This past Saturday I had been working on my soon to be new home, and after a long day of labor I got home and immediately collapsed and went to bed. I live right outside of Wilmington Delaware, in a condo complex with a C- in crime score. Not particularly bad, not too good either. A convenient location right off the highway to get to the majority of east coast cities.
Sunday morning I woke up, took a shower, and then gunned for the door to go back to work on the house. I gave my wife and daughter a kiss goodbye, grabbed my phone, keys and wallet, and leave. As I’m approaching my car in the parking area I notice my door is slightly open… not a great sign. I opened the door and noticed my glove box and center console have been completely ransacked. Paperwork I had just gotten two days prior now laid dormant on the floor of the driver and passenger seat. I had also forgotten my day bag in the back seat.
It happened, my car had been robbed. Typically I’m great about locking my car door, Saturday night though, I suppose I missed a critical step in ensuring the safety of the contents of my car.
This is an important time in my life right now, I’m in the middle of a house purchase, work is going crazy, and my second kid will be here in two months. I brushed it off, told my wife what happened, and drove to the house I’m working on. During my drive I gave the Non-Emergency line a call. The gentlemen who answered was very kind.
He collected important information and asked for my location. I let him know that I was on the road and that it would be a few hours before I returned home. He asked that I gave the non-emergency line a call back when I’m home so they could send an officer out. Ugh. Now, in my life I haven’t had the best experience with police. Nothing directly involving me, but lots of second hand interaction and stories from family, so I was naturally inclined to assume the local police wouldn’t be useful. Admittedly, I wrote the entire situation as a loss, I felt hopeless.
Over the next few hours I took mental inventory of what was missing. Originally I had only thought that change and a Bluetooth speaker were missing, some of which was in my center console and others in the bag that was in my back seat. I began to fully remember what I had lost: An Android cellphone, an Apple iPhone, Bluetooth Speaker, home purchase paperwork, $10 in cash, and a few other things.
At this point I was mostly nervous about the iPhone, as it was a backup iPhone 12 I got some time ago which had all my Apple Wallet cards on it. Once I realized I logged into Find my IPhone and activated lost mode on the iPhone. I figured the best case scenario would be to ensure my data was protected. The evening settles in, I’ve accepted defeat, and head to bed.
This morning I clock on for work, and as I’m sitting in a work meeting I get a pestering notification on my phone. Lost iPhone has been turned on. I immediately open Find My iPhone to see the device had checked in, but then immediately was turned off. I was frustrated… not only did this person steal my property, they rubbed it in by trying to further use the device they stole.
Only for a moment however I was frustrated. I further read the information on my phone screen and a smile went from ear to ear. That minute or two the phone was turned on was long enough for the iPhone to pick up an address.
I was motivated at this point. I didn’t know what would happen, but I figured hey, what the hell, let’s give the non-emergency line a ring again. I called in, gave them a recap. They collected my information and let me know I should hear back soon. At this point I half expected the officer to tell me too much time had passed for anything to be done… but boy was I totally wrong.
Officer Thomas gave me a call and let me know that he was outside of my condo. He asked for a recap of the situation, what was taken, and if I had any additional information. I shared the Find my IPhone information. Officer Thomas had another officer come along to swab for DNA and collect finger prints off of my car - I was stunlocked! He then let me know that he was filing a warrant for the address listed on my Find my iPhone. I’m not sure what I thought would happen, but given what I was always taught, and believed, I thought I would have eaten dust.
After about an hour or two Officer Thomas and the officer taking DNA and finger prints finished up with me. I made more assumptions… I’m sure nothing will come of it, this is probably the last I’ll hear of it. Officer Thomas then proceed to send me several texts over the next few hours, he wants pictures of the Bluetooth Speaker, Pictures of my Bag, Cell Phone Serial Number, and various credible bits of information.
I scour my iPhone photos going years back finding the best pictures I possibly could for the items stolen. I sent some blurry and dark photos that I had taken, and then also some screenshots from Walmart and Amazon listings for the original items.
Again, I made assumption. I assumed he was just doing his typical paper work for his reports. Mind you, hours earlier I had also filed with my insurance regarding the situation, so at the minimum I was happy to have a police report for my claim.
A few hours pass and I get a missed call from Officer Thomas… I was playing video games and had my headphones up pretty loud. He took the time to text me however and let me know that they had recovered a phone, but it was smashed, and asked if I could send over the devices IMEI.
I sent the information, this time assuming that if they did actually goto the persons house there would be no way they were silly enough to leave a stolen phone right there.
A few hours later go by again, I received a call, and a third officer lets me know that he’s outside and that he’d like me to come out. I step outside and he lets me know that he believe he has my property. Officer Thomas was working overtime to get everything settled today so this officer was stepping in to help get everything tied up so he could go home. I was shocked. Jaw on the ground floored.
The iPhone was taken for evidence. I’m guessing the thief immediately smashed the iPhone once they realized it was out in lost mode. I got everything else back besides the few dollars of cash I had in the glove box.
The entire time I made assumptions against the police. Assumed they wouldn’t help, or weren’t able to. I was wrong every step of the way. Not only did New Castle Police impress me, but Officer Thomas was a godsend.
I cannot say how immensely shocked I am even now. I’m not sure what happened with the person who stole my items and broke into my car. I’d assume it’s more then a ticket, but I’ll have to find out next time I speak with Officer Thomas.
I just wanted to share my story. It may be benign to some, but it was a truly eye opening experience for me. These guys showed me they care about their jobs and their community.

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https://imgur.com/a/4jRPr1X?s=sms
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Hi,
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I am only selling through PayPal friends, family, trusted, etc… I have many confirmed transactions on here.
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I’m happy to provide pics for any items and detailed condition descriptions
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If it’s not listed here, it’s sold. Don’t base it on the pictures.
​
Shipping is free over $25, or $4 per item.
​
There is always room for negotiation, prices are based on market value, but there is wiggle room especially if you buy more than one game.
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​
***
Sega DreamCast Lot $199 + exact price of priority shipping to where you are. Also willing to do local pickup in NYC area.
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https://imgur.com/a/rI7aEGs
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Dreamcast Console with two controllers (one official, one third party), power cord and VGA hookup, (I do not have rgb hookups as the VGA looked the best on my HDMI TV)
Memory Card
Soul Calibur and Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Jewel Cases are not in good condition)
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Soul Calibur Manual and case art are in good condition, disc is in good condition with minor cosmetic scratches. Works great.
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Resident Evil: Code Veronica manual and case art in good condition. Discs are in ok condition with some scratches. Disc 1 only boots after putting disc 2 in first, for some reason and even then it won’t read past the opening cinematic. (I have researched this and it seems that it is a common problem with some games like Sonic Adventures where the Dreamcast lens has issues reading the discs, regardless of condition) Cosmetically it should be able to be read and Soul Calibur, disc 2 as well as many games I used to have all boot up with zero issues, so it must be that problem.
​
***
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Nintendo Game Boy (loose)
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Fortress of Fear $13
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Kirby's Pinball Land $12
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Qix $5
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Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land $24
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Tiny Toons: Wacky Sports $10
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Wave Race $10
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***
Switch
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Cogen Sword of Rewind (Japanese edition with English, New and Sealed) $28
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***
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3DS Cases Only
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https://imgur.com/a/NTgXz4R
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Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Official case art in black generic case only)
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Pokémon Moon (Official Case and case art only)
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Pokémon Y (Official Case and case art only, has a small tear on the spine, look at pictures)
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$30 shipped for the three cases
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​
***
Famicom
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Hino Tori (Phoenix) (CIB) $37 (Famicom Game)
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Dragon Quest (CIB) $49
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Dragon Quest II (CIB) $34
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Dragon Quest III (CIB) $22
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Dragon Quest IV (CIB) $22
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Or buy all 4 Dragon Quest games for $115 shipped
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***
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Super Famicom, SNES/Super Nintendo (cartridges only)
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Donkey Kong Country 2 (Super Famicom) $8
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Donkey Kong Country 3 (Super Famicom) $8
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Gradius III $15
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The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (Pal Version) $8
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Super Ghouls N Ghosts (Super Famicom) $12
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UN Squadron/U.N. Squadron $25
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***
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Wii
Lost in Blue Shipwrecked (CIB) $9
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***
Wii U
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Splatoon (CIB, some dents in cover art) $8
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Super Mario 3D World (Case and manual only, no disc) $8
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***
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XBOX/XBOX 360 Games Lot $20 for all three
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https://imgur.com/a/NTgXz4R
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Max Payne
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Splinter Cell
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Assassin’s Creed
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***
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Soundtracks:
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Rabi-Ribi LRG $10
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***
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Pre-order bonus/My Nintendo goodies: (Take all of them for $25 shipped)
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https://imgur.com/a/NTgXz4R
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Pokémon Piplup Phone Holder (New) My Nintendo $9
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Super Mario 3D World Phone and Tech Badge (New) $7
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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Coin (New and sealed) $12
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Thanks for looking!

Something's missing. People (and entities) are starting to notice.
First Previous
***
Far across the multiverse in a tavern that, depending on one’s point of view, may or may not have actually existed, Zeb, Petunia, Bethany, Bergamot, Cleve, and Zilandrial sat at a large wooden table.
“Thank you, Shauna,” Bergamot said as a buxom woman in a low-cut peasant dress filled their mugs with a “magic” pitcher of beer that never ran dry. “You don’t have to serve us, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Shauna replied brightly, “but I am a barmaid. Besides, I am not giving up my magic pitcher!” she added with a laugh. “The next batch of stew should be out in a second.”
“If it is as good as this bread…” Cleve said, holding up a thick, floppy piece of flatbread.
“Better!” Shauna exclaimed. “The pantry keeps filling back up with the best stuff! It’s almost a shame to make stew out of it, but the “fancy” chef went to the “fancy” place. We just figured out the roaster thingy, so we’ll be serving roast fowl as soon as the first batch cooks!”
Shauna paused and took a big drink from her pitcher.
“It turns out that you just had to talk to it. Weird… But no weirder than anything else, I suppose. You guys want to wait for the roast fowl?”
“We shouldn’t tary,” Zeb replied, “We don’t know how long this blessed peace will last.”
“Maybe it’s over?” Bethany the Tinker, now reunited with her beloved hat, asked.
“One can hope,” Zeb shrugged as he drank deeply from his tankard, “but I’m not delaying my repast, and neither should you. When you have fiends like Pantsu and F10w3rchy1d in play, things can get much worse than they already are.”
“Worse?!?” Bergamot exclaimed in horror.
***
Melinda the Stalwart was starting to believe that she should have stayed in bed today.
It was supposed to be her day off! Yeah, things were starting to get “weird,” but with all of those high-rated champions running around up north, it was probably going to get handled pretty quickly… and she was tired of chasing around after their scraps.
Her copper-rated ass was sitting this one out. The fact that everyone had gone gank-crazy just further confirmed that she had the right idea.
So, she decided to head back to the royal city of Raven’s Peak to take advantage of the richer and more powerful adventurers running off to the north, leaving all the armorers, enchanters, alchemists, and publicans in town behind.
It was nice not constantly getting shoved out of the way by stronger champions and ignored by shopkeepers far more interested in their gold than her silver for once.
It started out as such a lovely day, too!
She awoke in a lovely bed at the Blade and Wand, her absolute favorite inn, and a place where it was nearly impossible to get a room without a reservation or a lot more status than she had. There, she enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, at a discounted rate no less, and then went out for a day of crowd-free shopping!
It. Was. Bliss! There were no lines, and all of the storekeepers and craftsmen were all too happy to not only serve her and her meager purse but actually take time to chat!
Then, for lunch, she decided to visit the main branch of the adventurer’s guild, where she had an honest-to-gosh hamburger and fries along with some cider. After that, the plan was to get some training or maybe buy a buff or two…
Well, that was the plan, anyway.
What actually happened was that her wonderful burger, which she could never get under normal circumstances (they were always sold out before a copper-rated nobody could get their coppers taken), was interrupted by the most unholy screams she had ever heard inside or outside a dungeon.
She barely had time to stand before the doors to the guild offices exploded outward, and a demon covered in spikes and flames charged into the main hall.
That looks just like the guildmaster, was about all she had time to think before the fiend was on her.
***
“What’s happening?!?” Melinda cried in terror as she hurtled through absolutely nothing.
(Shh bby is ok)
“H-hello?” she called.
(😊)
“W-who are you? What happened to me?”
(Shh bby is ok)
“Am I… Am I dead?!?”
(is ok)
“Oh, it is definitely NOT okay! Who are you, and what the hell happened?”
The bedbug sighed with exasperation as it bounced off an invisible barrier again.
It had taken too long. The soul was starting to wake up.
Before much longer, it would start to get wiggly. It hated it when they began to wiggle.
Not knowing exactly what else to do, it let out a little ping.
It was answered by thousands of its kind! They couldn’t get through either, so they were having a rave! Awesome!
With a happy little (woo!), it zipped off towards the largest concentration of pings dragging an increasingly indignant Melinda the Stalwart along whether she wanted to or not.
***
“Hahaha!” Tawdry laughed into a prepaid “burner phone” her parents didn’t know about. “I can’t be-lieve you got me fucking grounded, you skank!”
“You’re still grounded?” Claudia snickered, “You diminished that badly?”
“It’s my parents. I managed to talk them down to a week without brain fucking them too hard. Besides, this cell is a lot nicer than the holes you used to stick me in. I’ll just do my time and be done with it. Besides, it will give our friends time to leave town since someone can’t manage to find a freaking truck.”
“First of all, fuck you,” Claudia laughed, “Second of all, thanks for getting that bastard to show up in a park and chase you across all of that nice soft turf. We got a lot of data we didn’t have before.”
“Like what?”
“Like its estimated mass, tire treads, a few lovely material samples where it nailed a park bench while trying to kill you… oh, and confirmation that it actually materializes and dematerializes. We can only assume the little bitch does the same thing. Too bad you couldn’t actually lay hands on her.”
“She was slippery, okay?” Tawdry chuckled.
“Hey,” Claudia said, “before Evika and her party ganked you, did they say anything about whom they were working for, or did they mention a little blonde girl named Petunia… or Pantsu?”
“No, they just said hi and blew my head off. Oh! Stephen did say that David finally confessed to Evika!”
“Took him long enough,” Claudia laughed, “Think he has a chance?”
“I know he has one,” Tawdry replied, “Evika’s gonna drop those drawers any second.”
“Good for her.”
“You said that Robert the Golden Peckerhead got sent back?”
“Yeah, and he is not adjusting well,” Claudia replied, “We have him in a ‘special’ inpatient facility where we are keeping the people with ‘issues’.”
“You got a lot of ‘patients’?”
“Not as many as you would think,” Claudia said, “Not everyone is happy about things, but there is something to be said about not having to sleep with a dagger under your pillow.”
“True that,” Tawdry replied. “High school is a pain, but being able to go out for pizza without an enraged wife (or husband) trying to shank you is nice.”
“Careful,” Claudia laughed, “Enraged spouses here might have a gun. You might want to go easy on the adultery this time around. There is also no magic contraception, and cure disease potions aren’t for sale in every town.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Tawdry groaned. “Doesn’t really matter, though. I might as well be a nun these days.”
“You can’t be diminished that much!”
“I am not into kids, and any man worth screwing isn’t into jailbait. I’m the exact opposite of screwed… Speaking of, you did mention a possible trip to Denmark?”
“Aren’t you grounded?”
“I won’t be next week!”
“And how will you explain your sex tourism to your folks?”
“Let me worry about my folks,” Tawdry replied, “You worry about that plane ticket!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Claudia replied with a chuckle.
Natasha! Come down for dinner!
“I’ll be right there!” Tawdry yelled.
“I gotta go. It’s taco night…”
Tawdry grinned.
“Speaking of tacos, did you get that camel toe fixed yet?”
“And just when we were even, too!” Claudia laughed. “Your little suggestion has everyone looking at my snatch… including me, and I know it’s bullshit!”
“Ha! Is your new fuck toy looking?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Detective Martin! I know you have a thing for that whole world-weary crusader vibe. And don’t think I didn’t see you checking out his ass, either.”
“I have the same problem you do,” Claudia sighed, “worse even. The sort of man I like certainly won’t be messing around with a ‘kid’, even if I am ‘legal’.”
“Yeah, you do like them a bit crusty, don’t you? How about finding some rich asshole who is having a mid-life crisis?”
“I will repeat myself. The sort of man I would like isn’t interested… and won’t be for years.”
“Meh. You’re not giving yourself enough credit… and giving them far too much of it.”
“Well, Slaker turned me down cold… goddamn chain of command…”
“No! You tried to give it up to Slaker?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time…”
“No way! I need details, all of them!”
“Well…”
Natasha! Dinner!
“I have to go,” Tawdry said, “but this is not over!”
***
Vroom? an old Peterbilt truck revved as it sat in a remote corner of a truck stop in the middle of nowhere.
“Still nothing,” the little girl huffed. “How can an entire universe disappear?”
Vroom… Vroom?
“Let’s hope not,” the girl replied, “Even so, he wouldn’t abandon us!”
“What?” the spirit asked with alarm.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the little girl replied.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Okay,” the little girl replied, “There is a remote chance that our boss has had to… um… cease operations and relocate. It hasn’t happened in a really long time, but it has happened.”
“Does that mean that I’m stuck?!?”
“No, of course not. It just means we might have to wait until we’re collected.”
Vroom.
“He won’t forget us!”
VroOoom…
“Hey! Don’t even start talking like that! We’ve done good work for the boss on several worlds. He won’t just discard us!”
“What do you mean, discard?”
“Just watch your anime, weeb,” the little girl snapped. “He hasn’t abandoned us, and he won’t forget us. He’s just… um…”
Vroom.
“I don’t know, alright!” the little girl replied angrily, “I have no idea where those others came from. All I know is that we didn’t squish them.”
VvvrOom.
“If he had another team, I would know about it!”
Vroom?
“I just would, okay! WE AREN’T GETTING REPLACED!... I’m… I’m going to get some air, maybe a Coke or something.”
The little girl threw open the door to the cab angrily and hopped out.
“Hey!” the spirit yelled, “See if they have any audiobooks!”
***
We’ve been abandoned… the little girl thought to herself as she prowled the truck stop trying not to panic.
She had to keep it together for Truck-Kun… and their new companion. If she fell apart, Truck-Kun would, too, and who knows what the spirit would do. He was two seconds from making another run for it as it was.
She paused by a rack of dusty old audiobooks on CD. Now that wasn’t something she had seen in a bit.
Thankful for the distraction, she started perusing the titles. Some of them were things she hadn’t already read (or listened to).
She grabbed a few for herself and then started looking for something appropriately nerdy for her new guest.
She might have murdered them in cold blood, but that was no reason not to be a good host.
She was so distracted by her own troubles and the audiobooks that she didn’t notice that she was being followed until the guy’s shadow fell around her.
She then became aware of his oily aura and smiled.
All work and no play…
“Hello, little girl…”
She looked up at him with an innocent expression and doe-like eyes.
“Hi.”
***
Truck-Kun quietly ground his gears as he watched a beat-up RV pull onto the highway.
Vroom, he grumbled as he put himself in gear and started to follow.
“What?” the spirit asked.
About half an hour later, Truck-Kun pulled over next to an RV that was parked on the side of the highway.
The door opened, and the little girl hopped out, holding a paper bag.
Vroom, the truck revved disapprovingly.
“Such a nice man,” the little girl said impishly as she plopped into the driver’s seat, and the truck drove away.
“Are those bloodstains?” the spirit asked as he pointed at the bag.
“What answer would you prefer?” the girl asked as she pulled out a half-filled fifth of vodka and most of a pack of smokes graciously donated by the nice man in the RV (it wasn’t like he was going to be needing them).
Vroom.
“I know I quit,” the girl replied as she put one in her mouth. “Give me a break. My nerves are shot.”
Vroom.
“Yes, shot enough to smoke menthols!”
The little girl lit up and drew heavily on the cigarette, exhaling a lovely smoke ring.
Vroom!
“So, crack a window!”
Vroom! Vroom! Vrooooom!
“You can’t smell, and you know it! So please, cut me some slack. I’ve had a bad day,” she said as she turned up the bottle of vodka like it was Juicy Juice.
Vroom!
“I know you’ve had a bad day, too,” the girl said as she wiped her mouth, “Want me to get you some fuel treatment at the next stop, maybe some starting fluid?”
Vroom.
“Okay, and a new air freshener, maybe some of those fuzzy dice you like? Deal?”
Vroom!… Vroom?
“As a matter of fact,” the little girl said as she pulled out a wad of bills. “the nice man did keep his cash on him.”
Vroom! the truck revved happily.
***
“Jesus!” Gary Martin, formerly Detective Martin, winced as he looked inside an abandoned old RV the following day.
“Say what you want about her,” Claudia Smythe said as she ate a corn dog. “but she is thorough.”
“We think the girl did this?”
“Matches her MO,” Claudia shrugged as she flicked the corn dog stick aside. “And we have surveillance footage at the truck stop. The asshole was talking to someone small, the cameras didn’t get a good shot of the kid, and eyewitnesses state that he was in the company of his ‘daughter’ when he left.”
“You said this was her MO. She’s done this before?” Gary asked.
“She rolls guys like this for their pocket change. We’re not sure if it’s how they finance their operations or if she just does it for fun, but this is the third one this year.”
A well-dressed and very young man in sunglasses approached the pair.
“Sir Lark,” Claudia said without turning around. “We have an ID on this guy yet?”
“Boris Veetch,” the young man said. “a registered sex offender with an active warrant for skipping out on his parole.”
“Yeah, she likes those,” Claudia shrugged. “Nobody will mourn his passing. He was easily ensnared, and he probably was carrying cash.”
“And she is professional bait,” Gary shrugged. “He was slime, but I’m not sure even he deserved what happened to him, though. What sort of monster would do something like this?”
“You just answered your own question,” Claudia replied, “a monster.”
“If you think this is bad," Lark said as he started photographing the scene, "You should see what a pack of goblins will do if they get the chance."
“Considering what we now know,” Claudia said with a shrug, “this trail is beyond cold. Even if they couldn’t do the whole disappearing act, they could be in any of several states by now. We’ve lost them… again.”
She looked over at Gary.
“Just as well,” she added, “We need to get you processed and briefed… agent.”
She smiled.
“Welcome to the Temporal Protection Agency.”
***
Deep within the deepest dungeon on Asteria Prime, a monstrous giant of a spider fidgeted uncomfortably.
“H-hello… boss,” it said nervously, “T-to w-what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
Frostie smiled an icy smile that filled the giant spider with horror.
“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I would give my friends here,” she said, indicating The Great Erectus, The Herald, and Cuddles, “a tour.”
“O-of c-course!” Log’Sharingoth LXXXIII stammered as their legs twitched miserably. “W-would you like a guide?”
“That would be lovely,” Frostie smiled. “Where’s Pantsu? I think she and The Big Guy over here would get along famously.”
“S-she isn’t available, boss.”
“Not even for me?”
“I-I apologize,” Log’Sharingoth said nervously, “but she isn’t here right now?”
“Well, where did she go?”
“I-I’m not sure, boss…”
“Okay, how about Nova?”
“S-she’s not here, either.”
“Shai-Vai-Loshara?”
“Um…”
“Steve?”
Log’Sharingoth made a whining bubbling noise as they shrank away.
“Why don’t you just tell me who is missing and exactly what the fuck is going on?” Frostie said with an angry gleam in her eye.
***
“…and I don’t know where anyone is!” Log’Sharingoth wailed miserably. “And everything is going wrong, the players almost rioted, and the physics engine threatened to quit! I didn’t know what to doooo!!!”
“And at no point did it occur to you to call me?” Frostie asked with a frightening edge to her voice.
“Pantsu told me not to!!!”
Frostie let out a long-suffering sigh. Of course, the current Log’Sharingoth wouldn’t go against Pantsu. It was horribly unfair to expect otherwise.
“I’m not going to come down on you because of what she did,” Frostie said a bit more gently. “However, since I now clearly know something is amiss, anything you can tell me will be of great value.”
“I-I’m not in trouble?”
“Not from me,” Frostie replied, “and Pantsu won’t be giving you any problems after I’m done with her.”
Frostie paused.
“So, this glitched Pantsu, where is it now?”
“Pantsu had me send it to Tartarus! I’m sorry! But she said to!”
“Sounds like the only sensible thing she’s done thus far,” Frostie replied.
“I didn’t want to, but she told me to do it!”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Frostie shrugged, “sounds like the perfect place for it. Wait. She told you?”
“Yes, Boss!”
“That means you have a line of communications?”
Log’Sharingoth’s multiple eyes all widened with fear.
“Y-yes?”
“Call her and tell her to give me her location… now.”
“Y-yes boss…”
Log’Sharingoth fell silent for a few moments.
“Um… Boss?”
“Let me guess,” Frostie said, “You can’t reach her, can you?”
“No, Boss.”
“Fine,” Frostie grumbled. “We do this the hard way. You’ve done a great job, considering everything.”
“I have?” Log’Sharingoth asked hopefully.
“You have,” Frostie said reassuringly. “Keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll send a crisis response team to help out in the meantime.”
“A… A crisis response team?” Log’Sharingoth asked fearfully.
“You didn’t think you were getting off Scot free, did you?” Frostie laughed as she and her companions disappeared.
“…Ssssshit,” Log’Sharingoth hissed as she stalked off into the shadows.
***
The hominid looked around at their new surroundings.
Everything was white. The floor was white. The walls were white. The furniture was white…
Even the plants were white…
And everything was spotless.
“Interesting décor,” he said after a few seconds.
“They like to keep things tidy,” Frostie replied as she took a seat on one of the white couches.
“They?” the ape-man asked dubiously as Cuddles slipped one of her tentacles into The Herald’s hand.
He gently gripped it, causing Cuddles to suppress a delighted squeal.
“Playtime is over,” Frostie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m calling in my real operatives.”
“Jesus!” The Great Erectus exclaimed as a spotless white door opened, and a short, slender blue male amphibian-like biped in a white tunic bearing a three-headed dog embroidered with platinum thread walked in.
“You never told me you had… them!”
“Oh, you are familiar with their kind?”
“Those little monsters are responsible for the death of entire universes! Every time there is a parallel manifestation of those… monsters… entire galaxies die.”
“They can be a handful,” Frostie said pleasantly, “But I’ve found them incredibly valuable over the years… for that very same reason. These do come from much more reasonable stock from a much more reasonable ancestor... Maybe 'reasonable' is pushing it a little,” Frostie added with a laugh. "Reasonable for one of them, at least."
The blue amphibian smiled pleasantly and blinked his huge amber eyes, their pleasant hue replaced with a whirling madness of color.
“Hello, Hades,” Frostie said with a smile. “It has been quite a while. How have you been?”
“Bored,” Hades replied. “I trust you have come to alleviate that?”
“Most definitely,” Frostie replied. “Awaken the others…”
“…It’s time to hunt.”

I distinctly remember a time when some friends and I would ‘ask’ orbs to appear in various places. We, in turn, immediately took photos at the place we chose. This could be sitting with an arm on the sofa or with your hand out. We captured so many in the exact spot we had asked that it was beyond coincidence. One particular time in my kitchen, my friend who had his reservations, held his hand out and this orb was photographed. It was the size of a football and he was as shocked as the rest of us. The outline was a ring with white circular inner circles, not unlike a human cell under a microscope. All of the phones since then have never captured a single paranormal entity or occurrence. I wonder if anyone else has had the same experiences, or the problems capturing orbs as we once did?

First: https://redd.it/11e34ce
Previous: https://redd.it/11r6qde
Chapter 7
System Status Report: Server Isolation
Server 3 Offline due to admin user command isolation.
Please contact system administration team to proceed.
Steven Inoue blinked at his tablet screen, whose unique ringtone meant he was on call. He checked the timestamp on the message: 1:24am. He looked at the clock: 1:26am. Back to his phone. Good, he thought, I didn’t miss it. He thought he had slept through the alarm, hard as it is to do. He had heard the noise as if in a far-off room while dreaming; somehow, his subconscious wanted him to know he was needed. He was always on call; that’s why his employers paid him the big bucks. He laughed at that. A Second Module unit. That’s the life. It was an offer so enticing to an information technology 16th year in school that he had actually quickly researched the interviewer to make sure they were for real. He had found way more than he was bargaining for: a Nations of Earth ESS grade 2 government job, responsible for information systems management. It was certainly too good to be true. His parents had won the lottery to make the jump from the surface when he was only 2, and after that stroke of luck, they certainly did not take anything for granted. So he knew to be distrustful of anything that seemed to be too good to be true. And yet, 9 years later, here he was pushing thirty, living a comfortable existence in the Second, and all he had to do was keep the wheels turning for the information systems of the Earth Space Station.
That is, Steve thought, as long as I can keep the system from crashing every day. The problem working with the techies down in the lab is they almost relished creating some new system or hardware that was more than the servers could handle. Partly, it was a true justification of the need for the NE finance wing to dump some more money into producing the latest system upgrades and a new supercomputer system. But mostly, Steve knew, the geek squad loved laughing at the chaos. It fulfilled their self-ascribed ‘mad-scientist-turned-government-stooge’ mythos that they worked so hard to cultivate. The latest culprit, disrupting the system almost a record number of times, was Quinton Hammond. Quiet sometimes, but Steve could see flashes in him that he was like the rest. He relished the opportunity to test the system limits and in turn throw the Third Module server offline for the day. Steve could even like the kid, because he was usually tucked away in his closet of an office and certainly kept his systems clean. Well, Steve thought, I’d have to like anyone first. Steve launched himself out of bed and grabbed his tablet, punching the speed dial number of the Third Module Administrator, waiting to report and clear the authorizations.
“Inoue! It’s 1:30 in the morning!” Deputy Administrator Hernandez grunted into the phone, clearly just woken up. The ESS stuck close to the rotation of Earth to allow its inhabitants to retain their biological circadian rhythms, so while one could clearly see part of the sun based on the station’s position in orbit, and even though the Earth reflected a great deal of light, the shades in the dormitory chambers allowed for nighttime simulation.
“Sorry sir, server 3 is in isolation. We had a system lockdown.”
“Okay, then restart it.” Hernandez hung up with a sharp click.
Steve hustled around his room, grabbing clothing, food, and the gadgets he needed, and headed for the door. As the automatic door whisked behind him, he felt the cool circulating air of the main Second Module atrium, its sleek, sloping surfaces making cool lines up and down the entire pod. The Earth Space Station, or ESS as it was commonly abbreviated, had eight Modules in its right rotational ring. The first six were designated for habitable use. Number Seven housed the main circuitry for power generation and number eight was storage and other life support functions. The left rotational ring was devoted solely to food production, a much larger ring with a slow rotation and a lower gravity environment. Through this process and careful horticulture (the ring was large enough to house a micro-weather system), the ring was able to provide food for all of the ESS inhabitants for years on end, making surface-to-station resupply missions necessary only twice a year for essential materials and physical non-food item resources. Very manageable. The right rotational ring countered the left’s rotation only to the extent it needed so the station could make Earth day-like rotations, making the environment very hospitable to its Earth-descended inhabitants. Then, in the center ball-like hub connecting the two rings, automatically-triggered magnets built into the standard NE uniforms’ shoes allowed people to quickly pass between, though no major station functions could be housed there that required human interaction. Most of the station mainframes were kept here. The whole set up looks like two large wagon wheels out of those old Westerns spinning in opposite directions, Steve thought, linked together by a large, smooth, white ball with giant, gold wings.
Steve turned left from his unit’s door along one of the side exterior walls toward the inner wall. As Steve made his way to the elevator, his gaze wandered upward from his unit on the first level of Second Module, along the curved exterior Plexiglas surface separating the spacious interior from the unforgiving vacuum of space. He could tell the Second Module’s position on the rotational ring was close to the nadir because the long solar paneling was just visible along the upper crest of the module’s window. His eyes tracked the side of the window as it curved down past the tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh floors, each one a level housing ESS denizens, commissaries, work stations, veranda, courtyards. The entire structure was as massive as the skyscrapers his parents showed him pictures of near their home back on Earth in Tokyo. Steve proceeded toward the module lift, which at this hour was deserted departing from his direction. Everyone is coming home from the bar, and here I am, already back at work, he thought, entering the lift and touching the pad for the 5th level, where the PT station was situated. Two parallel lifts sat at the heart of each module, directly across from the PT system. They transported passengers up and down the different levels with a particular module.
As the lift shot upward, he got that nauseated feeling he always got in the ESS internal transportation systems. Between the in-module lifts and the pneumatic tubes between the different modules, everything was operated by air pressure, so in the event of a systemic failure, the emergency crews could pump air remotely to remove any trapped passengers and clear the way for the crews to come through. While a good failsafe, day to day passengers were always jolted by the sudden thrust. The doors whisked open, spilling Steve out onto the fifth floor, and he now had to walk back across the open-faced veranda to the PT stop. Each level’s path was a ring-like walkway perpendicular to the gravitational spin of the ring. With a bit of magnetization of the footwear and the system’s artificial gravity generation, the inhabitants barely noticed the constant battle they fought with physics. The ring-like pathways were hollow in the center, allowing for the modules to remain in an open-air style living-space. Suspended in the middle was a holographic depiction of a giant oak tree, its roots scraping the first level with its utmost leaves touching the top. The sight was magnificent, and very conducive to steadying the human psyche that longed for the sight of green Earth. But, as with everything else on the station, the failsafe mechanism ensured maximum shut down. The rings were fitted with retractable barriers with could shoot out and stave off any sort of combustion. Giant metallic airbags, Steve thought as he continued to marvel at the construction, this place will never get old. As he approached the PT stop, he waved his badge in front of the reader pad, which flashed green and allowed him to enter. He entered the first airlock, and as the doors whisked shut, he followed the track around with his eyes as it wound around the exterior-facing wall of the module right to the module-to-module hatch, like a piece of twine binding eight large bales of white cotton together. Above him, on the sixth level, a similar PT system ran in the opposite direction, toward Second Module.
Steve waited for the shuttle to circulate around, one of eight that dutifully rotated around the pneumatic tubing every two minutes. He regarded the interior side of the module, its ten stories stretching a mile side to side. The sheer size of one module, with all of its living spaces, was simply mind-boggling. Now multiply that by eight for the entire right rotational side, then another for the left, plus the static central traffic ring where ships docked and from which the massive solar cells extended. It’s no wonder that they housed me well to keep this place going, he laughed to himself. If something were to happen, something horribly bad, not only would thousands of lives be lost, but 80 Quadrillion Unified Credits would be lost.
Steve took an aisle seat in the twenty-person cab, felt the air close in as the car re-pressurized, and felt the force on his chest as the car took off toward the Third. The force pushing him back shot the bullet-like cab around the curved pneumatic tubing, and he could see the valve approaching as the Second Module disappeared behind him. The alternating valves allowed constant pressure and acceleration while maintaining separate tube environments, easing the clockwork-like precision with which the PT system operated. Steve passed through and saw a very similar sight appear before him, Third Module. Remarkably close in appearance to the Second, Third Module housed the main workforce of the Nations of Earth administration, along with the Fourth Module, which generally kept the security personnel – a full military installation right here on the station. Fifth and Sixth Modules were more for the working class and the lottery winners. New emigrants to the ESS. First Module contained the leadership quarters and high-class meeting spaces; Second Module was for the business classes, domiciles staked out early in the ESS construction for those with investments and with holdings back down on Earth. Not that anyone would want to go back down there. The main difference between the appearances of the different modules was that each had its own holographic suspension: the giant trees rotating in the Second contrasted sharply with the grandiose capital buildings projected in the First, the sweeping landscapes of the Third and Fourth, and the farms, vineyards, and rustic slideshows of the Fifth and Sixth. Sometimes, when work was at a lull, Steve would take a longer lunch and ride the PT around and around, taking in the sights. And he wasn’t the only one; he noticed several other regular riders taking his scenic tour.
As the car traced its way around the curved exterior wall of Third Module to pick up a lonely night-shift laborer, Steve sat in his thoughts, turning over page after page of ESS schematics in his mind and relating them to his knowledge of the station’s computing system. If the entire Third Module server was isolated by a user command, that meant one of two things: a workstation within the server manually removed the server from communicating with the rest of the station’s computing, or the main hub’s security firewall noticed an anomaly and a security officer cut it off. If it is the former, he thought, he’d have to identify the workstation and see what the source of the isolation was. If the latter, he would have a much easier job of bringing everything up and running from the main hub after conversing with the Hub staff. Either way, his best bet was to proceed through Third Module’s service entrance. Like spokes on a wheel, each module could access the central hub, from where command and control functions of the station emanated.
Steve hopped up and moved to the door as the capsule slowed in its approach to the Third Module station. His eyes had to rapidly adjust as the continued slowing brought the Third’s great Canadian Pacific forest projection into closer focus. Steve looked down at his tablet to check the time: 1:35am. He opened and re-read the message: Server 3 Offline due to admin user command isolation. So, the first stop is to the Third Module’s server station to check, and if that turns up negative, then onto the main hub. The cab came to a halt and the doors whisked open, allowing Steve to pass into the Third Module’s fifth level atrium. As he proceeded across the atrium’s walkway toward the inner wall, skirting the slowly rotating image of the wooded landscape, his attentions were inwardly focused. He was contemplating the previous day, when Quin crashed the server over and over again. It was likely that he had something to do with the system lockout. He knew Quin lived somewhere here; he had half a mind to get him out of bed and make him fix it. But, he knew, that was premature move. He had to get to the Third’s computing center and check on the workstations.
He cleared the outer wall walkway and came around the long stretch of inner wall commissaries and other shops. He passed the module cantina, appropriately named “Third Module from the Sun,” and doubled back into the establishment to grab a cup of coffee to go. Some patrons were finishing up their nights, and the bar had clearly emptied an hour or so before. He stepped up to the young woman alone behind the bar and ordered. She quickly whipped up the station version of the caffeinated beverage. With fuel in hand, he finished the walk to the center of the fifth level and turned the corner to face an “Authorized Personnel Only” door. Swiping his badge, he was granted entry with a low beep and was swept into the long hallway where Third Module functions were housed. He passed the electrical, hydro, and waste management capsules before arriving at the computing offices. With a push, he entered, walked over to the command workstation, set his coffee and other stuff down, plopped down into the chair, cracked his knuckles, and set himself to typing.
Chapter 8
syslogUser:QuintonHammond 1:49am Someone has removed the isolation and is exploring the server logs. It is protocol to submit all user logs to the sysadmin when accessed after the server isolation. I should make the sysadmin aware.
C:/rootmenu/usermail/User:QuintonHammond/newmail/ C:/rootmenu/syslog/download/ C:/rootmenu/usermail/User:QuintonHammond/newmail/attachment/ C:/rootmenu/usermail/User:QuintonHammond/sendmail/
Steve was reading the admin logs when his messages pinged with a new attachment, from Quinton Hammond. “Figures,” he sighed aloud, opening the mail. He tapped the attachment and pulled up the document which appeared to be a user log starting at just after midnight. He started scanning, his eyes widening as he got a few lines in. By the time he had read to ten minutes past midnight, his mouth was agape and he realized he had not blinked in a long time, his hands darting to his eyes to rub away the dryness. He launched himself at his tablet and began furiously typing, sending first a message to Quin, then to the other station administrators, and finally, to station government liaisons.