Property management yuba city ca

First off, Hello. I don't often post. My wife and I purchased our home in 10/2020. I am not a very social person, so I moved in and kept to myself. Several weeks in, family came over and my Mom and her husband, against my wishes, decided to take the neighbor some food. He's a man in his Mid 70's. I was polite and neighborly but I did tell him immediately that we are not social people and really prefer to keep to ourselves as much as possible. He kept popping in when we were working in the garage or playing games in the garage, which I didn't mind too much at first. My wife got his phone number for emergency reasons, in case he fell or got hurt or something along those lines. He was nice enough at first, but as time went on he started to "Change". He started coming over constantly, and calling at hours we specifically asked not to. We have a child (Under 3 at the time) who has a set bedtime, and knocking on the door will stir the dogs. (Barking will wake her). He would call at late hours as well, like 9:00 PM. We told him he had to stop calling at those times because he was disturbing the kid. He continued. Many more annoyances happened over the next few months, I'll spare you the detail's I guess, but when we got to a point where it was hindering us too much, my wife wrote him a letter.
It basically said "Hey, we like you, and we can still be friendly and neighborly, but we can not continue to socialize this much. We are not social people, we have a toddler and run our own business and barely have time as it is. No hard feelings, we just need some space!"
This upset him dearly and it has been hell ever since. The next day he put stakes up in our yard, originating from the property line at the rear of the houses. It extended at an angle through our driveway. They were stakes with strings tied to them to "Show the property line". However all the houses on our street have the exact same property lines and dimensions. The basics of them are easily found online. He kept moving them farther into our property. He then Spray painted the Property line, while getting hot pink spray paint on my pop up camper, and the tires and wheels of my Jeep as well. His son came and apologized and moved the property line stakes that he put up to a "More appropriate spot". He then stated that he's surprised that the Neighbor (His father) Had not pulled a gun on us yet, and to be careful.
He then put up a Privacy fence in the front yard, only in the front yard, directly between us. The city was not happy with that and made him take it down. He moved it to the backyard, maybe on his property, but it looks like it's a few inches on ours. He hung a sign "No stupid people beyond this point" He then mulched between the yards and planted small pines.
He been coming onto my property, and yelling Obscene slurs and stuff at me, in front of my wife and child. I just keep telling him to get off my property. I called the cops once a couple months ago, and they told him to leave us alone, and stay in his yard. Today he's at it again, and I Just said "Neighbor, you need to get off my property, if not I will have to call the police again", as he was walking around my driveway and vehicles, with some strange person I've never seen or met.
​
I plan on getting a staked survey soon, but they are quite expensive, but the police both times have said there is nothing they can do. He's literally walking in my driveway and front yard, in front of my vehicles. I don't Know the right course of action outside the survey. I have a child, and I want her to be safe, but she can't go in her yard safely. I understand that he may be losing some mental capacity in his age, according to his son, and he smokes a TON of pot, but I don't want to be bothered, and I don't care what he does on his property, I just want him off mine for safety and Liability reasons.
Just looking for Help, suggestions, or direction.

Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
A few days after Kazue and Mordecai finished the fifth floor they had a set of visitors from Riverbridge which included a couple of surprises. One of those surprises was the inclusion of Brongrim and Nainvil with the set of guards coming in for training. The dwarf and half-orc had managed to negotiate a supervised parole where they worked for the city guards, and part of that duty was going to include training at the dungeon.
The other surprise was a visit from their sister-in-law, Hainako. Moriko’s little sister had been sent with a few sets of medicines for Kazue to try and report back on efficacy. Once satchel and note were delivered she hung out with them in the war room so she could watch the training group move through the dungeon.
The group had two recruits with only a basic level of training, which bogged down the team a bit. Mordecai sent out instructions to keep the challenge down to a minimum, but even so they only barely managed to scrape through the fourth floor and it was clear that they weren’t getting through the fifth floor. Mordecai was glad that they’d shown the good sense to call it off there, he’d have considered intervening if they’d tried to drag the newbies through the fifth floor, the chances of an accidental death were too high.
One side benefit of this particular group coming through was that Mordecai finally got to see what an expert gunner looked like. Brongrim’s fighting style was a skirmishing type that mixed pistol and short sword, and it allowed him to cover his reloading with attacks from his blade. It only worked because he also had his waxed-paper bullets readied in specialized bandoleers. You had to have everything set up for it, it wasn’t the sort of thing you could do on the fly and Mordecai could see where you had to dedicatedly practice certain movement combinations to bring gun and bandoleer into the right alignment without interfering with the rest of your movements. Still, the biggest flaw he could see in guns was the need to reload each shot that way, not that crossbows were any better really. Bows and slings both had much more fluid actions to ready the next piece of ammunition, but they also took more time to master, and neither could be used with only one hand.
Nainvil’s technique was a more straightforward style that focused on a two-handed grip for power, but with a light enough sword that he could free a hand for other uses and still be able to swing. That wasn’t a new variant for Mordecai, but all the styles and techniques of their visitors were being studied by the laganthros. Even if Mordecai knew most of them, there was no good way for him to try and teach every possible style, so he kept to the basics and let them practice and train to find their preferences. Though some of the works Moriko was bringing back included older copies of technique scrolls, maybe he should encourage Betty to study those and start her own school for laganthros.
They were the mundane type, with no learning enchantments or anything, but for the most part he preferred those anyway. Learning what you are actually doing was usually better than just having a combo or technique implanted in your head.
But that was for much later as the wagons were going much slower than Moriko on her own. For now, he made arrangements for everyone to have someplace to sleep for the night, including a private room for Brongrim and Nainvil. No special prizes however, since the group didn’t clear the dungeon. Getting bonuses for clearing everything was going to get harder as they grew, and Mordecai was fine with that. Technically it wasn’t required, he just liked doing it, but it also wasn’t something he wanted to be dealing with constantly.
Now he could turn his attention to something else that Hainako had brought with her. It was a commission and payment for a set of equipment, with some interesting measurements for the armor and cloak. Traxalim was who had sent the commission with her, but according to the note he was relaying the commission from someone else. The work wasn’t particularly hard, but some of the materials were unusual, and the payment included samples of them: Wyvern hide for the armor, Worg fur for the cloak.
The request also wanted a pair of daggers long enough he’d almost call them short swords, except that the specifications for the armor were for someone rather tall and lanky. The instant return enchantments for the daggers were a fairly common design so it was no trouble adding those to each dagger as well.
On top of that was a full gear set complete with an Expanded backpack. It had just about everything one could want for exploring the world and surviving in a range of environments. It was like baby’s-first-adventuring-kit, except most folk couldn’t afford this level of gear when they first stepped into the world of explorers and mercenaries.
It wasn’t enough to keep someone incompetent alive, but it would make the job easier for someone new at it. And all the major components had a rather interesting insignia attached or inscribed in some way: A wolf with three horns. He had no idea what that meant.
But it didn’t matter, the dungeon had gotten some new materials to add to their repertoire, some more raw materials for the laganthros to work with, and a few new small animals that had been easy to carry in a cage this far. It was a fair trade. By the time the group was awake the next morning the dungeon’s part of that trade was complete. And when they had left, it was time to begin on the sixth floor. “Are you ready love?” He asked Kazue.
.
This was a bigger section to do all at once than she’d done before, but after talking it over with her husband Kazue rather liked the idea. They’d gone straight down so far, each floor looping back under the floor above it, but now that they were down this deep there was no reason to not also expand horizontally. The end of the fifth floor was approximately under the end of the first floor, this left them ‘pointing’ back under the mountain. So this time when she gathered energy to push their home complex down, she also pushed ‘out’.
There were a couple of design changes as well. Looping back and forth had made it simplest to bring the two paths back to each other at the end of each floor, and they’d used the stairwells down to keep them isolated. But there was no simple stairway between the fifth and the sixth this time. While the last door for each side could still either lead forward or reroute back up to the start of the sewer path, the forward paths merged into a meandering and slowly widening tunnel.
The tunnel opened up onto a wide, well-lit cavern that was almost meadow-like, excepting only that the ground cover was of a similar makeup to fungal floor five. At the far end of the meadow was a basin that would become a vast lake once filled, and at the shores of this lake-to-be was a large village once more occupied by laganthros. Only this time it was set to be a more well-rounded village, with a clear mix of potential combatants and noncombatants. A well-trod path lead toward this village, complete with a sign saying “Lapin Lake Village”.
At the other end of the basin that was slowly filling with water the lake was split by a large peninsula that ended at the far wall. This signaled the divergence of the paths again, with two underground rivers splitting off from either side of the peninsula. This entire setup meant that at this stage people could decide to switch paths, though they would be obligated by the rules of the new path that they chose.
This did run some risk that someone might try and trick their way this far by taking the non-combat route to conserve their resources before switching, but they would still need to be well-armed to tackle further combat so it seemed unlikely that she or Mordecai would be unable to spot them and call them out on it. And they did intend to offer it up as an option for those who had cleared the fifth floor of the combat route previously and that were in good favor with the dungeon.
The village itself was the first challenge in progressing, as the laganthros were going to be building docks and boats, and the boats could be either sold or rented with a guide who would help pilot them. For the absolute cheapskates, they could even do a short rental to get them to the peninsula, where there were plenty of both normal and mushroom trees to potentially harvest and make their own rafts or boats from.
This was also an optional challenge and reward as some of the vegetation and fungi here were rare or valuable, if you knew how to identify and harvest it.
As for the rest, well, for the moment they had a pair of fairly simple rivers that led to another lake, though this one just had a sandy shore to pull up onto. Filling the floor out was a future endeavor, but the layout was ready. And now their home was even further under the mountain itself.
Kazue had been careful with this by using a trick Mordecai showed her, probing ahead with their mana as she sought to claim more territory. Running into worked stone or large caverns would have felt different and let her pull back before she fully claimed that area. Even if they had a perfect map of the dwarven kingdom, and right now they had no map at all, there was always a chance that something else lived down here.
Well, actually, there had been plenty of that. But those were all simpler underground creatures, and she’d been able to invite them into her dungeon’s ecosystem or as inhabitants. Kazue surveyed her work and was quite pleased with herself. Mordecai approved as well, but she realized then that he’d been partially distracted while she worked on their next level. Before she could ask about what had taken up his attention, his mental voice became excited.
“Kazue! Take a look at this. Focus on the aura of any of your dire rabbits on the first floor. Look at the whole thing.” He seemed to be eagerly anticipating something, so she followed his instructions with curious confusion.
What he wanted her to see quickly became obvious. Some of their mana was flowing into all of their inhabitants, enough to leave her a little hollow feeling given how much they’d just spent, but it was having an interesting effect, one that was most dramatic in the simplest creatures. She could see energy sparkling along the pathways of their brains, the individual components compacting into more efficient forms, then multiplying and creating more complex pathways.
Their auras fluctuated in response to these changes, their very spirits being altered by this physical change until suddenly collapsing into a denser, stronger form of spiritual energy. Every single one of her wonderful creatures now had a spark of true sentience in them, complete with the rise of a soul! A quick check verified it even applied to the clockwork creatures in the library and the spiders on the fifth floor, though not the simpler, reactive vegetative fungi.
This was great! They’d always been able to communicate ideas and concepts to all their inhabitants, but this would allow deeper, language-based communication! Though closer examination revealed that the mental capacity upgrade only barely breached that level, it would in many ways be like talking to a not particularly bright child. On the other hand, the upgrade seemed to affect all but the smartest of her inhabitants to some extent. Which meant Horace and a small percentage of the laganthros.
Hmm. And Mordecai seemed pleased but not particularly surprised. Kazue’s thoughts focused on him with suspicion only to be met with amusement, so her avatar stirred from where they were cuddled on their bed and bit into his shoulder.
<<Previous Start Next >>
My Discord if you would like to talk about the book or see what else I am up to.
My Patreon if you want to support me directly.
Also to be found on Royal Road.
$3 Patreon: Early chapters, lore excerpts $5 Patreon: Short Stories $10 Patreon: New stories not published anywhere else (Until after I finish this story at least)

Hello everyone. I am(27F) working in IT industry in a well known international company and was looking for a job in Europe for a long time now. Recently I have got offer from a company, but then I talked with my manager about the offer and she said it’s possible for me to change my position within the company to another country and she said she will support it. So I rejected the other one, I wasn’t feeling it anyway.
Then out of blue an opportunity came up, and someone(from European country) left the position who works in the same project as me. Now I am in the process of that position in that European country at my current company. By process I mean I only applied for it. But the chances are really high, because I have already been working with the manager for a year now, who is the manager of the open position. And if I got the job, I will be doing the same tasks as I do now in the same project. So kinda only the location will change. Some of the inputs:
-we are already having bi-weekly meetings with the manager, since I am supporting the project that his team is responsible, but he is not my direct manager or anything -he openly talks about the process and lets me know about the updates, when the interviews will start etc. -I know everyone in the team where the open position is, I join the team events -here I work with a toxic colleague(kinda) in the project and it’s not gonna change for at least 2 years.
Pros: + I know the people, they are okay + I will be doing the same tasks + it might look better in cv for continuity + comfort zone + almost always home office + city is okay + well known company
Cons: - Toxic project manager - not gonna be like a fresh start, idk - company is a little traditional
And meanwhile I was also applying for other positions. And one of the companies, which is a well known company, sent me an interview. It’s an IT job but not in the IT department. And it went really well. After a while they sent me the second interview but they want to do it in person, so they will be buying the flight tickets and making the hotel reservations etc. But the thing is I didn’t mention that I am in the process of another position in my current company. Okay, they asked, and I kinda lied. Because I thought it might affect the interview in a bad way. I am sorry, I feel bad. Anyway. Now I am not sure if I should go to this interview. Because it’s gonna make it really hard in case I decide to reject it, because of all the expenses they are gonna make.
Pros of this job: + well known company + fresh team + I got the good vibes from people in interview + challenging, hence self-development (or mental breakdown lol)
Cons: - the city is really really small - I will be working kinda alone, there will be no one to support me with my technical questions if I stuck somewhere, and it kinda scares the hell out of me, I have a really low self confidence - they want me to go to the office almost everyday for at least 4-5 months to learn things, but normally they work 2-3 days from home in a week
So neither of them is certain. But if they offered me the position the conditions will probably be the same, because they both are in the same union. But I don’t care about the money much. My mental health is more important. So given these inputs the first question is should I go to the interview? Second question which one sounds better? Here I am asking for advice from strangers, because I unfortunately have no one around to advise me, so I would appreciate any comment. Thank you and have a nice day.

Out there - Patreon (for all those curious or wanting to support :))
At the Beginning
Adventure Arc - Arc 2
Wilderness Arc - Arc 3
Academy Arc - Arc 4
Previously on Leveling up the World…
 
PERSONAL AWAKENING
​
Orange clouds floated on a purple sky. There had been a time when Dallion would have found such a sight breathtaking, or at the very least remarkable. Now, it was just another day in his realm. Sitting at the top of Onda’s tower, Dallion stared into the distance.
“Hey, old man!” the teen nymph shouted. “You’re messing up the look!”
If there was one person whose arrogance had grown along with Dallion’s it was Onda. The hammer guardian had always seen himself as a genius and, thanks to the Moonstone in the realm, his opinion of himself had grown even further.
“You’ve no idea how much time and skill it took to get it right!”
Funny. Up to today, Dallion hadn’t minded the attitude. In fact, he hadn’t even noticed it.
“I need some assistance,” he said, glancing down.
At the comment, the guardian froze. There was a spark of emotions within him that was quickly subdued.
“She said not to encourage you,” Onda whispered.
“Harp?” Dallion split into a few instances and looked around. “I won’t be doing anything reckless,” he said with a sigh. “It’s forging related.”
“Forging?” The guardian didn’t sound convinced.
“A while back, you said that there are more complicated things than crafting metals. I want to learn magic crafting.”
“Magic crafting?” Onda shivered slightly while saying the magic word.
“Whatever the proper term is. I know you can do it, so—”
“Can’t.” The guardian quickly interrupted. “She said no magic.”
“Seriously?” Dallion grumbled. “Harp!” he shouted in the direction of the harpsisword’s tower.
Other than a few waves, there was no reaction. Harp was determined not to meddle in his development, and that included not helping him with anything magic related, at least for the time being. After what had happened in Lanitol, Dallion would have thought that he’d be given a pass for reasonable requests. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.
In all honesty, his request wasn’t exactly safe or random. The thought of challenging the archduke’s son had made him remember the duel they’d had back in Nerosal, including the origami weapons the noble had used. Creating such a weapon would be very beneficial in more ways than one. For one thing, Dallion was considering upgrading Lux’s home. Having the firebird follow him about like a bladebow with kaleidervisto sights was starting to get bothersome.
“What about enchanting?” Dallion asked. “I’ve already done that many times.”
The nymph shook his head.
“That was temporary.”
Maintaining his calm exterior, Dallion waited for a short while longer, then left his realm. The first thing he felt was a wave of air hitting him in the face. Moments later, his senses returned to normal.
Normally, entering a realm while flying wasn’t the best of ideas, but it didn’t count while on a cloud fort. Initially, Dallion had wanted to avoid the fuss, but when the squad of furies within the cloud had offered to take them, the choice was made for him.
Aware of their emotions, he knew that the offer was extended mostly because of Diroh. While guard furies assisted mages, they rarely went out of their way to catch up to one mid flight. The rumors of her being royalty must have spread.
“You can rest a bit,” the fury told Dallion. He was a seasoned veteran who didn’t have time for all the rank bullshit. “We won’t reach the Academy till tomorrow.”
One additional day. If Dallion had continued flying on his own, he’d have been there by now.
“Any news?” he asked, suppressing a yawn.
“Where do I start? The Azures are gathering armies in the northeast. Mages too. I’m expecting a major clash in a month at most. The new archduke is also positioning her forces. Now that she’s been given the new spot, she can’t afford to mess up.”
It was tempting to crack a smile. It would be nice if Priscord got humiliated in the upcoming battle, but that was unlikely to happen. The emperor had picked her for the position, which meant that he’d back her up with some of his legions. Losing two archdukes in the same area wasn’t something that would look good.
“Lots of crimsons are also there,” the fury continued. “At least we get to enjoy the skies here for a while.”
Dallion nodded. He, too, was going to join them.
“A bunch of rogues formed a new enclave in the west. It’s out of the empire, so no one’s bothering for now. I told some of your lot that it’s a mistake. No one listened.”
“Someone will take care of them.”
The west, at least, was deprived of any presence. Only the Order was slowly spreading in that direction. No wonder the last Star had made his stronghold there.
“There’s been a few skirmishes in the southeast, but nothing major. The Alliance is keeping the Azures in check. Only minor kingdoms are poking about, trying to get themselves noticed by one of the powers.”
“Yes, everyone’s choosing sides.”
That was true and things were only going to get tougher. Settlements, cities, even small countries were quick to ally themselves to one of the three powers. Even before the war began, several of the minor players had made their intentions known. Most had allied to the empire. Now that its position was shaky, they were looking at the other options. It didn’t end with whole settlements either. Guilds and trade organizations had been moving about, going further to the heart of the empire or out of it. Even hunter dens weren’t immune.
Before leaving Lanitol, Dallion had flown by the structure out of a feeling of nostalgia. What he found was an empty lot. He had expected some of the hunters to have gone—there were many dwarves among them. Yet, the building was missing as well. A more optimistic person might have assumed that the hunters had found a way to take their den as they left the city. In reality, it had likely been absorbed by the overseer. Neutrality was a dangerous notion, especially if those proclaiming to be neutral were strong.
“Over a dozen ghost towns have formed on the border,” the fury said. “If they remain too long without a master, the wilderness will take them.”
“That’s how it usually works.”
The fury glanced at Dallion sideways, but didn’t add anything more. It was obvious he wanted to know more about the fury, just as it was obvious that Dallion had no intention of sharing. The moment of calm had given him a while to relax, and now that adrenalin had loosened its grip, less immediate concerns had resurfaced.
Prophecies, he said to himself. So far, he had heard two. The first had come from a nymph sheet acquired years ago. The dwarf hunter who had found it swore that an otherworlder would bring to the end to the world, or at the very least a substantial change. When combined with what Cleric had shared, the worst might have come to pass. It was Dallion who had made it possible for Adzorg to construct his device. If he found the final pieces, he might pop the barrier between worlds like a soap bubble, letting void creatures pour into reality unimpeded.
If there was nothing you could do, the Order wouldn’t have sent you, Gen said from Dallion’s realm. There’s no point in perfect prophecies.
There is if all you need to do is hide, Dallion replied mentally.
If you’re hiding, you’re not doing it very well.
Dallion smiled. His echo had a suitable sense of humor, even if it didn’t help particularly right now.
“What about vortex gleams?” Dallion asked.
“Vortex gleams,” the fury repeated. “There’s talk of a few out east. The crimsons will know more. They don’t tell the rest of us much.”
“Right.” Dallion leaned back in the sea iron mesh that served as a chair. “Wake me up when we get to the Academy. Don’t stop for anything until we get there, not even assists.”
“You’re the mage.”
If the flight was eventful, Dallion never got to learn about it. Over a day, he spent the time sleeping. To a large part, that was to diminish the fatigue that had stacked up in the last six months. More importantly, though, he was hoping to have a Moon dream. With the curse, he hadn’t been getting anything that might help. This time was no different, although it didn’t bring nightmares either. All it brought was a whole lot of blankness: Dallion closed his eyes one moment, then when he opened them again, he was a few hundred feet from the battle mage building. According to the armadil shield, they had been there for hours, but no one had dared wake him up.
How nice of them, Dallion thought and sat up.
The fury on guard was new—far younger than the previous one, tasked with keeping the cloud stable. Everyone else, Diroh included, was gone.
“Where’s everyone?” Dallion cracked his back. Sleeping on war clouds wasn’t as comfortable as people assumed it would be.
“Your novice was escorted into the building, battle apprentice,” the fury replied, using Dallion’s standard title. “All your things were moved to your room as well.”
“And the furies?”
“They were sent out on another cloud. Katka ordered that we leave you to sleep undisturbed, so—”
“I get the picture.”
Dallion cast a spell, rising up from the cloud. Without a word of thanks, he floated straight to Katka’s room on the upper floor of the building, then went inside. The magic symbols on the walls glowed brighter as he passed. Recognizing him as belonging here, they remained in their present state.
The moment he flew in, the room widened, increasing tenfold in size. This wasn’t normal. Katka wasn’t a fan of modifications, preferring to keep things as they were. Ironically, that made many of the Academy mages see her as a snob. In their eyes, illusions weren’t good enough for her, since she resorted to getting the actual physical thing and bringing it here.
The current modification spell had turned the room into a modern Earth corporate office. There was lots of space, full of desks, cheap plants, water coolers and a glass walled meeting room at the far side. Looking closely, Dallion saw four figures gathered there.
Just great, he thought.
The archmage was present along with Katka. The other two were silhouettes made of cloud matter and water, respectively. That meant that the entire Shimmering Circle had gathered to discuss something. Since Dallion had joined, there had been only one similar meeting. Back then, the “woman” Dallion had seen in Gassil’s memory fragment had also been there, even if no one had formally introduced her to him. There were a few more instances in which she had taken shape to discuss something with Katka. As for the last member, he remained completely unknown. Dallion was aware of his existence, but nothing more.
“Dal,” the archmage’s voice echoed throughout the room, as if he were using loudspeakers. “Join us.”
Taking a deep breath, Dallion made his way to the door of the meeting room and went inside. The conference table was large enough to hold eight people. The seat next to Katka was left free, indicating he was supposed to take it.
“This must be important.” Dallion said, using his magic vision in an attempt to see the people behind the constructs. He was able to see the magic threads connecting the forms to invisible portals, but not what lay beyond. “First time I see everyone gathered.”
The sharp look the archmage gave him quickly told Dallion to tone down the humor.
“We heard what happened down south,” the man said. “What are your dealings with the Order?”
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Dallion said calmly. “Moon vows and all that.”
“Convenient.”
“What I can say is that the Azures tried to take out the archduke.” There was a moment’s pause. “And myself.”
“You were targeted?” Katka asked, more surprised than intrigued.
“I guess Grym is still mad at me for last time. They managed to put echoes in a lot of the people at the banquet. Most of them were normies, but there were a few awakened… as well as the local mage.”
“We know,” the archmage said. “Would have been nice to bring one of them alive for questioning.”
“Wasn’t my fault. The archduke absorbed all the evidence. I did manage to get the mage’s robe, though. If there’s anything to be learned, I’ll find it.”
“Such a marvelous ability,” the cloud woman said. “Sometimes you make me envious.”
“That’s not why I called for this,” the archmage hissed. “A messenger arrived from the emperor himself. The vortex gleam that was spotted not too long ago wasn’t the only one. As it turns out, it’s only a drop in the bucket. There have been twenty-seven confirmed sightings, but unlike the last one, the levels are much higher.”
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, consider joining my patreon or check out my other stories on redditserials:
The Scuu Paradox (a Space Opera Sci Fi)
The Cassandrian Theory (a Space Opera Sci Fi)
The Impeccable Adventure of the Reluctant Dungeon (Dungeon Core Adventure Comedy)
Uncharted Waters (An Urban Fantasy Detective Noir)

TL;DR version: Company is in a bind and needs an assistant managemanager ASAP. I can do the job with no training needed starting next week and going until the fall when I start school again. How do I leveraged the situation in my email offer to take the job to get the best deal?
The long story:
I've been with this company for 15 years, including as an assistant manager for 1.5 years. I recently took a part-time role at a new store so that I could take a part-time teaching position. I've been at the new store since September and it has been a RIDE. The manager who hired me here got transferred to another city the week I started, and we've had a revolving door of new managers in the months since, of varying quality/competence (I think we're up to three now?). I've kept my head down during this, and focused on my section of the store except for critical circumstances. I've consciously avoided doing management tasks, though I have agreed as a resource for the new managers on institutional knowledge. Now the store's ASM (who's been passed over for promotion at every step) had been named Acting Manager, and the company is apparently haven't trouble hiring someone to fill the management vacancy. I can step into an Acting ASM role basically immediately, as school is finished in two weeks. I've yet to talk to anyone but the acting manager about taking the role, and she's supportive of me going for the best pay I can. How do I frame all this in an email to our district manager for the best chance of success?

My husband and I closed on our first house one year ago today! We paid $385k ($50k over asking). House is a 3bed/1 bath with a fully fenced in backyard, and new roof,new condenser for the central aihvac, and new water heater installed within the year prior to us purchasing. We also have a finished basement! We are in a shoreline town in southwestern CT. House is on city water and uses natural gas We were not married at the time of purchasing and used a VA loan with our approval amount being based solely on my husbands income. We have a 5% interest rate and chose to put 3% down, though we know we didn’t need to do that. Mortgage and property tax is just about $2,700 a month. Veterans United approved him for $500k originally, which we thought was bananas. We make about $200k combined and have no other debt (my student loans are paid off, both cars paid off, he used GI bill to go to school), and feel comfortable with our current payment. We went into the home buying process looking for a 3bed/2bath with an absolute max cost of $400k. Our house was the 3rd offer we submitted, originally we were not the offer they accepted! Financing on the offer they had accepted fell through and we had asked our realtor to tell them keep us in mind as a back up just in case. Well, we got a call that their first offer fell through and our realtor asked if we wanted to proceed with our original offer, we said yes! Closed 30 days later. All of the work we have done on the house in the past year has been entirely cosmetic. Paint in almost every room, ripping up carpet (to find perfect hardwood underneath!), and some landscaping (beautified the fence, redid the fire pit, built a vegetable garden). We know this won’t be our forever home, but we hope to be here another 5 years or so. I’m currently 17 weeks pregnant with our first child, eventually we know we’ll outgrow the home. In the meantime we’d like to see if it’s possible to put a half bath in the basement, this will likely be the most costly project we decide to do, but think it will add value to our quality of life as our family expands. I can’t believe it’s been a year already, time flies!

I want to ask this since me and my coworkers at the store have been talking about this and wondering if our store is going to close one day. And we've been at this for like a year and so we've been working here because of how the store has been operating for the past few years and even more so now with the state it is.
To give context, I worked in a Macy's in one of the cities in Texas. I know Macy's has been closing their stores and on the way out, so it’s one of the major reasons why I am asking this since I wonder if my store is going to be the next hit. And this isn’t a big Macy’s store. It's like a one floor Macy’s in an outside mall.
We get lots of traffic on the weekends, but on weekdays the store is totally dead from what I hear(I only work weekends).
So the reasons why my coworkers and I are speculating whether our store is closing or not is because of the things we've been seeing and experiencing. Also, being asked by other customers too in the past.
Obviously the lack of hiring new people and our store being short staffed so much that few of my older and long-term co-workers that worked longer than me are being fed with the store to the point due to being overworked that they are considering leaving(one or two of them I know had actually quit). We had other younger coworkers leaving since the holidays due to various reasons (internships, being fired, quitting etc).
We also had managers quitting as well for different jobs within a year but they do get replaced.
But our store had not shown any effort to replace the regular employees. Which led to our store becoming more of a mess and more responsibility being thrown on us to get everything done like go backs, cleaning, reticketing, markdowns and a whole bunch of stuff that we cannot get done if we’re checking people out at the same time.
Then when it comes to our sales, it has been the worst we've ever been at our location since apparently we scored very last in selling Macy’s credits and bronze. And that made the higher ups force our managers to grind us to get Macy’s by watching over our backs for an hour and forcing us to “sell the benefits” to customers(Basically tell them why they should get a Macy's like telling them “they get 20% off” whatever useless stuff they buy). Which gets very annoying and exhausting real quick with how long it is checking people out depending on what they buy and requests.
But now they stopped doing that. And went completely lax on it.
Last I heard the reason why they stopped doing it is because the store is going through a “reset” due to us NOT reaching our credit goals again last month. I guess either that means they’re not pushing hard anymore because of that or they lost faith in this store.
And seeing how Macy’s did badly in their quarter report due to the recession(like no duh), I wonder if we are going to see stores closing again soon like next year since I do not see them closing down stores before the holidays and wonder if mine is next due to us possibly underperforming.

I could really use some advice because i'm honestly feeling gaslit. So I (m35) met this friend(f27) on a dating app around ten months ago. After our first date she displayed some behavior that made it very apparent that we were completely incompatible romantically. I still thought she was a cool person aside from that and wanted to be friends. While she was initially disappointed, we quickly became very close, even best friends. We talked a lot but honestly hung out only a few times total, because literally all of her free time was taken up by dating a bunch of different guys. I of course have no problem with her dating people. That would be weird to say the least. The problem ended up becoming apparent, in my opinion, as her inability to balance dating and friendship. This point of view only became clear to me after I went on a trip a few months ago.
A couple of weeks before the trip she invited me to a st patricks day event. I was going to return from my trip before st patricks day and she was aware of this. During the trip we kept in touch with her saying how she can't wait for me to get back. When I got back I was feeling mentally pretty crappy. It felt like the trip had pointed out things in my life I needed to change. Some sort of existential ennui. I messaged her on a messaging app letting her know I was back, we exchanged multiple messages back and forth in under two minutes in which she stated she was happy I was back “Although idk when ima see u but still.” st patricks day was in a few days. I was like “wait what?! I thought you invited me to your st patricks day thing?” she then set her status to invisible and did not reply for three hours, until I eventually texted her that I needed to talk to her. When we got in touch, she answered asking what was up, appearing completely oblivious to the situation. I was polite and asked how she was, as she acted as though she had no idea what I wanted to talk about. She sounded strange, very flat, in my opinion. Honestly she sounded like she had been caught or something. But maybe that was just in my head. After the awkward mechanical platitudes were exchanged, I inquired about the st patricks day thing. she then non-nonchalantly stated that is was actually last week and that she didn't go. She did mention that she had a date that weekend of course. If there was an apology it was so brief and emotionless I don't remember it. I was quite hurt by the entire situation, and it was clear in my voice. I ended the call. She then messaged me asking if I was ok. We ended up having another conversation soon after about how I was feeling but I only spoke about the problem of my ennui, but not my biggest problem at that moment, her behavior. Later that night after the call I decided to travel some more. The next day I spoke with her about her handling of the situation. I repeated myself multiple times in an effort to let her know that I was hurt by her actions and didn't think what she did was ok. After initial defensiveness she finally seemed to accept fault and and became apologetic. She then said “we are going to hang out when you come back, when are you coming back?” I gave her the date and after my reply she said “it's gonna be our weekend we're gonna do xyz fun things.” The convo went on longer after that. just regular friend stuff. This was two weeks from my return date.
After returning from my trip in the middle of the week I messaged her. At one point I brought up our plans for the weekend. she then said that she couldn't hang out. She had a date that weekend on the day I was expecting us to hang out. I was shocked. I asked her if it was a bad joke. She loled and replied no, the guy was cool and they had been talking for a while. This time I was pissed, but felt like there must be something I'm missing. She can't really be doing this. I called her the next day rather than that day, in an effort to talk in a better, calmer frame of mind.
Now according to what her online “friend” later told me, she had been telling him that she wanted to be with him romantically for quite some time. She had previously told me not to mention anything about her dating to him. I found that an odd dynamic between “friends” but not my business. Also, they met online I believe when she was 14 and he was 21. I don't know. maybe that's neither here nor there.
Anyways apparently, he had found out about her dating very recently. They had apparently had a fight over it the night before and he had said some cruel things. She believed their “friendship” was over. Shortly thereafter is when I got in touch with her, Unbeknownst to me.
When she picked up my call she sounded strangely flat again, and again acting completely unaware of any problem. Exactly like before in my opinion. I was deliberately non-accusatory, asking her about her understanding about the previous situation in an attempt to see what her thought process was that would lead her to do a very similar thing two times in a row to her “best friend.” She then said she didn't recall me saying much about her actions being a big problem. All she really remembered was my travel ennui. I tried to explain yet again how it wasn't cool then, and it was even less cool now - in the calmest least accusatory way possible, but her demeanor was unchanged, emotionless, and totally unapologetic. What was worse is she started getting defensive about the previous incident all over again. After a while I became angrier and began to mirror her disposition. She explained that apparently when we talked, she didn't mean that we were going to hang out the weekend when I returned. She meant at some unknown point in the future after I got back. A week from then, a year from then, who knows. After she told me it was ok if I was disappointed, I corrected in a calm tone that i was "pissed." She graciously said that that was ok. She gave me a very brief, very half-assed very emotionless, “sorry for the miscommunication.” I could practically hear a shrug in her voice. I was in disbelief of her coldness and lack of caring as we sat there in silence for a while before I ended the call. That is where the messages start (i did link them in an AITA post). The tldr of the conversation can be summarized by the first 5 exchanges
her:i know I was non-chalant but I just had a friend breakup I care about our friendship, me:then you should have told me that because I just wrote off our friendship, her:yeah i'm sorry he was really mean to me, me:i'd rather feel physical pain than emotional, I can't have you hurting me like this i'm trying not to cut you off emotionally right now, her: “I know and i share that shutting down. And thats why i feel like youre already trying to shut me out but OP thats not fair. Im going to make mistakes. Im human. What matters is owning it, you sharing with me openly the problem ive caused, and you have to forgive me because i would hope by now youd know i am NOT other people. I am not those people. I essentially mentally kill myself when i fuck up and i dont need you to add to it[...] I always feel very deeply when ive caused any issue for anyone or made a mistake big or small so you being really hard on me is unhealthy for me and very hurtful. I need you to express your issue which you have now done and let me take it and apologize and you forgive me because you know me better than that OP.” I can't accept someone saying sorry I care so much while simultaneously being defensive, telling me i'm in the wrong for saying anything, and telling me that I need to instantly get over it - as an apology. The conversation ended with me telling her to just get some sleep and we can talk about it later.
A day passed without communication. The day after that she messaged me if we were going to hang out the next weekend or not. Her intent was to ask me if I was over it, or if she needed to replace my presence with the guy she had not yet gone on a date with, and didn't even know if she liked (it was confirmed by her during our next call weeks later that this was the meaning behind her inquiry, with her admitting to it being “bitchy”). On the day of the first call I didn't want to exacerbate her stress. I wanted to give her time to recover from her emotional distress and have a proper conversation later, and hopefully a proper apology. The problem is she never changed her tune from that first day. The subsequent messages over the span of two months was the result of my efforts to properly address the situation. In my opinion it was nothing but her refusing to talk about it, minimizing all her actions as a “miscommunication,” telling me i'm really the one responsible for the ongoing conflict for needing to talk about it and that my feelings aren't valid, and her asking if I want to hang out like normal. When we finally did talk, it was like pulling teeth to get her to see how anything she did was wrong when it came to her handling of the situation. To get her to see everything as more than a simple miscommunication. Asking her how she would feel if I had done x,y, and z as she did. After I finally managed to get her to see some wrong, she explained that she too was “pissed.” Pissed at me from day one, and remained pissed at me the whole time. She was pissed at me - because I was angry with her about her actions and response when confronted about them. So in response to having to be dragged kicking and screaming into seeing/admitting some tiny modicum of fault, and giving me the most forced, single sentence, half-assed apology, she then asked if I could understand her point of view of her being pissed at me. I absolutely can not. is the way she handled this situation worthy of ending a friendship. or should I just “get over it” as she has been directly saying and implying ever since the beginning of the issue? how can i make her see my point of view?
TLDR, I feel like my friend was careless about my feelings and was willing to throw our friendship in the trash for every random guy in the city. After raising the issue, I feel the way she reacted with defensiveness, indifference, and passive aggression was pretty much as bad as it gets. Is this worthy of ending the friendship or should I just “get over it” like she says.

After digging into literature, I found that the story of the legendary knight Cid Campeador, sounds to me like the story of a mercenary Mechwarrior, instead of the usual legend that shows him as a religious warrior. It does not take too much to export this story to Battletech universe, and indeed I plan to add a version of him to my Mechwarrior Destiny game at some point.
The following is a summary of "Historia Roderici" an old Spanish text that may likely be inaccessible to English speaking readers, not only because of language barrier, but also because of the ancient Spanish words that are difficult to understand even for modern Spanish speakers. You will discover that Cid Campeador was not a religious hero, but a merc.
I believe it could be used as source material to inspire a novel.
Sorry about the long read, but it still shorter than the original "Historia Roderici".
------------------------------------------------
Rodrigo "Ruy" Díaz de Vivar is also known as Cid Campeador, and some people believe he was a religious hero but others see him as a mercenary. The oldest biography is "Historia Roderici" in 1190 when the Castillan warrior had passed away 80 years ago. This biography was made popular via minstrels, and it incorporated many fictional episodes that composed "Cantar del Mio Cid" around the year 1200. For example, there is no evidence that Rodrigo had 2 swords called Tisona and Colada, and a horse called Babieca. He had 2 daughters but they were not named doña Sol and doña Elvira.
Spain was invaded in the year 711 from the south and only a small strip was left at the north where Christian kings would seek a safe haven. The invaders ruling lasted for 800 years but these years also were full of internal disputes, just like in the Inner Sphere.
The war in Spain was always portrayed as a holy war, like a Jihad. This was the time where the term "pariah" was born. The non Christian rulers paid tribute called pariah to Christian kings in exchange for protection. And that was the historical context of eternal war.
Rodrigo was born in the small town of Vivar, near Burgos. His father was a low rank noble, but his mother was from the elite of nobles, daughter of count of Oviedo. The last name Diaz indicated he was son of Diego. When he was 10, his father died, and he was sent to the court of Fernando I de León, to complete his education with the sons of the king. One of the sons, Sancho turned Rodrigo into his page and became close friends. He receives high education and learned to fight. He knew how to read and write, something very uncommon.
When Rodrigo was 15 he went with don Sancho to Zaragoza, a territory which was under the protection of Fernando I de León in exchange for pariah. Ramiro I de Aragón uncle of Fernando I de León wanted the land under protection, and this is how Sancho and his "mesnadas" (forces under command of a lord) went to help. Ramiro I not only was defeated, but also died.
When Fernando I (ruler of Galicia, León and Castilla) died, he distributed his kingdom among his 5 sons instead of having a linear succession, because Alfonso, his second son, was his favorite. Sancho ruled Castilla and had the right to collect the pariah of Zaragoza. Sancho did not like the distribution of land, as he felt he should have been the heir of the whole kingdom. He entered a conflict with his siblings. Rodrigo ended up being in charge of the army of Sancho. In his first one on one match defeated the Alferez of Navarra kingdom, Jimeno Arcés. This is where he earned the title of "campeador", which means he is a master of the battlefield.
After his mother died, Sancho started war against Alfonso. Rodrigo skill surfaced among all other warriors. Sancho won the battle, but Alfonoso escaped and did not surrender as agreed. Instead, Alfonso agreed to allow Sancho to conquer Galicia ruled by his younger brother García. García was defeated and was and outcast who escaped to the taifa of Sevilla. But that did not end the war with Alfonso. In the new battle, Rodrigo skill shined again. And Alfonso was defeated once again. Alfonso was an outcast too, and he went to the taifa of Toledo. The reunification war ended. But it would last a few months.
Zamora was ruled by his sister Urraca. Many nobles gathered there and they did not embrace Sanho as the king. Urraca supported them, and supported Alfonso. Sancho sieged Zamora for months, but it did cost Sancho's life at the hands of a Zamoran warrior, and not even Rodrigo could stop that. The killer pretended to defecte from Urraca city and earned Sancho's trust. The defector Bellido Dolfos was going to show him a weak spot in the walls of Zamora, and when Sanch went to the loo, the defector took Sancho's spear and killed him. Alfonso became king. García attempted to recover his kingdom but ended in prison where he died. Alfonso married Rodrigo with doña Jimena, relative of Alfonso and apparently Rodrigo was deeply in love with her.
Rodrigo was sent to collect Paria To Sevilla, and García Ordoñez, close friend of alfonso was sent to Granada. Granada ruler asked Ordoñez to attack Sevilla and that Rodrigo had to fight García Ordoñez and made him prisoner and set him free later. García Ordoñez accused Rodrigo of stealing a portion of the pariah of Sevilla, which are believed to be the gift of Sevilla ruler to Rodrigo for defending his land.
Alfonso went to Taifa of Toledo, and Rodrigo was sick at home. There was an attack on a castle and Rodrigo reacted without asking for permission, chased the attackers who entered Toledo territory and Rodrigo took a huge loot, Alfonso was so upset because that destroyed Alfonso's plans to own Toledo without a fight. García Ordoñez presented this to Alfonso as an attempt to make people from Toledo to kill Alfonso. So Rodrigo became an outcast, and he was exiled and had to make a living. Along the road, many men joined him. He went to Zaragoza to offer his services. Now Zaragoza should not have to pay pariah to different kingdoms for protection.
This contradicts the jihadist nature of Rodrigo as a religious warrior. After the ruler of Zaragoza died, his 2 sons also fought. Rodrigo stood in the side of Zaragoza, and the opponent sought help among the kings in the north. The enemy forces outnumbered Rodrigo's but he defeated them in the battle of Almenar.
An uncle of the ruler of Zaragoza, who was prisoner of Alfonso, earned the trust of the alcalde who controlled the prison, so the alcalde passed the message to Alfonso. The uncle offered him the castle of Zaragoza in exchange for paying the pariah to Alfonso. So Alfonso marched towards Zaragoza. But Alfonso this time was not ahead of the forces. He sent scouts who were killed. It seems that the uncle died while the expedition was on its way to Zaragoza, so the alcalde had the idea of becoming an ally of Zaragoza and tried to kill king Alfonso.
Later Alfonso met Rodrigo and Rodrigo told that he had no part in that betrayal, and Alfonso and Rodrigo went back to normal relations without hard feelings.
Alfonso managed to conquer Toledo and that meant a raise in the pariah for other taifas. But religious fundamentalist fanatics from northern Africa were asked to help and their fanatism made them fearsome. Alfonso had Zaragoza under siege, and Rodrigo did not want to fight Alfonso. But news came from the new invaders and the siege stopped. Then the battle of Sagrajas came, where Alfonso suffered a defeat. Alfonso had to escape to save his life. Rodrigo went to Toledo to offer his services to Alfonso.
Alfonso commissioned Rodrigo to take care of the invaders and conquer lands, and to collect the pariah from Zaragoza, which had Rodrigo working as a merc for 6 years.
But good relations did not last. During a campaign Rodrigo was supposed to reinforce Alfonso's forces, but Rodrigo did not arrive. Rodrigo was exiled for second time after García Ordoñez made the king feel betrayed. Alfonso took his property and made his family prisoner. Rodrigo begged and his family was set free. And he became a warlord in Valencia and fought against both sides.
Rodrigo suffered an attack and he took revenge against García Ordoñez and led an expedition to do exactly that and looted along his way. Alfonso gave away these lands and no one wanted to fight Rodrigo. Now the only enemies of Rodrigo were the invaders in the south who attacked Valencia and killed its ruler. Rodrigo sieged the city and help did not arrive so they surrendered, and Rodrigo self proclaimed himself prince.
The invader Almoraviles forces were obsessed with taking Valencia. And epic battles took place.

I am looking to get an apartment with my friends but there’s one thing I’m worried about.
The property manager offered a discount on rent if we sign within 48 hours. We’d also be in the apartment within the next 10 or so days.
It kinda is sketching me out especially since we’ve only seen a model and not the actual one we’d be getting since someone is still in there. Worried they are trying to get us in asap without us thinking it over.
I will say the model was very nice and they have very nice facilities and the outside of the building looked nice.
Maybe I’m overthinking things. But since this is my first apartment I wanted to see what others think.

Hey guys, I'm an international student from India who'll be attending Trinity College Hartford this fall. I would like to transfer out of Trinity to one of the T20s ( Harvard, Wharton, Columbia and Dartmouth are the dream ). I'm aware it's really hard for intls needing aid to transfer but I would like to give it a try. I have included my profile below and I like for you guys to go over it and give me advice to successfully transfer to a T20. I would also like to know what you guys think of my chances to transfer to these colleges.
PROFILE:
Intended Majors : Finance and public policy
*Academics: GPA- 98.3/100 ( ranked 3 out of 900ish ), Test scores- Test optional.
*Extracurriculars:

• Human Rights activist. Honored by district commissioner for my contribution towards protecting human rights in my city. 50+ campaigns organised. Impact is huge. Focused on children's right and right to education.
  
  • Interned at a T1 consulting firm in India as an assistant product manager.
  • Interned under an advocate at 'state' High Court. Youngest intern at the advocates office. Currently researching under.
  • Business Strategist (volunteer). Helped 12 rural entrepreneurs to start small businesses. $50K+ in annual gross profit. One of the factors that led to my district commissioner honouring me.
  • Captain, debate and declamaion team.
  • Student body president.
  • Owner of OZ paints. We sell art pieces created by underprivileged kids in my city. Installed computers in local gov schools with the profit.
  • Own a Formicarium in my backyard. 20+ ant species.
  • Family responsibilities. Had a really rough childhood.
  • Volunteer Teacher at a local primary school. Teach math and life lessons. Organise field trips.

*Background story: ( common app essay ) wrote about childhood trauma and how it influenced me to standup for human rights and how in the future I aspire to own an organisation that acts as a voice for those without one. It was mostly about what I did rather than just the trauma I had to go through.

Hi everyone.
To Kill a Predator is a work of fan fiction set in the Nature of Predators universe originally created by SpacePaladin15 whose Patreon you should subscribe to.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Depiction does not equal endorsement.
Hope you enjoy it!
[First] [Previous]
---
Memory transcription subject: Martin Russo, Human Refugee
Date [standardized human time]: January 10th, 2137
​
Without the girls, life settles into a boring rut. I talk to them as much as I can on the pad, but they’re busy on Earth, hitting the ground running.
There’s been a lot of ground to cover before they’re caught up to where everyone else will be, particularly for Vilek. She’s often had to pull double-claws of studying, working her fluffy ass off to gain a baseline understanding of psychology in record time. Thiva’s classes on VP by contrast have prepared her well for humanity’s relatively simple technology.
That, and they’ve had to get used to Earth. Earth food, Earth culture, and a planet full of omnivores with forward-facing eyes. I’ve been doing what little I can to help coach and encourage them.
For my own part I’ve been restless. Given that I’m not able to look for a job yet, that physical therapy kicks my ass every other paw, and that I’ve got nothing to do other than look forward to a half-hour of chatting with my friends… I’ve started up on software again. It’s something I can do even while laying prone. Particularly since I have a way to write without using my hands.
What do I do with that, anyway? I can read minds. I can even use the raw data from a full brain scan to extract memories. There’s got to be something useful to do with this. It’s practically the only part of this entire debacle I haven’t bothered telling the UN about.
Honestly after what I’ve been through, I can’t imagine trusting them, or the Venlil government, with this. Bastards would be prosecuting thought-crime by the end of the week.
​
Jarkim’s opened his business a couple of weeks back. Without an actual office, since he plans to simply operate out of Slavik’s farm. As I understand they tolerate it as long as he also helps out in return for food and board. I hope the arrangement works out for the both of them.
I gave Jarkim some help with his online presence. He wasn’t initially sure about the black and white picture of him in a fedora and a tie, or about the business name “Jarkim Krakotl, Private Eye”. But as soon as humans heard about Venlil Prime’s only Krakotl detective they’ve ended up coming to him with their problems.
He sent me a picture of his first solved case, some runaway kid who got lost and reunited with her mother. He was still wearing the hat. No tie, though.
​
Today is my paw off from Chasa’s torments, and it coincides with the launch of another exciting new business venture. So I take the time to visit Mosun.
“Hey Martin! Hold on a minute!” I see the Yotul wrangling a bunch of foam mats around the large, empty room. And its wall-length mirror. Fittingly the place look like the midway point between a dance studio and a martial arts dojo, except for the soft and spongy floor. It’s meant to safeguard against falls.
I glance around the room while he huffs and plops the last few ones down. There’s perhaps thirty-five or forty foam mats scattered on the floor. “So are you being optimistic, or did you get a good reception?”
He looks at me, bouncing with excitement. Though his ears signal a bit of nervousness. “Five Yotul have signed up so far! That’s almost half the Yotul in the entire town! And almost twenty humans! Hanya’s bringing a couple of Gojid friends too, and we’ve got a few Venlil coming along with their humans… Oh, and an Iftali, that was a surprise. Honestly I may be a little in over my head here; I’ve never taught crowds before! I’m not even sure how much will translate across species!”
“So you’ll be learning on the job. I have complete faith in you. Are the Exterminators going to give you any trouble?”
He barks a laugh. “Hah! No, Jarkim had a talk with the magister. I got permission from Vaska’s office to teach the classes in the name of cultural preservation, so those motherfuckers can’t touch me!”
I laugh as well. “You might need to censor your language a bit as a teacher.”
“Combat Dancing is about honesty and expression, Martin. If I can’t live it, how am I supposed to teach it?”
Well, he got me there. “Anything I can do to help?”
He glances at me, his voice gets a little uncomfortable. “Um, I don’t know. Can you carry heavy stuff right now?”
I shrug. “Probably not, no.”
“Then I’ll be fine. You’re not interested in taking the class?”
​
“I think my dancing days are over, for the foreseeable future.” I wryly lift my cane and wave it as a small reminder. It’s wood, and I’m quite fond of it. Chasa found a Venlil craftsman who wanted to be the first to make one for a human, and he made it out of the wood of some kind of tree called Lampan. The color reminds me of mahogany.
His ears droop a bit. “Ah yeah. How permanent is that looking?”
I shrug. “Finger dexterity on the right hand’s likely never going to be the same, but I’ll be able to play video games. Left arm should recover enough for daily use. Leg should get a full range of motion, but I won’t be going jogging. Thankfully I look dignified with a cane.”
He wags his tail teasingly and cocks his head as he regards me. “Do you? …Must be a human thing.”
“Piss off. Mind if I sit in on the class?”
“Of course not!”
Turns out first class of Yotul Combat Dancing is a quick demonstration, and then Mosun talking to the quite large and varied crowd. He talks about the history and cultural significance of Combat Dances to the Yotul, the philosophical underpinnings of the artform, and the mentality to be cultivated in practitioners.
Everyone is listening with rapt attention, and a few of the humans are even taking notes. When he opens the floor for questions, a Venlil asks “Isn’t this an expression of Predator Disease?”
To which Mosun answers “No. Next question?”
Which is honestly as much of a response as that warrants.
I talk with Hanya briefly after the class. She says that she’s been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that human therapy is helping her out. She even talks excitedly about piloting shuttles again, someday soon. I’m glad for her.
​
Once I get back to the house, there’s a man in a suit waiting for me. He’s tall, bald, and has very dark skin. I don’t recognize him. He extends his hand toward me, and I shake it. He speaks English with an African accent, instead of letting the translator handle it. I’d guess western Africa, but I’m hardly an expert. “Bamidele Adeyemi.”
“Martin Russo. Can I help you?”
He indicates the door. “May I come in?”
“Sure. My Venlil hosts aren’t home right now.”
“Of course.”
Once he’s been let in, and I’ve given him something to drink, I wait patiently for him to explain his presence.
“I am the UN liason to the district magister’s office.”
I keep my tone neutral and politely curious. “What happened to Robert McGinley?”
He keeps his tone neutral too, but friendly. He smiles at me. “It was decided that he should be replaced.”
Oh no. Anyway. “Alright. But… No offense mister Adeyemi, but why are you here?”
​
He takes out a pad. “I have some documents that the UN and the District Magister would like you to sign.”
I sigh inwardly and make a quite heroic effort to not sigh outwardly. I look at the pad briefly anyway. As I expected, it’s about making myself legally liable should I speak up about what I’ve gone through. “I’m afraid you are wasting your time. McGinley told me to sign papers like this too, and I told him ‘no’.”
He nods, entirely unsurprised. “I understand you signed similar documents over a smaller… altercation with the Exterminators. Why the difference of response, if I may ask?”
“Because the first time he threatened to have me thrown out of the refugee center if I didn’t.”
Bamidele’s eyes widen briefly. “I see. That does explain why you told him to ‘fuck off’.”
“Yes.” I pause briefly. “…You’ve been polite enough that I don’t want to use the same language. But.”
He laughs briefly. “Haha, yes, I understand. Different circumstances, yes? My predecessor tried the stick. I am here to try the carrot. So tell me, mister Russo, what will it take for you to sign?”
“There’s nothing that…” I pause.
I sit down. I’m briefly quiet. I miss my friends so goddamn much. I swallow, mouth feeling dry as I tentatively reach for the proffered lifeline. “I… hear Sweden’s lovely this time of year.”
He flashes his teeth at me in a broad smile and chuckles pleasantly. “Hehe, I thought you might say that. But… You do realize it is January?”
​
​
Date [standardized human time]: January 12th, 2137
​
The thought of leaving this wretched planet and its wretched food and its wretched government and its wretched ever-present sun makes me feel like I’m already back in Earth’s lighter gravity.
I ended up paying Chasa back for all the pain and suffering she inflicted on me: The largest gift basket I could find online, filled with fruits, candies, and preserves of both Zurulian and human origin.
When I wake up at the start of the paw, my arch-nemesis has sent me two pictures. The first one is a schedule to keep for the next couple of months. In the second picture she’s put pillows and blankets in the basket and is using it as a bed, a paw raised in goodbye.
If the medi-teddies ever learn to weaponize their cuteness, humanity is in real trouble.
Packing is easy. I don’t have a lot. A band shirt from when I went to see ‘Where Angels Fear’, a few bad sketches of fruit, my dad's chess set, my pad, and a neural scanner.
​
Date [standardized human time]: January 13th, 2137
​
The space flight actually lands directly in Sweden, somewhere north of the polar circle at a place called Esrange. I immediately realize that winter’s back on the menu, as the cold makes my left leg and arm ache like hell. It’s the dead of night, too… But I’ve missed night. So has everyone else, as despite the cold people are walking straight out into the snow to just stare up into the starry sky and stare in open awe at the sky, where the stars form a backdrop for the northern lights. I join them.
A poetic whimsy falls over me, making me grin at the cheesiness. It’s like the sky itself is welcoming us back home.
From Esrange we take cars to Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost city. From there it’s a long train ride south. I’ve gotten a sleeper cabin. With the generous stipend from the UN, I have no need to scrimp.
Even so, it takes significantly longer to travel 1400 kilometers across Sweden than it did to travel 16 light-years from Gliese 832. I’ve got almost twenty hours to appreciate the irony.
​
Date [standardized human time]: January 14th, 2137
​
I’m met at the train station in Lund by a man holding a sign with my name on it. His car takes me directly to the university. Everything feels very… ordinary, except I’m a bit dazed at having so many humans around me again.
We arrive a little before 8 in the morning. Excited students scurry to and fro, eager and hopeful for the first day of spring term. The driver is named Markus, and very kindly helps me find my way to my meeting. I’m left outside a door, standing around awkwardly.
The man I’m meeting with is Jonas Falck, and he’s the head of the department of computer science. While the UN has ‘encouraged’ the university to take me in despite it being so close to the term start, the decision remains with him.
I really wanted to see the girls first, but the meeting time was set for me. I desperately wish I had thought to shave beforehand. I’ve been using my beard to hide my weak chin, but it probably looks more unprofessional than-
“Hey, are you Martin Russo?”
Ah, I see.
Mister Falck is holding two cups of coffee and offers one of them to me with a smile. He’s got a full beard, a full belly, hair past his shoulders, and a pink hawaiian shirt to go with his khaki shorts and flip-flops. This man is clearly one of the most talented professionals working in the field today.
​
“So, do you mind if I ask…” He motions to my cane while I take a seat.
“How that happened?”
“Yes.”
“That’s classified. I’m not even joking.”
He nods once, like that was more or less what he expected to hear. He leans back in his chair, which creaks a bit, and takes a slow drink from his coffee while reading on his computer. “So you studied at Columbia University before the Bombing?”
“Yes.”
“And your family lived in New York?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He doesn’t say it unkindly, but he does say it as rote. ‘Oh you’re from one of the places that doesn’t exist anymore? Sorry to hear that.’
I nod awkwardly. “Yes.”
“And you were focusing on studying brain-computer interfacing?”
I feel like a recording. “Yes.”
“It’s very uncommon to add a student this late. The term begins today.”
“Yes.”
“We can’t provide housing for you on such a short notice, for one.”
“I have that handled, sir.”
He scrunches his face up. “Jonas, please. Americans are so formal.”
“Alright, er, Jonas.”
“So, Martin, what I’m asking for is a reason. To take you in right now, I mean, instead of next year.”
I nod. This is thankfully something I had planned for. My hand slips into my pocket, fingering the box holding the scanner electrodes. “Well, Jonas… I think there’s something you should take a look at.”
​
Handling paperwork and basic orientation takes most of the morning. I manage to get morning-and-evening classes to share my time off with the lambchops. That only works because most people don’t want evening classes. Evenings are for partying if you’re a student, so late classes are mostly for adults with jobs.
I end up standing around nervously by the entrance to the university building, counting down the time. I watch people passing by as calmly as I can, still checking my pad every minute or so for any messages and jerking my head around like a bird at anything that’s even a bit of a shade of gray.
I can tell the alien girls are coming even before I see them, since everyone is glancing curiously their way. I straighten my back and shift my weight from foot to foot. I feel like a dog at an airport, waiting for the return of its owner.
They’re looking around as I see them, and Thiva’s the first to spot me. Her ears perk up and Vilek immediately looks to me as well. As they speed up into a sprint, I’m a bit surprised to see them both wearing clothes. Both girls are wearing custom boots made to fit their digitigrade legs.
They’re both wearing coveralls, Vilek’s in a hospital teal and Thiva’s in a bright red. It’s been explained to me that many at the university have a student culture of wearing colorful coveralls that they decorate with patches, called ‘Ovve’, and that Thiva’s red marks her as a mechanical engineering student. Vileks’s teal, presumably, mark her as studying healthcare. Or specifically therapy, perhaps. I need to look it up.
Seeing as computer science students are apparently expected to wear pink ones, I’m thinking I might sit out this grand and colorful tradition. On the other hand according to the Internet it’s an informal rule to cut a bit from the ‘Ovve’ of anyone you’ve exchanged body fluids with and patch it onto your own. So I suppose I could be convinced.
The girls collide with me, thankfully gently. Their tails are wagging like crazy out of the back of their outfits, and they’re clinging to me. I inhale deeply, take in the distinct and pleasant scent of my cute Venlil friends, and cling to them as well. My fingers stroke through their thick fur, and I hear their happy wordless bleating and whistling.
I close my eyes and enjoy the moment, not giving one whit for the passersby watching the scene.
“Oh, girls, I-” Vilek punches me in the arm unexpectedly. The right one, thankfully.
“Ow!”
Even though her ears signal joy and her tail is wagging, her voice is still stern. “We learned what ‘lambchops’ means!”
Ah.
​
The student flat isn’t very expansive, but it’s larger than the one we shared on Venlil Prime. Probably because humans are just plain larger.
It’s currently sparsely furnished. There’s a couple of desks, a couch, a table, a beanbag chair, and a bunk bed. I take my shoes off in the hallway, as the girls do. When in Lund.
They help me unpack. There’s not a lot, but they had already set aside a little corner for me. I’ve got the beanbag chair instead of a desk, which I’m perfectly fine with.
I sigh and lean against a wall briefly. “I’m… so glad to be home.”
Thiva turns her head a little, flicking an ear in question. “You missed being on Earth?”
I chuckle, and pinch her ear-tip lightly. I lean over to give Vilek one too, for fairness. It earns me a pair of bleeps from them, and I go on the offensive to rub their heads and scratch their ears and do everything I can to make the lambchops squeal happily. They thankfully oblige. “I missed being with my herd.”
My friends are safe, they’re here with me, and we all have paths forward. I’ve fought and bled for this opportunity. I’m allowed to enjoy it.
I sit down on the couch with a quiet groan of satisfaction, finally getting to put my cane aside. “So, girls… how are you feeling about Earth so far?”
They grumble immediately. “It is so freaking cold!” “Snow! We do not like the snow!”
“It’s only for another couple of… Months.” They’re undressing right in front of me. I am left briefly stunned.
Oh right they don’t normally wear clothes.
Reminding myself of that doesn’t help. The context is what it is. They’re my best friends and my two favorite girls and they’re stripping naked before me.
My brain fails me. “…Okay, so, uhh. Um. Hmmh. Huh.”
Mother of God there’s nothing different! They’re naked. They’re always naked! It hasn’t been a problem on VP, it won’t be a problem here! Man up!
I take a deep and steadying breath and resolutely refuse to think of patches of white and red on a set of pink coveralls, with pink patches on their matching ones.
“I guess we should… buy some food? And some clothes for me to use? And…”
And they turn their heads toward me, staring at me with one eye each. Side by side. Making me feel like I'm being stared down by a single creature. One with forward-facing eyes. And an orange blush.
They take slow steps closer. Thiva speaks first with an amused lilt to her voice. “Or maybe this is a good time to talk. You know, about the house rules.”
Vilek speaks as well, moving her tail sinuously in a teasing motion. “Relationship statuses.”
Thiva comes in with the finisher, practically purring. “Sleeping arrangements.”
Ah.
​
---
And that's the end! Thank you all so much for reading, and check the comments for a small request from yours truly!
[First] [Previous]

Hello everyone! I just graduated recently and I'm looking for Supply Chain Internships and Jobs. Never had internship experience so I know it's going to be tough. Currently completing certifications and hopefully that will help! Please review my resume and any tips and suggestions are appreciated!
https://preview.redd.it/8zl8w58v785b1.png?width=728&format=png&auto=webp&s=18ca36afdca0b667d670a9752edaa47c15195d21

When booking a place in a city today, the listing said there was no onsite parking. Since I was driving there, I needed to find some place to park. I wanted to book a parking spot up front so when I got there I didn't have to find spend time looking for parking.
So I had to go and search around for parking nearby. It was an extended stay too so that made it even more difficult - I needed to find a place that had availability for a few weeks. Since the city where I was going to stay wasn't too far from where I'm currently at, I was able to drive into the city and look around. After 60 minutes or so I managed to find a parking garage nearby that had reasonable monthly rates. I had to call someone, go to some website, find the a garage nearby (fumbling through their non-intuitive UI) and book it.
How does everyone else go about finding parking nearby?