*UPDATED LIST*
Hello! I just completed my Series 1-5 collection, so now I'm looking to complete my WA collection. I know WA cards are rarer so willing to trade multiple S1-5 cards for WA cards (2:1, 3:1, etc.). Looking for NA region only cards at the moment.
Please leave a comment with your offer if interested in trading! All offers welcome! PMs will be IGNORED until we publicly agree to a deal here. I will private message (not Chat) you once we publicly agree to a deal.
If you'd like to outright purchase any cards, here are the following prices:

• Villager cards: $1 PayPal F&F / Venmo
• SP cards: $2 PayPal F&F / Venmo
• Shipping: $1 PayPal F&F / Venmo for stamped envelope or $5 for tracking via USPS

Thanks for looking!
FYI, if I'm only mailing out a couple of cards I'll be sending it in a stamped envelope (inside of a toploadegreeting card). If you want to purchase tracking, then please let me know.
Google Spreadsheet with my available Duplicates and Looking For list
***Looking For**\*
Welcome Amiibo:

• 01 Vivian
• 02 Hopkins
• 03 June
• 04 Piper
• 06 Hornsby
• 07 Stella
• 08 Tybalt
• 09 Huck
• 10 Sylvana
• 11 Boris
• 12 Wade
• 14 Ketchup
• 15 Rex
• 16 Stu
• 17 Ursala
• 19 Maddie
• 20 Billy
• 21 Boyd
• 22 Bitty (PENDING)
• 23 Maggie
• 24 Murphy
• 25 Plucky
• 26 Sandy
• 27 Claude
• 28 Raddle
• 29 Julia
• 30 Louie
• 31 Bea
• 32 Admiral
• 33 Ellie
• 35 Weber
• 36 Candi
• 37 Leopold
• 38 Spike
• 39 Cashmere
• 40 Tad
• 41 Norma
• 43 Sprocket
• 44 Snooty
• 46 Dobie
• 47 Buzz
• 48 Cleo
• 49 Ike
• 50 Tasha

***Duplicates**\*
Series 1:

• 023 Cheri
• 025 Al
• 056 Bangle
• 072 Lionel
• 074 Cobb

Series 2:

• 102 Reese
• 104 Labelle
• 106 Booker
• 111 Shrunk
• 113 Isabelle
• 116 Chip
• 118 Poncho
• 122 Lucha
• 125 Gwen
• 126 Coach
• 127 Kitt
• 130 Prince
• 134 Kidd
• 136 Egbert
• 140 Avery
• 142 Peck
• 146 Rodney
• 151 Groucho
• 152 Wendy
• 153 Alfonso
• 154 Rhonda
• 156 Gabi
• 158 Timbra
• 162 Mathilda
• 163 Ed
• 169 Bud
• 171 Benedict
• 172 Agnes
• 174 Bettina
• 175 Jay
• 181 Drake
• 182 Alice
• 185 Chops
• 186 Charlise
• 187 Vic
• 189 Drift
• 192 Pango
• 199 Big Top
• 200 Rocket

Series 3:

• 203 Tom Nook
• 204 Pelly
• 207 Mabel
• 221 Kody
• 222 Miranda
• 225 Ken
• 228 Bubbles
• 230 Velma
• 245 Mac
• 250 Ava
• 254 Greta
• 256 Diva
• 259 Stinky
• 260 Tammi
• 261 Tucker
• 267 Pippy
• 269 Bree
• 270 Rooney
• 276 Astrid
• 287 Claudia
• 289 Boomer
• 290 Caroline
• 298 Derwin

Series 4:

• 302 Brewster
• 304 Phineas
• 316 Zipper
• 319 Pinky
• 320 Mott
• 324 Graham
• 325 Peaches
• 327 Penelope
• 335 Dotty
• 339 Frita
• 343 Anabelle
• 348 Olaf
• 349 Lucy
• 363 Celia
• 367 Annalise
• 368 Chow
• 369 Sylvia
• 370 Jacques
• 376 Rizzo
• 377 Sydney
• 383 Hippeux
• 387 Rowan
• 388 Maelle
• 393 Frobert
• 395 Cally
• 399 Twiggy

Series 5:

• 425 Sherb
• 426 Megan
• 427 Dom
• 428 Audie
• 429 Cyd
• 430 Judy
• 431 Raymond
• 432 Reneigh
• 433 Sasha
• 434 Ione
• 435 Tiansheng
• 436 Shino
• 437 Marlo
• 438 Petri
• 439 Cephalobot
• 440 Quinn
• 441 Chabwick
• 442 Zoe
• 443 Ace
• 444 Rio
• 445 Frett
• 446 Azalea
• 447 Roswell
• 448 Faith

Hey guys greetings! Could you kindly share your knowledge on how should someone like me living outside of the US open an US bank account? I DO have a US phone number, valid drivers license in CA, and an SSN. But I’m not a US citizen nor having a green card. Also I do have previous letters to prove my residency in CA, but if the bank asks for it and I do provide it to them though I actually no longer live there, would that be considered a fraud to the bank? My previous bank account with BofA was shut down due to long term inactivity and low amount of funds but I really need a bank account for brokerage now. Many thanks in advance!

Greetings to everyone, I just ordered an MSI HERALD-BE NCM865 wifi card. Yes, it is a desktop product, but the chip inside is qualcomm QCNCM865 and some sources say it works with AMD processors. I wonder if you can confirm that this wifi card works for the R9-6900HS ROG Flow X13. If it doesn't work I will cancel the order.

Me and my girlfriend are together for 6 months from the beginning we had a bumpy start with her packing the few things she had at my apartment (where she sleeps 4-5 times a week ) . Most of the time we had an argument about something stupid that I said jokingly or something funny that happend at work with a female co worker . Those arguments then ended in here taking her stuff and leaving . Afther a couple of hours she then would start texting or calling me all emotional telling me she was over reacting and that she wanted to come back . After few days ago I came back from a military exercise (I was there two weeks ) while she is still on vacation with a female friend and my apartment is spotless clean with even a little card on the table saying how much she misses me and expressing here love . During my exercise I never had an extreme feeling of missing her (I don’t know if it was the exercise mindset I was in or some other reason) and even cheated on her one drunk night . Now I’m home and first of all don’t regret the cheating part all that much and I do miss her but not as much as she does mis me . She is a great girl and does everything for me . But I just don’t know what to do . Do I breakup ? Give it some more time ? Come clean about the cheating ?

I work at the service desk with a lot of female coworkers. A while ago I was helping a customer with an oven he ordered for his client. The oven(not MDO BTW) was delivered to him damaged and he wanted to get a new one ordered. Not a complicated issue except .com wasn't available because it was purchased in the store and the customer's client originally bought that oven so we had to call her to make a phone sale while she was in the middle of her busy day. So this issue was gonna take some time to get resolved and while we were waiting for his client to become available from her meeting, the customer decided to try and "cheer up" one of my female co workers who was working on a frustrating issue to the right of me by telling her to smile more. Just very weird behavior from by somebody who's actually been pretty chill so far.
Shortly after, the client calls the customer and hands me the phone to make this phone sale(I know they're suppose to be the ones entering the card info, sorry I don't give a fuck). While I'm taking the lady's card info down, the man prints some receipt paper off the printer himself and writes a note in cursive and hands it to the same female co worker still working on the same issue. Once the phone sale is complete I give the phone and the sale receipt to the customer and told him to have a nice day. That note he wrote to my female co worker said "don't forget to smile :)". Glad that dude was finally gone at that point cuz he was starting to irritate me. This actually happened about three weeks after a customer who checking out at the service desk told another female coworker of mine "A smile wouldn't kill you ya know?" She was noticeably creeped out by that and didn't smile so he tried to explain to me and a few others saying "I'm just saying it's polite to smile." That same day he wrote a two paragraph email to my store manager saying that she was rude and disrespectful.
Why do people gotta be so creepy for no reason?

Use the link for Greeting Card Universe Promo Code for May 2024. The website features a wide selection of coupons, promo codes, and discount deals that are updated regularly for you to choose from and make your purchase more affordable.

Hello and greetings once again my fellow CUEnthusiasts!
This post is going to be different from the usual ones you may be accustomed to because I feel I should have done this first lol.
To some, I just kinda popped up here and started posting these Coaches Corners without providing anything about myself or my back story. Like, who’s this guy?
I feel like a bit of a proper introduction and a brief digital card collecting history may help. Even most of the folks on discord don’t know this lol.
To keep it CUE, I will not name/mention or describe in detail other apps at all, just some general info that helps to understand my history and why I know the stuff I do and am now sharing it with all of you. To be honest, my CUE adventure started, in part, due to these apps :)
I started trading and collecting digital cards in 2016. But don’t worry, like I said I’ll be brief lol. The apps I was on were all individual but also kind of connected, and it’s wasn’t a game, just collecting and trading. I’ll give some insight to what they were like, as it’s kinda relevant but won’t be too detailed or revealing.
The majority of people traded within an individual app, accounts could span all the apps, but cards never transferred across apps. There was a method to trade between apps we called cross trading. I want to note, this was all ok and approved by the apps devs, but we did so at our own risk. Again, I won’t go into detail and this is as specific as I’ll get.
The reason I mention this is because in order to do this well, I had to know values for cards across quite a few apps and be able convert values amongst them. In order to do so effectively and accurately I studied and worked hard and learned all I could because that was the game.
I was selected for and assigned a trade evaluator role on one of their larger discord servers where players could ping us and get a quick evaluation. If needed, I was required to explain as briefly and as detailed as possible, a breakdown of a trade if needed and do so without bias. I did this until about 2021/2022. I was fairly well known and regarded as one of the better traders on each app I was on. But that comes second hand when you learn to play the collecting and trading game fairly and well. And that’s as far as I’ll go with that. Because next comes my CUE story.
It’s was actually a good friend from those previous apps that introduced me to CUE back in 2020, as my cake day indicates lol. However I was pretty casual on cue as my time was invested elsewhere for a number of reasons that I won’t get into.
I got into and went full time with CUE as my main app in around 2021/2022, and it has been my only card app since. I do want to describe my earlier, cue focused days a bit because it lends a bit to my back story and why I’ve been enjoying making these posts.
When I started, like many, I didn’t use any social platform. I had no idea as to the values other than what I knew from my past as a trader and collector. I also didn’t really play the game, so I never grasped the playability aspect of cards until later.
I managed to apply what I knew and successfully complete the app without ever knowing there was a value systems in place and readily available. I was able to figure which cards were hot, in demand and had value, what to pull (I wasn’t spending much back then, I was grinding trades), and when i found out there were hoarders (one card collectors), I had a good idea of to how to trade with them and, for the most part, any level of player. Little by little I was able to eventually piece together the basic trade economy. I can promise, like most players new to a card app, I sent some bad offers, and accepted them too. It happens lol.
All this means is, I write these posts because I’ve experienced what I’ve written about. I’ve learned the trading game, and applied and integrated what I knew successfully. And if I can help some people skip the years it took me, why not?
I’ve been a member on the CUE official discord for maybe a year, maybe a bit more lol it’s a blur. I can say though, it was just like home. Information readily available, a value system in place, trade evals, hoarders(one card collectors), the players who trade heavily. I made it a priority right then and there to learn the value system there in and out. This didn’t require me to be on discord all the time but I made it on as often as I could, and I took it all in and applied it. I knew how important this was going to be, especially when directly working out deals with people live. I had done this before, and was about to again lol.
My years on CUE have been an amazing and incredibly fun experience. And the people I’ve met along the way have become some great friends. Some of my favorite times are on discord talking digital cards and stuff. Makes the game that much more special and enjoyable.
My journey with cue is far from over, although I’m busy with life and that’s my main focus, I feel a deeper connection to that game and a bit of a different appreciation for it. Sorry, it may not make sense to you, but it does to me xD
Doing these segments have been extremely enjoyable and rewarding for me. It’s been a joy to look back and rememberelive times when I was just in my collecting infancy.
I feel like and hope what I’m writing about and passing on is both helpful and useful, as I may have said before. I’ve seen guides and strategies for playing the card game and deck building that go into great depth. I just hope I’m filling, what to me seemed like a gap. And that’s the trading and collecting aspect of the game.
I’ll be posting the next segment of Coaches Corner very shortly, so please, stay tuned :)
As always, Happy Trading and keep it Cue, see you in game!

Salutations and greetings brothers and sisters in Christ.
Having posted last week about the current situation and end state/long term objectives, I would like to identity what the current state of the country is in relative openness to meeting our criteria. A lot of what I write comes from research sources from government websites (such as the US Census Data), research websites from trusted sources (such as the PRRI), or good primary source content from creators or first-person perspectives. Today I want to share a report from PRRI that I references previously in my post about end state and objectives. This will lay out what states have the highest concentrations of support for Christian Nationalism based on research, large groups/concentrations of Orthodox Churches, Large groups/Concentrations of Mainline Protestant churches, and then large groups/concentrations of Evangelical concentrations/groups. Using this data we can distil down to the various different states that would have the highest success rate for growing support for our objectives and end states.

• Large groups of mainline protestants function as a potential recruiting opprotunity. As these churches become liberalized and lose membership/die out, it allows for those aligned with our values to recruit and convert these individuals co-oping them into the cause.
• Large congregations of Orthodox Churches can be used as a staging ground for the Neo-Orthodoxy revival within America and support the conversion of these churches into an Autocephalous Western Right Apostolic Holy Orthodox Church of America. Our objective number 1 for achieving our end state.
• Large support for Christian Nationalism already exists within Evangelical Christianity. This means while conversion to the Neo-Orthodoxy movement to achieve our first objective, it is not strictly necessary if individuals join Evangelical Christian groups which support Christian Nationalism.
• These three sources of Christian believers to support the desired end state for Christian Nationalism is essential.

If you recall from my previous post Objective 2 to meet our end state for the Nation is as follows: "38 out of 50 states within the United States must have greater than 50% Christian Nationalists adherents living within them by 2058. (creates super majority)." In this post I identified that we have to focus on 38 states to build up a primary base for changing the geo-political landscape by altering the socio-cultural landscape via Western Anglosphere focus Christian values. Specifically, I call out for a Western Right Orthodox Church of America but any congregation which aligns with Christian Nationalism would suffice. Just that Western Right Orthodoxy would be a solid cornerstone/foundation which would have the structure and adherence rate to survive greater than 80+ years rather than the mercurial protestants denominations which shift like sand. However, if those denominations can stand firm long enough to enact true political reform, amending the constitution, then it is worth to bring those denominations into the fold and act as one body of Christ.
Looking at the data from PRRI: Data Here You can see the breakdown of the different states which have high or higher percentage of support to the cause of Christian Nationalism. What this means for us, is it allows us to narrow down to our targeted 38 states we need to achieve our objectives. While we want to be advancing on all fronts, these 38 will have the highest chance of making mounting or achievable impact on Christendom at large.

• As previously stated: "New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, California, Washington, Connecticut, and New Jersey are below the 25% general support for Christian Nationalism." What this means is that while we should try and spread the cause in all directions to all different states, these states have the lowest chance of it catching flame or finding a foundation.
• Interestingly enough however, many of these states have large concentrations of old Orthodoxy residing within them: California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey all have large amounts of Orthodox Concentrations. Data Here Sadly they are drowned out by large amounts of non-Christians within these locations. New York, Illinois, and California have large amounts of Mainline Protestant which have the highest amounts of potential pickups of those leaving the denominations after becoming super liberalized towards Orthodox/Christian Nationalists sympathetic groups. Data Here
• What this means is that while growth opportunity exists in New York, California, and Illinois we will struggle to gain and maintain a majority within the state just do to the demographic nature and the percentage game. Not that it is not worth our time, but we cannot rely on it. That said we could focus efforts in select swing districts at the local/congressional level in New York, California, and Illinois to possibly bring about pushing them towards the bubble and eroding hyper liberal power bases.

With the date for mentioned, we would have to conclude that these 11 states are not reliable for our growth and target objectives. Again, as with the case of New York, Illinois, and California, growth opportunity exists but not enough to justify targeting those states. Our focus now shifts to the bubble/swing states that we can make a difference to bring to the fold.

• As previously stated: "Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Arizona, Utah, Rhode Island, Delaware, Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are on the 25-29% cusp of supporting Christian Nationalism. Growth opportunity exists but could easily swing the other way.". What this means is that we would need to focus on these swing states and select at least one to focus our attention to bring it above the 30% thresh-hold for sustained and consistent push towards the cause to for fill our objectives.
• The largest concentrations of Mainline Protestant denominations and Orthodoxy residing within them is Pennsylvania, with Michigan and Wisconsin in solid second place leading the others. Arizona and Colorado are behind Michigan and Wisconsin but hold a solid base in both Mainline and Orthodoxy. Meaning it would not take much to swing Colorado and Arizona to be more inline with our stated goals that we need to achieve.
• Out of the rest, Hawaii might be the biggest outlier and most difficult to change do to geographic reasons. While a solid base for what we wish to accomplish exists, the demographics of such a place are working against us in % of population vs base. I would advocate for throwing out Hawaii and placing it into the below general support category.
• Utah is a special case. Mormons, which would best be classified as a wild card, dominate Utah politics along with other Christian denominations. Forward progress will be difficult in Utah, but it might be more of a dialogue than a genuine need for conversion/bringing Utah into alignment.
• What this means is that Delaware, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine will be the long haul in this process to round out our 38 required states to align with the Anglosphere Western Right Orthodoxy / support for Christian nationalism. Naturally Vermont and Delaware will present interesting challenges. It would require demographic changes and construction of large amounts of mission work and proselytizing. Alternatives would have to be sought for these two otherwise if needed: Viriginia and New Jersey are likely candidates given the high number of Orthodoxy or Mainline protestants vs Delaware and Vermont.

This leaves us to the 38 states that we have to focus on to achieve our objectives on the strategic level for the United States to regain the conceptualization of Christian nationalism dominated by our Western Right Orthodox Church of America focused on preserving the ideals of Anglosphere cultural and societal roots forward for the next 80-120 years.

• Alabama, Alaksa, Arizonia, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware*, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey*, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah**, Vermont*, Virgina*, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
• Delaware and Vermont can be changed for New Jersey and Virgina respectively which is the reason for the call out. Utah is also a special case given its high Mormon population.
• Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona have unique opportunities with the largest growing non-white Christian Nationalists groups: Hispanics who are Evangelicals. Continued growth in this area can eventually turn all four corners into solid supporters for our socio-cultural fabric which we wish to layout. Of them, Colorado faces the most pushback but growing areas of support.
• Different regions within the 38 states are going to have to move/work in different ways to achieve our objectives. Just because a state has +30% of Christian Nationalists support already AND might traditionally thought politically as a "red" state, that does not mean they align with our core values or end state. New Mexico and Arizona are wildly different than Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Requiring different approaches to changing the views on a local level.
• The flexibility of Mainline and Evangelical Protestantism is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. The common faith shared across state borders and regions does not always align culturally or politically. One socio-cultural norm must exist. While sub-cultures are welcome, they cannot deviate from the overarching Anglosphere cultural norm which must dominate to align the whole country with our values and preserve the Republic.

This goes into the objective number 1 to meet our end state for the United States and Christian Nationalism. As stated previously: "Establish one Autocephalous Western Right Apostolic Holy Orthodox Church of America with Romanian, Russian, and Antiochian ceding to this new Orthodox Church with establishment of a Patriarch of America." This will create a large common Holy and Orthodox Church of America that will allow for Anglosphere dominate cultural to thrive from the local/micro level all the way to the macro-country wide level. The church will function both culturally and religiously to preserve our common Anglosphere dominated values and Western conceptualizations of rights within our Republic.
As always, please let me know what you think and what can be done to improve. Is this too wordy? Is everyone able to follow along fairly well? Let me know or join the conversation!

Hey guys, I (25M) wanted to post this here and get some advice of what to do next? I have been considering legal action, but I wonder if I have much of a case here. Some key things to note:

• I live in Nevada, USA, which is a right-to-work state and I was about to complete my 6-month probationary period before I was let go.
• I never signed off on a termination letter or any written statement about what happened
• The company I work for is a private company

I have been talking to my company's HR department about what happened and am still waiting to see what they say at the time of writing this. I'll just copy and paste what happened from the written statement I gave them:
"On 5/9/24 I was originally scheduled to work at 2 PM, and was heading into our office on the second floor when Chris, my director, was waiting for me at the elevator doors. At that moment, I did not know he requested to speak with me as I had not checked my messages yet prior to arriving to work. I followed him to a meeting room behind the bar on the casino floor and sat down with him and Kevin, a new Operations Manager that had just been promoted, as a witness. Chris informed me that I was being let go, to my shock. I asked why. He gave me a rather vague answer about how many factors have led to this decision, but he does not believe that I will mesh well with the team long-term and unfortunately it has come to this. When I had first started in my position, Chris and I had only two conversations about my progress and his concerns:
One was with my former superior Paul and Chris about how some of my behavior was a bit distracting to others and while it is good to be enjoying your work, please focus on my work and try to conversate with my coworkers about things relating to the job. I understood that, and took it in stride. I reigned it in and focused more on my tasks at hand and never heard another such complaint.
The second was when I had incorrectly scored an NHL game one night and the mistake was not found out until the next day, causing an all-around headache. I had similar, more minor mistakes in the past, so Chris told me to do better and that while mistakes are bound to happen, to have a better attention to detail. I understood and had improved in the months since that conversation and I hadn't made a mistake like that since.
With these in mind, I said to Chris that he couldn't deny that I hadn't improved since starting my position and my former issues had already been rectified, to which he agreed. So I asked him to give me a more tangible reason behind his decision. He cited my interactions with my coworker Logan made her feel uncomfortable in the office.
Logan is a girl the same age as me and her desk is on the other side of the room. My interactions with her were limited simply because of this fact and the most I ever spoke to her was greeting her when I arrived in the office, as I greeted everyone else, and benign small talk. May 9th is also her birthday, as I had heard from some of her other coworkers, so I even got her a birthday card and a singular cupcake that day.
For the record: I never singled her out in this treatment; in fact many times I had offered snacks or food to fellow coworkers. I even brought in staple snacks in Chinese culture for Chinese New Year this year a few months ago for the whole office to try. I offered them to everyone including Logan, as it is a big day in my culture and unfortunately I had to celebrate while at work. In my opinion, things like reminders of your birthday while at work is a very inclusive gesture and I was actively trying to make our company a better place to work at by promoting a more positive culture by setting an example. I even asked a coworker for his birthday so I could remember when it came around, as I realized I didn't know anyone's birthday yet. I did not mean anything by my actions, if they truly were making Logan feel uncomfortable, and I think some sort of warning beforehand would have been more than fair. If Logan herself was too uncomfortable with saying it to me personally, I could've also have heard it from any of my superiors first.
I made this point in my conversation with Chris; his only reply to me was that some people aren't comfortable enough doing that without hurting anyone's feelings. I feel that there is something more than what Chris told me and Logan's perception of me may not be the only reason I was terminated. And if Logan's perception of me was a deciding factor in my termination, I do not appreciate that treatment or assumptions being made of me simply because I am a man and she is a woman and therefore all my actions are perceived as malicious and/or having ulterior motives."

Hello everyone. Sincere apologies for these very late Thank You's. Pls note that even though my posts are delayed, I am ALWAYS extremely grateful for all of your mail. I'm working on better organizing my space and mail and know that I'll potentially find some additional cards. Grace is requested in advance.
Without further adieu, here's the first group...
u/raspberrypoppyseed: Thank you for the MoMA with the old truck. It’s quite fascinating. And, nope, I’ve never visited there, even when I lived in New York. 😊
u/KK6321 (x2): Thank you for this “Greetings from Oregon” postcard. I love all of the colors. Good luck on your garden and all the “fruits” of our labor. I’ve thinking about planning a garden as well, and haven’t quite jumped all the way there yet. This year will probably be the time for sure. Also, thank you for the beautiful Thank You card in honor of your grandma, along with the stickers. I hope you’re continuing to feel good vibes when you think of her.
u/Suzume23: Thank you for this beautiful exchange card rom your country. My friend of 30+ years is also from there. I don’t have any animals and I do agree with you about the Corgis. Their tales are fluffy indeed.
u/DPClapmavi: Thank you for this Holiday/New Year card. Yes, my year has gone well so far with limited complaints and I hope the same for you.
u/knapsacknap: Thank you for the thank you card for your birthday. You are most welcome and I’m glad you liked it. It is quite important to carve out some time and space for ourselves and the people who love us too. Yes, indeed. The birds have surely been letting us know that Spring has sprung and our weather is warming up in time for summer.
u/Tinawebmom (x2): Thank you for the beautiful hand-made cards you’ve sent. You’re so creative and talented and I’ve enjoyed your creations.

WPA – A Completely Average Roadtrip
Disclaimer: Not canon, and I don’t use patreon so please don’t spoil me. Also, any opinion held by a character is that of the characters and not my own. Enjoy.
Town of Ljosalfington, local time 14:00, week 7
Emma Booker
“Again Illunor, I warned you before that this is a utility vehicle, not a party rated smart-limo. I am already compromising more than I should by allowing you to use the sample cooler as a minifridge, one which I can’t even use!” I said as I loaded the materials I had just purchased into the back of the high-G All terrain fusion-ethanol-electric hybrid 24th-century legacy pickup truck that I had printed out earlier this week, carefully avoiding the heavy ordinance hard point.
“That is hardly an excuse for that abysmally cramped leg space barely fit for cattle, never mind the bare minimum for standard decorum suitable for nobility. If this is what a car is like, then I don’t see why you care for your technology,” complained Illunor, who was sitting around idly with a malformed garish bowl of icecream that he had stashed away from lunch.
“If it bothers you so much, perhaps you could help next time with your ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ magic,” I retorted as I slid the last core sample into the back before covering it up with a tarp and strapping it down.
I had originally planned to visit Ljosalfington by myself to acquire much needed exo-materials to test various mana manipulator configurations as I worked to develop my first wand as not all of the materials I needed were procurable locally from Elaseer. I eventually yielded, much to my regret, to allowing Illunor to come with me as he insisted on wanting to deliver a letter personally in town after Thacea had pointed out the wisdom of not travelling alone.
We continued our back and forth for a bit yet as I finished securing my payload a voice called out to me from the direction of the town.
“Excuse me a moment, I couldn’t help but notice but are you from the academy?”
I turned to see an elf dressed in a plain brown buttoned up tunic matched by a slightly shabby pair of trousers with what appeared to be a lute upon his back and a plain and unenchanted longsword on his belt gesturing at our robes. Mine especially were new and unusual, tailored by the academy to go over my armour and allow access to the anchor points and allow me to exit my armour with minimal hassle. Illunor scoffed at what was evidently a commoner’s arrogance at approaching nobility and turned his head away in disgust. I glanced at Illunor and shook my head before turning to face the new man. I had time to spare, and any opportunity to engage in a hearts-and-minds dialogue with the locals outside the bounds of the managed environment of the academy was more than worth the time to chat. Especially as most of the other locals seemed to be content in ignoring me.
“Yes, we are currently studying at the Transgracian Academy. I am Cadet Emma Booker representing the United Nations of Earth and Luna from Earthream, and my aloof compatriot is Lord Illunor Rularia of the Vunerian courts. We were just about to head back but are in no rush. May I ask your name and what brings you by?” I asked with my hand outstretched in greeting.
“Ah yes, yes. My name is Edhel Redoehdelnif, a wandering bard by trade like my father and his father before him. My apologies, Cadet Emma Booker, I am unfamiliar with Earthrealm,” said Edhel as he grasped my hand with both of his and shook it tepidly yet vigorously. Or rather, tried to, as the motors on my suit resisted his efforts.
“News doesn’t seem to spread all that fast around here, so it makes sense you haven’t heard of us. We’re a new realm, and only just got here. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Edhel Redoehdelnif,” I replied.
“Absolutely fascinating! And a knight no less, or perhaps a squire? I’m sure you have many stories to tell of Earthrealm. Say, by chance are you about to head back to the academy? I have business in Elaseer and the usual coach has been absent as of late so I would rather not go it alone,” said Edhel.
I was hesitant to bring a stranger back in the car with me, even if Illunor was present. However, the opportunity that meeting a bard presented was too good to pass up from an intel perspective and to win the favour of the populace at large.
“That is a great idea. I think I have room for one more…” I paused before gesturing towards Illunor, “provided everyone is ok with it that is.”
Illunor gave a huff and turned his head away in silence.
“Very well, I will allow this. But he will not be joining me in your sorry excuse for a coach,” said Illunor dismissively.
Illunor approached the backseat expectantly and the door opened for him automatically, allowing the dlc kobold to gracefully enter and lounge across the length of the seats, once again ignoring the seatbelts. I sighed as I made my way to the driver’s seat, and Edhel entered from the passenger side as he marveled at the automatic doors and the interior.
“What a strange carriage this is! Although I must say, shouldn’t you be retrieving your horses? I didn’t see any harnesses or sense any artifices,” inquired Edhel as he attempted to make himself comfortable on the car seat, lute in front of him.
“Oh no, this thing doesn’t need horses or magic,” I said with a chuckle as EVI started the car. The elf raised his eyebrows at the sudden hum of the engine and made an expression of alarm when the car started driving itself without my input. “See, purrs like a kitten.”
“Earthrealm must have some large kittens if they purr like that,” noted Edhel, “but you must be concealing the enchantments somewhere. Such a thing as this with such strange yet precise craftsmanship is only possible in the crownlands.”
“Nope, no magic,” I said cheerfully.
“Then how?” Asked Edhel.
“It’s rather simple really. Are you familiar with the workings of a mill?” I asked, deciding to keep things surface level and elementary to avoid provoking the IDOV threshold.
“Somewhat, though I confess to not being familiar with their workings. Are you suggesting this is akin to a mill?” Asked Edhel perplexed.
“It’s the same principal. A mill works by taking a source of rotation such as a waterwheel or windmill, transferring that rotation along a series of rotating shafts and interlocking gears, and finally putting that energy to work by rotating a millstone,” I began as the car pulled out onto the smooth cobbled road in the direction of Elaseer. A notification popped up in the corner of my vision indicating my recon drone swarm had shifted from a holding formation to a convoy screening formation, and while the roads were clear I kept the speed at 60km/h to account for my passenger’s apparent distaste for seatbelts.
“Rotation…” muttered Edhel. He turned to face one of the wheels and EVI pinged an alert for a probable match for a detection spell, “fascinating.”
“Edhel, what are you doing?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, perhaps I should have asked first. Yes, I can see how it all fits together. But the source of this rotation? I see no mighty river or great wind to power this, so where does it come from?” Asked Edhel, not really apologizing. Elven arrogance, it seemed, was not limited by class.
The act reminded me of Sorecar when he inspected my gun, but where the armourer had been respectful with it, Edhel was more flippant. I considered the possibility that he was a spy sent by one of her peers or the crownlands, though this did not mesh with the methods I had seen so far. Edhel may have been just overly enthusiastic. In either case, I quickly decided to only reveal the antique design for the ethanol engine, and not that of the batteries or the emergency coupler to my suit’s fusion reactor.
“Right, well please ask first next time. As to your question, I won’t bore you with the details, but the rotation is generated by creating a periodic sequence of explosions inside of a machine – a manaless artifice – called a combustion engine, said Emma.
“So that’s what that sound is…” pondered Edhel, “are these artifices typical in Earthream?”
“You are awfully inquisitive for a commoner,” noted Illunor as he inspected his nails for dirt, “and rather accepting of something which should be impossible.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a bard if I wasn’t, my lord,” said Edhel shifting uncomfortably in his seat, “perhaps some music might set the mood better?”
“That would be preferable, bard. I have heard enough of the Earthrealmer’s Road Trip Playlist and would like to listen to some music of real culture,” said Illunor.
The bard agreed and proceeded to awkwardly play a ballad about an adventurer who slew a hydra in some frozen wasteland. Partway through, I politely interrupted the Edhel to point out the seat controls much to his fascination and Illunor’s grumbling at their common nature, and after some adjustment the bard went on playing and I half-heartedly listened while I paid attention to the road and my drone feed.
Particularly after EVI detected something unusual and alerted me to its presence.
”Attention Caded Booker. There is a disabled vehicle blocking the primary route to destination. Heat signatures in the woods are consistent with that of an ambush.”
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I glanced at the drone feed to see a broken cart strewn horizontally across a wooden bridge over a brook. On the surface it looked like a pair of civilians who required aid and assistance, but off in the woods were several heat signatures, several of which held weapons of varying levels of enchantments. Occasionally one of the pair on the bridge would talk with them, suggesting they were in cahoots rather than hostages. I recalled crossing that very bridge not a few hours earlier, so the blockade was very recent.
“EVI, did we pass that cart on the way here?” I asked.
”Negative,” replied EVI.
I grimaced. I had been trained to handle road-side ambushes, but it was only something that was a theoretical possibility. Something that should only occur in a warzone or a corrupt and unstable polity. I knew I had the capacity to handle such an encounter, even non-lethally, but that didn’t change the fact that these were civilians and as such were the responsibility of local law enforcement. Combined with the fact that I had passengers I was responsible for and engaging the ambush was a risky option.
“EVI, give me a list of alternative routes,” I commanded.
”Affirmative. Here is a list of routes in order of recommendation,” replied EVI.
I looked over the routes superimposed on a map of the region and quickly dismissed taking a shortcut through the forest and cutting through farmland. A detour caught my eye that extended the journey by roughly ten kilometers and I immediately sent a pair of drones to scout it out before committing to the detour.
“Are you alright, Cadet Emma Booker? You seem distracted,” asked Edhel, snapping me back to reality.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just focused on driving,” replied Emma.
“I suppose it must be quite taxing to command an artificed carriage of this complexity. Perhaps it might ease your mind if you were to regale me a tale of a hero of your realm?” Said Edhel, strumming a complex tune from his lute as he spoke as each and every pluck triggered a low-level spell.
“Well, that may be a problem. We don’t have any monsters to fight, and wars are a thing of the past,” I said while desperately tip-toeing the subject of aunt Ran, the subject of war, and our voyages through the cosmos, “though we are not without the adventurous spirit. We certainly have many stories of grand voyages. Some mythical and fictional such as The Odyssey as told by the Greek poet Homer and some historical such as the race to the south pole.”
“The south pole,” muttered the bard, “so you have explored all of Earthrealm then? I suppose that makes some sense, if you have artifices such as this then traversal of a globe would be quite manageable.”
“You are quite perceptive,” I said, not wishing to elaborate.
“A great performer knows his audience,” said Edhel with a charming, honest, almost human smile.
I felt a pang of homesickness as an intrusive thought reminded me that I could have gone to a real college surrounded by friendly faces my age, engaging in nightly holostreams and dreaming of adventures in the stars from the safety of a college dorm room. The sight of Illunor in the rear camera was the only thing that kept me grounded, as I almost felt like I was back at home on a road trip rather than returning to a fantasy feudal court, constantly evading death at every turn with the fate of humanity on the line. As such, and prompted by EVI, I barely had the wherewithal to take the planned detour.
A fact which did not pass by Edhel.
“I believe you may have taken a wrong turn, Emma,” he commented.
“Nah, I’m just taking the scenic route. I came from that direction on the way here, and you have inspired me to see the other road and I figure it should only add a few extra minutes to our travel time,” I said, gesturing at a paper map which I had referenced exactly once, “though on that subject, you seem to know these lands quite well. Do you have any recommendations on places to visit in the Nexus to scratch that itch?”
Illunor raised his eyebrow at the detour excuse, knowing full well this was not part of the plan. I worried that he might complain about the issue and but thankfully remained silent as he snacked on the contents of the misused sample storage unit. Edhel himself took on a more pensive posture.
“I’m happy to have been such an inspiration, Emma, though I am sure an explorer such as yourself has little need of such. I would normally suggest the skyward fountains of Verdellan or the cloud tides of Asturia, but that may be too casual for someone of your calibre. Perhaps the severed chasm or the fire marsh of Bhandahova may be more to your liking. Or perhaps…” Edhel leaned in, “I have heard rumours of a dragon in the glassy obsidian wastes of Vurcanar.”
I chuckled at that, knowing how I was fortunate enough to fish a dragon scale out of the nearby lake for the ECS. “The thought of going dragon hunting had certainly crossed my mind…” I mused aloud.
“Yet you sound hesitant. Perhaps it is too much for a newrealmer. Perhaps a slime or a dire rat might be more appropriate,” he said with a tease.
“No, it’s not like that! It’s” I stammered, before attempting to change course after realizing I had been goaded, “what I mean is, I was under the impression that dragons were an endangered species. Where I come from, hunting endangered animals is usually illegal, and big game hunting in general is frowned upon. We do make exceptions in the case of problem animals such as if a large predator starts hunting humans, but as a rule we prefer conservation and try to find ways of coexisting with wildlife such as the use of barrier fences and scaring away dangerous animals rather than being forced to cull their numbers. Having a species go extinct would prevent future generations from appreciating them and risks destabilizing the ecosystem they are a part of. Now if this dragon was actively razing villages and eating civilians and livestock, that would be one thing, but this does not look to be the case. I don’t imagine the Nexus has any settlements in this wasteland, and the dragon clearly wants to be left alone. Killing an innocent dragon would be murder.”
I grinned to myself after delivering a diatribe that would have made my tenth grade social and environmental studies teacher beam with pride, though by the expressions of my passengers my view did not appear to be shared. Edhel’s mouth was agape in shock and fascination, while the Venurian in the back seat merely huffed in disapproval.
“I assure you Newrealmer, there are no innocent dragons,” stated Illunor with a hint of terseness breaking through his otherwise regal demeanor.
“Illunor, I understand that Venurians have personal reasons for not liking dragons, but you can’t just extend that disdain to their descendants or those uninvolved just because they are the same species,” I said.
“If I may interject on your behalf, my lord, I believe I can address Cadet Emma Booker’s concerns,” said Edhel with a bow. Illunor nodded in approval.
“Very well, you may proceed,” he said.
“Thank you, my lord. My dear Emma, you must understand that dragons are not simple animals driven entirely off of instinct as it appears to be the case in Earthrealm. They are monsters. Intelligent, long-lived, violent, greedy, cruel, territorial, selfish flesh-eating monsters. They are evil by the very nature of their being, unable to change by their own accord, and unwilling to change when His Eternal Majesty offered them freedom from their nature. It isn’t that they want to be evil. As intelligent animals – intelligent monsters – dragons are capable of understanding morality, and many have tried to overcome their evil nature at great expense to themselves. A well intended and noble sentiment, yet a doomed one as like all animals, they all succumb to their nature in the end. Overcoming one’s nature is impossible,” said Edhel. His eyes took on a stoic, almost remorseful gaze as he spoke, and Illunor nodded with approval.
I was appalled by this claim, not by the contents so much as how blatantly false it was. As a representative of the human race, I was a living counterexample to his whole argument. We had remained physiologically unchanged as a species since the last Ice Age, and yet in spite of that, in spite of our many flaws, we had found peace and balance. If we could do it, anyone could do it.
“Will all due respect Edhel, that is nonsense. Monsters aren’t born, they are made. It is the mark of any intelligent species can adapt their behaviour to their environment for better or worse, and under the right care any so-called monster can grow to be a force for good,” I began, but while I searched for the right words Edhel shook his head.
“I appreciate your race is an empathetic one, Emma, your idealism is unfounded. As flesh eaters, a dragon must take the life of another animal or person to survive, or they will perish. As such, every dragon has taken a life. As long-lived creatures, they will have amassed a significant number of kills. As the land can only support so much animals, a dragon must be fiercely territorial and aggressive to remove competition, lest they starve. As such, even the most kind-hearted dragon alive must be violent and greedy, and their intelligence fuels this even more so if they know a bountiful land of morsels exists just outside their range.
Now perhaps a multitude of dragons may find a way to co-exist together in some settlement, but to support such a venture would require a large territory of prey, or a livestock animal. Perhaps they could support a large colony by farming grain for their livestock, but that would require effort on their behalf. As large animals, such efforts require a great deal of energy. Yet that size makes it easy for them to intimidate smaller races to do their labour for them, and to keep their client race in line dragons must be cruel. And even so, as their numbers grow so do their needs. As such, they must expand into the lands of their neighbours to survive until there is nothing left to devour, at which point they must turn against their own lest they starve. As such, it is the nature of dragons to conquer and devour. That is why there is no such thing as an innocent dragon,” finished Edhel.
I was speechless, not because I believed Edhel had a point, but because I was horrified at how easy he found it to rationalize the extermination of an entire sapient species. If this was how the elves thought, then it wasn’t the dragons who were the monsters. I suppressed that dark thought. Edhel’s thought process was a product of his culture, not a feature of his elven heritage. If there was any hope of peace between our people, I needed to show him there was another way of being. I needed to prove that co-existence was possible, no matter one’s nature.
I took a deep breath to steady myself before replying.
“That- that is a callous way of seeing things,” I began, though the shock was still there in my voice, “you speak as though there is no natural equilibrium with a dragon, that their only state of being must be to be cruel, to devour, to conquer. But I see things differently. In fact, I might wonder if a fledgling civilization might see the presence of a dragon as a boon rather than a curse. Being intelligent, the locals may be able to come to some agreement with the dragon. Perhaps they might leave some land as a hunting ground or offer up a share of their cattle or guard the dragon as it sleeps. In exchange, the dragon might allow them to build a town outside its mountain and protect them in times of danger. An equitable exchange. A civilization might even create artificial lairs to attract dragons for this very reason. True, some dragons may behave tyrannical towards their town, but a well armed populace of a large city would be more than capable of fighting such a threat, and a rational dragon might reason that threatening their own populace would put their reliable source of food and shelter at risk. You see, it’s all a matter of perspective.”
“You certainly are an imaginative one, Emma, to wonder up a quixotic world where the hare and the fox live together in harmony as equals. Even so, you seem to have ignored one key detail to such a society. What would happen should the dragon not be fed for months on end?” Asked Edhel with his eyebrow raised.
“The same thing as stranded a dozen starving, stranded Elves!” I spat back.
[Alert: Vehicle speed above recommended limit for conditions. Recommendation: slow down. ]
“I am driving slow!” I seethed, not realizing I had sped up with manual control enabled.
“I grow tired of this common prattle,” interjected Illunor just in time to prevent an awkward silence, “bard, play us another song.” “As my lord wishes,” said Edhel with a bow before turning to me with another smile, “perhaps a more soothing melody would be in order? A love song perhaps, to honour Cadet Booker’s compassionate nature?”
I said nothing as Edhel began to strum his lute again to the tune of a love story of a pair of doomed lovers named Ramian and Junette, hating his cheeky knowing grin that only served to get under my skin further as I focused on calming down and slowing the car back to a more reasonable pace before investigating a priority alert which I had been blinded to moments prior.
[Alert: hostile roadblock is absent, location unknown.]
Shit.
“Illunor, we may have a problem,” I said.
“Shush, Newrealmer, have you no class? We are almost at the best part! I’m sure it can wait,” replied the contextually clueless lizard.
I had never wanted to throttle Illunor as much as I did now.
“Illunor, shield, now,” I said with a raised voice.
“I don’t see-“ he started, pausing mid-sentence as his ears perked up.
[Alert: Multiple manafield and spell signatures detected!]
I took evasive maneuvers as Illunor tried to piece together a shield spell, fumbling it twice as panic appeared to set in and providing me with a reminder that Illunor was a civilian, not a soldier. A hail of arrows pelted the exterior of the truck, piercing but not penetrating the composite armour. I was tempted to do nothing but just drive away from the arrow fire, but a foreboding premonition of danger filled me as I recalled Sorecar’s hunter-seeker arrows.
Seeking to avoid that fate, I triggered the active defenses.
The smoke screens deployed around the vehicle, obscuring the sight of any who depended on visible light to see me. A barrage of decoy flares equipped with wooden cores shot upward at angles and diffusing to the side like a pair of giant wings which when combined with the MFD, short for mana-field dampener, inside the vehicle meant that the pelting hail of arrowfire softened to a whirr as the arrows whiffed over the top of the truck, retargeted away from the soft flesh of my passengers and even invoking friendly fire amongst the ambushers.
In the chaos, EVI and my drone swarm fed me complete tactical information on the ambush. Of the 26 individuals at the first blockade, 20 were accounted for, and 3 had died from friendly fire. Ahead at the bridge, 5 more of them were at the bridge where a barrier had been hastily erected to cage me in as the river valley was too deep to cross.
“Illunor, we need a bridge,” I said, taking stock of the wellbeing of my passengers.
The bard was huddled down low and suppressing his manafield, but otherwise rather composed. Illunor, on the other hand, was cowering in the gap between the seats with his hands covering his eyes and his tail tucked in.
“A bridge is no small request, Ne- Cadet Emma Booker,” replied Illunor, “and your ‘Emeffdee’ has blinded me to the outside of this moving death trap.”
“If I drop it, can you at least make a ramp?” I asked as I circled the battlefield. Or tried to, at least, as earthen ramparts emerged from the ground from a yet unseen source to cut off other avenues of escape.
“A ramp? Surely you don’t mean-“ he stammered.
“Yes or no,” I said.
Illunor paused, before taking an unsteady breath.
“Yes. But not with that Emeffdee,” he replied.
“Good. Steady your nerves and prepare to make a ramp ahead of us on my signal,” I said, “in the meantime, get your seatbelt on. This is going to be hairy.”
As I circled around to make my approach on the bridge, the final combatant made his appearance on a nearby tree, revealing himself as an elven mage. An alert focused on the air around him indicating he was preparing an unknown high-tier spell, and I locked the predator drone on him indicating the elf as a high-priority target if our escape plan failed, and I was forced to use lethal force.
If I was forced to kill.
It was one thing to know you may have to kill in the line of duty, but it was much harder to reconcile that with reality. No number of simulations could match the real thing, and a part of me wanted to simply offload the responsibility to EVI to keep my hands clean, but to do that would be betraying my duty as a human being. I breathed in deep and tried not to think about it, instead hoping to rely on the ace I held in my sleeve instead.
“EVI, ready the spell jammer,” I said unevenly.
“Acknowledged, the prototype Exo-Radiation Wave-Field Distruptor is primed. High risk target identified and locked, permission to engage?” EVI asked, forcing me to address the dreaded question.
“Negative,” I replied, “hold your fire. If the ramp fails, then you have permission to engage,” I said.
“Affirmative, on your mark,” replied EVI.
I lined up the truck with the bridge and bolted through the smoke, keeping a careful eye on the mage as I went. His spellform took on a more concerning shape as I accelerated, and I realized I could not afford to let him finish his spell. I triggered the spelljammer.
A terrible roar erupted from an array of speakers printed from mana-resistant materials that would have made Godzilla herself beam with pride. The sound was decidedly unnatural, gnarly, dubstep drop composed of an electric eel, a whale, a mountain lion, and a tyrannosaurus rex all being simultaneously assaulted by a swarm of angry cybernetic murder hornets as an equally chaotic wave of mana blasted outwards from the exterior of the truck, with the interior thankfully sheltered by audio and mana dampening.
The ambushing assailants cowered and panicked, and it was enough to cause the Elven mage’s spell to backfire in his face as his form exploded into ashes, meeting a horrific fate which I had tried so desperately to help him avoid. With all the combatants momentarily incapacitated or dead, I lowered the dampener and turned off the smoke.
“Ramp!” I shouted, snapping the lizard back to reality.
The Venerian nodded and hastily formed an earthwork ahead of us right before the blockade, and the truck leapt off the ramp with a not insignificant amount of air beneath our wheels. I braced for impact, regretting skimping on the shocks in the name of preserving materials, but the impact never came.
[Alert: Friendly spell designated ‘Feather Fall’]
Illunor thankfully had enough wherewithal to gently land the steel brick, and I sped off into the distance away from the trap that had unfolded behind us, leaving the interior of the truck in an awkward silence as we each processed our brush with death in our own way. “How many are dead?” I asked EVI.
“6 hostiles confirmed dead,” replied EVI.
I drove on in silence. Those were six deaths I had tried to avoid, and I became lost in thought as I wondered what I should have done differently to avoid the confrontation entirely.
Edhel broke the silence with a bout of laughter.
“Terrific! Absolutely terrific! Why, I can conjure up many a tale from this encounter alone! I live for this kind of inspiration!” Exclaimed Edhel a little too chipperly considering the circumstance.
“I would rather not hear stories about how I bravely ran away,” I moaned in deadpan sarcasm.
“You think too little of yourself, Cadet Emma Booker. It is plain to me that you are no ordinary rabbit. Make no mistake, I see it as a privilege to bear witness to the roar of a vorpal hare!” Said Edhel as he supressed his laughter, “though I am afraid with all the excitement that I must finish my song some other time.”
“How about I play some of our music?” I offered after the elf revealed his thrill-seeking side.
“Splendid, I would like that. Perhaps something of your ‘Roadtrip playlist’ you speak of? It sounds like a collection of your voyages,” said Edhel.
“That would be an improvement on the truth,” said Illunor dismissively as he eased from his state of shock, “it is little more than noise under the pretense of music.”
“Illunor…” I muttered to myself before turning the mic on, “no, no it’s not like that. I have terabytes of pre-recorded songs from various artists back home which can be played by… an artifice called a speaker. A playlist is a set of songs which are grouped together, usually to listen to in specific situations such as studying, partying, or travelling. The latter collection is what Illunor is referring to.”
I very deliberately chose not to reveal my ‘Unfortunate Daughters’ playlist.
“An artifice which plays music, and a magicless one at that. I must say, Emma, I fear for the bards in your realm,” said Edhel with a laugh.
“Your fear is misplaced, Edhel. Entertainers live like kings where I come from,” I retorted with a smirk of my own, “well, the ones with talent at least.”
“Well, well, I suppose I have to hear my competition!” Said Edhel with a laugh.
“Do as you must, though let it be known that I warned you,” said Illunor as he watched a play on his sightseer.
I had EVI compile a list of songs that left out content offensive to Nexian sensibilities or violating OpSec and as it compiled I mused over what type of sample spread I wanted to show off. Then it struck me. What better way to show off our culture than with some good old blue jumpers and nova rock! Sadly, jumpers were unavailable to show but I still had a whole list of modern artists to choose from.
Moments later, the car speakers sprung to life to the tune of ‘Innocent Youth of Mine. Edhel’s eyes lit up like a child visiting a zero-g gravity park for the first time, seemingly star-struck by the antique electric guitar and the synthesizer-drums in particular.
“What… what is this? I have never heard anything like this!” Proclaimed Edhel.
“Dreadful, isn’t it?” said Illunor, doing what he did best and pretending to hate it.
“Oh there is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own, “this one is called ‘Innocent Youth of Mine’ by ‘Cannons and Poppies’. It’s part of the Nova Rock genre.
“And those strange instruments?” Asked Edhel.
“Oh, you mean the electric guitar and the synthesizer. They are electronic instruments, taking advantage of channeled and modulated electricity to create near any sound we can imagine,” I replied.
“Channeled electricity… are you suggesting these sounds were made by some form of lightning?” Asked Edhel.
[Suggestion: Avoid topic of electricity due to OpSec risk]
I nodded at EVI’s warning, thankful that it caught me before I discussed the very thing that all of my equipment ran on.
“It’s not exactly lightning, but close enough,” I said.
“If I had not witnessed to your display of power earlier, I might have perhaps been more skeptical of such a claim, but I suppose a lady must keep her secrets.” said Edhel with a raised eyebrow and chuckle, “but I digress, this music is most interesting.”
“There is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own.
“If I ever have a prisoner in need of torture, I will turn to you first,” replied Illunor, “if you are willing to subject your peers to this madness then I cannot imagine what you would force upon your enemies before dunking them in ice.”
“In your dreams,” I retorted.
I played a few other songs including Astrodesee’s ‘Meteor Struck’, the Martian classic ‘Hotel Cydonia’ and even ‘Switching to Warp’ before Elaseer emerged from the distance, and I pulled up outside the gate to drop Edhel off.
“Here already?” Asked Edhel.
“Well, yeah. I was just running a quick errand, I didn’t want to go too far,” I replied casually.
“That was a distance worth at least five days of walking by foot, and you call that a ‘quick errand’?” Asked Edhel. I shrugged, and he laughed.
“Well in any case, thank you for allowing me passage in your car. I must apologize for my lack of gift or payment…” said Edhel. “Don’t worry about it, it was on the way,” I replied.
“I see, how generous. Perhaps we might one day meet again?” Asked Edhel.
“Maybe, but I’m not sure how likely that is. The academy takes up most of my time,” I replied, “though you never know. I still have a lot of quest hours to complete.”
“Is that so? In that case, I hope we meet again! Goodbye Cadet Emma Booker and farewell Lord Illunor Rularia,” he said. “And good travels to you, bard,” said Illunor.
I waved off Edhel and drove back to the academy, Illunor still sulking in the back seat.
“Perhaps next time, you should steer us away from danger?” Suggested Illunor.
“I tried, but we were tracked,” I replied.
I groaned inwardly at the additional work needed to fix the truck. EVI compiled a list of upgrades for future engagements, batting away my idea for a ‘turbo mode’ and a ‘jump boost’. Though at the end of the day, meeting the bard wasn’t a complete loss. It felt good to talk to someone almost normal for once, and I hoped I met him again.
Edhel Redoehdelnif
I watched as Cadet Emma Booker’s vehicle went off into the distance, getting one last look at the Earthrealmer’s strange artifice before turning towards the gate. The voyage was an exotic experience, not unlike that of a fever dream or a peak into a world completely alien to my own. Indeed, it was a struggle to contain my excitement and enthusiasm and process the experience rationally as I made my way through the southern gates of Elaseer and turned the corner of an alley before entering an impossible structure that did not exist.
“You are earlier than expected,” said the shadowy figure of my handler as I made my way to the meeting hall.
“The Earthrealmer’s means of transportation proved far more expedient than anticipated, my lord” I spoke as I knelt before him, “even with her unexpected departure from the anticipated road and the ambush we traveled for scantly more than an hour.”
“Yes, I will require a full report from you. Perhaps you can shed some light on the ‘smoke dragon’ my men claim intervened on the Earthrealmer’s behalf,” said my handler.
“Smoke Dragon, my lord?” I asked.
My handler responded by activating his sight-seer, revealing how the ambush had appeared from the outside. The Earthrealmer’s uncanny artifice traversed down the road, a pair of manafields displaying proudly from within until the archers began their assault. The artifice then transformed as smoke billowed out from its pores and wings sprung forth above until it was the form of a mighty wrym with a pair of glowing eyes springing forth from its ever extending head where it then gave forth a terrible unholy roar which sent waves of mana outward. The mage working to seal the area and trap their mark vapourized in an instant as his spell backfired. It was apparent to Edhel that his exceptional experience in the carriage was merely a muted rendition of the events unfolding around them.
It would seem the hare had the shadow of a dragon.
“I do have some insight, though I must confess the Earthrealmer did very little in the way of direct action. I suspect she has some unseen means of commanding and scrying through her artifices,” I said, “one which does not utilize magic as we know it.”
“Such a statement is heresy,” said my handler, “but such special circumstances are your reason for being. I will require you submit your memories for verification. What is your appraisal of the new realmer?”
“The girl is far more dangerous than a surface appraisal would suggest, though she prefers to conceal that power rather than utilize it out of a misplaced sense of compassion. Her people appear to have a boundless creative drive through which such artifices are birthed, though again it is misdirected towards more common applications. I believe that if properly tamed, this human animal may provide us with great works of art,” I said with a bow.
“I see. Does the girl know you work for us?” Asked my handler.
“She may harbour some suspicions, though did not voice them outright beyond concealing her knowledge,” I said, “though nothing significant. Provided our next meet is under believable circumstances such as a festival she should view me as cordial.”
“She has indeed proven clever,” conceded my handler, “very well, I will make arrangements for your paths to cross again. Perhaps I will arrange for her to be a contestant at the next inter-academy tournament. In the mean time, prepare your report and don’t wander far. This is a priority assignment.”
“As you wish, my lord,” I said with a bow and a smile.
Emma Booker had proved to be an interesting animal indeed, and I hoped our paths crossed again.

Greetings all you folks, and first of all let me tell those all of you who still play this amazing game in 2024 and use the REAL decks not the Oblivion Gates brain-lacking nonsense, you guys are AWESOME!
Coming back to game after a couple of years break (I did rage quit after the last expansion followed by the shutdown, which means my beloved game was left in absolutely broken state, where 4 out of 5 games I would face the brainless and completely boring Invade decks...) I see the online is still active and there seem to be way LESS Invade decks to be played (I guess the kids who played them just got bored and left?) But unfortunatelly they still do happen pretty often. Normally I would just concede once the opponent Invades, or rope them if I'm in them mood, but still it is frustrating.
So I recall there used to be some rumours, that there would be new servers for this game, I think in Asia. Did this ever happen? Or any other way, is there some way to play TESL with all the expansions but the very last, so without the Oblivion Gates decks? I don't even mind paying for it and start collecting cards from scratch, I just want to enjoy this superb game without being annoyed by the Invade decks.
Appreciate all information, and may you all walk on warm sands!

I (19F) have been with my boyfriend (18M) for almost 2 years now. We met when we were both in high school and a friend introduced us together and eventually it became something more intimate. In some point of my life, I was kick out of my parents house and now living with him at his parents’ house, but that’s a different story. Don’t worry guys, his parents are very supportive and offered me to stay with them until me and my boyfriend find a place on our own.
Our relationship right now has been a little rocky here and there, only because I believe the honeymoon phase is over and part of that reason is because we’re living together now. I’m not saying it’s bad or toxic or whatever, we just have some disagreements and argue from time to time but nothing really major. My boyfriend is a great and mature man for his age, he’s been working hard and raising money for the both of us so he hasn’t been treating me bad at all.
But here’s the problem.. So I actually don’t have many friends anymore after high school because we eventually just drift apart, but my boyfriend on the other hand has a group of friends that he still hangs out with. And yes, I have met most of his friends and they’re really nice, most of them say hi to me when we see each other out in public. But there is this one friend who just kind of seems like they have a problem with me. Let’s call this friend, John. I met John when my boyfriend, myself, and his friend group were at the park skipping class and just playing card games together. We talked for a little bit and he seemed nice and cool so I just thought he was just simply some nice dude. But I was wrong. After i graduated, I had to look for a warehouse job because I wasn’t on my parents’ insurance anymore and I ended up working for some warehouse bakery factory. During that time I work there, I had bumped into John. We saw each other and just said “oh my god, you work here too??!” Blah, blah. So from there, I figured every time I see him, I might as well just be nice and say hi to him. John works 3rd shift while I work 2nd shift. So when leaving to go to my car, I always see him on the way and just simply wave or say hi. John only greeted me once and then never said anything back. I figured he was just grumpy because he didn’t want to go to work. But soon, he just totally ignored me in total.
Have I talked to my partner about this? Yes, yes I have. And you know what he said? He said “John doesn’t want to speak to you because he’s doing it out of respect” Respect of what exactly? It’s not like I’m trying to flirt with him or anything, I am simply trying to say hi to him. So this actually made me angry because John is an 18 year old man who can’t simply say hi to me? Sounds like someone who’s just ignorant and rude. I explain to my boyfriend and even said “baby, I bet you’re like that too. If someone comes up to you right now and asks if you have a girlfriend, you would ignore them too right?” I know, I know. Some of you girls want your man to do that. But you have to look at their perspective, they don’t know your man isn’t single, it’s better for them to say “I have a girlfriend” and most of the time they apologize and move along. And if they don’t, then your man can ignore, insult, or do whatever you want to them. But I digress, I called out my boyfriend for that and he just only said “I’ll say that next time” and he’ll talk to John about it. So I just left it like that.
Until today, I was going through my stuff while he was laying down on the bed looking for houses for us. He came across a house with 5 bedroom and jokingly said “omg baby we should have roommates” and then I said “yeah but all our roommates is gonna be boys” which he mentions “oh yeah, John, he can stay with us because he can afford it.” I look at him with the ‘are you fucking serious look?’ And mention I didn’t like John after he just straight up ignored me. My boyfriend then proceeded to tell “baby, he has money.” And that’s where he fucked up. I took that as ‘who cares about your feelings, money matters.’ So from there, I started spitting out the meanest things, like to the point where i suggested for my ex to come stay with us because he also has money too. My boyfriend is good guy and told me he didn’t mean it like that and he actually said “I’m not on John’s side at all. I think what he did was wrong and yes, he should apologize for it, I’m just trying to understand why you’re holding this grudge on him for so long?” I explain to him because it hurts me that I’m just doing something so simple and now being ignored just because I’m labeled as “the girlfriend we don’t mess with.” The reason why I want to be comfortable with his friends so that way it wouldn’t be so awkward and I have some help like figuring out my boyfriend’s birthday present. Especially John. Since he is the closest friend to my boyfriend. I’m not trying to be friends, I’m not trying to flirt with them, I just simply want the awkwardness to go away. But part of the reason, why I was arguing with my boyfriend because deep inside I told myself ‘my boyfriend is on John’s side because they’re exactly alike.’ My boyfriend eventually gave up and said “whatever, hate him all you want.” Because I just kept saying nonsense.
We made up after a little bit of silence. But for some reason, I’m still a little upset about this and is crying while typing this as we speak. But what do you guys think? Am I over exaggerating about this and should let go of my hate for John? Or should I talk to my boyfriend more about it?

ೃ༄🐛ೃ༄ introduction ೃ༄🐛ೃ༄

if you are involved in the shifting community, you may have seen the mention of some sort of 'lifa app' with no explanation as to what it is. sometimes, in scripts, it will say stuff such as...
'when i shift to this reality, i will have a lifa app to check in on my cr self and it cannot be deleted or destroyed.'
but what is the app that everyone is talking about? is it an actual app or sort of app in another reality that everyone just knows of?
in this post, i will be explaining the lifa app as a full guide of how to use it. its features, and what it is.

༊·˚🌿 what is the lifa app? ༊·˚🌿

the lifa app is a reality shifting based app that lets you keep track of your dr or multiple drs in literally every way imaginable. from the time it is to your memories. it even gives you diary entries for yourself. it is meant to be used as a tool to help shifters keep track of all of their information about them and their dr. it also allows a gateway to meet other shifters like yourself and shift with them to the same reality.

｡･ﾟﾟ･ 🥞 🥯 features 🥯 🥞 ･ﾟﾟ･｡

the lifa app has many features. the main ones you can see first are dr details, visualizations, group shifting, sharing.
let's go over each feature one by one.

: ̗̀➛ dr details

the first thing that you will get when you are greeted by this an i icon that says about this dr. when you click on it, you are able to type the location and a background story about your desired reality.
: ̗̀➛ time
this feature allows you to add a time and date to your dr. time will pass the same as it does here. for example in my dr, it is currently november 19, 2130 and is 1:47 pm. i chose to freeze time in this dr and submitted it.
: ̗̀➛ theme
this holds the name of what your dr is called, the icon it has, and the background of it when you click on the app. you can also choose the font color and a background tint as well. it also holds your name in your dr.
: ̗̀➛ timeline
you are able to establish a timeline of your desired reality before the point that you shift. i recommend keeping it brief to the important stuff. main instances of childhood and things that you remember with the same importance as you do now.
: ̗̀➛ notion script
this feature is if you have a script on the website notion script. it is a website in which you can gather and fill in shifting templates and is a great way to organize yourself. this is not necessary though. there are other features you can use for your script on here.
: ̗̀➛ about me
this is just a section where you write all about yourself. your name, your age, nicknames, safe word, height, hometown, ethnicity, race, nationality, sexuality, pronouns, gender, language(s), positive traits, negative traits, habit, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and skills.
: ̗̀➛ relationships
when you enter this tab, it will take you to a screen that has a place where you can add family members, friends, pets, significant other(s) or 'other'. the other tab has you in it.
when you decide to add let's say a friend, you start off by adding their name. then there age, closeness, and appearance. you can follow that up by adding a photo of said friend. you can type in relationship dynamic, how you met, and extra info. the format is the exact same no matter the type of relationship aside from pets.
the pet section is a little bit different. you add their name, age, species, pet bed, size, and about them.
there is also a recorder option where you can move around the placements of these characters.
: ̗̀➛ scenarios
this includes upcoming scenarios that you had planned, past scenarios that you did while in your reality, desired upcoming scenarios that include no date but you want to do or have plans to do. finally, you have memories which has no date. these are things that you will automatically remember when in your dr.
it's just a brief section where you can type in a title and add as much as you want of details of that memory. you can add a photo and select if it has a date or if it is a past memory or not.
: ̗̀➛ calendar
this just has the date of your dr. you can also create events on specific dates. that's pretty much it, this section is short.
: ̗̀➛ diary
you can write diary entires. talk about your day, memories, anything that may make you feel closer to your dr. this section is also short.
: ̗̀➛ playlist
so is this one. you make a playlist. and link the playlist, whenever you open the playlist, you get a new tab that takes you to that playlist to listen. i use it to keep my shifting subliminal playlist, but you don't have to.
: ̗̀➛ hero/villain
this is a tab within a tab so i'm bolding it. the first tab is customize, but that feature is locked behind a paywall with a monthly subscription of $3.99. i will talk about the subscription later.
then you have powers. you type the name of it and what your powers do. you have weapons which have the same explanation as powers. missions means you can make your own missions.
then there is combat skills. you list your strength, speed, agility, intelligence, compatibility, stamina, and flexibility out of five. then you can add your backstory. it's a blank sheet where you can type it out.
next is costumes where you describe what your costume looks like.
ally team includes your team name, how well you work together, specific events and upcoming battles, and other details. you can also add relationships from your relationship section and names of that.
enemy team is relatively the same. a team name, specific events or battles, other details, and can once again, select relationship with each member.
finally, there is timeline which has a title and description. you can also add scenarios if needed.
thankfully, that is thee last feature about dr details and we can now move on to visualizations.

: ̗̀➛ visualizations ‧₊˚🖇️✩

this tab focuses all on the visual aspects of your desired reality. even if you can't visualize, you can still use these to get a good idea on what things will look like.
: ̗̀➛ appearence
you can add a hair claim, face claim, body claim, hand claim, voice claim, and specific features claim. personally, i think that the last one could be explained easily in body or face claim.
either way, when you press one of these tabs, you can type in a detailed description on what you look like. now, i didn't notice at first but all the way at the bottom will be a small section that says add photo to which you can go into your gallery and choose a photo for yourself on that specific claim.
: ̗̀➛ wardrobe
this section will include an area that says wardrobe. you press the giant + sign on the top right hand corner and it takes you to a section that says create wardrobe. all you gotta do is add a title and a description. once you do that, you click on the tab again and then add a photo of a specific outfit of yours. you can add multiple photos, move them around using the recorder option right next to photos.
: ̗̀➛ photo gallery
you can make multiple photo galleries , customize albums of different things relating to your dr.
: ̗̀➛ pinterest boards
here you can add the link to your pinterest board...and a title. that's about it.
: ̗̀➛ wallet
this does not connect to any funds in this reality. it's supposed to keep track of money in your dr. i find this feature a bit dumb tbh and seems to waste more time preparing to shift than actually shifting.
: ̗̀➛ outfits
again, this is the same as wardrobe but more customized. you can add each individual clothing item separately if you wanna do that.
: ̗̀➛ belongings
you add photos and a title of what you own and its sentiment. yeah.
: ̗̀➛ or self
it has a stick figure of you. you list your family, what they're doing, their location, and your action, mood, and location.
: ̗̀➛ music group dr
without paying, you can only add one music group and one album. there is a members tab but you need a monthly subscription in order to access it.
i use this feature in one dr to describe my favorite band to listen to and an album i like. if you wanna add more than one album, then you also need to pay,
: ̗̀➛ school app
this is a doozy and has multiple tabs so this will be rapid fire.
you have your student i.d. report card, schedule.
schedule contains period, subject, and teacher. your school in your dr. you can add a photo, location, mascot, colors, class song, traditions, and history of your school.
you can also add your school uniform if you have one. this includes daily uniform and gym uniform. you can add a school map and a yearbook (????????)
again, these are fine i think but the yearbook seems unnecessary, just script who is in your class with you.
also there's a teacher mode but you can only access that with payment.
: ̗̀➛ chat
you can make a chatroom. and roleplay as every single member in that chatroom...for some reason. i don't need to repeat myself here, you already know what i'm going to say.
: ̗̀➛ chat ai
this is locked behind a paywall. just use character ai, it's free and you don't have a limit of 200 messages per day.
: ̗̀➛ family tree
for some reason you can't add siblings. the only way to add siblings kinda is to make them have the same parents as you on a new family tree.
this is just so not necessary. just write down your siblings in your script. no need for your entire extended bloodline. the universe will figure that out.
: ̗̀➛ places
you add places in your dr.
: ̗̀➛ fame phone
you can make a knock off insta account, twitter account, a wikipedia, and a youtube. again, not needed. just shift. also the settings and notifications features are locked behind a paywall.

: ̗̀➛ group shifting

you need to convert your account into an online account. but you can connect with other people and plan to shift together as a group. for those that don't know, group shifting is where you and one or more people collectively decide to shift to the same dr as different people and basically share an experience in that dr.

: ̗̀➛ sharing

the exact same thing as above. except this time you can just share your dr. you need an account to access this feature. it can give others ideas on scripts, drs, or anything else of the sort. it can be a great way to connect with others.

𓍯𓂃ᥫ᭡.🩹 final thoughts 𓍯𓂃ᥫ᭡.🩹

i think some of its features are helpful! however, other parts of it can be very distracting from shifting. i almost felt like this was an oc maker rather than shifting app. some of these i think didn't need so many features. the amount of features there are is crazy. the features section alone i needed to divide into several sections because it took so much longer to get through than i initially thought. it took about two hours to review each of them and i had to take breaks in between. to a new shifter especially, this would be so overwhelming.
you don't need face claims, body claims, or special features claims. as long as you have a general idea of what you and your desired reality is like then you're fine. this is just gonna over complicate shifting and make it seem more fictional in a way. if anything, this makes you less connected to your desired reality since your focusing so much on this one.
it wouldn't be a waste to download it but i wouldn't recommend buying it. but if you do, then more power to you.
please stay safe and happy shifting ᥫ᭡

Is it customary at all locations across the board to greet each individual customer that walks into the cafe? I’m frequently working Bar 1 at my location and I get so focused on making drive-through drinks that I sometimes but rarely greet customers when they walk-in. My manager, one specific shift, and then a regular co-worker always insist that I need to be greeting customers. It frustrates me to be reminded of it, but especially so when I’m clearly busy. And I’ve never had a customer be OFFENDED that they weren’t greeted. They come in, see their mobile sitting on the counter and they thank me for my work, I say they’re welcome, and they leave. That’s as far as my interactions with customers goes when I’m on bar. The only other time I speak to them is when they’ve been standing for a long time and/or they’re staring at me quite intently. So is this actually mandatory or is my location just uptight?

I was looking for some joke greeting cards one evening after seeing a video on Instagram. The card does not stop playing the music after it has been opened and if you tear it open, it spills glitter all over. I accidentally clicked a bogus link instead of one of the reputable companies that sells these cards. To my defense, I was on a business trip that was quite stressful and it was 1am.
I woke up at 6am and saw my order was confirmed and the domain was just nonsense (blstdispse.com). There was an option to cancel the order so I clicked that and was put in a queue. None of the live agents were available so I waited for a response via email. A few hours later I was told the order was already shipped and I couldn't cancel but could get a refund once I received the items. The charge hit my credit card and it was Blast Dispatch in the UK.
A couple hours after that I got a tracking link that showed my package was received in Ferrara, Italy. After 7 days it made it to Venice, Italy. Another day went by and it now shows in Italian Customs. The tracking page is tracking-hub.com and it claims to track 665 couriers. The funny thing is that my "tracking number" is 20 digits long of just numbers. It only accepts "tracking numbers" in that format. I found that I can change the last number and it shows me tracking for other shipments. They are all in the same format of 1) acceptance, 2) left sorting center, 3) received in another city in the same country, 4) in customs in the same country. It never leaves the country and even shipments within a country, it ends up in customs. A shipment from Houston TX to Sacramento involves US Customs on this website.
I am sure they are sending me something, and it's probably just dropship crap. I already got the real card in the mail from the official site so I filed a chargeback with Citibank. 12 hours later I received an email from customer service at blstdispse.com telling me that they have refunded my order. It was only $45 and I knew I had enough evidence to prove to my bank it was a scam. Still surprised I actually placed the order on this shitty site!