we are all wondering, what the heck happened to Pearl? She is miles smaller than a normal whale (barely bigger than Krabs) and has arms and legs too.
Sandy Cheeks is a squirrel, and there’s nothing really odd about her except for the fact that she lives underwater. She lives in a dome with a tree and oxygen, and wears a diving suit when she goes outside. She’s also from Texas.
The townspeople of Bikini Bottom consist of many different sea animals, like fish (anchovies, trout, bass, tuna, pufferfish, seahorse, eels, reef fish), sharks, whales, dolphins, eels, reptiles, and seals. The main things that distinguish them from real sea life is their size and the presence of arms and legs. Instead of swimming, they walk around underwater like humans do on land. They also have more primitive creatures, like jellyfish and snails, along with “wild animals” underwater as well, which are just land animals with fins and aquatic features (like the “Sea Bears”). Merpeople are present in Bikini Bottom, but they are also near the size of the other animals. Even Poseidon and Neptune are pretty small, all at least under 3 feet. There are even some “human” characters in the town, in the form of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, but they are the same size as the rest of the characters, which is confusing. Maybe they are also part of the merpeople group? None of this makes much sense.
EXPLANATION
Bikini Bottom is radioactive. Bikini Bottom is under “Bikini Atoll”, a remote coral reef in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 23 islands that surround a 230-square-mile central lagoon. This location was a place where the United States did nuclear tests from 1946 to 1956. The radiation released into the ocean around it affected the sea life in the area (maybe with a hint of magic too). That’s why the animals are so different and more human. As well as changing them physically, it made them smarter. Their town is similar to that of a normal human town, but smaller, underwater, and with animals. The residents wear clothes, use tech and tools, and live in buildings (made of small human items). Another odd thing to note is that there are lakes and pools underwater. But underwater lakes do exist, so that we can explain. In the episode “Feral Friends”, an orb comes around the town and reverts the characters back into normal animals. The world underwater is animated but is live-action out of water. When Spongebob and Patrick got dried out in “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)”, they turned back into normal animals. But when the water turned them back into cartoons, it also turned the other animals into that. The water is full of radiation and affects the sea life it touches. The radioactive water brings them back. Also, “Sponge Out of Water (2015)” marked one of the first times that the characters went on land, but through Bubbles’ magic.
THE TIMELINE
Similar to many other long-running cartoons (Simpsons, Family Guy, Phineas and Ferb), the timeline doesn’t make much sense without explanation. Spongebob was born in 1986, and the show’s first episode was in 1999. Which means he is a teenager in the events of the series. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) was supposed to be the end of the series, but the show kept going on. But I see that the first movie is set in the future, at the end of the whole series (whenever that may be). It is set after the events of the show and other movies. Many of the things from the movie were never featured in future episodes, like Krusty Krab 2, Goofy Goobers, and Neptune's Crown. There are 248 episodes of Spongebob, plus three movies, and each episode covers one or more days. So the events of the show are only happening in the late 90s and early 2000s. Episodes that are futuristic-themed are more parodical, so it’s not required to be included as canon.

Posted to reddit lighting design forum on 5 JUN 2023
I am designing the lighting for a new build residence. The calculations for kitchen lighting suggest that my design needs more lumens than are achievable with available luminaires at a reasonable density of luminaires.
The calculations are based on the formula (sq ft \* chosen fc \* 10.7639 lumens/fc). I am concerned that I am making a glaring error. Please help me identify my problem or incorrect expectations.

COMPONENTS

OVERALL

The kitchen is 287 sq ft with two sides open to other spaces

FOOD PREPARATION COUNTER

Counter area is 23 sq ft.
I chose 90 fc for light Intensity on the counter.
Suggests I need 22.4k lumens.

ISLAND

is 29 sq ft
I chose 45 fc for counter light intensity.
Suggests I need 14.2k lumens

WALKING SPACE

is 202 sq ft
I chose 20 fc for light density
suggests i need 43.5k lumens

DESIGN

I chose to light the kitchen with 4 independent light subsystems to better create unique lighting for different kitchen uses.
· Under cabinet
o This subsystem's task is to light the counter.
o I chose to control it independently as its purpose is to direct a significant amount of light on a specific area for food prep. The kitchen has other uses, however. Hence this high intensity region should be turned off to avoid distraction for other uses.
· Above cabinet
o This subsystem has two uses. Primary use is to assist in lighting the counter as under cabinet lighting can produce only a limited number of lumens. The secondary use of this subsystem is to illuminate the contents of a cabinet when its door is open. The tertiary use of this subsystem is to augment room light.
o I chose to control this subsystem independent of the under cabinet lighting so that the subsystem was available to assist in room lighting without the glare of the under cabinet counter lighting subsystem
· Island
o This subsystem task is to light the top of the island
o I chose to control it independent of all other subsystems so that it could be used for multiple purposes. The primary purpose is to offer lighting during meal times. The secondary use of the subsystem is to light the island for a person who wishes to study on the island. The tertiary use of the subsystem is to offer a dim night light for people navigating to the Kitchen in the night.
· Navigation
o The subsystem task is to light floor used by occupants to get somewhere.
o I chose to control this subsystem independent of all the other kitchen light subsystems so that the subsystem could better serve its multiple uses. The primary purpose of this subsystem is to offer basic light for the kitchen. When an occupant turns on the kitchen lights, He/she is turning on the Navigation lights. The secondary use of the subsystem is to provide background light when eating so that the food area is not the only space lit; the background lifts a dark space into something more pleasant. The tertiary use is as an alternative night light to the island pendant.

FOOD PREPARATION COUNTER

The food preparation counter is illuminated by two independent lighting systems. Undercabinet and recessed ceiling lights positioned to luminate the counter and the contents in the cabinet above the counter.

Undercabinet

Led string offers 706 Lumens/ft for 8 ft producing 5.65k Lumens

Recessed lights

3 Led recessed lights each offering 2k lumens producing a total of 6K Lumens

Total Counter illumination

11.65k lumens generated by chosen lights NOT meeting the above stated design requirements of 22.4k Lumens

ISLAND

The Island is illuminated by a three light pendant. Each light offers 2450 lumens for a total of 7.4k lumens which is considerably less than the desired design requirement of 14.2k Lumens

WALKING SPACE

for the walking area i used 9 recessed led cans each offering 2000 lumens for a total of 18k lumens. The design requirements call for 45.5k)
So my question is this....is my calculation procedure amiss (define too much light for a given subsystem) or do I have unrealistic expectations about the number of lights I need? What am i doing wrong? Please see the attached rendering of the lighting design.
Respectfully
William H. Burling

We’ve seen shadow figures before. One being years ago and it was outside. Our cameras caught it and it appeared to be waiting and pacing back and forth. It literally passed by my dogs and they didn’t do anything. I even saw it thru the window to make sure it wasn’t just our camera. I would describe it as black misty cloud. It wasn’t harming anyone and I’m assuming didn’t mind us seeing it as it appeared daily. Then it stopped appearing out front. But my brother he’s awake late at night and he has seen things outside for years. They are shadow figures and he says they just pass by or stand and disappear. Well my mom recently passed and looks like these figures are coming out a lot more. My brother saw it again outside the other day because our dog was barking late at night and nothing he could see and then a quick shadow passed almost running away and he figured that’s what the dog was barking at. Well last night my partner stays here in the living room for a bit like till 11pm and in the corner of his eye he saw a shadow peeking by our hallway he said he could feel like it looking at him and he looked at that corner and saw nothing so he dismissed it. Well he said he was still looking in the corner of his eye and saw this figure walking to the kitchen because he heard footsteps and my cat just stood looking at it. Then when he looked fully into the kitchen it was gone. These things have always been around never bothered us but why are they more around now since my mom passed? I’ll sometimes see something in the corner of my eyes too but look and there’s nothing.

"Before the break," Chris said over a shot of the speedboat, the perspective a rare side-view of the end of the dock, "the Rats got dibs on a sweet speedboat, "which they'll need." The camera panned on to the winning team standing confidently in their bathing suits, and Leshawna and Geoff shared a quick fist bump.
"Meanwhile," the camera panned to the left past the host and onto the other team, "the Maggots are stuck dodging water mines," the shot kept panning from the glum-looking losers onto their vessel, "in a leaky dinghy that couldn't float in a kiddie pool." True to the host's word, the inflatable boat appeared to have already taken on a little bit of water.
"True!" Geoff teased.
"Choose three campers to water ski, one to drive, and one to operate your gull cannon," Chris continued.
"Gull cannon?" Sammy asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, you heard me," Chris said with a mischievous grin, taking out a remote control, pointing it at the boats, and pressing its single button. With a mechanical whir two identical turrets rose up from the two vessels; multi-barreled things with small sights and a large glass tank on top containing three noticably snake-like gulls.
"Max would definitely go crazy on this," Leshawna commented.
"Each team gets three chances to shoot the bells," Chris explained. "Or the other team. Especially the other team," he grinned darkly.
"This seagull looks abnormal," Scarlett said, kneeling down at the edge of the dock to get a closer look at her team's cannon.
"Ohhh, that's not a seagull," Chris said. "These babies are half seagull, half rattlesnake, all with paralyzing venom."
Scarlett turned her attention back to the glass tank and tapped on the side of it until one of the birds screeched at her, baring its fangs and causing the brainiac to recoil with fright.
Chris laughed. "Whichever team rings the most bells, wins!"
"I'll drive!" Dave quickly suggested. "If that's okay with everybody."
"It is with me," Scarlett said. "I'll be the one operating the gun," she declared before they walked past their teammates.
"So with them driving and shooting, that means we'll be skiing," Anne Maria said.
"I can be on one ski since I'm big," DJ said. "You can take the other one, Anne Maria."
"I did the scuba diving part, so I'll just sit on the dinghy," Molly told her team.
"And I'll be on top of DJ," Katie quickly suggested, much to the brickhouse's own happiness. "There isn't enough space for me on the dinghy," she added awkwardly with a wide grin.
\
The focus cut over to the Rats as Geoff sat down in the driver's seat. "I'm driving," he said confidently, pulling a lever and turning on the engine.
"Shotgun! Been shootin' kitchen rats with my pappy since I was six," Scott said, the camera panning over to him taking control of the boat's weapon.
"I'll be sitting on the boat to watch out for bells," Sierra offered.
"Guess we're skiing?" Sammy said as Trent picked up the tow line's handle.
"I'm more into floatin' then skiin'," Leshawna hesitated.
Chris smiled, then blew an airhorn to signal the start of the challenge. The Rats' speedboat immediately started moving, causing the skiers to gasp as they were frantically pulled along.
The camera zoomed out the Maggots got their start as well, the dinghy moving away from the dock at a much slower pace, enough to drag Katie, Anne Maria, and DJ off the dock but not quite enough to keep them afloat on their skis.
\
The focus flashed back to the Rats' boat. "First place!" Geoff cheered. "This speedboat is already inches away from the Maggots' dinghy."
"Yeah, great," Scott agreed fakely.
The camera cut from them to a trail of bubbles behind the Maggots' accelerating dinghy, which soon revealed themselves to be Anne Maria and DJ on one ski each while Katie sat on DJ's shoulders.
Also rising up from the water was Fang, who snapped his jaws at the Maggot trio earning a startled cry from Anne Maria. "Drive faster!" she called up to her other teammates.
"It doesn't go any faster!" Dave called back to them.
"Keep driving!" Katie called out. "Fang's gonna eat us!"
"Wait! Someone should punch that shark out!" Molly called out.
"You want us to do what?" DJ said, looking over at her in confusion – a sentiment that quickly turned into a scream as Fang surged up behind them again.
Anne Maria took the chance and swung her fist at Fang's nose, causing him to stop chasing the Maggots.
"I don't agree with harming animals, but that shark can stop chasing after us!" Anne Maria said.
Back to Fang, he rubbed his nose that had become red and sore. Casting a look at the Maggots, he snarled at them.
The focus cut to the open water as the speedboat sped in and out of view, then the Maggots' dinghy. "Let's see if we can slow down the Rats," Scarlett called out to Dave as she readied the cannon.
"Hold on!" Molly replied. "We only have three gulls! We need to save them for the bells!"
"I know that, but the rules say that two out of three must be hit to claim victory," Scarlett fired off her cannon. The gull shot past Leshawna and Sammy and Trent – who had gotten into a pyramid formation with the nervous cheerleader on the shoulders of the sista and cool guy – and hit Geoff in the back, and he immediately felt its effects.
"I've been hit!" Geoff cried out in alarm as he stood up. "I've...been...hiiittt..." he slurred, finally toppling over onto the boat's windshield and Sierra immediately ran to his side.
"Geoff?" Sierra struggled to move her teammate. "Rats, we've lost steering!" The shot zoomed out to show the speedboat swerving off-course and plowing into a stand of reeds.
The focus moved ahead back to the Maggots, where Molly was looking back. "Now we're in the lead," she said with a smile before turning back to the course.
The perspective moved to show through Scarlett's cannon's aiming sight as the cross-hairs aligned with the bell. She readied her canon but was distracted by another gull, whizzing through and ringing the bell. The mine exploded as the Maggots passed by it, and they half-cheered, half-screamed.
"Great shot Scarlett!" Dave called back to the gunner.
"That wasn't me," Scarlett replied bitterly.
Just then the Rats sped by; Geoff still slumped over the windshield while the skiers cheered and congratulated Scott on his shot. "Great shot Scott!" Trent in particular was heard saying.
"Yeah, whoo," Scott pretended to be happy. "Stupid gun. That shot should've been way off!" he quietly said.
"OMG, we're losing!" Katie cried out as the focus cut back to the Maggots as they approached the second mine.
Scarlett cocked her cannon and fired her gull, which hit the bell. The Maggots cried out as the mine exploded right by them, and Scarlett grinned in relief.
Back to the Rats, Geoff was shivering from the gull he got hit by and still couldn't drive. He then accidentally pulled the gear stick back, causing the speedboat to slow to a stop and the waterskiing Rats to crash and fall into the boat and their skis to wander off.
"The Maggots are ahead!" Sammy cried out in alarm as the skiers got to their feet.
"And we've lost our skis," Trent added.
"Yeah, well Geoff got delirious," Scott replied.
"Everyone, chill," Leshawna ceased the argument. "I got a plan. Sammy, drive the boat. Scott, keep gunning the cannon. Sierra, continue to lookout. Trent, we'll be riding with Geoff."
"Are you sure it's a good idea to use him as a sled without his permission?" Trent questioned.
"He won't feel a thing in his condition, and I have that covered," Leshawna smirked in response.
\
The footage skipped ahead to the Rats back in motion, the members in position according to Leshawna's plan – Sammy driving, Scott at the cannon, Sierra seated, and Trent and Leshawna using Geoff as a ski.
"Nice plan, Leshawna!" Sammy called to her with a smile.
"Your skills in leadership are impressive!" Trent complimented.
"You can flatter me later. For now, keep this boat up to speed," Leshawna said.
\
Another flash took the scene to the Maggots, their boat moving to the right with Molly looking at the Rats.
"The Rats are back in the race!" Molly called out.
"I can prevent that from happening," Scarlett said as she readied another shot... only for the cannon to explode presumably by a jammed gull.
"Are you okay?" Dave asked. Scarlett coughed up a few feathers in response.
"Look out!" Molly yelled. Dave looked to the direction she was pointing, then cried out in shock.
Moments later, the dinghy crashed in to a tall rock jutting out of the lake, knocking the Maggots off their feet and causing their waterskiing teammates to crash and fall into the boat in turn.
The Rats sped past them, all cheering. "Guys! There's the last mine!" Sierra called out as the camera quickly panned to the bell on the mine.
Confessional: Scott
"No way we can win! Winning will ruin my plan! So I've got to be smart here," Scott planned.
Confessional Ends
Scott looked around to check if nobody was looking at him. Seeing that the coast was clear, he aimed the gun at Sammy and stung her left shoulder with a gull.
"Am I over the rainbow with unicorns?" Sammy's eyes widened deliriously, then glazed over as she passed out.
"Oh my gosh! Sammy's unconscious somehow!" Scott yelled out, causing them to spiral out of control.
The camera cut back to the Maggots. "Now we're done for," Anne Maria moaned.
"We're not that far from the last bell," Katie pointed to the lone mine in the water.
"How are we gonna reach that?" Molly said to her team.
"Don't worry!" DJ yelled and stood up on one of the rocks. "I know what to do!" He picked him a sausage from breakfast from his shorts and hurled it at the mine with full strength.
Meanwhile, the Rats sped along uncontrolably until they hit a particularly ramped-shaped rock. The boat, and the three inside it, were sent off flying while Trent and Leshawna fell into the water and Geoff was sent flying through the air.
The camera cut to a shot of the sausage flying through the air, then Geoff screaming through the air, then to the two crashing into each other. They fell onto the mine and plunged it underwater, with the sausage being the one to touch the bell first.
The camera backed away, becoming the view through a pair of binoculars.
"No explosion?" Chris said from the dock, the camera cutting to his side as he lowered the binoculars. "Not cool," he turned and told Chef.
Moments later, an explosion from off-screen lit up the area, and the camera moved behind the two adults just in time to catch the plume of smoke and water rising up from the lake and dissipating just as quickly.
"Ka-boom!" the host laughed.
\
"And the Maggots win!" Chris announced as the footage skipped ahead to the winning team assembled on the beach. They cheered for their victory.
"Nice shot, DJ!" Katie told him.
"I just wanted to get out of the water," DJ admitted.
The focus cut over to the Rats as they washed up on the beach.
"What happened?" Sammy asked in a slightly dazed tone.
"Scarlett had a lucky shot, I guess," Scott answered.
"Scarlett, or the guy who shot kitchen rats back home?!" Leshawna scowled at Scott, who returned it back.
Confessional: Leshawna
"I'm no dummy. Scarlett's gun was jammed, so the only functioning one had to be Scott's, and he used it to harm Sammy," Leshawna explained.
"One way or another, I'm gonna make sure this rat is out of here!"
Confessional Ends
The shot cut to the Rat girls inside their cabin at nighttime. "I don't know about you, but Scott has to go," Leshawna spoke up. "He's been acting real slimy."
"Uh, I don't know. He reminds me more of a jerk rather than a bully," Sammy admits sheepishly.
"I don't know him much, but he's not evil," Sierra said before noticing someone under Leshawna's bunk bed and pulled it out to show a black bag.
"Um, what's inside that bag?" Sammy asked.
Sierra opened the bag and gasped dramatically. "It's all the stolen items!"
"What the heck?" Leshawna exclaimed.
It was then that the Rat boys came. "Is something the matter?" Trent asked.
"Leshawna has all our stuff!" Sierra said accusingly.
Sammy took all of the stolen items out. "Trent's guitar, Scott's shark tooth, Molly's mp3 player, and even Anne Maria's hairbrush!"
"Leshawna... you're a thief?" Geoff exclaimed.
Confessional: Scott
"Yeah, I stole that stuff. Threw my shark tooth in there too. I was gonna pin it on Sierra, but Leshawna got too smart for her own good. So I just slipped that bag under her bed," Scott mentioned while whittling. "Yep. There's only room on this island for one smart guy."
Confessional Ends
The scene cut to both teams outside with Leshawna in the middle as everyone focused their gaze on her. "I'm being honest here when I say someone set me up!" Leshawna said.
"Forget that. You're gettin' a beat down," Anne Maria declared, holding her hairbrush up.
Molly held her by her arm as she listened to her music. "I'm angry as well, but we have all of our stuff back."
"Everyone, calm down," Scott interjected. "This is a Rat problem, and we'll deal with this Rat tonight."
Everyone went back to their cabins, although Scott and Leshawna stayed back. "See you at elimination," Scott taunted Leshawna and left her alone to sigh.
\
The crackle of a campfire rose over the night's chorus as the camera cut to the moon high in the sky. The scene panned down to a bush rustling just at the edge of the clearing, then zoomed out to show the six Rats – Trent on the left, then Sierra, Geoff, Sammy, Scott, and Leshawna on the far right end – seated all in a line in the front row of stump seats around the fire pit. Their eyes were a mixture of sadness and disappointment as they looked towards the just-off-screen host, and the ceremony began.
"After an episode bursting with betrayal, it's the Rats who have back-stabbed the best," Chris began, Chef already standing by with his hazmat suit and strongbox. "Following campers are momentarily safe," the host continued, holding up his tray of five ordinary marshmallows.
"Trent," he threw the first treat to the guitarist, who caught it.
"Sammy," the camera panned over to the cheerleader next as she caught his treat.
"Geoff," the marshmallow was handed over to the party boy.
"And Sierra," the host said next, tossing the eager Sierra the penultimate marshmallow from the tray.
"And, the Toxic Marshmallow of Loserdom goes to...," Chris said as Chef plucked the glowing thing from the box and held it in his tongs.
Leshawna and Scott began to look at each other with scowls.
"Leshawna."
"What?" Leshawna gaped and ducked under her toxic marshmallow. "You guys voted for me?"
"You did steal my guitar," Trent said firmly. "That's personal to me."
"How many times do I have to tell you I didn't steal anything?" Leshawna huffed.
"All evidence points to you. Who else had that bag under our bunk beds?" Scott remarked snidely.
"He's got you there, Leshawna," Geoff added.
"I haven't even been near the Maggots once, and what would I even want with those items that were stolen?" Leshawna attempted to reason with them.
"That is an excellent question, but you have to go or else I'll have my assistant drag you down the dock," Chris threatened.
Seeing that she had no choice, Leshawna groaned and made her way to the dock.
The screen flipped around a central axis, transitioning the scene to the Dock of Shame with Leshawna sitting in the bucket of the Hurl of Shame.
"I'm kinda sad to see you go," Chris told the eliminated girl. "You could've easily won the season."
Just then, Sammy arrived at the end of the dock. "Sorry to see you leave like this."
"Thanks for the support," Leshawna told her with a smile. "You do believe what I said about the stolen objects, right?"
"I know you wouldn't steal stuff from us. You're more honorable than that," Sammy pointed out.
"You really are a sweetheart. Word of advice, I think the person that took everyone's stuff was-" Leshawna said before Chef pulled the lever, flinging her screaming into the night sky.
"Whoops. I really wanted to hear what she would say to you," Chris said with sarcasm, turning around to face the camera as the series' capstone theme began to play while Sammy went back to his cabin. "Make sure to stay tuned for more Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"
(Roll the Credits)

Toxic Rats: Geoff, Scott, Trent, Leshawna, Sammy, Sierra
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ
Episode 05: Backstabbers Ahoy
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened, the standard shot of the island quickly cutting to a clip of the campers hurriedly assembling in the common area between cabins as the recap montage began. "Twelve campers went on a scavenger hunt," a close-up of the screen that showed the scavenger hunt locations was next, "that was spoo~ky~!" he said in an appropriate tone, several scary eyes opening up in the hollow of a tree. "And very, very, painful," he added with a laugh as Leshawna was shown getting choked by the squid-tree while some of her teammates threw rocks at both her and the tentacle, and Geoff ran right into a minefield and got blown up.
"And when we thought it couldn't get any weirder," the host continued over a shot of Dave being wrapped up by the spider, "Arachna-Izzy showed up to do an eight-legged tap dance for a captive audience and her buddy Chef," the wild child's reveal was shown as was her shooting plungers at Chef. "Which turned out to be not so fun for her," Dave was shown pounding on the spider's abdomen.
"In the end, Katie left five teammates behind," the sweet girl was shown getting on the zipline, "and lost the challenge for her team," The Maggots were at the elimination ceremony. "Someone would've been eliminated, but I decided to be swell and call it a non-elimination just to keep tensions running," Chris laughed a bit. "And I also brought Sierra back into the game for fun," Sierra coming in unannounced was shown.
"Hey, it's my show. I can do what I want," the host said as the montage ended to show him standing on the Dock of Shame. "Who will ride the Hurl of Shame next? How many times can I laugh at them, before then? Find out right now, on Total! Drama! Revenge of the Island!"
XXXXX
A shot of the morning sun opened the episode, a flock of geese flying across the sky in formation in the distance. The scene cut to the girls of the Maggot cabin, the camera angled to show Katie and Scarlett awake.
The shot cut in close to Scarlett as she was deep in thought. "It's pretty fortunate for us to not lose a teammate last episode." Scarlett started her conversation with Katie.
Katie, who was brushing her hair, stopped when she was finished. "I know. Even though we lost, we still won in a way."
"But something still questions me about last time," Scarlett continued.
"What is it?" Katie wondered.
"I'm curious who would've gotten voted out since Chris didn't reveal the votes at all during our elimination ceremony," Scarlett explained.
Katie got uneasy hearing that. "Oh, I'm curious as well." She let out an awkward chuckle.
Scarlett easily saw how nervous her bunkmate was acting, and decided to press on. "You're not looking very comfortable. Care to explain what is bothering you?"
"The thing is, I voted for-" Katie tried to say, but was interrupted by Molly opening the cabin door.
"Good morning everyone," Molly greeted the two girls.
"Oh, Molly's here," Katie changed the subject. "Hi."
Confessional: Katie
"If I'm being honest, I voted for Scarlett in the last challenge," Katie admitted. "She was kind of acting cold towards us and didn't even feel as bad for our teammates getting captured."
Confessional: Scarlett
"She didn't say it, but I know they voted for me," Scarlett grimly said. "I suppose it's because of how I came off not showing my sympathies for my endangered teammates or for being too intellectual for them." She smiled proudly. "It would've been their loss had they gotten rid of me for I am the more academically skilled member of the bunch."
Confessionals End
"Guess what I found at the bonfire?" Molly eagerly said.
"What could you have found that would be beneficial for us?" Scarlett skeptically asked.
"I found this old mp3 player by one of the stumps," Molly pulled out the object. "I don't know how it got there, but I'm keeping it."
"If it's so old, why are you gonna keep it?" Katie asked her.
"It plays all the indie music from my favorite bands," Molly answered. "Modest Mouse, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, those types of people."
"I've never heard of them," Katie said. "Sorry."
"Well you're missing out," Molly shrugged before leaving.
Scarlett and Katie watched her leave for a few seconds before Scarlett turned to Katie. "If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan of indie-themed activities."
Confessional: Molly
Molly was listening to one of her indie bands on her mp3. "Come on, skinny love, just last the year!"
Confessional Ends
A pleasant tune played as the scene moved to a shot of the lake, a few red birds flying and tweeting past the camera. The perspective inverted to show Anne Maria sitting in one of the stump seats of the bonfire pit, filing her nails as a woodpecker stood on top of her poking at her hair.
"Hey, I wasn't expecting to see you up here so early," Geoff said, walking up from the right and immediately attracting Anne Maria's attention. He was in his swimsuit rather than his usual attire.
"I didn't have much of a choice," Anne Maria said. "Katie's snorin' is drivin' me nuts, and Scarlett is kooky with her sleep analysis or whatever."
"So you're doing your hair care out here?" Geoff wondered.
"Yup," Anne Maria replied. "Why are you out in your swim shorts?"
"The water was feeling pretty cool and refreshing, and I wanted to salvage the moment as quickly as I could," Geoff answered.
"I would've been in the ocean, but I have to be fully tanned before I can go into any form of liquid," Anne Maria continued.
"Your body is tanned?" Geoff widened. "Do you use orange paint?"
This comment quickly offended the hairspray girl. "Excuse me?! Did you just disrespect my tan?!" Anne Maria glared at the party boy.
Geoff instantly realized his mistake. "No no no. I'm just saying that I like your tan. It's pretty cool."
Anne Maria cooled down. "Oh right. Now I get it."
Confessional: Geoff
"If you didn't know, I tend to slip up when talking to chicks," Geoff opened up. "Anne Maria's a babe, and a super hot one, but I have to watch what I say if I don't want to get messed up."
Confessional Ends
The scene flashed to the girls' side of the Rat cabin, where Sammy was sleeping in her bed peacefully, until she got woken up by Sierra snapping a photo of her.
"Sierra! I'm trying to sleep!" Sammy shouted in anger, causing Sierra to be frightened.
"Sorry Sammy. I was just updating the sleeping section of this season's profile!" Sierra said happily.
"Sleeping section?" Leshawna said in bewilderment. "Who would want to see us sleep?"
"I don't even want to know," Sammy mumbled.
Confessional: Sierra
"Apparently, the viewers love to see the contestants in their pajamas," Sierra said. "They probably want to make fanart of them."
Confessional: Sammy
"Was I being mean back there? Sorry," Sammy sheepishly said. "I usually get cranky if I don't get my full hours of sleep, and with Sierra back, it's going to get worse."
Confessionals End
Over on the boys' side of the Rat cabin, Trent was putting on his shirt in order to get dressed fully. "Getting dressed is done. Now to play some music to get my day off on the right foot."
The cool guy got on his knees and stuck his hand under his bunk bed to find his guitar, and his face became more and more worried as he couldn't find his instrument.
"I swear I put my guitar under here!" Trent said to himself while peeking under his bunk.
Scott entered the cabin and saw Trent's predicament. "What seems to be tugging on your strings, guitar boy?" he asked.
"Someone stole my guitar," Trent responded. "I remember placing it under my bunk bed, but now there's no sight of it."
"Ultra fangirl returns, guitar goes AWOL. Do the math, and come eat breakfast before you starve of paranoia," Scott told Trent.
Confessional: Trent
"Scott's on the rough side, but he does have a point about me not needing to overreact about my guitar being taken," Trent stated. "Someone probably just took it as a practical joke, and I'm sure they'll return it back to me."
Confessional Ends
A loon called as the scene moved to the Mess Hall, cutting inside to the Mutant Maggots, who were seated at the forward table this time around, while the Toxic Rats had been forced to claim the table closer to the kitchen. All of them were eating what appeared to be trays of mostly meat – bacon and roast chicken and some kind of intestines, with a bit of mashed potatoes and an apple on the side.
DJ was in line with his tray out. After it got filled with breakfast, he smiled a bit. "This is looking pretty good," he said to Chef, to which the cook actually smiled in appreciation.
Dave walked up to DJ with his own tray. "This is too much protein," he complained out of Chef's view to DJ.
"I know," DJ told his friend. "I'm gonna see if I can use this to make a gift for Katie."
"Why do you wanna do that?" Dave asked him. "Are you into her?"
DJ looked at Katie making a house out of her food. "Look at her. She's creative, sweet, and totally full of life."
"I didn't know you were interested in her," Dave said.
"I didn't realize my feelings for her until later on," DJ told him before walking to the right. "I'm gonna go see if there's any more leftovers for my gift."
"Attention campers!" Chris announced through the loudspeaker. "Breakfast is cutting in to precious time that you could spend getting injured!" The shot cut to the loudspeaker outside as Chris laughed. "Grab your swimsuits and meet me at the dock, pronto!"
The campers, who'd already gathered in the middle of the lodge aside from Dave and DJ, began to groan and complain. "You have ten seconds to exit the Mess Hall," Chris added, "before I release...The Raccoon!"
"The raccoon?" Anne Maria repeated in disbelief, and the ten teens started to laugh as the camera pulled back and a large crate was lowered down from the ceiling on chains. It stopped just before it hit the floor, and the campers immediately looked at it with dread.
The front face of it was punched off, revealing the giant mutant raccoon inside. It roared, and with a shriek the two teams fled the building.
The camera cut to the entrance to the kitchen, where DJ was wheeling in a service cart full of the morning meal and whistling to himself. "Hey," he asked, apparently not hearing the warning. "Where y'all goin'? Oh well," he shrugged. "I'm gonna see what I can take from this cart!"
He put the meat into his shorts, unaware of the menacing shadow creeping toward him.
\
The scene cut outside to the campers catching their breaths, Chris watching them nearby with an impish smile.
"What were you thinking?" Scarlett asked him. "We could've been viciously assassinated by that intoxicated raccoon!"
Chris just laughed. "Nah, only if you got between him and food." He sent a pensive look off-screen and said "Team Maggot, looks like you're still missing a player."
The camera cut to the main lodge, where DJ was tossed out of a window with a scream.
"Nevermind," Chris said jovially.
\
The footage flashed ahead to the two teams assembled on the Dock of Shame in their swimsuits – On the left: DJ in his usual shorts, Katie in a white and black striped bikini, Scarlett in a black one-piece, Molly in a purple dotted two-piece, Anne Maria in a bikini with the same color scheme as her top, and Dave in a white tank top and a pair of trunks consisting of his normal attire's colors; On the right: Leshawna in a teal speedo, Scott in his red swim trunks, Sierra in a light and lime green bikini, Trent in his orange and brown swim trunks, Sammy in a white bikini, and Geoff in his normal shorts; Chris was in the middle. Each team also had an old-fashioned diving suit connected by hose to a hand pump lying between them and the host.
"Alright," Chris began, "here to help us get today's competition underway, say hello to one of our classic competitors, Brick!"
He motioned to the side and the camera zoomed out as the cadet arrived at the dock in a patched-up red canoe.
"I'm ready to go," Brick told the host, "but remember," he gave a reminder, "my contract said demonstration only."
"Relax," Chris smiled, "no demo needed! Just chum the water and try not to get eaten."
Brick reached into the canoe and picked up a bucket of green slop. He took one whiff of it and retched. "What is this stuff?" he asked in disgust.
"Leftovers," Chris grinned, "from last season."
"This almost smells as nasty as my boots," Brick shuddered.
It was then that Fang rose out of the water and chomped down on the end of the boat, devouring the bit of chum that had been spilled on it and forcing Brick to yelp and dart over to the back of the canoe.
"This is highly not acceptable!" Brick scolded him.
"Challenge, part one!" Chris moved on. "Each team must get a pair of water-skis in an underwater mission." The shot cut underwater as he spoke, showing two sets of water skis tied to a pair of rocks on the lake bed. A school of vicious, spiny fish swam past from the right to the left, and a second later a school of eels passed through from the opposite direction. "Or drown trying," the host added as the camera zoomed in on the skis.
"One victim-I mean camper," Chris continued with a sly look, "will snag the skis in an old-school diving suit," he held up the Rats' suit, "and float them to the surface while the rest of their team pumps them oxygen," he held up the Maggots' pump. "First team to surface their skis wins, and gets an advantage in part two."
\
The focus moved to the Maggots, Molly standing before her teammates and holding the diving suit's helmet. "Listen up Maggots. I'm diving."
"No problem with me," DJ agreed. "I'm not good with water, so I'll pump the air."
"Just consider it my way of making it up to you for the ice challenge," Molly said before feeling her pockets, only to realize something. "Who took my mp3 player?"
Confessional: DJ
"When I was eight, my brothers dared me to jump off the high-dive platform at the pool. I jumped, but I landed on my butt, and my trunks went so far up my butt, I had to go to the hospital and get them removed. They invited a new word for what I did. The wedgie flop. I've been afraid of water ever since," DJ explained his fear of water.
Confessional Ends
The focus moved to the Rats, Geoff at the center of their attention. "So who's gonna pump and who's gonna dive?"
"I got captured first last episode, so I'll pump the air just to show that I'm not useless," Sammy went to the hose.
"Sierra, you just came back, so you can dive in order to prove yourself to us," Scott suggested.
"Of course I'll dive," Sierra said. "I'm a certified swimmer."
Confessional: Scott
"That was much easier than I thought it'd be," Scott quipped.
Confessional Ends
"Ready?" Chris asked, now standing between Molly and Sierra, the two now fully dressed in their diving suits. Molly smirked confidently at her opponent, with Sierra doing the same, and with a sharp "GO!" from the host, the two were off.
The shot immediately cut underwater as the two splashed down and sank to the lake bed. The perspective moved behind them as they looked ahead to the tied-up skis in the distance, and after sharing a brief glance the two raced off...rather slowly through the water, thanks to the heavy suits and water pressure. The camera focused on Sierra as she suddenly stopped as though her hose had been caught on something.
She looked back and the camera panned to follow, revealing Fang holding back the uberfan's hose with a single hand. He grinned toothily, and Sierra screamed.
The scene moved back above the water, focusing on the Rats. Sammy was currently pumping with Leshawna and Scott watching her, and Geoff and Trent were leaning off the edge of the dock to watch Sierra's progress.
"Tired already, Pom-pom?" Scott asked the cheerleading girl as her breathing became heavier.
Leshawna took Sammy off the pump. "It's okay," the sista said. "I can do it for you!" She pumped so furiously that the hose started bulging as air pockets moved down it.
The scene cut back to Fang swimming viciously at Sierra; the girl turned around and screamed just as the bulging air pocket moved through the hose towards her...blowing up her suit like a balloon, causing Fang to ram into her and bounce off.
"You better get those skis, girl!" Anne Maria shouted near Scarlett as the camera cut back above the water.
"Yeah, keep up the pace," Dave added halfheartedly while kneeling on the dock.
The camera panned away from them and on to Katie and DJ, the latter operating the pump while the former talked to him...absentmindedly standing on the hose while doing so.
"Nice muscles you got on," Katie told DJ sincerely.
"Can I ask you something?" DJ said.
"Sure," Katie replied, looking up at her teammate. "What do you want to ask me?"
"What's your favorite kind of food?" DJ asked Katie. "Mine is gumbo, especially when made by my Momma."
"I like bacon. You can put it on any food you want, and they've been useful for my vlogs," Katie said.
"Bacon wouldn't go great with gumbo if you're thinking about that," DJ joked with the sweet girl.
"I know that. I'm not off the wall," Katie laughed at his sentence. As she spoke, the camera focused down on the slowly-growing bulge in the hose, trapped from moving onward by Katie's weight.
Confessional: Katie
"DJ is such an attractive guy," Katie swooned. "Is this what having a real life crush is like?"
Confessional Ends
The shot cut back underwater, Molly eagerly approaching the water skis...until she suddenly gasped, stopped, and held her breath with a look of shock. She frantically started tugging on her hose, and the scene returned to the edge of the dock as the other end of the hose began to yank and twang.
Scarlett quickly noticed it, and moved her wide gaze up the hose to Katie's feet. "What are you doing standing on the hose?" she asked sternly while pulling Katie off. "You're blocking the air." The air pocket finally rushed down to the hose.
Back underwater Molly's face had started to lose a bit of color as she kept on tugging at the hose. The air bubble finally reached her, and she let out a sigh of relief.
Back up shore, Katie started to feel really guilty. "I'm so sorry about that. I didn't know."
Confessional: Katie
"I almost killed Molly," Katie said in regret. "She's annoying sometimes, but that doesn't warrant murder."
Confessional Ends
The static cut away to the Rats, Leshawna continuing to pump air at a fast pace.
"This is taking forever!" Scott complained while holding his wood. "I gotta whittle something." He put his hand on his pocket. "Wait, where's my lucky shark tooth? Sierra must've stole it!" Scott thought out loud. "Like she stole Music Note's guitar and Indie Lady's mp3."
Anne Maria heard the commotion and came over. "Sierra couldn't steal a TV in a riot," she explained.
"Think about it. That girl's been obsessed with getting information about the show, even us," Scott replied.
Anne Maria proceeded to pat herself down. "As if, there's no proof that-" she retorted until something caught her attention. "Hey. Where's my hairbrush?" The jersey shore reject grew angry. "Oh, that is it! Sierra's getting a beat down!"
The scene flashed back underwater where Fang had gotten a hold of Sierra's air hose and was using her as a punching bag. The hose snapped from the unintended stress and the obsessive girl was sent flying through the water.
Sierra got to the Rats' skis first. Her diving suit knocked Molly down and smacked into the rock holding the skis, the force was enough to dislodge them; seconds later the two skis floated up to the surface.
A ship's horn was blown, and Chris called out "The Rats win the first challenge!" over the shot of Sierra flying out of the water between the skis with a scream.
/
"The Rats are the first to grab water skis," Chris announced over a shot of everyone assembled on the dock, "and their reward?" he said as a light-skinned female intern with a black ponytail drove a speedboat up to the Rats' side of the dock. "A McLean Brand Speedboat to use in part two of the challenge."
"Cool!" Trent cheered in excitement.
"Yeah baby!" Leshawna chimed in, the rest of their teammates smiling.
"And for the Maggots," Chris turned to the losers, a spluttering engine attracting their attention to the lake as well as the southeast Asian male intern drove up an inflatable boat to the left side of the dock. "A totally leaky dinghy!"
The six Maggots groaned and hung their heads in disappointment.
"This is almost too easy," Scott chuckled to himself before he saw Sierra catch up to the Rats with her diving suit torn up.
"Did we win the advantage?" Sierra told the farm boy.
"We sure did…stealer!" Scott muttered the last part under his breath.
"Part two of the challenge," Chris continued, briefly holding up two fingers as he continued his exposition, "a death-defying water ski race! The goal? Be the first to ring four bells on these four totally harmless buoys."
As he spoke, the shot cut first to one of the bells, then zoomed out to show it – and the others floating nearby – were attached to the top of what were very obviously sea mines. Brick arrived just then, the cadet frantically paddling his canoe up to one of the mines. He bumped into it just as Chris proclaimed its harmlessness, and the cameo and canoe were blown away by the resulting explosion.
Chris laughed. "Make that three bells," he corrected as a screaming Brick landed on the dock beside him. "See?" he told the slightly-charred young man. "You totally got to demo the challenge." The host then looked at the camera. "Who will cry for their mommy? And who's cries will be drowned out by explosions?" he asked with a wide smile. "Find out when we return." He looked down at Brick, who coughed out a little more soot.
\
(Commercial Break)
\

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, enlistment offices all across the United States began to be filled by young men eager to enact revenge for what the Empire of Japan had done at Pearl Harbor. The offices would stay busy for a long, long time. It was a dangerous job, with life and limb at serious risk, and many more young men would join the Army and Navy by conscription. Lesser celebrated, and likely they’d have it no other way, were whole second armies of support personnel. These would be nurses, middle-aged clerks too old and or fat to fight, surveyors, engineers, and merchant sailors.
Some would be spies or intelligence men working for the Office of Strategic Services. Others were mysterious ne’er-do-wells, scoundrels who were very good at the procurement of various goods. Some would be anthropologists and translators, eager to help obscure native communities deal with the technologically advanced war tearing the island worlds asunder. Some would be entertainers for the USO, there to help with morale, doing what they were best at, whether it was telling jokes or dancing beautifully. Others might be war correspondents, to communicate, in a highly censored way, what was going on to the folks back home. Then there were the bean counters. Everybody overlooked the bean counters.
Many of the combat veterans, and even some of the non-combat personnel, would never make it home again. Others made it home, but only after being maimed and scarred in body and mind. Yet most would make it home. All of them would have stories to tell, though many would never tell their stories. There was a culture of silence during the war, ‘loose lips sink ships.’ It wasn’t just a catchy phrase, people took it to heart. It became a habit. Even long after the war was over people kept their lips zipped shut.
And yet, there were still millions and millions of stories, and some of them would be recorded. They might be memoirs committed to paper years later. Then again, many of these people kept diaries. They would write home every chance they get. Officers as a regular part of their duties were constantly writing up reports. Every single one would end up being read by someone, somewhere, and passed up the chain depending on its importance, or filed away if the chain ended there. With every battle won or lost, extensive analyses were conducted on what went right and what went wrong, and how we could do better. Actions of bravery were written up for recommendations for medals or promotions. Every serious infraction meant a court-martial, and court martials left transcripts. Bitter denouements and protests were written when it was felt officers weren’t living up to their duties, and in these cases, the lips were zipped especially tight, but the reports themselves were poured over. Every location where the U.S. went, whether it was the location of a battleground, a ranging area for artillery, site for a depot, or a road used to transport was thoroughly mapped and described in detail.
Then there were the bean counters. How many 20 mm shells does it take, on average, to knock down a Val dive bomber? How many pints of A-positive blood should be stocked in a forward field hospital? How many gallons of ice cream are needed to keep a company of Marines in good fighting spirit? The bean counters might not know, but they recorded everything down just in case you wanted to sift through the data, and a lot of people did. The data would end up having a massive contribution to the war effort.
Last were two groups of material that were never meant to see the light of day. The sort of thing that ought to be recorded, but then hidden away only for the purview of top men. The first is information you might expect would cause classification or a cover-up. Disastrous friendly fire incidents. Accusations and or confessions of war crimes. State secrets involving intelligence on enemies and allies both.
Then there’s the other tranche of material. The stuff that defies explanation. Secrets from the hidden corners of the earth that were never meant to be revealed until some young farmboys from a country far away showed up in places where they were never supposed to be.
The following provides an example.
Excerpts from the personal diary of Second Lieutenant Yvette Morgan, Army Nursing Corps, 231st Hospital Group, Normandy region of France, July and August 1944. Aged 20 at the time of writing.
Note: Most American personnel in WWII were restricted from keeping personal diaries for counterintelligence purposes. It was not uncommon that this restriction was flaunted, particularly among personnel with the luxury of a little bit of privacy. Lt. Morgan seems to have understood the purpose of the restriction, and so the redactions in the following excerpts are her own. A careful eye will note she’s made a couple of errors, which is why censorship should be left to the professionals.
July 30th, 1944- Just got off the truck and finally made it back ‘home.’ Just spent all ‘day,’ helping set up the field hospital. We’ve commandeered a high school in the little town of St. A. I think it’s going to work out pretty well. There’s a gym with a tall ceiling and high windows, which means good natural lighting, so we’re setting that up as an operating room. We’ve got about six beds in each classroom, which is just about the number you’d like. The corridors are nice and wide enough to handle gurneys, and there’s plenty of room out front for the ambulances. I don’t think we could have found a better location outside of a purpose-built actual hospital.
The real work starts tomorrow. Well, today, I guess. They ought to be taking patients right about the time I’m writing this. I drew the short stick, and now I’m stuck with the overnight shift. That’s my luck for you. Back home that would have meant at least it would be pretty quiet, but I don’t think that’s going to apply to this kind of duty.
“Home” is actually this nice little old cottage they’ve set me up with, and four other girls. It’s in the tiny commune of L. It’s actually about ten miles from the hospital, not far from the sea. Every shift they’re going to drive us back and forth in these trucks. Seems like an awful waste of gasoline to me, but what do I know? The whole reason they’re doing this is because the hospital’s technically in range of German artillery, and they like to keep staff like us out of harm's way when we’re not needed. I suppose we won’t be in range much longer anyway. That said, Capt. G says the front line’s been stalled out for a while. He says it’s slow going with all these enormous hedgerows they grow everyplace around here. I never knew they could grow so big, they must be hundreds of years old. I thought the poplar windbreaks they started growing back home after the Dust Bowl were impressive, but they’ve got nothing on these things. We can still hear the guns, though. They’re a long way off, and kind of sound like thunder, though you can tell they’re not because the sky is perfectly clear. At least, I hope, they’re mostly our guns.
The morning’s still a little chilly, but it promises to be a warm day. I’m going to have to get used to sleeping through it. After long last summer is really here. The cottage itself is lovely. I can’t help but wonder about the people who really make this home. There’s a delightful flower garden in front and just the most precious herb garden right outside the kitchen window. When I get married and we have a home, I’m going to insist on one just like it.
The other girls? Well, what can I say. 5 of us all sharing this little place, at least we’ll be working different shifts mostly. I’m sure we’ll get by swimmingly.
July 31st- Just got back and finished breakfast for dinner. Part of me still wishes I were at work. If I were at a civilian hospital I still would be. Funny how the military insists on sticking to the scheduled shift and they order me to go home and get some sleep. I might get used to such regimentation.
I say this as if I’m not completely exhausted and overwhelmed. I’m sure I’ll sleep tonight. Today, whatever. As I’d suspected, we had our first wounded in during the morning shift. Most of them had been through the Mobile Advanced hospital and had been at least looked over by a doctor. Plenty had already gone through an initial surgery, just to stabilize them, close gaping wounds, and tie off arteries. It was really crude stuff, but I suppose that’s the point. Our doctors opened them back up and fixed them up properly. There were a few walking wounded, shrapnel wounds, and nasty burns we were able to help out too. I feel glad to be part of such a great team. I spent the first half of my shift assisting in two different surgeries. Then the last half attending the wards.
I had hoped that would be more peaceful. Our boys are so brave, even when you can tell they’re really broken up over what they’ve been through. And yet it wasn’t meant to be.
I mentioned that St. A.’s was within range of German artillery. Well, there was an attack last night, early this morning, I’m still not used to the schedule. They didn’t hit the hospital. They hit the other side of town. It was loud enough to shake all of the windows, and even the ground shook. It scared the daylights out of me. Some of the boys yelled too. A couple of them fell out of their beds and tried to hide underneath. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through that a second time, let alone time after time, day after day like our boys.
I was just starting to get things settled down and everything squared. Then there was commotion. A bunch of orderlies, then nurses, then doctors running around the front main hall. We were expecting wounded. They’d hit an old medieval church on the other side of town. The Church of Saint Adalthred. There had been a platoon of soldiers sleeping there. Now they were bringing the survivors in.
I had never done triage before, though I remembered my training. You divide the patients into three groups. The group that needs surgery absolutely immediately if they’re going to live. The group that can wait for surgery. And then there’s the group that will die regardless.
There were two young men that were in the last group. The first had a massive open head wound. The strange thing was he was perfectly conscious and capable of speaking, despite the injury. There was just nothing that we could do for him. He was alert for about an hour, and then he simply passed away. Is it horrible to think that was something of a mercy?
The other suffered terrible burns, and apparently some of the blast as well. After the triage, I was assigned to care for him. The doctor had estimated over 90 percent of his body suffered burns in the third degree. The kind of amount that really makes you question your faith. I’ve seen burn patients, but not when they get first arrive like this. His eyes and ears were gone. A strange thing was, he wasn’t screaming like we’d expect burn patients to do. The doctor said his vocal cords were burnt out, but his lungs were relatively free of smoke damage, and he didn’t have that horrible cough. The doctor said it was like “he’d inhaled flame.” He was simply silent. He’s not expected to last the night. Day, I mean. I suppose I won’t see him again. I suppose that’s mercy too.
I mentioned yesterday that I think a school building serves as a fine hospital in a pinch. I’m not sure about that anymore. It’s the ventilation. There isn’t any in the school. Fumes from the ether linger everywhere. So does the stink of infection, no matter how much we fight it. And that last patient. It was like he was roasted. Literally. I thought I’d be sick.
August 1st- The truck ride back is starting to become my favorite part of the day. This one was a long one, despite being the exact same length as all the other shifts. We’re really packed now. The minute we get one patient ready for transport back to England, another takes his bed. They say the war might be over before Christmas. I hope. Don’t know how I’ll be able to keep up this pace for so long.
The little old priest whose church got blown up by the Germans came around to volunteer at the hospital. Poor old thing has nowhere else to go. He’s helping us roll bandages, working the autoclaves, and helping the chaplain out with the prayers. He seems to be helping with morale, god bless him. Particularly the chaplain’s. The priest doesn’t speak English and the chaplain doesn’t speak French, but they both speak Latin well enough to get by. I’ve never heard it spoken before. I grew up Lutheran, and it seems so strange. I’m a long way from home.
The burn patient is still alive. I was really surprised when I got in and found out. Apparently so are the doctors. Of course, I’m attending him again and was asked to change his bandages. Most of the rest of his skin that hadn’t already sloughed off last night did so while I was changing them. I didn’t see any sign of infection yet, though of course, we all know what’s coming. Other than that there wasn’t much I can do. He’s started letting off this low moan. The doctor said he was not really conscious. I can’t imagine he would be, he’s still getting so much morphine.
He was already bleeding through before my shift ended, so I thought I’d do the next shift a favor and take care of it a second time on the same shift. This time the doctor had me place his arms over his chest and belly, and bandage them all together. Also, he had me bandage his legs together. The doctor said that if there’s a miracle and somehow he manages to pull through, it will be because he somehow beat the infection. And if he’s going to have any chance at all then we’ll need to minimize his contact with bandages until can receive grafts. When I was done he ended up looking like a mummy, right out of the pictures. I don’t think it will matter much, and neither does the doctor. But we have to keep trying.
August 2nd- Just got back. The burn victim is still alive. It’s so strange. It’s all I can think about now. When I first got in I went straight to his room. I was absolutely shocked, it was gruesome. His bandages were positively soaked through. There was more red than white. I was just about to chew out the girl on the shift before me. I thought that nobody had changed the bandages since my last shift, but then she told me that she’d just changed them two hours previously. I couldn’t make head or tales of it. So I just got to work changing them myself. It felt so odd, the way the other patients in the room were looking at us. Like they knew there was something off about the whole thing. The patient’s moaning is getting louder too. It must be so unnerving to the others sharing the room.
Then, of all things, Maj. P and Col. S came in to observe. I haven’t seen either of them since we started setting up the hospital. They don’t usually stay up so late. They were washed up and decided to help me bandage the patient. As if they weren’t just there to observe me, but wanted to be a part of it too.
Sure enough, after only a couple of hours, the bandages were soaked through again. I’ve never seen such terribly bleeding. I asked the doctor if it could have possibly been hemophilia. It’s something I’ve only heard about but haven’t seen. He only shook his head like he was sure that it wasn’t. Yet he also looked even more confused than I was. We’ve been giving the patient transfusions. But at this rate, I just don’t know where it’s all coming from.
I know I shouldn’t be writing this sort of thing down, but the doctor confided that he’s thinking of reducing the morphine, maybe the patient will be more lucid. I don’t know how the doctor expects him to communicate with his vocal cords destroyed, or what he could possibly have to say even if he could talk. Well, it’s not my place to decide. I think he knows more about what’s happening to the poor man than I do.
It was all just blood too. In the bandages. No pus at all. I don’t know how he’s not becoming infected.
August 3rd- There’s a great deal of strangeness happening at the hospital. I saw the General’s staff car the moment our truck pulled around to drop us off, the little flags on the front gave it away.. Instead of starting my shift, they asked me to come back to Col. S’s office. My first thought was that I was in trouble, and they’d somehow find this diary. Both Maj. P and Col. S. were there, along with Gen C. who’d driven down from Corps HQ with a couple of his staff. There were also two men from what might have been regular Army, except they wore two long dark coats. I didn’t get their names.
Apparently, they’d all been there for hours and were wanting to debrief me. Well, it sure was intimidating, but they just wanted me to tell them what I’d seen. Fair enough. The patient was burned all over his body. He probably should have died the first night but hasn’t. There’s an awful amount of bleeding which I can’t account for. There’s also no pus or smell of infection, which also didn’t make sense. I told them about how he’s been given large amounts of morphine, though I didn’t say what Cap. H had said about reducing it. No, he had never been capable of speaking since brought in. No, he hadn’t been wearing his dog tags, but between the blast, and the length of time he’d been burning, he must have stripped everything off. Surely they were back in the rubble of that church. Then they thanked me and told me I could go back to work.
Well, I’d just about had it. I stood up and demanded that if they knew something about my patient that they weren’t telling me and that if they did I could take better care of him, well then they had better tell me. I think I even swore though I didn’t mean to. Maj. P almost laughed and Col. S just gave me that stupid patronizing smile. Told me I was already doing everything that I could, and that they were proud of me. He’s a good man, but I’m getting really sick of this Army “that’s on a need-to-know basis” crap.
Rest of the shift was just the usual. Strange how it's become the norm now. No, there was something else. The burn patient was in his room by himself. They’d moved the other beds out. They didn’t tell me why. Probably because his moan’s getting worse. And raspier. I still don’t think he’s out of the morphine stupor though.
Alright, it’s later the same day, the second. I’ve just woken up and had a serious chat with Kathy, the nurse from the second shift, and she’s had a lot to talk about. Rumors are swirling. I don’t know how much of this is true. My gut instinct? It’s all true.
Those men in the long coats? The rumor is they were Army Intelligence. That didn’t make a lick of sense to me at first, but then it started to come together. It turns out there were supposed to be 30 men, including the C.O., in that church that night it got shelled. Nobody else. Except when they added up all the survivors (who’ve moved on to the front), all the wounded that were taken to our hospital, and those who died, which took a while to count, then it all added up to 31 men. So somebody was there who wasn’t supposed to be there, and nobody knows who it is. They think they’ve got all of the dog tags accounted for, which might have been why they asked me about it when I came in later that night. And the one person they can’t account for seems to be the burn victim.
So they didn’t know who it was. Nobody from the St. A.’s was missing. None of the French Resistance were around that night (apparently Intelligence asked them? How else would they know?). So it's really suspicious and they were worried he might be some kind of spy or infiltrator. They still don’t even know why that church was shelled in the first place.
So they started asking questions of that poor old priest who’s been volunteering. We know because they let the chaplain sit in with him, but it seems both of the intelligence guys spoke fluent French. They asked him if there were any kind of acolyte or initiate or whatever sort of junior clergy he might have could have been there. He said no, and anybody who might have was accounted for and healthy. He asked if there was anything valuable that could have been stolen, or maybe he feared could be looted (would our boys do that?). Well, he didn’t think so. There was the holy font, which was an antique, but there were many like it and it was hardly easy to move. There was the Bible at the altar. It was very old and had great sentimental value, but again it would have no value to thieves. There was the tomb of St. Adalthred himself, which was priceless to his community but was a part of the church itself. Why the church had been built in the first place. Impossible to steal.
Then they asked the priest to come and view the patient. Perhaps seeing his proportions, perhaps it might have helped him recollect a similar person he’d seen lately. I understand why they did it. He, the burn victim, does seem shorter than any soldier I’ve met, skinner too. I wish they hadn’t, though. The chaplain said the priest had cried over seeing all those bloody bandages. There wasn’t a point, because the priest said he didn’t recognize him. The strange thing was, the chaplain had said that the priest's behavior seemed really strange. Like they got the really strong sense that the priest was being cagey, and lying to them. Not that he recognized the figure per se, but that he was thinking of something that he wasn’t telling them. He also insisted on saying a prayer over the burnt figure before he left, and they let him.
When I asked why they’d moved all the other beds in the room, Kathy said a little while after the priest had left the burn victim had started screaming, really bad. The other patients asked if they could leave the room, and because of the mystery, Col. S. agreed to it so they could isolate the burnt man. He was only calmer when I arrived later because they’d given him more morphine. When Kathy told me how much my jaw hit the floor. That part has to be baseless rumor.
August 8- I’m back in England. I’ve been too worked up to write, and worried, of course. After it happened, they put me in a truck, drove me to L. to pick up my things, and then I was on a Skytrain back to Cornwall. I guess we stopped at the cottage as a courtesy, it was on the way to the airfield. I was worried they’d find this diary, but they never searched. I don’t think they know what to do with me. I’m not sure what they should do either. They might just send me home, I suppose. I wouldn’t protest that. I just want to get on with things.
So. That night. The 4th.
I’ll start when I get off the truck. That moment when you hit the ground after jumping out of the bed is so sharp like it just sets your whole day. Like a starter pistol at a race. Something about it seemed off just as I was walking towards the door. Now I get in, and the front gallery, ever since that night of the triage, is a pretty empty place. But somebody was waiting for me, and it was Col. S. He came right up to me the moment he saw me. What an upside-down experience.
He starts leading me down the side hall, towards the back of the hospital/school where his office was. So of course I expected he needed to talk to me about something in his office. Only it turned out it wasn’t his office anymore. I thought something was off when I saw two armed guards on either side of the door to his often. Almost as soon, I heard the screaming.
I have just enough time to puzzle together what’s happened when Col. S walks right in, me in tow. They’d moved the burn patient to Col. S’s office, and he’d cleared out. The reason was obvious. The patient was screaming. Really, really loud. It hurt my ears in such a small office. The office was as about as far removed from the rest of the patients as they could move him. His bandages were soaked through, totally bright red. Jet red? Is jet red a thing? If you saw him, you’d say it was. It looked like they had been in the middle of starting to change his bandages, or just about to finish. Because there were parts of his flesh that were exposed. I didn’t realize it at first, and could only tell because of the texture.
I was just staring at him for a while. Jaw wide open. Then I looked at Col. S. He had been watching my reaction. He had such a sympathetic look. I asked him “How long has he been like this?”
“For hours,” he said. Like he was apologizing.
“How much morphine did you give him?” I asked. He was a doctor in his own right, of course. He didn’t get a chance to perform much surgery now that he’s the administrator, but I don’t think that ever leaves you.
He looked like he was about to cry.
“Lethal?” I asked.
“More,” he whispered.
We stood there silent for a few moments. Then he explained the situation. The only people allowed in the room would be doctors. Myself, and he explained I was the nurse with the most experience with him, and that I was the one he trusted the most. I’d have no other duties this shift. The chaplain was allowed in, and the priest. Also, the two guards out front, and that was it. He told me “The men from intel will be back, and a couple of spooks. We’ll figure it out then.” I had no idea what he meant by that, but I just nodded.
Well, the chaplain was there, though he looked a total mess. And it turned out the priest had stayed late but had gone home, exhausted.
So I did my duties. Changed bandages. Changed IV bottles. There were two chairs in the room, one for me and one for the chaplain. With only the one patient sometimes I’d wait. We couldn’t really chat. The screaming was too loud. I don’t think either of us got used to it.
I suppose it was about 3 AM. Mom used to call that the witching hour. Around three it started to change. The screaming that is, the cadence of it. Is that the right word? He started screaming words. Very garbled, but words. That was when I remembered the doctor had said his vocal cords had been destroyed. Had he been wrong? It had to be. Both I and the chaplain were standing over him then. The chaplain whispering prayers. Sometimes we’d look at each other like maybe the other knew what was happening. There were no answers.
The words started getting clearer. Not that we understood them, but they kind of sounded like they were French. Both I and the chaplain thought he, the patient, was becoming lucid. The chaplain opened up the door and told the guards to get the colonel, also to send somebody to find the priest. I suppose anybody could have translated, or so I thought at the time, but getting the priest sounded right.
Well, the colonel wasn’t in, but Maj. P. was. He spoke a little French, but he couldn’t understand the words. I’m still glad he was there. As a witness. I’m glad me and the chaplain weren’t the only ones. It was like the patient was chanting.
It was, maybe ten minutes after the major arrived. The screaming just stopped. No words. Just heavy breathing. Hyperventilating maybe. It occurred to me then that the bandages had become soaked through again. I’d been there the whole time. Watching. Only now had I noticed. He was glistening. The bedding was bloody too, of course. It was everywhere. And then…
Then it happened.
I had been facing another direction. But there was a sound. Like a massive, loud inhalation of are. There was this bright light, like when a lightbulb is about to short out. Except I felt the heat, and I turned. The patient had burst into flames.
I screamed. I think the chaplain and major did too. The two guards ran in. Maybe they sent somebody else to fetch the priest. They just yelled and weren’t able to do anything else. In a normal circumstance, I think somebody would have fetched an extinguisher. Except the patient suddenly sat straight up in his bed. We were positively paralyzed. He was screaming again, and all we could do is watch. His bandages and bedding all burned away. Only then he stopped.
There was this man before us. He had no skin. No eyes. Glistening red, and patches of black where the ash still clung to him. He looked at us. Looked at me. There were two black holes in his face, above the hole for his nose, and his mouth, lips burned away and teeth missing. But the holes for his eyes… I could feel him looking at me despite having no eyes.
Then he spoke. It was French again, at least I thought. I couldn’t understand it. Full sentences. Raspy, but clear. No sign of pain or duress. Yet it was authoritative like he was in full command of his faculties.
I don’t think it lasted long before the priest came rushing in. The priest said something like “sortie” and then the Major told us to get out, the chaplain and I.
We did and closed the door behind us. The two guards were further down the hall, clearly rattled.
We could hear the priest and the burned man talking. Clearly, through the door. The burned man was distinguishable by the rasp in his voice, the commanding tone. Yet as we listened, there was something off. The burned man’s French was different than the priest’s French. It was like they didn’t understand each other. It was like they were speaking two different dialects, and I didn’t realize until I heard them both being spoken next to each other.
There was a pause of silence. And then the priest started speaking in Latin. I saw a look of relief on the chaplain’s face when the burned man responded, also in Latin.
The two spoke, the burned man and the priest. They went on and on, me not understanding any of it. The burned man seemed to calm, the priest becoming more anxious as they went. Then I turned to the chaplain again. His attention was totally focused on the closed door, but he was listening to the priest and the burned man talk.
He was shaking, and pale as a ghost. I’ve seen men shake. I’ve seen them shake from the effects of blood loss and shock. I’ve seen them shake because they’ve been mad from war. I’ve seen them shake from hypothermia and hypoglycemia and drug overdoses. I’ve seen no end of fear in their eyes. Fear as they’re going under anesthesia, or having their limbs removed, or knowing they’re about to die from their wounds.
I’ve never seen a man so afraid or shaken than that chaplain on that night. And all because he was able to follow that conversation in Latin.
The door suddenly opened. The priest waved us aside, looking more determined than I’d ever seen him. We pressed ourselves against the wall to get out of the way. The burned man followed him. Silent. Walking. We watched them walk down the hallway. The guards turned and fled. Then the priest and the burnt figure turned the corner, and that was the last that I saw of them.
I remember looking back into the room and seeing the Major, slumped in a chair, hands covered his face. The smoke from the burning bandages and bedding still hung in the air, sweet and strong and foul due to the lack of ventilation.
The two men in the long coats showed up. There were also a couple of men in suits. Civilians, I guess. They sort of took charge. Then they just put me on a truck, didn’t even ask me any questions.
And that’s what happened.
I’ve been on this base for a couple of days. They seem to be giving me a lot of freedom, they let me go into town yesterday. I went to a library. It wasn’t a very big one, but I guess it didn’t need to be. I found a hagiography. Or, I guess, a sort of encyclopedia on the subject of saints.
There was a very small entry on the subject of Saint Adalthred. Very little was known about him. He’d been a saint in early medieval France. He’d preached to royalty. The Marrowvingians I think it said, I don’t know what that is. Like all saints, he’d performed three miracles. Like all saints, he’d been martyred. He’d been burned at the stake. His last miracle had been his own resurrection.
I don’t know what to do with this diary. I never should have started it, and yet I think it’s important that I did. I think I’m going to turn myself in and give it to them. I suppose they’ll court-martial me over it, send me home. I don’t want to go home, but maybe I deserve it. At any rate, clearly, there are higher powers than me at work here.
-End copy.-
All of the documentation by the U.S. during the war was massive. All of the officers, nurses, spies, bean counters, and everybody else contributed to the pile. This was long before the digital age, or even microfiche, so the sheer scale of the paperwork is hardly conceivable. It could have been measured by the cargo holds of liberty ships.
After the war, the Army and Navy needed someplace to store it all. Any of it could have had unforeseen value, and destroying it was never an option. In 1951, with the Korean War raging and threatening to exacerbate the document problem, the Department of Defense decided to build a massive new warehouse archive to store it all. In 1956, the Military Personnel Records Center was finished. Ostensibly the archive was meant to store personnel records, but the military being the military, and the warehouse being of such a huge scale, it housed other records as well. Records such as the nurse’s diary, records of things unnatural. Supernatural. Only to be seen by top men.
One of the items discussed during the facility’s construction was the inclusion of a sprinkler fire prevention system. There was a concern that such a system could leak, and cause water damage to all the important documents. So the archive was built without one.
In 1973 the building burned down, taking millions of documents with it. The cause was never officially determined. At the time, and for many years after, the biggest problem was the bureaucratic nightmare it caused for millions of veterans and collecting the benefits they were entitled to.
To a very small community, namely us, the damage was a travesty. That’s the purpose of this project. To retrieve the documentation, study, and catalog it, this entry is only the first example. Naturally, the question arises- how do we retrieve these files if they were all destroyed in the fire? Well, that’s on a need-to-know basis, Lieutenant, and you don’t need to know.
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Author's Notes: The War Files is meant to be an on-going series of horror stories set in and around WWII, and the very real Archive Fire. Maybe it would make a good podcast? This was sort of a pilot episode and thought it would fit the theme of this month's event. If you liked the story and want to read more, I'll probably post them either to my subreddit EBDavis or my substack ebdavis.substack.com

I am a newbie writer, I'd love to hear some criticism (I can imagine there's a lot) so please tell me what you think I did right and wrong.
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I pull my head away from the sink a second or so after I splash the cold water into my face, I blink a number of times as I reach down and turn the tap’s handle. I then grab a small towel and rub my face with it.
Hmm, that never wakes me up as much as I'd like to, I’m more awake than I was, which is a victory I suppose.
I turn and walk past the barely functional shower and the clean toilet, which isn’t too impressive till you see the rest of the outpost.
I open the door and walk out into the main room. The room’s somewhat divided into two, the front door is right in the middle of the wall, and to its right is the kitchen. Well, the kitchen might be giving too much credit, a few counters with a fridge, sink, and microwave. We did have a coffee maker till Baron got drunk and broke it, which left us with no more coffee and no more drinks as Cleo had us pour the rest of the alcohol so it wouldn’t happen again with something more important.
To the left of the door is a living room, an old orange sofa, which looks like it’s seen more combat than us, honestly I have no clue where Baron and Jakob found this bloody thing. We also have a lounge chair, also orange and also in the same state that the sofa is in. We have a small wooden coffee table between the sofa and our TV. It’s a small screen and it’s black and white but it works, mostly works, the machine is fine but, well, it’s held up by these four legs and I’ll just say it, those skinny chicken legs are not aging well, we’ve already nailed boards and pipes onto these legs as braces.
We have a bit of a bet going on about how long it’ll last, I’m giving the legs three months, and Baron’s doing the repairs and is giving about six months, Cleo better hopes it breaks within the week or she’s lost her money, and Jakob didn’t place a bet.
I turn around and close the bathroom door, as I do I get a view on this side of the room, three doors stand.
On the far left is the second biggest room in the outpost, only beaten by the main/common room, Baron and Jakob have that room, it’s about twice the size of the bathroom, and Jakob and Baron were just barely able to fit a double sized bed in there, although they lost the room for a desk or anything more a pair of small bedside cabinets.
In the middle of the three is the bathroom, again, pretty small, damaged shower, clean toilet.
On the far right is Cleo’s room, about the same size as the bathroom. She was able to get a desk and signal bed.
And of course, there’s the radio desk, packed just into the far right corner, just past Cleo’s door is the radio desk, it has a ton of radio equipment on it so we can get orders from HQ.
I turn around, walk a bit further over to the living area and sit down on the lounge chair, Baron is laying down on the sofa with his head turned to face the TV, and Cleo is preparing an MRE for herself, I don’t know how she can stomach those things.
Baron is a mountain of muscle, while incredibly strong he’s not the brightest bulb, still a lovely guy to be around. He’s currently wearing some old jeans and a turtleneck.
Cleo’s very strict and pretty reserved, she’s not shy, she just doesn’t talk unless she has something to say. Currently, she’s wearing some baggy green camo trousers and a brown tank top.
“How ya doing Milo?” Baron turns his head and asks.
“Hmm, fine I guess, you?” I reply and ask back,
“Fighting fit” He answers with a smile as he looks back at the TV. I look over to the TV to see what he’s watching, it’s some kind of mechanical show.
“Feeling homesick?” I sarcastically ask.
“As if” he laughed, “Hey, If I go back into mechanics then I want you to shoot me” he adds.
We both laugh at the joke. After we calm ourselves a bit he says “Anyway, I’m only watching it because it’s between this or that bloody ‘live at the capital’ with that, umm, what's-her-faces?”
“Sue Stone?” I answer.
“Aye that’s her” He snaps his fingers
“yeah, I see your point, both her and that entire show are horrible”
“The part that gets on my nerves is that it’s always on, we never get the signal for anything good here” he continues to rant and I can’t help but chuckle, it’s always a bit funny watching him get annoyed.
“Like that ‘Lies on the coast’ show, I mean that show got another season for god sake”
“Wait really?” He asks, turning a bit and starting to sit up.
“Yeah, it’s ridiculous” I answer.
He sighs and facepalms, “I wish you hadn’t told me that”
“Hmm?”
He sighs again and leans back into the sofa “That’s gone and ruined my mood”
I laugh as I stand up “Heh, sorry man, anyway, I’m off, any idea where Jakob is?”
“ umm, I think he’s on the porch ‘though he might have gone off for a walk or something” He answers.
I nod and walk off towards the cabin door and open the old door. I see Jakob as I open the door, he’s in his late twenties and has long black hair, and is wearing combat boots, black jeans, and a gray shirt, he normally has a knee-long leather jacket on but he isn’t wearing it currently. He’s sitting on a chair with his legs on the small metal table here on the porch, he’s reading a book.
“How are you?” I ask as I walk over, he looks up from the booms quickly.
“O-oh, I-I didn’t see you t-there” He speaks as he sits up more and takes his legs off the table, “and I’m good, you?”
He has a bit of a stutter, something he said he was born with, he’s tried to get rid of it, apparently to no avail.
“I’m fine” I answer as I sit down across from him. “What’ you reading there?” I ask as I reach over and grab one of the bottles of water on the table.
“Oh, it’s a S-strange man in a st-strange land” He answers, “It’s about a-a man who from Mars who c-comes to e-earth"
“Hmm, sounds interesting” I add as I uncap the bottle.
“It is! Err, w-would you like to borrow it af-after I’m done with it?”
“Sure!” I answer before taking a mouthful of the water, “Just tell me when you’ve finished it” I add.
“will do!”
And with that, I turn my head off and look out into the forest ahead of the cabin. I then look back over at Jakob. You know it's a shame, it’s always nice to speak with him yet he almost never speaks.
Let me correct that, he’s always happy to speak and always has something interesting to say, yet he almost never starts the conversation. I’ve had to guess it would stem from his past.
His past. His past is a bit of a mystery to me. I know he was once a slave to the Dominion, I know he and Baron escaped the Dominion together and I know they later joined the Freedom Fighters, I also think, but am in no way sure, that he’s a tribal.
Two main reasons, funnily, both of which also make up his role in the team.
For one, he’s a helluva sniper, he once killed a person from two thousand meters away. He also handles the hunting for our squad, getting fresh meat is fantastic when all you’ve only been eating MREs for months.
Second of all, he’s a skilled tracker, if he’s on someone’s trail then he’ll find them. There was this guy who used to be with the Freedom Fighter, but he turned traitor and used a bomb to kill a whole unit, and then Jakob was sent after him.
Jakob tracked him across the entire wasteland, he followed him north, all the way up to the ruins of those old-world cities of Calaye and that City of Lights
I had always thought places like these either weren’t real or were greatly exaggerated, but according to Jakob, they're real.
“Hey,” Jakob says, I look away from the forest and over to Jakob, “I w-was going to go on a-a hunt, wanna join?” He asks as he stands up.
I take a second to think before replying “Sure, that sounds fun” I answer as I get up
“Yeah, I h-have a pair of rifles in the c-car” He speaks as we start to walk off the porch, but then we hear a yell.
“Everyone! Here now” we both hear Cleo yell from inside. We both turn on the spot and charge into the cabin, pushing past the door.
We see Cleo sitting by the radio, Baron standing by her. “Incoming broadcast, directly from the Colonel! Get over here”
Jakob and I rush over, albeit with a lot less worry and a lot more interest.
Colonel Barnaby is the leader of the Freedom Fighters, not our founder, that was General Margaret. Officially she is still our leader, yet she went missing over three years ago, Colonel Barnaby has refused to take her position officially until he sees proof of her death.
We stand behind Cleo as she flips a few switches and turns a couple of dials, trying to get the best connection.
After a few moments we can hear a voice. “-Re you there, Sergeant Laidlaw?” His voice can be heard cutting through the static.
“Yes Colonel Barnaby, what seems to be the problem?” Cleo answers and asks.
“09-10?” He asks. A password.
Cleo turns her head towards a small open book on the desk, the book’s filled with a series of dates and names. What the Colonel asked was a date, with the day being brought down by one, and the month being brought up by one.
“01-31-09-26” She answers. Her answer is the date of birth of everyone in the squad, in days. All the dates are off by a few days, the amount depends on the current date, the amount to change by is listed in that book.
“Good, now Sergeant Laidlaw I have an important task for you and your squad” Jakob and Baron exchange a few glances at this news, “Are you familiar with the town of Pinkton?”
And there goes my excitement for this operation.
“A member of my squad is” She answers.
“Then I’ll let them fill you in on what the town is like, The more dead air the better” He mumbles the last bit, “Now listen, upon wolf street there is a warehouse, at 02:10 a shipment will be brought into it, I need you to go there and steal a crate with a serial code of ‘01-12-20-06’. Did you get that?”
“Warehouse on Wolf Street, get a crate, serial code ‘01-12-20-06’, got it” She answers as she grabs a pencil and starts jotting it down.
“Good, after receiving this crate I need you to bring it back to your base, a team will be ‘round to pick up at some point, understood?”
“Yes sir”
“On the other side,” He says as the line goes dead, leaving our squad alone again. A few moments of silence follow before Cleo turns in her chair and stands up.
“Baron, Jakob, go get your gear” She speaks, Jakob and Baron nod before quickly turning and rushing to their rooms.
She then turns to me and asks “You’re from Pinkton right? Tell me about it”
I sigh, “It’s the crown prince of rust belt towns, it peaked twenty years ago and has been on a cliff face of a decline since”.
“Without the sarcasm?” She follows.
I sigh again, “It's a small town, it used to be incredibly important as it has a port, and it has a railway going through it since the old world made it very important for getting resources from the islands to the mainland.”
“I assume that was the peak?”
“You’d be right” I continue “Pinkton is down a river, which limits the size of ships that can go there, when new rails were built to towns on the coast Pinkton fell out of favour. It won’t have much security and most people there are in their eighties so we won’t have to worry too much about noise as they’ll likely be deaf.”
“I see, well thanks, I’ll go get my gear, you go get yours” She states and turns off, going to her room to get ready.
I turn around and walk over to the couch, I kneel down and grab a suitcase from under it, my gear is stored in there. I pull it out and walk off to the bathroom to get ready.

i consider myself recovered but i recently went thru a breakup and had a four day episode of bingeing and purging. obviously this made my body upset and i’m on day 2 no purge/no binge and my body is swelling up no matter what i eat. i’m trying to stay positive and tell myself i’ll get thru it but as we all know it’s super easy to slip back into the cycle and start up again when these feeling arise. just a reminder that- the weight you “gain” on the scale when you’re bloated isn’t permanent. you aren’t gaining weight. your body is just taking a lonnggg time to digest food normally again. today i had a green smoothie for breakfast, bloated up immediately. then i had a small coffee and a salad for dinner, then a green juice and a probiotic shot shortly after. i was in major pain, stomach was a huge balloon, and i felt defeated. i was so mad because i ate all the “right” foods to avoid a bloat but i was in major pain. i decided to give myself a little shoulder massage, and was obviously still thinking about food so i made the decision- do i eat or do i call it quits for the day and close the kitchen. i made a bagel w butter about an hour later & i literally feel less bloated and less stressed. i see the light at the end of the tunnel. hiccups are normal. our bodies need substantial food. a salad and some green juices simply weren’t gonna cut it and i’m glad i chose to eat that bagel. be easy on yourselves. we’re fighting to find balance every day but ik we will all get there. hope y’all have a good week <3

Hi! I’m going on a 40 day solo trip to Japan next June. (I know that’s a long way away but I love to plan.) I’ve always loved the idea of solo travel and the culture in Japan but I’ve never had the chance to experience it myself.
As it is so far away and don’t like to have a ridged schedule I haven’t planned my exact day to day but I have a list of places I plan to visit while in each city.
Not sure if this is worth mentioning but I will be 18. I’m not sure how much this changes with Japanese laws.
Tokyo - 7 Nights
I would prefer to arrive at Haneda as I believe it’s closer to Shinjuku which is where I’ll be staying. I don’t plan to do much the first day.
General things to do and places to visit while staying in Shinjuku:
-Gyoen National Garden -Omoide Yokocho -View from Government Building -Kabukicho Tower -Kabukicho -Izakaya Hopping (but with ramen) -Book and Bed -Samurai Museum -Takadanobaba
Sapporo - 3 Nights
I would fly from Tokyo to Sapporo to get around the 10 hour train ride. (It’s also cheaper)
-Sapporo TV Tower -Odori Park -Tanuki Koji Shopping Street -Nijo Seafood Market -Susukino District @ Night -Ramen Alley -Mt. Moiwa -Fushimi Inari Temple -Hokkaido Modern Art Museum
Otaru - 2 Nights -Ice Cream -Walk around canal -Otaru Museum -Music Box Museum -Antique Shops -Sushi
Furano - 1 day (28 July) -Biei Pond -Shikosai no Oka -Cycling -Melon House??? -Hike
Nagoya - 2 Nights
Once again I would be flying to save money and time.
-Toyota Factory + Museum -Nagoya Science Museum -Osu Shopping Street -Explore Sakae -Walk Yamazaki River
Osaka - 5 Nights -Dotomdori District -Universal Studios Japan (probably not) -Osaka Castle -Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street -Kuchu Teien Observatory -Namba Shops -Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine -Kuromon Market -Teamlab Osaka -Tenjinbashisuji
Kyoto - 3 Nights -Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine -Kinkajuji Shrine -Sanjusangendo Temple -Arashiyama -Gion -Monkey Park -Nishiki Market -Kyoto Tower -Mt Shosha
Hiroshima - 2 Nights (posibly 1 more for cat island) -Hiroshima Peace Museum -Hiroshima Castle -Miyajima Island -Ao Island (maybe)
Fukuoka - 2 Nights -Kushiro Shrine -Ohori Park -Uminonakamichi Seaside Park -Tenjin Underground Shopping -Fukuoka Tower -Nokonoshima Island -Momochi Seaside Park -Jim US Burger -Kuiyoiken Ramen
Okinawa - 3 Nights
I would be flying from Fukuoka to Okinawa.
-Shuri Castle -Churaumi Aquarium -Diving -Okinawa Peace Park -Mihama American Village -Kokusai Dori Street -Cape Manza -Miyako Island -Zamami Island
Hakone - 1 Night
I would fly from Okinawa to Tokyo. Then take a train to Hakone.
-Hot Spring -Chisuji Falls -Lake Ashi -Hakone Shrine
Enoshima -Iwaya Caves -Terrace Mall -Kamakura day trip -See the Town As cringe as it is I saw an anime a while back that impacted me. It is supposedly 1 for 1 set in the Enoshima area so it would be super cool.
Tokyo - 7 Nights (again)
This time I would stay in the Shibuya area.
-Meiji Jingu Shrine -Shibuya Crossing -Yoyogi Park -Hachiko Dog Statue (from that movie) -Takeshita Street -Cat Street -Shibuya Center-Gai -Shibuya Sky -Shibuya 109
If you have anything to add or suggestions, please share!
I would not be getting the JR pass as with the changes and my length of stay I would spend dramatically more money than I ever would just paying for everything with a Suica card (will all trains accept this? I know most will but will it pose a problem?)
Please let me know if you have any tips comments or concerns with my plans. I have a bunch of extra days laying around in Tokyo so I might do some day trips. Let me know if any you recommend.
I am expecting to spend about 8,000 USD on this trip. My breakdown is this. Does this all make sense. Obviously the less the better so if I hear I’m wrong that would be great. My plan for staying is AirBnB. In most places I would like to have a small kitchen. From the little bit I’ve seen I expect to spend 75 USD on average.
Budget:
$125 Daily Outline
———
$70 Housing
$40 Food
$15 Misc
———
Total Daily: $5,000
———
+$1,200 Flight
+$504 IC Card
+230 In Country
+$75 Sim Card
+$1221 Misc
———
Total Total: $8,000
Thanks a bunch!

Although, I may or may not be revved up like a duece. As you can see, I have a semi-open kitchen-living-dining in this sorta vaulted, very low A-frame cabin in the woods. This built in bookcase is shared by the living room and on the other side is the kitchen. I cannot tear out the wall completely, long story. One end of said bookcase is the support for the kitchen island, so that's got to stay. Question: can I just use a sawzall to cut a wide notch so more light is shared between rooms? Or must I lop off the top foot evenly? Or none of the above? Advice and ideas are welcome.

That level is:
• Relatively safe
• habitable
• Few entities
The level is a basically endless set of martial arts training rooms, and the hall you enter in that level varies wildly. It could be a Boxing training hall, a Karate Dojo, a Shaolin Temple, any space like that!
These places have exit doors, but they just lead to more and more different training halls, and it's easy to get lost along these paths. The appliances are in great condition, like brand new, like no one has used them before! In the closets of these rooms, you can even find martial arts costumes such as Karate Kimonos, Kung Fu Tchen Moous and even Sumo Mawashis, but they are not much better than ordinary clothes, they do not protect you from attacks or give you more speed, but if you want it, you can take it!
From time to time, you can find sports locker rooms, but in contrast to the clean halls, they are full of slime, rusty lockers and leaky showers that flood the floor. It's a pretty chaotic, uncomfortable scene and you'd want to stay the hell away from them!
However, in the midst of these training halls, you can find the Championship Stadiums: they are places that have large audiences of empty chairs, with mats on the court below. But the good thing about these places is that there are Food Machines, where you can get Energy Bars and Super Almond Water! To get this, you'll need a Gold Coin for every item you want, and you can find them by scavenging the benches in the grandstands! It can take a long time, but on the other hand, the machines are never empty, as they are replenished in a supernatural way!
When approaching some training objects, you will have an instant reaction of wanting to try them, and when you touch them, a motivation to practice that martial art will appear in your head, and soon you will be practicing. And even with no one to train you, you will see several books in the academies, teaching you the fundamentals of each art!
Even if you've never practiced or shown interest in a martial art, it will seem like the most fun and enjoyable thing in the world to you! And if you already practiced, you'll love spending a lot of time at that level!
Those who went through the level report the constant feeling of strengthened muscles, zero sleep and improved concentration, which extended a little further, when they left the level, showing themselves stronger, faster and with martial techniques worthy of a black belt!
The most important things you need to look for are the weapons of these martial arts, but not just any weapon! Because normal weapons like sticks, knives and others are very common! There are specific weapons that will save your skin in the Backrooms! Are they:
Tyson Gloves: These are a pair of gold boxing gloves, with the Tyson signature on the left hand, presumably a reference to boxer Mike Tyson. They are made of foam, but when punching with them, the impact is overwhelming, capable of throwing objects weighing more than 100 kg away! You get them if you walk into a boxing ring and punch the punching bag for 12 hours straight! They appeared in your hands at the end of that time!
Lee's Nunchaku: A black nunchaku, with two engraved dragons and a golden chain joining them together. His name is a reference to martial artist Bruce Lee. The impact of these nunchakus is even stronger than Tyson's gloves, with the difference that, after repeated attacks, it starts to catch fire, but without injuring the user. It will only incinerate the target it hits, which will be consumed by flames in seconds! You can get it at the Kung Fu Hall, needing to do 100 fingertip push-ups and stay 5 minutes in the Mabu base, the most exhausting Kung Fu pose. The nunchaku will be in the center of a mat with the Yin Yang symbol. Good luck!
Kusarigama: is a weapon composed of a metal scythe and a chain that is somehow infinite when the scythe is thrown. This scythe is insanely fast, being able to slice through multiple entities quickly at once! It is obtained in the Ninjutsu room, after you hit 10,000 shurikens in the center of the target, and it has to be in the middle, around doesn't count! When you succeed, the weapon will come down from the ceiling, hanging from the chain.
Musashi's Katana: It is the strongest weapon among all these. A sword from the Edo Period in Japan, which belonged to the legendary Miamoto Musashi! Wielders of this sword have already been able to slay countless Partygores, slicing them into pieces at Fun Level, and even kill a Death Whale at level 4000! The wielders of these swords have superhuman strength and speed, so any entity that is tangible will be slashed.
However, obtaining this sword is the most risky of challenges, and it is in this challenge that the only real danger of this level lives, The Samurai Challenge, and its only entity!
To find her, you must spend a lot of time in the Kendo Hall. How much time? It is not known, perhaps a matter of days or a week. Who says you should make 10,000 strikes with a training sword, it's not known for sure, but believe me: it's better to spend all that time training!
When you least expect it, you'll see a door that wasn't there before. Upon entering that door, you find a Championship Hall, but not an ordinary one, one specific to traditional Kendo in Japan. In the arena, you will see a box with Japanese inscriptions that say:
“Power must be earned. Prove yourself now!”
When you open it, you'll have access to the katana, but when you turn around, the whole scene changes!
If you were alone just now, you will have right in front of you an entity in the form of a samurai, in armor that seems to be rusted and worn by time and marks of combat, which earned him the nickname of Rusty Musashi.
Sometimes his katana varies in size, being little more than a kitchen knife, or even a huge 2 meter blade.
If everything was silent before, you can now hear screams and roars from the audience, even if there is no one in the pews! And now, you'll have to fight that samurai!
Combat with him is pretty tricky, as he seems to be experienced, but his armor is heavy and he moves slowly. Make no mistake though: his attacks are explosive and take you by surprise, and he's very strong with every hit! Agility and strategy are your best bets to win!
If you get hit, it's your death, but if you win, you'll be applauded by the audience, and you can take that weapon with you. So, throughout your stay, train Kendo until you're sharp, and don't fight the samurai until you're sure you're good enough!
Appetizer:
• Enter the hall with the “Martial Goods” sign at level 33
• Beat a level 4000 island native in a melee fight
• Ritual of the Mountain King has a 40% chance to bring you here
• The Red Knight can take you here if you ask to learn to fight, but it's not 100% sure
• Beat a fighting game at level 849
• Reading the book “The Way of War” in the level “The end is near” will get you here!
Departures:
• Using a lot of Incense to meditate will get you to Level 5000
• Upon exiting Samurai Challenge, you will exit at The Hub
• Finding a 90's phone in one of the stadium's bleachers will take you to Level 11.
• Diving into the Buddha-like fountain in the Shaolin Temple will take you to the Poolrooms, but touching the moss at the bottom of the fountain will land you in the Rotting Pools level!
• Trying to break into a Vending Machine will get you to the “You Cheated” Level, you greedy bastard!
• If you try to escape the Samurai Challenge through the door you came from, you'll exit the Run for Your Life Level, without your sword!

"show that the human form of the FOXP2 gene increases synaptic plasticity and dendrite connectivity in the basal ganglia. These results partly explain the enhanced capability of cortico-basal ganglia circuits in the human brain that regulate critical aspects of language, cognition, and motor control." Foxp2 Language Evolution
Cell FOXP2gene -(https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31081-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982216310818%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)
Enk(Ea)i- twin Serpent , the creator of mankind was the Genius-Scientist who tries twice to create a civilized man, until Ninmah tells him that they must add their likeness. Thus creating the perfect Man. It is when he put speech in their mouths that Enlil is enraged claiming they make too much noise,as you'll see this was the 1st cataclysm.Enki is the protector and teacher of mankind. He is essentially a god of civilization, and it was natural that he was also looked upon as the creator of man, and of the world in general. Enki Teachings
SacredTexts After his involvement with the original genetic experiment, his compassion for the plight of the Homo sapien (Man the Wise) his role shifted from genetic engineer to that of a freedom fighter. Because of the Romans(Enlils offspring) ancient text were edited, altered ,the Garden of Eden describes Enki & Ninti creating humanity at Ea’s headquarters. The House of the God of Water,Wisdom, fertility, known as the Great Serpent, the Garden was his 'den'. Naturally, humanity Would be born in Ea-Den. You will see from the text cited here, that it was Enki who created & then immediately fell in love with his creation. He earned & embraced the nickname of "Trickster', because being the wisest he tricked the other "Authorities"(Elohim- or Council of Rulers) for humanity’s sake.
"The bodies of Adam and Eve were overlaid with a horny skin that was as bright as daylight, like a luminescent garment".
In Ancient India this is also the description given of the Serpent people, benefactors & genetic engineers of humanity. (Bioluminescent i.e. they spontaneously emit light due to a chemical reaction in their body. This would explain the so-called “jewels of the Naga” that illuminates the netherworld. Bioluminescence is found in many deep sea fishes and other marine organisms like jellyfish, algae, bacteria etc., who emit light from their bodies that make the seas glow and glitter. This occurs due to the presence of a light-emitting molecule called luciferin, which produces light when it reacts with oxygen. Many organisms also produce the catalyst luciferase,
In both Sumer & the Jewish text we see the key role of the woman, who did nothing wrong, quite the contrary it is she who breathes the soul or psyche into man. Bit Shimti - "House where the wind of life is breathed in" - Ninmah is the proud mother the "essence" of the blood of a young Anunnaki male was mixed with the egg of a female hominid. The fertilized egg was then inserted into the womb of a female Anunnaki. When, after a tense waiting period, a "Model Man" was born, Ninmah held the newborn baby up and shouted: "I have created! My hands have made it!"[
Enki boasted, “A Civilized man I have brought forth. A new kind of Earthling from my seed has been created, in my image and after my likeness. From seed they from food will grow, from ewes sheep they will shepherd. For Gods, and offspring henceforth shall be satiated.“
In Genesis, it is understood that the Serpent speaks,and was of equal footing wth "God". We saw in the Nag Hammadi, and other ancient texts from around the world. He was also most notable, because he stood on 2 feet like man, and was even taller. The Sumerian term Annun-Aki meant 'tall ones', the height of the Serpent was equal to that of a camel. Chap 3 of Genesis the argument is given that man can't be one of US. He must not be allowed to eat from the tree & live forever". Even here you see they're brothers.
"Enki, the Lord of abundance, of trustworthy commands, The Lord of wisdom, who understands the land, The leader of the gods, Endowed with wisdom, the Lord of Eridu"...
It has always been Enli, the archons who aim to "destroy mankind in his psychological function". Later, it's Enlil who tries to force the other Authorities to keep the secret from mankind.
"Come, all of us, and take an oath regarding the killing Flood!" But as all the others took the oath, Enki resisted firmly. "I refuse. Why will you bind me with an oath?" he asked, "Am I to raise my hand against my own humans?" Meanwhile, our father Enki understands the importance of love and kindness to the raising of consciousness, he acts with kindness in defending humanity and dealing with all the life on the planet.
Ninmah The Ninhursag , an mother of humanity is shown with humanity at her breast.The priesthood of Sumer & Egypt were Dolichocephalic, like mother. the Serpent Cults today still maintains the pure bloodlines that were mandated after the deluge.)
She was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. The H symbol, i described at all the sacred "navel' sites, especially Göbekli Tepe, Puma Punku, has the same meaning. The serpent always represents spiritual wisdom, life and healing. The first symbols of serpents were attributed to Enki or NU.DIM.MUD (Nudimmud), "He Who Fashions Thing and then Ninhursag.("Whose House Is Water") . Nag hammadi-Origin of our World
The text describes Ninti 'let fall a droplet of light, it flowed onto the water, and immediately a human being appeared, being androgynous. That droplet she molded first as a female body. Afterwards, using the body she molded it in the likeness of the mother, which had appeared. This was Eve of Life namely, the female instructor of life. Her offspring is the creature that is lord. Afterwards, the authorities called it "Beast", so that it might lead astray their modelled creatures. (The interpretation of "the beast" is "the instructor". For it was found to be the wisest of all beings.)"
"Then each of them cast his sperm into the midst of the navel of the earth fashioned man with his body resembling their body.His modelling took place by parts, one at a time. And their leader fashioned the brain and the nervous system. Afterwards, he appeared as prior to him. He became a soul-endowed man"
"when the Authorities (Yahweh) had saw Adam/Eve transgressed their rule it came upon them an earthquake and a great threat, to see the result of the help that was give. Their eyes were blinded by him so they were not able to do anything to him. They merely cursed him, since they were powerless. And everything that they created they cursed. There is no blessing from them. Good cannot come from evil."
"Since that day the authorities knew that truly there was something stronger than they. They would not have known except that their commandment was broken. They brought a great envy into the world only because of the immortal human."
Enki possessed the secret of me, 'culture, civilization', which is the genius of progress in knowledge to lead humanity. He invented civilization for the people and assigned to each his destiny. He created order in the cosmos. He filled the rivers with fish. He invented the plough and the yoke so that farmers could till the earth with oxen. In the most recent thread you see each ruler from Egypt to Pharoah carries the plough, the Serpent Priest would assist the Pharoah who was in charge of a successful harvest. "Master Servant " was the Pharoah
"Enki made the grain grow. He is the father of all plants.” Of course he wanted his children to eat from the Tree of knowledge, With the Tree of Knowledge humans had the chance to figure out everything on their own in time, to be as equal or better than him, as any parent wants for there child. . Had they eaten only from the Tree of Life, they would live but not have been more the wiser.
Why should acquiring knowledge be a sin?" (the original sin) and comparing it to modern day observations ought to wake you up to the fact that you live within societal system that was engineered by the members of "God" to empower themselves while keeping those who live within it ignorant
The sacred waters of knowledge had a double meaning, it represents both the creationof the human body(mostly water) & it is talking about the water carried by the Sages in places like La Mana, Ecuador. This water has amazing healing properties, it is apart of ritual today in the Llanganates for visiting initiates. Indigenous elders working with the scientific community have had fascinating results. Electrum Water Hiv nanoparticles Silver "he interaction of nanoparticles with biomolecules and microorganisms is an expanding field of research. Wis. In this work, we demonstrate that silver nanoparticles undergo a size-dependent interaction with HIV-1, with nanoparticles exclusively in the range of 1-10nm attached to the virus"
The Dogon call our Master Teachers, The Monitors, Nummo also meanw 'to make one drink'(water of wisdom). The Hebrews termed these Watchers as nun resh’ayin, meaning “those who watch.” In the Greek this is translated as gigantes or giants, a race that even the 907 B.C. writer Hesiod featured as being monstrous (due to their serpentine aspect no doubt). Now we can understand the role of the giants 2 seen across the world of ancient script in respect to the presence of the Watchers.
The Apkallu, these priest of Enki i wrote about in the last thread, the genetic, archaeologicalevidence has shown R1b-V88 & R1b-M269 were associated with agriculture, cattle domestication, metal working, language, geopolymer construction, everywhere a Pyramid or Navel was Built the Mende/Yoruba & the Austro-Melanesian Pacific Islander Ghost Hominids dna dna is found. The Aunu/Anu people migrated across the globe. Göbekli Tepe The human ummânū is attested in the Uruk List of Kings and Sages, while other references to bird-apkallū are legion
The purādu-fish apkallū is principally attested in Berossus.These seven were each advisers for seven different kings and therefore result in two different lists, one of kings and one of apkallu. Neither the sages nor the kings in these lists were genealogically related however. Apkallu and human beings were presumably capable of conjugal relationships since after the flood, the myth states that four apkallu appeared. These were part human and part Apkallu, and included Nungalpirriggaldim, Pirriggalnungal, Pirriggalabsu, and Lu-nana who were only two-thirds ApkalluKundalini is the spiritual energy or life force present in every human being, located at the base of the spine.
They were believed to have apotropaic qualities, guarding the home from evil.Sages FigurinesThe three types of apkallū are portrayed, with the human ummânū at far left, the Nisroc bird-apkallū type in the middle, and the antediluvian purādu-fish type at far right.3 Apkallu
Remember that it was the woman who was Pharoah, her consort became king. Egypt, like most of the most sophisticated ancient civilizations were ruled by women. Ninhursags the Goddess of the stony, rocky ground that masons use to spiritually ascend higher, the H at Göbekli Tepe & Puma Punku represents mother. 'As above(ninmah), So below(Enki)'. The underworld was never a negative place before the Romans. The Pyramid, the Great house was the Woman's house. Sumerian text speak of the foundation being the stone & the water just as the Pyramid text of Saqqara. The Sumerian E.KUR - "House Which is Like a Mountain." Pyramid was put under the patronage of Ninharsag.in hymns shes recognized as mistress of the "House With a Pointed Peak" - a pyramid. CoffinText 313:Horus says "I created my Eye in flame, I made my Eye a living serpent". Remember, the serpent he saw was bipedal, always. As Robert Monroe reported in the Gateway Experiments.
"House bright and dark of Heaven and Earth, for the great ships put together; E.KUR, House of the Gods with pointed peak; For Heaven-to-Earth it is greatly equipped. House whose interior glows with a reddish Light of Heaven, a beam of energy of creation which reaches far and wide; Its awesomeness touches the flesh. Awesome ziggurat, lofty mountain of mountains - Thy creation is great and lofty, men cannot understand it"
'House of Equipment, lofty house of Eternity: Its foundation are stones [which reach] the water; Its great circumference is set in the clay. House whose parts are skilfully woven together; House, the rightness of whose howling The Great-Ones-Who-See-and-Orbit brings down the rest . . . Mountain by which Utu ascends. [House] whose deep insides men cannot penetrate . . . Anu has magnified it.
In the Testament of Amram 2 men who resembling Living Serpents were seen fighting over him in his dream-vision. Even in ancient Text later we see "battles of the Gods', but in the very beginning We see the genius, Enki described as a kind, amicable child ONLY gets aggressive when his brother comes to harm his creation. Most importantly, Enlil & his realized he was powerless when Humanity had Enki by their side. So, his campaign was to disconnect us from that knowledge starting with the Bible & the Inquisition, they killed,raped, burned all of the knowledge that had allowed mankind to thrive.. then stashes the rest away, keeping it from the people. Dagon Catholicism
-In Egypt Ptah as Ea/Enki (Sumer he's also a cthonic diety "The Artful Creator") and Ra as his Firstborn son.
After Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninmah had fashioned the black-headed people, Vegetation that is fruitful they multiplied in the land... In the Edin they placed them..
The descendants of Ham ("He Who is Hot" and also "The Dark-Hued One").... correspond to the African nation-lands of Nubia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Lybia as the core nations of African resettlement, again beginning with the topographically higher areas..They were the Dogon, Hopis ancestors.. The ancient Chinese or Bak tribesmen which dominate China today called the Elamites KASHTI. Moreover, in the Bible the Book of Jeremiah (xlxx,35), we read "bow of Elam". It is interesting to note that both Khaltam-ti and Kashti as the name for Elam, agrees with Ta-Seti, the ancient name for Nubia located in the Meroitic Sudan. Sumerians Had Dolichocephalic skulls Genetic Evidence for convergent evolution SE AsianElamites-Mandig](http://olmec98.net/ElamPersians.png) Semitic speakers of Akkad and the non-Semitic speakers of Sumer were both sag-gig-ga or "blackheads".Elamite language, is closely related to the African languages including Egyptian and the Dravidian languages of India. Alchemy as Taught by Children of Enki
Antediluvian Kings of Sumer were known as Kings of Kush".the major Kushite tribe in Central Asia was called Kushana. The Kushan of China were styled Ta Yueh-ti or "the Great Lunar Race". Along the Salt Swamp, there was a state called Ku-Shih of Tibet. The city of K-san, was situated in the direction of Kushan, which was located in the Western part of the Gansu Province of China.
Here we find the divine decrees presented by Enki to Inanna are those referring to lordship, godship, the exalted and enduring crown, the throne of kingship, the exalted scepter, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship, the numerous priestly offices, truth, descent into the nether world and ascent from it, the music From the tree in the Mesopotamian depiction hang two pieces of fruit. To the right of the tree is the half-moon symbol of Ea; to the left is the planet symbol of Anu.
Lastly the pineal gland(pine cone). In India it is a stick of bamboo with seven knots… which represents the spinal column with its seven centers or chakras… It also indicated the spinal cord…while the serpents were symbolical of the two channels called in Eastern terminology Ida and Pinagala; and the fire enclosed within it was the serpent-fire which in Sanskrit is called kundalini." Even the natural behaviors of the pine cone have an esoteric meaning:
"as it ripens, the pine cone slowly opens to release its mature seeds."
This process is symbolic of the expansion of consciousness that accompanies the opening of the pineal gland and the awakening of the Third Eye. The metaphor is a valuable and stimulating mental lesson of an esoteric phenomenon that cannot otherwise be seen or explained since it occurs inside the brain..
The One sure way, and what's been happening wthin the last century especially is to keep knowledge away from the human race. If we as a collective are so ingrained in our beliefs, how can we ever be open to new ideas pertaining to the nature of reality?

Toxic Rats: B, Geoff, Scott, Leshawna, Sammy
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ, Trent
Episode 03: Ice Ice Baby
"Previously on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened on the now-typical shot of the somewhat decrepit Camp. "We learned that although our campers are here to win," the recap montage began with the two recently-awoken team assembled before the host, "they're all losers in one way or another," Scott was shown fleeing in terror from a mutant wooly beaver during the flashback of his Chris Head hunt. "Really, really big losers," Chris added over shots of Fang chomping off the corner of the Rats' stand, and DJ admitting his secret of sleeping with a teddy bear.
"It was a psychological butt-kicking that quickly turned literal," Chris continued as Trent was shown sizing up the angle of his final swing into the Grand Slam, and Geoff got kicked forward by the Kick Start. "Then comical," the host added as Leshawna was shown painfully bouncing from one butt-shaped apparatus to the next, "then hysterical!" Chris finished with a laugh as Sierra's first try at the Grand Slam was shown, ending with the girl hitting the muddy floor.
"In the end, Sierra got the biggest boot of all," Sierra was shown in the bucket of the catapult. "Bye-bye," Chris added mockingly as the obsessive uberfan was flung into the night.
"I love my job," he said as the scene cut to him on the Dock of Shame, "Stay tuned as more things blow up! More contestants throw up, and some even try to hook up. Right here, on Total! Drama! Revenge of the Island!"
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The episode opened on Camp Wawanakwa's lodge and mess hall, the camera panning to the left to show the communal bathroom and, more importantly, a cluster of bushes. The shot zoomed in as one of them began to rustle, and a mouse with a bulging, veiny head scurried out into the open. It paused as the shadow of a bird of prey fell over it, and looked up to see a bald eagle diving towards it with its talons out.
The mutant mouse's eyes glowed green, and a beam shot out of them and hit the approaching eagle. The bird froze in mid-air, then slammed back and forth as though in the grasp of some unseen hand. It was finally tossed off-camera with a squawk, and the mutant mouse scurried onward. It climbed the steps of the main lodge and crawled through a hole in the door, and the scene cut inside.
The camera, situated high on the right wall relative to the entrance, showed the two teams eating and the lodge itself in a state of near disrepair. The floor had become a patchwork of different colors and styles; one of the front windows had been broken and halfheartedly boarded up; there was a gaping hole in the roof over the other front window; a few planks were missing from the far left wall around the fireplace; and a bit of wallpaper was peeling on the partition dividing the kitchen from the rest of the lodge.
The seven members of the Mutant Maggots sat at the forward table, to the left of the camera, while the five Toxic Rats sat closer to the kitchen; and both teams had only logs to sit on.
Katie stuck a spoonful of the grayish food they'd been served into her mouth, cringed, and spat it out. "This is so nasty! Gruel really is cruel!"
The perspective inverted to show Dave's face covered in the food. "Sorry Dave," Katie said from off screen.
Confessional: Dave
Dave started his confessional with a heavy sigh. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather eat dirt than any more of breakfast."
Confessional Ends
The static changed to Molly and Anne Maria sitting together. Molly was coughing due to how much spray Anne Maria was using.
Anne Maria noticed her plight and stopped. "Sorry, retro. On the upside, now your lungs are waterproof."
"I'll make use of that," Molly coughed again.
The shot cut to B at the right end of the Rats' table. He picked a hair out of his spoonful, and threw it away uncomfortably.
The camera panned to the left to show Leshawna and Geoff in what looked like an eating contest. Just as they were really getting into it, Geoff accidentally swallowed his spoon and started to choke.
Leshawna finished her meal first before checking on Geoff. "Let me help you out with that." She smacked the back of his neck, allowing the spoon to come out of his mouth.
Geoff sighed in relief. "Thanks. I really needed that."
"Bad news, I finished before you," Leshawna teased Geoff in good fun.
"Awesome," Geoff said. "Back home, I'm the kind when it comes to food competitions with my buds."
"If you say so," Leshawna replied.
The perspective changed, now showing Sammy and Scott eating across from Leshawna and Geoff.
"I've eaten fruits and vegetables just to keep my body fit for cheerleading, but this is too gross!" Sammy winced and shoved her gruel away.
Scott, who had witnessed her complaint and finished his gruel, grabbed her bowl and helped himself to a second helping.
Confessional: Scott
Scott began his confessional by chuckling while whittling a wood stick with his shark tooth. "Wimps. I grew up on a dirt farm." He brought out a clod. "I can always chomp on a clod if I get the munchies.
He took a bite out of his aforementioned object and chewed on it for a few seconds. The dirt farmer then smiled for the camera, only for his teeth to shatter and fall to the floor.
Confessional Ends
The footage resumed to the Maggots' table as DJ scooped up a spoonful of gruel with a little antenna poking out of it. He didn't notice, but when he put it in his mouth, he began to choke. Clutching his throat, he got to his feet, and stood away from the table, gagging.
"Hang on!" Trent called out, rushing up behind DJ and pumping his stomach repeatedly. The force was enough to make him spit out whatever he was choking on. A little beetle flew out among bits of gruel, and bounced onto the floor before landing on Geoff's hat.
DJ awkwardly breathed. "Thanks for the save," he said.
"Don't sweat it," Trent replied. "We're teammates."
The shot cut back to Scarlett, who was looking down to the bulbous-headed mouse now sitting on their own table. "What is that Apodemus sylvaticus doing over here?" she remarked. Without warning the mouse's eyes began to glow green again, and to the horror of the brainiac it levitated into the air.
The scene moved outside the lodge as crashes and screams of terror filled the air. All the campers except Molly fled out the front door and a refrigerator was flung out after them. They paused to catch their breath, and it was then that Molly was finally tossed out to them with a scream of her own.
The whine of the intercom turning on caught their attention, and the camera cut to an upward shot of the loudspeaker. "Attention, players!" Chris announced. "Please head to the looming tragedy that is Mount Looming Tragedy!" The shot switched to a tall, craggy spire of rock in the distance, it's broad and flat peak seen only in silhouette thanks to a ring of ominous clouds. "Your race begins, NOW!"
He punctuated his broadcast with his blowhorn, and Scarlett immediately turned to her teammates. "Maggots, let us make haste!" she declared, and all twelve campers raced off.
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A flash ahead showed the two teams arriving at the base of the mountain, all of them out of breath.
"Did we win the challenge?" Katie panted, doubled over with her hands on her knees.
Dave arrived last just then, clutching his stomach and groaning. He walked over to a bush, fell to his knees, and threw up.
"Not to judge, but you should exercise more, dude," Molly told the germaphobe as he stood back up and wiped the bile from his lips.
A sudden whistle interrupted any reply that may have come, drawing the campers' attention to the side. "Okay, mutant food," Chris greeted, standing with Chef next to a muddy jeep, "on with the challenge! Part one is an uphill battle," he explained, the shot moving to and upward pan of the rocky tower before them – it was covered with barbed wire, toxic waste barrels, and what looked like pipes of some kind. "You have to climb all the way up to that cliff," Chris explained, the camera coming to a rest at the broad, flat rock that topped the mountain; a dead tree and another toxic waste barrel were the only things to be seen on top. "First team to reach the top gets an advantage in part two."
"You can climb with your hands," the host continued as the shot returned to him, "or use whatever you find in the pile." He motioned over his shoulder, and the camera cut to a large mound of junk – appliances, furniture, pipes, tires, and other abandoned pieces of scrap. "But don't worry," Chris added, growing more and more excited, "this junkyard doesn't have a dog. It has a giant mutant beetle!"
On cue, a gigantic beetle similar to the one DJ had found in his gruel popped out of the junk pile and hissed at the humans; B, Sammy, DJ, Molly, and Trent all gasped in shock.
"Hahaha, big guy's a bit of a hoarder," Chris laughed. "His estate is full of useful crud," the beetle was shown picking up a paintball gun and a sewing machine from the pile and casually tossing them away, "aaaand disgusting crud." The beetle picked out a toilet next, and threw it at the humans with a hissing roar; B, Sammy, DJ, Molly, and Trent quickly ducked, and it crashed to the ground behind them. "That is, if you can get near it," Chris told them with an impish smile.
"One last thing before we start," the host announced. "Since the Rats are looking uneven, I'll need one member of the Maggots to switch over to their team. Who's it gonna be?"
"I'll move to the Toxic Rats," Trent shrugged.
Chris turned towards the mountain and gave a thumbs-up, and Chef – now on top of the cliff – blew on an alphorn, shaking the area. "It is on!" the host declared.
"Let's move Maggots!" Scarlett said as the campers started running.
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The Maggots' logo appeared in the corner as Dave was shown struggling to pull himself up to a ledge. "Molly was right. I need more exercise." He fell off completely, and sighed as he laid on the ground.
"Don't give up Dave," Katie called out to him while hanging from a dead tree that was jutting out of the rock. "You can do it!" The branch broke and she started to fall with a scream, until a hand pulled her up to a higher ledge.
The camera panned up to show that DJ had saved her. "Thank you," Katie said happily.
"Anytime," DJ replied. The two looked into each other's eyes and smiled.
"Rock climbing," Molly yelled as the shot cut to her climbing the mountain, "was never on my bucket list!"
"You don't have to like it," Katie said. "You just have to help us instead of wanting to bail."
"It's not my fault I wanted to avoid being killed," Molly said, referring to the challenge last episode.
"Keep it together, Geoff," Scott called out as the shot cut to him and Geoff climbing another part of the mountain, the Rats' logo in the top-left corner of the screen. "At this rate, we'll be the ones winning for our team!"
"Don't worry about me!" Geoff advised. "This is no sweat."
Confessional: Geoff
"I'm a bit of a rock climber back home," Geoff said. "It makes me feel free and adventurous. I normally wear sunglasses just to prevent the rocks from getting into my eyes, but I didn't come prepared. Wish me luck."
Confessional Ends
The shot cut next to Anne Maria, still on the ground looking at her reflection in her hand mirror. "And will the lady be participating?" Chris asked in a mocking prim tone as he walked over.
"Have you seen my nails?" Anne Maria denied. "These are why I drive with my feet."
"I see," Chris said blankly. "What about you?" he asked, turning his head towards Scarlett – who was also still on the ground, looking up at the cliff.
"I will climb," Scarlett replied. "I'm just doing some calculations right now."
The camera panned over to the right, where Leshawna was trying to climb the cliff with Trent watching her failed attempts.
"And I'm coming back down," Sammy slid to the ground with a deadpan expression. "Practice doesn't make perfect, Trent."
"I was trying to prep you up," Trent admitted.
"Sammy, wait! I see B has a plan," Leshawna told Sammy as she saw B near the junkpile.
"Okay then. I hope it involves not climbing." Sammy said off-camera.
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The scene cut back to Geoff lingering at a ledge with a few small, loose stones on it. He misstepped as he climbed, and accidentally kicked them off – they tumbled down the mountainside, catching DJ and Katie and knocking them off. The two crashed into Dave, who was making his own slow progress up the mountain, and all three landed on the ground in a heap.
Back down at the bottom, Scarlett stopped at the three that had fallen, who had still not made any move to get up.
"Are you all still able to function later?" Scarlett asked.
"We're fine," Dave said. "Thanks for asking."
Confessional: Scarlett
"I didn't immediately start climbing up the cliff," Scarlett explained her plan. "I wanted to see how everyone would go about it. That way, I can seek out any obstacles and how to avoid them."
Confessional Ends
Back over the junk pile, B attempted to grab a barrel, only to be stopped by the beetle breathing fire.
"It can breathe fire? Seriously?" Leshawna said, flabbergasted.
"Maybe we can distract this beetle," Trent suggested.
B held up a refrigerator door to prevent himself from getting burned by the beetle's fire, giving way for Leshawna to snatch a flute that was on top of the pile.
"Toss it over! I could give it a try," Sammy offered before Leshawna threw at her the flute.
Sammy's flute playing wasn't very good, and the beetle quickly breathed out another jet of fire, then curled up into a ball and rolled towards them as the intense challenge music resumed. Sammy stopped playing as she and Trent scattered, with the balled-up beetle only following the guitarist.
"Why are you going after me?!" Trent exclaimed as he ran from the mutant, Sammy and Leshawna watching from the junk pile. "I didn't use the flute!"
Dave, DJ, and Katie got back up from the fall and saw B dragging the barrel on the ground.
"The Rats have the right idea. We can take things from the trash pile so we can climb up," Scarlett said to the three as they went to the trash pile to pick up items while the beetle was jumping on Trent and smashing him to the ground.
\
The shot cut to the top of the mountain, where Chef was waiting with several large blocks of ice. Geoff was almost there, causing Chef to scowl – though he brightened up when his walkie talkie beeped. "You know what to do," Chris told him. "Ice 'em."
"We might just win this," Geoff said confidently. The shot cut up to Chef as he held out an ice block with a vicious grin. He let it fall, and Geoff looked up just in time to see it hit him. It knocked him off the cliff face, and he fell and knocked Scott off as well. The two fell past Molly, who watched in shock as they landed with a pained thud and groan.
Molly scowled upwards, and Chef was shown throwing more and more ice blocks down towards her. With a smirk, she dodged each one in turn. "Like I'm gonna get iced like that!" she taunted up at the man.
Anne Maria was still on the ground spraying her hair. "Nice hairspray, pouf head!" Molly taunted her. "Maybe if you used spray on style, it might be easy on the eyes!"
Anne Maria got enraged enough to crush her can with one hand. "What'd you say to me? Oh, it is on!" Anne Maria declared as she started her climb.
Chef threw an ice block in her direction, but it got shattered thanks to how hard her hair was.
"Hey! Quit it!" Anne Maria punched another ice block out of her way. "I'm coming for you, Pasty!"
Molly watched her with a bit of fear, but got over it. "She'll thank me later."
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As Geoff and Scott got back up from their falls, the camera went over to Scarlett, Katie, DJ, and Dave ready to go back up the cliff again.
"If all else fails, just use whatever you have," Katie noted to her team. "I've done a lot of DIY projects that way."
"DIY?" Dave asked incredulously.
"It means Do it yourself," Katie pronounced before showing off her fingers that were wrapped with metal sharpened to resemble Wolverine's claws. She latched on to the cliff with them and started to climb. "Let's get climbing!"
DJ used a pair of plungers as his climbing method, Dave spun around a coil of rope before throwing it up so that he can climb on it, and Scarlett used a grappling gun she made out of metal in order to climb certain parts of the cliff.
Trent was now getting punched in the face by the beetle, who was wearing boxing gloves now.
Geoff watched with concern, until the beetle from earlier hopped out of his hat. He noticed this and swooped it up. "Wait! Is this why you're being so harsh?"
This attracted the attention of the larger one, who promptly dropped Trent. He hit the ground with a groan.
The smaller beetle jumped from Geoff's hand and scurried over to its parent, who picked it up with its forelegs, looked at it lovingly, and gave it a quick tap on the back so that it burped out a small jet of flame. Satisfied, the guard beetle scurried away and disappeared behind its horde.
"That was really touching," Geoff commented in a touched tone.
Confessional: Trent
"Beetles can put up one heck of a fight," Trent said with his bruises on display.
Confessional Ends
The camera quick-panned back down to the Rats. Several bottles and bags and electronic bits had been tied to the waste barrel, two long wires were leading out from them, and a couch was seated over it.
"Baking soda? A broken chair leg? We were chased by a giant, fire-breathing beetle so you could collect all of this?!" Trent said to B.
B motioned them to come sit down. Seeing that they're out of options, they complied and took a seat.
With everyone in, B intersected two wires together, instigating a spark and setting the couch to fly up to the sky.
"We're flying now!" Leshawna cheered out loud as they passed Scarlett, DJ, Dave, and Katie, who were still climbing.
Molly got to the top and hauled herself up with a triumphant cheer... just before the couch crashed down on top of Chef, Scott nowhere to be seen.
"You did it, B! We won the challenge!" Geoff congratulated the silent inventor, leading the Rats to cheer for their victory.
It was then that Scott finally landed on the mountain with a thud, leading the five Rats to look at him in shock.
Confessional: Scott
"Okay, seriously. Beverly the explosives expert mime has to go!" Scott stabbed his tooth into the wall angrily.
Confessional Ends
Chris arrived with his jetpack. "Slow your roll, Party Boy, I say who wins."
"Good enough," Molly smirked.
"The Rats, thanks to B!" Chris announced, earning a triumphant cheer from the six winners and a groan from the losers. "See how I do that better?"
"I got up here first!" Molly shouted while Anne Maria went up to her. "Doesn't that mean we win!"
"First team to the top wins. That means the whole team. You're still missing them." Chris enforced the rules.
"How swell," Molly moaned, and got slapped on her arm by Anne Maria. "What was that for?!"
"Nobody disrespects the hair or the spray," Anne Maria reminded her.
"Harsh, but true," Chris got in front of her. "Who else is heading for a fall? Find out after the break."
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(Commercial Break)
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BACKSTORY: I've been talking to a girl since November, but been in a relationship with her since March. This time next year i'll be moving in with her. She lives about an hour away, but we see each other every weekend. Thing are going fairly well, except for some minor things here and there, but we always get back to the love.
Shes in the process of buying a house. I'd like to buy her something nice for a house warming gift. She shares with me her ideas for different things for the house, asks my opinion, and wants me to be involved with the decor. I want to buy her something nice, but idk what it'd be. She needs a lot of stuff, including a fridge, an island (for the kitchen), a dinning room table/chairs, and a bunch of smaller things too. I just don't want to "over do it" , but I still want to get her something. It should be noted that I intend on moving in with her and her kids next year as well. So I don't want to get her like a toaster or something, when I, too will (hopefully) be moving in, and don't want to make it seem like I'm cheap or don't care. I hope this makes sense. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Tonight I waited 10-15 minutes at a restaurant before an employee came to the counter, only to find out the order had been ready the whole time. Then they had the guts to say, “You should have just told us!” despite the fact all the employees were in the back the whole time, talking loudly, with loud music on. And then, “You were looking at other things and at your phone.” Well of course. Was I supposed to stare lifelessly into the back the entire 10 minutes so they knew I was an NPC that couldn’t do anything until they came and talked to me?
I’ve tried that before. At another restaurant recently, I waited 20+ minutes for an order that I could clearly see, sitting in the kitchen, ready for pickup. The employees even made eye contact with me a few times, and didn’t come over. To be fair to them, there were only two of them working and they were slammed with a busy drive thru and a huge order in the lobby. But a simple “Do you have an online order?/ We’ll be with you in a moment” would have worked splendidly.
In another restaurant a few days ago several dashers were in line. The staff helped the one in front of me and the ones behind me, and completely ignored me. I tried to make eye contact and say something but they either accidentally or purposefully didn’t notice. It begins to feel creepy and embarrassing to be trying so long to get people’s attention. I ended having to call DoorDash to get them to call the restaurant and tell them I was there.
And at yet another restaurant that was not busy at all, as I was waiting at the host counter, many employees looked in my direction or walked past me in the course of 20 minutes, but it seemed I was entirely invisible to them.
Am I supposed to be shouting at these people to get their attention? And if so, what do I say?
TL;DR restaurant staff keep ignoring me, and I don’t know how to fix this problem.

The Island:
It is not a desert island. It's a moderately sized, lush island. There are no large predators or dangerous wildlife (like boars or moose). There are bugs but they are only a nuisance deep in the forest. The weather is similar to Pacific islands like Hawaii. The weather can get bad but there will never be a severe storm as long as you are on the island.
Amenities:
It is also a partially developed island. You awaken in an open air cabana on the beach. There are lights, electricity, an unstocked bar with a mini fridge and a hard-line gas grill. Nearby you see a dock with and a covered cargo area. There is also an ATV and compatible trailer. Leading into the forest is a well maintained trail that leads to a house with a great view. The house is built in an architectural style that you enjoy. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 living room and a covered porch/deck. The house doesn't have much beyond the standard furniture and cooking utensils. It does have a living room with a big screen TV, Blu-ray player, and CD playestereo. There is also a top-of-the-line computer without Internet access. It has the full Adobe Creative Suite.
Resources:
You find a note describing the situation. Basically you can stay as long as you want and when you're ready to leave all you have to do is press a button down by the dock and someone will arrive to pick you up within 15 minutes. They will also handle all aspects of your return journey to wherever you were before waking up on the island. During your stay you will receive constant resupply's of essential resources. This means electricity, potable water, fuel etc. will never run out. In terms of food, your diet for the previous week will be evaluated and any ingredients used in the preparation of those meals will be considered "essential foods" that are constantly restocked.
Lastly, it is explained that you can give requests every week for 5 specialty ingredients, 5 Blu-rays/DVDs, 5 CDs, 1 videogame/program, and 1 item of your choosing. Non-networked items only. Nothing you could use to connect or communicate with the world at large. All items are delivered on the same day every week, neatly stacked under the cargo area. They are only delivered when you aren't around or observing (recording or viewing through a camera). The videogame/program will mysteriously be installed on the computer at the same time the other items are delivered. If it requires an Internet connection beyond installation, it will not work. Requests are inputted through a custom program preinstalled on the computer.
Hypothetical Questions:

1. After learning all of this, how long do you choose to stay on the island?
2. What special requests do you prioritize?
3. How do you spend your time?