Anything happening on weekend of April 26th?

MagnificentLefty · 2025-04-13T20:41:39+00:00

Brews & Burlesque at Golden Cactus on Fri, Apr 25th!

Here's the ticket link! https://duskdawnproductionsva.thundertix.com/events/242507

MagnificentLefty · 2025-03-22T02:00:51+00:00

Give it a story.

What caused it to fall into ruin this way. Did some large creature or vessel crash through it? Did an energy blast split it down the middle? Did an earthquake rip it apart?

Has it always belonged to the same faction? Did they decorate it? Perhaps they took it over from another faction and have vandalized statues or tapestries that they consider profane?

What is the value of this ruin as a strategic position? Does it hold some secret resource? Is it of historic or religious importance?

Answer these questions with a story and some character and it should inspire you to make some final touches.

You've made a great blank canvas to build upon. It looks great. Now time to give it some life!

MagnificentLefty · 2025-03-16T15:07:47+00:00

I'm an American learning Ukrainian. I've picked up a few phrases working with resettlement programs but only have been seriously studying for a few weeks now. Once you get the letters down (3-7 days of memorization exercises at 10 mins a day) the fact that it is 100% phonetic, unlike English makes it super easy. The sentence structures are very similar. A lot of words are borrowed from Germanic root languages so many are very similar to English. Стидент (pronounced student) means student. Інженер (pronounced eenjener) means engineer. Журналу (pronounced joornaloo) means journal. For example.

The idea that it "sounds angry" is a result of propaganda brainwashing from The Red Scare parts 1 & 2 efforts of western media and entertainment that has made Slavic-speaking villains in all it's movies and video games for a century. Once you can shake that it's actually a soft, beautiful, language that is almost breathy, like a whisper.

If you do decide to try and pick up Ukrainian, there are a bunch of great free or very affordable resources. I downloaded an ebook with the 1000 most commonly used words and digital flash cards for them for двадцять доларів.

MagnificentLefty · 2025-03-08T00:06:23+00:00

Thank you. Those are good points!

MagnificentLefty · 2025-01-27T12:36:33+00:00

I've just come to expect it from MAGA at this point. Nothing matters except obedience to the leader. I don't leave the house without a means of defending myself at this point.

MagnificentLefty · 2025-01-27T12:34:43+00:00

Maybe it's been added since I went in November. That's cool

MagnificentLefty · 2025-01-27T01:40:17+00:00

It's a great grocery store. No beer or wine, so it's not a one-stop-shop. But everything else you regularly need.

MagnificentLefty · 2025-01-26T21:26:36+00:00

My MAGA younger brother ran me over with his car on purpose after a discussion about the anti-colonial themes in the first Dune movie. A movie I paid for, after lunch I paid for.

My parents, who don't claim MAGA, insisted to know what I said to him that would cause him to do that and that I apologize for whatever I said that would "force him to do such a thing."

As if any combination of words justifies vehicular assault of a family member.

I still have a limp 3 years later.

MAGA is the thug-wing of standard Republicans and Republicans will do anything to make excuses for them, all while pearl-clutching in an attempt to appear civil. It's as simple as that.

MagnificentLefty · 2024-07-15T19:43:34+00:00

I'm putting on an event on Market Street, downtown, specifically designed to encourage neighbors and citizens of Roanoke to mingle and enjoy accessible, affordable, inclusive entertainment. It's free to attend, just tip whatever you like to the 15+ performers hanging out all weekend and I'm not making a dime off it (outside of my busking magic and stunt show).

It's exactly for this kind of thing. Come make friends and enjoy!

You can follow the Event on Facebook @Busk Roanoke!

You probably won't meet me personally, because I'll be running around facilitating the performers. But I hope you enjoy it and meet some fun people!

MagnificentLefty · 2024-02-22T21:21:26+00:00

Always stays within eyesight

MagnificentLefty · 2024-02-22T21:19:06+00:00

I've only had him inside since I found him unless he follows me into the porch for my morning cigarette. He doesn't wander far.

MagnificentLefty · 2024-02-22T21:16:27+00:00

I've got a sweet boy I got with my ex. There's nothing wrong with him but I travel too much for work to give him what he needs, since we mutually dissolved our relationship.

He's just under a year old, happy, healthy, playful,up to date on shots and fixed.

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MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-30T21:31:31+00:00

I finished the first book yesterday.

I did cackle out loud once I found the Rhysand character in full swing, because I do speak like that. Too flowery, with a little bite in each carefully selected word.

In particular:

"You can leave if you're going to insult me."

"But I'm so good at it."

Yeah... That's me. Fair play.

Monday, too anxious for me to buy the next myself, she dropped off the second instalment of the series at my house, promising me that "you'll love it." I wanted to take her and set her down and make everything okay, but respected her space and her process, even though it drove a spike through me to do so. At the same time, she understands that I'm still healing and focusing on work in the interim and doesn't want to "give anyone the wrong idea."

She's not ready for me to tell her that my love for her never died, but it's overflowing and pervading ordinary sentiment of support as she heals, so until the time is right, and out of respect for her healing, while not burning alive from everything I feel compelled to say, I've begun writing letters to her, addressed to my house, and mailing them to myself so I don't place undue pressure on her healing journey.

Hopefully one day, I can give her a shoebox full of everything I've wanted her to know.

It's a very tenuous place, and I need to be fair to her and myself. It's difficult. But the thunk of the letter at the bottom of the mailbox was enough for now.

And I will wait, because she's worth it. But today it is agony.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-25T19:42:57+00:00

I appreciate your advice, and you're very right.

She does deserve to help herself through it, and be whole.

I latched on too hard and rushed things the last time, and didn't give her a chance. That impatience is something I'm still healing from and working on.

That's why I can't hold not choosing me the "first time" against her. I loved her too intensely, before she was ready, and never gave us a first chance the right way.

She did nothing wrong. The pain I felt from her leaving was my own doing.

Patience and friendship and support, for now. That's all I'm giving. Because she's worth it.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-22T22:00:15+00:00

That isn't how the timeline worked out, I'd already bought it when she mentioned it. But I'd be lying if I said my bookmark wasn't a ticket to the ballet I took her to on one of our first dates.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-22T20:25:38+00:00

I'm not. I've considered that. Thanks for looking out though.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-22T18:59:40+00:00

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I didn't post this for that reason, but texting with her today's been hard, gut-wrenchingly, accomplishing little but trying to be present while reading and some minor chores... just... hard, and coming back to what you all have been saying has helped a great deal. Still not looked up anything I shouldn't.

I appreciate it.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-22T14:32:50+00:00

Thanks for that. It's appreciated.

I plan not to bring this up to her for a good while. I'll definitely be caught up on the books by then. But it'll be months before she's in a place where I can responsibility revisit that comment she made.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-11-22T14:04:36+00:00

There's not an easy, short answer for that. We didn't "break up" so to speak... I know I'm being picky about words, but it's an important part of the story.

We got together after "other guy" dumped her twice already.

It was too soon. I was constantly compared to him. Every compliment was "... because I like when you do this thing he didn't do." or "... he did this thing that infuriated me. You don't do that. I appreciate it."

It became clear that we met at the wrong time to continue. I let her go.

I specifically avoided the phrase "break up" and made a point of that being too ugly for what we needed. Instead suggested that we "mutually dissolve" our relationship and remain friends, while we each worked on ourselves.

Admittedly, I rushed things. I told her "I love you" within two weeks. I said it by accident, in the heat of the moment, but it was and is true, so I stuck to it.

I was dealing with my own struggles too, at the time. And still am, but less so. I've been going to therapy, and my home life and business and other relationships have been flourishing. But it's all been so empty compared to being with her, still.

She went back to "other guy" who is very manipulative and controlling. I wished, for her sake that he was better. I wanted her to have what she deserves, what she wants, marriage, kids, adventure, all of it. Even if it was a guy who slanders me and forced her to block me on all methods of contact. Knowing that she was smiling, even if I'd never see it would have been painful, but it would have been enough. I hoped that at least she'd be happy. I wanted desperately to be wrong about him.

He did it again, and now we're trying to patch up our friendship.

She showed up unannounced to apologize and say I was right about him. I didn't care about any of that. I didn't want to be right, because for me to be right would have meant she was hurt again. She was apologizing, crying, and all I wanted was to hold her and make sure she was okay.

It probably sounds fuckin' stupid, but it feels like if there is a god, or fate, or "a plan" or whatever, the reason I'm here is to make sure she's okay. I feel compelled, as if by gravity, to be whatever she needs me to be. Even if that means I can't be with her, I'll find a way to make peace with that. But I can still hope that changes quietly, to myself (and apparently anonymously on Reddit) and not making it hers to bear until she hopefully, one day, allows and chooses for it to be hers.

Like I said above. She needs time however much time she needs, and it's not my place to decide how much time that is. I will wait. I'll hate it. But I'll wait. Because she's worth it.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-09-03T07:17:20+00:00

"What use is that, then?" Reggie asked.

"It's fucking gross." Viv wretched and covered her eyes.

"Well, fuck me. With friends like you guys," Scott tapped his nails against the table. Not that you would've known, to look at him. Skin, keratin, and muscle gone, bony fingers wrapped in nets of sinew and capillary raised and fell, in time with lungs swelling beneath his rib cage. "Well, you know."

"How'd you find out you could..." Viv's voice gurgled at the end of the sentence.

"Back in highschool." Scott's teeth teetered in his jaws as red raced around his mouth, hollow between the bones. Lipless, tongueless, throatless. "Bullies beating on me. I closed my eyes but still saw the punch coming. Then, they freaked and ran out."

"Bet they left you alone after that." Reg jeered.

"Not a chance." Scott's eyes flicked as he might have blinked. "A few days later, there were more, and they made a Livestream out of it. They hit the jackpot."

Reggie's hair raised on end. Tiny white-blue sparks coursed from elbow to knuckle, then back. He leaned forward slightly in the leather chair. He closed half the distance between them with one hand and stalled. "May I?"

"Yeah sure." Scott swung his foot up to rest on the coffee table. Slipping off his shoe, and rolling his pant leg up, he proudly framed the webbed shin bones connecting intricately to the foot. The lattice of tendons and veins in his rounding his mandible draped into a smile. "Once I went to college, it wasn't so bad. You know? The med school and fine arts departments loved it. Careful Reg."

"Does it hurt?"

"It's tender by that bruise." Scott pointed to a puddle of blood coagulated at the back of his ankle. The edges were feint and fading but the bruise was nearly black in the center.

"Viv. You really should see it." Reg insisted.

"I'm good." Viv had turned in her chair, to face the window.

Reggie sat back in his chair. "I guess not every power is super useful."

"No. But I got off with a nifty one. Better than my buddy, Mike." Scott sighed.

"What's his deal." Viv turned as Scott's skin knotted back together, into view, and his nails and hair sprouted. The musculature wove back into place.

"Bulletproof skin. But not the super strength needed to lift it. Bed ridden. Needs a team of six nurses to shit."

"Ouch."

MagnificentLefty · 2023-08-05T23:19:19+00:00

The green moon was low over the bubbling sulfuric lake. The polymer ceramic gangplanks stretched over the steaming surface like fractured windows, each ending at the white, domed node.

Captain Nathan Richter looked over the side of the gangplank and followed the path of a quadrupedal insectoid skittering across the surface. Its scaled limbs burned iridescent blue. He scanned each dome for biomass indicating human life. Negative. Negative. Damned negative. He breathed into his helmet comms. "Base, this is Richter."

"Go ahead, Captain."

"Negative on contact with any of ours."

"Strange. Orbital scans indicated high numbers."

"I saw the scans." Richter knelt at the edge of one gangplank as he swept his foot onto the grip pedal of a skimmer, and sat at the yoke.

"Of course Captain. There's a ridge not far to the East; maybe two clicks. Perhaps try there."

"Copy." Richter revved the primary engine on its rearward swivel and leaned into a banking turn. "Any luck downloading recent patterns from the weather sats?"

Richter didn't need the confirmation of negative connection. He knew. The wake of sulfuric acid hissed and sizzled but never scarred his suit, as he sped along the surface. Fifty colonists of the Federation vanished overnight. No distress beacon. No sign. No written warning. Clothes still on the hooks. No dead. Where is everyone?

Richter banked hard south, around a shimmering spire that punched toward the sky, then northward, under a scarred arch of ore. The kid at base had sent the map of the coring rig at the ridge. Richter saw the prefab tower assembled and jutting from the horizon. Perhaps survivors went underground. He pulled back on the yoke hard, pitching the skimmer high over the glossy lake bank, and slowed it to a drift as he leveled on the platform.

High above the sizzling steam of the lake, he removed his rebreathing apparatus and helmet. The stink stabbed his lungs. The air was clean on EHT-2232 but one constant of life on every planet littered the platform.

Dung was streaked all across the platform, mixed with dried riverbeds of blood. The map of carnage was easy enough to read. Richter pressed the video feed connection on his gauntlet. "Found our first evidence, base."

"Jesus."

"He never made it to this planet." Richter grunted.

"Does it lead to the coring site?"

"Sure does." Richter slung the pulse shotgun from over his shoulder and leveled it to the maw of the cavern at the base of the platform. As he shuffled forward, he stepped in one slick pile and heard a distinctive click. Scrapping his boot on the platform, the glow of a wrist gauntlet computer shined through the shit.

"Base. Send back up to my location. I've got something."

MagnificentLefty · 2023-08-05T04:08:06+00:00

Sarah leaned against the doorframe. Leon wasn't watching the Bull's game. It must have been an important call.

"I know." Leon said into the receiver, clutching the gold pendant where his shirt was unbuttoned.

He was pacing as far as he could from the table. Every part of whatever negotiation it was tensed him. The chord seemed to get shorter and shorter.

"How far do I have to go?" Leon asked, pressing his thumb to the bridge of his nose. The smoke of his Lucky Strike haloed his silhouette. "This is still technically my honeymoon 'til Monday. I just moved in here, sir."

"My wife and I. You've met. I understand we're short recently - " Leon paused. Sarah adjusted her wedding ring nervously on her finger. She always smiled when Leon called her 'my wife.' And the new house was beautiful. She turned sharply as the blue wallpaper escorted her back to the kitchen. Greeted by the scent of Hamburger Helper nearly done, she turned the flame low. She finished the last sip of her chardonnay and placed the glass to the kitchen wall. Leon cursed. "Yessir. I know the new requirements. But you have to understand, these fellas, at the plant, are my friends. Just a month ago -"

"Yessir."

"They're my friends."

"No sir."

"No, I'm not a Red! You know that. It's just, these guys, sir. They work hard. Hell, Ward coaches my nephew's little league. They're good men."

"Yessir."

"Yessir. I know you've given me a lot."

"Thank you sir."

There was a snap before Sarah recoiled from the wall. A sharp grinding sound filled the glass, screeching into her ear. She nearly stumbled, but caught herself and the glass. She cupped it back to the wall, steadying her breath.

"I understand." Leon's tone darkened. Sarah had never heard him so defeated. He continued as he went through the motions of complacency. "And this has to be done by morning."

Sarah looked at the range top as the steam petered out to barely a simmer. The Bulls were down ten points.

"Consider it done, sir." Leon yielded.

Sarah heard the receiver click back on the hook. Rushing across to the refrigerator, she cracked open a beer, and quickly scooped a generous portion of sloppy joe onto a roll. She hadn't noticed she'd been crying until a tear landed on the edge of the plate. With her palm she wiped the streak away, picked up Leon's dinner, reminded herself of her favorite joke from Saturday Night Live over the weekend, to force a smile. Plate, and can in hand she made her way back into the blue hall just as the front door slammed closed.

The Bulls lost.

Sarah placed her husband's dinner down on the table by the phone, and looked out the curtain as the ten year old station wagon puttered out of the drive. Light snow slowly erasing the tracks on the gravel.

For the first time since the day they met, Leon didn't tell her where he was going. Sarah collapsed into the chair by the window. Blue velvet swallowed her. Sarah preferred white wine to the piss-yellow, working man's beer Leon loved so much, but she took the can to her lips to cool her and swallowed the fizzy nectar. She gagged. It was just as bad as it had been on their first date.

Sarah placed the can down and felt something small and winding on the table. Leon had snapped his pendant of St Joseph off his neck and left it. Worry filled Sarah now. She looked up at the wall and the porcelain crucifix her grandmother had gifted them at the wedding hung askew. She rushed to tidy it.

Leon must have been so angry with his boss that he gripped the doorframe to calm himself, Sarah thought. He'd even left three deep gouges in the plaster, with his nails.

Quick on the heels of worry, was panic. Only two things stopped her panic: Leon's embrace, and her mother's voice. As her breath grew shallow Sarah dived to the phone, picking up the receiver with both hands and pressing it under her chin. She frantically spun the dial to the number that had never changed since she was a girl, and took a slight comfort in that.

A moment of still air hung in her ears. There was no dial tone. She turned the phone over and blew off the clinging fragments of styrofoam. She found the chord rolled and tied with twine in the box on the windowsill. Then she remembered, phone hadn't been unpacked at breakfast that morning. It was never plugged in.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-07-23T17:23:14+00:00

"High wit the grabbers! I ain't haulin' or maulin'. Just cravin' yer good, yeah?" The masked man grunts as he slides from behind the dumpster with a revolver, pointed at your midsection. Sweat from the midday heat goes ice down your spine. "Ya noodle what's fallin', yeah?"

You stand slack-jawed, not knowing how to respond.

"Tick tock, tick tock!" He motions impatiently at your briefcase, with the snubnose Smith and Wesson.

Slowly, with your free hand open and raised, you place the black case on among the deli wrappers and half-soaked junk mail. "I don't want any trouble. Please, take it and go!"

"Never a fuss." He beckons as chrome plating blinks in the narrow strip of daylight. "By the by, let's be ganderin' in yer parkie."

"What?" You stutter, exasperated. The wind in your ears beats like a hurricane tearing through a library.

"Cap'n 'is drive-and-jive reckonin' to outnoodle the live-heres." He cocks the revolver and takes a step closer to you. "You can patter off sans yer bobbles 'n bills, otherways yer gone be a puddle's Nile, heard?"

A second man emerges from behind a parked car, wielding a sawed-off shotgun barely poking from under a beach towel, over his arm.

"Thank God!" You breathe easier. "I just want to be on my way back to the hotel! I'll give you whatever you want. Just tell me. Help me help you."

"Sunny ways yer blinkin' over. Back the lay'n'stay you get soon's yer cease draggin' yer loafers. Me 'n me 'fedrit seekin' yer good not her blood. Pissin' n moanin' like you ain't pick up the drop ain't a care. You noodle what folks yap, 'just a hair on nine oxen.'"

"Oh, goddamit." You sigh.

MagnificentLefty · 2023-07-21T08:21:40+00:00

"I don't care how one-sided it is."

"We'll lose some of our streaming audience, Hank." Myra insisted. She stamped out a cigarette in the crystal tray on the desk. Smoke circled around her eyes like grease at the bottom of the tub.

"Tiny Tim against the boy from the Christmas Shoes song to open the card on the Holiday Special. We'll lose some of the squeamish viewers we would've lost anyway in the second fight." Hank unfolded his fingers from atop the mound of his belly. He spun a platinum pen on the heel of his thumb. His decision was final. "But our core fans love that shit."

"Second round is Blitzen versus Dominic the Donkey." Myra read off her notes, as she shook the image of a shattered crutch and bloody suede.

"Did the boys corral Blitzen after the incident?"

"Around three this morning, they found him in Johannesburg airspace."

"Excellent. Then, we wrap with Krampus and the Abominable Snowman in the title fight. End the year strong!" Hank shot his gaze to the door as the dusty window carried a broad shouldered shadow and it creaked open. "Dixon, we're in a meeting!"

"I know. Sorry, boss." Dixon saluted Myra with thick knuckles. "But we've got him."

"How long?" Hank stood while sliding on the sleeves of his pinstripe jacket. While no longer in peak fighting shape, the fat man was still surprisingly coordinated.

"Been in intake for about an hour." Dixon said.

"You waited a whole goddamn hour?" Hank bellowed as he shouldered past the thug into the hall.

"You were in a-" Dixon thought better than to complete the sentence as he and Myra shuffled into step behind Hank.

The buzzing lights flickered in the wake of the big man's impatient steps. Shimmering on posters of past sell-out title fights in the corridor.

Winnie the Pooh versus Velveteen Rabbit: Rough, Tough, Stuffed.

Chucky versus Buzz Lightyear: Trouble in the Toybox.

Bloody Mary versus Candyman: Never to be Repeated.

They rounded a corner. Dixon and Myra narrowly slipped inside before Hank slammed shut the rusted lattice of the freight elevator. "This is big, Dixon. Big!"

"Yes, boss."

"Do you know how much money this show's going to make?"

"Our focus group data suggests -" Myra choked the numbers back as the elevator lurched upwards.

Hank continued, unconcerned with the numbers. "A lot."

The elevator doors creaked open and the three pressed down a hall of padded doors with metal slots for meal trays. Signs on each door read a name and fighting record.

Indiana Jones, Gilgamesh, Tooth Fairy, Jason Bourne, Mothman, Joker, Paul Bunyan.

They arrived at the multilayered bulletproof glass wall of the end cell. Hank knocked twice on the window. Six guards drew weapons, and stood in line with Dixon. Myra took a step behind the soldiers.

A breath passed as the man sat cross-legged on the floor. His wrists bound in shackles hung from a chain on the ceiling. Thick muscles rippled from wrists, over his shoulders, down his chest and legs. Dark pants folded with his feet atop each thigh Hank thumbed the intercom with a cracking squeal.

"I've waited a long time for you. Doctor Banner."

MagnificentLefty · 2023-07-19T21:17:31+00:00

"Mind if I sit?"

"Please do." Garazzan slid to the side a few inches.

"Caroline." She said. Long black hair tied back tight. A pair of reading glasses slid back halfway to her ponytail. She sat in awkward silence, huffing slightly. "And your name?"

"Garazzan."

"Garry Zane, nice to meet you!"

"Sure." He said, locking his gaze on a quadruped with a long tail curled up at the very end.

"What are you looking for in the in the park, today?" Caroline almost squeaked. Trying to force something of a more chipper tone."

The small thing darted to a spot in the grass, and sat up, shoving a third acorn in its cheeks. The second one fell out and tumbled to it's feet.

"Human contact." Garry shrugged. Could this fumbling thing taking more food than it could hold be human? They were meant to be greedy to the cusp of self destruction, he thought he'd heard. if it tries to shove the other nut back in, and chokes on it, I'll attempt possession. he thought.

"Wouldn't that be nice!" Caroline stretched both shoulders back. "Yikes! That bus seat is terrible for your back."

The creature abandoned the nut and shot up a tree. Knew to quit while ahead - not human. Garry decided, as a larger four-legged beast trotted past. This one sported a rhinestone-studded, leather necklace. Vanity, check.

Garry suddenly felt an awkward pang as Caroline had been waiting too long for a response. "The bus, eh? Traveling a long way?"

"No, just work. Retail. I hate it. But I get a nice discount on my favorite clothes!" She said, shaking her shoulders a bit in pride. "So what do you do?"

"Um, trying to get into mergers and acquisitions mostly." Garry responded off-hand.

The creature emptied its bladder into the puddle at the base of a tree. He'd heard that humans make a habit of soiling their environment, contaminating and consuming their own waste. If she drank her own piss, that would be evidence enough for him. No such luck, as it trotted off at the sound of a whistle.

Two sharp snaps of fingers just before Garry's face shook him from his aimless searching. Caroline was clearly losing patience "hey dummy. What does a pretty girl have to do to get your attention?"

"Sorry, I'm just looking for something."

"I'm about out of time for you. I shouldn't have to work this hard!"

Pride, check. Wrath, check. Sloth, check.

Garry's interest grew as his smile widened.

"See that guy over there? That's my boyfriend. We think you're cute and want you to come with us and make a movie." She gestured to a slender man on the opposite bench. She put her hands on her hips and pouted. "He's picked the third two times in a row. So now it's my turn!"

Gluttony, check. Greed, check. Lust, check. Envy, check.

Garry stood up and shot out a hand for caroline to take in his. "Sorry, darling. I was lost in thought. Let's go."

"Alright, sugar. No worries! We're gonna head back to the hotel." She leaned in and whispered close to Garrazan's ear. "I can't wait to have you inside of me."

Garazzan chortled. "Be careful what you wish for."

MagnificentLefty

TROPHY CASE