All weekend

41st Long Beach Pride Festival & ParadeParade is Free on Sunday at 10am on E Ocean between Lindero Ave and Alamitos Ave. Theme: The Rhythm of the Rainbow. Festival is separate event on the waterfront with $20+ Tickets and festival map on link, Sat & Sun. 11am-10pm. 386 E Shoreline Dr, Long Beach. https://longbeach.gov/pages/city-news/pride-parade/ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/41st-annual-long-beach-pride-festival-tickets-816143115027
Crawfish Festival May 17-19, admission is $5 Fri 5-11pm, $15 Sat 2pm-11pm, $15 Sun Noon-8pm, food costs extra. AD military are free. Live bands, dance floor,food, rides, photo ops, New Orleans vibes. $2 off coupon on link for Sat & Sun. Free parking. Fountain Valley Sports Park in Fountain Valley. Frau enjoyed it last year. https://www.crawfishfestival.com/
Brea Bonanza Days Country FestFree, Fri at 5:30pm, Sat & Sun Noon. Live country bands, Dolly Impersonator, Dance lessons, etc. Downtown Brea, 210 W Birch St. https://www.breadowntown.com/category/events/bonanza-days/
OC Greek Fest free?? Fri 5-10pm, Sat noon-10pm, Sun Noon to 9pm. music, dancing, culture, and kids zone. 405 N Dale St, Anaheim. https://ocgreekfest.com/
Russell Peters Comedy at Brea Improv Various times and prices. Vettix has free tickets for military/vets. https://improv.com/brea/comic/russell+peters/
Pick your own sunflowers at Tanaka Farms $10, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm. Goat Show Sat at 9am also. https://www.tanakafarms.com/hana-field
Flower Fields in Carlsbad 12 acres of Ranunculus and the sunflower fields are in bloom through Sun. Must buy tickets online. $15 adult/$4/kids, parking included. 9am-4:30 pm entry time slots and you can stay til 6pm. There is also an orchid greenhouse and kids can pan for gold, snacks and drinks for purchase. (Yes, I do occasionally list stuff to do outside of OC.) https://theflowerfields.seetickets.com/event/the-flower-fields-timed-entry/the-flower-fields/3015099
Buddha's Birthday Celebration free, Sat & Sun, 10am-4pm. Family-friendly activities like boardgames and guided meditation, live music, and Tea Ceremonies. Bowers Museum, Santa Ana. https://www.bowers.org/index.php/programs/events-calendaevent/3752-2024-buddha-birthday
Best Places to see Wildflowers https://enjoyorangecounty.com/best-places-see-wildflowers/
Anaheim Garden Walk Fun in the Sun free, pet-friendly, Fri 5-9pm, Sat & Sun 2-9pm. Vendors, kids crafts, selfie photo booth. https://anaheimgardenwalk.com/event/Fun-in-the-sun-market/2145582434/
Free Kiddie Train Rides Sat &Sun, 10am-3:30pm. (3rd weekend every month is free) Goathill Junction Railroad at Fairview Park, 2480 Placentia Avenue,Costa Mesa. It's on the East side of Placentia Ave between Adams Ave & Victoria St. Look carefully for the entrance, as you will be entering via a gravel road that is difficult to spot. https://ocmetrains.org/
Live Music on the Green free,Fri& Sat 6-9pm, Sun 12-3pm. Bella Terra Mall on The Green (new lawn area in front of Century Theaters) Parking: Park in the structure next to Costco. Huntington Beach. https://www.bellaterra-hb.com/events
Live Music on Forest free, Fri-Sundays, various times, downtown Laguna Beach in the Forest pedestrian area. https://www.lagunabeachcity.net/government/departments/cultural-arts/performances/promenade-on-forest-stage#ad-image-0

Friday May 17

Dungeons & Dragons Game play free, Fri, 3:30-5:30pm, El Salvador Community Center, 1825 W Civic Center Dr, Santa Ana.
Silent Disco at Segerstrom $15, 7pm. Might be sold out now?? https://www.scfta.org/events/2024/silent-disco
Sunset Serenades Free, Fri, 6:30-8pm. Louisiana Jazz with Steve Wade is Tonight. Free Concerts every Friday in May at Heisler Park Amphitheater, up the stairs from Main beach in Laguna Beach by Whale Sculpture. Restrooms nearby. Jazz, pop, and Rock bands. Bring your own alcohol beverage is allowed only if you have food also. Picnicking is popular. https://www.lagunabeachcity.net/government/departments/cultural-arts/performances/sunset-serenades#ad-image-1

Saturday May 18

Santa Ana Public Works Festival free, Sat 11am-3pm at the Walnut Water Pump Station located at 723 W. Walnut Street. Highlights of the event include free tacos to the first 500 guests, prizes, tours of the state-of-the-art water pump station, a water pipe connection competition, music, and performances. Free parking at Flower St and Pine. https://www.santa-ana.org/event/free-family-public-works-community-event/
Kids Touch a Truck free, 9am-noon. (First hour is quiet for sensitive people.) Backhoe, trash trucks, loaders, etc. available for kids to touch and learn about these. Shave ice and burgers for purchase. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bvpSIvosw/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Stand Up 2 Cancer Neon DJ Night Run $40 if you buy online Friday) otherwise it's $60. Sat. gates open at 5:30pm but there are pre-race fun things and racers go in waves starting at 8pm. OC Fairgrounds. https://nightnationrun.com/orange-county/
Group Hike at Turtle Rockfree, Sat, 3pm. Easy to Moderate hikes, 4-7 miles. No RSVP required. Explore all around French Hill and take the Shady Canyon trail or hike on over to Bommer Canyon. Bring water, light hiking boots. Meet Turtle Rock Community Park. Use the parking lot off Turtle Rock Drive. The leaders will be in the parking lot off of Turtle Rock Drive, not the tennis courts.https://facebook.com/events/s/o-hike-turtle-rock-trails-irvi/1074749723650433/
80's Theme Mission Viejo Night Market free, Sat,5-9pm. Music, food, beer garden. (3rd weekend every month.) It's in a parking lot and Frau didn't like it. https://www.mondaynightmarket.com/
Santa Ana Zoo Residents Free Day10am-5pm, (free on the 3rd Sun of month, w Dr Lic or utility bill proof). https://www.santaanazoo.org/visinfoa.htm
Planetarium Shows $10, Sat, various shows and times, Orange Coast College Planetarium. https://orangecoastcollege.edu/community/planetarium/calendar-tickets.html
Meet some Birds of Prey free, Sat, 11am-1pm. (Every Saturday) Different Birds of Prey are at the Ranch every Saturday morning to teach guests! Harvest Restaurant Patio. Free Valet. 31106 S. Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 https://www.ocbpc.org/?fbclid=IwAR0y6RIkheL-_581ErGSATdhWW7BbMEafoa8rrAQHfQS0py42isDj7hgahQ
Christina Vo, author chat free, Sat 2-3:30pm, Monthly author chat for book lovers. Newhope Library, 122 N New hope St, Santa Ana. https://www.santa-ana.org/event/author-hour-christina-vo/

Sunday May 19

Great Donut Run 5k run/walk or 1 miler or kids dash Various costs and times. Online registration is closed but you can register at Packet Pick up at Road Runner Sports in Laguna Hills on Saturday, May 18th from noon-4pm or Come really early on Sunday to register on race day. Costume contest, also. https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Irvine/GreatDonutRun?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2zjlD7aj5oiExWMq5ya_ONL8b5eTVF3q5KdkjXASBMfyQ6MnfPTMMZzk0_aem_ARerFxuFTtms79Q6xz9beFGo8Iz4qmIX_xfkvGEmUpXRn0PsTtKvoKjaOR4wcGNbXETz4L-rKOWypWdzPmWWzI1R
Balboa Island Annual Art Walk free, 9am-5pm along the south Bayfront Promenade. Live Music on 4 stages. Parking and band info on link. https://www.balboaislandartwalk.info/event-information
Laguna Charm House Tour $70 presale, $80 that day. Sunday, noon-3pm. Tour homes built in the 1800s by shuttle. Start in front of the Pageant of the Masters, 650 Laguna Canyon Rd, Laguna Beach. https://villagelaguna.org/charm-house-tou
Mommy & Me Cookie Baking class Sun, 10:30am-noon, $25 per person, open to public, Class by Sunflour Cookie Co., at Clubsport, Aliso Viejo. Buy tickets online. joelis5050@gmail.com https://clubsports.com/clubsport-event/mommy-me-cookie-decorating-class-by-sunflour-cookie-co/
5.7 mile Group Hike Peter's Cynfree, Sun, 8-11am, Peter Canyon Regional Park 8548 E Canyon View Ave, Orange. RSVP and more details here with Trail Mix: https://meetu.ps/e/N8lkH/1MDkT/i
Free Sundays Concert 2pm, Nixon Library. https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sunday-concert-series. Placentia Community Chorus.

Plan Ahead-

Scottish Fest at OC Fairgrounds May 25, 26. https://www.scottishfest.com/?fbclid=IwAR0BJMRlE5E3rN9AsTu9vxkRBTxQNeFLBRM1CxqJby2k8wu6gYaS9sggNu4
Annual Bluegrass & BBQ eventSun, June 9, from 4-7pm. $25 entry, $52 with BBQ, LCAD in Laguna Beach. https://www.lagunabeachlive.org/blank-20-2-1
Free Silent Disco Nights Giant Wheel Lawn at Irvine Spectrum. May 25, June 29, July 27, Aug 31, Sept 28, Oct 26, Nov 30. https://www.irvinespectrumcenter.com/events-promotions/spectrum-silent-disco
Jazz Wednesdays in Laguna Beach https://www.lagunabeachlive.org/jazz2024
Memorial Day 1/2 Marathon, 10k/5k Laguna Hills.
$29 Aladdin Musical May at Segerstrom in Costa Mesa. https://www.goldstar.com/orange-county/shows/38481-disneys-aladdin
Cirque du Soleil: Koozå $40+, June 8-July 21. Laguna Hills Mall Big Top Tent. https://www.todaytix.com/los-angeles/shows/39008-cirque-du-soleil-kooza
OC Free Thursday Concerts in the Parks June 20 to Aug. 22 from 5 to 8 p.m. Enjoy 9 free outdoor Summer concerts Thursday evenings at various parks. https://www.ocparks.com/news/oc-parks-presents-2024-summer-concert-series-and-sunset-cinema-film-series
OC Summer Concerts Mega List https://www.sandytoesandpopsicles.com/orange-county-concerts-park/
OC Summer Movies in the Park List https://www.sandytoesandpopsicles.com/summer-movie-programs-in-orange-county/

Hi everyone,
I’m a new homeowner in Zone 6b, and I’m trying to improve my front and back yards. Here’s a summary of my situation and the steps I’ve taken so far:

• Background:
  • I started with a very rough lawn that had weeds, patchy grass, and large areas that needed to be filled to bring it level. The lawn was also poorly graded.
  • After moving in, I had a crew come in with a skid steer to fill and level the areas, and scrape the lawn in the front and back to grade, giving me a fresh slate.
• Yard Details:
  • Front yard: ~2,500 sq ft, mostly clay and fill dirt.
  • Back yard: ~400 sq ft, more organic and healthy soil.
• Current State:
  • Scraped and leveled with a backhoe.
  • Applied Preen to the front yard.
  • Awaiting results from a soil test.
• Future Plans:
  • Setting up above-ground sprinkler systems based on DIY videos.
  • Aerate the lawn (if necessary based on soil test).
  • Till and amend the soil if needed.
  • Overseed in the fall.

Here are my specific questions:

1. Soil Preparation:
   • I assume the soil test will tell me the amendments needed, but does it matter when I work these in? Should I till the dirt and add amendments before seeding in the fall?
   • Should I also aerate while I have bare dirt? If so, what time of the year is best for aeration?
2. Cost Considerations:
   • What should I expect to pay for topsoil for my 2,500 sq ft front yard, including labor, in Colorado?
3. Interim Care:
   • What should I do with the bare dirt in the front yard until I’m ready to seed in the fall?
   • Any tips on maintaining the healthier soil in the back yard?
4. General Advice:
   • Any additional tips or advice for a new homeowner dealing with these lawn care tasks?

I have analysis paralysis from this being my first time buying a home and tackling a lawn, and it's got me exhausted, so please excuse the crutch of using ChatGPT to help me write this. I appreciate any guidance you can provide to help me wrap my head around these tasks and set myself up for success. Thank you!

Cyborg #59 - Test of Strength

<< < >
Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Arc: Machine Mayhem
Set: 96
Previously:
Victor Stone, Donna Morris and Keiji Otari worked together to create a robot called Atlas to participate in the collegiate Machine Mayhem tournament, a robot fighting competition. The humanoid robot easily crushed its competition in the first round but disappeared overnight before the second round. His three creators split up to track him down, with Keiji finding the machine in a back alley a little ways away from the stadium...
Keiji stood before the massive figure, blinking, trying to focus his mind. He had had many late nights and early mornings over the past couple weeks, so Keiji figured he was still sleeping. Or hallucinating. Or both, somehow. But, the voice rang out, its clearest yet, “No.” ‘Clear’ was a very generous and relative term, though. The noise wasn’t modulating through a speaker or a voice box, instead Atlas was making his own speaker by vibrating the motors and joints that allowed him to move.
The alley that Keiji found Atlas in was less than an ideal to make changes to a robot, but Keiji figured that Atlas would be understanding considering the circumstances. He pulled out an old bluetooth speaker out of his backpack and gestured towards Atlas with it.
“This’ll help you. No more grinding gears to talk. Just got to trust me for a few minutes, okay?”
Atlas stood still for a few moments, whether he was thinking or just unsure how to make a positive affirmation with his joints, Keiji couldn’t know. But, after awhile, he responded.
“Yes.”
Keiji set his backpack on the ground in the gross alley, making a mental note that he’d have to clean that later and got to work.
Around ten minutes later, he was done.
“Okay, Atlas. Try to use the speaker. It’s connected to RO23 on the tertiary control board.”
“...T…Te….ing…Test…Testing. Speaker operation confirmed.” Atlas spoke in a deep, synthetic voice that occasionally warped itself in tone, like how a whammy bar would add vibrato to a chord on a guitar.
“Great. So… Atlas… What's going on with you? Why’d you leave?”
“I am performing my task: defeat opponents, become the strongest. No foes in that arena were a challenge. Therefore, I left.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “That’s… not what we made you for. We made you to win Machine Mayhem, not to pursue strength as some sort of goal in of itself.”
“Incorrect. Nowhere in programming was “winning the Machine Mayhem tournament” a specified goal.”
“Okay, but I programmed you, and I’m telling you that was the intention.”
“Intentions are irrelevant. A teacher may shape their students’ minds, but they cannot determine what anyone does with their knowledge. That is a privilege reserved for each and every individual being. You say I was programmed to win a tournament. I say that I was programmed to make myself the strongest being. Only my interpretation is relevant.”
‘I guess that’s not an invalid interpretation of what I programmed him to do. But… that’s not exactly a sane or safe perspective on life…’
“And how are you doing that? Just fighting anyone you can see?”
“No. I have already stated that I found those machines in that arena unworthy of my efforts, in my short time in the outside world I have seen humans to be much the same. Few of you would pose any challenge.”
“Well, that’s a little more reassuring that you won’t just be fighting everyone you see. But - ”
Suddenly, a woman about Keiji’s age flew into the alleyway, riding on a metallic pink hoverboard. She wore hot pink combat boots with dark black leggings, and a matching hot pink sleeveless top with thick metallic bands around her wrists that went up to her forearms. Her eyes were obscured by a visor-like pair of glasses, tinted a reflective red to hide her identity.
And yet, Keiji knew instantly that she had to be Donna Morris. He knew that she had been working on some other project with Vic before they started Atlas, but he figured it was just for some shared class or lab work. But this… This was unexpected.
“Halt… robot! Step away from the civilian and no one needs to get hurt!”
‘Why’s she speaking so formally? Guess it’s some mindset thing.’
Neither Atlas nor Keiji reacted to what Donna was saying. Keiji knew she wasn’t talking to him, and Atlas just seemed indifferent to her presence. Finally, Atlas turned and faced her.
“You seem powerful. Show me the strength of your will and I may concede.”
“This doesn’t need to be violent. We can talk it out, here or somewhere else.”
“Actions speak louder and truer than words.” Atlas moved into a combat position, leaning forwards on his left leg, raising his fists up to his chest.
“Come.”
“Don- ”
“When I’m in the suit, it’s Black Narcissus. Some of us like to keep our identities secret, no offense to Cyborg, wherever he is.” Donna said.
“Okay, nice to meet you, Black Narcissus. Just… be careful with Atlas. He’s stronger than he looks.”
Donna smiled. “So am I. Just watch.”
Donna pressed her thumb and index finger together on both hands and a large light on the back of her hands turned gray. She pointed her hands right at Atlas, who still stood in his combat position, waiting.
A thick, gray fluid shot out of her gauntlets, ensnaring Atlas’ arms to his body and his legs to the ground.
“Gotcha! That’s industrial strength adhesive - ”
Atlas flexed his arms and the adhesive snapped with ease, then crouched his legs before springing upwards towards Black Narcissus and her hoverboard. She quickly flew out of the way but Atlas managed to barely get one hand on the board. Black Narcissus pressed her thumbs to her middle fingers, changing the cartridge in her gauntlets. The light on the back changed to purple and she fired her gauntlets again, launching a blast of energy at Atlas.
The extra energy rattled the robot’s circuits, and he released his grip on the board to escape further damage, sending him crashing back to the ground. She shot another salvo of energy blasts at the machine, keeping him stunned on the ground.
She switched her left gauntlet back to adhesive, hoping that it would be able to restrain a weakened Atlas. Before it could reach him, the robot rolled out of the way and grabbed a trash can, hurling it at Donna. She swerved out of the way again, then dodged a second trash can thrown as a follow up.
After the second can, she was on her toes, prepared for a third, but it didn’t come. She looked around, trying to find where Atlas went, but he was completely out of sight. She sensed him at the last moment, coming from the rooftop that he jumped up to. He grabbed her board and slammed it to the ground with her on it. The board shattered into a million pieces, but Donna seemed unharmed. Atlas sprung up, ready to keep fighting, and Black Narcissus rose fractions of a second after. She pressed her thumbs to her ring fingers and the light on the black glowed a dark red.
She swung a right hand punch at Atlas who caught it in his left. But the light on the back of her gauntlet started to glow brighter as she put in more effort, pushing back against his metallic muscle. Atlas pushed his legs back, trying to stabilize himself. Donna started to push him back more and Keiji could hear the motors start to strain. Atlas stopped resisting against Donna, then, before she could take advantage of it, he kicked up some of the pieces of the broken hoverboard at her. Using her momentary surprise, he punched her square in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to the ground.
“You fought well,” Atlas said, turning away from her.
“Wait,” Donna said, getting up. “I’m not done with you.”
“Yes, you are. Accept your defeat. There is no shame in losing to the strongest.”
Before Donna could protest, Atlas turned to Keiji. “Come, and bring your things. I have use for you.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow, but grabbed his backpack and started to follow Atlas further down the alley.
He turned back to Donna and mouthed “I’ll text you” to her. He hoped she got the message.
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
“Stop here.”
Keiji stood behind Atlas, who was peering into an old garage a couple blocks from the alley where he fought Black Narcissus. He grabbed the padlock that was keeping the door shut and squeezed it, turning it into dust.
“You will find the tools you need in here. Repair the damage caused in the last fight, human.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “First off, I don’t really like being called “human”. Technically true, but feels hurtful in this context. Second, I’m a software guy. I couldn’t fix you if I wanted to. Third, being nicer to people will generally get you better results. Not really inclined to help someone who starts by insulting me.”
“Niceties are a waste of time. Fix me, or I will end you.”
Keiji shook his head. “No, you won’t. I can’t fix you, but you know my teammates can. And they’d never do that if you hurt me at all.”
Atlas punched the concrete wall in frustration, cracking it. “Very well. You are correct… I do need your help. What will they require to do so?”
“I don’t know. But come back to the arena with me. We can talk with them there and see what it takes.”
“Very well. Let your friends know that I require their assistance.”
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
Atlas stood before Vic and Donna, who made it back to their workspace just before the robot did. He towered over the three humans, but if any of them were intimidated, it was hidden behind a masterful poker face.
“Y’know, I thought more people would care that we just walked in with a robot and are talking with him like he’s a person,” Donna remarked.
“People are busy and indifferent. The other competitors probably think it’s a marketing scheme or something and are just ignoring us. I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Keiji said.
“Yeah, that. But so… Atlas has become sentient. Good for you, really. But… hooray. Another sentient robot,” Vic said.
“You see a lot of those?” Keiji asked.
“More than you’d think.”
“I am glad that you are not concerned by my presence. That saves me much effort. But the question at hand remains: I have been damaged and require repairs. Will you repair me?”
“Yes,” Vic and Donna said at the same time.
Vic looked at her, surprised. He figured she’d have some hesitancy.
“But, I’ve got a small condition for you. Should be no big deal. Win us the next round of the competition.”
“Ridiculous. You ask me to do something so trivial it is unfair, like a pro athlete competing at a preschool.”
Donna shrugged. “Yeah, it’s trivial and easy, but it helps us a lot.The club will look much better and get a lot more support for next season if we make it into the semifinals.”
“I’ll even raise the stakes. If you win the next round, we won’t make you enter the finals. Instead, I’ll give you a real challenge. You can fight me.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Because I’m the strongest one here by far. And, if that’s still not enough if you beat me, I’ll show you how to repair yourself. Then, we’ll let you go live as you want, provided you promise to only fight people who want to fight.”
Donna looked at Vic, concerned. “Who would want to willingly fight someone like Atlas?”
Vic sighed. “Trust me. There are plenty of weirdos in this world who just want to fight. It’s much better than me just throwing him in prison or taking him apart.”
Atlas made a noise that Vic thought was supposed to be a scoff. But maybe it was just static. The speaker wasn’t that high quality.
“You make a very strong set of promises if I win, which I will. But if by some miracle, you managed to cheat your way to victory… what happens then?”
Vic shrugged. “Pretty much the same thing. I’ll teach you how to repair yourself and let you go with the same stipulations. You just have to know that a human beat you.”
Atlas laughed. “You are a fool if you think that could ever happen. I accept your terms, human. Guide me to the arena, those boxes of scrap will be reduced to dust.”
Vic walked him over to the arena as as if he were any other competitor, but instead of waiting by the sidelines to see the results, he walked back to their workspace. He knew that Atlas would win and wanted to try and make sure that Donna and Keiji were on board with the other part of his plan.
When he got back, Donna was nervously pacing around while Keiji was scrolling through some webpage.
“So.. Vic… do you really think that this is the right idea? You’re just… unleashing him on the world. Isn't that irresponsible?” Donna asked.
“I don’t think so. Yeah he wants to fight people but he has restraint to some degree. He knows the difference being fighting every random person he sees and fighting someone who has a reasonable amount of strength. I dunno, I think him messing up and fighting… Superman or something and taking a big loss would teach him far more than we ever could or throwing him in jail for being dangerous. Is it a risk?… kinda. But so is any option.”
“So your best guess is just… let him go and figure it out?” Keiji said. “Isn’t that a bit too… hands off?”
“Got a better idea? That’s pretty much what we got to do.”
“No. I don’t. But this just feels... risky.”
“Yeah, it is. But he’s fairly reasonable after being conscious for what, 12 hours? Over time, he’ll probably mellow out and if he doesn’t, I can take care of him then. But he deserves a chance like anyone else.”
Keiji nodded. “Fine Vic. If that’s what you think the best path is… I’ll stand by you.”
“Same, Vic. I want to believe in him too.”
“Thanks guys, really. Hopefully we can all look back on this and agree this was the right path.”
A horn sounded and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Semifinal-2 has ended! The winner is the University of Michigan’s Atlas! Please collect your robots and be ready for the finals at 1:00 PM.”
The team stood up and gave each other a round of high fives. They really had made something great. Now it was time to see just how great he really was.
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
Two hours later.
The team packed up after their semifinal match, citing an unspecified emergency with the tournament staff. They weren’t happy with the anticlimactic end, but ultimately they couldn’t force the three of them to continue to compete and so they left without much hassle.
The three of them drove north until they found the first open field that Vic and Atlas could have their match in. There wasn’t anywhere that they could find in the city that wouldn’t attract too much attention or put innocent people at risk and they managed to convince Atlas of that too. The robot was in the trailer towed behind the three of them, much to his chagrin.
But after a half hour or so, they found a spot. A wide open, grassy field with no one around to interfere or get hurt. A perfect spot for them to settle things. Vic got out of the car and started to stretch, trying to limber up after the car ride while Donna and Keiji helped Atlas out of the trailer.
Atlas rotated his head, taking in the environment. “A flat, quiet field. An honorable place for battle.”
Vic let out one lat calming exhale before approaching Atlas. “Plus, no one is around to get hurt. That’s important too.”
“...Yes. That too.”
“The rules are simple. A clean match, no foul play between either of us. Whoever is left standing when the other yields or is unconscious wins.”
Atlas laughed. “I will never yield.”
“We’ll see,” Vic grinned.
“Oh, one other thing. Not really a rule per say, but a strong suggestion: Try not to seriously hurt each other. You’re not trying to kill or maim each other,” Donna said.
“Yes, yes. May we begin?”
Vic nodded, and took a step backward, creating about ten feet of space between him and Atlas. Before the dust even settled, his arms were force cannons launching pure energy right at Atlas’ chest. Vic had designed Atlas, he knew that he wouldn’t be very damaged by those. But he had underestimated just how much he would be able to tank them. The force blasts did little more than chip the paint and an exhilarated Atlas sprinted at Vic like a charging bull.
Once Atlas was a few feet away from Vic, he prepared a concussive grenade and exploded it directly against Atlas, using the force to stagger him out of the charge. Before the robot could launch another attack, Vic swung a full force punch into the robots’ chassis, crumpling it inwards slightly. Vic followed up the punch with another, but Atlas was ready for it and parried it with his left arm, then kicked Cyborg away, sending him flying backwards.
Cyborg shot his force canons at the ground to give himself some momentum in the opposite direction, slowing himself down. But Atlas had some tricks up his metaphorical sleeves too. Having realized that a direct approach was difficult, he used his powerful hands like a backhoe to scoop up a massive piece of earth and hurled it at Cyborg. Vic was unsure how to react to this, or more precisely, how he expected Atlas to follow this attack up. The boulder itself was a problem, sure, but it was just to close the gap. Atlas could be using it to block his line of sight and be jumping right behind it, or he could be using the temporary blindspot caused by the massive object to approach from either side.
Instead of guessing, Vic decided to power through the problem. Vic shot both of his force cannons at the projectile, sending bits of dirt every which way. Atlas was hiding in what was once the dirt ball’s shadow and Vic took advantage of his surprise to launch himself at the robot. Cyborg shot his force cannons behind him, propelling himself forwards rapidly in a charge mirroring Atlas’ own.
He knocked the massive machine to the ground and sat on his chest, using his arms to pin down the machine’s.
“You’re down, Atlas. Do you yield?”
“I told you. I will never yield. I am the strongest!”
Atlas began to press his weight against Vic’s strength. Vic knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength but there was one key problem: stamina. Vic’s body was, of course, cybernetic in part, but it wasn’t the same. He was still human and human beings got tired. Machines did not.
Vic could already feel his muscle starting to fatigue. The fight hadn’t been long, but any fatigue was going to be the difference. He knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength when he was at 100%, but every percent below that made it more and more likely to be Atlas’ win.
‘I need to end this fight now or the immediate future if I want to win. But my normal attacks aren’t doing anything to him. I could try a sonic attack, but I don’t think that’d really effect him. I could try targeting his joints specifically, but those were designed to take more than I can give. But I can’t just let him overpower me for the win. That’d make him overconfident and more likely to get into trouble afterwards. No… I’ve got a better idea.’
In an instant, Vic’s muscles stopped resisting. “I yield.”
Vic pushed himself off Atlas, who stood up and looked at Cyborg, confused.
“What foe yields when he has his opponent on the ground, at his mercy? I demand you continue!”
“No. This fight was never to the death, only to yielding. But frankly, you aren’t strong enough to interest me. You said it yourself, you will never yield. And pummelling you to a point where you are the equivalent of unconscious just isn’t worth my time. So I yielded. Congrats. You win.”
Atlas stood, incredulous. “No. That is not allowed. I did not win. You lost! Those are not the same!”
Vic turned to Keiji and Donna and then noticed that the fight had taken them about 30 yards from where they started. He started to walk back towards them, and Atlas followed.
“Guys, I yielded that fight. Doesn’t that mean I lost?”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “I guess?”
“See? Congrats, you won.”
“... I do not accept this victory. This is a loss in all but name. Mark my words, Victor Stone. I will wander the globe, facing foe after foe to grow stronger. I will become the strongest being and when I do, we will have a real fight, one where you must acknowledge my strength for real.”
“Looking forwards to it. Stay out of trouble until then, understood?”
Vic held out his hand for a handshake which Atlas begrudgingly accepted.
“Understood.”
“Atlas, catch.”
Keiji tossed a small flash drive to Atlas who had to bend down to grab it.
“That has all your schematics and drawings on it, as well as all the parts we used to make you and where we sourced them from. It’s probably the best thing out there to help you repair yourself.”
“Thank you. You all have given me much to think about it. When we meet again… I will be stronger in body and mind. Farewell for now but I will return to challenge you again, Victor.”
“I’ll be waiting. And I promise to go all out next time, Atlas.”
Atlas took off to the west, heading to only he knew where.
Once he was far enough out of sight, Vic laid down on the ground, exhausted.
“Well, that’s enough bluffing for the next decade. I really underestimated him.”
Donna sat down to his left, Keiji on his right.
“Told you that you were being cocky. We all built him but he’s out of all of our leagues,” Keiji said.
“Yeah… but I really wanted to do it, y’know? Kinda humbling to be beat by your own creation.”
“If it makes you feel better, I lost to him too,” Donna said.
“Wait what? When did you fight him?”
“I’ll tell you on the way back. Not my finest moment, but I put up a good fight.”
“Proud of you. You’ve come a long way in your training. But after that fight… I’m going to need to get a lot stronger and pick my own training back up. I kinda feel like I’ve been stagnant for awhile, just sort of winning my fights through grit and will power. But if Atlas had been hostile… I don’t think I could’ve stopped him. So, I’ll need to get back to the drawing board and see what I can do to take myself to the next level.”
“And we’ll be there to help you however we can. But uh… Vic, finals are in like two weeks. Maybe focus on that first?” Keiji suggested.
“I’d rather get beat up by another robot,” Vic groaned.
<< < >

The results are in for Match 19. The winner is…
Bony limbs swarmed Charlie from all sides. She was locked in. Her clones couldn’t escape, and neither could she.
She could hear the rhythmic steps of the Middleman approaching her. Her fists pounded on Helena’s skeletal constructs, her shouts ringing out throughout the bazaar..
They were on top of her. Their Stand reeled its claws back, before jabbing forwards. Charlie grimaced as a clone burst from her back—a last ditch effort to escape. She swapped its position with hers, but it wasn’t enough. Sharp fingers plowed into her gut as the rest of the hand followed. Muscles clenched in agony as blood dripped down to the floor. She gasped in pain, falling over and clutching at herself once they crudely ripped their stand’s hand back out. It wasn’t a mortal wound, she thought—her little maneuver may have just saved her life…

Helena Beats, with a score of 70 to Charlie Hoosier's 56!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Helena Beats	20 (8+0.5+2) - 10 (3+0.5+2)	When the dust settled, Helena was left standing with a popularity lead!
Quality	Helena Beats	19 (6 7 6) - 18 (6 6 6)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Helena Beats	21 (7 7 7) - 18 (6 6 6)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

…And on the other side of the stage, Helena just watched with shaking breaths. It was exhilarating, seeing death like this up close. The Middleman turned to look at her, and her heart basically stopped. They trundled forth, slowly and certainly. She felt almost embarrassed to stand in the same room as someone who embodied the end so succinctly, like she was a poser.
Soon enough, they were face to face. Their features were almost invisible in the shadow of sundown. Nothing besides their sharp eyes. A low chuckle escaped from them as they brought a hand up to Helena’s face, stroking it. She remained deathly still, as if a single twitch would cause them to attack. It wasn’t so unreasonable—they just might.
“Tell the world what happened here. Turn this place into a grave, or I will come back—and it will become a mausoleum.”
Helena’s eyes widened. Not because of the threat of mass murder, she didn’t really care about that. It was the smell. The Middleman smelled like something, and it was right on the tip of her nose…
It was train tracks. They smelled like train tracks. She recognized the smell from some of Dr. Mali’s teachings—a local rail corporation used a specific in-house chemical mixture to clean their rail lines and fill in any scratches. He had samples of it around occasionally—he had been investigating it for damaging properties. She might have a lead on who they might be.
Just as she made the connection, she blinked—and the Middleman was gone. Disappeared into thin air.
Then it was just her, the death surrounding her.
The results are in for Match 20. The winner is…
In the midst of the military base, this intricately constructed hive, people moved in all their patterns, a thousand interlocking pieces. In a way, it reminded Disco of ants or bees. This was not an insult, a comparison to something lesser. If anything, it was a compliment. Even when these people had stripped nature from this place, it still existed inside of them.
It had been fine to exist with them, to trace those patterns, to join the hive for a while. Disco had already gotten useful information just by speaking with the soldiers and the workers, to the point where she wondered if she still needed to follow Zafar. Yet, as she pondered that question, something drew her to a shadowed corner. Something familiar. There it was.
In the midst of the military base, Disco stopped for a moment, unseen by any eye near or far.
She paused at a crevice somewhere deep inside this building, strange geometry obscuring its position to any passerby. It was clear that nobody came through here much.
Nobody except-
The lights flickered again, as they had every now and again. One of the many powers of that panther, Dried Donuts, which she had informed her ‘fellow soldiers’ all about.
However, she wasn’t expecting the cat herself to be standing at the end of the hall. For a moment, Disco tensed, wondering if the animal knew why she was here, if she was here to sabotage her efforts directly. But DD just gave her a toothy smile, a text ringing out on Disco’s phone.
[when im away i totes miss the mountain too!! >w<]
Disco tilted her head for a moment, unsure what the panther meant. “Too?”
[idk! u just remind me of home. epic trolling btw! theyre totes after me now! but im 2 sneaky 4 them!! Owo]
Disco couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. In a way, perhaps the feeling was mutual. The spirit of the land, the marsh this place once was, it lived on within them both. This place, with all its war, and conflict, and retribution, how had it convinced them they were enemies? How silly was that?
“After all that time gossiping about your powers, I can’t help but gain a new respect for them.”
[ya!! DD is super cool n your ddoors are super cool 2! it was fun playing with u! gg!]
“Playing, hm?” It then occurred to Disco, that even with the stakes so high, it had been fun.
[mr military is gonna split soon! i m gonna make a big blackout! we could race? :3]
Disco considered it a moment, and then shook her head. Zafar would notice if they both tailed him. At this point, Disco wasn’t sure that she would make it there first, and even if she did, it could put the panther in danger. Still, stepping back wasn’t so bad. Disco could keep her place inside the hive, disturbing those patterns from within, while Dried Donuts went on to target the queen. Evergreen had learned to extend their branches…why stop now?
“You go ahead,” she smiled. “I have something else I need to do.”
Dried Donuts nodded, tail swishing happily.
[okie! next time! bai ddisco!!]
That was when the lights cut out, and the panther bounded down the hall. Yet, Disco did not need it to guide her. She knew where it was. She knew what she had to do. She turned to the crevice and…
She reached out.

”We’re no strangers to love…”

Dried Donuts, with a score of 77 to Disco D. Lune’s 72!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Dried Donuts	20 (6+2.5+2) - 10 (1+2.5+2)	Dried Donuts started strong and held onto a commanding lead!
Quality	Disco D. Lune	22 (8 7 7) - 25 (9 8 8)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Disco D. Lune	25 (8 8 9) - 27 (9 9 9)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

Scenario: ???? — ??:??PM
Celebrating a complete mission and a shiny new achievement, Dried Donuts slunk through this meeting place, well out of sight. The panther could hear the sounds of discussion already going on from the hall that the general was walking to. She didn’t have to worry about how she was going to sneak in when the door swung open from the inside—a man started to step out, pausing as he spotted Zafar reaching the door. The brief moment was enough for D.D. to sneak past the pair and into the room, where she started to get a good look at all the figures in the room. There were a few who she didn’t recognise but could tell must be ‘important’ humans.
Zafar entered the hall, the door closing shut behind him as he took a seat, pulling out a handgun and holding it against the table. A few members reacted in fear—the rest barely reacted to it.
“Wha—” one member sputtered. “What are you doing?!”
Zafar chuckled. “Not all of us here have Stands—while we have provided some glasses for that reason, I have access to one through the perfection of an ancient firearm-focused martial art. And it’s very much necessary for this next part…for today we’re being visited by someone who only visits with their Stand...I introduce to you ｢Diamond Life｣.”
A bony hand burst up from the center of the table, finding its footing before dragging the rest of its body upwards, the Stand’s horned crown phasing through first as this skeletal alien pulled itself into full view. Those who were seeing it for the first time were terrified—“Has it been here the whole time?”—and D.D. was no exception. This thing mortified her: as the internet would say, its vibes were rancid, unnatural, and her senses were going nuts just being near.
The panther could feel her cloak slipping. Her instincts were beginning to interfere, she couldn’t stay, she had to go. She’d seen enough anyways…though she didn’t mind taking a poorly placed guest list as she went.
She didn’t need to text these guys, swiping the book would send her message:
[l8ter suckas!!! >:3c]
Scenario: Soma’s Cup, Mist City — 5:36 PM
The afternoon sun shone across the streets of Mist City, gleaming along the green shade of a van parked outside of a cafe. It wasn’t often that PINDROP and the Moonbeam Riders had met together to share information on their investigations into the Metropolis Suite and their Middleman, but with the information that allies of theirs had acquired from spying upon a meeting of their enemy it was necessary—Soma’s Cup serving as a more private meeting place as public, overt meetings were much riskier now.
Corkboards laid upon a few tables, the two groups stood somewhat awkwardly around the information they each had gathered: PINDROP’s wide web of information, looking through chains of command and where money flows to gather a list of suspects; and the Riders’ deeper investigations into various individuals and locale, hoping to figure out what drove these people, why they would assassinate Paris Aco.
However, there were some things to address first: while the two groups had become allies, it seemed that recently they managed to get into a couple of fights recently: while the first resolved itself easily, the second was still somewhat sore in Drippy’s mind. Yet, no matter how many glares she sent towards the riders, their members seemed undeterred. After all, through their work with Gioia Arancini, they had gained a recent victory against the Suite. Now, they just had to keep up their momentum. When it came to such a vital campaign, all who could help were welcome in their coalition. Even former enemies.
Though you couldn’t tell that the two groups had fought by looking at Inago and Sonika. The two had taken the reins of the meeting, excitedly going back and forth comparing information. The fire in their hearts blazed brightly, stirring even the most reluctant members of their groups.
“Yes, this will be helpful,” Sonika continued on, only pausing her speech to take a sip of coffee. “But what is the important thing we must remember?”
She paused, as if waiting for everyone else to answer on cue. When no one did, she took another long sip, and then smacked her mug down on the table.
“That’s right! We must remember to follow the money. Sure, there are various people doing the dirty work, but that’s just the work. When we see who pays them, when we follow the money…we find people with their fingers in all sorts of industries. That man, Xenagoras, he’s our prime example. We can’t spend all our time chasing their various guards, employees, and confidants, we need to dig right down to the root.”
Inago nodded along, still relieved that Cage the Elephant was gone, that his pale city had crumbled. “There’s a few complications that have sprung from his defeat,” he noted. “For all his faults, Xenagoras was dedicated to keeping the Hymnal Bazaar afloat. It would need new management, and there’s no telling what kind it could get. Not only that, there’s also that man in the mountain.”
“Right—while this ‘Spanda’ figure’s interference once provided cover for some illegal construction, it interfered with construction broadly. With him gone, the Suite has lost and gained opportunities.” Sonika moved her hand towards the latest addition to the boards. “...which brings us to the reason we called this meeting: a list of figures who had been spotted at a meeting.”
“Media, railways, politics…they really have their hands in everything.” Angelino noted, peering over the list and the new connections that had been made.
“The railway…” Yankee murmured to himself, before speaking up. “Paris Aco believed they were involved, didn’t she? Wasn’t that long before she died as well. Maybe the answer to why the Middleman was called on her lies there?”
“Makes sense!” Luna remarked. “It helps that a friend of ours managed to find some conversations between Sing Now! and the railway CEO a week before her death—that has to be something.”
“I would imagine that tracks through the mountain could be what they attempt towards next,” Sonika noted, refocusing the conversation. “But we have no leads as to who would even be willing to work on such a project.”
“It’s not the sort of thing that could exactly be easily presented to the city’s Planning Board,” Inago stated. “While Zhengqi does associate with Mahimit, tearing apart the mountain isn’t something he’d be down for.”
Windy spoke up in agreement. “I remember back at the Gala I was at that the fella really cared about the environment. ‘Tis a shame that his pa’s one of the Suite—he seemed a swell guy too.”
“Zafar Singh, right?” Arizona asked, leaning back against a wall as she listened on. “Heard he runs the army base here—must be, ah, pretty big in their ranks. Maybe he knows about who the Middleman is?”
“Perhaps…” Inago pondered, before turning to the guest in their midst. “Ajay, what do you think of this?”
The welder looked up as he put down his phone, having finished a call while the others were discussing their findings. He had come to the cafe at the right time, seeking someone to discuss the worrying events happening recently only to walk into the two detective groups setting up shop.
“Well, Mahi would be willing to discuss the topic—just called them now actually, they want to meet up!”
“Wha—really?” Sonika asked. “You called them right before—sigh well, it’s a good lead to follow.”
“Agreed,” Inago spoke, stretching as he stepped away from the corkboards. “Ajay, would it be ok if me and Sonika came with you?”
“Actually—” Windy stepped down from her seat. “May I come as well? I want to see if the poor fella’s doing ok, and maybe figure out why his pa would be in the Suite.”
“Sure thing!” Ajay smiled. “Anyone else want to join us?”
Scenario: Port Konwar — 8:56 PM
Night had fallen on Rakin City, the moonlight shining on the green paint of the BigTop as it drove through Port Konwar. The streets were quiet, with only a few people prowling about who’d yet to return home, and even less the closer the group got to their destination. The docks seemed to drift further and further into silence, until the dusk was all that awaited them.
“—and that over there should be where they said to meet up.” Ajay noted, pointing out the locale in question to Jon who began to turn the van towards it: a construction site, another building designed for the utility it serves the city.
“Are you certain?” Sonika asked as she looked past the two at their destination. “Not ideal for a secret meetup, isn’t it? Wouldn’t call it the safest place...”
“Nobody would stumble in on you, at least,” Jon noted, pulling the van up next to a motorcycle parked nearby. “You guys, uh, g-got the recording gear ready? The BigTop should be set up, s-so I can write up a copy of anything important in case things go, ah, south.”
“Are ya certain that’s necessary?” Windy asked from further back in the van. “Fella’s a pretty swell guy from what I’ve seen of him. Y’really think we’ll be having any trouble?”
“Better safe than sorry,” Sonika sighed. Exiting the van, she watched as those who had come along for this interview started filing out: Drippy leaving at a brisk pace, eager for this to reveal something about the Middleman who had been plaguing her thoughts, followed by Inago and then Ajay—once Windy hopped out alongside them, the PI stepped out and shut the BigTop’s door behind them.
For a moment, Sonika paused, inhaling crisp night air. Port Konwar’s air was thick with the smell of the water just nearby. Her thoughts were crowded, as they always were. Everyone here was pretty confident that something good would come of the lead they were chasing. If the architect’s father, Zafar, was actually a member of the Suite as they’d been informed, this’d be huge. Why didn’t she feel that same excitement?
Steric had informed her of the situation with the late Mrs. Aco’s daughter, currently taken in by an associate of his (something about a lawyer?). Maybe that was what gave her pause. That gruesome murder, everything surrounding it. It made her feel a little-
Windy tugged on her sleeve, and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. She nodded, stuffing her hands in her pockets and moving forward.
It didn’t take the group long to reach the center of the construction site, striding past concrete bricks and wooden beams, keeping an eye out for the architect they were to meet. Drippy was the first to spot someone within the construction site, but this did not appear to be Mahimit: the figure was sitting atop some lone concrete bricks, the lower part of their face somewhat obscured by the high collar of a long-coat, and their eyes covered by shades a deep red.
She held her arm out to stop the others as she summoned her Stand in her other, the bone blade of her longsword pointing right at the person in front of them. “The hell are you?” She called out.
Inago was quick to recognise the figure: “That’s Hira!” The statement was greeted with silence. “They’re mainly known as Tamas. Vigilantes always wind up with a few names. Last I heard, they’d gone missing.”
“Do you types just all know each other?” Drippy raised an eyebrow, lowering her blade slightly.
Like her PINDROP ally, Sonika was also on guard, the metallic figure of ｢Chain Of Prospit｣ manifesting beside her as the moonlight shone on its golden armor. “Then why are they here, and now?”
The one of the group unperturbed by this was Ajay, a brief look of curiosity before he sidestepped past the armored Stand and walked forward with a grin on his face. “Hey Mon-Ami, we’re here! Hope we didn’t make you wait!”
The entire group turned to their guide in confusion, but they all realized one by one what exactly the situation was.
Mahimit was Tamas.
Windy’s grin dropped, but only slightly. Even if it was somber news, she always made sure to smile in times of distress. ’He was such a lovely fella’, she thought to herself. ’I suppose that makes sense given what I’ve heard of Tamas’s approach. But what could drive ‘em to such violence? His dad seemed nice too, but I’m not sure what else could be the reason why…
Drippy lowered her sword, but she wasn’t any less wary. Vigilante types were always a violent bunch, and she couldn’t afford to keep her guard down for even a moment. The name wasn’t unfamiliar to her, though. Even beyond her job at PINDROP keeping her up to date on the city’s affairs, Susie herself had only kind things to say about the guy. Apparently he was an associate of Rasna’s to some degree. She didn’t really know if she liked the sound of that.
Sonika, shocked as she was, kept focused—this new piece of the puzzle meant so much. Her mind flicked through its own internal reasonings at bullet speed, as it always did when a new clue appeared. ’So Mahimit is also Tamas…didn’t Titan mention something about blackmail? He said it was about his position in the City Planning Board, but having a powerful Stand User in their pocket might also be another reason to…didn’t Tamas disappear roughly about the time Mahi would have been blackmailed? For that matter, who would even want to? The influence he has now in the planning board is a good thing to have, su…re…
Something clicked into place, and Sonika’s eyes widened.
“Oh, shit.”
Scenario: One Month Ago, Mahimit Rākin’s Apartment, Mist City — 10:25PM
Mahimit had come back from another night out on the streets as Tamas, but like a phantom that Stand had appeared in his living room while his back was turned. He stepped backwards, nearly tripping on their own feet. He put his arms up in defense, his hands blocking its inky stare. “｢D-Diamond Life｣,” they stammered, doing everything to force a smile. “A p-pleasure to…see you.” They were lying through their teeth, naturally. Ghoulish appearance aside, an audience with them was rare; for it to show up on its own time…
Mahimit gulped. “It’s rather late. What brings you by?”
The Stand said nothing, only placing a claw onto the edge of the sofa, faint scratching from each step as it moved from towards the window. Mahi froze as it finally turned its head to the glass pane.
“How long has it been?” It hissed.
“W-what do you mean?”
“Ah, it would have been about three years, now. Is that right?” The Stand turned its head to the architect. “Yes, I remember now. The day your father brought you along to one of our gatherings.” A breeze blew into the room, jostling the loose cloth hanging on its rigid body. “How the time passes us by.”
Mahi’s eyes shot to the floor as they dug into their palms. Had it only been that long? It felt like an eternity since they joined the Suite. He never much cared for most of their company, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t getting anything out of this. They may have initially joined at the request of Zafar, but there were undeniable benefits. Few he grew to enjoy, as much as he loathed to admit even that. Mahi looked back up, the Stand peering out of the window.
“I never got the chance to…thank you,” he nearly choked on the words. “—I’ve been able to do amazing things through the board that—”
“You studied in Tamil Nadu, yes?” it said sharply. “That’s what Zafar told me anyways.”
The blood running through Mahimit’s veins was ice cold.
“I hear it was quite a dangerous place back then,” the Stand shook its split head. “It takes a lot of vigilance to make it in an area like that. A trait that has served you well in the few years I’ve known you.”
Mahi felt an intense aura seeping throughout the room. What was it talking about? Why bring all this up? He frowned, uncomfortable with where this was going.
“Having lived there, surely you’ve heard of Hira?”
Mahi’s eyes widened. His eyes darted back to the couch, only to find that ｢Diamond Life｣ was already holding their coat in its jagged grip, a hole in the shoulder where a knife cut through before they could transform. Their heart sank to the floor.
“You did know Hira originally operated there, correct?” The Stand continued, tracing its finger over the coat linings. “Though they have recently found a home in Rākinnagarh, the mysterious “Rider Tamas” watched over a small city within the region.” Seemingly from nowhere, it produced a newspaper and tossed it into Mahimit’s chest. Unrolling it revealed a grainy image of a shape atop a three story building. A figure, looming over the city, something billowing around them, obscuring their form. “TAMAS, HERO OR MENACE?”
｢Diamond Life｣ shook its head. “Courtesy of one troublesome tiger. It came at no small cost.”
Mahimit’s hands shook violently as they read over the contents of the print. Though, they weren’t really reading it, they just couldn’t bear to look up from the page. It knew. ｢Diamond Life｣ knew everything. Their identity, their values. Their true self…If it knew about Tamas, then surely it would’ve made the connection to their actions against Binay’s group. Their collusion with VULTURE. Hira had been a thorn in the side for the Metropolis Suite for the better part of a year. This wasn’t something that could be ignored.
Mahimit lowered the paper, their eyes wide with energy. “So, what now? Is this why you’ve come? To tie up loose ends?”
｢Diamond Life｣ took a step towards them. And then another. “You know, when most people refer to ‘tying loose ends’, they often mean to rip out the thread entirely.”
The stand poked its claw through the hole in Hira’s coat, pinching a loose snag, staring intently at it. “Of course, sometimes one must act quickly to remove the string. It’s important to prevent the cloth from snagging on anything. It could bring about untold damage.”
It took another step towards Mahimit, its chilling aura suffocating them. “However, this is ultimately shortsighted. Ripping the string will only hurt the quality of the cloth, giving way to future snags, which inevitably leads to an unstable material.”
As it spoke, it ran a single claw through the hole, taking the loose strands of string through the shoulder in a circular motion as it circled behind Mahimit, causing another shudder to shoot through his body.
“W-what are you doing?”
“According to the tailors of Assam, if you truly want to preserve a piece of clothing, it's best to string the thread back through the reverse side of the cloth. It’s often best to use a blunt needle to smooth the snag out. It’s a delicate process, but I’ve come to find it’s well worth it.” As it spoke, it slowly placed its claws onto the architect’s shoulders, one claw at a time.
“I’m sure you’d agree.”
Mahimit flinched at the touch, turning around to find that the Stand had vanished. Confused, he touched his fingers to his shoulders, feeling the weight of his coat resting upon them. Running his hand against the right sleeve, they were stunned to find that the hole was gone, with only a tiny stitch to remember it by. Despite this miracle, however, Mahimit couldn’t shake the creeping dread that was ebbing in their chest. This was no mere gift. It was a warning. And if they stepped out of line…No. It wouldn’t come to that. It couldn’t.
Mahimit inhaled, and exhaled, and inhaled, and exhaled.
“Who... did you bring with you?” His eyes moved from Ajay to the people behind him.
“Some friends.” Ajay nodded. “They’re good people. They wanna help you out as much as I do. I promise you that much.”
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
“If it’s not too much trouble...” Sonika cleared her throat, offering a hand. “We’d like to take you somewhere safer. It’s a bit risky out here.”
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
“Get out.” Mahimit grit their teeth, nails digging into the soft flesh of their palms. “I-I’ll tell you everything, just, get out of here, now.”
Ajay’s reassuring smile faltered. “Mon-Ami, what’re you-”
“GET OUT!”
Mahimit shoved the man away, panic overtaking those practiced breaths. They took a moment to calm themselves. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Ex-

BANG

They blinked a few times. Looked away from the floor. Saw Ajay collapsed, blood pouring from a bullet wound on his shoulder, eyes wide from shock. The people behind him were immediately panicking, but they didn’t care. That bullet hole. Straight through the shoulder, clean and precise, like a knife through butter. A perfect shot, not intended to kill, but to disarm. It always had to be perfect.
“...Father?”
Zafar was watching from somewhere. Of course he was. Of course he would fire, take this away from them. Of course he would be watching Mahi now. Of course he would see the chipped nail polish frantically washed off every morning before anyone could see. The cheap lipstick that they could never spend too much on because they always wound up throwing it away out of fear. Of course he would see these stupid tears-
Mahimit’s breath hitched.
Their father would be there to take this away from them, as he had always been. He was a tall, vast man, who commanded your respect, no matter how much you hated him. He knew what was right. His choice was yours. What he wanted would be what occurred, simple as.
And right now, what he wanted was a perfect son who would help with his work.
Mahimit screamed, his voice reverberating through the construction site, Stand manifesting as it tried to keep them together, a hole ripping in his body. The costume he’d worn so fondly ripped itself to shreds, something pulling itself out from the hole and staring him down. For just a moment, Mahimit stared back, before the all-consuming despair washed over his reason.
The loud click of a reload was all that he heard as he rose to his feet.
He didn’t tell his body to stand—it seemed to do that on its own, puppeteered by the figure snaking out from his chest.
Tamas had simply become another thing that was no longer his.
“Shit!” Drippy cursed as she deflected another strike from Mahimit’s Stand, gritting her teeth. She glanced backwards, watching as Inago slung the unconscious Ajay over his shoulder. That was the cue to get going, now. She barely had time to reel backwards before another bullet went sailing past her, almost blowing her damn arm off.
”GO, GO, GO!” The group was on the retreat in the blink of an eye, Inago throwing up another diamond barrier in time to block another one of the Stand’s frenzied strikes. He felt his bones rattle at the impact—this thing was tough, and it was mad.
A massive concrete pillar served as a damn fine bit of cover, and Mahimit seemed too distracted to follow. That wouldn’t last, though; the second the architect came to his senses, they’d need to get into action. They needed a plan, now.
Windy kept watch, her smaller body allowing her some strength. Inago set himself to stabilizing Ajay, and Sonika just sort of...sat there. Drippy watched in awe as their fearless leader spaced out, clearly too lost in thought to be of much strategic assistance. She’d been weird for a while now, but this was the last time to be having some sort of crisis.
Drippy groaned. She needed to figure this out, then. She was half a mind to march over there and show that architect the works, but...
She couldn’t help recalling the words of a certain ex-gang leader. They were swords, and they carried violence wherever they went, or something. She didn’t quite remember how it went, but, well, this wasn’t the kind of situation where the violent types would be able to do much. This guy didn’t need to be hit with swords, he needed some combat therapy, and she was the last person who’d be able to give it.
She glanced between her comrades, and groaned again.
“Al-RIGHT!” Drippy rose to her feet. “Fedora boy!”
“Inago.” Inago sighed.
“Whatever! We’re tracking down the sniper!” She turned to Sonika. “Boss, you and the puppet can deal with this shit! We’ll be off!”
Inago barely had time to protest before Drippy was dragging him off to find Zafar, Leaving Sonika and Windy alone behind the pillar.
“Looks like it’s the two of us, then!” Windy grinned, balling felt into fist. “No worries! We can get this one done lickety-split!”
Sonika didn’t respond
“Uh... Miss detective?”
“Ah, sorry.” Sonika shook her head to clear her thoughts, but trouble still creased her brow. She stared at the water in front of her, visible through the bars of a fence. “...Did you hear the way that kid screamed?”
“Was awfully loud, wasn’t it? Woulda made my eardrums pop! If I had any.” Windy offered a smile and a chuckle. Sonika didn’t take it.
“It was just, so...” She sighed. “What good can we even do, here, huh? What’s the point in any of this?”
“The point?” Windy tilted her head to the side. What a strange question! “The point is that we’re helpin’ people, ain’t it? Get this done, and we’ll be one step closer to helping a lot of people. That’s what we’re here for.”
Sonika chuckled, and Windy smiled at that.
“Our help hasn’t done a damn thing, kid.” The detective rose to her feet. “No matter how hard I try, how many cases I solve, that…beast is going to kill someone else. It’ll keep happening. Even if we stop him, throw him behind bars or whatever, will that stop any of this? It’s all...” Sonika’s crisis of faith wasn’t new. It had boiled, brewing just underneath her skin. Her hands shook at the thought of Rakin’s plight—and her own hopelessness before it. She was just a detective. She couldn’t stop this train of death, no matter how hard she—
A ball of yarn hit her square in the jaw, sending her stumbling back.
“...Huh?”
She turned to face an uncharacteristically furious Windy. She gaped, awestruck. She didn’t even know Windy could be mad. The muppet was so mad, in fact, that she had to take a few seconds to huff and calm herself down so she could actually speak.
“...First off.” Windy jabbed a thumb into her chest. “I’m pretty sure I’m just about as old as you, buddy!”
Sonika blinked a few times.
“Secondly!” Windy crossed her arms. “You think I’m naive, don’tcha?! I get it! I am pretty naive! I really do think that if we just keep tryin’ and tryin’ and tryin’ we’ll get everything fixed up and everyone’ll hold hands and sing and dance! Sue me! But y’know what?!” Windy huffed again, placing her hands on her hips. “I don’t care if that’s unrealistic! Cause that’s just what I want! I don’t care if it’s hard! I don’t care if things are bad! Cause if I’ve got somethin’ to work towards, then I can put on a smile and keep doing it and doing it and doing it till I do make a difference! We’ve always been working at the impossible!”
“If it’s impossible, then...What’s the point of trying?”
Windy grinned. “Pal, you’re having a conversation with a talking muppet. Words like that don’t mean a dang thing anymore!” She pointed at Sonika, grin widening. “Even the impossible’s possible, if you believe it is! That’s what it means to be a hero-ah.”
In a mere instant, Tamas was upon them, the arms of his Stand hurtling towards Windy, aiming to rip a hole right through her. The muppet froze up like a deer in headlights.
“Aw, shoo-”

KLANG!

A chain unfurled from the pillar, barely blocking off Tamas’s strike, forcing it back. Sonika pushed a hand through her hair, exhaling, her Stand shining bright behind her.
“I’m a pretty old woman, y’know.” She smirked, flipping open her notepad. “You really think I can be so naive?”
“You’d better!” Windy hopped onto her shoulder, cracking her knuckles, somehow. “You can’t make miracles happen if you don’t believe in ‘em!”
Sonika nodded. Truth be told, she didn’t really know how much this would help, but one case at a time. That’s how she’d always done it.
“Alright, Windy.” Sonika put on the best smile she could. For now, it’d be enough. “Let’s see your miracle.”
”Open the game!”
Location: A building in the first stages of its construction. The map is 24 x 30 meters, with each square being 1x1 meter. At the bottom of the map is a trailer filled with documentation of the jobs that the construction company have done over the past few years in the area. The red squares are large tool boxes and storage boxes for various construction tools. Blue squares on the building itself are window frames, roughly a meter off the ground, while the walls themselves are made of poured concrete.
The yellow is a backhoe, and the brown areas are large piles of dirt, excavated to pour the foundations of the building. The piles have been moved around, with some partially on current sections of the foundation, and stand 3m high. The walls of the building are similarly high; work has not finished on the first story.
A sniper loyal to Metropolis is located somewhere to the north of the map with a sniper rifle; while the rounds they currently have loaded are not able to penetrate through concrete, dirt, or other significant cover, they can harm Stands. They will take about ten seconds to reload and get a bead on a player, and will prioritize shooting Windy, attempting to use the force of the bullets to disorient her, hurt her, and/or knock her out of the arena.
Goal: RETIRE your opponents! Notably for Windy, a ring out will also be considered a RETIRE, as she’s forced away from contributing to the fight!
Additional Information: Marked on the map in orange are several exclamation points. These are points of interest that Sonika can use to clue in where exactly the sniper is shooting from and call in their position to Ol’ Drippy and Inago via phone. Once this is done, the sniper will stop shooting after a minute, as they’ll be tied up with the other two.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Moondrop Detective Agency	Sonika Singha	”I’ll try to get closer while I go up the side of the hill. Look for the moment it fires.” This sniper absolutely can’t be left to dictate the pace of this fight. Solve the case of the sniper’s nest and call them out to your comrades!
Moondrop Detective Agency	Windy	“Charlotte, my assistant, if you’d help me introduce you to everyone…” All of this carnage happening around you… this isn’t how things should be! Things don’t have to be this way! All of this pain and suffering, it’s all meaningless! Through your words and actions during the fight, prove that there’s another, better path, and set an example of it!
The Metropolis Suite	Mahimit “Hira” Rākin	“Speaking to someone’s heart is an amazing thing, but sometimes… ‘garbage’ gets left over.” What else is left for you, really? Through your actions in this fight, do your best to make your father proud!

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Hi all! I’ve found myself faced with the task of replacing the sewer line from my house to the street due to very old concrete pipe that has either crumbled due to age or has been infiltrated with roots. I plan to rent a micro backhoe to dig down 6’ to the old pipe. I’m replacing about 40’ of pipe, which the city’s last record of was 1945, is not a very straight line through the backyard.
What I would like to know is if it’s necessary to remove the old pipe completely and follow its exact route back to the city main or can I dig a new trench and run to the city main and abandon the old pipes? With markings the city made it appears my sewer runs under a tree in the front yard and I’m thinking it’d be easier to run a new line and angle that passes the tree rather than going under it.
Thanks for advice and wisdom.

This is long... This is very long.
I'm married, two children, my Wife is awesome. We live in a small community in a wooded/rural area. It's not Donner Pass but we are out in the boonies. We have to be somewhat able and self sufficient. It's not off grid prepper stuff but we have to be able to do more ourselves than if we lived in town.
A few years back, my Wifes Friend and I guess you'd call him a friendly acquaintance of mine moved up on the mountain. Let's call him Frank. The guy has issues, as do we all, but he's functional, intelligent, and quite handy. A decent guy to know to help get things done.
When he moved in, the property he bought was a disaster. Previous owner used to get all manner of Amazon returns and stockpile the stuff. Also anything else he could drag home for free or dirt cheap. All kinds of crap everywhere with zero organization. A couple of giant burn piles where of course he's burning just whatever, a pickup truck bed camper in disrepair full of stuff, ratty tarps and tents covering more crap. Squalor and chaos.
The property does have a functional well and **some** kind of septic system and there's power run to it. There's a small building attached to a camper but with some work it can be made liveable. So we sort of have the bare essentials covered. We just have a ton of work to do.
So I'm excited, my Wife is excited, Frank is excited as well. We all figure let's get Frank set up. Running water, working toilet, sink, wood/coal stove, major cleanup on the property, a water heater, washing machine, a shower or even a bath tub would be real nice as well. Basic stuff so he can do for himself because at this point he's showering and doing laundry and eating supper all at our house. I figure if I'm in a spot, I could go up there and have a shower or do laundry you know?
We get to work. First we have to finish even moving the guy in so he can be rid of the trailer he's renting in a trailer park. Turns out the guy is a hoarder and it's heavy. The guy has more stuff packed into his trailer then we actually know what to do with. At least it's nothing disgusting and most of it I can see at least some value in it. I can see why he'd keep hold of things like this but Man there's a LOT!!! I don't know how he can even store all this stuff so I figured let's make this easy and I bought him a 40' shipping container and had it delivered to his place. We get it there and we assemble storage racks that were left on the property by the previous owner inside the shipping container. I'm not rich but at this point I don't terribly miss the money and I figure helping this dude out will benefit me and my Family. Within two weeks, Frank is out of his trailer and everything he owns is jammed into the shipping container. It's tight but it's somewhat organized at least.
Now! Let's get to work! And we do. We start clearing out some of the actual trash. Say 15 hours and we can notice that we made a dent. Another 15 hours, it still kind of looks for shit but we can at least make sense of the place now. We're really doing something here! It's heavy and dirty and disgusting but we're having a lot of fun with it and feeling pretty good. As we're going, we find some actual decent things in the piles that the previous owner left behind and we're trying to not waste anything because we're not rich and we might need the stuff.
It gets to a point where it's starting to become really dirty work and even a garden hose would be pretty dang amazing just to at least wash up a little bit because we really don't know what's in some of these piles but Man we're digging deep into them! My Wife goes through the nonsense of getting his power turned on. Frank has enough money saved to get it turned on and to keep it going a while.
Ok, we got power and we can make some water happen now. We scrounged up a shitter and a sink, bought some PVC and got that happening. Now we can wash up and we don't have to crap in the woods anymore. We also found a decent Harmann wood/coal burner and installed that. Nothing ideal but we're looking pretty damn good compared to when we started. The stove was free. The previous owner switched to pellets and had no use for it. We had to get it out and move it of course but nothing we can't handle.
So now it's getting to at least 40 hours at Franks place, maybe 60 hours. I wasn't really keeping track. The place still looks like hell but we're making steady progress and it's more or less "liveable". Meanwhile there are things piling up at my own house. The roof needs a little attention, some work on my backhoe, vehicle repairs and maintenance. Normal everyday stuff that got put to the back burner for a while as we set this guy up but it's starting to pile up and I have to get this shit done.
"Hey Frank, you mind coming down a little while and pitching in with this or that?"
At first, yea he makes his way down and helps out. Not at the crack of dawn, say 11 AM or so. Fine and dandy. This isn't pay work and I don't start early myself, nor do I go very long and hard on these tasks. Put in a couple hours until I feel like I accomplished something and call it a day. I don't think I'm asking much.
After a bit though, he's showing up later and later. If Frank says 12-ish, it means like 2PM or something. One day I have to remove the backhoe from my tractor in order to replace some hydraulic lines. This assembly weighs about 4 tons. It's on a 1967 Case 580 CK. Not the biggest thing but it's no joke. Frank is skilled with cranes and forklifts and other heavy stuff and I figure he could just come down and help me make damn sure this thing is going to be stable. I'm going to have the hydraulics opened up and if it's not properly supported it could move on me and that might well be it for me.
So the day comes. I have my tractor in the driveway and I have the backhoe dismounted from the tractor but still hooked to the hydraulics by around 10-11AM. Now I'm sitting and waiting on Frank. Finally about 1AM he rolls in. The first thing he does is to sit down and use my blowtorch to clean out his one hitter so he can do a little wake and bake. I've been ready and waiting for a couple hours and now the dude is going to sit and get high before we're going to work with some heavy shit and he's burning my propane to do so. Yea I'm kind of annoyed and I let him know. I tried to not be too much of an asshole but I wasn't pleasant about it. I didn't yell or anything but I'm sure I came off kind of asshole-ish.
He finishes up with the one hitter, takes a few wacks off it, says he's go tot go home and crap. Lovely... He's been lighting up my toilet for a while now, what's the big deal? Anyhow he heads back home. I'm sitting there for an hour or so scratching my ass, screw it I'll figure it out. I'm scared as hell but I manage to get my lines replaced. I bring the tractor into position and get the bottom mounting pins locked in. There are two more up top of the backhoe assembly and then it's solidly mounted. I screwed up by not hooking the hydraulic lines from the tractor to the backhoe and doesn't the damn thing just sort of drop right to the ground because the boom, bucket, and dipper arm are open. I took precautions against this but I guess I didn't do very well. I didn't lose the whole show but it scared the hell out of me and I shut the tractor down and walked away for a while. It was a split second and if I was under it I'd either have been dead or wishing for it. I calmed myself down after a while and finished the job. Frank never showed back up that day.
After I got done, I was sitting there a while. After that dopamine hit from getting the job done wore off I was starting to feel pretty let down and pissed off. My Wife and I put real time, and heart and soul in up at Franks place. We'd get up there about 9AM-10AM and get to it. Half the time, Frank would be hungover and it would literally be 2-3 hours until he was any kind of mobile. We're up there at his place trying to get shit done so he has a setup and he's dragging his ass because he was up until 3AM the previous night getting shitfaced.
The plan was, after he was set, we'd get into some nonsense. Cleanouts from tenants that left an apartment full of stuff, scrapping, maybe some lawn work, plowing snow on the mountain here, whatever. Not getting rich but at least paying the bills and having a laugh. At first, Frank is all about it. The cleanouts were his idea. I never knew you actually could get some decent pay for this type of thing. After a while though Frank starts throwing up roadblocks about we need to be an LLC and have a few fairly new looking trucks before we can start when I'm watching something like "Randys Hauling" on the side of a beat up old truck going up and down the mountain and he's getting that pay. On OUR mountain and we could be easily doing this right now! He kept throwing these obstacles up on all sorts of projects. It felt like Frank was deliberately throwing wrenches wherever he could in order to halt any progress.
Eventually I tried talking with him. I told him "I'm not really feeling the return on this investment.". and Frank says "I'm sorry you feel that way.". It kind of went to shit from there. I got to the point where I didn't want anything more to do with him. I was a door mat for a long time in my childhood and it felt like I was getting played for a stooge yet again. It felt like he was also taking advantage of my Wife. But hey, she's been Friends with him for quite a while. In fact she was Friends with him before we were even dating. I'm not going to tell her she can't hang out with the guy. You'll just have to take my word that she's not the type to play around when she's in a committed relationship. Not sure if I have much faith in Frank but I have faith in my Wife.
Frank is no longer coming to the house, there are arguments between my Wife and I about the guy. All I can see is that she's getting played by the guy. Eventually, Frank has a Friend who offers him to go to a blues concert because Franks Friend has noone to go with but has an extra ticket. This is a weekend thing where you camp and party and listen to performers. My Wife is already running ragged here there and everywhere. Frank asks my Wife to keep an eye on his dogs while he's away and of course she wants to help out. She's just like that. One day, turns out my Wife is too busy to take care of it and my Daughter has to go check on the dogs. My Daughter can't find the keys to get inside Franks camper. Now don't you know I have to go up there and take on this guys responsibilities while he's out at a concert partying his ass off. I put my foot down because at this point the guy is messing with the entire Family and holding all of us up. I told my Wife that WE are done with him and shit hit the fan for a while but eventually she started to see shit for herself and we all just cut off from the guy.
This is breaking my heart. I really do love the guy and I know it's killing my Wife to cut off from a Friend. But it's a one way Friendship. Frank will jump for someone he really cares about, but us, we're just useful or so it seems to me.
3 years go by. My Wife still talks with Frank via text and I'm not thrilled with it but I'm not going to push it either. Whatever it's not holding up our show. Time goes by... I simmer down, Frank calms down. I do indeed miss the guy but I'm afraid that if I start talking it'll end up being the same crap all over again. He was good to work with when he felt like it. I work on cars all the time and this guy can look at things and see things that I don't. He's no kind of mechanic but he's already schooled me under the hood as well as setting up a guys garage door that was horribly installed.
In time, yes we do start talking again. I try to make it very clear that if we're going to do anything, we BOTH have to feel properly compensated for our efforts. Be that money, labor swapping, horse trading, whatever. If I do something for Frank and it takes an hour, Frank gets me back satisfactorily and vice versa. This has to be worth it for both of us and all of us.
Well, it happens that Frank finally decides he wants to clean up his property. His truck is not registered, insured, or inspected. His drivers license is expired. There's a lot of scrap up there. I have a road legal truck and I make a proposition. I'll pile scrap on the truck until I feel it's a decent load, he and my Wife will run the load. My wife is a capable driver. She and frank will unload the truck at the scrapyard and meanwhile I'll break the scrap down at his place and have another load ready to go. At the end of the day, the truck gets paid $1 per mile and the tank gets filled for the next day. We split the remainder 3 ways equally. We clean the property up, we all get a few dollars and after a little while he can save the money to get his own truck back on the road.
Frank says there's not enough money in scrapping. There won't be anything left to split after gassing up the truck... Sounds familiar... Ok, how about this then. Let me make a load of absolute BS scrap like old bedsprings, tin cans, and just whatever crap I can, we see how that pays and maybe go from there.
Frank says Hem and Haw, well maybe if it's just Frank and my Wife loading up the truck and they also run and unload the truck he might be in to it. Splitting it 3 ways and with the truck just isn't going to cut it. Now I'm getting confused and a little irritated because I thought the idea was to clean up, not get paid. My Wife also has a screwy elbow and if she goes hard on a job she's in pain the next day. Nope this aint happening. Let's put a pin in this and come back to it. I'm not going to push anymore and my Wife is definitely not into chucking scrap on to the truck as well as off loading it. If he wants to do something and he comes to us, we'll figure it out. If he wants to sit on that scrap, hell with it. I guess this is the Hoarder in his brain talking.
My Wife has a 1896 VW Jetta diesel. It's old and it's been around but it can be made decent. The interior is shit but we have a parts car and a pile of interior parts like carpet and trim, dashboard, and just everything you want to make the inside actually pretty good looking. She's the one that heads up the interior work. I personally hate it. At this point, Frank has no power at his place and he has a little 80cc dirtbike he'd like to use to get up and down the mountain. Private dirt road so we can drive ATV's or golf carts or whatever and it'd be handy.
I have a 300 watt solar panel that I'm not going to use and all the gear to go with it. I have some parts I can use to get his dirtbike going and I know how to get most old carburetted stuff running when it's been sitting a while. We come to an agreement. Frank will be down here working on this Jetta with my Wife until the interior is as good as we can make it. I'll give him the solar panel, help him install it at his place, and get his dirtbike going for him. Also my Wife will handle getting his power back on and a couple of other administrative things. Everyone is feeling OK with it.
We begin. My Wife and I put the first foot forward. We take the solar gear up to his place and get it working. Now at least he can charge his phone and keep a light running. Nothing major but it's something and it's damn handy. I start on the dirtbike. It's a Suzuki 80cc four stroke. The fuel tank is cracked up and leaking like a sieve. I have a tank from an old Honda CR80 and it takes me a while but I get it mounted to the bike and I didn't even have to chop the bike or the tank. The carb on this thing was sitting with fuel in it for years and it's beyond hope. Normally I can open them up and blow the jets with compressed air, maybe carb cleaner and some wires but this thing is completely jammed solid with crap and I can't get it. I have a carb on my shelf and it's actually for that exact engine. So after 6-8 hours of scratching my head and wrenching, I have his bike running just as good as ever and it holds fuel.
Now it's Franks turn. The first day, he actually shows up at a decent hour and the guy is putting his time in. They have the interior all but gutted. Seats, carpet, interior trim(what's left of it) HVAC. Just the dash is left and it's been a good 5 hours so they call it a day. Next day he's right there say 9-10AM. Dang this is working! They're going after removing the cracked up dashboard and something isn't making sense. It seems loose but it's not coming out. I'm out there putzing with my truck and my Wife asks me to come take a look. I get under the dash and I'm looking but I'm damned if I can find what's holding it up. It can wiggle but it's not coming loose. I notice some steel brackets with rivets under the dash just at the bottom of the windshield. All I can think is to cut the rivets loose and the dash will come out but it doesn't make sense because you're not going to get new rivets in when you install the new dash. There's barely room to get a chisel in to cut them loose. Frank figures it out. Frank goes out under the cowl under the hood, pulls up the drip tray and right there are two nuts on studs poking through the firewall. We pull those nuts off and presto the dash is loose! God Damn Frank you're a rock star! I'm SO glad the guy was here! Different perspective? Savant? I don't know but the guy nailed it!
Next day. Again Frank shows up about 10AM and the Jetta is coming around. The carpet is in and looking nice, the trim is installed, The seats are cleaned up and installed. This thing is actually starting to look pretty good! That was a good day. 4-5 hours and they call it. Nice job guys! Looking good!
Next day. Time to install HVAC. We did an AC delete. The Jetta was originally an AC car but most of the gear was gone. The parts car was non-AC and the heater box is much smaller, lighter, and simpler. We clean that up, do a little bit of swapping on wiring harnesses and we install it. Frank isn't here yet and it's about noon. My Wife texts him to see what's up.
Well this girl showed up about midnight last night and the way I gather they were up until the wee hours drinking and boning so he's not into working today. He doesn't know this girl from a hill of beans and about the only thing he DOES know is that she's a real easy piece of ass, I guess pretty cute, and mentally a wreck. Well... Yea I've been hard up myself so I'm trying to be understanding here. If a cute and willing young lady showed up at my place and I was lonely I think I'd take that opportunity as well. He did put some good time in on this vehicle and really saved the day when pulling the dash out. I went to work with my Wife. We got the replacement dash in, Heater installed. Everything assembled, wires routed, job done. The thing looks damn near new on the inside. It was a good 8 hours and I still feel it to day as this was just yesterday and I'm no youngster. My Wife is in pain. I just feel tired.
I can see Franks side, but a deal is a deal. I was trying to talk to my Wife that "We're kind of even right? He put in his time, he really helped out a ton. Neither owes either and we're pretty squared up right?". I wasn't really feeling that but I was willing to be convinced and sort of let it slide. My Wife however doesn't feel that we're square at all. Not only the motorcycle and the solar crap, but she spent hours on the phone and computer and Frank agreed that he'd be there from start to finish on this interior. On the last day, he ditched us because he was busy screwing and drinking with some random chick. While we were finishing up the job, Frank texted my Wife asking if He and this girl could come down to meet and greet. Or would we like to come up and have a fire? My Wife and I are dead tired, it's about 5PM. We normally have supper on the table at this time but we're close and we want to get through it. We're not into entertaining tonight. We want to finish up, get supper, get the kids to bed and crash. We're sure as hell not going up to the junk heap and sitting there at a fire watching these two make out and get tanked up. She texted him something like that. Tired, still working, still have to make supper, not happening.
That's it. If you made it through all that I admire your perseverance and I hope it at least makes sense. This is just my side of course. I have my own issues. I can be an asshole, impatient, I'm kind of obnoxious. I'm trying to work on that stuff and my Wife tells me I'm really reigning it in when I get pissed if something is fighting me. Anymore I'll just walk away and have a smoke or something. I guess I can get sort of pushy when I see shit that needs doing. I want to help but I guess I'm aggressive or too Gung Ho about it.
Anyways, it feels like this relationship with Frank is going to end up the same place as it left off before. All I can think to do is just not really seek him out anymore. If he happens to need something... I don't know... My Wife and my Children and myself are a team. We've got enough going on and we don't need someone dragging us down. I don't want this to get to the point where it did before. I feel like I screwed up even letting this guy back into my life and I'm kind of stressing.

Plan on using a chainsaw to cut down the trees I NEED gone. There's quite a few but none are bigger than 1 foot in diameter. What's the best equipment to use to get rid of the stumps? Bulldozer or trackhoe/backhoe?

Okay friends, I am fairly new to all this so bare with me. I’m trying to get my lawn to where I can actually be proud of it after a grass cut, without basically cutting sand and weeds (my area is terrible for this). Some parts of my yard are ok (10% maybe) a small patch of centipede in the back, something else that’s very thick behind the barn. The rest? Trash. I recently hired a friend to come through and spray glyphosate 41% and I am killing the entire yard. I want to start fresh and new. I’ve been talking it up for 6 years since I’ve bought the house and I want to do it right. From my understanding, Bermuda will be the best option for my area. I also have a coworker coming by to power rake the entire area with his backhoe, leveling the yard. I plan to spread seed shortly after. This is where I’m getting stuck. I don’t want to screw this up. What’s the best germinating brand I can use? I can’t afford sod and I’m looking for a reasonable price on seed, but of course I want it to look atleast fairly decent after all this work. How often to water? Do I need to spread fert right off the bat? I need the deets lol. Please help a fellow DIY homeowner if you can! Thanks!

I got a BCS this year, and the one gap I see in potential implements is a tool for digging. What are you using when you need to dig a decent size hole for a tree or a post?
I've considered getting an earth auger. But I've got hard rocky clay, so I'd probably just end up breaking my wrists. It'd be nice if there was an auger attachment.
I'm considering getting Honda's towable backhoe or the harbor freight version. I wonder if there's a way I could tow it with my BCS so I don't have to drive a big vehicle anywhere I want a hole. Regrettably the one walk behind tractor backhoe I've seen is "one of a kind."
So what is everyone else doing when they need a hole? Renting something? Using grit and determination?

I've lived at this place for 20 years and decided it was time to build a new home. Had the plans drawn up and trotted down to the planning department to get the building permit. When they were approved I returned to pay the plan check fees. Then I was informed that the county planned to widen the road in front of the house as part of a plan to extend the road to a main artery to the north. They wanted me to 'give' them 15' along the 250' frontage of my property before they would issue the permit. They knew they had me over a barrel, so I agreed. But wait, there's more - I had to pay the fees to make the transfer to the county. I left with my approved plans and 15' X 250' less property and clearly pissed.
A year passed, the house got built and we moved in. But I was still pissed so I came up with the 'get even' plan. The area is relatively flat, and drainage is needed to drain excess water on the rare occasions that we get above average rainfall. There's a 125' open drainage ditch along the road that feeds into 125' of buried drainage pipe, basically the whole 250' frontage. I contacted the county and told them that 'their' drainage ditch was clogged with debris and needed to be cleaned out before the rainy season. Thay agreed to send a crew. Then I told them that 'their' drainage pipe was also clogged and needed to be cleaned out. Again, they said they'd take care of it.
To their credit, the county road crew showed up with backhoe, dump truck and the crew. The ditch was pretty straightforward and soon was cleaned up. But the foreman took one look at the pipe and said it was too far gone and would have to be replaced. Gee, owning property can be a bitch. So they dug it all up, including 2 driveways, installed 125' of 18" corrugated drain pipe, and replaced 2 driveways. I thanked them for being good 'neighbors', taking good care of 'their' property. The whole project lasted a week, so the cost was not insignificant.
Another year goes by and I get a letter from the county. They've changed their mind and won't be extending the road after all and want to give me my property back. Of course, I would have to pay all of the fees -again. Oh well, I did get a new drain line and newly paved driveways out of the deal. EDIT. Wow, that sure blew up. I’ve replied to a few posters with more of the backstory, that’s about as far as I’ll go. Most of the opinions are just that, opinions. I’m the only one that has the actual documentation, my Pearl Harbor file in case I proceeded with a lawsuit. This has certainly been entertaining. Flame on Redditors.

I’ve looked at ~100 RVs, across a dozen dealerships, in 5 different states.
Ingested countless forums and videos about everything travel trailer, towing, etc.
After 2 months, my final conclusion is to buy a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH.
I haven’t done it yet. But here’s my thinking, please share your thoughts!

The Situation:

My wife will have an 1 year travel nurse contract next year, 1 month at each spot. And I work remotely. So we’re thinking of doing a travel trailer where I’ll work remotely and she’ll use the car to go/from her hospitals.

Our Experience

We are avid campers, backpackers, and overlanders. But have 0 RV experience.

The RV Requirements & Timeline

• Under $30k (financing).
• Have an OK resale value cause we want to sell it after 2 years.
• Towable by a midsize SUV (our existing car).
• Be able to live 80% of our time at RV parks, boondocking the rest.
• Have a dinette or area to use as my office.
• We need it by next year, but we wanted to get it this year so we can work out the kinks and get familiar with it before full time living in it.

The RV Options and Thought Process

From my research, it seems like every brand has a 50/50 chance of being a piece of shit that stays in service forever, or a reliable RV! But it seems like Grand Design travel trailers with fiberglass walls have the highest chance of not being a piece of junk.
The initial thought was to buy used, use it for 2 years, and resale it. But I couldn’t find any used RVs under $30k, towable, and didn’t need a bunch of upgrades or maintenance.
The core upgrades were: tankless, heated underbelly, solar.
And you’re on the hook for any repairs!
Whereas with a new RV, it would depreciate a lot in 2 years. But the manufacturer would solve any issues we discover during our “trial year”. And it wouldn’t need any upgrades!
So the TL;DR was: get a brand new Grand Design within our weight class.
I looked at a few floor plans and fell in love with a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH, for $28k out the door!
What do y’all think?

I’ve looked at ~100 RVs, across a dozen dealerships, in 5 different states.
Ingested countless forums and videos about everything travel trailer, towing, etc.
After 2 months, my final conclusion is to buy a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH.
I haven’t done it yet. But here’s my thinking, please share your thoughts!

The Situation:

My wife will have an 1 year travel nurse contract next year, 1 month at each spot. And I work remotely. So we’re thinking of doing a travel trailer where I’ll work remotely and she’ll use the car to go/from her hospitals.

Our Experience

We are avid campers, backpackers, and overlanders. But have 0 RV experience.

The RV Requirements & Timeline

• Under $30k (financing).
• Have an OK resale value cause we want to sell it after 2 years.
• Towable by a midsize SUV (our existing car).
• Be able to live 80% of our time at RV parks, boondocking the rest.
• Have a dinette or area to use as my office.
• We need it by next year, but we wanted to get it this year so we can work out the kinks and get familiar with it before full time living in it.

The RV Options and Thought Process

From my research, it seems like every brand has a 50/50 chance of being a piece of shit that stays in service forever, or a reliable RV! But it seems like Grand Design travel trailers with fiberglass walls have the highest chance of not being a piece of junk.
The initial thought was to buy used, use it for 2 years, and resale it. But I couldn’t find any used RVs under $30k, towable, and didn’t need a bunch of upgrades or maintenance.
The core upgrades were: tankless, heated underbelly, solar.
And you’re on the hook for any repairs!
Whereas with a new RV, it would depreciate a lot in 2 years. But the manufacturer would solve any issues we discover during our “trial year”. And it wouldn’t need any upgrades!
So the TL;DR was: get a brand new Grand Design within our weight class.
I looked at a few floor plans and fell in love with a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH, for $28k out the door!
What do y’all think?

I’ve looked at ~100 RVs, across a dozen dealerships, in 5 different states.
Ingested countless forums and videos about everything travel trailer, towing, etc.
After 2 months, my final conclusion is to buy a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH.
I haven’t done it yet. But here’s my thinking, please share your thoughts!

The Situation:

My wife will have an 1 year travel nurse contract next year, 1 month at each spot. And I work remotely. So we’re thinking of doing a travel trailer where I’ll work remotely and she’ll use the car to go/from her hospitals.

Our Experience

We are avid campers, backpackers, and overlanders. But have 0 RV experience.

The RV Requirements & Timeline

• Under $30k (financing).
• Have an OK resale value cause we want to sell it after 2 years.
• Towable by a midsize SUV (our existing car).
• Be able to live 80% of our time at RV parks, boondocking the rest.
• Have a dinette or area to use as my office.
• We need it by next year, but we wanted to get it this year so we can work out the kinks and get familiar with it before full time living in it.

The RV Options and Thought Process

From my research, it seems like every brand has a 50/50 chance of being a piece of shit that stays in service forever, or a reliable RV! But it seems like Grand Design travel trailers with fiberglass walls have the highest chance of not being a piece of junk.
The initial thought was to buy used, use it for 2 years, and resale it. But I couldn’t find any used RVs under $30k, towable, and didn’t need a bunch of upgrades or maintenance.
The core upgrades were: tankless, heated underbelly, solar.
And you’re on the hook for any repairs!
Whereas with a new RV, it would depreciate a lot in 2 years. But the manufacturer would solve any issues we discover during our “trial year”. And it wouldn’t need any upgrades!
So the TL;DR was: get a brand new Grand Design within our weight class.
I looked at a few floor plans and fell in love with a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH, for $28k out the door!
What do y’all think?

I’ve looked at ~100 RVs, across a dozen dealerships, in 5 different states.
Ingested countless forums and videos about everything travel trailer, towing, etc.
After 2 months, my final conclusion is to buy a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH.
I haven’t done it yet. But here’s my thinking, please share your thoughts!

The Situation:

My wife will have an 1 year travel nurse contract next year, 1 month at each spot. And I work remotely. So we’re thinking of doing a travel trailer where I’ll work remotely and she’ll use the car to go/from her hospitals.

Our Experience

We are avid campers, backpackers, and overlanders. But have 0 RV experience.

The RV Requirements & Timeline

• Under $30k (financing).
• Have an OK resale value cause we want to sell it after 2 years.
• Towable by a midsize SUV (our existing car).
• Be able to live 80% of our time at RV parks, boondocking the rest.
• Have a dinette or area to use as my office.
• We need it by next year, but we wanted to get it this year so we can work out the kinks and get familiar with it before full time living in it.

The RV Options and Thought Process

From my research, it seems like every brand has a 50/50 chance of being a piece of shit that stays in service forever, or a reliable RV! But it seems like Grand Design travel trailers with fiberglass walls have the highest chance of not being a piece of junk.
The initial thought was to buy used, use it for 2 years, and resale it. But I couldn’t find any used RVs under $30k, towable, and didn’t need a bunch of upgrades or maintenance.
The core upgrades were: tankless, heated underbelly, solar.
And you’re on the hook for any repairs!
Whereas with a new RV, it would depreciate a lot in 2 years. But the manufacturer would solve any issues we discover during our “trial year”. And it wouldn’t need any upgrades!
So the TL;DR was: get a brand new Grand Design within our weight class.
I looked at a few floor plans and fell in love with a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH, for $28k out the door!
What do y’all think?

I’ve looked at ~100 RVs, across a dozen dealerships, in 5 different states.
Ingested countless forums and videos about everything travel trailer, towing, etc.
After 2 months, my final conclusion is to buy a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH.
I haven’t done it yet. But here’s my thinking, please share your thoughts!

The Situation:

My wife will have an 1 year travel nurse contract next year, 1 month at each spot. And I work remotely. So we’re thinking of doing a travel trailer where I’ll work remotely and she’ll use the car to go/from her hospitals.

Our Experience

We are avid campers, backpackers, and overlanders. But have 0 RV experience.

The RV Requirements & Timeline

• Under $30k (financing).
• Have an OK resale value cause we want to sell it after 2 years.
• Towable by a midsize SUV (1.5k payload, 5k tow, 500 hitch). I have air bags and WDH.
• Be able to live 80% of our time at RV parks, boondocking the rest.
• Have a dinette or area to use as my office.
• We need it by next year, but we wanted to get it this year so we can work out the kinks and get familiar with it before full time living in it.

The RV Options and Thought Process

From my research, it seems like every brand has a 50/50 chance of being a piece of shit that stays in service forever, or a reliable RV! But it seems like Grand Design travel trailers with fiberglass walls have the highest chance of not being a piece of junk.
The initial thought was to buy used, use it for 2 years, and resale it. But I couldn’t find any used RVs under $30k, towable, and didn’t need a bunch of upgrades or maintenance.
The core upgrades were: tankless, heated underbelly, solar.
And you’re on the hook for any repairs!
Whereas with a new RV, it would depreciate a lot in 2 years. But the manufacturer would solve any issues we discover during our “trial year”. And it wouldn’t need any upgrades!
So the TL;DR was: get a brand new Grand Design within our weight class.
I looked at a few floor plans and fell in love with a new 2024 Grand Design Imagine AIM 15BH, for $28k out the door!
What do y’all think?

I have a 50s ranch. I've replaced the water lines under the house with PEX. My water pressure is pretty poor and I've had the water company out to make sure it isn't anything on their end. I'd like to rent a backhoe and dig a trench and get it setup so a plumber can come connect everything and that would keep my costs lower.
I'm planning nlon turning my water off at the street and I don't see anything wrong with just leaving the old water line right where it is.
Any tips, tricks, warnings or suggestions?

Erosion has left a 6'x14' area my yard about 6-8" lower than the rest. We've just added a retaining wall but want to fill that area in to bring it level with the rest of the yard. At the same time, the lawn is just awful. Patchy, many different colors and different kinds of grass, lots of bare spots. It's a small yard and I'd like to dig out the grass with a backhoe so I can seed with the proper grass for our climate and very shady conditions. My question is, when i tear out all that sod/old grass, can I use it to fill in my low areas? I'm already planning on bringing in 3 cubic yards of a 1-1-1 mix of sand/peat moss/top soil to cover and regrade the entire area, but if I can use what I'm tearing out to help fill those super low spots I won't have to try to figure out how to dispose of it, and save me a little in having to bring in more dirt. I'm very new to lawn care and trying to learn as much as I can! Thank you so much in advance.

Sup fellas, I’m experienced spearfisher who plans to buy a boat with my aging dad to both rod/reel fish and use as spearfishing platform. I’m in SF Bay Area so would use in northern and central California. I’m currently researching makes and models and would appreciate recommendations that could fit the below criteria.

• [ ] Comfortable for 4, ideal with seating so I can take 3 friends/family and use with wife, kids, parents, etc
• [ ] Towable with 2020 Tacoma TRD off-road (6400lbs max.)
• [ ] Could fit at the house (23 feet flat along side of garage, another 20 feet slanted down to side walk)
• [ ] Has dive platform and ladder for getting in and out while spearfishing
• [ ] Could be used for crab, salmon, halibut, rockfish/lingcod, tuna, Seabass, etc
• [ ] Can safely handle some offshore excursions on calmer days (Monterey/Halfmoon bay, eventually hopefully Faralons and Channel Islands

I am thinking smaller cabin boats but also open to center console. Likely looking used. Currently still figuring out what I can get at what prices so all ideas welcome. Currently looked at cabin models from Parker’s, Arima and Defiance. Ideas and opinions please?

I HOPE I'M NOT TOO LATE SUBMITTING AND IMPLEMENTING MY IDEAS. I sent them an email with lots of reference images on March 24 2024. But so far, no replies. Does Giants Software even reply to or read emails?
Farming Simulator is more than just growing/harvesting crops and slaughtering animals for the market; it's also construction work too, so bear with me.
​
Please implement the following if possible - as either a DLC for Farming Simulator 22 or for the next Farming Simulator game - if you are making one (as no game I've played ever utilized any of the below):
Note: all the trucks have to be MACK trucks if possible. It doesn't matter if it's a Mack Superliner, Ultraliner, Tiburon, Granite, CH series, R series, etc. Just make sure it's a Mack as Mack makes the best tough and rugged trucks ever known.
Note 2: make sure all the crane type vehicles are painted in the Champion Crane livery as Champion Crane has become a frequent appearing company throughout movies like Terminator 3. Good luck finding the fonts used for "CHAMPION" and "CRANE".
Note 3: don't try to cheap out and make any low poly models as American Truck Simulator went to great lengths to incorporate every last bit of detail into their vehicle and other models as best as they could for a video game of Today.
Note 4: this is a video game, so in some cases (as observed in Men In Black (Tommy Lee Jones & Will Smith)), size doesn't always matter; just bear with me on what I'm requesting (that has yet to be implemented into any construction game).
Note 5: all the backhoe loaders must have the 4-in-1 loader bucket as where I live, 4-in-1 loader buckets are mandatory and have twice the advantage of a typical loader bucket.
Note 6: some dumper trucks should have the "automatic elevating tailgate" option.
Heavy Equipment:
1986 Cat 416 backhoe with the two boom cylinder over center design retrofitted with modern day technology, customizable stabilizer pads, and an extendable dipper stick
Cat 444E side shift backhoe with extendable dipper stick (similar to the Case 580 Super N as that way, the hoses on a breaker or plate compactor won't get stretched as the stick extends outwards) and flip over pallet forks on the loader bucket
Cat IT38G loader with a removable bucket and optional auxiliary hydraulic lines as no game ever utilizes a Cat IT (Integrated Tool carrier) style loader
Mecalac 15 MWR excavator with optional stabilizers that extend sideways as they go down like the Volvo wheeled excavators, the stick/dipper cylinder under the stick with the articulating boom, and an optional yellow body paint job.
Cat 572R pipelayer with a tow winch
Bomag BW10AS roller (this roller bears the closest resemblance to the roller that Lightning McQueen portrayed in that deleted scene of Cars: Community Service)
Cat D4H LGP dozer and pipelayer combo
New Holland E130 SR LC excavator
Mecalac 15MC Excavator
Cat 325FL excavator with a dog bone linked thumb to allow it to close the thumb farther and an optional knuckle boom
Gardner Denver AT 300 series air track drill
Link-Belt TCC 500 telescopic crawler crane with fly jib
Mack DMM dump truck
Ditch Witch HT275 with an optional material transfer conveyor and if possible: the bucket chain trenching attachment like the bucket trenching device used on the Tesmec TLM 60/60
Wirtgen 2200 CR cold planer with a special instant resurfacing device on the back (if you imagine this with a roller drum on the back along with some tanks containing water and tar, it becomes the "Ultimate CIR Bessie" from the movie Cars)
621 ST Trommel
JCB Loadall 530B telescopic forklift with front stabilizers
3 axle terminal truck for shunting semi truck trailers from one site to another
Case WX120 wheeled excavator
Case 580 Super N backhoe with customizable stabilizer pads,
Case 695 Super T backhoe with flip over pallet forks on the loader bucket
Case 695 Super R backhoe with flip over pallet forks on the loader bucket
Volvo EWR150E wheeled excavator with fully customizable stabilizers
Cat Walkie Stacker
Linde 39X forklift
Case Minotaur DL 550 track skid loader
Case SV340B wheeled Skid Steer with solid tires for navigating ground contaminated with tire puncture hazards
Link-Belt HTC 8670 with amber old fashion Federal Signal Vista rotating light lightbar mounted to the front just in front of the boom cradle and an old amber rotating beacon mounted on the main crane body on the back as this is an older model truck
Link-Belt 120 HT an amber Arjent S2 lightbar (like those LAPD cars) mounted on the front area just in front of the boom cradle and an amber cylindrical strobe LED beacon mounted onto the main crane body on the back as this is a newer model truck crane
CRMX 2 Recycle Train Trailer
Powerscreen 830 Trommel
7 axle Oshkosh S-series Front Discharge Mixer
Ontario axle style fixed end dump, Roll-Off, and Hooklift trucks with hydraulic tarps and different shaped dump containers for different items like demolition waste and loose bulk
Twin Steer Semi Crane Trucks
Gradall XL 5100 V truck mounted excavator
Cifa Magnum Metro 28 concrete mix and pump truck (if possible, transform this into a twin steer standard cab truck) (and LEGO CITY's 7990 cement mixer basis)
Twin Steer 1 tag axle standard cab concrete boom pump truck (with the same designed concrete boom used by the Mack truck seen in Mighty Machines Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!)
Mack Ultraliner Heavy Wrecker Tow Truck (LEGO CITY's 7642 wrecker basis)
Komatsu D75S track loader
Cat 349 excavator with a crudely designed continuous flight auger rig for drilling holes to secure retaining walls
Rosco Challenger II (LEGO CITY's 7242 street sweeper real life basis) Cat D6T dozer with sweeps and three rear ripper shanks
Bauer BG 12V with a continuous flight auger that can pump concrete directly into the well hole as it retracts from the well it just bored via a hose connected to it and a concrete pump system of some sort.
Liebherr 42 KR.1 tracked mobile self erecting tower crane.
Barber Green TA77 bucket wheel trencher
Barber Greene 44C vertical boom ditcher
Midland Novachip Mix Paver 800 (note: if you take the time to modify and decorate it with the correct real life objects, it basically becomes Bessie from Cars in Real Life)
Klemm KR 806-3G equipped with a continuous flight auger for smaller dirt boring jobs
Any MACK truck with a Gear Equipment Inc vacuum excavator
Link-Belt LS-108 Lattice boom crawler crane with removable boom sections and a fly jib so the player can make the crane reach farther on certain job sites along with an isosceles triangular prism amber beacon for the cab and the same style metal track pads used by any excavator.
Gradall XL 5100 tracked excavator
6 axle twin steer trucks (2 tag axles under the main chassis) (dump, hooklift, roll-off, cargo, etc)
Mack rear loader truck with rear tailgate tag axle (both as a standard cab and a cabover)
Ranco Super 12 Elliptical end dump trailer with the two tag axles and a customizable folding tarp bar (straight or bent metal bar)
McNeilus SMS 3 axle concrete mixing trailer
Mack Ultraliner semi tractor with sleeper cab, bull bar, and tag axle just behind the cab
Midland Mix Paver 400
Speedstar SS-25 SP Well Drill Rig
Case 1085C Cruz Air excavator
Mack cabover front loader garbage truck with as many tag or push axles a real life version has (more axles = even weight distribution)
WOLFF 166 B US hydraulic luffing jib tower crane
JASO hydraulic luffing jib tower crane
Atlas Copco XATS 400 CFM Portable Diesel Air Compressor (for powering both pneumatic tools, jackhammers, and that Air Track Drill)
Rear loading biodegradables (I.E., compost) dump trucks
Komatsu BR550JG with a folding muck conveyor, foldable hopper flaps, and a mounted BTI pedestal breaker for breaking large chunks of rock or concrete that can jam the crusher mouth. For transport, it has to be retrofitted with a 3 axle dolly and tractor tow hitch similar to the one used on the Extec C12
1981 Cat D9L dozer with 3 shank ripper in the back and an exposed engine
Jost JTL hydraulic luffing tower crane
KATO NK-160C with a CFA auger rig
5 axle gravel/sand hopper trailer with folding tarp
Tracked stacker conveyor for loading trucks from a grinder or crusher
Potain hydraulic luffing tower crane
Quad axle (a two axle trailer on a two axle detachable dolly) end dump trailer with a folding tarp
Towable electric generator
Komatsu PC128UU-1
Deere 345G zero swing excavator
​
​
Note: some of the excavator attachments (such as hammers, plate compactors, demolition processors, pulverizers, etc.) have a blank top for mounting quick coupler brackets/caps/adapters for accommodating certain style excavator quick couplers. Note 2: the manual digging buckets (not the hybrid buckets like the NPK breaker bucket) can have attachable and removable plates for the bucket teeth so the bucket teeth don't puncture utility lines.
Note 3: some of these can also be mounted to skid steer loaders, but use your detective skills here (and you have to scale some of these up to make sure some of them fit both excavators and backhoe loaders)
Note 4: all attachments must have both the Volvo S1 type quick fit and the special Bateman Manufacturing style wedge lock quick coupler (both hydraulic operated attachment lock mechanisms) with the exception of the Gradall excavators and the front loaders.
​
Heavy Equipment Attachments:
Rock Water CB500 hydraulic breaker
Powertech Picbucket (AKA, a "breaker bucket")
Delta F5 Russian hydraulic hammer
fully customizable Tilt Slab bucket (a bucket that can both tilt and dig concrete slabs as a single standalone attachment)
BTI TB245QA breaker
JCB Hammermaster 360
Stanley HS 22000 plate compactor
(either a Genpac GE-970 or an Allied 8700C) plate compactor
NPK C8C plate compactor
8 tine demolition rake
Aires 432 plus hammer
4-in-1 loader bucket
skid steer demolition grapple bucket with teeth
skid steer hopper broom
3-tooth narrow trench digging bucket
5-tooth general purpose bucket
9-tooth bucket (note: you may have to scale both the bucket teeth and the bucket coupler larger or smaller to get the correct size; too big and it can overload the machine, too small and it wont pick up enough dirt)
Stanley MB695 hammer
Allied Hy-Ram 730 hammer
skid steer Pac-A-Derm plate compactor
2008 NPK H16X breaker
WBM styled body ripper tooth
front loader telescopic pipe boom (AKA/nickname, a "stinger" boom)
front loader log grapple
dozer blade mounted rake
front loader high dump hugh cap loading bucket
Stanley MB 550 hammer
excavator tilt chuck blade
Norm Engineering 4 in 1 Pro Series 4-in-1 skid steer bucket
Stanley MB656 hammer
Dragline clamshell bucket for the cranes
BTI VP285 vibratory pick scaling head for mining missions
Bone linkaged thumb for all the crawler excavators
​
​
Note: sometimes you have to get creative; this is a video game and the computer world so you can design anything - even if it wouldn't be practical in real life.
​
Oil Field Stuff for an oil field map I have thought up:
Lufkin 160 standard small horsehead oil pump jack
Oil heater treater towers (smaller versions of distillation towers at refineries)
Lufkin low profile horse head bobbing oil pump unit
Dansco Magnum oil pump
Lufkin Mark II unitorque (M-160D-200-74)
Twin Head short-neck/short-body horsehead pump on an isosceles triangular frame. The pump mechanism is 1 hydraulic cylinder connected to the tip of the horse head on each side of the apparatus instead of rotating counterweights.
Progressive Cavity Oil Pump
Hydraulic pump unit
HPU oil pump jack
Linear rod oil pump
Pollution Control Corp Trapper oil gasket for oil well heads
Vintage style oil derrick with a low profile headless/belt operated pump unit underneath it
Self Supporting Flare Stacks
Augers that resemble the drills seen in the Crash Bandicoot level Compactor Reactor but with auger teeth and mounted on motorized housings similar to the ones seen on the drills used in Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves Rumble Down Under that Guru helped to destroy
Fuel pump stations with 2-3-4-5-6 fuel pump lines with standard nozzles or nozzles fitted with bellows to capture fuel vapours
​
​
Note: some of these power tools can be used in different scenarios at different worksites. E.G, the saw type tools can be used at a sawmill (hence why I included a log grapple for the Cat IT38G), the jackhammers and plate compactors can be used on road or sidewalk demolition projects, etc.
Note 2: the jackhammers can have interchangeable chisels to tackle any type of breaking situation
​
Power and Hand Tools:
Partner K650 Active II cut off saw with a metal abrasive blade, diamond blade, and carbide ship blade DeWalt 20v Max Grease Gun
Socket wrench
Atlas Copco Cobra Combi gas jackhammer
Atlas Copco Cobra Pro gas jackhammer
Atlas Copco LF 75 gas vibratory hand pushed plate compactor
Atlas Copco LT 6005 gas tamping rammer
Pionjar 130 gas jackhammer
Backpack concrete vibrator
DeWalt DWM120 band saw
DeWalt D27300 Jointer Planer
DeWalt DWE748 Compact Jobsite Table Saw
DeWalt DXPW4440 Power Washer
DeWalt DWS779 Sliding Compound Miter Saw
DeWalt DW735 13 inch thickness planer
Hand motorized piling auger
Pickaxe and shovel
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Note: some of the traffic signals can be customized to the user's preference. Whether it be a vertical light shifting or horizontal light shifting pedestrian signal, an 8-8-8-12 traffic signal with a bimodal arrow, an 8 inch or 12 inch vehicular signal with a flashing red light and a green and yellow arrow, a vehicular signal with all 3 ball lenses or all 3 arrow lenses (pointing left, right, straight), etc., etc.
Note 2: these traffic signals are going to be designed and programed as they are designed, programmed, and appear throughout British Columbia, Canada.
Note 3: the lenses of the traffic lights can be of any design the player desires (ball lenses, arrows, bicycles, U-turn arrows, etc., etc.)
Note 4: the portable traffic signal mounts can be customized with whatever type of traffic signal head the player desires.
Note 5: some of these portable traffic light support devices also have optional accessories like mountable street lights for illuminating the road when it's dark, cameras for watching the drivers driving through, solar panels for charging the battery, etc.
Note 6: the traffic signal housing bodies can be painted whatever color the player desires
Note 7: most of these traffic signals are mainly individual housing sections, so the player can add or take apart traffic signal sections to create their own unique traffic signal head. Whether it be the "Arizona 5 section signal with individual colored turn arrows (8 inch or 12 inch or a mix)", a 8 or 12 inch "doghouse traffic signal" with a red light on top and a set of yellow and green arrows on one side and a yellow and green ball light on the other side, a 12-8-8 signal with 2 8 inch sections for a green and yellow (amber) and 1 12 inch section for a red light, a 2 section ramp traffic light with just a red and green ball, etc.
Note 8: some of these traffic light housings can have customizable visors.
Note 9: traffic signals that aren't made by 3M can have different types of LED module technology designs like Hi Flux LED, Hi Brite LED, etc.
Note 10: The red has to be Rose Red, the Yellow has to be Amber or known colloquially as Orange, the Green must be Emerald Green.
Note 11: some cities arrange traffic signals to be viewed either horizontally or vertically so we need the option to rotate certain stenciled light lenses like the arrows, bicycles, and man and hand lenses until they're rightside up along with the traffic signal's visors.
Note 12: Think of these portable traffic control devices with all these optional accessories as street lights with traffic signals mounted to them - only mobile and more temporary setups until the more permanent street lights get installed
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Traffic Signals:
North America Traffic RCF 3.4 portable lane control signal
North America Traffic PTL 2.4x Portable Traffic Signal with telescopic mast arm
North America Traffic PED2.9 Portable Pedestrian Signal
3M 131 High Visibility Signal
3M 123 Programmable Visibility Traffic Signal
McCain 12 inch Programmable Visibility Signal
3M 8 inch SA-130A Programmable Visibility Adapters for any 8 inch traffic signals
12 inch Econolite Bullseye Signal
McCain Traffic Solutions polycarbonate 8 inch and 12 inch signals
LFE Automatic Signals 8 inch nad 12 inch signals
GE 4 way traffic signal
McCain Traffic Solutions side light shifting square pedestrian signal
G.E. Streamline 8 inch signal
Vertically and horizontally arranged pedestrian light versions of most of the traffic light manufacture lights listed above
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Miscellaneous props:
Different style wheels for the big road trucks (E.G, Dayton wheels with 5 or 6 spokes)
Traffic cones large or small
Sidewalk-wide foldable hi-vis orange white striped barriers
Orange Traffic Barrels with a white stripe
Amber strobe lights for the road pylons and barriers
Front Brim American Hard Hat
Full Brim American Hard Hat
Vintage Fyr-Fyter CO2 Extinguisher both designed with the long flexible hose that runs to it's cone shaped horn and a cone shaped horn attached to a short curved hinged pipe that allows the horn to fold up and down
Vintage Gas Meters for aesthetic purposes
Attachable and detachable Single Truck Mudflap for covering breaker chisels to prevent chips from flying
Wire rope, synthetic, and chain slings for the cranes along with binders, hooks, rings, shackles, clips, etc.
Vintage Karpark parking meters
Total Station survey camera
Traffic Signs for the traffic signals (more info about that here https://www.ricesigns.com/)
Motorola XTS 5000 for your worker character to communicate with ground crews
Motorola GM398 as the trucks' CB radio
Motorola HMN 4079 keypad microphone for the GM398 when used at a dispatcher's office
Any Motorola "blank" or "plain" Handheld Microphone for the GM398 in vehicles like trucks
Programmable text display signs on towable trailers for displaying certain messages to traffic
Orange square construction sign with just the silhouette of a worker holding a shovel and the square sign standing in diamond form
Any pickup truck with an amber arrow board for directing traffic
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Buildable Structures:
Workshop for storing vehicles and tools
Sawmill for making lumber
Garden Center for selling garden supplies
Townhouse for people to live
Bank for storing money
Apartment for residential dwelling
Chateau
Post Office for mail
Hardware Store for buying tools and equipment
Mansions
Palace for residential dwelling
Recycling center for the front and rear loader garbage trucks and some dump trucks (sometimes recycling centers use excavators, bulldozers, and front loaders to maneuver garbage and recyclables around recycling centers)
Mini Wind Farms for wind power
Mini Solar Towers
Nuclear Reactor for generating living energy
Refinery
Storage warehouse
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With all that I mentioned, it will make your next Farming Simulator game or DLC packs the grand finale of all Farming Simulator games.