Sorry if this has been brought up before, but I just got into the series and I started with Zanki Zero and was told to stop playing and go play Danganronpa first. So I just beat the 1 and 2 combo and about half way through v3. I noticed in Tsumugi's cosplay room, there are two outfits from Zanki Zero. Since she can only cosplay fictional characters, does that mean the world of Zanki Zero is fictional and she is aware of that cast? Or was it just a cheeky east egg as a way to hint at their next game? I heard if you have save files from danganronpa, monokuma will appear in Zanki Zero as a random enemy, so just curious how these worlds are connected, or if they're completely different...

Hiya there friends! I’m your friendly neighborhood divorced 30 year something or some other, trudging through life and trying to find someone I can actually enjoy spending time with. That’s surprisingly harder than I thought it’d be lol. In a world where dating has come down to endlessly swiping through apps, actually finding someone then immediately getting ghosted after either talking for a week or meeting up for a few dates and then getting ghosted, or being friends who diddle each other because everyone has been in bad relationships and want to be free to do who they feel like and not be held down (I personally understand this one being a divorcee myself lol) its kind of hard to get anything going or meet anyone worthwhile. Well I’m gonna try again cause I’m stupid and optimistic that this will work out at some point, either way I’m enjoying the ride for the most part.
Some things about me that might make me a somewhat interesting member of the opposite sex!

• If you couldn’t tell from my title I love listening to music! It’s pretty much my core reason for existing lol. I love to sing and listen to it pretty much whenever I can! I am polyjamorous and listen frickin everything and that’s legitimately not a joke! I can go from Cab Calloway, to Dying Fetus, to Linkin Park, to Elton John in no time flat! Be prepared for a man that thrives on a random set of music from all the different time periods lol. The only thing I don’t listen to is country as that’s an abomination. Yall are free to listen that, and it’s okay to be wrong honestly. I can accept that about most of the world.
  
• I’m an avid gamer! My main genres are horror, rpgs, and online shooters! The games I am currently playing are Destiny 2 and Dead by Daylight with a bit of Fallout mixed when I need a break from those two games! Ask me for my username on steam and discord if you’d like to play with me!
  
• I enjoy cooking! Oh that’s right ladies, if you want a man that can cook you up a tasty meal upon request I can most certainly do it. Just have to kiss the cook first (Just kidding lol). Seriously though I actually do enjoy cooking so if you ever wanted to come spend some time with me food will always be available so come get you some grub!
  
• I’m very much a metal head and am avidly going to concerts now! Just recently went to go see Dying Fetus, Fester Decay, Rivers of Nihil, and Cattle Decapitation live so if you’re also a metal head and looking for someone to go see some metal with live I’m definitely your guy!
  
• I’m a very kind and caring individual! I love to talk and enjoy spending time with the people I care about so if you like that kind of energy then look no further for I shall provide it! Come get you some cuddles and attention!
  

Now, some other things you should know about me and things I’ll require from you!

• While I am a divorcee, I have a child in California. If you ain’t cool with the fact that I have a kid then that’s hella tough! He comes first and is the most important thing in my world forever and always. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you can’t deal I’m cool with that. He’s cuter than you anyhow lol.
  
• Look I know everyone’s looking for their forever person, I am also, but don’t come to me looking for something with a ring attached to it. I’ve been there done that and it’d take a lot to make me consider doing it again. That’s not to say I don’t want a long lasting relationship and won’t treat said relationship as an important thing, but I now believe there doesn’t have to be an iron clad document officiating it. If you ain’t cool with that then there’s the door.
  
• I am a highly jokey, sassy, and sarcastic person and that’s never gonna change. I like having fun and poking fun at people in a jokey and friendly way so please don’t be sensitive. I don’t like walking on egg shells.
  
• I’m terms of getting my groove on, I ain’t vanilla. If you know you know so I hope you aren’t either!
  
• Age isn’t majorly a factor just please don’t be younger than 23 or older than 40. Just a personal preference as I’d like to be able to connect to someone without being too generationally far from each other! I will also want to exchange pictures off the rip as attraction is important.
  
• Please be in within an hour of Lancaster PA! I’m not one for long distance relationships so I do require you to be within range of me in order for any talks to begin! Sorry to those that are long distance!
  

Well then that was one of the longer posts I’ve ever made! If you stuck around this long you must find me really interesting! If you do message me with one of your favorite songs! Bonus points if you know the song from my title and its album! I hope to hear from you, and thusly I bid you adieu.

It had been yet another day on Lantica beach for the Crimson Paragons, not too long after the hard fought victory in the unexpected alien invasion. But something just kept nagging at Talios... A strange emotion that just wouldn't leave. A... Yearning. For something. For... Someone. Someone had been at the back of his mind ever since he had returned from that trip. When that Lamia had hugged him, tail and all, Talios felt strange. He felt something he had never felt before. A new emotion... And unbeknownst to him, this emotion would spark something even he'd think unfathomable. All it'd take... Is one, relatively innocent question. When everyone was chowing down on some delicious food Nhak had made at the beach party, and Kyouko, one of Max's comrades had showed up. A Jorõgumo. A yokai with a ravenous appetite, essentially.
Kyouko showed up, by... Crawling down a banana tree. There were no longer any bananas in that tree. Not even peels...
"A large fish skewer? Sounds nice."
Talios gives a simple response, not entirely paying attention. Something else is bugging him.
"Hi Kyouko."
Nhak, on the other hand, gives her a proper response.
"Yes Kyouko, a whole fish, just for you! Made with love! Aoi Helped!”
But just then... Talios gets a brilliant idea. And... He can finally try and get her out of his head.
"Say... Kyouko. Do you... Know where Nagisa is?"
Nagisa. Another of Max's crew, practically a daughter to him. A rather bubbly Lamia, though her words can pack quite the venom when she's teasing someone. Talios, unfortunately. Is not aware of this yet.
"Nagisa should be in the lodge still. Rachnia is helping her fix her swimsuit."
Damn it. He was hoping for her to be alone, so they could speak in private. Looks like I'll have to abort, Talios thinks to himself...
But he's practically wearing his heart on his sleeve. Everybody can tell what's happening, he's a... Terrible liar.
"Ah, I see. Alright then."
Talios gives another simple response, hoping for the topic to just be dropped. But everybody else can tell how... Unusual, he's acting after mentioning Nagisa's name.
"Something up, boss man?"
Ember. A small dragon, ethereal in nature... Most of the time. In this instance, it appears she's in fact, solid. It's a part of Ejders soul network going on in his body. Talios had completely forgotten Ember was on his shoulder...
"...What are you talking about Ember. I'm fine."
Talios... Is a really bad liar. It is quickly becoming apparent just how bad he is.
"I doubt that. You're just randomly asking about the tail meatbag? For no reason?"
Then Aoi the Oni speaks up.
"Talios yer startin' ta sound like Max askin where Rachnia is. Ya doin alright?"
"I am... Perfectly fine. Just wanted to make sure everybody is accounted for. Bounty hunter instincts, can't help it."
A slightly better lie. Still obvious. But a slightly better lie.
"Come on! I'm your second in command! You can tell me these things!"
It's impossible to tell how Ember got the notion of being second in command.
Now it's Sarah who speaks up, yet another comrade of Max. A cyclops.
"if ya had a face I'd tell ya your pokerface blows. But uh... Yer pokerhelmet blows."
"I do have a face."
Talios takes off his helmet. His pokerface does, in fact blow. He looks... Ever so slightly flustered, even. In expression, more than anything. He can't blush, since he has no blood.
"Your pokerface is even worse than your pokerhelmet."
This time it's Safi, a dragon of the stars. Although, currently, they're in a human form.
Talios: "I could kick all of your asses at poker."
Ejder: "Remove the last two words, and I could believe it."
Sarah: "Did that Lamia hug from yesterday awaken somethin in ya? Awww."
Talios: "The tight and scaly Lamia hug awoke absolutely nothing in me."
Safi: "I've never heard a more blatant lie than that."
Talios: "Yes you have. Because it isn't a lie."
Sarah: "Talios. I have to deal with Max tryin to bluff his way through shit. Your pokerface ain't cuttin it."
Talios: "I am the best liar to ever live across the damn centuries. You're all simply fools who mistake complete truth for mere lies."
Suddenly, Nhak appears to phase behind Talios. He places a ghostly hand on his shoulder.
"From one armored giant to another..."
"Your pokerhelm really is terrible."
And Nhak lets out a laugh, Talios feeling more defeated by the second.
"Oh not you too Nhak..."
"Talios do I reaaaaaally have to use my strings to make ya tell the truth?"
This voice came from Rachnia, Max's Fiancé. She came out of the water, having been taking a walk...
Talios jumps at Rachnia's presence.
"WHERE IN THE BLAZING blue hells did you come from."
His voice changes from loud to quiet on a dime, oddly enough. And it was at this moment...
That a devilish look came across Ember's face.
"Hey, Talios, since you wanted to make sure everyone's accounted for, why don't you go check in on the Tail-Meatbag personally?"
"...I- Well... You see..."
Talios falls silent, having been defeated at his own game by Ember. Finally though, Kyouko asks the question that had been plaguing Talios since Rachnia's arrival.
"weren't you helping Nagisa with her swimsuit, Rachnia?"
"got that done earlier. She's helping Cerne tie her swimsuit now."
Perfect! Talios had his out, with Rachnia confirming that they can account for Nagisa.
"Ah. See, she's with Cerne! Rachnia can account for it. No need to go looking. No reason... At all..."
And Talios thought he was safe... Until the sight of Cerne casually strolling along the beach enters his view.
Talios: "...Wait why are you here Cerne?"
Rachnia: "Hey, Cerne, I thought Nagisa was with you!"
"Guess she might be in the lodge with Lala or Eliza."
Ember: "C'mon, Boss Man! Everyone has given a different response as to where Snake is! You gotta figure out which one is true!"
Talios: "...Surely Cerne is right."
She was not, as Lala happens to walk out of the water with perfect timing. One by one, each of Max's companions says another is with Nagisa... And every time, the companion mentioned shows up... Until there are no more companions to show up.
Meaning, Nagisa is in fact. Unaccounted for. Talios lets out a defeated sigh, picking Ember off of his shoulder and placing her down.
"I... Will go make sure Nagisa is accounted for..."
Feeling utterly defeated, Talios trudges to the lodges in search of Nagisa. Seph, a multiversal god, and known as the Paragon of Freedom... Only has a few words to say.
”Godspeed, funny chaos man.”
Eventually, Talios reaches the fifth lodge. Each one before, held no answer. He expected nothing different from this one. Three firm knocks on the door...
"Yeees? Who is it?"
Ah shit. So Nagisa was here... Talios was kind of hoping she wasn't so he wouldn't have to go through this.
"Damn..."
"AHEM. Uh. I was told to make sure everybody was accounted for. So... Yeah. You weren't at the beach, so I came to check the lodges."
A few moments of awkward silence.
"WELL! Since you're here, I can return to the group and inform them of you being accounted for."
Talios immediately turns and starts walking away, satisfied with his totally foolproof lie.
It was... Absolutely terrible. Obviously.
But before he could leave. A behemoth of a man stands in his way. Gonkgar. He himself is walking to the lodges.
"Where Nagisa?"
"Talios... you're not just here to check on me, are you? You lie terribly."
Nagisa's voice is... Frankly, beautiful to Talios's ears. But damn it... Why did Gonkgar have to intercept him...
"I don't even need to see your face to know. Come on in, the door's unlocked."
Gonkgar pushes Talios toward the door and turns around.
"...Shit."
"Alright fine..."
Talios pops open the door a crack, peeking in. He hits his helmet on the door frame.
"hey, no need to be shy!"
"...I am never shy. A bounty hunter is not shy."
He has not moved from his peeking position in the door. Nagisa giggles in response to Talios's very, very poor lies.
"Actions speak louder than words ever could. Now head inside before I have to pull you inside myself."
"I- ...Okay. Fine."
Talios, begrudgingly, enters the lodge. He's... Fidgeting. He has his hands hidden behind his back, but it's obvious just from the movement of his arms in general.
Not even Talios is sure what he's feeling... Or how.
Gonkgar stands nearby Nagisa’s lodge with his arms crossed, defending his bro’s chance at makin’ a move.
"Oooh you don't even have to tell me. someone's in loooove?"
"Did Max send you to me for advice?"
Talios seems... Genuinely startled by Nagisa's question.
"...Love? I... Am not sure... I don't think Chaos gave me such capabilities... Nor was I sent by Max specifically..."
"Then why are you fidgeting like a schoolgirl about to confess?"
Ouch. There's the venomous teasing Talios was unaware about. And it certainly stings a tad.
"Body language says alot. Maybe Chaos did give you those capabilities already."
"...But why would she... Ugh... No, I could see it."
Gonkgar is still standing stock-still like a statue, arms crossed and giving dagger eyes to anything that comes near, even animals. A rat looks mortified and leaves.
"So... You want to know how to deal with what you're feeling, or... Don't tell me, you have a crush on lil ol me?"
It is immediately obvious that Nagisa hit the bullseye with that one. Talios falls silent for... A solid half a minute, at least.
"...I suppose I should get going for the uh. The feast. Yeah. Man, I'm hungry..."
Okay, now he's just getting desperate with subject changes like that.
"Man, you're terrible at this. Want some advice on how to properly confess?"
"...I feel like... Getting help on this matter, from you... Would be nigh insulting. But fine. I guess..?"
Talios is apprehensive. He still isn't fully processing these emotions he's having... But. Well. He finds it hard to say no to Nagisa.
"So lets start at the basics. When you look at me, what do you feel?"
"Perfectly fi-"
Talios stops himself.
"...Very. Very strange. Like... Fuzzy, I think it would be described."
"Strange and fuzzy inside. Alright. So, when you look at me, what do you want to do? Do you think of someone or something else?"
She's fishing for a particular answer it seems. But Talios, oh poor Talios... Is so, so very dense. Perhaps, denser than a neutron star.
Talios seems to stumble over his words, trying to find the necessary ones to articulate what he wants.
"I... Do not want to do anything to you. Obviously."
Easily a lie.
"Uh... When I look at you, I suppose I think about... You. When I look at most people I'm thinking of them."
Dense motherfucker...
"Aww, I thought those guts of yours would carry over into social skills. What a pity.
"Now, when you look at Max and Rachnia together, do you think of me?"
The verbal jab seems to strike a nerve with Talios for a moment... But yet again, it also seems you've hit the bullseye.
"Well... Yes... Kind of. Occasionally."
"Awww. How sweet. They're joined at the hip. Do you want that too?
Talios feels her tail slowly coiling around his legs.
And it was at this moment, that Maximillian, who had delivered nachos to the beach party felt something very wrong...
Max: "I feel like something is going... Wrong."
Ember: "What? What do ya mean, lucky man?"
Max starts checking his revolver, to make sure it's locked and loaded.
"No real idea... Just... feeling like I'll need to be prepared soon."
Nhak: "On the contrary, I feel like something is going right..."
Safi: "What do you mean, Max?"
Max: "Call it... Parental instinct."
Gonkgar knows what Talios wants, even if Talios doesn’t. It seems Nagisa does too.
Gonkgar begins to think about all the times he and Talios hung out together, his true bro. All the times they fought for fun, and destroyed wizard tarrasques together. He thinks of the time Gonkgar wanted to ask that one girl out to the prom, and Talios totally encouraged him to press his luck. When Gonkgar’s mom was sick in the hospital, Talios made sure to take care of his dogs. If Gonkgar can be here for his bro now, that is precisely what he’ll do.
90% of that might not have ever happened in the real world, but Gonkgar likes to think it did… Somewhere.
Safi: "Do you feel that parental instinct because Talios went to see Nagisa?"
Max: "He did?!"
Safi: "It was pretty obvious he had a crush on her."
Max: "Wait he has a crush on her?!"
Nhak: "Well, someone brought up Nagisa... And he went melon."
Rachnia pulls a quick purple string and hooks it onto Max. Just one command is spoken. "Give him a chance."
He holsters his pistol.
"Fine."
Back in Nagisa's lodge... Talios is stiller than a statue as the Lamia's tail grows closer to his leg. He feels a chill down his non-existant spine... It's probably just a draft... But wait. He doesn't feel cold, generally. Or any temperature. How strange...
"Well... Isn't there like... A process..."
Talios is getting more and more flustered by the minute, something not even HE thought was possible! He's been getting an awful lot of new emotions lately...
"Well there's nothing wrong with a big hug, is there? I'm not easily impressed, so you'll have to do your best."
Talios seems to... Loosen up, slightly?
"Oh. Yes. Hug. Of course. Uh... Sure..."
she taps Talios' nose with the tip of her tail.
"I'll be waiting for a black knight on a noble steed. Impress me."
Aha. Talios understands perfectly now... Is what he thought. But he doesn't. He's so, unbelievably dense... And perhaps, takes thing a little too literally.
”He cooked.”
Gonkgar says to the rat. How foolish he was... Talios was fumbling hard.
"I guess... That's my cue to leave... Ha."
Talios is getting ready to leave... But why?
"Are you sure running away now is very knightly? Wouldn't want to run with your tail between your legs when it matters most."
she's just brushing her hair again, her eyes closed, back turned to Talios.
”Man, she not make it easy for bro. It like bro just discover pools exist, and get thrown in deep end right away.”
Gonkgar says to the rat.
Talios freezes. The sharp words of Nagisa shock him to his very core... Because he thought she wanted a horse.
"But. I was going to go get a horse... You said I needed a noble steed... And all..."
Max is looking at the lodges, arms on his hips.
He sees Gonkgar standing guard. Gonkgar gives a slow nod.
“Let he cook.” He mouths at Max.
Max: "I have to give THIS a chance?"
He's tapped into the security footage.
"He can't even pick up on the noble steed hint! How can you fumble THIS hard?!"
She chuckles.
"I don't need an actual horse. We already have Cerne."
Ah. Now Talios gets it. At least, he thinks he does.
"Oooh! ...Why would I need to get Cerne? Can she help with this?"
"I gotta say, at least you're funny... You know what? I'll give you a few dates. See where it leads... If you can convince Max."
Gonkgar silently launches 30 feet in the air and fist bumps before landing in front of the door again.
"A black knight against a white knight, just like the fairytales. If nothing else, it'll be a fairytale made true."
Gonkgar is silent screaming in front of the door.
”Let GOOOOOOOO!”
Max: "Alright then, hon. If that's the criteria ya want, I'll oblige."
He starts loading his revolver with explosive rounds.
Talios, on the other hand, seems to immediately lighten up. He seems... Happy?
"Really? Wow. Uh... Thank you, Nagisa. I promise to not disappoint. And uh... Maybe... Grow less dense. I guess. Ha."
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I have a feeling that you're going to have a much tougher time convincing Max, than convincing me."
Talios's entire mood shifts on a dime. Grim.
"Ah. Yes. Maximillian... Oh dear."
Talios walks out of the lodge, immediately greeted by Gonkgar's back.
"...I won, Gonkgar. I won."
Gonkgar turns around and immediately gives him a giant bear hug. It is pretty tight, but Talios can take it.
"TALIOS WIN."
"Thank you, Gonkgar... For stopping me from leaving that door."
”Gonkgar know what it like. Me have experience with ladies.” He fist bumps Talios’s shoulder. “Okay, you hide now?”
"...Hide? I know Maximillian needs convincing, but... It can't be that bad. Right?"
Talios walks past Gonkgar to the rest of the group once more, unaware of his possibly impending doom.
"He have weapon out. Take Gonkgar second favorite weapon, it maybe help."
Gonkgar holds out a strange... Fish... Spear? To Talios.
"I'll be fine. Although I appreciate the thought, Gonkgar."
And Talios continues walking back to the beach party. And he arrives with a pep in his step never seen before...
"Hello, everybody. Nagisa is perfectly accounted for."
Talios gives a big thumbs up as he delivers the message.
Max: "Yeah. We know. Sooooo. dating sweet little Nagisa, huh."
He's seated, ominously tapping the blue and silver alchemy revolver on his leg.
"Uh... I'm not sure if it's... Considered offically dating. Yet. Just uh... Testing the waters, one may say...You know, I'll admit I'm pretty dense but uh. You seem a tad angry, Maximillian."
"I'm not mad... Just protective."
"Uh... Yeaaah..."
Ahem.
"I think I'll go talk with... Nagisa a bit more. Let you... Cool off."
This. Was a very... VERY poor choice of words.
Maximillian shoots the floor behind Talios, where he would have stepped if he were to walk to the lodges. Talios turns stone cold and still as a statue.
Talios: "Got it."
Max: "We're havin a chat. Ain't nice to walk out during that."
Max: "I'll be honest with ya, Talios. Had it not been you, I'd have put you in the dirt already. Nagisa gave ya a chance, and said if you can beat me, she'll give you a few dates.... so..."
He slowly walks up to Talios.
"When's the duel, friend?"
"Ha... Saturday. High noon. And let it be known..."
"I won't lose, Maximillian Ironstout. That is a promise."
"...Just like I promised Nagisa I'll impress her on those dates."
Now he's trying to egg Max on.
"Ironstout, huh. Didn't even know you knew that raggedy old name of mine. Alright then. We'll see if you're worthy enough to be a son in law, shall we, Chaos Spawn?"
He laughs, no longer being able to keep up the charade.
"Man I suck at intimidation. Hope ya don't mind the hard time, Talios."
"Meh. If it was anyone else, it could've worked. But you've seen how I am, ha! Thinking I could take on Seph."
So he IS self conscious somewhat.
"The hard time only makes things more fun."
And so, it had been decided. Talios now has to fight... For love? Something Talios thought impossible. Strange how things work out like that.
And unbeknownst to all... Chaos is deeply amused by this turn of events.

I was on a train from Niagara Falls, NY when this happened.
On June 7th, I boarded the Maple Leaf from Niagara Falls to New York Moynihan. I noticed a moderately tall, big guy who seemed to be talking to himself, cursing, and looking uneasy. However, I decided to mind my own business and ignore him, thinking he must have been on the phone with someone else.
When I boarded the train, the guy seemed normal—no acting up or cursing. I didn't know where he was sitting; otherwise, I would have chosen a seat far from him. Instead, I ended up sitting diagonally behind him, two seats away. I was on the left side of the car, and he was on the right. This was the first car of the train.
Across from where I sat, there was a couple. About 20 minutes in, the guy started cursing, saying words such as "bitch," "I'll fucking kill you," and "faggot," while holding up a laptop to his left ear. I assumed he was playing games and didn't think much of it. Then the couple started to pack their things and move to the car behind. I felt something was wrong and realized the guy was unhinged and looking around, acting agitated. I felt scared, started to panic, and shoved all my things into my backpack.
As soon as I started to stand up, he caught my eye. He approached me, saying "thank you, dude," and some other gibberish I couldn't hear. I rushed for the door right behind me to run to the second car, but he shoved me aside and reached for the door himself. He got past me to the back door of the car, and I rushed to the front of the car. At this point, I was dumbfounded and froze. Then he turned around, looked me in the eyes, and said, "What you looking at?" before going back to his seat. At that very moment, I was standing in the aisle and didn't know what to do. I froze for 1-2 seconds before he stood up and chased me.
As he was chasing me, he shoved me again at least twice. I feared for my life because I didn't know whether he had a weapon. Everyone in the same car was sitting at the front, so most didn't know what was unfolding. Naturally, I rushed further to the front, shouting, "Help, help, this guy is chasing me." He kept rushing towards me. Everyone was dumbfounded and seemed so nonchalant. I was scared shitless.
I locked myself in the toilet at the front and called 911 twice because the first call didn't get through. The dispatcher didn't really understand the situation and asked where I was. I had just returned from Canada, and my cell phone wasn't working properly because I had run out of data for the month. I suspected we were reaching Buffalo and told her so. I told her five times the train number was Maple Leaf 64. I was panicking. She kept asking again and again and then transferred my call to the Buffalo jurisdiction. I had to explain everything again to the new dispatcher. She said the police were coming to the station.
There was a knock on my door while I was on the phone. I cautiously unlocked it, and there was a European man who essentially told me to come out because the other guy was gone. I got back on the phone and told the dispatcher I would come out if it was safe, and I was assured that the police were coming.
I got out and sat at the front, right in front of the European couple, and waited until we reached Buffalo station. I was so relieved when we reached the station, but then I noticed there were no police, and the guy was still sitting in his seat. I panicked again and kept peeping over the front seat to see whether he would try to assault me again. The train left without anyone knowing about the assault except those in the first car.
Then I realized I hadn't contacted the train conductor, but there was no way for me to reach the café car where the conductors were, because the guy was sitting between me and the back door. I reached for the safety sheet, called Amtrak police, and told them to come get me at the first car because I feared for my life. I waited at least 30 minutes, and no one came to get me.
Then the guy started walking around the car, swirling his hands, stretching, and acting like he was very hot. He then walked towards the front seat, past where I was sitting, right outside the toilet. I tried so hard not to make eye contact. Then I decided to pick up my backpack and rushed to the second car. This time I saw the conductor in a white shirt; he looked like an angel to me. But at that moment I was panicking and rushed past him to get my carry-on luggage where I was sitting. I looked back and shouted to the conductor, "That was the guy who was assaulting me," then made a dash to the last café car where another conductor was sitting. I told him everything again. He told me to wait in the café car.
We finally reached Rochester after what seemed like forever. I was extremely scared and hungry, so I ate a Ham, Egg & Cheese Bialy and read a book to calm myself down. The conductor in the white shirt came to me and assured me that the guy was escorted off the platform and handed to a "mental crisis intervention team" or something. I then started to list down what happened.
The rest of the trip to New York was uneventful. I have just collected myself after that ordeal on Friday. I am seeking any advice on what to do next to ensure I am safe on future trips using Amtrak. Is there any way I can pursue litigation for emotional distress?
Thank you.

I’ve seen a lot of theorizing that in Sonic 3/4, Sonic and co are going to leave Earth, perhaps with the movies becoming fully CGI afterwards. I personally don’t think that’ll happen.
First of all, the ending to the first movie. Sonic spends most of the film trying to leave Earth to keep it safe from anyone taking his powers. But then he ends the movie realizing the best way to keep the Earth safe is by staying and using his powers. However you slice it, there’s no way you could have Sonic leave Earth without going against the first film’s ending.
Second, I don’t think Shadow will kill Tom and/or Maddie. The whole of Shadow is that he isn’t evil, just misguided, and is ultimately redeemed by the end. By killing the protagonist’s parents, whether intentionally or accidentally, he’d be pretty irredeemable to both general audiences and the characters. Sonic didn’t care if Robotnik was killed at the end of Sonic 2, he’d try killing Shadow there and then before forgiving him. And they definitely wouldn’t have their friendly rivalry from the games, Sonic would hate Shadow until the end of the franchise.
(Unrelated note, but Shadow will most likely join GUN, which is yet another reason they won’t leave Earth. Not a fan of that in the games, but I can easily see the SCU going that direction)
And I don’t believe that we’ll have a fully CGI Sonic movie anywhere in the near future because of one simple fact: Sonic has the potential to be Paramount’s next golden goose. And as long as it keeps laying eggs, I don’t see them changing anything about it anytime soon-including the medium.
Sure, Transformers is about to get a CGI movie, but that film’s story makes the live action format (and human involvement in general) literally impossible-plus, it’s coming out after seventeen years of live action movies, which they’re continuing to make more of. I don’t think we’ll get a movie like that for Sonic anytime soon, if at all.
TL;DR: Think what you will about human characters and the live action/CGI format. But we won’t lose either one of them for a long time, if at all.

Before I begin, I’d like to point out a few things so I’m not misunderstood, especially these days:

• I am completely secure in my gender as a cis man.
  
• I’m not gay; the most my sexuality has “curved” is contemplating whether I’m straight or asexual.
  
• I’m not being pressured by friends or family to be more masculine and I consider it a facet of masculinity to be willing to do girly things.
  

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I’ve found over the years that my interests have been what you would call, “feminine”. I’ve enjoyed TV shows tailored to women like Bridgerton, Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, etc.
I listen to folk music from bands like Yaeklore and the Crane Wives, I’ve embraced aesthetics like “goblincore and “cottagecore”.
Some of the videogames I like to play are preferred by girl gamers like The Sims and Animal Crossing, and I often play as female characters in RPGs alongside my male characters (no I don’t just do it to stare at her ass, I hate when people say that).
I don’t watch full episodes of anime but I do watch shorts on YouTube and I much prefer Slice of Life animes to Shonen.
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But sometimes I’m reminded that these interests weren’t really designed for a cis straight man like myself. I’ll see a comment in a YouTube video that will say something like “Hi fellow gays!” or I’ll see some Reddit post insinuating that if you play as women in video games its a sign you’re a Trans “egg” and I gotta admit, it occasionally gets to me. I feel a bit like a weirdo, I guess.

These idiots randomly just threw the entire game at the start for no reason. Our previous match we did good up to losing the trio king salmonid wave. If they really did that cause of me idfk why cause I had the most golden eggs delivered and 3rd most salmon eggs, I was clearly hauling my own weight, fucking christ

Game 1s are obviously feel out games for this team. No one picks them to win but egg will be on many faces when they make all the right adjustments and snatch back this series like they've done in every series so far. Why is their no faith when they've done this over and over again?
Luka is 10x the best player in thes series and this team has proven that they don't die and have no quit in them. Anyone who's been paying attention would understand that they break all expectations when literally everyone writes them off like no one belieing in them in the other series too.
They were just missing good looks and making silly mistakes nothing to do with Boston defense. Holding them to only 107 points shows they're beatable when the offense gets going which of course it will. Kyrie won't ever shoot that badly again, role players won't miss 10 wide open 3s again, Porzingis won't ever be that hot again not to mention the shock factor is gone and Luka is going to heat the fuck up and break their will. When they get punched in the mouth they won't know what to do. 1-1.

Daily Duels

I’d like Daily Duels: You outfit a randomly generated team to beat 3 double battle AI trainers with even levels.
You randomly hatch 8 Pokémon with random moves and abilities (can have egg moves and passives). Then you get loot rounds to better equip your team. For example if I get an TM round, I am given 6 TMs to select 1 to outfit on my team. To start there would be a preset 3 item round, 5 TM rounds and 5 memory mushroom rounds. You also get 8 random berries each round to use that bypass this selection phase.
You start off organizing your starting team of 6 and their berries/items. Then you face off in a double battle against an AI Trainer.
3 AI teams are generated/pulled from the game logs and are ranked by ELO scores for Pokémon/abilities/moves and Starting Points. You face them from worst to best. Typically the early rounds are randomly generated and the later rounds are more likely to be partially preset historic teams.
Rewards are vouchers given upon defeat/final victory vouchers (1, 3, 5)
Candy given to all starters based on their point totals. 1 for 1-3 point starters after first victory, 1 for 4-6 point starters after second victory and 1 for 7+ starters on third victory.
Pokémon charm for one of your winning rostered Pokémon is given after the final victory. For 50 egg pulls you are more likely to pull that Pokémon and have a higher percent chance at locked hidden abilities, egg moves, forms, shiny.

Endless Duels

I’d also like Endless Duels. Instead of facing boss Pokémon you face well rounded Pokémon competitive doubles duelers every 75 turns (stage) based on even level playing field.
You have two rosters: Battle and Hunt. Hunt roster consists of 4 Pokémon you use in the wild to catch Pokémon. If all the hunt Pokémon faint you lose a battle roster spot for 3 duels. Levels fluctuate between levels 50-200 but reset your party as well. You can swap hunt and battle Pokémon every 10th duel. Additionally biomes are for 10 straight floors and maps are available.
Your battle roster consists of 12 Pokémon. If your battle Pokémon faint they are knocked out for 3-5 duels (increases in later stages). All returning Pokémon can be used to replace the current rostered Pokémon. Each Pokémon can be given 1 item and 2 berries, items are returned when a Pokémon they were used by is available for return after battle.
Essentially the game is maintaining a rotation of battle Pokémon and having to fill in spots on the go, hopefully leading to interesting stories.
If you lose a battle: You lose all your starters for 5-7 duels and lose 4 battle slots for 3 duels. Two consecutive loses end the run.
I would say use the ELO system so early teams are more randomly generated and late game teams have better ELO.
The reward would be egg move charms replacing shiny charms and extractions which help you learn egg moves and battle friendship points are buffed to make it great at grinding candies.
I would think about adding in battle setting voting as you and AI can both lock a option from being chosen (Can’t select NL legendaries) to forfeit priority. A coin flip commences if both players lock or don’t lock and one player is given priority to select a setting in rotating order for 2 choices each. Here are the settings:
1.) Battle Slots: 4 / 5 / 6: determines how many battle slots will be in play
2.) Legendaries/Mthyicals: 1 / 2 / NL (No Limit): determines how many legendaries are allowed in play. Legendaries can be given a demystifier stone for free so stats are dropped by approximately 15% (based on Pokémon) and one of its ability or 1 of 4 moves has 33% to be locked during the first 3 turns of battle.
3.) Mega Max: 1 / 2 / NL: determines how many Dyna-Maxxed or Max Mushrooms you can have active in the game.
4.) Lock Ins: Unknown, Options, Secrets, Full: determines your knowledge of the other teams Pokémon.
Unknown means you have no knowledge until they switch in.
Limited means you are given 6-8 potential starters that could be played but you are unaware which ones are actually in play.
Secrets means 1-2 roster spots at the back can be completely random, but all other starting roster spots are known.
Full mean you know each pokemon in battle.
5.) Battle Conditions: 0% / 5% / 15%: Determines if Weather effects can take place for 1-3 turns on turns without a weather condition. Weather conditions are Sunny/Rainy/Sandstorm/Hail.
New Items:
Recovery Drink: Gives your fainted battle Pokémon one less turn to recover. Can only be used once per Pokémon per 75 round cycle.
Extraction: Allows you to extract an ability, passive and egg moves from a wild Pokémon caught and gift it to a Pokémon along with a positive IV buff. Passives have a 33% chance to pass if you don’t have them unlocked. Egg moves have a 50% to pass if you don’t have them unlocked. 10% if passing an unknown egg move you learn it for that starter.
Portal: Allows you to teleport to a new biome that is indicated: Ex: Wasteland Portal means the next floor change will shift you towards Wasteland biome.
Tera Snatch: Replaces old system. Can own 2 snatches: Allows you to hold up a Tera Stone with 4 charges. In game you can activate a tera shard for that Pokémon on demand. Only one Tera Shard per battle. You can replace any Tera Shard for a new one.
Power Lure: Increases chance of rarer Pokémon for 5 turns but changes biome each turn. Only given after a Duel.
Why: The lure of Pokémon is building a strong team with limited resources and becoming champion thanks to using underdogs and outsmarting teams. I think the recovering mechanic allows you to have continuity but also force scarcity.
I also think double battles with opponents being able to switch and get matchups is the best form of the game rather than giving Pokémon huge attack/speed/bulk/endure tokens/berries spam to create challenge. This is when multiple strategies occur rather that very limited late game strategy.
Also the game feels best when moves are within their normal ranges. A normal attack against a normal defense is 2-3 hits. Sturdy is not essential and limiting.

Good marrow, bonelickers!
Early last month I announced the 19th Speedlang Challenge. I broke the mould with it a little bit by confining how the ambitious among you would actually put together your speedlangs rather than defining a number of requisite features. The bulk of this process had speedlangers root all their creative linguistic decisions in a small set of natlangs, and these natlangs specifically had to be native to areas representative of a chosen clade of organisms. To ensure the clade of organisms was well represented, I also asked for a number of lexical items and conceptual metaphors that had to be specifically inspired by the clade in some way, as well as some aspect of the phonology.
Like last time, I'll provide my thoughts about what I think makes each submission special and the features I particularly like. Afterwards, I'll quickly review what was inspired by the chosen clade, in case that has any bearing on what you kind readers might like to check out, and give out brownie points for any easter eggs I spot, whether intended or not.
Overall this has been a deeply creative round of submissions and I learned a lot, both things I set out to achieve when I thought up this particular challenge. I hope it was just as rewarding a challenge for everyone who submitted as it was for me getting to read up on each entry, and I hope it will be the same for anyone who reads up on them, too.
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Seba Bàsa by Miacomet

Gyps (griffon vultures); Chamic, Bengali, Santali & Mundari
With a name including the element Bàsa, I knew this had to have Indic flavours of one sort of another, and indeed it does! This conlang is largely Austronesian in origin with sound changes from Old Cham, but it has a lot of Bengali influence and is well situated in the Indian subcontinent, and I greatly appreciate the nod to Parsi funerary traditions as an inspiring reason for choosing Gyps. Amusingly, this conlang has many features that fit right into the inspiration for the last speedlang challenge, which I find just delightful, with some split-S marking, dative enclitics, and grammaticalised constructions for simultaneous and sequential events, and light pronouns. Therebeside, the historical clipping, CVK syllable structure, postpositional pronouns, and aspectual auxiliaries speak to sensibilities in my own conlanging, and the dissimilation processes in some of the affixes are a nice touch, too. I'm also a big of fan just how the split-S system is implicated in some verbal polysemy, and I really like how the few voices seem kinda muddy but have clear use cases. What really sets this conlang apart, though, is the consideration paid to the effect of prestige languages. Some phonemes are restricted to loanwords from the local prestige language, and one is even only confined to prestige language-educated speakers, which causes some allophony other speakers don't have. Loaning processes are detailed, too, and the number and classifier system also draws nice lines along the prestige axis with a total of 3 parallel number systems, spread out across both divisions of native vs. loaned classifiers, which themselves have specific semantic domains they each classify, and across divisions of prestige language education. The story at the end, too, is a real treat: it's a translation of Hindu vulture myth, perfect for this project.
Seba Bàsa's Gyps-inspired phonology includes the development of creaky voice from the loss of glottals, glottalised consonants, and final /s/ in Old Cham to recall vulture cries. It's inspired lexicon includes some fun polysemy of vulture behaviours like circling = waiting or sheepling = looking for something desirable. I'm also a big fan of kite (the bird) = messy eater. It's inspired conceptual metaphors include dividing the beginning, middle, and end of a process into eating skin, meat, and bones, respectively, and equating head height/position with one's health or comfortableness as inspired by how vultures droop their heads when ill.
We're starting off string with double brownie points for meeting both the space epic easter egg by calquing the Ewokese word for 'outsider' and the empress easter egg by referring to Buddha's Birthday!
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Kogëdek by u/Porpoise_God

Setonix & Macropodidae more generally (quokkas + kangaroos & wallabies); Noongar, Pitjantjatjara, Wajarri, Guugu Yimithirr, Miriwoong, Guniyandi, Dyirbal, Mbabaram
Aside from the one splant you'll soon see, I think this entry gets the prize for the most unique chosen clade by being A) not a bird, and B) not an ungulate. As great as birds are, quokkas are pretty amazing, too. I'm not too familiar with Pama-Nyungan languages but this did a good job of affecting some of the features I've come to know them for, including but not limited to the phonological natural classes of peripheral vs. coronal, coverb constructions, and the word for 'dog' bearing a striking similarity to English. Split-ergativity features across the noun-pronoun axis, and there's a unique set of duals that specifically refer to sibling, parent-child, or spousal pairs of individuals that I might have to steal for myself. The case marking includes a lative case I haven't seen before, and implicates the comitative in a neat way in comparative constructions. I also appreciate the what-looks-to-be resumptive subject pronominal proclitics; very speedlang 18, and a great example of a fossilised mistake, which I always love to see! The verbs also feature multiple conjugations, and the imperative is implicated for its tenselessness in certain subclause constructions, which has a certain type of quirkiness I'd expect out of some past speedlang challenges.
Kogëdek's Setonix-inspired phonology included a /ç/ in the proto-lang, which bears some resemblance to quokka calls, although it was lost to /s/ and /x/ in the modern language. The inspired lexical entries include roots for different kinds of macropods and styles of jumping, and conflates jumping with breathing. Some of the idioms include "pouch-baby" for pejorative "mama's-boy" and using kangaroo badassery as a metaphor for all sorts of less than ideal situations.
Brownie points for a particularly insidious word-form for 'father'.
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Yatakang by Lichen

Bubalus (water buffaloes); Hindi-Urdu, Thai, Vietnamese, Khmer, Burmese, Malay
This one's a little rough around the edges, but it's a good foundation for a nice mix of both SEA features, like the isolating morphosyntax, and unique features, like the class agreement system. It's also got clicks limited to avoidance speech! Diachronics from a proto-lang where considered, and I really like how the typologies of the inspo langs were used as targets for the sound changes. I'll have to keep this workflow in mind! Some of the sound changes include expanding the number of stop contrasts to match the average number of contrasts, or eroding the number of vowels to match that of Malay. Phonotactics were carefully considered with full structures for both mono- and disyllables as well as bare roots vs. compound stems. Grammatically, morphology is mostly limited to a host of different reduplication patterns, which in itself is something I'd really like to see more of! Where this really shines, though, is with its agreement system: nouns are sorted into a 3x2 matrix of 6 classes, portmanteau agreement particles mark for the class of both the subject and the object, the system implicates the social hierarchies common to many SEA languages, and the position of the particle marks modality. Incredibly inspired to pack all that into a set of maybe 36 particles, if you ask me, never mind how it helps to disambiguate fluid word class and how it might be implicated in future plans for Indonesian object-oriented verbs. I'm also a fan of how the temporal question verb patterns like an agreement particle to mark for tense by co-opting the modality marking. We also get some prosody-syntax interfacing with different pitch contours at clause boundaries operating as different sorts of conjunctions.
Yatakang's Bubalus-inspired phonology includes a combination of creaky voice and syllabic nasals to affect a mooing phonaesthetic. The lexical entries exhibit some nice semantic drift from water buffalo activities and behaviours towards more human behaviours, and the planned phrase of hat-hand stroke fur for "suddenly realise a problem, and then pretend there isn't one" just feels exactly like an observation a water buffalo would make observing its human, which I really like. The inspired metaphors are also simple and straightforward, likening roundedness to goodness or knowledge to food, which makes for some brilliantly idiomatic language like "I ate the book" to mean "I read and understood the contents of the book."
Extra brownie points for including both halves of the space epic easter egg to placate both sides of nerddom; the term 'tax-man' is everything it ought to be.
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Kurikiri by Jjommoma

Casuariiformes (cassowaries and emus); Dhuwal, Motu, Tok Pisin
Compared to most other entries, this one's very short and sweet with some Australian sounds and some head-final Papuan grammar (however loose a description that is). That being said, Kurikiri is very inventive in being partially signed with much of its grammatical marking encoded by actions done with the foot, including number, case, definiteness, and some basic TAM.
Aside from the cassowary foot action grammar markers, as well as some lexical entries there-related, Kurikiri also equates flightedness to being ostentatious, disdaining flighted birds out of envy, which I think is a fun thought process for these terrestrially confined birds. There's also some neat phonosemantics in the taboo word for predator being especially difficult to pronounce.
This wasn't the intent, but I'm giving some space epic brownie points for the foot grammar if for nothing else than that it reminds me of Paul Frommer's Thark from John Carter and its telepathic grammatical and verbal lexical expression.
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Whaynisiday by u/Fimii

Spheniscidae (penguins); Māori, Xhosa, Quechua
What do you do when the entire population of penguins achieves human-like levels of intelligence after some gene splicing and they start calling for a language to call their own? Why, you do exactly what the prompt of this challenge asks for and combine the languages native to the homeland of the blue, african, and humboldt penguins! The write up for this conlang does a great job of pointing out what features are from which language exactly, and plays a fun balancing game between some of the phonological and grammatical extremes in its sourcelangs. In so doing it has a few quirks that really tickle the intersection of my linguist and conlanger venn diagram, specifically the presence of what I'd have to interpret as onset morae, as well as semantic noun class marked solely through agreement (which is very Varamm, so I'm not at all biased towards it). There's a handful of fun, rare cases, and the simulative mood fits right into the inspirations for the last challenge to create some vaguely Tupian simultaneous actions. There's a bunch more little grammatical bits that are fun, but impressionistically I appreciate how the more isolating grammar of Māori was incorporated into the synthetic common ground of the other 2 sourcelangs.
Whaynisiday's Spheniscidae-inspired phonology includes a couple syringeal sounds to complement the otherwise human capable inventory. The highlighted lexical entries pay special attention to how penguins locomote with basic stems for different kinds of movement options both on land and in the water, as well as a split in breathing for whether its on land at rest or in the water being active. The conceptual metaphors include a great model of time with the past on land and the future in the inky depths, and the very adorable notion that safety = community, and so naturally a farewell would be a wish of friendship.
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Poro by The Inky Baroness

Rangifer tarandus subsp. (domestic reindeers); Proto-Samic, Komi-Zyrian, Tundra Nenets, Chukchi
Where do I even begin with this one? I was excited to read this one when I first received it, but it was even better than I could have hoped when I got round to reading it! Although, not for any linguistic reasons: the first half of the doc reminds me of Gillian Teft's Anthro-Vision as an anthropological account of reindeers written by a fictitious Finnish researcher rather than any sort of sketched reference grammar, which I love dearly. The latter half, meanwhile, goes into great detail about what went into the first half, including all sorts of motivations or reasons for the decisions made. Some diachrony is detailed, as well as the effects of language contact rooted in actual historical events relevant to the chosen sourcelangs, which is just great to see. I loved the ways in which each of the different sourcelangs were all represented in the final product with it being Samic in origin but including some phonological and grammatical borrowings from Komi and Nenets like the lack of consonant gradation, the verb-final syntax, some vowel changes, and a fantastic predestinative affix that interacts with the conceptualisation of time in some neat ways. All the while, care was taken to do a wealth of research at every step in the process with a fairly extensive bibliography. Hoof clicks all around for this one!
Poro's Rangifer-inspired phonology includes a deer bellow as some sort of epiglottal obstruent that actually patterns with the Nenets glottal stop, as well as some other approximated reindeer vocalisations including what I presume to be grunts or chuffs, both oral and nasal. Care was also taken to think about what a fully reindeerised descendant of Proto-Samic would look like as accords with the included etiological myth for reindeers and reindeer husbandry, but this was well beyond the scope of a speedlang. The lexical entries include all sorts of terms for reindeer physiology, including but not limited to antler velvet, different types of vocalisations, and hoof clicks. These lexical entries feature in some wonderful idioms using antlers to describe social hierarchy, useful- or uselessness, and glibness or malicious intent, as well as an equivalent to "when pigs fly": "to catch a bird between one's hooves."
Extra brownie points both for the nominal hierarchical exaltation of mothers baked into reindeer culture and inclusion of an anti-imperialist message in promoting the research of the under-represented and often stigmatised language and culture of traditionally reindeer herding peoples. Also do keep an eye out for Dr. Dolittle easter eggs: Inky will reward you handsomely if you can spot one!
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Kiwi by NerpNerp

Apteryx & Novaeratitae more broadly (kiwis + cassowaries & emus); English, Māori, Traditional Tiwi, Miriwoong, Bardi
Given the number of bird entries with Indo-Pacific flavours, I'm almost half surprised this was the only kiwi entry: they're such good birbs! As might be expected, this conlang endeared itself to me just as its namesake does. The phonology has all sorts of trills and rhotics, and limits itself to high vowels; it's also got some neat phrase level prosody to mark different sorts of modal information and focus, even including an intrusive glottal stop at the sentence level. Noun incorporation is varied and detailed, and can create some polysynthetic constructions as a consequence of just how exactly the rest of the otherwise fairly analytic morphosyntax works. I'm a particular fan of the deictic categories including 7 different degrees of deixis characterising both distance and motion, and I'm also a fan of of the grammaticalised time of day. Heximal numbers and coverb constructions also feature. There's even a kiwi-capable featural alphabet that each of the examples show off!
Kiwi's Apteryx-inspired phonology includes the trills and high vowels being inspired by kiwi calls and I imagine a little of their anatomy with those long, thin bills. The inspired lexemes include specific types of smells humans can't detect at the expense of any colour terms, reflecting kiwis nocturnal, smell-based lifestyles. The idioms for "a long time ago" or "once upon a time" is absolutely delightful--"when kiwis flew"--and the grammaticalised time of day subdivides the night but not the day, as might be expected from a nocturnal beastie.
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Asamiin by Christian Evans

Asamina (pawpaws); Ottawa, Unami, Tuscarora, Mikasuki, Chitimacha, Timucua
The speech that nourishes! And a splant, too, no less; I was hoping for at least one of these! This one's made all the better by delving into some Eastern North American languages and I really like the flavours this lends itself to. Syncope is abound with all sorts of morphological obfuscation through detailed phonological processes, and animacy plays a key role in the verb complex. Care was also taken to find a phonological common ground between all the sourcelangs, which made for a really interesting set of vowels with a basic 6 vowel inventory, but with 2 nasal vowels that can surface as vocalic allophones to the nasal consonants. The grammar is fairly straightforward but has a few quirks that I really appreciate, including but not limited to the fluid O placement to make for some syntactic focusing strategies I so adore and the optional, enclitic case marking narrowed by various postpositions used as another, separate means of focus. Overall just really well laid out and the formatting is really cute, something I've now come to expect after Yumpịku last time.
Asamiin's Asamina-inspired phonology includes a pharyngeal approximant to recall the really long taproot pawpaws grow, as well as regressive sibilant harmony to recall the mimicry the flowers employ to attract pollinators, both of which are some really inspired departures from the sourcelangs.
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Ekaangäq by Atyx

Haliaeetus pelagicus (Steller's sea eagle); Chukchi, Alyutor, Koryak, Itelmen, Ainu, Nivkh, Evenki, Uilta
A bird that escapes any Indo-Pacific flavours? Well I'll be! Instead of South Pacific this one gives all sorts of North Pacific energy being spoken by a population of eaglefolk native to the Sea of Okhotsk and representative of the languages spoken along its coasts. The Ainu flavours are especially strong with both an Ainu-based consonant inventory and a kana orthography, among others. The vowels also show some interesting lopsidedness with 2 creaky vowels complementing an otherwise fairly straightforward 6 vowel system that feature in a front-back vowel harmony system, though I'm a real fan of the sandhi rules at word boundaries that cause all sorts of fun consonant alternations. Word stress is also detailed and has funky placement rules at odds with my understanding of theoretical prosodic processes! Grammatically there's a few quirks that really stand out to me and tickle my curiosity: a dual distinction on the nouns but not in the pronouns, and polypersonal agreement in a transitive alignment system, the only departure from direct, accusative, and/or ergative alignment in this round of submissions. I also appreciate some of the syncretism in the pronouns!
Ekkangäq's Haliaeetus-inspired phonology includes entirely unrounded vowels and a lack of any labial consonants to reflect the speakers have beaks, as well as the 2 creaky vowels as rooted in their physiology, a common theme for this challenge. The lexicon includes some distinctions between diving and eating as it applies to different kinds of prey. The conceptual metaphor, though, I think is really great equating the passage of time with ice: an iceberg calving off a glacier is birth, melting is ageing, and melting all away is dying. Great stuff!
I think I actually have to give negative brownie points for this one: as much as I appreciate 3 separate orthographies (Kana, Cyrillic, Latin) for some historicity, they are all at odds with the anti-imperialism the brownie criterion requires, and there's no girl power to balance it out.
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Taqồpaq by accruenewblue

Gallus (jungefowl); Hindi-Urdu, Burmese, Thai, Punjabi, Tamil, Indonesian
I'm a little surprised this is, I think, the only truly tonal submission despite all the SEA birds, and it's less synthetic than most in this round of submissions. In either case, this one does a great job of illustrating some tonogenesis and some recent and still very transparent synthetic developments from a formerly isolating language. The tones are simple registers, but they interact with morae in some neat rightwards reassigning sandhi patterns, and they complement a system of 12 vowels in a 3x2x2 matrix of height, frontedness, and roundedness. There's even some vocalic nasal allophones (which is twice now in this round of submissions), and labial consonant-vowel harmony to boot! Grammatically I greatly appreciate all the call-outs for similarities to natural languages, and I wanna shout-out the use of a positive tag question instead of negative. The numbers have this funky sexagesimal base with an octal sub-base and remnants of an old decimal sub-base, which recalls some of the duodecimal remnants in the otherwise decimal system of many European languages.
Taqồpaq's Gallus-inspired phonology includes the tonal system being described as recalling a rooster's crow. The lexicon includes roots for all things chicken, including using the word for 'wattle' as a classifier for hanging things, which is so delightfully what I wanted out of this challenge. The more idiomatic language makes use of chicken behaviours as descriptors: dust baths are metaphors for something useful but not everyone's cup of tea, and continuing to brood after the chicks have hatched is a metaphor for doing a good thing so long it has negative consequences.
Extra brownie points for exalting queen Trưng, first queen of Vietnam, and a nationalist hero who fought against Chinese imperialism. Double whammy right there!
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Ngālin by u/borago_officinalis

Aptenodytes forsteri (emperor penguins); Awabakal, Māori, Norwegian
We already had a penguin splang but this one's a nice twist by focusing on the territorial claims of Antarctica rather than the ranges of more temperate inclined penguins where there are actually native languages. This does a great job of shirking the indigenous implication in the language selection step of the challenge (although I'm very glad to see no English or Spanish), so there's a really neat mix of isolating Māori particles with a fusional Germanic verbal system, and I was able to easily pick up on both reading through the doc. The verb system actually pleases me greatly with a strong/weak contrast and a V2 word order wherein the strong verbs mark tense through stem change and the weak verbs with a tense auxiliary, all whilst maintaining a very Polynesian aesthetic despite the very Germanic number of vowels. The Māori possessive system is also really fun, I think. I can't speak to the Awabakal influences, but I was able to pick up on the one, tiny Mapudungan influence of tone tag particles before it was even explicitly mentioned! Not sure where the negation system came from, but it implicates the weak verbs in a way I so adore. Really sweet, despite the fun grim facts about emperor penguin hatchlings, and I found this one just darling. The myth at the end about how penguins lost their ability to fly is also real treat and is a perfect fit for the project.
Ngālin doesn't have any A. forsteri-inspired phonology, but it makes up for it with the inspired lexicon and idiomatic language. The emperor penguin breeding cycle is detailed with translations for all the important terms along the way, including but not limited to the ritual of transferring egg from mother to father and "motherless" to refer to a newborn, whose mother hasn't yet returned from the sea. There's some great, everyday idioms elided down from full phrases for greeting and consoling another penguin being "which way?" and "next year", and conceptualising a long distance as specifically the distance from colony to see is a nice touch. I also appreciate how the relationship between creche-mates is more important than that between (half-)siblings.
I have to give queen exaltation brownie points purely for the one illustrative example of āmā o pipa "hatchling's mum" grammatically indicating the senior authority of an empress penguin.
​

Honourable Mention

I've been kept somewhat apprised of a Urile (North Pacific cormorants) splang by u/PastTheStarryVoids. It's still very much in the works, but it sounds funky with both some polysynthetic flavours, no doubt inspired by some PNW languages, I imagine, and some formorant (cormorant formant) analysis! Keep an eye out for it, I'm sure it'll grace the sub in due time!
​
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​
And that's everything I've seen in the time I put together this showcase. I know there were a few among you all who felt inspired but couldn't put anything together during the course of this challenge. I remember mention of a banana and a tree kangaroo splang on the announcement post. If anyone ever uses the challenge to inspire a future project of theirs, please keep me apprised! I'd be interested in seeing them if for nothing else than to see some more projects outside of South Asian and Oceanian birds, as great as those birbs are. I can't believe I didn't see a single monotreme or non-ungulate eutherian, and that there weren't any non-avian reptiles or anything fully aquatic! And no fossil clades, too, for that matter! I'm positive there are the makings of some really funky splangs if the relevant modern continental and climactic boundaries didn't yet exist.
In any case, I hope all parties involved had a great deal of fun through the course of this challenge! I know I did! Until next marrow, bonelickers!

• firstly baby dinos, this could be implemented exactly like planet zoo. Just make the dinos do their social animation then later let one of ‘em lay eggs. The eggs could just act like a decoration. Then let the baby’s spawn next to the eggs and make the eggs disappear or change to shells . The eggs would need six looks total. Three for the different sizes of dinos that lay them and three for when they are broken. The option for birth control would be there just like in planet zoo and baby dinos would not count as population till adult. The baby’s would just be a small version of the dino and all have the same skin. After a few in game years they could reach adulthood by just instantly changing in a grown dino with the skin of one of their parents. This seems to me like a fair deal at launch. Flyers and aquatics wouldn’t need breeding per se but would be appreciated.
  
• bigger aviaries and invisible fences for flyers
  
• Natural lagoons that can be placed like a normal one
  
• Semi aquatics that can swim in water you place, would just be cool not necessary for me but cool
  
• Animals don’t starve themselves
  
• Animals don’t just stop moving and die
  
• Have all the buildings from both games
  
• Have the meeting of the elders type socialising back
  
• Instead of having to place a ranger station in the enclosure just select the enclosure or the area you want covered by rangers. This area should be upgradable
  
• Cenozoic animals, I get some people really don’t see them fit and I get that but it would be cool too have a herd of mammoths in the snow or a smilodon on the hunt. What I mean is that for a sequel to be worth it it would have to innovate and a few of the best known cenozoics would be a great addition for me.
  
• a good well rounded campaign in which you can unlock everything the game has to offer as you progress. Maybe return to the five deaths but now you can control the whole of the islands and not only a tiny bit of them. Peña would suck but that’s why it exists I guess. Maybe a campaign through eras or separate campaigns through different locations and time periods. Anyway just a campaign that keeps you playing too unpack another reward or unlock a different dino and improved your parks. Of course you have multiple revisitable maps in each campaign in which progress carries over.
  
• I want better terrain editing tools but don’t make the fences obsolete. Playing a mission which has sabotage or other problems that cause your dinos to wreak havoc would be entirely pointless if they can’t escape because of some cliff or river.
  
• Upgrade the skins so we can implement different patterns and colours next to some presets. The skins of the last few games are really hit or miss so let us choose the colours and if possible in some way the patterns so they feel like our dinos
  
• Don’t let the animals die of old age if there are no babies to keep the species in our parks going. It also makes it hard to form an attachment to an “asset” when they just roll over and die in a few hours.
  
• Scientists are just a pain just make them a bonus or something to get a better success rate or an even faster expedition.
  
• All species from jwe2 MUST BE THERE! I ain’t paying for spinoraptor or huayangasaurus for a third time.
  
• Make marines more than just glorified goldfish and make flyers walk. No clue how marines could be more interesting but at least fix the lightning and make them have specific needs like depth of water and certain kelp or coral.
  
• I personally liked the style of jwe1 better in therms of how it looked so make jwe3 an improvement on that. Jwe2 is objectively more beautiful but just feels off at certain points don’t quite know how to explain.
  
• More decorations and more organisation of decorations. Also make guests appreciate decorations
  
• Make guests see dinos through bars, but give visibility a boost in attractions
  
• More attractions
  
• Fix the four guest types to either just one or just regular and rich guests. Of course the rich bring more income.
  
• Make at least all vehicles able to tranq.
  
• Don’t have small animals transported via helicopter but instead via a truck. The truck don’t care about what route to take and delivers dinos to selected locations no matter how.
  
• Make dinos act like animals and not like monsters. The indominus and Indoraptor are monsters so they’ll kill anything but a lone carnotaurus won’t attack every hadrosaur it sees if it’s not starving or at least hungry that’s just not how animals act. This would make site b parks a lot easier
  
• Make a random island generator so our maps are more unique and personal
  
• Make herbivore feeders return. Just make most of the food come from feeders and a small part from plants and foliage. I’m sick of my sauropods needing an entire jungle in wich I can barely see them
  
• Different live feeders like cows, deer, sheep etc
  
• Probably other stuff but this is what’s most important to me if I’m to spend money on a third Jurassic park builder
  

People have been asking about the usefulness of the Flood Pod Infectors when spores seemingly did the same thing but potentially better. This is a fair question and something I really wanted to discuss after writing the Flood spore lore post a year ago, so I hope I can offer some clarification.
So, while both type of Flood forms were broadly categorized as Flood Infection Forms in the new encyclopedia, both served different purposes, and one type was more suitable in situations where the other wasn't.
Top Start off:

Pod Infectors

Arguably the most memorable of all Flood creatures, the Pod Infectors have appeared since the first game and were originally called simply as Infection forms, before this term became an umbrella label for different types of Flood forms sharing the same function.

Infection Forms:
All Infection forms share several key morphological traits across their variations, each suited for subduing and subverting any avaliable organic targets. The most commonly encountered Infection forms have a frond-like array, which act as the creature's sensory system, steming from soft, pod-shaped bodies filled with noxious gases that allow them to bound over the ground and obstacles at surprising speeds.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2022, p.406)

So, from this passage, we know that Pod Infectors had a good degree of mobility. In Halo Wars, it was even referenced that they could climb over cliffs, so rough terrains would not hinder their march.

Pod Infectors:
Though individually weak and easily killed, pod infectors strike in vast numbers and can move over cliffs.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Log)

In contrasts, Flood spores had no means of self-propelled locomotion; they can only float aimlessly instead. The anime Halo Origins also shows us Pod Infectors that could perform guided flight. The reason why we haven't encountered these Flood types in the games might be due to the fact that the parasites were more evolved and more powerful during the Forerunner-Flood war.
So we clearly see that the regular Infection forms have an advantage over spores in maneuverability, but what matters more is another factor: Pod Infectors have weapons.

Infection Forms:
Each tendril ends in nano-scale barbs which can latch onto the target's body and cut through armor or environmental suits.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Log)

While the virulence of Flood spores shouldn't be underestimated, the fact that they had virtually no offensive capabilities (they are usually just clusters holding Flood Super Cells together) means that decently protective gear such as fully-sealed environmental suits would be sufficient in keeping you safe in areas where the air is contaminated.
Moreover, Infection via a Pod Infector is by far the fastest method, which often just takes seconds to complete. This is due to the far higher dosages of spores being injected by a Pod Infector injects than infection via inhalation of spore-contaminated air.
And yes, Pod Infectors still use spores for infection.

343 Guilty Spark: "You can see how the body has been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate."
(Halo Combat Evolved, Level: The Library)

And after all, spores are just Flood cells grouped together.

Spore:
Encysted Flood cells form spores, which can remain dormant for centuries.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2022, p.404)

There's another usage for Pod Infectors, which is what we're all familiar with: to create and control Combat forms.
According to the encyclopedia, infection via spores would instead turn the hosts, living or dead, into incubation pods rather than mutating them into the typical Combat forms.

Spore:
Spores can parasite sapient and non-sapient species, consuming them and transforming their biomass into egg-like incubators for larger, more mobile Flood Infection forms.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Logs)

These incubators are commonly called "Blisters" or "Flood eggs".
The necessity of a Pod Infector in order to create a Combat form is implied by another passage saying that the Flood cells in the wounds would transform the target into a Blister rather than a Combat form.

Infection forms:
Even if the infection form is quickly removed, Flood cells in the wounds will slowly consume the victim and turn them into quivering, spore-packed Blisters.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Log)

This actually makes sense, since a Pod Infector does possess some rudimental level of sentience. This enables the creature to control the infection processes, while spores simply just convert original biomass into more Flood matters.
In action, Pod Infectors replaces the brain as the host's commanding "organ", controlling all functions, processing all knowledge and experience from the host, and absorbing them to the collective hive-consciousness.

Infection forms:
Though barely intelligent on their own, once an infection form infiltrates a sentient creature they turn the victim's cognitive power to the furtherance of Flood goals. Each is an insidious puppeteer, able to sift through memories of any sentient creature to learn of military countermeasures, security access codes, and the location of population centers.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Log)

Pod Infectors can perform biological modification for the host.

Combat form:
The infection form does augment its new body and repair minor damage in order to better serve as a living weapon, but ultimately the combat form is utterly disposable.
(Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Log)

This comes in the form of alterations of the host's anatomical structures.

Combat forms possess unnatural physical strength, perhaps gained through the mutations of the host's musculoskeletal structures.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2009, p.165)

We've also seen some very extensive bodily restructuring, such as this human being grotesquely contorted.
Nevertheless, there are a few instances where the creation of Combat forms occured without Pod Infectors present.

1. UNSC marine Orlav was slashed in the back by a Combat form. Even when a piece of Flood flesh was removed, she turned into a Combat form not long after.
   
2. On the infested surface of Shield World 0459, one ODST mentioned he was bitten by the Flood before inevitably transforming into a Combat form.
   

No explanation has been given; my reasoning would be that both incidents happened near a Proto-Gravemind. One was in the engine room of UNSC Mona Lisa, and one was on Trove, so the respective Compound mind can assume direct control over the Flood easily by themselves.
All in all, Pod Infectors are the more direct threats. They are very agile, they have razor sharp claws, they convert victims far quicker than any other forms, and they can choose what they will do with their victims.
Now, what do Flood spores excel at?

Spores

• Subtle Propagating:

Unlike Pod Infectors, spores don't aggressively attack prey, which makes them seem as the lesser threats compared to other Flood presences. However, this works only in the Flood's own favor, as spores can spread further and under everyone's noses because the defenders are too occupied.
Moreover, the tendency of the spores to infest insignificant organisms as well as propogate on inanimate objects actually keep them and their growth under the radar.

How did it get there in the first place? Adequate wondered. It was highly improbable that the Flood could have arrived here independently. Yes, Flood spores could spread on meteors and comets, as well as derelict space equipment hurtling around the stars.
(Halo Fractures, Defender of the Storm)

In one short story, "Defender of the Storm", the Forerunner space station of Seclusion had pods filled with microscopic lifeforms that broke down biological wastes from the residents.

Worst of all, they had collectively decided the dirtiest assignment on the station should again fall to him: gathering up packs of the occupants’ waste for delivery to the digester units, one located at the end of each vane. Microorganisms inside the units broke down the foul matter to generate power, while releasing unwanted gases into the atmosphere.
(Halo Fractures, Defender of the Storm)

It was suggested that these pods were secretly tainted with Flood spores.

“Yes. The infestation likely began in the replacement digester units just installed by the service team.”
“The apparatus that breaks down waste. That’s why the outbreak started on the tips of the vanes.”
“Correct. They bring in fresh pods of microorganisms annually. Flood spores must have been mixed in with them and been awakened. ...
(Halo Fractures, Defender of the Storm)

The Ancilla further commented on the likelihood that Flood spores feasted on the microorganisms as well as the body wastes brought to those pods to further their growth.

"... The malleable seals would have given them a means of escape. They must have infected several of our sentries, taking them directly to combat forms—and their bodies gave rise to the infection forms we now see. I also suspect the Flood is drawing on the biomass in the digester pods to create an environment that might exponentially increase the rate and severity of infestation.”
(Halo Fractures, Defender of the Storm)

So spores eats everything... even shit or the soil, and unless you actively keep track of every surfaces and every hidden spaces, you're bound to miss pockets of infestation caused by spores.

• Self-Perpetuation

This is perhaps Flood spore's biggest advatange. The spores' reproduction and propagation processes are extremely efficient, even by Flood standard.
I'll be using the Blisters mentioned above as my examples.
According to official depictions, we can see that the hosts who were turned into Blisters are completely broken down and molded into large egg-shaped entities.
This is why I call it efficient, as there is no biomass that was left out or wasted. Spores eat everything and transform what they eat into more of themselves, but it doesn't end there.
As purpose-built forms, Blisters are created to produce more Flood creatures, ranging from simple Pod Infectors, to more complex Pure forms, and, you guess it, more Flood spores.

Blisters:
Non-sapient animals and mangled corpses deemed unfit for being harnessed into larger Combat forms are seeded with Flood cells and quickly transformed into sacs filled with Infection forms and membranes that function as incubation chambers for the development of spores.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2022, p.407)

For those instances where spores do turn their victims into Combat forms, one similarity remains.

Combat Form:
Combat Forms are covered in spore-filled polyps and much of their internal organs are in the process of being consumed and replaced with FSC accretions that function as support lattices, protecting a sickly green liquid that contains Flood spores in suspension.
(Halo, Encyclopedia 2022, p.408)

Combat forms additionally operate as mobile incubators and gestate spores, though they may produce a lower quantity. After all, unlike Blisters which are hosts whose entire body mass is transformed into a single-purposed and stationary pseudo-organ, Combat forms still need body parts for mobility, attack, and handling of salvaged equipment and technology.
Do be noted that this really isn't a new lore. It has been this case since the first game.

Guilty Spark: "The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent."
(Halo: Combat Evolved, Level The Library)

The fact that Combat forms spawn spores means that any physical harms inflicted on them...

Combat Form:
Ironically, damages incurred by this form scatters small chunks of infected flesh and distribute it in the environment, aiding the Flood in spreading its influence.
(Halo, Encyclopedia 2022, p.408)

... would inadvertently distribute fatally virulent substances everywhere.
And this trait isn't unique to Combat forms. Pod Infectors are stated by Guilty Spark to also carry spores, which I mentioned above.
Pure forms which are the products of masses of Flood Super Cells morphed into biological war machines would carry spores inside them as well. For example, we see the Spawner forms constantly emit clouds of spores from the holes on their back.
It's also stated that the Gravemind can create a huge quantity of spores by itself.

The Gravemind's tentacled body produces billions of Flood spores.
(Halo, Encyclopedia 2012, p.169)

Now the next and my final point.

• Building Infrastructure

I am now looking from a broader perspective — by combining all the characteristics discussed so far and tying them into the discussion about the Flood's modus operandi.
So, we know spores can spread and infest stealthily. We know spores can operate for a long duration of time. We know spores can consume practically anything organic. We know spores can create constructs to create more sproes (Blisters, Combat forms).
In fact, tiny spores can evolve into living Flood creatures...

The Gravemind:
The Flood is the ultimate parasite. It's able to use any sentient being as food, and those infected by the Flood stand no chance. Infection is a gradual process, whereby an Infection Form, grown from a tiny spore, bonds the victim to the Flood's central intelligence and slowly consumes the contents of the host creature's mind.
(Halo, Encyclopedia 2011, p.20)

All these traits combined make spores the integral aspect of the parasite's expansion and conquest.
To put it this way: Flood spores are products of the Flood infestation, and at the same time, they represent the parasite's ... "means of production".
The phenomenon of "Blightlands" best exemplify this.

Blightland:
For its part, the Flood will seek to adjust local environmental factors in its favor immediately after reaching the Coordinated stage. If not stopped, Blightlands are the result of uncontained Flood expansion: Areas around established hives filled with FSC growth and Spore bodies, which harvested the vitality of the soil, soak up solar energy, and consume all native lives within its boundaries.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2022, p.413)

Notice that the passage said "around" the hives?
In regards to Flood infestations, the parasites don't just build hives, which are either repurposed buildings or completely made out of pure biomass, but they also set up the fundations and infrastructures by seeding spores and other bioforms to the surrounding regions.
Basically, the Blightlands are Flood-controlled regions where spores and other growth gathered "resources", from lifeforms and latent energy alike, and the hives are the buildings and bases within the regions.
Blightlands also serve as foundations for future Flood structures and hives to build on top of. We've seen this at the start of the outbreak on High Charity, numerous disparate Flood growth of varying sizes appeared in the corridors and on walls. They continued to fester until they formed into a new hive that blanketed every surface areas there was.
There's more, but before I talk about that, there's an intriguing quote from the encyclopedia:

Hives:
The Flood's only desire is to expand and corrupt. Once enough biomass is available, the parasite can establish lairs for defense and the growth of specialized forms. ... These tumorous blights are the most obvious targets for attack and cleansing, but they are simply a sympton of Flood infestation, not its causes. The Forerunners recognized this distinction far too late, after countless sterilization missions resulted in empty victories.
(Halo Encyclopedia 2022, p.404)

Interestingly, destroying the hives wouldn't necessarily deliver the critical blow, and I think Flood spores' various attributes contribute to this phenomena.
We have concluded that Flood spores are incredibly common: All types of Flood forms carry and disperse spores either voluntarily or by outside factors (i.e. combat damage). This makes it easy for the Flood to cause environmental corruption over a large area, which will create Blightlands.
We also have concluded that spores are fruitful "building tools". When a spore land on an environment of ample bio-organic materials, they can feast on all the resources and convert them into Flood forms or structures, which eventually become new hives; it can be even described as "self-replicating".
This makes the Flood stand out from other factions in Halo. When the issue regarding manufacturing comes to mind, other races — other the Forerunners, are reliant on specialized instruments or facilities to process and refine raw substances and factories to fabricate products.
The Flood can do that with just their most basic vectors that all known Flood forms carry and generate; hives simply do things more efficiently and on a muuch larger scale.
The spores allow the parasite's "industry" to be decentralized, and the expansion wouldn't be crippled when the birthing hive is destroyed. Given enough time, another hive can arise from the surrounding Blightland.

TLDR

Pod Infectors possess superior mobility and actual weaponry. Their speed and ferocity make them suitable for building up an army, and their rudimentary intelligence makes them much better at managing a fighting force.
Spores are adept at facilitating a comprehensive and expanding network of infrastructure, which they can do without the enemy's notice. Spores may work slower, but their subtlety and pervasiveness make them extremely dangerous threats, especially when their infestation goes unnoticed or uncontained for too long.

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.

Funny as it sounds, while trying 16v16 in warm-up, I must say big maps are quite suitable for this game. This is probably never going to happen, and I was never a huge fan of Battle Royale games, but think about it. The biggest streamers and the younger generation love Battle Royale games. The visuals in this game are similar to Fortnite, which kids still love to this day. This game has so much potential, but it has to be driven in the right direction. People mostly dislike the idea of robots, egg robots, in my opinion,although it's something unique. People sometimes prefer characters with personalities. Yes, that could be much more expensive, requiring hiring voice actors, etc. Those are just my thoughts. However, The FINALS Game works fine without having personalities while playing their classes. The game is unique and fun, and so can be Diabotical. Also, a Battle Royale mode could attract big streamers to test the game, play, or even fall in love with it in front of tens of thousands of viewers.
Currently, most players in this game are old Quakers, and we were a different generation. Now you have to look at the younger generation and what they like. So far, Diabotical is great, and it could be better with more modes, maybe even a test with Battle Royale. You could also announce one weekend to try the game for free. This is a good marketing strategy, as media will post about it. One will post, a second will copy, and so on; it could go viral on social media. As far as I remember in QC, it went really well, but the game was in such a terrible state that half the people couldn’t even run it, and the other half had bugs and performance issues as well as no registering with the netcode. Overall, it was terrible, but you have a chance to make it perfect and market it with free stuff. The good part right now is that the game is not free, and once you make it a free promo, tons of people will join and test the game. But it should have Battle Royale, in my opinion. Look how popular those games are to this day..

I just found a new pun and it's got me wondering what other stupid jokes I've missed. Please write your favorite below.
BTW the pun I just noticed is during the harpy fight, when Astarion breaks free of the luring song he says what I thought was "ill skin you alive you foul wretch" which. 🫣 maybe it was Neil's line read that made me never notice but what he actually says on screen is "fowl wretch" like the bird. Actually made me laugh out loud in the middle of the fight. I love this stupid game.

Hi. 41 male here, looking to chat about various topics: TV shows, music, games, food, flim, books, learning, etc. I have tried things like bumble before and didn't like it's gamified attention grabber mechanic, have since deleted my profile. I have noticed an increase of these type of posts and it got me thinking it's tough out there meeting people with common interests. I have tried unseen and batcave but unfortunately I'm a big guy and that doesn't in my experience transfer well into here is someone I would like to get to know.
Games I'm currently playing: Tunic, Indika, animal well and a new game I picked up today, nine sols
Multiplayer I'm interested to play: portal 2, team fortress, Minecraft, it takes two, among us, Naruto, sf2, mk11, c&c red alert 2,etc
Rerun shows currently watching: Battlestar galactica The office(US) Naruto Clone wars
Current shows watching: Eric Dark matter The curse
Things I'm currently attempting to learn: Baking(I bought flour, baking soda and eggs but I think the flour has wevels now :(
Coding, arduino, unreal engine, blender, etc.
If you are interested to chat/play, you are most welcome to pm.
Have a lovely day/night.
Posted this in a local sub and I'm not sure how to respond to some of the question. Changed the title to be inclusive. How can I do better?

As reported by 404 Media, a Tamagotchi player with the Discord handle rhubarb_pie posted a lengthy guide on how to unlock twin characters Moll and Lora in the Mothra-themed Tamagotchi, which debuted in Japan in 1997 as a tie-in product for the release of the Rebirth of Mothra II movie. Moll and Lora were exclusive to the Mothra Tamagotchi, and until rhubarb_pie’s post, were just NPC nurses who would heal your little guy whenever it got sick—unless you used a “battery glitch” to play as them.
Rhubarb_pie discovered how to unlock them naturally through gameplay. “The way to get them is extremely obscure so I am not at all surprised they were never found until now,” they wrote in a post in the “Tamatown Forum” Discord. “Looking at it now, this looks like a bad schoolyard video game urban legend. But it is real.” In order to do it, you’ll need to raise a character called “Mothra Leo” with no “care mistakes” (like allowing its hunger or happiness bar to hit zero and ignore their calls for attention/help for more than 15 minutes), keep it to a specific weight, and wait about 80 hours. When Mother Leo dies, it will lay an egg that contains the twins Moll and Lora.
Rhubarb_pie described the process as “absolutely brutal,” saying that it took “about three weeks” IRL to successfully birth the twins. But the prospect of discovering new playable characters has the Discord incredibly excited, even if it’ll take some serious work to unlock them. Rhubarb pie wrote: “This pretty much blows open all other Tama devices for possible other extremely-well-hidden secrets,” they said. “I think this is the first time there’s been an actual raisable character that is completely undocumented, its existence not even hinted at. Something Tama fans always thought was possible, whispered about in hushed tones, but dared not dream of…”
https://kotaku.com/tamagotchi-mothra-moll-and-lora-twins-playable-1851525415

Good Sunday!
We recently released our first game in our series of small wacky horror games and we'd like to tell you a little bit about it. Ells Tales: Egg is a zany mix of clicker, survival horror and puzzle game. :D
Imagine waking up in a chicken coop, shackled. In front of you there is a game machine with a chicken egg and a counter. To get free from this strange place you need to show attention and wit!
FEATURES:

• A survival horror clicker!
• Elements of a puzzle. You'll have to use your head to save yourself and the chicken egg.
• Chickens. Lots of chickens.
• Separate controls for each of the arms.
• Retro-styled graphics.

Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989860/Ells_Tales_Egg/
Trailer: https://youtu.be/ffcGuZkMMoU
Genre: Clicker, Puzzle, Survival Horror
Platforms: PC (Steam)