Nestled along the picturesque coast of South Carolina, Hilton Head Island is a tropical paradise that offers a plethora of exciting activities for visitors of all ages. Whether you're a nature lover, an adventure seeker, or simply seeking relaxation, this charming island has something for everyone. In this article, we will explore the top fun things to do at Hilton Head Island, highlighting the diverse range of experiences available to make your vacation truly memorable.
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1. Embark on an Unforgettable Boat Charter Adventure:

One of the best ways to immerse yourself in the beauty of Hilton Head Island is by embarking on a boat charter adventure. HHIBoatCharters.com offers a variety of options to suit your preferences, from private charters to sunset cruises. Hop aboard and witness the stunning coastal vistas, encounter playful dolphins, and explore hidden coves and sandbars. Whether you're an avid angler or simply want to relax on the water, a boat charter experience is a must-do activity.
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1. Discover the Pristine Beaches:

Hilton Head Island is renowned for its pristine, sandy beaches that stretch for miles along the Atlantic coastline. Grab your beach gear, soak up the sun, and indulge in various water activities such as swimming, kayaking, or paddleboarding. Coligny Beach Park is a popular spot, featuring public beach access, volleyball courts, and shaded picnic areas. Relaxation and fun await you on the island's breathtaking shores.
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1. Explore Nature at its Finest:

Hilton Head Island is a nature lover's paradise, boasting an abundance of wildlife and preserved natural beauty. Visit the Coastal Discovery Museum, where interactive exhibits and walking trails showcase the island's rich history and ecosystem. Take a leisurely bike ride along the numerous scenic trails that wind through lush forests and marshlands. Keep an eye out for alligators, turtles, and a variety of bird species that call this island home.
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1. Tee Off at World-Class Golf Courses:

With over 20 championship golf courses, Hilton Head Island is a golfer's dream destination. From the iconic Harbour Town Golf Links, home to the RBC Heritage tournament, to the stunning Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, there are options for players of all skill levels. Immerse yourself in the lush green fairways and challenging holes, surrounded by breathtaking coastal views.
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1. Indulge in Gourmet Dining Experiences:

Hilton Head Island is a food lover's delight, with a diverse culinary scene that offers something for every palate. From fresh seafood caught daily to Lowcountryfavorites like shrimp and grits, you'll find a variety of mouthwatering options. Explore the charming restaurants and waterfront eateries that dot the island, savoring the flavors of the region while enjoying stunning views of the marina or beach.
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1. Enjoy Water Sports and Thrilling Adventures:

For those seeking a bit of adrenaline, Hilton Head Island offers an array of thrilling water sports and adventure activities. Try your hand at parasailing, jet skiing, or kiteboarding, and experience the rush of the ocean. Rent a kayak or paddleboard and explore the island's many waterways, observing the abundant marine life up close.
Conclusion:
Hilton Head Island is a haven for adventure, relaxation, and natural beauty. Whether you choose to explore the stunning coastline, immerse yourself in nature, or indulge in gourmet dining experiences, this charming island offers a wealth of fun things to do for every visitor. Make the most of your Hilton Head vacation by embarking on a boat charter adventure with HHIBoatCharters.com, taking in the breathtaking views and creating lasting memories. Your island getaway awaits!

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Hi everyone! This is a complete English translation of the Aniara sequel book by Harry Martinson called Doriderna that was put together after the author died. This translation was put together using various translation programs that can be found online, so I can't guarantee that it is a perfect translation, but it's better than nothing. I will also post the original in Swedish so you can improve the translation or look up words etc. if you want. Hope you enjoy!
I would also like to let everyone know that I am also working on my own Aniara fan fiction short story that I call "The Lost Voices of Aniara". This story tells about the events aboard the Aniara from the view point of another passenger and attempts to add more details to the story. It should be ready in the next week or two.
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HARRY MARTINSON
The Dorides (Doriderna)
Remaining poems and prose pieces in selection and with preface by Tord Hall Albert Bonniers Förlag
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PREFACE
For reasons I will not go into here, Harry Martinson did not publish any new work in the last years of his life. There is therefore a very large literary legacy, the publication of which began in the fall of 1978 with "Längs ekots stigar" (Along the paths of the echo), published by Georg Svensson. This collection contains only a few purely scientific poems - the emphasis is on nature poetry. The selection was made from unpublished material - which had nevertheless reached the proof stage - in three previous collections.
It remains to address other lines of thought in Harry Martinson's work: the ideas in Aniara, which in various forms occupied his imagination until the end. To follow the continuation of this great theme - at least in part - is what I am trying to do in this second selection from the surviving archive.
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The 103 songs in Aniara were part of a larger set of poems, and the author then worked for several years on a sequel, to be called 'The Dorids', the people of the tribe of Doris. Around 1959 there were about 80 songs - most of them in more or less completed drafts. The dominant figure in the Dorids would not be Isagel or the Mimarobe, but Nobia, the Samaritan from the tundra planet and deportation site of Mars. Nobia would be a norna (fate goddess), though not a cruel goddess of fate, but a norna who weaves goodness into the fabric of the world.
But the whole project remained a large-scale endeavor. The reasons were many: illness, world events, which seemed to be moving towards a fulfillment of the prophecies in Aniara, and which gave him an increasingly dark view of life: he told me that "Aniara has become a neurosis" ... I feel like Mima being blown apart'. But the decisive reason was surely his demand for absolute freedom in his creativity. He did not want to be confined, and the result was, as he himself said, 'I have stepped out of Aniara'.
The fact that Harry Martinson stepped out of Aniara, and thus also out of the Dorides, does not at all mean that he left the motifs or ideas found there, which cover the scientific field from atoms to stars. Rather, it means that he was able to write without direct connection to the characters of Aniara and the Dorides in particular.
I have therefore considered it justified to call this entire collection the Dorides, even though the prose pieces and several poems do not have a clearly visible connection with such a title.
In order to comment briefly on the selection, I would like to say a few words about Harry Martinson's attitude towards modern science (it is my intention to return to this subject in more detail).
There are two main lines. One is deterministic, and has its roots in classical physics, founded by Newton, which dominated until the end of the 19th century. It has a philosophical form in the law of causation, which means that if you know enough facts about a certain course of events in the present and in the past, you can precisely specify the course of events in the future. Examples of such events in the 'big world' - the macrocosm - are solar and lunar eclipses.
But in the world of atoms - the microcosm - this determinism does not apply. Heisenberg demonstrated this through his uncertainty relation, also known as the indeterminacy principle. In the atoms, individual events are indeterminate, we cannot discern any causality - there is randomness. But chance can be mastered by the methods of statistics, and we must content ourselves with a "statistical causality", which describes the course of events in the atom with the highest possible degree of probability.
It is this second, indeterministic line that has long been followed by most physicists. But there is one major exception, and that is Einstein. At the 1927 meeting of physicists in Brussels, for example, he asked Bohr, Heisenberg and others with mild irony whether they really believed that God plays dice - "ob der liebe Gott würfelt". Einstein was convinced that the universe follows an ordering principle, a geometric structure, which can be called a world soul. This is a pantheistic view that is reminiscent of Spinoza.
Similar ideas are already present in Aniara, but in this selection the picture has become more sharply defined. Harry Martinson does not believe that chance plays a decisive role in the course of the world, as is clear from several poems and prose pieces. He believes more in Einstein than in dozens of other Nobel Prize winners. Apart from these authorities, he follows his intuition.
His approach to religion has often been quoted: he chooses the Riddler over the God. This belief is reflected in 'The Riddle'. In 'Poems on Light and Darkness', published in 1971, Harry Martinson, with 'The Inner Light' and 'The Bird in the Phoenix Bell', presents the events inside the atom itself. These poems show that - although 'Aniara' and 'The Dorides' are more about stars than atoms - he never lost his interest in the microcosm. In this selection, it is the atoms that are more interesting than the stars.
The bard enters the atom. He describes the course of events in a world which is completely beyond our senses and which, despite the enormous aids of science, we will probably never be able to understand exactly. The story itself probably comes from Gamow's book "Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom". Published in Swedish translation in 1946, it is, along with "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" (also 1946), the versatile Gamow's best popular science books. Harry Martinson rated them highly.
The two poems 'Submerged as in a dream but still awake' and 'Actually, the comprehensibility was slight' depict a journey of thought into the atom, and the same motif recurs in several other places.
The poem "A Cosmic Thickness Lying Boundlessly Spread" poetically depicts a world development related to the hypothesis of the "stationary universe" put forward by Hoyle and others, and to Klein-Alfvén's "symmetrical cosmology". For several reasons - mainly aesthetic - Harry Martinson did not like the theory of 'the big bang', which was celebrated by most scientists. His poem should have been written quite a long time ago, and perhaps he would have changed his mind if he had been given the opportunity to understand what the "cosmic background radiation" - with a temperature of about 3 degrees above absolute zero - means for the credibility of "The big bang". It took natural scientists some time to become convinced that this radiation can best be interpreted as a fading glow after an unimaginable cosmic explosion some 18 billion years ago.
This selection also contains several pieces of prose, which in general do not need any comment. But I would like to mention a few. For "The Figuration Patterns of the Goddancer's Juggling Program", in three sections, there is a drawing by Harry Martinson, reproduced on the cover of this collection. The spread comes from Hindu philosophy: we see 'Siwa's juggling dance before Brama'. The dominant curves are so-called lemniscates, which were already known to the ancient Greeks. The lemniscate looks like an eight and is the mathematical symbol for infinity. It is defined as the trajectory of a point under the condition that the product of its distances to two given points is constant. In the center of the drawing there are several small curves. They are ellipses, and an ellipse - also first studied by the Greeks - is defined as the trajectory of a point under the condition that the sum of its distances to two given points is constant. The result is a geometric pattern, similar to a flower, which at the same time provides a poetic image of the complex interplay of forces in the atom with outward and inward energy impulses The juggler finds it increasingly difficult to work with his ball-particles as he progresses through the periodic table of the elements. In the end, he "dances the spectral theme in the dance of the Phoenix" - a symbol of the indestructibility of both energy and poetry, and a recurring motif in Martinson's poetry.
"Delsaga om tidens ariadnetråd" (Part of the saga of the Ariadne thread of time) is almost a fantasy about four-dimensional space, where you have to be careful not to get on the wrong track. The selection of prose pieces ends with "Some fairies dancing in the summer night near a quiet lake". It is a cheerful tale where the author combines a love of the Swedish summer with a love of light.
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I made this selection at the direct request of Harry. He even said several times that I should have all his scientific poems and prose pieces. But I think I judged this offer correctly when I saw it as an expression of his great generosity towards his friends. I always replied that he himself should complete and select what was to be published. But in his last years he did not want to publish anything. I therefore promised to make a selection if he did not change his mind.
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He did not, and this collection is the result.
Finally, I would like to thank Ingrid Martinson and Georg Svensson for the understanding and assistance they have given me in bringing this selection to fruition.
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Tord Hall
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The Dorides (Doriderna)
The book you hold was written in Mima's hall.
Now, on a secret wavelength, it is sent home to you, my friend, who for some years inhabits a spherical beach called the Valley of Doris.
In other words, it was written so close to your own being that nothing could be closer to you than those described here. You are one of them.
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Over the graves, the indifferent wind spreads
the whisper of the immortal gods
that no loss is foreseen in the grand scheme of things.
But what do the gods - those wasteful billionaires of the heavens - know about the beautiful and wonderful Doris?
how she was worth saving forever
and that whoever loved her
can never be comforted by the gods' continued waste.
About her a bird sings now alone in the tree of the grave. Of her as she was, the glorious one, if no other, the Dorides' thrush sings.
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The window was full of stars,
The Leonids' swarm of stars came, then you know the time.
Autumn was gone, its yellowing burnt.
The lookout tower, closed on the wooded mountains.
I stood as a child of a time that saw the stars detach from the roofs towards a room where novas frightened a more distant valley, I found other myths than those I was used to picking hurled at me from the space of the Leonids.
I stood in the cathedral of fear of dreams.
The great copper woman who lay there with her back soldered to the lid of the sarcophagus drove horror into me, cast my foot with lead.
That the copper woman knew who I was, I immediately sensed as a deadly weight, and that I had been summoned here by herself, by the queen of copper, of that I was certain.
In empty benches sat forgotten years, from the emptiness of the auditorium the organ pipes shone like stalactites in the vault of a cave and there was nothing, no light, no hint that gathered my crumbling courage.
For everything was fulfilled as it was written in stone once when the water abandoned the green and it was said that man will go away and become the dead slave of the dead dust.
And as I stood there gripped, filled with horror
for this judgment and epitaph
which was predetermined and rehearsed
in the mute trumpet of the seraphim of the stones,
bells fell suddenly from the towers to the earth that rocked with an ore-broken thunder, and the copper woman rose, a scream of remembrance drawn from afar to her lips as she drew me in close to her copper body in terrified death.
He woke up. There was light. It was day.
And the Samaritan Nobia sat silent, but still heard the echo of the screams his dreams had squeezed out of his fear.
She searched for words simple enough for a stranger to grasp, but not so simple as to drive away his trust, hardly won yet.
In simple action she finally found them.
And she stood up and smiled with milk
From the moors of Gondrin to the mouth of this fugitive.
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It is no exaggeration to say that space gave us long winter evenings rolled into one - the one that lasts. Our leisure time finally became a grim question with ice in our eyes and a frozen flame.
It became necessary to tell stories from reality - as it can be taken. I chose to tell about King Basii, who, supported by Chefone, forcibly turned himself into a god and magician in a celestial drama.
The Goldonder King felt like God and determined to live up to the gods he built himself a city in the sky.
It was a global world city of goldonders assembled into a kind of hive heaven.
But Basil's space-city, though it contained twelve million men in his service, was not enough for him; he had another built, and the greatest city in the world was soon in space. That city was a marvel to behold: a mighty golden dome, surrounded by three bionomically serving drabants, one of which was called the Vegetable City, one the Fish Drabant, and the third the Sting.
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The names reveal their role and purpose.
So Basii sits in his heavenly land. The aquarium dragon orbits faithfully and Stings follows it with fattened animals and the vegetable moon amounts to the redwood.
The golden dome was the city of retreat for all climbers and celestial rebels, for gamma was a poison to all alike and all poor and rich alike had to choose between death and escape.
So many preferred the city of Basil.
But although he rules over twelve million
inhabitants of the great city of space, he is still very rarely happy.
And although the dragons in a faithful circle
raise animals and grow fish and wheat
Basil's only pleasure is when he gets
with Vulvis, the royal slave, to bathe in Lethe.
But all the deliciously good virginity
that can be enjoyed in Basil's harem
is in its nakedness a skin of fear.
of frightened dissimulation. And his love story
...is but a tale to be seen from the outside..,
and all his lust a forced voluptuousness.
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Thus in The Night of Aniara I draw a little picture that everyone can understand from the rich treasure of reality.
And every time I make an arabesque in the hall of Mima about this space grotesque that Basil's space city can probably be said to be, I can for an hour or so make people sigh: the best is here anyway.
From Basil's false heaven we preserve. No, I'd rather travel with Aniara.
But soon the alarm goes off. The bells proclaim that the images of the fairy tale are overtaken by visions here that distress ignites.
And quickly to the halls I return.
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The Goldonder's garden bubbled with glamour. A party was being held there and Chefone was there. He showed us a picture of the smith of happiness: the goldonder king Basii, a portrait jubilantly taken on the day the fifteen thousandth goldonder lay in the field ready for the wave of endlessness.
Then we were each seized by thoughtfulness and went to our own in solitude.
For in every ship of this number there was a Mima locked up in its cage.
The Rapid criminal was much loved and could operate as he pleased under the protection of the admiration he aroused. He always appeared at great speeds and abducted women whom he brought to Chefone in light blue rapid rockets.
Of course it was criminal, the people of the valley thought, but the charm was so close to the deed that the rampart was breached by sheer admiration and open worship soon followed the advice of restraint at the murder pedal.
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Tucked away in a corner of our gondola, I pretend to smile at some rough fellows who spend their evenings with mockery and violence, with a devilish flutter as their sole aim.
They look at me and find me mortified,
- The clear approval is what they expect...
and I'm close to being squeezed badly
every time they jokingly glance at my grave door.
The brute is approaching, his dull face with many a foolish whim weighing on his mind.
And many a scowl missed by pigs from the worst corners of the soul he throws at me.
And when, full of fear, I strike with depleted strength in the dull face, the troll is only amused by my blow and raises his eyebrow with interest.
Then I flee between the troll's legs and out the other side of the danger of death.
How this happened can only be fully explained by the light of the gopher and the fourth tensor theory.
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Here came the sober, composed and sober man who always kept his soul in trim and stuck to the dry, honest maxims of life.
Now he went into the fire with his imagination.
His cool reason was completely burned His sober composure was fried in seconds when the photo turbo in Xinombra exaggerated the cold matter.
And yet I can't help but admire the man as he made his way to the office where he had been employed for many years
and where, despite offers to flee to the tundra, he provided punch cards for thousands who broke up every day.
There died a man who never raised his voice, who always remained true to his calm tone, the martyr of calm composure who was burned when the cruel fires of excess were lit.
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One is often chilled to the rock crystal by everything one hears before the ear falls like gray-white ash into the cremation hall.
And the girl from Rind who sees nothing is often heard to ask beyond the eye: how is the world of such torment visible? What is to be seen in this madness, where eeriness against eeriness is heard to answer?
Cultivating insight seemed futile
and many fell away from the faithful crowd.
and its program which was to see through
so that with the transparency of evil
as lens and instrument
try to find new signs
and new ways for the land of Gond.
Most people grew tired and withdrew from the room of the Truth Service, and Nobia sat for long periods almost alone, trying to hold on to her looms, always tormented
by the blood moisture of evil memories, the echoes of horror
surrounded her days
and made the Mara a bedfellow
who tore the fabric of the noman
and raped Nobia's dream
and the mood of life over the moors of Gondria.
It is as important to us to have friends
in the houses of distant worlds as at home by
the familiar road of the green earth.
You are reflected in endless eyes, watched by immense spectators.
They never interfere, but they watch the sewing and the mining,
the nurse and doctor on the rounds and the weapons in the shamelessly cruel wars.
Your own position under their eyes may be likened to the position you take with one whom you do not wish to grieve, but to share joy and to please.
So spoke the old astronomer, and then laid his head down to rest.
And he went smiling to the eternity that had been waiting by his side all his life.
His forehead shone with its ideas, even in the dead of death in the years of space.
He was among those who know the fairies of everything, those who get to comb Berenice's hair.
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But for the longest time I still want to believe that this is the torment of an evil dream and the ship Aniara a phantom from which I will wake up in the Valley of Doris.
Perhaps everything is a nightmare and I want to wait with poison and a knife. They say there are dreams of a kind that seem as long as a man's life.
Out of the dust you were born, from its gifts you were supported.
You did not manage the gift, many a meadow you made desolate.
What is beyond this sea is called Going down deep among riddles too great to be found in a grave.
Faith can never cover more than what you see in spirit.
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All the other things are too much to bear.
Do you hear the sound of the rescue team calling from an emergency station that is one of a thousand others, regardless of faith?
Now guess where the road leads and what Paradise is.
One of a thousand rescue stations scattered along the coast here.
Now I want to sing to my ear and ask it to listen to a voice that descends not to destroy the language I have collected for comfort. For the comfort of life and death, I whisper the price of sensitivity every time the sinful flow of language storms the breeze of the spirit.
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One night Heba lay awake in the city of Aniara and heard the painter's joyful painting.
The skilled varnisher was varnishing the years that would one day end on a stainless steel stretcher.
And suddenly from Heba there was a shout against the smooth roof.
The skilled varnishers know their business well.
Too hard to become joy, too happy to become sorrow. The painters paint everything in Aniara's castle.
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We know that we have been left out of the higher insight of the ocean of mystery and that we lack the tools to reach the depths of clarity that Mima once gave. But since Mima's death, the average of what we achieve of truth is not very high average is what is required if the choice of new paths is to be avoided.
A small number reach the values that should be the average to reach.
The others are satisfied with the flow of thought,
the rattle with which time is made to pass.
A daughter of my mother, called Tovi, was born in the night of space. Alas, dear ones, where can the crowd's demand for sensation and wonder lead us?
First came, as it should be, the blissfully sweet and indescribably pure birth, when the mimicry lay naked, uncovered and panting in the golden bed of the formula.
To her camp now came the mimicry and winged it
the naked one, as when the butterfly flies the honey chalice of its flower, in Dori's meadows. The description is not given (much to my regret) because there is always the possibility of a wave of miracles taking place in secret, to the great disappointment of many who wish to see how the mimagyne makes love, and from what angle the picture of the goddess's love life should be taken in order to really reach the audience.
Can it not be enough that Tovi gave birth to an allegorical child whom Isagel happily suckled at her breast and practiced miracles and consolation You may think so yourself, but others think otherwise.
For not even a mimagyn can defend the fruit of her womb against the human hyena who demands a clear answer on every point of what precedes it all: the prelude to sowing,
with the insides of the thighs well described in a clear image that gives the "public" a feeling that it was in the bed.
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Yes, it has happened that I have sometimes asked myself (in private silence, of course) whether the smooth ice of superficiality does not have enough joy, and that the great swallows in these spaces are only terrible wakes which, compared to the agile princess and heartlessly threatening with superior power, will in the end become the cold room of beauty.
So small a strip bears, the other breaks, and all the incomparably large gapes with the same dark death which, unchanging with cold upon cold, only imitates itself.
To raise one's hand then with a light-year pound and demonstrate the fugue of eternity on terrible organs, while the girl in the icy distance dances, hardly greater to see than a fly flown away towards the light, it is to chill with the great weapon as when the superpower with the powers the element hides coldly makes its rows in the land of Gond against unsuspecting cities and, although itself dismissing all talk of sin punishment and trial, nevertheless treats the human with such terrible flame that this terrible torrent of loose gamma released by those who do not mean sin punishment nevertheless cruelly destroys both Yaal and Gena and melts down to ashes the wonder Heba
With the same fire they turned on Chebeba.
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Posterity does not understand you so easily.
It judges according to the image of posterity
and counts up the time you lived in
as rows of negligence, as offenses
against the spirit of foresight, the duties of thought.
To this it adds the work of suffering
and piles up, as blind as a judge
as you were blind as a criminal, case by case.
Can those who have killed the foundations of joy and destroyed the great city of joy have the right to the joys of life?
Does Cain have the right to be happy?
Can those who strangled the joys of Xinombra and burned the valley of paradise have the right to heights of heaven other than Aniara's daily agony?
I ask but never get an answer. I have to arrange for pastimes
for the hordes of Aniara and manage its entertainment.
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A wave of newly awakened hatred swept through the mountains where Nobia lived in deep mines and ghostly white lights illuminated every thread of life in the fabrics she wove.
She had sought and found the thread of life - a discovery of how healing rays are empowered by the inner council of things and fused with the heart of the atom.
And while hatred swelled around the mountains
and wounds screamed in the valley of time.
she wove day and night until the color of victory
and the skin of life rose in the hall of death.
Of her beauty little can be said. It was lost in a wave of radiation but the clear purity of the soul could be weighed; in healed wounds we saw her reflection.
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Then I will throw you out of your chair. I will break your armchair view, because it is false and holds a convulsive security in a time that has slipped out of its rooms, but also the other way around: that it becomes a view without deep insight.
From this world, I shall send you happiness today to the kingdom of love, to the evil shore where the Samaritan Nobia and others spread works of love from country to country.
Figuring out the ways of evil and tracking down all the poison in the city of hate was futile, for hate stood there with heavy blocks united row by row.
Within its walls there was life and movement in the birthing centers and squares where human beings were conceived and human beings were born and human life in the human gap was destroyed. It was best to pretend that this city of self-righteous evil existed as nothing more than a devilish childhood that would mature, grow tired of itself.
We resolved to keep on sending saints there for the longest time.
from the saints' camps as long as the funds lasted
and as far as the need still aroused the heart.
This plan was tried for nine years, during which the Rind camp of saints bled to death: an act of self-sacrifice based on faith in the powers of good. But the heavy wall of hate stood just as hard, and the fatigue of leadership followed the act of hate; only too great was the throne of victory we had.
A single city consumed the power which we had thought sufficient for the transformation of the world.
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On a rare occasion, the happiness of being free from desire also came.
Then the emptiness suddenly became populated by a kind of spiritualized mystery.
We walked the spirit's path of happiness along the beach, exchanging thoughts, making fortune cards.
It was evening and sunset in the sea.
Night fell, but the land of thought stood firm.
He woke up. She said: guess where.
I can't, he said. How did you get here? The same way you did: up the gravel path and then straight to the left among the cypresses. There was a dewy path the moonlight itself went there with light steps which I tried to imitate.
And when everything was past and the path was over
I managed to become a clear crystal and find you, my friend, on this path.
It is so transparently wonderful here.
We no longer exist. All that was is over.
Neither god nor devil here reaches us anymore and the end is the cruel parody of life.
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Where is the plain text?
This is what I'm looking for.
The one that fits but still gives song.
After thanking God that he was a wasp and not something else, he continued between the leafy branches and stung the farmer.
Laid out by spiritual mobs, the truth becomes worse than the lie. When the mob washes the barley, it is never clean.
The rabble always wash in the dunghill from the Augean stables.
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Matema's camel bells ring in the deserts of speech where the caravans of unfinished quarrels
never reach their oasis, only become more camels.
Immersed as in a dream but still awake, I found myself changed and so naked that no dream has words for what it was like when, transformed by the stone, I cut down towards the inner realms and while this was happening I became smaller, smaller and even more stripped of layers and layers of time and space as I sank further and further into the stone, deeper and deeper into things.
Who undressed me, wore me down so much that no conceivable smallness so small on this earth can be imagined unless one is long since beyond what every comprehensible thought wants to deny.
And yet I was being stripped and reduced still further in no direction.
So sunk, unceasingly sunk in
towards even more breathtaking reduction
I retained in my dream a way of seeing
and understand that I was traveling into
to the dimensions, the innermost
who with their interior work with their interior
and whose interiors compose the world.
They scare children with darkness, criminals with punishment and sinners with realms beyond death where the vengeful desire to torment has transported its arsenal of tormenting images.
But sorrow follows us every day, and joy follows us every day.
We ourselves are the sorrow, we are also the joy, everything human is rooted in humanity, and no human being can escape humanity, not her hatred and her self-degradation, nor the joy she spreads, nor the love she forms.
There is a third land that is not death and not life, but the reality that pervades all realities, and spins the very thread of the fabric from which dreams are woven. Yes, I had come to the rooms where these threads are spun. When I arrived, I stepped out and saw no longer surprised the smallest fairy, who herself was not at all surprised to welcome me to her inner land.
And although we were both unimaginably smaller than two grains of traveling dust on a suit on earth, we thought we were big here in this smallest room to which I have now come and which nevertheless encloses with its vault a separate world of realities formed.
On the contrary, I cannot describe what I saw of strange things, but that will follow when the habit of telling stories has been practiced for other habits than what life offers,
and other things than those called death.
For though beyond all I have known
this was not death
and though within all I have known
this was not life.
​
Actually, the comprehensibility was slight, as when multiples arranged in layers, and layered in the directions of space, make the fabric of the dream omnidirectional structural and become a fabric consisting of paths where the thread is only thought of as a path as a sign that here the shuttle has gone, but where is the thread? The thread is the path. I saw how the gnome was in a quandary as to which of two different possibilities to give clarity.
Then came formulas of such an elusive nature that the gnome was again gripped by the anxiety
which arises when the explanation is attempted but little response is felt by the pupil.
And with a look that shone as if with sorrow, he signaled a break in the dilemma. And with a formula more magical than comprehensible, we left the atom.
We expanded to other contexts and sat on a leaf next to a bee eagerly searching for honey in a meadow.
​
The Dance
Around the great star of the day we shall orbit the years we have been given to live, and our family for a few thousand centuries, perhaps more, perhaps less, no one knows.
But the time that we are orbiting is so small compared to that of the suns where they wander around in orbits in the galaxy our family named the Milky Way, luminous to behold.
What can our eyes see, our hearts cry out at the thought of atoms going around in the same way with waves and particles.
Some have called this the dance of the gods - it is always being danced by everything in the universe.
All indications are that among the arts of the muses
the art of dance is the first and the last,
and we are in it, dancing out
our role in the dance, it is already being danced
in other worlds separate from our time,
in other dance theaters,
yet one thing is clear
that we are dancing our turns.
Our role in it
is ours and no one else's.
Our own role in the dance art of all worlds.
​
Economic overview
Our earth wanders alive alone, around the sun our dear parent.
As far as the giant tubes reach no living neighbor to see.
Desolate and empty on the one who received the name of the god of war, burning hot and desolate on the one who received the name of the goddess of love.
Jupiter, planet of Zeus
ice-clad to two hundred times the height of the Himalayas.
The others are death's door.
Beyond that, light years to the next planetary village.
So each sun has only one living person, and that one is a leased farm, indefinitely and to an unreliable and dangerous race.
​
Here is a world of light distributed in the mystery of things.
Here is the salvaged light in the innumerable rooms of the stone.
Wands point with poles directed to their rooms inside mountains and stones, spinning mystery.
Deep in her fairy tale, she lives for the sake of the tale.
the norn who has learned to spin the yarn from the wool of the riddles.
​
The spirit of Ideema from space in endless lines gathered the seeds into the durable wood of the suns.
From far beyond time the hydrogen came in modest garb and built for its God the ingenious nests of the atoms.
Come, let us nurture the foundation of our life. The green sphere we have been given to live on in the universe's lottery system.
When the next lucky draw can get rid of the Milky Way's big tombola we do not know and can never reach.
But we do know one thing for sure: the next draw will not include us.
​
A stranger called chance shuffles the cards and deals them to the local players.
Every single poker face keeps a straight face.
There are plenty of goldfish in the tureen here.
According to the law, the silent coincidence itself is the last to raise its hand, with ice in its stomach.
Soon jaws of granite are chewing the cigar.
Where is the bundle of happiness among the starlings?
That question is answered when chance wins.
Then the shot goes off, chance's life disappears. His house of cards collapses, but soon everyone at the counter thinks it was a nice fish, that no one won, that chance herself was told by Smith and Wesson what chance was.
by Smith and Wesson what chance should do.
( translation to be continued )

By Fin
“Holy crap.” James Talbot stepped back from his handiwork. It was beautiful. It made him want to scream.
Talbot was a chemist, the modern form of an alchemist, and he’d discovered something as wondrous and terrible as the most extreme postulations of his forbearers.
This was it. The culmination of all his works. This is what he’d fought for decades for, why he’d abandoned connections with everyone he’d ever known. But now it was all worth it. He would reveal the Masterwork at the Grand Chemistry Convention. It would steal the show, and he would be revered beyond every other human being who had ever lived.
It had taken Talbot long enough to assemble the Masterwork that he’d shed the title of ‘young’, not to mention most of his non-gray hair. Although it was hard to tell whether that was from aging or from what he’d beheld in his long sojourn. He was only 45, after all, and the rest of his body still held firm from decades of outdoorsmanship.
Talbot stood before a wall, upon which was painted the most intricate design any human had ever seen. It was a diagram of… unknown things. A chart of runes, maps, and artfully painted lines. There was no text in any living language on the diagram, but the harmony within the full tapestry visually sang, imparting something unfathomable in a way that Talbot could somehow fathom. The man who’d made it, who’d studied it for 15 years, barely understood it himself. But he knew that it was the ultimate solution to the entirety of philosophy, containing the answers to every question humanity had ever seen fit to ask. It had existed in his notebook for a while, in bits and pieces, but today had been its first full assembly, and it was magnificent.
He had to keep it hidden, or someone would take it from him.
He retrieved a tarp and threw it over the wall, nailing it in at the top so it hung down to cover his designs. Just to be sure, he moved his desk to block the wall, then locked the door to his office when he left for the day. James Talbot was more excited than he had ever been, and he celebrated that night with a fireplace and a large bottle of whiskey.
Of all the people at his office to commit espionage, Talbot never would’ve suspected the night janitor. This may stem from the fact that he also never suspected the night janitor to be part of a massive secret organization dedicated to keeping humanity as ignorant as possible in matters of the Higher Order.
But no matter what Talbot suspected, Tim Willis was indeed part of this society, and after he’d entered Talbot’s office with his master key to do some routine cleaning, the obvious secrecy surrounding the wall at the back of the room worried him. So he moved the desk out of the way, lifted the tarp, and inhaled sharply.
This was bad. A tapestry of the Higher Order more complete than any he’d seen before, or any reported by the other Censors of the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity.
Willis quickly replaced the tarp and desk. As soon as he’d locked the room, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number for an Alexander Talc.
Talbot arrived the next morning with a song in his heart and a latte in his hand. The former died horribly as soon as he entered his office only to find someone sitting in his chair, and the latter died horribly as it fell from his fingers, limp in shock.
The person in question was a short, slight man who wore thick glasses and a dark gray suit. He was sitting on Talbot’s office chair, facing the now uncovered back wall with all of its eldritch calculations. Talbot’s desk had been moved to the side of the room, left askew with the tarp crumpled up on top.
As Talbot entered, the stranger spun the chair around so he was facing the chemist, a broad smile on his face. He was undeniably attractive, in a delicate sort of way.
“Ah! You must be the aspiring alchemist?” He spoke softly and cheerily, but with an unnerving edge. Talbot couldn’t identify any specific aspect of his voice that disturbed him, but upon further consideration he concluded that it was the incongruity of the situation, the warm friendliness of his tone grating against Talbot’s unease.
Talbot took a step back, shaken. “I don’t… what-”
“Quite an impressive display here. You’ve managed to glean a quite large amount of knowledge about the Higher Order, especially considering you’ve never consulted us at the APH.” He pronounced it phonetically, like Aff.
“What are you-”
Talbot heard a click from behind him, and turned to see Tim Willis, the night janitor, closing and locking his door. He could barely register the betrayal.
“Ah, yes. Tim is working for me. For us. The Agency for the Protection of Humankind really frowns upon anyone attempting to learn the Higher Order.”
Talbot, finally able to form a full sentence, asked, “What’s the Higher Order?”
“You know what it is, of course, although you may not have heard the term. It’s what we call the mechanics of the very fabric of the universe itself. The questions about ‘why are we here?’ and ‘is there a god?’ and all the stuff like that. All theoretical philosophy, basically. And you, apparently through sheer dumb luck,” He turned to admire the mural again, “have managed to find more of it than any human being ever, including us! Quite impressive. Big hand.” The man slow-clapped for Talbot. The small sweet-looking man being sarcastically condescending was jarringly incongruous.
Talbot felt a surge of anger, and it helped him produce a full sentence. “Dumb luck?!?” He advanced on the man. “My Masterwork is the product of 20 years of research and experience! This is the greatest thing anyone has ever done, and how dare you say I achieved it through dumb luck!”
The man raised his hands placatingly. “Okay, okay!” He chuckled. “Years of research, whatever. You found the Higher Order. That’s where we come in.”
“Why?”
“Ah. Well, you see, the reason that no one’s found the entire Higher Order is simple. It’s because we stop them.”
Talbot was incredulous. “What?! Why would you stand in the way of progress like that?!” As a scientist, the possibility that there could be anyone actively against gaining knowledge was incomprehensible to him.
The man grimaced, as though he was about to break some terrible news. “Well… there are some parts of this tapestry you’ve assembled, specifically here...” The man pointed at a small segment of the diagram, a thick horizontal line with four thin lines crossing perpendicularly that turned into five lines on the other side, “That grants access to some other planes of existence. Planes of existence that are home to some very dangerous things. And due to some logistical aspects of the Higher Order,” He gestured at another segment of the diagram entirely composed of square symbols, “if you muck about in their domain, they are able to muck about in ours. The Law of Equivalent Interference.”
“But… how would our finding answers count as ‘mucking about in their domain’? If we knew the danger, we just wouldn’t go there.”
The man was silent, then answered Talbot’s question with a question. “Tell me, Talbot. If humans discovered another dimension, do you really think they’d be able to stay out of it?”
“Fine. But then why do you have to censor the whole thing? Why not give them the benign parts that would still forward human progress by centuries?”
“Because the Higher Order is like Algebra. Or a logic puzzle from Highlights magazine. If you give someone smart enough just a few clues, they’ll eventually assemble the whole picture. Which we desperately want to avoid.”
There was a long and heavy silence.
“Ok.” Said Talbot, wrapping his head around the new information. “So the APH stops people from finding the answers to these questions so our world isn’t destroyed by Fourth Dimensional entities?”
“Exactly!” The man nodded, delighted at Talbot’s comprehension. “Well, they’re technically Fifth Dimensional. The existence of time in our reality means that this is the Fourth Dimension.”
There was another silence.
“Sorry, what was your name again?” Talbot asked.
The man looked utterly devastated. “Oh no! I can’t believe I was so rude!” He vaulted the desk and approached Talbot, stopping just short and shaking his hand. “Alexander Talc, Class 2 Censor Operative for the APH.”
“Censor as in… ?”
“Yes, I censor things. People too, if necessary.”
“So what,” Talbot asked, “You’re here to kill me?”
Talc gasped. “What?!?! No! As if we’d be so barbaric! We’re here to recruit you.”
Talbot’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?”
“Of course! You know more about the Higher Order than any human outside of the APH, and probably more than a majority of those inside of the APH. Your expertise could be vital in preventing a breach in our reality!”
“What would this job entail?”
“Well, we’d need you to fake your death, change your name, burn your research-”
Talbot recoiled.
“Now I know that sounds like a lot,” Talc backpedaled, “But allow me to let you in on a little secret.” He leaned in conspiratorially, then glanced around as though to make sure nobody was listening. Satisfied, he whispered, “The dental is off-the-charts.”
Talbot shook his head. “What happens if I don’t take the job?”
Talc winced. “Things get considerably less pleasant. I have to call in a Class 3 Purge Operative, and that’s always a hassle.”
Talbot chose not to inquire into the purpose of a ‘Purge Operative’.
Talc gently laid a hand on Talbot’s shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. How about we move to some place more hospitable and you can think it over?”
Talbot nodded, his mind elsewhere. Talc gently guided him out of the room, Willis following and closing the door behind them.
Talbot stared down into his conical paper cup, filled with water that tasted plasticy. The three men were in the lobby of Talbot’s workplace, leaning against a table adorned with donuts and a water cooler.
Talc bit into a day-old bear claw as Talbot swirled his water and considered the situation.
If he accepted the offer, he would be shipped off to another state, away from his home in Bedford, where he would join whatever on earth APH was. Talbot hated the idea of working for an agency whose entire purpose was to destroy knowledge. On the other hand, if he didn’t accept the offer, they’d likely kill him.
Purge Officer…
Would working for the APH really be so bad? Talbot liked Talc enough. Maybe they could be friends. Or… more than friends. And if the APH truly wanted Talbot to be able to suppress the Higher Order, he’d have to know the Higher Order. Which meant research. He could essentially continue on exactly as he was.
Except he would never be recognized as the genius he was. Talbot involuntarily crushed his paper cup as he realized that, if he took the offer, he’d never win a Nobel prize. He’d never present at the Grand Chemistry Convention. He’d never write a revolutionary scientific paper. He would be forgotten.
He knew what he had to do. He couldn’t say no, or he would be killed. He couldn’t accept, or he would be forgotten, which was worse. He had to escape.
But how? This was some sort of world-ruling secret agency. They probably had eyes everywhere. What could he possibly do to get away?
His eyes wandered towards the stairs. The stairs that led to his office, which held the key to every single natural law.
Talbot tossed his cup in the trash, then approached Talc.
“I think I’m ready to make my decision. But first, can I go to the restroom?”
Talc nodded. “Of course! Take all the time you need!”
Talbot nodded and jogged toward the restroom. In the tiled floor under him, he saw Willis’s warped reflection following him discreetly.
He entered the single restroom and quietly opened the window. He could see Willis’s shadow under the door as the man hovered just outside.
Talbot waited a couple seconds, then flushed the toilet, turned on the sink, and silently crept through the window. He fell a few feet to the alley below, and had to suppress a grunt.
Now what? He needed to escape, but his notebook was still upstairs. All his research was in there, and he couldn’t leave it to the APH.
The only ground level entrance to the building was the main lobby door, which was directly in Talc’s sightline. However, who said he had to enter on ground level?
Talbot’s gaze rose to the old fire escape above him. The bottom of the structure was a platform that lined up with the second floor. A ladder was folded up on the platform, an old rusty latch keeping it from reaching ground level. Talbot couldn’t reach the latch from where he was on the ground, so he looked around for a solution.
He had a bum throwing arm, so he couldn’t toss anything up to break it. Unless…
Talbot considered Talc’s words. The very mechanics of the universe itself... He felt a flare of pride as he realized how little Talc truly understood.
The sigil that granted access to the Fifth Dimension was just one of several such Seals. Over all Talbot’s years of study, those portions of the Higher Order were the most applicable. They did not just show universal aspects of reality. They represented those aspects. They were symbolic, and like all symbols, they were powerful.
They were simulacra of natural laws, and could be manipulated in order to manipulate those laws themselves. It allowed anyone who knew the Seals to weave a sort of magic, ignoring the laws of time, space, or gravity by sketching and then destroying the corresponding runes, temporarily destroying that Law’s influence over oneself. Talbot’s hypothesis was that there was a single Greater Seal for each law that controlled that law anywhere and everywhere. If that one was found and destroyed, the laws of reality would change forever.
For greater, wide-scale application, Talbot had scrawled in his notebook, The Greater Aspects must be located and manipulated.
Talbot dropped to the ground and dragged his finger through the alley gravel. He assembled the rocks into a facsimile of a tiny part of the Higher Order, one that he’d experimented with a lot. He looked around for a suitable vessel, settling on a rock. He poured all his mental energy into the stone, and used his hands to scatter the pebbles that made up the Seal of Velocity.
The rock sprang from the ground and soared upwards, clanging against the ladder before anticlimactically falling into a dumpster. From inside, Willis banged on the bathroom door and said something indistinct. Talbot’s second telekinetic toss hit the ladder before falling onto the platform itself. He broke another Seal, and his third throw smacked into the latch, splitting the rusted thing and shooting the ladder downwards.
It made a lot of noise, and Talbot could hear Willis pounding on the bathroom door inside. He seemed to be breaking it down, as Talbot heard wood split with a crunch. Talbot quickly mounted the ladder and climbed up to the platform, trying not to think about the alarming creaking sounds the old construction was making. From there, he took the stairs two at a time, spiraling up and up until he reached the sixth floor.
Six flights of stairs only had him a bit winded by the time he reached his floor. He tried the door to the inside, and found it unlocked.
Talbot entered the hallway outside his office quietly. He considered how this would play out. Willis and Talc would be storming up here at any moment. He had to move quickly.
Talbot entered his workroom, dragging his desk over to block the door. He took a moment to gaze forlornly at his Masterwork, because he would never be able to take it with him. All the same pieces and diagrams were in his notebook, but the full Masterwork was a thing of beauty, one that he would never behold again.
He snapped a picture of it with his phone. It wasn’t the same, but it’d have to do.
Talbot grabbed his notebook, its leather-bound pages bulging with decades of research. Some of the sheaves of paper stuck out at odd angles, newspaper snippets and glossy photographs glued into the most faithful companion Talbot had ever had.
Was there anything else he needed?
The door began to rattle.
Talbot grabbed a sheet of blank paper from his desk and rapidly sketched as many Seals as he could. He had an idea of how he could escape, but he needed to harness his work to do it. Using the Masterwork as a reference, he scrawled the Seal of Time, the Seal of Space, the Seal of Gravity, and, after considering it, the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Just in case. He thought.
With a crack, his door burst open, shoving the desk out of the way. Talc and Willis stood there, the latter looking enraged, the former strangely calm.
“Talbot, this doesn’t have to happen this way.” Talc appealed, but Talbot was done listening. He would not be forgotten. He would be immortalized, through his work.
Talbot ripped a corner off of his Seal sheet, and glanced down at the Seal of Time. With a glare at Talc, he stuck it in his mouth and began to chew.
Talbot disappeared with a pop, as Willis lunged towards where he’d just been.
Willis stopped short, then turned to Talc. He was noticeably upset at losing their quarry.
“What do we do now?”
“Well, we follow him.”
“How?”
Talc approached the Masterwork. “It’s simple. I’m sure Talbot understood that time travel doesn’t work the way everyone thinks it does. Cause and Effect are inextricably linked, and cannot be put out of order. Traveling through time actually just creates another dimension, a splintered facsimile of your original where things play out differently.”
“So… to follow him do we just use the Time Sigil?”
“Seal, Willis. And no. That will just create another splinter plane. Now that the reality has already been established, we need to follow him. Using this.”
Talc’s thin fingers traced the outline of another Seal, one Talbot hadn’t thought to inscribe.
“There are many ways to traverse the Multiverse.” Talc said, “Using Seals to rip open the barriers between planes is one of the simplest.”
Talc sketched down two copies of the seal, then separated the two and handed one to Willis. The two locked eyes and nodded in unison. They both rent their sheets in half and disappeared.
Talbot didn’t ‘land’, per se, but he still felt off-balance when he blinked into existence in his office. He staggered, but caught himself before he could fall. The world felt… different here.
Out of everything Talbot had discovered, Multiversal travel was his least considered. He’d been too cowardly to experiment with anything but the Space, Gravity, and Velocity Seals, so this experience was new to him. Naturally, as any scientist does when faced with something unfamiliar, he started taking notes.
Effects of Time/Universe Traversal:
–Slight nausea. Somewhat noticeable. Temporary?
–World overall feels discordant. Silence sounds different than back home. My tinnitus is in another key. Feels like I don’t belong.
–Different frequency hard-coded into every reality?
Before he could assemble an entire thesis on the underlying resonance within the multiverse, he realized with a start that he had to get out of here. Talc and WIllis were likely following him, and even if they weren’t, there were copies of them in this dimension.
Talbot had willed himself about 10 minutes back in time, and it seemed like that’d worked. His Masterwork was complete and the desk and tarp were off to the side. The trio were likely downstairs in the lobby, where Past-Talbot was thinking over the pros and cons of their offer. At least, he thought so. Time travel seemed to create a splintering reality, one that maintained consistency with his original up until the point where he showed up. There were plenty of unfamiliar worlds out there, but the Seal of Time created one quite familiar. Right now Past-Talbot-
Past-Talbot doesn’t sound right. Pretty soon it’ll be my present, then my future. How about Talbot-2?
After settling upon a name to call his double, Talbot exited his office and left through the door that led to the fire escape, in too much of a hurry to close it. He scrambled down the stairs, knocked the latch off the ladder, climbed to the ground, popped open the bathroom window, and climbed inside. Right as he got his arms through, the door opened.
Talbot-2 walked in, then stopped short as he saw himself dangling halfway through the window. Talbot put a finger to his lips, and indicated Willis-2 with his eyes. Talbot-2 silently shut the door, locking Willis-2 outside.
Talbot-2 opened his mouth to speak, but barely got out one word. “What-”
“I’m you, from the future. Well, not from your future, but from a future.”
Talbot-2’s confused expression was replaced with excitement. “So the Time Seal Worked?! Fantastic! What’s it like?!”
“I’d tell you all about it, but I’m currently stuck in a bathroom window and being hunted down by two government agents. Although I don’t actually know if they work for the government…”
Talbot-2 pulled him through the window into the bathroom. “Sorry.”
Once he was in, Talbot glanced at the door behind Talbot-2.
“Okay. Here’s the thing. Some version of Talc and Willis will be here any minute. Whether mine followed me from the future or not, yours will catch on soon. We need to get out of here, and get the Masterwork to somebody else.”
“Wait, which Talc and Willis will show up?”
“One of them… or both of them. It doesn’t really matter! Do we know anybody we can send our notes to?”
Talbot-2 considered it. “Davis?”
Talbot frowned, and opened his notebook to an early page.
Dr. Wilson Davis
–Spineless fool. He calls himself a chemist, but refuses to venture outside the conventions of the industry. No true scientist works a cushy chemical production job! We journey! We endeavor!
Talbot shook his head. “He’d never publish something like this. If they tracked him down, he’d probably take their oppressive offer.”
“Johnson?”
Dr Monica Johnson
—Chemist and conspiracy nut. Super gullible, but generally a good person.
“She’ll believe anything.” Talbot said. “...Which is actually probably a good thing in this case. If she thinks it’s real, she’ll distribute it, and she’s earnest enough to leave my- our name on it.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Actually, it sounds like an idea, not a plan. What is our plan?”
Talbot thought for several seconds. “Here’s what we do. You pretend to accept their offer, and do whatever they tell you. If all else fails, you’ll get a cushy job working for the government. Meanwhile, I get this,” Talbot indicated his notebook. “To Johnson, and then…” He paused.
Someone knocked on the door.
“And then?” Talbot-2 prompted in a whisper, glancing behind him.
“Then… I’ll figure something out.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Alright. Are we ready to go?”
“I think so.” Talbot replied.
Talbot slipped out of the window, and Talbot-2 opened the door to greet Willis-2.
The man peered around him. “Who were you talking to in there?”
Talbot-2 shrugged. “Myself. You know, crazy scientist stuff.”
Talbot dropped to the ground, then produced his sheet of Seals. He picked out one specific design, a circle bisected by a thin line. On one side of the line, a stylized forest thrived, and on the other a pictographic city loomed. Talbot ripped the Seal of Space from his paper and stuck it in his mouth, once again disappearing with a pop.
Talc and Willis appeared in Talbot-2’s workroom, and quickly exited. Both spun in the hallway outside, and both spotted the wide-open door to the fire escape. They both moved down the rickety metal construction and found themselves in an alley behind the building.
“See that?” Talc pointed at the window.
“Yeah. Did he go in through it?” Willis asked.
“Of course. But if he used the Seal of Time to try to come back and alert himself, I’m guessing he came through here to talk to him…self, but he couldn’t have left. The only point at which he was in the bathroom, you were right outside. He popped in, popped out, popped another Seal.”
“Is there any guarantee that he came back to alert himself? He could’ve gone to any point in time.”
“I know his type. The out-there intellectual. He’s been burned by everyone but himself. He’ll only trust himself. And if he came to himself before we’d arrived, he wouldn’t believe him.”
“Sorry, who wouldn’t believe him?”
“Him! Aren’t you-” Talc took a moment to consider the context. “You know what, nevermind. The point is that this reality’s Talbot is now in league with our Talbot, and that’s not good.”
“What do we do?”
“Well firstly, we need to cut it down to one Talbot. Two is too many to deal with.” Talc pushed on his earpiece, then spoke. “Hello? Can you hear me, Talc?” There was silence, until something dawned on him. “Ah, dammit. I can’t call my own earpiece.” He adjusted something on his earpiece. “Willis! Do you copy?” Willis heard Talc both from right next to him and through his earpiece. He didn’t hear the reply, but his earpiece buzzed as its exact copy broadcast something. Willis took his earpiece out and squinted at it, curious about the exact Multiversal properties that bonded it to its clone.
“Yes, this is Talc. But not your Talc. Listen, Talbot ran off to this dimension, and we believe he’s working with your Talbot. We need to meet up, then dispose of the dupe.”
Talc listened for a response, and Willis’s earpiece vibrated as his double presumably replied.
Talc turned to Willis. “Alright. They’ll meet us back in Talbot’s office. There we can get rid of the redundant one and track our quarry.”
Their quarry was currently depositing a large package of brown paper in a big blue mailbox.
Talbot paused as he lowered the boxy parcel. This was his life’s work, his notebook and all his scattered papers, and was the second-most important thing he owned, next to the wall that contained the Masterwork itself, which was likely being dismantled by his enemies at that very moment. This was the last 20 years of his life, and he was about to gamble it away to a crazy woman on the off-chance that his legacy might live on. Talbot wished he’d spent more time with reasonable scientists, if only to expand the pool of people he could mail his book to.
With a deep breath, Talbot released the book, wincing at the gentle ‘paff’ sound it made when it fell onto the envelopes at the bottom of the box.
His job complete, Talbot slipped the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and disappeared into the afternoon.
Guns are inelegant, Talc told his subordinate often. They’re loud, messy. Tools of thugs and soldiers, not agents of a higher purpose.
But there’s a downside to not carrying a gun, Willis countered silently. The difference between shooting a person and being forced to kill them more intimately is palpable, and not often a positive.
Willis considered this as Talbot-2 stopped struggling and finally went limp in his arms. Willis released the garotte from around the man’s throat, then lowered him to the floor of the office.
An irritated sigh came from behind him. Willis turned to see Talc shaking his head and walking toward him.
“No, you need to finish the job.” The man said. He kneeled, took Talbot-2’s forehead in one hand, his chin in the other, then jerked his head to the side, snapping his neck.
“If you stop garrotting when he goes limp, he’s just unconscious.” The other Talc, Talc-2, stated.
Willis nodded, numbly. He didn’t really hear the man.
“I know this is hard,” Talc said, shifting into a gentler tone, “But this is all for the good of humanity. If we let these ideas run wild, we’d all be dead.”
“Worse than dead.” Talc-2 added helpfully. “Our very essences would be consumed by dark beings from beyond our world.”
Willis nodded again. He’d heard it all before. So why did he still find it so hard to hurt people?
“So where’s the other one?” Willis-2 asked, seemingly unaware of his double’s predicament.
“That’s the big question, isn’t it.” Talc-2 mused, “However, before we can ponder it, first things first. We need to get a CC team in here to handle that wall.”
All four men were familiar with the APH Cognito Containment Teams, mysterious individuals in surgical masks that took away artifacts of forbidden knowledge to be stored or disposed of.
Talc-2 clicked his earpiece, then said a series of numbers and codes that were unintelligible to either Willis. He finished by saying, “Please send a Class-4 CC team. Over.”
He turned to the others. “They’re on their way. We need to secure Talbot’s place of residence.”
“Do we know that’s where he’ll go next?” Willis-2 asked.
“Not necessarily,” Talc-1 responded, “But it’s quite likely he’ll at least stop there to retrieve personal effects before going somewhere else.”
Both Willises nodded, almost in sync. The logic made sense. They would lock down Talbot’s house first.
All was silent in the small house several miles outside of town that Talbot called his abode. Then frantic footsteps sounded from outside, as someone ran up the footpath leading to the front door. Then, a faint scratching as Talbot scrambled to fit his key into the lock. A quiet clacking came next, as Talbot’s cat descended his cat-tree and approached the door to see what was happening.
Talbot swung the door open and gently pushed the cat out of his way with his foot.
“Sorry Ozzy,” he muttered.
He produced his debit card and snapped it in half, having extracted all the money from his account before arriving here. He pulled several thousand dollars from his pockets and shoved them in his wallet, his backpack, the pocket on the inside of his jacket, and his shoes.
He grabbed a spare toothbrush and tube of toothpaste from the master bathroom, shoving them into the backpack as well. He was going on the run, for god knows how long.
He paused as his eyes fell on his set of keys. He wouldn’t be taking his car or his house, so they’d likely not be necessary.
But I might as well just in case. Talbot grabbed the jangling key ring and slipped it into the inside pocket of his pants.
His cat mewed at his feet. After a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed his carrier and bowl, both monogrammed with a matching ‘Ozymandius’.
He knew bringing Ozzy was objectively a bad choice. It was impractical and stupid. The cat was loud, and would slow him down. But Talbot couldn’t bear leaving his baby here to be subjected to whatever evil ideas Talc and Willis had in mind.
Talbot coaxed Ozzy into his crate, then picked up the cat and donned his backpack. He took one last look around his house before he opened the front door and was immediately grabbed by both Willises, one of which held a chloroform rag over his mouth until he went limp.
Talbot awoke with a start. He glanced around, disoriented, and immediately registered that he was in some sort of interrogation room. His chair was metal, and bolted to the floor. Before him was a table, and above that table a blinding light mounted on the ceiling shone directly into his eyes. On the wall across from him, very much breaking the theme, was a ‘Hang in there!’ poster and a wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser.
Talbot tried to stand, only to find that his wrists and ankles were strapped into the chair. He strained against the bonds, cursing as the straps held strong.
He thought he heard faint snickering.
He turned to glare at the mirror to his right. “What are you planning to do to me?!”
Silence.
“What are you planning to do to my cat?!?”
More silence.
The Talcs and the Willi were standing behind the one-way mirror on Talbot’s left, looking at the back of his head as he shouted at no one. Talc looked mildly amused at Talbot’s complete misunderstanding of the room’s orientation.
Willis-2 glanced at Talc-2, who shrugged and motioned for Talc-1 to enter the larger room. Talc-1 did as asked.
The door at the front of the room opened, and Talc stepped out. He took a seat across from Talbot, and cleared his throat.
“First off, the most important thing. Your cat will be well-cared for, no matter the outcome of this conversation. Great name, by the way.”
Talbot refused to thank him for the compliment.
Talc cleared his throat, and there was a long silence.
“What about my first question?” Talbot asked, his voice trembling.
Talc sighed, then reached below the table.
Several seconds later, he came back up, notably with some difficulty. He slammed Talbot’s notebook down on the table. Next to it, he laid the sheet of seals Talbot had used to traverse space and time.
Talbot was stricken. “How did you-!?”
“Find this? Simple deduction. I’m frankly insulted that you didn’t consider that we’ve been tailing everyone you know for months. Johnson was the only person you could send this to.”
“What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing! We’re not the bad guys here, Talbot. We pulled the package from her porch before she ever got involved. We’d never hurt anyone.”
“Then where am I?” Talbot spat, then rephrased. “I mean… where is the version of me from here? Wait, are you from here or there?”
“I’m from there, assuming you mean your original reality. And Talbot-2 is fine. He’s in the next room.”
Willis winced behind the mirror.
“You never actually answered my question.” Talbot said quietly.
Talc pursed his lips regrettably.
“Well… here’s the thing, Talbot. What I’d like to do is offer you a chance to redeem yourself. I’d like to let you join the APH and help us protect humanity. But you’ve made it clear that that’s not what you want, and if we let you into our fold now, we’d forever be looking over our shoulders, wondering whose side you were truly on. And we can’t just let you go, no no. Your theories would largely be regarded as crackpot, but there are ways to prove these things, and you would certainly find them.”
Talbot swallowed. “Couldn’t you just… you know… erase my memory?”
Talc stifled a laugh. “Unfortunately, this is not Men In Black. Actions have consequences. There are no take-backs. And I’m sorry, Talbot, but this is it for you.” Talc stood, turned on his heel, and left.
“Why the hell’d you wake him up just to tell him that?” Willis muttered behind the glass.
“Hey, wait!” Talbot screamed at him as he departed, but there was no response.
Talbot tried to stand again, but slammed back into his chair as the bonds held.
Willis entered a few minutes later, holding a syringe. He winced at the sight before him. Talbot was hunched over, resting his head on the table. His shoulders were bobbing as though he was sobbing quietly.
Willis approached Talbot and tightened the strap on his right wrist. He moved around him and reached for his left hand, only to see that the strap had been sawed apart, and Talbot’s hand was free.
Willis grabbed his elbow, but Talbot struggled against the man’s grasp. The scientist was trying to keep it firmly on the table under his face.
Frustrated, Willis grabbed Talbot’s head and lifted it back, so he was sitting up straight.
As he beheld Talbot’s face, Willis felt a bolt of fear lance through him. The man was smiling, but it was not a happy smile.
It was the smile of a trapped animal that knew it would take a limb before it went down. With his eyes, Talbot indicated downwards. Willis slowly lowered his vision to the stainless steel tabletop. In Talbot’s hand was a housekey, the teeth worn down from sawing through the leather strap and scratching a symbol into the table. Right under his hand, the surface was pockmarked with the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Willis lunged for Talbot’s wrist, but it was too late. The alchemist brought the key across the symbol, carving another scratch to break the Seal and the boundaries between their reality and one far darker. Neither man had time to scream.
Talbot felt himself slip free of the chair, and out of the leather strap around his wrist.
Willis’s grip loosened, and it felt like he was flung across whatever intermediary pathway connected the fourth and fifth dimensions.
Part Two posted promptly!

Pine needles brushed across Paul's arms as he charged through the trees with his bugout bag slung over his shoulders. Weighing in at forty pounds, it hardly slowed him down as he’d practiced this hike many times. He flicked his wrist and checked his Garmin Solar 2 Tactical Watch. The timer read: 2:23.
“You can do this, Paul.” He increased the pace and gritted his teeth, the weight finally having an effect. Paul bounded over a small creek, up a rolling hill, and pushed through a row of baby birches into a clearing. He doubled over to catch his breath and looked at his watch one more time. Two hours and twenty-eight minutes. Paul pumped his fist in victory.
After a short break, he approached a thorny bush in the center of the clearing. Paul brushed aside sand at the bush’s trunk, revealing a yellow rope. He pulled it, which lifted a hidden door in the ground covered with dirt, shrubbery, and other camouflage on the top side, and drab gray iron on the other. Underneath, wooden stairs descended into darkness. Paul retrieved a flashlight from his pack, clicked on the beam, and disappeared into the earth.
At the bottom of the steps, Paul faced a steel door and a combination lock. With several quick swipes of the dial, he opened the lock and tugged the metal door, which creaked as it cracked open. Paul flashed the beam on the offending hinges and shook his head. Something to fix later. He stepped into the secret chamber and pulled a hanging aluminum chain that turned on a large halogen light, illuminating a twenty-foot by eight-foot metal rectangle. The exposed corrugated walls revealed the bunker was nothing more than a shipping container. Paul buried it two years ago and had divided the interior into three spaces. The entry had a shelf with four dozen gallon jugs of sealed water along with a portable toilet, stacks of toilet paper, and a wastebasket. The middle section was the main living area and contained a futon, a TV with a DVD player, and a neat collection of movies underneath. A nightstand housed a small library of books, including the Bible, The Art of Meditation, Buddhism for Dummies, and other spiritual tomes. The back area of the unit had two shelves filled with canned food—black beans, green beans, peaches, peas, carrots, beef, and chicken. There was also a stationary bike, which was Paul’s proudest accomplishment because he had rigged it to a giant battery that provided power to all the electronics.
Paul was a prepper, and this would be his home when the end of the world came, an event he believed was imminent. The global economy was a house of cards built on greed, corruption, and inflated asset prices, but worst of all, it was based on a faith in paper and digital money.
His fear was triggered four years ago when he attended a lecture by a professor who explained the fragility of the world’s financial system. If a few banks failed, it would rattle people’s confidence, causing a herd-like response. Thousands of people would rush to withdraw their cash, which the banks no longer had because they’d invested it. The banks would either fail, and everyday folks would lose their life savings, or the government would print new money to replace the missing money, making all money worth a lot less. Anyone holding dollars would attempt to convert them to other assets.
Just like dominoes, the banks would topple over one by one, and as they crashed, people’s faith in money would crater. After all, what was money? It was just paper with printed images and numbers that we’d all accepted as having value. More recently, money had become numbers displayed on a computer screen, something Paul knew firsthand as he spent the first seven years of his career working at a regional bank in Asheville, North Carolina. Paul could literally change someone’s net worth with a few keystrokes. He could turn a pauper into a millionaire, or he could bankrupt the richest account holder. Sure, there were safeguards, but all were built on faith, which Paul believed was misplaced. Most people didn’t realize that the Federal Reserve only required each bank to hold at least ten percent of its deposits as a reserve. Ten percent. That’s it. The rest of the money was invested in loans or other financial instruments. As the rich bank owners and executives pushed for bigger and bigger returns, they invested in riskier and riskier assets. The lessons from the financial crisis of 2008 had been forgotten.
Once the monetary system collapsed, the entire economy would become paralyzed. Without a means of exchange, transactions would halt. Think about it. If someone tried to give you a slip of paper that you thought was worthless, would you give them anything of value in return?
The doomsday scenario would escalate. Food and water prices would skyrocket, but with no way to purchase them, many would starve. But people don’t just roll over and die, they would riot and take what they need to survive. Marshall Law would be implemented, but citizens would revolt against the government they felt had cheated them.
As Paul listened to the lecturer that fateful day, a depressing epiphany struck. Everything he’d learned and everything he’d spent his life acquiring was worthless.
Growing up, Paul had been taught the value of money, saving, and planning for retirement. He internalized these lessons as a teen after his father got sick and lost his job. His mother had died when he was very young, but his father still managed to provide him with a stable childhood, even though they were barely middle class. When his father fell ill, Paul witnessed firsthand how fast a family could sink into financial trouble, which couldn’t have come at a worse time. He was applying to colleges, and instead of choosing the one he liked best, he chose the one that gave him the most financial aid, which turned out to be a small school half-way across the country. He also didn’t choose a major he was excited about; he chose the one that would offer the safest financial prospects—economics with an emphasis on banking.
The distance from home meant that Paul didn’t see the rapid deterioration of his father. It wasn’t until he returned for the funeral that family friends told him how the disease had spread. His father had refused to let anyone tell Paul because he didn’t want that to distract Paul from his studies.
After graduating, Paul accepted a job at a bank, and immediately signed up for the company’s 401K match. Most college graduates can't grasp retirement when they enter the workforce, but a 401K match was free money. Over the next several years, Paul worked diligently to advance his career while saving most of his salary. He’d mapped out his life on an excel spreadsheet and calculated that he’d be financially secure at 53.
Everything went according to plan until that damn lecturer came along and blew it up. Sifting through the rubble of his grand scheme, Paul realized that in the new world order, he possessed no skills to survive. The savings he’d so meticulously built up would have little to no value. When the economy collapsed, he'd be like a baby, unable to do anything for himself.
After a week of wallowing in despair, Paul rallied himself. “I can still fix this” became a daily mantra. To start, he threw himself into survival classes. The first was a basic camping course where he learned how to create shelters and start a fire. The next class was more advanced and focused on water purification and building snares for small game.
Paul continued working at the bank, because he needed to pay for the classes and survival equipment he began hoarding, but on his next vacation, he put his training to the test. He planned to camp for a week in the Appalachian Mountains, but the temperature swings, especially at night, were too much. Paul lasted three nights in the wild. The humbling experience forced him to admit that he wasn’t a bushman. His depression returned until he stumbled upon an article about “preppers”—individuals who prepare for end of world disasters. Suddenly, things made sense. He didn’t need to abandon all the comforts of modern society. He needed to prepare for the end of the world the way he had planned for retirement.
As Paul traveled down the rabbit hole of prepping, he uncovered an underground society of people like him who knew the truth about the world’s demise. Of course, not everyone believed it would end because of an economic collapse. Some thought a nuclear war would destroy civilization. Others feared electromagnetic pulses from the sun would wipe out all modern electricity. And still others worried a massive volcanic eruption would spew enough ash and soot into the air to blot out the sun. There was no shortage of theories about the world ending, but one thing was clear. The world would end. Did it matter how it happened?
Paul began his prepping quest by purchasing ten acres an hour and a half outside of Asheville. It had plenty of small animals and a creek running through the middle. He then transported an unused cargo container to the land and buried it. This was the toughest part of the plan because it required heavy equipment. Next, he dug out a staircase and installed a steel door at the entrance. Finally, he furnished it with a mix of modern comforts and survival essentials.
Almost every weekend, Paul trekked to his underground sanctuary and made improvements. He also planned his bugout strategy. When the end of the world hit, he figured he needed to be safely hidden in his home within two and a half hours, a time he had achieved with this latest trip. Everything was set, and Paul could finally relax. He was prepared.
Paul slumped down on his futon and considered playing a movie or cracking the bottle of Jim Beam whiskey he stored in a special cabinet, but he shook off the urge. Those things were the rewards and comforts he’d enjoy after the world ended. His fingers rubbed the top of the Bible, something he planned to read cover to cover once the global economy cratered. He’d have plenty of time then to discover his spiritual side, but not now. Something else needed to be done. Something he’d missed.
The biggest mistake a prepper can make is assuming he had everything covered. This was the lesson taught by Yannis, the guru of the prepping world. He was so well-known within the doomsday community; he only went by one name. The guy was sharp as a whip and could live off the land, if necessary, but he preferred a more sophisticated lifestyle, so he created a luxurious cave that contained backup systems for all his backups. Food, water, shelter, and electricity were all taken care of, and it was projected that Yannis could survive ten years comfortably after the apocalypse. His famous blog titled “ABP” stood for Always Be Preparing. It was a motto Yannis lived by and something Paul aspired to, but as he sat in his bunker after the relentless hike, fatigue set in. He didn’t want to think about prepping or his bugout strategy. He wanted to just be.
Paul tilted his head back onto the futon’s cushion, and a loneliness crept into his mind. All his prepping left little time for relationships. He dated off and on in college, but it was never anything serious. It wasn’t like his high school sweetheart, Kristin Summer. They dated junior and senior year, but then Paul broke it off when his father got sick. Paul couldn’t focus on romance, and he knew the relationship wouldn’t have worked when he left for school 1,500 miles away. It still hurt when he learned from a friend that Kristin started dating Derek Gorman, an old classmate Paul hated. It hurt even more when he found out they had gotten married.
After college, Paul joined a couple of dating sites, but he hadn’t used them in over two years. Most women wouldn’t understand his prepping lifestyle, at least that’s what he feared, so he rejected dating before anyone could reject him. But most wasn't all, and with eight billion people on the planet, there had to be someone for him. Almost without thinking, Paul pulled out his phone and opened “My Match,” the site where he’d had the most luck. His profile still had a photo from his early banking days. He was clean shaven with a naïve smile. The face staring back in the picture differed greatly from the bearded survivalist he’d become. Would anyone consider a relationship with the new Paul? Only one way to find out. He snapped a selfie, uploaded it, and then updated his hobbies with the first being “prepping” followed by “survival skills training.” He finished by pressing the button that showed he was actively looking for someone. All he had to do now was wait.
After spending the night in his bunker, Paul checked the dating site in the morning. No response. “It was a stupid idea,” he told himself, and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. He locked his container and returned home.
Over the next two weeks, Paul received zero requests for a date. He didn’t even receive a message from anyone to start a conversation and test the waters. “Shake it off, dumbass,” he said alone in the confines of his cottage-style home. “The world is going to end, anyway.” He clenched his jaw and did what he always did. He researched more ways to survive. Paul poured over blog posts and imagined worst-case scenarios. How could his water be contaminated? Maybe he should bury some caches of water. What if someone finds his shelter? Maybe security cameras were needed. What if he gets lonely in his shelter? No ideas came to mind.
After his eyes got tired from reading, Paul clicked out of his browser, and the list of all his apps stared at him. For reasons unknown to him, he opened Facebook, something he hadn’t done for months. There were a handful of notifications and a couple of friend requests sent weeks ago. His heart raced when he saw the name of one—Kristin Summer. When he accepted, he saw she was on-line right then.
Should he message her? Would that be weird right after accepting her request? But wasn’t it weird that he hadn’t responded for several weeks? He pulled up the messenger and typed. “Hey. Sorry for the delay in accepting your request. Hadn’t been on Facebook in a while. Been busy. Hope you and Derek are well.”
He curled his lip in disgust as he typed Derek’s name and considered deleting it, but he took the moral high ground and hit “send” with his message unaltered.
Kristin Summer. Just the thought of her name brought a smile to Paul’s face.
Bing.
The sound alerted Paul to a response, which he read out loud. “Hey Paul. Good to hear from you. Derek and I divorced a little over a year ago. It was rough at first, but it was for the best. How are you?”
Paul’s eyes widened with shock and excitement. He couldn’t believe Derek was so stupid to let Kristin go. Paul could at least blame their breakup on his father’s illness. His fingers prattled away on the keyboard. “Things are amazing.” He stopped typing. That was a lie. Should he pretend like things were great or should he be honest and tell her about his prepping and the end of the world? Neither option sounded appealing. He tapped the keys without writing until he settled on something uncontroversial.
“Working at Trinity Bank in Asheville. It pays the bills. Where are you?”
Within a minute, the sweet sound of the notification binged. “I’m not too far away in Durham. If you’re ever in town, let me know.”
If you’re ever in town, let me know.
Paul couldn’t believe his eyes. Was Kristin asking him out? He shook his head. Nah, she’s probably just being polite. But maybe. If there was any chance, he had to find out. He chewed his lip and deliberated his next response. Fortune favors the bold, he told himself. Then he remembered Matt Damon telling people that in the now infamous commercial for FTX months before its collapse. When that occurred, Paul thought it was the beginning of the end, and he lived in his bunker for two days before emerging and finding the world still intact.
Paul clenched his fist. It was still good advice, and he had to try. Almost involuntarily, he typed, “I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. If you want to get together, let me know.” His finger hit send before he could talk himself out of it. There was no qualification in the message. No waffling or hedging. It was clear Paul wanted to see Kristin. The only question now was whether she wanted to see him.
The next ten minutes felt like ten days. Paul paced back and forth with his hands over his head, and he glanced at the monitor every few seconds, just in case his ears had missed the notification alert.
There was nothing.
A dark depression filled the room. Why had he gotten his hopes up? What was the point, anyway? The world was going to end.
Bing.
Paul leapt to the computer and his eyes widened with each word he read. “How about a lunch at The Fig Tree Restaurant on 7th?”
People overuse the word literally, but Paul at least felt like his jaw was literally on the floor. He had a date with Kristin Summer, the one woman he had loved. His hands rattled away at the keyboard. “See you at 1 tomorrow.”
“Holy crap,” he muttered to himself.
Panic replaced his excitement when he imagined sitting down and talking to Kristin. What would he say? “Hey Kristin, what have you been up to? Oh me? I’ve been working at a job I hate and planning for the end of the world.”
He drifted into the bathroom and stared at the scruffy character in the mirror. Paul could only cringe at the thought of Kristin’s reaction upon seeing him. She might not recognize the bearded loner who resembled Ted Kaczynski more than the short-haired, clean-shaven teen she last saw.
Only one thing to do.
Paul had to prepare. He opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of clippers. He began trimming his beard and mustache as short as the clippers would allow. Next, he applied a generous amount of cream and shaved all of it off. Paul smirked at the young man hiding under the shabby beard, but it still wasn’t enough. He set the guard on the clippers to a four and began shaving his head. In college, Paul cut his own hair to save money, and the skill came back to him quickly. He dropped to a three and worked in a fade on the sides and then finished with a two. Paul turned to the left, then to the right, and assessed his work. Not bad.
Next thing to prepare was his outfit. Paul slid the door of his closet open and evaluated his choices. A banker’s suit was too stuffy, and his mountain man denim was too hermit inspired. He yanked the clothes aside and climbed deeper into the recesses of his wardrobe until he found a nice buttoned-down shirt and a dark pair of slacks. It gave just the right vibe of successful and stable, while not trying too hard to impress, even though that was his precisely his goal. Paul laid the selection on the chair by his bed. Durham was a three-and-a-half-hour drive away, and he wanted to make sure he got there with time to find parking, and maybe use the restroom. He set the alarm on his iPhone for 6 a.m. That would give him plenty of time to take a shower, have breakfast, and get dressed.
There was no chance of falling asleep easily. His mind raced with thoughts, questions, and various scenarios about what the day would bring. To relax, he poured himself a double whiskey, which he downed with a single slurp. He poured another and sipped.
Kristin Summer. He shook his head, still in disbelief.
As the effect of alcohol set in, Paul laid down on his bed and shut his eyes. Tomorrow would be a good day.
Paul slipped into a deep, satisfying sleep until his mind jolted him awake. It was past 6 a.m. He didn’t know how he knew. He just knew. Paul had slept through his alarm. He snatched his phone off the nightstand, but it was out of battery. He checked his watch and saw it was 7 a.m. There was still time to get to Durham.
Paul jumped out of bed and into the bathroom. He flicked on the light switch, but nothing came on. Paul toggled it on and off, but the outlet was dead.
Police sirens wailed in the distance. Paul meandered out of his house and onto the front lawn. Aside from the sirens, there was an uneasy stillness. Paul’s neighbor Kurt ran out from his home with two suitcases that he flung into the trunk of his car.
“Kurt. What’s going on?” Paul asked.
“Fort Knox was bombed. All the gold was obliterated. And something happened to the electricity and the internet. They shut it down.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, man, but it’s not good. No one has access to news, no money, nothing.”
“Where are you going?” Paul asked.
“I don’t know. Somewhere isolated. I’m just hoping there are no more bombings or other attacks.” Kurt jumped into his car and sped away.
This was it. The world was ending. All of his preps were about to pay off. But what about Kristin? Paul didn’t want the world to end. If he tried to get Kristin, there was no chance he could reach his shelter before things get hairy. Plus, there was no way he could find her. He didn’t have her address, and she might have already left Durham for somewhere safe.
Paul forced himself to focus on his plan. This was what he had prepared for. He dashed back inside and changed into his camouflage gear, grabbed his bugout bag, and then sprinted to his truck. He drove through his neighborhood and reached the main road. His shelter and plans were to the left. Kristin and the unknown were to the right. The whites of Paul’s knuckles flared as he gripped the steering wheel. Now was not the time to waffle. He turned left and hit the accelerator.
Paul gritted his teeth and raced down the street. Keep going. Keep going. He urged himself on. Almost involuntarily, his foot slammed on the brakes. Paul couldn’t do it. He’d planned for the worst all his life, and while he sat alone with the engine idling, he had to admit the truth. He’d lived all his life in fear.
Paul yanked the wheel and turned around toward Durham.

Last week's post https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o6tg3/roundup_possibly_uaprelated_reports_on_here_last/
.1 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2gsu/how_often_do_you_see_a_ufo_in_the_sky/ discussion of sighting frequency
.2 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2g8b/what_did_i_see/ sighting description, South Carolina, rural area, nighttime, from car, single object directly ahead, It was a collection of lights around a dark center. It looked more or less round, but wider than tall., saucer, stationary, witness stopped the car, silent, feeling like I should get the hell out of there
.3 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2ed0/objectobjects_in_sky_above_los_angeles/ video, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, fleet observed, splitting observed,Los Angeles California
.4 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o7708/constant_lightning_near_ft_walton/ video, nighttime sky, storm, lightning, between Ft Walton and Gulf Breeze Florida
.5 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o818g/friend_spotted_this_tonight_apparently_it_was/ photos, nighttime sky, single light object, trail, observed moving, similar sighting in comments Warsaw Poland 🇵🇱 , deleted
.6 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o8saj/strange_sightings_from_a_departed_veteran/ information, UFOs are common, tracked from Cheyenne Mountain Colorado, family history
.7 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13o85i8/orb_ball_lighting_ai_uap/ sighting description and reference image, in bedroom, nighttime, single light object
.8 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9dw8/this_was_exposed_by_passing_clouds/ photo, daytime sky, single light, doughnut , repeat visitor , dancing https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9t8v/vid_of_portal_circle_thing_exposed_by_cloud/ video , portal, stationary https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9xoh/use_slomo_and_hyperlapse_i_use_s20/ advice, slow motion and hyperlapse to see ufo
.9 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13o9htd/what_is_this/ video, daytime sky, single light object, observed flashing, moving upward
.10 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oa23s/what_is_this_plane_drone/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, airplane anomaly, strange looking , Norton Massachusetts, "Rutan Model 61 Long-ez"
.11 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13obyz8/cern_physicist_changes_his_uap_stance/ conversation, family interest in UFOs
.12 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oddjufo_sightingwisconsin/ video, evening sky, single dark object, twolights observed, red 🔴, very bright, lighting configuration change observed, lights turned off, possible reaction to being filmed, repeat visitor three times, two witnesses, Wisconsin, similar sightings in comments , low over treeline, flew over home, silent , rotating
.13 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ouiomy_mom_sent_this_video_the_other_day/ video, daytime sky, single light object, Atlanta Georgia , repeat visitor
.14 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13osiil/saw_something_weird_and_need_help_identifying_did/ video, [GOODPOST], 🌈 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ovcez/second_video_drove_3_miles_sw_from_original_site/ second video, Fort Lauderdale Florida, nighttime, contemporaneous report, nighttime cloudy sky, single light object stationary, color change observed, multicolored 🌈, possible luring, witness followed it, I got in my car and drove just a couple miles south west. Just to see if I can get another angle., duration 30 minutes
.15 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13orkr2/ufo_flying_in_a_figure_8_in_the_auroras_in_alaska/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, moving erratically, figure 8 path observed, repeat visitor, Alaska, similar sightings in comments
.16 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13nngre/friend_sent_me_this_video_this_happened_at_1030/ video, nighttime sky, downvoted to zero, hard to see, light objects, "bats", contemporaneous report, Sioux falls Idaho
.17 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13olalu/diamond_shaped_ufo_over_coosbayoregon_this_thing/ photo, nighttime sky, diamond shape, single light object, line across middle, very large observed, Coosbay oregon, repeat visitor https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13onavl/video_of_the_diamond_ufo_at_905pm_pretty_good/ video https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p6skb/its_sad_how_many_people_refuse_to_even_look_at/ more video https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13oel86/ive_been_hearing_a_high_pitched_frequency_since/ frequency
.17 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p0vsy/repost_due_to_making_mistakes_strange_object/ video, daytime sky, Trenton new jersey , single light object, wiggling
.18 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p0ny5/possible_sighting_identification_help/ video, daytime sky, fleet, light objects, towards Tehachipi California, duration 3-5 minutes
.19 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oyuv7/captured_with_ir_filter_made_out_of_lenses_for_a/ video, red and blue filter , daytime cloudy sky, single object moving fast, slow motion https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p4oau/someone_said_that_its_a_hummingbird_so_heres_the/ video https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p57gc/raw_footage_without_slow_motion_object_flies_by/ more video
.20 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13oaa58/when_did_your_existential_fear_of_aliens_start/ discussion of fear
.21 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13o3mbb/something_that_made_me_way_less_skeptical_was_the/ sighting description, two witnesses, nighttime, Angeles forest California, telepathy, something compelled me to look off to my left, single light object, red 🔴, moving slowly, sudden departure upward
.22 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13ot6oh/my_encounter_of_the_3rd_kind_told_for_the_first/ sighting description, nighttime, entities, from car, single light object moving erratically, witness stopped the car, sudden descent, directly in front, emotion of fear, paralysis, feeling lifted up, photo of artifact, metallic sphere, information transfer "we come in peace", big debunker energy, OP comments downvoted, clowning on OP
.23 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13nz0zf/the_blizzard_of_1978/ sighting description, has anyone seen?, 1978, storm, blizzard, family story, bright light shining in bedroom, entity, telepathy, it had something on its head almost like a spiral, information transfer, "do not be afraid", Michigan
.24 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13orbsl/possible_sighting_in_swfl/ video, daytime sky, San Mateo Drive Bonita Springs Florida, single light object, golden metallic observed, rotating observed, contemporaneous report, [GOODPOST], jumpy movement
.25 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13ock4m/help_iding_a_plane/ sighting description, airplane anomaly, low flying, and had two balls attached to the bottom rear, contemporaneous report
.26 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13ol5c4/im_not_sure_if_i_believe_in_aliens_but_i_had_a/ sighting description, single dark object, from airplane, Las Vegas Nevada, two witnesses, flying saucer, black, and putting off a weird smoke or mist, also black. , trail, similar sighting in comments
.27 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13orlr7/my_unknown_experience/ sighting description, central Florida, two witnesses, nighttime, single light object, flareup, moving slowly, trail, observed vanishing, "satellite"
.28 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13oqp97/strange_thing_we_saw_at_the_sky/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, two witnesses, nighttime, very bright, also small blinking red light 🔴, observed vanishing, noise sounded like airplane
.29 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ovhb5/ufo_sighting_glasgow/ sighting description, nighttime, light objects, Glasgow Scotland
.30 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p2e8m/seen_last_evening_in_ct/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, Connecticut, single light object moving
.31 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13oxk5y/mystery_static_visible_in_the_ai sighting description, two witnesses, from car, rectangular patch of static, shimmering, bugs or heat shimmer
.32 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p6v8d/london_22_may_2023/ video, nighttime sky, ISS
.33 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pxkty/saw_a_glowing_orange_orb_in_chicago_back_in/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving slowly, orange 🟠, flareup observed, observed overhead, over home, two witnesses, urban area, Chicago, very bright, It looked like I was looking into the sun and the air around it looked distorted., emotion of fear, possible luring, witnesses followed it from home, descending down below treeline, emotion of unease, submission statement issues, removed, [GOODPOST] https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13py38v/glowing_orange_orb_siting_chicago_11222/ reposted
.34 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p7vy3/an_experience_like_no_othe sighting description, Cyprus 🇨🇾, nighttime, single light object, approach, flareup, observed moving and stationary, sudden departure
.35 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p7nkt/yuma_ufo/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from car, Yuma Arizona, single object, pacing car, matched car speed change, duration 5+ minutes, single light object, tictac
.36 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p69ej/donut_shaped_object_photos_taken_by_myself_in/ photos, nighttime sky, Ohio, single light object, doughnut shape observed, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted, observed moving slowly, multicolored
.37 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pzpce/how_does_my_own_personal_sighting_compare_to/ sighting description, has anyone seen?, urban area, passed the window, single light object, small, moving fast and straight, observed moving and stationary, sudden departure upward, brief, stationary duration 1-2 seconds, similar sightings in comments
.38 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pdmm3/odd_stationary_solid_yellow_light_starts_moving/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, yellow 🟡, observed stationary and moving, flashing, possible reaction to being filmed, vanishing, from car, driving from Mount Vernon Ohio to Columbus , pacing car duration a few minutes, witness stopped the car, trajectory change observed
.39 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pf2aq/i_saw_a_black_ball_in_the_sky/ childhood sighting description, Mexico 🇲🇽 , single dark object, black ⚫️ sphere, moving slowly upward , similar sighting in comments
.40 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pidun/tictac_shaped_thing_following_plane/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single light object, tictac, from airplane, flight from New York to Missouri, pacing plane, duration 30 minutes
.41 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pqems/sighting_last_night_just_after_11pm_45mins_north/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, moving star, single light object moving erratically, two objects observed, one following the other, yellow orangish light 🟠
.42 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q35p0/laying_in_the_hammock_just_now_oregon/ photos, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, moon for comparison, Oregon https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q3dd8/help_identifying/ more pictures, contemporaneous report, happening at time of posting
.43 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13q0uw5/i_saw_this_ufo_and_have_a_video_also_over_in/ photos daytime sky, single object blackwhite, doughnut https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13pwmwf/this_is_a_set_of_photos_i_took_that_day_i_seen/ reposted, similar sighting in comments https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13p70tc/this_is_the_video_of_the_ufo_i_saw_on_which_i_had/ video, sightings in comments
.44 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13pfe2s/ufo/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from airplane, single light object, tictac , pacing plane, possible reaction to being filmed, vanished
.45 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13pi37z/any_idea_what_this_is/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, dark line across the sky and single dark object
.46 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13p649c/saw_something_odd_any_guesses/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, single light object stationary, flashing, red 🔴 and white, not sparkling like a star, it was like mechanical, rhythmic pulsing, silent, nighttime, the UK 🇬🇧, duration 5 minutes
.47 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13pg0po/does_this_count_as_an_alien_encounte experience description, nighttime, telepathy, thought like I needed to go to the window., entity, outside window, emotion of fear, paralysis, body mark, scar, daughter has same
.48 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13pcv77/operation_icebox/ experience description, entities, family history, grandfather, operation icebox, has anyone seen?, no comments, deleted OP
.49 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13peu7d/im_a_contactee_i_didnt_ask_for_that_and_didnt/ experience description, metallic sphere, repeat visitor, telepathy, information transfer
.50 https://old.reddit.com/itsslag/comments/13pp7j8/what_is_this/ photo, possible metamaterial
.51 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pkbdt/quantum_cloning_a_true_story_from_my_childhood/ childhood experience description, quantum cloning
.52 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pb5ep/an_experience_i_had_that_always_leaves_me/ experience description, humanoid, emotion of fear, Queensland Australia 🇦🇺
.53 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13p4f41/i_think_i_saw_an_alien/ experience description, entity, telepathy, felt that someone was watching me, possible reaction to being observed, vanished, expression was a bit like a grin that kids do when they are being cheeky
.54 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qb0zo/not_alien_but_anyone_know_whowhen_what_launched/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, fleet light objects moving fast, trail, similar sighting in comments, Beauharnois Quebec Canada 🇨🇦, "fireball", downvoted to zero
.55 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qbdd8/inquiring/ sighting description and reference image, art 🎨, has anyone seen?, single light object, low, silent, two witnesses, over the witness home, moved the tops of the trees when it passed by, new York state, [GOODPOST] , similar sightings in comments , green 🟢 fireball , downvoted to zero
.56 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q9bll/reading_pa_52323_949pm_est/ video, nighttime sky, threelights observed, orange 🟠, two witnesses, reading Pennsylvania, urban area, contemporaneous report, moving erratically, very bright, silent, OP comments downvoted .57 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qw4df/unexplained_sighting_with_time_series_fotos_on/ sighting description, nighttime cloudy sky, duration 6 minutes, Lipari Italy 🇮🇹 , single light object, very bright, multicolored, shape change
.58 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qr541/my_possible_ufo_sightingsorry_i_dont_have_footage/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object, observed stationary and moving, sudden departure
.59 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13qdpqv/experiences_that_dont_fit_the_mold/ discussion of unusual experiences
.60 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13qch14/mount_shasta_ca/ sighting description, nighttime, repeat visitors, single light object, flew over the witness home, contemporaneous report, Mt Shasta California, similar sightings in comments
.61 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pn2iy/your_thoughts_on_synchronicity_exeriwnces/ discussion of synchronicity
.62 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13q23h9/water_man/ sighting description, entity, nighttime, humanoid figure, possible reaction to being observed, ducked down
.63 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pmky4/ball_lightning_foo_fighters_omg_plasma_exploded/ experience, ball lightning, flareup, close
.64 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13oa3cj/ufo_spotted_seattle_2023205/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single object moving fast, flying saucer, contemporaneous report, Seattle Washington state
.65 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13qnrc2/my_own_storynothing_like_everyone_elses_i_dont/ sighting description and family history, Pennsylvania, entity
.66 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13qyvje/ufo_incident_vegas_512023/ story and reference video, landed craft, entities, Las Vegas Nevada, law enforcement response, green 🟢, tictac
.67 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13r0j1t/help_identifying_flashing_stationary_object_at/ sighting description, nighttime, contemporaneous report, single light object, repeat visitor, flashing once every 11 seconds, flareup and vanishing, location change
.68 https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13qe8vb/their_back_blinker_city_baby_ive_had_it_up_since/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, blinking, repeat visitors
.69 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13r0ufc/here_is_the_32_second_clip_my_buddy_and_i_got/ video, nighttime sky, [GOODPOST], witness to the camp Wilson craft, big debunker energy, clowning on OP, removed by moderator, information suppression
.70 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rj9gk/i_have_hyperthymesia_one_of_my_memories_is_not/ experience description, information transfer, red 🔴 light, perception anomaly, feels like a memory and not a dream
.71 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13r2cqs/a_voice_in_my_head_with_a_message/ experience description, information transfer, telepathy, "Sonic resonance is the key to harmony and peace", similar experiences in comments
.72 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rdmt7/ive_dreamt_the_same_dream_on_and_off_for_45_yrs/ discussion of recurring dreams
.73 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13relcz/another_4chan_user_claims_to_have_leaks/ information, family history, grandfather, government works with aliens
.74 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13r5985/me_and_my_dad_see_ufos/ sighting description, family history, single dark object, black ⚫️, repeat visitor
.75 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rdyvh/does_anyone_have_any_idea_of_what_this_is_it_can/ photos, nighttime sky, from security camera, infrared, not seen by eye, repeat visitor
.76 https://old.reddit.com/Thetruthishere/comments/13rab7y/scary_situation/ experience description, entity, emotion of fear , near where Parkersburg West Virginia turns into Mineral Wells West Virginia
.77 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rn3h7/what_did_i_capture/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, near power station, single object blackwhite , possible physical effects exhaustion
.78 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13rnmnc/cardiff_15th_may/ sighting description, nighttime, fleet, following, duration 10 minutes, "starlink", Cardiff Wales the UK 🇬🇧, this wasn’t satellites is because every so often one would stop and move up and the others would relay past
.79 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rosy7/my_uncle_saw_these_lights_moving_in_a_line_does/ video, nighttime cloudy sky, fleet, diffuse lights moving in a line, following, Fergana Region Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 , "spotlights", duration 30-60 minutes, contemporaneous report
.80 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rpsqk/energy_entity_in_the_night_sky/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, blocky shape, red and green 🔴🟢
.81 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rorointeresting_tidbits_north_american_first_nations/ information, cultural history, Tseshaht First Nation Vancouver Island British Columbia Canada 🇨🇦 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sie28/tseshaht_native_account_of_super_natural_beings/ story , entities
.82 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13rogcf/i_used_the_new_google_bard_asking_about_a_uap_i/ sighting, tictac
.83 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rqpz7/weird_light_beams/ photos, nighttime cloudy sky, light beams, vertical
.84 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rh0si_asked_to_be_see_something_then_instinctual_ran/ sighting description, human initiated contact, emotion of fear, nighttime, single light object, observed moving and stationary, flareup, sudden departure, duration 5-10 seconds, witness went inside, Dundee Scotland
.85 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rz7ed/looks_like_a_person_hovering_in_the_sky_for_about/ video, daytime sky, single light object irregular blocky shape, duration 1 hour, observed rotating, blackwhite, lighting configuration change, Astoria Queens NYC New York state
.86 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rssfm/glowing_spherical_and_reflective_uap_filmed_with/ video and description, daytime sky, single object blackwhite, flareup, single flash, duration 2 minutes, Spanish Moss Trail in coastal Port Royal south Carolina, two witnesses, metallic sphere observed, stationary duration 30-40 seconds,
.87 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13s7mvj/unidentified_objects_in_the_sky_north_of_quebec/ video, nighttime sky, fleet observed, fourlights, orange 🟠 , first noticed from car, witness stopped the car and got out
.88 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sjggg/my_friend_who_had_a_near_death_experience_2021/ photo, art 🎨, entity, reddish, nighttime
.89 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13s2sqq/possible_alien_ufo/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, Beverly Washington state, two craft observed, two witnesses, silent, oval shaped observed
.90 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13si7bf/my_teacher_made_us_levitate_and_20_years_later_i/ childhood experience description, levitation, similar experiences in comments
.91 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13sea3q/red_and_green_super_fast_light_creepy/ sighting description, twolights, red and green 🔴🟢, low, entered witness home, nighttime, animal reaction dog noticed it
.92 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13sm5k1/my_strangest_conversation/ experience description, information transfer, machine that needs to be fixed
.93 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13ru969/seeing_a_scarecrow_but_it_wasnt_there_when_i/ sighting description, entity
.94 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13so7wd/location_bucks_county_pa_date_of_sighting_052322/ video, daytime cloudy sky, hard to see , single object passes twice, bucks County Pennsylvania
.95 https://old.reddit.com/itsslag/comments/13smx6l/slag_from_colorado_around_climax_mine_in_the_60s/ possible metamaterial
.96 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sg1ns/some_sort_of_sighting_described_by_my_mothe sighting description and drawing, family story, mother, nighttime, from car, central Indiana, glowing/swirling orb of blue and white light 🔵, sphere, passed directly in front of car
.97 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sbf6y/possible_ufo_story/ sighting description , Guysborough/West Cooks Cove , nighttime, storm, lightning, two witnesses, light shining in bedroom, very bright, witness went to sleep
.98 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sr37k/just_some_cool_lights_probably_satellites/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, repeat visitors, new Mexico , "satellites"
.99 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sth75/saw_this_when_looking_up_at_the_sky_when_in_the/ video, nighttime sky, blinking lights moving erratically
.100 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tap26/ufo_sighted_51723_over_strasburg_colorado/ photo and video, daytime sky, single object elongated, cylindrical, worm 🪱, Strasburg Colorado , observed stationary, orientation change moving into vertical then horizontal position., "solar balloon", similar sighting in comments from same area
.101 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ssvyy/caught_these_strange_lights_over_north_phoenix_az/ video, nighttime sky, Phoenix Arizona, similar sightings in comments, cigar shape observed, fleet, white lights, some flashing
.102 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13suay6/spotted_some_weird_flying_light/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, has anyone seen?,single light object moving fast and straight, observed vanishing, similar sighting in comments , downvoted to zero, niklaas Belgium 🇧🇪
.103 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13stpxh/most_likely_satellites_still_super_cool/ sighting description and video, fleet, nighttime sky, Highlands Ranch Colorado, downvoted to zero
.104 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13s1s5d/been_seeing_a_lot_of_strange_flying_things_in_the/ sighting description, repeat visitors, bellavista Arkansas, "satellites"
.105 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13t2nl3/my_ufo_story/ sighting description, evening, single light object stationary, orange 🟠, two witnesses, low over treeline, splitting, fleet, spinning, sudden departure upward
.106 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13svg2v/everyone_must_readreceived_extraterrestrial/ information, channeling
.107 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13t4183/voice_caught_on_sleep_cycle_app_thats_not_mine_25f/ audio, entity, evp
.108 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13t4526/no_pics_colour_changing_iss/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object, multicolored, color change observed white to red 🔴, sudden acceleration
.109 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13sthn2/ufo_uk_bow_waveshock_wave/ photo, nighttime sky, hard to see, bow wave or shock wave observed, the UK 🇬🇧
.110 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13t07ov/a_silent_black_triangle_1989_pittsburgh_cg/ cgi recreation of sighting, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, single dark object, black triangle, silent, similar sightings in comments
.111 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13th58l/aliens_in_puerto_vallarta/ video, daytime sky, two objects, crescent 🌙 shape, blackwhite, urban area, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 🇲🇽 , big debunker energy, rowdy OP, this will get locked soon I bet, OP comments downvoted, downvoted to zero , "parasail" , removed https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ti1mt/ufos_in_pv/ reposted as sighting description , removed, troll? https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13thfhd/crazy_aliens_in_puerti_vallarta/ more video, nighttime , single light object
.112 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sxs7t/i_think_i_saw_a_ufouap/ sighting description, downvoted to zero, nighttime, twolights, green 🟢, Gary Indiana, lighting configuration change, triangle shape observed, sudden departure
.113 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13tioph/really_bizarre_experience_from_childhood_cant/ childhood experience description, anomalous silence, anomalous solitude, similar experience in comments
.114 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13thf2z/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0vu_experiences_before_negative_events/ discussion of precognition
.115 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13t6jn0/i_witnessed_a_ufo_while_on_a_flight/ childhood sighting description, from airplane, from Toronto to Orlando, eastern USA, daytime, two witnesses, single dark object, brown long oval shape, elongated, cigar, pacing plane, duration 10 minutes, vanishing and reappearing , shape change observed to U shape, rotated, fleet observed
.116 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tkrjg/2_flying_objects_obove_me/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, happening at time of posting, Arnhem the Netherlands 🇳🇱 , twolights stationary over home, separate approach observed, one following the other, observed moving and stationary, nighttime
.117 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tfira/red_ufo_orb_flying_over_the_neighborhood/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, orange 🟠, low over rooftop , Elmwood park Chicago Illinois, urban area
.118 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tj7ru/flying_object_seen_over_frankfurt_27_may_2023/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, Frankfurt Germany 🇩🇪, "ISS" , contemporaneous report
.119 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tlyxs/thing_i_saw_today_in_southeastern_pennsylvania/ video, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, Southeast Pennsylvania, single object, blackwhite, moving erratically, flipping observed, similar sightings in comments
.120 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tn1a8/i_know_everyone_was_very_interested_in_seeing_the/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, possible military response, helicopters, repeat visitor , deleted OP
.121 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tmrqh/may_27_2023_1239am_1246am_central_texas/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, daytime, fleet, moving straight, central Texas
.122 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tmfcp/odd_light/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, Ohio, single light object moving fast and straight, right angle turn
.123 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ty0fn/could_i_ask_for_help_to_identify_this_moving/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, trajectory change observed, very bright, Cumbria the lake district the UK 🇬🇧, duration 2 minutes
.124 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tqem3/video_from_a_few_years_ago_in_nsw_australia/ video, daytime cloudy sky, New south Wales Australia 🇦🇺 , single dark object, low over rooftop, trajectory change observed
.125 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13trd8m/red_orange_orb_may_28_2023_buffalo_ny/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, red-orange 🔴🟠, Orchard Park south of Buffalo New York state, two witnesses, pulsating, approach, speed change observed, trajectory change observed, sudden departure upward, silent, repeat visitor, urban area
.126 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tu5i6/thats_no_balloon/ sighting description, downvoted to zero, Petersfield the UK 🇬🇧, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, approach, sphere, moving straight, yellow/beige colour 🟡, two witnesses , flew overhead
.127 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tnbyi/another_ufo_sighting_27th_may_2234_leicester_uk/ video, nighttime sky, single light object
.128 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tszv1/ufo_sighting_phoenix/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, fleet, blue 🔵, duration 10 seconds , Phoenix Arizona, "starlink"
.129 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13twgnb/2_new_ufo_videos_to_check_out/ video, nighttime sky, from night vision scope, moving stars, "satellites"
.130 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13tqwsc/strange_reoccurring_dream_and_close_encounter_30/ childhood experience description, bright light shining in bedroom, buzzing noise , repeat visitor, family story, mother saw entities
.131 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13toir2/weird_tapping_noise_in_my_room_all_day/ audio description, bedroom, contemporaneous report, erratic tapping sound, It would be silent for about 30 seconds and then this loud tap would come from any direction, possible reaction to being recorded, stopped
.132 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13tr174/i_see_the_rule_about_blurry_video_but/ video, nighttime sky, single light object blinking, Houston Texas, contemporaneous report, green 🟢 in video, amber 🟠color observed, two witnesses, approach, repeat visitor, similar sighting in comments, family history, father lived near Cheyenne Mountain https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13u7dgi/somebody_told_me_to_post_this_here/ reposted
.133 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13u4s7l/i_captured_a_tic_tac_like_ufo_whirling_around_the/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, single object blackwhite, shape change,
.134 https://old.reddit.com/space/comments/13u1exk/iron_nickel_meteorite/ photos, possible metamaterial
.135 https://old.reddit.com/whatisthisbone/comments/13u122q/is_this_a_fossil_whithin_the_rock_found_in_bahia/ possible crash site
.136 https://old.reddit.com/ParallelUniverse/comments/13u0pij/a_whole_building_changes_disappears/ experience description, two witnesses, location anomaly, building changed
.137 https://old.reddit.com/CLOUDS/comments/13u0hb0/has_anyone_ever_seen_something_like_this_i_used/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, cloud anomaly, portal, two circles of clouds merging
.138 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13tr5tp/the_moon/ experience description, moon anomaly, single light object, outside window, close, emotion of unease
.139 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13tr5nz/what_is_up_with_the_moon/ video, deleted OP, nighttime, moon for comparison, objects moving fast
.140 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13tl6vq/cans_someone_identify_this_ring_camera_motion/ video, nighttime, from home security camera, fourlights, two objects
.141 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13t6brj/my_friends_memorydream_of_a_witch_whos_breath_cut/ childhood experience description, possible abduction, repeat visitor
.142 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13p5oq4/the_sun_flickered_like_a_light_switch/ experience description, two witnesses, darkness in the day time, similar experiences in comments, "the blink"
.143 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13pmzzh/sky_was_broken/ experience description, moving stars, two witnesses, similar sightings in comments, the Philippines 🇵🇭, physical effects the hair at the back of my neck rose. My head felt light and my legs felt wobbly, [GOODPOST]

Last week's post https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o6tg3/roundup_possibly_uaprelated_reports_on_here_last/ held for approval? 5:27 pm eastern released 1 hour later, tag changed to compilation instead of discussion
.1 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2gsu/how_often_do_you_see_a_ufo_in_the_sky/ discussion of sighting frequency
.2 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2g8b/what_did_i_see/ sighting description, South Carolina, rural area, nighttime, from car, single object directly ahead, It was a collection of lights around a dark center. It looked more or less round, but wider than tall., saucer, stationary, witness stopped the car, silent, feeling like I should get the hell out of there
.3 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o2ed0/objectobjects_in_sky_above_los_angeles/ video, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, fleet observed, splitting observed,Los Angeles California
.4 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o7708/constant_lightning_near_ft_walton/ video, nighttime sky, storm, lightning, between Ft Walton and Gulf Breeze Florida
.5 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o818g/friend_spotted_this_tonight_apparently_it_was/ photos, nighttime sky, single light object, trail, observed moving, similar sighting in comments Warsaw Poland 🇵🇱 , deleted
.6 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o8saj/strange_sightings_from_a_departed_veteran/ information, UFOs are common, tracked from Cheyenne Mountain Colorado, family history
.7 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13o85i8/orb_ball_lighting_ai_uap/ sighting description and reference image, in bedroom, nighttime, single light object
.8 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9dw8/this_was_exposed_by_passing_clouds/ photo, daytime sky, single light, doughnut , repeat visitor , dancing https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9t8v/vid_of_portal_circle_thing_exposed_by_cloud/ video , portal, stationary https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13o9xoh/use_slomo_and_hyperlapse_i_use_s20/ advice, slow motion and hyperlapse to see ufo
.9 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13o9htd/what_is_this/ video, daytime sky, single light object, observed flashing, moving upward
.10 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oa23s/what_is_this_plane_drone/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, airplane anomaly, strange looking , Norton Massachusetts, "Rutan Model 61 Long-ez"
.11 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13obyz8/cern_physicist_changes_his_uap_stance/ conversation, family interest in UFOs
.12 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oddjufo_sightingwisconsin/ video, evening sky, single dark object, twolights observed, red 🔴, very bright, lighting configuration change observed, lights turned off, possible reaction to being filmed, repeat visitor three times, two witnesses, Wisconsin, similar sightings in comments , low over treeline, flew over home, silent , rotating
.13 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ouiomy_mom_sent_this_video_the_other_day/ video, daytime sky, single light object, Atlanta Georgia , repeat visitor
.14 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13osiil/saw_something_weird_and_need_help_identifying_did/ video, [GOODPOST], 🌈 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ovcez/second_video_drove_3_miles_sw_from_original_site/ second video, Fort Lauderdale Florida, nighttime, contemporaneous report, nighttime cloudy sky, single light object stationary, color change observed, multicolored 🌈, possible luring, witness followed it, I got in my car and drove just a couple miles south west. Just to see if I can get another angle., duration 30 minutes
.15 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13orkr2/ufo_flying_in_a_figure_8_in_the_auroras_in_alaska/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, moving erratically, figure 8 path observed, repeat visitor, Alaska, similar sightings in comments
.16 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13nngre/friend_sent_me_this_video_this_happened_at_1030/ video, nighttime sky, downvoted to zero, hard to see, light objects, "bats", contemporaneous report, Sioux falls Idaho
.17 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13olalu/diamond_shaped_ufo_over_coosbayoregon_this_thing/ photo, nighttime sky, diamond shape, single light object, line across middle, very large observed, Coosbay oregon, repeat visitor https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13onavl/video_of_the_diamond_ufo_at_905pm_pretty_good/ video https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p6skb/its_sad_how_many_people_refuse_to_even_look_at/ more video https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13oel86/ive_been_hearing_a_high_pitched_frequency_since/ frequency
.17 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p0vsy/repost_due_to_making_mistakes_strange_object/ video, daytime sky, Trenton new jersey , single light object, wiggling
.18 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p0ny5/possible_sighting_identification_help/ video, daytime sky, fleet, light objects, towards Tehachipi California, duration 3-5 minutes
.19 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13oyuv7/captured_with_ir_filter_made_out_of_lenses_for_a/ video, red and blue filter , daytime cloudy sky, single object moving fast, slow motion https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p4oau/someone_said_that_its_a_hummingbird_so_heres_the/ video https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p57gc/raw_footage_without_slow_motion_object_flies_by/ more video
.20 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13oaa58/when_did_your_existential_fear_of_aliens_start/ discussion of fear
.21 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13o3mbb/something_that_made_me_way_less_skeptical_was_the/ sighting description, two witnesses, nighttime, Angeles forest California, telepathy, something compelled me to look off to my left, single light object, red 🔴, moving slowly, sudden departure upward
.22 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13ot6oh/my_encounter_of_the_3rd_kind_told_for_the_first/ sighting description, nighttime, entities, from car, single light object moving erratically, witness stopped the car, sudden descent, directly in front, emotion of fear, paralysis, feeling lifted up, photo of artifact, metallic sphere, information transfer "we come in peace", big debunker energy, OP comments downvoted, clowning on OP
.23 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13nz0zf/the_blizzard_of_1978/ sighting description, has anyone seen?, 1978, storm, blizzard, family story, bright light shining in bedroom, entity, telepathy, it had something on its head almost like a spiral, information transfer, "do not be afraid", Michigan
.24 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13orbsl/possible_sighting_in_swfl/ video, daytime sky, San Mateo Drive Bonita Springs Florida, single light object, golden metallic observed, rotating observed, contemporaneous report, [GOODPOST], jumpy movement
.25 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13ock4m/help_iding_a_plane/ sighting description, airplane anomaly, low flying, and had two balls attached to the bottom rear, contemporaneous report
.26 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13ol5c4/im_not_sure_if_i_believe_in_aliens_but_i_had_a/ sighting description, single dark object, from airplane, Las Vegas Nevada, two witnesses, flying saucer, black, and putting off a weird smoke or mist, also black. , trail, similar sighting in comments
.27 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13orlr7/my_unknown_experience/ sighting description, central Florida, two witnesses, nighttime, single light object, flareup, moving slowly, trail, observed vanishing, "satellite"
.28 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13oqp97/strange_thing_we_saw_at_the_sky/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, two witnesses, nighttime, very bright, also small blinking red light 🔴, observed vanishing, noise sounded like airplane
.29 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ovhb5/ufo_sighting_glasgow/ sighting description, nighttime, light objects, Glasgow Scotland
.30 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p2e8m/seen_last_evening_in_ct/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, Connecticut, single light object moving
.31 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13oxk5y/mystery_static_visible_in_the_ai sighting description, two witnesses, from car, rectangular patch of static, shimmering, bugs or heat shimmer
.32 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p6v8d/london_22_may_2023/ video, nighttime sky, ISS
.33 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pxkty/saw_a_glowing_orange_orb_in_chicago_back_in/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving slowly, orange 🟠, flareup observed, observed overhead, over home, two witnesses, urban area, Chicago, very bright, It looked like I was looking into the sun and the air around it looked distorted., emotion of fear, possible luring, witnesses followed it from home, descending down below treeline, emotion of unease, submission statement issues, removed, [GOODPOST] https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13py38v/glowing_orange_orb_siting_chicago_11222/ reposted
.34 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p7vy3/an_experience_like_no_othe sighting description, Cyprus 🇨🇾, nighttime, single light object, approach, flareup, observed moving and stationary, sudden departure
.35 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p7nkt/yuma_ufo/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from car, Yuma Arizona, single object, pacing car, matched car speed change, duration 5+ minutes, single light object, tictac
.36 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13p69ej/donut_shaped_object_photos_taken_by_myself_in/ photos, nighttime sky, Ohio, single light object, doughnut shape observed, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted, observed moving slowly, multicolored
.37 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pzpce/how_does_my_own_personal_sighting_compare_to/ sighting description, has anyone seen?, urban area, passed the window, single light object, small, moving fast and straight, observed moving and stationary, sudden departure upward, brief, stationary duration 1-2 seconds, similar sightings in comments
.38 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pdmm3/odd_stationary_solid_yellow_light_starts_moving/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, yellow 🟡, observed stationary and moving, flashing, possible reaction to being filmed, vanishing, from car, driving from Mount Vernon Ohio to Columbus , pacing car duration a few minutes, witness stopped the car, trajectory change observed
.39 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pf2aq/i_saw_a_black_ball_in_the_sky/ childhood sighting description, Mexico 🇲🇽 , single dark object, black ⚫️ sphere, moving slowly upward , similar sighting in comments
.40 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pidun/tictac_shaped_thing_following_plane/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single light object, tictac, from airplane, flight from New York to Missouri, pacing plane, duration 30 minutes
.41 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13pqems/sighting_last_night_just_after_11pm_45mins_north/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, moving star, single light object moving erratically, two objects observed, one following the other, yellow orangish light 🟠
.42 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q35p0/laying_in_the_hammock_just_now_oregon/ photos, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, moon for comparison, Oregon https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q3dd8/help_identifying/ more pictures, contemporaneous report, happening at time of posting
.43 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13q0uw5/i_saw_this_ufo_and_have_a_video_also_over_in/ photos daytime sky, single object blackwhite, doughnut https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13pwmwf/this_is_a_set_of_photos_i_took_that_day_i_seen/ reposted, similar sighting in comments https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13p70tc/this_is_the_video_of_the_ufo_i_saw_on_which_i_had/ video, sightings in comments
.44 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13pfe2s/ufo/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from airplane, single light object, tictac , pacing plane, possible reaction to being filmed, vanished
.45 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13pi37z/any_idea_what_this_is/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, dark line across the sky and single dark object
.46 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13p649c/saw_something_odd_any_guesses/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, single light object stationary, flashing, red 🔴 and white, not sparkling like a star, it was like mechanical, rhythmic pulsing, silent, nighttime, the UK 🇬🇧, duration 5 minutes
.47 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13pg0po/does_this_count_as_an_alien_encounte experience description, nighttime, telepathy, thought like I needed to go to the window., entity, outside window, emotion of fear, paralysis, body mark, scar, daughter has same
.48 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13pcv77/operation_icebox/ experience description, entities, family history, grandfather, operation icebox, has anyone seen?, no comments, deleted OP
.49 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13peu7d/im_a_contactee_i_didnt_ask_for_that_and_didnt/ experience description, metallic sphere, repeat visitor, telepathy, information transfer
.50 https://old.reddit.com/itsslag/comments/13pp7j8/what_is_this/ photo, possible metamaterial
.51 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pkbdt/quantum_cloning_a_true_story_from_my_childhood/ childhood experience description, quantum cloning
.52 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pb5ep/an_experience_i_had_that_always_leaves_me/ experience description, humanoid, emotion of fear, Queensland Australia 🇦🇺
.53 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13p4f41/i_think_i_saw_an_alien/ experience description, entity, telepathy, felt that someone was watching me, possible reaction to being observed, vanished, expression was a bit like a grin that kids do when they are being cheeky
.54 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qb0zo/not_alien_but_anyone_know_whowhen_what_launched/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, fleet light objects moving fast, trail, similar sighting in comments, Beauharnois Quebec Canada 🇨🇦, "fireball", downvoted to zero
.55 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qbdd8/inquiring/ sighting description and reference image, art 🎨, has anyone seen?, single light object, low, silent, two witnesses, over the witness home, moved the tops of the trees when it passed by, new York state, [GOODPOST] , similar sightings in comments , green 🟢 fireball , downvoted to zero
.56 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13q9bll/reading_pa_52323_949pm_est/ video, nighttime sky, threelights observed, orange 🟠, two witnesses, reading Pennsylvania, urban area, contemporaneous report, moving erratically, very bright, silent, OP comments downvoted .57 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qw4df/unexplained_sighting_with_time_series_fotos_on/ sighting description, nighttime cloudy sky, duration 6 minutes, Lipari Italy 🇮🇹 , single light object, very bright, multicolored, shape change
.58 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13qr541/my_possible_ufo_sightingsorry_i_dont_have_footage/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object, observed stationary and moving, sudden departure
.59 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13qdpqv/experiences_that_dont_fit_the_mold/ discussion of unusual experiences
.60 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13qch14/mount_shasta_ca/ sighting description, nighttime, repeat visitors, single light object, flew over the witness home, contemporaneous report, Mt Shasta California, similar sightings in comments
.61 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pn2iy/your_thoughts_on_synchronicity_exeriwnces/ discussion of synchronicity
.62 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13q23h9/water_man/ sighting description, entity, nighttime, humanoid figure, possible reaction to being observed, ducked down
.63 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13pmky4/ball_lightning_foo_fighters_omg_plasma_exploded/ experience, ball lightning, flareup, close
.64 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13oa3cj/ufo_spotted_seattle_2023205/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single object moving fast, flying saucer, contemporaneous report, Seattle Washington state
.65 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13qnrc2/my_own_storynothing_like_everyone_elses_i_dont/ sighting description and family history, Pennsylvania, entity
.66 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13qyvje/ufo_incident_vegas_512023/ story and reference video, landed craft, entities, Las Vegas Nevada, law enforcement response, green 🟢, tictac
.67 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13r0j1t/help_identifying_flashing_stationary_object_at/ sighting description, nighttime, contemporaneous report, single light object, repeat visitor, flashing once every 11 seconds, flareup and vanishing, location change
.68 https://old.reddit.com/UFObelievers/comments/13qe8vb/their_back_blinker_city_baby_ive_had_it_up_since/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, blinking, repeat visitors
.69 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13r0ufc/here_is_the_32_second_clip_my_buddy_and_i_got/ video, nighttime sky, [GOODPOST], witness to the camp Wilson craft, big debunker energy, clowning on OP, removed by moderator, information suppression
.70 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rj9gk/i_have_hyperthymesia_one_of_my_memories_is_not/ experience description, information transfer, red 🔴 light, perception anomaly, feels like a memory and not a dream
.71 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13r2cqs/a_voice_in_my_head_with_a_message/ experience description, information transfer, telepathy, "Sonic resonance is the key to harmony and peace", similar experiences in comments
.72 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rdmt7/ive_dreamt_the_same_dream_on_and_off_for_45_yrs/ discussion of recurring dreams
.73 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13relcz/another_4chan_user_claims_to_have_leaks/ information, family history, grandfather, government works with aliens
.74 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13r5985/me_and_my_dad_see_ufos/ sighting description, family history, single dark object, black ⚫️, repeat visitor
.75 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rdyvh/does_anyone_have_any_idea_of_what_this_is_it_can/ photos, nighttime sky, from security camera, infrared, not seen by eye, repeat visitor
.76 https://old.reddit.com/Thetruthishere/comments/13rab7y/scary_situation/ experience description, entity, emotion of fear , near where Parkersburg West Virginia turns into Mineral Wells West Virginia
.77 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rn3h7/what_did_i_capture/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, near power station, single object blackwhite , possible physical effects exhaustion
.78 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13rnmnc/cardiff_15th_may/ sighting description, nighttime, fleet, following, duration 10 minutes, "starlink", Cardiff Wales the UK 🇬🇧, this wasn’t satellites is because every so often one would stop and move up and the others would relay past
.79 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rosy7/my_uncle_saw_these_lights_moving_in_a_line_does/ video, nighttime cloudy sky, fleet, diffuse lights moving in a line, following, Fergana Region Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 , "spotlights", duration 30-60 minutes, contemporaneous report
.80 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rpsqk/energy_entity_in_the_night_sky/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, blocky shape, red and green 🔴🟢
.81 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rorointeresting_tidbits_north_american_first_nations/ information, cultural history, Tseshaht First Nation Vancouver Island British Columbia Canada 🇨🇦 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sie28/tseshaht_native_account_of_super_natural_beings/ story , entities
.82 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13rogcf/i_used_the_new_google_bard_asking_about_a_uap_i/ sighting, tictac
.83 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13rqpz7/weird_light_beams/ photos, nighttime cloudy sky, light beams, vertical
.84 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rh0si_asked_to_be_see_something_then_instinctual_ran/ sighting description, human initiated contact, emotion of fear, nighttime, single light object, observed moving and stationary, flareup, sudden departure, duration 5-10 seconds, witness went inside, Dundee Scotland
.85 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rz7ed/looks_like_a_person_hovering_in_the_sky_for_about/ video, daytime sky, single light object irregular blocky shape, duration 1 hour, observed rotating, blackwhite, lighting configuration change, Astoria Queens NYC New York state
.86 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13rssfm/glowing_spherical_and_reflective_uap_filmed_with/ video and description, daytime sky, single object blackwhite, flareup, single flash, duration 2 minutes, Spanish Moss Trail in coastal Port Royal south Carolina, two witnesses, metallic sphere observed, stationary duration 30-40 seconds,
.87 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13s7mvj/unidentified_objects_in_the_sky_north_of_quebec/ video, nighttime sky, fleet observed, fourlights, orange 🟠 , first noticed from car, witness stopped the car and got out
.88 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sjggg/my_friend_who_had_a_near_death_experience_2021/ photo, art 🎨, entity, reddish, nighttime
.89 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13s2sqq/possible_alien_ufo/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, Beverly Washington state, two craft observed, two witnesses, silent, oval shaped observed
.90 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13si7bf/my_teacher_made_us_levitate_and_20_years_later_i/ childhood experience description, levitation, similar experiences in comments
.91 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13sea3q/red_and_green_super_fast_light_creepy/ sighting description, twolights, red and green 🔴🟢, low, entered witness home, nighttime, animal reaction dog noticed it
.92 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13sm5k1/my_strangest_conversation/ experience description, information transfer, machine that needs to be fixed
.93 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13ru969/seeing_a_scarecrow_but_it_wasnt_there_when_i/ sighting description, entity
.94 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13so7wd/location_bucks_county_pa_date_of_sighting_052322/ video, daytime cloudy sky, hard to see , single object passes twice, bucks County Pennsylvania
.95 https://old.reddit.com/itsslag/comments/13smx6l/slag_from_colorado_around_climax_mine_in_the_60s/ possible metamaterial
.96 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sg1ns/some_sort_of_sighting_described_by_my_mothe sighting description and drawing, family story, mother, nighttime, from car, central Indiana, glowing/swirling orb of blue and white light 🔵, sphere, passed directly in front of car
.97 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sbf6y/possible_ufo_story/ sighting description , Guysborough/West Cooks Cove , nighttime, storm, lightning, two witnesses, light shining in bedroom, very bright, witness went to sleep
.98 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sr37k/just_some_cool_lights_probably_satellites/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, repeat visitors, new Mexico , "satellites"
.99 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sth75/saw_this_when_looking_up_at_the_sky_when_in_the/ video, nighttime sky, blinking lights moving erratically
.100 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tap26/ufo_sighted_51723_over_strasburg_colorado/ photo and video, daytime sky, single object elongated, cylindrical, worm 🪱, Strasburg Colorado , observed stationary, orientation change moving into vertical then horizontal position., "solar balloon", similar sighting in comments from same area
.101 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ssvyy/caught_these_strange_lights_over_north_phoenix_az/ video, nighttime sky, Phoenix Arizona, similar sightings in comments, cigar shape observed, fleet, white lights, some flashing
.102 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13suay6/spotted_some_weird_flying_light/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, has anyone seen?,single light object moving fast and straight, observed vanishing, similar sighting in comments , downvoted to zero, niklaas Belgium 🇧🇪
.103 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13stpxh/most_likely_satellites_still_super_cool/ sighting description and video, fleet, nighttime sky, Highlands Ranch Colorado, downvoted to zero
.104 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13s1s5d/been_seeing_a_lot_of_strange_flying_things_in_the/ sighting description, repeat visitors, bellavista Arkansas, "satellites"
.105 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/13t2nl3/my_ufo_story/ sighting description, evening, single light object stationary, orange 🟠, two witnesses, low over treeline, splitting, fleet, spinning, sudden departure upward
.106 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13svg2v/everyone_must_readreceived_extraterrestrial/ information, channeling
.107 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13t4183/voice_caught_on_sleep_cycle_app_thats_not_mine_25f/ audio, entity, evp
.108 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13t4526/no_pics_colour_changing_iss/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object, multicolored, color change observed white to red 🔴, sudden acceleration
.109 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13sthn2/ufo_uk_bow_waveshock_wave/ photo, nighttime sky, hard to see, bow wave or shock wave observed, the UK 🇬🇧
.110 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13t07ov/a_silent_black_triangle_1989_pittsburgh_cg/ cgi recreation of sighting, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, single dark object, black triangle, silent, similar sightings in comments
.111 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13th58l/aliens_in_puerto_vallarta/ video, daytime sky, two objects, crescent 🌙 shape, blackwhite, urban area, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 🇲🇽 , big debunker energy, rowdy OP, this will get locked soon I bet, OP comments downvoted, downvoted to zero , "parasail" , removed https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ti1mt/ufos_in_pv/ reposted as sighting description , removed, troll? https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13thfhd/crazy_aliens_in_puerti_vallarta/ more video, nighttime , single light object
.112 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13sxs7t/i_think_i_saw_a_ufouap/ sighting description, downvoted to zero, nighttime, twolights, green 🟢, Gary Indiana, lighting configuration change, triangle shape observed, sudden departure
.113 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13tioph/really_bizarre_experience_from_childhood_cant/ childhood experience description, anomalous silence, anomalous solitude, similar experience in comments
.114 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13thf2z/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0vu_experiences_before_negative_events/ discussion of precognition
.115 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13t6jn0/i_witnessed_a_ufo_while_on_a_flight/ childhood sighting description, from airplane, from Toronto to Orlando, eastern USA, daytime, two witnesses, single dark object, brown long oval shape, elongated, cigar, pacing plane, duration 10 minutes, vanishing and reappearing , shape change observed to U shape, rotated, fleet observed
.116 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tkrjg/2_flying_objects_obove_me/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, happening at time of posting, Arnhem the Netherlands 🇳🇱 , twolights stationary over home, separate approach observed, one following the other, observed moving and stationary, nighttime
.117 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tfira/red_ufo_orb_flying_over_the_neighborhood/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, orange 🟠, low over rooftop , Elmwood park Chicago Illinois, urban area
.118 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tj7ru/flying_object_seen_over_frankfurt_27_may_2023/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, Frankfurt Germany 🇩🇪, "ISS" , contemporaneous report
.119 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tlyxs/thing_i_saw_today_in_southeastern_pennsylvania/ video, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, Southeast Pennsylvania, single object, blackwhite, moving erratically, flipping observed, similar sightings in comments
.120 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tn1a8/i_know_everyone_was_very_interested_in_seeing_the/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, possible military response, helicopters, repeat visitor , deleted OP
.121 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tmrqh/may_27_2023_1239am_1246am_central_texas/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, daytime, fleet, moving straight, central Texas
.122 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tmfcp/odd_light/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, Ohio, single light object moving fast and straight, right angle turn
.123 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13ty0fn/could_i_ask_for_help_to_identify_this_moving/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, trajectory change observed, very bright, Cumbria the lake district the UK 🇬🇧, duration 2 minutes
.124 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tqem3/video_from_a_few_years_ago_in_nsw_australia/ video, daytime cloudy sky, New south Wales Australia 🇦🇺 , single dark object, low over rooftop, trajectory change observed
.125 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13trd8m/red_orange_orb_may_28_2023_buffalo_ny/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, red-orange 🔴🟠, Orchard Park south of Buffalo New York state, two witnesses, pulsating, approach, speed change observed, trajectory change observed, sudden departure upward, silent, repeat visitor, urban area
.126 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tu5i6/thats_no_balloon/ sighting description, downvoted to zero, Petersfield the UK 🇬🇧, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, approach, sphere, moving straight, yellow/beige colour 🟡, two witnesses , flew overhead
.127 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tnbyi/another_ufo_sighting_27th_may_2234_leicester_uk/ video, nighttime sky, single light object
.128 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13tszv1/ufo_sighting_phoenix/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, fleet, blue 🔵, duration 10 seconds , Phoenix Arizona, "starlink"
.129 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13twgnb/2_new_ufo_videos_to_check_out/ video, nighttime sky, from night vision scope, moving stars, "satellites"
.130 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13tqwsc/strange_reoccurring_dream_and_close_encounter_30/ childhood experience description, bright light shining in bedroom, buzzing noise , repeat visitor, family story, mother saw entities
.131 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/13toir2/weird_tapping_noise_in_my_room_all_day/ audio description, bedroom, contemporaneous report, erratic tapping sound, It would be silent for about 30 seconds and then this loud tap would come from any direction, possible reaction to being recorded, stopped
.132 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13tr174/i_see_the_rule_about_blurry_video_but/ video, nighttime sky, single light object blinking, Houston Texas, contemporaneous report, green 🟢 in video, amber 🟠color observed, two witnesses, approach, repeat visitor, similar sighting in comments, family history, father lived near Cheyenne Mountain https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13u7dgi/somebody_told_me_to_post_this_here/ reposted
.133 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/13u4s7l/i_captured_a_tic_tac_like_ufo_whirling_around_the/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, single object blackwhite, shape change,
.134 https://old.reddit.com/space/comments/13u1exk/iron_nickel_meteorite/ photos, possible metamaterial
.135 https://old.reddit.com/whatisthisbone/comments/13u122q/is_this_a_fossil_whithin_the_rock_found_in_bahia/ possible crash site
.136 https://old.reddit.com/ParallelUniverse/comments/13u0pij/a_whole_building_changes_disappears/ experience description, two witnesses, location anomaly, building changed
.137 https://old.reddit.com/CLOUDS/comments/13u0hb0/has_anyone_ever_seen_something_like_this_i_used/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, cloud anomaly, portal, two circles of clouds merging
.138 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13tr5tp/the_moon/ experience description, moon anomaly, single light object, outside window, close, emotion of unease
.139 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/13tr5nz/what_is_up_with_the_moon/ video, deleted OP, nighttime, moon for comparison, objects moving fast
.140 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13tl6vq/cans_someone_identify_this_ring_camera_motion/ video, nighttime, from home security camera, fourlights, two objects
.141 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/13t6brj/my_friends_memorydream_of_a_witch_whos_breath_cut/ childhood experience description, possible abduction, repeat visitor
.142 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13p5oq4/the_sun_flickered_like_a_light_switch/ experience description, two witnesses, darkness in the day time, similar experiences in comments, "the blink"
.143 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/13pmzzh/sky_was_broken/ experience description, moving stars, two witnesses, similar sightings in comments, the Philippines 🇵🇭, physical effects the hair at the back of my neck rose. My head felt light and my legs felt wobbly, [GOODPOST]

Period: 29.79 days

	Submissions	Comments
Total	1000	9169
Rate (per day)	33.57	303.99
Unique Redditors	129	654
Combined Score	74430	49663

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

1. 12847 points, 241 submissions: Stand-on-Toilet
   
   1. Seika (@CRANE1192) (245 points, 13 comments)
   2. Nijicat Doing Lucky Cat Pose (@wata9mm_no) (203 points, 9 comments)
   3. Angry Nijika: A Towel Only (@spell_PhD) (200 points, 25 comments)
   4. Cheerleader Seika (@ThundraDrawings) (131 points, 28 comments)
   5. Nijika: Just Like Older Sis (@suta0822) (131 points, 9 comments)
   6. Pink Blob: Waffled (@nitarinDX) (129 points, 8 comments)
   7. Date with Kita (@KIUCHI_ILLUST) (122 points, 9 comments)
   8. RyoNiji: Hair Around Neck (@Kuronichi285) (122 points, 4 comments)
   9. Ryo Under Nijika (努力画画的狸花 on pixiv) (120 points, 7 comments)
   10. Nijika: A Mother Too Early... (@ree_kkr) (119 points, 6 comments)
2. 8005 points, 50 submissions: mysteryface1723
   
   1. Have you found your Nijika? (377 points, 27 comments)
   2. Kessoku Band members meet their followers (340 points, 25 comments)
   3. WARNING: Do not take Nijika's dorito (338 points, 33 comments)
   4. How to meet your Nijika (Yamada Method) (330 points, 31 comments)
   5. Drummers Appreciation Post (324 points, 22 comments)
   6. KessokuBand user ❤ (318 points, 24 comments)
   7. Fandom Bocchi part 3 (286 points, 12 comments)
   8. BTR fans every livestream (261 points, 23 comments)
   9. Kessoku Band Artists' Curse (256 points, 32 comments)
   10. Fandom Kita (246 points, 12 comments)
3. 6483 points, 128 submissions: Pundarikaksh
   
   1. A rainbow that will meet after 8 years by Rotto 🥲 (163 points, 11 comments)
   2. Adult Kessoku band by NeonFloyd (139 points, 17 comments)
   3. Kessoku band cheer squad by E20 (135 points, 15 comments)
   4. Secret story by Kurou (112 points, 20 comments)
   5. Little Dino Bocchi and Michiyo by Yusaku (111 points, 6 comments)
   6. BoRyo by Iyokan (105 points, 7 comments)
   7. GuitarHero by Nooka (98 points, 5 comments)
   8. Loneliness of each by U soul (93 points, 12 comments)
   9. Hitori on new year's by Akira (92 points, 5 comments)
   10. PA-san and BoRyo by Armpit slack (89 points, 7 comments)
4. 5096 points, 57 submissions: Idz4gqbi
   
   1. If Kessoku Band Does Not Exist... (308 points, 25 comments)
   2. Do You Trust Volcanovolk? (258 points, 50 comments)
   3. Slandering the Four Churches of Kessoku Band (243 points, 42 comments)
   4. There are only Two Types of People (242 points, 39 comments)
   5. "Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of Nijika." (222 points, 8 comments)
   6. Blast from the Past — When Doritos Memes were at its Peak (218 points, 26 comments)
   7. Volcanovolk Conspiracy Theory (209 points, 52 comments)
   8. Everything began with the Nijika Folder... (165 points, 18 comments)
   9. Nijika Fan Starter Pack and Advanced Pack (165 points, 36 comments)
   10. Canon & Fandom Nijika — The Definitive Scale (154 points, 27 comments)
5. 4056 points, 22 submissions: yetanother234
   
   1. She's just like me (394 points, 31 comments)
   2. Choose (346 points, 44 comments)
   3. Aki is a cutie (283 points, 15 comments)
   4. Kessoku Band members described in one word (271 points, 28 comments)
   5. Shoutout to the one person who is just like Kita frfr (259 points, 16 comments)
   6. Bocchi the Rock final episode leaked (250 points, 17 comments)
   7. Both are valid reasons for liking Nijika (249 points, 22 comments)
   8. Bocchi's 3 forms (233 points, 9 comments)
   9. Nijika is real and lives inside you (208 points, 15 comments)
   10. Bocchi the Rock spinoff ideas (192 points, 33 comments)
6. 3187 points, 22 submissions: YUZUtry
   
   1. The concentration of Nijika on this sub Today (351 points, 29 comments)
   2. Nijika 「saw」 her fans (278 points, 42 comments)
   3. Bocchi otter found her new nest！ (233 points, 16 comments)
   4. Is this just a coincidence ? (191 points, 34 comments)
   5. guys...Pluto is actually Bocchi！ (187 points, 30 comments)
   6. Bocchi under friendly fire (179 points, 24 comments)
   7. You guys scared my friend IRL... (177 points, 33 comments)
   8. Nijika the ninja—Ninjika ! (167 points, 36 comments)
   9. I trust our sub to see through this... right? (163 points, 28 comments)
   10. Ni...Nijika... (148 points, 21 comments)
7. 1932 points, 12 submissions: whatdoilemonade
   
   1. Seika's Wacky Shenanigans [pixiv@豚猫ブスタ] (302 points, 24 comments)
   2. POV: Nijika greets you at home [pixiv@球体X] (232 points, 19 comments)
   3. Morning in the Ijichi household [pixiv@なまず] (231 points, 20 comments)
   4. Just a dream [pixiv@さくらてるる] (230 points, 26 comments)
   5. Runaway Guitar [pixiv@ぎんぎつね+] (196 points, 19 comments)
   6. The sister's present [pixiv@じんやま] (155 points, 19 comments)
   7. Kessoku ASMR [pixiv@豚猫ブスタ] (113 points, 19 comments)
   8. Bocchi The Smell [pixiv@広肉ル] (112 points, 13 comments)
   9. ShibaYami back hug [pixiv@ホシナ] (104 points, 38 comments)
   10. Bocchi's school uniform [pixiv@豚猫ブスタ] (101 points, 5 comments)
8. 1529 points, 13 submissions: ThugBaby05GT
   
   1. She always there in the right time (261 points, 14 comments)
   2. But I see her... (197 points, 18 comments)
   3. Word can not describe how Happy I am with Nijika (166 points, 9 comments)
   4. Their lies won't stop me (135 points, 11 comments)
   5. She my Queen (115 points, 11 comments)
   6. Nijika will Save her (109 points, 5 comments)
   7. I'm glad she here with me (107 points, 6 comments)
   8. I feel happy going outside with Nijika (93 points, 6 comments)
   9. Life is pain without her (81 points, 15 comments)
   10. Why does Nijika disappear... (80 points, 13 comments)
9. 1322 points, 18 submissions: Solar1011
   
   1. Placeholder. (221 points, 17 comments)
   2. Ryo has no reason to be looking at Nijika like that. (@ree_kkr) (168 points, 12 comments)
   3. Just the two of us. (121 points, 11 comments)
   4. What’s in the box? (105 points, 12 comments)
   5. Nijika Ijichi (@log_008) (99 points, 6 comments)
   6. Nervous Bocchi (@oekakiism) (83 points, 5 comments)
   7. Ryo’s way of making money. (@Meyshi29) (77 points, 8 comments)
   8. Pouty Nijika (@kkggbpn4g27) (62 points, 6 comments)
   9. Even More Maid Bocchi (@PepUnti) (60 points, 5 comments)
   10. Nijika Ijichi (@bo_illustration) (56 points, 5 comments)
10. 1237 points, 14 submissions: Mukaido
    
    1. JLT4n's completed animation. (178 points, 8 comments)
    2. Nijika interacts with her fans. (169 points, 24 comments)
    3. Hi! Welcome to Jollibee! Kita kita c: (154 points, 21 comments)
    4. Kessoku Band at Zepp Haneda Tokyo (146 points, 8 comments)
    5. Kessoku Band (144 points, 9 comments)
    6. Leaked STARRY HR document. (89 points, 11 comments)
    7. Five more minutes Mom. (69 points, 14 comments)
    8. "Yuzu, I trust you." (68 points, 6 comments)
    9. The Angel of Shimokitazawa Spoils Me Rotten (56 points, 17 comments)
    10. New Nijika Blush dropped (38 points, 3 comments)
11. 1174 points, 13 submissions: Gotoh_Naoki
    
    1. I hate myself for this (168 points, 17 comments)
    2. "Look, a cute cat!" (159 points, 7 comments)
    3. Rural Style Bocchi (141 points, 8 comments)
    4. Kessoku Band in different poses (125 points, 3 comments)
    5. This is why I have eyes. (104 points, 22 comments)
    6. Seika doesn't like selfies, or does she? (78 points, 8 comments)
    7. Futari the Rock! (71 points, 11 comments)
    8. [OC] Never Forget (Italian Cover) (71 points, 37 comments)
    9. kessokuband concert photos i stole from the official twitter (61 points, 2 comments)
    10. Seika but I'm unoriginal with titles (54 points, 3 comments)
12. 1155 points, 22 submissions: MrBig6lesw0rth
    
    1. Too cute, might melt a few hearts... (109 points, 6 comments)
    2. Sometimes you help yourself by helping others (96 points, 3 comments)
    3. Ryo but cute (83 points, 10 comments)
    4. A little bit of BoKita never hurt anyone (68 points, 2 comments)
    5. Kita-chan can be quite Radiant (64 points, 15 comments)
    6. "I know you can do it, Kita-san!" (62 points, 10 comments)
    7. That smile melts my heart (62 points, 5 comments)
    8. Eating the Boccher?! Is that even legal? (61 points, 7 comments)
    9. Kita Kita (55 points, 4 comments)
    10. The paragon of virtue and her hero (50 points, 4 comments)
13. 1149 points, 12 submissions: crazycorgiperson
    
    1. How to protect your Bocchi (171 points, 32 comments)
    2. The Kessokucord Experience: Opening #starry (164 points, 20 comments)
    3. KessokuBand has reached 2,000 members! (134 points, 31 comments)
    4. Different Hairstyles of Bocchi (123 points, 32 comments)
    5. Preserving History: The Bad Ending (106 points, 30 comments)
    6. Rainbocchix Siege (106 points, 10 comments)
    7. Fiction has to be original and creative, reality does not (94 points, 11 comments)
    8. kita spin (90 points, 14 comments)
    9. Top commenters of the main sub, March vs. April (51 points, 59 comments)
    10. Happy Nijika (45 points, 5 comments)
14. 974 points, 20 submissions: caloyagin
    
    1. my beloved (117 points, 12 comments)
    2. really cool (108 points, 17 comments)
    3. GOTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (90 points, 8 comments)
    4. Recreating the Nijika ribbons (80 points, 14 comments)
    5. The full members have been posted before, but not the individuals of sideros (I think yoyo was posted) (59 points, 3 comments)
    6. DRUMS (53 points, 4 comments)
    7. SHIBA (51 points, 7 comments)
    8. Recreating The Nijika Ribbons Pangalawa (45 points, 26 comments)
    9. the dead iceberg (think of the explanations yourself) (44 points, 46 comments)
    10. Recreating The Nijika Ribbons four (42 points, 21 comments)
15. 907 points, 10 submissions: Oteycri000
    
    1. It's 1984 again (224 points, 38 comments)
    2. Caged Bochher (132 points, 19 comments)
    3. Yandere PA -San (114 points, 23 comments)
    4. I'm watching you (108 points, 4 comments)
    5. You're just like me fr. (95 points, 23 comments)
    6. G-E-X (72 points, 13 comments)
    7. Thanks to someone I'll mention in comments I made 4 memes they gifted me templates (48 points, 12 comments)
    8. Too much Nichija (41 points, 3 comments)
    9. This is the finale season post I'll see make. (38 points, 3 comments)
    10. Jealous Yan Kita (35 points, 6 comments)
16. 906 points, 21 submissions: unremarkable_123
    
    1. Pills are a goverment ploy to get you to pay taxes (106 points, 14 comments)
    2. The REAL kita flag (86 points, 18 comments)
    3. The List (75 points, 75 comments)
    4. is it edible? (71 points, 16 comments)
    5. Kessokucord tierlist (66 points, 54 comments)
    6. BUT HEY ITS JUST A THEORY A BOCCHI THE ROCK THEORY (49 points, 12 comments)
    7. Boccher Unification of Middle East (44 points, 12 comments)
    8. more BTR characters as nations (43 points, 14 comments)
    9. Dorito. (37 points, 11 comments)
    10. Shiba themed milk (37 points, 13 comments)
17. 875 points, 11 submissions: Tezlaivj
    
    1. Bocchi & Nijika by asado0000 (155 points, 12 comments)
    2. BoNiji Sleepover by aayh (113 points, 10 comments)
    3. Professor Gotou's research result by maki_photograph (108 points, 10 comments)
    4. Bocchi's first time by satsuki_meito (75 points, 7 comments)
    5. Cinema by rafkan_tail (75 points, 7 comments)
    6. Unexpected counterattack by meendaco (67 points, 8 comments)
    7. Dear my hero by orbea_aqua_2012 (66 points, 5 comments)
    8. Asking for a date by Sondeneva (58 points, 14 comments)
    9. Neko Jealousy by maki_photograph (57 points, 7 comments)
    10. Some doses of BoNiji by hngkdaisy (56 points, 3 comments)
18. 840 points, 6 submissions: RecommendationFancy5
    
    1. Ryo got hungry (341 points, 18 comments)
    2. Bocchi Digivolution Line (If Bocchi was a Digimon) (176 points, 5 comments)
    3. I will not take my pills! THEY'RE REAL! NIJIKA REAL! (114 points, 11 comments)
    4. Schrödinger's Kita (97 points, 8 comments)
    5. Learning Relationships with KessokuBand! (77 points, 41 comments)
    6. I made some stupid Bocchi Youtube thumbnails (35 points, 11 comments)
19. 758 points, 7 submissions: Radiant-Lotus
    
    1. How’re ya feeling peeps? (320 points, 59 comments)
    2. :NijikaGlare: (95 points, 8 comments)
    3. Her gentle smile ❤ (93 points, 12 comments)
    4. CONSTELLATION COME BACK PLEASEEEEE 😭 (78 points, 33 comments)
    5. Everyday is a fever dream (°ー°〃) (70 points, 18 comments)
    6. Someone asked, so I delivered (cheers, Yami fans 🥂) (52 points, 15 comments)
    7. Slandering KessokuBand Mods (50 points, 41 comments)
20. 749 points, 15 submissions: Ale_med_al
    
    1. Bocchi and you might not be so different, Chavito (114 points, 11 comments)
    2. The what subreddit? (85 points, 25 comments)
    3. What would a sovereign Kessoku Band nation be like? (Meta) (68 points, 22 comments)
    4. You expected... (65 points, 13 comments)
    5. Bunnijika and Botter (by @SGYmyhumo; TL by @Slowrider88) (59 points, 6 comments)
    6. Sick Ryou (art by @yubune42do) (51 points, 6 comments)
    7. 絵が無いと言ったけどうおおとなったので描いた (@Kerorira1) (51 points, 2 comments)
    8. Niji-physics (45 points, 7 comments)
    9. Kita, Ikuyo! (41 points, 1 comment)
    10. One of the Bocchi references from Daidus’ latest video (37 points, 2 comments)
21. 638 points, 8 submissions: mendezmen
    
    1. The Ijichi Sisters Switch Bodies! (by Kumichou) [Part 2 of 2] (193 points, 15 comments)
    2. The Ijichi Sisters Switch Bodies! (by Kumichou) [Part 1 of 2] (104 points, 4 comments)
    3. Love ・ Ho ・ Tel! (by @lanlanlap) (84 points, 9 comments)
    4. Yoyoko Ohtsuki Can't Smile (by @rebanirax01) (73 points, 5 comments)
    5. Bocchi the Rock: Love is War (62 points, 7 comments)
    6. There must be a melody only you can sing (by: @mmiyakoo) [Part 2 of 2] (51 points, 5 comments)
    7. There must be a melody only you can sing (by: @mmiyakoo) [Part 1 of 2] (36 points, 1 comment)
    8. Bocchi's Ideal Girl (35 points, 11 comments)
22. 623 points, 15 submissions: MementoMori228
    
    1. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 15) (77 points, 7 comments)
    2. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 16) (58 points, 9 comments)
    3. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 20) (53 points, 4 comments)
    4. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 19) (48 points, 8 comments)
    5. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 23) (48 points, 2 comments)
    6. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 14) (47 points, 4 comments)
    7. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 21) (40 points, 7 comments)
    8. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 22) (39 points, 2 comments)
    9. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 12) (35 points, 4 comments)
    10. Daily Yoyoposting till I keel over (Day 11) (34 points, 2 comments)
23. 604 points, 4 submissions: DestructionCatalyst
    
    1. Really like them fr (216 points, 14 comments)
    2. Typical Boyoko interaction (182 points, 6 comments)
    3. In episode 11 there are blue and yellow decorations on the wall. This is a reference to the anime "Bocchi the Rock!", where the protagonist, Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou wears a hair accessory of the same colors (180 points, 9 comments)
    4. Patchi the rock ! [Touhou Project] (26 points, 2 comments)
24. 604 points, 3 submissions: zebrano08
    
    1. POV: You are Bocchi fr fr updated (252 points, 13 comments)
    2. Reminder to do it for her, no matter what (247 points, 20 comments)
    3. Kessokucord lore in my head (I don’t use discord) (105 points, 22 comments)
25. 600 points, 20 submissions: boche_123
    
    1. Cube. (57 points, 11 comments)
    2. SIDEROS (colored by me) (55 points, 6 comments)
    3. Yoyo standing up (37 points, 7 comments)
    4. KITAURA-爆破 (36 points, 1 comment)
    5. Kemonoria Tea Band. Article written by PoisonYami (CSM redraw) (34 points, 6 comments)
    6. Yo (32 points, 5 comments)
    7. MEN KISSING!!!!!! :KitaLetsGoooo: (31 points, 5 comments)
    8. That one definetly not Yoyo girl (29 points, 2 comments)
    9. That one definetly not important in the future girl from the opening and ep10 sitting with stone statues (29 points, 4 comments)
    10. Yoyoko👍 (27 points, 6 comments)
26. 579 points, 12 submissions: BenjaXotz
    
    1. How could I forget about this hood classic (NO VHS EFFECT YOOO) (106 points, 14 comments)
    2. hood classic (80 points, 9 comments)
    3. The end (69 points, 23 comments)
    4. I think I have a problem guys (53 points, 9 comments)
    5. hi (45 points, 1 comment)
    6. I'LL START POSTING MH SCHIZO STUFF HERE CUZ I CAN'T IN ANY OTHER PLACE (44 points, 11 comments)
    7. fuck (not canon) (39 points, 4 comments)
    8. This one is not canon is just me being delusional (35 points, 5 comments)
    9. I posted the wrong one and now I'm completely ashamed (31 points, 11 comments)
    10. To the dude trying to find the lore: I'll be not posting this in order, so try hard llolololoolol (29 points, 5 comments)
27. 559 points, 8 submissions: XxMinecraftBoss69xX
    
    1. kita is in my room this is so cool (123 points, 10 comments)
    2. BOCCHI BLAST me (79 points, 19 comments)
    3. bow cheese????? (75 points, 7 comments)
    4. Fumocchi by me (72 points, 7 comments)
    5. “noooo kita leave some for the rest of us” by me (62 points, 0 comments)
    6. NIJIKA NUKE me (56 points, 9 comments)
    7. 🍌Banana Nijika 🍌 (53 points, 10 comments)
    8. Go Into the Light me (39 points, 4 comments)
28. 557 points, 7 submissions: Artster900
    
    1. my messy brainrot [oc] (125 points, 7 comments)
    2. I don't even know why. (124 points, 18 comments)
    3. Ryo but Saku [oc] (111 points, 21 comments)
    4. kita kita but hasegawa ikumi [oc] (57 points, 8 comments)
    5. kita has a gun [oc] (49 points, 6 comments)
    6. bokita brainrot, i need help [oc] (48 points, 8 comments)
    7. dorito [oc] (43 points, 2 comments)
29. 536 points, 7 submissions: Hamazi__
    
    1. Society (100 points, 4 comments)
    2. Bocchi The driver (97 points, 8 comments)
    3. Nijika tube (81 points, 8 comments)
    4. Another day in kessokucord (70 points, 11 comments)
    5. Happy out of touch Thursday!! (66 points, 2 comments)
    6. Wrong bocchi (63 points, 1 comment)
    7. End of watch (59 points, 7 comments)
30. 512 points, 5 submissions: Chilio95
    
    1. It's Week 6 of Out of Touch Thursday! (270 points, 10 comments)
    2. POV: You came in last in sales the previous quarter and now upper management wants to chat with you real quick. (84 points, 28 comments)
    3. Otter Bocchi spending quality time with her little otter sister! (66 points, 9 comments)
    4. BTR Keyboard and desk mat from Kapco (58 points, 10 comments)
    5. My Bocchi The Rock! Onkyo wireless earphones finally arrived today!! (34 points, 53 comments)

Top Commenters

1. Idz4gqbi (3958 points, 461 comments)
2. YUZUtry (3011 points, 552 comments)
3. Pundarikaksh (2896 points, 723 comments)
4. caloyagin (2732 points, 453 comments)
5. Mukaido (2438 points, 340 comments)
6. Pete-zaTime (2010 points, 267 comments)
7. mysteryface1723 (1696 points, 141 comments)
8. lostWayZERO (1376 points, 176 comments)
9. crazycorgiperson (1214 points, 137 comments)
10. boche_123 (1106 points, 182 comments)
11. Stand-on-Toilet (1091 points, 304 comments)
12. Ikuyo_Kita (940 points, 76 comments)
13. Chilio95 (849 points, 187 comments)
14. Ale_med_al (671 points, 175 comments)
15. whatdoilemonade (641 points, 84 comments)
16. Distinct-Ad3397 (634 points, 76 comments)
17. DomoandFinch (576 points, 86 comments)
18. SezyFazes (550 points, 98 comments)
19. ThomYorkeOfficiaI (522 points, 94 comments)
20. unremarkable_123 (485 points, 129 comments)
21. MrBig6lesw0rth (438 points, 106 comments)
22. zebrano08 (431 points, 38 comments)
23. Ijichi_Seika (428 points, 65 comments)
24. Kana-Arima (403 points, 51 comments)
25. ztarfroot (401 points, 120 comments)
26. Radiant-Lotus (386 points, 78 comments)
27. F_Foundation (380 points, 85 comments)
28. Gotoh-Michiyo (356 points, 102 comments)
29. Gotoh_Naoki (342 points, 97 comments)
30. Herrscher_of_Yatta (328 points, 57 comments)
31. kirkisgrizz (313 points, 83 comments)
32. matto334 (313 points, 51 comments)
33. NeighborhoodToad (304 points, 48 comments)
34. Oteycri000 (283 points, 75 comments)
35. Akane_Kurokawa (280 points, 30 comments)
36. RecommendationFancy5 (268 points, 54 comments)
37. LoveMoon-II (244 points, 55 comments)
38. A_Weakling (238 points, 24 comments)
39. Amazin_Acc (236 points, 50 comments)
40. 1ts_ya_boii (229 points, 25 comments)
41. Eliza_Shimizu (227 points, 47 comments)
42. Solar1011 (210 points, 49 comments)
43. Hamazi__ (203 points, 36 comments)
44. DestructionCatalyst (195 points, 37 comments)
45. ssj_sjnk (194 points, 38 comments)
46. ScummyBocchi (194 points, 23 comments)
47. DestinyDrop (179 points, 34 comments)
48. ScummyBandman_Bocchi (170 points, 44 comments)
49. Fandomer_ (170 points, 31 comments)
50. Arlend44 (164 points, 37 comments)

Top Submissions

1. She's just like me by yetanother234 (394 points, 31 comments)
2. Have you found your Nijika? by mysteryface1723 (377 points, 27 comments)
3. Bocchi the Rock by l1qmaballs (352 points, 28 comments)
4. The concentration of Nijika on this sub Today by YUZUtry (351 points, 29 comments)
5. Choose by yetanother234 (346 points, 44 comments)
6. Ryo got hungry by RecommendationFancy5 (341 points, 18 comments)
7. Kessoku Band members meet their followers by mysteryface1723 (340 points, 25 comments)
8. WARNING: Do not take Nijika's dorito by mysteryface1723 (338 points, 33 comments)
9. How to meet your Nijika (Yamada Method) by mysteryface1723 (330 points, 31 comments)
10. Drummers Appreciation Post by mysteryface1723 (324 points, 22 comments)

Top Comments

1. 83 points: Idz4gqbi's comment in Kessoku Band Artists' Curse
2. 78 points: YUZUtry's comment in Kessoku Band members meet their followers
3. 74 points: Asbjorn26's comment in What is the most important lesson Bocchi the Rock taught you?
4. 72 points: Mukaido's comment in Slandering the Four Churches of Kessoku Band
5. 69 points: mysteryface1723's comment in She's just like me
6. 55 points: Unlucky_Wall711's comment in Damn Bocchi's got cake
7. 55 points: Yozora4's comment in What is the most important lesson Bocchi the Rock taught you?
8. 54 points: Ikuyo_Kita's comment in Choose
9. 54 points: Mukaido's comment in If Kessoku Band Does Not Exist...
10. 54 points: Spell_PhD's comment in KessokuBand Interviews Spell (Volcanovolk): A Nijika Birthday Celebration Special

Generated with BBoe's Subreddit Stats

The Sundarbans, located in the southern part of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, is a magnificent and unique natural wonder that attracts tourists from all over the world. Stretching across approximately 10,000 square kilometers, the Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest on Earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its rich biodiversity, stunning landscapes, and thrilling wildlife, a trip to the Sundarbans is a must for nature lovers and adventure seekers. To truly experience the essence of this enchanting destination, a minimum of three to four days is recommended for a Sundarban tour.
The Sundarbans is a place where time seems to slow down, allowing you to immerse yourself in the tranquility and natural beauty of the surroundings. The mangrove forests are home to an incredible variety of flora and fauna, including the majestic Bengal tiger, which is one of the main attractions for visitors. Exploring the dense network of waterways and observing these elusive creatures in their natural habitat is an unforgettable experience.
To make the most of your Sundarban tour, it is advisable to join a guided boat safari. These safaris typically range from 2 to 4 days, and they offer a unique opportunity to navigate the labyrinthine creeks and canals that crisscross the region. The boats are equipped with comfortable accommodations and knowledgeable guides who will ensure your safety while providing valuable insights into the ecosystem and its inhabitants.
During your tour, you can expect to witness a myriad of wildlife, including crocodiles, various species of monkeys, deer, and an astonishing array of birdlife. The Sundarbans is a birdwatcher's paradise, with over 300 avian species, including the rare masked finfoot and the beautiful Oriental darter. As you cruise along the waterways, you will have ample opportunities to spot these magnificent creatures and capture breathtaking photographs.
Apart from wildlife spotting, the Sundarbans offers other captivating activities. You can visit several watchtowers strategically placed within the forest, such as the Sudhanyakhali Watchtower, to get a panoramic view of the landscape and observe animals from a safe distance. These watchtowers provide an excellent vantage point for photographers and nature enthusiasts.
Furthermore, a visit to the Sundarbans wouldn't be complete without experiencing the vibrant local culture. The Sundarbans region is inhabited by several indigenous communities, including the Munda, Oraon, and Bawali, who have a deep connection with the forest and its resources. Interacting with these communities and learning about their traditional lifestyle can offer valuable insights into the delicate balance between humans and nature.
While exploring the Sundarbans, it is crucial to prioritize safety and adhere to the guidelines provided by the authorities and your tour operator. The dense mangrove forests and unpredictable tidal movements necessitate caution and preparedness. Therefore, it is highly recommended to travel with a licensed and experienced tour operator who can ensure your well-being throughout the journey.
To truly experience the beauty and wildlife of the Sundarbans, it is recommended to allocate a minimum of 3 to 4 days for your visit for Sundarban Package Tour. This duration allows you to explore the mangrove forests, navigate the waterways, spot wildlife, and engage with the local communities.
The Sundarbans is an expansive area with diverse ecosystems, and it takes time to fully appreciate its natural wonders. By spending at least three to four days, you can embark on guided boat safaris that will take you through the intricate network of creeks and canals, allowing you to immerse yourself in the breathtaking landscapes and encounter the wildlife that inhabits this unique environment.
These guided boat safaris typically offer varying durations, ranging from one to four days. Opting for a longer tour allows you to delve deeper into the Sundarbans and increases your chances of spotting elusive creatures like the Bengal tiger, crocodiles, and a wide array of bird species. Additionally, the extra days provide ample time to visit watchtowers strategically located within the forest, providing panoramic views and incredible photo opportunities.
Moreover, a multi-day tour enables you to engage with the local communities that reside in the Sundarbans region. Interacting with these indigenous communities offers insights into their traditional lifestyles and their intricate relationship with the forest. This cultural immersion adds depth to your Sundarban experience and fosters a greater understanding of the delicate balance between humans and nature.
It is important to note that the Sundarbans is a protected area, and certain restrictions and regulations are in place to ensure the preservation of its delicate ecosystem. Therefore, it is advisable to travel with a licensed and experienced tour operator who can provide guidance, prioritize safety, and navigate the complexities of the region.
In summary, to make the most of your Sundarban Tour Packages and fully appreciate its wonders, allocating a minimum of three to four days is recommended. This duration allows you to explore the diverse landscapes, spot wildlife, engage with local communities, and create lasting memories of this remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Sundarbans, located in the southern part of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, is a magnificent and unique natural wonder that attracts tourists from all over the world. Stretching across approximately 10,000 square kilometers, the Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest on Earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its rich biodiversity, stunning landscapes, and thrilling wildlife, a trip to the Sundarbans is a must for nature lovers and adventure seekers. To truly experience the essence of this enchanting destination, a minimum of three to four days is recommended for a Sundarban tour.
The Sundarbans is a place where time seems to slow down, allowing you to immerse yourself in the tranquillity and natural beauty of the surroundings. The mangrove forests are home to an incredible variety of flora and fauna, including the majestic Bengal tiger, which is one of the main attractions for visitors. Exploring the dense network of waterways and observing these elusive creatures in their natural habitat is an unforgettable experience.
To make the most of your Sundarban tour, it is advisable to join a guided boat safari. These safaris typically range from 2 to 4 days, and they offer a unique opportunity to navigate the labyrinthine creeks and canals that crisscross the region. The boats are equipped with comfortable accommodations and knowledgeable guides who will ensure your safety while providing valuable insights into the ecosystem and its inhabitants.
During your tour, you can expect to witness a myriad of wildlife, including crocodiles, various species of monkeys, deer, and an astonishing array of birdlife. The Sundarbans is a birdwatcher's paradise, with over 300 avian species, including the rare masked fin foot and the beautiful Oriental darter. As you cruise along the waterways, you will have ample opportunities to spot these magnificent creatures and capture breath taking photographs.
Apart from wildlife spotting, the Sundarbans offers other captivating activities. You can visit several watchtowers strategically placed within the forest, such as the Sudhanyakhali Watchtower, to get a panoramic view of the landscape and observe animals from a safe distance. These watchtowers provide an excellent vantage point for photographers and nature enthusiasts.
Furthermore, a visit to the Sundarbans wouldn't be complete without experiencing the vibrant local culture. The Sundarbans region is inhabited by several indigenous communities, including the Munda, Oraon, and Bawali, who have a deep connection with the forest and its resources. Interacting with these communities and learning about their traditional lifestyle can offer valuable insights into the delicate balance between humans and nature.
While exploring the Sundarbans, it is crucial to prioritize safety and adhere to the guidelines provided by the authorities and your tour operator. The dense mangrove forests and unpredictable tidal movements necessitate caution and preparedness. Therefore, it is highly recommended to travel with a licensed and experienced tour operator who can ensure your well-being throughout the journey.
To truly experience the beauty and wildlife of the Sundarbans, it is recommended to allocate a minimum of 3 to 4 days for your visit for Sundarban Package Tour. This duration allows you to explore the mangrove forests, navigate the waterways, spot wildlife, and engage with the local communities.
The Sundarbans is an expansive area with diverse ecosystems, and it takes time to fully appreciate its natural wonders. By spending at least three to four days, you can embark on guided boat safaris that will take you through the intricate network of creeks and canals, allowing you to immerse yourself in the breath taking landscapes and encounter the wildlife that inhabits this unique environment.
These guided boat safaris typically offer varying durations, ranging from one to four days. Opting for a longer tour allows you to delve deeper into the Sundarbans and increases your chances of spotting elusive creatures like the Bengal tiger, crocodiles, and a wide array of bird species. Additionally, the extra days provide ample time to visit watchtowers strategically located within the forest, providing panoramic views and incredible photo opportunities.
Moreover, a multi-day tour enables you to engage with the local communities that reside in the Sundarbans region. Interacting with these indigenous communities offers insights into their traditional lifestyles and their intricate relationship with the forest. This cultural immersion adds depth to your Sundarban experience and fosters a greater understanding of the delicate balance between humans and nature.
It is important to note that the Sundarbans is a protected area, and certain restrictions and regulations are in place to ensure the preservation of its delicate ecosystem. Therefore, it is advisable to travel with a licensed and experienced tour operator who can provide guidance, prioritize safety, and navigate the complexities of the region.
In summary, to make the most of your Sundarban Tour Packages and fully appreciate its wonders, allocating a minimum of three to four days is recommended. This duration allows you to explore the diverse landscapes, spot wildlife, engage with local communities, and create lasting memories of this remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A special thanks to u/bluefishcake for the wonderful original story and sandbox to play in.
A special thanks to my editors LordHenry7898, RandomTinkerer, Swimming_Good_8507, CatsInTrenchcoats, and KLiCKonthat.
And a big thanks to the authors and their stories that inspired me to tell my own in this universe. RandomTinkerer (City Slickers and Hayseeds), Punnynfunny (Denied Operations), CompassWithHat (Top Lasgun), CarCU131 (The Cook), and Rhion-618 (Just One Drop)
Hy’shq’e Ay Si’am (Thank you noble friends)
Chapter 30: A Promise Kept
Kalai stepped off the shuttle to the Vaida’s headquarters and into a running tackle-hug from Sitry. “Oh Kalai, I could kill you right now! You got to see the Great Barrier Reef in person, you bitch!” Sitry’s cheerful voice was muffled from where she was still buried in her chest. Kalai staggered backwards a pace or two, happy to be back from her whirlwind adventure around Earth with her father.
Naranjo and Papa Rhaxiid were there on the platform to welcome her back too, but their welcomes were more sedate.
“Not to mention you got out of work for half our damn trip. Ugh, it’s so not fair!” Naranjo huffed as Kalai gave him a sisterly hug.
Papa Rhaxiid reached up and chucked her chin before turning to lead the way back inside from the forested platform. “Welcome back, sweet-sprout, we’ve missed you. Come on, we’ll get you settled again and off to work. There’s quite a bit you need to catch up on if you want your credits.”
The chuckles from the twins behind her were full of sibling malice, but she knew how to shut the pair of them up. “Papa Rhaxiid? I’ve got the paper on Biodiversity in the Reef you asked for, along with the dissection report and stomach content analysis of the tuna we caught. I want to put the finishing touches on it and do a final proofread first before I send them to you.” The man turned and gave her a warm smile as they entered the building.
“Good, why don’t you go take your things back up and say hello to Andy? I’ll give you an hour and a half to get freshened up, then I want you to report to Aquarium 12 with Dr. Sor’ansa. You can put your snorkeling practice to work there.” Papa Rhaxiid walked the three of them to the residential elevator. “I’m heading back to my office. Andy’s been requested by Maetro Pae’ella to work the kitchens for something called ‘Bison burgers'. Apparently it’s a type of indigenous bovine that the eastern Bands raise. That and something from Europe called ‘French Fries’.”
Kalai couldn’t help but get excited as she and her siblings piled into the elevator back to their little shared apartment. Sure the food she’d had all over the place was good, but so far nothing had been able to compare to Andy and his Salishian cooking.
“Nerd, I can’t believe you cheated and did work on your vacation." Naranjo broke the silence of the elevator after a little bit and stuck his tongue out at her.
“Spit to windward, you vain little weed. Don’t hate me because I’m awesome.” Kalai’s riposte caused Naranjo to fold his arms and huff. Sitry simply ambushed her with an ear flick.
The elevator door opened to their floor before Kalai couldn’t bear the silence from Sitry any longer. “So, did you bag him yet, you lucky bitch?”
“No she hasn’t!” Naranjo’s singsong mockery of his sister interrupted Sitry’s response. “Papa hasn’t let Sitry even NEAR Andy without one of them around!”
“Rub it in, you snitch, besides, he did kiss me first,” Sitry preened happily as she playfully shoved Kalai’s shoulder.
Kalai pretended to stumble and almost caught Sitry’s foot, but she was just a hair too slow. “Yeah, and then you gave him a black eye, you clod.”
“Will you let it go? It was an accident!”
“It’s not even the only one he got either." Naranjo’s interjection stopped her right in front of their door.
“Wait, what? Who hurt him this time?” Kalai let her bag thunk to the floor as she turned to look accusingly between Sitry and Narny.
Sitry folded her arms and her ears twitched back as she shot a dark look at their door. “He ‘fell down’ yesterday while out at one of the Hatcheries we gave to the Hwatcoms. Mrs. Toloui nearly had a fit! She said she could smell another human on him and that he was covered in blood!”
Narny nodded primly as Kalai tried to process what they were telling her. “WHAT? Did she call out the militia? Track down whoever hurt him?”
“No, and he refused treatment and insisted that no one did it to him! When papa tried to talk to him, Andy said some stupid human macho shit about pain healing and birds liking scars. I don’t know, sometimes humans… they’re frickin’ insane!”
The door shot open and there stood Andy. His left eye was an angry puffy yellow and blue mess, and there were three points on his lips where a dark cinnabar line marked a crack. Kalai and her siblings stood in wide eyed shock at his sudden appearance and the only sound was the music emanating from the common room behind him.
Andy looked up and down at the three without saying a word. He cocked an eyebrow and snagged Kalai’s bag before any of them could react and cleared the doorway for them.
Kalai sputtered at the impropriety but Naranjo and Sitry just shrugged and walked in after Andy. “Femboys, am I right?” Narny whispered to Kalai as he passed. Kalai followed behind and was greeted by the white fluff-ball, Puck, who hopped up and down, whining for attention. She bent down and started scratching his ears and back. While Puck rubbed up against her hands, Andy settled back down at the table where his omnipad was hooked up to a keypad. Her heart started to sink a bit and Kalai shot Sitry a jealous look before the music came to a sudden halt and Andy interrupted the beginnings of her pity party.
“Ok, Kem’ira, I got the pics now and I’m telling you to declare yourself to the farmers first! I guarantee if you tell them you’re with the new DNR and you’re there to kill all the Scotch Broom in their pasture lands, they’ll stop trying to shoot you for trespassing!”
Kalai’s mood jumped up a bit. It’s not that he doesn’t care to see me, he’s in a meeting!
“No, no I’m not coming out to talk this over with them, I’ve got my own work to do! Either you start talking to folks like I showed you how, or ask the militia to give you one of their armored catsuits to wear under your uniform… Uh-huh, good luck." Andy hung up on the call and leaned back as Puck scampered over and hopped up in his lap.
Andy rubbed his temples before shaking his head. He seemed to relax a bit and Puck slid off to follow Sitry to the kitchen. Andy looked over and gave Kalai a happy smile that made her flush. “Welcome back! So how was the land down under? That tuna was fan-frickin’-tastic, if you aren’t sick of seafood I’ll do something fancy with it tomorrow to celebrate your coming back. Can’t tonight though, I got volun-told to be head chef tonight and I… Oh damnit! I’m late! Come to dinner, burgers and fries Indian style tonight. Gotta run!” With that, Andy went dashing out the door with Puck barking and scrambling along after him.
Kalai felt her heart sink back down again, as he left. “Andy I-” She started but he was gone.
“Yeah, it’s been like that for the whole week. The only time we get to hang out is dinner.” Sitry commiserated as she took Kalai’s bag into their room. “On the other hand, we might get to catch up during the family meal tonight.”
The dinner was delicious, though a bit weird. It tasted alright, but there was a certain aftertaste on the sandwich that just didn’t sit right with Kalai. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. The french fries more than made up for it though, and Mama Sakalbi had to hold a science trivia contest to see who got the last little handful.
Kalai and Narny were already silently plotting with each other for their revenge against their sister who had won and refused to share the last few matchsticks when Andy finally joined their table. He was sweaty and he smelled of woodsmoke and french fries. Kalai jumped up and offered him a seat next to her with a nervous smile. He took it gratefully and seemed to sag a bit as he gulped down a glass of water.
“Andy, I think you may be finding your calling as a culinary ambassador,” Mama Aftasia beamed. “A toast to the chef!”
Andy gave a shy smile and looked down as Kalai and the rest of the family gave a hearty ‘Here, here!”
“It’s a simple enough recipe; it’s just using bison instead of cow, that’s all, and I don’t know anyone who’d turn down hand cut fresh fries. It’s kind of hard to screw up.”
“Young man, you are speaking to a woman who found a way to take cold water and dried wumpa flakes and wind up with a Class-4 fire. Cooking has always seemed like ‘blight mysticism’ to me, and these foods? These flavors? Nothing short of a Greenwood miracle in my opinion." Mama Aftasia continued her praise of Andy, which only caused him to shrink even lower in his seat.
“To be honest, I like your salmon better,” Kalai said, and the whole table went silent. Kalai held her ground though, and was rewarded with a tired but genuine laugh from Andy that brought him back out of his shell.
“You know, I do too. My Clan were fisherpeople, not buffalo chasers.” Andy gave Kalai a cheeky grin, which she returned happily, her heart glowing. Mama Aftasia and Mama Sakalbi both blinked in bemusement at Andy’s statement while Sitry just giggled.
“Speaking of which, Andy, I received a call from Elder Alex Hwatcom.” Papa Rhaxiid’s change of subject instantly perked Andy up, and he stared silently, waiting. “He extended an invitation to our family to attend his family gathering this Friday-”
“Alex said that? He used those words?” Andy shook his head in shock as he interrupted Papa Rhaxiid. The table went quiet and everyone held their breath as they looked between the two men.
Papa Rhaxiid adopted as good an impression of the human Elder as he could. “I’d like to extend an invitation for you and your family to be guests at our family gathering this saturday up at the White… something… lodge-”
“The White Ram Lodge?” Andy sat forward, interjecting again as the color drained from his face.
“Yes, that’s the one! I asked if we could bring anything since the last time they hosted us they put on that wonderful spread. He said if we could bring a few salmon for the family, that would be wonderful.”
Andy leaned back and took another sip of ice water before holding the glass to his blackened eye. “Alex Hwatcom… just invited you… to a gathering… and he told you to ‘bring a few salmon’? Do you realize what a huge honor this is?”
Rhaxiid looked from his wives to his children with mild concern. “Um, I thought it was only dinner, but your reaction tells me there’s more significance to this than I originally thought. I was thinking about our stocks of adult Sockeye, but then I remembered in his story how important King Salmon are. Of course, I’d like to defer to you for the choice since you know these animals and the cultural expectations with this invitation better than we do.”
Andy was silent for a moment before he put the glass down. “I’d recommend a ‘hard no’ to all your clone stock!” Now it was the Vaidas’ turn to be shocked, as each of Kalai’s Erbian family’s jaws dropped in synch. Before anyone could say anything, Andy continued, “You need to bring wild-caught. Farm-raised salmon wouldn’t… well we can tell, and you can taste the difference between them. We need to go fishing!” Kalai leaned towards Andy slightly as he lowered his head and started mumbling to himself. She was just able to make out what he was saying to himself as Mama Sakalbi and Mama Aftasia began whispering to each other. “...need to get the Gillnetter out of storage, check what’s running and select the mesh. I’m gonna need a deckhand too.”
Kalai reached a hand out but stopped short of touching him. “Andy?”
He popped up and spoke for the whole table to hear. “I need a shuttle to the mainland and a waiver against the fishing ban. I’ve got to get my boat and the drum ready for sea ” Rhaxiid and Aftasia sputtered in confusion, but Mama Sakalbi had a shadow fall over her, and her ears pulled back.
“Do you mean to say you want to go out on the water? Risk the ecological balance for… dinner?”
Andy looked Sakalbi dead in the eye and gave her a firm nod. “Why don’t you come out and see how we did this before you got here. Think of it as a chance to see the way we’ve fished for the last hundred or so years, and then I can explain the way we used to fish before that.”
The offer snapped Rhaxiid out of his confusion and he brightened. “A learning experience? Wonderful, we’ll make a day of it!” His hands shot out to grab both his wives’ and Kalai could feel the vibrations in the floor from where he was excitedly tapping his feet.
“If you don’t mind hard, smelly work. Uncle Willy always called it ‘the worst desk in the prettiest office.' It’ll be a bit cramped, but I’ve got room on the boat for a few guests and observers; four I think would be ok. She’s a working boat, not a pleasure cruiser,” Andy explained. That sent the whole lot of them excitedly talking among themselves.
Kalai was about to lean in to talk to Mama Aftasia, but Andy caught her attention first. “I don’t suppose you’d want to go back out on the water, given you just got back from pleasure-boating-”
Kalai’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest. “I wouldn’t miss it for my own colony planet!”
--------------------
Kalai stood on the pier, bundled in her thermal sailor’s coat. It was still dark and the wind blew from the north in a cold little morning breeze. Kalai took a deep breath and reveled in the smell of the fresh sea air. The soft chattering of Mama Sakalbi’s teeth broke the silence. “It’s a bit chillier than it said it was going to be.”
“The water always does that. It’s never as warm as the lubbers say it’ll be,” Papa spoke as he handed her back her thermos of hot chocolate.
Papa stood next to Kalai and nudged her with his elbow. Even in the dark, Kalai could see him smile up at her and jerk his head at the shivering Erbian. He was also wearing a thermal sailor’s coat, and his hands were stuffed in his pockets to keep them warm, just like Kalai’s. “Landswoman,” he whispered to her and the two of them shared a knowing smile. It was strange, but welcome when she'd told Papa about her upcoming day fishing with Andy, and he’d politely requested to join them. Papa Rhaxiid had graciously given his spot up to accommodate her birth father. Narny was all for it until Andy had explained what they were going to do, but then surrendered his challenge to the fourth guest space, not wanting to go anywhere NEAR anything that could see him come face to face with a Lion’s Mane Jelly. Sitry had done a happy little dance when she found out, but only yesterday had come down with Thistle Fever, and was bundled off to bed by her parents. It left Kalai, Mama Sakalbi, and Papa to accompany Andy on his fishing trip.
The water brushed against the shore behind them quietly. In the gloom, Kalai could just barely make out the outline of the nearest island mountain, but only because the stars had disappeared behind it. It was almost four in the morning, but Kalai had managed a catnap on the shuttle to the empty little lot that had been the boat launch. Aside from the water, the world was silent. Even the breeze made almost no noise and a sense of peace surrounded them. Everything was so calm, Kalai felt like she didn’t have a care in the world.
In the distance, a low rumbling sound of a motor rose from being almost imperceptible to a rolling drum of thunder. From around the point, two green floating lights sped through the darkness, and a spotlight turned on. The beam of light moved jerkily until it came to rest on the pier where they were standing and Kalai started waving her arms. Sakalbi’s omnipad rang, and Andy’s voice shouted over the speaker and the background noise for them to shine a light on the edge of the pier to help him park the boat.
Kalai and Papa moved closer and turned their omnipad flashlights on and waved them as the boat swung gracefully around and glided in alongside them. Kalai caught the rope that flew over the railing of the boat and she heard more than saw Andy moving around on the deck as she tied off on one of the mooring cleats. Several lights clicked on and the deck was bathed in light enough for Kalai to get a clear view of the boat they’d be spending the day on.
Andy hadn’t lied. Kalai saw that this little vessel was a working boat with no frills at all. When he’d told her they’d be going fishing, she’d envisioned something like the charter boat papa had taken her on out of Nantucket. Sporty, fast with a nod to comfort and function. This was not that at all. A giant wheel as wide as Kalai’s outstretched arms that looked like a sideways spool of thread was secured to the deck amidships and dominated the deckspace. Wrapped around it was a fluorescent green tangle with a line of oblong white and yellow corks and rope. There was a covered hatchway sitting behind the drum in front of the raised step to the enclosed cabin. Two large windows let the light out to two children’s bunks, a little table with a booth seat and a raised captain’s chair in front of the helm and engine controls. Andy shut down the engine and that peaceful stillness returned.
“Oway there!” Kalai called, “ship oway! Request permission to come aboard.” Kalai gave the traditional greeting of a Shil’vati sailor.
“Permission granted! Anyone need a stepstool?” Andy finally stepped into the light and Kalai got a look at him. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and the same bright orange coveralls she’d seen the fishmongers wearing on their date.
“I wouldn’t mind a hand, Mr. Shelokset.” Papa He’osforos braced a foot on the railing of the boat and Andy pulled him up.
“Just call me Andy, Doc, and welcome aboard. Jackie should be along any minute now with the day’s groceries, and the cabin’s out of the cold. You can get yourself set wherever you find comfortable.” Papa nodded and disappeared around the other side of the wheel moving towards the bow.
Kalai helped Mama Sakalbi into the boat next, and she quickly ducked into the cabin that took up the entire stern section save for a little ledge that ran along the outside. Andy gripped Kalai’s hand and she smiled as he pulled her deftly aboard. The boat rocked a little on its mooring, and Kalai almost fell into Andy, who wordlessly put his arms around her waist to catch her as she lost her balance. She flailed for a moment before she steadied herself against him.
“Gotcha,” Andy smiled, and Kalai could see him flush almost as much as she could feel herself doing as their noses almost touched. Those big dark brown eyes surrounded by white orbs drew her in and she felt she could lose herself in them. Kalai started as Andy danced her around him and moved her towards the cabin door.
“It might be a little cramped for you in there, but the Mary Jean wasn’t built for pleasure boating, she’s a working girl. Sit tight, I gotta check a few things in the back.” Andy patted the railing affectionately before he hopped up and scooted along the outside of the cabin towards the stern. Kalai couldn’t help the little longing groan that came out as he left her there on the little tiny quarterdeck. Her heart was hammering in her chest as half formed fantasies danced at the edges of her mind.
“I saw that, little minnow.” Papa’s voice was soft, but his tone and the sudden broken silence nearly gave her a heart attack.
Kalai could only stammer as her father stared at her with a cocked eyebrow. A thump from the cabin window behind saw an amused Mama Sakalbi daintily sipping at her thermos with her ears twitched forward in interest, staring out at her. “Papa I… he-”
Papa moved carefully around the covered hatchway to stand next to her, leaning back against the cabin window and heaved a sigh. “I must say I’m surprised. This lovely man’s got good clean lines and is very well cared for. It speaks well of his Skipper.”
It took a full minute for Kalai’s brain to process that he was talking about the boat and not Andy. “And the way Andy brought him in smooth in near complete darkness? It gives me confidence in his abilities.”
Kalai breathed a silent sigh of relief and exasperation. Although she was happy to be spending more time with her father, bringing him on what she’d hoped would be a sailing date wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind for ‘family time’. He wants me to find a nice young man and spend time with him on a boat, but the first chance I get Papa decides to clam-jam me.
From up on shore, the sound and lights of a large human vehicle screeching to a halt heralded the last of their party to arrive. Kalai heard the clomping footsteps coming down the pier and moved to the railing to lend a hand.
“Ahoy Mary Jean! Raggedy Andy, you there?” Kalai stared with wide eyed surprise to see a human female, loaded down with plastic bags and sporting two human weapons on her shoulder. The two of them locked eyes, and while Kalai didn’t understand everything the girl shouted in surprise, she had caught and understood the phrase, “What the fuck?”
“Easy now, they’re my guests, and the one inside is the boss!” Andy appeared on the pier instantly before either Kalai or the woman could react further.
“Ya didn’t tell me we were having pur-” The woman glared at Kalai and her father. She had switched to Vatikre thankfully, but her tone was hostile as she dropped everything but her weapons. “I mean, hwun’eetums, aboard. A gal could get the wrong idea pretty quick in the dark when there’s no warning.”
“Knock it off Jackie. Let’s get the grub aboard and shove off.” Andy picked up some of the bags and took the guns as Kalai offered a helping hand over the railing. “Oh, Kalai, this is Jackie. Jackie? Kalai. That’s her dad over there, Doc He’osforos. He saw and treated Kay Tee a few years back.” Andy jerked his head towards the direction of Kalai’s father as she held out a hand to the human girl. On a quick inspection, she appeared to be about the same age as her and Andy. She had a round face and was about as dark complected as Andy was. She was shorter, only a few inches taller than Papa, but when Jackie grabbed Kalai’s hand to hop up onto the rail, she could feel the strength and the compact muscle hidden by the baggy sweatshirt and pants.
“Wait a minute, did you say Mini-Me over there saw Kay Tee? You’re fuckin’ with me!” Jackie stumbled a bit as she hopped down onto the deck with a loud thunk and advanced on Papa who shrank away at her advance. “You saw li’l Kay Tee? Where the fuck is he? Is he alright? Is he still fighting the good fight?”
“Last I saw, yes, he was ‘fighting the good fight.’” Papa looked over at Andy with a slightly worried expression. Andy smacked the girl in the back of the head, causing her to flinch and she opened the door to the cabin for Andy to go inside.
Jackie rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “Well that’s a little bit of alright, innit? Maybe today’s gonna be a good day after all!”
“Jackie, get suited up and get on the bow. I need a good pair of eyes on the roller horns,” Kalai heard Andy shout from the cabin, followed by a whole lot of thumping and banging from cabinets being opened and closed.
“You got it, ol’ man. We going to your place or mine?” Jackie sidestepped in and opened a tiny little closet and pulled out a set of rain gear that was identical to what Andy was wearing. Kalai collected herself and stood in the doorway next to her father as they both leaned in.
“Mine; Chuck said the Yaw’much are running from the South. We’ll do a set nor’west of Lummi in the Rosario and see if we can get some Fraser Kings,” Andy replied as he turned the engine back on and the vessel roared to life.
“Chuck? Isn’t that one of your cousins? I didn’t know he could keep track of the movements of Salmon, may I ask how he does it?” Mama Sakalbi perked up as she pulled a set of earplugs out of a pocket and inserted them.
Andy prevaricated a bit, looking from Jackie back to Sakalbi then to Kalai and Papa. “I’d rather not answer that-”
“Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law!”
Jackie began singing a human song, and Andy threw her the dirtiest of looks as she finished getting into the orange coveralls. Mama Sakalbi sputtered as Andy shrugged apologetically.
“Make a hole!” Jackie called, and she and Andy came back out as Kalai and Papa made room for them. Andy hopped back onto the dock to cast off while Papa ducked into the cabin.
“Can I help?” Kalai offered as Andy shoved the vessel off and leapt the gap over the black water below.
“You want to be useful? Come forward! I could use an extra set of eyes!” Jackie called back, and Kalai felt a slap on her shoulder from the boisterous human woman.
------------------
Andy stood at the helm, watching Jackie and Kalai as he leaned to get a better view of them past the Net drum. The bow was lifting up again, and the gentle little swells became like speed bumps, jostling them up and down in a predictable bouncing rhythm.
“Are you sure you couldn’t slow down, Andy? It’s a bit rough, don’t you think?” Sakalbi was hanging on to the table and her thermos with a worried expression on her face.
“I could, but we’ll miss the morning set. We want to bomb out the buoy right when the tide changes. If we’re lucky, then we’ll get around seventy or eighty by slack tide this afternoon and call it a day.”
“How do you know where to fish?” Dr. He’osforos was making a good show of standing and maintaining his balance with his hand on the booth.
“Well, there’s two ways you know. The first is you fish the spots your family’s fished since time began. Every family has about two or three different secret spots that we know there’s fish in, and we’re pretty defensive about their locations. The second is by smell. Right now it’s the tail end of the King season, and you can smell them in the water.” Andy turned and saw the incredulity etched on the faces of the two aliens.
“No, I’m serious! King Salmon slime is really pungent, and you can smell them when they’re close to the surface. We get to the fishing spot and take a deep whiff. If we smell them, we’ll set the nets.” Andy laughed at the disbelief on their faces as the GPS on his omnipad beeped and he turned to sail around the last buoy and head for the fishing ground.
“I’ve never noticed that in any of the Kings we’ve raised-”
Andy suppressed a laugh as they caught a larger swell as they left the lee of Lummi Island. Andy reveled in the feeling of weightlessness as the deck rose up and fell out from underneath their feet, leaving everyone suspended for a moment in midair before falling back down. A massive spray of water rose and washed over the deck, drenching Kalai and Jackie, who were still forward. “Cloned and farmed Kings don’t have that same smell. Wild ones smell and taste different, I’m telling you!” Andy pulled back slightly on the throttle as they climbed the next swell. “Brace!” he called as they climbed and fell once again.
There was a look of fear on Sakalbi’s face as she gripped the table for dear life, but to Andy’s surprise, the Doctor looked completely unfazed, and was handling the rise and fall of the deck like an old salt. “You look like you’ve done this before, Doc.”
“I’ve done a stint or two at sea before,” he spoke, in the same tone Andy would have used when trying not to sound too confident, and Andy smiled.
“Kalai keeps talking about loving the sea and sailing. Did you teach her to sail?”
“Yes, me and her mothers. When they were home, we would take the family yacht out in the Vaascon Straits and sail around the Occidiens. Kalai practically spent all her early childhood on a sailboat.”
“And almost every waking moment on one in Junior Academy. I swear you couldn’t dig her out with a trowel when she wanted to go sailing,” Sakalbi managed to add in a word as the boat slowed, and the dramatic rise and fall of the deck slowed with it.
“What about you, Mr. Shelokset, did your father teach you to sail too?”
“I was too young before he passed. My Great Uncle Willy taught me after I came home, and Grandma took me out to the family fishing sites when she wasn’t busy with the Council. For the first two or three years after they let us come home, fishing was the only way to feed our families, but the Militia and the Cambrians would try and sink our boats or arrest us whenever we tried to go out.”
“And that’s why you’re so good at maneuvering your vessel in the dark with no instruments?” Mrs. Vaida had folded her arms, and her voice twinged with that imperious tone she’d had when they’d first met.
Andy huffed a dry laugh. “I did what I had to for me and my people and to survive, Ma’am. I don’t like breaking the law or dodging lasers and gunfire, but there’s a lot of poor families that need to eat.”
The GPS beeped, and Andy gave Mrs. Vaida a slightly defiant look to counter her furrowed brow. “We’re here,” he said as he threw the engine in neutral and opened the cabin door.
Andy walked out and took a deep breath, but all he could smell was the net and the exhaust from the engine. “HEY JACKIE! WE SMELL MONEY?” Andy yelled out as he took stock of the sky. The first signs of sunrise were chasing all but the morning stars away and a light fog was rolling in from the north.
“FUCK YEAH I CAN SMELL ‘EM, ANDY! LET’S BOMB OUT AND GET BREAKFAST GOING!” Jackie looked slightly manic as she smiled brightly. Kalai, on the other hand, looked wet and miserable as she shivered, arms wrapped around herself. Andy gave his cousin a disgusted look as he pieced together what had happened. Every deckhand learned when to duck behind the raised bow and the roller horns that guided the nets so as not to get a faceful of spray when cutting through a swell. It was also a classic hazing trick for Senior Deckhands to let Junior Deckhands learn this the hard way.
Andy moved forward to stand in front of the two of them. Kalai was trying to squeeze her coat dry, but Andy knew it wouldn’t do much good until the sun came out. Jackie at least had the sense to look a little remorseful. “Kalai, why don’t you go sit in the cabin and get out of that wet coat. It’s cold enough out here even for us-”
“No way, Andy. Junior deckhand Kally here wants to impress you and get her dainty soft hands dirty! She’s been bragging about being a sailorwoman and wants to learn to fish ‘your way!” Jackie gave Kalai’s shoulder a wet slap as the poor alien woman went blue. Out of cold or embarrassment, Andy couldn’t tell.
All Andy could do was shake his head and huff. “Ok then! Secure the buoy and sling on my mark. I’ll get us in position!” Andy couldn’t help but chuckle as he heard Jackie start ordering Kalai about. Andy went back into the cabin and looked in the closet/bathroom to see if there was anything hanging up that he could give Kalai. There was only the one rain slicker and a few of Andy’s old sweaters from when he was a lot smaller. Well, looks like I’ll just be cold today. He quickly stripped out of his sweatshirt and grabbed the slicker before throwing a switch on the main control. Dr. He’osforos and Mrs. Vaida threw him quizzical looks as he went back outside wearing less than when he came in. He was down to a sleeveless shirt and his coveralls, and the morning breeze cut right through him and he braced his jaw to keep it from chattering.
“We’re ready to go- Andy, why are you practically naked from the waist up?” Kalai was staring wide eyed at him as he approached her and Jackie was on the bow. Jackie had everything ready; the buoy line was strung through the horns and ready to toss out. A giant orange and blue beach ball sized float hung at the end of the line to mark the end and make it easier to pick up later.
“Trade me your coat for these. If Jackie’s putting you to work, you’ll need these to keep warm.”
“I’m alright, I can-”
“I’m the Skipper of this boat, and I’m ordering you to take off that wet coat and put these on; and Jackie?” Andy gave his cousin a long and piercing look. “Give her the elbow gloves, not the halfsies.”
The scoff and the muttered Salishian profanities meant he’d read the next prank she’d had in mind right. She was planning on giving her the cloth gloves with only the palms and fingers coated in rubber. While perfectly fine for fishing, Andy knew they tended to get soaked through very quickly and did nothing to keep jellyfish stingers and fish slime off your hands. Kalai sputtered for a moment before she complied gratefully and she accepted the dry clothes and rain slicker.
Andy saw Jackie give him a strange look before looking back at Kalai, but he paid it no mind. He walked back to the controls on the drum and switched off the hydraulics, placing the mechanism in neutral. “SLING IT!” Andy called as he took the small jerry rigged steering wheel and threw the boat in reverse. Kalai jumped as the line started unspooling the net into the water at a rapid pace.
Andy set an ‘S’ bend in the quarter mile long net, zigzagging backwards until they came to the end of the line. Andy stopped the boat as Jackie tied off the other large buoy and tossed it over the side, unstringing the cork-line from the roller horns in the process. He pulled hard over and put a bit of distance from the net before shutting the engine down. The line of white and yellow corks marking the net bobbed lazily with the swells as silence settled over the water again. The waves rocked the boat gently as Andy found his sea legs again.
“Alright, I’ll get breakfast going. Jackie, Kalai? Post the watch for seals,” Andy called as he walked back into the cabin to fire up the tiny little gas stove.
Sakalbi, having found the confidence to stand at last, poked her head out of the cabin and stood on by the hatch to the fish hold. “Seals? Why would you need to watch for seals?”
Andy grit his teeth and looked over from where he was cracking open and scrambling eggs. “They’re the spawn of Satan and we hate their guts!” Andy bit out. Jackie came back and pulled the two shotguns and a pair of binoculars from the closet. Andy reached over to a side cabinet and pulled out a box of shells for them. Both his boss and the Doctor’s eyes got wide.
“Seals are the enemy of our blood. Were it not for the invasion, our unending war against these vermin would continue to this day!” Jackie growled as she loaded one for herself and rested the other on Andy’s seat at the helm.
The look of growing horror on Sakalbi’s face towards their facetious declarations caused Andy to chuckle a bit, before launching into an explanation. “We’re not fans of the species because they’ll wait until a fish gets caught in the net and then they’ll steal it, costing us a fish AND ripping a big hole in our nets that we then have to take time to repair. We use the shotguns and buckshot to give them a nice welt and convince them not to hang around, because they’ll wait up on the surface and watch the buoys, just like us. A single seal can and will take between five and ten fish. The worst is when they start getting full, they’ll just bite out the bellies of a salmon in the net. We can’t really do anything with that fish once it’s ‘seal-bit’. So yes, as fishermen, we hate them.”
“Learned opportunism in apex predators as a response to human activity… I think I’ll go see this behavior for myself!” Sakalbi practically rushed out the door towards the bow where Jackie was sitting on the roller horns explaining to Kalai how to spot the bastards, leaving Andy alone in the cabin with the Doctor while he cooked breakfast for them all.
Dr. He’osforos sat down heavily in the booth and pulled out his omnipad. “I’ve had a word with my friend in the Interior. She’s pulled the warrant for your brother, and I’ve withdrawn the charges I filed.”
Andy froze and turned around slowly. The only sound was the sizzle and pop of the eggs and chorizo that he’d added to them in the skillet. “You mean… it’s done? He can come home?” A wave of light headed euphoria swept over Andy and he swayed with the gentle rocking of the boat. “I will pay you back, Doc-”
The doctor held up his hand and stopped Andy. “We’ll call it even, but there’s something… I was able to get my hands on this,” Andy watched as the doctor swiped something towards his omnipad and it dinged. “What is it if I may-”
“Are you really asking an Indian to tell you a story? Because it’s going to be a long one if you are.” “I’m Sevastutavan, young man; we invented long stories.”
Andy froze and stared at the screen of his omnipad. The Vatikre was heavily accented, and Andy had a bit of trouble with the unfamiliar accent, but centered in the frame in a hospital room, sitting in a wheelchair, was a Salishian boy. Andy blinked in surprise as he stared at the screen. “Is that-”
“I am Ikw’is’hi’ehlah, and this bearer is… of the Orca Clan Sheloksets. I drove our Haida enemies onto the rocks and took many heads when they attacked our winter village on Orcas Island. I signed the Treaty with the Great White Father and I fought against the slavers of the south-”
Andy wanted to grab the omnipad but the smell of overcooking eggs brought his attention back to breakfast and Andy stirred and scrapped the food quickly, trying to save it.
“I asked her for any materials she could give me on your brother. Pictures, recordings, anything. This is what she gave me. It's the last known recording of your brother during an interrogation conducted by a Navy Commissar prior to his escape. It seems he made friends with a Pod of Deaths Head Commandos. Quite a bit of the recording has been redacted, but… there are portions of it where he talks about his family and his history. I thought you might like to have it.”
Andy hurriedly pulled out paper plates and a slice of bread for everyone and scooped a heaping portion of the chorizo eggs onto them. He handed the doctor his before leaning out the cabin door. “Slop’s on, come and get it!”
Andy sat down after moving the shotgun out of the way and started the video over again as the three women came back to grab their plates and lost himself watching his brother start telling his story.
“What’s that?” Andy heard Kalai ask over his shoulder, and he paused the video.
“That’s my brother! That’s Kay Tee!”
“Holy shit, what?” Jackie nearly shoved Kalai into Andy as she jammed her bread slice down her gullet and crowded in to see the screen.
Andy started the video over a second time and they watched in silence. “God, that brings back memories. Back when mom was still alive and before we broke up the warband. I can’t believe that slippery little punk ghosted a pod of Commandos for two fucking years! Holy shit, that’s badass!”
Before Andy could say anything, Sakalbi started coughing and brought the binoculars up. “Uh, Andy? Jackie? What do we do about sharks?”
Jackie looked at Andy in confusion. “Sharks? There’s nothing but Dogs around here.”
“Well those are shark fins and they’re charging the net!” Sakalbi pointed and Andy looked up to see dorsal fins charging the center of the net.
Andy looked at Jackie and spoke the same words in tandem, “Oh shit!”
​
First:
https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/yz0u3h/the_cryptid_chronicle_chapter_1/
Previous:
https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/13nh0oe/cryptid_chronicle_chapter_29/
Next:
To be posted 6/4/23

Is this a real podcast?
I'm sorry I wasn't I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I'm gonna tell you the truth. When I opened up the first store, I went to Staples and Office Max and all the places you buy back-to-school supplies and I bought them all out of flash drives and I would sell them to people at school. And they're like, "Oh, you're actually doing it, bro. "Like, this is a real deal." So what do you know, I sold out of everything in two weeks. Now what? I have to restock and I'm out of money. And I don't really, I'm like, "I don't really have $100,000 to buy more." So I was like, "Well, okay, I guess I need to go out "and find another investor." I went to a guy who owned a bunch of businesses and I got him to give me a loan for $20,000. So now I had $20,000. I went to a custom packaging company in Los Angeles called AJM Packaging and I said, "Look, I have $20,000 "and this vision to start a video store. "Can you give me a net 90?" And that's like an old business term that I learned years ago that basically means like, we're gonna send you a box of our products, you sell them, and then pay us back in 90 days. So they said, "Sure, we'll give you $20,000 worth of videos." I put together a big press release, and sent it out to like the news stations. (laughs) This was like in the early '90s, okay?
But how did you go from using your LinkedIn to sell a 60-year-old?
No, no, no, no, I didn't sell the videos on LinkedIn. I'm saying I would get orders for $1000, $2000, $3000, $4000, $5000.
So the method was you would identify potential prospects using LinkedIn and just send them an email or message or something.
Yeah, you see on LinkedIn, you'll see, like let's say you have 10 contacts or something like that. It'll say, it'll have in your thing, it'll say they were a third degree connection and you can see what groups they belong to. You can see if you share a lot of similar contacts. So I just email them and say, hey, listen, I've got this promotion. I work at a marketing company and I
think we can help you increase your web presence, grow your business. And people just started signing up and then it went from there.
What was the like, hey, you're not bad at this. Like I should look into this social media thing. (laughs)
Yeah, I mean, when I started my business, I really, I was all over the place. And I'm talking like 2009, like in 2009, I wasn't really doing much more than building social profiles and posting on them and some light engagement. That was really it. But then I realized it's not, just about like, the act of social media. It's not just like creating social media accounts for people. It's about building a brand and being able to reach people and creating an impact and using social media to do that. And so that was the start of that path. And then I just started to get more and more into it. And then I went through the whole like, Facebook page thing, which is a whole other journey. So I did that and then I think it was really 2015, I started investing a lot of money into Facebook ads. And when I first started, I had a lot of success in a very short amount of time. So then I started teaching people how to do that. I launched a product called Fan Page Domination. We did $6 million in sales in the first week, which was amazing. And then from there, my software started taking off. I launched a software called Social Ad Classroom, which was a webinar software for Facebook and YouTube Live. And we had thousands of people buying that at $997. We sold that one for $997. Then I launched Influencer Ignited. So I've got my own Facebook group. I started doing mastermind groups and coaching. I was able to replace my salary with speaking gigs, teaching people on webinars and selling high ticket items. So now we have a software business. I have a team of 11 people that work for me and I have a few other employees for other various things as well. And so all in all, it's been quite the journey to get to this point and it's been a lot of hard work and it's still a lot of hard work. I'm not sure what's gonna happen over the next few years or anything like that, but I'm enjoying the journey, enjoying helping people out. You asked me for a couple of tips and tricks that people can do. And I would say that one of the things that I've found to be really helpful when I'm trying to figure out how to learn something is actually not to jump online and start Googling, but instead to go to YouTube and watch tutorial videos. Because if you're like me and you can see it and hear it, then it clicks a lot better than reading a book. So I started watching YouTube videos. I learned how to code a little bit on YouTube. I learned a little bit of Photoshop on YouTube and a lot of things on YouTube. And then I started this membership, which I learned how to do on YouTube and from other people that were teaching me how to do it. I didn't invent it. I don't own the rights to it. I just started to apply it to a business idea that I had that made sense. And it grew really fast. And then I sold that company last year, December of 2020. And so now I have more free time on my hands. So I started YouTube channel and that's just kind of taken off and I'm really enjoying the podcast because I get to meet great people like you and just share some insights that I've learned along the way. And so yeah, that's kind of been my journey to
this point. That's awesome. So you got the taste of this kind of internet world, digital marketing. You had a passion for technology. You did some internships. You taught yourself some things on YouTube. You created some courses. You've built a big following and now you're monetizing with the podcast, correct?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so what does the future hold for you and for your business?
Yeah, so I really want to double down on the podcast. I've been doing a lot of interviews and having a lot of fun with that, but I want to take it to the next level. I'm in the process of planning my next level. That is where it is headed right now.
Awesome. So we talked about a lot of things today. What's one thing that you want to leave the audience with? If they were to take away one thing from our conversation today, what would that be?
This is a little bit of a shift in direction of where we've been talking about, but when we were talking about doing a podcast, you asked me, "Why do you want to do a podcast?" And I said, "Well, I want to impact people. "I want to give people a new perspective on life. "I want people to know that they're not alone "and that other people have gone through some of the same things "and have figured it out "and can share their experiences with others "so they don't feel alone." And that's really what I want people to know about me is that you're not alone in this world. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling like, "You know what? "This sucks, this coronavirus, COVID stuff sucks," I want you to know that you're not alone. And there are people out there who've gone through the same thing, are going through the same thing, who can help you navigate through it. So if you're going through a difficult time, you're not alone. Reach out to me, I'm happy to talk to you, but also reach out to the people around you who love you and care about you, and just know that there are people out there who care. And if you're going through a good time and things are going great for you, also reach out to people who are struggling and lend a helping hand and help them out, because we're all in this together, and that's how we're going to get through this and make the world a better place.
That's such a powerful message, and I absolutely agree with you. One of the things I love about you is your positive energy. And that positive energy, I'm sure, resonates in everything that you do. So keep that up. And I guess my next question is, how do you stay so positive? What's your secret sauce?
Well, I just have this deep faith in God, and so I know that everything works out for a reason, and there's a bigger plan, and you know, the person who was the biggest failure is the person that gives up. And so I just refuse to give up, and I think of life, you know, like a marathon. I mean, if you're at mile one and you want to quit, how foolish is that? I mean, you don't know how long the race is, but it's not mile one. And so I look at that as my life. I mean, there's no point in quitting because I'm nowhere near the finish line yet. I got a long way to go, so I've got to keep going, and just having that faith in yourself and knowing that if you stick with it long enough, you'll find a way to succeed.
That's amazing. And
I think that positive mindset, and that persistence is one thing that separates you from other people, but also what you say there about your grandfather, it sounds like he was an amazing person.
He was an incredible person, and his name was Cecil Milton Chester. He died when he was 42 years old. And so I was like nine at the time. And so my son's middle name is Milton. It's a family tradition. So my son's name is Ian Milton Boyle. And I know I got him because my grandpa, he was amazing. He had all these stories and he always had a smile on his face. And I would say, you know, I would say, "How are you doing today, Papa?" And he'd say, "Better, better, better." And it didn't matter how he felt. He always said he was better, better, better. And I thought to myself, you know, that was pretty amazing. This guy could be in the worst possible pain ever, and he would still say he's better. And I thought, you know, I'm going to live my life that way. So I did. I decided I'm going to choose to be better, to have a better attitude, to have a better outlook on life, and always try to see the positive in things. And, you know, it's, it's, it's really helped me in my life. So that's, you know, I would say that's my biggest, my biggest learning. And I also say this, you know, I heard a pastor say this a while ago. He said, you know, a lot of times in life, we're looking for the green light. And, you know, we're trying to make sure everything's perfect. We're waiting for things to be perfect. And he says, well, you know, sometimes it's not about a green light, but it's just, you know, a yellow light. Sometimes you just have to get started. And, you know, you might be scared, but you just have to get started and do the work. And it's just like a very simple way of kind of looking at life. Like if we all wait for, you know, our perfect opportunity, we're never gonna get anything done. So I'm always a big believer in just starting. You know, you've gotta just get started.
That's awesome. That's a great way to finish. So what's your favorite entrepreneur story? Now it doesn't have to be the biggest success, but maybe just an entrepreneur that you love what they're doing or you love their business. So this could be someone, you know, it could be somebody local, it could be somebody big, whoever.
I know.
Your turn.
My turn. So, okay. There's a guy named Jeremy Cowart. You heard of Jeremy Cowart?
Yes.
He's a photographer. He's also one of the most successful photographers in the world. He does amazing portraits. I started following him on Instagram maybe five years ago, maybe six, and I was just like, this guy is amazing. And just watching how he transformed. And now he does hotel, motel design and art and stuff like that. But what he did is he set up like a 30 day series, well a 365 day series of photos. And each day he would do a different type of photography. So like one day he would do just shadows, another day he would do, I don't know, just patterns, whatever. He had all these different ideas. But what he was doing is he was posting his photos on Instagram every single day. So that's something that I wanna start doing as well. I actually start tonight
. And so, just to make myself a better photographer and just to challenge myself to look at things differently. And what's happened is now this guy, he's on YouTube, he does a podcast. And so if I do that every day, I'm also gonna get better at communicating with people and talking to people. So what I've found is this has helped me build my confidence to come on the live and do this because I've practiced a lot. I've done 57 of these now. And so, but it's just the practice. It's just the getting in there and doing it and learning from it. And I found that my guests are really grateful and appreciative for it. They really enjoy it. And they're able to get a taste of me as a speaker before they ever get on a call with me. So, I mean, there's just, it's just so valuable to get started. It doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to have everything all together. But it's just the action, the taking the action, you know, and you'll just figure it out along the way. So, those are kind of my tips for people.
Fantastic. Well, we've got some questions from the attendees. So, let's kind of jump into those. I know we're starting to get a little bit short on time. We've got maybe five or 10 minutes left.
Yeah.
So, we'll jump into these. One of the questions that came up is, you know, how long should a course be? And are people willing to watch a long course versus something that's shorter?
You know, we've done it both ways. It really kind of depends. I feel like shorter courses are kind of like the current trend. People want information really quickly. They don't necessarily have a lot of time. They're busy. They're running a business. They've got kids. They've got a lot going on. So, I feel like a lot of people are favoring shorter courses. So, for instance, you know, like a course that's maybe like three to four weeks long. But I do still think that there is a place for longer courses. For instance, you know, with Power Editor, I actually found that people liked the more in-depth 12-week course because they could actually go back, you know, at their own pace and do it. But I would say, you know, 30 days is a great timeframe for a course.
Perfect. And the last question for you is, do you have a favorite Facebook advertising campaign that you've run for yourself or for a client? And if you can share a little bit about the results and why it was your favorite.
Ooh, that's a tough one. There's been so many good campaigns that I've had. I think one of my favorites was working with my husband's business and it was creating a quiz. I actually took my course topic, and we're not gonna talk about what that was, and we turned it into a quiz. And so, with a quiz, what you're able to do is take the top three to five pain points or objections that people have when it comes to purchasing your product or service, and you turn that into a quiz. So, you start the quiz by asking them some questions about their specific problem, what they're going through, what their biggest challenge is, and then you give them three different possible outcomes. And based on their answer, you kind of guide them through the quiz. So, you ask them, "Do you want to work on this problem, "or this problem, or this problem?" And then you can give them a result. And that result is not only valuable to
them because they're getting the solution they're looking for, but it's also very valuable to you because you can start to see what are some of the main reasons people are coming to me, or what are the main objections that they have, and you can take that and then tweak your marketing messaging. And that's a lot of what I did with my program was I would create new ads and I would have a different headline for every different pain point. And then we would run those ads and we would see which ones got the best engagement and then you have that data to go off of and you can say, "Okay, well people are responding better to this messaging or this problem that I can help solve." And then from there you can just dial in your targeting, dial in your messaging, and then that's when you really start to see the massive results. And that's how I was able to turn it into a seven-figure business, which, you know, within the first year and a half was pretty incredible. So that's definitely my favorite strategy. And I still use quizzes to this day. I think they're awesome.
Absolutely. And I really like quizzes. I'm glad you mentioned it because that's one of those things that not a lot of people are using right now, but it can be very effective if you do it right. Like you said, you want to give them a reason to want to engage with it. And by addressing pain points or questions or frustrations, it's a great way to get people to opt into your list as well because they're interested in that topic. So then you can nurture them and build a relationship with them and then make them a customer down the line. So that's a great strategy. Thanks for sharing that. All right, so last question for you. I know you're a super busy guy, but do you have time to listen to podcasts? And if so, are there any that you like to listen to on a regular basis?
I listen to a lot of audio books. I think that's kind of my thing. I've just finished actually an audio book called, "You're Not So Smart." And it's all about the cognitive biases that we have as humans. And it was very fascinating. I was actually thinking about using some of the content to talk about in the next episode of my podcast because I think it would be very helpful for people to hear the different biases that we have. And as humans, we have like 100 different cognitive biases that can really influence our decisions and the way we think about things. And so it was a really good book. So I highly recommend that one. It's called "You're Not So Smart." But yeah, I mean, I love listening to all different kinds of podcasts. I listen to, I don't know, some of the entrepreneurial ones, Amy Porterfield, Brendan Burchard. Sometimes I listen to Joe Rogan. He's not always the best person to listen to, but there are certain episodes that I like. Yeah, I listen to all kinds of podcasts.
Fantastic. You mentioned a few people there that I know of and I've heard some episodes of Joe Rogan. There's some really interesting people that he interviews.
Yeah, yeah.
He's got a great following and he seems like he's really enjoying it.
He does, and that's, I think, why he does it. He just loves to learn from people. So I think that's his main motivation.
Yeah, so is there anything else that you'd like to add before we finish up, Taki? Any other, you know, mistakes or issues that you see people make or things you just want to say before we go?
You know, I think one thing I
would say is that being a good marketer is really about being a good communicator. And it's all about building relationships and connections with people. And the way to do that is to really make sure you're being authentic. You know, there's so much noise on social media and people can spot a fake a mile away. So I think it's just important to be genuine, to be authentic, to show up as yourself and just be a real person. And, you know, people are going to be much more likely to connect with you and resonate with you if you do that.
Yes, it's so true. You know, I think a lot of people try and put up this facade of, you know, that they're perfect and they've got it all together, but people can see right through that. So it's just, it's really refreshing when you meet somebody who's like real and down to earth and just doing their thing. And they're okay with that. So I agree with that for sure. So Megan, where can people go to find you and learn more about your programs?
Yeah, so they can go to Facebook and look me up, Megan Anderson Consulting. My website is meganandersonconsulting.com. They can find me on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram and Twitter and I'm pretty easy to find. So yeah.
Nice. And then I'll put all those links in the show notes too. But yeah, so definitely follow Megan. She puts out some really great content. So thank you so much for being on the show. It was really great to have you on today.
Thank you so much, Jillian. It was great being here. I really appreciate you inviting me on your show.
Yes, of course. Thank you so much. And I'll talk to you soon.
All right. Sounds good. Thank you.
Thank you. Bye. (upbeat music)
Hey guys, thanks so much for joining me on this episode of the Parent Entrepreneur Success Podcast. I hope you found it super valuable and it's inspired you to take some action to grow your business. If you want to find me on social media, you can find me at Jillian Sedoti at Instagram or jilliansedoti.com. And please, if you like this show, share it with others who you think will benefit and also rate and review so more people can find it. See you next time.

Today thanks to a tip from Faraday_Rage, I bring you a ghost story from West Lake Hills, although saying that might be a bit misleading because West Lake Hills is a mid-20th century invention and the events of this story happen mostly before that. There used to be a village called Eanes in that general area full of farmers, ranchers, and cedar choppers before it was subdivided into one of the nicer suburbs.
There was only one bridge for vehicle traffic (besides the train bridge) from Downtown into South Austin before the 1940s. Because of this, the western part of Travis County was separated from the growth of Austin and the eastern part of the county, and remained sort of a wild frontier well after the surrounding lands were settled.
Among the early settlers in that area were two brothers named Alexander and Robert Eanes. There is a historical marker at the intersection of Red Bud Trail and Loop 360 which says the following:

Alexander Eanes (1806-1888) moved to Texas from Mississippi in 1845 and acquired this ranch by 1857. In 1873 he sold the property to his brother, Robert Eanes (1805-1895), who had moved to the area following the Civil War. A log cabin built on the Eanes ranch was the first Eanes school, and the community also assumed the Eanes name. Robert Eanes sold the ranch to his son-in-law, Hudson Boatner Marshall (1862-1951) in 1883. Marshall dismantled the ranch house and moved it to a site adjacent to the nearby creek.

So there was a man named H.B. Marshall who lived on the former Eanes Ranch with his wife Viola (Robert Eanes's daughter) and family.
H.B. Marshall was a Civil War orphan. His mom died shortly after childbirth and his dad died as part of Hood's Brigade. He spent his early life in Austin-area orphanages until he graduated high school at the age of 19. That was when the doctors of the era diagnosed him with "consumption", otherwise known as Tuberculosis today. There was no cure in the 19th century. Afflicted people were told to go live in the country and get some fresh air, and that's exactly what he did.
Lucky for him, HB's dad well fairly well off when he died and left him an inheritance. After he left the orphanage he used this money to buy the ranch from the Eanes family, met and married Viola Eanes, and started a family. Legends say a Mexican folk healer convinced him eating goat meat and drinking goat's milk was an excellent remedy for consumption, and so he raised goats.
The book Eanes Portrait of a Community has this photo of H.B. and Viola and their dog, along a brief biographical bit:

H.B. and Viola Marshall sold honey and butter and raised goats. At one time H.B. was president of the American Goat Association and traveled to Chicago to attend that organization's national convention. There he met and talked with Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In its early days the Ford Motor Company used mohair from goats to make a soft, long-lasting fabric which was used to upholster the seats in its "tin lizzies". H.B. Marshall was one of the company's first mohair suppliers. Later, after Bee Cave Road became a better, more reliable road, Marshall, who was a skilled printer sometimes worked in Austin at that trade.

So HB Marshall and his family were very good at raising goats.
The Marshall Family were also beekeepers. HB liked to be called "Honey Bee" Marshall later in life. He lived the rest of his life on that ranch and died in the 1950s.
Now that you have that little bit of backstory, on with today's tale. The following article appeared on page 21 the Austin American-Statesman on May 16, 1966:

MYSTERY
Old Grave Beside Creek
The mystery of who is buried a shallow grave beside Smith Creek, seven miles southwest of Austin, may never be solved.
With it goes a tale of a robbery and killing said to have occurred more than 60 years ago on the Bee Cave Road.
But at least one story told by a man who died last year sticks in the minds of some residents of the hill country behind Zilker Park.
The man was long-time stock man and World War I veteran John Marshall, who lived out his life on the Eanes-Marshall Ranch seven miles southwest of Austin. His story told him as a child by his father, early Travis County settler and school teacher Hudson Boatner (Honey Bee) Marshall goes something like this:
In the late 19th century, a man from Bee Caves came to Austin with a wagon load of cotton. After selling it, he was returning home when his hired hand killed him and took the money. The slain man was not found for several days, and when he was, he was buried on the spot, several hundred feel off the road.
This is the way Cecil Johnson, of 1500 West Bee Caves remembers the story. He heard it in 1956 when he and his brother-in-law, Elmo Freitag, dug into the grave and found a skeleton. Freitag and Johnson went from where they live to buy a dog killed by a car on the Marshall ranch, Johnson said. "When we found the bones, we were pretty scared," Freitag said. "We went up to the ranch house to tell John Marshall about them." "That's when John told us the story," Johnson recalls. "He said we should cover the bones back up and let the old man rest."
The story was brought to the attention of the American- Statesman by Bruce Marshall of Houston, a nephew of John Marshall and an heir to 10 acres of the old ranch land. Others who lived along Bee Caves Road, or who knew John Marshall, recall hearing him tell the story, but no one contacted so far remembers hearing the story from anyone else.
Sheriff T. O. Lang said he has no records dating back that far, Marshall was born around 1887, and Johnson said the killing and robbery occurred "before John's time."
A check into the archives in the Austin Library's Austin and Travis County Collection reveals a similar crime which occurred in 1871. On Feb. 7 of that year, according to Frank Brown's Annals of Travis County, "an old citizen" named Charles Barnes, who "lived seven miles north of Austin," was killed and robbed after he had come to town and sold a wagon load of hay. He was shot and killed "probably for his money," and his body was found 30 yards from the road, three-fourths of a mile from his dwelling. A $1,000 reward was offered for the criminal, but he was never captured.
This "official" report is quite similar to the story told by John Marshall, but the directions from Austin do not coincide.
There are descendants or a family named Cotton who live in Bee Caves, according to Miss Jessie Roy, former teacher who lives on the Rob Roy Ranch on the Bee Caves Road two miles beyond the Marshall ranch. But she said she never heard of any of them being robbed or killed. Her family moved here in the 1890s.
Conceivably, with the tale handed down by word of mouth for three generations, the name Cotton, and the product "cotton" could have gotten confused. And the Brown report, probably taken from a newspaper account, could have been mistaken about the direction (north or west) from Austin where the crime was committed.
But if the wagon load was cotton instead of hay, the crime would have occurred most likely in October, according to Austin rancher and historian Carl Widen. Widen said in the old days Austin, it usually came from the south and west, from Dripping Springs and Bee Caves, in October, "in time for the circus." "The whole family would come to town with the load of cotton usually one or two bales to a wagon and after it was sold the women bought cloth for dresses and the kids went to see the circus. Then they got back home late that night.
Another hill resident, Charles Roberts, 80, who lives on a creek near the Rob Roy ranch, said he remembered people hauling cotton in trains of three or four wagons pulled by oxen, rather than by horses or mules. And Austin resident Charles Dellana said it used to take at least four mules to pull a wagon load of corn out of the bottoms or "The Narrows" between Bee Caves Road and the Colorado River. He opined that the murder and robbery must have occurred "earlier than 1903."
Besides the Cotton family out Bee Caves way, other family names familiar to those still living are Theodore Bose, Joe Beck, the Freitags, the Teagues, the Simpsons and the Moores. But who is buried beside Smith Creek on the Marshall ranch, how he died, and when he was buried, no one seems to remember.

Well this old story was apparently told far and wide. There was another article on that same day (May 16, 1966) in The Statesman: (h/t/ jbjjbjbb)

Ghost Hunters Have a Go at Ghosting
San Antonians Learn of Murder and Such Things on Austin Ranch
Ghosts, anyone? A strange tale of murder and theft was spottily told Saturday night by a "spirit" who was supposedly in communication with a group of ghost- hunters seven miles southwest of Austin. The ghost hunters, five people from San Antonio, gath ered on the old Marshall Ranch in West Lake Hills with two news reporters. They apparently believed they were communicating with a ghost named Tom Burns.
"Margaret, Margaret, Margaret," the ghost kept repeating through the automatic-writing technique of Mrs. Joan McKee, wife of Don McKee. McKee is manager of the Builders Exchange of Texas, in San Antonio. He and his wife say they are "student" parapsychologists. Spelling out the name of Margaret Owens, Tom Burns said, "She is dead now. She is my love."
The names of Margaret Owens and Tom Burns were interpreted by the McKees from an almost indecipherable scrawl which Mrs. McKee transmitted to sheet after sheet of paper with a pencil, while her husband held her elbow. They were seated at a table in the single upper room of the old Marshall ranch house. With them were this reporter, ranch owner and Houston Post business writer Bruce Marshall, and San Antonio residents Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gibson, Mr. and Mrs. John Mac-Donald, and Mrs. Mary K. Cook. The only light in the room came from a lantern.
"Burns" said Margaret "Owens" was buried on a mountain top east of the ranch, and had been killed in or near some water. Burns also said he had been killed by three men on a road near the ranch as he was hauling a wagon load of hay. Placing the date at 1904, possibly on a Monday, he said he was shot as he got down off the wagon to move a rock that was in the way.
Although at least two other spirits were supposedly contacted beyond the pale, that of Burns appeared to be the most communicative and the most interesting. It was either Burns, or a ghost named Nathan Anderson who spoke of a John Anderson who came "often" to the ranch to drink "rum from South America" with Robert Eanes.
Eanes, according to Marshall, was the first man in the family to own the ranch property. He died in the 19th century and is buried in a family plot on a hill near the ranch house. Marshall said later there had been a man named John Anderson who was a friend of the Eanes family. Marshall and this reporter have established, from local folklore and from written records, that a man, possibly named Charles Barnes, was killed seven miles from Austin around 1871, after selling a load of ether cotton or hay in town.
There is a grave of an unknown man beside Smith Creek on the Marshal ranch, not far off the Bee Caves Road, which is seven miles from Austin. Neither Marshall nor this reporter have verified that the grave on Smith Creek is the one in which the robbery victim was buried, but the coincidences of the known facts leaves room for speculation that it may be the one.
Burns said he had worked for a man named Cotton Roberts, and that Roberts had worked for a man possibly named Mitchell Treadwell. The name of Treadwell first came to the attention of the group when MacDonald, a former announcer for KONO-TV, fell into a trance through what was called auto-hypnosis. He said he got the name from a ghost present in the room, and that he also received "an impression" of the dates 1890 to 1901. Marshall later disclosed that the old ranch house had been built sometime between 1890 and 1905.
The name "Mitchell" was written on the paper when one of the persons asked aloud, "Does the name Treadwell mean anything to you?" Burns also spoke of his mother, naming her variously Mary Markham, Marstur, Masters and Markem, who he said had been sick in a barn and subsequently died.
Mention was made of a bearded man who wore a big hat and was deaf in one ear, of a box buried beneath a barn, and of wild mohair goats. Marshall said the last man to live on the ranch, his late uncle John Marshall, found a hole on the ranch about 30 years ago where a box apparently had been buried. This was when Miriam A. Ferguson was governor of Texas, he said.
He also said a bearded deaf man had once been a ranch hand there and that John Marshall's father, H. B. Marshall, had raised Angora goats on the ranch. Burns said Roberts had buried the box, and he (Burns) had dug it up. "Money means death," came the scrawled message on the paper.
Two of the most dramatic events of the evening occurred when the McKees tried to communicate with a ghost named "Robert" Both of them believed the ghost to be that of Robert Eanes, whom they described as having a very powerful, domineering personality. Mrs. McKee broke down and could write no more after transcribing the words, "My time is up now. Many have come but nobody will listen." Later McKee tried to communicate, and apparently went into a trance after receiving the word "yes" to the question of whether "Robert" had been born in July.
Just before McKee went into a trance, Marshall and this reporter were curious to notice that a strong wind the only one noticed during the entire night rattled the eaves of the house for about a minute.
The time was shortly after midnight Mrs. Cook, who writes radio and TV commercials, took down the following from McKee's barely audible words: "I have many children. I am as Abraham I shan't stay around where my people don't want me. It is dark. Darkness is in the land. We shall bring light."
Further efforts to communicate with "Robert" failed. After this incident, the "ghosts" seemed to leave the parapsychologists and their fellow delvers into ESP (extra-sensory perception).
A long vigil at the family cemetery until almost dawn proved fruitless. Gibson, sales manager for Pratt and Lambert varnish makers, whose supposedly "haunted" house in San Antonio was the subject of a Houston Post story several months ago, conceded with high good humor that he had seen no ghosts Saturday night "But Robert was around," he affirmed confidently.
Marshall and this reporter scratched their heads, totaling up the number of "unexplainable coincidences" which made the night at least a little provocative if not downright exciting. It would take a patient historian to check the names listed. As for the "ghosts" well, who knows?

H.B. Marshall had a son named John and he in turn had a son named Bruce. Bruce Marshall was an artist who spent most of his time in Houston but moved back to the family ranch in 1974. Marshall recounted the story of the 1966 ghost hunt in this 1983 article:

THE SEARCH FOR ghosts is not uncommon with visitors to the Marshall Ranch off Loop 360 South. It is the home of artist Bruce Marshall and his family and nine ghosts, those of seven people and two horses.
Marshall studio and gallery is a restored, pre-Civil War ancestral home located next to the family residence. Parapsychologists visited the building in 1966 and declared it to be haunted by a man who was attacked, shot and killed near the original entrance of the ranch. The ghost of the dead man, whose unmarked grave is still on the ranch, reportedly told the ghosts hunters about his fate. The ghost also admitted that he had committed murder, killing a woman named Margaret by drowning her.
There are two creeks near the ranchhouse that are the source of several other ghost stories.
"SUPPOSEDLY ONE GHOST walks the creek towards Eanes (Elementary) school calling for someone," said Marshall. "There were some kids camping near the creek about six months ago, they heard dogs barking and the noise of a wagon drawn by horses. The wagon has no driver and follows an old road which used to connect to Bee Cave Road."
Marshall said his family tries to play down the ghosts tales surrounding his homestead. "If we really become convinced that we're haunted, we really lose our enjoyment of the place. People seeking ghosts out here are very unwelcome," he said. "If there are such things, they don't bother me. They like me. They probably feel that if I go, the house goes, the property changes, and they're evicted.

In 1999 Marshall sold the house and the ranch to The Eanes Historical Society, who moved it next to the current location of Eanes Elementary School, where it has become the home of the EHS and serves as a small museum today.
So who is in the mystery grave at Smith Creek? I found one lead.
Back in February of 1916 a 20-year-old man named Albert Cook had an unfortunate accident and was killed. The Statesman reported it like so:

While setting a wolf trap on the Marshall goat ranch, eight miles from Austin, Alfred Lee Cook, 20 years old, accidentally shot and killed himself at 8:30 Friday morning, a charge of buck-shot from the left barrel of a double-barrelled shotgun entering his abdomen.
Cook was a laborer on the Marshall ranch, near Summitt. Early Friday morning he attempted to set a steel trap for wolves. He was carrying a shotgun and was accompanied by two small boys.
Setting his shotgun, both barrels of which were loaded, against a bush, he advanced to the trap. The gun fell across his path and he shoved it aside. As he did so, in some way the left barrel of the gun was discharged, the entire charge taking effect in his abdomen at short range and badly lacerating his body. Death was almost Instantaneous.
Justice of the Peace George W. Mendell, Deputy Sheriff Jim McCoy and Deputy Constable Matt Turner went to Summitt this morning for the Inquest. Justlce Mendell rendered a verdict of accidental shooting. The name of one surviving relative was reported to the Justice of the Peace, being Mrs. Rebecca Ann Brown, mother of the young man

Is this the person in the grave? I can't say for sure without DNA testing, but poor Mr. Cook might be the best candidate.
Time is short and space is long today so I'll leave it there. The Eanes-Marshall house today is called the Eanes History Center, and sits next to Eanes Elementary School at 4101 Bee Caves Rd. Bonus Items to follow:
Bonus Pic #1 - Photograph of Bruce Marshall standing next to the graves of his ancestors in Eanes-Marshall Cemetery - unknown date (mid 1970s?)
Bonus Pic #2 - "Photograph of Bruce Marshall and Dorothy Depwe in the Eanes-Marshall Cemetary looking down at a tombstone." - unknown date (mid 1970s?)
Bonus Video #1 - Eanes History: HB Marshall (from Eanes History Center)
Bonus Video #2 - Eanes History: HB Marshall Ranch House Tour (from Eanes History Center)
Bonus Article #1 - Masons BBQ meet at The Marshall Ranch - November 17, 1919
Bonus Article #2 - "Better watch out! Spirits on the prowl!" - May 14, 1966
Bonus book excerpt? - Notes from an interview with Earl Short (a reformed bootlegger), in which he mentions he saw H.B. and John Marshall setting up a soda stand one Election Day after he bribed some illiterate people for their votes.

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You are now a famous v in the forensic circle, into the group with its own traffic, go out with its own aura, can speak eloquently about all international politics, will play a full game of chess in foreign conflicts, will believe in the state every time, will think that democracy is not Coca-Cola, every country is the same, and then attract countless people flock, you are convinced that it must be the quality of many people is not in place to cause the people's wisdom is not yet open, although in you saw the city police smashed some old people The stall has a touch of surprise, but you think about it and understand that this is a necessary initiative to create a civilized city, you persistently fight in the bluebird and Ab and hate the country party, each time with a different expression bag to show your patriotic enthusiasm. But you return home to see your parents are packing their bags, saying that they lost the political struggle so the embezzlement of workers' severance pay years ago was exposed, the east window called you to go together, you only panicked to pack your bags ready to fly to San Francisco, but you drove to the airport to find more than a dozen people in your once the car came around, you just completely become an accelerationist postmodern deconstructionist structuralist post-structuralist post Marxism positive horse progressive egalitarianism to pseudo-motherly dictatorship Stella Seibei Ichikai into the customs study extreme militarism Cincinnatus spirit of the Finnish White Guard military government Franco's legacy of the Spanish National Labour Corpsism Sorrelite neo-paganism Aryan Nations Great Revival One Drop of Blood principle of human purification theory geocentric Nazi supporters (2 years old) Finally you are planning to withdraw from the network. Now full of mouth is to build political circle of black words, real life friends and family take you as imbecile, the most basic ideology morphological impulse The most basic awareness of the shape of the conflict can not be done. You originally thought that the construction of the political are similar to their own, did not expect to be the system of the noble school. Now you spend all day except reading scriptures to the book is in the group Bianjing, day and night qq group Zhihu b station back and forth high intensity Bianjing, home out of what big things do not care but care about the great cause of those Bianjing. Chatting with girls is not more than five sentences but reciting the scriptures endlessly. Dress up are not, usually go out are a dress, wallpaper song list all Kang Mi, every day in the posting bar NetEase cloud high intensity patrol to see who is "capitalist". You've gone off the deep end, and if you don't move towards "reality", you'll become the Mr. Tree in the eyes of your relatives and friends. Religious ideological fervor can indeed compensate for your absence, but not for long, you intend to alabaster, good death good death (14 years old)
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The idea is not originally there, but you kneel down, the idea comes 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Continued from Part 2

Jen’s Source for Information about the Police Investigation

As if we needed another factor complicating this case, we know that Jen had access to nonpublic information about the police investigation. During Jen’s recorded police interview on February 27, 1999, she said that the wife of a BCPD cop was sharing information about the investigation of Hae’s murder with her. Specifically, on one of the days following the discovery of Hae’s body, the cop’s wife told Jen that the guy who found it was a suspect. MPIA 198. Jen actually says the cop’s name in the interview: Chris Cheuvront. It turns out that Chris Cheuvront was the officer who arrested Alonzo Sellers for streaking in 1996. MPIA 677 (not included in AdnanSyedWiki). You can’t make this shit up. As mentioned in the previous section, this was not public info and was a pretty serious breach by the cop and his wife.
This calls into question one other major piece of information that Jen shared with the police: that Hae had been strangled. Jen was squirrely about who provided her with this information during her first interview with the police on February 26, 1999 when she told the detectives that she got it from her co-worker, Nicole. The next day, she said that she got it from Jay. Again, it is entirely possible that Adnan panicked and told Jay that he strangled Hae to death despite having been coached by Bilal to give up nothing. It is unlikely that Jay could have surmised on his own by catching a glimpse of Hae’s neck that she had been strangled. It is more likely that the blabbermouth wife of the cop spilled some more non-public details about the crime that everyone was talking about and mentioned to Jen that Hae had been strangled. Consider that Jay spilled his guts to Jen on January 13 and they likely discussed what he saw on days that followed. Add to that Jen getting information about the case from Cheuvront’s wife after Hae’s body was found. When Jen finally spoke to the cops six weeks after Jay initially spilled his guts, it is likely that she conflated the means of how Hae was murdered with what she learned from Jay. After speaking with the cops, Jen may have shared what she told them with Jay and he could have run with the detail about Hae being strangled by Adnan as it gave the story more credibility.
I know. Before you reflexively call bullshit, consider everything that Jay did not tell Jen when she picked him up on January 13. No idea of when the murder took place. No idea where Hae’s car was located. No idea where her body was buried. Death by strangulation is an outlier. While it is possible that Adnan failed to adhere to Bilal’s rule that under no circumstances was he to share any incriminating information with anyone outside the circle of trust, no one besides Jay claims to have any direct personal knowledge of the crime. The fact that nothing about Hae’s murder was leaked to the cops by anyone from the time she disappeared to 4 weeks later when her body was found is indicative of the discipline demonstrated by those who were involved. The fact that no others have come forward in 24 fucking years, the last 9 of which elevated the case to a global phenomenon followed by millions is miraculous. This was a blood oath taken by Adnan, Bilal and at least one other individual who assisted. It is also important to remember that Jen had a blabbermouth friend who was married to a cop who had non-public info about the investigation. Could Adnan have let it slip in a moment of panic that he had strangled Hae? Sure. But given the disciplined silence, it is more likely that the blabbermouth told Jen that Hae was strangled, which Jen subsequently shared with Jay. Let’s return to Jen and Jay discussing how the person who found Hae’s body was being treated as a suspect.
Jen relayed the info about the discoverer of the body to Jay with whom she commiserated about the wrong guy going down for the murder. MPIA 198. Jen mentioned wanting to go to the cops to keep them from taking down Sellers. This is Jen demonstrating her non-black privilege (the term “white privilege” is neither accurate nor helpful for reasons that are beyond the scope of this post). The cops were sweating Sellers for two weeks because he simply found Hae’s body four weeks after she was last seen alive. From Jay’s perspective, what would they do to a black kid who waltzed into the police station and told the cops that he facilitated the disposal of Hae’s body on the very day that she was last seen alive? Yeah, he likely thought that he would get pepper sprayed, tased and shot before he even opened his mouth. There was no way that Jay was going to risk coming forward voluntarily.
​

Zeroing in on Adnan

It is important to provide some background on how the detectives documented the investigation to understand when and how the case went off the rails. The details of the homicide investigation are reflected in the progress reports. These reports chronicle each task undertaken. Once enough evidence has been collected, the detectives sit down with the prosecutor and go over the progress reports and determine whether they need to gather more information or if they are ready to move forward with the indictment phase of the grand jury proceedings. From the time that Hae’s body was discovered until Adnan’s arrest 19 days later, at least 29 progress reports were prepared by the investigating detectives. The date each report was prepared is included in the bottom right corner. In most cases, the reports were prepared within days of the task/incident described therein. If the detectives performed five different tasks on a particular day, like they did on February 16, 1999, five separate progress reports were prepared. MPIA 34-43. Each report covers a discrete incident/task with a detailed summary. I am mentioning all this because the date and substance of these progress reports reveal the precise point when the wheels came off and this went from a legitimate investigation to framing the suspect who the cops were certain did the crime.
After receiving Adnan’s cell records on February 17th, the cops did some reverse directory searches to identify the individuals who were called on the days surrounding Hae’s murder. One of the only hits they got was for the Pusateri residence. This number was likely of particular interest because calls were made to it during the times before and after Hae was last seen alive. The cops put a pin in the Pusateri address because they were still focusing their investigation on Sellers who was cleared following his second polygraph interview on February 24, 1999. Some say that the cops could have simply called the numbers in Adnan’s cell records to identify the individuals that Adnan called on the days surrounding Hae's disappearance. That is a fair point, but remember that Adnan was already tipped off by Yaser on February 15 that he was hot. If people on Adnan’s cell records from January 13, 1999 started telling him that the cops were reaching out to them, Adnan would have known that he was white hot. He likely would have made use of the passport pictures that were found in his Honda and jetted off to Pakistan. Oh, I’m not exaggerating. In Bilal’s cell records there are two calls on January 13, 1999 to Pakistan International Airlines (202-466-3559). If you think that’s a coincidence, I’ve got a bridge in Peshawar that I’d like to sell you.
The investigating detectives visited Jen’s address on February 26, 1999 seeking the person who was called from Adnan’s cell on January 13th. Jen briefly spoke with the cops with whom she arranged to meet later that evening.
Jen went alone to meet with the cops on February 26th. There is no tape of her interview, just Det. Macgillivary’s sparse notes. She basically denied any knowledge of anything related to Hae’s murder. She provided Jay’s contact info but said nothing of his connection to Adnan or the murder. Based on Macgillivary’s notes, it looks as though he was running through the names of the households called by Adnan’s cell on January 13th and Jen was giving information on who she knew were the likely individuals that were being called. Then she dropped an atomic bomb by sharing that she was told by her friend, Nicole, that Hae had been strangled. The notes do not indicate by whom she was strangled. Jen saying that she got the info from Nicole was a short-sighted attempt at misdirection to keep Jay or the blabbermouth from getting in trouble. If Jen was hoping to fly under the radar and not arouse suspicion, she fucked up. She was a dumb kid and way out of her depth.
The part that left me scratching my head was why Macgillivary’s progress report treated Jen’s first interview as unremarkable. His notes clearly indicate that Jen was told that Hae was strangled but his report literally states that she “was able to provide little information as to the victim.” That could be because the report was drafted the next day on February 27th—the same day that Jen came in for her second interview. If Macgillivary typed up that report after Jen’s second during which she gave up everything she knew, I can see how he might regard the first one as forgettable.
At the conclusion of her first police interview, Jen felt extremely vulnerable. She could sense that Macgillivary knew that she was holding information back. Her anxiety went into overdrive when he told her that everyone is a suspect. Trial Tr. 2/24/2000 at 53:18 - 54:3. Because she was nervous about the consequences of not sharing everything she knew during her initial interview, she secured legal representation and arranged for a second interview in the presence of her attorney. Id. at 66:11-19.
There are a couple of things to note about Jen’s second interview. Because it was in the presence of her attorney, it was much more formal. There was no “pre-interview” where the detectives would get to hear a preliminary version before taping began. No off the record bullshit. No competent attorney would allow that. No opportunity to bully the witness into making false statements. The cops had to press the record button at the very start and get everything in a single take.
Following the beginning of Jen’s second interview is a bit of a challenge. She was clearly nervous and basically opened her mouth and barfed out a word salad of what she remembered from Jay’s freaked out information dump from six weeks earlier. Needless to say, extracting specific details and chronology from Jay were not her #1 priority when he spilled his guts to her. The detectives subsequently had her walk through the story in pieces and, to the extent possible, chronological order. Almost all the relevant information that she conveyed was told to her by Jay. We should break down Jen’s second interview into three parts: 1) facts for which she had personal knowledge; 2) information that she was told by Jay; and 3) information that she said she was not told.

• She only had personal knowledge of the following:
  • Jay was driving a tan car she believed was Adnan’s and using a cell phone that did not belong to him. MPIA 169-171.
  • January 13, 1999 was the first time Jen ever received a call from Adnan’s cell. MPIA 187.
  • Jay and Adnan were casual acquaintances. MPIA 195.
  • Cop’s blabbermouth wife told Jen that the person who found Hae’s body was a suspect. MPIA 198.
  • Confused by a message from Jay about when and where to pick him up, Jen called the number at which Jay paged her and Adnan answered telling her that Jay would talk to her later. MPIA 174.
  • Jen saw Adnan and Jay together in tan car when she picked up Jay at Value City parking lot between 8-830 PM. MPIA 176.
• Jen said that Jay told her the following:
  • Adnan strangled Hae in Best Buy parking lot. MPIA 179.
  • Jay saw Hae’s body in the trunk of a car. MPIA 178.
  • Jay did not know how Adnan got to Best Buy. Id.
  • Jay did not know where Hae’s car was. Id.
  • Jay did not know if Adnan killed Hae in Hae’s car. Id. and MPIA 200.
  • Jay did not know where Hae’s body was buried. MPIA 189.
• Jen did not have any information about the following:
  • No information about times Jay dropped off Adnan. MPIA 179.
  • Jen was told nothing about Hae’s car; not the type or anything. She never saw it before. MPIA 199.

About six hours after completing Jen’s second interview, the detectives picked up Jay from his job at Southwestern Video at 11:30 PM. He was brought to the homicide office at 601 E. Fayette Street, which is about a 20 minute drive from the video store. Jay signed a document waiving his right to counsel at 12:35 AM. The taping of his interview began at 1:30 AM. This is significant. I am not a fan of Susan Simpson and although she is mostly full of shit, she is not always wrong. In the HBO doc she correctly states that a lot happened between the point when Jay was picked up and when the record button was pressed. Unlike Jen, Jay was not represented by counsel. Thus, he was far more vulnerable to the power of suggestion before the record button was pressed.
Ritz and Macgillivary were certain that they were at the 1-yard line and that Jay would provide the key information that would help them clear the case. Their bosses were likely breathing down their necks to give them a killer as it had been almost 3 weeks since Hae’s body was found. Much to their consternation, they got the following (yes, I’m taking some license here, but I’ll guarantee that it’s more accurate than the bullshit that Jay was actually forced to say):

Q: When did you know that the victim was murdered?
Jay: I didn’t know until I saw her body that night at the Park N Ride.
Q: Your friend, Jennifer, said that you saw the victim’s body at a Best Buy parking lot.
Jay: I never said that. I assumed that Adnan killed Hae at the Best Buy.
Q: Why?
Jay: Because that is where I picked him up after he called me at about 3 PM.
Q: Did you see Hae’s car at the Best Buy?
Jay: No. I gave Adnan a ride from there.
Q: Well how the hell did he get there?
Jay: I don’t know. I just know that I picked him up and he took his phone and called some girl and made me say hi to her. Then I dropped him off at track practice. Then he had me pick him up from practice about an hour later and I took him to my friend Kristi’s place. He sat around there for a while and got a couple of calls. The second one freaked him out and he ran out of the apartment. I followed him out and we sat in his car. He said that I had to help him do something. That he needed to get some digging tools from my house. We drove to my place, picked up the digging tools and went to the Park N Ride. On the way he called someone and said to cover for him because he could not make it to the mosque. He then had me call Jen and leave her a message that plans changed and we would not be meeting at Gilston Park. At the Park N Ride, he pulled up to a gray Sentra and popped the trunk to throw in the digging tools. That’s when I saw Hae’s dead body. He told me that he didn’t know what happened to her. Then he had me follow him in his car while he drove the Sentra. He had me stop by the white highway dividers and told me to wait for him there. I waited for about half an hour before he came back in the Sentra. He told me to follow him again. We drove down Edmondson Ave and he stopped at a strip and told me to wait there. He turned right off of Edmondson and was gone for about five minutes. He came back to where I was parked on foot. He then had me call Jen to pick me up at the Value City parking lot at Security Square mall.
Q: Did you know where the victim’s body was buried?
Jay: Not until it was reported on the news a few weeks ago.
Q: Did Adnan tell you that he murdered Hae?
Jay: No. But he had her dead body in the trunk of a car.
Q: Do you know where the Sentra is?
Jay: Yeah, I went back to the area around Edmondson Avenue a few days ago and saw where Adnan parked the car.
Q: Why did you go along with all of this?
Jay: Adnan said that if I didn’t do everything he asked, he would turn me in to you guys for dealing weed. Can I get a public defender or something?
Q: Why would you want one? We haven't charged you with anything. Besides, you already waived your rights. Wait here. We’ll be right back.

Getting Jay’s initial statement probably took all of 20 minutes. Because even under Bilal’s botched plan, Jay was not allowed to know very much. The detectives likely stepped out of the room and acknowledged that they had a serious clusterfuck on their hands. Jay’s account indicated that at least one other unknown accomplice was involved. He did not witness the murder. He had no actual knowledge that Adnan murdered Hae. There was no admission by Adnan to Jay that he committed the murder. No actual knowledge that Adnan buried Hae’s body. No actual knowledge of where Hae’s body was buried. At best, Jay could testify that Adnan was in possession of Hae’s body and provide the location where Hae’s car was dumped. That’s it.
What does that give the cops? A shaky case where they could try to charge Adnan with unlawful disposal of a body. A fucking misdemeanor. Under Md. Code, Health-Gen. Section 5-514(b), that could get Adnan a max prison term of 1 year and a max fine of $5,000. And even that was not a slam dunk. If all Jay could give them was that Adnan had the body and digging tools and dropped him off a mile from where Hae’s body was found, slapping Adnan with even the misdemeanor was far from certain.
I’m being completely serious. That is all they had on Adnan. Based on Jay’s story, the detectives could see what Adnan was doing by establishing alibis for himself. He clearly had help, but they had no leads. Even with a ton of work, securing a murder conviction highly unlikely with what they had. They were not going to let this little fucker get away with it. They were also feeling the heat from their bosses to clear the case. Because Jay was putty in their hands with no legal representation and terrified of what they would do to him, Ritz and Macgillivary made Jay change his story.
On to Part 4

Continued from Part 1

Motive (as revised from this post)

Because I concluded early on that Adnan was involved in Hae’s murder, I did not dwell too much on motive until more recently. I understand the importance of motive for those having difficulty making that leap across the side-walk crack to accept Adnan being a killer. I totally get how Team Adnan's aggressive PR campaign expanded that crack into a chasm the size of the Snake River Canyon for those entrenched in their belief in Adnan’s innocence. Prepare to make the jump that Evel Kneivel could not.
There is a recurring theme among Hae and Adnan's circle of friends where Adnan would talk about how he and Hae were having sex all over the place. I mean, Adnan told everyone. Becky Walker said that Adnan would talk about sex with Hae after the break up, but Hae never corroborated, only implied (p. 28). Adnan boasted about his exploits to Peter Billingsly (p. 41). To Yasar Ali (p. 58). To Stephanie (p. 90). Even to the fucking tipster who called the cops on Feb. 12, 1999 (MPIA 459 824). The only person in Hae's circle who claims that Hae said that she and Adnan were having sex was Debbie Warren. The same Debbie who admitted to reaching out to Don via email after Hae disappeared. The same Debbie who admitted to spending 7 hours on the phone with Don (“Donny”) because she was “investigating” him as a murder suspect of her good friend. The same Debbie who, after learning Hae was murdered, took her investigation up a notch and went out alone with Donny during spring break. The same Debbie who probably would have broken into the police impound lot to drive off in the Sentra because she felt Hae would have wanted her to have that too. There is also an allegation in the investigating Detective’s notes wherein it states that Debbie was physically assaulted by Don. MPIA 1991. Funny how Debbie didn’t mention that in the HBO doc. Yeah, I’d say Debbie is among the least reliable people in this shitshow. And that’s saying a lot.
Adnan did not limit boasting of his sexual prowess to his classmates. He told one of Gutierrez's associates that he had sex with Hae up to 3 times a day, six days a week (A-0192). If Adnan and Hae were having that much sex, under a UV lamp her back seat, where none of Adnan’s genetic material was found, would have lit up like fucking Chernobyl. Also, having sex 18 times a week would have left Hae with no time to write in her diary. But she did and it paints a very different picture. There is no reference in the diary to Hae having sex with Adnan--actually it suggests the opposite. Her July 1, 1998 entry makes it pretty clear that there was not much going on physically between them and it appears that it was Adnan's inability to perform: Hae writes that Adnan told her, "You said that I can't fulfill you physically, well, you can't fulfill me emotionally." She went on to write that earlier that day, "Aisha said, 'Even if you don't have great [sic] sex life, at least you have a strong emotional relationship." Some may argue that Hae avoided including explicit details in her diary knowing that her kid brother had a history of reading it. Ok, but Hae writing about her unfulfilled sexual needs does not exactly look like her brother is her target audience.
As to my reference to Hae's Diary, if you feel a sense of righteous indignation percolating over a crass violation of her privacy, unplug the coffee machine--especially if you watched the HBO documentary. Were you equally offended by the liberal use of Hae's diary embellished with animations and a Hae voiceover? We need not even get into how the diary was cynically exploited to knowingly push a false narrative. Moving on...
Adnan was clearly insecure about his ability to perform, which is likely why he overcorrected by telling anyone who wasn’t wondering that he was a fuck-machine. The letter that, according to Ja’uan, Adnan had Asia transcribe even included the idiotic “playa playa!” reference. He couldn’t even stop from giving himself a sexual affirmation in his fabricated alibi. It continued through the Serial Podcast 15 years later with Rabia laying it on too thick with the “playa playa” bullshit. Add to that the ridiculous amount of love and attention that Hae threw at Adnan that helped prop up his fragile ego. If you have not done so and want to see what all-consuming, inexplicably excessive love and devotion looks like, check out Hae's diary. When Hae was into a guy, she was all in. I can see an insecure guy like Adnan feeding off that firehose of positive vibes. Needing those positive vibes. Hae’s crazy love was the fan that propped up the car dealership balloon man that was Adnan’s sexual identity. It fed the macho swagger image that he wanted to project.
Then in late December 1998, Hae "fuck fished" Adnan (you need to click the link to get my reference and I promise that you will not regret it). Many of Adnan’s supporters point to the fact that Adnan and Hae had broken up before, but in any of the previous breakups did she fuck fish him and focus her affections on another? No. After being the willing target of a love bombing campaign rivaling Dresden during WW2, Adnan's balloon man went limp upon Hae abruptly shutting off the fan. She redirected her bombing campaign to the Pacific theater and went Hiroshima on Don. For the record, that's keeping consistent with the WW2 analogy, not a crack on Hae's ethnicity conflating all Asians. Shit. Having said that, you must indulge me with a natural segue about conflating Asians that is relevant to this case.
While pretending to be desolated upon the news of Hae's body being discovered, Adnan started saying some pretty weird shit. While talking to his friend, Imran Hasnuddin, Adnan declared that he did not believe the dead body was Hae because “all Asians look alike.” Unlike most of us, Adnan's grief apparently has 6 stages. Between denial and anger, he demonstrates bizarre racism. Now it would be strange if this was reported by just Imran. The police record has at least five other witnesses reporting Adnan making similar statements. He said it to his gal pal Stephanie: “All Asian girls look alike. Don’t think it was her, it could be anyone.” He said it to Mr. Kramer, the Health teacher: “All Asian’s look alike. They have the wrong person.” He said it to the school nurse, Sharon Walts, to whom he took it up a notch: “It’s not her. All Asians look alike. All blacks look alike. They have it all wrong.” "Blacks" too, eh? That explains a lot. Adnan probably took false comfort in believing that Al Cowlings was driving him around on January 13 instead of Jay. The examples continue with Adnan's friend, Ja'uan: "All Asian girls look alike." And finally, he said it to his friend who accompanied him to the AT&T store, Peter Billingsly, but this time with a twist: "All Chinese look alike." Yeah, Hae was Korean, but taking exception with that error is like finding fault with someone for eating asparagus before they piss in your face. Anyway, back to Hae transferring her affections from Adnan to Don.
What was worse, Hae was telling everyone in the world--probably including Adnan--how crazy she was about Don and how he was the most wonderful guy in the history of male organisms and female orgasms. That would fuck someone like Adnan up. Having your ex dump you for someone else is one thing. "Fuck fishing" an insecure guy with issues of sexual inadequacy is igniting a powder keg. That alone could have pushed a guy like Adnan over the edge. But add to that the possibility that Adnan confided to Hae what Bilal did to him (possibly the subject of her May 7, 1998 diary entry referring to Adnan telling her a sexual secret about himself). Adnan's head: "What if she tells people of my inability to perform and why?" Bilal had his own thought bubble, "What if she tells people what I did to Adnan?" Hae Min Lee did not have a chance.
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Bilal’s Plot - What Was SUPPOSED to Happen

Many of you will blow your collective tops at this next section. There are also those who reflexively shout “FAN FICTION” any time they encounter a perspective that challenges their world view. But even the fair-minded will be tempted to characterize what follows as fan fiction. It is not. I sincerely ask for your forbearance as you read this. It is the least citation-heavy part of this post. That is because it represents the conclusions that will be explained in the subsequent sections. The conclusions are not based on any single piece of evidence regarded in a vacuum. It is the totality of the evidence based on the actions of Adnan and Bilal, Bilal’s pattern of behavior, Jennifer Pusateri's recorded statement and the obvious and egregious falsification of evidence by the police and prosecutors--the combination of the prisms mentioned earlier. The amalgam of these factors will be discussed in detail and will give evidentiary weight to support the following narrative.
Bilal’s plot had two phases. In phase 1, Hae would be murdered as soon as possible after school with alibis being established immediately thereafter. The closer that first alibi witness could be confirmed after the murder, the less likely anyone would think that Adnan was involved. The remainder of the day would be dedicated to establishing supplemental alibis of Adnan being seen by others and doing things, like going to track practice or leading prayers of the boys group at the mosque—things that a person who just murdered someone would not do. In phase 2, having established Adnan’s alibis the previous day, focus would be turned to permanently disposing of Hae’s car and body before she was reported missing to the police.
Bilal’s plot required Adnan to have someone outside the circle of trust serve two important roles. First, the plot required a key alibi witness who could account for being with Adnan during most of time after which Hae was last seen alive. Second, it required a chauffeur to ferry Adnan to and from places where Adnan could establish supplemental alibis to bolster his innocence. Bilal’s MO is using people who are not too close. People like Jay or Asia. That is to circumvent any suspicion that the person is close enough to have a motivation to lie. For the primary alibi witness, however, Adnan also needed someone over whom he could exercise a degree of control. Someone he could compel to go along and do his bidding without asking too many questions. Jay was the perfect candidate.
Adnan preyed upon Jay’s very real fear of the police and the fact that they would violate Jay’s rights without provocation. Adnan likely threatened to turn in Jay for selling drugs if he did not do as Adnan asked on January 13, 1999. It is important to remember that sixteen years after Jay was enlisted to be Adnan’s chauffeur, Baltimore PD beat Freddie Gray to death for the crime of walking in his neighborhood. Yeah, Freddie ran when he saw the cops–probably because he was afraid that they would do what they did to him. Now give the cops the slightest cause like informing them that Jay sells drugs. It’s fair to say that Jay would be compelled to play along under such a threat.
Again, and I cannot overemphasize this, Jay was only supposed to be an alibi witness in Bilal’s elaborate plot. He was not supposed to know of the plan to murder Hae. He was not supposed to know that Adnan was anywhere near Hae’s car. He was definitely not supposed to see Hae’s dead body. Jay was to have no information that would connect Adnan to Hae’s murder. Bilal’s plan would not allow for it. All he was supposed to know was that if he failed to play ball on January 13, 1999, Adnan would drop a dime and Jay’s life would be over.
Adnan was admonished by Bilal that under no circumstances was he to use his new phone to call Bilal on the days surrounding January 13, 1999. If something went wrong with the plot and the cops started sniffing around Adnan, Bial didn’t want to be implicated or questioned. They likely went over last minute details in person during the night of January 12 when Adnan’s phone was pinging the tower by Bilal’s dental school. Adnan was supposed to call Hae that night to confirm that she would give him a ride after school.
During the morning of January 13, 1999, under the ruse of helping Jay buy a birthday gift for his girlfriend, Stephanie, Adnan left his car and recently activated phone with Jay. After school, Adnan got a ride from Hae by telling her some bullshit about his car being repaired. He likely asked her to drive him to a remote place where he said his car would be dropped off. At that remote location, Hae was murdered. It was NOT at the Best Buy parking lot. I know. Just bear with me for a bit. The explanations for why things unfolded will be explained in due course.
Hae’s car and body were left at the Interstate 70 Park N Ride at Security Blvd. Whether the murder took place there is neither known nor is it relevant. Adnan got a ride from an unknown third accomplice from the Park N Ride to the Best Buy at 1701 Belmont Ave. Under Bilal’s plan they could not risk Jay picking up Adnan from the Park N Ride where Jay might see Hae’s car. This was part of Bilal thinking ahead because once Hae was reported missing, there would be descriptions of her vehicle on the news. If Jay saw Adnan with Hae’s car, he could make an anonymous call. Jay was not supposed to see Hae’s car that day.
Upon arriving at the Best Buy, Adnan called his cell to have Jay pick him up. Jay arrived at the Best Buy giving Adnan his earliest Alibi for Jan. 13. Per Bilal’s instructions, Adnan would go to work at establishing supplemental alibis. First, Bilal thought it was necessary to bolster Jay’s status as a reliable alibi witness. I hope that no one will fault me for assuming that among Bilal’s least offenses was that he’s a racist. Bilal likely thought that the same reasons Jay was pliable—a black kid who sold weed—made him a weak alibi witness. Thus, Adnan needed to have someone back up the claim that he was with Jay at least as early as 3:30 PM. This was also the most important time point given how close it was to the murder. Adnan’s alibi that he was with Jay at about 3:30 PM had to be unimpeachable. Thus, when Jay arrived at the Best Buy, Adnan would immediately reclaim his phone and call Nisha. This is critical. After saying hi to Nisha, Adnan would hand the phone over to Jay and have him say hi to her too. Nisha never met Jay nor did she have any idea who he was. Trial Tr. 1/28/2000 at 189:25-190:17. This wasn’t Adnan playfully tossing his phone to Jay. It was deliberate. Per Bilal’s instruction, Adnan had to do this to give himself a corroborating alibi witness who could confirm that Adnan was with Jay at 3:32 PM. That was the purpose of the Nisha call.
Per Bilal’s plan, Adnan would then be dropped off at track practice (even though he was exempt because of Ramadan) to give himself more alibi witnesses. After track, Adnan would be picked up by Jay and taken to the apartment of people Jay knows who would make for additional alibi witnesses. People like Kristi Vinson, who was pursuing her graduate degree in social work at UMBC. From Kristi’s place, Adnan was supposed to drop Jay off at Gilston Park where he would meet Jen at around 6:30 PM. Trial Tr. 2/15/2000 at 187:18-25. Jay and Jen would often go to this park together to walk her dog. Jen would serve as another potential alibi witness. Adnan was to then head home to prepare to go to the mosque for taraweeh prayers. Bilal arranged to have Adnan lead prayers among the youth group of 20 boys and to also give a short talk that would be seen by the hundreds of congregants/alibi witnesses at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. End of phase 1.
Phase 2 was likely supposed to kick off early in the morning the next day. Because Bilal was operating under the fallacy that Hae’s family would have to wait 24 hours before reporting her missing, he thought his conspirators had at least until the afternoon of January 14, 1999 to properly dispose of Hae’s car and body. Dispose of them in a way that they would never be found.
That is actually not a bad plan. If it was executed as Bilal had intended, Hae’s murder would likely have remained a mystery. If Jay had been kept in the dark as intended by Bilal, Jay would have nothing to tell the police except that he picked up Adnan soon after school let out. If Jay remained an alibi witness for Adnan, the timing of Hae’s murder would not have been pinpointed to the critical window from when she left school at 2:15 PM and when she failed to pick up her cousins about an hour later. No one would have questioned Adnan’s whereabouts on January 13th on a minute-by-minute basis. Even if they did, Bilal’s plan had Adnan well insulated for almost the entire time after school doing things that one would not expect a 17-year-old to do if he had just committed murder. Had things gone according to plan, we would not be talking about this case today. Bilal’s plan gave Adnan more than enough cover to get away with murder. Of course, things did not play out according to Bilal’s carefully orchestrated plot.

What DID Happen - Jay's Status as Alibi Compromised

This part was the most difficult to piece together because of the multiple versions provided by Jay. There was his February 28 interview. His March 15th interview. His trial testimony. His interview 15 years later with The Intercept. Then there are other factors that give context to Jay’s statements like Jen and Kristi’s police interviews, the police progress reports, Adnan’s cell phone records, the distance between the locations where Jay and Adnan traveled, the pressure the police were applying to Jay, etc. to which deductive reasoning is applied and conclusions can be drawn.
The night of January 12, 1999, Adnan called Hae three times. No response during the first two calls. She picked up the third. She was in the midst of talking to Don (while writing Don’s name 127 times in her diary at pg. 66 of the pdf). She wanted to get back to Don on the other line with whom she was on the phone until 3 AM and likely asked Adnan if she could call him back. Adnan was thrown off by this and stumbled while trying to give Hae his cell number. Because he still didn’t have it memorized, he started giving her a number starting with a 410 area code--like his home number--out of habit. He caught himself and gave her the correct number with the 443 area code to his cell phone but did not tell her it was his cell phone. This is reflected in how Hae noted Adnan’s new cell number in her diary (starting with the incorrect area code) without any indication that it was his cell phone. This was the first major deviation from Bilal’s plan. Adnan was not supposed to give Hae his cell number. Now it was in her diary. That seemingly inconsequential act would later bite Adnan in the ass and cause Bilal’s plot to fall apart. More recently, Adnan turned his unintended act of giving Hae his cell number to his advantage by making it sound as though he was calling Hae specifically for that purpose. Hae did not call Adnan back because, as her diary indicates and police record corroborates, she had someone else on her mind.
The uninitiated might ask at this point, “well if Adnan wasn’t supposed to give out his number, why did he let other people in his circle of friends have it?” I’ll do that annoying thing of answering a question with a question: Of the people to whom Adnan gave his cell number, how many ended up dead on January 13, 1999? I said that Hae was not supposed to have Adnan’s cell number.
January 13, 1999 likely unfolded more or less according to Bilal’s plan described in the previous section. Except the cops did not adhere to the 24-hour missing person fallacy. Not all police departments follow that police and even those that do make exceptions. This was a reliable young woman who always picked up her cousins from school between 3-3:15 PM. When Hae failed to show up, her family called the cops who responded at 5:12 PM. This prompted Hae’s brother to get her diary and look for clues and the number of her new boyfriend, Don, to see if he knew her whereabouts. As we know, Hae’s brother called Adnan thinking the number written in the corner of the page was Don’s. Adcock, the officer responding to the missing person report, followed up with his own call to Adnan’s cell at 6:24 PM while Adnan sat on the floor of Kristi’s apartment being seen. That call caused Adnan to shit his pants. We know that Jen called Kristi’s apartment while Adnan and Jay were there. Trial Tr. 2/16/2000 at 211:3-213:13. We know that Kristi’s boyfriend, Jeff, told Jen that she was supposed to pick up Jay at Gilston park (aka Westview Recreation Area). Trial Tr. 2/15/2000 at 187:18-25. This plan was subsequently scrapped and is evidence that Adcock reaching Adnan on his new cell prompted Adnan to call the audible and deviate from Bilal’s plan.
Jay and Adnan left Kristi’s place and sat in Adnan’s car. Trial Tr. 2/16/2000 at 213:15 - 214:4. Adnan was feeling that the walls were closing in and freaking out. I asserted in previous posts that this is the point at which Adnan switched Jay from being a reluctant alibi witness to a shanghaied accessory after the fact. I no longer believe that is the case. It’s more likely that Adnan kept Jay in the dark about what had happened to Hae until the trunk of her Nissan was opened. While it is entirely possible that Adnan freaked out and spilled to Jay what he had done immediately after getting the call from Officer Adcock, the police investigation suggests otherwise. As desperate as Adnan was, he was carefully schooled by Bilal to give up as little incriminating information as possible. This can be inferred in part based on Jen’s February 27, 1999 statement to the police, which we will discuss in due course.
For what happened next, it is important to remember that this was 1999. Smartphones with GPS would not be a thing for at least a few years. These guys were not taking the most direct routes to their destinations and were operating in panic mode. They were taking the ways they knew. When they didn’t know, they relied on paper maps with palm prints on them.
Sitting in his car outside Kristi’s apartment, Adnan made the half-baked decision to dispose of Hae’s body asafp instead of waiting until the next morning per Bilal’s plan. He and Jay drove in Adnan’s car to Jay’s house to pick up digging tools. From Jay’s house, they took 695 to Security Blvd. That is not the most direct route to where Hae's car and body were located at the Park N Ride, but it’s the route that Adnan knew. He had taken Security Blvd. earlier that day from the Park N Ride to the Best Buy that is located near the highway exit. Upon exiting 695, Adnan called Yasar Ali’s cell to have him convey the message to Bilal that Adnan would not be able to be at the mosque to lead the youth group prayers that evening. That is the 6:59 PM ping at tower L651A. Immediately after that, Jay left a voice message to Jen’s pager scrapping the plan to meet at Gilston Park. That is the 7:00 PM call pinging the same tower. The close timing of the calls indicates that Jay and Adnan were together, likely in Adnan’s car heading to the Park N Ride.
Upon arriving at the Park N Ride, Adnan popped the trunk to Hae’s Sentra to load the digging materials. This is when Jay likely first saw Hae’s body in the trunk of her Nissan and was the first time Jay knew that Hae was dead. I know what Jay said in his 2014 interview in The Intercept. Some of what he said there adds up while some does not. As you will see in subsequent parts, Jay was compelled to change his story so many times under so many threats that he didn't know down from up. It was likely from this point at seeing Hae's body that Jay went from alibi witness to accessory after the fact. There was no flexing on Adnan's part. No, "I killed the bitch!" If anything, Adnan likely told Jay that he didn't know what happened to her. Adnan then instructed Jay to follow him in Adnan’s Honda. This is when Adnan likely reached for the map in Hae’s glove box and left his palm print. Adnan stopped about one mile from Hae’s burial site and told Jay to wait for him there. This is critical. Even though Adnan had abandoned Bilal’s ridiculously detailed plot, he was still trying to adhere to Bilal’s admonition to avoid disclosing incriminating evidence. If Jay didn’t know where the body was buried, he could not share that information with anyone else. I know that you’re thinking that I’m pulling this out of my ass, but consider the following. The day after the public received news of Hae’s body being discovered in Leakin Park, a witness reported to the police that he saw a young black male acting suspicious and hanging around the road near some concrete barriers at Leakin Park by a light colored vehicle (Adnan’s car looked like this. The police dismissed the witness's report at the time because the spot where the black kid was acting suspiciously was a mile from Hae’s burial site. Jay would later tell investigating detectives during his first recorded interview that he parked near some concrete barriers at Leakin Park when he was helping Adnan dispose of Hae’s body. MPIA 244-245.
While Adnan was doing a half-assed burial, Jen called Adnan’s cell because Jay’s message changing the plan to meet up was confusing to her. MPIA 174. Adnan did not toss his phone to Jay to speak with his buddy, Jen, the way he tossed his phone to Jay earlier that day to speak with Nisha who Jay did not know. Adnan told Jen that Jay would call her soon. He said that because Jay was probably not there. After finishing with the body, Adnan drove Hae’s car back to where he left Jay with his Honda. Adnan had Jay follow him down Edmondson Avenue where he had Jay stop and wait while Adnan drove a few blocks down and left Hae’s car at the lot by the 300 block of Edgewood Street. Again, following Bilal’s rules, Adnan was making sure that Jay did not know the precise location of Hae’s car. Adnan hoofed it back to Edmondson Ave where Jay was waiting in the Honda. Thus, Jay had, at best, a rough idea where Hae’s car could be found.
Jay would later tell the police that he happened to be in the area a few days before his February 28th interview and saw that Hae’s car was still there. MPIA 251. It is unlikely that Jay just “happened to be there.” He likely revisited the location to look around and see precisely where Adnan had ditched Hae’s car. That is how he was able to help the detectives locate the vehicle on February 28th.
Jay used Adnan’s phone to page Jen instructing her to pick him up at the Value City parking lot. Adnan dropped Jay off at the parking lot where Jen was waiting. Upon getting into Jen’s car, Jay did what almost any person who had just witnessed such a crime would do. He did what Bilal knew an unnecessary witness would do. He did what a person outside of Bilal and Adnan’s circle of trust would do. He told his good friend that Adnan Syed murdered Hae Min Lee.
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The Police Investigation - "Good Cop" Part

Do we really need to explain why Jay did not immediately go to the cops? Being black, poor and having a history of negative encounters with cops should be enough. Add to that, the fact that Jay only had partial information. He knew Hae was murdered. He knew Adnan played a role. But he didn’t know the where, when or how. Even if he did, Jay would likely have not gone to the police. There is not much of an incentive to tell your story to people you expect will screw you. Jen did not go to the police either. According to Jen, Jay did not know where Hae’s body was buried nor did he know where her car was located. I used to think that this was Jay being careful by holding information back from Jen so that she would not have enough to go to the cops either. But neither Jay nor any other kid in his situation who was freaked out at what he had just experienced would be capable of being that calculating. Jay was not schooled in the art of criminal behavior by the likes of Bilal Ahmed. He was in no state of mind where he could carve out what he should tell Jen and what he should withhold. He dumped what he knew on her along with some of what he thought he knew. For example, because he picked up Adnan from the Best Buy, Jay incorrectly assumed that Adnan must have murdered her there. At any rate, Jay and Jen kept this huge secret from the cops although they both later admitted to telling a few others. Jay told his neighbor while Jen told a couple of her co-workers. It is important to note that according to Jen’s statement, Jay did not mention anything to her about Adnan saying that he planned to kill Hae or bragging afterward that he did it.
Because of their respective relationships with Hae, the cops questioned both Don and Adnan while it was still a missing persons case. Adnan did not do himself any favors by contradicting what he had told Adcock on January 13th about getting a ride from Hae. MPIA 814. Hae’s disappearance continued as a missing person’s case until February 9, 1999 when her body was found by Alonzo Sellers, an employee at Coppin State College. Sellers reported his discovery to the campus cops who then reported it to BCPD. Despite having done the right thing, Sellers was the first suspect upon whom the police focused their attention. His checkered past did not exactly cloak him in the shroud of innocence. In fact, Alonzo had a penchant for running around not shrouded in anything with multiple arrests for indecent exposure. MPIA 673-690 (not included in AdnanSyedWiki). Even if he was a model citizen, the cops would have given Sellers a close look and not just because he is black. It is common in cases like this for the cops to give scrutiny to the person who appears to be a good Samaritan reporting a crime. Some free advice to any innocent person who stumbles across a dead body: Save yourself a lot of grief and report it anonymously. If you're a murderer, please leave copies of your drivers license and social security number along with your fingerprints and blood samples at the crime scene and report the dead body in person at the police station.
The fact that the cops were treating Sellers as their primary suspect during the days following the discovery of Hae’s body was not disclosed to the public. There were no news stories about suspects or details about the investigation until Adnan’s arrest on February 28, 1999. Even Sellers’ name was not in the news. It was only reported as follows:

“Baltimore police said a man out walking found the grave, which was about 100 feet off Franklintown Road in the secluded West Baltimore park – about a mile from Woodlawn High.” Baltimore Sun, February 12, 1999, pg. 8C.

The police record shows that Sellers was given the third degree by the cops for almost two weeks. His work records were pulled and he was subjected to two polygraph tests. MPIA 661-672. The investigation of Sellers cuts against the idea that the police dedicated themselves to framing Adnan. That said, I would not put it past these cops to do such a thing, but they did not have enough information at the time to do so.
We know that Det. Massey received the anonymous call pointing the cops in Adnan’s direction one day after news of the discovery of Hae’s body was announced. Not being a linguist, Massey noted that the person on the phone sounded Asian. I’ll go out on a limb and say that Massey probably would not be able to distinguish the accent of Apu of the Simpsons from William Hung, the unfortunate contestant from American Idol. The caller suggested that the cops call Yasar Ali, the same person Adnan called at 6:59 PM on January 13th likely to convey the message that he would not be leading prayers that night at the mosque. As indicated in more detail in the Leaving Baltimore post, the tipster was probably part of the same boys group at the mosque mentored by Bilal Ahmed. The anonymous tip prompted the grand jury to subpoena Adnan’s cell records on February 16, 1999, which were received from AT&T the next day. Despite the tip, the focus of the investigation continued to be on Sellers until he was cleared on February 24, 1999 (the validity of polygraph tests is beyond the scope of this post). The police did, however, follow up on the tip by interviewing Yasar on February 15, 1999. Yasar didn’t give the cops anything to go on, but based on the calls made to Yasar in the cell records, you can be certain that he relayed to Adnan that he was hot. Adnan called Yasar on February 15th and four more times on February 17th.
On to Part 3

https://www.wsj.com/articles/36-hours-in-bakhmut-one-units-desperate-battle-to-hold-back-the-russians-72e30f01
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说明一下， 我不是看到又特别黑乌克兰的文章才转， 而是这个文章都是数据， 特别容易翻译。 我还看到一个new Yorker 的文章是说五兵人生活的， 那个要找个翻译软件来慢慢翻。整个英文文章在下面。
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16个人， 二月被征召入伍。 大部分是哈尔科夫附近的穷人。 16号进兵营训练了两天。18号坐车去巴赫木特。21号开始打。
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第一场打了36个小时， 只回去了5个（剩下的死了或者俘虏）3月2号又被派回去再打了一场。
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一个农民叫Puhasiy ， 有个9岁儿子， 被俄国兵俘虏了， （可能自己投降了， 给我我也投。） 在俄国监狱呆了两个月， 4月被交换了回去。 现在在干嘛没有说。
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36 Hours in Bakhmut: One Unit’s Desperate Battle to Hold Back the Russians
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By Matthew Luxmoore
May 25, 2023 12:01 am ET
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KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine—Pvt. Oleksiy Malkovskiy, an unemployed father of three, fired a rocket-propelled grenade for the first time in his life on the front lines of the battle for Bakhmut in February.
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Russian troops were assaulting one of the apartment blocks that his group of 16 draftees, many of whom had been enlisted days earlier and given no training, had been assigned to defend.
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Malkovskiy missed. The Russians fired their own RPG and hit the wall beside him, leaving him concussed. He ran from the building and hid in a vegetable patch, his ears buzzing. When he returned after sundown, the bodies of two of his comrades lay in the room.
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Over the 36 hours he spent in brutal house-to-house combat in the eastern Ukrainian city, 11 of the 16 men from Malkovskiy’s group of draftees were either killed or captured, according to surviving soldiers and relatives of the missing.
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Russia finally consolidated control over Bakhmut over the weekend, after a 10-month battle that Kyiv used to grind down Russia’s forces. While neither side has disclosed its casualties, many thousands of soldiers on both sides have died on the Bakhmut front, according to Western estimates. Many more have been injured.
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In an effort to preserve brigades trained and equipped by the West for a widely anticipated offensive, and with many of its professional soldiers dead, Kyiv sent in mobilized soldiers and territorial defense units, sometimes with patchy training and equipment.
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The ultimate success or failure of Ukraine’s strategy in Bakhmut will hinge on the results of the bigger offensive.
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“If you can avoid having to divert your decisive combat force toward something like Bakhmut, which would have a long-term negative impact on the overall counteroffensive, then you do it,” said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. “Of course you still pay a high price.”
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The 16 men including Malkovskiy, enlisted into the 5th company of Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade, left Kharkiv on Feb. 16 by bus for the brigade’s base 2½ hours’ drive south.
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The passengers were mostly poor men from villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region, many of them unemployed, doing odd jobs as handymen or shift work at factories in the regional capital. Many had received mobilization notices that month, according to their military-service records. While some had completed mandatory service years or decades earlier, almost none had seen active combat.
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They spent two nights at the base, where they were given Soviet-era rifles and uniforms, according to military documents and photos. On Feb. 18, they were driven to Kostyantynivka, 16 miles from Bakhmut, and billeted in a house on the outskirts of the garrison town.
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They posed for photos with their rifles in front of religious icons placed on the mantelpiece of the house, drinking energy drinks on bunks in one of the bedrooms, and smoking and eating in the kitchen.
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On the morning of Feb. 21, the company sergeant major arrived to say he had orders to send the men into Bakhmut in groups of six. Russian forces were edging closer to the river that bisects the city, pressuring Ukrainian units defending themselves from constant mortar and artillery bombardment.
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Some of the men threatened to write an official refusal to follow the order, citing a lack of training. Vladyslav Yudin, an ex-convict from the eastern city of Luhansk, said he told the sergeant major he had never held a gun, let alone shot one, and was scared. “Bakhmut will teach you,” he said the man replied.
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When the first group of men arrived in Bakhmut that evening, they were told to follow a commander to their position. They walked down alleyways past the ruins of bombarded buildings, stepping over downed telephone poles and unexploded Russian shells.
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They reached a high-rise apartment block separated by a shed, a chain-link fence and a small garden from Russian troops in the next building. They took up positions beside windows on the first floor. Then they came under fire with grenades and mortars, and Yudin said he saw Serhiy Didik, a 36-year-old villager, and the commander killed in front of him. “It was hell on earth,” he said.
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Less than 300 yards away, farmer Serhiy Puhasiy was in a house under heavy Russian attack that forced his group out. He came under machine-gun fire from the third story of another building and watched his squad leader and another soldier fall. He found himself exposed as bullets whizzed around him. He fell to the ground and soon found himself surrounded by Russian soldiers.
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“Are you alone?” asked one of the Russians, tying his arms while another removed the rifle from his hands and took off his body armor. He said he was.
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Since that battle on Feb. 21 and 22, and a subsequent mission on March 2 for which the unit’s surviving members were sent back into Bakhmut, the wives of the missing have been searching for information. They have written to the Red Cross and United Nations, called a Ukrainian government hotline, and posted to dozens of social-media pages for the disappeared.
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Puhasiy’s wife, Anzhela, received notice that her husband was missing on Feb. 24, three days after she had last spoken to him. “It’s like standing on a cliff edge. I’m neither a wife, nor a widow,” she said in an interview in early April. “The worst thing is not knowing.”
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The couple’s 9-year-old son, Vladyslav, drew a picture of himself standing atop a tank clutching a Ukrainian flag, headed to the front line. “Daddy, I’ll save you,” reads his caption.
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In early March, two military officials arrived at the home of Vasiliy Zelinskiy, a 51-year-old steel-factory shift worker with a diagnosed spine ailment, to share news of his disappearance. His wife, Olena, began to sob, asking them, “How can it happen that you took a man away without training and a week later he’s gone?” One man lowered his eyes, she said, and the other answered, “It’s war. No one will train them now.”
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On April 2, a channel tied to the Wagner paramilitary group that spearheaded Russia’s assault on Bakhmut posted a photo of Didik’s military ID and said he had been confirmed dead. But Didik’s wife, Valentina, is convinced he is in Russian captivity. “I know my husband is alive,” she said in a message to The Wall Street Journal. “My heart feels it.”
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The wives of the missing men are angry that they were sent into Bakhmut without training. The vast majority of mobilized soldiers in Ukraine receive at least minimal preparation, and cases of untrained men being ordered to fight aren’t widespread. But Ukrainian law doesn’t specify how long training should last, and lawyers say recruits can do little beyond lodging a complaint via their commanders or a Defense Ministry hotline.
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Ukrainian lawmakers in February introduced a bill mandating a minimum of three months’ preparation for mobilized troops, but it hasn’t advanced through Parliament. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry denied sending soldiers without training into Bakhmut, and an officer from the 93rd said he hadn’t heard of such cases in his unit. “If it happens, it’s wrong,” he said. A spokesman for Ukraine’s armed forces declined to comment.
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In mid-April, Puhasiy was released in a prisoner swap after almost two months in Russian captivity. He was held in a prison in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region before being moved to a cell in an abandoned factory. He and a dozen others were blindfolded, driven to Bakhmut and told to walk across the front line as Russian troops communicated by radio with the Ukrainians, ensuring both sides held their fire.
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In the end, Puhasiy believes, it was his very short service in the military that saved him from execution at the hands of his captors. When the Russians looked at his military record card and saw the date he was mobilized, less than a week earlier, they asked how long he had fought. “Twenty-four hours,” he replied. He said they warned that if he is ever captured again, he won’t survive.