Doug and stacy off grid

Hi,
Hope this is allowed and apologies if not, I have just upgraded my Plex to a lifetime membership using the code POWERGEEK to get 20% off even though it was supposed to expire on May 29, 2023,
Hope others may find this useful,
Cheers!

Hi, So glad I came across this group with so much information from everyones different experiences. This is my first post so bare with me as it may be a little long.
So to start my cycle has always been bang on 30 days but the last 2 months it was 27 days. Last period was 1st may. 9 days before my due period i started having this dark brown discharge (21st of the 5th) which lasted around 3 days. On the 23rd my boobs got really sore and i was getting twinges in my lower abdomen (got this with my last 2 pregnancies )so done a pregnancy test on the 24th which came back positive. It was serious shock as we have our family and are making plans to travel in the coming months and years in a canpervan we are converting atm. We seriously debated abortion but after 2 agonising days decided we couldn't fo through with it. Just as we started to come to terms with it on Saturday 27th i was holding my 4 month old neice and she pushed her we foot down on the right side of my lower abdomen and there was a very sharp pain. When i went to the toilet again i was bleeding. Bright red blood. Its weird because all that day i felt funny and was actually ready online searching about eptopic pregnancy. I knew something was different this time in my gut. Anyway i started to get little light headed and panicky so my husband took me up to the A&E. Got bloods done to confirm pregnancy and an internal scan which obviously didnt show anything as im not far enough on. They couldn't find my right ovary but could see there was no active blood flow which i couldnt really understand as the bleeding lasted into the next day for roughly 24 hours in total, bright red but no clots. They rang the next day with bloods and said they were 100 Hcg (if thats right ive been in such a daze since finding out we were having another baby🙈) so called me back up again yesterday for more bloods and done another scan which again showed nothing and couldnt find my right ovary. Those came back last night (29th) after a very agonising wait and i was told the Dr thinks it seems like and early miscarriage but wants to confirm with more bloods tomorrow (31st). I was in a world of my own so didnt ask what the levels were this time. Im assuming they stayed the same or dropped/increased just slightly. Im really nervous about tomorrow as i just want and answer as to whats going on. Im due to go on holiday to Ibiza next Saturday with my cousin and sister and we have been really excited about it as the last holiday we planned got cancelled due to covid kicking off. Ive literally saved every spare penny i had to get on this holiday and with the way things are going with the cost of living i doubt very much i will be able to afford another anytime soon. I could deal with being pregnant on holiday and not drinking but after all this now happening i honestly dont think i could go and enjoy myself without drinking. If it turns out eptopic then its either gona be surgery or that injection from what ive been reading. I cant drink with the injection and i doubt i can fly after surgery. God forgive me but im kinda praying for a miscarriage. Just so i can go and try and have a good time and forget all this happened. I feel for anyone who has had to go through this or anything similar as the waiting is just brutal. I just want it to all be over with tbh. Just for context i have had pain in the right side a little in my chest and tonight a pain shot through my jaw. Most of the pain isnt overly bad so i dont know if its just my anxiety causing it. Ive also has bad lower back pain and pain in my right arm and shooting down my right leg where i suspect if its eptopic thats the side its on. All the symptoms of being pregnant are fading. Sore boobs and achy legs and the twinges i got with the other 2 pregnancies.
Has anyone ever experience these kinds of things with a miscarriage? I know people do loose the pregnancy symptoms some times but does anyone get the pain one sided? The short period off bleeding? The nurse told me that can happen with a miscarriage but i honestly think she was trying not to worry me.
Thank you for taking the time to read ❤

I plan to have a trip taking about 2-4g of APE and I’m wondering how long I should wait to start micro-dosing after that
Similarly when starting micro dosing, how many days should I stay off of it before tripping, or could I decide to trip while micro-dosing then just give a grace period after before starting micro-dosing again
Thanks ^{^}
Bonus Question: Im moving off of Effexor to switch to micro-dosing, and I’ve read that after I’m completely off of it I should wait like 2-3 weeks before I try micro-dosing does this seem fine? I went from 300mg of Effexor down to 30mg in about a week, and I plan to stop it in a day or so, but I’m not sure how long it would take to get out of my system. ❤️

Hii do I take the bandage off the same day and clean it with salt water ? And put a fresh dressing on ? Thank youu 🥺

I don't know where it all went wrong. All of a sudden you were blowing up at me over the smallest little things. You'd gaslight me saying I was misunderstanding you. Whenever I came to you about a relationship issue, you always spun it into a 'me' problem and said I was being abusive.
You never let me have any space. It was constant texting and talking. Was it not enough? You had to try and isolate me from my family and friends too?
My grandma's death came at an interesting time. I had to go back home, overseas and yet the same thing. You never supported me before the trip too. So I made up my mind before my trip that I didn't see a future with you. It wasn't until I actually couldn't enjoy my trip, that I finally cut you loose.
And even then, after all that crying. After all those sorries. I misinterpreted your words, and that they were out of love. Hanging up on someone mid sentence and gaslighting them isn't love.
I picked up some bad habits because of you. I'd threaten to leave every time you were mad. Because it'd stop. Then everything would be fine for two days then the cycle would repeat. Behind your back, I met several women while overseas. It felt like cheating. But while I wanted to commit to you, you wouldn't commit to me. In hindsight that was a good thing.
You told me i'd never meet a woman like you. You told me no woman would ever love me as much as you.
Guess what? One of the gals I met? She's visiting me. Going out of her way to see me in 2 days. She even listed ME as her contact when visiting, even though she could have noted her friends.
Because of the damage you did, I got frustrated with a simple issue and also told that gal we should stop talking to each other. She clung onto me, and we talked it out as adults.
I didnt tell her all the moments i wanted to call it off. I had to tell myself several times that its not me. It's the venom that lingers after a snakebite.
When we text she's genuinely happy. I'm genuinely happy. She gives me space and I give her hers.
I'm going to show her a good time. I'm going to have a good time. I'm not going to throw away something good just because of the damage you did to me.
I hope you wallow in your misery. I hope you get mad whenever you read all those saved texts . I hope you'll stalk my social media accounts, only to see profile photos of that gal and I together. I hope you never enter into a relationship until you realize how much of a terror you were to deal with and get better.
With all this damage, I'm going to win. And I will come out ahead.

Dear Diary,
My period is here, FINALLY, after having the siren on for days and days. 2 months of gap in between, and tons of cramps 😡😡😡😡😡 angery
Anyway I've went to meet my friend and his pup and he gave me A CHOCOLATE CAKE AND CHIPS for no reason!!! It's silly but being on our period makes girls really hungry sometimes. We can eat alll the food sometimes. Every last food that appears in front of us. I didn't realised but my friend was showing me this sweet act of kindness, and I don't think he knew he was being nice to me. He just was.
I went to the gym after and my friend R who seems to be very affectionate was so caring when I told her I was cramping. I was laying on the medicine ball and stretching my back for a while and she came and went boop boop boop on my tummy. I was initially about to get annoyed since I'm very averse to being touched by anyone except the person I'm romantically involved with, but my brain instantly recognized R was being affection with me too! It's so pleasant that my friends care about me. I was feeling really achey all over I couldn't lift ANYTHING, but when I thought about my friends I realised I must be doing something right. My gym crush wasn't there, but I'm certain he'd have given me something to take home too. I feel like the pain seems more bearable now knowing I have love and affection all around me.
Ok but I have to tell you something Diary, you know I wanted to tease that boy? Well yesterday, I as per a Redditor's suggestion, I wore my red lace panties which have this bumpy lace trim seam which shows over my leggings. My crush didn't turn up, but...
There's this one really disgusting guy, who seems to ogle every woman, go very close, and even sometimes get touchy with women. He's been staring my ass for the last two months. I know he can't help it, and it's a lesson in futility to try to teach him the difference between appropriate and inappropriate gym conduct and frankly I could not care enough to speak to him, I'm certain he'd take it as encouragement. Yesterday his eyes were TRANSFIXED on my behind. I tend to wear a pair of leggings and a large oversized tshirt, but if I'm doing a lower body movement, I'll lift my tshirt from the back and tuck it in my leggings. HE WOULD NOT STOP STARING.
Today, I wore a pair of normal full coverage panties because I had a sanitary napkin (my crush didn't turn up even today), but the second this guy saw me on the eliptical trainer, his eyes DARTED to my ass. I can't lie Diary, my brain instantly started wondering what he'd do to me if he could have me any way he'd like. I bet he's real nasty too. He's probably the kind to like spitting on assholes and tonguing them too. He'd probably sniff the bench I'd sit on for a set, and maybe lick my pussy sweat off of it, if no one was looking. He'd like rubbing his face in my pussy after a 30 minute run too, or maybe shove his cock in me while covering my mouth if we were alone in the gym and I'd gone to the changing rooms alone during closing. Or maybe that's who I want him to be.🤭🙈
Either way Diary, he's disgusting and I want my gym crush to turn up more.
Diary I'm going to pass out, my body is completely out of order. I hope tomorrow isn't a hectic work day for me 🤞
Love you Diary,
Good night 💕

Hello! I have a friend visiting Toronto and wanted to show her cool places, she likes oddities like taxidermy and unique glassware and other artsy things that are a bit unusual.
I will definitely visit the prehistoria museum/ skull store with her but is there any other places in Toronto y’all know that I could show off? Thank you!

Hey folks,
I've been playing classic a lot recently and almost hit 60 with my paladin.
I wanted to break off and give retail a go having no tolayed properly since the warlords of draenor expansion. I'm surprised how overwhelming retail is and struggling to get started and make decisions.
Ive decided to start a Holy paladin fresh and familiarise myself with all the new features and mechanics.
A a couple of questionss:
1) how does questing work? Can I not play through all of the previous expansions content before going to dragon flight? I wanted to take it slow and refresh the story and lore.
2) are professional useful now? I'm unsure what is a good match for my Holy paladin
If anybody else has any tips or links to guides for returning players who've been gone quite a few expansions.

alright so I beat echidna twice (first in LDK then SOS) and it ended off with an SSS both times and still haven’t got the achievement. am I doing something wrong?

I'm looking for guidance on what resources I should use as a new M3 with a weak knowledge base.
I've just started my 1st rotation (Peds) and have been doing Peds UWorld Blocks/Anki to learn and prepare for shelf exams. However, I'm getting like 30-40% correct on my blocks. I fehatel like I'm blindly guessing on over half of the questions because I don't recognize many terms or just don't know enough about the diseases mentioned.
My knowledge base is certainly weak, as I took a research year on top of probably barely passing Step 1.
I know people say that UWorld/Anki is sufficient to score well on shelf exams, but I feel like that's for people who already have a strong content base. Are there any video series are like Pathoma, which explains things conceptually? Do people actually read entire textbooks? Watching or reading just regurgitated facts is impossible for me to internalize.
I've heard mixed reviews of BnB Step 2 and OME, are these good resources to watch to build a solid foundation to build off of using Anki and UWorld?

Ok, so I have $12,200 in credit card debt with an APR of 24.74% (which is crazy, I know). It’s a capital one card. I listened to some bad advice and only paid the minimum payments on the card for so long, and never thought about it till now. Mistake made, lesson learned.
I also am planning on buying an engagement ring for my girlfriend very very soon.
Now, I want to know what you guys think of my plan. I wanted to transfer the balance of the capital one card to a Bank of America one with 21 months 0% APR. I applied for the card, but only $8,550 of the balance got transferred. Not ideal, but better than what I had. So, my plan is to buy the engagement ring, and I would be paying about $300 a month for 3 years, a little less. And then while Im doing that, pay 200 a month to the discover card and 200 to the capital one card. I can do this while still saving about $450 a month after all living expenses (and that’s with throwing in $1000 a month for “fun” or non essentials, so I could be saving more.)
Once the 21 months is up with the BofA card, transfer both balances to another 0% APR card and finish the payments by the 3 years it’s going to take to pay off the ring. That way, in 3 years time, I’m gonna be debt free, while also putting $15,000 into my savings account.
This plan sounds great on paper, and I know to make it work I need to be disciplined with my spending and stick to the payments each month. But I want to know, what do you guys think of this plan? I’m very new to this but this plan is getting me excited about paying off my debt.

Snail: What an ending so why did Koro win? Well let’s start off with speed! Sans has never been shown to be on par with anything as fast as Koro has! While Frisk dodged lasers it’s iffy if we should scale Sans to that and even if we did that’s only his reaction speed not his attack speed and the teacher would surely keep up. Plus Sans has awful stamina Koro-Sensei spends entire school days being shot at and dodging knives! He surely be able to put last Sans even if he couldn’t instantly get a hit off! Koro has never needed to deal with attacks to his soul before but he certainly could out speed and one shot! So with his grater stamina and speed Sans stood no chance!
The winner is Koro-Sensei
(Thanks so much to Few for writing Sans’ half of the analysis and the fight unfortunately we will be taking a short break so expect a delay on next episode! If you want to know why we are taking a break… ASK CREEPER HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID! Although expect the reveal for next time soon!)

I’ve bounced off of dominating a few times in the early game, and I’m wondering if this sub has any tips to make it smoother. I know that Molotov/trap spam is always the key to success, but I’m still finding it a slog even with those tactics.
My main issue is economic, I can’t really afford to keep my ammo and grenade supply up pre-junkyard. I know some people like disassemble + repairing guns with crafted repair kits, but honestly I find it hard to get enough scrap to make use of that in the first place.
I’m also wondering which build has the easiest time with the early game. It’s Underrail, so I know that once my build comes together I’ll be an unstoppable murder man, but just getting to that point is insanely tedious on dominating.
I typically play on classic exp, since I’m not the biggest fan of dumpster diving for exp.
Thanks in advance!

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+often+do+guys+watch+porn&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-bg&client=safari
I really want to overcome my fear of talking to women I like. The only thing I see maybe helping me is NoFap but then I realize how most dudes talk easily and eagerly to girls right in front of me and I know for a fact that they jerk off.
If most guys jerk off, and by most science says pretty much ALL, why don’t they have confidence or social anxiety issues?
Hell, i dont even watch that much porn as the average dude… why then am i so shy and timid?!

I have xtrail 2015. when in reverse, my sonar is showing off and sensors not working. In settings, everything is ok. Can anyone help please

"X" number of cases to start off with "Y" number remaining after applying a filter "Z" number remaining after applying a second filter. I am trying to figure out a way to represent this somewhat graphically and cannot seem to figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Hey everyone! I installed a GC Dual last night with some mixed results. HDMI looks great, the output is clean on my LG C9 OLED, but component through the AV multiout is showing vertical lines. My current setup is Gamecube > GC to Wii multiout > HD Retrovision Wii Component Cables > RetroTINK 5X

• Some notes on the install:
  • I removed an extra resistor from Chroma since that's what was shown in Voultar's YT video, but added it back by grabbing a resistor I got from a dead GameCube.
  • The vertical lines come through really strong on the RetroTINK5x If I turn off EDTV (the video shows it when it is on, so stronger than that)
  • I don't see the lines when doing GBi through gbihf-ossc to Retrotink 5x. Comes thourgh very sharp. Tried forcing a game to 240p to see if its was a 480 issue or something, but still showed up in 240 and 480i.
  • I purchased the adapter from LaserBear, and assembled it myself. I
  • Haven't tested composite out yet, need to dig up cables, will post an update when I can there.
  • I'm newer to modding, but I've done DCDigital v2, N64 digital, Virtual Ribbon, and Xstation, among other mods with good success.

Not sure if it's something with the installation, the adapter, or something else. Thanks in advance for any advice!

https://turtletimeline.com/powerx-unveils-worlds-first-battery-tanke

Field testing of revolutionary maritime power transmission slated for 2026

As technology leaps into the future, the maritime industry is set to make a splash of its own. In a revolutionary step forward, PowerX, the Tokyo-based tech giant, has unveiled the design of the world’s first ‘Battery Tanker’ at the prestigious Bariship International Maritime Exhibition. Inaugural ship ‘X’ aims for completion by 2025, with domestic and international field testing planned to commence in 2026.

Battery tankers: future of maritime power transmission

Named ‘X’, the inaugural Battery Tanker features 96 containerized marine batteries, providing an impressive total capacity of 241MWh. Powered by a safe and reliable lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery system, this vessel exemplifies PowerX’s commitment to safety, scalability, and sustainability. Its groundbreaking design signifies a new era in maritime power transmission, setting the stage for larger electric transport vessels in the future.

Ocean power grid: harnessing battery tankers for wider energy distribution

In tandem with the Battery Tanker unveiling, PowerX has announced the creation of Ocean Power Grid Inc. This new entity is set to leverage Battery Tankers to advance the maritime power transmission business both in Japan and internationally. From owning and operating battery tankers to forming strategic partnerships, Ocean Power Grid is primed to spearhead this innovative venture.

Partnership: PowerX, Kyushu Electric Power Co., and Yokohama City

To further its vision of maritime power transmission and carbon-neutral ports, PowerX has entered into an MOU and Partnership Agreement with Kyushu Electric Power Co., Ltd. and Yokohama City. This groundbreaking collaboration seeks to marry novel technological concepts with sustainable energy initiatives.

The power of stored renewable energy

PowerX’s Battery Tankers are not just a means of transportation but a vehicle for storing and transporting surplus electricity generated from renewable sources. Thermal power plants near ports, even those decommissioned or idle, can serve as charging points for these vessels. This unique approach ensures effective use of renewable energy and strengthens infrastructure for areas distant from high power demand regions.

Oceangoing power grid: long-term vision

Beyond their immediate impact, Battery Tankers also offer a promising future outlook. As battery technology advances and costs decrease, these tankers may enable longer-distance maritime power transmission from offshore wind power plants. This innovative approach could even make offshore wind farms viable in areas where undersea cable deployment was challenging, offering a potential solution to both domestic and global energy challenges.

Sustainable maritime future

The rise of PowerX’s Battery Tankers signals a potential sea change for the energy industry, one that could ripple out to affect global renewable energy adoption. By turning the tides on traditional energy transmission, these vessels may just steer us towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13u9t3m/my_father_always_kept_the_shed_locked_today_i/Part 1:
The darkness around us was oppressive, cloying and total. Anywhere we weren’t pointing our flashlights would turn into a solid wall of black, impenetrable shadows. But we could hear something. As we walked further down the hallway, we heard soft footsteps and giggling.
Sometimes, it sounded like it came from directly behind us. At other times, it would come from the rooms all around us, the endless rooms that split off the hallway on both sides. We found some strange things in those rooms as we walked slowly, the gun raised in my hand and the bowie knife raised in my brother’s.
There were corpses in some of the rooms. Many had partially mummified in the dry, chilly air down here. Others were clearly fresher. One woman was hanging from the rafters with a note pinned to her chest. I looked back at Gil when we reached this part of the hall. We had stayed out of the rooms since the incident with the little boy, but some deep innate curiosity needed to know what was on this note. Gil nodded at me, and we walked forward side by side, scanning every corner of the room and looking behind smashed-out fish tanks and torn sofas covered in black mold for any signs that we weren’t alone in here. Once we were both satisfied, we returned to the young woman hanging in the center of the room.
She had somehow climbed up to the ceiling, opened a panel and found a sturdy enough beam or rafter to tie the rope to. Yet there was no ladder or anything remotely tall enough to reach the ceiling nearby. It was somewhat of a mystery. I explained this to Gil, who looked somewhat confused- and alarmed. He clearly hadn’t realized it until I pointed it out to him.
I turned back to the woman’s corpse, picking off the note, which had been stuck into the front of her blouse with a huge wooden splinter. Gil kept a look-out while I read, shining his light back and forth in a circle across the room, holding his ridiculously huge knife in the other hand like some sort of medieval swordsman. I saw with increasing horror that the note appeared to have been written in the woman’s own blood. Looking at her body, I saw a deep slash on her left arm, one that had clotted days ago. I looked back down at the desperate message this dying woman had left for us.
“To anyone who finds this,
“My name is Michaela Mansfield. I came in here by accident through the sewers underneath the town of Caplin. My two friends and I went exploring and got separated after a girl in our group twisted her ankle. I went forward alone to find help while my other friend stayed behind with the injured girl. After perhaps a day of being lost, my flashlight started to die, and I thought I was going to die with it. And then I saw fluorescent lights up ahead. They were flickering and looked like they might sputter out at any moment, but it was the only hope I had. I followed the lights and found myself in this hallway. When I tried to turn around and go back, the entrance to the sewers had disappeared. It was just a hallway that seemed to extend forever, the one that has haunted me for weeks now.
“Please, if you find this note, tell my parents what happened to me. Take my golden locket and return it to my mother and father as proof. I hope you have better luck getting out of here than I did.
“Goodbye, and may God forgive me for what I’m about to do.
“-Michaela.”
I looked up at Gil, with one eyebrow raised. I saw he had been reading the note over my shoulder rather than keeping a look-out. I sighed, deciding not to say anything.
“We can’t take the locket,” I said. Gil shook his head.
“We have to take the locket,” he said.
“They’re going to think we had something to do with this girl’s death if we just show up randomly with a piece of her jewelry. Actually, I think I remember when this girl and her friends went missing. It was on the news. Her parents were pleading for anyone with information to come forward. I think the cops were acting on the suspicion that it was murder or kidnapping or something. But they probably just went exploring without telling anyone and never came back.”
“We’ll wipe it down and send it anonymously through the mail with a note explaining what happened,” he said. I sighed, giving up. He was right. It was the right thing to do. But I’m sure many innocent men have gone to prison over trying to do the right thing. I pointed to the note.
“This doesn’t help us at all,” I said. He shrugged.
“Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t really help us formulate a plan, but it does give us information. For example, now we know that this place probably connects to a lot more places than the shed. We might be able to get out through dozens or hundreds of exits. If it connects to a random sewer over in Caplin, then it could connect to places all over the county.”
“True,” I said, “but what if it connects to some alien world? Or to a black hole? What if it connects to some point in the void between galaxies and we get sucked out to our deaths?” He simply shrugged again, seeming apathetic to these possibilities.
“Well, in that case,” he said smugly, a half-smile forming on his lips, “our deaths would probably be a lot quicker than they would at the hands of these creatures down here.” Then he started laughing. It sounded eerie in this dark, forlorn place, where everything smelled like yeast and the floors were all wet substrates growing strange jungles of alien molds. He reached forward and took the golden locket off of the woman’s neck, placing it carefully in his pocket. We started walking out of the room together.
“Also,” I said, “the note seems to imply that the entrances are temporary. She couldn’t find her way back out after she got in here. What if they’re all like that? What if they’re like… I don’t know, lobster traps, or Venus fly traps, or something? They draw people in here, and then once they’re inside…” I stopped speaking as soon as I realized I heard someone following us.
I heard running footsteps. A high-pitched giggling started, then was cut off. We both stood there in the darkness, our flashlights pointing forward. Then the voice of that demonic little girl started up, high-pitched and somewhat inhuman-sounding. Her words all had a strange hoarseness to them, an uncanny valley sound as if she were only imitating human emotions and human speech.
“Adam’s ‘It’, but he won’t play,” she said sulkily, her voice bouncing off the walls, the rapid beat of the footsteps approaching nearer and nearer. “He says his throat hurts. So I guess I’m ‘It’! You better run!”
“God dammit,” Gil said, swinging his giant knife around from side to side as if he were going to bat a mosquito with it. His light flashed and wavered as he tried to keep a watch on all sides. But I knew she was coming from behind us. I could feel it. I kept my light shining down there, the gun raised, trying to emanate a calm I didn’t feel. Then I saw a flash of blue, zigzagging crazily past a chair leg and the snapped remains of a folding table, tiny legs pumping at a superhuman speed. She looked like little more than an approaching blur.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I said, trying to keep my gun pointed on her. “We need to cut off her head.”
“What?!” Gil said. “Why?”
“Last time, bullets didn’t work on…” I began, but then she was on us, no more than a few feet away, jumping over the discarded junk that intermittently appeared on the sides of the hallway. And then I felt myself knocked over by a tremendous force that took the air right out of my lungs.
I still had my hands crossed in front of me, one holding the gun and the other the flashlight. The skeletal face of the creature was mere inches away from my own, biting and gnashing madly. I could see small muscles in the back of her mouth working furiously. She was pushing down on my arms with all of her strength, which was far more than such a small body seemed to suggest.
The gun was pressed closely to the front of her chest. I was about to pull the trigger when I felt the weight start to lift off of me. I saw Gil behind her, wrapping his arm around her neck and pulling her back. She still gnashed and bit in a mad frenzy, small droplets of blood and saliva dripping off her mouth and into my face. She kicked her body back and forth like an enraged snake, freeing her neck from Gil’s grasp. He went to grab her, and her skeletal face opened up wide, the jaw hanging halfway down her neck.
With the speed of a cat snatching a mouse, she leapt forward, snapping her jaw around some of the fingers on Gil’s left hand. I saw his index and middle finger disappear into her mouth, and he began to scream in agony.
I was scrambling back to my feet by this point. I ran at the girl, using all of my body weight to push her. She went tumbling on the floor, her mouth flying open as she landed hard on the wood. Two mutilated fingers flew out, rolling across the floor and disappearing into a dome of black mold. I was sweating heavily now, drops of perspiration rolling down my forehead and stinging my eyes. I tried to wipe them away, thinking of what to do. My mind screamed at me to shoot, to empty my entire magazine into this little monster, but I knew in my heart that it would just be wasting bullets. Deep down, I knew what I had told Gil earlier was true- we had to cut off her head. Just like in the old myths of vampires or demons, I had a deep instinctual feeling that fire or decapitation would be the only way to deal with her, and as for fire, we had no flamethrowers.
“Gil!” I said. “Get ready!” He was holding his spurting hand tightly against his chest, still grasping the bowie knife in his right. His face was alarmingly pale and white, and I wondered if he might not just pass out right here and doom both of us. But he hadn’t dropped the knife, even while fighting the writhing monster, even while getting his fingers bitten off. He is stronger than he looks, I reassured myself.
A sense of calm and clarity overcame me then, and I saw what I needed to do. The demonic girl was getting up, growling and spitting and laughing. I ran over and stomped on her back, putting my full weight on her body to drive her back down. Then I took the pistol and shot her through the back of the kneecaps, one bullet for each.
She wailed as dark red blood poured out of her small legs, turning her head almost all the way back to try and bite me. Her hands were changing, the small fingers lengthening and darkening into sharp, black claws, and I knew our time was running out.
“Now!” I yelled, and Gil ran forward, using his right hand to swing the bowie knife. I watched it fall in a descending arc, as if in slow motion, watched it approach the spitting skeletal face that looked at us with black eyes and unfathomable hatred. It went clean through, and was so sharp that for a split second, the head stayed there, the face blank, looking like it was still attached to the body. Then it tumbled forward, dark blood spurting out of the neck and staining the white and gold molds underneath with its crimson hue.
Gil fell back against the wall, breathing fast. He dropped the bowie knife on the floor. I saw his flashlight, still on, had rolled against an ancient wheelchair that was probably new back in the 1960s. I stopped and grabbed it, shoving it in my pants belt so it would give me more light to work with. Gil still had his hand clasped to his chest. Slowly, I put my hands forward and grasped his injured hand by the wrist. He inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes.
“We’re going to need to wrap it in something,” I said. He nodded. I took off my shirt and started ripping long slices from the bottom, then wrapping them around his hand tightly in an attempt to slow the bleeding. When I got to the fingers, he flinched and seemed to waver on his feet. I reached a hand out in case he was about to fall over, but he managed to steady himself. “All done,” I told him as I put my shirt back on, which was missing the bottom third portion now and looked rather absurd, almost as if I was wearing a woman’s crop top.
“It feels like my hand’s on fire,” Gil said in a hoarse whisper. “We’re going to need water, too.” I was feeling the start of dehydration pangs myself.
“That girl, Michaela, her note said she was stuck in here for weeks. That must mean there’s water. Assuming her counting was correct, seeing as there’s no sun or sky to go by. If there was no water, she would have died after a few days, especially being on the move,” I said. I was hoping that we would find food as well, but it wasn’t really life or death. I knew that we could potentially go weeks without food and still live, even though it would feel extremely unpleasant and weaken us physically. I sighed, shining my flashlight at Gil.
“Ready to keep going?” I asked, and then the lights started turning back on. Most of them were still either out or flickering on and off rapidly, but enough of them were lit to see down the hall.
“Oh, thank God,” Gil said. “At least now we’re not walking through this junkyard in the fucking dark.” Up ahead, I saw something new as well. It looked like the hallway forked off. I pointed at it, and Gil’s eyes widened. “Finally, after walking for endless miles, this place does something!” As we neared it, I saw there was even a sign. One pointed left, reading, “To Veriden”. The other pointed right, reading, “To Rusty Township”.
“Hmm…” I said, “I’ve never heard of either of those places. They’re definitely not in the county.” Gil’s dark brown eyes looked past me, into the room behind us, and they widened. I reached for the pistol, turning quickly, but I found nothing but a mostly empty, half-lit room. Against the corner was a vending machine and a soda machine.
“Oh thank God!” I said, running forward, reaching in my pocket for some money. Then I remembered I had left my wallet at home. After all, I thought we were just going into the shed. Gil strode right past me.
“Don’t be an idiot,” he said, taking the butt of his bowie knife and smashing the glass of the vending machine. “You don’t need money. Who’s going to call the cops, the walking undead and demons here?” He pulled out brands I had never heard of: Overholser’s Beef Jerky, chocolate bars with caramel and peanuts called Eisenhearts, Took’s salt-water taffy and Riza’s fruit snacks. The other vending machine was no less alien, as I smashed it with the butt of the gun and found Springy’s Lemon-Lime Soda, Kanna-brand cola and Saint Kristoff’s Ginger Ale, among others. Not one of the brands was recognizable from our world.
We tore into the food with ravenous hunger, chugging bottle after bottle of soda. It all tasted similar enough to what we expected, though some of it was rather strange. The ginger ale, for example, had small silver shavings on the bottom of each bottle, their trademark gimmick, and Gil swallowed them and nearly ended up choking. I smacked his back hard, laughing.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to drink those,” I said sarcastically. We were filling up our pockets when the drumming started from down the hall. It was so sudden and loud in the otherwise perfect silence that I jumped nearly a foot, spinning around and taking out the gun. It was becoming second-nature to me by this point, and so much adrenaline was constantly pounding through my body that I was as jumpy as a cat.
The drumming grew louder and fast. It reminded me of the drums some ancient Aztecs must have used when cutting out the hearts of prisoners of war. It had a deep, primal beat to it that would be useful for stirring people up during acts of savagery and violence. It was coming from the direction labeled “Rusty Township”. I could barely hear myself think over the intensity of the drum beats. I tried to motion to Gil that I would go first since I had the gun but that he should stay right behind me, but he looked like he was just smiling and nodding and likely hadn’t understood a bit of what I was trying to communicate. Sighing, I started forward down the corridor.
I peaked my head around the next corner, where a doorway opened up into a huge gymnasium. The ceiling towered over me. I saw dirty, disheveled people standing in a semi-circle around a metal coffin that was stood up on one end against the back wall. Blood was pouring out the bottom, following a river of clotted gore that stretched across the gymnasium and curved off to the right corner. The people surrounding the metal coffin were laughing, clapping their hands and cheering, stomping their feet in time with the beats. I saw scurvy blossoms and festering sores across their faces and exposed skin. And, for the first time since we had gotten lost down here, there were windows around the edge of this massive chamber, windows showing the outside world. I ran over, looking out.
I saw a city on fire, the buildings burning and sending up thick, black plumes of smoke. It reminded me of what Berlin at the end of World War II must have looked like. Fronts of houses had collapsed inwards, the streets were cracked and filled with debris and I saw bodies hanging from lampposts up and down the street. Many of them were so old that the ropes were starting to fray. Some of the bodies had started to mummify, with thin, papery skin clinging tightly to desiccated muscles and hanging jaws.
Around the corners of houses and alleyways, I caught glimpses of strange shapes: crouching half-animal, half-human beings who carried sledgehammers and long knives, robed figures who seemed to float over the devastated and cracked ground, and children with red skin who I saw crawling up walls on all fours like geckos.
The drums stopped as suddenly as they had started. My ears were still ringing. I turned back to the semi-circle of sickly, dirty people. They had stopped their clapping and dancing and cheering, and now just stood like statues, staring at Gil and me with flat, dead eyes.
“You shouldn’t stare into the Township,” a thin woman with filthy black hair said. A strange accent crept into her words, one that I had never heard before. “Strange things live in there, and they come out when the drums stop.” She stepped forward, whispering. “We keep them away by giving a sacrifice every time the drumbeats come. The blood satisfies the ones in the city and the others in the halls. We will all have our turn in the coffin, sure enough.”
Another member of their group stepped forward and opened up the metal coffin. I saw long, thin spikes sliding out of a body, and then a pale form fell out, landing on the dirty floor with a wet smacking sound. The smell of coppery blood in the air was now overwhelming. Gil and I both gasped in unison as we saw this form on the floor was a person, a young woman in fact, almost totally drained of blood. Dozens of puncture marks were sliced into her face, neck, stomach, legs and arms. An expression of pain and horror was frozen onto her dead face, her wide, staring eyes looking up at the ceiling.
“You killed her!” Gil said, aghast, still clutching his mutilated hand close to his body in an unconscious gesture of his anxiety and fear. “Why? Why would you put someone from your own group in an iron maiden?”
“Iron maiden?” the woman with the black hair in front responded. “Aye, that’s as good a name for it as any. We call her the steel mistress in my world, in my time, and the steel mistress sees a lot of use…” She gestured out the window, her face emotionless. “You see my world, after all. It is a place that always reeks of death, and more often than not, reeks of fire too.”
“What part of the United States is this?” Gil asked, gesturing out the window. The woman frowned.
“I do not know these ‘United States’,” she said, shrugging.
“What country are you from?” he asked.
“Why, Victoriat, of course. But Victoriat only has three states. Rusty Township was the capitol, until ‘twas attacked by the Black Hand Allegiance soldiers. We’re all refugees from Rusty here,” she said sadly.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” I said to Gil under my breath. He nodded, sighing.
“Can you tell us how to get back to the stone steps? Big, circular stone steps that go around and around?” Gil asked the woman in one last attempt to get a sensical answer out of her. She nodded her grimy face.
“Aye, in the center of the Undergraves,” she said, pointing past the iron maiden and the dead body on the ground. I realized that there was a sign up on the ceiling in front of the next corridor, one pointing left and saying, “To Rusty Township center” and one pointing right and saying, “To the Undergraves”. The sign was so covered in dust and specks of black mold that it was no wonder I hadn’t seen it.
“Do you have any maps of this place?” I asked the dirty woman and her friends. They all shook their heads.
“There are no maps of the Undergraves, but the stairs be at the center. You just take a right here and follow the path straight. Ignore all forks to the right or left, just keep following it straight…” We were walking away fast now, trying to leave these lunatics behind. “But you’d be mad to go there now after the drums just stopped!” Her voice was fading rapidly as Gil and I ran forward.
“Those people were fucking nuts,” Gil said. “Killing each other just because they think the blood keeps away demons.”
“Brother,” I said through heavy breaths, “if you and I lived down here for a few months, we would be just as crazy as those people.”
As we jogged into the Undergraves, I realized the walls were turning into something organic and pulsating, like being in some huge intestine. Massive forks to the left and right appeared every few hundred feet. From them, dark shapes appeared, stepping forward. They moved shakily, blurring as they stepped to the right or left randomly, their mouths opened wide and seeming to be filled with blackness. Their eyes looked like pure black sockets, and the rest of their body was no more than a shaky silhouette of shadows. When the first few stepped forward, I didn’t know what to do.
I gingerly raised the gun, deciding better safe than sorry. They were coming at me fast, jerking randomly, their skin seeming to writhe and shiver as I stared at it. As they got within ten feet of me, a deep burning heat started to fill my body, as if I were standing in front of an oven. I started shooting, one bullet for each of their center mass, and they dissipated into smoke. I watched the black stuff curl back into the red, pulsating room they had just come out of. The sense of heat dissipated instantly, but my skin still felt warm and strange.
We were running through the Undergraves now. Miles of slick gore covering the floors, strange tissues growing across the rooms and tumor-like sacs covering the fluorescent lights, which even here flickered endlessly across the ceiling.
In many of the rooms, I saw people strung upside down from the ceiling, their ribs sliced open. Strange, hunched figures sliced the meat into strips, preparing it and drying it. One of them looked at me with its pig-like face, its bovine legs walking across the sticky floor, slowly and uncertainly at first, and then running for me. I was running low on ammunition by this point. Gil came from behind and disemboweled the creature as it raised its butcher’s knife. It had been so focused on me that it hadn’t noticed him jogging up with his blood-stained bowie knife in one hand.
“I can’t run much longer,” Gil said, panting. I nodded wearily. Neither could I. “My hand is still on fire, too. I really should have gotten medical attention, like, twelve hours ago…”
Part of me wondered if the stairs were even here, or if we had been lied to, sent into the worst part of this strange hall to become sacrifices to these abominations. We had, after all, put our lives in the hands of a band of lunatics.
But at this point, we had nowhere else to go but forwards.

There's this little guy called Wrath or Info'kala'ken who kept trying to act as me.
He basically hides / masks his personal energy and then uses other people's energies to act as them.
He also acts like a school teacher but tortures people to write stuff through him. Or he appears as a kid - others.
I gave him some of my energy a long time ago, and he became "Wrath" as an example of that.
Funnily enough, I just removed the last bits of my energy from him.
So, that probably won't work anymore, to any degree.
He couldn't do anything with it but yeah.
Kinda funny seeing people bring their own allies up to higher Ds and torture them thinking its someone else, so I did wait a bit.
High Konntorraik or something is his title, but his own allies wouldn't believe him - and they cut him off from others in his sect.
So, I have just been sitting back, chuckling for a bit.
Hopefully, nobody gets removed from the "grid" for doing that to one of their leaders.
Still, kinda hilarious to me.
Basically the same situation as J, Michael, Azathoth, Noah's Ark, Yog'so'toth, Odin.
They all had some energy and things associated with me, due to seals and old seals or energy gifts.
The 7 deadly sins, I sealed them myself. I personally hated just about all of them.
I was called Vainglory back then, a self annointed title. Their "Leader".
I copied this setup from another matrix.
Most of those in this group, were psychotic and frankly evil in my opinion.
Wrath, was imprisoned for raping and enslaving thousands of women before being sent to purgatory. Plus, mass murder.
Anyways, I've taken off all of those old seals.
They were dated anyway, and the whole idea I had of reforming them failed.
Thus, I decided befriending those that I was able to, like-minded or nice fellows and showing them things, asking them to just think and watch or defend.
I felt that was the best decision.
Unfortunately, with the sins - I was asked personally by individuals to "fix them".
That doesn't work.
Now, people who are certain ways, not understanding that others were similar or people like them, didn't think that others saw things differently.
Those ones, I could work with and show stuff. But, people got upset as I was helping them out rather than those others who I decided I couldn't help or work with.