WEBVTT
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On vacation with your family, having some fun in the
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sun on the ocean, you realize things are not quite
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as sunny as they first seen. And now as all
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chaos breaks loose, you begin to wonder will you survive
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the dead? On board, what's that you want to be
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scared to? Come with me. You will experience tales over
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our bera, ghosts and death. It is not recommended for
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a week at heart Heart listen as in the dark,
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it's more fun at that way. This is Weekly Spooking. Hello,
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my Spookyes, it's Wednesday, and you know what that means.
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It's time for a little spooky in your weekly I'm
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your host and narrator Enrique Kuto, and tonight's terror Tale
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takes us on a lovely vacation as summer wraps up
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and we head into fall and of course spooky season
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the best time of year. So if you're new to
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the program, make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting
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app because this October things are going to be wild
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here at Weekly Spooky, as we do thirty one shows
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in thirty one days, and if even that isn't enough
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spooky for you, head over to Weeklyspooky dot com. Where
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not only can you look at over two hundred and
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seventy five previous episodes of the program, but also check
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out our patren For as little as one dollar a month,
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you get two bonus shows every single month to enjoy.
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And right now we're in the midst of a very
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terrifying Strickfield story called the April Fool. You're not gonna
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want to miss it, so make sure you check it
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out at Weeklyspooky dot com and click on Patreon. It
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really helps us keep bringing the spooky every single week
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and beyond. And as you know, we're getting ready to
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head into our sixth year of Weekly Spooky, So there's
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never been a better time to sign up, join over
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one hundred other spookies and keep it all going and
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go and go. And if you want to hang out
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with other spookies and get into that Halloween spirit a
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little early, head over to Facebook and type in Weekly
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Spookies Tomb of Terror. It doesn't cost you a penny,
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and it's a place where myself, all of the other
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spookies and our authors hang out and have a little
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bit of fun. But speaking of fun, it's about time
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to go on a little vacation. But Unfortunately, sunburn will
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be the least of your worries. We'll get to that
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right after these quick messages. The Last Vacation by Mike
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Ashkewey February first, twoenty twenty four. I wanted a car
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for my eighteenth birthday. Instead, I got a really expensive
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journal and pen. My mom said she wanted me to
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remember the best days of my life and told me
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to write them down so I wouldn't lose them on
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the web or to a server outage. So this is
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my attempt at doing just that. Maybe she'll be right,
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maybe she won't, but it'll kill some time on our
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family vacation I didn't ask for. Most kids would be
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thrilled for fun in the sun, but I burn easily.
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I don't wear revealing outfits outside of a hoodie, and
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I don't like people much. My stepmom, Jill told me
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that she met my dad Peter on an ancient website
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called live journal, back when dinosaurs roamed the internet. Both
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really value the written word, but didn't always agree with
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the format or forum. So for the next twelve days,
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I'm stuck here with my stupid step brother Roger, and
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my parents in a tropical paradise, trapped on a boat
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filled with escapees from the Old Folks Home and boomers
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looking for new places to have sex. Gross. Look, I'm
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not stupid. I know I should be thrilled for this
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family vacation, but I can read between the lines. Jill
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and Peter are going to get a divorce. Honestly, I'd
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be surprised if they made it to the summer. Roger
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and I both heard the fighting over Christmas time, holly
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jolly yelling, screaming and sobbing, followed by lots of nights
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watching Dad sleep on the couch and crying himself to sleep.
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I hadn't heard him cry like that since my mom died,
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my real mom. What happened between them? I don't know,
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and I don't really care. This is some desperate attempt
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to show that we're still fine, that we can still
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be a family. But I know when the clock is
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about to run out. It's not like Jill sucks either
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or my dad is perfect. Sometimes things just don't work out.
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Sometimes I'm handling it fine, I can deal, But Roger
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is taking it hard. Sure he's sixteen, in pretty tough
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in a lot of ways, but he's hurting He'll be okay, though,
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even if me and Dad leave, He'll get a football
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scholarship and be into girls, beer bongs and concussions. He'll
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be okay. I'm off to college in the fall, and
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then I can finally leave Cincinnati in the rear view
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and start my life any place that isn't Ohio. Ronda
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Canavan has bigger ambitions than managing a Starbucks until I'm
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dead or working at Walmart till I'm wearing depens. Maybe
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these are the best days of my life. Right. Sometimes
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I even believe that I'm so tired from driving down
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I seventy five to Fort Lauderdale, listening to shitty political
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radio and Taylor Swift SAPs my will to live. My
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parents told me radio wasn't only shit, but I have
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a hard time believing that. Time to settle into the
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hotel room for the night. Tomorrow we board the cruise
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ship and start our whirlwind tour of places I never
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had any intention of visiting anyway. Of course, the fucking
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Wi Fi doesn't even work in this place. February second,
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twenty twenty four, spent most of the day boarding this
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giant cruise ship, the vanguard of the seas. It's like
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being on an aircraft carrier. The ship is absolutely huge
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and just full of people and stuff to do. There
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are tons of options for food, entertainment, pools, and even
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casinos and amusement park. Shit saw so many types of
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different people, not just people collecting Social Security either, and
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quite a few kids close to Rogers in my age,
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a collection of America and likely the world, just all
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intermixing and expecting to have a good time and spend
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a buttload of cash while doing it. I don't want
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to imagine how much my parents paid for this trip,
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but I hope it didn't come out of my college fund.
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Makes me glad. I've saved up a bunch of money
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from working at Starbucks and doing other kids homework at school.
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Girls got a pay her bills, and I have expensive hobbies,
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nerdy hobbies. Okay, one expensive hobby, but it's how I
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met my friends Trey Owen and Jenna. We all played
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Dungeons and Dragons together Wednesday nights after work. I float
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the bill for the books, maps and the little game Chochkeys.
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Roger always comes in and starts quoting Game of Thrones
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at us, though we all had a laugh when I
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kicked him in the balls last year and called myself Kalisa,
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breaker of balls. It's okay. He got back at me
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when he snapped my bra so hard it bent a
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clasp and left a nasty welt on my back for
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a week. After we all had family dinner, I started
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wandering around the upper deck of the ship. Jill and
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Dad went off to do some couples stuff, I think,
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and Roger is off doing Roger things, my guess, is
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likely trying cheesy pickup lines on girls, trying and failing badly.
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It's pretty out here, and sure as hell beats the
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urban decay of America's least memorable city. I don't hate it,
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but it's so painfully boring and dull. I just don't
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want to end up like my parents, working jobs they hate,
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in a city they hate, and in a marriage that
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is falling apart. I planted myself in a deck chair
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and just watched the stars tonight. Typically you get light
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pollution from the city and you don't see a lot
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except the moon. If I had a boyfriend, or hell
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even a girlfriend, this would be romantic. But nope, just me,
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my oversized hoodie, a little book, and my pen. It's
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weird though. Tonight the sky is all sorts of odd colors,
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and I don't think it's the aurora or anything like that.
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I know the news before we left had mentioned something
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about some space stuff happening this week. I wasn't really listening,
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but it does look cool at least, swirling greens and purples,
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all sorts of different colors. But they feel wrong somehow.
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Some of the stuff that relies on cell signals and
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Wi Fi is being affected too. Can't maintain a stable connection,
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and so I can maybe see my social media for
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all of like five seconds. I suppose it's better that way.
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I'm supposed to be out here enjoying the ocean, the surf,
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and the skies. Whatever the nautical version of touching grass is,
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I don't need to be connected twenty four seven. And
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maybe I'll enjoy myself a little bit more if I
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forget there is a world beyond the ocean. Tomorrow will
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be good. Maybe tomorrow I'll go do some family stuff
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and try to actually have a good time. I mean,
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how often does one get whisked off to a tropical
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paradise free of charge? Twenty twenty four I actually had
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a pretty great day today. We all went down to
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the pool and managed some laughter and it didn't seem
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awkward or forced. I haven't seen my dad smile like
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that in a long time, probably when Jill surprised him
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on his birthday last year. She got him a sweet
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new laptop and drawing tablet for him to do his
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artwork on. Dad is an artist, or at least he
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thinks he is. He loves to draw and doodle, even
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occasionally manages to sell some art to local companies. Nothing profitable,
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but he loves it. Jill is the one who brings
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in the real money. She's an electrical engineer at the university.
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Roger and I went off and started poking around the ship. Basically,
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he wanted to see how big this floating palace actually is.
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We discovered all sorts of neat stuff, even found out
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they actually have a security force to deal with pirates.
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We saw a couple of the guys dealing with a
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few unruly guests in a corridor. It looked like a
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hell of a fight too. We didn't hear any shooting,
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but Jesus there was blood, gore and discarded drinks everywhere.
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Couldn't tell what happened, but it looked like a few
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old guys got into it with a bunch of dude bros.
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I think one of the old guys bit one of
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the dudes and tore a chunk out of them. It's nasty,
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but if I'd gotten that on video, I could have
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posted it on YouTube or TikTok for Internet cloud. The
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Renna cops told us to fuck off, so we did
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and headed back above deck and back into the sun again.
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We spent the rest of the day at the pool
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and in the restaurant. People were talking about the incident
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at dinner, and everyone was gossiping about it. I suppose
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in a weird way, this is like a self contained
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high school, and juicy gossip gets dished out along with
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the soup of the day. After everyone had dinner and
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went their separate ways for the night. I did the same.
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Roger found himself an arcade, and I think that's where
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he'll spend most of this trip. I don't know where
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my parents ended up, but if I had to guess,
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they weren't going to waste a good day and a
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room with no kids. I'd found a nice place at
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the back of the ship where it was kind of quiet,
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private and had a good vantage point of the ocean
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and the horizon. The sky was that same weird color
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again tonight. I also heard a lot of noise coming
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from far off too. It sounded like jets or something.
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I didn't think we were near any air bases or
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anything like that. Probably outspending the hard earned tax dollars
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to pad their budgets looking up at the wrong looking colors.
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I saw a lot of airplanes tonight. I'm even seeing
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what I think are lights from other boats nearby. It
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seems like the seas are crowded tonight, and privacy is
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going to be hard to come by. Of course, the
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Internet is complet lely down tonight too. The web page
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gives me some sort of an error, and I can't
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even get a signal for more than a few seconds.
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I thought I saw something on social media about something
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happening back on land, but before I could read past
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the headline, the page crashed. Something about a crisis. When
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isn't there one of those? Right Tomorrow, I'll try sun
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tanning for the first time in my entire life. No
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crisis here except maybe sunburn. February fourth, twenty twenty four
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this morning, I awoke to Dad shaking me awake and
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telling me to get dressed. The crew had asked the
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passengers to stand by for an important announcement and that
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information would be coming in from the mainland. We were
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told to stay calm and reassured that everything was okay. Clearly,
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something is fucked up when you hear that. We heard
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a knock at the cabin door and a tray of
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food was left for us. As we saw the crew
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moving from door to door and calmly leaving food and
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not saying a word to anyone who wasn't in a uniform,
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then it hit me the crew weren't just service people.
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They were all armed somehow. Some of the crew were
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those security guys we saw earlier, and some were others
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who seemingly conscripted into whatever the fuck this was. The captain,
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who identified themselves as Captain Paul Kennedy said there was
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an emergency situation developing on the mainland and we would
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be remaining at sea until ordered otherwise. The military had
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become involved and the Navy was ordering all vessels at
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sea to remain there until the situation had changed. Something
238
00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:04.759
was wrong. Then I heard it a gunshot. We all
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looked at each other and didn't know what to make