Someone, please take pity on me. I was trying to get the I Taunt The Pant Devil avatar and I guess I saw an outdated guide and they've changed the coding now. I purchased 50 Wheel of Extravagance backgrounds and unstacked my inventory, which I thought would give me the avatar because it was 5,000,000 estimated value. However, it did not. So not only did I not get the avatar, I also now have 50 of the exact same background that is going to take ages to sell. I would normally just discard them all or dump them at the money tree, but I'm short on Neopoints at the moment (too many customizations recently) and don't really want to be out 100k because that's a lot for me at the moment. I sold one overnight and I am overjoyed but also terrified to open my shop every day and have to see dozens of these wretched things and be reminded that I didn't even get the avatar. I am hopeful maybe I can find a few people willing to buy one to at least get my numbers down? Please, help me! Link to my shop

This has been a problem that my husband and I have encountered for years, but yesterday we experienced two incidents of it. We went to the farmer's market and I was standing in line to get some peaches. There's one lady ahead of me talking to the farmer. Boomer walks up beside the lady in front of me, looks impatient, ignores me, and butts in and starts asking the farmer stupid questions. He's clearly about to slide in when the lady ahead of me leaves. My husband and I both stare at him and make it very obvious we know what he's doing. Lady ahead of me finishes her purchase and leaves, boomer sees us looking at him and reluctantly barks "go ahead" in an irritated tone. I said nothing and made my purchase while he hovered impatiently behind me. Last week, we were in the same line and an older boomer couple deliberately got in front of us in line. We laughed and said "really?" and they ignored us.
After the farmer's market, we decide to get brunch. We were in line to see the waitress to put our name in for a table. Three she-boomers attempt to cut in front of us. A bystander sees what they are doing and loudly says "hey are you guys in line for a table?" We say yes and the boomers begrudgingly move behind us after being called out.
These are just the most recent cases, but it happens all the time and it's often very deliberate. We were at a cafe once when a she-boomer pretended to be looking in the bakery cases and then rapidly cut line in front of us. My husband politely told her where the line started, and she threw a fit and denied cutting line. Naturally, a boomer employee (the owner, we believe) came over and took her side, allowing to stay where she was.
A year or so ago, I was in line at a coffee shop and two very loud she-boomers walked in, saw the line, frowned, whispered to each other, then crept up and pretended to be reading a newspaper on the counter. They then slid in front of me and ordered a ton of shit, asking a bunch of questions. I just wanted a coffee. The teenage employee was too afraid to say anything. I decided to do the same because they looked like type that would go positively bat shit and cry victim if called out for their actions.
Anybody else noticing this phenomenon? It drives me insane. Love how they think they're above standing in line for things like other people.

A friend went to Tim Hortons . Her first language is not english. The guy at the counter put add ons on her bill without telling her about the cost and then didnt give the bill also saying the paper is over. Honestly better to go to a local coffee shop then these big chain leeches.

I can get ordering a full meal from a restaurant or do full grocery shopping, but ordering from 7-Eleven to get a 24oz mountain dew and bag of chips? Like...what?? You can't be bothered to get off your ass and either pick up those kinds of things at a grocery store and have a stock, or go to the store yourself to pick up those minor things?
You're going to pay another human being to get in his car and drive to your door to drop off a junk snack like that? For CHIPS??? It looks so completely ridiculous seeing a person doing a doordash order at the counter and he has pop, chips, gum and a candy bar. All that stuff on its own is arguably overpriced but with the delivery it will be like 2x at least. And then you're supposed to "tip" the person for dropping it off?
Who do these people think they are that their time is so important that they can't just get up and go themselves? Like how do you not feel completely embarrassed to be summoning another human being to do that. And the doordash/app deliverers... sorry but how do you not feel like a complete loser picking up a snack for a grown adult?
(I can understand though if someone is sick ordering medicine or something with it).

Welcome to the Daily NC/NP Trade/Sell & Pet UFA/UFT thread. A new thread will be made every day at midnight NST. Please refrain from posting individual threads and use this thread for your trading purposes!

Items

Remember that you can use Ctrl + F to help you find items you might be interested in! Please use the following specific formats to make it easier for people searching for either NC or NP items.

Format - NP

Please use this format when buying or selling items:
Buying:
item
Selling:
item - price (or link to your shop/trades/auctions)

Format - NC

Seeking:
item(s) or link to wishlist
Offering:
item(s) or link to trade list

Neocash Trading

Please keep in mind that you can ONLY trade Neocash items for other Neocash items and cannot buy them with Neopoints.
To trade an NC item you need a gift box that you receive when redeeming NC cards, opening Gift Box Capsules, or other events. To read more about trading Neocash items check out the Jellyneo guide.
If you're trading NC items, here are a couple of guides to help you out with values and avoid being scammed: ALWAYS KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR WHEN THESE WERE LAST UPDATED AS THEY MAY BE OUTDATED.
Neocash Guide Hub
/~Neocash - Neocash Petpage Hub
/~Helper & /~Cashier - NC Trading Guides
Most Recently Updated Value Guide
/~Owls - NC Wearables A through J
/~OwlsTwo - NC Wearables K through Z
/~Upstairs - Owls, but all on one page without assigned dates
/~Valisar - Non-Wearables
List last updated Nov 27th, 2023

Pets

This also is the place to post all your pets that you are seeking new homes for, whether you're trading or adopting out.
Please post the pet or pets you currently have up for adoption, that you are zapping to adopt out, or that you wish to trade.
You do not have to post the name of the pet or the name of your account if you do not wish, but remember to check your reddit PMs if this is the only means of communication you are allowing!
Please update or edit your comments once you have found a new home for your pets.
For guides and resources, I would check out the following pages:
Pet Trading Guides
/~kalux - General Links and Resources
/~Erizolen - General PC Guide
/~pcguide - Another PC Guide
/~Maureen - Primary UC Trading Tier Guide
/~Tradez & /~Laural - Past UC Trades
/~Applebean - Past BD Trades
Pet Dream Lists
/~ZYDP - Zap Your Dream Pet
/~Eggso - UC Project & UFA UC Listing
/~Hootiolado - H.E.L.P's Dream Pet Listing
/~Moonsis3 - MOON's Dream Pet Listing
/~Clurisa - The Fortunate Ones Adoption and Dream Granting Agency
/~Kiasa - Wondertrade's Dreamy Dreams Directory
Extra Paintbrush Clothes
/Neopets Discord Paint Brush Clothing Spreadsheet
/~Gladiro
/~Kyynator
/~Extrapbclothes
List last updated Nov 27th, 2023

Rules

1. DO NOT mention /neopets or reddit on Neopets in any way.
2. Be excellent to each other, as always.

"You gotta know that there's an art to it, Ezra," Hitch said, cutting another piece of duct tape.
The sleeves of his weather-beaten coat were shoved all the way up his arms, to stop the fabric from falling over his knuckles while he was working, and goosebumps lined his skin. He was strapping a rubber chicken to the back of his truck, over the lens of the shattered backup camera, with the legs pointing down so that they hung a couple inches above the ground. There were dents in the hood from the crash last week, and scratches along the door from scraping into a curb. The chicken, hopefully, would keep him from breaking anything else.
"You can't go cheap," Hitch said. "The cheap rubber chickens only make noise when pressure lets go. That's no good. As soon as I back up into something, I want this chicken to be screaming like it’s in the depths of hell."
“Sure thing,” I said in a monotone, leaning against the side of the truck.
There were scrambled electronic parts piled in the back of the truck, the innards of a radio, a broken computer, tangled wires, a couple loose pairs of earbuds. He found the parts in alleyways or bummed them off his friends for a couple bucks or stole them from the vacation homes that were left empty for most of the year. Then he sold them for a profit at the scrapyard. Hitch had bounced between minimum-wage jobs for a while after high school, spending a couple months as a bagger at the grocery store or as a seasonal worker at the farm two hours down the highway. He'd never stuck with it. At the very least, the scrapyard got him enough money to eat and occasionally spend a night in a motel when he got tired of sleeping in his car.
Hitch pressed the last piece of tape in place and grinned up at me. "I've got something for you, duck."
The nickname came from when I’d broken my leg as a child and waddled around in a cast until it was healed. I hated it with a burning passion, and I glared at Hitch with the ease of twenty-one years of practice. He had a duck tattoo at the base of his thumb that he’d gotten in a back-alley shop as a teenager. He said that he’d gotten it to remind him of me, and the fact that I hated the nickname was just a bonus. It was shaky-lined, with an uneven face, but he loved it anyway.
The handle stuck when Hitch tried to open the door, a consequence of the rust collecting in the crevices of the car and running down the sides like blood from a cut. The car groaned when the door finally popped open, a metal against metal screech that had me flinching away. Hitch dug through the cluttered fast food containers in the passenger-side footwell, eventually coming up with a crinkly paper bag. He waved away the flies buzzing around the opening of the bag and held it out to me.
The last time Hitch had brought me food, I’d gotten food poisoning because he’d left it out in the midday sun for two days. The donut was squished slightly, and the icing was stuck to the bag. I still ate it, grimacing at the harsh citrus flavor. Taking Hitch’s food was an instinct engraved from the days when Dad had given us a can of kidney beans for dinner and Hitch had drank the juice, leaving the beans for me.
I rarely went hungry anymore, three mostly square meals a day and granola in my pockets just in case, but habits didn’t die easy.
These days, Hitch only brought me food when he wanted my help, like when he saw a place he wanted to hit but was worried about doing it alone.
I got in the car, like I always did.
We drove past the cluster of seafood-themed restaurants with chipped paint decks, the beachfront park where there were always shifty-eyed men sitting under the slide, the single room library where all the books had been water damaged in the flood last year. The change was quick as we drove across Main Street, heading closer to the beach. The roads were freshly paved, the concrete a smooth black except where the sun had already started to pick away at it. The three-story homes lining the sides of the street were crouched on elegant stilts, with space underneath for a car or three. Most of the garages were empty, with the lights off and curtains drawn in the house. Come summer, the streets would be swarming with tourists and vacationers, but until then, most of the buildings nearest to the beach were unoccupied.
Hitch stopped as the sun started to go down at a house that was leaning precariously out towards the beach, tilted ever so slightly, the edge of its foundation buried in the shifting sand of the beach. It certainly looked deserted, with an overgrown yard and blue paint peeling off the door in sheets.
Hitch took his hammer out of the backseat, hoisting it over his shoulder. It was two feet of solid metal with rags wrapped around the head to muffle the sound of the hits. Hitch squared up, bending his knees and holding the hammer like a baseball bat. Before he could swing, though, the door creaked open on its own, the hinges squeaking. The house beyond was dark enough that I could only make out general shapes, glimpsing the curve of a sofa to the left, what was maybe the shimmer of a chandelier on the other side.
Hitch lowered his hammer, looking vaguely disappointed that he didn’t get to use it. “That’s…weird as hell.”
“Maybe the deadbolt broke, maybe they forgot to lock it, it doesn’t matter,” I hissed, checking our surroundings for other people again. “Just hurry up and get inside before someone calls the cops.”
Hitch flicked the lightswitch on the wall, and the lights flickered on. They were dim, buzzing audibly and blinking off occasionally. The walls were plastered with contrasting swatches of wallpaper and splattered with random colors. There was neon orange behind the dining table, a galaxy swirl in the kitchen, and on the ceiling there was a repeating floral pattern covered in nametag stickers. Each of the stickers was filled out with The Erlking. Chandeliers hung in every room, three or four for each, and rubber ducks sat on every table. A miniature carousel sat in the corner along with a towering model rocket.
Sand was heaped on every surface, at least a couple inches everywhere. It was piled in the corners and stuck to the walls, and it covered the floor in a thick blanket. Our hesitant steps into the house left footprints clearly outlined in the sand.
Hitch took a cursory look around and headed immediately for the TV mounted on the wall. “Look out the windows and tell me if anyone is coming.”
I shook the sand out of the blinds and pulled them open, then had to brush sand off of the window before I could see anything.
Hitch was quick, practiced at finding and appropriating the things that were worth taking. He came back to me with an armful of electronics and chandeliers, dumping it at my feet before turning to head deeper into the house again.
There was a thump, somewhere upstairs, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate. Hitch froze at the threshold of the room, then ran for the door with me just ahead of him, sand flying out from under our feet.
My hand was almost brushing the doorknob, close enough that I could see the light from the streetlamp outside streaming in through the cracks in the door. My fingers touched the wood and it gave under my touch, becoming malleable and warm. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and the door started to melt. The paint ran down in thick drops, pooling at the bottom of the door, and the wood warped like metal being welded. The soft edges of the door ran into the walls until there was no sign of an exit ever being there.
“Well, well, well,” said a cultured voice with just an edge of snooty elitism. “What do we have here?”
The man was well over eight feet tall, with long black hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a yellow raincoat with holes cut out of the hood to accommodate the deer antlers jutting upwards from his head. There was sand settled on his shoulders and hovering around his head like a halo.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hitch said, inching towards a window.
He smiled, just a little bit, and his teeth shone in the dim light. “I am the Erlking.”
Hitch nodded, and seemed about to respond. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the window. I could feel sand in the wind roaring against my back as the Erlking growled in anger, the grains scraping harshly against my cheeks.
We were almost to the window when Hitch was ripped away from me, and I came to a startled halt. The sand had formed long grasping arms that pressed Hitch against the floral wallpaper. His wrists were held tight, and as I watched, a sandy hand wrapped around his mouth and forced its way between his teeth. He gagged, and sand trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
The Erlking strolled towards him, not seeming to be in any sort of rush. “You know, I’m not very fond of your yapping.”
He made an idle gesture and the sand wrapped around my ankles, tethering me in place.
“I yap all the time,” Hitch said. “Three-time olympic yapper, that’s me. Best to just let me go now and save yourself some trouble.”
The Erlking tapped a manicured nail against Hitch’s mouth, hard enough to hurt, judging by the way he flinched away. “But why would I ever let you go when I’ve gone to this much trouble to catch you and your sister? It’s so hard, these days, to find people that no one will miss.”
Hitch struggled against the sand, trying to escape and failing. “What do you want with us, then? You just said it, we’re nobody.”
“I’m fae, dear one,” the Erlking said. “I get my power from my followers. And I think that you two will make lovely additions to my flock.”

He flicked Hitch's nose and Hitch gasped. Feathers started to form on his arms, popping out from under his skin in a spray of blood.
Hitch pushed off the wall, using his bound hands as a fulcrum, and his knees crashed into the Erlking’s stomach. The Erlking fell backwards, wheezing, and the sand around my ankles loosened.
Hitch made desperate eye contact with me as feathers shot up his neck and jerked his head towards the window. The message was obvious. Run.
The last thing I saw before crashing out the window and into freedom was Hitch’s body twisting, his arms wrenching into wings and feathers covering every inch of his skin. By the time I landed on the concrete outside, he was a small black bird, held tightly in the Erlking’s hands. The whole building was sinking into the ground, burnished-gold sand piling up over top and streaming from the windows.
Thirty years later, I saw Sam’s Supernatural Consultation and Neutralization written in neat, looping handwriting on a piece of paper taped to the door. The tape was peeling at the corners and the paper was yellowed with age, but there was obviously care put into the sign, in its perfectly centered text and looping floral designs drawn over the edges in gold marker.
I knocked, hesitantly, drawing my woolen coat closer around my shoulders. I’d bought it as a fiftieth birthday gift for myself, and I took comfort in the heavy weight of it over my shoulders.
“Coming!” someone called from within the depths of the office.
There were a couple crashes, and the sound of paper shuffling. Eventually, the door was opened by a young woman with ketchup stains on her shirt and pencils stuck through her hair.
“Hi, I’m Sam, I specialize in supernatural consultation and hunting, how may I help you today?” Sam said, customer-service pep in her voice. She stood in the doorway, solidly blocking entry into the office.
“My name is Ezra, I’m for a consultation. I emailed you but you didn’t respond?” I shifted in place, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Oh! Yeah, I lost the password for the email ages ago. Sorry for the bad welcome, I get lots of people thinking I’m crazy or pulling a prank and harassing me.”
She ushered me into the office, clearing papers off one of the chairs to make room for me to sit down. There was a collection of swords along one wall, all of them polished to perfection, several with deep knicks in the metal which indicated that they’d been used heavily.
“So what can I help you with?” Sam asked again, more sincere this time.
“Thirty years ago, my brother was turned into a bird,” I started. I’d told this story so many times that it barely felt ridiculous to say anymore. I was used to the disbelieving looks, the careful pity. But Sam just nodded along, face open and welcoming.
“I’ve almost given up on finding him, at this point,” I said. “But I saw your ad in the newspaper, and…here I am, I suppose.”
“Here you are,” Sam echoed, smiling. She pulled one of the pencils out of her hair and took a bit of paperwork off of one of her stacks, turning it over so that the blank side sat neatly in front of her. “Tell me everything.”
I told Sam everything, and she wrote it all down, pencil scratching along the paper.
The last part of the story was always the hardest to tell. “I left him there. I ran and I didn’t look back.”
I had been to dozens of detectives and investigators over the years, once the police had dropped Hitch’s case. I’d been to professional offices with smartly-dressed secretaries and met scraggly men in coffee shops. All of them had given me the same look, pity and annoyance all mixed up into a humor-the-crazy-lady soup. Sam, though, just seemed thoughtful.
Sam leaned forward and put a hand over mine, carefully, like she thought that I would pull away. “Sometimes you have to leave people behind.”
I tightened her hold on Sam’s hand and drew it towards me, like I could make Sam listen if only I squeezed tight enough. “But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to leave him behind.”
“Okay then. I’ll do my best to help you.” Sam agreed, finally. Then she paused, and said softly, “You know…I think I met your brother once. He might have saved my life. He’s certainly why I started in this business.”
“Really? What happened?” I asked.
This is the story that Sam told me, related to the best of my abilities:
It was a new moon, so the only illumination came from the stars gazing idly down and distant porch lights shining across the scraggly brush of the dunes. Sam’s neighbors were decent people who cared about baby turtles, so the lights were a low, unobtrusive red, and the ocean sloshed like blood. Sam walked on the beach almost every night, drawing back the gauzy pink curtains and clambering out her bedroom window. She didn’t often bother to be quiet; her mama worked the late shift and came home exhausted. As long as Sam got home before the sun, her mama would never find out that she paced the shoreline and dreamed of inhaling sand until her lungs became their own beach.
The sky was lightening. The sun would come up soon, and that meant Sam’s time on the beach was over. She needed to get back to her real life, go to her fifth grade class and stop that nonsense, as her mother would say. Her mother loved to say things like that, pushing Sam into her proper place by implication alone.
“She’s a good kid, of course, but she’s a bit…” Her mother would trail off there, usually getting a commiserating expression from whoever she was talking to. Sam always wondered how that sentence would have finished. She’s a bit strange, maybe. She’s a bit intense. She’s a bit abrasive. She’s quiet enough but when Jason tried to steal her pencil in math class, she stabbed him in the hand so hard that the lead tattooed him.
Her mother was better, for the most part. The days of her stocking up the fridge, and leaving a post-it note on the counter, and leaving for days at a time were gone. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen tile where her mother had collapsed and caved her head in, even though the bloodstains had been replaced with new tile.
“Your auntie got an abortion, you know,” her mother had said from her place on the couch, slurring her words. “Pill in the mail and then bam, no more baby.”
She had clapped her hands together to illustrate her point. Her mother jerked forward and grabbed Sam by the wrist, then, staring up at her until Sam met her eyes.
“I love you, you know? But sometimes I wonder…” She settled back onto the couch. “Yeah. I wonder.”
She’d gotten up, then, back to the kitchen. She’d been stumbling, a shambling zombie of a woman. The ground in the entryway of the kitchen was raised, ever so slightly, and her mother went down hard. Her head cracked against the tile, chin first, and she didn’t move.
Sam had been the one to call the ambulance. She had stared at the scattering of loose teeth on the ground while she waited, and considered what her life would be like with a dead mom. Not so bad, she thought, and immediately felt guilty for it.
Her mom was better, now, for the most part. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. There was still a matchbox hidden under her bed with the gleaming shine of her mother’s lost teeth, two canines and a molar. It was nice, having a piece of her mom to keep. Even if she left again, Sam would still have part of her.
Sam sighed, and turned away from the ocean. As she faced towards the low dunes further up the beach, she saw a sandcastle sitting nestled among them. It was such a strange sight that her eyes skipped over it at first, almost automatically, disregarding it because it was so out of place.
Sam found sandcastles out on the beach sometimes, usually half-collapsed and on the verge of being washed away by the waves, but she had never seen anything like the sandcastle in front of her. It was life-sized, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Scottish highlands, with spires shooting up above her head and carefully etched out bricks lining each side. The front wall was dominated by an arched set of double doors, twice her height, with a portcullis nestled at the top, ready to be dropped. All of it was lovingly detailed, down to the rust on the tips of the towers and the wood grain of the door. It was made out of wet, densely-packed sand, held together impossibly. It had not been there two hours ago, when she had come to the beach.
There was a bird sitting on the overhang of the door, small and black.
As soon as she took a step towards the sandcastle, the bird shook out its feathers and swooped down towards Sam, landing at her feet with a little stumble.
“Hey, kid, get out of here,” said the bird.
Sam closed her eyes, very deliberately. When she opened them, the bird was still there. Sam considered herself a very reasonable person, so she immediately drew the most logical conclusion. The bird was, she was almost certain, a demon.
“Trust me, you don’t want to run into Mr. Salty, the queen bitch himself,” the bird said.
“Mr. Salty?” Sam inquired, polite as she knew how to be. She edged to the side, trying to get a good angle to kick the bird like a soccer ball.
The bird did something similar to a wince, all its feathers fluffing up then settling back down. “Ah, don’t call him that. He’d turn you into a toad.”
The bird gestured with its head, towards the looming sand structure. “That’s his castle. He’s in there, probably scuttling along the ceiling or some shit because that’s the sort of weirdo he is.”
Sam nodded, encouraging. She pulled back her foot and lined up her shot, the way she’d seen athletes do on TV. She aimed right for its sharp beak and let loose. The bird saw it coming, its beady eyes widening, and it cawed in distress. It flapped away, avoiding her kick only to fall backward into the sand in a scramble of wings.
“What’s your fucking problem?” it squawked. “I was trying to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon,” Sam yelled, trying to remember the exorcism that her mama had taught her once, because her mama believed in being prepared for anything.
“I’m not a demon,” the bird said indignantly.
It was at about that moment that Sam gave up and just decided to roll with it.
“What are you, then?” Sam asked.
The bird shuffled its clawed feet, looking about as awkward as it could, given that it didn’t really have recognizable facial expressions. “Technically I’m a familiar of the Erlking, prince of the fae, but I prefer to be called Hitch.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming, though,” Sam said. “Ravens do tend to be associated with murder.”
“Hey, excuse you,” Hitch said. “I’m a rook, not a raven. Ravens are way bigger.”
“Sure,” Sam said, not really paying attention. Her eyes had caught on the details of the sandcastle, and she was transfixed by the slow spirals of the sand, the strange beauty of it. She found herself stepping towards the great doors, lifting a hand to knock, and as she did, the sand warped in front of her eyes, heaving itself towards her with bulging slowness. The door creaked open before her, revealing a vast, empty room. Just before she stepped inside, she felt a piercing pain in her foot, and she yelped, leaping backwards.
Hitch pecked her again, really digging his beak in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Sam glared at him, rubbing her foot. About to retort, she finally really took in the room inside the sandcastle, and her words died in her throat.
There was a body just past the threshold of the door, face down and limbs hanging limp at its sides. Long hair splayed out in a halo around its head.
“Don’t,” Hitch warned, suddenly serious. “Just leave, kid, I mean it. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and you don’t want to be one of them.”
Sam ignored him. She made her way across the beach, slipping with every step. The sand felt deeper, piling up around her feet in silent drifts. She picked up the nearest stick and poked the body with it through the door, ready to leap back if anything went wrong, staying firmly outside of the sandcastle.
This close, Sam could tell that it used to be a woman. Her head wasn’t attached to her body. It hadn’t been a clean amputation, either. Her upper body was bruised, with chunks taken out of it, and the bones in her neck hung mangled, not connected to anything.
“Well, I warned you,” Hitch said, defeated. “I did warn you.”
Sam nudged the head with the end of the stick, nudging it over so that she could see the face. Her mother stared back at her, torn to pieces, breath still wheezing from her lungs. She wasn’t blinking, just gazing forward with glazed eyes. Sweat dripped down from her hairline.
Sam screamed and dropped the stick, tripping over herself in her haste to get away.
Her mother’s eyes were wide and pleading, and she was mouthing desperate words at Sam. Her vocal cords were broken to bits, and the only sound that came out was a strained groan.
The head rolled, inching closer to Sam like a grotesque caterpillar.
Her mother gasped for air, torn lips fluttering. Finally, comprehensible words came out. “Help. Help me, daughter.”
“That’s not your mother,” Hitch said, quiet.
Sam knew that. Her mother was sleeping back at home, and anyways her mom had never asked for her help. She had an aversion to accepting charity, as she put it.
“Okay,” Sam said, shaking all over. “Okay.”
She backed away from the sandcastle, not looking away.
“Failure,” her mother hissed as she stepped away. “I never wanted a daughter like you.”
The sun came up over the horizon. The sandcastle, Hitch, and her mom all disintegrated into sand as the light hit them.
The beach, the next night, was almost exactly how I remembered it. The beams of our flashlights sent light bouncing across the dunes, illuminating the waves, and I imagined faces in the foam of the waves.
“I’ve been back here a hundred times. There’s nothing left,” I said.
Sam took the car key out of her purse and pointed it at the sand, adjusting the sword slung over her shoulder in order to do it. The key had belonged to Hitch; Sam had requested an item of his, and it was the only thing I had left. She rested the key on the sand and drew a circle around it, inscribing symbols around the borders.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sam shrugged. “Not much, really. I’m…I guess you could say that I’m knocking.”
The key laid inert on the sand for long enough that I was just about to give up and go home, admit to myself that Hitch was dead and that I was a fool to believe that Sam could actually help me. Then a building started to take shape, flickering in and out like it was struggling to get away. With a pop of displaced air, the sandcastle settled into existence.
Sam banged on the entryway. Nothing happened. She did it again, harder, and scowled when the door still didn’t open.
“We demand entrance, under your honor,” Sam yelled. There was a hard rush of wind, and I gripped Sam’s arm to keep my balance, but the doors cracked open reluctantly.
The inside of the sandcastle consisted of one enormous hall, the roof arching up out of sight. Rafters crisscrossed from wall to wall, and a cobbled path led further into the building, but other than that, it was completely empty, except for the birds. There were thousands of them, perched on the rafters or hopping along the ground. They parted in front of Sam and I, and reformed behind us, leaving us in a small pocket of open space. They were all black-feathered, with sharp beaks and beady eyes.
The Erlking sat on a throne at the end of the hall, lounging across it with his feet up on the armrest. He watched them as they came forward, the soft caw of the birds the only sound.
“I am here to bargain for the life of my brother,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, before the Erlking could say anything.
The Erlking ignored her, tilting his head to look at Sam. “I remember you. I almost got you, once.”

Sam glared at him but didn’t respond.
“You want your brother,” The Erlking said to me, and he almost sounded amused. “Then go get him.”
As if by some sort of silent signal, every bird in the room took flight at once, and their cawing made me think of screams. I covered my head against the flapping of their wings, and my vision was quickly obscured by the chaotic movement of them. I found myself on my knees, just trying to escape them.
A hand met my shoulder. Sam urged me to my feet, and together we ran for the edge of the room, where the swarm was the thinnest. We pressed ourselves into the corner and the swarm spiraled tighter and tighter at the center of the room. It went on until there seemed to be no differentiation between the birds, all of them fused together into one creature.
When the chaos died down, the birds had become one mass, with wings and eyes and talons sticking out of its flesh, thrashing and chirping. Human body parts stuck out of it, bulging out from the feathers. It was hands, mostly, with a couple knees or staring eyes. The bird amalgamation had no recognizable facial features, but there was one long beak extending from the front of its head. Most of the body parts were concentrated around the beak, and they peeked out from where the beak connected with muscle, or grew from the tongue, nestled between the two crushing halves of the beak.
It turned its beak down and crawled forward, using the hands to balance. The fingers scrambled over the ground. I was afraid of centipedes as a child, and I felt that same crawling dread when it started moving.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, which was rather disappointing, because I had been hoping that at least one of us knew what to do.
The creature turned, a lurching movement that crushed some of the hands underneath it, and started heaving itself slowly towards our corner.
“Better hurry up!” the Erlking called from his throne.
It was blocking the exit, by then. The shifting body of it had moved to block us off. It ambled towards us and I tried to sink further into the corner.
As it approached, getting close enough that I could smell the stink of it, I saw a flash of a tattoo on one of the hands. I leaned in, trying to find it again, like looking for dolphins surfacing in the ocean. And again, I caught a glimpse of a duck tattoo, the tattoo that Hitch had gotten on his hand as a teenager.
I ripped away from Sam’s death grip and ran for the monster.
I fell to my knees in front of it, wincing as I impacted the ground, and reached into the nest of hands. I could feel them tearing at my forearms and ripping into me with their sharp nails, but I kept going. I pressed further in, up to my shoulder in a writhing mass of limbs, aiming for the spot where I had last seen that tattoo.
The hands were tugging at me, wrapping around my back and hair. They were pulling together, trying to draw me completely into the mass of them. I was aware of Sam at my side, anchoring me in place and bashing any hand that got too close with her sword or the sparks that leapt from her hands with muttered words. But I didn’t think it would be enough. They were too strong, and there were too many of them.
I was up to my waist in the hands when something grabbed my palm. I felt the way it clung to me, and the calluses on its palm, and I knew that I had found my brother.
I flung herself back. The hands didn’t want to let me go, and they fought the whole way, but slowly, I made progress. I kept hold of Hitch’s hand in mine the whole time, gripping it as hard as I could. I finally broke free, Hitch with me, and Sam was immediately charging the creature, able to use her sword with much greater strength without being worried about injuring Hitch. She swung it forward, and it sliced through the wrist of one of the hands. It fell without a sound, red sand flowing out of it. It deflated until it looked like dirty laundry, just a piece of limp flesh. The creature shrieked, scuttling away enough that the door was finally accessible. The three of us ran for it, Sam and I supporting Hitch between us.
I looked back as I left and found the Erlking staring right at me.
“Interesting,” he murmured, his voice carrying impossibly across the vast space between us.
The sandcastle collapsed behind us, the great walls falling in on themselves. We were out in the morning sun, the sandcastle disappearing as we watched. Hitch was on the ground in front of me, as young as he’d been thirty years ago, when he was captured. He started laughing, feathers puffing out of his mouth. He laughed until he cried and I hugged him in the way that he’d held me when I was young, in the times when my life had been defined by hunger and fear.
Hitch left, afterwards. He scratched at the pinhole scars covering his body, where feathers burst through his skin, and pulled his long sleeves down around his wrists. He didn’t know where he was going but he told me that he needed time
I had spent thirty years worth of time without him. I wanted to grab my brother by the shoulders and beg him to stay. But he flinched when I hugged him goodbye and he refused to go near sand and he stared distrustfully at the birds chirping in the trees. Hitch needed to go away and I loved him too much to stop him.
I sat out on the beach every morning. I felt the sun on my face and I waited for Hitch to come home.

Just got out of my first orientation... uh wtf?!?!? Did not expect to get this anamolus stuff right off the bat but here we go...
Halfway through, after resonance syncing, it felt like I was shifting in and out of myself and my consciousness. It felt like a radio station.it said, 'enjoy the new power of a resonance synced mind,' and within like a minute and a half, I start darting between scenes in my minds eye, so vivid its baffling. And I had no choice over the locations...
A coffee shop with some obscure modern music playing over it and a manager that looked nonplussed at the counter. Place was dead. I could hear the music.
The last scene I remember is something like a Chinese monk dressed in orange robes, very serious, walking toward me. Long, white beard. Out of nowhere. Born from a completely unconscious mind. Where did he come from??? I certainly didn't call him, nor manifest him, he seemed to have just shown up of his own volition, observing me... once I paid him attention he was gone.
Definitely scratching my head rn! Lol...

Okay, I feel like I should explain some things first before people hit me with "Oh, the controls are janky" "Oh, its cutscenes are all CG and it's so weird" etc. I think it's a good game mainly due to the fact Neopets as a whole has been a part of my childhood and possibly many others. And while Neopets on PS2 wasn't exactly great in terms of gameplay, it also had lots of nostalgic value to it. I remember one day giving it away and never getting it back until more recently when I bought a copy from my local game shop for $30. And yes I can already see how some people might not like it for some things, and I don't exactly like one particular aspect in the game. The final boss just feels half baked. Probably because your magic girl doesn't get to keep that one wand you find below the castle you first visit as the boy who wants to become a knight (I legit forgot their names lol) which is also technically another point I don't like but it's technically a sacred treasure entrusted to the king of said castle town but I feel they could've given you access to be able to get another wand on par with that relic wand, but sadly no dice. But aside from the half baked final boss, it's a really good game and if it ever gets a remake, I might just play it from start to finish. Might even Plat it aswell. Edit: There's probably a possibility I might move this to unpopularopinion but who knows :\

Another weekend, another ominous thunderstorm and accompanying rain keeping me from playing outside. Checking out stores >> getting struck by lightening. Today’s journey took me towards Lakewood because I didn’t want to sit in the I-25 parking lot but still wanted to get south/west-ish after not being able to even get a parking spot at REI for their big sale event - so with the storm in mind and time to kill, that’s where I ended up.
Without further ado, starting from Hwy 6 since that's about where I-25 ground to a halt, and Wadsworth, going south:
Bingo AJ Liquors - shooters and minimal shelfers - Rating: Don’t bother
Spirit Shop (Belmar Crossing) - mostly shelfers with some okish bottles up top behind the counter but nothing that was ‘wow’. Didn’t bother to ask for prices on those. Ok pricing on stuff that was elsewhere on wall. Not a giant selection, but if you live nearby… ok whatever. Rating: not making a return trip.
Mile High Wine Spirits - Belmar - Relatively plain selection with decent variety of non-shelfers, ok prices, nothing special though. A few store picks in boxes near the front. Rating - probably won’t drive across the city on a return trip, but not bad either.
Quality Discount Liquor Wads - Not even standard shelfers - Rating: don’t bother
Giant Discount Liquors - Basic shelfer selection with some local bottles thrown in. I can appreciate that. Good stuff super marked up behind counter. Example: 200 JD10 and Bowman. Pass. A OF SiBBP (probably a CO pick)… didn’t see price, but based on the other stuff up there, asking would have just left me disappointed. Rating: Pass.
Wads Liquor and Wine - 5x Weller greens happily on a shelf, 4x EHT smb tubes 'bout 150. 2x Horsey Juices 115ish. A BT fanboy or someone who was riding the hype train with money to burn would be happy here. I would be if I was on the hype train, but I kept on going… MM BEP 75ish. KC12 75 (kind of my bellwether, a store generally gets an ‘A’ if KC12 is in the 60s. Overall sentiment: fair prices and decent selection. Would return if I was in the area just to look around.
Trading Post Liquors - fairly wide and diverse selection out on the shelf for a non-mega store. However, anything even remotely “special” was pretty marked up behind the counter. JD10 for 200 ish etc… Rating: If I lived nearby, I’d probably occasionally hit it up to support local.
Quincy Costco - Willet 4yr Rye 65, both Larceny A124 & C923 - 55. Need to give the liquor manager a high five for picking good stuff. Other bottles were present, of course, but these two at their respective price points piqued my interest. After one of the posts last night about A124, I had a hard time not picking up a bottle for a rainy day, no pun intended. Rating: Top Costco in front range for hard liquor, followed closely by DIA. Worth the drive.
TW Littleton & Centennial - Littleton seemed to be price matching Costco - because they too had 65 4yr Willet rye. A later stop at the Centennial TW had it closer to 90 like a lot of other places. Can’t blame them for trying I guess!
I was overall surprised to see Bardstown offerings come down in price… a sign of bourbon deflation? A sign of the economy? A thrust for market share? Their own 6 year juice being ready? Bardstown White label Origin 38, Black label Origin BiB 43, Red Disco 9 140, Rye for 51.
Also had the lowest prices on Michters standard offerings I’ve seen, in the < 45 range. Finally, it seemed they’re really pushing their house brands, particularly Walcott. At least it says that it’s Barton right on the front. Why do I say this? There didn't seem to be as much variety in store picks as I remember a few months ago, but there were shelves and shelves and boxes of their house brands.
That's it for today!
Disclaimer: Note that my trip reports are specifically in the context of looking for (primary American) whiskey & bourbon that I’m interested in - not necessarily hunting for allocated bottles, just looking out for things that I’d like to try that I probably read a review of on one of the bourbon/whiskey subs here. I would not turn down a WFP or gold top horse juice if I saw one for a good price, but I have a personal rule about not paying much more than MSRP - there’s too much good stuff out there to try instead.
Instead, when I'm out, I like to drive around and look for "holes in the wall" that might be worth returning to in the future should I be in the specific part of town visiting a friend, or something like that. A place with good prices or a good selection, or ideally both. Plus I get to see other parts of town I've never been to. People who post their stories of favorite stores or epic finds here got me started and have resulted in some great finds for myself, so I'm returning the favor.

So, how's everyone feeling about the spoiled cards so far? Obviously price aside, because I don't think they'll be worth the money shops will initially try to sell them for... Do you think they'll be decent decks?
When there was that massive leak, I was so excited for the Eldrazi deck! There were so many splashy, overpowered cards that made me go "this is so extra, it's dumb. It's perfect for casual". Then after that initial wave, there were so many spoiled cards that fuelled the hypothesis that the deck would be filled with mediocre cards with 'devoid', so now I'm split...
The Tarmogoyf deck doesn't seem that good tbh. Tarmogoyf is a bad card in EDH, IMO. Yes, they tried to spice up the goyfs and the commander ability is cool, but having an army of tarmogoyfs is still kinda meh, I'd say. I didn't spot any broken cards there. Could be a fun, definitely nostalgic deck, but as for power level, nothing special (don't get me wrong, sometimes a fun deck is better than a powerful one, as I'm pretty much playing in a casual pod).
Simic seems to be doing simic things. I don't think it'll be particularly powerful out of the box, but it opens up a lot of avenues for simic degeneracy. I love the potential it has (which I'll definitely steal from the creative people here), but I don't think it'll be strong from the get go.
The energy deck is the one I'm most indifferent to. I don't particularly enjoy energy counters and I just got the Fallout energy deck. However, I did see some amazing powerful energy cads spoiled, so maybe this will turn things around. I also dislike the art of the commander. He looks like he's about to ask me "tall, grande or venti" while low-key trying to tell me to listen to his new track on Spotify.
Again, price aside, from the things we've seen spoiled, what are your thoughts on the decks? Both on out-of-the-box power and the upgrade potential.

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/ImDyingRn123
Originally posted to AITAH
AITA for not having my boyfriend be a plus one at my best friends wedding
Thanks to u/queenlegolas and u/Direct-Caterpillar77 for suggesting this BoRU
Trigger Warnings: manipulation
Original Post: May 9, 2024
I (25f) have been seeing my now boyfriend (27m), who will call Joe, for about six months now. We made it official three months into dating so I like to say he’s only officially been my boyfriend for three months.
My best friend, who we’ll call Anne, is getting married next month. I’m one of her bridesmaids. It’s a small destination wedding, only about forty close friends and family. The bridal party is set to arrive about four days before the actual wedding to do bachelobachelorette stuff.
The issue came up yesterday morning when my boyfriend started asking what time my flight was for the wedding week. I didn’t think much of it and told him. He came back about ten minutes later and said he’d have to go on a different flight because he couldn’t find one on the same airline or at the same time.
I didn’t understand why he was looking at flights. I asked him if he was planning on going on a solo or guys trip while I was gone since I wouldn’t be around.
He looked confused and then said he was looking for flights for the wedding.
I then proceeded to tell him, trying to be as gentle as possible, that I wasn’t planning on a plus one and the guest list was already finalized. He has only ever met Anne over face time since she lives in a different state from us.
After telling him, he exploded at me. Honestly it was a total 180 from his usual behavior. He said it was insensitive of me to not ask for a plus one because we’d been together for so long now. That I was purposefully excluding him and trying to keep him a secret. He ranted and talked in a circle and I just sat there in shock. What snapped me out of the daze was when he insinuated that I would likely cheat with one of the groomsmen.
Thats when I got up, got my shit, and started walking out of his place. He freaked out even more and said we needed to talk about this and I couldn’t walk out on him. He tried to grab me twice but I shoved him off.
Since I last night, I haven’t spoken to him. he’s been blowing up my phone with calls and texts that I don’t reply to. Even put him on do not disturb because it was so annoying. I was pretty solid in believing I wasn’t TA but one of his best friends got my number and texted me I was being petty and a female dog about everything. That I lead Joe on for six months.
I haven’t talked to anyone about this since I wanted to cool down before I got a second opinion. But now that his friend is texting men, I feel like I handled it all poorly. I know I need space right now but I don’t want to ghost Joe, which his friend implied I’m now doing.
So I’ve come here to get some unbiased opinions. Fellow redditors, I asked you now if i am TA for not having my boyfriend be a plus one to my best friends wedding.
posting this is the other aita sub too
edit: to clarify. we don’t live together. i just spend the night at his place sometimes
edit 2: in our last conversation last night i texted him that i needed some space to breathe to which he then just kept calling and texting
edit 3 because people keep acting like joe is a secret: he has met my other friends. he hasn’t met anne in person because she lives in a different state. across the country to be exact. they’ve only met through face time. i’ve met his parents and friends. he hasn’t met mine because they moved back to mexico two years ago. he has met them over face time.
edit 4: his friend saying lead him on was “leading him to believe he was invited”
AITAH has no consensus bot, OOP was NTA
Relevant Comments
OOP to multiple comments on why she is not having her boyfriend as her plus one to the wedding

OOP: i accepted the wedding invite long before we met. this wedding invite didn’t just recently happen. + main reason for why i never asked for a plus one is because joe and i had only just started seeing each other when the wedding was being planned. a lot went into it because it’s a destination wedding in europe + i’m not meaning to dismiss it. i’m pointing out that’s why i’m not having a plus one unlike the other groomsmen and bridesmaids. they have been with their partners for years and personally know anne. joe has only ever met her over face time + also there’s a lot more then just buying a ticket. i said earlier that this wedding was planned months before we met. anne planned a lot of things for this wedding that are catered to the fact there’s a limited guest list. again. i would have been fine to explain all this but again. i never got a chance to + this wedding wasn’t a secret. he was even aware of it when we first started seeing each other because i’d just done dress shopping. again. this wedding was very planned out because it is indeed, very small and private in france. he’s also met anne and her fiance over face time, not in person because she’s in a different state. he’s met my other friends as well. he hasn’t met my parents because they live in a different country.

 
Update: May 11, 2024
The general consensus was that I wasn’t TA. Unfortunately the original post got taken down on the main aita sub but is still up on the other. Still posting the update on both though.
Some of y’all had some stuff to say about me saying I need help communicating because I shouldn’t have walked out. Have your opinions, but never let someone scream at you and just sit there and take it. Im realizing thats emotional abuse.
About why I never pushed to have a plus one. When the wedding planning was starting, Joe and I had not met. By the time we met and made things official, the wedding planning was finalized. I never hid the wedding from Joe or the fact it was very small. Someone said “most normal people” plan on bringing their s/o to a wedding. Maybe thats true. But never automatically assume that since your s/o is invited to something, you’ll be going too.
The wedding was heavily pre-planned because again, it’s a destination wedding. Anne is originally from France and primary reason why it’s a destination wedding.
I talked to Anne about this shortly after posting and she agreed that I’m not TA. She said if the roles were reversed, she’d never expect her so of less than a year be invited to an important event.
So, on Friday, I texted Joe asking to meet up Saturday morning to have a discussion about everything.
This morning he tried to get us to meet at my place, but instead, I got him to agree to meet at a local cafe. A lot of you brought up how he tried to grab me and that’s a big sign that he could get more physical in the future. I didn’t want anything to be left to chance.
He got there early and tried to hug me, which I didn’t allow. I got the ick at the thought of him hugging me.
We did a bit of small talk but got pretty much to the point once we sat down.
He did apologize for blowing up but in the same breath said I shouldn’t have left. I countered that he shouldn’t have tried to physically stop me from leaving, twice. He said what else was he supposed to do. That set the tone for the whole conversation.
He went on to say that me just walking away was a “clear indication that I didn’t respect him”. I then pointed out that he was not letting me explain why he wasn’t invited.
This is when we started talking in circles. I told him how the wedding was being planned long before we met. How by the time we mutually agreed to be exclusive, they had everything finalized, especially the guest list. He said I should’ve asked for Anne to change it anyway. I asked him if I ever gave him the impression he’d be attending. He was silent for a while and then admitted he just assumed that since he was now my boyfriend, I would have told Anne to invite me. I told him then wouldn’t I have said something if he was invited in the past three months?
I realized that we weren’t getting anywhere. I told him I wanted to break up. To paraphrase, I said something along the lines of.
“I understand you were hurt that I didn’t invite you. I am sorry that we didn’t have a clearer conversation. I do wish that we could have had a calmer conversation. However, I don’t feel safe in this relationship because of how you reacted. I don’t think this relationship is good for either of us if you feel betrayed and I feel unsafe.”
He didn’t take that well.
Joe’s response was if we broke up, I wasn’t getting my stuff back. I told him I didn’t care. Because honestly? If he wants to keep some of my underwear and used toothbrush, okay.
I then asked him to not have his friends text me too. He then went from pleading to have another chance to accusing me of never wanting him. I just stood up, told him I wished him the best, and left.
Ended up going for a two hour run when I got home because I still felt stressed. Blocked his number, his friends, blocked his instagram, deleted the pictures of us on my feed. Changed my Facebook status to single. Had a cry and have been watching Netflix since.
Something I learned from this your first fight with your partner tells you everything about them. Our first fight told me Joe was explosive. Maybe if he hadn’t blown up, we would still be together. Not gonna dwell on it though. I know it’s good I got out while you can because as a lot of you pointed out, the fact he kept trying to overpower me twice says a lot.
I’m honestly glad I broke it off. As some of you said, it took him six months to show his true colors. Can’t imagine if he did come and then a year later, I find out he’s like this and have to look at wedding photos with a guy who is fine blowing up.
I’m going to stay single for awhile now. I have a wedding to look forward to. My focus is on supporting Anne and making sure she has the best wedding ever. I may update when the wedding happens to let you guys know how it goes and if Joe tried anything else.
Thank you again to everyone for their opinions.
Relevant Comments
OOP on staying away from her ex-boyfriend

OOP: thank you ❤️ i do have a dog and a roommate so that’s some extra security already. the roommate and i talked before about getting a ring camera but this experience and other comments have solidified us getting one

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

Hi friends. I wanted to vent a little bit about a situation I encountered today. I was downtown in a local shopping center looking to kill some time before my eye brow appointment. I walked into a coffee shop, placed my order and walked to a standing table near the window away from the checkout counter. As I was scrolling on my phone and enjoying my small breakfast, a man approached me asking for help with the self automated ordering machine. I told him that I do not work at the coffee shop and to take his concern to the clerk behind the register for support. He kept trying to talk to me but I turned away from him and continued to mind my business. Thankfully, he got the hint and left me alone.
Less than 10 mins later, one of the workers approaches me with a look of discomfort on her face. For context, there were a few workers in the store, one of which being a young man. The worker tells me her colleague wanted to know if I was from a certain ethnic background. I told her to please tell him I am not interested and she said she understood and left. As soon as I turned back to finish my drink, the young man walks over to me and starts asking if I was waiting for someone. By this point I was thoroughly annoyed and let him have it. I told him I was not interested in his advances. He then starts back peddling and stating that she was the young who was curious about my ethnicity. Yea right. I told him to exercise a degree of professionalism and not use the work force as a dating site. He then told me he was trying to ensure that I was comfortable as a guest in the shop. I threw out my drink, grabbed my bag and left.
In hindsight I should have left earlier. I am debating on calling corporate but I fear that he might retaliate.
I am so exhausted of men feeling entitled to our time and energy and convos. Just wanted to share.

Platform(s): The platform on which I played it was Android, I downloaded it from the Play Store, I remember that the application icon was a taxi on a light blue background.
Genre:: The game genre was about driving vehicles to take passengers to their destination in a period of time. Third-person view with the camera following the vehicle.
Estimated year of release: The game was from 20012-2014.
Graphics/art style:: The map graphics, cars and npc. They look like those from Pokemon Quest, that simple style and ''nice and pleasant'' shapes. It also has a certain resemblance to the cars from Crossy Road. It was always sunny, there were cars driving on the roads, you could see the npc's raising their hands to ask for a taxi, there were no animals. The map was made up of a small city to the North and an urban neighborhood to the South. Both parts were linked by two bridges and in the center a small wooden port. The map was bounded by water and you could sink.
Notable characters: You always drove vehicles, cars of all kinds, fire engines, taxis, police cars, personal vehicles, I don't remember if there were sports cars, ambulances, etc.
Notable gameplay mechanics: : The characters were cars, you started with a taxi and later you could get more varied cars, such as garbage trucks, police cars, firefighters.
Other details: You could play offline. The game was simple, there was the game menu while in the background you could see your selected car, when you touched the screen your car accelerated and you started looking for passengers. There was also the section where you could see the vehicles that you already have, but still need to obtain. I don't remember how the cars were obtained, I guess they were coins that you earned and used to get a random car. It is similar to when you open a Counter strike box. I remember you could see NPCs raise their hands to get your attention. I also remember that you could run over said passengers and the police would start chasing you. You always drove across the map. You could go across the road avoiding the cars in front of you and you could take shortcuts if your car could fit through them. I remember that on the left of the screen a timer appeared to take the passenger to their destination. I don't remember if you could take more passengers in your car (probably yes).
What I remember most is the game map, I did my best to draw it as I remember it.
The red color to the north refers to a Cinema/theater, to the north you can see what would be the beach there was and to the south I remember that there was also sand, the orange is a gas station that I remember there was always there, the purple is the houses in the urban area, the brown thing in the center is that small fishing port that you could use as a shortcut, the yellow thing was a barber shop that was located in that area, the roads are gray colors and the red thing divided with a road was a building residential that had an alley.
The drawing is simple, but it can be very useful. This is what the map would look like from afar as far as I can remember. To help, the northern area is full of gray residential buildings and the urban area is houses with wooden roofs. I hope this is helpful to help me find this game.
https://preview.redd.it/sfhwj86uua1d1.png?width=2486&format=png&auto=webp&s=a496071ad2b334aeabf372eae6d003dcddebeb04

I recently traveled with a cardboard bike box through Montreal Airport (YUL) with Air Canada. It was my first time doing so and I had a few doubts beforehand. So I thought I'd share my experience here in case it could help others looking for information, as I've seen people discussing this subject here.
Where to get the box?
Any bike shop:
-possibly the cheapest but also the most unreliable and time consuming
-might need to call multiple shops, sometimes inconveniently located
CL Cycle (35$)
-two bike shops in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood, both about 1km away from a metro station
-apparently sell cardboard bike boxes for 35$, sometimes show as out of stock online
Gare d’autocars de Montréal (17.25$)
-Montreal’s bus station, situated downtown at Berri-UQAM metro station (easily reached by bike from central neighborhoods or by metro which accepts bikes outside of weekdays peak hours)
-the option I went for as it's both affordable and convenient
-sells bike boxes for 17.25$ through Expedibus shipping service
-just ask for a bike box at the main bus ticket counter, no need to reserve in advance, they should pretty much always have them in stock, they also provide tape
-I couldn't measure the box but it was not super long, I removed the front wheel and handlebar of my rigid 29er MTB (with an admittedly long wheelbase) and it just barely fit, some people may need to remove both wheels
-there is one hole on each side to use as handle, but they're fragile, using them to lift the bike caused as significant tear in the cardboard that I had to patch
-there’s usually plenty of space inside the bus station to work on your bike and pack it
-while there are often interesting characters hanging around the bus station, Montreal is a safe place, but still keep an eye on your valuables
-from the bus station there are regular city buses going to the airport (STM 747 line) which accept bikes and cost 11$
Montreal Airport - Safe Bag (70$)
-two kiosks at the airport, opening hours from early morning to evening
-over the phone they told me they sold cardboard bike boxes for 70$ each (which seems outrageous), and that they always have some available (no surprise)
-while the airport is easily reachable by bike, it's a much longer bike ride than to the Gare d’autocars for people staying or living closer to downtown, a long bike ride that you might want to avoid before a long flight if the weather is rainy or super hot
How to get to the airport?
747 bus from the Gare d’autocars to the airport (11$)
-costs 11$ which you can buy in person at the bus station counter when you buy your bike box, can also be bought anywhere else that sells STM tickets including the apps Chrono and Transit, can buy it as L’Occasionnelle which works as 24h day pass for public transit on Montreal Island including the airport bus
-can pay cash in the bus with coins only and the bus driver does not provide change
-the bus line runs 24h/7, multiple times per hour during the day and at least every hour at night
-leaves directly from gate 15 inside the Gare d’autocars, and then makes a few stops downtown before taking the highway to the airport
-should take 50min to an hour to get to the airport depending on traffic, construction, and, more importantly, confused passengers not knowing how to pay their ticket
-the bus accepts boxed bikes as explicitly cited by their website, but the racks are too small, you'll have to keep your box upright along the folding seats of the area reserved for handicapped people :(
-see STM website for more up-to-date info
How to fly with a bike with Air Canada?
Fixed 50$ fee no matter the destination
-you do NOT need to have a checked baggage included in your fare (for example, you can buy the cheapest economy fare type without any checked baggage, you will only have to pay 50$ for the bike, and not 50$ + whatever is the price for one checked baggage)
-before buying your flight you can call this number to see if there is room available for your bike box on a specific flight: 18882472262
-after buying your ticket, call the same number to tell them to reserve a place for your bike, if by bad luck there's no room you can always get a refund within 24h of buying your ticket -do your online check-in, available the day before your flight, indicate that you will be traveling with one bike and pay the 50$ fee
-once at the airport go to an Air Canada self check-in kiosk, click on the baggage options (I think it was called “modify baggage” even if you won't be modifying it), it should show you’re traveling with a bike, click to continue and it’ll print stickers for your bike box
-go to the oversized luggage area, they’ll ask you to open the box for them to check it and then they'll give you tape to close it
Open to hearing your experiences.
*All prices in Canadian dollars
TLDR:
Simplest reliable and affordable way to travel with a cardboard bike box to YUL is imo:
-bike/metro to Gare d’autocars
-buy 17.25$ bike box there
-take 11$ 747 bus to YUL
-pay airline-specific bike fee (50$ with Air Canada, no extra fee)

For the most part my (f32) bf (m33) and I are on the same page about everything. We just got into an argument we don't see eye to eye on.
I own the house we live in, pay full mortgage, for the most part complete all home tasks etc. Seldom do I ask for his help - I.e we put up shelves in the pantry together, built a small shed for our backyard together.
He never wanted a house, owns a condo and would rather not have home tasks. I made a comment today that it's "his turn" to grocery shop next. I feel like 60/40 home chores fall on me - if I don't explicitly ask him to grocery shop, it'll become a me problem. He countered today that everything else he does for the house counts towards how he contributes and I don't appreciate when he does help me.
I started to stop asking for his help, because it'll always come up in arguments. I.e my dad gave us an old lawnmower and bf spent a few hours at a friends house trying to get it running again. That came up. Even as a reason why it shouldn't be 50/50 for standard house chores because he's contributing in other ways. I really try to tackle everything on my own but in the cases I don't, aren't partners supposed to help eachother? I really don't see his point, but not sure how I should proceed. Thoughts?
Tl;dr bf and I both feeling like we're pulling our weight but not being "seen"