318 crate motor dodge truck
just bought an 05 f150 with a 5.4l triton. is 200k miles before I run into problems a reasonable expectation?
2024.05.17 12:02 Past_Money_6385 just bought an 05 f150 with a 5.4l triton. is 200k miles before I run into problems a reasonable expectation?
I was aware of these motors reputation, but I needed a truck and it was the only one I've found under 10k that wasn't a shitbox. paid 9k- One owner, impeccable maintanence, everything absolutely spotless, 160k miles.
I'm a toyota guy so I'm still skeptical, but the price was right for what it is and the toyotas under 10k cant pull what i need them to or are already shot tundras. My car buying situation is a bit different because I live on an island, I have to go to the mainland to car shop. I don't have the freedom to wait around and browse as much, but I took a week. had 5 trucks i would have rather had sell before i got there.
One owner, great maintanence, and a SPOTLESS truck is what tipped me over the edge. I'm mainly just using it to put my boat in the water, haul my tools around the island, and cruise on the beach to go surf fish.
i am still worried about this motors reputation- or do I just hear about more problems because so many were sold? I am good at doing on time maintanence, but I also am hard on my stuff.
submitted by Past_Money_6385 to AskMechanics [link] [comments]
I'm a toyota guy so I'm still skeptical, but the price was right for what it is and the toyotas under 10k cant pull what i need them to or are already shot tundras. My car buying situation is a bit different because I live on an island, I have to go to the mainland to car shop. I don't have the freedom to wait around and browse as much, but I took a week. had 5 trucks i would have rather had sell before i got there.
One owner, great maintanence, and a SPOTLESS truck is what tipped me over the edge. I'm mainly just using it to put my boat in the water, haul my tools around the island, and cruise on the beach to go surf fish.
i am still worried about this motors reputation- or do I just hear about more problems because so many were sold? I am good at doing on time maintanence, but I also am hard on my stuff.
2024.05.17 11:55 CommanderRoku Fully Explained: Star Cards for Blaster Heroes (Part III)
 | To celebrate the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Phantom Menace this 19th of May, I decided to go all out on discovering the hidden effects or poorly described star cards in this game based on the plentiful resources and posts of the past (References are found at the end). At the same time, I did what I could to rewrite the ability and card descriptions to be somewhat unilateral and have similar explanations. Many were a surprise to be sure but a welcome one, while others are completely out of hand. Use what’s useful to you, and feel free to share your own test results. At last we will reveal these stats to all, at last… submitted by CommanderRoku to StarWarsBattlefront [link] [comments] Star Cards for Blaster Heroes (Part III) · Boba Fett o Quick Refill: The 8.3% per second refill rate for jetpack fuel is faster when not being used. At EPIC rarity, it is 12.3% per second. Normal Refill Time: 12 seconds; EPIC Rarity: 10.5 seconds. (S1) § Refill Rate per Second: ? / ? / ? / 12.3% o Born to Fly: Reduces the cooldown times of CONCUSSION ROCKET, FOR THE HUNT, and ROCKET BARRAGE when flying with a jetpack. Health regeneration is delayed from 5 seconds to 6.5 seconds as a result. FOR THE HUNT’s Duration: 8 seconds. “Fuel Efficiency” Jetpack Flight Time in Seconds: 5.00 / 5.25 / 5.40 / 5.55 / 5.75; Normal Cooldown Times by order of mention (And “Intense Barrage”): 15 seconds; 10 seconds; 20 seconds; 13 seconds. Hypothetical EPIC Rarity: 12 seconds; 8 seconds; 16 seconds; 10.4 seconds. § Reduced Cooldown Time: 5% / 10% / 15% / 20% https://preview.redd.it/orm1dg8jly0d1.jpg?width=225&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d5ecaf78692ae925016f53d99afdbb2f2933ceee o Extended Exposure: Enemies stay revealed for additional seconds after FOR THE HUNT’s 8-second duration ends. Ability Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Total Reveal Time: 10 / 11 / 12 / 14 (S1) § Additional Seconds: 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 o Acute Concussion: Adds seconds to the 5-second duration of the concussive effect caused by CONCUSSION ROCKET. Extended Effects: blurring of vision; disabling of lightsaber attack target lock-on. Duration in Seconds: 5.5 / 6.0 / 6.5 / 7.0 § Added Seconds: 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 o Augmented Gear: If CONCUSSION ROCKET hits the number of enemies stated below, flying with a jetpack can be used without fuel consumption. Normal “Fuel Efficiency” Jetpack Flight Time in Seconds: 5.00 / 5.25 / 5.40 / 5.55 / 5.75; New “Fuel Efficiency” Jetpack Flight Time in Seconds: 9.00 / 9.25 / 9.40 / 9.55 / 9.75; FOR THE HUNT Duration: 8 seconds; “Quick Refill” Refill Time: 12 seconds / 10.5 seconds. § Number of Enemies: 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 § No Fuel Consumption Time in Seconds: 2 / 2 / 3 / 4 o Fuel Efficiency: Decreases the consumption rate of jetpack fuel, increasing the 5-second flight time. Jetpack Flight Time in Seconds: 5.25 / 5.40 / 5.55 / 5.75 § Decreased Consumption Rate: 5% / 8% / 11% / 15% o Intense Barrage: If 500 damage points are dealt to enemies within a single use of ROCKET BARRAGE, the following 20-second cooldown time is reduced. “Focalize” Rocket Damage: 75 / 79 / 81 / 83 / 85; “Focalize” on Two Enemies: 150 / 158 / 162 / 166 / 170; “Focalize” Five Rockets on One Enemy: 375 / 395 / 405 / 415 / 425; Cooldown Time: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 § Seconds Removed from Cooldown Time: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 o Death From Above: Damage reduction is received when using ROCKET BARRAGE while flying with a jetpack. “Fuel Efficiency” Jetpack Flight Time in Seconds: 5.00 / 5.25 / 5.40 / 5.55 / 5.75; Health Points: 600 / 648 / 660 / 672 / 690 § Damage Reduction: 8% / 10% / 12% / 15% o Focalize: ROCKET BARRAGE rockets deals bonus damage within a 1-meter radius of the center of the explosion. Rocket Damage: 75 / 79 / 81 / 83 / 85; On Two Enemies: 150 / 158 / 162 / 166 / 170; Five Rockets on One Enemy: 375 / 395 / 405 / 415 / 425 § Bonus Damage: 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 · Bossk o Name Your Poison: Health is regained each in-game tick within DIOXIS GRENADE’s cloud of gas. Ability Duration: 6 seconds. Total Health Regained: 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 § Health regained per Second: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 o Trap Arming Speed: PROXIMITY MINES arm faster when deployed, reducing activation time. At EPIC rarity, it reduces by 65%. Arming Speed in Seconds: 4 / 2.8 / 2.4 / 2 / 1.6 (S1) § Reduced Activation Time: ? / ? / ? / 65% OR 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% o Spreading The Disease: This card does nothing. (BF1; R1) o Sniper Expert: A headshot defeat with the sniper scope resets removes blaster heat. Blaster Overheat: 8 shots. § No Blaster Heat Time in Seconds: 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 / 2.5 o Unrelenting Predator: For every enemy defeated while PREDATOR INSTINCTS is active, the 20-second cooldown times of DIOXIS GRENADE and PROXIMITY MINES are reduced. Ability Duration: 25 seconds; Cooldown Times in Seconds: 19.0 / 18.4 / 17.8 / 17.2 § Reduced Cooldown Time: 5% / 8% / 11% / 14% o Predator Resilience: Damage Reduction is received while PREDATOR INSTINCTS is active. Ability Duration: 25 seconds; Health Points: 600 / 660 / 678 / 696 / 720 § Damage Reduction: 10% / 13% / 16% / 20% o Multi-Traps: Adds two additional PROXIMITY MINES. All mines also have an extended detonation radius. Mine Damage: 76; All Five Mines: 380; Detonation Radius: 6 / 6.5 / 6.9 / 7.2 / 7.5; Inner Detonation Radius: 5 / 5.5 / 5.75 / 6 / 6.25 § Extended Detonation Radius: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o Ultimate Predator: For every enemy defeated with micro-grenades or proximity-mines and while active, PREDATOR INSTINCTS’s 25-second duration is extended. (S1) § Extended Duration: 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% o Lingering Dioxis: Adds seconds to DIOXIS GRENADE’s 6-second duration. At EPIC rarity, it deals up to 238 damage. Duration: 8 / 9 / 10 / 12 (R4) § Added Seconds: 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 · Chewbacca o Bonus Health: Increases maximum base health. Maximum Base Health: 700 / 750 / 775 / 800 / 850 § Health Added: 50 / 75 / 100 / 150 o Echoing Roar: For every enemy defeated with FURIOUS BOWCASTER, its 25-second duration is extended. Duration: 7.5 to 25 seconds; Cooldown Time: 20 seconds. (S1) § Extended Duration: 15% / 20% / 30% / 40% o Extended Shock: Extends SHOCK GRENADE’s duration of 1.1 seconds. The 15-second cooldown time is extended by 50% as a result. At EPIC rarity, the shock duration is extended 20%. EPIC Rarity: 1.3 seconds; New Cooldown Time: 22.5 seconds. (S1) § Extended Shock Duration: ? / ? / ? / 20% o Charging Frenzy: Even more damage reduction is added to the 30% damage reduction received while sprinting with CHARGE SLAM. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Total Damage Reduction: 50% / 60% / 70% / 80%; Health Points: 910 / 1050 / 1120 / 1190 / 1260; And “Bonus Health”: 850 / 1105 / 1275 / 1360 / 1445 / 1530; And “Impervious” Only: 938 / 1219 / 1407 / 1501 / 1595 / 1688; “Bonus Health” And “Impervious”: 1139 / 1481 / 1709 / 1822 / 1936 / 2050; “Bonus Health” And “Furious Resilience”: 1020 / 1326 / 1530 / 1632 / 1734 / 1836; “Impervious” And “Furious Resilience”: 1126 / 1464 / 1689 / 1802 / 1914 / 2027 (S1) § Additional Damage Reduction: 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% o Multi-Shock: SHOCK GRENADE splits into even more missiles, increasing area of affect. Missiles: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 § Added Missiles: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 https://preview.redd.it/1j4npupply0d1.jpg?width=225&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=edb83a0b5c986b492d6ec259e6ae715fd7dca063 o Impervious: Every 200 damage points dealt to enemies while any ability is active permanently adds damage reduction by 2%. As a bonus, if an enemy hero is thrown off a ledge using CHARGE SLAM and they die from the void within 3 seconds, the additional damage reduction received will be set to the maximum value possible. The effect resets after being defeated. Maximum Health Points Possible: 700 / 854 / 882 / 910 / 938; And “Bonus Health”: 850 / 1037 / 1071 / 1105 / 1139 (S1) § Maximum Damage Reduction: 22% / 26% / 30% / 34% o Shocked And Vulnerable: Enemies shocked by SHOCK GRENADE receive Damage Vulnerability for the shock duration of 1.1 seconds. § Damage Vulnerability: 3% / 5% / 7% / 9% o Slammed: CHARGE SLAM deals bonus damage to enemies within half of its 8-meter radius. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Total Damage to Troopers: 200 / 220 / 230 / 240 / 250; Heroes: 150 / 170 / 180 / 190 / 200 (BF1) § Bonus Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 o Furious Resilience: Blaster damage reduction is received while FURIOUS BOWCASTER is active. Ability Duration: 25 seconds. Health Points: 700 / 735 / 770 / 805 / 840; And “Bonus Health”: 850 / 893 / 935 / 978 / 1020; And “Impervious Only: 938 / 985 / 1032 / 1079 / 1126;“Bonus Health” And “Impervious”: 1139 / 1196 / 1253 / 1310 / 1367 § Blaster Damage Reduction: 5% / 10% / 15% / 20% · Han Solo o Broad Shoulders: Damage reduction is received while sprinting with SHOULDER CHARGE. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Health Points: 650 / 813 / 845 / 878 / 910 § Damage Reduction: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% o Sharpshooter's Calm: Decreases SHARPSHOOTER’s time reduction per blaster shot. Cooldown Time: 15 seconds; Duration in Seconds: 3 / 3.3 / 3.45 / 3.6 / 3.75 § Decreased Time Reduction: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o Keep Your Head Cool: Every headshot defeat removes all blaster heat. Blaster Overheat: 8 shots. § No Blaster Heat Time in Seconds: 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 / 2.5 o Big Bang: After 5 seconds of being attached, DETONITE CHARGE’s 10-meter outer blast radius is extended. Unknown if the 5-meter inner blast radius remains the same or extends as well. Inner Blast radius Damage: 200; Outer Blast Radius Damage: 60; Inner Blast Radius in Meters: 5.5 / 5.75 / 6 / 6.25; Total Blast Radius in Meters: 11 / 11.5 / 12 / 12.5 (BF1; S1) § Extended Blast Radius: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o All In: A defeat with SHOULDER CHARGE reduces the cooldown times of all abilities. The effect is permanent until the ability is used again or when defeated. At EPIC rarity, SHOULDER CHARGE’s cooldown time reduces by 75%, while DETONITE CHARGE and SHARPSHOOTER reduces by the values stated below. Without Card by order of mention: 10 seconds; 18 seconds; 15 seconds. EPIC Rarity: 5 seconds; 9 seconds; 7.5 seconds; And “Smuggler’s Wits”: 6 seconds; 10 seconds; 8.5 seconds. (BF1; R1) § Reduced Cooldown Time: 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% o Air Burst: DETONITE CHARGE’s damage increases if it is detonated in the air before attaching itself to a surface. Damage: 200 / 220 / 226 / 232 / 240 § Increased Damage: 10% / 13% / 16% / 20% o Smuggler's Wits: An extra dodge is ready for use. Seconds are added to the cooldown times to DETONITE CHARGE, SHARPSHOOTER, and SHOULDER CHARGE as a result. Without Card by order of mention: 10 seconds; 18 seconds; 15 seconds. EPIC Rarity: 12 seconds; 20 seconds; 17 seconds. § Added Seconds: 3.5 / 3.0 / 2.5 / 2.0 o Heavily Modified Blaster: Reduces the main weapon’s blaster heat. Blaster Shots Before Overheat: 8 / 9 / 9 / 10 / 11 § Blaster Heat Reduction: 10% / 14% / 18% / 25% · Iden Versio o Pulse Cannon Mastery: PULSE CANNON reveals enemies that are hit by it. § Reveal Time in Seconds: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 o Sturdy Shield: Increases DROID SHIELD’s health. Health: 750 / 825 / 848 / 870 / 900 § Increased Health: 10% / 13% / 16% / 20% o Alternative Methods: Decreases the cooldown time of the main weapon’s alternative fire. Cooldown Time: 2.3 / 1.8 / 1.7 / 1.6 / 1.5 § Reduced Cooldown Time: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o Shock Reach: Extends STUN DROID’s 25-meter area of effect for searching for viable targets. (BF1; R1) § Extended Area of Effect: 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% o Shield Sustain: Adds seconds to DROID SHIELD’S duration. Duration: 12 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 22 § Added Seconds: 4 / 5 / 6 / 10 o Acquiring Targets: Extends STUN DROID’s area of effect that shocks enemies. (BF1; R1) § Extended Area of Effect: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% o Shocking Weakness: STUN DROID reveals enemies within 25 meters. § Reveal Time in Seconds: 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 o Droid Batteries: Reduces the cooldown times of STUN DROID and DROID SHIELD. STUN DROID Cooldown Time in Seconds: 20 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15; DROID SHIELD Cooldown Time in Seconds: 12.0 / 9.0 / 8.5 / 8.0 / 7.5 § Reduced Cooldown Time: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o Cooled Blaster: Reduces the main weapon’s blaster heat. Blaster Shots Before Overheat: 48 / 52 / 53 / 55 / 57 § Blaster Heat Reduction: 8% / 10% / 12% / 15% · Lando Calrissian o Disabler Lifetime: Adds seconds to the 25-second duration of DISABLER. Area of Effect: 20 meters; Duration in Seconds: 33 / 35 / 37 / 40 § Added Seconds: 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 o Hot and Cold: Increases maximum base health. Maximum Base Health: 700 / 725 / 750 / 800 § Health Added: 50 / 75 / 100 / 150 o Welcome To Cloud City: This card does nothing. (BF1; R1) o Maximized Efficiency: If three enemies or more are targeted, SHARP SHOT’s cooldown time is reduced. Cooldown Time in Seconds: 12 / 9 / 8.4 / 7.8 / 7.2 § Reduced Cooldown Time: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% o Buckle Up, Baby: Every enemy trooper defeated or 100 damage points dealt to enemy heroes permanently reduces the main weapon’s blaster heat by 2%. The effect resets after being defeated. Maximum Blaster Shots Possible: 15 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 § Maximum Blaster Heat Reduction: 10% / 18% / 26% / 34% o Lingering Smoke: Adds seconds to the 10-second duration of SMOKE GRENADE. Duration in Seconds: 12 / 13 / 14 / 16 § Added Seconds: 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 o Disabler Growth: After 5 seconds of being attached, DISABLER’s 20-meter area of effect is extended. At EPIC rarity, it extends by 25%. Area of Effect in Meters: 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 (S1; YB1) § Extended Area of Effect: ? / ? / ? / 25% OR 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% o Quick Shock: After 5 seconds of being attached, DISABLER’s shock duration of 1.1 seconds is extended. At EPIC rarity, it extends by 20%. Shock Duration in Seconds: 1.265 / 1.32 / 1.375 / 1.43 (S1; YB1) § Extended Shock Duration: ? / ? / ? / 20% OR 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% o Wide Eyed: Extends SHARP SHOT’s 40-meter targeting reach distance. At EPIC rarity, it extends by 40%. Reach Distance in Meters: 50 / 52 / 54 / 56 (S1) § Extended Reach Distance: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% · Leia Organa o Optimized Shield Deployment: Decreases SQUAD SHIELD’s 20-second cooldown time. At EPIC rarity, it reduces 25%. Ability Duration: 30 seconds. EPIC Rarity: 15 seconds. (S1) § Reduced Cooldown Time: ? / ? / ? / 25% o High Spirit: More health can be regenerated. Health Regeneration: 200 / 225 / 250 / 275 / 300 § Added Health to Regeneration: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 o Fearless: This card does nothing. (BF1; R1) o Rebel Heart: Damage reduction is received when RAPID FIRE is active. Duration: 8 to 25 seconds; Health Points: 650 / 715 / 748 / 780 / 812.5; And “Stay Together”: 660 / 726 / 759 / 792 / 825 § Damage Reduction: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% o Stay Together: If two allies or more are within 15 meters, damage reduction is received. Allies also receive this damage reduction. Health Points: 600 / 625 / 636 / 648 / 660 § Damage Reduction: 4% / 6% / 8% / 10% o Handy Device: Removes seconds from THERMAL DETONATORS’ cooldown time. Cooldown Time in Seconds: 13.00 / 12.50 / 12.00 / 11.75 / 11.50 § Removed Seconds: 0.50 / 1.00 / 1.25 / 1.50 o Laser Brain: The main weapon’s alternate fire deals extra damage. Alternate Fire Charge-Up Time: 1.5 seconds; Total Damage: 145 / 165 / 170 / 175 / 180 § Extra Damage: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 o Relentless Firing: Decreases RAPID FIRE’s time reduction per blaster shot. Cooldown Time: 15 seconds; Duration in Seconds: 8.0 / 10.0 / 10.8 / 11.6 / 12.4 § Decreased Time Reduction: 25% / 35% / 45% / 55% o Shield Durability: Increases SQUAD SHIELD’s health. Health: 3000 / 3300 / 3450 / 3600 / 3750 § Increased Health: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% · Finn o In Charge: For every enemy trooper defeated or 100 damage points dealt to enemy heroes while UNDERCOVER TEAM is active, 2% damage reduction is permanently received whether UNDERCOVER TEAM is active or not. Any ally within 15 meters also receives this damage reduction. The effect resets after being defeated. Health Points: 600 / 696 / 744 / 780 / 816; With BIG DEAL: 930 / 1079 / 1153 / 1209 / 1265 § Damage Reduction: 16% / 24% / 30% / 36% o Beacon Of Hope: Extends BIG DEAL’s 15-meter radius if two allies are affected. Radius in Meters: 17.25 / 18 / 19.5 / 21 (S1) § Extended Radius: 15% / 20% / 30% / 40% o No More Running: DEADEYE deals extra damage. Minimum Damage: 20 / 25 / 28 / 30 / 22; Maximum Damage: 30 / 35 / 38 / 40 / 42 (R1) § Extra Damage: 5 / 8 / 10 / 12 o Come Get It: Headshots extend BIG DEAL’s duration. Normal Duration: 10 seconds. § Extended Duration: 5% / 9% / 12% / 15% o I Can Do This: Enemies stay revealed for additional seconds after UNDERCOVER TEAM’s duration ends. Area of Effect: 15 meters; Ability Duration: 5 to 25 seconds; Ability Cooldown Time: 15 seconds; Minimum Reveal Time Possible: 8.0 / 9.0 / 9.5 / 10.0; Maximum Reveal Time Possible: 28.0 / 29.0 / 29.5 / 30.0 (S1) § Additional Seconds: 3.0 / 4.0 / 4.5 / 5.0 o Stay Calm: For every enemy defeated and while active, DEADEYE’s duration is extended. Cooldown Time: 15 seconds; Normal Duration: 5 to 25 seconds (S1) § Extended Duration: 15% / 20% / 30% / 40% o One Resistance: If used on three or more allies, BIG DEAL’s cooldown time is reduced. § Reduced Cooldown Time: 15% / 20% / 30% / 40% o Never Going Back: For every enemy defeated and while active, UNDERCOVER TEAM’s duration is extended. Normal Duration: 5 to 25 seconds (R1) § Extended Duration: 15% / 20% / 30% / 40% o Raised To Do One Thing: This card does nothing. (YT6, Timestamp: 6:37-8:48) · Captain Phasma o The More the Better: FIRST ORDER SENTRY DROID’s motor capacity is improved, decreasing the time it takes to make a 6-second full rotation. At EPIC rarity, motors are used at 150% capacity, making the full rotation now 4.5 seconds, a 25% decrease in time. Full Rotation in Seconds: 5.4 / 5.1 / 4.8 / 4.5 (S1, Comment: ajschefflerbackup) § Increased Motor Capacity: 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% o Blaster Inspection: Every enemy defeated permanently reduces the main weapon’s blaster heat by 3%. Any ally within 15 meters also receives this blaster heat reduction. The effect resets after being defeated. Maximum Blaster Shots Possible: 58 / 68 / 72 / 75 / 79; And “Easy Shots”: 77 / 91 / 95 / 100 / 105 § Maximum Blaster Heat Reduction: 18% / 24% / 30% / 36% o Easy Shots: Reduces the main weapon’s blaster heat. Blaster Shots Before Overheat: 48 / 62 / 67 / 72 / 77 (S1) § Blaster Heat Reduction: 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% o Finish Them Off: This card does nothing. (S1; YB1) o Safety First: SURVIVOR gives even more bonus health. Total Bonus Health: 200 / 220 / 240 / 250 / 260; Total Health: 700 / 900 / 920 / 940 / 950 / 960 § Extra Bonus Health: 20 / 40 / 50 / 60 o Laser Wall Durability: Card’s Actual Name: “All for Myself”. After defeating four enemies with STAFF STRIKES, the 20-second cooldown times of SURVIVOR and FIRST ORDER SENTRY DROID are permanently reduced. At EPIC rarity, they reduce by 30%. The effect resets after being defeated. New Cooldown Time: 14 seconds. (S1) § Reduced Cooldown Time: ? / ? / ? / 30% o Come Closer: After defeating three enemies or more while FIRST ORDER SENTRY DROID is active, the shock area of effect is extended. The effect is permanent until the sentry droid is disassembled or destroyed. Total Shock Duration: 0.8 seconds; Shock Area of Effect in Meters: 15.0 / 18.0 / 19.5 / 21.0 / 22.5 (S1) § Extended Shock Area of Effect: 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% o There's No Escape: After shocking an enemy, the next unique individual to get shocked by the FIRST ORDER SENTRY DROID will suffer an extended shock duration. The seconds added are permanent until the sentry droid is disassembled or destroyed. Total Shock Duration in Seconds: 0.8 / 1 / 1.05 / 1.1 / 1.15 (S1) § Seconds Added to Shock Duration: 0.20 / 0.25 / 0.30 / 0.35 o Not Hard Enough: Damage Reduction is received while SURVIVOR is active. Health Points: 900 / 1080 / 1170 / 1260 / 1350; And “Safety First”: 960 / 1152 / 1248 / 1344 / 1440 § Damage Reduction: 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% · BB-8 o Self Repairs: More health can be regenerated. Health Regeneration: 300 / 325 / 350 / 375 / 400 § Added Health to Regeneration: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 o Shielded Roll: Damage reduction is received while ROLLING CHARGE is active. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Health Points: 650 / 845 / 910 / 975 / 1040 § Damage Reduction: 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% o Headfirst: ROLLING CHARGE deals extra damage. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds; Damage to Troopers: 200 / 220 / 225 / 235 / 240; Damage to Heroes: 150 / 170 / 175 / 180 / 190; With RESISTANCE BACKING to Troopers: 210 / 231 / 236 / 247 / 252; With RESISTANCE BACKING to Heroes: 158 / 179 / 184 / 189 / 200; And “Uncover” to Troopers: 235 / 259 / 264 / 276 / 282; And “Uncover” to Heroes: 176 / 200 / 206 / 212 / 223 § Extra Damage: 20 / 25 / 35 / 40 o Whirlwind: CABLE SPIN deals extra damage. Area of Effect is also extended. Ability Duration: 8 seconds; Damage per 0.3 Seconds: 45 / 47 / 49 / 51 / 53; Total Damage: 1170 / 1222 / 1274 / 1326 / 1378; With RESISTANCE BACKING per 0.3 Seconds: 47 / 49 / 51 / 54 / 56; With RESISTANCE BACKING Total: 1229 / 1283 / 1338 / 1392 / 1447; And “Uncover” per 0.3 Seconds: 53 / 55 / 58 / 60 / 62; And “Uncover” Total: 1375 / 1436 / 1497 / 1558 / 1619; Area of Effect in Meters: 5 / 5.5 / 6.0 / 6.5 / 7.0 § Extra Damage per 0.3 Seconds: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 § Extended Area of Effect in Meters: 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 https://preview.redd.it/4he3tdhsly0d1.jpg?width=225&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15df742a6722d8ab68dbf6db1dc239b3029a5e6f o Spared Batteries: For every three enemy troopers defeated or 300 damage points dealt to enemy heroes, 1 damage point is permanently added to basic attack damage. As a bonus, if an enemy hero is thrown off a ledge using ROLLING CHARGE and they die from the void within 3 seconds, the extra attack damage will be increased to the maximum value possible. The effect resets after being defeated. Basic Attack Damage: 29 / 31 / 33 / 35 / 36; With RESISTANCE BACKING: 30 / 33 / 35 / 37 / 38; And “Uncover”: 34 / 36 / 39 / 41 / 42 (S1) § Maximum Extra Damage: 2 / 4 / 6 / 7 o Spinner: Hitting the number of enemies stated below with CABLE SPIN removes seconds from the following cooldown time. Cooldown Time in Seconds: 25 / 21 / 19 / 17 / 15 § Number of Enemies: 4 / 3 / 2 / 2 § Removed Seconds: 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 o Trusty Droid: If an enemy revealed by RESISTANCE BACKING is defeated, allies nearby will regenerate health. [Unknown if it is health regeneration per second or health gained as bonus health] § Area of Effect in Meters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 § Extra Health: 5 / 7 / 10 / 12 o Uncover: Even more damage weakness is received to enemies revealed by RESISTANCE BACKING. Area of Effect: 20 meters; Duration: 12 seconds; Cooldown Time: 18 seconds; Damage Weakness: 5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15% / 17.5%; Basic Attack Damage per 0.3 Seconds: 29 / § Additional Damage Weakness: 5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% o Roll Together: Adds additional percentage reduction to the already 6% reduced cooldown time of allies' abilities through SWIFT REACTION. Total Reduced Cooldown Time: 11% / 15% / 18% / 21% (R1; S1) § Additional Reduced Cooldown Time: 5% / 9% / 12% / 15% · BB-9E o Full Reconstruction: More health can be regenerated. Health Regeneration: 250 / 275 / 300 / 325 / 350 § Added Health to Regeneration: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 o Hearty Exhaust: SMOKE SCREEN’s area of effect is extended. Duration: 12 seconds; Cooldown Time: 18 seconds; Area of Effect: 30 / 31 / 31.3 / 31.6 / 32 § Extended Area of Effect in Meters: 1.0 / 1.3 / 1.6 / 2.0 o I See You: Enemies stay revealed for additional seconds after SMOKE SCREEN’s 12-second duration ends. Area of Effect: 30 meters; Cooldown Time: 18 seconds; Reveal Time: 14.5 / 15.0 / 15.5 / 16.0 (S1) § Additional Seconds: 2.5 / 3.0 / 3.5 / 4.0 o Spin Me Round: SHOCK SPIN pushes enemies 4 meters away. Seconds are added to its cooldown time as a result. Initial Damage: 90 damage; Normal Cooldown Time: 25 seconds; New Cooldown Time in Seconds: 25 / 31 / 30 / 29 / 28 § Added Seconds: 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 o Linked Systems: For every four shocks with shock prod, 1 damage point is permanently added to basic attack damage. The effect resets after being defeated. Basic Attack Damage per 0.3 Seconds: 24 / 26 / 28 / 30 / 32 (S1) § Maximum Extra Damage: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 o Faster, Faster!: If SHOCK SPIN hits the number of enemies stated below, its damage will be doubled. Duration: 8 seconds; Cooldown Time: 25 seconds; Normal Damage per 0.8 Seconds: 30; Total Damage: 270; Double: 540. § Number of Enemies: 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 o Supercharged: CHARGE UP’s Area of Effect is extended. Duration: 5 Seconds; Cooldown Time: 15 seconds; Area of Effect in Meters: 20 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 § Extended Area of Effect in Meters: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 o Swift Power: Removes seconds from CHARGE UP’s cooldown time. Duration: 5 Seconds; Cooldown Time in Seconds: 15 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 § Removed Seconds: 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 o Potent Bacta: BACTA SUPPORT’s Area of Effect is extended. Seconds are added to its cooldown time as a result. Area of Effect in Meters: 7 / 8 / 8.5 / 9 / 9.5; Seconds Health Is Gained: 0.8 / 3.8 / 3.8 / 2.8 / 2.8 § Extended Area of Effect in Meters: 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 / 2.5 § Added Seconds: 3 / 3 / 2 / 2 CATEGORIZED BY COLOR https://preview.redd.it/1pk441gyky0d1.png?width=809&format=png&auto=webp&s=1459b21033cf7a8b3fd549122f11c70f2e1e80ad NOTES · The EPIC rarity is only stated in the card description if it is a different value than shown in-game. · All Star Card descriptions were rewritten to be unilateral and have similar explanations. The names of heroes and second-person pronouns were avoided. · Clearer antonyms are used: increased/decreased; extended/reduced. o Increase/decrease suggests a progression in size, amount, or numbers (like adding/subtracting health, damage, stamina drain, and sprint speed). o Extend/reduce suggests a change made to a value or number (like percentages for time, distance, and blaster heat). · Damage Reduction is received; health points are regained. · To avoid confusion, the term increased cooldown speed and increased recharge time (which uses percentage increased) is avoided. To keep all related effects as close in description as possible: extended/reduced cooldown time (still percentage) is the simplest way to describe the effect without changing the in-game number values. · Extra damage is damage added to ability; bonus damage is situational. · Some values were rounded to whole numbers to reflect in-game values. Such are health points, damage points, and blaster overheat. As a result, though noticeably small, the actual values in-game may be a little off when it comes to stacked values (like stacking damage reduction) and are yet to be tested. · Some stats between the BF2 wiki and SammyBoiii’s Hero Guides differ in stats; however, they agree for the most part and usually differ by units less than a second. · Feel free to pick any hero and test out the stats yourself. The more accurate stats we have, the better we can use them. · Question Marks are unknown values. If you happen to know them or calculate the value, feel free to share them. Video proof seems to always work best. · I personally feel that being open to the intricacies of every star card and ability is the best way to go and should not be considered an exploit. Everyone should know what’s happening when the enemy team starts using these game-changers (and there are many people who do), and best enabling them to learn how to counter it. In the end, understanding these little details leads to a more competitive and playable battlefront. · Although not too often, some of the supposed up-to-date references below contradict each other; I had to make a final choice without having the time to test them. · Getting all these stats was a hard-earned headache in the end. Feel free to correct any discrepancies you may find! REFERENCES BF1 BF2 Community on Fandom [Most stats taken from here] https://battlefront.fandom.com/wiki/Heroes_and_Villains R1 These are ALL the Broken Hero Star Cards (u/RogueZeroRendar on Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/gcyh0these_are_all_the_broken_hero_star_cards/ R2 Hero Star Cards that are broken in a “beneficial way”? (u/T-RevLynn on Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/ub797m/hero_star_cards_that_are_broken_in_a_beneficial/ R3 Hero Star Card Guide (u/ MAshby1001 on Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/pmf1b5/hero_star_card_guide/ R4 Damage stats for every trooper, hero and reinforcement in BF2 (u/ImpecableBunny on Reddit) [To Confirm Stats] https://www.reddit.com/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/15bvq7z/damage_stats_for_every_trooper_hero_and/#lightbox R5 Grievous strikes again (u/Accomplished_Ebb1545 on Reddit) [“Jedi Killer” Secondary Effect] https://www.reddit.com/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/1610bg5/grievous_strikes_again/ S1 All Broken Hero Starcards in BF2 (By shuds and Shineberg on Steam) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024044483 YB1 SWBF2 Guide to Hero/Villain Stats (By jmorga3) [To Confirm Stats; Found this list after finishing my list, consider it a simplified version] https://www.yekbot.com/swbf2-guide-to-hero-villain-stats/ YT1 Star Cards Breakdown (@KillerDebit on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtoW9-Eb-QU&list=PLwVdQ5vamLGbW4srkAHahjSYp7qayFb88 YT2 Every hidden/actual star card effect on battlefront 2 (@Picos on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZb-iNSpFrM YT3 Battlefront 2 has 17 Star Cards that DON’T WORK (or are useless)… DO NOT USE THESE! (@Battlefront Knight on YouTube) [OUTDATED, BUT USEFUL COMMENT SECTION] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQNIOHv-yxA YT4 SammyBoiii: Star Wars Hero Guides [Stats also taken from here] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9yGv_5YaeI&list=PLMe4n3PD17TRrp_7adLtTblLCDmZeygZm YT5 Every Broken Hero Card In Battlefront 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0H70XpXI24 YT6 Star Wars Battlefront 2 Testing 5 USELESS Star Cards And Proving That They Don't Work! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBF4kRo6Y88 |
2024.05.17 10:55 Faaarkme Rules of the Blues
Borrowed.....
"Rules Of The Blues" by Memphis Earlene
submitted by Faaarkme to blues [link] [comments]
"Rules Of The Blues" by Memphis Earlene
- Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."
- "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."
- The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes... sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound."
- The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch--ain't no way out.
- Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and company motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
- Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
- Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.
- A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cause you were skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator be chompin' on it is.
- You can't have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
- Good places for the Blues: a. Highway b. Jailhouse c. An empty bed d. Bottom of a whiskey glass
- Bad places for the Blues: a. Nordstrom's b. Gallery openings c. Ivy league institutions d. Golf courses
- No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be a old ethnic person, and you slept in it.
- You have the right to sing the Blues if: a. You older than dirt b. You blind c. You shot a man in Memphis d. You can't be satisfied
- You don't have the right to sing the Blues if: a. You have all your teeth b. You were once blind but now can see c. The man in Memphis lived d. You have a pension fund
- Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.
- If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues
- Other acceptable Blues beverages are: a. Cheap wine b. Whiskey or bourbon c. Muddy water d. Nasty black coffee
- The following are NOT Blues beverages: a. Perrier b. Chardonnay c. Snapple d. Slim Fast
- If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broke-down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.
- Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling
- Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie
- Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
- Make your own Blues name Starter Kit: a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Melon, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jackleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")
- I don't care how tragic your life: if you own even one computer, you cannot sing the blues.
2024.05.17 09:52 Edwardthecrazyman Hiraeth or Where the Children Play: The Preparation for a Night of Demon Burning [13]
First/Previous
The travel took on a less gloomy quality in the day that passed since Gemma’s self-reflection and although there remained a queer distance in her eyes, she seemed in better spirits in losing the weight of the words.
It was a night just beyond Wabash Crevasse that we pushed on till sunset was almost upon us and we were each tired and the food stocks ran low and so we found harbor in a half collapsed cellar where a home once stood; it was only after examining the slatted, rotted boards of the old place, fallen over, tired with decay, that we spied the cellar doors intact; sheets of door metal plied us with safety from the outside world and the interior of the place stank of mold and the deeper recesses were collapsed, but there was a cradle to crossbar the stair hatch and I put my prybar there for the night. We finished the water and canned tomatoes, and I smoked a cigarette, staving off the inevitable doom which would come with the dwindling of our supplies.
I’d peeked through the space where the doors met at the cellar’s entry and watched the full darkness there while the youngins spoke of life and the trivial pursuits of it and I hardly said a word besides.
Sitting on the lowest step with Trouble dumbly maintaining her station by me, by the low glow of the space in the threshold, I saw they’d pushed their bedrolls together and Andrew had fallen asleep with his arm over Gemma’s shoulder and her eyes glowed with shine from the crack, blinked a few times while seeing me; she too eventually drifted to sleep, and I spent time by the secured door.
Gunshots rang across the stillness, and they stirred from their quiet slumber and Gemma asked, “Harlan, is it alright?”
I moved to the space there at the doorway again and listened and watched what I could through that crack and nothing beyond came. “It’s safe. I’ll be up a bit longer. I’ll watch.”
Andrew asked, “Can’t sleep?”
“I’ll sleep in a bit. Don’t worry about me. Rest. Sleep good and we can put more behind us.
They sat up, legs crossed triangle-wise, and Gemma spoke again, “Why do you have such a hard time sleeping? It seems I’m asleep after you and only awake after you too.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew.
“It’s cool at night. I can listen to the wind.” I shrugged.
“You should be the one that tries to get some sleep,” said Andrew.
I said nothing.
They reached out their arms and I shook my head.
“Here,” Gemma said, “Move your bedroll closer.” She reached across the dirt floor of the cellar and dragged my splayed roll so that it sat beside hers.
“I’ll sleep later.” I turned my attention back to the door and ignored them till their sounds of sleep could be heard. The Alukah was nowhere and did not tap on the door that night and when I moved to sleep, I shimmied onto the roll beside them, facing away on my shoulder; the dog followed, laid on the bare dirt beside me and I held the mutt.
Though I refused a noise as they stirred in the absolute darkness, I felt Gemma’s arm fall over my own shoulder and felt Andrew’s hand touch my back, and water traced the bridge of my nose and I slept deeply thereafter.
There was no breakfast without food, and the water was gone; I felt the eyes of the dog on us as we packed up our belongings that next morning and I tried not to imagine the poor animal skinned over fire. I smiled at Trouble, patted its head, scratched its chin; she sniffed my hand like she was looking for something that wouldn’t be found.
We went west again, ignoring roads and pushed through straight wasteland where nothing was and no one was, and with every dry footfall on the dry hard ground, I wished for rain, and I wished that when it had rained, as infrequent as it was, that I had been wise enough to save what we could from the sky; that sky was red and swollen and refused to burst. We pushed on through strange dead thickets where grayed and twisty yellow branches lurched from the ground into the sky like even they too wished for an end to all the suffering. It was days more till we would see Alexandria and though I could stave off hunger (thirst too, if necessary), I was not so certain that the children would be able to push on without it; they did not complain and watched the ground in our march and maintained higher spirits than I could’ve imagined from them.
Early in the day, they spoke often, and I listened and as they wore on, their words came less and even the dog seemed in a lower mood for the unsaid predicament; me too.
Gemma broke the silence on the matter by saying, “What are we going to do about food? Water?”
“We’ll push on.”
“We could turn back?” asked Andrew.
“The more time we spend out in the open, outside of a city, the more likely it is that the Alukah will catch us unawares. Tighten your belts.” Our feet took us around a dilapidated truck, an old thing with a rusty hook which dangled off a rear arm. “Save your urine.”
They made faces but did not protest.
“Does that work? You ever drink pee?” asked Andrew.
I laughed, “I thought we’d be there by now. I took us too long by trying to drop the scent of the Alukah. That thing’s hunted us for days—last night was the first time it ain’t bothered us. It’s got me wondering why.”
Gemma piped up, licking her dry lips before speaking, “Do you think that monster ran into those scavengers we saw?” Then I caught her shooting a look at Andrew, “At least we warned them.” Her smile was faint and almost indiscernible as one.
I shrugged. “Can’t say. Don’t think it’s smart to turn back. Won’t be long and we’ll touch the 40 and then it’ll be a straight on to Babylon—couple of days—can’t turn back though. Maybe without food; that’s doable. Water’s the worst, but if it comes to it,” I paused and looked on the weathered faces of the children, on the lowered head of Trouble which followed her nose across the ground (it searched just short of frantic), “Like I said, ‘save your urine’.”
The first pains of hunger held within me brought up some reminiscence and I wished for nothing more than to hold Suzanne; I could nearly smell them and in the swaying walk which took us on past toppled townships, I held long blinks where I could nearly make out their face and if I really pushed the limits of my imagination, I could feel them. In those moments, as we passed dead places, rotted pits of despair, I could think of little more than their presence. Though I knew it was a dangerous game, hoping for more than I was worth, I hoped for Suzanne then and I wished that I’d taken them up on their offer to travel to Alexandria with them; it could’ve been home—it never was in all the times I’d gone there, but who knows? The thoughts of Babylon brought forth their gardens; the wild gardens and the water which flowed freely through their pipes. I wished I was a different person entirely and that too would’ve been better for Suzanne; how it was that they’d seen anything in me, I don’t know. How it was that they could stoop to the level of being with someone like me—I warded off that thought, because to place the blame there would certainly be unfair. I thought of my love plainly and wanted a different life more suited to them.
Imaginations played more furiously, and I remembered the evening when Dave stopped me from leaping from that roof—it’s doubtful that he even realized that he’d slowed my demise; perhaps he did know—I wished then that I could ask him. Too kind for the world. People too kind for the world were scarce and hardly worth the trouble. Yet, there I was, chaperoning those two across the wastes.
Gemma was a broken person when I’d found her, tortured in Baphomet’s well; Andrew was a dullard boy who’d lost his hand. What a silly predicament.
I stopped in my movements and swiveled on my heel to catch Andrew by the shoulder. “You still got your hand, don’t you?”
In good humor, the boy grinned, lifted the nub on the end of his left forearm to show me, “Nope.”
“Dammit, no! The hand in the jar!”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “In my pack.”
“Stop,” I commanded Trouble; the dog hardly recognized my words and continued a way then circled back, sad eyes looking up from where she took to sit by my side. Gemma, both arms dangling loosely from her own pack’s shoulder straps, took into the circle we’d formed.
The girl asked, “What about the jar? It’s nasty, but I guess it’s his.”
“I think that’s it,” I said. I took Andrew by his shoulders, looked him in his eyes, “We could use it!”
“What?” The boy almost laughed in the display of our concern. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I think I’ve got it! It’s good for a trap.” I shook him; maybe too hard. I almost smiled. “It’s worth a shot!”
“It’s mine.” He bit his top lip, withdrew from me.
“You’ll feel differently about that,” I said.
Gemma placed a hand on Andrew’s pack and tried ripping it open. “Give it to him!” shouted the girl.
The boy whipped from her grasp, and he spun on his feet, and panic stood on his face. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”
I took a step forward, “No, not anymore.” I put out my palm, “Give it.”
Andrew nearly flinched at the thought of it and shook his head a little. “Why?”
“I told you why,” I said.
“You don’t even know if it’ll work, do you?” his words were long in protest.
The girl started again, “Andrew, please.”
He locked eyes with Gemma and once again, his bottom teeth came up to meet over his top lip and he moved his jaw methodically with contemplation.
“What does it even matter?” she asked.
“It’s mine. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“C’mon,” he said, but his pack straps fell from his shoulders, and he hunkered down on the ground and opened his bag; his right hand plunged into the recesses therein and withdrew the jar with his severed left hand. He held the object up, refusing to come up from his open pack, keeping his eyes on the ground. “Take it then.” He shook the jar; its contents sloshed with liquid decay.
I grabbed the thing, held it to skylight; the remains within had congealed and rotted and lumps nearly floated in the brownish liquid which had formed in the base of the container. I shook it and stared for a moment at the miniscule debris which floated alongside the hand; each of its digits had swollen and erupted to expose bone; some had come away in pieces. “Tomorrow,” I said and nodded.
We gathered ourselves and Andrew pulled his pack on again and we moved, Trouble still looked sorry and the boy remained quiet while the girl chattered on with questions while we took through the dying ground in a formation with the dog on point then me then the children.
“What will you do with it?” she asked me.
“Not sure yet.”
Andrew made a noise like he wanted to say something but didn’t.
“You think it will work?” asked Gemma.
“Nothing’s a guarantee. They’re smart—Alukah.”
“Smart enough to figure out a trap?”
I shrugged. “We’ll find out.”
“We could put stakes in a pit.”
“Keep on the lookout for a building. Something with multiple floors.”
With that, we moved on, found a worn, mostly destroyed road and we fell into a travelling quiet and the thought of hunger or thirst arose again, and I pushed it down—though I knew the uneasiness could only last so long before savagery would overtake the human condition; the kids seemed strong enough, but I kept an eye on the dog too. Savagery belonged not only to humans, after all.
The ground of the wastes was harder when it was quiet, and it was flatter further west. The sky—red and full of thin and transparent drifting clouds—seemed an awful sight when stared at for too long; it was the thing which stretched as if to signal there wasn’t an end in any direction, as if to declare we had much more to go till safety. Wanderlust is a thing that I believe I’ve felt before, but under that sky, with those two and the dog, I didn’t feel it at all. It was doom that I felt. Ignorance and doom. And it was all because I was certain I’d made all the wrong mistakes, and it was coming back to me. I was experienced. We should’ve had food and water. Perhaps there was some deep and nasty part inside of me that had intended to sacrifice them along the way. The words of the Alukah might have rung true: You say you make no deals, but I smell it. I think you’d deal.
Surely, I felt differently. Surely.
“Getting darker,” called Andrew as we came to where signposts—worn and bent and barely legible—told us of a place once called Annapolis and the buildings were nearly gone entirely; places, maybe places that were once homes, were leveled—I was briefly caught in imagining what it might’ve been like all those ages ago. As are most places, it was haunted like that and when we came to a long rectangular structure of metal walls—thin walls—we took it as a place for rest for the night.
It once served as an agricultural station, for when we breached its entry, there were a line of dead machines—three in all—cultivators or tillers which stood higher than any of our heads and Gemma asked what they were, and I told her I thought they were for farming. The great rusted bodies stood in quiet shadow as we came through a side passage of the building and the great doors which had once been used to release those machines from the building stood frozen in their frame. I approached the doors, lighting my lantern and motioning for the children to shut the door we’d entered through.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed the doors would roll into the ceiling and the chains which held the doors in place were each secured with rusted padlocks—I removed my prybar from my pack and moved along the wall of doors, giving each old lock a smack with the weapon; each one held in place, seemingly fused there through years of corrosion, and I rounded the cultivators once more, back to the children, near the side door where they’d discovered a rickety stair frame which crawled up the side of the wall to a catwalk; along the catwalk, a levitated box stood at the height of the structure, stilted by metal legs, and we took the stairs slowly with the dog following close behind; the poor mutt was mute save the sound of its own shuffling paws.
The metal stairs creaked under our weight and Gemma held her own lantern high over her head so that the strange shadows of the place grew longer, stranger, and suddenly I felt very sure that something was in the dark with us, but there was no noise except what we made. My eyes scanned the darkness, and I followed the children up the stairs till we met the overhang of the catwalk and I peered into the shadows, the blades of the cultivators—far extended on foldable arms—struck up through the pool of blackness beneath us and I felt so cold there and if it were not for the breath of my fellow travelers, I might have been lost in the dark for longer than intended—lost and frozen and contemplative.
“There’s a room,” said the boy, and he pushed ahead on the hanging passage, and he was the first to the door. “Boxes,” he said plainly.
Upon coming to the place where he stood, Gemma pushed her lantern over the threshold, and I saw what he’d meant as I traced my own lantern to help; the room was crammed with plastic totes and old metal containers of varied sizes. There seemed to be enough empty space to maneuver through the room, but only if one watched their feet while they walked. Carefully.
We moved to the room, and I found a stack of crates to place my lantern then motioned for Gemma to douse hers. In minutes, the place was rearranged so that we could sit comfortably on the floor; crates lined the walls precariously and we breathed heavy from the work done, but we began to unpack and upon watching the children while I rolled a cigarette, I felt a pang of guilt, a terrible summation—all choices in my life had led me here and with them and perhaps it would have been a better world for them without me.
Mentally shrugging this thought away, I lit my cigarette, inhaled deeply, and then withdrew the jar which Andrew had handed over. I held it to the lantern to examine it. The grotesqueness of it hardly phased me and I watched it more curious and hopeful than disgusted.
“I hope it’ll work,” said the boy, “Whatever it is that you plan on doing with it.” He grimaced and maintained a further silence in patting his bedding for fluff. The dog moved to him, and she pushed her forehead against him where he squatted on floor. The boy scratched Trouble’s chin and whispered, “Good girl,” into the top of her head where he’d pushed his own face.
“I’m hungry,” said Gemma; she placed her chin in her arm while watching Andrew with the dog. She sat on her own flat bed there on the floor and stated plainly the thing that I’d hoped to ignore for longer.
“I know.” I took another drag from the cigarette and let the smoke hang over my head. “The dog?”
Andrew recoiled, pulling Trouble closer into his arms.
I smiled. “It was a joke.”
Andrew relaxed, but only a moment before Gemma added, “Maybe.”
The boy narrowed his eyes in the girl’s direction, and she shrugged. “If it’s life or death.”
He didn’t say anything and merely continued stroking Trouble’s coat.
That night, we slept awfully and even in the complete darkness, I felt the cramp of the storage room and the angled shapes of the tools that protruded from the containers on all sides remained permanent well after we’d turned the light off and it felt like those shapes were the teeth of a great creature like we were sitting inside of its mouth, looking out.
Trouble positioned herself partially on my chest, her slow rhythmic breathing brought my thoughts calm and I whispered to her in the dark after I was sure the others were asleep, “I promise it was a joke.” And I brushed the back of her neck with my hand and the animal let go of a long sigh then continued that deep rhythmic breathing.
Still without food or water, the following day was the true indication of the misery to come. Gemma’s stomach growled audibly in waking and Andrew—though he kept his complaints to himself—smacked his lips more often or protruded the tongue in his mouth in a starvation for water. The room, in the daylight which peered through pinpricks of its half-decayed roof, seemed another beast altogether from its nighttime counterpart; it was not so frightening. Again, I admonished myself for the lack of preparation, but there was another thought that brought together a more cohesive feeling; we had a possible plan, a trap for the demon that’d been following us.
We went into the field to the west of the building where there was only dirt beneath our feet in the early sunlight and in the coolness of morning air, I nearly felt like a person. The sun crested the horizon and brought with it a warmth that would quickly become overwhelming—in those few minutes though—it felt good enough. I wished for the shy dew and saw none. The weirdness of holding Andrew’s rotting hand in a jar momentarily caught me and I almost laughed, but refrained and the dog and the children looked on while I held the container up and suddenly, seeing the congealed mass of tissue floating in its own excretions, I was overcome with the urge to run, the urge that nothing would ever be right again in my life, and that I was marked to be that way.
I blinked and tossed the jar to Andrew. “Say goodbye,” I said. He fumbled after it with his right hand and caught it to his chest.
“It’s strange you care so much anyway,” said Gemma, shrugging—her eyes forgave a millisecond of pity and when Andrew looked at her, still holding the jar in his right hand, she smiled and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her pants.
“We’ve enough oil, I think,” my voice was raspy from it being early, “Enough for good fire, but if we use it, it’ll mean a few more dark nights on our way.”
“We’re going to set it on fire?” Andrew pondered, keeping his eyes to the contents of the jar. “It worked good enough last time. It’ll work,” I nodded, “I has to, doesn’t it?”
His dry lips creased into a brief smile, and he tossed the jar back to me and I caught it.
“Let’s dig,” I said.
Without much in the way of proper tools, we began at the ground under us with our hands, then taking turns with my prybar till there was a hole in the ground comfortably large enough to conceal a human head and I uncapped the jar and spilled it contents there and we covered it back and I lightly tamped it with my boot. My eyes scanned the outbuilding we’d taken refuge in the night prior and then to the street to the north then to the houses which stood as merely rotted plots of foundation with frames that struck from the ground more as markers than support. “I’ll take up over there across the street when it gets dark. I want you two in that storage room before anything goes off.”
“We can’t help?” asked Gemma.
“You can help by staying out of the way—the mutt too,” I said; the words were harsh, but my feelings were from worry.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we stuck together?” asked the girl.
I shook my head. “You stay in the room and keep quiet. No matter what you hear, you stay quiet and safe.”
“That’ll put you at a bigger risk,” Gemma furrowed her brow at me and shifted around to look out on the houses across the street, “There’s hardly any cover over there.”
The boy nodded, smacked his lips, and rubbed his forearm across his mouth then audibly agreed with her.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “No matter what you hear happening outside, no matter, you don’t open the door and you don’t scream—don’t make a noise at all. Alright? Even if you hear me calling you, you don’t do it.”
“Pfft,” Gemma crossed her arms and kicked her foot against the ground. The way her eyes seemed hollowed with bruising showed that the irritation would only grow without food. “Alright,” she finally sighed.
Andrew looked much the same as she did in that; he swallowed a dry swallow then stuffed his hand into his pocket and looked away when our eyes matched.
We gathered our light oil. Altogether, it seemed enough; rummaging through the room of the outbuilding we’d earlier taken refuge within, we managed three intact glass containers—the only ones found that wouldn’t leak with liquid; two were bottles and the third was the jar that’d once kept Andrew’s hand. With that work done, we sat with three Molotov cocktails within our huddled circle of the storage room.
“Is it enough?” asked Gemma.
“We’ll see,” I began rolling a cigarette to ignore the hunger and the thirst.
Andrew took to the corner and glanced over his shoulder only a moment before a steady liquid stream could be heard and when he rotated from the wall once the noise was finished and he held a canteen up to his nose, sniffed it and quivered and shook his head.
As the sun pushed on, I scanned the perimeter outside, and they followed. Far south I spied a mass of shadow inching across the horizon and Gemma commented, “What’s that?”
I pushed the binoculars to her and let her gaze through them.
“A fiend—that’s what we called it back in the day anyway. A mutant.”
She held the binoculars up and frowned. “A mutant? So, it was once human?”
“A fiend was once many humans.” I pointed out to the horizon though she couldn’t see me doing so and continued, “If you look at the edges of its shape, you’ll see it’s got limbs galore on it. Sticking up like hairs is what it’ll look like at this distance. Those are arms and legs. It’s got faces too. Many faces.” I shuddered.
“I can barely see any details,” she passed the binoculars to Andrew, and he looked through them, “What’s it do?”
“What?” I asked.
“What’s it do if it catches a person?”
“It pulls people into it. Makes you apart of its mass. Nasty fuckers.”
Andrew removed the lenses from his eyes and held them to his chest and asked, “It won’t mess up your trap, will it?”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” I said, “You don’t want to mess with a fiend unless you have to.”
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The travel took on a less gloomy quality in the day that passed since Gemma’s self-reflection and although there remained a queer distance in her eyes, she seemed in better spirits in losing the weight of the words.
It was a night just beyond Wabash Crevasse that we pushed on till sunset was almost upon us and we were each tired and the food stocks ran low and so we found harbor in a half collapsed cellar where a home once stood; it was only after examining the slatted, rotted boards of the old place, fallen over, tired with decay, that we spied the cellar doors intact; sheets of door metal plied us with safety from the outside world and the interior of the place stank of mold and the deeper recesses were collapsed, but there was a cradle to crossbar the stair hatch and I put my prybar there for the night. We finished the water and canned tomatoes, and I smoked a cigarette, staving off the inevitable doom which would come with the dwindling of our supplies.
I’d peeked through the space where the doors met at the cellar’s entry and watched the full darkness there while the youngins spoke of life and the trivial pursuits of it and I hardly said a word besides.
Sitting on the lowest step with Trouble dumbly maintaining her station by me, by the low glow of the space in the threshold, I saw they’d pushed their bedrolls together and Andrew had fallen asleep with his arm over Gemma’s shoulder and her eyes glowed with shine from the crack, blinked a few times while seeing me; she too eventually drifted to sleep, and I spent time by the secured door.
Gunshots rang across the stillness, and they stirred from their quiet slumber and Gemma asked, “Harlan, is it alright?”
I moved to the space there at the doorway again and listened and watched what I could through that crack and nothing beyond came. “It’s safe. I’ll be up a bit longer. I’ll watch.”
Andrew asked, “Can’t sleep?”
“I’ll sleep in a bit. Don’t worry about me. Rest. Sleep good and we can put more behind us.
They sat up, legs crossed triangle-wise, and Gemma spoke again, “Why do you have such a hard time sleeping? It seems I’m asleep after you and only awake after you too.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew.
“It’s cool at night. I can listen to the wind.” I shrugged.
“You should be the one that tries to get some sleep,” said Andrew.
I said nothing.
They reached out their arms and I shook my head.
“Here,” Gemma said, “Move your bedroll closer.” She reached across the dirt floor of the cellar and dragged my splayed roll so that it sat beside hers.
“I’ll sleep later.” I turned my attention back to the door and ignored them till their sounds of sleep could be heard. The Alukah was nowhere and did not tap on the door that night and when I moved to sleep, I shimmied onto the roll beside them, facing away on my shoulder; the dog followed, laid on the bare dirt beside me and I held the mutt.
Though I refused a noise as they stirred in the absolute darkness, I felt Gemma’s arm fall over my own shoulder and felt Andrew’s hand touch my back, and water traced the bridge of my nose and I slept deeply thereafter.
There was no breakfast without food, and the water was gone; I felt the eyes of the dog on us as we packed up our belongings that next morning and I tried not to imagine the poor animal skinned over fire. I smiled at Trouble, patted its head, scratched its chin; she sniffed my hand like she was looking for something that wouldn’t be found.
We went west again, ignoring roads and pushed through straight wasteland where nothing was and no one was, and with every dry footfall on the dry hard ground, I wished for rain, and I wished that when it had rained, as infrequent as it was, that I had been wise enough to save what we could from the sky; that sky was red and swollen and refused to burst. We pushed on through strange dead thickets where grayed and twisty yellow branches lurched from the ground into the sky like even they too wished for an end to all the suffering. It was days more till we would see Alexandria and though I could stave off hunger (thirst too, if necessary), I was not so certain that the children would be able to push on without it; they did not complain and watched the ground in our march and maintained higher spirits than I could’ve imagined from them.
Early in the day, they spoke often, and I listened and as they wore on, their words came less and even the dog seemed in a lower mood for the unsaid predicament; me too.
Gemma broke the silence on the matter by saying, “What are we going to do about food? Water?”
“We’ll push on.”
“We could turn back?” asked Andrew.
“The more time we spend out in the open, outside of a city, the more likely it is that the Alukah will catch us unawares. Tighten your belts.” Our feet took us around a dilapidated truck, an old thing with a rusty hook which dangled off a rear arm. “Save your urine.”
They made faces but did not protest.
“Does that work? You ever drink pee?” asked Andrew.
I laughed, “I thought we’d be there by now. I took us too long by trying to drop the scent of the Alukah. That thing’s hunted us for days—last night was the first time it ain’t bothered us. It’s got me wondering why.”
Gemma piped up, licking her dry lips before speaking, “Do you think that monster ran into those scavengers we saw?” Then I caught her shooting a look at Andrew, “At least we warned them.” Her smile was faint and almost indiscernible as one.
I shrugged. “Can’t say. Don’t think it’s smart to turn back. Won’t be long and we’ll touch the 40 and then it’ll be a straight on to Babylon—couple of days—can’t turn back though. Maybe without food; that’s doable. Water’s the worst, but if it comes to it,” I paused and looked on the weathered faces of the children, on the lowered head of Trouble which followed her nose across the ground (it searched just short of frantic), “Like I said, ‘save your urine’.”
The first pains of hunger held within me brought up some reminiscence and I wished for nothing more than to hold Suzanne; I could nearly smell them and in the swaying walk which took us on past toppled townships, I held long blinks where I could nearly make out their face and if I really pushed the limits of my imagination, I could feel them. In those moments, as we passed dead places, rotted pits of despair, I could think of little more than their presence. Though I knew it was a dangerous game, hoping for more than I was worth, I hoped for Suzanne then and I wished that I’d taken them up on their offer to travel to Alexandria with them; it could’ve been home—it never was in all the times I’d gone there, but who knows? The thoughts of Babylon brought forth their gardens; the wild gardens and the water which flowed freely through their pipes. I wished I was a different person entirely and that too would’ve been better for Suzanne; how it was that they’d seen anything in me, I don’t know. How it was that they could stoop to the level of being with someone like me—I warded off that thought, because to place the blame there would certainly be unfair. I thought of my love plainly and wanted a different life more suited to them.
Imaginations played more furiously, and I remembered the evening when Dave stopped me from leaping from that roof—it’s doubtful that he even realized that he’d slowed my demise; perhaps he did know—I wished then that I could ask him. Too kind for the world. People too kind for the world were scarce and hardly worth the trouble. Yet, there I was, chaperoning those two across the wastes.
Gemma was a broken person when I’d found her, tortured in Baphomet’s well; Andrew was a dullard boy who’d lost his hand. What a silly predicament.
I stopped in my movements and swiveled on my heel to catch Andrew by the shoulder. “You still got your hand, don’t you?”
In good humor, the boy grinned, lifted the nub on the end of his left forearm to show me, “Nope.”
“Dammit, no! The hand in the jar!”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “In my pack.”
“Stop,” I commanded Trouble; the dog hardly recognized my words and continued a way then circled back, sad eyes looking up from where she took to sit by my side. Gemma, both arms dangling loosely from her own pack’s shoulder straps, took into the circle we’d formed.
The girl asked, “What about the jar? It’s nasty, but I guess it’s his.”
“I think that’s it,” I said. I took Andrew by his shoulders, looked him in his eyes, “We could use it!”
“What?” The boy almost laughed in the display of our concern. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I think I’ve got it! It’s good for a trap.” I shook him; maybe too hard. I almost smiled. “It’s worth a shot!”
“It’s mine.” He bit his top lip, withdrew from me.
“You’ll feel differently about that,” I said.
Gemma placed a hand on Andrew’s pack and tried ripping it open. “Give it to him!” shouted the girl.
The boy whipped from her grasp, and he spun on his feet, and panic stood on his face. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”
I took a step forward, “No, not anymore.” I put out my palm, “Give it.”
Andrew nearly flinched at the thought of it and shook his head a little. “Why?”
“I told you why,” I said.
“You don’t even know if it’ll work, do you?” his words were long in protest.
The girl started again, “Andrew, please.”
He locked eyes with Gemma and once again, his bottom teeth came up to meet over his top lip and he moved his jaw methodically with contemplation.
“What does it even matter?” she asked.
“It’s mine. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“C’mon,” he said, but his pack straps fell from his shoulders, and he hunkered down on the ground and opened his bag; his right hand plunged into the recesses therein and withdrew the jar with his severed left hand. He held the object up, refusing to come up from his open pack, keeping his eyes on the ground. “Take it then.” He shook the jar; its contents sloshed with liquid decay.
I grabbed the thing, held it to skylight; the remains within had congealed and rotted and lumps nearly floated in the brownish liquid which had formed in the base of the container. I shook it and stared for a moment at the miniscule debris which floated alongside the hand; each of its digits had swollen and erupted to expose bone; some had come away in pieces. “Tomorrow,” I said and nodded.
We gathered ourselves and Andrew pulled his pack on again and we moved, Trouble still looked sorry and the boy remained quiet while the girl chattered on with questions while we took through the dying ground in a formation with the dog on point then me then the children.
“What will you do with it?” she asked me.
“Not sure yet.”
Andrew made a noise like he wanted to say something but didn’t.
“You think it will work?” asked Gemma.
“Nothing’s a guarantee. They’re smart—Alukah.”
“Smart enough to figure out a trap?”
I shrugged. “We’ll find out.”
“We could put stakes in a pit.”
“Keep on the lookout for a building. Something with multiple floors.”
With that, we moved on, found a worn, mostly destroyed road and we fell into a travelling quiet and the thought of hunger or thirst arose again, and I pushed it down—though I knew the uneasiness could only last so long before savagery would overtake the human condition; the kids seemed strong enough, but I kept an eye on the dog too. Savagery belonged not only to humans, after all.
The ground of the wastes was harder when it was quiet, and it was flatter further west. The sky—red and full of thin and transparent drifting clouds—seemed an awful sight when stared at for too long; it was the thing which stretched as if to signal there wasn’t an end in any direction, as if to declare we had much more to go till safety. Wanderlust is a thing that I believe I’ve felt before, but under that sky, with those two and the dog, I didn’t feel it at all. It was doom that I felt. Ignorance and doom. And it was all because I was certain I’d made all the wrong mistakes, and it was coming back to me. I was experienced. We should’ve had food and water. Perhaps there was some deep and nasty part inside of me that had intended to sacrifice them along the way. The words of the Alukah might have rung true: You say you make no deals, but I smell it. I think you’d deal.
Surely, I felt differently. Surely.
“Getting darker,” called Andrew as we came to where signposts—worn and bent and barely legible—told us of a place once called Annapolis and the buildings were nearly gone entirely; places, maybe places that were once homes, were leveled—I was briefly caught in imagining what it might’ve been like all those ages ago. As are most places, it was haunted like that and when we came to a long rectangular structure of metal walls—thin walls—we took it as a place for rest for the night.
It once served as an agricultural station, for when we breached its entry, there were a line of dead machines—three in all—cultivators or tillers which stood higher than any of our heads and Gemma asked what they were, and I told her I thought they were for farming. The great rusted bodies stood in quiet shadow as we came through a side passage of the building and the great doors which had once been used to release those machines from the building stood frozen in their frame. I approached the doors, lighting my lantern and motioning for the children to shut the door we’d entered through.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed the doors would roll into the ceiling and the chains which held the doors in place were each secured with rusted padlocks—I removed my prybar from my pack and moved along the wall of doors, giving each old lock a smack with the weapon; each one held in place, seemingly fused there through years of corrosion, and I rounded the cultivators once more, back to the children, near the side door where they’d discovered a rickety stair frame which crawled up the side of the wall to a catwalk; along the catwalk, a levitated box stood at the height of the structure, stilted by metal legs, and we took the stairs slowly with the dog following close behind; the poor mutt was mute save the sound of its own shuffling paws.
The metal stairs creaked under our weight and Gemma held her own lantern high over her head so that the strange shadows of the place grew longer, stranger, and suddenly I felt very sure that something was in the dark with us, but there was no noise except what we made. My eyes scanned the darkness, and I followed the children up the stairs till we met the overhang of the catwalk and I peered into the shadows, the blades of the cultivators—far extended on foldable arms—struck up through the pool of blackness beneath us and I felt so cold there and if it were not for the breath of my fellow travelers, I might have been lost in the dark for longer than intended—lost and frozen and contemplative.
“There’s a room,” said the boy, and he pushed ahead on the hanging passage, and he was the first to the door. “Boxes,” he said plainly.
Upon coming to the place where he stood, Gemma pushed her lantern over the threshold, and I saw what he’d meant as I traced my own lantern to help; the room was crammed with plastic totes and old metal containers of varied sizes. There seemed to be enough empty space to maneuver through the room, but only if one watched their feet while they walked. Carefully.
We moved to the room, and I found a stack of crates to place my lantern then motioned for Gemma to douse hers. In minutes, the place was rearranged so that we could sit comfortably on the floor; crates lined the walls precariously and we breathed heavy from the work done, but we began to unpack and upon watching the children while I rolled a cigarette, I felt a pang of guilt, a terrible summation—all choices in my life had led me here and with them and perhaps it would have been a better world for them without me.
Mentally shrugging this thought away, I lit my cigarette, inhaled deeply, and then withdrew the jar which Andrew had handed over. I held it to the lantern to examine it. The grotesqueness of it hardly phased me and I watched it more curious and hopeful than disgusted.
“I hope it’ll work,” said the boy, “Whatever it is that you plan on doing with it.” He grimaced and maintained a further silence in patting his bedding for fluff. The dog moved to him, and she pushed her forehead against him where he squatted on floor. The boy scratched Trouble’s chin and whispered, “Good girl,” into the top of her head where he’d pushed his own face.
“I’m hungry,” said Gemma; she placed her chin in her arm while watching Andrew with the dog. She sat on her own flat bed there on the floor and stated plainly the thing that I’d hoped to ignore for longer.
“I know.” I took another drag from the cigarette and let the smoke hang over my head. “The dog?”
Andrew recoiled, pulling Trouble closer into his arms.
I smiled. “It was a joke.”
Andrew relaxed, but only a moment before Gemma added, “Maybe.”
The boy narrowed his eyes in the girl’s direction, and she shrugged. “If it’s life or death.”
He didn’t say anything and merely continued stroking Trouble’s coat.
That night, we slept awfully and even in the complete darkness, I felt the cramp of the storage room and the angled shapes of the tools that protruded from the containers on all sides remained permanent well after we’d turned the light off and it felt like those shapes were the teeth of a great creature like we were sitting inside of its mouth, looking out.
Trouble positioned herself partially on my chest, her slow rhythmic breathing brought my thoughts calm and I whispered to her in the dark after I was sure the others were asleep, “I promise it was a joke.” And I brushed the back of her neck with my hand and the animal let go of a long sigh then continued that deep rhythmic breathing.
Still without food or water, the following day was the true indication of the misery to come. Gemma’s stomach growled audibly in waking and Andrew—though he kept his complaints to himself—smacked his lips more often or protruded the tongue in his mouth in a starvation for water. The room, in the daylight which peered through pinpricks of its half-decayed roof, seemed another beast altogether from its nighttime counterpart; it was not so frightening. Again, I admonished myself for the lack of preparation, but there was another thought that brought together a more cohesive feeling; we had a possible plan, a trap for the demon that’d been following us.
We went into the field to the west of the building where there was only dirt beneath our feet in the early sunlight and in the coolness of morning air, I nearly felt like a person. The sun crested the horizon and brought with it a warmth that would quickly become overwhelming—in those few minutes though—it felt good enough. I wished for the shy dew and saw none. The weirdness of holding Andrew’s rotting hand in a jar momentarily caught me and I almost laughed, but refrained and the dog and the children looked on while I held the container up and suddenly, seeing the congealed mass of tissue floating in its own excretions, I was overcome with the urge to run, the urge that nothing would ever be right again in my life, and that I was marked to be that way.
I blinked and tossed the jar to Andrew. “Say goodbye,” I said. He fumbled after it with his right hand and caught it to his chest.
“It’s strange you care so much anyway,” said Gemma, shrugging—her eyes forgave a millisecond of pity and when Andrew looked at her, still holding the jar in his right hand, she smiled and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her pants.
“We’ve enough oil, I think,” my voice was raspy from it being early, “Enough for good fire, but if we use it, it’ll mean a few more dark nights on our way.”
“We’re going to set it on fire?” Andrew pondered, keeping his eyes to the contents of the jar. “It worked good enough last time. It’ll work,” I nodded, “I has to, doesn’t it?”
His dry lips creased into a brief smile, and he tossed the jar back to me and I caught it.
“Let’s dig,” I said.
Without much in the way of proper tools, we began at the ground under us with our hands, then taking turns with my prybar till there was a hole in the ground comfortably large enough to conceal a human head and I uncapped the jar and spilled it contents there and we covered it back and I lightly tamped it with my boot. My eyes scanned the outbuilding we’d taken refuge in the night prior and then to the street to the north then to the houses which stood as merely rotted plots of foundation with frames that struck from the ground more as markers than support. “I’ll take up over there across the street when it gets dark. I want you two in that storage room before anything goes off.”
“We can’t help?” asked Gemma.
“You can help by staying out of the way—the mutt too,” I said; the words were harsh, but my feelings were from worry.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we stuck together?” asked the girl.
I shook my head. “You stay in the room and keep quiet. No matter what you hear, you stay quiet and safe.”
“That’ll put you at a bigger risk,” Gemma furrowed her brow at me and shifted around to look out on the houses across the street, “There’s hardly any cover over there.”
The boy nodded, smacked his lips, and rubbed his forearm across his mouth then audibly agreed with her.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “No matter what you hear happening outside, no matter, you don’t open the door and you don’t scream—don’t make a noise at all. Alright? Even if you hear me calling you, you don’t do it.”
“Pfft,” Gemma crossed her arms and kicked her foot against the ground. The way her eyes seemed hollowed with bruising showed that the irritation would only grow without food. “Alright,” she finally sighed.
Andrew looked much the same as she did in that; he swallowed a dry swallow then stuffed his hand into his pocket and looked away when our eyes matched.
We gathered our light oil. Altogether, it seemed enough; rummaging through the room of the outbuilding we’d earlier taken refuge within, we managed three intact glass containers—the only ones found that wouldn’t leak with liquid; two were bottles and the third was the jar that’d once kept Andrew’s hand. With that work done, we sat with three Molotov cocktails within our huddled circle of the storage room.
“Is it enough?” asked Gemma.
“We’ll see,” I began rolling a cigarette to ignore the hunger and the thirst.
Andrew took to the corner and glanced over his shoulder only a moment before a steady liquid stream could be heard and when he rotated from the wall once the noise was finished and he held a canteen up to his nose, sniffed it and quivered and shook his head.
As the sun pushed on, I scanned the perimeter outside, and they followed. Far south I spied a mass of shadow inching across the horizon and Gemma commented, “What’s that?”
I pushed the binoculars to her and let her gaze through them.
“A fiend—that’s what we called it back in the day anyway. A mutant.”
She held the binoculars up and frowned. “A mutant? So, it was once human?”
“A fiend was once many humans.” I pointed out to the horizon though she couldn’t see me doing so and continued, “If you look at the edges of its shape, you’ll see it’s got limbs galore on it. Sticking up like hairs is what it’ll look like at this distance. Those are arms and legs. It’s got faces too. Many faces.” I shuddered.
“I can barely see any details,” she passed the binoculars to Andrew, and he looked through them, “What’s it do?”
“What?” I asked.
“What’s it do if it catches a person?”
“It pulls people into it. Makes you apart of its mass. Nasty fuckers.”
Andrew removed the lenses from his eyes and held them to his chest and asked, “It won’t mess up your trap, will it?”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” I said, “You don’t want to mess with a fiend unless you have to.”
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2024.05.17 09:11 rtls Power Share Installed!
 | It took a full day to have it installed, but it’s now in and the GUI is sick! I am in SoCal and picked up my dual motor in January. The part where the truck starts to run the home apparently kicks in sometime in June with an over the air update…until then it’s a glorified charger ;-) Looking forward to seeing it in action this summer since the power does go out way more frequently than I expected around here. submitted by rtls to cybertruck [link] [comments] |
2024.05.17 07:42 Ashamed-Ear3592 Best submersible well pumps high speed borewel drilling 2024
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2024.05.17 07:28 Ashamed-Ear3592 XRV Well Drilling Rig Borewell Digging 30Hp Motor 50Fit dee
 | XRV Well Drilling Rig Borewell Digging 30Hp Motor 50Fit dee @mukeshborewelldrillingwatermachine submitted by Ashamed-Ear3592 to mukeshborewell [link] [comments] Watch as we drill a borewell for water using a 5hp motor and reach a depth of 260 feet. Get a glimpse of the process and equipment used in deep boring for water extraction. Watertec 9000 Water dmv near me nysdmv my dmv bmv near me motor mvr dmv online mass gov rmv ct gov dmv dmv website mvd near me motor vehicles nydmv my dmv colorado gov my dmv ny rmv near me dmv gov dmv ny gov massrmv mvdnow my rmv mydmv colorado gov njmvc gov nmvtis sae 10w 30 ca dmv gov in gov bmv nys dmv online motor car mdot mva moped motorcycle mydmv vermont gov mvd online bmv online the dmv mvc near me express dmv lakewood dmv dmv dc gov dmv nebraska gov dmv nv gov dmv org dmv state mva maryland gov troy dmv mvd fine Secrets of 5 HP Motor for 260ft Borewell Warning: Deep Dive into Borewell Drilling Desire: Mastering Water Borewell Drilling Curiosity: What Lies Beneath 260ft Water Borewell? Fear: Dangers of 260ft Borewell Drilling borewell drilling water borewell drilling water coming borewell drilling water check borewell drilling water pressure borewell drilling water level borewell drilling water blast water borewell drilling animation borewell drilling 3 inch water water borewell drilling cost borewell drilling high pressure water bore well water drilling animation borewell drilling amazing water how water borewell drilling works animation amazing borewell drilling blast of water borewell drilling big water bore well water drilling by hand bore well water drilling cost in telugu bore well water drilling cost in tamil bore well water drilling camera bore well water drilling cost borewell_drilling_with_coconut_water_checking_methods100drilling boreholes for water bore well water drilling small bore drilling water bore well water drilling borewell drilling starting to end borewell drilling full water bore well water drilling full video how to find underground water source for drilling borewell borewell drilling groundwater borewell drilling heavy water borewell drilling high water bore well water drilling in house bore well water drilling in tamil bore well water drilling in kannada bore well water drilling in telugu bore well water drilling in karnataka bore well water drilling india borewell drilling 2 inch water borewell drilling 1 inch water borewell drilling 5 inch water borewell drilling 2.5 inch water borewell drilling 1.5 inch water water bore drilling video bore well water drilling kannada bore well water drilling kerala bore well water drilling malayalam bore well water drilling machine bore well water drilling marathi borewell drilling no water borewell drilling blast of water bore well water drilling process bore well water drilling pakistan bore well water drilling prices borewell drilling in sand borewell side drilling bore well water drilling telugu bore well water drilling tamil borewell drilling underground water borewell drilling with camera bore water drilling machine bore well water drilling 3d water well boring machine borewell drilling 600 feet borewell drilling air pass 6 inch borewell drilling 6 inch borewell 8 inch borewell drilling 8 inch borewell (1) Full Water Force Borewell Drilling Video Step By Step? https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (2) full water bore hole digging video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co... (3) borewell drilling 220 feet drilling 2inches borewell water Full Water Force Video Step By Step बहुत ज़्यादा पानी वाला विडियो लिंक https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (4) borewell drilling - 3 inch borewell water 210 feet deep drilling borewell point check बहुत ज़्यादा पानी वाला विडियो लिंक https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (5) Borewell drilling 30Hp Motor 50 Feet deep borewell Bore Drilling Machine Water Step By Step new#90 (6) borewell drilling - 5 inch water in 170 feet deep borewell Borewell# Drilling# Water# 5Hp# Motor# 260# Feet# Deep# boring#mukeshborewelldrilling #new #borewell #drilling #speed #fit #xrv #trending #trendingshorts #trend #truck #trendingvideo |
2024.05.17 07:27 Ashamed-Ear3592 XRV Well Drilling Rig Borewell Digging 30Hp Motor 50Fit deep
| | XRV Well Drilling Rig Borewell Digging 30Hp Motor 50Fit dee @mukeshborewelldrillingwatermachine submitted by Ashamed-Ear3592 to mukeshborewell [link] [comments] Watch as we drill a borewell for water using a 5hp motor and reach a depth of 260 feet. Get a glimpse of the process and equipment used in deep boring for water extraction. Watertec 9000 Water dmv near me nysdmv my dmv bmv near me motor mvr dmv online mass gov rmv ct gov dmv dmv website mvd near me motor vehicles nydmv my dmv colorado gov my dmv ny rmv near me dmv gov dmv ny gov massrmv mvdnow my rmv mydmv colorado gov njmvc gov nmvtis sae 10w 30 ca dmv gov in gov bmv nys dmv online motor car mdot mva moped motorcycle mydmv vermont gov mvd online bmv online the dmv mvc near me express dmv lakewood dmv dmv dc gov dmv nebraska gov dmv nv gov dmv org dmv state mva maryland gov troy dmv mvd fine Secrets of 5 HP Motor for 260ft Borewell Warning: Deep Dive into Borewell Drilling Desire: Mastering Water Borewell Drilling Curiosity: What Lies Beneath 260ft Water Borewell? Fear: Dangers of 260ft Borewell Drilling borewell drilling water borewell drilling water coming borewell drilling water check borewell drilling water pressure borewell drilling water level borewell drilling water blast water borewell drilling animation borewell drilling 3 inch water water borewell drilling cost borewell drilling high pressure water bore well water drilling animation borewell drilling amazing water how water borewell drilling works animation amazing borewell drilling blast of water borewell drilling big water bore well water drilling by hand bore well water drilling cost in telugu bore well water drilling cost in tamil bore well water drilling camera bore well water drilling cost borewell_drilling_with_coconut_water_checking_methods100drilling boreholes for water bore well water drilling small bore drilling water bore well water drilling borewell drilling starting to end borewell drilling full water bore well water drilling full video how to find underground water source for drilling borewell borewell drilling groundwater borewell drilling heavy water borewell drilling high water bore well water drilling in house bore well water drilling in tamil bore well water drilling in kannada bore well water drilling in telugu bore well water drilling in karnataka bore well water drilling india borewell drilling 2 inch water borewell drilling 1 inch water borewell drilling 5 inch water borewell drilling 2.5 inch water borewell drilling 1.5 inch water water bore drilling video bore well water drilling kannada bore well water drilling kerala bore well water drilling malayalam bore well water drilling machine bore well water drilling marathi borewell drilling no water borewell drilling blast of water bore well water drilling process bore well water drilling pakistan bore well water drilling prices borewell drilling in sand borewell side drilling bore well water drilling telugu bore well water drilling tamil borewell drilling underground water borewell drilling with camera bore water drilling machine bore well water drilling 3d water well boring machine borewell drilling 600 feet borewell drilling air pass 6 inch borewell drilling 6 inch borewell 8 inch borewell drilling 8 inch borewell (1) Full Water Force Borewell Drilling Video Step By Step? https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (2) full water bore hole digging video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co... (3) borewell drilling 220 feet drilling 2inches borewell water Full Water Force Video Step By Step बहुत ज़्यादा पानी वाला विडियो लिंक https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (4) borewell drilling - 3 inch borewell water 210 feet deep drilling borewell point check बहुत ज़्यादा पानी वाला विडियो लिंक https://youtu.be/bM6oTQSooHY (5) Borewell drilling 30Hp Motor 50 Feet deep borewell Bore Drilling Machine Water Step By Step new#90 (6) borewell drilling - 5 inch water in 170 feet deep borewell Borewell# Drilling# Water# 5Hp# Motor# 260# Feet# Deep# boring#mukeshborewelldrilling #new #borewell #drilling #speed #fit #xrv #trending #trendingshorts #trend #truck #trendingvideo |
2024.05.17 07:17 Gingerbeardman29 Adventure Rig Setup and Efficiency Test
 | I'm Rivian's target customer. I've wanted to put together the ultimate camping setup that can do some offroading, get to remote campsites, and bring bikes for day rides. I've got a DMP AT Max build, an iKamper Skycamp Mini 3 on top of the bed, and a Kuat swing out hitch and Piston Pro X. The wife and I recently took a 5 day trip out to Moab from the Front Range, 940 miles, high mountain passes, 75-80mph on the freeway west of Vail, light Moab offroading, camping, cooking with the truck outlets, driving into town for a few meals, and driving to some trailheads. I wasn't trying to hypermile, just get an efficiency baseline for the setup. Round trip, I used 500kW, 1.88m/kWh on average. I was getting roughly 1.6m/kWh at 80mph in rolling hills, 1m/kWh climbing mountain passes, as low as 0.6m/kWh offroading climbing loose hills, and of course, maxed out the 4.01m/kWh heading down mountain passes. EA chargers in Edwards, RAN in Grand Junction, and the Tesla Magic Docks in Moab all worked without issue. Range was never an issue. I used 13-15% from Moab up to the Dead Horse area depending on the route, and 4% back to town. Charging at the Magic Docks, taking the bikes into town, eating dinner, and riding back was perfect for a nearly full charge. Edwards back to the Front Range used 35% ish of the battery. I haven't done this trip with a naked truck to compare to, but there are a few things I want to try to improve efficiency. 1. Ferrings on the bike rack over the bike tires for smoother air flow 2. Cover the the spoiler vents over the cab so air isn't being shoved directly into the RTT. 3. Maybe some sort of ferring over the top of the bikes. I'll take suggestions. submitted by Gingerbeardman29 to Rivian [link] [comments] Offroading, even the dual motor is WAY more capable than any other vehicle I've owned. Very stoked. Electric grittle, kettle worked great off the bed plugs. Still need a camp kitchen setup. The auto level at camp is such a great feature. Maybe I've gone soft, but a flat sleeping surface is a nice luxury. Despite the overall efficiency for this trip, I love the truck even more than before the trip. Could easily fit 4 people with all the space this truck has... with a hitch rack extension. One complaint, Driver +, adaptive cruise control, was not available with my hitch rack. I did have accessory mode on, maybe I should try it without. This truck is rad. Check out the pics. |
2024.05.17 06:34 Party-Watercress7123 From Boom To Bust: Cerence’s Declining Market Share And Financial Turmoil — Revolving CFO doors
 | In the dynamic realm of finance, few narratives resonate as deeply as the journey of Cerence Inc. (CRNC). Once hailed as a burgeoning force in automotive software under past leadership, boasting a market capitalization exceeding $4 billion, CRNC has since nosedived to a fraction of its former value, hovering at less than $400 million. Shareholders find themselves grappling with significant losses amidst this staggering downturn. submitted by Party-Watercress7123 to wallstreet [link] [comments] I started investing in the company around Feb 2021, when stock was around $120 and since then the stock has come down to $9.60 range. This has made me do a deeper analysis on what went wrong here. Amidst the wreckage, several conspicuous elements emerge: the CEO Stefan Ortmann’s hefty $14 million yearly compensation, misleading market share with one-time revenue accounting creating false sense of growth, high-profile executives departures — prompting serious inquiries regarding accountability and the erosion of value. In 2019, Cerence CRNC was spun off from Nuance Communications to become an independent company, focusing on automotive voice assistant technology. Cerence’s product is speech recognition solutions for automotive OEMs. Automotive voice assistants offer a range of features designed to enhance the driving experience and improve safety. These include voice-activated navigation, real-time traffic updates, personalized recommendations, smart home integration, remote vehicle control (such as locking/unlocking doors or starting the engine), and proactive assistance (such as reminders for scheduled maintenance or refueling). Competition The top voice assistants with which Cerence Voice Assistant competes with include the top players like - 1) Amazon Alexa: Developed by Amazon, Alexa powers the Echo line of smart speakers and a wide range of third-party devices. It offers extensive skills and integrations with various smart home devices, services, and applications. 2) Google Assistant: Integrated into Google Home speakers, Android devices, Android Automotive and an array of third-party products, Google Assistant provides robust voice interaction, search capabilities, and smart home control and also is available through Android Auto in automotive. 3) Apple Siri: Siri is Apple’s voice assistant, available on iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watch, HomePod, and AirPods. It is enabled in Automotive through Car Play and offers features like voice commands, reminders, and smart home control. 4) Apple Car Play & Android Auto — Freely available on all user iOS and Android phones and can be connected to car infotainment using Bluetooth. Until 2020, Cerence products dominated the OEM market but have since ceded ground to free and alternative solutions. By the end of 2023, 98% of new cars supported either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, indispensable features for nearly 80% of new car buyers. These smartphone integration platforms offer seamless connectivity, contrasting with Cerence’s in-car voice assistant, which lags in technology and performance. Comparatively, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto provide superior user experiences and seamless connectivity through Bluetooth. A simple test is to reflect on one’s usage and experience with the in-built car voice assistant versus home assistants like Google or Alexa, or Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Stock Performance Cerence’s CRNC stock performance has been dismal in recent years, reflecting the company’s declining revenue and bookings, along with confusing metrics and contract consolidations. The stock has plummeted by 63.23% over the past year. Stock Performance over 3 years Here’s a snapshot of key points: ⦁ September 2019: Cerence’s earliest available price hovered around $10.57. ⦁ June 2020: The stock experienced a significant surge, reaching $40.09, peaking at $71.81 by November 2020. ⦁ January 2021: Cerence reached its pinnacle at $112.15, followed by a further climb to $120.32 in February 2021. ⦁ Mid-2021: Subsequently, there was a gradual decline, with the stock dropping to $88.31 by May 2021. ⦁ February 2022: Cerence’s stock sharply declined to $45.48. ⦁ June 2023: Despite intermittent recoveries, the stock briefly rose to $30.38 in June 2023. ⦁ January 2024: However, the price saw another downturn, hitting $19.67 in January 2024, and has since continued its descent, currently resting at $9.60. Decline in Market Share The decline from its peak could be attributed to Cerence CRNC losing its major market share to competitors and alternative free technology. A cursory examination of the top worldwide Automotive OEMs and their chosen Voice Assistant technology reveals that Cerence technology is no longer preferred by these OEMs. Below is a table showcasing the top OEMs along with the Voice Assistant technology they currently utilize. https://preview.redd.it/8iprqmmi0x0d1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6dbf6090b7c12e127c3f19a256b24b7adf8e8cd https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/format:webp/0*6TJbKyE39k1yCyJ9.png Between late 2021 and early 2022, Burlington-based digital assistant software maker Cerence experienced a wave of high-profile executive departures. This exodus indicates a lack of confidence among management regarding the CEO’s direction & technology failures, as they chose not to align with the company’s vision. As CRNC shares trade well below their initial public offering price, investors have suffered losses. Meanwhile, Stefan Ortmanns, who has lead this Business Unit since Nuance Communications spinoff in 2021, was generously compensated by Cerence’s board. According to a public securities filing dated Jan. 5, he earned approximately $14.4 million in total compensation last year, a significant increase from his $5.3 million total pay in 2022. This discrepancy raises questions about the CRNC board’s approach to rewarding performance. Cerence Financials 10 Q Financials Upon closer examination of the chart above, it reveals that the company’s revenue for 2023 amounted to $294 million. However, for fiscal year 2024, CRNC provided guidance for full-year revenue in the range of $355–375 million, suggesting a growth rate of over 20–27%. Yet, this projection includes $77.7 million of deferred revenue accelerated due to an early termination agreement related to the Toyota “Legacy” contract, as well as $20 million from fixed contracts. Consequently, the expected revenue for CRNC in 2024 is effectively $257 million, indicating a decline of $37 million compared to 2023, representing a -13% decrease in revenue. If you take into effect the above, the revenue table should look like this Updated Revenue Based on Adjustments from 10Q A quick look at CRNC KPI metrics disclosed by CEO & CFO shows how continently bookings number has been eliminated from the metrics. If you look in the past CRNC under previous CEO Sanjay Dhawan, reported a clear bookings number and outstanding backlog number. Company Presentation — missing information Valuation/Pricing My target price for CRNC is determined by several assumptions for both bullish and bearish scenarios of the FY 2024 projection, extending into FY 2025. In the bear scenario (with an 80% probability), it is assumed that CRNC will achieve an actual revenue of $250 million for FY 2024 (not misled number of $355m), with a further reduction in forecasted revenue to $200 million -$220 million for FY 2025. Utilizing the latest data and the Causal Intelligence Model, which considers various economic indicators and their intricate interrelations, the forecast for Cerence Inc. stock over the next 12 months, beginning with the current stock price of $9.62, is as follows. 6 months stock analysis The Bottom Line In conclusion, I remain unconvinced about CRNC as a short-term or long-term potential investment. Through my own journey, I’ve learned the importance of delving beyond surface presentations and digging into the underlying figures. Cerence’s recent announcement of their Large Language Model, a technology every OEM is pursuing either through partnership with Microsoft or by utilizing low-barrier tools like ChatGPT AI for assistant development, lacks a compelling narrative. The current leadership’s lack of experience in crafting winning propositions or securing new contracts has already diluted shareholder value and will continue to erode further, unless an activist steps in. Moreover, the company’s challenges in monetizing its vision cast doubt on its capacity for sustainable growth and profitability. Consequently, I recommend investors approach this stock with caution and consider avoiding it altogether. |
2024.05.17 06:34 CallMeRona What would this sell for?
Truck as it sits has 121k miles on it,
Just recently had installed a banks monster ram intake on it, did trans flush as well,
I had dodge do the front pinion seal about 7k miles ago as it had a slight leak
This truck has a brand new aftermarket touch screen head unit for the stereo with Apple CarPlay,
Sunroof, heated seats, trailer brake, 5th wheel power in the back, full 5inch MBPR exhaust, on the fly 5 position tune, aftermarket twin scroll turbo, aftermarket injectors built by industrial injection, cold air intake, full 6 inch fabtech lift with dirt logic (fabtech) duel reservoir shocks, fab tech torsion bars, dirt logic steering stabilizer (fabtech) Magtec diff cover, pillar gauges as well.
Sits in 37s aswell
No accidents whatsoever
submitted by CallMeRona to Cummins [link] [comments]
Just recently had installed a banks monster ram intake on it, did trans flush as well,
I had dodge do the front pinion seal about 7k miles ago as it had a slight leak
This truck has a brand new aftermarket touch screen head unit for the stereo with Apple CarPlay,
Sunroof, heated seats, trailer brake, 5th wheel power in the back, full 5inch MBPR exhaust, on the fly 5 position tune, aftermarket twin scroll turbo, aftermarket injectors built by industrial injection, cold air intake, full 6 inch fabtech lift with dirt logic (fabtech) duel reservoir shocks, fab tech torsion bars, dirt logic steering stabilizer (fabtech) Magtec diff cover, pillar gauges as well.
Sits in 37s aswell
No accidents whatsoever
2024.05.17 05:58 Proper-Community-465 How would the world react if Israel followed the law to the letter regarding aid?
From what I'm reading and understanding Israel isn't actually required to allow aid in to Gaza at least not anywhere near the level it currently does. They could effectively stop providing or allowing food entirely if they chose and without breaking any laws due Hamas and other groups stealing aid. Even without the issue's of stealing aid they are only required to provide it to children and pregnant women under international law and the burden is on the one providing the aid to distribute it and ensure it only goes to those people. How would the world react if rather then invading Rafah they simply cut off aid or STRICTLY controlled it for only pregnant women and children and actually forced a civilian evacuation so they could deal with the tunnels? This could also work from a PR perspective to show the consequences of Hamas committing war crimes by stealing the aid. And could help dodge the issue of using American weapons in Rafah or the invasion as a whole while helping to push for a proper evacuation in a safe zone. The relevant law requiring aid to civilians in wartime is from Article 23 of the Geneva convention 1949 and specifies the food is for children under 15 and expecting mothers specifically, Additionally there are several exceptions where food can be stopped , That it be diverted from its destination, Control (Distrubition) is not effective, Or a military advantage can be gained or the economy of the enemy benefitted. The 1977 Ap article 69 I also touches on the this subject BUT neither Israel nor the united states is a signatory, It also ONLY applies to occupying powers which Israel is not in regards to Gaza.
shoutout to CreativeRealmsMC for pointing this out in "Do you support the stopping of stripping of aid trucks?" https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-69
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-23
https://lieber.westpoint.edu/applicability-article-23-fourth-geneva-convention-gaza/#:\~:text=Of%20considerable%20importance%2C%20Article%2023,to%20effectively%20supervise%20its%20distribution.
submitted by Proper-Community-465 to IsraelPalestine [link] [comments]
shoutout to CreativeRealmsMC for pointing this out in "Do you support the stopping of stripping of aid trucks?" https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-69
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-23
https://lieber.westpoint.edu/applicability-article-23-fourth-geneva-convention-gaza/#:\~:text=Of%20considerable%20importance%2C%20Article%2023,to%20effectively%20supervise%20its%20distribution.
2024.05.17 05:45 WatcherRoue Corner Unit at ACT EXPO!
 | Good foot traffic for a corner unit! submitted by WatcherRoue to WKHS [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/oi4irxfkrw0d1.png?width=931&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6b8c0944850a6743660a0cb8f28c54e6d22efae https://actexpo2024.smallworldlabs.com/exhibitors/exhibito275 |
2024.05.17 05:22 Technical_Effect_777 Do my struggles make sense given the life I've lived?
Some Info:
We have me (33M)
My mom and dad
My older brother D of ~5 years and his wife R
My older sister A of ~10 years A, her husband N, and their daughter G
My older brother H of ~15 years H, his wife C, and their daughter F
My two eldest sisters of ~20 B, and ~ 25 years E
My ex-girlfriend K
My friends J and L
Background:
I have five siblings, but I am the 14th child - the rest died with stillbirths and miscarriages. I am the youngest, and there are big gaps between each of my siblings of about 5 years, so I really only grew up with A and D. As far as the rest of my siblings, due to the age differences they were all off doing their own things, and I saw them from time to time but did not grow up around them. I grew up with both of my parents for a bit, and then it was my mom most of the time.
I have always been the “black sheep” of the family, tons of jokes and being made fun of, being blamed for everything and always being compared to my siblings and feeling like I wasn’t as smart or talented as them, especially D. Most of the family now is incredibly toxic with a lot of lying and talking shit behind each other’s backs, and things like abuse, cheating, etc. being joked about and brushed under the rug.
I grew up with a lot of depression and anxiety from my household and all the trauma, and today I still have a lot of anxiety and depression, and it’s difficult to deal with everything day-to-day. Figuring out who I am, what I want to do, all while trying to work and support myself, is hard enough without flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and the obsession of trying to figure out why it all happened. That’s why I’m here - to figure out if this all makes sense, and if I can come back from everything I’ve done and everything that’s happened.
Early Life
Growing up, my mom was loving towards me most of the time, my dad was not as much. When I was around 4, my dad and I were supposed to hang out together at the bowling alley and I caught him cheating on my mom. When I cried about it, he told me with his finger in my face, “I’ll never take you out ever again”, and we went home. I told my mom about the cheating and she confronted him. A few months later she confronted him again because she found clothing that did not belong to her in her room. They were yelling and arguing, I was crying and I tried to stop their fight and my dad picked me up and told my mom “See what you did”, which I didn’t want at all. A few months later, my mom got a restraining order on him, so I didn’t see him much after that. At home, it was me, my mom, and D. My mom has always compared me to my brothers and wanted me to be more like them, especially D. I idolized D growing up because of all of this, and he always seemed so smart and capable.
My mom has always told me bad things about my dad, and I obviously never liked him because of the cheating, but a lot of it is from the things she said. She would tell me, as a child, that he fucked a chicken and a dog, that he sexually abused his mentally ill brother, she would say that he would tell him to stop but my dad kept going, that he didn’t pay child support, that he’s a victim, that he’d be talking with all the gay guys around the beach and the business, and many other things. She made up a song about him sucking dick and I used to sing the song when I was a kid because it made her laugh. My mom shared all of her thoughts and feelings with me where I was like her therapist, and she was always saying all the things my siblings would do that made her cry so I would try to make sure I never did those things. We watched a lot of shows and movies together, but 90% of the time it was things kids shouldn’t watch, from like rated R comedy movies with sex and nudity to graphic sexual assault scenes.
With everything my mom has told me, I’ve internalized all of it so whenever someone has wronged my mom, I’ve taken it personally and felt like I need to fix it and not be like that. For example, one time D’s wife R broke a ceramic bust my mom had and my mom told D and his response was “Don’t be materialistic.” I went and picked up all the pieces and used elmer’s glue to repair the ceramic bust.
Abuse by A
A few months after the restraining order, when I was first starting elementary school, my dad randomly came and picked me up, and he brought me to this apartment complex and he brought me into this room with nothing in it but a loveseat, and he told me to wait in there and not move and he’d be back. A few minutes later, my sister A came in and started taking off her clothes and she told me to take off my clothes, then she laid on the loveseat and told me to get on top of her. I was grossed out when my penis touched her vaginal secretions, I yelled “Ew!” and she told me to go to the restroom to get cleaned up, I cleaned up in the bathroom, and then I came back with the towel and just laid there and she sexually assaulted me. When it was done she put her clothes back on and I did too and then she left the building, and a few minutes later my dad came back in and then took me home and that was it. I didn’t know what to do or why it happened, and my brother D always told me “snitches get stitches”, so I didn’t tell anyone about it.
Abuse by D
Around this same time of my dad leaving, my brother started abusing me verbally, physically, and sexually. He abused me most heavily from elementary through middle school. He stole my best friend away when I was about 5 or 6 , he told us he was making a video and told my friend he could be in it but that he couldn’t talk to me anymore if he was, my friend agreed so I ran home crying, my mom scolded D but that was it. After that I didn’t want to make any friends if he could so easily take them away. I had a girlfriend when I was about 10 that he started sexting on MSN and so that ruined the relationship I had with her. I tore up a picture of her next to her at lunch and threw it away and she left crying. After that I didn’t have a girlfriend for the longest time. I did make two friends later from middle school onward, J and L, who will come up more later.
D started telling me things all the time like the “snitches get stitches" saying, he’d make fun of me crying and mimic me (both of my parents would do the same thing sometimes) and if I tried to do it back he would punch me. I was always called gay by him and basically everyone else in my family, all my siblings and parents joked at different times that I was gay and that has continued. I started to get really bad stomach pain after the abuse started and D would tell me it was in my head, and when I would try to talk about the abuse, he would always say I was lying or it didn’t happen like that or I was remembering it wrong. He and my mom have said he has a photographic memory, and they both have made me feel like I have a bad memory from saying I remember it wrong, so it’s made me doubt everything.
Physically, he has always been pushing, punching, kicking, choking me and threatening to do so. One day he came home from school with his friend and just chased me into our room upstairs and choked me. I was crying and he said if I didn’t stop crying he’d choke me harder, and his friend walked up and he saw me as he came into the room, I was crying and we locked eyes as I asked him for help. D saw the look on his friend’s face and let me go, his friend left and never came back. Another time he pushed me down and I was crying and I ran and hid from him. My dad was there at the time and he told D to stop banging on the door and D was saying that I was lying about the push and that he would break my game if I did not tell the truth. Shortly after he slid two halves of a PS1 CD for Vigilante 8 under the door. He has also gone out of his way to hurt other children and make them cry, and when asked why? D said “I could have made you cry but I wanted him to cry”.
D always said the sexual abuse was in his sleep so he couldn’t control it, but then he would say I was coming up to him and basically coming onto him in his sleep, but a lot of these times happened during the day or not in bed at all. The first time it happened I was in elementary school, he asked me who my crush was in school, I told him and he said that he could close his eyes and become her. I tried to kiss him since “he was my crush” and he kept dodging the kiss attempts, and then after that he went straight into sucking my penis, I didn’t know how to react, he just did it. This happened multiple times over the next few months with other crushes I had too. The next few years in elementary I saw him on and off as he was staying with my dad more, and whenever he would come over it would start off being nice and regular, but it would always lead to things like him being physical with punches.
A few years after these incidents, I don’t really know why it happened, but my dad and brother moved back in with us. The abuse started back up; he brought me to this bathroom once to look at his semen in the toilet, and then he tried to masturbate me, but it made me feel ticklish all over, and after that happened I became obsessed with masturbating.
Once the sexual abuse started, he didn’t want me to sit next to him anymore, and if I was in his near vicinity he would always get upset and had something to say about it. The sexual abuse was sporadic, and just happened whenever he wanted it, and he’d usually masturbate me while fucking me. Sometimes he would manipulate me to do it. One particular time I was playing a video game on the computer by myself, he came in and told me I had to get out of the room. He then followed up and said if I laid with him it would recharge him and then we could play video games together. When I laid with him and he started fucking me and masturbating me, I told him to stop and that it hurt, but he said “I’ve seen you take shits bigger than my dick,” and kept going. When he was done I left and went to the bathroom and cried for a little bit and had to take care of myself as I had lost some perianal skin during the assault. After this, I left the bathroom and went back into the room and he was on the computer, ready to play video games.
Another time we were riding bikes together at night and we passed by this ditch near my school by some trees, he just pulled to the side and stopped had us lay in the ditch, he fucked me and masturbated me and then we rode home.
Another time D and I trespassed into a construction zone to hang out, it was a set of apartments being built but they weren’t finished yet. We went into what I think was one of the bathroom areas and he fucked me while masturbating me, and then after that we just got up and left.
Another time we were walking from a friend’s house and we went to a park nearby on our way home. We stopped by some bushes that are sort of like a maze, and there was one of those green pad mounted transformers in there. He took me into there and just like the other times, he fucked me and masturbated me and then afterwards we got up and went home.
Another time, he told me he was taking the van out to do donuts and invited me along. He had invited me before to do this in my mom’s Camaro on a previous Sunday, and it was Sunday again so I was excited for it. We got into the van and he drove a street or two down and parked in an empty corner of the warehouse parking lot. He got into the farthest back seat of the van and I followed him because I knew what was happening, he fucked me and masturbated me and then I got up to get dressed. I put my pants on and I saw my dad walking towards us in the distance, I mentioned it to D and he immediately got up and rushed to get ready and started the van to drive us back. My dad stopped us for a moment but just looked at D and as we drove on my dad was just shaking his head the whole time.
There are more, but you get the point.
In any of these events, my parents would not help me and would often make fun of my crying. Sometimes they would yell at him, but he would always say I was bothering him or it didn’t happen. These types of abuse from D continued up unto middle school and didn’t really stop until he moved out, but he still continued physical and verbal abuse afterwards and to this day tries to spin what happened.
D also told me to act crazy and yell to scare people if I’m fighting with them, and then in every situation with me he would act completely calm so that I looked crazy, my mom is similar and will scream at me in fights but then when anyone else is around she is completely calm.
School onto Adulthood
So obviously a lot of the abuse was still happening at this time, but when I was in middle school I flunked 7th grade and had to repeat it. During that repeat year I was doing well so they wanted to put me into 8th grade already three quarters of the way through, I begged my them not to as I knew I wasn’t ready for it but they did it anyway, and I started failing everything immediately. It wasn’t going how I wanted, and we were having issues at home with money my mom’s house was going about to go through foreclosure, so my dropping out was in the knick of time and I started working at Taco Bell for about a year.
After that, I tried to go back in, but I was too old for middle school. I was told to go to the Adult School nearby and when I did they informed me that I was too young for the adult school, and the high school would’ve been too difficult due to my time off. So I just went back to working and didn’t go back to school. In this time, D wasn’t around as he was with friends a lot, and eventually moved out after being at home for a year doing drugs and being a dick all the time to my mom by bringing people to the house when my mom did not want anyone there. I had a slightly older girlfriend in her 30s around this time who I dated for a year or so we’ll call K; our age difference was a big insecurity for her. At one point I messed up and cheated on her because she was still talking to her ex and it made me insecure, and we broke up. It destroyed me for a while and I was thinking about her a lot.
I went back and got my High School Diploma at 21. Over the next few years I worked and then when I was trying to go back to school at my local community college, I made friends with this girl who was there and we’d talk every now and again. I missed K often and on this one day that I was in the library studying, I had a sudden urge to go home as if something was wrong gut feeling; As I drove home I saw K’s vehicle at an angle as they were hit by a F-150 truck. I ended up staying with K until everything was sorted and then I drove them home.
We caught up and later started dating again but it wasn’t good, our relationship wasn’t any better and we still could not go out together to places. So one time I went with the girl from college to a theme park and when I informed K about it they left and went to their parent’s house as they felt I was cheating, but the first time K and I were together she always mentioned that she was overweight and did not feel confident enough to be with me in public due to our age so we never went to the beach or theme park. Which is why I didn’t bother asking her this time and instead asked a classmate. We went as friends but it was too much for K so we broke up again but still lived together for a couple of months after that. I was a dick at the time and started dating the girl from my college while we still lived together, but I didn’t like her much and we didn’t date for long. Looking back I really regret the way I did all that and realize how hurtful it was to K.
Throughout these later years I had kept up my friendship with J and L, and J was my best friend, we would hang out all the time. L and I were friends, but we weren’t as close as I was to J. All three of us hung out from time to time, and I had a crush and L. Once L and I were hanging out alone watching Lord of the Rings late at night, both of us completely sober, and I told her I was going to masturbate and offered for her to join. She immediately agreed and went to it, it was a mutual masturbation session that turned into sex, and she even told me I could finish inside her. Afterwards I fell asleep (I apologized for this) and took her home later. At some point when I was apologizing, L said, “it takes two to tango”. The next day, J called me and asked what happened with L. I told her and an argument ensued because apparently it wasn’t consensual, I can’t remember specifically what was said but I was really upset about it and I lost J as my friend after that, which is one of the friendships I cherished the most and missed the most.
I was extremely depressed and feeling like an abuse after all of this and needed a change of scenery, so I moved in with my brother H, his wife C, and their four kids. I was trying to go to school around where they lived. I lived with them for a few years, and during this time I was trying to go to school down there and working with him each day. I was honestly getting more and more depressed, I started getting high a lot and just didn’t give a fuck because of that, and our daily work wasn’t much so I was starting to feel like I wasn’t going to make anything with my life.
A little later when I was 24, my dad died, everyone came for the funeral except for D as he told my mom “I want to remember him the way he was”. I went with H and C as I was still living with them at the time, and then we went back together.
Planned Abuse of F, Remembering Abuse of G
While I was living with H, one time everyone was trying to play this mobile game together and my niece’s phone wasn’t working; H was resetting it - I had the game endless frontier open on my phone and was playing it in the room; H entered the room and asked if I wanted to head to the gas station and I said sure, as we walk through the living room I saw that F was on the sofa but not using their phone. I asked them if they wanted to play endless frontier on mine and she said yes, so I let her use mine while H and I went to the store. When we came back, she wasn’t on the game anymore and said she had gotten bored, and she went through my photos and saw some dick pics I had sent to a girl I was talking to at the time. I was terrified when this happened and I didn’t really know what to do. It brought back memories when I was on H’s phone at a younger age and saw dick pics accidentally and he yelled at me.
Some weeks pass after this, I wake up to a commotion as I leave the room. I see H’s wife C choking my niece F on the ground in the corner of the living room. I did not know what to do here so I backed into the room I woke up in and waited until everything ended. After she stopped, I called F and one of my nephews into the room I was staying in and asked them about this. I recorded the interaction; they were hesitant to answer until I mentioned that it was for their safety, and they said this was a thing she did all the time to my niece and my nephew gestured with his hands a choking motion at his neck. I asked the nephew if C had done it to them ever, but both him and F said it’s never happened to him. I didn’t know what to do and called my mom who told me not to tell H or he’d kill C and to stop talking / hanging out with F because they may say I was having sex with her.
At this point in my life I was already attempting to kill myself and a friend of D’s (M) came and saved me 2 times prior. So in my head I heard he would kill C for choking their daughter and all I wanted was to die. I felt that the family would hate me and thus forget me quickly for doing such a horrid thing. I wouldn’t care, I wouldn’t be here, and my mom could be with the loving toxic family she’s always loved.
Over the next few months I didn’t do anything physically but I did talk to her about sex when she asked me about it, I just explained sex as a normal beautiful thing that couples do and to wait until you’re at least 18 and wait until you’re ready to do it. She also told me she had been looking at porn previously and showed me porn she was interested in on a site for a few seconds. She said C caught her and shamed her, telling her God didn’t like it and it was demonic. D had similarly told me to think about God when I was younger and thinking about sex, so this reminded me of that and terrified me. The next night, she came up and said she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t stop thinking about sex. I told her to sleep on the couch behind me and I just held her hand from the other couch and helped her fall asleep. I did show her my penis for a few seconds one time, nothing else happened physically/sexually.
I also retrieved a memory a year or so ago, and realized I got revenge on my sister A by abusing her daughter one time. My sister A left her husband and was living with my other brother J when I did what I did to my niece G. I didn’t do anything physically to her but we were on the couch and I masturbated behind her, it only happened one time.
I have immense regret for it and I just want to tell her how sorry I am for doing that, because she didn’t do anything to me and I hate that I did that to her. I hate that I abused someone because it makes me feel like my brother and that is never who I want to be. I have been wanting to apologize to her and talk to them and explain everything with what A did to me, but every time I bring it up my mom made me promise not to talk to G because it will break their mother-daughter trust in one another. I also don’t want to ask for forgiveness because I feel like the family would expect me to forgive D.
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We have me (33M)
My mom and dad
My older brother D of ~5 years and his wife R
My older sister A of ~10 years A, her husband N, and their daughter G
My older brother H of ~15 years H, his wife C, and their daughter F
My two eldest sisters of ~20 B, and ~ 25 years E
My ex-girlfriend K
My friends J and L
Background:
I have five siblings, but I am the 14th child - the rest died with stillbirths and miscarriages. I am the youngest, and there are big gaps between each of my siblings of about 5 years, so I really only grew up with A and D. As far as the rest of my siblings, due to the age differences they were all off doing their own things, and I saw them from time to time but did not grow up around them. I grew up with both of my parents for a bit, and then it was my mom most of the time.
I have always been the “black sheep” of the family, tons of jokes and being made fun of, being blamed for everything and always being compared to my siblings and feeling like I wasn’t as smart or talented as them, especially D. Most of the family now is incredibly toxic with a lot of lying and talking shit behind each other’s backs, and things like abuse, cheating, etc. being joked about and brushed under the rug.
I grew up with a lot of depression and anxiety from my household and all the trauma, and today I still have a lot of anxiety and depression, and it’s difficult to deal with everything day-to-day. Figuring out who I am, what I want to do, all while trying to work and support myself, is hard enough without flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and the obsession of trying to figure out why it all happened. That’s why I’m here - to figure out if this all makes sense, and if I can come back from everything I’ve done and everything that’s happened.
Early Life
Growing up, my mom was loving towards me most of the time, my dad was not as much. When I was around 4, my dad and I were supposed to hang out together at the bowling alley and I caught him cheating on my mom. When I cried about it, he told me with his finger in my face, “I’ll never take you out ever again”, and we went home. I told my mom about the cheating and she confronted him. A few months later she confronted him again because she found clothing that did not belong to her in her room. They were yelling and arguing, I was crying and I tried to stop their fight and my dad picked me up and told my mom “See what you did”, which I didn’t want at all. A few months later, my mom got a restraining order on him, so I didn’t see him much after that. At home, it was me, my mom, and D. My mom has always compared me to my brothers and wanted me to be more like them, especially D. I idolized D growing up because of all of this, and he always seemed so smart and capable.
My mom has always told me bad things about my dad, and I obviously never liked him because of the cheating, but a lot of it is from the things she said. She would tell me, as a child, that he fucked a chicken and a dog, that he sexually abused his mentally ill brother, she would say that he would tell him to stop but my dad kept going, that he didn’t pay child support, that he’s a victim, that he’d be talking with all the gay guys around the beach and the business, and many other things. She made up a song about him sucking dick and I used to sing the song when I was a kid because it made her laugh. My mom shared all of her thoughts and feelings with me where I was like her therapist, and she was always saying all the things my siblings would do that made her cry so I would try to make sure I never did those things. We watched a lot of shows and movies together, but 90% of the time it was things kids shouldn’t watch, from like rated R comedy movies with sex and nudity to graphic sexual assault scenes.
With everything my mom has told me, I’ve internalized all of it so whenever someone has wronged my mom, I’ve taken it personally and felt like I need to fix it and not be like that. For example, one time D’s wife R broke a ceramic bust my mom had and my mom told D and his response was “Don’t be materialistic.” I went and picked up all the pieces and used elmer’s glue to repair the ceramic bust.
Abuse by A
A few months after the restraining order, when I was first starting elementary school, my dad randomly came and picked me up, and he brought me to this apartment complex and he brought me into this room with nothing in it but a loveseat, and he told me to wait in there and not move and he’d be back. A few minutes later, my sister A came in and started taking off her clothes and she told me to take off my clothes, then she laid on the loveseat and told me to get on top of her. I was grossed out when my penis touched her vaginal secretions, I yelled “Ew!” and she told me to go to the restroom to get cleaned up, I cleaned up in the bathroom, and then I came back with the towel and just laid there and she sexually assaulted me. When it was done she put her clothes back on and I did too and then she left the building, and a few minutes later my dad came back in and then took me home and that was it. I didn’t know what to do or why it happened, and my brother D always told me “snitches get stitches”, so I didn’t tell anyone about it.
Abuse by D
Around this same time of my dad leaving, my brother started abusing me verbally, physically, and sexually. He abused me most heavily from elementary through middle school. He stole my best friend away when I was about 5 or 6 , he told us he was making a video and told my friend he could be in it but that he couldn’t talk to me anymore if he was, my friend agreed so I ran home crying, my mom scolded D but that was it. After that I didn’t want to make any friends if he could so easily take them away. I had a girlfriend when I was about 10 that he started sexting on MSN and so that ruined the relationship I had with her. I tore up a picture of her next to her at lunch and threw it away and she left crying. After that I didn’t have a girlfriend for the longest time. I did make two friends later from middle school onward, J and L, who will come up more later.
D started telling me things all the time like the “snitches get stitches" saying, he’d make fun of me crying and mimic me (both of my parents would do the same thing sometimes) and if I tried to do it back he would punch me. I was always called gay by him and basically everyone else in my family, all my siblings and parents joked at different times that I was gay and that has continued. I started to get really bad stomach pain after the abuse started and D would tell me it was in my head, and when I would try to talk about the abuse, he would always say I was lying or it didn’t happen like that or I was remembering it wrong. He and my mom have said he has a photographic memory, and they both have made me feel like I have a bad memory from saying I remember it wrong, so it’s made me doubt everything.
Physically, he has always been pushing, punching, kicking, choking me and threatening to do so. One day he came home from school with his friend and just chased me into our room upstairs and choked me. I was crying and he said if I didn’t stop crying he’d choke me harder, and his friend walked up and he saw me as he came into the room, I was crying and we locked eyes as I asked him for help. D saw the look on his friend’s face and let me go, his friend left and never came back. Another time he pushed me down and I was crying and I ran and hid from him. My dad was there at the time and he told D to stop banging on the door and D was saying that I was lying about the push and that he would break my game if I did not tell the truth. Shortly after he slid two halves of a PS1 CD for Vigilante 8 under the door. He has also gone out of his way to hurt other children and make them cry, and when asked why? D said “I could have made you cry but I wanted him to cry”.
D always said the sexual abuse was in his sleep so he couldn’t control it, but then he would say I was coming up to him and basically coming onto him in his sleep, but a lot of these times happened during the day or not in bed at all. The first time it happened I was in elementary school, he asked me who my crush was in school, I told him and he said that he could close his eyes and become her. I tried to kiss him since “he was my crush” and he kept dodging the kiss attempts, and then after that he went straight into sucking my penis, I didn’t know how to react, he just did it. This happened multiple times over the next few months with other crushes I had too. The next few years in elementary I saw him on and off as he was staying with my dad more, and whenever he would come over it would start off being nice and regular, but it would always lead to things like him being physical with punches.
A few years after these incidents, I don’t really know why it happened, but my dad and brother moved back in with us. The abuse started back up; he brought me to this bathroom once to look at his semen in the toilet, and then he tried to masturbate me, but it made me feel ticklish all over, and after that happened I became obsessed with masturbating.
Once the sexual abuse started, he didn’t want me to sit next to him anymore, and if I was in his near vicinity he would always get upset and had something to say about it. The sexual abuse was sporadic, and just happened whenever he wanted it, and he’d usually masturbate me while fucking me. Sometimes he would manipulate me to do it. One particular time I was playing a video game on the computer by myself, he came in and told me I had to get out of the room. He then followed up and said if I laid with him it would recharge him and then we could play video games together. When I laid with him and he started fucking me and masturbating me, I told him to stop and that it hurt, but he said “I’ve seen you take shits bigger than my dick,” and kept going. When he was done I left and went to the bathroom and cried for a little bit and had to take care of myself as I had lost some perianal skin during the assault. After this, I left the bathroom and went back into the room and he was on the computer, ready to play video games.
Another time we were riding bikes together at night and we passed by this ditch near my school by some trees, he just pulled to the side and stopped had us lay in the ditch, he fucked me and masturbated me and then we rode home.
Another time D and I trespassed into a construction zone to hang out, it was a set of apartments being built but they weren’t finished yet. We went into what I think was one of the bathroom areas and he fucked me while masturbating me, and then after that we just got up and left.
Another time we were walking from a friend’s house and we went to a park nearby on our way home. We stopped by some bushes that are sort of like a maze, and there was one of those green pad mounted transformers in there. He took me into there and just like the other times, he fucked me and masturbated me and then afterwards we got up and went home.
Another time, he told me he was taking the van out to do donuts and invited me along. He had invited me before to do this in my mom’s Camaro on a previous Sunday, and it was Sunday again so I was excited for it. We got into the van and he drove a street or two down and parked in an empty corner of the warehouse parking lot. He got into the farthest back seat of the van and I followed him because I knew what was happening, he fucked me and masturbated me and then I got up to get dressed. I put my pants on and I saw my dad walking towards us in the distance, I mentioned it to D and he immediately got up and rushed to get ready and started the van to drive us back. My dad stopped us for a moment but just looked at D and as we drove on my dad was just shaking his head the whole time.
There are more, but you get the point.
In any of these events, my parents would not help me and would often make fun of my crying. Sometimes they would yell at him, but he would always say I was bothering him or it didn’t happen. These types of abuse from D continued up unto middle school and didn’t really stop until he moved out, but he still continued physical and verbal abuse afterwards and to this day tries to spin what happened.
D also told me to act crazy and yell to scare people if I’m fighting with them, and then in every situation with me he would act completely calm so that I looked crazy, my mom is similar and will scream at me in fights but then when anyone else is around she is completely calm.
School onto Adulthood
So obviously a lot of the abuse was still happening at this time, but when I was in middle school I flunked 7th grade and had to repeat it. During that repeat year I was doing well so they wanted to put me into 8th grade already three quarters of the way through, I begged my them not to as I knew I wasn’t ready for it but they did it anyway, and I started failing everything immediately. It wasn’t going how I wanted, and we were having issues at home with money my mom’s house was going about to go through foreclosure, so my dropping out was in the knick of time and I started working at Taco Bell for about a year.
After that, I tried to go back in, but I was too old for middle school. I was told to go to the Adult School nearby and when I did they informed me that I was too young for the adult school, and the high school would’ve been too difficult due to my time off. So I just went back to working and didn’t go back to school. In this time, D wasn’t around as he was with friends a lot, and eventually moved out after being at home for a year doing drugs and being a dick all the time to my mom by bringing people to the house when my mom did not want anyone there. I had a slightly older girlfriend in her 30s around this time who I dated for a year or so we’ll call K; our age difference was a big insecurity for her. At one point I messed up and cheated on her because she was still talking to her ex and it made me insecure, and we broke up. It destroyed me for a while and I was thinking about her a lot.
I went back and got my High School Diploma at 21. Over the next few years I worked and then when I was trying to go back to school at my local community college, I made friends with this girl who was there and we’d talk every now and again. I missed K often and on this one day that I was in the library studying, I had a sudden urge to go home as if something was wrong gut feeling; As I drove home I saw K’s vehicle at an angle as they were hit by a F-150 truck. I ended up staying with K until everything was sorted and then I drove them home.
We caught up and later started dating again but it wasn’t good, our relationship wasn’t any better and we still could not go out together to places. So one time I went with the girl from college to a theme park and when I informed K about it they left and went to their parent’s house as they felt I was cheating, but the first time K and I were together she always mentioned that she was overweight and did not feel confident enough to be with me in public due to our age so we never went to the beach or theme park. Which is why I didn’t bother asking her this time and instead asked a classmate. We went as friends but it was too much for K so we broke up again but still lived together for a couple of months after that. I was a dick at the time and started dating the girl from my college while we still lived together, but I didn’t like her much and we didn’t date for long. Looking back I really regret the way I did all that and realize how hurtful it was to K.
Throughout these later years I had kept up my friendship with J and L, and J was my best friend, we would hang out all the time. L and I were friends, but we weren’t as close as I was to J. All three of us hung out from time to time, and I had a crush and L. Once L and I were hanging out alone watching Lord of the Rings late at night, both of us completely sober, and I told her I was going to masturbate and offered for her to join. She immediately agreed and went to it, it was a mutual masturbation session that turned into sex, and she even told me I could finish inside her. Afterwards I fell asleep (I apologized for this) and took her home later. At some point when I was apologizing, L said, “it takes two to tango”. The next day, J called me and asked what happened with L. I told her and an argument ensued because apparently it wasn’t consensual, I can’t remember specifically what was said but I was really upset about it and I lost J as my friend after that, which is one of the friendships I cherished the most and missed the most.
I was extremely depressed and feeling like an abuse after all of this and needed a change of scenery, so I moved in with my brother H, his wife C, and their four kids. I was trying to go to school around where they lived. I lived with them for a few years, and during this time I was trying to go to school down there and working with him each day. I was honestly getting more and more depressed, I started getting high a lot and just didn’t give a fuck because of that, and our daily work wasn’t much so I was starting to feel like I wasn’t going to make anything with my life.
A little later when I was 24, my dad died, everyone came for the funeral except for D as he told my mom “I want to remember him the way he was”. I went with H and C as I was still living with them at the time, and then we went back together.
Planned Abuse of F, Remembering Abuse of G
While I was living with H, one time everyone was trying to play this mobile game together and my niece’s phone wasn’t working; H was resetting it - I had the game endless frontier open on my phone and was playing it in the room; H entered the room and asked if I wanted to head to the gas station and I said sure, as we walk through the living room I saw that F was on the sofa but not using their phone. I asked them if they wanted to play endless frontier on mine and she said yes, so I let her use mine while H and I went to the store. When we came back, she wasn’t on the game anymore and said she had gotten bored, and she went through my photos and saw some dick pics I had sent to a girl I was talking to at the time. I was terrified when this happened and I didn’t really know what to do. It brought back memories when I was on H’s phone at a younger age and saw dick pics accidentally and he yelled at me.
Some weeks pass after this, I wake up to a commotion as I leave the room. I see H’s wife C choking my niece F on the ground in the corner of the living room. I did not know what to do here so I backed into the room I woke up in and waited until everything ended. After she stopped, I called F and one of my nephews into the room I was staying in and asked them about this. I recorded the interaction; they were hesitant to answer until I mentioned that it was for their safety, and they said this was a thing she did all the time to my niece and my nephew gestured with his hands a choking motion at his neck. I asked the nephew if C had done it to them ever, but both him and F said it’s never happened to him. I didn’t know what to do and called my mom who told me not to tell H or he’d kill C and to stop talking / hanging out with F because they may say I was having sex with her.
At this point in my life I was already attempting to kill myself and a friend of D’s (M) came and saved me 2 times prior. So in my head I heard he would kill C for choking their daughter and all I wanted was to die. I felt that the family would hate me and thus forget me quickly for doing such a horrid thing. I wouldn’t care, I wouldn’t be here, and my mom could be with the loving toxic family she’s always loved.
Over the next few months I didn’t do anything physically but I did talk to her about sex when she asked me about it, I just explained sex as a normal beautiful thing that couples do and to wait until you’re at least 18 and wait until you’re ready to do it. She also told me she had been looking at porn previously and showed me porn she was interested in on a site for a few seconds. She said C caught her and shamed her, telling her God didn’t like it and it was demonic. D had similarly told me to think about God when I was younger and thinking about sex, so this reminded me of that and terrified me. The next night, she came up and said she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t stop thinking about sex. I told her to sleep on the couch behind me and I just held her hand from the other couch and helped her fall asleep. I did show her my penis for a few seconds one time, nothing else happened physically/sexually.
I also retrieved a memory a year or so ago, and realized I got revenge on my sister A by abusing her daughter one time. My sister A left her husband and was living with my other brother J when I did what I did to my niece G. I didn’t do anything physically to her but we were on the couch and I masturbated behind her, it only happened one time.
I have immense regret for it and I just want to tell her how sorry I am for doing that, because she didn’t do anything to me and I hate that I did that to her. I hate that I abused someone because it makes me feel like my brother and that is never who I want to be. I have been wanting to apologize to her and talk to them and explain everything with what A did to me, but every time I bring it up my mom made me promise not to talk to G because it will break their mother-daughter trust in one another. I also don’t want to ask for forgiveness because I feel like the family would expect me to forgive D.
2024.05.17 05:15 Elegant_Release9004 One Month Review of Playa Flamingo and Potrero
We are just wrapping up a month (April 19th to May 18th) in Playa Flamingo. We had a great time, and did less than 10% of what we had bookmarked before arriving, but that’s a good thing and just enjoyed a Pura Vida life for a few weeks. This experience is applicable if you’re staying in Brasilito, Conchal, Flamingo, or Potrero.
submitted by Elegant_Release9004 to CostaRicaTravel [link] [comments]
- MyTanFeet got it right and you should trust their advice. Especially the videos.
- If you’re a vigilant and alert driver and don’t mind swerving (duck, dodge, weave, go with the flow and hang loose man), you’ll be fine. If you are 10 and 2 and stay perfectly in the lines and must obey traffic laws, don’t drive here. (I ended up doing all the driving). There are only lines on 1/3 of the paved roads, and only highways (2 lane roads) are paved. The side streets are all dirt and rock roads with variable ruts and pothole conditions (just go slow until you’re used to it). Small SUV is fine for clearance, but get something with a beefier engine with sport mode for hill acceleration. The Hyundai Tuscan was perfect, the Suzuki struggled badly.
- Only rent from Adobe. We had people visiting us for a week at a time and they had bad experience with Budget (arguing about insurance) and Avis (ran out of SUVs and downgraded to Sedan that we couldn’t get anywhere off-road with). I stopped by the local Adobe office twice, once to replace a windshield wiper that was worn out before thunderstorms. 10 mins in and out with a smile on their face. The second time we had pulled on the trunk handle when closing it and the inside panel of the hatch came loose. 3 guys hustled out of their office to look at it, and after 10 mins of no success they drove me home, and brought me a new car (same model) an hour later with no fuss and all paperwork pre-completed.
- Rainy season starts like a light switch on May 1st +/- a few days. It was sunny and 95 with great visibility, then turned hazy and now in mid May it’s like a tropical rainforest and everything is lush and trees are blooming. We only got “wet” 3-4 times during the month unexpectedly. Lots of lightning, minimal thunder. Territorial views help to see it coming.
- There are plenty of resorts and all inclusive, but just go to Hawaii or Cancun for that. We rented a 3 bedroom AirBnb with territorial views on south hill of Flamingo. Having a view on the hill is wayyy better than being on the beach. Lots more to see. And less bugs at night from the beach.
- Booked sailboat with Serendipity Charters lucky 13 (mixed group, semi-private charter) for a sunset cruise out of Flamingo Marina. We loved it so much we went two more times, had the same crew and met the owner and made new affluent friends on each trip. We saw the catamarans with 40 people on them and shook our heads. It’s like taking a smaller adults only dinner cruise vs a Carnival cruise ship. You can book direct on their website for better pricing than TripAdvisor. Don’t let the weather forecast scare you.
- In this area, assuming you want to eat a bit more local and not “at the resort”, our favorites were Gracia Mar Vista (although they were only open 1/3 of the several times we tried to go), Gracia La Vid (amazing wood fired pizza). The Potrero Brewery and the food truck style park was great too. Coco Loco has a cool vibe but we’re disappointed with food price per value. Margaritaville is 2x the price and, is a typical resort if that’s your thing.
- Book a date night in advance (several weeks probably) for Road Less Traveled in Potrero for the Chef’s Choice 9 course meal for the private chef experience with 4 stools at their kitchen island.
- Great soda restaurant experience, frequented Azul and Soda Brasilito.
- $40/hr massages on beach in front of Margaritaville. Look for yellow towel tables. Amazing and better than home.
- We drove to Tamarindo a few times. It’s where the ladies wanted to go shopping for trinkets and casual dresses. Farmers market was meh.
- Grocery prices in Flamingo are pricey. Do a stock up trip once or twice a week to Mega Súper past Huacas toward Tamarindo.
- Super market here means mini mart, Mega Super, Maxí Palí, and Walmart (Liberia) will feel more like home. They have 1/3-1/2 of what we find at home, so you may get creative or stick to simple foods. The meats we had were all great, just expensive. Cheese here is weird and expensive, possibly not pasteurized. The groceries that last a week at home only last 3 days here. Don’t overstock. Fresh fruits everywhere and tons of sliced pineapple, watermelon, etc to be found. The prices at the soda are significantly cheaper than groceries. Get snacks for groceries and eat your meals out.
- Language Barrier: Very few speak English, unless it relates to money or a food menu. The Google Translate app on your phone in conversation tab is your friend. We managed just fine.
- Currency Conversion: 500:1 is hard. Simpler method is to see something in thousands, just drop the 3 digits to the right of the comma separator and double it. 10,000 C = 10, x 2 = $20 USD. 3,250 C = $6.40 USD.
- Paying in Cash: We used cards for anyplace we went that had a roof. Use cash for anyone you pay on the street. Everyone takes US $10s and $20 bills. Bring $300-500 for trinket vendors, massages, etc. We never hit the ATM, and only got a few colones bills back, just paid in USD.
- Credit Cards: Every business, grocery store, and restaurant uses the same BAC (Bank of Costa Rica) credit card terminal that has a tap card. There are no pins, signatures and tipping. Tap your card and go. We used our Amazon Prime credit card here with no hassles.
- Beaches: Spring break or California beach? Tamarindo. Boogie boarding or low key sandy beach? Flamingo. Other beaches are okay, just not as great and many don’t have easy access/parking. We hoped for better snorkeling but it was sub par. All of the boat trips will let you snorkel and get your fix, but go to the Caribbean side for the cool stuff it sounds like.
- Weather Forecast: The apps don’t work since they don’t have weather services down here (ex. No radar). It’s all based on satellite images of storm intensity. Use Weather Underground to play back what it did for the last few hours and if there is a yellow or red cloud in your vicinity, expect to get wet. If you Google search for Hawaii coconut forecast, it’s pretty much that. Just keep your eyes on the skies and territorial view.
- Activities: We found our one way driving radius was an hour and a half. Anything East of Liberia was too far. This is mainly since the top speed you hit out here is about 50mph on winding backroads as we describe them in the US and no fousix lane highways, so it just takes awhile to get anywhere. We could have stayed overnight out there but just ran out of time and motivation to do it. That eliminated many of our bookmarks. We just lived the beach life and chilled in the pool.
- Rain Jackets and Swim Suits: Yes, you need a rain jacket. More importantly, bring 3-5 pairs of swim suits. Several pair are always drying outside. The rain here is warm so it’s easier just to get wet while wearing swim gear than trying to stay dry. We swear by the boxer brief lined swim trunks now.
- Shirts and Sweating: As thin and light as possible. The Under Armour tech tees and Willit sun shirts were my go to. My Roblox shirt was too thick. Cotton is a no go.
- Plane Landing at night (LIR): It’s disorienting here on your first night. Get a room at Hilton Garden Inn when you land, and book your Adobe car to pick up at the hotel the next morning around 8:30-9:00. They will meet you in the lobby with no fuss. Ask for a late check out and hit a nearby waterfall first thing in the morning and come back and shower before driving to the beach towns.
- Power Outages: It happens once or twice a day, comes back on in 30 seconds or 30 minutes. You get used to it, no stress.
- Diamante: It was okay, depends what you’re looking for. Only 5 zip lines even though one is Superman. I like the 10-12 Zips in the rainforest and this is more hill peak to hill peak zig zagging down. You can take an ATV tour out of Potrero up there for added exhilaration.
- Road Trip to Nosara: We randomly decided to do a drive down to Nosara. We took Route 160 out and 150 back. You want a miserable pot hole mostly dirt road adventure, 160 is it. That must have been what the roads used to be. White knuckled for 2 hours of it. 150 is freshly paved and was a saving grace coming home. Wasn’t too much to see that we hadn’t already experienced. Just got some lunch and drove back home.
- Length of Trip: If you’re not traveling around, 7-10 days is perfect. We did a month to test if we like long term travel. After 29 days, we’ve found that 14 is a sweet spot for us. If you stay longer and have family and friends come in for a week at a time, you will have different vibes and activity interests to re-discover or re-explore and keep it fresh.
- Traffic laws? You mean suggestions. Just add a few speed bumps where we want you to slow down and yield signs on one lane bridges. In straightaways outside of the towns, it’s fine to go 15-20 kph over the limit (others will be too). Watch for speed bumps in any 40kph zone. There are 14ish speed bumps on the 1.5hr drive between Liberia and Flamingo and a handful of yield or stop signs. Doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. Never saw a stop light. Just pass whatever is on the road (dog, person, biker, horse, kid, dirt bike with 3 people) when you can see ahead of you, don’t need a passing zone or sign to do it. If something is up ahead that you’re slowing down for, throw your flashers on. Turn em off when it moves. The end.
- Buying Stuff: Just like camping at home, you need to bring it with you. There is no Walgreens, only 7-11 equivalent places. You can get a few things at the corner store but there are no malls here or Amazon or deliveries. It makes you appreciate living “off the grid” in a way.
- Pura Vida: The rules and laws that exist down here are mostly non existent or suggestions. Just live life, preferably in the slow lane. They don’t complicate anything down here. It makes me realize how consumeristic and hectic and scare too easy we are in the states. You do you, they do them. You’ll see some funny stuff and have some stories (walking your horse while holding rope out the car window, dirt bike wheelies, 3 people on mopeds, etc.)
- Local Resident Vibe: The primary industry here is tourism. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. You’re going to see low quality of living as you drive around (ex. Shanties), that’s just how they live here. We may call it poverty back in the states, but they are just living their life just like you are living yours. I never felt threatened or unsafe in any way. Only saw police twice in our entire trip, and they were just strolling around casually. The nicer the area, the more we avoided it. The more rustic it was, the more we were intrigued.
2024.05.17 04:33 DonkeyKongChestThump No Return Assaults versus human foes
I have been playing a lot of No Return since it released, and I’ve gotten a lot better, over time, starting from Moderate difficulty and worked my way up through Survivor difficulty. I am having a lot of difficulty making the leap up to Grounded, though. I am not having trouble with the lack of a HUD nor the absence of “listen mode”. However, I am really struggling with Assaults and Captures versus human foes.
I understand the concept of being patient, using cover, using bottles & bricks.… but I’m having a LOT of trouble with aiming and enemy flanking. I am looking for advice on which areas of each map give the player the most advantage, specifically versus human foes, and specifically on Grounded. I do not mean for this next statement to sound snobby — many of the spots on these maps work very well on lower difficulties (for example, the guard tower on the Hospital map) but are significantly less safe on SurvivoGrounded.
I’ll write down my experience on each map; please feel free to comment or give advice on any or all of the maps.
Hardware Store — Great map vs. Infected but I really struggle vs. human foes here. The washedryer appliances corner and the corner with the “checkout” aisles just do not work. Too easy to get pinned down or flanked from long distance. I have tried the shopping cart near the center of the map; not great. The area with display cabinets is ok, but easy to get surrounded. This might be the map I need the most help on.
Hospital — The outdoor tent and nearby truck do not work. The guard tower is good for one Assault wave, but trying to do all three waves up there is going to leave you starved for supplies and/or ammo. Need some alternatives for this map. The large open indoor area (where Holdout occurs on this map) has too many sight-lines and glass walls; enemies will spot you and then aggressively flank you there. Ideas?
Jackson — This is probably the easiest map; there are numerous locations where the player can reduce the number of incoming sight-lines. Lots of practical cover, and useful chokepoints.
Logging Camp — If there are any other defensible locations besides the two second-story lofts, please tell me. I despise this map because the AI will often get “stuck” if your character is in one of the two lofts… but trying to fight from anywhere else will get you aggressively flanked and simultaneously shot at from long-range.
Forest — I feel like the uppermost level of the parking structure, near the small sedan, is the only reliably safe location. However, that’s problematic because the supply crates that spawn between waves have zero spawn points on the uppermost level. Sometimes the crate will spawn all the way down on the ground floor, up against a van near the stairwell. I have heard some players say that the forested outdoor area is good, but I do not buy that, at all. Enemies will throw firebombs and flank aggressively out there, and their firearms accuracy does not seem to be impeded by the dense foliage.
Resort — the outdoors upper area (with the BBQ grill, etc.) is very defensible, and gives your character advantageous sight-lines down into the pool house, across to the big building’s first floor dining area, and also into the chokepoints from the second-story bedrooms and the adjacent outdoor staircase. However... maybe it’s confirmation bias but I feel like Firebomb or Pustule Rain spawns as a modifier on this map A LOT. I would love to know which, if any, areas inside the main building are defensible.
Houses — decent amount of defensible locations, but most of those have reduced, or even very restricted, sight-lines for the player (shed/gazebo, first floobasement of the smaller two-story house, garage attached to the largest house, one-story small house with attached garage across the street). I feel like the second story of the largest house is a bait — it feels safe initially, but it really isn’t that safe. Would love to hear opinions about what the best (not just “good”) spots are on this map.
Gas Station — I hate this map because it feels like you almost HAVE to defend the little cafe adjacent to the bookstore. That’s fine for one or two Assault waves, but I would like to know some alternatives, especially using the gas station building, itself. Much like the second-story house on the Houses map, I feel like the gas station building & garage is a bait — but maybe I am playing it wrong.
Shipping Yard — probably the second easiest map… unless you get assigned the larger version of this map that has a huge mostly open grassy area that isn’t available on the “standard” version of this map. I’m looking for advice specifically on that alternate/large version of Shipping Yard.
TV Station — So many glass walls and crappy cover that can be flanked from multiple sides. This map is very manageable when 3 or 4 human foes spawn per wave of Assault, but when there’s 5+ foes per wave, I get dead almost 100% of the time. This is a map I need help on specifically for when TV Station is the site of Encounter 3, or later, during a No Return run.
submitted by DonkeyKongChestThump to thelastofus [link] [comments]
I understand the concept of being patient, using cover, using bottles & bricks.… but I’m having a LOT of trouble with aiming and enemy flanking. I am looking for advice on which areas of each map give the player the most advantage, specifically versus human foes, and specifically on Grounded. I do not mean for this next statement to sound snobby — many of the spots on these maps work very well on lower difficulties (for example, the guard tower on the Hospital map) but are significantly less safe on SurvivoGrounded.
I’ll write down my experience on each map; please feel free to comment or give advice on any or all of the maps.
Hardware Store — Great map vs. Infected but I really struggle vs. human foes here. The washedryer appliances corner and the corner with the “checkout” aisles just do not work. Too easy to get pinned down or flanked from long distance. I have tried the shopping cart near the center of the map; not great. The area with display cabinets is ok, but easy to get surrounded. This might be the map I need the most help on.
Hospital — The outdoor tent and nearby truck do not work. The guard tower is good for one Assault wave, but trying to do all three waves up there is going to leave you starved for supplies and/or ammo. Need some alternatives for this map. The large open indoor area (where Holdout occurs on this map) has too many sight-lines and glass walls; enemies will spot you and then aggressively flank you there. Ideas?
Jackson — This is probably the easiest map; there are numerous locations where the player can reduce the number of incoming sight-lines. Lots of practical cover, and useful chokepoints.
Logging Camp — If there are any other defensible locations besides the two second-story lofts, please tell me. I despise this map because the AI will often get “stuck” if your character is in one of the two lofts… but trying to fight from anywhere else will get you aggressively flanked and simultaneously shot at from long-range.
Forest — I feel like the uppermost level of the parking structure, near the small sedan, is the only reliably safe location. However, that’s problematic because the supply crates that spawn between waves have zero spawn points on the uppermost level. Sometimes the crate will spawn all the way down on the ground floor, up against a van near the stairwell. I have heard some players say that the forested outdoor area is good, but I do not buy that, at all. Enemies will throw firebombs and flank aggressively out there, and their firearms accuracy does not seem to be impeded by the dense foliage.
Resort — the outdoors upper area (with the BBQ grill, etc.) is very defensible, and gives your character advantageous sight-lines down into the pool house, across to the big building’s first floor dining area, and also into the chokepoints from the second-story bedrooms and the adjacent outdoor staircase. However... maybe it’s confirmation bias but I feel like Firebomb or Pustule Rain spawns as a modifier on this map A LOT. I would love to know which, if any, areas inside the main building are defensible.
Houses — decent amount of defensible locations, but most of those have reduced, or even very restricted, sight-lines for the player (shed/gazebo, first floobasement of the smaller two-story house, garage attached to the largest house, one-story small house with attached garage across the street). I feel like the second story of the largest house is a bait — it feels safe initially, but it really isn’t that safe. Would love to hear opinions about what the best (not just “good”) spots are on this map.
Gas Station — I hate this map because it feels like you almost HAVE to defend the little cafe adjacent to the bookstore. That’s fine for one or two Assault waves, but I would like to know some alternatives, especially using the gas station building, itself. Much like the second-story house on the Houses map, I feel like the gas station building & garage is a bait — but maybe I am playing it wrong.
Shipping Yard — probably the second easiest map… unless you get assigned the larger version of this map that has a huge mostly open grassy area that isn’t available on the “standard” version of this map. I’m looking for advice specifically on that alternate/large version of Shipping Yard.
TV Station — So many glass walls and crappy cover that can be flanked from multiple sides. This map is very manageable when 3 or 4 human foes spawn per wave of Assault, but when there’s 5+ foes per wave, I get dead almost 100% of the time. This is a map I need help on specifically for when TV Station is the site of Encounter 3, or later, during a No Return run.
2024.05.17 04:33 Mista9000 Perfectly Safe Demons -Ch 39- Sundresses at Night
Chapter One
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-Rooftop of the White Flame Factory-
Grigory smiled nervously at his men as they lounged on the rooftop patio. As the sun sank lower, he was happy to see them relax after the day's tensions. He’d wanted to give them their imps when they first arrived, or after the demonstration, but they seemed a little too skittish. Their reactions were causing him to doubt his strategy. If his most loyal supporters were repelled by them, wider acceptance was going to be a non-trivial hurdle. He’d been working on an improved version of the imps for months, but making them less threatening, or light forbid, ‘cute’, seemed deeply at odds with his plans. He hoped time might be the missing ingredient. Once they get a bit more familiar with them, they’ll come around. The imps were really nothing for them to fear.
The demonologist sat alone, observing how his men were dealing with the news. He was deep in thought, adjusting his plans and ruminating on his concerns. Was he forcing them to do things they weren’t comfortable with? The basis of his entire plan was that the whole world was to benefit from the imps, so it had to start somewhere, or he might as well give up. They seemed to be taking it as well as he could have hoped.
Catching a wisp of savoury smells, he thought it was scarcely fair to relax while Stanisk was busy in the kitchen. He rose to see if he could lend a hand with dinner. During their overland trek to the capital months ago, it was clear that Stanisk was a superlative cook, but Grigory was a dexterous helper. Much of what he knew about surgical techniques had been picked up preparing meals.
Grigory arrived at the great hall that served as the eating area. In the centre of the chamber, two long tables stretched across the room, capable of seating fifty, though only four simple chairs he had crafted a few weeks ago were present. His men had yet to grasp the potential of the imps' labour; instead of proper seating, they had improvised with crates and timbers haphazardly arranged around the tables. Near one table, a jute sack of potatoes lay abandoned on the floor, possibly mistaken for a makeshift seat. Grigory hoped they'd be eating the potatoes, not sitting on them.
Separated from the hall by a low half-wall, the kitchen bustled with activity. Stanisk sat on the thick timber counter, a casual sentinel over dinner’s preparations, while Jourgun and Klive stood nearby, deep in conversation with their commander.
Stanisk’s five imps, in their fancy clothes, dashed around the kitchen. Under his expert guidance they were preparing a grand feast. One was peeling potatoes, another stirred a great bubbling pot, while two were doing dishes.
“Sir, did you know that Stanisk’s imps have names? And fancy clothes! Can I have one like his?” Klive blurted when he saw his employer. “Uh, as it pleases milord, of course.”
“Plus mine bow when they bring us beers! They don't do that fresh out of hell!” Stanisk's toothy smile implied he might have been bowed at by imps a half dozen times already.
Grigory tilted his head and blinked for a second.
Surely a bit of clothes can’t have that much of an impact on their acceptance?
“Oh, Of course! Certainly!” he paused again. “Feel free to ask Stanisk for tips on how he made his.” Observing the bustling activity, “It looks like dinner is well in hand?” The kitchen was huge, far larger than the one at Planed Pine Peak Inn. A half dozen dishes simmered or baked, their aromas — exotic spices, rich gravies, and roasted meats filled the expansive space.
Stanisk replied without glancing away from the imps handling the tasks. “Well in hand, boss. Take ‘er easy tonight!” The imps' movements were quick and fluid, their antics distractingly comical at times. Grigory watched, smiling, as one imp hugged a yam to its chest that likely weighed more than it did, and made its way along the countertop from the vegetable sack to the cutting board. Each step was an exaggerated sway, the creature was badly top-heavy and teetering.
With effort he pulled his focus back, “Capital! I’ve a matter to attend to! Smells great already!”
Grigory went into the factory proper to whip up enough chairs for everyone. Simple wooden ones for now, but with cushions. Cushions were quick enough to make and he had a few cart loads of wool and woollen fabrics. He watched his imps work, glad he could share them with his whole team now. Obviously it made everything a bit riskier, but it was worth it. One of his concerns was that he’d been overlooking opportunities and uses. He was bound by only being able to think his own thoughts, so he was excited to see what non-demonologists would think of.
They carved and joined the pine chairs with their normal speed and accuracy, but watching them sew was its own reward. The imps wielded needles like longswords in their tiny hands, the points moving too fast to see clearly. They stacked up the plain cushions in a neat pile at the end of their low workbench.
He also didn’t have any utensils, placemats, serving spoons nor trivets either, since this was their first proper meal here. He commanded the imps to make those as well, and carry them like a row of ants from the workshop to the dining hall. The demonologist walked around the table, surveying his work. With a minor gesture of flame he lit the lamps, and frowned at the beige-grey of undyed wool of the chair cushions.
He pulled the chairs out, and one at a time enchanted the cushions to bright, cheerful colours. He was going to make them all company purple, but thought better of it. Enchanting colours was a fun spell to cast, because the act of changing its colour also unravelled enchantment as it went. Much like building and knocking over houses of cards, the end effect was a mundane unenchanted object, but in whatever colour he’d chosen. Having done the spell countless times for entire days to prepare for the midsummer tourney, he didn’t even have to check his notes for any of the hues.
Satisfied with his work, though slightly frustrated that his first and last red cushions weren’t quite the same shade, he sat down. He pulled a notebook out of his satchel and started making notes on his ideas for some improvements, mostly for his own use, but some to the things he’d be soon selling. Lost in his own world, he had no idea how much time had passed when Ros and Taritha joined him at the table.
“Good evening, milord,” Ros said deferentially.
The young herbalist elbowed him, “Come on, he had one rule! He was writing!”
“Oh! Terribly sorry, sir!” Ros stammered.
“Not at all, I was basically doodling. How’s your evening going, is everything to your liking?” Grigory closed his notebook and put it away.
“Amazing milord, These rooms are huge! They're bigger than some of the houses I was looking at!” Taritha said.
“Of course! No one wants to live in dingy cells! Glad to hear! It’s easy to make a place bigger when you are building fresh. Let me know if you find anything that needs fixing, our builders are still in town working on the harbour fortress now, but I can have them send someone if there is anything amiss!”
“I don’t reckon neither of us knew palaces this nice existed anywhere, milord!” Ros said with a shrug. “We might not be the best eyes for finding faults!”
“Heh! This is just the rustic first stage! Don’t worry about its crudeness for now, we’ll get there over time!” the demonologist promised, patting his satchel where the notebook of ideas was. His confidence was both unshakeable and unnecessary.
“Not to question your plans, but there are a lot more rooms than people. Are we expecting company? Are we hiring?” Taritha asked. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, having just questioned his plan for the first time.
“Big plans indeed! So that empty stretch east of the main building? That’s also part of our land grant. In a while we’ll be building a barracks there for our troops, while senior officers will stay in the main factory. That’s also why Stanisk will be taking a much more active role with civil defence. It’s central to our plan to secure the town, and by extension our own safety.”
“Our troops? Like us?” Jourgun asked, having joined them at the long table.
“Maybe? Probably not? We’ll see. The plan is to extensively recruit as we can afford it, since the pirate raid was just the beginning. We have something of incredible value, in the form of me, the imps and the factory itself. Many violent people feel they should possess every valuable thing, so we must be vigilant. Not to worry though! That’s just us planning for the worst. In reality, nothing like that will likely happen. Just by being well defended we’ll scare off the greedy.”
“Ah, like why it's dangerous for a beggar to wear a silk robe!” Rikad added as he joined them, along with a few others. The smells from the kitchen were intoxicatingly rich now, as Stanisk and Klive used the imps to finish and plate the meal.
“Just so, a lord can only have what he can defend, and because the first phases of my plan require a certain level of material wealth, I’ll need extensive defences,” Grigory explained as diplomatically as he could.
“The Empire itself will fear our might, milord!” Ros said excitedly.
“Nah, it won’t. That’s a dangerous thought. The Imperial army’s smallest deployable force is a legion, near enough to five thousand men. Even if we hit every hiring and training target, we’se not going to be in the business of fightin’ wars. Just enough to make us a spiky nut. The sort not worth chompin’,’” Stanisk called over from the kitchen.
“Oh,” Ros said, shrinking back into his seat.
“That’s more than all the men in the whole town!” Taritha lamented.
“Yeah, that’s why lil fishing villages don’t win wars. A legion is five thousand infantry with warships, supplies, siege cohorts, and command companies. If’n it’s a real fight, then they might deploy all ten Imperial legions. Then start raising more if’n they’re losing. We ain’t never gonna try to fight that. No nation in the world has ever picked that fight and won.”
To counter the grim tone settling over his celebratory dinner, Grigory chimed in with a reassuring smile, “We’re loyal Hyruxian subjects, and the legions protect us. We pay taxes in full, we’re on the right side of all this. We just want a bit of security against more, uh, regional actors. Besides, a large well equipped force lends our diplomacy weight we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Now that the table was filling up and his men looked satisfied with his answers, he raised his voice to the kitchen, “How’s it going in there?”
“Good! I bought a deer from one of the hunters this morning, and it turned out just right!” Stanisk replied, personally putting the finishing touches on his creation. Aethlina moved across the kitchen to watch Stanisk work, making Grigory do a double take. He hadn’t realised she was even in the building.
“Oh! Capital! Everyone in the entire company is here now! Even better!” Grigory said, motioning Aethlina to sit by him. He was glad he’d made the full number of chairs!
Stanisk and Klive brought out plates heaped with slices of braised venison, steamed tubers and sautéed onions. Tubs of butter, bowls of gravy, and finally a heaping basket of fresh buns followed. Stanisk took his seat and, smiling with pride, “What’re you helpless kittens lookin’ at? Never seen dinner ‘afore? Dig in!”
The feast was a perfect end to a troubling day, and even though the conversation died down as they ate, Grigory observed every single one of his hirelings intently, relieved to see not a single one seemed put off by a meal made by demons. Catching Stanisk’s eye, he made an empty cup gesture.
“Imps! Bring us all some drinks! Wine, beer and water!” Stanisk shouted to his imps. With speed and efficiency, the little demons filled clay cups and brought everyone three drinks, exactly as ordered.
“Ah, dammit, I meant—It’s fine. Drink what you want and I’ll just dump the rest!” The chief of security’s good humour faded for an instant before returning twice as bright.
“No, I love having three drinks! And the water and beer are cold! In the summer! The gods themselves envy me!” Rikad declared.
“Uh oh! It looks like Mage Thippily made imps, but the imps made the real monster!” Kedril retorted, gesturing at Rikad holding three cups between his hands, rotating them to drink out of each, while spilling beer all over his own arm.
Their high spirits encouraged Grigory. He’d worried they would be morose and frightened tonight, after making them to live in what could be described as a hive of demons. Joking about the imps was beyond his expectations, so he smiled without speaking, sipping his red wine. Not his cherished Malaentian Red, but a nice varietal from the mainland he’d recently imported a few cases of. Once the plates were empty, Stanisk had the imps clear the table and start washing up while everyone remained seated at the long pine table, bellies full to bursting.
“That was spectacular Stanisk! Thank you!” Grigory offered, and everyone else chimed in a breath later.
“Nothing like a lifetime of bland ration bars for months to really spark an interest in what good food ought to be! I’m glad ya’se liked it,” the big veteran said dismissively.
“How is everyone finding their new accommodations? I know I don’t have all the furniture done just yet, but is everyone good for tonight?” Grigory asked, ever the eager host.
The men nodded and looked at each other. Complaining was frowned upon and nothing here was remotely a hardship.
“Capital! Glad to hear it, and by all means bring it to my attention if your needs are unmet!” Grigory sat still and everyone kept looking at him.
Now’s as good a time as any. It’s not even a surprise, I think I mentioned it a few times already.
“Ahem! So! I’d like to present each of you with your own imps! Some ground rules though; there may be people that aren’t ready for this style of magic, so I ask that you don’t mention anything about them anywhere outside of the factory. Or even imply there are any magical creatures, just that things get made here?”
He waited until they all at least nodded.
“Alright! Here you go, I have one for everyone! The imps are identical, so don’t worry about which ones you get. Um. Good luck?” With a shrug he reached down beside his chair and from a leather case he pulled a series of carved wooden boxes, and passed them out to everyone sitting at the table.
***
With a muted clatter, Taritha watched as the small dark boxes were distributed. She wasn’t sure if there was one for her, being fairly new to the company. She wasn’t sure how she felt; owning demons seemed like a big step, but the ancient urge to possess something nice or powerful was one she wasn’t immune to. Her heart leapt as a heavy box slid in front of her.
With trepidation, she touched it with one finger; it appeared to be regular wood, perhaps stained oak. The box was small and rectangular, quite thin, and she held it easily in one hand. It was narrow enough to fit comfortably between her thumb and fingers, its weight noticeable but not oppressive. She had expected dread, palpable evil, or something, but it just felt a bit heavy. Turning it over, she saw no visible clasps or hinges. The outside was covered in the flawless ornate carvings she was starting to grow familiar with. This time, the carvings depicted joyful industrial scenes—strong men swinging square hammers, smoke stacks, and laden ships and carts. The central image on each side was gilded with gold leaf, making it strikingly dignified.
Ignoring the excitement and increasing movement around her, she felt as if she were in her own universe. She slowly pulled on the lid, finding it opened on tiny hidden hinges, revealing three ebony totems inside. They were the size and shape of a fairytale wand, resting on a bed of lush green velvet, held in place by a broad ribbon tied in a perfect bow.
Even without considering the priceless nature of the artefacts, she was impressed, almost distracted, by the quality of the presentation. He didn’t have to go to such lengths; she’d expected them to be simply handed to her.
She slid one of the totems out without undoing the bow. It was cool and heavy but otherwise seemed normal. She could see layers of impossibly fine carving, this time gilded with silver. She could sense the potent magic in the object, but it felt strange. She’d examined other enchanted items before, and their enchantments were all transcendently beautiful in a complex and technical way. This was so dense it felt like nothing. Or perhaps everything? She wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t at all like the other objects. Stilling herself and trying to puzzle out its secrets brought her no closer to any revelation. She shook her head and resolved to investigate further in private. She returned the totem to its place in the box and gently closed it.
Only now did she notice the table was thick with imps, more than twenty darting and leaping energetically. Her colleagues had summoned theirs and were already giving orders.
“You two, throw the third imp as high as you can!”
“Merp!”
“All of you, cross the table as fast as you can, but walk on your hands!”
“Merp!”
“Duel with these forks!”
“Merp! Merp!”
The men were laughing and pointing between shouting out fresh orders. All the commands were pointless and frivolous, making Taritha powerfully uncomfortable. These were forces of nature, extraplanar beings of unimaginable power, and they were being made to sprint into empty mugs to see how far the mug would fly!?
She shot a questioning look to the master demonologist to gauge his reaction. He was smiling and complimenting their creativity, so maybe she was overreacting? Still, she had no interest in wasting them on silly games. Emergencies only. Or at least serious concerns only. Not for dodging knotted linen napkins, that’s for sure!
With the burden of responsibility successfully dodged, she was free to watch everyone else’s fun. The cacophony of excitement was so infectious that she found herself giggling and pointing at them racing as makeshift horses, with an imp bent over holding the tiny waist of the imp in front of him, while a third one sat atop as a rider. They were so silly looking and energetic.
“You’re sure this doesn’t hurt or anger them?” Taritha asked.
“Oh my no, it’s not like that at all. They have minds, but lack awareness, or awareness of their own mind I guess? It’s fine! They are just made out of the same stuff as demons, but not actually demonic.” The mage stood up and stretched. “They are remarkably durable, it’s unlikely anything short of silvered steel will harm them. I, on the other hand, am at risk of being badly over-tired already! I trust you will be okay, left on your own! I’ll see you in the morning!”
“I’se properly tired too, but if you want, let's pop into the factory and I’ll show you how to get them to make their own clothes. It’s just tellin’ ‘em to do that, so you’se might not need too much hand holding!” Stanisk pushed himself away from the long table, and motioned for them to follow him.
They went into the cavernous factory, just across the hallway. What was an impressive and huge room in the daylight was now an infinite blackness, like a starless night. A few men had grabbed leviathan-oil lamps off the table, and they huddled in a small circle of warm, safe light. They gathered around a long low table, and Stanisk laid out a few bolts of fabric. The fine weaves were familiar to Taritha; they were the same as those used in the clothes she’d been getting from the company.
“It’s simple enough,” Stanisk said as he put a heavy leather bag of tools on the table. “Just say what you want, with as much or as little detail, and they’ll just make that.”
“Imps, make a suit of legion plate armour, imp-sized, out of shoe leather!” Rikad said with glee.
“Merp!” replied several at once, as they began cutting and forming the leather without hesitation. The imps even used grey wool for the under-mail parts, and tiny flares of hellfire to warp the leather into the right shapes. Soon, a tiny suit of black armour lay on the table, looking like what an imperial heavy infantryman would wear, but distorted to the proportions of the gawky imps.
“I dub thee, Imperial commander, Real Imp. Don thy armour!” Rikad ordered. “Do they remember their names?” he asked over his shoulder to Stanisk.
“Oh yeah, they’re proper sharp!” he confirmed.
“Create an imp-sized lord's robe with a sash of office! When it is done, you shall be known as D’Imp Lomat! I might need a minute to think of the last one though…” Rikad said to everyone watching his imps.
Reluctantly, Taritha opened the box and invoked her three imps. She looked at them closely; as far as she could tell, they were perfectly interchangeable with every other imp.
Looking over the fabrics, she chose a striking blue, a deep red, and a golden yellow. “Imps! Make imp-sized sundresses, mainly white with these colours as a main theme. and matching coloured sun hats,” she added hastily. Their heads were distractingly inhuman, so covering them might help. She watched them work, even interrupting a few times to ask for embroidered details and minor adjustments. Once they finished, she had them don their new outfits.
Oh! The hems seem scandalously short on their long lanky legs! Better than before, but not by a lot.
“Imps, please put on the hats that match the colour of your dress.”
“Merp.”
Much better! They look like ladies now!
“You are now Lady Bluebird, Lady Crossbill, and…” She paused at the last one, thinking of songbirds that were as bright yellow as the fabric. “Miss Goldfinch!”
She leaned back and admired her little ladies. They were far less threatening now, and their dull crimson skin really made the dresses look extra vibrant.
“Dang Taritha, how did you make yours so pretty? I want some pretty ones!” Jourgun commented as he looked over.
“Drool over your own demons! These are mine!” she said playfully. There was an undercurrent of possessiveness that she didn’t expect, but these ones were hers now. “Anyways, I’m going to bed too, you guys are too slow! Have fun, boys!” she said as she devoked her imps. The new clothes fell to the work surface.
“Oh yeah, they don’t take that with ‘em, wherever they go, so just keep it in a lil bag or whatever,” Stanisk said when he saw her distress. “They gotta get dressed every time you invoke it,” he shrugged.
So much to learn today!
With a brave smile, she replaced the totems in the box and gathered the dresses and hats. “Mind if I take…” she said as she slowly lifted a lamp from near Rikad.
“Oh yeah, all yours,” he said dismissively, fully engrossed in examining the tiny lordly robes of D’Imp Lomat.
She went back to the hall, up the wide even stairs to the third floor. She’d only spent a bit of time investigating it earlier, as she and Ros had been anxious about being late for dinner. She saw the heap of her worldly possessions against the wall where she’d left them. The only furniture here was the bed, but by the sounds of it, getting some tables, chairs, and wardrobes would be easy enough tomorrow. She placed the totem box and the tiny outfits on the floor beside the bed.
The bed itself was unlike any she’d ever heard of. Crafted with thick pine beams and topped with a mattress of imported cotton, it was probably wider than her entire hovel. A family of five could sleep on it and barely touch. She couldn’t imagine a more lordly bed. Its refined look and the luxurious softness were worlds apart from the coarse fabric and straw she was used to. Sometimes in the fall, she’d add freshly fallen leaves to her straw mattress for extra comfort, but that was a fleeting pleasure. This bed, however, promised constant comfort. She eyed the pile of heavy blankets at the foot of the bed. Recently, she had bought a single blanket from the market, thin and scratchy, but these were the mage’s blankets—thick, plush, and impossibly soft.
She shut the heavy door and took off her tall boots. The floor felt smooth under her bare feet. Even having a floor was a new luxury; she was accustomed to hard-packed dirt floors like most everyone else. This wasn’t just a floor; it was a delicate herringbone pattern of different kinds of wood, obviously done by the agile imps. It was cleaner, smoother, and more level than any table she’d eaten off before the mage came to town.
She stopped admiring the floor and stripped to her shift. She felt exposed being so undressed around so many men. She reasoned it out—the iron and oak door was stronger than a hide flap, and this would doubtlessly be the safest sleep of her life. Just a reaction, not a reality. She left the lamp on the floor and got in bed.
With a panic, she yelped as the whole bed flowed underneath her, as if she’d stepped on the tail of a sleeping cat. She tried to get up but her feet were already off the floor, and she couldn’t find a stable purchase with her hands. She froze up to think her way out of it, and the bed stopped moving almost as soon as she did.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Was this an enchantment gone awry? Some bed demon?
Slowly, she log-rolled towards the edge of the bed, and the mattress under her also slowly moved, but not enough to stop her. Slow and steady, she might get free yet. Finally, she was close enough to put a foot down and stand. The bed flowed back to being perfectly flat.
She stood up, with a hand to her sternum, trying to catch her breath.
Think! What did the mage say about this today? It would magically adjust? Maybe that was all it was doing?
She leaned over and gently pushed down with a single fist. It was super pliable, then increasingly firm. But it felt unlike anything else—stacks of clothes or hides all felt different when they got pressed.
It must be magic. No time to be timid, and it would be humiliating to go to either the mage or the chief about this.
The only spell she could reliably cast was a gesture of Mana-Visualization. It caused the invisible lines of arcane energy to glow visibly, in bright colours that hinted at their use and purpose. She cast it to better examine her bed. It wasn’t enchanted as she expected; rather, hundreds and hundreds of things inside it were, and they linked and overlapped in ways she wouldn’t understand if she studied enchantments for a decade. She involuntarily took a step back from it, like finding a hundred warhorses inside a small cabinet.
She dismissed the gesture. With renewed determination, she slowly sat down on the bed. It shifted but only a bit. It was very soft and comfortable. Slowly, she turned and laid back, fighting her panic as the mattress kept shifting everywhere her body touched it, unnervingly lifelike. Fully laying down, she stopped and the mattress stopped. Even as her eyes were still wide with terror, she started to calm down. To test her theories, she rolled onto her side, and the mattress under her hip grew softer, and the part under her ribs grew firmer, until the pressure equalised. Rolling back, she felt it shift again, and once more the mattress's firmness changed all up and down her body, stopping once it was the same shape as her body’s pressure, resulting in sublime comfort.
Oh. This is incredible. I get it now!
She reached to the foot of the bed, pulled one of the soft blankets up to her chin, reached down to extinguish the lamp and drifted off into a better sleep than anyone in the history of her family ever had.
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-Rooftop of the White Flame Factory-
Grigory smiled nervously at his men as they lounged on the rooftop patio. As the sun sank lower, he was happy to see them relax after the day's tensions. He’d wanted to give them their imps when they first arrived, or after the demonstration, but they seemed a little too skittish. Their reactions were causing him to doubt his strategy. If his most loyal supporters were repelled by them, wider acceptance was going to be a non-trivial hurdle. He’d been working on an improved version of the imps for months, but making them less threatening, or light forbid, ‘cute’, seemed deeply at odds with his plans. He hoped time might be the missing ingredient. Once they get a bit more familiar with them, they’ll come around. The imps were really nothing for them to fear.
The demonologist sat alone, observing how his men were dealing with the news. He was deep in thought, adjusting his plans and ruminating on his concerns. Was he forcing them to do things they weren’t comfortable with? The basis of his entire plan was that the whole world was to benefit from the imps, so it had to start somewhere, or he might as well give up. They seemed to be taking it as well as he could have hoped.
Catching a wisp of savoury smells, he thought it was scarcely fair to relax while Stanisk was busy in the kitchen. He rose to see if he could lend a hand with dinner. During their overland trek to the capital months ago, it was clear that Stanisk was a superlative cook, but Grigory was a dexterous helper. Much of what he knew about surgical techniques had been picked up preparing meals.
Grigory arrived at the great hall that served as the eating area. In the centre of the chamber, two long tables stretched across the room, capable of seating fifty, though only four simple chairs he had crafted a few weeks ago were present. His men had yet to grasp the potential of the imps' labour; instead of proper seating, they had improvised with crates and timbers haphazardly arranged around the tables. Near one table, a jute sack of potatoes lay abandoned on the floor, possibly mistaken for a makeshift seat. Grigory hoped they'd be eating the potatoes, not sitting on them.
Separated from the hall by a low half-wall, the kitchen bustled with activity. Stanisk sat on the thick timber counter, a casual sentinel over dinner’s preparations, while Jourgun and Klive stood nearby, deep in conversation with their commander.
Stanisk’s five imps, in their fancy clothes, dashed around the kitchen. Under his expert guidance they were preparing a grand feast. One was peeling potatoes, another stirred a great bubbling pot, while two were doing dishes.
“Sir, did you know that Stanisk’s imps have names? And fancy clothes! Can I have one like his?” Klive blurted when he saw his employer. “Uh, as it pleases milord, of course.”
“Plus mine bow when they bring us beers! They don't do that fresh out of hell!” Stanisk's toothy smile implied he might have been bowed at by imps a half dozen times already.
Grigory tilted his head and blinked for a second.
Surely a bit of clothes can’t have that much of an impact on their acceptance?
“Oh, Of course! Certainly!” he paused again. “Feel free to ask Stanisk for tips on how he made his.” Observing the bustling activity, “It looks like dinner is well in hand?” The kitchen was huge, far larger than the one at Planed Pine Peak Inn. A half dozen dishes simmered or baked, their aromas — exotic spices, rich gravies, and roasted meats filled the expansive space.
Stanisk replied without glancing away from the imps handling the tasks. “Well in hand, boss. Take ‘er easy tonight!” The imps' movements were quick and fluid, their antics distractingly comical at times. Grigory watched, smiling, as one imp hugged a yam to its chest that likely weighed more than it did, and made its way along the countertop from the vegetable sack to the cutting board. Each step was an exaggerated sway, the creature was badly top-heavy and teetering.
With effort he pulled his focus back, “Capital! I’ve a matter to attend to! Smells great already!”
Grigory went into the factory proper to whip up enough chairs for everyone. Simple wooden ones for now, but with cushions. Cushions were quick enough to make and he had a few cart loads of wool and woollen fabrics. He watched his imps work, glad he could share them with his whole team now. Obviously it made everything a bit riskier, but it was worth it. One of his concerns was that he’d been overlooking opportunities and uses. He was bound by only being able to think his own thoughts, so he was excited to see what non-demonologists would think of.
They carved and joined the pine chairs with their normal speed and accuracy, but watching them sew was its own reward. The imps wielded needles like longswords in their tiny hands, the points moving too fast to see clearly. They stacked up the plain cushions in a neat pile at the end of their low workbench.
He also didn’t have any utensils, placemats, serving spoons nor trivets either, since this was their first proper meal here. He commanded the imps to make those as well, and carry them like a row of ants from the workshop to the dining hall. The demonologist walked around the table, surveying his work. With a minor gesture of flame he lit the lamps, and frowned at the beige-grey of undyed wool of the chair cushions.
He pulled the chairs out, and one at a time enchanted the cushions to bright, cheerful colours. He was going to make them all company purple, but thought better of it. Enchanting colours was a fun spell to cast, because the act of changing its colour also unravelled enchantment as it went. Much like building and knocking over houses of cards, the end effect was a mundane unenchanted object, but in whatever colour he’d chosen. Having done the spell countless times for entire days to prepare for the midsummer tourney, he didn’t even have to check his notes for any of the hues.
Satisfied with his work, though slightly frustrated that his first and last red cushions weren’t quite the same shade, he sat down. He pulled a notebook out of his satchel and started making notes on his ideas for some improvements, mostly for his own use, but some to the things he’d be soon selling. Lost in his own world, he had no idea how much time had passed when Ros and Taritha joined him at the table.
“Good evening, milord,” Ros said deferentially.
The young herbalist elbowed him, “Come on, he had one rule! He was writing!”
“Oh! Terribly sorry, sir!” Ros stammered.
“Not at all, I was basically doodling. How’s your evening going, is everything to your liking?” Grigory closed his notebook and put it away.
“Amazing milord, These rooms are huge! They're bigger than some of the houses I was looking at!” Taritha said.
“Of course! No one wants to live in dingy cells! Glad to hear! It’s easy to make a place bigger when you are building fresh. Let me know if you find anything that needs fixing, our builders are still in town working on the harbour fortress now, but I can have them send someone if there is anything amiss!”
“I don’t reckon neither of us knew palaces this nice existed anywhere, milord!” Ros said with a shrug. “We might not be the best eyes for finding faults!”
“Heh! This is just the rustic first stage! Don’t worry about its crudeness for now, we’ll get there over time!” the demonologist promised, patting his satchel where the notebook of ideas was. His confidence was both unshakeable and unnecessary.
“Not to question your plans, but there are a lot more rooms than people. Are we expecting company? Are we hiring?” Taritha asked. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, having just questioned his plan for the first time.
“Big plans indeed! So that empty stretch east of the main building? That’s also part of our land grant. In a while we’ll be building a barracks there for our troops, while senior officers will stay in the main factory. That’s also why Stanisk will be taking a much more active role with civil defence. It’s central to our plan to secure the town, and by extension our own safety.”
“Our troops? Like us?” Jourgun asked, having joined them at the long table.
“Maybe? Probably not? We’ll see. The plan is to extensively recruit as we can afford it, since the pirate raid was just the beginning. We have something of incredible value, in the form of me, the imps and the factory itself. Many violent people feel they should possess every valuable thing, so we must be vigilant. Not to worry though! That’s just us planning for the worst. In reality, nothing like that will likely happen. Just by being well defended we’ll scare off the greedy.”
“Ah, like why it's dangerous for a beggar to wear a silk robe!” Rikad added as he joined them, along with a few others. The smells from the kitchen were intoxicatingly rich now, as Stanisk and Klive used the imps to finish and plate the meal.
“Just so, a lord can only have what he can defend, and because the first phases of my plan require a certain level of material wealth, I’ll need extensive defences,” Grigory explained as diplomatically as he could.
“The Empire itself will fear our might, milord!” Ros said excitedly.
“Nah, it won’t. That’s a dangerous thought. The Imperial army’s smallest deployable force is a legion, near enough to five thousand men. Even if we hit every hiring and training target, we’se not going to be in the business of fightin’ wars. Just enough to make us a spiky nut. The sort not worth chompin’,’” Stanisk called over from the kitchen.
“Oh,” Ros said, shrinking back into his seat.
“That’s more than all the men in the whole town!” Taritha lamented.
“Yeah, that’s why lil fishing villages don’t win wars. A legion is five thousand infantry with warships, supplies, siege cohorts, and command companies. If’n it’s a real fight, then they might deploy all ten Imperial legions. Then start raising more if’n they’re losing. We ain’t never gonna try to fight that. No nation in the world has ever picked that fight and won.”
To counter the grim tone settling over his celebratory dinner, Grigory chimed in with a reassuring smile, “We’re loyal Hyruxian subjects, and the legions protect us. We pay taxes in full, we’re on the right side of all this. We just want a bit of security against more, uh, regional actors. Besides, a large well equipped force lends our diplomacy weight we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Now that the table was filling up and his men looked satisfied with his answers, he raised his voice to the kitchen, “How’s it going in there?”
“Good! I bought a deer from one of the hunters this morning, and it turned out just right!” Stanisk replied, personally putting the finishing touches on his creation. Aethlina moved across the kitchen to watch Stanisk work, making Grigory do a double take. He hadn’t realised she was even in the building.
“Oh! Capital! Everyone in the entire company is here now! Even better!” Grigory said, motioning Aethlina to sit by him. He was glad he’d made the full number of chairs!
Stanisk and Klive brought out plates heaped with slices of braised venison, steamed tubers and sautéed onions. Tubs of butter, bowls of gravy, and finally a heaping basket of fresh buns followed. Stanisk took his seat and, smiling with pride, “What’re you helpless kittens lookin’ at? Never seen dinner ‘afore? Dig in!”
The feast was a perfect end to a troubling day, and even though the conversation died down as they ate, Grigory observed every single one of his hirelings intently, relieved to see not a single one seemed put off by a meal made by demons. Catching Stanisk’s eye, he made an empty cup gesture.
“Imps! Bring us all some drinks! Wine, beer and water!” Stanisk shouted to his imps. With speed and efficiency, the little demons filled clay cups and brought everyone three drinks, exactly as ordered.
“Ah, dammit, I meant—It’s fine. Drink what you want and I’ll just dump the rest!” The chief of security’s good humour faded for an instant before returning twice as bright.
“No, I love having three drinks! And the water and beer are cold! In the summer! The gods themselves envy me!” Rikad declared.
“Uh oh! It looks like Mage Thippily made imps, but the imps made the real monster!” Kedril retorted, gesturing at Rikad holding three cups between his hands, rotating them to drink out of each, while spilling beer all over his own arm.
Their high spirits encouraged Grigory. He’d worried they would be morose and frightened tonight, after making them to live in what could be described as a hive of demons. Joking about the imps was beyond his expectations, so he smiled without speaking, sipping his red wine. Not his cherished Malaentian Red, but a nice varietal from the mainland he’d recently imported a few cases of. Once the plates were empty, Stanisk had the imps clear the table and start washing up while everyone remained seated at the long pine table, bellies full to bursting.
“That was spectacular Stanisk! Thank you!” Grigory offered, and everyone else chimed in a breath later.
“Nothing like a lifetime of bland ration bars for months to really spark an interest in what good food ought to be! I’m glad ya’se liked it,” the big veteran said dismissively.
“How is everyone finding their new accommodations? I know I don’t have all the furniture done just yet, but is everyone good for tonight?” Grigory asked, ever the eager host.
The men nodded and looked at each other. Complaining was frowned upon and nothing here was remotely a hardship.
“Capital! Glad to hear it, and by all means bring it to my attention if your needs are unmet!” Grigory sat still and everyone kept looking at him.
Now’s as good a time as any. It’s not even a surprise, I think I mentioned it a few times already.
“Ahem! So! I’d like to present each of you with your own imps! Some ground rules though; there may be people that aren’t ready for this style of magic, so I ask that you don’t mention anything about them anywhere outside of the factory. Or even imply there are any magical creatures, just that things get made here?”
He waited until they all at least nodded.
“Alright! Here you go, I have one for everyone! The imps are identical, so don’t worry about which ones you get. Um. Good luck?” With a shrug he reached down beside his chair and from a leather case he pulled a series of carved wooden boxes, and passed them out to everyone sitting at the table.
***
With a muted clatter, Taritha watched as the small dark boxes were distributed. She wasn’t sure if there was one for her, being fairly new to the company. She wasn’t sure how she felt; owning demons seemed like a big step, but the ancient urge to possess something nice or powerful was one she wasn’t immune to. Her heart leapt as a heavy box slid in front of her.
With trepidation, she touched it with one finger; it appeared to be regular wood, perhaps stained oak. The box was small and rectangular, quite thin, and she held it easily in one hand. It was narrow enough to fit comfortably between her thumb and fingers, its weight noticeable but not oppressive. She had expected dread, palpable evil, or something, but it just felt a bit heavy. Turning it over, she saw no visible clasps or hinges. The outside was covered in the flawless ornate carvings she was starting to grow familiar with. This time, the carvings depicted joyful industrial scenes—strong men swinging square hammers, smoke stacks, and laden ships and carts. The central image on each side was gilded with gold leaf, making it strikingly dignified.
Ignoring the excitement and increasing movement around her, she felt as if she were in her own universe. She slowly pulled on the lid, finding it opened on tiny hidden hinges, revealing three ebony totems inside. They were the size and shape of a fairytale wand, resting on a bed of lush green velvet, held in place by a broad ribbon tied in a perfect bow.
Even without considering the priceless nature of the artefacts, she was impressed, almost distracted, by the quality of the presentation. He didn’t have to go to such lengths; she’d expected them to be simply handed to her.
She slid one of the totems out without undoing the bow. It was cool and heavy but otherwise seemed normal. She could see layers of impossibly fine carving, this time gilded with silver. She could sense the potent magic in the object, but it felt strange. She’d examined other enchanted items before, and their enchantments were all transcendently beautiful in a complex and technical way. This was so dense it felt like nothing. Or perhaps everything? She wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t at all like the other objects. Stilling herself and trying to puzzle out its secrets brought her no closer to any revelation. She shook her head and resolved to investigate further in private. She returned the totem to its place in the box and gently closed it.
Only now did she notice the table was thick with imps, more than twenty darting and leaping energetically. Her colleagues had summoned theirs and were already giving orders.
“You two, throw the third imp as high as you can!”
“Merp!”
“All of you, cross the table as fast as you can, but walk on your hands!”
“Merp!”
“Duel with these forks!”
“Merp! Merp!”
The men were laughing and pointing between shouting out fresh orders. All the commands were pointless and frivolous, making Taritha powerfully uncomfortable. These were forces of nature, extraplanar beings of unimaginable power, and they were being made to sprint into empty mugs to see how far the mug would fly!?
She shot a questioning look to the master demonologist to gauge his reaction. He was smiling and complimenting their creativity, so maybe she was overreacting? Still, she had no interest in wasting them on silly games. Emergencies only. Or at least serious concerns only. Not for dodging knotted linen napkins, that’s for sure!
With the burden of responsibility successfully dodged, she was free to watch everyone else’s fun. The cacophony of excitement was so infectious that she found herself giggling and pointing at them racing as makeshift horses, with an imp bent over holding the tiny waist of the imp in front of him, while a third one sat atop as a rider. They were so silly looking and energetic.
“You’re sure this doesn’t hurt or anger them?” Taritha asked.
“Oh my no, it’s not like that at all. They have minds, but lack awareness, or awareness of their own mind I guess? It’s fine! They are just made out of the same stuff as demons, but not actually demonic.” The mage stood up and stretched. “They are remarkably durable, it’s unlikely anything short of silvered steel will harm them. I, on the other hand, am at risk of being badly over-tired already! I trust you will be okay, left on your own! I’ll see you in the morning!”
“I’se properly tired too, but if you want, let's pop into the factory and I’ll show you how to get them to make their own clothes. It’s just tellin’ ‘em to do that, so you’se might not need too much hand holding!” Stanisk pushed himself away from the long table, and motioned for them to follow him.
They went into the cavernous factory, just across the hallway. What was an impressive and huge room in the daylight was now an infinite blackness, like a starless night. A few men had grabbed leviathan-oil lamps off the table, and they huddled in a small circle of warm, safe light. They gathered around a long low table, and Stanisk laid out a few bolts of fabric. The fine weaves were familiar to Taritha; they were the same as those used in the clothes she’d been getting from the company.
“It’s simple enough,” Stanisk said as he put a heavy leather bag of tools on the table. “Just say what you want, with as much or as little detail, and they’ll just make that.”
“Imps, make a suit of legion plate armour, imp-sized, out of shoe leather!” Rikad said with glee.
“Merp!” replied several at once, as they began cutting and forming the leather without hesitation. The imps even used grey wool for the under-mail parts, and tiny flares of hellfire to warp the leather into the right shapes. Soon, a tiny suit of black armour lay on the table, looking like what an imperial heavy infantryman would wear, but distorted to the proportions of the gawky imps.
“I dub thee, Imperial commander, Real Imp. Don thy armour!” Rikad ordered. “Do they remember their names?” he asked over his shoulder to Stanisk.
“Oh yeah, they’re proper sharp!” he confirmed.
“Create an imp-sized lord's robe with a sash of office! When it is done, you shall be known as D’Imp Lomat! I might need a minute to think of the last one though…” Rikad said to everyone watching his imps.
Reluctantly, Taritha opened the box and invoked her three imps. She looked at them closely; as far as she could tell, they were perfectly interchangeable with every other imp.
Looking over the fabrics, she chose a striking blue, a deep red, and a golden yellow. “Imps! Make imp-sized sundresses, mainly white with these colours as a main theme. and matching coloured sun hats,” she added hastily. Their heads were distractingly inhuman, so covering them might help. She watched them work, even interrupting a few times to ask for embroidered details and minor adjustments. Once they finished, she had them don their new outfits.
Oh! The hems seem scandalously short on their long lanky legs! Better than before, but not by a lot.
“Imps, please put on the hats that match the colour of your dress.”
“Merp.”
Much better! They look like ladies now!
“You are now Lady Bluebird, Lady Crossbill, and…” She paused at the last one, thinking of songbirds that were as bright yellow as the fabric. “Miss Goldfinch!”
She leaned back and admired her little ladies. They were far less threatening now, and their dull crimson skin really made the dresses look extra vibrant.
“Dang Taritha, how did you make yours so pretty? I want some pretty ones!” Jourgun commented as he looked over.
“Drool over your own demons! These are mine!” she said playfully. There was an undercurrent of possessiveness that she didn’t expect, but these ones were hers now. “Anyways, I’m going to bed too, you guys are too slow! Have fun, boys!” she said as she devoked her imps. The new clothes fell to the work surface.
“Oh yeah, they don’t take that with ‘em, wherever they go, so just keep it in a lil bag or whatever,” Stanisk said when he saw her distress. “They gotta get dressed every time you invoke it,” he shrugged.
So much to learn today!
With a brave smile, she replaced the totems in the box and gathered the dresses and hats. “Mind if I take…” she said as she slowly lifted a lamp from near Rikad.
“Oh yeah, all yours,” he said dismissively, fully engrossed in examining the tiny lordly robes of D’Imp Lomat.
She went back to the hall, up the wide even stairs to the third floor. She’d only spent a bit of time investigating it earlier, as she and Ros had been anxious about being late for dinner. She saw the heap of her worldly possessions against the wall where she’d left them. The only furniture here was the bed, but by the sounds of it, getting some tables, chairs, and wardrobes would be easy enough tomorrow. She placed the totem box and the tiny outfits on the floor beside the bed.
The bed itself was unlike any she’d ever heard of. Crafted with thick pine beams and topped with a mattress of imported cotton, it was probably wider than her entire hovel. A family of five could sleep on it and barely touch. She couldn’t imagine a more lordly bed. Its refined look and the luxurious softness were worlds apart from the coarse fabric and straw she was used to. Sometimes in the fall, she’d add freshly fallen leaves to her straw mattress for extra comfort, but that was a fleeting pleasure. This bed, however, promised constant comfort. She eyed the pile of heavy blankets at the foot of the bed. Recently, she had bought a single blanket from the market, thin and scratchy, but these were the mage’s blankets—thick, plush, and impossibly soft.
She shut the heavy door and took off her tall boots. The floor felt smooth under her bare feet. Even having a floor was a new luxury; she was accustomed to hard-packed dirt floors like most everyone else. This wasn’t just a floor; it was a delicate herringbone pattern of different kinds of wood, obviously done by the agile imps. It was cleaner, smoother, and more level than any table she’d eaten off before the mage came to town.
She stopped admiring the floor and stripped to her shift. She felt exposed being so undressed around so many men. She reasoned it out—the iron and oak door was stronger than a hide flap, and this would doubtlessly be the safest sleep of her life. Just a reaction, not a reality. She left the lamp on the floor and got in bed.
With a panic, she yelped as the whole bed flowed underneath her, as if she’d stepped on the tail of a sleeping cat. She tried to get up but her feet were already off the floor, and she couldn’t find a stable purchase with her hands. She froze up to think her way out of it, and the bed stopped moving almost as soon as she did.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Was this an enchantment gone awry? Some bed demon?
Slowly, she log-rolled towards the edge of the bed, and the mattress under her also slowly moved, but not enough to stop her. Slow and steady, she might get free yet. Finally, she was close enough to put a foot down and stand. The bed flowed back to being perfectly flat.
She stood up, with a hand to her sternum, trying to catch her breath.
Think! What did the mage say about this today? It would magically adjust? Maybe that was all it was doing?
She leaned over and gently pushed down with a single fist. It was super pliable, then increasingly firm. But it felt unlike anything else—stacks of clothes or hides all felt different when they got pressed.
It must be magic. No time to be timid, and it would be humiliating to go to either the mage or the chief about this.
The only spell she could reliably cast was a gesture of Mana-Visualization. It caused the invisible lines of arcane energy to glow visibly, in bright colours that hinted at their use and purpose. She cast it to better examine her bed. It wasn’t enchanted as she expected; rather, hundreds and hundreds of things inside it were, and they linked and overlapped in ways she wouldn’t understand if she studied enchantments for a decade. She involuntarily took a step back from it, like finding a hundred warhorses inside a small cabinet.
She dismissed the gesture. With renewed determination, she slowly sat down on the bed. It shifted but only a bit. It was very soft and comfortable. Slowly, she turned and laid back, fighting her panic as the mattress kept shifting everywhere her body touched it, unnervingly lifelike. Fully laying down, she stopped and the mattress stopped. Even as her eyes were still wide with terror, she started to calm down. To test her theories, she rolled onto her side, and the mattress under her hip grew softer, and the part under her ribs grew firmer, until the pressure equalised. Rolling back, she felt it shift again, and once more the mattress's firmness changed all up and down her body, stopping once it was the same shape as her body’s pressure, resulting in sublime comfort.
Oh. This is incredible. I get it now!
She reached to the foot of the bed, pulled one of the soft blankets up to her chin, reached down to extinguish the lamp and drifted off into a better sleep than anyone in the history of her family ever had.
Prev
2024.05.17 04:31 bigsmitty721 2012 3.5 issues
Ive had this truck since new and it hasn't been the most reliable ride. Blew two rods right out of the case at 50k miles, warranty covered it. That was in 2016. Fast forward to this year and my wife was driving the truck back from a funeral and called me saying it was making an awful tapping noise. figured it was the cam phasers or something but when she got home it was coming from the back of the engine but only at mid-high rpms. drained oil and there was some metal in it but nothing that screamed grenade. This motor only has 60k on it and was thinking it maybe the rod bearings. Anyway, has anyone ever replaced them with the engine still in the truck? If it comes to the point i need to pull the motor im just scrapping this POS. 100k miles and it leaves me stuck again.
submitted by bigsmitty721 to f150ecoboost [link] [comments]
2024.05.17 04:25 earthquake2k12 Turnkey Drivetrain Swaps
I have an 05 FX4 Level II automatic with 170,000 miles. It has timing chain tick, leaky rear main seal, slipping transmission, and high freq vibration that increases with speed (and never goes away). The 4wd also seems to slip out of gear despite replacing the stupid electric motor.
Looking to swap the abysmal drivetrain it came with with something else. I am good with cars, but have traded time for money with my current job and it is more practical for me to pay for repairs/drivetrain swap than it is for me to do it in my garage.
Rather than replace all the failing components, it seems like a better investment to upgrade to an engine that doesn't have 3 timing chains and a transmission that isn't archaic and a transfer case that isn't shit (seriously , my NP231 isn't this difficult). I am not trying to win any drag races, I just want reliability. I'm willing to swap to manual transmission and would prefer to swap to manual transfer case.
Wondering if there are reputable companies that will do this for me if I drop off the truck and an envelope of cash lol. I am in the Western US. The truck has no rust and is my favorite color with matching cap. I want to emphasize that I have spent the time learning how to work on my car, but with a recent promotion, my time is simply unavailable and more valuable so paying someone to do it makes more sense than having it sit in my garage for the better part of a year.
submitted by earthquake2k12 to fordranger [link] [comments]
Looking to swap the abysmal drivetrain it came with with something else. I am good with cars, but have traded time for money with my current job and it is more practical for me to pay for repairs/drivetrain swap than it is for me to do it in my garage.
Rather than replace all the failing components, it seems like a better investment to upgrade to an engine that doesn't have 3 timing chains and a transmission that isn't archaic and a transfer case that isn't shit (seriously , my NP231 isn't this difficult). I am not trying to win any drag races, I just want reliability. I'm willing to swap to manual transmission and would prefer to swap to manual transfer case.
Wondering if there are reputable companies that will do this for me if I drop off the truck and an envelope of cash lol. I am in the Western US. The truck has no rust and is my favorite color with matching cap. I want to emphasize that I have spent the time learning how to work on my car, but with a recent promotion, my time is simply unavailable and more valuable so paying someone to do it makes more sense than having it sit in my garage for the better part of a year.
2024.05.17 02:27 j0520d Are you new to SCX24 tinkering? Dont know where to start? Check this out!
Ive noticed alot of new faces here, and Ive seen alot of "what ______ do I need to buy" posts. Let me start by this is not a flame on yall, but rather a resource! I wanted to compile a decent get started/how to thread for all yall. What I want to do is go over as many parts as possible, their function, and effectiveness. This should probably be a video, but I feel like it would be more useful to yall in written form. :) If you have questions about specific parts, just scroll to what you need. This post will be very long, but hopefully helpful. No comments in this post are meant to bash any brands, so please do not get offended if you have a different mindset than me. Please keep in mind: This is a hobby that you will need to do research on, and struggle through trial and error. Everyone has a different aim in this hobby between looks and performance. They also have a different driving style. Google is your friend, as is the search function in this sub. If you cannot find what you are looking for please speak up, one of the established members of this sub can point you in the right direction. As you tinker, you will learn, and thus your skill and understanding will increase.
For background. Im a performance guy with these things. I do not care if its pretty; I want to climb a wall. I compete roughly 18 times a year. The summer series has about 40 competitors per comp on average and the winter series is about 25 per. Everything I will talk about is a culmination of all that I have learned between my own driving and tinkering, watching and filming other competitors, and knowledge from some top parts producers and awesome content creators that are in my local RCMCCA chapter.
Let me also say that I have no brand affiliation. I have my own RC brand, and I am working to a release, but that will be a different post. I also have various levels of acceptance of brands, owners, and their ethics, but that will not be discussed here... That is not to say that there are not tiers of quality in this hobby. Stock is stock, boutique level brands that sell on their websites are the top, and amazon brands fall somewhere in the middle with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Chassis: This is the basis of your build. It affects virtually every other part and its effectiveness. That being said, short of tires, it is the single most important part on your build. It is also the most ignored part of a rig. I cannot stress enough, upgrading every part on your truck but this will look cool, but it will take away from performance improvement that each one of those fly parts are supposed to provide. Upgrading this should be so high on your list that you did it yesterday. There are some great frame sets out there, and you will not find them on Amazon.
Skid plate: This connects your frame, mototrans unit, and links. Alot of aftermarket frame rails come with them, or those companies have it as an option. Whatever skid you buy, just buy a flat skid. The traditional ones that drop low does provide a lower center of gravity, but it isnt worth hanging up on every obstacle you touch. If you arent sure what to buy, the OGRC flat skid is there as an affordable option that you will never complain about.
Transmission: Translates your motor power into go power, but also holds your motor to the whole truck. The stock unit is fine till you blow out a plastic gear or strip a screw hole. When this happens, get a metal unit. Most all of them are all the same, but a few companies make unique ones like hardpark and LGRP. These units are both great and proprietary, but pricy. There is also one with a built in overdrive (overdrive makes the front tires spin faster than the rear tires, effectively pulling you over an obstacle and mitigating the rigs attempts at flopping backwards). You want the metal gears. For the spur gear, you have to decide what pitch to run. More on that in the next section.
Spur gear pitch: there are two pitches. Mod .3 and Mod .5. Mod .3 is the same as stock, but .5 has less teeth and they are larger. Pay attention to buying motors because they come with one or the other. Neither is better, just a preference.
Brushed Motor: This is a can of worms. For brushed motors, they are a dime a dozen as long as you exclude 2 companies (injora and Mofo RC). The stock size is 030. The correct size is 050. If you are looking outside of the aforementioned companies, you probably will not tell a difference between motors. Injora makes some very hard to kill motors, though they do not have the quality nor power of mofo (they ARE cheaper if cost matters). The two injora motors are the red and purple, and people who have an opinion between the two will die on that hill. If power and quality is what you are after though, buy Mofo motors. They use a proprietary magnet set as well as winding. There is nothing like them. They are plug and play on stock electronics, but in most instances you need to swap the motor mount plate because the holes on the motors are inversed from stock. Where ever you buy motors you can find a plate.
Brushed ESC (electronic speed controllers): This listens to the reciever for input (in stock form the reciever is part of the ESC) and doles out tasks to the servos and motors. V1 is black with an axial logo. It can act as a reciever when you go brushless if you dont want to spend the extra 50 dollars for a proper reciever and controller. V2 (blue) and V3 (spectrum) cannot do this. It is widely accepted as versions progressed, quality decreased. A great replacement option is the Injora MB100. You will have to provide a new receiver and transmitter, but its worth it.
Brushless ESC: If you go to a brushless motor, you will need a new speed controller. The new ESC will also require a new reciever and transmitter. It is almost the cost of a new stock rig to go brushless, so if you arent willing to make that jump do not consider it. Quality brushed setups are amazingly underrated anyway. Furitek is the big name, and they are fine. Better out there is Dinky, Mofo and others.
Brushless Motor: Once again, brushless motor conversions are about the cost of a new stock rig because of the additional ESC, motor mount, reciever, and transmitter required. If you arent ready for that cost, please see the above 3 sections as there are some highly underrated brushed setups. The best motors out there are provided by Furitek, LGRP, and Mofo RC. If you are questioning which one to buy, do yourself a favor and buy a mount from the same brand you select for the motor. I say this because there are differences in mounting screw size, patterns, and pitch between all these brands, as well as intra brand based on motor selection. The two benefits is low throttle modulation (slow crawl) and pure power.
Links: Links connect your axles to your skid plate. "high clearance" links are a cheap on amazon and ali express and good enough. If you see custom built links from a company that you are buying a frame from, those links will cost a firstborn... and they are worth every penny. They are typically hand bent allthread with plastic link ends, and covered by plastic or metal. If you are confused at the type of links I am talking about, go look up RC Steve. If you have a Dremel, I recommend buying M2 all thread, SCX 24 link ends, and cheap calipers online. Building links seems very daunting to anyone who hasnt done it. It is actually easy, just time consuming. Keep in mind you need to match your link length with your drive shafts, but drive shafts are cheap. To keep it simple, the best performing link geometry for the 133.5mm wheelbase is Deadbolt, but two very popular competition link geometries are C10 up front with Deadbolt rear links and Deadbolt front links with Gladiator rear links. This brings the wheelbase to about 145mm. Gladiator geometry is about 155mm.
Drive Shafts: Metal is nice. Plastic stock is better. Use the stock cheap drive shafts as your built in weak point. Everything else in the drive train is much pricer to fix.
Shocks: I apologize ahead of time, because this will be hard for alot of people to hear: longer shocks do not equate to better shocks. With the exception of my rear shocks on my Echo v2, all my socks are stock length because that length is excellent. You only need 2-2.5 tires of flex. More is great for your scale SEMA build, but they will often hinder performance. Oil filled shocks also fix alot of problems that the friction shocks cause, but stock shocks are amazingly good performers. The best shock on the market are the Proline Big Bore Scaler 39mm (and the 50mm in highly specific application) but they cost a kidney.
Axles: There is nothing wrong with your stock axles (as long as you modify them). The steering sucks and the half shafts inside are very weak. There are half shafts on amazon you can buy that look like a drive shaft ujoint where the hubs turn. Buy those, and cut around the axle housing cups at each end to increase turn radius. Yes cutting is scary, and if you dont pay attention you will ruin your housing. If you do it, you will be very happy you did. Stock steering is about 24 degrees, and with this mod you can almost double that. As far as aftermarket, there are 5 SCX 24 specific axles of note: LGRP Super 8, Meus Isokenetic, Mofo x15, Hardpark, and Injora +4. They each have major advantages and drawbacks but all are of similar quality with the exception of Injora. Meus and Mofo are g2g out of the box. Super 8 and Injora need better ujoint style half shafts and shaving, then they are good. You can find the improved half shafts on Exos website as well as Dlux Fab. I have no opinion of hardpark, though a guy in our group was integral in their final design. He likes them.
Overdrive: Stock the front axle drives the same speed as the rear axle. Tons of people make gears to speed up the front axle or slow down the rear, and they all seem to be similar in quality. there is a 15%, 24%, and 33% overdrive option, as well as a underdrive for the rear. Most people run 24%. It is a great goldilocks option. I run 33% in my high end class 3 that only sees crawling in comps.
Knuckles: Most of these knuckles are all the same, with exception of a few. Namely Hardpark LowBlows, Samix, and the three piece axial units. If you arent getting one of these three, just get the cheapest option that you like the looks of. There are a few brands out there that are "off brand" and heavier than most but quality is spotty. With the nicer brands I mentioned they all have options and option parts to increase and decrease weight.
Wheels: All personal preference when it comes to looks. The main performance difference is size and offset. Standard is 1.0, those bicycle tire looking ones are 1.8s and the in between that work for classes 2 and 3 in RCMCCA rules are 1.3. Most are an absolute pain in the ass to assemble, and the cheaper they are, the higher likelyhood of having 83 screws per wheel to install. Notably easy to assemble units are from LGRP and Prophet designs.
Tires: The best two tire brands out there are Jconcepts and RC4WD (not to be mistaken for RCAWD)... fight me. Both have superior compounds and great tread designs. Little Guy Racing Parts makes a good and affordable tire, but the hype is in the marketing. Injora makes good tire and many are great knock offs of other brands. With every brand, do your research on compound scales before buying. Keep in mind that the general consensus is moving to a +65mm tire, but often that larger tire lessens your ability to crawl for two reasons. It is from a company that doesnt have the best rubber compound and for every mm you increase tire size, you increase center of gravity by half that. The largest tire I run is only a 63 and the smallest tire is a 52.
Servo Tray: There are dozens of options out there, but excluding specialty parts like a battery on axle servo tray, there are 3 of note. Aluminum trays, brass trays, and adjustable trays. Brass servo mounts are good but I dont like how high the weight is. The best brands for a servo tray are NSDRC and Mofo. NSDRC trays are non adjustable but Mofo trays are. Injora also makes a clone of the mofo tray as does ramp crab. Both of these are on amazon.
Servos: the stock servo will fail (just like the stock motor) quickly. Aftermarket Servos can be broken up into 4 categories (plastic cheap, metal budget, metal quality, and NSDRC). Cross reference the voltage that your esc can run the servo at to ensure compatibility. If you are running a higher voltage than that servo is rated far, you will destroy it. Emax is the go to plastic brand. Set your endpoints on the servo arm throw and you will not burn them up quickly. Metal budget servos are a much better option than emax. Think RampCrab and Injora. They are a significant step up in power without breaking bank. Metal quality is represented by brands like Reefs, AGFRC and Mofo. They are virtually bulletproof and another significant power increase. NSDRC is in a class of its own because it is the most powerful and sturdy servo on the market.
Screws: The most complete set of replacement screws and small parts is offered by ramp crab in a neat little printed clamshell, but they are on the softer side. Use them only if you are using a quality hardened driver like, or do not overtighten them because they will strip. Injora makes good screws. The best are proline, but you will pay out your nose at a hobby shop for them.
Inserts: foams are fine and so are silicone, but the best are printed inserts. FlubRC makes one for any size you can imagine. Other companies make printed inserts like Prophet Designs. Printed TPU inserts such as these brands provide nice compression vertically and are extremely rigid lateral stability. This is what you want.
Steering links: All of these do the same stuff with exception of rollerbearing links. 3flow9rc was the pioneer here and still makes the best rollerbearing steering link on the market.
Rear link riser: adjustable risers allow you to customize the the antisquat properties of your rig while climbing. multiple companies make them on amazon as do the boutique parts producers. My favorite for cost vs value is ramp crab on amazon.
Tools: cheap amazon or ali express tools look cool but they are soft. Even most of the nicer brands in hobby stores that cost way more are soft. MIP tools cost about 15 dollars per driver but are built to an extreme exacting tolerance and are hardened to a point that they will not wear down. This ensures a tight fit when using them, so when you strip a screw you have no one to blame but yourself. Buy MIP or guarantee yourself you will ruin an occasional part due to stripped screw heads.
In conclusion, this is a hobby that will require your own research and ongoing money to some degree. If customization and tinkering is driving you crazy, research more. Do not be afraid to modify store bought parts, and dont be afraid to make your own as your skill improves. I hope this helps... K, thnx, bye, love you all!
submitted by j0520d to SCX24 [link] [comments]
For background. Im a performance guy with these things. I do not care if its pretty; I want to climb a wall. I compete roughly 18 times a year. The summer series has about 40 competitors per comp on average and the winter series is about 25 per. Everything I will talk about is a culmination of all that I have learned between my own driving and tinkering, watching and filming other competitors, and knowledge from some top parts producers and awesome content creators that are in my local RCMCCA chapter.
Let me also say that I have no brand affiliation. I have my own RC brand, and I am working to a release, but that will be a different post. I also have various levels of acceptance of brands, owners, and their ethics, but that will not be discussed here... That is not to say that there are not tiers of quality in this hobby. Stock is stock, boutique level brands that sell on their websites are the top, and amazon brands fall somewhere in the middle with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Chassis: This is the basis of your build. It affects virtually every other part and its effectiveness. That being said, short of tires, it is the single most important part on your build. It is also the most ignored part of a rig. I cannot stress enough, upgrading every part on your truck but this will look cool, but it will take away from performance improvement that each one of those fly parts are supposed to provide. Upgrading this should be so high on your list that you did it yesterday. There are some great frame sets out there, and you will not find them on Amazon.
Skid plate: This connects your frame, mototrans unit, and links. Alot of aftermarket frame rails come with them, or those companies have it as an option. Whatever skid you buy, just buy a flat skid. The traditional ones that drop low does provide a lower center of gravity, but it isnt worth hanging up on every obstacle you touch. If you arent sure what to buy, the OGRC flat skid is there as an affordable option that you will never complain about.
Transmission: Translates your motor power into go power, but also holds your motor to the whole truck. The stock unit is fine till you blow out a plastic gear or strip a screw hole. When this happens, get a metal unit. Most all of them are all the same, but a few companies make unique ones like hardpark and LGRP. These units are both great and proprietary, but pricy. There is also one with a built in overdrive (overdrive makes the front tires spin faster than the rear tires, effectively pulling you over an obstacle and mitigating the rigs attempts at flopping backwards). You want the metal gears. For the spur gear, you have to decide what pitch to run. More on that in the next section.
Spur gear pitch: there are two pitches. Mod .3 and Mod .5. Mod .3 is the same as stock, but .5 has less teeth and they are larger. Pay attention to buying motors because they come with one or the other. Neither is better, just a preference.
Brushed Motor: This is a can of worms. For brushed motors, they are a dime a dozen as long as you exclude 2 companies (injora and Mofo RC). The stock size is 030. The correct size is 050. If you are looking outside of the aforementioned companies, you probably will not tell a difference between motors. Injora makes some very hard to kill motors, though they do not have the quality nor power of mofo (they ARE cheaper if cost matters). The two injora motors are the red and purple, and people who have an opinion between the two will die on that hill. If power and quality is what you are after though, buy Mofo motors. They use a proprietary magnet set as well as winding. There is nothing like them. They are plug and play on stock electronics, but in most instances you need to swap the motor mount plate because the holes on the motors are inversed from stock. Where ever you buy motors you can find a plate.
Brushed ESC (electronic speed controllers): This listens to the reciever for input (in stock form the reciever is part of the ESC) and doles out tasks to the servos and motors. V1 is black with an axial logo. It can act as a reciever when you go brushless if you dont want to spend the extra 50 dollars for a proper reciever and controller. V2 (blue) and V3 (spectrum) cannot do this. It is widely accepted as versions progressed, quality decreased. A great replacement option is the Injora MB100. You will have to provide a new receiver and transmitter, but its worth it.
Brushless ESC: If you go to a brushless motor, you will need a new speed controller. The new ESC will also require a new reciever and transmitter. It is almost the cost of a new stock rig to go brushless, so if you arent willing to make that jump do not consider it. Quality brushed setups are amazingly underrated anyway. Furitek is the big name, and they are fine. Better out there is Dinky, Mofo and others.
Brushless Motor: Once again, brushless motor conversions are about the cost of a new stock rig because of the additional ESC, motor mount, reciever, and transmitter required. If you arent ready for that cost, please see the above 3 sections as there are some highly underrated brushed setups. The best motors out there are provided by Furitek, LGRP, and Mofo RC. If you are questioning which one to buy, do yourself a favor and buy a mount from the same brand you select for the motor. I say this because there are differences in mounting screw size, patterns, and pitch between all these brands, as well as intra brand based on motor selection. The two benefits is low throttle modulation (slow crawl) and pure power.
Links: Links connect your axles to your skid plate. "high clearance" links are a cheap on amazon and ali express and good enough. If you see custom built links from a company that you are buying a frame from, those links will cost a firstborn... and they are worth every penny. They are typically hand bent allthread with plastic link ends, and covered by plastic or metal. If you are confused at the type of links I am talking about, go look up RC Steve. If you have a Dremel, I recommend buying M2 all thread, SCX 24 link ends, and cheap calipers online. Building links seems very daunting to anyone who hasnt done it. It is actually easy, just time consuming. Keep in mind you need to match your link length with your drive shafts, but drive shafts are cheap. To keep it simple, the best performing link geometry for the 133.5mm wheelbase is Deadbolt, but two very popular competition link geometries are C10 up front with Deadbolt rear links and Deadbolt front links with Gladiator rear links. This brings the wheelbase to about 145mm. Gladiator geometry is about 155mm.
Drive Shafts: Metal is nice. Plastic stock is better. Use the stock cheap drive shafts as your built in weak point. Everything else in the drive train is much pricer to fix.
Shocks: I apologize ahead of time, because this will be hard for alot of people to hear: longer shocks do not equate to better shocks. With the exception of my rear shocks on my Echo v2, all my socks are stock length because that length is excellent. You only need 2-2.5 tires of flex. More is great for your scale SEMA build, but they will often hinder performance. Oil filled shocks also fix alot of problems that the friction shocks cause, but stock shocks are amazingly good performers. The best shock on the market are the Proline Big Bore Scaler 39mm (and the 50mm in highly specific application) but they cost a kidney.
Axles: There is nothing wrong with your stock axles (as long as you modify them). The steering sucks and the half shafts inside are very weak. There are half shafts on amazon you can buy that look like a drive shaft ujoint where the hubs turn. Buy those, and cut around the axle housing cups at each end to increase turn radius. Yes cutting is scary, and if you dont pay attention you will ruin your housing. If you do it, you will be very happy you did. Stock steering is about 24 degrees, and with this mod you can almost double that. As far as aftermarket, there are 5 SCX 24 specific axles of note: LGRP Super 8, Meus Isokenetic, Mofo x15, Hardpark, and Injora +4. They each have major advantages and drawbacks but all are of similar quality with the exception of Injora. Meus and Mofo are g2g out of the box. Super 8 and Injora need better ujoint style half shafts and shaving, then they are good. You can find the improved half shafts on Exos website as well as Dlux Fab. I have no opinion of hardpark, though a guy in our group was integral in their final design. He likes them.
Overdrive: Stock the front axle drives the same speed as the rear axle. Tons of people make gears to speed up the front axle or slow down the rear, and they all seem to be similar in quality. there is a 15%, 24%, and 33% overdrive option, as well as a underdrive for the rear. Most people run 24%. It is a great goldilocks option. I run 33% in my high end class 3 that only sees crawling in comps.
Knuckles: Most of these knuckles are all the same, with exception of a few. Namely Hardpark LowBlows, Samix, and the three piece axial units. If you arent getting one of these three, just get the cheapest option that you like the looks of. There are a few brands out there that are "off brand" and heavier than most but quality is spotty. With the nicer brands I mentioned they all have options and option parts to increase and decrease weight.
Wheels: All personal preference when it comes to looks. The main performance difference is size and offset. Standard is 1.0, those bicycle tire looking ones are 1.8s and the in between that work for classes 2 and 3 in RCMCCA rules are 1.3. Most are an absolute pain in the ass to assemble, and the cheaper they are, the higher likelyhood of having 83 screws per wheel to install. Notably easy to assemble units are from LGRP and Prophet designs.
Tires: The best two tire brands out there are Jconcepts and RC4WD (not to be mistaken for RCAWD)... fight me. Both have superior compounds and great tread designs. Little Guy Racing Parts makes a good and affordable tire, but the hype is in the marketing. Injora makes good tire and many are great knock offs of other brands. With every brand, do your research on compound scales before buying. Keep in mind that the general consensus is moving to a +65mm tire, but often that larger tire lessens your ability to crawl for two reasons. It is from a company that doesnt have the best rubber compound and for every mm you increase tire size, you increase center of gravity by half that. The largest tire I run is only a 63 and the smallest tire is a 52.
Servo Tray: There are dozens of options out there, but excluding specialty parts like a battery on axle servo tray, there are 3 of note. Aluminum trays, brass trays, and adjustable trays. Brass servo mounts are good but I dont like how high the weight is. The best brands for a servo tray are NSDRC and Mofo. NSDRC trays are non adjustable but Mofo trays are. Injora also makes a clone of the mofo tray as does ramp crab. Both of these are on amazon.
Servos: the stock servo will fail (just like the stock motor) quickly. Aftermarket Servos can be broken up into 4 categories (plastic cheap, metal budget, metal quality, and NSDRC). Cross reference the voltage that your esc can run the servo at to ensure compatibility. If you are running a higher voltage than that servo is rated far, you will destroy it. Emax is the go to plastic brand. Set your endpoints on the servo arm throw and you will not burn them up quickly. Metal budget servos are a much better option than emax. Think RampCrab and Injora. They are a significant step up in power without breaking bank. Metal quality is represented by brands like Reefs, AGFRC and Mofo. They are virtually bulletproof and another significant power increase. NSDRC is in a class of its own because it is the most powerful and sturdy servo on the market.
Screws: The most complete set of replacement screws and small parts is offered by ramp crab in a neat little printed clamshell, but they are on the softer side. Use them only if you are using a quality hardened driver like, or do not overtighten them because they will strip. Injora makes good screws. The best are proline, but you will pay out your nose at a hobby shop for them.
Inserts: foams are fine and so are silicone, but the best are printed inserts. FlubRC makes one for any size you can imagine. Other companies make printed inserts like Prophet Designs. Printed TPU inserts such as these brands provide nice compression vertically and are extremely rigid lateral stability. This is what you want.
Steering links: All of these do the same stuff with exception of rollerbearing links. 3flow9rc was the pioneer here and still makes the best rollerbearing steering link on the market.
Rear link riser: adjustable risers allow you to customize the the antisquat properties of your rig while climbing. multiple companies make them on amazon as do the boutique parts producers. My favorite for cost vs value is ramp crab on amazon.
Tools: cheap amazon or ali express tools look cool but they are soft. Even most of the nicer brands in hobby stores that cost way more are soft. MIP tools cost about 15 dollars per driver but are built to an extreme exacting tolerance and are hardened to a point that they will not wear down. This ensures a tight fit when using them, so when you strip a screw you have no one to blame but yourself. Buy MIP or guarantee yourself you will ruin an occasional part due to stripped screw heads.
In conclusion, this is a hobby that will require your own research and ongoing money to some degree. If customization and tinkering is driving you crazy, research more. Do not be afraid to modify store bought parts, and dont be afraid to make your own as your skill improves. I hope this helps... K, thnx, bye, love you all!
2024.05.17 01:23 Live_Ad_713 Where My Loyalty Lies?
Hi everybody. First, let me say that I'm (52f),My s/o(Jeff-52m)of 12 yrs. and my mom(75f) lead good lives, worked hard in our careers and we get along great.
I became disabled from working after a 28 year career placing me on a fixed income in 2017. In mid 2019, Jeff received a great job offer doing body work on semi-trucks. By the end of 2019, the motor in Jeff's truck went out so we were contemplating buying a new truck (take out a loan) or replacing his motor because the truck body was in excellent shape.
My mother, excited about Jeff's new opportunity, offered to use her 0% credit card for the $7,800 motor. We discussed us paying it back over time and she was on board to balance transfer as needed to continue the 0% offers.
When Covid first hit the US in early 2020, Jeff was a mandatory worker and then eventually in 2021 was laid off due to parts shortages. While Jeff was collecting unemployment in late 2021, we received a shock. He came down with a terminal cancer diagnosis giving him 5 years to live. Jeff has gone through his esophagus being removed and chemotherapy. The cancer receded for a short time, but reared it's ugly head again 2 months ago. Jeff was never able to work again after they took his esophagus.
He has approx. a year left with us. We have learned a lesson in losing everything. It's quite humbling and scary. I have worked hard to care for Jeff and maintain a roof over our heads. I am still making pymts. on mom's card, 100% on time pymts, but she is getting frustrated and is pushing me to sell the truck or beg another family member to pay it off. She brought it up to me 3 months ago and I offered to borrow against my life insurance policy but she refuses. I have every intention of selling the truck later and paying the loan off; I don't understand why she's pushing me so hard NOW when we're so vulnerable. My heart will not bring me to sell that truck while Jeff is still with us.
I have never asked my mother for financial help before. I have always paid my way with my mom even though she's a millionaire. I know it's not her responsibility to help us. I'm angry because I need her patience now more than ever. I am asking all of you...Do I sell my vehicle to pay the remainder of Jeff's truck loan, do I stand up to my Mom to give me more time, or do I sell his truck and pay her off for good? Thank you all, in advance.....
submitted by Live_Ad_713 to Advice [link] [comments]
I became disabled from working after a 28 year career placing me on a fixed income in 2017. In mid 2019, Jeff received a great job offer doing body work on semi-trucks. By the end of 2019, the motor in Jeff's truck went out so we were contemplating buying a new truck (take out a loan) or replacing his motor because the truck body was in excellent shape.
My mother, excited about Jeff's new opportunity, offered to use her 0% credit card for the $7,800 motor. We discussed us paying it back over time and she was on board to balance transfer as needed to continue the 0% offers.
When Covid first hit the US in early 2020, Jeff was a mandatory worker and then eventually in 2021 was laid off due to parts shortages. While Jeff was collecting unemployment in late 2021, we received a shock. He came down with a terminal cancer diagnosis giving him 5 years to live. Jeff has gone through his esophagus being removed and chemotherapy. The cancer receded for a short time, but reared it's ugly head again 2 months ago. Jeff was never able to work again after they took his esophagus.
He has approx. a year left with us. We have learned a lesson in losing everything. It's quite humbling and scary. I have worked hard to care for Jeff and maintain a roof over our heads. I am still making pymts. on mom's card, 100% on time pymts, but she is getting frustrated and is pushing me to sell the truck or beg another family member to pay it off. She brought it up to me 3 months ago and I offered to borrow against my life insurance policy but she refuses. I have every intention of selling the truck later and paying the loan off; I don't understand why she's pushing me so hard NOW when we're so vulnerable. My heart will not bring me to sell that truck while Jeff is still with us.
I have never asked my mother for financial help before. I have always paid my way with my mom even though she's a millionaire. I know it's not her responsibility to help us. I'm angry because I need her patience now more than ever. I am asking all of you...Do I sell my vehicle to pay the remainder of Jeff's truck loan, do I stand up to my Mom to give me more time, or do I sell his truck and pay her off for good? Thank you all, in advance.....
2024.05.16 23:56 Guba_the_skunk QoL update I would like to see, better in game filtering for ground items/effects.
Ok, so, let's assume I am following a guide for fast leveling, and that guide says to use domination scarabs with breach and beyond.
When I spawn into the map it will have spawned several breaches, sulphite deposits, eldritch altars, and shrines, plus strongboxes, barrels/pots/crates/chests etc. I start the breach and things start dying. Now I have clasped hands and loot also on screen. Whatever, I can toggle it all off with the Z key right? Except now I can't see the clasped hands, or eldritch altars, or tell what boxes I've interacted with already, or which sulphite veins are active... And so on.
I would like to see an update where we basically get a menu in game to pick and choose what gets hidden when we toggle the ootion to hide things on the ground. So we can optionally turn on and off annoying things at our own discretion. Then we can hide loot, while still being able to see clasped hands. Or hide annoying strongbox mod text boxes while we sift through the loot on the ground or while hunting for a corpse.
With so much content in maps at once it's incredibly easy to lose track of what is where, and it can be annoying to see loot while trying to also dodge a million attacks and projectiles or evade ground effects while also trying to figure out if you just stepped on a clasped hand, or accidentally triggered an abyss in the confusion.
Also, lesser request, let me toggle ground effects. I don't mean turn OFF the ground effects, just disable the animations so my PC doesn't sound like it's trying to launch itself into space when I'm in a delrium mirror, breach, and have beyond monsters all spawning at once. Seriously, 5 years ago my janky outdated PC had no issue running the game at max settings, but today my PC that is only a couple years old that can run ither high end games can BARELY keep up with whatever you guys are doing. I don't play thisngame for the graphical fidelity.
submitted by Guba_the_skunk to pathofexile [link] [comments]
When I spawn into the map it will have spawned several breaches, sulphite deposits, eldritch altars, and shrines, plus strongboxes, barrels/pots/crates/chests etc. I start the breach and things start dying. Now I have clasped hands and loot also on screen. Whatever, I can toggle it all off with the Z key right? Except now I can't see the clasped hands, or eldritch altars, or tell what boxes I've interacted with already, or which sulphite veins are active... And so on.
I would like to see an update where we basically get a menu in game to pick and choose what gets hidden when we toggle the ootion to hide things on the ground. So we can optionally turn on and off annoying things at our own discretion. Then we can hide loot, while still being able to see clasped hands. Or hide annoying strongbox mod text boxes while we sift through the loot on the ground or while hunting for a corpse.
With so much content in maps at once it's incredibly easy to lose track of what is where, and it can be annoying to see loot while trying to also dodge a million attacks and projectiles or evade ground effects while also trying to figure out if you just stepped on a clasped hand, or accidentally triggered an abyss in the confusion.
Also, lesser request, let me toggle ground effects. I don't mean turn OFF the ground effects, just disable the animations so my PC doesn't sound like it's trying to launch itself into space when I'm in a delrium mirror, breach, and have beyond monsters all spawning at once. Seriously, 5 years ago my janky outdated PC had no issue running the game at max settings, but today my PC that is only a couple years old that can run ither high end games can BARELY keep up with whatever you guys are doing. I don't play thisngame for the graphical fidelity.