#for my test/underutilized muses
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ameliiorate · 2 months ago
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will this be the weekend i clear out the rest of my memes and drafts? stay tuned to find out.
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abrushwithdeath · 2 years ago
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//Who's your idea fc for Gambit?
@gretaphasmatosmartin
((I don't really have an ideal fc for Gambit, honestly ^^; Though I have him as kind of a test muse on a sideblog and I use Nick Bateman as the primary fc because he played Remy in the Gambit fan film "Play For Keeps" and I thought he did a stellar job. Not to mention I think he looks the part alright, too. But, in general, I have a hard time fan casting because I get, like, an ideal image in my head for my faves (both Remy and Rogue are especially hard for me to really pick fcs for, but I've also had trouble with a fc for Carth Onasi from KotOR and other muses like that) and nobody ever fits it ~quite~ right ^^;
That said- If they ever do another live action movie / show / etc with Gambit, all I ask is for a script that actually does my boy justice (Taylor Kitsch did a great job with what he was given for the role, but it felt like they just tossed Remy into the mix of the movie because he's a fan favorite and he was underutilized and not well written; I remember watching that movie for the first time as someone who's been a Remy fan since I was a kid watching the animated series in the early 90s and being SO disappointed;; I was also super mad when they sidelined Rogue after the first film, even though, in general, I find the movies fun lol). If they can come up with a script that actually suits Remy's character, from there it's less for me about looks and more about how well the actor can do in the role, ya know? If I have to deal with a flat note character and/or actor portrayal if they ever bring him into the larger multiversal MCU stuff, I might actually scream lmao))
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chaserainbows · 5 years ago
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🤡 Hello yes I said I was going to write about my muses as gym leaders and never actually did 🤡
Aaron was in fact a gym leader before joining the elite 4 so I’ll just discuss his backstory for a bit. He started his career as a trainer in Orre, winning several tournaments and gaining a reputation as a battling prodigy, but then moved to Sinnoh at 15 to get a better education and quickly got offered a position as a gym leader due to his previous accomplishments. Since he had a huge ego, but at the same time didn’t know how to assert himself in a foreign league that he just joined, he decided to specialize in bug-types as a sort of handicap, to send the message that he was so talented he could still outclass everyone even with a traditionally weak type. His ace Pokémon was still Drapion, but against weaker challengers he’d occasionally use Beautifly and Dustox.
Everything after this is an AU so I’ll cut here for length
Kouki would specialize in Electric-types and his ace Pokémon would be Rotom. His gym would have an astronomy theme and the main arena would also double as an observatory, since that’s an underutilized interest he’d want to pay more attention to if he focused on biology less.
Touya would specialize in Normal-types and his ace Pokémon would be Cinccino. His gym would be themed after a film studio, because Touya is very self-indulgent, and the puzzle would be similar to Kiawe in that it tests the player’s memory, asking them to point out the differences between two similar scenes.
Akemi, also being very self-indulgent, would specialize in Fairy-types and her ace Pokémon would be Grimmsnarl. Her gym would double as a theater and the puzzle would be themed around a reenactment of many different plays such as Alice in Wonderland, going for presentation rather than difficulty because she’s very extra.
Akira would specialize in Psychic-types and his ace Pokémon would be Hatterene. His gym would be themed after an escape room and the puzzle would test the challenger’s improvisation skills and spatial awareness, basically reversing the roles and making them feel like they’re the magician pulling off an escape trick.
Finally, Ikki would specialize in Dark-types and his ace Pokémon would be Pangoro. His puzzle would be themed after memory games like simon says and the player would be given instructions about how to reach him, but any wrong movements would send them back to the entrance.
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tiedtogetherts · 6 years ago
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Entrepreneurs: Utilizing Technology to Improve Profit
On the off chance that you truly need to turn out to be progressively profitable and improve activities in your organization, you need to move your concentration from the accompanying constraining considerations about technology.
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On the off chance that I purchase the most recent creation programming we will be fit as a fiddle
We don't do that here
We are special, we don't have rivalry that utilization technology to enable them to create profits
The arrangement is in my mind, individuals will take it off the PC
All I need is more deals to make more profits
You must get the correct outlook by dispensing with confining musings, and after that you'll be prepared to improve individuals, procedures and profitability.
Do you ever think about how an organization can begin with only one thought, an energy and a dream, at that point 10 to 20 years after the fact have a large number of representatives and millions in deals?
What did these organizations do to turn out to be so effective
Are the proprietors more brilliant than you?
Do they work more enthusiastically than you?
Improved gear or individuals than you?
No. Be that as it may, they improve technology apparatuses to drive activity (the individuals and the procedure). Activities speak to about 60% or 80% of all your overhead expenses yet they're the least comprehended by US businesses.
For quite a long time, the Japanese have concentrated on activities that have driven development and a culture of nonstop improvement. In the correct entrepreneur hands, tasks and technology can be a focused weapon.
Presently, ask yourself by what method can your little organization - with only a bunch of representatives and restricted assets - transform activities and technology applications into an incredible weapon to beat rivalry and figure out how to develop and flourish!
Why put resources into technology/What are the advantages
The reality is, in case you're experiencing tight income, depleted credit extensions and top-line development, at that point you have frail tasks and have underutilized the technology applications on location or off-the-rack that can support you.
Initial step to fast profit improvement is to begin by scrutinizing your workers. They typically know where expensive squares and bottlenecks are covered up.
Technology can store worker review results that help you to design profitability.
Representative Questionnaire(sample)
Are your interests and desire being tested
Does every division in this organization have quantifiable standard intended to expand profitability? Does every zone have documentation of procedure streams and methodology of how it should function?
Does everybody in this organization share the objective of improving the organization profits? Does the CEO hold town corridor gatherings about 'arranged profits'?
It is safe to say that you are routinely told when you do great work?
Do you get the assistance you have to work admirably?
As a worker, do you believe you can confide in your immediate director/chief?
Are proprietor/administrators transparent with representatives?
Does the organization furnish you with persistent preparing in regions that will make you a superior worker? Has it prepared you on the best way to cut working costs or increment income to improve profits in your general vicinity?
Are your obligations by and large clarified, all around arranged and composed?
Is horrible showing endured by management? i.e., laborer execution, tasks bottlenecks and client relations.
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stolve · 5 years ago
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How (and Why) To Write a Love Letter
One of the most underutilized approaches to make an astonishing relationship is the writing of love letters.
Why? Something men promptly think when we notice them is "Goodness God, how cliché" or my undisputed top choice "You must mess with me, I won't write a love letter." We needed to know why they weren't happy to do this, so we inquired. We discovered a bigger number of times than not it wasn't that they weren't happy to plunk down and attempt, it was that they didn't have a clue what to write. This is the place this article comes in, so focus; a decent love letter can go far towards making sentiment and fervor in your relationship.
Here's the elite of the things that you will require:
Great, top-notch paper (not something you've detached from a note pad or a bit of paper you removed from the fax machine) and a coordinating envelope
A decent pen
A receptive outlook
An earnest wants to disclose to her how you feel.
Now we should discuss the advantages of writing a full-scale love letter. Most importantly, ladies will keep these letters and take them to the grave. It is an extraordinary extraordinariness that men will plunk down and write out their emotions, however, recall, as we have let you know previously, the majority of the sentimental thoughts that ladies get originate from TV, films, and (this is enthusiastic about for ladies) books (all the more explicitly, romance books). Trust us when we state that letters are frequently a huge defining moment in romance books. This is regularly how the saint communicates his undying and faithful love and want for the primary female character of the book.
Second, you will be flabbergasted at how effectively you can communicate in writing in contrast with how you, like most folks, would bumble when attempting to communicate verbally. The awkward addressing you have in your head while you're taking a gander at a mind-blowing love doesn't occur because you are just envisioning her, investigating your emotions, and writing them down.
Ultimately, the effect of such a letter is so high since it shows a real exertion to communicate your love for her.
Expressions of caution: on the off chance that you are not really in love with her don't write her a love letter, we ensure that would end severely.
So how would you write a love letter?
Stage one: Find a spot where you will be undisturbed for the time it takes you to begin and complete the letter. With certain folks, it won't take long by any means. For other people, this could be a throughout the day venture. Try not to think you need to complete it at the same time. Venturing endlessly and accomplishing something different when you stall out can truly help. The key here is to keep away from undesirable interruptions.
Stage two: Get a bit of scratch paper and take only a couple of moments to sit and consider what you need an advise her. We know you need to disclose to her you love her, however, that basically can't be the entire message. You need to reveal to her how and why you love her. In the wake of contemplating it for two or three minutes, write down your musings on the scratch paper.
Stage three: Now on that equivalent scratch bit of paper just start to write what you need to state. Try not to alter, don't stress over spelling, sentence structure, or anything; simply write down all that rings a bell and keep on writing until there is nothing else is in your mind. This doesn't need to bode well similar to the request for the contemplations. This is simply how they spilled crazy. Continue writing until you don't have anything left.
Now enjoy a reprieve for a few minutes to consider your lover to check whether anything new comes into your brain. If something different flies into your head begin writing again until your cerebrum is by and by void. This isn't a challenge or a test where your evaluation relies upon how much you write. It is an open door for you to begin communicating the contemplations which will in the long run become your letter.
Tips: If you need motivation or feel that you haven't composed very enough to communicate all you need, you may reference various things that cause you to feel great about your better half. For instance: music, a letter she thought of you, recollecting a previous occasion, in any event, having an image of her in a situation where you had an astounding time.
Stage four: Now is when you return and read through what you composed and start to put in it in the request in which you might want it to go. On a different piece of paper start to build your letter from the contemplations you've recorded, placing them in the ideal request. Now is when you can start to change words and perhaps see sentence structure as well as can be expected. Indeed, this isn't a test. Try not to make it into one and don't make it hard for yourself by agonizing over if a comma or a period is in the opportune spot or you are utilizing the correct syntax; we guarantee you that she won't grade this like your eighth grade English instructor. Now if she's an eighth grade English instructor you should reference a language structure book or word reference, however, that most likely doesn't concern you.
Stage five: Once you are composed, write the letter as though it were the genuine article on a different bit of scratch paper. This will be your last chance to alter and settle on any musings and words that you will need to include or take away. You don't need to include or take away anything, yet this offers you a chance to do that before you make your show-stopper. (Stages two through five can be finished on a PC on the off chance that you are more agreeable that way or you truly like having a spell checker)
Stage six: Once you have composed the letter on the training sheet its an opportunity to translate the specific letter to the great paper in your most ideal handwriting (you should handwrite the letter). Make sure to include a marked line with something with the impact of: "Your endless perfect partner" or "My undying love" with your mark. Spot it in the coordinating envelope.
Make certain to make the conveyance of this letter essential also. Don't simply throw it to her and state "Hello, I composed this for you." Mailing it is an alternative. So is sending it with her to work and advising her not to peruse it until she's there (or concealing it in her attaché or lunch so she discovers it). This would be a great method to assemble expectations. You'll know the most ideal approach to convey it. Simply ensure it's well beyond your typical method of activity. You put a ton of work into this letter, the effect will be worth it...don't corrupt it with an exhausting conveyance.
Try not to let all the necessary advances prevent you from doing this, since we guarantee that on the off chance that you take the time and work through this action, you will discover astonishing outcomes on the opposite end. Also, you never know; you may very well appreciate doing this amazingly sentimental motion!
This sort of love letter is a serious deal and ought to be saved for the occasions when you truly need to spill your guts to her.
May it be frequently!
Show your love in a very specific way. Send Cute Romantic Love Letters to your loved one. STOLVE provides a very unique way to express your love.
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hey-i-wrote-a-story · 8 years ago
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Chapter 14 The Four Young Hoodlums
They ran through the darkened streets laughing. They’d been doing a lot of laughing lately. It felt good, and made for a nice change. Aadesh and Kaitlyn took the lead, holding hands, doing their best to keep pace with one another. They’d been doing a lot more of that these days, too. Erin was close behind them, her requisite huge coat flapping in her wake. She was never without it, and kept it on regardless the weather. You’d think the weight of it would hold her back, but when the group took to running, it was almost as if it added to her speed, like a reverse sail. Freddie, as per usual, held up the rear, perpetually looking back over his shoulder to see if they were being pursued. They never were, not anymore. Freddie considered himself the team’s lookout, but in truth he had just never had this much fun before, and certainly not for this long, and was expecting it to all come crashing down any minute. His giggling and rush of excitement only increased when they’d get away with it again. Tonight they hadn’t gotten away with much, but it was a great rush all the same.
The quartet rounded a corner and slipped down an alleyway. Once in the shadows, Kaitlyn pulled Aadesh over to the wall and began kissing him passionately. Erin saw this routine unfolding for the umpteenth time and did her best not to roll her eyes right out of her head. She’d have muttered for them to get a room, had they any room to go to. Erin then spotted Freddie, lingering at the head of the alley, still craning his neck to see if they were about to get caught. Erin grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Get back here, out of the light, genius.”
“I just didn’t want anybody to see us!”, the nervous Freddie tried to justify himself.
“Well, sticking your head out under the nearest streetlight is the best way to avoid that, I’d think”, she snarked back, roughly pushing her red-headed companion to the back of the small alley where he collided with a dumpster. On contact with the rusty metal refuse bin, Freddie started and leapt forward by several feet.
“Hey! Watch it!”
Erin was about to make one of her caustic remarks, chiding Freddie for being such a big baby, until she glanced back and saw what she had unintentionally shoved him into. “Oh, hey. Sorry about that. I didn’t know that was back there. You oka—“
Freddie cut her off quickly, not wanting to have that conversation again. “Just be careful, alright?”
Erin held up both hands. Alright, alright. She looked back at Kaitlyn and Aadesh. Freddie looked to. The romantic duo were still going at it, romantically. Aadesh ran his fingers through Kaitlyn’s long hair, Kaitlyn gripped Aadesh’s shoulders tightly as they pressed against the alley wall, unmindful and uncaring about their grimy surroundings. The kissed passionately, never coming up for air. Erin grew irritated and Freddie was getting bored.
Finally, Freddie tapped the shoulder of his best friend. Aadesh came up for air and glanced at his ginger pal, his expression almost one of surprise that anyone else was there. Freddie tapped his wrist in a checking-my-watch gesture and then spun his index finger in quick circles. Wrap it up, bro. Aadesh smiled, stifling a laugh, and then gazed into Kaitlyn’s eyes.
“Just showing some appreciation for my awesome psychic girlfriend.”
“Technically”, Kaitlyn corrected him, “I don’t know that I qualify as psychic, given the parameters of my gifts.”
Aadesh drew her close again, resting his forehead against hers. “Like I care.”
Erin scoffed. “The parameters of your gifts. Spare me, you guys.”
“Don’t be all huffy!”, Freddie scolded her. “We had an excellent night. Another score for us!”
Again Erin rolled her eyes. It was becoming her signature look. “Some score. We got onto the Whitmore Club’s golf course and had a golf cart race. Big time, guys.”
“No, we cleverly broke onto the Whitmore’s private golf course”, Freddie stressed.
“Thanks to information gained from the lovely Kaitlyn’s psychic visions”, Aadesh interjected.
“Thanks to that”, Freddie amended, “and engaged in a spectacular race of golf carts which evolved into a genuine golf cart joust.” He clicked his tongue, snapped his fingers and pointed at Erin. “Beat that.”
“If only you’d give me the chance”, Erin grumbled.
Aadesh shot her a look of disapproval, his arms still around his girlfriend. “Oh come on, it was fun.”
“You were cheering right along with the rest of us up until Freddie upended your guys’ cart”, Kaitlyn pointed out.
“That was a strategic move that went unexpectedly awry”, Freddie declared.
Erin shrugged. “Okay, yeah. It was fun. I just think we’re underutilizing the new tools we have at our disposal.”
Kaitlyn raised her eyebrow in an ironic show of offense. “Are you calling me a tool?”
It was good they could all make light of it now, especially Kaitlyn. It had certainly not started out that way. When Kaitlyn first told her three closest friends (her only friends) that she had been having “visions” as she called them, there was great concern for her grip on reality, particularly with the other three knowing of her mother’s mental history. But as her claims persisted, growing more and more vivid and detailed each time, Aadesh had arrived at the perfect solution to dispel his girlfriend’s delusions; they’d simply put them to the test. Showing her that her supposed hidden glimpses into the recent past were only bizarre dreams or stress-induced moments of imagination was the best way to show Kaitlyn that all was still relatively okay. His method would be doubly effective, Aadesh thought, with her three closest friends showing their mutual support. So they investigated the next “vision”.
And it panned out.
“Never heard anybody scream at such a high-pitch before”, Erin said, shaking her head while suppressing a laugh.
“Especially not a guy”, Aadesh remarked.
“A guy who happens to be country prosecutor Anthony Taguine”, Freddie emphasized.
“Coke-snorting, easily-bought, money laundering county prosecutor Anthony Taguine”, Aadesh elaborated.
“He sounded like a little girl”, Erin grinned.
“A little girl on helium”, Freddie agreed.
“I give up”, Aadesh said to Kaitlyn. “How did you know Tanguine was deathly afraid of goats?”
“Or which part of the Emerson’s back fencing had fallen so we could nab such a goat to tie to his front porch railing?”, Erin probed.
Kaitlyn was all smiles. “It was because of something that happened to him at a petting zoo once”, she explained. “He never got over it.”
The other three exchanged puzzled glances. “I’d think we would’ve heard about something like that at some point—“, Erin began.
“It was when he was 7”, Kaitlyn clarified.
 Okay, that may have been a lucky guess. Or perhaps Katlyn had overheard something somewhere, noticed some bit of news or local gossip on some online bulletin board she’d scrolled past, not even realizing she was absorbing the information. Another test was called for.
And that one passed, too.
“Damn”, Freddie marveled, leaning over Erin’s shoulder to read the headline on the screen of her beat-up laptop. “Decorated police officer Louis F. Morse arrested for involvement in illegal dog fighting ring.”
“This the same Officer Morse who shot that little Chihuahua because he said it had quote-advanced on him in a threatening manner-unquote?”, asked Aadesh.
“The same”, Erin, said, scrolling through the article, silently relishing the various names of hated authority figures who were embroiled in the scandal.  
“An anonymous source alerted local News Team 15”, Freddie read aloud. He glanced at Kaitlyn. “I wonder who that could be?”
“You don’t have to wonder”, Erin stated. “Considering she told us about it beforehand.”
Kaitlyn sat in the corner, arms folded over her chest, smiling. “Morons shouldn’t have held the fights in the same place every time, I guess. Oh, well.”
 So three times’ the charm, right? But that vision (no longer framed with quotation marks) proved to be right as well.
Kaitlyn tossed the new cell phones to her friends, who examined them with wide-eyed glee. “Delivery guy doesn’t believe in locking the back of the truck when he takes his lunch break. Guess he won’t make that mistake again.”
 So it went. The following vision was correct, as was the next and the next. Worry that had become suspicion was now growing excitement. Tests had become adventures.
It was progressively easy to sneak out of the halfway house, now that Kaitlyn had glimpses into current security rounds schedules, habitual employee trips to the vending machine or the toilet, and the odd fault in the system. Faults had become easy for Kaitlyn to spot once she learned how to look for them. Faults like a certain gate that a night watchman at the exclusive country club left unlocked for extramarital rendezvous with the club’s buxom events planner. A gate which provided easy access for four young ne’er-do-wells to slip in and engage in a bit of golf cart joyriding.
That little adventure behind them, the foursome mused about what the watchman’s face might look like as he returned from his tryst to find the course and the carts in a disheveled state. They laughed as they made their way home, or to what currently passed as their home.
“I’m thinking he’ll go like this”, Freddie said, striking an exaggerated pose of shocked surprise. “Can you hone in on him”, he asked Kaitlyn, “So you can see how close I am?”
“You know it doesn’t work like that”, she chided.
Considering that, Aadesh, his arm still draped affectionately around Kaitlyn’s shoulders, looked at Erin. “What did you mean by saying we’re underutilizing Kaitlyn’s visions?”
Erin shrugged. “I just think there’s a lot more we could be doing than wrecking a golf course, is all.”
Kaitlyn furrowed her brow. “Such as?”
Erin’s expression became one of the sly plotter. “You ever think about how we might get ourselves some wheels?”
“We’ve got my truck”, Freddie jumped in.
“I mean some real wheels”, Erin said, ignoring Freddie’s crestfallen look. “If you were to concentrate on something specifically…I dunno, a general idea or desire…you think you could find us a car?”
Kaitlyn offered a slight frown and considered it. She had no idea.
“It’s worth a shot”, Aadesh nudged.
 Kaitlyn’s fingers danced across the small keypad, deactivating the building’s alarm system.
“So how did you know about--?”, Aadesh started to ask.
“Owner’s nephew runs the place on Thursdays and alternate Saturdays. Has a memory like a sieve, so he’s got the alarm code written down and stashed over there for him to refer to.” Kaitlyn jerked her head in the direction of the now-dark neon letters that adorned the building’s façade. Everyone looked quizzically in that direction. Before anyone could ask the question, Kaitlyn added, “Behind the ‘L’. The first one.”
There was a soft beep and the door opened silently. “Come on”, she said.
Inside the roller rink, Freddie wheeled in large circles across the floor as lights from a mirrored globe danced across the ceiling as music unchanged or updated in twenty years played on crackly speakers. Aadesh laced up his own skates, looking forward to a slow song to skate along to while holding Kaitlyn’s hand. It was a bit corny, but he was a romantic at heart.
Erin was the only one not getting into the spirit of things. She sat nearby on a worn vinyl seat looking annoyed. It was kind of her default expression. “When I said wheels”, she said, an edge in her voice.
“Roller skates have wheels”, Aadesh pointed out. “Don’t be an old grump. Relax for two seconds. Grab some skates and join us for a spin already.” He held his hand out to Kaitlyn, who took it, gliding gracefully up beside him.
“I told you it wasn’t an exact science, these visions”, Kaitlyn reminded her. She and Aadesh wheeled over to the rink and joined Freddie, who spun in tight circles with his arms extended as some disco diva sang about how she loved the night life.
“Thing is”, Erin said, not getting up, “I actually like Mr. Sanocki. He’s an alright guy.”
“Everybody likes Mr. Sanocki”, Aadesh said, rolling slowly past. “But it’s not like we’re robbing his place. We’re just having a late-night skate without the price of admission. Just this once.”
“We’ll set the alarm when we go”, Kaitlyn said, taking Aadesh’s arm and making a slow turn to the left. “No one will ever know we were here.”
“So we roller skate for free”, Erin huffed. “What a thrill.”
“And eat popcorn!” Freddie fairly slammed into the partition between the rink and the sitting area. He leaned over it, balancing himself on his elbows as he kicked his feet in the air behind him. “We can eat a TON of popcorn! You ever see how much he has to throw out every night?? We’ll be doing him a favor.”
“That’s a great idea”, Aadesh teased. “Popcorn for everybody!”
“If you’re not going to skate, you can at least get us some snacks”, Kaitlyn joined in.
“I prefer grape soda, by the way”, Freddie grinned as he pushed off the partition back onto the rink. The night life lady had been replaced by some guy with a deep voice proclaiming someone to be his first, his last, his everything. Whatever that meant. Erin trudged over to the snack bar, wondering whether or not she should spit in Freddie’s grape soda. She flipped up the portion of the counter that allowed for staff entry and grabbed up some striped popcorn bags. She nearly tripped on what lay unseen at her feet.
Then she saw it. Then she screamed.
The other three sped over as fast as they could skate. Erin was not one to scream lightly. And she hadn’t now.
On the floor behind the counter, vacant eyes staring up at the pock-marked ceiling, lay the body of Mr. Sanocki whom everybody liked, his head bashed in by a pair of bloody skates. The floor was sticky and dank, the puddle covering the cracked flooring something other than the usual syrups used to flavor the snow cones. Freddie sped across the carpeted floor and threw up in the drinking fountain.
Aadesh pointed beyond the snack counter to a portion of paneling that had been torn away from the wall. Behind it was a safe, old and flimsy, easily broken into, with its door off the hinges. The roller rink was hardly a huge money maker. The haul could not have been worth the trouble. It had to have been done either out of malice or by someone lost in a narcotic haze.
Popcorn and old music forgotten, the delinquent quartet fled the building. They did not reset the alarm. But they did call 911.
 It was another week or so before they dared venture out again in response to one of Kaitlyn’s visions. They opted to keep things small. No focusing on cars or anything on that level. Instead, Kaitlyn thought of simple things like knickknacks and tchotchkes. She hoped it might lead them to the leftovers of some basement rummage sale or an equally innocuous destination. As the four of them stood outside the weather-beaten door of just such a shop, Kaitlyn felt that perhaps she was finally getting the hang of directing, or at least reading, her visions.
“I can’t believe you actually found a place called Eloise’s Attic”, Erin remarked under her breath. There was a clunky wooden sign out front, the type you might have made at a craft fair, of an old woman holding a cat in her arms above a poorly-painted logo compete with little flowers. Charming, Erin thought sarcastically.
“I didn’t even know there was a strip mall over here”, Aadesh said.
“I’m not sure that four ramshackle old shops stuck together in a row constitute a strip mall”, Erin said.
“That was impressive”, Freddie added. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the word ‘ramshackle’ in a sentence before.”
Erin was about to smack him upside his ginger head when Kaitlyn spoke. “From what I could tell in what I saw”, and she tapped her temple to indicate what she meant by “saw” as if anyone needed reminding, “this place has been dark for well over a week. So the old lady who runs the shop—“
“That would be Eloise, I’d imagine”, Freddie chimed in.
Kaitlyn continued as if he hadn’t spoken, easily prying open the back door with a credit card. “—is probably out of town. Maybe visiting relatives or something.”
“Probably attending a funeral”, Erin commented.
“So we have a little bit of time”, Kaitlyn finished.
“Okay, remember what we decided”, Aadesh said. “We have a bit of time to explore, but no wrecking anything. We can each take one thing—“
“One small thing”, Kaitlyn emphasized.
“One small thing”, Aadesh agreed, “as a memento of this little adventure, but that’s it. Got it?” Erin and Freddie nodded. And in they went. But they didn’t go in very far.
“Eeww!”, Freddie exclaimed, recoiling. “What stinks in here?”
“It is the shop of an old lady” Aadesh said, placing the back of his hand under his nose. “There tends to be a bit of reek along with that, right?”
Erin stepped forward between the two boys. “That’s a hell of a lot more than old person smell”, she stated. The stench hit her harder as she moved further into the shop, her stomach lurching despite her strong constitution. “Somebody get the lights”, she hissed.
“What?”, Freddie said. “We’re gonna get caught!”
“As if anyone’s gonna see a light on in this place way out here”, Erin snapped. “Besides, if this what I think it is…just find the lights!”
They did. After a bit of stumbling around the wall by the back door, a light switch was found and flipped. Dim yellow lighting from a couple standing lamps with dusty shades illuminated the room as well as their low wattage could. Around the kids was a typical curio shop. Rickety shelves and small stands were littered with run-of-the-mill castoffs and leave-behinds; incomplete tea sets, long-obsolete children’s games, hideous scatter rugs and throws, musty hardcover books absent dust jackets but with plenty of browning pages and boring prose, and an excess of unattractive keepsakes no one wanted to keep. And there, in the midst of it all, behind the centrally-located sales counter, lay none other than old Eloise herself, flat on her back and long dead. Her twisted expression of shock and dismay indicated a sudden heart attack. Her unappealing shop indicated that no one visited enough to either find her or even notice she was missing. Atop her chest was her pet cat. It was jet black (of course it was) and sat proudly over the whole it had ripped in its owner’s chest as it tore into her in order to eat something after being locked inside for so long.
“Oh my God!”, Kaitlyn proclaimed, and turned her head away from the ghastly sight. Aadesh quickly took hold of her and pressed her to his chest. Freddie felt the nausea churning inside him. Erin just stared in disbelief. The cat, on the other hand, licked its lips as it gave the foursome a disdainful glare, clearly annoyed that they had interrupted its extended repast. Without emitting a hiss or a meow, it went back to enjoying its feast.
 “Hurry up!”, Kaitlyn cried. “Can’t this thing go any faster??”
Freddie growled behind the wheel of his pickup. “How many times have you ridden in my truck? You think it can suddenly improve on its speed??”
Aadesh put a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Hon, you’ve got to calm down.”
“No, you don’t understand!” Kaitlyn was frantic.
“I understand that if this is because of another one of your visions”, Erin said, “which, by the way, we agreed not to pay attention to anymore for the sake of our collective sanity, we should be moving fast away from whatever this is instead of toward it.”
“I hear that”, Freddie muttered under his breath.
“This time it isn’t about us!”, Kaitlyn snapped. “It’s not just for us to have fun or get away with something—it’s about them!”
“Who?”, Aadesh asked desperately. “Who is them?”
“Gah!”, Kaitlyn rubbed her temples as if her brains might burst out of them. “You’ll see! I don’t want to go into all of it right now, we just need to—come on, Freddie! Go faster!”
“The pedal’s to the floor! What more do you want?!”
What Kaitlyn wanted was not what she, or her friends, was going to get, as they found out soon enough when Freddie rode furiously down the pitted dirt road right up to a dead end. He slammed on the breaks, fishtailing the truck, very nearly smashing into the sign warning of the cutoff and the trees that lay just beyond it.
The four friends were shaken, jostled about the truck by its violent movement, and fumbled about to right themselves and get their bearings.
“What the hell was that?!”, Erin snarled, looking daggers at Freddie.
“Don’t look at me! This is the way she told me to go! Kaitlyn said to take this road, this one right here—apparently not caring what it would do to my axle, or my shocks, such as they are--!”
“Not now”, Aadesh scolded. Then to Kaitlyn, he said, “Where were you taking us, honey? What’s this all about?”
Kaitlyn leaned out the window to see the sign lit by the pickup’s glaring headlights. Three harsh words stared back at her. NO WAY OUT. She stepped out of the cab, legs unsteady, knees shaking.
“I was so sure…”, she mumbled under her breath. “This has to be where it’ll happen…it has to be…”
Aadesh was already behind his girlfriend, hands resting on her shoulders in an attempt to steady her. “Kate, if you would just talk to us.”
Erin was halfway out of the cab, her expression showing that she was about to unleash one of her trademark caustic comments when suddenly she stopped, her head turning quickly to the right. “Hey. Any of you guys hear that?”
The others strained to listen, at first hearing nothing. It was Freddie who picked up on the sound next. “Yeah, I do. People talking…yelling.” At that point, everyone could hear the not-so-distant cries coming from somewhere in the darkness. “Somebody’s having one hell of an argument”, Freddie realized.
Kaitlyn blanched. “We’re on the wrong street”, she gasped.
Spinning on her heel, she dashed around the back of the pickup truck to peer into the woods. There, perhaps some two hundred feet off, were the lights from house windows. The shouting was coming from there, echoing dimly through thick grove of trees with overlapping branches and interwoven roots above ground, which obscured some of the sound. Kaitlyn looked back the way they had come. If they were to pile back in the truck, drive back down the lengthy road, then take the main thoroughfare of lazy curves until they reached the proper street to turn down in order to reach the house, they’d never get there in time. So Kaitlyn started running right into the darkened woods, ducking around trees and avoiding branches with partial success as she raced toward the distant house.
“Kaitlyn!”, Aadesh shouted. “Wait!”
He turned to Erin, who was already a step ahead of him. She had snatched a large metal flashlight which Freddie had tossed her from his glove box. She lobbed it to Aadesh, who caught it easily. Turning it on, Aadesh aimed the beam in Kaitlyn’s general direction and took after her. Erin and Freddie were not far behind, with Erin using the flashlight app on her phone to guide them.
“You’re gonna get hurt!”, Aadesh called after his girlfriend, who paid no attention to him as she stumbled and lurched her way through the legion of tree trunks with their clutching outstretched limbs and twisting uneven roots. “What is going on with you? What is it??”
Kaitlyn stopped for half a heartbeat to turn back to her boyfriend. Hair flying in her face, her eyes wild, she responded, “He didn’t clean his gun!!” Again she was off like a terror.
Aadesh had no idea what she meant, but he didn’t like the sound of it. He quickened his pace as best he could, given the surroundings, and tried to keep up. As they drew closer to the house, the noises became more distinct. A man and a woman arguing, their voices raising in volume and pitch. As they shouted, a baby cried a frightened wail. Kaitlyn and Aadesh were nearly a dozen yards from the house when a shot rang out accompanied by a flash of light. The cries of the baby stopped. A few seconds of terrifying silence were followed by the voices of the man and woman again. The shouts were now shrieks, screams, and tearful babbling.  Another shot sounded, the flash that came with it illuminating the house for a split-second. The hysterical voices were gone. Silence took hold once more.
Kaitlyn was crying, her long hair sticking to her face where the tears stained her cheeks. “No, no, no, no, no!”
She made it to the house’s back porch to find the hideous scene laid out before her. To the right, a baby’s crib and wall behind it spattered red. To the left, a woman caught in the struggle to take away the weapon, hung limply from her husband’s arm, her hands still wrapped around the hilt and trigger. Her chest and torso saturated with blood, she slipped down to land on the floor with a sickening thud. In the center of it all, a man, his eyes wild with shock and confusion. In one hand he held a gun, his arm now slick with dripping red. His mouth moved in disbelief, trying to form words of regret and apology, but no sound came out.
It had become a routine. An unnerving, horrible routine. Carl, the husband, had grown to resent the woman whom he felt he had been forced to marry after learning she carried his child. It was her fault, hers and baby’s, that he had to work the godawful job he hated to support them. His life and dreams cut short by responsibility he never asked for. Each Wednesday night, Carl went to the shooting range to blow off steam. Each Thursday evening, he went through an elaborate ritual of cleaning his gun, taking it apart and putting it back together. Any bullets that hadn’t been fired at the range were stored carefully in a hinged wooden box. After work let out Friday, Carl proceeded to get drunk. He came home angry and inebriated, letting all his anger and frustration spill out through foul remarks and shouted obscenities. His tirade would end as it always did, with Carl taking out his gun and waving it around, making mock targets of his wife and child. First he’d point to the bassinette, claiming the child was to blame for his predicament. If that kid had never come into his life, he wouldn’t be trapped as he was. He’d pull the trigger of the empty gun. Click. Then he’d turn on his wife, going on about how it would be even better if they’d never met. If she’d only be gone, too…he’d take aim again. Click. Carl would then shuffle to the bedroom and collapse onto the bed. Saturday would be spent with tears and apologies, declarations of love and a promise to change. Sunday would be filled with flowers and outings, trips to the lake or long drives in the country. All would be forgiven and Monday saw Carl back to work at the job he hated, the job that would by Wednesday, send him back to the shooting range to blow off steam. But this past Thursday, as Kaitlyn saw, Carl’s routine had been interrupted when he was called back into work to help out the night shift. As a result…
Kaitlyn looked the stunned man, this unintended murderer, in the eye as she whispered, “You didn’t clean your gun.”
The man put the gun to his temple, eyes gushing tears as he hoped there was at least one more bullet in the chamber. There was. He fell to the floor beside his betrothed just as Aadesh made it to the door.
“Holy God”, he gasped.
It was perhaps twenty or thirty seconds of terrible silence until Erin arrived. “What the hell is going on here? Were those gunshots? Why did you bring us all the way out here to—“  She also froze upon seeing the aftermath of what had transpired. Freddie was right behind her. Erin turned swiftly, blocking his view. Grabbing Freddie by the shoulders, she spun him around so his back was toward the house. She spoke quietly but sternly in his ear. “Go back to the truck. Just walk and do not turn around. Get in the cab and wait for us. Do not under any circumstances look back. Now move.” Erin gave Freddie a firm shove and Freddie did as he was told. He knew his friends’ moods and behavior well, and he understood that Erin would not have said what she did, the way she said it, if it were not an extreme emergency. Whatever was behind him, Freddie did not want to see it. Rapidly, he returned to the truck.
After more strained silence, Erin said softly, “I thought you couldn’t see what’s going to happen. I thought you could only see glimpses of the past.”
“She can’t”, Aadesh said. “But she can piece things together from what she’s seen and figure out what might happen next.” He swallowed hard. “We have to get out of here. We have no idea who else might’ve heard the shots.”  Then he turned to his side, saying, “Kaitlyn, don’t blame yourself for—“ only to find she was no longer there. Both he and Erin looked left and right, expecting to find Kaitlyn right next to them. She was not.
“Where did she go?”, Erin said.
Kaitlyn ran through the woods away from the house and away from the pickup truck. She sobbed, fighting to erase the bloody scene from her mind which lingered before her even when she closed her eyes. Is this what her visions were for? To bring her and her friends to one scene of horror after another? It was bad enough that the three most important people in her life had begun to fear her abilities. Now Kaitlyn was afraid of them too.
There was a distant rumble of thunder and soon thereafter, lightning split the sky. Rain began to fall, mixing with the tears that streaked Kaitlyn’s face. Had she not been so overwhelmed, she would have scoffed at how cliché it seemed to have the scary thunderstorm follow on the heels of the tragedy she’d just witnessed. Thoughts of greater importance occupied her mind. Was she psychically drawn to the bad things because she was a bad person at heart? Were she and her friends inherently evil? Or was she seeing visions which led to the horrible and dark because that was how she saw herself—how all four of them saw themselves? Was this just a prelude to the dark, destructive life the courts predicted for them? Perhaps there was no way to change their course. If so, all that lay ahead was bleak.
Desperate and afraid, for herself and even of herself, Kaitlyn did something she had never done before and would never do again. She forced her visions. Her head was ravaged with the pain of a thousand razor blades as she cried out into the night. Falling to her knees, she shouted up into the downpour as the thunder covered her cries. Take the visions away, she pleaded. Get them out of my head, out of my life! She pushed harder, doing all she could to cast her powers away, to bid them begone. Why couldn’t she and her friends have had different lives? In bringing them to see the darkness, did they expose themselves for that darkness to claim them?
Once more she pushed, even harder than before, and as a stake of sheer pain sliced through her mind, Kaitlyn felt something give. Her visions…or the power that caused them…shot outward from her mind, firing off in all directions. But they did not leave her. If anything, she still felt tethered to them, and no matter how distantly her visions spread, they would never leave her. As she lost consciousness, Kaitlyn asked the universe if she could not be rid of the visions, could she at least see something—anything—good, if only once. Could she please see a glimmer of hope amid all the darkness and horror?
           And just this once, the universe answered.
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