2014 chevy cruze window off track

Three New Creepy True Stories
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Number One: Motel
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This happened to me and my girlfriend when we were travelling across country. We had to stay in various motels because all though she was okay with sleeping in our car, I was never able to do that. She could fall asleep with her head on the window at the drop of a hat, but I would be up all night trying my best to fall asleep.
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We didn’t make reservations or anything like that. We just drove until we got tired and began looking for a motel with a vacancy.
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Maybe on the third night of our trip, we had a pretty creepy experience with a motel that we found. I could tell driving into it that I wasn’t going to like it too much. We were in a pretty rural area and it looked pretty run down. But I was exhausted and needed to get some sleep, so we decided to spend the night there.
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We got into our room and began getting ready to get some sleep. Suddenly, the phone began ringing. Figuring that it was the office I picked it up and answered it.
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“You’re wife’s cute,” the voice on the other end told me. “I can’t wait until I am sleeping in bed with her.”
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I wanted to say something back, but whomever was on the other end hung up immediately.
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My girlfriend asked me what happened and I explained it to her. Maybe I shouldn’t have, because it frightened her. But if we were to get another call, I thought she should probably be prepared now. Not that I was expecting anyone to call back.
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But about 10 minutes later, the phone rang again. I decided to answer it, thinking that it was likely the caller from before. And I was right.
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“Time’s running out,” the voice told me. “Soon I will be in bed with your wife.” Then he immediately hung up.
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We were very freaked out by that point. Gathering our stuff up, we decided to go check with the office.
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We told them about the calls, but it was obvious it wasn’t coming from him. I had considered it, because he was the only one who should have known that we were in that room. But the voice wasn’t even close to sounding like the other. We asked if he had any idea what was going on and he said he had no idea.
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We asked him if we could change rooms. We figured that maybe someone just knew the number to that room and was giving us a hard time or something. So he put us into another room on the other side of the motel.
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We went to the room. At this point, I was very tired. I knew that it wouldn’t take long for me to fall asleep. However, I didn’t get a chance to.
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We had only been in the room a few minutes before the phone began ringing again. My girlfriend and I both immediately got tense. I decided to answer the phone.
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“Changing rooms won’t change the fact that I will be sleeping with your wife,” the voice on the other side of the phone said to me. Then, like all of the previous times, the phone hung up.
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My girlfriend immediately knew what had happened. We talked about what we were going to do. I was exhausted, but now we were both on edge. We had no idea if this was a prank or if someone was actually going to do something. But we also knew that at that point, there was no way that we could get any sleep. Someone obviously knew the phone numbers in the rooms and was also watching us. That is the only way they could have known that we had switched rooms.
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We decided that we needed to just check out and get back on the road. We would find another motel.
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We gathered our things again and then left the room. We both felt very conspicuous, walking outside of the room. We felt eyes on us, that whoever had called us was now watching us. So we decided to put our stuff in the car before going in and telling the clerk that we were going to check out.
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When we got to the car, however, we were stunned to see that all four of our tires had been slashed. So we just got more scared and immediately went to the clerk and asked him to call the police.
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We could have brushed off the phone calls as being a prank, even with the switching of rooms. But seeing the tires cut made it so much more real. It really made us believe that someone had been watching us and was intent on hurting us.
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Unfortunately, the police couldn’t do very much. There were a lot of guests in the motel and they couldn’t wake everyone up and question them. The most they could do was look around a little bit and make a report. Our car was taken to a mechanic and we rode along with the police to there.
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It was a really long time before everything was taken care of. I was a very long time before I was able to get a good night’s sleep.

Number Two: Night Ride
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This happened to me when I was 13 years old, but I still remember it as clearly as if it happened today. I had some uncles who were pretty close to me in terms of age. And a lot of times in the summer, if I went over to my grandma’s house, we would go for rides in the back of a pickup truck. I especially loved doing this at night because it was very, very creepy to do. And back in those days, I was looking for anything that could creep me out to entertain me.
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This was a bit of an impromptu visit in mid summer. It was really hot outside, as I remember. This was back in the day when we had glass bottles of soda, not plastic ones. And I recall this mostly because we were stocked up on bottles of Mountain Dew.
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My two uncles decided at night that they wanted to go for a drive through the hills. My brother and my cousin were with us and they wanted to do it too. So we loaded up in the pick up truck at night time. My uncles and my older brother were all in the cab. My cousin and I were in the bed of the truck.
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I enjoyed those rides a whole lot and as I recall they were always a bit scary. There were no lights on those country roads, so when it go dark, it really got dark. The only light that we had was from the headlights of the truck. And being in the bed of the truck, that didn’t do us a whole lot of good.
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My cousin and I were having fun. We liked being scared and we liked scaring each other. But on some level, the two of us were also expecting the older boys to try and do something to scare us. So we kept waiting for a possible scare to be on the way. But that was more in the back of our mind.
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I really wish that I could describe to you what it was like to be riding in the bed of the car like we were in the dark. It’s the sort of thing that I miss in the world of today. Everywhere we go, there are lights everywhere. It is really hard to get scared like it used to be. The darkness was so encompassing that it nearly felt like we were isolated. Another thing I can think of is that it felt like were driving through a tunnel made of trees and such.
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My cousin and I were doing our thing. We were talking about things that we thought might scare each other.
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These were old dirt roads, so my uncle was not driving the truck really fast. There were tons of twists and turns, especially the higher up you got into the hills. And that is sort of important for what eventually happened.
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The truck slowed down a little bit as it was about to go around a turn. We weren’t going very fast to begin with, but the turn was pretty sharp and we grabbed the sides of the truck to brace ourselves as we made the turn.
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I was very familiar with this sharp turn. My uncles had tried to scare us one time by telling us that cars have had accidents right on that turn. In fact, they said that some people have died going around the bend. I was sure that it was their way of trying to scare us by making us think that we could die by going around the bend.
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My back was facing the inside of the road, with my hands bracing me on both sides. And that was when it happened. I felt something on my left wrist. I turned and looked at my arm, and was stunned by what it looked like I saw. For a very brief moment, it looked like a human hand was grabbing my wrist.
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So, I pulled my arm away. But as I mentioned, it was only for a brief moment and I easily pulled my arm away and the truck was around the corner. However, I quickly moved to the opposite side of the truck, where my cousin was sitting.
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He was confused but I explained to him what I had seen. I don’t think he really believed me at first. But he knocked on the window and told my uncles to stop the truck. They did this and we told them what had just happened.
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We took a flashlight and walked back over to the sharp turn. My uncle also took a rifle out that was kept behind the seat in the cab. But when we went back, we were unable to find anyone or anything. There was definitely no one anywhere near us.
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My uncle then tried to scare us a little bit by suggesting it was the hand of someone who had died while making the turn. And of course, my cousin and I believed them. We got back in the truck and they took off again.
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Riding in the bed of that truck was so terrifying. Both my cousin and I wanted to be in the cab, but there wouldn’t be room for us. Whatever I had seen and the story my uncles told us, well combined that scared the crap out of us. We were all too eager to get home.
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I really have no idea what we saw that night, but it was the scariest moment of my life.

Number Three: Train Guy
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Right on the outside of town, there is an old railroad track. At this time, I had lived in this town for about ten years. I could count on my hands how many times I have actually seen a train moving on it. However, right after a bridge, there is another off track. I am not really sure what you call it, but there are often train cars parked there for a really long period of time.
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The area around the tracks is heavily wooded. There is a road the goes through it and up a hill. There are a few houses up on the hill, but very spread apart. But I often take that road because it’s a short cut to get back home because it leads through a field. That is how I knew about the train cars that are often parked there.
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I was walking there with a friend one day and he decided that he wanted to take some pictures of the train cars. He was designing some sort of game and felt that he needed pictures to model off of. I can’t really explain that part, but I guess it’s just important that we needed to get pictures of it.
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After taking pictures of some of the back cars, he wanted to walk to the ones in front. We had been taking pictures for a good 15 minutes at that point. However, when we started walking forward we noticed something. Someone walked out from between two of the cars. And then he started walking in our direction.
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I can’t completely explain why, but seeing the guy made us both feel very uncomfortable. There were rarely any people back in that area. So I asked him if we should maybe just go. For some reason, the appearance of the guy, who was a bit far from us, was making him feel uneasy too. So we decided to just leave and to come back at a later time.
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About a week later, he and I went on another walk. We decided to take the back road again. He wanted to take some more pictures. The same train was there, but that was not a surprise. They would sit there for months at a time. So we were going to try and go to the front of the train again and take those pictures of the front cars that we didn’t get to do last time.
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However, as we began walking in that direction, it happened again. A guy came out from between two of the cars, which could have been the exact ones from the first time. And once again, there was something very creepy about the whole thing. So my friend and I once again decided to leave.
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We talked about it for a while and came to a conclusion. There were some homeless people in our town. So we figured that for some reason, he must have been living in between two of the cars. Perhaps he didn’t want anyone snooping around in his area. So we decided that maybe we would just skip trying to get those pictures.
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We kept away from the train area for quite a while. But my friend is really stubborn and he really wanted to get pictures of that train. So after a short period of time, we decided to go back to the train.
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My friend was taking pictures and was going further down the track than we had before. Since the man didn’t come out, we figured that he was not around. So my friend started going between the cars to get all of the pictures that he needed.
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It happened so quick that it took me by total surprise. The man pounced out from behind one of the cars, yelling all sorts of gibberish. And he was holding what looked like a pocket knife in his hand. And he began running straight toward my buddy.
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My friend was closer to the guy than I was, and he fell over in surprise. The crazy man easily got to him and held him down. My friend was struggling to get up.
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I hate to admit, I almost ran in fear. But I knew I had to help my friend. So I ran over there and tried my best to pull the crazy man off him. The man was a lot stronger than I would have thought, but with both mine and my buddy’s strength, we were able to pull him off. The guy stumbled backward and fell down.
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I tried my best to pull my friend up. By the time we got him to his feet, the crazy guy was up too. And this was the first time I got a look at him. His eyes were chilling to me. I mean they made Norman Bates look normal. He also had what looked like blood on his face. IT was only then that I realized that he had actually bitten my friend.
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It was too much and the two of us just took off running. He followed us, but fortunately only as far as the end of the train. We were able to get out of there safely from that point.
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My friend had to go to the hospital. The police went and arrested the man who attacked us. They found tons of dead animals in the area where he was hiding. It looked like he had tried eating some of them.
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He went to jail for the attack. It was three years for aggravated assault. But the two of us are stuck with the memory.

Intro
I should start by saying that the search for a company like Enterprise began under the following pretense: I have a bearish view of where I think broad markets are going by the end of 2023 and wanted somewhere to hide out while still maintaining the potential to double my investment under any broad market scenario.
Enterprise Group fits that bill. The Company is a niche energy service company that provides site infrastructure services to remote western Canadian production sites for pipelines, construction and oil and gas sectors in western Canada. I believe Enterprise is a fantastic and deeply overlooked company fit for retail investors (like me) who have the ability to enter a position ahead of institutions catching hold of the name.
The core thesis on Enterprise is:
- Low correlation to broad markets
- High growth and 30% cash flow yield
- Healthy balance sheet providing ~$20M in dry powder for potential non-dilutive M&A
- Share buyback in place to support stock
- Unique low-emission fleet of equipment to grow market share
- Structural market expansion
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History
Enterprise was founded in 2004, though as it stands today, is a much leaner and higher growth business compared to what it was in the last bull market for energy in 2008-2014. Where many competitors went out of business during the bear market between 2014-2021, Enterprise wisely divested from lower margin business units, preserved its balance sheet and due to its unique fleet of equipment – was able to maintain cash flow positive during this time. M&A is part of the corporate DNA of Enterprise and has had a successful track record on that front.
While others were still reeling from previous years downturn or still trying to repair their balance sheets in 2020/2021, Enterprise was able to utilize the strength of its balance sheet and positive cash flows to countercyclically invest into new business units to position themselves for the eventual return of energy markets we are now experiencing. A great example of this is the launch of Evolution Power in 2022, which offers a fleet of low-emission microgrids that power the entire production site with natural gas, replacing diesel generators. In doing so, EP reduces CO2 emissions by 30%, gives Enterprise higher margins, is safer and more efficient for the customer. As one of the few “green options” in the energy sector, they are becoming the first choice for larger oil and gas clients subject to Canada’s “heavy emitter” penalties.
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Market
The large majority of Enterprise’s sales are derived from western Canadian energy producers, with a greater share of natural gas producers compared to oil producers within its book of clients. Though Enterprise profits have less commodity risk than their actual producing clients, the Company nevertheless is derivatively exposed to energy prices (though I believe there are some factors that reduce the correlation that I will get into later). After years of producers not investing into large exploration projects due to ESG mandates, regulations and low prices, the outlook on energy markets looks extremely promising for producers and has already begun to see a notable uptick in production levels that are expected to continue for a market that looks undersupplied in years ahead.
More specifically to Enterprise’s western Canadian market, there are some very visible demand drivers on the horizon based on new pipeline capacity that provide a near certain increase in demand for services like Enterprise. This demand is structured within tens of billions of dollars of sunk infrastructure capital to provide a roadmap of oil and gas (mostly gas) production expansion in western Canada. Beginning in 2023 with the completion of NGTL network expansion (gas) and TMX pipeline (oil), there will continue to be major new export capacity to come online nearly every year this decade, with recent first nations LNG projects advancing on the west coast.
For Canadian gas producers, the pipelines will allow them to access higher priced Asian markets, where prices are often multiples of those received in Canada or the US. You can bet there is going to be prompt increases to production to ship whatever they can to those markets, given the preferred economics.
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Financials
Enterprise just recently released their full year 2022 financials March 20, 2023, where they posted fantastic results. Rather than do a deep dive into financials today, will simply share some important highlights and suggest reviewing their financials below: (https://www.sedar.com/DisplayCompanyDocuments.do?lang=EN&issuerNo=00020838)
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https://preview.redd.it/ea50sup8ospa1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f5c7ac56063d95dcd54a4a3d5b09bb337cb12de
Additional items:
- Bought back 1.8M shares in 2022
- Secured US OTC listing to increase access to US investors
- Renewed buyback program
- Available tax losses of $0.17/share
- Purchased $5.6M of new equipment
- Subsequently signed one of largest contracts in company history in Jan 2023
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Share Structure
Enterprise currently has 50.3M shares outstanding, with another 5M options exercisable at $0.45. Notably, management/board were buyers in the open market over the last few years and now hold over 40% of all shares outstanding.
This is where I think it gets uniquely attractive for us retail investors.
Since the last energy cycle, nearly all of the research analysts that covered the sector have moved on, meaning the few analysts left covering the space are focused on large-cap players and there are none covering companies the size of Enterprise. There is a window for retail to build a position in a hugely profitable company with a tight share structure subject to a potential squeeze before institutions begin to take notice.
Finally – and maybe most importantly – 2022 saw a unique trading dynamic occur due to a large shareholder selling down their position. This shareholder accidentally accumulated a >10% ownership position, unknowingly triggering a requirement to file any purchase/sale of stock (see sedi filings to confirm). That shareholder then spent the entire year reducing their position below 10% but because there was not a large float of shares trading hands, effectively put a ceiling on the stock the entire year and single-handedly compressed the multiple. This does not appear to have been done with ill intent but explains why the stock bounced between a floor of around $0.38 (supported by the buyback) and $0.42 (where the shareholder was selling) despite everything going right for the company operationally. In January, the company bought back the final tranche of shares needed to get that shareholder below the 10% threshold, thereby clearing the way for share price to better track the improving cash flow of the company.
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Valuation
Enterprise is currently trading at a deeply discounted valuation and historically low multiple, which is ironic considering this may be the best market they've ever operated in. As a particular point of reference, a comparison below for the 2020-2022 periods for EV/EBITDA and some other metrics that could influence the deserved multiple such as growth, profitability, and credit risk. I’ve also already listed a few reasons to be bullish on their future market (pipelines coming online beginning this year), which is consistent with management’s outlook from their MD&A that “…customers have indicated they will continue to operate at increased activities through the remainder of the year”. Though a 10-11x multiple shouldn't be expected moving forward, you can see the impact of having a large shareholder exiting with a small float and how a lack of share price movement can lose investor attention. Over the course of a year, Enterprise added over $5M in EBITDA (+175%) and barely saw its valuation change at all!
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*2022 year using current share price
At a current 4.2x EV/EBITDA, Enterprise is trading far below the 6x it has traded in previous cycles and which seems very reasonable as a base case scenario. It would take very little notional buying for that re-rate to occur and for those able to establish a position at these prices, it would represent a 74% return.
https://preview.redd.it/8ra74fvbospa1.png?width=867&format=png&auto=webp&s=660dd45a56abdf0c798057de86fde7b49a02b6e4
Finally, if Enterprise is seen through a different valuation lens**, the company just released in their earnings that equity holders would be due $0.68/share ($0.39 current share price) if the company simply sold all of their equipment at book value.** Multiple arguments to show that Enterprise is undervalued.
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Outlook
Enterprise has a strong outlook on market fundamentals to support top line growth, increasing pricing power to maintain/increase margins and new revenue potential coming online with equipment additions.
Given history of M&A activity, balance sheet flexibility and the fact some targets are still not fully recovered from 2014-2021 period, it would be very surprising if the company did not make one or more acquisitions in the near-future. Management has said as much on their recent twitter spaces interview.
Fortunately for equity holders, management does not have to dilute shareholders while its equity remains undervalued. With $20M in unused credit at their disposal (their current market cap), they would have the ability to make a material acquisition without needing any equity at all. Even if they were to make an even larger acquisition, their debt providers are Ninepoint Partners (via Waygar Capital), who are home to none other than Eric Nuttall, who is the largest and most bullish energy fund manager on earth. You can bet that if the right target came along with the right assets/cash flow, Ninepoint would be more than happy to increase the size of that facility if they aren’t able to secure some seller's financing. If we assume a slight liquidity discount on a PrivateCo acquisition, $20M at 3x EV/EBITDA could buy around $6-7M of incremental EBITDA, effectively doubling the “cash flow” of the company before considering any synergies. Prospect of cross-selling new rental equipment would be high.
If something like this came to pass and they grew to a $15M EBITDA business, there would undoubtedly be a whole new supply of small institutions that would be interested and could be an attractive buyout candidate for private equity, who they’re currently competing with for acquisitions.
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Risk
Commodity Risk:
This being the most obvious risk to the company. If we were to go back to the dark ages (2014-2021), there would be a material impact on Enterprise financials. I believe commodity risk for Enterprise is mitigated for 3 reasons:

1. A decade of underinvestment in global energy supplies has the entire spectrum of energy prognosticators projecting supply deficits for oil and continued growth in global natural gas demand. Continued regulatory hurdles, ESG capital restrictions, end of US shale hypergrowth, and return-of-capital mandates by EnergyCo shareholders make it less likely we see reckless supply additions. Adding to that, we’ve now got China reopening, OPEC defending prices, and US supposedly refilling the SPR at some point (we’ll see).
2. Infrastructure Developments: Canada has abundant reserves, with some of the cleanest and lowest-cost natural gas in the world with a painful lack of export capacity. A number of pipeline and LNG export facilities are set to come online, incentivizing a production increase to fill that pipeline. To me, this is the most powerful reason why I believe Enterprise has much lower commodity risk and has been repeated by recent research put out by RBC on the prospects of NE BC natural gas outlook.
3. Tier 1 Client Book: Enterprise’s clients are some of the largest energy producers in North America, meaning they plan their development programs with a multi-year outlook that is less sensitive to short term price action. Further, many of its clients are actual providing the supply for LNG Canada (Sinopec, Petronas,

Market Downturn:
No doubt we are entering a period of uncertainty, with global liquidity being reduced and the risk of recession on the horizon. I think this should be viewed in two ways:

1. Operations: Looking back, more often than not a significant global recession is more likely to reduce the rate of growth in oil demand rather than actually reducing demand. Natural gas is mostly used for heating and electricity generation, making it relatively inelastic as well. Global GDP is also more evenly spread between OECD and non-OECD, meaning growing countries like India will be less responsive to tightening financial conditions.
2. Share Price: Enterprise is tracking towards a trailing 4x EV/EBITDA, with structural growth catalysts on the horizon (ie. pipelines) and excess cash flow available for buybacks. Even in a market panic, it is likely cash flows can continue to grow, providing continued support to the share price via buybacks.
3. Recent meltdown in energy markets had almost no impact on Enterprise share price and would suspect that increased buybacks would be there for support if share price were to slide further.

It is the risk-adjusted return with fundamentals to back it up that make Enterprise special within the micro-cap space.
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Summary

1. Operating conditions look very strong for the company based on energy cycle and the foundation of new pipeline-related production increases in western Canada.
2. Enterprise is a pure-play on western Canada with major well-capitalized nat gas clients poised for growth.
3. Small size and cap structure provide potential for significant torque in share price.
4. Enterprise has debt flexibility such that they don’t need to dilute equity at these valuations if M&A opportunities arise.
5. Extremely profitable with 30%+ cash flow yield and optionality for buybacks or further investment in expanding equipment fleet for evolution power.
6. Significant selling pressure from large shareholder has now ended after tendering shares to treasury in January 2023.
7. A single large new shareholder has potential to re-rate the stock to base case of 6x EV/EBITDA multiple.
8. Equity re-rate and M&A could see this company become very large, very quickly – drawing further flows of capital to the name at sufficient scale or be a prime takeout candidate for PE.

Disclosure:
I own shares in Enterprise. This is not financial advise. Please do your own due diligence.

I made a vr game in UE5 and packaged in Windows and Android versions. Android version kinda work compare to Desktop version. In Windows version game can open well, Headset and controller tracks work well but buttons doesn't... I can't click buttons or move anywhere. Debug Pointers doesn't show off the screen. In Android version these problems don't exist but if my player start to move screen start to the shake. Where did i do wrong ?

Read THE Z TEAM: Book 1 on Amazon in ebook/print/Unlimited here.
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Book 1 Sample Start Book 2 Start Previous
***
Supervisor Durio arrived at the Mounteque sixty-eight minutes after Carnen gave Kemp his ultimatum.
The delay wasn’t Kemp’s fault. She requested an off-the-record debriefing using their cover identity as Ministry of Security agents, the same method she’d first contacted him. Durio agreed and approved a priority docking request at a private airlock reserved for admins and VIPs. He wiped the evidence and then came aboard the ship later than promised.
Carnen got the feeling that was done on purpose but brushed it aside. Durio was in for a surprise if he thought power games would have an effect on the operative teams.
Eptus greeted the supervisor. His pretentious expression broadcast his noble lineage. He offered an excuse but no apology. “I was delayed by bickering captains about to ram each other over who was ahead in the docking queue.”
“I understand, supervisor. Please, follow me,” Eptus said in a measured voice which meant he thought Durio’s answer was bullshit.
While Eptus escorted the supervisor aboard, Warden team waited in the main bay, the cam stream from the interrogation compartment on a display. The converted interior hold now contained a bare table and a chair on either side.
Carnen watched Kemp as she worked on her datapad. She’d shared the intelligence file on Durio while they waited for the Mounteque to dock. Stevson sat in a chair and rested his feet on top of a container, eager to watch what should be an interesting debriefing.
“Durio's from one of the minor noble houses,” Carnen said to Kemp. “According to this report, they have wealth and prestige, but no hope of ever competing for the Imperatrix seat. But that changes if the charter passes and the old guard is phased out. How did you get him to do something that benefitted his political enemy?”
Kemp offered him a self-assured smile. “There is no greater motivation than one’s own beliefs.”
On the display, Eptus led Durio into the interrogation compartment. The operations supervisor stepped inside, walking in the proper posture and measured gait of his noble lineage. He took in the bare room with an air of displeasure, as if it were beneath his presence.
“Please, have a seat,” Eptus said. Durio sat on the table’s far side, Eptus sitting across from him.
“We appreciate your willingness to expedite our request,” Eptus said.
“I would hope so. I put my career on the line in doing what was asked of me to protect the Provenance. I thought you would’ve rushed away from here after retrieving the,” he paused, lowering his voice like he was whispering a secret, “agitators. They cause a commotion wherever they appear, riling up the commoners with their fiery rhetoric.”
“Here’s the problem, Supervisor,” Eptus said. “They weren’t in the container you instructed us to collect.” He opened an image of the container’s interior on the table display.
Durio peered down at it. If he faked a confused expression, he did a fine job of selling it. “A waste recycler? I don’t understand. I saw the transfer pod go into that container. The singers were in it.”
“How can you be certain it was them?”
“Because three female Pree exited Zellis’s theater via the maintenance tunnels and rode a transport pod to whose destination was a reserved luxury suite. It’s not channel science, Supervisor. I watched them board the pod, set it for a maintenance appointment, and locked it down. Here is the proof.” He squinted, sharing a vid to the display. Cam footage of the singers entering the pod. Warden team saw it too, a window on their wall display mirroring what was on the table in the room with Eptus and Durio.
Carnen saw no reason why it couldn’t be the singers. The females looked fit and moved with grace.
“If that is them, the Mystery Man wasn’t with them,” Kemp observed.
“Maybe they fired him after the show. I think he screwed up a few times,” Stevson said. Carnen peered at the pilot. He shrugged. “I told you, I like their music. I’ve seen enough media to know that there were a few choreography mistakes.”
Kemp looked down at him over her datapad. “Should I be concerned that your admiration is a conflict of interest?”
Stevson snorted like the question was ridiculous. “Of course not. They don’t pay me. Kosmogenic does.”
“There are only three explanations,” Eptus went on, drawing Carnen’s attention back to the display. “Either you made a mistake, you swapped the container out on purpose, or someone else swapped the container.“
Durio’s face hardened with indignation. “I didn’t make a mistake or try to deceive you. How dare you chastise me after all that I risked in carrying out this scheme—”
“Let him speak,” Kemp said to Eptus over a comm. The Warden team leader sat there and absorbed the verbal barrage from Durio.
Kemp peered down at her datapad, studying something intently before tapping on the device. Carnen noticed Durio begin to struggle to find his words, his face rippling with emotion. His rant sputtered to a halt. He peered around the room as if disassociating from the conversation.
“Supervisor?” Eptus asked after a stretch of silence.
Durio, now calm and collected, reengaged with Eptus. “I did as you asked. There were no mistakes, I assure you. Someone else must have switched the container before you loaded it. We can check the security cams.”
On the display, a new POV loaded; a wide-angle perspective of the berth holding the container with the transfer pod inside. Durio fast-forwarded through the vid. Tugs, ships, and containers zoomed past. He paused when a tug arrived at the berth. He played it at normal speed. The tug removed the container and delivered it to a freighter that had slipped into the top portion of the POV. The tug returned a minute later clutching a different container and placing it in the berth.
“Damn the Spirits! Someone swapped the container,” Durio said.
“We need to know who,” Eptus said.
“Give me a moment,” Durio said, face twitching. “According to the logs, the container you received was the correct one. Obviously, someone altered them.”
“Who could’ve done this?”
“Fraenk, the other operations supervisor. I never would’ve guessed he had the mental capacity to pull it off.” Durio straightened as he thought of something. “Fraenk brought people into operations for a bit. He said they were hauler friends, and he was giving them a tour.”
“We need to talk to this Fraenk. Can you summon him here?”
“He finished a double. He won’t be happy about this.”
“You’re chief supervisor. Why do you care?”
Durio paused as he opened a comm to the other supervisor. “You haven’t met Fraenk.”
***
Fraenk arrived twenty minutes later looking like he’d been roused from a deep sleep. The hulking Manore stopped outside the airlock hatch, waiting for someone to open it.
Eptus and one other Sentinel operative greeted him. “Supervisor Fraenk, thank you for coming. If you’ll follow me,” Eptus said.
Fraenk eyed the ship’s interior with suspicion. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell this is about. Where’s Durio? Why aren’t we meeting in Sanctum operations center?”
“This concerns a sensitive Ministry of Security matter that we wish to discuss with you and Supervisor Durio. Come with me, please.”
“Is your translator module working? I said I’m not going anywhere until—“
Carnen stepped into view from the side of the Mounteque’s airlock. “Time to come aboard, supervisor. And don’t even bother with your PD. It’s not going to work.”
Fraenk’s expression flickered with concern as he gazed at Carnen, no doubt confirming his lack of access to the station hub. “What’s a Human doing with the Pree Ministry of Security?”
“I'm here to corral supervisors who don't follow orders.”
Fraenk didn’t move. Carnen drew a stunner. The Manner supervisor saw the deadly serious expression in the operative’s eyes and stepped into the Mounteque’s airlock.
***
Fraenk sat on the table’s far side in the hot seat where Durio had been a short time ago. Durio was seated in the opposite chair, hands clasped, his expression the scolding glower of a professor who’d caught a student cheating.
Kemp and Stevson observed from the main hold with the rest of Sentinel team, but Carnen picked a front-row seat in the interrogation hold. He had a feeling Fraenk wouldn’t be cooperative based on Durio's opinion. Fraenk had a long career as a hauler and wasn’t some admin stooge who’d never gotten his hands dirty. Durio and even Eptus would only go so far to get the information the ops teams needed. Carnen would take it further when the time came.
Standing at the desk, Eptus placed a datapad with his credentials in front of Fraenk. “I’m Security Supervisor Eptus, team leader for the Ministry of Security.”
Fraenk shrugged, not bothering to look. “This doesn’t mean anything. Can’t validate it without hub access.”
“This will have to do.” Eptus gave Fraenk a chance to read it. When he passed, Eptus lifted the datapad and placed it in a receptacle along the wall.
“What about him?” Fraenk said, nodding at Carnen.
“He’s a contractor serving in a confidential capacity. That is all I can say.”
Fraenk’s visage flickered between anger and fear. He narrowed his eyes at Carnen. “I know a spook when I see one. Let’s get this over with so I can go back to my bunk.”
Fraenk was sharper than Carnen thought. He further doubted Eptus could scare the ops supervisor into talking.
“How long this takes depends on how cooperative you are,” Eptus said. “We know you swapped containers in one of the berths on the C-4 arm and modified the logs to cover it up. We know your friends who you brought into your office asked you to track it down.“
Fraenk gave Eptus a challenging stare. “Show me the proof or stop wasting my time.”
The Sentinel team supervisor returned Fraenk's hardened gaze. “This concerns a vital security matter my team is investigating. I urge you to cooperate.”
“If you help us, I promise to do my best to lessen any punishment that may result from your actions,” Durio added with that air of elitism Carnen found admins tended to have.
Fraenk regarded his counterpart, then let out a deep, cynical laugh. “You’re so full of shit, Durio. You may be the senior ops supervisor, but that doesn’t mean you can boss me around like I’m some level-one tech. Unless you’re filing a formal complaint, you’d better drop this. I’m not saying anything else without a lawyer.”
“I’ll file a complaint if I have to,” Durio threatened.
“No, you won’t, because if you do, there’ll be a Commonwealth Commerce Department investigation per the stipulations in my contract. Which means, if I did supposedly swap the containers, they’ll want to know why, including what was in them.” Fraenk cocked his head at Durio. “Something tells me that you wouldn’t want them to find out.”
“So you admit to knowing what was in the container?” Eptus said, trying to regain control of the conversation.
“I admit nothing. If there are no more stupid questions, then I’m going back to my bunk.”
Carnen stepped away from the hatch to the side of the table, looming over Fraenk. “Let’s cut the shit, Fraenk. You swapped the containers and gave the singers to your hauler friends. We want the name of their ship.”
Durio made a face like he was stupefied that Carnen had said as much. But the chief supervisor failed to understand what was needed to get what they wanted from Fraenk.
At the demand, Fraenk arched his eyebrows innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Carnen repeated the question. Fraenk leaned forward, close enough for Carnen to smell his alcohol-tinged breath. “Oh, I remember now. It was something like Her Royal Majesty’s Go Fuck Yourself.”
Carnen drew his stunner.
Fraenk glanced at it, then back to Carnen. “If you think—“
The operative jabbed the stunner into Fraenk’s chest. The supervisor yelped and pushed back, almost tipping his chair as he cursed. Carnen had set it too low, enough to hurt like hell but not incapacitate.
Durio stood from his chair, a terrified expression on his face. “That was uncalled for!”
Fraenk slowly got to his feet, rising a full head above Carnen. “Why don’t you put your toy down and we’ll see how tough you are?” he sneered.
Carnen deactivated and locked the stunner then tossed it to Eptus. He was caught off guard and almost dropped it.
Over Durio’s protest, Fraenk raised his fists and stepped at Carnen.
The operative was ready for it and threw a kick into the side of Fraenk’s leading thigh, smacking the meaty part and dropping him to his knees. Carnen followed up with a punch to the Manore’s face. Fraenk toppled over backward, crashing to the deck. He groaned clutching his nose. Blood seeped between his fingers.
Carnen kicked Fraenk in the ribs, keeping him down. The operative then climbed onto Fraenk’s back and placed him in a chokehold. “I want the name of the ship.”
Fraenk cursed at Carnen, and he tightened his grip. Eptus shifted but kept quiet. Durio protested. “He’s a supervisor. You cannot do this!”
The operative ignored Durio and squeezed tighter. Fraenk pleaded, his voice barely audible. “Stardancer.”
Carnen let up a little and said to Durio, “Find that ship.”
The supervisor only mumbled an incoherent response.
“Kemp,” Carnen said, knowing she was watching.
Whatever she did appeared to work. Durio’s head twitched a bit, and his eyes regained focus. Carnen repeated the request. Durio said, “I have it. The freighter Stardancer was granted a commerce license a short while ago.” He projected the license to the wall display. “It’s scheduled to rendezvous with the ship Honest Day’s Work which is registered to a micro-corporation with a recovery agent license.”
“What’re they doing meeting with bounty hunters?” Stevson asked over their internal ship comm.
“According to the commerce license, the Honest Day’s Work will transfer a load of recovered assets.”
“I doubt Acculturation leadership is aboard the ship. What's so important for them to risk this transfer?” Carnen said.
“It could be more stolen material. We have no intel on this,” Eptus said.
“Plot it, Stevson,” Carnen said. He stood, leaving Fraenk in an exhausted heap on the deck.
The Tyrcellus map appeared on the table display. A curving intercept vector sliced through the system as Stevson plotted the ship’s course. “Assuming the Stardancer didn’t fuck around after they retrieved the singers, then they’re at minimum nine hours ahead of us. And assuming they head for a new destination immediately after the transfer, there’s a low chance we can intercept them.”
Carnen said to Durio, “What if we cancel the commerce license? Prevent the transfer?”
Fraenk cackled, having managed to push himself to a seated position. “Go ahead. That’s a Commonwealth-sponsored license. Canceling will raise a red flag at Sanctum and you’ll have Commerce Department goons up in your business.”
“He’s correct,” Durio said.
“Looks like you’re screwed,” Fraenk said. Everyone in the room turned in his direction. He gave them all a bloody smile.
Durio straightened with a fearful snap. “The Administrator is sending a comm request. Excuse me.” He scurried out of the compartment.
Fraenk shifted into his chair, groaning with each movement. Eptus opened a medkit mounted on the wall and passed a clotting wipe to him. Fraenk took it and held it to his nose.
“Show me the details on the Honest Day’s Work,” Carnen said. He stared at the data on the display, searching for a solution.
“My turn to offer you a deal,” Fraenk said. “As much as I want to beat you to a pulp, I’m willing to walk away from this. I want to keep my job, so you know I’ll keep my mouth shut. But if you don’t let me walk out of here right now, the next person the administrator will be talking to is me. If I’m going down, you’re all coming with me.”
Durio returned to the compartment, drawing everyone’s attention. His face was sunken like he’d seen a lost spirit come to terrorize him. Fear seeped into his voice as he spoke. “The administrator informed me that he spoke with Zellis, the owner of the theater. He is unable to contact the singers who performed at his venue and reported them missing. The administrator is very upset about this and wants the matter investigated immediately.”
“It wasn't me,” Fraenk said. He looked to his counterpart. Durio’s face somehow grew grimmer. “You had something to do with that, didn't you? Kidnapping citizens off Commonwealth-sponsored stations? That's bad news, Durio. not with the Commonwealth Diplomatic fleet heading this way. They won't take kindly to sentient rights violations. They're looking for any excuse to go after the Provenance.”
“No! I didn’t do anything wrong!” Durio said, voice cracking. He pointed at Eptus and Carnen. “They made me help them!” He bent at the waist, hands pressed to either side of his head. “I have to leave. I cannot be involved in this any longer.” He rushed to the hatch and slapped the panel, but Carnen had locked it already. Durio spun, coiled with indignation. “Let me out of here, immediately!”
“Kemp, he’s losing it. We can’t leave him here like this,” Carnen said into the inter-team comm.
“I’m working on it,” she answered.
“You’re running out of time.”
“You cannot leave yet, Supervisor,” Eptus said to Durio.
Fraenk grinned at the unfolding disaster. “You better let us go. Durio is screwed, but you spooks can save your asses.”
“Stevson, do we have departure clearance?” Carnen asked.
“Affirmative. It was granted before Supervisor Durio came aboard,” Stevson replied as the hatch opened. Carnen spun around as Durio stormed out. The Warden team leader glared at Eptus, who lowered his head in defeat.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Carnen growled.
“He is of noble lineage. We cannot detain him like this,” Eptus answered.
“Of course, you can. You have authority from the Imperatrix himself.” Carnen stormed into the passageway after Durio. The supervisor made it to the inner airlock hatch. Carnen re-engaged the lock over his PD. Durio slapped his hand repeatedly against the panel. “I demand that you open this hatch immediately!”
Eptus came up behind Carnen. “Let him go.”
Carnen ignored the Sentinel team supervisor. Over the ship comm, he said, “Last chance, Kemp.”
“I need more time to diagnose. Nothing I do works,” she answered.
“Supervisor Durio,” Carnen said in a measured voice. “I’ll open the hatch, but I need your help with one last thing with Fraenk. It will only take a minute, then I promise you’ll be done with us.”
The offer calmed Durio enough to end his fit. He faced Carnen. “One minute,” he said and marched back into the interrogation hold. Carnen followed him in.
“Let’s get this over with. I will not take the fall for whatever has happened here—“
“Wait—“ Eptus said as Carnen drew a palm-sized pistol and shot Durio in the back of the head at less than a meter. His head rocked forward as a bolt of superheated gas encased in an electromagnetic field punched through tissue and bone. The projectile dissipated upon impact, dumping its kinetic and thermal energy into the interior of the supervisor’s skull.
Durio toppled forward and slapped against the deck, mouth slightly agape, eyes lifeless.
The Sentinel team supervisor’s jaw clenched, his nasal slits quivering in rage. “You murdered a Pree of noble lineage!”
“Outside, now,” Carnen said and marched out of the compartment. Eptus followed. Behind Carnen, the rest of Sentinel and Warden teams entered the passageway from the main hold. Carnen faced Eptus. “I neutralized an asset gone haywire. Did you forget our mission?”
Eptus shifted as he wrestled with his emotions. The words came out with an angry bite. “To ensure the success of Project Fidelity in support of the Provenance.” He bristled. “You should’ve consulted with me before taking such drastic action.”
“I did what needed to be done. If you can’t handle that, then you should find another line of work.” Carnen faced Kemp. “Figure out what happened before this happens again.”
“I’ll investigate Supervisor Durio’s deviations,” she said with a bitter edge.
He stared at her a moment longer, then shifted his eyes to Stevson. “Set a course for the coordinates of the cargo exchange. We’ll dump the body en route.”
“The ships will be gone by the time we get there,” Eptus said.
“I’ll message the Honest Day’s Work. As Stevson said, they’re bounty hunters. Maybe we can work something out,” Carnen said and returned to the interrogation compartment.
Fraenk’s pale face eyed the dead body. With a resigned sigh, he said, “Guess I’m not going anywhere, am I?”
Caren pulled restraints from his belt and placed them on the table. “No, you’re not.”

I'm currently driving a 2004 Saturn Ion. It has been giving me issues for a few years and the amount of money I've put into it I could have put towards a new car. Evap issues triggering CEL that 4 different shops can't find the leak. Just put a new compressor on the car because AC wasn't working and the dye showed the entire compressor had leaks around it. While that is fixed apparently the evaporator also needs to be replaced. It lasted me good while. I bought it at like maybe 120K miles back in 2014 and its at 199K miles now so it did good by me. Honestly if it wasn't for the AC issue and the evaporator code I'd still drive it until it died on me. Maintenance of it is the only issue I'm thinking of getting a new one.
​
My bank approved me for a 25K loan on a car and I've been looking for a small but upgraded car to get now. As long as it has bluetooth, power locks/windows, automatic, and small I was good. I saw this little Chevy Spark on Carfax and honestly I'm loving everything about it. 52K miles, no accidents, all the features I want. Really small looking vehicle too. I don't really do road trips. My trips are usually 15-30 minutes long. Work, shopping, basic stuff.
​
It's listed at ~$15500. I'd probably pay 5500 out of pocket so the loan would be $10000.

(Vague and brief descriptions of sexual activity, viewer discretion advised)
David took one more look through the window before shutting it. He couldn't have anyone see what was going on. Jack quickly tossed the bound individual through the door. They grunted out of annoyance as opposed to fear. Jack, almost appearing scared, flung the key David gave him to the side and slammed the door.
“Congratulations, you're out of the dog house.” David grinned, calmly walking to the keys, bending down to be at eye level with the individual on the floor. Their look was more neutral than expected, but a tangible spark of malice was present.
“Aw, what's wrong? Don't like being on the floor? I thought you were used to that.” David remarked with forced doe eyes. The person looked away, trying not to engage with the brunette. David dragged them across the ground, sitting them on the couch. They began growling through their cloth gag, gradually wetting it with spit as David stood across from them with the world’s most condescending smile.
“I'd like to say that it's good to see you again, but we both know that would be a lie. I don't have many strong feelings for you, which I think goes for everyone in your life.” He chuckled, leaning towards them to remove their gag. As soon as it was removed they attempted to bite him, though he saw this coming and backed up.
“Ugh, why the fuck did you bring me here?” they spat, wriggling in their restraints.
“I brought you here to clean you up before we meet with Zander again. He's forced me into a deal where I return you so my info won't be leaked.” They rolled their eyes whilst groaning loudly, confusing David.
“Goodness, for someone who’s escaping captivity and torture, you sure aren't very grateful,” David remarked while pulling out a comb from a cloth bag.
“Because I'm not escaping shit! You're the one choosing to get me out of my situation, I don't even get the dignity of leaving because of my efforts!” David took out a folded pink blouse and set it on the table between him and his captive.
“I understand how that can be frustrating if I was in your situation, which I never would be since I would have escaped months ago. I'd be pissed at someone playing doll house with my life too. But that's the thing if you were truly as capable as you claim to be you wouldn't have to wait for my interference.” David walked off to the small kitchen connected to the living room, not paying attention to the specific ways his victim’s hands were moving.
“Please, until you're in my position you can't say that you'd handle it better than me. You can make as many flimsy predictions as you want, but the moment you step into my world your scenarios won't reflect shit.” David shrugged, pulling out a half-empty cup of iced coffee.
“I'd argue against that but I won’t bother since I know you won't listen. I could explain my reasoning in a myriad of ways and you’d still block it out.” The bound individual scoffed.
“Like your one to talk about listening to others. Last I checked, you're the one who's been trying to fix the same milk toast guy since high school no matter how many people tell you it's a waste of time.” David didn't respond, taking a sip of his drink.
“Yeah that made you shut your trap fast didn't it?”
David set his beverage on the table and approached his captive. Joining them on the couch in uncomfortable proximity.
“For a moment yes, but only because I needed a second to word what I'm about to say in a way you’d understand.” he smiled to the chagrin of the captive.
“Zander isn't some random former classmate, I selected him in the same way a breeder selects a dog. I evaluated many others before choosing him. To people like you, my pursuit appears meaningless since you aren't gaining the knowledge I am. If you knew what I knew, you wouldn't be able to resist going further either. I've seen into the mind of this man further than he has. I've run my hands over every inch of his psyche and molded him into a silhouette even closer to my affection. Ideally, I’d create the perfect entity and we'd repeat the process together on another, but I no longer have the time for that.” The bound individual stared dumbfounded. Taking a breath before replying, needing a moment to process the mountain of words that had been thrown at them.
“Wow, you must be the most talented gymnast on the planet for all the mental gymnastics you just did,” they stated bluntly.
“I gotta give you credit, that's the most sensible explanation someone could give for this. Not that it’s saying much since this is completely delusional.” David rolled his eyes, pulling out a pair of light jeans from the same bag as the blouse. The captive looked down at the completed outfit with disgust.
“Well, I described it in the most digestible way I could, but I suppose that doesn't matter since you don't want to give what I've said serious thought. Regardless, I still need to make you look presentable for this exchange. I assume you wouldn’t want me to dress you so I'll untie you and allow you to do it yourself, but don't try to run off because trust me I’ve prepared for that.” They looked down at the garments with disdain. David observed their expression further, there was a hint of sadness. He found it odd at first but soon understood what was wrong.
“I know it's stupid but do you have anything else I can wear? This stuff feels wrong to me.” They commented as David untied their wrists.
“I don't have a lot of masculine clothes in my wardrobe that I think you'd like but I can look. I know that this outfit doesn't reflect your current self but it's what I was provided.” The captive rubbed their wrists and began to free their ankles.
“It’s alright, honestly I didn't expect you to do anything especially after I insulted your logic, so this is a nice surprise.” They said, spreading their legs so they could sit more comfortably.
“I understand the importance of gender affirming clothing, you deserve to wear something that represents you.” Their eyes widened upon hearing the mention of their gender.
“W-wait you know about my identity?!” they asked defensively.
“Yes, and don't worry, I respect it. Jack filled me in on everything involving your gender identity including that your current pronouns are they/them and that your preferred name is Mad Dog. Though even if he didn't make me aware of that, I would have asked about it upon seeing your masculine appearance. Your completely flat chest and stubble didn't go unnoticed by me.” They calmed down, loosening their posture.
“Oh wow, alright, I didn't expect you to take that so well. A lot of people don't understand and just right me off. So I sort of expected the same from you.” David frowned while approaching them.
“That’s unfortunate, I know you have little reason to trust me, but at least trust that I won't purposely misgender or use the wrong name for you.” The feminine individual’s understanding in tandem with his appearance made Mad Dog have questions.
“Alright I trust you with that and it's appreciated but I have to ask. Do you see yourself as something that isn’t male?” David sighed, folding his arms and glancing at the floor.
“I don’t express it to anyone apart from Jack and Jackson, but yes. I see myself as a woman and feel most comfortable when I’m perceived as such. IIt’s been hard since Sophie has actively punished me for being the way I am. Even setting my injectable hormones on fire in front of me” Despite Mad Dog’s heavy dislike of the woman they couldn't help but feel sympathy for her in this instance. For a moment they were even tempted to say sorry, but they couldn't bring themselves to do it.
“Well you're out to me, and I’ll respect your identity as well. You might be a bitch but you still deserve to be addressed correctly.” She laughed, unfolding her arms.
“Hehe, thank you, Mad Dog, now help me get you something to wear.” She responded in a lighter tone than earlier. They followed her into her bedroom as she looked through her suitcase.
“Hmmm, I have a purple button-up, would you like that? I don't think my jeans will fit you well since your legs are noticeably thinner than mine, but you can try them on if you'd like.” They looked around the room as she spoke, as they expected, it was rather barren. They knew that David didn't stay in one place for long so it made sense that she never got time to settle in.
“Were you listening?” she asked, appearing at their side with the dress shirt in hand. They flinched at her sudden appearance, shifting their gaze to the item.
“Oh, nah I'm good just wearing my pants, even though they could probably use a wash.” They rubbed the back of their head, the grease in their hair becoming prevalent as they pulled their hand away.
“You could use a wash too, the stench that surrounds you is quite dreadful. If I was going off scent alone I would really think that you're a stray dog.” She joked, tossing the shirt back onto her bed.
“I'd like to say you're wrong but unfortunately you're spot on,” they responded putting their hands up, she giggled at the gesture.
“I’ll take you to the restroom and let you know what stuff you're allowed to use. I might be feeling merciful but I don't want you using my good shampoo. I won't see you after tonight but I live with my curls every day.” she remarked, poking her textured hair for emphasis.
“Heh, you know I’m starting to get why so many people fall for you. You’re pretty charming when you want to be. With a face like that, I'd almost call you cute.” She was suspicious of the partial compliment, questioning the motive behind it.”
“Awe, you're such a sweetheart, giving me half a compliment after I've shown you kindness.” she crouched slightly and patted her legs.
“Do you want a treat for doing the bare minimum?” She mocked. Mad Dog’s face turned sour in response.
“Ugh, I take it back, guess you can't take a win unless it goes in the exact way you want.” She adjusted her position and shrugged.
“In my eyes, the less you have to compromise the greater the victory.” Before Mad Dog could respond she started walking to the restroom, motioning for them to come along. Once they were inside, David hung up a fresh towel and opened the shower door. Turning the knob clockwise while describing how to adjust the temperature.
“See that 3 in one bottle? That's what I’ll have you use, I’ve never touched the stuff but I keep it as a last resort.” Mad Dog watched her as she explained everything, her body language was relaxed and inviting. Seeing her in such a mundane situation was fascinating. They wondered how someone like her could appear so normal.
“That's good with me, I'm not picky about that kind of thing,” they spoke, removing their raggedy shirt. Her eyes widened at the sight of their nipple piercings and tapered abdominal hair. They smiled at her expression, she looked at them with an embarrassment they couldn't have pictured on her face.
“Jeez calm down lady, I know this isn't the first time you've seen nipple piercings.” they playfully winked, taking off their pants.
“I don't need to be calmed, trust me I've seen better. I’m just surprised by how comfortable you are.” Mad Dog removed their chest jewelry, a subtle smirk developing on their face.
“Nah, at this point my stomach is made of steel, it takes a lot to make me uneasy. Hell, you could see me with my whole cock out and I wouldn't care!” they jested, setting the metal pieces on the countertop. David was taken aback by the crude comment, awkwardly looking away.
“Oh, alright then, anyway I’ll let you get clean. Just don't take too long. Also, the blue washcloth is mine, use the red one.” She responded, trying to hold her composure after Mad Dog’s words painted a strange picture in her mind.
“Heh, I'll make sure to remember that and don't worry about me taking long, I've practically been conditioned into taking short showers.” David nodded, leaving them alone to tidy up. When the door was closed, the woman took a deep breath. Things with Zander were coming to an end whether she liked it or not. She flopped on her couch, allowing the festering dread inside her to take hold. She’d been bottling it up for those around her, but she couldn't take it anymore.
“This is it,” she told herself quietly, staring up at the off-white ceiling.
From the moment she got Sophie’s message about Zander needing to die, cracks began to form.
She couldn't be weak in front of Zander, especially not during their final showdown. She couldn't cry in front of him, she couldn't show how much she’d miss him, she couldn't hold him, she couldn't ask him what he thinks she should do after the game is over. The more she thought about the upcoming meeting the more she dreaded it. Whatever she’d say to him would be heavily condensed and sanitized, which hurt her in a way she couldn't explain. David put her hand in between the couch cushions to retrieve her lucky shirt. A striped tee she'd stolen from Zander’s room towards the beginning of the dare.
“I wish I could be weak around you, you don't understand how much I want to weep into you.” she shakily stated, hugging the cloth.
“I wanted things to end differently, I truly did, but I don't have a choice.” Tears began to develop in her eyes.
“You were so close to reaching me, the way you used your audience was impeccable! If given just a year or so more to live we could have finally been on the same level. Acknowledging the demented elements intrinsic to each other, but still finding happiness.” Water flowed from her eyes as she clung to the clothing item.
“It’s no use though, you’ll be gone before I can even explain any of this. Fuck, I wish I could just have a real conversation with you!” she threw the shirt to the ground, almost throwing herself off the couch along with it. Despite all the time she’d spent with him, she felt like she’d never spoken to him as herself. Come to think of it, she never spoke to anyone as her authentic self. Despite multiple people claiming to have strong feelings about her, in reality, they only felt that way about a fraction of her or a character she’d played. Once Zander was gone, she’d lose the closest thing to a genuine connection.
“No, no, no,” she sobbed, it was all crashing around her. Images of the things she’d done up to this point overlapped in her mind. Highlighting how much she’d put herself through to get to where she is. Years of planning, multiple human lives, all sacrificed for nothing. Each heinous act she’d taken part in was now a meaningless act of violence, making her no better than a bloodthirsty monster. She was content with being morally in the wrong, but she couldn't bear her efforts lacking purpose.
The faint noise of pouring water dissipated as she curled into a ball. She ignored it, sinking further into her sorrow. Zander had told her that she'd need to meet him at a particular time, but at this point, she’d lost track.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mad Dog rudely asked, kneeling before her with a towel tightly wrapped around their waist. She slowly turned to face them with a distraught expression. Barely processing their presence in the midst of her breakdown.
“These walls ain't that thick, I heard what you were weeping about.” She was upset with their insensitivity but didn't have the energy to respond.
“You’ve done nothing but destroy this man’s life and now that he can finally be free from the hell you’ve created, you're having a hissy fit!” they chastised, with more vitriol than she’d ever heard from them.
“At this point death is a sweet release! If you had even a shred of sanity or real feeling you’d be happy for him!” Her face scrunched up further, she was not equipped to handle their words. She just wanted to process in peace, but they wouldn't let that happen.
“God lady, why the fuck are you breaking down over this?!” they yelled at her, it was too much and she screamed throwing a pillow at their stomach.
“BECAUSE I CAN’T HAVE THIS ALL BE FOR NOTHING!” she shot up and pulled them closer to her by their hair.
“I CAN’T HAVE THE PAST SEVEN YEARS OF MY LIFE BE USELESS! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M GOING TO DO AFTER THIS, SO AT THE VERY LEAST I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROPERLY FINISH THIS! ” she screamed out, spitting into their face. They stared dumbfounded at her as she relinquished her grip. They’d heard about how skilled she was at faking feelings, but they could tell this was real. Regardless, they had little sympathy for her.
“There you go, admit what we both knew. You only care about him dying cause it's not what you’d envisioned in your sick little fantasy. All this pseudo-psychological bullshit is just an excuse to disguise what you actually are. A soulless sadist who doesn't have anything to her outside of fucked up games!” She sobbed, putting her hands over her face to catch her tears.
“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO GO THROUGH LIFE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE AND FEEL CONSTANTLY ALONE!” she screamed, a hint of venom developing in her tone.
“That’s how I have to interact with people! I can't feel them so I have to analyze and try my best to find joy! It's no secret I'm fucked up, but this is just how I function.” She responded, gaining some more composure. Mad Dog held back a smile when staring at her reddish face. Seeing the usually confident woman weakened satisfied them in multiple ways. Prompting them to continue prodding at her.
“You're still selfish for mourning experiences instead of people. Only giving a shit cause of what you can no longer get out of them.” David’s expression was grim as she gazed back at the long-haired individual.
“I never said I wasn't, besides you do realize that everyone mourns people for experiences right? Just like you’ll be upset that you can't spend time with a family member once they’re gone, I’ll be sad I won't be able to spend time with Zander. My relationship with him is not healthy by traditional standards, hell it's hardly a relationship at this point. But I’ll still miss the time we spent, and sulk over what was taken.” Mad Dog calmed their stance, sitting down at the edge of the couch. Their legs dangled near hers since they were facing toward her.
“You along with most people hate that I can't express real emotions, but when I finally do you get hyper-critical of my reasoning? I’m not asking for sympathy, I'm just asking to be allowed to feel. I don't think you’ll ever understand how crushing it is to sacrifice so much only to fail. Mad Dog, my mother is dead, I gave up the last of my family for this.” They looked down at her, the gleam in her eyes pulled at their heartstrings, a mix of sadism and empathy kicking in. On one hand, they did feel sad seeing someone in such a state, on the other, it was David King. A woman who had set them on a dark path by allowing Sophie to keep them captive. A woman with little respect for them, evidenced by her using them as a bargaining chip with Zander. In that instant, the desire to comfort was matched with the desire to humiliate.
“Okay, that was a pretty good act, you got me a little there honestly. Now, what do you want?” They inquired with a notable drawl.
“If you insist on staying, can I lay with you? I get that it's weird especially since you aren’t dressed yet, so it's fine if you don’t. I just need the feeling of being held” she requested quietly, with her knees to her chest. For Mad Dog, it was hard to say no when she, in their opinion, looked so pathetic. Secretly, they thought her desperation was attractive. So now that she was expressing the need to be touched, they took advantage of the opportunity.
“That's a lot of words to ask for a hug.” They kidded, making her crack a modest smile.
“But yeah, I can do that, at the very least you'll smell better than the last person I laid with,” they commented, trying to sound wholesome to hide their true intentions.
“And who was that?” she questioned, a slightly warmer tone emerging. They picked her up, throwing her over their shoulder. Enjoying the feeling of grabbing her. She was a bit heavy but they didn't complain.
“Hate to break it to you, but Zander, bro gets sweaty as hell during summer nights, meanwhile I have a high tolerance for heat. It was pretty awkward.” She scoffed, tugging on a bit of their wet hair.
“Ah, alright sorry for bringing him up. I know this ain't the time.” They opened the door to her bedroom and dropped her on the bed. The landing was a bit harsh but the plush of the mattress made up for it. The woman got under her comforter and Mad Dog joined her, wrapping their arms around her waist. Their damp body was cold but she didn't care, she just wanted to be held. They gradually got warmer as they stayed by her side and shifted their position. She was still crying as they cuddled her.
“Hey, it'll be okay, you're a skilled lady, you'll land on your feet,” they assured her as her body shook. Her heavy breaths were apparent, she was making them out of distress, but they triggered inappropriate images in Mad Dog’s mind.
“A woman as beautiful as you could probably start modeling.” they complimented, the words catching the woman’s attention.
“Really?” she asked softly,
“Of course! If I didn't know better, I'd start spoiling you the moment we lock eyes,” they playfully answered, wrapping their arms around her waist. She turned to face them, there was a shift in their demeanor. The way they spoke was almost sensual.
“You’ve spent a lot of time working, I say you just become a sugar baby. You're one of the few people in this ugly-ass world who’s hot enough for some rich dude to shower you with gifts.” they partly kidded, moving their arms up to rub her shoulders. At this point, she knew what they were doing. Still, she chose to hold off her comment since she was a sucker for praise.
“Thank you Mad Dog,” she replied, she was no longer crying, which Mad Dog had mixed feelings on.
“Hey, I want to apologize for what I said earlier, I should have left you alone. You deserve better treatment than that and I’ll make an effort to make it up to you.” They smiled, moving their arms to her lower back. Despite the sweet words, their tone was audibly sleazy. It was clear to David what they were holding back.
“Do you think I’m pretty?” she asked innocently, they took a deep breath before responding.
“Are you kidding me? You're so much more than pretty. You're smart, determined, focused, brave, and yeah, pretty sexy.” She smiled smugly, a distinct sheen appearing in her eyes. Confusion overcame Mad Dog as she began giggling.
“What, not used to hearing me say sexy?” The woman’s giggles soon grew into cackling. Mad Dog looked away from her, taking it as a reminder of her insanity.
“Hahaha! I’m sorry, I just think it's so funny that you're blunt about everything, but when it comes to this you feel the need to ease me in! You're so quick to say what’s on your mind, but now you’re trying to be a charmer. It's simply hilarious!” They let go of her and sat themselves up, though her position remained the same.
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m not trying anything, what led me to this point is simple. I made you feel worse when you were crying, felt guilty about it, and agreed to give you sympathy snuggles. That’s it!” Her expression turned serious as she twirled a strand of their long hair.
“You're not good at subtlety, I understand your entire scumbag strategy. First, you’ll try to break down my self-esteem by saying my feelings aren't valid. Second, you’ll swoop in and shower me with compliments so I’ll warm up to you. Lastly, you’ll apologize so you can look like a good guy and convince me to sleep with you. I might be vulnerable but I’m not stupid.” They rubbed their temples, looking down at her with a newfound resentment.
“Okay fine, maybe I saw that you were feeling down and took advantage of the situation. But it's not malicious, it's something to cheer you up. I think it would be a nice experience to take your mind off things. Not much room to use your brain when you're giving it right?” She cringed at their joke.
“Don’t waste my time with these lovey-dovey lies if you just want to get your rocks off. I get it, you think you’ll be such a badass for shoving your dick in the thing that ruined your life.” She pulled the blanket down, exposing the lower half of their body.
“You're a shithead, but honestly, I’ve slept with people worse than you. I’ll do this, but only because I want to see how long your weak ass will last with me.” She pulled off their towel and crawled to the lower half of the bed, pressing her head against their crotch. Mad Dog took a deep breath before she started stroking their genitals. The first few minutes were pleasurable but awkward.
They thought they’d feel strong having such a feared, well-respected woman sleep with them, but they didn't. Sure, physically it was stimulating, especially since this was the first time they were intimate since their bottom surgery, but outside of the catharsis that came with that, it was a rather dull experience. They thought she’d have a lot more energy than she did. David felt entirely neutral, it wasn't awful but there was no chemistry present. She could tell they were disappointed, which added to her annoyance. In truth, she was only doing this because she doubted that she’d get the opportunity to sleep with someone for a while. She never stayed anywhere long enough to form a relationship and her options were limited as a trans woman. There was a hint of additional bitterness knowing that Mad Dog had been in a relationship with Zander.
Why did they get to go on fun movie dates and hang out with his friends? She’d kill to have one more positive interaction with him. He was vanilla personified, which is what she loved about him. He was so malleable, just a couple of well-mixed ingredients and he’d be something entirely new. Still, the base of his identity was endearing enough on its own. The more she thought about him the more she wished she was being intimate with him instead. She never thought of him in a lewd manner before, but the idea was beginning to sound enticing. She knew he didn't have long, so wouldn't it be nice to pleasure him before his inevitable loss? It was morbid, but it was preferable to reality.
“God I miss you~” she murmured with her eyes shut as she thought of him. Mad Dog looked down at her with confusion. She laid on her back and pulled them in deeper, they shivered from the feeling.
She could picture it clearly, him gazing at her with a mixture of arousal and disgust. An ounce of frustration let out with each movement. The conflicting thoughts that would run through his mind were already enough to motivate her. It was such an intriguing prospect that she began to yearn for it. Almost entirely blocking Mad Dog’s presence from her mind, imagining her favorite little purebred instead. Mad Dog didn't know why she suddenly became so passionate but it didn't matter to them. They were getting a better experience so the reasoning was irrelevant in their eyes. The long-haired individual got harsher as they continued, getting animalistic with how they handled her. She said some strange things that didn't apply to them but it was easy to ignore in their lustful pride-infused haze. The bigger the reaction, the more successful they felt. Though, in the end, they had run out of stamina faster than her.
“Oh fuck, we did it.” they huffed, laying down in a sweaty heap. She got off them, stretching her back. Her bottom was sore, the fresh bite marks stung, and her skin was still reddish in certain areas.
“You're lucky I wasn't thinking about you, or else this would have ended a lot faster.” she snarled, hopping off the bed. They smirked, as unflattering as it was to admit, this was the best time they’d ever had.
“Yeah whatever, I put in work, and it paid off, so you could be picturing my ex for all I care.” they laughed weakly, coughing midway through.
“Good to know, 'cause that’s exactly who was on my mind,” she responded smugly, knowing it would upset them. Their laughter stopped, turning into a disappointed groan.
“Fuck lady, you seriously can't get this guy out of your head for a millisecond.” they chastised, she looked back at them while pulling a teal dress out of a bag.
“I’m not sure if you have the right to complain since you're the one who tried to emotionally break me down so I’d let you fuck me.” they darted their eyes away with a hint of guilt.
“Thanks to you both of us will probably arrive half an hour late, now get dressed.” she sternly commanded, her voice displaying the power they wish they’d gained from the experience long term. They got their clothes back on while she ironed her dress. Once the wrinkles were out she went into the bathroom to wash the smell of sex away. Mad Dog sat on the couch and flicked on the TV while waiting for her. As they channel surfed fatigue settled in, making them drift off to sleep.
In their slumber, they relived the day they met David. Up until this point they’d heard of her but had never interacted with her. When she came into their holding cell she appeared soulless, an unfeeling machine disguised as a human. Anger clouded over them when they saw her. If they weren't chained up, they would have lunged and bitten her face off like a rabid dog. Not because they hated her, but because they hated that she put them in such an inferior position. Throughout their life, they were forced to be a victim in many regards. So being the kidnapped love interest in a cage was the last straw. From that day onward, they promised themselves that they’d do something to assert power over her when she was at her weakest.
“Anything you want to say to me?” David asked, wrapping duct tape around their wrists. They jolted up, peering down to find that their ankles had gotten the same treatment.
“Oh, shit, we’re leaving now?” They asked sleepily, meeting her gaze again. She was wearing sleek dark makeup that complimented every one of her facial features. They were surprised by the elegance that radiated from her.
“Yes we are, and I’ll have to tape your mouth soon so if you have anything to say you have to say it now.” they frowned, there were a lot of things they wanted to say. They’d experienced so much emotional whiplash with her that it was hard to condense their thoughts into a few parting words. She rolled more tape, attempting to apply it to their face.
“Wait, I have something! They yelled, causing her to abruptly jerk her hands away.
“When this is over you should start focusing on yourself. Not Sophie, not psychology, not any crazy dares. I think your main issue is that you build your life around achieving goals or getting answers to questions that apply to others. If you spent some quality time finding yourself, I think you could not only be a better person but happier overall too.” She was speechless, she hadn't expected something so profound from them. The words cut deep, making her realize how little she knew about herself. Maybe that was the core reason why she didn't want to be alone, ‘cause if she was, then she wouldn't even have herself to keep her company. She fell into a slight haze while taking in their words, snapping back to reality when the roll of tape fell out of her hand.
“Oh shit,” she murmured, bending over to grab it. Mad Dog smiled at her moment of clumsiness, wishing they’d gotten to know that stripped-back, human version of the woman more. David ripped off the piece she first unraveled, applying it to Mad Dog’s cheek with embarrassment upon realizing how short it was. They let out a final snicker, finding her mundane error to be the most endearing thing they’d seen from her. David sighed while wrapping the multiple layers of duct tape around their head. Soon their face was replaced by a gray adhesive cocoon, with nothing more than their hickory brown eyes visible. Gazing into her reflection in their sclera, she uttered her final words to them.
“This whole night has been a roller coaster, and while I can't call you a friend, I can thank you for the experience. You made me address issues that have been festering for years, something I didn't think anyone could do. I might not like you, but I don’t hate you either. If you know anything about me, you know I love seeing people develop their own type of strength, which you’ve done. So for that, I give well wishes, goodbye Mad Dog.”

not only does the nexdock turn off every few seconds even though the power cable is connected, it also has this stupid window snapping gesture on the track pad... the actual usable area of the track pad is fucken small.... is there a way to disable this stupid window snapping using the track pad? If I want to snap a window to the side i will use the windows key + arrow key. I don;t need it as a track pad gesture.

Anyone else have their headset stop tracking head movements mid-game? I don’t get motion sick easily, but this fucks me up. Not sure if it’s RE8 specific or what, but I have to turn off the headset and turn it back on for it to start working again… of course it happens on the last day of my return window.

Chapter 23: 2008: A Shawn Odyssey
Boys: Shawn
Girls: Courtney, Heather, Shawn
Episode 23: 2008: A Shawn Odyssey
"Last time on Total Drama Action," Chris said over a shot of the film lot. "In a world they didn't create," the four teens were shown waking up in the forest, "two honorable warriors," Shawn and Lindsay's fight was shown, "and two foes battled it out for Kung-fu supremacy," Courtney and Heather were shown fiddling with their joysticks.
"No mountain was too high," Heather and Shawn were shown climbing. "No aquatic creature too viscous," Courtney was shown fighting a jellyfish.
"In the end, Shawn won the reward," the theorist was shown fighting the Sasquatch, "but lost his alliance with Courtney," he and Courtney were shown ending their partnership.
"But it's gonna take more than puny alliances to survive this week," Chris told the camera as it flashed to his close-up, "on Total! Drama! Action!"
XXXXX
The episode opened on a shot of the full moon. A rat walked on-screen in front of the camera as a grandiose tune started to play. The rat sniffed the air then scurried along what was revealed to be the top of a large speaker. The music reached its climax, and the speaker shook so much the rat fell off behind it.
The shot pulled out to show the cast trailers, both flanked by speakers as tall as they were. Further to the left was a tall blueish-green monolith-like set piece. The lights inside the trailers flicked on and the complaints of the castmates echoed out of them. The doors opened, showing the girls filing out; Courtney, then a hunched over Heather, then Lindsay at the end, all three in their pajamas. The camera cut over to the guys' trailer as Shawn exited similarly. The survivalist paused briefly to yawn and stretch his arms, and the camera moved back to the girls.
"What is wrong with those mattresses?" Lindsay asked. "It's like they were full of rocks."
Confessional: Shawn
"I slept on Noah’s bed, so I don’t have the same back problems that the girls do," Shawn said. "The layers on it are super soft."
Confessional Ends
The remaining four met up as a group. Heather looked over to see the lone male scratching his butt and armpit at the same time.
"Can you believe this guy?" Heather commented.
"What a neanderthal," Courtney said.
They looked over at Lindsay, who noticed the monolith off to the side, and pointed at it with a few animalistic grunts.
The shot cut to the top of it, the moon still visible behind it. The camera panned down to its base where Chef sat in a leopard-print loincloth banging on an upside-down soup pot with a couple bones as though it were a drum. Both the castmates and Chris, also wearing a leopard-print loincloth and with his hair unkempt, approached the monolith at the same time.
"Good morning, cast!" Chris greeted as Chef stopped playing. "Or should I say, good middle of the night? Hope you're all well-rested and ready to boldly go where very few men and even fewer ladies have gone before!"
"Wait," Shawn spoke up. "Didn't we already do the caveman movie?"
"We did, Shawn," Chris answered, "but we had to reuse the costumes since my astronomical salary accounts for oh, roughly ninety-seven percent of the show's budget."
"Chris," Heather said, "it is the middle of the night. Can't we do the challenge in the morning?"
"No can do Heather," Chris replied. "While today's movie genre may start at the dawn of time, it quickly moves up, up, and away!" The camera panned up to the night sky as a shooting star flew in front of the moon.
"So we're doing space movies today?" Lindsay asked as if she already knew the answer.
"What was your first clue, Linds-iot?" Heather told her.
Confessional: Lindsay
"I've been called a lot of things, such as moron, dimwit, idiot, and much more," Lindsay said. "I've been trying to prove myself, and no way am I letting Heather drag me down."
Confessional Ends
"Awesome!" Shawn cheered. "I love sci-fi movies."
"Don't you get enough science fiction from those movies you binge watch?" Courtney half-insulted, half-asked the boy.
"Don't you get enough pleasure from looking down and nagging on us?" Shawn retorted.
"Listen up, space cases," Chris interrupted. "You'll soon be facing some out-of-this-world challenges, but first..." He quickly ducked away, and the camera cut to him pushing away the monolith to reveal four small boxes set on a table behind it. "I have a very special surprise for you," he told the cast. "Each of you has received one special item sent to you from the outside world. Which by now," he picked up one of the packages and tossed it to Lindsay, who caught it before Heather was tossed her own gift, "must feel like a distant planet."
He tossed another one like a football and it was caught by Courtney, with Shawn also shown to have received his gift.
Shawn opened his, and looked at a silver tinfoil hat shaped like his beanie with excitement. "My tinfoil hat!" he cheered. "Nice!"
"You have a tinfoil hat?" Lindsay asked.
"Yup," Shawn answered. "It keeps the aliens from reading my brains and what I think."
Confessional: Shawn
"I used to wear this thing all the time," Shawn told the audience. "Unfortunately, my dad confiscated it since it made me look weird and unusual to others. Afterwards, I decided to get the beanie I’m wearing right now."
Confessional Ends
The shot cut to Lindsay as she opened hers and smiled. "My pom poms!" she exclaimed. "My cheer team didn't forget about them!"
The camera cut to Courtney and Heather, both having opened their boxes. The former took out a picture frame and let out a choked sob.
"What's wrong?" Heather asked. "Did you get a photo of a bad hair day?"
"Just… I need a minute," Courtney claimed.
Confessional: Courtney
Courtney had her picture with her. "When I was head of the school debating team, my partner walked out on me during the biggest debate of the year because she felt I wasn't being a "team player". I went on to win it without her! Take that, Brittany Reed!" She revealed her picture, which was her in the middle of a speech. "This photo is a reminder. If you want something done right, you do it yourself!"
Confessional Ends
Heather finally managed to open her box and pulled out a green jawbreaker. "A jawbreaker? How is this a prize?" She asked in frustration.
"I don't know, but sweet things usually go to sweet people," Courtney insulted.
"Damien must have delivered this to me!" Heather growled.
"Who the heck is Damien?" Courtney questioned.
"He's my little brother," Heather answered. "That twerp likes to pull pranks on me every chance he gets. He's almost like Sadie."
"What else were you expecting?" Courtney wondered.
"He could've given me my trophy for the annual ballet contest I participated in when I was eight," Heather grumbled.
Confessional: Heather
"I'm still going to keep this jawbreaker," Heather said as she held it. "Damien may have sent it as a joke, but I won't let him have the last laugh."
Confessional Ends
"Alright gang," Chris addressed the cast, "time to blast off to the great unknown. Everyone knows a good outer space movie has three things in common. One, the zero gravity is always a trip. Two, the G-forces are killer! And three, everything is recycled in space. Including number one, and number two."
"Gross," Courtney winced.
"Eww," Heather said in disgust.
"Which brings us to our first challenge," Chris continued. "I'll meet you at the thrill ride set in ten minutes."
The cast looked at each other in confusion. "Did he say thrill ride?" Lindsay asked.
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The scene briefly flashed to the full moon behind the water tower for a moment before flashing away again to a close-up of the host, back in his normal clothes.
"The way to achieve zero gravity," Chris explained to the contestants, all of whom have also gotten dressed, "is to fly a jet on a parabolic course. With large vertical climbs, and even larger vertical drops." The camera panned across the faces of the cast, all of which looked freaked. "But with the price of jet fuel today," the scene flashed to a makeshift space shuttle tied to what looked like a roller coaster cart at a boarding platform, "we're gonna simulate the effect on this makeshift space shuttle!"
The shot flashed away again, the camera now panning up a spaceship-themed roller coaster set among several other theme park attractions. "Which will hit the optimum speed needed to keep you all in a perpetual state of zero gravity," the host explained before the shot cut back to him and the cast.
"Are we going to get killed?" Lindsay asked. "I won't go in if it will."
"Is that thing even up to code?" Courtney wondered.
"Your first outer space challenge will be to spend the rest of the night on the shuttle sleeping in zero gravity conditions," Chris told the cast.
"That doesn't sound so difficult," Shawn said with a pleased expression.
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The footage flashed ahead to a close-up of an intercom speaker as the host's voice came in over it. "Y'all might wanna hold on to something bolted down," Chris told the cast as the camera pulled back to show them holding pillows in their hands, "'cause we're almost ready to launch!"
"Yes!" Lindsay cheered.
"He said launch," Heather told her, "not lunch."
"I know," Lindsay explained. "I just can't wait to be flying inside a spaceship."
The shot cut back to the intercom as an engine was heard starting up over it. "In five! Four! Three! Two! One!" The camera cut outside as the space shuttle strapped to the roller coaster cart shuddered to life. "Blast off!" At Chris' ecstatic signal, the shuttle's engines flared on and the contraption took off along the track. It quickly reached the main peak as the castmates screamed in terror, and the scene cut back inside.
"If I'm gonna die, at least make my death look cool!" Shawn yelled as he clenched his eyes shut. The camera began to pull back from his close-up as he slowly opened his eyes, looked around, and smiled. He and the other three were now floating inside the shuttle's cabin. "How about that? We're floating in mid-air!"
"Alright astronauts," Chris told them, the camera cutting from a close-up of the intercom to the host lounging in his chair at the monitor room watching the cast on the monitors, "it's gonna be a long night. Better get some sleep!" He pressed a button on the keyboard and added "If you can!" The monitor screens switched from Heather and Shawn to Courtney and Lindsay, and the host accepted a cup of coffee from Chef with a laugh.
\
"Can I borrow any of your pillows?" Courtney asked as she floated around. "I lost mine."
"That's your own fault then," Shawn relaxed on his pillow. "You lose it, you deal with it."
"Fine," Courtney looked away from his former ally. "We are floating in mid-air, so I won't complain… much."
Confessional: Lindsay
"Courtney and Shawn are at each other's throats just like me and Amy," Lindsay said. "There's only one person who could've made them split, which is obviously Heather."
Confessional Ends
The scene returned to a shot of a jawbreaker floating in the air, then panned out to show that Heather was chasing after it. "If that jawbreaker wasn't so big, I would be able to stash it into my pocket!" She said as she floated past Lindsay who was looking at her pom poms.
"At least what you got is tasty," Lindsay said. "I can't eat or lick my pom poms."
"Good thing you're smart enough to know what's edible," Heather snootily responded.
"If they were taffy, I'd likely eat them," Lindsay responded.
Confessional: Heather
Heather was focused on filing her nails. "I assume I'm the favorite to win. I mean, look who's left. A control freak, a smelly nut, and a dumb blonde. And the only thing Lindsay has going for her is that she hasn't made any enemies. Whoop-de-doo! We're not here to make friends. We're here to win." As she talked, she snapped her nail filer in half. "And that is exactly what I plan on doing."
Confessional Ends
The scene cut forward to the castmates as they slept peacefully with their pillows. This only lasted for a couple seconds before an alarm started to sound off loudly, and the lights in the cabin flashed red as the four teens woke up. "This is Houston," Chris said over the loudspeaker, "and you have a problem. You've been hit by an asteroid, and your guidance system is toast!"
"What do we do?!" Lindsay asked in a panic.
"I've watched Race to Save Space 3 before I came to this show," Shawn said. "We have to override the navigation controls."
"Quick!" Heather cried. "Someone grab the joystick thingy!"
Courtney sprung off a nearby wall and darted towards the shuttle's main computer. She grabbed onto a central joystick as she floated by, then planted her feet on the desk and pulled. The camera zoomed in on it and after a few moments of effort the stick moved to the side, shutting off the alarms and returning the lights to normal.
"Way to go Courtney!" Lindsay cheered.
"Nice job," Shawn said.
The camera zoomed in on Heather's jawbreaker as it drifted closer to a small window. It hit the window, cracking it slightly. The camera pulled back again to show it pushing back forward, but the force of its push-off caused the glass to shatter soon after it floated away. The air immediately began to be sucked out of the cabin, and the lights flashed red once more as Heather looked at the broken window with a shocked look.
Confessional: Heather
"At the very least, I can say that I'm not to blame for the window breaking," Heather claimed.
Confessional Ends
Heather, Courtney, Lindsay, and Shawn were shown floating in front of the shuttle controls. "Uh-oh!'" Chris announced jovially over the intercom. "Looks like you have a hole in your fuselage!" He laughed, and the camera panned across a closer shot of the four teens' faces. "You have exactly t-minus-ten minutes to plug the hole, or you'll run out of precious oxygen."
"We have to plug the hole!" Heather yelled.
"We just need something big and form-fitting!" Courtney replied.
They all turned to Lindsay. "Why are you looking at me?"
"We can use your pom poms to fill the hole," Heather said. "It's either that, or death."
Lindsay gave them a brief look and sighed. "They are valuable, but I can get new ones after the show ends."
The scene flashed back outside, the sun already up and the shuttle-coaster still flying along its track. The camera cut to the boarding platform as it finally came to a stop, and Chris was standing in wait as the shuttle door burst open with a puff of steam. One by one, the castmates fell out of it. Lindsay was first, then Courtney, then Shawn; all landed on top of one another in a heap. Heather was the last, and was the only one who maintained her balance.
"Will somebody help me down, or will I have to do it myself?" Heather huffed.
"Go with the second option," Lindsay replied. "There's a ladder in front of you."
Heather rolled her eyes, but climbed down the ladder.
The camera cut to Chef standing outside of the broken window, Lindsay's pom poms sticking out of it. "That was smart, sealing the breach with those pom poms," he said while pulling them out.
"It was my idea," Courtney claimed. "No sweat to it."
"You just love to pat yourself on the back," Shawn rolled his eyes.
Confessional: Shawn
"I really hope that I can get Courtney and Heather out," Shawn confessed. "Lindsay's the only one I'd like to face in the finale."
Confessional Ends
"Nice going Lindsay," Chris told her. "It was your pom poms that saved the group."
"Yes!" Lindsay jumped in Victory with her pom poms on."
"What?" Heather gaped. "I was the one who suggested we fill that hole!"
"Lindsay was the one who actually plugged in the hole," Chris said. "As a reward, she'll get to decide the order of who goes first to last at the next challenge!"
"I got it," Lindsay exclaimed. "The order is me, Courtney, Shawn, and Heather."
Confessional: Lindsay
"I don't know what the next part of the challenge is," Lindsay confessed, "but making sure Heather participates last was just too good to pass up."
Confessional Ends
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(Commercial break)
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The footage cut forward to a shot of the sun over a few of the film lot's fake buildings near one of the studios. The wind was shown blowing a few pieces of paper along the road between the studios, then the shot cut to and upward pan of the fake hill. The camera cut back to the front of a studio as its garage-like door began to open.
A few feet were briefly shown behind the door before the camera moved inside, showing the silhouettes of the four castmates against the light flooding in from outside. The feet were shown again in an angled profile as they began to walk outside, and the shot moved up to show the four staring forward. Lindsay was first, then Shawn, then Courtney, then Heather.
The camera switched to a face-on shot, panning right across the castmates and stopping at Lindsay. A record scratch was heard as Chris ran across the shot with a scowl on his face, the teens following him with their eyes.
"Enough messing around," Chris said before the scene changed to the usual side-view as he addressed the contestants. "Alright gang, if you thought spending the night in zero G's was a stomach-churning experience, then you're gonna love this next challenge! Who can last the longest on the G-force Trainer?" The castmates were shown watching cautiously. "Or as I like to call it," Chris said before the shot quick-panned further to the right, "The Vomit Comet!" The machine he was referring to looked like a bulbous, oversized, and legless space suit attached by a hefty arm to a smaller wheeled cart.
"If you thought you were under pressure before," the host said giddily as the camera panned up a close-up of the suit, "wait 'til you feel the effects of four times Earth's gravitational force!"
"We just ate chili for lunch," Heather said. "This won't be good."
"That was a bad call," Lindsay agreed.
The shot quick-panned over to Chef Hatchet who was standing by a bubbling pot on a small table. "Plenty more where that came from," he told the camera while tapping the side of the pot with a ladle. The camera zoomed in for a close-up, showing a foul-looking vomit-green stew filled with a variety of bones, old socks, and octopus tentacles.
The focus moved back to Chris. "Remember crew, Lindsay's already picked the order, so she's up first."
"Wonderful," Lindsay said with a smile as she approached the machine. "I didn't know we were gonna barf inside this thing, but now that I know the order and I'm going first, I don't have to worry about getting covered in other people's barf."
Courtney quickly grew uncomfortable. "Uh, what's the order she picked for us."
Chris donned a villainous sneer. "You're not going to like this. After Lindsay goes Courtney, Shawn, and last but not least, Heather."
"WHAT!!??" Heather screeched. "Can I trade places with someone?"
"Too late," Chris said. "The order is set."
Heather shot daggers at Lindsay, who smiled innocently and shrugged in response.
Confessional: Lindsay
Lindsay was shown laughing to herself for a couple of seconds. "It's going to take a long time for her to wash the puke off!" She resumed her laughter.
Confessional: Heather
"When this is over, I'm going to kill Lindsay…" Heather shot the camera a deadly glare, "...right after I take a long shower!"
Confessionals End
The scene skipped to Lindsay as she was about to climb the G-force training suit. She looked over and said "This will almost be like the Hurlinator back at the carnival."
"But unlike that heap of junk, you’ll actually hurl inside that suit if you’re unlucky," Chris taunted.
Lindsay dropped into the suit and closed the helmet shut. "Have a nice spin, Lindsay!" Chris said with a wave before pressing the buttons on his stopwatch and remote control simultaneously.
The machine immediately started to move, and Lindsay began cheering out of fun and enjoyment. A bird's-eye view showed the arms rotating rapidly about the wheeled cart it was attached to. The camera cut to a close-up of the viewing window on the helmet, where the blonde's face could clearly be seen. Her happy expression changed to struggling to contain her vomit. She forced it down and exclaimed "Let me out!"
Chris obliged by pressing both buttons again, and the machine slowed to a stop. The helmet swung open and Lindsay pulled herself out. She was frazzled, but she didn’t throw up on herself.
"15.4 seconds!" Chris read off from his stopwatch with a grin. "Pretty impressive for a first run, and despite my theory, you did not hurl!"
"I did not want to smell bad," Lindsay groaned and fell over.
Confessional: Lindsay
"So I have this friend who ate twenty corn dogs as a dare," Lindsay confessed. "When we were inside the car, she started to throw up, and some of it got on us. I'm never eating a corn dog again."
Confessional Ends
"Alright Courtney, you're next," Chris told the control freak who approached him and the training suit. "Lindsay managed to keep her lunch down, so at least you'll have a dry run."
\
The scene flashed forward to Courtney in the suit, already looking nervous. "Let's get this over with," she said before the helmet swung down over her head.
Chris smiled and pressed the button on the remote control, and the camera switched over to the bird's-eye-view of the machine. The rotating arm rapidly built up speed, and unlike Lindsay before her, Courtney immediately screamed in terror. Another viewpoint change showed the panicking type-a through the helmet's viewing window, then back to the bird's-eye-view. The sound of vomiting was heard and the shot cut back to the host.
"27 seconds on the dot!" Chris announced.
"Am I in the lead?" a messy Courtney wondered after climbing out the suit.
"No," Chris answered. "I'm deducting ten seconds for puking."
"That was totally disgusting!" Courtney muttered. "I hope you can handle it, Shawn."
"I've dived through garbage and covered myself in fish guts once," Shawn shrugged her off. "This is nothing I can handle."
"I don't want to say it, but your determination is admirable," Courtney said.
"It's down to you two," Chris told Shawn and Heather. "Shawn, your slightly soiled chariot awaits."
\
"Ready or not, here I come," Shawn got in the suit.
"He's got high confidence," Chris told the camera. "Confidence that's going to disappear." The helmet closed, the buttons were pressed, and the machine began to spin.
The camera cut to the window of the helmet, showing Shawn screaming in panic. Sooner or later, ominous rumbling came from inside the suit and his cheeks bulged.
The scene cut back to Chris just as the sound of puke was heard, and the host stopped both watch and machine. "Whether Shawn will shower or not is up to him," Chris commented as the conspiracy nut exited the suit covered with vomit. "But he will definitely smell like his own lunch now. After the ten second deduction, he comes in at a grand total of 20 seconds."
"Thanks for choosing me to go last, Lindsay," Heather spat at her. "Two people threw up, and I have to be surrounded by their puke."
"Heather, you're the last one," Chris slyly said. "Unless you want to lose out on winning invincibility, I say you get inside the suit now."
Heather looked at the others and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not forfeiting."
Confessional: Heather
"The things I do to keep myself in the game," Heather rolled her eyes.
Confessional Ends
"This is so gross," Heather said in disgust as she got in the vomit-covered suit. "Start it already!" Heather yelled before slamming the helmet shut.
Chris pressed his two buttons. As with the others the camera switched first to a bird's-eye view of the machine as it began to move, then to a close-up of Heather's face through the helmet. Though she was wincing from the bits of vomit dripping down her face, she kept her determination still and wasn't about to quit.
The shot cut outside to the host and the other three castmates as they watched. Chris was focused on the stopwatch in his hands, Shawn was uninterested, Lindsay was nervous, and Courtney was scared.
"She's going longer than I thought she would," Chris said.
"Just barf already!" Courtney shouted.
The sound of vomiting was heard. The camera zoomed in on Chris again as a smile formed and he clicked his buttons, and the machine came to a stop. "That's time!" he called.
"Did I win?" Heather asked after swinging open the helmet and flopping over the side, vomit all over her head, chest, and mouth. "I know that was more than 27 seconds."
"35 and a half seconds! A new Vomit Comet record!" Chris told her.
"I know what this means," Heather grinned in victory.
"Since she lasted the longest inside that machine, I declare Heather the winner of today's challenge!" Chris announced.
"In your face, everyone!" Heather taunted the other three contestants.
"Can you mock us from far away?" Lindsay held her nose.
"We would like to be away from you," Courtney said.
"Never thought I'd say this, but I agree," Shawn stepped back. "You stink really bad, and I have horrible hygiene."
"That's just the smell of victory," Heather said.
A sudden whistle caught the group's attention, and they looked over to see Chef standing on a stepladder calmly slicing a carrot over the open suit. "Hope y'all like gumbo!" he told them before resuming his work.
The camera panned across the castmates and host as all wretched in sheerest disgust.
\
The scene flashed to Lindsay in the girls’ trailer alone. She had a pencil and paper and was seen writing on the paper but what it said was unknown.
"This should be about it," Lindsay said once she was finished.
She folded the paper hamburger style and left her trailer.
Confessional: Lindsay
"You're probably wondering what I'm doing," Lindsay said. "Courtney and Shawn can't stay mad at each other forever. They are a great duo, even if they're total opposites. This may cost me my spot in the game, but if it means repairing a friendship, I'll take that risk because friendship is magic and more important than money."
Confessional Ends
It was soon night time, and after focusing on the moon, the camera panned down to reveal that Shawn was standing near the tree he slept in.
"Lindsay said to meet here," Shawn said. "I don't know why, but I ain't gonna question her."
Soon Lindsay and Courtney both walked to the scene together and Lindsay smiled. "Good to have you both here."
Shawn was stunned to see Courtney. "Why is she here?"
"Why is he here?" Courtney asked in a startled tone.
"I brought you both here so you two could talk," Lindsay smiled brightly.
"I don't want to talk to a deadbeat survivor who can't act normal for more than a minute!" Courtney complained.
"I refuse to be with an uptight politician that thinks only about herself!" Shawn shot back.
"At least I have public decency!" Courtney shouted.
"At least I don't complain when things don't go my way!" Shawn yelled.
"SHUT UP!" Lindsay cried out furiously, earning her shocked looks from both Shawn and Courtney. "You two are clearly crushed and hurt over something really upsetting because if you were not, you wouldn’t be fighting! I’ve seen how close you both are, and I know that a small argument couldn’t be the reason you broke up." Courtney and Shawn's anger diminished as she spoke. "Something big happened but if I were to guess, Heather had something to do with it. Now please just tell each other what happened without screaming at each other!"
Shawn took a few deep breaths before speaking. "Last challenge, Heather told me about Courtney using me in order to make it to the finale."
"Why did you listen to her?" Courtney asked.
"She had a recording of you talking about it with your own voice," Shawn said.
"What exactly did the recording say?" Courtney demanded.
"Don't act so confused," Shawn said. "You said that working with me and Noah was practically torture for you and that you’ll be glad to ditch me once you claim the million!" he brought up angrily.
"If that's what you heard, then you're way wrong," Courtney glared. "I have a vivid memory, and I don't recall saying those things."
"But I heard your voice in the recording," Shawn raised an eyebrow, starting to rethink what he heard.
"I'm starting to think that someone impersonated Courtney's voice just to make her look bad," Lindsay chimed in.
"Shawn's a boy, and no way can you match my octaves, so that means Heather set me up!" Courtney grit her teeth.
Shawn then widened his eyes before groaning. "Your voices are pretty similar."
"See I told you. Heather caused a rift between you guys just like she did to me and Amy," Lindsay said.
"And I fell for her lie," Shawn admitted. "How stupid could I have been?"
Courtney’s gaze softened a bit before saying, "Well… you’re not the only one who’s fallen for it before."
"We've let her come this far," Lindsay continued. "And now that she has invincibility, we can't kick her out today. I just want you two to make up and vote together again."
Shawn and Courtney both turned to Lindsay and Shawn piped up, "But that means you’ll be on the chopping block."
"Friendship is worth more than a briefcase filled with dollars," Lindsay said. "Courtney, you can be really bossy. And Shawn, you can be really messy. But you've come this far. Don't break up your partnership just because of a mean girl."
Shawn looked at Courtney. "I shouldn't have let myself be tricked like that."
"I don't blame you," Courtney said. "I have been acting crazy the last few days. I just wanted to win."
"If I’ll be honest, I missed working with you. It’s not as fun working alone as it used to be once I started putting my faith in others," Shawn admitted.
"You want to patch up our alliance again?" Courtney held out her hand.
"Absolutely," Shawn shook her hand. "I won't let anything break us up again."
Lindsay watched the scene with happiness. "It's nice to see you two comfortable around each other. Jo and Brick are really lucky to be dating you two, if you're actually dating."
Confessional: Courtney
"That was really cool of Lindsay to patch up my friendship with Shawn," Courtney admitted. "I've been taking her for granted up until this point, and I won't think ill of her again."
Confessional Ends
[A grand theme played as the camera zoomed in on the amphitheatre. Several film strips of the host's highlights from the previous season flew past the screen, then the camera panned out from a solid gold screen to show a Gilded Chris.]
\
The camera flashed into a shot of the night sky. "And four," Chris said as the camera panned down to the amphitheater, "shall soon become three, as we bid farewell to another cast member. Everyone, cast your votes."
The shot cut to the cast members in the bleachers. Courtney and Shawn were on the top row and Heather and Lindsay on the bottom.
Courtney sighed before casting her vote.
Lindsay thought for a second before she made her vote.
Shawn shrugged and casted his vote.
Heather smirked deviously and then made her vote.
The scene flashed to a close-up of the three gilded statuettes on a tray held by Chef, who was wearing his formal pink gown once again.
"And the Gilded Chris goes to...," Chris began to read from his envelope, "Heather and Shawn," the two were shown catching their awards. Courtney and Lindsay were shown in a split screen and they both braced themselves.
"And the last statue goes to…" Chris said slowly as the music reached its peak, "No one yet!"
"What's going on?" Lindsay wondered.
"It seems we have a situation similar to episode fifteen," Chris told them. "Courtney and Lindsay got the most votes at two per contestant."
"Not again!" Courtney moaned.
"Is there going to be a tiebreaker?" Lindsay asked.
"You bet your boots there is," Chris said and turned to Chef. “Got any gumbo left?”
“Two pots full of it!” Chef cackled. “What do you want with it?”
“In order to stay in the game, Lindsay and Courtney have to eat a pot filled with Chef’s very own gumbo!” Chris declared to them.
“You do know that Chef made it with our own vomit!” Lindsay proclaimed.
“I know. That’s what makes it fun. For me!” Chris laughed.
“If I have to do this, then bring out the barf-bo,” Courtney shivered.
\
The scene switched to Courtney and Lindsay on the stage of the amphitheater. They were sitting on chairs while holding pots of gumbo and large spoons.
“Now remember,” Chris walked over to the two. “If you don’t finish your pot, you’re not going into the final two. Got it?”
“I did come this far,” Lindsay said.
“I’ll accept the challenge. I won’t give up when I’m this close to the finale,” Courtney said.
Heather and Shawn were watching from far away. “I’m rooting for you, Courtney!” the latter cheered.
“Whoever loses or wins, I don’t care,” Heather said.
"And… go!" Chris started the tiebreaker.
As soon as he said those words, Courtney and Lindsay began putting gumbo into their mouths. Courtney was rapidly scooping the meal while Lindsay was sipping on it. Both girls were repulsed, but they still wanted to be in the game.
Lindsay saw that Courtney was halfway done with her pot, so she started to follow her path and scoop up the gumbo in hopes of catching up to her.
Just when it seemed like Courtney was about to finish, her stomach started to grumble from what she'd eaten. She tried to fight it, but eventually, she puked inside of her pot.
Seeing that she had an opportunity to win, Lindsay opened her mouth widely and poured the gumbo in. Afterwards, she placed her pot down.
"I'm finished!" she declared, only to feel nauseous and barf into her pot.
"Man, you girls are sick!" Chris teased them. "Regardless, Lindsay's still in the game, and Courtney just went from 22nd to 4th place in two seasons!"
"Drats!" Shawn complained.
Both girls have finished throwing up. "Looks like you have to go," Lindsay told Courtney.
"I know," Courtney moped. "I almost got to the million dollars, and I've never been in 4th place before."
"At least you did much better than before, and you're not wearing a chicken hat this time," Shawn said.
Courtney smiled in response. "I wanted to win the season, but I did learn to value friendship and cooperation, and like Lindsay said, those are more worthy than cash."
"I'm just glad you're not being mean to me for once," Lindsay said.
"We'll take down Heather and be the final two," Shawn said. "We promised Noah, and we're also promising you as well."
"Not sorry to interrupt," Chris got between them, "but Courtney should be getting going right about now."
"Shove it, McLean!" Courtney shoved Chris to the floor with one hand. "I'm saying goodbye to my friends, but I will enter the Lame-osine soon."
\
The footage skipped ahead to Courtney standing near the limo. She saw Lindsay and Shawn waving goodbye to her. After returning the gesture, she entered the limo with a smile on her face. The limo's tires revved up and sped off into the night, leaving behind two trails of fire.
Just as Shawn and Lindsay were about to go to their trailer, they were stopped by a snobby voice.
"Love to stick around, but it's been a long day and I'm gonna hit the showers," Heather bragged and got off the stage. "Great work, everybody."
While Lindsay rolled her eyes and left, Shawn stayed back, but had a face filled with anger and vengeance.
\
The scene cut to a shot of the washroom. Inside, Heather was bathing herself and humming a tune.
Unbeknownst to her, Shawn snuck to the side of the bathroom. He had a barrel filled with gumbo with him. After placing it down, he hooked the shower pipe to the barrel, wrapped it with tape, and turned the wheel to let the gumbo flow through.
Heather was heard screaming once the gumbo rained on her. "What the... Ew! Ugh, oh! Is this sewage?! Stop it! Stop! Oh! No!"
Seeing that his job was done, Shawn laughed to himself and turned in for the night as Heather continued to scream in anguish.
Chris popped up into the camera's view. "And you'll see how our remaining contestants suffer next time on Total Drama Action!"
(Roll the Credits)
\
(Bonus Clip)
"I want Shawn to win Season 2, but I won't mind if Lindsay does the job for him," Courtney said inside the limo. "She's pretty capable of handling herself, and I did hear about her plan to become the Queen of France, which I kinda want to see come to fruition." The C.I.T. laughed for a few seconds. "I know my parents want me to succeed and thrive for victory, but I'm certain that they'll see how far I've gotten in the competition and be proud of it. That's not to say I won't quit trying. I just have to never give up."
16th/15th: Harold
16th/15th: Dawn
14th: Lightning
13th: Sky
12th: Jo
11th: Beth
10th: Brick
9th: Duncan
8th: Mike
7th: Amy
6th: Rodney
5th: Noah
4th: Courtney

People have been going missing in my hometown ever since I moved back. And things don't really feel the way they did when I was a kid. I don't know if those two are related.
This has been really nagging at me lately. I had no idea where to post it to get some help or peace of mind. I just really need some support right now before I drive myself crazy over it. Maybe I'm overreacting because it's been a stressful few months since my parents died, or maybe someone can shed some light on the events that have been happening and show me that I am just being crazy...
I guess, I should probably start by introducing myself? My name is Jeremy Coleridge, as a kid I used to live in a very small coal mining town of about 7000 in a desolate area of the north called Calkirk. Picture every single midwestern small town Podunk you've driven to on your way to a bigger city, and you would be pretty close to what Calkirk looks like
I was there until I was about 17, when I decided to live with my aunt in New York, where I threw away a lot of money going into journalism which, if I have to be honest, was probably the worst decision of my life at the time. But, with my parent's kind of disowning me for not agreeing with their very strong religious devotions I kind of had no place to go. My aunt pushed me to attend college a year after I graduated high school because I really liked writing and investigation, so what better to study than investigative journalism right? Plus; she said I had to be in school if she was going to let me stay with her. Well, do you want to know how many investigative journalists are in New York?
The answer is: A lot.
So, a few grand down and four years of school wasted, I can’t get a job with that degree. I ended up living in a 2-bedroom apartment bunking with another dude while I work 50 hours a week between two part time jobs because that’s all anyone wanted to offer, and I was struggling. My aunt Clair moved back to Calkirk to take care of my mom who was diagnosed with some rare disease that she wouldn’t tell me about. Now, I’m 24, my mom passed away 3 months ago from whatever disease it was that she had gotten, my dad committed suicide the next day…
My aunt paid for me to fly back to Calkirk for the funeral and the Will reading. Being their only kid, I guess my parents willed me their small 3-bedroom one bath house in the town and with that, a small inheritance that basically would pay my student loans off and still leave me a few grand of left over money to put in savings. The life insurance my dad had from working at the Calkirk mine for almost 40 years paid everything off. I wouldn’t owe a cent on a single thing except my utilities and food.
I had to go back to New York for a few weeks to get my assets in order. I waited for my roommates to find some new, desperate fool to move in, sold my old buick, sent off the final check for my bank to cover my loan, flipped off one boss as I walked out of one job, and gave a respectable 2 weeks notice to the other, then I paid a company to pack up my small amount of crap I had and bought myself a plane ticket back to Calkirk.
Well, I say “to Calkirk” but as you may or may not know, a town of 7000 doesn’t usually have an airport so I had to fly into a city about two hours from there and get my aunt to agree to pick me up.
Two weeks living in the house, I got bored sitting in the place alone and decided to apply for a few jobs in town. I was able to score a job at the Calkirk Times. And being the only news outlet in Calkirk, business was actually booming. But when I asked my interviewer why the position was open, he said something that sort of freaked me out.
“Well, the last kid with your job stopped showing up a couple weeks ago…his house is empty, skipped town, no one can find him...”
I was basically hired on the spot, and I accepted immediately, call me desperate. But what my new boss said gave me a weird feeling… Everyone knew about everyone in this town. How could one of only three journalists go missing and nobody knows where he went?
When I met my new coworkers Abbigale and Tommy, they said the guy, Jim Remus, was an out-of-towner from Texas who came to live here with his girlfriend, a local girl we went to school with. They both went missing two weeks ago with no sign of them anywhere. Abby and Tommy, both thought it was way weirder than what our boss thought, he denied any articles even mentioning it. He even reprimanded Tom for asking another coworker about it, saying it was personal business and we shouldn’t be talking about it at work...
The second weird thing I experienced was a couple weeks after that, when I officially emptied my parents' pantry of all the nasty old people food they had. I decided it was probably time to go grocery shopping. I got home late on Friday night after writing a pointless article about news that had come out almost a week previously in bigger outlets, but people here ate up the content like it was breaking news so, who cares. I decided Saturday would be a better time to go grocery shopping.
Now, let me explain Calkirk a little better before the next piece of my story. Like I said, Calkirk is an old mining town in the Midwest part of the United States. I’m not saying where because I don’t want anyone trying to find it and something bad happening to them.
The town sits a few miles from the highway and has one main road with everything that’s not a house on it. Two gas stations, one on each side of town, two bars barely 3 blocks away from each other, the post office, the fire hall, the grocery store on one side, the K through 12 school on the other, then there are a few buildings with random business scattered between, a small vet clinic, a photo lab, a small coffee shop, stuff like that. The jail sat smack dab in the middle of town between the two bars. The town itself probably wouldn’t be visible from the highway if the factory wasn’t billowing out thick clouds of what I assumed to be coal ash and soot 24/7.
The factory was supplied by the Calkirk Mines and a tunnel delivery system had been made to transport coal to the factory from the mine about 15 miles away. The mine sat in a deep coolie with hundreds of trees around it, near a river, and a few long dirt trails in and out. the tunnel system was a long belt covered most of the way by piping. Inside, there's train cars that run almost constantly to the factory. With only small viewing ports for maintenance every so often. All of this knowledge was thanks to my dad working there for 40 years and a few take-your-child to workdays before he and my mom basically disowned me.
I should also mention before I get too far, since I came back here about 8 weeks ago, there have been three massive dustings, which the locals call “Ash events”. An Ash event in this town is when the factory spouts out way more of its black smoke than usual and the town gets covered in layers of black soot like material, it’s easily washed away with a hose and the fire department goes around each time and uses a low-pressure hose to rinse basically everything off. I remember these events from when I was a kid, but they never happened this frequently, at least not in my memory, or maybe it was washed off before I noticed.
It usually happened overnight and if you woke up too early, you'd have to wash off your own cars if you want to get anywhere. Part of the city ordinance was no one drives in town with their cars covered in the ash. It can be met with an almost $2000 fine. And, with the amount of police officers with not much to do all day, they were posted everywhere after a good dusting, so you’d be seen.
The first Ash event since being back home happened about two weeks after I got to town, two weeks before I got my new job. The second ash event two weeks after that got my dad's truck that I had parked outside so I could work on a dirt bike in the garage when I was bored. It happened the night I decided to go grocery shopping. The third one was just a week ago as I’m writing this...
Anyway, when I woke up, I could smell the ash in the air. It leaves this really heavy burning smell like someone burning ham bones with wool. It's hard to explain, but it's one of those smells you could remember from anywhere if you smelled it again. When I walked out, I already knew what I’d see, the dark dust caked on my dad's truck. I unraveled the hose in the front yard and sprayed the whole truck down before heading to the store to get there right when they opened. And yeah, I realize most people would look at this and say, that's weird, but for Calkirk, you kind of just grew up doing that. It's a generational habit, everyone did it.
In the store, I shopped for about two hours, packed a cart full of groceries and went to the registers to check out. Two older ladies were sitting at a small booth beside the windows sipping coffee. I recognized them as ladies that live in my neighborhood that would often have contact with my parents and I when I was a kid.
“Did you see Genie this morning?” I overheard one say, the other shook her head and made an exasperated face.
“I was just gonna ask you, haven't seen her at all!”
“That’s so unlike her…”
“Do you think…” There was a pause and the other shook her head.
I listened as they went back and forth saying how this lady always met them on Saturday mornings, every year for the past 25 years, she never missed a day.
I paid, I rolled my cart over to them and said, “I Uh, couldn’t help but overhear, you said your friend is missing?”
The women gave me a skeptical look then both suddenly perked in an almost robotic manner then one smiled, “Oh, little Jeremy Coleridge, you sweet little thing, when did you get back in town!”
I responded with “Like 2 months ago…”
“So sorry about your parents dear. Hope the town is treating you well.”
I nodded, but like a lot of crap in this town, their sudden change in attitude freaked me out.
I tried to divert the conversation back to the missing friend “So Genie…”
“Oh, I remember when you were just a tiny baby waddling over to my house for candies with your mom!” One spoke.
“Yeah, I did. But I want to ask about your friend…” I began again.
“Oh worse, as a kid he would follow my granddaughter for hours outside while they played.” The other said. She waved her hand at the other, “You two are about the same age, you should remember her, her name is Abbigale.”
“Oh and what about that time Marty found him playing in the mud puddle in the backyard.”
“Listen” I said abruptly over their talking. “I’m with the newspaper now. You said your friend is missing, have you gone to her house yet!? Have you checked on her at all?”
Their moods changed again, they frowned deeply, and went rigid for a minute as if they were really mad… Then they suddenly smiled again, big wide creepy smiles that really freaked me out.
“She’s fine Jeremy.” One said in a tight-lipped smile. “Just… resting…” her creepy smile widened, her lip twitched at the word ‘Resting’. Then, she shoo’ed me away with her hand without another word. My attempts to ask after were ignored as if I wasn’t even there.
feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third ring, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…”
Feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third call, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…” I thought it was odd that her phone would go off after I had just called it three times.
I, at least, remembered where Genie lived from my childhood and decided I’d pay her a small visit before going about the day just to make sure she was okay. I mean, maybe she was sick or something and just stuck in bed, or maybe she fell and needed help? Maybe she didn’t have a life alert, she for sure did not have a cell phone, and I think she was a widow, and all her kid's left town when they turned 18. So, if her friends hadn’t checked in on her she could have been lying there alone for lord knows how long needing help.
When I got to her house it was really dark, and quiet, the only way I knew it was still her house was the name inside the mailbox lid said “Carlson”. I knocked on the door, waited for a bit, but nothing happened.
“Ms. Genie! Ms. Genie! It’s me, Jeremy Coleridge! Jan and Cals son!” There was no answer. I looked in the little window in the door, but it was dark. I stepped to the side and looked into the front window and found an empty house. Her porch had signs that the Ash Event was never cleaned up properly, but the blanket of ash was disturbed by boot marks that weren’t my own. I tried the door handle, it opened, but almost like something pulled it open from the inside.
The house was completely empty, except for large boot marks made of the black ash from the porch leading into the entryway. And a few small blood splatters on the wall beside the stairs. It was eerily quiet; the house didn’t creak the way old houses were supposed to creak. There didn’t even seem to be wind around me. The whole area, inside Genie's house and outside, was just still and silent.
Before I took another step, I called the jail and asked if they could send a cop. I told them that it looked like something weird went down at Ms. Genie’s. They told me to wait outside and not touch anything. So, I turned right on my heel and planted myself on the step of the porch. I pulled out my phone to distract myself from the scene behind me. It didn’t keep my leg from shaking though…
Sheriff Nixon showed up about 10 minutes later. He was old, looked like a corpse himself, but he had been the Sheriff in town since before I could even remember. He was always super friendly and had a smile on his face, even now while responding to a potential disappearance.
“Little Jer Coleridge. My, my son, you’ve grown.” He patted my shoulder hard, almost threw me off balance.
“Hey Pat… I think something happened with Genie Carlson…” I pointed to the door, thinking he would be more surprised than what he was.
“Now, why would ya‘ think that, son?”
I told him I saw Ruth and Beth Anne at the grocery store saying they hadn’t seen her today. I even told him about them saying she was “Resting” and how they smiled the whole time, not acting like they were really bothered by it at all.
“Well, let’s just take a look here then. Wait out here.” He went inside with a flashlight, looked around for a few minutes then came back out. He clicked the lock behind him and shut the door.
“Well Jer, looks to me Genie moved out.”
“Without telling Ruth and Beth Anne?”
He nodded and his face suddenly smiled widely, the same way Ruth and Beth Anne had done at the grocery store earlier in the day when I kept pressing them to tell me about Genie. “Looks like it.”
“But the boot prints, and blood…”
“Probably a movin’ accident.”
I shook my head at him, trying to talk some reason into him. That didn’t make sense at all. “Pat… Genie is in her 80s. Why would she just leave without telling anyone? Genie has been going to the store every Saturday for 25 years, she hasn’t missed a single day, she wouldn’t just leave without…”
“Now son…” Pat grabbed onto my shoulder and squeezed hard, causing me to pause. He raised an eyebrow at me. “I think you’re reading too much into this. I bet Genie was needin’ a change of pace in her old age, didn't want to hurt herself with the goodbyes.”
“Pat, I don’t think she’d…”
His voice suddenly dropped into an angry tone “Son, I think you’re meddlin’ in people's personal business too much.” He titled his head closer to me. One of his eyes twitched at me, just like how Ruth's had at the grocery store. “Think you need to take your investigative head and go home, forget what you saw here.” He then smiled brightly as if he didn’t say anything and patted my shoulder again. “Nice seein’ ya Jer.” He walked back to his patrol car then tilted his hat at me “I’m sure I’ll be seein’ you around, son.”
I mean, Am I the crazy one? I seem to be the only one who cares that Genie Carlson is missing... Ruth and Beth Anne don't seem to be bothered, and it seems like Sherrif Nixon couldn't be bothered. And that's not even getting into the guy and his girlfriend who went missing a few weeks ago...
I think I am going to look into it and see if I can track Genie down at least, to make sure she is okay. I have resources at work that could maybe help me. So, I'm going to check those out when I take my next break. In the meantime, I have to get back to work, But I'll post an update if I find anything out.

Below I've listed some phone numbers for vehicle tracking as well as a few side notes.
General Motors (includes Chevy, GMC, Buick, Cadillac) uses Onstar: 18884667827
If the owner has let the Onstar membership lapse by more than 5 years, it probably won't work. Even if they try to sign up again, you have to push a button in the car to connect. But for any GM cars 2010 and up, it's worth a phone call.
Honda Link: 18009991009
Honda Link is relatively new, I believe. Not all Hondas have it. Worth a shot for 2017 cars and up.
BMW Assist: 8883336118
BMW Assist is worth a call for 2008 and up.
Mercedes M-Brace: 8776579551
Mercedes 2008 and up worth a phone call.
Lo Jack equipped vehicles are still out there. From what I understand, the membership is good for the life of the car. So most people don't even know they have it when they buy a used car. It activates automatically when you enter the car into the stolen vehicle system.
Finance companies often put trackers on their cars. They charge high interest rates and thus need to repo a lot of their cars. Run the plate. If it's owned by a finance company, it's worth a phone call. I've never been successful with this one though.
I have the most experience tracking with Onstar. I have found it to be very accurate. If you can't find the car, it's probably in a tow yard or a garage.
Make sure you tell tracking operators what you want. They can usually lock the doors, make the horn go off, and put an ignition block on it. Sometimes they go rogue and start doing all that stuff without being asked.
If anybody has more numbers, put them in the comments please and let's get a complete list for everyone.
The Force Review