WTS. try to get quick sell. trade interest is null grace and i will top cash depends on condition. All are OBRO. YOLO>DM. payment prefer ppff.
Timestamp
🟢 🔪 SV 799 740 final drop Remi lavialle new hardy burlap micarta - at least second owner. catch and release. clipless version. totally french elegant. New hardy is best ergonomic on Remi’s model. stonewash finish. Solid lock up. great action. and easiest front fliper deployment i ever experienced. you can see from the video. how easy was it. the detent is also at middium very sweet. No lock stick. dead center at the same time very good action show in video. No major sign of use when I get. And it stay the same. edge seems unused. RWL34 steel blade. polished spacer have nice contrast with stonewashed linner. no box. Came with remi business card and his hand writing.
🟢 ⌚️ SV $525 425 also final drop. and feel free to comment how much these should go on secondary King seiko KS 5626-7040 - at least 2nd owner. bought from ebay a store only sell vintage seiko in australia. i can go find order detail if buyer need that. it is with some sign of use for its age. but in very good condition. functionalwise it is 100%. hands are all close to mint. dial is close to mint except a tiny line shows arround 4pm only can see it at certain angle of light. other than that its perfect. time marks and glass all without scratch. back side is alots of scratch and that is expected. leather band are very new. i think i only wore it 3 days in my entire 3 years of ownership. no box. watch keep good time. WATCH GUYS welcome to comment how much these should gone for currently. (Those go around 700 on eBay) it kept good time and all time date set function are correct.
🟢 ⚙️ SV $68 61 firm Spyderco PM2 honeycomb scale + g10 scale + ti spacer bundle - at least 2nd owner. for both scale are very good condition. for honeycomb scale. no visible sign of use on show side. clip side only have the sign at where clip make contact to scale. honeycomb one is from etsy list at $69. Material is aluminum. fit and finish all good. lanyard hole came on and off easily, blade centered and action well. spacer from amazon for 35. G10 is close to mint condition. Ti spacer is no sign of use on it.
🟢 ⚙️ SV $45 40 firm Hinderer xm 18 3.5 skinny parts - 2nd owner. only install once condition. includes： lockbar stablizer & screw , standoffs, handle screws, nut set, pivot screw, liner & tan g10 scale

I know Drumkits has a ton of free packs, and I greatly appreciate all the effort people put in, but a lot of em do sound kinda shit, unfortunately.
I can't stop thinking about seeing Paradox (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2091-Paradox) do a live set a little while back. It sounded so much better than anyone else playing the same show and better than anything I've heard to-date, really.
I know there's more going on than just the samples he's chosen, but it certainly seemed like they played a huge part. Obviously, he's using a lot of breaks too, which I'm not really interested in.
Anyways, where can one find some decent drum packs? I'm willing to pay a bit, if it's not an insane price. Just seems like a minefield out there.
Any help would be appreciated!

Here’s where I’m at, between losing a lot of weight and having kids my stomach is wrecked. I definitely need muscle repair and lipo would definitely help but frankly? I cannot afford all of it without having to finance part of it and I just don’t want to do that right now, I also don’t want to have to wait even longer to have surgery. I can afford a basic tummy tuck without all the fuss though and while it’s not what’s being recommended, it is an option available to me.
I’m not concerned about having a flat as a board stomach, as long as it’s flatter than it is now and I frankly don’t care a whit if I have some rolls on my back or while sitting down. I just want the extra skin on my stomach gone. I look like I have a huge gut no matter what I do and I’m so sick of it. I’ve been told to look into it more and decide if I’d be happy with just having a tummy tuck. I feel like I can always have a revision later on and do MR and lipo then if need be but honestly I think I’d be just as pleased with just having the skin gone and a flatter stomach in general. I have a nice shape even with the extra skin so I’m not particularly worried about that but I also can’t find a ton of examples of skin only tummy tucks. Can I see yours if you had just the TT? Thanks in advance!

Fateseal is an 8 on the storm scale because the mechanic is unfun. Tamper attempts to fix that.
With Tamper, opponents can make meaningful choices and bluff, rather than just getting locked out of the game. It will still have its feelsbad moments for opponents, but it will also have feels good moments for opponents when getting tampered with actually helps them. This has interesting applications to multiplayer where you can tamper an opponent to help them find some key removal to deal with a mutual threat.
The fact that tamper can help your opponent definitely makes the mechanic significantly weaker than fateseal, and the issue with fateseal wasn’t actually a power level thing. I worry that tamper might be too weak, and I don’t see a way to scale it to make it stronger on your big spells, like you can with fateseal 2 or 3.
What do you guys think?

I initially got into the show and later became a green stan for Alicent because I genuinely liked her character and felt for her, but as I’m seeing more of season 2 along with leaks etc I’m feeling down about where Alicent’s character is likely going.
Obviously, the season hasn’t aired yet so maybe I’m just being dramatic and I really want to be wrong but god her character is going to suck if they continue to make her this mopping loser whimpering for Rhaenyra. I understand her wanting peace and reprimanding Aemond for being violent because it’s in episode 1 and it’s established she wanted peace from the beginning, but if she continues to play more value in Rhaenyra over her own children it’s not going to translate well on screen.
Especially after blood and cheese. If she continues down this path of perpetual Rhaenyra apologism and ass-kissing, I’m fully done with the character. Your daughter had to watch her son get murdered and you still choose Rhaenyra over her? Ridiculous.
I know a lot of people will counter by saying Alicent is probably a lesbian and she did have a close bond with Rhaenyra in the beginning, but I just find myself more pissed off by that explanation than anything. I’m a bisexual woman who experienced similar traumas to Alicent so I understand some of her reactions (hence why I started liking her in the first place), so this whole “it’s because she’s gay” excuse doesn’t work, sorry. I don’t care how much I like anyone, I’m not going to continue to defend them when I have no reason to or when it could endanger my loved ones.
Ok we get it, she likes girls and felt attached to Rhaenyra because of a 20+ year situationship. Let’s wrap it up now. You can still make Rhaenyra and Alicent the center by allowing their relationship to naturally deteriorate, you don’t have to sacrifice their devotion to their causes or their character traits to make theme remain. Hell, I’d rather watch her fuck Johanna Westerling, a whore, literally anyone else if they want to shoehorn her being a lesbian that badly.
It’s not an act of force or love. It would just be plain betrayal, selfishness, and stupidity. She forced her kids into this. She raised them, specifically her sons, to be warriors and somehow resents them for becoming the violent and bloodthirsty men she wanted them to become. Regardless if she likes it or not, does she not have an ounce of sense or loyalty?
I’m just not buying it. Aegon never wanted to be king and was forced to by Alicent who constantly told him he would die if he didn’t. Aemond just wanted her love and would do almost anything for her approval. Helaena was a child bride at the behest of her own mother and gave birth to children early, proceeding to lose those children for the sake of a fraction Alicent doesn’t seem to care much about because “RhAeNyRA”. Daeron spent most of his life away from his family to secure the Reach and likely does not have a bond with them in preparation for this war. But they want me to believe Alicent is the biggest victim and I should care because she and Rhaenyra are the center?
Give me a fucking break.

https://preview.redd.it/6oxf4r23ws0d1.png?width=1008&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4f771ef9c070bf1f3bbd820bec1c521f25109c6
So I called TD Bank customer service and questioned the charge. Who wouldn't? The rep says there was an error in my wife's verification because the SSN did not match when they checked it. I'm still determining who they checked with, because, we showed them the Social Security Card, driver's License, and marriage certificate. So my wife and I stopped work in the middle of the day (luckily, we have the freedom to do this) and drove 20 minutes to the nearest branch to fill out a W-9 form and again show the SS card. We were assured that the matter was handled and the pending charge would be removed within hours.
The next day, I got a text from my daughter, who said that her lunch money account at school was out of funds. This account is on auto-pay from the TD checking account. I checked the app once again, and I still -$99 million in that savings, and apparently, the checking is frozen. I had yet to try to use the account up to this point. I again called customer service and told them the tale. They put me on hold and blindly transferred me to a "supervisor," who explained that they did not get the W9 and that we would need to go to a branch and fill out a new one.
I explained that this was not happening and that they would need to fix it and give me access to my money. I have been a TD customer for four years, and my information was already "verified." They apologize and said there was nothing they could do and that my wife would have to go to a branch so they could verify the information. I then called the local branch and explained the situation, which they knew about because the TD verification department had notified them. I told them I would be down at the branch in an hour and that either the issue would be resolved or I would need all my money in cash, and the accounts would be closed.
After waiting an hour, I went to the branch and asked if the issue had been resolved. I knew it had not as the app still showed the -$99 million. I asked for my money and I was told I could not get it because the account was frozen. I sat patiently for 2 hours waiting for them to fix the issue. I provided them with the same information we had already provided on multiple occasions. After 2 hours, I was done and demanded my money and the closing of the accounts. They got this done in 15 minutes.
Now I understand TD thought they were protecting themselves from fraud. However, some faceless security officer should have reached out to the branch to understand exactly what was happening, and we could have been notified that further verification was needed to add my wife to the account. But this is not what they did. Instead, TD attempted to steal $99 million from my account and then froze the account.
I advise anyone doing business with this institute to remove all their funds and find a nice local bank where you can talk to the faceless people who make irrational decisions and you can get actual customer service. I do feel bad for the local branch folks who did their job and attempted to solve the issue. However, I suggest they seek new employment with a company that cares about their customers instead of stealing from them and causing them grief.

Hello pcgaming,
I started working on the Duck Life series when I was 14 years old, and since then, I've successfully launched 8 chapters of the series. After almost 2 years of hard work, I have finally released my most ambitious project to date! As a small indie studio, we could not have accomplished this monumental achievement without the support of our fans and beta testers. The Duck Life series has been a labour of love for us here at Wix, so thank you for hopefully coming along on this adventure with me!
Duck Life 9: The Flock is a game where ducks are still finding new ways to do what they do best - honing their skills and racing their way to the top! This chapter takes the fundamentals of the older games, where you raise a duckling to become a racing champion, while also a boatload of new features - the main one being the ability to cultivate a larger collection of ducks and build them a snug little home on Featherhaven Island. You’ll still find an array of training games (which the franchise is famous for) and mini-games to progress through, but this time, it’s taking place in a much more ambitious 3D space, with farming, fishing, fashion, and more.
Launch Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ_DfFFdo_4
Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2416880/Duck_Life_9_The_Flock/
Our Discord community: https://discord.gg/xXVcMYC5xe
Key features

• Plucky Polygons - 3D Graphics: Duck Life 9 is now in THREE DIMENSIONS! We can finally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with many other popular games that we’ve considered an inspiration in the past, and racing your ducks can now be enjoyed the way it was intended all those years ago.
• Cultural Exchange - New Animal Friends: Duck Life finally has more than just ducks! Duck Life 9 now has a cast of over 15 new characters, each with their own way to help contribute to your flock. Don’t be shy, they don’t bite! (Apart from Tyler the Tiger).
• It’s Honest Work - Farming: Over the course of your adventure, you’ll be picking up various seeds that you can plant in your village to grow Juicespruce, Duckroot, Dazeradish, and more…Given the right tools and a little bit of patience, you’ll never run out of provisions again!
• Community of Cuties - Build Your Village: Expand your flock and make it your own! - it’s the name of the game :D. After you uncover the full expanse of The Flock’s area, then you can really start to get your SimCity juices flowing and build some delightful ducky neighbourhoods.
• Talk the Talk - Conversational Ducks: In Duck Life 9, you won’t have to stare silently into the middle of the discussion anymore. Now, you can talk back! You can even steer the discussion as you see fit, with multiple response options when talking to your island chums.

So right off the bat, the game already has dozens of hours of content. We have a tight knit and flourishing community over at the Discord, so come join us! I'm always there hanging out, taking feedback, and discussing the game.

I live near BTM Lake. Hundreds of people go near the lake to take a walk, sit in relative silence and click pictures. However, it is almost daily now that I hear someone getting assaulted by dogs. They are not people who are trying to rile up the dogs. They are just taking a walk.
A lot of dogs I see there have a collar on their necks, suggesting they were pets at some point. Several of them mostly mill around the small hut where fishermen live and sell fishes. While just 2 years ago, there weren't more than 2 or 3 dogs that you could find in each of the street near the lake, now there are more than fifty dogs from NGR Layout to BTM Lake.
The place itself is a dump yard for many people, educated people who dump not only their daily garbage, but also the items like sofas, chair and quite literally refrigerators.
There are many issues that needs attention near this place, but the people getting attacked by the dogs should be handled with priority. Earlier I used to see many people feeding the dogs, but that has stopped almost completely in these streets. I feel that this is not only a local issue, but a whole Bengaluru's. I see dogs roaming about in the tech parks as well. While many people are not bothered by it, I am sure their presence is not because people love them, but because people can't do anything about it.
I once saw a Dhruv Rathee video about this issue, but the solutions suggested in the video were, although great, were too idealistic. I think municipality is doing their job, they have caught and neutered most of them, but that doesn't solve the present issue.
Adopting one is not an option for me and I am sure it is not a possible option for many. What else can be done about it and since I am neither capable nor free enough to mobilize people around me, is there something I can do about it?

I see it as good for the junior folks. On the staff level, there’s little to no turnover.
But in upper management (and less so middle management), there’s recently been significant turnover. And some of these C-suite executives are not getting replaced. Rather, their roles are being absorbed by other people in the C-suite or people in the parent company C-suite. Or their tasks are being outsourced to consultants.
For example, in the past year we’ve lost one CIO (his responsibilities were absorbed by the CFO), COO, CTO, and CAO (Chief Accounting Officer). The Human Resources leader was also canned after we got a new CEO two summers ago.
Meanwhile, half the people who are VP-level are taking 3-6 months of extended vacations or parental leave.
I’ve never before been at a company where most of the turnover has happened in upper management. Is this normal? I find it easier for me but bad for my workflow (getting no training or direction and I feel my work is not valued because it was requested by some folks who no longer work here).

So my girlfriend of 4 years told me that her brother’s wife (we’ll call her Rain) wants to have a conversation with me. I’ll try to make this as short as possible but with enough details 😭 sorry!
At one point me and my gf hit a rough patch, We broke up. I ended up moving away to another state for work. I went out with an old friend from HS one day and we slept together. A couple months later me and my girlfriend decided we were going to get back together and work on our relationship, I moved back. She found out that I hung out with said friend and asked if we had sex, I told her the truth. But I didn’t tell her how I went out to brunch with the friend days later, because she thought that she violated me and wanted to apologize. During the time of telling my gf I wasn’t thinking about the brunch because I was so focused on comforting her because she was really hurt about it. She ended up finding out about the brunch later on and was upset which is understandable.
Many months later the woman I had sex with texted me her location with a message telling me she’s moving overseas and wanted to see me before she leaves. This was around the same time I went back to town for a modeling gig. I never responded or saw her but my gf just assumed I did once she saw the message. She eventually said she believes me and we moved past that situation overall.
One day I reposted a Facebook post that said “Where’s the girls that like to go Fishing,Hiking & Camping n shii the ones that really do like nature and ain’t boujie??” Rain took a screenshot of it, sent it to my gf and blocked me on Facebook. She read that as if I’m looking for another girlfriend instead of actual friends…Because for some reason people think just because I dress masculine most of the time that I can’t be friends with other women 🥴. My gf confronted me about it I explained it to my girl what it means and she moved on from it. I blocked Rain on Instagram.
But recently my gf’s been telling me how Rain has been telling her to break up with me since she found out I had sex with someone else (although we were broken up). Now that we have a family trip planned where we will most likely be going to Rain’s home she told my girl that she wants to have a conversation with me to make sure I don’t have bad intentions and how it’s awkward because we have eachother blocked on social media. There was no hard feelings when I blocked her, after she sent my gf that screenshot I felt it was best to not have her on social media considering she’s causing unnecessary drama within my relationship and I never even had my gf’s brother on social media so what’s the big deal with having his wife?? When reading what she sent my girlfriend it comes off as if she’s going to try to “check me” about what I did she said “We’re gonna try not to be aggressive about it”. Although we weren’t together I still feel like I don’t owe anyone else an explanation for what I did except my girlfriend. I also don’t feel comfortable staying in their home anymore after discovering how Rain really feel about me. It totally seems like she doesn’t like me at all.
My gf’s ex followed her on IG the other day. My gf told Rain how we were both shocked and that I was “talking my sht”. Rain automatically read that as if I was going off on my gf about it, her response was “LOL she’s mad at you about someone you haven’t talked to in years 😑” my gf shut it down and let her know I was not mad and that’s not what she meant. At this point it seems like Rain has some type of hatred towards me. Every time my gf brings me up when they’re texting she’s saying something negative about me. But now that I think about it when I first met my GF Rain was telling her I was going to cheat on her, like she was expecting me to be a bad partner which is still odd to me because in the beginning my gf was the one getting caught up texting her exes so why did she assume I was gonna be the one to cheat or break her heart? My girlfriend told me she had to defend me on multiple occasions when people tried to put dirt on my name in the beginning which is weird because why were they saying these things?? (A friend said it’s because I’m very attractive and some people think attractive folks are “fck boys” 😂😐)
But anyways I don’t feel like I need to talk to her brother’s wife about our relationship problems or what not. I probably would feel differently about it if we were like kids in high school or if it was her parents but her sister in law? Not necessary. I also feel like it’s wild to tell someone to leave their partner who they want to be with after they told you how important their relationship is to them. It seems like Rain has been waiting for something to happen to try to convince my partner to leave me. I don’t understand how I would have bad intentions and/or what would be my goal in the end? It isn’t like I’m using my gf, she isn’t funding my life or anything remotely close to that so why would I stay with her after everything we’ve been through with bad intentions? My gf understands how I feel, she says my feelings are valid. She says her brother and Rain are just being protective.
How would you handle this situation? What is a mature way to handle a situation like this?
Thank you in advance!
i don’t know if this matters but for more context me and my gf has been living with each other since 4 months after getting together. We moved across the country together when we were 19. So we’ve always been very serious about our future and relationship together. Very mature when it comes to certain things, obviously we met when we were young so there’s a lot of situations we have where we have to learn from them and learn who we are and what we’re growing to be. if that makes sense lol.

So recently I came across a p0rn on X (I actually was searching for Hazbin hotel fan art and an actor named “Angel dust” appeared in video)
Little info ~ so I’ve never been in a relationship before- never had any desire for one, I don’t like being touched by people, or even when people get to close I don’t like it 😅
When this video popped up I was curious, and I felt absolutely nothing seeing it, no attraction to either party, and if anything I was extremely disinterested (I would not say repulsed but I wouldn’t go searching for anything like it)
That was the first time I’ve seen anything p0rnagraphic in video before, here’s where I’m getting a bit confused as to what makes a Ace person fall under that category ~
So I have no desire of being with another person, however I most certainly enjoy time with myself & would say I have a high libido, I also read some very very filthy smut fan fics (my a03 history stays between me and god)
Could I possibly be Ace, if I frequently read those types of fics, masterb8te, I will admit I have a rather fun brain that can twist a lot of sentences into very suggestive sentences, but yet I would have no interest in actually doing anything like it
I do find others attractive, but that’s about it, I’m not going to give it much thought when I pass by them
I don’t ever see myself in a relationship at all, friends yes, but nothing other than that is this a “normal” thing to feel?
Do your thing reddit people of the glorious web leave me a comment about what you think, I’m a bit confused to be honest & would love someone’s else’s take - and if there’s someone out there who has the same sort of mindset I have 🩵
Thanks for reading! (Also if there’s a spelling error, I can’t spell. 😂)

My girlfriend and I have been together for 6 months now. In many ways she is the perfect woman for me however she does suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness currently and is seeking treatment.
My girlfriend gets seemingly random waves of huge emotions that completely shut her out of the world. She describes them as feeling though as of not this world. A feeling of unreality. She can get very very sad about minor things to the point where she cries for multiple hours and does not talk to me at all, she just lays in bed looking at the ceiling essentially. She is finishing her last year in high school and she is really struggling. Oftentimes she can’t go to school because of her anxiety.
She is currently under test by psychologists and stuff for suspected bipolar disorder and or borderline personality disorder. I should also mention that she has ADHD and ”mild” autism diagnosed.
She struggles coping with her emotions like that and quite often inflicts self harm on herself. I feel really really bad for her. I feel bad thinking about myself in this situation but it takes a lot from me when she does stuff like that.
She also often drinks a large amount of alcohol to help cope with her anxiety / emotios. Were talking like 5-6 shots. About two times a week, sometimes more sometimes less.
We both have spent almost all our freetime together for the last couple months and im fine with that but whenever I decide that maybe I want to do something else I feel as though she gets hurt and ends up doing stuff like hurting herself etc. I have no way of knowing if its directly related to her feeling bad but whenever I say that i want to do something else than be with her she acts differently to me. I have spoken to her about this and she says yes that she can get hurt that i dont want to be with her however that she understands that im not being unreasonable or anything its just that she gets really harsh emotions.
Thats the situation im finding myself currently. I dont really know what to ask for here but id like some guidance in how I should handle this. I love my girlfriend a lot and I want nothing more than for her snd me to be happy together.

FIRST CHAPTER
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
This product is a fanfic of the Sexy Space Babes/Between Worlds product of u/Bluefishcake and one I highly suggest you read. It was created with permission, but give the OG works some love.
Imgr gallery of Comissioned and Fan Artworks
I'm Back Bitches! Again!
//////////
Junior Systems Engineer First Class Che’keero knelt before a semi-sparking control panel and sighed. She, and a large band of her fellow Engineers with Marine support, had boarded the pirate frigate with the singular goal of ensuring that the pirates didn’t scuttle their floating hulk and doom the slaves aboard to a, if they were lucky, a swift death in space.
The problem, of course, came with the pirate’s maintenance schedules and decisions to forgo certain… safety measures when it came to repair.
Like the panel before her. Usually a perfectly functional control system for the reverse-magnetic bulkhead doors that ensured void seals in power outages, some pirate at some point in their dumb, dumb life decided to fix the panel blowing a fuse… by ripping the fuse out and replacing it with a high density power cable. Which meant the entire thing was one massive shock hazard and actively sparking as the reactors deep in the ship flickered and surged due to damage.
Che’keero swore as an arc of electricity flashed towards her face after a tool that was not supposed to be magnetized, cheap dick WaDepth requisitions, caught a magnetic field, fusing the entire system shut and turning the formerly barely functional control system into nothing but pretty, decorative wiring and cheap solder. She punched the now utterly unfunctional control box and toggled on her radio. “Three-Two to Three-Lead, this door’s fried. You’ll need to bring in the cutters if we want to get to the rest of the ship. Might as well also bring in an inflatable airlock, I’m not liking how some of the metal strain sensors are flashing at me.”
A semi-synthetic voice replied back to Che’keero, “Three-Lead copies. I’ll be over there shortly with the stuff. Double check those sensors, I’m not getting the same readings, so let’s make sure something isn’t blocking errors from reaching me.”
“Copy that Three-Lead, Three-Two ou-” Something tapped against the back of her helmet and Junior Systems Engineer First Class Che’keero mentally swore.
“Now, now, lassie, how about you sit right there and don’t move.” A nasally, unfamiliar voice called out to her while tapping what a camera she set up to watch her back revealed to be a laser pistol to Che’keero’s helmet. “I think that you’re going to be our new best friend and way off this dead end ship.”
Che’keero paused, letting the situation settle in her mind, “Wait, what? Are… are you taking me hostage?”
“Yes!” The pirate replied.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you taking me hostage? This won’t work, none of the shuttles are jump capable and if you try anything, you’ll just end up jumped by marines. They specifically train to deal with pirates taking their engineers hostage. If you want to survive, you should just surrender and take the penal colony when it’s offered.” Che’keero mentioned, shrugging and continuing her inspection of the door.
The pirate seemed baffled at the sheer nonchalance of this response, the pistol slowly falling to merely point at her upper back instead of her head, “You… you really aren’t taking this seriously. I’m a pirate! I’ve killed people! I’ve killed boys, and you’re just sitting there like this doesn’t mean anything!”
“I mean… I wouldn’t say that.” Che’keero replied.
“THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN!” The pirate screamed, the pistol moving away from Che’keero’s body by a fraction of an inch during an angry gesture.
It was at that point, a ceramic alloyed, carbon steel blade punched clean through the back of the pirate’s suit, slicing through their central nervous system and striking with enough force to shatter the faceplate of said pirate’s helmet on the way out. Muscles twitching, the laser pistol fired off randomly, missing Che’keero and slagging a chunk of bulkhead.
“I’m just buying time,” Che’keero replied cheekily.
“You really need to remember to check your cameras,” The semi-synthetic voice of Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns commented as the ex-pirate fell to the ground and blue blood dripped from the long blade sprouting from her right arm and a toolbox hanging from her left hand. “This isn’t the first time you have been flanked, and this one wasn’t during training.”
“Look, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Che’keero replied a bit testily.
“I’m sorry…” Ventures Forth prodded.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am.”
“Much better. Right, now what do we see in this- yeah you were right on it being fried.” Ventures Forth gently shoved the Junior Systems Engineer aside and took her place at the control panel. “Do a sweep of the strain systems. I don’t want this section of the ship breaking apart. Feel free to call up our hull patches. We’ve got plenty to share and this might have to be a lifeboat.”
“Aye, ma’am aye,” Che’keero replied with a crisp salute before rushing off to her duty.
Deeper inside the ship, Ventures Forth could hear laser fire, clashing of metal on metal, and cries for help.
The pirate ship was doomed, it was shattered and broken, but it was not destroyed. Not yet. \
And if she had her way, Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns would keep it that way.
//////////
Roshal stood still as her steward continued to clean the dark blue and rapidly congealing blood off her armored form. “Comms,” She called out, “Do we have any contact with the shuttle we sent to the station?”
“Negative, ma’am.” The comm officer replied. She wasn’t the same one that was present when Roshal left to fend off the boarders. At the unspoken question, the woman continued “Communication’s Mate Second Class Lev’tal, ma’am. My superior got a concussion when the pirate ship rocked our ship during boarding. Strap snapped, prior damage. I took over.”
Roshal nodded approvingly, “Good initiative. Send a message to the station, see if we can’t rai-”
“Ma’am! Contact!” One of her sensor techs called out, “Belay that, two contacts. First contact, nav point 782 spinward, possible bogey, cruiser weight. Unknown movements. Second contact, nav point 102 coreward, aerospace assets inbound. Small flight. Hard to determine numbers due to damage. No less than two, no more than five.”
“Focus on getting a hard contact on that possible cruiser. Weapons, what is the status of our anti-aerospace.” Roshal demanded, holding her sword arm out for the steward to scrub at a particularly clotted chunk of blood splattered over her wrist.
The weapons officer shook her head, “If we’re lucky, then we’ve got 20% coverage on half our sides. If we’re very lucky, I might be able to bump that number up to 35%. Not going to quote doctrine, but that’s not nearly enough to fend off a flight of Aerospace assets on a strike run, and that’s assuming they don’t hit us on an unprotected flank.”
Roshal nodded once more, “Sound general quarters and get weapons and tactical back online. Tell the damage control parties to not be distracted and focus on critical systems first. Engine room, report. Can you give me maneuvering thrust?”
The nearby ship phone chimed in with a staticy hiss, “Negative, ma’am. The shot we made with the spinal mount tripped breakers up and down the reactor room. This isn’t an engine problem, we need to make sure our reactor doesn’t blow up when we siphon power. Before you ask, emergency power is still flowing and none of their circuits tripped, but that means we’re down to life support, basic systems, and dockyard thrusters. It will take at least 20 to get the reactor in a safe state. If you want 10, send the chaplain down so we have someone praying for good luck. The fact most of our structural engineers are doing an EVA boarding to ensure the pirate ship next to us doesn’t go critical and render the entire exercise moot isn’t helping matters at all.” The engine room replied Roshal bit down a bit of annoyance at the snark, but engineers were always a finicky sort with authority. They were the first to remind uptight officers that while the Captain’s word may be iron law, it was their work that truly moved the ship.
“Confirmed, engine room.” Roshal instead replied. “Chaplains will be arriving shortly. Do what you can and inform me when you’re three minutes out from full power.”
The engine room didn’t even bother replying, just sending over the affirmative light as they got to work. Roshal approved of that. Sometimes, you just had to insult someone in order to get it working right.
“Captain, we have confirmation on contact. He’s an Alliance Karcharidon class Heavy Cruiser on intercept course. Energy readings are spiking… they’re charging their guns, ma’am!”
“Issue a hostile challenge and give me a firing solution with any gun still functional.”
“No response, ma’am. Hostile Karcharidon is increasing speed. Hard contact in 15 minutes.”
Roshal snarled, emotion breaking through her mask. “Of course, the pirates had one more vessel. Helm, fire our maneuvering thrusters, use the pirate hulk as cover. Weapons, get whoever’s left of our Interceptor flight to engage the enemy. Comms, get me in contact with the merchant fleet, tell them to evacuate. We’ll provide cover.”
“Aye ma’am.” The Communications Mate Second Class said with a shiver in her voice. “Sending-”
“Update on Aerospace assets!” Her sensor tech called out.
“Deliver!” Roshal demanded, cutting off the comms officer with a slice of her hand.
“Weapons fire. Definitely less than four contacts. Seems to be two grou- negative, only two contacts remaining- weaponsfire- one contac- IFF received, oh goddesses, IT’S RUNOFF THREE! FRIENDLY AEROSPACE INBOUND!”
//////////
Milk gripped her crash harness hard as Cookie slammed the Interceptor’s fusion torch clean past its safe thrust marker and into the red as g forces crushed her chest. “Last target down.” She reported after Cookie’s final laser burst hit something critical inside the final Aerospace fighter’s frame. “That’s 20 for 20. All enemy bogeys down. All standard munitions are in the black. Static drive is 48%, dump core ejected. All we’ve got left is our ASM and front laser.”
Cookie flashed back an affirmative signal.
“We going for that cruiser?”
Another affirmative.
“Well, I’m braced and ready on the release. Ready.”
“Ready.” Cookie spoke, his voice horse.
It’s funny what people think when their lives are on the line. Because charging towards a fresh enemy Heavy Cruiser, nothing but a single anti-shipping missile worth a damn, no allied support but the faint glimmer in IFF screens of their fellow flight doing the same… all Aoibhinn McDermott could think of was a poem she had read at least a decade ago or more at the Naval Academy.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the Valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
//////////
Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns could do nothing but furiously swear as the basic sensor system her engineering team had restored on the thoroughly ventilated secondary command bridge of the pirate hulk revealed an enemy Heavy Cruiser bearing down upon their homeship.
“Weapons are trashed. We cored their reactor, anyway.” One of the tangential engineers reported, “Other teams are calling in. Things are worse where they are. We’ve found the slaves, though, luckily it was one of the few airtight bays. Also, have some more captives, but that really doesn’t matter right now.”
“No shit.” Ventures Forth replied, “Can we do anything?”
The engineer looked back to her, visor depolarizing so the Gearschilde can look into the black and yellow eyes of her Shil coworker.
“Pray.” The woman replied simply.
Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns did just that.
//////////
Low chanting filled the engine bay as a small group of priests stood around the engine praying to whichever god that would listen to allow them one more shot. One more fight.
Around them, black handed engineers scurried, ripping out blown fuses and replacing them with soldered in high strength wire. A final measure of desperation. Sparks flew as engineers swore and chaplains prayed, power still remaining in circuits needing to be bled out before bypasses could be installed, turning every bit of solder and every ripped out fuse into a deadly gamble.
Already, someone was lying on the ground, no longer twitching.
They didn’t have time to check on their fallen comrade, the work was too important.
A clock ticked down. Four minutes elapsed.
//////////
Lieutenant Commander Cenywyn swore as she watched Runoff 2 die.
Their single Interceptor had mistimed a maneuver and had been caught dead in the middle of an Anti-Aerospace array, shredded in an instant. The only consolation she could take was that, seeing as the first shot went clean through the cockpit, they didn’t even notice they died.
“Runoff 4, stay in formation.” She ordered over the radio, “We’ll lead you in for the run.”
“Yes ma’am.” The hesitant voice of Junior Flight Lieutenant Griogill replied. She swallowed, “We’re- we’re ready when you are.”
“No fear, Lieutenant,” Cenywyn called back to the child she was leading to her death. “We’re pilots in the Imperial Patrol. We do our duty. No fear.”
A clock ticked down. Six minutes elapsed.
//////////
“Talk to me!” The last remaining senior engineer in the reactor bay called out to anyone who was able to reply.
Someone, she didn’t even bother looking to see who, called back “We’ve bypassed 60% of the fuses. Should be able to give ourselves a burst of combat power. No more than 10 minutes of it before the entire system overheats and we either die, or the reactor shuts off.”
“Any chance we can get more than 10 minutes?”
“Not before that Heavy Cruiser delivers us straight to the stars.”
“Fuck it, good enough.” She slammed her fist on the ship phone’s dialing button resting near the console the engineer had just ripped the last safety override out of. “Captain. We’ve got your power. You give us the word, and we’ll give you ten minutes.”
//////////
Roshal breathed in, breathed out, and nodded. 10 minutes of combat power before the entire ship shut down into uselessness. She’d done more with less. She couldn’t remember when, but she had. Luckily, this was a Patrol Carrier instead of a standard ship, so it was more than capable of combat maneuvers with nothing but RCS thrusters. That should give her some time.
Movement, movement was going to be the key.
“Comms, tell the engineering crews on the hulk that they are ordered to figure out anything that could draw the attention of the Heavy Cruiser,” She began, “Systems, break our mooring lines. We’re going to have to split from the hulk. Helm, prepare for maneuvers. RCS only. We are going to have to do this carefully. Engineroom, prepare for power activation, but hold until my command.”
This needs to be perfect, Roshal thought, A single mistimed action ruins it all.
A clock ticked down. Ten minutes elapsed. The Karcharidon had entered maximum weapon’s range.
//////////
He of Slender Tail shivered where he stood. The secondary command bridge was silent as Roshal began giving orders to fight. This was… this was insane.
They were in a ruined ship with nothing but a merchant fleet beginning to flee and a three thirds dead pirate hulk on their side against a fresh Karcharidon class Heavy Cruiser.
They couldn’t win.
This was suicide.
They would die here.
\ So why didn’t He of Slender Tail feel afraid?
He stood at his post, a secondary bridge console where he would relay orders to other departments, freeing up the other Watchkeeper to collate those orders, there was nothing he could do to help win this impossible battle, and yet…
And yet he felt heat blossoming inside his chest with every single order delivered.
“Mooring teamsss, you are to cut your linesss immediately.” He relayed to a crew of Shil scurrying around the ruined bulkheads, “Damage control, prepare for electrical firesss and arcsss.” He commanded, switching between teams instantly.
He didn’t feel fear. He could see his Watchkeeper shiver every time the sensors reported the enemy contact was still closing, but he didn’t feel the same.
What he felt… was indignation.
How dare this pirate scum threaten his vessel, his crew. How dare they ambush this valiant ship after they had fought so hard to win. How dare they.
He let his fangs fold out as he spat the next order, “Anti-Aerossspace teamsss, prepare your batteriesss for grouped fire. Gunnery calculationsss are on their way.”
How dare they stand up to him.
A clock ticked down. 12 minutes elapsed. Weapons fire.
//////////
Roshal swayed slightly as she could feel the ship beneath her feet move. Movement is life in naval warfare, movement is death. “Right RCS fire, bring us clear of the hulk. Bow thrusters, up twenty.”
“Aye, ma’am, aye, right standard and bow up twenty.” The Helmswoman replied.
“Confirmed. Next maneuver, give us rear thrust-”
“Torpedo!” The sensor operator called out in a shrill voice, “Two marks on intercept course! Range, twelve K and closing fast!”
“Decorum!” Roshal snapped at the panicking sensor technician. “Comms, order Runoff flight to divert and intercept those torpedoes. Rear RCS to full, give us momentum.”
Roshal turned away from the bridge as affirmations were shouted, and the ship began to move, “Engineering, prepare to activate combat power on my mark and prepare for hard maneuvers. Mark in five.”
//////////
Griogill swallowed bile and tried not to feel too thankful that the enemy vessel had fired torpedoes at their home ship. Being diverted from an attack run had a much higher chance of survival than striking through an AA bubble.
“Runoff 4 engaging far torpedo. Moving in for intercept. Bre’kas, give me lock.”
Griogill’s backseater muttered something, and a target lock appeared on the far torpedo as Runoff 1, their previous Drill Sergeants, dashed by in a hard burn and blazed away at their own target.
“Right. We can do this. We can do this. No fear.” The rookie muttered as the sight of her friends in Runoff 3 being turned to vapor echoed in her mind. “I can do this.”
The target locked. She fired. The torpedo detonated.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in four.”
//////////
The Heavy Cruiser loomed closer as the comparatively tiny Patrol Carrier spat its defiance in the form of two Interceptors dancing between the stars.
As a pair of torpedoes detonated, four more were launched, the anti-shipping weapons built for this specific purpose. Destroying disabled vessels.
And so the last two remaining Interceptors on CAP dove into the fray, risking themselves against an ever approaching AA bubble in order to save their ship.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in three.”
//////////
All Cookie could do was stare and push his meager aerospace fighter further on its nuclear thrusters as shimmering dots of torpedoes lanced out from the Heavy Cruiser attacking his new home.
He pushed his hand forward and felt the throttle once more push back against him, the lever pushed all the way past safe thrust and into the further setting on his console.
The Interceptor was fast. It didn’t feel fast enough.
And so he spoke the words he spoke once before, back when he’d had to listen to his backseater’s screams of pain and the rush of wind after shrapnel pierced his fuselage, and the hospital was so, so far away.
Father, I pray that you will not hide your face from me. Whenever I pray, Lord please hear me and answer me speedily in Jesus' name. God, I pray that you will grant me speed through your help.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in two.”
//////////
The Heavy Cruiser shifted, engine flaring and it began to close the range. A single disabled ship on emergency RCS thrusters and a pair of Aerospace fighters was nothing it would have to deal with.
It fired a third spread of torpedoes.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
They took the bait. Roshal thought with a vicious grin.
“Mark in one.” She paused, “Execute.”
In an instant, power flowed through the ship, emergency lights flickered off as the burning red boarding lights returned their fiery glow. The entire ship shook as the main thruster came back online, and capacitors began to charge for maneuvers.
“Hard burn, full thrusters, right, on my mark.” Roshal watched as the Heavy Cruiser began to react to her movements, the enemy ship was alive, you needed to roll to broadsides to begin bombardment, come on come on…
Roshal watched as a torpedo flickered out of existence, Runoff 4 gaining another kill.
Come on, dammit, you don’t get put in charge of a Heavy Cruiser without- THERE!
The Heavy Cruiser flinched, turning her bow away from the no longer stricken vessel, preparing for broadside.
The Captain’s grin showed more teeth than smile. “Execute! Full right thrust!”
“Full right thrust! Aye ma’am aye!” Her helmswoman called out as maneuvering thrusters dead cold roared to life and physically threw the vessel to the side, causing everyone not strapped in on the bridge to rock as a barrage of fire flew past their former location, manual targeting systems in play since the automatic systems would still be getting warmed up.
“Full thrust forward, prepare to divert all power to secondary weapons. Weapons, give me a firing solution.” Roshal commanded, hand raised and pointed at the enemy’s display as if she were commanding from a tall ship.
A chant of “Aye ma’am aye” flowed out across the bridge as the weaponsmistress was silent before calling out. “Port side is up to 45% secondary fires and 32% point defense. That’ll be our best bet.”
Roshal nodded. “Make it so. Target their main weapons. Helm, get us that facing.”
“Ma’am. We’re getting a call from Runoff 3. They are entering the AO and are asking for a target.”
Roshal smiled, “Weapons, shift target. Aim for the anti-aerospace systems. Let’s give Runoff 3 the opening they need.”
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Cookie, we’ve got a targeting path.” Milk called forward. “Putting it up on your HUD.”
“One second… I’ve got it. Moving to comply. Did the Captain give us a plan?” her front seater replied, causing her stomach to do funny things as the Aerospace Fighter maneuvered while under high thrust.
“Something like that. She asked for a munitions report and specifically about our anti-shipping weapon.”
Cookie paused.
“Ah.” He finally said.
“Yeah.” She replied.
“Well, let’s hope they’re able to open us up to a window of opportunity. Or this will be a short charge.”
“Not our place to question why.”
“Just our place to do and die.”
Time to target… three minutes.
Into the valley of Death, rode the six hundred.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
Two vessels, three Aerospace fighters, one chance.
Six minutes of power remained. All actors took their places on the stage.
One hundred kilometers, close enough to check the weld quality of hull seams, the two ships danced across from each other. Maneuvering.
Five minutes of power remained.
The Karcharidon Heavy Cruiser rolled itself trying to keep the vulnerable top deck away from the Patrol Carrier’s presumably still working main gun as Roshal’s vessel jumped to the side. Thrusters roared.
Four minutes of power remained.
Runoff 1 and 4 shot towards their formerly separated comrade, forming up behind them in a wedge. The trio climbed towards the sun as their captain continued to chase and harass the Karcharidon.
Three minutes of power remained.
Roshal spoke. The lances of her vessel fired. Laser blasts carved across the hull of the enemy ship as it rolled.
The rolling ceased. A helmswoman swore as a full broadside caught the Patrol Carrier in the flank. The port hangar pod was ruined, armor shattered and all inside exposed to hard vacuum. Those who could scream died the fastest. The Interceptors had their opening.
Two minutes of power remained.
Silent wings swept through vacuum as three Interceptors began their dive, their formerly speedy arrowhead shape giving way to an inverted t as their wings swept out for stability, the ASF dove and dove and dove.
Five Kilometers away.
The range was too wide. They had one shot. It had to be perfect.
One minute of power remained.
The Into Harm’s Way spat its defiance into the world, limited power drained to give her pilots a seconds more of time.
30 seconds of power remained.
Three Kilometers.
Hard Lock! Milk shouted from the back seat of Runoff 3. Cookie was silent. The range was still too wide.
15 seconds of power remained.
Two Kilometers.
The Karcharidon seemingly began to roll before the Patrol Carrier once more fired, its last remaining weapons spouting their defiance against the world. Deep in engineering, systems began to blow, wires that replaced fuses sparked power and delicate circuit boards shorted out into useless scrap.
The lights went out.
No power remained.
Roshal, in her head, began to count down as lances of light began to sweep across her ship. Damage control did what they could, but the beams began to cut like an overly enthusiastic shipbreaker.
Five.
One Kilometer.
Four.
Cookie’s thumb depressed the firing stud as the Interceptor screamed at him.
Three.
The ASF launched its deadly payload.
Two.
Three Interceptors pulled back hard on their sticks to avoid colliding with the deck.
One.
The thruster of the anti-shipping missile roared as it rocketed the point blank aerospace distance to target.
Impact.
The armor piercing tip of the missile punched into the upper deck plating of the Heavy Cruiser, classified alloys allowing it to pierce into the armored plating just enough to allow the shaped charge to open up a hole as momentum kept the weapon moving.
Within the frame of a single second, the warhead of the missile had entered the ship and, before the alarms even had time to sound, detonated.
A new sun appeared in the void for a split second as a plasma-fusion warhead detonated inside the Karcharidon heavy cruiser’s hull.
//////////
Roshal allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief inside her head as the emergency power lights flickered overhead and the gravity ever so slightly lightened. What was left of their sensor arrays showed the enemy vessel powering down. “Engineering. Good work, your 10 minutes were just what she needed.” She called out, picking up the ship phone.
There was no answer from engineering.
She signed externally before pointing at one of the marines guarding the bridge, “Find a crewmate in a void suit. I have need of runners.” The marine clasped a fist to her chest before leaving to execute her captain’s commands. “Comms, do we have any contact with the engineering teams on the pirate hulk?”
The Comms officer held up a hand, Roshal waited, “No, ma’am. We aren’t getting- wait. We’ve got visual on flashing lights from the hull. Apparently, something shorted, so they’re having to rebuild broadcast arrays. They can receive just fine, though.”
“Good, once we can maneuver, bring us broadside of them. What’s the status of the merchant fleet?”
Navigation spoke up now, “Still heading for the Jump Point. Should we send the recall order?”
“Not yet, we are still unsure if the area is safe. If we have any sensors remaining, begin sca-”
The mentioned sensor technician interrupted Captain Roshal, “Ma’am, new contact, signature unknown. Just jumped in from outside the starlane!”
“Give me details. Course, range, and speed?” She demanded.
“Signal confused, can’t get a lock!” Navigation called out, “Can’t tell if confusion’s from them or us.”
Not another one… Roshal sighed, “All forces prepa-”
“Ma’am, we’re being hailed.” Communications called out.
“On squawk.”
“This is Captain Al’yosha Cal’rada of Her Imperial Majesty’s Ship Spear of the Knyaginya, responding to Merchant vessel distress calls. Imperial Patrol Carrier, are you in need of assistance at this time?”
Roshal recognized the voice. A junior officer from her days in the Navy and a fellow Sevastutavan. The memory of the fresh faced girl when she’d joined her as an Ensign straight of the Naval Academy flashed before her eyes. “Captain Cal’rada. Your timing is impeccable as always.”
“Admiral?” Roshal could hear the shock in her old protege’s voice.
“That’s Captain, now, Al’yosha. I require your aid in ensuring the disabled vessel still glowing from an ASM strike remains disabled along with Search and Rescue teams for our sister Carrier.
“Whatever you want, you’ll have it, Admiral_… Helm! All ahead flank and plot course to intercept. Launch gunships and prepare to deploy Bluejackets. We’ll test our _Orcas’ teeth today!”
The line cut out a moment later than it should have, and Roshal nodded in approval.
“Captain, I still don’t have a read on new contact. What is it?” Sensors asked.
“A Drep’na inspired vision, come to life.” Roshal watched, feeling an odd sort of parental pride as Al’yosha’s experimental warship began closing the distance towards the Karcharidon at breakneck speeds. “A swift sailing vessel and ten carriage guns…” Roshal murmured the line from an old Vaasconian poem from the ancient Age of Sail. She had heard Cal’rada had succeeded in petitioning the Navy to build her dream-ship, burning every favor and passing out favors to any and everyone to see the program through. Now, there she was, standing on the bridge bearing down on a ship twice her size, but if the rumors were true, only half her guns.
“Ma’am, contact is still not resolving, but IFF confirms Imperial Navy designation. An Akula Class Attack Transport. I’ve… I’ve never even heard of this class.”
“Perhaps we shall hear of them more in the future. Fortune favors the active.”
“Contact is disgorging multiple signals, moving at speeds consistent with aerospace assets.”
“That is our signal we may disengage. Comms, inform the merchant fleet that the area is secure and to begin refueling procedures. Helm, get us alongside the pirate hulk, we have people to recover. Marine, get me a runner to the MP’s, we shall need the port hangar prepared for an old tradition the Navy has regarding pirate prisoners…” Roshal commanded. The fight was over, it was time to begin the cleanup.
//////////
So… that took a while. Sorry about that.
Turns out when a combination of writer’s block, decision paralysis and LIFE hits you over the head, it becomes a touch difficult to get your shit together long enough to write something down.
On the plus side, we are out of the “unplanned bits” and right back into the parts I have brainstormed, so I won’t be staring at a screen trying to think how to make things connect as much anymore. On the other hand, that means we are now entering the epilogue of book 1 of Top Lasgun.
Don’t worry, the story isn’t ending, I’ve got “three” books plotted out in my head, so we’ll see how that shakes out, but for the most part, this is where I start wrapping up plot threads, laying down threads for what comes next, and all that other good stuff.
So yeah, next chapter is going to involve everyone wrapping up what happened here, some fun little Military Justice, and potentially a bunch of plot. Also, I’m planning on starting a “rewrite”/edited version of this to go up on AO3, so keep an eye out for that. Early installment weirdness is a bitch and I’m not proud of what the older stuff looked like.
Well, I hope you have a wonderful morning, afternoon or evening whenever you read this and I will see you next chapter.
[NEXT CHAPTER]

I finished 2.2 main story a few days ago, so I headed back to Dreamflux Reef, planning to talk to every NPCs, exhaust all dialogues, complete every side quests, hidden quests, find all birds etc. On the surface, we escaped from Ena's Dream, defeated the boss and fulfilled Mikhail's final, long-awaited wish, happy ending, right? The aftermath, Dreamflux Reef and side missions tell a different story, I will go over each one I encountered so far:
Gallagher and his Pet, Dormancy:
Gallagher has completed the task entrusted to him and presumably ceased to exist. His pet, Dormancy can later be found in SoulGlad Scorchsand Audition Venue near the end of adventure mission: Scorchsand Vacation, presumably looking for his owner.
Dr. Blues, aka Orla, a former Nightingale Dreamweaver.**:**
Dr. Blues's Great Tree, Dreamflux Reef
The quest Dream Song is a bit of a bittersweet one,>! 3 of his ill-fated friends met their demise at some point in their life. His fourth friend, Fischer failed to convince Orla to come back and later passed away due to sudden illness. !!Orla !< go or wake him up.
Jessie:
Jessie's Snack, Dreamflux Reef
If you ask her about has she ever met any interesting customers, she would tell you there used to be an old man (Mikhail) who came by regularly and how he indirectly saved her from bankruptcy.
Lightcone "For Tomorrow's Journey":
For Tomorrow's Journey
Well, self explanatory, especially after knowing the other two's fate (Especially Tiernan):
"The youthful silhouettes of these Nameless get gradually swallowed by memoria. "Have a... safe... trip...please..." When the conductor turns their head, the Express is already empty. The conductor stand frozen, this scene hauntingly familiar, as if lived through countless times before."
There's also Robin who's looking for clue of her brother's whereabouts after the main quest and a couple minor ones where NPCs talk about how Dreamflux Reef used to be more livid.
https://preview.redd.it/1c2k5zkkus0d1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fb907bd2844291bfef4ee758c77033696892ed2
Well, that's all I found so far, there might be more.
...Were all these also written by Shaoji?

So we live in a subdivision and we have a neighbor on one side and they were on the other side so the neighbors who moved in because we were here first and it's a brand new subdivision they are pretty cool they keep themselves they are kind of private just like us, the other neighbors beside us they from the start have been very adamant and in your face kind of neighbors
But that's not the issue the issue is how we ended up on meeting and what's been going on ever since
Usually my family we go ahead and we take my children myself and my husband to go knock or ring the doorbell and introduce ourselves and strike up friendly conversation etc, this is how we see it appropriate or just meeting everybody so we're not going back and forth then doing that whole thing we just want to get it out the way and have everybody meet everybody
So I'm working from home in my home and my husband is outside playing basketball with my children and the neighbors who are kind of in your face are home but the husband and the wife are home and the children the woman next door sends her children inside and then walks over to my husband and just loudly just waves him over and she's like always your wife home and he's like she's busy, and she just like oh I wanted to meet all y'all and all this other stuff and she just said that her children have been trying to meet my children and it was kind of odd because she sent them in before she came over to say hello to my husband and didn't bring her children to say hello to my children who are out there playing basketball with my husband also she didn't make it a point to go inside and get her husband who was also in the home to come outside so they can all collectively say hello which was kind of off-putting.
But nothing else was thought of it so it had been a while since any interaction, me and my children ended up bumping into her husband on our way to the mailbox and we had a conversation and said hello and a few things and my children met his children they started to play because they actually wanted to meet them just like she said and what not so we let them play for a little bit we only just talked for a moment and then I left went back home and then shortly later in the day the whole family comes and shows up to our home I guess he told her that we had a conversation and the children played so I guess she then wanted to come and meet me.
So they show up to the door they come at dinner time and we're just kind of in a rush and so we all say hello and this is when the red flag weird stuff starts to happen is after her husband is standing in front of her she's lightly kind of behind him so he can't really see what she's doing but she's just like back and forth staring down my husband like a piece of meat, giggling and trying to catch his gays repeatedly, and then looking back and forth at her husband trying to see if he's looking or not she didn't look at me one time while she was standing on my porch and then I made a comment and said that I had met one of her relatives when I was going on a bike ride and she said that she likes my hair and my outfit and she said oh okay and then she continued to glance back and forth at my husband and her husband and she had no interest in me and having any kind of conversation or real meeting of hello or anything.
So after that it left a bitter taste in my mouth because people like that they tend to have it all but they need more and they need like attention from the outside even though they have everything right in front of them they can't really see it. but anyway she struck me as this attention seeker and it turns out she actually is.
so her whole family came to the door, we were eating dinner, and they wanted to know if our children could come out and play and I said we just sat down to eat and you can tell that she was bothered by that and bothered by the fact that I answered the door because before she came up she was primping herself on the doorbell camera,
So I let her know that we would be coming out later after we're done so we go over and then I have her children come out and play with my children for a little bit.
We end up having a conversation while they were playing and at first she did seem kind of genuine but then she started to get over the top and just started saying I was so funny and she kept hitting me and trying to be buddy buddy and over and over again putting her hands on me laughing and it was very off putting and very fake feeling like she was trying to get bloody buddy with me somehow very quickly.
She referred to my husband as Daddy and it was kind of off-putting the way she had said it and then because I didn't like the way she said, what about daaaadyy is what she said when she asked about my husbands involvement in our day today which was kind of weird.
So I went ahead and when we were talking I said it back to her yeah your children probably need daddy too and I said exactly how she did and hopefully she got the head but nope and also she was asking me for advice about staying home and needing to be out just needing to be doing something because her husband was taken care of her too much and working but he wasn't even working a lot he work from home and in the office but he said she didn't have to and that he takes care of her but she doesn't want him to she wants to just be out there in the streets essentially doing something and being seen.
Her words not mine.
And she said she can't help it because she had her children she doesn't want to be just cooped up in the house everyday or something like that.
And so that was kind of off-putting and then I mentioned focusing on your family like being present with them and focusing solely on them reaps really good benefits because you create a closer Bond and you don't need outside anything to feel complete essentially what you have is inside of you and I just kind of reference that when she kept saying that she needs to just be on the go when she can't sit still and she said her husband always says that he's got her and that their mom needs them and things like that and I said I agree because I know how I am with my children and I have my children all the time and my family works really great because of the way our dynamic works and I tried to like give some knowledge and information to her but she kind of wasn't hearing it and didn't seem interested really in that dynamic.
So after that day she text me and wants me to go to the park with him but I'm in the shower and I never see her text message till I'm done and I have like this whole routine so it takes about an hour or so until she's just like in the park and I finally text her back the park is up the street and I text her back and she's just like kind of upset that I didn't show up and that's understandable but I did let her know like hey I was busy and I didn't see your text message can we try and do something else and so I let her know that we can have the boys hang out and we hang out tomorrow and then the next day me and my kids went for a walk and she was also on a walk with her child, we briefly passed each other cuz I'm coming out of my house and she's entering up the sidewalk to the driveway to her house she sees me and I just kind of stand there waiting so I can wave her and she just like looks through me and continues to walk
So I didn't think anything of I just kind of laughed to myself because it was kind of a petty cuz she clearly saw me but whatever but I texted her when I got back from the walk and said hey I saw you on our walk a few minutes ago I don't know if you saw me, but I just wanted to let you know that the boys are available at this x amount of time, she text me back later lets me know the time works out so the boys and I come out there later on that day at that time then this was before our dinner time so I tried to accompany and accommodate, my children are out there playing basketball and this woman literally at the exact time at her children are supposed to be out there text me and said one of her children were in trouble and can't come out there we'll catch you all next time
And I said thanks for the courtesy etc and so the next time we saw her was when my husband was cutting the grass I was inside doing some housework he was outside cutting the grass with my children running back and forth doing everything like they usually do and so during that time she makes her way outside and she's got this really short pink dress on and it's like really cold outside and it was just like really alarming to me and she's just like out there walking around sweeping her front porch and then like while my husband is cutting the side that's closest to their house she's like back to back with him and she just makes it a point to be like hey how you doing and just other stuff even though earlier in the day when we got home we both wave to them from the car and said hey and so it was kind of odd that she made another appearance to try and speak to my husband, he brought this to my attention and he said that he was very brief about it because he knows how things are between me and her and how we revives were between us and so he just briefly said Hi and then turn back around and kept cutting the grass and so I guess that wasn't enough attention for her
So after he was done cutting the grass I never took myself outside even though he said that she was out there and was trying to strike up a conversation, after that and he started to do the wrap up , but the hose away put the gutters back on and all that stuff blow the grass away.
And so basically I get a notification on my phone from the doorbell camera and the garage camera went off as well and I'm like okay someone has been spotted that's what it says and I look and I see this person standing there in a pink dress mini dress she's right there in front of my house sweeping the grass out of my driveway and sweep in the grass almost basically to the other side of the neighbor's house she's directly in front of my house sweeping my grass up going back and forth essentially waiting for my husband to come out there and I don't know what have an interaction talk I don't know look at me I'm cleaning up your grass I have no idea
And so I let my husband know like I see this happening right now on the camera and then he's just like I'm about to go cook dinner he goes to go cook dinner and I let him know I'm going to handle the cleanup and then I go out there with the broom and I walk out there I don't say anything to her and I just started sweeping and then she looks shocked to see me cuz I don't even think she knew I was home because the car wasn't in the driveway and then she just walks past and she's just wiping her nose and has her head down and she just walks back up to her driveway, her husband was cutting the grass on the other side of the house by the way her children were running around but she was in front of my house and in my driveway back and forth sweeping my grass instead of over there helping her husband with his yard work she was in my driveway and the other side of my yard sweeping the grass
And then she just after she gets back to her side of the house she's just like hey how you doing? And I say good and then I keep sweeping and then like she got this like grin on her face and she's just like see that I'm like visibly like annoyed with her and so she just keeps it moving, and so after that I went to the house and got the leaf blower and just started blowing the grass out so I can get back in the house cuz I was just like I was just really irritable, I'm blowing the grass and then I hear her come up right behind me and say hey hey where did you get that leaf blower at and I turned around and I said I don't know it's old and then I continue to blow the grass away and I guess she took the hat because I was pretty Stern with it and I think she came back to say something to me to see if I was in a good mood or to see if I was still like angry essentially because she got caught doing what she was doing
I didn't sugar coat when I spoke to her and I'm thinking okay she got the hint. And then a few days later she tried to make a playdate and then I said my children are unavailable at that time then, we were going to a nearby Creek and taking my children they wanted to go and we ate before we left we were going to leave around like 4:30 and so we didn't leave at 4:30 we ate and then we were going to leave now as we are eating I get a notification on the doorbell camera and the garage camera yet again and it says person has been spotted I checked the camera and she's out there walking back and forth back and forth back and forth with her children trying to see if we're going to come out trying to see if she can wave at us in miraculous and any kind of way I don't know but she's in front of our house her house on the complete other side and she's just back and forth walking with them
And we ended up leaving a close to 5:00 p.m. so by that time she already went in the house
And after that I just was done with any kind of interactions with her because she is very off putting and she gives off this vibe and energy of I am being fake. And I have an ulterior motive and I need to Garner attention from Men even though I have one.
Even the guy next to us was outside cleaning his car and then her husband was in the house yet again and after he went inside I guess he was like busy , So she took it upon herself to scream across the yard and say ooh that looks good. Referring to his car and so he comes over and then starts talking to her across from our yard and and her yard and she starts complimenting his car ridiculously and was just asking a bunch of stuff about his car and his pain and and what he does and how does he get it to look like that and just a bunch of stuff and what crossed my mind was the whole married women complimenting another man's car perfusively was kind of off-putting.
And so they carried conversation for a while and then to the point that he ended up getting his phone and trying to show her something about his paint job and then he actually paused before he actually had her come over and like look at the phone and she goes oh you can send it to me and I don't know if they have each other's numbers or whatever but I heard her say that and then he actually paused and said I sent it to your husband actually and then she was just like oh okay and then she stopped the conversation and went in the house
Just yesterday because we haven't had a moment to cut the grass in a while my husband cut the grass after he got off of work so me and the children were outside and we were all doing yard work like we usually do I was trimming and the boys were trimming and picking things up in the yard and she pulls up. Usually she picks up her kids and then goes in the home closes the garage and we don't see her the rest of the day, but since we are all out here and my husband's got in the grass she made it a point to pull up leave the garage open open trunk and just bring her kids out and have them running around in the driveway which I knew was going to happen, because whenever my husband's out there she makes it a point to be out there but when I hop out she flies inside of her house
So I'm out there packing up my grass and I was done because my mom had called and so I'm on the phone with her and my husband is starting to cut the side of the grass closest to her house and so, I say on the phone and I'm just like talking on the phone while looking into her driveway and garage knowing that she's going to pop out at any second to try and get some kind of attention from my husband because she's been doing that, she actually came out when I was right there just waiting and then she briefly raised her hand and waved while my husband didn't see her so he's over pushing the mower back and forth back and forth and conveniently she's in the garage going from one side of the car to the next side of the car from one side of the car to the next side of the car she did this about eight times
And he never looked her way didn't give her any kind of attention so eventually she went ahead and close the garage cuz I guess she saw me actually noticing what she was doing so she closed the garage and went house so my husband stops or is finished cutting the grass on that side of the house so he pushes it to almost the back of the outside of the fence now they don't have a fence, so her kids ran out and were right there while my husband was cutting the grass I'm guessing she was all so back there as well to try and say hello to my husband from the back of the house because she knew I was in the front of the house
And he said he didn't actually see her he was just focused on cutting the grass but I'm sure she was back there since her children were running around back and forth back there as well.
So that was pretty long but that's what has been happening since she moved in here, I am not sure how to go about anything her children seem very kind her husband is very nice and not red flaggy at all she on the other hand has the need to go up to every single neighbor and talk up people but specifically because I live next door to her it's like a game to her because she finds every moment to speak to my husband I haven't even mentioned the other times that he was out there just like cleaning out the car and she just hopped out it would just stand there and try and get his attention and then he would not give her any attention I wouldn't even look her way, it's like she can hear when we're out there or here when he's out there doing something and she can find a way to speak to him and it's really off putting and I'm not really sure what to do I've been closing all of my curtains and blinds because when she first got here she was actually looking and standing straight across looking straight. Into my house for a lot of good 5 minutes while I was vacuuming and so I close all my stuff up.
I would love some recommendations on how to peacefully handle this situation I am not sure what is going on mentally in this woman's head or why she needs to Garner this attention and I just want to be kind about it because I actually tried again and wished her a happy mother's day but then this incident happened after that so I am just done with the situation I feel like, I don't have any desire to try and be friends with her or even just be neighborly.
I would love some feedback or advice on how to peacefully go about this, the only time we are really out there is to cut the grass and do yard work which is pretty rare so I guess we don't have to really see them.
All feedback is welcome, I am close to pushing 40 so I really don't have the mental energy to deal with this kind of situation anymore I'm feeling like it's beneath me and very childish to actually do any kind of intentional situation as far as ignoring and things like that or being unkind I don't want to get roped into drama and things like that and I just wish that woman healing to be honest.
But I would love some feedback on this scenario thank you.

Whats up everyone, im sorry if anyones tired of seeing these kinds of questions but i felt this may be the best place to ask and get it straight forward!
Im a 24 Y/o 25 in july, currently i work for a Union making alright money. Ive been here for almost 4 years and i just dont feel satisfied anymore. I have a girlfriend. Were moving in together and eventually i want a family and i dont think my $27/h rate will cover the lifestyle i want us to be able to have. Its fine now but introduce a kid or two a mortgage etc and im sure id be drowning. Currently im looking at a few different career paths. the local college by me has some job openings come and go that im pretty confident i could get my hands on. Other union labor type jobs. Sheet metal work or steam distributor etc. All making roughly $70/90 a year with good benefits but i dont feel like it would be fulfilling. Ive pondered a career in tech and read about people making $120 $140 $180k a year in many tech industry jobs. Ive always been the computer guy to my friends and family fixing phones and gaming consoles. Atleast once a week i do some kinda IT help on one of my friends gaming PCs and im always the go to guy to have one built. I enjoy tech so i was wondering basically.
1, how long and how plausible is it that i can break into the tech industry. 2, where would anyone suggest i start if i was to try 3, whats the likelihood that i get a job that pays that much. 4, if you were me would you stick with my current carrer path and try to snag one of the jobs in the field im currently still working in or would you sit in the position i work now for as long as it takes me to studdy get qualified and find a job in tech.

Right so I've been going around the YouTube playables section where they have some mindless games you might find on your mother's iPad. Then I saw this Chess Classic game and loaded it up. I thought to myself "oh Chess that's fun, I used to play with my friends and relatives when I was younger and won a few good times". I load it up and it's got level 3 out of 6 already picked out for me so I'm thinking this is the standard computer difficulty (mind you, in a gaming catalogue of other complete nonsense easy games).
Long story short, I've been on this level 3 game (playing as white) for upwards a month now and absolutely cannot win a single match!
Can someone tell me if I'm just stupid or is this "average difficulty" chess bot absolutely savage?
https://www.youtube.com/playables/UgkxggiwgxQIFcmuCia130ZlskxLsXd8mTA3

Hi guys! I’ve been vaping for about 2 years now. It all started during a really dark period where I was under a lot of anxiety and had a family member near by that let me hit their vape. I have always prided myself on being mostly substance free - especially as someone that comes from a family riddled with addiction. I hate that I vape. It disgusts me and what’s even worse is nobody knows I do it. I’ve somehow managed to keep it a secret from even my partner of 6 years who would be so upset to find out that I’ve been vaping.
Regardless, I am beyond ready to quit. I can’t stand the way it makes my clothes, car, room smell. I hate the taste it leaves in my mouth. I hate canceling plans with friends because my only thought is “how long will I be gone and will I be able to secretly hit my vape?” It has genuinely ruined my social life and drained me of any motivation to leave the house. I feel chained to my vape and since I only do it secretly, I’m chained to my house.
I make this post because I can’t share with anyone that I’m quitting and that really sucks. I’m going to do this cold turkey but I just need some words of encouragement and some accountability to help me get through it.

I like to idle cookie clicker at work on chrome but it’s called cookie clicker 2. Is the game played exactly the same as the original? I keep trying to look up stuff about the research facility after buying the upgrade but I can’t find any info on where to actually access it and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m playing on some bootleg version.
Disregard that part about the research facility I figured it out. But in the case I want to look up anything on the wiki, will it still apply to the version I am playing?

Introduction

The main purpose of this guide will be to help unlock the golden dice for those of you who feel less confident about tackling honour mode. This is designed to be a path of least resistance, so we won’t be experiencing everything this game has to offer. It’s also worth noting that instead of focusing on min-maxing for damage; we prioritise safe & consistent damage. We don’t need to be respeccing characters often, if at all, and we won’t be relying on strength elixirs. My girlfriend (u/-babyjanehudson) and I put this together as we’ve beaten honour mode a 5 times now without any failed attempts, we were even in the first 800 people to beat it which is kinda cool! Here’s how we did it. First starting with our builds, then a little general advice and finally just a list of some general Do’s & Don’ts. Apologies for the wall of text.
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Builds:

[Bardlock](https://www.reddit.com/BG3Builds/s/pMh6196Xp8) (party face) - Great old one Warlock 2, college of lore bard 10 - Cha16>Dex16>Con14>Wis12

• Key items are the spell sparkler until Markoheshkir, potent robe, quickspell gloves, necklace of elemental augmentation & the warped headband of intellect (great for general party face checks in acts 1+2) at least until you get the birthright at sorcerers sundries in act 3. Once I reach act 3 and have persuaded half of the shadow cursed lands into dying, I personally choose to respec into Sorlock: 2 goolock, 2 fighter, 8 draconic sorcerer. It’s not necessary but I find it gives the edge in combat while in act 3, as there are less dialogue checks available that bard can abuse. Being a sorlock means every morning in camp I can convert ALL level 1+2 spell slots into extra sorcery slots meaning my bonus action is now always being used for eldritch blast thanks to quickened spell meta magic plus we have action surge :) Skill priority for this character is Persuasuion > Intimidation > Deception > Performance > Perception > Investigation. Credit to u/kethrynweryn for this build, it’s easily my fav in the game.

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Life cleric 12 - Wis16>Con16>Dex14>Str
(light cleric does more damage so is technically better for experienced players but a life cleric is there to save your run in case of an emergency, something pretty invaluable to beginners in HM as we can’t assume we are winning every fight in the first 2 turns like we ideally aim to)

• key items are reapers embrace, sentinel shield, hell riders pride, the whispering promise & blood of lathander. Other items of note would be luminous armor & the radiant/illumation rings. Most fights will simply involve casting spirit guardians at its highest level and running through crowds of enemies like you’re mowing a lawn, picking up the war caster feat is brilliant for helping you keep concentration when taking attacks of opportunity but i know as a feat it’s a little divisive, just my personal preference. This setup trivialises all combat encounters in act 2. Just remember to check enemies for radiant retort, they’re few and far between but can fuck things up if you forget.

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Swords Bard Archer (Lockpicker) - 6 Swords Bard, 4 Rogue Thief, 2 Fighter - Dex17>Cha14>Con14>Wis12>Str

• Key items are hag hair (+1dex), titan string, risky ring, hill giant club, helm of arcane acuity & band of the mystic scoundrel. With this setup every time you attack, you can hold person, fear, vicious mockery or invisibility as a bonus action :) Just make sure to use your slashing flourish as much as possible to maximise damage. Don’t forget to get to the high ground whenever possible to increase your damage.

Skill priority for this character is Sleight of hand > Stealth > Perception > Persuasion > Intimidation > Deception > Acrobatics
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Barbarian - Wild heart Bear Barb 8, Battle Master Fighter 4 - Str16>Con16>Dex14>Wis12

• Key items are more flexible here as it’s less dependant on gear. I recommend grabbing the Everburn blade if you can, it really helps during the slog of act 1 (to get it easily, when you first find Shadowheart on the nautiloid immediately swap any one of the spells in her book for Command, then use command drop on Zhalk and steal his sword. I do not recommend trying to fight him for it) Most the time you’ll just wear the usual barb stuff, bracers of defence & a 2H weapon of your choice. If you’re willing to brave Raphael & Ansur this build becomes a powerhouse with the gauntlets of hill giant strength, amulet of health & Baldurans giantslayer. These items are incredible but are also locked behind fights which pose the highest risk to your run, prepare carefully and if you don't feel confident enough then don’t be ashamed to just skip them. Anyway we take wild heart bear because being resistant to everything but psychic damage is really underrated. You can use this character to abuse the poor souls that your swords bard has been using hold person on for easy crits. Make sure to *always* use reckless attack. Initially it sounds bizarre but stick with me, you want enemies to have advantage against your barb, doing this while keeping your AC capped around 17~19 means the computer always prioritises attacking your Barb over the rest of your party (all your other characters should have AC19-23ish by act 2). Not to mention if you’re always using reckless attack, the feat Great Weapon Master no longer has a downside, so it becomes a reliable +10 to damage.

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Final note for builds:
As you’ve probably noticed, yes almost everybody in the party takes a dip in fighter for access to action surge & shield proficiency. I learned this habit from Colby like everything else I know. He’s the Bob Ross of DnD builds and well worth your time.
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General Advice

The most important factor in honour mode is “meta knowledge”, This means things like: knowing how to enter each combat effectively, making sure everyone is in a good position before starting, knowing exactly which enemies/spells you’ll face during that fight and ensuring you always take the enemy by surprise to gain a free turn. Being properly prepared is better than any build. As for difficulty, Act 1 is always going to be your biggest challenge so use plenty of rests and pick your fights carefully. For this guide I also recommend using your bard to persuade the act 2 bosses into committing suicide.

Do’s:

• Always have a these spells prepared: longstrider, aid, enhance ability, bless, misty step, heroes feast, counterspell, shield & guidance.
  
• Buy the ring of bless from Volo the moment you meet him at the grove.
  
• Steal Laezel’s armor at the start if you’re not using her, it’s great medium armor in the first few hours.
  
• Let Volo take your eye for a permanent see invisibility buff.
  
• Barbarian should always use reckless attack
  
• Buy & craft every potion of speed you can get your grubby mitts on. With the slight nerfs to Haste in HM potions of speed are a safer alternative.
  
• Take the Hag hair +1dex for swords bard and most the time just let Ethel have Mayrina, its fiddly to control who Ethel will offer the deal to so just go in being prepared to sacrifice Mayrina.
  
• Talk to crusher outside the goblin camp and persuade him to kiss your feet. He'll run off embaressed, follow him to the bridge away from all the other goblins. Now you can safely and easily kill him to loot his ring which increases movement speed.
  
• Use your party face to poison the goblin camp in act 1, killing over half of them outside before even entering combat and then the party face can simply deny everything.
  
• Look up the wiki page for every boss and check their legendary resistances/actions BEFORE starting the encounter. Ethel, inquisitor w’wargaz, cazador, steel watch titan & Nether brain specifically can do some seriously nasty stuff that’s exclusive to HM & can easily catch you off guard.
  
• Kill Balthazar in his room/lab where you first meet him. To make the fight even easier you can take flesh into the self same trial using the bell so you don’t have to fight him alongside Balthazar. Either way it’s a much easier than the fighting in the shadowfell.
  
• Take alert if someone has a spare feat available, otherwise increasing your main ability score is usually the best bet.
  
• Cast sanctuary on Isobel during the raid on the last light in, a lot easier than chasing after her trying to heal & blade ward her. Alternatively ignore her altogether, go straight to ambush against the drider, grab the lantern and release dolly dolly dolly, allowing you to skip the Isobel & Marcus’s fight altogether.
  
• Keep characters ability scores in even values when possible, odd values do not change anything (with a slight exception to constitution as odd values still give a little extra hp).
  
• Try to keep all characters at 12 Wis or higher to avoid being feared, charmed or hold person’d.
  
• Cast darkness over Halsins portal to prevent enemies attacking it.
  
• Take Gortash's deal to skip his fight & the steel foundry.
  
• Use minor illusion to group enemies together & pull them out of position before initiating combat. You can also use this method to fix broken NPC’s when they’re not standing where they’re meant to. Looking at you Alfira & Lakrissa.
  
• If you’re open to a little cheesing you can leave some ranged/throwing party members on the steps before the Grym boss fight. Now just rain hell down on the boss from safety.
  
• Globe of invulnerability is exactly as broken as it sounds. These scrolls restock daily at sorcerers sundries & trivialise every boss encounter in act 3. Ansur specifically has no way of countering this.
  
• Illithid powers. These wriggly little cuties are some of the strongest buffs/abilities available. I recommend having every possible party member take atleast: favourable beginnings, luck of the far realms, ability drain & cull the weak. If you opt to go half illithid then you get access to some outrageous kit such as: fly, psionic dominance, illithid expertise & blackhole.
  
• Summon any minions before casting Aid, Heroes feast, Longstrider & other morning buffs.
  
• Use your potions, elixirs & scrolls as much as possible. They’re literally everywhere & with good reason. A well timed potion of invisibility or scroll of misty step can save a run.
  
• Most people know this already but don’t forget you can throw healing potions at allies in a pinch.
  
• Before descending the stairs to Cazador’s fight have a party member go invisible. They can run over and free Astarion before rolling initiative. This method can also be used to free Volo, Mayrina, Aylin or set up smokepowder barrels for a one turn kill.
  
• Use darkness to cover any pickpocketing and then flee the area before the NPC notices they've been got.
  
• Only trade with vendors using your highest persuasion character.
  
• Give your frequently visited vendors a few hundred gold to max out their attitude. this way you have the best prices for both buying and selling.
  
• Remember you can skip the final fight altogether using the dialogue option (important distinction) to blow Gale up at the brain stem in act 3.
  

Don’ts:

• Don’t awaken at the Zaithisk unless you’re certain you can make the checks, there is a [great guide on respeccing for this exact moment](https://www.reddit.com/BaldursGate3/s/7uQ7MSzzBg) credit to u/kodiak3393.
  
• Don't use friends, guidance or any other spell when bargaining with Ethel for Mayrina & the hag hair. It will trigger Ethel's legendary action and prevent you from getting the hag hair.
  
• Don’t free Orpheus unless you're prepared to also fight the Emperor in the final fight.
  
• Don’t play as durge for the first time. Worth noting the cloak exclusive to durge is easily the best in the game but being durge throws the player some unexpected curveballs that can end a run if you're not prepared.
  
• Don’t keep sharpshooter toggled on permanenlty unless you’ve got risky ring or oil of accuracy.
  
• Don’t try & save the gondians, don’t go to the iron throne, do not pass go, do not collect £200
  
• Don’t underestimate Flind the and other Gnolls who are attacking Rugan in act 1, you ideally want to be level 4 before this fight. Ensure to start the encounter from insidde the cave where Rugan is trapped, it can be accessed from the area near the fake paladins of tyr & Karlach.
  
• Don’t use the cantrip Friends unless you plan on immediately leaving the area or killing the target.
  
• Don’t convince Ketheric to commit suicide at the mindlfayer colony. Instead use the first phase of the fight to get into position & takeout the Mindflayer asasp then get to work on the apostles. Makes phase 2 infinitely easier.
  
• Don’t talk to Wulbren or the Tieflings in the Moonrise prison until you’ve killed the warden and all the guards . These guards are utterly brain dead and somehow will never inform anyone upstairs of your massacre, regardless of how stealthily or raucously you tackle them. So just go hog wild. This’ll secure your potent robe with ease.
  

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[Updated and streamlined version of the guide i made a few months ago on my old account u/JoseMongo]