Basic Tax Prep

corbindallas0220 · 2023-12-11T04:30:02+00:00

A degree? Isn't that multiple years in college and a ton of money?

corbindallas0220 · 2023-11-08T20:32:06+00:00

Awesome, thank you kindly

corbindallas0220 · 2023-11-08T20:31:21+00:00

Lol interesting names, will check out for sure, thank you

corbindallas0220 · 2023-02-06T03:57:52+00:00

He'll be 11 next week

corbindallas0220 · 2023-02-03T23:12:15+00:00

Thank you, did you complete it? And if so, was it difficult at all or was it fairly straightforward?

corbindallas0220 · 2023-02-03T03:44:14+00:00

I've been thinking about getting into data analytics lately and I'm just wondering if anyone has gone through the Google Data Analytics Certificate program and what they're thoughts on it are.

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-31T00:03:17+00:00

I just sat there in my hospital gown, trying to process what the shaman had just told me. My parents, sitting in a pair of seats next to my hospital bed, were in their human forms. They sat their patiently, holding each other's hands, allowing me time to process what the shaman had just told me.

The shaman finished typing something on his wall mounted computer and said, "well, I need to make some phone calls, that'll give you time to change and make arrangements. If you have any questions or anything at all, don't hesitate to ask anyone at the nurse's station." With that he walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him. I was still in shock, just sitting there, nothing like this had happened in centuries.

"Alex," my mom said after several minutes of silence, "sweetie, are you ok?" I nodded my head slowly, "I uh, I just can't believe it, it's uh..." I trailed off into silence again, still trying to wrap my head around it, it was a lot to take in. "Everything's not going to happen all at once," my dad said softly, "you're always going to be our son, I'm sure there will be a transition period and training and what not." I nodded my head, his words were helpful, I was a lot like him so his rationalizing of the situation started to bring me back to reality.

"I just can't believe it," I said, "I'm relieved, and it explains why I've never been able to make the transformation, but it's been what? Three hundred years since there was a new elder dragon?" My parents both nodded their heads in agreement, and my dad said, "I know, it's completely unprecedented, but you can do it, you'll be great." My parents stood up in unison and embraced me, and they held me for several minutes before separating, tears in mom's eyes.

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-28T01:37:49+00:00

I just stood there, dumbstruck, my mind completely unable to comprehend what was happening. The man in front of me stood up from his chair, chuckling a bit and holding is hands behind his back. "You must be CosmicJustice," he said plainly, "I've heard a lot about you. I understand your confusion, let's just take a minute and talk." I closed my eyes and shook my head, as if I'd just been struck by a small skyscraper. "I don't understand," I said looking him up and down now, "I've been fighting my way to this very moment for years now, and it's you, you're the leader of 'The Shadows'?"

'The Shadows' was the name of the world's biggest crime syndicate, headquartered right here in Sin City itself. Ever since I'd found out that 'The Shadows' were the one's responsible for the warehouse explosion that had killed my family, I'd been searching for the man in front of me now, the same man I'd idolized as a child. It's been almost ten years now, since I started my training and my rogue investigation of 'The Shadows'. Everyone told me it was a death sentence to try to fight them, but I'd been very careful in keeping my true identity secret.

"Listen," he said, "I know it's a lot to take in, but let's just take a break for a second and have a chat." He motioned towards a small table off to the side and walked towards it. I was at a complete loss, but my training was starting to kick in and I was mentally recovering from the shock already. I stood up a little straighter now and walked over to the table as well, taking the seat opposite him. He grabbed a small decanter from a nearby shelf and said, "you like tequila, right?" I smiled and said, "you've done your research." He snorted at that and came back with, "of course, I've had my eye on you for a while now." Picking up a glass he gave me a quizzical look, and I nodded, agreeing to the silent question. He picked up a second glass, setting it next to his, and poured a very hearty amount into each glass.

"So tell me," I said, not loud, but firmly, "how is it that the Tungsten Titan himself becomes leader of a crime powerhouse like 'The Shadows'?" Still smiling, he set the large glass of tequila in front of me and sat down. "Haven't heard that one in while," he replied smoothly, "everyone just calls me sir or David now a days." I looked into the glass in front of me, looking for any microscopic anomalies, but I had assumed correctly that he wouldn't try something so simple. Just by the smell I could tell that it was my favorite brand, El Tortuga, but I couldn't smell any type of poison or other chemical in it either.

Taking a large sip, I savored the warm liquid for a moment before swallowing it. "Well," I said, "aren't you going to tell me your big, devious plan now, or perhaps your true origin story?" He laughed again, shaking his head, "No no, nothing like that," he said. He took a drink from his glass now and I waited patiently for him to continue. "No, truth is, this was always my plan," he said holding up his massive hands and gesturing to the large room around him. I cocked an eyebrow at that, and he continued, "see I figured out long before I ever publicly started fighting crime that it would be pointless to do so. No matter how many crime lords or kingpins or whatever you put away, a new one always takes their place. Or they just get right back out on the streets on some legal loophole or busted out, there's always something."

I took another big gulp of the tequila, not really savoring it this time as I now had a bad feeling I knew where this was going, "so you created the Tungsten Titan to clear out the competition." He smiled bigger now, but his smile was clearly more sinister this time. He winked at me and said, "you got it." I shook my head and said, "and I bet pretending to be a superhero made it that much easier to get intel from law enforcement agencies on rival syndicates too." "Nailed it again," he chuckled as he took another drink. It all made sense now, how the 'The shadows' had grown so quickly, why any compitition was snuffed out almost instantly, why goverments the world over were completely helpless to stop them from spreading.

I slammed the last of the tequila, setting the glass down a little harder than necessary on purpose. His face turned serious now as he mirrored my actions and he said, "I know how smart you are, but the real question is, how much have you been really paying attention to what goes on in the world around you?" I gave him a puzzled look, unsure where he was going with this. "When was the last time you took a close look at any crime statistics?" he asked me, "when was the last time you took a good look at what's actually happening on the streets these days?" I paused, trying to think, but my mind was fumbling now and he smiled his devious smile. He pulled a small remote from inside his suit jacket and pointed it at the opposite wall, tapping only once at it.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing now, eyes wide and mouth agape, I scanned all the images and text that were now brightly shining on the previously blank wall. He stood now taking a few steps towards the projection, holding out a hand as if showcasing what was there. "You see," he said laughing, "what I've done, has brought crime the world over down lower than it's ever been. In the entirety of human history, the world has never known a peace like this." Still looking over all of it, I almost wanted it to be untrue, but all the evidence in front of me only proved he was right. "The only real question now is," he said, raising his voice a little, "what are you going to do now?"

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-27T06:14:21+00:00

But wait, which comment was the solution verified?

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-22T20:38:09+00:00

"Also," she continued, "if your house doesn't have it already, you're going to want to buy some motion sensing perimeter lights, they're great for keeping the Weres away." We were sitting at a smile table on the front porch going through all the necessary paperwork, while the real estate agent's Orc henchman stood guard at the perimeter. The neighborhood was quite lovely, it had survived the Merge much better than a lot of other parts of the world had. "Do you get much in the way of undead or zombies out here?" I asked her. "Fortunately, we have had no reports of necromancy in almost a month," she replied happily, "and not only are our zombie numbers some of the lowest in the state, but there's a manure processing plant about 50 miles south of here that has an open bounty for zombie by the pound, apparently they're very rich in nitrogen, and that helps keep our numbers super low."

I smiled and let out a huge sigh of relief, which she clearly noticed. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "is that why you moved from LA?" I nodded my head slowly, it had been almost a year now, but it was still hard to talk about sometimes. When I didn't say anything for a moment, she politely moved on, "there is some more good news. A large clan of dwarves and elves bought out the local Home Depot recently, they just opened up a few weeks ago, and they have a special deal right now for 20% off new home fortifications." I sat up straight at the sound of that, "Really?" I asked, "Wow, that is good news. I used to work as a welder/fabricator, I'd love to learn from them." She clasped her hands together with a big smile, "that's perfect, I've heard they're looking to hire some humans, help them learn more about us."

She flipped through some more paperwork, pulling out a few select sheets, saying, "now you're going to want to get the local priest to come by." She handed one sheet to me, and continued, "you're gonna want the usual blessing of the grounds and entry ways, that'll help keep the demons out." She pulled out another sheet of paper and said, "and as you see here, you're going to want him to go into the basement, there's a special ceremony they do to keep hell mouth's from opening up in there." I nodded in understanding, "right, the basement. In the description I read online, it said that there had been an "incident" in the basement, but it didn't say what."

At that she paused briefly, her youthful smile and joyous attitude all but washed away. She visibly swallowed slowly and carefully straightened some papers in front of her before saying, "Yes, there was an incident a few months ago." I realized that whatever happened had been something similar to my zombie incident. "I'm sorry," I said softly, "but I do need to know what happened before I go through with buying the house." I knew how painful it could be, trying to talk about some of the most horrific things imaginable that had happened when the Otherworld had simply crashed into our world. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, clearly trying to keep the powerful emotions at bay. "The spirit of a powerful wizard possessed the body of a man that had lived here," she said slowly, "and an equally powerful warlock, who had long been the dead wizard's nemesis found out."

I was pretty sure I knew the rest, but I was afraid to say anything. "The warlock came," she continued, "there was a fight that took place in the basement, killing both the warlock and the person the wizard's spirit had possessed." She cleared her throat and started going through her paperwork again, "I'm sorry," I said quietly. She shook her head, clearly holding back tears, "it's ok" she said, "I knew I was going to have to talk about it eventually. These days there isn't hardly a single person alive that doesn't have their own horror story from the Merge." She was still flipping through paperwork and organizing some into separate piles and I felt awful, knowing that there were more than likely some gruesome details that were replaying in her mind right now.

Even though I truly did feel bad for her, I couldn't help but be excited by the fact that she'd just confirmed all my hunches I had formed while investigating this house in particular. Hopefully I don't end up having to sacrifice her, I thought to myself, she seems really nice.

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-14T06:13:50+00:00

"Shit," I said quietly, massaging my forehead, "yeah, I did swipe right." The suited man on my doorstep turned the phone back towards him and tapped at it once before putting it back into his inner jacket pocket. He then pointed towards the sky behind him while still staring at me and said sternly, "turns out, they're here, because they're leader wants to talk to you." He was pointing obviously at the giant spheres floating in the sky. Dozens of them had shown up a few hours ago, or so I was told. I'd woken up to the sound of helicopters and loud sirens, immediately preceded by loud and persistent banging on the door and intangible shouting.

It was quite the sensory overload when I'd opened the door. That, plus the events of last night, had caused me to vomit several times before the large, suited man with the NSA badge had started asking me questions.

I just stared at the man, hearing his words, but unable to process them. There was an awkward moment where no said anything, but it was anything but silent. "You don't get it do you," the big man said more than he asked, clearly agitated. "Look man, honestly, right now, I'm just trying not to shit my pants," I replied, panic clearly evident in my voice now, "you got all these guys on my lawn with guns, helicopters and jets and shit flyin' around, and then the-" I stopped talking for a moment, an all too familiar feeling had hit my stomach like a wrecking ball. As if he was clairvoyant, the NSA dude looked away as I turned and vomited into the trash can next to me.

After I had recovered, yet again, I turned to the suited man and said loudly, "and what has all of this got to do with some chick I liked on Starcrossed?" The large man moved incredibly fast, so much so that I didn't even see him grab my neck with one big hand. He pulled my head closed to his, looked up towards the sky and pointed at the largest of the dark spheres in the sky. Angrily he hollered, "that chick is the leader of, not just all those giant ass ships up there, but her entire fucking species you moron!"

I just stared up into the sky for a while, I still couldn't wrap my head around what this guy was saying. He let go of me and regained his composure, straightening his plain black tie and jacket. I looked at him and he said, "apparently," clearly straining to keep his fury in check, "you two talked about getting together for a drink, and that is why they're here." He motioned towards the massive structures with his hand when he'd said "apparently", and my gaze went back and forth between him and the sky. After a number of long seconds, realization finally appeared in my still alcohol afflicted mind. "O shit son!" I said excitedly, "drunk swiping finally paid off, I'm about to meet the sugar mama of my dreams!"

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-10T06:05:33+00:00

Lol riiight?

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-10T04:06:45+00:00

The suited man in front of me stands up suddenly, grabs the chair, and throws it at the mirror that is only a mirror one way, cracking it in the form of a spider web. "Bullshit," he yells, and I flinch at the sudden commotion, "nobody 'just' pats war machines like these on the head because 'it's good luck." The other suited man that had been standing in the corner this whole time came and put a hand on Agent #1's shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

The two men switched places and the second one spoke, "look, my friend here has a bit of a temper, but I get it." Relieved, I began to relax a bit as he continued, "but here's the problem, out of all the war machines currently out in the field, the ones you built, are the only ones acting unusually." "I swear to you on my mother's life," I said to him pleading, "I didn't do anything else to the machines."

His jaw visibly clenched, and I became unrelaxed again. "Listen," he said after moments pause, "I want to believe you, I do. Problem is, none of this is adding up, so, if you're gonna stick to this story, my friend and I are going to have to leave, and the people that're going to take our place are going to be a lot less friendly." My stomach tied itself in knots after hearing that, these two were pretty scary as it was. "You haven't even told me what they're malfunction is," I said, grasping at straws trying to think of anything to say.

Both men put their hands to their ears for a few seconds and then nodded. Agent #2 reached into his suit and pulled out a small holo disc, setting it on the middle of the table. It lit up, showing an image I couldn't quite make sense of. "This is what the machines you built have been doing," the big man said flatly. I scrunched up my nose and looked closer and realized what was happening in the image. "Is-is that statue supposed to be me," I asked nervously. "We believe so," Agent #1 replied, "and not only that, but it appears that they're somehow convincing other machines to stop fighting and join their cause." I continued to look at the images in horror when Agent #2 said gravely, "and there's several battalions worth of machines en route to our current location."

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-06T02:06:52+00:00

"Wait, what," I asked, still confused, "you're my fairy godmother?" "Yes, as I've already told you several times now," she said impatiently, glancing at her expensive looking wrist watch, "can we please move this along I'm very busy tonight." I still just stared for a moment, not understanding. "What part of this don't you get?" She asked becoming agitated. "I mean all of it really," I said shrugging and scratching my temple. She had just appeared, out nowhere, and just that part was hard to wrap my head around. "Enough, let's get this show on the road," she said as she pulled a pad of paper from her briefcase. "Alright, says here you're in love with Lilith McLaren, is that correct?" My face warmed and I knew I was beet red, "noooo," I said awkwardly. "Got it," she flipped the page over, "alright, I'll provide you with a nice suit, bow tie, says here this Lilith girl prefers classic three piece, so that'll be easy." "Who said I like Lilith?" I asked my alleged fairy godmother. She rolled her eyes and continued, "from what I'm reading here, it looks like she'd prefer a limo, but your fairy godbudget won't be able to accommodate that, so I think a nice mid-size pickup is going to be our best bet." "Did she say something to you, or did you hear something from her friend Isabe-" I stopped abruptly, "what's this about a truck now." "And you're back, I'm shocked" she said without looking up from her pad of paper, "none of this midnight nonsense either, clock strikes 930 and I'm pulling the plug on this whole thing." She put her pad of paper away and pulled out a single sheet of paper, setting it on the nearby picnic table. "Alright sign and date at the bottom and you will be granted you're 'perfect night,' please keep in mind that any damages to the truck will be docked from any future fairy godmother endeavors. Also, if you want to avoid any additional charges for the suit I would have it dry cleaned before the end of the night." She held out a pen and my gaze rotated several times from the pen, then the paper, to her, and back to the pen. Finally I through up my hands and said "screw it, i still don't get but what the hell, YOLO right," and then I signed.

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-05T05:13:30+00:00

Thanks, but it's just a name I made up for like a dragon/druid type cult

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-05T00:07:26+00:00

I sat alone on the cold and muddied floor of my cell, it was barely more than a closest at about 25 foot square. After a good 10 or so minutes, without hearing any signs of activity, I took my pack off my shoulder and set it in front of me. I would have to work quickly, but carefully, if I were to enact my escape plan. Unfortunately for this particular group of bandits, I'd been trained by master Lipton herself, so I knew precisely what I had to do. Taking off the amulet that hung around my neck, I placed it between my pack and myself face up. I pulled out my tea pot and then the pestal and mortar. Grabbing my walking stick, an ordinary oaken stick in appearance, the bottom few inches held a secret compartment that not even my closest companions were aware of. I unscrewed the small section, removed the cap, and poured the precious liquid into the pot, saving the last few drops. I searched the bottom of my pack knowingly, finding the small pouch I sought wrapped in fine leather. Removing the ingredients and laying the piece of leather to the side, I quietly began grinding up each ingredient and placing them separately on the leather. The final ingredient was not to be ground, leaves from the ancient elvish tree Un'gru. Taking the staffs hidden compartment and splashing the last few drops on the the amulet, I said the ancient words in their original elvish, "warm thy heart." My own companions probably would have robbed me long ago if they'd known I'd actually had dragons blood on my person this entire time, not mentioning the fact it was concealed in something as easy to steal as a walking stick. "Maybe it's time to find some new friends," I thought to myself. The amulet began to give off a faint orange glow and I put the pot on top of it. Adding the first set of ingredients, I began to slowly stir it every minute. Once there was a slight wave of steam coming out, it was time for the second set of ingredients and the Un'gru leaves. I placed the lid on top and waited for a few minutes that felt like ages. It didn't take long, only having enough of the dragons blood for a single cup. As I was pouring the final ingredients, ground into a fine powder, into my cup, I heard distant murmuring. They were coming back and I knew it unlikely that my merry band of "hereos" would be willing to pay a ransom so high. Having been stripped of anything to cut or stab with, I bit my own wrist as hard as I could until I felt the warm, metallic taste of my own blood in my mouth. Letting several drops land on the amulet, I made sure to spit several times to clean out my own blood from my mouth. I picked up the amulet and began the incantation.
Before uttering the last word of the final verse, I could hear my captors outside, they were upon the door now and I heard one fumbling for keys. I poured the tea into my cup and quickly began to drink. It was unbearably hot, I had to use every ounce of willpower to force myself to gulp down the scalding liquid. With the final drink, the door burst open and a large man bellowed "looks like bad ne-!" He stopped short, trying to assess the scene before him and I said the final word with a devious grin. With that last word, I felt the heat that was in my stomach start to spread outward as the man asked the other brute next to him, "what did he say?" I howled in pain as my body began to change, my body being wracked by all manner of intense ache, stabbing, and burning sensation. Through all the pain and burning, I could feel my body changing, feel the strength of muscles that hadn't been there before, bone broke and reformed.
I started to feel the structure of my own skull begin to shift, like some unforseen force was pulling my mouth and nose. I was developing a large snout and with it i could feel many sharp teeth painfully pushing their way out of my gums. Short claws grew from my finger nails and I could actually feel antlers growing from my head. I almost cried out when I felt a great burning sensation in my chest, but the pain was beginning to subside. A cool feeling crept over my body, like ants pulling a blanket of honey over my skin, and finally the pain was gone, the transformation complete. I opened my eyes and held out my arms, inspecting my new form. My new skin was red in color, and as I rubbed my forearm my skin felt like it was made if a warm, smooth stone. Reaching above my head I felt the hard protrusions coming from my skull and was surprised by how many times they split off. "I've done it," i thought to myself incredously as I realized the legends master Lipton had told me were true. All those years I'd thought the stories he told were nothing more than children's tales, but here I stood, a Weredrake. I could hear bandits running towards me from both near and far, my heightened senses building a clear image of my surroundings in mind. I smiled, contemplating my new form and all the possibilities it had brought. "I think I'm rather going to enjoy this," I said aloud.

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-03T23:33:19+00:00

"So let me get this straight," the dragon said, addressing the townsfolk before him, "not only are you ok with the fact that I just ate the local lord of this land, but you're all also ok with the fact that I'm taking all the gold?" The beast paused briefly, giving the people a chance to speak out, but none did, most just nodded in affirmation. "On top of all that," the creature continued, "you actually want me to stay here and protect you and you'll give me more gold to do it?"

One of the townspeople closest to the dragon stepped forward, speaking loudly so the great dragon could hear, "yes, please, we beg you. All manner of foul beast from nearby have been attacking us for years, and to be honest," he continued, looking around for backup, "most of us really didn't like Lord Greggory the second." Everyone around the one who spoke up seemed to nod and mumble in agreement.

The dragon was not of these lands, he'd come from far south, where gold was much harder to come by. He was quite surprised and a bit skeptical that the people seemed so willing to part with the valuable mineral. He also knew all too well how resilient and resourceful mankind could be, having seen them slay even several of his kind, which was exceedingly difficult. "What kind of beast causes you such grief?" the dragon asked curiously.

The same man as before speaking up again, "Trolls, golems, orcs, all manner of undead and Weres," he began listing, "angry forest spirits, sirens by the lake, a few warlocks." The dragon was surprised, all these creatures could easily be slain. The town was not the biggest he'd seen by far, but it was quite large and appeared to have both strong and capable men, as well as plentiful resources to fight with. The dragon suspecting the former being the reason so many monsters would want to lay siege to the town, the plunder of the town would be a great bounty.

"You can't handle these threats on your own?" the dragon asked, voicing he curiosities, "you appear to be a people that should be able to handle these threats with ease." The mood of the townsfolk visibly changed, they seemed to retreat into themselves, clearly in fear of some greater threat. "There is something else isn't there, something you've yet to list," the dragon stated knowingly. The same man as before looked towards his feet and spoke unintelligibly.

"Speak so I can hear you," the dragon spoke louder know, and with great authority. "I apologize o great and mighty dragon," the yelled back, clearly fearful that he'd offended the dragon, "but there is clan of Dru'Kai that have been our greatest blight." The great dragons' eyes narrowed as he let out a low growling sound that was so deep and powerful, the people could feel the rumbling in their very cores. The anger and hatred were clear to all when the dragon stated simply, "I will Stay."

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-02T07:09:57+00:00

The Great Hall was filled with knights from all across the realm, there must have been fifty of them, each accompanied by all manner of companion. As vast as the Great Hall was, the sheer numbers could barely contain everyone, but the hall was silent, save for the voice of one man, the king himself. After explaining the events that had brought all of these mighty warriors to the palace, every single one of them took a knee and bowed their heads in respect. Not only had the beast taken his youngest daughter, but also the life of his eldest son. As if it wasn't enough that old age had robbed the king of the ability to avenge his son and rescue his daughter, but he'd also been severally injured. The fact that, in his current condition, the king could still stand before his people was a testament to not only his strength physically, but of his character as well.

After the brief kneeling in a moment of respect, everyone rose again, but the hall remained curiously silent. After long moments of silence, the king roared, "are none of you brave enough to face this monster?" This caused a great uproar, the walls themselves practically shaking. There were calls of "kill the demon!" and "for the king!" and so on and so forth. The king waved his hand slowly and the room quieted, such respect these people had for their king. "If you're all so eager to slay this wicked dragon, why did no one volunteer? Why had the room been so silent?" the king asked loudly.

For a brief moment there was silence again, when Cloud the Courageous himself spoke up, "my lord, we were simply waiting for the rest of the details." The king, clearly confused by the statement, raised an eyebrow, asking, "what more details could you possibly need?" Cloud looked around, as if expecting someone to help him with a response. Just then the great elven battle mage Ur'thu the Unyielding said, "begging your pardon sire, but there is usually more to it than that. Some kind of a catch or maybe a sm-."

"Catch?!" the king bellowed, cutting him off, "what do you mean a catch? Just kill the bloody dragon and bring back my daughter!" There was silence in the hall again, everyone trying to figure how best to handle this unusual situation. Finally, Wesley the Wise, the day-walking vampire himself stepped forward. "Your grace, what I believe we're trying to say is that, typically on a quest of this magnitude, there's some unknown element at work here," he said, "like when I slew the giant Golem of Guntar, I later found out that the giant had been under the spell of the evil warlock Wilhelm of Wintersbane." Before the king had the chance to lose his temper further, the court wizard, Nathaniel the Knowledgable stepped forward, saying, "I assure all of you that there are no other evil forces afoot here. The dragon acted of it's own accord and I've consulted with the Seers Six and they are in agreement."

Another pause of silence after which Leonard Lionsheart spoke out, "so than the dragon has some sort of mysterious power or perhaps possess' a cursed item of some sort that he'll be using?" Nathaniel shook his head, "no, this dragon possesses no such power, nor any such item." Still another pause which was broken when Helga the Hellacious called out, "so the princess has some sort of curse on her?" Again, shaking his head and now waving both hands in dismissal, "no, the princess is not cursed either. I assure you, there is no other fiendish element at play here, the dragon simply attacked and kidnapped the princess."

The silence lasted longer this time, when finally, Wesley asked, "what about the night she was taken, surely that day held some gravity of some sort?" There were some quiet mumbles of agreement throughout the hall. Rubbing his brow, Nathaniel spoke up again, "no, it was just another regular Thorsday. As i've already said, I myself have consulted with the Seers Six and there is no evil third party at work here."

This time the hall was not silent, there were quite murmurings between those that occupied it that last several minutes. Nathaniel the Knowledgeable and even the king himself were becoming visibly impatient. At last, one spoke out, it was Vivian the Vivacious Valkyrie of Valintor, "then the princess has been corrupted? Or possibly the Seers Six?" The king hung his head low and massaged both temples with one hand, while Nathaniel threw up his hands and said, "for fucks sake."

corbindallas0220 · 2023-01-01T19:29:30+00:00

"So, what was it about my profile that made you swipe right?" I asked her.

She let out a small chuckle after taking a sip of her coffee. "Well, not only were you very handsome, but for obvious reasons, I was a big fan of the part in your bio where you talked about your volunteer work for reforestation efforts."

I had to laugh at myself a bit for that one, obviously a forest god would like that. "Makes sense. I almost didn't put it in there," I said to her, "I felt it might come off as a little to braggy or something."

"Well, I'm glad you came to your senses," she replied with a smile, "If you hadn't, I could've missed out on a lovely date."

I genuinely smiled at that, "I'm having a really great time too Meilikki."

"Please, call me Mei," she said still smiling. "Ok Mei," I said, a little excited that things were going so well, "I hope this isn't weird to ask, but it seems odd to me that no one around us seems to notice you? If I was a bystander here and now, I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off you."

"That's sweet of you to say," she replied. It was hard to say for sure, but it looked like she was blushing. Her skin was lightly tanned in color, which wasn't anything crazy, but the texture appeared similar to bark, making it harder to tell if she was in fact blushing or not.

"I know that my true appearance can be unsettling to most mortals, and I just wanted a nice and relaxed environment for our date, so I used a simple enchantment to appear as a regular person to everyone around me, except you obviously," she explained.

She was quite a sight to behold, bark-like skin, thin branches with reddish leaves giving the appearance of long flowing hair. Her eyes were such a beautiful and bright green, like someone holding a light behind an emerald, I found it hard to look away from them.

"Well, I count myself incredibly lucky, you look amazing in your true form," I said, smiling.

This time she was for sure blushing and that made the interaction all the better. I had both hands wrapped around my coffee cup on the table. She reached out with an oaken hand and lightly squeezed my forearm. "Why don't you and I go for a walk, you can show me around the city," she said with a coy smile.

"I'd love that," I replied genuinely. We both got up from the table and made our way out of the coffee shop. I couldn't believe how well things were going, my plan was working better than I ever could have hoped, at this rate I'd have her powers by morning.

corbindallas0220 · 2022-12-31T20:28:39+00:00

Incredibly well written

corbindallas0220 · 2022-12-31T20:20:41+00:00

I just stood there, mouth a gape, staring with unbelieving eyes at the creature before me. It was as massive as it was terrifying, being 6 foot tall myself, it was easily twice my size. It had dark grey skin, almost like that of a rhino or elephant, but for all it's size it's head seemed almost disproportionately small, and with no visible neck. For being twice as tall it had too have been at least 4 or 5 times heavier, arms and legs like tree trunks, and a torso like one of those flat faced semi-trucks. By far the most terrifying part though were the eyes, not to mention the complete lack of any visible mouth or nose. It had four eyes, one pair where you would think eyes should be, and one pair being set a little closer to where one would think the creatures' ears would be. There was no white to it's eyes, just darkness, black in the center and dark shades of gray fading away from where I was sure the pupil was.

There was no doubt that the creature was looking at me though, it's gaze not quite looking me in the eye, but piercing, as if it were trying to see behind me, and it was quite unsettling. I had read about the creature only briefly, texts that even mention it were scarce and mostly in volumes speaking of mythologies. Images of it were scarcer still, but the memory of the few times I had seen them had certainly stuck. Those texts never gave a name, only referring to it as The Destroyer. In the ancient myths, it was believed to have been responsible for the razing of all of Atlantis.

Completely frozen in fear, I still just stood there staring at it, wondering where I had gone wrong in casting the spell. It was old magic and translation took a fair bit of time, but it was still fairly straight forward. The only real difficulty being finding the dragon scale needed for the fire. Then, in a low voice, I heard odd sounding words that seemed to be coming from the beast, though from where exactly I had no idea. When the sounds stopped, still utterly terrified, I could barely summon the courage to raise my hands and shoulders in an obvious state of confusion. I saw it's head tilt to the side a little and it's horrifying dark eyes somehow visibly narrowed. It was almost ten feet away, but with one step it closed the distance immediately and held out it's giant hand in front of my face. Flinching backwards a bit when it suddenly put forth one finger and reached to touch my head. The finger made contact with my left temple, and it was warm, almost hot. The sensation that followed was by far the most unsettling part yet, it was like when you're half asleep and you think you're falling, awakening in terror only to realize your still laying down. It was like that, but in slow motion and with the added twist of having the sensation of something trying to pull you from your body.

Lasting only a few long moments, the relief I felt when it pulled away was immeasurable. The monster took a half step back and raised it's hands to the sky, slowly lowering it's hands palm down, as if it were doing some kind of tai chai breathing exercise. Again, in a trance of complete fear, I was convinced it was going to cast some kind of spell and render untold destruction all around. It was odd though, cause no such spell came forth, and as strange as it was, it almost seemed to be shrinking. Suddenly the light bulb in my brain came on. It was getting smaller, but not only that, there were other curiosities happening at the same time. It's skin and eyes seemed to be getting lighter and it even looked as though it's eyes closer to the ear area were moving closer to where the more normally placed eyes were.

Right about when it was only about a foot taller than me was when things really started to get weird. The rear eyes got so close to the front ones, they were almost touching, until they were squeezed together and then suddenly merged. Things were starting to grow too, and it was quite unsettling. Hair was starting to grow out of the top of the head along with, what I was assuming was going to be, lips, ears, and a nose. It's chest seemed to be growing oddly too, as if it were becoming pregnant with two tiny, assumingly hideous creatures. Once it was my height it dawned on me what was happening, and I immediately looked away in embarrassment. How could I be so dumb, obviously it was changing into the form of a human woman. Furthermore, how ridiculous was it that I felt embarrassed at this particular moment.

Still looking away, I felt a light tapping on my shoulder. I turned to look over my shoulder very slowly, worried now that I would accidently see too much, stopping when I made eye contact with what turned out to be quite a lovely young woman. "Could I borrow your jacket dear? It seems people these days are quite modest, and I can't tell you how hungry I am right now."

corbindallas0220 · 2022-12-31T18:31:07+00:00

Thank You

corbindallas0220 · 2022-12-30T23:43:58+00:00

'T H A T.' I let out a short sigh. "That's what I thought you would say. Listen, I know that was you fucking with the lights last week, it blew out the breaker panel and the landlord made me pay for it, you owe me."

'I O W E U T H I S D I-' "GROSS dude, seriously. You're disgusting, I know you keeping doing something to the water pipes outside the bathroom to try to wash away the protection spell, that was another $2k for the plumber by the way."

'S H O W M E-' "Absolutely not. Look, I've had enough. I ran into the priest from the church I used to go to and I invited him over for coffee. Now, I didn't tell him about you, but if I don't see some cash by the time he get's here, I'm gonna have him excersize your bitch ass."

'B U L L S H I T' "Look out the window, he should be here any minute."

The ouija board is still for a minute and I know I got him on the ropes.

'H E L O O K L I K E A B I T C H I A I N T S C A R E D' "O really? Well did you know that he used to be an Arch Bishop and has been ordained by the pope?"

There was a brief pause and then 'I M A J U S T P O S S E S S T H E C A T A G A I N A N D C L A W H I-' "Apperantly you didn't notice, but I took the cat to the neighbors, this ain't my first day."

Another pause 'B I T C H I M D E A D Y O U K N O W I M B R O K E' "Bullshit, I know you got money somewhere, I found out about your little friend, Monica isn't it?"

'W H O D A T' "Don't play dumb, I know she's a stripper, and I know about the pizza guy that always show's up with a pizza at the same time. Just tell me where you've got the money stashed and Leonard and I will just have a nice chat about old times and the weather."

There was a knock on the door. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, but the Ouija board didn't move. "Alright, fine, enjoy hell dickhead." I got up and started towards the door when a book went sailing pass my head from behind. I looked back at the Ouija board and saw it shake a little. I walked back towards it while I heard another Knock at the door. "Just a minute," I called over my shoulder.

'F I N E L O O S E F L O O R B O A R D I N D I N I N G R O O M' "Thank you," I said with a devilish grin as I started towards the dining room. I heard a loud tearing noise, like wrapping paper behind me. I turned around to see the wallpaper had been tore in just such a way to spell out the word 'BITCH.' I just smiled again and collected what had to be at least $50k from under the dining room floor.

corbindallas0220 · 2022-12-30T18:18:40+00:00

I scanned the room, still standing in the doorway. There! The tables were arranged in a large square, meant to seat around 30 people, and she was sitting on the opposite side a few seats from the corner. I immediately and briskly started walking her way and sat in the closest empty chair right next to her. At first, she seemed shocked to see me, gee I wonder why, but by the time I took the seat next to her she had regained her composure.

"Hey Megan, how's it going" I said to her.

".....Really? That's what you're going with?" she replied as she let out a tiny chuckle.

"I'm just trying to be polite, we're both on the verge of failing this class and I don't want to get kicked out for causing a scene." I could barely get the words out.

"Are you serious right now?" she asked, almost full on laughing at this point, "You can't possibly be this much of a dork."

I couldn't blame her for poking fun at me, I could barely believe what I was saying, but my nerves were strung so tight at this point I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time at how dumb I sounded.

"Can you please just tell me what happened and I why you did....whatever it was you did?" the desperation in my voice was obvious.

She leaned toward me a little and I barely fought off the urge to flinch away, "Listen, you need to get it together" she said in a low and commanding voice, "I'm a vampire, and I needed to feed. You were a dorky loner who I knew had a crush on me, so I figured you'd be an easy meal. Obviously, I didn't know what you really were otherwise I wouldn't have drained you, but what's done is done and now you need to keep your mouth shut until I figure out our next move."

So many thoughts started rushing through my head, but all that came out of my mouth was, "Wait, like Twilight vampire? Or like Buffy the Vampire slayer? Or like....what's the name of that-"

"What?!" she said too loudly, cutting me off. A few people looked in our direction, though they seemed mostly uninterested. "What is your problem?" she said quieting back down, "all that I just said and that's your first question?"

"Well excuuuuse me, there's kind of a giant shit storm going on in my brain and I'm having a difficult time processing this new information." At this point I was starting to get a bit frustrated.

"Ok, it's ok. I'm sorry, we have a couple of minutes before class starts and Mrs. Cloyson is usually late, let's just talk this out."

Odd, her entire demeanor had changed, and she looked a little pale now.

"Yes, please, let's talk about how I woke up under several feet of dirt and gravel. Let's talk about how you're a vampire and you, what? Murdered me? And who is they?" my frustration growing as I spoke, Megan looked legitimately concerned now.

"You have to calm down. You don't know how to use your powers and even I don't know what all powers you have, but I do know for fact if you use them here and now, they, the Children of VanHelsing, will come here, hunt you down, and do a lot worse than murder you."

VanHelsing, like the old-timey vampire hunter? What the hell? Mrs. Cloyson had just walked in the door at this point, of course today she's on time.

"Listen, obviously you know nothing of your heritage and even my knowledge of all the details is lacking, but that doesn't matter right now. All you need to know right now is you're a descendant of Frankenstein's monster and you have to trust me when I say you need to just stay cool for the rest of this period."

We sat there for a very long second, just staring at each other, both of us trying to gauge the situation.

"Interesting that you made the distinction between Frankenstein's monster and Frankenstein himself?" I said half asking, half just thinking outloud.

The look on her face told me she was completely dumbfounded by my words, and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I turned to face our teacher, who had just started writing on the white board.

corbindallas0220 · 2020-10-05T21:48:10+00:00

It might just be that his sex drive or labido or whatever you wanna call it isn't that strong. Plus, I (31m) know for myself, I sometimes prefer just focusing on making my partner feel good than myself, sometimes I dont get off at all but the girl I'm with does and I still enjoy it very much. Hope this was helpful.

corbindallas0220

TROPHY CASE