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About half of the student body was blinded by the sudden and intense flash of light that blanketed the room.
The other half seemed to have reacted in time to shield themselves from that unexpected assault on the senses.
I was part of that latter half.
And what I saw during those precious few seconds of visual overstimulation was nothing short of remarkable.
The walls that had resembled Mal’tory’s dark and dreary office quaked and quivered in place, as if the whole room was a living organism, and we were somehow nestled within its guts.
Each of the ornate wooden panels began dislodging from one another, their formerly flush surfaces cracking, revealing seams where there had been none before. These seams too began expanding, as each of the panels started wobbling, wiggling, then eventually disconnecting from one another entirely; moving independently of one another as if freeing themselves from a long-dormant state.
For a moment, they looked almost like a reptile’s scales when put under magnification.
Then, and without any warning, they began disappearing, each panel violently pulled back and into some dark anomalous void that existed behind the walls themselves; sending the EVI into another fit of spatial error reports.
We were, for a split second, completely wall-less. But not a second after the old walls had been… for lack of a better term — banished to the literal shadow realm, did a set of new walls suddenly take their place.
And quite dramatically too.
As an entirely new wallface suddenly emerged darkness of the void, one that was earthy in tones, and reminded me more of those old teakwood heritage buildings back on Earth. There were fewer embellishments to them compared to the previous Victorian-styled walls, less patterns and ostentatious designs, instead simply going with this less is more approach that left vast empty gaps where decorations and patterns were previously present. It was almost as if they were left empty and bare for a reason.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 475% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
Out of nowhere, dozens of pots, planters, and trellises suddenly embedded themselves through the wall, decorating what was no longer a blank canvas.
Plantlife soon followed this open invitation for a free home, as hundreds of flowers bloomed all across the wall, carefully trimmed and perfectly appointed to the lattice structures they coiled on, with not a single one of them looking too wild or out of place.
The sudden and abrupt remodeling completely threw me off.
At least, until the source of it all suddenly made themselves known.
“Welcome, first years, to Mana-field perception and Light Magic theory.” The voice continued, as through the literal haze of change came a female figure that the EVI had little problem assigning a name and identifier to.
ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A109 Apprentice Larial Essen - NEXUS [CORDIAL]
Yet strangely, the metallic footsteps that I’d heard just before she crossed the staff door’s threshold didn’t seem to follow her. Instead, only the apprentice emerged from the door behind the lectern.
She continued towards the lectern with a forced and somewhat stiff poise and gait, her general demeanor identical to how she carried herself prior to the whole crate saga. Which was of course, stern, tired, and completely unyielding; a fact supported by the impeccable posture she used to walk into class.
Though the class’ focus certainly wasn’t on her demeanor, or her posture, nor even on the room that had completely morphed into a completely different space.
No.
It was instead almost squarely focused on the apprentice’s cloak, which was most certainly not black.
This prompted the entire room to erupt into a frenzy of whispers, tempered only by those daring enough to deploy privacy screens.
But before those antics could evolve any further, and before my mind could even catch up with this turn of events, a loud, high-pitched, and unbroken — SHUSH — erupted from the front of the class. Emerging from a certain gorn-like lizard, who’d stood up to face us rather than the apprentice currently manning her podium. “ALL STUDENTS RISE!” He commanded.
To which the entire class followed, with the only two tentative parties being myself and a certain bull.
“ALL STUDENTS FORWARD AND BOW!” He continued, prompting the whole class to follow suit, and from there, receiving a head-tilt’s worth of praise from the apprentice.
“Thank you, Lord Qiv.” The apprentice spoke appreciatively, before setting her sights on the rest of the desks and chairs—
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 200% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
—which were subsequently transformed into brighter-toned variants of their formerly dark and depressive selves. “I understand that there may be quite a few lingering questions amongst the crowd that quite a few of you wish to be addressed. In the spirit of ensuring that these needless thoughts and senseless rumors do not come to cloud your mind throughout the rest of class, thereby rendering these lessons moot, I wish for them to be addressed here and now.” Larial announced tacitly, but with a severity that was clearly modeled off of her mentor.
The mood of the room quickly changed following that.
But instead of shifting to the deference and submission in Articord’s class, or the tentative acceptance of Vanavan’s class, there was instead an overarching tone of outright confusion.
It was as if the whole class didn’t know how best to handle the situation.
But whilst the rest of the room remained undecided, with a few shaky hands rising up one by one, a sense of relief quickly washed over me as my emotions finally managed to catch up to the rapidly developing turn of events.
I couldn’t help but to immediately activate the in-armor positional readjustment mode in the suit, allowing myself to just… slouch; as I took in the class with a renewed wave of reprieve.
It was that same feeling you get when you arrive on the day of the test, only to find it delayed by a week. Or that feeling you get when a notification arrives in the dead of night, on the eve of a presentation, to inexplicably announce that the whole project was now put on hold due to some unforeseen event.
But unlike those situations where the why of the situation didn’t really matter… here, it most certainly did.
Which prompted me to listen in, as the questions began flying towards the apprentice.
“If I may be the one so brazen as to offer myself as the voice of the year group, Apprentice Essen?” A certain Auris Ping took the lead, having been chosen by the apprentice amidst a sea of equally inquisitive hands.
“The floor is yours, Lord Ping.” The apprentice proclaimed.
“Thank you, Apprentice.” The bull responded curtly, eliciting a particularly intense glare from the likes of Thalmin. “Where is Professor Mal’tory?”
The apprentice’s features shifted somewhat at that question, as if she wasn’t expecting something that blunt and straightforward right out of the gate. “The professor’s whereabouts are the business of the Academy’s faculty and staff.” She spoke firmly, yet with an authority that she was clearly under equipped to wield. “If you wish to inquire as to the nature of this class going forward, I will be more than happy to-”
A series of hands were raised even before the apprentice had even finished her sentence. Which prompted the overworked and exhausted elf to switch over to another student before she even had time to finish her own thoughts. “The floor is yours, Lady Ladona.”
“Thank you, Apprentice. Now, to clarify, are we to expect you to be teaching us for the rest of this class?” The being, which I could only describe as a butterfly with most of their insectoid-traits toned down, asked politely.
“That is correct, Lady Ladona.”
“And is this expected to continue for… the rest of the month?” Ladona continued, her features shifting if only to show her growing sense of confidence.“The semester perhaps? Or maybe even the rest of the school year?” She continued at a rapid-fire pace, making a point to catch the apprentice off-guard before she could even respond to that first point.
“The responsibility of tutelage has been deferred to me on the basis of Professor Mal’tory’s current inability to fulfill this particular aspect of his responsibilities owing to his current engagements. This will remain so, until the Professor returns from said engagements.” The apprentice responded in that same jaded, no-nonsense tone of voice she’d used during our pre-life debt interactions.
It was, however, woefully inadequate in dealing with the likes of a vicious social predator like Ladona, who immediately waded through the tepid waters towards the first sign of weakness. “So when can we expect his return, Apprentice?” She pushed further, her polite tone of voice acting like a velvet cloth, barely concealing the sharp mandibles beneath it.
“That is something I cannot answer.” The apprentice replied sternly, taking a stand against the shark that had now tasted blood in the water.
“Is this because of a lack of correspondence to the faculty?” The butterfly-person shot back quickly with an innocent cock of her head, her antennae swaying as she did so.
“I am not at a privilege to divulge such details, and that is most certainly not the case, Lady Ladona.”
“My apologies, Apprentice.” Ladona spoke in a calculated show of apologetics. “In any case, am I to assume then that in addition to the responsibility of tutelage, that the responsibilities of proctorship, examination, and evaluation, have likewise been deferred to you?” She shifted gears once more, this time, her question garnered quite a few murmurs to emerge from the rest of the class.
Murmurs which, as the EVI’s little picture-in-picture subtitles hinted at, were all in support of Auris Ping’s right-hand.
“That’s right… are we to assume that an apprentice of all people will be responsible for the evaluation of our performance?”
“I mean, she is an elf, that should count for something right-”
“Have some dignity! Just because she’s an elf, doesn’t mean she has any right to be dictating the fate of our academic progress!”
“That’s right! This is an insult to our titles! How dare they relegate the tutelage of a class to a mere pitiable apprentice! What do they take us for, the dregs of society?”
These hot-takes continued escalating further and further, until finally, and seemingly out of nowhere, several of those voices began dying down seemingly mid-sentence; something had distracted them from their little outbursts.
In fact, as the seconds ticked by, Thacea, Thalmin, and Ilunor turned towards each other knowingly, as if sensing that something was amiss.
That something was soon made clear to me by a sudden uptick of mana that rose from two, to three, to four hundred percent above background radiation.
At which point, several warnings suddenly slammed my HUD.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
CAUTION: Concentrated Heat-Energy Surge Detected!
CAUTION: Localized Temperature Surge Detected!
Those caution reticles quickly formed just behind the apprentice, hovering ominously over that void-filled doorway, right before a stream of concentrated flames surged forwards towards her.
However, instead of dodging, ducking, or leaping out of the way, she stood firm; her features not even shifting even a little.
As right before the flames made contact, so too did they suddenly stop, as that surge of mana radiation fluctuated wildly—
ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 200 - 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
—before suddenly disappearing.
The room was left stunned.
Any remaining conversations were halted mid way, with many of the more chatty students barely even registering what’d just happened.
So for those who lacked situational awareness, and were still very much looking around for the reason why the rest of the class had gone silent, there was a round two to these attacks that erupted as suddenly as the first.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 650% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
This was signaled at first by the cracking of rock and the quaking of the entire room, followed closely by four distinct sinkholes forming along the floor at the very front of the lecture hall. A gurgling, churning noise echoed ominously from deep within the newly-formed holes, like an ancient concrete mixer dialed up to eleven.
Eventually, it stopped.
And soon after, four humanoid earthen behemoths erupted from those sinkholes. Each of them easily towered over the apprentice, whilst each of their fists were at least a full Ilunor in size.
A tense confrontation followed, and a silence that could be shattered by a pin drop soon descended upon the formerly whisper-filled room.
Yet despite it all, the apprentice didn’t move a single muscle, and to top it all off her eyes were closed shut as if in deep thought.
Seconds passed.
Then finally, the four cobblestone golems made their move.
All four moved in sync, their first steps caused the whole hall to shudder, prompting me to instinctively flinch towards my sidearm as the events of the second day hit me harder than a sack of bricks.
The first golem was poised to strike her side—
ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 300 - 650% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
—but found itself crumbling before our eyes, as local mana radiation spiked and shifted erratically.
The second golem reached down with its fist, poised to grab the apprentice through the lectern—
ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 250 - 700% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
—but like the first, it found itself reduced to rubble, falling where it stood; as rock by rock, it collapsed under its own weight.
The third and fourth golems charged forward together, lunging down fast towards the lectern—
ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 350 - 725% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
—but like the first and second, they too found themselves victims to the great equalizer that was gravity, as whatever magical glue was holding them together just up and failed, reducing those humanoid forms into harmless piles of rock.
A few stray rocks did reach the lectern, but were effortlessly swatted away by an invisible barrier, leaving the apprentice and her immediate surroundings completely unharmed.
Silence once more descended on the entire class.
But just like the silence from before, that lull period wasn’t destined to last, as a loud, boisterous, and jolly series of bellowing laughs emerged from behind the void of that door.
I could tell, with immediate certainty, who that voice belonged to.
I didn’t even need the EVI’s tag system for this one.
ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A110 Professor Sorecar Latil Almont Pliska - NEXUS [CORDIAL]
“Spectacular work, young apprentice! Spectacular work indeed!” The man came marching through the door, walking up and towards the apprentice.
“Thank you, Professor-Armorer Pliska.” The apprentice responded softly, prompting the armorer to reply with a sharp and brisk bow of his own.
“You can reserve your thanks for after class, I have plenty more exercises where that came from, and each and every one is going to be tougher than the last!” The man proclaimed not-so-discreetly, eliciting a worried expression to form on the apprentice’s face, highlighting the seriousness of the otherwise lackadaisical tone of his voice. “Needless to say, I don’t think you’ll be thanking me much after I’m done with you! The Academy’s gotten a bit softer over the years, and I’m about to make up for lost time before they toss old-Sorecar Latil Almont Pliska back into the workshop!” He paused, before shifting his tone towards a more menacing one. “And that applies to your understudies as well, Apprentice.”
“Now!” The armorer quickly shifted his attention from the apprentice, and towards class, his gesticulations wild, as if making for the apprentice’s slower, more sluggish demeanor. More specifically, he maintained this sort of “Y” posture, with both arms high above his head as he spoke. “For those of you wondering exactly what just happened… well, perhaps it would be best for you to leave the class considering this is exactly the sort of thing we’ll both be expecting of you following the conclusion of this school year! And for those of you who openly doubt the qualifications of our dear apprentice here… just know that she was hand-picked by Professor Mal’tory himself for a reason.” The man paused, before bringing his arms back down to his sides, if only to emphasize his point, before resuming the posture from before. “And until I see a single one of you being personally selected by a black, red, blue, or white-robed professor… I don’t want to hear a single peep of doubt from you lot. At least as it pertains to the apprentice’s ability to teach these classes! And if you need an extra guarantee of such? Well… know that the Academy does not allow an apprentice to teach without supervision from an appointed Professor of the Magical Arts.” He paused, as if for dramatic effect, before pointing both hands down towards himself. “Which just so happens to be the only Professor otherwise free from the burdens of stringent schedules — yours truly!”
To Sorecar’s credit, the murmurs born of inflated egos, and the whispers of dissidence did not once dare to interrupt, or follow-up on the man’s proclamations.
If anything, that entire… display was enough to keep the critics at bay, and the ones on the fence to fully hop back on the side of respect.
At least, until one group decided to tempt fate, deploying a privacy screen.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
If only for that privacy screen to suffer the same effects as the rest of the spells casted throughout class thus far.
ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 100 - 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
“Bold! Brash! And indeed, cheeky, if that word still holds true in this era’s vernacular!” Sorecar announced with a laugh that radiated deep from within his armor. “Unlike other classes that prohibit the casting of magic save for practice or demonstrative purposes, I fully allow it, nay, I say, I encourage it! You youths should be free to cast magic whenever and however you like!” The man paused soon after, and once again shifted gears towards a more severe timbre, yet never once losing that lackadaisical personality I knew him for. “But just remember, while you may freely practice these magical gifts you have and hold so highly, doing such in this class is to be considered a direct challenge by yours truly! This is the study of Light Magic and Mana-field Perception, after all! And thus, in the spirit of scholarly competition, I shall take every spell cast as a chance to prove what’s what!”
The man paused, before gesturing towards the apprentice. “Now, for those of you still quite confused with the definition of Light Magic as it pertains to the Nexian vernacular, I shall defer the right of tutelage back to that of our dear Apprentice. The floor is yours, my lady.”
A brief exchange of bows between the teaching duo was had, before the apprentice finally started, now with all doubts and concerns fully addressed not just by words alone, but through action as well.
“As all of you may have already discerned, the demonstration Professor Pliska had so graciously provided, was an attempt to illustrate the most visible effects of Light Magic — that being the detection and subsequent dispelling of active and pre-active spells. The subject of Light magic, thus refers to the study of the detection, dispelling, counterspelling, and disarming of all forms of other magics.”
“And by that definition, it is the single most combative field of magic there is.” Sorecar promptly chimed in with a nod towards the apprentice, almost like he was tag-teaming this opening statement with her; establishing a precedent for the dynamics of the class. “For in order to practice Light Magic, one must be in the presence of an active spell. And in order to truly practice Light Magic, one must be in the presence of active danger, as unlike most forms of magic, unevenness and intensity in casting is key to the successful destabilization of an offending spell.”
“So THAT’S what the fluctuations were.” I thought to myself outloud inside my helmet.
“Moreover—” Sorecar continued, raising his arms into the air once again as if to emphasize his points. “—to the seasoned and the wise, Light Magic as a field is known to be the single most versatile field in existence. For if implemented correctly, it has the capacity to bring all other forms of magic to its knees.”
“Versatility and adaptability are core elements of Light Magic, so while not capable of much harm by itself, it is capable of incredible feats of defense if used correctly.”
To say that I was pleasantly surprised would’ve been an understatement by this point. Because not only was Mal’tory completely out for the count, and not only was he replaced by two of my only cordial relations within the Academy thus far, but the class itself was refreshingly straightforward. There was no mincing around words like Vanavan’s class of lectures, there was also no overt signs of blatant propaganda and indoctrination like in Articord’s class. Instead, this whole class started out with a practical demo of all things, followed up essentially with a breakdown of exactly what we were studying.
“What you observed during the start of class, were just two out of a near-infinite set of examples demonstrating counterspell and dispelling measures, a rather dramatic one I might add but one that you may very well one day use.” The apprentice continued following yet another exchange of nods with Sorecar.
“And indeed, while they may have seemed trivial to the keen-eyed observer, the execution of their dispelling is anything but. Because despite what most misinformed minds may believe regarding counterspelling — dispelling isn’t simply a matter of overpowering an offending spell with a burst of mana, but instead, more akin to the unwinding of a knot, or the picking of a lock. You must act to untangle a spell, until the spell itself falls apart at the seams.” Sorecar continued, before once again swapping the baton with Larial through an exchange of nods.
“Which is exactly why Light Magic continues to be a field forever expanding in its domain.” The apprentice continued. “Because as every other field develops more and more convoluted forms of spells and artificing, so too does Light Magic have to adapt, improvise, and overcome these advanced and oftentimes eclectic means of casting.”
So an arms race… I thought to myself.
“It is, in essence, a pure magic field. Yet it is applied as if it were an applied magical field of study.” Sorecar surmised, prompting me to actually listen in with genuine intent, this marking the first moment I was truly engaged with a class with none of its politics.
“And as for the Mana-Field Perception class?” The apprentice continued with an inquisitive tone of voice. “It’s effectively an extension, or rather, a foundational element of Light Magic depending on how one wishes to view it. Because in order to become proficient in Light Magic, you have to first understand and hone your abilities in order to detect the nuances within mana-streams and mana-fields. It is only through the detection of disruptions and the accurate understanding of a spell being cast, that you are able to apply more advanced abjurations in an attempt to counter these spells. Sometimes even before they’re cast if you’re so inclined to.”
“Now, how many of you can genuinely say you noticed the shift in the room’s aura prior to the casting of that Firestream?” Sorecar asked the crowd, prompting almost every hand to be raised.
“Well that’s just a blatant lie now, isn’t it?” The man retorted bluntly. “I can tell by your reactions just before the Flamespear hit, you know. So please, honestly now, I’m giving you one more chance to answer.”
About three quarters of the class lowered their hands, leaving only the gang, Auris Ping and Qiv’s group, as well as a few other scattered students to maintain their raised hands.
“Alright, that’s about exactly the number I counted from behind the veil! Rightio then!” Sorecar proclaimed through what I could only imagine would’ve been a grin if it wasn’t for his armor. “This is exactly why mana-field perception is necessary. Because to most mages, it is a learned skill rather than an inherent trait. Which, of course, is by no means a demerit! But moreso, a wonderful little oddity in the grander tapestry that is the magical arts and pedagogue!”
The apprentice quickly followed that up with a series of talks once more summarizing the expectations of the class. Mana-field perception was, unsurprisingly, divided into practical and theoretical assessments. Which, at first, seemed to be a potential roadblock, until I realized one fundamental way this class could actually benefit my aims.
“EVI?” I spoke inwardly, as Larial started her lectures on mana-field perception.
“Yes, Cadet Booker?”
“Is there any chance you can maybe interpolate and extrapolate on the Apprentice’s points? As in, is it possible to… visualize magic, as opposed to just alerting me to bursts of it?”
“The mana-radiation visualization project, or MRVP, has been in development for some time, Cadet Booker. The research and development teams however, were unable to create a reliable model for field-use that wouldn’t have been a liability to operations.”
“So it wasn’t field-deployable because of the variance and accuracy issue.”
“Correct, Cadet Booker.”
“Alright, and you said all they needed was more data to create a better model for it, right?”
“Correct, Cadet Booker.”
“Could you… do that with this? Is that within your mission parameters to do so?”
“It is indeed one of the many ongoing projects taking up the bulk of my processing capacity, Cadet Booker. However, proper implementation of this will require additional hardware to be developed, tested, and then field-deployed for testing. The success rate of which is yet to be determined. I cannot guarantee this operation will yield the desired results inferred, Cadet Booker.”
“Alright, that’s good enough for me.” I acknowledged, before turning back to class with a renewed sense of invigoration.
The lecture continued, only stopping about midway as the apprentice realized she’d yet to elaborate on the whole Light Magic class side of things.
Which, it turns out, was more or less similar to Mana-field perception in its assessment criteria — that being a mix of practical and theory assessments. A combination of written exams and practical counterspelling would be expected in tests, midterms, and finals. This would mark my first true hurdle… but then again, perhaps I could balance out the rest of my grades against the practicals which was more or less an impossibility given my obvious human limitations…
“As with most of the classes in the first year, I will treat both periods as one. As both subjects are intertwined, we may see glimpses of both within the same period.” The apprentice continued, before shifting gears towards something else. “And on the topic of periods, since we’re nearing the conclusion of the first, with lunch quickly coming upon us, I believe it to be necessary to inform everyone now of what awaits at the end of this second period.” The apprentice spoke ominously, as she made the effort of meeting every one of the students’ gazes. “By day’s end, I intend for a pair of you to perform a practical demonstration of the fundamentals of light magic. So I expect everyone to pay close attention after lunch.”
A small pause punctuated the room yet again, before Sorecar, after several hours of silence, came to complete the apprentice’s thoughts; his faceplate squeaked to form a shape that just barely gave off the feeling of a smirk.
“Be prepared, and be ready, for your first real brush with magical dueling.”
“First being the operative word here, I must add.” The apprentice quickly clarified. “Within the bounds of demonstrative purposes.”
I could just about hear the band rounding out the corner outside the hall, and I could just about see a few students ready to pack up their things for lunch.
However, before the band could arrive, Thalmin unexpectedly stood up, raising his hand in the process.
“Yes, Prince Thalmin Havenbrock?” The apprentice acknowledged.
“I wish to volunteer as the issuer of this duel, and to designate the other party for this duel as well.”
The apprentice paused, considering this carefully, before nodding. “Granted, though I warn you Prince Havenbrock, this is an introductory demonstration, and will be treated as such. In any case, who would you wish to designate as the other party?”
“Lord Auris Ping.”
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(Author’s Note: And there we have it! Light Magic Theory and Manafield Perception classes are both now in session! This is probably the most fun and engaging class I've written yet, and this is a sentiment that Emma shares as well! I do hope you guys share the sentiment haha as I still think that action is something I still am quite lacking in, in terms of my abilities to properly write and convey it. I hope you guys enjoy! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 80 and Chapter 81 of this story is already out on there!)]

Here are all (*) of the new US and Canadian CCS (Level 3 fast-charging) stations that rolled out in April 2024, according to the Department of Energy. You can get the data yourself here.
These chargers are suitable for most new EVs on the market, except for:

1. Tesla drivers who haven't bought the official CCS adapter yet. Certain older Teslas need additional work done to accept the adapter.
2. Leaf owners like me, owners of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and some owners of older cars that also use CHAdeMO. If you drive such a car, see my matching post in leaf.

Some of these chargepoints will be "refreshes," e.g. the provider replaced them with faster chargers etc. Some may be incorrect. This report is only as good as the Alternative Fuels Data Center data.
There were 330 CCS charging stations with a total of 682 chargepoints added or refreshed in April 2024, which is a major uptick in both stations and chargepoints. There were only 166 new CCS charging stations in April 2023, with only 267 chargepoints. Things are trending dramatically upwards.
Some part of this is due to Tesla Magic Dock stations. Previously Tesla didn't report these to the AFDC as CCS, but now they do. And that makes sense because all CCS drivers can use them.
NOTE: most Tesla Superchargers do NOT have magic dock as of this writing (all those shown in this report should have it). I recommend using PlugShare to locate compatible stations for your vehicle.
(*) "What about other Tesla Superchargers? Can't everybody charge with NACS now?"
It's coming for many makes and models, and for newer Ford models as well as a few other manufacturers charging at v3 and v4 Superchargers is already an option with a free adapter from the automakers. GM should release their adapter in the coming weeks. But since they are not open to all CCS vehicles, this report is not the place for them. Tesla's app provides the best guide to their locations, including locations that work with non-Tesla vehicles.
Other Notes
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first.
For serious trip planning, I recommend PlugShare. But by all means check out these reported new locations and submit reviews on PlugShare, which makes things better for everyone.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or just prefer not to check this list monthly when new openings are rare in your area, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications as soon as they open. You can sign up at evpov.com. Or not! I don't really have a business plan here, I built it to help EV owners like myself. PlugShare has a similar feature.

➡ AB (1) MD SMOKY RIVER DCFC STATION 1 701 Main St SW Falher, AB T0H 1M0 ➡ AR (3) Evt 1425 ohlendorf rd Osceola, AR 72370 ➡ AZ (1) HYUNDAI PEORIA PUBLIC LEVEL 3 8425 W Bell Rd Peoria, AZ 85382 (1) Coulter Cadillac Tempe 7780 SOUTH AUTOPLEX LOOP BUILDING 200 TEMPE, AZ 85284 ➡ BC (4) 7Charge - Abbotsford 1915 McCallum Rd Abbotsford, BC V2S 3N1 (1) Honda Burnaby - DC 5723 Marine Way Burnaby, BC V5J 0A6 (1) Bill Howich Chrysler - Smart DC 2777 North Island Highway Campbell River, BC V9W 2H4 (1) Honda Surrey - Smart DC 15291 Fraser Highway Surrey, BC V3R 3P3 (1) QUADREAL CA STALL 128 658 Homer St Vancouver, BC V6B 2R4 (3) QUADREAL CA STALL 110 658 Homer Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2R4 ➡ CA (2) WC ACURA CPE250-2 8375 E La Palma Ave Anaheim, CA 92807 (2) Tony's Pizza 10701 CA-178 Bakersfield, CA 93306 (1) Banning Farm's House Restaurant 6261 Joshua, E Palmer Dr Banning, CA 92220 (2) Solar Express 2434 San Pablo ave Berkeley, CA 94707 (3) LOVES CA BORON DCFC 1 27201 Boron Frontage Rd N Boron, CA 93516 (2) Flitway - Gordon Ranch Marketplace 2545 Chino Hills Pkwy Chino Hills, CA 91709 (6) 99 Ranch Chino Hills 2959 Chino Ave Chino Hills, CA 91709 (4) Flitway - East Lake Village Center 2220 Otay Lakes Rd Chula Vista, CA 91915 (6) Lowe's of Concord 1935 Arnold Industrial Way Concord, CA 94520 (2) Hilton Concord 1970 Diamond Blvd Concord, CA 94520 (4) Flitway - Inter-Community Hospital 212 W San Bernardino Rd Covina, CA 91723 (1) CULVER HONDA CPE250 BL 9055 Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 (2) Delhi Unified School District 16491 Schendel Avenue Delhi, CA 95315 (2) DOWNEYHYUNDAI CPE250 2 7550 Firestone Boulevard Downey, CA 90241 (4) Chevron Elk Grove Gas Station 9299 Bond Road Elk Grove, CA 95624 (8) 46365 West Panoche Road (US-NF8-DC8-4B) 46365 West Panoche Road Firebaugh, CA 93622 (2) Sierra Plaza 815 Kern St Fresno, CA 93706 (8) Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce - 1600 Fulton 1600 Fulton Street Fresno, CA 93721 (8) Wyndham Garden Fresno Airport 5090 East Clinton Way Fresno, CA 93727 (2) Ridgemark Gold Club & Resort 3800 Airline Hwy Hollister, CA 95023 (4) Flitway - Trabuco Community Center 5701 Trabuco Rd Irvine, CA 92620 (3) Rolls-Royce Motorcars San Diego 7440 La Jolla Blvd La Jolla, CA 92037 (4) The Elysian 1115 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90012 (1) DRIVE 1 SATILLITE STORE 11074 Sepulveda Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 91345 (8) Motel 6 North Hills 15711 Roscoe Blvd North Hills, CA 91343 (1) Chawanakee Unified School District 26065 Outback Industrial Way O'Neals, CA 93645 (1) Pacoima Van Nuys Blvd 13520 Van Nuys Blvd Pacoima, CA 91331 (2) Palmdale City Hall 38250 Sierra Hwy. Palmdale, CA 90245 (4) Foodsco Northgate #355 3625 Northgate Blvd Sacramento, CA 95834 (4) LOVES CA CA SALINAS DC 4 1264 De la Torre St Salinas, CA 93905 (3) Sunny Plaza 529 E Valley Blvd San Gabriel, CA 91776 (6) Seven Trees Shopping Center 4060 Monterey Hwy San Jose, CA 95111 (6) Almaden Plaza 4950 Almaden Expy San Jose, CA 95118 (1) FREEWAY HONDA DC FAST 01 1505 Auto Mall Dr Santa Ana, CA 92705 (2) SJCHA Sierra Vista Phase 1 1520 Eleventh Street Stockton, CA 95206 (2) SJCHA Sierra Vista Phase 2 2439 Volney Street Stockton, CA 95206 (2) HACSJ Tracy Homes 340 W 4th St Tracy, CA 95376 (2) Sheraton Universal Hotel DC 333 Universal Hollywood Dr Universal City, CA 91608 (2) Brian Allen 128 E Chestnut Ct Visalia, CA 93277 (4) City of Los Angeles Lot 696 835 N Avalon Blvd Wilmington, CA 90744 ➡ CO (1) SCVHISTSOC PIONEER TOWN 1 388 S Grand Mesa Dr Cedaredge, CO 81413 (2) San Isabel DCFC 8900 Interstate 25 Rye, CO 81069 ➡ CT (2) 365 E MAIN ST CPE250 2 365 East Main Street Branford, CT 06405 (1) GURUKRUPA GI LLC EV-1 85a Hemingway Ave East Haven, CT 06512 (2) New Country Motor Cars Group = Porsche Greenwich 241 West Putnam Ave Greenwich, CT 06830 (2) Pomfret Town Hall - SmartDC 5 Haven Rd Pomfret Center, CT 06259 ➡ FL (4) Carrabelle Fire Department 105 Tallahassee St Carrabelle, FL 32322 (1) Ed Morse Cadillac Delray Beach 2300 S.FEDERAL HIGHWAY DELRAY BEACH, FL 33483 (4) Flying J 624 29933 State Road 52 Dade City, FL 33576 (4) Chipotle Beach and University 5801 Beach Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32207 (2) Miller Electric - Electric Vehicle Innovation Design Center (EVIDC) 6811 Southpoint Pkwy Jacksonville, FL 32216 (2) Tom Bush BMW Jacksonville 9875 Atlantic Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32225 (2) Tom Bush BMW Orange Park 6914 Blanding Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32244 (1) Ford Midway Mall 8155 West Flagler Street Miami, FL 33144 (4) Palmetto 57 Volkswagen 16825 NW 57 Av Miami Gardens, FL 33055 (2) Orange County Health Department 12050 E Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 32826 (1) Evermore Orlando Resort 1570 Evermore Way Orlando, FL 32836 (2) Evermore - EVA 3 2420 North Beach Lane/Flats Orlando, FL 32836 (1) Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Tampa Bay 3255 Gandy Blvd N Pinellas Park, FL 33781 (2) BMW SARASOTA FAST CHARGE 2 5151 Clark rd Sarasota, FL 34233 (2) C-HYUNDAI CPE1 3810 W Hillsborough Ave Tampa, FL 33614 (2) BRANDON FORD LVL 3 #2 (CP) 9090 East Adamo Drive Tampa, FL 33619 (4) Hammock Landing 4311 Norfolk Pkwy West Melbourne, FL 32904 (12) Audi West Palm Beach 2101 Okeechobee Blvd West Palm Beach, FL 33409 ➡ GA (2) GEORGIA POWER AMERICUS DC1 202b U.S. Hwy 19 Americus, GA 31719 (2) GEORGIA POWER SHALLOWFORD EXP 4404 North Shallowford Road Atlanta, GA 30338 (9) ABM Electrification Center 2715 Ronald Reagan Blvd Cumming, GA 30041 (2) GENESIS CUMMING STE1 750 Peachtree Parkway Cumming, GA 30041 (2) GEORGIA POWER DONALSON DC2 209 Cherry St Donalsonville, GA 39845 (2) GEORGIA POWER GEORGE DC1 1 Main St Georgetown, GA 39854 (2) GEORGIA POWER RICHLAND DC 2 26 Stewart St Richland, GA 31825 (1) Walker-Jones 2700 MEMORIAL DRIVE WAYCROSS, GA 31503 ➡ HI (2) Kapolei Commons provided by Hawaiian Electric Company 4470 Kapolei Parkway Kapolei, HI 96707 ➡ IA (2) Indian Creek Nature Center 5300 Otis Rd SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 (3) JUNGE FORD - DCFC 525 Madison Avenue North Liberty, IA 52317 (2) Storm Lake 1250 N Lake Ave Ste 2 Storm Lake, IA 50588 ➡ ID (1) BRONCO HYUNDAI FV L3 #2 9250 Fairview Ave Boise, ID 83704 (1) BRONCO HYUNDAI FV L3 #1 9250 Fairview Avenue Boise, ID 83704 (2) HOMETOWN CHEVROLET BUICK GMC 1011 NW 16TH ST Fruiland, ID 83619 (2) ROGERS CDJR L3A ROGERS DODGE PL 1824 Main Street Lewiston, ID 83501 ➡ IL (2) Jo-Carroll Energy - Elizabeth 311 East Myrtle Street Elizabeth, IL 61028 (1) Harvard Ford-DCFC 5250 South Route 14 Harvard, IL 60033 (1) Community Honda of Orland Park 8340 West 159th Street Orland Park, IL 60462 ➡ IN (2) ANDY MOHR HYUND SERVICE 1441 Liberty Dr Bloomington, IN 47403 (1) Max Platt Ford-DCFC 1002 West North Street Kendallville, IN 46755 (4) Madison 590 Ivy Tech Dr Madison, IN 47250 (1) STOOPSEV 480V EV CHARGER 4055 W Clara Ln Muncie, IN 47304 (1) TEAM CHEVROLET, INC 1856 W US HWY 30 VALPARAISO, IN 46385 ➡ KS (1) EVERGY @PRSONCITY-437A 1600 Main St Parsons, KS 67357 (6) 2774 N Greenwich Ct (US-M5P-NN9-3B) 2774 N Greenwich Ct Wichita, KS 67226 ➡ KY (2) BUCEES RICHMOND RICHMOND 9-10 1013 Buc-ee's Blvd Richmond, KY 40475 (2) BUCEES RICHMOND RICHMOND 7-8 1013 Bucees Blvd Richmond, KY 40475 (4) Flying J 663 1670 Waddy Road Waddy, KY 40076 ➡ LA (1) GM - Ross Downing Cadillac 1301 S Morrison Blvd. Hammond, LA 70403 ➡ MA (4) PCCJEEP PL-3-R 556 Yarmouth Rd Barnstable, MA 02601 (1) 400 SUMMER ST 400 SUMMEP1-1 4 W Service Rd Boston, MA 02210 (6) 400 SUMMER ST 400 SUMMERP2-3 400 Summer St Boston, MA 02210 (1) 400 SUMMER ST 400 SUMMEP2-2 410 Summer St Boston, MA 02210 (3) Autel - Charlton Service Plaza Eastbound 80 Massachusetts Turnpike Charlton, MA 01507 (2) CAPE_ASSOCIATES MONOMOY 782 Main Street Chatham, MA 02633 (1) ALDEN BUICK GMC ALDEN LV3 #1 6 Whalers Way Fairhaven, MA 02719 (12) Comfort Inn - Tesla Supercharger 4 Fisher St Foxborough, MA 02035 (4) Autel - Framingham Rest Stop Westbound 114 Massachusetts Tpke Framingham, MA 01701 (2) Autel - Lee Service Plaza Westbound Massachusetts Tpke Lee, MA 01238 (2) Autel - Lee Service Plaza Eastbound Massachusetts Turnpike Lee, MA 01238 (12) Lynnfield Marketplace - Tesla Supercharger 28 Broadway Lynnfield, MA 01940 (2) Autel - Natick Service Plaza Eastbound 117 Massachusetts Turnpike Natick, MA 01760 (6) FORDOFNORTHMPTN PL-3-R 968 Bridge Road Northampton, MA 01060 (1) WFSU SCIENCE STATION 577 Western Avenue Westfield, MA 01085 (2) Quik Charge Charging Station 850 Washington St Weymouth, MA 02189 ➡ MB (4) BIRCHWOOD FORD DC-2 1300 Regent Ave W Winnipeg, MB R2C 3A8 ➡ MD (1) BGE - CCBC Essex 7201 Rossville Blvd Baltimore, MD 21237 (1) Skipjack Art Studios 329 Cannon Street Chestertown, MD 21620 ➡ ME (8) Rockland Plaza Shopping Center - Tesla Supercharger 75 Maverick St Rockland, ME 04841 ➡ MI (3) Brighton Ford - DCFC 8240 West Grand River Avenue Brighton, MI 48114 (3) Moran Chevrolet Clinton Township 35500 South Gratiot Ave Clinton Township, MI 48035 (4) Tanger Outlets - Howell, MI North End 2 DCFC 1475 North Burkhart Road Howell, MI 48855 ➡ MN (2) Cannon Falls 650 Main Street West Cannon Falls, MN 55009 (2) Chisholm 201 West Lake Street Chisholm, MN 55719 (2) City Of Crosby Library 101 1st Street Southeast Crosby, MN 56441 (2) WASC 425 Winnebago Avenue Fairmont, MN 56031 (2) City of Faribault 17 3rd Street Northeast Faribault, MN 55021 (2) Service Foods 321 West Lincoln Avenue Fergus Falls, MN 56537 (2) City of Fosston 220 1st Street East Fosston, MN 56542 (2) Burger King 2200 10th Street East Glencoe, MN 55336 (2) Grand Marais Public Utilities City Hall Parking Lot - South Side 15 Broadway Grand Marais, MN 55604 (2) City Of Little Falls NaN null Dewey Parkway Little Falls, MN 56345 (2) Mankato Area Foundation 115 South 2nd Street Mankato, MN 56001 (2) Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen 1180 Minnesota 36 Maplewood, MN 55109 (2) 36Lyn Refuel Station 3551 Lyndale Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55408 (4) Nelson Auto World 1625 Como Avenue Southeast Minneapolis, MN 55414 (2) Noodles & Company 922 Holiday Drive Moorhead, MN 56560 (2) Motley Motel 165 Riverfront Lane Motley, MN 56466 (2) City of New Ulm 541 2nd Street North New Ulm, MN 56073 (2) City Of Owatonna 215 Walnut Avenue South Owatonna, MN 55060 (1) Superior Ford-Plymouth-Series 9700 56th Ave N Plymouth, MN 55442 (2) Fresh Thyme Farmer's Market 1615 1st Street Southwest Rochester, MN 55901 (2) City Of Saint Peter 114 West Nassau Street Saint Peter, MN 56082 (2) Saint Peter Food Cooperative 228 West Mulberry Street Saint Peter, MN 56082 (2) City Of Springfield 601 East Rock Street Springfield, MN 56087 (2) City Of Saint Cloud 501 1st Street North St. Cloud, MN 56303 (2) Doc's Sports Bar and Grill 88801 Warbler Lane Sturgeon Lake, MN 55783 (2) Northern Lights Casino - Walker 6800 Y Frontage Road Northwest Walker, MN 56484 (2) Waseca Utilities NaN null 19th Avenue Northwest Waseca, MN 56093 (2) White Bear Lake Superstore 3880 U.S. 61 White Bear Lake, MN 55110 (2) WSU - Integrated Wellness Complex 118 West Mark Street Winona, MN 55987 ➡ MO (1) Pinegar Chevrolet Buick GMC 163 Adair Road Branson, MO 65616 (3) Lou Fusz Ford - DCFC 2 Caprice Drive Chesterfield, MO 63005 (2) AMI AM CHEVY - DC 1901 W Business U.S. 60 Dexter, MO 63841 (4) 14897 MO-38 14897 MO-38 Marshfield, MO 65706 (2) LIBERTY EMPIRE NEOSHOSVCCTR FW 1501 Industrial Dr Neosho, MO 64850 (1) Bommarito Cadillac 4190 N SERVICE RD ST PETERS, MO 63376 ➡ MS (2) NECDC STATION 2 (R) 101 Dempsey Rd. Byhalia, MS 38611 (2) CLW 5TH ST 1 (L) 301 5th Street South Columbus, MS 39701 (2) Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick 11123 HWY 49N GULFPORT, MS 39503 ➡ MT (2) Corwin Motors Of Kalispell 2565 Hwy 93 North Kalispell, MT 59901 ➡ NB (2) St. Hubert Express 890 Saint Anne St Bathurst, NB E2A 6X2 (3) Irving 1735 Hanwell Rd Hanwell, NB E3C 2B8 (2) Tesla - 13995 - Miramichi 2485 King George Hwy Miramichi, NB E1V 6W7 (3) Gateway Plaza 2 Gateway Dr Oromocto, NB E2V 4S3 (2) Visitor Info Centre 34 Mallard Dr Sackville, NB E4L 4C3 ➡ NC (2) City of Asheboro Library 201 Worth St Ashboro, NC 27203 (5) Parkside Town Commons 7129 O’Kelly Chapel Road Cary, NC 27519 (2) Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians 946 Tsalagi Rd. Cherokee, NC 28719 (1) Town of Franklin 95 E Main 95 E Main St. Franklin, NC 28734 (2) DEP Pierce and Co 4229 Sam Potts Hwy Hallsboro, NC 28442 (2) Richmond Community College 1042 W Hamlet Ave Hamlet, NC 28345 (2) City of Hickory-DCFC 306 MAIN AV NW Hickory, NC 28601 (4) Sun Valley 6461 Old Monroe Rd Indian Trail, NC 28079 (5) Pilot Travel Center 683 1800 Princeton-Kenly Road Kenly, NC 27542 (2) dba Piggly Wiggly 61 2715 Hwy 11/55 Kinston, NC 28504 (2) City of Lowell 519 Park Cir Lowell, NC 28098 (2) Catawba Vale Collaborative LLC 96 Commerce St. Old Fort, NC 28762 (2) Triangle Stop - Saluda 1484 Ozone Dr Saluda, NC 28773 (2) City of Sanford - 101 East Humber st 101 E Humber St. Sanford, NC 27330 (1) Haywood CC West Waynesville An 23 Hendrix St Waynesville, NC 28786 (4) 402 S Bridge St 402 S Bridge St Wilkesboro, NC 28697 (2) Blacks Tire Service 1407 Castle Hayne Rd A Wilmington, NC 28401 (2) Capital Ford Wilmington 4222 Oleander Drive Wilmington, NC 28403 (2) Quality Oil Company 1980 Pecan Ln Winston Salem, NC 27284 (2) GM - Modern Chevrolet 5955 University Parkway Winston-Salem, NC 27105 (2) City of Clinton 110 Loop St clinton, NC 28328 (2) Quality Mart 62 - 1736 NC 67 1736 NC 67 jonesville, NC 28642 ➡ ND (2) Simonson Station Store Minot 1310 South Broadway Minot, ND 58701 ➡ NH (1) Grappone Hyundai 514 Route 3A Bow, NH 03304 (6) 10 Benning St (US-M4C-8KT-2C) 10 Benning St West Lebanon, NH 03784 ➡ NJ (2) LIBERTY TOYOTA STATION 2 4397 U.S. 130 Burlington, NJ 08016 (1) NIELSEN CHEVROLET 1 Route 46 W Dover, NJ 07801 (2) Open Road Acura of East Brunswick 1041 Rt 18 East Brunswick, NJ 08816 (2) BOARDWALK HONDA CPE250 1 6807 Tilton Rd Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234 (1) BMER, LLC dba Flemington BMW 216 Rt 202 & 31 N Flemington, NJ 08822 (1) Manahawkin CDJR 188 New jersey 72 Manahawkin, NJ 08050 (1) Park Ave Acura Service 247 West Passaic St Maywood, NJ 07435 (1) Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Philadelphia 100 Route 73 Palmyra, NJ 08065 (2) WALDWICK PUBLIC DCFC #2 15 E Prospect St Waldwick, NJ 07463 (2) Open Road Acura of Wayne 1425 Route 23 South Wayne, NJ 07470 (2) Open Road Acura of Wayne 1425 rt 23 s Wayne, NJ 07470 (1) QUICKCHEK CP- QC186-2 3483 U.S. 22 Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889 (1) QUICKCHEK CP-QC186-1 3483 U.S. 22 Whitehouse station, NJ 08889 ➡ NM (1) COLUMBUS EV PARK 1 216 Broadway Deming, NM 88030 (2) AVANYU AVANYU LEFT 618 N Riverside Dr Española, NM 87532 ➡ NY (1) Shults Hyundai 181 E. Fairmount Avenue Lakewood, NY 14750 (1) ABM Tradeshow Units One Liberty Plaza, 7th Floor New York, NY 10006 (1) NYC FLEET DPRWFMARNA_1_L3 1 Marina Road Queens, NY 11369 (4) KENNETH DR Q KENNETH DR 1 375 Kenneth Drive Rochester, NY 14623 (1) Paragon Acura 56-02 Northern Blvd Woodside, NY 11377 (4) NEW test by jimmy 23 E 91st Street ny, NY 10128 ➡ OH (2) KERRY FORD, INC FORD ISLAND #3 155 West Kemper Road Cincinnati, OH 45246 (2) KINGS FORD, INC FORD L3 PUBLIC1 9555 Kings Automall Drive Cincinnati, OH 45249 (3) Byers Ford DCFC's 1101 Columbus Pike Delaware, OH 43015 (3) Elyria OH 905 LORAIN BLVD ELYRIA, OH 44035 (2) Bob Boyd Ford DCFCs 2840 North Columbus Street Lancaster, OH 43130 (3) Coughlin Ford Pataskala DCFC's 9800 Worthington Road Pataskala, OH 43062 (1) Wooster Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram 2626 Cleveland Road Wooster, OH 44691 ➡ ON (2) Crowe’s Car Wash 8461 County Road 45 Alderville, ON K0K 2X0 (1) CenterLine Corporate - DC 415 Morton Drive LaSalle, ON N9J 3T8 (1) OXFORD DODGE DODGE L3 S1 1249 Hyde Park Road London, ON N6H 5K6 (1) IDEAL HONDA FAST CHARGER 1700 Toyo Cir Mississauga, ON L4W 0E7 (1) Myers Barrhaven Subaru - Fast Charger 4151 Strandherd Drive Ottawa, ON 45.2653 (1) Hal Wright Chevrolet Cadillac GMC Buick 202423 Hwy 6&21 Owen Sound, ON N4K 5N7 (4) IKEA EV FLEET 2 1475 The Queensway Toronto, ON M8Z 1T3 (1) Winash Limited Partnership - SmartDC 5550 Baldwin Street South Whitby, ON L1M 0M5 ➡ OR (3) WCEH Banks 660 Main Street Banks, OR 97106 (1) WCEH Detroit 220 D St Detroit, OR 97342 (1) WCEH McMinnville 499 NE Davis St McMinnville, OR 97128 (6) ARCO - Market Street NE, Salem 2979 Market St NE Salem, OR 97301 (4) WCEH Woodburn 2900 Tom Tennant Dr Woodburn, OR 97071 ➡ PA (2) 93 AdvancedPower 93 Sharon Road Greenville, PA 16125 (2) BENNETT HYUNDAI SALES 2101 Cumberland St Lebanon, PA 17042 (1) Sylvester Chevrolet Inc 1609 Main St Peckville, PA 18452 (1) Faulkner Cadillac 4447 E STREET RD TREVOSE, PA 19053 ➡ QC (4) BRCC - Boucherville - Parc Pierre-Laporte 510, Chemin du Lac Boucherville, QC J4B 6X6 (4) Canadian Tire - Jonquière 2290 Blvd René Lévesque Jonquière, QC G7S 5Y5 (1) DION CHEV EV CPE250C-625-CCS 2200 Rue Sherbrooke Magog, QC J1X 4Z6 (2) BRCC - Mont-Saint-Michel - Parc du village 95 rue Gravel Mont-Saint-Michel, QC J0W 1P0 (1) RECHARGECO ST-LEONARD 01 7150 Boul Langelier Montréal, QC H1S 2X6 (8) HARDY RINGUETTE #1 1842 3e Avenue Val-d'Or, QC J9P 7A9 ➡ SC (2) Beach Buick GMC 922 Frontage Rd E Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 (2) GPM Southeast, LLC/Scotchman 3894 2454 Mounty Holly Rd Rock Hill, SC 29730 ➡ SD (2) Northwestern 117 Mitchell Boulevard Mitchell, SD 57301 ➡ TN (2) MB COLLIERVILLE MBC EXPP PL 4651 South Houston Levee Road Collierville, TN 38017 (2) Rusty Wallace Ford 134 Sharon Drive Dandridge, TN 37725 (2) SPRFLD ELECTRIC STATION 1 (L) 401 N Main St. Springfield, TN 37172 (2) MLEC STATION 2 (R) W 210 West Main St Waverly, TN 37185 ➡ TX (1) AZTEC EV AZTEC CHEVROLET 772 U.S. 181 Beeville, TX 78102 (1) Rolls Royce Dallas Service 2425 W Northwest Hwy Dallas, TX 75220 (1) Bert Ogden Cadillac Edinburg 4801 S I-69C Edinburg, TX 78539 (4) Enel X - ZIP IN ZIP OUT Truck Stop 1414 Palacios St El Campo, TX 77437 (1) ABM test site 1 for Yoka N Glenbrook Dr Garland, TX 75040 (2) Grubbs Volvo Cars Central Houston 7620 Washington Ave Houston, TX 77007 (2) AM Premier Test Site 11311 N Gessner Dr Houston, TX 77064 (1) GROUP1AUTO CPE250 2 10155 Southwest Fwy Houston, TX 77074 (1) GROUP1AUTO CPE250 ALONE-3 10455 Southwest Fwy Houston, TX 77074 (24) Gigahub - Katy Fwy, Westlake 14401 Katy Fwy Houston, TX 77079 (2) WHOUSTON 250 GENESIS 2 16803 Katy Fwy Houston, TX 77094 (1) KV MAIN CAMPUS KV RETAIL DC 2 145 Avery Rd Kerrville, TX 78028 (1) HONDAOFCLEARLAK EXPP PUBLIC 1 2205 Gulf Fwy S League City, TX 77573 (2) MESSER HYUNDAI CPE250-PAIR2 4025 West Loop 289 Access Road Lubbock, TX 79407 (2) Gene Messer Chevrolet 1303 S Loop 289 Lubbock, TX 79412 (1) WORLD AUTO CHEVYPECOS 181 South Interstate 20 Frontage Road Pecos, TX 79772 (6) Target San Antonio #T0771 2810 Southwest Military Drive San Antonio, TX 78224 (2) RM FORD WEST MFW L3 SERVICE 7111 Northwest Loop 410 Serving Parking San Antonio, TX 78238 (2) RM FORD WEST MFW L3 AUX BLDG 7121 Northwest Loop 410 Auxilary Bldg San Antonio, TX 78238 (2) RM FORD RMF L3 EVB 8333 West Interstate 10 EV Building San Antonio, TX 78257 (2) RM FORD RMF L3 SHOWRM 8333 West Interstate 10 Showroom San Antonio, TX 78257 (1) Silsbee Ford - public 1211 U.S. 96 Silsbee, TX 77656 ➡ UT (1) DAVIS COUNTY UT DCG EAST 61 South Main Street Farmington, UT 84025 ➡ VA (4) Swift Creek 13501 Hull Street Rd Midlothian, VA 23112 (1) LYNX VENTURES STATION 14 DC 0 E 4th St Richmond, VA 23224 ➡ VT (4) Norwich EV - Bradford Charging Center 22 N Main St Bradford, VT 05033 (8) Manchester Center 4993 Main St Manchester, VT 05255 (2) Grace Cottage Hospital 185 Grafton Road Townsend, VT 05353 ➡ WA (2) Yoke's Fresh Market - Deer Park 810 S Main St Deer Park, WA 99006 (1) KIA OF EVERETT KIA OF EVERETT 229 Southwest Everett Mall Way Everett, WA 98204 (1) WCEH City of Pateros 203 Pateros Mall Pateros, WA 98846 (6) ARCO 7091 - 104th Drive NW, Stanwood 26930 104th Drive NW Stanwood, WA 98292 (4) Sumner Cannery Way 13608 Cannery Wy Sumner, WA 98390 (1) RAG - Honda of Sumner 16302 Auto Lane Sumner, WA 98390 ➡ WI (1) TOB CHARGEPOINT SHOWROOM LOT 20655 W Capitol Dr Brookfield, WI 53045 (2) Cadott River Country Plaza 641 Wisconsin 27 Cadott, WI 54727 (2) City of Eau Claire 122 East Madison Street Eau Claire, WI 54703 (2) 29 Pines 5872 33rd Avenue Eau Claire, WI 54703 (2) Hampton Inn And Suites 2610 Pearson Drive Hudson, WI 54016 (1) HEISER TOYOTA 1 CPE250 11301 W Metro Auto Mall Milwaukee, WI 53224 (2) Prime Bar Family Dining null N7294 Service Road Trego, WI 54888 

​

So, I had an idea. It's mainly for a film I am creating. If nobody makes this than I am just going to edit it to *look* like this is what's happening, but I think it would be cool if it actually existed since it's almost certainly possible.
I had the idea for a Ubuntu application of some kind that would allow to plug a BlackBerry Bold 9000 into a Raspberry Pi and use the keyboard and trackball on the phone as a keyboard and mouse on the operating system. Is there any chance somebody more talented than me could develop an application like this?
If you do then I will give you a big credit in my film.
Thanks in advance

Platform(s): i think only mobile
Genre: action-adventure
Estimated year of release: 2009-2012
Graphics/art style: really similar to spelunky, that's the best way i can describe it. also pixel art
Notable characters: the main guy that is the explorer
Notable gameplay mechanics: digging blocks of dirt, placing torches or ropes (?), trying not to fall and die.. MAYBE puzzle? very big maybe
Other details:
i have been looking for this game's name for a while now and i can't find it at all.
i used to play it as a kid so i can't recall much because it was like 10 years ago. i am almost 100% sure i played it on my mom's blackberry (i think it was blackberry 9700), but there is a chance of it being from other cellphone from that time, maybe a samsung from that time
the game was HARD, HARD, at least to me as a kid. my cousin (that was my age) and my mom also thought that it was difficult, so it wasn't just me. the art style and the vibe of the game reminds me of spelunky, cause the main guy was a miner that wears a little hat with a flashlight attached OR like a fedora hat or something.
i even got myself thinking if it really WASN'T spelunky, but i really don't think it was because the pixel art style of it seemed to be a little different and maybe simpler, plus spelunky wasn't even released to cellphones.
i really can't remember what the goal was, but i think we could use a shovel to dig some dirt blocks, and there were traps with holes (?) or giant rocks that could crush us to death. there IS a chance that there were snakes as enemies, but i'm not sure if it's just my mind making it up. maybe there were ropes too as items?
well, that is everything i can remember, i know that it isn't a lot but i would really really appreciate if someone could help me with that :)
*btw i posted first without the template and then edited it, so sorry if it looks messy!

''Welcome, my guest, to the palace of Jericho!''
The prince said, waving his hands around, as we made it past the massive doors. Inside, a view very few peasants ever saw in their lives. Of absurdly tall ceilings, of intricate pillars, of statues commemorating past monarchs and high-standing officials. I Dieudonné couldn't believe my eyes, and followed the prince, savoring every sight and every second.
''Tell me, where would you like to have tea? We can go to the royal terrace, the balcony, the inner gardens...'' The prince asked me, as we made our way up the stairs of the atrium. I scratched my head and wondered, what would be the smartest answer?
''Well you see, I've always wanted to see what a prince's chamber would look like... If that's not asking too much of you, my liege.''
The prince turned around, with an annoying look on his face. ''Listen, you don't have to be so formal. Let's just be friends and enjoy ourselves.''
I jumped on the opportunity and raced to him, slapping him on his back, telling him how glad I was. ''But I don't want to be your friend just because you're the prince, don't get me wrong. I just like clever people is all'' I told him, and I saw him smile, through his nose and eyebrow gold chain, scintillating in the light of the hundreds of candles and torches around us.
Alone in the private chamber of the prince, I sat on the pillow on the ground, next to a low wooden table. My new friend the prince poured water in a kettle and put it over the fire. I wondered, why in the world would he make his own tea?
''Tell me, why not ask a servant?'' I finally asked him.
''Well I wouldn't really be treating you for tea, then, would I?'' He replied, walking toward me with a wooden box.
I made sure not to show any greed on my face, yet I couldn't stop wondering if that box was a present for me, considering the sheer luck I had of meeting the prince by chance, and becoming his friend as well. The prince put the box down in front of me, and opened it, revealing dozens of compartments, each holding fine quality ingredients, such as colorful powders, seeds like anis and cardamom, cinnamon bark and so many others I had never seen before.
''Tell me, what's your favourite tea? Do you like sweet, or bitter, hot or cold? Spiced or not?''
I Dieudonné was outmatched for once. I admitted I had no knowledge in tea whatsoever. ''I only know the dry, black one, that you break appart..''
The prince had a surprised look on his face; ''You mean tea bricks? I didn't think you'd be one of those types...''
I asked him what he meant by that, and he explained that people's taste in tea reveals a lot about themselves, who they are truly. I thought it incredibly funny how he needed tea preferences to tell the nature of people, when all I needed was to look at their face. But I rather enjoyed his little trick, this prince wasn't as stupid as people are usually...
''If I could have any tea, I'd have orange tea. I just don't think it's appropriate to ask for that, since you've already been so generous to me.''
For once I was being honest with him. I wouldn't dream of telling him the whole story about my father and the orange, the incense, but it felt good for once to tell the truth. The prince smiled and closed the wooden box, its overwhelming aroma taken away. He rushed out and left me all alone, in his room. For once in my life, I heard it. Complete silence. If not for the occasional crackling of the fire.
I Dieudonné closed my eyes and relaxed. I couldn't wait to sip on orange tea! Insidiously Greed got a hold on me once more, and I got up on my feet, remembering my plan, my princely plan...
I stepped around the room, looking at everything. The comically large bed, the white silken bedsheets, the pillows filled with feathers. The bookshelves full of not only books and scrolls but also of trinkets like a globe of the earth, a telescope and most intriguing of all a tiny chest, half-opened. I could see, if I got close enough, coins perhaps?
I kept listening to any coming footsteps, so as not to be caught in the act, but the kettle started boiling and whistling. I had to get back to my seat but my body was moving on its own! Only one of these gold coins would give me the life of a prince, if only for a single day... And the door opened. I shifted my gaze to the telescope, pretending not to hear the prince coming in, to be fascinated by the instrument.
''Tell me, do you look at the stars sometimes?'' The prince asked me, in his hands, a bowl, filled with orange powder.
''I don't think I've spent a single night not looking at the stars'' I lied, looking at him smiling.
He placed the bowl on the table, brought over the kettle, as I took my seat once more, just before stealing a last look at the tiny chest in the bookshelf. From under the table he took out a tea making kit, with a few cups, a tray and two peculiar statuettes, representing a dragon and a sheep.
I sat there and looked at my new friend, the prince of Jericho, brew orange tea. He gave me a tiny hourglass, instructing me to flip it over once he pours the boiling water on the tea. Instantly the aroma filled the chamber, and I noticed we both started smiling. I brought my cup closer yet to my surprise he poured the tea over the statuettes, wasting the tea.
''Why waste it?'' I couldn't help asking. He laughed and explained how the first steep is merely to wash the tea, and is offered to the tea pets. I sat there, nodding, arms crossed. Ah yes. It seems the prince is a tea connoisseur! I couldn't help but think he just wanted to show off to me, his new friend.
The prince poured the water once more, I flipped the hourglass once more, and he offered me the first cup. I brought it to my nose and Heavens did it smell good. I dipped my lips into it but at that instant I thought about Daysha, how happy she would've been to be here right now, and what she was doing instead, for my sake..
The tea was surprisingly bitter, yet so aromatic! The prince laughed and laughed, and poured himself a cup. His laugh was surprisingly familiar, much akin to the ones of my neighboors back in my hometown. He gulped down his tea and got up, clapping his hands. I did the same and saw him run to the telescope. He brought it over to the window, and gestured me to come over. Stargazing now, are we?
He took a few minutes to set everything up, while I waited outside on the balcony. The view was already incredible, overlooking the inner palace and most of Jericho as well. From here I could see the plaza, but not beyond the tall walls. The prince finally said it's ready, and I got closer, curious as to what that tool could show me that I couldn't see with my eyes. Stars are stars after all.
But what I saw, in that strange little tube was not a star but an orange, stripy ball, with some bright dots around it... What in the world?
''That, my friend, is Al-Mushtari, as the arabs call it. We call it Jupiter, the greatest god of them all!''
To gaze at gods themselves! I fell on my butt, suddenly dizzy. The prince laughed and looked through the telescope as well, smiling ever more. At that moment I really wanted to leave, but also to make sure I'd see the prince again, for my plan hinged on that.
''My prince I must thank you for your hospitality. What pleasure to share tea and spy on the gods with his majesty-'' I started, but he turned toward me with a puzzled look on his face.
''Don't tell me, you're off already?''
I explained to him how I just got to Jericho today, and that I had to get back to my sister and uncle, and he stopped me once more;
''Well remember, then. I'll meet you tomorrow morning at the plaza. I truly wish to meet this family of yours, and offer my blessings. Take care now, my friend.''
And for the first time in my life, the man I was talking to had the face of a friend, and I didn't know what to think for a while. He walked me out in silence, and shook my hand, leaving in it a tiny bag. I smiled and walked out, escorted by the palace guards, inspecting in my hand yet another present from the prince; more of that orange tea powder.
Standing there in front of the metal gate of the palace, that closed behind me, I felt somewhat alone, if only for an instant. I am, after all, Dieudonné, a man that is truly free. Yet I couldn't help but look forward to meeting my new friend again, the prince. And gifting the orange tea to my foolish sister, as an apology. Yet beyond that, the dark clouds that were my princely plans loomed over all.
Making my way back to the fruit shop, I couldn't help but think back on Daysha and that tall man Lemarcus. As much of a fool as she is, my sister truly saved me there, and made it possible to meet the prince as well. This present may not be much, but I hope it'll show her how grateful I am of her help. Though she did owe me one...
The streets of Jericho were unusually quiet and empty. Some loners were here and there, smoking and drinking. Others were hurrying their steps, as if late to some important meeting. How miserable. At that moment I Dieudonné realized I was one of them! One more of these rats, scurrying about in the dead of night, hurrying toward the void that is their lives!
No matter what face I have truly, that of a prince or of a peasant, what matters are my actions. No more of this! I know what to do, to become prince at last, and fate itself landed me a hand! Yes, I will go forth with my plan, no matter what. For the life of a prince is the only life worthy for me.
I passed under a low banner and in this dark alleyway I thought back on Daquan, that guard I had poisonned so cleverly. I couldn't help smiling, and I didn't really like what that meant about me. Is killing a man that simple? Behind me, a fool, coughing and stumbling, his breathing raspy and annoying. I hurried my steps, as I was close to the fruit shop, but it seemed like the sick fool behind me hurried as well. I turned around briefly, and in the feeble moonlight I saw his bearded, scarred face, no longer that of a gambler, but that of a vengeful killer. We crossed eyes and he yelled ''Dieudonné you peasant!''
I didn't like that. I faced him, separated by a few dozen meters, surrounded by boxes and garbage bins and low hanging banners. We were completely alone here in the alleyway, and the only thing I could hear was his struggling breathing, and his coughing, as he was hurrying toward me, holding something in his hand, what, a knife?
I Dieudonné had enough of that man. No matter how grateful I was of the hand of fate, bringing me closer to my goal using that despicable man, I decided to finish what I had started.
''What, you want to kill me, good guard?'' I taunted him, looking at his curved dagger in his shaky hand. Daquan coughed once more and leaped toward me, screaming, murder in his eyes, but he was so slow from the rat poison. I punched his arm and his dagger fell on the ground loudly. ''What did you do to me?'' he shouted, his face so close to me I could smell his incoming death. I remember just how ugly and pityful he seemed to me. He had the face of an angry child, throwing a tantrum for having his favourite toy taken away.
''You deserve this, you failure of a man..'' I whispered, as I grabbed him by the neck. His bloodshot eyes then filled with fear, with dread, and at that moment I let go of him, frightened. What was I trying to do?
But Daquan reached for his dagger once more and I remembered my vow. To do whatever it takes. ''I can't die, for I become prince tomorrow.'' And so I kicked his face and his belly, I turned him on his back and pummeled his face, his gambler face, and ignored whatever he was trying to say to me, until his weak arms couldn't stay up anymore.
I didn't notice rain had started, and I got up from down there, my fists bloodied in red, my head aching. I looked down at the dagger and laughed, what a ridiculous tool. I pushed Daquan to the side of the alley, under a few boxes and a fallen banner, and I spat on him, as he extended his hand to me, begging for help. ''Die as the rat you are..''
I ran away from there, back to the fruit shop. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh at the top of my lungs or collapse and cry. All I wanted was to be alone. I made it to a crossway, and looking around I- well I was lost. Where the hell am I? What am I doing here?
Tall dark buildings. Banners whirling in the wind, wires flailing about, crows cawing, flying around high above me, under the feeble rain. I looked to one side, and the other, I couldn't tell the difference! Where is Daysha, where is the black lake, and my hometown? Why am I here, in this hellish city, alone, my hands stained with murder?
I noticed I was shaking, and couldn't breathe properly, and my mind was spiraling, how dizzy I felt. I sat down, there in a dark corner of an alley, and I placed boxes over me, and covered my feet with a fallen banner, and tried to sleep, just to escape. I tried to sleep just to see if all that really happened. I tried to sleep and realized once more, I was nothing different from Daquan! Here I was, same as him, except I'm to keep living in this shithole of a life I have been so proud of living.
I, Dieudonné, thought of suicide for the first time that night.
The crows woke me up once more, not their cawing but their beaks! I jumped awake and chased the black birds away. Did they think I had died? As if I would die such a meaningless death... My head was aching all the more, and I got up, trying to piece out where I was exactly. I was just a few buildings away from the flower shop actually. All around me, the bustling life of Jericho had started anew, in the early hours of the morning. The sun had just started to rise, and a soft breeze washed away my worries, if only for an instant.
I Dieudonné entered the fruit shop, nonchalantly, my hands in my pocket, for they were still bruised. But no one was there. I was expecting Daysha, ready to jump in my arms, and the tall Lemarcus to be standing in his doorframe in the back, reeking of tobacco. Only the parrot greeted me, with his usual ''Thief, thief, thief I say!''
But I had had enough of that, and as I made my way to the back of the shop I shooed the bird with my hands. Upon seeing my bloodied, bruised knuckles the parrot flew away screeching ''Murderer! Thief! Murderer!'' and I froze. Did I really kill that man? And not by poison, with my own two hands? I walked in the bathroom there, and I noticed a big tall mirror. I made sure not to see my reflection. I jumped in the shower and washed away the dreadful night, to be ready for the dreadful day I become prince at last.
All ready I walked to Lemarcus's door, and knocked quietly. ''Daysha?''
I heard some rustlings, a few steps, and my sister whispered as well from beyond the closed door. ''Go away Dieudonné. I don't want to see you ever again. What a brother you are.''
Her words hit me like a brick. I kneeled down and slid under the door the little bag of orange tea, the prince had given me. ''All I want to say is, I'm sorry.'' I told her. And I meant it.
I heard her pick it up, and scuffle back to the bed. I heard Lemarcus's voice, and Daysha's voice, such loving words, and I was taken aback. I thought she would hate him!
I stole some lotion in the bathroom for my knuckles, thank you Lemarcus. I made haste for the plaza, for the prince himself was waiting for me. On the way there, I could hear faint music, festivities, growing louder and louder. I hurried my steps, much like a child would do, and low and behold a full on festival was taking place, with dozens of musicians playing drums, flutes, lutes and others singing. Dragons and sheeps were dancing to the music, their big colorful bodies going up and down, moved by the many feets beneath them. Kids were running around, petals were falling from Jericho's sky and a new, bold banner was erected, its calligraphy impeccable : Tea Festival.
And there, standing alone at the entrance of the plaza, the prince. Approaching him I noticed his smile, and how relaxed he looked. I took the time to really look at him, at the gold chains on his face, at his crown, at his clothes so elegant. On his face I saw the face of a happy man, and I didn't like that.
He saw me at last and ran toward me, smiling, his eyes full of life. I noticed around him, the people, recognizing their prince, and smiling, and bowing, and I could see how respected he was. I thought, back then, about just how badly I needed that, just how badly I needed everyone to look up to me, to worship me. My vow strenghtened once more, and hugging my new friend smiling I could only think of murder, of deceit.
We entered the fruit shop, and it was still empty, the closed door of Lemarcus in the back there made me wonder if they were still in or out. No matter. All I needed was a few minutes. ''I'd like to treat you to tea, as well, as we wait for my family.'' I told the prince, and he sat down. How glad I was of the parrot not being there, that irritating creature. To my surprise the prince said ''I always wanted to taste that tea brick of yours!'' and I couldn't help laughing.
The kettle whistling, just like it did the day before at the palace, I poured into it the harsh bits of black tea. A far cry from the expensive ingredients of the prince. I told him to bring over a few blackberries, how nicely would they go with our black tea. In the meantime I poured myself a cup, and quickly threw in the rest of the rat poison I had bought the day before in the kettle. I exhaled and closed my eyes for a second. The prince came back and pretended to throw a berry in my mouth, laughing. And he did, a perfect throw! How oblivious can the prince be?
''So, my prince, what are you planning to do today?'' I asked him, pouring down his death sentence in his tiny cup.
The bitter, almost poor aroma of the leaves surrounded us, and as he lifted his cup he told me how he didn't have much planned today, and that they could perhaps spend time at the tea festival. I looked deeply in his eyes, waiting for him to drink his tea at last.
Right then the backdoor opened, and tobacco filled the air, to my annoyance. The prince put down his cup and got up, bowing to the tall man and the curly woman looking at us. Right there I cursed the heavens, and slammed my cup on the table.
''My sister Daysha, uncle Lemarcus, please meet my new friend, the prince of Jericho!'' I proclaimed, a bit too loudly.
I remember the look on lemarcus's face, his squinty eyes, pinning me down, I could tell he didn't like me. Once again Daysha proved to be a useful fool and grabbed his arm, dragging him toward us.
The prince sat back down, and offered them to share tea with us. I got up and took the kettle, saying how I'll just make a new batch, but the prince insisted. ''As you told me yesterday, why waste it?''
Of course I wanted the prince to drink it and die, so that I could take his place. And I didn't mind if that man lemarcus dies, for I despised him. But I didn't want Daysha my sister to die such a meaningless death!
''Very well, but Daysha, you won't like it. Why don't you bring us some refreshments instead?'' I proposed, trying to get her to look me in the eyes, and notice what was going on. But the fool was clutching at lemarcus's arm, smiling, and told me she'll just add my present to the tea, that she took out.
The orange tea I gifted her! And so the prince took it upon himself to pour two more cups to Daysha and Lemarcus. She added the bright orange powder to her cup, and also to everyone's cups, smiling.
Daysha asked a few questions to the prince, as they ate berries, holding their lethal cups, warming their hands. I Dieudonné sat there, and debated if I should just flip the table and maybe punch lemarcus, as a pretext to stop everyone from drinking the tea. After all, I'd get another chance sooner or later.
I looked down at my cup, and catched a glimpse of my reflection, amidst the scintillating of the orange powder, much akin to the prince's golden chains on his face, and at once the fountain of greed within me sprang anew. Damn it all!
She's a fool, he's a lustful man, and he's the prince I'm meant to be!
''Now, let's drink to our new friendship!''
And I burned my throat, gulping down the tea, not even tasting it. I slammed the cup on the table, and to my horror, to my bliss, they all did the same.
With how much rat poison I had put in the tea, the effects would start rather soon. My sister, with rosy cheeks, asked me ''Dieudonné, you told us your friend is the prince, yes, but you never told us his name?''
And at that I couldn't hold my laughters, it was too much for me.
''Yes, you never did ask for my name, even after you told me you didn't care about me being prince...''
We all grew silent. The prince added, smiling, ''Tell me, are we really friends?''
This is when they started dying.
Coughing, and retching, and all that. I dragged Daysha and Lemarcus to their room, making my best impression of someone worried for his friends, for his sister. She held my arm, and in her eyes, the same fear in saw in Daquan the day before. She whispered, in my ear, how she wanted to give me a present, as thanks for bringing her with me here to Jericho. She placed in my hand, orange incense. We both got teary eyes. I told her, once again, for the last time, ''I'm sorry.''
I closed the backdoor. Alone once again with the prince, I towered over him. He was asking for a glass of water, and to go fetch a guard, to bring him back to the palace.
I lied to him once again ''Now, my friend. I have an antidote, but first you have to tell me everything I need to know about you, about the prince of Jericho.''
He was shocked, and couldn't breathe for a few seconds. I fell to my knees and slapped him. I told him ''You see, my friend, I'll take your place as prince, and become the man I was always meant to be.''
At that the prince struggled to laugh, holding my arms; ''I was never the prince! I did just like you, Dieudonné my friend. I took the jewels and the clothes and the knowledge of the last prince, and I made myself prince.''
I got up, and stared him down. He added ''And the prince before that! All pretending, all greedy, all imposters!''
He struggled to get up, fell to his knees, and whispered to me, holding my legs ''I have only ever showed you kindness, generosity, friendship... And you would kill me, and take my place?''
I saw, at that moment, the prince had the face of despair. I pushed him down on the ground, and I couldn't help but cry as I removed his clothes, his crown, and painstakingly removed his golden chains, the true symbol of his majesty.
All the while the prince was laying there on the ground, staring at the ceiling. He tells me, his voice raspy and his breathing short; ''So you'll get my haircut, get some new piercings, wear my clothes and my jewels... So you'll be the new prince of Jericho... Will that satisfy you?''
I froze. I looked down to him. he added, pleading;
''Will you at least spare me, your friend? I'll tell you everything you need to know, the name of the servants, how you should act, secrets, all of it. Just give me the antidote, and give Daysha and Lemarcus the antidote. And go, I'll forget about you, Dieudonné, the man I thought was my friend.''
He told me everything, and I lied to him once more, about how the antidote will save his life. I made him drink some of my tea, and he smiled. I asked him his name, and he told me, crying.
But I forgot.
As I walked out, the parrot rushed in, yelling ''Murderer! Murderer! Thief!'' Once more.
The next day, I was walking down the main road, on my way to the palace of Jericho. On my face, the gold chains, on my head, the crown. And adorning me, clothes beffiting of a prince. And on everyone's faces, admiration, love, respect.
I held my head high, and smiled broadly, for at last I was a prince, with the face of a prince. What bliss.
I entered the palace, and made haste to my chamber, where a few days ago I drank tea and laughed with the previous prince. I jumped on the bed, took a nap. Never slept better in my whole life. I awoke and filled my pockets with gold coins, emeralds and ivory. I demanded a servant to make me some orange tea, but I didn't drink it, I wasted it.
I pushed open the bathroom door, avoiding the mirror once more. And there, the bathtub of a prince, with lotions and soaps and warm water on tap. I poured myself a bath, filled with all the luxury products I could find. I reached for my pocket and took out the orange incense Daysha had given me, before dying of my hand.
I placed it down on the counter, in front of the mirror, and lit it, its fragrance, taking me all the way back to my hometown, to little Daysha and my family.
I glimpsed at the mirror at last, looking at my perfect reflection. Never before had I seen my face so clearly, if not from the still surface of the cursed lake. In the flickering of the candles, I saw the face of a murderer. I saw the face of a thief. I saw the face of a spiteful man.
I couldn't take it anymore, I punched the mirror, reopening my wounds on my knuckles. The mirror cracked, and my reflection was mutliplied. I looked at my bloodshot eyes, at my golden chains, at my stupid haircut, and I grabbed the golden chains and screamed as I tore them with all my force. Blood gushing out, pieces of my nose, my ear and my eyebrow, at the tip of the golden chains. I threw away the crown and tore down my clothes, drops of red staining the royal floor, as I ran away toward the exit, toward the roads of Jericho.
Outside, I walked around, aimlessly, my mind, numb. I was just so tired of it all. So what if I was prince at last?
There, walking toward me, peeling away his orange, the tall man in the white hat, the blind man, the man with the wise face. He puts a hand on my shoulder, and says, as if to himself :
''Ah! There is the man with the cursed face. Welcome to Jericho!''
Thank you so much for reading, please leave a comment! I would love to read your thoughts-

I've bought a BlackBerry bold 9780, to be used as a second phone and for nostalgia reasons. The original battery is unfortunately become spicy, so I ordered a replacement (X- longer CS-BR9900FX) The battery seems to be a bit too short, but I have it pressed against the metal pins with some folded paper.
When it's on the charger I get the battery icon with an X through it. Like it's not detecting the battery. Pictures in the imgur link.
What could be the issue? Thanks to the folded paper the battery makes good contact with the metal pins, not the cleanest solution I know
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/W4m2DDI

In the bustling streets of Dubai, where luxury meets innovation, Porsche cars reign supreme as symbols of prestige and performance. These precision-engineered cars embody the epitome of automotive excellence, demanding meticulous care and expert attention to maintain their optimal functionality. For Porsche enthusiasts in Dubai, ensuring top-notch performance involves not just routine maintenance but also exploring upgrades and modifications tailored to enhance driving experiences. Let's delve into the realm of Porsche car repair in Dubai and uncover the possibilities for elevating performance through innovative enhancements.

Upgrades for Porsche Car Repair in Dubai

Dubai's vibrant automotive scene offers a plethora of options for Porsche owners seeking repairs and upgrades. From routine servicing to specialized modifications, the city boasts a range of workshops and service centres catering to the unique needs of luxury car enthusiasts. When it comes to Porsche car repair in Dubai, discerning owners prioritize expertise, quality, and reliability.
One of the key aspects of enhancing performance lies in selecting the right upgrades and modifications tailored to suit individual preferences and driving styles. Whether it's boosting horsepower, improving handling, or refining aesthetics, the possibilities are endless. From exhaust system enhancements to suspension upgrades and custom tuning, each modification is aimed at elevating the driving experience to new heights.
In the realm of Porsche car repair in Dubai, performance tuning emerges as a popular choice among enthusiasts looking to extract maximum power and efficiency from their cars. Through meticulous engine remapping and tuning, skilled technicians fine-tune the engine parameters to optimize performance while ensuring reliability and longevity. This precision engineering transforms ordinary drives into exhilarating experiences, unleashing the full potential of Porsche's engineering prowess.
Furthermore, enhancing enhancements play a significant role in personalizing and elevating the aesthetics of Porsche cars. From bespoke paint finishes to carbon fibre accents and aftermarket body kits, owners have a myriad of options to make a bold statement on the road. By collaborating with skilled craftsmen and utilizing premium materials, these modifications not only enhance visual appeal but also showcase individuality and style.
Amidst the thriving automotive landscape of Dubai, DME Auto Repairing emerges as a beacon of excellence in Porsche car repair. Renowned for its commitment to quality craftsmanship and unparalleled expertise, DME Auto Repairing caters to the discerning needs of Porsche enthusiasts with a comprehensive range of services. From routine maintenance and repairs to performance upgrades and custom modifications, their team of experienced technicians ensures that every Porsche receives the attention it deserves.
At DME Auto Repairing, meticulous attention to detail is the cornerstone of every service, ensuring that each Porsche is restored to its pristine condition. With advanced facilities and cutting-edge diagnostic equipment, they leverage the latest technologies to deliver superior results. Whether it's diagnosing complex issues, conducting precision alignments, or executing intricate modifications, their skilled technicians approach every task with unwavering dedication and expertise.
Moreover, DME Auto Repairing prides itself on fostering a culture of transparency and integrity, prioritizing customer satisfaction above all else. Their commitment to excellence extends beyond technical proficiency to encompass personalized service and transparent communication, ensuring that every client receives a bespoke experience tailored to their unique requirements.
In conclusion, enhancing the performance of Porsche cars in Dubai goes beyond routine maintenance, encompassing a world of possibilities through upgrades and modifications. With a wealth of options available, discerning owners can personalize their cars to reflect their individual tastes and preferences while elevating driving experiences to unprecedented levels. Amidst the myriad of choices, DME Auto Repairing stands out as a trusted partner for Porsche enthusiasts, offering unrivalled expertise and unparalleled service in the realm of car repair and modification. With DME Auto Repairing, excellence isn't just a goal—it's a guarantee.

I've always been a girl who loves animals, and now that I have two pet rabbits, both adoped within the last year, I am extra excited about the return of Nui Cobalt's Critters collection! This collection isn't entirely sweet cuddly woodland creatures, but it does have a lot of those, including three of my all-time favorite Nui Cobalts: Little Brown Rabbit, Little White Rabbit, and Lilac Rabbit. When Forest posted in the Facebook group asking which Critters we'd like to see return, or which animals we'd love to see emerge as new Critters, I waxed rhapsodic about the Rabbits and suggested a bunch of other colorings of rabbits that could become amazing perfumes... so I'm hopeful that we might even get a new Rabbit this year. I would just about die of happiness if she really did make a Blue Otter Rabbit after my sweet bun Hazel. She also teased a Ladybug scent for this year, which would be SO CUTE!
Anyway, the Critters are due back this Friday, with the newsletter announcing them on Thursday, and I am excited. As usual, I thought I'd post my thoughts on all the past Critters I've tried in case that might help you formulate your wishlist. And if you've tried any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Was your experience similar to mine?
My preferences: I especially love snuggly scents, incense, golden amber, cardamom, black tea, beeswax, non-gourmand vanillas, and white florals (particularly tiare, honeysuckle and tuberose; sadly I am allergic to lilies and jasmine doesn’t work on me). I don't like hay, overly sweet gourmands, excessive musk, dragon’s blood, leather, patchouli, labdanum, or any really dark scents in general. To my great devastation, Nui Cobalt’s apricot and pear notes don’t tend to work on me, though I haven’t given up hope and I continue to try new blends with those notes occasionally.
Most of these perfumes were provided as press samples by Nui Cobalt in exchange for an honest review.
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Rabbits

Little Brown Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against fluffy marshmallow, cottonflower, pink pepper, and a trace of carrot seed] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round!) - This is one of my absolute top perfume oils. It comforts me on hard days, it cozies me on laid-back evenings, it cheers me on rainy days. My husband recognizes it immediately and honestly I think he finds it cuddly too when I'm wearing it, and it's also his primary frame of reference when he sniffs a new sample I'm trying - "that smells a bit like Little Brown Rabbit" is high praise from him. Wet, it's very strongly nutmeg and caramel, almost mapley, but also with just a bit of pepperish bite from the carrot seed - this is as gourmand as I'm willing to get. Once it dries, the caramel dissipates and it becomes the most marvelously snuggly scent. Having a bad day? Little Brown Rabbit can cheer you up. Having a cozy day? Little Brown Rabbit will make it that much better. Wanting to unwind in the evening? Little Brown Rabbit is my go-to snuggly evening scent. And I think it's the absolute must-try from Nui Cobalt.
Little White Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against cottonflower, white peppercorn, clove, vanilla marshmallow creme, pale blue cashmere, carrot seed, and honeyed almond] - When the news broke that NCD was releasing a new little rabbit variant two years ago, I was SO excited (little did I know that it would seemingly become an annual thing!), and I blind-bought a full-size (something I never do). Especially because Little White Rabbit adds that wonderful cashmere note to Little Brown Rabbit, this one was a no-brainer for me, and my trust was easily rewarded. Nui Cobalt has outdone themselves with this, their most snuggly of perfumes. I expected this to be a lot like LBR only less mapley and perhaps more cashmere-y (and yes, it is both of these things), but truly, LWR feels even more like it's built on a base of Spidersilk vanilla (Starlight and Spidersilk: [Slender strands of cotton flower hung with trembling dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, and tiny black vanilla beans]), with some of the LBR spices (the peppercorn and carrot seed, but I don't sense any cloves) plus the comforting warmth of the cashmere and almond of Silver Fox (see below), another favorite of mine. And then finally, the marshmallow ties it all together into a pillowy cloud of coziness. It's frankly astonishing. Love at first sniff even just from the vial, and on my skin it blossoms into the most comforting scent. Do I love it even more than LBR? I still can't tell, even years later. I love them both. One final note that may be helpful to some of you: the cottonflower is pretty strong with this one, which is part of why it reminds me so much of the Spidersilk vanilla, but if you're not so much a fan of "clean" laundry-like scents, this one might not be quite your cup of tea - go for LBR instead.
Lilac Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against toasted marshmallow, carrot seed, summerweight cotton, allspice, and pale lilac in a smooth fur accord] - Oh friends, I hoped and pleaded for another new Rabbit last year, and the universe (and Nui Cobalt) answered! I'm not actually all that fond of lilac and I think I have ended up destashing all of my perfumes with lilac notes, but I was willing to risk it for the chance of a floral Rabbit. Lilac Rabbit is gorgeous - but really, did you expect it to be anything else? I get primarily marshmallow, allspice, and cotton. It sits exactly halfway between the other two Rabbits, with the allspice and peppery carrot seed spices of Little Brown Rabbit (but without the maple quality), and also with the silky, slightly soapy fabric aspect of Little White Rabbit. There is perhaps just a touch of musky lilac, but it doesn't really read to me like a floral perfume. Lilac Rabbit is comfortable. The closest metaphor I can think of is a day when you're wearing a new outfit, one that fits perfectly and really suits you, but it's also completely comfy, with no itchy spots or seams that dig in, and it moves with you. It's like a day where you feel perfectly yourself, fully at ease, and completely put-together. This new Rabbit is everything I could have possibly dreamed of, and it immediately became one of my favorite spring & summer scents.

Squirrels

In past years, they've offered a complete set of all the Squirrels, which was how I tried them all a few years ago. (They've since been discontinued, but sometimes discontinued things return again, or perhaps you might run into one in the swaps, so I'll include all my Squirrel reviews here.) All of the Squirrels are built on the same base of almond + apricot + benzoin, and then each one has different additional notes. Like the Spidersilk variants (all built on the same Spidersilk vanilla base but with different additional notes - my reviews HERE), the Squirrels each have an entirely different vibe. Interestingly, the actual proportion of almond to apricot also seems to vary by Squirrel, perhaps because of the interactions with the different added notes, or perhaps because they actually use different proportions in the Squirrel base for each one. It means that they don't feel anything like near-exact copies of each other, but each have a really distinct identity.
Black Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, deepened by black oak, black currant, vanilla bean, and myrrh] - When I first put it on, it's very strongly and exclusively almond - a warm almond that reminds me of baking almond cookies, and it must be the vanilla that helps to make that association. The almond veers slightly towards cherry. As the oil warms on my skin, the apricot emerges and then overtakes the almond. It's apricot skin, soft and velvety, rather than the fleshy fruit of the apricot. These two notes, paired with the woodiness of the balsam and (presumably) black oak, makes this a very bookish scent, perfect for the dark academia aesthetic of my wardrobe in autumn. It's not really an incense-heavy perfume; the myrrh just grounds it and gives it a beautiful dark richness. On me it's not terribly fruity (though I know some folks get mostly dark stone fruits; isn't skin chemistry fascinating!) It's the longest-lasting of the Squirrels, too - the second time I wore it, its throw was a bit too high at bedtime so I washed my wrists, and even so, I could still smell Black Squirrel the next morning!
Flying Squirrel [Raw almond, spiced apricot, and rich benzoin borne aloft by lavender, cotton flower, and tart kumquat] - This one reminds me a lot of Napping in a Flower [Tender ripe apricot, Bulgarian lavender, spiced summer honey, plum blossom, daylily, honeysuckle, and ylang], which makes perfect sense since they share a lot of the same notes, but without the honey and honeysuckle that made Napping too candle-y on me. Husband said this reminds him strongly of Little White Rabbit - he said it's the spices that make that association for him, and I suspect he was also picking up on the shared cotton flower and almond notes. I'm finding it easier to compare Flying Squirrel to other NCD scents than to describe it on its own; its combination of notes feels quite erratic and the concept doesn't feel terribly unified. I couldn't classify this as a "cozy" perfume even though it does have a strong cotton flower note, nor is it citrusy enough for me to think of it as a fruity perfume (even though it has the strongest apricot of all the Squirrels), or herbal enough for it to go in my lavender section (in fact, I'm hoping that some aging brings out the lavender more). If you like Napping in a Flower or Little White Rabbit - two perfumes that are really nothing alike! - you'd probably enjoy this one too.
Grey Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, softened with cotton flower, cashmere, and teakwood] - This one gives the effect of eating an almond cookie while snuggled in a wool blanket. This one is super cozy - the autumn cousin of my beloved wintertime snuggly scents (Silver Fox, Snow Cat, Chionophilia, all of which also feature almond and fabric notes - see their full notes lists and my comparative reviews HERE). Grey Squirrel stays pretty static, not morphing like Black Squirrel, and the apricot is only barely present.
Red Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, warmed with red musk, red sandalwood, and smoldering amber] - This one is pretty heavy on the red musk, and was in fact partly responsible for me finally figuring out that I don't personally enjoy red musk. The almond, apricot, and sandalwood combination does give this a rather gourmand-adjacent feel to it, more so than the other Squirrels. It's a very rich and warm perfume. It's funny how actually "red" this scent feels - it feels like the experience of watching a bonfire die down, even though there's no smoke note at all. "Smoldering" indeed.
White Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, cooled with aloe, white musk, and smooth white amber] - Even without looking at the notes, it was easy to identify the white amber in this one, even though Nui Cobalt only infrequently uses white amber as a note. White Squirrel is very like Grey Squirrel, equally cozy but lighter and airier, with that white amber instead of cashmere. White Squirrel is cooler, more standoffish than Grey Squirrel - that "cool" effect must be the aloe - more a wintertime snuggly scent rather than an autumnal cozy scent. Even the now-familiar almond + apricot base feels daintier and even less foody here in White Squirrel.
Overall--

• Grey Squirrel and White Squirrel are the snuggly ones. Wear Grey Squirrel for cozy blanket vibes, and White Squirrel to be even daintier.
• Wear Red Squirrel for sexy outdoorsy gourmandy vibes (is that a thing? I think Red Squirrel makes it a thing)
• Black Squirrel is the dark academia sibling, and Flying Squirrel is the playful cousin

All the other Critters

Akhal-Teke [Fine ecru suede, raw silk, pearl musk, white amber, precious Hawaiian sandalwood, and creamy pistachio] - As someone put it, "super shiny horse". Silky yet fuzzy and soft, sophisticated yet snuggly. I recognize that pearl musk + sandalwood combination from Cancer [Cotton flower, steamed rice, soft sandalwood, vanilla orchid, coconut milk, and pearl musk] and I love it here too. All of these notes, suede + silk + pearl musk + white amber + sandalwood together, are gentle and just the epitome of softness, yet with just enough body and presence to be soft-on-purpose, assertively soft if that makes sense. This is not a wallflower scent. On to more specifics about the literal smell. At first, the nutty pistachio is pretty present, but it melds beautifully with the gentle suede. The silk and white amber give an elegance. I also definitely get the pearl musk and sandalwood, which take more prominence in the drydown when the pistachio dissipates a bit. This is my favorite stage - just soft, gentle, creamy, and absolutely lovely. Akhal-Teke has low throw but high longevity. I should note that after a year of aging, the pistachio amped quite a lot, overpowering that gorgeous pearl musk/sandalwood base that I loved so much. I'm hoping someday Forest might make one that's basically just pearl musk and sandalwood, without any gourmand elements!
Black-Capped Chickadee [Dogwood saplings, cedar resin, the tang of young stone fruits: still tiny and green, sugar maple, pine nuts, and barely-thawed soil] - I'm not one for dirt notes, so I completely passed this one up for several years, but enough really glowing reviews finally convinced me to try it. In the vial, it smells of wood, honeyed fruits, and hay. On my skin, it's soil, slightly nutty and incensey, with plush fruit and some very cedar-forward wood notes - and yet it's surprisingly dainty, and a perfect encapsulation of a black-capped chickadee. There's something about this scent that reminds me of snow-covered pebbles, and also of Shakespeare's poem "The cloud-capp'd towers" from The Tempest. After much sniffing and pondering, I finally figured out why I made that snowy association - the fruits read to me like cranberry, making this feel like a wintery scent. As for "The cloud-capp'd towers," I think I'm getting that Shakespearean reference from the combination of daintiness and dirt.
Blossom Bat [Humid rainforest blossoms laden with nectar, dense moss, passionfruit, black fig, and bamboo] - This was an order freebie that I wouldn't have picked out for myself, but it's so fun, and it went straight into my "Aloe and dewy" section of my summer perfumes, next to Waimea Mist and Aloha from the Big Island summer collection. Blossom Bat is velvety flower petals against a lush background of aquatic notes. I don't often enjoy moss notes (they often turn into honeydew melon on my skin), but here the moss contributes to the especially verdant feeling.
Blue Jay [Sturdy blue spruce and young oak support the bold elegance of white peony, angelica, blackberry bramble, and rhubarb] - In the vial, it's extremely fruity with a hint of trees. On my skin, it matches the description much more closely: evergreens and forest floor, brightened by fruity sweetness and a hint of floral. If you loved None of Your Beeswax [Thorny brambles of blackberry, elderflower, violet, fennel seed, sacred benzoin, and unfiltered honey] from the Bees collection, do give this one a try - Blue Jay is like None of Your Beeswax's summer cousin. I once wore this to a community theater production of Into the Woods and it was perfect.
Copper Fox [Warm chai with steamed almond milk nestled in sumptuous cashmere, crimson musk, sarsaparilla, and budding birch] - I once went on a quest to find the perfect chai perfume, and of course I had to try Copper Fox! Immediately on application, Copper Fox is root beer, spicy root beer - there's that sarsaparilla in a big way. As it quickly dries, the overwhelmingly root beer-ness of it backs off somewhat, and it becomes much more chai spices + the woody birch (and still with an undercurrent of root beer). Chai latte this is not - it's all the spices of chai (cinnamon and black pepper especially, and probably a bit of ginger as well) without any sweetness or milky creaminess. I should note that at this point my skin has a slight reaction to this perfume; this perfume ended up being part of my discovery that like many others, I too have a slight skin reaction to cinnamon. It didn't hurt a bit and the redness went away fairly quickly, but be forewarned, if you're a person that has a reaction to cinnamon, this might be a blend worth steering away from, or at least planning to wear in a scent locket or in your hair instead of on your skin. Finally, several hours later, Copper Fox has a third stage, and to me the most lovely: chai spices backed by gentle almond and cozy cashmere (and at this stage it's clearly a "Fox" like Silver Fox).
Elf Owl [A bright concoction of liatrix, yellow sandalwood, beach-tumbled teak, solar musk, crushed coriander, and a scant pinch of pale cinnamon] - With the teak and cinnamon, and of course the obvious cue of the "solar musk", I was expecting this to be in the same family as Nui Cobalt's Sun, Heliophilia (Love of Sun), and Sunrise on Spidersilk (comparative review HERE!). Those sun-themed perfumes can be a bit too sharp and masculine on me (I tend to prefer snuggly scents or white florals), but as a great lover of owls (and a huge fan of Nui Cobalt's Snowy Owl [Dried coconut flakes, pale woods, frozen tuberose, vanilla orchid, and fluffy feather musk], with which it admittedly shares not a single note), I absolutely could not pass up Elf Owl. I'm so glad I didn't. This actually isn't in the sun-themed family, nor, of course, does it match the highly white-floral Snowy Owl. Instead, Elf Owl turns out to be much closer to Squash Blossom [Cocobolo wood, orris root, carrot seed, sunflower petals, mandarin zest, and acorn squash baked with brown sugar] from the Autumn 1 collection, though much less vegetal. It's a very well-blended perfume and nothing in particular stands out. The overall effect is gentle: gently floral and slightly vegetal, with vanilla and baking spices but without any sugary sweetness. (Liatrix, for anyone who doesn't know what that note is--I had to look it up myself!--is a "sweet, coumarinic, herbal, tobacco-like floral and offers a pleasant vanilla-like scent".)
Fennec Fox [Blush sandalwood, amber resin, antique Egyptian cotton touched with saffron, spiced peach preserves, and sweet cedar resin] - It's gentle, warm, and spiced, with that snuggly feeling that you get with anything that has NCD's cotton note. If you really look, you can distinguish the wood, saffron, and peach, but they meld together extremely well. Surprisingly, I actually get quite a lot of the same sand note as in Flying South [Pink lemonade, warm sand, tiare blossoms, and a flowy cotton sundress] even though sand is not listed. I wear Fennec Fox in autumn on days when I don't feel like a pumpkin.
Glasswing Butterfly [A diaphanous veil of coconut water, elderflower, moonlit gardenia, silver musk, green lavender, and a slender twist of lime] - Nelophilia (Love of Glass) [Elderflower, silver musk, coconut water, cardamom, silk tree, lime blossom, and smooth hinoki wood] is one of my favorites from the Valentine's collection, but it's been discontinued for some time. So I was delighted to see this one because its notes read like a combination of Nelophilia and Queen Bee [Creamy white gardenia and fluffy whipped honey], both among my favorite NCD perfumes. It's not quite - it's not the same almost-spicy gardenia as in Queen Bee - but it is absolutely divine. Glasswing Butterfly is basically Nelophilia with all its smooth, cool, rainy, white floral nature, but here the cardamom is more present (YES! I love cardamom), and with a bit more floral. After a year of aging, it became quite a LOT more white floral; the heady gardenia came out with a KICK, and it's nearly but not quite indolic.
Honey Badger [Black amber, raw honey, smoked maple wood, and cardamom-infused cream] - I mean, duh, I had to try this one just for the cardamom cream. This is somehow so recognizably a NCD scent. Honey straight from the comb, dripping and golden, rich and sweet, backed by maple wood (but not really maple syrup) and a whiff of cardamom spice. Not nearly enough cardamom for my taste - but then, we all know what I'm like! I'm so glad I tried this one. Since its notes list starts with "black amber," I expected this to be quite a dark scent, but while it's quite rich, it's not ominously dark. Husband really likes this one, which is always a special success.
Hummingbird [Darting from oleander to orange blossom with ripe nectarine, hibiscus tea, and traces of tuberose] - White florals with orange and nectarine fruit notes, chirpy and cheerful. It's a juicy but not sugary scent. I love it for warm spring days - it's an absolute staple of my springtime perfumes - though I find it a little cloying in very hot weather.
Opossum [A bold nocturnal potion of Hatian amyris, soft black suede, red patchouli, freshly-turned earth, copal resin, and Peru balsam] - I get suede, red musk, and brown patchouli; meanwhile Husband, sniffing my wrist, gets pine and petrichor. Yet the combination of all these things is surprisingly gentle, not a shouty, in-your-face kind of scent. Absolutely none of the notes we're picking up on are my thing, but just about all of them very much are Husband's thing, so guess what - he immediately snaffled this one.
Orchid Mantis [Ripe Philippine mango, dragon fruit, tamarind, Indonesian teak, clove bud, sandalwood, tuberose, and a touch of ylang] - This one is bit too sweet for me on application - at first it's all sugary mango - but as it warms on my skin, the other notes creep in: more fruit (but less sugar), a bit of sharp clove for balance, and hints of woodiness and florals. As it dries, those hints of clove and woodiness amp further (and at this point, all my husband smells is cinnamony clove). For some reason, this is one of the very strongest of my NCD scents, with high longevity and even higher throw.
Raccoon [Sepia cashmere, guaiac wood, Egyptian amber, Copaiba balsam, golden musk, a twinkle of coriander, blonde oudh, resinous Himalayan cedar, and myrrh] - It's so well-blended that I can't pick out a single note individually, but something about this feels so quintessentially NCD. Right on application, it makes me think of Cheat Code [Windswept teakwood, cedar, coriander and tea are grounded in black tonka with a hint of fine leather], another one I had trouble describing, and it has a similar level of elegance and polish. Meanwhile, Husband smelled a bit of cola or sarsparilla, and noted an almost chocolatey undertone. As it dries, the cashmere and musk come forward, quite woolly and plush and just a touch animalistic. It seems a similar cashmere musk as in Arctic Fox [Soft amber nestled in sumptuous cashmere, steamed rice milk, winter white musk, and snow-covered fir trees]. If Arctic Fox worked for you, you absolutely must try Raccoon. Since Arctic Fox doesn't work on me (my skin amps that cashmere to unpleasant levels), Raccoon ultimately won't win a place in my collection either - which is a bummer because that opening is so pretty. I'll have to stick with Cheat Code for my polished, sophisticated vibes.
Robin's Egg [Dainty forget-me-nots and lily of the valley, a dollop of whipped blueberry creme, and a cozy birch nest tucked into a flowering dogwood tree] - This one has the same amazing blueberry as Grey Cat [Dry smoked vanilla, fluffy marshmallow creme, fresh blueberries, the gentlest touch of lavender and a warm cup of Earl Grey], House of Transcendence [Top notes of wild blueberry and morning fog, a heart of pale lilac and cashmere, with a base of orris and white amber], and Choreophilia [Wild violets, warm Earl Grey, Dominican blue amber, orris root, a handful of blueberries, and a touch of lime marmalade]. This iteration of the blueberry note is juicy and floral. After a few years of aging, Robin's Egg has become even more gorgeous and creamy, with that stunning blueberry and a vision of dainty blue flowers. This one is discontinued and I'm really sad about that (but you could maybe find some in the swaps if you ask around).
Silver Fox [White tea with honey and rice milk, almond macaron, soft grey cashmere and cool woodland musk] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round) - Stunning. Sophisticated yet snuggly. The cashmere is the most prominent, followed by fir, the sweetness of white amber, and NCD's gentle whipped honey note. I also wouldn't have been surprised to read that copal was a note - there's just that little bit of resinous almost-smoke. When it dries, the sweetness goes away and the fir comes forward. This was a freebie with one of my orders - I hadn't actually bought a sample of this for myself, worried that I wouldn't like the rice milk (which, as it turns out, I don't actually smell), but it has since become one of my favorite wintertime scents.
Sugar Glider [Raw cotton, sugar cane, flannel flower, macadamia nut, pearblossom, palest musk, and dandelion puff] - So here's the thing, I'm wary of gourmands (in fact I always sit out most of the April Fool's gourmand collection). Sugar is listed in the notes description in the very second place, but I am a sucker for cute woodland animals, so that's how I ended up with this sample. After a first sniff in the vial, I got a little nervous about it, because it smelled very sugary, but I figured I'd wear it once, review it for you all, and then in a worst-case scenario, destash it to someone who does love sugary dessert scents. But wait! There's something strangely intoxicating about this one, and it's not really a gourmand. Immediately when I put it on, it reminded me a bit of the Sweettart-ness of my beloved Somniphilia (Love of Sleep) [Lamb's wool accord, orange blossom, barely-budding lavender, melissa, green fig, clary, cloud musk, and weightless vanilla marshmallow meringue]. I was pleasantly surprised that Sugar Glider is not at all dessert, instead more sugar + wood, and really rather cuddly. And then when it dries down, it reminds me so strongly of the blue raspberry note in Dewdrops on Spidersilk [Cerulean strands of cotton flower bejeweled with dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, tiny black vanilla beans, frozen blue raspberry, and gentle incense], except it's not "blue" (nor is it raspberry, but neither is "blue raspberry"). How did they achieve this effect? I have no idea, but it's so addictive: such a delicate, cheerful, springtime scent. It really does remind me of the experience of picking a perfect white fluffy dandelion and making a wish as you blow it. Definitely a springtime favorite.
White-Tailed Deer [Soft brown suede, golden musk, wild forest berries, and roasted chestnuts dusted with maple sugar] - I am always hesitant about suede, but was very happy when this was included as a free sample because I'd heard lovely things about it but wouldn't have purchased it for myself. It's an interesting one because my experience is of it is very different depending on distance. When I'm just smelling it as it wafts around me, it's such a warm, cozy scent, the suede mingling with chestnut and brown sugar. When I bring my wrist directly up to my nose to sniff, the suede does get a bit overwhelmingly leathery, and overtakes the other notes. Once it dries, though, that unpleasantly smoky leatheriness dissipates (even right up under my nose), leaving only the highly autumnal coziness behind. It is indeed very "golden" - or maybe a really rich, warm brown. I don't get any berries at all. It reminds me of the very stylized acorns and hedgehogs that fellow autumn-lovers love to idolize. (And for some reason, Husband gets saffron!)

Personally...

Robin's Egg, Sugar Glider, and Elf Owl are some of my TOP favorite perfumes for spring; Fennec Fox for fall; and Silver Fox for winter. Black Squirrel is my favorite of the Squirrels (in fact I ended up destashing all the others since I continue to have some issues with NCD's apricot note) - it's so beautifully dark-academia. And in my opinion, the three Rabbits are absolute must-tries (and I hold so much hope for a new Rabbit this year!). If you try nothing else from this collection, try whichever of the three Rabbits most calls your name - they're all different but all absolutely stunning.
What are you hoping for this year? Any particular animals you're keeping fingers crossed for? Do we think it'll be mostly woodland creatures this year, or perhaps we'll get some oceanic or other Critters too?

Hey Guys,
First time posting in here.
Im designing some german themed cocktails and would love some feedback or input on what you think about them.
​
Black Forest Martini
Ingredients: 35 ml cherry schnapps, 15 ml crème de cacao, 50 ml vodka, 20 ml cream, garnished with a cherry.
Description: Inspired by the Black Forest cake, this cocktail combines cherry and chocolate flavours, topped with a creamy finish.
Apple Strudel
Ingredients: 35 ml apple schnapps, 15 ml cinnamon liqueur, 30 ml vanilla vodka, 100 ml dry apple cider, garnished with a slice of apple and a cinnamon stick.
Description: This cocktail mimics the beloved apple strudel, offering a delightful mix of apple and cinnamon.
(Maybe too sweet- use dry apple cider)
Berlin Mule
Ingredients: 50 ml Jägermeister, 150 ml ginger beer, 15 ml lime juice, and a dash of blackberry juice.
Description: A German twist on the classic Moscow Mule, this version uses Jägermeister for herbaceous depth and a splash of blackberry juice for an additional layer of flavour, enhancing complexity and appeal.
Rhineland Spritz
Ingredients: 50 ml Riesling, 100 ml sparkling water, 25 ml elderflower liqueur, garnished with a twist of lemon.
Description: Light and refreshing with a floral touch, this spritz is perfect for relaxing on a sunny afternoon.
(Maybe in the Summer)
Heidelberg Sour
Ingredients: 40 ml Kirschwasser (cherry schnapps), 30 ml lemon juice, 20 ml simple syrup, a dash of egg white (or wonderfoam) for froth.
Description: A sour cocktail with the bold flavour of cherry, balanced by the tartness of lemon
Neuschwanstein Dream
Ingredients: 35 ml pear schnapps, 15 ml blue curaçao, topped with 150 ml lemon-lime soda, garnished with a slice of pear.
Description: A visually striking and sweet cocktail, named after Germany’s fairytale castle.
Lübeck Marzipan Martini
Ingredients: 50 ml vodka, 25 ml amaretto, 25 ml white crème de cacao, 20 ml cream, garnished with a marzipan candy.
Description: Inspired by the famous marzipan from Lübeck, this martini is smooth and sweet, with a distinct almond flavour that marzipan lovers will adore.
Saxon Sour
Ingredients: 40 ml Korn (German grain spirit), 10 ml elderflower liqueur, 30 ml fresh lemon juice, 15 ml simple syrup, and a dash of egg white.
Description: A German take on the classic sour, featuring Korn, a traditional clear spirit, with a hint of elderflower for a floral note, creating a smooth, frothy, and refreshing cocktail.
Berlin Nights
Ingredients: 25 ml Jägermeister, 25 ml blackberry schnapps, 30 ml lime juice, topped with ginger beer.
Description: This cocktail combines the herbal kick of Jägermeister with the sweet and tart flavor of blackberry, balanced with the zest of lime and the spice of ginger beer for a deep and refreshing nightcap.

ACCESS RESTRICTED PLEASE ENTER CREDENTIALS: CREDENTIALS ACCEPTED. WELCOME, MADAME REY. LOADING DATABASE . . . LOADING COMPLETE. ENTER POI DESIGNATION TO VIEW FILE. DESIGNATION 2929 ACCEPTED. DISPLAYING FILE: 

Below is the attached documentation on POI #2929, designation “Frost Warrior.” This report was written as part of the Guardian Database requested by Commander Zavala and the Praxic Order. This report was compiled by Hidden Agent AUN-326.
WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION OF THIS DOCUMENT AND ATTACHED FILES IS A VIOLATION OF VANGUARD OPERATIONS CODE 092015, PUNISHABLE BY UP TO 120 YEARS IN CONFINEMENT IN VANGUARD RESTRICTED ACCESS HOLDING CELLS. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING.
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BASIC INFORMATION

Name: Krissa Seoli
Known Aliases: Stacia Reva; “Elsa”
Ghost: Kotta
Class // Subclass: Hunter // Stasis “Revenant” proficient, formerly Solar “Gunslinger”
Race: Earthborn Human
Sex: Female
Height: 170 cm
Eyes: Light Blue
Skin: White
Hair: White
Age: approx. 24 years since First Rez
Current Whereabouts // Assignments: Assigned to training camp Theta-Omega on Europa to aid in training of veteran Hunters in Stasis // Gather artifacts from Bray Exoscience, Prevent Fallen from accessing the Morning Star ruins
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PROFILE

POI #2929, though young by Guardian standards, is a former Hidden Assassin of extreme skill, being responsible for the destruction of many Fallen cells during the Reef Wars. Her efficiency is remarked by even the most veteran of Vanguard marksmen, logging more field missions and bounty completions than any other Hunter her age. Most of these missions are solo reconnaissance operations, requiring long periods of isolation deep in enemy territory. This has led to the development of anti-social tendencies common amongst early Revenant Hunters, though her case is more extreme than most.
Prior to the arrival of the Black Fleet, and the first use of Stasis by Lightbearers, POI #2929 was a Gunslinger. Accounts from longtime friends and associates described her as one who was “always a pleasure to be around.” Though she could be serious, most often she was a daring Hunter that was never without a smile. However, following the murder of her wife by the Fallen of House Salvation, she turned from the cheery Gunslinger, into a cold assassin who cared little for others. It is assumed that the trauma of losing her wife Sayu Shinobi, along with the influence of the Black Fleet’s arrival are what changed her personality so greatly. She has developed a hatred for Fallen, most specifically those of House Salvation. She frequently spends her off time hunting Salvation Elites. Her jumpship is lined with the cloaks of Fallen Captains she has killed, and she has the sword of the Captain responsible for her wife’s death mounted in her jumpship. Mandated psychological counseling is ongoing.
POI #2929 often ignores standard tactics and strategies, preferring to opt for her own approach to a mission. Whether it be training, assassination, or Strike missions, POI #2929 often receives citations for going off-mission. For her, the ends always justify the means, regardless of the risk they may pose. Recent progress made via individual counseling has mitigated these actions, but not eliminated them. She holds a strong disdain for those who oppose using the Darkness, believing that Guardians need to use any and all tools available to combat their enemies, including the tools of their enemies. She has been arrested for getting into fights with other Guardians due to this.
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NOTEABLE ACTIVITIES

POI #2929 was Risen on Freehold on Mars, within a bunker beneath a fallen skyscraper. During an encounter with a Cabal patrolling the building, she used the Light for the first time, creating an explosion similar to the power of a small nuclear weapon. This expenditure of Light caused her to enter into a comatose state for a month, soon after which her body was recovered by Guardians patrolling a nearby building. Her Ghost explained what happened, and she was brought to the Tower Infirmary, where she remained until she awoke. The Guardians that recovered her remain her closest friends to this day.
Once she was cleared by the Tower medical personnel, she was conscripted to a New Light training fireteam specializing in Solar affinity. However, due to her fear of her own power, #2929 never advanced very far into her abilities, learning the basics and graduating to a full Guardian with average performance marks. She practiced with other Hunters in several camps established just outside the Tower walls, honing her Light over time, rather than accelerating her progress like most do.
Soon after, #2929 returned to Mars, and discovered the entrance to the Black Garden. Not knowing what it was, she accidentally activated the gate, and was transported inside. She reports that she was trapped inside for several months, learning a great deal on the Sol Divisive. However, from an outside perspective, she emerged a week after entering. This is attributed to the Garden lying outside of our perception of time and space. Her experiences within were a strong factor to her selection for OP-VNGD-RAID-LUNA-2019.
Over time, she did become a skilled Gunslinger, and developed a personality to match. She spent much time on Io honing her Light, and showing off her acrobatic prowess to Arcstriders. It was at this time she met an Arcstrider named Sayu Shinobi. This began #2929’s first long-term fireteam, and eventually their relationship became romantic. They logged several patrol hours together, and were frequently in the Tower bars together with their friends.
During a mission tailing a Devils Captain in the Manhattan Nuclear Zone, the Red Legion attacked the Last City, caging the Traveler and took the Light from every Guardian. POI #2929 abandoned her mission, flying back towards the Last City seeking her wife. However, the Last City was already under Red Legion control. #2929 chose to evacuate to the Appalachian Dead Zone, occasionally broadcasting a code signal across all channels letting her wife know she was alive. Eventually, she received a Vanguard broadcast rallying survivors to what is now known as “The Farm” in the EDZ, at which point she reunited with many friends and her wife. Together, they took part in several gruella operations against the local Fallen and Cabal forces to keep the Farm safe. #2929 took part in the Vanguard counter-offensive to reclaim the City from the Red Legion. Though she was gravely injured, the Light was freed from Red Legion control, and she was able to heal from her wounds. Immediately after healing, #2929 began massacring any Red Legion she came across in the City. She took part in several offensives against the Red Legion after the City was liberated, targeting several commanders leading groups responsible for the deaths of Guardians she knew. #2929 was reprimanded for desertion, and grounded from off-world missions for a period of two months.

2929’s first mission off-world again was the destruction of Protheon, Modular Mind during Operation Inverted Spire. Originally, the operation was meant as a reconnaissance mission to examine Red Legion efforts regarding mining Nessus. During the mission, the fireteam discovered that the Red Legion had cracked a Mind Vault housing Protheon. Mission objective quickly changed from reconnaissance to HVT elimination, citing the dangers of Red Legion soldiers possessing Vex-enhanced weapons. The target was eliminated without incident, and #2929 returned home unscathed along with the rest of the fireteam. Commendations for quick-thinking and mission adaptability were dispensed accordingly.

Following many more lower-class patrols, #2929 signed on to join Operation Lake of Shadows, an information gathering Strike targeting the Taken activities in the dam just outside Trostland. While the Taken interference within the environment was slowed by destroying Blights, #2929 correctly inferred that the source of the interference must be coming from further within the dam, from a Taken leader. This would lead the fireteam to Grask, the Consumed, a Taken Red Legionnaire with technical leadership abilities beyond those of standard Taken Cabal. Mission status again changed from reconnaissance to HVT elimination. The fireteam eliminated the target with little difficulty, and returned their findings to the Praxic Order. Commendations were again dispensed accordingly.
After proving twice her adaptability and critical thinking skills, #2929 was among several candidates for a RAID Operation to initiate first contact with the newly arrived Leviathan ship, which had entered Nessus space. OP-VNGD-RAID-LVTN-2017 deployed Raid Fireteam Legend to investigate the ship, later revealed to belong to Calus, the dethroned Cabal Emperor. He challenged Fireteam Legend to several feats of strength and cunning, and invited them to the throne room following their success. Vanguard Battle Strategists concluded that Calus was a threat more than a potential ally, and Legend was instructed to eliminate him. Following the ensuing battle, Calus was revealed to be a mechanical decoy through which the real Calus was speaking. Legend was told by Calus that the Leviathan was open to all Guardians that wished for a challenge, beginning the influx of Guardians to the Leviathan that lasted until the arrival of the Black Fleet. Unlike many Guardians, #2929 never returned to the Leviathan, save for official research assignments.
During the Martian Conflict, POI #2929 established a good relationship with Anastasia Bray, and worked closely with her to hone her skills as a Gunslinger, with little success. However, she did gain a large amount of knowledge regarding the Warmind Rasputin from Ana, and still remains in contact with her to this day. Not long after, Vanguard Battle Strategists would begin devising strategies to answer the distress call sent by Calus, requesting that the Guardians deal with the Red Legion infiltrators aboard the Leviathan. Soon, OP-VNGD-LAIR-LVTN-2018 was created and #2929 was placed on the secondary assault team. However, following some logistical errors, and the death of one of the primary candidates, #2929 was moved to the primary fireteam, known in records as Raid Fireteam Redeem. She performed well, as expected, but soon after, she put in a request to no longer be considered for RAID Operations.
Like many Hunters, #2929 cut contact with the Tower following the death of Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6, and was listed as AWOL for several months before signing on for more assignments from her ship in orbit above Earth. It is thought that she spent most of her time destroying Scorn throughout the system during this time. Though she began taking assignments before most other Hunters, it would still be another three months before she physically entered the Tower again.
Soon after OP-VNGD-RAID-LVTN-2019, POI #2929 became one of several Guardians in charge of retrieving the Hive artifact OOI-2019-COS, known as the Crown of Sorrow. A research fireteam, dubbed Fireteam Bold of the Praxic Order was dispatched alongside #2929’s fireteam to the Leviathan’s Menagerie to take samples, and gain knowledge on anything the Vanguard would find useful, with their primary objective to secure OOI-2019-COS. However, due to Loyalist interference, Calus regained control of the artifact before #2929 and her fireteam could reach it. An after-action report was filed, and Fireteam Bold was reprimanded for their failure to secure the artifact. Though OOI-2019-COS would later be recovered, it wouldn’t be until much later.
Following the unveiling of the Lunar Pyramid, and the reemergence of ERI-223 on Luna, #2929 was dispatched as a part of the primary reconnaissance group, tasked with diving behind enemy lines, while the main attack on the Scarlet Keep took place on the surface. Reports are difficult to corroborate, due to conflicting statements from initial recon teams, but #2929 reports that she laid eyes directly on the Lunar Pyramid, and was attacked by Nightmares of several Guardians. She was extracted by her fireteam, and was grounded until she completed a mandatory psychological exam. This was not a unique situation to her, as many Guardians present for the initial assault on Luna were unprepared for the Nightmares, and were left severely traumatized by their experiences. The Vanguard would later use her experiences, along with many others to craft counter-strategies and psionic shielding to mitigate the effect the Nightmares had.
When VIP #2014 cleared the Lunar Pyramid and recovered OOI-2019-UA, known only as the Unknown Artifact, ERI-223 reported that it began broadcasting a strange signal into the Black Garden. Vanguard Battle Strategists worked with ERI-223 to begin planning OP-VNGD-RAID-LUNA-2019 to trace the signal inside the Garden. This offensive was headed by ERI-223 and several veterans of the Great Disaster. #2929 was selected, much to her dismay, due to her distinct knowledge on the Black Garden, and the Sol Divisive specifically. Raid Fireteam Ascend was crafted from Guardians hand-picked by the Vanguard Commander and IKO-006, with insight from ERI-223. #2929 cataloged as much about the Black Garden as she could to see what had changed since her original expedition. Following directives from Hidden officers, POI #2929 submitted her Ghost recordings of the operation, and her own documentations for review and addition to VanNet archives, pending Hidden review. Soon after the completion of this mission, #2929 and Sayu Shinobi were married in the Tower Bazaar.
No major events took place for POI #2929 until a year later, when the Pyramids arrived within the Solar System. She took a station researching the Pyramids on Mars, and it was during this deployment she heard the whispers of the Darkness. Unlike many Guardians, however, #2929 did not remove herself from work. Instead, she began a journal in which she cataloged her mental state, and what the Darkness was saying, much to the concern of Sayu. A month prior to the Pyramids calling Guardians to Europa, #2929 summoned the power of Stasis for the first time, accidentally freezing a small section of the Manhattan Nuclear Zone. Due to the remote nature of the Manhattan Nuclear Zone, she was able to conceal this outburst, though Hidden personnel soon found the small Stasis fields left behind. Following the acquisition of Stasis by VIP #2014, #2929 made her way to Luna to converse with ERI-223 on her abilities, and received insight on this new power from her. She also sought the aid of VIP #1315 due to his knowledge and experiences with Darkness.
Soon after returning from Luna, POI #2929 and Sayu Shinobi took a vacation to Io, where they celebrated their anniversary. Unfortunately, they encountered the first of many House Salvation patrols, and were engaged soon after. It was during this mission that a Fallen Captain named Bakris, the Adamantine, was able to capture Sayu Shinobi using Stasis. Her Ghost appeared to attempt to break her free. Bakris managed to grasp it, and crushed it in his hand. Soon after he fatally wounded Sayu with a modified Shock Blade. #2929 was able to rescue Sayu, however her wound slowly encased her in Stasis due to the modifications. Despite POI #2929’s best efforts, Sayu died while en route back to the Tower in #2929’s jumpship. This event began her massive personality shift into who she is today.
Soon after the death of Sayu, POI #2929 began hearing more whispers from the Pyramid on Io, and cataloged these whispers in her journal. She made a trip to the site of Sayu Shinobi’s death, discovering a Pyramid Scale, seemingly left there by the newly arrived Pyramid. She approached the Scale, and began to commune with it, speaking directly to the whispers it was giving her. #2929’s communion lasted several days, and she returned with a mastery over Stasis that hadn’t yet been seen. She was quickly taken into Hidden Custody, and a deep psychological exam was conducted on her and her Ghost. It was concluded that [ERROR: DATA UNAVAILABLE]
When it was discovered that House Salvation had taken control of the Deep Stone Crypt, Vanguard Battle Strategists raced to develop a counter-offensive. Though she was still in Hidden custody, #2929 was selected per recommendation by VIP #0101. Raid Fireteam Luminous was formed for OP-VNGD-RAID-ERP-2020, and was immediately deployed, with VIP #1121 and VIP #0101 coordinating the offensive alongside the Vanguard. This operation allowed #2929 to truly experiment and enhance the extent of her Stasis abilities, much to the concern of the rest of Fireteam Luminous. Once the Deep Stone Crypt was cleared, and Raid Fireteam Luminous was dissolved, #2929 remained to explore the remains of the ruined Morning Star platform. Several members of Raid Fireteam Luminous submitted reports of #2929’s brutality against the Fallen, disregard for using the Light, and her lack of concern for the safety of the rest of the fireteam. #2929 received sanctions, and was required to complete several psychological exams to be allowed to continue on missions.
After her release, #2929 returned to Europa, and spent days going over the wreckage of the Morning Star facility, believing the information inside to be too valuable to ignore. She still frequents the area, ignoring the quarantine placed there by Vanguard officials. She has been seen taking back various items back from the wreckage, and has been sanctioned for these actions, yet continues to take them back. Soon, she was banned from visiting Europa altogether, though this ban was eventually lifted.
During this time, she spent much of her time hunting down House Salvation troops stationed outside of Europa, specifically hunting for Bakris, the Captain responsible for the death of Sayu. She searched many planets, and eventually found him hiding in a section of the Cosmodrome, a lost sector known as the Exodus Gardens 2A. She went in alone, and massacred all Fallen inside, eventually killing Bakris with his own Shock Blade. She took Bakris’ cloak, and his Shock Blade, which she mounted in her jumpship, underneath Sayu’s cloak.
After the discovery of her massacre within the Exodus Gardens, the Praxic Order placed a capture bounty on #2929. She was eventually imprisoned, and sentenced to 1 year within the Vanguard Restricted Access Holding Cells. During this time, she met weekly with a psychologist and therapist to attempt to recondition her, with moderate success. Upon her release, she was required to spend 5 years training Guardians on Europa in Stasis, accompanied by several Vanguard and Hidden Guardians.
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CRIMINAL RECORD

POI #2929 has received several sanctions for excessive force, unnecessary displays of power, and possession of restricted materials. Her frequent fights against other Guardians have led to multiple arrests for aggravated assault and disorderly conduct. She has also been charged with desertion, going AWOL, and creating unnecessary risk in the presence of Lightbearers for actions during both STRIKE and RAID missions. Her massacre in the Exodus Gardens led to several counts of terrorism, excessive force, and desecration of corpses.
She has also received charges for her use of Stasis, though these charges have been lifted due to the Vanguard's changing position on the use of Stasis. However, the Praxic Order refuses to expunge these charges from her record.
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KNOWN ARSENAL

- SMG-TW-Sta01 - "Forensic Nightmare" - Issued following POI #2929’s initiation into the Hidden. Modified to fire Stasis rounds.
- E-HC-WRLD-Sol02 - "Eriana’s Vow" - Gifted to POI #2929 by ERI-223. Modified to pass through most enemy barriers without affecting velocity or damage.
- SR-GP-Kin12 - "Night Watch" - Granted by VIP #1315 for participation in Gambit Prime. Modified to fire explosive ammunition.
- RL-VO-Arc13 - "Hothead" - Awarded to Guardians with exceptional performance in Strike missions. Fitted with an automatic reload function.
- LFR-TO-Sta01 - “Reed’s Regret” - Awarded to Guardians who earned passage to the Lighthouse via the Trials of Osiris.
- GL-TW-Arc03 - “Forbearance” - Acquired from OP-VNGD-RD-TW-2022. Properties unknown. WARNING: THIS WEAPON IS PARACAUSAL IN NATURE. EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION.
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ARMOR

The helmet POI #2929 wears is imbued with Darkness powers, allowing brief teleportation over short distances. How this is accomplished is not well understood, even by #2929 herself. When questioned on the source of the material on her helmet, she became guarded, stating she “just found it like this.” Analysis of the helmet indicates that the material covering the faceplate is made from the face of a dead Eliksni, presumably of House Salvation. Ghost records confirm the identity of this face as the former Atraks, before her transformation into Atraks-1. #2929 denies any involvement in removing the face from the body, nor any knowledge on the location of the body.
As for the rest of her kit, her armor largely consists of minimalistic designs, preferring instead to become as inconspicuous as reasonably possible. However, she still has a personal flair to it. As of this writing, she can be seen wearing arms and legs from the “Celestial” line from the Eververse shop in the Tower. Her chest piece is a minimalist piece from the “Optimal'' line. However, her cloak is a simple black cloak favored by many Hunters. Her armor has a base of black, with gray and light-blue accenting throughout.
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LIGHT

Though POI #2929 is perfectly capable of using the Light, as evidenced by previous missions, since the arrival of the Black Fleet, she is rarely seen doing so. Much to the concern of her fellow Guardians, and even her Ghost, #2929 seems to have foregone the use of the Light in favor of the Darkness, becoming extremely proficient, to a worrying degree. The Vanguard has elected to place her skills in training rather than combat to avoid any potential corruption.
Before the discovery of Stasis, #2929 was a Gunslinger, using Solar Light to good effect, Preferring the Golden Gun to the newer Blade Barrage skill. However, her skills as a Gunslinger weren’t noteworthy, and she has become far more lethal as a Revenant than she ever was as a Gunslinger. When asked about if she ever considered returning to the Light, she simply shook her head.
When examined for Arc Light proficiency #2929 refused to use it, though wouldn’t elaborate as to why. It is possible that she refuses due to her late wife’s status as an Arcstrider. Further research is required.
When examined for Void Light, #2929 seemed to be much more comfortable using it, though it did not have the same draw as Stasis, she stated. However, if needed, training is recommended using Void Light instead of returning to the Solar Light. Though, #2929 is quoted to have been afraid of the Void before Stasis, stating that “it whispered too much.” When asked about Stasis’ similar effect, she stated that “the cold doesn’t bother me like the Void does.” She cites this as the main reason she turned to Solar Light rather than Void. This may be why her skills as a Gunslinger were so far behind others of her class, due to her use of Solar Light being almost “forced.”
Note: Due to POI #2929’s draw to Stasis, and disinterest in the Light, it is this Agent’s recommendation that she be accompanied by no fewer than two Guardians wielding the Light on any fireteam deployments. It is also this Agent’s recommendation that she remain off Europa to prevent the Darkness gaining further influence over her. We have lost too many Guardians to the Darkness. - AUN-326
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KNOWN FIRETEAM MEMBERS

Stella Runaia - Voidwalker Warlock - POI #2201
Formerly a member of the Vanguard Light Research Division

• Known Gambit participant
• Aided #2929 following her First Rez
• Known associate of VIP #3248
• Wanted for her role in the escape of Shayura
• See REP #243-POI-2201 for more details

Thalia Grace - Gunslinger Hunter - POI #0728
Former member of Dead Orbit

• Frequents Morning Star wreckage alongside #2929
• Aided #2929 following her First Rez
• Aided the Praxic Order in the capture of #2929 (see AAR-2020-COS-EG2A-326)
• Current user of WOS-002-BDJ "Bad Juju"
• See REP #326-POI-0728 for more details

Vanessa Kadi - Revenant Hunter - POI #4444

• Unregistered Lightbearer associated with the Crow
• Known user of E-HC-WRLD-Kin03 "Malfeasance"
• Aided the Praxic Order in the capture of #2929 (see AAR-2020-COS-EG2A-326)
• Assigned to monitor #2929 following her release (cf. TRIBUNAL RECORDS #2239-4)
• See REP #326-POI-4444 for more details

SAM-13 - Sentinel Titan - POI #1013

• Former Warlord of the Manhattan Nuclear Zone
• Assigned to monitor #2929 following her release (cf. TRIBUNAL RECORDS #2239-4)
• Known Gambit participant
• See REP #326-POI-1013 for more details

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KNOWN ASSOCIATES

Elizabeth Bray - VIP #0101

• Primary trainer for Stasis
• Overseer of Training Camp Theta-Omega
• First non-Lightbearer to wield Stasis
• Owner of E-PR-WRLD-Kin04 "No Time to Explain"
• See REP #326-VIP-0101 for more details

Variks - VIP #1121

• #2929's primary source for information regarding House Salvation Elites
• Advisor to Vanguard forces operating on Europa
• See REP #326-VIP-1121 for more details

Jason Han - POI #2231

• Aids #2929 in reconnaissance of House Salvation troops not stationed on Europa
• Lightless Hidden consultant
• Suspected associate of VIP #3248
• See REP #326-POI-2231 for more details

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IN SUMMATION

Though POI#2929 is an invaluable resource for training of Stasis and knowledge regarding the Morning Star and the Black Garden, her loose temper and deep hatred of House Salvation make her a poor choice for any high-risk operations the Vanguard may conduct. She has shown on multiple occasions that her main objective is the death of the enemy, regardless of the lives she must risk to achieve her goals. This conflicts with the mission of the Vanguard, and of a Guardian as a whole. Though many Guardians subjected to traumatic experiences have grown from them, #2929 has shown that it is unlikely she will ever move past the death of her wife at the hands of House Salvation. Revenge may be an excellent motivator, but should not be the primary one. Especially not for one so adept at killing.
With all this considered, it is this Agent’s recommendation that POI #2929 be permanently grounded, and banned from participating in any off-world assignments. As for #2929’s Ghost, it should be taken into Praxic Custody, so as to prevent any temptation for #2929 to deviate from her current assignment.
End Report.
–AUN-326
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ADDENDUM

The Vanguard shares your concern for POI #2929’s short temper and disregard for Guardian mission statements. However, it is also our mission statement that we support each other. We are only as strong as our weakest, and using #2929’s skill with Stasis to raise up others is far more beneficial than simply locking her away.
Rest assured, she is being constantly monitored, and any deviation from her assignment will be dealt with accordingly.
Excellent report as usual, Aunor. Continue your work maintaining these records, they're invaluable to the Praxic Order, and the Vanguard.
--IKO-006

I want to preface this by saying that this is just a silly little theory I was thinking about earlier. Someone might've mentioned this before, but I'm quite new to this sub so bear with me here. And in no way am I saying anything in this post is fact or backed up by psychology or science, so take everything I reference here with a grain of salt.
I've heard many times that it's common for people to be attracted to or fall in love with people who are similar to their parents in some form or another, particularly if you are very close with your parents or they were very involved in your life. And I'm in the middle of a rewatch (currently on s5) and I couldn't help but notice that two of Rory's three serious boyfriends (Jess and Logan) are very similar to Lorelai in different aspects. And it makes sense, because Lorelai is arguably the person Rory loves and respects most in the world, and she raised Rory on her own and had a huge influence on her life. So it's funny that Rory would seek out Lorelai-like qualities in her romantic partners.
Jess: Teenage Jess and teenage Lorelai were very alike. They were both neglected by their parents (sure, Lorelai was rich and had material items, but Richard and Emily severely emotionally neglected her which damaged her in several ways), and have so much pent up anger as a result. They were both like ticking time bombs just waiting to go off, and they eventually did. They both ran away, Jess to California and Lorelai to Stars Hollow. They both rejected authority. They both were extremely intelligent and sarcastic, but didn't value academics as much as Rory did. Everyone doubted them, but they both became successful (Jess with his book, Lorelai with the Dragonfly). They're both outwardly confident but inwardly insecure. They both have a tendency to bolt when things go awry. They both struggle with commitment. They both love movies. They both make mad decisions then hate themselves for it later. They screw up as teens, and then blossom as adults. They both are attracted to stable, mature people (Luke for Lor and Rory for Jess) because they lack that in their own lives.
The writers did an excellent job illustrating the similarities between these two, for example the Indian food parallel where they both tell Rory "burning down the house is the only way to get rid of the smell" and when Lorelai says she knows Jess to Luke.
Logan: Logan is who I think Lorelai might've been had she not ran away (either him or Digger Stiles). A lot of people say he's most like Christopher, and they do have lots of similarities, I always thought Logan is more Lorelai. They both are extroverted and value having fun. They're both bold and impulsive. Again, the commitment issues. They both have great people skills and are extremely charming, and they use that to their advantage. They're both carefree and encourage Rory to come out of her shell. They're not carbon copies of each other, but they do have more subtler parallels. Lorelai would definitely be in the Life and Death Brigade if she went to Yale (she was very rebellious as a teenager, there is textual evidence of this, for example she mentions she and Christopher crashed his Porsche in s1 episode "Christopher Returns" I think? And she plans to run away to Paris with Chris in "Dear Richard and Emily"). The only difference is, Lorelai escaped that suffocating life while Logan never did, even though it's obvious he wants to. But he wants the money and privilege it offers more. Lorelai pushed all of that aside for Rory's sake.
Dean: Now, Dean and Lorelai aren't really alike whatsoever. But there is still a link between them. Dean is everything Lorelai envisioned as a first boyfriend, she drills into Rory's head that his positive qualities are the ideal traits a guy should have. It's obvious that Lorelai had a hand in starting up the Dean/Rory relationship (inviting him over to their place). He's the only boyfriend Rory had that she likes. In s1 she compares him to Christopher (but that was before his characterization change when he was the town bad boy).
Anyway, I just wanted to point out how deep the effect of Lorelai really runs in Rory. What are your thoughts on this?

The Vines came almost all at once, on a warm otherwise unremarkable summer night twelve years ago. Teddy didn’t remember their coming. He was only fourteen now, which meant he was two when they came. Actually, it wasn’t exactly accurate to say he didn’t remember their coming.
There were the dreams.
In the dreams he’d be asleep, peaceful in his bed, when suddenly, with the rending sound of a thousand angry zippers the snakes would punch through the walls, yellow eyes flashing, their mouths open wide and hissing, long saber-like fangs spitting luminous green venom. They would spill into the room like waterfalls and begin to coil around him in his bed. Tighter and tighter until breathing became an impossibility and the hissing crowded out even his own panicked thoughts and the world beyond his eyes began to grow dark.
He didn’t always wake up screaming from these dreams, but he did so often enough that his parents worried about it. He could hear them talking about it in low whispers sometimes when they didn’t think he could hear them. Sound carried well in this house. But that tended to happen in structures where the walls didn’t always line up, floors sometimes leaned crazily in every direction, doors had long ago been pulled permanently free of their frames, and windows were smashed and lying on the ground in twinkling shards of glass.
The vines had done all that.
Teddy lay in his bed in the eternal twilight of Vine World, which was what everyone called ground level these days. He knew that if he looked at the wind-up clock on his nightstand he would see that it was eight o’clock in the morning, give or take fifteen minutes. His brain knew what time it was, even if there wasn’t enough sunlight down here to confirm what his brain already seemed to know.
“It’s your Shark-Alien rhythms” his Dad had once explained. Whatever that was. Teddy made a mental note to look up “Shark-Alien” on his next trip to the library, though what sharks and aliens might have to do with waking up with the sunlight, he couldn’t possibly fathom.
The “ceiling” of his bedroom was a vine. Twenty feet in diameter Teddy guessed, big for sure, but not even close to the biggest vine Teddy had ever seen. The vine’s underside bowed freakishly down into his room. On the right side of the ceiling it coiled away and upward towards the sky. On the left it traveled back through the wall it had smashed twelve years ago and down into the ground. Teddy’s Dad had nailed some boards in around the places where the vine touched the walls in an attempt to weather-proof the room, but the vines were alive. They moved constantly, breathed almost, even if it was only barely perceptible, and the seals rarely held for very long. This morning, humidity poured through the gaps between the vine and the walls and a thin sheen of sweat broke out on Teddy’s forehead and in his arm pits.
Mostly the weather stayed on the right side of the “wall”, but not always. It got particularly bad in August, which was Hurricane season here in South Louisiana. But those only hit once or twice a year, and only that often in the really bad years. When they did he would simply move in with his parents, or his brother Bob, for a couple days until the angry wind blew itself out somewhere over Arkansas or Mississippi.
Teddy stared thoughtfully up at the vine. He wasn’t sure exactly what you were supposed to call the skin of the vines… bark he supposed. The bark was scaly, like a snake or a fish, each scale the size of a frisbee and shaped like the business end of a spade. The scales were generally brown, but there was a soft iridescence to them and a subtle shifting pattern of colors constantly rippled across the bark? Scales? Skin?
“Whatever”, Teddy mumbled as he pulled himself up to a sitting position.
It was the thorns you really had to look out for. Teddy was lucky though, there were only two thorns on the vine that had been his bedroom ceiling since just before his second birthday, a day he remembered only in his dreams.
The thorns were not conical like those on the ragged patches of blackberry bush that still somehow managed to thrive in the backyard places where occasional columns of sunlight fought their way down through the alien canopy. No, these thorns were more like the arrowheads his Dad had taught him to hunt with, though much larger. They were shaped like pyramids, with a point sharp enough to stab through wood and four symmetrical ridges so hard and razor sharp they could put a score on a piece of glass.
There was poison in them too. They’d found that out the hard way, hadn’t they? But the less said about that, the better, Teddy thought.
He could hear the house coming alive below him, now. A wood fire crackled in the cast iron stove his Dad had salvaged from… somewhere, and Teddy could smell the faint odor of the smoke working its way up to his nose through the many gaps in the crazy vine-altered structure of their house. Firewood was not a problem in Vine World. The trees that hadn’t been violently uprooted by the sudden appearance of the vines had long since been choked off by the canopy on top and the strangling alien roots below. As a result, there were thousands of dead trees laying in and amongst the vines, quietly seasoning themselves for the cooking fires of Teddy’s future.
Teddy’s short brown Cajun hair sat bolt upright on top of his head. In a simpler time, a time before the vines, his first order of business in the morning might have been a shower. But fresh water was much harder to come by now that you couldn’t get an unlimited supply simply by spinning a tap. His Dad had built rainwater catchment in all the places where the vines funneled water reliably down to ground level. But while rainfall remained as unpredictable as ever, the human need for fresh water did not. And so what fresh water they did have was reserved mainly for drinking and cooking.
He walked through his bedroom “door” which was more like a concept of a door than an actual one. The door frame leaned crazily to one side like something out of the Esher paintings that hung on the walls of the Library in town. He walked out into the hall and scrabbled down the floor which fell away from his room at a loopy downward angle before hitting a bottom of sorts, and then curving back up towards the stairs that would take him down to the bottom floor.
Teddy looked up and saw that Bob was just pulling himself up the last three feet of the incline and onto the landing at the top of the stairs. Always “Bob”, never “Bobby”. His parents had tried “Bobby” for a while but from the very moment Bob had learned to speak he’d begun to correct them. “Is Bobby a good boy?” they’d ask, and little Bob’s face would scrunch down into an expression of deep thought and consternation and he would bellow “—OB!”
And so Bob he had become, and Bob he would forever be.
He was six now and he turned to see his older brother negotiating the crazy rolling hills of their upstairs hallway and smiled. “HI TEDDY!” Bob almost always shouted everything. It was kind of his thing. But he loved his brother, and Teddy loved him right back.
“Hey Bob”, Teddy said as he lost his grip on the hard wood floor and slid back a couple feet. It occurred to him that it probably wasn’t very safe for a six-year-old boy to climb around on a crazy structure like this, but then again almost everything in Vine World was dangerous. You had to pick your battles.
“RACE YA!”, Bob shouted and took off down the stairs, which had somehow remained improbably intact. In addition to the shouting thing, Bob was always “racin’ ya!” everywhere.
Laughing and hip checking each other in a good-natured way, Teddy and Bob bounded down the stairs, their footsteps pounding a syncopated rhythm on the old wood of the staircase. As they neared the bottom they could hear Mom in the kitchen shouting “Hey, hey, HEY! Come on guys, slow it down!” She was worried about thorns, of course, they were everywhere. But after twelve years, six for Bob, the brothers knew exactly where they all were. As they ran, they ducked, bobbed, and weaved like running backs in a sport they would never watch or play, one that had died a quick and violent death on that awful day twelve years ago, like so many other things.
The boys skidded to a stop on the old linoleum floor of the kitchen, still giggling and elbowing each other in the ribs. A vine the width of an elephant’s trunk stood in the very center of the kitchen. It had erupted up through the floor like a demonic volcano and now occupied the room like a support strut holding up the ceiling. It was covered with razor sharp thorns, and Mom and Dad had done the best they could to wrap the lowest and most dangerous of them in old towels, ragged bits of clothing, and a few salvaged traffic cones so that there would not be a repeat of the “accident” that had killed Carthage.
Carthage had been the family dog. He was sweet and friendly and a mutt. “like God threw a beagle, a terrier, and a chihuahua in a barrel and rolled it down a hill”, Dad had often said. Carthage had been a great dog, but a hyper one. It was in his genes. And aren’t we all, ultimately, doomed by our own genetics?
It was his hyperactivity that had killed him.
Carthage was a jumper. All you had to do was look in his direction and even before his name had a chance to fall off your tongue he was up on his hind legs and jumping straight up in the air. Sproing, sproing, sometimes he’d clear three feet straight up, his little head wiggling back-and-forth at the apex of his leap like he was trying to squeeze an extra few inches out of it.
They’d been in the yard when it happened. If they’d been in the house there was a decent chance, Teddy thought, that Carthage might have remembered about the thorns and not jumped so enthusiastically. But they hadn’t been in the house, and Carthage had put everything he had into that final leap.
The thorn caught him just behind his right shoulder and Carthage yelped in surprise and pain, immediately thrusting his tail between his legs and cowering at Teddy’s feet, whimpering with fear and unanswerable questions.
Dad had come running at the sound of Carthage’s distress and at first the injury hadn’t seemed that bad… well not that bad for a severe puncture wound anyway. The thorn had slid into the dog’s flesh like a hot blade through soft butter. But it was not deep, and barring infection it certainly did not seem life-threatening. But something about the drop of green liquid that hung from the tip of the thorn like thick luminous dew had made Teddy’s skin crawl. And within an hour it was clear that Carthage was a very sick doggie.
He’d lasted the night, curled in Teddy’s lap, whimpering and looking up at his boy with big watery eyes that were full of confusion, pain and fear. And little Teddy had cried right along with him, not able to do anything for his dog except to be there for him. To let him know that if nothing else, he was loved. To bear witness.
Carthage’s end had come before the real end, and that, at least, had been a mercy.
There had been a few final labored breaths and Carthage’s nose, which had been resting on Teddy’s leg, rapidly moving up and down with his ragged breathing, suddenly began to weigh down on Teddy with the weight of something no longer in control of its muscles. And then a final breath came out as a whimper, and Teddy knew Carthage was gone.
But that wasn’t the end. Oh no, it wasn’t the end at all.
Teddy had been holding Carthage in a towel and that had probably saved his life. Carthage’s skin had begun to ripple and undulate like his body had filled up with giant hungry maggots. Despite his love for the dog that had been his only pet, Teddy pushed the corpse off his lap with revulsion just as the dog began to literally dissolve in front of his eyes. Here and there, Carthage’s skin burst open with steaming jets of glowing green goop. The skin melted away revealing the jagged curvature of the animal’s ribcage and then even the ribs began to run in gloopy white rivulets. Teddy had just enough time to think “those were his bones” and then, finally, nothing at all remained of the dog except for a putrid greyish-green puddle of bubbling slime slowly eating its corrosive way into the Earth.
And Teddy’s tears, of course.
It was hard, even now, for Teddy to see a thorn and not flash back to that difficult day. To the awful danger of the thorns.
The towels his parents had tried to wrap them in didn’t really offer much in the way of protection, either. The thorns were simply too sharp. If you were to forget yourself and stumble into one, it wouldn’t take much pressure for the tip to stab straight through like the pike thrust of an angry Spartan Hoplite. And from there, a slowly gurgling puddle of alien slime would be your ultimate destination.
You stepped carefully in Vine World. Very carefully.
But the wrappings did serve as a reminder of what was there. The incongruous pastel colors of the towels and the neon orange of the cones caught your eye and alerted you to the danger in a way that simply trusting yourself to notice the same damned thorns in the same damned places day-after-day could not.
Towels had not been their first idea, nor even their second. The towels were more of a last resort. Dad’s first idea, coming right on the heels of Carthage’s untimely and unlovely death, was to saw the damned things right off.
“Come with me”, he’d said to Teddy, who was only eight at the time. And Teddy had gone. Dad had been a contractor before the vines came and his workshop, really just a shed filled with his tools, had survived the coming of the vines mostly intact. Pulled along towards the shed by his father’s rough hand, they walked into the shop together and Dad pulled a two-foot wood saw off the wall.
They’d walked back to the offending vine with its offending thorn still dripping poison in an obscene parody of Teddy’s tears and Dad had lain the saw on the thorn at its base. With a roar of anger, he’d pulled the teeth of the blade across the thorn. Teddy heard a sound like a rifle being fired on full automatic as each of the metal teeth snapped off clean at the edge of the blade. Dad threw the ruined saw on the ground and stomped angrily back to the shed, shaking his head and cursing under his breath… something about “those Christing thorns!” Teddy thought. He’d come back with a fifteen-pound sledge and was swinging it before he even stopped walking. The head of the sledge came down perfectly on the sharpened tip of the thorn and…
PING!!!!
The sound of two heavy metal pipes being smacked together reverberated between the living canyon walls created by the vines, and the sledge bounced off the thorn like a kid jumping on a trampoline. The momentum of the bouncing sledge knocked Dad right on his ass. He pulled himself up off the soft ground and walked over to the thorn. He leaned toward it until his nose was almost touching its smooth surface, almost like he was trying to see it at the molecular level.
“Didn’t even dent the goddamned thing…”, he’d said angrily. And that had been their last attempt to destroy a thorn.
Mom pointed at Bob, “you, sit at the table, I’ll have your breakfast ready in a minute.” Bob happily ran off towards the kitchen table, his hands swinging back and forth above his head. Teddy thought the kid looked like a crazed chimpanzee when he ran.
Bob pulled himself up onto the bench seat at the kitchen table and Mom pointed at Teddy, “And you, put your gear on, I need some veggies from the garden.” She tried to sound like a drill instructor, but there was a nervousness on her face that gave the game away. For his part, Teddy hid his excitement as best he could. He didn’t want his parents to know how much he loved going to the garden. You weren’t supposed to enjoy climbing the vines.
You were supposed to fear it.
Teddy headed back to the “gettin’ ready room”, as in, “we’re gettin’ ready to go outside.” It was a room just off the back porch, the only room in the house where there were no thorns. The one totally safe room in the house. You could do The Macarena in here if the mood caught you right.
On the dozens of hooks Dad had installed on the walls hung gear that he’d scavenged from a demolished sporting goods store on the other side of town. Teddy shrugged into a suit of armor made of mis-matched gear from a half-dozen sports he would never get a chance to play. Football shoulder pads, a baseball catcher’s chest plate and leg guards, thick hockey gloves and a helmet. None of this would stop a serious thrust from a thorn of course, but it would protect against most everything this side of a glancing blow.
Looking like a rejected extra from a Mad Max movie (they had DVDs in the Library too) he pushed the screen door open past shrieking rusted hinges. Mom heard the door opening, hell the whole world could hear this door when it opened, Teddy thought.
“Watch out for the vents!” she yelled from a room away.
Teddy’s shoulders slumped and he sighed with obvious frustration. “Watch out for the vents” was the unofficial motto of Vine World. People said it to each other the way they might have said “have a nice day” or “Merry Christmas!” before the vines came. But Vine World left no room for such trivialities. There was too much danger, too much fear, and too much at stake.
“The goddamned vents…” Teddy said to himself. He tried not to curse in front of his parents, but sometimes, well… sometimes the right word was the right word. “Le mot juste!” he said, much louder than when he’d cursed. And in some weird way, he thought his parents might have been even more surprised to hear him say that than they would have been if they’d heard him say “goddamned.” But when your kid spent every waking hour in a library, that was the kind of thing your kid was apt to say.
Teddy stepped out into what had once been their back yard.
If you could forget about the danger for one moment, it was almost beautiful.
Above his head the vines twisted and coiled around one another in a vast Gordian Knot of alien bark and thorns. Iridescent color shimmered along their lengths and what ground cover had survived the sudden plunge into darkness all those years ago reflected the light as if the aurora borealis blazed overhead. Here in the eternal twilight of Vine World, lightning bugs didn’t know what time it was either, and their belly lights twinkled and shone in the darker corners of what was a living organic cathedral.
From the safety of the back door the scene looked like a magical glade from a Tolkien novel. If a Hobbit, a Dwarf, and an Elvin Archer suddenly appeared walking behind a grey-haired old wizard lighting their way with a magic wooden staff, Teddy thought he wouldn’t bat an eye. “Might not even be the strangest thing out here today”, he thought to himself, and smiled.
Across the glade, an asterisk drawn in bright orange spray paint beckoned. Teddy scanned the yard, looking for vents mostly, but also for the… Things… that came out of them. There were none, and that was something, at least.
He glanced back at the wall of the “gettin’ ready room” and saw his own compound bow hanging next to an empty space where a larger bow should have been. “Dad must already be out hunting”, he thought. Teddy grimaced. “Anything but a Scorch, Dad” he muttered under his breath. He was getting pretty tired of eating Scorch.
Welp, there was always the vegetable garden.
He made his way slowly across the… Teddy continued to think of it as The Glade, even though twelve years ago nobody would have ever thought to call it anything other than somebody’s plain ole backyard. He moved slowly because things could change in a catastrophic instant in Vine World, and things that changed here almost never changed in your favor.
His head spun as if on a swivel and he walked in a strange crouch, ready to run at a moment’s notice in whatever direction might lead to safety. Twenty steps, then thirty, then fifty…. He counted as he went knowing that it was exactly sixty-seven steps to the orange asterisk. Somewhere behind him, he knew his Mom was trying to keep one eye on him as she took care of Bob and got the house ready to face the day. He could feel her worry across the space between them but there was nothing she could do except hold her breath and hope for the best. Vine World was about surviving one day at a time and everyone had to do their part.
The vines had forced Teddy to grow up fast.
“Four thousand, three hundred eighty days…” he said out loud. That was how many days they had survived by taking survival one day at a time. You never thought about tomorrow or next week in Vine World. That kind of optimism could get you killed. The distant terrified shrieks that sometimes carried to Teddy’s ears when the wind was blowing just right in the darkest most silent graveyard moments of the night were an awful reminder of that fundamental fact of their existence.
Teddy reached the asterisk and put a sweaty palm on it (tag, you’re it!). Above him a dozen pieces of two-by-four marked the upward trajectory of a large vine in three-foot intervals. In another time, there might have been a treehouse at the top of those two-by-fours, a sign out front boldly proclaiming, “no girls allowed!!!!” But not here. Not in Vine World.
The ladder steps went up about thirty feet and then disappeared into the tangled canopy overhead. He began to climb.
A minute later he had reached the underside of the canopy and paused to take a deep centering breath. It only got hairier from here. He pulled himself up into the disorienting alien tangle and below him the Glade disappeared from view, lost in waves of shimmering brown scales.
Somewhere below, their visual connection broken, Teddy’s mom stifled a worried sob and tried to focus on Bob.
A few seconds later and Teddy was standing on a broad flat expanse of vine. Here and there thorns gleamed malevolently in the gloom. Dad had helpfully circled each one in orange paint, not that Teddy needed a warning to steer clear. He looked up and saw the route winding its way up through the tangles, marked with more fluorescent orange paint. Courageous beams of sunlight stabbed down through the canopy here and there and it almost seemed to Teddy that the vines shied away from them, like they were more comfortable in the gloom. In the dark. Where the monsters roamed free and ate their fill.
Teddy had no idea exactly how high the vines went. He’d asked his Dad once and he’d said “dunno Kid, more than a hundred feet, less than five?” It was six hundred thirty-seven steps to the top of the canopy, Teddy knew that much, but the twisting path his Dad had marked meandered all over and around the complex tangle of vines. Sometimes you even had to go down a ways before you could go back up again. Teddy guessed it was about two hundred and fifty feet from the top of the vines to the ground.
Teddy was relatively safe up here. The things that came from the vents couldn’t get at him up here. “As far as you know” he reminded himself. Every now and then something new did come out of the vents, and it would be dangerous to assume that the vents would never vomit out a creature that could pursue him into the canopy. A shiver worked its way down his spine despite the heat of the day.
Ten minutes later he had almost made it to the top and he quietly thanked his Dad for the orange trail markings. It had taken almost a year for his Dad to find, map, and mark this route, and even though he’d climbed it hundreds of times, Teddy knew that without the markings he would soon be hopelessly lost up here. And if you got lost in Vine World, the best you could hope for was that you’d die of starvation or thirst before the Things got you.
It was much brighter now. What had been tiny little beams of sunlight down on the ground had become great gushing waterfalls of gleaming warmth up here. Teddy followed one last looping path around a super vine, this one easily fifty feet across, and saw the final stretch of orange painted ladder steps at the end of a short, narrow tunnel.
Teddy laid on his back and began to push himself along this horribly claustrophobic space where a dozen smaller vines coiled tightly around one another. It was so narrow that if there were even a single thorn in this space it would be impassible. As he crawled, he thought of his dream… and the snakes. Were the vines sentient? Might they one day wake up, realize that a boy was crawling through this passageway and suddenly clench themselves into a crushing final embrace?
In the shadows, Teddy shivered uncontrollably.
A few more yards and Teddy pulled himself into the last chamber at the base of the final ladder. His face was bathed in pure white sunlight that forced him to close his eyes so tightly it hurt. Brilliant sun spots danced on the blood red insides of his eyelids and the complex networks of his capillaries stood out in stark relief.
Doc Hebert, the town doctor by virtue of the fact that he was the only doctor to have survived the coming of the vines, had once told Teddy that he guessed Human eyesight would adapt completely to the gloom of Vine World eventually, and that within a thousand years or so, it might be impossible for Humans to venture out in direct sunlight at all.
Teddy thought that sounded like a damned shame and he laid here a minute longer, letting the sun warm his face for a while in honor of his sun-blind descendants, whom he would never meet and who might never get this chance.
But there was a job to do. He opened his eyes to the sunlight again, pulled himself to his feet, and climbed the last few feet to the roof of Vine World.
He rose up out of the gap in the vines like a submarine Captain climbing out onto the conning tower of his ship and looked around. The view never ceased to overwhelm him. All around, in every direction of the compass, was the terrible evidence of what had happened that day.
Vines. Vines by the millions, by the tens of millions… blended and woven as if they’d burst forth from the loom of the fates. They covered, buried, choked off everything he had ever known. If he squinted, it almost looked like a vast shag carpet of brown and green stretching in rolling hills and valleys to the horizon. Up close, you couldn’t see an individual vine move, or breathe, or whatever it was that they did, but across the miles and miles, the subtle combined movement of all the vines together made this alien roof ripple with motion.
A thick mountain of vines rose, alarmingly, to the north. Dad said he figured that must be Baton Rouge, since there were no actual mountains here in the flat Earth of Louisiana.
The idea that this “mountain” might have once been the second largest city in the state was, well, thought-provoking. It suggested that the vines grew as high as they needed to in order to overwhelm whatever might be in their way. Like the Kudzu that had once threatened to choke off all the vegetation in the American South before the Vines had provided the final say in the matter.
Did the Eiffel Tower itself lie dead and rotting underneath a city-sized pile of vines like Tiger Stadium just a couple hundred miles to the north? What about The Freedom Tower in New York? The Burj Khalifa? The London Pickle? The Taj Mahal? the Pyramids of Giza?
Teddy didn’t believe that. Couldn’t believe it.
He just couldn’t believe that everything that had ever been, everyone that ever was, all that had ever been known, could really be buried under the vines. He thought that the day he did start to believe that, would be the day he gave up and let the vines have him.
Up here, the vines sprouted leaves. Massive, lime green and waxy, they were big enough that a married couple could use one as a blanket if they were brave enough to try. As far as anyone knew, the leaves were not dangerous by themselves. But the way Teddy looked at it, you couldn’t be too careful when it came to the vines. The leaves hung like massive organic solar panels, collecting the sun here on the roof and delivering its energy to the real bulk of the vines deep down in the darkness below Teddy’s feet.
Spread out before him were a dozen raised garden beds made of salvaged four-by-fours, anchored into the woody scales of the vines and bristling with summer vegetables.
“Vict’ry Gardens” his Dad called them.
“Victory over what, Dad?” Teddy had asked him once.
“Over starvin’ to death, Bub”, had been the reply, and they’d both laughed so hard their bellies hurt, even though there really wasn’t anything funny about it at all.
It had been hell getting all the wood and dirt up here, but Doc Hebert had told Teddy he thought the “Vic’try Garden” idea, which had been his Dad’s, had probably saved the town. Once Teddy’s Dad had proven the concept, other gardens had begun to spring up all over the “roof”, and Teddy could see other townsfolk tending to their own gardens in the distance. He waved to a distant figure he thought was probably Mrs. Hebert, it was hard to tell this far away, and she waved back. He tried to judge the distance and guessed it at about two hundred yards. “Length a two football fields, Bub”, his Dad might have said, even though Teddy had never seen a football field and probably never would. There was one in town, about two miles east of here at the city high school. But like everything else it was buried under the choking mass of the vines. The goalposts, once shining and white on Friday nights, now forever twisted and rusting in the dark.
Teddy wandered between the rows picking tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers and pushing them into the carry bag at his hip. He loved it up here. Despite the alien view, you could almost feel normal with the sun on your face and a warm gulf breeze tossing your hair around.
Was the Gulf of Mexico still there? Or was it just a memory, buried under the vines like everything else? He didn’t know, and in any case, it didn’t matter. Any place you couldn’t walk to in the hours between dawn and dusk might as well be on the moon.
Which reminded him. He checked the watch on his wrist. He knew it was still early in the morning, but he checked anyway, out of habit. You always needed to be aware of the time in Vine World. You could run into a… Thing, at any time of course, but at night… that was when they hunted.
His carry bag was full now and so he looked once more into the sun, letting it toast his face one last time. He closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the long walk down to the ground and the short dangerous sprint across the glade and back into the house. The summer sun was still hot, but Teddy knew that in a few weeks they’d be up here planting the fall vegetables… pumpkins and squash mostly. Over the years, a brisk trade in heirloom seeds had sprung up alongside the damaged church that had been turned into something of a Town Hall by what remained of their little community.
It's always easier to go down than to go up and Teddy got back to the final stretch of ladder steps almost before he realized it. He looked down through the hole in the canopy, down on the warm lights of his house so close and yet so far away. And again, he had that sense that he was looking in on an Elvish Glade. The way the vines had incorporated the house into their infrastructure, the lighting bugs flitting here and there like fairies, the preternatural silence, it was as if this house existed on the outskirts of Rivendell, rather than Southern Louisiana.
He climbed slowly down the last stretch of steps. His suit of armor felt heavy and cloying now that he was so close to safety, and he just wanted it off. His right foot touched the mossy ground and a sound like Armageddon drove a bolt of ice into his spine and nearly stopped his heart. A terrible ripping sound, like the skin was being torn off the world.
He turned slowly… very… slowly and saw it. A jagged crack had appeared on the ground halfway between himself and the house. It started as a single point and slowly grew, right to left, until it was nearly four feet long. The ripping became an ear popping whoosh and the crack broke open like a lanced boil, spilling a sickly green light into the glade.
A Vent. A goddamned vent.
For one crazy moment he thought about running for it, leaping over the vent and through that poisonous light like a horse leaping over a hedge in an equestrian event. His legs actually tensed up, ready to begin pumping themselves across the space between himself and the vent. And then he froze, all thoughts of a heroic escape suddenly and irrevocably banished from his mind.
Because now there was something in the light. Movement. A shadow. Something was coming out of the vent. Teddy leaned back against the vine and waited to see if he would die immediately, or if the vines would decide to give him a fighting chance today.
What came out of the vent was a nightmare mash-up of a scorpion, a lobster, and a spider roughly the size of a large pit bull. Its dinner plate-sized claws clicked together curiously as if searching the air for something to cleave in two. The six legs behind the claws were much longer than a scorpion’s legs, more like a spider’s legs, long, spindly, arching, and multi-segmented. Each leg ended in a needle-sharp point that dug into the soft earth as the Thing struggled to pull itself free of whatever Hell had spawned it.
It was a Scorch.
Plenty lethal of course, but there were much worse Things lurking in the depths of the Vents, and he’d dealt with Scorches before. There was still a pretty good chance he’d die right here at the base of this vine, but with a Scorch there were always… possibilities.
Sixty-Seven Teddy steps away, his Mom stood in the open back door, both hands over her mouth which was open in a terrified “Oh.” There was nothing she could do to help her son now, and she knew it. Whatever was going to happen in the next thirty seconds would happen whether she intervened or not.
Bob stood behind her, peering out between her legs. “WATCH OUT BRUDDER!”, he shouted, and Teddy almost rolled his eyes. “Yeah no kidding, Bob”, he thought uselessly.
The Scorch’s claws were moving ceaselessly, and their SNAP SNAP caused Teddy to flinch each time they closed on one another. But it was the stinger that commanded his attention. It was like a dagger at the end of a long retractable tail and it too moved this way and that, looking for something fleshy to plunge its length into. But Teddy knew that the stinger itself, and the poison it contained, were not the worst part of what that tail could do. At the base of the stinger would be two small holes…
POP POP… the sound of twin firecrackers and Teddy thought “here it comes!”
From those two holes jetted two completely different but complimentary chemicals. And as they mixed in the air they ignited a three-foot jet of blue flame, and any newcomer to Vine World would have known instantly how the Scorch got its name.
Teddy remained rooted to the spot just in front of the orange asterisk his Dad had painted, frozen in place. The Scorch’s alien red eyes, seated on top of long stalks that could rotate in three hundred sixty degrees searched for him, but Scorches couldn’t see very well, and as long as he stood perfectly still, there was a good chance it wouldn’t see him.
But just then a breeze rustled the hair at the back of his head and Teddy knew that he had a bigger problem. The breeze was blowing his scent directly at the Scorch, and a Scorch could target you by your smell as easily as a hunter with a rifle and a scope.
And sure enough, after only a few seconds, the time it would have taken the breeze to travel from Teddy to the Scorch, it suddenly spun on him. Teddy had been spotted.
The Scorch came at him.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, seconds drawing out into hours, as every weapon in the creature’s considerable arsenal pointed right at Teddy’s most vulnerable spots. Its arachnid legs were a blur. The stinger came up and coiled back like a compressed spring, ready to strike. The claws opened wide and Teddy knew that whatever part of his body they targeted would soon be lying on the ground, detached and spilling great gouts of blood.
He put his arms up in front of his face. Maybe the hockey gloves would hold against the blade-like claws… maybe the umpire’s chest plate would deflect the stinger.
Maybe…
Maybe.
Across the glade his Mom screamed and for a moment it was the only sound in Teddy’s ears, except for the rushing sound of his own terrified blood. And then another sound cut off his Mom’s scream.
THWIP!!!
Followed by a shriek from the Scorch that was so brain-piercingly awful it was almost a weapon unto itself.
Teddy opened one tentative eye and saw a long shaft sticking out of what passed for a head on a Scorch. Both stalked eyes were bending inward, eyes rolling madly in their alien sockets, desperately trying to see what was causing it so much pain.
It was an arrow.
And now the high-pitched keening of the Scorch was joined by the THUMP THUMP THUMP of footsteps running towards the glade, and Teddy looked up and saw his Dad leaping over a low hanging vine, one hand reaching into the quiver on his back as he did. Without breaking stride, Dad nocked the arrow, drew back the string, and fired a second time.
This time the arrow thumped straight into the Thing’s cerebral cortex, or whatever it was that Scorches had rattling around in their skulls. The arrow had the desired effect. The Scorch dropped flat with a meaty thud. Dead before it hit the ground, its lights turned off as if by a switch.
Breathing heavily, Dad looked at his son, lost under a pile of second-hand sports equipment.
“You OK, Bub?”
Teddy looked back at him. “I guess it’s Scorch for dinner after all.”

I think the next Indie Perfumerie I'm going to be trying is Siren Song Elixirs. They have their Muses Perfume Sample pack - 5 for $30. I Thought I had it narrowed down to the 5 I wanted...but then I went back in and now I have a Gazillion tabs open again lol
My personal scent likes/dislikes, I'm a Kitchen/Green Witch. I love true to life fruit scents, fruity or interesting gourmands, tea scents, herbal scents, moss/woods scents, coffee/alcohol gourmand scents. My scent preferences change with the seasons. I specifically love Peach, Blueberries, and Strawberries, apples fruit-wise. And I HATE WITH A PASSION anything that goes powdery. I MUCH prefer true to life herbs, florals, and fruits.
I also like experimenting with spice, vanilla, incense, patchouli, sweet cream, burning woods scents, etc, lol, I'm eclectic and my scent mood changes with the season and what I'm doing/feeling at the time.
I was Originally contemplating these 5:
La Petite Mort: golden honeys, sweet spices, a kiss of ripe raspberry, and a blend of soft vanilla's that is oddly, and perfectly, androgynous. I like anything from androgynous to Femme leaning scents. I've also been looking for the perfect honey scent on me and this sounded like a good one to try. But it's low on the totem pole.
Cauldron: ripe, bursting blackberries and black plums, all resting on a smooth vanilla accord and dried black tea leaves. Deep notes of aged mahogany, applewood, cedar, and sandalwood swirl with rich vanilla bourbon, allspice, rich amber, subtle notes of leather, tonka bean and a hint of patchouli & oakmoss. A touch of dark, sticky resin, black twisted vines and smoke is added to the mixture to create a mysterious brew worthy of a witch's tincture. This, to me, just sounded like a perfect late summer Witchy vibe scent, and I love fruity witchy scents. Just someone let me know if it's a bit too syrup-y. I've been burned before lol
Nocturne #8: Ancestral home. Freshly plowed fields, oak moss hanging heavy from the boughs of oak trees, aged cedar posts, leather bridles, wild sage & coriander, magnolia blooms, vines laden with honeysuckle blossoms, soft woods under the dense green canopy of leaves. Key Notes - Honeysuckle, Magnolia, Oakmoss, Sage, Coriander, Cedar wood, Leather, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Soil Essentially, sometimes I want to smell like I'm in Wuthering Heights lol. Misty moors, fog, green herbs, that sort of thing. And I love honeysuckle, and would love a complex honeysuckle scent
London Fog: A beautifully blended Earl Grey tea gets the royal treatment with the addition of fresh lavender buds, a bit of sugar, a splash of cream and vanilla with a dollop of honey for a true to life rendition of this cuppa tea favorite. I've been Really looking for a good lavender scent and I love tea scents, so this one stood out.
Eat Me: Creamy blueberry cheesecake layered beneath fluffy white cake and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting with blueberry drizzle. It’s sweet, tart, citrusy and oh so creamy. Basically I want to smell edible lol. I LOVE Blueberry, though, and the combo of blueberry and lemon. Please let me know if it's not great, though!! Cause, this is high on my list to get
Then these are the ones I now have multiple tabs open with lol:
Wicked Grace: She moves with elegance and grace, leaving behind her a trail of white roses and dark, black tea. Her Ativan roots shine with allusions to ripe golden peaches and bursting grapefruit citrus mixed with blooming lilies. Very feminine and bold.
Key notes - White rose, peach, grapefruit, black tea, lily
I've read that this is either a Super realistic peach sweet tea scent...or like peach gum...I'd definitely prefer the peach tea version. If anyone's tried this, let me know which way it leans!
Spirit: Eerie, ghostly tendrils from deep in the fade emanate from him in a soft, green musk with whispers of geranium, bergamot, lime, lavender, rosemary, amber, and oak moss. Lost and forgotten in the dungeons of the White Spire, the aged, sweet smell of decay surrounds him and sharp, coppery minerals of pungent earth lingers upon his clothes. The soft smell of clean lemongrass whispers hope of renewal and promises of innocence and compassion amidst so much darkness and death.
Key notes - Green musk, Lime, Bergamot, Lavender, Rosemary, Amber, Oak moss, Coppery minerals, Lemongrass
Again, looking for lavendegreen scents, as well a green scents I can layer under more fruity sweet ones. But, also, I just ordered Moss Maiden from Alkemia, so this one may be low on the totem pole for choices
Annabel Lee : salty ocean breezes upon the night mist, carrying the crisp green fragrant wisps of seaweed and green ferns, while watery florals of lotus and cyclamen linger in the air. English roses and peonies, tokens of affection from a mournful lover, lay atop a stone sepulchre that contains the single pine coffin of the beautiful Annabel Lee. Tendrils of green rose stems, pine needles, sprigs of lavender, and hyacinth emanate from within the crypt by the sea.
Key notes - English roses, Rose stems, Peony, Ocean mist, Lavender, Hyacinth, Seaweed, Fern, Pine, Damp wood, Stone sepulcher
Another lavender scent I was thinking of trying. I'm also looking for magical sea siren inspired scents, as well
Nocturne #2 (Black Tea, Chamomile, Lavender, Violets, Amber, Jasmine,) Tranquility. Smoky Black Tea. Soothing chamomile. Calming Lavender. Decadent violets. Golden Amber. Night blooming jasmine. Creamy sandalwood. Aged vanilla. Vanilla accord blended by SSE comprised of decadent woods, buttery vanilla, and cream.
I'm intrigued by sleep scents, and with it being a tea and lavender scent, this one intrigued me. I also like it when sweeter softer scents are made more complex with wood scents
Wonderland (Violet, Fig, Lavender, Peony, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Labdanum - A dreamy, wondrous blend of of violet, lavender, and peony florals amidst a sleepy accord of sandalwood, sweet fig, and resinous labdanum.
Please somebody give me a review of this! I've been wracking the internet for something, but bupkiss so far :/
Blueberry Earl Grey Perfume (Earl Grey Tea, Blueberry, Cream, Sugar) Traditional Earl Grey tea, with bright citrus notes of bergamot, enhanced with ripe blueberries and splash of cream, slightly sweetened with sugar for a smoky, sweet tea that is perfect for curling up with a good book.
I LOVE and Really want a good Blueberry scent, so this one peaked my interest. Especially because I've also been wanting to find a good earl grey scent. If someone tells me the lavender isn't very strong in London Fog, I'll probably switch it out with this one
Mesmerize perfume (Blueberry, White Tea, Vanilla Bean, Black Plum, Black Vanilla, Sugar) A complex bouquet of dark fruity notes, including blueberry and black plum, is grounded in a base of steeped white tea. Vanilla bean, black vanilla, and sugar provide an inviting sweetness to accentuate the notes of dark fruit and to soften the astringency of the tea. The final scent is rich, sophisticated, and unique; it is a heady, mysterious aroma that will captivate the senses
I'd probably choose between this and the Blueberry Earl Grey tea.
Strawberry Rose Perfume (Strawberry, Cream, Vanilla, Rose) A simply beautiful blend of fresh strawberries with sweetened cream, sugar, and red rose petals. Not too light, not too strong, and exquisite for any age. It's complex in its simplicity.
Key Notes - Strawberry, Cream, Vanilla, Rose I REALLY want a good Strawberry perfume! I've tried Lorelei from FSW and Where the Wild Things are I & II from Sorcellerie apothecary, but I'm still on the hunt lol
Charmed perfume (Fresh Strawberry, White Chocolate Mousse, Cheesecake, This scent opens with an aroma of ripe strawberries and sugar, followed by hints of white chocolate mousse, a creamy richness of cheesecake, and the warm sweetness of graham cracker crust. As it develops, the strawberry fades, leaving behind soft white chocolate, graham cracker, and cheesecake complemented by a subtle black vanilla note. It transitions from a refreshing and flirtatious start to a beautifully sweet vanilla aroma.
Now, I've heard that this is either the most photo realistic strawberry cheesecake....or it smells like just cheesecake crust and only the hint of strawberry. I would LOVE it if I could get some opinions on this one. I Really want some good strawberry perfumes and I haven't quite found it yet!
Bewitch perfume (Blackberry Cheesecake, Buttered Pecan Crust) A burst of blackberry is layered atop the aroma of freshly-baked cheesecake, with a hint of sweetened cream cheese hinting of deliciousness, all wrapped in the cozy embrace of a buttered pecan crust - an alluring fragrance you can't help but take in.
I would love a review of this one if anyone's tried it! Vamp (Bourbon, Scotch, Aged vanilla, Tobacco, Dark cocoa, Coffee, Rum, Patchouli, Labdanum Bold notes of booze, the woody notes of aged Kentucky Bourbon, vintage scotch, and rum infused hardwoods swirl with sweet tobacco to create a hedonistic blend of notes that conjures images of dark bordellos or a hidden speakeasy. Aged vanilla, dark cocoa, and coffee beans add a gourmand element to the heady booze, creating a tempting fragrance that dances on the fine line of gourmand and perfume. Deep notes of laudanum, amber, and patchouli add a warmth in deep, dark, hidden base notes to accentuate the fragrance. The result is a fragrance reminiscent of a very, very dangerous woman or of a man who embraces his vices.
Key Notes - Bourbon, Scotch, Aged vanilla, Tobacco, Dark cocoa, Coffee, Rum, Patchouli, Labdanum, Amber, Woods accord This one intrigues me. I absolutely LOVE Sucreabeille's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and this sounds just like that. So, I'm tempted to try it
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If anyone's tried any of these, I'd love their take! It's kinda hard to find reviews for some of these, and I love going off the reviews from multiple people, as well as the original description!
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Currently, no other device has the same level of eye-catching awesomeness that the AI pin has. I call it the Woah Factor. That same factor was the one which crushed Blackberry and Palm after the iPhone was released, and prompted for the hasty release of Android in order to clone it. And, for those who remember it, what was it like the first time you saw someone playing on a Gameboy? Exactly.
The AI pin effectively is its own advertising, and every user wearing it becomes a spokesperson for it. Expect it also to work as an “Ask me about…” pin, and thus to become a word-of-mouth landslide. So, Humane has no need to spend megabucks on advertising, these pins will sell themselves!
And you just wait until after some big celebrity wears the AI pin to some events. Someone like Shailene Wooley, who is a digital minimalist who refuses to use smartphones. Or maybe Keanu Reeves, who has been spotted using a dumbphone daily. And so on and so forth, until this thing becomes the hottest fashion accessory on the market. And, coincidentally, brooches are very much back in style this year, so…
Sure, some people love to hate the AI pin. Excellent, that is free advertising, as well. It will become a whole talking point on many casual conversations. And no, this product is not supposed to be for everyone. The AI pin is meant for the intelligent, the mindful, the bold and the beautiful.
You don’t like the AI pin? Probably because you don’t belong to the aforementioned group of people. It’s not in your personality, and that’s okay. Also, don’t expect me to pay any attention to your opinions about it. You can yell to the cloud whatever you want. I’m turning off the reply notifications on this post and never looking at it again.
This is my prerogative and my power as a user: I can (and I will) filter out whatever doesn’t nurture me and my personal development. This is what I expect AI pin and CosmOS to help me accomplish even better, in my daily life. I choose to have peace of mind, and some tea with biscotti. Care to join me?