Manual blackberry curve 8520 espa ol

Is there any custom rom or os for the blackberry curve 8520 that I can install ?

2024.04.09 13:51 15locraft_off Is there any custom rom or os for the blackberry curve 8520 that I can install ?

submitted by 15locraft_off to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.03.29 10:36 15locraft_off Did anyone knows how to update my blackberry curve 8520 with Linux ?

submitted by 15locraft_off to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.03.27 14:34 crimsontape This week's grocery review - Sales for March 28th to April 3rd - Lots of decent deals to go around. Some relief for fresh veg and overall more stable sale-pricing

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis
Farm Boy
Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics
FoodLand
Freshco (price matcher)
Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)
Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshsupermarketvanier.business.site/) (full flyers available here https://bbs.comefromchina.com/members/102157/#latest-activity) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)
Independent
Loblaws
Provigo
Maxi (price matcher)
Metro
No Frills (price matcher)
Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/
Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)
Sobeys
Super C
T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart
Costco (for referencing when looking through flyers - going to try to comment on these items more often)
Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)
Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)
Some additional references!
submitted by crimsontape to ottawa [link] [comments]

2024.03.20 16:58 Rumbleblak Can you give me some feedback on my Spanish guide to LLMs for Newbies?

If you do not understand Spanish you can translate it to English in your browser and of course if it is useful you can use it to acquire knowledge, the point, I am not someone very technical, and although I have done my own research on LLMs I feel I have been somewhat superficial and I have only scratched the surface, besides I have focused the guide in humor and I have made it tremendously grandiloquent (which goes with my personality, and with my way of making things less boring, don't judge that too much please xD, only the content) I have the feeling that maybe some messages are not completely clear, or that there are things that I can't explain and are extremely useful, that's why I want to make a second improved version, I would need feedback, help with topics like RAG (it's incredibly difficult to find a simple guide no matter how hard I look) and clarifications of the possible mistakes I could have made, I appreciate all possible help.
​
Several annotations: - I have put together the guide using many of the resources that have been shared on this reddit and other sites, including some images and memes, I have added a section in it where I have added links for people to visit this and other communities like pygamalion or sillytavern. - I am not an expert, I don't have all the time in the world, and I wanted to get something basic, keep that in mind, even so I have spent many afternoons with her, thinking about basic things like how to structure the topics, make complicated messages more simple and so on... -I consider it useful that we expand the useful knowledge of LLMs to other languages, since for example in Spanish there is almost no information about Sillytavern, and people are stuck in centralized websites like characterAI or with twitter gurus who want to sell prompting courses. The guide in question: https://spainias.notion.site/Manual-para-ejecutar-una-IA-de-Texto-en-tu-propio-PC-en-Espa-ol-Un-antes-y-un-despu-s-en-la--bbea3f3bdf2a4e7794d385ba582eebf8?pvs=4
submitted by Rumbleblak to LocalLLaMA [link] [comments]

2024.03.15 03:00 CopperKast The Soldiers Core: Chapter 0.0 prologue: New Life No Orders

I awoke in this field... or rather, a hole in the ground. Calling my new home a cave would be generous at best seeing how the thing is a shallow-ish concave bowl dug into the base of, at least what I think is, either a large hill or small mountain almost like the site of a fresh meteor impact, just smaller. Getting a rough guess is all I can do given the lip of my bowl does a surprisingly good job at obscuring my view outside.
I guess I left out some important tidbits of info, lemme backtrack for you a bit. For starters I'm leaving these notes carved into stone tablets mostly for my own sanity at this point, but I keep telling myself it's for posterity sake, I have been here for two weeks now and it doesn't look like anyone is ever going to read these but me. provided there is even anyone out here. Second, I'm not in my own body. I was a specimen of fine physique and stature, enlisted in the UNAF; that is the United North American Federation, marine corps, more specifically I used to belong to MARSOC. I'll skip the history lesson and even though I'm pretty sure by the fact the sky is green I'm no longer bound to my non-disclosure of OpSec materials and information, I don't particularly feel like reminiscing over the good ol' days of being a field engineer setting up rows of landmines and stringing up so much concertina wire it'd make an armor regiment cry.
What I do feel like discussing is how I went from 6'4'' brown haired, thick bearded and blue eyes to this... crystal. I'm now just an octagonal cylinder, orange in color with white globs lazily drifting to and fro my ends. like a lava lamp just more expensive looking, and I'm about the size of a twinkie, god I miss snacks. I don't know how I know I'm this glowing rock but I have an intense feeling of self when I look into it similar to staring into a mirror. I’m not sure how I'm conscious either, let alone able to see, think and feel, I can feel everything inside my little pit from the slightest vibration of a gnat entering my bubble all the way up to a small tree that fell over recently into my home after a pair of wild animals uprooted it. I have no idea what they were but it sounded like a mix between a horse and a large cat.
I've found over the last few days I can manipulate the stone and gravel around me, able to make it disappear and reappear and shape it like clay. I spent my entire second day making a chess set out of large pebbles and playing against myself so I wouldn't have to think about my current situation. Games were always a good way to relieve stress after a long day, then again so was shooting a few hundred rounds down at the range on base. Cleaning the firearm was enjoyable too, I have, or at least had, a couple bachelors degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering and I was taking general classes on things like chemistry so seeing the inner working of anything mechanical was always interesting, I don't see that being of much use right here though, now that I'm dead. At least I think I died, I'm not exactly sure but if I am still alive then this is one wild dream.
I was setting up a tank trap in a moderate wooded bottleneck between two steep rocky cliffs, only way in and out of the area short of a heli, and then all I can remember is the familiar crack of being downrange of gunfire, and just nothingness. it's hard to explain the absence of color and light but I wasn't seeing just black, it was like every imaginable color and no color all at once, complicated. Anyway the marksman must have been a hell of a shot given that I didn't feel a thing, Kevlar helmets just don't cut it anymore against high powered rifles but I digress.
I haven't been able to absorb the tree yet, mainly because it's still alive, fading slowly, but alive, weird that I can feel its life draining away and it tastes like a watered down wheatgrass smoothie, yes, its life energy or whatever it is called tastes like wheatgrass but only like a wisp of it. Like someone yelled “WHEATGRASS” from inside the latrine across the barracks from you while there was something loud outside, ya know? I've also found that if I focus hard enough on a subject that I’m confused about or lack information on the knowledge just illuminates In my brain like when you can't remember a word then out of nowhere it hits you, kinda reminds me of a light bulb blinking on above my head like in an old cartoon. I know how to do all these things, amazing things that feel like they would be more at home in a fantasy story or some web novel I used to read as a kid, and they feel natural like breathing, I just have to remember that I apparently know how to do them. Well now I'm just rambling and this tablet is almost out of space, I guess I should finish up. This almost feels like playing a very realistic, extremely complicated VR simulation similar to what we had for training just without an instruction manual, no orders, and no pause button.
---------------------------------------_
It's been a week since my last stone tablet. I've been up to a lot lately and I figured I might as well write it down, even though since coming here my memory seems to be perfect providing I can remember to remember the thing I want to remember. I can recall everything down to the most minute detail like how that fly over there with a chip out of its left wing and flies with a slight curve to the right from overcompensation, and is now dying close to the edge of my bowl, has entered and exited my little field of influence 37 times over the last 13 minutes. It's just been zipping back and forth seemingly aimless as fly's often do; but it’s now slowly beginning to ebb and wane. It tastes like chewing on a dry sponge, no volume but it fills up your mouth and there's nothing else of real value to note, thankfully it doesn't taste the way I'd imagine a fly would actually taste.
In other news I got bored with my mundane surroundings and decided to spruce my home up a fair bit. I am now sitting upon a stone pedestal made of a tightly twisting Celtic lattices in the center of a room that I connected to the surface with a shallow angled staircase that goes for almost thirty feet and then dug into the wall towards the mountain opening a hallway into an ok sized room maybe fifteen feet wide and long with eight foot ceilings I know its a mountain because I finally found out how to move my point of view, all I needed to do was focus on feeling like I’m floating and imagine there is a breeze pushing my view around whatever direction I need to go in, and the stronger the wind the faster I move. I can’t quite get close enough to the lip to see over into the surrounding area, however I can see the tall stuff like a few trees and the mountain.
Other than the obvious perks of building a bunker under a mountain, I had a very deep instinctual pull to build towards it. The mountain makes me feel safe, so very much more safe than laying among the pebbles with open sky above me. I decorated the walls and ceiling with Celtic knots and accents wrapping up from the smooth rock floor weaving and flowing seamlessly together then back apart until they reach a column in the center of the ceiling where they spiral downward in a double helix and wrap around meeting the edges of my pedestal forming a loose cage around me. I don't really know why I decorated with Celtic designs, maybe it's because I had a sleeve tattoo full of em’ and I enjoy the way they look.
The knots, basically all of them that aren’t my pedestal, are an inlay of common Lowland Oak, and it gives a very pleasant contrast between the polished gray-white-black of the granite. Don’t ask me how I know what kind of tree it is, I just knew its name and general composition after I consumed it. It seemed kind of cliché at first but who am I to argue with the magic matter manipulation powers, not to mention I'm a glowing talking rock. Suddenly knowing and understanding the general makeup of a tree after eating it is hardly the strangest thing that’s come to light for me this month.
Speaking of wood, since I've learned how to make and manipulate it I don't have any real limit as far as amount goes and I'm assuming that's the same with stone. I've easily used ten times the amount of wood in the ceiling alone compared to what I got from the actual tree. the only thing slowing me down is that after materializing a fair amount of materials or just manipulating the matter around me in general, even writing on this tablet, after a while I just hit a hard stop and all at once I felt like I had just done a twelve mile ruck in full battle rattle at the time, and then promptly black out for a short time. After which I feel right as rain. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, probably not a good thing if I have to hazard a guess. This has happened a few times but each time when I wake up my crystal glows with a glossy look and the lava lamp globs are vigorously galumphing between my two ends, compared to when I'm on the verge of passing out it's almost a completely matt orange with no glow and the white lava lamp globes virtually stop moving.
I wistfully asked myself what exactly I am while staring intently at my gemstone, and to my surprise a little line of words popped up, so now I have a Hud I guess, there's not much to it other than putting a word or three above things I focus on. it's not so much a group of text as it is an orange mist that I can read I guess? It's almost like I'm looking at words but if I focus on the mist it disperses and when I return attention to the thing I'm trying to examine it reappears almost like subtitles where you don't have to focus on them but you can still read them but it's all in my head. Yeah, I'm terrible at explaining things. Above me the mist says I'm a level 2 Unnamed rare dungeon Core, which is odd for a number of reasons. primarily for me, maybe not the most important, I'm level 2 which in itself raises lots of questions like how do I gain levels, is it XP based like most games I played in my past life or is it just a time based thing? When did I hit level 2, I never got a notification or any innate feeling of growth, and what the hell even is a dungeon core? it says rare so does that mean there's common and uncommon dungeons? What makes me rare? Ugh, I just had to open this can of worms without a pole to fish with. Also I think I might stop writing these tablets, it's just wasting energy and I should probably keep myself in tip top shape from now on, knowing me I'll probably start doing it again out of sheer boredom eventually.
Next Chapter
———————————————————————
Authors Post-read note:
Hello HFY, I’m CopperKast, and this is the first chapter, pre-chapter(?), in my fantasy dungeon core story, this is a Lite-rpg story so I apologize if you dislike the stat panel stuff, I do attempt to make it as organic as possible to fit in with the general flow of the story but numbers are numbers. The whole thing is written as a stream-of-thought/current actions from the chosen characters perspective and it’s my first attempt in doing so. I originally posted it over in Royal Road (currently up to 26 chapters at the time of writing this) however I recently decided to slowly port it over to Reddit so I can get more feedback(I crave constructive criticism). I hope you enjoy the read!
(Also please bear with me I’m new to posting on reddit so the first few chapters May be a little messy while I figure out how to do tagging/flair and linking chapters)
submitted by CopperKast to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.03.15 02:21 Inner_Paramedic9917 blackberry curve 8520 :>

Hello, I hope you're all having a good day.
I recently purchased a BlackBerry Curve 8520. However, when I inserted my SIM card, it prompted me to unlock it, requiring a network MEP code. I've searched for solutions online, but all the methods I found require payment. I'm wondering if any of you know of any free methods to unlock it. Any help would be appreciated!
submitted by Inner_Paramedic9917 to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.03.11 19:59 MISTERCOLOR NEW OtterBox Defender Series BlackBerry Curve 8500 8520 8530 Commuter Case Black

NEW OtterBox Defender Series BlackBerry Curve 8500 8520 8530 Commuter Case Black submitted by MISTERCOLOR to For_Sale_on_eBay [link] [comments]

2024.03.08 16:32 Count-Daring243 Best Hornady Gun Safes

Best Hornady Gun Safes
Are you in the market for a reliable gun safe to protect your valuable firearms and ensure they remain secure from unauthorized access? Look no further! This article presents a comprehensive roundup of Hornady Gun Safes. As one of the leading manufacturers in the firearms market, Hornady offers a range of high-quality gun safes that cater to different capacities and security requirements. From compact safes ideal for home use to commercial-grade storage solutions, we've got you covered. Stay tuned to learn more about the Hornady Gun Safes and make an informed decision when choosing the perfect storage solution for your firearms collection.

The Top 9 Best Hornady Gun Safes

  1. Hornady Rapid Safe AR - G unlocker RFID - Highly secured and easy-to-use personal safe by Hornady, designed with RFID technology to swiftly access your firearms for enhanced protection and 24/7 availability.
  2. High-Capacity Cannon Fire Resistant Gun Safe - Experience ultimate protection for your family's valuables and firearms with the Cannon TS5934 Gun Safe, boasting 48 long gun and 6 handgun capacity, 45-minute fire rating, and robust security features.
  3. Advanced Wifi-Enabled Gun Safe from Hornady - The Hornady Rapid Safe Ready Vault w/ WiFi provides lightning-fast access to your firearms with RFID technology, ensuring unmatched security and flexibility for organization and storage, all while being California DOJ compliant.
  4. Hornady Security Dual Lid Lock Box: Durable, Versatile Protection - The Hornady Security Dual Lid Lock Box combines 16-gauge steel housing and premium foam interior with a foldable carry handle and two keyed alike steel barrel locks, providing both protection and easy portability for your firearms and ammunition.
  5. Hornady Alpha Elite Security Lock Box for Pistols and Revolvers - The Hornady Alpha Elite Lock Box offers a secure, tamper-proof storage solution for your firearms, with a 16-gauge steel construction, pry-resistant security band, and 1500-pound steel security cable, all meeting TSA guidelines and ASTM safety standards.
  6. Secure Hornady 4-Foot Cable Lock Box - The Hornady Large Lock Box offers reliable protection for your handgun and valuables, with a 16-gauge steel body, 1,500-pound force security cable, and a patented space-saving design for maximum storage inside the box.
  7. Hornady Keypad Vault with Automatic Lighting - The Hornady Keypad Vault offers secure, durable storage for handguns and valuables with a programmable 4 to 6 digit code, steel security cable, premium foam interior, and automatic interior light for enhanced visibility.
  8. Hornady Personal Gun Safe with 2-Handgun Capacity - The Hornady Two Gun Keypad Vault ensures secure storage and quick access for 2 handguns, featuring an automatic interior light, removable interior shelf, and a 4-6 digit programmable keypad for added convenience.
  9. Hornady Rapid Safe 2700KP with RFID Technology - The Hornady Rapid Safe 2700KP offers quick access, top-notch security, and consistent reliability, making it a must-have for gun owners prioritizing protection and convenience.
As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Reviews

Hornady Rapid Safe AR - G unlocker RFID

​
https://preview.redd.it/930hrfowp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d0696fae607792302336ce76fd854bd78871063
As an avid gun enthusiast, I recently purchased the Hornady Rapid Safe AR - Gunlocker RFID to store and protect my firearms. From the moment I opened the package, I was impressed by its sturdy 16-gauge steel construction, which exudes confidence in its ability to withstand potential intruders.
One of the standout features of this safe is its RFID technology. The convenience of quickly unlocking the safe with my wristband or key fob saves me precious seconds during emergencies. I also appreciate the option to program a secondary security code, providing an extra layer of protection if needed.
The Hornady Rapid Safe AR exceeds ASTM safety standards, which is reassuring when it comes to safeguarding my valuable possessions. Additionally, the AC and battery power supply ensures that my firearms are protected and ready to use at all times.
However, there are a few cons to consider as well. The knob used to relock the safe can be challenging for some users, such as my wife, to turn. It would be great if the RFID or a larger handle could also facilitate locking the safe.
Another minor issue is the tight fit for holding two tactical length rifles or shotguns. Due to limited width and depth, only one ready-to-go AR can be comfortably stored for quick access. If you're using this safe primarily for personal defense purposes, it might not suit your needs.
In conclusion, the Hornady Rapid Safe AR - Gunlocker RFID is a well-made, easy-to-use safe that provides decent protection for your firearms. The standout features include RFID technology, secondary code entry, AC or battery power supply, and robust construction. While there are some cons regarding the knob difficulty and limited capacity, these downsides do not overshadow the benefits this safe offers to gun enthusiasts seeking convenience and security.

High-Capacity Cannon Fire Resistant Gun Safe

​
https://preview.redd.it/1x1ny6vwp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ed507679c2c3f74fb0feaad9104a985e8c4ed98
As a firearms enthusiast, I recently decided to invest in a safe to keep my collection secure. I opted for the Cannon 48 Long Gun Safe, and I couldn't be happier with my choice.
First and foremost, the build quality of this safe is superb. The heavy-gauge steel and patented TruLock internal hinges make it difficult for pry attacks, ensuring that my belongings remain protected. Furthermore, the fire rating of 45 minutes at 1200 degrees and the Triple Fin intumescent Fire/Smoke seal provide an additional layer of security against potential fires.
One of the standout features of this safe is its ample storage capacity. It can hold up to 54 firearms, including 48 long guns and 6 handguns. The factory-installed door organization gives me extra space for smaller items, guns, and accessories. Additionally, the luxurious carpeted interior with black leatherette trim not only looks appealing but also protects my precious valuables and guns from scratches, scuffs, and other types of damage.
The electronic lock and keypad provide me with peace of mind when it comes to accessing the contents of the safe. The backup key ensures that I'll always be able to access my belongings in case of any malfunctions.
However, there are a few minor drawbacks to this safe. The process of moving and setting it up can be quite cumbersome, requiring at least two or three people to handle the task safely. Additionally, the safe's weight may make it difficult for some individuals to manage alone.
In conclusion, the Cannon 48 Long Gun Safe has been an excellent addition to my home, providing me with the ultimate protection for my firearms and other valuable items. While there are a few minor cons to consider, the overall quality and security features of this safe make it a worthwhile investment for any firearms enthusiast.

Advanced Wifi-Enabled Gun Safe from Hornady

​
https://preview.redd.it/my9se5axp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2946b32aa72c6f7041dde49b039671cd9c52fb94
I've been using the Hornady Rapid Safe Ready Vault for some time now and it has completely changed my experience with gun safes. The neoprene floor mat is a game-changer for storing my long guns in an upright position, ensuring their stocks don't slip. I also find the digital keypad incredibly convenient and even have the backup mechanical key ready just in case.
Having a safe that can run on both AC power and batteries gives me peace of mind knowing my firearms are always accessible 24/7. The SQUARE-LOK organizing system is another highlight, as it allows me to store various firearms and accessories securely.
There are a few minor drawbacks though. The Ready Vault doesn't have the largest capacity, so I sometimes have trouble fitting everything in. Additionally, the safe doesn't come with an automatic lock once it's closed which could be a potential security concern.
Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase of the Hornady Rapid Safe Ready Vault. Its quick access, advanced security features, and flexibility make it a great choice for gun owners who prioritize safety and convenience.

Hornady Security Dual Lid Lock Box: Durable, Versatile Protection

​
https://preview.redd.it/tymo7glxp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3258ea7442fab6b2a279040f7bd9c8a19aa42d59
I recently had the chance to use the Hornady Security Dual Lid Lock Box when traveling, and I must say, it's been a game-changer. The dual-space design was perfect for keeping my weapon and ammo separate and secure while on the road. I also appreciated the padded interior that prevented any scratches or dings from occurring during transit.
The locking mechanism was excellent as well, offering two keyed alike locks for added security. Not to mention, the foldable carry handle made transporting this lock box a breeze. It's a well-built product with premium quality materials like the 16-gauge steel housing and the durable security cable.
However, one issue I encountered was its handle, which dug into my hand due to its open-back design. Additionally, I found the two separate compartments could be a bit difficult to locate the keys into their respective locks. Despite these minor drawbacks, I still think this lockbox is worth the investment for anyone requiring a secure and portable storage solution for their firearms.

Hornady Alpha Elite Security Lock Box for Pistols and Revolvers

​
https://preview.redd.it/nbqtryzxp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=096c8dfefe019281d5179743c3d4c461910dc981
I recently got myself the Hornady 98153 Alpha Elite Lock Box to store and secure my most treasured handgun. Let me tell you, this lockbox has exceeded all my expectations. When I first laid my hands on it, I was pleasantly surprised by its sturdy construction, with a solid 16-gauge steel housing. The pry-resistant security band, barrel lock, and dual crossbar latch mechanism gave me the confidence that my gun is safe and secure.
One of the most innovative features of this lockbox is the tamper-proof cable receiver. It's patented, meaning you won't find it in any other product. This receiver allows maximum storage space while maintaining the utmost security. You'll love how the steel security cable, rated for 1500 lbs, keeps your valuables safe and sound. It's so strong that it meets TSA guidelines for air travel and even exceeds ASTM International and CA DOJ safety standards for child safety and theft resistance.
The Alpha Elite Lock Box is also a perfect fit for my handguns, including my 1911-size pistols and 4-inch revolvers. Its dimensions of 10.25" x 8" x 2.75" make it compact yet spacious enough to accommodate my firearms with ease. The interior dimensions of 9.75" x 7.5" x 2.25" give you ample space to store your valuables, making it an excellent choice for people who carry a gun regularly.
As a proud Hornady Alpha Elite Lock Box owner, I must say that I have been thoroughly impressed by its performance. The balance of sturdiness and easy portability makes it the perfect companion for my firearms. Its ample internal space and the included steel security cable ensure that your handguns stay secure while on the move.
However, like any product, there are a few negatives as well. The steel security cable, while incredibly strong, can be a bit short for some vehicles. This can make it difficult to secure the lockbox in a convenient location. You also might find that the latch mechanism could be a little more user-friendly.
In conclusion, the Hornady 98153 Alpha Elite Lock Box is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to secure their handguns. Its robust construction, innovative cable receiver, and spacious interior provide a secure and convenient storage solution for your valuables. Although there are a few minor drawbacks, the overall benefits of this lockbox far outweigh any potential issues.

Secure Hornady 4-Foot Cable Lock Box

​
https://preview.redd.it/zmixuseyp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e41b49915d93ce8f6bc95944b6ec4c0ba10bf2d
I recently purchased the Hornady Large Lock Box to secure my handgun when I'm not carrying it. The lockbox has a heavy-duty 1500 lb. rated steel cable that secures to any stationary object, providing me with peace of mind. The patented space-saving receiver of the cable allows maximum storage space inside the box, which is an added bonus.
One of my favorite features of this lockbox is its durable 16-gauge steel housing, which is designed to protect against pry attempts. The premium foam interior also cradles and protects my valuable contents, ensuring they remain in pristine condition.
There are some drawbacks to the Hornady Large Lock Box, such as the need to manually insert and remove the cable, which can be slightly cumbersome. However, this doesn't deter me from recommending it to others. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchase, and I believe it's an excellent choice for anyone looking for secure storage for their firearms or other valuables.

Hornady Keypad Vault with Automatic Lighting

​
https://preview.redd.it/j2gk41zzp4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6e0e4f1476b1813441d2eb193dd80e75d7f47f0
I've been using the Hornady Keypad Vault for a few weeks now, and I have to say, it's a game-changer in secure storage. The first thing that stood out to me was its sleek, compact design, which made it easy to fit into my limited space. The 16-gauge steel construction gives me peace of mind knowing that my belongings are safe from prying hands or eyes.
One feature that truly impressed me was the programmable keypad code. Setting it up was incredibly straightforward, and I love knowing that only I have access to my valuables. Plus, the interior light is such a nice touch - no more fumbling around in the dark trying to find what I need!
However, there have been a couple of minor issues. For instance, the battery door feels a bit flimsy and could use some improvement in terms of durability. Additionally, some users reported difficulty setting up the keypad or securing the vault with the included cable.
Overall, the Hornady Keypad Vault has exceeded my expectations as a secure storage solution. Its sturdy construction, programmable keypad, and thoughtful design details make it an excellent choice for anyone looking to protect their valuables or firearms.
Although there may be some room for improvement, especially in terms of ensuring consistent quality across all units, I believe that the Keypad Vault is a solid investment for those prioritizing security and convenience.

Hornady Personal Gun Safe with 2-Handgun Capacity

​
https://preview.redd.it/eii11750q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04d159ce785648a1b43c1f559985d812642cb954
I have been using the Hornady Two Gun Keypad Vault for quite some time now, and I must say I'm quite impressed with its performance. The keypad is incredibly easy to use, allowing me to securely store up to two handguns in a matter of seconds. Not only is it convenient, but the safe also offers good protection for my firearms, ensuring they stay out of reach from anyone who doesn't have access to the keypad code.
One feature that I absolutely love about this safe is the interior light that automatically turns on when you open the door. This was a game-changer for me, as I no longer have to fumble around in the dark when I need to retrieve my firearms quickly. Another thing I appreciate is the removable interior shelf, which has made organizing my belongings a breeze.
However, there are a couple of drawbacks worth mentioning. First and foremost, the spring-loaded door can be quite loud when it opens, which might be a concern if you're trying to keep your activities on the down-low. Additionally, the size of the safe may not be suitable for everyone's needs, as it can be quite tight when storing larger handguns.
In conclusion, the Hornady Two Gun Keypad Vault is an excellent choice for those looking for a compact and secure way to store their firearms. Its easy-to-use keypad, interior light, and removable interior shelf make it stand out among other options on the market. Although there are some minor issues worth considering, such as the loud door and limited space, I believe that the overall quality and value of this product make it worth the investment.

Hornady Rapid Safe 2700KP with RFID Technology

​
https://preview.redd.it/o9hzk2h0q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b73332eb8771fe8972051f41b0a13df120bcd186
I recently purchased the Hornady Rapid Safe 2700KP to secure my every-day carry weapon while still keeping it easily accessible. I'm happy to report that this gun safe delivers on all its promises. The build quality is top-notch, and the combination of RFID, key fob, and keypad access options provide a convenient way to instantly access my gun when needed. The interior is spacious enough to hold my full-sized Glock with a weapon light, and there's even some room left for an extra magazine.
One feature that really stood out for me was the RFID bracelet, which works perfectly when placed over the reader. However, I found the manual a bit unclear about its proper placement, so checking online helped me figure it out. The safe is also designed to be child-resistant, making it a perfect choice for families with young kids.
I did have some trouble figuring out the best way to utilize the RFID stickers, as keeping them close to the safe with easy access might defeat the purpose of keeping the safe locked. In the end, I opted to just use the keypad and disable the RFID components.
Overall, I would highly recommend the Hornady Rapid Safe 2700KP to anyone looking for a secure and reliable way to store their handgun, especially if they value convenience and ease of use. While there's a slight learning curve to using the RFID features to their full potential, the safe itself is well-made, spacious, and offers multiple access options.

Buyer's Guide

Importance of Investing in a Hornady Gun Safe

A Hornady gun safe is an essential investment for firearm owners who prioritize safety and security. Storing your guns securely not only protects your valuable assets from theft but also ensures that they are out of reach of unauthorized users, reducing the risk of accidents.

Features to Consider When Buying a Hornady Gun Safe

​
https://preview.redd.it/aen9oz21q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9f27ade3a191dea6e9cf3ffd0d0610485b52eec
  • Size
  • Material and Durability
  • Level of Security
  • Door Seal for Fire Protection
  • Organizational Features

Importance of Choosing the Right Size

The size of your Hornady gun safe should accommodate all your firearms and related accessories comfortably. It's important to consider not just current needs but also future additions to your collection.

Material and Durability

Hornady gun safes are built with sturdy materials like steel or heavy-duty plastics to provide long-lasting durability and protection against potential threats such as burglaries or natural disasters.

Level of Security

High-quality locking mechanisms, including digital keypads, combination locks, or biometric scanners, can greatly enhance the security of your gun safe, providing peace of mind knowing that your weapons are well-protected.
​
https://preview.redd.it/ma0ap8l1q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ab646abd048bc9487e2e6ece631d394718dfb6e

Door Seal for Fire Protection

For added security and protection, choose a Hornady gun safe with a door seal designed to withstand high temperatures during fires, ensuring that your firearms remain unaffected.

Organizational Features

Select a Hornady gun safe with organizational features such as adjustable shelving, pockets, or compartments to keep your weapons and accessories organized and easy to access.

Additional Considerations and Advice

  • Properly anchor the safe to the floor or wall to prevent unauthorized removal.
  • Regularly inspect your safe for any signs of wear or damage to maintain optimal security.
  • Consider your budget and invest in the highest quality Hornady gun safe you can afford, ensuring optimal safety and security for your firearms.

FAQ

​
https://preview.redd.it/kh9x0m02q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e177d321990fc2ddd924efd658e408e65cb3161

What distinguishes Hornady gun safes from other safes?

Hornady gun safes are designed with features that make them stand out, including precision firearm storage, heavy-duty construction, and customizable interiors. Hornady's "RFID Locking System" allows quick and secure access to your firearms using a variety of touch-free methods, such as RFID wristbands, key fobs, or smartphone apps.

How secure are Hornady gun safes?

Hornady gun safes are built with heavy-duty 16-gauge steel construction, providing robust protection against unauthorized access. They also feature re-lockers and anti-pry tabs, making them highly resistant to tampering.

Can I customize the interior of my Hornady safe?

Yes, Hornady gun safes come with adjustable shelving and pouches, allowing you to customize the interior layout according to your storage needs.
​
https://preview.redd.it/0g1646h2q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d379dddeba377deb2de118a0b1ff06b086e1218a

How do I access the gun safe using the RFID Locking System?

Hornady's RFID Locking System is a convenient and secure method of accessing your gun safe. Simply tap a compatible RFID device, such as a key fob or wristband, on the lock to instantly unlock the safe. An alternative option is the Hornady Mobile App, which allows you to unlock the safe using your smartphone.

What is the warranty on Hornady gun safes?

Hornady offers a lifetime warranty on their gun safes, ensuring that you receive continuous support and protection for your investment.

How can I ensure that the gun safe is properly installed?

Hornady provides a detailed installation manual with each safe, outlining the necessary steps to ensure secure and correct installation. We recommend following the instructions closely to ensure optimal safety and security of your firearms.

Do Hornady gun safes meet firearm storage requirements in my state?

​
https://preview.redd.it/mr4vvss2q4nc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=222b19f47115f4cf3f747fc9b19eb2a425fac05f
Hornady gun safes meet the requirements for firearm storage in most states. However, specific storage requirements may vary by location. It is crucial to familiarize yourself with local laws and guidelines to ensure compliance with these regulations.

What is the difference between the various Hornady gun safes models?

Hornady offers a range of gun safe models, each with unique features and sizes to cater to different storage needs. Some models include exterior locking points, customizable interiors, and adjustable shelving, while others have specialized storage options for rifles, handguns, or ammunition. The choice of model depends on your specific storage requirements and preferences.

What is the weight and capacity of Hornady gun safes?

  • The Raptor Series Vault (RSC) has a capacity of 16-18 long guns and weighs approximately 1,392 pounds.
  • The Raptor Series Locker (RSL) has a capacity of 6-10 long guns and weighs approximately 750 pounds.
  • The Rapid Safe (RSE) has a capacity of 1 long gun and weighs approximately 19.5 pounds.

How are Hornady gun safes rated for fire protection?

Hornady gun safes have been subjected to rigorous testing for their fire protection capabilities. Some models, such as the Raptor Series Vault (RSC), are rated to withstand 1400°F for 30 minutes, while others, like the Raptor Series Locker (RSL), are rated to withstand 1200°F for 45 minutes. Be sure to check the specific model's ratings for detailed information on fire protection capabilities.
As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
submitted by Count-Daring243 to u/Count-Daring243 [link] [comments]

2024.03.03 13:54 Prestigious_Chip_697 Which UK sim cards work with the blackberry curve 8520?

submitted by Prestigious_Chip_697 to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.02.29 17:58 pugman227227 Missing browser app on Blackberry Curve 8520

so I recently bought a blackberry curve 8520 and set it up with my WiFi and mobile network, everything else works fine however the phone is completely missing the browser app but has browser configuration in the settings but when I click on it there's nothing there. anyone know why and how I can fix it??
submitted by pugman227227 to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.02.22 15:28 Sgt-Skunthole My Journey throughout the years of using modded WhatsApp.

Hey Guys,
I thought i'd share my story on my journey of using different modded WhatsApp throughout the years, and where I had put my trust. From WhatsApp+ by Rafalanse in 2013 to my current FMWhatsApp by Fouad Mokdad.
Heres my story:
I started my journey on WhatsApp with the Blackberry Curve 8520, in 2012, but that was short-lived due to the phone dying by water damage. I eventally ended up purchasing a cheap Chinese android Phablet (this thing was a pain, miserably slow, got really hot and the screen kept getting lines) ...
Anyway, I was excited for my phablet and I remember when I got it I was researching different apps to download and try out. Google was (probably still is) my best friend, so I asked a lot of questions, seeking whatever I could put my hands on to try.

1. WHATSAPP+ - By Rafalanse

After some time I had stumbled on some videos talking about WhatsApp+, and I wondered. What is this WhatsApp+? Why is it so different from the original? What also caught my eye was the app icon. It was a light blue/cyan which is my favourite. So, I opened up the video. I vaguely remember it being an Indian guy talking about how to get WhatsApp+ on your PC, via Bluestacks.
I decided to go do some more research and stumbled upon the XDA thread where rafalanse; the creator of the original WhatsApp+ basically had a forum post on what WhatsApp+ was and it's features.
At the time I don't think privacy was a concern, I can't exactly remember if last seen was a thing back then (circa 2013). We didn't have blue ticks then, blue ticks were only released until 2014, and the Status (sometimes referred to as "Stories", now called Updates) was released until Feb, 2017. What drew a lot of people to WhatsApp+ was it's ability to have the app customized with themes. Something that even to this day, the Original WhatsApp doesn't have, the most you get is a light and dark theme.
Facebook eventually purchased WhatsApp for $19 Billion Dollars (and I downloaded it off of Google Play for free? lol), a few months after that aquisition, rafalanse got hit with a DMCA notice from WhatsApp, and he was forced to shut down modding the applicaiton. On January 21st, 2015. Users who were once using WhatsApp+ were hit with a 24 hour ban and were forced to switch to the official WhatsApp. We were broken hearted. WhatsApp+ had officially shut down in 2015.
XDA Article - Cease and Desist: Extract below
Developers in trouble
So, now... it was time to hunt, who would create a new modified WhatsApp? Would rafalanse leak the source code to his mod? Will anyone make themes and remove that pesky blue tick so we can have some privacy?
Rafalanse eventually moved on to create Plus Messenger, a modified version of Telegram Messenger, another popular messaging app (and in my opinion, better than WhatsApp, I just cant convince people to convert... You could even migrate messages from WhatsApp to Telegram and Telegram had the features that WhatsApp has now. They did take a while to add Stories and Video Calling but before those were popular, telegram already had a bunch of features that WhatsApp just didnt have yet.
I decided to stray my own path, I remember Lucky Patcher had a patch for WhatsApp to include the privacy features.

2. GBWHATSAPP - By Omar (@atnfas_hoak)

After some time I stumbled upon this mod called GBWhatsApp. It became widely popular. Created by Omar (Twitter Username: atnfas_hoak). I honestly never really knew what the"GB" in GBWhatsApp stood for, and I was skeptical if he was indeed the original creator since there were starting to pop up a lot of clones with the same name. However I was eventually convinced that this was the original creator based on my research. All the other clones were updating after his release, which means they were all borrowing and copying his mod. His Telegam Channel (Search GBUser on Telegram for the Official Channel) and Group along with Twitter account also frequently updated, giving some insights and plans and there were also other moderators in his telegram group that were keeping everyone engaged.
GBWhatsApp boasted a whole new bunch of privacy featues and the ever popular Anti-Ban code (which prevented users from getting banned for using a modded version of Whatsapp), themes and even very exclusive features! Things like hiding view status, hiding the forwarded notification on messages, Block Calls with/without showing Ringing, Increase on Photos and Videos limit, Auto-Reply, Custom Privacy settings for each contact, etc. I could be wrong but I believe Omar's WhatsApp was based on the WhatsApp Beta versions, because I do remember having access to features that weren't yet available to the public on the official version.
This mod stuck with me for a number of years, until 2019. I can't remember the exact month, but there was a huge ban wave going around, and even I was hit with it. I remember the frustration of people asking me the question "Why was I banned???". It wasn't just GBWhatsApp, but other mods too, like Fouad Mokdad's FMWhatsApp which was another popular mod but was basically copying code from GBWhatsApp, just rebranding it. I tried explaining to people that it's unofficial and according to WhatsApp, (oversummarizing their terms of service) using a modified version of their app is bad, no-no. If anything goes wrong they could be held liable and their excuse is they don't want people to be hacked or data leaked because of these mods, they weren't totally wrong. There was an article from India Today about a mod called WhatsApp Gold. A gold-themed WhatsApp that was basically stealing your private photos back in 2016, It also resurfaced in 2019.
GBWhatsApp got one final update after the ban and.. well... that was it. We never heard from Omar again. WhatsApp usually has their base expire over time to force you to update to a newer version. As time went on we were getting closer and closer to this expiration date but no word from Omar about anything, AT ALL, not even a base update. The other mods of the Telegram were saying the same, Omar either did not respond, or his responses were vague. Eventually... the day came, there was no surprise updates... nothing and On August, 1st 2019. GBWhatsApp was declared DEAD officially by Omar.
*GBWhatsApp Shuts Down* We are really sorry to announce that we have completely stopped the development of GBWhatsApp. It was a great time with all you people.

3. YOWHATSAPP - By Yousef Al Basha

So, here we were... hanging by a thread with almost nowhere to turn. All the other mods that existed were also shut down because they had relied heavily on Omar's apk to modify and rebrand, without him, they too didn't exist (except for one.. which i'll discuss below now)
I jumped on to using FMWhatsApp but it didn't last long, it too gave the notification of the version was expired. I remember one of the users in the Telegram Group was having a discussion with us, and they recommended "YOWhatsApp" he even linked the Telegram group. YoWhatsApp was different. This was unlike the other mods out there, It didn't seem like it was relying on Omar's GBWhatsApp for it's base nor seem like it was just rebranding GBWhatsApp. This YoWhatsApp had a cleaner UI for it's Mod Menu, it almost seemed like it was actually a part of WhatsApp and not just a random mod menu. GBWhatsApp's menu was a bit cluttered and the UI for those menus were a lot less neat.
...and... IT WORKED! We finally had some hope! Yousef Al Basha continued updating his WhatsApp for some time but it was unfortunately short-lived. Yousef Al Basha also went dark. The notification came up saying that the WhatsApp version will soon be outdated and we would have to update. However Yousef wasn't posting any updates in his Telegram Channel (@YoMODS). On November, 6th 2020 he issued a notice that YoWA v8.50 was not an official YoWA update. This was because someone else faked an update and claimed it was official but Yousef did not issue an update.
And well.... that was it. The group chat was locked, and we were forced to move on in Late November - Early December of 2020. That's where FMWhatsApp by Fouad Mokdad came in.

4. FMWhatsApp - by Fouad Mokdad

After the version had expired I decided to move on to FMWhatsApp, I just couldnt go back to the Official WhatsApp. I had spent the past 8 years on modded versions and it was either I gave WhatsApp completely or find an alternative. I chose the latter and decided to give FMWhatsApp a try. I had stumbled upon the Official Telegram group for FMWhatsApp and began using. Fouad basically was known for copying other's work so when he released his update, it still used to say YoMods in the mod menus or about sections. But what made a lot of people eventualyl migrate to FMWhatsApp was that on February 8th, 2020, Yousef Al Basha sent a message in his telegram channel:
Great work by FouadMODS, walking the same path of YoWA by adding Exclusive Features 👏 I am sharing it here to benefit my subscribers who miss YoWA🔮😇
and forwarded a message from the official Telegram Channel of FouadMODS (@FouadMODS) showing an exclusive feature to mark a status as viewed if you had turned off Show View Status.
... and well. I have been using it ever since! I've come across other mods like TMWhatsApp and WHatsapp Aero for example which are other popular mods that I see a couple of Youtubers talk about, but they fundamentally take FMWhatsApp's code and just rebrand, WhatsApp Aero actually does it in a cleaner UI than FMWhatsApp and other mods. Though it takes them some time to rebrand and release their newer version.
As far as I am aware, I don't think there is another mod that exists that does it's own mods without relying on reversing and taking apart FMWhatsApp.
I thought that i'd share my journey with you as a guide on my experience in trusting mods. There are so many fakes and clones out there it's really hard to tell who to turst. Im not saying trust these mods either. There is a risk to them all! It's just that these were the most trusted as the years went by, not just by me but countless others.
And as of recent, It seems a new ban wave has been happeneing. Users are now forced to use the official WhatsApp but they are met with a banner message that gives them time to backup their chats and let them know that they're using an unofficial version. I'm not sure what the future will hold, I do hope there's a new anti-ban code and we can enjoy modified WhatsApp again.
Goodluck to you all! Hope my story inspires soemone and atleast points your head in the direction to help find a trusted modder.
For you Rooted users, you guys may have some hope. WATweaker
submitted by Sgt-Skunthole to moddedandroidapps [link] [comments]

2024.02.18 01:48 Knoberchanezer "This isn't how I died": Melodie Dugan's Apocalypse Pt.19

The whole thing

9/8/93 PM

Thanks to Twiggy, I was able to get into the gun store. As the shutter slid up, rattling into the ceiling, I felt like a child in a candy store looking at a treasure trove of weaponry.
I slid my bag off my shoulders and placed it on the counter. Reaching inside, I pulled out two folded-up duffle bags, unrolled them, and opened them up.
"So what do we need?" Maddy asked me.
"We don't really need all the guns. Just a handgun or two. It's the bullets we're really here for," I said. "Sorry, Dad, but your little songbird is about to be a Second Amendment girl,"
"Just please don't start flying a Gadsden flag," Dad sighed.
"Fuck that! I tread where I fucking please," I said.
"You know, the Second Amendment doesn't even exist anymore," Maddy interjected.
I paused for a second.
"Huh, yeah, you're right," I chuckled.
"Do you think they tried to move the constitution to some kind of unmarked safe house?" Maddy inquired.
"Probably. Can you imagine the manpower they wasted in the last days just to protect a piece of paper?" I said.
"Not just any piece of paper. It was our founding document," Maddy said in mock adoration.
"Yeah, for a country that doesn't exist anymore," I pointed out. "Come on, Maddy. Let's break some laws,"
I broke open the glass cases with my crowbar and picked up the first handgun I saw. The words "Pietro Beretta. Made in Italy" were stamped on its side. It was an odd-looking thing with shiny, silvery metal and a black handle, detailed with curves here and straight lines there, but it felt good in my hand, and I stuffed it into one of the bags.
Next to it was what looked like a modern take on a cowboy revolver. Like an extended, silver version of the one Dirty Harry used. I picked it up and weighed it in my hand.
"Get a holster, some boots and a cowboy hat and you'd look pretty hot," Maddy giggled.
"You know hats ain't my thing,” I smiled, “but I like the look of this one," I said, placing it next to the pistol in the bag.
"Alright, we need ammo and some user manuals for these two if they have any lying around," I said.
I spent about an hour sorting through boxes of bullets before I realised there was a literal shit-tonne of different types. Sighing and rolling my eyes, I looked around for some kind of literature to go with the guns. When I found them in the back, I sat cross-legged on the floor, enthralled in my reading.
"You sure you've got time for this, songbird?" Dad asked, concern rising in his voice.
I mulled it over for a second. I was running out of daylight and still had work to do.
"Fine, I just need to find boxes of nine-millimetre and three-fifty-seven, whatever that means. I need spare clips for the Beretta as well,"
I rifled through the store, looking for what I needed. As well as boxes of bullets, I found a holster that I could fit onto my belt, a big, leather belt-type thing to hold shotgun shells, and a few boxes of twelve gauge the owners must have forgotten. I picked up a weird-looking thing with canvas straps and pouches for carrying what I assumed were more bullets.
"Kinky," Maddy said with a wink, chewing gum and leaning against the wall.
"I don't even know how you're supposed to wear this thing," I said, holding it up, letting it dangle and furrowing my brow in confusion, trying to see where I would put my arms through to get it on.
"Try it on for me when you get home,” Maddy said, looking at me with hungry eyes. "Wait!" she let out.
I turned to look at her.
"Try only that on and nothing else," she said slyly, smacking her lips against the gum.
I blushed, smiled and turned my gaze to the floor.
"Hh... How do you do that?" I laughed.
Maddy just looked at me, winked suggestively and blew a bubble.
The store was still pretty full when I had my stuff bagged up and ready to go. I was just about to close the last bag when something caught my eye. A long rifle of wood and black metal sitting behind the counter.
"Wait! What's that?" I said, hopping over the counter to have a look. I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. The stamp on the side read "AK-47."
"Really, Mel?" Dad frowned
"Oh fuck yeah! I am taking this thing," I grinned.
I held it at my hip and shook in mock shooting.
“Say hello to my little friend!” I said in my best Scarface impression.
Dad rolled his eyes and shook his head.
I spent an extra half hour more than I should have rummaging around for more bullets, a couple more of the long, curved magazines to go with the rifle. I found a pamphlet with yellowed pages and dog-eared corners with a picture of the AK printed on the front, stuffed in the bottom of a display case.
"I don't mean to spoil your fun, but we really do need to move, Mel," Dad said with concern rising in his voice.
"Okay, let's get going," I said, hauling my backpack on and grabbing, sliding the rifle into a duffle bag, and then hauling both bags to the other side of the counter.
I shuttered the gun store and locked it up, taking the keys. Then, carrying a duffle bag in each hand, I trudged back across the grass towards the woods and my pick-up in the clearing.
The way back through the woods was clear, but two dead ones had wandered in and were standing around the back of the truck’s tailgate. I dropped the duffle bags at my feet, and the rattling bullets inside caught their attention as they landed on the grass. The two of them started to shuffle their feet towards me. I pulled the crowbar from my bag.
The first one had weathered the last few months about as well as most of them. The second one was slimy, bloated and falling to pieces on their feet. Half their skull was visible, and their clothes were barely strips of rags. Half of their abdomen was just gone.
I hit the first one with a blow to the top of the skull, the hook dug into the top of their head, and the momentum of my swing pulled them face down to the floor. The crowbar made a wet, cracking sound as the hook clawed through their skull, pulling out chunks of their brain.
The slimy one shambled towards me. When I hit them, they were much softer than any I'd fought. The crowbar took their jaw off like their face was made of butter, and I staggered. The inertia of my swing hitting something softer than expected carried me to the left, and the dead thing tried to sink its top teeth into my backpack. As it slumped on top of me, I got a whiff of the rotten sewage smell and felt cold grime rub off from its exposed chest onto my arm.
I dived to the side, and it fell to the floor, face down. I turned about and slammed ol’ Trusty Rusty into the back of its head. The skull burst, sending black, rank, jellied grey matter everywhere, splattering onto the grass and all over me, including one lump of liquified brain right into my open mouth.
I spat and wretched at the disgusting, sour, iron taste. Bile flew up my gullet, and I vomited onto the body at my feet. The smell of the vomit mixed with the vile stench of the rotting thing beneath me, and I threw up again, emptying everything in my stomach as it cramped in my abdomen.
I staggered away from it and ripped my bag from my shoulders. Yanking it open, I pulled out one of the bottles of bourbon I'd grabbed from Twiggy's and washed my mouth out with it, spitting the booze onto the floor.
"God! That's so fucking gross!" I coughed, my eyes watering.
Over and over, I rinsed and spat with the booze until my mouth burned. That awful, vile taste forced me to keep going until the booze was gone. All I could do after that was keep spitting until my mouth ran dry.
"Mel, are you ok?" Maddy asked, leaning down to my level as I hunched over with a look of deep concern.
"No," I gasped. "God dammit, that sucked,"
I looked back at the dead thing on the ground, covered in my half-digested lunch and shook my head.
"What the fuck happened to it?" I asked Maddy.
"Bodies bloat in water, Songbird," Dad stated. "They probably went through a sewer."
"Do you think there might be more like that?" Maddy followed up.
"God, I fucking hope not," I sighed. "Come on. I gotta take a bath and brush my teeth forver,"
I threw the duffle bags into the flatbed, jumped into the cab and drove back towards the road. I put a cigarette in my mouth and lit it. I inhaled and relished the ashen taste, a vast improvement to what I'd just been subjected to.
After I turned out of West Point, taking a right at American Tire and getting back onto the highway, I realised that I'd made a life-threatening mistake. The road was swarming with the dead ones—so much more than before.
"Oh fuck!" I stammered.
There were hundreds of them swaying and marching along the highway.
"Where did they..." Maddy started, but I cut her off.
"The noise from the pick-up must have pulled them," I said before swerving to avoid a crowd of them.
"Shit!"
I was weaving in and out of them as they converged on the truck from every direction. There were so many I could barely see the road through the crowds. Their moans and snarls merged into a cacophony of ghastly noises of insatiable hunger, which terrified me. My hands started to tremble. The sour sting of adrenaline burst through my bloodstream. Death closed in from every angle.
I swerved again and hit one of them, sending him under the truck. The pick-up stopped. I panicked, turning the steering wheel this way and that, trying desperately to plant my foot on the floor. The engine screamed, but the truck wouldn't move. All around me, the dead ones clambered at the cab, trying to get to me. Their hands, faces and teeth squealed as they rubbed and scraped against the glass windows and metal bodywork. One thrust their face, mouth first, into the passenger window, cracking it.
"Mel! Put it in low range!" I heard my dad yell from behind the truck.
I looked back and saw him with his hands on the tailgate. I grabbed the shifter and dropped it into "L".
"Put your foot down!" he shouted.
I did. The engine screamed again, redlining on the RPM dial, and the cab started to move from side to side. I heard my Dad growling with effort from behind me.
"MEL, FUCKING FLOOR IT!" he yelled.
I screamed as I slammed my foot down so hard it felt like the pedal crunched through the bulkhead. The tires found purchase, and the truck lurched forward, slamming into the dead ones in front. I dropped it out of low range and manoeuvred through the crowds, bashing them out of the way. Blood spattered across the windshield as they flung themselves at me, glancing off the truck as I barrelled past them at forty miles per hour. I sped up where I could, slowing down to chicane through the larger groups until they started to thin out, and the road turned south.
As I left the hundreds of wandering dead behind me in the rearview, I tried to calm the storm inside of me. My trembling hands shook even more as the adrenaline started to wear off. I reached into my pocket for another jay but dropped it into the passenger's foot well.
"Fuck!" I cursed in frustration.
When I looked towards the passenger seat, I saw my Dad sitting there, looking sour-faced and covered in mud. He wore the same hat, jacket and expression he had all those years ago. The first day I ever heard him cuss me out. The day he decided to let me drive that old Ford.
I looked at him, seeing that day again, remembering how it felt.
"You were a real fucking asshole, you know that?" I said over the lump in my throat.
He looked at me, confused.
"I told you to watch out for the mud ruts, Mel," he clapped back.
"I was fourteen, Dad!" I yelled.
I stared at him. Underneath all that splattered mud, he looked younger and more vibrant, but I recognised a fire in his eyes. One that I hardly ever saw growing up, but it used to scare me. This time, though, I saw right through him.
"You know what, it doesn't matter. You're not him. You're just a shitty memory from a shitty day with him," I spat. "I’m here, alone, reliving my memories with you both, trying not to go insane, and you have to go bringing that day up. You can fuck off!" I added, returning my gaze to the road and swallowing my tears. I breathed, sighed and tried to calm down. The cab was empty and silent. Just me, driving alone.
I drove the rest of the way home without ghosts, memories or music. Just me and the dead world rolling past the windows, smoking quietly and trying to forget reality. The evergreens of Kentucky blurred into greens, then blues, then blacks as the sun set behind me.
With no street lights, I was guided by the truck's headlights. It made the road feel like it was never going to end. The ubiquity of it all was maddening, and I felt like I'd entered the Twilight Zone trapped in a car on an endless road through an eternity of night. I was released from my purgatorial journey by the road I sought. With the last leg of familiar tracks to go, I turned and headed home.
submitted by Knoberchanezer to projectzomboid [link] [comments]

2024.02.16 00:44 Zagaroth [No Need For A Core?] - CH 162: Envy

Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
GLOSSARY This links to a post on the free section of my Patreon. Note: "Book 1" is chapters 1-59, "Book 2" is chapters 60-133, "Book 3", is 134-(ongoing)
Fuyuko’s thoughts were scattered as she tried to recover from the shock of seeing her god so casually chatting with the people around her, and that name he’d said, he’d been talking about caretaker Yvonne. She could just barely hold on to the name and a vague memory of the face, but it was more than what she’d been able to remember before.
Mordecai’s question made her focus on him, which helped, but her emotions were a confused mess, “Um, I’m not sure. I wasn’t expectin’ ta see Li here. Or, ever, I guess, this side of life.”
He looked amused at that, “The gods step in more often than people realize, especially that one. They have limits to what they can safely do, and sometimes they push those rules, but Li’s limitations are very different. And he’s been wreaking havoc with the dungeon since his shard arrived.”
“Er, ya don’t seem ta be too bothered by that.” Really, this whole place seemed rather strange to her.
Kazue’s illusion snorted, “It’s a mixed blessing to be sure. I had no intention of having faeries all over the place. But I got one of them to play the part of a swamp witch. That’s where Li’s taking your friend. That noise is something special.”
She had so many questions, but where to begin? Well, “So, ya really are the friend Gil was talkin’ about, but ya used ta be a girl?”
The man shrugged nonchalantly, “Technically, a dungeon’s core has neither gender nor sex. That said, I’ve had more male avatars than female ones, and I tend to think of myself as a man.” Mordecai suddenly smiled wickedly, “Oh, I have an idea. Would you like to see the form Gil was talking about? As much as I like the man, there’s just something about him that makes me want to tweak his nose.”
Was he going to show her another illusion or something? That seemed fine, “Um, sure, I guess.”
Mordecai proved her assumptions partially wrong. He started his transformation by stretching and running his fingers up through his dark purple hair, which fell back down as long, almost lilac-colored hair. A rippling change followed the motion, smoothing Mordecai’s face and reshaping his body until a tall, gorgeous elven woman was looking at Fuyuko with a smile. “What do you think?” She practically purred out, “It’ll annoy him to know you got to see what he won’t.” The sculpted female body was a nigh impossible blend of soft curves and toned muscles, shown off by a small top that left her well-defined abs visible and a knee-length skirt slit up both sides to show off long, smoothly muscled legs. “This avatar was a dancer for much of her existence. I didn’t focus on a wandering life for that part of my existence, I wanted to see the life of a more normal citizen for a change. Mind, she still trained to use her skills in combat as well, but she very rarely had any use for them.”
Fuyuko fought back a surge of seething envy, she wanted to have a body like that! “You’re stunning,” she replied, “An’ I can see why he talked up your looks so much. But, um, you keep switchin’ how ya talk about yourself there. Why’s that?”
Before Mordecai could reply, Kazue recovered from her own shock, pointing at Mordecai accusingly, “That, that is so unfair! And Moriko agrees with me! I sent her a very clear image!”
Mordecai looked over at the kitsune’s illusion, licking her lips with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “Well then, when she and your avatar get back, maybe the two of you can explain in detail what you find so unfair love. Of course, that will require you to examine this form in detail…” Fuyuko wrinkled her nose at the flirtation, she didn’t really want to see or hear it.
The elven woman turned away from Kazue’s stunned expression to answer Fuyuko’s question. “While my wives are occupied discussing that idea,” Mordecai shook her head and changed back to his previous form, “It’s complicated. The form I just took was what my avatar looked like, but I don’t feel like the person I was while that avatar was incarnated. Oh, I can assume some of the same mannerisms, but if I do so, it’s closer to playing a well-studied part in a play. For her, they were part of her personality,” He spread his hands wide, “While my personality here is essentially the same as the baseline personality of my core, which in turn has accumulated at least a little bit of influence from each avatar that has been reintegrated when I retired them. That was a deliberate decision when I designed this form, it did not seem to be the time to risk experimenting with my avatar’s personality, especially as I did not know at the time if I would have a core again.”
The girl blinked at that, “Erm? You didn’t have a core? How does that work?”
He waved her question off, “It’s a bit long to get into right now, but the events leading up to that situation were also what led to my marriage to Moriko and then Kazue. Moriko was my host for a while, for lack of a better phrase, and I didn’t know about Kazue or her situation at the time. I basically ‘moved in’ to her core, which we now share.”
“Wait,” Kazue said, “I just realized this means I basically took a homeless man into my home. Where, I might add, he promptly took advantage of my kind generosity. Oh, woe, whatever is a maiden to do when accosted so?”
It took a second for Fuyuko to realize that Kazue was teasing Mordecai, she’d needed that last, over-dramatic sentence to make the connection. They were kind of weird, and she didn’t know what to think about it. Oh, she’d seen adults flirt before, but it had been, mm, more subtle? More careful? At the least, not so carefree. Of course, everyone down here seemed a little more relaxed, so she wasn't sure how out of the normal they might be. Moriko’s parents were kind of flirty too. Oh, right, she should probably say something about that.
Fuyuko coughed nervously, “Um, somethin’ I figure I should mention, don’t want ta seem like I’m hidin’ anythin’,” The pair stopped their flirting to look at her, “I kind of skimmed over this bit earlier, but I really wasn’t sure what was up with ya, and Trax mentioned that the alchemists were Moriko’s family, and since the inns were full, Gil got us rooms there. They were nice, but we didn’t tell them why we asked them specifically. They thought it was more normal dungeon delvin' on our minds.”
Mordecai nodded, “I understand, and that makes sense. Mmm, she seems fine with it, though we should find a way to tell her family.”
Kazue’s illusion eyed Fuyuko speculatively, “Though she is wondering how well you got along with her little brother.”
She made a face at that, why did the adults keep thinking about such things? “She sounds like her ma. But I ain’t interested.” It was really weird to be talking to someone she’d never met through a pair of people she’d just met.
“So, what do you want to do from here?” Mordecai asked.
“I’m not sure. I mean, it seems like someone wants me ta work for you guys, and ya seem decent enough, but I dunno where ta go from here.”
“Mm,” Mordecai tapped his chin thoughtfully, “Well, the obvious step would usually be to make you a contractor, assuming you are interested and prove yourself, but given your age, that might not be a great idea. Contractors stop aging while in a dungeon, and will even have their health restored if they are old, so long as they stay in the territory. But it also means that your body and brain wouldn’t continue to mature.”
He shook his head, “Let’s leave that thought for another day. Right now, you are our guest. Why don’t I show you around a little, let you meet a few other guests, and maybe some of our cuter inhabitants.” He smiled slightly, “And we have a shrine I think you’ll want to visit. I showed Kazue the trick to hiding them.”
“Yeah, alright, that sounds good I guess,” Fuyuko said as she stuffed a few last mouthfuls of food in before rising. She almost always felt like she could eat more, but she’d eaten enough to at least not be truly hungry for now. And she did want to see Li’s shrine.
Kazue waved from her illusion, “I’ll talk through Mordecai if I need to say anything, these illusion platforms aren’t mobile.” Then her image flickered out and the floor restored itself to its previous condition. This place was weird. Possibly fun, but definitely weird.
The tour of the tradepost was interesting. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but the two fighting rings for testing newcomers were not on her list, nor the dungeon’s own store selling everything from dolls and engraved mugs to camping supplies, tools, weapons, and armor. “Most of what is sold here is crafted by our inhabitants, from either materials brought in for trade by visitors or manually extracted from the dungeon. Generally, the rewards for challenging the dungeon are mana constructs that are made real by being claimed by outsiders.”
“Wait, now that I think about it, does that mean yer rich?”
Mordecai shrugged, “It depends on what you mean by rich. We own an autonomous territory where we live in as much comfort as we desire, so in that sense, yes, we are rich. If you mean by immediately liquidatable physical and fully real goods, we are probably about at the level of a reasonably successful merchant. I am pretty certain Kazue’s father is richer in that sense still. Most of the coinage we collect is earmarked for expenses for contractors and travel expenses for our avatars. So a rich noble wouldn’t consider us rich in the same way they are. But we have our own sort of power, which is often the most important thing about being rich, so which would you rather be? Independently powerful, or traditionally rich but dependant upon the society that made you rich?” He smiled at her, “I like what we have, and Kazue and Moriko seem pretty satisfied with it too.”
That gave her something to think about as they continued the tour. There were several small taverns and inns at this point, and a field that was open for outside merchants to open shop as well. The dungeon seemed just as happy to have people operating independently out here, but given the exchange earlier between the bat-rabbit thing and Gil, this seemed to be part of their territory as well, so she guessed it was good for them in some way.
After showing her around, Mordecai brought her inside the dungeon proper, where Gil and Li had long disappeared to. The giant entry hall was impressive, and the number of shrines was surprising. Every pantheon she’d ever heard of seemed to have its own hall, and several she knew nothing of.
And down the hall for the Empyreal Pillars, she found Li’s shrine, tucked in a twist of shadows between the shrines of Mericume and Ozuran. Mordecai left her alone to give her time to offer her prayers and thoughts, for which she was grateful. There was a lot to think about.
<<Previous Start Next >>
Also to be found on Royal Road.
My Patreon if you want to support me directly. My Discord if you would like to talk about the book or see what else I am up to. You can also use it as an alternative to Patreon to subscribe for the same benefits as Discord. Alternatively, I also have Guilded, which has a Discord-like structure, including subscription benefits. If you want some merch with cute pictures, I also have a RedBubble now.
$3 : 10 Early chapters, lore excerpts $5 : 11-20 early chapters, Short Stories $10 : 21+ chapters, New stories not published anywhere else (Until after I finish this story at least) . . . . . "A Girl and Her Dungeon", "The Celestine Fox", and AU Core 1: "Coreless"
submitted by Zagaroth to redditserials [link] [comments]

2024.02.05 23:19 MonstersDescribed Breaking Down Monster Descriptions: The Aarakocra

Hi friends! So as a little 2024 exercise to keep my creative juices flowing I’ve decided to go through as many monsters as I can (alphabetically I guess?) and really dig into the descriptions of them.
I really try and balance out the descriptions in my games. On one hand you want to paint a picture for your players, on the other hand you don’t want to put them to sleep while you read out 69 paragraphs of painstakingly written descriptive text. In order to do this, I usually try to break whatever I’m describing down to its key components, keeping them as short as I possibly can and then pepper those descriptions throughout the scene in between player actions. Obviously there isn’t a right or a wrong way to describe things, these are just my thoughts so take em with a grain of salt! Without further ado lets think way too much about how to describe an Aarakocra! Buckle up for a wall of text!

Necessary Lore Primer

Oh Aarakocras, the ultimate bird person/ spelling bee nightmare. While initially found only in the monster manual, the Aarakocra is now an actual playable lineage in 5e which means you or your players might be bringing one of these feathery dudes to the table.Canonically in 5th edition, Aarakocra are birdfolk that come from the Elemental Plane of Air. While we aren’t given any particular myths about their origins, it seems that generally Aarakocra are under rule of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa. The whole species of Aarakocra are tasked with keeping an eye out for any traces of cults of Elemental Evil and either purging it themselves or reporting it back to the Wind Dukes. It is this mission that takes them to the Material Plane where they will create their eryies and outposts.

Canon Monster Descriptions

Aarakocra are described in most DND sources as decidedly avian (duh) and the first thing most sources claim is that from the sky they are often hard to tell apart from a large bird. This makes sense if they are up real high, since the light would be shining down on them thus casting their more humanoid body in shadow. That being said any Aarakocra that was within any reasonable distance would quickly be seen as distinct from a large bird by their regular arms (a character with a high perception would be able to notice that “hey wait a sec, that bird has arms” before anyone else would have the chance). Generally, around 5ft tall and on the thin side (due to the lightweight, hollow birdbones no doubt), aarakocra tend to weigh in around 80-100lbs and have long, narrow limbs, their legs ending in sharp talons rather feet and toes. Some of the sources initially stated that aarakocra plumage denotes membership in a tribe, which either means that tribes are made entirely up of similar lineages (somebody should be worrying about aarakocra inbreeding) or that communities have specific ways of treating, grooming or colouring their feathers so that they properly identify as the in group. Later publications have removed this detail, simply saying that feathers tend to be in the reddish to brown spectrum of colour.
The general trend is for Aarakocra to resemble birds of prey like falcons, hawks or eagles, carrion scavengers like vultures or tropical birds like parrots. While you can absolutely use other birds as a base as well (I feel like storks, hornbills or kingfisher would work really well), make sure you steer away from owls or crow/raven creatures as these have their own bird creature attached to them in the owlin, kenku or ravenfolk respectively.

General Description Theme

So what IS the vibe you want to invoke when you describe an aarakocra? Presumably, if you’re encountering an aarakocra for the first time (especially at lower levels), the vibe is probably going to be pretty dang intimidating. Aarakocra are wild, on a mission and fiercely independent, and all of that gives the energy of a bird folk that you shouldn’t mess with.
So, I’m going to try and make sure initial descriptions come across as intimidating and impressive and then later we can juxtapose those vibes with different impressions of either cuteness or friendliness if the aarakocra in question is feeling comfortable ( or your party has decided to adopt it as a new favorite NPC).
​

Main Features

What makes up an aarakocra? Or at least what are the most noticeable attributes? Presumably their bird like attributes will stand out the most. Wings, beaks, freaky bird feet and feathers are all going to factor hugely into descriptions of any bird man. I’m going to go through em in the order that I’d imagine you would notice them.
​

Wingspan

First up! Wingspan. If you meet a dude and that dude has wings, you're gonna notice it. If you look at most birds a massive portion of their size at first glance ends up being their wingspan, it makes sense that aarakocra would follow the same trend.
​
Wings in Flight: When encountering an aarakocra in flight, the logical first thing you are going to notice is the sheer intimidating size of the wingspan. Obviously wingspan amongst birds varies, but the average bird seems to have a wingspan that varies from roughly the length of their body to about 5 times that. The official guide to making an aarakocra PC doesn’t go into wingspan, (no doubt because it would make the 5ft hit boxes of a medium creature more complicated) but if we’re basing it on how birds work, its safe to assume that the wingspan of a 5ft tall aarakocra could be easily 10ft wide. This especially makes sense when we consider that aarakocra both come from the Plane of Elemental Air and seem to spend a lot of time soaring around looking for Elemental Evil. Thus, we can assume that they’d have wings resembling birds that spend their time in the air for long periods of time and spoiler alert, those types of wings are huge, wide and designed to hold aloft the owner as effortlessly as possible while handling all the air drifts and drafts. All that is to say that describing the sense of size of the open wings is vital to describing the first look at an aarakocra. An aarakocra with its wings open will make a first impression that is probably much larger than it actually is. So I say go for size!
“A massive wingspan nearly 10ft wide blocks your line of site” Conveys the size and also makes it the focus in the player’s vision since they can’t see anything else. “Huge, unfurled wings beat the air into submission” A tasty lil metaphor leans into the size and strength of the wings. “An immense but strangely delicate set of wings holds the creature aloft” Of course you can also go for a slightly more dainty bird person. (hummingbird aarakocra anyone?)
​
Wings On The Ground: If you do encounter an aarakocra on the ground (which seems like a rarer occasion), the wings would be a much less eye catching feature. If the aarakocra is at rest or trying mingle around other humanoids or generally just chilling, you can assume its wings are not outspread to the max. Most birds at rest have wings that perfectly fold into the body. Of course, an aarakocra doesn’t necessarily have to follow that. Way I see it, you’ve got two options. You can have your aarakocra wings folding up seamlessly to rest on the creatures back, perhaps allowing it to almost pass as a wingless humanoid, or you could rule that aarakocra can only tuck their wings in so much and that while kept at rest they are still very prominent (this is the form that we see in the Monster Manual Artwork). If you opt for the second option, I’d still suggest describing the hints of the wings as one of the first impressions. If you opt for the first, instead I’d focus on describing the beak, talons or general feathering of the aarakocra before mentioning its folded wings.
“Peaking out from behind his shoulders, folded feathered appendages implied broad wings” This hints at big ol wings, leading back to the descriptive theme of strength and largeness that we used for unfurled wings.
“The tops of two folded wings framed the creatures head” Easy and simple, this focuses less on the wings, but still makes it clear that they are present, while providing a descriptive jumping off point for the next prominent feature you plan to describe. Alternatively if your aarakocra doesn’t fold their wings up so tight (or is just holding them slightly out in order to seem bigger than they are), you can describe them as still mostly visible (ala the Monster Manual artwork).
“The tops of two folded wings frame the creatures head and from them a cascade of feathers is visible surrounding its body.

The Beak

We as humans (I mean in real life) tend to be drawn to look at faces, so it stands to reason that if you looked at someone and they happened to have a massive beak it would probably be one of the first things you notice. Beaks will vary depending on the type of bird you are modeling your aarakocra after. That being said, if you’re going with the traditional ones i.e. hawks, eagles, vultures or parrots all of them have hooked or curved beaks.These beaks evolved for ripping food apart into swallowable pieces, and unless you’re a nightmare person and have given your aarakocra beaks with teeth to accomplish something similar, then our fantasy bird folk should have the same hooked beaks.
“A long yellow beak comes to a brutal hook. It looks razor sharp.”
“The aarakocra abruptly closes its curved beak with a snap, the sound sharp like a pair of tin sheers”
“Its beak is clearly an implement for cutting and tearing, honed and hooked to a cruel point”
​
Also worth noting, bird beaks are made of bone and covered in a protein called keratin, which is the same stuff your nails are made of. That means bird beaks have a natural gloss to them. You can play up the shiny aspect of the beak to give a noble, impressive feel or go the opposite direction and describe a beak that is scuffed from wear or dirty from blood and gunk.
“The light glimmers off the beak like the shine off polished ivory”
Or in the opposite direction
“Scratches mar the dull and dirty surface of the beak and dried viscera clings to the edge of its vicious hook.”
​

Legs and Talons

Fun fact: Birds have knees that bend the opposite way to ours and according to the official art, its a 50/50 split if aarakocra also work that way. If I’ve learned one thing from my years of DMing its that players get real weirded out about backwards knees. SO, if you’re trying to make your birdfolk strange, alien and slightly scary then make sure you describe them legs that seem to bend the wrong way. “The creature hunches on skinny legs, what little weight it has held up by knees that bend opposite to how you feel they should”
If you’re going for something that is a little more relatable, approachable or PC adoptable maybe give the backwards knees a miss…
Feet wise, emphasizing how large and nasty those eagle like talons are is a must. If you feel like you have descriptive space to, I also recommend touching on the strange scale and skin combo that bird feet tend to have.
“A combination of scales and skin in a bright yellow hue lead down to the wicked talons.”
In the official art in the Monster Manual the Aarakocra has three toed feet that seem to resemble that of a more terrestrial creature, while the image in the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion/Monsters of the Multiverse has more traditional bird of prey style feet, albeit with two toes facing forward and two toes facing backwards a la the parrot. That means its up to you! More birdlike feet can further accentuate the alien and strange nature of these humanoids, while more normal (ish) feet can go the opposite direction.
“Scaled feet, two toes facing forward and two back, end in sharp, black claws which dig into the branch on which it perches”

Feathers

Now its time to have some fun (this is the part where you chime in and say you’ve been having fun the whole time). Feathers are incredibly varied and come in multiple types, colours and shapes. Even among the same type of birds, there will be some variation in feather colour and pattern. You can use this to distinguish one Aarakocra from another if you are dealing with several in the same scene! Grooming habits and feather upkeep will also vary from bird person to bird person, so some might look sleek, clean and fluffy, while others look greasy, scruffy and mangy. It also stands to reason that, being sentient creatures, Aarakocra might get into body modification. Since they don’t really have things to pierce or visible skin to tattoo, this means a potential culture of dyeing feathers. Imagine an aarakocra warrior who dyes the tips of his white feathers red, or an aarakocra sorcerer who has dipped the edges of their feathers into a dark ink. Pretty sweet.
Otherwise, birds have more types of feathers than I can name or learn about. So unless you’re trying to get your minor in ornithology I’d say, the feathers that stand out as visually distinct are going to be the large impressive looking ones on the wings that the creature will use to fly and stay aloft and the soft, plushy down feathers that coat the aarakocra and provide insulation. The feathers on the wings are going to look how your players expect feathers to look but you can emphasize them by providing colour descriptions and using words like angular or aerodynamic or sleek. The insulation feathers are usually much softer, both to look at and to touch and would coat the arms and legs of the bird down to the ankle joint. The big feathers can be used to further reinforce the intimidation factor, while the softer down that coats their arms and legs can go in the opposite direction.
“The sleek long feathers of the wing, dagger shaped and the length of a hand ruffle slightly as a breeze blows through the canyon”
“A blast of wind blows through and you watch as the soft, small, downlike feathers puff up, just for a moment before lying flat again lending a much softer look to this warrior”
​

Clothing

Aaarkocra are sentient, smart and have thumbs, aka all the features necessary to be making clothes and weapons. However these creatures of elemental air are also constantly on the move and are relatively small and light which means they likely won’t want to burden themselves with much that would get in the way of flying or constrict movement. The artwork in the MM has its Aarakocra dressed in tunic style clothing, a shirt of sorts that fits with holes for the arms, head and presumably wings and then dangles down to cover whatever bird bits the birdfolk are working with. The MotM artwork has its Aarakocra dressed more in leather armor but also with some dangley cloth bits as well. Here I’m actually going to go contrary to both and suggest that if you had a habit of flying about at high speeds, any sort of loose fabric is going to, at best flap around in a very annoying way, or at worst get tangled around things that you don’t want them tangled around. So, in my opinion it makes the most sense if aarakocra would craft something more in line with shorts or a tightly secured loincloth, something that covers up the bird bits and secured enough to not flap about but not so much that it would restrict movement. Shirts and chest cover for Aarakocra wouldn’t provide much of a purpose since being birdlike (and presumably laying eggs? Idk I’ll leave that one for you to decide) they wouldn’t have a lot of need to cover up their chests. The only real motivation to have something on top would be insulation, but seeing as birds have specific feathers for this purpose, it seems rather unlikely that they would need anything of the sort. Thus most clothing is going to be spartan and functional in purpose, likely we would see straps and bags criss crossing, providing pockets for snacks, personal goods and whatever interesting things catch their eyes.
“Leather straps criss cross the creature’s feathery chest, affixing pouches, bags and a knife in leather sheathe”
“The clothing style of the Aarakocra seems to be simple and functional. Tightly wrapped cloth secured with straps of leather cover only enough for modesty sake, though necklaces, bracelets and various bedazzlement of bone, beads and coloured fabric are common and creative additions”

Making an interesting Aarakocra

Now that we’ve gone over the general bits and pieces of an Aarakocra, lets take a quick gander at some traits that would make an Aarakocra NPC (or PC) stand out from the rest.
Body Modification First, something ripe with potential is body modification and decoration! Bird folk don’t have a whole lot to pierce nor a lot of visible skin that would be ripe for tattooing so sadly those are probably out. But birdfolk who dye their feathers for ceremonial or style reasons? Super cool concept. Maybe the sorcerers of your Aarakocra community take the time to paint arcane symbols on prominent feathers! Maybe individuals of high status bleach the feathers of their head in patterns resembling crowns or clouds or waves of air! Potentially your Aarakocra could wear jewelry as well. Larger, more dangly and obstructive jewelry would potentially indicate high status (since the fancy ornaments would get in the way of movement, an aarakocra who displays them implies that they have enough clout that people provide FOR them, enabling them to lounge around looking fancy) " The feathers along the honor guard's eyebrows are dyed in a dark red and gold pattern clearly setting them apart from the rest. "
Molting
Molting is how birds replace their feathers! Since feathers are considered a “dead” structure (aka one that is incapable of healing) they’ve got to replace feathers on a semi regular basis. Some birds undergo complete molts where they replace nearly all their feathers, others go through partial molts where they replace specific groups and types of feathers. Most commonly, birds go through molts in varying stages as they age, and then as adults go through one or two seasonal molts throughout the year. So hey, why not an aarakocra who is in the process of molting? This would absolutely get in the way of you attempting to describe an aarakocra as intimidating, since molting birds look very silly (do a quick google if you don’t believe me). Patches of feathers missing, looking extra fluffy and puffy or even missing all the feathers on their head could all be options to make an aarakocra stand out from the rest and even introduce plot based events (maybe your PCs need to meet with an aarakocra of high status but he refuses to see visitors until his molt is finished and he looks more dignified) "One of the aarakocra in the back clutches his spear with an amateur grip, his feathers puffy and in some spaces missing entirely lending him a juvenile look." Old Injuries Scars and the like are going to be harder to see on an aarakocra thanks to their plumage. Unless, of course they’ve got a real gnarly scar, in which case you can describe the abrupt break in the feathers revealing the long pale lines of the viscous claw marks that once nearly brought this bird dude low. It also makes sense that some aarakocra would have old injuries involving missing limbs. Folks with limbs tend to lose limbs sometimes. With aarakocra, a missing leg isn’t necessarily the same mobility issue it is with someone without wings, though a missing arm is going to be frustrating as it is for anyone. Birds also often lose toes in their rough and tumble lives and an aarakocra that is down a toe is a good way to differentiate one npc from the rest. Of course lets also not forget the classic cliche of badass creature who’s lost an eye and either covers it up… or doesn’t. "Speckled brown plumage across this creatures chest is desecrated by three parallel claw marks where the feathers don’t grow, revealing raised silver-white scar tissue." "The aarakocra alights on the rock remarkably gracefully, considering it seems to have lost a leg below the knee, and perches there with well practiced balance." "Up close to this creature, your eyes are drawn to the gnarly mass of scar tissue that fully defaces the eye."

Put it all together!

A massive, 10ft wingspan blocks your line of sight as the creature alights on a branch in front of you. Two eagle eyes take you in above a shiny hooked yellow beak, while its scaled feet, two toes facing forward and two facing back, dig into its perch with massive, black talons. The snow white feathers of its head have been dyed blood red at their tips, lending an even fiercer air, while criss-crossing leather straps span its chest, hanging the knives and tools of a hunter and scout. The spear it holds points right at you as it screeches “Don’t move! We have you surrounded”. What would you like to do?
​
Hey, well that's all I've got! If you have any other interesting additions I'd love to hear them! Otherwise hope you have a good day and good luck at your tables!
submitted by MonstersDescribed to DnDBehindTheScreen [link] [comments]

2024.02.01 10:13 lilmsanonymous What’s your favorite smartphone among all the smartphones you’ve owned over the years?

I’m just curious to know about everyone’s personally owned and preferred smartphones after seeing the post about the smartphones that people regret buying. It could be your most recent and current smartphone, it could also be your first or second or anything in-between. Which smartphone did/do you like most among all the units you’ve owned over the years?
I’ll start— my favorite phones among all those I’ve owned are the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S3. In my opinion, the iPhone 4S ushered in a new era for the modern iPhone and is the foundation for the iPhone of today with the introduction of Siri and other essential features that the current iPhones include, from a software, hardware and design perspective. The Galaxy S3, on the other hand is regarded as the “iPhone killer” and is, in my opinion, the first and last excellent Samsung Galaxy phone.
I’m currently using an iPhone 15 Pro and a Xiaomi 13 Pro but I still miss the times when the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S3 were my daily drivers between 2011-2012.
EDIT: I also miss my Blackberry Curve 8520 from 2009 because it reminds me of my first year high school days. And the physical keyboards!!
submitted by lilmsanonymous to Tech_Philippines [link] [comments]

2024.01.25 16:52 gagaale420 Blackberry 8520 Curve

Blackberry 8520 Curve
Have prulpm with charge battery is there a way to fix it
submitted by gagaale420 to blackberry [link] [comments]

2024.01.21 16:09 BrodogIsMyName Frontier Fantasy - Chap 25

[First] [Previous] [Next]
Appreciation to WaveOfWire for being able to edit consistently, unless we're in VC.
- - - - -
The shade of the flowing canopy let small beams of midday light fall onto the craftsman’s mate. Her beautifully stout muzzle opened and closed rhythmically as she slept, the motions of her breathing being the only sign of life. He held her meal and water-skin in his hands, hoping to provide her with its nourishing contents once she awoke, but an itch at the back of his mind told him he was waiting for nothing. She was only getting worse.
She had drifted into slumber last evening, her unconscious state extending far into the next day. The sickness must have made his black-skinned lover exceptionally exhausted. Still, her eyes refused to open, no matter how hard the male channeled his intent to rouse her. Physically shaking her awake might cause her to wretch up last night’s dinner or inflict pain, so he opted to keep to idle tasks, interspersed with small attempts to wake her.
When survival and seeing to her needs were taken care of, he went about collecting clumps of clay to form small items for her; it always brought a smile to her face when he attempted her own specialty. No other on the island had quite the same touch as his mate. Her stable yet firm hands could form the finest pottery, extending into some proficiency in glassblowing as well. They made a great pair in their town’s square as the two who could provide whatever a passerby might need—him with various trades of wood and metalworking, and her with beautifully formed pots and glassware. She also elected to help him in his projects from time to time, being a boon to efforts requiring great strength. Blessed lord of the lands, were her creations immaculate, especially the stained-glass murals requested by the church.
Of course, that was before they were sent away. He was not one to question the priests, but for them to use a stone of all things to determine his faith rather than his actions was of utmost ridiculousness… And then, to send him and his beloved away after… what? Nothing happened the moment of touching the rock, nor during the following days, thus they were cast as heretics of the sky faith? Was he truly cursed by the touch of the Sky Goddess? Were his fellow followers of the Land God really dissidents of their faith? Never had he slipped a single prayer in an ode to another deity but the lord of the mountain, so how could such false accusations stand? His mate fought tooth and talon for them in place of his hesitancy to contend the clergymen, but they were swept up into the boats anyway, despite her valiant efforts.
And now look where they ended up. He wished so very much to return to what he had before—away from the forest, away from these struggles of life and death—but he needed to stay strong for her. Each day the male toiled and endured. Without her reassuring voice and soft touch that morning, the hardships of survival felt all the more arresting.
His thoughts drifted back to the task at hand. He was working toward wrapping the uneaten meal for later, when she… awoke, hopefully. The soft winds of the forest whistled through trees, only broken up by the odd noise of his task, and…
His ears fanned out to listen, his digits ceasing all movement. What was that? It was like a… barking, of sorts. N-no… No, not one of the vile beasts. Not while she was in this state… The soft grass cushioned his knees as he slowly turned around, steadily lowering his profile.
There, in the distance. A Malkrinoid creature stood far away, looking around the forest. He had seen that pale beast before, it stalked the old camp and paraded around those gray monuments atop the hill. It donned a different hide than before, this time a color similar to the male’s own green skin.
The paced barking noise continued, now certainly coming from the creature as it looked back at something else. And then it halted at once. The head of the unique fauna snapped towards the male in a brief flash of movement, its eyes locking on his immediately.
His heart stopped under the striking glare. He threw his body to the ground as fast as he could, ducking behind a minuscule hill that blocked his vision of the animal. There was no telling if it saw him. Did it? What if it did? Was it a predator? Would it pursue him?
The wooden grip of his stone knife felt heavy in his hands. A slow bolt of fear ran through his limbs. He wanted to run away, to leave the danger and return to his home—his mate. But he was already there. There was no stepping back here. He could not dip away into the shadows when his everything was just behind him, unconscious and incapable of defending herself. She was his stone in the river that he clung to so tightly. She was the one who always fought on his behalf… Now, it was his duty to undertake.
Several approaching footsteps overpowered the sound of blood pumping into his ears. It was not just one. What should he do? Stay low and hope the creatures walk around? No… his love was in plain sight; even if he was not seen, she surely would be. The trampling footfalls came ever closer, slowing to a halt just beyond the crest of the mound he hid behind.
“H-Hey there. We… We come in peace?” an uncertain projection of intent announced.
The craftsman closed his eyes, fear wrangling with his need to act, his arms flexing tightly in preparation to spring up from the ground. Wait… a voice? From what?
A much colder but familiar cadence echoed in his mind. “We see you lay—g there. We do not seek conflict, but if you do not show yourself, we will be forced to assume t—t you do”
He quickly got to his feet, standing up tall and taking a few steps back. The knife shook in his hands as he held it out defensively, fanning his arms out to cover his mate. She was only a pace behind him. “Y-you sh-should not be here. Leave! I will d-defend my territory! There… There are others! Others will come and cull you if you dare to encroach!”
The dark green female spoke up, a diplomatic ring in her words. “We are not here to encroach, we simply wish to understand your intentions regarding your presence here.”
He recognized their tones and skin colors; these were the females that cornered him the other day alongside… that creature… Was that really what they wanted after threatening him previously? They stood before him menacingly, their burning eyes scrutinizing every shudder and breath of his. How should he respond? What would make them leave?
The maroon-skinned female bellowed her demand, slamming the butt of her spear into the ground. “Well? What is y—r response?”
“I-I…” the craftsman stuttered.
“Hold on, Shar. I don’t think a ‘bad cop’ is what we need here; just look at him.” The… male…? Held up a hand haltingly, lowering his metal implement. What kind of sword was that?
“The female behind you, is she alright?” the green-skinned female asked formally.
“S-Sick. You leave. N-Now.” His words came out in brief spurts, the male failing to keep track of the barrage of information and questions. Wait, had he told them of his mate? Oh, no. What would they do with her?
The odd male creature craned its neck to observe his love, appraising her with narrowed eyes. A shiver ran down the craftsman’s spine, the grip on his knife tightening almost painfully. The being glanced back at him, the green eyes softening into a knowing look.
“How long has she been sick? Is it contagious?”
He feverishly shook his head, taking another step closer to his mate. “D-Do not touch her. L-Leave.”
The maroon-skinned female crossed her arms, looking down at him with irritation. “You w—ld not trust a star-sent?”
The pale creature gave a small frown before walking back a few steps and turning around, nudging the red one to follow after she took a moment too long. The green one fell in behind as the group slowly disappeared into the sea of trees.
…Star-sent…?
He stared in the direction they went; only after the sun passed its zenith did he let his guard down, sitting back down beside his lover. A huff of air left his maw as he stared down at her. She still had not awoken. Not only did she have difficulty eating and drinking recently, but she was now completely incapable of such. What was he to do? There was nowhere to get help for her: no hospice, no shaman, and no empathetic townspeople to assist. He had no assistance, nor any knowledge of medicine. His only option was to channel his intent, hoping her eyes would open once more. Still, something had to be done. If she stayed this way without water or food, then…
She would wake up; he just needed to have faith. Some mixture of herbs and grasses had to work, to cure her of all ailments. He held his palm to her arm, squeezing it ever so softly. There would be no sleep that night, not until she awoke. Not unless… there was an alternative option for assistance…
\= = = = =
Shark’khee roamed the quiet forest in calm strides, the waning sunlight curving the day’s shadows into long walls of darkness as she went. She sized up every tree for the specific vines Harrison needed, finding the task to be quite difficult. Each time she pointed out a cluster she thought was the correct species, the star-sent simply shook his head with a frown. Unfortunately for them—though partially fortunate for her pride—the male was having similar issues with his search. After they gave up their search for the other Malkrin for last night, Harrison had found quite a use for some vines gathered, excitedly showing her the results.
“Not only do they glow when given an electrical current without heating up like lightbulbs, they’re also capable of sending and receiving the electron signal in multiple directions at once. How cool is that??” the star-sent beamed.
She hardly had a clue as to what he meant by any of that, but it didn’t matter in the face of their few successes in foraging. Despite her misgivings with the arduous hunt for more, she still held onto the unrivaled joy they shared whenever his electricity-based device caused a bundle of vegetation she handed him to light up.
It had been a long while since they had found any, yet such a small issue failed to hinder her unfaltering smile. The many frustrating events of that simply day washed away…
The long hike in search of the elusive male had led to nothing of use for their time wasted. She made an error afterward with the wooden barricades, misplacing them around the barracks. Akula somehow managed to burn the meat within the smoker when it was her turn to refill the fuel.
Yes, there were quite a few incidents, but none of that built up annoyance held a flame to the pure mirth of strolling aimlessly through the forest with Harrison, looking out for plant life along the way. It was so very peaceful in comparison to the days of stressful combat and the unrelenting roller coaster of emotions she tumbled through. The setting sun, the quiet chirps of the fauna, and the frequent touch of her tail accidentally rubbing against the male made the moments between foraging a pleasant reprieve.
The foggy state of bliss had such a hold on her that she almost didn’t hear the odd noise approaching them.
[vrrrrrrrr]
“You hear that, Shar?” Harrison queried, craning his head to listen.
The paladin slipped a spear from her pack, resting a hand on the male’s shoulder protectively while she looked around. “I do ind—d.”
The sound approached from within the shadows, becoming louder by the moment.
[VRRRRRRRRRRR]
“Ah shit, it’s coming closer! Get ready!” the male shouted, bringing his gun-staff to bear.
Fallen leaves rustled in its wake, crunching under the break-neck speed of the… animal…?
It was… quite small. Never had she seen a creature with such a sleek, yet rectangular body, nor had she seen anything with circular legs like that. And was that… metal? She didn’t understand what she was looking at.
Harrison’s shotgun dropped, the weapon hanging onto his shoulder with its connecting strap. “No. Fucking. Way. I don’t believe it...”
The thing zipped up to her, ready to pounce on her legs with unseen fangs or claws. [vrrr?]
She made to stomp it, but the star-sent stopped her mid-step. “WAIT! Hold on, Shar! Don’t stomp it, it’s not a threat!”
“...W—t is it?” She hesitantly lowered her leg, her confused glance given to the male. He crouched down in front of the thing, its… legs… rotating back and forward in unusual idle motions.
“It’s… some sort of R.C. car. It’s controlled by… Shit. Another human.” His hand rested upon his head in surprise, an open smile reaching across his cheeks. “Look at the circuits and antenna; it must be long-range or something. It looks to have a metal housing welded on too… Christ, where the hell did this come from?”
She bent down to inspect the ‘RC car’ with the star-sent. “I do not follow. Is this not someth—g of your creation?”
His fingertips ran along a strip of multicolored wiring that lined the creation’s mud-coated side. “Not at all—that’s the weird part. I think… I think this was the person who tried to send a radio signal out. I know the two others are… not with us anymore” He paused, glaring at the car with a contorted expression as his sigh signaled the death of his excitement. A sharp inhale gathered his composure and distanced the morbid memory, the gears in his head turning as they connected the dots. “ That just leaves…
Shar’khee watched as Harrison’s eyes lit up in a way she was unfamiliar with, his next word but a whisper on his lips.
”Tracy?”
She blinked, confused and fixated on his expression. Was he speaking of the other star-sent? It has been a while since the other was mentioned. He explained their predicament with the distance and ‘radio’ issues but never expanded much upon it. She was amazed by the capabilities of one star-sent, what could the other do?
“I suppose it makes sense, she’s a technician. I just don’t know how she got a hold of this kinda thing, or the tools needed. Did she already set up some sort of base elsewhere? The workshop and barracks are here, so what module would have access to that kind of thing? I don’t think it’s anywhere close.”
“How has it arrived here if the ot—r is so far away?”
He tapped on a square atop the car, the weakly attached blue surface wobbling under the pressure. “It’s got some solar cells on top, so it must’ve been built to go quite a distance. Plus, those wheel’s look pretty worn. And—” He picked the thing up to inspect its underside, receiving a short whine from the creation’s free-spinning wheels. “—it looks to have been traveling for a while, given the damage and dirt on it.”
“Why has she sent a machination instead of coming here h—self?”
“A multitude of reasons, probably. It’s dangerous, distance might is too far, supply issues, it could be anything really. Hell, the car’s got a few sensors. It might just be automated.” The car was let down, driving away for a moment before zipping in a circle around them and back to Shar’khee, eliciting a smirk from the star-sent.
“It certainly has some personality, if so. Y’know, we could actually test that. Here, walk a few meters that way.”
She did as told, standing up and taking a few paces in one direction. A small light atop the vehicle lit up orange as it pivoted in a circle. The light turned back to green when it faced her once more, speeding right up to her legs and bumping into them lightly.
[vrrr!] It spun in place once.
Harrison scratched at his chin. “Yeah, that scanning tells me that it’s not human-operated at all, despite the ‘lil movements it makes… There must be some quirks programmed into it. That light also looks to indicate its current function.”
“So… the cr—ture is intelligent?”
“Uh… Yeah, sorta. Kinda like how the fabricators know to do their own thing. Here, let’s return to the modules to check it out. We’ve got a good bunch of electric vines anyway.” The star-sent stood up, nodding in the direction of the castles.
“Of course. Our dinner time is fast approach—g as well.” She took a few steps and looked back, making sure the small companion followed.
[vrrr…]
\= = = = =
Well, there weren’t any notes on the drive, and if there were, he was too dumb to find them. So, instead, Harrison elected to do a deeper dive into the code of the RC car. A lot of it was lost on him for its controls, but he could definitely pick out a few actions. For example, there was a twenty-five or so percent chance it would turn three-hundred-and-sixty degrees in place if it found a target to follow successfully—what module has access to both R.C. cars and a computer for tracy to program them?
The drone apparently attached to Shar as its ‘target,’ seeking out and locating her whenever possible. His theory about the light on top of it was true too, with a color gradient from red to green based on its progress. He unplugged and let the little thing go, smiling as it zipped away to follow the paladin to the campfire, leaving him to his devices in the workshop.
A lot of his time had been spent in there lately, planning and figuring out the proper mechanisms for his various designs. Sticky notes and loose papers, filled to the brim with his research into belt-fed firearms and automated defense platforms, littered several desks by now, vaguely sorted between his projects. Though, he still found a few ideas for other components interspersed between sections, each being jotted down when inspiration struck.
The turret was coming along faster than the experimental shotgun design—mostly because he was spending less and less time on it with how much it frustrated him. The automated weapon had a working base to rotate on, and the camera was roughly attached. He was able to put in some code to control the contraption’s direction, using the computer’s arrow keys to control up, down, left, and right to great success. After figuring out how to produce the carbon dioxide bolts with a small chain of machines, the only task left to do was to connect the sensory equipment’s programming and translate that to where the turret pointed.
It would be a pretty difficult task with his limited coding skillset, but with enough references and good ‘ol trial and error, it could probably be done in a day or two. He prepared himself for the mental anguish of the job, already internally celebrating his success in improving their group’s burgeoning defenses.
Over the next few hours—and well into the late evening—he got to work on the project, frequently taking breaks to refill his water bottle. Each time he returned to the barracks, he would find a new scene playing out by the campfire. Shar started out investigating the little drone that followed her, poking at it curiously. Soon, she ended up entertaining herself with the car, placing it behind one of the wooden barricades to see the vehicle zoom around to find her, enjoying the little quirks the machine made when it was successful in its hunt. Hell, she ended up cleaning the mud off of the drone by the fifth time he returned.
When the moonlight began to shine steadily, the paladin joined him in the workshop, helping out as someone to think out loud with. Her head bobbed up and down in faux understanding at his jumbled thoughts, but he appreciated an extra ear nonetheless. The comforting tail she laid across his back during less than favorable times along the coding journey certainly helped too.
It really did take a lot of referencing, especially with trying to understand the sensor’s programming. Hell, he had so many programs open at once, he had to turn off Sebas’s AI to save up processing power—it wasn’t like he was using him much anyway. Any resource he had was taken and used that night, leading to long stints of just straight up going over another machine’s code and trying to wrap his head around it all. Between taking quick breaks to go outside and Sharky’s company, the project’s frustrating nature was significantly tempered.
So, when he made his way out for a breath of air, he was quite calm and collected, and in no way, whatsoever, expecting there to be a short, olive-green Malkrin. It… he was illuminated by the workshop’s floodlights, and weakly holding up a crude spear towards the engineer.
Shivers ran through the alien while he stood just outside the wooden barricades, whether it was from the chilly breeze or otherwise, Harrison didn’t know. Wide yet determined eyes stared right back at him, the stranger taking shaky steps forward through the path between the spikes. A quivering frown grew across the Malkrin’s pointed, dragon-like muzzle as he approached, long triangular ears folding tight against his head.
“Can I uh, help you?” Harrison called out, sliding his shotgun from over his shoulder. He wasn’t that worried, but there was no telling what might happen.
The male stopped in his tracks, speaking up with rickety confidence. “Y-You are t-the star-sent they sp-speak of.”
The human nodded calmly at the statement bordering on a question with a straight face, absently running his finger across the double-barrel’s trigger guard. “That I am. I ask again, can I help you?”
A confused expression on the stranger’s face as he looked down at his spear, returning an unsure gaze. “You w-will* heal m-my mate.”*
Harrison raised his eyebrows flatly, unmoved by the male’s words. “Uh huh… And why should I do that?”
“You will f-face consequences if you refuse!”
The engineer could have called Shar out there to deal with the problem, and he certainly thought about it… But, she would probably go full ‘overkill’ with her solution.
The pioneer made a show of tipping up the firearm to rest against his shoulder. “Consequences, huh?”
“Y-Yes?”
He fought back the smirk threatening to ruin his composure. It was hard to take anything seriously when his would-be assailant looked more likely to rattle apart than hurt anyone. He drew a breath and put a flippant drawl into his voice, figuring that if he was going to humor the charade, he might as well have a bit of fun with it. “Ain’t nobody ev’a tell ya that thre’ten’nn people ain’t gonna get’cha nowhere?”
“I… What? No?”
He tipped an imaginary hat. “I think it’s a val’yu’able lesson, son.”
The olive-colored Malkrin growled sharply, clear frustration building up into furrowed brows on as he clenched his spear tighter. “I am *not** your offspring. I am in great need of assistance for my beloved! Not for a lecture on—”* His other arms were thrown out wide, one of them gesturing to a larger Malkrin laying down behind himself. “ —morals, or what have you!”
Only then did Harrison notice the male’s reddened sclera, looking worn and haggard, his focus wandering and anxious. The human shook off the childish tone, returning to solemnity.
“Do you know what’s affecting your ‘beloved?’ Is she sick or what? Something else?” He gestured to the limp, black-colored Malkin lying on the sled behind the Male, looking quite lifeless.
“I-I do not know. She… She has barely eaten between the vomiting and shaking… She has been sleeping more each day, and has yet to rise since she laid down to rest last evening. Her sickness has taken hold of her horribly.”
That didn’t help at all. A sickness? Fuck. Was it contagious? Was it the kind that could spread through the air? Was it on every surface they touched? Would it spread to Harrison? Would an alien disease even be able to jump to humans? Probably not, but it wouldn’t do him any good to go unprepared. But, what if it did spread to Sharky or Akula? How could he be prepared for something like that? How was the illness spread? The water? The air? Sickness would be an actual worry out here, millions of light years from the nearest hospital. This was a lot more serious than he thought. Action needed to be taken.
The newcomers had to be quarantined immediately, and Harrison’s companions had to be put as far away from them as humanly possible. Then, he would need to make full use of the med bay and see what he could do and learn. A quick plan formed in his mind of items and stages, a few steps needing to be taken first.
“I am willing to help, but I don’t want to give it to some ‘loose cannon’ who thinks pointing a spear will get it. Put that thing down.”
The Malkrin glanced between his weapon and the engineer a few times before looking back at the crude wooden sled. The stone spear fell to the ground with a deadened thud. He stepped away, showing the sincerity of his choice.
“Good, now walk a good few paces back and wait there until I tell you to move. I will help you out, but you need to work with me here,” he ordered, reiterating himself.
The Malkrin did as told, his eyes wandering back to the weapon before leaving it where it was. “U-Understood…”
Harrison quickly disappeared into the workshop, grabbing a gas mask and some gloves from his backpack, assuring Sharky that she didn’t need to worry about anything when she came to ask what was going on. She asked a slew of questions, to which he sternly told her to stay back and wait until he said things were when safe. She only relented after he told her it wasn’t an attack or anything. The rest of the night after that became a blur as his mind completely switched gears under the newfound pressure.
He passed the olive-colored Malkrin on his way to the barracks, keeping his distance and repeating the earlier orders after the—craftsman, was it?—the craftsman gave a worried glance at his new getup. The airlock door slammed open, his harsh stomps against the stairs failing to wake the slumbering Akula. He pushed her out of the door and into the workshop’s back entrance after shaking her awake, avoiding the biohazards at the front section of the building. His companion’s confusion started to meld into worry, making him regret having to be so vague. Thankfully, his grave tone got his two companions to go along with his plan. He slipped out of the front entrance once more to approach the two newcomers, regarding the craftsman.
“Follow me.”
The male apprehensively dragged his companion along into the barracks with difficulty. Harrison would have assisted, but keeping his contact to a minimum was a must if he wanted to keep being aseptic.
“We’re going up,” Harrison announced, locking the airlock door and stepping beside the elevator.
The craftsman replied nervously, staring at the obstacle in front of him. “I… do not believe I will be capable of bringing my mate up the stairs.”
The human pressed a button on the wall, the cargo lift doors opening with a clunk. “No, bring her into here and press the ‘up’ arrow. It’ll be higher on the wall.”
“Y-you expect me to enter the gray cube?”
His arms crossed over his chest with an indifferent stare. “Do you want me to help your wife?”
“Wife? I do not—”
“Get in the elevator.” He growled, letting out a huff. “...It will bring you up to where the medical equipment is.”
The craftsman did as asked, shuffling into the carriage without a word. Harrison waited outside the closed doors until the mechanical parts inside came to life, indicating the Malkrin had figured out the simplistic controls.
Harrison trotted up the stairs, guiding the walking health risks into the med bay once the elevator doors opened. He reassured the male several times that the mechanical bed assistant would not harm his mate as it brought her up. The exhausted breaths of the craftsman overshadowed the whirr of the analyzer. Thankfully, he didn’t question the new equipment brought out. It never touched his companion, but that did not stop his anxious and suspicious gaze from boring into Harrison’s every move.
The machine read out a long list of green ‘okays’ before getting to the problem. [...Endocrine System: Kidney failure. Blood: Indeterminate results. Blood tests required. Refer to Manual for operation of blood extraction and further analysis.]
…And that was where the night became a blurry mess through the lens of a gas mask. Setback after setback appeared in succession until the Goddamn sun rose. First and foremost, the operation manual read like a Goddamn medical textbook designed to confuse the reader, which wasn’t helped by the very anxious Malkrin tapping his feet on the ground a few feet away. Even worse, after Harrison got the process down, the very notion of using a syringe to draw blood had the olive male fighting tooth and nail against it. It took a long-winded, frustrating back and forth before the craftsman relented. If it weren’t for the fact that there was an ongoing quarantine, the engineer would have thrown them out long ago.
The tests came back with more questions than answers. There was too much water in her system, causing delusional hyponatremia, but of course, finding a diagnosis wouldn’t be that easy, would it? A startling list of other irregular readings reminded him that these assays were intended for humans. There went his entire plan, flying out the window like a freed dove.
The fuck was he supposed to do then? Well, it was much too late to go back and let the female go. Especially after factoring his companions’ health into the equation…
No, he was locked into this. If the blood test’s baseline was based on humans, he would just have to compare the sick female’s results to that of someone healthy, and there were only two reasonable Malkrin that could be used as a control after factoring out the male’s proximity to the unknown illness.
With the power of aseptic technique, seventy percent isopropyl alcohol, and Sharky’s willingness to help, Harrison got a second set of results. It read similarly to the first, confirming the odd readings from the black-colored Malkrin as regular and stamping out the uncertain factors. The only main difference was the water concentration within her bloodstream. The first diagnosis was already spot on. She had dilutional hyponatremia, meaning he wasted an hour for nothing… Even the quarantine wasn’t necessary. At least he confirmed the issue and acquired some useful data for the future. Either way, the symptoms listed on the scanner’s terminal added up to those the olive-colored Malkrin gave when pressed: throwing up, muscle shakes, fatigue, drowsiness, and, of course, unconsciousness.
The cause of the problem? The kidney failure, of course. How the fuck did he deal with an alien illness like that? His hand came up to rub his eyes, only to be met with the hard surface of his gas mask. Each exhale through the mask only seemed to make breathing harder, which didn’t help his quickly overheating body one bit.
Stress poured into each and every seam of his existence, the pressure of his position becoming a tear in his mind. He brought the problem onto himself, and quite literally no one else could help him out. He looked down at the male Malkrin standing beside his limp lover, his hands clenching around her own. His focus switched to Harrison upon noticing his inactivity, deep sorrow etched in the Malkrin’s eyes
But, in the wary abyss, he noticed it. Like a glimmer of a diamond within a handful of sand.
Hope.
The engineer steeled himself for the imminent trials. It was going to be a very long… morning.
- - - - -
[First] [Previous] [Next]
Next time on Total Drama Anomaly Island - All-nighters have consequences
submitted by BrodogIsMyName to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.01.16 17:54 EatorofPizzas Wild Hoard Patch Notes and Megathread

Wild Hoard Patch Notes

Welcome to Year 7

Greetings Champions, welcome to Year 7 of Paladins! This is a change from our usual Season terminology, but there’s a good reason.
We have a LOT coming in this update, from the return of Trials to some significant Item Store changes and the beginnings of a new meta. It's with that all in mind that we are planning to wait to start Season 7 of Ranked until 7.2 in February. This is not a choice we made lightly, but it made sense both to allow us to watch the changes before Season 7, as well as allow Season 6 a full year run.
That means the last month of Split 4 of Season 6 will be quite a different experience, but we feel we should let people experiment and test Items without worrying about their brand-new Season rank.
So: Year 7 starts with this update, and Season 7 will start with the next update, 7.2. (more on 7.2 below!) With that explanation out of the way, let's hop right into Year 7's first update: Wild Hoard!

Trials of the Realm

Trials has returned after a year on hiatus, now reworked and improved! We appreciate players' patience as the team dug in and pushed to truly define what a modern version of Trials could look like. Let’s get right into the changes:

UI

We’ve revisited the Trials UI to simplify and improve how it interacts with other systems in our game. It will look familiar to many players, but with a lot of new bells and whistles and a few changes.
  • Quests are now listed within Trials. This allows our two challenge systems to have one consistent space & visual language. Also, this helps you track both Quests and Trials at once.
  • We’ve redone the EOML and Hubs view to more clearly convey all the challenges and rewards available to you, including your progress through each and every match.

Hubs & Progression

  • Trials has a total of 9 Hubs, 1 Completionist and 8 Challenge.
    • The Completionist Hub is unlocked by completing all the various Challenge Hubs.
      • This Hub rewards unique rewards for those willing to tackle every Trial each refresh.
    • Challenge Hubs are sets of challenges players can complete for rewards that unlock weekly.
      • For the first 2 weeks of a Trials update, two Hubs unlock each week.
      • Challenge Hubs contain 9 challenges for players to complete.
  • Tickets have been removed & Trials hubs now unlock for all players when the Hub opens!
    • You can progress any and all open Trials while you play, no picking and choosing.

Rewards

  • Completionist Hub
    • 3 rewards based on what percentage of Trials you have completed in the active set.
  • Challenge Hubs
    • 3 rewards in each Hub, split in groups of 3 challenges.
    • These challenges are much more freeform than the older set, allowing mostly any Champion or Class to complete them!
  • Challenger’s Spoils Chest
    • All new cosmetics for the current set of Trials will now be in an exclusive chest.
    • This chest will be available throughout the Hubs, with the number matching the new items available.
    • Every Trials set, you can earn every new item through unlocking these chests.
    Development Insight: The original Trials ran off of a system of unique activity goals and loot tables that relied heavily on weekly work in a scheduler. It essentially turns things on and off and sets prices, which is how we controlled the rewards and timers of old Trials. Each schedule had to be entered manually, and anytime something is entered manually there's a chance for human error. The number of schedules Trials required was so intense, it was septuple the amount we did for the rest of a given update combined. This is partially why we’ve shifted to a chest format for Trials rewards, to allow for a more flexible system for us but also you all. Now, you can decide which challenges to do and still have a chance at the cosmetic you want without being forced into a specific challenge set.
  • Crystals
    • Trials will now contain 175 Crystals throughout the Hubs! Combined with changes being made to Event Passes & Daily Login, this’ll be the most earnable Crystals we’ve had in a long time!

Event Pass Changes

We’re making some changes to the Event Pass to address player concerns, while also aligning it with Trials to have a consistent stream of earnable content. Here are the highlights:
  • Event Passes now have 36 levels & rewards per pass, up from 24/30
    • The price of the Event Pass is remaining 400 Crystals.
  • Progression through the Event Pass is now on a new XP curve.
    • Early EP levels will be slightly easier to progress than later levels.
    • The goal of this change is to keep a similar amount of grind with levels that feel more equivalent to their rewards.
  • Eventful Chests
    • Instead of having cosmetics in a specific order, we're introducing Eventful Chests of each cosmetic type. These chests will contain the new cosmetics added to an Event Pass, but now which you unlock when is up to the rolls.
      • Eventful Skins will contain 4 new skins, 2 versions with 2 color schemes as you’ve come accustomed to!
      • Eventful Avatars will contain all the new EP Avatars
      • Eventful Sprays will contain all the new EP Sprays
      • Eventful Screens will contain all the new EP Loading Screens & Loading Frames
    • This change makes the way you earn new content in Paladins consistent(Chests), helps us manage to add content in the future, as well as allow more flexibility in how our Event Pass rewards players.
  • Updated Reward Offerings
    • We’ve added more of each type of offering beyond new cosmetics to the Event Pass, including Crystals and other important currencies.
      • Crystals from 50 ➡️ 100
      • Gold from 100,000 ➡️ 160,000
      • Boosters from 3 ➡️ 5 per unlock
      • Additional chests to new levels

Daily Login

While Trials were gone, we temporarily increased the amount of Crystals provided by Daily Login. With Trials returning & our changes to the Event Pass, we want to make Daily Login less essential for players looking to optimize their earnings. As such, we’ve reduced the Crystals rewarded back down to the values from September 2022. (50% reduction)

Item Store

The in-game Item Store has a polarizing history throughout Paladins, from Burn Card roots to Beyond experiments. As we moved through each of those moments, we received feedback that helped steer us in the next evolution of Item meta and philosophy. We spent most of 2023 away from the Item Store, listening to player feedback and experimenting with how to both bring back beloved aspects of older Item Stores while making this next era fresh and enjoyable for all players. That journey led us to where we are now, as we’re making the largest Item Store change since A Tigron’s Tale, by adding 4 additional Item options to the Store.
Players will still be able to purchase up to 4 Items, so this change introduces more decisions and build options while keeping the familiar format players are accustomed to. We also took this opportunity to revisit earlier Item philosophy and engage with new concepts that feel right at home in Paladins. We’ve also made adjustments to existing Items that we will detail in the Balance section, but want to highlight the biggest changes here:
  • Item Store selections increased from 16 ➡️ 20
    • 1 per each of the Item types

Defense

  • Haven is split into two damage reduction Items
    • Armor Plating: Reduce the Damage you take from In-hand Weapons by 88%
    • Arcane Warding: Reduce the Damage you take from Abilities by 1212%
      • Veteran players will remember the Haven/Blast Shields era well, and we wanted to reintroduce that level of counterplay while changing it to be a more consistent expectation. Any primary weapon (e.g Tyra Auto Rifle) will be reduced by Armor Plating while any ability damage (e.g. Tyra Nade Launcher, Fire Bomb) is reduced by Arcane Warding.
  • Resilience is split into two crowd control reduction Items
    • Sentinel: Gain a {150} health Shield for 5s on Elimination. Reduce the effectiveness of Slows, Knockups, and Knockbacks by 2525%.
    • Unbound: Reduce the duration of Crowd Control effects by 2525%. Does not include Slows, Knockups, and Knockbacks.
      • Resilience has been one of the strongest buys in Paladins for a long while now, as CC is both a frustrating effect to be under and the roster has expanded to include more varieties of it. We want to still allow players to counter these moments, but also saw an opportunity to allow for more nuance and counterplay based on team compositions.

Utility

  • New Item: Hoard
    • Gain 10 Credits every {15-5}s. Gain {5} Credits on getting an Elimination.
  • The Utility category is filled with staples of “thing happen faster”, so we felt the only fitting Item was one that makes Items go faster! On paper this may seem simple, but this was by far the hardest Item to test as it has a lot of complexity to it. It takes up an Item slot so it falls off harshly in the late game when others hit their 4th Item, but if bought the right moment, it can help swing the economy in your favor. It also can be a solid catchup mechanic if bought early in a losing battle. We’re excited to see players experiment and find the best scenarios for this Item!

Healing

  • New Item: Meditation
    • Heal for an additional 2.52.5% of your max health every 0.25s when out of combat.
  • This Item is a call back to an older version of Veteran, but puts a new spin on it that makes it a bit more compelling than its predecessor. You gain health a lot quicker than you did prior, with smaller ticks that add up to a greater amount so every millisecond can count as you briefly exit combat to prepare for the next threat. We’re excited to see how this Item plays out as it's also the cheapest option in the Healing category.

Offense

  • New Item: Trigger Scent
    • Increase your damage dealt by 55% for 5s after getting an Elimination.
  • This item revisits the concept of an increased damage Item by allowing Killstreaks to be charged with an effect designed to punish teams that aren't careful about positioning & gives the owner a set amount of time to capitalize on the effect. Damage amps are always a bit controversial, but we feel this one fits the niche of the Offense category and adds more interesting options to Champions with brutal breakpoints in DPS.

Map Restoration: Primal Court

One of our most chaotic maps has recently laid back on their pruning, as Primal Court sees all of its trees regrow onto the map! Enjoy an enhanced ambiance as the skybox is filled to remind you of the jungles surrounding this secluded battleground.

Loadout Decks

Some may have noticed us making changes to the Loadout screens over the past few updates, and now you get to know one of the reasons why! Paladins is all about its customization and for a long while we had heard players wanted to be able to bring more builds into games, so while this isn't a long patch note, it's impactful.
  • Increased the number of Card Loadouts per Champion from 6 ➡️ 9

Wild Hoard Event Pass

The Dragrin rise from the unknown and enter the Realm! Explore the new Trials as Grovos Grover, a young yet passionate adventurer looking to learn as much as he can, or plunder bounties as Flameborne Jace, a mercenary with an attitude but a kind heart. Both these skins, their recolors, and tons of additional cosmetics are available in this 36-level Event Pass!

Mode Rotations

Core Rotation

In Rotation: Siege, Onslaught, Payload

Out of Rotation: King of the Hill, Team Deathmatch

Due to the return of Trials, we want to ensure that you’re always able to complete your challenges while still offering a variety of modes to our players. All Trials that progress for certain non-Siege modes will be in pairs of Onslaught & King of the Hill or Payload & Team Deathmatch. This means we have to always keep 2 of these modes in at a time, so for this update we’ll be bringing back Payload and TDM will sit out.
Our goal is to rotate monthly, so in February Onslaught will leave for King of The Hill, then in March TDM will return and Payload will leave. We’ll stay tuned to community feedback as we continue to rotate modes more frequently and ensure there’s always something fresh to play!

Limited Time Modes

New

Beyond January 26th - 29th

History has become kinder to Season 5's Siege: Beyond, and we felt it was about time to revisit the mode in a manner players may enjoy. Instead of being an experimental Siege, it now will live as an LTM of its own!
In order to help it with the transition, we’ve renamed it to simply Beyond and made some changes to accommodate:
  • Many old & new Items have entered the Beyond store to bring it up to speed with the times.
    • Veterans may remember a certain item named Gather! It’s gotten a makeover.
  • Descriptions & the Store UI have been made more compact and quicker to parse.
  • Both Schisms 1 & 2 are active within the LTM version. Having both a unique Store & Cart makes Beyond feel distinctly its own experience.
We hope players give it another chance as we continue to embrace all of Paladins' history & improve older modes!

Old School February 2nd - 5th

Abyss has always felt like a map out of an older shooter, so let’s embrace that! This LTM places powerups all along the TDM map Abyss & allows players to harness powerful effects that make for a truly classic arena shooter experience.
  • Powerup Types
    • Credits
    • Jump Height
    • Movement Speed
    • Cooldown Reduction
    • Damage Reduction
    • Double Weapon Damage
    • Infinite Ammo
    • Ultimate

Bizarre Bazaar February 9th - 12th

Earlier in Paladins’ history, we had a tendency to port older maps to newer modes with varying success. It's been a long while and we've heard players want more map variety, specifically within Onslaught. So, this LTM serves to try something new out!
Play Bazaar as an Onslaught map in this test LTM & let us know what you think!

Returning

Cards to the Max February 16th - 19th

Balance

General

Item Store

  • Removed
    • Haven
    • Illuminate
    • Resilience
    • Kill to Heal
  • Added
    • Arcane Warding
      • Reduces damage taken from abilities by 122436%
      • Price: 250
    • Armor Plating
      • Reduces damage taken from weapons by 81624%
      • Price: 275
    • Blood Bath
      • Kills heal you and Eliminations heal you and the ally who got the kill for 200
      • Price: 325
    • Hoard
      • Gain 10 Credits every 15105s
      • Gain 51015 Credits on Elimination
      • Price: 150
    • Meditation
      • Heal for 2.557.5% of your max health every 0.25s while out of combat
      • Price: 175
    • Sentinel
      • Reduces effectiveness of Slows, Knockups, and Knockbacks by 255075%. On Elimination, gain a 150300450 health Shield for 5s.
      • Price: 225
    • Trigger Scent
      • Increases damage dealt by 51015% for 5s after getting a kill.
      • Price: 200
    • Unbound
      • Reduces the duration of all Crowd Control except for Slows, Knockups, and Knockbacks by 255075%.
      • Price: 200
  • Adjusted
    • Deft Hands
      • Price: 250 → 225
    • Guardian
      • Increased scaling from 102030% → 204060%
      • Price: 300 → 250
      • Now effects all Shields
    • Life Rip
      • Heal increased from 102030% → 204060% of damage dealt
      • Price: 200 → 225
    • Master Riding
      • Price: 250 → 225
    • Nimble
      • Price: 150 → 125
    • Rejuvenate
      • Price: 200 → 250
    • Veteran
      • Bonus health increased from 5.5% → 7%
      • Price: 300 → 275
    • Wrecker
      • Price: 300 → 275
Developer Commentary: One of the driving philosophies for this update has been to give players more choice in their itemization during a match. Specific Champions, certain maps, team compositions, and even game modes influence what you should purchase with every match being unique. With every category getting a fifth item, and almost all items getting updated, you’ll have more choice than ever before to impact your game. Are you greedy and seek out the most damage output possible, more reserved and focused on holding down the choke, or sneaky and vicious – striking from the shadows before quickly retreating back to the darkness? Items have a massive impact on your play style, activating certain Champion rotations and strengths or letting you shutdown an oppressive enemy. With new items though and more choices comes more consequences, as Credits aren’t the only cost to Items. Space in your loadout is just as if not more costly. Purchasing your comfort Items may lead to disaster if an enemy itemizes for optimizing their Shields and none one on your team bought Wrecker. Counter items are just as important as items, and figuring out who on your team should buy what is just another step in making sure your team is working efficiently and optimizing into each Champion’s specific role. There is a lot to cover about these items, more than we have space for in this dev comment block, but we wanted to share some thoughts on it to showcase our thought process.
With these changes you’ll be able to really showcase and focus on how you like to play. What you buy can greatly impact a match, and the choice is yours on how you want to shake up the game. Look at what the enemy is purchasing and respond appropriately - become what they fear and look for around corners near the point. You have control over how you play and that matters to us at Evil Mojo, Talents and Cards are just one part of that equation - Items are making a more impactful splash than ever with this update and will influence every match you have. Go and experiment, but most importantly have fun! Itemize and terrorize!

All Modes

  • Starting Credit amount increased from 400 → 500
Developer Commentary: With the addition of new Items, we wanted to encourage players to really think about what to buy in any given match by giving you all more money! With this increased starting values, new round start combinations of Items are possible and experimentation with the new Items is encouraged. Go out there and theory craft Champions!

Gameplay

  • Increased Range you see targets in Stealth from 15 → 40
Developer Commentary: We’ve removed Illuminate and as compensation, increased the base Stealth detection range. This is the equivalent of Illuminate level 1 across the board - making detecting Stealth champions easier, but not a full counter like with level 3 Illuminate. There were a few reasons for this, but some of the main ones were that:
1. Not many Champions could enter Stealth - making Illuminate an incredibly niche item that was never purchased unless there was a Stealth Champion present, in which case then it became a hard counter item. This dichotomy in purchase style was unhealthy for the Item itself as it left it in a limbo where it was useless 90% of the time, and left it relatively uninteresting compared to the rest of the Store.
2. Balancing Stealth Champions could prove difficult due to the varying nature of their experience. It's hard to compare the experiences of a Skye fighting against a team with no Illuminate versus level 3 Illuminate - and that there made tweaking Stealth Champions difficult as we can’t control what Items that Champion is going up against. A buff to Skye to make fighting level 3 Illuminate more tolerable generally makes fighting her without Illuminate a nightmare.
So with the removal of Illuminate we’re normalizing Stealth detection, and from this new baseline we can balance Stealth more efficiently and without an extreme number of edge cases throwing wrenches into the plan.

Champions

​Caspian

General
  • Max ammo reduced from 21 → 20
Ability
  • Love
    • Ammo cost per shot 1 → 2
  • Rogue’s Tempo
    • 0.7s Stun → 1.5s 40% Slow
    • Damage 700 → 450
  • Storm of Blades
    • Damage per shot 800 → 700
    • Duration 10s → 8s
Talent
  • Measured Cadence
    • Damage reduced from 400 → 200
    • Ammo cost to trigger increased from 2 → 4
  • It’s Got Some Heft
    • Removed Range bonus
    • Updated description to show value changes
Developer Commentary: Tsk tsk tsk, Caspian’s been too effective at stealing peoples hearts lately (along with all of their blood) and has forced our hand. His movement changes has had the changes we desired, a much more mobile threatening Flank, but has snowballed other parts of his kit into new strength. As Measured Cadence fell out of popularity, his other Talents had time to shine, though not always for the better as the strength of It’s Got Some Heft became known to his foes and dominated the competition. We’re hitting a few things across his kit and adjusting others to make fighting Caspian less explosive and more consistent, giving a more clear path to counter-play against him. Rogue’s Tempo has had its Stun replaced and damage reduced to push it towards being a CC tool rather than an all-in-one package. Dealing so much damage and applying hard CC made it an incredibly frustrating tool to fight against, as you’d be stunned and swiftly deleted. While now still giving Caspian a powerful CC utility tool, it gives his targets a chance to fight back and makes engagements overall more interesting. His maximum ammo has been brought down slightly, and Love’s ammo cost has been brought up to normalize his total damage output during an engagement, while Measured Cadence has had its damage reduced and cost trigger increased to make timing it more important to Caspian. While still able to be used as a “fire and forget” Talent, its previous strength had Caspian dealing way too much damage for its ease of access, and as his Love attack speed ramped his overall damage ramped way too much.
Finally, we’ve hit some of his more stabby options to prevent the supreme damage output Caspian is capable of. Storm of Blade’s damage and duration being brought down makes the Ultimate more react-able but still deadly if he isn’t taken care of, while It’s Got Some Heft losing its range bonus makes fighting Caspian more consistent and less prone to “how did he delete me from over there?” situations. It will still be a powerful Talent giving Caspian more efficient kill times, but now without keeping him overly safe and out of retaliation range. These are significant reductions across his kit, but with his new found mobility Caspian can still pierce and shred till nothing is left. Get those Piercing and Sharp Momentum stacks rolling and rob those pesky Supports blind.

​Kasumi

Ability
  • Curse
    • No longer grants Cursed enemies a Reveal on Kasumi
  • Body and Soul
    • Now increases jump height by 500% for the duration
    • Damage Reduction reduced from 75% → 60%
  • Yokai Doll
    • Increased size of pain indicators when hit by Yokai Doll
Card
  • Soul Siphon
    • Increased Body and Soul duration increased from 0.1s → 0.3s per level
Talent
  • Unfinished Business
    • Removed 1s bonus duration to Body and Soul
Developer Commentary: Kasumi’s major change from Damage to Flank isn’t the end of her journey, and we continue to monitor how she fares with the rest of our cast in her new role. With a new role comes new design philosophies, so we’ve revisited some of her kit internally and with community feedback have updated her accordingly. Curse most noticeably no longer reveals Kasumi to enemies marked by it, with her new role as Flank it didn’t make much sense to reveal her for doing her job, and with the updates to her pain indicators it's also easier to keep track of her during a fight. As a Flank, she lacked some of that roles notorious mobility, and struggled to get those angles other Flanks relish in abusing. We’ve given her 500% bonus jump height while in Body and Soul, allowing her to Flank more effectively and show up where she is least expected - while allowing for some cheeky escapes thanks to her invisibility. Its absolutely haunting having Kasumi appear from no where in front of you while thinking you were safe on a ledge - so keep those eyes peeled.
Speaking of Body and Soul, we’re updating a few things about it and its related kit to make Kasumi more vulnerable as most Flanks are to a coordinated attack. The damage reduction has been reduced to give enemies more of a chance to fight back as she attempts to escape, since her original resistance made it extremely difficult to retaliate against her. The strength of Unfinished Business has become more readily apparent with her transition to Flank, so we’re removing the bonus duration. The Talent is strong enough on its own, and that additional effect was pushing her Flank power a bit too far. That bonus duration is not fully lost however, as the Card Soul Siphon will now increase the duration much more - letting crafty Kasumi’s invest into making deviously sneaky and durable Loadouts. These changes will present Kasumi players with more opportunities for expression both in and out of a match, so we hope all you ghouls enjoy this continued revision of Kasumi.

​Khan

Ability
  • Overpower
    • Adjusted hitbox to be a small cylinder instead of a beam
    • Reduced Range from 180 → 170
      • this correlates to his weapon’s effective range
Developer Commentary: This is a minor quality of life change, but should make playing Khan much less frustrating. While Overpower is a very powerful Ultimate, it suffers from being a feast-or-famine ability that could feel clunky to use. We’ve updated the hitbox to be a small cylinder to provide just a little bit of leniency while using it, and hit the range to bring it in line with his weapon’s effective range, to make it overall more consistent.

​Koga

Ability
  • Dragon Stance
    • Now grants 25% bonus Movement Speed to Koga while active
  • Hellkite Claws
    • Projectile now pierces
Talent
  • Adrenaline Junkie
    • Reduced damage to trigger energy generation from 160 → 120
Developer Commentary: While we continue to investigate solutions to Adrenaline Junkie’s strength discrepancies, we’re pulling back the nerf a bit to give Koga more breathing room while running the Talent. We’ve also buffed his Hellkite Claws to make them more viable during a match, as more often than not it was more effective to continue firing his SMGs. These projectiles will now pierce, and while in Dragon Stance Koga will gain a powerful movement stim. The combination of these two gives Koga the ability to effectively put out area damage and control a space during a team fight, letting skilled Kogas juggle between single target DPS and group culling reactively and provide a unique strength to their team composition.

​Lian

Ability
  • Heirloom Rifle
    • Damage increased from 400 → 450
    • Effective Range increased from 90 → 125
Character
  • Health
    • Increased from 2000 → 2150
Developer Commentary: Popularly seen as a “backline” Damage, Lian has struggled to keep up with our evolving roster. While most of her abilities count as a weapon attack, everything doing the same damage incentivized spamming Abilities rather than taking on this role of a long-distance damager. We’ve increased the damage and range on Heirloom Rifle to give Lian a more viable niche in the backline, and we’ve increased her health to give her more of a fighting chance if she does get initiated on.

​Omen

Card
  • More, More, More!
    • Adjusted damage bonus from 8% scaling per level → 20% at all levels
    • Adjusted Ammo penalty from -2 Ammo per level → -10 Ammo with +1 Ammo per level
Developer Commentary: Omen had some unique implementations across his kit, and this card was no exception. Raw damage increases are rare in our game and for good reason - but on Omen it felt proper in allowing for unique builds and designs to flourish with clever Loadout allocation. However this led to some situations where there was an “optimal” amount of points to run this card at regardless of playstyle just for the raw statistical boost, and we wanted to try shaking that up a bit. Now More, More, More! will always grant a flat damage bonus, with investment altering the max Ammo penalty. This allows for more build variety if looking to give Omen a double barreled shotgun while requiring more investment if you’re looking to boost damage without changing playstyle too much.

​Raum

Ability
  • Soul Armor
    • Reduced Cooldown from 12 ➡️ 10s
Player nervousness regarding Raum’s Souls being unaffected by Anti-Heal, as well as lack of time to test the fix for the change, led us to not push out that change in Wild Hoard. However, we still wanted to show Raum some love, and providing Soul Harvest with a Cooldown reduction will give Raum more Healing and more uptime on valuable cards, which should still feel impactful in a similar way to his originally proposed change. Here is a tip in the meantime however – Raum’s Soul Armor is essentially increasing his max health, and not a shield. This means that a certain new item (Meditation) works with his Soul Armor, learn to disengage and reap some incredible healing!

​VII

Ability
  • Heavy SMG
    • Burst Mode damage increased from 125 → 150.
    • Automatic Mode damage increased from 225 → 235
    • Automatic Mode effective range decreased from 95 → 70
    • Automatic Mode effective range max damage penalty increased from 50% → 70%
    • Mag Dump effective range increased from 10 → 25
Card
  • Terror
    • Reduced pull strength bonus from 4% → 3% per level
    • Increased base pull strength bonus from 4% → 5%
  • The Night
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 0.25s → 0.4s per level
Talent
  • Overcharged
    • Removed 100 damage penalty
    • Removed 1 charge reduction penalty
    • Removed 2s cooldown buff
  • Spring Loaded
    • Removed 30% Cooldown reduction buff
    • Increased Range bonus from 25% → 30%
Developer Commentary: Due to some issues with previous VII adjustments, we’ve had to essentially “restart” and tackle this grapple-slinging hitman’s changes from the ground up. We’ll continue to keep track of this deadly Champion, and in the meantime have adjusted a few things across his kit. Let's take it from the top!
Heavy SMG brings a lot to VII’s kit - being 3-in-1 provides a lot of opportunities for VII to show off weapon mastery by choosing the right mode for the job. This hasn’t been the case however, as each mode has often stepped on each other’s toes and overlapped in where its most effective, nudging some out from use at all. To hit this, we’ve adjusted all the modes as seen above. Burst Mode’s damage has been increased to make it the premier mode for longer range engagements, while Automatic Mode’s effective range has been reduced and the max range damage penalty has been increased to prevent it from doing Burst Mode’s job. To compensate however, we’ve increased its damage to make it more rewarding when used properly at that medium range. We’ve also increased Mag Dump’s effective range to give it more use cases as the in-your-face burst damage option.
Moving on to his Cards, VII has benefited from an intense amount of synergy between his Cards. This allows VII to craft exceptionally powerful loadouts and can make fighting him frustrating. Originally The Night was hit down to 0.25s, but this proved too punishing, so we’ve increased it to 0.4s per level now - so this still holds as a nerf to the Card but without being so damaging to Loadouts with it. Terror is another example of a Card that synergizes well with VII’s kit - giving him additional travel distance while using Grappling Hook and also bringing in enemy Champions closer when they’re hooked. We’ve reduced the scaling bonus, but increased the base strength of the card to maintain some of its strength but while requiring more investment to reach similar power levels to the Card before at higher levels. These two changes maintain the synergy in his kit, but will require more investment in his Loadout to reach desired strengths.
Finally VII’s Talents. Overcharged received a significant overhaul to make it what it is now, but this had made the Talent mainly un-used amongst the community. We’ve kept the original intent of the change, but have removed all the stipulations. This will bring VII more closely to his original iteration where he could effectively control enemy positions, but not fully there as he is required to Talent into this power set. For Spring Loaded we removed the Cooldown reduction but increased the Range bonus, making its use-cases more narrow and putting more emphasis Talent selection on a per-match basis. With these changes, VII’s Talents are more specialized and ask a question - how do you want to play? Do you want to focus on gunplay with Tribunal Upgrades? Control and dictate the match with Overcharged? Or become un-touchable with Spring Loaded? The choice is yours operative.

​Skye

Ability
  • Wrist Crossbow
    • Reduced damage per shot from 130 → 115
Developer Commentary: This notorious assassin has been a little too efficient lately at taking out targets. We’re reducing her weapon damage to keep her more in line with our other Flanks and to require her to commit just a tad longer to engagements, giving for more opportunities for counter-play when she surprises you out of the blue.

​Terminus

Ability
  • Calamity Blast
    • Dealing damage with Calamity Blast now increases Power Siphon’s recharge rate by 25% for 4s, stacks up to 5 times.
Developer Commentary: Good ol' Terminus. This Stagalla has been the recipient of numerous balance changes as we continue to hammer out a healthy position for him, and that isn’t stopping today. Terminus is often found playing in a style where he hoards Calamity Charges to gain benefits from his Cards - leading to clunky situations where an Ability is essentially off-limits to ensure the maximum bonus is maintained. To counter this, we’re rewarding Terminus for dealing damage with Calamity Blast (please note that this is any damage at all - so that includes hitting non-Champion enemies like Shields etc.) by granting him a stacking Power Siphon energy regeneration bonus. This allows Terminus to more comfortably use his Calamity Charges and cycle back into generating them without feeling powerless after using the Ability.

​Tyra

Talent
  • Hunting Party
    • Removed additional Hunter’s Mark charge
Developer Commentary: Hunter’s Mark provides an immense benefit to Tyra, and granting that benefit to her team is an incredible strength for a Talent. The extra charge allows Tyra and her team to pump more damage out than we’re comfortable with for an ability with no active counter-play, so we’ve removed the charge and left the rest of the Talent and Ability as is. This keeps the original power of Hunting Party of coordinating and bursting an enemy, but prevents it from being up essentially all match and used by Tyra on every enemy she sees to increase her team's DPS.

​Vora

Ability
  • Deadly Scythe
    • Damage over time effect normalized across all hits to 100 damage.
    • Increased Medium attack’s damage from 100 → 300
    • Increased Light attack’s damage from 100 → 200
    • Increased Heavy attack’s damage from 450 → 600
    • Shortened Medium attack’s post-fire delay from 0.75s → 0.6s
Developer Commentary: Most of Vora’s damage has been attached to her damage over time effect (which we’ll call bleed) on her projectiles - which while thematically interesting made it so that she suffered as a Flank. Flanks normally capitalize on getting in and out, often utilizing burst damage to secure a kill on a vulnerable Champion before making their escape, but not Vora. Due to the nature of the aforementioned bleed, Vora often found herself committed to engagements to not only build up the bleed stacks but to also get to her harder hitting shots later in her attack chain. Those precious few extra seconds committed are normally enough for enemies to get healed by their allies or kill Vora in return. We’ve normalized the bleed damage to 100 across all hits to keep the theme of slowly draining foes (and since these do still stack, the damage does add up) and increased the base damage on all her shots to give Vora the chance to quickly bring foes down like other Flanks. This provides Vora with the ability to more aggressively engage on foes and get out while still dealing substantial damage in the engagement, as well as now really “feeling” the impact of her shots. As a cherry on top, we’ve reduced the post-fire delay on her Medium attack (her first swing) from 0.75 → 0.6s to make her attack loop smoother and get her damage ramped more quickly. Go and reap harbingers new and old!

​Willo

Talent
  • Blastflower
    • Adjusted damage bonus per shot from 80 bonus damage → 100 bonus damage
    • Increased max stacks from 3 to 4
Developer Commentary: Blastflower’s bonus ramped up Willo’s damage, but the increase wasn’t as noticeable when targeting more durable Champions. We’re changing the damage bonus to be percentile so that now Willo can more effectively ramp her damage up against Frontlines while also buffing her effectiveness overall against the rest of the roster.

​Ying

Ability
  • Illusory Rift
    • True Healing effect removed
    • On activation, removes all Debuff effects on allies
    • Grants 1s of Crowd Control immunity on activation to allies
Developer Commentary: True Healing as an effect on Ying’s Ultimate made the ability too consistent during a match, removing the general counter play of combating Supports through Anti-Healing. Since it did have the intended effect of increasing Ying’s effectiveness however, we’re continuing to tamper with her Ultimate. It will now cleanse all negative effects on allies on activation, and grant them 1s of CC immunity after. This will let Ying’s utilize their Ultimate as a counter as well as a sustain tool depending on the situation - though only for a brief moment. Enemy Champion knowledge has always been useful, but if you’re playing Ying make sure you do your research and use that Ultimate to full effect!

Public Test Server

Information on how to access the Public Test Server can be found here.
submitted by EatorofPizzas to Paladins [link] [comments]

2023.12.14 05:52 0kensin0 Changing brakes. My story and experience.

My bike had OEM hybrid disc brakes. I can say with confidence that they are shit. The brakes are a ok when they work, but just 3 or 4 months in, the rear brake started leaking oils and stop gripping properly, and just recently, the front brake failed as well.
Lesson #1: Don't use cheap hybrid Chinese brakes.
I tried to search for a replacement, but a whole set of hydraulic brakes will cost me half my bike, and a quick search shows that the hybrid offerings on the net have tons of oil leak complains. In the end, I decided to just get a pair of good ol mechanical disc brakes from Shimano, the one with the fancy heat fin.
The product was delivered. Immediately, I took apart my bike and happily replaced my old brakes. Then, I noticed 2 strange accessories. A curved aluminium piece of metal, and a little contraption that's supposed to go between your cable to control tension (It has its own manual on Shimano website, too). My old one just had a screw attached to the brakes for cable tendion, so I couldn't simply fit my old cable to the new brakes, and need to cut the cable housing. Looks easy, right? Just a little rubber hose. Well, it was easy until I reach the inner steel core...
Lesson #2: Do research, and make sure you have the right tools before attempting something on your bike. Also check for compatibility and different set ups between companies.
It was time to give up. I slowly and carefully rode a brakeless bike to my LBS. And I don't know which one is more hilarious between these:
Lesson #3: Be creative on tools. And call your LBS for advice before going. Duh.
Rant over, thanks for reading.
submitted by 0kensin0 to cycling [link] [comments]

2023.11.05 16:52 taitonaito M5 Cuthbert – World War Veteran to Confront the Dead

Are you one for storming the beaches of Normandy?
Do you happen to like AK platform in general?
Is American style a dealbreaker for you at everything?
Then fear not, the Cuthbert is for you!
Well then. This will be a premium review, along with its sister episode on the event, as this gun is a significant piece of history and there is a lot to talk about. That being said, this was the first instance where the event was so good that it will have its own review.
Anyway. Onto the gun. Let’s start our dive by some light trivia.
M5 Cuthbert, as we all know, is the latest hotness in the game we all play and love. First introduced about a week or so back (albeit with problems), it was to widen up the rifle class in the game.
And what better way was there to do just that, than introducing a rifle that is UNIVERSALLY popular? Yes, the M5 Cuthbert is an almost bona fide M1 Garand. Designed by John Garand and adopted as the US Military standard service rifle in 1936, it was the rifle that put the US infantry a cut above its adversaries, the Japanese infantry and the Wehrmacht during World War II.
InRangeTV actually has an in-depth discussion about how self-loading rifles basically made the bolt-action rifles obsolete, but that is a digression, so moving back to the trivia around the gun.
I can hear all of you screaming “Naito you idiot, we know that Garand served the WWII, this trivia section sucks ass”. Well, did you know that M1 did more than just that?
For starters, it was used as a marksman rifle as M1D Garand after WWII. (Yes, it was adopted and designated as M1D in 1944, but by that time the war was basically turning around and the gun never actually served to a significant volume in the frontlines.) It was the rifle used as the regular infantry would receive M14s.
Then there was the M7 rifle grenade that predated the M1D iteration, adopted in 1943. And until the M79s and even more practical M203s were a thing in 1960s, M7 was the standard rifle grenade in the US Military.
On top of all of this, M1 Garand still serves as parade rifles or weapons of the MPs whose mission is to stand guard in places such as museums or presidential residences.
Aaaand the most important of all: M1 Garand’s long-stroke gas piston system would be an inspiration for the world famous, reliable leviathan Avtomat Kalashnikova model 47, which was the first select-fire rifle that was somewhat successful.
Yes, I know StG-44 existed 3 years prior, but StG didn’t win Germany a world war, it didn’t become known as the unkillable rifle or get produced more than any other select-fire rifle all around the world. So I underline the word “successful” here.
With all this history, let’s get to the rifle’s in-game interpretation 87 years down the line. It looks fairly accurate from the outside, with an interesting, obscure tidbit. When we look at the Cuthbert’s stock, we see a bee insignia. What could this mean?
Well, the fairest guess I have here is that this M5 served with the US Naval Construction Battalions, also known as “Seabees”. Which would, at the time, make sense: militaries do tend to push their non-standard weaponry to the non-combatant roles such as engineers and medics. It is likely that a platoon of Seabees would receive a batch of M1 Garands as their service rifles.
Despite the sharp accurate depiction of the M1 Garand that is the M5, some of the SFX and animations would leave something to be desired. First off, the iconic “ping” sound, acknowledged by even PikPok themselves, would sometimes fail to play, especially when the player is rapid firing the M5. I had this issue multiple times, do let me know if I’m not the only one experiencing this.
Another problem with the M5 would be the uninspiring end-of-the run animation. It is a straight copy of Brute Inferno/Colossus end-of-the-run animation. While sensible, and easing up the process of coding in a new weapon, it makes the gun somewhat non-special. I’d expect better for a rifle like the M5.
And finally, the rifle grenade itself. While it is depicted accurately, it lacks an important detail. While forgivable for gameplay purposes, I feel it a duty to mention.
You see, rifle grenades are fired with overpressured blank cartridges (they have a higher powder load than regular live rounds in order to increase the range of the grenade), and with the gas system of the rifle (if any) turned off, to prevent obliterating the rifle’s action. Keeping the gas system on during firing the grenade, with the overpressured blank rounds, would simply overfeed gas into the system, likely resulting in a catastrophic failure.
However, in game, we basically fire the grenade by using the regular live ammo. I don’t have to mention how dangerous that would be to the shooter realistically, however I can see why PikPok skipped the details on this matter. Adding an animation where we would feed a blank round into the chamber would simply prolong the time it takes to load up the grenade, which in and of itself long enough to obsolete the grenade’s benefits. So, this inaccuracy can be forgiven.
The gunshots are straight out of F300 Carbine, and speaking of the F300, I’d like to emphasize how the PikPok’s way of introducing both rifles was quite the inverse of what happened in real life. M1 Carbine was introduced in 1941, 5 years after M1 Garand was adopted. Conversely, F300 was introduced 5 years before M5 was even a thing. According to YouTube’s date mark, Night of the Living Dead side story was introduced back in October 2018 along with the F300 and Brute Inferno, just over 5 years ago. Was this planned, or is it just a funny coincidence? I wouldn’t know without any confirmation from PikPok.
Anyway. Still, despite all the little discrepancies, and the fact that the gun doesn’t give us the Garand Thumb (no, not the YouTuber, I mean the painful one), I actually like the M1 quite a bit. Sure, it’s not the best thing in the world in terms of practicality or depiction accuracy, but that doesn’t make me girl over it any less. It sounds authoritative, the grenade blast is satisfying, and the gun is just beautiful to look at with a little bit of tidbit as to what its origins may be. I love it.
Anyway. Onto the important, gamer stuff before you folks tomato me off the stage for being such a gun nut. It’s M1 Garand, folks, I can’t help it.
M5 Cuthbert is capable of producing 34,560hp damage per shot on maxout, with a blistering fire rate of 240 in-game units. Its internal magazine is capable of holding one 8-round en-bloc clip, which ejects with an iconic “ping”, or if you feel like it, you could just pull the bolt back and press the clip ejector on the left side of the rifle (not a feature in the game, obviously). Now, it holds only 8 rounds that is true, but the reload speed of the Cuthbert outdoes that of the AUG and Cobalt MkIV by 20% at 600 in-game units.
And you thought that was gonna be it? Nope, we still have a grenade to talk about. It is a cluster type grenade, you fire the grenade into the air, it bursts and rains down its explosive charges from above. Sort of like a miniature version of aeroplane bombs, except the aeroplane detonates itself to drop the bombs. And this is why there is a delay between the moment the grenade bursts in the air and the zombies start dying: the explosives take time to land.
Just like the ARC-9’s M203, this grenade is also a one-shot kill regardless of target health pool, with a moderately larger blast radius. However, unlike ARC-9, it takes too long to prepare, and its low muzzle velocity makes it a disappointing ride if you’re too used to the “press the trigger and forget” nature of the M203.
Anyway, with all this, here comes the verdict on the “greatest battle implementation in the world”.
Verdict: If you don’t have Cobalt, building this is actually worth it. If you have Cobalt or F300, you can safely ignore it.
Now, I’m fairly sure that a lot of people will disagree with me here, but let me make my case.
Sure, the grenade is clunky. Sure, the gun is a basic semi-auto with no flairs outside of the grenade. Yes, it only has 8 rounds.
But you know what else it has? A reload speed that outdoes all other rifles in its class, and giving certain assault rifles a run for their money. A firerate that is double the Cobalt, which is the best long rifle to ever be implemented to this game. A damage output that is worthy of the mighty .30-06, which is more than what I can say for the other .30-06 gun (cough cough M2020 cough cough).
So what if it has only 8 rounds when the reloads take about as much time it takes as shooting a round out of a Cobalt?
As for the grenade, while being clunky, it is completely better than not having a grenade at all. For a sample comparison, if I had to choose between Escorpion III or ARC-9 for practicality purposes, I’d heartily pick the ARC-9 for its amazing M203.
Besides, the grenade can be really, incredibly effective if you know what you’re doing with the rifle. It’s essentially an M203 with a skill gap that requires a sense of timing, which itself has a learning curve, but it’s certainly more rewarding than some other hard to use weapons such as Javelin.
As it stands, I’d rank the Cuthbert the second best rifle in the game. In my opinion it rests in a tie against its .30 Carbine cousin, F300. Yes, F300 gives you a free bayonet, but F300 also is paywalled, making Cuthbert (despite its rough debut) a much more accessible weapon.
As Karl Kasarda and Ian McCollum would eloquently put it, this was a revolutionary rifle, and it still holds up well, almost a century after its introduction, against well-made bolt-action and lever action rifles.
Anyway, here are a few tactics and what to use with this rifle to make it as efficient as it was back in 20th century:
- Almost all of the manual of arms of M203 also applies to M5’s rifle grenade, with the difference that M5’s grenade needs timing. Here is what to do.
There you go. You got at least 20-30 kills. After this, you can either keep using the M5 as a good ol’ rifle if you have specialty ammo for hordebreaking, or you can swap for your secondary, essentially using the M5 as a one-shot XM-4 Titan.
- Unless you have Piercing or Explosive Ammo, do NOT even consider using this rifle for hordebreaking. That is a suicide mission with such a rifle. Pack a secondary at all times to make sure you can clear hordes when you don’t have a grenade on the M5.
- If you load a grenade to the muzzle and swap between weapons, it will automatically un-load the grenade from the muzzle, requiring you to re-load it. Keep that in mind. There is no reason for this to be, but hopefully PikPok may just consider reworking it. It just doesn’t make sense that things de-equip themselves off of the rifle when you swap for the secondary.
And here are the perks.
  1. Piercing Ammo: Now, armor piercing .30-06 is the way to go with this rifle. With this, you actually DO stand a chance at hordebreaking, if you’re careful.
  2. Explosive Ammo: The ultimate hordebreaker special. There is no reason to not use this when running the M5, other than the fact that it’d likely do more work on a Cobalt. Still, explosive .30-06 truly brings out the multikill beast in the M5, turning it into a en-bloc clip-fed S-12 Riot.
Aaaand here you go, folks! What do you think of the M5? Was it a good representation of the M1 Garand? Was it fun to use? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
I’ll be seein’ ya. With something new and shiny.
Naito
submitted by taitonaito to intothedead2 [link] [comments]

2023.10.29 10:17 Reasonable_Guitar476 New phones on my vintage phone collection

New phones on my vintage phone collection
Blackberry Curve 8520 (Left) Blackberry Torch 9800 (Middle) Blackberry Curbe 9360 (Right)
Middle and right phone branded with Swisscom (Switzerland). Left one is unbranded. But also comes from Switzerland.
submitted by Reasonable_Guitar476 to vintagemobilephones [link] [comments]

2023.10.28 06:13 JessumGui Hic Sunt Dracones

(The following document was saved to an older Blackberry device that I found, sealed in a waterproof bag, on a shelf in an old concessions stand. I found it while working on a demolition crew, tearing down an abandoned water park to make way for a planned green community. I am posting the document, un-edited.)
​
So how the hell did I end up here, hiding from a monster in the backroom of a dilapidated corn dog stand, frantically pecking out what might well be the last blog of my life? That’s kind of a long story, but the creature prowling around outside seems to be in no hurry. I think it knows I’m in here. Why it hasn’t already ripped through the poorly barricaded door and torn me to shreds, I don’t know, but maybe it will wait long enough for me to tell you my tale.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m KathyCreeps and this is Hic Sunt Dracones.
That’s the name of my new blog, Hic Sunt Dracones, or will be, if I live long enough to post it. It’s Latin for “here there be dragons,” a notation on old maps and charts that denoted unexplored territory. My previous blog had a much different name. Unfortunately, it wasn’t different enough from someone else’s intellectual property, so I was forced to take down my site and remove any references to it. All the other really good names were taken, but I think Hic Sunt Dracones works (kinda wish I had thought of it for my original blog; would’ve saved me a ton in legal fees).
“Way off the map” is a pretty good description for the kind of places I post about. You see, I’m an urban explorer, a creeper. Some use the term UrbEx, or infiltrator, but I like creeper. It’s very descriptive of what I do, since most of the places I visit are off limits to the general public. I search these sites out, sneak in, take a bunch of photographs, and write about the experience. Occasionally, I do a video, but I find that still shots have more impact. My old blog pulled in enough ad revenue for me to get by, but I’ll never get rich doing this, especially now that I have to start all over.
Still, I do it anyway, and not just for the rush of being someplace I’m not allowed to be. It’s more of a compulsion, really. They fascinate me, these abandoned places. I’ve been to most of the well known ones; the Trolley Graveyard, Yellow Dog Village, Cedarcrest Hospital, Hacienda Heights, Lincoln Way, etc. etc., but the ones I like best are the ones nobody has heard of before. The old ghost towns and played-out mines scattered across the west; shuttered malls, mills, and foundries throughout the rust belt; condemned tenements and abandoned subway lines of the east coast urban centers, you know, stuff like that. I find a way in, take pictures, and post them on my site. Over these last couple of years, I’ve become an expert fence climber and gotten pretty handy with a crowbar. In all this time, I’ve only been arrested once. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.
My therapist, Linda, thought this “obsession,” as she called it, with abandoned places was triggered by traumatic events in my life. My husband left me for a younger woman, my kids are grown and don’t need a mom anymore, and I was laid off when my job was automated. She says my affinity for abandoned places rises from my own feelings of abandonment. She also says that I need to take yoga classes to unblock my chakras, so that the universe’s positive energy can flow through me and restore balance to my aura. I don’t take her too seriously, but seeing a therapist was part of the plea deal for my trespassing conviction (the place wasn’t as abandoned as I thought it was). I got off pretty easy with time served and six months probation, so I went to the therapy sessions, took the yoga classes, and kept my mouth shut.
Truth is, I’ve been obsessed with abandoned places ever since I can remember. When I was a little girl, my older brother Mark, his friends the Davis twins, and Jenny Dunlap (not really a friend, but the only other girl in my fourth grade class willing to go “down crick” to play) would spend hours exploring McKesky’s farm. The farm was in the woods, on a low bluff overlooking Wolf Creek. We had to hike over two miles of deer trails through the forest, cut across Beebe’s corn field, and dogleg around a bog to get there. The farm consisted of the main house, a barn, and three outbuildings. I don’t know how long it had been abandoned, but part of the roof was missing and enough dead leaves had blown in and decayed for ragweed and even a few small maple saplings to sprout in the upstairs bedrooms.
Downstairs, a moldering davenport sat against the wall in the front parlor, accompanied by the skeletons of two wing-backed chairs. Most of the kitchen floor had collapsed into the cellar, taking the cupboards and counters with it, but the dining room, even with its peeling wallpaper and crumbling plaster, was still relatively intact. A heavy oak table, aged and gray, occupied the center of the room, with eight straight backed chairs still pushed in around it. From the ceiling a chandelier dangled at the end of frayed knob and tube wiring. Shards of frosted globes still clung to the sockets. In the bottom of a corner cabinet, we found a stack of red willow pattern china plates. Billy Davis and Mark smashed it all. I remember that made me very sad.
As interesting as the house was, the barn was what really fascinated me. Ancient tools leaned in the corners, dusted with rust and grime. Tack and harnesses hung from the walls, the leather so old it would disintegrate when touched. Mason jars full of nails, screws, and other hardware stood in rows on sagging shelves. There was a Ford Model T, just the frame and passenger bucket, sitting on cinder blocks in one corner, all coated in a heavy patina. Mark and the twins plotted and schemed, trying to figure out a way to haul it out of there so they could build a hotrod, but I wanted it to stay where it was. I wanted everything to stay where it was. It all just seemed so beautiful to me, the way the light played across the dusty jars, the shadows cast by sickles, scythes and saws, the rough grain of distressed wood. At that age, the thought of owning a camera had never crossed my mind, but even then, I felt a longing to somehow preserve all this beauty.
Sorry, I digress. My impending doom has made me nostalgic.
When my ex-husband and I divorced, we liquidated all our assets and split the proceeds. It was easier and quicker than arguing over who got what, and neither one of us wanted to drag things out. The only demand I made was that I got the motorcycle. He had bought a Harley Sportster not long after we were married and rode it sporadically for a year or two, before our first child was born. After that, he pushed it into the back corner of the garage, where it sat, taking up space and collecting dust, until I claimed it as my prize. Maybe Linda was onto something about me identifying with abandoned things.
After I was laid off from work, I streamed some YouTube videos and downloaded a few shop manual .pdfs to guide me as I got the bike running again. On my first test ride, I happened across an old foundry that had been shut down some time ago. Inspired by my childhood memories of McKlesky’s farm, I climbed the fence and shot a couple dozen photos with my phone. When my daughter saw them, she suggested I start blogging. The rest, as they say, was history. Outfitted with saddlebags, a sturdy sissy bar, and a touring seat, I’ve ridden my Harley all over the country, visiting the forgotten places that I post about. I call her my “Wind Mother.” With the exception of changing the tires, I’ve done all the maintenance and repairs myself; a fact that I am immensely proud of. Right now, she’s leaning on her kickstand, behind a boarded up gas station along a disused country highway, three miles away from where I’m hiding. I’m afraid I’ll never see her again.
Damned nostalgia. Right, back to the important stuff.
Being a hardcore creeper, I’ve run across rumors of the Getty Lake Water Park and Aquarium before. Supposedly built by an eccentric multi-millionaire in the late Sixties, the park went bankrupt after a couple of seasons. Not many have ever heard of the place, but the general consensus among those few who have is that it was too far off the beaten path to succeed. Even after the owner spent the last of his fortune to bring in some sort of exotic attraction, Getty Lake never stood a chance. There were just too many other, more easily accessible parks. The worldwide recession of 1973 was the final nail in the coffin and the place was abandoned. According to the stories, they didn’t even transfer the animals to other zoos or parks and simply left them to die.
Early in my urban exploring career, I researched Getty Lake, combing the internet for maps, property records, construction permits, safety inspections and the like, but came up empty. I spent hours pouring over satellite photos of possible locations, but never found anything. There wasn’t even a body of water named Getty Lake anywhere in the region. Eventually, like most others in the creeper community, I dismissed the rumors as a fairytale. Until Brad contacted me.
Brad had been a creeper himself, before falling through a rotten floor and breaking his back while exploring an old psychiatric hospital somewhere in upstate New York. He claimed that he’d gotten his information from a friend, but had never been able to follow up on it because of his injury. He gave me directions to the old gas station where I had parked Wind Mother and a compass heading to follow through the woods that would bring me to the abandoned park. Included in the email was a photo of a rusted chain link fence, topped with a three strand barbed wire outrigger. Most of it had been overgrown by kudzu, but the vines had been pulled back to reveal a rust pitted sign that read “KEEP OUT PRIVATE PROPERTY TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW.” Beneath that, in smaller print, were the words, “Getty Lake Water Park and Aquarium.”
It could have been a hoax. Brad had been a subscriber to my old blog. We’d swapped a few DMs and occasionally chatted in the forums, but had never met in person. I didn’t know him from Adam. There was no reason for me to believe he was telling the truth, but there was no reason for me to think he was lying either. What the hell? I figured. It couldn’t hurt to check it out. The place he described was only three hundred miles away. I could do it in a day; six hours there, four to six hours exploring (if the place really existed), and six hours back home. And, if it was for real, I could always go back with camping gear and really give it a thorough going over. Posting proof of Getty Lake’s existence would be an amazing way to start my new blog and get some ad revenue coming in.
At the end of his email, Brad mentioned that his friend had decided to go on alone, but he had not heard from him since. I really should have paid attention to that.
The old gas station was right where Brad said it would be. I had brought extra SD cards for my camera, so I spent some time shooting photos there. It was really good stuff too. Dusty oil cans sat stacked in a pyramid in the front window. Assorted fan belts, cracked and flaking with age, hung on the wall. Vintage sunglasses, tire gages, and air fresheners were lined up under the glass counter. A rack of disintegrating road maps and a modernist style ashtray stand sat between two chrome and Naugahyde benches. There was even a mechanical cash register with a hammered steel case (it was probably worth some money, but I considered scavenging beneath me).
I found just the right angle to shoot a black and yellow garden spider, hanging in her web, with a poster of a pinup girl who was entirely too excited about a set of bias ply radials, artfully out of focus in the background. There was another hour or two worth of material in the station, especially the service bay where tools still hung from pegboard lined cabinets, but that would have to wait. If I wanted to find the water park, do some preliminary exploring, and get back to my motorcycle before sundown, I’d better shake a leg.
Again, the info Brad had given me was spot on. The compass heading brought me to the fence not twenty feet away from the warning sign in the photo he had sent me. Just below the sign, I found a hole someone had cut through the galvanized chain link. Judging by the lack of rust on the clipped ends, they had done it fairly recently. I wondered if it was Brad’s friend, and, if so, why he hadn’t posted about his find? I keep a pretty close eye on the forums. If anyone had found Getty Lake, word would have spread quickly. Maybe something happened to him. Lone creeping can be very dangerous, especially someplace like this; out in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone signal. It’s always a good idea to bring a partner. After taking my own photo of the warning sign, I shoved my rucksack through the hole and crawled in after it.
Do as I say, not as I do, right? At least I won’t have someone else's death on my conscience.
The water park was more than I expected, more than I dreamed. Its remoteness had protected it from scavengers, souvenir hunters, graffiti artists, and bored teenagers who just wanted to smash stuff. The area I entered when I crawled through the fence had been for younger kids. Shallow pools filled with murky green water sprouted cattails and even some lilly pads. Minnows darted back and forth just below the surface. See saws, swing sets, and monkey bars poked up from a field of honeysuckle and baby’s breath. The remains of a petting zoo lay under a skeletal awning frame. The canvas that had once shaded the pens had long ago fallen victim to wind and weather. In the middle of it all was a carousel, tilted on its axis. The horses, giraffes, and zebras were faded and chipped, but otherwise unmolested. I shot a few quick photos and moved on to the main park. It did not disappoint.
A ride car, made up to resemble a hollowed out tree trunk with seats and safety bars, sat askew on its track outside the collapsed exit tunnel of the Log Flume. The trough of the Lazy River Inner Tube Float snaked back and forth between rides and attractions, spanned by the occasional pedestrian bridge. Towering water slides rose into the sky. Draped with vines and moss, I could just make out the faded colors of their fiberglass tubes beneath the overgrowth, red, green, blue, yellow. Everything was covered with kudzu and creeping ivy. Tall weeds sprouted from every crack in the pavement. Dead leaves covered the ground and lay in drifts against the walls. Little wonder nobody had ever been able to spot this place on Google Earth.
Below the slides were more pools, larger than in the kiddie park, filled with the same murky green water and aquatic plants. The fish in these pools were also bigger. My photos weren’t very good, the light was all wrong, but I managed to catch a couple of them on camera, some kind of bluegill or sunfish I think. I tried to imagine how they even got there.
It would take days, maybe even a full week, to fully explore and photograph just the water park portion of the site. I started making plans for future expeditions, but for now, my main goal was the aquarium. If the rumors were true, if they had left the fish in the exhibits to die, I wanted pictures of the skeletons lying in the bottom of empty tanks. That was the kind of imagery that could pull in subscribers, maybe even start a GoFundMe page.
There were skeletons, plenty of them, and not just from fish.
Right outside of the entrance to the aquarium were two outdoor exhibits. According to the signs (I had to scrape the crud off to read them), one pool had held American alligators, the other California Sea Lions. If there were any bones in those pools, they were submerged under all that murky water and impossible to photograph. As horrible as it sounds, I was disappointed. I figured I’d have better luck inside the building, where rain wouldn’t have been able to replenish the tanks when the water evaporated. As I leaned against the rail of the seal exhibit, to snap a few wide angle shots of the algae encrusted pool, my foot bumped against something. It was an old, army green rucksack, obscured by weeds and fallen leaves. One of the straps had been ripped off and the side was split open, spilling the contents onto the ground. Most of it was ruined by exposure to the elements, but still easily recognizable. Rope, protein bars, water bottles, and a first aid kit among other things; standard creeper’s kit, not much different than the one strapped to my own back. Brad’s friend must have come through here.
The hair on the back of my neck bristled. I felt unease roiling in my gut. What if this was some kind of ambush? I wondered. Had Brad set me up to be attacked by his friend? But that didn’t make any sense. They wouldn’t know when, if ever, I would come here. What was Brad’s friend going to do? Camp here indefinitely, hoping that I eventually showed up? The idea was silly.
Still, I was feeling less than comfortable. I was a middle-aged woman, out in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone signal, and the closest thing I had to a weapon was a Leatherman tool. Nobody knew I was here, and, if something happened, nobody would realize I was missing until my landlord came knocking for the rent check at the first of the month. Two of the cardinal rules of creeping are; never go alone and always tell someone where you’ll be and when you’ll be back. I broke both those rules because I wanted an exclusive. I wanted this place all to myself, so that I could jumpstart a new blog and do something I loved, instead of slinging burgers or waiting tables. Despite the doubt gnawing at the back of my brain, I went into the aquarium building.
Just a couple of photos, I told myself, and then I’d hightail it back to Wind Mother, find myself a motel in the nearest town, and call a few associates to put together a proper expedition. Even if I had to share the credit, it would be an amazing way to launch the new site. Besides, I had to take a quick look. Brad’s friend might have met with some misfortune here, and I owed it to a fellow creeper to at least check.
The double doors were not locked and, surprisingly, swung easily on their hinges. Inside the building it was pitch black. Of course, there were no windows. Sunlight would promote algae growth and the tanks would require more frequent cleaning. I had to strap on my headlamp. There was an ankle deep drift of dead leaves inside the entrance doors, but other than that the tiled floors were clear of debris. Maybe Brad’s friend had come through here, letting the leaves blow in when he opened the door. It seemed like a lot of leaves for just one person coming in, but maybe he’d stayed a couple of days and had made this his base camp. I know that sounds thin, but it was the best explanation I could come up with.
In the middle of the foyer was a cylindrical aquarium, twenty feet in diameter and ten tall. Fake stone rose up in the middle of the display, draped with sagging plastic plants, all of it dry and dusty. The pea gravel at the bottom was littered with fish skeletons, the largest being maybe a foot and a half long. The camera’s flash reflecting off the glass kept me from getting a decent photo, so I pushed deeper.
Beyond the foyer was a long hall, lined with tanks of various sizes set into the black painted walls on either side. Again, the flash ruined any photos I tried to take. It was toward the end of that hall that I began to find the animal bones; rats, squirrels, racoons or possums, that sort of thing. Maybe they were the ones pushing through the doors and letting all the leaves drift in.
The next room was larger, with bigger tanks, but I still couldn’t get any pictures. The animal bones littering the floor here were bigger, too. Most looked like they came from deer, but one set of antlers could have only been elk. Were animals somehow wandering into the building, getting trapped, and dying of thirst or starvation? I wondered. The bones were scattered, some of them broken, and appeared to have been gnawed on. Maybe scavengers had been at the bodies after they died. Could the scavengers still be in here? The idea sent a chill down my spine. It was time to go. I turned around to leave. That’s when my headlamp illuminated the sign.
“REPTOZOID” it read in garish red letters eight feet tall. The font reminded me of horror movie posters from the ‘50s. “HALF MAN! HALF MONSTER! ALL TERROR!!” Beneath that it continued; “From deep in the unexplored jungles of the Amazon comes this aberration of nature, an evolutionary impossibility, yet still, he exists! This exhibit is not for children, pregnant women, or people with heart conditions. Enter at your own risk!” The words were superimposed over a faded, but surprisingly realistic, mural of an underwater panorama of sunken logs, aquatic plants, and tropical fish. In the lower left corner, the artist had painted a cave, with a pair of menacing, yellow eyes peering out from the darkness.
“Oh, this I gotta see,” I chuckled.
Yes, I actually said that out loud, before pushing open the door and walking down the ramp to the viewing area. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
The exhibit was twelve or fifteen feet below the rest of the building, and consisted of a small auditorium with four rows of theater seats facing the glass wall of a humongous tank, so that the audience could see below the water’s surface. Filled with the same murky, green water I had seen in the pools outside, the tank was dimly illuminated from above. There must have been skylights or a hole in the roof. That would explain how rainwater got in to keep the tank filled.
The beam of my headlamp revealed even more animal bones, strewn haphazardly across the floor and piled against the walls. One of the skulls obviously belonged to an alligator. Was it one of the scavengers or one of the scavenged? Either idea made me shudder.
I was pretty sure I knew exactly what this was. The park owner had hired some guy (who was really good at holding his breath), dressed him up in a rubber monster suit, and had him swim around the tank to the fear and delight of the audience. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something along these lines. My ex-husband once took me to a restaurant in Las Vegas where topless women, made up like mermaids, swam around in similar tanks. The fact that he was willing to shell out almost four hundred bucks, just to stare at aquatic bimbo boobies while we ate mediocre lobster Thermidor, was one of the things that made me feel not so bad about our divorce. I snapped a couple of pictures, making sure I got some good close-ups of the gator skull, and headed for the exit. Photos of that skull, and some slightly lurid speculation about the exhibit animals eating each other after they were abandoned, would be the highlight of my first post on the new blog.
Something caught my eye, a ghost of movement in the murky tank, a swirl of suspended sediment. I approached the glass, thinking it must be some kind of fish, like in the pools outside. Cupping my hands against the glare of my headlamp, I squinted into green water.
A large, scaly hand, webbed fingers tipped with black claws thumped against the glass beside my face. Yellow eyes, pupils slit like a poisonous snake, peered out at me. I screamed, stumbled backward, and fell painfully on my ass. I couldn’t see so much as sense its movement as it shot upward with incredible speed. I heard a splash and a heavy thud on the ceiling above me.
I was up and running for the exit faster than any forty-six year old woman has a right to move. At the top of the ramp, I saw another skull that had been hidden from my view behind the door when I entered. It was a human skull. Brad’s friend, maybe. Probably the former owner of the rucksack out front. A few leathery scrapes of tendon still clung to the jaw, but the rest of it had been stripped clean. The top half had been ripped off. Something had very much wanted to get at the brains inside.
There I was, fleeing in terror from some unknown creature, and part of me still wanted to stop and take a picture of that skull. I’m crazy, aren’t I?
No sooner was I through the door and back in the room with the big empty tanks and deer bones, than I heard a heavy thump in the auditorium behind me. There must have been a hole in the ceiling that I hadn’t noticed. Whatever had been in that tank was now in the auditorium, and it was obviously coming after me.
Dashing towards the long hall lined with aquariums, I tripped over the femur of a deer. As I scrambled back to my feet, something banged into the auditorium door, fumbling with the handle. I didn’t bother to wait and see if it could figure out the latch. Judging by all the gnawed bones around me, the thing had mastered doors long ago. Instead, I sprinted hell bent for leather down the hallway, my headlamp bouncing crazily with each step. Near the entrance foyer, I heard the rhythmic slap of feet on the floor tiles coming up fast from behind.
There was a bad moment when I thought the entrance doors must have locked when I came in, because, no matter how hard I pushed, they wouldn’t open. In my panic, with those slapping footfalls growing louder, I had forgotten they opened inward. Yanking the handle so hard I almost dislocated my shoulder, I flung myself out into the summer sun. After the darkness inside the aquarium building, the mid-afternoon light was blinding. Disoriented, I stumbled into the rail of the alligator exhibit. Momentum carried me over and I plunged into the water. That’s where I lost my camera. It wasn’t one of the top-of-the-line models, I can’t really afford that, but it was a trusty friend that had been with me on many adventures. I will miss it as much as my motorcycle.
Can’t think like that. I might still get out of this.
As my head broke the surface and I sputtered for air, I heard the bang of the aquarium door being yanked open. The creature stepped out into the light, hissing in pain and holding up wide, webbed hands to shield its eyes from the sun. I only caught a glimpse, before thrashing away through the water to the far side of the pool, but it was enough. The thing was stocky and broad, built like a gorilla, with stubby legs and long arms. Instead of fur, gray-green scales covered its bulging muscles and both hands and feet were webbed. A broad, flat tail, ridged with spines, trailed behind. The head was wide and flat, with those yellow, slitted eyes protruding from the top of its skull. Its snout was short and snaggle-toothed. Wattles of empty skin hung under its gullet. This beast had obviously evolved to rip chunks of flesh from its prey and swallow them whole.
Alli-rilla? Ape-a-gator? I guess Reptazoid is as good a name as any.
It heard my splashing and felt its way to the rail, but before its eyes could adjust to the bright light, I pulled myself out of the water on the far side, pushed through the overgrown shrubs of the exhibit’s backdrop, and scrambled over a hidden fence. I dropped down into unfamiliar territory, and ran straight ahead.
With my own rucksack bouncing on my shoulders, I dipped and dodged around the guide rails to ride entrances, sagging picnic tables clustered around concession stands, and decorative planters overgrown with weeds and trees. Stagnant water sluiced from my clothes, leaving a trail that a blind mole could follow. All the while I could hear those slapping footfalls and a sporadic slurping noise, like the one my kids used to make eating spaghetti. Glancing back over my shoulder as I ran, I saw the creature chasing after me in an awkward gallop, holding one arm up to shield its eyes from the sun. It wasn’t completely blinded, but it didn’t like the light very much.
Squeezing between two dilapidated carnival game booths, I entered an open plaza. It was surrounded by more booths in various states of decay and, standing in the center, was a defunct water fountain. Rising up from the basin was a column of aquatic animal sculptures. The busts of fish, dolphins, and whales, each with a water pipe protruding slightly from its open mouth, ringed a central column like faces on a totem pole. That would’ve made for some really good photos, if I hadn’t lost my camera. Or been running for my life.
In the open, I was able to pick up speed and put a little distance between me and those slapping footfalls. Slipping between two more booths on the far side of the plaza, I came to a slope of tall grass, leading down to the remnants of a man-made beach on the lake the park had been built beside.
I was beginning to think I might have a slim edge in speed and agility over that thing on land, but I knew I had precisely zero chance in the water. The beach had been constructed on the tip of a broad spit, jutting into the lake. Shoreline curved back towards the main park on either side of me. Behind, I heard the crash of splintering wood, as the creature bulled its way into the plaza. I was trapped, surrounded on three sides by water and cut off from the only route of escape by the thing chasing me. My only option was a clapboard shack, with a faded corn dog painted on the side, sitting along the path that led from the plaza to the beach. It was twenty yards away. I ran.
The door was locked, but I was able to lift the front shutter enough to roll over the serving counter and drop down inside, landing on the floor below a row of deep fryers. I grabbed the stainless steel prep counter to pull myself up, coating my palm with dusty grease in the process. Beside the fryers was a door, leading into a storage room at the rear. As I slipped in and eased it shut behind me, I heard the thing crashing through the booths on this side of the plaza.
The room was full of supplies, but nothing useful. Bins of plastic cutlery, decaying paper napkins, stacks of plastic serving baskets and boxes of wax paper to line them with filled the shelves. An empty propane tank, hooked up to pipes that fueled the burners under the fryers, and freezer chest sat against the interior wall. As quietly as I could, I wiggled the freezer in front of the storage room door. I knew better than to open it. After forty plus years, any corn dogs or frozen french fries left inside would be pretty nasty. The barricade was of dubious comfort, but better than nothing.
There were cracks in the clapboard siding, just wide enough for me to peek through. I watched the creature stalking back and forth, walking on its hind legs and the knuckles of one hand, while shielding its eyes with the other. It stayed in the shadows as much as possible, moving quickly through the light when it had to. At one point, it hunkered down in the shade of a booth and sat very still for several minutes. Suddenly, its tongue shot out of its mouth, the barbed tip spearing a robin that had alighted on the raised end of a collapsed picnic table. The tongue retracted with lightning speed and the bird disappeared into the creature's maw. I nearly gasped aloud when it dawned on me what that spaghetti slurping noise had been. The bird had been at least fifteen feet away. I shuddered to think how close that thing had come to skewering me with its tongue.
Ape, gator, now frog. What the hell is this thing? Some mad scientist’s fever dream? “Aberration of nature;” yeah, they got that part right.
The creature’s head snapped around to look directly at me. I instinctively pulled back from the crack I was peeking through. That’s when I realized I was still wearing my headlamp. It had survived my little dip in the alligator pool and was still working. What can I say? I invest in good equipment. I ripped it off and thumbed the kill switch, but the creature must have noticed the light. It came loping over to the corn dog stand and tried to peer through the cracks while I huddled on the floor between the freezer and the empty propane tank, hands clapped over my mouth so I wouldn’t scream.
I don’t think it saw me, but I’m pretty sure it knows, or at least suspects, that I’m in here. It spent several minutes moving around the shack, pressing on the walls to test their strength. I heard the shutter out front squeak open and bang closed, but the creature didn’t come in. I don’t know why. By the time I screwed up enough courage to peek out again, it had returned to the shade behind the game booths, crouching in their lengthening shadows. But it was watching the corn dog shack intently.
Everything I know about animal behavior I learned from nature documentaries on TV, so suffice it to say, I’m no expert. Still, from what I’ve seen of the creature, I think I’ve got a few things figured out. First, it doesn’t like light. Second, with those stubby hind legs, the frog-like spear tongue, and the fact that it couldn’t run down a middle-aged mother of two with a fondness for wine and chocolate, I think it’s an ambush predator and not the kind that's much good at running down its prey. I really hope I’m right about those things, because my plan depends on them.
The kiddie park, the hole in the fence, and the woods between me and my bike, all lie to the east. In the morning, if I can get past the creature and its tongue and back into the plaza with the fountain, it’s almost a straight shot through the park. I’m not in great shape, but I’m in good shape. I think I can outrun it, especially if it’s blinded, chasing me into the morning sun. Once I get through the fence and into the woods behind the old gas station, I should be okay. I don’t think ambush predators venture too far from their dens, or lairs, or whatever you call them. At least I hope they don’t. For all I know this thing could sprout wings and shoot fireballs out its ass, so we’ll see.
All I have to do is make it through the night.
I’m going to leave my Blackberry with this message here. I learned early on to carry all my electronics in waterproof bags while creeping, so it survived the gator pool. The battery will likely discharge. I’ll leave the charger in the bag, too. Once it’s plugged in, the information in its storage should still be good. People need to know there’s a dangerous creature living in the old aquarium. Anybody who finds this, please tell Megyn and Jeremy that I love them and was thinking about them. Their numbers are in the contacts list.
But that’s all just in case. I’m pretty sure my plan will work, if I can just hang on until morning. Either way, this is KathyCreeps, signing off.
Hic Sunt Dracones.
​
(I attempted to call the numbers listed for Megyn and Jeremy in the Blackberry’s contacts. Both were “out of service.” On a side note, one of the demo crew went missing last night. Since many of the unskilled laborers that the company hires for these jobs are itinerant, the police filed a report, but are not conducting an investigation as of yet. Still, the missing man had no vehicle and it is a very long walk to the nearest town.)
submitted by JessumGui to nosleep [link] [comments]

http://rodzice.org/