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r/Spanish: Learn, teach or discuss the 2nd most spoken language by natives
2009.02.25 08:00 pallaviwensil r/Spanish: Learn, teach or discuss the 2nd most spoken language by natives
This is the biggest Reddit community dedicated to discussing, teaching, and learning Spanish. Answer or ask questions, share information, stories, and more on themes related to the 2nd most spoken language in the world by native speakers.
2014.06.08 13:04 born_here Saved You a Click: Helping Rid the Internet of Clickbait
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2009.05.12 18:17 Cryptozoology
A place for the discussion of Cryptozoology, the study of animals that science doesn't recognize.
2024.05.19 08:06 Mantis_Shrimp47 The monster in the sand dunes turned my brother into a bird
"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.
submitted by Mantis_Shrimp47 to nosleep [link] [comments]
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.
2024.05.19 04:32 wishyouthesame67 Speak opposite
Winona county pre-petitioned commitment after I made 5 911 calls to Winona county police fearing that my mom was being held hostage and wouldn’t come home to help me because somebody stole my cars keys and there was no food in the house and somebody dropped food off at my house (never saw them) as I was given a bad cut. During this time someone came into the house and stole my shit and then returned. My neighbor has no outlet so I chased the suspected person working for the police as my neighbors assuming they called the police after they saw me block the thief unable to to run me over as I stood in the road. The police returned my shit some time later as I was confused by everything I was glad I had my wax back which is 100% legal oddly my shit was back too. It was pure bath salts because I went crazy after that. I chanted to hell because I knew the police told me mom I was too dangerous to be around and I’m sure they wanted to send a drug that would make me susceptible to delusional thoughts thinking it would become permanent. The state has been committing me since 2017 for bogus reasons. After they had the evidence of me making 5 911 phones they tried to commit me but since I went bat shit crazy, I left the house thinking I was being poisoned by radon by all the smoke in there. I was swatted in cannons falls where I was being stalked by people and backed into a stalker in the parking lot. It was someone who saw me in psychosis and wanted to check on me but called the sheriff and 10 sqaud cars were sent. I had around 8 grams in 4 different buckets and bath salts on me in my car at the time. The swat team didn’t take it and I was in the fetal position of a squad car and they sent me to Mayo Clinic for mental illness. Let me tell you I backed into somebody’s car in a parking lot. My car was not damaged. A crowd of people saw me terrified as I heard orders and a count down to shoot me if I stepped out of the car. I had a small seizure in the ER as I don’t get the help I need because they won’t give me Ativan and instead antipsychotics which never help. While I was in the psych ward my memory of this was clear. I recorded videos of myself to remember what happened plus I gained my memory back. And Mayo Clinic doctors Dr. Roth said he was not going to commit me. Dr. Roth knows went to the same university I did, harder to get into than U ofM. The sheriff went into generose would go to the psych ward and ask the patients questions and my doctor told him to get the fuck out of there as he didn’t have to serve papers to anyone. We couldn’t figure out what he was investigating. Many patients there were my age and even someone from Egypt was suspiciously being detained and said he was there against his will. He did not have a last name because it didn’t translate, his wrist band only said Salem. He expressed his idea for peace in the Middle East and said make Jerusalemits own city state. Later the nurses said he was going home but later changed their minds and said they were sending him to a different ward instead. Obviously detained for reasons biased to his political views because people abusing the position of power to continue to administer medication after being offended as they were in opposition to what is happening in the Middle East. Jews and Somalis decided if this Arab man from Egypt was crazy. A woman from Africa who didn’t understand English and needed a translator was being civilly committed with a court order to take antipsychotic neuroleptics after she been struggling after divorce. She said the voices she heard were only coming from here guilty conscience as she was expressing she was misunderstood by the doctor and didn’t need help, but it was l through a translator who was speaking for her. Many of the other people there didn’t have real problems and would voluntarily sign in to the psych ward believing the bullshit that pills fix problems and stayed less than a week. The nurses ask stupid questions like if we are depressed and suicidal and oddly ask if we could spell lunch backwards which indicates high functioning cognitive functioning in a particular area of the brain which will help the nursing staff know the patient hasn’t fried the brain and can recognize symbols better than average suggesting the cognitive functioning has not deteriorated to the degree of permanent brain damage or permanent delusions. Drug induced Psychosis is ruled out. I could spell lunch backwards the fallowing day and could recognize reality going forward with my life without medication. Three weeks ago I went to the hospital after a police officer in Duluth reported that I was disorganized and told saint Luke’s. I asked for help after becoming ill suddenly and extremely nauseous. I had no where to go. I asked to be treated for hep c or hiv which they did but also sent me to the psych ward where again the doctor committed me and pre-petition an order from the court that’s I go to treatment and take antipsychotics for 6 months. After being through this process 3 times in less than a year I knew to say I voluntarily go to treatment to the court examiners in Winona county. The didn’t proceed with the doctors order. I have been in the psych ward for a total of 4 months and I have good teeth and don’t think treatment helps people like me. I’m tired of people saying I need to go to treatment. I’m tired of people calling the cops on me because I’m high. I’m tired of police dictating my life making up bogus excuses old their job is to recognize mental health issues when all I needed was to go to sleep. Oregon is where I need to go, fuck this GEN I have millennial problems that we can figure out ourselves on our own. Poverty of some kind is my problem and I need to go live in a better state for millennials.
submitted by wishyouthesame67 to Winona [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 02:38 Bumberryboo IWAV s2e1 The bat
I have been obsessed with iwav since I was a kid. While discussing it with my best friend we were both unsure if the hallucination of Lestat had a bird or a bat crawl from the slit in his throat. (We are both blind, okay?)
Personally I think a bird would have been much cooler and more symbolic.
In the movie, when Louis and Claudia are finally free from Lestat (after murdering him) they talk about what they wish to do with their pet bird. (A canary I believe.) They intend to release it before they leave just before the ghoulish Lestat shows up.
I think if they would have had a bird escaping Lestat's throat instead of a bat it would have been a decent nod to the og movie, and maybe a good symbolic symbol that even though they thought they had achieved freedom, Lestat was still there. Caging them much like the bird they intended to release. (Did they release it? No idea. Maybe Lestat ate it in spite.) Maybe they didn't make it a bird because of the lack of one in the show, but still it would have been a cool Easter egg for us who watched the movie a million times.
I just haven't seen much about it anywhere online and wonder what other people think about the scene.
submitted by Bumberryboo to InterviewWithTheVamp [link] [comments]
Personally I think a bird would have been much cooler and more symbolic.
In the movie, when Louis and Claudia are finally free from Lestat (after murdering him) they talk about what they wish to do with their pet bird. (A canary I believe.) They intend to release it before they leave just before the ghoulish Lestat shows up.
I think if they would have had a bird escaping Lestat's throat instead of a bat it would have been a decent nod to the og movie, and maybe a good symbolic symbol that even though they thought they had achieved freedom, Lestat was still there. Caging them much like the bird they intended to release. (Did they release it? No idea. Maybe Lestat ate it in spite.) Maybe they didn't make it a bird because of the lack of one in the show, but still it would have been a cool Easter egg for us who watched the movie a million times.
I just haven't seen much about it anywhere online and wonder what other people think about the scene.
2024.05.18 20:09 picto Blank screen after KDE login (Sharing my issue and solution)
I had been trying to get past an issue for what seemed like forever and I finally found what the problem was, so I wanted to share my experience in hopes that it might help other users.
The initial catalyst to this was my desktop environment completely freezing and becoming totally unresponsive (not even able to access another tty session). After rebooting, first the fedora loading screen starts acting strangely and refusing to start. This was pretty simple to get past just by removing rhgb from the kernel boot parameters and running fsck (which is what it was complaining about).
Once I was past this, a reboot got me to the graphical login screen. Only now, once I logged in, the screen went completely blank. I was however able to get to another session on tty4 so I could start looking around. What I kept seening via journalctl -xb -r was that there was an initial crash with xdg-desktop-portal followed by a crash with maliit-keyboard. After that almost being started for the session crashed or errored. This is what I would see first https://pastebin.com/iQV4N1sQ. Getting a backtrace via gdb got me this https://pastebin.com/05Qj1YEU.
I searched for reports of similar behavior but couldn't find anything. Next I started uninstalling or disabling things to get the system to a more "minimal" startup, but none of that worked. I realized then I had done all this in haste without first installing debugging symbols so gdb would actually be useful. After that, then the problem was staring me right in the face: https://pastebin.com/x8tD44Db
Specificaly this error message: "No GSettings schemas are installed on the system". That seemed odd to me because checking dnf list installed said I had gsettings-desktop-schemas already installed. I search around for this error message and find a few mentions of running glib-compile-schemas could help but more importantly, it is looking for schemas in $XDG_DATA_DIRS.
I glanced in my ~/.zshenv file and saw I had added this because I was trying to setup flatpak so I could install spotify (which I discovered didn't have an arm compatible build):
export XDG_DATA_DIRS=${XDG_DATA_DIRS}:/valib/flatpak/exports/share:${HOME}/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share
Here's what went wrong: I uninstalled flatpak, but still had this line in my ~/.zshenv file. When I checked what $XDG_DATA_DIRS was set to in my tty4 session, it was only those two directories. I commented out that line, rebooted, and boom working system again.
I checked the value in my terminal now that I was back in KDE and it showed what I would have expected to see: /usshare/kde-settings/kde-profile/default/share:/uslocal/share:/usshare
So, not sure exactly where those things collided with one another, but that's the issue I ran into and how I got past it and back to my working system. Hopefully it might help someone that finds themself in a similar predicament..
submitted by picto to AsahiLinux [link] [comments]
The initial catalyst to this was my desktop environment completely freezing and becoming totally unresponsive (not even able to access another tty session). After rebooting, first the fedora loading screen starts acting strangely and refusing to start. This was pretty simple to get past just by removing rhgb from the kernel boot parameters and running fsck (which is what it was complaining about).
Once I was past this, a reboot got me to the graphical login screen. Only now, once I logged in, the screen went completely blank. I was however able to get to another session on tty4 so I could start looking around. What I kept seening via journalctl -xb -r was that there was an initial crash with xdg-desktop-portal followed by a crash with maliit-keyboard. After that almost being started for the session crashed or errored. This is what I would see first https://pastebin.com/iQV4N1sQ. Getting a backtrace via gdb got me this https://pastebin.com/05Qj1YEU.
I searched for reports of similar behavior but couldn't find anything. Next I started uninstalling or disabling things to get the system to a more "minimal" startup, but none of that worked. I realized then I had done all this in haste without first installing debugging symbols so gdb would actually be useful. After that, then the problem was staring me right in the face: https://pastebin.com/x8tD44Db
Specificaly this error message: "No GSettings schemas are installed on the system". That seemed odd to me because checking dnf list installed said I had gsettings-desktop-schemas already installed. I search around for this error message and find a few mentions of running glib-compile-schemas could help but more importantly, it is looking for schemas in $XDG_DATA_DIRS.
I glanced in my ~/.zshenv file and saw I had added this because I was trying to setup flatpak so I could install spotify (which I discovered didn't have an arm compatible build):
export XDG_DATA_DIRS=${XDG_DATA_DIRS}:/valib/flatpak/exports/share:${HOME}/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share
Here's what went wrong: I uninstalled flatpak, but still had this line in my ~/.zshenv file. When I checked what $XDG_DATA_DIRS was set to in my tty4 session, it was only those two directories. I commented out that line, rebooted, and boom working system again.
I checked the value in my terminal now that I was back in KDE and it showed what I would have expected to see: /usshare/kde-settings/kde-profile/default/share:/uslocal/share:/usshare
So, not sure exactly where those things collided with one another, but that's the issue I ran into and how I got past it and back to my working system. Hopefully it might help someone that finds themself in a similar predicament..
2024.05.18 18:25 Mr_G30 Harry Dresden Soulgaze headcannon
I've always held the idea that Harrys soulgaze would be someone standing in a grave yard, looking at a battered and bloodied Harry. His revolver spent and discarded, his staff snapped, blasting wand ashes and his shield bracelet molten slag on his arm.
He's stood amongst corpses, bones and graves and behind him are huddled shadowed mass of frightened people. Harry is in a last desperate stand is facing against numerous Harrys.
One Harry lays decayed on the ground in a designer suit and immaculate haircut (this is the Harry who could have taken up with Marcone), another Harry is scorched and smoking with the corpse halfway through ripping out of its skin and emerging as a monstrous bat like creature (this is the Harry that could have been turned by the Reds), another Harry is impaled on a silver sword and his immaculate white cloak is stained red with blood (this is the potential Warden of the Council he could have been).
One Harry is behind the rest a glowing pair of eyes above his own and an hourglass symbol above that (Harry can still call on Lasciel at anytime), observing the bones of the dead is a Harry dressed all in black and surrounded by necromantic energy (Harry could perform the darkhallow and become a god of death). The remaining two are stood side by side and are pressing the attack. One is dressed all in white (the white court Harry) and the other dressed in artic blue with frost on his arms and a hunger in his eyes (The Winter knight version of Harry).
To me I love the idea that this soul gaze evolved as time went on. The various paths Harry could have taken trying to claim his soul as he stands a last bastion against the innocents of the world as he stands amongst the fallen friends and lovers.
It would explain Molly saying he's lonely and her awe of him and why he earns respect from people like Michael and I can imagine his mother speaking to Thomas in this battlefield
submitted by Mr_G30 to dresdenfiles [link] [comments]
He's stood amongst corpses, bones and graves and behind him are huddled shadowed mass of frightened people. Harry is in a last desperate stand is facing against numerous Harrys.
One Harry lays decayed on the ground in a designer suit and immaculate haircut (this is the Harry who could have taken up with Marcone), another Harry is scorched and smoking with the corpse halfway through ripping out of its skin and emerging as a monstrous bat like creature (this is the Harry that could have been turned by the Reds), another Harry is impaled on a silver sword and his immaculate white cloak is stained red with blood (this is the potential Warden of the Council he could have been).
One Harry is behind the rest a glowing pair of eyes above his own and an hourglass symbol above that (Harry can still call on Lasciel at anytime), observing the bones of the dead is a Harry dressed all in black and surrounded by necromantic energy (Harry could perform the darkhallow and become a god of death). The remaining two are stood side by side and are pressing the attack. One is dressed all in white (the white court Harry) and the other dressed in artic blue with frost on his arms and a hunger in his eyes (The Winter knight version of Harry).
To me I love the idea that this soul gaze evolved as time went on. The various paths Harry could have taken trying to claim his soul as he stands a last bastion against the innocents of the world as he stands amongst the fallen friends and lovers.
It would explain Molly saying he's lonely and her awe of him and why he earns respect from people like Michael and I can imagine his mother speaking to Thomas in this battlefield
2024.05.18 15:34 MetrognomeAK Mayflash f500 flat button replacement
 | I recently bought and received the new Mayflash f500 flat and when straight ahead into customizing it for myself. I’ve never owned an arcade stick/leverless with full sized buttons before, but the idea of finding buttons I liked sounded appealing. submitted by MetrognomeAK to fightsticks [link] [comments] Currently featured on the box are seimitsu alutimos (all of the transparent buttons), stock mayflash buttons (solid purple/violet), and the crown 202 buttons (solid yellow). I’m a big fan of this box sized leverless for under $100. Seems solidly built with room for customization between the buttons and the ability to add your own art underneath the clear panel. FYI, I heard focus attack is in the process of adding templates to print art for this controller so that will be very accessible. Main things that I don’t like off the bat are the position of the R3 button and the button quality in general but that’s personal preference. If you flatten your finger to press Y and B together, you may accidentally press R3. Might be a bad habit for me anyway so idk if it matters. For the stock buttons, I just think they don’t feel good on bottom out and springing back. I’d say they feel a little dull. It’s not really that bad and for the price I wouldn’t change a thing in for button choice since it gives people freedom to pick what they want after purchase. Comparing the seimitsus alutimos and the crowns, I like them both. Crowns feel light and lively while the seimitsus feel like they have a little bit of heft to the press while also sitting a little higher. I’m guessing this has to do with the travel distance during the button press since both button types have silver Mx switches inside. Crowns feel faster but the alutimos feel more premium and slightly weighty. I have no reference comparison to buttons outside of these so take what I’ve written with that in mind. I’m currently contemplating how I want to finalize my button choices since I like them both. I plan on experimenting with replacing the switches with spares that I have from a keyboard build I did a while back and I might lube the sides of the button top for the alutimos. It seemed like there’s a little bit of scratchiness that can go away but idk if it’s from the switch or button. If I stick to the stock silvers, I’ll lube the switch housings and springs to help with ping noise. I might do similar with the crowns. |
2024.05.18 13:57 SomeNamedRedditUser Someone please help me my keyboard is being weird and I have no idea what to do
So i use an external keyboard no my windows 11 laptop to play games beacuse I just find it more better to play with. I was using it one day and whenever I press the a letter the euro symbol comes up (€) and opens the windows menu. I've tried re-installing the drivers and everything but nothing works. Please help.
submitted by SomeNamedRedditUser to keyboardhelp [link] [comments]
2024.05.18 09:28 Academic-Eye-1226 Two keyboards, different languages
Programming on a non-English keyboard is absolutely ridiculous, since all the common programming symbols require shift-altgr-combinations. So when creating a non-English interface, you're constantly spamming the switch-language function.
About 2-3 years ago, I found an old forum post about a workaround using two programs. Autohotkey, and one other program. I don't remember the name of the second program, and haven't been able to find the thread again.
The second program was something thrown together by a single guy. It works by "intercepting keystrokes before the keystrokes are actually interpreted by windows", and turning each keystroke made on your 2nd keyboard into some really obscure character which isn't supported in most windows programs.
Then, you use AHK to re-map each of those obscure characters into the characters you want. Just write a macro triggered by each given keystroke, to generate the correct character as an emulated keystroke.
So if you press the Danish Ø key on keyboard 2, windows WOULD have interpreted this as : when your input language is set to English. But instead, this key press gets turned into [insert random character] before being interpreted by windows. When AHK detects [insert random character] being pressed, this triggers a macro to generate an emulated Ø key press.
Does anyone know about that second re-mapping program?
-----
https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?style=7&t=6563
https://web.archive.org/web/20150608092136/http://ahkscript.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5953
It was exactly what these two threads were trying to do, but the thread did end up being 100% successful. God, I wish I hadn't crashed my old hard drive & lost that info.
I did find one other workaround, https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20994/Using-multiple-keyboards-with-different-layouts-on. This program, however, works by switching between languages after the fact.
This means that:
1) The first keystroke is always wrong.
2) It doesn't work in some situations such as when using console windows.
submitted by Academic-Eye-1226 to windows [link] [comments]
About 2-3 years ago, I found an old forum post about a workaround using two programs. Autohotkey, and one other program. I don't remember the name of the second program, and haven't been able to find the thread again.
The second program was something thrown together by a single guy. It works by "intercepting keystrokes before the keystrokes are actually interpreted by windows", and turning each keystroke made on your 2nd keyboard into some really obscure character which isn't supported in most windows programs.
Then, you use AHK to re-map each of those obscure characters into the characters you want. Just write a macro triggered by each given keystroke, to generate the correct character as an emulated keystroke.
So if you press the Danish Ø key on keyboard 2, windows WOULD have interpreted this as : when your input language is set to English. But instead, this key press gets turned into [insert random character] before being interpreted by windows. When AHK detects [insert random character] being pressed, this triggers a macro to generate an emulated Ø key press.
Does anyone know about that second re-mapping program?
-----
https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?style=7&t=6563
https://web.archive.org/web/20150608092136/http://ahkscript.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5953
It was exactly what these two threads were trying to do, but the thread did end up being 100% successful. God, I wish I hadn't crashed my old hard drive & lost that info.
This means that:
1) The first keystroke is always wrong.
2) It doesn't work in some situations such as when using console windows.
2024.05.18 07:36 Taylors3000 [Opinion] Initial thoughts on 5th Edition
Long post ahead! While I’m aware we haven’t seen everything yet, I wanted to share my thoughts on what we have seen, as well as my hopes for what has yet to be revealed.
Characters-
Right off the bat it’s sad seeing two characters cut from the game, but this is somewhat rectified upon seeing the quality of the minis this go-around. 4th edition’s minis left a lot to be desired, and while I can’t judge them fully until I see them in person, 5th edition seems to have vastly improved them. What disappoints me more is seeing the lineup being taken straight from 4th edition. While I expected some veterans to return, I was also hoping to see some different faces, either being brand new or ones only featured in previous expansions. To expound on this point, the character stats and abilities are virtually identical to 4th edition. I don’t expect a game like this to ever be “balanced”, but as a player I was hoping to see the characters get different abilities to make this edition feel fresh. As it stands, you could just use your 4th edition character cards and play just fine, which I suppose could be considered a good or bad thing depending on who you ask.
Toads-
The nerf to the toad has me feeling mixed. I feel that it’s a case of overcorrecting from an overreaction. Toadification was an infamously punishing mechanic, so much so that it shaped part of Talisman’s identity. Ask anyone who’s ever played a single game of Talisman what they remember about the game, and almost all will say the Toad. And that’s because it’s brutal! That being said, I was in agreement it was *too* punishing, and could use some tweeks. This game made 2 changes to the mechanic (Lasting only 1 turn, and not losing your objects and followers), but I feel that only one of these should have been chosen. Having both basically makes the toad a slightly more annoying “lose a turn”.
If I were to personally balance the toad, I would do the following:
-The toad still lasts 3 turns
-You don’t lose any followers
-You lose all your objects and gold, BUT if you have a mule it can carry 4 objects for you
-If you defeat any creature or character in combat, the curse immediately breaks
The Board-
Honestly I have nothing negative to say about the board design. The art looks great, and the information is displayed eloquently. I love how drawing cards and rolling dice is represented by symbols instead of text. The Ferryman offering rides to the middle region is a great addition, and helps make gold more useful. No longer being enslaved at the temple is an okay change, though I feel they should have just nerfed it to “Lose 1 turn” instead, as outright removing it loses some of the charm the space had. I’m quite sad that the Warlock deck hasn’t made a return, as I was hopeful it would become a staple. The vanilla Warlock’s cave is just begging to be replaced.
The Ending-
Changing the ending to a boss fight is something I’m indifferent towards. My only gripe is that it doesn’t seem the crown of command is in the game as an alternate ending. Actually one of my hopes with this game would be it included a few endings right from the start, without the need to buy expansions or print them out. But as for the ending we have, I hope the dragon has a bit more depth than just a standard Talisman enemy.
The Adventure cards-
There’s a lot to unpack here. On the one hand, I appreciate the cards being full-sized now. But on the other hand, their designs seem kinda dull. Something about the white backgrounds just makes the cards feel cheap looking by default. And having the illustration be regulated to a window on the card defeats the purpose of having bigger cards in the first place. Talisman has always had wonderful illustrations for their card art, but they were so small they couldn’t be fully appreciated. While technically bigger now, they add further insult by slapping the card name ON the illustration. It really feels like one step forward, two steps back. And God do I *detest* the placement of the encounter numbers. They were in the bottom corner for a reason, so you can stack them in an orderly fashion while clearly seeing what was coming next. Now if you did the same thing they’d take up a ton of space while also looking atrocious. Horrible design choice.
And that’s just the card designs. I’m quite sad to see that keywords aren’t making a return (I’m talking words like “Trinket” or “Cursed”). 4th edition was more than just the base game, and I was hopeful that more design elements from the expansions would be incorporated into the base game. For example the bandit being a “Monster” as opposed to an “Outlaw” seems so unnecessary. We also haven’t seen a single non-base edition adventure card yet. I’m left wondering if there’s anything in the deck that wasn’t in base 4th edition.
Talismans-
I’m pretty happy with the changes to Talismans here. I always thought Talismans would be a good fit to be trinkets, seeing as they were represented as necklaces in artwork. I do wish like with the adventure cards they were *called* trinkets. Not being able to drop them is an interesting twist though. I can’t think of a gameplay reason they would impose such a rule, perhaps a balancing quirk in the playtesting? But I was hopeful that they would have taken notes from the Cataclysm expansion and added abilities to them.
The components-
-Seeing toads regulated to cardboard is quite sad, but I feel it falls in line with the drop in characters. To keep the price down (In this economy) sacrifices need to be made. It doesn’t bother me since I have my 4th edition toads to use, but I totally understand this being a sticking point for players who don’t have them.
-I can’t be sure, but it *seems* like fate tokens are divided into different dark and light chips. And every player in the promo picture opted for dark fate. It makes me wonder if this is actually dark/light fate, or a new mechanic.
-Alliance cards are tokens now, and have a convenient place on the character card. I like this change a lot, but I’m also hoping the back of these tokens have neutral alignment (And there’ll be ways to actually turn neutral in base game).
-Tee-pee stat tokens are back, which is a bit of a bummer since I was hoping they would have upgraded to stat wheels like most modern games.
Final thoughts-
If you read all of the above, you can probably tell that I was hoping that a 5th edition of Talisman would learn from all the expansions 4th edition added. While I never expected things like corner boards or NPC pieces, I was hoping for easy-to-implement changes like alternate endings, keywords, better enemy classifications, warlock cards, a day-night card, etc. Instead it feels like the expansions were outright ignored during the entire design process. If it wasn’t in base game, it's not here. I’m curious if that was a decision by Avalon Hill, or Games Workshop. I’m sure there will be those who’d prefer the game stick as close to 4th edition as possible, but for me this game feels like it’ll be edition 4.5 as opposed to 5th. I still plan on getting it and already preordered it. And as a big house-rule and homebrew fan, most of the things I complained about can easily be tweaked and altered to my liking. In the end, I’m just happy Talisman is returning!
submitted by Taylors3000 to Talisman [link] [comments]
Characters-
Right off the bat it’s sad seeing two characters cut from the game, but this is somewhat rectified upon seeing the quality of the minis this go-around. 4th edition’s minis left a lot to be desired, and while I can’t judge them fully until I see them in person, 5th edition seems to have vastly improved them. What disappoints me more is seeing the lineup being taken straight from 4th edition. While I expected some veterans to return, I was also hoping to see some different faces, either being brand new or ones only featured in previous expansions. To expound on this point, the character stats and abilities are virtually identical to 4th edition. I don’t expect a game like this to ever be “balanced”, but as a player I was hoping to see the characters get different abilities to make this edition feel fresh. As it stands, you could just use your 4th edition character cards and play just fine, which I suppose could be considered a good or bad thing depending on who you ask.
Toads-
The nerf to the toad has me feeling mixed. I feel that it’s a case of overcorrecting from an overreaction. Toadification was an infamously punishing mechanic, so much so that it shaped part of Talisman’s identity. Ask anyone who’s ever played a single game of Talisman what they remember about the game, and almost all will say the Toad. And that’s because it’s brutal! That being said, I was in agreement it was *too* punishing, and could use some tweeks. This game made 2 changes to the mechanic (Lasting only 1 turn, and not losing your objects and followers), but I feel that only one of these should have been chosen. Having both basically makes the toad a slightly more annoying “lose a turn”.
If I were to personally balance the toad, I would do the following:
-The toad still lasts 3 turns
-You don’t lose any followers
-You lose all your objects and gold, BUT if you have a mule it can carry 4 objects for you
-If you defeat any creature or character in combat, the curse immediately breaks
The Board-
Honestly I have nothing negative to say about the board design. The art looks great, and the information is displayed eloquently. I love how drawing cards and rolling dice is represented by symbols instead of text. The Ferryman offering rides to the middle region is a great addition, and helps make gold more useful. No longer being enslaved at the temple is an okay change, though I feel they should have just nerfed it to “Lose 1 turn” instead, as outright removing it loses some of the charm the space had. I’m quite sad that the Warlock deck hasn’t made a return, as I was hopeful it would become a staple. The vanilla Warlock’s cave is just begging to be replaced.
The Ending-
Changing the ending to a boss fight is something I’m indifferent towards. My only gripe is that it doesn’t seem the crown of command is in the game as an alternate ending. Actually one of my hopes with this game would be it included a few endings right from the start, without the need to buy expansions or print them out. But as for the ending we have, I hope the dragon has a bit more depth than just a standard Talisman enemy.
The Adventure cards-
There’s a lot to unpack here. On the one hand, I appreciate the cards being full-sized now. But on the other hand, their designs seem kinda dull. Something about the white backgrounds just makes the cards feel cheap looking by default. And having the illustration be regulated to a window on the card defeats the purpose of having bigger cards in the first place. Talisman has always had wonderful illustrations for their card art, but they were so small they couldn’t be fully appreciated. While technically bigger now, they add further insult by slapping the card name ON the illustration. It really feels like one step forward, two steps back. And God do I *detest* the placement of the encounter numbers. They were in the bottom corner for a reason, so you can stack them in an orderly fashion while clearly seeing what was coming next. Now if you did the same thing they’d take up a ton of space while also looking atrocious. Horrible design choice.
And that’s just the card designs. I’m quite sad to see that keywords aren’t making a return (I’m talking words like “Trinket” or “Cursed”). 4th edition was more than just the base game, and I was hopeful that more design elements from the expansions would be incorporated into the base game. For example the bandit being a “Monster” as opposed to an “Outlaw” seems so unnecessary. We also haven’t seen a single non-base edition adventure card yet. I’m left wondering if there’s anything in the deck that wasn’t in base 4th edition.
Talismans-
I’m pretty happy with the changes to Talismans here. I always thought Talismans would be a good fit to be trinkets, seeing as they were represented as necklaces in artwork. I do wish like with the adventure cards they were *called* trinkets. Not being able to drop them is an interesting twist though. I can’t think of a gameplay reason they would impose such a rule, perhaps a balancing quirk in the playtesting? But I was hopeful that they would have taken notes from the Cataclysm expansion and added abilities to them.
The components-
-Seeing toads regulated to cardboard is quite sad, but I feel it falls in line with the drop in characters. To keep the price down (In this economy) sacrifices need to be made. It doesn’t bother me since I have my 4th edition toads to use, but I totally understand this being a sticking point for players who don’t have them.
-I can’t be sure, but it *seems* like fate tokens are divided into different dark and light chips. And every player in the promo picture opted for dark fate. It makes me wonder if this is actually dark/light fate, or a new mechanic.
-Alliance cards are tokens now, and have a convenient place on the character card. I like this change a lot, but I’m also hoping the back of these tokens have neutral alignment (And there’ll be ways to actually turn neutral in base game).
-Tee-pee stat tokens are back, which is a bit of a bummer since I was hoping they would have upgraded to stat wheels like most modern games.
Final thoughts-
If you read all of the above, you can probably tell that I was hoping that a 5th edition of Talisman would learn from all the expansions 4th edition added. While I never expected things like corner boards or NPC pieces, I was hoping for easy-to-implement changes like alternate endings, keywords, better enemy classifications, warlock cards, a day-night card, etc. Instead it feels like the expansions were outright ignored during the entire design process. If it wasn’t in base game, it's not here. I’m curious if that was a decision by Avalon Hill, or Games Workshop. I’m sure there will be those who’d prefer the game stick as close to 4th edition as possible, but for me this game feels like it’ll be edition 4.5 as opposed to 5th. I still plan on getting it and already preordered it. And as a big house-rule and homebrew fan, most of the things I complained about can easily be tweaked and altered to my liking. In the end, I’m just happy Talisman is returning!
2024.05.18 04:26 Slime0 Animal Well hints-before-solutions non-spoilery Puzzle Guide
Animal Well hints-before-solutions non-spoilery Puzzle Guide
This is a non-spoilery guide to Animal Well that will give you hints first, and only full solutions if you reveal them. Click the leftmost spoilers first! This is intended for players who know they have a puzzle in front of them, but don't know how to solve it, or if they're supposed to solve it yet. It doesn't contain every puzzle in the game, and in particular it does not cover much of the early game stuff, or the super late game stuff that isn't even obvious there's a puzzle there, but hopefully it will grow to include the ones most people feel a need to ask about.
If you just want a walkthrough and don't mind spoilers, try A traveler's guide to Animal Well. I also recommend that guide if you're having trouble in the early game, or if you're trying to find the last egg or two, but don't scroll down farther than you need to if you want to avoid spoilers.
Before consulting this guide, especially if you have already seen the credits, you may want to check your map for any gaps in the walls, floors, or ceilings. Even a single pixel gap may mean you have missed an entrance. Disabling the scanline effect in the options menu can help find the gaps.
Each puzzle is categorized into:
submitted by Slime0 to animalWell [link] [comments]
This is a non-spoilery guide to Animal Well that will give you hints first, and only full solutions if you reveal them. Click the leftmost spoilers first! This is intended for players who know they have a puzzle in front of them, but don't know how to solve it, or if they're supposed to solve it yet. It doesn't contain every puzzle in the game, and in particular it does not cover much of the early game stuff, or the super late game stuff that isn't even obvious there's a puzzle there, but hopefully it will grow to include the ones most people feel a need to ask about.
If you just want a walkthrough and don't mind spoilers, try A traveler's guide to Animal Well. I also recommend that guide if you're having trouble in the early game, or if you're trying to find the last egg or two, but don't scroll down farther than you need to if you want to avoid spoilers.
Before consulting this guide, especially if you have already seen the credits, you may want to check your map for any gaps in the walls, floors, or ceilings. Even a single pixel gap may mean you have missed an entrance. Disabling the scanline effect in the options menu can help find the gaps.
Each puzzle is categorized into:
- Required: These puzzles are required to complete the game
- Optional: These puzzles are not required to complete the game, but they are not unreasonably difficult
- Late Game: These puzzles are not worth bothering with until you've seen the credits and completed most of the optional puzzles
- Obscure: These puzzles are not even worth your time until you have done everything else, and only super completionists will want to bother with them
What's up with the bunny on the grass balcony near the starting area? (Late Game)
You can only reach this bunny from the room on the left. Reaching it is easier with a post-credits item. Use the disc and/or bubble wand to pass by the two large storks (3 rooms to the left of the bunny) and then use the bubble wand (the end game version of the bubble wand is easier) to go through the secret passage in the upper right of the room with the treasure chest. Use the bubble wand to pass through the spike room. The bunny can be "collected", but there is nothing to do with it now.How do I get the disc from the angry ghost dog statue? (Also kind of looks like a ghost cat) (Required)
You can't defeat the ghost dog. You need a special item. This requires finding an item elsewhere that you can swap with the disc. The "mock disc" can be found by navigating the underground maze in the room one right and one up from the statue. To get there, you must first go far left from the statue.How do I press all of the buttons in the room with the caged cats? (Required)
Experiment with the Yo-Yo in the room to the right of the caged cats. The Yo-Yo can be used to press the buttons in that room without going all the way down to them, and it can also be used on the animal in the wheel to make the moving walls switch directions. This wheel controls the left-or-right moving vertical walls, unlike the previous wheel you've encountered which controls the up-or-down moving platforms (elevator). In the room to the left of the caged cats, you need the vertically moving platforms to be going up. With the moving walls moving to the right, enter the room to the left of the caged cats. This should lead you to a fish pipe that takes you back up to the top of the purple palace area. From here, after exploding out the wall on the left, another fish pipe enables you to return to the caged cats area regardless of which way the vertically moving platforms are going. Use the Yo-Yo on the animal running in the wheel (just to the right of where the first fish pipe spit you out) to make the vertical platforms move down, then take the fish pipe on the left. You will have to jump to the left along the moving walls to return to the cat cage room. Use the room to the right of the cat cage room to make the moving walls move to the left again. Now reaching the button should be easy.What's up with the large fish splashing in the lower left room (fast travel area)? (Optional, but worth solving early)
The fish is a puzzle that is related to the item you used to reach this area. Listen to the noises the fish makes. Look at the directions the fish is facing as it splashes. The fish is trying to teach you a song. Note: when playing songs, press the item button to bring out the flute, but then release it. Hold a direction with the D-Pad first, and then tap the item button to play a single note, and release it before changing the direction for the next note. The song is... ➡➡⬅⬅⬇⬇⬆⬆ and will teleport you to the fast travel room.What is the "M. Disc Shrine" for? (Required)
You have already seen an item in the game with a name similar to "M. Disc". The item is the "Mock Disc", and you likely left it in the angry ghost dog statue (5 rooms down, 2 left). You must retrieve the Mock Disc and bring it to the M. Disc shrine. After picking up the Mock Disc, you can use fast travel (if you've learned it) to quickly get to the dog head fast travel point, or you can simply go to the right 2 rooms, up 3 (you opened the path here with the dynamite, right?), left 5, and up 1. Either way, you must then go from the dog head fast travel room 2 rooms to the right, and then either up and right or right and up (I find up then right to be easier by taking the top path), Right again, fall down the middle hole to flip the switch, up the ladder and to the right into the shrine. After placing the mock disc, the nearby door should open.How do I get into the room just right of the M. Disc Shrine? (Optional)
You need the platforms (elevator) with the dog picture on them to be moving up instead of down. This requires a late game item. Look for an alcove along the shaft that the platforms pass by that has no other purpose. You must use an item in that room, 4 rooms down from the top of the map. Use the Remote in that room; it should explode out the wall on the left. The Yo-Yo can be used to make the dog running in the wheel change directions, which will make the platforms go up. Ride the platforms to the top.What do I do about the vampire bat? (Optional)
The bat isn't the key to any kind of puzzle, but he can be scared away. Throw 3 firecrackers (one at at time) to scare away the bat. There are 3 firecrackers in the room to the left, which is helpful.How do I free the caged cats? (Late Game)
The solution is hidden around this quadrant of the map. Take note of the ceiling boxes the cages hang from. These boxes respond to your flute. Each of the 5 cats requires a song to free, which can be found by searching this general area of the map. Look carefully for arrows on the background in secret spots around the purple palace. Using a light can help see them. For reference, the purple palace area has a phone just within its entrance, where you first encounter the moving platforms (elevator). The songs can be found at: (1) the location the Ostrich was found running in his wheel, (2) The small secret alcove accessible to the left of the room two rooms above the phone (it has a window into an unrelated room with bright ghosts moving up and down in a VVV shape), (3) A small hidden room in the upper left of the room below the phone (requires using an item that can dig one room to the left), (4) In the upper left of the room just above the phone (which contains the animal in the wheel). This can be reached from the room on the left, if you have the ability to reach the top of the room. It is possible to reach it with the normal bubble wand, but easier to do it with the end-game bubble wand., (5) In the lower-right most room that contained the flame. Notice how one of the platforms looks different from the others. Use the Slink on the right of the room to activate a button in the water. This lets you reach a hidden alcove at the top of the room. (General tips) Here is a map showing the locations (from the "travelers guide to animal well"): https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104091245968/4A81213ED4CCCE1BAFFB36B970BA2AD76C1D9457/ Near each song there are symbols in the wall that correspond to symbols above the cat cages, indicating where each song is used.How do I get the treasure chest in the cage in the room with the large pacing ghost cat? (Late Game)
The solution to this puzzle is not in this room, but it is in the general lower right area of the map. The solution involves music, but you don't play the music in this room. Where else have you seen cages like the one the treasure chest is in? You must first free the 5 cats from their hanging cages. Then return to the treasure chest and the large cat will open it for you. See "How do I free the caged cats?" (above).Where do I play the song I found in the background of the purple palace Ostrich area? (Optional)
Try using your flute in different rooms around the purple palace and see if you can find anything that responds to it. See "How do I free the caged cats? (above)How do I get the treasure chest in the small room filled with spikes near the lower right of the map? (Optional)
This is only possible once you have gotten the treasure chest in the nearby room with the large pacing ghost cat (see above). That chest should give you the Wheel item. You can use it to roll over spikes.What do I do with the mostly flat slightly concave U-shaped objects on the ground? (Late Game)
You need a special item to interact with these objects. See "How do I get the treasure chest in the cage in the room with the large pacing ghost cat?" (above)After defeating the Ostrich boss in the lower right of the map, the blocks don't move anymore. Can I still get the treasure chest in the room to the left? (Late Game)
Yes, and if you don't know how, don't worry about it for now. See "What do I do with the mostly flat slightly concave U-shaped objects on the ground?" (above).What do I do with the "recessed circle" pedestals? (Optional)
Each of these requires a separate circular item. None of them are related in any way to the disc or mock disc. (1) The one with the snake statue in the starting area requires the S medal, which can be found in the upper right quadrant of the map behind one of the spots where the large chameleon was first found. (2) The one two rooms to the right of the Sea Horse flame requires The E medal, which first requires lighting every candle in the map (there are 9), and then returning to the room to the left of the game's starting room and entering the fish pipe that should appear. Here are the candle and match locations (from the "travelers guide to animal well"): https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104090950184/C23385F72C001C2B66C7D4C8D53E0EB2DEC06814/ (3) The one with the kangaroo statue in the upper left of the map requires the K medal, which the kangaroo holds. The kangaroo appears randomly in 5 rooms throughout the map. You must use firecrackers on it 3 times. Here are the kangaroo locations (from the "travelers guide to animal well"): https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104091166441/AB982FD6D9A81A76CE7BBED17850085A870E31B0/ . As far as I know, the kangaroo only appears randomly, so you must travel to these locations over and over.What's up with the grid of lights in the room just to the left of the game's starting room? (Optional)
The lights in this 3x3 grid light up as you accomplish a certain task throughout the world. Each light corresponds to a lit candle. Light all 9 candles in the world to open a secret passage. Here are the candle and match locations (from the "travelers guide to animal well"): https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104090950184/C23385F72C001C2B66C7D4C8D53E0EB2DEC06814/What's up with the small scattered statues that have symbols and dice numbers on them? (Optional)
Each of these contains a map icon and a number. Mark them on your map (including the numbers) and the solution may become clear. After marking them on your map, you must connect the dots. Each symbol is a separate connect-the-dots puzzle, connected in order of the numbers. Once connected, each symbol should make the shape of a number. The numbers correspond to flute notes. Play the song to teleport to a secret.How do I reach the room to the left of the dark room that is only accessible via fish pipe? (Obscure)
The community does not (yet?) know how to access that room, except by cheating. Sorry, this sentence isn't helpful either.How do I get the treasure chest in the room with the two dog statues and the grass? (Obscure)
This room requires using information outside the game. The grass is the key. Does the grass remind you of anything you might find in the real world, not at all related to the game? The grass is a bar code. Scanning it reveals... the numbers 18756753. Play the corresponding notes on the flute.How do I get into the secret in the top right of the room with the 3 dogs in the pit? (Late Game)
You need to switch the solid/empty block state and get between the two columns of switchable blocks while the ones on the left are solid and the ones on the right are not. The block state cannot be switched from within this room. You need a sort of teleportation mechanic to pull this off, so that you can switch the block state in a different room and then return to this location. You have probably already used the teleportation mechanic! You might even have been annoyed or frustrated by it. Falling into water teleports you to the last location you touched the ground. You can use the bubble wand and/or disc to move around without touching the ground. Yes, this is a rather difficult platforming challenge. You must stand between the columns, find a way to a room that can allow you to switch the block states, and then fall into water somewhere, all without touching the ground. There are at least two approaches to this that can work. One of them takes advantage of the fact that standing on a switchable block does not count as standing on the ground. Tip: shooting the bubble wand downward during a jump, landing on the bubble and jumping again, with good timing, can enable you to slowly move upward when there is a lack of horizontal space to work with. The easiest way to do this that I found is to use the (end-game version of the) bubble wand to go to the left 2 rooms, then up 2 rooms, in which the Remote can be used to switch the block state, then return down 1 room and to the right 1 room and fall into the water. However, another approach involves going to the right with the disc and standing on some of the switchable blocks. (I used the Lantern while falling into the water to avoid taking damage from the ghost faces, but I'm not sure that's required.) The Top can be used to distract the dogs, giving you more room to work with.What can I do with the bunny mural? (Obscure)
Try using the Remote in the picture room. Also try using the Top in the revealed area. This should reveal a hint in the room below. However, it is not enough information to solve the puzzle. You need the help of other players to solve this puzzle. Every player gets a different hint. You can use https://philippgitpush.github.io/bunnymuralhelpe to pretend you worked with other players and solve the puzzle yourself. The solution is visible at https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104091456782/FF73FD9F5F41B3F772F44029A8E5221D943803AC/ (from "the travelers guide to Animal Well")What do I do with the groundhog that retreats into his hole when I approach? (Obscure)
You can only interact with this animal at certain times. Specifically, only at a certain day of the year, depending on your system clock. The day is... groundhog day. See https://techraptor.net/gaming/guides/animal-well-groundhog-double-health-guide for more information.How do I get the treasure chest behind the pile of skulls? (Obscure)
The skulls cannot be removed. However, the treasure chest doesn't contain any important item or even an egg or one of the end-game collectables. What do skulls represent in real life? Each skull represents one of your deaths. Start a new game and reach this room without dying to open the chest. The chest contains a figurine that will display in the house area.How do I get into (and through) the room in the upper left of the map? (Optional)
Look for nearby holes in the walls and ceilings on your map. There is an exit at the top of the room with the two swordfish statues (right one from the room with the staircase into the water). You can reach that hole with the bubble wand, but I recommend learning how to reach it with the disc instead. It is possible to throw and land on a disc in a single jump without bouncing the disc off a wall. By raising the block in the staircase room (by using the Slink on the staircase), you can get the height you need to jump and land on a disc, bringing you to the swordfish statue room high enough to enter the hole at the top. The upper left room requires using this same trick. Jump and land on a disc to go through the first row of spikes. For the second row, you must do this twice without landing. Wait for the wall bounce before attempting the second jump.What do I do with the eggs once I've found them all? (Late Game)
You should have 64 eggs. Use the UV Lamp on the eggs and on the room you found the flute in (2 rooms to the left). Each line on an egg represents a 1 (top), 2 (middle), or 4 (bottom). Add the numbers together for each egg. The numbers correspond to flute notes. This reveals a song. The eggs with no lines correspond to an 8 (↗). The song may not work at first. Consider the types of eggs that were collected. Some are special in ways that are relevant to this puzzle. There is one egg in particular, in the first half of the song, that is visually different from the others in a meaningful way. There is an upside-down egg. (Third from the left, second row.) Reverse the first and last lines on the upside-down egg. The final song is: ↖⬇➡⬇↖⬇➡⬇↖↙ ↘↙↖↙↘↙↗ ⬅⬇⬅↗⬅ ⬇⬅⬆⬅↘⬅⬆ ⬅↘⬅↖⬇➡⬇ ↖⬇➡⬇↖↙↘ ↙↖↙↘↙↖↗ ↖↙↗⬆⬅⬇⬆ ↖↙⬅⬆↖⬅↖. Playing it in the egg room should open a secret. There is also a 65th egg that you may have found, which is not relevant here.How do I open the door in the top of the house? (Late Game)
First, solve all of the "Optional" puzzles. This door requires finding every egg. See "What do I do with the eggs" (above).What is the incubator for? (Late Game)
First, solve all of the "Optional" puzzles. Find all of the eggs. Then, you can retrieve a 65th egg from the egg room. Bring it here.What are the face icons in the skull room for? (Optional)
The direction of each face from the center of the circle corresponds to a flute note. The upper-right most room in the map contains a list of faces, as well as an image which is a hint as to where to use the song. The image is a classical illusion that appears to either be a duck or a bunny, depending on how you look at it. Play the song by the duck near the center of the map (just right of the flame beacons) to turn it into a secret bunny. The faces also appear in a special end-game room... when you use the Remote on the TV. Playing the song corresponding to these faces also reveals a secret bunny. The faces also appear on an enemy in one place...What is the large spinning torus / donut for? (Late Game)
You can't do anything in this room until you have solved almost all of the puzzles in the game. Save it for last. However, you might want to try the UV light in this room for an unrelated secret. After completing the incubator room puzzle, you will reach an alternate area with another torus that teleports you to this one and back.What is the large clock for? (Late Game)
You can't really do anything with the clock unless the doors are already open. Try using the UV lamp on the clock. If you beat the game within a certain number of minutes on a new save file, the doors will open. They contain... figurines that will display in the house.What does the stop watch do? (Late Game)
The stop watch merely enables the clock on the pause menu.What's up with the egg-shaped game machine? (Late Game)
You can jump into this machine from the top. It shows you how much distance you have traveled. If your distance traveled is low enough, there are fewer walls in the way, enabling access to the treasure chests. The treasure chests do not contain items that you need. The treasures are figurines that display in the house. At 100,000 steps, the number resets to 0, enabling you to get the treasures.What's up with the kangaroo? (Optional)
The kangaroo appears randomly in 5 rooms throughout the map. It can be scared away, which will give you a reward. Use firecrackers on it. Here are the kangaroo locations (from the "travelers guide to animal well"): https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2521530104091166441/AB982FD6D9A81A76CE7BBED17850085A870E31B0/ . Using firecrackers on it 3 times will give you the "K medal", which can be used... in the room to the left of the vampire bat room.How do I defeat the fish boss with the skeleton body? (Optional)
Study the fish's attacks carefully. The fish does the same attacks in a certain order. The attack directions correspond to flute notes. The song is ↖⬇↙⬅↙↗↖. Play the song and then... Enter its mouth.2024.05.18 01:29 Le0nThotsky Yet another TTW crash (Fast Travel Edition)
Breaking news my fellow redditors!
I did a stupid
I come to present my load order and crash log for help figuring out where i went wrong on my modlist. Unfortunately for myself, I am a dumbass and somewhere along the line after adding a plethora more mods after working off the Begin Again list, suddenly i can no longer fast travel outside of D.C interior zones as I instead get fast traveled over to my desktop screen. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be presented with a big black.....texture before TTW crashes.
Here's my load order, go ahead point and laugh and tell me how I completely messed up my load order so I can go cry in the corner about it for 5 minutes then fix the problem. Unlike my irl preferences, please point out any red flags in the list so they can be avoided.
"0001","+","DLC: OldWorldBlues",""
"0002","+","DLC: MercenaryPack",""
"0003","+","DLC: LonesomeRoad",""
"0004","+","DLC: HonestHearts",""
"0005","+","DLC: GunRunnersArsenal",""
"0006","+","DLC: DeadMoney",""
"0007","+","DLC: ClassicPack",""
"0008","+","DLC: CaravanPack",""
"0009","+","Tale of Two Wastelands",""
"0010","+","JIP LN NVSE Plugin","57.21.0.0"
"0011","+","JohnnyGuitar NVSE","f5.04d"
"0012","+","lStewieAl's Engine Optimizations","1.0.0.0"
"0013","+","lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes","9.15.0.0"
"0014","+","lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes INI","2.1.0.0"
"0015","+","ROOGNVSE Plugin","3.3.2.0"
"0016","+","NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix","10.2.2.3b"
"0017","+","New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod - NVMIM","1.10.0.0"
"0018","+","UIO - User Interface Organizer","2.30.0.0"
"0019","+","The Mod Configuration Menu","1.5.0.0"
"0020","+","kNVSE Animation Plugin","20.0.0.0"
"0021","+","ShowOff xNVSE Plugin","1.75.0.0"
"0022","+","ShowOff xNVSE Plugin INI","--"
"0023","+","FOV Slider","2.9.0.0"
"0024","+","ISControl Enabler and Ironsights adjuster (now ESPless)","2.3.0.0"
"0025","+","JAM - Just Assorted Mods","4.4.0.0"
"0026","+","JAM or Just Sprint animation replacers","1.1.0.0"
"0027","+","Hit's Anims - Season 1","1.4.0.0"
"0028","+","Hit's Anims - Season 1 cowboy","1.0.0.0"
"0029","+","Hit's Anims - Season 2","1.3.0.0"
"0030","+","Hit's Anims - Season 3","1.0.0.0b"
"0031","+","Hit's Anims - Animation Fixes","14.0.0.0"
"0032","+","B42 Weapon Inertia","1.2.0.0"
"0033","+","B42 Quickthrow - an alternative grenade hotkey mod","3.1.0.0b"
"0034","+","B42 Melee Bash","0.6.0.0b"
"0035","+","B42 Inspect - aka Animated Ammo and Weapon Condition Checking","f1.02"
"0036","+","B42 Descriptions aka Pip-Info","0.3.0.0"
"0037","+","Pip-Boy 2000 Mk VI","0.9.0.0"
"0038","+","Different PipBoy Animations","2.0.0.0"
"0039","+","Consistent Spread - Firearms Accuracy and Wobble Fix","1.3.0.0"
"0040","+","Butcher Pete Complete - A Melee Animation Overhaul","1.0.0.0"
"0041","+","SIGMA - Katana animations - kNVSE","1.1.0.0"
"0042","+","SIGMA - Baseball bat and Golf club animations - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0043","+","SIGMA - Melee animation overhaul - Chapter 1 - kNVSE","1.2.0.0"
"0044","+","SIGMA - Spear animations - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0045","+","SIGMA - Greatsword anim set - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0046","+","SIGMA - Shishkebab anim set - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0047","+","SIGMA - Sledgehammer anim set - kNVSE","1.1.0.0"
"0048","+","Different Ballistic Fist Animations","1.0.0.0"
"0049","+","Different PowerFist Animations Xolerys kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0050","+","Blended Locomotion","1.2.0.0"
"0051","+","WAP Year One and Bonus","2.3.0.0"
"0052","+","WAP AR Series Replacer","1.3.0.0"
"0053","+","WAP AR Series Replacer 1","1.5.0.0"
"0054","+","ETJ Animations All Cowboy Repeaters","1.0.0.0"
"0055","+","ETJ Animations Anti Materiel Rifle","1.0.0.0"
"0056","+","ETJ Animation's Riot Shotgun","1.0.0.0"
"0057","+","ETJ Animation's 45 PISTOL","1.3.0.0"
"0058","+","ETJ Animation's That Gun 5.56","1.3.0.0"
"0059","+","ETJ Miniguns","1.0.0.0"
"0060","+","ETJ Animation's Hunting Shotgun (2 Versions)","1.0.0.0"
"0061","+","ETJ Animations Caravan Shotguns","1.0.0.0"
"0062","+","ETJ Animation's BAR Automatic Rifle","1.0.0.0"
"0063","+","ETJ Animation's 45 SMG","1.0.0.0"
"0064","+","ETJ USAS - 12","1.1.0.0"
"0065","+","Different Fatman Animations Xolerys kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0066","+","FNV Clean Animations - Missile Launcher","1.0.0.0"
"0067","+","FNV Clean Animations - Rock-It Launcher","1.0.0.0"
"0068","+","FNV Clean Animations - Incinerator","1.0.0.0"
"0069","+","FNV Clean Animations - Recharging Weapons Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0070","+","Ani_MP5 kNVSE Set","1.1.0.0"
"0071","+","Supplementary Weapons Pack","1.3.0.0"
"0072","+","Supplementary Weapons Pack1","1.0.0.0"
"0073","+","NVRA - AutoMag","1.5.0.0"
"0074","+","Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered","1.9.2.0"
"0075","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas","1.0.0.0"
"0076","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas2","1.0.0.0"
"0077","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegaschair","1.0.0.0"
"0078","+","water tower","1.1.0.0"
"0079","+","patch","1.1.0.0"
"0080","+","Nut Vegas - Landscapes","1.0.1.0"
"0081","+","Climate Control NVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0082","+","Desert Natural Weathers - NV - TTW","7.7.0.0"
"0083","+","Presets for DDOPP","1.1.0.0"
"0084","+","Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul","1.2.0.0"
"0085","+","Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul - TTW Patch","1.2.0.0"
"0086","+","111777's Silent Player Voice","0.1.0.0"
"0087","+","Project Reality Footsteps","2.1.0.0"
"0088","+","High Resolution Screens","1.1.0.0"
"0089","+","Frozen 3rd Person Masculine Movement","f1.02"
"0090","+","Frozen 3rd Person Feminine Movement","f1.02"
"0091","+","360 Movement","1.2.0.0"
"0092","+","Diagonal movement","0.6.0.0b"
"0093","+","NV Compatibility Skeleton","13.0.0.0"
"0094","+","Rebuild the Capital","2.35.0.0"
"0095","+","Helmet Overlay","1.10.0.0"
"0096","+","Big Town Extensions","f5.04"
"0097","+","Another Millenia1","TTW1.4"
"0098","+","TTW 3.3 Lone Courier's Dialogue","2.0.0.0"
"0099","+","IMPACT","2.0.0.0"
"0100","+","IMPACT - Compatibility Edition (JIP LN) (DLC - TTW - All Mods)","f2.03"
"0101","+","Fallout NV Cheat Terminal Redux","1.87.0.0"
"0102","+","Canvas Backpacks - FNV - TTW","2.0.0.0"
"0103","+","B42 Dropmag and One in the chamber","1.2.0.0b"
"0104","+","Classic weapons","1.0.0.0"
"0105","+","AM dropmag patch","1.1.0.0"
"0106","+","TTW - Mothership Zeta Rehaul","3.5.0.0"
"0107","+","TTW - Complete Player Home Upgrades","2.0.0.0"
"0108","+","TTW The Regulators","1.6.0.0"
"0109","+","Smooth True Iron Sights Camera","2.0.0.0"
"0110","+","EVE - Essential Visual Enhancements","1.19.0.0"
"0111","+","aMidianBorn NV Book Of Water","omni2"
"0112","+","BLEED TTW","1.8.7.0"
"0113","+","Player Dialogue Improvements","6.0.0.0"
"0114","+","(TTW) D.E.R.P. - Dialogue Expansion for Role-Players","1.1.0.0"
"0115","+","Weapon Mods Expanded - WMX","1.1.4.0"
"0116","+","Weapon Mods Expanded - WMX1","1.1.4.0"
"0117","+","WMX (Weapon Mods Expanded) - TTW Patch (Unofficial)","1.1.0.0"
"0118","+","WMX - Moddable FO3 Uniques for TTW","1.1.0.0"
"0119","+","Another Millenia","2.4.7.0"
"0120","+","TTW - Mothership Zeta Rewards","1.0.0.0"
"0121","+","The Pittsburgh Expansion Project - TTW Port","1.0.0.0"
"0122","+","TTW Collectibles - The Pitt","4.0.0.0"
"0123","+","WMVM - Weapon Mod Vending Machine","3.3.1.0"
"0124","+","I Need Glove (Fist Me Baby One More Time)","2.0.0.0"
"0125","+","Armed to the Teeth - Redux","2.3.0.0"
"0126","+","Armed to the Teeth - Redux1","1.0.0.0"
"0127","+","JIP Localized Damage Fix","1.0.0.0"
"0128","+","Simple Power Armor HUD","2.1.3.0"
"0129","+","Wasteland Soldier - NV Edition","1.0.0.0"
"0130","+","Wasteland Soldier Redux NV","1.1.0.0"
"0131","+","Tammer","d2024.5.17.0"
"0132","+","Roberts Male Body FNV","3.4.0.0"
"0133","+","Roberts Male Body FNV1","3.3.0.0"
"0134","+","Roberts Male Body FNV2","3.3.0.0"
"0135","+","Roberts Male Body FNV3","3.4.0.0"
"0136","+","Roberts Male Body FNV4","3.3.0.0"
"0137","+","Roberts Male Body FNV5","3.3.0.0"
"0138","+","Type3 Body and Armor replacer","2.1.0.0"
"0139","+","Spice of Life - Variety Armor and Clothing Robert Breeze Type3","1.2.0.0"
"0140","+","Deus Specs",".1"
"0141","+","The BLACKJACK pack - Tons of armors for VANILLA bodys","d2024.5.17.0"
"0142","+","DogTooth Enclave Officer","1.0.0.0"
"0143","+","Unique Troublemaker Outfit-Nightstalker Set","1.2.0.0"
"0144","+","Classic Fallout Metal Armor","1.0.5.0"
"0145","+","Classic Fallout 2 Metal armor Mk II","1.3.0.0"
"0146","+","Classic Fallout 2 combat armor Mark 2 (remastered)","1.0.0.3"
"0147","+","Veronica Outfit Replacer","1.0.0.0"
"0148","+","Classic Combat Armor Replacer Redux","1.1.0.0"
"0149","+","Classic Replacers for TTW","1.1.0.0"
"0150","+","Classic Combat Armor Replacer Combined (TTW)","1.2.1.0"
"0151","+","Tribal Power Helmet - Definitive Edition","1.0.0.0"
"0152","+","Ballistic Skull Mask","2.0.0.0"
"0153","+","Courier Duster Replacer","f2.00"
"0154","+","GP-5 Gasmask","1.0.0.0"
"0155","+","NCR Commando","1.0.0.0"
"0156","+","The Lone Wanderer - TTW and NV","1.2.0.0"
"0157","+","Waster Gear - TTW - FNV","1.0.0.0"
"0158","+","Petal Gasmask","1.4.0.0"
"0159","+","DVA - Distributed Variety Armors - Hats Headgears Accessories","1.1.1.0"
"0160","+","Classic Fallout Tesla armor","1.0.17.0"
"0161","+","Arsthetiu's Armoire - A Nif-Bashed Armour Collection","2.34.0.0"
"0162","+","Fallout The Odyssey Mega Armor Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0163","+","Fallout Revelation Blues Mega Armor Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0164","+","Searchlight Firefighter Outfit","1.0.0.0"
"0165","+","Mercenary Wanderer",".1.01"
"0166","+","Classic Tesla Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0167","+","Fallout Tactics Brotherhood Metal Armor Integration","1.1.0.0"
"0168","+","KORs Pistol Harness","1.1.0.0"
"0169","+","Geonox Riot Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0170","+","Geonox Riot Armor - Female Version -","1.1.0.0"
"0171","+","Wasteland Seeker Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0172","+","Altyn Helmet - Retro Tactical Headgear","1.0.2.0"
"0173","+","AKIRAMORI Tactical Gloves","1.1.0.0"
"0174","+","WW2 M1 Helmets","209.0.0.0"
"0175","+","WW2 M1 Helmets1","2.0.0.0dot1"
"0176","+","WW2 M1 Helmets2","d2024.5.17.0"
"0177","+","Metal Armor MkI","1.4.0.0"
"0178","+","Psycho Armor and Mask","2.0.0.0"
"0179","+","The Road Warrior Armor","1.0.0.0"
"0180","+","Wasteland Stealth Armor NV","1.0.0.0"
"0181","+","Bone Harvester - Tribal Cannibal","1.3.0.0"
"0182","+","Modern Gunslinger Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0183","+","Salvaged Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0184","+","yUI - User Ynterface","1.4.0.0d"
"0185","+","ySI - Sorting Ycons","1.4.0.0b"
"0186","+","Classic Leather Armor Replacer for Leather Armor1","1.0.0.0"
"0187","+","Classic Leather Armor Replacer for Leather Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0188","+","Power Armor Visual Enhancement (PAVE)","2.1.0.0"
"0189","+","STARS TTW - Sweet's Total Armor Rework System","2.22.0.0"
"0190","+","STARS TTW and ySI Patch","2.2.0.0"
"0191","+","AVCCA - Animated Visor for Classic Combat Armor","1.1.0.0b"
"0192","+","Book of Steel - Compatibility Edition","2.1.0.0"
"0193","+","PipBoyOn Node Fixes","1.2.0.0"
"0194","+","Titans of The New West","2.1.35.0a"
"0195","+","(TTW) Benny Humbles You","f1.05"
"0196","+","(Benny Humbles You) and Steals Your Stuff","12.43.0.0"
"0197","+","STARS TTW - Sweet's Total Armor Rework System1","1.0.0.0"
"0198","+","Uncut Wasteland","1.0.0.0"
"0199","+","Uncut Wasteland1","1.0.0.0"
"0200","+","very's patch hell","1.0.0.0"
"0201","+","Cyberware 2281","d2024.5.17.0"
"0202","+","Cyberware 2281 TTW 3.3 Patch","d2024.5.17.0"
"0203","+","Cyberware 2281 - B42 Quickthrow 3.1b Patch","d2024.5.17.0"
"0204","+","Yvile's Crash Logger","4.5.4.0"
And here's the crash log
Exception C0000005 caught!
Thread: [FNV] Main
Calltrace:
Cannot load DbgHelp.dll, error: 0x00000000
Error initializing symbol store
0x0019F314 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E8C00D) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x0019F34C ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E768DA) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x0019F370 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E8EFD8) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x00000000 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E722C6) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
Registry:
REG VALUE DEREFERENCE INFO
eax 0x00000000
ebp 0x34001AB8 0x010EE70C ==> Class: NiDX9ShaderDeclaration
ebx 0x00000000
ecx 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
edi 0x000BC250
edx 0x00000000
eip 0x00E8C00D
esi 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
esp 0x0019F2FC
Stack:
# VALUE DEREFERENCE INFO
0 0x000BC250
1 0x0019F314
2 0x00000000
3 0x00000000
4 0x00000000
5 0x144E9E20
6 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
7 0x00E768DA
8 0x00000000
C 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
D 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
1F 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
28 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
29 0x49003960 0x010B8980 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
2A 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
2D 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
39 0x34001AB8 0x010EE70C ==> Class: NiDX9ShaderDeclaration
3C 0x49003960 0x010B8980 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
3E 0x25821FA4 0x010BCC90 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
40 0x25821FA4 0x010BCC90 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
49 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
4A 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
51 0x3F184AA0 0x010B7DC8 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
69 0x3F184AA0 0x010B7DC8 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
72 0x4602C480 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
7B 0x4602C480 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
83 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
84 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
8A 0x430F8000 0x010A8F90 ==> Class: BSFadeNode: Name: "RockCanyon06", 0A05C115 (), Baseform 0A0464C3 (RockCanyon06rad70)
8C 0x4004D000 0x010C1D14 ==> Class: BSMultiBoundNode: failed to format
8F 0x4604EB40 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
90 0x4604EB40 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
94 0x1E7A7AF0 0x0102F55C ==> Class: TESObjectREFR: 0A05C115 (), Baseform 0A0464C3 (RockCanyon06rad70)
98 0x4004D000 0x010C1D14 ==> Class: BSMultiBoundNode: failed to format
BD 0x1A49CA34 0x010870AC ==> Class: Creature: 0A0C5D3F (), Baseform 0A01CFA2 (CrBrahminDC)
C5 0x45020CC0 0x010BD44C ==> Class: NiParticleSystem: Name: "pSparks"
F0 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
F3 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
F7 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
FA 0x4302F2D0 0x010A8F90 ==> Class: BSFadeNode: failed to format
FB 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
FE 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
Memory:
MinimumWorkingSetSize: 200.00 KB
MaximumWorkingSetSize: 1.35 MB
PeakWorkingSetSize: 2.93 GB
WorkingSetSize: 2.93 GB
QuotaPeakPagedPoolUsage: 1.15 MB
QuotaPagedPoolUsage: 989.79 KB
QuotaPeakNonPagedPoolUsage: 944.85 KB
QuotaNonPagedPoolUsage: 164.85 KB
PageFaultCount: 1.34 MB
PagefileUsage: 3.03 GB
PeakPagefileUsage: 3.03 GB
Module bases:
UNABLE TO IDENTIFY MODULE CONTAINING THE CRASH ADDRESS.
This can occur if the crashing instruction is located in the vanilla address space, but it can also occur if there are too many
DLLs for us to list, and if the crash occurred in one of their address spaces. Please note that even if the crash occurred
in vanilla code, that does not necessarily mean that it is a vanilla problem. The vanilla code may have been supplied bad data
or program state as the result of an issue in a loaded DLL.
If you've read this far ahead because you're actually taking time out of your day to help out this idiot who barely knows anything about compatibility and mod conflicts, t h a n k s m a n !
submitted by Le0nThotsky to Taleoftwowastelands [link] [comments]
I did a stupid
I come to present my load order and crash log for help figuring out where i went wrong on my modlist. Unfortunately for myself, I am a dumbass and somewhere along the line after adding a plethora more mods after working off the Begin Again list, suddenly i can no longer fast travel outside of D.C interior zones as I instead get fast traveled over to my desktop screen. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be presented with a big black.....texture before TTW crashes.
Here's my load order, go ahead point and laugh and tell me how I completely messed up my load order so I can go cry in the corner about it for 5 minutes then fix the problem. Unlike my irl preferences, please point out any red flags in the list so they can be avoided.
Mod_Priority,#Mod_Status,#Mod_Name,#Mod_Version
"0000","+","DLC: TribalPack","""0001","+","DLC: OldWorldBlues",""
"0002","+","DLC: MercenaryPack",""
"0003","+","DLC: LonesomeRoad",""
"0004","+","DLC: HonestHearts",""
"0005","+","DLC: GunRunnersArsenal",""
"0006","+","DLC: DeadMoney",""
"0007","+","DLC: ClassicPack",""
"0008","+","DLC: CaravanPack",""
"0009","+","Tale of Two Wastelands",""
"0010","+","JIP LN NVSE Plugin","57.21.0.0"
"0011","+","JohnnyGuitar NVSE","f5.04d"
"0012","+","lStewieAl's Engine Optimizations","1.0.0.0"
"0013","+","lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes","9.15.0.0"
"0014","+","lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes INI","2.1.0.0"
"0015","+","ROOGNVSE Plugin","3.3.2.0"
"0016","+","NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix","10.2.2.3b"
"0017","+","New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod - NVMIM","1.10.0.0"
"0018","+","UIO - User Interface Organizer","2.30.0.0"
"0019","+","The Mod Configuration Menu","1.5.0.0"
"0020","+","kNVSE Animation Plugin","20.0.0.0"
"0021","+","ShowOff xNVSE Plugin","1.75.0.0"
"0022","+","ShowOff xNVSE Plugin INI","--"
"0023","+","FOV Slider","2.9.0.0"
"0024","+","ISControl Enabler and Ironsights adjuster (now ESPless)","2.3.0.0"
"0025","+","JAM - Just Assorted Mods","4.4.0.0"
"0026","+","JAM or Just Sprint animation replacers","1.1.0.0"
"0027","+","Hit's Anims - Season 1","1.4.0.0"
"0028","+","Hit's Anims - Season 1 cowboy","1.0.0.0"
"0029","+","Hit's Anims - Season 2","1.3.0.0"
"0030","+","Hit's Anims - Season 3","1.0.0.0b"
"0031","+","Hit's Anims - Animation Fixes","14.0.0.0"
"0032","+","B42 Weapon Inertia","1.2.0.0"
"0033","+","B42 Quickthrow - an alternative grenade hotkey mod","3.1.0.0b"
"0034","+","B42 Melee Bash","0.6.0.0b"
"0035","+","B42 Inspect - aka Animated Ammo and Weapon Condition Checking","f1.02"
"0036","+","B42 Descriptions aka Pip-Info","0.3.0.0"
"0037","+","Pip-Boy 2000 Mk VI","0.9.0.0"
"0038","+","Different PipBoy Animations","2.0.0.0"
"0039","+","Consistent Spread - Firearms Accuracy and Wobble Fix","1.3.0.0"
"0040","+","Butcher Pete Complete - A Melee Animation Overhaul","1.0.0.0"
"0041","+","SIGMA - Katana animations - kNVSE","1.1.0.0"
"0042","+","SIGMA - Baseball bat and Golf club animations - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0043","+","SIGMA - Melee animation overhaul - Chapter 1 - kNVSE","1.2.0.0"
"0044","+","SIGMA - Spear animations - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0045","+","SIGMA - Greatsword anim set - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0046","+","SIGMA - Shishkebab anim set - kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0047","+","SIGMA - Sledgehammer anim set - kNVSE","1.1.0.0"
"0048","+","Different Ballistic Fist Animations","1.0.0.0"
"0049","+","Different PowerFist Animations Xolerys kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0050","+","Blended Locomotion","1.2.0.0"
"0051","+","WAP Year One and Bonus","2.3.0.0"
"0052","+","WAP AR Series Replacer","1.3.0.0"
"0053","+","WAP AR Series Replacer 1","1.5.0.0"
"0054","+","ETJ Animations All Cowboy Repeaters","1.0.0.0"
"0055","+","ETJ Animations Anti Materiel Rifle","1.0.0.0"
"0056","+","ETJ Animation's Riot Shotgun","1.0.0.0"
"0057","+","ETJ Animation's 45 PISTOL","1.3.0.0"
"0058","+","ETJ Animation's That Gun 5.56","1.3.0.0"
"0059","+","ETJ Miniguns","1.0.0.0"
"0060","+","ETJ Animation's Hunting Shotgun (2 Versions)","1.0.0.0"
"0061","+","ETJ Animations Caravan Shotguns","1.0.0.0"
"0062","+","ETJ Animation's BAR Automatic Rifle","1.0.0.0"
"0063","+","ETJ Animation's 45 SMG","1.0.0.0"
"0064","+","ETJ USAS - 12","1.1.0.0"
"0065","+","Different Fatman Animations Xolerys kNVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0066","+","FNV Clean Animations - Missile Launcher","1.0.0.0"
"0067","+","FNV Clean Animations - Rock-It Launcher","1.0.0.0"
"0068","+","FNV Clean Animations - Incinerator","1.0.0.0"
"0069","+","FNV Clean Animations - Recharging Weapons Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0070","+","Ani_MP5 kNVSE Set","1.1.0.0"
"0071","+","Supplementary Weapons Pack","1.3.0.0"
"0072","+","Supplementary Weapons Pack1","1.0.0.0"
"0073","+","NVRA - AutoMag","1.5.0.0"
"0074","+","Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered","1.9.2.0"
"0075","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas","1.0.0.0"
"0076","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas2","1.0.0.0"
"0077","+","NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegaschair","1.0.0.0"
"0078","+","water tower","1.1.0.0"
"0079","+","patch","1.1.0.0"
"0080","+","Nut Vegas - Landscapes","1.0.1.0"
"0081","+","Climate Control NVSE","1.0.0.0"
"0082","+","Desert Natural Weathers - NV - TTW","7.7.0.0"
"0083","+","Presets for DDOPP","1.1.0.0"
"0084","+","Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul","1.2.0.0"
"0085","+","Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul - TTW Patch","1.2.0.0"
"0086","+","111777's Silent Player Voice","0.1.0.0"
"0087","+","Project Reality Footsteps","2.1.0.0"
"0088","+","High Resolution Screens","1.1.0.0"
"0089","+","Frozen 3rd Person Masculine Movement","f1.02"
"0090","+","Frozen 3rd Person Feminine Movement","f1.02"
"0091","+","360 Movement","1.2.0.0"
"0092","+","Diagonal movement","0.6.0.0b"
"0093","+","NV Compatibility Skeleton","13.0.0.0"
"0094","+","Rebuild the Capital","2.35.0.0"
"0095","+","Helmet Overlay","1.10.0.0"
"0096","+","Big Town Extensions","f5.04"
"0097","+","Another Millenia1","TTW1.4"
"0098","+","TTW 3.3 Lone Courier's Dialogue","2.0.0.0"
"0099","+","IMPACT","2.0.0.0"
"0100","+","IMPACT - Compatibility Edition (JIP LN) (DLC - TTW - All Mods)","f2.03"
"0101","+","Fallout NV Cheat Terminal Redux","1.87.0.0"
"0102","+","Canvas Backpacks - FNV - TTW","2.0.0.0"
"0103","+","B42 Dropmag and One in the chamber","1.2.0.0b"
"0104","+","Classic weapons","1.0.0.0"
"0105","+","AM dropmag patch","1.1.0.0"
"0106","+","TTW - Mothership Zeta Rehaul","3.5.0.0"
"0107","+","TTW - Complete Player Home Upgrades","2.0.0.0"
"0108","+","TTW The Regulators","1.6.0.0"
"0109","+","Smooth True Iron Sights Camera","2.0.0.0"
"0110","+","EVE - Essential Visual Enhancements","1.19.0.0"
"0111","+","aMidianBorn NV Book Of Water","omni2"
"0112","+","BLEED TTW","1.8.7.0"
"0113","+","Player Dialogue Improvements","6.0.0.0"
"0114","+","(TTW) D.E.R.P. - Dialogue Expansion for Role-Players","1.1.0.0"
"0115","+","Weapon Mods Expanded - WMX","1.1.4.0"
"0116","+","Weapon Mods Expanded - WMX1","1.1.4.0"
"0117","+","WMX (Weapon Mods Expanded) - TTW Patch (Unofficial)","1.1.0.0"
"0118","+","WMX - Moddable FO3 Uniques for TTW","1.1.0.0"
"0119","+","Another Millenia","2.4.7.0"
"0120","+","TTW - Mothership Zeta Rewards","1.0.0.0"
"0121","+","The Pittsburgh Expansion Project - TTW Port","1.0.0.0"
"0122","+","TTW Collectibles - The Pitt","4.0.0.0"
"0123","+","WMVM - Weapon Mod Vending Machine","3.3.1.0"
"0124","+","I Need Glove (Fist Me Baby One More Time)","2.0.0.0"
"0125","+","Armed to the Teeth - Redux","2.3.0.0"
"0126","+","Armed to the Teeth - Redux1","1.0.0.0"
"0127","+","JIP Localized Damage Fix","1.0.0.0"
"0128","+","Simple Power Armor HUD","2.1.3.0"
"0129","+","Wasteland Soldier - NV Edition","1.0.0.0"
"0130","+","Wasteland Soldier Redux NV","1.1.0.0"
"0131","+","Tammer","d2024.5.17.0"
"0132","+","Roberts Male Body FNV","3.4.0.0"
"0133","+","Roberts Male Body FNV1","3.3.0.0"
"0134","+","Roberts Male Body FNV2","3.3.0.0"
"0135","+","Roberts Male Body FNV3","3.4.0.0"
"0136","+","Roberts Male Body FNV4","3.3.0.0"
"0137","+","Roberts Male Body FNV5","3.3.0.0"
"0138","+","Type3 Body and Armor replacer","2.1.0.0"
"0139","+","Spice of Life - Variety Armor and Clothing Robert Breeze Type3","1.2.0.0"
"0140","+","Deus Specs",".1"
"0141","+","The BLACKJACK pack - Tons of armors for VANILLA bodys","d2024.5.17.0"
"0142","+","DogTooth Enclave Officer","1.0.0.0"
"0143","+","Unique Troublemaker Outfit-Nightstalker Set","1.2.0.0"
"0144","+","Classic Fallout Metal Armor","1.0.5.0"
"0145","+","Classic Fallout 2 Metal armor Mk II","1.3.0.0"
"0146","+","Classic Fallout 2 combat armor Mark 2 (remastered)","1.0.0.3"
"0147","+","Veronica Outfit Replacer","1.0.0.0"
"0148","+","Classic Combat Armor Replacer Redux","1.1.0.0"
"0149","+","Classic Replacers for TTW","1.1.0.0"
"0150","+","Classic Combat Armor Replacer Combined (TTW)","1.2.1.0"
"0151","+","Tribal Power Helmet - Definitive Edition","1.0.0.0"
"0152","+","Ballistic Skull Mask","2.0.0.0"
"0153","+","Courier Duster Replacer","f2.00"
"0154","+","GP-5 Gasmask","1.0.0.0"
"0155","+","NCR Commando","1.0.0.0"
"0156","+","The Lone Wanderer - TTW and NV","1.2.0.0"
"0157","+","Waster Gear - TTW - FNV","1.0.0.0"
"0158","+","Petal Gasmask","1.4.0.0"
"0159","+","DVA - Distributed Variety Armors - Hats Headgears Accessories","1.1.1.0"
"0160","+","Classic Fallout Tesla armor","1.0.17.0"
"0161","+","Arsthetiu's Armoire - A Nif-Bashed Armour Collection","2.34.0.0"
"0162","+","Fallout The Odyssey Mega Armor Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0163","+","Fallout Revelation Blues Mega Armor Pack","1.0.0.0"
"0164","+","Searchlight Firefighter Outfit","1.0.0.0"
"0165","+","Mercenary Wanderer",".1.01"
"0166","+","Classic Tesla Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0167","+","Fallout Tactics Brotherhood Metal Armor Integration","1.1.0.0"
"0168","+","KORs Pistol Harness","1.1.0.0"
"0169","+","Geonox Riot Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0170","+","Geonox Riot Armor - Female Version -","1.1.0.0"
"0171","+","Wasteland Seeker Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0172","+","Altyn Helmet - Retro Tactical Headgear","1.0.2.0"
"0173","+","AKIRAMORI Tactical Gloves","1.1.0.0"
"0174","+","WW2 M1 Helmets","209.0.0.0"
"0175","+","WW2 M1 Helmets1","2.0.0.0dot1"
"0176","+","WW2 M1 Helmets2","d2024.5.17.0"
"0177","+","Metal Armor MkI","1.4.0.0"
"0178","+","Psycho Armor and Mask","2.0.0.0"
"0179","+","The Road Warrior Armor","1.0.0.0"
"0180","+","Wasteland Stealth Armor NV","1.0.0.0"
"0181","+","Bone Harvester - Tribal Cannibal","1.3.0.0"
"0182","+","Modern Gunslinger Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0183","+","Salvaged Armor","1.1.0.0"
"0184","+","yUI - User Ynterface","1.4.0.0d"
"0185","+","ySI - Sorting Ycons","1.4.0.0b"
"0186","+","Classic Leather Armor Replacer for Leather Armor1","1.0.0.0"
"0187","+","Classic Leather Armor Replacer for Leather Armor","1.2.0.0"
"0188","+","Power Armor Visual Enhancement (PAVE)","2.1.0.0"
"0189","+","STARS TTW - Sweet's Total Armor Rework System","2.22.0.0"
"0190","+","STARS TTW and ySI Patch","2.2.0.0"
"0191","+","AVCCA - Animated Visor for Classic Combat Armor","1.1.0.0b"
"0192","+","Book of Steel - Compatibility Edition","2.1.0.0"
"0193","+","PipBoyOn Node Fixes","1.2.0.0"
"0194","+","Titans of The New West","2.1.35.0a"
"0195","+","(TTW) Benny Humbles You","f1.05"
"0196","+","(Benny Humbles You) and Steals Your Stuff","12.43.0.0"
"0197","+","STARS TTW - Sweet's Total Armor Rework System1","1.0.0.0"
"0198","+","Uncut Wasteland","1.0.0.0"
"0199","+","Uncut Wasteland1","1.0.0.0"
"0200","+","very's patch hell","1.0.0.0"
"0201","+","Cyberware 2281","d2024.5.17.0"
"0202","+","Cyberware 2281 TTW 3.3 Patch","d2024.5.17.0"
"0203","+","Cyberware 2281 - B42 Quickthrow 3.1b Patch","d2024.5.17.0"
"0204","+","Yvile's Crash Logger","4.5.4.0"
And here's the crash log
Exception C0000005 caught!
Thread: [FNV] Main
Calltrace:
Cannot load DbgHelp.dll, error: 0x00000000
Error initializing symbol store
0x0019F314 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E8C00D) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x0019F34C ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E768DA) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x0019F370 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E8EFD8) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
0x00000000 ==> -\(°_o)/- (0x10E722C6) : (Corrupt stack or heap?)
Registry:
REG VALUE DEREFERENCE INFO
eax 0x00000000
ebp 0x34001AB8 0x010EE70C ==> Class: NiDX9ShaderDeclaration
ebx 0x00000000
ecx 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
edi 0x000BC250
edx 0x00000000
eip 0x00E8C00D
esi 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
esp 0x0019F2FC
Stack:
# VALUE DEREFERENCE INFO
0 0x000BC250
1 0x0019F314
2 0x00000000
3 0x00000000
4 0x00000000
5 0x144E9E20
6 0x44002600 0x010EFE94 ==> Class: NiDX9VertexBufferManager
7 0x00E768DA
8 0x00000000
C 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
D 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
1F 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
28 0x3A9F7720 0x0109FC54 ==> Class: NiTriStripsDynamicData
29 0x49003960 0x010B8980 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
2A 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
2D 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
39 0x34001AB8 0x010EE70C ==> Class: NiDX9ShaderDeclaration
3C 0x49003960 0x010B8980 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
3E 0x25821FA4 0x010BCC90 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
40 0x25821FA4 0x010BCC90 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
49 0x3AEF7600 0x010F017C ==> Class: NiGeometryBufferData
4A 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
51 0x3F184AA0 0x010B7DC8 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
69 0x3F184AA0 0x010B7DC8 ==> Class: , failed to get string for label
72 0x4602C480 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
7B 0x4602C480 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
83 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
84 0x1840FAC0 0x010EE4BC ==> Class: NiDX9Renderer
8A 0x430F8000 0x010A8F90 ==> Class: BSFadeNode: Name: "RockCanyon06", 0A05C115 (), Baseform 0A0464C3 (RockCanyon06rad70)
8C 0x4004D000 0x010C1D14 ==> Class: BSMultiBoundNode: failed to format
8F 0x4604EB40 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
90 0x4604EB40 0x0109CB9C ==> Class: NiCamera: failed to format
94 0x1E7A7AF0 0x0102F55C ==> Class: TESObjectREFR: 0A05C115 (), Baseform 0A0464C3 (RockCanyon06rad70)
98 0x4004D000 0x010C1D14 ==> Class: BSMultiBoundNode: failed to format
BD 0x1A49CA34 0x010870AC ==> Class: Creature: 0A0C5D3F (), Baseform 0A01CFA2 (CrBrahminDC)
C5 0x45020CC0 0x010BD44C ==> Class: NiParticleSystem: Name: "pSparks"
F0 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
F3 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
F7 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
FA 0x4302F2D0 0x010A8F90 ==> Class: BSFadeNode: failed to format
FB 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
FE 0x381802D0 0x01024F4C ==> Class: BGSPlaceableWater: FF0039E4 (PlaceableLODWater)
Memory:
MinimumWorkingSetSize: 200.00 KB
MaximumWorkingSetSize: 1.35 MB
PeakWorkingSetSize: 2.93 GB
WorkingSetSize: 2.93 GB
QuotaPeakPagedPoolUsage: 1.15 MB
QuotaPagedPoolUsage: 989.79 KB
QuotaPeakNonPagedPoolUsage: 944.85 KB
QuotaNonPagedPoolUsage: 164.85 KB
PageFaultCount: 1.34 MB
PagefileUsage: 3.03 GB
PeakPagefileUsage: 3.03 GB
Module bases:
UNABLE TO IDENTIFY MODULE CONTAINING THE CRASH ADDRESS.
This can occur if the crashing instruction is located in the vanilla address space, but it can also occur if there are too many
DLLs for us to list, and if the crash occurred in one of their address spaces. Please note that even if the crash occurred
in vanilla code, that does not necessarily mean that it is a vanilla problem. The vanilla code may have been supplied bad data
or program state as the result of an issue in a loaded DLL.
If you've read this far ahead because you're actually taking time out of your day to help out this idiot who barely knows anything about compatibility and mod conflicts, t h a n k s m a n !
2024.05.17 20:25 baltimore-aureole The public comment period for Biden's student loan forgiveness plan is ending. 63,000 people responded.
 | https://preview.redd.it/vfaj085w311d1.jpg?width=333&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3950fae5196d27e2c68b7fbb06bc5fdea44698a3 submitted by baltimore-aureole to economy [link] [comments] Photo above - Shaw University has the worst net return on tuition of any college in America (negative $121,000). But it has a dozen cheerleaders for its Division II basketball program, and a winning record! I have to admit, I didn't realize there WAS a public comment period for student loan forgiveness. You may not have either. Perhaps it was by invitation only. Are there other public comment programs taking place? The wars in Ukraine and Gaza? Fed funds rate hikes? The new tax on our 401Ks? Sheesh! I don't owe any student loans - that may be why I wasn't notified. My parents paid my tuition. I graduated with a dual major in English Lit and Cultural Anthropology. Stop laughing, this is really true. I had to teach myself basic survival skills in the real world. Debt collection. Telemarketing operations. Customer service scripts. How to communicate a change in terms to customers. Yeah . . . those aren't college majors. I know some people who took JAVA coding at college. They feel their degrees were pointless too, because nobody uses that anymore. They wish there'd been courses in videogame programming, like for Fallout. Back to student loans. The link below provides amusing insights into the 63,000 people who did make comments. Most of them are deeply in hock to Uncle Sam, of course. Right off the bat, 22,000 people insisted – in a joint petition – that they personally and immediately should have all their loans cancelled. Sweet ambition, but not exactly hard to predict. Let's focus on some of the more interesting situations. “Richard” borrowed $9,800 in 1989. He's 73 now, so that means he was 38 when he went to college, right? In any case, he owes $88,000 now. After 35 years. Apparently, he hasn't been making his minimum monthly payments. But I'm not going here to snark about his lack of diligence over 35 years. Rather, it's the student loan program itself that produces this result. You owe 1,000% more than when you started? WTH!!!! And these loan deals are still available, presumably. Some kid – or 38 year old – can take out a student loan today, end up in the same bottomless pit. How about reforming the actual student loan system before we sentence millions of new borrowers to 35 to - life? If there was a gas station on fire, certainly someone should show up with hoses and extinguishers. But you'd also stop delivering new tankers full of gasoline to the site while the inferno was still raging, right? Some commenters pointed out there was a disconnect between the AGE at which they got their loans (not just Mr. Richard, at 38) and an unrealistic assumption that they were on a midlife success path. I don't know what these middle-aged borrowers were studying. Cultural Anthropology like me? (I graduated at age 22). JAVA, to escape a life as a Starbucks barista? Medical coding, because you can work from home and care for your kids while doing something with a keyboard? More than half the republicans in congress don't want to cancel anything. 70% of democrats do want to cancel, typically everything. But if that's off the table, then at least $10,000. Which won't help 73-year-old Richard and his $88,000 cement overshoes. There's clearly no relationship between the course/degree you pick, and the amounts being loaned. Or the time left in the debtor's life to repay it. I'd be interested if ANYONE got turned down for anything. Colleges got ALL the money. Students got huge loan bills, but evidently not degrees that could give them a chance at repayment. Let's start with three ideas, since the gummint has asked for comments.
~Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan comment period is ending. Here’s what people are saying. (msn.com)~ |
2024.05.17 19:18 Zopfli Yoga Pro 9 16 thinks its in Tablet mode
Hey I got my Yoga Pro 9 16 today and just installed all the updates etc. and so far everything is fine except that it seems to think it’s a tablet? Like the taskbar is gigantic and always minimising to that little swipe indicator. Plus it always shows the touch keyboard symbol, despite the option being “show only when no keyboard attached” and it is attached. I now I can disable the taskbar behaviour. But it seems windows has a lot of little tablet optimisation and I would like to have those disabled generally given that I won’t use the Laptop as tablet ever, given it only opens 180 degrees anyway ^ Does anyone know how to do that with Windows 11?
submitted by Zopfli to Lenovo [link] [comments]
2024.05.17 19:10 LundgrensFrontKick In honor of Ryan Gosling’s long history of wearing cool jackets, I watched 26 of his films and figured out the percentage of time that they dedicate to Jacket Gosling (16.6% is the overall average). The 7%-12% (Notebook/Barbie/Half Nelson) and the 50%+ (Drive/Blade Runner 2049) ranges are ideal.
 | Ryan Gosling loves jackets. Between Drive, Blade Runner 2049, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl, The Nice Guys, and Barbie - he’s worn some iconic jackets in wildly different movies - and looked great in all of them. Between Gosling wearing five different jackets/coats/dusters in The Fall Guy (The Miami Vice jacket is an all-timer Gosling jacket) and Shea Serrano’s book about Gosling (A Real Human Being - It’s wonderful) I was inspired to rewatch his movies, pull the timestamps of all his jacket wearing and figure out if there is an ideal amount of Gosling jacket time. submitted by LundgrensFrontKick to movies [link] [comments] Quick Notes
Five Gosling Movies With the Least Amount of jacket wearing
40 - 49%
50% or more - Between Blade Runner 2049 (amazing jacket) and Drive (iconic jacket), both movies feature him wearing super cool jackets for long periods of time. To pull this off the jackets have to feel organic and become almost a character. The only caveat is that he needs to be mostly silent, mortally wounded (or stabbed real good), and alone at the end.
If its directed by an auteur the 50%+ range is cool. BUT, he’s able to showcase more range in Barbie, Half Nelson, The Notebook, and Blue Valentine. It’s because of this that I’ll go for the 7% to 12% range. Top five jackets
Make sure to check out my other Reddit data posts if you like this one! Also, if you're bored, I've covered many R-rated action films on The Movies, Films and Flix podcast (it's available wherever you listen to podcasts) Movies featuring snowmobile action scenes are way cooler than movies featuring jet ski action scenes Analyzing the unnecessarily large trap in Predators How old is MacGruber? In the scream franchise, less screams are better Who is the meanest person in Mean Girls? The Con Air seating chart Jacked Up - A Perfectly Bad Adam Sandler Film In Bloodsport, Chong-Li lost on purpose What is the most Fast & Furious film in the Fast & Furious franchise? How long did it take The Joker's henchmen to build the cash pyramid in The Dark Knight? Brad Pitt eating and box office numbers JCVD and his splits Encino Man and the Ice Chunk Movement How Far Did the Shark Travel in Jaws: The Revenge? Matthew McConaughey's massive jump in Reign of Fire People love cold Stallone How Far Does the Creature From It Follows Travel? People love a bearded Kurt Russell Tracking the Merman's Murderous Journey Michael Myers road trip in Halloween H20 Stellan Skarsgard's journey in Deep Blue Sea was gnarly How Fast Can Leatherface Run? Jet Ski Action Scenes Are the Worst A Breakdown of the Events Leading Up to Sam Jackson's Demise in Deep Blue Sea The Fast & Furious & Corona How Did the Geologist Get Lost in Prometheus? How Long Does it Take Horror Villains to Travel From NYC to San Francisco? Michael Myers Hates Using His Turn Signal Can Jason Voorhees teleport? How Long Did the Joker Need to Setup the Weapon Circle in Suicide Squad? How Much Time Did Batman Need to Setup the Bat Fire Symbol in The Dark Knight Rises? How Much Sand Did Elektra's Sandbag Trainer in Daredevil (2003) Require? Breaking down The Mariner vs. Sea Eater battle in Waterworld Analyzing the Posters for Nicholas Sparks' Book Adaptations How far Did Nic Cage Run Around in a Bear Suit in The Wicker Man Remake? How Many Bullets Missed John Matrix in Commando? How Much Blood Poured Out of the Sprinklers During the "Blood Rave" in Blade? Michael Myers Loves Doing Laundry Dolph Lundgren and His Front Kicks How Many Calories Did Shaggy and Scooby Doo Ingest When They Ate the Cotton Candy Glob? |
2024.05.17 14:59 Original-Loquat3788 The Peace Portal (500 Words) (Sci-Fi)
He did not have much, and everything he did have was from after he fled.
Sean, his boyfriend, sat up on the bed, and they both looked at the painting.
It was simple and probably too postmodern for anyone who didn’t understand the meaning.
The painting was a plane ticket, his plane ticket, a name and a bar code, which had saved his life.
Where he came from, men like him were thrown from rooftops.
‘It’ll be ok,’ Sean said, ‘It’s just a symbol.’
‘They said the same thing after the last arms deal, and how many did that symbol kill?’
He thought back to when the plane had taken off, and he’d breathed properly for the first time in his life.
…
It was called the Peace Portal, but essentially it was a tunnel through space-time.
Until then, the technology had only been used by the military, and it was a huge coup for his former government.
He had to see it in action, so he went down to Liberty Square.
The portal was a kind of membrane, like looking at your hand underwater.
The President stood on the stage and gave a speech about the collapse of borders and freedom permeating the hearts of all men.
And then, it was time for the ribbon cutting.
He shivered.
A disembodied hand came from the other side and, with a comically large pair of scissors, snipped.
At this, his former King walked through and shook hands with The President.
…
The first reports surfaced and were quickly labeled fake news by a vast army of disinformation bots.
His boyfriend grew weary of the constant suspicion, and it led to arguments.
‘Go on, say it! I’m paranoid.’
‘Not exactly paranoid, but I’m guarding my tinfoil more closely.' Sean replied.
He didn’t laugh. ‘You’ll never understand; you grew up here.' He gestured around their 14th-floor apartment. ‘Where I come from, if you’re not paranoid, you die.’
Sean kissed him on the forehead. ‘You’re safe now.’
…
It was 2.30 am when the doorbell rang.
He bolted upright.
Sean was in the living room pulling an all-nighter.
‘No!’
It was too late; Sean opened the door and was batted aside by men dressed all in black holding a list.
He had not spoken his native tongue for a long time and, in his shock, could only blurt out, ‘The roof?’
It would not be so bad, he thought, to die a liberated man.
‘The roof is too good for you, scum.’
He was put in a car and driven quickly through quiet streets.
At the last moment, they removed his hood.
‘We want you to see,’ his kidnapper said, ‘the end of your old life.’
The city lights twinkled around him, and in front was the watery membrane. Through it, the visage of the setting sun.
He went to scream, but it was swallowed up as he tumbled through the Peace Portal.
submitted by Original-Loquat3788 to originalloquat [link] [comments]
Sean, his boyfriend, sat up on the bed, and they both looked at the painting.
It was simple and probably too postmodern for anyone who didn’t understand the meaning.
The painting was a plane ticket, his plane ticket, a name and a bar code, which had saved his life.
Where he came from, men like him were thrown from rooftops.
‘It’ll be ok,’ Sean said, ‘It’s just a symbol.’
‘They said the same thing after the last arms deal, and how many did that symbol kill?’
He thought back to when the plane had taken off, and he’d breathed properly for the first time in his life.
…
It was called the Peace Portal, but essentially it was a tunnel through space-time.
Until then, the technology had only been used by the military, and it was a huge coup for his former government.
He had to see it in action, so he went down to Liberty Square.
The portal was a kind of membrane, like looking at your hand underwater.
The President stood on the stage and gave a speech about the collapse of borders and freedom permeating the hearts of all men.
And then, it was time for the ribbon cutting.
He shivered.
A disembodied hand came from the other side and, with a comically large pair of scissors, snipped.
At this, his former King walked through and shook hands with The President.
…
The first reports surfaced and were quickly labeled fake news by a vast army of disinformation bots.
His boyfriend grew weary of the constant suspicion, and it led to arguments.
‘Go on, say it! I’m paranoid.’
‘Not exactly paranoid, but I’m guarding my tinfoil more closely.' Sean replied.
He didn’t laugh. ‘You’ll never understand; you grew up here.' He gestured around their 14th-floor apartment. ‘Where I come from, if you’re not paranoid, you die.’
Sean kissed him on the forehead. ‘You’re safe now.’
…
It was 2.30 am when the doorbell rang.
He bolted upright.
Sean was in the living room pulling an all-nighter.
‘No!’
It was too late; Sean opened the door and was batted aside by men dressed all in black holding a list.
He had not spoken his native tongue for a long time and, in his shock, could only blurt out, ‘The roof?’
It would not be so bad, he thought, to die a liberated man.
‘The roof is too good for you, scum.’
He was put in a car and driven quickly through quiet streets.
At the last moment, they removed his hood.
‘We want you to see,’ his kidnapper said, ‘the end of your old life.’
The city lights twinkled around him, and in front was the watery membrane. Through it, the visage of the setting sun.
He went to scream, but it was swallowed up as he tumbled through the Peace Portal.
2024.05.17 12:13 Neener_Weiner New Kernel boot in Grub?
Hi friends, im a linux newbie who recently found home in Fedora 40 w/KDE. I've noticed something odd, it seems the system automatically installs new bleeding-edge Kernels (& without noticing me🤣). I saw this in the Grub menu, where suddenly there are more than the 2 boot options of fedora safeboot & the 6.~ kernel alongside win11, but now there are a couple more - 6.8 (i think) & 6.9. From reading some posts here, i learned that upgradibg kernel isnt always a good idea, and so I'd like to ask for your advice on how to fix that. Also, I wish to change the output of some keyboard keys. For example, [Right Control] key to input the section symbol "§". How to do that? I saw some different sources but they were rather complex and seemed like waaay too much for such a small tweak. Im optimistic that a simple terminal line with the ability to solve that matter probably exists, but maybe im wrong hahah.
Thanks in advance for your help, and im looking forward to reading your thoughts on these subjects. T.
submitted by Neener_Weiner to Fedora [link] [comments]
Thanks in advance for your help, and im looking forward to reading your thoughts on these subjects. T.
2024.05.17 08:24 redhatcc PC Gaming Macro Pad - What Options Are Out There?
I am flooded with information and links and products only to find out their a bit more than what I was looking for, or didn't solve the problem.
I am looking for a Macro pad (or similar) that I can use for online gaming (Helldivers 2) that is external to a keyboard or a mouse.
I remember some Macro pads like the World of Warcraft one from many years ago created additional keys instead of using the keyboards 1, 2, 3, Alt etc. This would be nice, but not a deal breaker.
What would really make my day and month is to find:
EDIT: Going with the Stream Deck XL for Helldivers 2. I will update how it goes.
submitted by redhatcc to macro_pads [link] [comments]
I am looking for a Macro pad (or similar) that I can use for online gaming (Helldivers 2) that is external to a keyboard or a mouse.
I remember some Macro pads like the World of Warcraft one from many years ago created additional keys instead of using the keyboards 1, 2, 3, Alt etc. This would be nice, but not a deal breaker.
What would really make my day and month is to find:
- External Macro Pad so I can bind hot keys (up, down, left, right, alt in a seq etc.)
- Can label the buttons with small symbols (not a deal breaker, but that would be so perfect).
- Can be wired or wireless.
- Price is not a factor.
EDIT: Going with the Stream Deck XL for Helldivers 2. I will update how it goes.
2024.05.17 07:49 Joshh170 Hades 2 Update Patch Notes Revealed
 | Hades 2 developer Supergiant Games released new patch notes for the game's first early access update, which fixes several issues. Community feedback was key for the release of the new Hades 2 update, since Supergiant Games was able to find and fix several issues with the help of avid players. submitted by Joshh170 to GameGeeks [link] [comments] The original Hades took the roguelike genre by storm in 2020, receiving critical acclaim and winning the hearts of players around the world. Although Supergiant Games typically does not develop sequels to its games, the popularity of Hades and the demand for more games like it encouraged the studio to develop Hades 2. Fans and critics were taken by surprise when Hades 2 was officially unveiled at The Game Awards 2022, and players were finally able to start their playthrough a year and a half later with the technical test, followed by the early access release of Hades 2 on Steam. In a new Steam blog post, Supergiant Games revealed patch notes for the first Hades 2 early access update. The studio thanks fans for helping out with identifying issues that needed to be resolved, with most of the listed fixes being labeled as changes inspired by community feedback. Sprinting and dashing were formally addressed first in the patch notes, with Supergiant Games confirming that the Sprint and Dash mechanics are now more responsive and reliable following recovery animations. Sprinting is also faster, and certain abilities were rescaled to compensate for this change. In addition, the Swift Runner card now makes the player's Dash activate immediately, with the only downside being that the player's character will be invulnerable for slightly less time than before. What's more, Hades 2 players may now gather from any resource point after unlocking the necessary Gathering Tool. The new Hades 2 update also applies adjustments and improvements to Driftwood resources, early encounters with Eris, mouse controls, and controller support. The latest update applies a slew of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, including technical fixes for Hades 2's strange crashing issues. According to the patch notes, various issues involving ultrawide resolutions, keyboard inputs, and controller inputs were also addressed. As a result, players should have an easier time switching between controllers and a mouse and keyboard setup in Hades 2. Supergiant Games confirms that a second Hades 2 update is being prepared with balance changes and adjustments based on what the development team has observed thus far. This means that players can expect more improvements in Hades 2, and community feedback will continue to be important in finding more issues that should be remedied before the game's eventual full launch. Hades 2 Early Access Update Patch Notes General Gameplay Your Sprint is innately faster and turning is more responsive; re-scaled abilities that boost this You now can Dash out of many attack recovery animations more reliably You now can gather from any resource point once you have unlocked the corresponding Gathering Tool; you now can Prioritize any available Tool in the Training Grounds to make its resources appear as often as before, while resources for Tools you do not Prioritize will appear far less often Altar of Ashes The Swift Runner: now also makes your Dash immediate (note the faster speed means you are invulnerable for very slightly less time); re-scaled Sprint speed bonus since Sprint is innately faster now Level Design & Environments It is easier to Dash across chasms in Oceanus Driftwood resources are more common in the Rift of Thessaly Menus & UI Using a Well of Charon displays your current Gold without the need to check your Boon Info The Grasp Upgrade Tutorial in the Altar of Ashes will repeat if ignored Added Patch Notes option to the Main Menu (where you can read this!) Miscellaneous Early encounters with Eris are less likely to occur; she also drops something of value... Related, if this already occurred, look for a one-time bonus in the Crossroads while Eris is present Entries in the Book of Shadows are generally easier to reveal You can gift Echo without having to wait around as long after conversing Adjusted Animal Familiar upgrades invalidated by the Gathering Tool changes above In the Hades Flashback, a hint will eventually play for players who don't realize they are in control Improved mouse selection in various cases Improved support for some additional controllers Abilities that boost Sprint speed display more-accurate numbers (generally lower than before) Updates and fixes to translations in some languages Bug Fixes Fixed several issues with Dark Side (Selene) Fixed Sun Worshiper (Apollo) sometimes preventing new foes from spawning Fixed Fire Extinguisher (Hestia) not dealing damage as expected Fixed Sister Blades Omega Attack not hitting Chronos reliably from certain angles Fixed Satyr Hoplites retaining the ability to block while afflicted with Twilight Curse (Selene) Fixed various cases of foes sometimes spawning out of bounds Fixed camera zoom-in getting stuck vs. Polyphemus in certain situations Fixed cases where you could Dash out of bounds in the Crossroads Fixed Fishing Pier events in the Crossroads not passing Whiles like other similar events Fixed autolock not clearing as expected while using mouse controls Fixed keyboard inputs sometimes getting stuck unexpectedly Fixed several input issues switching from gamepad to mouse-and-keyboard controls Fixed several issues playing in ultrawide resolutions Fixed some visual effects vs. Chronos lingering between phases or after the fight Fixed a Melinoë voice line repeating unexpectedly around the City of Ephyra Bat Cages Fixed various rare crashes Fixed several text errors Other minor fixes |
2024.05.17 06:44 minimumattic ThinkPad Design Culture
in 2010s there was nice blog website (blog.lenovo.com). Mr. David Hill (former chief of ThinkPad design since IBM) was writing in there often and he was sharing his ideas with users. it was really nice blog. Too bad no longer exists.
Here are some nice design articles i want to share with you captured from wayback machine so maybe you can a bit understand what makes ThinkPad a ThinkPad :
https://web.archive.org/web/20120127064604/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/shedding-light-on-innovation
https://web.archive.org/web/20120120012451/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/keyboard-illumination-thinklight-or-backlight
https://web.archive.org/web/20120409004202/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/ferdinand-a-porsche-1935-2012
https://web.archive.org/web/20120109002920/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/whats-the-point
https://web.archive.org/web/20130618181947/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/behind-the-design-of-the-greatest-windows-laptop-evahhhh
https://web.archive.org/web/20130615061530/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/symbolism-in-design
https://web.archive.org/web/20130621033638/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/booked-at-the-moma
https://web.archive.org/web/20141017155436/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/richard-sapper-the-origins-of-the-thinkpad-keyboard
https://web.archive.org/web/20130126132128/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/thinkpad-screws-exposed
you can visit David Hill's website in this link: http://www.dwhilldesign.com
submitted by minimumattic to thinkpad [link] [comments]
Here are some nice design articles i want to share with you captured from wayback machine so maybe you can a bit understand what makes ThinkPad a ThinkPad :
https://web.archive.org/web/20120127064604/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/shedding-light-on-innovation
https://web.archive.org/web/20120120012451/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/keyboard-illumination-thinklight-or-backlight
https://web.archive.org/web/20120409004202/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/ferdinand-a-porsche-1935-2012
https://web.archive.org/web/20120109002920/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/whats-the-point
https://web.archive.org/web/20130618181947/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/behind-the-design-of-the-greatest-windows-laptop-evahhhh
https://web.archive.org/web/20130615061530/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/symbolism-in-design
https://web.archive.org/web/20130621033638/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/booked-at-the-moma
https://web.archive.org/web/20141017155436/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/richard-sapper-the-origins-of-the-thinkpad-keyboard
https://web.archive.org/web/20130126132128/http://blog.lenovo.com/design/thinkpad-screws-exposed
you can visit David Hill's website in this link: http://www.dwhilldesign.com
2024.05.17 06:39 Huge_You_2851 Can someone explain this.
 | Zemie plays on mouse and keyboard, what is happening in the bottom right with the controller “x” symbol when it flashes then disappears. Can someone explain this? submitted by Huge_You_2851 to FortNiteBR [link] [comments] |
2024.05.17 05:26 DeformedSalamander M, P, U, J, 7, ;, ', key not working on my macbook pro
I have recently encountered a problem where when ever I type the M, P, U, J, 7, ; or ' key it either doesn't type anything or just types random letters and symbols, like for example if I type the M key it either types zbcvxz, or minimizes the window and opens a new one with the settings tab open, does anyone know how to fix this?
P.S I'm using the keyboard viewer or virtual keyboard to type this.
edit: nevermind guys my laptop just stopped working entirely, I'm sorry if i wasted anyones time and thank you if you tried to help.
submitted by DeformedSalamander to mac [link] [comments]
P.S I'm using the keyboard viewer or virtual keyboard to type this.
edit: nevermind guys my laptop just stopped working entirely, I'm sorry if i wasted anyones time and thank you if you tried to help.
2024.05.17 01:08 SupermanisGoat What if Kevin had the Antitrix in the Classic Series? (Part 1)
 | Credits to InternationalAd8036 for the What-If suggestion and for giving the main idea of the story. submitted by SupermanisGoat to Ben10 [link] [comments] Prior to Kevin 11 Dr. Psychobos had begun creating the Antitrix to try to overcome Azmuth's new invention, the Omnitrix. Although, it doesn't work properly and the Cerebrocrustacean sends it away deeming it a failure, landing two days after Ben Tennyson got the Omnitrix. Kevin Levin finds it and after the Antitrix had being bonded with him, the device was somehow repaired, granting Levin the cross-contaminated alien DNA to turn into a monstrous, mutated hybrid from Ben's 10 original aliens playlist. Antitrix Features: Active Mode: The Antitrix can keep the user in alien form per 5 to 15 minutes, being the usage time longer than that of the Omnitrix, which is 10 minutes. Size Alteration: The Antitrix can alter its size to fit the user's wrist. Quick Change: The Antitrix has a quick-change feature, allowing Kevin to change forms by pressing the symbol on the aliens' chests. This, however, uses Antitrix energy and reduces usage time considerably. Master Control: The Antitrix has a feature akin to Master Control, allowing the user to mentally choose the next alien to turn into. To unlock this feature, the user needs to make a series of combinations on the watch (similar to what Ben accidentally did in "Back with Vengeance" on his Omnitrix). Amalgamation: With a lot of practice, Antitrix can transform the user into an amalgamation of all his unlocked aliens, allowing them to use all of their powers at once. Unlike Kevin 11's Amalgam originally, Kevin is able to return to his human form, as he can do so of his own free will. Kevin 11 Ben still gets himself and his family kicked out of the hotel after being caught playing the new Sumo Slammer videogame, having a heated argument with Max and storming out the RV, going to Total Zone. Inside, Ben boots up a baseball-batting game, but loses. Ben: This place is a ripoff, you know that? Kevin: You're right. The games were stink. Ben and Kevin starts talking, until Kevin spots two thuggish kids behind Ben. Kevin: I have to deal with a nuisance now... Kevin walks towards the gang, getting ready to reveal his Antitrix that was under his black coat and turn into some alien, but before he could do anything, Ben as XLR8 had defeated the group Kevin: Wait, this thing looks like one of my aliens... XLR8 waves to Kevin and zooms away. Outside the arcade, Kevin reunites with Ben and the boys walk away from Gwen. Arriving at an abandoned subway station, both reveal their watchs, turning into some aliens to show to each other. Come nighttime, they go to the warehouse to steal the Sumo Slammer video games, but the police arrives. Kevin: Ready for action? Both slam their Omnitrix, turning into Stinkfly (Ben) and Skunkmoth (Kevin). Now transformed, they fly out the entrance, knocking back some soldiers and being chased by helicopters. The Lepidopterrans flies toward the Statue of Liberty, dodging the gun shots. To get rid of them, Kevin flies over the helicopters and shoots his slime projectile, causing the propeller to stop working and causing the helicopters with the soldiers to fall into the water. Ben and Kevin make their way to the city, de-transforming back to human in a lone alley. Posteriorly, in a subway station, Kevin and Ben hop over the ticket checks. They come into the empty station, which has two tracks on the floor. Kevin explains his plan: A money train loaded with cash was gonna come down that track, so when it crashes into the incoming passenger train, the money would fly and with their speedster forms, they would steal everything and leave. Ben, then realizing Kevin's intentions, dissolves his partnership with him and charges towards him, only to be thrown to the ground. Kirby Tennyson then activate the Omnitrix and tries to turns into Four Arms, but actually turns into Heatblast. Heatblast: Ugh, stupid watch. Kevin: Unlike yours... Kevin activates the Antitrix and turns into Quad Smack. Quad Smack: ...my "Omnitrix" let me transform into the alien i want to wreck you... Ben fires a burst of fire, but Kevin charges through by crossing his arms to defend himself, getting close enough to Pyronite to punch his face and send him flying into the wall of the subway station, Heatblast tries to regain consciousness, but Quad Smack grabs his leg, spinning him around and throwing him even further away, causing the wall to break and they begin to fight outside. Kevin runs towards Ben again to hit him, but Tennyson uses his fire teleport to get behind him, creating fire disks which makes the Tetramand retreat. Heatblast starts to launch several fireballs, trying to keep as much distance as possible, as he knew that in melee combat, he would be easily defeated by Kevin. Quad Smack: You're really getting on my nerves, Tennyson... Quad Smack slams the ground, creating a shock wave that interrupts the fire attacks; Kevin grabs his head and start repeatedly flung him into the ground. Heatblast: GET OFF ME! Heatblast amplifies his fire, causing Kevin to flinch, then the plasma-based alien kicks him with a blazing slide Heatblast: I'm losing time here... still have to stop that train from crashing... Ben returns to the train station, but when he was about to shoot fire at the track switch, he is interrupted by a quick attack Rush: Don't even think about it, flaming head... Heatblast tries to counterattack, but the speedster was too much for him and Ben de-transforms, getting defeated on the floor. Ben: How can you change forms so quickly? Rush: Does your Omnitrix not have this function? It sucks more than I imagined, apparently... They both start hearing the train horn and without anyone to stop it, it crashes, killing the people inside. Rush: Jackpot! It's raining money! Rush: Now I have to resolve some pending issues with some kids. See ya! Kevin runs with the money and goes after the thuggish kids from before. Meanwhile, Ben returns to the Rust Bucket, apologizing to Max. Mere apologies would not suffice this time; this was by far the most irresponsible thing Ben had done, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people on that train. However, for now, Max decides to listen to what Ben has to say. Ben discusses Kevin's powers, noting that his transformations are even more potent than his own. He speculates that Kevin may be under the 39th Street bridge, seeking revenge on the thugs. The RV gets stuck in traffic, and Ben tries to transform into Stinkfly but instead turns into Four Arms, using his enhanced jumping to reach the location. At the hideout, Ben meets Kevin as Crystalfist, who was trapping the four kids with his crystals. The Tetramand initiates a contest of strength against the Petrosapien, both evenly matched until Ben uses his four arms to push Kevin against the wall. Max and Gwen arrive, managing to free the kids from the crystals. Four Arms charges at Kevin once more but is interrupted by a wall of crystals. Breaking through the barrier, he rushes at Kevin again, shattering his two arms completely. Four Arms: What do you think about this, freak? Crystalfist: Not impressed... Crystalfist regenerates his limbs and forms a crystal sword, which strikes Four Arms' chest, tearing his suit. The Petrosapien touches the ground, transforming it into crystal thorns that ensnare Four Arms' feet. Before he can finish the fight, Gwen and Max distract him by throwing a tire at his head. Crystalfist: Don't interrupt the fight, idiots! Four Arms frees himself from the crystals, punching Kevin in the face repeatedly, sending him flying back into a column of the bridge. The Tetramand approaches him, preparing to deliver one final blow, but Kevin presses the Antitrix symbol, transforming into Phantasm and becoming intangible. He phases behind Ben and launches a debilitating attack in his mind (similar to what Ghostfreak did to Thumbskull in "Ghostfreaked out"). Four Arms is defeated and de-transforms, but Kevin also starts de-transforming. He becomes intangible, disappearing from Team Tennyson's sight. The next morning, the Rust Bucket leaves the city, and Max reminds Ben that he must earn back his trust. Nothing can undo the deaths of the innocents on the train, nor can anything guarantee that Kevin will stop his criminal acts. The end... Antitrix roster: Hot Shot (Doppelganger of Heatblast): Much more powerful and hotter than Heatblast. Can create big fire tornados. Heat so powerful it can hurt a Tetramand's skin. FierceHound (Doppelganger of Wildmutt): Smell more efficient than normal Wildmutt. Has spikes on his legs. Can shoot spikes. Crystalfist (Doppelganger of Diamondhead): Crystal generation. Can redirect energy. Regeneration (can even regenerate limbs). Rush (Doppelganger of XLR8): Likely faster, more agile and more powerful than XLR8. Speed mirage creation. Dark Matter (Doppelganger of Grey Matter): Extremely taller and skinny than his normal counterpart. Enhanced Intelligence. Cerebrospinal fireball generation. Crystalline Constructs. Quad Smack (Doppelganger of Four Arms): Considerably stronger than Four Arms. Enhanced Strength. Earthquake generation. On par with a full-sized Vaxasaurian. Skunkmoth (Doppelganger of Stinkfly): Gaseous slime. Methane Gas. Faster and more agile than Stinkfly. Skeligator (Doppelganger of Ripjaws): Strong bite force. Sharp teeth. Enhanced strenght. Can compete with Krakken physically. Enhanced Swimming. Mouth Expansion. Bootleg (Doppelganger of Upgrade): Technokinesis. Elasticity. Self-Liquefaction. Technological Possession. Phantasm (Doppelganger of Ghostfreak): Intangibility. Incapacitation. Body Possession. Sharp Tentacles. Flight. Enhanced Telekinesis. Energy Beams. |