Geckos garage

I don’t have a gecko, but there is supposedly a gecko that lives in my garage. And last night, there was scratching in my bedroom wall, right by the garage, and I wasn’t sure what it was. So I’m wondering if geckos can scratch like that? Just so I’m not freaked out haha, I’d prefer a gecko over a possum or something.

Every video needs to have something car related in it or he gets bored of it and starts squawking. We watch Miss Rachel when she talks about wheels on the bus or cars, Giggle Bellies, Blippi when he sings about excavators, Zeke car sleep routine video, and other miscellaneous car crash/car wash cartoon or computer animation videos but these are getting redundant and might be a little primitive for him as he’s getting a lot smarter. So far, Gecko’s Garage and Blaze and The Monster Machines are the most intelligent ones he sometimes watches, but even then he gets bored of them. I’m hoping for some more intelligent yet fun toddler car learning video recommendations if that makes sense. Any ideas?

I asked my vet and he said he can’t think of anything off the top of his head that a bird could pass to a lizard so I came here because google isn’t giving me straight answers or maybe it is and I just don’t understand.
My baby leopard gecko just passed away on Monday. I am in such agony as I had high hopes that he would get better after his vet called with his results from his crypto test that were negative and he said that he could get better with the antibiotics and paramomycin but it may take a while. After his first dose of paramomycin, he passed away a few hours later. He was declining for 2 months despite shots of fluid, electrolyte soaks, carnivore care supplement, bene-bac, antibiotics, Panacur which failed to work, and paramomycin which didn’t get a chance to work.
My dryer not heating properly led to me finding a dead bird in the ventilation hose. My sick baby leopard gecko was housed in the laundry room in a quarantine enclosure. Before I realized there was a bird in the hose, the dryer would not heat properly and would cause the laundry room to get humid which caused Moons tank humidity to rise to unsafe levels so I would prop the door open to the garage. About 2 months ago right when he started showing symptoms of being sick (watery poop/no appetite) I found what now thinking back, looked like bird poop on the screen top to his enclosure. I couldn’t come up with any reason that would have gotten there so I just chalked it up to calcium powder but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about it. Saturday, I found a birds nest in my garage with 3 baby birds in it. The last baby bird has since left so we are able to have the nest safely removed.
I’m awaiting the results from his parasite testing but at some point I’m worried myself or someone in my family could have mixed up their water bowls and I know once my 11 year old son switched out the hides between the sick baby gecko and one of my other young leos and my new crested gecko. Last night, none of them would eat and 3 of my leos eyes were heavy. Are they going to die too? Should I ask my vet for more medication and start treating them immediately?
I’m also worried my French bulldog or my toddlers and school aged kids will get sick now. How common is it for an illness to wipe out an entire reptile collection and possibly my frenchie? I was told crypto is highly contagious. Baby gecko crypto test was negative but vet said that could have been a false negative and he didn’t want to use what little resources they have (I’m assuming he meant whatever he could swab from Moons cloaca?) re-testing and he felt that instead they should test for other parasites. I completely trust our vet and he went above and beyond to help Moon. Thank you guys for everything you do!

My baby leopard gecko was tested for crypto and it was negative but even with his vets care regimen in place, he is still declining.
His enclosure is in my laundry room and yesterday I took the ventilation hose off of my dryer because it hasn’t been working properly and I found a dead bird in there! I knew I had a birds nest with baby birds in my garage which actually has a door that leads into my laundry room. I googled how to move the nest and I read that it is actually illegal to move a nest so I left it alone. The mother bird comes and goes and I try to avoid going into my garage when I hear them. I live on a military base so I contacted housing office and they said they would reach out to animal control or wildlife agency but that was weeks ago. I never even thought about the birds from the garage being able to get into the house and I definitely didn’t think about any of them being able to get into my dryer hose. My baby Leo was perfectly healthy when I got him and he got sick about a week after he came home with me in April so I took him to the vet immediately. I’m waiting on paramomycin to be delivered but I don’t know if he’s going to make it. I give him carnivore care, antibiotics, bene-bac, and electrolyte baths. His vet sent a sample out again for more parasites but we won’t get the results until next week.
Could these birds have given him a parasite? How can I help him more than what I already am? His paramomycin was supposed to be delivered yesterday but it never came even though I paid for express overnight shipping. Will he die because of the delay in giving him the paramomycin?e

There is an unspoken rule that dictates that all stories, regardless of intent and genre, must be satisfying. So I'll start by telling you right now that my tale won't abide by that rule. My tale isn't some leisurely read, not if I am to be faithful to what occurred. I'll have to tell my story as it happened. A slow, drawn-out death, no lesson, no closure, no reason, nothing to justify what happened to my friends and me. If you're looking for answers, leave, turn away, shut the door, you won't find them here.
Nightmares, like all sickly malformed children, have a point of conception and birth. Mine was birthed in my elementary school, vile and caustic. I like to think that every school has them, little rumors, and myths about the place, ours just happened to be the “Wasting Room.” In the Centre of the east wing of the school was a brick building, about the size of a small garage. When I was in the 3rd grade, I walked past it and was immediately entranced by it. I went up to it and ran my fingers along the surface of the weathered brick, reveling in the amalgamation of strange textures, spongy patches of moss, brick, and mortar rough as sandpaper, the deep crevices, and cracks, all perfect contrasts bound to a single surface. I circled the building running my fingers alongside it until I stood in front of the door. Impulsively I reached for the doorknob and rested my hand on the cold, rusted brass door handle. Energy seeped from it to me, the transferring of an idea, an instinct. Calling to me, I know now that’s what it was doing. My hand tightened around the handle, and I was starting to twist it open when the harsh reprimands of a woman’s voice froze me in place.
“Christopher what are you doing?” asked my teacher Ms. Leore
She gave me a mild scolding before telling me “that room” was off-limits and to run along and get to class. Later that day at recess, I asked my friends, Danny and Leah, about the mysterious red brick building.
“That’s the wasting room. My older brother says that’s where they take the bad kids,” answered Danny.
“I heard a witch lives there,” Leah added.
I pondered it for a moment and, just like most kids my age, accepted both answers as truth. Over the next few years, I learned more about that forsaken room. The rumor goes that back when teachers were allowed to hit students, they would do it in that brick room. One day an exceptionally cruel principal took a 3rd grader named Lily into the brick room and beat her so savagely, he thought he killed her. In his panic, he sealed the room and forbade anyone from entering. Unfortunately, Lily hadn’t died, that would have been a mercy. She was just knocked unconscious. When she finally woke up and saw that she was trapped inside the brick room, she tried everything she could to break out, but being so young, her meek voice was never heard. Instead, she slowly rotted away for a few weeks, wasting away from the inside out. When they finally found her years later, her remains were mummified. Her face contorted in eternal anguish, her little fingers were whittled away to the bone, fragments of her nails embedded into the brick walls, dried blood stained the floor and walls. Ever since then, the room has been permanently locked, a gruesome tale told to children living in a gruesome world.
Of course, as all kids do with myths and urban legends, we embellished them. Danny would tell us that Lily was still alive, that she had survived off of rats and a leaky water pipe. Leah thought that the teachers still used the room to punish the worst students. I made up a story of how I once saw Mrs. Leore open the door, and I was able to see the dusty skeleton of Lily still inside. Danny and Leah didn’t believe me, of course, but the mystery surrounding the room still intrigued us. My favorite rumor was that the ghost of little Lilly wandered the halls of the east wing, and on lonely dreary days or dark starless nights, she would drag anyone caught alone into “The Wasting Room” to suffer the same fate she did.
It wasn’t until the beginning of the 6th grade when we invested in getting inside the room and seeing if any of the rumors were true. I was the one that pushed our trio towards that insidious red-brick building. It was our final year before we would be ushered into the ever awkward and painful stage known as adolescence. Danny was an early bloomer, and as the first wave of hormonal changes hit, he changed drastically. He was no longer interested in running around with Leah and me, as we chased small animals and hit trees with sticks. That was kid stuff, and if his sudden growth spurt was any indicator, Danny wasn’t a kid like us, not anymore. The night I decided we needed to make one last chance at re-capturing that childhood sense of adventure was the night Danny pulled out a crinkled magazine from under his bed and flashed me the cover. It was a Playboy, a busty scantily clad model on its cover. When he opened the magazine and tried to show me, I turned away as if it was a photo of a crime scene. I didn’t want to see it. I knew if I did, that would be the death of the child that still existed within me. I didn’t want to leave that stage of my life behind, not yet. Danny briefly berated me, asking if I was gay, saying that was the only reason someone would be scared of boobs. I ignored him and asked my mom to pick me up early.
I knew then that the only way to reel Danny back in would be with something that could still spark childish fear and wonder, the room. I knew even back then that after the summer, our trio’s dynamic would never be the same. It was Leah, Danny and I had been subtly vying for her attention, we both looked at her through different lenses, and I guess I just wanted to have one last adventure before our biology tore us apart. I was initially met with hesitation when I brought up the room, but, after a bit of badgering, they were on board.
“How are you going to do it? The teachers keep the doors locked, ya know.” Leah said
“That proves that they are hiding something, doesn’t it?” Danny added
“Maybe we can steal a key from one of the teachers,” I said
Leah scrunched her face at the suggestion. She warned us about how that would only cause more trouble. Danny interrupted to inform us of a secret entrance to the room his brother told him about. Leah and I were both skeptical at the claim, but Danny was insistent that there was a secret underground entrance.
“My brother says that he found it one time, says there’s a basement in the back of the school!” Dan insisted.
“Well then he’s just gonna have to show it to us then” Leah replied
Though we had settled on trying to convince Danny’s brother guiding us to this so-called secret entrance, we still made an effort to locate it on our own. Leah got picked up as soon as school was out, but Danny and I had about 30 mins before his dad picked us both up. We snuck to the field in the back of the school and poked around for a few minutes but found nothing but rocks and dirt. We gave up after a while and headed back towards the front of the school to wait for Mr. Powell to pick us up. I hadn’t thought about the plausibility of the school having multiple sealed exits and entrances. Up until the mid-60s, my school was a hospital. It was too small and outdated, having been first built in the 30s to be of much use in the rapidly changing era. It was abandoned until the early 70s when it was renovated and repurposed into a school. Of course, as naive kids, we never connected the dots. This place had seen much more death and suffering within its walls than anyone was willing to acknowledge.
I spent that night at Danny’s house, annoying his older brother David to show us the location of the hidden passage. It took only a few minutes to get him talking about his time spent at that school.
“It’s sealed up now, you know, They buried it. And it’s not a basement; it’s a cellar, I found it one day with Jimmy while we were goofing off. It had a rusty lock, of course, but I just broke it off with a rock. We never actually made it to the wasting room, I don’t even know if the cellar leads to it. That’s just something Jimmy says his teacher told him. Inside that cellar was a tunnel that ran under the school, old rusty pipes ran along the walls and ceiling, twisting like intestines, yea that’s what it was. We were inside some metal giant's guts!” David jumped up, trying to scare us.
The only reaction he got from us was a unified “Gross.” David's face scrunched up into an annoyed half frown before he continued.
“Anyways, there was something wrong with this place, not only was it ancient, rusty and dark, but something felt off like something was in there with us, or like the tunnel itself was alive. I swear I thought I saw the pipes twitch sometimes and the whole shaft was subtly shifting like it was breathing, I don’t know, but It was weird man. We walked a few feet further into this tunnel when we heard a clang, and we just froze, I tried to act tough, and so I called out like an idiot. I heard it before I saw it, this figure just darted out of the darkness, it was small, but it was on all fours, and it was fast. That's when Jimmy and I started running screaming our heads off. When we reached the cellar door, we just scrambled up, and I turned around long enough to see this decayed little girl just on all floors glaring back up at us, absolute rage in her eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever slammed a door that hard since then.”
“What happened after that?” I asked
“Well, we ran screaming and crying to the principal’s office and told him all about what happened. Of course, they didn’t believe us, but they were upset that we had found the cellar entrance. So the next day the shoveled dirt over it and told us not to go near it again. You know sometimes I still get nightmares about that little girl, her pale skin covered in rot and her hateful eyes. Maybe it’s that Lily girl they talk about, but I don’t know.”
“So you’ll show us where it is?” Danny asked in an excited voice
“Hell no, if you kids know what’s good for you, then you’ll stay away from the door and from the wasting room. Nothing good will come of it” David replied
Disappointed but not disheartened, we went back to Danny’s room to play video games. David didn’t know it at the time, but his warning might’ve saved us from what was to come, If only we had listened. We told Leah all about David’s experience the following Monday.
“That’s scary, and I don’t think we should go looking for that door. What if Lily is really down there, and we let her out?” she asked.
“Don’t be dumb, Leah. My bro was just trying to scare us, besides I’ve got a plan on how to find it.”
“Oh yeah, how?” I asked
“Next time you spend the night, we’ll sneak out and hide my dad’s shovel in the trees in the field, and after school, we can go digging around and see if we find it,” Danny said with a grin.
“What about me? You know my mom picks me up as soon as schools out.”
“Just ask her if you can hang out with us for a little bit,” he responded.
Leah just sighed and said she would try. Danny’s plan, like most of the plans children make, never came to fruition. Sneaking out at night and carrying a shovel wasn’t going to happen. Danny modified his plan and instead snuck three garden trowels in his backpack to school every day until Leah was able to convince her mom to let her stay after school. It took three weeks of Leah’s whining, but she finally caved in after Danny’s father gave her a verbal confirmation that he would drop Leah off at her house.
It was a warm summer day when we made the trek to the back of the school to search for the cellar door. 6th-grade graduation was near, and I knew that these halcyon days were nearing their end. This would be our last great childhood adventure, and I wanted to make this the one to remember for the rest of my life. In the greatest knife twist of irony, that wish came true.
We spent only a few minutes stabbing the ground nearest to the school building before Leah hit something with her trowel. She shouted for us to check it out; she was always eager when it came to being the first at things. Danny and I started digging, and sure enough, we heard and felt our trowels scrape against metal buried only 3-4 inches deep. The three of us ran over and started scraping away until a rusty metal cellar door lay before us. Dan let out an excited yell and did a little half dance. I hadn’t seen him act so goofy in months. I was starting to reach for the handle of the door to throw it open when I felt a firm icy grip on my wrist freeze me in place. I jerked around in a panic to try to get a glimpse of the figure towering over me.
“What are you children doing?” asked Mrs. Leore in a calm but cold tone
“Nothing we were just playing around, uh digging for rocks and stuff,” Danny answered.
“Oh? Explain why you’re in a strictly off-limit area? hmmm? “ Mrs. Leore pointed an accusatory finger at Leah.
Leah looked down at her feet for a moment and let a few tears fall. The poor girl was always frightened by authority figures.
“We were looking for a way to get into the wasting room,” Leah said, tears slowly falling from her face.
“Oh, that persistent rumor? I can show it to you if you want,” Mrs. Leore said with a slight laugh.
“Wait, really!?” Danny asked
”Yes, if it’ll put these silly rumors to rest. Come follow me,” Ms. Leore said
The walk to the Eastern wing was punctuated by an anxious undercurrent, the various rumors surrounding that room, its nefarious purpose, and origins cycled through my mind. My anxiety peaked as we stood in front of that red-bricked building. Mrs. Leore took out a lanyard with a single bass key, gave us one final look, and inserted the key into the rusted, aging lock. The sound of the lock turning sent a jolt of paralytic fear through my body. Something about the faint grin Mrs. Leore gave us seemed sinister. As she creaked the door open, I started urging myself to take hold of my friend’s hands and just run, but every command I internally screamed at my body was ignored. Mrs. Leore straightened her back and flung the door open, the screeching of its ancient hinges cut through the silence and echoed off of concrete and linoleum. Danny jumped back, Leah gasped, and I broke out of my stunned silence to make a diminutive sound at the sight of what lay beyond the door.
Nothing, no skeletons, no bodies, no little girl withered and broken seeking revenge on the world that had condemned her to a fate worse than death: just dust, some shelves, and old furniture.
“Want to know why it was called the wasting room? This little room was once used as a pantry back when this school was still a hospital. When the first teachers opened it up after it’s conversion, they found it full of spoiled food. Guess the name got out to students, and they ran with it, made up all sorts of ridiculous things. We only use it for storage these days, nothing to fear.”
“But what about Lily? I blurted out
“Lily Teresa Esther, that was her name. The police determined that she was abducted by her estranged father and was never seen again. The last time she was seen was at this campus, but she didn’t die here. The investigation was thorough, and nothing was ever found.”
We stood dumbfounded by the sudden revelations.
“Good enough for you, kids?” she asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Leah answered.
“Good, I’ve got things to attend to,” she said, locking the room and stuffing the lanyard into her back pocket.
As she was getting ready to leave, Danny ran up and hugged her, thanking her for solving the mystery for us. She let out an exaggerated sigh and let him know that it was no big deal and turned to leave. As soon as she was out of earshot, Danny spoke up.
“Did you ya see it?”
“See what?” Leah and I asked in unison
“You didn’t see it? Then I guess I’ll have to show you,” Danny said as he dangled the lanyard.
“Danny! We’re going to be in so much trouble. You need to give that back!” Leah said
“Yeah Danny, your dads gonna be here any minute,” I said
“Just enough time to take a quick peek” he replied
Danny took a quick look around to make sure no one else was around and quickly unlocked the door and opened it wide. He walked in and motioned for us to do the same.
“Don’t be babies, don't you guys wanna see it?”
I took a nervous step inside the room, Leah close behind me, Danny walked towards an old, filthy dresser.
“Help me move this thing,”
All three of us worked to push the thing a few feet and revealed that directly under was a rusty cellar door.
“See! I told you guys!” Danny said.
“I don’t think this is a good idea Danny we don’t know what’s down there and you’re dad’s probably waiting for us,” I said
“Yeah, and we already saw that the wasting room is nothing to be scared of,”
Danny tugged on the cellar door’s handle and slowly raised it until it stood open.
“Did you guys ever think that maybe this isn’t the wasting room?” Danny asked
“What do you mean?” I asked
“David said that he saw Lilly in some tunnel in a cellar. We should check it out at least,”
I peered down the cellar and saw a ladder leading to a smaller chamber inside, there was a corridor attached to it, and at the edge of it, I saw several pipes. Danny was on to something, and with my curiosity peaked, I agreed that it would be worth taking a look.
“What about your dad? My mom will kill me if we’re late,” Leah whined.
“It’ll only be a second, just to see if the wasting room is down here,” Danny said
I gave Leah’s hand a quick squeeze and a reassuring look before she nodded slightly. Reluctantly she joined us as we climbed down into the cellar. The chamber was surprisingly well-lit, light bulbs lined the ceiling. They were far enough apart that pockets of darkness existed in between each one. The most substantial oddity in the room was the profound lack of dust on anything. Sure rust lined the pipes, but the dust was nowhere to be seen. I should’ve seen this as a warning sign, a tell that place had been inhabited for years.
Leah pressed closer to me as Danny led our trio towards the pipelined corridor, the moment we crossed the threshold into it, we heard a loud slam that caused the lights to flicker. In the brief moment of darkness, I swore I saw movement. We screamed, loud and piercing, our collective shriek reached a siren-loud crescendo that quieted as the lights returned to their usual stable illumination. Leah was gripping my hand so tightly it hurt, and she was openly sobbing.
“I-I want to go home!” she said in between sobs.
“Yeah,” Danny agreed.
We turned to run back towards the ladder and saw that the cellar door had been what slammed shut. I scrambled up the ladder and tried to throw the doors open, but no matter how hard pushed and hit, it made no signs of budging. I started screaming for help, hoping someone would hear and let us out.
“Shit,” Danny cursed.
“What are we gonna do?” I yelled
Leah was now hysterical, pleading for us to get her out of there. Danny stared at both of us, face paler than I had ever seen it.
“This tunnel has to lead somewhere. I bet that it’ll be at the cellar on the other side of the school. We should-”
“No! We stay here and wait for help!” Leah yelled
“Leah’s right if we stay here someone’s bound to find us,” I said
Danny nodded and joined us in calling out for help and occasionally pounding at the cellar door. Hours seemed to pass by, and when we had screamed our voices horse and worked our hands raw, we knew no one was coming.
“We have to look for a way out,” Danny said in a dry whisper.
I nodded meekly and tried to help a near-catatonic Leah stand to her feet. She was responsive despite her silence. Walking to the edge of the room and peering down that ancient corridor, I saw that it stretched on as far as the eye could see, the light bulbs illuminating as much as they possibly could before blinking out of existence. I took a precarious step into the tunnel expecting something to happen, but when nothing did, I took another. Danny walked ahead in feigned bravado, and Leah followed close behind me. We walked until we hit the first light bulb above our heads, like a spotlight it shone in disorienting brilliance, giving us a clear view of the rusted and flaked metal pipes running alongside us. Some had built up condensation and dripped cold droplets. Others leaked a dubious black fluid, and some occasionally shot a jet of steam through cracks and holes. I had the slightest inclination to reach out and touch them, but I caught myself halfway through the thought. I looked ahead and saw the murky darkness we had to cross before reaching the next lightbulb lit beacon.
“Grab my hand and run,” I said
Leah took my right hand and Danny my right, and we sprinted as a linked unit into the next spotlight. We repeated this 5 or 6 more times before I noticed a change in scenery. The number of pipes running alongside had quadrupled, crowding the walls and ceiling and leaving no space. The size and variations of the pipes had also increased, some so rusted that they seemed on the verge of bursting, while others seemed almost new until closer inspection revealed the layers of grime that coated their surfaces. Some pipes were as wide as my head, while others were as thin as wires. I also was beginning to see that some of them were, very subtly, vibrating. I tried to pick up the pace, but after passing eight more light bulbs, my foot caught on something, and I fell hard. I was plunged into darkness, unable to see what had tripped me, the floor no longer felt like concrete. It was lumpy and harsh, covered in strange groves and valleys. Dread formed in my stomach as I tried to imagine what it was.
“Get up,” Danny shouted.
He hoisted me up, and we ran into the safety of the light, it was there when I finally got a good look at the floor. Pipes, the floor was made up of pipes. They lined every inch of space, I wondered if they rested on any concrete or if we were walking in a hallway of suspended pipes.
An unusually large pipe above our heads lightly showered us in a clear liquid I hoped was water. Leah looked at me with fear in her eyes. Danny saw it too, he turned away and stared at what lay ahead. The pipes beneath were now noticeably undulating, not constantly, but a wave of motion came and went in 40-second intervals. No one spoke up about the phenomena. Instead, we rested for a bit before we continued our trek down the pipe filled tunnel, silent and no longer holding each other’s hands.
I lost track of how many lightbulbs we passed and how long we had been down there. We collapsed in exhaustion under the glow of a light bulb. The pipes were now undeniably in constant shifting motion, an industrial intestinal tract. The hallway itself pushing us forward ever so slightly. The pipes now had multiple facets, spigots, and knobs, some leaking foul inky liquids while some spewed a steady stream of fetid water. An amalgamation of fungus grew from most pipes, psychedelic multi-colored, multi-textured molds, oddly shaped luminescent mushrooms, and pulsating slimes. The putrid scent of decay, spores, rust, metal, and death filled my lungs with every heaving breath. I stood up and propped myself against a pipe, wincing at the gelatinous sensation of the fungal organisms living on it. How much longer could I bear this?
The sound of clanking and twisting pipes caught my attention and looked up to see what was making the sound. It was a pale, withered hand poking out from the tangle of pipes directly above us. I stood frozen in place, unable to shout as a second hand slipped through and pushed the metal pipes apart as easily as if they were rubber. The sound the pipes made as they were forced apart caught the attention of Leah and Danny, and they looked up at being directly above their heads. As the hands pushed the pipes further apart, we all saw what it was, and we let out a collective shriek. The weathered visage of Lily peered back at us, hateful and coiled with malevolent intent. Where her eyes had once been now grew pale table capped mushrooms, the inside of her mouth was stained black, and it's putrid stench overpowered that of the pipe corridor. From her long mummified skin, within the rips and tears, some fungus grew and dangled down or stood erect, vile defiling phalluses taking root in a child long dead. I saw the mycelium through her translucent papery skin, it throbbed, ached, and the morbid thought that the fungus was puppeteering poor old Lily Teresa Esther briefly materialized in my mind. It was dispelled by the shuddering sound she made, something between a wheeze and scream, she lunged wildly as soon as it escaped the rotting pit of her mouth.
“What is that?!” Leah screamed.
“Just run!”
Lily was on all fours then, facing us, a swollen purple tongue fell out of that black pit, and she flicked it suggestively at us. I saw little white pustules lining the sides of her tongue and recognized with horror what they were, tiny mushroom caps. We ran faster than we had ever run in our lives. Lily let out another wheezing shriek and was at our heels. My chest burned with every breath, nearing exhaustion I dared to look behind me. Lily was now on the ceiling, clinging on the pipes like some hellish gecko, she was closing the gap between us, in moments she would be directly over our heads.
“There! It’s right there!” Leah shouted.
She was pointing at an object just a few lightbulbs away. I stood up to take a closer look and was shocked to see that it was a door, a rusted metal door. With newfound determination, I picked up speed and ran with all my might towards the promise of safety. I outpaced both Leah and Danny and threw myself at the door, with a single push I forced it wide open. Danny dove in, but Leah was a second too late. Lily dropped down from the ceiling and pounced. She succeeded in grabbing hold of one of Leah’s ankles and yanked the girl to the floor. Leah let out a scream and took hold of my hand, with her free leg she kicked at Lily and landed a direct hit. I heard the sickening crunch of ancient bones and frail skin shattering, and Lily’s head lulled back. Danny took hold of Leah’s other hand, and we pulled her out of Lily’s grasp. As we pulled her inside the room, Lily’s head snapped forward, and we saw the kick had unhinged her jaw, it now dangled from thin strips of skin. The fat purple slug of a tongue hung out thick, inky fluid poured from its length, as soon as the liquid made contact with the pipes, thin white caps sprouted and grew. I slammed the door before she could make another move, steeling myself. I turned around to see just to see where in God’s name, we ended up.
The inside of the room was huge, far too big. Its dimensions were a spatial impossibility; the expanse of the room was physically impossible to house just beneath the school. The ceiling was at least three stories tall, and its sheer size dwarfed the school several times over. There was no visible end. It was just a jumbled mess of pipes, ladders, drains, vents, grates, elevated metal walkways. It was maddening, an industrial hellscape. On some fixtures, the fungus was fused so seamlessly it was as if the pipes and all its attachments were made of fungal chitin and mycelium, grown together in a blasphemous fusion of rust, metal, and fungus—testaments to the gods of rot and decay.
“Where are we?” Danny said unsteadily
No one answered because no one knew, somehow we had crossed some unspoken boundary that divided our mundane little world, and this world ruled by atrophy. It came to me then, the answer to Danny’s questions and thus I spoke.
“The Wasting Room”
A brief silence fell upon us. From the pipelined walls, something emerged, an enormous mass was birthed. It dwarfed us in all it’s unholy glory; it was somewhat humanoid and comprised entirely of the same metal fixtures and fungus that made up everything else. Long rusty pipes and vents ran along its entire body, steam and, fluid leaking from them. I could see multiple giant gears embedded in its chest, turning constantly with no signs of slowing. Polypore Mushrooms, over a dozen feet in length, made up the organic majority of its mass. They grew along with its limbs and chest, a dozen other varieties made up the rest of its weight, they were the medium for which the biological and industrial conjoined and merged. Bioluminescent blue caps, bright red spotted amanitas, wrinkled morels, gelatinous wood ears, basket stinkhorns, and bleeding devil’s tooth, all there, thriving and festering. The being’s head was one giant flat fungal shield frond. It had many points ending in a pipe vents, multi-colored smog spewing from them, it was like some grotesque lions mane. In the center of its face sat two dark beady eyes, they seemed out of place, far too human. I knew at a glance what this being was. It could be nothing else but some long-forgotten lord of decay, the “God of Rot.” It didn’t need to speak to convey the hatred and pain it felt, it was all in its eyes, but regardless it spoke.
“Cast yourselves onto me, and my domain and ye shall be gifted the fruit of immortality, for death is nearly the beginning. Be immortalized in the mycelium and rust, that which with countless eons will always fester.”
As soon as the words were spoken, they rose, an army of humanoid pipe/fungus amalgamations took form before our very eyes. They took slow strained steps towards us, metal and steam screeched with every movement they made, we ran.
“There has to be an exit,” Leah yelled.
“How do you know?” Danny asked
“Because if this place has an entrance, it means that there must be some other way to enter and leave,”
“I don’t know if this place follows the rules of the outside world Leah,” I said
“It follows some of them though,” she said unsteadily.
We scrambled up a flight of stairs into an elevated walkway. There was one thing that caught my attention, following Leah’s reasoning, I noticed that this place was illuminated by rays of light peeking in from overhead windows. If we would just reach them, then maybe we could escape.
“There” I shouted
I pointed at a ladder leading up towards the ceiling. Danny was the first one to start ascending it. I helped Leah up before I took my place and climbed for my life. Looking down, I could see the army of bio-industrial humans convening at the base of the ladder.
“Danny! Leah! Hurry!” I shouted
Danny struggled to pick up the pace and make his way towards the now visible door at the end of the ladder. I felt the weight of the first creature start its climb, I felt the vibrations of every step it climbed, and it informed me that it was fast, way too quickly for us to outpace it for long.
“Almost there,” Danny shouted.
He was about a foot or two from the door when his hand launched out to push it open. I saw the glare of a bright summer sun just beyond the door. Danny hoisted himself up and had his upper torso through the door when the sound of wheezing scream cut through, instilling that familiar paralytic fear. A dangling pipe directly behind Danny burst open, vile black fluid spilled out in a torrential flood, drenching Danny. The reanimated corpse of Lily leaped out from the shattered pipe and clung on to Danny’s lower half, and they both came tumbling down. There was no time to scream or even react as they were both in freefall, Lily took most of the impact, her tiny, frail rotting body bursting as soon as it made contact with the cold hard floor, long rotted organs and violet fluid splattering across the room. Danny’s head still smacked the ground hard enough to knock him unconscious. The creatures on the ladder jumped down onto the floor, and they gathered around Danny.
“We have to help him!” I screamed
Leah, poor shy meek Leah, with eyes full of grief, made the final steps and climbed out into the world outside. I stood in shock, taking a glance back down at Danny, and back again at Leah, I realized I had a choice to make. I could leave with Leah right now, or I could stay down here with the Rowdy boy I had known since the 1st grade, dark-eyed and all too excitable, slowly maturing in a young man at the peak of his youth, how much longer would our friendship last? Danny, who once chased wild animals and built box forts, Danny, who played pranks on girls to scare them away and talked loud on purpose to annoy adults. Danny, who now rarely played with us and said our adventures were childish, Danny, who now preferred to look at magazines full of women splayed out and naked instead of reading the latest spiderman comics with me. Danny had made his choice, and Leah had made hers, I reached out to her, and she took hold of my hand.
“Wait! Please!” Danny shouted now conscious
I turned to look one final time, Danny was being carried away by the creatures, the black liquid that stained him had begun sprouting little mushroom caps, I’m sure if he was closer I would see the thin mycelium growing into his skin. I watched as they carried Danny to a nearby pipe jutting from the wall, it ended in an open spout, a familiar black liquid dripped from it.
“No! Please! Help m-”
His final cry for help was cut off by the creatures ramming and impaling him into the pipe. Danny went limp and let himself collapse. His body twitched once as I heard the pipe groan and creak, I saw his eyes and mouth start leaking the black fluid, as the inky tears ran streaks down his cheeks, little mushroom caps began sprouting from them. Hot tears ran down my cheeks; they cut a path through my dirt stain faced and fell onto the floor. I had made my choice. I let out a heaving sob as I turned and stepped out into our world.
A Janitor found us at the back of the school, next to the cellar door where Mrs. Leore had scolded us. The police were called as we had been missing for three days at that point, we pointed meekly at the now-closed door. The questions of what happened, where we were, and Danny were asked nonstop for the first week, we could only point them towards the cellar and the brick room, we told them of the wasting room and the hallway of pipes. They said it was trauma, and that we created false memories to cope. They never found anything in the brick room, in the cellar doors, and Danny was assumed dead by the end of the summer.
Danny’s parents didn’t invite me to the funeral. I saw in their eyes that they blamed me. With no one else to blame, they turned their ire towards me. Maybe they could see the guilt in my eyes. Maybe they knew that on some level I had abandoned their son, they weren’t wrong. David, Danny’s older brother, killed himself in the following weeks as if the Powell family hadn’t lost enough. My parents blamed me too, they never said it, but they always treated me differently, as if I was some wild animal that could snap at any moment. Leah and I drifted apart, the last time I heard from her was in freshman year of high school. I found a note slipped in my locker, it wasn’t signed, but I recognized her immaculate tiny script. All it said was that she was going back for Danny, that the door to the wasting room would open for her. Leah went missing that day, and I never saw her again.
It’s been six years since I first stepped foot in the wasting room. I tried to do some digging, but what I found doesn’t solve or answer anything. I know that when the school was still a hospital, the terminal patients were assigned that cold brick room, left there to waste away slowly, that’s how it got its morbid moniker. My small, unassuming school was a place for the sick to come and spend their final days in cold mildewy hospital rooms, maybe just maybe a place can only experience so much death, suffering, and grief before some outside forces take notice. Or maybe those who slowly rotted away called out to some higher power. Maybe after so much tragedy, a physical location can become linked to some outer realm ruled by that tragedy, by that decay. Maybe Mrs. Leore and the other teachers knew of the horrible domain beneath their very feet, and they played along with its whims and demands. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t know, there is no answer, no clean tightly wrapped ribbon that holds it all together. All I know is that I can’t go on like this. Danny and Leah consume my every waking thought, God, I miss them. The God of Rot promised me immortality once. I’m sure if I go back to that place, back to that red-bricked abyss, the wasting room would still be there waiting for me.

Iowa-
I want to be prepared in case she tries to kick me out. It sounds like she might no matter how hard we work to resolve the issues. I have a lot of questions and am also just looking for general advice on what to do.
First off- I understand my living situation is sub-optimal. I know that. I'm in therapy and working on dealing with the issues going on. This also tends to really happen a lot worse during the month of finals week for me. I just finished my finals last week and was actually making the attempt to clean when she showed up.
I have severe ADHD, depression, and CPTSD triggered by cleaning. Particularly cleaning when someone else is around or watching someone else clean, doing dishes, laundry, but general cleaning is triggering. My partner likely has undiagnosed ADHD and works full time at a heavy manual labor job, hence a lot of the cleaning being my deal, as I'm just a student right now. Multiple doctors who have spoken to them have told them they do and that it seems severe, but the process of official diagnosis is extremely expensive.
Landlord stopped by yesterday because there was an issue with plumbing upstairs and there was a small amount of water leaking into our apartment that she wanted to check out. I believe less than 24 hours notice was given, but given the circumstances, we just let her in. She told us that we had to have our messy living space cleaned up within 2 weeks and cited some burnt food on the stove and a big pile of dishes in the sink.
I have only disclosed my ADHD to the landlord and that I cannot get ahold of medication. She told me to try to get a family member to help pay for it or to hire a cleaning service (because if I can't afford meds, I can afford a cleaning service, obviously) but I remembered to stop speaking there and decided to not tell her that there was a nationwide shortage, or that I had a small stockpile I planned to use for when class started up again. I'm definitely using it now to clean.
She also told us we had to move my desk away from the emergency exit window, but especially given that we live in a basement, I have some concerns about this. A. I am a relatively small person and the window is pretty high up and would be difficult for me to climb out of without climbing on the desk first. B. The window has literally never opened since we moved in. And C. The ladder to get out of the stairwell is very clearly made of rotten wood that would not support a person's weight anyway. I understand that there are codes she has to abide by but I do not believe those codes have not been adhered to by her in not ensuring that the emergency exit window actually opened and that there was a valid way out of the stairwell before renting out the apartment to us, and the things she is asking us to do actually make the apartment less safe (more difficult to access the emergency exit window and would much more likely get cut if we had to break the glass to get out). The apartment is small, so I am not that worried about not noticing a fire or not being able to just break the window if need be with the window breaker I keep in my desk.
We have made a good dent on cleaning things up, but she literally came by and saw us at our worst. So many clothes and some trash on the floor in our room that there was just a pathway to the bed, all the couch pillows on the floor because I had just taken a nap on the couch and forgot to pick them up, some garbage on the floor, and counters and tables were pretty cluttered. She told us that we had to show some progress by the time she came back and that the state we were living in could bring in rodents. The house is not well sealed off at all. We had rodents anyway when we were keeping things genuinely pretty clean that would come in through a hole in our pantry and chew through our food. My partner and I have moral issues with killing animals and assumed that was what she would likely do, along with the danger of that to our bird, so we never told her and just put out live traps ourselves to take care of it, but they really kept coming in all winter and we kept having to take them elsewhere. I doubt previous tenants didn't have issues with this, and it seems it was never corrected.
I have small pets that she was already aware of and okay with who are well cared for and live in cages and tanks, and are not in any danger whatsoever by the environment, but I also worry about her calling animal control on me. I own a red bellied piranha, who I've had for probably about 6 years now, which is legal in Iowa, as well as every state I've had to travel through to bring her here. The issue is that with new laws effectively banning the import after I got her because they arent legal in some states, I am worried that they will try to take her away anyway. I have no documentation of purchase, and doubt the long time fish store employee would remember her purchase exactly but would likely remember that I was in the store a lot before the law went into place and definitely bought fish there. He would also definitely know that they had piranhas there, and I have dated photos of her as a baby.
I also wanted to note that we were told it would be a smoke free environment and this was also in the contract. I had just quit vaping so this meant a lot to me. She allows tenants upstairs to smoke in the garage and the smell would occasionally seep into the corner of our room. This, I didn't have a huge problem with, as it was pretty evident that it only happened when they smoked in a certain corner of their garage and it was very unnoticeable to someone who hadn't just quit smoking (my partner couldn't tell). I asked the neighbor not to smoke in that corner of the garage because it seeps in and I have a bird (very sensitive) along with the fact that I had just quit, and the guy who smoked in the garage has been really good about it. However, one of the neighbors (who luckily no longer lives here) decided to smoke in the bathroom right next to our bedroom a few times a week. There are big gaps in the wall there. We talked to the neighbors a couple times, who assured me that they would talk to this dude, who I'm not even sure if I ever met, and he started smoking in the bathroom every single day. He lived in the basement of that unit, so right next to us, and nobody else went down there. We eventually banged on the wall and yelled over that he was making our bird sick, and asking if he was aware that there was a $500 fine for smoking in the apartment. I had to quit for medical reasons and cigarettes just make me really ill, even though I used to smoke them. He started doing it multiple times a day after that. We really didn't want to get the other people in the apartment in trouble because they have been really nice to us and tried to stop this dude, but we eventually took it to the landlord because anything else we did made the problem worse. I ended up starting vaping again and it has made me sick, but not as sick as the cigarettes. Quitting was one of the hardest things I've ever done and that is gone now. I have not told her that I've started vaping again, but I do always go outside to do so. Upon reading the lease, smoking is not supposed to take place on the property at all but she expressly told the upstairs neighbors that they could smoke in the garage. Would this be a problem if it came out?
At some point in the year, we got another bird and assumed it would be okay because she told us that because our animals were so small she would not charge us the pet fee (2 leopard geckos, a budgie, and some fish at the time). It is the same kind of bird and same size, so I didn't think we needed to let her know. I am now worried it might be an issue because she has had this problem with us being messy. Bird cage was covered up and they were quiet when she was here, so she didn't see that there were 2 of them. Should I disclose that we got another one and will that possibly hurt me?
We were also lied to verbally that we would have a grill outside if we rented, which I thought we would probably use a lot that just wasn't there when we moved in. I also remember noticing a few other small amenities that we were told we would have were not there, but no longer remember what because I didn't care about them as much. She also told us right when we moved in after we had signed the lease not to turn off the dehumidifier. This was a red flag for mold. I also can't breathe well in drier air (grew up in a house filled with tropical aquariums). The thing is very loud and runs all the time. It has absolutely wrecked me as a person with sensory issues and I'm angry that I have to wear earplugs in my own living room. I would not have signed the lease if she had disclosed that it had to be running all the time.
Landlord also owns the house next door and literally evicted them for being late on rent 3 times even though they were communicating with her and always had payment (I think) within a week. They had to move across the country because of it, and I know she threw out a ton of their stuff within a few weeks. I don't know if they didn't have the funds to rent a uhaul or if she literally told them they had to leave everything else behind at a certain point. All their kids toys, couches, beds, furniture, everything was just on the curb.
After the landlord left our place, she sent us a written warning by text and told us when she would be doing a walkthrough. I am literally out of the country on that date studying abroad, but my partner will be here. Do I need to tell her that I won't be here? Both our names are on the lease.
I replied and said "thank you for being so understanding". She responded with "Please take action this issue can cause you to lose your place to live!!". I'm not sure if I'm reading her intentions incorrectly or not, but that makes me think that she wants to kick us out anyway, and has already decided, whether we clean up or not, which we are doing. Someone is coming to help us clean more thoroughly, but I'm worried she will be super nitpicky about it or anything else she notices and point out tiny little issues to evict us.
We also had a roommate that moved out early but we have picked up on the lease. I'm not sure whether or not the roommate explicitly told her, but it was talked about. Could this cause problems?
I am also concerned because the day she is coming is the day after I arrive in another country for my study abroad trip where I will be for 2 weeks. If I have to come home early to help deal with her kicking us out (it really did not seem like she gave the neighbors much time at all) I will lose out on a lot of money, credits, and the ability to graduate when I intend to, meaning that I will likely have to shell out more money to go another semester. I do have a 529 education plan that will cover it but this also means that I cannot use a lot of that money for grad school.
So, what do I need to know? If we get kicked out, can she enforce us paying the rest of the lease? Will my other bird be a problem when she verbally told us that she wouldn't charge a pet fee for animals that small? Is there anything else I should disclose to the landlord? If she tries to kick us out and I bring into conversation something about the grill we were promised or that we weren't told the dehumidifier had to run all the time before signing the lease, or that I started vaping again because there was smoking in a promised non-smoking environment, or that the emergency window has literally never opened, would that make her more or less likely to kick us out? What advice do you have for me? Should I preemptively look for a lawyer? Should I tell her to come before I go on my trip?

Hello, my girlfriend of a little over a year and a half is a dog walketrainer. She basically cares for peoples dogs while they are away by going to their home or letting them stay at ours. On April 26 i impulsively purchases tickets for us to see the therapy gecko live at our local improv. I sent her the ad I saw and told her I purchased the tickets. Throughout the week I kept reminding her about it and saying how hyped I was to see him. Fast forward to today. She leaves the house at 4pm to go take care of one of her clients. I got home at 6pm. I take care of my cats, fish and change cloths. I had no clue when she was coming back. Once 6:30 rolls around I ask her where she is. 10 minutes later she replies on my way back. I text her back asking how far away she is. 10 minutes later she tells me 20 minutes away. She gets home at 7pm. She pulls into the garage where im waiting for her and she casually gets out. I’m like what the hell. You know we had plans to go out at 7. She says oh you know they don’t start till 7:30 and then proceeds to ask me if I fed her dog and walked him. She had been home prior so I figured she would’ve taken care of that before she left. She told me that I should have know she was running late and that I should’ve helped her and fed the dog. This infuriated me and we started arguing. She told me to stop being an asshole and that we can go late. It doesn’t matter. She eventually went into the shower and changed and while she did that I fed the dog. She comes out and walks her dog. I walk to the garage and get in the car waiting for her to get in. No words have been exchanged. She gets in her car and drives off. I get out and close the garage and go back inside. I eventually text her and she lets me know she went downtown to go drink at a bar. And that if I apologized for my behavior that she would tell me where she is so we can hang out together. I told her that I am not apologizing until she admits that she didn’t let me know she would be late. (She’s constantly on my ass about communicating) it is then that she admits to me that she was going to let me know she was late but didn’t because she wanted to see if I would feed her dog since I knew she was late since she wasn’t there. I told her that she basically caused this argument and that she could’ve just let me know she was going to be late and asked me to take care of her dog. She basically just told me that she’s done talking to me and that I should’ve helped her with the dog. Like am I crazy?
TDLR; Girlfriend purposely didn’t tell me she would be late coming home for us to go to an event to see if I would feed and walk her dog. Am I crazy?

The 12 stupid stories per half hour episode The inane rhyming The laziest of writing
And WTF there's animals and robots that work on vehicles with faces that have families?!
They clearly threw every idea in a hat, then said fuck it just do them all.

[first] [prev] [next] - [wiki]
Whatever it is that you want to hear from me, I won't give you.
I know that you work for the political activist foundation pushing for war into the Terran Tomb Worlds.
You speak of the Terrans themselves being gone, thus their words are ripe for the picking. Undefended except for automated systems. Unable to resist the might of the Concordiant.
You, like everyone else who are banging the war drums, all conviently forget of the other member species of the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems.
Thirty-two years ago I faced the Treana'ad War Hordes.
They will defend the Terran Tomb Worlds.
And any of our people you send there will die, as almost all of us did. - Survivor the Flowers Among Leaves system assault.
You think you're tough because you've beaten everyone that came before. Tough enough that you can take on the Solarian Hegemony?
Do you know who the Solarians have beaten but allowed to remain under their own rulership?
No, of course you do not.
Because they wiped them out, dusted and planetcracked their worlds, novasparked their suns. They left no evidence of their foes.
There are no former enemies of the Solarian Hegemony ruling their own star nations left to ask how t hey were beaten.
The closest you will find are the Mantid and the Treana'ad. Allies of the Solarians.
You cannot find enemies of the Solarians to gather critical intelligence on the Solarians for one simple reason.
Because the Solarians wiped them from existence. - High Clanmaster Ym'rklak, speaking against the decision to attack Solarian Space, 1273 PG
Isn't that cute. You took over three other interstellar organizations and now think you're the baddest boy on the block because now you have twenty-two extra worlds.
You just attacked a United Systems colonist convoy. You killed and/or ate the beings on board. You gleefully broadcast what you have done. You then attacked the world they were going to join their brethren upon and did the same.
Now you think that you, with your fifty-one systems, are ready to take on the Terrans.
My Brother in the Digital Omnimessiah's eyes, I have but one question for you.
What are you people called? For I wish to record your name so that future historians know you existed.
Because, when the Terrans are done with you, even the light of your star will be extinguished. -- Treana'ad Scholar Kil'LokYawk, to his captors. Species unknown - Extinct. 2853 PG
The wind made an eerie moaning noise as it wound through the city, blowing debris along empty streets that were strewn with cars, rags, and other flotsam and jetsam. Skyrakers creaked, some loudly, their battlesteel and endosteel superstructures designed to sway in the wind and vibrate slightly to reduce stress.
The sounds of heavy machinery and the thud thud thud of warmek footsteps were the only sounds aside from the moaning of the wind and the painful groans of the skyrakers.
"Anythis, Wrecker?" the XO, Warboss, asked over the comlink.
"Nothing," Wrecker AKA Ret.lek said. He stopped at an intersection and looked around.
The streets were empty.
"This planet had a population of seventeen billion Terrans," Ret.lek said. "What happened the bodies? There should at least be skeletons."
"Before it shut down the World Engine did casualty recovery," the XO said. "Disease prevention and management protocols. A human body is full of bacteria and viruses that, when dead, can spread massive plagues and diseases."
"Even dead, you hate everyone," Ret.lek chuckled.
The Terran XO nodded with a grin. "We are the malevolent universe's wrath made manifest."
Ret.lek turned and moved down a main boulevard, following an instinct.
"I thought there was only an under strength task force here. Why's the Navy and Space Force still duking it out?" Ret.lek asked. He paused at the corner and leaned forward to look one direction then the other.
"They didn't use to use flashgates in vacuum last conflict and the flashgates were a lot smaller. Apparently they're using big enough ones in orbit and in the stellar system to move entire task forces in," the XO said. "It's like the Slorpies doing the rapid temporal duplication, only they're moving actually existing material and manpower across thirty-three systems."
"And space combat involves too much distance to just throw a nuke through and destroy the shipyards," Ret.lek guessed.
"Right. In vacuum, a flashgate has nearly no signature. If the ships come through unpowered, they get an hour or two of maneuvering and prep before Space Force can microjump onto them. We're wiping them out with minimal casualties, but it looks like they're digging in for a war of attrition," the XO said. "They've got to fighting back in orbit, so nobody has orbital supremacy. They're mainly targeting surveillance sats, so they can open flashgates on the surface without taking an orbital strike."
"Or they're flashgating into the middle of one of our formations so we can't orbital strike their forces," Ret.lek said, remembering the battle that had landed him in the hospital for two weeks.
"Bingo," the XO said. The XO went silent as Ret.lek broke line of sight and the point to point laser commo trail was broken.
Ret.lek thought as he moved up to the next intersection. It felt good to be doing a scouting mission, under his own power and decisions, instead of hooked into the massive supercomputer arrays handling almost everyone else's actions.
In open battle, the Enemy stood no chance. Hell, half the time a lot of the troopers, even the power armor jawks, were zoned out or asleep.
Which meant that the Enemy was seeking battles that would break the Battlefield Tactical Network and force the Confederate forces to go to local control.
Which didn't mean the Enemy won. They just managed to inflict a few casualties.
But after two months, it was starting to add up.
The Confederacy was still winning, but Military, Naval, and Defense Intelligence had no idea how deep and wide the Enemy's war material stocks and asset pools were.
For all anyone knew, the Enemy had only lost a fraction of a percentage of their fighting strength.
Which is why atomics and nuclear weapons were now authorized to throw through a flashgate, to at least damage or destroy the gate system.
The XO's big 100 tonne warmek turned the corner, reaching out and slapping down a small repeater on the corner of the building.
"You know, these guys aren't like the Atrekna or the Lanaktallan," Ret.lek mused when the channel came back.
"Right, but what's on your mind?" Warboss asked, turning around and backing up the street, his weapons ready.
"We keep throwing nukes and atomics through the flashgates, right?"
"Right."
"Only one side of the flashgate manifests, correct?"
"Right."
"All right, gimme a second," Ret.lek said. He stopped his mek, opened up a drawing program and drew two lines. He marked the inside of the two lines with A1 and A2, the outside with B1 and B2. He drew another line, marking it A3 and B3 on the opposite sides. He put a set of three stick figures on the A3 side of the third line.
"OK, so, let's say they open two portals instead of one. Only, get this," he drew a horizontal line through one line then connected the line to the other vertical line. "OK, so the bullet train goes through the first flashgate, because it doesn't exist on the B side. It whips out the A side of this one," he tapped the one near the stick figures. "So, we throw a nuke back," He connected a dotted line. "But we didn't see this second portal. Which doesn't matter to the bullet train, because the B side doesn't exist. It goes in this A side, comes out the A side here," he tapped between the two A's. "Then either whips through to detonate, or detonates in between."
"And the nuke or the blast goes through the facing A side and out the second gate, without disturbing the first side because the B side doesn't exist,' the XO said. He took a minute to swear and pinged the other four of the six mek lance. "Everyone hold. Popping a secure drone."
Ret.lek lifted his eyebrows at the fact the XO had stopped the scouting mission and was breaking radio silence.
He leaned around the corner and took a peek, then froze when he saw what was going on in the ground level of a multi-story parking garage that took up roughly eight by two city blocks.
Figures were working, setting up a massive frame and connecting machinery to it. He could see another frame being built only a few car-lengths down. There was two bullet trains on the second level, both with not quite a dozen flatbed cars on them.
There were sparks and Ret.lek saw the lights on the frame come on.
"Uh, Warboss, we've got a problem," Ret.lek said.
It made sense, suddenly. The Enemy was betting that the Terran Confederacy wouldn't do an orbital strike on their own cities.
Except... nobody was alive.
"What?" Warboss asked, without looking up. He grimaced. "How is it you don't understand how it works? Picture two doors facing each other, only the inside side of the doors take you somewhere else and you can walk through the outside doorway without going anywhere because it doesn't exist. Even I understand it!"
Warboss made a face and looked up. "What's up?"
"They're building a flashgate projector inside a parking garage three blocks forward. Looks like they're building them facing each other," Ret.lek said.
"Of course they are, because your overly clever ass had to figure the tactic out, so now the Malevolent Universe is going to show just how much she loves you by ass fucking all of us while she grins at you. Great. Just perfect," the XO swore.
"Ten kiloton atomic would probably shut it all down," Ret.lek said.
The XO shook his head. "No. We can't be sure where the gate's going. We might fire off an atomic and drop it right on ourselves," he said. He looked down. "What? What do you mean it's highly improbable? We've got eyes on Ornislarp Noocracy troops building a set of flashgate frames less than a klick from our position in a parking garage," the XO sighed. "Yes, I'll hold."
Tinny music played across the open channel and LC Norgulk grinned.
"I love this song," he said. "Don't shoot my mek, my pew pew stompy mek, I don't think you understand, that if you shoot my mek, my pew pew stompy mek, I'll rip off your head and shit down your neck."
Someone snickered.
"You know that's not the real words," PV2 Jo'ortketi said, frowning.
"Far as I'm concerned," the LC said, then went back to singing.
The song suddenly cut off.
"Aw," the LC said, looking sad.
The XO looked down for a moment. "What do you mean predictive analysis says it's statistically impossible for them to be building a flashgate inside a parking garage, inside a Terran Tomb World city? We're looking right at it."
There was silence a moment.
"I don't care what the predictive analysis division says. It's right there," the XO said. He snorted. "If we engage it, any weapon fire might backwash. They're setting up the exact dual gate system I sent you ten minutes ago."
"Let me get this straight. Your analysis and intelligence division, backed up by a heavy cruiser's worth the interlocked supercomputer arrays, have literally said: 'On the Fringe Worlds? In the Terran Sector? In a Dead Hand System? On a Tomb World? In a Mausoleum City? In a Parking Garage?' and then decided that the statistical probability is too low to be meaningful?"
The XO looked shocked for a moment, then his face hardened.
"This is why people beat you up in the E-Club bathroom," the Terran snarled, then called whoever was on the other line a racial slur, then cut the channel.
"All right, they say continue on our scouting mission and reminded us to follow the course that NAVINT and MILINT uploaded to us because it is, and I quote 'the most optimum scouting course The System could devise' and we're just mekjawk dipshits," the XO snarled.
Ret.lek checked and saw the route led right to the parking garage before taking a right.
"Sir, if I step out around the corner, they're going to see me," Ret.lek said. He extended his hand and turned on one of his fist cams, looking around the corner.
A bullet-train whipped out of a flashgate, across the parking garage, crossing the other gate without vanishing, then disappeared.
"Aaand they're using the subway tunnels," Ret.lek sighed. "That explains the bullet trains."
"The mag-lev system is down in the bedrock and criss-crosses the planet," PV2 Jo'ortketi said.
"How do you know?" the XO asked.
PV2 Jo'ortketi pointed at the holosign next to him.
GET YOUR METRO PASS READY! FAST FUN AND FREE! HIGH SPEED COUNTER-GRAV BULLET TRAIN SUBWAY! IF YOU WERE ON BOARD, YOU'D BE HOME BY NOW!
"Oh, Daxin stab my eyes. This is bullshit," the XO snapped. "Did you get it on recording?"
Ret.lek nodded and tossed it to the XO. "Here."
"Let me try again," the XO said. "Keep the feed open, watch the gates."
Ret.lek tuned out the XO arguing with MI, instead just watched as four more bullet trains exited the gate and whipped forward to vanish into the tunnels. They were moving fast enough to get a hundred or more cars with the engines.
With another curse, two racial slurs, and another curse, the XO cut the feed.
"Predictive analysis suggests they're just moving logistics, despite the fact half those cars had warmeks and tanks on them," the Terran snarled. "We're ordered to continue our scouting mission."
The XO punched his open palm. "Oh, we're supposed to follow the scouting route but not engage any Noocracy troops."
Ret.lek shook his head. "As soon as I step out, they're going to see me and they've got dug in fighting positions with heavy weapons."
"Anything dangerous?" the XO asked, checking the monitor he was showing the data Ret.lek was streaming.
"Looks like a rapid fire 250mm rail gun on the third story," Ret.lek said.
"Resolution is for shit. Can't make out details," LC Norgulk complained.
The com-link crackled. "Scout Team Sigma-Niner-One-Two, continue on mission," some genius from Division Operations Command ordered. "Adhere to ROE."
Ret.lek rolled his eyes as the XO moved up.
"OK, we're the heavies and the slowest. We're not supposed to engage first, only return fire, and break contact as soon as possible," the XO said.
"Right," LC Norgulk said.
Ret.lek just nodded.
"So, Wrecker and I will step out. That'll draw fire. But before that, the rest of the lance breaks left and right, goes up three blocks to flank the parking garage. When we draw fire, you guys step out and support us," the XO said.
The LC nodded. "Sounds good." He gave the orders and headed south with another mek.
"Ready, Wrecker?" the XO asked.
"Yeah, lemme load my warbois and..." he trailed off. "Hang on."
The XO raised an eyebrow and waited.
"Those flashgates, we know that radiation, light, and electromagnetic pulses can get through. Electronics can travel through without losing signal, right?" Ret.lek said, typing quickly.
"Otherwise the magtak system would break loose and the cars would go everywhere," the XO said.
"Right, so..." Ret.lek started.
"Warboss, we've got problems," the LC suddenly said.
"What?" the XO asked, holding up two fingers to signal Ret.lek to wait.
"System's warning me I'm leaving the boundary of the mission zone and is threatening with turning over operational control to BATACOPS," LC Norgulk said. "We can't go a full block in either direction. Looks like a recent update to our mission operation profile."
"That pencil necked little clicking gecko Blevan cock sucker," the XO swore. "Gonna make a pair of boots out of the little lizard fuck when we get out of here. All right, come on back, we'll do this the hard way."
"Hang on," Ret.lek said, still working. He looked up. "Gimme ninety seconds for the warboi hashbrown to finish frying, then another two minutes for the eggs to finish cooking, and we'll show them a new trick."
"Oh Digital Omnimessiah preserve us, a private with a plan," Norgulk said.
"Screamer missiles loaded up with EM warfare warbois?" the XO asked.
"Fire them through the gates. Every time when we faced the Atrekna, when they'd jump and have a unit in two places at once, warbois would go crazy and chew their their data fences," Ret.lek said. "The flashgates should do the same. Any redundancy error checks should be already on the fritz. I just gotta add something."
"What?" the XO asked, watching Ret.lek dig his dog-tag chain out of his shirt. "What's on that?"
"Memento," Ret.lek said. He flicked the bottom off of a medallion, revealing a dataspike. He plugged it into his mek. "It's from my habber gang days."
The XO just nodded slowly.
It took close to two minutes and the help of his greenies, but the software got baked into the warboi green eggs and hash. His greenies flashed the data over to the other meks and the other meks started frying up warboi hashes.
"Ready," Ret.lek said.
"Everyone ready?" the XO asked. "We'll come out, fire the screamers, run the full EMCOM bandwidth with warboi leashes, see what happens while we all go for our targets."
"They're gonna be shooting at us," Corporal Danzler said.
"Then shoot back, dumbass," the XO said. He lifted the arms of his 100 tonne Geist and made a pumping motion. "Let's do this."
Ret.lek took two fast steps out into the boulevard, turned and leveled his PPC's, even as his SRM launcher covers snapped open and he fired a full two dozen screamer and flasher EW missiles at the parking garage. The XO stepped out next to him, doing the same.
His battlescreens cracked into existence, ripping the facing and macroplas windows out of the skyraker on his left. The XO's battlescreen tore apart the facing of the building on the left.
The heavy man made lighting from the PPCs boomed out, slamming into the 250mm railgun emplacements, shattering the ferrocrete the forward bunker was made out of and sending it exploding out into the street. He caught something good and the whole backside of one of the railgun emplacements exploded, lifting the bottom of the next story upward in a soft bow.
The whole section collapsed and Ret.lek saw the heavy support beams below puff out ferrocrete dust as cracks appeared up and down the beams.
The screamers lanced out, the warbois shrieking in excitement. They saw dozens, thousands of open ports, doubled ports, and ports where the defenses were suffering cyclic errors.
A pair of bullet trains whipped out and into the tunnels, moving at over 500 mph.
Which might have well been standing still to the electronic reflexes of the warbois, who shrieked with joy and jumped to the open ports on the rail cars, the cargo, even the engines. They were smart enough to hunker down or sneak silently through the datalines, easily avoiding the laughingly simple Noocracy ECM warfare programs.
They vanished into the tunnels and were gone, licking their chops at what might be at the other end of the train ride.
Others saw open ports on the other side of the flashgate and jumped. The other saw nothing but waving grain but steered the missile through anyway.
Reappearing hundreds of miles away, shrieking that they wanted attention.
Ret.lek didn't know any of it.
He was stomping forward, ignoring the rush of heat, and pounding the Noocracy position with heavy weapons. His autocannon's reloader whined after he put a long burst across the fifth story, the heavy shells flashing out and blowing apart the support columns.
The rest of the lance was adding their own firepower, striking the leading edge of the parking garage structure's levels, hitting the support columns.
For a moment, the Noocracy troops thought that maybe the Confeds just had really shitty aim and were grateful.
Then, with a slow groan, the parking garage started to collapse, pancaking down, the upper levels first, each level slamming into the next, adding that level's weight to the next impact.
Dust billowed out, making the battlescreens snarl and flare.
OPERATIONS PLAN UPDATING flashed on Ret.lek's screen.
The ROE suddenly updated.
"Oh, now we're allowed to engage the enemy without being fired on first. How magnaminous of that jumped up little garden gecko fuck," the XO snarled. He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Let's get a move on, ladies."
Everyone nodded and sent their machines forward.
Is it weird I was hoping a kaiju would jump out? Ret.lek wondered to himself.
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Anyone else’s kid obsessed with Gecko’s Garage on Netflix? My boy loves it, he calls it “Fock” (frog🤣) and I just realised the other day that the truck family has two mummies 🏳️‍🌈 (We’re in the UK, not sure if it’s on Netflix in other areas.)

Edit- FOUND THEM!!! Husband asked if I stored them in our front room (aka the room that is in desperate need of pulling everything out to reorganize cause you can barely walk through it 😬). Juuuust in reach from the walk path was the basket holding birthday supplies, with the sticky geckos on top! 🤣
Y'aaalllllllll
3yo birthday in November was Bluey themed, gift bags had asparagus wands, balloons for keepy uppy, etc. Part I was most excited about was the sticky geckos.
Except when making the gift bags, I couldn't find the geckos. I had a box all party items went into, so for 3 days before the party it was blowing my mind I freaking couldn't find them. Day after the party, husband found them... in the garage? shakes head ok, whatever, we do little christmas gifts for daycare classmates, I'll add them then. Totally forgot. 🥴 same on Valentine's.
Easter I've crocheted eggs that are little surprise pouches for couple small pieces of chocolate. Yesterday teachers ask that we don't gift candy/food items- cool, no problem, but I'm slightly panicking what will fit in these dang eggs I've made when I could've been working on stuff for craft show in May. O! Sticky geckos! They're in my closet on a self! Easy peasy!
I can't find these damn things. I've torn my closet apart and reorganized it looking for them. If I can't find them Monday, I guess I'm running to a dollar store or something to find something non food to work (only child free morning before we need them) and hold on to the crochet eggs for next Easter- if I don't lose them before then 🤪
Any ideas on where TF I hid these geckos?!

Hi everyone.
Looking for a new tv for our main room. We have an 8 year old Bravia for our main room but a 4K Samsung for downstairs with the gaming area. Looking to get a 65 inch with a budget of about 1,000 give or take. It won’t be used for gaming. Just sports and basically Cocomelon and Gecko’s Garage. Looking at a Sony 80K or 85K. Anyone have any recommendations or if there’s a better tv out there for the price?

My 4yo Son Is Addicted To A Song Called “Scary Flying Shark” And Won’t Stop Asking For It, He Always Has It On Repeat, We Have Shown Him Some Other Shows Like The Barkers, Bluey, Geckos Garage, Superkitties, Octonauts, Bing, Tinypop, CBeebies, Etc. But He Still Asks For It, I’ve Even Tried Telling Him That It’s Been Deleted From Youtube But He Doesn’t Believe Me, I Cant Delete Youtube Because If I Do, 5yo Can’t Watch Her Favorite Show Which Is The Barkers, I Deleted Youtube From His iPad So He Can’t Listen To It But Still Manages To Find It, So I’ve Banned Him From YouTube, But He Still Cries Me Away For It, He Likes Daniel Tiger And PJ Masks Almost As Much, So He Will Be Watching Them Instead, Hopefully He Tones It Down With The Demands For His Shark Song As He Still Asks For It After Every Episode Of The Two But No Longer Cries About It.

My kids (3&1.5 yo) are limited screen time and I try to limit it to a select list of shows (Tom & jerry, Leo the Truck, geckos garage and a few others that are similar) but my son has just discovered a YT channel called Vlad & Nikki and he’s OBSESSED with it. I’m not a big fan of it, it feels exploitive and honestly it’s annoying lol
Well I noticed this channel gets 5+ million views on their videos so I googled and this family is making ~$300k PER VIDEO. Wooooooooooow I am shocked but honestly about to start a channel of my own 😂 jk jk
Sorry I have no one else to talk to about this and my mind is blown. Like BLOWN
https://imgur.com/a/xI82Z0T

And I know it's partly a result from me and my ex separating. He's 2.5yrs old and he is so sensitive to what's going on around him.
For those that read my last post, we stayed living in the house for two weeks after my ex told me he didn't love me anymore, and my boy was one of the main reasons I moved us out. He was terrified to sleep in his own bed and slept with me each night, he spent most the time in Mummy's room, he started throwing tantrums I've never seen before, and he was biting his dad very frequently. He doesn't bite me at all and this is the first I've heard about him biting other kids.
My daycare for him is awesome, they know what's going on in Ted's home life and have been a huge help in keeping consistency. We have come up with a plan so we're using the same language etc with him teaching him about biting and why we don't do it.
To top it off my car blew up while I had him in the car (although he thought it was a great adventure and told me to take it to geckos garage) and then I received a speeding ticket. I'm broke cause I had to replace all the furniture I had left behind, I'm still paying the mortgage for a house I no longer live in, and now need to buy a new car.
So any advice on toddlers biting?