This is going to be a long post. Please bear with me… I really do need to hear your advice, people’s stories who went through it and I just really need to vent as well.
For context, we are located in Canada, where the law is : Personal relations between the child and his grandparents may be maintained or developed to the extent that it is in the child’s interest.
This has been my #1 fear ever since I got pregnant. I’ve seen it coming without being able to do anything to stop it. I have been NC with her officially for 3 years, but grey rocking and limiting contact and information for 5. This means I have been NC long before even getting pregnant. She hasn’t seen me pregnant; she has never met my child. These have been the happiest years of my life. I got married to a wonderful man, I learnt how to build authentic and meaningful relationships in therapy, I got to know myself outside her control, I went back to school to pursue my childhood dream of being a paramedic. A career she refused I pursue when I got out of high school. And… I had a wonderful baby boy who is now 16 months old.
Years ago, I changed my phone number, I moved and did everything to keep my new address a secret. She called, again and again, my husband, my dad, my brothers, our family friends, etc. She hired a private investigator to find me. She sent letters and gifts for my son, she showed up and stalked our house for days. She even spotted us having a family stroll and followed us in her car to try and force us to talk to her. She resumed calling me and leaving messages. She threatened to come back to my house to assert her “right” to see my son. Which is quite scary because I do believe she feels entitled enough to just take him if she has the opportunity.
On a more positive note, we did file a harassment complaint with the police. After a year or so of calling them every single time she tried to contact us, they finally sent the file to the procurer for prosecution on criminal harassment charges. We’ve got that going for us. But we haven't heard from the procurer yet.
None of it deterred her from getting a lawyer and taking us to family court for visitation rights with my son. I think I might actually lose my mind. As a parent, it’s hard to explain the level of rage I feel knowing that someone is coming to hurt/use/manipulate/discard my child. This innocent little man with the greatest laugh on Earth cannot be hurt by this miserable woman. I don’t know how to cope with the fact that the law isn’t on my side and that she might get want she wants. We are also looking at 20k in lawyers’ fees to defend ourselves… She had to nerve to tell us “you should call me to arrange a visit, otherwise I will have to take you to court and it’s going to cost you a lot”. Does she think my son’s wellbeing is for sale?! WTF.
I have to prove that contact isn’t in the best interest of my son, and I know all too well that the court system doesn’t recognize the emotional, verbal, psychological and financial abuse that comes with having any kind of relationship with a narcissist. Especially one that birthed you.
So, the advice part of this post:
- How do you find a lawyer that understands narcissism?
- How do you frame narcissistic abuse for the Court to understand it?
- If you went through this, please I want to hear your story and recommendations.
I will update this post every step of the way. Hopefully, when this is all over, it will be a story of hope.

Background
As noted by this article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/kathleen-folbigg-attorney-general-provides-update/102440136
In the state of New South Wales, Australia, Kathleen Folbigg was pardoned after 20 years in jail over killing her four children.
Key points are:

• "The barrister for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Dean Jordan SC, said the discovery of the gene mutation "fundamentally changes our understanding of the circumstances leading to the deaths of the girls." Mr Jordan said pathology evidence relevant to the death of each Folbigg child was not available when she stood trial in 2003."
  
• "There was also evidence that the second child, Patrick, may have had an underlying genetic disorder that predisposed him to epilepsy."
  
• "At the trial, the diary entries were seen critical to the conviction, but experts who have since analysed them for the first time told the judicial inquiry they were the expressions of a depressed and grieving mother."
  

The campaign to have her conviction reviewed included a petition from 90 scientists around the world.

Two years later, 90 scientists from around the world signed a petition handed to NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, calling for Ms Folbigg to be pardoned.
The petition was based on an international study, which found an arrhythmia syndrome was a reasonable explanation for the death of the Folbigg girls, while the two boys carried different gene variants shown to cause life-threatening early-onset epilepsy in mice.

While the final report from the inquiry by the well respected former NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst is still ongoing, his preliminary findings effectively stated his final report would not change the outcome and Kathleen Folbigg should be released as soon as possible.
After reviewing the report over the weekend, Michael Daley, the Attorney-General of New South Wales, sought and received a pardon from the NSW Governor General.
The drama
While most in /australia hailed the pardon, there were others who decided they know more than the scientists about science and the former Chief Justice about law.
Slapfight 1:

... But sure, no doubt some random on Reddit knows more than the 80 (ETA: it was actually 90) scientists who signed a letter confirming there was reasonable doubt in the case.

And what the fuck do scientists know about the rest of the evidence? The counter to her diaries is just contrarianism that asks you to defy all common sense and logic. That's not even including the recordings and her entire fucking family and husband being certain she did it.

Yeah, what the fuck would scientists know about the scientific evidence which has freed her?

Slapfight 2:

Highly improbable that all her kids died from the same genetic condition. I don't think she is innocent.

The armchair critics have spoken, throw her back in

It's just statistics and probabilities.

Yeah, what are the odds that children with the same parents have the same genetic condition? /s

Slapfight 3:

Very sad for the father of the kids.
Of course she did it. This is the state of NSW just giving up because they've received blowback by a small cotiere of fanatics who think it's normal for a mother of 4 dead children to write highly incriminating quasi-admissions in a diary, comparing themselves to their homicidal father.

The 90 scientists - including Nobel winners - who put their names to a letter regarding the probable doubt in this case are merely a "small cotiere of fanatics"?
Sure, mate.

Slapfight 4:

Aside from the fact she confessed in her diary i suppose

[Bathurst] said diary entries used to convict her were the writings of a grieving and possibly depressed mother, blaming herself for the death of each child, as distinct from admissions that she murdered or otherwise harmed them.

Have you read the entries? And also when she said "well I am my fathers daughter"? Her father stabbed her mother tondeath when Kathleen was 18 months old

And? She didn't stab her kids, did she?
Yes, I've read them. They sound like a grieving woman blaming herself for the tragic sudden deaths of her kids. I know a woman who lost a child to cancer who blames herself, because grief is irrational like that.

Slapfight 5

Have you ever once heard her say that she's innocent? I apologise in advance but this woman is evil personified.

What on Earth are you talking about. She has always maintained her innocence.

When? Where?

Lol she literally pleaded not guilty.

Of course she did and because she's White, you believe her.

Is that the same whitness that had her in jail for 20 years fuckhead?

There is more if you hunt in there.

Race Information

• Name: Race the Lake Marathon
• Date: June 3, 2023
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Cooperstown, NY
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9196070733
• Time: 5:20

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 5	No

Splits

Mile	Time
1	10:55
2	10:52
3	10:43
4	10:45
5	10:58
6	10:46
7	10:50
8	11:14
9	10:50
10	10:39
11	11:22
12	11:04
13	10:58
14	11:30
15	12:05
16	10:42
17	12:06
18	12:23
19	4:30
20	11:46
21	11:12
22	11:40
23	12:51
24	12:38
25	11:04
26	12:34

Training

I am not a runner, I started running in barefoot shoes 8 months prior to this race while sprinkling in a few barefoot runs as well. This was something I didn’t ever in my life think I could do.
Training was difficult for this, I have 3 young children who are very active with sports so finding the time to train was tricky. I was either running at 4am before the kids woke up, or running at night after the kids went to sleep. With all of my regular training, I refuse to allow my training to take time away from my children, so I treated this with no difference.
The course had a lot of elevation, 1500 feet to be exact so I knew I had to train hills. Luckily, I live in the countryside, so everywhere was hills. I incorporated them into every aspect of my runs which helped a lot. Training went well overall, I was building mileage appropriately, recovering nicely, everything was on point until I broke my little toe at Taekwondo practice. I couldn’t put shoes on for 5 days it was so badly swollen. The toe broke 5 weeks before race day. Terrible timing as that was when I was really ramping up my mileage. I decided to cut out the long runs and focus on hammering the hills. Every run hurt, but it was manageable. Sadly, I knew this left me as being under trained for the race, I knew it was going to hurt. But I had made a commitment to myself, my kids and I was raising money for the Taekwondo school, so I couldn’t let them down. The good thing was I was prepared for the hills. The bad thing, my longest ever run was a HM, and the longest run on this training block was 12 miles.

Pre-race

I was nervous, I knew I had under trained, my toe hurt but the show had to go on. 2 days prior to the race I started loading up on carbs, and eating as healthy as I could. I was stretching, doing breathing exercises and really trying to mentally prepare for what was to come. I am new to running, but not new to doing fairly extreme fitness stuff. I’ve done 1300 burpees in 2 hours, I train in Kettlebell Sport, so the mental side of this wasn’t going to be an issue. Ive smashed through pain barriers and walls hundreds of times. It was the physical side I was worried about because I knew I wasn’t prepared as well as I could have been.
I slept like a baby the night before, woke up early, ate some oatmeal, drank an electrolyte drink and drove to the race. I did a little stretching, chatted to the folks running, made some jokes and tried to keep calm and relaxed, even though inside I was very nervous!

Race

Miles 1 through 13.1 went off beautifully, I kept a great pace, not too fast, nice and smooth all while watching the beautiful views of the lake. I was focused in on myself and not those around me. I actually made my 2nd fastest HM time! Everything was going great, but doubts started to creep into my mind. At this point I was in unchartered territory as far as distance goes. Id never been past this point, my mind was telling me things I didn’t want to hear, but ultimately I felt OK.
Miles 13.1 through 18 continued to go quite smoothly, I was maintaining a good pace, hitting the hills hard and recovering on the downhills as I did in my training. I was stopping for 30 seconds at every aid station, stretching, hydrating etc and then continuing on nicely. The difficulty was ramping up though, the sun was right into my face and the wind followed. It felt like I was pushing against a wall in some places, especially on the uphills. At this point I decided to start taking the race by chinks. 0.25 mile chunks at a time, get through that, then move onto the next 0.25 miles. This helped me immensely.
Miles 18 through 23 I did not hit the famous wall! It got hard, but mentally I was absolutely fine, continuing to break the race into 0.25 mile chunks. Physically was becoming more of a struggle, my toe was hurting really bad. One difficult thing about this race was we ran with traffic (the right hand side of the road) so every step was essentially on my little toe. It was between this mileage where the pain was excruciating.
Miles 23 through 25 I was in the middle of the countryside, I hadn’t seen anyone for some time. I knew there was quite a few people behind me, but I didn’t see them. I hit a breaking point in my mind and I wanted to quit. The next 3 miles seemed impossible. I tried to focus myself, so I started to think about my grandmother and grandfather. They were the only people in my life who believed in me. They always told me when I was growing up that I can do anything I put my mind too. These thoughts caused me to cry a little bit, so I decided that I would crawl across that line if I had to. Mile 24 the cramps started, full body cramps, uncontrollable (Was this a wall?) so I decided to just yell at the cramps and push through, every step hurt but my mind was strong. That’s all I needed to continue.
The last mile. The cramps did not let up, but I was close to the finish line I knew I had done it, I knew I had finished something I didn’t ever believe I could do, with a broken toe as well! I was 0.4 miles from the finish line and I was struggling bad. A very kind man with a bike who was sweeping up and down the race to make sure people were OK rode alongside me and said im so close to finishing, finish strong! He then offered to run the last part with me. He got off his bike, told me to set the pace and we finished together. I will be forever grateful to him for that support, because I really needed it.

Post-race

I got my medal, got my photograph, sat down for a minute and drank some water, got up and drove an hour to pick my kids up from their grandparents’ house. Drove another hour home, took my dogs for a walk, and collapsed on the sofa exhausted haha. My boys got my massage gun out and started using it on my feet, they wanted to do everything for me (They are only 5 and 7) so that was super sweet! For dinner I ate a triple burger with extra bacon from the local restaurant, best tasting burger EVER!!. It took a long time for my heart rate to normalize but once it did I went to sleep and slept well. The next morning the left side of my body hurt like hell, im guessing I overcompensated my left side while running to subconsciously protect my broken toe? Either way I was very stiff and sore, but nothing serious. Just aches and pains from putting my body through. Toe hurts a lot and I will now let it heal completely before resuming anymore running. But I feel good!
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

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Hi! Does anyone know the policy on sending a private in basic a portable charger? I did already get the green light to send it by a former DS that i know, but was wondering if anything special needs to be done regarding how it is sent? Thanks in advance.
Link to Comment Chain
I'm going to transitioning from the Navy to the Army via an interservice transfer. I have four years, a deployment, and a lot of memories under my belt. I am electing to come back in as an O-1 into the Army as I have no interest in the limited job prospects that an O-3 with no Army experience would bring me, and frankly I don't give a shit -- it's just 4 years. My (fairly promising, at least based on what the Army side said) goal is to eventually be infantry.
Coming in as a new Army officer, what should I expect, both from the position of coming from a different branch and generally as a "new guy" Army officer?
What stuff (most likely) stays the same coming a ship, specifically ship-life? What changes the most?
How best can I take care of my people while still accomplishing the mission? I know this looks very different between branches. It's always a delicate balance.
What does the "daily grind" of a combart arms community look like? What's the "unnecessary BS day-to-day" that you guys get up to? (I can think of plenty of examples in the Navy, but I'm not sure they translate 1:1).
BONUS: What are your best and worst interaction stories with your fresh LTs?
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Im 25 with a bachelors in CyberSecurity, also an Eagle Scout. Have not done much volunteer or team leadership since then. Nor do I have much work experiance.
Am I too uncompetitive for an OCS slot for 17X?
I spoke to a recruiter who mentioned going enlisted at E4 with 17C, then after 1 year of training and 1 of actual work, applying for OCS then.
Is that a realistic scenario or classic recruiter talk getting my hopes up in order to boost elistment numbers?
Prior medical history includes inactive IBS + depression from a couple years back.
Also, what are the timeframes for getting in with both of these options?
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Is it worth getting Emt certified or Paramedic certified before going Army? I got DQ at meps and was told I need to wait a year due to medication I was on last year. I'm trying to find something to fill my time for when I'm able to enlist next year. Is this a good idea or a waste of time?
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I have been recently promoted, and clothing and sales is currently out of stock of my current rank, so I am unable to update my AGSU. We have room and uniform inspections soon, and my first line is attempting to make me wear my AGSU with incorrect rank. I have been looking through AR670-1 as well as AR700-84 trying to see if there is a reg against this, but have been unsuccessful in finding one. If there isn’t, I’ll deal, but I’m not too keen on wearing a previous rank. Any help backed by regs would be appreciated
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I’m going National Guard. I’m still working through the beginning process with my recruiter. Here’s the catch: I wasn’t born in the US. I was born in Kazakhstan.
I was never naturalized because when I was adopted into my family in 2002, the Child Citizenship Act passed in 2000 stating that the amendment is “to provide for the automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenship when certain conditions have been met.” — I have met these conditions and am a legal citizen of 22 years (Section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This amendment states that I also do not need a certificate of citizenship, which I never applied for as I legally do not need one.)
I have a passport, a social security card, a legal photo ID and a birth certificate. I DO HAVE a permanent resident card, but it expired years ago. I was a baby when my parents got it and they never renewed it. However, I am a US Citizen. I’ve lived here my entire life. The problem is, my recruiter insists that I must have that Permanent Resident Card up to date. I would do it in a heartbeat, but it costs $500.
Why is my passport, ID, SS card or birth certificate not enough to prove my citizenship? I’m frustrated and my parents are getting short with me constantly asking about it.
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Kind of a situational question. My wife is scheduled for C Section June 21st and it looks like I may get PCS orders before then. If I do, and the kid comes, what do I do? Soonest my wife’s doc says she can move is 6 weeks postpartum and my wife can’t look after our first kid and newborn while she recovers from surgery. Is there anything I can do to report closer to the end of baby leave? I’m a geobachelor.
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I just have a couple questions about how having a GED will affect my enlistment. I've heard it makes you ineligible for bonuses, but what about contract options? Could I still get an Option 4 contract? Option 19? If not, how many college credits would I need to move into the Tier 1 education category?
also, how do you increase your chances of going to certain schools (Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, etc) if it's not in your contract? Going in as a 68W (Combat Medic) if that makes a difference
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Is there some regulation against sending a SM on a deployment/rotation when they are very close to ETS? Say 6 months out?
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Im a dumbass and made and said a lot of stupid ass shit that some hater who had it out for me has been basically (not really) 'blackmailing' me with that was on my laptop (private, never uploaded) which he hacked into . It was a bunch of questionable shit I said that basically makes me paranoid reasonably that I could possibly be court martial'd but I was never arrested or anything, and I'm sure the guy would upload it again if I joined the Military just to tarnish my good name. I said all this when I was 18 , but basically this dude came to my house and threatened my family with a knife and I responded, 'not so good' , and as a result, I was basically 5150'd and had lied to the people saying I was suicidal resulting in a medical documentation which has made me fearful of ever going to MEPS. So at the time I was 'isolated' so in attempt to expose the fact that there was a legitimate danger I reasonably tried to court attention on Twitter and basically did and said everything that could ever allow me to hold a security clearance before deleting it.
My perception of the event was that he was threatening my family with a knife, but to the outside world, he simply slashed my families tires. Basically he baited me and fell for it. There was much more to the story but if I could go back in time I probably would not have reacted the way I did but I was 18 and my mind was barely developing.
​
I was 5150'd and I was told I could never hold public office and I am barred from the Medical field . This of course was a lie, but it's BASICALLY on my Medical record and it's a huge red flag. So naturally, unable to join the Military, I was unable to complete my mission and of course, was put on medication for some time (7 months) until I can figure out what to do. So I been working warehouse jobs ever since that day . I am 23 years old now, the incident happened when I was 18. I was and still am a cross country runner who is fit and healthy , who can complete the physical requirements just fine but the 'Moral' and 'Medical' is what's preventing me from joining, open to debate. I haven't made the same dumb mistake of reacting to my families tires being slashed since and learned from that experience .
​
Obviously the Police knows what was on my laptop because this dude went around with the unauthorized material he was not allowed to have and actually put the content in DVD's around the city hoping someone would pick it up and read it , and I actually worked at a warehouse which actually had a police officer who worked there at the warehouse to check the hard drives for CP (i dont know the deal about that) , and he found the very same DVD filled with the content of my basically unhinged responses that I never uploaded to the internet .
​
Basically this dude mentally ruined my life but I wasn't the only 1 he has done this to, he has hacked into multiple people's laptops and slashed other people's tires before and distributed information and he has been arrested in the past .
​
I was wondering if I could be court martial'd for unprofessional conduct before I even join the military or am I just overthinking this? I basically had this huge 4 hour clip of a rant about his twitter account on my laptop that was perfectly constitutional legal but if you took things out of context it sounds like something that would have me arrested if I was in the military , and I never uploaded it, nor planned to. maybe it's just all in my head but as you can imagine , the real problem isn't my speeches that were on my laptop but the 5150'd , which was at the time and information I had at my disposable,a completely reasonable reaction to a violent threat.
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PCS’ing to Schofield tomorrow, any tips?
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Does anyone know if you still have to have a physical copy of your profile on you? I remember reading somewhere that you don't and your commander can look at it
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I recently graduated college and am looking for advice in terms of what I should expect/request in my contract for 68W MOS. I got my B.A. in cellular biology in the beginning of May and have been set on enlisting since my junior year; now that I'm in the last couple of steps with my recruiter before going to MEPS, I wanted to know if there was anything I should ask for based on my scores/degree (520 MCAT, 99 ASVAB, 146 GT) in terms of rank or guaranteed admission to schools (such as Airborne) coming in. I am looking at the 2-year contract as of now because I do want to apply to medical school down the line. If I enjoy my time, I am open to staying longer in the Army. However, there are some characteristics I currently need to work on that I know enlistment will provide (as opposed to OCS which would mean an extended contract) in addition to education benefits. Also, the alternative would have been doing a gap year in a lab or clinic which doesn't pay much better and is something I have done my fair share of. Any help is appreciated; thank you.
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This is kind of a weird question but i really want to join the army but my family is telling me that it’s impossible for me to join because unfortunately my parents passed by suicide and that alone will disqualify me. I’ve tried googling it and looking all over the internet to find a. Answer but I can’t find it. Is there any truth to that? Thanks if answered.
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I’m a drill right now and I’m looking at being Force reclassed and looking for a new MOS. I saw 51C and was curious if anyone knew what the day to day looked like? Or if anyone knew of any MOSs that were chill 9-5 jobs.
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How does the average person become an officer in the 75th or special forces? Even for support roles, don't most people have to go through the qualification training and fail?
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Do you ever feel remorse for the innocent civilians you slaughter in the name of imperialism and the military industrial complex?
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I've always had a draw to service, but my athletic opportunities usually kept me from it. Out of high school, I had the opportunity to play college baseball and passed up on trying the academy route. Once I got halfway through college, I wanted to try ROTC, but I was a starter on the baseball team and balls deep in a mechanical engineering course load, so it didn't seem feasible to add to my plate.
Now, I'm going on 24 with 2 years of experience as an ME in product development. Is there a military route for someone like me who does have a college degree, but is beyond the point of an ROTC college program? Is my specific degree useful for the military?
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I'm joining the Army soon, within a month or two. I've come up with an MOS list I made based on what I'm interested in (this is NOT a list of my available jobs based on my ASVAB score, just some jobs that sounded interesting based on the field I was looking into). I was mostly considering Logistics and Supply, but I am open to other potential fields, and jobs that aren't in the list below. Like I said, I want to do something in logistics and supply, but more so, just something non-combative that allows me to travel to most bases. What do you guys think about it? Any recommendations? I do plan to do something in law enforcement after I get out, but my MOS does not have to relate to that. Here is the list. The first two are the ones I'm currently considering, and the ones in parentheses are the ones I'm interested in.
(Cargo Specialist 88H)
(Unit Supply Specialist 92Y)
(Automated Logistics Specialist 92A)
(Ammunition Specialist 89B)
Ammunition Stock Control and Accounting Specialist 89A
(Corrections/Detention Specialist 31E)
Culinary Specialist 92G
Medical Logistics Specialist 68J
(Military Police 31B)
(Motor Transport Operator 88M)
Petroleum Supply Specialist 92F
Transportation Management Coordinator 88N
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Can someone please answer this question? If by some chance a person is granted a moral waiver for one felony possession charge on their record Will that allow you to join infantry or be around guns in general? Or would you have to have your firearm rights restored?
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Do you guys still have to have an NBC mask as part of the uniform when out in the field? If yes, do you still practice going into full MOPP gear?
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Completely off topic to Army. Has anyone used a gaems vanguard with the steam deck? Found one for cheap for field purposes but I can't find anything that says it works or not with the deck.
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30 year old with great Asvab and physical tests, no medical problems other than anxiety counseling in 2020. Problem 1: I have a large hand tattoo on my right hand. It’s a animal with some foliage and stuff. It is not on knuckles but descends from half sleeve down wrist and over top of hand.
Issue 2: I was discharged from navy boot camp in 2019. Long story. Mental health and personal reasons. I have an re-4 jfc on my dd 214. ( navy parting gift) I have authorized documents of treatment for my condition signed from doctor and no treatment or problems with mental health since early 2020 and no medication ever needed. Is there any shot I’d get approved for enlistment in the army ? @7hillsrecruiting
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Can someone please describe the process of renrolling into DLC? I did not complete it in the 720 day window however I am not barred from reenlistment (yet).
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Hey there ! I’m working things out to go to sign a 37F contract in the USAR soon since I had a high enough score on my ASVAB, but my recruiter confirmed that I would have to go to FSPC or Fat Camp due to being 2% over what’s allowed for body fat before I attend basic. I don’t mind basically getting paid to workout and learn about nutrition, but I’d love tips and just overall things to prep for before I have to ship out to it.
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i got Fort Sill as my first duty station im a 94T and i have family how is the on post housing or should i just rent a house off post
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I have a uniform question that i can not seem to figure out using ar670-1 or the pam currently i have been wearing my improvised hot weather combat uniform but the one i was issued back in 2019 apparently is the first generation that has the mesh lining in the pants and no velcro on the top of the shoulder pockets and my first line was telling me he doesnt think this is authorized anymore since a newer version was released so he asked me to look into the regulations but i cant find anything saying if i can or cant where it the most i know as of right now is the ihwcu is authorized but i have an older version apparently but its also what they issued me at ocie so im trying to find if anyone can help me out or knows if i can still where this i dont wanna buy a whole other uniform just because this doesnt have velcro on the top of these pockets
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What is the most realistic special operations group someone can join for the average person?
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Do you need a DA Form 1610 to attend the BAC? Fort Moore's website states you cannot attend BAC in a leave status, but how would anyone walk on if that's the case? And soldiers do walk on, I've heard firsthand.
I'm attempting to attend Airborne on leave before I PCS, is it possible? I just commissioned, and will be working for Cadet Command all summer before I PCS to BOLC.
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Can i join the ranger Special forces with a red/green color blind?
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Is someone able to join if blind in one eye
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As a prior enlisted, when I go to meps will the councilor just tell me my duty station I’m headed to after I pick my Mos? Will I have any say? How does that work from your experience
Any personal opinions and experienced insight is appreciated
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If someone becomes an intel officer, can they tryout for the 75th or the special forces?
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I have just returned from TDY, for Family separation pay, do I need to fill out 1561, or is it a special pay request on IPPS-A. Can’t find any answer from S-1, or other SM. Any help would be appreciative.
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I want to join the army, Can I pick a supply Mos with a ASVAB score of 41 and CL of 90 ?? The army website says yes I just wanted to know if the website is accurate. (92A/92y) Mos
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How long does it take for my rank to update in my email? I was promoted to SGT yesterday and it didn't update yet. It updated automatically for others in my unit. Do I need to update my CAC?
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I'm enlisting in the Army Reserve as a 35L and soon to go to basic in a few weeks. I have a couple of questions that are hovering over me since I'm counting down the days to basic training. I'm a lot older then most of the trainees are going to be in basic. I fear if I get injured or recycle for whatever reason. Will they change my mos because I didn't meet the allotted time slot for 35L AlT? Will I become over holdover until the next class? How frequent are the courses if held over? And also to add if any directions toward course work should I start studying to familiarize myself with?
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Anyone have an idea on what finance battalions are? Gonna be shipping out as 36B and I generally understand what the job will entail but lots of the comments I’ve read say “oh they’re reforming 36B into finance battalions”. Is this a good or bad thing?
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Prior service coming in; USMC to Army, E5. I’ve already gotten some good anti-cringe advice on general differences between the branches of service, but if anybody has advice on stuff to bring/not bring to AIT (I only got a bootcamp packing list) or tips I’m all ears.
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Is it common for people to become shorter from the ruck marches?
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Can you have nicotine in AIT, may be useful to add that I’m doing split training where I do basic one summer then do AIT the next.
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How does reclassing work? My window will be hitting soon and it’s time to move on. Will I have any Mos available to me? Duty station as well? I heard a lot about undeover strength Mos and how they affect reclassing. Any info on how it works would be great. Thanks fellas
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Is having a iep when I was in school a disqualifyer if not do I need a waivet
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I can barely do 5 push-ups, and I’m leaving for army basic combat training in 1 week, any recommendations?
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Pollen Allergies @ BCT Jackson
I am shipping out to basic training at the end of June. Has anyone had any experience with sick call during training and/or reception when dealing with seasonal/pollen allergies?
If this affected you, did you get prescribed anything or go to sick call any once in a while? I lived in GA for a stint and the pollen down south was not my friend so trying to prepare for the worst if possible. Not taking any meds right now.
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Can MPs join the 82 Airborne
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just graduated AIT, would it be possible to trade my duty station with another soldier for both of our benefits and we're both consenting ? he's got schofield hawaii and i have fort george meade maryland, im a pv2 he's a PFC and we have the exact same training and MOS? thanks.
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Hi! Does anyone know the policy on sending a private in basic a portable charger? I did already get the green light to send it by a former DS that i know, but was wondering if anything special needs to be done regarding how it is sent? Thanks in advance.
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I'm going to transitioning from the Navy to the Army via an interservice transfer. I have four years, a deployment, and a lot of memories under my belt. I am electing to come back in as an O-1 into the Army as I have no interest in the limited job prospects that an O-3 with no Army experience would bring me, and frankly I don't give a shit -- it's just 4 years. My (fairly promising, at least based on what the Army side said) goal is to eventually be infantry.
Coming in as a new Army officer, what should I expect, both from the position of coming from a different branch and generally as a "new guy" Army officer?
What stuff (most likely) stays the same coming a ship, specifically ship-life? What changes the most?
How best can I take care of my people while still accomplishing the mission? I know this looks very different between branches. It's always a delicate balance.
What does the "daily grind" of a combart arms community look like? What's the "unnecessary BS day-to-day" that you guys get up to? (I can think of plenty of examples in the Navy, but I'm not sure they translate 1:1).
BONUS: What are your best and worst interaction stories with your fresh LTs?
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Im 25 with a bachelors in CyberSecurity, also an Eagle Scout. Have not done much volunteer or team leadership since then. Nor do I have much work experiance.
Am I too uncompetitive for an OCS slot for 17X?
I spoke to a recruiter who mentioned going enlisted at E4 with 17C, then after 1 year of training and 1 of actual work, applying for OCS then.
Is that a realistic scenario or classic recruiter talk getting my hopes up in order to boost elistment numbers?
Prior medical history includes inactive IBS + depression from a couple years back.
Also, what are the timeframes for getting in with both of these options?
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Is it worth getting Emt certified or Paramedic certified before going Army? I got DQ at meps and was told I need to wait a year due to medication I was on last year. I'm trying to find something to fill my time for when I'm able to enlist next year. Is this a good idea or a waste of time?
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I have been recently promoted, and clothing and sales is currently out of stock of my current rank, so I am unable to update my AGSU. We have room and uniform inspections soon, and my first line is attempting to make me wear my AGSU with incorrect rank. I have been looking through AR670-1 as well as AR700-84 trying to see if there is a reg against this, but have been unsuccessful in finding one. If there isn’t, I’ll deal, but I’m not too keen on wearing a previous rank. Any help backed by regs would be appreciated
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I’m going National Guard. I’m still working through the beginning process with my recruiter. Here’s the catch: I wasn’t born in the US. I was born in Kazakhstan.
I was never naturalized because when I was adopted into my family in 2002, the Child Citizenship Act passed in 2000 stating that the amendment is “to provide for the automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenship when certain conditions have been met.” — I have met these conditions and am a legal citizen of 22 years (Section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This amendment states that I also do not need a certificate of citizenship, which I never applied for as I legally do not need one.)
I have a passport, a social security card, a legal photo ID and a birth certificate. I DO HAVE a permanent resident card, but it expired years ago. I was a baby when my parents got it and they never renewed it. However, I am a US Citizen. I’ve lived here my entire life. The problem is, my recruiter insists that I must have that Permanent Resident Card up to date. I would do it in a heartbeat, but it costs $500.
Why is my passport, ID, SS card or birth certificate not enough to prove my citizenship? I’m frustrated and my parents are getting short with me constantly asking about it.
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Kind of a situational question. My wife is scheduled for C Section June 21st and it looks like I may get PCS orders before then. If I do, and the kid comes, what do I do? Soonest my wife’s doc says she can move is 6 weeks postpartum and my wife can’t look after our first kid and newborn while she recovers from surgery. Is there anything I can do to report closer to the end of baby leave? I’m a geobachelor.
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I just have a couple questions about how having a GED will affect my enlistment. I've heard it makes you ineligible for bonuses, but what about contract options? Could I still get an Option 4 contract? Option 19? If not, how many college credits would I need to move into the Tier 1 education category?
also, how do you increase your chances of going to certain schools (Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, etc) if it's not in your contract? Going in as a 68W (Combat Medic) if that makes a difference
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Is there some regulation against sending a SM on a deployment/rotation when they are very close to ETS? Say 6 months out?
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Im a dumbass and made and said a lot of stupid ass shit that some hater who had it out for me has been basically (not really) 'blackmailing' me with that was on my laptop (private, never uploaded) which he hacked into . It was a bunch of questionable shit I said that basically makes me paranoid reasonably that I could possibly be court martial'd but I was never arrested or anything, and I'm sure the guy would upload it again if I joined the Military just to tarnish my good name. I said all this when I was 18 , but basically this dude came to my house and threatened my family with a knife and I responded, 'not so good' , and as a result, I was basically 5150'd and had lied to the people saying I was suicidal resulting in a medical documentation which has made me fearful of ever going to MEPS. So at the time I was 'isolated' so in attempt to expose the fact that there was a legitimate danger I reasonably tried to court attention on Twitter and basically did and said everything that could ever allow me to hold a security clearance before deleting it.
My perception of the event was that he was threatening my family with a knife, but to the outside world, he simply slashed my families tires. Basically he baited me and fell for it. There was much more to the story but if I could go back in time I probably would not have reacted the way I did but I was 18 and my mind was barely developing.
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I was 5150'd and I was told I could never hold public office and I am barred from the Medical field . This of course was a lie, but it's BASICALLY on my Medical record and it's a huge red flag. So naturally, unable to join the Military, I was unable to complete my mission and of course, was put on medication for some time (7 months) until I can figure out what to do. So I been working warehouse jobs ever since that day . I am 23 years old now, the incident happened when I was 18. I was and still am a cross country runner who is fit and healthy , who can complete the physical requirements just fine but the 'Moral' and 'Medical' is what's preventing me from joining, open to debate. I haven't made the same dumb mistake of reacting to my families tires being slashed since and learned from that experience .
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Obviously the Police knows what was on my laptop because this dude went around with the unauthorized material he was not allowed to have and actually put the content in DVD's around the city hoping someone would pick it up and read it , and I actually worked at a warehouse which actually had a police officer who worked there at the warehouse to check the hard drives for CP (i dont know the deal about that) , and he found the very same DVD filled with the content of my basically unhinged responses that I never uploaded to the internet .
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Basically this dude mentally ruined my life but I wasn't the only 1 he has done this to, he has hacked into multiple people's laptops and slashed other people's tires before and distributed information and he has been arrested in the past .
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I was wondering if I could be court martial'd for unprofessional conduct before I even join the military or am I just overthinking this? I basically had this huge 4 hour clip of a rant about his twitter account on my laptop that was perfectly constitutional legal but if you took things out of context it sounds like something that would have me arrested if I was in the military , and I never uploaded it, nor planned to. maybe it's just all in my head but as you can imagine , the real problem isn't my speeches that were on my laptop but the 5150'd , which was at the time and information I had at my disposable,a completely reasonable reaction to a violent threat.
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PCS’ing to Schofield tomorrow, any tips?
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Does anyone know if you still have to have a physical copy of your profile on you? I remember reading somewhere that you don't and your commander can look at it
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I recently graduated college and am looking for advice in terms of what I should expect/request in my contract for 68W MOS. I got my B.A. in cellular biology in the beginning of May and have been set on enlisting since my junior year; now that I'm in the last couple of steps with my recruiter before going to MEPS, I wanted to know if there was anything I should ask for based on my scores/degree (520 MCAT, 99 ASVAB, 146 GT) in terms of rank or guaranteed admission to schools (such as Airborne) coming in. I am looking at the 2-year contract as of now because I do want to apply to medical school down the line. If I enjoy my time, I am open to staying longer in the Army. However, there are some characteristics I currently need to work on that I know enlistment will provide (as opposed to OCS which would mean an extended contract) in addition to education benefits. Also, the alternative would have been doing a gap year in a lab or clinic which doesn't pay much better and is something I have done my fair share of. Any help is appreciated; thank you.
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This is kind of a weird question but i really want to join the army but my family is telling me that it’s impossible for me to join because unfortunately my parents passed by suicide and that alone will disqualify me. I’ve tried googling it and looking all over the internet to find a. Answer but I can’t find it. Is there any truth to that? Thanks if answered.
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I’m a drill right now and I’m looking at being Force reclassed and looking for a new MOS. I saw 51C and was curious if anyone knew what the day to day looked like? Or if anyone knew of any MOSs that were chill 9-5 jobs.
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How does the average person become an officer in the 75th or special forces? Even for support roles, don't most people have to go through the qualification training and fail?
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Do you ever feel remorse for the innocent civilians you slaughter in the name of imperialism and the military industrial complex?
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I've always had a draw to service, but my athletic opportunities usually kept me from it. Out of high school, I had the opportunity to play college baseball and passed up on trying the academy route. Once I got halfway through college, I wanted to try ROTC, but I was a starter on the baseball team and balls deep in a mechanical engineering course load, so it didn't seem feasible to add to my plate.
Now, I'm going on 24 with 2 years of experience as an ME in product development. Is there a military route for someone like me who does have a college degree, but is beyond the point of an ROTC college program? Is my specific degree useful for the military?
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I'm joining the Army soon, within a month or two. I've come up with an MOS list I made based on what I'm interested in (this is NOT a list of my available jobs based on my ASVAB score, just some jobs that sounded interesting based on the field I was looking into). I was mostly considering Logistics and Supply, but I am open to other potential fields, and jobs that aren't in the list below. Like I said, I want to do something in logistics and supply, but more so, just something non-combative that allows me to travel to most bases. What do you guys think about it? Any recommendations? I do plan to do something in law enforcement after I get out, but my MOS does not have to relate to that. Here is the list. The first two are the ones I'm currently considering, and the ones in parentheses are the ones I'm interested in.
(Cargo Specialist 88H)
(Unit Supply Specialist 92Y)
(Automated Logistics Specialist 92A)
(Ammunition Specialist 89B)
Ammunition Stock Control and Accounting Specialist 89A
(Corrections/Detention Specialist 31E)
Culinary Specialist 92G
Medical Logistics Specialist 68J
(Military Police 31B)
(Motor Transport Operator 88M)
Petroleum Supply Specialist 92F
Transportation Management Coordinator 88N
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Can someone please answer this question? If by some chance a person is granted a moral waiver for one felony possession charge on their record Will that allow you to join infantry or be around guns in general? Or would you have to have your firearm rights restored?
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Do you guys still have to have an NBC mask as part of the uniform when out in the field? If yes, do you still practice going into full MOPP gear?
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Completely off topic to Army. Has anyone used a gaems vanguard with the steam deck? Found one for cheap for field purposes but I can't find anything that says it works or not with the deck.
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30 year old with great Asvab and physical tests, no medical problems other than anxiety counseling in 2020. Problem 1: I have a large hand tattoo on my right hand. It’s a animal with some foliage and stuff. It is not on knuckles but descends from half sleeve down wrist and over top of hand.
Issue 2: I was discharged from navy boot camp in 2019. Long story. Mental health and personal reasons. I have an re-4 jfc on my dd 214. ( navy parting gift) I have authorized documents of treatment for my condition signed from doctor and no treatment or problems with mental health since early 2020 and no medication ever needed. Is there any shot I’d get approved for enlistment in the army ? @7hillsrecruiting
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Can someone please describe the process of renrolling into DLC? I did not complete it in the 720 day window however I am not barred from reenlistment (yet).
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Hey there ! I’m working things out to go to sign a 37F contract in the USAR soon since I had a high enough score on my ASVAB, but my recruiter confirmed that I would have to go to FSPC or Fat Camp due to being 2% over what’s allowed for body fat before I attend basic. I don’t mind basically getting paid to workout and learn about nutrition, but I’d love tips and just overall things to prep for before I have to ship out to it.
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i got Fort Sill as my first duty station im a 94T and i have family how is the on post housing or should i just rent a house off post
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I have a uniform question that i can not seem to figure out using ar670-1 or the pam currently i have been wearing my improvised hot weather combat uniform but the one i was issued back in 2019 apparently is the first generation that has the mesh lining in the pants and no velcro on the top of the shoulder pockets and my first line was telling me he doesnt think this is authorized anymore since a newer version was released so he asked me to look into the regulations but i cant find anything saying if i can or cant where it the most i know as of right now is the ihwcu is authorized but i have an older version apparently but its also what they issued me at ocie so im trying to find if anyone can help me out or knows if i can still where this i dont wanna buy a whole other uniform just because this doesnt have velcro on the top of these pockets
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What is the most realistic special operations group someone can join for the average person?
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Do you need a DA Form 1610 to attend the BAC? Fort Moore's website states you cannot attend BAC in a leave status, but how would anyone walk on if that's the case? And soldiers do walk on, I've heard firsthand.
I'm attempting to attend Airborne on leave before I PCS, is it possible? I just commissioned, and will be working for Cadet Command all summer before I PCS to BOLC.
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Can i join the ranger Special forces with a red/green color blind?
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Is someone able to join if blind in one eye
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As a prior enlisted, when I go to meps will the councilor just tell me my duty station I’m headed to after I pick my Mos? Will I have any say? How does that work from your experience
Any personal opinions and experienced insight is appreciated
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If someone becomes an intel officer, can they tryout for the 75th or the special forces?
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I have just returned from TDY, for Family separation pay, do I need to fill out 1561, or is it a special pay request on IPPS-A. Can’t find any answer from S-1, or other SM. Any help would be appreciative.
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I want to join the army, Can I pick a supply Mos with a ASVAB score of 41 and CL of 90 ?? The army website says yes I just wanted to know if the website is accurate. (92A/92y) Mos
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How long does it take for my rank to update in my email? I was promoted to SGT yesterday and it didn't update yet. It updated automatically for others in my unit. Do I need to update my CAC?
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I'm enlisting in the Army Reserve as a 35L and soon to go to basic in a few weeks. I have a couple of questions that are hovering over me since I'm counting down the days to basic training. I'm a lot older then most of the trainees are going to be in basic. I fear if I get injured or recycle for whatever reason. Will they change my mos because I didn't meet the allotted time slot for 35L AlT? Will I become over holdover until the next class? How frequent are the courses if held over? And also to add if any directions toward course work should I start studying to familiarize myself with?
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Anyone have an idea on what finance battalions are? Gonna be shipping out as 36B and I generally understand what the job will entail but lots of the comments I’ve read say “oh they’re reforming 36B into finance battalions”. Is this a good or bad thing?
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Prior service coming in; USMC to Army, E5. I’ve already gotten some good anti-cringe advice on general differences between the branches of service, but if anybody has advice on stuff to bring/not bring to AIT (I only got a bootcamp packing list) or tips I’m all ears.
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Is it common for people to become shorter from the ruck marches?
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Can you have nicotine in AIT, may be useful to add that I’m doing split training where I do basic one summer then do AIT the next.
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How does reclassing work? My window will be hitting soon and it’s time to move on. Will I have any Mos available to me? Duty station as well? I heard a lot about undeover strength Mos and how they affect reclassing. Any info on how it works would be great. Thanks fellas
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Is having a iep when I was in school a disqualifyer if not do I need a waivet
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I can barely do 5 push-ups, and I’m leaving for army basic combat training in 1 week, any recommendations?
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Pollen Allergies @ BCT Jackson
I am shipping out to basic training at the end of June. Has anyone had any experience with sick call during training and/or reception when dealing with seasonal/pollen allergies?
If this affected you, did you get prescribed anything or go to sick call any once in a while? I lived in GA for a stint and the pollen down south was not my friend so trying to prepare for the worst if possible. Not taking any meds right now.
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Can MPs join the 82 Airborne
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just graduated AIT, would it be possible to trade my duty station with another soldier for both of our benefits and we're both consenting ? he's got schofield hawaii and i have fort george meade maryland, im a pv2 he's a PFC and we have the exact same training and MOS? thanks.
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I’ve been DMing Danny on Instagram for the last 13 days asking him to write, produce, perform, record, film, and release a song titled “Spooky Baby” since he announced that his and his wife’s baby is due in October, aka the spookiest month of the year. Please upvote this so Danny can see it and give the world the greatest Spooky banger since “Spooky Boy”

I hope this is the right place and someone can tell me what may have been going on in my village. I moved here a few weeks ago. It's a small village in the heart of Russia and my parents and I came here because things start to get really bad in Moscow and my father lost his job. I don't know why we had to move to this isolated village, so far away from civilization. Maybe my parents wanted peace and quiet? To escape the things in that city, the poisoned minds?
The houses here had all been far below average in price. Almost everyone who lives here has moved here recently.
But, there are crazy rumors about this village that people tell each other. It was found abandoned in the mid-nineties. Where everyone went, no one knows. They say that no signs of people were found at all, nothing. But... everywhere in and around the village… strange patches of earth had been discovered, circular and smooth. Not only in the forest or on the road, but also in the dilapidated wooden houses. At our new neighbors' house, one of the mysterious spots had supposedly been found right in the living room floor, where the floorboards had been just cut away.
These rumors scare me. I am afraid of this village. But yesterday... I was redoing the floor in my room with my father and there... I found a notebook under the old boards. I hid it from my father, I don't know why... Someone must have left it there.
Last night... that's when I read it. I read it and now I'm incredibly afraid of this house and this village. Of the fields and the woods that surround me. The notebook apparently belonged to someone called Ilya Vasiliev. I have tried to translate what he wrote, hoping that someone here can help me find an explanation for the rumors. For this uneasy feeling that I have since I moved here...
***********
I am fine. I want that to be clear from the beginning. My story is strange and in huge parts troubling, but I am still in the best state of mental health.
I am fine!
My story begins seven months ago, in December 1979, when deep winter was upon our village. We were preparing for Christmas, the first Christmas to be celebrated publicly throughout the village, after years of having to practice our faith in secret because the Soviet government did not allow religions. Only in the last few years did the Reds' view loosen and they allowed small islands of faith. One of them was my village, which finally dared to celebrate and praise the Lord.
I have been a believer all twenty years of my life, an exemplary Christian, just like my parents. Faith had kept our family line alive in times of terror and misery. Death had always been close to us, as the fields where most of the population of our village had worked for generations had once brought the end of hundreds of people. Many years ago, on those fields, atrocities had occurred that had finally given them their present name: The Fields of Death.
I myself had not been born back then, not by a long shot, but my grandparents had spent their childhood there, a childhood full of hunger and depravity. My grandfather Fomenko often told me and my sister the stories he had experienced and how faith had saved everyone. There had been a long, cold winter and the grain had been confiscated by the government to be taken to the cities for distribution. After all, the grain belonged to all the people, not just those on the farms who planted it, tended to it, and harvested it. And so, the only food of that time left my grandfather's village and never came back. Some of his neighbors had once tried to hold back some grain, to hide some sacks, but when they were caught, a hail of bullets determined their fate. People lived in fear, not daring to stop working, not daring to keep for themselves the food that was destined for the common good. In those days, horrors happened in my village that I cannot truly picture today, not even when I hear my grandfather's usually clear voice begin to tremble. When I see in his eyes that he would rather forget, in order to experience a peaceful sleep once again… someday.
He told us about those horrors to warn us of how quickly life can plunge from safety into infinite terror. Winter had reigned. The grain was being hauled away. They still shot all those who tried to keep back pieces of it, be it a sack or some husks that had fallen from a cart. In time, hunger began to drive people in our village insane. Parents locked up their children so they wouldn't be taken by neighbors to feed their hunger. Friends turned their backs on each other and killed each other in fights for the last livestock that was still breathing. The streets reeked of decay and death, of misery and suffering. One day, my grandfather told us, he had hidden in the back room of his house while his parents dragged themselves, emaciated, to the fields to pick the last scraps of grain from the furrows with their dirty, half-frozen fingers. He had come across a book there, a book that had saved his life.
The word of God. An old Bible.
My grandfather had learned to read at an early age, one of the sad advantages of living in the Soviet Union.
It was in the room I now live in that Grandfather Fomenko had found the dusty book. Actually, he had been looking for something to eat, the days before he had found some sawdust. But despite his hunger and the grumbling in his stomach, eating the book was out of the question. Books were sacred, and no book as sacred as this one. He had begun to read and learned about the greatness of the Lord. Of the miracles his Son had performed. And of the magic of faith. His stomach had growled, but he had ignored it. The words gave him comfort.
The next day he immersed himself in the book again, disappearing into better worlds and times, hearing wisdom and encouragement. But around noon there was a knock at the door. My grandfather emphasized each time that he had not been afraid, that he had known that the Lord would protect him, when the old neighbor gained entrance to our house armed with a cleaver. It was clear what he wanted: Meat. My grandfather told us each time about how the neighbor had looked more undead than human, stinking and with sunken eyes, smelling like death from his mouth, the cleaver trembling in his hand.
"I'm sorry, boy," was all the man could get out.
My grandfather tried to mimic this poor man’s voice at the end of his wits, to express his pain through words so that we understood that poor fellow a little.
The Lord's words had given courage to my grandfather in his most terrible moments. He had stood up and firmly said:
"Away with you, the Lord protects the inhabitants of this house!"
But the intruder did not care, coming closer. And so, my grandfather again sought comfort and prayed. He prayed for mercy and peace and for his life. He would serve the Lord for the rest of his days. Trust Him blindly.
Suddenly, like a gruesome miracle, the famished intruder let out an inhuman groan and collapsed, lifeless and debilitated. There had been no hunger for my grandfather and his family for a week after that. My grandfather had been praying to the Lord since that day, thanking Him for His mercy. The story spread around the village and out of desperation or hope, in the next few days everyone secretly knelt in front of small wooden crosses they had made themselves and prayed to the Lord. A week later, like a miracle, the long-awaited delivery of grain arrived, along with spring. There had not been another bad time since then.
These events are the reason for the faith in our village... and our family. The psalm my grandfather had prayed as the hungry neighbor attacked had become the guiding psalm of our faith. All these years we had not been able to celebrate Christmas with the other families, but since the restrictions on faith communities had been relaxed, we had all finally decided to celebrate the holy festival in the village square. And so, we started the preparations.
There, in those evening hours, my part of the story begins. I and my younger sister Zarina, together with other youths and young adults, were fetching wood for the fire that was to burn in the center of our village. So, we went out into the night, dressed with thick pelts, to fetch logs from the edge of the fields that some men had prepared.
My breath could be seen as an icy breeze in the dawning darkness and I was already looking forward to dancing around the fire with everyone later, drinking good drinks and eating sumptuously. I was glad that we didn't have to walk across the fields themselves, but could stroll along their edge to get the logs.
You can feel death when it has hit a place. I was glad that I didn't have to work the fields myself, and had learned the carpentry trade. Therefore, I was spared from having to wander around there every day, among the echoes of past atrocities and sadness.
We were all in good spirits, strolling over the muddy ground, when all at once Zarina pointed up and into the clear night sky.
"Look, an angel is descending!" she exclaimed excitedly.
We all looked to where her outstretched hand pointed. A round light glowed in the night sky, glaring yellowish and shining strangely cold.
"It's singing! At Christmas! The Lord puts our feast under his sign!" Zarina cried.
We stopped and listened into the silence of the night. At first, I could hear nothing, at first, everything remained quiet, and only the distant beating of axes and the rustling of the wind in the treetops were audible.
But then, there in the wind, I could hear it, briefly but clearly. It was a kind of melodic whisper, joyful, yet also strange and otherworldly. It was heard only very briefly, and soon died away as the glow flew out of sight and disappeared somewhere far away.
"Let's go find the angel! Let's..." Zarina cried, continuing excitedly, but I interrupted her.
"We have to get the wood. We can report back to the village later, if it hasn't already been noticed there too," I said.
"You heard the singing! Surely that was an angel. Shall we leave it there? It may have gotten hurt, it must have hit something!" Sasha murmured.
Sasha was my oldest friend and one of the boys who worked on the fields. He had always been very caring and had always tried to help where he could. His parents were long dead and the old lady who had raised him was no longer around, either. So, he struggled along, working the fields, but the rest of us looked out for him.
"Shouldn't we go and look for it, Ilya?", Sasha continued to urge me anxiously.
We thought about it for a long time but decided to leave the decision to the others in the village. Trusting the Lord to guide our actions, we quickly moved on in the direction of the woodcutters to complete our task.
We were not the only ones who had seen the glow. When we returned to the village square loaded with logs, everyone was in great excitement and full of joy that the Lord had sent us this sign of His greatness. Not everyone agreed whether it was an angel or a return of the poinsettia that had been witnessed, but everyone was sure that the Lord had sent us encouragement. So, we celebrated our first Christmas full of joy and pleasure, with good food, dancing and singing, full of happiness and under the protection of the Almighty Lord. I will always think back to those days, always keep in my heart how I glimpsed a part of the Lord in the sky.
We all talked about the event and even the older people were fascinated and inspired. Even my grandfather and the others who had witnessed the worst death and misery in the world seemed to slowly find a spiritual peace they would never have dreamed of otherwise. They were happy and strengthened in their faith. However, we were not sure if it had really been an angel who had come down and so we hesitated to go and look for the creature of God.
But in the night, after the light had shone in the sky, I was awakened by Zarina crying in her sleep. I straightened up and slowly paced over to her bed, where in the semi-darkness she began to squirm, shaken by spasms.
"No, no, no..." she moaned painfully.
I began to shake her to wake her up. Zarina did not respond to me. Her face was like a distorted mask hiding something bad underneath. Her breathing became shallow, and she began to whimper. I was terrified and began to pray. The Lord had to save her, He just had to save her!
Zarina twitched more and more, started coughing and whimpering louder and louder. Slowly, the rest of the family woke up and my parents and grandfather huddled tightly around her, praying for her to open her eyes.
"Please, don't take our child! She has only been in your world for fourteen years..." my father cried, as panicked and desperate as I had ever seen before.
His thick, black mustache trembled with fear.
Then, abruptly, Zarina stopped convulsing.
For a terrible moment she just lay there, her hair disheveled, her face pale in the glow of the candle my mother held over her.
"Mom, Dad, Ilya, Grandpa... what's wrong?" she suddenly asked sleepily.
For a moment it was as if nothing had happened, as if I hadn't just seen my sister almost die, but then she began to cry.
"What's wrong, dear?" my father asked, just as pale in the face as Zarina.
It took a while before she found some calm and was able to talk to us.
Finally, she croaked:
"I saw the angel. I was with him."
A revelation? Had the Lord touched my sister?
We all said another prayer and finally, filled with awe, I asked:
"Where did you see the angel? Is it here? With us?"
She looked at me briefly, seemed to hesitate for a little moment, and then reported:
"I was with it… in a dream. It was in a white village, a village made of angel dust. I saw it. It didn't have wings and that's why at first I wasn't sure if it was an angel. However, soon it spoke to me."
"What did it say, Zarina?", I asked tensely.
"It said it was not God, but 'the Witness'. It sounded like a man and a woman and a child and a baby and... It felt peaceful. Calm and carefree. Then I woke up."
"An angel. Angels are the witnesses of God, that's how it must be!" my father said enthusiastically.
Suddenly, everyone seemed to be talking at once.
No one knew what Zarina's words meant, but we were sure that they contained something incomprehensible that we, as ordinary people, could not understand. But everyone was delighted. Everyone was caught in a beautiful dream.
The next day, the adults sat together in the large barn near the edge of the village, which was used for community events. Most of them found seats on the lined up wooden benches and the rest stood crowded against the old walls, some of which were already rotten. Dimitri, probably the closest thing to a mayor, sat at a heavy pine table at the end of the room, staring at the crowd, while my parents and Zarina sat on old chairs in front of him. Tensely, the crowd looked at them, waiting for someone to say something. Finally, Dimitri cleared his throat thoughtfully.
"You... all saw or heard about the falling star. It was brighter than the others that keep crossing our sky and much more... melodic. Some even heard the singing. Whoever still doubted that the Lord sent us his messenger... doubts are now useless. Zarina has received a vision. She has seen how the angel, who was sent by God, walked on our earth, and visited a village and consecrated it with its grace. She has seen the angel marching to spread holiness in these lands..."
"Are we sure?"
Mary, the dressmaker, had stood up. She was still young, my age and Sasha's, and she always wore her blond hair carefully braided, her dresses self-made, blood red and flashy, with silver embroidery. As always, she wore makeup - a luxury not many could afford. In other places she would have been considered a lady, but she was also a skeptical person, and I had not liked her very much since childhood, because she often made insinuations that seemed to go against the Lord. Also, she had never played with us outside and had always thought of herself as someone… better. I was shocked that she now so obviously doubted the Lord's actions.
"Mary. Zarina has seen a vision. The Lord spoke to her through her dreams! An angel has joined us. How can you deny it?" my father asked coldly.
"I'm not denying it, I'm just saying, what if there is something dark that the angel was sent to fight? What if it is going into battle against some unknown evil? The angel may be spreading sanctities, but we have no idea if it is trying to redeem us or defend us..."
"It said it was a witness of God," I noted.
"That's what Zarina said when she woke up."
"Then it is benevolent to us! We must find it!" someone shouted from one of the back rows.
An excited murmur began to spread through the room.
"Silence!" Dimitri thundered.
His face looked hard but determined.
"We have to get to it! If it is a message from heaven that the angel wants to bring us, we must hear it! How many can we spare? Who would even want to voluntarily leave the village? We don't know how long the journey will be, and you yourselves know how dangerous this area can be..."
A loud commotion broke out. Everyone shouted at once and volunteered. I also jumped up and loudly offered to go out to look for it.
The angel. The Witness of the Lord.
I imagined meeting it in a clearing, under a full moon. Hearing its bright voice, gaze in awe at its graceful form, and fall to my knees in prayer before it.
"SILENCE!" Dimitri shouted.
"You can't all go. The kids wouldn't make it in the deadly cold out there. Let seven go. Seven is the Lord's number, there must be seven! Seven workers from the fields! We can't spare any more!"
"You can't be serious!" I cried out.
Cold anger boiled up inside me.
"I want to go, too. We all want to. You can't just stand there and make a decision like that!"
Others joined in.
"SILENCE," Alexeij now thundered, the master blacksmith.
"We need you! Daniil, Ilya, Nikita, you have a job to do! We can't get by without you! You can't go, be reasonable!"
"But if the Lord wills it, he will make sure that everything here will work out. That nothing will happen!", I tried to argue, still boiling with anger.
"No. Winter is tugging at our huts, we need you," my father said slowly.
"So do the others. Without you, it's going to be tight. The fields lie under the snow, but everything else will be weakened by time and storms. We can only spare the field hands. Besides, they're the ones most likely to withstand the cold and the wilderness; after all, they're constantly out on the Fields of Death, toiling in the wind and rain. They'll all make the trip!"
I tried to change his mind, and several came to my aid, all those who were also forced to stay.
"You can manage without a dressmaker! I want to go too!" Mary cried defiantly, her cheeks red with anger, her nose wrinkled.
This young woman really believed she deserved the sight of the angel! She really believed her hypocrisies would deceive the Lord, despite her obvious doubts about His divinity!
Others also complained, young and old, many who didn't deserve to go and even those who did.
But it didn't help.
Dimitri was in charge. Everyone knew that. If we started to contradict him, our village would soon end up in chaos. And deep down I knew that I had to stay. That I had to take care of my sister, who would not survive a trip in the snow. That I had to repair the huts that the storms would eat away at.
Sasha was a field worker, he was allowed to go. Sasha and Sofia, Anatoly and old Igor, Ivan and Yulia and Mikhail. When the decision was made, a decision many of us accepted only with heavy hearts and which brought out deep envy in several faces, some of the chosen ones began to cry. They were happy, fulfilled... satisfied. They would see the messenger of the Lord, hear its melodious voice, sing its hymns.
Why wasn't I allowed to go? Why was the world so unfair? I had always believed in the Lord, prayed to Him, been subject to Him and lived according to His will. Why hadn't he chosen me to see his messenger? I had been so proud back when I had been allowed to learn the carpenter's trade and thus had not to go to the Fields of Death to toil there. At that time, I had felt like someone better when I saw Sasha and Sofia setting out early in the morning with all the other workers, with their old-fashioned plows and thick, shabby clothes.
Was this the punishment for my arrogance?
The Lord knew everything. He had seen what repulsive thoughts I had had, how superior I had felt to the others. Perhaps it was my punishment that I was not allowed to go. Perhaps the Lord was no longer favorable to me and I would have to prove myself to Him.
The next day, the seven set out north. They were seen off with singing and dancing; they were the center of the village’s attention. Envy threatened to drown me.
Why not me? Why wasn't I allowed to go? Why did I have to stay here?
And I knew: it was because of these thoughts. I wasn't pure enough. I had to get better, work on myself.
As the others disappeared from sight, as the small group seemed to be swallowed up by a patch of forest between distant trees, an icy chill ran down my spine.
What if they really did encounter evil? What if Mary had been right?
I prayed to the Lord that they would return home safely: Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
He would bring them home safely, our pilgrims. I did not begrudge them their happiness. I was not a selfish person, was not complacent like Mary or some others in the village. I lived by the word of the Lord and I would not begrudge them.
They would all return home safely.
I continued to stare into the distance for a long time as my suppressed envy sought to consume me. But I was winning.
For darkness is as light to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even though the days and weeks passed, I never forgot to think of all those who had set out to witness the glory of the Lord. The cold winter had passed and frost and cold left the land, so that soon we could begin to prepare the fields for sowing. Since the sighting of the angel had caused us to let some of the farm workers leave, and they stayed away longer than we had expected, I had to join others in helping to plow the Fields of Death. The work was exhausting and made me physically very tired, since I still had to work in the carpenter's shop as well. We could not afford tractors, so we still had to resort to older tools. So, it happened that one day I was driving one of the hand plows through the dirty ground and was lost in my thoughts and full of sweat.
I was quite far away from the village, as the nearby surroundings had been worked shortly after the beginning of the thaw. The fields were extensive, partly reaching further than the eye could see. Only in one direction the dense forest extended, which introduced the beginning of a dark hilly landscape, that finally merged northward into high, alien mountains, whose white peaks rose high into the sky and, like once the tower of Babel, blasphemously tried to penetrate the heavens. But next to these distant giants there was only the plain, the vast plain that had to be tilled.
I hated the field work. And I hated the fields.
Every time I even thought about this piece of hell that had become reality long ago, my stomach turned. All the events that clung to this dark place, all the human lives and suffering that had sown the ground with death and blood here many years ago....
It was even worse when you stood in the fields yourself, truly being there on your own. It was as if I could smell it in the air, the rot of the starving and the hot blood that had watered the soil. It was as if I could still hear in the air the cries and wailing of the people who had met their end here, who had pleaded for their lives and the lives of their children and friends. It was as if I could see them in the early morning fog banks that lay on the Fields of Death, the shadows of people past, crawling and cowering, weak and starved. I had to pull myself together and look away, into the forest. A place does not forget, a place always remembers the days gone by and the cries that had been.
The plow pulled through the ground, ripping a furrow behind it. It was almost a bit comforting to imagine I was gutting this place of horror with my labor, inflicting deep wounds. Hypnotized, I stared down over and over again, watching the ground swirl to one side, smelling the fresh earth being pushed to the surface. But never could I escape my terrible feelings and the forebodings, never could I forget what kind of place I was at.
The few times I looked to the forest beside me, my thoughts wandered enviously to all those who had set out to find the angel. Had they reached it yet? Had they already learned from it what needed to be done for God's power on earth to be strengthened so that false prophets and promises could be swept away? How to drown the selfishness of the state? What needed to be done to serve the Lord?
Oh, how I would have loved to be there! How I would have loved to go with them, but I also understood the decision not to send everyone, and I understood my family's objections. I was needed here. I could serve the Lord here by tilling the fields and taking care of the soil and the sowing. I had to care for my sister.
I had already made several furrows when noon came. The sun was almost not visible, just a murky spot behind the clouds, and the fog had not lifted either. The world looked pale and apathetic. But amongst all the desolation I could suddenly hear something, something that seemed to come out of the forest.
It was at first just like a rustling in the wind that sounded a bit too regular, such that it triggered a natural uneasiness in me. I looked into the forest, but could hardly make out anything through the dense plants and the still lingering fog. That is why it was left to my own thoughts to imagine what was there, what was producing this strange noise.
I could not remember any animal that made similar sounds, was at a loss.
Suddenly, a bang echoed through the forest, accompanied by a panicked scream that broke inhumanly from the trees and spread across the fields.
Then, something new joined the sounds in the air.
The trees and bushes rustled, almost seemed to be torn apart.
Something was running through the forest, something seemed to be... coming right at me.
Was it perhaps a startled bear, an elk, or a wild boar?
Had one of the hunters from the village accidentally startled an animal, scared it in the wrong direction and now wanted to warn us with their cry? But then, why this panicked sound...?
I paused, took my hands off the rusty handles of the plow, and turned toward the forest. Still, I could only see fog, I could only hear rustling, but slowly I could also make out grunts and groans coming to me from the fog. It sounded heavy and panic-stricken.
Was I in danger? I began to pray to the Lord and ask him for assistance. I was not a fighter and so I had to hope that nothing would reach me from the depths between the trees that could easily tear me apart.
Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
My baptismal motto gave me courage. The Lord saw me, even in my darkness, and would be with me.
For darkness is as light to you.
Then, someone burst out of the bushes and the fog and rushed toward me.
It was Sasha.
I almost didn't recognize him. His skin was pale, almost snow-white. His black hair stuck to his sweaty face. His pants and jacket were almost completely torn, so I could see his dirty shirt and his cut and bruised legs through the holes. There were also some small cuts on his face that worried me. Sasha's eyes twitched searchingly, panicked, and in his hand, he held the rifle that he had taken with him when he had once set out. Apparently, he had run through brush and thorns, had gotten scrapes and wounds from stones and branches.
When he saw me and looked at me with his big, panic-filled eyes, I became horridly afraid.
It was as if… behind his eyes there was no Sasha anymore, but only an animal. As if instinct had taken over his thoughts when an unnamable terror had entered his world. An animal inside him, which had enabled him to escape from... something.
Sasha staggered out of the forest, it was almost as if all strength left him now that he was back home. The rifle fell from his hand and dug into the mud beneath his feet. He limped slowly toward me, not taking his eyes off me. Then, suddenly, he wheeled around and looked back into the forest and the mist.
Only for a moment.
Again, he let out a shrill scream and sprinted the last few meters. When I looked into the forest myself, I saw nothing, only the fog.
But, didn't I feel a presence there, in the bushes? Between the trees?
I didn't see anything.
Sasha had reached me and collapsed. I quickly knelt down next to him and called for help. But the other field workers had already rushed over, obviously attracted by the rifle shot. I was in a trance, seeing only Sasha lying there, supporting his head. His eyes were still twitching around and despite my proximity he didn't seem to recognize me. He looked at me, confused.
"Sasha, what happened?", I asked, feeling his forehead.
Despite his paleness, he was uncomfortably hot.
A fever raged in his body. Who knew how long he had been running around there among the trees, his protective, warming jacket torn? With wounds that had not been tended and some of which were still bleeding?
Then another horrible thought occurred to me.
"Sasha, where are the others? Sasha, where are the others?"
This question apparently brought back some clarity that his gaze had not possessed before.
"They... they took them. Took all of them... All of them. All our brothers, all our sisters... all of them," he gurgled.
*********
So, this is the first part of what I found. I will hurry to translate the rest! But I will definitely stay out of the woods for now... They are still as creepy as described by Ilya in this document and fog ist still around every morning... Also, I don't know what to make of Ilya himself as well, is he just a religious nut and that is the explanation? I just don't know...

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#16 Cover C Variant Lynne Yoshi International Womens Day Card Stock Cover
17 Cover A Regular Jorge Corona Cover
18 Cover C Variant Crystal Kung AAPI Heritage Month Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Batgirls 2022 Annual #1 $6
Batman
0 = $3
335 = $1 (poor quality)
403 = $8
409 = $22
412 = $10 (1st appearance of Mime (Camilla Cameo)
413 = $6
416 = $6
417 = $12 1st appearance of KGBeast (Anatoli Knyazev)
418 = $12 ("Ten Nights of the Beast Part 2")
418 = $12 ("Ten Nights of the Beast Part 2")
419 = $12 ("Ten Nights of the Beast Part 3")
420 = $12 ("Ten Nights of the Beast Part 4")
421 = $6 ("Elmore's Lady" (Dumpster Slasher Pt.2)
424 = $6 ("The Diplomat's Son" Garzonas Pt.1)
425 = $6 ("Consequences" Garzonas Pt.2)
428 = $45 (Death of Robin II (Jason Todd))
429 = $15 (A Death in the Family (Part 4 of 4))
430 = $5 ("Fatal Wish")
431 = $5 ("The Wall")
432 = $5 ("Dead Letter Office")
434 = $5 ("The Many Deaths of the Batman Part 2: How Many Times Can a Batman Die?")
435 = $5 ("The Many Deaths of the Batman Part 3: The Last Death of the Batman")
436 = $15 (Batman Year 3 (Part 1): Different Roads) (1st appearance of Tim Drake)
437 = $5 ("Batman Year Three Part 2: Changes Made")
438 = $5 ("Batman Year Three Part 3: Turnabout" )
439 = $5 ("Batman Year Three Part 4: Resolutions")
440 = $5 ("A Lonely Place of Dying Part 1: Suspects")
443 = $4 ("The Coming of Crimesmith")
444 = $4 ("Crimesmith and Punishment" )
445 = $4 (1st app. NKVDemon (Gregor Dosynski)
446 = $4 ("When the Earth Dies Part 2: Underworlds")
447 = $4 ("When the Earth Dies Part 3: Earth Day! Demon Night!")
450 = $4 ("Wildcard!” Joker Pt.2)
451 = $4 (Death of Joker II (Curtis Base) "Judgements!")
452 = $4 ("Dark Knight, Dark City Part 1")
453 = $4 ("Dark Knight, Dark City Part 2")
454 = $4 ("Dark Knight, Dark City Part 3")
455 = $4 ("Identity Crisis Part 1" )
456 = $4 ("Identity Crisis Part 2: Without Fear of Consequence...")
457 = $12 (1st appearance on Robin's new costume)
458 = $4 ("Night Monsters" Mr. Fixxit)
459 = $4 ("Saturday Night at the Movies")
460 = $4 ("Sisters in Arms Part.1: It's a Man's World")
461 = $4 ("Sisters in Arms Part Two: Ladies' Night")
462 = $4 ("Spirit of the Beast Part 1: To Live and Die in California")
463 = $4 ("Spirit of the Beast Part 2: Ghost")
464 = $4 ("Spirit of the Beast Part 3: Sacrifice")
465 = $4 ("Debut")
466 = $4 ("No More Heroes")
467 = $4 (Shadow Box, pt. 1)
468 = $4 ("Shadow Box Part 2")
469 = $4 ("Shadow Box Part 3")
470 = $4 ("War of the Gods, Pt. 15 of 25: Of Gods and Men" cont. from Justice League Europe no. 31 cont. in Hawkworld no. 16)
471 = $4 (Killer Croc in "Requiem For a Killer")
472 = $4 ("The Idiot Root Part 1: The Queen of Hearts")
473 = $4 ("The Idiot Root Part 3: Into the Idiot Zone")
474 = $4 ("The Destroyer Part 1: A Tale of Two Cities")
475 = $4 (1st appearance of Renee Montoya (later becomes Question II, The Return of Scarface, pt. 1, "Mustache Pete is Dead!")
476 = $4 ("The Return of Scarface! Part 3: The Gig Heat!")
477 = $4 ("A Gotham Tale, Part 1: Gargoyle")
478 = $4 ("A Gotham Tale Part 2: Venging Spirits")
479 = $4 ("Pagan")
480 = $4 ("To the Father I Never Knew...")
481 = $4 ("Messenger of Zeus Part 1")
482 = $4 ("Vengeance of the Harpy")
483 = $4 ("Crash & Burn: A Love Story")
484 = $4 ("Black Mask Part 1: Warpaint")
485 = $4 (Black Mask, pt. 2 "Faces of Death")
487 = $4 (Headhunter in "Box of Blood")
488 = $8 (Robin Azrael Solo in "Costumes")
489 = $6 (1st appearance of Jean-Paul Valley in Batman Costume) (2nd appearance of Bane (Antonio Diego)) ("Killer's Bane")
490 = $6 (Bane, Riddler Pt.2, "Who Riddled the Riddler?")
491 = $6 (Bane, Arkham Asylum Pt.3, "the freedom of MADNESS!”)
492 = $6 (Knightfall, pt.1)
493 = $6 (Knightfall: Part 3)
494 = $6 (Knightfall Part 5: "Night Terrors")
495 = $6 (Knightfall, Part 7: "Strange Deadfellows")
496 = $6 (Knightfall Part 9: "Die Laughing")
497 = $10 (Knightfall, Part 11: "The Broken Bat")
498 = $5 (Knightfall, Part 15: "Knights in Darkness”)
499 = $5 (Knightfall Part 17: "The Venom Connection")
500 = $5 (Knightfall, pt. 19)
501 = $3 (Knightquest: The Crusade Tie-In)
502 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade Tie-in)
503 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
504 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
505 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
506 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
507 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
508 = $3 (Knightquest The Crusade)
509 = $4 (Knights End Part 1: "Spirit of the Bat")
510 = $3 (Knights End Part 7: "Return of the Bat")
511 = $3 (Zero Hour Tie-in)
512 = $3 (First time Dick Grayson wears the cape and cowl and temporarily replaces Bruce Wayne as Batman)
513 = $3 (Prodigal Part 5: "Double Deuce")
516 = $3 (Sleeper, Part One: Nightmares")
517 = $3 ("Sleeper, Part Two: Darkness in the Dream Chamber”)
518 = $3 (Black Mask: The Spidered Face)
519 = $3 (Black Spider: Web of Scars)
520 = $3 ("Fades to Black")
521 = $3 (Killer Croc: Fast Train to the Wet Dark)
522 = $3 (Swamp Things
523 = $3 (Scarecrow Pt.1 - "Dark Wings Fly Away in Fear")
526 = $3 ("Constant Whitewater")
527 = $3 (Two-Face Pt.1 "The Face Schism")
528 = $3 (Two-Face Pt.2 Schismed Faces")
530 = $4 (The Deadman Connection, pt. 1 Glow-in-the-Dark Cover)
531 = $4 (The Deadman Connection Pt.2: "Cult of the Mummy" Glow-in-the-Dark Cover)
533 = $3 (Prelude: Legacy - "Twelve Steps to the Heart of Hell")
534 = $3 (Legacy Part 5 - "A Wound on the Heart of Heaven")
535 = $4 (The Ogre and the Ape, ch. 1)
536 = $3 (Final Night Tie-in, "Darkest Night of the Man-Bat Part 1: Predation")
537 = $3 (Darkest Night of the Man-Bat, pt. 2)
538 = $3 ("Darkest Night of the Mat-Bat Part 3: Redemption")
539 = $3 (The Undertaker in "Boneyard Blues")
540 = $3 ("The Spectre of Vengeance Part 1: Gotham Welcome")
541 = $3 ("The Spectre of Vengeance Part 2: Mask of Guilt")
542 = $3 ("Faceless Part 1" Murdicide")
543 = $3 ("Faceless Part 2 - Postmarked: Murder")
544 = $3 ("Major Arcana, Part 1: Jokin' with Mister D.")
545 = $3 ("Major Arcana, Part 2: Night of the Dying Jokers")
546 = $3 ("Major Arcana, Part 3: Hell to Pay")
548 = $3 (The Penguin Returns, Part One: Burning Faces)
549 = $3 (The Penguin Returns, Part Two: The Egyptian Falcon)
550 = $5 (NOTE: First appearance of Cameron Chase. Also, first appearance of Claything (Dr. Peter Malley).
551 = $3 (Suit of Evil Souls)
553 = $4 (Cataclysm Part 3: "Lifelines")
554 = $3 (Cataclysm Part 12: "Master of Destruction")
555 = $3 (Aftershock Tie-in; Rat-Catcher Pt.1: "Trapped Like Rats"_
556 = $3 (Aftershock Part 2: "Help Trapped Money Rescue Ruins")
558 = $3 (Aftershock Part 4: "Dying City")
559 = $3 (Aftershock Part 5: "Dead City")
565 = $3 (No Man's Land Tie-in - "Mosaic: Part 1")1,000,000 = $3 (Batman in 853rd Century Pt.1)
Batman
Batman 23
Batman Zero Year Director's Cut 1
Batman Annual 2
$15
Batman volume 3 (2021)
112
113 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
114 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stork Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
115 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
116 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
117 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
123 Cover B Variant Gabriele Dell Otto Card Stock Cover (Shadow War Part 5)
$35
Batman '89
1-3
4 Cover A Regular Joe Quinones Cover
5 Cover B Variant Adam Hughes Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Julian Totino Tedesco Card Stock Cover
$30
Batman Adventures, The: Mad Love $60
Batman & The Joker The Deadly Duo
1 Cover A Regular Marc Silvestri Cover
2 Cover E Variant Stjepan Sejic Cover
3 Cover C Variant Jason Shawn Alexander Joker Cover
4 Cover B Variant David Mack Batman Cover
5 Cover A Regular Marc Silvestri Cover
6 Cover C Variant Bill Sienkiewicz Joker
7 Cover E Variant Jock Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Batman and Superman 2, 3 $10
Batman and the Outsiders 8, 9, 13, 16, 18, 21 $30
Batman Arkham Asylum The Deluxe Edition HC $25
Batman Beyond The White Knight
5 Cover B Variant J Scott Campbell Cover $5
6 Cover B Variant Fiona Staples Cover $5
7 Cover B Variant Clay Mann Cover $5
8 Cover C Variant Top Secret Sean Murphy Cover $5
Batman: Blackgate: Isle of Men 1 (Cataclysm tie-in) $2
Batman: Black & White (1996) 1-4 $20
Batman Black and White 2021: 1-6 $30
Batman The Brave And The Bold #1 Cover B Variant Jim Cheung Cover $8
Batman/Catwoman: 1 $5
Batman Chronicles, The: 11-13 $15
Batman: Curse of the White Knight 1-4, 6-8 $5 each
Batman Dark Victory The Deluxe Edition HC $45
Batman: Dark Victory 0 $3
Batman Fortress
1 Cover B Variant Doaly Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Gerardo Zaffino Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Mico Suayan Card Stock Cover
4 Cover A Regular Darick Robertson Cover
4 Cover A Regular Darick Robertson Cover
5 Cover B Variant Kamome Shirahama Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Ken Lashley Card Stock Cover
8 Cover B Variant Ken Lashley Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Batman: Gotham Nights 1-4 (of 4) $20
Batman Huntress Spoiler: Blunt Trauma 1 $5
Batman; in Darkest Knight $20
Batman: Death of Innocents $3
Batman Fear State
Alpha: 1
Omega #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Jamal Campbell Cover
$10 for Fear State Alpha & Omega
Batman Giant #1 $10
Batman: Gordon of Gotham 1, 2, 3 ( of 4) $15
Batman Incorporated 2013
#13
Special #1
$10
Batman Incorporated Vol 3
1 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover
3 Cover A Regular John Timms Cover
4 Cover B Variant Inhyuk Lee Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Inhyuk Lee Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Card Stock Cover
7 Cover A Regular John Timms Cover
8 Cover B Variant Alan Quah Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Batman Killing Time
1 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
$36
Batman: Last Knight on Earth 1, 2, 3 (complete series) $15
Batman Legends Of Gotham #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover $7
Batman Noel HC $10
Batman Odyssey 1 of 7 $2
Batman One Bad Day
The Riddler #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Mitch Gerads Cover
Two-Face #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Javier Fernandez Cover
Penguin #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Jim Lee Cover
Mr Freeze #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Matteo Scalera Cover
Bane #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Giuseppe Camuncoli & Arif Prianto Premium Cover
Catwoman #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Jamie McKelvie Cover
Clayface #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Jim Lee Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair Cover
Ras Al Ghul #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Giuseppe Camuncoli & Arif Prianto Premium Cover
$8 each
Batman One Dark Knight
1 Cover A Regular Jock Cover
2 Cover A Regular Jock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Bill Sienkiewicz Cover
$18
Batman Plus Arsenal $2
Batman Reptilian
1-4
5 Cover A Regular Liam Sharp Cover
6 Cover A Regular Liam Sharp Cover
$30
Batman Secret Files
The Gardener #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Ejikure Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
Huntress: 1
Miracle Molly #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Justine Frany Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
Peacekeeper-01 #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Tyler Kirkham Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In
$20 for Batman Secret Files
Batman: Seduction of the Gun 1 (1993) $2
Batman Spawn #1 (One Shot) Cover N Incentive Jason Fabok Black & White Cover $8
Batman's Grave, The 1 $2
Batman/Superman 1 (2019) $10
Batman Superman Worlds Finest
1 Cover D Variant Jason Fabok Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Tim Sale Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Lucio Parrillo Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Terry Dodson Card Stock Cover
7 Cover C Variant Dan Mora Card Stock Cover
8 Cover B Variant Taurin Clarke Card Stock Cover
9 Cover A Regular Dan Mora Cover
10 Cover A Regular Dan Mora Cover
11 Cover B Variant Jonboy Meyers Powergirl Connecting Card Stock Cover
12 Cover B Variant Dave Johnson Card Stock Cover
13 Cover A Regular Dan Mora Cover
14 Cover B Variant Serg Acuna Card Stock Cover
15 Cover B Variant Daniel Sampere & Bruno Redondo Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Batman: Sword of Azrael 1-4 $20
Batman: The Adventures Continue 1 $5
Batman The Audio Adventures Special #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Francis Manapul Card Stock Cover $5
Batman: The Cult book 3: Escape $5
Batman the Detective
1, 3, 5
6 Cover B Variant Andy Kubert Card Stock Cover
$30
Batman The Imposter
1 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
2 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
3 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
$15
Batman The Knight
1 Cover B Variant Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
8 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
10 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Card Stock Cover
$6 each
Batman The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition Catwoman When In Rome HC $40
Batman the 10¢ Adventure $2
Batman: the Widening Gyre 1-4 of 6 $5
Batman The World HC $25
Batman: Three Jokers 1-3 $30
Batman Urban Legends
1-8
9 Cover C Variant Riccardo Federici Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
10 Cover C Variant Bengal Cover
11 Cover B Variant Karl Mostert Cover
12 Cover C Variant Anand Radhakrishnan Cover
13 Cover C Variant David Marquez Cover
14 Cover B Variant Kim Jacinto Cover
15 Cover C Variant Riley Rossmo Cover
16 Cover B Variant Ejikure Cover
17 Cover C Variant Sebastian Fiumara Cover
18 Cover C Variant Gerardo Zaffino Cover
19 Cover B Variant Chris Burnham Cover
20 Cover C Variant Edwin Galmon Cover
21 Cover A Regular Michael Cho Cover
22 Cover A Regular Jamal Campbell Cover
23 Cover A Regular Nikola Cizmesija Cover
$7 each
Batman: Vengeance of Bane (first appearance of Bane) $99
Batman: Vengeance of Bane II: The Redemption $15
Batman versus Predator II 4 of 4 $5
Batman Villains Secret Files 1 $5
Batman vs Robin
1 Cover F Variant Blank Card Stock Cover
2 Cover C Variant Francis Manapul Card Stock Cover
3 Cover D Variant Carlo Barberi 90s Cover Month Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Simone Di Meo Card Stock Cover
5 Cover C Variant Rafa Sandoval Card Stock Cover (Lazarus Planet Tie-In)
7 each
Batman: White Knight $10
Batman White Knight Presents Generation Joker #1 Cover A Regular Sean Murphy Cover $5
Batman: White Knight presents Harley Quinn: 1-6 $20
Batman White Knight Presents Red Hood
1 Cover B Variant Olivier Coipel Cover
2 Cover A Regular Sean Murphy Cover
$10
Batman: White Knight presents Von Freeze $5
Battleground Earth: Invasion 2 $1
Batwoman 0-15, 17-23 $100
Before Watchmen
Comedian 2, 6 of 6
Dr. Manhattan 2, 3 of 4
Dollar Bill 1 of 1
Minutemen 2, 5 of 6
Nite Owl 2, 3 of 4
Ozymandias 1, 2 of 6
Rorschach 2 of 4
Silk Spectre 2, 4 of 4
$70
Birds of Prey 0, 10 $10
Black Condor 12 $1
Bloodbath 1 & 2 of 2 $1
Bloodlines: Earthplague 4 $1
Blood Syndicate Season One
1 Cover C Variant Nikolas Draper-Ivey New School Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Edwin Galmon Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Jamal Igle Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Juliet Nneka Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Caanan White Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Jay Hero Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Blue Beetle 12 $2
Boys, The: Dear Becky 1-8 (complete collection) $40
Cable (2020): 1 $5
Captain Atom 33, 34 $2
Captain Marvel 0 $1
Catwoman
0, 6, 7, 13, 14
Annual: 1
$30
Catwoman
0-21
Annual 1
Annuals: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22
Annual #4 (December 2019)
$70
Catwoman volume 5 (2021)
34, 35
36 Cover B Variant Jenny Frison Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
37 Cover B Variant Jenny Frison Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
$20
Challenge 1-4, 7, 8, 11, 12 $8
Checkmate (2021) 1-3 $15
Creeper 7 $1
Crime Syndicate: 1 $5
Crossgen Primer $1
Crush and Lobo
1-5
6 Cover B Variant Nicole Goux Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant W Scott Forbes Card Stock Cover
8 Cover B Variant Jen Bartel Card Stock Cover
$35
Daredevil: One More Day 1 $1
Daredevil Vol 7 #1 Cover A Regular Marco Checchetto Cover $5
Dark Crisis
1 Cover C Variant Jim Lee Homage Card Stock Cover
2 Cover C Variant Rafael Sarmento Homage Card Stock Cover
3 Cover C Variant Michael Allred Homage Card Stock Cover
4 Cover C Variant Brett Booth & Jonathan Glapion Zero Hour Homage Card Stock Cover
5 Cover C Variant Mateus Manhanini Identity Crisis Homage Card Stock Cover
6 Cover A Regular Daniel Sampere & Alejandro Sanchez Cover
7 Cover J Variant Dan Mora Dawn Of DC 4 Card Stock Cover
$28
Dark Crisis Big Bang #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Mikel Janin Cover $4
Dark Crisis The Dark Army #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Taj Tenfold Cover $6
Dark Crisis The Deadly Green #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Felipe Massafera Cover $6
Dark Crisis Worlds Without A Justice League Superman #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Chris Burnham Cover $5
Dark Crisis Worlds Without A Justice League Green Arrow #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Nik Virella Cover $5
Dark Crisis Worlds Without A Justice League Green Lantern #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Fernando Blanco Cover $5
Dark Crisis Worlds Without A Justice League Wonder Woman #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Leila Del Duca Cover $5
Dark Crisis Worlds Without A Justice League Batman #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Ryan Sook Cover $5
Dark Crisis Young Justice
1 Cover B Variant Todd Nauck Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Nikola Cizmesija Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Jorge Corona Card Stock Cover
4 Cover A Regular Max Dunbar Cover
5 Cover B Variant Belen Ortega Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Todd Nauck Card Stock Cover
$24
Dark Crisis War Zone #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Mario Fox Foccillo & Prasad Rao Cover $6
Dark Knights Of Steel
4 Cover B Variant Joshua Middleton Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Joshua Middleton Card Stock CoverDark Knights Of Steel
6 Cover A Regular Dan Mora CoverDark Knights Of Steel
7 Cover A Regular Dan Mora Cover
8 Cover A Regular Dan Mora Cover
9 Cover B Variant Gerardo Zaffino Card Stock Cover
10 Cover B Variant Ejikure Card Stock Cover
The Gathering Storm (collects first three issues)
$4 each for 4-9
$12 for Gathering Storm
Dark Knights Of Steel Tales From The Three Kingdoms #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Dan Mora Card Stock Cover $7
Darkseid 1 $5
Dawn
Lucifer's Halo
The Return of the Goddess
Three Tiers
$60
DC Comics: The New 52 #1 $1
DC Festival of Heroes: 1 $10
DCs Grifter Got Run Over By A Reindeer #1 $10
DCs Harley Quinn Romances #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Amanda Conner Cover $9
DC Love is a Battlefield: 1 $10
DC Power A Celebration #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Sozomaika Cover $9
DC Pride
2021
2022 Cover C Variant Jen Bartel Cover
2023 Cover D Variant Jen Bartel Foil Cover
$11 each
DC Silent Tales #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Gustavo Duarte Cover
DCs Terrors Through Time #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Steve Beach VHS Cover $9
DC vs Vampires
1 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
8 Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover
9 Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover
10 Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover
11 Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover
12 Cover B Variant Nathan Szerdy Card Stock Cover
$48
DC vs Vampires Killers #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Brett Booth & Jonathan Glapion Card Stock Cover $5
DC vs Vampires All-Out War
1 Cover B Variant Kael Ngu Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Lesley Leirix Li Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Lesley Leirix Li Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Christian Ward Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Lesley Leirix Li Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Mico Suayan Card Stock Cover
$24
Deadpool (2013 3rd Series) #13, 14, 15 $6
Deadpool 45 $2
Deadpool Kills Deadpool 1&2 $20
Deathstroke Inc
1 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
8 Cover A Regular Jonboy Meyers Cover (Shadow War Part 3)
9 Cover B Variant Derrick Chew Card Stock Cover (Shadow War Pt 6)
10 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
11 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
12 Cover B Variant Jesus Merino Card Stock Cover
13 Cover B Variant Dexter Soy Card Stock Cover
14 Cover B Variant Ivan Tao Card Stock Cover
15 Cover B Variant Felipe Massafera Card Stock Cover
$60
Deathstroke the Terminator: 9 $1
Doomsday Clock 1-12 (compete series) $60
Detective Comics Volume 1
0 - $3
0 - $3
327 Millennium Edition - $3
451 - $35
457 - $35
459 - $35
461 - $30
463 - $30
470 - $40
472 - $55
500 - $22
Detective Comics 2, 23 $4
Detective Comics Vol 2 2022 Annual #1 $6
Earth X, a special supplement to Wizard: the Comics Magazine #77 $5
Excalibur (2019) 1-9 $50
Extermination 1 $5
Fallen Angels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 $30
Fantastic Four: Life Story
1-4
5 Cover A Regular Daniel Acuna Cover
6 Cover A Regular Daniel Acuna Cover
$30
Fate 0 $2
Flash Annual 6 $2
Flash Vol 5
783 Cover B Variant Bengal Card Stock Cover (Dark Crisis Tie-In)
784 Cover B Variant Bengal Card Stock Cover (Dark Crisis Tie-In)
785 Cover B Variant George Kambadais Card Stock Cover (Dark Crisis Tie-In)
786 Cover B Variant George Kambadais Card Stock Cover (Dark Crisis Tie-In)
$16 for the complete set
Flashpoint Batman Knight Of Vengeance #1 (One Shot) $6
Flashpoint Beyond
0 Cover B Variant Eduardo Risso Cover
1 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Xermanico Card Stock Cover
$28
Future State Gotham
5 Cover A Regular Simone Di Meo Cover
6 Cover B Variant Rose Besch Card Stock Cover
$4 each
GCPD The Blue Wall
1 Cover A Regular Reiko Murakami Cover
2 Cover A Regular Reiko Murakami Cover
3 Cover B Variant Steve Epting Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Francesco Francavilla Card Stock Cover
5 Cover A Regular Reiko Murakami Cover
6 Cover B Variant Francesco Francavilla Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Ghost Rider (2005) 1-6 of 6 $20
Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears 2-6 of 6 $20
Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost $5
Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler $5
Girl Frenzy!
Birds of Prey: The Ravens
Batman: Batgirl
$5
Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular Lee Bermejo Cover $10
Gotham City Year One
1 Cover B Variant Ryan Sook Cover
2 Cover B Variant Cully Hamner Cover
3 Cover B Variant Greg Smallwood Cover
4 Cover B Variant Tony Harris Cove
5 Cover A Regular Phil Hester & Eric Gapstur Cover
6 Cover B Variant Jorge Molina Cover
$5 each
Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 1 $10
Green Arrow Vol 8
#1 Cover D Variant Blank Card Stock Cover $5
#1 Cover E Variant Sean Izaakse Wraparound Foil Cover $6
Green Lantern Annual 2 $5
Green Team 1 $1
Hardware - Season 1
1
2 Cover B Variant TK Card Stock Cover
3 Cover A Regular Mateus Manhanini Cover
4 Cover B Variant Denys Cowan Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Edwin Galmon Card Stock Cover
$25
Harleen 1, 2, 3 of 3 (complete) $30
Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special #1 (One Shot) Cover H Variant Stjepan Sejic Cover $9
Harley Quinn volume 2 #0 $5
Harley Quinn volume 4 (2021)
1-7
8 Cover B Variant Derrick Chew Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
9 Cover B Variant Derrick Chew Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
Annual: 1
$50
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy 1 $5
Harley Quinn The Animated Series The Eat Bang Kill Tour
1 Cover A Regular Max Sarin Cover
2 Cover B Variant Babs Tarr Card Stock Cover
3 Cover B Variant Meghan Hetrick Card Stock Cover
4 Cover B Variant Valentine De Landro Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Mike Hawthorne Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Derrick Chew Card Stock Cover
$30
Harley Quinn The Animated Series The Real Sidekicks Of New Gotham Special #1 (One-Shot) Cover B Variant Dan Hipp Cover $10
Harley Quinn The Animated Series Legion Of Bats
1 Cover A Regular Yoshi Yoshitani Cover
2 Cover A Regular Yoshi Yoshitani Cover
3 Cover A Regular Yoshi Yoshitani Cover
4 Cover B Variant Dan Hipp Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Dan Hipp Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Dan Hipp Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Hellions 1 $5
Higher Earth 1 $1
House of X 1-6 of 6 $60
Human Target Vol 4
1 Cover A Regular Greg Smallwood Cover
2 Cover A Regular Greg Smallwood Cover
3 Cover B Variant Stanley Artgerm Lau Cover
4 Cover B Variant Dave Johnson Cover
5 Cover B Variant Ben Oliver Cover
6 Cover B Variant Jorge Fornes Cover
7 Cover A Regular Greg Smallwood Cover
8 Cover B Variant Jorge Jimenez Cover
9 Cover B Variant Cully Hamner Cover
10 Cover B Variant Alex Garner Cover
11 Cover A Regular Greg Smallwood Cover
$5 each
Huntress 2-7, 14-16, 17 $20
I Am Batman
0
1 Cover C Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
2 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
3 Cover A Regular Gerardo Zaffino Cover (Fear State Tie-In)
4 Cover B Variant Rafael Sarmento Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover
8 Cover A Regular Stephen Segovia Cover
9 Cover B Variant Gerardo Zaffino Card Stock Cover
10 Cover B Variant Taurin Clarke Wraparound Card Stock Cover
11 Cover B Variant Salvador Larroca Card Stock Cover
12 Cover A Regular Christian Duce Cover
13 Cover B Variant Mike Bowden Card Stock Cover
14 Cover B Variant Howard Porter Card Stock Cover
15 Cover C Variant Khary Randolph 90s Cover Month Card Stock Cover (Dark Crisis Tie-In)
16 Cover B Variant Jesus Merino Card Stock Cover
17 Cover B Variant Jesus Merino Card Stock Cover
18 Cover C Variant ChrisCross Black History Month Card Stock Cover
$5 each
Icon and Rocket: Season 1
1-3
4 Cover B Variant Doug Braithwaite Card Stock Cover
5 Cover B Variant Doug Braithwaite Card Stock Cover
6 Cover B Variant Doug Braithwaite Card Stock Cover
$30
Infinite Frontier: #0 – 6 $35
Insane Clown Posse
The Upz & Downz of the Wicked Clownz 1
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers 1
Raze the Desertz of Glass
The Pendulum 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
$40
Jim Lee's C•23 special edition $1
JLA
6-9, 11-14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27
ANNUAL 1, 2
$90
JLA in Crisis Secret Files 1 $2
JLA: Paradise Lost 2 of 3 $2
The Joker Volume 2 (2021)
1-8
9 Cover A Regular Guillem March Cover
10 Cover B Variant Francesco Francavilla Cover
Annual #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Dan Hipp Card Stock Cover
11 Cover C Variant Kael Ngu Cover
12 Cover B Variant Gerardo Zaffino Cover
13 Cover C Variant James Harren Cover
14 Cover B Variant Alan Quah Cover
15 Cover B Variant Dike Ruan Cover
$7 each
Joker 80th Anniversary $10
Joker Harley Criminal Sanity 1-8 $40
Joker: Killer Smile 1, 2, 3 $15
Joker The Man Who Stopped Laughing:
1 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
2 Cover C Variant Gabriele Dell Otto Cover
3 Cover D Variant Rafael Sarmento Holiday Cover
4 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
5 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
6 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
7 Cover B Variant Lee Bermejo Cover
8 Cover B Variant Francesco Mattina Cover
$6 each
Justice League volume 1: 4, 6 (1987) $5
Justice League volume 4: 59 $5
Justice League volume 2: (2011 “New 52) 0-23 $6 each
Justice League 3000: #1 $5
Justice League America (ran 1989 - 1996): 0, 32, 38, 40, 66 $15
Justice League Dark volume 1 (ran 2011 - 2015, “New 52”): 22, 23 $5
Justice League Europe (ran 1989 - 1994): 7, 8 $5
Justice League: Infinity 1-7 $28
Justice League Internationa Vol. 1 (1987-1989)
8, 9, 11, 19, 27,
Annual 2, 4
$20
Justice League of America 251 (1986) $5
Justice League of America Vol. 3 (2013-2014) 1 – 7 $20
Justice League Last Ride
1-6
7 Cover B Variant Chip Zdarsky Card Stock Cover
$35
Lazarus Planet Alpha #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Francesco Mattina Card Stock Cover $7
Lazarus Planet Dark Fate #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Ibrahim Moustafa Card Stock Cover $6
Lazarus Planet Legends Reborn #1 (One Shot) Cover C Variant Laura Braga Card Stock Cover $6
Lazarus Planet Next Evolution #1 (One Shot) Cover B Variant Derrick Chew Card Stock Cover $6
Lazarus Planet Omega #1 (One Shot) Cover A Regular David Marquez & Alejandro Sanchez Cover $6
Legends 1, 4 $2
Legends of the Dark Knight
0-75, 78-80, 83-87, 89, 90, 93, 95, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 105-115 $3 each
Annuals: 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7 $4 each
Legends of the Dark Knight (2012, New 52) 1-11 $40
Legends of the Dark Knight Vol 2
1-5
6 Cover B Variant Becky Cloonan Card Stock Cover
7 Cover B Variant Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer Card Stock Cover
Cover B Variant Christian Ward Card Stock Cover
$40
Legends of the DC Universe 6 $1
Legion of Superheroes 1 (2019) $4
Luthor (2019, Black Label) $15
M&M Time Will Tell Promo Comic #1 (One Shot) FREE
Marauders 1-9 $45
Marjorie Finnegan: Temporal Criminal: 1-8 $32
Marvel Knights Sketchbook $2
Marvel Knights Wave 2 Sketchbook $10
Midnighter 2021 Annual $5
Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition Zero $5
Millennium 2, 4, 5 $3
Moon Knight volume 9 (2021): 1 $5
Multiversity Harley Screws Up The DCU #1 Cover B Variant Logan Faerber Card Stock Cover $6

Prices are subjective, negotiable, and do not include shipping.   Photos upon request
 

amiibo	Price	Condition
Zelda Loftwing	30	New In Box
Sanrio amiibo cards	12	Sealed Pack
Inkling Boy - Neon Green	39	Loose/Mint
Mario Cereal Box	15	Cereal Removed/Flattened
Isabelle Summer Outfit	40	Open Box
Cyrus/K.K./Reese	18	New In Box/Damaged box
Tom Nook	12	New In Box
Mabel	9	New In Box

 

Switch	Price	Condition
Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack	40	Sealed
Aggelos	40	Complete in Box
Bendy and the Ink Machine	30	Complete in Box
Cruel King and the Great Hero Storybook Edition	60	Complete in Box
Disgaea 1 Rosen Edition	100	Complete in Box
Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition	200	Sealed
Metroid Dread Collector's Edition	110	Sealed, a few dings associated with shipping
Monster Hunter Stories 2 Collector's Edition	160	Sealed
The Mummy Demastered	55	Complete in Box
Pokemon Sword + Expansion	110	Cart only, Expansion pass is on cartridge
River City Girls	200	Sealed, Best Buy Variant
Shadowverse Champion's Battle	15	Loose
Shantae Collector's Edition	150	Sealed
Shantae Risky's Revenge Collector's Edition	150	Sealed
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection	30	Sealed
Unravel 2	30	Sealed
Yu-Gi-Oh Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution	18	Loose
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap	40	Complete in Box

 

Wii	Price	Condition
Batallion Wars 2	11	Game and Case
Castle of Shikigami III	75	Complete in Box
Okami	10	Game and Case

 

WiiU Games	Price	Condition
Batman Arkham City Armored Edition	40	Sealed
Disney Infinity 2.0	15	Sealed
Mario Kart 8	15	Complete in Box
Nintendoland	10	Complete in Box
Star Fox Guard	10	Complete in Box

 

DS	Price	Condition
Super Scribblenauts	5	Loose
Witch's Wish	120	Game and Case, missing manual

 

3DS	Price	Condition
Kid Icarus Uprising (Japanese)	40	Game, Manual, and Case (No Big Box)

 

GBA	Price	Condition
Boktai 2	200	Loose
Game & Watch Gallery 4	16	Loose, Torn Label
Lady Sia	30	Loose, EU import
Lady Sia	50	Loose. Label imperfections
Super Puzzle Fighter 2	60	Complete in Box
Super Mario Advance	13	No label

 

GB	Price	Condition
Alleyway	5	Loose
Castlevania Legends	180	Loose, label wear
Kid Dracula	240	Loose

 

NES	Price	Condition
Faria	200	Game and Box. Box has some wear
Kid Icarus	180	Game, Box, and Manual; Box shows wear; Protective case for box and manual included

 

SNES	Price	Condition
Mortal Kombat II	20	Loose
Super Scope 6	22	Loose
Wild Guns	270	Loose, Bad Label Damage

 

N64	Price	Condition
Bomber Man 64 The Second Attack!	250	Loose
Pokemon Snap	20	Loose

 

Gamecube	Price	Condition
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles	14	Disc and case. Artwork is a little dinged up. No Manual
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	16	Complete in Box, blockbuster stickers on case.
Super Mario Sunshine	40	Game and Manual. Case included, but the artwork may be a reprint.

 

Sega Genesis	Price	Condition
Genesis 6-Pak	18	Loose cartridge
Jurrassic Park	10	Loose cartridge, Sharpie on Label
Phantasy Star IV	70	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Quackshot	40	Complete In Box
Rocket Knight Adventures	37	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Spider-Man	12	Loose cartridge, Label Damage

 

Sega Saturn	Price	Condition
Vampire Savior (Import, Dark Stalkers 2)	40	Game and artwork, no spine slip. Some creases in the artwork.

 

Sega Dreamcast	Price	Condition
Power Stone	120	CIB
Power Stone 2	160	CIB

 

PSP	Price	Condition
Silent Hill Origins	50	Game and Case

 

PS1	Price	Condition
Castlevania Chronicles	120	Loose
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	100	Complete in Box
Crash Bash	15	Complete in Box
Dark Stalkers	47	Loose
Dark Stalkers 3	47	Loose
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver	18	Loose
Silent Hill	105	Loose disc
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo	40	Complete in Box
Valkyrie Profile	325	Discs and Case, no manual
World of Dragon Warrior Torneko The Last Hope	80	Loose disc

 

PS2	Price	Condition
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance	17	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Burnout	8	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Burnout 2	8	Loose Disc
Burnout 3 Takedown	11	Complete, Water Damage on back cover art
Burnout Dominator	9	Case and Disc, Disc has superficial scratches but still boots
Burnout Revenge	10	Complete, Greatest Hits
Castlevania Curse of Darkness	60	Loose, Disc has light scratching
Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	15	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Final Fantasy X	6	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Final Fantasy X-2	6	Complete; Greatest Hits
God of War II	13	Complete; Greatest Hits
Grand Theft Auto Vice City	10	Disc, Case, Poster, No Manual
.Hack Quaratine	300	Game, Anime Disc, and Case. Missing Manual
Jak and Daxter	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Marvel vs Capcom 2	60	Cracked Disc, won't boot for me. Comes with case, no manual
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2	10	Disc and Case
Need for Speed Underground	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Resident Evil Dead Aim	50	Game and Case, No manual
Scarface	40	Complete; Greatest Hits
Star Wars Battlefront II	10	Disc and Case
Tekken Tag Tournament	10	Disc and Case; Greatest Hits

 

PS3	Price	Condition
Castlevania Lord of Shadow Collection	30	Loose

 

PS4	Price	Condition
APEX Construct	15	Sealed

 

PS5	Price	Condition
Battlefield 2042	20	Complete in Box

 

XBOX One	Price	Condition
Watchdogs	15	Sealed

 

Consoles	Price	Condition
Monster Hunter Rise Edition Switch	420	New in Box (No game code)
Playstation 2 w/FreeMcBoot	80	Original PS2 "Fat" system. Won't read PS1 or blue PS2 discs. Laser could be ready to go bad, or just need re-alignment. Comes with a Yellow PS2 Memory Card that has FreeMcBoot on it. Free McBoot will allow you to to play games off of a hard drive if desired. No cords/controllers included.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Edition OLED Switch	400	New In Box
Sega Dreamcast	120	Includes Deck, 1 Controller, Power Cable, and AV Cable
SNES Jr.	120	Includes Deck, RF Coax Cable, Third Party AC Adapter, and Third Party Controller. Small crack on the corner.
Splatoon 3 Edition OLED Switch	400

 

Controllers	Price	Condition
Fortnite Joy-Con Set	120	Comes from the Fortnite Edition Console, never used
Joy-Con Grip	8	Bagged/Unused - Came with console
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Left Controller	115	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Right Controller	115	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Platinum Gamecube Controller	20	Third Party, no nintendo logo, wired, good condition
Joy-Con (Left/Gray)	35	Good, no drift
Joy-Con (Right/Neon Red)	35	Good, no drift, Factory refurbished
SNES Controller	10	Third Party, no nintendo logo
SPIN Z WiiU Pro Controller	25	Black, Near Mint
SPIN Z WiiU Pro Controller	25	Black, Near Mint

 

Misc.	Price	Condition
3D Printed Question Block Switch Cart Case	12	Holds 6 switch carts and 6 Micro SD Cards
Black MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	20	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
Blue MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	20	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
Yellow Nyko MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	20	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Nintendo Switch ConsoleBox Only	90	Empty Box, good condition
Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	20	Empty Box, good condition
Pokemon Dialga & Palkia Switch Lite Box Only	30	Empty Box, good condition
Fortnite Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	20	Empty Box, good condition
The Art of Splatoon 2	300	Sealed
Kid Icarus Uprising Players Guide (Imported, no AR cards)	30	Shows a little wear
Nintendo Switch AC Adapter	20	Gently used
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pre-Order Coin	15	Sealed
Breath of the Wild Sheikah Coin	25	From BotW Special Edition, Good condition
Pokken Art Cel Pre-Order Bonus	7	Sealed
Blastoise New 3DS Plates	150	Plates are mint and unused
Nintendo 3DS Stand	30	OEM, Came with Kid Icarus Uprising
Kid Icarus AR Card Set (205/404)	600	Contains 205 different US cards, no duplicates. This is roughly half the entire set. An itemized list can be provided upon request.
Kid Icarus AR - Pit Rally Cry Sealed Pack	20	Sealed pack of cards that contains AKDE-403,014,086
Shantae Risky's Revenge 2 LP Soundtrack Vinyl	55	Sealed

 

Cases	Price	Condition
Dot Hack (.HACK) Infection	20	Case & Manual
Dot Hack (.HACK) Mutation	20	Case only
Dot Hack (.HACK) Outbreak	30	Case & Manual
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom	150	Includes everything but the game
God of War Chains of Olympus	15	Case and Manual Only

 

Freebies	Price	Condition
Gold Game & Watch Stand	Free with purchase	Gold Game & Watch stand meant for the 35th Anniversary Edition Zelda G&W, but likely works with others.
Playstation 2 IDE Connector	Free with purchase	Upgraded my HD Adapter to SATA, these are the old/leftover connectors.
Leapster Games	Free with purchase

 

Cross posting from relationshipadvice.
I tried going over budgetary ideas with my wife tonight and it went terribly. With student loans starting up again I will owe roughly $1k per month starting this fall so I am trying to work out a decent budget and cut some unnecessary expenses. I’m a relatively high earner for my age ($170k/yr) but we also have 8mo twin boys and I support her immigrant mother in part and subsidize some of my mom’s spending.
My wife is a SAHM and I try not to restrict her spending. Because of how my dad was with her, my mom actively encourages my wife to not run things by me so I just see charges pop up on my phone. Usually things for the babies, rarely for herself. But a lot of it are expensive items that most lower income couples would save for rather than just expense. She feels that they are necessary purchases usually so she feels attacked when I question them like it’s unfair.
The issue is that we’ve both gotten comfortable just swiping the credit card. As such, I’ve been chasing the credit card balances every month and barely saving. We can “afford” our lifestyle because of my income but with student loans resuming things are going to change. I suggested we cut out our meal delivery service ($100 per week in addition to our grocery bill and eating out) and half our Poland Springs water order (we have filtered water in our fridge). I also highlighted some of my spending that wouldn’t be able to happen but she got defensive without me even addressing any of her spending.
She started crying and became very upset at what I was suggesting. I just want us to have a plan. I don’t want to live like we’re in poverty. Just cut out some of the unnecessary expense and budget properly.
How do I navigate this?

As darkened clouds loomed overhead, lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the dark forest with a brilliant burst of light. The crackling energy split the heavens, casting jagged veins of illumination across the landscape. The resounding BOOM that followed reverberated through the air, shaking the very foundation of Cornelia's cozy cabin. Inside, she reclined in her plush chair, enveloped in its welcoming embrace. A soft, crackling warmth emanated from the fireplace, casting a gentle glow that bathed the room in a comforting radiance. She sighed contentedly, the flickering flames casting dancing shadows on the walls, as if they were performers in a mesmerizing show.
"A good sign, isn't that right, Wendy?" Cornelia whispered, her voice a delicate murmur filled with reassurance and affection.
“Wendy wike wain,” said Wendy, with her lustrous ebony-colored fluff, nestled against Cornelia's stomach, her presence a velvety touch against her skin. The room filled with a soft, contented humming as Wendy expressed her happiness.
Cornelia smiled as her pale fingers traced gentle paths along Wendy's back, their movements a tender caress. Her gaze drifted to the window, where nature orchestrated a symphony of raindrops cascading against the glass. Each droplet carried its own rhythm, harmonizing with the crackling fire to create a symphony of soothing melodies.
As Cornelia admired Wendy, a sense of curiosity began to blossom within her. Were there other fluffies out there with the same unique hue? Elves and wealthy humans often boasted vibrant and diverse-colored fluffies in their care, while the "street-rat" fluffies that roamed alleyways possessed more muted variations. Yet, Wendy's fur was a rarity—pure black that held an air of mystique.
Whispers had spread among the villages, snaking through ears and fuelling imaginations. Tales, distorted and embellished, spoke of a sinister pact between Cornelia and the Demon Vlae. In their twisted narratives, the villagers claimed that the evil spirit-lord resided within Wendy, bestowing upon her the cloak of inky blackness.
Cornelia knew these rumours to be falsehoods, mere figments of overactive imaginations, but that did little to quell the villagers' misguided intentions. Not wanting the villagers to burn her at the stake, Cornelia made a deliberate choice to slip away into the embrace of the ancient woods. There, among the towering sentinels of bark and the rustling tapestry of fallen leaves, she sought solace and a life of peace with Wendy.
Just as Cornelia and Wendy began to settle into a tranquil nap, an insistent knocking on the cabin door shattered the serene atmosphere. The abrupt interruption stirred them from their drowsy state, pulling them back into the realm of uncertainty and peril.
Ygor knocked on the door with the force of a strong but controlled thunder. The heavy wooden door swung open by itself, revealing a flaming shadow with crimson eyes that glare into his very soul.
“You do not disturb a witch’s nap you...” scowled Cornelia but she paused upon seeing a sad yet familiar ogre standing before her.
In the ogre's hands, cradled gently like a fragile treasure, was an injured blue fluffy curled up into a ball. The fluffy's delicate hooves pressed against her belly as she whimpered in pain, her soft cries filling the air with a heart-wrenching melody. The scent of fear and desperation clung to her, mingling with the damp earthiness that permeated the cabin.
Cornelia's piercing gaze softened, her eyes lingering on the wounded blue fluffy nestled in Ygor's hands. The dancing flames of the crackling fireplace painted shifting shadows on her face, accentuating the genuine concern etched across her soft features.
“Ygor?” asked Cornelia, her voice a gentle murmur that wrapped around the room.
“Ygor need help, widdle fluffy hurt” replied Ygor, his voice filled with a mix of deep worry and desperation.
"Bring her inside," Cornelia replied, stepping aside and waited for the giant ogre to enter her home. "Don't worry, the cabin is bigger on the inside," she reassured him, her words imbued with a touch of enchantment.
Ygor carefully stepped into the cabin, his massive form casting long shadows against the sturdy wooden walls. Inside, he found himself awestruck by the magic in the cabin. The air is alive with ethereal energy, a tangible testament to Cornelia's formidable abilities.
With deliberate grace, Ygor approached Cornelia, his every movement infused with cautious tenderness. The crackling flames of the fireplace cast a soft, golden glow that danced and flickered, creating a mesmerizing play of light and shadows across the room.
Cornelia placed a soft, crimson blanket on the smooth surface of the wooden table, its vibrant hue contrasting against the rustic backdrop of the cabin. Cornelia's voice resonated with warmth and reassurance as she spoke; her words carrying the echoes of countless months spent mastering witchcraft.
"It's one of the first spells I had to learn as a witch, so don't worry about trying to fit in," Cornelia assured Ygor, her tone comforting like a soft caress.
"Now, tell me what happened," Cornelia gently prompted, her voice a melodic invitation to share their burdens.
Her empathetic eyes fixed upon Ygor and the poor fluffy, eagerly awaiting their tale of woe. The fire crackled and the raindrops tapped against the window, forming a soothing symphony that seemed to draw the elements closer, eager to listen and offer solace.
“Ygor fed fwuffy raw meat, now fwuffy tummy hurts,” Ygor explained.
“wed’ meat? Fwuffies nu’ eat wed’ meat” Wendy exclaimed, her eyes widened with fear and confusion.
“Put her on the table!” Cornelia's command sliced through the air, her voice resonating with authority as she directed Ygor to carefully place the injured fluffy on the plush red blanket that adorned the sturdy wooden table.
With eager determination, Wendy scurried towards Cornelia. The little fluffy snatched a flask from a nearby shelf. The green liquid concocted from the nearby river and the roots of an ancient tree glowed inside the flask. The aromatic scent of the potion wafted through the air, mingling with the comforting aroma of burning wood. Ygor's sensitive nose caught a hint of bones in the fragrance, causing him to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Ygor smell bones” said Ygor upon picking up a strange scent coming from the flask.
"It's just the potion, Ygor. You can sit near the bookshelf; I'll handle this," reassured Cornelia as she guided Ygor to a seat beside the collection of well-worn tomes. His heavy footsteps resonated against the wooden floor, creating a gentle vibration that shook the nearby furniture.
Meanwhile, Wendy, her ebony-colored fluff rustling with each hurried step, made her way to the kitchen. The soft tapping of her little legs echoed through the cabin, the sound blending with the crackling fire and the rhythmic pitter-patter of rain against the window. Guided by Cornelia's request, Wendy retrieved a bowl of ash and garlic, their distinct scents mingling in the air, creating a heady mixture of earthiness and protection.
Cornelia's hands moved with practiced precision, like a knife gliding through the cloves of garlic as if guided by an invisible force. With each expert stroke, the pungent aroma of freshly cut garlic permeated the air, mingling with the earthy scent of the wooden table.
Once the garlic lay in neat, small pieces, Cornelia turned her attention to the bowl. She poured the green liquid into its depths, a shimmering cascade that glimmered like emerald flames. As the liquid settled, Cornelia's voice hummed with an incantation, her words carrying the weight of ancient knowledge and power.
In an instant, a flicker of green fire sprang to life, dancing atop the surface of the liquid. Its ethereal glow cast a surreal illumination, transforming the ordinary bowl into a vessel of enchantment. Shadows flickered and played upon the cabin walls, as if the very room had become a stage for magic itself.
Ygor's gaze locked onto Blue, his eyes filled with concern as he witnessed her unconscious. Despite her silent state, his sensitive ears detected faint, almost imperceptible whimpering that tugged at his heartstrings.
In a mesmerizing display of magic, a radiant golden light took the form of Cornelia's hand, delicately reaching towards the green flame. As her hand made contact, a breathtaking transformation ensued. The liquid within the bowl seemed to defy gravity, soaring out of its confines with graceful fluidity. It floated in the air, suspended like a glistening bubble, casting an iridescent glow that bathed the cabin in a surreal radiance.
The floating liquid became a canvas for the dancing and shimmering golden light, which traced intricate patterns written in the runes of magic. With every subtle movement and shift, the elixir responded, guided by Cornelia's hand, as if it were alive. The soft, ethereal hum resonated through the cabin, its gentle vibrations filling the air and contributing to the enchanting atmosphere that enveloped the space.
Ygor's eyes widened in awe as he witnessed this captivating spectacle, his senses fully immersed in the enchantment unfolding before him. The delicate scent of the potion wafted through the air, an intoxicating blend of natural ingredients and mystical energies. It mingled with the comforting aroma of burning firewood, creating an olfactory tapestry that enveloped the room.
“Wemembeh’ jus’ one dwop o’ fwuffy fwend goes fowebah sweepies” Wendy reminded, her voice filled with caution and trepidation. The anticipation was palpable, causing her little legs to tremble with a mixture of anxiety and hope.
“I know, Wendy” Cornelia replied with concern. Slowly, with delicate precision, she reached out and began removing the intricately carved magic runes that encircled the floating bubble. Each rune dislodged weakened the magic, and the room seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.
As the runes dissipated one by one, a single drop from the shimmering green bubble fell into Blue's mouth, like a droplet of life itself. In that fleeting moment, the magic took hold, invigorating her senses and drawing her back from the abyss of unconsciousness. Blue's eyes fluttered open, her vision initially blurry as she adjusted to the renewed world around her. Gradually, the fog lifted, revealing the figure of another fluffy sitting in front of her, a woman with a mysterious allure, half of her face veiled by a cascade of hair, and Ygor, the gentle ogre.
Blue wakes up, her vision blurry at first. When they cleared, she saw another fluffy sitting in front of her, a strange woman with half her face covered by her hair, and Ygor.
"Mommeh?" Blue's voice trembled with a mixture of longing and confusion, seeking comfort in the familiarity of a mother's embrace.
"No, sorry," Cornelia replied gently, her voice carrying a touch of sympathy. With great care, she cradled Blue in her hands, providing a sense of security and protection.
The cabin enveloped them in a cocoon of warmth and safety, shielding them from the world's uncertainties.
"Let's give you a bath before I return you to Ygor, is that okay?" Cornelia offered, her words laced with kindness and concern. Blue nodded, a silent agreement to the caring gesture that awaited her.
As Cornelia cradled Blue in her arms, Ygor's curious gaze wandered to the bookshelf, where a plush velvet tome caught his attention. With a gentle touch, he retrieved the book, feeling the smoothness of the fabric beneath his fingertips. Opening it, Ygor's eyes widened at the sight of a meticulously drawn map, its intricate details beckoning him into a world he’s never seen before.
His gaze shifted to the strange numbers inscribed alongside the map, written in elegant script that danced across the aged parchment. Ygor traced the lines and deciphered the enigmatic message contained within.
"Two... tw-twenty-six degrees, twelve minutes, and forty-four seconds, N—No- no- north," Ygor read aloud, his voice filled with a mix of curiosity.
Cornelia emerged from the bath, her bare feet padding softly against the wooden floor, carrying Blue wrapped in a clean towel. Drops of water glistened upon her skin like scattered diamonds, reflecting the warm glow of the cabin's hearth. She approached Ygor, her presence radiating a sense of wisdom and familiarity.
"It seems you've improved since the last time I met you," Cornelia remarked, her voice carrying a tone of admiration.
The scent of lavender lingered in the air, intermingling with the comforting aroma of freshly brewed tea.
“Ygor been reading lots lately, collected many books” Ygor proudly proclaimed. The room resonated with the gentle rustling of pages, as each one whispered a tale of knowledge and discovery.
Gently placing Blue on the floor, Cornelia watched with fondness as the little fluffy’s hooves create a delicate patter against the wooden surface as she scurried towards Ygor. She nuzzled against his massive leg, seeking solace and comfort. A warm smile graced Cornelia's lips.
"That's truly admirable," Cornelia remarked, her voice carrying a gentle cadence. The crackling fire painted flickering shadows upon the walls, enveloping the space in a comforting embrace. The scent of smoldering logs mingled with the sweet fragrance of wildflowers, creating an enchanting symphony for the senses.
“Until the ‘metal people’ burnt them along with Ygor house” Ygor replied, his voice echoed with a touch of sorrow. The weight of his words hung in the air, mingling with the flickering shadows cast by the crackling flames.
"The metal people," Cornelia mused, her thoughts drifting to the relentless knights of The King. The weight of their armored presence pressed upon her mind, like a looming storm cloud on the horizon. The memory of their arrival, their steel-clad boots treading upon the sacred grounds of the Old World, sent shivers down her spine. Their presence had brought upheaval, disrupting the delicate balance of harmony and magic that once thrived.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Cornelia said, her voice laced with sincerity. "You can stay here as long as you need," she assured, her words offering solace and a sense of belonging amidst the uncertainty of the outside world.
“Thank you, Ygor will find new home soon,” Ygor replied. “By the way, Ygor find black fluffy interesting, never seen one before,” he remarked, pointing towards Wendy.
Cornelia followed his gaze, her eyes tracing the ebony contours of Wendy's fur. The contrast of darkness against light evoked a sense of curiosity and wonder.
“I saw her in an alley a couple of months ago while I was gathering ingredients,” Cornelia recalled as she adjusted her favorite chair, drawing it closer to Ygor's seat. Blue and Wendy sat side by side, their eyes filled with anticipation as they listen to the story Cornelia is about to tell.
Clad in a worn cloak that concealed her features, Cornelia blended seamlessly into the bustling village crowd. The fabric whispered with every movement, a soft rustle against her skin as she navigated the narrow streets. The air was alive with the aroma of freshly baked bread, mingling with the scent of spices wafting from market stalls.
After procuring a bundle of garlic from the local market, the distinct scent of its earthy essence enveloped Cornelia's senses. Its pungency mingled with the vibrant tapestry of smells, drawing her further into the heart of the village. With purposeful steps, she made her way through the labyrinthine streets, seeking the hidden corners where the secrets of her craft could be uncovered.
The alleyway she ventured into concealed itself in shadow, an intimate sanctuary away from prying eyes. She brushed her finger against the rough brick walls as she walked deeper into the alley. Carefully, she extracted small glass jars from her satchel, their delicate clinks echoing in the stillness of the alley. Each jar captured the essence of a captured lizard, their gentle rustling and soft scales brushing against the glass as they adjusted to their temporary confines. Cornelia observed the ethereal dance of light on their vibrant scales, the sight creating a mesmerizing spectacle that seemed to hint at the creatures' otherworldly origins.
As her task neared completion, a hushed whimpering caught Cornelia's acute hearing, piercing through the ambient sounds of the alley. The muffled cries stirred her curiosity and compassion, grounding her in the present moment. The echoes of distress resonated with a palpable weight, urging her to investigate further. With a mixture of anticipation and concern, she followed the trail of whimpering, guided by an invisible thread that led her deeper into the shadows of the alleyway.
“Ugwy babbeh, momma gib’ fowebah sweepies!!!” scowled a fat, ugly fluffy with a distinct rhotacism, muted pink fur, and a stained green mane. Its harsh yet infant-like voice reverberated off the soot-covered walls, creating a dissonant symphony in the alley.
Cornelia's voice cut through the air like a whip cracking, her words carrying an authority that resonated with power and determination.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, street-rat!" she scowled back, her tone laced with both indignation and warning. An ethereal light, emanating from her cloak, bathed the alley in a soft, otherworldly glow, casting long, dancing shadows upon the cracked pavement.
"Smawty mommah beautiful! no gwiv biwth to ugwy babbeh!" the street-rat scowled again with its distinctive speech impediment. The creature turned to face Cornelia, its initial anger giving way to shock as its beady eyes widened in disbelief. The glow from Cornelia's cloak seemed to hold the street-rat captive, its mesmerizing radiance momentarily erasing the malice etched across its grotesque features.
“Hooman?” asked the street-rat, its voice trembling with a hint of hope amidst the chaos of its existence.
"Yes, a human," Cornelia affirmed, her tone firm yet laced with empathy.
The alley seemed to shrink around them, the dilapidated brick walls closing in as the tension mounted.
The street-rat's eyes widened with desperation, and in a flurry of movement, it scurried towards Cornelia, collapsing before her in a pitiful display of submission. Dust billowed around them, filling the air with a gritty haze, while the distant echo of passing footsteps underscored the urgency of their encounter.
“Nice wady, pweese take fwuffy wivh yu!” The street-rat's cries echoed through the desolate alley, its once-malicious tone transformed into a pitiful plea. Its snout nuzzled against Cornelia's leg, a feeble attempt at seeking solace and salvation.
“Fwuffy nu wan’ stay wivh ugwy babbehs!!!” the street-rat begged, its snout nuzzled against Cornelia's leg, a feeble attempt at seeking solace and salvation.
Cornelia, her heart heavy with the weight of the street-rat's anguish, carefully stepped over the pathetic creature, making her way toward the vulnerable baby lying at the end of the alley. Drawing closer, a chilling tableau of horror assaulted her senses. The metallic tang of blood hung in the air, intermingling with the sickly stench of decay. Before her eyes lay a grim testament to the darkest depths of despair. Foals with muted and stained bloodstained fur, their dull hues tainted with their own intestines, bore the scars of a brutal struggle. Bite marks marred their tender flesh, evidence of cannibalistic desperation, while trampled bodies bore witness to the unforgiving nature of this forsaken place.
As Cornelia knelt down to retrieve the fluffy, the air hung heavy with anticipation. The scent of damp concrete and decaying refuse mingled with the disgusting tang of blood, creating an atmosphere of unease. The dim light of the alleyway cast long, haunting shadows that danced along the walls.
But as Cornelia's hand closed around the trembling infant fluffy, a sudden, searing pain shot through her senses. A sharp SNAP echoed through the air, accompanied by the sickening sound of teeth sinking into flesh. Cornelia's cry of agony reverberated off the surrounding buildings, its raw intensity tinged with shock and disbelief.
The pink-furred mother street rat's jaws remained stubbornly clenched, its grip unyielding. Cornelia's vision blurred with tears, her vision shortly distorted by the excruciating pain. With a swift, instinctive motion, fueled by a mix of agony and surprise, Cornelia swung her injured hand in a wild arc, flinging the fluffy across the alley.
“What the?” Cornelia cried out. She has never encountered a fluffy that bites. Let alone, one that bites this hard. She swings her hand and threw the fluffy across the alley.
“MEANIE WADY! WHY TAKE UGWY BABBEH?” the street-rat's shrill voice pierced the air, its cries echoing like the wails of a frustrated toddler. The sound reverberated through the narrow passage, carrying a mix of confusion, anger, and sorrow. It blended with the backdrop of distant traffic, creating a dissonant symphony of chaos and distress.
“TAKE MUMMAH! KIWW UGWY BABBEH!” The street-rat frantically stomped the ground in uncontrolled rage. “nu wan’ meanie wady to take vewy ugwy babbeh!!!” the street-rat charged towards the witch.
As Cornelia clasped the fragile baby in her trembling hand, determination coursed through her veins, lending a renewed strength to her stance. The musty odor of the alleyway saturated the air with a pungent reminder of the harsh realities of this grim world.
But before she could fully process the unfolding situation, a searing pain shot through her leg like a lightning bolt. The sensation was akin to the piercing bite of a thousand needles, laced with the unmistakable pressure of a sharp object. Cornelia's scream reverberated through the alley, carrying her anguish and shock to the distant corners of the forgotten cityscape.
The street-rat's unicorn horn, a menacing weapon honed by the merciless streets, impaled Cornelia's left leg. The relentless strength behind the attack sent a blur of conflicting sensations—a symphony of pain, desperation, and disbelief —piercing through her body like shattered glass.
In the midst of her suffering, Cornelia became acutely aware of the grim reality that governed this alleyway. The countless deaths and constant struggle for survival had forged these street-rats into formidable adversaries. Their resilience and innate strength were evident in their very existence. It was a harsh lesson learned in an instant—the living street-rats were much stronger than one could ever anticipate.
As she fought to maintain her footing, Cornelia's vision swayed with a mixture of pain-induced dizziness and the swirling chaos of the alley. The scent of blood intermingled with the dank aroma of decay, enveloping her senses in a suffocating haze. The gritty texture of the alley's uneven pavement seemed to press against her fingertips, grounding her amidst the tumultuous storm of emotions.
Despite the excruciating torment and the formidable foe embedded in her leg, Cornelia clung to her resolve. With unwavering determination, she focused on protecting the fragile life in her arms, steeling herself for the challenges that lay ahead. The relentless struggle for survival in this unforgiving world had etched itself into her very being, and she was prepared to face its darkest truths head-on.
“Fwuffy stuck!!!” cried the street-rat, her voice trembling with desperation as she attempted to dislodge herself from Cornelia's lower leg. The sharp pain intensified, searing through Cornelia's flesh, eliciting a guttural cry of agony that reverberated through the alley.
In that moment, Cornelia's instincts kicked in, and with a surge of raw magical power, she conjured a blast wave of energy that pulsed through the air. The crackling energy engulfed the street-rat, propelling her forcefully into a nearby brick wall. The impact shattered the ancient masonry, and the street-rat lay there, her body bloodied and broken, her ability to move forever stolen.
“Fwuffy can’t move, hewp!” the street-rat whimpered, her words garbled and distorted by her injuries. The alleyway seemed to echo with her pain and despair.
Cornelia turned to leave the scene, a mix of relief and sorrow weighing upon her heart. But before she could vanish into the shadows, her eyes met the wide-eyed gaze of a villager who had witnessed her extraordinary display of magic. The villager's features contorted with shock, and his trembling voice pierced the air like a thunderclap, “Witch!”
“Witch!” The word reverberated through the alley, igniting a cacophony of shouts and gasps from the onlookers who had rushed to the scene. Their voices swirled with a mix of fear, awe, and accusation, intertwining with the faint scent of damp stone and the distant hum of city life.
Sensing the mounting danger, Cornelia slipped away, melding into the shadows like a ghost. All that remained was the street-rat, now broken and vulnerable, desperately calling out, her voice strained and pleading, “Nu take baby, nu take baby, pwease…”
“Fwuffy not know stweet-wats can make hoomans go ouchies” said Blue, her voice filled with a mixture of curiosity and concern. Her tiny hooves tapped softly on the wooden floor as he shifted in place, The air hung heavy with the scent of burning candles, casting a warm glow upon the room and bathing the scene in a gentle, flickering light..
“The alleyways are so full of death and destruction, only the strongest and most psychotic survive. I feel bad for them” replied Cornelia.
“Is like ogre life too, ogre warriors no longer live in peaceful lands, ogre fight to survive to ‘nother day” said Ygor, his voice, deep and resonant, bore the weight of sorrow.
The crackling fire in the hearth popped and hissed, casting shadows upon the walls, their movements mirroring the flickering emotions of the conversation.
“Well, we don’t have to face that depression anymore… Anyways, let’s eat!” Cornelia offered reassurance, her voice filled with conviction and a sense of determination.
The room seemed to come alive with the aroma of freshly prepared food; as if the very essence of the cast spell carried a tantalizing scent that made the Wendy and Blue’s mouths water. The tables gracefully glided towards them, their wooden legs creaking softly, while the dishes floated gently through the air, releasing a symphony of inviting aromas.
“I cooked meals using a spell the moment you and your fluffy arrived,” said Cornelia, her voice carrying a hint of pride. The room was filled with the tantalizing aromas of the freshly cooked meal. The scents of herbs, spices, and cooked ingredients mingled together in a mouth-watering symphony, infusing the air with the essence of culinary delight.
Ygor's gaze shifted to Cornelia, a newfound admiration gleaming in his eyes. Candlelight filled the room with a warm glow, casting a soft illumination on the scene, while the crackling fire in the hearth provided a comforting backdrop of pops and crackles paired with dancing shadows.
Cornelia's ability to cast multiple spells simultaneously was a testament to her skill and proficiency. Ygor could not help but be impressed by her effortless command over magic. There was a grace and elegance in her gestures, as if the very air around her responded to her every command. Despite the intricacy and complexity of the spells she had cast, there was no trace of fatigue or weariness on Cornelia's face. Her energy remained vibrant and radiant, her eyes sparkling with a sense of fulfilment and contentment. It was as if the act of magic itself invigorated her, filling her with a renewed sense of purpose.
Ygor's massive hand gripped the turkey leg, the savory aroma of roasted meat wafting up to his nose, mingling with the tantalizing scent of herbs and spices.
Amidst the anticipation, Cornelia, Wendy, and Blue bowed their heads in prayer, their hushed voices forming a gentle harmony that resonated through the room. The flickering candlelight cast an ethereal ambiance. The fragrant scent of burning candles intertwined with the aroma of the freshly cooked meal, infusing the air with a sense of reverence and gratitude.
Ygor paused, a deep respect shining in his eyes, as he respectfully placed the turkey leg back onto the plate. The flickering flames illuminated the scene, their golden glow casting a warm and comforting light. The air seemed to hum with a sacred energy, as if the very essence of their gratitude and prayers permeated every corner of the room.
“We pray before meals, we can now eat!” said Cornelia told Ygor when she finished praying.
“For ogres, pray and eating is same thing” replied Ygor.
“I remember,” Cornelia replied.
A touch of nostalgia as memories flooded Cornelia’s mind. She recalled the time spent among the ogres, their solemn devotion to the act of eating. Contrary to human myths, they were meticulous and mindful, making no mess as they communed with their god, Grunferth.
Cornelia delicately lifted a morsel from her plate, savoring the anticipation of the first bite. As she brought the food to her lips, a symphony of sensory delights unfolded within her. The succulent meat yielded to her teeth, releasing a burst of flavors that danced upon her palate. The crisp sound of Ygor's powerful jaws joining the feast resonated alongside the collective enjoyment, harmonizing with the heightened aroma of the meal that enveloped the space in a tantalizing embrace.
As Ygor took the final bite of his turkey leg, his ears pricked up, attuned to the faint but distinct sounds that drifted through the air. The cacophony of rolling wood, stone, and metal reached his senses, causing him to instinctively turn his gaze towards the window, his curiosity piqued.
"What did you hear?" Wendy inquired, her innocent eyes reflecting a touch of confusion.
But before Ygor could respond… KABOOM!!!
An earth-shattering explosion tore through the air, violently rending the walls asunder. The debris-filled chaos revealed a seething mass of enraged villagers, their figures cloaked in heavy rain and darkness. Riding at the forefront were armored knights, their steeds thundering beneath them. Amidst their ranks stood an ominous contraption, an immense rifle-cannon affixed to a sturdy bipod, wisps of smoke curling from its barrel.
The air crackled with a blend of fear and anticipation. The scent of burning gunpowder mingled with the acrid tang of destruction, permeating the atmosphere. Shadows loomed and flickered upon the shattered walls, cast by the flickering torches held by the angry mob.
"Load the slug!" bellowed the commanding voice of the knight leader, his words reverberating through the air like a thunderous declaration of imminent danger. Ygor's heart skipped a beat as the weight of the knight's authority bore down on him, sending a shiver down his spine.
With a sense of urgency, two knights swiftly inserted a sharp metal slag, gleaming like a wicked fang, into the massive barrel of the punt-gun. The weighty clink of metal meeting metal reverberated through the air, accompanied by the subtle hiss of their breaths as they worked diligently. Meanwhile, another knight meticulously poured an entire jar of gunpowder into the giant gun-cannon’s bulky breech, the grains cascading with a soft rustle that hinted imminent danger.
As the thick smoke cleared, the cracked force field revealed Cornelia standing tall, her arm aglow with a radiant aura as she valiantly upheld the shield. The scent of tainted ozone intermingled with the acrid aroma of spent gunpowder, lingering as a testament to the clash of magical forces and weaponry.
"Step out, monster!" the commander's voice boomed, cutting through the tense silence like a thunderclap. "Or you and your friends will taste the fury of two pounds of pure lead, forged stronger than your vile witchcraft!"
Cornelia's brows furrowed in bewilderment. "How did they find us?" she whispered, her voice laced with concern.
"Big, stupid ogres leave big, stupid footsteps!" the knight spat out a response filled with contempt and disdain. His words rang out, a venomous taunt that intensified the looming threat. "That buckshot was only a warning! Now step out, or face the consequences!"
Blue and Wendy, their tiny frames quivering with fear, sought solace behind Cornelia and Ygor, their small hooves instinctively covering their fragile, fluffy heads. Whimpers of trepidation escaped their trembling lips, mingling with the heavy air, adding an undercurrent of vulnerability.
Ygor, his massive form radiating determination, stepped forward, his footsteps reverberating like an earthquake that sent waves of terror rippling through the hearts of the villagers. The ground seemed to tremble beneath him, spreading whispers of fear and uncertainty among those who watched.
“What are you doing?” Cornelia asked, her voice laced with concern and near-panic, questioned Ygor's decision, desperately seeking to understand his intentions in the face of such imminent danger.
“Go find safety! Ygor fight them alone” Ygor proclaimed, his words laced with unwavering bravery.
“Ygow… Bwoo nu wike scawy guns… don’t go” Blue's voice trembled with fear, her eyes pleading for him to reconsider.
Ygor voice softened as he knelt down to her level, his words filled with reassurance. “Ygor had to… must stand up for the little ones… Ygor be strong fo’ Blue” he whispered, his voice a gentle balm amid the chaos.
With a final glance at Cornelia and the trembling foals, Ygor stepped forward, his determination carving a path through the looming danger. The weight of his responsibility settled upon his broad shoulders as he braced himself to confront the impending threat.
Cornelia's eyes locked with Wendy's, a silent understanding passing between them. In that moment, a flicker of determination ignited in Cornelia's gaze, mirroring the resolute nod of the black-fluffed creature. The air crackled with a mix of tension and anticipation, as if the very atmosphere held its breath.
"Bwoo, come wivh Wendy!" Wendy's voice carried a sense of urgency, beckoning Blue to seek refuge deeper within the safety of the cabin. The faint sound of hurried hoof-taps echoed through the wooden floor as the foals scurried away, seeking solace from the impending confrontation.
Cornelia's voice rang out with unwavering conviction, cutting through the charged air. "You don't have to fight alone," she declared, her words infused with a steadfast resolve.
Ygor's eyes stared into Cornelia's, seeking reassurance amidst the mounting peril. His broad shoulders squared with determination as he posed his question, concern etched in his voice. "Are the widdle ones safe?"
A fleeting moment of relief passed over Cornelia's features as she met Ygor's gaze. "Yes," she replied, her voice a steadying anchor in the midst of chaos.
“Last chance monster! My patience has ended!!!” The commander’s final warning reverberated through the air, a surge of adrenaline coursed through Ygor's veins. With each heavy footfall, the commander's armor resonated, the clinking sound echoing the weight of the impending clash. The ground itself seemed to tremble, mirroring the intensity that hung heavy in the air.
With one last determined glance back at Cornelia, Ygor stepped forward, his footsteps leaving an indelible impression upon the soil, each stride a testament to his bravery and the impending struggle that awaited.
"You've made a grave mistake, knight..." Cornelia's voice reverberated with seething rage, her words slicing through the tense air like a sharpened blade.
“We’re not leaving without your corpses, monsters!!!” bellowed the commander, his voice laced with venomous determination.
“I’m a forest witch, and you have entered my domain… LEAVE. MY. HOME!!!” Cornelia demanded as her eyes glowed with magic rage. The air crackled with an electric energy, a palpable tension that hung heavy amidst the looming clash of opposing forces.
The commander's signal sliced through the charged stormy atmosphere, setting the massive punt-gun's sights squarely on Ygor, while the villagers tightened their grips on their spears, preparing for the impending clash., while the villagers tightened their grips on their spears, ready for the impending assault.
SWISH!!!
A floating bubble of shimmering green liquid burst forth from the depths of the cabin, hurtling towards the commander with astonishing speed. The commander's reflexes kicked in, evading the peculiar water just moments before it could make contact.
SPLASH!!!
The strange substance that once healed Blue drenched the gunner’s hapless body. Anguished screams tore through the air, echoing with torment and despair, as the gunner’s flesh withered and decayed, leaving behind a grotesque skeletal figure that sent shivers of terror coursing through the hearts of the villagers. The unsettling transformation gripped them. The sight of this macabre spectacle fueled their fear and deepened their animosity, fanning the flames of their hatred towards the forest witch and her allies.
A momentary hush settled upon the battleground, shattered by the commander's malevolent grin. From the depths of the forest, more guns emerged, revealing a hidden arsenal of lethal force.
“Did you seriously think we only brought one gun?” The commander sneered, his words laced with derision and arrogance.
Yet, Ygor and Cornelia stood firm, their resolve unyielding amidst the encroaching danger. With a single swift gesture, the commander's hand unleashed a swift resounding gesture that sliced through misty powder-laced air.
“FIRE!!!”

6/5/23 Update (Part II of my Amazing Chiari Recovery Tale): "The Cerebellum Ain't Just About Balance, Baby"
So I want to make something very clear. From here on out, I wouldn't consider this a typical Chiari recovery tale at all anymore. As far as I know, it is not usual to have this level of emotion regulation benefit from a Chiari Surgery. But... that doesn't mean it /can't/ happen. Because clearly it's happened for me.
If you watch Dr. Stieg's "This Is Your Brain Podcast: Chiari in Adults" (the same one that convinced me to drive to NYC for consultation with him:
https://www.youtube.com/live/KyGGoA3Y2ko?feature=share
.... you'll see he takes questions at the end. And one of the questions he answers is about whether there are any big cognitive and emotional effects from Chiari. And he essentially says no -- unless there's hydrocephalus, water on the brain, being caused too, why whould there be? The cerebellum isn't really involved with higher cognitive and emotional stuff. It's more about the balance and all that. Of course, the stress and misery and anxiety of living with any chronic pain condition affects people's mental health. So certainly resolving the Chiari may still sort of indirectly help with their mental health in all sorts of very significant ways.
Ok. Fair enough. But here's where, if I were having an argument with him about this here and now (which I guess I am! Because that's apparently just how I am -- sorry, Dr. Stieg, intending no disrespect to your knowledge and authority -- you're the best!)... I would turn the same phrase he used with me in discussing my physical symptom resolution right back at him: "The proof is in the pudding." What he meant when he used that phrase was that, although of course we are going to do a follow-up MRI in a few months, and see how things stand, the imaging is not really important. The evidence is clear. I had the surgery, and all my physical problems (the crippling head aches and neck aches, the trouble choking on liquids and drooling, the numb/weak hands, episodes of dizziness, etc.) almost instantly resolved. We already know the surgery worked. I would say the proof is in the pudding about the drastic mental health/emotional changes I have experienced since the Chiari decompression as well.
So first, I guess I'm gonna have to get real with ya about the the psychiatric struggles. (Oh well. I never was that private of a person to start. I'll talk to just about anyone about just about anything. Always been that way.) So my struggles in this area, summarized:
I had my first bad episode of depression when I was about 13. There were definite stressors, and I would define it as the worst year of my life. Among the stressors, in brief: I was in 7th grade, first year of junior high. I was HORRIBLY bullied, harassed, and teased by the other kids. Mostly girls. They'd wait for me at my locker in mean girl gaggles, taunt and laugh at me throughout the halls, etc. It was *BAD*. Very bad. I can only speculate as to the reasons I got it so bad. I had gender-non-conforming interests. I hated wearing dresses and didn't like the stupid girl stuff I was supposed to care about. I liked Dungeons & Dragons and fighting video games and would rather hang out with my brother and his friends than any of the boring girls I knew. I kind of felt like I /was/ a boy, actually. No different from my brother. But needless to say, no one else really saw it that way. What they DID see... was that I was different, and not following the rules of what I was supposed to like and how I was supposed to act. And boy. The shit I got for it. Like I said... it was bad. They called me "The Thing" when they passed me in the halls ("Look at that THING! What is it? A boy or a girl? We don't know -- we'll just have to call it THING. Ha ha!"). They harassed and teased me about my breasts, because I was one of the first to develop ("There goes the goddess of puberty -- ha ha, goddess of puberty!") And, of course, I was smart - a nerd - always raising my hand to answer the questions in class - so that probably didn't help my popularity any either.
Anyway. No one ever stuck up for me. There were the kids who actively harassed me, and the ones who desperately avoided me to avoid being associated with me. I had no friends in the 7th grade. I had a few, back in the 6th. But lost them all when the 3 elementary schools got merged into the big junior high or whatever. Absolutely NO ONE thought it would be a good idea to associate with me. And so they didn't. It was SO bad, SO miserable, I thought about doing all kinds of crazy things to escape having to go back to school. Maybe... if I did something REALLY crazy, like stab my brother or something (who, by the way, I adored, but that was how desperate I was - like, you know, just a LITTLE stab wound, just for show) -- they'd just put me in a psych hospital or something and I'd never have to go back to school again? I obviously spent a lot of time thinking about killing myself. My mother ultimately ended up having to move me to an entirely different school because of the level of bullying. And it did help somewhat. (Also, the next year, I met my first boyfriend - which meant that I finally also had a friend - and it's no exaggeration to say that probably saved my life. We were inseparable for the next 3 years. He didn't care that I was a girl who kicked ass at Streetfighter. We spent our time playing Streetfighter together.)
13 was also the year my parents divorced. So like I said. A bad, bad year. And... I know that is about the time when I started to come emotionally off the rails and things changed for me. So I always sort of just assumed... that my brokenness was all the result of this social trauma I'd been through or what not. I mean, we all try to make sense of ourselves and our experiences somehow, through some sort of story, explanation. And that became my self-narrative.
Specifically, the sort of mental health struggles I ended up with were major emotion regulation issues. Like way exaggerated reactions to small things. High level of emotional reactivity, particularly rejection sensitivity, and high level of obsessive-compulsive level rumination and depression. Struggled with these things basically for life since, and always just assumed, well, that's how I am. Guess my experiences broke me, or maybe I was broken for birth. The way I tend to characterize myself in short-hand is as a "mini-borderline." (I'm a genuine licensed psychologist, so I can throw terms like that around if I want to!) And you can look up symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder if you're interested in learning more about that. But here is how I would qualitatively describe my problems:
A high level of emotional immaturity. It is like a 4-year-old child is running the show emotionally. And I can SEE it happening at the time (I have no problem with my higher cognitive functions!) -- I can no I am being ridiculous, over-reacting, being childish, whatever, but I unfortunately can't CONTROL that reaction. My stunted capacity for emotional regulation lost me a lot of friends. A lot of relationships. I was "too much" for a lot of people to deal with in that way. When I was sad, I was *TOO* intensely sad, boyfriends told me. SCARY sad. I was clingy. I was needy. I couldn't self-soothe. I hated being alone more than anything. My 4-year-old emotional self was always quivering in fear and always looking for somebody to save them. But there was never anybody around when they desperately needed that comfort and reassurance.
No problem with higher cognitive capacities. And was always of course embarrassed, ashamed, and so on for knowing there was something wrong with me and I wasn't able to function like other people in a "mature" emotional way. But I couldn't change it. Not after more than 10 years of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or Dialective Behavioral Therapy or insight-oriented therapy or trauma-based therapy. Not after trying a dozen different anti-depressants and mood stabilizers. I guessed it was just who I was. I guessed I was just too broken by my trauma history or whatever to ever really fix.
And that was the story I told myself. To make sense of who I was and why.
Only... what IF. It had never really been true. What if... there had been a pretty significant organic component the whole entire time? What if it had a little something to do with my brain sliding into my spinal canal and blocking CSF flow? Well... let's talk about the what-if.
In doing my week of deep-dive research into Chiari (since being diagnosed on 5/5/23, and meeting with Dr. Stieg for MRI review and consultation on 5/18), I learned a thing or two about Chiari
For example, I learned from Dr. Judy Hwang at Johns Hopkins
https://youtu.be/xQjToJy4LO8
... that although Chiari is congenital, there is OFTEN a particular moment that people can remember that triggered their symptoms. That these are often things like head blows and whiplash. (Which, of course, makes total sense. The force of the incident made the herniation worse, or as she mentions, due to the Chiari the person probably doesn't have the natural reserve of CSF that they should bathing and protecting the brain either.
And I learned this. That there's a good amount of evidence to show the cerebellum ain't just about balance, baby:
https://www.imrpress.com/journal/JIN/17/4/10.31083/j.jin.2018.04.0414/htm
"Recently, different studies have provided evidence that the presence of cerebellar degeneration or stroke may involve cognitive deficits beyond motor impairment, including the ability to form concepts and other language disorders [1, 2], impairment in executive functions [3], and visuospatial deficits [4], accompanied in many cases by a regressive personality, and emotional lability or dramatic mood swings."
[...] "cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome described by Schmahmann and Sherman [5] as characterized by the following: (a) Disturbances of executive function, including deficient planning, set-shifting, abstract reasoning, working memory, and decreased verbal fluency, (b) Impaired spatial cognition, including visuospatial disorganization and impaired visuospatial memory, (c) Linguistic difficulties, including dysprosodia, agrammatism, and mild anomia, and (d) Personality change, characterized by flattening or blunting of affect, and disinhibited or inappropriate behavior. [...] Personality changes include flattening or blunting of affect, disinhibited behaviors, such as over-familiarity, flamboyance, impulsive actions, humorous but inappropriate and flippant comments, regressive, childlike behaviors, and obsessive-compulsive traits."
Now, far be it from me to gain-say personal hero and actual expert in the field Dr. Philip Stieg (those who know me are probably laughing -- I am the sort of person who will argue with anyone about anything. KIND of a favorite personal hobby, and at times a bit annoying, as I'm sure my family and friends would attest). I know he said in that lecture that Chiari wouldn't be expected to have significant cognitive or emotional effects unless hydrocephalus was also at play.
And maybe this is all just simple, 100% placebo effect. And the seemingly miraculous benefits will all fade away soon. I'm just sayng... since waking up from my Chiari surgery, my mood has been wonderful. Calm, happy. No more depression, anxious rumination, weird obsessive-compulsive fixations... I kept assuming, of course, that this was just a temporary effect of pain medications, or muscle relaxant medications, or steroids, or SOMETHING. Maybe the steroids had triggered a hypomanic high, as the body's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis was working on straightening itself back out. Maybe it was just the VAST, VAST relief of pretty much all the physical pain and problems that had been torturing me for the past 7 years suddenly being gone. I mean, obviously a mood this great wasn't actually going to LAST. Right? But nice to enjoy it while it does, anyway. I literallly called my first week after surgery "magical." My magical week. Emotionally calm and happy in a way I literally could not remember EVER having experienced. Sure, my neck and skull had been split open and hurt a little. But I honestly didn't care. I just felt so overall good. And DIFFERENT, emotionally. And it manifested in all kinds of little ways
I told you about my 4-year-old child emotional part. Always needy and scared. It's practically like I have no sense of object-permanence - like within a few days of a friend being out of sight, I can't even be sure that they exist anymore. And so that causes a lot of issues for me with this one particularly close friend of ours. He's not really a caller or a texter or a stay in touch type. Which has caused me all kinds of misery and struggles, because of my own emotional deficits and neediness. But.... from the moment I woke up from surgery. I didn't /have/ that constant quivering 4-year-old fear anymore. I knew this friend was my friend and cared about me. I knew I'd seem him again soon, even if not right then. It was completely, competely different. Another example -- weird obsessive-compulsive stuff around eating. I would often be petrified with fear, due to this overpowering conviction that if I got too fat, no one would love me anymore. I'd do weird highly unhealthy restricted eating and over-exercising things when I got into that mode because I was just so fixated on it and terrified about it. Another 5 lbs, and maybe no one would be capable of loving me anymore.
I noticed immediately after the Chiari surgery I had no concerns about it. I was able to eat when I was hungry without any worry at all. I knew people would love me whether I was fat or not. It had nothing to do with whether my friends (or my husband) loved me. I could just like... eat like a normal person without worrying about it at all. As much as I wanted. Whenever I was hungry. So nice, right???
So even though I warned myself not to get ahead of myself, and that these were probably just temporary effects of feeling a whole hell of a lot of instant pain relief... as the days passed... and passed... and I remained content and happy and basically didn't have ANY of my former mental health struggles at all... I began to wonder if something else had really been going on here all along. And thinking back, and back, on when my real mood regulation difficulties first began. Age 13. And what Dr. Judy Hwang had said about trauma. About a lot of people being able to recall a particular trauma -- head blow, whiplash -- around the time their symptoms began. And then I remembered something that I'd never even told Dr. Stieg about my history -- because it hadn't fit the personal narrative I'd created, right, of my own emotional struggles, and I'd kind of forgotten about it.
I *did* have my first traumatic brain injury at age 13. My family was frolicking at a winter party and we foolishly decided it would be a good idea to try to navigate this metal canoe down this steep icy hill as a sled. We hit a tree. I hit my head and was have thrown out. I was unconcious and seizing on the ground. I had a bit of a headache and concussion afterward, but doc said I could count down by 7s, and was probably fine.
What if I had Chiari to start, and it was worse herniated by the TBI, and *that* is why all the real emotional struggles began for me at that time? And what if it had been this cognitive-affective cerebellar syndrome thing *ALL* the goddamned time, my whole entire life since? I've had MORE trauma since, whiplash from car accident in recent years, so that could again explain a worsening of herniation and rapid escalation of symptoms in recent years.
Another thing I wonder about is my severe visual-spacial deficits. I am one of those people who can drive a route every day, a thousand times, and still need a GPS to get there. I have a true disability in that regard. I wonder if that has anything to do with the Chiari. I wonder if that should have been a clue all along to the organic nature of the problem
So I am still thinking, and processing, and exploring, and figuring out.
But the excting upshot is, it really DOES appear so far that the Chiari surgery solved not only all my PHYSICAL problems... but emotional problems I'd been struggling with since the age of 13 as well.
Here's another thing in favor of a cerebellar cognitive-affective syndrome being a significant cotributing cause toward my emotional regulation issues. Let's look at what happened with my mood the first week post-surgery:
Day 1 (5/24): (immediately after waking up from surgery)
A little lability. That night at dinner, I cried because I couldn't get the food cart slid over enough over the hospital bed to eat without dropping two pieces of saucy pasta on my night shirt, and couldn't move my neck more forward to eat because of the surgery. (My husband solved the problem by holding the plate close to my mouth while I ate. Thanks, dear. After food I felt better.
Day 2 (5/25): Wonderful mood
Day 3 (5/26): Wonderful mood
Day 4 (5/27): Wonderful mood
Day 5 (5/28): Wonderful mood
Day 6 (5/29): Wonderful mood
Day 7 (5/30): Wonderful mood
Day 8 (5/31): Wonderful mood.
So 8 days of consecutive great mood and none of my typica emotional issues or struggles.
BUT then... we have Day 9. 6/1. When I started to feel really terrible. In all the ways I /usually/ feel terrible again. Here's an excerpt I was writing to my friend about it: "Well, first major downturn in mood last night at about 10:30 pm. I guess I am still me. And Chiari surgery didn’t fix EVERYTHING. I was feeling *SO* good for a few days I guess I must have left my hopes get a little unrealistically high." Back to pacing, crying, agitated, depressive rumination, feeling that nobody loved me. Like I'd always felt before. Assumed that was going to be the end of my "magical" post-surgery week.
Except that... it WASN'T the end of my happy mood bubble. I continued feeling pretty good every day since then. But you know what WAS different that night? The one night I felt so terrible? I'd apparently developed a strep infection. So that gets you thinking, doesn't it? An infection, causing maybe some swelling... and triggering a return to symptoms like I had always had before. Strep was treated with antibiotics and my mood has continued to be wonderful since, with no returns to the old emotional troubles since. No depresssion, my extreme mood reactivity, no anxious panicky feelings of friends "disappearing" when they are out of my side. Just a seemingly full and complete ability to emotionally process as an adult rather than a 4-year-old.
So. Could all those emotion regulation problems REALLY just have been the result of cerebellar cognitive-affective syndrome? What story do I tell myself now? About why I have always been the way I have... and how that has suddenly so drastically changed?
And kind of drastic it is. Let me give you an example of my typical emotional functioning before Chiari surgery was like.
Strep/swollen brain night (old brain): "Boo hoo, I have no friends, my friend's aren't talking to me, nobody loves me, I have no friends, no cards." Followed by rantic pacing and crying. I then proceeded to send one of my dearest friends an e-mail accusing him of wishing I had died or clearly not caring at all if I had. (Clingy, terrified 4-year-old clearly driving the emotional truck. It is embarrassing, the way that 4-year-old acts. But I could never control it.
And then here, for point of comparison, is my emotional functioning AFTER Chiari surgery: (once I got the strep infection sorted) New Chiari-fixed brain: "Wow. I should probably let all my friends know what's going on." Proceeds to email 15 friends and tell them what is going on, receiving lots of instant emails and concern and support from everyone and one particularly impressive get well bouquet.
It seems like it iso much easier for me to function like a reasonable, emotionally mature adult and process emotional information appropriately. Now that brain is no longer falling down my spine. And I guess that's really maybe not so suprising, right??
So overall, I continue to be amazed and delighted by the results of my surgery. But there is really a LOT to process here. I feel like a whole brand new person, a Version 2.0. I hope my friends like the new me! It is definitely going to take some time to get to know this new me myself. But don't get me wrong -- I totally can't wait to get started!!

I tried going over budgetary ideas with my wife tonight and it went terribly. With student loans starting up again I will owe roughly $1k per month starting this fall so I am trying to work out a decent budget and cut some unnecessary expenses. I’m a relatively high earner for my age ($170k/yr) but we also have 8mo twin boys and I support her immigrant mother in part and subsidize some of my mom’s spending.
My wife is a SAHM and I try not to restrict her spending. Because of how my dad was with her, my mom actively encourages my wife to not run things by me so I just see charges pop up on my phone. Usually things for the babies, rarely for herself. But a lot of it are expensive items that most lower income couples would save for rather than just expense. She feels that they are necessary purchases usually so she feels attacked when I question them like it’s unfair.
The issue is that we’ve both gotten comfortable just swiping the credit card. As such, I’ve been chasing the credit card balances every month and barely saving. We can “afford” our lifestyle because of my income but with student loans resuming things are going to change. I suggested we cut out our meal delivery service ($100 per week in addition to our grocery bill and eating out) and half our Poland Springs water order (we have filtered water in our fridge). I also highlighted some of my spending that wouldn’t be able to happen but she got defensive without me even addressing any of her spending.
She started crying and became very upset at what I was suggesting. I just want us to have a plan. I don’t want to live like we’re in poverty. Just cut out some of the unnecessary expense and budget properly.
How do I navigate this?

Hi ladies and lads,
My hubby and I have a baby boy that's about to be 5 months. We pretty much have things down on how to care for him. That being said, since we have things down, there's time where I don't know what to do (when baby is sleeping or entertained with other things). Therefore, my question is, with baby around, what are some hobbies you might have started doing/working on? We've started going on more walks but that only takes about an hour or less.

Festival season is in full swing with Governors Ball taking over Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this upcoming weekend. It certainly would've been cool if Governors Ball could've booked some punk acts to join the handful of rock bands on the bill. Black Midi and Flipped will both be doing late night sets in Manhattan. John Mellencamp is posting up a residency at the Beacon in tandem with the Tribeca Festival. The UK's Church Village Collective make their NYC and more below.
If you're new to this sub or just passing through, each week I try to highlight the "best" upcoming rock, punk, indie and alternative shows. I scour the web and social media for concert announcement, booking, rescheduling, etc., and then pick which shows are vying for my time and money (or which would've been if they weren't sold out). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are other non-reddit resources that cast a wider net on live shows, including pop, hip hop and comedy shows, but feel free to add any missing shows using the comments (especially for other genres).
As usual, listed times are approximate start times (not door); prices are estimates for door tickets, and do not include online fees and taxes.

MONDAY JUNE 5

John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($90+)
Sundots + High. + Joyer @ Elsewhere - Zone One, 8:30pm ($15)
Tits Dick Ass + Spite Fuxxx + Chico Raro + Eevie Echoes & The Locations @ Pianos, 7:30pm ($15)
Ringing + Unrecovery + Sun Organ + Plastic @ Saint Vitus, 8pm ($15)
Daddy's Beemer + Deep Sea Peach Tree + Charlie Paso + PYNKIE @ The Sultan Room, 7pm ($15)
Tinariwen + Garcia Peoples @ Webster Hall, 8pm ($40)
Bonus/Honorable Mention: Rocky Horror Picture Show with Live Shadowcast @ Our Wicked Lady, 7:30pm ($15)

TUESDAY JUNE 6

Joni + Elijah Wolf + Work Wife @ Baby's All Right, 7pm ($15)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($70+)
CVC (Church Village Collective) @ Berlin, 8pm ($15)
Jupiter Boys + The Modern Airline + Pete Galub @ Mama Tried, 7pm (FREE)
Bully + Sub*T @ Racket, 8pm ($25)

WEDNESDAY JUNE 7

Alex Lahey + Liza Anne @ Baby's All Right, 9:30pm ($20)
Clyde & the Milltailers + Lightnin' Luke + Charles Ellsworth & the Space Force Deserters + John Luther Norris (of Wonder House) @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($12)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($70+)
^{LPR15 - IN THE ROUND} The Antlers @ (le) poisson rouge, 8pm ($35)
Strawberry Launch + Papi Shiitake + Jay Rosie @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($15)
CVC (Church Village Collective) @ Union Pool, 9pm ($15)

THURSDAY JUNE 8

Pamphlets + Whenwolves + Reclining Nude @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($12)
John Mellencamp @ Tribeca Performing Arts Center - OKX Theater, 8pm ($45+)
Jared Mattson + Elijah Kessler + The Gloomies @ Berlin, 8pm ($15)
Tigercub + Mary Shelley @ Bowery Ballroom, 9pm ($20)
Drain + Drug Church + Magnitude + Gel + Combust @ The Brooklyn Monarch, 6:30pm (SOLD OUT)
The Flaming Lips^{performing Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots} @ Kings Theatre, 8:30pm (SOLD OUT)
SAVAK + Zwei Null Zwei + Roid Rage @ Mama Tried, 8pm (FREE)
Hello Seahorse! @ Mercury Lounge, 9:30pm ($30)
Gal Fieri + TV Moms + Shop Talk + Dahl Haus + Public Nature @ Our Wicked Lady, 8pm ($15)
^{SYNTHICIDE presents}Frankie Rose^{single release show} + SRSQ + Rare DM @ TV EYE, 9pm ($15)
!!! (Chk Chk Chk) Monthly Residency @ Union Pool, 9pm (SOLD OUT)
Star 80 + Mary Vision + The Curls + C.W. Headley @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

FRIDAY JUNE 9

Governors Ball - Day 1 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Lizzo + Lil Uzi Vert + HAIM + Diplo + Kim Petra + more
Locations + O. Wake + Lily Mao + Dogs on Shady Lane @ ALPHAVILLE, 8:30pm ($12)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($150+)
Deer Scout + OK Cowgirl + Gemma Laurence @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Temples + Post Animal @ Elsewhere - The Hall, 8pm ($30)
Dave Matthews Band @ Forest Hills Stadium, 7pm ($150+)
^{Gov Ball After Dark presents}black midi + Nourished by Time @ Irving Plaza, 11pm ($50)
Joudy^{Destroy All Monsters record release show} + Teenage Halloween + VOSH + Tetchy @ Our Wicked Lady, 7pm ($15)

SATURDAY JUNE 10

Governors Ball - Day 2 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Odesza + Lil Baby + Aespa + Rina Sawayama + Snail mail + The Amazons + more
^{Show Brain x Deli Mag present}Joudy + InCircles + Tits Dick Ass + Slashers + Cult of Chunk @ Tompkins Square Park, 2pm (FREE)
RJD2 + The Du-Rites @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8pm ($25)
Superbloom^{EP release show} + Stay Inside + Woz + Wakelee @ Brooklyn Made, 8:30pm ($15)
GLOM + Wallpaper + Hotspit + Uncle Pizza @ Purgatory, 8pm ($15)
Wild Yaks @ Rockaway Bazaar, 5pm (FREE)
GOO^{record release} + Pearla + Katie Von Schleicher @ Union Pool, 8pm ($15)

SUNDAY JUNE 11

Governors Ball - Day 3 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Kendrick Lamar + Lil Nas X + Giveon + Sofi Tukker + Girl in Red + Black Midi + more
Torture & the Desert Spiders + Mooncult + Phantom Wave + Wifey @ Arlene's Grocery, 8pm ($15)
Tribeca Music Lounge: Iranian music showcase @ Baby's All Right, 8:30pm ($20) feat. Habibi + Sussan Deyhim + Will Calhoun + LuNika
^{Matinee Show}Sean Spada & The Doppelgangers + The Planes + Big Oil + Sweetbreads (solo) @ Bar Freda, 4pm ($10)
^{King Pizza Records presents}DAD + The Unders + Werewolf + Cheap Death @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($12)
^{Gov Ball After Dark presents}Flipturn + Early Eyes @ Mercury Lounge, 11pm (SOLD OUT)
Greg Mendez^{self-titled record release show} + Shannen Moser + Allegra Krieger @ Purgatory, 9pm (SOLD OUT)
Pink Mexico^{Mirrorhead record release show} + 95 Bulls + TVOD + Substitute @ TV EYE, 8pm ($12)

Do you ever wish that lists had a bit more accommodation for the gentleladies of your fantasy retinue? Weeeelllll step on up to your one stop shop of anything for the highborne girls!~ (Fair warning that most of this list is coming from a huge personal list of concepts that I've had for a long time, so I don't remeber any names of original creators as I never expected to share the list or anyting on it. If your concept is on here, please do contact me, please, so I can give proper credit)
​

1. A hairpin adorned with an elvish love note, folded into an origami flower; you always smell nice, no matter how dirty or sweaty you are (u/ChihuahuaJedi)
2. A veil of creamy, silken fiber shorn from a unicorn’s mane, hung from a braid of cloth-of-gold.
3. Sweetpearl II: Spoilt pageant pony, a gorgeous Andalusian mare. Fears being alone, and great at making you feel guilty.
4. A delicate shawl, lacy and fringed, woven from pearly spider silk.
5. A dark blue silk mantle lined with white mink fur and embroidered in abstract silver diamond patterns at collar and hem.
6. The Ladies Who Lunch - a guild of the who's who in feminine society that have been issued a holy mandate to find the very best cheese and wine pairing. Often women in full corsets and gowns are found spelunking into forgotten country wine cellars
7. Phoenix Flan - A delectable Flan that, once halfway eaten, bursts into flames and reforms as Creme Brulee
8. Ice sapphires. Usually cut into small cubes, these are placed in cups to keep the contents cold on hot days.
9. A snow globe, and inside, there's a beautiful little pastoral town with rolling hills and pink and blue flowers. You shake it, and in a swirl of pink and blue petals, the scenery has changed to a snow-dusted town. Also goes vice versa.
10. A small jar of golden nails with flower shaped heads that can only be driven by a glass hammerhead.
11. A single brilliant blue rose petal that smells faintly of almonds, rolled up in the finest white silk handkerchief.
12. Sewing Kit. One of the needles is coated in a potent drow sleeping poison.
13. Flower bread is made from various types of powdered flowers giving it a light floral taste.
14. Heavenwurst, a sausage made of ground up Angel Wings.
15. This Drow elf matron wears expensive, white gloves woven from finest spider silk.
16. A clockwork butler. Every noble needs a servant, though people who keep as dangerous company as yourselves may need something more sturdy than an ordinary butler. For you, the king has prepared a gilded, perfectly-crafted clockwork device to give to you to help you on your journey. It can cook, it can sing, it can engage in basic conversation, it can do duck calls, it can identify mushrooms, it can make your bed, it can dust your cupboards, and everything in-between. While looking and acting like a clockwork automaton, like a man who's powered by gears and levers within himself, he has the stats of a duodrone.
17. Unicorn Horn Broth - Shimmery golden soup with a taste like a sweet honey roast, often has a small dusting of nutmeg. Has intense healing properties.
18. A Lady’s saddle, with bit and bridle included. The fixtures are in gold, studded with translucent pink garnets, the leather is of the highest quality.
19. A tiara that allows you to experience the sensory experience of a black cat as long as you wear it and close your eyes.
20. A tapestry woven from the finest silk. It depicts a king and his court having a feast in a garden. A kirin (or some other appropriate holy creature) flies across the sky in the background.
21. Fae Mouse-Dragon - Likes to viciously attack flowers and nap in the destroyed petals. Uses emotion magic on you to communicate its needs and feelings, so try to keep her happy unless you want bad vibes. She sheds her scales once a month, and they're a powerful aphrodisiac when consumed!
22. A stall of assorted crystal bowls and cups displayed with wax fruits, all of it outlandishly overpriced.
23. Unicorn Wax: Burning this wax-like substance that is found under the tongues of certain unicorns and inhaling the smoke will cause the user to experience hallucinations of a magical, bright, and colorful world for 1d12 hours, and increases wisdom by 1 for 1d6 hours.
24. A baby’s mobile bearing four silver plated doves, elegantly sculpted, with translucent blue azurite eyes, suspended from a teak frame.
25. A gold statuette carved in the likeness of a canary and is small enough to fit in a pocket.
26. Bride’s day – Commemorating the beginning of summer, all the new brides dance with the unmarried women, to imbue to them their own marital fortunes. The dance takes place in the kings courtyard and no males are allowed in. At the end the queen usually tries to set up an unwed dancer with a royal family member.
27. At a party the torches emit perfumed smoke that are enchanted as aphrodisiacs or some other effect.
28. An expensive water feature or fountain is filled with wine, it is in the shape of people and animals doing very risque things.
29. Golden Scissors - A pair of golden scissors, if you snip a thread from any clothing, however ragged, it shall transform into a magnificent suit or gown of gold thread that perfectly fits and flatters the intended wearer.
30. A large crystal decanter etched with grapes and vines with an electrum lip, handle and foot.
31. A Gentleperson's Toolset - A rather large and expensive set of tea, along with a huge and renewable stock of platinum quality tea leaves and sweets of all kinds.
32. A long, elegant quill made from a peacock. The eye in the feather seems to reflect the light, and the quill tip is masterfully crafted of mithril.
33. Heartseeker - This pair of velvet gloves allows the wearer to sense the suites of any cards it's touching.
34. A slightly worn, satin collar that fits any creature it is placed on. It's got the cutest little bell affixed to the front of it.
35. Wand of Feathery Feline Pleasures. A wand that creates a moving illusion of a feather tuft for cats to play with. Each illusion lasts about ten minutes.
36. Smellen’s Sweet-Smellin’ Snuff Case'. A box that encases the wearer's nose and prevents them from smelling anything outside of the box. Includes a tiny drawer to place a desired scent.
37. PipeDream™. A fancy looking pipe used for smoking. It can be used to blow different shapes, colors, and even bubbles.
38. Celestial salt and abyssal pepper shaker set.
39. An intricately detailed figurine posed as though singing to an audience on a balcony above her. Her eyes sparkle with tiny jewels to make it appear that she is crying
40. Cruel Queen’s Sangria - A favorite recipe of an ancient, dethroned tyrant. Her sangria is sweetened with dragon fruit, blood orange and star fruit fit for a crown.
41. A large tin canister whose lid is stamped with the image of a bountiful orchard whose trees are overflowing with fruit, the ripest of which has fallen and filled a cornucopia. The container is brimming with dozens of well-preserved dried currants.
42. A hag (or any other long nailed creature) giving visitors a scalp massage. She makes wonderful conversation and speaks fondly of her grandkids.
43. A silver hip flask engraved with drunken satyrs in various acts of foreplay with nymphs.
44. Kaleido cakes - Boldly colored cake, made of shifting geometric patterns with different flavors, but always with a moderate dusting of powdered sugar. Simply rotate the cake until the flavors change to your personal tastes, but your friends can change it too.
45. Stardust Sauvignon - A dry white wine that is traditionally served in silver cups.
46. A single small pink satin pillow. Intended for a lap cat.
47. A bright white, woman’s bonnet with a pink silk ribbon tied around the front into a delicate bow.

I came from a very dysfunctional background. Mother was unbelievably physically and emotionally abusive to us while growing up and my dad was very distant. Both parents separated when I was 3 and divorced when I turned 6. I have 3 older siblings (2 sisters and 1 brother). 1 sister turned out to be a half sister (mom cheated with another man) and the elder sister is a Jehovahs witness nutbag. Brother is an egotistical, misogynistic pig who thinks too highly of himself but is an abysmal failure in life. He is the absolute worst. This post is about him. He gets away with a lot as he is the only boy and in my mom's culture, boys are highly prized and favoured over girls. After years of off and on contact (he only tends to contact when he needs or wants something), and 2 months after my father's death, I finally messaged him on Whatsapp to announce my intentions of cutting him off as of today. I am expecting a baby and my primal instincts are to protect this innocent child from all negative and toxic influences. After hitting send, and immediately blocking him on all chat channels, it felt like a big, huge weight around my neck has been lifted. I should have done this years ago, not just to him but the other toxic family members .. I was always afraid of the social repercussions from this as I fear they may slander me to the extended family relations with their versions of lies. But now with a baby on board...this child's personal well being supercedes everything else.

When I was nine, I found the woods.
Now, I know that doesn’t seem too impressive at first.
The thing is, I think I was the only one who could see them.
I toddled over after church on Sunday, still wearing the pink bows in my hair and carefully skipping over any patch of earth that wasn’t covered in grass so I wouldn’t stain my Sunday shoes.
There was a large field near where I lived that my mother deemed safe enough for me to play in with all the other neighborhood kids. It wasn’t a playground by any means, just a vast stretch of land that never sprouted anything worth picking. I was alone that Sunday, walking around the dead field until I could barely make out the wavering smudge of my house in the afternoon heat.
I regret it now, but at the time, I decided to slip under the barbed wire fence and run off, hoping to find something pretty. I wanted a sunflower for my hair.
That’s when I found the woods. I didn’t even realize there was anything out there; I lived in the last house on the block, and from there it just stemmed out into that empty field. No one ever mentioned the woods, not even the adults as a warning not to go in.
Obviously, I went in.
The trees were black and gnarly, with thick knobs and protruding roots so overgrown, they reminded me of bony fingers with too many knuckles. Crisp leaves in all shades of brown littered the floor, and I loved the satisfying crackle underneath my Sunday shoes as I explored.
Looking back, I don’t know what it was about the woods, but I was captivated. I was running through the trees, making tremendous leaps over streams, and just playing like the child I was. It felt like I was in another world when I looked up at the canopy of leaves and branches, sunlight glittering through the green.
It felt like minutes, no more than an hour at most, before I noticed the sky was ripe and orange. The sun was setting already.
I sucked on my teeth before sighing. Sundown meant going home. I made my way toward the direction I came in when a wispy breeze fluttered over my body, lifting the lace ends of my dress and sending my hair flying off my shoulders.
I shuddered, but kept walking.
I made it home just as my mother stepped out on to the porch to yell for me.
“Oh, there you are, Faith. Come insi—where is your bow? Little girl, I told you to change before you went playing in the field in your Sunday clothes!”
I reached into my hair and realized she was right, I was missing one of the ribbons meant to be tied around my plaits.
“I wasn’t in the field, I—“
“Hush now, I don’t care for excuses. Go on inside and I’ll run your bath.” She tsked, shoving me inside with a rough hand on my back.
The next morning, I spoke to Jeremy at the bus stop. He was my neighbor.
“Jeremy, why haven’t you ever shown me the woods?” I asked.
“What woods?”
“The woods past the field. Don’t play stupid.”
“I ain’t playing stupid. I never seen no woods, and I lived here twice as long as you. You’re stupid.”
“I am not, Jeremy! The woods are over there,” I pointed past the field. “And I’ll prove it to you after school.”
“Fine, bighead, let’s see.”
The entire day I was antsy. Finally, we sat together on the bus ride home and I knew I would be proven right.
We dumped our backpacks and lunchboxes on my porch and marched through the field. When we got to the fence, he hesitated.
“My momma says not to go past the fence because then she can’t see me.”
“Oh, you chicken, then?”
“Shut up,” he said. He looked back towards the neighborhood before rolling under the fence. I followed, ducking beneath the wire.
I led the way, the same way as I had taken yesterday.
Only this time, I couldn’t find the woods. We must have walked for ten minutes before Jeremy spoke.
“I don’t know why I believed you. You’re just a liar. I knew there wasn’t no woods.”
“There is too! You don’t know nothing.”
“Wasting my time for this… Loony, you are. I’m going home before my momma starts whining.” He turned around and I watched him until he went under the barbed wire fence again.
Where were the woods? It didn’t make sense.
I felt a cold wind wash over me, prickling at my skin. I rubbed at my arms and looked up.
My bow!
It had become undone and was just a pink ribbon gliding through the air. I chased after it, but random bursts of wind kept it out of my reach. I spun in circles and scuffed my shoes and knees as I hurried, my eyes ignoring the ground.
It finally smacked against a tree, and I realized I was at the woods once again. I grabbed my ribbon and shoved it in my skirt pocket, distrustful eyes scanning my surroundings. I could still see the edge of the field, so I hadn’t gone far, but it didn’t make sense. Why weren’t the woods this easy to find with Jeremy?
I raced inside anyway, gleefully crushing hard leaves under my feet. This time, I started kicking together piles of them in a path, jumping from stack to stack and relishing in the experience.
As I peered past the black trunks of the trees, I realized it was sunset. But that couldn’t be true, school had just ended half an hour ago. I hadn’t even had supper yet.
I backed out of the woods and when I blinked, the sun was back up, shining down brightly on me. I went back inside, examining the stark difference in the sky. When I looked to the left, outside the woods and into the open, it was sunshine. When I looked to the right, into the depths of forest, the sun cascaded yellow and orange through the dark, black trunks, just like a sunset.
I went back every day that week, and every day it was the same. It was always sunset in the woods, no matter if I went in the morning or afternoon. It was strange waking up on Saturday mornings and spending hours watching the sun frozen halfway down the horizon.
After about a month of spending nearly every day in the woods, I heard a laugh.
I think it was a laugh.
The sound was a whisper in the air and I could feel it gusting around me.
“Hello?” I called out.
Silence, just for a beat.
A round of giggles came from behind a nearby tree, but I couldn’t identify which one. It sounded like it was surrounding me. It was a guess, but I assumed it was little girl laughter. I had always wanted girl friends, so a spark of excitement shook through me.
“Hey, come on out!”
She didn’t say anything, but I heard footsteps take off and I bolted after them.
There was no path of shoes in the dirt, no overturned leaves being kicked through, nothing but the faint ghost of a breathless laugh.
“This isn’t funny,” I announced with a deep frown, clutching at my aching side.
The laughter stopped immediately.
I sucked in a deep breath.
My shadow was dark, I noticed. Much darker than it had ever been in the woods. The usually orange sky was fading fast, cold navy overtaking warm citrus colors.
“I’m going home,” I said. I don’t know why I did, I just had to let her know. “Play with me tomorrow.”
“Wait,” a girl’s voice.
I spun in a circle, unceremoniously slipping on some of those crisp leaves. I couldn’t see her.
“What?”
“Wanna see something neat?”
“Who are you,” I asked.
“A girl offering you something one last time. Wanna see something neat or not?”
I stood up and patted my skirt, dusting the dirt off.
“Show me.”
A small hand waved from behind a particularly rotten tree. I grinned and chased after the figure, darkness enveloping any discernible features; she was only a shape running ahead of me. Her voice was youthful and she was no taller than me, and I was not a large child.
We giggled in those little girl laughs as we went further and further in the deep thicket. The sunlight was nearly gone, I could barely make out my own feet as I chased after the girl.
“Where we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
I groaned.
“Hush, we’re nearly there.”
I rolled my eyes, but obeyed.
“What’s your name?”
“Nearly there now, Faith.”
I slowly stopped myself, fear ebbing its way into my chest for the first time.
As if she felt my pause, she stood as still as the trees, unwavering in the growing winds. Her dress didn’t even flutter with the breeze like my skirt did.
“Why did you stop,” she asked in a strained voice. “Don’tcha wanna see? See the surprise?”
I took a step back, nearly fumbling over a thick root.
“My mother must want me home by now.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“You don’t know my mother.”
“Oh,” she sighed, her head dipping forward, long hair covering her face. “I know a lot more than you, Faith.”
She started laughing as she turned to face me, the soft sound morphing into an unrecognizable cackle.
It was so dark now, I couldn’t see much else but her. Her skin almost glittered, but there wasn’t any moonlight.
“How do you know my name?”
“You told me. You don’t remember?”
I shook my head, and though she wasn’t looking at me, somehow she saw it.
“Faith Brown. You have a bad memory. I told you I know more than you.”
The whistle of sharp gusts of air pierced my ears, her voice barely floating through the sound. My hands were sticky, cold and sticky.
“What’s your name? You know mine.” I asked again.
“You should go on home. Your mommy is really scared right now.” She said it so matter-of-factly, faint but sure.
I hated her voice, I wanted to hit her. I wanted to reach my fists into her long, ugly hair and pull it out of her face so I could spit in it. Never in my life had I ever felt so much vile, abysmal hatred for someone. It frightened me. Most of my thoughts were on my mother, though, so I didn’t pause to reflect on these realizations for too long.
I took off running in the opposite direction, praying I was heading the right way. I was sprinting like the fastest horse on the track, but somehow her laughter was right on my shoulder, cawing loudly inside my brain.
“Bye bye, Faith! Let’s play tomorrow.”
Again, I felt that prickling feeling of disdain. I nearly turned around and chased after her again, just to pummel her.
Instead, I focused on how the clearing was approaching. I ducked my head and let out a shaky breath of relief when I found myself out in the open.
Slowly, tentatively, I peered back at the woods, fully expecting to see her standing there.
It was so dark, I couldn’t see past the first couple of trees. They guarded the entrance, standing like ghouls with long, grotesque branches like bony fingers outstretched to me.
The walk back to the field was brisk; I was on edge, a growing knot weighing in my stomach that I wouldn’t make it home.
I had never been out so late. There wasn’t a cloud above to block moonlight, but even then, the moon was absent. I had no guide home, so I continued to trek in blackness, hoping I would see the streetlights soon.
I wondered if I would see her again—
A crushing grip yanked my shoulder, spinning me around and sending dirt flying as my shoes scraped the ground.
Large, strong hands shook me, and a white light blinded me. I was gone, I was dying in that moment, my soul fled my body.
“Calm down! I need you to stop screaming, honey. Stop, tell me your name.”
I heard a click and the light was much dimmer. I hadn’t realized I screamed at all.
My eyes adjusted, and I noticed the golden glitter of a badge.
“Faith Brown.”
He sighed, genuine relief in the motion.
“Let’s get you home, sweetheart.”
The night passed in a blur. I was holding his hand as we walked through the field. He said several things into the machine on his chest. My street was flashing with red and blue. My mom was smoking a cigarette on the porch. She shouted at me, but I didn’t hear a word until her icy fingers were digging into my arms, clutching me tight against her.
I slept in her bed that night, I think. I didn’t go to school that next Monday. I don’t think I went at all that week.
The next time I felt conscious, grounded back in reality, was when I accidentally pushed the glass of lemonade off the table. Shards went skittering across the kitchen floor, bouncing until they hit the walls.
“Faith!”
“Sorry, mother!” I bent down to start picking up the pieces when my mother grabbed my wrist.
“You dense little girl, don’t touch glass!” She hissed at me before her eyes softened. “Baby girl, it’s dangerous. I’ll clean it up, you — carefully — throw the bag outside. Can you do that?”
I nodded absently.
When my mother wrapped the glass in a towel and secured it in a waste bag, she sent me to the trash cans outside. They were in the backyard.
I hopped down the steps, the feeling of being out of the house already foreign. A breeze nearly made me jump.
Despite the wind being negligible, one of the bins tipped over.
A single brown leaf fell out, gliding through the air and landing right before my feet.
I don’t know how I knew, but it was obvious to me that this lead was from the woods. It fluttered at the ground a bit, the crisp corners pointing past the field, wanting me to follow. It was enticing me, urging me to just obey. I felt a strange pull in my chest, a physical tug that made my shoes scrape against the dirt and inch towards those cursed woods.
I stomped on the leaf, my teeth grinding together as I used my heel to shred it to pieces.
For a while, things seemed to be getting better. The wind didn’t call to me and I stopped having nightmares featuring a black and white figure. The girl. Jeremy even told the older boys to stop teasing me about it all.
I thought it was over.
A month had passed, maybe two. Church had finished and all us neighborhood kids were playing tag in the field. Maybe it was all the others there that made me feel safe enough to go with them.
An older girl from the middle school was it, and I scurried away from her, but I tripped on a long, pointed stick. I skidded to the dirt without an ounce of grace, dust and pebbles digging into my clothes and skin. I picked up the wooden branch and waved it around.
It was like a magnet, zeroing in on one specific direction: directly to the woods. Again, I felt that tug in my bones, my mind blank as I was almost roped in. It felt like my feet weren’t even leaving the ground, just that some unexplainable force was luring me in.
None of the other kids saw me. Or they did and didn’t care. I would rather believe the former.
I blinked.
I was back. I was in there, alone, and the sun was setting fast behind me. Dread coursed through me and I spun around, my grip taut on the stick in my hands. I clutched it to my chest, my heartbeat rising rapidly.
It was getting so dark so fast. It felt as if the blacker it got, the harder it was to breathe. Everything was so, so loud; my ears pounded, my shaky exhales were crashing waves, the rustling trees were windstorms.
The song was excruciating.
I strained my body to focus. The song—this ominous chanting that suddenly began, a crooning chorus of voices was somehow the faintest trace of sound and the most excruciatingly powerful racket possible.
I couldn’t describe it accurately if I tried. The most I could say was that it reminded me of the choir at church, but the emotions it evoked were polar opposites. There was no unified comfort, but an unrelenting hymn, slow and mournful.
With nimble steps, I inched away from the anthem, fearful of the voices stopping at hearing my footsteps.
Bright red lights exploded like fireworks.
I saw them all.
Vaguely, but undeniable. A hoard of people, all just as ghastly white as the first girl, their sinful song louder and closer. Their faces were hidden being long strands of hideous black hair. They all looked the same, a crowd of the same kin.
She stood at the front, closer than all the rest.
The burning in my throat was agonizing, bile threatening to spill out as she lifted her head. Her face, the blankest white I had ever seen, was empty save for two black holes where her eyes should have been, and a carnivorous mouth lined with rows and rows of almost-humanlike teeth.
Her face was flat, no curves or features anywhere but those haunting eyes. They were like craters, dark and empty. Still, I knew they were boring into my soul.
I was petrified. I wanted to run off as fast as I could. I couldn’t do it backwards, but I simply couldn’t look away from the swaying mass of people in front of me. I couldn’t imagine what they would do if I turned around.
I didn’t have time to make a choice on what to do next because she launched into action. She moved like a newborn animal, gangly yet purposeful, and she was heading straight for me.
She couldn’t catch me. That was all I knew.
I bolted, adrenaline carrying me with a strength I’d never have again. I was practically flying through the trees.
They were alive, leaning in and closing the gaps, making it harder for me to dart between them. Their branches scratched and nipped at my face and arms, but I could barely feel it.
“Faith, we need you at the communion!” She screeched behind me, dangerously close.
Her voice was loud, but the song from the crowd was fading. I was getting close to freedom and she knew it.
I heard her pounce and then I was slammed to the ground. Her body was light, but cold enough that where her hands touched me, the skin felt like I was soaking in an ice bath.
I couldn’t breathe, my lungs throbbing inside me. I was beyond afraid, my body acting in autopilot because my mind was mush.
I screamed, a deep, guttural shriek that surprised her. With a swift movement, I stabbed the wooden branch I still held into one of the black craters on her face and she fell back, hissing and howling like a feral creature.
I used the brief moment of distraction to shove the stake in deeper and run. I ran with all my might, the steady pounding in my ears protecting me from whatever curses she screamed after me.
My vision was going dark at the edges, my chest aflame with pricking pain building inside me. I was going down and I knew it, but I could see it then: the edge. With a final burst of speed, I catapulted myself out of the woods and as far as I could get.
I collapsed in the field.
Sometime later, my mother was shaking me to consciousness. I couldn’t move, but I bawled in her arms, scrapes and scratches riddling my body. When they changed me at the hospital, there were deep claw marks on my back.
Within two weeks, we moved. I lost a lot of my childhood. Outside of this period, I can only remember bits and pieces of what should have been joyful times. It took a long time for me to feel safe.
And I did. For a good while, I felt safe. I didn’t think of her or anything that happened for many years, the only reminder my scars on my back and the occasional flash of nightmares.
I was okay.
Until this morning.
My daughter, my darling little girl who gave me hope and a warm feeling of peace just by being near her, was coloring beside me as I finished something on my laptop.
I glanced down to her page and was nine years old again, looking right into the black abyss of two soul-sucking eyes above a sharp, dripping mouth.
“Baby,” I croaked, “baby, who is that?”
“Oh,” my daughter hummed. So blissfully unaware. “She’s a girl I met in the forest yesterday.”
I could feel every painstakingly difficult year of therapy slipping away from me. With a trembling hand, I ripped the page out of her notebook and crumbled it, ignoring her cries of protest.
We live nowhere near a forest. I can hear that song again.

Hi everyone! I am a FTM to an almost 5 month old baby boy who is EBF. My baby was born on the bigger side, almost 10 lbs. at about 2 months old he started sleeping through the night, getting up to about 11 hours at one point without awakenings for feeding. Starting from 3.5 months we entered what I thought was a sleep regression, baby would wake up about an hour after being put down but could be settled without being picked up from his bassinet. He would then almost always sleep through the night however his morning feed moved up from 7 to 5. Since then we’re progressively getting less and less sleep through the night. Now he’s been going down between 7:30-8:30 nightly depending on naps/WW and staying asleep until about 3:30, then 4:30,5:30 etc. until we’re up for the day. Most recently he will not go back down without a feeding. I have him in an arms out swaddle now and as of yesterday tried weaning mode to see if it would make a difference, it didn’t. Is he going through a growth spurt? Why would my baby who was previously sleeping through the night all of a sudden be requiring an overnight meal? And why are we getting less and less sleep?? Please give any insight you may have, TIA.