Previous
So, if you’re just joining us, I work at a haunted zoo now. Since I’ve gotten some rest, it feels like I’ve got my head on straight, at least, so I’d like to continue where I left off.
I sat on the floor in the office after meeting the ghost until I’d settled my rattled mind (and realized I’d forgotten to ask her name, how rude is that?). I took a deep breath and got up off the floor. Walking over and falling into the rolling chair in front of the large screen of camera views, when I brought up the camera that covered the area in which I’d spotted her, she was still there, and it seemed she hadn’t moved an inch.
Sitting there, at a loss, I continued to watch her. The ghost hung around for another five minutes or so, appearing to look at a few things off-screen, though I’m not sure what. Then she walked off into the forest and left the view of the cameras. I wasn’t sure if she vanished into the ether or if she’d gone looking into the trees to look for something.
But that wasn’t the end of the job interview, so let me jump back there. It continued into what kind of animals the zoo had, with Andrew asking me how much experience I had with dangerous animals.
I took a moment to consider the question. “So, ah…I’ve been going hunting and fishing with a neighbor since I was sixteen,” I told him. “We always have to keep an eye out for gators, bears, and hogs. Then there’s snakes, of course…snapping turtles… Since I’ve lived here my whole life and been aiming for a job with wildlife for a long time, I know a lot about the animals in Arkansas in general. But good advice for all of the above is avoid them, so I’ve had encounters, but I don’t know if you’d say I have experience with them.”
“That’s fine,” Andrew said, nodding. “That’s an answer I’m satisfied with. Now, the ghost was the appetizer, Ripley; here’s the main course. To start with, the pay isn’t twenty-five an hour. It’s fifty.”
Staring in shock for a moment, I asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. But that’d be weird to post online considering what applicants think we need, so I halved it.”
“That’s… Okay, why?”
“The animals are already here. You just can’t see them.”
I stared at him for a long moment, some disbelief worming its way into my expression, before saying, “Sorry, what?”
“There’s a chance you’d naturally never see them, or at least some of them,” he continued casually. “It depends on both your genetics and how long you stay on the job. I can naturally see six of them, but that’s it. Suzanne can see all of them, and more. Some are what people would label demons or ghosts. Or magic. Mostly you’d call them cryptids. The ghost was just a warm-up; I mentioned her first because it never takes more than a week to see her if you work the night shift. If you manage to handle her okay, soon you’ll be able to see the animals too. The more time you spend on the grounds, for weird reasons,” he said, wiggling his fingers in the direction of the back door, “the more you’ll be able to see.”
“So, this…this is a zoo for cryptids,” I echoed slowly. He nodded once, waiting to find out what kind of reaction I would have. I gestured vaguely around the room. “If this is a hidden camera show, will you cut me a check for showing up and participating?”
Andrew coughed out a chuckle and shook his head. “No joke. There are a ton of stories out there that have been written to death, pulverized until they’re not the Grimm stories of old and instead they’re Disney films. A lot of those stories come from what some humans have seen. There are dozens of other worlds pressed up against ours, and occasionally things come through by accident. If they’re smart, they’ll lay low and then make their way back when they can. If not, they become local folklore until someone helps them back. I’m just from London, but Suzanne is from somewhere else. She hires people like us for this zoo. Humans.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “That makes no sense. Why would she hire a muggle for a magic zoo?”
Andrew burst out laughing at that, and then waited to gather himself before he continued. “Fair point, but this is less about magic and more about animals, and you’re missing some information that will explain it. First of all, if I misjudge an employee, and they think they can make bank by outing the endangered and valuable animals we have, it’s easy to relocate the zoo.”
“Because magic?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he replied, ignoring the thread of skepticism in my tone. “That means it isn’t the end of the world if that happened, though it is a pain in the arse. But second…let me ask you a question. Speaking of reality shows, say the Discovery Channel put out a call to replace Steve Irwin when he passed. Imagine they had a line out the door,” he said with a gesture, “of people who thought they had the skill and natural talent to replace him, to take on everything he’d been doing his whole life. How many do you reckon would lose an arm, a leg, or their life, by the end of the day?”
My lips parted in surprise and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re saying people from…wherever…they’re just as dumb as humans, but they’re worse, because they actually think they can handle these things.”
Andrew pointed the pen at me. “Things. Exactly. You called them things. Suzanne and her friends grew up with them and would call them animals. These animals have dispositions and temperaments that we’ve studied for as long as there have been scientists. Where Suzanne’s from, they know the weaknesses of these animals, and also they’re in enclosures here, even if you and I can’t see the walls because they’re invisible things called ‘wards’. If I hire someone who’s got magic on top of all that, they’ll have almost no instinctive fear.
“Everything here is nocturnal, and every one of them is a hunter. Some of these things? Humans see them and they pass out. Not that I want you passing out, but I need someone who is scared of these things, who knows to stay out of the enclosures no matter what. Not someone who thinks they can train them to do tricks, who gets close enough for them to grab a mouthful of hair and drown them. Once, we had a night shift manager injured, and once killed, because they didn’t take these animals seriously enough.”
Thinking back to the Sea World orca incident I knew he’d been referencing, I remembered wondering how someone at that level of her profession could be so careless as I watched the video on YouTube. It made sense when he explained it like that. I hesitated before mentally throwing my hands up and going all in. “So, why put this place here, then? If they’re endangered and also dangerous, why have a zoo at all instead of just a small reserve?”
He pursed his lips, looking disappointed in me. “Ripley. You know that already. You already said as much.”
Thinking back through our conversation, I said, “The rich humans who pay top dollar to see supernatural animals.”
“Not humans,” he told me. “But people, yes, and they are rich, and they’re making donations and spending their money on a ticket here because everything we have is endangered.”
“So…”
I just let my voice trail off and my mind started to drift. Andrew remained silent, letting me do so. There’s that thing people say, ‘I believe that you believe it,’ which is just a kinder way of saying, ‘Bullshit.’ Parents say it about closet monsters. Psychologists say it to people who say they’ve been abducted and probed by aliens. I wanted to say it to Andrew.
But I also wanted a job. If it meant working overnight at an empty zoo, that was fine. When it came down to it, especially when I took the tone of our conversation into account, this was a zoo specifically focused on preserving endangered ‘animals’, and it was allegedly doing important work. Also, if this turned out to be the real deal and I started seeing the animals, I would deal with it, just like I would deal with an enclosure that had a lion or tiger or gorilla. If it came with a ghost and invisible creatures, I really didn’t see what the difference was, if I couldn’t go in the enclosures either way.
On that note, I’d like you to imagine a kid who looks at a roller coaster, watching everyone screaming and grinning as they go up and down and all around and they’re like, ‘Heck, I could do that! That looks like a blast!’
Then they get on, the first drop hits, and they realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.
“All right,” I sighed. “I can’t say I’m going to turn down a job just because it’s going to be scary. Especially not one with this paycheck.”
Andrew smiled. “Awesome. There’s an adjustment process for anyone working here, similar to a dog that gets adopted, actually. I know the general guidelines of, ‘three days, three weeks, three months’ in terms of milestones, until they finally feel they’re where they’re supposed to be,” he told me, “and you can think of your time here along those lines. I really think you’re a great fit, and once you reach the milestone of working here for three months, I’ll officially consider you our new night shift guard. And I hope you’ll stay with us for many years.”
I nodded and smiled at the flattery of an employer wanting me to work a great job for them for a long time. I’d never had a dog, but those milestones were well-known among anyone who knew animals, especially dogs. The first three days, the dog is getting to know its new digs, exploring, and decompressing. At three weeks, they’ve gotten used to their environment and are starting to get comfortable with their surroundings and the routines of the humans they live with. By three months, they know the rules and follow them, they trust you, and they feel they are where they’re meant to be. I could only hope to be so lucky.
I saw the ghost two days ago and she has yet to make another appearance (for those who are curious, I asked, and her name is Leila), and I still hadn’t seen any animals. I did hear one, though, I feel compelled to note. A growling roar sounded from the lake on occasion, echoing across the vast zoo, sending a shiver down my spine. Whatever that animal was, it sounded gigantic.
Andrew said there was apparently a group that wanted to visit for a birthday and they were offering a huge donation, so he let me know they were making an exception and that this group would be walking through the park that night. That meant I’d be watching people watching animals that, as far as I could tell, weren’t there.
It was anticlimactic. Even the three people who came for the tour just looked like people, not like aliens or something eldritch from another dimension, and I stayed in the security office the whole time. Andrew was the one giving the tour. I watched them spend about five minutes at each enclosure, the hour or so that they were there passing without incident. It was clear that they were able to see all the animals, though, since they motioned excitedly at each enclosure and spoke to Andrew, who presumably answered any questions they had.
If they could see the animals, that was that. There was still that niggle in the back of my head, from my twenty-three years of life never encountering anything like ghosts or cryptids, telling me that this was ridiculous. Waiting for someone to knock on the door, a camera mounted on their shoulder, to tell me that it was a big joke and they wanted to see how long I’d play along. But from all I saw, this was a real place with real, invisible animals.
I do carry a taser and pepper spray in my capacity as a security guard. Though it isn’t for the animals, since they’re in the enclosures; they’re actually for the rare instance of a break-in. Andrew mentioned that it had happened several times it the past, someone trying to steal an animal in the hopes of selling it on the black market. They’d been successful before, but apparently my predecessor Roger was good at his job, and mostly they left in handcuffs.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of confrontation, but my job was to call Andrew and then confront the person, not kick their ass. That’s what the police were for, or rather, the people Andrew would call in lieu of police in certain situations.
Fifty bucks an hour. That’s the key here.
Andrew hadn’t set up direct deposit, since he was sticking with a strategy of waiting to see if I’d continue to work there once I found out myself dealing with the animals (I’ve decided I am going to just call them animals). Instead, I got an old-fashioned check after my shift every Friday. The number on the first check was delightful. I went out that evening and had a big dinner at the local diner, order my most expensive favorites on the menu and a big slice of pie for dessert.
When it came to the paychecks in general, though, I had this weird feeling of not wanting to tell my dad and brother about the fact that it was actually $50/hr. I previously mentioned that my dad, his name’s Nathan if you’re curious, works at a local grocery store. Our town has a couple food franchises, but I think its size is just short of whatever threshold Walmart uses to decide where to open. He earns $14/hr. and that’s after the tiny raises he’s gotten over the past thirteen years.
That’s not to say he’d feel bad about not making as much as me. On the contrary, he would be ecstatic for me and really proud. But, like me, he’d be suspicious. That hourly rate was the biggest hint that this was more than just a private zoo for cryptids. And as soon as that fat check cleared without problems, my dad wouldn’t be satisfied with reassurances; he’d want to come visit the zoo and look around.
I’d told him it’s a private preservation with scheduled (expensive) visits only and that it had only eleven animals, so he’d been appeased by me brushing off the idea of a visit. Also, I took a few photos of my workplace; one of the security room, one of me sitting in my chair, one photo of the many screens I watched, and a selfie where I was feigning sleep out of boredom, slouched in my chair with my mouth open in a faux snore. That let him feel like he knew where I was and what I was doing, and that I was safe.
But if I told him I was making double what he thought, my father would practically order me to quit. No job was worth my safety, he’d tell me. I was quite of the opposite opinion, however, considering how crucial any and all conservation efforts were these days. Especially with the steep extinction levels due to humans competing with other animals for space, not to mention climate change. Working in any job that helped preserve species and keep ecosystems in balance, or put them back in balance, was so important.
Then again, my father would also point out something I had realized right away: the fact was that I was working with endangered species that were not from Earth. I wasn’t helping my planet. To be honest, though…that didn’t matter to me. Especially after that talk with Andrew about why he hired a human for this job, I figured whichever dimension these animals came from had the equivalent of us, razing forests to the ground, clouding the planet with pollution, and leaving the animals with no avenue of recourse when yet more land was taken from them.
I really do hope to keep working here for a long time, though, and not just because of the money. I can’t help it; I want to know what these things were, and I want to work with them, to do the job of a zookeeper. The same way you go up to the chain-link fence to get close to a carnivore on the other side who thinks you’d make a nice afternoon snack. You just want to be closer to them, to experience that incredible, daunting feeling of being in their presence.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before I got what I wanted.
The day after we had the tour go through, I was doing my sweep when I saw the ghost again. She was sitting on a small boulder in the same area I’d seen her the first time, looking identical, blood covering the front of her slashed shirt, the wounds visible underneath. I stopped and stood there for a moment before I decided to raise my hand in a small wave.
The young woman cocked her head at me and raised a hand in the air in an imitation of my gesture, her expression showing a bit of curiosity.
She was low-key, seemingly not concerned with my presence, looking at me as a novel phenomenon in her world. I wondered what that world consisted of. Was she always here, sometimes visible and sometimes not? Or did she have another world next to ours, in the ether, where she left everything in this world behind and floated in her disembodied form? Did she still feel emotions? Was that really curiosity on her face, or was I projecting? Did she feel happiness? Fear? Did she have the option of moving on, or was she stuck here?
Many questions that I might never get the answers to. And that was assuming Andrew knew the answers, since I’d never met Suzanne Cooper and he hadn’t even mentioned that possibility. This place was clearly her baby, but I’m sure running it was a lot of work. Plus, if she was rich enough to own it, she was rich enough to have other businesses and charities to run.
When it comes to the enclosures, they’re all wrapped by a barrier of some kind, though never one that seems adequate. There was not a single place with the ugly metal weavings of a chain-link fence, and no stretches of circular razor wire. Instead, there are nice fences. Black iron, or wrought steel fencing in a similar style to the one circling the perimeter of the zoo, just shorter and with different patterns. Or a spaced picket fence, the wood stained in some tone of brown, or a split two-rail fence. As if to say, ‘This is the border of your enclosure, but we’re just letting you know out of courtesy.’
When I started to pass enclosure number seven last night, a young woman’s voice spoke, “Hello.”
I startled, unaware that I hadn’t been alone. “Oh. Hi,” I said, staring at her standing a few yards in.
She had been next to a large tree and I hadn’t seen her. This enclosure was behind a picket fence, and she walked through the large area of wild grasses and flowers that stretched across the other side of the fence. There were fewer tall grasses closer to the fence, which I guessed was because it had been tromped down by her regular pacing along it when there were visitors, or if she wanted to see the various enclosures of the zoo. Her sudden appearance was a bit weird, considering I had been expecting to see a cryptid and instead I was looking at, it seemed, an attractive Asian woman.
She wore a black kimono, the soft silk robe draped gently over her body, with beautiful patterns of cherry blossoms, more so over her left side, and red and blue birds with their wings spread. A sash wrapped around her abdomen, she wore socks and sandals on her feet, and her hair was up in those rolls that gave volume to the style.
I was no expert on any fashion, much less that of another country, so I just assumed it was all traditional Japanese clothing. Most likely, the visitors who came liked to see a certain time-honored style and that’s what she stuck with. Or maybe she played on stereotypes. That would be amusing.
“I’m Yui. It’s nice to meet you,” she spoke, arriving at the border of the fence and holding out a hand for me to shake.
I’d been standing about three yards away from her, and I’ll be honest, muscle memory tried to kick in. But I only made it two steps, my hand starting to rise, before I froze, the hand falling limply at my side. “Nice to meet you, too,” I answered, my voice quiet.
Damn. I wonder how many times that honey trap works back where she comes from.
The pleasant look on her face faded, and she lowered her hand. “You won’t shake hands with me? Isn’t that rude?”
“I mean, I kind of like my hand where it is. You know, attached to me.”
Her demure smile widened into something more amused. “I would never do something so revolting.”
Looking her up and down, as if more visual information would give me more knowledge of what she was, I asked her, “What would you do?”
“I would be less wasteful,” she said softly.
A finger of ice trailed down my spine, and I had the sudden image in my head of her grabbing my outstretched hand in an iron grip and yanking me over the fence, leaving me to sprawl on the ground. Then killing and consuming me efficiently, without a single careless step, the same way humans slaughtered pigs, using everything from the hog but the squeal. I was struck with a shiver at the idea of her consuming everything from me but my screams.
Slowly, I took one step further down the path, then another. Just as I got to a walking pace, though, I realized the woman had started walking too, in the same direction. I’d have eventually gotten to the end of her enclosure and keep going, leaving her behind, but she spoke up. “Are you leaving?”
I came to a stop, meeting her gaze again. “My job is to walk the zoo every hour. Then I’ll get back to the security room and stay there until my next walk.”
“Have you met the others yet?”
I hesitated before saying, “Just Leila.”
She blinked languidly. “That means nobody welcomed you here.”
“Andrew did.”
She didn’t reply to that. Instead, she slowly started to lean forward, and I flinched backward a few steps further as I saw insect legs start curling out from her back.
No. Not insect. Arachnid.
The eight legs ended in small ‘paws’ with tiny claws, a layer of hairs covering the leg from top to bottom, like any typical tarantula. I took two more slow steps back and my mouth went dry as the jointed legs just kept lengthening, until they were large enough to lever her off the ground.
My gaze had been on the spider legs, but my heart skipped a beat as I realized her human legs had melded together and turned into a bulging abdomen. Her skin was shifting to a carapace, eventually all the way up to her shoulders and down her arms, her fingers elongating and her nails stretching to claws. From there down, her body was that of a pale tarantula with pedipalps the size of my arms and piercing fangs in her jaws that looked like they could take my head off.
There was a moment, my vision blurring, where I was worried that I might piss myself. The part of my brain that still had its humor intact in that moment told me that I should keep an emergency set of clothes in my car, or at the very least, start wearing Depends to work.
“I show you my true form,” she said softly, her voice now raspy like an eighty-year-old after a lifelong smoking habit. “Welcome to Suzanne Cooper’s zoo. The night shift guard for many years was Roger, before he retired and the zoo moved, and I miss him dearly. What should I call you?”
I choked on my words. There was no way my throat was going to cooperate enough for me to clearly get a sentence out. Instead, I realized my legs had taken control of the situation themselves, unsatisfied with my conscious brain’s decision to stand and stare, taking steps backward. I backed up a yard, then five yards, then ten.
My mind focused on the fact that spiders don’t waste anything, and pictured my demise. I’d be wrapped in a cocoon, killed, and made nice and mushy before she had me for dinner.
The whole time, my brain was a frenzied mess, my pupils were probably the size of dimes, and I was staring at that tiny, pathetic fence between her and me. There was so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I felt like my bones were vibrating. The fence was, to my eyes, the only thing between us. The only thing keeping her from tackling and killing me. My only hope was that she’d do it quickly.
But she didn’t move. As I absorbed her innocent, polite words, the look on her face was calm, and I wondered if this was typically the way a conversation went before she devoured her prey. I wondered how many people she’d eaten. Not humans, not people from Earth, but the ones from where she came from. The fact that she doesn’t scare the shit out of those people means they’re staggeringly dumber than humans.
Finally, I rounded a corner, both relieved at having her out of my sight and worried that she would take that moment to come find me. When she’d been within eyeshot, I had at least known where she was and could run in the other direction. But I didn’t hear the sound of faint footsteps moving rapidly toward me. All was quiet, in that deep, smothering way that only an empty business in the middle of the night in small town America could be.
My hands trembling, I barely paid attention to anything but the confirmation that my surroundings were free of the colossal spider as I finally got back to the door. Grabbing the handle and letting my eyes dart around for about ten seconds and my ears prick for the slightest sound, I finally swiped my key card across the pad and went inside, shutting the door behind me and engaging the backup deadbolt.
Maybe that was why they had decided on keycards. If I was running from something and panicking, using an actual key or inserting the card like at a hotel would keep me from getting to safety considering my hands were shaking enough to mix a margarita.
Walking over to my chair, I fell into it, letting my body flush itself of terror as I looked up at the cameras. There she was, still in arachnid form, exactly where I’d left her behind that rinky-dink fence, casually looking around and slowly pacing back and forth. I stared at her as my racing heart gradually slowed, and a minute or so later she turned on her eight legs and walked back into the trees.
Whatever invisible fences the enclosures have apparently work, which is nice, because I wasn’t keen on getting killed by one of the creatures here. And that’s what brings me here, spilling out everything that’s happened so far. Because nearly passing out from terror isn’t something I wanted to deal with at work, obviously, but I keep going over what she did in my head again and again, and I feel like I reacted like a child who spotted a wolf spider on their bed. I started to worry for my overactive sense of self-preservation, at least in my capacity as an employee here.
The spider didn’t even try to hurt me, and so I was feeling a bit foolish. Even annoyed, actually, at the fact that I’d freaked out so hard and took off instead of trying to engage in at least basic conversation. I got the sense that she wasn’t at human-level intelligence, but I was never going to be able to hold any level of conversation with an alligator.
Sure, she did mention that she wouldn’t be so crass as to yank off my hand because she’d rather just have my entire corpse, but wouldn’t a wolf do the same if it was hungry? Wouldn’t any carnivore? Actually, they probably would’ve been satisfied with one of my hands. The fear here was from the fact that she turned into a giant spider. If she’d turned into Clifford, I would’ve reacted the same way, if not better than, meeting Leila.
With that, I decided I’m staying on the job. Considering how frustrated I can get with foolish people, it’s a bit hypocritical, and I’m being a bit of an idiot. But…there are definitely wards keeping them in their enclosures. Also, I signed up for creatures for another dimension, whether or not I believed in them at the time, and I will not let encountering my first one in an objectively boring way be the reason I quit.
The money is a factor, I’ll grant you. Of course it is. And I can’t spend it if I’m dead, but all signs point to surviving as long as I don’t do anything dumb. Also, yes, I’ll admit there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s desperate to know what else is here. I never thought I’d do something like this, but finding out these things are real, I honestly do want to learn more about them.
Still, though, I decided to call Andrew at the end of my shift to ask if the pepper spray and taser I carried worked on a certain spider, as well as the other animals I’d yet to meet.
Previous

[Run Zero chapter: https://redd.it/1csb71x not every run will have a chapter; it won't be long before there are multiple runs per chapter.]
Portal load: Agility 1, Bait 3, Trumps 1, Pheromones 1, Packrat 1, Motivation 1, Power 2, Toughness 2, Looting 5, Discipline Challenge, 54 of 54 He allocated, 7.8% AP at start.
[This is probably the lowest helium load I've ever done, and sorta keeping my own advice on a recent Reddit post, Bait and Looting are up. Especially Looting, but it's not like I don't always do something like this.]
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Rolls over- Ah, what's that? His shoulder pressed into something hard and metallic, He reaches over and his hand naturally seems to find a folding handle. He pulls it out from under himself and gets it up on his chest, sort of in a semi-comfortable position to hold it up and look at the screen while lying on his back. Some fiddling around the edges gets the power button pressed and the screen lights up with:
"Manual portal activation 1 successful: Void enabled. / 54 He loaded / Discipline challenge active / Total portal activation 955"
"Kakka," its one of his trimps.
'My' trimps? The human sets aside the portal pad and gets up.
Are you the guy? They all seem to be looking at him, as though they have a frickin' huge problem to solve and they need his help to solve it.
32s: First trap.
Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to us. The trimps look hopefully up at him through the trap's grating, We're so friggin' screwed.
I didn't think four of you could fit in there! He opens it and they all start following him around like imprinted hatchling birds. It seems his tactic of making a catch-alive trap confirmed to them that he was 'the guy' to help solve whatever problem...
26m42s: Z2c15, 58 pop, 7.7s RC with Z1/2; 29m44s: Fresh turkimp c25.
"Hey, buddy," he says to his first scientist, "can you speak yet?"
"Shijou?" it says, then it starts writing, "Hi Tightniks."
"Who do you mean 'Tightniks'?" he asks, "I mean, it's not like I remember my own name, but what makes you think it's Tightniks?"
"Tai," it points right at him with one paw.
"Just pointing at me isn't going to answer that," he chuckles.
The trimp's hands are quite prehensile, but it's hard to tell without it holding something, they don't seem able to make their fingers visually distinguishable. [Puchim@s all the puchidoru, although some have big round hands and some have small pointy hands; Takanya is the latter. Probably Final Fantasy Red XIII as well, but I'm not familiar enough with him to be satisfied.] This one starts climbing up his leg.
"Wait, wait," he stops it. It's a challenge to stoop in this gravity, but not as much of one as carrying a trimp. He gets down on his knees and back on his haunches and-
"Tai," it points again to a spot on his chest just left of his heart, then climbs on his lap and grabs his uniform at that spot, "Tai!"
He looks down and sees "Tightniks" embroidered into the fabric above his pocket. "Ah," he sighs, "Well, if that's my name, that's my name."
"Shijou," it gives him a friendly whack on the shoulder.
2h38m55s: Mskel in Z11c3.
"Hey guys?" Tightniks points at his bone box, waving his finger, "Does anyone remember where these came from?"
"Nope," the yellow one says.
"Yeah, there are 12 more in here than we got kills to account for," Tightniks says.
"I've been getting a sense of deja vu about just about everything," the red one points at the metal box on the strap over his shoulder, "That's a big exception. Any clues there?"
"It says it's for something called a DT Experimental Industries Time Portal," the human shrugs, "I have no idea what it's talking about, honest."
3h25m46s: Block PB, 0.3% AP sub-4h, 540 pop, 8.3s RC, no turkimp
That thing is beeping? He takes a look at his TPCS pad and he's got a message saying that he finished the Block in under 4 hours and there's a little attack bonus- Under 4 hours? It's been over 4 days!! Checking the time on the device reveals that the portal times in terms of a "map frame" out there in space, and the passage of time has been vastly dilated on this planet.
4h15m56s: Zone 15, 954 pop, 11.9s RC with Z14/60, no turkimp.
"Tightniks," the yellow one comes back from the second full bin to the filling third bin, watching the human fold up another of his very first inventions, the very first thing he built after jumping through the mysterious green phenomenon exiting the crashed ship, "Why in blazes are you building so many traps?"
The human had finished another and tossed it into the bin, then picked up the now ever-present portal control pad, gets it out of auto-sleep and called up the "Achievement Points" page. "I have this weird hunch," he says.
"Deja vu? That familiar feeling we always have?" the yellow one inquires politely, slightly tilting its head.
"May I?" Tightniks turns up his hand and waves it up and down in a lifting gesticulation, then points at the trap pile.
"Sure," the yellow one understands, "if you'll put me back down after."
The human sets the pad down, stoops at the knees and gets his arms under the yellow trimp scientist's front limbs and lifts it up onto that stack of traps with a grunt; it is an impressive demonstration of his improving strength against the planet's high gravity. Then he picks up the pad again and points at one of the blank purple squares near the bottom.
"You don't know what that is," the yellow one says, "Are we going after that first one that is readable?"
"Yes," the human nods, "it's for finishing something called a Dimension of Anger, whatever that is, before getting something called Bounty."
"Whatever that is," the trimp chuckles.
"No, I know what it is," the human says, "I remember it being access to a resource-rich area on the other side of a green Wall we'll find with our next map route. It doubles our resource production."
"That would be handy," the yellow one says.
"Hmm," he nods, "But all the traps are for this one," pointing at the third square in the top row of the array the pad labels "Feats", the second of three that are purple.
"Oh," a stylus materializes in the yellow one's paw, "Well, all it says is 2.5%. It doesn't say how to get it. Something to do with traps?"
"Something to do with traps," the human chuckles, "that's only convenient to do now."
4h29m46s...
Other trimps can understand the grey one better than the human, "Shijou shijou shijou?" is what a human ear would hear, but it's really asking the yellow one, "You mean he knew it was going to be here?"
"Yeah," the yellow one nods.
"Well, it's gotta be that pad none of us finds familiar," the grey one insists.
"I don't think so," the yellow one argues, "He showed the reason for all these traps to me on the pad, and the information is not yet available there."
"Well, it can't be just a coincidence," the grey one grumbles.
6h23m16s: Our first void map dropped.
"What is that?" The red one asks the yellow one. It grabs a stick and lifts the strange square object up by an edge from as far away as he can.
"I have no idea," The yellow one says.
"It seems to have some sort of cooling effect," the red one says, looking underneath it, having tilted it up with the stick, "Like it's not just cold, but actually cooling down, as though it were the opposite of on fire."
"Shijou," the grey one says, holding a note.
"It's a void map. Grab it with a blanket and put it on the cart please. - Tightniks"
"Shijou shijou," the grey one clarifies, "The new pad said 'void enabled'. Guessing it's that."
10h06m21s: Zone 21, 1975 pop, 19.6s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from-" he gasps, "Waitamint!" He starts searching for the portal pad.
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
The human has his portal pad up and reads aloud, "You have the Discipline challenge active. Tweak the portal to- yada yada yada. Tiss tiss t- completing The Dimension Of Anger will cause Trimp damage to return to normal." He snaps his fingers, "That's gotta be it."
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes.
12h30m06s: Portal, 45 He, 3.600 He/hr, 2098 pop, 18.3s RC, 1% AP for Portal-before-Bounty.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' dagger points goes into it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All fifty of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Dagger V, Mark 2 with both hands- ...I must have gotten used to destroying it at some point. He lets go of his weapon with his right hand first and dangles his left arm while holdi-
Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, the pilot turns on the radar for the final approach and takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and primary flight display...
He crouches, sets the dagger down gently, then starts clearing the debris from the box's grab iron. He tries to lift it- Damn, this is heavy!
Surprised at this turn of events, his two oldest scientists, Grey and Yellow, rush to either side of him and help out. They get it flipped over and read the other side of the device, Tightniks chuckles a bit at its predictability:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE UP" There's a square cutout in the middle of one side of it, with a sliding cover at the bottom of it.
"Thanks," he pats his scientists, "but back off, please." He gets the cover unlatched, and slides it open to see, first a big rainbow-colored wide data cable and card edge connector, then several fluid ports. "There's something missing," he says aloud as he gets the cover completely off and onto the grass, "this connects to some-" he's got the wide flat cable up in his hand, realizing what it plugs into. He looks at his scientists, lips trembling, "G-g-g-get the pad."
The grey one already has the survival data pad and offers it to him.
"No, the other pad," Tightniks clarifies, "The big one. The big one," he picks up wide flat rainbow cable and its edge socket in one hand, "It goes here," he points at it with the other. "It must have come with me end of the last cycle."
Both the yellow one and the red one bring it, one on each side.
"Thank you," the human takes it, gets its hinge lugs on the trunnions at the top of each corner of the cavity, then gets the cable connector on the card edge in the pad's base recess, "See, that's where it came from." It comes on:
"12h30m05s: You have completed the Discipline challenge, unlocking a new memory-enable coolant loop and restoring your trimps to normal combat discipline."
"Do you have any idea what that's about?" the yellow one points at the edge of the left side.
"That's-" Tightniks examines it, then suddenly realizes, "It's gotta be for the void map."
He's got a port cover open, and the bottom of it says, "NULLIFIUM/VOID HEIRLOOM INTERFACE"
"Shijou?" the grey one brings the blanket-wrapped void map.
The human clears an edge of the map; doesn't seem to matter which one, and then gets it into the slot. It disappears and the blanket settles down while the environment goes deep blue and suddenly goes super cold. "Hoe Lee!" he shivers, wrapping the blanket around himself, "I hope this isn't too much of a Napolean-Hitler Maneuver!" He glances around, but all the trimps don't seem to discomforted by the sudden cold.
12h35m24s: Void 1, 55 He, 4.369 He/hr, 2098 pop, 18.3s RC, first void AP 1% and 0.3% AP for 100 He simultaneously, we got a rare shield, but it's lame with attack, storage, and empty.
As the environment around them return to normal, the trimps cheer over the deflated corpse of the- ...whatever, who give a hoot? Tightniks finds a flurry of messages on the portal screen, two regard APs, one is about having recovered 10 He units, and the big one was about a "shield". Through the touchscreen, he enables it, and gets the status effects that it's talking about.
"Where to now, boss?" the yellow one asks, Tightniks can feel the draft off the cold trimps. They seem to be extraordinarily robust ectotherms, unlike him.
"Let's go back to that friggin' Wall, where it's warmer," he shivers, "We got that AP and could use the resources." As he leads them to the L15 route, he thinks, Maybe I did that void too early. It takes on the level of our most recently entered Zone, and the resources probably go up accordingly. [I did for character reasons after seriously considering running it at Z25 or 30.]
12h49m37s: Nursery unlocked.
"Four hundred thousand gems!" the human squeaks, "Are you kidding me?"
Grey and Yellow glance at each other, the former says "Shijou?" and starts doodling a real answer.
"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but young trimps have special diets for healthy bones," the yellow one explains.
"You eat gems?" the human gasps.
"Shijou," Grey says with a shit eating grin just above a little sign that says, "Babies eat aluminate, and gems are the best!"
"Do they like the taste?" Tighniks tosses a gem from the helium compressor in the direction of the nearest house.
"Uh-Uuuuh!" after it bounces off a paving stone, a yellow juvenile with red head fur jumps into the air to catch it in its mouth. [Puchim@s Yayo. Liek seriously, she jumps after pennies.]
13h32m59s: Zone 25, 84 He, 6.199 He/hr, 2217 pop, 52.6s RC with Z24/568, no turkimp.
It has an unusually light colored body, dark head fur that lies flat, and for trimp tails, wide and not all that prehensile, reminds Tightniks of a- ...he remembers what the animal looks like, but not that his home planet is called Earth nor that the animal is called a tanuki raccoon. Just the tail, the rest of the trimp looks like a trimp for the most part. Oh yeah, the mining foreman. [Puchim@s Yukipo] He turns to Red and asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It's in a bad mood," the red one answers.
"I can tell," Tightniks glares angrily at the red one for a moment, cools off, takes a breath, and asks kindly, "Why is it in a bad mood?"
"We've never been out this far," the yellow one offers, "...well, with the portal captured at least. Now, it was in a good mood before it got near the cart after we started this zone. Something new on the cart?"
Tightniks approaches the mopey mining foreman and asks it, "What's the matter, little fella?"
It sighs, then starts struggling to climb [see 1x6] onto the compressor cart. Tightniks helps it up with a lift, then it goes to the portal pad and turns it on, opens up the coolant page, the challenges tab there, and sort of sighs and looks questioningly at him.
"Metal challenge:" the pad reads, "Tweak the portal to bring you to an alternate reality, where the concept of Miners does not exist..."
"Oh," Tightniks realizes, then huffs, "That explains the bad mood." He sits down with the mining foreman trimp and brushes its tail, "Don't worry, my friend. You'll be back after one cycle, and I'm sure I'll miss you and your miners. These guys," he nods at the scientists, "we're scared they wouldn't be back when I first used it on purpose, but they came back. If there's a 'Science challenge' later on, I'll have you and not them-"
The scientists flinch.
"It'll be okay," he assures the mining foreman he hasn't yet realized has fallen comfortably asleep in his lap, "It'll be okay, buddy."
16h11m02s: Gymnastic Z25 taken and gyms rapidly increasing now.
The 710 fighting trimps are majestic with their new gymnastic skill and nearly impossible to hit. Only occasionally did the gorillimp do damage. They took it down easily.
Then the dragimp they faced next blew them away with a fireball that made Tightniks flinch. It took him a second to get the dragimp back in his bee nickels. The next group was all ready to relieve their fallen comrades before they went down, even without the welcoming traps for the wild volunteers (of which Tightniks has just started into the 41st bin of ten thousand.) The dragimp can do nothing to them; anything that hits gets deflected by their V-8 shields; they never got sufficiently blindsided.
[Funny: V-8 is a veggie drink similar to clamato juice I can't find anymore, but it's really five-eight, which just happens to be the squadron number of the cast in Space: Above and Beyond. Herp-a-derp!]
19h11m12s: Spammed some random biome maps...
"Tai?" the grey one looks up at the human holding a little sign, "Last couple zones, you've been mapping a lot of random biome routes we never used. Is there any point to that?"
"Stats," the human says, fitting another one together, "Oh, and this," he tosses the trimp the completed forest route map."
As it registers in the portal system, the pad starts beeping and flashing its screen.
"What?" Tightniks sneers incredulously, "There's an AP for that?" He checks and sure enough, there's a 5% Achievement Point for making a 'perfect' map, by a full notch the biggest AP so far.
The yellow one was relaxing on the corner of the latest filled up trap bin, the 49th, notices, and leans back, "Yarey yarey..." shaking its head.
19h13m28s: Uberhouse taken.
"Shijou," the grey one stands at Tightniks feet holding a small book.
Tightniks takes a brief break from his trapmaking and stoops for his oldest scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one bobs the small book in its hands to offer it to Tightniks.
"Flush toilets and septic systems?" Tightniks reads, "You do this yourself?"
"Oh, don't you wish," the red one snickers, "No, it was in that perfect route you mapped up."
20h39m26s: Zone 30, 161 He, 7.794 He/hr, 4656 pop, 20N, 74.5s RC with Z29/1735, no turkimp, 2.5% AP for sub-60 He Z30 start...
"Oh?" Tightniks has an Ax V-3 over one shoulder and screws the helium hose connector to the portal system with one hand. He grunts, sounds kinda disappointed, sets the ax down and continues working on his massive pile of traps; he's almost finished the 55th of, he just learned, 100 huge bins.
The mining foreman had struggled up onto the cart to see, and just looks baffled. It usually looks a bit lost just as part of its demeanor, but this time it looks really quite confused, and makes rather bemused sounds too.
"Oh, what is this?" Red jumps up on the cart, sounding like it's gotta be silly.
The mining foreman climbs back down and spots a purple ore vein, makes a happy sound and pulls its shovel out of its back pocket to start digging into it.
[OC: This is not even close to an exaggeration vs. OG Puchim@s Yukipo who, in 1x2, just pulls out her shovel from nowhere and digs a hole through Project 765's indoor tile-and-concrete office floor to have a nap in the cold open of a 137 second long cartoon episode. Never run out of mushroom boxes! Also, 2nd season Golden Week gold medallion, she and Yayo dig into a volcanic island and hit an oil gusher ...you don't need to know much geology to realize...]
"Really?" Red groans, "Sheesh."
What's on the pad? "Hoarder: Have over 1 million traps at once, 2.5% damage."
20h48m06s: Gateways.
"Hmm," Tightniks pauses from his trap building and gazes over where they came from.
"Thinking of something?" the yellow one asks from the stack he's building under his feet as he puts the most recent trap on the pile.
"Yunno, we have a lot of territory back there that should be pretty pleasant to live in," Tightniks says, "You'd think we should be able to just map an enemy-free route that trimps can just sit down and live peacefully in. I'd love to be able to do that."
"Shijou," the grey one is at his feet with a massive shit-eating grin, not really "hiding" a big piece of documentation behind its back. Obviously it's not so dumb as to realize that it isn't concealed. It then pulls it out and offers it to the human, "Shijou."
"What's this-" the human gasps, "Are you kidding?"
"Shijou."
"Well?" the yellow one prompts, "Let's friggin' try it, shall we?"
21h34m53s...
For some odd reason, that quiet little mining foreman is on the trap pile, fiddling around. Seems to be trying to arm one, has the spring catch on-
"Hey, buddy!" the human notices, "What are you-"
SPROING and it goes flying through the air. Does a few flips and turns, and then sticks the landing, strikes a pose, and makes a happy sound. [op cit. 1x57]
"What the-" Tightniks says, scratching his head, I wonder how much more damage the fighters could avoid if they could do stuff like that.
"Shijou," the grey one is carefully copying out the trimpese from a tattered and dusty scroll.
"What is that?" Tightniks asks.
"Where mining buddy learned that flip," Yellow says from the cart with feet playfully dangling, "another gymnastic book we picked up a few NMEs back. Probably another chapter from the same book, actually. It seems to have been torn apart and scattered."
"Is that right, bud-" the human looks around, can't seem to find the mining foreman, "Buddy, where are you?" It can't move so fast as to get out of sight this quickly!
"Po-wee!" it cheers from the bottom of its latest hole, which is beside a pile of rich bluish-greenish copper ore, onto which another shovelful flies out of the hole onto it.
22h44m17s: Zone 32, 205 He, 9.016 He/hr, 9548 pop, 30N, 37.7s RC with Z31/2712, no tkp.
"You should probably go," Red whispers.
The exhausted human has just sat down for a nap after tossing yet another trap into the huge bin stenciled "61".
"Really, I mean it," the red trimp scientist gently sets a paw on the pilot's shoulder, "Listen to sense please. Charge all this helium and use the portal; it'll make us so much stronger."
"Only 392 thousand to go," Tightniks sighs, "All the ones I've made go to waste if I use it now. I know it's only a two-and-a-halfer, but if I go now, I'll never be in de-" his head slumps into the nodding-off of post-all-nighter fatigue, "moo."
Red and the mining foreman help the snoring human gently down onto his side. The former quietly asks the latter, "Do you think he's doing the right thing?"
The mining foreman makes a particularly delighted squeak, grabs its latest flask of leafy-flowery infusion, which is just now cool enough not to punish such a maneuver with a nasty burn, and upends the whole thing in a couple seconds. It then bounds off joyfully towards the big pit mine over there. It does not often lead the general laborers because of the gymnastic and shield driven block fight, which needs wood, but it happens to be doing so today.
Yellow stands next to the grumbling unhappy green lumber foreman trimp, who is standing on the head of its dual bit ax with its chin on the end of the haft sticking up from the head on the ground. "Cheer up!" the yellow scientist gently prods it in the elbow, "There isn't a Lumber challenge."
1d00h20m05s: Zone 33, 229 He, 9.410 He/hr, 10120 pop, 50N, 40.8s RC with Z32/3390, no turkimp.
"It's a familiar smell," the human says.
"There's no way we've been out this far since whatever it is that shtfed Trimp civilization," Red grumbles. [Word based on acronym SHTF, which stands for "stuff hits the fan" in its G-rated version. Long time ago, similarly derived "nsfw" was a kerbalese cuss word.]
"I think it's from before that," Tightniks clarifies, "from before the time loop stuff."
"I'm worried our fighting group is nearly a third of our population," Yellow sighs.
"Casualties bother you?" Tightniks asks, "I thought we talked about that."
"It's taking forever to breed up new groups, and these things, *snap* ow," Yellow didn't quite touch that one the right way, "you've got 661 thousand of are too small to help. If you don't go now, this will probably be our last Coordination and we won't be able to finish the next zone."
1d06h52m14s: Gymnastic Z35 finally away.
"Did you know it was there?" The red one asks the human as they watch the grey one transcribe another lost chapter of the Gymnastic book.
"No," Tightniks huffs, in a few minutes' break from his trap building, "But I'm not surprised, I hope it gets us Zone 36. In any case, as soon as I finish that millionth trap-"
The mining foreman makes a mournful sound.
"Don't worry, buddy," Tightniks pats it on the head, "I'll brush your tail again last thing before I go." He's working on bin #88.
1d08h00m10s: 12802 pop, 80N, 43.7s RC with Z34/5298, down from 27.4s; '31m00s...
Tightniks, wearing wool-lined leather gloves mixing shimp and bovimp ingredients, plugs the void map that they got from earlier in the zone into the portal, bundled up against the expected cold. He hopes that the fresh Gymnastic Z35 and Coordination Z34 will get them through it.
1d08h33m03s...
"Do you think you can get it back out of there?" Red asks the shivering human as he reaches for the portal.
There are a pair of ejector levers beside the void map slot which clicked when he inserted it, but the void map disappears, so it remained an open question as to whether they could get it back out. Making sure not to have his hands over the void map slot, Tightniks gets a thumb over each one and there's resistance like something is in the empty slot. He grunts and pushes down until they suddenly snap down, the ejected void map rematerializes. "Well, that's a relief," he sets it down and the starts doffing his coats and sweaters to let the warm air of the normal world reach him.
"Try again later?" Yellow asks.
"Yes," the human says.
"What, are you kidding?" Red scoffs, these things level up with the zones!"
"Later on in this zone, obviously," Tightniks grunts with a huff, and then turns to see the grey one holding its little sign with those exact words on it, can't help but smile.
1d09h08m09s: Snimp in Z36c74...
Having just finished yet another trap for bin #95 of the hundred that he needs for the million-traps AP, he tosses it in and looks to the front. There's not much left of that snimp, but it just killed a third fighting group. "The training bonus from running ten laps in an on-level map route doesn't transfer to the void, does it?"
"Shijou," the grey one says with a note of confirmation.
"And I'm getting close to done this pile of traps we need for that 2.5% AP damage bonus."
"Shijou," it says again.
1d09h08m21s: Snimp in Z36c75...
Tightniks sighs, "...and there's another one. So much for that void map with its heinous critically accurate fast voidsnimps and ugly boss fight." And he returns to building traps.
1d10h14m08s: Trying again...
"NULLIFIUM/VOID HEIRLOOM INTERFACE," Tightniks tightens the stuff around himself and then finishes getting the void map inserted with his gloves, and his fingers come together as it puffs out in a brief blue mist in the void environment.
"Timba timba," Tightniks hadn't even noticed that the lumber foreman was up on his head, pats him on the head, wants to get back to work. [No Puchim@s resembles the lumber foreman.]
"Oh, there you are," the human says, "Sorry, I wanted to finish the run with the mining foreman in charge of the resourcing workers. I don't know what's about to happen to it when I hit the Metal challenge."
"Who the devon talked you into into trying this thing again?" Yellow grumbles, looking up at the indigo sky and mysteriously shrunken and dim sun, hands- ...forepaws on its waist, not discomforted by the cold, but bothered by the re-attempt. [This cuss-word after Disturbed song "Inside the Fire".]
"Shijou," the grey one grins above a Rosetta-stone-like sign it's holding with "It was me." in forty-seven languages both human and trimp.
"Zone 37 is hopeless in the time it'll take me to finish building the traps," Tightniks says.
"Won't the cold slow you down?" Red inquires, "It seems to get to you for some reason we don't get."
"Timba timba," the lumber foreman confirms from its perch on Tightiks' jacket hood.
"Yeah," he huffs, tightening it down, "but it slows down the portal clock by the same amount, so who cares?"
1d10h38m48s: Voidsnimp in c12...
Even in the void, Tightniks has gotten used to the sounds of the combat and trimps dying en masse, but when he heard that voidsnimp screech, which is similar to a "drill" robot from an Earth video game he has almost totally forgotten called Descent (Interplay 1995), he almost involuntarily turned to see, Even way back here, they can damage us despite all that gymnastic training? Then it landed the critical hit and wiped them out, as all critical hits do on this void route. He still finished the trap he was working on before going back to the portal, "Forget this, we're just getting the zone blimp." He pops the map from the portal's void slot, and starts getting his void gear off. His uniform long since wore out, so he's wearing something much more cave-manny. [I picked that sound because that sucker was dangerous and terrifying and carried the nearly hitscan Vulcan cannon. There was no Descent II equivalent, but the Thiefbot was pretty annoying.]
1d10h45m30s: 1M traps AP for 2.5%. 1d10h47m36s: Zone 37, 345 He, 9.916 He/hr, 13120 pop, 100N, 33.6s RC with Z34/5298, 2774 pop short, no turkimp.
Tightniks had nearly finished the long procedure for loading and configuring the portal, then sat down with the mining foreman to brush its tail like he promised.
The scientist trimps tried to hit the portal's activation plunger, but it refused to travel the full distance closed for any of them. Quite tired themselves out trying. The only one not exhausted into total silence was the grey one with its exasperated "Shijou..."
The mining foreman refused to go to sleep, and watched intently as Tightniks finally reached over and set it home with one hand. Its last nervous little sigh was the only thing he remembered-
The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries...

Timestamp
Vortex Diamondback 2-7x35 Rimfire. INCLUDES 1-piece mount. Purchased new and it sat on a 10/22 & shot maybe 200 rds. Has next to 0 sodium besides a small ding on front of objective housing but lenses are perfect. Not splitting from mount. $160
Meprolight Micro Red Dot Sight Serial & More Purchased new, put it on an AK build but decided to go a different route. Only salt is on the battery cap. Red Dot shown here $180
OEM Glock 19X Slide STRIPPED Slide. Little salty but looks good. Has Dawson Precision Fiber Optic Suppressor height sights, could use new fiber optic insert (don't have any on hand). $200 OBO
SBPDW Brace. Little salty but pretty good used condition (mainly salt is on castle nut). I JUST received this in trade for use on a new build...then I found the stock I've been waiting on so no need for this now (as long as the meet up goes well tomorrow morning 😀) $168 gets it to you.
PP f&f, no notes

I want to be able to manage all my digital things easily and efficiently: 1) tasks/todos, 2) projects, 3) notes, 4) journals, 5) webclips, 6) calendar, 7) bookmarks, 8) files, etc.
I also need:

1. A way to highlight what I find on the web for later use
2. Save articles to read later and then be able to highlight those articles and save those highlights for later use
3. Save highlights from emails for later use
4. Manually add highlights (i.e., "notes") from physical/paper books and articles and newspapers I read for later use

Later use meaning:

1. Highlight becomes an action item
2. Highlight is a key thing to remember (or just a resource) for a given project or area of my life I want to then be able to organize all these highlights, along with other notes I may take into topics and build a personal knowledge base.

I want to also be able to sift through some types of highlights at will, randomly, even if they are now inserted for use within projects or areas of my life (e.g., like what the Napkin app does).
What are the set of tools that could best help me accomplish this?
What I'm already using:

1. Todoist for tasks and really as my capture system for everything (even though it's not really designed to capture everything "well" (e.g., images, video files, files in general))
   • Why I use it: Good iPhone app, Chrome extension, been using it since it first came out, have lots of tags (tried to implement GTD in it).
   • What I don't like: Although I have organized and reorganized it plenty of times, it's just a big mess of tasks. Since I use it as my capture tool, the Inbox is always overflowing and then I quickly sort it into Projects but then don't always take the time to add all the relevant tags for each project, which for me are est. time reqd, urgency, type of action (read, call, research, etc.), and energy required (low/med/high).
2. Google Calendar - I know I can integrate Todoist into this, but haven't done so yet....I am currently just trying to manually timebox
   • Why I use it: I find it easy to use and it integrates to almost everything...plus it had a very small learning curve and was free.
3. LogSeq - Went from Evernote (~2008 to 2019?) to OneNote (~2019 to ~2021) to Roam (~2021 to 2023) to LogSeq last year
   • Why I use it: It's almost as fast as Notepad when it comes to taking notes and I like the ability to nest notes. E.g., currently I have three main pages that I add everything to: Personal, Business, Family
   • What I don't like: Lack of easy retrieval on mobile app (I haven't even set it up yet, but even when I do, I imagine it's not going to be easy to just review notes there since I have everything nested into three pages. I also think maybe I'm missing out on being able to do more (auto-tagging would be nice, a GOOD spaced repetition feature would be nice though I think I can solve that with a Readwise integration I discovered last week).
4. Workona - I don't see this mentioned much here but this is a tab manager that I use as a bookmarks manager too. It has developed well over the years.
   • Why I use it: I usually have a ton of pages open and this lets me save entire sets of pages as a workspace. I can also save some tabs into the "Resource" section of each workspace. And then I can file each workspace under folders (e.g., Personal Dev, Health, Kids - Education, Kids - Other, Business, Travel).
   • What I don't like: I don't have it linked with anything else. I feel like sometimes I work on Workona tasks, as represented by my tabs there and sometimes I work on Todoist tasks. Things also tend to get lost because nothing will remind me to take a look at a specific workspace I created about a certain topic in Workona.
5. Pocket - To save articles, read them later, highlight them, etc.
   • Why I use it: Started this ages ago, but really barely use it now.
   • What I don't like: Think this too could be more integrated with other things. E.g., I am most definitely going to stop using this for Readwise Reader, at least.
6. Readwise - primarily for spaced reptition of my Kindle highlights and Pocket highlights. I've also manually added quotes and other things I wanted to remember.
   • Why I use it: Spaced repetition
   • What I don't like: A bit difficult to add things outside of article, web, and Kindle highlights. Plus, not sure how I feel about some of my stuff being in Readwise and other stuff being in LogSeq....or maybe I copy everything over to LogSeq anyway....not sure.
7. Weava - as a web highlighter.
   • Why I use it: Needed something in a hurry back in 2020 and this was free and good enough.
   • What I don't like: It's a pretty bad app (buggy, slow)
8. Dropbox - file storage
9. Excel - for some types of work that I could probably move to something like Notion if I wanted to do everything in one place but I like this and I am comfortable using it so probably will stick to it.
10. Google Docs & Sheets - has some docs and sheets, mostly because I needed to share with someone or someone needed to share something with me
11. Streaks - iOS app for habit tracking
12. Anylist - iOS and web app for lists (i.e., packing lists, morning routine, evening routine, groceries...integrates with Alexa so I can easily add things with voice).

• Why I use it: Fast, simple, and free--plus integrated with Alexa so nice for groceries.
• What I don't like: Just that it's yet another thing to use, I need to consolidate some of these things

13. Notepad - I saw a lot of quick notes here and then keep referring to them and eventually delete them. I have ended up using them as my extended "working memory" (similar to how Cal Newport uses Notepad).

• Why I use it: Fast, simple, and now somewhat safe in that you don't have to remember to save notes...it's all autosave, thankfully (have lost hours of work due to not saving notepad txt files in the past)
• What I don't like: I feel like I could be getting more use out of my notes if it was part of a larger comprehensive system. There's also limited organization (I organize notes into folders in my storage system/dropbox, that's about it).

14. Penzu - for journaling, though I do this only a once or month or so, it's random.

• Why I use it: I like the UI and UX of the this webapp and that it's separate from LogSeq (which I may want to share with others).
• What I don't like: It's online so not private, plus it's a bit too separate from everything else for me to use on a consistent basis. though this is online so its not really that private, lol. Maybe if there was a feature to password lock certain pages on LogSeq I could use that

15. Xmind - for mindmapping, rarely use it though...primarily because it's usually out-of-sight and not part of my regular workflow. As a result, if I do make mind-maps on this, I will basically never look at it again, because I will forget that it even exists.
BUT....as you can imagine, all this is too much for me to keep track of. I have to look in several places to find what I need sometimes (sometimes I even use Gmail to store things...though that's less now than it was before).
I want to combine/consolidate as much of that into as few tools as possible while improving my efficiency and productivity and, to do that, I'm considering the following:

1. Capacities (or SiYuan or Tana?) to replace LogSeq - only because it seems it can do quite a bit and I'm desperate to consolidate and clear my head of all this. But it still looks a bit complex for me (I never liked Notion because of that). LogSeq (and Roam before it) are much simpler for me, especially since I use Excel to track other things such as my finances, etc. Plus I went with LogSeq in the first place because it's free and local and I want to be able to export my data easily if/when needed. Capacities might be coming up with an offline version soon though.
2. Fabric - I'm thinking this could be the place where all my files (docs/sheets/dropbox) can be organized, along with bookmarks, images, etc.
3. Readwise Reader - It looks pretty good and I'm thinking of using this as a place to read all my emails (takes care of email highlights), articles (replaces Pocket), and then there's the built-in integration to original Readwise for spaced reptition, of course.
4. Napkin or MyMind or something similar - I love the idea of all my notes being auto-tagged and being able to browse them. I need that AND the ability to see my notes in a structure like I currently have them in LogSeq OR as I currently have them as part of a project in Todoist.
5. AmpleNote (or Taskade or xTiles?) - as my new task manager (or task manager AND LogSeq replacement?)

I'll probably still keep using Google Cal and Streaks (unless there's really good habit tracking functionality in one of the above apps).
I have also been down the trap of productivity tools a few times and don't want to go down that rabbit hole again. I want to quickly decide on something and move on to being productive rather than continuing to evaluate productivity tools.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated it. I also don't mind paying for something as long as I can trust that I can keep my data/it's safe and I see the value in it (e.g., for Roam, I didn't see the value for $15/mo, for Todoist, I do).

Race Information:
Name: Zurich Marató Barcelona Date: March 10th 2024 Distance: 42.20 km Location: Barcelona, Spain Time: 2:57:16 Goals: Sub 3 Hour: Completed
Splits:
Lap Distance Time
1 1.00 km 4:05
2 1.00 km 4:14
3 1.00 km 4:10
4 1.00 km 4:05
5 1.00 km 4:05
6 1.00 km 4:07
7 1.00 km 4:10
8 1.00 km 4:10
9 1.00 km 4:09
10 1.00 km 4:11
11 1.00 km 4:17
12 1.00 km 4:13
13 1.00 km 4:09
14 1.00 km 4:09
15 1.00 km 4:17
16 1.00 km 4:14
17 1.00 km 4:09
18 1.00 km 4:07
19 1.00 km 4:14
20 1.00 km 4:04
21 1.00 km 4:19
22 1.00 km 4:04
23 1.00 km 4:20
24 1.00 km 4:05
25 1.00 km 4:17
26 1.00 km 4:15
27 1.00 km 4:07
28 1.00 km 4:16
29 1.00 km 4:14
30 1.00 km 4:08
31 1.00 km 4:17
32 1.00 km 4:06
33 1.00 km 4:12
34 1.00 km 4:21
35 1.00 km 4:11
36 1.00 km 4:14
37 1.00 km 4:17
38 1.00 km 4:12
39 1.00 km 4:16
40 1.00 km 4:14
41 1.00 km 4:16
42 1.00 km 4:17
43 0.51 km 1:54
Background
Male, Australian/Israeli, 36 Years Old, 5'7, approx 65kg
I've always enjoyed running casually, but these past few months of preparation for a sub-3 hour attempt at the Barcelona Marathon 2024 have been on a different level, so I wanted to sit and write this down.
I did one marathon back in 2015. I hit the wall at about 38km and struggled my way across the line with a 3.35 hour time. It was a miserable experience, and I was glad to tick off the list and looked forward to never doing another marathon again. I wasn't wearing a watch and wasn't aiming for a certain time - I just wanted to get it done. In hindsight, I was underprepared, under motived and under researched, although still achieved a pretty decent time.
I went back to running casually at approx 10km distances. I'm lucky to have my Dad's genes (2.45 hour marathon time), so running came easy to me and I enjoyed it. I never timed myself and just ran by feel.
Fast forward to August 2020 where I broke my patella (kneecap) in a surfing accident - my two ligaments pulled an already fractured bone cleanly in half. I had surgery to put the bones back together where they inserted pins and wires into the kneecap to hold it in place, and I started my 1.5 years of intensive physiotherapy. My leg was stuck straight in a brace for two months and all the muscles in my left leg wasted away until it was about half as skinny as the right leg. I had no range, strength or balance in the leg, and running was a distant dream. 6 months later I had all the pins and wires removed from the knee, and I could finally start running again. I started on an anti-gravity treadmill, then running in water, then on soft sand, before I started hitting the tarmac.
I bought a Garmin watch to ensure I was easing myself back into running in a controlled manner, and now running had a very different philosophy - I was timing everything. After feeling that I was back to my strength, approx 1 year after the accident, I set myself an aim to get below 40min in the 10km, which I hit approx 6 months later - 1.5 years after the injury.
I had hit my 10km under 40 min target, so in my eyes, I was fully recovered. Once I hit this goal, I started increasing my range and running more than 10 km, still pretty casually. I signed up for the Tel Aviv Half Marathon in Feb 2023, and surprised myself by achieving 1 hour 26 mins. It was at this time I briefly crunched the numbers in my head and started thinking about a Marathon. I did some research and found that going sub-3 hour is 'a thing', and something pretty achievable for me with some serious training. Israel gets super hot in the Summer, so I thought I would park the idea until later in the year, and decide closer to November (winter), which would give me enough time to train for the Tel Aviv Marathon at the end of Feb.
On 7-October, my wife and I woke up to air-raid sirens. Here in Israel we're pretty used to these sirens, but this time they came unexpectantly and were a huge surprise - usually they come in a certain context, but these ones came out of nowhere. We went down to our bomb shelter, and tried to understand what was happening. The smell of death was everywhere. My friend had been shot in the initial attack, and my friends and family were getting immediate call ups to the army. The next few weeks are a blur and our lives were put on hold. We spent time volunteering, helping, and doing what we could and I completely forgot about the Marathon. I fell into a dark place - the war was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting, and I had no energy to spend anywhere else.
Throughout October and November I managed to pull myself away from the news and went for a few runs just to get away from it all, although the war followed me. The streets were quiet and eerie. I felt uncomfortable running knowing that someone from the running community was being held hostage in Gaza, and that many of my friends and family were risking their lives during this war. One of my runs was interrupted by more rockets coming from Gaza, and air-raid sirens. I took cover under a shelter in the park and peeked out to see the Iron Dome intercepting some rockets over the skies of Tel Aviv. Then I continued my run.
I realised that maybe training for this marathon would be a good way to spend all the weird energy that I had, and at the beginning of December, I decided to up my mileage. I wasn't yet committed to doing the marathon, but the long runs were great for my mental health. By mid-December, I decided that I would commit to aiming for a sub-3 Hour Marathon at the end of February, and I started my training. I was excited.
Then, the next set-back... in January, the Tel Aviv Marathon got cancelled due to the ongoing war. I was gutted.
My wife suggested that getting out of Israel for a break might be a good idea, and I found that the Barcelona Marathon was scheduled for 10-March, just a few weeks after the cancelled Tel Aviv one - perfect. By the end of January, I was registered for the Barcelona Marathon and deep into the training. I decided that this was an 'all or nothing' run, and that I would try hit sub-3 hour as I wasn't planning on doing another marathon any time soon.
Training
The training was solo, which at times was tough. In hindsight it would have been nice to train with someone. I spent some time on AdvancedRunning and FirstMarathon but honestly, the forums made me pretty anxious as everyone is different.
I researched and landed on the Pfitz 15/55 Training Plan, and adopted a very heavily amended version of it - I was mainly using the plan for an idea of how many weekly kms to aim for. Below is a weekly mileage summary;
Week 1 Total Distance 16.50 km
Week 2 Total Distance 57.41 km
Week 3 Total Distance 57.02 km
Week 4 Total Distance 64.02 km
Week 5 Total Distance 60.30 km
Week 6 Total Distance 71.08 km
Week 7 (Including HM race) Total Distance 78.94 km
Week 8 Total Distance 78.52 km
Week 9 Total Distance 79.01 km
Week 10 Total Distance 92.59 km
Week 11 Total Distance 83.62 km
Week 12 Total Distance 87.29 km
Week 13 Total Distance 54.02 km
Week 14 Total Distance 54.02 km
Week 15 (Race week) Total Distance 74.70 km
As someone who was used to running fast each time I went for a run, the biggest learning curve of this training block was learning how to run slow. But even on these slow runs I would get inpatient and throw in a few kms at Marathon Pace.
I ran approx 5 times a week and did leg strength work once a week in the gym, and some cross training/yoga once a week. My weeks were made up 2 x medium distance / medium paced run, 1 interval run, 1 recovery run and a long distance run (maxing at 37km 2 weeks before the race). I enjoyed variety within each run - eg my long run would be 5-10km warm up, 10-20km marathon pace, 2-5km cool down.
Another huge learning curve was learning how to taper. The two weeks leading up to the race were full of jitters and nerves. I had dropped my mileage from approx 90km down to approx 50km, which felt counter intuitive. I tried to 'trust the process', but I arrived at the starting line feeling pretty rusty, unconfident and out of shape.
At the beginning of the training block I bought the Nike Pegasus 40 for eating the miles, and the Saucony Endorphin Speeds for Tempo. I was planning on buying the VaporFlys for the race, but ended up running in the ES3s.
The race:
The race itself is a bit of a blur, but my training definitely paid off - I'd say that the leg strength work was a HUGE investment, and I found it helping towards the end of the marathon. Don't skip leg day.
I had planned to stick with the 3 Hour pacers, and reassess at 35km to see if I could pull ahead. However the 3 hour pacers set out really strong - it felt like they were holding 4 min km's for the opening few kms. I decided to let them pull ahead, although I kept them in sight and didn't let them get more than 200 meters ahead of me. I caught up and took over them at about the 37km mark.
Hitting the wall at my first marathon a few years earlier was a huge lesson and helped me prepare for the last few kms of this marathon. I knew I had to keep energy in reserves for the last few kms, which I did.
I consumed about 5 gels throughout the race, and took some water at most stops. I also took some electrolytes when they were on offer at the water-stops. They also had oranges and bananas so I grabbed a couple of oranges towards the last few aid stations.
Reflections:
In Judaism we believe in charity. My Dad has a bit of a tradition and a 'trick'. Whenever we travel, my Dad gives us some small change and tells us to give it to charity on our return. His 'trick' is that God would protect us on our trip to ensure that the charity reaches the needy on our return. I don't personally believe in God, but I love this idea, so I ran the marathon with these coins in my pocket to keep me safe (and fast). This helped me remember the deeper 'why' of my run.
The last few kms were emotionally overwhelming. I reflected on the 2 Year journey I had been on since my injury, and I also kept in mind our hostages who are being held in Gaza.
I finished the Marathon in 2:57:16, and crossing the line, I was emotionally and physically full.
Mission accomplished.

New Missions
Bugs: Search and Destroy: Regicide
A Bug queen has surfaced for {Insert Reason Here} and our Helldivers need to eliminate her.
During the mission she will move from point A to point B, escorted by a larger force. She will make no attempt to engage the players, completely focused on getting to her objective. Players must eliminate her while she calls in more reinforcements before the timer runs out.
Bots: Search and Destroy: Siege
There is an Automaton base in the shape of a large “X” that is packed with foundries and enemies that needs to be eliminated.
Players cannot land inside the base so they must land outside and plan their attack. At each point on the base there is a randomly generated secondary objective structure(Detection Tower, AA defense, Mortar Battery, Stratgem Jammer, Gunship Factory, etc.).
In the center of the base is the primary objective, a tower that must be shutdown using two separate consoles that will require an SSDD inserted to blow it up like the air tower.
Universal: Escort: Precious Cargo
Players must escort a large mule carrying precious cargo to its extraction point. Players will be attacked by periodic enemy waves while it moves to its location.
Enemy Suggestions:
New - Impaler - The classic from Helldivers 1 i think would be a good addition to change up the bug games in place of chargers all the time.
New - Spawn Host + Thermites - Large charger sized enemy that spawns exploding scavengers colored red. Think like a living siege engine for bugs.
New - Hulk Ravager - Has a shield and a hammer. The shield is an energy shield that can block for enemies behind it while still allowing them to attack while the hammer can be used to slam the ground and cause tremors.
New - Handler + Maulers - One large Hulk sized bot with two claw arms and a basket with human bodies in it on its back. It travels with 3-5 “Dogs” called Maulers that hunt enemies for it. When the Maulers are destroyed it opens its mouth and spawns 3-5 more, also allowing players to hurl grenades inside them to deal damage and kill them.
Change - Stalkers should instead skirt the edges of a fight and pull a player towards them with their tongue attack, instead of pushing them away during an attack combo. This way they can isolate players from their teams.
Change - Standard Devastators occasionally throw grenades. Adds something subtle but unique addition to Standard Devastators.
Change - Heavy Devastators are less accurate. Heavy Devastators are far too accurate at longer ranges with their weapons making maps with long line of sight very difficult to contend with, even at long range.
Change - Nursing Bile Spewers need to be different in some way to Bile Spewers outside just “I’m you but weaker” how about they deal less damage but apply an area of slowness when they vomit and explode for a time?
All Bugs Slowing effects need to be reworked on a Bug to Bug basis. Spitters should not cause a strong of a slow as they do as in their numbers they can perma-slow a player when running away from a larger enemy(Also they don’t even need a direct hit to cause the slow apparently). Hunters also apply far too strong of a slow, meanwhile I would argue Bile Titans should have a much more intense slow.
All Bots need to account for vision blocking terrain. Too many times has a player been mapped by a rocket fired from a location unseen and too often do players round a corner to get hit by shots fired before they even turned the corner.
Bugs and Bots occasionally call for reinforcements, even after they have died but before they could finish the calling animation.
All enemies should have a pool of active enemies and they should be assigned to a slot to better balance games out. For example:Factory Walkers&Bile Titans are Super Heavy Enemies, Chargers/Brood Commanders&Hulks are heavy enemies, Devastators/Scout Walkers&Warriors/Hive Guards/Bile Spewers are Medium enemies, etc. This way the AI can be programmed to limit and add enemies as the game unfolds but not overwhelm players. I have had games where on a defense mission 6 Bile Titans were summoned at once which was literally impossible for us to stop from destroying the generators but the next mission was so easy it felt like a level 4 on a helldive.
JTFM:
Two teams of helldivers will perform a joint task force mission(JTFM) where they raid a heavily populated enemy objective. Perhaps they are attacking a Bug Hive Mind or crippling a Bot mothership.
These JTFM will be difficult and will require a wide array of stratagems and even some that are not allowed as part of the mission parameters to really challenge players. Perhaps one where players can only use weapons, minefields, turrets and backpacks as they are underground and these stratagems will be deployed via drill pods that dig through the planet to arrive at points like in Deep Rock Galactic.
This could be a great challenge for players who want extremely difficult linear missions requiring teamwork beyond normal missions.
Existing Missions:
Eradication, Extract Valuable Assets and Evacuation missions should have the map layout shown to players when deciding what stratagems to play. This is especially important in the High Value Asset missions as one mission layout is hard to use eagles due to the high peaks between the lane while the other supports such perfectly.
It would also be nice to see the Extract Valuable Assets mission better balanced towards bugs as Chargers and Titans just demolish doors easily and virtually any bug can call for a bug breach anywhere in the lane often forcing players into situations where winning is all but impossible very early into these missions.
New Factions:
Mutant Faction - Horrific mutants created by Super Earth in experiments that have escaped and gone rogue. Focuses on Cosmic horror, inhuman shaped enemies, unearthly enemies and so on. I recommend using games like GTFO, R6: Siege’s Outbreak event and its “Successor” R6: Extraction, Hunt: Showdown, and Back 4 Blood and movies like The Thing for visual examples of enemies.
Dissident Faction - Humans who have denounced Super Earth.
Stratagems:
NEW - Gunship Support - Calls a Pelican outfitted with two additional guns to hover above the location firing at enemies.
Buff - Machine gun Turret - Becomes a Heavy Machine gun as in all aspects it is outclassed by the chaingun turret. With a medium armour pen it can be better used against bots.
Buff - Missile Turret - Add Heat seeking to missiles to help them better track larger but faster enemies(Scother Hulks, Brood Commanders, Stalkers, etc.) and makes them decent at shooting down gunships.
Buff - Orbital Gatling Barrage - Upgraded to Medium Armour Pen to make it more appealing vs Bots and increase its duration slightly.
Change - Guard Dog - Add “Bulldog” to name and give unlimited ammo. Nobody uses it due to the fact it needs ammo from supplies. Instead just make it need to reload every so often.
NEW - Guard Dog “Hellhound” - Incendiary round Guard Dog. lower RPM but deals fire damage.
Change - Land Mines - Reduced cooldown. When a player calls in the stratagem, all previously placed landmines of that type placed by that player are destroyed.
Change - 380mm Barrage - Altered to NOT hit the center of the beacon so it acts like an artillery shield for allies inside it, increase the barrage count and it should see more play.
NEW - Deliverance Walker - The HD1 Lumberer walker but instead of the flamethrower it has the machine gun from the machine gun turret.
NEW - Redeemer Walker - Uses a Flamethrower and a melee weapon that sweeps the area in front of it like a hammer for example. (Flavor text is that it is used by Helldivers who wish to make amends for their fallen comrades' failures in battle.)
NEW - Razorwire Barrier - Slows small enemies and damages them, only slows medium enemies and heavy enemies can destroy it entirely.
Change - Orbital Smoke+SEAF Smoke Rounds - Smoke cloud needs to be at least double the size to really be worth using.
NEW - UAV Drone - Bring back the Humble Bee. When called the area around the controlling player will highlight enemies, even through walls as well as automatically identify secondary objectives and points of interest.
NEW - Flamethrower Turret - Very Self Explanatory
Change - Machinegun & Heavy Machinegun - Reload time needs to be reduced. The weapons are not useful enough to warrant requiring a whole cutscene to finish a reload. All machine guns, including the Stalwart, should be able to move and reload, with their balancing factor being reload speed and recoil. I loved using the Heavy Machine gun for a while until it required so much ammunition to keep loaded and being forced to stand still to reload for a weapon not nearly impactful enough to warrant using it over a primary weapon and running any anti-tank weapon.
Planetary Biomes and Hazards:
Dense Forest + Carnivorous Plants - Planet is one giant forest, very few open spaces to work with. The map is also littered with hostile plants for both sides including an instant kill venus fly trap style plant.
Gravity Fluctuations - Map fluctuates between high and low gravity. High Gravity reduces the range of weapons and movement speed for ally and enemy and Low Gravity does the vise-versa.
High Tide/Low Tide - Very water based map where the water level changes making shallow beaches into deep waters where players can drown. All objectives and interactable points of interest are on high ground but other more “Interesting” points of interest may be in these areas only exposed during low tide.
A Note on Weather Effects: Weather Effects should be applied simultaneously to both players and enemies. This would both make things feel less like weather is purely a downside and opens up potential for stratagems and weapons not normally chosen right now. For example what if on Intense Heat planets enemies are more vulnerable to fire. What if on cold planets enemies also have reduced rate of fire and movement speed. What if Ion Storms also prevent enemies from reinforcing(Bug Breach/Bot Drop).
Warbond Ideas:
Flames of Liberty - Fire weapon focused warbond. Fire bomb launcher, Flame Slugger shotgun, Incendiary Liberator, etc. Dragons breath shotgun pistols.
Desolation Complex - Chemical weapons warbond focusing on Chemical, Radiological and Biological weaponry. Chemical Launcher, Contagion Grenade, Irradiated Diligence, etc.
Armour Passives:
Skirmisher - Regenerates health over time. Stims no longer heal instantly, instead double the health regen and grant a speed boost for the duration of the stim..
Sentinel - Buffs nearby turrets(Buffs will need to be on a case-by-case basis) and by marking enemies the player can direct the turrets fire.

• Machine gun & Chain gun- Damage buff
• Autocannon & Missile Launcher - RoF buff
• Mortar & EMS Mortar - Blast radius buff

Gunner - 30% reduced recoil and 25% faster reload of heavy weapon
Trench Fighter - 50% increased damage from fire sources and increased melee knockback.
Weapons:
Liberator Penetrator - Match the damage of the standard Liberator. The penetrator already has a smaller mag size and more recoil. Reducing the damage is just the nail in the coffin for using it over other weapons with Medium armour pen.
Peacekeeper, Verdict and any future pistols - Add a gun sight. It's awkward to use when the weapon has only iron sights.
Slugger - I agreed the Slugger needed a nerf but I think you nerfed it too much. The weapon was heavily used more because at the time we only had it, The Liberator Penetrator listed above and the Dominator which isn't very good at shorter ranges. Return its stagger power and it should do fine.
Breaker Spray n’ Prey - 50rd mag size, 1.5x the pellet load over the Breaker and increase its RoF to 400. Lower its stagger to need a near constant stream of shots to stumble the enemy.
Show stats for all support weapon's please
Miscellaneous:
Helldiver teams expanded to 5 - There has been discussion on increasing the number of players on a Helldiver team. Most team games have 5 man squads and I think this may be the best balance to the game.
Turret Damage Resistance - Recently a stratagem upgrade gave turrets explosive resistance and yet they still die VERY quickly to enemy fire and even in the case of Bugs i still find it annoying that Chargers just run into them to kill them. It makes turrets too difficult to bother with when they die quickly and have such a long cooldown.Turrets need to be able to at least get off 25% of their shots before they outright die in most situations, otherwise what is the point?
Armour Balancing - Heavy armor needs staggeknockdown resistance. What good is being slower and tougher if you still get staggered and knocked down with every hit from a bigger enemy.
Grenades destroying bug holes, factories, etc. - Any grenade thrown into the opening should close the hole, otherwise players are incentivized to avoid non-explosive grenades or grenades that cannot destroy them.
Bot Gunships and Bug Shriekers nerf - Both of these enemies do not allow players to be stealthy, they force them to go in with heavy weapons blazing because they autodetect the player and never stop chasing them until either they or the player has been killed. It forces players into picking items they may not otherwise want to bring and removes some of the players ability to experiment with other equipment.
Community decisions on planet liberation - Recently as of the making of this document, players were given a choice of unlocking an Air burst launcher or anti-tank mines. However neither planet was unlocked when the order went live. Players had to dig up information to find out how that was not part of the game. Furthermore the planet linked to the Air burst was a cold planet and the AT-mines was a hot planet. Hot planets are significantly harder than cold planets and most missions on that hot planet had only three stratagems allowed. The choice was basically set up to fail before it was ever made. Players should have had both options unlocked and available immediately as right now most of the players i played with since wanted the Mines but either didn’t understand why the planet wasn’t unlocked or realized both planets linked to it were extremely hard to fight on and didn’t enjoy the grind.

I should not be writing this. I know they will be looking for me as soon as this goes live. I had to get the word out despite all the secrecy surrounding the project. I don't know what they'll do to me when they find me, but this has to get out.
I was unemployed vet tech looking for work when I came across a job listing offering a strangely large amount of money. What did I have to loose? I called the number and they gave me a website to go to that took me through an application process and a security clearance form that I had to fill out the last seven years of my life. They said it would be months until the clearance would come through but to my surprise a month later I got a phone call telling me I had been granted Interm Secret clearance and the job would proceed.
I had to go to a building without any name on it downtown and they took my photo for an ID card and a packet of information about where I was to go to the next day.
The next morning I drove to the address with a mix of excitement and apprehension. What about this job required a security clearance? Why had I gotten my interm secret so quickly? I figured I'd soon find out when I pulled up to a gate with a card reader. I swiped my ID and the razor wire topped gate slid open so I could pass. Yeah nothing ominous about that. I drove a mile or so down the road and parked in the parking lot in front of a building that looked like the set of a prison movie. The windows were narrow slits and I could tell from a distance that the door was very heavy duty. Thinking back a few minutes ago wasn't the top of that razor wire fence angled in as if to keep something in rather than people out?
I got out and approached the heavy door. I spotted the card reader and used my ID on it and it flashed green and there was a loud clunking sound from the door as it unlocked. I had to put some muscle behind it to get it to open and then it shut behind me followed by another loud clunk as the locks reengaged.
I turned to see a thick armored window with a guard staring me down.
"First day huh?" he asked me as he looked at his screen.
"Yeah," I said a bit nervously.
"Sit tight, your department head will be coming to pick you up and take you to your in-brief," he said.
"What uh, what is this place?" I asked.
"All that will be answered by the briefing so have a seat and relax. You're likely in the safest spot in the facility," he said.
I looked at the inner door and noticed it was just as thick and heavy as the outer one. I was essentially sitting in an armored booth so he was technically right about it being safe.
When my boss arrived he was wearing scrubs and had his ID card clipped to the bottom of the V of the top.
"So, you're my new tech?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," I replied.
"Good, hopefully you follow instructions better than the last one," he said. "I'm Dr. Tanner. You can call me 'Sir' or 'Doctor'."
"Sir, can you tell me what I'll be doing here?" I asked.
"All in due time. First you need to complete the safety briefing. It is not a joke. Take a look at the windows and doors if you need convincing. The government doesn't spend this kind of money unless it's very necessary, and it is. You'll understand the need for it when I introduce you to our charges. I'm not going to tell you yet because I enjoy the look on people's faces when they get their first peak of what we're doing here," he said. "Now, for the safety briefing. Follow me."
He began to open the inner door when he stopped and looked back at me. "Do you have any electronic devices on you?"
"No Sir, the security documents instructed me to leave my phone and anything with a digital memory in the car," I said.
"Excellent, you're already demonstrating that you can follow directions," he said. Was that a hint of a smile I saw?
He lead me down the hallway to a room on the left and used his card to unlock and open the door. After I walked inside what appeared to be a conference room he followed me inside and let the door shut.
I immediately noticed the back of the door wasn't the usual thing one would expect to see. It had a big lever in the middle that looked like it operated bolts to secure the door shut. I started to wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into. I expected to be working with maybe the facility's guard dogs. This kind of security was on a level I hadn't experienced before.
"Good, you're observant, another plus," the doctor said.
He walked over to the table and picked up a recorder and pressed play. A trilling alarm sound came for it and he let it play for a few seconds before cutting it off.
"If you hear that sound along with flashing red lights you are to go to the nearest safe room, such as this one and use this lever to bolt the door," He walked over and pressed a button by the windows and the thick glass became opaque.
"And you are to opaque the windows with the control in the room so nothing can see in," he said and then pointed to a door on the other wall that had 'Emergency Supplies' written on it. "There you will find food, water, and other necessities if you happen to be locked down for an extended period of time. There is also a radio already set to the control room frequency. If the phone is not working pull the tab on the back of the radio so the battery makes contact and reports in with the information posted on the back of the door. That's basically who you are, where you are, and if there are any threats you know of near you. Otherwise sit tight unless told otherwise."
"Threats?" I asked.
"Our charges are out of containment or an external threat," the doctor replied.
"What's so dangerous that we need bunker rooms like this?" I asked.
"All in due time," he replied. "Have you ever used a tranquilizer gun?"
"No," I responded.
"No matter, you'd need to qualify on the two types we use anyway with the security team," he said.
"Why do we need tranquilizer guns?" I asked.
"The animals we work with are dangerous. They're sedated before they get to us and one of our tasks is to make sure they stay sedated until they're returned to the enclosure. If one wakes up and slips a restraint you are not going to want to go near it to give an injection. That's why we have tranq guns," The doctor said.
"That makes perfect sense to me," I said. My curiosity was burning wondering what we were working with. Had to be something like large predators to require this much security. A grizzly would be a plausible reason why the doors had the extra bars. The force they could produce could snap the usual latches.
"Good because it's time for my favorite part. Showing the new guy what we work with," the doctor said and led the way deeper into the facility and up a set of stars to a room labeled 'observation deck'.
"The windows are to remain frosted by the electronic controls there whenever the room is not in use. They cannot see in but they seem to know someone is watching them and it upsets them. It's best for everyone if they are not upset," He reached over and pressed the button and the electronic frosting cleared.
That's the moment where my brain completely derailed and I questioned my own sanity.
"W-Werewolves?" I asked.
"No, at least not at this facility. These are a lesser known cryptid called Dogmen, kind of like Bigfoot."
"Wait, is Bigfoot real?" I asked.
"Yes, but not nearly as widespread as 'sightings' would make you think," he said.
"If these exist, what else is real?" I asked him.
"That's beyond your need to know," he said sternly, but then his face softened. "I'll lend you a book later that contains everything we've confirmed and studied. After all, if you continue with this job you will have the opportunity to work with them in the future, and it's best you know what you're getting into," he said. "One benefit they probably haven't gotten around to telling you yet is that they will pay for your education. You can become a full veterinarian working with the most interesting creatures that exist," he said. "Not a bad gig, huh?"
"Except for the part where I'm working with large dangerous creatures," I said.
"Large, intelligent, dangerous creatures," he replied. "And that is why we have procedures and rules. Things like always having more sedative staged to inject if a patient starts to wake up, having them restrained at all times, and if they do wake up you have the tranq guns to put them back under without risking yourself," he said and tapped the control to frost over the glass again.
Our next stop was back in the conference room where there were now a couple of binders.
"Now for the boring part. Study these because you'll have to pass a test on them later. It's those procedures I mentioned. It covers everything from handling the animals, dosages we use, and why we can't leave after dark."
"Wait, we can't leave after dark?" I asked, a bit alarmed.
"There are dogmen in the woods surrounding this facility. The fence does a decent job of keeping them out but they do get in and they're not happy we have some of their kind captive. They're fairly shy during the day and become active at night so it's for your own safety that once the sun sets you stay here. We have secure rooms just for the occasion, and scrubs are not short in supply if you need a change of clothing. We have a mess hall staffed 24/7 by some excellent cooks. People who can do this job are rare so they take care of us. Now get to reading, you'll have to pass a test before you're allowed to work. I'll come pick you up for lunch."
I did as he said and spent the next few hours reading with a break for the promised lunch that was beef stroganoff and actually really good. I went for seconds. Then it was back to memorizing policy and procedures till I was finally done and managed a passing score on the test. That was followed by some time at an indoor range getting qualified on the tranq guns.
The doctor reviewed my test and nodded. "Excellent, you're a fast learner. We've rescheduled some things for tomorrow so we'll have the extra help. You head home and get a good night's rest. I'll see you in the morning in the veterinary section, just follow the signs it's easy to find," the doctor said.
I did as he said and drove home. I couldn't help but be a good deal more vigilant as I looked at the woods on the way out. Dogmen were out there and no one in the area except us knew. There were the cryptid hunters but they didn't know for sure like I did from seeing a pack close up.
Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. My mind was racing with the possibilities of what was real from all of the stories.
In the morning I made breakfast and sat for a bit having to give myself a reality check that yesterday wasn't just a dream, so I finally picked up my keys and headed out. I drove down the lonely road and passed through the gate without incident. I parked my car and made my way through the security checkpoints and began following the signs to the Veterinarian department. As the doctor had said, it wasn't difficult to find.
There were three entrances all like airlocks that were long enough for a gurney. It didn't take long to figure out the purpose. If you had dangerous animals inside you wanted at least one door containment so they couldn't get past you and into the larger facility.
I went inside through the airlock like doors one at a time and found myself in a very familiar veterinary clinic though one that was very well stocked.
It was then that I met my other coworker, I'll call him Mike, who was sitting on a stool reading a magazine.
"Hey, you must be the new guy. I'm Mike," he said and I introduced myself.
"So, your first big day. You excited, or terrified?" Mike asked.
"A bit of both," I said honestly.
"Relax, by the time they get to us they've been pumped with enough drugs to drop an elephant. We take samples and the guards take them back out. Then we run the usual tests like any other animal. It's easy money," Mike said. "We're never in any danger."
"What about all of the procedures?" I asked.
"There's what's written down on paper and then there's what is practical and works. If we followed the checklist for every dogman that's brought in here it would just take us twice as long, and twice as long that it can wake up," Mike said. "So relax, I'll show you what you really have to do to streamline things."
What was I to say? He'd obviously been doing this for a long time and if his system worked who was I to question it?
Our first patient of the day made me the most nervous. The security team wheeled in a restrained female on a gurney right into the middle of our space then they backed out. Being the new guy I did the basics by checking heart rate, breathing, and looking into the eyes to make sure she was out cold. Everything was normal based on the numbers I had memorized.
Mike watched me, corrected my stethoscope placement a little and started drawing blood as soon as I was done. The moment he was done he buzzed the guards to take her back out while he labeled the samples.
"Less time they're in here the better so label your samples and fill out the papers once they're taken out," Mike said. "No need to have a dangerous animal laying around while we fill out forms."
"What about the extra sedative we're supposed to have ready?" I asked.
"The tranq guns are right there. Much safer to back off out of reach and just shoot them with another dose," Mike said. I couldn't fault his logic.
We had four more patients that day all went as smoothly as the first and I was beginning to relax. It was our last patient of the day when things went wrong.
It started normally with the guards rolling the male into our space and I took vitals and checked the eyes.
"Hey, I have some dilation here. I don't think he's under enough. Where's the sedative?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. I'll be done before he realizes what happened," Mike said and undid one of the restraints a little so he could get to the vein. It was at that point things went horribly wrong. As soon as Mike inserted the needle the male woke up and jabbed it's hand upward catching Mike in the throat and spraying blood everywhere. I moved forward out of instinct to try and tighten the restraint when I felt a searing pain across my face and my right eye went red.
I stumbled back. Oh God had I lost my eye? I shook myself out of it long enough to badge through a door and throw the bolts before pressing the intercom button. "Creature out of containment in veterinary. I think Mike is dead. I'm hurt and need a medic!" I said before blacking out.
I don't know how long it was but when I woke up I was in a hospital room and the Veterinarian was sitting beside my bed.
"You're safe, you're in a hospital and just out of cosmetic surgery. You'll have some scars but it'll look like the result of a big cat. Your eye is fine."
"Mike?" I asked.
"Dead before any help would get to him. We have video of the whole thing including you questioning him multiple times on matters of procedure. Don't let someone senior intimidate you into not being safe. You have a month's paid leave to recuperate." he said.
So here I am. I need some advice. Should I go back to work after my leave is done or turn in my resignation? It won't take them much to figure out who I am if they find this post. I also don't know what they'll do to me if they do.

I have owned a game shop for 10 years now. I see neck beard types. I see leg beard types. I see incels. The whole rainbow of cringe is often in my very shop. They play their games. Stink up the joint. Above all else though they got on my ever loving nerves I swear.
I bought the shop back in 2013ish after my grandfather died. He left me some decent money, which is about all the good he ever did. Cranky old man stuck around far too long and was a drain on myself. My parents saddled me with caring for him. My only escape from that bitter old man was the game shop. I would go and play war games and yugioh. Around 2011 I was banned from the store for chronically selling yugioh cards in the shop. Something the crotchety land whale that owned the shop did not like. So he banned me. When my grandfather finally died he afforded me the opportunity to lift my ban by purchasing the shop at a high markup. I may have overpaid, but it was worth it to get back my home away from home and to ban that landwhale from his own shop.
Once I took over. I learnt that I wouldn’t be able to participate in games as much unless I wanted to hire employees. Which I did not. I don’t really understand the taxes and had no interest in paying extra to employ people. So I basically ran it all myself for a damn long time. It was fun at first. But I realized I actually hated my customers. I hated games. I hated these goblins that occupied my shop for events and game nights. That’s how you make money though. Stupid events for stupid little neckbeards.
So I am gonna tell you about some choice individuals. I like to call them The Party. Four human shaped food holes that were far too loud. When I was young, back in the 80’s dungeons and dragons wasn’t fun. It was a game to be won. I dont know what happened. Maybe it was all them critical role streamers that ruined it. At some point neck beards gravitated to dungeons and dragons as a form of fun. As a way to make jokes. They basically ruined the game. I hate that they ruined a great war game and turned it into nothing but jokes. Us older nerds get not a drop of respect as these youngins trample over our great games.
The party consisted of two manlet weirdos. Dressed in what looked to be homemade wizard robes. A tall thin man dressed in an outfit that would be seen on frank sinatra. And the loudest legbeard landwhale I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. They would come in on open play nights and occupy the back room where the warhammer gamers played. Their volume was completely unacceptable. I had asked them politely several times to keep it down. I had received several complaints from the warhammer players as well. It was not uncommon for the war gamers and The Party to start arguing. Which was always a sight to behold. 90 percent of the time I didn’t intervene hoping one of The Party might get their teeth knocked out. It never got to that point. Despite all the wishing in my heart.
Still I tolerated them for the most part. They bought plenty of snacks. Overpriced soda cans and over priced chips are good money in this line of business. Cleaning up after them was a pain. Cheeto smeared tables and chairs are not fun to clean. I remember once asking them to clean up after themselves. They just stared at me with blank dead fish eyes before talking about the hot dog man. The hotdog man being some sort of inside joke. They found it hilarious. It was some recurring npc in their campaigns that did “wacky” hijinks or something. They tried to explain it to anyone who would listen. Anytime someone else would laugh at their stupid joke I wanted to just close up shop.
Then I started fucking with them. I’d shake up cans of soda they bought. I’d “accidentally” bump into their table while moving inventory. This would cause their set up and dice to spill all over. I’d sell them microwaved dice sets “at a discount” and laugh with joy as they consistently rolled nat 1’s. I actually had quite a bit of fun coming up with new ways to inconvenience them. Damaging their favorite table, replacing the chairs at that table with uneven ones. One time I spilled a cup of hot chocolate on the one dressed like frank sinatra.
They eventually started blaming their new streak of misfortune on the hotdog man. That fucking stupid inside joke about the hotdog man had grown to encompass their real life misfortune. These beardy fucks had completely disassociated from reality apparently. It wasn’t long after this began in the shop that it spread. Any little thing that went wrong in the shop others started blaming on the hot dog man! Bad game of yugioh…hot dog man. Shit your pants? HOT DOG MAN! Dog got hit by a car! HOT DOG MAN! It permeated and spread because these little beards never shut up about their stupid inside joke.
I could not tolerate it any longer. As a game shop owner I am the god of these halls and I would not take this beardery. NAY! I didn’t clean my grandads colostomy bag for 8 years to have my castle ruined by the fucking HOT DOG MAN! No these nerds hard to go. I had to hatch a scheme to get them out of the shop.
It was actually relatively easy to come up with a scheme. I knew the fat leg beard was dating the tall “well dressed” kid. But, I also knew she was a bit of a cheater. They had many arguments about her cheating on him. Why such a beast would be able to get so many men interested in her I have no idea. But i knew she had her eyes on one of the seedier warhammer players in the store. He wasn’t a good guy, actually a bit of an alcoholic who hung around because this was all he had left. So I struck a deal, I offered him a hefty amount of figurines for his army in return for “seducing” the land whale. A task he was actually excited about.
Over the next couple weeks I watched as the alcoholic man inserted himself into The Party. I watched as he got closer to the girl, I saw the “well dressed” beard grow more and more insecure. Going outside in a huff more often. The leg beard and her boyfriend arguing loudly in front of the store a few times.Then on the third week during an open play night only the land whale leg beard appeared, crying as she clung to the alcoholic war gamer and complained about her boyfriend. The crying was only slightly less annoying than hearing about the hotdog man. I tried to tune it out by doing some stocking of new inventory for the upcoming yugioh release. I eventually noticed a distinct lack of belly aching. I looked over to the side room, and saw that the alcoholic and legbeard were actively making out on a table. Disgusted I made sure the cameras were recording in the side room.
The world was at peace again. The Party would soon be destroyed thanks to some well deployed miniatures in the right desperate losers hands. Simple as can be. Soon my store would be free of the hot dog man plague. This is why you should never mess with a wealthy man we are wealthy because we are wise. My store is one of the best in this town and it is because of my wisdom. No one else can compete with me because I am too good to be doing this.
As I stocked the cabinet with new singles I had recently bought from someone clearly desperate for drug money I found myself very pleased with myself. I sang as I organized my new acquisitions. Then sneaking a peak at the camera I noticed a distinct absence of the obese legbeard and the war gaming alcoholic. I tried to locate them by walking back there, only to hear the sounds of unholy degenerate acts in the bathroom. I found myself amazed by their lack of shame and more so how easy the land whale was. I guess it’s true what they say “fat chicks will do anything”. I contemplated breaking it up. Then I thought it might be really funny if she got pregnant and the frank sinatra wannabe had to raise a cuck baby. So I allowed it to continue. They left together sometime later.
I went ahead and did a little facebook stalking, as frank sinatra and the land whale were both on on my stores facebook page. Two days later they were broken up and the land whale was dating and apparently living with the alcoholic wargamer. Now I still have to deal with her, but the rest of The Party is distinctly absent.
I posted the video from the security cameras on the facebook page on valentines day that year and tagged the frank sinatra wannabe, deleting it after he left some angry comment under it. Just one more jab at his stupid broken heart. That’s what he deserves for being a cringe neckbeard with his stupid inside jokes.
Now the legbeard and alcoholic play wargames on open play nights at the shop and she’s much quieter. The legacy of the hotdog man died shortly after. I do now have to occasionally observe as the land whale and alcoholic wargamer swap spit on a table. I’ve had to make a sign for the bathroom door that say “please do not fuck in here” and when that didn’t work yell at the both of them. Saying something along the lines of “THIS IS NOT A MOTEL!” but even with that inconvenience, it is still preferable to those beards and their stupid inside joke. I will take cringe bathroom sex over the hot dog man any day.
I am just happy that I met my wife in Mexico. If you have money and a passport, get yourself a Mexican wife. They are much less insane than your average american woman. Also they are very grateful to be here. So that pays dividends in the end. Plus you have someone who can talk to the repair men in their native language around here. Wish I would have known she was infertile beforehand. On the brightside though no condoms. So its not all bad. There are no any beards in Mexico my friends.
If you read this ReddX thanks I’ve been a big fan of the channel for a long time and have wanted to write a story. I just haven’t had the time as I am a very busy and important man. But I can tell we’re like kindred souls. You’re gonna love reading all my installments because were bouth great men of substance and the world. It is time I aired out all these beards. So you’re welcome for contributing to your collection of stories. I truly am a generous king.
Your Best Friend
KingRodGod

(Hi! This is the first time I've posted a long text about the society of keys. I hope you like it. It about Edward and Erin. I know long texts don't usually work here. But I made this from the heart and I wanted to share it with you. Without further ado, let's get started!)
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Society of Keys
The basement/clinic was completely silent, only disturbed by the occasional beeping of one of the Medical Teams. Suddenly the 5 members of the society entered, all carrying Erin, who was in a very weak state of health, black marks came out of her mouth, and spread across her skin.
Elizabeth: Leave her on the bed, carefully…
They gently placed her on her bed, while they hooked her up to monitors to view her vital signs. Which were at worryingly low levels. The 5 members left all their keys on top of Edward's desk. Next to a small black device similar to a wristwatch.
Eechiro: Damn, what did they inject herwith?
Eric: No idea, that guy came out of nowhere, although he left this syringe behind.
Elizabeth: We have more important issues right now. Her signs are stable but they are declining at a worrying speed, we have to find a way to cure her...
Edward moves away a little to lean against one of the laboratory counters. His mind was still racing, Erin's voice began to hit his psyche. Repeating her name over and over again. Until his mind decided to take him to THAT night. He could feel like Erin was hugging him...
"Please…"
His pupils shrank, turning into small black dots. His arms had the reflex of trying to hug the air in front of him. The only thing that could bring him back to reality was Eechiro's clicking noises. Which was in front of him, trying to get his attention, while he repeated his name.
“Edward! Edward! Richter!” Eechiro gave up and returned to the rest of the society, who were surrounding Erin “Nothing! "He's like in Shock, I can't get him out of there!"
Edelgard: “Leave it, we have to do something soon! If we don't find a way to cure her, she's going to die."
Those last words gave Edward the boost he needed, without saying a single word. He approached his desk and took 5 keys next to the strange clock. After this, he began to leave the basement. While he put the watch on his wrist.
“We have to make a plan to get into his base, Edward, do you have any ideas…?” Eric noticed that Edward was leaving the basement, and after a quick glance he also saw that he had taken the keys. “Get him, it’s trying to leave the house!”
The four members of the society followed Edward who walked determinedly towards the door to leave the society base. Just a few meters away, Elizabeth and Eechiro began to pull his arms. While Edelgard held him by the back of the neck.
Eechiro: “You're not leaving!”
Edward quickly crouched and performed a roundhouse kick to knock down the three who were trying to pin him down. Eric placed himself between Edward and the door to prevent him from leaving.
Eric: “Edward, No! We need a plan!" He said as he held on to the door frame to prevent Edward from pushing him.
“ERIC, I KNOW YOU HAVE GOOD INTENTION. BUT I ASK YOU TO GET OUT OF THE WAY” Edward said as he looked at the floor. Eric remained immovable in place.
“I can't do that Edward, I know you're angry. But going like this is…” Eric didn't finish his sentence, because Edward put his hand on his shoulder, after which he made eye contact with him. Eric looked closely into the eyes of forensic. It wasn't the look of someone angry, but of someone scared and determined. For the first time, he could see a look on Edward that wasn't one of indifference. But of absolute concern. After which, the young diver take his decision, getting out of the way. Edward just nodded his head and walked out the door. When Elizabeth, Edelgard and Eechiro stood up they went directly to face Eric.
Eechiro: “What did you do Eric? You went crazy. He ran away and take the keys!”
Elizabeth: “He didn't take everything… he lefts Erin's key. Although Eechiro is right, what were you thinking? Did you let him go alone to face an army? What were you thinking?”
Eric: “You didn't see it… that look was relentless. I'm afraid of what will happen..."
Edelgard: “If you were afraid, why did you let him go?”
Eric: “I'm not afraid for Edward... I'm afraid for whoever decides to stand in his way. Although that is secondary now, We have to make sure we keep her alive.... Come on, let's get moving!”
Universe 18-24-53: Lair of the Steelwater.
Edward arrived at the outskirts of a bar, from outside he could see multiple men sitting at the tables. Most of them had baseball bats or brass knuckles. At the centre table there were four men playing poker. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided to go inside.
“Look and cry gentlemen, I have Full House,” said a man as he slammed the table hard. Another responded to him, as he revealed his cards, “Very interesting, but…”
"What!? An R-Royal straight!? “That's impossible, you bastard,” said the first, while he looked at his partner's letters in astonishment. The lucky gangster was about to say something, until suddenly, Edward grabbed his sleeve, causing multiple hidden cards to fall out.
The gangster was surprised by the presence of Edward standing next to them. "Where the hell did it come from?" Wait… you cheated!?” The gangster replied, now addressing his partner.
“O-Of course not… and also who the hell is this blue-haired?” Said the other man who was still sitting. A dead silence was maintained until multiple windows were heard breaking. When Edward turned around he saw a man at another table, with the bat in his hand. He had dropped his beer on the floor in shock. “Idiots! That blue-haired is one of those multiverse travellers! The Forensic Killer! You let the enemy in!
"What!?" The Full House man lunged at Edward, who simply dodged him. Placing his leg to cause the gangster to fall to the ground, the man's forehead collided with one of the wooden chairs. The other men launched themselves at Edward, who limited himself to Dodge, and responded to them with the furniture of the place. He attacked them with chairs, plates. Even with the same poker cards. “Why don't you die!?” It was probably the phrase that was repeated the most in that fight.
When there were only two men left, they both decided to distance themselves from Edward, and tried to go to the back of the bar. Quickly, Edward took out a pair of sharp metal scissors from his pocket and threw them hard, aiming for the head of one of the men. Which remained nailed to the wall next to the door, while his companion managed to escape. Edward followed at a fast pace, but without running, maintaining unwavering composure. Which only generated more fear in the man who ran.
Edward followed the man to some underground warehouses. The contrast with the bar was clear, while the first looked like a stereotypical 80s movie, this was more like an apocalypse bunker. The man continued running down the long hallway, until he reached a huge room at the end. Due to the distance he had managed to get from the coroner. He had time to activate the Security system. Edward saw three huge metal doors close between him and the man. At this, Edward said nothing. He just approached and tapped the metal plate in front of him, after which he took out of his pocket one of the keys that he had taken from the base. It had a drawing of a dragon. And small burn marks. Edward took the key and inserted it into a small slot in the device on his wrist, suddenly a flash of orange light invaded the tunnel…
On the other side of the door the Gangster is celebrating — “Let's see how you get through that, Four Eyes!” Until he felt 2 presence behind him “What the hell are you doing?” The man turned around to see his boss, a man in a beige suit, with his hair combed back with gel. Next to him was a woman with red hair and green eyes. She dressed in a trench coat, shirt and black pants.
"Boss! Miss Octavia! “He is the coroner, he is here, and he has eliminated everyone in the bar!” The man said as his legs trembled. The boss hardly flinched. While the woman only managed to murmur a phrase, “I was already wondering when we would see each other again, Edward.”
The man guided his boss and the redhead to a screen, which showed the security camera in the hallway. “You don't need to worry anyway, there are three metal doors between him and us. Look… there is no way he can pass- WHAT?”
The three of them were stunned. The metal on the doors was melting. Edward, dressed in a black and orange kimono, shooting a burst of fire. Making a circle to melt the door. The boss rushed towards his minion, holding him by the shoulders. “You told me he was the coroner, not the arsonist!”
“He's the coroner, I don't have the slightest idea how he's throwing fire.” The boss released his minion and approached the redhead. “Listen to me, Octavia. You told me that if he eliminated one of those crazy people, The Guardians would fulfil a wish of mine. But you didn't tell me that they would come to try to destroy me.” The woman broke her silence and said, “Calm down, Tragliatore. Our pact still stands. The guardians will fulfil your greatest wish. You have my word as a Detective” The redhead said as she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Boss! He already went through 2 of the doors! Look” The henchman shouted at his boss, while he pointed at the door that was turning increasingly reddish. The boss removed Octavia's hand from his shoulder. “Quickly, you lazy bunch, everyone pointing at the door.” all the soldiers pointed directly towards the door. “I want anyone who walks through that door with more holes than a damn sieve.”
Multiple men stood at a safe distance from the melting door. Everyone was waiting for what was about to happen. The sound of the flame on the other side of the door invaded the environment, until suddenly... Brain. Causing chills to almost all the people present there. A yellow glow could be seen from under the door that was melting…
The silence was interrupted by the sudden ejection of the door, which was thrown directly towards the soldiers in front. A large amount of smoke came out of the hole that was left. And a couple of yellow dots lit up. Edward ran out of the smoke, wearing a black trench coat, the inside of which shone bright yellow. In his face there was a pair of Goggles, also yellow, which emitted an intense light.
"There is! “Shoot him!” He shouted loudly, as Octavia dragged him towards a door to get him away from the shooting. The henchmen fired volleys of bullets at Edward, who was blocking the shots with Edelgard's trench coat.
Edward tackled one of the men and took cover behind some wooden boxes. He took the gun from the anklet, knocked out the guard next to him and took his gun from him. To start responding to shots. Taking advantage of the lens aiming system. After several minutes, Edward realized that he needed to increase speed... He removed the key that was inserted into the device. Which had the symbol of a Sniper sight, I inserted another one that had the symbol of skates.
After this, he threw his pistol into the air, while a green light enveloped him. The gangsters were perplexed, watching as the gun transformed into a UZI with neon green markings. They were even more perplexed, when Edward jumped out from behind the box... Dressed in a black one-piece suit, with silver lines. In large white letters it was written "Ritcher" and a number 3 in large.
Edward caught the UZI out of the air, and it clicked on his heels. The white soles began to glow, and he levitated a few centimetres from the floor. The next thing the gangsters saw was this blue-haired boy attacking them while he fired with the UZI.
“Quickly, Tragliatore. Over here!” She told Octavia to the mafia leader, As she dragged him through one of the doors, and she kept crouched down so as not to be seen.
Edward continued to dodge bullets while he in turn returned fire. He quickly positioned himself in the centre of the room, and began to spin on its axis at high speed, while he continued shooting with the UZI and one of the gangsters' weapons. Generating a storm of bullets, which filled the room. When he stopped, Edward realized that he had made holes in all the walls, covers and enemies in the place. He began to walk towards the hallway that Tragliatore left down. With all the calm in the world, he removed the key from the device, and placed a different one with the symbol of an Oxygen mask and a Sickle.
“Come in! Come in! Quick!" Octavia shouted at Tragliatore, while holding the door of a small laboratory, which had a small window with a curtain, inside was another of the henchmen, dressed in a white coat. After entering, Octavia's attention was quickly caught by a shelf with some books. Tragliatore watched as his protector began to search the bookshelf. “What's happening, boss? I heard a lot of gunshots and-” Quickly, the scientist's words were interrupted by the screams of their leader. “That doesn't matter now! We are under attack, scan the bunker. I want to see how many of my men are still alive!” The henchman typed something on a nearby computer. While Tragliatore was still confused by what Octavia was doing. He was about to ask her, when his employee's surprised moan distracted him. “Bo-boss, there are only four living beings left in the Building…” Tragliatore raised his hands to his face, passing them all over his face, while he let out a long sigh through his mouth.
“Okay, okay, it's manageable, it's manageable… Octavia, we need a plan, can you think of it… Octavia!?” The gangster was surprised when he saw the red-haired girl, with a book from which a white glow came out. And a white circle surrounded her. “I'm sorry, boy, but our deal is going to have to end here…” When Tragliatore tried to stop her, he realized that he couldn't get through the circle. “This was not what was agreed upon, you said that The Guardians were going to fulfil my wish…” Octavia tore the pages from the book, and held them up. “I told you that they were going to grant your wish…” He released her leaves, which began to orbit around her. “If you survived…” Tragliatore was about to reply, until his minion shouted at him, with a tone of perennial terror in his voice. "MISTER! “She's coming down the hallway, she's coming this way.” Tragliatore's shock was evident in his eyes. And when he turned around to look to Octavia for a solution, he saw that she had disappeared, and the circle on the floor was on fire.
The scientist quickly approached Tragliatore, holding him by the shoulders, his body aligned with the door. On the other side of which footsteps could be heard in the distance. “What do we do now, boss? There are only the two of us left, I don't want to die! My notes are still on the table, if he finds out that I designed that poison, I don't know what he'll do to me!” Tragliatore quickly slapped the soldier away from him. “We're not going to give up, listen this is what we're going to-”
Before Tragliatore could finish the sentence, a metal sickle came flying through the door window. The sickle hit the scientist directly and stuck into the wall. Blood began to drip from the inert body. Tragliatore recoiled in shock, blood had splattered on his face.
The bottom of the Sickle opened and a small stream of water came out, which floated forming a hand. Which I grab the sickle and take it out of the wall. Causing the man to fall to the floor, Tragliatore watched in shock as his hand stopped in front of the door and slammed hard against the handle. Causing the door to open.
Edward entered through the door, dressed in a black jacket with grey sleeves, accompanied by black neoprene pants. The footsteps of his boots broke the silence of the room like thunder in the night. His face was covered by a hood, accompanied by a black oxygen mask. Tragliatore tried to pull the gun from him, but was quickly restrained by Edward. Which he held against the wall.
“What the fuck do you want? If you're going to kill me, do it now! Tragliatore tried to say with the most threatening tone he could. Edward remained silent, taking one of his scissors out of his pocket, beginning to run it across the neck of his mafia leader. "Wait! Wait! You want money? “I can give you money.” At the offer, Edward stuck the scissors into Tragliatore's leg. Causing blood to flow out, along with a gasp of pain “Uh… Okay, Okay, no money. What do you want?"
Edward took out the syringe with a black liquid from his pocket. And he shook it in front of him. "The poison? Do you want to know how the poison is made? Why do you think I would tell you?” Tragliatore said, finishing his sentence by spitting at Edward. Which was Stoic, took another scissors from his pocket, and stuck it in Tragliatore's hand. Leaving it nailed to the wall. The scream of pain was even louder. “Ugh! In the table! In the notebook on the table!” Edward alone tragliatore, letting the scissors support him. While he went towards what he had come for. He took the leather-bound notebook, and opened it to the page that was marked with a red ribbon. On the same page, the process with which the poison had been made was detailed.
After seeing this, Edward began to walk towards the exit door. A white glow enveloped him and his clothes returned to his usual trench coat. Tragliatore couldn't contain his frustration and shouted at Edward, “Really? You entered my base, you killed all my staff, that's why? All this for that Bea-” Before he could finish the sentence, Edward turned on his heel. Throwing a pair of scissors directly at Tragliatore's forehead. The scissors remained stuck in the wall. Leaving a hole in Tragliatore's face. “DON'T INSULT HER AGAIN, NEVER!" After this, Edward adjusts his bangs, and begins to walk out of the underground base. Willing to achieve it.
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Key Society / One week later…
Erin woke up on the morgue gurney, her eyes slowly opening as her senses began to return. She looked around her, recognizing the medical equipment and monitors that were still beeping softly. She sat up on the bed with some effort, and her gaze fell on Edward, who was sitting next to her.
Edward was completely disheveled, with deep circles under his eyes that marked his tired face. He tapped his foot on the floor at high speed, clearly nervous. Next to him, the table was littered with empty coffee cups and a stopwatch
"Edward?" Erin asked in a weak voice. Edward looked up quickly, his eyes filled with a mix of surprise and relief. Realizing that he hadn't imagined the sound of Erin's voice, he jumped up and hugged her with all of her strength.
"Are you OK!" he exclaimed, her words filled with her emotion. Edward moved away from her a little, holding Erin's face with her hands under her cheeks.
"Yeah...I'm fine," Erin responded, still a little disoriented. She noticed the black marks under Edward's eyes and frowned in concern. "My God...Edward, are your eyes okay?"
Edward couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You wake up from a coma, and the first thing you ask me is if I'm okay?" After that, Edward hugged her again, resting her jaw on top of her head. Erin just enjoyed the hug, feeling the warmth and security that she gave her.
Suddenly, she felt drops falling on her head. Erin looked up and saw the tears falling from Edward's eyes. "Edward? What's wrong?" she asked in a soft voice.
Edward grabbed her chin again and brought her face closer to his, causing Erin to blush. "What's going on?" Edward moved forward, planting a kiss on Erin's lips. The shock to Erin's mind was brutal, but she soon began to enjoy it. After several minutes, Edward broke the kiss and looked at Erin with a look he'd never had before. "That's what happens," Edward said softly, hugging her again. "I Love you"

Hey Everyone, long time member, first time poster so bare with me. Looking to sell my G&G CMF-16, AceTech Bifrost tracer, and all other airsoft related items I have in a bundle as I'm getting out of the hobby.
Looking to get $675 OBO, all items must be sold as a bundle together. Everything apart from the sight (Amazon) was purchased new from TA over the last few years & cost around $825 in total, new.
Everything is in essentially new condition and works perfectly. The G&G CMF-16 has never been opened internally and has had around 8,000 bbs run through it, battery has been charged and stored correctly as well. The marker and attachments feel & look great.
Image link for all items: https://imgur.com/a/g-g-cmf-16-airsoft-marker-bundle-sale-ad-5A1OQPK
Items for sale in this bundle include:

• G&G CMF-16 AEG
  
• Valken Energy 11.1 LiPo, 1000mAh, 30C - Mini Tamiya
  
• LiPo Guard battery Safety bag
  
• Valken COMPACT Balancing Charger 2-3 Cell LiPo
  
• E&C Pistol Mag BB Speedloader
  
• AceTech Bifrost Tracer Unit
  
• G&G SS-100 BARREL EXTENSION MOCK SUPPRESOR
  
• A.C.M. MOC VERTICAL ERGONOMIC PISTOL GRIP - M-LOK
  
• BLUEBOX 140rd Midcap Magazine - x2
  
• Toronto Airsoft 4000rd Bag of 0.25g BBs (basically full)
  
• Feyachi RDS-25 Red Dot Sight with 1 inch Riser Mount
  

Looking for $675 OBO for everything listed above. All items will come with their original boxes, however, I did modify the G&G box with a cut foam insert to better serve as a carrying case and got rid of the plastic insert.
Local pickup near my place in Newmarket, can deliver within reason - not interested in shipping items or trades. Cash or EMT is cool.
Thanks for looking! :-)
Mods - this is my first post so please let me know if I've missed anything, thanks!

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a girl with whom my boyfriend had sex before we got together. He had other sexual partners before her, but this one was the last one before me, and I kind of obsess about her. First, she attends the same uni as we do, so I already knew who she was. Second, I find her really pretty and hot, and she also is a good singer and made a song with my bf when they were together (they weren't actually in a relationship but they used to fuck). I hate to admit it, but I stalk her on social media sometimes. On the beginning of the relationship, my RJ was much worse, and I fantasised about seeing her up close on the street. Fast forward to now, my RJ has been much better lately. However, when I least expected, there she was, all pretty and flushed, rushing to the subway. I immediately realised it was her, and my heart sank and started beating very fast. She walked past me, because she was walking at a faster pace, and I started walking faster not to lose sight of her. As I was walking behind her, my eyes were drawn to her bottom, her perfectly rounded and beautiful bottom. And her swinging, elegant hips as she walked. I immediately pictured my boyfriend naked with her, touching her naked body, inserting his penis into her. It was awful, it made me feel like shit. We entered the same train and I couldn't stop looking at her, couldn't stop admiring her beauty, how I couldn't compare. Her luscious lips (I get self conscious about mine because they are thin), I imagined my bf kissing them and putting his penis between them. The worst part of it all is that I didn't just imagine it, it actually happened, and not that long ago. This made me feel awful and I think no one understands the kind of pain it triggered. Thank you for reading, I just needed a safe place to vent.

~Player always get better or cooler reward for helping other~
Player race - fiver options for customization
Ghoul
No radiation damage + slow regeneration + npc more mefiant and discrimination
Glowing ghoul =
No radiation damage + slow regeneration + npc shoot on sight need to convinced them you’re sane
Super mutant =
No radiation damage + Npc are scared and treat you like an idiot and discriminate
Synthétique =
The compount will hunt you down eventually
Human = no malus or bonus

Character background :
Ghoul / glowing ghoul : Old ghoul ; new ghoul ; vault
Human : Vault ; settler ; brotherhood ; institute
Super mutant: amnesiac
Synthétique : Railroad ; Mister handy (Miss nanny) Old, new, vault.
START
New arrivant decided to etablished themselves in an old farm close to the local town and become farmer.
First objectif :
- rebuilt home by scavenging in delapited town

• scavenging town to find seed (First seed of the player)
  
• Scavenging town to find gardening tool
  

Mechanics

Upgrade house by collecting enough scavenging material (metal, stone, tape, glue, etc…) and paid the town entrepreneur to do so.
Possibility to upgrade town by the same way : drinkable water ; defense ; radio tower ; museum ; school ; etc…
Defend home from wild attack (animal, raiders, super mutant, ect…) with gun and eventually autonomous turrets (later game) and engage mercenary to defed (late game). The more the player amass money, the more frequent the attack will be.
Scavenger will gossip about big event and some minor event that occurred in the settlement that you participated in.
Settlement gestion :

• Happiness (Festival ? ; npc request ; …)
  
• Sanitaire (Water access)
  
• Defense (Millitia ; autonomous turrets ; dogs)
  

Thirst gestion.
Can recolt skin, meat (and bones?) of wild animal.
Can recolt material, used to very used weapond, (rarely) health item, (meat and corpse body parts?) on intelligent humanoïds ennemy
Carrying can either be by weight of the item or by the number of item player can carry.

Farming

Season : Spring (middle season) ; Summer (high season) ; Automn (middle season) ; Winter (low season)
Tool: Hoe ; Scynthe ; Watering can ; Pickaxe hamme
Base crop value vs transform product :
Spring : -- ++
Summer : --- +++
Automn : ++ --
Winter : +++ ---

Can sell crop and other to nearest settlement (help with settlement relationship at first) or to traveling marchant.
The river close to your home have fish in it. It take two day for fish to repopulate. If seasonal fish have all be take out, it will take two years
Can raise different mutated animal. Sell them to the town for meat (or kill them and sell them yourself ?) or keep them alive for animal product. (Animal have life span?)
Transform product : Wine ; beer ; jelly ; dried spice,meat, fish ; cheese ; mayo ; butter
Farm building :

• Coop and barn
  
• Forge to fix used weapon
  

- Wind mill

• Food storage (?)
  
• Money storage (no bank, credit card or debit card. Need to carry in your inventary the money life in fallout)
  

Crop seed that can be found in the town :

• Potato
  
• Melon
  
• Wheat
  
• Corn
  
• Carrot
  
• Gourd
  

Seed you can buy for traveling marchants :

• Spice seed (basilic ; persil; etc..)
  
• Fruit seed
  
• Legume seed
  

( - Flower and house plant seed ? (Aloes??))

Fight

No power armor for the player :(
Can buy stimpack and radaway from settlement healer or from scavenger in the town (for a more expensive price). When reach high enough relationship with healer, he will give you the recipe for both. The only way to regain life and get rid of radiation (sleep and food don’t heal). (Sickness (malus) if health too low for too long?)
Gain radiation by drinking
The main fight zone of the game is the town. In the edge : house, a small commerce (tiny to small dungeon) ; Closer to the center: Office, appartement (small to medium dungeon) ; Center : Commercial center, sky scrapper, (subway?) (normal to big dungeon.
Some raiders and some synth will drop their weapons and beg for their life if the health is low enough. Spare enough of them and you will receive letter from either : the minuteman ; the brotherhood or the railroad to thank you for sending more recruit their way. Two or three will regularly visit town.

Relationship

Can get a dog as a perm. Companion (can choose race?) (Can breed you dog and gitf puppy to the settlement?)
Npc relationship possible bonus :
- Discount (from marchant)
- Recipe
- Special cut scene
- (Sometime) help on the farm

• (Sometime) help to defend the farm

Some npc love receving gift other will be inconfortable with it. But after (wedding?) no adverse reaction to receive gift.

• 2 gift a week
  
• 1 gift a month (After the first gift wil react more and more incomfortable, will start to lower relationship)
  

MAX : 2 gift a week
Might meet some settler in the edge of the town, scavenging like you.
Cause of relationship decay :

• Unlike gift
  
• (for some) offer to many gift
  
• 1 month with no interraction
  
• Answer choice
  
• Attacking townie (unkillable)
  
• Question choice
  

There’s a vault “near” the settlement. Gain their trust by doing quest (# depend on race of the player). Once they trust you and when you become mayor, they will become full allied and allow circulation between their vault and the settlement.
Romanceable npc
- # Ghoul

• Robot (Synth and miste handy (miss nanny)

• Super mutant

• Settler

- 1 Traveling npc
Special romance
- Mysterious stranger (need 10 Luck and insert condition)
Will randomly pop out of your house and pop back in. Will tell you about a lone wanderer, courrier or vault survivor he helped. Will come to your help in combat with baby in hand (if kid in the game)

• intelligent deathclaw (insert conditions)

Rival ? Date ?
If there’s kid in the game
Player will be able to have two kids. (Hatchling deathclaw will count as one if in a relationship with Deathclaw).
If player or spouse can’t have a kid (Super mutant ; ghoul ; Synth); player will get a quest about a raider camp in town. Discover all prisoner are dead except one human baby hidden by the body of his dead mother.
Quest reward : Congradulation you are a parent :D
If player can have kid; if spouse is a women, player will have to catter to their wife food craving (nothing with rare item) or face a penality in the relationship. If player is a women ; Malus in health, energy, slower deplacement and carrying capacity decrease the more and more the pregnancy advance. New choice of answer : pissed as fuck and hormonal. Spouse will insist to become a companion until end of pregnancy
Kid will go to school (town upgrade) for three day, help on the farm for three other and have a free day.

Stats

Strenght : carrying capacity (?) ; combat ; energy ; health ; defense
Perception : detect ennemy ; scavenging ; npc interraction
Endurence : health ; energy ; resistance
Charisma : batter ; persuasion ; Npc weariness ; # limit of resident npc in settlement
Intelligence : crafting farm upgrade (fertilizer ; spinkler) ; used weapon fixing
Agility : sneak ; weapon ; defense
Luck : loot quality ; gambling (?) ; crit chance (max starting points : 5)

Skill

Tree skill style possibility : Path of exile ; Outer world
Farming: Tilling - Watering
Fight: Heavy weapons- Light weapons- Melee
Defence : Dodge - Block
Stealth: Sneak- Lockpick - Hack
Endurance : Poison resistance - Radiation resistance - Thirst resistance
Persuasion: Batter - Intimidation - Persuation (?)
Scavenging : Deconstruct - Descerning eyes
Thinkering : Crafting - Engineering - Medecine
(Upgrade skill to upgrade stat? Once you upgrade a skill enough, it allow you to upgrade the stat?)

Quest :
Attempt murder on the player by the mayor once town upgrade and settler relationship high enough. Scare that they would lose their place to you to engage mercenary or try to poison you to keep their place. Force the mercenary to tell you who paid them or find a note on one of them or talk to the mayor after the attack (will be surprise to see you alive). You can :
- Bring him to justice and let the settler decide of his fate. (Will be possible to talk to him in prison)
- Execute him (will have to prove to the settler that this was auto-defense. Lose some relationship with settler)

• Let him life (will leave town. Grateful to be alive but bitter to have lose his title)

Result : Become mayor next election!
Raides have created a camp close to the settlement. Remove them. Player will find two npc in cage. You can :

• Let them there

-Help them out
-Kill them inside the cage
Result :

• They die
  
• Will eventually die of thirsth
  
• Will come to the town and become settlers
  

You’ve find a mister handy (or miss nanny) in the town. Why not fix them?
Result : They will propose you to help you on the farm. Accept and they’ll start working the day after. Refuse and they’ll becom settler. (Possibility to make them synth when relationship high enough?)

Find a sorry scene : deadraiders; a dead deathclaw; a nest with two crushed egg a one intact egg. You can :

• Sell the egg
  
• Eat the egg
  

-Hatch the egg
Result :

• Money
  
• Bost in one stat? Level upgrade?
  
• Get a baby deathclaw. Will be able to switch with you dog as perm companion. (If romanced the deathclaw, you spouse will leave with the hachtling for a season. When back the hatchling statut will change from animal to children and gain dialogue)
  

The river close to your house is drying. Discover the reason. The river goes into a cavern and to a lake.
Result : new fish
There’s a thirsthy and hungry homeless man at the edge of the settlement. You can :
-Give him food and water for a week
-Let him there
-kill him
Result :
-They get back on their feet and eventually open an inn in town. Will sometime offer you free drink an talk to you about stranger he hepled by following your exemple.
-They will slowly die an talk with more and more difficulty. (Which led to kill him)
-Burry him and make a small tomb or let him root there. Will get eaten by wild animal.

Guiding an injured npc to the town
Result :??

The settlement don’t have enough food for the winter and ask for your help. You can :

• Refuse
  
• Accept
  

Result :

• -- relationship with settler and some settler will die
  
• ++ reward if accept
  

Help to defend the settlement (before settlement defense upgrande)
Result :??

The scientist of the vault ## think they can help you rediscover old world crop see.
Result : new seeds :D

End game quest :
The vault now trust you enough to tell you about the G.E.C.K.S. The received one that ended up defective and never received the second. They want you to go to the vault building in the center of the town and see if you can find any information about it. Vault tower will be the most difficult dungeon in the game. Beat it to find that the G.E.C.K.S was sent to a second vault that was either unfinished or an experimentation. Go the the vault ## to discover that the G.E.C.K.S had taken some damage from bad condition and bad storage. Get all the item to fix it and either fix it yourself (no money cost) or ask to a vault scientist to fix it (+++ money cost)
Result : The map surrounding your house, the vault and the town will become more and more green with beautiful tree (Process will take ### day or month or years)

Hello Roleplayers!
I've felt the itch to write something a little less on the modern side and rather based in the good old west, inspired by the read dead redemption universe! I would like to have this all be about being a little possessive in a relationship, a fling, whatever. Make it all about the passion, the struggle, the craving of romance and need to be with each other all while there is the ever-so-present need to fight for what truly is good, or perhaps, just for that fat cash. Showdowns, robbery, heists, being on the run, maybe a little touch of fantasy and myth in here to make it spicy and interesting.
This could go any way. I have plenty of ideas I would love to share and discuss but the main plot or premise is described below:
I would like this to be based in the region / map of the RDR2 world we can create and shift as we like, so no 100% accuracy is expected. I'd like both our characters to be familiar with the culture and vocabulary of course, maybe have a runaway outlaw involved as one of them, perhaps the other even a figure of the law.
I am perfectly fine if you want to play as canon character! (Bonus points of you write Arthur Morgan for me ❤️)
I don't want either of them to be alienated by slang or quirks that may end up creating any unnecessary friction. I do like a good little difference between characters and make it as natural as possible, since no one could ever really get along 100% from the start, but I want both characters to have a mutual understanding of the time and habits.
A possible plot point could be that they are getting together as outlaws, maybe coming from rivaling gangs, maybe it could be an enemies to lovers situation, or perhaps one of the characters is rather on the "good" side, perhaps even on the side of law to create some tension there.
Events that can take place naturally are great droughts, the outburst of illness, the general fight for survival in difficult times and conspiracy, all of this combined in a longterm roleplay! This can involve characters of all origin, rich and poor, I am very open and like different dynamics!
There are a few things I want to make clear here though! I am looking for this to be a detailed, extensive and hopefully longterm roleplay! That being said I prefer third-person writing, no self-inserts and longer posts. I am talking 2+ paragraphs that consist of more than three sentences per paragraph. Also, I only write on discord, no exceptions, sorry (:
I like my roleplay partners to communicate a lot, in the sense of saying if anything is the matter, criticism and input is much welcome as well as constructive conversations. Further details to be discussed separately!
The following will be an example of my own writing in detail and literacy, something I would expect at least somewhat matched by my partner hopefully. This sample is unrelated to this posts idea and not an open starter! :
The Moon stood high that night upon the treeline, mist rising from the dampness that had been gathering in grass and bushes keeping the surroundings shrouded in mystery as it seemed. In the depths of the forest was a light however, red and smoking, a campfire of someone who had settled there, and that someone was currently being hunted. Deeper in the undergrowth and bushes surrounding the little campsite crouched a woman watching the group of three that occupied the camp it seemed, and also, the surroundings. However, this was no ordinary sight as the occupants of the camp were crimilas on the loose hunted by the law and with personal interest on them, which brought Ilyana there.
She was a sword for hire, eager to complete her job and wanting to be certain this was done correctly so she could gather her pay. It was the least she could do, as much as she needed to, since there was a certain reputation she had to keep up, and also, she needed to keep herself fed and also alive. Thus, she would need to be careful with her approach. The long, slender blade she owned was still sheathed along her side, and she was near crawling forward on all four, her joints bending and used to this, given that she was well aware of who she really was. What she did not know however, was that there was another hunter present that night, that there was someone else stalking the campsite.
Seated along the fire were three man, all brutes with muscles, their skin scarred and dirty, their hands busy tearing apart venison and refilling mugs of whatever they had carried along. They were deep enough in the woods to remain hidden and yet, they had left tracks that were easily found by those that knew where and how to look. Ilyana could not hear what they spoke of, but she knew if she wanted this to work out well, she needed to be careful, and keep her senses sharp.
////////
If this catches your eye please reach out and message me :)

Hey guys, I got the AVP two weeks ago. I’m near-sighted with -1 in both eyes for my glasses which I rarely needed. I thought this wouldn’t be an issue with the AVP since the screen is placed so close to your eyes.
I have been loving it so far until I connected it to my Mac to do some stuff done for my Thesis with multiple windows with a lot of text/books opened - the text seems to be blurry and not sharp at all. It seems like if I don’t focus looking at a certain spot, it automatically blurs the rest of the screen which is very annoying and adds a lot of strain to the eye.
I tried to disable this feature in Accessibility Options but it only makes everything „blurred“. I tried to adjust my Head Bands but there are no improvements.
Do you have the same problem? Should I try the Zeiss Optical Inserts? Or do you think it‘s the Light Seal?
Thanks

Hey guys, I got the AVP two weeks ago. I’m near-sighted with -1 in both eyes for my glasses which I rarely needed. I thought this wouldn’t be an issue with the AVP since the screen is placed so close to your eyes.
I have been loving it so far until I connected it to my Mac to do some stuff done for my Thesis with multiple windows with a lot of text/books opened - the text seems to be blurry and not sharp at all. It seems like if I don’t focus looking at a certain spot, it automatically blurs the rest of the screen which is very annoying and adds a lot of strain to the eye.
I tried to disable this feature in Accessibility Options but it only makes everything „blurred“. I tried to adjust my Head Bands but there are no improvements.
Do you have the same problem? Should I try the Zeiss Optical Inserts? Or do you think it‘s the Light Seal?
Thanks!