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They bark most when she isn’t home, so it’s not like I can tell her to make them quiet.
This can be ethical or unethical, just nothing that will hurt the dogs (even though they’re annoying) or cause a terrible relationship between my neighbour and I (we live in the same house and I don’t want to make my life situation worse). I also don’t want to move because I really like this place aside from this issue.
I just blast white noise usually, but any other tips?
Do those whistles they sell on Amazon to make dogs stop barking have any truth to them?
Idk, any suggestions that fit the criteria are welcome

I've been trying to figure out where on reddit I should put this but here goes nothing; this is a throwaway account and it's going to be a very long one. For a bit of context I'm in a polyamorous "relationship" where there is also an extremely large age gap among the three of us. I (21F) met my partners, lets call them Collen (46F) and Doug (56M) the beginning of January 2021. My friends kept pushing for me to go out and meet someone and have some fun so I signed up for a dating app not expecting much to come of it because of my "unique" type romantically. I'm completely into the age gap relationship thing so I raised the age on my search to 30-50. and with my luck two swipes in and there she was; beautiful blonde with greenish-blue eyes a great smile. I swiped so fast I couldn't stop myself, and it came back saying that she had also swiped right on me too. I didn't exactly take the time to thoroughly read through the profile because after the mutual swiping I decide to read the profile a little bit more, and it turned out to be a couple. Maybe I should've backed out then but in my mind it was like yolo why not. They are both attractive and who knows maybe it'll be a fun fling to have from time to time until I feel ready to find someone to settle with. I'd never heard of polyamory or any of the things that come with it so I was basically going in blind. So we connected and initially It was just chatting with her through the app getting to know what they were looking for and things like that. She then suggested that I add him on snapchat so I could talk to him as well and do a video chat verification of myself. So I did and to my surprise I'd hit it off with him too. It was like I could talk to him about any and everything. Deep conversations came easily with him. They both reassured me they wouldn't force me to go too fast or do anything I don't want to do. Made me feel very comfortable from the get go. Eventually the whole conversation moved to snapchat they created a group chat and I could text them separately whenever. I mostly spoke with him separately and she would really only respond in the group. I met up with him about a month later. She couldn't come along as she had to stay home with their daughter but gave us her blessing to have fun and tell her about it tomorrow. It was a great time we talked sat by the water till almost 5am. Another month in they invited me over to their place so we could all be together and I of course accepted. When I got there I was shocked to have been greeted at the door by the two of them and their daughter. For another reference I love kids and have been helping my siblings and other family members raise theirs since I was 6 and I'd told them about that as well, But still it threw me for a loop because it'd only been 3 months they still don't know too too much about me and we all knew I wasn't exactly coming over to just "have dinner and watch movies" and it seemed strange to me. We had dinner and it was nice we laughed a lot and all got along pretty good. When it got later in the night Colleen put their daughter to bed and Doug and I went to their bedroom. She joined us and we got busy and in the midst of it I began to bleed as apart of this health condition I have which they were aware of, and they immediately stopped to care for me clean me up an make sure I was ok and insisted that I sleep over for the night. They grabbed a blow up bed and set it up in their room for me. That simple gesture did something in my heart. I come from a pretty fucked up broken abusive home some of which they'd also known about so no one had ever really taken care of me like that before until them. Immediately my heart was absolutely sure this wouldn't be a one time fling like i'd thought. Fast forward some time everything was going pretty well. We all talked, sent pictures etc in the group and then I'd come over their place again and we'd have a good time I'd either sleep over and go home, and the cycle just continued on like that. Now up until May there had never been a title placed on what we had going on, so I wasn't too hopeful it'd stay on the same track it was on. Then at about the end of May he asks me to be their girlfriend. Says it's something they both want and again blindly going through with it I said yes, but looking back I should've asked her myself if that was really what she also wanted and maybe I could've saved myself the heart ache. So now we are officially in a relationship and everything is going fairly well.. Fast forward to 2022 about end of July maybe early into August. She started to become... distant small stuff at first like not wanting to have sex because she wasn't feeling well which I completely understood never would I make her feel bad for that. Then it became not wanting to be in the same room as me. Like Doug their daughter and I would be in the living room watching a movie or something just hanging out and she'd leave and go into their bedroom and wouldn't come back out until dinner or it was time for their daughter to go bed so she could tuck her in. It started to make me feel... weird and I couldn't bring myself to ask her what was going on, but Doug would continue to reassure me that she was attracted to me she loved being with me. I wanted to believe him but I couldn't in my heart and due to past trauma I didn't want to face if she'd say no. Now don't get me wrong she and I spent time together just the two of us. Sunday's she and I would go out shopping but you could cut the tension with a knife during those rides sometimes. I wanted to say something but Doug had prior told me about a girl from their past who hurt her and left her emotionally stunted with women so I alway tried my hardest to make sure I didn't do that to her and didn't do anything to cause her any discomfort sort of letting her come into it on her own. Plus she showed her love in other ways with catering to me buying me things particular to what I love. She'd said I love you verbally to me on 2 separate occasions which she apparently doesn't do. So I just could never find the right time to do so. Then Doug started searching on the app again for other women to add to it. He liked to watch and they'd had foursomes with other women where he would watch them with Colleen and take videos that have been shown to me before. I didn't know how I felt about this so I just went along with to see where it would go. Luckily it has never gone beyond a texting conversation among them although we have come close a few times. Anyways end of October early November of 22. Everything was so completely off between she and I felt it every time I would go over to their house. I didn't know what to do or how to address it. It was starting to really take a toll on me mentally. And they were also planning to move to another state where her family is and that caused me to worry more then before because I would not be going with them, who is to say that they won't meet another woman or women on the app and brush me off to the side numerous thoughts went through my mind over this. Plus it would be close to her father and best friend so she is definitely going to want to spend a great amount of time with them and there would be no real way to explain who I am to them considering I'm hispanic and they are White so it wouldn't be easy to play it off and none of them know that she is into women and that they are apart of the lifestyle not even her best friend. (This information is important to my point) Then one night Doug was driving me back to my house and he told me she had cried in their bedroom that morning while I was still asleep because she is uncomfortable in her body and uncomfortable around me. Flat out my heart sank and in my mind all I could think was how could you love and be with someone but not be comfortable around them or even talk to them about it, and you're moving to a new state you pretty much are going to want nothing to do with me. This triggered my abandonment issues like nothing else ever could and they knew of this issue and my need for reassurance I thought they would understand my need to know especially Doug since he questioned constantly if I was happy with our relationship and the age gap and if i wanted to leave I reassured him constantly that I couldn't go anywhere. I cried that night and decided to open the app myself just to find someone to talk to or even distract me for a moment nothing extreme. It escalated and i did cheat emotionally and I kissed the girl but that was it at that time. I felt bad and I am terrible at lying so eventually the truth exposed itself. the day of it was like she could feel something was going to change she came out of their room to where I was on the couch and just made out with me out of the blue. I didn't know what to do. Let's just say the truth revealed itself on that drive home that night and we broke up... for 18 days. I tried to move on with my life because every one was telling me to since the age gap and a bunch of other factors as well so I did and ended up being set up to be raped twice. needless to say my faith in humanity is gone on that end. so I tried one last time to talk to him and work things out. I did and by Christmas we were back together and working on getting better. Now here we are June 2023 they've found a house they will be moving into in just a few weeks. I've been helping them clean and pack up their old home a few times during this process. Doug swears nothing will change but everything will especially considering technically I'm only now in a romantic relationship with Doug and Colleen and I.. I don't even know if you could call it a friendship. Things are hitting that weird point again and he has met another girl on the app he wants him and I to meet and play with its only been 2 days and she's basically giving herself up to him as a submissive which he loves and gave the both of them access to her remote vibrator to pleasure her with which of course he had to tell me about. Now with all o that back ground out of the way here comes the real reason for my post. Despite all of the things I said above there are many red flags about them that I continually overlooked because of the lovers gaze i had on them. Including and I'm not proud of it pedo.... and incest (they both swear they'd never really cross that line with their daughter but I am not 100% sure I believe especially after he told me why he lost his old job) Especially with Doug he even talks about how things would've been if they would've raised me when he would've started wanting to play with me. I'm not proud that I stayed and overlooked those things part of me knows I stay to protect their daughter from them, and the other knows I stay because I trauma bonded myself onto them and can't get away. I'm not even attracted to anyone outside of them yes it is that bad. Lately things have been so confusing and tossed up i am ready to call it quits. (I am a hyper aware person to a default so I know when someone is trying to manipulate and play mind games with me which is what she is doing and I let them think they are succeeding and him he is just attracted to how young and hyper sexual I can be when we are together.) but not before I set a few little fires. I've curated a plan to send a letter to her father, and best friend. As well as his siblings (his parents are diseased) detailing what they've done and thus ultimately outting her as bisexual to them which I know is wrong but after the emotional and psychological abuse they instilled upon me it seems appropriate. Before she married him She was having a fling with her bosses sister at her bosses house. I know the bosses name and have her information so I could send her an email with the detailed story. Of course that is not grounds to fire her but it will cause enough tension and discomfort in my eyes. She is also adopted and recently found her bio moms family; I have their information as well and plan to give them a thorough warning about their estranged family member and what comes with her since they do explicit talk about the family members they would fuck including children of their cousins etc.. It is a toss up considering her father and best friend may be completely supportive of her and not cause any harm there. This won't repair the abuse they've done to me or help me heal but I took the higher road and over looked so many things for 3 years. Someone has to stop them in their tracks so they never do what they did to me to another woman again. WIBTAH?

i went bowling with my friend and the entire place was jam packed with children. all the girls were wearing bodycon dresses, crop tops and tiny shorts. the boys did not make an effort, they were just wearing tracksuits ( they all had that broccoli zoomer hair ). there was one girl who was wearing a white knit t shirt and the longest denim shorts you’ve ever seen, but she’d pulled her top all the way down so you could see her entire lace bra and it was so funny imagining her doing her quick little outfit modification after leaving the house. there was another girl wearing a skintight pink minidress. do parents really just let them wear this stuff?
there were like 20 of them all sitting on top of the 2p machines on their phones so after we finished bowling we went opposite for pizza instead. pretty much exactly at 7:00 half the kids left so we went back and wasted ten pounds ( i got a candy scented candle )

Short story a car crash had taken place a few meters away from me, it was scary and I want to tell someone but don't know where so I'm posting this.
Not going to enter in details of where.
I was walking to the train station close to my house because is Saturday afternoon, in the square there is this university next to a school where child's where playing basketball, next to the school is a parking lot and next to it there's a small shops building.
So I walked towards the small shops building and happened to cross in front of the cars exit. A red car stoped in the cebra path, I walk over and do a gesture with my hands to thanks the driver.
Then when I get closer to the other side of the road I hear a car breaking and locking up the wheels. My brain had to activate some survival instinct and inyected a lot of adrenaline because everything from here on was happening in slow motion for me.
I started thinking, there's a car in collision course behind me, and there was a red car going out of a parking lot just a few meters behind me, in other words, I was in danger, so I made a quick long step before jumping to the floor, I hit the ground with my right arm protecting my face and then I hear a first impact, as soon as I heard it I covered my head with my left arm and hear a second impact and feel broken glasses and plastic parts going over me. I stand up sturdy, not hearing anything and dizzy, then I look back and saw the red car close to me by less than a meter stuck into the wall, and in the middle of the road a white familiar truck, I saw the kids running over the place and a couple of lady's walking from the shops further in the streets and I yelled to them: call an ambulance.
I saw the back door of the withe truck opening, the air bag was activated and saw a girl struggling to get out, I run towards the truck, grabbed her hand and pulled her out from the waist, she was around my age (I'm 22) I asked if she was okay and she says no. I carry her out of the street and left her on the ground where a kid offered her water. The man that was driving the car was behind me walking with a bad leg and sit next to her. He was also around my age so I assume either her boyfriend or brother.
Then I started to hear again like normally and looked back to the red car, the woman sitting on the front was screaming for help, there was no airbag in the red car and the driver can't walk away. I rushed over again and pull the man out of the car, his leg had pieces of plastic and metal embedded and blood on his face. I left him on the ground and make sure the red card didn't get any fire, and then the ambulance, the police and the firefighters arrived.
I was interrogated by the police and said I didn't see what happened but hear it and went straight to help without thinking it twice.
I went to home after that. I didn't wanted to go to party today anymore.

Marc gave it another go. He tipped his hand forward. The silver patty rolled off him, dropping toward the cave floor.
It stopped short of hitting the path. The shiny disc halted in the air, dangling at the end of a thin white line.
He watched the small wheel spin. It might have been the most fun he’d had all year. Even more fun than that mud puddle he’d found the other day.
How does it keep going? Marc thought to himself. And without any power??
Marc assumed the disc was some sort of technological marvel from the past. But the Archives had little information on it, only a name. It was called a “yo-yo.”
They all must have had one of these, he posited.
As Marc walked down the stone ramp, he cast the yo-yo again. The toy’s quiet spin was the only sound in the cavern. The soft hiss of string versus metal reverberated gently in the spacious cave.
Marc focused all his attention on the little gadget. He was determined to enjoy every last minute of the universe, no matter what. And that evening, the yo-yo more than accomplished that goal.
The shimmering yo-yo, however, couldn’t prevent the world around him from crumbling. The ground started to rumble. The rest of the cave shook with it. The underground city shook as the plasma storm above battered it—and the rest of the planet.
Marc’s home broke down. Cracks appeared in the ceiling. Waterfalls of dust poured out of them. It wouldn't be long before the whole thing collapsed. That is, if the plasma storm didn’t swallow it whole first.
Whatever.
A few clumps of dirt wouldn’t ruin Marc’s fun. He pulled the hood of his shawl over his head and extended his ragged sleeves toward each hand. His clothes shielded him from the falling dust; the gritty particles made themselves at home on his messy shawl. And Marc was free to perfect his newest trick.
The rumbling died down though as Marc descended the ramp. The yo-yo string didn’t wobble so much, and he didn't have to watch his steps as carefully. He just hoped the quaking wouldn’t come back to ruin his event.
Speaking of which, Marc glanced ahead toward his destination below. What he saw rocked him even harder than the earthquake had.
What in the sinkpits…?
Marc stopped in his tracks. He even started to reach for his knife. All because he’d detected a speck of something suspicious. Something he didn't see much of every day: color.
Showy landmarks weren’t something endemic to his home. The Outpost was more of a dusty gray-and-brown sort of place. The walls were sandstone. The floor was sandstone. And the ceiling? …Granite?
No, sandstone. All under the faint glow of a string of depressed lightbulbs.
The intriguing blip in the gray-and-tan collage was farther up the path. Ahead of the ramp, on Level 8, Marc saw the same three steel doors he was used to seeing. The front doors of underground homes, lined up in a row, each closed into the cave wall.
However, there was something different about the third door. It looked… alive. Like it didn’t belong in a dreary place like the Outpost. But it was too far away to tell what exactly had been done to it.
Marc squinted at it suspiciously. The third door happened to be his destination. And now it was weird.
He considered waiting and observing the mutated door. A child of the Outpost, Marc had developed a healthy fear of the unusual.
These habits, along with his instincts, kept him safe. They’d specifically preserved him while the rest of humanity perished.
But he shrugged off the instinct to wait. Something new and “different” was ahead, and he wanted to see it.
But just as a precaution, it was time for his yo-yo’s last trick. He got in one final throw then placed the toy into his satchel. He dropped it on top of his arsenal of cables, wrenches, and screwdrivers.
And by the time he’d snapped the satchel shut, the long ramp had bottomed out. He’d made it to the next level.
To his left, the wall had been spray-painted. Scrawled-out black letters stood against the sandy background. They stated, “Now Level 8.”
Marc followed the sign. He stayed close to the wall, crossing to the stone pedestrian path. He passed one untouched steel door with a dusted-over mail slot in the wall beside it. Then he passed a second home—abandoned like the first. And finally, he arrived at his friend’s place and the mysterious blip on Level 8.
To his surprise, the steel door elicited a flush of emotion. His heart floated upward. And the portrait before him drew his focus in like an otherworldly beacon.
How did it get so…?
Marc pulled back his hood. The ground popped with the sandy grains he released.
He could hardly believe the difference. The door used to blend in with the others: another ridged steel face that spent most of its time rusting or collecting dirt.
But it was no longer muffled by the dust and dirt that had built up over the years.
Today, it sung. Paint streaks flew across its visage. They swirled and spiraled, forming stars and other shapes. Where previously gray and rust dominated, colors sprang forth—colors that Marc didn't even have the names for. They were many, and they were warm, like the evening sky just after sunset. Marc could hardly wrap his head around the entire image.
He swelled with gratitude.
Only you could have pulled this off. He thought of his friend, the painter. The one person in the colony who’d ever been any fun. The one other person in the colony who was left…
The artist had done the unthinkable. Foraging the garden below for something other than food. Spending work time measuring and concocting the perfect blends of paint. And then slathering their fingers across the giant door, until its old face was but a memory. And all that effort for only a single other person to appreciate.
Newly inspired, Marc searched for an unpainted space on the metal canvas. He found one and knocked on the door.
He took a step back and waited. The outside of the Outpost was lively. Excited wind rushed through the canyon.
By contrast, the Outpost itself was silent. If there was anyone left to say anything, they may have even called it “dead.”
Or nearly dead, anyway. The last morsel of it came to life as the door in front of Marc groaned.
It floated off the ground, inching upward. On the other side, Marc could hear a hand crank clicking away.
Ktch… ktch… ktch… ktch…
The corrugated door lifted, and the door rolled up. The tip of the artist’s painting started to slip from view.
Ktch… ktch… ktch… ktch…
Behind the door, chains reeled at a slow clip. The heavy curtain was halfway up. Marc could now see his best friend's lower half. Buff Lenorkian legs pumped back and forth with each crank.
The door unveiled even more of the owner. A torso in a metal suit appeared. Four ripped arms stretched out of it. They rotated, moving to the clicking beats of the door.
Ktch… ktch… ktch… ktch…
The door raised a few inches further, uncovering the bottom half of a cobalt blue face. Two rows of razor-sharp teeth smiled from ear to ear. A few inches more, and Marc could see the whole of the Lenorkian’s face.
Sid greeted Marc as the last of the door raised.
“Finally!” he said.
Marc didn’t get a chance to respond. His body lurched forward involuntarily. He slammed into Sid’s metal suit.
Crrrrrick!
The armor squealed as Sid’s upper two arms squeezed him tighter. The lower set of arms had reeled Marc in.
Marc hated hugs. Stupid mushy emotional wraparounds. But just this one final time, Marc returned the gesture. He squeezed Sid back.
“Happy Worlds’ End!” Sid said from the other side of the embrace.
“Yeah,” Marc replied, “Happy Worlds’ End.”
The two separated.
“Cool painting, by the way,” Marc said. He pointed at the rolled-up door. “I didn’t think you’d top the one in the garden.”
“You think so?” Sid sheepishly smiled. “Well I’ve had more time to practice since… you know.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Marc said. “Me too. That’s how I actually got you something.”
Marc swung his heavy satchel around. He rifled through it, squeezing through cables, knocking handles and parts out of the way. And then—ah.
He fished out a crumpled rag. Holding it in one hand, he began to gently unfold it.
“I found this a few days ago in the garden,” he said. The edges of the cloth fell. They revealed a small, glass object. It sparkled.
Marc continued, “I think it fits your style—I mean, I know it’s a little smudged and chipped but...”
He swirled the crystal trinket around. The cavern’s incandescent light flittered across its clear edges.
He touched it too, tracing the slender portion of it with his thumb. It was the neck of the crystal swan.
“It’s yours,” Marc said, offering up the bird.
Sid cupped two shovel-sized hands and accepted the gift.
“It’s beautiful…” he said, examining it. “I can’t believe anything like this could have survived this long.” He looked up at Marc and smiled, “Thank you so much. I just wish I had a little longer to could enjoy it.”
They chuckled lightly about their impending obliteration.
“Well, come on in,” Sid said. He extended both of his left arms. They gestured toward the cave interior. “We’ll finish off this universe how it started,” he said. He mashed his upper two fists together. “With a bang!”
“I hear that!” Marc nodded. He crossed over into Sid’s house.
As Marc passed Sid, a wave of discomfort hit him. Sid had switched out his usual t-shirt and jeans. He wore old armor instead. And the metal plating taunted Marc.
Marc’s next question came out more accusatory than curious.
“So… a Lenorkian throwback, huh?” he asked Sid.
Sid had just finished finding the perfect home for his swan. He left it on a shelf next to the front door.
He turned to face Marc. He hid his embarrassment behind a jagged smile.
“Oh!” he said. “Uhhh…” Three of Sid’s arms disappeared behind his back. The cone-shaped cuffs at the end of each wrist clanked against the back of his chest armor. The fourth arm nervously scratched his blue head. “I don’t know,” he said. “It's stupid, I guess. I can take it off… if you want.”
Marc didn’t want to address the topic head-on. He stopped in the cave’s entry. He pretended to admire the walls—as if he’d never seen sandstone before.
“No, leave it on,” he said. “You look… like a true Lenorkian.” He turn around and forced a smile.
It wasn’t enough.
“Okay, let’s get this out of the way,” Sid said. He marched up to Marc.
Sid took a deep breath before he spoke.
“Tonight's really important to me,” he continued. “This is the last impression anyone’s going to make on the universe. So I need you on board.” He continued staring down at Marc. “Can you do that? For me?”
Marc didn’t see what the big deal was. It was just a couple of best friends hanging out.
“Yeah, why not?” he shrugged. “End it the way it started.”
The exchange turned into awkward silence. Neither knew what to do next. They had never been in a situation like this before—never attended such an event. What the Archives called: a par-ty.
Sid shook off the figurative mask he’d been wearing—one that was uncharacteristically dour. His eyes lightened, and he bobbed his head knowingly.
“I went through the Archives to see how this works,” he said. He walked toward the long horizontal counter against the wall—the kitchen.
On the counter, chaos ran wild. Bowls and kitchenware spread across the surface. And the insides of his pots and pans resembled the dirty mouth of a garbage chute.
Marc wasn’t sure what to think. Was cleaning the host’s kitchen a staple of ancient parties?
Sid too seemed a bit confused. His next words came out robotically, as if he was practicing a new word he’d learned.
“’Can-I-offer-you-a-drink?’” Sid asked. He stood nervously in front of the counter.
Looking closer at it, three unusual objects stood apart from the kitchenware mess. It took Marc a while to remember what their outdated, bendy material was called.
Plastic. Three pink and plastic cups sat equidistant from one another.
“I got these from here,” Sid reached under the counter and pulled up some sort of transparent bag. Pink cups just liked the others were stacked on top of each other inside.
Sid packed the bag back under the counter.
“So?” he asked after he finished. He held all four hands together in anticipation. His smile may have looked like an industrial-grade rock shredder, but it was hard to resist his innocent blue face and big wide eyes.
Marc eyed the pink cups one last time.
“This better not kill me,” he said.
Sid wasted no time. He excitedly grabbed a cup and walked over to a large pot sitting on the counter.
Using a nearby ladle, he plunged into the vat. An unappetizing sloshing sound resulted. And Sid, as strong as he was, seemed to struggle with scooping out some of the mystery liquid. But in the end, he pulled back the ladle and unloaded an opaque, muddy liquid into the cup.
“It's a homeworld classic called fludge,” Sid said as he finished pouring.
He treaded over to his reluctant friend and handed off the plastic cup.
“Did you say ‘fludge’?” Marc asked. He swished the cup around cautiously. The earthy liquid hardly budged.
“Yeah, fludge! Us Lenorkians invented it. It’s kind of the only tasty thing we ever bothered to make.”
Marc sniffed it. It smelled… burnt? Maybe a little dusty, too? But he could have just been smelling the cave.
Sid left Marc alone with Marc’s questionable new assignment. He returned to the pot to pour himself a drink.
“Just try it!” he said.
Marc looked down again at the dark soup. It could kill him. Or maybe it wouldn't.
Either way, it was his last drink.
He took a timid sip and waited to be repulsed. The fludge trickled to the back of his tongue. As it hit, Marc’s eyes widened. But not with regret.
He swallowed.
“Now wait a minute…” he said. He smacked his lips together. Then he took another, larger sip.
This curious dark liquid had a unique taste to it. The taste was earthen—but unoffending. It also had a subtle undercurrent of sweetness to it, combined with a spicy kick. It was delicious.
“This might be the best drink in the entire Outpost!” Marc exclaimed.
Pure joy bloomed on Sid’s face. “See! I told you: the greatest thing we ever made.”
He held his own cup above his open jaws. The falling fludge was no match for the alien. He guzzled it down, licked his lips, and then went back for more.
As Sid fashioned himself another drink, Marc noticed something a tad unsettling. A third pink cup stared back at him. It prompted an uncomfortable thought, but he shoved the thought back down.
The Lenorkian carried back his second drink. Though this time, he took it in small, human-sized sips.
But he quickly reanimated. In the middle of a sip, Sid got a wild look in his eyes. His irises turned from their natural violet to scarlet. He yanked the cup from his face and swallowed.
“Argh, how did I forget?” he said. “I got music!”
Marc cut his sip short too. “No way. You got music?”
“I think so!”
Sid did an about face. He slammed the half-empty cup on the counter. Then he shuffled toward a giant metal column protruding from the far wall. Four ink-blue hands wrapped around the cover of the vent. And he went for it.
Sid struggled to pull off the cover of the vent at first. His armor ballooned around his biceps as his muscles bulged outward. Yet the cover wouldn't budge.
But it seemed like an important part of his evening plans. He scolded the stubborn vent, banging on its top.
“Oh, you’re gonna get it now!” he said. He latched onto the vent again.
This time, he put even more effort in. To the point where Marc sensed that Sid was losing a grip on his own body. Out of his forehead, two thumb-sized cones began to rise. His breathing turned low and raspy. And his whole body seemed to expand as he repositioned himself for leverage. Then with one final pull, like a wild beast, he let out of a deep, guttural roar.
“HAWRRRRRRRRRRRGGH!” The roar echoed off the cave walls.
And with that, the stubborn vent cover finally popped off. A breath of wind pulsed through the room as the air pressure equalized itself.
But the wind wasn’t finished. After the initial pulse exited, a mighty gust picked up where the original pulse left off. The vent shot more wind into the room, but rapidly, like a storm. Tiny coarse particles rattled inside the duct. And in the room, a rush of wind whipped past Marc’s face. He felt little nips across his exposed skin as it passed him.
Both partiers shielded their faces from the most direct blasts of air. Sid smiled nervously as he looked to Marc. He raised his voice over the whining airstream.
“It’s from the sandplains above!” he said in an elevated voice. “I thought we’d use the sandstorm for music! Do you like it?”
Music… Marc wasn’t exactly an expert. Even though humans were said to be naturals at it, not much on the subject had made it into the Archives. The Outpost didn’t have much of it either. The closest he got was the occasional chant, stray birds twittering about, or maybe someone banging on rocks.
But Marc did know one thing on the subject. Where there was music, there was dancing.
That said, he had never danced before either. But a long time ago, his parents told him it was something all humans could do. It was something they carried in their blood. Once humans found a pattern in music, they could match it to their body language. And once they’d synced melody and movement, they could ride that wave to a whole new experience.
Might as well give it a shot, he thought. Marc too put his cup on the counter.
With his hands free, Marc backed up toward the middle of the room. He closed his eyes, felt the wind. It filled his ears with its gusty energy. It hit him in pumps as the storm raged above.
Though not totally predictable, the wind did hit him consistently. There was some sort of kinetic pattern to it.
Yes, a pattern.
Well actually, he’d heard it called by another name. What was that word his mother had used? He opened his eyes when he remembered: rhythm.
Marc stretched out his arms. He relaxed his hips. He felt the wind’s whips and waves across his arms. He let his arms follow them, swaying with the current. Not long after, his hips joined in. They too gyrated, trying to match the energetic gusts. He kept at it. And the first time Marc felt both himself and the wind moving together, he grinned.
“This is amazing!” he said. Around them, the wind crooned.
Sid was entranced. He nodded back while staring at Marc’s strange movements. He’d never really seen dancing either. But he figured he would give it a shot too. He loosened up his arms and walked onto the dance floor with Marc.
Before dancing himself, he studied Marc first. He watched how the scavenger moved his arms—and when the scavenger moved his arms.
Sid’s limbs followed. Four muscular arms rose in the air, like fighter jets on their way to a dogfight. And on a one or two second delay, they swayed after Marc’s.
For a while, they followed Marc completely. Then Sid went down his own path. The Lenorkian’s movements grew aggressive and battle-like. He punched at the wind swiping across him. He shuffled his feet as if swapping battle stances.
He caught Marc’s curiosity. Even as a novice, Marc could tell Sid’s movements weren’t traditional by any means. But to Marc, it was dancing all the same.
The two danced to the chorus of the air above. They laughed occasionally as changes in the rhythm of the wind tripped them up. In his head, Marc compared it to the painting on Sid’s door. The colony had never seen anything like this either.
Then something interrupted their dancing. The ground beneath them shook, throwing them off their feet. Heavy gray dirt trickled from the ceiling as the entire cave rumbled. And outside, the distant sky flashed and crackled. Its light illuminated the cave in violent spurts as the boys struggled to stand back up.
Eventually, the violent quaking and frightening flashes died down. The plasma storm held its breath once again.
The boys got back on their feet, but all the joy had seeped out of Sid’s face. He just stared at the floor in deep contemplation. Even as the windy music started back up.
Marc figured he would rescue his friend from whatever dark thoughts had turned up. Naturally, the end of the universe was a real bummer.
“End of the world got you down, huh?” He tried to laugh it off. The whole situation was pretty sad. Especially when they were having so much fun. But it was best to end the universe on a high note, right?
Nevertheless, Sid seemed dejected. He mumbled something inaudible.
“Dude, I can’t hear over the song!” Marc said in an elevated voice.
Sid spoke up over the wind. “That’s not what I’m upset about,” he said, his voice still fairly low.
“Then what are you upset about?”
Sid blurted out his response. “Because I invited Tōn-E, okay?”
He couldn’t bring himself to look Marc in the eye. Because he knew what was coming.
“YOU DID WHAT?!” Marc shouted over the music. Marc himself stomped over to the vent. He picked the cover off the floor—though he struggled quite a bit with it. It was heavier than Sid made it look. But he hoisted it back into the mouth of the vent. The music shut off. The steady drop of sand on the cave floor ceased.
“Say that again,” he leveled in Sid’s direction.
“What was I supposed to do?” Sid remade eye contact. “Not invite the only other intelligent being to the last party the universe will ever have?”
Marc needed no time to answer. He nodded insistently. “Yes. That was exactly what you were supposed to do. What the hell, Sid?” Marc would have continued, but there was another disturbance outside. He caught a glimpse of movement in the doorway.
--
Thanks for reading some of my words :) I’m trying stuff out, so let me know what you think.
The rest of the story is here
Based on a prompt by eithrotaur

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/02/trump-georgia-election-investigation-fulton-county/
An Atlanta-area investigation of alleged election interference by President Donald Trump and his allies has broadened to include activities in D.C. and several states, according to two people with knowledge of the probe — a fresh sign that prosecutors may be building a sprawling case under Georgia’s racketeering laws.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) launched an investigation more than two years ago to examine efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his narrow 2020 defeat in Georgia. Along the way, she has signaled publicly that she may use Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to allege that these efforts amounted to a far-reaching criminal scheme.
In recent days, Willis has sought information related to the Trump campaign hiring two firms to find voter fraud across the United States and then burying their findings when they did not find it, allegations that reach beyond Georgia’s borders, said the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the investigation. At least one of the firms has been subpoenaed by Fulton County investigators.
Willis’s investigation is separate from the one at the Justice Department being led by special counsel Jack Smith, but the two probes have covered some of the same ground. Willis has said she plans to make a charging decision this summer, and she has indicated that such an announcement could come in early August. She has faced stiff criticism from Republicans for investigating the former president, and the ever-widening scope suggests just how ambitious her plans may be.
The state’s RICO statute is among the most expansive in the nation, allowing prosecutors to build racketeering cases around violations of both state and federal laws — and even activities in other states. If Willis does allege a multistate racketeering scheme with Trump at its center, the case could test the bounds of the controversial law and make history in the process. The statute calls for penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
“Georgia’s RICO statute is basically two specified criminal acts that have to be part of a pattern of behavior done with the same intent or to achieve a common result or that have distinguishing characteristics,” said John Malcolm, a former Atlanta-based federal prosecutor who is now a constitutional scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “That’s it. It’s very broad. That doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to charge a former president, but that also doesn’t mean she can’t do it or won’t do it.”
Among Willis’s latest areas of scrutiny is the Trump campaign’s expenditure of more than $1 million on two firms to study whether electoral fraud occurred in the 2020 election, the two individuals said. The Post first reported earlier this year that the work was carried out in the final weeks of 2020, and that the campaign never released the findings because the firms, Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group, disputed many of Trump’s theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election.
In recent days, Willis’s office has asked both firms for information — not only about Georgia but about other states as well. Trump contested the 2020 election results in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Ken Block, the CEO of Simpatico Software Systems, declined to comment on what he has turned over to investigators. A lawyer for the Berkeley Research Group also declined to comment. A spokesman for Willis declined to comment on the investigation. Lawyers for Trump also declined to comment.
It is unclear if Willis will seek indictments of people for alleged actions that occurred outside Georgia, such as those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. RICO experts say it’s unlikely she will do so. But, these experts said, the law allows Willis to build a sweeping narrative of an alleged pattern of behavior to overturn the 2020 election, with Georgia as just one piece. Evidence and actions outside the state, such as Trump’s statements from Washington that inspired some of the rioters and the parallel efforts to overturn other states’ results, could be presented as additional evidence that helps establish that pattern.
“The Georgia statute is broadly written” to allow the inclusion of violations of federal law as well as some other states’ laws, said Morgan Cloud, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta and expert on the state’s RICO law. “For example, acts to obstruct justice committed in Arizona might be relevant if the goal of the enterprise, of the racketeering activity, was to overturn the 2020 presidential election nationally, as well as in Georgia.”
Cloud added that prosecutors in Georgia must prove only that two racketeering crimes occurred under the state RICO statute, but that other facts could be used to explain the breadth of an alleged scheme.
An ambitious prosecution
Willis’s investigation has already come under scrutiny as a test of applying state criminal laws to actions that revolved around a federal election — and that in many instances resembled constitutionally protected speech. The probe has prompted a debate, even among those who believe Trump’s efforts were improper, as to whether prosecutors will be able to prove that Georgia crimes were committed.
Her potentially sweeping application of Georgia’s RICO statute could amplify those questions. RICO allows prosecutors to target leaders of alleged criminal enterprises who in previous generations eluded convictions. In Georgia, it can be applied to many patterns of activity that are crimes under state or federal law, such as dogfighting or drug dealing, obstruction or conspiracy — going far beyond its origins as a tool to fight organized crime.
Several legal experts said they expect Willis to home in on possible false statements by Trump and his allies to government officials — one of the crimes that can be prosecuted under Georgia’s RICO statute.
In 2015, Willis attracted national attention as a deputy district attorney by using RICO to prosecute a massive cheating scandal in Atlanta’s public schools that sent eight teachers and administrators to prison.
Prosecutors in Georgia have obtained RICO convictions where the pattern of racketeering activity included actions in other states. In one notable case, prosecutors in Richmond County got convictions for several men they accused of kidnapping a Sam’s Club manager in a robbery scheme in 1998, stuffing him into the trunk of a car, driving to South Carolina and killing him by setting the car on fire.
In the Trump case, Willis has said she is focused on the phone calls Trump made to multiple Georgia officials seeking to reverse his defeat, his campaign’s efforts to persuade the Georgia legislature to declare Trump the winner, the gathering of Trump’s electors to cast electoral college votes for Trump after Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state, and the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in an unauthorized breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County, Ga.
Dozens of people participated in those efforts, according to reams of emails, texts and deposition transcripts from the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack: Trump lawyers such as Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Ray Smith and John Eastman; senior advisers including then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Jeffrey Clark, then a senior official at the Justice Department; and Georgia GOP leaders including the party chairman, David Shafer, and its then finance chairman, Shawn Still.
Multiple legal experts have said persuading a jury that those actions broke the law could prove difficult. The debate reflects the unprecedented nature of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While the effort immediately prompted calls to hold him and others criminally responsible, identifying laws that apply to such a scenario has proved challenging — and could help explain why Willis’s investigation is in its third year. That dynamic applies both to the Georgia investigation as well as the special counsel’s federal probe.
Most of those scrutinized in the Willis investigation have maintained that they did nothing wrong. They had every right to pursue claims of anomalies, many have said, particularly given how close Biden’s margin of victory was in Georgia, two-tenths of 1 percent.
“There’s not a single thing that I did in pursuit of election integrity that I have any regret or concern about,” Shafer said in a recent GOP address.
“It’s dangerous,” said Malcolm, the Heritage scholar, referring to the investigation in Georgia of contingent electors. “What you’re doing is tainting political activists who are trying to play a part in an election, who are trying to help their candidate, and all of a sudden you’re launching a criminal investigation.”
Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House of Representatives’ first impeachment of Trump, over his pressure campaign with Ukraine, cautioned that it’s too soon to judge the investigation, but said he believes the overall case is a “strong one.”
“Either skepticism or belief is premature because we are not privy to all the evidence that the district attorney has amassed at this point,” said Eisen, a criminal defense attorney and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It just depends on the evidence.”
Eisen was among the authors of a lengthy examination of the applicable law in the Fulton investigation, concluding that possible crimes, besides racketeering, included making false statements and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
Malcolm said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that Trump is at substantial risk of being charged. But he said he believes much of its analysis is “slanted and misguided.”
Trump’s call to Georgia
Willis launched her probe shortly after Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), during which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” That number would have given Trump exactly the votes he needed to reverse Biden’s victory.
While Trump has been widely rebuked for that comment and others during the roughly one-hour call, it’s unclear to some legal analysts if uttering those words broke the law.
Trump did not spell out that he wanted Raffensperger to break the law; nor did he directly ask the state official to find the votes, which might have given Willis a clearer path to seek a felony charge against him, such as solicitation to commit election fraud. Instead, the comment could be interpreted as the president simply spelling out the math that would allow him to reverse Biden’s victory.
Trump may have hurt himself, however, in his appearance last month at a town hall broadcast by CNN, during which he explained that he called Raffensperger to tell him, “You owe me votes because the election was rigged.” Willis could offer the statement as evidence of Trump’s intent for Raffensperger to switch votes, several legal experts said.
“Subjects of criminal investigation aren’t usually reckless enough to go on national television and admit their corrupt intent,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, wrote on Twitter after the appearance. “But Donald Trump just handed Fani Willis a new piece of evidence and tied a bow on it.”
Willis has also investigated appearances by Giuliani and other Trump allies before Georgia lawmakers in the days immediately after the 2020 election, during which they described fantastical conspiracies of voting machines swapping Trump votes for Biden votes and poll workers in Atlanta triple-counting suitcases full of ballots.
It’s a felony in Georgia to make a false statement in a government matter, but Willis must prove that Giuliani and the others knew that what they were saying was false. Giuliani was not speaking under oath, so there is no exposure for perjury charges, and some legal experts say he might also be protected under the First Amendment.
Willis may also examine the actions of Clark, then the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, who wanted to send a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and state legislative leaders falsely claiming that the department was investigating “significant concerns” in the 2020 election, and urging them to call a special session of the General Assembly to appoint Trump’s electors to cast Georgia’s electoral college votes. Senior Justice Department officials blocked Clark from sending the draft.
Whether the Republican electors who convened to cast electoral college votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, broke the law is perhaps even murkier.
Georgia was among seven states where the Trump campaign and local GOP officials arranged for alternate electors to convene with the stated purpose of preserving legal recourse while an election challenge made its way through the courts. Willis has offered some form of immunity to 12 of the 16 electors, according to three individuals with knowledge of the investigation. Not counted among those with immunity are Still, now a Georgia state senator, and Shafer.
Shafer helped organize the meeting and presided over it. Still has been described in news reports as having blocked members of the media from entering the room before the meeting started. Prosecutors have apparently focused on those activities in their questions to various witnesses, according to three other people with knowledge of the interviews. Prosecutors have also inquired about who mailed the electoral certificates to Washington, they said.
One of Shafer’s lawyers, Holly Pierson, wrote in a letter to Willis that Shafer had no knowledge that Trump allies would propose, later in December, to use the alternate elector certificates to block the counting of electoral votes for Biden in the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. It is not even clear if the plan to thwart the joint session had been hatched by Dec. 14, 2020, the day the electors met. The House committee did not refer Shafer or Still to the Justice Department for federal prosecution. Pierson declined to comment.
As the nation waits to see what, if any, charges Willis will seek, one key question is what evidence she has gathered that Trump, his campaign or allies knew about all the different efforts to reverse Biden’s victory. And that’s just the first step — getting to trial and persuading a jury may present even more formidable challenges.
“Proving all this beyond a reasonable doubt,” Kreis said, “that’s going to be the hard part.”

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Spreadsheet

	HOUSE	FRAGRANCE	SIZE	REMAINING	Notes/Condition	Price	Type
1	Amouage	Incense Rori Attar	12mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$439	Niche
2	Amouage	Material (Woman)	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; Tester Cap	$145	Niche
3	Amouage	Orris Wakan Attar	12mL	99% Full	Full Presentation	$419	Niche
4	Amouage	Rose Aqor Attar	12mL	99% Full	Full Presentation	$419	Niche
5	Amouage	Vanilla Barka Attar	12mL	99% Full	Full Presentation	$419	Niche
6	Andy Tauer	Cologne du Maghreb	50mL	99% Full	First Release, Rectangular Clear Bottle; With box	$95	Niche
7	Bond No. 9	Madison Square Park	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$135	Niche
8	By Kilian	Apple Brandy on the Rocks	50mL	99% Full	Full Presentation, Box has some wear.	$160	Niche
9	By Kilian	Bamboo Harmony	100mL	100% Full	Tester Refill (No Spray)	$209	Niche
10	By Kilian	Black Phantom	100mL	100% Full	Tester Refill (No Spray)	$215	Niche
11	By Kilian	Gold Knight	100mL	100% Full	Tester Refill (No Spray)	$209	Niche
12	By Kilian	Good Girl Gone Bad	250mL	99% Full	Decanter; No Box	$800	Niche
13	By Kilian	Intoxicated	100mL	100% Full	Tester Refill (No Spray)	$209	Niche
14	By Kilian	Love Don't Be Shy	50mL	99% Full	Full Presentation, Box has some wear.	$160	Niche
15	Byredo	Infloresence	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Niche
16	Byredo	Lil Fleur	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Niche
17	Byredo	Mixed Emotions	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Niche
18	Byredo	Mumbai Noise	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Niche
19	Byredo	Sunday Cologne	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Niche
20	Chanel Exclusif	Cuir de Russie EdT	200mL	95% Full	No Box; Tester	$725	Niche
21	Chanel Exclusif	Misia EdT	200mL	98% Full	Vintage Discontinued Formula; No Box	$380	Niche
22	Chanel Exclusif	No. 22 EdT	200mL	97% Full		$550	Niche
23	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Bois D'Argent	7.5mL	100% Full	Official Mini	$30	Niche
24	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Bois D'Argent	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 0V01 (2010 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$35	Niche
25	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Cologne Royale	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 1X01 (2011 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$30	Niche
26	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Diorissima	7.5mL	100% Full	Official Mini; No Cannister - Price includes shipping	$30	Niche
27	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Eau Noire	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 1R01 (2011 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$35	Niche
28	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Eden Roc	7.5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Price includes shipping	$30	Niche
29	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Granville	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 0V01 (2010 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$35	Niche
30	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Milly-La-Foret	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 0W01 (2010 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$30	Niche
31	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	Mitzah	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 1W01 (2011 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$35	Niche
32	Christian Dior / Dior Privee	New Look 1947	5mL	100% Full	Official Mini - Batch Code 1R01 (2011 Production Date) - Price includes shipping	$30	Niche
33	Clive Christian	I Pour Femme (Woody Floral with Vintage Rose)	50mL	99% Full	No Box	$180	Niche
34	Clive Christian	Rock Rose	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$289	Niche
35	Creed	Acqua Florentina - F Batch	75mL	95% Full	Box, Can add a Creed Cap as well	$175	Niche
36	Creed	Aventus - 22A11A	100mL	100% Full	Full Presentation	$250	Niche
37	Creed	Aventus Cologne - 2022 Batch	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$234	Niche
38	Creed	Aventus Cologne - F Batch (Plastic Cap)	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed in Box	$239	Niche
39	Creed	Aventus for Her - F567	75mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$190	Niche
40	Creed	Erolfa - 15X01	120mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$369	Niche
41	Creed	Erolfa - F Batch	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$160	Niche
42	Creed	Green Irish Tweed - 19U11	50mL	99% Full	Full presentation with Box	$160	Niche
43	Creed	Green Irish Tweed - 2022 Batch	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$195	Niche
44	Creed	Himalaya - 22B01A	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Square Style Cap	$175	Niche
45	Creed	Jardin D'Amalfi	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$199	Niche
46	Creed	Millesime Imperial - F Batch	100mL	100% Full	Comes with Box and SQUARE Older Style Cap.	$180	Niche
47	Creed	Neroli Sauvage - F241	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$160	Niche
48	Creed	Original Santal - F511	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$160	Niche
49	Creed	Royal Mayfair - 15R01	120mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$229	Niche
50	Creed	Royal Oud - F BATCH	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$275	Niche
51	Creed	Royal Water - 20C01N	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Square Style Cap	$175	Niche
52	Creed	Silver Mountain Water - 21V01A	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Square Style Cap	$180	Niche
53	Creed	Spring Flowers 2023	75mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$225	Niche
54	Creed	Tabarome - 21Y01A	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$160	Niche
55	Creed	Viking - F512	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$205	Niche
56	Creed	Virgin Island Water - F473	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$195	Niche
57	Creed	White Amber - 17W01	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$149	Niche
58	Creed	Wind Flowers - 22C01B	75mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap	$199	Niche
59	Diptyque	Do Son Eau de Toilette	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$99	Niche
60	DS & DURGA	Amber Kiso	100mL	100% Full	New, No Box	$125	Niche
61	Frederic Malle	Eau de Magnolia	10mL	100% Full	Official Travel Spray	$55	Niche
62	Gallagher	Bergamot Silk	100mL	99% Full		$84	Niche
63	Giorgio Armani / Armani Prive	Gardenia Antigua	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$155	Niche
64	Giorgio Armani / Armani Prive	Pierre de Lune	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$155	Niche
65	Giorgio Armani / Armani Prive	Rose Alexandrie	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$155	Niche
66	Guerlain	Angelique Noire	30mL	100% Full	Mini Bee Bottle Decant	$215	Niche
67	Guerlain	Angelique Noire	10mL	100% Full	Tall Glass Decant	$55	Niche
68	Guerlain	Cherry Oud	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$279	Niche
69	Guerlain	Cruel Gardenia	200mL	100% Full	Brand new tester without box	$329	Niche
70	Guerlain	Embruns D'Ylang	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$339	Niche
71	Guerlain	Epices Volee	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$339	Niche
72	Guerlain	Gourmand Coquin	10mL	100% Full	Tall Glass Decant	$60	Niche
73	Guerlain	Herbes Troublantes	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$339	Niche
74	Guerlain	Joyeuse Tuberuese	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$349	Niche
75	Guerlain	Musc Outreblanc	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$349	Niche
76	Guerlain	Oeillet Pourpre	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$339	Niche
77	Guerlain	Oud Nude	200mL	95% Full	Tester; No Box	$369	Niche
78	Guerlain	Rose Barbare	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$339	Niche
79	Guerlain	Rose Barbare	200mL	90% Full	DECANTED - NO ORIGINAL BOTTLE	$250	Niche
80	Guerlain	Santal Pao Rosa	200mL	100% Full	Tester (No Box)	$349	Niche
81	Guerlain	Tonka Imperiale	30mL	100% Full	Mini Bee Bottle Decant	$199	Niche
82	Guerlain	Tonka Imperiale	10mL	100% Full	Tall Glass Decant	$55	Niche
83	Hermes / Hermessence	Agar Ebene	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$150	Niche
84	Hermes / Hermessence	Brin de Reglisse	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
85	Hermes / Hermessence	Cedre Sambac	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
86	Hermes / Hermessence	Epice Marine	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$170	Niche
87	Hermes / Hermessence	Iris Ukiyoe	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$150	Niche
88	Hermes / Hermessence	Muguet Porcelaine	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
89	Hermes / Hermessence	Myrrhe Eglantine	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$185	Niche
90	Hermes / Hermessence	Osmanthe Yunnan	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$150	Niche
91	Hermes / Hermessence	Paprika Brasil	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$170	Niche
92	Hermes / Hermessence	Santal Massoia	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$170	Niche
93	Hermes / Hermessence	Vanille Galante	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$150	Niche
94	Hermes / Hermessence	Vetiver Tonka	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box, No Cap	$150	Niche
95	Hermes / Hermessence	Vetiver Tonka	200mL	100% Full	Full Presentation, Brand New.	$399	Niche
96	Hermes / Hermessence	Violette Volynka	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$185	Niche
97	Hiram Green	Vetiver	50mL	95% Full	Full Presentation	$130	Niche
98	House of Sillage	Hufflepuff	75mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$325	Niche
99	House of Sillage	Nouez Moi	75mL	99% Full	Tester	$120	Niche
100	I Profumi di Firenze	Caterina De Medici	50mL	99% Full	No Box	$35	Niche
101	Initio	Musk Therapy	90mL	99% Full	Full presentation with Box	$200	Niche
102	Initio	Side Effect	10mL	100% Full	Official Travel Atomizer	$75	Niche
103	Knize	Knize Ten	125mL	99% Full	No Box	$110	Niche
104	Le Labo	Another 13	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$189	Niche
105	Le Labo	Baie 19	100mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$225	Niche
106	Le Labo	Cedrat 37 – Berlin City Exclusive	100mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$275	Niche
107	Le Labo	Cedrat 37 – Berlin City Exclusive	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$225	Niche
108	Le Labo	Gaiac 10 – Tokyo City Exclusive	100mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$400	Niche
109	Le Labo	Mousse de Chene 30 - Amsterdam City Exclusive	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$300	Niche
110	Le Labo	Musc 25 – Los Angeles City Exclusive	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$250	Niche
111	Le Labo	Rose 31	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$175	Niche
112	Le Labo	Tabac 28 – Miami City Exclusive	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$250	Niche
113	Le Labo	The Noir 29	50mL	99% Full	Sprayed Once to Test / Brand New; No Box	$175	Niche
114	Maison Crivelli	Bois Datchai	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$169	Niche
115	Maison Crivelli	Rose Saltifolia	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$159	Niche
116	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	724	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$365	Niche
117	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	724	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
118	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Amyris Femme	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$139	Niche
119	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Amyris Femme Extrait	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
120	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Amyris Femme Extrait Special Edition Bottle	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$245	Niche
121	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Celestia	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$115	Niche
122	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Celestia Cologne Forte	200mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$279	Niche
123	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Celestia Cologne Forte	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$149	Niche
124	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Celestia Forte	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$159	Niche
125	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Universalis Cologne Forte	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$119	Niche
126	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Universalis EdT	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$219	Niche
127	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Vitae	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$219	Niche
128	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Vitae Cologne Forte	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$119	Niche
129	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Aqua Vitae Forte EdP	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$159	Niche
130	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Baccarat Rouge 540 EdP	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$205	Niche
131	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Baccarat Rouge 540 EdP	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$409	Niche
132	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$295	Niche
133	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Gentle Fluidity Gold	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
134	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Grand Soir	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$170	Niche
135	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	L'eau a La Rose	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$129	Niche
136	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	L'eau a la Rose	35mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$90	Niche
137	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	L'homme A la Rose	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$159	Niche
138	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Oud EdP	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$170	Niche
139	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Oud Extrait	10mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$35	Niche
140	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Oud Satin Mood EdP	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$190	Niche
141	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Petit Matin	70mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$145	Niche
142	Maison Francis Kurkdjian	Petit Matin	200mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$350	Niche
143	Maison Lancome	Orange Bigarades	100mL	100% Full	Full presentation with Box	$229	Niche
144	Mark Birley	Charles Street	75mL	97% Full	Travel Version	$90	Niche
145	Masque Milano	Tango	35mL	99% Full		$90	Niche
146	Memo Paris	French Leather	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Cap	$135	Niche
147	Memo Paris	Inle	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Cap	$135	Niche
148	Memo Paris	Italian Leather	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box or Cap	$135	Niche
149	Memo Paris	Lailabella	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$135	Niche
150	Memo Paris	Marfa	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$135	Niche
151	Memo Paris	Moon Fever	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$135	Niche
152	Memo Paris	Oriental Leather	75mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box; No Cap	$135	Niche
153	Mind Games	Caissa	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$250	Niche
154	Mind Games	Gardez (Black Queen)	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$225	Niche
155	Mind Games	J'Adoube	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$299	Niche
156	Mind Games	Scholar's Mate	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$225	Niche
157	Mizensir	Cologne de Figuer	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$175	Niche
158	Mizensir	Cologne de Matte	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$175	Niche
159	Mizensir	Ideal Oud	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
160	Mizensir	Mythique Vetiver	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$175	Niche
161	Mizensir	Sweet Prailine	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
162	Mizensir	Bois de Mysore	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
163	Mona di Orio	Cuir	75mL	99% Full	No Box	$120	Niche
164	Oliver and Co.	M.O.U.S.S.E.	50mL	99% Full	Limited Edition 87/133	$110	Niche
165	Parfums de Nicolai	Patchouli Intense	100mL	98% Full	Full Presentation	$119	Niche
166	Perris Monte Carlo	Tuberuese Absolue	100mL	99% Full	No Box	$99	Niche
167	Pomare's Stolen Perfume	Angel's Share	9mL	70% Full	No Box	$40	Niche
168	Roja Dove	Apex Discovery Atomizer	7.5mL	99% Full		$50	Niche
169	Roja Dove	Creation-E Essence de Parfum	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
170	Roja Dove	Scandal Essence de Parfum	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$165	Niche
171	Roman Monegal	L'eau de Rose	50mL	97% Full		$70	Niche
172	Santa Maria Novella	Sandalo	100mL	95% Full	No Box	$80	Niche
173	The Harmonist	Desired Earth Eau de Parfum	50mL	100% Full	Brand new, Sealed	$219	Niche
174	The Harmonist	Magnetic Wood Parfum	50mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$229	Niche
175	Tom Ford	Beau de Jour	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$1,000	Niche
176	Tom Ford	Ebene Fume	250mL	99% Full	Decanter; No Box	$750	Niche
177	Tom Ford	Ebene Fume	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$170	Niche
178	Tom Ford	Fougere Platine	250mL	90% Full	Decanter; No Box	$625	Niche
179	Tom Ford	Fougere Platine	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$1,000	Niche
180	Tom Ford	Fucking Fabulous	250mL	99% Full	Decanter; No Box	$750	Niche
181	Tom Ford	Fucking Fabulous	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$180	Niche
182	Tom Ford	Grey Vetiver Parfum	100mL	100% Full	Sealed, New in Box	$170	Niche
183	Tom Ford	Oud Fleur	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$1,000	Niche
184	Tom Ford	Oud Wood	250mL	99% Full	Decanter; No Box	$750	Niche
185	Tom Ford	Rose de Chine	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$175	Niche
186	Tom Ford	Rose Prick	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$269	Niche
187	Tom Ford	Soleil Blanc EdP	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$140	Niche
188	Tom Ford	Soleil Brulant	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$145	Niche
189	Tom Ford	Soleil Neige	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$850	Niche
190	Tom Ford	Tobacco Oud	50mL	95% Full	No Box	$180	Niche
191	Tom Ford	Tobacco Vanille	50mL	90% Full	Full Presentation with Box	$155	Niche
192	Tom Ford	Tuscan Leather	50mL	100% Full	Magnetic Cap Decant	$115	Niche
193	Tom Ford	Vert des Bois	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$900	Niche
194	Tom Ford	White Suede	1000mL	100% Full	Sealed Dramming Bottle	$850	Niche
195	TVGA	Milestones Extrait	9mL	90% Full	No Box	$40	Niche
196	Washington Tremlett	Black Tie	100mL	95% Full		$125	Niche
197	Yves Saint Laurent	Tuxedo	250mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$375	Niche
198	Acqua di Parma	Arancia Di Capri	150mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$65	Designer
199	Acqua di Parma	Colonia EdC	100mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$75	Designer
200	Acqua di Parma	Colonia Intensa	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$65	Designer
201	Aqua di Parma	Magnolia Nobile	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$115	Designer
202	Caron	Pour un Homme de Caron Le Matin	125mL	100% Full	Opened to test, sprayed once	$69	Designer
203	Caron	Pour un Homme de Caron Le Soir	125mL	100% Full	Opened to test, sprayed once	$69	Designer
204	Caron	Pour Un Homme Impact Parfum	75mL	97% Full	No Box	$175	Designer
205	Chanel	Allure Homme Sport - Aftershave Balm	100mL	99% Full	No Box	$65	Designer
206	Chanel	Allure Pour Femme EdT	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$65	Designer
207	Chanel	Antaeus	100mL	85% Full	Silver Sprayer	$125	Designer
208	Chanel	Bleu de Chanel - Aftershave Balm	100mL	99% Full	No Box, Minor Cosmetic Damage	$55	Designer
209	Chanel	Bleu de Chanel - Aftershave Lotion	100mL	99% Full	No Box, Minor Cosmetic Damage	$55	Designer
210	Chanel	Bleu de Chanel Parfum	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$130	Designer
211	Chanel	Chance Eau Tendre EdP	50mL	90% Full	Tester; No Box	$90	Designer
212	Chanel	Chance Eau Tendre EdT	150mL	99% Full	Tester; No Box	$120	Designer
213	Chanel	Coco EdP	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$85	Designer
214	Chanel	Coco Mademoiselle - Moisturizing Body Lotion	200mL	99% Full	No Box	$55	Designer
215	Chanel	Coco Mademoiselle EdP	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$90	Designer
216	Chanel	Coco Mademoiselle EdT	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$65	Designer
217	Chanel	Coco Mademoiselle L'eau Privee	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$90	Designer
218	Chanel	Cristalle Eau Vert EdT Concentree	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Designer
219	Chanel	Cristalle EdP	50mL	95% Full	Tester; No Box	$135	Designer
220	Chanel	No. 19	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$115	Designer
221	Chanel	No. 5 Eau Premiere	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$85	Designer
222	Chanel	No. 5 EdP	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$85	Designer
223	Chanel	Platinum Egoiste	75mL	99% Full	SPLASH, NOT SPRAY Older Formulation	$125	Designer
224	Christian Dior	Dior Homme Sport - 2017 Version	125mL	99% Full	Tester; No Box Batch Code is 6Y02	$89	Designer
225	Christian Dior	J'adore in Joy EdT	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap, No Box	$60	Designer
226	Floris	007	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap, No Box	$100	Designer
227	Floris	A Rose For...	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$65	Designer
228	Floris	Cefiro	100mL	100% Full	Tester with Cap, No Box	$59	Designer
229	Floris	Lily of the Valley	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box.	$65	Designer
230	Gucci	Gucci Guilty Absolute	90mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$70	Designer
231	Guerlain	Habit Rouge L'instinct	100mL	99% Full	Sprayed once	$84	Designer
232	Guerlain	L'instant de Guerlain Pour Homme EXTREME	10mL	100% Full	VINTAGE BLACK RIM - DECANT	$50	Designer
233	Hermes	Twilly	80mL	100% Full	Tester; No Box	$65	Designer
234	Jo Malone	Amber & Lavender	30mL	90% Full	No Box	$52	Designer
235	Jo Malone	English Oak & Redcurrant	30mL	80% Full	No Box	$49	Designer
236	Jo Malone	English Pear & Freesia	100mL	100% Full	Brand New with Gift Box and Gift Set (Body Wash, Body Lotion)	$180	Designer
237	Jo Malone	Rose & White Musk Absolu	100mL	100% Full	No Box	$180	Designer
238	Jo Malone	Velvet Rose and Oud Cologne Intense	50mL	99% Full	Tester; No Box	$90	Designer
239	Thierry Mugler	A*MEN	100mL	99% Full	Rubber Flask; No Box	$75	Designer
240	Thierry Mugler	A*MEN Ultra Zest	100mL	85-90% Full	Rubber Flask; No Box	$250	Designer
241	Tom Ford	Costa Azzura Parfum	50mL	100% Full	Brand New, Sealed	$130	Designer
242	Amouage	Cristal and Gold Ladies	50mL	95% Full	Vintage, Incredibly hard to find. Full presentation in nice condition	$399	Vintage
243	Cartier	Santos EdT	100mL	60% Full	Splash; Refillable; Original Formulation; No Box; Some Wear on Case	$149	Vintage
244	Chanel	Egoiste Cologne Concentree	100mL	97% Full	Bottle Only	$399	Vintage
245	Chanel	Gardenia EdT	100mL	100% Full	Vintage; Sealed	$390	Vintage
246	Crabtree & Evelyn	Crabtree & Evelyn Extract of West Indian and Sicilian Limes	125mL	100% Full	Full presentation with Box	$209	Vintage
247	Dunhill	Cologne	125mL	99% Full	Vintage; Splash	$100	Vintage
248	Escada	Pour Homme Aftershave	75mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$165	Vintage
249	Escada	Pour Homme Aftershave	125mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$240	Vintage
250	Floris	Bay Rum	3.5 Oz	97% Full	Vintage; Splash. "Use as a cologne, after shave lotion, or hair lotion."	$84	Vintage
251	Floris	Special 127	100mL	98% Full	Vintage; Dark Blue Box., 2 Royal Warrants, Vintage Version	$70	Vintage
252	Fragonard	Zizanie	240mL	80% Full	Shaker bottle (Splash, not spray) no box. At least 80% Full.	$240	Vintage
253	Geo F Trumper	Ajaccio Violets	100mL	99% Full		$40	Vintage
254	Gucci	Envy Aftershave	50mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$140	Vintage
255	Gucci	Envy Aftershave	100mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$215	Vintage
256	Gucci	Rush for Men	50mL	100% Full	Full Presentation; These do not come fully filled	$190	Vintage
257	Gucci	Rush for Men Aftershave	100mL	100% Full	BNIB Sealed	$140	Vintage
258	Guerlain	Heritage EdT	200mL	100% Full	New; Vintage; Splash. 1991 Bottle.	$225	Vintage
259	Guerlain	Samrasa EdP	50mL	100% Full	No Box	$109	Vintage
260	Guerlain	Samsara EdT 1992-1993 Formulation	100mL	100% Full	Tester; No Cap; No Box	$109	Vintage
261	Jean Desprez	Bal a Versailles	9 Oz	70% Full	Vintage; Splash; No Box Open to offers on this enormous bottle.	$135	Vintage
262	Lacoste	Eau de Sport Vivifiante	100mL	99% Full	No Box	$110	Vintage
263	Lacoste	Land	100mL	99% Full		$130	Vintage
264	Nino Cerruti	Fair Play Pour Homme	100mL	99% Full	Full presentation with Box	$275	Vintage
265	Paco Rabanne	Eau de Metal	20mL	100% Full	Vintage; Mini	$15	Vintage
266	Ralph Lauren	Silver Romance for Men	100mL	80% Full	No Box, No Cap	$145	Vintage
267	Revillon	Pour Homme Eau de Toilette Super Concentrate	60mL	99% Full	Atomizer	$190	Vintage
268	Revillon	Pour Homme Eau de Toilette Super Concentrate	90mL	99% Full	Atomizer	$290	Vintage​

What are you guys watching now that it’s over? House of Hammer is hard to watch but it is a really messed up documentary about a real wealthy family. One of the episodes referenced Succession. Then go lighten the mood I went to White House Plumbers. I’m looking for new suggestions.

Here's the first half of the story
The two teens both looked toward the front of the room. There was a gray sphere. Hovering in the doorway.
But if you asked Marc, it was an annoying gray sphere. And it hovered in the doorway like an absolute rustnut.
Marc wasn’t sure where on the sphere to level his disdain. The whole dumb surface was the same all over. It was a series of interconnected, translucent hexagons. Stupid yellow lights blinked sporadically across its many faces—for no apparent rhyme or reason—perhaps just to further annoy Marc.
An electronic voice called out from the sphere. “Did I hear muuuuuusic?” he asked. “Before that last plasma burst?”
Marc shot Sid a glare that could kill. But the big blue alien didn’t back down.
“Last impression. Remember?” he told Marc before going toward Tōn-E with a brimming, sharp-toothed smile and arms extended. “Tōn-E! Glad you could make it! Come on in.”
On the inside, Marc cringed. He mostly tried to forget that Tōn-E walked (hovered?) the same Levels as them. Tōn-E represented the most self-destructive habits of the Outpost. The only features of the city indifferent to survival.
But Tōn-E was all too real. He entered the room like a ghost in a nightmare.
“I am also happy to be here,” he said. The faces of his sphere randomly lit up as he spoke. “I otherwise had no plans for tonight. Because the planet is set to explode.”
“Yes, I’ve heard,” Sid joked.
“I approximate it will only take a few more—hold on. What is this??”
Tōn-E spun slowly in the air. The side previously facing Sid rotated toward the ceiling. When it reached the top, a spotlight shot toward the ceiling—right where Sid’s door had slotted in.
The spotlight stretched horizontally across the door until it resembled a straight line. This line swept back and forth across the raised door. It moved as if he was cleaning it.
“I don’t believe it!” Tōn-E said. “What an exquisite painting. A remarkable addition to your growing and ever-expanding portfolio, Sid.”
Tōn-E finished his scan of the painting. His expanding spotlight shut off. And he re-centered himself to face Sid.
“Aww, shanks,” Sid said. Each of his right arms latched onto the bends of the left ones. “You really think so?”
“Of course! There are colors here I’ve only seen named in the logs. You have tastefully incorporated /#FF00FF: a color our ancestors previously referred to as ‘magenta.’”
“Yes! That’s right! I was going for ‘magenta!’ You really think I did it?”
Marc looked down to hide his face. He rolled his eyes. Magenta. He would have loved to tell Sid how much he liked it too. But Marc had spent his years surviving, not studying colors in old, useless historical archives.
Sid and Tōn-E continued their snooty, pretentious discussion.
“I made it mixing legblee blood and just a liiiiiiittle bit of groundwater,” Sid said.
“That was a very clever! Allow me to save your painting to my internal memory.”
“Really??” Sid’s cheeks greened a little.
“Yes, I will review at a later time when I am both unable to view the original but would still like to once again be inspired by your clever and skillful hands.”
“Tōn-E, I—I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
Marc simmered in his anger. Stupid Tōn-E. Always ruining things. Making them about him and his dumb, endless archives.
“I am perhaps only more impressed by your chosen ensemble! Do my eyes perceive veritable Lenorkian armor?”
The talkative orb whooshed toward Sid. It began revolving around him like an annoyingly-attached moon. As his exo-orb hummed excitedly, Tōn-E rattled off his useless knowledge of antiquated armor.
“Snorp-resistant spiked shoulder caps?!” He spun around Sid’s midsection. “Triple-layered chest plates?!” He dropped closer to the floor. “Anti-gravity shin guards made from the rare lenorkium alloy?!”
Tōn-E giggled as he orbited Sid. His laugh disturbed Marc. It sounded like a space rat being strangled in the bowels of an undersea air vent.
Sid could hardly keep up with Tōn-E’s flying. But he looked happy with the attention. “Yeah! I’m told this suit was built for the Frost Ring wars,” he said. “It never got used.”
Marc continued to not engage. He slunk deeper into his shawl, folded his arms, and sighed.
“I don’t believe it!” Tōn-E said.
He backed off from Sid, flying back toward the doorway. He turned on his spotlight once again. It now stretched over Sid’s body. “Saving! Saving!”
Sid wasted no time posing for the occasion. He flexed all four arms and gritted his snaggling teeth. His irises turned a deep red and his two small horns protruded from his forehead. Tōn-E was overjoyed. “I did not think I would ever have the chance to record your agitated state,” he said.
I’ll show you an agitated state, Marc thought to himself.
“I’ve got a relic you’re going to love,” Tōn-E said. His tiny sphere filled the cave with noise. But it wasn’t Tōn-E’s usual metallic voice. The sound came from another species entirely.
“GwwwwwwuuuhhhAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!”
His orb played an intense, ear-shuddering roar. The recording may have been slightly fuzzy, but Marc knew the source. It was unmistakably Lenorkian.
And like the gears in a drill, something appeared to “click” inside Sid. His eyes widened. His armored chest expanded. And he joined in. But Sid’s roar was… authentic.
“HRRRRRRRRRGAAAAAAAAHHHHH” he blasted out of mouth. Marc’s entire rib cage vibrated uncomfortably.
It spooked Marc. Igniting some primal desire to escape a dangerous predator. That was a feeling he never felt around Sid. He didn’t like it.
Sid himself even looked embarrassed for a second. Something he’d kept suppressed had slipped out. But Tōn-E turned up the volume on his recording. And with a cautious smile of someone nervously breaking a rule, Sid matched it. And then some. The two bellowed together. It was enough to make Marc queasy, although it was unclear whether it was due to the vibrations or Sid bonding so much with Tōn-E.
The roaring continued. Their talking continued. Tōn-E went on about Sid’s armor some more and his people’s valor and the hardship his ancestors must have faced.
“Usually I keep this stuff stashed away,” Sid said to Tōn-E in his soft normal voice. His horns had retracted, and his eyes had returned to normal. “These are shameful pieces of our history. Truly. And with a people I never really fit in with. But tonight, it just felt right to wear it, you know?”
“I understand completely,” Tōn-E said. “It is in these end times that we gravitate toward those traditions that were so much of what made us feel alive in the first place.”
The statement made Marc want to hurl. He didn’t want to entertain such stupid notions. But the gremlin rotated to him next.
“Hello Marc! Did you find any good junk today? Any new additions to your scrap pile?”
Marc seethed. “I didn't scavenge today, Tōn-E. There wouldn't be any use. It's the end of the universe.”
“That surprises me. Humans love their junk and doodads.”
“Yeah well, we don’t have to cling to the past, do we? Not like that ever saved anyone.” He hugged his wrapped arms even tighter, tilting his body away from Sid and Tōn-E. His cold shoulder ended the conversation.
Sid picked it back up. “So Tōn-E, do you, uh… drink?”
As it turned out, he did. Tōn-E accepted a cup of fludge. He held it with a robotic arm—one that had suddenly extended from his exo-orb. Tōn-E’s orb whirred as the center of his “face” sprouted a grotesque, needle-like proboscis. It poked outward like a long nose.
This straw extended into the cup he held. Tōn-E sipped the fludge like an insect sipping nectar (whatever those two things were; the Archives were spotty).
Sid waited with anticipation. Then Tōn-E’s sphere shuddered. The fludge must have reached the insufferable little creature on the inside. “Scrumptious!” he said.
Marc sighed quietly to himself. For some reason, he thought the night would have made a turn for the better if Tōn-E had hated it.
“Two for two!” Sid pumped three victorious fists into the air. He grinned as Tōn-E’s straw dipped into the cup once more. The straw made a little slurping sound.
“My taste buds are tingling!” Tōn-E said.
But the big cup was too much for him to finish. He returned the mostly-full drink to Sid. And his robotic straw receded to his exo-orb. Sid of course finished the cup, slurping up the remaining pool of fludge.
“So…” Sid said. He wiped his mouth. “Should I put some tunes back on?” He pointed over his shoulder to the idle vent. Then he looked across his two guests for an answer.
Marc shrugged. He didn’t care about anything anymore. Next to Marc, Tōn-E bobbed excitedly.
“Oh, yes!” he said. “One reads about concepts such as scales and measures, but it is entirely different to actually experience them with one’s own body!”
What body? Marc thought to himself. And what were the other things Tōn-E had mentioned? Something about… measuring… dragons?
He studied the cave floor while Sid skipped to the vent.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Sid said. “Get those Level 7 legs ready!” He tugged at the creaking cover once more.
It came off easier this time. With a pop! the storm above returned to the cave. Its natural melody filled the room.
“Woooooooo!” Sid raised his hands again and walked back toward the other two.
Tōn-E mimicked him with two twig arms.
But the music didn’t have the same magic as before. The beats were stale. And Marc found himself unable to ignore the sting of the sand pelting his face. He lifted his shawl over his mouth. His voice was barely audible.
“I’m sitting this song out,” he said.
The other two didn't seem to hear him. They were facing each other, waving their arms sporadically against the air current.
Marc didn’t care. He grabbed his unfinished drink from the kitchen. Then he searched for a place to sit.
He found a couch, just in front of the dancing aliens. As he took his seat, his bottom started to sink into the sofa. The tarp covering the couch crinkled.
He tried guessing the material underneath it. Clay, maybe? He pondered the question while watching Sid and Tōn-E figure out dancing without him.
“This is how Marc was doing it before!” Sid said to Tōn-E. His four arms fanned across the breeze.
But he got everything wrong. His arms whipped around the wind, not with it. And he was thinking too much about his next move, as evidenced by his scrunched brows. But the greatest offense of all was his midsection: his hips and legs stayed in place—as if someone had threatened them.
A part of Marc wanted to get up and show him how it was done. But another part wanted to see Sid fail. Realize the effort was futile. Give up on bonding with Tōn-E. And kick the Sphere of Useless Facts out of his house.
“Am I doing it right, Marc?” Sid asked while each of his arms flew in a different direction.
“You look great!” Marc replied. He took a long sip of fludge.
Tōn-E, on the other hand, did his best to replicate Sid. He waved his skinny arms erratically. It almost made Marc laugh; Tōn-E looked like he’d been set on fire.
But in all, the whole thing was awful. A bad impression giving birth to an even worse impression.
And they didn’t seem to be enjoying it much either. Despite Marc’s glowing endorsement, Sid and Tōn-E danced themselves to the brink.
Sid kept losing his balance. He tried to keep up with the music but flung himself too hard in any one direction. And every time he made a misstep, he’d let loose an acidic snarl. Tōn-E grew frustrated as well. Every few seconds, he simply froze. His exterior lights would blink red in error. As Marc had hoped, the two “painting pals” quickly ran out of steam.
The dancing halted altogether. A tired Sid returned to the vent and hoisted the grate back onto the vent’s mouth. The music stopped.
“I’ll just turn it down for a minute,” he said. He adjusted a dial on the grate. The metal slits creaked open. And a muted sandstorm flowed through them.
The music reflected the overall energy in the room: depleted. Sid secured himself two more cups of fludge before joining Marc on the tarp couch.
Tōn-E followed his lead. The little troll took a seat too, which meant hovering over the last open spot on the other side of Marc.
The boys took a minute to relax on the couch. They sat quietly while the plasma storm above the Outpost boomed and cracked.
Well, Sid and Tōn-E relaxed. They chugged down another couple cups of fludge and floated quietly over the couch (respectively). Meanwhile, Marc continued to be annoyed. He considered stepping outside and climbing to Level 1. Offer himself to the plasma storm a few hours early. The non-stop hum of Tōn-E’s exo-orb goaded him further.
Brrrrrrrrr!
Did it really have to make that noise?
Marc didn’t think the afternoon could get any worse. And then it did. Because Tōn-E’s insufferable humming suddenly quieted. And that only could have meant…
“Oh!” Tōn-E exclaimed, “I know what we can talk about!”
Marc braced for impact. His nails dug into his knees.
Don’t you dare, he thought.
“I read the most interesting fact about cats today!” Tōn-E started.
Not again, Marc thought. Absolutely NOT again. His fists trembled with rage.
“Did you know cats were the central deity across ten different ancient civilizations? The trend started with humans, of course, but the religion quickly spread across the galaxy as interplanetary travel became more widely available.”
“I actually didn’t know that,” Sid said, entertaining Tōn-E’s ridiculous theory. “Where did you find that?”
“The Archives! They have somewhat documented this phenomenon. You see, it was a common practice to capture footage of cats, even in their sleeping state. They were so important to these cultures that even the most mundane moment yielded significant reason to capture and worship them. If you want to see, I can—”
Marc had had enough. He slammed his cup down on the floor and flew off the couch.
“—SHUT UP. SHUT UP ABOUT CATS!” he shouted. He swung back around to face the other two. “CATS AREN’T REAL TŌN-E! AND THEY WERE NEVER REAL!”
“That’s enough, Marc!” Sid clenched his teeth.“Don’t start this.”
Marc returned fire, “I didn’t start anything; that was YOU. Going behind my back! Inviting more of these… fairy tales!”
His emotions overwhelmed him. He didn’t know whether to yell more or start crying. He did both.
“It’s the end of the universe!” he said as tears streamed down his face. “We can’t keep clinging to the things that brought us to this point in the first place! All these stupid traditions are the reason no one’s even here with us now! IT KILLED THEM ALL! And anyone stupid enough to keep believing in them is—"
“—I said THAT’S ENOUGH!” Sid growled. Marc didn't care.
“NO!” he said. Then he looked back at Tōn-E. “NONE of what you’re seeing in the Archives is real! The data is corrupt! It’s ALL CORRUPT! And CATS are just another dumb fairy tale to keep people like you going, while…”
He ran out of steam. He realized there was no more “going.” In fact, there was no time remaining in the universe for anything. But that didn’t diminish his animosity and anger toward the world. He glared down at the gray sphere. His chest heaved.
Meanwhile, Sid kept a cooler, bluer head. He too looked to Tōn-E, but with compassion in his eyes.
Tōn-E didn’t immediately respond to either. The only sound in the room came from his exo-orb. Well, the exo-orb plus the ladle on the counter, which suddenly blooped into the big pot.
All eyes were on the atypically quiet alien, whose hexagonal faces began to light up.
“I suppose,” his voice trailed, “that cats may not have been real after all. You said it yourself: records are foggy. They’re all from thousands of years ago...” He sighed. Tōn-E’s lights transitioned to a new blinking pattern. “And I also suppose… that I should have been more mature about interpreting error-prone information in the Archives…”
“It's okay, man,” Sid said. “I like that you dream big.” He reached across the couch to place a comforting hand on Tōn-E. But Tōn-E floated out of reach.
“I understand my presence here is probably upsetting,” he said. “You two have a special bond. I should not have interfered with it in its last moments. I will go.”
“No, Tōn-E,” Sid said. Each pair of his hands met in front of his chest “Please stay. You have every right to be here too.”
“I should go,” Tōn-E said. “I will spend the rest of the evening focused on real things. And because I will no longer be here, I suppose it will be the perfect opportunity to review Sid’s art so I can feel inspired for the end times.”
He slipped between Sid and Marc toward the doorway.
“No, don’t!” Sid called after him. “We should do this together.”
But Tōn-E had already vanished outside.
The Lenorkian, hand extended, waited for Tōn-E to come back. But the floating sphere did not reappear in the doorway.
And that was when a low trill emanated from the couch. It was coming from Sid’s his chest. He looked up at Marc, glaring. He bared his pointed teeth. His horns reappeared. And his eyes flushed with scarlet pigment.
Yuh-oh, Marc thought. About half his prior anger evaporated. Fear of a fight took hold.
Marc didn’t exactly dislike his chances. Lenorkians may have been stronger, but Sid wasn't a fighter. Marc was.
But Sid stuck to his morals.
“GET OUT!” Sid shouted.
Marc reflexively jumped out of reach. The short hop sort of ruined his show of anger. But he was still boiling mad. After all, fifty percent of him hadn't abandoned the cat grudge.
“Fine!” he shouted back. “Have fun exploding alone.” He whipped away to the exit.
The party was finished now. He almost stopped and went back for his fludge. But he didn’t want it anymore either. He just wanted a nice end of the universe with his friend. And now the end of the universe was ruined.
At least the apocalypse outside was behaving predictably. Marc stepped into the adjacent cave corridor. He surveyed the damage outside, looking through the long, horizontal gap in the cave wall. As the experts had predicted, the plasma storm took its toll.
The canyon glowed eerily bright, despite it being evening time. The wind howled as it raced through the canyon. And the cliffs around the gorge flashed white and pink as the storm charged with electricity, preparing to make its final jump.
Lightning cracked toward the ground. Some of the bolts hit the opposing cliff, sending rubble deep into the gorge. A gentle tremor rumbled in the ground beneath him.
The plasma storm overhead only creeped further around the planet. As the canyon brightened, shockwaves coursed through the entire city. They threw Marc off his feet again. He hit the ground.
Behind him, thunderous clacking erupted. The sound of falling rocks filled the corridor. He flipped over to see what explosion had thrown him.
It was bad. He stopped breathing. Because he could no longer see Sid’s home. All he saw was a pile of rubble.

Has anyone else been paying attention to the drama surrounding the proposed merger of two REITS:
DHC - Diversified Healthcare Trust
and
OPI - Office Properties Income Trust
For those who don't know, DHC is primarily a SHOP (Senior Housing Operated Portfolio) REIT that also holds some medical offices and facilities and has been allegedly horribly mismanaged for years by an allegedly greedy self-interested outside management firm small shareholders seem to despise with its share price falling as low as $0.65. On paper it may have a net asset "book value" of $10 or $11/share - it owns some valuable real estate. However, DHC has some bad loan debt and its SHOP portfolio had not been very profitable, at least not in the wake of COVID, though that seems to be turning around with the demand for senior living housing from an aging population projected to increase.
OPI is a commercial office REIT that had seemed to be healthy in the past, paying a $2.20/share yearly dividend. It's also managed by the same allegedly greedy self-interested outside management firm. That outside firm, RMR, has been accused of crashing the share prices of all or almost all of the REITS it manages via horribly incompetent mismanagement (see the histories of some of the REITS it manages).
Imagine a marriage of the two...a merger of DHC with OPI. OPI could use its good credit to help prop up DHC while paying a dividend to DHC shareholders and DHC's improving SHOP outlook could help with OPI's crashing commercial real estate portfolio. Problem is that DHC shareholders only get 0.147 shares of OPI while OPI gets all of the real estate value held by DHC while DHC investors end up being exposed to the crashing commercial real estate market just as SHOP performance is anticipated to improve and become more profitable.
Many DHC shareholders feel they are being ripped off. In the meantime it would also mean that OPI would need to lower its dividend, and with the commercial real estate market crashing, it did down to $1.00/year from $2.20/year causing its share price to crash. DHC's price crashed some, too, after the proposed merger announcement.
More recently a large DHC investor, Flat Footed LLC, published a screed arguing convincingly against voting for the merger. So a campaign may be gearing up to convince voters and most importantly large institutional investors to oppose the merger. (Many OPI shareholders don't seem real enthusiastic about it either, having suffered the dividend decrease and share price crash.)
In other news, supposedly the owner of RMR started buying up millions of DHC shares this week, possibly in an attempt to have more votes for the merger, causing its price to spike up to as high as $1.70/share. Sadly DHC is heavily tied to RMR by a long term management contract that would be expensive to break. Some DHC shareholders are hoping for a white knight investor to come along with a tender offer and buy them out of this mess ala Travelcenter.
Has anyone else been paying attention to this? Any DHC or OPI shareholders out there besides me?
Personally, I have 1600 shares of DHC with an average basis of $1.05 though I did recently receive a $16 dividend ($0.01 per share). (So, I guess I'm really at $1.04/share.) I started with 500 at around $0.66 as a gamble as a noob investor, then later bought 500 more for around $0.92, then later made the mistake of buying some more around $1.50 and $1.30 to get up to 1600. I thought it would keep increasing. Then I woke up one day to see that the share price had dropped down into the $0.80's / $0.90's and read about the merger announcement.
Now that it's back up to $1.70, I'm not sure if I should start selling some or wait and see if that supposed $10-11 "book value" ever gets realized. If I sell 800 shares at $1.70 I'd recover $1360 of my $1680 total investment leaving me with $320 invested or $0.40/share on the remaining 800 which seems low risk. Selling 1000 shares at $1.70 would bring in a $1700 for a $20 total profit with 600 shares remaining at a basis of $0/share as "house money". On the other hand if the merger attempt failed, the share price could shoot up even higher.
One thing is for certain; I don't trust this RMR management team and its Board of Director puppets to look out for the best interests of DHC shareholders.

My father didn’t want children, anecdotes from both sides of the family along with things he has said confirm this.
He explicitly told me that part of why he “wanted” (I use this word very loosely) a child, was because his older sister kept having complications that led to miscarriages, and he, as the only male, felt he had a lesser relationship with his mother, and that his having a child might somehow fix that.
I figured he didn’t want children when I was about 10 or so, and when I learned about my aunt’s history, I thought that his and her heavy handed attempts at having a relationship with me were subconscious, not intentional.
We never had a good/stable relationship. When my parents were separated (from when I was 3-7) he would randomly show up in the late evening to “hang out”, which was really him taking me for idk how long, leaving me in his old ford pickup with a broken ignition that meant it could start without a key, and work in his garage while I stayed in the truck for what could’ve been an hour or two next to active train tracks in the dark.
At the time I thought this was cool, because I was a small child who had no real concept of anything.
My parents finally divorced when I was seven and he was court mandated to see me MWF with alternating weekends and holidays, I began to hate him, because I actually had to spend regular time with him and he had the emotional intelligence and tact of a dead turnip.
He would regularly leave me alone in his apartment, or the apartment of whatever woman he convicted he was worth her time, sometimes with her there, most of the time not, with no vetting or warning to my mother. On several separate occasions he gave me an extreme laxative for the intention of me losing weight, when I got in a fight with his then girlfriend’s daughter he told me to punch first and harder next time, my nose was tender for the following week. When I was still in elementary he said that the only reason he didn’t hit me was because he’s dark skinned,(my mother is white) and I look, most people guess Cuban or Chinese depending on how much sun I’ve been getting. Idk if he knows I heard this or not, or if he even remembers tbh.
I didn’t tell my mother most of this until recently, I know it was in part compartmentalization. And because she didn’t know, she constantly tried to get me to have a relationship with him, due to her own issues with her own father
I knew he had to see me MWF but only recently learned about the alternating weekends and holidays, as I have absolutely no recollection of him keeping me for the weekend.
In middle and high school (12-16) I started experimenting with my gender presentation (this was limited as I went to catholic school my whole life) but with a triple check of the handbook and a visit to my aunt who ran a salon, I got my first short haircut. It wasn’t even all that masc looking, just looked like baby’s first attempt at something different.
My dad saw it and in more words than necessary he said I looked like a lesbian, and his tone told me enough to know he wouldn’t be supportive at least and actively a danger at most
He doesn’t know I legally changed my name to something definitely masc + my mother’s maiden name, he doesn’t know I spent a year on T(estosterone) he still thinks of me as his daughter who didn’t graduate high school. (I did, but I didn’t walk and didn’t have a party so he took that to mean I didn’t)
He didn’t get my birthday right for at least 18yrs, and idk if he checked because I would legally be an adult that year or it was happenstance.
We didn’t speak for months before that, he texted a few times, I didn’t respond. Not until he showed up at the house after leaving a voicemail that he claimed me a missing person.
He has told me point blank that now that I’m an adult he wants to have a relationship with me, and can’t seem to grasp why I don’t want one with him.
TL;DR my father who I have gone Low Contact with wants a relationship now that I’m an adult and he is no longer required to “be a parent” I don’t want him in my life because he abused me mentally and emotionally (I even called him a glorified sperm donor to his face) how do I get him to take the hint?