REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 15 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse
Age of Steel: Recharge
Combat Wings: Battle of Britain
Battlesloths 2025: The Great Pizza Wars

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 15 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse
Age of Steel: Recharge
Combat Wings: Battle of Britain
Battlesloths 2025: The Great Pizza Wars

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

Note: Taken from Introducing my first OC
PS: Largely minor changes.
(Let me know if there is any inconsistency.)
Letter R in team REPR(Reaper): Rogert "Roth" Oberon
Sex: Male
Age: 25 during the Fall of Beacon, 26 or 27 during Atlas arc.
Birthday: 18th day of the 10th month
Height: 1,87 meters
Species: Faunus, Bear. Notable markers: Bear snout.
Family: Father and mother, lost a younger sister and brother in a Grimm attack.
Class: Tank. Speciality: Defense, taking and holding ground.
Colours: Cares little for the colour rule yet the colour of the symbol is brown and uses black armour. Varied colours in the rest of the attire intended for camouflage depending on the environment.
Semblance: =Redacted under orders of Headmaster of Beacon= Authorized personnel only as follows:
Animal morphing, Roth Oberon is able to turn into a big bear and is able to remain in full control after years of practice. However, to maintain control of his semblance he needs to change into a bear once every 2 weeks for at least 2 hours to avoid permanently damaging his body. Gained the semblance in his 3rd year as a Huntsman trainee during a hunting mission. Becomes stronger, aura takes more damage and is more animalistic in animal form.
=Classified information ends=
Profession: Huntsman in training at Beacon Academy, team leader. (Former)
Vale defence forces. (Former)
Guardsman of Beacon. (Current)
Appearance: Strong arms with strong legs, broad shoulders, gold brown bear eyes, and brown hair. Bear mouth/snout. Note: Functional muscles instead for show.
Weapons:
Graduate Huntsman in Atlas arc: Two gauntlets with automatic machine guns and a sword blade coming out of them, grappling hooks on both, a spear tip and spear adjusted for his height and physique that can be split into 2 pieces. Carries dust grenades with him with empty dust slots and different dust with him.
Student to graduate Huntsman in Mistral arc: Spear, machine gun gauntlet, sword gauntlet, one-shot reloadable rocket launcher with ammo and a spear tip from a broken spear.
Strengths:

Roth is very strong and durable allowing him to survive hits that would kill many others.
Adaptable to changing situations and has strong willpower, keen intelligence, and a sharp mind.
Versatile combat technique and knows how to use a variety of weapons or forms.
His ability as a leader and calm attitude has kept his team in tip-top shape and has made them self-reliant on themselves making the team effective alone, in pairs or as a group.
Bear´s sense of smell.
Classified ahead: Can gain bear´s abilities because of his semblance when turning fully into a bear or just partially.

Weaknesses:

Can be slower in a fight than most fighters even in his younger years.
Workaholic.
Roth´s darker impulses are closer to the surface when he is in charge.
Great anger towards Grimm makes him hunt them with abandon or lure them in relatively easily. (Weakness in academy years, in adult years unorthodox trapping and luring method against Grimm. Double-edged sword.)

Inspiration: What I want to be. A person who could beat Hazel Rainart and Brutes from Batman Arkham Knight. Gregor Eisenhorn of Warhammer 40k. Kratos of God of war in his Nordic life.
Skills:

Knows many melee weapon combat forms and has a lot of fist-fighting experience. After training and fighting in missions in a military unit for 3 years after graduation, he has learned to fight like a commando.
Edit: Knows how to train dogs.
Knows how to make new weapons from the ground up with primitive equipment and knows how to maintain them effectively and how to repair them.
Rogert knows how to survive in the wilderness for potentially years. Building shelter, use of camouflage, hunting for food and foraging, how to lose a hunter, navigating etc. His speciality is tracking a target or missing supplies.
Advanced stealth skills and ability to disappear enhanced by military education.
Knows how to make grenades and bombs and how to defuse them. (Trained in the military and by Parish Broc.)
Knows the basics of using military equipment and weapons after graduation and training in the military.
Interrogation skills enhanced by his physical presence and knows how to gain information by talking. (And knows how to extract information by inflicting pain and suffering. Trained with some success by Elena Nathara.)
Knows psychological warfare and guerrilla tactics. Specializes in Grimm.
Knows criminal psychology, how to establish a crime scene and how to gather evidence. (Trained by his father and Raina Odell.)
Knows how to administer first aid. (Basic and Huntsman academy training.)

Personality: Rogert is a loner who was given the job of a leader despite not wanting it. He became more comfortable in the role over the years yet deep down never truly believed he should be a leader.
While a humble person, Roth has no illusions of his strengths and how powerful he can be when in battle.
Roth values loyalty and honesty, things he has shown to his team by having no secrets from them and has encouraged his team to do the same with great effect. Because of his values in honesty, Rogert does not forgive attempts to lie to him and tries to limit his words to be as truthful as possible.
Roth has a ruthless attitude when it comes to leadership and dealing with enemies. As a leader, Roth expects nothing but competence and giving 100% in combination with a firm chain of command and on-the-spot obedience.
Roth is a strong believer in learning and improving skills. Because of this, Roth has learned from his teammates the skills he lacked before meeting them and has instructed them to do the same.
Desiring always to have the upper hand, he learned to keep his emotions in check at all times and focused on his studies in his free time and school time. Other people often consider him emotionless, yet no one is willing to say it in his earshot, and he doesn´t mind this thought about him.
Rogert has mastered his emotions, and he can make decisions that would make other people disgusted with themselves be it torture or cruel punishments without flinching as he got older. While his team reminds him about his better nature and while his actions have never been directed against an innocent, Rogert believes he can´t afford to hesitate to act when many lives are at stake.
His team, REPR, has helped him loosen up, and he discovered his liking for playing the saxophone and driving. His team has helped him to become a better man than he thinks he needs to be as the years went by.
Facts about the character:

Rogert prefers to be called Roth because the name is easier to pronounce, and he prefers a shorter name.
Rogert put the team to vote during graduation on whether they should stick together as a group. Ultimately, the team was split up, yet REPR occasionally would help each other on big operations. He voted No, yet never said why, even when asked.
Roth´s closest relationships are with his parents, Elena and Raina, and he thinks highly of Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck due to his teaching and wisdom.
Originally intended to be a counter for Elm, an Ace Operative during early development phase.

Extra skills:

Scholar: His lack of social interaction in his school years made Rogert focus more on his studies than on making friends. Due to this, he has gained a lot of knowledge and an interest in researching history and myths. Math skills and history were his best subjects, and he often likes to talk about both when asked.

NordicTrack starting off this relationship poorly already by delivering the treadmill before the mat arrives. I paid for the professional setup/installation and the Large Equipment Floor Mat, but I won't have the mat for a couple more days because they ship them separately. Is it realistic to be able to get the mat under this thing once it's fully setup, or do I need to cancel delivery of the treadmill until the mat has successfully arrived? Thanks for any advice!

https://minimalfreaks.co/2024/05/trance-raw-deep-hypnotic-top-100-may-2024/

Luke Alessi, Chloé Caillet – 12 Inch Acid (Original Mix) 06:34 132bpm 10B
Demi Riquísimo – Windows 95 Anthem (Chloé Caillet Remix) 06:54 135bpm 3B
Protoculture – States Of Flux (Extended Mix) 07:38 126bpm 8A
Sasha – Fleuron Drift (Theo Kottis Remix) 06:49 130bpm 7B
Estiva – Via Infinita (Marsh Extended Remix) 06:34 128bpm 11A
Pico Boulevard – Oblivion (Enlusion Remix) 10:18 128bpm 4A
Duderstadt – Muhanjala (Dylhen Extended Remix) 07:00 124bpm 5A
Ruben Karapetyan – Meteorite (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix) 06:29 124bpm 10B
Dj Rafis – X Ponential Life (Original Mix) 08:12 132bpm 11A
Nomas, Deestopia – Avantgarde (Extended Mix) 07:03 127bpm 8A
Breeder – Tyrantanic (Freedo Mosho & Maze 28 Remix) 07:50 122bpm 8B
Airwave – Alexanderplatz (Extended Mix) 07:57 132bpm 8B
Airod – Meet Me In The Club (Original Mix) 05:27 145bpm 6A
X-Coast – Marathon Man (Extended) 04:42 138bpm 9B
Airwave – The Principles of Forgiveness (Extended Mix) 07:36 128bpm 12A
Fuenka – Foundation (Basil O’Glue & Nomas Extended Remix) 07:58 126bpm 6A
Protoculture – Starfield (Extended Mix) 06:50 126bpm 9B
Solee – On the Other Side (Original Mix) 06:43 124bpm 4A
Aldonna – The Empress’ Acid Line (Alex Kassian Remix) 07:58 133bpm 5B
Der Dritte Raum – Trommelmaschine (2024 Remastered Version) 06:40 135bpm 10B
Spray (IE) – Ceathair (Original) 05:29 135bpm 1B
Airwave – Asteroids (Extended Mix) 06:31 128bpm 9B
Stu McNally – Innerversions (Extended Mix) 08:09 124bpm 5A
Pico Boulevard – Oblivion (Original Mix) 12:27 127bpm 7B
Maruwa – Need It (Original Mix) 05:02 135bpm 7B
Airwave – I’m Not Rank 1 (Extended Mix) 07:37 128bpm 2A
Baldo, Third Son – This Is Your Brain on Music (Original Mix) 05:06 132bpm 12B
Catz ‘n Dogz – Rave History (Maruwa Remix) 06:34 137bpm 6B
Clint – Exosphere (Dance Mix) 07:32 132bpm 6B
Clint – Exosphere (Main Mix) 09:05 135bpm 6A
Ormus – Nahual (Extended Mix) 07:13 125bpm 6B
Elfenberg – Cosmic Debris (Original Mix) 08:00 114bpm 11B
Airwave – The World vs Spotify (Extended Mix) 05:26 132bpm 9A
Regent – Aphid Riot (Original Mix) 05:50 144bpm 7A
Vladimir Dubyshkin – glucose guardian (Original Mix) 05:10 140bpm 7A
Indira Paganotto – Requiem (Extended Mix) 06:10 145bpm 6B
Spray (IE) – Ratenplan (Original Mix) 06:10 136bpm 7A
Alpha Tracks, KI/KI – To Nights (KI/KI Remix) 06:03 148bpm 7A
Suki, Sniper1 – Purple Haze (Original Mix) 07:17 136bpm 5B
Blanca Ross – Interfered AI (Original Mix) 06:13 135bpm 11B
Lena Storm – Affection (Original Mix) 06:55 128bpm 1B
Fuenka – Sirius (Anunnakis Extended Remix) 07:02 125bpm 9A
YU-1 – Black Sky (Extended Mix) 06:44 124bpm 2B
IZRAELL – Tornado of Soul (Fher Vizzuett Remix) 06:44 124bpm 12B
Elfenberg – Horses for Courses (Original Mix) 05:36 132bpm 7B
Spray (IE) – OT Rails (Original) 06:15 134bpm 3A
Sekta – Sequence Start (Extended Mix) 04:37 145bpm 9A
Abdul Raeva – Navigator 3000 (Original Mix) 06:48 130bpm 11B
Cosmic Gate – Mirador (Extended Mix) 07:24 126bpm 5A
Wilt, Jeff The Fool – Jericho (Original Mix) 04:45 133bpm 5B
Clint – Alpine Breaks (Alex Kassian Remix) 07:49 131bpm 2B
Viper (Trance) – Simulation (Original Mix) 06:30 70bpm 11B
Elfenberg – Without Further A Dude (Original Mix) 06:04 136bpm 10A
Wolk – Strong Enough (Extended Mix) 07:22 150bpm 6A
F-Act, Allan McLoud – Another Day (Original Mix) 06:51 127bpm 11A
Macker – Arrakis (Original Mix) 09:06 130bpm 5A
Baldo – Ride the Night (Alex Neri Remix) 06:43 130bpm 9B
Pico Boulevard – The Moon and Back (Extended Mix) 07:50 128bpm 4A
Pablo Gargano – The Breeze (Original Mix) 06:52 124bpm 8A
Christian Nielsen – Let Me Go (Luke Alessi Remix) 06:17 130bpm 7B
Neither Nor – Immaterial (Original Mix) 04:43 152bpm 7A
Sashtek – Hidden Pyramids (Extended Mix) 05:22 134bpm 7B
Santiago Luna – Combustion (Extended Mix) 05:20 128bpm 11B
Demi Riquísimo – The Force (Original Mix) 04:36 130bpm 5A
TODDZ – Move Your Body (Original Mix) 05:43 130bpm 8A
Introspecto – Fragments (Original Mix) 07:39 128bpm 5B
Anetha – Terraphoria (Original Mix) 05:35 147bpm 10A
Joel Bird – Existentialism (Extended Mix) 08:55 149bpm 4A
Peppe Amore – Cassa Dritta (Original Mix) 05:47 150bpm 5B
Alex Neri, Mennie – Rockets (Original Mix) 05:58 128bpm 8A
Basil O’Glue, Nomas, Calantha – Edgerunners (Extended Mix) 06:20 128bpm 4A
Daniel Lesden, Enlusion – Dark Entity (Hypnotic Mix) 07:57 130bpm 12A
Partiboi69 – Playin’ (Original Mix) 05:24 134bpm 6A
B FROM E – Amnesia (Original Mix) 06:15 132bpm 1B
Ovnimoon – Feel on Me (Original Mix) 10:33 133bpm 5B
Fuenka – Synnax (Extended Mix) 06:58 125bpm 8B
Pig&Dan – Fusion (Original Mix) 07:29 133bpm 6A
Bliss Inc – Higher, Vision (Original Mix) 07:30 67bpm 4B
KI/KI – To the vibe (rework) (Original Mix) 07:36 148bpm 3B
KI/KI – Leave it to the vibe (Original Mix) 06:58 145bpm 3B
Mac Declos – Trust Your Eyes (Original Mix) 05:34 152bpm 8B
Nordic Echoes – Ice Giant (Original Mix) 07:13 142bpm 7B
Intuition – Arcana 17 (Original Mix) 06:04 150bpm 5A
Ormus – Ometeotl (Original Mix) 07:00 125bpm 11B
Obie Fernandez, KNBI – Concentration (Extended Mix) 06:56 125bpm 6B
Demi Riquísimo – The Force (Spray Remix) 05:25 138bpm 12A
YU-1 – Transformer (Extended Mix) 07:17 124bpm 3A
Ayu, Alfred Czital – Body High (Original) 05:48 140bpm 8B
Olsvangèr – Bubble Toy (Original Mix) 06:30 136bpm 6A
Olsvangèr – Grand Slammin’ (Original Mix) 07:38 87bpm 7B
NairLess – Dazzling Fantasy (Jex Opolis Remix) (Jex Opolis Remix) 06:11 67bpm 12B
Freedom Fighters, Modus (ISR), Uncharted Territory – Odyssey (Original Mix) 05:01 140bpm 12B
Rosa Red – Rhapsody (Known Artist Remix) 05:11 132bpm 8B
Ben Prophet – Siberia (Extended Mix) 04:52 145bpm 12A
Basil O’Glue – Affinity Space (Original Mix) 06:25 126bpm 5B
UCast, Kamelon, CLAVIR – Escape (Extended Mix) 07:12 124bpm 8A
Baraka, Spray (IE) – Think of Me (Original) 06:28 140bpm 8B
Cosmic Gate – am2pm (Anunnakis Extended Remix) 06:19 124bpm 4B
Match Box – Midnight (Bliss Inc. Remix) 07:00 138bpm 11B
Chris Flannigan – First To Say Goodbye (Original Mix) 04:24 145bpm 12A

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

Hi! I just wanted to tell about my experience with Yunexpress. It was good honestly. I ordered on Sunday, got the tracking code on Monday and the product itself was dispatched to Yunexpress on Wednesday. And now a week later I'm writing this message with the keyboard. I ordered directly from the Keychron.com website (Q3 Knob ISO, pre-assembled, nordic).
It only took a week to arrive here in Finland and for me to be able to go collect it. I did not have to pay any import taxes or VAT.

Delivery Status:Delivered Destination:FI Origin:CN 21 2024-05-15 11:42:21 Handed over to the recipient----(My home town) 20 2024-05-15 11:15:52 First arrival notification sent----(My home town) 19 2024-05-15 11:15:52 Ready to be collected----(My home town) 18 2024-05-15 11:15:52 Received at parcel point----(My home town) 17 2024-05-15 10:31:34 Delivered to parcel point 16 2024-05-15 03:16:43 Loaded for delivery to parcel point----JYVÄSKYLÄ 15 2024-05-15 02:18:41 Waiting to be loaded for parcel point----JYVÄSKYLÄ 14 2024-05-15 02:18:41 Received at destination terminal----JYVÄSKYLÄ 13 2024-05-15 02:18:41 Consolidated----JYVÄSKYLÄ 12 2024-05-14 21:57:36 Loaded for main transport----Vantaa 11 2024-05-14 20:35:49 Received for carriage----Vantaa 10 2024-05-14 13:53:17 Consolidated----Vantaa 9 2024-05-14 08:52:31 Delivered to local carrier 8 2024-05-13 20:30:33 Clearance processing completed - Import----Helsinki, Helsinki, FI 7 2024-05-13 14:00:00 International flight has arrived----FI 6 2024-05-11 00:20:00 International flight has departed----CN 5 2024-05-10 12:57:59 Arrived at the origin international airport----CN 4 2024-05-09 10:58:01 Shipment is in transit to next facility----Mainland China, CN 3 2024-05-08 04:58:46 Departed from sort facility----Mainland China, CN 2 2024-05-08 03:24:45 Arrived at origin facility----Mainland China, CN 1 2024-05-06 09:33:32 Shipment information received

Yuntrack is pretty bad, but if you go to DevTools and see the request to their API, you can actually get pretty nice information, like the AWB number to get the exact flight info your parcel will be on. Mine flew first to Doha from China (Saturday) and from Doha to Helsinki (Monday).
Now that I have had the keyboard for about an hour I have to say it's really good and worth the roughly ~200 € I paid for it. Very quick delivery.

For starters, this should be applicable to anyone who has the misfortune of owning anything by NordicTrack that has the ifit app installed. Ultimately, these are all powered by slightly different variants of the same android control board. So similar even, that if you crack open any of them, the boards have the same shape, mount points and locations of all the primary components and connectors. They all have the same design flaw.
All that being said, I've fixed a bike and two treadmill boards so far by re-flowing them. The problem wasn't the screen. It wasn't an issue of the board not getting power, etc. The issue was cold solder joints.
One of them had to be reflowed twice, but...again, I've got a pretty good track record going, and am now convinced that these are just cheaply made "not even half as good as an Amazon Fire" tablets with cold solder joints. If you don't know what a cold solder joint is, it's simply areas on the board where the board was not heated enough during production, resulting in poor joints that crack and fail overtime. It would be kind of like if all the important nerves in your nervous system just started breaking. You'd stop working too. Fortunately, there's usually ways to fix this on circuit boards.
If you have a multi-meter, you can poke the 12v power header into the tablet to confirm that it's getting 11 to 13v power. If it is (and assuming it's also getting 2 amps then), you're probably looking at cold solder joints. If you don't have a multi-meter, but you're mechanically inclined, you can pick one up for under $10 USD. Takes about 10 minutes to learn how to use on on Youtube. If you want to test if it's a screen issue....well, short of visible, physical damage, screens *and* the touch overlays don't just die at the same time. So even if the screen was totally failed, the touch overlay should still let you poke around if you know exactly where to click to make *something* happen. (You could also hook the screen up to a laptop if you have a large format screen with a 30 pin connector, but that seems overkill when, overwhelmingly, it's likely cold solder joints on the PCB in the tablet)
Also, it's worth nothing that cold solder joints don't always result in being dead in the water right away. While I would try *everything* else from a software perspective first to fix instability issues, constant crashing and reboots, completely frozen screens, inability to fully boot, or error messages preventing boot can all be related to this, too. For my own treadmill, it started with freezing after a couple workouts, and quickly (over a day) progressed to a boot loop where it never would fully load. For kicks, I let it torture itself and when I came back the next day, it was completely dead.
Anyway, fixing this is pretty much the same as what everyone used to do to XBOX 360's that had the red ring of death...cook the PCB until the solider melts again, but also try not to cook it so far that the components on the board literally burn and become unusable again.
Also, it's worth noting that if you're lucky enough to still be under warranty, you should pursue that first. And don't discredit looking at what credit card you bought your machine with, if you're the original owner. Some credit cards double warranties, so that 2 year warranty on the tablet could very well be turned into a four year warranty by your credit card company. This is actually a surprisingly common, but not well known, benefit of major cards.
To get started, unplug the unit from the wall. The last thing you need is to end up electrocuting yourself or blowing something out on your machine because power was still being applied to it.
Ok, so onto the actual repair.....to do this, you'll need to unplug the four cables going into the back of the tablet. On some machines, like my 9.5s, you might have to take a back cover off the whole unit to actually reach the back of the tablet, and its connectors. Once that's taken care of, you'll need to take out the (likely) 3 screws on each side that hold the tablet mount into the upper assembly that the tablet itself is mounted in. From here, the tablet should be freely removable from the unit.
Now you need to undo the screws in the back of the tablet to separate it from the touchscreen front. Warning: There are delicate ribbon cables going from the screen in front, to the board in the tablet. Damage one of them, and you may as well just buy a new tablet for the few hundred bucks NordicTrack will shake you down for.
Once you've exposed the board, you should be able to pull out the wire connectors and flip the pressure fit levers on the ribbon cable connectors for the tablet to remove the camera and touchscreen ribbon cables. Note that the wifi antenna is also relatively delicate, and should be pulled as upward as possible. You also need to be careful when reinstalling it, or you can crush the connector, and then....either you're good at incredibly small soldering by hand, or again, you're buying a new tablet with half the power and build quality of the cheapest Amazon Fire at quadruple the price.
Next, remove the screws securing the board to the inside of the tablet, and you should be able to freely remove it with ease. Now comes the Really delicate part.

THE ACTUAL FIX ITSELF

Ideally, you would be doing this in a precision controlled re-flow oven with a profile that walks the board through exact temperature changes....but you can get 90% of the way there, and have pretty excellent chances of fixing your board, nontheless. You just need an oven and a thermometer you can read from inside the oven.
Before prepping the board to go in the oven, remove the large metal RF shield covering the back of the board. Not the one that's postage stamps sized, but the one that's about the much larger one, about the size of two human thumbs. You can discard this - it's an RF shield and honestly it does nothing but trap heat that really shouldn't be trapped, in my opinion.
Using the "toaster oven method" to reflow a PCB, you will want to make a few loose (not very compacted) foil balls. Set them on a plate in a way where you can press the board into them, connectors side facing up. You should have the board be as level as possible - re-flowing a board at an angle can make the chips fall out of alignment, and then you pretty much have a dead, now-un-repairable board.
Once the board is level, put a thermometer you can read on the plate with the board and pop it in the oven. Set the oven to bake at 230C (About 445F) and once the oven has actually reached this temperature, count off two minutes. That is how long you want to let the board bake before you remove it. You don't have to be exact with this, but don't leave it in for only a minute and don't forget about it and come back after it's been cooking for 5 or 10 minutes. Try to be within a few seconds of that 2 minute mark. And the temperature gauge on the plate is so you can know that it really is within a few degrees of 230F. The temp gauge on stoves often lies, and if the board is below 220 it won't really re-flow, and above 240 you run the risk of cooking it to death.
Anyway, the final, and arguably most delicate part, is removing the board. You want to be as gentle as possible. No bumps, no jerky motions, and setting it down with great care once it's out of the oven. Also, set it down *away* from the oven so that the board can cool off faster. Don't put it in the fridge or anything, but let it sit undisturbed for about 15 minutes before trying to do anything with it. After that amount of time, it should be cool enough to touch. Once all of this is done, screw the board back into the tablet shell, but ONLY put the screws in along the two sides that have connectors coming out of them. This means you should have three of the four corners screwed down, and one or two additional screws along those two sides. Leave the fourth corner undone since it gives the board some wiggle room without constant straining & flexing. (The best option would be making silicone bushings to mount the tablet board to, much like portable had drives have, but that's just me trying to get as much life out of my tablet & treadmill as I can).
Now, reattach all the connectors. My preferred order for ease is: Camera cable, microphone cable, touch screen cable, wifi antenna, display cable (the largest flat ribbon cable in there). Then close up the two halves of the tablet, pop a couple screws in the corners, and reattach the four external cables to the tablet. Don't bother screwing it all back in yet because we're just testing to make sure it works at this point. You should be able to lay the tablet down, plug the machine in, and have the tablet power up. It should respond to touch and work just like it used to. If it works again, congrats! Now unplug it once more and finish reinstalling the tablet, plastic pieces, and screws.
If it didn't work, there's no harm in trying to reflow the board again. In fact, if the issue happens again later on, you can just try reflowing the board once more. That said, there's only so many times you can re-melt the solder holding everything together before the board will just plain out be toast. Usually it's somewhere around 3 or 4 times, but you could be unlucky and have 0 or 1, or be incredibly lucky and get away with it a dozen times over many more years of life from your machine, if you even need to.
All that being said, if anyone needs help with this, just reply here. I'm not on Reddit often anymore, but I'll try to get back to you within a week, and I'm much more responsive once we've started on a conversation.
Again, to date, I've fixed three NordicTrack devices doing this, and many MANY other PCBs in similar fashion. What's alarming to me here is that the units I've fixed all have usage times of under 100 hours for the machines. Honestly, I'm amazed this hasn't come up yet and that NordicTrack hasn't been litigated into free replacements like Apple and Microsoft have from similar mass failures out of warranty due to poor build quality. (Xbox 360, iPhone battery & back glass issues, etc...) I'm even more amazed that they'll sell the tablet for most models, but *not* the PCB....though, I guess that just goes to show that whatever lowest-bidder factory cranked these out for them, NordicTrack as a company has never even seen component level parts like that - just finished tablets, so it's not even something they *can* offer their ~~hostages~~ customers.
OH! And final word of advice! Put your units on a smart outlet that turns off after whatever the max time you use your equipment would be! Not only will it prolong the equipment life, but it actually makes it easier to use! For example, instead of waiting for the treadmill to wake up, I just say "Alexa, turn on the treadmill" and by the time I'm at it, it's happily waiting for me to click my name and go. And then if I forget to turn it off, the smart plug is programmed to shut it down after 2 hours anyway, so it won't be sitting there idly chewing away at the new life ~~breathed~~ baked into it.
If you want to make sure the temp if your oven is hot enough, but not going to fry something, try taking an old remote that you know works but that you don't care about. Disassemble it, reflow it, and make sure it still works when you put it all back together again. Now do it again and see if, once it reached temp in the oven, you can scrape parts off the board with relative ease. This will destroy the remote, but it's a good way to get comfortable with baking boards.
Anyway, that's about all. I wish I'd though to record videos of this process, but I hope this guide is enough to get most people back in business. And if you've already been through swapping the whole tablet and have a dead one you'd like to donate to seeing if my theory continues to hold true, I'd be happy to pay shipping to get it from you, or have you pay shipping if you want me to just take a crack at fixing it and sending it back to you.
If you're already skilled in these areas, it should take about 20 minutes to do, excluding actual bake and cooling time. If you're totally new at this but you can follow instructions with care and precision, you can probably have it done in under 2 hours. And hey - short of burning or electrocuting yourself (again, unplug before working on the equipment!) ....if you already have a dead board, the only thing you really have to lose by trying this is some of your time. =)

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

I honestly like workouts where I get to choose, and have a choice in what I do. I usually plan them the day before according to what was sore the last session.
Basically, I choose 1-3 big compound lifts, and do 3-4 sets. Then, I build it from there by adding some isolation and stuff. Sometimes I plan the whole thing beforehand, sometimes I go with the flow and just do what my body feels good doing. For example, deadlifting felt weak as hell today, so I did lighter BB RDLs to hit the muscle in a different way that my body felt better doing.
Here's what ended up happening today for the workout, this one was relatively unplanned:
Workout (this includes actual notes from my workout journal) •Deadlift (135x8, 225x5, 315x3) 》Stopped after 315, although my 1rm should be 420, even 315 felt weak as hell today, so I stopped in the midst of the warmup. •BB RDL (135x10, 185x8, 185x8. Next time I plan to try 200 because this felt do-able) •BB Row (135x8, 155x5, 155x3)
Superset: •BB Press: 85lbsx9, 95lbsx4, 95lbsx3 (I'm weak on this lift because I don't often do it, I usually do more dips and pull-ups for my upper body) •Chinups: 8, 4, 2½, 3
Core: •2 sets of Attempted Planche Tucks. •Decline Crunches: 45lbsx20, (use heavier weight, like 65. 65x15, 65x15)
I didn't do any cardio.
Note: I do track my lifts and reps, and I also write down my workout logs. Took 1.5 minutes of rest.
The issue is, there needs to be more cardio. I guess going on a walk on the off days would be alright, or just everyday as I usually walk around to music, my cardio isn't horrendous. Though sometimes when I sleep badly and stuff I do feel winded. I think this is more due to fatigue than being cardiovascularly done.
I need to recover better tbh, I need to sleep.
Anyway, part of me wants to be able to run at least a mile and a half in like 12 minutes because I am considering seeing about the USAF (National Guard) after community College and I wanna make sure my running is locked in, I can already do the sit-ups and push-ups in the alloted time though I could stand to improve at those as well (wish I had someone to compete with for reps). I'd probably just start with a 10 minute light jog before the workout as a requirement, but I'm afraid that'd take away from my strength, but... well, they don't care about strength.
Also, I have trouble getting enough calories lately so I don't want to burn more with intense running and make it even more of a hassle for myself. It's ironic, I gained 15-20lbs in college, we'll call it the "accidental bulk" as I ate relatively healthfully but every 2 hours, lots of protein, but made mistakes when I gained the ability to drive (which seems to have actually kinda worked for adding some muscle to my frame) and then I cut it quickly. Now I'm eating maintenance. (I'm tracking my macros now to prevent anymore things like that, but I doubt it'll happen again at least for the time being because my appetite stabilized. Also, my maintenance is very high due to the physical activity I get so no need to worry about my health that much, probably.)
Anyway, I don't really know what my goals should be: •Just get stronger and try to nourish my body well, and be a fit young man. I mean, I could do this and totally just see what happens. Hell, maybe in like 10 years my physique will look amazing, or maybe I'll just look fit.) •Try to get shredded and get a six pack. (I kinda have one anyway but I have to flex my core muscles for it to be seen due to a tiny layer of fat over it, but I also kind of don't mind due to the previous goal. I could always do that in a few years when I'm more built up and less confused.) •Bulk and build more muscle. •Try to increase my endurance in calisthenics and running to see if I should actually be in the air force.
Man, I also have so many questions and confusion on goals and the first one just seems the most simple and attainable. Also, I'd be attempting to eat maintenance during that and adjusting it to my activity. (IE: I go back to Community College and move less, so I calculate my maintenance for less calories. That, or I could just keep eating the same and bulk on less activity while still training, I just have so many ideas!)
As you can see, my head is in like 20 different places and I have no idea what to do. Having someone to train me might not be a terrible idea because then I'd have some of this managed for me instead of trying to do it myself, but I don't know if I really need one.
I don't exactly know what to do. Someone recommended me to just keep training for strength and listening to my body because it seems to be the best. But part of me wants to look more asthetic, or something else.
I do actually enjoy at home bodyweight workouts but I use a weighted backpack, not just my pure bodyweight. I really have considered doing more bodyweight stuff for upper body training due to the simplicity of it. Like: weighted/unweighted pull-ups, banded push-ups, dips, chinups, archer pull-ups, core exercises, etc.
Maybe something super simplistic: Leg Day •BB Squats •Nordic Hamstring Curls •Core exercises (I know you're supposed to progressively overload these)
Optional: •Lunges or cossack squats for single leg work. (Cossacks would be good for hip mobility)
Upper Body •Dips and Pull-ups •Core exercises
I don't know, sorry about endlessly ranting. But, anyway, I do think the first goal is good because if I really try at it, I could probably transition to one of the other goals when I gain more of an idea of what I want to do. I'm too young to really know fully what I want, anyway. Also, what about the routine?
I feel like I actually have a lot of knowledge but need more direction, which... sounds like me.

I have a a tiny mini pc setup at my workbench and space is tight, so I'm looking into those mini keyboard with track pad, I must be a Nordic one, what are your suggestions?

A few days ago, I received a file from a journalist friend who teaches at a private university in Montevideo. I known this person for years now and the exchange with her on our countless bar nights basically made me want to try to study journalism. After I started my career we became even closer and we shared concerns about the evolution of information, social media and the infamous cerebral callosity we acquired to endure the tragedy.
My friend, let's call her Valeria, was part of a public competition to accompany a minor scientific expedition to the Uruguayan Antarctic base. Her thesis was about investigating how information reception behaves in remote and isolated areas.
I barely read it , but basically tries to show that information circulates and is received in a particular way in these circumstances by a group of unfamiliar people living under extreme climatic and isolation conditions, having as an example, life in submarines and in military bases in Siberia. The Antarctic base gave her the chance to observe some of her postulates up close.
Finally, she was chosen and traveled with this scientific group in a commercial flight Montevideo - Santiago de Chile to later arrive at Punta Arenas and fly to the Antarctic base.
The last communication I had with her before she sent me the almost 90 photographic captures of the Journal, was on March 15, 2024.
We talked over the phone about how the weather was in Montevideo, that it does not stop raining and the cars are practically floating on the streets. She told me that the transport that was going to take them back was having mechanical problems and they would probably have to order spare parts for the plane from Punta Arenas. Then She told me that it is freaking cold down there and his colleagues are all very boring. Nobody has whisky for the evenings. We laughed about that part because I told her to bring at least one bottle of Grappa in her purse.
Before saying goodbye, she told me they had spotted some old metal structures south of the base. The soldiers told her that it was safe to go near that part so she was going to explore them. It wasn't there when they first arrived and that the recent and atypical heat wave probably must have exposed it. I told her to be careful and we said goodbyes.
Three days later I received an email. “Valeria shared a file with you.” As I start to see what it was about she calls me.
“Mauro? MAURO!, can you hear me?” She said in a nervous and excited voice.
“I can barely hear you, what happened?”I asked half asleep, while still lying on my bed.
“Listen to me carefully, don't talk, just listen” I could tell by her agitation that she was walking fast or maybe running. The creaking footsteps in the snow could be heard in the background. in the distance, a catastrophe-type siren was blaring.
“Are you alright? What happened? What's that noise?” I said, now sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I sent you a file. Transfer it to a flash drive, delete history and reset your cell phone, the computer and your email address. I'll explain everything later, it'll be worth it.”
“What? What are you talking about Vale?, what for? Tell me what's going on - I started to yell at her, in slide panic.
“Listen, I found something that is not supposed to exist. In the diary he explains everything. I'm going back to the base, I think someone is following me, I set off an alarm or something. Save that file for me until I get there and remember that... “
There were two loud booms and the sound of water invading the transmission. A choked bubbling and cracking sound reminded me of ice collapsing. My friend had fallen into the water, in Antarctica.
“HEY, are you OK?! What happened?!” - I kept screaming hysterically until the call was cut off.
I looked at my cell phone for a second. My hands were shaking, I tried calling several times but the phone went dead. I looked at the compressed file. I jumped up and ran to the dining room furniture, frantically looking for a white flash drive that had to be in a drawer somewhere. I couldn't find it, so I went back to my desk. I pulled the drawer so hard that it came off the rail and fell to the floor. I started to dig through my belongings on the floor, coins, papers, cards, nothing.
I thought, I struggled to remember where I had fucking put it. Finally I saw my backpack peeking out from behind the desk chair, I jumped on it and in the second small pocket from the inside, there was a cheap white 16G flash drive. I put it in the pc, downloaded the file directly there, took it out and fabric restored the entire system on the computer. I do the same with my cell phone as Valeria said.
At the time I didn't even question if those measures really prevented me from being tracked, and the idea that that was the reason made panic run through my body like lightning. Sitting on the floor of my room next to the mess, my body was numb with tension. After a few seconds, I rebooted my cell phone to try to call Lucia, her sister.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, it's that you? I think something bad happened to Vale, I hear her over the phone as if she fell into the water, and some rumbling. I don't know what I heard, I think she got into some trouble or some place she shouldn't have been - I realized that I was mumble and not saying anything clear. For some reason, I didn't mention the file.
“It can't be Mauro, I just spoke to her on the phone. She was at the airport in Santiago de Chile at the boarding lounge, we talked for about half an hour, she told me she was bringing a fancy bourbon to share and…”
I stopped listening, it didn't make sense, how could it be? what the fuck is going on!
“Mauro, are you ok? Is something wrong? it's too early, are you sure you didn't dream it?”
“Did you talk to her? half an hour ago? But...,” I exclaimed without being able to hide my confusion.
“Are you... sure it was her?”
“Yes, of course you moron, it's my sister! Did you smoke pot again on an empty stomach?”
“No, you're right, nevermind, thanks Lucia, talk to you soon.” I ended the call without letting her say goodbye.
Had I dreamt about it? I erased everything now, how will I know if I dreamt it? I hesitated absurdly.
This is surreal, I thought to myself as I looked at the flash drive in my hand. I refocused my attention and went to the attic looking for my brother's old laptop he left me before going to live in Spain. It was practically useless, but it was enough to see the file. I turned it on, waited for the decrepit Windows XP to load, and put the flashdisk in, opened the compressed folder and found two files.
“LabNotes.pdf”
“PersonalDiary.pdf”
I decided to open the journal first. From what I interpreted from the loading order of the screenshots, after reading it, I opened the image of the last page.
I transcribe as is.
Day 243 of the 2nd mission 10: 40 am. March 12, 2019.
I am the head researcher of the Psychological Area at the UN Antarctic base; I'm currently assigned to Project Sisyphus categorized as the highest classified rank.
This is going to sound crazy, but the person living with my family is my clone.
It still surprises me when I say it out loud, but after being able to replicate the brain-muscular history (a perfect copy of our memory) of any person and having mastered replicating every cell of our bodies at any age, it was only a matter of time before the development of social biotechnology would emerge. Now and by worldwide agreement, as a complete secret.
There is absolutely no shame or a shred of ethics in what we do, there is no longer any constraint on what we can do to the subjects for the sake of research. That haunts me every day.
It all went to shit so fast, I doubt anyone will come to our rescue. The protocol says so, the base in the face of an imminent security risk will erase itself. The structure was designed to collapse methodically following a protocol of incineration and sinking. The immediate perimeter has underwater mines that make the ice collapse almost imperceptibly, but deadly to anyone who tries to leave.
No one can escape from the base, neither the research staff nor the subjects. Our place in the world is already taken.
I only hope that this journal along with my lab notes will be found at some point. I managed to construct a small insulating gasket for it so I trust it will survive in case this part of the building collapses as well.
Please use this data to let the world know what happened here and don't let perversity define us once again.
To my family: I love you and miss you every minute.
B.
At the exact moment I ended the reading I received a video call that made me jump with fright, it is...
Valeria.
With my pulse shaking, I answered the call.
“Hi you! The flight was delayed, can you believe it? This one is absolutely in my top three, worst trips of my life. I'm really hungry and everything is so expensive here. What are you up to? Tell me something, please, I'm soooo bored!”
I looked at her with confusion and I couldn't manage to pronounce words. When I was about to modulate an answer she interrupted me.
“What's the matter Mauro?, are you on pause? Is the signal OK? HELLO! Can you hear me? Can you see me?” She started to walk through the boarding lounge looking for better signal
“Yes yes, Valeria I can hear you.”
She laughed and looked at me with a face between sensual and serious, and continued.
“Do you miss me?” while raising the phone jokingly as she typically does in her selfie pose.
“Valeria, don't you remember calling me earlier today?”
“I? called you? Nop. Why? Ah! By the way, did you know there are penguins in Tierra del Fuego? I would have liked to go and see them.” She continued his verbose conversation in a carefree tone, with her typical hand gestures and playing with his hair.
“Well, at last!” She interrupted herself and shouted, jumping up from her chair.
“We are being called to board, see you in a couple hours!” She said goodbye with a smiling sonority, and began to walk towards the boarding gate.
But at the last second, before ending the call, her gesture changed. She looked directly at the camera with a hardened and emotionless face and almost mechanically, she whispered.
“(I'm going to retrieve that diary).”
My stomach dropped to the floor and I could feel as if my blood was running cold with fear. I could not shake the awful and eerie feeling that this person, who was returning, whom I had never in my life called by her full name, was not my friend.
So, the next couple of hours I put everything in to transcribe the rest of important passages of the diary. Something was compelling me to do it, i can't explain it, Some mix between moral duty, and morbid curiosity. Here is my selection of it.
Lab notes. day 96 of 1st mission 08:00 am December 22, 2016.
Subject JON X012:
First physical assessments: Normal, alert and inquisitive, exhibits some alteration to screens.
We place 100 cc of sedative in room air. The subject attentively follows the narrative of scenario B5 “The last mission”.
The subject responds positively to the premises of the story, where he is asked to address an audience threatened by a natural disaster, convincing them to choose a certain path out of the city.
He offers to collaborate but fails to articulate the message with the power to overcome the simulation.
We resort to pouring 125cc of concentrated Psilocybin into the air as stipulated in the protocol sheet.
The vocal frequency and body language reading receptors in the observation room are activated. The subject manages to formulate a series of premises articulately and with discursive power, circulating around the observation room.
Successful reaction.
We move on to the next stage.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project.”
Diary entry: Day 96 of the 1st mission 21:30 pm. December 22, 2016.
Today they transferred subject JON X0012 for psychological evaluation, several in the lab were very anxious about this arrival. I was never the religious type, but I can understand why. Truth be told,
I always imagined Jesus would be taller.
*********
Day 106 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 02, 2017
Today we received a new lab assistant for the night shift. Much needed as I was covering these shifts myself and am really burned out. The underground operates at full power at those hours, the hum of the machinery becomes unbearable. This must be why the rooms have an insulating structure.
********
Day 112 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm January 08, 2017.
The new integration is not very bright. He labeled the transcripts wrong again yesterday and doesn't seem to fully understand the importance of these. I'm going to have to go through the whole method with him again. I don't have much patience lately, it's not his fault, he seems like a nice guy and it's real that I need a second of confidence. Better train him from now on. Maybe start a sketch of a short explanatory document.
*******
Small introductory guide.
When the subjects conclude the incubation and breeding process (pages 19 to 52 of the manual), that is to say, that they have at least remembered speech and with it, depending on the time in which they lived, reading and writing, they generally begin to perceive themselves. Just before situational curiosity is when the psychology department comes into action. Either to run the “stand by” simulation or the main tests.
In each subject's file is the target of their cloning, the era in which they lived, and the recommended scenarios to trigger the desired response. If the file has X amount on the cover, this corresponds to the generation of the subject, whether it is the first or 10th time it is incubated.
Generally, it takes between 2 and 5 attempts to generate the correct simulation, and administer the appropriate drugs.
It took 5 attempts to come up with the correct amount of methamphetamine that subject AH X005 (Hitler) needed to function in the scenario, as the correct amount bordered on overdose.
Simulations are much easier since the implementation of multisensor AI. We managed to generate almost any scenario including temperature, smells, lights and sounds. We tried not to use familiar ones, as human smells are impossible to replicate. We found this out in a complicated way. We tried to recreate a conversation between RR subject X003 (Reagan) and his mother, but he recognized the fakery by the absence of body odor. His mind collapsed and we had to move him to the Underground. The people in Area C (Private Clients) almost lost a very large Chinese account.
After calibrating the subject, we ran both psychological and behavioral tests, scanned retinas, analyzed blood, as well as vocal and body language. But what has really yielded surprising results are the free interviews. It is amazing what some minds are capable of with the right environmental and chemical stimulation. That's why transcription is vital (!!)
Our area develops BC (Behavioral Algorithms) which are then bought by the private sector, and some government agencies.
To give you some examples: Twitter was an idea of subject JO X008 (Orwell).
Bots in social media and the use of big data was an idea of JG X002 (Goebbels) and KM X014`s worst nightmare (Marx) was bought by Amazon.
It is an arduous process and the success rate is low, but when we achieve the goal per subject, well, these results are a mein part of the latest revolutions of mankind.
So follow the lab rules, never refer to subjects by their actual historical name, and always remember, they are assets, not people.
***********
Day 117 of the 1st mission 16:30 am January 12, 2017.
Today is a rest day all over area D. I miss many things from the old world that I thought I would never miss, taking a bus, standing in line with strangers, and today I miss Sundays. We only have one on the month. So as usual we gather in the rest area to listen to a liberated jukebox that tries to lighten the mood. I know, right? Why I wrote about this “Saturday” photocopy, well besides the same nostalgic drunks, I was approached by a person I didn't recognize.
From what I understood he was a rehabilitated alcoholic, maybe that's why I didn't see him on “Saturdays”. He must be in his 50's, he was portly and wore thick black-rimmed glasses, he seemed to have a slight limp, I noticed it when he went to refill my beer.
I am a very reserved person and find it hard to talk to people. Truth be told, I've lost the desire to talk to people here. What can you actualy fucking talk about here, if it's not about the same thing. Everything revolves around work and some inter-area gossip, which never escalates much.
But yesterday was Clara's birthday and to hide the remorse and sadness of only having shared with her the first 3 years of her life, I had a few too many beers.
We chatted about banal aspects of life in isolation, and the things we miss. For him it was going to the stadium to watch soccer with his grandchildren. I think it was loneliness and nostalgia that brought us together that night.
His name was Sigfried, I don't know if I spelled it right, but it was clearly Nordic, i notice because of some of the words he mixed up with English. He works as the underground level security manager. We all know that it is one of the most restricted areas and what we have learned in these almost 10 years in the project, is that the more restricted, the less questions you should ask.
But that day, I think I felt the urge to hurt myself, to go off the rails, so I asked what we all suspected but no one knew for sure. I asked about the blenders. I wish I hadn't.
************
Day 126 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 21, 2017.
I almost can't express how furious I am today, but I'm going to try because if I don't, I'm going to punch the new assistant in the face. He has nothing to do with this, he's just mildly irritating.
Anyway, in Genetic Mapping or area A, they approved the incubation of another Anomaly. It seems to be an express request from a major shareholder and there is not much to say. Anomalies are very risky to reproduce, nature is wise, and for some reason it placed them in history moments where they had their limitations.
It seems that after the crisis of 2010 with “The Russian Devil” it is no longer scary enough. New school morons... If they had been there they wouldn't even dare to think about it. I AM FURIOUS.
The arguments are that this case lived longer, that the clone would be in his 70s, and that he possessed noticeably more “civilized” traits. As if the court of the last Zar had not been somewhat civilized.
Personally I think this is a big mistake. Since the discovery that some people possess unknown DNA components and with the 2010 background, they should draw the line. There are certain things, still beyond our ability to understand. But it is delusional of me to think that there are limits, someday the absence of them will consume us all.
************
Lab notes day 142 of 1st mission 08:00 am February 06, 2017.
Final free interview with JON subject X012
Scenario B-24 or “The Dinner Party” Result: Normal.
Notes: Subject is grateful, positive, docile and hopeful for the future. Offers to cook next time by asking for spices and ingredients of typical Hindu dishes.
The subject is directed to the Underground area.
Attached audio for transcription.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project”.
**********
Day 142 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 06, 2017.
Today was the last session with subject JON X012, I managed to extract the last retinal and body language readings, as usual before sending them to Underground level. We ran the dinner scenario, the truth is that is one of the best simulations we have achieved. The subjects are relaxed resulting in the best free interview environment. This one was no exception, I must say I understand the charm of the “messiah” turned out to be quite an entertaining subject. I hope his next generation will be similar.
**********
Day 152 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm February 16, 2017.
I was tasked with the continuous monitoring of subject NT X004. I am not at all happy with this transfer. First of all, I know nothing about area B of engineering and technology. Secondly, I still think this is a really bad idea.
One of the laboratories has been set up with the essential simulation equipment and personnel. Tomorrow we start with the calibration.
**********
Lab notes day 153 of the 1st mission 08:00 am February 17, 2017.
First interview with subject NT X004, we run simulation scenario 54-A, “Signal from another planet.”
Subject is observed to be receptive at first but quickly changes to paranoid. We administer 300cc of MDMA via air, according to protocol.
We introduce the reconstructed figure of a colleague in a cry for help speech.
The Subject laughs and doesn't believe a word, we move to a physical approach plane,
I volunteer myself with a room operator from the engineering area, we show him unfinished plans of an experimental vacuum propulsion engine.
He laughs again and tells us that we are not who we say we are.
We administer 50cc of DMT and move on to the next scenario.
From the screen an astronaut with non-human features sends a distress signal and intergalactic coordinates.
The subject looks thoughtful, reassesses, picks up the blueprints and begins to shout out values and what appears to be mathematical and physical formulas.
Air is charged with percentages of absolute sedation.
Audio recording is attached.
It is filed under the name “Project SpaceX.”
**********
Day 153 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 17, 2017.
I'm not sure what happened today, this is the first time in 10 years that a subject overcame the deception of 3 simulations. We had to place absolute sedation in the air, as risky as we know it is. I recommended that we restart the process from scratch, but it was a resounding no, the client is in a hurry.
I need to get more involved in this case to recalibrate the subject. I don't know if I want to. The words before full sedation still resonate with me. “are you still using DC current? interesting...”
**********
Day 154 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 18, 2017.
Something happened, I don't quite know what. The rooms have an emergency lockdown active. Outside hear security personnel mobilizing. I tried the intercom but it didn't work. The insulation prevents my screams from being heard from the outside. If this goes on another day I'm going to break the lock. I'm going to set my backpack to the bare minimum.
**********
Day 157 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 21, 2017.
Yesterday I heard explosions in the B area. I couldn't take it anymore and broke the lock. Whatever it was I had to go out and see. The corridors were dark, and the underground buzzer went on, at least that worked.
I went right to the north staircase, down the 4 floors in near darkness, the power was failing. The entrance to the underground area was barricaded but I managed to see a figure peeking out from inside as they felt me making noises.
It was Sigfried, he pointed me in the doors direction and I entered through a heavily armored side door. I was surprised by the immensity of this section, it encompassed a large hall below almost all the sectors of the base. In front of us there were 4 large industrial pipes with switches and multiple smaller pipes coming out of their bases. These were repeated like mosaics throughout the area until they disappeared into the distance in the darkness.
Leaning against one of them were 3 officers in formerly white coats and a nearly dead guard bloodied on the floor. Poor guy, his legs were crushed with his flesh in the open. He was lying in a pool of his own blood.
He had a blank stare and was panting, it seemed from the pale of his skin, that his fate was imminent. My asthma began to pound in my chest sharply, so I reached into my bag looking for my inhaler. I told them between visible gasps of bad breath to please tell me what's happened.
One of the doctors had a badge from area B and another from area E which corresponds to bio-armamentistics. The latter burst into tears and said “We deserve it, every one of us, we deserve it”.
I knew the other guy, he is an engineer in area B. I could hear him babbling almost nonsensically about, as why they never thought about it, an issue with electrical power.
He looked at me carefully as if recognizing me and grabbed me tightly by my jacket pulling me close to his face transformed for the panic.
“He let them out, all of them!” but not only that, no no no no... he told them the truth. Nikola fucking Tesla hacked us and told them the truth.”
He began to laugh frantically with a face of absurdity until he burst into a choked cry. At that moment everything went dark. The emergency lights activated, and from far away and getting closer, along with the emergency sirens that began to sound, we heard a large mass of people screaming and running through the corridors outside.
Sigfried looked at me as they started to pound on the shielded door and said.
“We're fucked.”
**************
Day xx of the second mission, month xx of 2017
“()The industrial sounds of spinning blades, the cries for mercy followed by the thunderous, liquid crack, down that big pipe, into the green barrels, with the Monsanto logo, dripped down one side an elongated drop of pink paste ending in the letter E on the chemical label. FERTILIZER.”
**********
After finishing the transcription, my whole body began to want to flee, the walls of my house were tinged with a faint blue light as the cloudy dusk came through the window, the lights turned off by my abstraction at the computer gave way to the dark corridors that began to feel alien. As I gently closed the pc my ears began to ring as if under pressure, my breathing became more present and the vibration of my cell phone interrupted my trance.
A call from the office. It was to tell me that I had a vacation week pending, that by schedule, I had to take it starting today.
Sons of bitches, now they even choose your time off - I thought at first, but at the same time I found the voice on the phone very strange, and to tell the truth, the procedure itself.
The anger turned into confusion that only added to the paranoia. The sounds in the street began to seem erratic, a chaotic and strangely familiar feeling came over me. My senses seemed increasingly acute, and they screamed:
Go away.
I grabbed the old laptop, the flash drive and headed for the bus station. The short trip from my house seemed like a long journey. People on the street looked at me with strange faces, the cell phone kept ringing with unknown numbers on the screen and a strange idea began to formulate in my head that whispered “Them, Valeria is one of Them”.
Already on the platforms I rummaged through my backpack where I confirmed that I had the key to the family beach house in San Luis, 60 km to the east of Montevideo. I turned off my cell phone, got on a bus heading to another and much far away town called Treinta y Tres. Sat near the last seat and slipped my cell phone in my front pocket of the seat in front of me, got off and commented to the driver with a clueless face, “I got confused, I'm going to the coast”.
I almost jumped onto the steps of the correct bus to where I was heading, unable to avoid the gazes of the passengers questioning me for the last minute drop in. I sat in my numbered seat and defragmented in dissociation, trying to understand what I was doing, I was running away, but from what?
The images of the last transcriptions were engraved in my mind, the last paragraph was repeated over and over again making me shake my head from time to time trying to get them away from my thoughts. The road was dark and I lost track of time, the digital clock within sight of the passengers jingling since we left, reading 10:40.
“San Luis Station!” - I heard the guard's shout in low volume.
I staggered to my feet, hurried to get off and with the same impulse I entered the dirt roads.
I zig-zagged through the dark, cold and silent beach town. The moonless night and the smell of the sea calmed me.
When I turned the corner to the gabled beach house of my family, on the steps of the front door lit by a white light, was her. Sitting, waiting for me. I stopped dead in my tracks and a chilling vertigo ran down my torso to my throat. We looked at each other for a short two seconds, until she stopped and started walking in sliding steps towards me, smiling and playing with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her arms. The growing sound of the wind through the trees covered us.
“Darling, how are you? How nice is the summer house, I don't think we ever came here, did we? Is it the one your grandmother left you?”
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream, how could such a familiar attitude from such a familiar person transmit such panic to me? I had to answer something.
“Yes, this is it. I came to clear my head for a while, they gave me a few days at work and I wanted to take advantage of it.” I tried to excuse myself with failed dissimulation, since I stuttered in the middle of the words.
“Yes, I know! We arranged it with them, so you can be more relaxed and as a gesture for taking care of the file. Ah! and another thing. I think someone stole your cell phone at the bus station.” She looked at me with a smart-ass smile.
“Anyway, don't worry, they already found it on a bus on the way to “Treinta y tres”. You can get it back later.”
At this point I opened my mouth to ask for explanations, but as terrified as I was I only mumbled a “thank you”.
All this dialogue let us half a body length away, Valeria looked at me now a little more serious and stood at my side. She took my arm petrified and I could feel how a strong smell of neutral soap invaded me, as if she had rubbed herself in it too much.
“Shall we go inside? it's getting cold,” She said, finishing the sentence with a sweet gesture of pleading.
“Emm, shure.” I said.
My trembling hands managed to hit the lock on the 3rd attempt, we entered, turned on the lights and from his backpack she took out a red wine. Our favorite.
“Bring me some glasses, Mauro”. - She said to me as she sat down on the armchair against the window overlooking the gentle hills outside.
She poured wine until he almost filled the ex-cottage cheese glass, looked at me and in a toast gesture said.
“To... Dr. B?”
I slid a little smile and raised my eyebrows. Then I took half a glass in one sip.
“Well!” - She exclaimed, leaning over and resting the glass on the coffee table, and continued.
"You must be very confused, I understand, I saw it many times, the mind trying to adapt to a new, unsuspected reality and in your case all at once. It is not easy. First, make sure that no one is going to hurt you or anyone you know, second, what you read in that file, as you may have noticed, is not intended for public knowledge. Also to tell you”. I couldn't take the stress anymore, I exploded.
“You're not Vale. Who are you?! You're almost identical, but....”
“Ah yes, that one it's a tricky one to explain. Let's try, let's see:
“I'm a version of Valeria that she accidentally gendered when entered the lab. In one of the incubation rooms she touched a scan button that photographs her mind for 48 hours. It contains a micro needle that took her blood and thus generated me.”
“The thing is that we were in a situation of self-destruction of the systems, and that part of the programming code of the protocol was also copied in Valeria's mind.”
“And Valeria? She 's... dead?”
“Well, yes and no. If she tried to leave the base she's probably dead. if she's still there, she's probably frozen to death or killed by the cleanup command, but basically, if I'm here, she's not anymore.”
the coldness with which she answered me made me lose the little calm I had, I got up from the armchair and started to back away with my hands on my head, I couldn't stop repeating,
“this can't be happening, this can't be happening”.
“Hey! Mauro, calm down, it's going to be alright. I'm Valeria too. In every way, I'm still your friend, I know who you are and everything we went through, really, it's me, and when I finish managing the leak, the code, it won't work anymore, it will be erased from my mind and I'll be me. So don't worry. You only have to give me the flash disc and this issue ends here. We go back to normal life and nobody will know about anything.
“I'm not going to pretend that my friend didn't die! Alone, fucking freezing to death, I'm not going to let you take her place, I'm not going to let you!” - She interrupted me.
“Mauro, listen to me” - She came closer to me and grabbed my hands, her big, lined eyes looking at me with sweetness, like so many times before.
“I AM Valeria, I have the same fingerprints, the same blood, the same DNA, the same memories, the same scars, absolutely everything. Are you going to tell my mother that I died? to my sister? Are you going to report me? Nobody is going to believe you at all. If anyone even wants to believe you, how would you prove it? I am an exact copy”. - she told me, smiling with real sweetness and empathy.
I could only cry, for my friend, for the helplessness of the conclusion that she was right. I collapsed on the couch, and watched as the hills swayed in the night.
“Let's have the last glass and I'm leaving.”- she said to me.
“After I give you this, and that part of you disappears, will you remember that you are not... really Valeria?
“No, there is already a simulation on pause about Valeria's last week, she won't remember anything about this situation when she wakes up, because the memory is simply overwritten.”
“So I'm going to be the only one to know about this?”
“Take it as a gift Mauro, a glimpse behind the veil. And if you keep it that way, everything will be fine” - The threatening tone was soft but evident.
“Okay, hand me your PC and the flash drive.”
I looked at her evaluating all possible actions and if this decision was the right one, she stretched out her hand and smiled sympathetically. I gave her the old computer and the black 16G flash drive with the file. She inserted it, typed mechanically fast until the screen went black.
“Perfect, That would be all - She took out the flash drive, threw it on the floor and stepped on it violently with the heel of her shoe, put on his backpack and headed for the door.
“Stop,” I said.
“The things that Dr. B wrote... about the underground…
“Yes, they are true, it was the only way to be self-sustainable and to be able to isolate the complex from the rest of the world. Even the most morally flexible scientists would question the work if they knew where the subjects ended up, and what we were doing with their bodies... Anyway, I'm going home, Lucia called me 5 times already. Talk to you tomorrow.
“Love you,.” - She smiled at me and closed the door behind her. I felt a car slowly drive away from the house.
From my pocket I took out the white flash drive and looked at it. Now I had a decision to make.

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

You know that unsettling feeling you sometimes get when you're home alone? That sudden shiver that races up your spine, making your skin crawl even when you know you're the only one there? It's the kind of feeling that makes you hesitate to cross that dark hallway in your house, your mind playing tricks on you, warning of unseen dangers lurking in the shadows of the place you call home.

I never knew my parents. My grandmother was the only constant presence in my life, a tough woman hardened by years of hard work and the harsh climate of Krasnoyarsk. She, like many women of her time, toiled in one of the area's numerous metallurgical factories. Though she wasn't always around, she cared for me as best she could, even if her love often came with a stern demeanor. With two mouths to feed, she often had to leave me in the care of our neighbors for long stretches of time, often returning only to sleep at home.
Our neighborhood was composed mostly of factory workers and their families, who lived in small huts that offered little relief from the cold. Our own house was no exception. Tucked away on the edge of the community, it was a modest shack of barely 50 square meters. Inside, the walls were painted a weathered yellow, while the floor was covered with wooden planks. Curiously, the exterior was camouflaged by logs, attempting to conceal the concrete beneath. The house wasn't that much by itself, but the patches of trees that surrounded the house left a clear area where the house sat, making it feel like it didn't belong to the city.
My grandmother had a peculiar taste in decorating. The outside of our house was adorned with a variety of ornaments and bird sculptures, painted in bright colors. When she decided on a particular decoration, she refused to change it, no matter what. Inside, the walls were adorned with framed photos of unfamiliar faces, intercalated with portraits of unfamiliar people. My grandmother had a habit of collecting these photos and scattering them around the house in a seemingly random fashion. She also had a habit of rearranging furniture every few weeks, which left me perplexed and curious as to her motivations.
Whenever I asked her about her frequent rearrangements, her expression would turn somber, silencing any further questions. It was an unspoken rule in our household: certain questions were best left unanswered.
Sometimes my grandmother had no choice but to leave me home alone, mainly because Anna, the neighbor who usually took care of me, couldn't, either for medical or personal reasons. On those days, she would come home from work earlier than usual and seem more exhausted than ever. However, there was a subtle sense of relief in her eyes when I was there, as if she feared something was going to happen to me during those brief hours of solitude. But the worst days were those when my grandmother was not able to get home before sunset; those days were the ones I dreaded the most.
During the day, the small forest surrounding our house was my playground, sometimes even losing track of time until the sun began to set. But when it got dark, the trees would transform into menacing shadows that would cast themselves over the house.
Sometimes, when I closed the curtains, an unsettling feeling would come over me: I felt I was being watched by invisible eyes. On rare occasions, I would summon the courage to peek outside and see two piercing white orbs fixed to the house. Hastily, I would close the window and crawl into bed, burying myself under the covers and shivering with fear. Struggeling to stay awake, terrified at the thought of the murmurs returning, pearcing through the walls while the presence lurked on the other side of my window, in the distance.
Most nights, exhaustion would get the better of me, and I would fall asleep. Whenever I woke up, usually in the morning, the sound of wood scraping against the floor would signal that my grandmother was moving the furniture around.
Shuted in my room until she was done, listening to the eerie symphony of the wood slowly and leisurely creeping against each other while I waited for her approval to leave the room.
During those days when I was confined to my room until my grandmother finished rearranging the furniture, she always seemed to be in a hurry, almost frantic, to get us out of the house. She would quickly hand me over to our neighbor, Anna, and leave me in her care until the next day, appearing extremely tired.
Normal days were spent playing with two of the neighbor kids, Pavel and Varina.
Pavel was one of the few kids I played with when I was little. He never let the stories that were told about our house and my grandmother be a problem for us to become friends. We met playing one day like any other day on the back of the river that crosses the back of our neighborhood. We started a competition to see who was able to roll a stone over the water the most times. We spent hours running up and down, looking at all the possible stones to find the perfect ones that would lead us to victory against each other. I lost the competition that day, but I got the best friendship I could have wished for.
We met Varinka two years later. Her parents moved to our neighborhood from another nearby city because they got an offer in one of the factories. The one that started talking to her was Pavel, being the sociable child that he was. Both of them became close friends almost immediately. Soon after, I followed Pavel's steps and befriended her.
On the days that I spent with Anna, the three of us used to go on our own little adventures that were restricted to meal and snack times, and you must believe that we squeezed out as much time as possible. Our usual routine used to be to build hideouts, climb trees, and play hide and seek in the small forest that wrapped my house.
Pavel, Varinka, and I had multiple spots with small hideouts that barely resisted a day or two because of the poor choice of materials that we built them with, but still, there were two that held the most: the tree house and the cave.
The Tree House was the closest one to my house; it consisted of a dead tree that was hollow inside. It was quite small, and the only things that we kept inside the tree house were some rocks that we used as chairs and a big piece of wood that we used as a table. The area that surrounded the tree house was quite dense with poor sunlight because of the multiple trees that grew there. Because of the many days we spent there playing, a path was created because of our footsteps, making a small path to the west part of my house. While the tree house was a five-minute walk through the forest, the cave was further inside the forest. As the name foreshadowed, the cave was a hole besides a small hill. The cave wasn't much bigger than the tree, but the fact that it was a cave made our minds think that it was for some reason cooler than the tree house. There was the place that we used to hang out the most whenever we got the chance to go to the forest. The cave was decorated inside as much as a child could. We took some chairs that Pavel found in the dumpster while Varinka brought some flowers from her garden, and meanwhile, I brought a small bird feeder that my grandmother recently changed for a newer one.
Those were the happiest memories that I could remember—those times when we could play freely without anything that could worry us—but sadly, those days weren't meant to last forever.
One day that Anna left me to go to the forest. As usual, Pavel, Varinka, and I met at the river as always, walking while following the water flow towards the forest. We chatted about some nonsens that Pavel used to bring out, laughing, and we walked in the forest, following the small path that we used to go in and out of the forest from the side of the river.
As we moved deeper into the forest, an uneasy feeling came over us, overshadowing our carefree chatter. The familiar sights and sounds of the forest seemed different that day, as if the trees themselves were whispering warnings we couldn't decipher.
Pavel, Varinka, and I followed the beaten path, our footsteps echoing in the silent forest. But as we approached the clearing where our hideout awaited us, an eerie silence descended, suffocating the once vibrant atmosphere. The air grew heavy with anticipation. An unspoken tension hung over us like a shroud.
Arriving at the Tree House, we found it shrouded in darkness and its hollow trunk in eerie silence. The rocks that had served as our seats lay scattered on the forest floor, as if they had been abandoned. Even the dense treetops seemed to retain their usual warmth, casting long shadows that stretched out like accusing fingers.
With a nervous glance between us, we continued on, our steps faltering as we approached the cave. But as we drew closer, we realized that the entrance was blocked by fallen debris, as if it had been sealed shut by some unseen force.
A chill ran down my spine as I exchanged glances with Pavel and Varinka. What had once been our sanctuary now looked as if an earthquake would have knocked down the entrance.
As the first tendrils of fear coiled in our hearts, a distant sound echoed—a sound that sent a shiver down my spine.
It was a faint whimper, barely louder than the sound of leaves against the wind, but loud enough to startle us all.
Varinka, frightened, stood motionless, with a desperate look that stopped at nothing in particular, trying to see where such a chilling sound could come from. When I saw Pavel, he was standing before Varinka, holding a stone that he must have picked up from the pile he was standing on whileI was looking at the entrance to the cave, and then... Something started to flow through the rocks
It was a strange liquid that had a carmesi tone that seemed to glow in the shadows—a liquid that appeared to have no visible limits and seemed to come out of nowhere.
I didn't notice how much time I spent looking at the red liquid flowing through the rocks when I noticed something; whatever thing was wimpering, it wasn't outside with us. It was inside the cave.
I didn't know what to do. Varinka was already running back to her house while Pavel was frozen in the same position as he was, looking at the entrance of the cave, but his face didn't seem scared or shocked anymore; instead, his face seemed like he was hypnotized. He took a step towards the cave.
When I realized what I was going to do, I rushed at him, gripping him by the shoulder and shaking him, trying to shake him out of his trance. After a few seconds, Pavel looked around in confusion as the faint whimpers continued to sound behind the rubble, increasingly agonizing but whimpering with the same intensity.
When Pavel finally looked at me, the first thing he said was, “Where is Varinka?”, “She's gone already,” I replied frantically, trying to get him to start moving. Hearing me,he dropped the stone, which splashed some of the strange crimson liquid on our shoes, and ran towards the forest path, While I followed closely behind him, the whimper of the thing could still be heard behind us.
After not much time, we arrived at the river where Varinka was sobbing, catching her breath, i turned to see how Pavel was doing, i saw him with an absorbed look, watching closely the trees, almost as if something was talking to him.
That night was one of the worst that I have experienced. When my grandmother came home that night, she noticed that something was wrong at the moment that she saw me.
"What happened?" she asked with an expression that I had never seen before in her face; it seemed to be a mix of seriousness and worry.
I told her about how we had found our hideouts destroyed, the whimper, and the strange substance. Without wating any longer, she almost jumped and started to search frantically in some drawers, taking out some kind of cross that I had never seen before. It seemed similar to the catoloc corss, but in the lower part it was split in half, making it seem like two wooden legs. On all of the surface, different carvings were made; some of them seemed Russian, some of them were Nordic, some of them were Latin, and a bunch of them I can't even recognize today.
She left the cross in the middle of the house and then rushed towards the kitchen, grabbing all the meat that we had on the house and throwing it out. I looked at her with a mix of perplexity and worry, as I didn't understand what she was doing.
She took me to the bathroom and started to bathe me, scrubbing my whole body almost as if she were trying to clean out a stain from a new piece of cloth. When she was done, I noticed that my skin was red because of the rubbing.
When she was done with me, she took the same ritual with the rest of the house, opening every window, the door, and the cabinets and scrubbing them. I didn't understand what was going on; the house was almost completely dark; only the light from the lamps that we had and the full moon could be seen in the sky; the air was cold; and I was still wet from the bath.
She finished with the house and started to do the same to herself, scrubbing her skin until it became red. The sound of her breathing and the scrubbing was the only thing that could be heard; the forest was in absolute silence.
She finished, and looked at me.
"Now, let's pray," she said with a calm voice, almost too calm, as if her previous panic was never there.
We kneeled beside the strange cross and began to pray; the windows and door were still open at this point. Something could be heard outside.
As the first words started to come out of our mouths, the whimper appeared softly, as if trying to not make us notice his presence. Word after word, it grew persistent.
The moon, covered by a thin layer of clouds, enveloped our home with eerie shadows. Our prayers grew in intensity, trying to match the whimper as if we were trying to cover it with our own voice. Then, suddenly, nothing. I didn't feel cold or warmth; I didn't feel my hand brushing against my grandmother's hand; the numbness in my knees from kneeling; the cold of the night against my skin; just the whimpering, weak, almost pleasant and sweet, like a mother's call or like the sun against your skin on a spring evening. I wanted to answer him, to go to him, to let myself go.
A pull.
When I came to my senses, I was on the porch. As I looked around frantically, I saw my grandmother pulling me, with a terror I could never have imagined to have seen on her face. Then I looked to where her gaze was fixed. Slowly, as I gazed through those bird ornamentations that I had become so used to seeing, I looked towards the trees. Orbs—dozens, no, hundreds of them looking at us.
I rushed inside in an instant catching my grandmother by surprise, stuttering she kept praying, leaving the door still open, once again, we knelt, over the next few hours it tried to pull me back to him countless times, I was about to give in again on a couple of occasions but the horror on my grandmother's face anchored me to the ground in front of the cross, at one point in time the night began to fade, leaving behind its shadows and with it those observant orbs, waiting for a mistake to jump towards us, changing it’s place with a tenuous golden light, which with its arrival marked the end of the nightmare of that night, with the whimpering becoming weaker and weaker my eyes closed with exhaustion, letting me drift off into a peaceful sleep.
Knocks woke me up a few hours later; it seemed frantic. I was in bed in my pajamas, disoriented by the events of the previous night. I stood up suddenly, my heart pounding against my chest at the sudden knocking on the front door. I got up to see who was banging on the front door.
“Yakov!” Someone screamed on the other side of the door with an anguished voice. “Yakov, please open the door.”
I ran towards the door, opening it as I recognized the voice on the other side; it was the voice of Anna.
“What-what happened, Anna?” In a scared tone, I was able to ask her.
It was an unusual situation; Anna didn’t like to get to close to my house, so seeing her here on the porch was something that I didn’t expect at all.
“Pavel…” She was able to tell, under a sigh, “Pavel is lost.”
My world started to shatter as Anna was able to say those words. She continued talking, asking me questions frantically, but my mind wasn’t there.
“Do you know where he is? Did he by any chance go to your house the last night?” Ana said.
"Whimpers,” I thought out loud. Anna tried to speak, “Wha-.”
Before she could even finish what she was saying, I started to run, barefoot. I ran faster than I even imagined that I could; the adrenalin pumping in my veins kept the pain away from my feet. I ran. I really ran. As fast as I could, I really tried.
When I arrived at the cave, it was too late; the carmesi substance was only touching the stones, almost as if avoiding the ground. Once I looked up, I saw an entrance; for some reason, a hole could be seen in the middle of the debris.
“Pavel!” I cried out, my voice trembling with fear and desperation, but there was no response. I tried to move the fallen debris that was blocking the entrance with trembling hands, but it was too heavy and firmly wedged in place.
Tears began to fall as I realized the horrifying truth: Pavel was trapped inside the cave, cut off from the outside world by a rubble wall. Panic gripped my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs as I struggled to make sense of the situation.
My mind raced with a thousand thoughts and fears, each one more terrifying than the last. What if Pavel was hurt? What if he was alone and scared? What if... he wasn’t alone?
With trembling limbs, I tried to force my way into the cave, clawing at the rocks with desperate urgency. But no matter how hard I tried, the debris refused to budge, despite my desperate efforts.
Time seemed to stretch into eternity as I stood there, helpless and alone, with the sound of my own heartbeat echoing in my ears. The forest around me was silent, as if it were waiting for the unthinkable.
And then, from deep within the cave, I heard it: a faint whimper, barely audible above my own heartbeat. It was Pavel's voice, weak and muffled, but unmistakably him.
“Pavel, oh god, i-i’m here!” I called out to him, my voice breaking with terror, but there was no answer.
I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach that Pavel was out of reach, trapped in a prison of stone and darkness with whatever called him to enter the cave. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I collapsed on the ground, overcome by grief and despair. The weight of the situation pressed down on me like a physical force, crushing me under its unbearable weight. In that moment, I felt completely alone, like a small, insignificant speck in the vastness of the universe. And as I gazed up at the sky, my vision blurred with tears. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone would ever find Pavel or if anyone would ever know what had happened to him.
But deep down, I knew the truth: Pavel was lost, swallowed up by the darkness of the cave, trapped with the thing that whimpered, and there was nothing I could do to save him. And as I sat there, alone in the forest, I saw the last stones being pulled by the strange carmesi liquid, loking them in their final place, and with them silencing Pavel to the outside world.

Hey guys! I’m basically only using 2 activities so far: rowing and some biking. Interior rowing. So I guess I have some questions:

is there any app or something in IQ specifically for indoor rowers ? I’d like to know distance, 500m split times, 2K times. I mean, it’s still an estimate but probably if I enter the resistance level and the machine type this app can calculate it? Dunno, just guessing.

I’m trying to improve my performance and I want to read stats properly. I’m impressed by the accuracy of the SPM measurements on the watch, but I can’t of course see distance. I’m using a Nordic Track 700 and I know that if I pay iFIT I can possibly connect it with Garmin connect, but I don’t really need that app for other stuff.
Other than that, if you happen to row yourself and have some advice on how to give a better use to my instinct 2, any comment will be appreciated! Thanks !

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

REP
Steam profile
IGSRep +118 trades confirmed
SGS Flair +237 trades confirmed
GameTradeREP +24 trades confirmed

Payment through Paypal (USD) using Good & Services option. Not accepting other type of payment (bitcoin, Venmo, etc). If you want to pay using F&F option fees are on your own (I'm from EU).

Press Ctrl + F to search games in the list

Want List

Huntdown
We Were Here Forever
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE

SPECIAL PACK This 12 games for 1$

Western Press Mk Cans II Character DLC
Western Press
Kholat
140
MirrorMoon EP
Contraption Maker
Air Guardians
Gentlemen!
Gravity Badgers
Ignite
Tank Operations - European Campaign
McGuffin Curse

5$ * Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + a ton of DLC * DLC list here

10$
Game deslisted from Steam

Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition + DLC Europe + France + UK + Asia + India + Nordic + USA 1910 + Switzerland

0.80$ each one
OFFER Buy 5 games of the this list for 3$
OFFER Buy 10 games of the this list for 4$

1.75$
OFFER Buy 3 games of this second list for 4$

Bowflex nordic track

This subreddit is NOT affiliated with NordicTrack.

THE ACTUAL FIX ITSELF