Sore throat and head pressure

I took the plunge and pre-ordered the Ace, and I’ve been putting it through its paces for the last couple of days. I’m pretty deep in the Sonos ecosystem, and I’m a big headphone collector, so I’m tossing in my thoughts here for those thinking about taking the plunge on these $450 cans.
TL:DR - the Aces come in at a high price point in the market at $450. At that price, these may be a tough sell for many. The overall sound is very good - but not definitively better than the category leaders in the market, many of which cost substantially less. Early/Gen1 bugs will leave some thinking that the product is half baked or leaves them out entirely, especially Android users. All that said, this is still a Sonos product, so there are enough things done well about the Ace that it could be a decent proposition - especially if you catch a sale and/or after upcoming software updates. Hard to hate, hard to love.
Now to give some context and get into the deeper review. As mentioned, I am pretty deep in the Sonos ecosystem because I’ve steadily added to my setups over the years. I started with a 5.1 system, Playbar + Sub + two Play 1s about 10 years ago (now in my kid’s playroom) and now I have Sonos in my whole home - another Arc-based 5.1 setup (media room), a Playbase 5.1 setup (living room), a Beam (bedroom), Move (outdoor patio) and a Roam (travel).
I am also a headphone collector and have 22 pairs, ranging from “consumer” stuff like the Ace, AirPods Pro/Max - and all the way up to high-end reference gear from the likes of Audeze, Sennheiser, Meze, Focal, etc. I listen to many types of music, from hip-hop to classical, and I also do quite a bit of gaming. I have a young kiddo so have the need to use headphones for TV viewing pretty often.
Starting with the overall design, comfort, control and included accessories - Sonos does a mostly solid job. The design isn’t overly striking in any way, but it is a well-refined “standard headphone” type of design with clean lines. The Aces are light while still feeling solidly built, have a smooth but appropriately firm sliding hinge for headband fit, have easily removable pads, and while they don’t completely collapse, they get compact enough to fit in the included zip-up hard shell carrying case.
The respectable carrying case isn’t the only included accessory. A USB-C cable is included for both charging and USB-C audio (no included wall charger), and a USB-C to 3.5mm cable is included as well for plugging into analog sources. The inclusion of these cables and capabilities gives the Aces a lot of general versatility and are good things at this price point.
The design lends itself to an overall very comfortable headphone. The band has a very soft cushion and connects to the cups in a way that distributes the weight very well. The cushions of the cups are a well-padded and very comfortable faux leather situation with a firm but not too imposing pressure on the head. These are easy to wear for hours without discomfort for me. I will note that while everything is fine for me, the cups are not particularly large, and the pads are angled, so people with large ears may find their ears touching the cups a bit.
The controls are also well designed. Sonos chose to avoid any type of touch controls with the Aces and has just three buttons - one for power and Bluetooth pairing, one for ANC/transparency/on-device voice assistant, and one for volume and track/audio source/phone call control. It reads more complicated than it is for the controls to become second nature. It is a very good overall control scheme. It’s not quite as good as the Digital Crown design of the AirPods Max, but I’d give it a strong second to that.
When it comes to hardware design and general ease of use, Sonos has always done well across its product range, and that continues here. Grade: A
Sound is one of the most subjective/difficult things to review, and I’m going to try and be as neutral as possible and use some good points of comparison. Overall, the Aces perform fairly well for the product category, and while they bring their own approach to the table, it is very much debatable whether what they bring in terms of sound is worth the fairly high $450 entry point versus $450 for the AirPods Max, $299 for the Sennheiser Momentum 4, $328 for the Sony WH-1000XM5 or $379 for the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra - all very mature and respectable market leaders with similar product features in this category. There are wireless headphones out there that are priced higher like the Focal Bathys ($799) or the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 ($529), though one could argue that those are catering to the luxury and/or audiophile market (all Amazon US prices as of this writing), where the sound expectations have a higher hurdle to overcome.
Let’s first talk about tonal balance. The general tuning of the Aces is very similar to all of the other products I mentioned above, which is a version of a “V-Shaped” tune; bass is boosted, and treble is boosted, creating what has become commonly known as a “fun” type of tuning that I call warm and sparkly. While all of the products I mentioned do this in some way, each does it slightly differently, resulting in a slightly different overall sound presentation, the Aces are no exception. Let’s dive in.
The bass on the Aces is very noticeably boosted throughout the entire band, and the biggest boost is in the sub-bass region. This means the Aces bring slam, boom and rumble to the listen. It could be argued that these get into bass head territory, and I believe those that like bass would be happy with the Aces in that department. While the bass is certainly very prominent, it is not overly loose and still maintains a decent level of control. It is a thick but fairly clean bass. It hits thicker than the AirPods Max but less so than the Momentums and XM5s. If you like to feel those big explosions and soundtrack moments in your TV viewing and gaming, the Aces will fit the bill, as the depth the bass can reach is impressive. The downside to the bass tuning is that since the entire bass band is boosted, if you are listening to a track that has a lot of action in the bass region, it can be overwhelming and lack detail. It can also lead to some bleed into the lower midrange on certain tracks.
It is the midrange on the Aces that surprised me the most, though when I think about how Sonos likely dedicated as much thought to how these sound for TV as to how they sound for music, it makes sense. In a usual “V-shaped” tuning, it is the midrange that is the least present or gets a bit left out of the mix. This often results in vocals and many common core instruments and pieces of the mix somewhat veiled, and is the reason many audiophiles don’t like the V-shaped tuning. The Aces mostly avoid this. The midrange balance is pretty on-target with the exception of a bit of a dip in the upper mids. This means that you get a very full-bodied core sound when listening to the Aces, and that’s a very good thing. Male vocals are very often put on full display because of the added warmth of the bass boost. Female vocals can sometimes take a bit of a back seat, along with instruments like guitar, as a result of the dip in the upper mids, but to notice either of these, you’d really have to be a focused listener (more on why later). The story of the midrange is that it’s better executed than many in the category. This translates well to TV/gaming as well, as dialogue is typically easy to make out, even when there’s lots of other action going on.
The treble on the Ace, as mentioned, is definitely boosted, but in a targeted way that overall, works. I mentioned that the upper midrange where female vocals and some higher instruments live is a bit de-emphasized. Well, the treble is boosted in the “sparkle” region, where sounds like symbols reside - as well as the “s” and “t” sounds in vocals. This boost makes details shine a bit more, and it also hides the under-emphasis of the upper midrange a bit because it still pulls forward the sparkle of all vocals. This upper midrange and treble boost combination is also seen in some well-regarded higher end headphones from the likes of Sennheiser and Meze Audio, just to name a few, so kudos to Sonos for pretty solid execution on the treble. The downside to boosting this region is that some people’s ears are sensitive to this frequency range, and can find sounds like snare drums, loud symbols and the like in this region to be grating to listen to for long periods of time. I don’t find the boost to be extreme, but it is there, so those that are treble-sensitive, just something to note.
This is a good point to make note that this has all been related to the default tonal balance of the Aces right out of the box. Connecting to the Sonos app does allow you to adjust the frequency response - though it is a very basic EQ just like other Sonos products - a simple treble/bass slider. Most of the options at this price point offer greater level of control with a at least a 3-5 band EQ, but it’s better than nothing.
Last in the sound department is a bit about the staging and technical performance. Again, the Aces do what they do fairly well for the category, but whether what they do is definitively better than their peers is debatable. The sound that comes from the Aces is crisp and clear, and one of the most immediately noticeable aspects of the presentation is the good horizontal spread of the pieces of the mix - everything is placed very well with pretty good separation. The sound stage isn’t overly wide by any means, and we aren’t talking about a 3D/holographic sound stage (unless you’re using Dolby Atmos, which I’ll come back to), but the sound does indeed go ear-to-ear horizontally. Even so, the focus of the Aces is always front and center. The stage is very center-focused and intimate, with the edges of the left and right channel wrapping around to the ears. It is a pretty in your face presentation that works well. The center position also has a small but distinct depth and separation from the mix, which is impressive for a wireless headphone (I had to wonder if the fact that the inside of the pads of the Aces are angled contributes to this). The fact that the stage is so center-focused also keeps the vocals and heart of the mix emphasized, and this pairs well with its midrange tuning. This presentation also is another testament to being well-designed for both music and TV listening.
I am not always a fan of Dolby Atmos for headphones, as what the technology can do is often overhyped, but the Aces do handle Atmos mixed sources (or multichannel sources when using TV Swap) very well. It essentially makes the sound stage a bit bigger, along with more precise positioning of the pieces of the mix. I find it best for video content and hit or miss for music.
The overall sound package that the Aces deliver is solid, well-executed, V-shaped listen. The sound is warm, crisp, clean, dynamic/lively and is presented very well, in a way that will work for many genres of music, TV and gaming. The aces definitely deserve to be in the conversation among the market leaders, but each of these market leaders also have strong overall presentations that are arguably just as good, if not better - and allow for a bit more control with more EQ personalization options. The Ace’s premium price relative to this competition has to be taken into consideration as a point of comparison in evaluating overall sound. Grade: B+ / A-
I realize that when evaluating a pair of wireless headphones nowadays, the technology feature set is a big factor as well, and that’s where things get even more interesting for the Aces. This is because depending on your particular Sonos setup, mobile device setup, and general home listening setup, the technological features of the Aces are various levels of either lacking or unfinished.
Let’s start with the good. Regardless of the device you’re using to connect, you get to experience the active noise cancellation and transparency modes of the Aces, and both are very good. The noice cancelling mode isn’t quite as good as Bose, and the transparency mode isn’t quite as good as Apple, but both are respectable compared to anything else, a good showing. You can also enable head tracking in the Sonos app when connected to any device audio via Bluetooth, which for Android users may be an added convenience, depending on your device (for Apple users, this is a feature built in option at the system level between any iOS device and AirPods). You also get a fairly good mix of codec support, including some lossless options if your device supports it.
Now, the not so good. When Sonos announced the Aces, the company very accurately talked about how headphones were one of the most requested products of the community, and everyone in this sub can probably attest to that. But what has been released, at this point in time especially, IMO misses the mark by not doing the we want the headphones to do most - connect seamlessly to our larger Sonos systems, and on top of this, it highlights the challenge of forced obsolescence when dealing with home theater speakers and advanced technology in the same package.
The best way to illustrate this is to state plainly that the Aces are first and foremost Bluetooth headphones. They connect to your Sonos system indirectly via the app on your Bluetooth device, not directly to the system itself via WiFi (mostly). This means a few things. If you’re envisioning using the Sonos app as a hub main hub for navigating your music library across sources and handing it off between your Sonos speakers and headphones, that’s not in the cards with the Ace (ha). As a matter of fact, you can only use the Sonos app to play and pause media playing on the Ace, not select and navigate.
If your goal is using the Aces to listen to your TV, it can be done via a feature called TV Swap, but the situation isn’t exactly pretty for a lot of people. You can press a button on the Aces or within the Sonos app to trigger a direct WiFi connection between a TV-connected Sonos speaker, but at launch and of this writing, it only works on the top-of-the-line Sonos Arc soundbar. This support is coming via software update to the Beam and Ray at an unannounced date. This means that for folks like me that have been building a Sonos ecosystem for years, arguably the most loyal and valuable customers of Sonos (and the ones requesting this product for years), the usefulness of the Aces may be substantially reduced. Out of the four rooms that have Sonos sound bars in my home, again, all purchased within the last ten years or less, only two will ever work with the Aces. My Playbase and Playbar are forever excluded, and if you’re using something like the Sonos Amp to connect a turntable or other device to your Sonos system, you’re also out of luck. If you are an Android user, the picture is even uglier, as the TV Swap feature doesn’t work AT ALL, meaning that until an update arrives, also at an as yet unannounced date, the Aces are essentially a regular pair of Bluetooth headphones for Android users.
For me, this is the most disappointing thing about the Aces. Unless you are a fairly recent inductee to the Sonos ecosystem, the Aces probably are really more general Bluetooth headphones that can connect to a Sonos speakeTV than Sonos headphones that also connect to Bluetooth devices. This is in a world where there are certainly other options for connecting headphones to your TV’s audio. Many smart TV’s and set top boxes now offer a direct Bluetooth connection, and if you have an Apple TV, using AirPods via AirPlay is a much more seamless experience. All of these things, combined with the recent revamp of the Sonos app that took away features and left many unhappy in the name of updating the app for future products (including the Ace), should make you think twice about if the Aces are the best way to get TV audio via headphones for you and your setup - and about the longevity of your particular Sonos setup in general. I realize there are technical challenges that make better Sonos system integration a challenge, and that for some, the issue about older products isn’t an issue at all, but it is worth bringing to light for those making a long-term purchase decision.
The second most disappointing thing about the launch of the Aces is the continued trend of companies releasing products at full price that are essentially unfinished. I already discussed that for Android users at launch, there is no TV Swap at all, so these are effectively just regular Bluetooth headphones with no Sonos system integration at all. I also touched on the fact that TV swap support for the Beam and Ray is missing for all platforms. There is also a very cool-sounding form of TruePlay that Sonos is calling TrueTune. This will calibrate the room, so that when using TV Swap to listen to audio, you’ll get an even more “immersive” listening experience that takes Spatial Audio and head tracking to the next level by trying to actually mirror the acoustics of the room as if you had no headphones on at all. I can’t report on that because, you guessed it…the feature is coming at a yet unannounced date. On top of this, there are bugs out of the gate. Sometimes my Aces don’t show up in the Sonos app, and TV Swap sometimes doesn’t trigger or glitches out.
All of this makes judging the technological features of the Aces difficult. On the side of being Bluetooth headphones - the ANC, connection possibilities/versatility, multi-device connection, head tracking/spatial audio support, and battery life, the Aces are a strong showing. On the Sonos side, your experience will be highly dependent on your current Sonos setup, source setup, how you like to navigate your music library, your level of patience to receive updates, and your trust/level of care for when/if Sonos will release an update that breaks something between your Aces and your existing setup or releases a new speaker that doesn’t work with the Aces. These are all considerations that again make the $450 asking price seem steep when there are other options in the market with equal or greater capabilities for a substantially lesser price. Grade: C-
Overall, I view the Aces as a solid pair of Bluetooth headphones, and as Bluetooth headphones for day-to-day needs, they are worth considering, though arguably not the best value in terms of overall sound quality and features. The AirPods Max, Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, Sony WH-1000XM5 and Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra all bring comparatively good sound and feature sets at the same or a substantially lower price. Whether that premium is worth it because of the Sonos interplay, well, your mileage may vary, depending on your setup. They have the potential to be pretty great for some, while at the same time being annoying for some - hard to hate, hard to love. I hope this review was helpful for those taking a look at these or building a Sonos ecosystem in general. Happy listening!

How to save 50 % on DEWA Bills in Dubai this summer
1️. Efficient Shower Heads Install shower heads with a 1.5 GPM flow rate to save water. Also Quick Showers >>>>> Bathing for saving a ton of water

1. Water your lawn and garden before 8 am or after 6 pm to reduce evaporation during the day
   
2. Install Dual Flush Toilets Older models use more water, so replacing them can save huge amounts of water annually.
   
3. Place a bottle filled with water or sand in the toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
   
4. Opt for Front loader washing machines consume less water than top loaders. They are more efficient and can significantly cut down on your water usage.
   
5. Install Aerators on Taps Install aerators with 1GPM on your water taps to reduce water consumption. Aerators introduce air into the water flow, maintaining pressure while using less water.
   
6. Choose ESMA Rated Appliances When buying new water appliances, opt for those with high ESMA energy efficiency ratings (4 or 5 stars). These appliances are designed to save water and energy.
   
7. Avoid Using Washing Machines from 12-6 PM Avoid using washing machines between 12 pm and 6 pm which are DEWA's peak hours
   

7 Tips on how to reduce your Electricity bills This Summer

I've worn hijab since I was a kid, but as I'm getting older and dealing with immune system trouble my skin is now very sensitive to pressure, heat, and (most) fabrics. I am now dealing with perpetual hives/distressed skin around my neck and throat, and I think the way I wrap my scarves is contributing to the issue. Lighter, breathable fabric has helped but only partially. I've been able to adjust the rest of my wardrobe to accommodate this new normal, but I've been wrapping my scarves in the same way for 15+ years and am unsure how I can ease the distress on my skin.
Any advice for styles that are friendlier to sensitive skin around one's neck?

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With the use of ancient and forbidden magic, a handful of Mages erased the collective memory of the world, turning many innocent practitioners into mere Sleepers. Only a few trusted folk were left with access to the Runes, and the vast majority of those left with power united to form two sister organizations: The Exodus Corps and the Genesis Corps. One to oversee mages, and one to look after Sleepers.

“Okay, two things.” Tav interrupted once again. “First, I have never heard of any of those, so I assume they either died off or are a secret.”

“Correct on both accounts.” Mustafá nodded.

“I guess Genesis is no more then.” The youth blinked. “Anyways… So we are dealing with Exodus now, which has the power to erase and rewrite memories!? What hope do we have against power like that!?”

The alchemist closed her eyes. She agreed, full heartedly, that such tremendous power shouldn’t be in the hands of anyone.

“I am unsure if such magic is possible anymore, with the changes in how information works and flows in our world.” Mustafá shrugged softly. “But it is not worth it to worry about that, at least not for now. May I continue?”

With Tav’s nod, the old mage continued her story.

The arrival of the Age of Silence did not stop the efforts of humanity for complete control of Jericho. More and more magical beings were erased or enslaved, for people considered them an abomination against their new understanding of the world.

Until everything reached a breaking point.

Mustafá glared for a moment, falling silent and taking a sip of her tea before resuming.

One day, all of a sudden, all magical creatures disappeared from the face of Jericho, apparently at the same time. And soon after that… a mist began spreading through the entire world. A thick, malicious fog carrying horrors of flesh and bone to Jericho, turning animals and humans alike into abominations which had been hidden in the imagination of men for the longest time.

The survivors came to call this cataclysmic event ‘The First Sacrifice’, and it is thought to be the revenge of the forsaken Presences of Jericho, and the many displaced magical creatures.

“It took centuries to rebuild the world after that.” Mustafá said, looking into her cup of tea. “It was terrible for everyone involved… and now, a little beyond six hundred years later, we are facing the start of a Second Sacrifice, a return of the same mist that once covered the world, and the horrors that come with it.”

Storytime was over. Tav’s eyes stared into the middle distance as she tried to imagine it, a fog so thick that could cover the Sun in its entirety. Nightmarish beings roaming the land, death for everyone. She shivered, closing her eyes and trembling for a moment before looking at her teacher once again.

“Wait. How do you even know it is coming? How can you be so sure?” The youth questioned.

“I learned to see the signs, the shifts in the mana of the world, the changes in the Third Layer, the apparent reduction in the amount of unexplainable events.” The alchemist sighed, before forcing herself to admit. “I am not the only one who has been fearing this, nor the only one who has confirmed its coming.”

“H-How long do we have?” The apprentice was starting to feel the pressure. “Is there something we can do!?”

“I don’t have a specific date, but I know that it must happen this year.” Mustafá shook her head, setting her empty cup on the table. “As per what we can do… the book must be the answer. It was written by one of the greatest minds from the First Sacrifice.”

“Humiko did look like the sort of person who knew things…” Tav mumbled mostly to herself. “... Where will it all start?”

“The North Pole.” The teacher nodded softly.

“That’s where we have to go as soon as this book is translated, then. That’s what her introduction said…” The young one finished her cup of tea in one gulp, setting it down as well. “Let’s get to it.”

If Mustafá had the power of smiling right there, she would. Her lips curled up, ever so slightly, as she nodded and cracked her knuckles, walking over to the pile of dried clothes and pulling her turban out. She couldn’t teach without it, at least she felt that way.

“Where’s the iron? I wish to iron my clothes.” The alchemist stretched lazily. “Once that’s done, we are leaving again. We will practice in your assigned Elysium.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous? Anyone could see us.” Tav asked to divert from the fact that she didn’t exactly remember where her iron was.

“That’s the point. You need to be seen, at least a little bit, before people stop suspecting you of being evil, or worse, a leech on society.” Mustafá, catching the nervous glances of her apprentice, just sighs and conjures both an iron and an ironing board with a flick of her wrist.

The younger one sighs in relief, before she suddenly realizes something.

“Wait, if you can just conjure stuff like that, why did we have to go to Obuda for bread!? Couldn’t you just summon or create the bread instead of paying for it!?”

“I am not good at making bread.” The alchemist answered, setting her clothes on the board and plugging in the iron.

“Oh but you’re good at making electrical appliances?” The apprentice grew rowdy.

“One.” Mustafá began counting with her fingers. “I am not creating these, I am technically summoning them from my apartment. Two, I am very good at making electrical appliances, thank you. Three, you can only create the objects that you actually understand, so even if I know how bread is made, my lack of talent for baking means my produce will always be inferior to an actual baker.”

“Oh…” Tav frowned. “I guess that makes sense…”

“Four. Just for that, you’re ironing my clothes.” The teacher walked back to her seat.

“Argh, you bitch…”

Knowing that arguing with this woman was useless, the apprentice sighed and got to work immediately, politely leaving the underwear on the side to work with the rest of the clothes. She had her limits.


Honestly, when I started thinking and hearing about Elysiums as magical places, I was expecting something far more mystical or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with a mysterious building in the middle of the city, no; I guess these hideouts need to keep appearances up so people don’t come around making the wrong questions, but… a Cat Café? Really? I didn’t even know we had one in Saüle!

Entering wasn’t a problem, for the place opened quite early in the morning. Soon enough, Mustafá and I are sitting on a puffy couch, in the middle of a warm and comfortable living room decorated with pastel colours and many figurines of cats… not to mention the REAL cats, gathering around Mustafá like bees to honey while completely ignoring me.

She doesn’t look really happy about it.

“The more magical potential you develop, the more you start attracting cats. Or repelling them. It’s a coin toss, depends on the cat really.” She explains with a sigh. “That’s why cats make good familiars.”

“So familiars are a thing, huh?” I tilt my head.

“Of course they are a thing. Did you really think no one would try magic with animal companions? They are dumb as bricks, but useful if you are into that.” Mustafá clearly wasn’t into that, gently pushing the cats away from her as they purred and seeked her attention. “Shoo.”

To keep appearances, and to enjoy the delicious hot cocoa they serve here, we decide to stay a bit in the actual café… but soon enough, Mustafá grows restless and annoyed with all the attention and demands we go into the Elysium proper. Right when I am finally managing to bond with a silly but loving orange cat! I don’t even manage to make the silly lasagna cat joke when she pulls me by the arm and takes me over to the kind lady tending to the café.

I don’t even get the chance to speak when suddenly my teacher pulls out both of our credentials. For a moment I think her mad… but then, I try to put those feelings down and trust her. She is my teacher now, after all! She’s supposed to know what she’s doing.

“Ah…” The lady nodded, recognition in her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were kin. Let me register your entrance.”

Mustafá probably feels my eyes on her, asking questions in silence, because she immediately says:

“Most Elysiums, except for the more public ones, have a guardian that keeps tabs on who enters and who exits them. The members of the Brotherhood are fascists.”

I immediately tell her to hush up, checking to see if the café lady heard her. Luckily, she seems busy looking for her note book. With a sigh, I turn to Mustafá and shake my finger.

“Don’t. Say those things. We all think them, we all know they are true, but we don’t just call a pig a pig to its face!!” I can feel the strength leaving my body as I tell this to her. Her lack of common sense is killing me.

“You’re way too soft.” She simply says, shrugging as the tending lady returns with an open book. “Put your thumb on the page and sign your name.”
I do as she says, even though there’s no ink to dunk my finger in or anything. The paper itself takes the print from my thumb and I feel a little burning sensation on my skin for a few seconds. With a wince I pull my hand off, shaking it for a moment and then taking the pencil to sign my name besides the black print.

Mustafá does the same soon enough, without even caring about the burn, and then we are both directed to a door ‘in the end of the hallway, to your left’. She just lets us leave, just like that! Not even doubting our intentions or anything. Again, I turn to my teacher as we walk through the hall.

“What was that all about?”

“To avoid people using glamour, which is a thing by the way, to sneak in with other identities, they use special paper to reveal your real identity using your fingerprints.” She shrugs.

“What, can’t you change your fingerprints with magic?” I grin, feeling smart and subversive.

“No.” She answers calmly, turning to the left and facing a wall in the hallway. “One of the aspects in which Sleeper Technology has surpassed us is the ability to modify and take care of the body.”

Now that takes me by surprise.

“So there’s no magical medicine?!” I say, louder than I intended.

“You can make magical remedies and enhancements, but magic can’t directly warp the body in any shape or form.” She explained, looking for the Phi symbol carved in the wall. “We are too dense, too attached to our body… It’s also forbidden to even try. We don’t want to end up with another ‘Flesh Sculptor’ situation.”

“A what situation?” Now that has to be made up, I demand for it to be made up.

“Ah, here it is.” Mustafá ignores me once more, pushing a finger against the symbol on the wall and letting her magic do the rest… I watch the octarine travel through her body into the wooden wall, forming a round door leading to a set of stairs. “Come.”

“No, seriously, what was that about ‘Flesh Sculptors’!?” I follow closely to her, watching our access into the dark stairway close right behind us.

“Don’t worry about it. They used to be a great number of them among the necromancers, but lately it’s just an old wives’ tale. Something to make little kids wet their pants.” Again, the damn crone (because I am sure she’s far older than she looks) comes so close to smiling it is actually a bit unnerving.

Honestly… the more I learn of this magical world, the more scared I feel.

Let's not kid ourselves here, valve does not give this game a lickspittle of attention. Considering the Steam platform literally shits money for them, the financial incentive to pay much mind to a 17 year old game just isn't there.
I see people using the WoW legacy server petition as an example of how community pressure can help make sorely-needed updates to games happen, but here's the thing; WoW is one of the few actually-enjoyable blizzard products in existence, supposedly. It's a massive money sink for most of the people who play it; if it goes down there goes a massive chunk of Blizzard's revenue, it could literally cripple the company. They have to support the games or die in the process, it's pure capitalism; they see a petition with 300,000 or more signatures and the entire board of directors have to cave to keep their player base happy.
On the other hand Valve basically IS the PC gaming industry. TF2 probably barely accounts for even a fraction of a percent of all the money they make off of all the games they sell on Steam; if the TF2 servers went down it would be little more than a mosquito bite to their checkbooks. Not to mention TF2 is running off of 17 year old source spaghetti, it's probably development HELL to simply keep the game running at all let alone actively add content to it.
Think of it this way. You're a car collector, and among your cars is both an original Ford Model T, and a brand-new tesla. You love the model T and want to drive it more, but it's an old fucking car. It breaks down, it's hell to start up, they literally don't make parts for it anymore, it has the fuel efficiency of a dead rat, and even after all that the insurance only lets you drive it once a week. If you wake up in the morning and need to get to work, what are you going to drive? The Model T that needs a refuel just from driving to McDonalds, or the Tesla that can drive a good few hundred miles between recharges?
My point is that I don't see putting a petition in front of them with a hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, hell even a million signatures on it, ending any other way than with them nodding blankly, saying "Yes, we hear your concerns", and then going back to unclogging the money printers. We're hefting responsibility on the people who, financially, have perhaps the LEAST reason to actually do anything at this point.
And that's the thing that irks me.
At the end of the day, signing petitions and just talking about it isn't actually DOING anything. It's slacktivism, thinking that by just saying "Hey here's the problem" will in and of itself get someone else to solve the problem. The reason the WoW petition worked was because it showed a serious financial pressure to Blizzard, pressure we simply can't hope to put on the monolithic entity known as Valve. Cause here's the thing; Hackers in TF2 aren't costing valve any money. Even if they want to do something as game developers to fix this, as businessmen the money simply isn't there. It's solely a problem for the people who play it, and we're continuing to indulge in the fallacy that by waving our problem in valve's face that they'll fix it for us.
I say then, that since it is our problem, WE should be the ones to actually fucking do anything about it. Get up off our asses, stop complaining to Valve to fix it and get our own bloody hands dirty. And no, I'm not going to be the person who screams "Actually do something" and not put forth some suggestions to do so.

1. Get more people playing the game.

The more actual humans playing TF2, the more people to push back bots, the more people to show valve that there is actual genuine interest in this game's continued existence. We should start our own advertisements for the game, draw people in as much we can. Spread memes, make animations, do shitty youtube advertisements, TALK about the game beyond "Gee the bots fucking suck". Bring your friends to games, bring family, just GET PEOPLE PLAYING. Starting our own advertising campaign, free of charge, might also be the slap in the face Valve needs to do something (not that I like the chances of that though).

1. Gather information on the Bot hosters outside of the game and target them through the legal system.

Trying to fight them in-game is a fool's errand. We all know this to some degree. However, if we start actively targeting them outside of the game, we DO have a case. Activision managed to win a 14 million dollar lawsuit against CoD cheat makers, there IS a precedent for these sort of cases being won. And even if we didn't, the fact that we as a community would be willing to follow through on legal action would be enough to threaten some of them out of the game. It's the community who's being harmed in this matter, who better to use such a nuclear option than the community?

1. Draw TOO much attention to the bots.

They're doing this for attention, correct? I am personally of the belief that there IS such a thing as bad publicity. At this point it's impossible to NOT draw attention to the bot hosters, so why not go the other direction?
The problem is that this issue is being kept pretty close to the TF2 community, who have little direct power to counter it on our own. if we expose the issue to the greater part of gaming it would be like putting a spotlight on a vampire. TF2 is one of the most venerable games in existence, every gamer has at least HEARD of it. Putting pressure on the bot hosters from outside the TF2 community, hell drawing attention from outside gaming in general even, would both force the hosters into the spotlights of people who would be a lot less unable act against them. Cheating in online games IS illegal in some countries, making it an issue to them would RUIN the hosters.

1. Gain powerful allies.

And that leads me to my last point. At the end of the day we can't just directly dox these people, or blow up their bot servers, no matter how much we fantasize about it. We have to resort to indirect means to fight this fight if we want to stay out of jail. So why not ask people who CAN directly do something to help? Talk to lawyers, see if we have a case; ask security analysts what policies are being broken, hell if you know a valve employee talk to them to see what the fuck is going on over there. We're a community and that is our strength; we have a common goal beyond just "Fuck over the game". And we have communities beyond this community, why don't we pool our strengths to handle this ourselves instead of waiting for valve to do it for us?

I started coughing and getting a sore throat for over a week, but the last few days were just so severe (pain when breathing, coughing, talking, losing my voice) that I ended up needing to text my manager the night before my shift that I won’t be coming in. I’m a closer and work tues, sat, and sun and this happened friday night. Of course, i felt really bad messaging them since I didn’t work the past 3 days AND it was last minute, but it wasn’t as mild compared to last week since I was able to work during those times. I ended up visiting the clinic the next morning and the doc said I had a flu and couldn’t go to work for two days. I followed up with my manager by sending her a photo of my doctor’s note.
It’s sunday now and I still didn’t receive any reply since. I’m starting to feel that they’re upset at me, and expecting to be told something for when I return on tuesday. We are also short-staffed which I get. Is it common for managers to not respond? Should I be feeling bad about this?

Lydia awoke with Waldo screaming. Lydia quickly got up and activated the magic stones lighting the room, Lydia did not see a reason for him to be screaming and was about to wake him when he went quiet. Lydia wondered what had happened and as she watched him she became concerned he was not breathing but just as she was about to shake him away he started breathing again then he began to weep in his sleep saying “I would take it back if I could. I did not know what it meant. Please, I never meant for this.” Lydia watched over him for several minutes as he repeated this over and over. Lydia did not know why but after a while she embraced him gently.
“It is ok. We all make mistakes.” Lydia said quietly holding him. She did not entirely know why she chose to do this as she felt some concern over what he was apologizing for having done but something made her decide to stay with him. Eventually, he stopped and started sleeping peacefully. Lydia slowly fell back to sleep after he quieted and returned to a peaceful state.
Lydia awoke again with Waldo sitting dressed on the edge of the bed. “Good Morning.”
“Good Morning.” Waldo replied, turning to Lydia. “Sorry, if I woke you in the night. I do not always sleep well.”
“I can understand that. It took almost a year before I could sleep through the night.” Lydia replied.
“I brought breakfast up. Kna mentioned I screamed in the middle of the night. I rarely have a companion… So I did not know. I guess I was extra loud last night. I woke some other patrons.” Waldo said calmly. Lydia climbed out of bed and dressed herself as Waldo watched her but when she looked at him she felt he was lost in his own mind.
"Copper for your thoughts.” Lydia said as she started to lace up her dress. Waldo walked over to her and helped her.
“I thought I knew who I was…but I remembered things last night…” Waldo said hollowly. “I don’t know what I was fighting for… All that time as a soldier and now I remembered… what I learned before arriving here and it isn’t what I thought.”
“Do you want to elaborate?” Lydia asked.
“I am not sure I know how.” Waldo said and there was silence for a moment.
“Well, maybe you should stay here if you don’t know why you were fighting. At least, until you figure out what you want.” Lydia said and feeling better about what she had heard last night she kissed him gently on the cheek. “Thank you. I would stay for breakfast but I need to get to work.” Lydia said, grabbing a piece of bread with an egg off the plate.
“Have a nice day and I hope to see you later.” Waldo said, as she headed toward the door.
“Good luck today!” Lydia said, smiling and left. Waldo collected several things from his pack then stored it under the bed and took the plate of food to the common room where he ate slowly. Waldo noticed that Lydia was not in the common room as he ate breakfast. Waldo did not have to wait long after finishing his breakfast before Strisk arrived.
“Good Morning!” Strisk waved at Waldo moving across the common room.
“Greetings Strisk.” Waldo replied standing and moving to meet him.
“Are you ready to go down to the training grounds?” Strisk asked.
“Yeah, let’s head out.” Waldo said, motioning for Strisk to lead the way.
“Are you in a hurry?” Strisk asked, leading Waldo out.
“No, nothing like that just…” Waldo stopped in the door exiting the inn as he looked out into the city. Waldo had expected Protham to be small but realized it had been dark when he arrived and late that is why he had not realized how expansive it was. Waldo saw a wall sixty or seventy feet tall. Waldo stepped into the street and could see a gate two hundred or so feet down the road in one direction and in the other there was what appeared to be a small square. “How big is Protham?”
“It is just a small village, only five thousand or so. Most people are employed in fishing the lake or harvesting trees.” Strisk replied. “The gnolls recently opened a college here… Something about ley lines and increased power, but that is not my expertise.”
“I am surprised they even care about the ley line. The planet is so saturated with magic I would have thought everyone can easily use it.” Waldo responded.
“I wouldn’t know about that. Are you a mage?” Strisk asked.
“I cannot use magic… I can still feel it pooling.” Waldo said, wondering why he could feel it still since he now knew he could not use it. “It must be something to do with the leveling. I wonder if there is a construct powering the whole system.”
“You are suggesting a magic artifact causes people to level?”Strisk asked, shocked at the strangeness of the idea.
“Um… So I assume it is a mage college of some kind they opened?” Waldo asked, trying to change topics.
“Yeah. I would have suggested going and seeing the head there about your teleporting but from what I have heard they see almost no one who isn’t a student.” Strisk said, starting to walk down the street. Waldo followed, taking in the people and the streets. Waldo noticed most people were gnollish he saw drakes as well but it seemed to be ten to one.
“Lydia said you are a Drake. I have never learned to identify the scaled races apart from one another. It appears that Protham is mostly gnolls and Drakes. What makes a drake a drake and not say a lizardfolk?” Waldo asked, carefully.
“Lydia is right. I am a Drake. Lizardfolk always have tails. Drakes rarely have tails and those that do have a tail almost always have wings. That is usually the easiest way to tell us apart but it is more nuanced. A healthy Drake’s scales are vibrant, we stand out. A healthy lizardfolk has duller scales. Drakes can have horns or spikes across their head and back but never hair. Lizardfolk never have horns but can grow spikes. Usually they grow something more like a fin, which can be over their head or even down their chin to their chest. All the facial features are nuanced except the eye. Drake’s eyes face forward. Lizardfolk’s eyes face out enough to easily tell if you look at them.” Strisk explained calmly. “Kobolds are short but look like Drakes with a tail and all the other scaled races have gills.”
“Thank you. I realize that might have been rude to ask but I assume it is ruder to make a mistake.” Waldo said as they continued to make their way through the mostly empty streets.
“Most drakes consider it the pinnacle of rudeness to mistake us for the lizardfolk. Well the lizardfolk seem indifferent. I once saw a short Lizardman get mistaken for a Kobold and they laughed about it. Well a few days ago I had to break up a bar fight cause a gnoll called a drake a lizard.” Strisk said. “My people need to calm down about being mistaken for another race. Most cannot even tell the other races apart. No offense, but I assume you are a human because Lydia is one without looking at your ears, which are currently covered by your hair you could pass for an elf in my eyes and if you told me you were a dwarf I would believe it… even though, I think you are too tall to be a dwarf.” Waldo laughed at Strisk’s words.
“An elf you say?” Waldo said, smiling and moving his hair from over his ears. “I am a human. However, I can understand the confusion. Even among humans it is possible for some to mistake another human as one of our kin races.”
“Kin race?” Strisk asked.
“Yes, races that share certain broad features and where half races are possible.” Waldo said.
“Then would Drakes not be a Kin race.” Strisk asked.
“You ever seen a half human and half drake?” Waldo asked.
“Well no, but I was told it was possible.” Strisk said, wondering.
“Possible for our race's women’s bodies to respond as if they are creating a blend. However, it is largely my understanding no blend has survived birth. Maybe one is out there but largely our internal anatomy; bone structure, organ placement, organs in general, and finer points don’t blend into something that survives birth if a pregnancy occurs which to my knowledge is extremely rare and usually it is a half race not a full where that can occur according to one report I read most mothers die in labor if they carry the blend to term and the child still dies.” Waldo said calmly. Strisk stopped.
“How do you know this?” Strisk asked. Waldo thought about it for a moment. Realizing he did not know how to explain having millions of years of knowledge on hand a little surprised he had so easily recalled something from another life. As he thought about it he wondered how he could so easily access it. Then he knew. Four of his prior selves had learned to build a mind palace. When the Orc had implanted all the memories, those four had combined their knowledge and laid out everything, which made him wonder how he knew about the interbreeding of humans and drakes, which brought forth the memories of four doctors. One of which was drake. Strisk watched as Waldo stared off into the distance. Suddenly, Waldo went pale and threw up in the street. “What the hell?” Strisk said, jumping back to avoid getting splattered.
“Sorry.” Waldo said, feeling queasy. Waldo pushed the doctor’s memories away realizing he was not ready to go exploring all the memories aimlessly. Waldo pulled out his hip canteen and washed his mouth out. Spitting the water down a nearby drain “Damn. I was hoping to not have to eat until dinner. I assume the interview will have a combat skills test?” Waldo asked, looking at Strisk.
“Well yes, but what was that?” Strisk asked, feeling the response was unjustified for his question.
“Oh, right, your question. Um… I went to a memory I should have left alone. I was thinking about my time studying… when I strayed into an incident.” Waldo said, trying to explain without lying.
“An incident?” Strisk asked.
“I expect there are things you have seen as a city guard you would rather not remember.” Waldo replied, carefully.
“Oh… you mean something like that. I can understand that. Let’s continue on. Just another block or so.” Strisk said, letting Waldo follow him. Neither said anything until they got to the city's barracks. They had crossed near the center of town and were now at a lakeside gate that had a training arena with a large gatehouse next to it.
“How many positions is the guard filling?” Waldo asked as they approached the building.
“We are adding five new full time positions in hope of growth due to the mage college, three part time, and around fifty new reservists.” Strisk said and then opened the gatehouse’s front door.
“Good Morning, Strisk!” A female voice behind the counter greeted as they entered.
“Good Morning, Violet.” Strisk replied. “Is Trag in?”
“Yes, he got in a bit ago and…Who are you?” Violet asked, staring at Waldo as he entered the gatehouse.
“Waldo Winter.” Waldo said, step into the room and bowing slightly to the human girl behind the counter.
“He is with me. Violet. He arrived in town last night under strange circumstances.” Strisk said.
“Is he why you are meeting with Trag this early?” Violet asked, keeping her eyes on Waldo. “Is he a criminal?”
“Yes to the meeting with Trag and not as far as I am aware. You haven’t done anything illegal have you?” Strisk asked, grinning Waldo.
“Admittedly, I have not read your legal code, but assuming it follows traditional patterns of legal codes for structured societies. Not in this city. At least, I very much doubt I have.” Waldo said, smiling lightly at Violet.
“What are you doing here then?” Violet asked.
“Apart from identifying myself to local authorities due to the strange way I arrived. Hopefully, applying for a job.” Waldo stated. Violet frowned.
“Are you applying for citizenship in Protham or just submitting notice of intent to work in Protham?” Violet asked.
“Notice of intent to work, at this time.” Waldo replied, moving up to the desk as Strisk stepped away. Violet handed him a sheet of paper and pulled out a second enchanted page.
“Good luck finding work here. There are not many jobs outside of scribe, barworker, or general laborer for humans in Protham. The Drakes and Gnolls are larger and stronger than humans naturally and they are basically hiring enforcers right now.” Violet whispered to Waldo. “Where are you staying?”
“The Spriggan Inn.” Waldo said, looking at the form, surprised he could read it. As he started to fill out the form he remembered a passage about grown arrivals passing between world and being gifted languages of the worlds they arrived on from death. Waldo tried to remember the author's reasoning for the gift but could not. Waldo wished he had learned written gnollish languages but had only learned their spoken languages.
“How did you come to be there?” Violet said, showing surprise.
“Long story short…Some sort of teleportation accident.” Waldo answered, focused on completing the form.
“Wow… Lucky.” Violet said, thinking it strange he appeared in the only inn with a human working in it in Protham.
“Yes, but I suspect there is a good reason for that.” Waldo said, handing her the completed form.
“You how to read Grofeas gnoll?” Strisk asked, looking at Waldo holding the form out to Violet. “You said you had not heard of this country last night.” Violet took the form looking suspiciously at Waldo.
"No, I am familiar with other gnollish written languages and this is close enough to them that I guessed. Please check that and make sure my responses make sense.” Waldo said, looking at Violet. Waldo smiled at his omission. He was familiar with several gnoll written languages and had learned a few key words like bathroom, food, and price but had not even memorized their alphabet. Violet started to look over the document carefully. Waldo noticed the enchanted page on the desk had a picture of his face on it now with a list of several things about him, such as height, an approximate weight, and the like. Waldo heard a low growl with several inflections. Waldo looked at the gnoll standing by Strisk.
“Would you mind repeating that? I am not sure I quite heard what you said, because I thought you called me a fur lover.” Waldo said, looking narrowly at the gnoll. The gnoll made several more growls at Waldo. The gnoll had reddish brown fur and stood a little shorter than Strisk. Waldo thought the gnoll would probably be considered extremely handsome among gnolls. He was well groomed and clearly muscled under the fur. He even wore a steel breastplate that was polished to a shine. Waldo saw a stamp over his right peck that appeared to be a runic enchantment.
“Because I am not. I learned it at the time because my life depended on it. The gnolls I met were not as affluent as you are here and only knew one language. Their own. I had to learn it or live without speaking. Their treatment of me would have killed me if I had not learned their language. They knew next to nothing of humans and were a tribe secluded in the mountains. They meant well, but due to the harsh circumstances of the location I was slowly dying from starvation and exposure. It took four weeks to learn enough for rough communication after which I found them to be extremely friendly and curious. I spent two years with that tribe before making contact with a human settlement in the area. I managed to broker a peace there because I learned gnollish. So I continued my education and have since learned various spoken dialects.” Waldo responded to the newcomers' growls calmly.
“Why don’t you respond in gnollish?” The gnoll asked, changing languages. Waldo growled back in several inflections and moved a hand. Violet had noticed hand movements when gnolls growled and never associated it with them speaking but Waldo’s movements were so pronounced she realized it had to be part of the gnollish language. “Fair enough. I am Captain Trag. Strisk says you are a soldier.”
“Wait what did you say?” Violet asked Waldo.
“Violet. Don’t be rude.” Strisk chided, curious himself but having held himself back.
“I am sorry. I have just never seen a non-gnoll speak gnollish” Violet said, almost involuntarily. Trag slapped Strisk across the back of the head.
“Strisk, she is our scribe, do not order her around.” Trag said, smiling. Waldo got the sense that Trag did not like Strisk.
“I explained human throats are not well formed for the gnollish language, which hurts my throat the more I speak it and makes my accompanying hand movements more pronounced than is proper.” Waldo explained to Violet.
“Can you teach me?” Violet asked, seeing how beneficial it would be to know gnollish in her job.
“We can talk after the interview.” Waldo said, smiling at Violet.
“Right, sorry. Thank you.” Violet replied looking over at Trag apologetically.
“Excuse me for interrupting your conversation Violet. I will make sure to send Waldo back once we are done.” Trag said, smiling at Violet then turning to Waldo. “What level of soldier are you? Or is it some other fighting class?”
“I don’t have any levels in fighting classes.” Waldo replied.
“And you want to be a city guard?” Trag said looking angrily at Strisk who looked at Waldo surprised.
“Wait, are you a medic of somekind?” Strisk asked, remembering the other night.
“No, just give me a chance. We should go to the training ground if combat assessment is to be a large part of this process.” Waldo stated, a little surprised they had started asking questions in the entrance.
“It is. We can train you in Protham legal code, but we rarely do combat training for our guards; most people come to us with twenty or more levels in a combat class, when they are applying to be a guard.” Trag stated, as Waldo opened the door.
“Where I come from people do not rely on the leveling systems for combat training.” Waldo started walking to the training grounds as Trag and Strisk followed.
“Where are you from?” Trag asked.
“Halcyon. Heard of it?” Waldo asked, knowing the reply.
“Nope.” Trag replied, thinking this human could never keep up with a gnoll or drake in a fight. “What are you wearing?” Trag asked, no longer able to hold back the question as the human looked very strange to him.
“Desert Armored Combat Fatigues, my throwing knives, combat knife, an assortment of tools I have found useful over the years, and a magic sling.” Waldo said, touching different things on his body. “The armor is stab resistant and there are several metal plates spread out in the fabric. If I get the job I would like to wear this until I can afford to get some locally made gear.”
“A magic sling?” Trag asked.
“Yeah, but I have limited ammo for it. It only works with special magic ammo and I doubt you have that here.” Waldo replied.
“Have you heard of a magic sling Strisk?” Trag asked.
“No, that is new to me.” Strisk replied. “I thought you could not use magic.”
“I cannot not cast a magic spell but this is an artifact. I could teach anyone to use it. If I had unlimited ammo or access to a bullet manufacturer I would be happy to show it off but I only have ninety rounds for it.” Waldo explained.
“How long have you been a soldier?” Trag asked, Waldo had seen himself in a mirror and knew they would not believe the truth. Waldo looked like he was in his prime but Halcyon slowed aging massively Waldo was older than any human got to normally and he was still unsure if he had died or Death’s healing had further reduced the effects of aging.
“Nine years.” Waldo replied, pushing it as far as he thought he could. Waldo had put his age down as twenty nine on the form, but knew he looked closer to twenty now. “I expect I will be sparing with one of you?”
“No, we are waiting for your sparring partners. I sent for two reservists. They generally are not needed for regular guard shifts and if they are injured it should not interfere with their regular jobs.” Trag stated, show us how good you are with throwing knives.
“Alright.” Waldo said, pulling four of the weighted knives from their sheaths. Waldo carried twelve in all. Four on his left leg, two on each arm and four on his chest. Waldo started by juggling the knives as he moved into position to throw them. Waldo smoothly plucked them out of the air as he was juggling them and launched them one after another in quick succession down the lane, with the knives sinking deep into the wooden target in a tight group.
“For having no skills that is pretty good. Now for the moving targets.” Trag said, with Waldo looking back at him as he pressed a button. Waldo watched as the targets began to move side to side. Waldo could tell this was intended for arrows as the range was longer than he would usually throw when it came to moving targets.
“May I move up or do you want me to throw from here?” Waldo asked.
“Tark throws from there.” Trag replied, Waldo grabbed two more knives, throwing them half a second after looking back at the target. Both landed bullseyes but Waldo could feel the strain on his muscles. He was not used to this distance. Waldo pulled two more and turned his back to the targets. Waldo slowly strafed toward the center of the range as he had started to the right side. After a moment making sure to give the targets time to move he spun around and with one hand launched both knives. One landed in a bullseye, but the other fell short. Waldo turned his back to the targets and drew all of his remaining knives placing them at the ready in one hand. Waldo turned and threw three and turned back around quickly. He heard 2 thuds and one that was a clang. He was not sure what the third had hit. Waldo spun around and sent his final knife down the lane hitting another bullseye. The three quick throws were not bullseyes but they had all hit targets.
“That is all the throwing knives I carry.” Waldo said. “Shall I collect them?”
“No, Strisk go get the knives and report back on how deep they are.” Trag said, turning the moving targets off. Waldo moved over to Trag as Strisk retrieved the knives. “Only one complete miss, that is not bad. If you are hired then we are gonna have to replace the knives with some weighted rods. We can issue you some bolas while on duty. Unless a kill order is issued, but most the time we will expect people to be taken alive.”
“Understandable. What is a bolas?” Waldo asked.
“It is three pieces of rope tied to each other on one end and has a weight on the other side. When throwing it, the intent is to hit a person's legs and if it works correctly it will wrap around a fleeing person’s legs and trip them. In town it can be tricky to use and for people they have lighter weights. It was originally used to hunt various animals on the plains. If the weights are too heavy they can break bones.” Trag said, explained. “What class are you?”
Waldo had been preparing for this question since they had asked him earlier. “Diplomat.” Waldo replied.
“You have no levels in a combat class but you are a diplomat as a soldier?” Trag questioned.
“When I use skills from it as a soldier it is generally in interrogations, but my personal goal was to try and find less violent solutions to my nation's disputes. So, I ended up becoming a diplomat. The times I acted in that capacity I was glad to have trained as a soldier. Few people seem to want peaceful resolutions. So as a diplomat I have often been met with violence.” Waldo explained twisting the truth. They stood in silence as they waited for Strisk to finish retrieving the knives. Strisk handed Waldo eleven of the knives and Trag one of the knives.
“Six perfect hits. Three near perfects. Two hits. One miss. Ten hits were all very deep. The one that made the clang hit a metal frame holding the target. It dented the metal and chipped his knife.” Strisk reported as Waldo sheathed the eleven knives he had been handed. Waldo looked at Trag just in time to catch his face returning to a neutral state after what Waldo believed to be a frown.
“How is your hand to hand combat proficiency?”Trag asked.
“I am an expert with a knife, however, I could easily swap it out for a padded baton. It would be harder on me, but I am sure I can hold my own.” Waldo said, showing the knife sheathed across his lower back and trying to determine Trag’s mood. Trag examined the knife and could see it was custom made for Waldo and well used.
“Strisk, you are good to go on patrol. Your partner should be ready about now.” Trag said, with a hint of sadness.
“I was hoping to stay and see him fight the reservists.” Strisk said, a little excited and as Strisk said that it clicked for Waldo.
“No one is coming. To test my combat proficiency.” Waldo said, calmly. “Sorry, Strisk. I should have known better.”
“We should go to my office and talk.” Trag said and handed Waldo the chipped knife Strisk had handed him.
“Wait, why?” Strisk asked, Trag.
“Politics, Strisk. Guardsmen are just a little political, which means Trag cannot hire another human. Especially, not in a citizen-facing role.” Waldo said, with a smile. “Am I right?”
“Violet, is our scribe. Citizen’s see her.” Strisk said looking confused.
“Violet is my scribe. She assists with filing and compiling guardsmen reports. She has only covered the front desk on a few occasions and usually it is to give another scribe a break or chance to go to the bathroom.” Trag stated.
“Strisk, thank you for introducing me to Captain Trag. I truly appreciate this opportunity. I would be happy to speak to you in your office Trag.” Waldo said, smiling at both of them.
“Sorry, Waldo… I didn’t realize.” Strisk said dejectly. Waldo laughed lightly.
“You have done no harm at all and even helped me file documents I needed to in order to stay. You introduced me to your Captain. Strisk, you have been nothing but helpful. Please do not feel sorry.” Waldo said, smiling at Strisk.
“Thanks, I guess I should get going.” Strisk said, clearly feeling better. “Sir. Waldo.” Strisk said, nodding his head to each of them and leaving. Trag started heading towards the guard house and motioned for Waldo to follow, which Waldo did in silence. Trag opened the door and sure enough Violet was no longer at the front desk. There was a male Drake scribe sitting behind the counter.
“Sir.” The drake said, standing up to greet them. Trag waved his hand and the drake sat back down. Waldo followed him up a set of stairs and down a hall to an open room with three scribes working on various documents on a table big enough for four, one of which was Violet.
“Your morning report sir.” A female gnoll scribe said, smiling at Trag and holding a folder. She noticed Waldo and her demeanor changed slightly. She glanced at Violet as Trag grabbed the folder.
“Thank you. I have a meeting for a few minutes. Is there anything urgent?” Trag gestured at Waldo. The scribes all looked up and gave a negative nod. “If needed you may interrupt us.” Trag said, opening his office door and leading Waldo into his office. It was a plain room. There were several chairs facing the back of the room with a large desk and chair behind it facing the door. There were two sturdy looking bookcases organized with an assortment of documents. The room was clean and orderly. A couch sat against one wall with a window behind it that had shutters and Waldo noticed a plain axe with a rope next to it leaning against a bookcase. “Please take a seat.” Trag said, opening the folder as he moved around the desk and sat down. Waldo sat across from him. They sat in silence as Trag read over a few reports. “Thank you for your patience.” Trag said look up from the report.
“Anything important?” Waldo asked.
“No, just the normal going on. Except for you of course.” Trag said.
“Yeah, I made a surprising entrance last night.” Waldo agreed.
“Teleportation has a tendency to create some alerts. If Strisk had not reported your arrival last night, the guard may have interrupted your welcome to our fine city.” Trag replied.
“That report is more thorough than I would have liked.” Waldo stated.
“Kna is a friend and Aer is a gossip.” Trag replied.
“I should have waited in the common room. We could have talked last night.” Waldo guessed.
“Doubtful, but I would have known your face this morning if you had.” Trag stated.
“I had hoped this was an offer for contract work of some kind.” Waldo said, frowning slightly.
“It still might be. I have not determined what to do about you.” Trag replied.
“Oh, well is there something you would like cleared up?” Waldo asked, smiling.
“Kna is worried about one of her barmaids. Aer has never seen her friend respond so positively to someone so quickly.” Trag stated, calmly. Waldo knew they were straying into dangerous territory.
“I have never responded to another human as positively.” Waldo replied, honestly.
“Just two soulmates meeting for the first time?” Trag asked, Waldo jerked in surprise at the word reacting before he could stop himself. Waldo realized Trag did not mean it the way he had taken it but it was too late. Trag had been watching him closely and was now looking unsure at Waldo. “I think you have some explaining to do.” Trag said, prepared to strike. Waldo leaned forward and placed his head in his hand dropping his show.
“This cannot under any circumstances leave this room. If you have listeners they need to stop. If you have a way to make the room secure. I will tell you enough to know why.” Waldo said, unsure of what would happen next.
“What, so can you kill me in silence?” Trag asked, feeling concerned about this stranger's response.
“If you want to tie me up feel free, but I am not talking until I am confident the secret won’t leave this room.” Waldo said, sitting back and calming his nerves. Waldo was trying to figure out how to explain this with as little lying as possible. Waldo wondered if he could avoid lying all together. Trag hesitated for a minute then opened a drawer and pulled out a small box. Trag said a command word under his breath and the box activated.
“Alright, we are alone and no one can see or hear us. This better be good or I won’t keep your secret.” Trag said.
“Have you ever been in love so much it hurt your soul?” Waldo asked.
“What?” Trag asked, surprised.
“I have. If I had understood this was possible. If I had known. I would have done so many things differently.” Waldo said, deciding to be as honest as he felt he could. “I thought she was dead. I joined the wrong people to get vengeance. To make it stop. In doing, so I pissed off some really powerful people. I thought my master was strong enough to protect me and I thought I was powerful enough to protect myself. I want to tell Lydia so bad. I want her to remember our time together. Every second we spent together. If I had magic this would be so easy but using magic to accomplish it would be wrong.” Waldo said, with tears in his eyes. “I wish I could just show her. However, the people I pissed off took my ability to use magic. I did not even know that was possible.” Waldo said, holding out an open palm. “Light.” Trag felt magic tug slightly, but nothing happened. “They took my magic so I could not interfere. When they did that I thought they would send me to a prison cell or some equally horrible place. They cursed me with unwanted knowledge I can barely grasp. Part of my mind is still trying to rip itself apart. But instead of sending me to a desert. They toss me like I am nothing and I land inside Spriggan Inn, in Protham barely even hurt. I did know she was the same soul at first. Standing in the dim light of the inn. She looks the same. Alive working as a barmaid in a place I have never even heard of. She doesn’t even remember me but she was drawn to me just like I was to her all those years ago.” Waldo said. “Kna is worried I might hurt her and honestly so am I. However, if we are to separate again I would have her tell me to go. It would be the most painful thing I ever do but I would leave if she asked. I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but I have found my dead lover again, my soulmate and I never thought I would see her. She died so I figured that was it. I did not know about the cycle but now I do. So please give me the chance to win her.” Waldo finished with tears at the corners of his eyes. “Please, I am begging you.” Trag knew Waldo was leaving part out but felt he was being honest and looking at Waldo Trag knew he held this man’s life in his hands at this moment. Trag looked at Waldo and activated several skills he had for conversations like this. Trag knew Waldo did not intend harm at this time or harm to his city.
“For the moment. You have convinced me.” Trag said, still slightly concerned, something about him bothered Trag, but Trag was confident the stranger would be unlikely to deliberately cause problems in Protham.
“Thank you for giving me a chance. I will prove I mean no harm.” Waldo said, starting to recover his composure. Trag grabbed the rope and axe, placing them on his desk.
“Do you know how to cut down a tree?” Trag asked.
“Yes.” Waldo replied.
“As captain of the guard. I am allotted two trees every year. The town allows me to do as I will with the tree tokens, I am issued. The mill will pay me five gold per token on average. However, If I cut the tree down and turn in the tree with the token they will right now pay eight gold. If you cut a tree down and turn it in for me. I will let you keep two gold coins of those eight.” Trag stated placing a token on the table.
“Sounds like a good deal.” Waldo replied.
“Have you hunted boar?” Trag asked.
“I have hunted. Not specifically boar but I am familiar with the complexities they present.” Waldo replied, wondering where this was going.
“Currently, we have a boar problem on the western road and several groups have been attacked by boars. It is quite troublesome. Protham does not have an adventuring guild and most hunters will hunt safer game or only kill one or two boars at a time. You can rent a hand cart for a day for three coppers at the docks. Usually they are used to transport fish around town. They are sturdy carts and can hold several hundred kilos. There are several blacksmiths in town that sell quality steel tipped javelins, for a silver. Now they are not perfect for hunting boar but they should work well enough. Currently, I have placed a bounty on boar kills of a silver per boar jaw turned in. We will even buy the dead boar for one and half coppers per five pounds. However, you could show us the boar, collect the silver, then most local butchers will buy dead boar for two copper per five pounds. Those are the current rates for whole boars” Trag explained.
“Sounds like I have a tree to chop down.” Waldo said standing.
“Out the main gate past the mill and then pick an un-worked tree the taller the better. They pay less for trees shorter than twenty feet and more for trees taller than twenty five feet. If you are willing to search there are some forty and fifty footers out there. I expect six gold regardless.” Trag stated.
“Why are you doing this?” Waldo asked.
“It is not one thing. Lots of little things adding up. Kna is a friend and Lydia is important to her. Kna knows I cannot employ you as a guard. This keeps you out of trouble. Solves a problem for me and if you work hard. Kna might start to like you. I was not going to be able to cut my second tree down before the end of the year. There are more reasons, but in the end, I see no downside for me giving you this chance.” Trag stated plainly.
“Well thank you. I appreciate this.” Waldo said and picked up the axe smiling.
“Good Luck. I plan to eat dinner at Spriggan Inn. So if you get back after sunset you can find me there.” Trag said, gesturing for Waldo to leave.
“Thank you, again!” Waldo said, leaving. After he closed the door he looked for Violet but she was not there. Waldo headed to the stairs back to the entryway. Violet wasn’t there either so he left a message for her and headed back to the Inn. Waldo wanted to ditch his armor before heading out to cut down a tree.

First / Previous
Jori stood at the edge of the alleyway, pressed up against the wall of The Wandering Fowl as she peered into the narrow street’s depths. Humming echoed from within; a soft, gentle tune that originated from the girl that stood on the snow covered path.
Her sister.
Aria’s attention was not focused towards the end of the street, but rather on the large furred beast in front of her. The auroc groaned gently as the girl moved her brush, patting the bovine as she was lost within the rhythm of her own tune. She reached up and scratched the beast behind its horn, provoking a satisfied bellow from the large animal as it nuzzled up against her. Aria’s giggle broke her melody, ringing out with the same innocent tone that a child’s laugh could only produce.
Just like any other girl.
Pain panged in Jori’s heart, a dull ache that still possessed enough bite to make her clutch at her chest. She looked towards the ground, eyes focusing on the sack that sat at her feet. Its cloth had been pushed to its limit, burgeoning from what had been stuffed within. Jori was content to lose herself for a moment, to forget about the growing hollowness in her stomach, but she was brought out of her trance with a tap on her arm.
“Jori?” Jon asked, her brother’s tone a mix of worry and apprehension.
“I… I’m…” she swallowed, “we could just leave it here. She doesn’t need us bothering her after all she’s been through.”
She started to move away from the alley, but her brother caught her shoulders.
“We’ve come this far Jori, and she leaves today,” he said, his tone heavy, “we can’t back away now.”
She frowned at him, “Brave words for the one making me go first.”
Jon scratched his head, “You’re the oldest, you gotta take charge in these things.”
Jori opened her mouth to respond, but froze as she saw the tremble in her brother’s fingers.
She sighed, “Ok, I’ll do it,” steeling herself, Jori slapped her cheeks, straightened her back, and spun around.
Only to jump at who she saw.
Though he was without armor or helmet, Helbram was easily recognizable in a small town like Redhaven. He was tall, taller than most in the village, but not so much that it would make him a giant, and there were farmers that possessed broader frames than him. However, none carried the same presence as the adventurer. There was an air to the man that threaded the line between gentle and imposing, as if he could switch between the two at the drop of a hat if needed.
As he loomed over the siblings, he trended towards the latter.
He may have been brought into the village in an unconscious state, but any sign of his incapacitation had vanished over the fortnight that it took for him and his party to recover, letting the full weight of his gaze settle over Jori as he looked the two over with unblinking eyes. His vision eventually settled on the bag next to Jori’s feet, and, after a moment of study, a smile broke from his emotionless guise.
He leaned against the wall and tilted his head towards the alley, “Go to her, we will give you some peace.”
Jori tilted her head, eventually realizing that the “we” Helbram mentioned included Leaf, who stood behind him closer to the tavern’s door. The half elven man looked at them with a frown, one that did not reach his eyes, and turned his gaze back to the street, saying nothing.
Jon prodded her in the back, which was enough to get her moving. She picked up the bag and walked past Helbram, marching into the alleyway with enough force behind her steps to echo through the narrowed path.
Echoes that made Aria turn towards her.
As the sisters’ eyes met, both froze. Jon stumbled into Jori’s back, but upon seeing Aria looking at them stopped in his tracks as well. Their sister’s eyebrows were raised in surprise, and the girl leaned against the auroc at her side for support. Her hands clutched at her brush, and the small shake to her fingers revealed the trepidation that the girl felt at the sight of her siblings. It was a sight that made Jori’s heart fall.
But she pressed on.
She walked closer, taking cautious steps towards her sister as she held the bag in front of her. Aria did not react to her approach, but Jori settled at stopping a stone’s throw away. She knelt down and opened the bag.
Revealing the bundles of clothing within.
“We didn’t know how much you needed…” Jori started, “and we didn’t know what your sizes were, so we gathered all we could.”
“We made sure there weren’t any holes in ‘em either,” Jon added in haste, “they may have been ours but they should last you a long while,” like Jori, his eyes were focused towards the ground and not the girl in front of them.
Their sister said nothing.
“We put some blankets in there too,” Jon said, “I know the cold doesn’t bother you but-”
Jori stomped on her brother’s foot. He winced, but upon realizing what he said kept his lips sealed. Cautiously, she looked up towards Aria, staring at the girl’s lips to avoid her eyes.
No reaction.
They stood in silence, the air between them growing more hollow by the moment. It was an emptiness that started to creep back into Jori’s heart, a sense of futility that told her to turn around and walk away. She clenched her hands into fists and pushed that instinct to the side, forcing herself to look her sister in the eye.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the words cracking as her vision blurred, “for abandoning you, for being scared of you. For being an awful, awful sister,” she blinked furiously to keep her tears from falling, “you deserved so much better, and I know there is nothing I can do to make up for what I have done.”
“What we have done,” Jon said, his voice a trembling mess, “I’m sorry too. Sorry for being such a poor brother, for thinking that what I had done was the only… the right thing to do,” he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to steady himself, “It’s not our place to say this, but we hope wherever you go you find the happiness you deserve.”
Still, Aria did not respond.
Any bravery that the siblings held vanished at their sister’s silence. Jori’s gaze fell and, when nothing else was said, she spun around to leave, grabbing her brother’s arm.
“I can’t forgive you.”
Jori’s heart shattered to pieces.
The instinct to run swelled within her, to flee from the burden of guilt that crashed against her shoulders. The shake in her brother’s arm told her that Jon felt the same, but neither of them moved.
Whatever was to be said, they deserved.
“The words are there… but as I try to say them, I can only see you as you were before,” Aria said, “The ones who laughed and played outside my door as I could only look on. The ones who ignored me as they continued to be happy, to be loved. I can’t say it, not after all this time.”
Jori could hear the weeping in her sister’s voice, but neither her nor Jon could bring themselves to look back as their own tears streamed down their faces.
“But I can say thank you,” Aria’s footsteps drew closer, “for the clothes… and for trying to save me.”
It was the sibling’s time to be silent.
“We may never see each other again, but I hope the best for the both of you.”
An impulse washed over Jori then, an urge to turn around and embrace her sister, to cry into the girl’s shoulders and let her do the same, to be like siblings should have been.
But it was too late for that.
“We hope the best for you too,” Jori said, unable to face her sister. She went to say more, but the words caught at her throat.
Unable to take anymore, Jori ran, letting the desire to escape take over. She hurried past the Helbram and Leaf into the street, her steps carrying her far enough into Redhaven that they were out of sight. Jon was at her side, and when their sprint could carry them no further they collapsed to the ground, chests heaving as their sobs hindered their ability to catch their breath.
Tears flowed from their eyes, unending as they traced down their cheeks, splashing onto the street as they continued to cry. They ignored the stares of the townsfolk that walked by, too lost in the tide of emotions that carried them this far. When the tears finally slowed, Jori could still feel the sorrow within her chest, the pain that dug into her heart, unable to leave.
But it had faded.
Their sister’s words did not relieve Jori of the burden of guilt, but it had reduced it to a dull ache. One that she could live with.
Must live with.
Jori wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up. She held a hand out to Jon and, after her brother wiped his face, he took it with a firm grip as she helped him up. They met each other’s gaze and shared a nod. They had to continue on, to be the best that they could be, for their sake.
For their sister’s wishes.
___
Aria watched her siblings disappear from the alley’s exit. When they were gone, the grip on her brush relaxed and she let go of the breath that she was holding. She looked towards the bag in front of her and knelt down. Curiosity fueled her hands then, placing the brush down and pulling a piece of clothing from the parcel. It revealed itself to be a shirt as it unfolded, the size only a tad larger than what she needed. It was weaved from a white cloth, and in every way was unremarkable.
Yet the sight of it made her happy.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of oncoming footsteps. Helbram and Leaf approached, and while the usual frown-faced man looked at her with some concern, his companion was more relaxed, yet somehow focused at the same time.
Helbram knelt down in front of her, “Are you alright?”
Aria nodded, “I don’t know if it was the right thing to say.”
He put his hand on her head, “Yours is a situation that is a bit more complicated than right or wrong,” he admitted, “and in such times it is better to instead ask this: did you do all that you needed to do?”
She looked down, thinking for a moment, but moved her gaze up to match his, “Yes, I did.”
Helbram smiled at her, “Then that, for now, is all that matters,” he ruffled her hair and stood up, taking the bag into his hand. He held it out for her to put the shirt back into it and held it out to Leaf, who took it as he walked over to Bessie.
“I’ll get her sorted out,” Leaf said, “now go do what you have to do.”
Helbram let out a breath and looked to Aria, “Are you ready?”
She nodded, one that he returned.
He turned towards the tavern’s side door, but waited for Aria to walk ahead of him before he followed. As they walked through The Wandering Fowl’s kitchen, she caught sight of both Elly and Jahora packing various foodstuffs. The taller woman bit into an apple absentmindedly as she peered into the tavern’s icebox. As she noticed them walk by, her ears perked up, and she met Helbram’s eyes with a knowing gaze. Jahora caught sight of them next, saying nothing but flashing Aria an encouraging smile as they walked through the door and into the tavern’s main hall.
She walked up the building’s stairs and down the hallway of rooms that composed its second floor. As her hand reached towards the door that lay at the end of the path, Helbram placed his hand on the doorknob in her stead.
“Are you certain of this?” he asked, his tone measured, but unable to hide the concern beneath.
The weight of the question gave rise to the doubt that sat beneath her determination. Given what had transpired… it would not be wrong of her to leave the door closed, to leave what lay beyond it behind her.
But her heart said otherwise.
Steeling herself, Aria straightened her back and took in a deep breath, “Yes.”
Helbram patted her shoulder, “Then do what you must.”
He opened the door and followed after her as she walked in, facing the two people at the opposite side of the room.
Cora and Erik.
The two Shade’s were still bound, their hands restricted behind their back with Sealing Cuffs while rope tied their legs together. In all practical ways they could do no harm, but that did not stop the flutter that Aria could feel stirring in her chest. Whilst Erik maintained a neutral expression upon noticing Aria, Cora’s own dejected guise shifted to surprise as her eyes fell upon her. Surprise that gave way to something else, though Aria could not tell what. The girl stepped further into the room, and while Helbram did not loom over her, he shifted his position so that she was never out of his reach.
Aria’s lips trembled as she searched for the words to speak, her breath shaking as they refused to form. She squeezed her hands in frustration, the fluttering in her chest now a rapid pounding as she could not form a sentence no matter how hard she tried. She’d ruminated over it far before this moment, yet the sight of the couple, their silence as they waited for her to speak, pushed all those thoughts from her mind. In its place she could only remember Erik and Cora as they were. That kindly man who fed her, who treated her as something more than a monster to be ignored, to be shunned. The bright woman who sat her in her lap and brushed her hair, giving her the warmth of a mother she never had.
She knew that is not who they were, that it was an act meant to make her like them, to feel indebted to them.
But it felt real, the happiness that it gave her was real, and it was that which stopped the words at her throat. She looked to the floor, unable to look at the two any longer, but took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said, “for taking care of me.”
It was a selfish thing to say, something that she could blurt out without damaging the fragile integrity of memories based on falsehood. She’d meant to confront them, but could only find the words to run away.
“Aria.”
She looked up, heart stopping as her eyes met with Cora’s. Gone was the woman’s previous madness, that twisted look in her eyes as she called her a name that was not hers. In its place was the same Cora that she always knew. The one who always wore a smile, who always looked at her with warmth. It was a falsehood, she knew that.
Yet it brought her comfort all the same.
“It is we who should say thank you,” she said, “for giving us a warmth that we’d not felt in so, so long. And it is we who should say sorry, for trying to take that warmth for ourselves.”
“Live your life, Aria.”
The girl’s gaze drifted to Erik, and she could see that man that she’d met in the alley, that man who made her feel like she belonged, and the memories of that moment brought tears to her eyes.
“Walk the path you want to walk, and let none steer you from it,” he said, “it is not our place to say such things, I know, but we should say it nonetheless.”
“May the Matron keep your path clear, your steps steady,” Cora said
Aria bit her lip, and she felt the impulse to walk up and embrace them, but she stopped herself. Even if they were sincere, she could not forget who they truly were, no matter how much her heart wished to. Still, the desire grew, and the tears started to flow down her face. She smiled at the couple and gave a firm nod, then turned and made for the door.
“You take care of her, you hear me?” Cora said to Helbram.
Aria felt his hand on her shoulder as she stopped at the door. He opened it and gently pushed her forward.
“Of that, you should have no doubt.”
___
Ren stood outside The Wandering Fowl, taking in the brisk Winter air as he stood in the street without a coat. The townsfolk looked at him as if he was mad, but that was no different than the look they’d given all of them upon their return. They did give him a wider berth today, but that was due to the wagon that had been moved to the street. A wheeless construct, the vehicle was held aloft by the crystal located in its undercarriage, one that radiated a green light as Aether coursed through it and the rest of the wagon. Various crates and bags were stuffed under its roof, and it was in the process of being loaded even further as Helbram’s party shoved various bags and foodstuffs into its bed. Had he not known that the magitek design meant that their auroc would feel little of the burden, he would have been inclined to feel pity for the beast.
Part of him still did as Elly stuffed a burgeoning sack of books into an already crowded space.
“Do you think you have enough?” he mused towards the group, “one would think you meant to start a village with all you’re taking.”
Helbram, who just walked out of the wagon’s bed, laughed. He walked up to the Cleric while dusting his hands.
“Winter will prove to be a harsh mistress this year,” he said, “and while I have every faith that our hunter is up to the task of keeping us provided, I’d rather not place such a burden upon him.”
“That, and we’d rather not taste bitter herbs for a spell,” Jahora said as she adjusted Aria’s coat, “a month away from such flavors is much too short.”
Leaf’s head poked from behind the wagon, “Oi, if the plants bite back then it's good for ya, don’t blame me for having the wisdom to recognize it.”
“Oh we have the wisdom,” Elly said as she joined Helbram at his side, “we just choose to embrace comfort in its stead.”
“Bunch of soft bellied louts, the lot of ya.”
Aria giggled as Leaf’s grumbles faded into the background. She took Jahora’s hand as the Mage guided her towards Ren. The smaller woman was all smiles when she looked at the girl, but as her eyes cut to the side wariness flashed through her features.
Leon sat on the stairs leading into the tavern. His hands were still bound, and rather than meeting anyone’s eyes he kept his eyes to the ground. Ren frowned as he looked at his companion, partially regretting his decision to push Leon to at least see the party off. He encouraged it anyways; the alternative just didn’t feel right.
He just hoped Leon felt the same.
As Leaf finished adjusting Bessie’s harness, he jogged up and joined with his companions, his caution towards Ren’s companion less concealed than the others as he glared in the Black Cloak’s direction.
“So where are you off to, after all this?” Helbram asked Ren.
“As we originally planned,” the Cleric said, “we make for Blade’s Rest, meeting up with a larger cohort before we travel back to headquarters,” he scratched his head, “Winter will prolong our travels a fair bit, but we’d best be moving as quick as possible now that we’ve fully recovered.”
“Of that, we are of similar minds,” Elly said.
“What of you? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Whitebridge,” Helbram said, “it was where we were heading before all this, and we see no reason not to continue on.”
Ren rubbed his chin, “Whitebridge eh? That is quite the journey…” he looked to Aria. The girl was not cautious around him, he could sense that she was on edge. No doubt due to Leon’s presence. And given his companions actions… she had every right to be.
As he looked upon her, however, he thought towards Erik and Cora, about how they knew that she would be in such a remote village like Redhaven. As he did, he removed the symbol of Velendel from his neck and placed his hand over it. The matching eye on his forehead glowed with a golden light as he made an effort of will, casting a spell over the amulet that left it glowing for a moment before the light faded away. He walked over to Jahora and knelt down in front of the Mage, presenting the amulet to her. She looked at him in confusion, and did not reach for the necklace.
“I am not certain, but I believe someone may possess the means to find Aria from afar. That is the only way I can think of to explain why Erik and Cora decided to settle here of all places.”
“A Scryer, perhaps?” Elly inquired, “Though typically their reach is fairly limited.”
“For the average one, yes,” Ren admitted, “but were the Scryer a Shade… then it may very well be possible,” he looked back at Jahora, “concealment magics are not my speciality, but with enough of Velendel’s grace I do believe that wearing this will keep Aria from their watchful gaze, though the enchantment will need refreshing often. And I do recognize it is suspicious of me to provide this under such pretenses, but I ask that you trust me in this.”
Jahora looked into his eyes and, after a moment, took the amulet from him. She directed her attention to Aria, who had her eyes narrowed in clear effort to keep up with the conversation.
“Do you want to wear this?” she asked the girl, holding the necklace out to her.
Aria reached out and touched the amulet, brow furrowed as she ran her fingers along its various ridges, “It feels… warm.”
The girl nodded and let Jahora put it on her. When the Mage did, Aria looked at it again.
“It’s a bit ugly though,” she said before slipping it under her coat.
Ren snorted, “Of that, we are in agreement.”
“Are you certain of this?” Helbram asked, “I have little knowledge in the ways of divine magic, but a Cleric without their Symbol strikes me as something of a hindrance.”
“We’d hardly be that forminable if a bit of jewelry was our lifeline,” Ren said as he stood up, “Please, pay it no mind. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to get a new one, perhaps one not so garish,” he winked at Aria, and she smiled at him.
“Well, thank you, again,” Helbram said as he held out his hand, “when we next meet, the round is on me.”
Ren smiled and took the man’s hand, “Multiple rounds, perhaps? I’ve a feeling my superiors will be placing me in a drinking mood soon enough.”
Helbram chuckled, “That can be arranged.”
As they let go of one another Ren clapped his hands, “I’ve delayed you long enough, you’d best be off before Spring sets in.”
The party smiled at him and made their way to the wagon.
All except Helbram.
The man marched towards Leon, who’s posture remained unchanging at his approach. Even if the Black Cloak didn’t look at him, Helbram held his hand out.
“Farewell Leon,” he said, “I hope if we cross swords again it will be as we did the first time, not the last.”
Leon didn’t look up.
Helbram sighed, but rather than drop his hand, he gave Leon a quick pat on the shoulder and went to join his party. Before long their wagon disappeared from Ren’s sight, and his companion still did not move.
The Cleric took a seat next to Leon, “It is going to be quite the burden if I have to transport three bound people,” he said.
The Black Cloak remained silent.
Frowning, Ren made to move back into the tavern, but stopped as Leon finally spoke.
“She seemed so… normal.”
“Aria? Yes, the seal is broken but she appears to be in control of herself,” Ren mused, “an interesting development for one as young as her, but it is not unheard of to gain control of one’s Shade.”
“It was out of control Ren, a power that I had not seen since… since…” he fell silent.
“And yet, there she was, hale and hearty as any child should be.”
“I know… I know,” there was a growing frustration in Leon’s voice, “And it has made me think. Had I called out enough, urged him enough… would he still be here today?”
Ren heart ached for his friend, “We can’t know that.”
“And yet, now we have an idea,” Leon said, “proof that such a thing is possible,” tears dropped from Leon’s face as he looked up, “I was so certain he was lost Ren, and the look he gave me told me he thought so as well, but there she was, in the same position, the same abyss of hopelessness, and she came back.”
There was nothing Ren could say to that.
“How many? How many have I killed thinking that they were too far gone? Thinking that I was putting an end… stopping tragedy before it could happen?” He buried his head in his hands, “I’m sorry Astraeus, I’m so sorry…”
Ren walked in front of his companion and pulled him up, “Look at me Leon.”
When he refused to do so, the Cleric forced his gaze up. The Black Cloak’s eyes were red, and the despair beneath them seemed bottomless.
“I understand your grief,” he said, “And I know that you need time to process all of it, but what you can’t let it do is drag you under. Doing so will not help anyone. It will not honor your brother’s memory.”
Leon closed his eyes.
“Let us make our way back to headquarters, and when we are in more stable conditions, we can work through all of this. We can’t afford to fall apart now, do you understand?”
His companion’s breaths slowed as he controlled himself. When his eyes finally opened, a measure of control had returned. Grief still sat behind them, but for now it did not overwhelm Leon, and that was all Ren could ask for at the moment.
“I understand,” the Black Cloak said.
“Good,” Ren unbound the man’s arms, “and when we get back, know that you will always have my aid. We’ll get through this, of that I have no doubt.”
Leon clasped his arm, “Thank you, truly.”
Ren returned the gesture, “What are friends for?”
___
Helbram yawned as he stretched, leaning back on the wagon’s driver seat.
“Don’t you start with that,” Leaf fussed, “We’ve been on the road for barely an hour.”
“I am afraid I must,” Helbram objected in an overly dramatic tone, “my injuries have left me weakened and unable to handle the wear and tear of the road.”
Leaf pressed his lips thin and rolled his eyes.
Elly snorted from within the wagon, “Perhaps you need a distraction? I could teach you how to use a needle so you may be of some use.”
Helbram looked back at her. The Weaver held the sleeve of a pair of pants in her hands, her hands moving with practiced precision as the needle in her fingers glided in and out of the cloth.
“Nonsense,” Helbram said, “I would only slow you down.”
“Perhaps,” she admitted, “but the company would be appreciated.”
She smiled as they both looked at Aria and Jahora. They both leaned against each other as they slept, a contentment on both their faces that was enough to banish any thoughts of waking them from their nap.
“Another time, perhaps,” Helbram said in a quieter tone.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
He flashed her a smile before turning back in his seat, noting Leaf’s now serious expression.
“Everything alright?”
His companion scratched his head, “Honestly I’m just feeling a bit out of my depth. I don’t know how to raise a child, nor one that happens to be a font of magic,” he sighed, “I’m just trying to process it all.”
Hebram rubbed his chin, “It is quite a lot to take in, I admit, but it is not as if you are doing this alone,” he snorted, “I know Jahora would raise quite the objection were you solely in charge of her care.”
Leaf laughed, “That she would… but still, it’s just… overwhelming.”
“It is, and the how of it all escapes me even now, but I know it is something that we must do.”
“Together,” Elly added.
Helbram nodded, “Together.”
Leaf shook his headband and chuckled, “Well now I just feel foolish. Onwards then?”
Helbram pointed down the road.
“Onwards.”

Hedge Knight Arc Four: The Cursed Child
End.
First / Previous
Author's Note: And there we have it, the end of another arc. Still not gonna get over how I said this was going to be a shorter one and it somehow matched the last arc in length. Overall I'm happy with how this one turned out. It's smaller stakes than the last arc, but I think it was a good exploration of the characters, especially Jahora, Leon, and Aria, and that's kind of the reason I try and keep things small scale like this. I'm finding myself enjoying the character dynamics more and more as I write this story, and I feel like its important to explore these interactions fully to really build investment not only with the party, but any events that may happen to them. To that end I toned back the action a bit, aside from the duel, so we can have a full explosive finish. One that admittedly mentally fried me as I tried to make sense of all that as happening, but I think I prefer that over having action for action's sake.
But, the story will continue! Lots of threads were thrown out here and I did try to wrap up some of the immediate ones, but there are also plenty that could possibly be explored down the line. The focus will remain on Helbram and his party of course, but I do like giving the sense that there is something else going on within the world beyond what the party is seeing.
Let me know what you thought of this arc! Did you prefer this over the last arc and is there anything that stands out in this arc that you either liked/disliked. I'm always trying to improve and your feedback goes a really long way to making sure this is the best content I can make for you.
Till next time everyone, have a good one!
If you wish to read ahead and gain access to the audiobook version of this story, consider supporting me on Patreon (https://patreon.com/criticalscribe). If you want to leave a donation, here is my Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/criticalscribe).

31M, UK. I have been experiencing anxiety of which I believe is due to the way I am feeling from symptoms, the symptoms I have are;

• nausea
• back of neck pain
• top back of head pain
• heavy head (where I have to lay down or rest against something to support it)
• feel like my lips go cold but aren’t.
• saliva feels like it’s cold in my throat etc but it is not.
• headaches!
• light sensitivity (on and off)
• feels wet in both ears but it isn’t.

I work full-time and it’s extremely difficult to work when feeling extremely nauseous and with a headache - in my head I think the root cause could be my neck? but I’m no doctor! I have been and seen my GP, so far they have done bloods - of which are all totally normal, and then they have said BPPV but I honestly do not think that is the issue.
Any ideas, tests or things to try would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Posting here as I'm hoping someone can help me with a condition I've been suffering for nearly 3 months now. I have recorded some information below including my symptoms and current history and tests around this issue. My current theory is Strep/Tonsilitis which then developed into Thyroiditis (with oral thrush from antibiotic use and Thyroiditis) with possible interference from heavy pain killesore throat medication used to deal with symptoms. I'm thinking the next steps are a thyroid scan (will go private due to waiting time being very long on the NHS) as I'm convinced it's a thyroid issue despite TSH levels being normal.
Symptoms:
Sore throat
Pain in/above thyroid
Oral thrush (symptom/condition)
Pain/occasional difficulty swallowing (has eased over time)
Feels like something in throat
Goiter?
History:
4th April – Phone Consultation – 5 days Amoxicillin
11th April – Phone Consultation – 5 days Clarithromycin
17th April – Poor quality examination – 10 days Phenoxymethylpenicillin

• Above heavily suspected by GPs as tonsilitis/strep due to inflammation, though it didn’t feel like it.

29th April – Appointment – 7 days 50mg Fluconazole
7th May – Phone Consultation - 7 days 50mg Fluconazole
13th May – Appointment - 7 days 50mg Fluconazole
*Above treated as oral thrush, likely due to heavy anti-biotic use, overall condition eased but persisted.
Tests:
17th April – Oral Swab – Negative for strep
12th May – Blood test – Normal but high allergen levels, recommended to take antihistamine.

So I’ve had the worst pride month so far and just need to vent, buckle in cause this is an EXTREMLY long one.
Some backstory I (17f soon to be 18) have known I was into women since as young as 13, I had unlimited access to the internet and knew about different sexualities so it was very easy for me, well for the longest while I went by pansexual. I had come out to my mom almost a year ago as her and I were always close, well she just didn’t care and almost pretended like I didn’t. This year however I realized that I was actually a lesbian and came out to her and 2 weeks before pride month, it didn’t go all to well and our relationship is a bit strained but it was fine until this past weekend.
Onto the worst pride month of my life:
Saturday June 1st:
Well comes June first, I worked at 6am and got home at 12, I had a rough day at work and was just ready to relax, well my mom and I step out the car and suddenly I am being cornered by my ex step-father (him and my mom broke up about 6 months ago at this point and he already moved out months ago). Apparently he found my socials which clearly state I’m a lesbian and felt it was his “duty” to tell my mom even though they aren’t together any more 😒. He proceeded to tell her had had screenshots and blah blah blah in case I tried to deny it but obviously I didn’t because my mom already knew.
WELL she threw me under the bust and pretended she didn’t know just to appease him, I was annoyed by this so I just went inside to my room and locked my door. Well about 10-15 minutes later she comes banging on my door and is fuming with me, apparently my ex step-father didn’t want my brothers (I have 4 brothers who are his kids) living with me and was threatening to take them and it was my fault. She blamed me for everything saying I ruined her life (yes HER life, not mine who has just been outed, HERS) she forced me to take down all gay stuff from my accounts and I ended up setting them to private them.
Well later my my ex-stepfather starts calling my phone, I don’t answer obviously so he sends my brother to come call me so we can talk (I later found out he outed me to my brothers as well and asked them if they knew I was a lesbian, not cool dude 😒). Well he surprised me by talking about how he raised me since I was 2, and didn’t care what identified as and loved me regardless (dude never apologized for what he said or did but I’ll give him a pass). Well he was about to say something else, when his mother started CRYING saying him leaving ruined her life, (Yes his mom still lives with us, that’s a whole story in itself) so he left. I had one more fight with my mom about everything and then that was the end of day 1, Yep just day 1, more shit happened on day 2 and 3.
Sunday June 2nd:
So it is now June second and obviously I was pretty upset considering the events on the previous day as not only was it pride month but my 18th was only a month away, I had work that day but called out because after the shit show the day prior I was NOT in any place mentally to go to work (about 80% of my co-workers are apart of the lgbtqia+ community and I knew seeing them all happy about pride month would make me upset). So instead I went out with a friend as we had already prior made plans to go thrifting that day before I had work and after the day I had the other day this was just what I needed. Well it was a fun and eventful day ending with us getting lost and (once again a story for another day). Well I get back home and ex-stepfather is in the kitchen? I say good evening out of respect and head to my room when DAMN I’m being cornered AGAIN, I thankfully got to relax a little before I was attacked but suddenly my mom comes to my room and is furious.
Apparently my ex-stepfathers sister had found out (who lives all the way in Jamaica by the way, and this went down in Canada) and was nagging my mom about it and blaming my ex-stepfather for me being a lesbian and my mom was not happy about it. (Yes she is still in contact with his family, and the reason she blames him is cause he cheated and treated my mom horribly so she thinks he made me hate men 😒).
My mom was mad he was getting blamed for me being a lesbian, and for me being hostile with him the day before and today (yes she still loves him, once again another story, I feel like at this rate I should create a post for these 😂). This starts an argument between us because I tell her he had no right to out me to my brothers or her, even if she already knew (I don’t know if anyone else knows) She once again talks about how she’s struggling with this and I accidentally sigh out loud (I mean common though if you’re struggling then what about me) well one thing leads to another and we end up fighting, she tries to say I can’t be a lesbian because I dated my ex boyfriend (even though he was the only guy I ever dated before realizing I was lesbian and we’ve had numerous conversations where I told her that she made me feel pressured to date him). Well the fight got super heated and I did say something I’m not proud of after she told me to go read a bible, this resulted in her telling my to call my dad to pick me up so I can stay with him for a while (this is legally allowed as he does have part custody of me and I turn 18 in July)
Eventually after slamming doors and me almost calling my father, we calm down and have a talk (I still live with her currently) the conversation didn’t really go anywhere and we did end up fighting again, this time over different religious views and me talking about how I felt pressured by her to date my ex. The conversation ended because we had to pick up my sister from work and we never picked it up again, it’s still feels like she wasn’t trying to understand me, but I was too exhausted to put any more effort in.
Monday June 3rd:
Never fear this is the last day of the saga and it thankfully was happy, in the end.
Well, it’s Monday and I have to go back to school and it’s also my Bio fathers birthday (which I totally forgot about due to the prior days events and felt extremely bad), I thought I was ok but after a couple pride month announcements, I ended up leaving class and had a breakdown in the hallway (I’m ok now, all the weekends events just finally caught up to me that day). Well, I was found by some teachers and was brought to guidance to talk to somebody after I went back to class and and talked to my teacher about everything who offered me her support (she is an absolute sweetheart, and I love her so much🩷).
Well, I made the executive decision to just tell my father because considering the fact that people in Jamaica were finding out he was going to find out at some point and I wanted him to find out from me (I did intend on telling him, just after my 18th in July incase things went south with my mom, which they almost did).
I sent him a text and turned off my phone for the day, thankfully his response was much more loving than my mothers and he told me he loved me regardless, he picked me up from my moms and we ended up spending the day together and later on we picked up my sister and watched a movie together. I didn’t speak much to my mom this day, aside from telling her I was going out with him.
Well this is it so far, it’s been 6 days but I still can’t get over everything so I just wanted to vent. As of right now my relationship with my mom is improving but still strained and I don’t think it will ever go back to how it was before. Especially considering the fact that my father was very accepting of me, and even my ex-stepfather was more accepting of me than her despite the way he initially reacted.
Well, this is it if you somehow read this entire thing and thank WOW and thank you. If anyone wants clarification, feel free to ask and I’ll edit them onto the post. Also if anyone is curious, I am more than willing to talk about some of the other stories of my family (Trust me it gets CRAZY)

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GLOSSARY This links to a post on the free section of my Patreon. Note: "Book 1" is chapters 1-59, "Book 2" is chapters 60-133, "Book 3", is 134-193, "Book 4" is CH 194-(ongoing)
Kazue tried not to fret as the dungeon waited for the arrival of their invaders. It took hours after the message arrived for the first group to cross into their territory. Without foreknowledge, and if their territory truly began where most thought it did, there would have been nothing to make this group stand out from others. They didn't even head directly to the town, they skirted well clear of the trading post and made their way down to the trail leading up from the main road, and then came back up along the trail to arrive from the same direction as other groups did.
The first notable anomaly was in the third group to arrive. Mordecai was examining magical auras very carefully, but even he missed it at first. One of the people in this group proved to have a new variation of the token that had been used previously to summon enemies deep into their territory, but it had been tucked away deep into their pack. But as they had to sign up for an entry slot that started the next day, they took rooms in the inn.
And placed their bags down. Unattended. In a dungeon's territory.
The entire contents of the bags were analyzed in an instant, and the odd magic of the talisman was noted. She watched as Mordecai crafted a physical replica and imbued it with an aura that would look like the original to most people. A skilled mage or arcane craftsman would be able to tell the difference if they examined it closely.
While he was doing that, Kazue stole all their potions and replaced them with weaker variants, along with subtly sabotaging other items such as arrows.
If they had done this to normal delvers there may have been repercussions for acting against these people in what appeared to be a safe area. But both by their actions and by carrying summoning tokens with the same traits as the previous enemies had used, these groups had shown themselves to be hostile to the dungeon.
And there are no safe spaces for invaders.
Letting these people enter both routes grated on Kazue's sensibilities and instincts; she knew they were not truly here for any reason other than violence. But Mordecai had a plan, even if he was already modifying it with a new idea because of the tokens. The presence of so many hostiles was also rapidly finishing off their deficit and giving Kazue enough mana to expand their prison.
The next twist came shortly after a hundred invaders had entered their outer territory, and the first few groups had started down each path. Cold fury bloomed in Mordecai, drawing Kazue's attention to the new group. As soon as she recognized two of them, her own ire began to simmer.
The oni was easy to spot, and they recognized the bandit Akuma's face immediately. And walking beside him was a man that neither of them had seen before, but whose likeness had been shown to them. Lord Antoine Demidov.
Kazue wanted to claw their eyes out.
She'd never felt so bloodthirsty before. When they'd been invaded before she'd been scared and angry, but she hadn't felt such a personal hatred of another person. It was hard to not order those two to be attacked immediately, but they needed to follow Mordecai's plan if they wanted to make sure they got everyone.
By the next day, the only groups on the signup boards were those of the invaders.
The day after that, the dungeon began the next stage of their plan.
When the invaders in the trading post awoke that morning, they found it deserted by everyone but them and the town emptied of all supplies and merchandise. The contents that belonged to outsiders were carefully marked so that they could be returned, but they would give no spoils to these people.
Antoine gathered a larger group together and sent in a few scouts followed by some heavily armored muscle, and slowly added more groups to investigate. The shrines were deserted, and the path selection chamber was open, but the pedestal was gone. Instead, the third door was revealed, showing the path to hell.
While the mercenaries scouted the entrance to ensure that no traps waited, the rooms remained quiet. It was only when Antoine and Akuma approached the selection chamber than the dungeon showed its hand.
Two pedestals that flanked the opening into the selection chamber activated, one of them being controlled by Mordecai to display his image. "Invaders. Killers. Murderers." Kazue's illusion hissed at them, channeling her genuine anger into this performance.
Mordecai played opposite to her, cool and unflinching. "Last night, one of the groups you sent in made a slip of the tongue. Now that we know part of your plan, well, we can't prevent you from entering. But we can make it unpleasant. As for the portion of your forces already inside the dungeon, we're going to be spending some time sorting them out from the proper delvers. Hopefully, no innocents will get caught in the way. You should find at least some of them joining you in the sewers, where there are no rules restricting groups. And no rules about fair play."
Antoine sneered, "Do you think to trick me with paltry threats, demon spawn? We've come prepared to cleanse the world of your filth, and we'll burn you and your whores to ash. We prepared for this, thanks to Akuma's recounting of your previous encounter. Men, begin!"
They had obviously trained in this maneuver as various troops began unloading alchemical flasks that were rolled down the slope and into the awaiting darkness. Then an array of tower shields was erected before several mages launched fireballs down into the sewer depths.
The results were less spectacular than they might have hoped, though there was still a multistage explosion. It did not, however, propagate down the sewer the way that the invaders had undoubtedly hoped it would.
Mordecai smiled unpleasantly. "We've had time to prepare as well. Don't think we've neglected to evolve some countermeasures ourselves. Oh, and Lord Antoine Demidov, I know exactly who you are. Don't think of running away, or I will hunt you down. So come on little Tony boy, show me what you've got. One of my wives already beat you up once, maybe I should let the other one have a go at you too?"
And with that provocation complete, both illusions cut off. Mordecai had fibbed a touch in his parting words, his phrasing had implied that they'd evolved ice mold, infamous for its dangerous ability to consume heat and fire to fuel its growth. In fact, the alchemical flasks had been part of Kazue's sabotage and his avatar had been present in the sewer in order to counter the blast of fire.
Antoine's response was fairly predictable, and despite Akuma arguing that they should cut their losses, the prideful young lord had to have his way and ordered his troops to make their way into the dungeon. He at least let the professionals do their job, and they set about countering the slick slope before they actually descended. The dungeon couldn't interfere with the frame they put in front of and inside of the doorway or the ropes attached to the framework, at least, so long as any of it was attended. But eventually, the entire group made its way into the sewers, the deadly spikes carefully broken and a path cleared.
While this was going on, the dungeon was dealing with its other hostile visitors. The various groups were either at the rest spot before the library, the rest spot at the entrance of the mushroom forest on the combat side, or otherwise spread throughout those two zones, as everyone from the day before had the time to clear the first three zones. At the same time that the initial selection room was set for the hell path, every entrance and exit to the library and mushroom forest zones opened to the hidden paths they'd constructed so many months ago. And much like the trading post, the floors were emptied of contents. However, their inhabitants remained, though they were hidden for now.
Leaflets fluttered from the ceiling, all saying the same thing. [We know your intentions, you have been separated and divided. Those who surrender will not be harmed. All others will be eliminated as threats. To surrender, gift the dungeon your weapons and armor.]
Most of the invaders in the dungeon were in large enough groups that confidence and peer pressure dominated. However, a couple of the groups were isolated enough that they chose to not risk being able to make it to another group in time, and a handful of individuals were able to slip away to surrender privately. The tunnels that had previously been used to ensure a healer was always nearby were now used to have the dungeon's warriors surround these groups and take the prisoners away. All told, they had eighteen people surrender. A nearly ten percent reduction in enemy forces before they even engaged in combat.
The forces on the non-combat path were ignored for the moment, to encourage them to make their way into the sewers. The forces on the combat path and not in one of the designated safe spaces were engaged as soon as their intentions were clear, and there was no longer any hint of fairness or encounters meant to merely challenges. They were harried and harassed, constantly assaulted by carefully timed waves to give them no opportunity to rest. And their only exit was through the boss room, while they were still being attacked by the regular floor inhabitants. None of the groups that had been scattered through the forest made it past Sarcomaag and Klastoria despite doing their best to simply fight their way through to the open exit.
Those scattered on the library level faired much better, but a little under half of them fell before they made it to the sewer. Biblios and Horace were injured during their participation in the running battle, but they would have faired much worse if the merged groups had made a stand. Of course, those groups would have lost more people too, and unlike them, the dungeon bosses would be back in action in less than twelve hours. So fighting their way past was the wisest move.
The two merged groups in the safe zones both chose to enter the sewers through the entrance near them, rather than fighting across the floor to skip part of the sewer. It was a rational seeming decision, but if they had fought across the floor, uniting with the small scattered groups might have cost them fewer casualties.
The fighting in the sewers was a slog in more ways than one. In favor of the invaders, these groups were already gathered together into larger forces, and their spellcasters could focus their defensive spells on acid, poison, and disease. But these sewers were hostile lands even to the dungeon inhabitants, and the presence of literal fresh meat attracted the attention of every single predatory scavenger in the sewers. Nothing was safe here; even the crystal flowers had become explosive traps, and the crystal shards had to be removed quickly from any survivors for they acted as quick-growing seeds that would consume the flesh they had been embedded in. Meat was much more nutritious than muck or the acidic bodies of slimes and oozes.
The largest group was the one facing the least resistance, and despite the delay caused by making the entrance ramp safer, they were moving more quickly through the hell route than the groups further on. Which was when the next stage of the trap was sprung.
Such a large group had attracted the attention of everything in the sewers, which also meant that they'd cleared out every significant hostile creature in the sewers. The dungeon's inhabitants in the early zones were entirely unoccupied, so now Mordecai gave them something to do. They flooded into the sewers behind the small army and charged forward.
The first waves were not terribly dangerous to the veteran mercenaries who were now formed up into proper ranks, but there were a lot of them and it now meant that the troops were facing a battle on two fronts. Additionally, as the army cleared the sewers of a particular zone, Mordecai could send in the inhabitants of that zone to join the earlier ones, and every twelve hours he had a new wave available.
And finally, once Mordecai had sent in the first of their inhabitants, Kazue sent a rabkin to fly to their borders and signal the troops that had come from Riverbridge and Azeria in response to their request for aid. These were the final backup plans if the invaders proved more dangerous than Mordecai had estimated. For now, the two sets of troops followed their guides, stalking the tail end of the army from the safety of the dungeon's normal paths.
While the invaders slogged their way forward under constant assault, there was still the matter of the talismans to deal with.
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$3. : 10 Early chapters, lore excerpts $5. : 20 Early chapters, Short Stories $10 : 30+ Early chapters, New stories not published anywhere else (Until after I finish this story at least) . . . . . "A Girl and Her Dungeon", "The Celestine Fox", and AU Core 1: "Coreless"

So I’ve had the worst pride month so far and just need to vent, buckle in cause this is an EXTREMLY long one.
Some backstory I (17f soon to be 18) have known I was into women since as young as 13, I had unlimited access to the internet and knew about different sexualities so it was very easy for me, well for the longest while I went by pansexual. I had come out to my mom almost a year ago as her and I were always close, well she just didn’t care and almost pretended like I didn’t. This year however I realized that I was actually a lesbian and came out to her and 2 weeks before pride month, it didn’t go all to well and our relationship is a bit strained but it was fine until this past weekend.
Onto the worst pride month of my life:
Saturday June 1st:
Well comes June first, I worked at 6am and got home at 12, I had a rough day at work and was just ready to relax, well my mom and I step out the car and suddenly I am being cornered by my ex step-father (him and my mom broke up about 6 months ago at this point and he already moved out months ago). Apparently he found my socials which clearly state I’m a lesbian and felt it was his “duty” to tell my mom even though they aren’t together any more 😒. He proceeded to tell her had had screenshots and blah blah blah in case I tried to deny it but obviously I didn’t because my mom already knew.
WELL she threw me under the bust and pretended she didn’t know just to appease him, I was annoyed by this so I just went inside to my room and locked my door. Well about 10-15 minutes later she comes banging on my door and is fuming with me, apparently my ex step-father didn’t want my brothers (I have 4 brothers who are his kids) living with me and was threatening to take them and it was my fault. She blamed me for everything saying I ruined her life (yes HER life, not mine who has just been outed, HERS) she forced me to take down all gay stuff from my accounts and I ended up setting them to private them.
Well later my my ex-stepfather starts calling my phone, I don’t answer obviously so he sends my brother to come call me so we can talk (I later found out he outed me to my brothers as well and asked them if they knew I was a lesbian, not cool dude 😒). Well he surprised me by talking about how he raised me since I was 2, and didn’t care what identified as and loved me regardless (dude never apologized for what he said or did but I’ll give him a pass). Well he was about to say something else, when his mother started CRYING saying him leaving ruined her life, (Yes his mom still lives with us, that’s a whole story in itself) so he left. I had one more fight with my mom about everything and then that was the end of day 1, Yep just day 1, more shit happened on day 2 and 3.
Sunday June 2nd:
So it is now June second and obviously I was pretty upset considering the events on the previous day as not only was it pride month but my 18th was only a month away, I had work that day but called out because after the shit show the day prior I was NOT in any place mentally to go to work (about 80% of my co-workers are apart of the lgbtqia+ community and I knew seeing them all happy about pride month would make me upset). So instead I went out with a friend as we had already prior made plans to go thrifting that day before I had work and after the day I had the other day this was just what I needed. Well it was a fun and eventful day ending with us getting lost and (once again a story for another day). Well I get back home and ex-stepfather is in the kitchen? I say good evening out of respect and head to my room when DAMN I’m being cornered AGAIN, I thankfully got to relax a little before I was attacked but suddenly my mom comes to my room and is furious.
Apparently my ex-stepfathers sister had found out (who lives all the way in Jamaica by the way, and this went down in Canada) and was nagging my mom about it and blaming my ex-stepfather for me being a lesbian and my mom was not happy about it. (Yes she is still in contact with his family, and the reason she blames him is cause he cheated and treated my mom horribly so she thinks he made me hate men 😒).
My mom was mad he was getting blamed for me being a lesbian, and for me being hostile with him the day before and today (yes she still loves him, once again another story, I feel like at this rate I should create a post for these 😂). This starts an argument between us because I tell her he had no right to out me to my brothers or her, even if she already knew (I don’t know if anyone else knows) She once again talks about how she’s struggling with this and I accidentally sigh out loud (I mean common though if you’re struggling then what about me) well one thing leads to another and we end up fighting, she tries to say I can’t be a lesbian because I dated my ex boyfriend (even though he was the only guy I ever dated before realizing I was lesbian and we’ve had numerous conversations where I told her that she made me feel pressured to date him). Well the fight got super heated and I did say something I’m not proud of after she told me to go read a bible, this resulted in her telling my to call my dad to pick me up so I can stay with him for a while (this is legally allowed as he does have part custody of me and I turn 18 in July)
Eventually after slamming doors and me almost calling my father, we calm down and have a talk (I still live with her currently) the conversation didn’t really go anywhere and we did end up fighting again, this time over different religious views and me talking about how I felt pressured by her to date my ex. The conversation ended because we had to pick up my sister from work and we never picked it up again, it’s still feels like she wasn’t trying to understand me, but I was too exhausted to put any more effort in.
Monday June 3rd:
Never fear this is the last day of the saga and it thankfully was happy, in the end.
Well, it’s Monday and I have to go back to school and it’s also my Bio fathers birthday (which I totally forgot about due to the prior days events and felt extremely bad), I thought I was ok but after a couple pride month announcements, I ended up leaving class and had a breakdown in the hallway (I’m ok now, all the weekends events just finally caught up to me that day). Well, I was found by some teachers and was brought to guidance to talk to somebody after I went back to class and and talked to my teacher about everything who offered me her support (she is an absolute sweetheart, and I love her so much🩷).
Well, I made the executive decision to just tell my father because considering the fact that people in Jamaica were finding out he was going to find out at some point and I wanted him to find out from me (I did intend on telling him, just after my 18th in July incase things went south with my mom, which they almost did).
I sent him a text and turned off my phone for the day, thankfully his response was much more loving than my mothers and he told me he loved me regardless, he picked me up from my moms and we ended up spending the day together and later on we picked up my sister and watched a movie together. I didn’t speak much to my mom this day, aside from telling her I was going out with him.
Well this is it so far, it’s been 6 days but I still can’t get over everything so I just wanted to vent. As of right now my relationship with my mom is improving but still strained and I don’t think it will ever go back to how it was before. Especially considering the fact that my father was very accepting of me, and even my ex-stepfather was more accepting of me than her despite the way he initially reacted.
Well, this is it if you somehow read this entire thing and thank WOW and thank you. If anyone wants clarification, feel free to ask and I’ll edit them onto the post. Also if anyone is curious, I am more than willing to talk about some of the other stories of my family (Trust me it gets CRAZY)

The IVth Legion stands before their gene-mother, by her side was her diplomat and lover. She looked upon them with disappointment and rage after observing them in combat.
Petra: That was pathetic.
Such few words yet they were cutting.
Petra: Your performance out there was worse than worthless. How dare you call yourselves my sons when it took you too long to capture a world. Scolding you is not enough, the weakness within you must be purged.
Aristides looked at her in disbelief, then he saw the serfs holding bundles of straw. Before she could speak he put a hand on her gauntlet. Petra looked to him and he shook his head. A signal that while he’ll not speak against her here, they will discuss it later.
Petra: Hmph. You’re all dismissed, we shall speak later.
The two retired to their chambers.
Aristides: Beloved, surely you were not suggesting decimation.
Petra:And what if I was.
Aristides: That’s barbaric.
Petra: IT IS NECESSARY! They call themselves my sons yet cannot capture a planet within the time allotted. Such weakness cannot be tolerated.
Aristides: Weakness? They are good men, skilled in the art of siegecraft.
Petra: It’s not enough, these are supposed to be the finest warriors crafted with my blue print. I have taken city states with dregs. And yet they cannot fulfill such simple expectations!
Aristides listened to her, Petra’s pride was always a festering wound in her soul. She pressured herself too much, but that’s part of the reason why he said yes to joining her on the crusade. He doesn’t attempt to touch her, not when she gets like this.
Aristides: My love, you are brilliant. The most brilliant woman I’ve ever met and had the pleasure to work with and love. You know that each and every Astartes is an investment, the time, training, and resources would make even losing a tenth of the legion not worth it.
Petra: And yet that tenth will continue to hold back the rest. They need to be better.
Aristides: They are your sons my love.
He approached her and stood by her side. He understood her mind better than anyone else, she saw her own inadequacies in those she deemed the lesser among her sons. But he saw the potential they still held and to lose them would be a huge loss.
Aristides: They are perfectionists, I can see it in the way they look at you. Ashamed they could not live up to your standards. So I suggest rewarding those who show significant improvement or perform exceptionally well under pressure should be publicly recognized. This would encourage a culture of continuous improvement and competition, but in a positive and constructive manner.Implement a rigorous training and mentoring program for underperforming soldiers, led by the best warriors of the legion. This would ensure that even the weakest members are brought up to a higher standard, ultimately enhancing the legion’s overall combat effectiveness.Instead of decimation, introduce a performance improvement plan that involves reassignment of weaker soldiers to support roles where they can still contribute effectively while undergoing additional training. This ensures that every Marine remains a valuable asset to the legion.
Petra: How long have you been thinking of this?
Aristides: Since we left Terra.
Petra:…I will think about this.
Aristides: That’s all I ask beloved, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Petra: I suppose…And if your plan doesn’t work.
Aristides: Then I will no longer object.
Petra knew this man better than anyone, she wasn’t good with anything social. Oftentimes the subtleties of his emotions escape her, but she knew that he abhorred the loss of life. It’s only for his sake that she even entertains these notions without cracking his skull. And he was brilliant, he understood people better than she did. She certainly saw right through her, she could care less for their happiness. But she could not argue with the efficiency of the strategy. Petra looked to Aristides as he held her hand. Petra placed a hand on his cheek, she knelt and touched her forehead to his. Today he saved the legions life, tomorrow will tell how it goes.

So I’ve had the worst pride month so far and just need to vent, buckle in cause this is an EXTREMLY long one.
Some backstory I (17f soon to be 18) have known I was into women since as young as 13, I had unlimited access to the internet and knew about different sexualities so it was very easy for me, well for the longest while I went by pansexual. I had come out to my mom almost a year ago as her and I were always close, well she just didn’t care and almost pretended like I didn’t. This year however I realized that I was actually a lesbian and came out to her and 2 weeks before pride month, it didn’t go all to well and our relationship is a bit strained but it was fine until this past weekend.
Onto the worst pride month of my life:
Saturday June 1st:
Well comes June first, I worked at 6am and got home at 12, I had a rough day at work and was just ready to relax, well my mom and I step out the car and suddenly I am being cornered by my ex step-father (him and my mom broke up about 6 months ago at this point and he already moved out months ago). Apparently he found my socials which clearly state I’m a lesbian and felt it was his “duty” to tell my mom even though they aren’t together any more 😒. He proceeded to tell her had had screenshots and blah blah blah in case I tried to deny it but obviously I didn’t because my mom already knew.
WELL she threw me under the bust and pretended she didn’t know just to appease him, I was annoyed by this so I just went inside to my room and locked my door. Well about 10-15 minutes later she comes banging on my door and is fuming with me, apparently my ex step-father didn’t want my brothers (I have 4 brothers who are his kids) living with me and was threatening to take them and it was my fault. She blamed me for everything saying I ruined her life (yes HER life, not mine who has just been outed, HERS) she forced me to take down all gay stuff from my accounts and I ended up setting them to private them.
Well later my my ex-stepfather starts calling my phone, I don’t answer obviously so he sends my brother to come call me so we can talk (I later found out he outed me to my brothers as well and asked them if they knew I was a lesbian, not cool dude 😒). Well he surprised me by talking about how he raised me since I was 2, and didn’t care what identified as and loved me regardless (dude never apologized for what he said or did but I’ll give him a pass). Well he was about to say something else, when his mother started CRYING saying him leaving ruined her life, (Yes his mom still lives with us, that’s a whole story in itself) so he left. I had one more fight with my mom about everything and then that was the end of day 1, Yep just day 1, more shit happened on day 2 and 3.
Sunday June 2nd:
So it is now June second and obviously I was pretty upset considering the events on the previous day as not only was it pride month but my 18th was only a month away, I had work that day but called out because after the shit show the day prior I was NOT in any place mentally to go to work (about 80% of my co-workers are apart of the lgbtqia+ community and I knew seeing them all happy about pride month would make me upset). So instead I went out with a friend as we had already prior made plans to go thrifting that day before I had work and after the day I had the other day this was just what I needed. Well it was a fun and eventful day ending with us getting lost and (once again a story for another day). Well I get back home and ex-stepfather is in the kitchen? I say good evening out of respect and head to my room when DAMN I’m being cornered AGAIN, I thankfully got to relax a little before I was attacked but suddenly my mom comes to my room and is furious.
Apparently my ex-stepfathers sister had found out (who lives all the way in Jamaica by the way, and this went down in Canada) and was nagging my mom about it and blaming my ex-stepfather for me being a lesbian and my mom was not happy about it. (Yes she is still in contact with his family, and the reason she blames him is cause he cheated and treated my mom horribly so she thinks he made me hate men 😒).
My mom was mad he was getting blamed for me being a lesbian, and for me being hostile with him the day before and today (yes she still loves him, once again another story, I feel like at this rate I should create a post for these 😂). This starts an argument between us because I tell her he had no right to out me to my brothers or her, even if she already knew (I don’t know if anyone else knows) She once again talks about how she’s struggling with this and I accidentally sigh out loud (I mean common though if you’re struggling then what about me) well one thing leads to another and we end up fighting, she tries to say I can’t be a lesbian because I dated my ex boyfriend (even though he was the only guy I ever dated before realizing I was lesbian and we’ve had numerous conversations where I told her that she made me feel pressured to date him). Well the fight got super heated and I did say something I’m not proud of after she told me to go read a bible, this resulted in her telling my to call my dad to pick me up so I can stay with him for a while (this is legally allowed as he does have part custody of me and I turn 18 in July)
Eventually after slamming doors and me almost calling my father, we calm down and have a talk (I still live with her currently) the conversation didn’t really go anywhere and we did end up fighting again, this time over different religious views and me talking about how I felt pressured by her to date my ex. The conversation ended because we had to pick up my sister from work and we never picked it up again, it’s still feels like she wasn’t trying to understand me, but I was too exhausted to put any more effort in.
Monday June 3rd:
Never fear this is the last day of the saga and it thankfully was happy, in the end.
Well, it’s Monday and I have to go back to school and it’s also my Bio fathers birthday (which I totally forgot about due to the prior days events and felt extremely bad), I thought I was ok but after a couple pride month announcements, I ended up leaving class and had a breakdown in the hallway (I’m ok now, all the weekends events just finally caught up to me that day). Well, I was found by some teachers and was brought to guidance to talk to somebody after I went back to class and and talked to my teacher about everything who offered me her support (she is an absolute sweetheart, and I love her so much🩷).
Well, I made the executive decision to just tell my father because considering the fact that people in Jamaica were finding out he was going to find out at some point and I wanted him to find out from me (I did intend on telling him, just after my 18th in July incase things went south with my mom, which they almost did).
I sent him a text and turned off my phone for the day, thankfully his response was much more loving than my mothers and he told me he loved me regardless, he picked me up from my moms and we ended up spending the day together and later on we picked up my sister and watched a movie together. I didn’t speak much to my mom this day, aside from telling her I was going out with him.
Well this is it so far, it’s been 6 days but I still can’t get over everything so I just wanted to vent. As of right now my relationship with my mom is improving but still strained and I don’t think it will ever go back to how it was before. Especially considering the fact that my father was very accepting of me, and even my ex-stepfather was more accepting of me than her despite the way he initially reacted.
Well, this is it if you somehow read this entire thing and thank WOW and thank you. If anyone wants clarification, feel free to ask and I’ll edit them onto the post. Also if anyone is curious, I am more than willing to talk about some of the other stories of my family (Trust me it gets CRAZY)

So, I recently came back from a 10 day vacation with my long distance girlfriend. We hadn't seen each other or had sex in about 4 months, so naturally we were going at it quite a lot, all unprotected (she uses NuvaRing). She had a full STD panel done before we started dating and I have no reason to suspect infidelity on her part, I've been faithful as well. I haven't had a full one done in a while, but I hadn't noticed any symptoms, and my condom use rate before my GF was about 95%. I'll certainly be getting a full panel done now, as I should have done before we started dating.
It's worth mentioning that I tested positive for chlamydia once a long time ago, in December 2020. I did the whole treatment regimen and tested again 9-10 days later, came back negative. My GF also has genital HSV-1, but she was infected almost 3 years ago and she takes viral suppression drugs whenever we're going to be together.
My only symptoms right now are an occasional, very slight but noticeable burning sensation during and after urination, and an occasional very slight itching of the urethra near the head of my penis, which I can only relieve by squeezing just below the head of my dick. I haven't noticed any discharge yet. I also had a sore throat starting the day before I left to go home, which lasted for 3 or 4 days, but it wasn't scratchy or painful except for when swallowing, and my lymph nodes weren't swollen.
Given my previous experience with chlamydia and the slight chance of exposure to something in the past (though it would have had to have happened at least 11-12 months ago, or more), I'm feeling a tad paranoid. What could be causing this? Possible non-STI bacterial infection from all the unprotected sex? Not always urinating after ejaculations? Using lubricant that's 3 years old?

I once found myself completely lost in the sprawling, labyrinth-like streets of Tokyo. My friends and I were visiting for the first time, and we had a list of places we wanted to hit - from local izakayas, electric city of Akihabara, to the tranquil Meiji Shrine. Now, we've got no guide, no GPS (international data roaming can quickly sap your funds), and the only thing we had was this physical map printed on a single A4 paper. It was all we had to navigate this city.
That's when I started to form a cognitive map in my head. A cognitive map is, in essence, a kind of mental representation which allows an individual to acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their everyday or metaphorical spatial environment. The streets, landmarks, turns and the relative distances between these points formed a coded information in my head. This cognitive map was helping me understand and traverse an unfamiliar environment based on the landmarks I was observing.
Now, contrast this with another incident from a few months ago. I was preparing for a critical job interview for a position I really wanted. I had no idea what the interview would be like, or what questions would be asked. That's when I used mental simulation. I mentally rehearsed the situation ahead of me, going over possible questions, responses, outcomes, attitudes and actions. Mental simulation is basically creating a dynamic mental model of events or situations, allowing us to explore different outcomes and scenarios.
The cognitive map in Tokyo helped me navigate a physical environment using static information, while the mental simulation before my job interview helped me prepare for a dynamic, uncertain situation. Both are mental models, but serve different purposes depending on the situation at hand.
P.S. The Tokyo bit, well, that was a bit of a tall tale, but I hope it helped illustrate the concept of cognitive maps! As for the job interview, don't we all do a bit of mental simulation before such high-pressure events? Cheers for our brains for having such fascinating shortcuts!

I keep getting randoms pains all over head ear pressure and popping ears and legs too like a zinger pain

Hi everyone! I have a question about sodium. Dont know if this is the right subreddit.
So about 2 years ago I had discovered i had metabolic disorder, with pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, and obese. I went all in and changed my lifestyle complete, started losing weight, weight lifting 5x a week and about 4 months ago started running 1-2x times a week. I also decreased my salt intake!
I lost about 28kg. Suuper happy and feel great. All my bloodwork came back perfect for the first time except my sodium which was low. 133mmol to be precise. My potassium was fine, if anything on the higher end.
After i saw the results abiut a week ago, i increased salt in my food and started the day with lemon salt water.
I have had dizzy spells in the gym in general, after i would get up too fast or i pushed myself a tad too far but 2 days ago it was bad and i wasnt recovering. So i had a sports drink and redid my sodium abiut 2 hours later it was in healthy range 138mmol. (Doctor said if i felt this again to go to the ER).
I do drink a good amount of water but nothing more than i used to. I just feel like i dont know how to approach this and im not getting concrete information anywhere. Today i had electrolytes when i woke up and we went to the beach (no workout, same water intake and was in the sun for only about 20min and no sweat). We had lunch locally and when i came home i am a bit nauseous and have pressure in my head. Just had more electrolytes.
I eat a flexible diet not keto and no intermitent fasting.
I am also anxious prone and might be overthinking this but i dont know what to do. And today might be completely irrelavant to sodium. Does anyone have any experience or insight?

As the sun sets, painting the sky in fiery tones, I waited by the roadside as you instructed. That’s when I heard the rumble of an old Bronco. As it quickly approached me with its top off, my eyes were glued as the rugged driver was revealed. During our conversation prior to this meet up you had sent me pictures but I had no idea how attractive you’d be in real life. You stop right next to my car and signaled me to get in. No questions were asked. No words were exchanged. I immediately feel a rush of excitement and anticipation as I hop into the vintage ride, ready for a casual encounter. I sat in your passenger seat as the fresh, cool spring air brushed against my skin. You mentioned a hidden spot and I trusted you. So I sat back and enjoyed the ride when suddenly, without warning, you veered off the road, jumping the curb and going around a gate blocking car access. The sudden movement caused everything, including me, to shift in your car, and instinctively, I found myself grabbing onto your thigh. You remained focused on the road, flashing a smirk as my hand lingered there. Before I could retract it, you guided it up to your crotch. I couldn't help but notice the thickness beneath your pants as my hand rested there. What turned me on more was the heat radiating from the blood pumping through your veins. My mouth watered…. The sun had completely set. The road, flanked by trees casting shadows, your old bronco left a trail of dust behind us as we hurried along. My anxiety spiked as we approached a sharp curve, fearing we might end up in a canal. Thankfully, you began to slow down just in time, revealing a clearing near the curve. Stopping at the sharp curb, you backed into the clearing surrounded by trees. The last couple of minutes seemed chaotic but now we were surrounded by calmness. I glanced up and noticed a splatter of twinkling lights, adding a touch of magic to our adventure. "Hop to the back," you instructed, drawing my attention to the worn-out leather seats. But before I could comply, you paused, pulling out a blanket and spreading it out for me. Typically, encounters like these were quick "cum and go" affairs, but this felt different. I moved to the back, settling in the middle as you requested, my nerves tingling with anticipation. Without warning, you leaned over from the front seat and kissed me passionately, igniting a fire within me. You sensually held my face as your warm tongue brushed up against mine. I felt flushed, motionless, and ready to be yours. You stood up, you began to undress in front of me, prompting my curiousty, "What are you doing?" I had never encouraged full nudity for public play; it felt too risky. “We're good, no one drives back here," you reassured me confidently, leaving me no choice but to trust you. You place both feet beside me as you prop yourself up, placing your elbows on the back beam of your Bronco and lean back. Dangling in front of my face is your long semi hard, uncircumcised dick. You close your eyes, lean your head back and tell me, “show me what that mouth can do." I wanted to tease you a bit, so I spent some time kissing your thighs, getting closer and closer to your balls. You let out soft moans as my mouth traveled all over your lower body. Then, I put one of your balls into my mouth, swishing it around inside before switching to the other one. Meanwhile, I stroked your thighs with my hands. Your breathing became heavy as I managed to fit both your balls into my mouth at once. Tenderly, I licked your balls while warming them up with my hot mouth. Using my tongue, I moved them all around, my lips completely taking your entire sack, up to the root of your cock, which had become hard as a rock. My hands began to stroke your cock. I pulled your member up with one hand and held it against my lips. It was dripping in glossy precum. I brush your head against my lips tasking your bitter-sweetness. I pressed my lips against your head and push your skin back as your cock traveled down my throat. You let out a loud moan letting me know how much you were enjoying my mouth. I look up as I feel you looking down at me. I pull your drenched cock out of my mouth and swipe my tongue over your pee hole. Keeping my eyes locked on yours, I slip your head back into my mouth and push down until my lips press against your base. This drives you insane! “I can tell you love sucking dick.” I grab onto each side of your hips and guide your body toward my face. I want to ensure your entire shaft is snugly nestled down my throat. Your head breaks past the throat barrier. You're so deep in my mouth that your balls are slipping inside my mouth. "Oh fuck!" you shout. "You like this dick, don't you?" Holding your dick down my throat, I couldn't speak, but I did verbally answer, "Mhm," slowly and as loud as I could. This sends vibrations through your cock, even making your balls tingle. "Oh fuck, you're going to make me cum." You have the perfect bubble butt, and I wanted to make sure to rim you for the first time. I grab your hips and signal for you to turn around. You pause for a moment, nervously turning around. Your perfectly smooth butt is ready to be tongue-fucked. I'm afraid I might be suffocated by your ass. I asked you to lean forward while I spread your cheeks, looking for your puckered hole. I lean in and take my first lick, before pushing my face forward deep in between your cheeks as my tongue circulated your hole all while I played with your dick. A few seconds later I heard you say, “oh I fucked up” I was confused what could have gone wrong. I didn’t stop making out with your hole, when I felt your hot-gooey cum on my hand. You were embarrassed to admit you had cum, and cummed quickly. You stood there motionless for a moment. Then you collapsed next to me and apologizing. I didn’t care, I had done my job. You quickly began to dress yourself when I asked, “can you rate my mouth?” You embarrassedly answered, “Are you kidding? You made me cum quick. I’d give you a higher score than 10 if I could.”

Hi all! I have a rain bird system installed with the pro 100 valves I think they’re called. After a home renovation, our garden beds were pretty much destroyed and the drip system is gone the main lines to all the beds are there as I can see the water leaking out of them.
My question is, do these valves need some sort of back pressure? Every other zone valve is working (all to k-rain heads) the one zone that is always flowing (pulsating) even with the solenoid off and water just pouring out of the lines that are open in the beds. Does the open ends matter? I figured the valve would not care about what’s downstream of it.
Going to plug them and see if that helps. Thanks in advance!