1. Starting with a clean and dry surface, spray Wonder Lace Bond Adhesive Spray 2-4 inches away from hair onto the hairline or desired area. 2. Allow to air dry until tacky or use a blow dryer on cool setting; repeat the process for 2-3 times to ensure a secure hold. 3. Once tacky, apply the lace as you would and tie down. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. 

Hi all, I'm looking to make some long term friends. I have been struggling alot with some mental stuff recently, there I said it haha. I've also been struggling with an injury recently trying to get myself better.
I have a hard time with making friends these days. And I've been wanting to make new friends that could stick around, maybe become besties all going well (sorry if that sounds lame). I hope you could be available for chats (voice ideally) and hangouts on a somewhat regular basis. However, I of course am fully understanding as we all have lives and stuff gets in the way, but hopefully we could still stay connected?
So I'm 33 M from New Zealand timezone is GMT+12, im fully open to anyone from anywhere, just as long as our timezones vaguely line up. I'm a chill relaxed person, I'm pretty shy and introverted, but do open up once I know someone. I'm also an accepting person, I am open to any gender or LGBTQ+, probably just 20+ would be my main thing.
So more about me, I'm pretty active, like to lift weights at the gym and ride bikes, and of course gaming. I'm PC only for gaming, mainly FPS, horror, hack and slash games, see my previous posts for specific games if your interested, or just ask me :). I would like to game with prospective friends, but all good if not. I also enjoy movies/tv shows, like horror, thrillers, sci fi. I love music in particular metal and punk, specially metalcore and post hardcore :). I really enjoy voice chats too, again I'm happy to not voice chat, but I find it nicer to get to know someone better. So yea if any of that sounds interesting, hit me up and send me a dm or chat, please introduce yourself with a brief intro, very short messages will be ignored. I look forward to hearing from you :).

Hi Everybody! I have a long list of games I'm selling below. Hit me with any offers on one game or multiple games! Thank you!
Fallout 76 PC (Redeem on Microsoft Store)
Marvel's Avengers The Definitive Edition (Steam)
A Way Out (Origin Code)
Humble Bundle Stand with Ukraine Bundle
Back 4 Blood
Metro: Exodus
Max Payne 3
Sunset Overdrive
This War of Mine
PGA Tour 2K21
The Long Dark
Car Mechanic Simulator 2018
Endless Space 2
Ring of Pain
Kerbal Space Program
Starbound
Popup Dungeon
Expeditions: Viking
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Wandersong
Supraland
Crying Suns
Wizard of Legend
Amnesia: Rebirth
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Vagante
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
Wargroove
Warsaw
Drawful 2
SUPERHOT
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Broken Age
Pikuniku
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Inmost
Pathway
Rustler
112 Operator
911 Operator
Radio Commander
Kingdom Two Crowns
West of Dead
Tooth and Tail
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
Driftland: The Magic Revival
Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove
Book of Demons
Fury Unleashed
Going Under
Yoku's Island Express
Nex Machina
X-Morph: Defense
X-Morph: Defense - European Assault
X-Morph: Defense - Survival Of The Fittest
X-Morph: Defense - Last Bastion
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
DV: Rings of Saturn
Slinger VR
Pixplode
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
EarthX
Neverout
Telefrag VR
Pawnbarian
NecroWorm
Hexologic
Post Void
Moon Hunters
The Amazing American Circus
Roarr! Jurassic Edition
Corridor Z
Draw Slasher
Shing!
Go Home Dinosaurs
Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft - The Eldritch Box DLC
Soulblight
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Lust for Darkness
Liberated
Wanderlust: Travel Stories
Say No! More
​
Humble Bundle Choice April 2023
Not included (Death Stranding Director's Cut)
Aliens Fireteam Elite (Steam)
Rollerdrome (Steam)
Life is Strange : Complete Edition (Steam)
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (Steam)
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp (Steam)
Revita (Steam)
Founder's Fortune (Steam)
​
​
Humble Bundle Choice July 2023
The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition (Steam)
Temtem (Steam)
Yakuza 4 Remastered (Steam)
Roadwarden (Steam)
Kraken Academy! (Steam)
Merchant of the Skies (Steam)
Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim 9Steam)
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate (Steam)
​
Humble Bundle Aspyr 25th Anniversary Bundle
Fahrenheit
LightMatter
Morkredd
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - The Collection
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite - Season Pass
​
Fanatical Stand with Ukraine Bundle
1993 Space Machine
8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I
AWAKE - Definitive Edition
Among Us
At Eve's Wake
Aviary Attorney
Awesomenauts All Nauts Pack (DLC)
Baby Dino Adventures
Blightbound
Cannibal Cuisine
ChromaGun
Circles
Click and Slay
Cloud Gardens
Combat Tested
Cosmonautica
Crash Drive 2
Cube Escape Collection
Dimension Drive
Explosionade
Fling to the Finish
Gang Beasts
Gelly Break Deluxe
Guppy
Hidden Folks
Hoplegs
Interrogation: You will be deceived
Journey For Elysium
Last Resort Island
Lumini
Mad Experiments: Escape Room
Marooners
Necronator: Dead Wrong
Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! HD
Pizza Connection 3
Pressure Overdrive
ROUNDS
Railway Empire
Rayon Riddles - Rise of the Goblin King
Renowned Explorers: International Society
Shortest Trip to Earth
Shu
Stick Fight: The Game
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon
Swords and Soldiers HD
THE CORRIDOR
Tales of the Tiny Planet
TaniNani
The Falconeer
The Way
Tinkertown
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
Treasure Temples
Truberbrook
Unexplored
X Rebirth
ibb & obb - Best Friends Forever Double Pack
​
Humble Bundle Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle
Gotham Knights
Ghostrunner
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
XCOM 2
Payday 2
Ticket to Ride
Strange Brigade
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Stick Fight
Farming Simulator 17
System Shock Enhanced Edition
System Shock 2
Pilgrims
Flynn: Son of Crimson
Into the Pit
Worms Rumble
Harmony's Odyssey
Mount & Blade: Warband
Armello
Backbone
911 Operator
112 Operator
Calico
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Monaco
Death Squared
Lust from Beyond - M Edition
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Remnants of Naezith
Planet TD
Firegirl
XEL
Little Orpheus
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Agent in Depth
Lighthouse Keeper
Hyper Gunsport
Meow Express
Arcade Spirits
Non-Stop Raiders
The Inner World
The Amazing American Circus
Soulblight
Stacking
Hack 'n' Slash
MirrorMoon EP
Cosmic Express
Cris Tales
Orbital Racer
Symmetry
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Alchemist's Castle
Soul Searching
Doughlings Arcade
Doughlings Invasion
Quadrata
Rym 9000
stikir
Cats and the Other Lives
Soulflow
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Guns & Fishes
Pill Baby
Project Chemistry
Pixross
Frick, Inc.
Sunlight

Will offer multiple games if needed. Games with * means very positive games, worth a look.
Beacon Pines
There Is No Light
Children of Silentown
Oaken
Snowtopia
Autonauts vs Piratebots
Deceive Inc.
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
Hot Brass
Arcade Paradise
Tin Can
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Among Us
Armello
Army Men RTS
Assault Suit Leynos
Backbone
Battlecruisers
Blade Assault
Blood And Zombies
Brawlout
Builder Simulator
Cats in Time
Chicka Wars Chicken Meat
CivCity: Rome
Click and Slay
Concept Destruction
Corridor Z
Cosmonautica
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC
Dead Age
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Death Squared
Demon Turf
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Double Cross
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Draw Slasher
Drawful 2
Due Process
El Hijo
Eldest Souls
Emily is Away <3
Encased
Epic Chef
ETERNAL THREADS
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue
First Class Trouble
Five Dates
Fling to the Finish
Forged Battalion
Fortissimo FA INTL Ver
Founders' Fortune
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
GameGuru Classic
Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
Gloria Victis
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Going Under
Golf Gang*
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload*
Guns & Fishes
Guts and Glory
Hack 'n' Slash + Soundtrack (& Spacebase GIFT)
Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition
Heart Fragment - Book Two: Belief Fragments (Shannon & Lana)
Hellbound
HERO'S HOUR
Hexologic
Hidden & Dangerous 2: Courage Under Fire
Hidden & Dangerous: Action Pack
Hokko Life
Honey, I Joined a Cult
Hyper Gunsport
I’m not a Monster
Internet Cafe Simulator
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
Iron Danger
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Joggernauts
JYDGE
Killsquad
Kraken Academy!!
Labirinto 2
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Legend of Keepers
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Let Them Come*
Little Orpheus
Lust for Darkness
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Maid of Sker
Mainlining
MEEPLE STATION
Meow Express
Merchant of the Skies
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Moon Hunters
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
NecroWorm
NeuroVoider
Neverinth
Neverout
Non-Stop Raiders
Of Orcs And Men
Orbital Racer
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
Outward - The Soroboreans DLC
Override
Overture
Ozymandias
Partial Control
Pathfinders: Memories
Pathway
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
PGA TOUR 2K21 (may keep)
Pilgrims
Pill Baby
Pixplode
Planet TD
PlataGO!
PowerBeatsVR
Project Chemistry
Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
Propagation VR - Co-op
Pumped BMX +
Quadrata
Radio Commander
Railroad Corporation
Railroad Tycoon 3
Rebel Galaxy
Rebound Dodgeball Evolved
Re-Legion
Remnants of Naezith
Resident Evil Revelations (may keep)
Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Episode 1: Penal Colony
RIOT - Civil Unrest
Roarr! Jurassic Edition
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
ROGUE LORDS
RPG Maker VX
Rym 9000
Sakura Alien
Sakura Knight
Sakura Knight 2
Sakura Knight 3
Sakura MMO
Sakura MMO 2
Sakura MMO 3
Sakura MMO Extra
Sakura Succubus
Sakura Succubus 2
Sakura Succubus 3
Sakura Succubus 4
Sakura Succubus 5
Sakura Succubus 6
Sakura Swim Club
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
Shady Part of Me
Shing!
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
Sid Meier's Railroads!
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis
Slinger VR
Smile For Me
Sorcerer King: Rivals
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Spellcaster University
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Stacking
Starpoint Gemini Warlords
Strider*
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
Super Chicken Catchers
Super Magbot
Surviving the Aftermath (may keep)
Sword Legacy Omen
SYMMETRY
TaniNani
Telefrag VR
The Amazing American Circus
The Beast Inside
The Deed II
The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA TOUR
The Invisible Hand
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (may keep)
The Serpent Rogue
The USB Stick Found in the Grass
Ticket to Ride
Tools Up!
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt
Traffic Jams
Train Station Renovation
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Underland: The Climb
UnMetal*
Vanishing Realms
War for the Overworld
WARSAW
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
White Noise 2
Worms Rumble
WRC 7
WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS
XCOM 2
X-COM: Complete Pack (including X-COM: UFO Defense + X-COM: Apocalypse + X-COM: Enforcer + X-COM: Interceptor + X-COM: Terror from the Deep)
XEL
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack (including X-Morph: Defense + X-Morph: Defense - European Assault + X-Morph: Defense - Survival Of The Fittest + X-Morph: Defense - Last Bastion)
V: Rings of Saturn
Rebel Inc: Escalation
Spirit Of The Island
Lords and Villeins
A Juggler's Tale
Mr. Prepper
Mad Max
MORTAL KOMBAT XL
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Edition
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
Batman™: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
Batman™: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition
Batman™: Arkham City GOTY Edition
Batman™: Arkham Origins
Katamari Damacy REROLL (May keep)
PAC-MAN MUSEUM+
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (May keep, only good offers)
Rebel Inc: Escalation
Spirit Of The Island
Lords and Villeins
A Juggler's Tale
Mr. Prepper
Beacon Pines
There Is No Light
Children of Silentown
Oaken
Snowtopia
Metal: Hellsinger (May keep, only good offers)
Non-STEAM
DOOM 64 (Bethesda.net)
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection (ORIGIN key)
Liberated (GOG key)
STAR WARS: Squadrons (Origin)
Wanderlust Travel Stories (GOG key)
Software
Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7
GameMaker Studio 2 Creator 12 Months
Music Maker EDM Edition
Pathfinder Second Edition Core Rulebook and Starfinder Core Rulebook
Polygon Farm, Polygon City, and Polygon Prototype
GameDev.tv
Complete Unity 3D Developer
Zenva Academy
Intro to Game Development with Unity
Region is NA
My REPs: 202 successful trades, 0 dispute.

Will offer multiple games if needed. Games with * means very positive games, worth a look.
Beacon Pines
There Is No Light
Children of Silentown
Oaken
Snowtopia
Autonauts vs Piratebots
Deceive Inc.
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
Hot Brass
Arcade Paradise
Tin Can
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Among Us
Armello
Army Men RTS
Assault Suit Leynos
Backbone
Battlecruisers
Blade Assault
Blood And Zombies
Brawlout
Builder Simulator
Cats in Time
Chicka Wars Chicken Meat
CivCity: Rome
Click and Slay
Concept Destruction
Corridor Z
Cosmonautica
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC
Dead Age
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Death Squared
Demon Turf
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Double Cross
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Draw Slasher
Drawful 2
Due Process
El Hijo
Eldest Souls
Emily is Away <3
Encased
Epic Chef
ETERNAL THREADS
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue
First Class Trouble
Five Dates
Fling to the Finish
Forged Battalion
Fortissimo FA INTL Ver
Founders' Fortune
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
GameGuru Classic
Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
Gloria Victis
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Going Under
Golf Gang*
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload*
Guns & Fishes
Guts and Glory
Hack 'n' Slash + Soundtrack (& Spacebase GIFT)
Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition
Heart Fragment - Book Two: Belief Fragments (Shannon & Lana)
Hellbound
HERO'S HOUR
Hexologic
Hidden & Dangerous 2: Courage Under Fire
Hidden & Dangerous: Action Pack
Hokko Life
Honey, I Joined a Cult
Hyper Gunsport
I’m not a Monster
Internet Cafe Simulator
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
Iron Danger
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Joggernauts
JYDGE
Killsquad
Kraken Academy!!
Labirinto 2
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Legend of Keepers
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Let Them Come*
Little Orpheus
Lust for Darkness
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Maid of Sker
Mainlining
MEEPLE STATION
Meow Express
Merchant of the Skies
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Moon Hunters
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
NecroWorm
NeuroVoider
Neverinth
Neverout
Non-Stop Raiders
Of Orcs And Men
Orbital Racer
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
Outward - The Soroboreans DLC
Override
Overture
Ozymandias
Partial Control
Pathfinders: Memories
Pathway
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
PGA TOUR 2K21 (may keep)
Pilgrims
Pill Baby
Pixplode
Planet TD
PlataGO!
PowerBeatsVR
Project Chemistry
Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
Propagation VR - Co-op
Pumped BMX +
Quadrata
Radio Commander
Railroad Corporation
Railroad Tycoon 3
Rebel Galaxy
Rebound Dodgeball Evolved
Re-Legion
Remnants of Naezith
Resident Evil Revelations (may keep)
Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Episode 1: Penal Colony
RIOT - Civil Unrest
Roarr! Jurassic Edition
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
ROGUE LORDS
RPG Maker VX
Rym 9000
Sakura Alien
Sakura Knight
Sakura Knight 2
Sakura Knight 3
Sakura MMO
Sakura MMO 2
Sakura MMO 3
Sakura MMO Extra
Sakura Succubus
Sakura Succubus 2
Sakura Succubus 3
Sakura Succubus 4
Sakura Succubus 5
Sakura Succubus 6
Sakura Swim Club
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
Shady Part of Me
Shing!
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
Sid Meier's Railroads!
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis
Slinger VR
Smile For Me
Sorcerer King: Rivals
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Spellcaster University
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Stacking
Starpoint Gemini Warlords
Strider*
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
Super Chicken Catchers
Super Magbot
Surviving the Aftermath (may keep)
Sword Legacy Omen
SYMMETRY
TaniNani
Telefrag VR
The Amazing American Circus
The Beast Inside
The Deed II
The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA TOUR
The Invisible Hand
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (may keep)
The Serpent Rogue
The USB Stick Found in the Grass
Ticket to Ride
Tools Up!
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt
Traffic Jams
Train Station Renovation
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Underland: The Climb
UnMetal*
Vanishing Realms
War for the Overworld
WARSAW
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
White Noise 2
Worms Rumble
WRC 7
WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS
XCOM 2
X-COM: Complete Pack (including X-COM: UFO Defense + X-COM: Apocalypse + X-COM: Enforcer + X-COM: Interceptor + X-COM: Terror from the Deep)
XEL
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack (including X-Morph: Defense + X-Morph: Defense - European Assault + X-Morph: Defense - Survival Of The Fittest + X-Morph: Defense - Last Bastion)
V: Rings of Saturn
Rebel Inc: Escalation
Spirit Of The Island
Lords and Villeins
A Juggler's Tale
Mr. Prepper
Mad Max
MORTAL KOMBAT XL
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Edition
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
Batman™: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
Batman™: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition
Batman™: Arkham City GOTY Edition
Batman™: Arkham Origins
Katamari Damacy REROLL (May keep)
PAC-MAN MUSEUM+
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (May keep, only good offers)
Rebel Inc: Escalation
Spirit Of The Island
Lords and Villeins
A Juggler's Tale
Mr. Prepper
Beacon Pines
There Is No Light
Children of Silentown
Oaken
Snowtopia
Metal: Hellsinger (May keep, only good offers)
Non-STEAM
DOOM 64 (Bethesda.net)
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection (ORIGIN key)
Liberated (GOG key)
STAR WARS: Squadrons (Origin)
Wanderlust Travel Stories (GOG key)
Software
Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7
GameMaker Studio 2 Creator 12 Months
Music Maker EDM Edition
Pathfinder Second Edition Core Rulebook and Starfinder Core Rulebook
Polygon Farm, Polygon City, and Polygon Prototype
GameDev.tv
Complete Unity 3D Developer
Zenva Academy
Intro to Game Development with Unity
Region is NA
My REPs: 202 successful trades, 0 dispute.

I messed up. I messed up bad.
“Never get high on your own supply”. The human who sold me this data told me it was a saying from his world. But I had to be sure it was the real deal. After all, data drugs that worked on people without a brain interface installed? It was unheard of. But here I am [30 hours] later, and I no longer doubt. I feel utterly exhausted despite having barely moved. My every neuron feels fried. All 6 grasping appendages are sore from the repetitive motions, and my eyes are dry and unfocused from the long strain I have put them through. I feel intense pangs of hunger and thirst, as I haven’t eaten or drank since I started this test.
I still want more. But with a great effort of will I force myself away from the screen of my computing terminal and stumble to my pantry so I may attend to my body’s needs. As I gulp down nutrient drinks and chew some dried fruit, I reflect on the trance I’ve somehow barely managed to pull myself out of.
Simulations. A useful tool for engineers, scientists, and military strategists. We had never thought to teach storytellers or artists to use them. Humans had. And what they created was both miraculous and monstrous.
Humans decided to use simulation technology to create art and craft stories. It seemed that there was a human simulation… no, hundreds of human simulations, designed to invoke whatever feeling or emotion you could imagine. And possibly some you couldn’t.
I had started simple. A basic test of spatial reasoning, and later quick thinking, expressed through the medium of stacking colored blocks formed into geometric shapes. While comparable at first to a children's toy, as the speed and challenge increased I became increasingly hypnotized. The feeling of lining up and clearing four rows at once with the all too rare straight piece was intensely satisfying. Making a mistake, leaving a gap caused frustration and incompleteness like I had never felt before, and eventually fixing it gave a feeling of relief, of rightness. As the game sped up, I found myself more and more frantic to try and find places for every piece. The rush of success and agony of failure only increased as I prided and chided myself on my quick decisions.
Eventually, I could keep up no longer, leaving me only with a number. A score.
Could I push that score higher?
[4 hours] went by, and I barely noticed.
I should have stopped. I knew that what I had was genuine. But I wanted to know what else this data was capable of.
I navigated a colorful landscape, defying gravity with every action and finding joy in exploration and collection.
I slaughtered demons with a chaingun, turning the fear of being devoured into a rising sense of conquest and bloodlust.
I failed a single test of dexterity, sending me tumbling down a hole and erasing hours of progress, and I nearly knocked myself out from the shock of frustration.
I defeated a hulking warrior with a team of other adventurers, and the triumph of it was only amplified by the sting of failing several times before.
Freedom and entrapment.
Horror and domination.
Elation and sorrow.
Every new experience was an emotional high of a kind I’d never had before, and my hearts were racing with the myriad of feelings rushing through my mind. My imagination was going wild with the possibilities of all these new worlds of data and programming.
My self-reflection comes to a grinding halt. I need to stop. If I’m not careful I’ll get addicted and end up like one of those mindjackers, burning their brains out on data drugs. Supposedly these simulations can’t do that, but I wouldn’t have put it past the seller to lie about that kind of thing.
Well, one way or another, I’m gonna make a [alien animal that shares many traits with both giant squids and magpies]’s hoard selling these. Time to call my best clients…
[Time skip: approximately 25 solar years]
The Rise of the Galactic Game Industry: Fluke of the Black Market, or Human Marketing Genius? You Decide!
Dr’k-Nam, Head Investigative Critic for the Arts and Culture section of Twin Suns Newsgroup
Simulation games, also known as “video games”, have taken the galaxy by storm ever since their controversial introduction and subsequent series of bannings and legalizations across the galaxy. Simulation technology is nothing new of course, but galactic newcomers from the Sol system, Humans, used it in an extremely novel way: art and entertainment. According to their historical records, a significant amount of their entertainment industry is based around simulation games, and that portion has grown even further with their introduction to the galaxy at large.
At first, however, no one was interested. A simulation with little or no practical application, designed only to entertain? Most people preferred to stick with the entertainment they knew, or seek new experiences outside of sims. So what changed?
Simple: some anonymous human decided to sell them as data drugs instead of simulation games; data drugs usable by simply interacting with a computer program, rather than having to inject the data directly in through a neural interface. With this small, but completely false new branding, video games were ready to start spreading across virtual black markets like spoilers for the latest episode of Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah on the galnet (side note: please have some courtesy to others and tag your spoilers).
Human governance and society at large had been reportedly as surprised to see a lack of simulation games from other species as they were that humans had them. But they were even more surprised when they started getting accused of pushing the latest data drug. This was an especially confusing accusation because neural interface technology was not widely adopted by humanity at the time, and only a fraction of a percent of their population even knew of the existence of data drugs in the first place. The revelation that most humans had video games of some sort on their PPDDs (personal portable data devices) threatened to cause an uproar in the galaxy, as paranoia around data drugs was at an all time high among many species.
After trying and failing to ignore the problem for long enough for it to go away, human governance, as well as human corporations producing video games, were forced to release statements, acknowledging that:

• Yes, video games were human productions.
• Yes, they could be addictive in the same way that any other pleasure-seeking activity could be addictive.
• Yes, there are games that even humans ban. Adult subject matter is restricted from youths, but additionally, games could be made manipulatively to exploit or develop gambling addictions, which is banned outright. Technically this ban isn’t even for games specifically, but instead falls under the purview of their laws against taking advantage of the mentally unstable.
• No, they did not “hack your brain” to cause neural impulses, unless you’re a a Syns-nah, who only partially exist in our dimension and are not used to any 3-dimensional sensory inputs, to the point where eating an unflavored [grain product resembling a cracker] can cause them vivid hallucinations.
• If other races want to ban them, go ahead, but humans can’t really stop data from spreading (their government has tried, believe me), and they’re not going to stop making or distributing them where it’s legal.

Ironically enough, the controversy made them much more popular, even in places that decided on banning them. The idea of a simulation that could act like a data drug without the risk of frying your mind like the real thing was enticing to many. The lack of side effects and ease with which the games could be distributed only increased both their spread and unregulatability. In short order, races throughout the galaxy were trying out a new pastime, and galnet connected multiplayer games were bridging the gaps between the stars. Now, several other races, including my own, are seeking advice from human developers in starting their own simulation game projects. Only time will tell what kind of games their unique perspectives will produce, but it’s unlikely that humans will lose their position as the most powerful and profitable storytellers through this new medium; they have generations of experience to draw upon, after all.
Rumors that the data drug sales pitch was a deliberate ploy by the human game industry (to drum up intergalactic sales) or by human governance (to spread human culture and influence) are still under investigation, but solid evidence for either has yet to emerge.
Edit: anyone posting untagged Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah spoilers in the comments section of this article will receive an immediate, no-warning permaban.

Previous Part
Morning eventually came, banishing the eyes that seemed to peer at me through the night. It was strange how suddenly the feeling left me, making me think that someone really was watching me. The whole thing was really doing wonders for my paranoia. Despite the rough morning and sleepless night, I still found myself waiting outside Bianca’s house bright and early that morning. The air was cool but not chilly, one of those perfect days that’s cold enough you’ll never start sweating unless you really try, but warm enough that a T-shirt will get you through without too much trouble.
I only had to knock once before Bianca threw open the door.
“Where you just waiting there for me?”
I asked, cracking a smile and raising an eyebrow.
“You’ll never know” she added playfully, “Are we ready to go then?”
Bianca had made some preparations for the trip, she didn’t have a backpack ready to go but she definitely made an effort to dress the part… sort of. She was wearing an old grey combat jacket that I imagine she pulled out of Stein’s closet. The jacket was way to big for her but she made it work. Her combat boots matched the jacket, looking old and well worn. What didn’t match was the bright red yoga pants she was wearing, but I wasn’t about to complain. Besides, I had packed each of us a spare set of clothes just in case.
“Oh! So I had an idea, its a long walk, not crazy but I’d rather not just walk the whole way if we can help it. Frank and Stein used to have some bicycles when we first came here so I asked them about it and well.”
Bianca chirped, as she led me around the back of the house and pulled a tarp off two abysmal looking bicycles. The bikes were both red at one point but that was a long time ago. Now they were covered in a layer of rust and I could barely make out the branding that may have once read, “Shwinn”.
“Um… Bianca I think I might get tetanus if I sit on that thing.”
“Oh come on! Aren’t you tired of walking everywhere? Lets just give the bikes a shot, if they crumble to dust we can leave them.”
“And get me a tetanus shot.”
I added quickly
“Fine, and get you a tetanus shot.”
Bianca shot back, she feigned annoyance but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face.
Laughing to ourselves, we got on the bikes and took off North, out of town and onto a dirt path leading to the woods. Bianca didn’t say much on the way out but I could tell she was having a good time. This may have been her first time out of the house for something other than supervising Frank and Stein. She tried to hide it by riding fast and staying out in front of me, but I could still catch her eyes literally glowing with happiness every now and then. I thought back to what Frank had said about her eyes glowing when she experiences strong emotion. I hoped that was the case and she wasn’t just trying really hard to influence me, which he had also said would make her eyes glow.
As we neared the end of the path, the forest’s edge came into view. we let the bikes roll to a stop then got off and let them fall over onto the dirt. I half expected them to explode into a puff of rusty brown dust the second they touched the ground but to my surprise, neither bike did. I could’ve swore I heard Bianca sniffle almost like she’d been crying. I opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it, if she wanted to tell me what was going on she would. Well, that or she’d just manipulate me away from the question. Wait, was she doing that now? It’s hard to tell, maybe that’s how everyone around her feels. The more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it must be for her just to have friends or form relationships with people at all. If she told them the truth they’d never know if what they were feeling around her at any given moment was real. All they’d have to go on would be her word, could they really trust that, could I? If she kept her secret she’d know that at any moment she could just change how they felt about her, manipulate them into anything she wanted. Could she resist that kind of power over them and still look someone in the eyes and say she was their friend. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep that secret over years of knowing someone.
“So Keith, were exactly are we headed? You do have some Idea where this mine you’re looking for is right?”
Bianca asked skeptically, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well about that…. I just know its out here in the forest somewhere. That’s pretty much all I have to go on from Frank, Stein, and that massive bartender in town.”
I told her sheepishly.
“Well that explains why you over-packed so much then. Seriously? How long do you think we we’re going to be out here, you’re packed like some kind of survivalist.”
She mocked, picking through the pack I’d made for her. After she finished rooting through the pack I made for her like some kind of giant squirrel and, chastised me yet again for not doing more research on the mine, we set off.
The forest felt imposing as we walked into the woods through a manicured patch of trees. Someone had gone to great lengths to braid a few trees over this little path before the forest turned back into its natural wild state. It gave off the feeling that civilization ended with this path and something else entirely began. As we got off the path our light faded quickly, chocked out by the limbs of massive pine trees. All this cover meant there was very little foliage on the ground which was covered in a blanket of needles. The though occurred to me that we were looking for a mine in a valley. That’s weird because what exactly would be in a valley that warranted the creation of a mine? Usually you’ll find them in mountains so what exactly was one doing out here.
“Bianca I just had a thought, Why would they build a mine out here? I mean what’s the point, is there even anything valuable out here to mine?”
“Yeah, come to think of it your right. What other reason would there be to have a mine out here?”
“Unless they were just mining from a cave but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they were…”
Bianca cut me off
“What was that first thing you said?”
“Um… mining from a cave?”
A lightbulb went off over her head as she exclaimed,
“That’s it! There’s caves under the town, I’ve heard Frank talk about them before! Maybe they didn’t have a real mine so they were just mining something out of the caves.”
“Not to burst your bubble Bianca, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to these caves or mines or whatever it is.”
I responded cautiously, trying not to sound to critical of her revelation.
“Well not exactly, Frank said they were in the East of the forest somewhere so all we have to do is head East till we run into them.”
Bianca said, full of confidence. Then something occurred to me, we had no real way of getting back to the bikes other than retracing our steps. Now that was easy enough now, if we went deeper into the woods we would get lost pretty quickly.
“One more thing Bianca, Maybe we should come up with a way to find our way out? I really don’t want to end up lost out here.”
I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands.
“Way ahead of you on that one, I left my phone back by the bikes. Here give me yours and I’ll put my number in so you can track it and find our way back.”
She said, taking my phone, putting her number into it, and turning it to me to show she’d tracked her own phones location with it, giving us a path back to the bikes.
As we turned East and headed even deeper into the forest the terrain started to change. Instead of the pine needle coating we started to see rocks and the ground was more rugged. Here and there we’d even pass a boulder or two. I decided to break the silence of our search.
“So are you ever going to tell me how you met Frank and Stein?”
Bianca sighed before responding.
“I suppose you deserve to know if your sticking around. You probably guessed I wasn’t always living with them. Lets just say before that I was with someone who I though meant the world to me but I never meant the same to him. It was all a game to him and eventually I noticed that. Then, a little while afterwards I realized I wasn’t exactly powerless anymore and I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of to survive on my own.”
I could tell talking about this hurt her but I needed more.
“That’s not exactly telling me a whole lot Bianca.”
I pressed, maybe a little to hard.
“I found out I had powers and I used them ok! I got myself out of a situation where I was pulled so many way I didn’t know which direction was up! The second I found out I could do the same thing to people myself, I did! You’re the first person to actually seem to give a shit that wasn’t some crazy doctor that tolerates my existence or someone I just manipulated into caring! Maybe I even did that with you! I JUST DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!”
Bianca screamed at me, getting in my face with tears beginning to run down her own. Her eyes were glowing electric blue again and I knew I’d crossed a line.
“Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I… I didn’t know.”
“No.. you didn’t but I guess you should”
Bianca sniffled out, trying desperately to pull herself back together and keep up the act the everything was ok. Bianca went silent for a while as we kept walking along, crying to herself before she finally took a deep breath and said,
“You know, this is the first time someone’s asked me to come along and do something outside the house in years. I spend so much time cooped up in there just helping with experiments and looking after Rocco. It’s actually nice to get out and talk for once.”
Her voice still a lifts hoarse from screaming at me before.
“Look if you want to talk about it we’ve got nothing but time out here. I’d like to know a bit more about you anyways.”
I said taking her hand and trying to sound comforting.
“Yeah maybe I should get some of it off my chest. Here it goes I guess.”
Bianca said, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on my hand. Her eyes still glowed faintly as she told me her story as we ventured deeper into the forest.
I’ll give you the shorter version of it here, mostly cause I’m not sure how she’d feel about me spoiling all her secrets.. She ran away from her family and her college education for a guy, his name was Brooke. Brooke was from money and had a job lined up by his family at a law firm so Bianca thought she was set for life with him. Bianca was madly in love with him at the time but as days grew into months and years, Brooke became a monster. He cheated on her and told her she wasn’t enough, that her shortcomings drove him to do it over and over again and somehow it was all her fault every time. He became abusive not long after the cheating started, flying into fits of hysteric apology afterwards only further convincing Bianca she was somehow at fault. After three years of this she eventually got up the courage to leave and never looked back. On the road she discovered her powers of manipulation, letting her play with people’s emotions and she only got better at it with time. Unfortunately her abilities got her into a very specific form of getting money out of people, prostitution. One day she tried to solicit Stein and he saw straight through her. Stein took her with him to the hotel he and Frank were staying at and they took her in on the spot. The trio traveled together ever since, Bianca becoming a kind of daughter to them.
I was in shock once she finished her story, it sounded like she’d really been through the ringer.“I don’t know what to say, that’s awful, all of it.”
“It was, I lived it. But I made it through, doesn’t matter how at the end of the day. I’ve got Frank and Stein and that’s enough, they let me into their home and I recovered in my own way, I’m still here so I’ll take what I can get right?”
Bianca stated with a cold loom of determination on her face. It was painfully obvious to me that despite the masquerade of being fine she was barley holding it together underneath. Like just talking about it with me was driving a finger into old wounds.
“At least you’ll never have to go through something like that again. With your abilities you never have to get pushed around like that.”
I said with completely no tact whatsoever. Bianca stopped suddenly as I said this and whirled around to face me. The fire I’d seen in her eyes earlier reigniting in seconds.
“Do you really think that’s all this is?! I’m no better than him, even you don’t know what you really think when you look at me! Admit ti!”
Bianca growled at me, hysterical once again.
“No, Bianca I…”
“Look I know your trying to help but just leave it, ok? I’m done talking about this”
She cut me off, pulling herself back together and signaling very clearly we were done with that particular conversation.
“Besides look over there, That hole in the rock see it? That might be what we’re looking for.”
Bianca said, gesturing to the stone wall that now jutted out of the ground beside us.
The rock wall she pointed out was chipped near the middle in a way that couldn’t have been natural. Straight lines don’t really exist in nature and this hole was cut squarely into this rock wall. As we got closer I could see that it wasn’t just an entrance either. The hole opened into the rock wall but then suddenly dropped, like whoever carved it had hit a point where the ground just fell out from under them. From where Bianca and I were looking into the hole we couldn’t quite see the bottom.
“Well we found what we were looking for, is this bringing back any memories from those dreams you had?”
Bianca asked, sounding a little short tempered still as I searched through my bag.
“What are you looking for in there?”
“Rope, I’ve got to see what’s in there and I’m hoping I brought enough to climb down there.”
I replied hurriedly, still tearing apart my bag to get to the rope I had packed underneath everything else.
“Rope? you’re not seriously going to climb down that pit are you? I can barely see down there.”
Bianca complained, sounding exasperated.
“Here, this should help you see down there.”
I said, tossing her one of the two head mounted flashlights I brought along.
“ME? I never said we were going down there!”
Bianca panicked momentarily.
“Look, you can stay up here and wait for me if you really don’t want to go down there. But I would appreciate having you to watch my back.”
I added trying to soften her up. Bianca opened her mouth like she was going to say something but stopped, instead dropping her own pack to the ground and searching through it.
“Look if I’m going down there I’m going to need something better than yoga pants on and…. You actually packed a change of clothes in here. Geez you really did think of everything.”
As Bianca took the jeans I packed and went off to find somewhere to change I finally found the rope. It was about 50 feet of strong climbing rope that I kept for an occasion just like this. Now that’s not to say I was a professional climber by any means but a 20 or 30 foot rappel I should be able to do. I was hoping that the descent wasn’t much further than that. I anchored the rope to a tree a little ways away from the hole in the rock face and tossed the rope down the hole. It hit the bottom with a satisfying thud just as Bianca got back from changing. The jeans I had packed were a little big on her but she’d manage. She looked like a mess in her ancient combat boot and jacket, all of which were too big for her. I tried to open my mouth to tell her she looked nice, I swear I really did but what came out was hyena-like laughter at her appearance.
“I…. Oh god I’m…. It’s just”
I struggled to get out, laughing all the while.
“Well I’m glad you like it at least, ok seriously come on, stop laughing.”
Bianca scolded as she began giggling herself. Soon enough we were both laughing, Bianca’s earlier storminess cleared up by the absurdity of the situation.
Here we were, a succubus and a guy with a strange mark out in the woods getting ready to rappel into a hole in the ground that apparently didn’t exist. All this was almost starting to feel… I’m not really sure how to put it, not normal but not so strange. Honestly I finally felt like I’d found some kind of purpose again out here. As weird as it all was I was starting to enjoy… this, this whole odd situation I’d found myself in. Bianca and I finally got ahold of the laughter and stood back up from our place on the ground.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She asked
“I’ve never heard you complain about your looks before. But no, with those jeans on you look like maybe, just maybe you prepared a little bit for coming out here.”
I teased, getting a little wry grin out of her.
“Come on, lets get going. Hopefully we can be in and out of there pretty quickly.”
I said, handing Bianca her pack and shouldering my own.
Rappelling in wasn’t actually all that hard, really dangerous without safety equipment sure, but neither of us had any trouble descending the maybe 20 foot drop. At the bottom I saw something that shocked me, this place wasn’t abandoned. I saw lighting set up, not on but very clearly set up recently. Bits of old mining equipment were scattered around the… cave? Mine? Im not really sure what to call it anymore. What concerned me more than anything was the light I saw at the far end of the cave (I’m settling on calling it a cave). The light came from a massive bonfire and I could just make out the shadows of several people sitting around it. I have no idea how we didn’t see the smoke on our way in. It wasn’t filling the cave but it also wasn’t coming out from anywhere I saw on the way here.
“Bianca get down!”
I whisper shouted at her, turning off my headlamp and falling flat to the ground myself. Bianca dropped to the ground as she heard me with unexpected grace. I didn’t know if those figures by the fire had seen us but I certainly wasn’t taking chances.
“Ok, I’m going to creep up and see if I can hear them talking or something. Can you just stay here and watch my back? I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to.”
I instructed Bianca who answered with a quick nod and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew a jeweled golden dagger from it.
“I sorry, what’s this now?”
I asked, confused and thrown off guard by the weapon. It was a really beautiful blade, the hilt was silver with several purple gems inlaid in it. The blade was golden save for the razor sharp edge which was some kind of strange blue material that was roughly the same color Blanca’s eyes glowed.
“I had a life before this you know.”
Bianca responded.
“Yeah we talked about it but you didn’t really tell me much about this part apparently. Doesn’t matter I guess just surprised you have Jeff Bezos’s butter knife in your jacket pocket.”
I whispered, pointing at the dagger in her hand.
“Well we can talk more about how I ended up with this later, not really the time now. Just be careful ok.”
I got up as she said this, realizing she was right. Now really wasn’t the time to be asking about strange daggers, I had more pressing issues.
I crouched down and started creeping towards the figures by the bonfire, careful to avoid the rusty machinery bits scattered across the ground. As I got closer I saw a passage I had missed in the dark. I dared to turn my headlamp on for just a second, trying to block out most of the light with my hand. What I saw through the dim light and shadows of my finger left me awestruck. Inside the passage a coliseum had been constructed, with seats carved into the stone. The structure itself was made up of the rusted metal pieces that littered the room, collected and smelted together to form the walls of the structure. What frightened me the most was the symbol clearly and meticulously drawn on the dirt floor, the same symbol that adorned my back, the symbol of the thunderbird. Moving on, more shaken than ever I crept closer still to the roaring bonfire. I could just about make out the words the figures were saying. When I got close enough to make out the word “tests” the fire suddenly went out with a gust of wind.The room temperature must have dropped 10 degrees immediately and I could swear I heard the sounds of heavy rain above us. But the sudden lack of light isn’t what rooted me in place, cowering on the cave floor. What did that was the two illuminated grey eyes that pierced through the darkness like lightning in a storm, eyes I would never forget, the eyes of the woman from Imalone.
This time I clearly heard the voices of the figures from around the bonfire as they all dropped to their knees.
“Shaoni! We weren’t expecting you till later, Stormcaller.”
The figures all said some variation of in unison. Their tone sounding almost as though they were begging for forgiveness. In a voice that hissed like rain on pavement the woman apparently named Shaoni spoke.
“I’ve come to oversee the start of the trials, is everything prepared?”
In one bone chilling moment her eyes locked on mine and she said the one thing I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“You didn’t tell me we had guests.”
The moment the words left her lips I turned back to where Bianca was waiting, her now glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the cave. Giving up any form of subtly, I bolted for the rope behind Bianca. I just wanted to be out of this cave, whatever I might learn from searching around was far outweighed by the fact that Shaoni was here. I’d seen the kind of destruction she’d left in her wake in Imalone and I had no desire to see it happen again here. I banged my ankle on several of the little bits of rusty metal on the floor as I ran, sending sparks of pain up my leg. I didn’t hear anything behind me at all which was almost more unnerving than the footsteps I expected to hear. I closed in on Bianca and saw she hadn’t moved at all, her eyes fixed on something behind me. I dared to take a quick glance back over my shoulder and saw Shaoni taking her first step away from the extinguished bonfire. Lightning crackled around her like one of those novelty plasma globes. In the flashes of light I could see her face. There was no smile or frown, no emotion at all. She simply stared straight ahead towards me and took slow calm steps, inching ever closer.
“Bianca we’ve got to go… NOW!”
I shouted, snapping her to attention. She nodded and turned on her heels, back toward the rope we’d thrown in earlier. Only, when we got to the rope and gave it a tug, it came falling back toward us.
“There’s no way. I…I anchored it to that tree, it should’ve held!”
I cried in disbelief. Bianca and I starred up at the now stormy sky through the hole we would’ve escaped from. Two men walked into view on either side of the hole, glowering down at us. I notice a marking on one of the men’s hands in a flash of lightning from the storm. I could only assume if I was able to make it out I would’ve seen a marking just like the one on my back. Just as soon as the men had appeared a shape flew in from the left with a low growl, taking both men along with it.
“Ok, new plan! There’s something else up there and I really don’t want to get involved with… whatever that was either. I didn’t see any footprints near the entrance so I’m assuming those guys we saw by the bonfire got in another way. We’re just going to have to find where that was and get out that way.”
I instructed Bianca, gesturing to the men in toe with Shaoni and trying not to sound as afraid as I was.
“Ok, I’m with you but lets get moving, I don’t want to any closer to her than I have to be.”
Bianca answered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt a wave of calm rush over me and for the second time I was grateful for Bianca’s ability to simply turn off my fear response.
Shaoni now stood about 50 feet from us with four men following behind her. In the light she gave off I could see the men were all dressed like normal people. I kind of figured they would be more of those canvas wrapped weirdos from Imalone but no. There stood four men in jeans and flannels standing there. Shaoni looked like she could’ve stepped right out of a painting of Pocahontas. She wore an animal hide dress with frills along the bottom and arms. Her head was adorned with a leather band containing several hawk feathers. In short she looked like she’d stepped out of a different time. But I had no time to look over the finer details of her clothing as Bianca and I rushed towards her. Once we got within striking distance I pulled Bianca to the left, towards the passage I had seen earlier. Shaoni never made a move towards us, she just simply looked at me, the ghost of a smile briefly crossing her lips. One of the men with her grabbed at Bianca though, pulling her out of my grasp momentarily. That was a mistake because she was on him immediately with the ornate dagger I’d seen before. As the man grabbed her Bianca lashed out with the dagger, sticking him in the gut with the blade. He screamed in anguish and let go of her but Bianca wasn’t done yet. She followed up by stabbing the man in the back of the neck as he bent over, grabbing at the hole in his abdomen. The other three men were so taken aback by the sudden ferocity she displayed that they didn’t come any closer. As time stood still for a second the men all looked toward Shaoni, awaiting instructions but hesitant to get any closer to Bianca. Using the brief moment of disbelief Bianca had caused, we ran down the side passage towards the coliseum.
“What was that?”
I asked, still shocked by how suddenly Bianca had acted.
“He tried to grab me, I don’t like when they try to grab me”
Bianca responded, distant and… scared? I got the sense she was still in shock at what she had done too. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, we still had to get out of here. Luckily the men didn’t seem to be following us. Wether Shaoni called them off or they stopped to care for their friend I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t care.
Rushing through the rusty coliseum was haunting. I expected something to jump out of every shadow in the imposing structure. As we slowed to a jog in the middle of the coliseum, right where that eagle symbol was, we stopped to look around. We had come into this arena through an open arch but the only other exit I could see was a similar but barred archway. The coliseum was huge for something constructed in a cave, probably 400 feet across. I had no idea how this thing could’ve been made without anybody finding out.
“Bianca are you seeing anyway out of here? Bianca!”
I asked, then shouted as I turned to see her standing still as a statue in the middle of the Eagle symbol. She was staring at the dagger she had stabbed that man with. Blood still stained the blade and dripped from it intermittently.
“Bianca are you alright?”
I questioned as I walked over to her. She still had this look in her eyes, like she was miles away.
“Bianca? Come on talk to me. Look, you did what you had to do back there, sure it wasn’t exactly pretty but it had to be done.”
I tried to comfort her with my words but the truth is, my heart just wasn’t in it. I was a little scared of what I saw from her in those few moments. She just lashed out and attacked him, not that he didn’t deserve it but going back for more was too much. But what would’ve happened if she didn’t act? It’s not something I could really dwell on now and I’m not sure it really mattered. I just wasn’t feeling all that great about the fact we may have killed someone.
“I don’t like it when they grab me.”
Bianca finally repeated, still appearing catatonic. I leaned down to her level, putting my face right in-front of her’s and putting her head in between my hands.
“Bianca I know enough to know that whole situation may have dug up some memories for you but nows really not the time. We have to keep moving, we have to find a way out of here, and I can’t do that without you right now.”
Bianca tensed up as I spoke to her, but I could feel her relax as I finished. A single tear fell from her eye as she gave me a nod and followed behind me as I walked toward the barred off archway.
Before I made it to the archway there was a massive crash as something tore the rusty bars from their mountings and fell into the room.
“Tuck?!”
I exclaimed, recognizing his colossal figure on the floor immediately. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds though, Like he’d flexed too hard and burst out of his clothes. Bianca and I rushed over to check on him but apparently he was fine. Before we even started walking towards him he was already back up on his feet and lumbering towards us.
“Tuck what are you doing here? Actually never mind, are you ok?”
I asked, concern in my voice.
“It’s going to take more than this to stop me son. I figured you might go looking for that old mine I mentioned the other night so I came to find you. I feel real bad about ya run’in off the way ya did and I got to thinking. Maybe I could make it up to ya if I told ya about the mine. So I came out here and found some shady look’in fellas poking around and figured maybe ya needed help, looks like I was right.”
Tuck explained, dusting himself off and brushing away some of the tattered remains of his shirt. I didn’t buy his story for a second but I wasn’t going to argue with this bear of a man.
“So how did you get in anyway?”
“Used the old entrance from back when this place was still run’in, come on I’ll lead ya out.”
Tuck answered, already turning and walking back the way he came.
The walk out was long and none of us talked much so I just looked around. The further we walked down this little tunnel the more I noticed crushed equipment. The walls looked like they were made up of bits and pieces of crumbled rock that may have once been the ceiling of a much bigger tunnel here.
“There was a collapse, just like the report said only, whatever caused it wasn’t any fault of ours. It was that damn thunderbird waking up.”
Tuck piped up, answering one question and making me ask another.
“Wait you knew about her?!”
“All the miners did, some decided to follow her after she woke up and brought the walls down on us. Others wanted revenge for the brothers we lost, I’m one of the former. You see son, the reason I stayed around this town so long was because of that bird. I want a chance to return the favor.”
“But what about Robert? If you hate the thunderbird so much why’d you let him in? You had to see that tattoo on his hand.”
“I know he thinks that damned bird will “save” him or something but I don’t blame him. Everyone deals with things in their own way and it’s not my place to judge folk for it.”
Tuck lectured, as we made our way further down the passage. His words made sense to me but I didn’t understand how he could be so understanding. From what I understood the thunderbird had a part to play in the original mine’s collapse and the death of the workers there. Only for some of the survivors to revere this creature. If I were in Tuck’s shoes I don’t think I could forgive and forget.
Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. We emerged into the whispers of what I’m sure was a monster of a storm. But that’s not what drew my attention, what did were the boulders scattered around the hole we just came out of. It looked like they had been moved, and recently. The suspicious red stain just barley peaking out from the bottom of one of them only served to convince me further. Tuck’s story didn’t quite make sense and this entrance seemed like it should’ve been blocked up until very recently. I wasn’t about to question the guy who saved us though, so I let the issue rest.
Bianca’s idea of tracking her phone to find our way to the bikes worked like a charm. We followed the directions my phone spit at us and eventually found our way back to the bikes. Tuck’s old Ford Bronco sat behind our bikes leaving me to question if he followed us on our way here.
“Well do you kids want a ride back to town?”
Tuck asked, his voice bellowing across the forest. Seriously it was like the guy swallowed a loudspeaker at some point and just spoke through it now.
“No we’ll find our own way back.”
“Alrighty then, stay safe son.”
Tuck called back to me as he got into his truck and drove off. Bianca and I stood up our bikes and got ready to head back to town.
“Hey Keith?”
“Yeah what is it Bianca?”
“Next time you offer to bring me along somewhere can you warn me about the damn thunderbird that seems to just show up around you.”
I laughed at this, it was nice to see Bianca joking around again. After what happened in the caves she seemed like someone else, none of her usual cheeriness was there. Not that I knew if that was what she wanted me to see from her or how she actually presented herself but still. I trusted her enough at this point to assume she wasn’t using her abilities to mess with my head.
When we got back to Bianca’s house the sun was just beginning to set, washing the town in shades of purple, orange, and red. We walked the bikes around to their place behind the house and I walked Bianca back to the front door.
“Thanks for today Keith,I don’t… get out very much anymore and it was… nice… to do something other than sit around the house for once. You know, despite everything that happened it was actually fun.”
I was taken aback by her words at first. If it was me I’d immediately want nothing to do with this person who just put me in danger.
“You had fun? The thunderbird showed up again and we may have killed a guy and you had fun?”
I asked, raising and eyebrow suspiciously.
“Can we not talk about that right now? Anyways I don’t exactly have a high bar for what is and isn’t fun at this point. I’ll see you later Keith.”
Bianca said, cracking a smile and walking into her house.
I was about halfway back to my own house when I realized she never gave me my backpack back. Well, looks like I’d be seeing her again then because I need that stuff back. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d seen today. If the thunderbird was in those mines years ago why did she end up in Wisconsin? There was also a very real possibility some people in this town worshipped her so I’d have to keep an eye out for that. The really interesting thing to me was the Shaoni never seemed to want to hurt me in the cave today. She was terrifying as all hell sure, but I didn’t get the sense that she wanted to cause me any sort of harm. If she wanted to do that my gut told me she would’ve done it quickly and efficiently.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside, interrupting my train of thought. As I stood up to see what time it was a knock came from the front door. I froze, who exactly could it be? I doubt Bianca would come over, I don’t think she even knows where I live but maybe she came by to drop off the backpack she absconded with? The knock came again, more forcefully this time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
I shouted, as I jogged to the door. My heart dropped as soon as I opened it, On the other side of the door stood Shaoni. She was dressed normally for once, wearing a long flowing white nightgown. Shaoni stepped into my house as she cooed in her usual misty voice.
“Good evening. Keith was it? We have much to discuss.”

Hi, folks! I want to reset my preowned Vita, since it's still linked to the PSN account of the previous owner and has many plugins and apps installed (some of which I don’t even know what they're good for).
Here's my situation:
What I already did:

• used the search bar here
• googled
• read the guides at vita.hacks.guide
• watched dozens of YouTube tutorials
• hacked a PS TV and installed SD2Vita (so, I do have a little experience doing it)

What I have:

• a PS Vita 1004 OLED with CFW 3.65 Henkaku Enso installed
• SD2Vita adapter with a 128 gb microSD card, currently filled with many apps/plugins
• no Memory Card/Memory Stick
• no PC (just a Mac instead)

What I want to achieve:

• getting rid of everything on the Vita and the microSD, I don’t mind for the loss of any data (in fact, that’s exactly what I want)
• being able to link the Vita to my PSN account

What I now *think is the way to do it:*

• Take out the SD2Vita adapter with the microSD card while the Vita is powered down
• Boot into safe mode and restore the Vita (and letting it update to OFW 3.74)
• Following the steps mentioned at vita.hacks.guide for hacking it again (and create an internal memory card in the process to be able to permanently hack it to CFW 3.65)
• Put the SD2Vita adapter back in and following the steps for installing it (installing Vitashell and YAMT, reformatting the microSD card under Devices - Storage Devices, copying files with Vitashell, setting uma0/ux0 as described)
• Installing all the wanted apps and plugins (just the usual stuff here, like PKGj, VitaDB, Adrenaline, GrapheneCt/PSVShellPlus, …)
• logging in to my PSN account (mainly for trophies, friends, …)

Can someone confirm that this is the way to go - or am I missing something? Especially, I am not really sure, how to best get rid of all the data on the microSD card…
Huge thanks in advance for any feedback and input!

​The draft is coming up and even though this is a perceived weak class there are some scenarios of players we can get that I'm very excited about and I'm curious what you guys think.
Tier 1A: Reed Sheppard
I'm heads over heels in love with the idea of Sheppard in Charlotte. I think our two biggest needs as a team right now first and foremost a point-of-attack/off-ball guard defender and not close behind that in second a guard that has some explosive ability on offense to both play next to and takes on ball handling duties without LaMelo. I feel that Reed was borderline made in a lab to address those needs.
Let's start on offense. Sheppard is a marksman. The guy shot above 50% from three for the duration of the season on 4 attempts a game. He also has a smooth quick release that will allow him to be able to get his shot off against NBA-level defense in my opinion.
He also showed the ability to play both on and off the ball and thrive with a number of different guards with different skill sets at Kentucky.
He also showed extremely highly basketball character in accepting an extremely underserved bench role without ever complaining at Kentucky when frankly he was the best player on the team. He shows some juice as a playmaker he averaged 4.5 assists per game in just 29 minutes off the bench with a lot of those minutes being spent off the ball.
Multiple guard lineups are all the rage these days but it's a lot more complicated than just sticking two guys together and saying you can never have enough playmaking See Garland and Mitchell in Cleveland and Young and Murray in Atlanta.
Reed I feel fits seamlessly in the best-case scenario of LaMelo being a healthy ball-dominant All-Star and also provides nice insurance for the scenario where LaMelo remains unhealthy.
Now for defense, this is an interesting discussion.
From appearances alone, Sheppard looks like a nightmare on defense. He is only 6'3" with a 6'3" wingspan. He is not a very explosive athlete laterally (we will get to his vertical later). But simply writing off Reed based on that is a mistake.
The guy is maybe the best hustle defensive stat player I have ever seen. He averaged 2.5 steals per game off the bench at his size and even more absurdly averaged nearly one block per game at .7.
That's where that 42-inch vertical comes into play. He had 2 fewer blocks on the season than Kentucky's starting center. Sheppard hustles like hell off of the ball and reads passing lanes exceptionally.
He can be exposed in 1 on 1 situations by size and speed to such an extent that he will never make an all-defense team but he's far from a liability in total on defense and is any many ways an asset. He brings an effort and intensity to that side that we really lack.
While he does lack the elite physical traits of a plus defender, he certainly punches above his weight and is an upgrade to anything that we have had at the position in quite some time.
As far as making a comparison, I think Fred VanVellet on the Raptors is a similar mold to what I think Reed can be here.
FVV started off as a UDFA who slowly made his way up the Raptors rotation.
FVV is even smaller than Sheppard at 6'0". But, he also is a player that punches above his weight defensively.
While he was their backup point guard behind their All-Star in Kyle Lowry, FVV also became an excellent off-the-ball player there, especially during their title run.
Sadly, I think there is a good chance Sheppard is off of the board by the time we get to pick 6.
There is some downside of him being a tweener who is neither a truly explosive player at the point guard position and too small to be a high impact at the 2. In that scenario, I think his career could follow somewhat of a Luke Kennard, Grayson Allen arc.
But I absolutely love this pick and am rushing it in if I am Jeff Peterson and he's on the board at 6.
Tier 1: Stephon Castle
Not gonna lie, I came into this wanting to hate Castle. I looked at him as a non-shooter, who was riding the hype of a UConn team that won the title and thought that his desire of being a more ball dominant player was unfounded.
But as I've looked into him I've gotten really comfortable with him being the guy at 6.
Starting with the positives, as I said earlier, the Hornets' biggest need to me is a point-of-attack defender at the guard position and Stephon Castle is that guy.
He showed amazing defensive chops at UConn and was trusted with some of the toughest assignments in major games. He's 6'6" got good size for his age at 19 in 210 pounds and a 6'9" wingspan.
To have the defensive presence and acumen he did for a team more focused on winning the title than it was at developing NBA talent at his age was highly impressive.
I think he can guard both guards and wings at his size and do both at a higher level than Sheppard approaching that all-defense ceiling.
The offense is where his age did show he very much looked like a freshman at times with just inconsistencies throughout his game.
His jump shooting was sporadic at best and more often than not just poor. He only shot 26.7% from 3.
He did get hot at times and is a decent free throw shooter at 75% so while hope is not lost on that end. Banking on him being a good shooter in the next 2-3 years is far from a guarantee.
Castle is adamant that he has more juice with the ball in his hands than he showed at UConn and wants more opportunities to play the 1 in the NBA.
While his offensive profile would concern me greatly if I were a team building around him as my lead guard. I do think that playing with LaMelo and Brandon will give him the space to add a little more juice to his game while not having too much creation responsibility.
This comparison is a lot more friendly than it sounds but I think a possible deluxe version of Nickeil Alexander-Walker for the Timberwolves could be the mold for Castle. Great defender that has more guard skills on offense than you typically get from someone who can defend 1-3 but not enough guard skill to really be happy if he was ever your lead guard.
If LaMelo can stay healthy, I do really like the idea of him coming along slowly as the defensive connective tissue and connector on offense in between LaMelo and Bradon.
Tier 2: Donavan Clingan, Nikola Topic
I am decidedly less excited about both of these options than the first two but there are some things to like.
Clingan could come in immediately and I feel replicate the role that Brook Lopez and Kristaps Porzingis played as drop coverage rim protectors for Charles Lee in Milwaukee and Boston.
He also shows some nice traits as a passer which could carry over from the things Boston's does with KP and Al Horford.
I think Clingan could be worth it even if we have confidence that Mark Williams' back injury will be fine in the long term. Look at Dallas with Gafford and Livley; their ability to have that caliber of center play at all times is a huge asset.
Downside for Clingan is he's a very poor free throw shooter and will be a hack-a-shaq target more than likely/
His upside on offense really isn't there, it's really a what you see is what you get proposition.
Topic, if we take him it's really getting into a best player available proposition because I really do not love the fit here.
He's a very high IQ player, and shows some really nice crafty traits and tricks of the trade. He's played at a high level professionally as a teen all of which are great.
However, I think he really does lack zip and explosiveness with the ball in his hands, he's a pretty stiff and rigid mover that kinda plays like he's stuck in one gear on offense. He struggled to shoot the ball only making 26 threes in 22 games.
That lack of explosiveness shows on defense as well where I found him be pretty poor.
He is a good free throw shooter so there is possibly some upside to the jump shot. He's a very smart player who I do think takes good angles and does crafty things to get to the rim and get downhill and playmaker for others so I do see how he can at least develop that out to the mid-range area.
He reminds me a lot of Josh Giddey, who is currently a bad fit with SGA and Jalen Williams, two players that I view as a very good blueprint of how I would like to see the team be built around LaMelo and Brandon.
On the high side of outcomes for Topic, I could see Goran Dragic on the Heat and possibly even a little bit of Franz Wagner, and I do think he is the best choice if the first three choices are off the board.

A/N: yeah I changed up the Alliance admiral's name from Shepard Adama to Sheparda Dama (so creative i know) because the old one was going to fuck me over badly at some point. It would be like trying to make a legitimate, serious fantasy novel with a wizard named Albus Gandalf. I was NOT cooking when I came up with that shit.
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It was said that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy. That, at least in the case of Marcus Wayne’s infiltration of Neldia, was proven entirely true.
His ship, the Peacemaker, had undergone an extensive refit before its jump to Neldia to both modify its sensor signature and repair its failing Aegis barrier. The first objective succeeded. The second did not.
One day later, leaving the derelict Ultimate Vigil behind in deep space, the United Human Alliance courier ship Winged Deliverance logged a real space entry at the edge of the Neldia system. Its crew, having spent their waking hours plagued by hallucinations and enduring horrible nightmares as they slept, found this shift very welcome. The worst, though they could hardly believe it, was still yet to come.
“The Neldian fleet is mustering for war,” rumbled the man who had once held the title and security codes of an Alliance sector admiral. Now, he was a traitor to his homeland. “Security will be high.”
“No need to worry, Admiral,” said Marcus Wayne. “Your code will get us through.” It would not.
It took two hours for the Peacemaker, disguised as the Winged Deliverance, to be challenged by the Neldian Armada. “Transmit clearance code,” said an automated voice. Marcus took out a data disc with the admiral's clearance code on it.
“Hold,” said Terris. She was clad in black, her active camouflage offline to save battery, and she had been sitting at the passive sensor console for the past three hours. “Look at this.” A news broadcast popped up in front of Marcus Wayne and his officers. Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama, or at least he was once a sector admiral, had been tried and convicted of high treason.
“It was a secret trial,” Dama said, still in shock at the revelation. “I had no knowledge of this.”
“Well, that tracks, but what do we do now? What code gets us through?”
“Transmit clearance code,” the voice said again, “or adjust course.”
Dama thought for a moment. “Change course,” he said. “We’re not getting through.”
They did. A great sense of defeat took hold in the hearts of the crew. They would never reach the Neldian hypercom. Sheparda Dama, who would have gladly given his life in defense of humankind, would never get the chance to be the man who broke their chains.
The Peacemaker was halfway out of the Neldia system before Terris spoke again. “Hold it,” she said. “I have an idea.”
That was why she had been placed where she was. Clad in an airtight stealth suit. Inside a hollowed-out asteroid. On a ballistic journey to the heart of Neldian space. It was the most insane idea that Marcus Wayne had ever seen.
But, sometimes, insanity was a symptom of genius.
Terris flew past the Neldian Armada undetected. Many asteroids entered the inner system this way, flung by outer-system prospecting ships to the foundries and shipyards in Neldian orbit, and they were thrown and caught so frequently that only the most cursory of inspections was put upon each one. Terris passed the Alliance fleet entirely undetected.
Terris’ chameleon suit could mimic the sensor return of the precious metals it was buried in, at least enough to fool a probing scan, and the cuts made by Protectoral engineers had been so precise that Terris had fit inside there with barely a centimeter of space to spare. She was effectively entombed inside sixty meters of solid rock.
Interstellar espionage was not a job for the claustrophobic.
Finally, after days of waiting, the signal came. She was in range. A mental command triggered a series of shaped charges in the rock above her, if such directions existed in microgravity, and forty pea-sized explosives blasted a circular tunnel all the way to the asteroid surface. If just one of them had failed, that rock might have been her tomb.
Terris tried not to think about that as she began climbing her way out. A brief burst from her suit’s EVA thrusters was enough to start her on her way, and the tunnel out was wide enough for her to use her arms and legs to speed things up. Finally, after too long a wait, Terris saw the Neldian sun for the very first time.
There was fire in the distance. Comm chatter on every band. Warships burning hard for the outer system. The Coalition fleet was here.
She zoomed in, far more than she had ever had to before, and she could pick out the faintest flashes of blue as warships exploded in the black. A brief crawl around the asteroid, which also helped to warm up her muscles after days of inactivity, let her discern an attack force engaging the Alliance fleet. After a moment’s hesitation, weighing the risks, Terris activated her passive sensor suite to try and decrypt Alliance military chatter.
Instantly, her sensors were flooded with noise from the defensive bastions. The fleet base at the L5 point was loudest, its comm operators screaming indecipherably at fellow Alliance elements fighting in the black. Neldian orbit, where the hypercom station was, seemed to be the centerpiece of all the communications traffic. The hypercom, unsurprisingly, was being used as a relay for comm traffic all across the system. Terris made a note to hack its server banks for intelligence, and perhaps leave a timed virus or two to shut down the system after she was gone.
Her suit bleeped, alerting her that she was in optimum position to make the leap to the hypercom. She zoomed in on it, a red and spiked thing just like everything else the Alliance made, and calculated the right trajectory to land right on its metal surface.
Trying to jump from a moving asteroid out past Neldia’s rings and hit a hypercom station barely three hundred meters in diameter was like shooting a rifle from a jumbo jet in hopes of hitting a mosquito down on Earth. A nearly impossible shot, even with Coalition computers to help make the jump, and anyone lucky enough to make it would have been better served bankrupting their local casino at the slot machines.
Terris gave a command to her suit, activating a set of ion thrusters to boost her off the asteroid and adjust her course mid-flight. She’d never believed in luck.
She coasted silent and graceful past the particle guns in high orbit, like a majestic swan flying on a summer wind. Their sensor arrays were directed out, past her, to the far distant parts of space where a trillion tons of steel were locked in deadly battle. Terris really did wish she could smile at the moment. She was about to have unrestricted access to the biggest communications relay in the star system, able to send out viruses and receive vital intelligence that could cripple the Alliance fleet if placed in the right hands. Terris, confident as ever, knew they would be.
She would make the Neldian Armada burn, and they had no idea she was even coming.
She reached the hypercom station in just under a day, agonizingly slow for a woman like her, hovering just above its surface to avoid triggering pressure sensors. After that, it was simple enough to get inside. Terris found it almost trivial to bypass the airlock sensor grid and trigger the outer bulkhead to open unnoticed, its report to the command room destroyed before it ever arrived. Entering the station itself was easy after that.
Here, there was gravity. She could not hover like she had on the outside of the station. But here, there were no pressure sensors. She really had no need to hover.
The corridor she found herself in was large enough, though nothing like the expansive halls of a dreadnought, and a patrol of marines in powered suits trundled towards her obliviously. Terris had made the right call not to wear a Phantom powered suit. She ducked into an alcove, the chameleon suit concealing her from even their impressive sensor batteries, and they passed by with no clue at all.
Terris made it to the server banks with ease. Most of the hypercom’s security measures took the form of warships in orbit, clustered tightly around the planet to prevent exactly this scenario from happening, but those warships were off waging war. The station defenses were hopeless now that she was actually inside.
The data was encrypted, and she could neither access it nor copy it without potentially fatal consequences, but she wasn’t there to steal data. A brief, milliseconds-long connection to the primary server was all it took to riddle the entire system with custom-tailored computer viruses. The viruses were self-replicating, rather like an electronic version of the biological ones on Earth. They worked similarly, too, meant to latch onto outgoing communications signals and remain inert for a certain amount of time before activating and wreaking havoc across cyberspace.
The program would be scoured from the net in seconds once it began its assault, but it would cause plenty of chaos before then. And, with another critical transmission being scheduled to send at around that time, Terris knew her mostly-ineffective virus attack would be just enough of a distraction to make sure its message was heard.
Terris planned to leave the station in approximately thirty minutes. Shortly after that, the fireworks would begin. It was going to be beautiful.
She heard footsteps. A maintenance worker, no doubt. It was time for her to go. She disconnected from the server, taking pains to hide her involvement, and snuck out of the server room like a ghost in the night.
Next was the transmission array. This room was better-guarded, its door being flanked by marines, but Terris slipped inside by trailing behind an officer as he entered on some unknown pretext. After that, her daring and sleight of hand made sure Admiral Dama’s pre-recorded propaganda transmission was uploaded to the hypercom transmitter. It came with a set of instructions bearing the Admiralty’s seal, changed to be anonymous, to ensure as many people as possible heard his message.
In just under one standard hour, the United Human Alliance would be shaken to its very core. Terris had just made sure of it.
It took longer than she had expected for the door to open again and give her a chance to slip out. Terris had spent that time quite productively, downloading as many incoming and outgoing messages as she could to the internal hard drive just by her spinal cord. Even if they were encrypted, they’d be useful intelligence once Coalition codebreakers took a crack at them.
After that, it was trivial to slip past marine patrols and escape to the hull of the hypercom station. Terris found her ride, an Alliance warship by the name of Brightest Thunder, holding orbit just near the hypercom station. Admiral Dama, even if he was no longer an admiral, still had connections.
She charged her ion thrusters by tapping into the station reactor, an act which did not go unnoticed, but by then it was too late to respond. She had completed her incursion. The damage had been done. Perhaps if the Alliance acted swiftly and accurately, they could undo it, but Terris was a careful woman. She had covered her tracks well.
Waving one final goodbye to the crew of the hypercom station, Terris triggered her thrust pack and shot off into the ink.
“You must be my passenger.” A man in an Alliance captain’s uniform was waiting for her in the Brightest Thunder’s airlock. He wore a helmet and gloves, hermetically sealed to his airtight outfit, so he felt no effects from the vacuum of space. “I was sent by Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama,” he announced after a period of silence, “To transport you and whatever you may have safely to the Coalition fleet.” Nothing. Apart from the dull thudding of the ship’s railgun batteries, firing missiles at range to ward off a strike force of Coalition ships, the airlock was quiet as a ghost.
“You cannot expect me to endanger my life and the lives of my crew without at least some identification that you are who you claim to be!” Silence. Captain Senar Trevy had been standing in that airlock for three and a half hours, while his ship was tasked with screening Neldia and her eighteen billion inhabitants from harm, and he was just now wondering if he had been talking to a ghost.
“I am,” came a voice. Cold. Sterile. Inhuman. Exactly the kind Trevy expected from the secret spies of his former admiral.
“So you are.” Captain Trevy thought for a moment. He cycled the airlock. If his guest held hostile intent, one steel bulkhead would make no difference. “I’ve been stocking the crew with handpicked men and women since I received word of the operation,” he explained as they walked through the ship’s corridors. The crewmen he passed thought him insane. “I can’t vouch for them all, but the ship as a whole will obey me.” No response. Sometimes, Captain Trevy thought himself insane as well.
“This is my personal quarters,” he told the specter, stepping inside and sealing the door behind him. “I must warn you, for your own safety, it would be best not to leave it. The crew are mostly still Alliance loyalists.” He looked around, paying no heed to the decorated furniture or artificial sky, and finally shrugged and sighed. “Are you even here, still?”
Terris decloaked. She stood between him and the door, winged and cloaked in black like a demon of ancient myth. “I am.”
“You’re a black angel.” Senar Trevy, to his credit, kept his composure well. “A spy for the Ierad Republic.” He questioned her purpose here. They both knew it.
“You weren’t told?”
“I was told an alien would be coming aboard, but…” Trevy shrugged again, as if to say ‘what am I supposed to do?’ “The admiral vouched for you. That much is enough for me.” He also knew he had no choice in the matter. From what he knew about black angels, his ship had been lost the moment she boarded.
“I could have impersonated him,” said Terris, voice a perfect replica of Captain Trevy’s own. Even his own mother could not have told the difference. “And I’m trained to lie.” She was testing him, gauging his reaction to assess his personality. She was good at that.
“I could have you screened for deception,” Trevy countered, pointing up at a pearl-sized camera in the ceiling. Terris made a note that it was disabled. “And I could have had the technology officers vet your transmission.”
“I’m trained to lie well.” Terris sat down on Captain Trevy’s bed, a spartan thing compared to the sleeping quarters of most officers. There were no chairs in the room, so her options were few. She took off her helmet and tried to at least appear relaxed. In reality, she was anything but. “It comes with the job, really.”
“Fair,” Trevy chuckled, feigning calm. “I suppose the question now becomes whether or not you can trust me.”
“It’s a safe gamble.” Terris made a mental calculation. It would take her between thirty and fifty seconds to kill Captain Trevy, take the bridge, and vent the ship. That was a very safe gamble. “Besides, that’s what a peace treaty is.” Trevy looked confused. “A leap of faith. You trust your enemy to back their word, and you trust them to trust you as well. If we can’t get along here, can’t put aside our differences to work toward a common goal, then the Alliance will be right. And I hate it when they’re right.”
“I’m speaking to you now because I know they are wrong.” That came as no surprise to either of them. “You know, I was once a foreman of a labor crew in the munitions factories. The most productive unit in my sector.” That one did come as a surprise. “As a foreman, you get leeway to make certain decisions regarding the… well, I suppose they are slaves, under your command. Food intake and the like.” Captain Trevy looked pained when he brought up such memories. Terris wasn’t convinced that was how he really felt. “They use it to weed out any potential xeno sympathizers from the populace. Of course, at the time, I wasn’t so empathetic.”
“So you were a slave driver, and you beat your slaves to make them work. I hope every one of those shells was sabotaged.” Terris’ voice dripped with disdain. She had almost forgotten the Alliance captain was her enemy.
“No, I showed mercy,” Trevy defended himself. “I was generous.” This made Terris reconsider. Perhaps Senar Trevy could be an ally, if not a friend. “I won’t say I was a good man, but I wasn’t cruel. I was practical. Strong, healthy, well-treated workers are more productive than the beaten sacks of flesh in the other factories. My crew’s output was unmatched.”
“And?” Terris cocked her head inquisitively. For a high-ranking officer in the space navy of a genocidal regime, Senar Trevy really did not seem so bad. To be fair, however, she had set the bar pretty low.
“I was investigated for anti-human activity.” Terris could have predicted that. She almost did, too. “They sent me to the fleet, and my labor crew was reacquainted with the energy whips and pain beams.” There was no carrot for an Alliance labor slave. Only the stick. “Their productivity fell thirty percent in the first two weeks alone.” He sounded almost mournful as he said that. He was not lamenting the loss in productivity.
“You see,” said Trevy, “Hatred is not natural. It has to be caused, sustained, nurtured from the day a man is born until the day he dies.” With that, at least, Terris agreed. “And, as you’re about to see, a nation built around cruelty or prejudice cannot sustain itself. It will have to apply pressure to maintain its flawed status quo, like it did with me, and the pressure will build and build until it cannot build anymore.” He tapped a few buttons on the data disc in his hand. It began projecting an image of the battle for Neldia. He placed it on the bed next to Terris. “Now it’s breaking.”
“I wonder if they’ll find themselves in need of more shells.” Terris knew it wasn’t just shells. Every time a slave driver prioritized hatred over hard work, put cruelty over their quota, or even just bowed their head and obeyed the traditional dogma, they hurt the Alliance. Across nine worlds, with billions of slaves not working as they could have, things started to add up. “You know, for a superior species, your fleet is really getting its ass kicked right now. Might want to work on that.”
Captain Trevy nodded. His data disc beeped. He was needed on the bridge. “Agreed,” he said. “I hope this war ends soon, and to our mutual benefit. I’d hate to face you on the battlefield.” He picked up the data disc and turned to leave.
“Oh, forgot to mention, there’s a virus embedded in the transmissions you’ve received. Self-replicating. Nasty piece of work.” Terris shifted a bit in her seat. “Almost forgot about that.”
“Well, better to know now than when it’s activated,” Trevy smiled. “I’ll have Technology Officer Galdir investigate it.” With that, he left. His duty to the Alliance was nonexistent, but the men and women under his command still needed him. He had waited too long in the stateroom.
Terris, with nothing better to do, got to work on cracking the encryption in the transmissions she had copied. She failed. A transmission from deep in unknown space, sent from a dreadnought at the head of a task force known only as the Deep Expedition Fleet, was the only message she could read. Its contents, while troubling, mattered little at the moment. What was far more crucial, however, was the message Terris could not decipher. The military battle plan of Janus Ora’s personal armada.
The battle plan that, when analyzed on a Republic starship, would reveal its terrible secret too late.
The Coalition fleet was walking into a trap.
First Previous Wiki Next

N.B.: I'm mainly looking for the games listed in the title and at the bottom of the thread. Feel free to post other offers, but if I haven't responded to your comment(s) by my next posting, I likely wasn't able to find a trade that interested me.
​
For sale (for Steam Gift Cards or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
​

• Dark Souls™: Prepare To Die™ Edition (removed from Steam Store; $350 $400 or best offer)
• Fall Guys (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Dragon Hugger Pack (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Icy Adventure Pack (removed from Steam Store)
• Marvel's Avengers - The Definitive Edition (removed from Steam Store)
• Spec Ops: The Line (removed from Steam Store)

​

• Humble Hunie Sakura Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Australia Fire Relief Bundle or similar))
• Humble Sekai Project Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Stand with Ukraine Bundle or similar))

​
For trade:
*signifies that a game is tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
​

• Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition
• Soulstice
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – Ultimate Edition

​

• A Little to the Left
• Black Book

​

• Superliminal
• The Talos Principle Gold Edition
• The Witness

​

• Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
• Life is Strange: True Colors
• Scorn
• There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition

​

• Hellpoint
• Remnant: From the Ashes
• Tails of Iron

​

• Hell Pie
• OTXO
• The Red Lantern
• Twin Mirror

​

• Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace
• Blood Rage: Digital Edition
• Gloomhaven - Solo Scenarios: Mercenary Challenges
• Small World
• Small World - A Spider's Web
• Small World - Be not Afraid...
• Small World - Cursed!
• Small World - Grand Dames
• Small World - Royal Bonus
• Splendor
• Splendor - The Cities
• Splendor - The Strongholds
• Splendor - The Trading Posts
• Terraforming Mars

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• A Short Hike(?)
• A Story Beside(?)
• Aces & Adventures(?)
• Arcade Spirits(?)
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock(?)
• Beyond Blue(?)
• Cat Quest(?)
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!(?)
• EARTHLOCK(?)
• Harmony's Odyssey(?)
• Homeworld Remastered Collection(?)
• Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure(?)
• Minecraft: Java Edition - MCC Island Jingle Jam Rewards Pack(?)
• Monster Prom(?)
• Sifu Deluxe Cosmetic Pack(?)
• Spirit of the Island(?)
• SUPERHOT(?)
• Tinytopia(?)
• Toodee and Topdee(?)
• Train Valley 2(?)
• Turbo Golf Racing(?)
• Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story(?)
• Xenonauts(?)

​

• Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs

​

• Dark Deity
• Edge Of Eternity
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

​

• CRYPTARK
• Dead Estate
• Paint the Town Red

​

• Lost Castle
• My Time At Portia

​

• Toodee and Topdee

​

• WWE 2K23

​

• Chivalry 2
• Disco Elysium - The Final Cut
• The Forgotten City
• GRIME
• Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition

​

• Back 4 Blood
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
• Batman™: Arkham Origins
• Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
• Mad Max
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Add-On Bundle
• Mortal Kombat XL

​

• Alan Wake Collector's Edition
• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• Pathologic 2

​

• CODE VEIN
• .hack//G.U. Last Recode
• Katamari Damacy REROLL
• TEKKEN 7

​

• A Juggler's Tale
• Spirit of the Island

​

• Boomerang Fu
• PlateUp!
• ROUNDS
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Ultimate Chicken Horse

​

• Fae Tactics
• Flynn: Son of Crimson
• Ikenfell
• Ring of Pain
• Void Bastards

​

• After the Fall® - Deluxe Edition
• Zero Caliber VR

​

• Patch Quest

​

• Five Dates
• Late Shift

​

• Demon Turf
• Pumpkin Jack

​

• Trover Saves the Universe

​

• Coromon
• The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
• Jack Move

​

• Road 96
• SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator

​

• A Short Hike

​

• Cloudpunk
• Ghostrunner
• Severed Steel

​

• Eternal Threads
• Turbo Golf Racing

​

• Lethal League Blaze
• OlliOlli World
• WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS

​

• Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

​

• Celeste

​

• Blasphemous
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Hollow Knight

​

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

​

• Bionic Commando: Rearmed
• Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
• Lost Planet 3 - Complete
• Mega Man Legacy Collection
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®

​

• Aground
• Calico
• Evan's Remains
• StarCrossed
• Teacup

​

• Into the Radius VR

​

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite
• Founders' Fortune
• Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp

​

• Nomad Survival
• Scarlet Tower

​

• The Citadel
• Viscerafest
• WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

​

• The Blackout Club

​

• BIOMUTANT
• Edge Of Eternity
• Golden Light

​

• Call of the Sea
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• The Amazing American Circus
• Armello
• Backbone
• Calico
• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Farming Simulator 17
• Ghostrunner
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
• Lust from Beyond: M Edition
• Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
• Orbital Racer
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
• PAYDAY 2
• Pilgrims
• Soulblight
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Starfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo key) and Starfinder Adventure: Junker's Delight (Paizo key)
• Strange Brigade
• Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
• System Shock 2
• System Shock: Enhanced Edition
• Ticket to Ride
• XCOM® 2
• X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack

​

• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Othercide
• Shady Part of Me

​

• The Last Campfire

​

• Sakura Swim Club

​

• Summer in Mara
• Townscaper

​

• The Long Dark: Survival Edition

​

• Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

​

• Conan Chop Chop
• Grow: Song of the Evertree

​

• Styx: Shards of Darkness

​

• Hard West
• John Wick Hex
• Phantom Doctrine
• Red Solstice 2: Survivors

​

• Arizona Sunshine

​

• Backbone
• Blade Assault
• First Class Trouble
• Super Magbot

​

• Golf Gang
• Maid of Sker

​

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest

​

• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

​

• Crown Trick

​

• Guts and Glory
• Hello Neighbor

​

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• STAR WARS®: Knights of the Old Republic™ II

​

• Duke Nukem Forever
• PGA TOUR 2K21
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds

​

• In Sound Mind

​

• Little Big Workshop
• Not Tonight

​

• Brigador Deluxe Edition
• Verdun

​

• Resident Evil 0
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil

​

• EVERSPACE™

​

• Cultist Simulator
• GWENT: The Witcher Card Game - Ultimate Starter Pack (GOG key)

​

• The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game

​

• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense

​

• STAR WARS™: Squadrons (Origin key)(?)

​

• Bionic Commando
• Street Fighter V

​

• As Far As The Eye
• Impulsion

​

• Orcs Must Die! 2 - Complete Pack

​

• Bartlow's Dread Machine

​

• Blaston

​

• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

​

• The Walking Dead

​

• Total Tank Simulator

​

• Archangel: Hellfire - Fully Loaded

​

• XCOM® 2

​

• Black The Fall
• Goetia

​

• Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition

​

• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• This War of Mine

​

• Tom Clancy's The Division™ (Uplay key)
• Tom Clancy's The Division™ - Survival (Uplay key)

​

• Highway Blossoms
• HunieCam Studio
• KARAKARA
• Sunrider Academy
• Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met

​

• Hacknet
• Satellite Reign

​

• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

​

• The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls
• ESO Vanity Pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 Days of ESO Plus

​

• Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-
• KARAKARA
• Memory's Dogma CODE:01
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project - Season Pass

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met
• Sakura Angels
• Beach Bounce
• Beach Bounce - Soundtrack
• Blue Rose

​

• Lionessy Story
• My Personal Angel
• Natural - Beyond Nature -
• Postmen Of Horizon (removed from Steam Store)

​

• The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 — Prelude

​

• Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards]
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
• Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
• Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire

​

• Guns of Icarus Alliance
• Guns of Icarus Online
• Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
• Lethal League
• Tempest: Pirate Action RPG
• Tempest - Treasure Lands
• Tempest - Original Soundtrack
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

​

• Tenta Shooter
• Gun Gun Pixies
• DUSK
• For The King
• Book of Demons
• PlateUp!
• Kingdom Two Crowns
• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Steel Rats™
• Hue
• Sifu Deluxe Edition Upgrade Bundle (Epic key)
• Gal*Gun: Double Peace
• The Invisible Hours
• Synergia
• ROCKETRON
• Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
• Dead Age
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Slain: Back from Hell(?)
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Tower of Time
• Danger Scavenger
• Survive the Nights
• Valfaris
• Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
• This War of Mine

​

• Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
• Knights of Pen and Paper 2 - Here Be Dragons

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• Book of Demons
• Broken Age
• Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
• Crying Suns
• Crying Suns
• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Liberated (GOG key)
• Moon Hunters
• Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
• Wanderlust: Travel Stories (GOG key)
• WARSAW
• X-Morph: Defense + European Assault, Survival of the Fittest, and Last Bastion DLC (I believe this redeems as the linked Complete Pack, minus the soundtrack)
• ΔV: Rings of Saturn(?)

​

• Arcade Paradise
• Calico
• Say No! More
• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
• Deliver Us The Moon
• Morkredd
• Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Survivalist: Invisible Strain
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• ENDLESS™ Space 2
• Surviving the Aftermath
• The Long Dark

​

• Duck Game
• SCP: Secret Files
• WWE 2K23
• The Jackbox Party Pack
• Outward (redeems as the base game only, not the linked Definitive Edition)
• Outward - The Soroboreans
• Outward Soundtrack
• Blade Assault
• Founders' Fortune
• Hokko Life
• Monster Crown
• Othercide
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition
• ScourgeBringer
• Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
• HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sonic CD (removed from Steam Store)
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®
• Bionic Commando
• Full Metal Furies
• Ultra Street Fighter® IV
• Starbound
• Mafia III: Sign of the Times
• BioShock 2
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
• The Mean Greens - Plastic Warfare
• Crusaders of the Lost Idols Legendary Starter Pack
• Project CARS (removed from Steam Store)

​
WANT:
​

• 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
• Astebreed: Definitive Edition
• Avernum: Escape from the Pit
• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
• CrossCode
• Dead Rising 4
• Dungreed
• Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2
• Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
• Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
• Myst (2021)
• NBA 2K23
• NECROPOLIS: BRUTAL EDITION
• Omensight: Definitive Edition
• OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition
• OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
• OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• RAGE
• Resident Evil Village
• The Jackbox Party Pack 5
• The Jackbox Party Pack 6
• The Jackbox Party Pack 7
• Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War

​

• any extra copies of WWE 2K23

​
IGS Rep Page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/

The Penguins of Madagascar

"Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave."

The Penguins of Madagascar are four ordinary penguins turned secret commando team. Born in the frozen wasteland that is Antarctica, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico spent their childhood in boredom, waddling along the ice with seemingly no destination in mind. They were constantly told by the rest of their colony that it was a dangerous world for a penguin, and something so "cute and cuddly" shouldn't take any risks. One day, the group witnessed a lone egg rolling down the snow towards an icy cliff. When they realized no one was going to help it, the three baby penguins leapt into action. They rescued the egg from certain doom, but in the process were separated from the rest of their group, stuck on a lone iceberg and floating towards an unknown future. It was that moment that Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and the new hatching Private, became not only a team, but a family.
Fast forward a few years, and the Penguins of Madagascar have grown into a skilled group of elite commandos, partaking in various missions that have taken them all over the world, from New York to Madagascar to Africa to Europe. Over the course of their dangerous careers they have accumulated a wide variety of friends and allies. These range from the residents of the Central Park Zoo to the members of the spy agency North Wind. However they have also made no shortage of enemies, including Hans the Danish puffin, the Red Squirrel and the maniacal Dr. Blowhole.

Respect Threads

• Skipper
• Kowalski
• Rico
• Private
• Group Thread

Skipper

"Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly."

Skipper is the leader of the group, devising tactics and gives orders. He is calculating, strict, paranoid, short-tempered, stubborn, and has a great disdain for hippies. Skipper's raving paranoia and tendency to view even the most ordinary activities as a military operation, combined with his experience in covert ops, has driven him to prepare for nearly any situation, no matter how bizarre or unlikely. While his antics do tend to alienate other animals outside of his commando team, more often than not his paranoia is proven justified, as he and his team have saved the world on multiple occasions.
Strength

• Slides into a metal door with enough force to dent it
• His punches shake a tree
• Forces open a giant alligator's jaws
• Crushes a golf ball with his flipper
• Throws a plastic unicorn toy with enough force for it to get stuck in a brick wall
• Repeatedly breaks himself out of a block of ice that was "Antarctic cold"

Speed/Agility

• Dodges a multitude of darts from a booby trap
• Dodges a large missile multiple times
• Dodges multiple lasers while charging towards an experimental laser turret
• Slides fast enough to stay ahead of Officer X's combat van
• Jumps over 1 1/2 stories onto a rising platform
• Bounces and flips around several lamp posts, rocks, and trees, eventually knocking out some pins with an explosive dive kick

Durability

• Gets kicked into a brick wall by Joey the kangaroo, cracking it
• Gets kicked high into the air by his evil android doppelganger, who was strong enough to crack concrete
• Kowalski's Nexto Skeleton knocks him through a bench with a rocket kick
• Gets pounded into the concrete by Bada
• Gets slammed into a concrete wall by Roger, creating a penguin shaped indention
• Falls through the roof of a plane mid flight
• Gets blasted into a stone wall by an explosion
• Gets shocked by the Zoo's new electric field
• For a short while, he walks across pavement that was hot enough to turn an egg to ash in 3 seconds
• After being buried alive, gets blasted through the dirt with a piece of dynamite and is perfectly fine

Skill

• Even while unconscious, his reflexes always keep him ready to fight
• Fends off the other penguins with relative ease
• Throws a playing card with enough accuracy to cut a four ropes keeping the penguins suspended in the air as well as a rope holding up a chandelier
• Throws a coin, which cuts two ropes and frees Maurice, bounces off a wall, cuts another rope and frees Mort, and finally bounces off another wall and turns off a light switch

Kowalski

"Okay Kowalski, wow me."
"Behold, a portal to times past. The Chronotron!"
"So, its a time machine?"
"Well, yes."
"So why not call it a time machine?"
"Sure, yeah. And while we're at it, let's call the Great Wall a fence, the Mona Lisa a doodle, and Albert Einstein Mr. Smarty Pants!"

Kowalski is the brains of the operation. He is a brilliant inventor, creating a multitude of different inventions and gadgets to help the penguins on their missions. If given enough time, there are few things that he couldn't invent. Unfortunately, most of the time his inventions cause serious trouble for the team, either falling into the wrong hands, turning against Kowalski, or just exploding. Not to mention, despite his intelligence, he cannot read (although he still carries around a clipboard to record drawings of their plans). He tends to over-analyze situations, trying to perfect every minute detail of a plan before he acts. This often causes the team more harm than if he would just act. That being said, he is still an invaluable member of the Penguins. Without him, they would simply be a couple of ordinary penguins that can do flips and karate chop people.
Strength

• Slides into a metal door with enough force to dent it
• Kicks a bowling ball with impressive velocity into Private's face
• Pulls down a bill board
• Digs through solid concrete with nothing but a plastic spoon

Speed/Agility

• Jumps over 1 1/2 stories onto a rising platform
• Dodges a multitude of darts from a booby trap
• Dodges several laser beams from the Penguins' lair security protocol
• Slides fast enough to stay ahead of Officer X's combat van
• Wall jumps several times to climb out of King Julian's fake volcano
• Dodges and weaves around several spotlights

Durability

• Gets pulled by Rico with enough force to dent a steel door
• His Nexto Skeleton knocks him through a bench with a rocket kick
• Gets crushed by a swinging wrecking ball and is fine moments later
• Gets crushed under a large boulder
• Gets blasted into the air by Rico's rocket launcher
• Gets shocked by 5000 volt electrical cables twice
• Gets his face torched by the Penguins' flamethrower
• After being buried alive, gets blasted through the dirt with a piece of dynamite and is perfectly fine

Skill

• Flips and dodges around several attacks from chameleon tongues while being blindfolded
• Throws his abacus, which bounces off of both Badda and Bing and then returns to him (similar to Captain America's shield)

Intelligence/Gadgets

• Invents a machine that can remove someone's intelligence and store it in a cardboard box
• Invents a fully functioning time machine, which he uses twice to travel back in time. When three Kowalskis exist in the same space it rips a hole in the fabric of the universe
• Built a thermo fusion reactor within the penguin's base
• Invents the Helmet, which allows the user to move object with their mind, as well as summon any object they think of to them at a moment's notice
• Builds an invisibility ray
• Makes a laser gun that can revert things to their younger, fresher state, which turns Skipper into a baby and eventually back into an adult
• Creates a device that can stop time, (anyone that is touching the device at the time he activates it will experience the stopped time)
• Builds a mech suit, which he dubs the nexto skeleton, that can fly, shoot missiles, is strong enough to life a large boulder over his head, and can even rebuild lost limbs out of seemingly nothing
• Builds a machine that can clone an exact replica of any living organism, as long as it has their DNA (which he uses to bring a dodo bird back to life)
• Built an anti gravity gun
• Hacks into a traffic light with relative ease

Rico

"B-but that shouldn't have worked! It breaks all known rules of science!"
"And that's why we call Rico a maverick. He makes his own rules."
[BLEH BL-BLAH BL-BLUH BLAH BLEH]

Rico is the group's weapons and explosives specialist who mainly communicates through grunts and squeals. With a stomach that defies reality, Rico swallows a plethora of useful tools and weapons and regurgitates them when needed, including ones that appear to be too large to have been swallowed in the first place. Rico has a few screws loose, so the other Penguins need to keep him on a tight leash lest he lose his mind in a dynamite filled frenzy. That said, Rico's love for explosions and destruction is an asset that Skipper has no problem letting lose on their enemies or any problem that the team may be facing.
Strength

• Breaks a fairly large hole through a brick wall
• Pulls Kowalski with enough force to dent a steel door
• Lifts an anvil over his head
• Bites through a lock
• Digs through concrete at an incredibly fast with two plastic spoons

Speed/Agility

• Jumps over 1 1/2 stories onto a rising platform
• Dodges several laser beams
• Dodges one of the Red Squirrel's missiles
• Kicks Kowalski into the air, and by the time he falls back down, Rico had already got into, started, and drove the penguins Buggy next to their base to catch him
• Cuts up a fish into perfectly sized bites of sushi in just over a second
• Climbs over the zoo's main gate in seconds

Durability

• Slams into a brick wall, cracking it
• Falls directly onto a rhino's horn
• Gets crushed by a falling elephant
• Falls through the roof of a plane mid flight and is completely unharmed
• A bomb explodes inside of his stomach and he barely reacts
• Is right next to where Kowalski shot his newly acquired plasma blaster on turbo setting, which caused an explosion powerful enough to blow a hole in their concrete ceiling (that same plasma blaster on medium setting was able to disintegrate a lamp post in a single shot
• Gets hit by a static shock that is strong enough to knock out the power in the Penguin lair
• For a short while, he walks across pavement that was hot enough to turn an egg to ash in 3 seconds
• After being buried alive, gets blasted through the dirt with a piece of dynamite and is perfectly fine

Skill

• Fends off both Skipper and Kowalski with nothing but a doll as a weapon
• Throws Marlene like a boomerang, bouncing her off of both Bada and Bing's heads and then catching her
• Shoots 3 fish out of the air with a crossbow

Swallowing/Regurgitation
Rico is able to regurgitate whatever Skipper needs as long as he has it locked away in his intestines. As soon as an object, weapon, or tool is needed he can produce it almost instantly.

• Spits up a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse and immediately regurgitates a flash light
• Spits out a grenade filled with knock out gas
• Regurgitates a massive missile which is far larger than he is
• Continuously regurgitates hook shots so he can swing from buildings like Spider-Man
• Spits a small anchor into the air with enough velocity to strike him in the head a couple seconds after it leaves his mouth
• Regurgitates a chainsaw with enough velocity to fly into the air and cut through a sewer pipe
• Fires screws fast enough for them to secure a metal door in place and keep Jiggles the slime contained
• Throws up a cinder block with enough force to send a leopard seal flying backwards

Private

"Private, options."
"Hello? I'm the options guy!"
"But not when it comes to matters of the heart. That's where young Private here shines."

Private is the emotionally sensitive, British-accented rookie of the Penguins of Madagascar. Though younger and less experienced than the other penguins, he is the most down to earth and compassionate. Private tends to offer simpler, more commonsense solutions in response to Skipper and Kowalski's complex strategies, often in an understated tone while those strategies are falling apart. He also has an affinity for unicorns.
Strength

• Slides into a metal door with enough force to dent it
• While underwater, he kicks a baby leopard seal which flies into an adult leopard seal, reversing its momentum
• Stops a massive leopard seal from falling off an icy cliff
• Hangs onto his golf club as he uses it to swing their golf cart around a tree

Speed/Agility

• Jumps over 1 1/2 stories onto a rising platform
• Dodges several darts shot out from one of Kowalski's booby traps
• Dodges several lasers from the Penguins' security system
• In the flash that Dave's monster ray is fired, he frees himself from his bindings and hides beneath a piece of machinery without anyone noticing
• Out swims a leopard seal for a short while
• Deflects a golf ball with his club
• Wall jumps multiple times to get to the top of the zoo's gates

Durability

• Gets karate chopped by Skipper to the ground
• After covering one of Rico's bombs with a bucket, he gets blasted through the roof of the zoo's security building
• Gets crushed between Skipper and a concrete wall after an explosion blasts Skipper into him, leaving a Private shaped indention in the wall
• Falls from the outskirts of the Earth's atmosphere and crashes to the ground below
• Gets dropped onto an electric fence by Savio
• For a short while, he runs across pavement that was hot enough to turn an egg to ash in 3 seconds
• After being buried alive, he gets blasted out of the ground by a piece of dynamite and is fine
• Falls into a pit of rusty bear traps, which mildly injures him

Skill

• Defends himself from Skipper's strikes and disarms him while blindfolded
• Defeats over a dozen of Dr. Blowhole's minions with ease
• Fires a dart gun, which bounces off of several objects and walls before eventually hitting the light switch and turning off the lights

Cuteness

• Unlocks what Kowalski calls "quantum hyper cute", which causes anyone who sees him to faint because their brains are overloading from the cuteness
• By using himself as a power source, his cuteness is able to reverse the affects of Dave's monster ray

Teamwork

• Push an elephant into a cage
• Using Rico as a battering ram, they destroy a brick wall
• Forming a penguin chain, Kowalski, Rico, and Private support the weight of an elephant
• Kowalski, Rico, and Private manage to hold Officer X's van in place while it tries to drive away
• Incapacitate Capitaine DuBois and her men, tying them up and launching them out of a canon
• Take on a small army of Dr. Blowhole's lobster minions

Gear

• Grenades
• Rocket launcher
• Flamethrower that is hot enough to melt a lamp post
• Laser pen which can cleanly cut through stone
• Grappling hooks
• Jetpacks gifted to them by the North Wind spy agency

Using the Penguins on WWW

While it may vary from episode to episode, the penguins are all around the same ballpark in stats and skill. They're pretty well rounded, being able to withstand blows that damage stone and metal walls and can dish out those same kinds of hits. On top of that, most have dealt with minor esoteric damage types like heat, electricity, and cold. While they're not too crazy speed wise, they're all capable of aim dodging lasers and can avoid slower projectiles like darts. Combine that with their absurd agility and small size and these four will be extremely difficult to hit for opponents that are on their physical level.
However, it's the areas outside of physical stats that let the penguins fight above their weight class. They're all capable in close quarters combat, with Skipper being the clear standout (though Rico and Private have both shown to be able to hold their own against him under the right conditions). Rico is a walking armory that will give them access to any weapon in their arsenal at any time, Kowalski has plenty of inventions that most opponents won't have resistances too, and Private's hyper cuteness could certainly catch their opponents off guard.
The best way to beat these four is to split them up and fight them individually. They've shown many times that they are far greater than the sum of their parts, engaging in hit and run tactics or using one of their various haxes to battle opponents above their weight class. Kowalski and Private in particular are vulnerable to losing their composures if things aren't going their way in a fight (though I wouldn't exactly call that a strength for Skipper and Rico either).

Great Britain vs. Czechia

Prague Arena

In-Game Updates

Time Clock
Final

Team	1	2	3	TOT
GBR	0	1	0	1
CZE	2	2	0	4

Team	Shots	FO Wins	PPG	SHG	PP Time	PIM
GBR	15	25	1	0	08:06	4
CZE	45	23	1	0	02:11	10

Period	Time	Team	Strength	Description
1	02:18	CZE	EQ	#23 SEDLAK Lukas scored for Czechia (Assisted by #10 CERVENKA Roman and #36 KREJCIK Jakub).
1	04:46	CZE	EQ	#36 KREJCIK Jakub scored for Czechia (Assisted by #3 GUDAS Radko and #10 CERVENKA Roman).
2	00:36	CZE	EQ	#23 SEDLAK Lukas scored for Czechia (Assisted by #10 CERVENKA Roman and #73 KASE Ondrej).
2	02:17	GBR	PP1	#26 MOSEY Evan scored for Great Britain (Assisted by #14 KIRK Liam and #28 O'CONNOR Ben).
2	12:15	CZE	PP1	#73 KASE Ondrej scored for Czechia (Assisted by #23 SEDLAK Lukas and #10 CERVENKA Roman).

Period	Time	Team	Min	Description
1	09:34	GBR	2	#16 DUGGAN Sam for Interference.
1	17:14	CZE	2	#73 KASE Ondrej for High Sticking.
2	02:11	CZE	2	#36 KREJCIK Jakub for Interference.
2	12:04	GBR	2	#75 DOWD Robert for Tripping.
2	16:01	CZE	2	#93 STRANSKY Matej for Tripping.
2	19:27	CZE	2	#3 GUDAS Radko for Holding.
3	12:00	CZE	2	#93 STRANSKY Matej for Interference.

Time

PT	MT	CT	ET	AT	WE	CE	EE	FE
11:20AM	12:20PM	01:20PM	02:20PM	03:20PM	07:20PM	08:20PM	09:20PM	09:20PM

Game Data

• Game Center
• Line-Ups

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Hello, I am 24M/CST/PC. Unfortunately my old squad basically stopped playing all together. I'm the only one left who enjoys variety and can actually stick with a game for more than a few days. I'm usually on in the late afternoons and evenings. Games I currently play include:
Rust, Minecraft, Arena Breakout Infinite, Warthunder, Grounded, Lethal Company, Stardew Valley, Manor Lords, Apex Legends, Elden Ring, Gray Zone Warfare, Helldivers 2, Palworld, Raft, CIV 6, Sons of the Forest, Tabletop Sim, and more.
I have many games on steam and also have game pass. I am open to just about anything that can be coop or multiplayer. I enjoy open world survival and basebuilders.
Just looking for some people to vibe with and have a good time! Preferably 18+!

I (48F) don’t even know where to begin so let’s start from the end. My daughter, D, (18F, I’ll use an initial for my daughter’s name) graduated high school Tuesday night. I organized a graduation dinner at a nice restaurant Wednesday night on me as part of her graduation present. I picked mom up for the graduation ceremony Tuesday night and mom starts to take digs at me. She has been taking digs at me for a week now ever since my daughter and her reconciled. I have backstory about that further down. I let those digs go since they were in the middle of the ceremony and my ex husband was seated next to us in the arena.
Fast forward to the next day, Wednesday, I am hustling all day to get ready for the graduation dinner. I got flowers from the grocery store and arranged two different bouquets into one. I went to Party City to pick up balloons that I ordered online. I had contacted a local home baker for my daughter’s allergy free graduation cake so I also picked up her cake. These were all things that I had intended to bring to the restaurant as a surprise. After checking with the restaurant about bringing the cake, it turns out the restaurant has an allergy safe dessert so I can’t bring it. I pivot and I let my daughter know that I have a surprise graduation cake for her and that I would like to drop it by her dad’s house. It had a whipped frosting so it required refrigeration as soon as possible. I pick up the cake at the 2:30pm. Ask my daughter if she is home and can I bring it by. She says yes and that her dad isn’t home but maybe we could have a slice together. I said that I don’t have a lot of time (I needed to pick up mom for dinner at 4:45pm plus squeeze in a little work and get ready for dinner) but worst case I can take a slice to go for me and mom. We ended up having a slice with her dad because he came back home right away. I go home. Get dressed for dinner, work on a few work emails, and run to pick up mom.
When I get there, she doesn’t say hello but asks me where her cake is. I groan because I forgot it in the fridge but I can tell that something is off. She then asks me hostilely why I didn’t invite her to my ex’s house for cake. I tell her that it was spontaneous and there was a lot going on in preparation for the graduation dinner. It didn’t occur to me in that moment that my daughter should have been the one to ask her over since it’s not my house. Nor did it occur to me in that moment, that my mom and D must’ve talked about this cake thing.
So I am driving to dinner and my mom is not letting this go. She starts to lay into me about excluding her and I calmly ask her to stop. She continues and starts raising her voice. I tell her there wasn’t anything intentionally done and it was spontaneous! She is yelling on the top of her lungs at this point so I yell back that I have not done anything wrong here and that she needs to cut it out. At this point she starts saying that she needs to get out of the car. I tell her to keep it together for my daughter’s sake. I stop at a stop light and she jumps out after thrusting the glass vase with the flowers at me that she was holding. I start crying and call my daughter immediately. She empathizes, asks what happened, I tell her that I don’t want to ruin her night but she insisted so I pour my heart out and cry most of the way there because our ETA was similar. Note that she is in the car with her dad and best friend and in hindsight I think that I might’ve been on speaker. I arrive at the restaurant with the flowers and balloons and we are having a nice time. Halfway through eating our entrees, my mom shows up. I didn’t tell her where the reservation was. My mom likes to be taken to things and doesn’t care to know in advance where we are going so this is normal for us. I was shocked. My mom looks around the booth and my ex makes room for her. I didn’t move in my shock but I don’t think that I would have made room for her regardless. While she is talking to my ex (whom she has hated for years based on how he treated my dad as my dad was dying), my daughter leans over and asks me if this was okay and I tell her that I didn’t tell mom where we were going. D says that she didn’t either.
Mom doesn’t look at the menu but is prepared and orders her entree. Keep in mind, she has not been to this restaurant before. I ignore her and do not make eye contact from across the table. I have never seen her eat that fast. I lost my appetite the minute she arrived. After she finishes, she leaves the booth to visit to the restroom. At that point, I tell my daughter that to be clear I was not okay with this. My daughter says why and I respond because of how she treated me and she says how did she treat you and I looked at her shocked and said I told you just after it happened. She says oh and then says well I am glad she came. So at this point, I am shocked again. This seems intentional and not coincidental. I had thought maybe it was coincidental because I had talked about what entree I was thinking about ordering. We finish up and I pay for dinner. We leave together. I haven’t spoken to either since.
I would talk to my mom everyday and text my daughter everyday. I initiate those points of contact. I haven’t spoken to either of them since Wednesday. Neither has reached out to me. Am I off track here? What on earth is this? It feels like manipulation and backstabbing. It feels like my daughter went behind my back and triggered my mom against me. I’m trying to understand but I am too close to this to see it clearly. Please help me understand if I messed up or what I should do. I frankly don’t want to speak to either of them for awhile which works out since I am going out of the country for 20 days in less than a week.
Some background; D has been living her last year of high school with my ex husband (53M) because her high school, college (she was talking a college class in the mornings and high school in the afternoons), and work in the evenings were all closer from his house than mine as I live 30 mins away from those areas. She also favors him as he acts as a roommate versus a dad towards her.
She reconciled with my mom (74F) last week after they stopped speaking for 2.5 years. My mom was not understanding of my daughter’s medical diagnosis then and was mean/hurtful about it so my daughter stopped talking to her. I would consistently suggest reconciliation to both of them whenever they would ask about each other because it’s just the three of us. My dad passed 12 years ago. My family on my mom’s side has passed and the remaining family (my mom’s sister and her two daughters that I grew up with) are toxic so we don’t speak to them. They are toxic in the sense that when my grandma died they drafted a fake Will and filed it with the courts cutting mom out.
Ever since D and mom reconciled, my mom has been taking digs at me. Mom has always done this whenever something bothers her. She has been saying things like at least D talks to your face. I am old school and respectful to my elders. My daughter, on the other hand, is influenced by her dad and speaks disrespectfully to whomever she disagrees with. I have been setting boundaries and sticking up for myself with my mom recently.
I’m am trying to figure out what is happening here. I don’t think that I am off track feeling hurt and betrayed. I also don’t think it would make a difference to talk to them until I get back. Am I missing something? Please help me objectively understand.

Hello, I'm a casual fighting game fan and a midcore player, I've been playing fighting games for over 20 years now and I think that there is a rich culture around fighting games that is not being tapped into by, well anyone. In this brief, I will seek to display how I believe fighting games can gain mainstream appeal and why this should be important to every fighting game fan.
I'll start by convincing you why you should care if fighting games are mainstream or not.

• Developers can and will abandon this genre if it is not lucrative or feasible for them to create these games. Fighting games are often passion projects that are driven by small teams within larger teams, and the games themselves are difficult to create, even when the games are relatively simple in style and mechanics. When games cease to be profitable at all, these developers will indeed tone down development on these games leaving us with fewer options aside from preexisting games, which is fine and all, but eventually that server, discord channel, etc may die as well, leaving us with no options for our favorite series but to wait for a sequel or a spiritual successor. Many of you know exactly what I mean already, how many are waiting for another entry in their favorite fighting game series?
• Less players means less advancement for the genre. This may be divisive, as some probably think that fighting games have more or less peaked mechanically, and can only improve graphically, while mechanics will be more a mix and match of preexisting ideas. This is a self-limiting idea that is created by the belief that fighting games can only be a very specific format, and that every game outside of those formats aren't really fighting games, and while I'm not here to convince you that "X game is really a fighting game," I will say that this sentiment is typical of people that are in the FGC, but not of people outside of it, which is a conundrum in itself.

I'll pause on this note to mention viewership briefly.
As I started writing this, Tekken is streaming Paradise Game Battle with just under 7k viewers, and as I've gotten to this point, it has risen about 300 viewers to just above 7k at 7,053. By the time I finished this sentence it fell back to 6,843.
Why do I mention this? At the time I started writing this post, Brawlhalla had just started a stream and they were at a similar number of viewers to Tekken at 6,500ish, right now they sit at 8,717 and the number is only rising.
To this I ask, why? Why is Brawlhalla, a game that's "not even a fighting game" according to the FGC, having a larger tournament, with more players, more viewers, where people are indeed fighting each other 1v1 in this game doing better than Tekken, the "real fighting game?"
There's a few possible reasons that people like to throw at these sorts of incidents such as Brawlhalla being free or Tekken being the "harder game," but I think these ideas evade the core of why this happens, and it's that games like Brawlhalla prioritize the mind game. The game is accessible in a way that allows people to simply play without a high barrier of entry.
In this next section I'll break down accessibility and how it can work in a way that's not invasive to players that enjoy execution, I'll put it in bullet form.

• I see fighting games in a similar lens to how I see chess, you have two sets of moves with base functionalities that cover a range of properties that would allow you to convert strategic movements into a win condition based on damage and trapping the opponent, it's just that there's no checkmate in fighting games, at checkmate your opponent just gets killed. Chess does not have execution barriers, anyone from an old lady to a spring chicken little girl can play chess, all they have to know is how the pieces move, once they have the knowledge, the execution is USING THE KNOWLEDGE.
• In fighting games this is countered by hand-eye coordination. If you lack coordination to do combos, you will eventually just lose out some match ups in some games unfortunately. If you cannot convert in opportune moments, you will lose. If you misinput, fingers slip, whatever, you will die most likely. Your knowledge, doesn't matter, all that matters in this case is your muscle memory, you need a great combination of both to be an excellent player.
• Accessibility currently aims to make doing moves easier, but it doesn't lower the mental stack to get to knowledge execution, comparing a game like Tekken to a game like Brawlhalla, there's several layers of abstraction just moving around and getting your character to do what you want before you can apply knowledge, vs Brawlhalla, as soon as you can move left and right and jump, you're halfway to understanding character movement in the entirety and can now just think about other parts of the game.

I say this to say that game developers are making the wrong parts of the games accessible, traditional fighting games should be aiming to get players closer to a neutral state where it's knowledge vs knowledge rather than hand eye coordination + knowledge vs the same.
Modern is a great example of this because it gets people right into the thick of battle, they no longer have to think about how to hold their thumb, or why it hurts, or how far to press on the d pad, or how hard to press, or how to slide their fingers, or whether to use the analog stick or not, they just press Square and shoot the fireball. Smash Bros did this in 1999, bringing people straight into the knowledge neutral game. But this is just one example.
I'm not a master dev or designer, but I think these sorts of problems are what needs to be solved to move fighting games forward, and the neat thing is when they are brought down to this 1st level of knowledge neutral, then we can add more depth in better ways, what if we had a fighting game like SF6, with only modern controls, with stage interactions like Injustice and ground breaks like Tekken? Now that's an interesting game with a fun feel that a lot of people would probably enjoy, it can still have combos, but they are immediately more accessible if we take away, and I want to make this clear, not execution barriers, but knowledge barriers. It should still be difficult to do long, effective combos, maybe even harder than it currently is in most games, but we should advocate for our games being tapered to a point where more people can play or formatted so that more people like them, and WE SHOULD STILL PLAY THEM. We need to make other games part of our community and show them that we like the games and care and that we want depth AND the game's unique identity to thrive.
TL;DR Modern good, Arena Fighters should be embraced and encouraged to become more complex, Knowledge Barriers should be removed from games so people can play on more equal footing
Also Brawlhalla's currently at 9k and Tekken's at 6.3k as of ending this post, for anyone that cared if I was still keeping track.

Hello everyone! I know it's been a long time but with the DLC on the way and work slowing down for a bit, I've decided to start writing guides again. With the DLC a month away, I've decided to focus my efforts on guides that will help prepare for the DLC and have a few others that are just about ready as well.
With all of the patches over the years, the questlines have been changes fairly significantly. It is now nearly impossible to "break" any questlines by accident but many of my previous guides were made to avoid that happening. Given that, they have lost some of their purpose and aren't as optimal as they previously were. I have went through the game again and learned all of the new tricks to optimize the questlines so that you can take the least amount of steps possible to receive all of the questlines best rewards.
So what this guide is meant for is to help with getting characters through the game with all of the unique quest rewards as optimally as possible. So there should be nothing unnecessary within this guide and it will take you from location to location without consideration for level or build. Given that, you may need to do side objectives and leveling for your personal run, but you can just continue following from where you left off. Due to Reddit's character limit, I have to separate this guide into two parts but both halves are already available.
I hope everyone enjoys the guide and please let me know if you have any suggestions, fixes or feedback!

Second Half

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Limgrave

• Grab the First Step Grace once you enter Limgrave
• Head South-East to grab the Seaside Ruins Grace
• Head East to grab the Agheel Lake South Grace
• Rest at the Grace to receive Torrent
• Cross the bridge South-East to grab the Bridge of Sacrifice Grace
• Talk to Irina nearby and get the letter from her.
• From the Agheel Lake South Grace: Head South-East and use the Spirit Jump to grab the Starlight Shard from the stone astrolabe nearby.
• Head North and use the Spirit Jump to get down into the forest below.
• Head North-East until you hear howling from the nearby ruin
• Head South-East to grab the Fort Haight West Grace
• Go inside Fort Haight to kill the Knight at the top and grab the Dectus Medallion (Left)
• From the First Step Grace: Head North to grab the Church of Elleh Grace
• Fast Travel to the Church of Elleh Grace and talk to Witch Renna to get the Spirit Calling Bell and Spirit Wolf Ashes
• Talk to Merchant Kale to get the Fingersnap Emote
• Head North-East to grab the Agheel Lake North Grace
• Head South-East and dodge roll into the talking tree to talk with Boc
• Head North then North-East to grab the Murkwater Coast Grace
• Hop down the hole nearby and head South to kill the Invader for Reduvia
• Follow the river back North to talk with Yura
• Head back South and go inside the nearby cave to grab the Murkwater Cave Grace
• Knock the boss to half HP and accept the surrender for the Grovel for Mercy Emote
• Reload and exhaust his dialogue then hit him 3 times without killing him to make him hostile.
• Let him hit you to below half HP to get the Extreme Repentance Emote
• Either Die or use the Extreme Repentance Gesture near him to stop hostilities.
• Reload and talk to him again to get permission to open the chest nearby. Open it to enter the Mistwood Ruins.
• Head North-East to grab the Third Church of Marika Grace and rest at it to allow fast travel again.
• Head North and use the Spirit Jumps to get to the very top of the cliffs
• Head West into Summonwater Village and kill the Tibia Mariner for a Deathroot
• Head South and use the tombstones poking out of the cliff going South-West to get down to the graveyard.
• Continue South-West onto the ruin to talk with Kenneth Haight and get the Erdsteel Dagger. You can kill him for a Golden Seed as he has nothing more to offer.
• Travel back to Murkwater Cave Grace and talk with the boss again to get the Calm Down Emote
• From the Murkwater Coast Grace: Head North and then up the river and use the Spirit Jump to grab the Saintsbridge Grace
• Head West and then up the cliffs going South to help Iron Fist Alexander and get the Triumphant Delight Emote
• Head North and up the opposite cliff into the tomb to grab the Deathtouched Catacombs Grace.
• Proceed through the Deathtouched Catacombs as desired but make sure to pick up at least 1 Grave Glovewort [1] as you progress.
• Kill the boss of the Deathtouched Catacombs and open the chest to grab the Deathroot
• Leave the cave and follow the road South-West to grab the Warmaster's Shack Grace
• Head North to the arena and kill the Invader to get the Hammer Talisman
• From the Warmaster's Shack Grace: Follow the road going West to grab the Stormhill Shack Grace.
• Talk with Roderika to get the Sitting Sideways Emote and Spirit Jellyfish Ashes

Stormveil Castle/Limgrave 2

• Follow the road North that turns to go South-West into the castle to grab the Castleward Tunnel.
• Defeat Margit, the Fell Omen and grab the Margit, the Fell Omen Grace
• Head West to grab the Stormveil Main Gate Grace.
• Rest at it to enter Roundtable Hold.
• Inside Roundtable Hold, talk with Gideon, Brother Corhyn and Ensha to receive the Prayer Emote and What Do You Want Emote
• Jump over the railing and let the Invader bow to get the Reverential Bow Emote then kill him for the Taunter's Tongue.
• From the Stormveil Main Gate Grace: Talk with Gostoc in the building nearby.
• Accept or Decline him. If you Decline you can open the main gate now.
• DO NOT KILL Gostoc. If you do you will miss out on an optional reward later.
• Choose any way you like to make your way through the castle until you grab the Secluded Cell Grace before the boss room.
• From the Secluded Cell Grace: Head South past the troll and into the room straight ahead to talk with Nepheli Loux.
• Head back to the boss room and defeat Godrick the Grafted.
• Grab the Godrick the Grafted Grace and rest at it.
• Head North-West, go through the door, and follow the path to the left to hop down.
• Turn around and grab the Shabriri Grape
• Continue to the outside and grab the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace
• Return to the Roundtable Hold
• Talk with Roderika and Hewg back and forth until dialogue is exhausted.
• Talk to Rogier and tell him about Godrick to receive Rogier's Rapier +8
• Talk to the Finger Reader and the Fingers for the Rapture Emote
• Talk to Nepheli then Gideon and Nepheli again for the Arsenal Charm and to progress Nepheli's questline.
• From the First Step Grace in Limgrave: Interact with the message nearby for the Bravo! Emote
• Head South-West onto the beach and follow the cliff to find a cave to grab the Coastal Cave Grace
• Kill the boss of the cave for Tailoring Tools and Sewing Needle
• From the Coastal Cave Grace: Talk with Boc to give him the Sewing Needle

Note: Roderika's Crimson Hood is in the Grafted Scion room in Stormveil now and a Golden Seed is where she was at Stormhill Shack.

Liurnia Lake

• From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace: Rest at the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace.
• Talk with Boc and Hyetta to give Hyetta the Shabriri Grape and get the As You Wish Emote.
• Head North-West and grab the Liurnia Lake Shore Grace
• Head North-West to grab the Laskyar Ruins Grace
• Follow the road North-West to talk with Rya in the pavilion and accept her request.
• Head West to grab the Scenic Isle Grace
• Head North-West to grab the Boilprawn Shack Grace
• Talk to Blackguard Big-Boggart and buy Rya's Necklace from him.
• Talk to him again and buy at least one Boiled Prawn from him for the Spread Out Emote
• Head North-East to grab the Academy Gate Town Grace
• Head North and kill Diallos on the ruins of a building for Diallos's Mask and Hoslow's Petal Whip. This does not affect any unique future rewards
• Continue North-West and use the portal in the pavilion to grab the Northern Liurnia Lake Shore Grace to the South-West
• Go North-East and through the illusory wall to grab the Road to the Manor Grace
• Follow the road to the manor for the Main Caria Manor Gate Grace.
• Make your way through Caria Manor as desired.
• Defeat the boss for the Royal Moongazing Grounds Grace
• Leave through the back of the boss room and head West to the ruin furthest West to find an illusory floor.
• Enter the basement that the illusory floor leads to and interact with the message.
• Leave the room and continue South-West to grab the Ranni's Rise Grace.
• Go up the elevator and accept Ranni's proposal
• Go down to talk with Iji, Blaidd and Seluvis then back up to talk with Ranni.
• Leave the tower and head to the tower to the South-East to talk with Seluvis and accept his proposal
• From the Boilprawn Shack Grace: Head North-West and grab the Fallen Ruins of the Lake Grace at the furthest West ruin.
• Head West and talk to White Mask Varre and choose the topmost option both times.
• Head North-West and grab the Temple Quarter Grace
• Go South-West into the forest to kill the Invader for a Shabriri Grape and Banished Knight Halberd +8
• Grab the Revenger's Shack Grace
• From the Temple Quarter Grace: Go North and grab the Academy Glintstone Key from behind the Dragon
• Head North-West from the Dragon to grab the Foot of the Four Belfries Grace for later use.
• From the Fallen Ruins of the Lake Grace: Head South-West to the pavilion to grab the Folly on the Lake Grace.
• Go South until you hit the wall then head West up the road to talk with Nepheli Loux
• Continue West to grab the Village of the Albinauric's Grace
• Follow the path South-East and roll into the conspicuous pot to reveal Albus
• Talk to Albus to receive the Haligtree Secret Medallion (Right)
• Continue through the village to defeat the boss.
• From the Scenic Isle Grace: Head East to talk with Rya and give her Rya's Necklace for the Volcano Manor Invitation.
• From the Scenic Isle Grace: Head directly South and into the cave to grab the Lakeside Crystal Cave Grace
• Continue through the cave as desired and kill the boss
• Leave through the back of the boss room to talk with Latenna to receive her Ashes.
• From the Laskyar Ruins Grace: Head East and talk with Hyetta to give her a Shabriri Grape
• Continue East into the ruin and go inside the basement hidden beneath the wooden planks to grab a Shabriri Grape
• Leave the basement and head North-East to grab the Liurnia Highway North Grace
• Follow the road North going down to grab the Gate Town Bridge Grace
• Rest at the grace and talk to Hyetta nearby to the North to give her another Shabriri Grape and tell her what they are.
• Rest at the grace and talk with her again.
• Head East to use the Spirit Jump then grab the Starlight Shard from the stone astrolabe slightly West.
• Follow the road North to kill the Tibia Mariner for a Deathroot
• Head East from the Tibia Mariner and use the tombstone sticking out of the cliff to make your way down to grab the Jarburg Grace for later.
• From the Laskyar Ruins Grace: Head North-West and go through the portal to grab the South Raya Lucaria Gate Grace
• Use the nearby gate to grab the Main Academy Gate Grace
• Head North-East past the seal and interact with the Invasion Sign to assist Yura and receive the Ash of War: Raptor of the Mists
• Talk with Yura nearby
• Go South-West and interact with the seal to grab the East Raya Lucaria Gate Grace
• Head North-East and grab the Bellum Church Grace for later
• Follow the cliff North-East to grab the Grand Lift of Dectus Grace
• Head South and follow the cliffs on the East side to use the Spirit Jump and kill the enemies at the top of the tower. Note: If you jump just right, you can land Torrent on the very top of the tower and avoid any climbing.
• Head South-East from the tower to grab the Frenzied Flame Village Outskirts Grace
• Go East and use the tombstones poking out from the cliffside to get to the bottom, open the door to the North and grab the Black Knife Catacombs Grace.
• Proceed through the Black Knife Catacombs as desired but make sure to pick up at least 1 of each of the Grave Glovewort [2], Grave Glovewort [3] and Grave Glovewort [4] as you progress.
• Kill the Black Knife boss behind the illusory wall for the Black Knifeprint
• Kill the other boss inside to grab a Deathroot from the chest.
• From the Frenzied Flame Village Outskirts Grace: Head South-West into the village then North-West to kill the Invader for the Fingerprint Grape and Vyke's War Spear
• Grab the Church of Inhibition Grace just to the North
• From the Bellum Church Grace: Talk with Hyetta nearby to give her the Fingerprint Grape
• Use the hole in the back of the church to follow the slope down going North-East to grab the Ravine-Veiled Village Grace for later.

Raya Lucaria/Liurnia Lake 2

• From the Main Academy Gate Grace: Go up the lift to enter Raya Lucaria and proceed through it as desired to grab the Schoolhouse Classroom Grace.
• Kill the Red Wolf of Radagon
• Grab the Debate Parlor Grace
• Proceed through the area that goes North-West up the stairs and over the balcony as desired to grab the second Academy Glintstone Key at the end.
• From the Debate Parlor Grace: Head North-East up the stairs to kill Moongrum, Carian Knight
• Defeat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
• Grab the Raya Lucaria Grand Library Grace
• From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace: Go South-West into the Church of Irith and talk with Thops to give him the second Academy Glintstone Key and recieve the Erudition Emote.
• Reload the area and kill the scarab for Ash of War: Thop's Barrier
• From the Schoolhouse Classroom Grace: Go outside and around the corner to grab Thop's Barrier
• From the Ravine-Veiled Village Grace: Climb the ladder nearby and proceed through the Ruin-Strewn Precipice as desired to grab the Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook Grace.
• Summon Great Horned Tragoth to receive the Casual Greeting Emote.
• Kill Magma Wyrm Makar
• Grab the Magma Wyrm Makar Grace
• Go up the lift at the back of the boss room to grab the Abandoned Coffin Grace
• Return to the Roundtable Hold
• Kill the Invader for Clinging Bone
• Talk to the Finger Reader Enia for a Talisman Pouch
• Talk to Corhyn to get him to progress his questline.
• Talk with Roderika and upgrade the Spirit Ash of your choosing to +4 using the Grave Gloveworts picked up in Deathtouched Catacombs and Black Knife Catacombs.
• After upgrading, talk with Roderika again to get the Curtsy Emote.
• Talk with Rogier again and he should mention going to sleep.
• Reload and talk with the sleeping Rogier. Repeat this 3 times for the Spellblade Armor Set.
• Talk with Fia and cuddle her, then cuddle her again and exhaust her dialogue to receive the Weathered Dagger.
• Talk with D to show him the Deathroot and accept his proposal then show him the Weathered Dagger.
• Reload and go into the locked room behind Blacksmith Hewg to talk with Fia and get the Twinned Armor Set.

Caelid

• From the Third Church of Marika Grace: Go North-East and use the portal to grab the Bestial Sanctum Grace behind the doors.
• Go South-East to grab the Farum Greatbridge Grace
• Run across the bridge and hug the southern cliff going South-West to use the Spirit Jump behind the Minor Erdtree and grab the Fort Faroth Grace
• Go West and use the Spirit Jump over the edge of the southern cliff to get down then head South to grab the Church of the Plague Grace
• Head West and fall down the cliff safely. There is a large spot where it's easily doable.
• Go North-West to grab the Sellia Under-Stair Grace
• Head South-West to grab the Inner Aeonia Grace
• Kill Commander O'Neil to the South for the Golden Needle
• From the Church of the Plague Grace: Head West and fall down the cliff safely again.
• Talk to Gowry in the shack to give him the Golden Needle.
• Reload and talk to him again to receive the Golden Needle.
• From the Church of the Plague Grace: Talk to Millicent to give her the Golden Needle
• Reload and talk to her again to receive Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom
• Reload then head West to fall down the cliff safely again.
• Talk with Millicent in the shack.
• Reload and talk with Gowry in the shack.
• Follow the road South to grab the Southern Aeonia Swamp Grace.
• Go South-West and then South-East to grab the Impassable Greatbridge Grace
• Use the portal to grab the Chamber Outside the Plaza Grace
• Go North to talk with Finger Maiden Thorelina for the Polite Bow Emote
• Go up the stairs to talk with Jerren for the Heartening Cry Emote
• Continue North and use the elevator at the back to reach the portal to Radahn.
• Kill Starscourge Radahn
• Grab the Starscourge Radahn Grace
• Talk with Blaidd to exhaust his dialogue
• Talk with Alexander to exhaust his dialogue

Altus Plateau/Mt Gelmir

• From the Abandoned Coffin Grace: Head North-East to grab the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace
• Talk with Rya just to the South to teleport to Volcano Manor
• Grab the Volcano Manor Grace
• Talk with Tanith nearby to receive Drawing-Room Key
• Open the doors and grab the Letter from Volcano Manor from the table
• Talk with Rya and exhaust her dialogue.
• Talk with Recusant Bernahl and exhaust his dialogue.
• From the Warmaster's Shack Grace: Go North and invade Old Knight Istvan for the Scaled Armour Set
• From the Volcano Manor Grace: Talk to Tanith to receive Magma Shot
• Grab the second Letter from Volcano Manor from the table
• Talk with Rya and exhaust her dialogue.
• Talk with Bernahl and he will begin selling new Ashes of War.
• Talk with Patches in the hallway near the grace then talk to him again to receive the Letter to Patches
• From the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace: Head East across the battlefield to grab the Altus Highway Junction Grace.
• Go East and then North into the hole in the cliff to grab the Amber Starlight Shard
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Follow the road North to grab the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge Grace.
• Use the portal and head South to talk with Goldmask
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Go North again and talk with Brother Corhyn to tell him about Goldmask
• Go North-West down the cliff to Second Church of Marika
• Talk with Yura to get Nagakiba
• Kill the Invader for Eleonora's Poleblade and the Purifying Crystal Tear
• Continue North and use the Spirit Jump to get to the top of the cliff.
• Head West across the bridge to grab the Bridge of Iniquity Grace
• Go East across the bridge again and follow the road to the Writheblood Ruins.
• Invade Magnus the Beast Claw in the easternmost ruin for the Great Stars.
• From the Bridge of Iniquity Grace: Cross the bridge East and use the Spirit Jumps to get back down to the bottom.
• Head North-West to invade Rileigh the Idle for Crepus's Vial
• Continue North and jump onto the West wall of the Shaded Castle.
• Continue through the Shaded Castle as desired to grab the Shaded Castle Inner Gate Grace
• Jump onto the wall South of the grace and use it to jump onto the pathway to the West
• Head North up the path and open the chest to grab Valkyrie's Prosthesis.
• From the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace: Go North to talk with Millicent and give her the Valkyrie's Prosthesis
• Continue North up the slope then West to kill the Tibia Mariner for another Deathroot.
• Head North-West into the ravine to grab the Seethewater River Grace
• Follow the path looping around to grab the Seethewater Terminus Grace.
• Head South-West to kill the Magma Wyrm
• Talk with Alexander who is in the lava near the Magma Wyrm to receive the Jar helmet. You can use the solid magma rock on the edge of the cliff to avoid damage while talking with him.
• Continue South and East to grab the Craftsman's Shack Grace
• Head North-East to grab the Primeval Sorcerer Azur Grace.
• Talk with Primeval Sorcerer Azur for Comet Azur
• Head North-East across the rock bridge and into the building to grab Gelmir Hero's Grave Grace
• Kill the boss Red Wolf of the Champion to grab another Deathroot from the chest.
• From the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge Grace: Use the portal and go South again to talk with Goldmask and Brother Corhyn again.
• Follow the road North then South-East to grab the Windmill Village Grace
• Head North-East through the village to kill the Godskin Apostle
• Grab the Windmill Heights Grace and rest at it
• Talk with Millicent nearby and exhaust her dialogue.
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Head up the stairs to the East and through the doors to grab the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Grace.
• Head South-East into the church to grab the Minor Erdtree Church Grace.
• Talk with Melina at the Minor Erdtree Church Grace for the Outer Order Emote.
• From the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Grace: Head up the stairs North-East and follow the road North for the Outer Wall Battleground Grace
• Find the Servant standing on the road just South of the grace and defeat the enemy that spawns from it for the Viridian Amber Medallion +1.
• From the Magma Wyrm Makar Grace: Invade Great Horned Tragoth for the Bull Goat Armour Set
• From the Volcano Manor Grace: Talk with Tanith to receive the Serpentbone Blade
• Talk with Patches to report your success
• Grab the Red Letter from the table
• Talk with Recusant Bernahl for the Letter to Bernahl
• Talk to Rya in the other room.
• Use the secret passage in the third room to grab the Prison Town Church Grace.
• Proceed through the area as desired to grab pull the lever and raise the shortcut bridge next to the Prison Town Church Grace.
• From the Prison Town Church Grace: Cross the bridge and kill the Godskin Noble
• Grab the Temple of Eiglay Grace
• Grab the Serpent's Amnion from nearby

Underground

• From the Fort Haight West Grace: Head North-West to the crater and descend inside of it.
• Proceed as desired until you reach the Nokron, Eternal City Grace.
• Continue proceeding as desired to the boss room.
• Kill the boss to learn more about yourself and grab the Grace.
• Head North-East along the bridge until you hit the forest.
• Follow the cliff leading North-West to grab the Ancestral Woods Grace.
• Jump down onto the roofs to the South-West and proceed as desired through the area until you grab the Night's Sacred Ground Grace
• Head North-East past the Mimic's and up the stairs to open the chest and grab the Fingerslayer Blade and Great Ghost Glovewort.
• Use the portal nearby then head far North-East until you reach the cliff's edge near the jellyfish.
• Head North along the cliff to jump down and grab the Aqueduct-Facing Cliffs Grace.
• Go East and make your way down to progress through the area as desired until you reach the boss room.
• Talk with the NPC curled up outside the boss room to give him the Twinned Armor Set and receive the Inner Order Emote.
• Kill the Boss Duo to grab the Great Waterfall Basin Grace.
• Use the coffin just North-West of the grace and grab the Great Waterfall Crest Grace.
• Head West across the branches then further West to grab the Deeproot Depths Grace.
• Follow the cliff North and then West to grab the Nameless Eternal City Grace.
• Go East and onto the rooftop to make your way up the branches and grab the Across the Roots Grace on cliff near the top.
• Enter the area North and kill Fia's Champions to get Fia's Mist.
• Grab the Prince of Death's Throne Grace

Leyndell

• From the Prince of Death's Throne Grace: Use the nearby portal to enter Leyndell Capital.
• Head South to grab the East Capital Rampart Grace.
• Proceed through the area as desired to grab the Avenue Balcony Grace(the fastest way is by going West across the rooftops)
• Continue proceeding through the area as desired until you reach the West Capital Rampart Grace.(the fastest way is by going straight North-West and climbing up the wing.)
• Follow the path South and then go down the branch to the West.
• Jump onto the roof and enter the building to find a familiar area.
• Proceed through this area as desired, but just make sure you grab the Seedbed Curse from the North most room on the top floor.
• Once you get to the bottom floor, Invade Vargram the Raging Wolf and Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm to receive the Raging Wolf Armor Set.
• From the West Capital Rampart Grace: Follow the path South and then go up the branch to the East to the boss room.
• Kill the Golden Shade boss and grab the Erdtree Sanctuary Grace.
• Head East and up the branch, into the building and then out of the building.
• Once you get out of the building, go West to jump down onto the rooftop and enter the window.
• Climb onto the branch and grab the Golden Order Principia from the floating chair.
• Head North out of the building again and grab the Queen's Bedchamber Grace.
• Kill Morgott, the Grace-Given
• Interact with the thorns, grab the Elden Throne Grace and rest at it.

This is the end of the First Half of the guide but I will be posting the Second Half immediately. I hope everyone enjoyed the guide and hope you'll stick around for more or check out my other Guides.

Second Half

Hello everyone! I know it's been a long time but with the DLC on the way and work slowing down for a bit, I've decided to start writing guides again. With the DLC a month away, I've decided to focus my efforts on guides that will help prepare for the DLC and have a few others that are just about ready as well.
With all of the patches over the years, the questlines have been changes fairly significantly. It is now nearly impossible to "break" any questlines by accident but many of my previous guides were made to avoid that happening. Given that, they have lost some of their purpose and aren't as optimal as they previously were. I have went through the game again and learned all of the new tricks to optimize the questlines so that you can take the least amount of steps possible to receive all of the questlines best rewards.
So what this guide is meant for is to help with getting characters through the game with all of the unique quest rewards as optimally as possible. So there should be nothing unnecessary within this guide and it will take you from location to location without consideration for level or build. Given that, you may need to do side objectives and leveling for your personal run, but you can just continue following from where you left off. Due to Reddit's character limit, I have to separate this guide into two parts but both halves are already available.
I hope everyone enjoys the guide and please let me know if you have any suggestions, fixes or feedback!

Second Half

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Limgrave

• Grab the First Step Grace once you enter Limgrave
• Head South-East to grab the Seaside Ruins Grace
• Head East to grab the Agheel Lake South Grace
• Rest at the Grace to receive Torrent
• Cross the bridge South-East to grab the Bridge of Sacrifice Grace
• Talk to Irina nearby and get the letter from her.
• From the Agheel Lake South Grace: Head South-East and use the Spirit Jump to grab the Starlight Shard from the stone astrolabe nearby.
• Head North and use the Spirit Jump to get down into the forest below.
• Head North-East until you hear howling from the nearby ruin
• Head South-East to grab the Fort Haight West Grace
• Go inside Fort Haight to kill the Knight at the top and grab the Dectus Medallion (Left)
• From the First Step Grace: Head North to grab the Church of Elleh Grace
• Fast Travel to the Church of Elleh Grace and talk to Witch Renna to get the Spirit Calling Bell and Spirit Wolf Ashes
• Talk to Merchant Kale to get the Fingersnap Emote
• Head North-East to grab the Agheel Lake North Grace
• Head South-East and dodge roll into the talking tree to talk with Boc
• Head North then North-East to grab the Murkwater Coast Grace
• Hop down the hole nearby and head South to kill the Invader for Reduvia
• Follow the river back North to talk with Yura
• Head back South and go inside the nearby cave to grab the Murkwater Cave Grace
• Knock the boss to half HP and accept the surrender for the Grovel for Mercy Emote
• Reload and exhaust his dialogue then hit him 3 times without killing him to make him hostile.
• Let him hit you to below half HP to get the Extreme Repentance Emote
• Either Die or use the Extreme Repentance Gesture near him to stop hostilities.
• Reload and talk to him again to get permission to open the chest nearby. Open it to enter the Mistwood Ruins.
• Head North-East to grab the Third Church of Marika Grace and rest at it to allow fast travel again.
• Head North and use the Spirit Jumps to get to the very top of the cliffs
• Head West into Summonwater Village and kill the Tibia Mariner for a Deathroot
• Head South and use the tombstones poking out of the cliff going South-West to get down to the graveyard.
• Continue South-West onto the ruin to talk with Kenneth Haight and get the Erdsteel Dagger. You can kill him for a Golden Seed as he has nothing more to offer.
• Travel back to Murkwater Cave Grace and talk with the boss again to get the Calm Down Emote
• From the Murkwater Coast Grace: Head North and then up the river and use the Spirit Jump to grab the Saintsbridge Grace
• Head West and then up the cliffs going South to help Iron Fist Alexander and get the Triumphant Delight Emote
• Head North and up the opposite cliff into the tomb to grab the Deathtouched Catacombs Grace.
• Proceed through the Deathtouched Catacombs as desired but make sure to pick up at least 1 Grave Glovewort [1] as you progress.
• Kill the boss of the Deathtouched Catacombs and open the chest to grab the Deathroot
• Leave the cave and follow the road South-West to grab the Warmaster's Shack Grace
• Head North to the arena and kill the Invader to get the Hammer Talisman
• From the Warmaster's Shack Grace: Follow the road going West to grab the Stormhill Shack Grace.
• Talk with Roderika to get the Sitting Sideways Emote and Spirit Jellyfish Ashes

Stormveil Castle/Limgrave 2

• Follow the road North that turns to go South-West into the castle to grab the Castleward Tunnel.
• Defeat Margit, the Fell Omen and grab the Margit, the Fell Omen Grace
• Head West to grab the Stormveil Main Gate Grace.
• Rest at it to enter Roundtable Hold.
• Inside Roundtable Hold, talk with Gideon, Brother Corhyn and Ensha to receive the Prayer Emote and What Do You Want Emote
• Jump over the railing and let the Invader bow to get the Reverential Bow Emote then kill him for the Taunter's Tongue.
• From the Stormveil Main Gate Grace: Talk with Gostoc in the building nearby.
• Accept or Decline him. If you Decline you can open the main gate now.
• DO NOT KILL Gostoc. If you do you will miss out on an optional reward later.
• Choose any way you like to make your way through the castle until you grab the Secluded Cell Grace before the boss room.
• From the Secluded Cell Grace: Head South past the troll and into the room straight ahead to talk with Nepheli Loux.
• Head back to the boss room and defeat Godrick the Grafted.
• Grab the Godrick the Grafted Grace and rest at it.
• Head North-West, go through the door, and follow the path to the left to hop down.
• Turn around and grab the Shabriri Grape
• Continue to the outside and grab the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace
• Return to the Roundtable Hold
• Talk with Roderika and Hewg back and forth until dialogue is exhausted.
• Talk to Rogier and tell him about Godrick to receive Rogier's Rapier +8
• Talk to the Finger Reader and the Fingers for the Rapture Emote
• Talk to Nepheli then Gideon and Nepheli again for the Arsenal Charm and to progress Nepheli's questline.
• From the First Step Grace in Limgrave: Interact with the message nearby for the Bravo! Emote
• Head South-West onto the beach and follow the cliff to find a cave to grab the Coastal Cave Grace
• Kill the boss of the cave for Tailoring Tools and Sewing Needle
• From the Coastal Cave Grace: Talk with Boc to give him the Sewing Needle

Note: Roderika's Crimson Hood is in the Grafted Scion room in Stormveil now and a Golden Seed is where she was at Stormhill Shack.

Liurnia Lake

• From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace: Rest at the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace.
• Talk with Boc and Hyetta to give Hyetta the Shabriri Grape and get the As You Wish Emote.
• Head North-West and grab the Liurnia Lake Shore Grace
• Head North-West to grab the Laskyar Ruins Grace
• Follow the road North-West to talk with Rya in the pavilion and accept her request.
• Head West to grab the Scenic Isle Grace
• Head North-West to grab the Boilprawn Shack Grace
• Talk to Blackguard Big-Boggart and buy Rya's Necklace from him.
• Talk to him again and buy at least one Boiled Prawn from him for the Spread Out Emote
• Head North-East to grab the Academy Gate Town Grace
• Head North and kill Diallos on the ruins of a building for Diallos's Mask and Hoslow's Petal Whip. This does not affect any unique future rewards
• Continue North-West and use the portal in the pavilion to grab the Northern Liurnia Lake Shore Grace to the South-West
• Go North-East and through the illusory wall to grab the Road to the Manor Grace
• Follow the road to the manor for the Main Caria Manor Gate Grace.
• Make your way through Caria Manor as desired.
• Defeat the boss for the Royal Moongazing Grounds Grace
• Leave through the back of the boss room and head West to the ruin furthest West to find an illusory floor.
• Enter the basement that the illusory floor leads to and interact with the message.
• Leave the room and continue South-West to grab the Ranni's Rise Grace.
• Go up the elevator and accept Ranni's proposal
• Go down to talk with Iji, Blaidd and Seluvis then back up to talk with Ranni.
• Leave the tower and head to the tower to the South-East to talk with Seluvis and accept his proposal
• From the Boilprawn Shack Grace: Head North-West and grab the Fallen Ruins of the Lake Grace at the furthest West ruin.
• Head West and talk to White Mask Varre and choose the topmost option both times.
• Head North-West and grab the Temple Quarter Grace
• Go South-West into the forest to kill the Invader for a Shabriri Grape and Banished Knight Halberd +8
• Grab the Revenger's Shack Grace
• From the Temple Quarter Grace: Go North and grab the Academy Glintstone Key from behind the Dragon
• Head North-West from the Dragon to grab the Foot of the Four Belfries Grace for later use.
• From the Fallen Ruins of the Lake Grace: Head South-West to the pavilion to grab the Folly on the Lake Grace.
• Go South until you hit the wall then head West up the road to talk with Nepheli Loux
• Continue West to grab the Village of the Albinauric's Grace
• Follow the path South-East and roll into the conspicuous pot to reveal Albus
• Talk to Albus to receive the Haligtree Secret Medallion (Right)
• Continue through the village to defeat the boss.
• From the Scenic Isle Grace: Head East to talk with Rya and give her Rya's Necklace for the Volcano Manor Invitation.
• From the Scenic Isle Grace: Head directly South and into the cave to grab the Lakeside Crystal Cave Grace
• Continue through the cave as desired and kill the boss
• Leave through the back of the boss room to talk with Latenna to receive her Ashes.
• From the Laskyar Ruins Grace: Head East and talk with Hyetta to give her a Shabriri Grape
• Continue East into the ruin and go inside the basement hidden beneath the wooden planks to grab a Shabriri Grape
• Leave the basement and head North-East to grab the Liurnia Highway North Grace
• Follow the road North going down to grab the Gate Town Bridge Grace
• Rest at the grace and talk to Hyetta nearby to the North to give her another Shabriri Grape and tell her what they are.
• Rest at the grace and talk with her again.
• Head East to use the Spirit Jump then grab the Starlight Shard from the stone astrolabe slightly West.
• Follow the road North to kill the Tibia Mariner for a Deathroot
• Head East from the Tibia Mariner and use the tombstone sticking out of the cliff to make your way down to grab the Jarburg Grace for later.
• From the Laskyar Ruins Grace: Head North-West and go through the portal to grab the South Raya Lucaria Gate Grace
• Use the nearby gate to grab the Main Academy Gate Grace
• Head North-East past the seal and interact with the Invasion Sign to assist Yura and receive the Ash of War: Raptor of the Mists
• Talk with Yura nearby
• Go South-West and interact with the seal to grab the East Raya Lucaria Gate Grace
• Head North-East and grab the Bellum Church Grace for later
• Follow the cliff North-East to grab the Grand Lift of Dectus Grace
• Head South and follow the cliffs on the East side to use the Spirit Jump and kill the enemies at the top of the tower. Note: If you jump just right, you can land Torrent on the very top of the tower and avoid any climbing.
• Head South-East from the tower to grab the Frenzied Flame Village Outskirts Grace
• Go East and use the tombstones poking out from the cliffside to get to the bottom, open the door to the North and grab the Black Knife Catacombs Grace.
• Proceed through the Black Knife Catacombs as desired but make sure to pick up at least 1 of each of the Grave Glovewort [2], Grave Glovewort [3] and Grave Glovewort [4] as you progress.
• Kill the Black Knife boss behind the illusory wall for the Black Knifeprint
• Kill the other boss inside to grab a Deathroot from the chest.
• From the Frenzied Flame Village Outskirts Grace: Head South-West into the village then North-West to kill the Invader for the Fingerprint Grape and Vyke's War Spear
• Grab the Church of Inhibition Grace just to the North
• From the Bellum Church Grace: Talk with Hyetta nearby to give her the Fingerprint Grape
• Use the hole in the back of the church to follow the slope down going North-East to grab the Ravine-Veiled Village Grace for later.

Raya Lucaria/Liurnia Lake 2

• From the Main Academy Gate Grace: Go up the lift to enter Raya Lucaria and proceed through it as desired to grab the Schoolhouse Classroom Grace.
• Kill the Red Wolf of Radagon
• Grab the Debate Parlor Grace
• Proceed through the area that goes North-West up the stairs and over the balcony as desired to grab the second Academy Glintstone Key at the end.
• From the Debate Parlor Grace: Head North-East up the stairs to kill Moongrum, Carian Knight
• Defeat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
• Grab the Raya Lucaria Grand Library Grace
• From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace: Go South-West into the Church of Irith and talk with Thops to give him the second Academy Glintstone Key and recieve the Erudition Emote.
• Reload the area and kill the scarab for Ash of War: Thop's Barrier
• From the Schoolhouse Classroom Grace: Go outside and around the corner to grab Thop's Barrier
• From the Ravine-Veiled Village Grace: Climb the ladder nearby and proceed through the Ruin-Strewn Precipice as desired to grab the Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook Grace.
• Summon Great Horned Tragoth to receive the Casual Greeting Emote.
• Kill Magma Wyrm Makar
• Grab the Magma Wyrm Makar Grace
• Go up the lift at the back of the boss room to grab the Abandoned Coffin Grace
• Return to the Roundtable Hold
• Kill the Invader for Clinging Bone
• Talk to the Finger Reader Enia for a Talisman Pouch
• Talk to Corhyn to get him to progress his questline.
• Talk with Roderika and upgrade the Spirit Ash of your choosing to +4 using the Grave Gloveworts picked up in Deathtouched Catacombs and Black Knife Catacombs.
• After upgrading, talk with Roderika again to get the Curtsy Emote.
• Talk with Rogier again and he should mention going to sleep.
• Reload and talk with the sleeping Rogier. Repeat this 3 times for the Spellblade Armor Set.
• Talk with Fia and cuddle her, then cuddle her again and exhaust her dialogue to receive the Weathered Dagger.
• Talk with D to show him the Deathroot and accept his proposal then show him the Weathered Dagger.
• Reload and go into the locked room behind Blacksmith Hewg to talk with Fia and get the Twinned Armor Set.

Caelid

• From the Third Church of Marika Grace: Go North-East and use the portal to grab the Bestial Sanctum Grace behind the doors.
• Go South-East to grab the Farum Greatbridge Grace
• Run across the bridge and hug the southern cliff going South-West to use the Spirit Jump behind the Minor Erdtree and grab the Fort Faroth Grace
• Go West and use the Spirit Jump over the edge of the southern cliff to get down then head South to grab the Church of the Plague Grace
• Head West and fall down the cliff safely. There is a large spot where it's easily doable.
• Go North-West to grab the Sellia Under-Stair Grace
• Head South-West to grab the Inner Aeonia Grace
• Kill Commander O'Neil to the South for the Golden Needle
• From the Church of the Plague Grace: Head West and fall down the cliff safely again.
• Talk to Gowry in the shack to give him the Golden Needle.
• Reload and talk to him again to receive the Golden Needle.
• From the Church of the Plague Grace: Talk to Millicent to give her the Golden Needle
• Reload and talk to her again to receive Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom
• Reload then head West to fall down the cliff safely again.
• Talk with Millicent in the shack.
• Reload and talk with Gowry in the shack.
• Follow the road South to grab the Southern Aeonia Swamp Grace.
• Go South-West and then South-East to grab the Impassable Greatbridge Grace
• Use the portal to grab the Chamber Outside the Plaza Grace
• Go North to talk with Finger Maiden Thorelina for the Polite Bow Emote
• Go up the stairs to talk with Jerren for the Heartening Cry Emote
• Continue North and use the elevator at the back to reach the portal to Radahn.
• Kill Starscourge Radahn
• Grab the Starscourge Radahn Grace
• Talk with Blaidd to exhaust his dialogue
• Talk with Alexander to exhaust his dialogue

Altus Plateau/Mt Gelmir

• From the Abandoned Coffin Grace: Head North-East to grab the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace
• Talk with Rya just to the South to teleport to Volcano Manor
• Grab the Volcano Manor Grace
• Talk with Tanith nearby to receive Drawing-Room Key
• Open the doors and grab the Letter from Volcano Manor from the table
• Talk with Rya and exhaust her dialogue.
• Talk with Recusant Bernahl and exhaust his dialogue.
• From the Warmaster's Shack Grace: Go North and invade Old Knight Istvan for the Scaled Armour Set
• From the Volcano Manor Grace: Talk to Tanith to receive Magma Shot
• Grab the second Letter from Volcano Manor from the table
• Talk with Rya and exhaust her dialogue.
• Talk with Bernahl and he will begin selling new Ashes of War.
• Talk with Patches in the hallway near the grace then talk to him again to receive the Letter to Patches
• From the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace: Head East across the battlefield to grab the Altus Highway Junction Grace.
• Go East and then North into the hole in the cliff to grab the Amber Starlight Shard
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Follow the road North to grab the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge Grace.
• Use the portal and head South to talk with Goldmask
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Go North again and talk with Brother Corhyn to tell him about Goldmask
• Go North-West down the cliff to Second Church of Marika
• Talk with Yura to get Nagakiba
• Kill the Invader for Eleonora's Poleblade and the Purifying Crystal Tear
• Continue North and use the Spirit Jump to get to the top of the cliff.
• Head West across the bridge to grab the Bridge of Iniquity Grace
• Go East across the bridge again and follow the road to the Writheblood Ruins.
• Invade Magnus the Beast Claw in the easternmost ruin for the Great Stars.
• From the Bridge of Iniquity Grace: Cross the bridge East and use the Spirit Jumps to get back down to the bottom.
• Head North-West to invade Rileigh the Idle for Crepus's Vial
• Continue North and jump onto the West wall of the Shaded Castle.
• Continue through the Shaded Castle as desired to grab the Shaded Castle Inner Gate Grace
• Jump onto the wall South of the grace and use it to jump onto the pathway to the West
• Head North up the path and open the chest to grab Valkyrie's Prosthesis.
• From the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Grace: Go North to talk with Millicent and give her the Valkyrie's Prosthesis
• Continue North up the slope then West to kill the Tibia Mariner for another Deathroot.
• Head North-West into the ravine to grab the Seethewater River Grace
• Follow the path looping around to grab the Seethewater Terminus Grace.
• Head South-West to kill the Magma Wyrm
• Talk with Alexander who is in the lava near the Magma Wyrm to receive the Jar helmet. You can use the solid magma rock on the edge of the cliff to avoid damage while talking with him.
• Continue South and East to grab the Craftsman's Shack Grace
• Head North-East to grab the Primeval Sorcerer Azur Grace.
• Talk with Primeval Sorcerer Azur for Comet Azur
• Head North-East across the rock bridge and into the building to grab Gelmir Hero's Grave Grace
• Kill the boss Red Wolf of the Champion to grab another Deathroot from the chest.
• From the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge Grace: Use the portal and go South again to talk with Goldmask and Brother Corhyn again.
• Follow the road North then South-East to grab the Windmill Village Grace
• Head North-East through the village to kill the Godskin Apostle
• Grab the Windmill Heights Grace and rest at it
• Talk with Millicent nearby and exhaust her dialogue.
• From the Altus Highway Junction Grace: Head up the stairs to the East and through the doors to grab the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Grace.
• Head South-East into the church to grab the Minor Erdtree Church Grace.
• Talk with Melina at the Minor Erdtree Church Grace for the Outer Order Emote.
• From the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Grace: Head up the stairs North-East and follow the road North for the Outer Wall Battleground Grace
• Find the Servant standing on the road just South of the grace and defeat the enemy that spawns from it for the Viridian Amber Medallion +1.
• From the Magma Wyrm Makar Grace: Invade Great Horned Tragoth for the Bull Goat Armour Set
• From the Volcano Manor Grace: Talk with Tanith to receive the Serpentbone Blade
• Talk with Patches to report your success
• Grab the Red Letter from the table
• Talk with Recusant Bernahl for the Letter to Bernahl
• Talk to Rya in the other room.
• Use the secret passage in the third room to grab the Prison Town Church Grace.
• Proceed through the area as desired to grab pull the lever and raise the shortcut bridge next to the Prison Town Church Grace.
• From the Prison Town Church Grace: Cross the bridge and kill the Godskin Noble
• Grab the Temple of Eiglay Grace
• Grab the Serpent's Amnion from nearby

Underground

• From the Fort Haight West Grace: Head North-West to the crater and descend inside of it.
• Proceed as desired until you reach the Nokron, Eternal City Grace.
• Continue proceeding as desired to the boss room.
• Kill the boss to learn more about yourself and grab the Grace.
• Head North-East along the bridge until you hit the forest.
• Follow the cliff leading North-West to grab the Ancestral Woods Grace.
• Jump down onto the roofs to the South-West and proceed as desired through the area until you grab the Night's Sacred Ground Grace
• Head North-East past the Mimic's and up the stairs to open the chest and grab the Fingerslayer Blade and Great Ghost Glovewort.
• Use the portal nearby then head far North-East until you reach the cliff's edge near the jellyfish.
• Head North along the cliff to jump down and grab the Aqueduct-Facing Cliffs Grace.
• Go East and make your way down to progress through the area as desired until you reach the boss room.
• Talk with the NPC curled up outside the boss room to give him the Twinned Armor Set and receive the Inner Order Emote.
• Kill the Boss Duo to grab the Great Waterfall Basin Grace.
• Use the coffin just North-West of the grace and grab the Great Waterfall Crest Grace.
• Head West across the branches then further West to grab the Deeproot Depths Grace.
• Follow the cliff North and then West to grab the Nameless Eternal City Grace.
• Go East and onto the rooftop to make your way up the branches and grab the Across the Roots Grace on cliff near the top.
• Enter the area North and kill Fia's Champions to get Fia's Mist.
• Grab the Prince of Death's Throne Grace

Leyndell

• From the Prince of Death's Throne Grace: Use the nearby portal to enter Leyndell Capital.
• Head South to grab the East Capital Rampart Grace.
• Proceed through the area as desired to grab the Avenue Balcony Grace(the fastest way is by going West across the rooftops)
• Continue proceeding through the area as desired until you reach the West Capital Rampart Grace.(the fastest way is by going straight North-West and climbing up the wing.)
• Follow the path South and then go down the branch to the West.
• Jump onto the roof and enter the building to find a familiar area.
• Proceed through this area as desired, but just make sure you grab the Seedbed Curse from the North most room on the top floor.
• Once you get to the bottom floor, Invade Vargram the Raging Wolf and Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm to receive the Raging Wolf Armor Set.
• From the West Capital Rampart Grace: Follow the path South and then go up the branch to the East to the boss room.
• Kill the Golden Shade boss and grab the Erdtree Sanctuary Grace.
• Head East and up the branch, into the building and then out of the building.
• Once you get out of the building, go West to jump down onto the rooftop and enter the window.
• Climb onto the branch and grab the Golden Order Principia from the floating chair.
• Head North out of the building again and grab the Queen's Bedchamber Grace.
• Kill Morgott, the Grace-Given
• Interact with the thorns, grab the Elden Throne Grace and rest at it.

This is the end of the First Half of the guide but I will be posting the Second Half immediately. I hope everyone enjoyed the guide and hope you'll stick around for more or check out my other Guides. We also have a Website, Youtube and Discord so be sure to check them out!

Second Half

Welcome back to my running series of WWF PPV Reviews from a ‘blind’ perspective (I have no idea what’s going to happen; the results, the feuds or how good any of the matches will be). I have always heard stories of the attitude era and golden age but never watched it myself so I set myself to watching every single PPV event chronologically. I am also watching Wrestling Bios ‘reliving the war’ series to keep me updated inbetween the events with the feuds, and to get excited about upcoming matches.
Before I review the matches, based on the past few episodes of raw and last PPVs I’ll let you know, going into the event, which match I’m most excited for and which feud I’m most excited to see.
I don’t actually think there’s been a 10-man tag team match yet in the WWF and with the amount of star power in it it has to be the main event I’m most excited for.
This may surprise you but the feud in most excited to see is Vader Vs Undertaker; whilst it hasn’t had the biggest build up I think we’re going to see some sort of big development in the story of undertaker and Kane in this match so that’s the reason.
WWF In Your House - Canadian Stampede 1997 Match Ratings
HHH vs Mankind 3.75/5
Take Michinoku vs Great Sasuke 4/5
Vader vs Undertaker 4.5/5
10-man Tag Team Match 5/5
Immediately starting off I can’t help but notice people are really into this feud; the crowd is absolutely loving mankind and really behind him. Cant blame them not only is he a great in ring performer and the king of insane bumps but his series of interviews on raw was really intriguing and he’s one of the best characters in the WWF right now. And with HHH acting as an excellent heel it’s a great combo of characters, the crowd are absolutely eating it up.
I gotta say as well these two (HHH and mankind) have really stepped up their game compared to the last match, right from the bell this match is fast paced, brutal and the crowd are really into it, and for an opener it’s great to see!
Although the ending of this match was an annoying decision and it would’ve really benefitted from being a NO DQ Match I thought it was so entertaining. There was almost no down time and at one point Chyna fkin body slams mankind into the steps and after the distraction HHH hits him with a chair and mankind is such a great seller, he never forgets to sell the leg. This was way better than their KOTR match even if it was shorter it was much more physical and fast paced. Definitely the best I’ve seen triple H so far and every event he seems to be improving, his timing is better his selling is fantastic I can’t wait to see the game begin. I absolutely loved the brawling after the match as well, just great entertainment, one of the best openers I’ve seen in the WWF and like I said it usually takes a few matches with star power to really get the crowd going but the crowd was immediately invested just making this match even more entertaining.
The next match is about to kick off and yet again we see Mankind and HHH still fighting, this is f***ing brilliant, they seem to just be getting more and more physical.
For the actual match I was extremely surprised how entertaining it was, debuts notoriously haven’t gone that well in the WWF so far and considering these two haven’t competed in the WWF it was so good! High flying action, great bumps, very impressive moves and no botches at all wow what a great showcase from the Japanese wrestlers. While it isn’t an essential watch it was a fantastic wrestling match and a great exciting mid card.
These two were able to come in as unknown characters to a crowd that didn’t really welcome them and completely turn them around in 10 minutes with nothing but in ring ability and fantastic chemistry, consider me very impressed I hope they stick around in the WWF. Whilst it started off slow with a load of holds and the crowd chanting “BORING” they seriously got going to a whole other level. Well done to these two.
Mankind and triple H are STILL brawling outside the arena now and into the parking lot and HHH is busted wide open, this event is just pure fun right now I’m absolutely loving it. What a treat!
Before the title defence between Vader and undertaker JR and Lawyer exchange some absolutely killer commentary it had me laughing so hard. The crowd is absolutely electric in Canada going into the match as well, this should be good.
Just before I get into the match while watching this the crowd was actually shaking with how much noise the crowd was making it was amazing!
Paul bearer was on fire tonight as usual selling his character development perfectly, undertaker was looking so clean with all his spots, Vader was firing on all cylinders and wow this match was so good. It’s so great to see undertaker having a really entertaining title defense as he hasn’t had a lot of main event wrestlers to really work with during this run. This is definitely the best match I’ve seen from undertaker and Vader together they were working so unbelievably well together on this ppv. The undertaker SOMEHOW picks Vader up for a tombstone piledriver which is INSANE with Vader being over 400lbs and not only that, it looks like he barely even struggled with it. Once again though the crowd was just on fire for this match they love the undertaker. The only complaint I had was that I would’ve liked to see a little more offence from Vader as there wasn’t a moment I was in doubt that undertaker would win, but other than that what an entertaining match. I wish it was longer!! A classic ‘big man’ matchup, if you haven’t seen this it’s definitely worth a watch, and so far the whole event is! If the main event can hit I can see this being one of my favourite PPVs.
Now onto the main event and I know I’ve said it multiple times but this is one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard!! Every competitor coming out gets a cheer and especially Bret Hart which is strange considering he’s a Heel right now but I suppose he is Canadian so it makes sense. WHAT A POP!! You can barely hear when the wrestlers hit the ring the arena is so loud.
WOW! What a tag team match this was complete insanity I loved every second of it. I didn’t think the wwf was capable of putting on banger tag team matches during this era but this just hit for the entire matchup. Literally you had no second of wasted time, the way it was booked made it so it didn’t slow down at all but every wrestler brought their absolute a-game to the match so it all just worked brilliantly. Starting off the match with Bret and Austin and having them go at it was a fantastic choice to start the match, and Austin was a standout this match too he was just electric in the ring; fighting with members of the crowd, running in after the match ALONE to fight every single person in the ring and he gets escorted out in handcuffs because he’s just completely lost it, f***ing brilliant. At one point Austin and Owen are taken out of the match due to leg injuries but they both return to disrupt the match even more. What a great choice having the hart family on the side of the ring too, it made for some great dramatic and real moments when they got involved. If you haven’t seen this match go and watch it right now it’s a must see for sure. So much happened I couldn’t even keep up with it but what a great main event this was, I’m struggling to talk about specific moments because there were so many!
Overall this event was amazing, every single match was great, and with HHH and mankind continuing to brawl in between matches it filled the parts where there weren’t people wrestling with more action! 2 hours went by in what seemed like half an hour. Complete entertainment from when it started to when it ended, this has been my favourite event I’ve seen from this era so far and I think it really benefitted from having less matches that were way better booked. There was no filler and it was awesome, must watch event!
Overall rating 5/5

I've been playing a lot of 2v2 the past couple weeks. I don't even think I'd be exaggerating if I said my partner quits after slight inconvenience about 75% of the time. I can't even get mad when I get steamrolled at this point because I'm just happy if someone sticks around for the match. I've had people quit or just stop placing things after one of their troops die or I make 1 misplay. A portion of what I'm counting could be real connection issues, but I've tested that by stalling and been proved wrong too many times(I've had several people leave and rejoin multiple times then just watch and do nothing till the match ends.) Honestly it kinda just feels like MTG Arena at this point. - Bad starting hand: quit - Minor Inconvenience: quit - Opponent exists: quit Probably just ranting for nothing on a game mode with little to no impact.
Anyone else have a similar thoughts on why this happens or ways to solve it?

Finland vs. Canada

Prague Arena

In-Game Updates

Time Clock
Final

Team	1	2	3	TOT
FIN	2	1	0	3
CAN	2	1	2	5

Team	Shots	FO Wins	PPG	SHG	PP Time	PIM
FIN	32	18	1	0	08:46	8
CAN	22	25	0	0	06:00	31

Period	Time	Team	Strength	Description
1	01:35	FIN	EQ	#13 PULJUJARVI Jesse scored for Finland (Assisted by #2 RISSANEN Rasmus and #12 INNALA Jere).
1	03:51	FIN	PP1	#48 PUUSTINEN Valtteri scored for Finland (Assisted by #57 HYRY Arttu and #18 SAARIJARVI Vili).
1	14:53	CAN	EQ	#22 COZENS Dylan scored for Canada (Assisted by #88 MANGIAPANE Andrew and #25 POWER Owen).
1	16:30	CAN	EQ	#13 TANEV Brandon scored for Canada (Assisted by #91 TAVARES John).
2	16:07	FIN	EQ	#13 PULJUJARVI Jesse scored for Finland (Assisted by #38 VITTASMAKI Veli-Matti and #80 MAENALANEN Saku).
2	17:12	CAN	EQ	#25 POWER Owen scored for Canada (Assisted by #22 COZENS Dylan and #55 PARAYKO Colton).
3	11:32	CAN	EQ	#38 HAGEL Brandon scored for Canada (Assisted by #91 TAVARES John and #80 DUBOIS Pierre-Luc).
3	19:39	CAN	EQ,ENG	#18 MERCER Dawson scored for Canada (Assisted by #25 POWER Owen).

Period	Time	Team	Min	Description
1	02:05	CAN	2	#98 BEDARD Connor for Slashing.
1	17:48	FIN	2	#3 MAATTA Olli for Roughing.
1	20:00	FIN	2	#2 RISSANEN Rasmus for Roughing.
2	04:30	CAN	2	#80 DUBOIS Pierre-Luc for Hooking.
2	07:29	CAN	2	#55 PARAYKO Colton for Holding.
2	16:29	FIN	2	#13 PULJUJARVI Jesse for Roughing.
2	16:29	CAN	5 + 20	#4 BYRAM Bowen for Slashing (served by #71 GREIG Ridly).
3	07:55	FIN	2	#24 BJORNINEN Hannes for High Sticking.

Time

PT	MT	CT	ET	AT	WE	CE	EE	FE
07:20AM	08:20AM	09:20AM	10:20AM	11:20AM	03:20PM	04:20PM	05:20PM	05:20PM

Game Data

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Here are some of mine: Power Stone. Based on Capcom’s criminally underrated 3D arena fighters, this 26 episode long series does a good job following the plot of the first game. With pretty good animation from Studio Pierrot, it’s a pretty good watch, and it’s all on YouTube.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Not based on any particular DQ game, but this anime deserves a lot more attention than its gotten. A great adventure series from Shonen Jump with lots of great fights, memorable characters, and just a fun series, overall. Highly recommended. (On a side note, DQ: Legend of the Hero Abel is also a good watch. It also sticks closer to Akira Toriyama’s original designs).
Monster Rancher. Another show that came out around the same time when Pokemon started blowing up, this one was based off of Tecmo’s monster raising/battle simulator game (which, at the time, had over 400(?) monsters that you unlocked by inserting various CDs into your PlayStation. A pretty cool gimmick at the time). A isekai fantasy adventure series where our small band of heroes are trying to resurrect the phoenix and end the reign of the evil Mu. Definitely worth a watch- especially if you rollerblade.
Medabots. The original game came out in Japan shortly after Pokémon started blowing up there. Instead of creatures, you get little robots that you can customize. It’s both funny and exciting. Worth a watch.
Fatal Fury (the OVAs). Smash Bros. fans, ever wonder where Terry Bogard came from? Well, these 2 ovas do a good job telling the story of the first 2 games, and the franchise as a whole.
Fire Emblem. 2 ovas were made in the 90’s based on the remake of the very first game. The dub calls Marth “Mars” and it doesn’t cover the entire game, but for us FE, it’s still a nice treat.
Edit: wait, why has this been downvoted for…? I don’t get it…