The greens apartments glen allen va
TheRiseofSkywalker Rewrite
2023.06.09 22:55 fitterniti TheRiseofSkywalker Rewrite
TL;DR: Should be titled rewriting the whole new trilogy. Basically felt I could do a better narrative job of the trilogy after watching a few in depth critiques on YouTube. Focus was on doing justice to new characters while giving. Epic send-offs to Legacy characters. With a healthy dose of action and wtf moments sprinkled in.
Huge Star Wars Fan as that's one of my fondest memories of my late Grandfather. That and Godzilla. We never missed a showing of any of the films. I wish he were here to watch the new trilogy with me but given how disjointed and incoherent the new films turned out to be, I'm glad he's happy in heaven. Anyhoo. Honestly, I don't think we need to even rewrite these movies too much because they had all the ingredients to begin with. However, here's my painstakingly thought out Re-Write. This took a good part of two hours to write folks. Off the top of my head on a Friday midnight with bare minimum effort. I cannot fathom how a billion dollar studio couldn't afford writers who did not even understand basic setup and payoff, consequences to actions and building suspense and grand setpieces. What an incredibly wasted opportunity. Let me know what you think of my re-write of the plot. Aight. I'm a go cool off my aching fingers in some ice now while you peruse my rambling poorly structured sentences. đ
PART ONE: This remains largely the same. But Rey and Finn fall hard for each other eventually. Kylo is split between the dark and light and genuinely believes the Jedi were the ones in the wrong and wants to bring about balance by destroying both the Jedi and the Sith. Snoke is a major influence. Let him be present and not just a shadow. Good vs Evil yada yada. Kylo hesitates on the bridge scene with Han but something flashes in his mind and makes him grasp a Ruby bracelet on his wrist. Memories of a past he had suppressed. Han notices the turmoil in his son and says "Ben. . ". As he reaches out to embrace his son, the turbulent memories trigger the saber to ignite, killing Han Solo. Kylo accepts his journey to the darkness and gets shot by Chewie. Rey and Kylo stand-off near the end. Except Rey doesn't nearly win. Finn loses a leg or arm in his blinded rage for Kylo killing Han Solo. Kylo is freakishly strong. Rey and Finn are saved by the skin of their teeth as Poe saves their asses instead of some natural calamity. This cements their friendship further. Luke's history is detailed. How he retired. Blah blah. Rey then goes and finds Luke. The end. Oh and btw, Finn has a better relationship with Poe and deeper bond with Han Solo while Rey gravitates intensely towards Leia and is good friends with Poe (but only after Poe's skepticism that she can be a Jedi fades near the end of the plot) This will have a solid pay off later.
PART TWO: Luke begrudgingly allows Rey into his personal space. He also doesn't chuck the light saber but takes it back to his hut and begins to dismantle it. Rey fights him and in the tussle he breaks down and confesses about why he quit. The Jedi had to make a terrible choice in the past. To save younglings and mother's in a distant home base or protect the few hundred fighters they had remaining. The Jedi are left in this tough spot when facing the tyranny of the new order - something they presumed was a remnant of the Emperor's reign but in reality, was a slowly rising menace new to this time in the galaxy. Stuck in between a rock and a hard place, they chose wisely not emotionally. Which is what the Jedi are. They're pragmatic. Not the heroes. Kylo was a Jedi master at this time and not a trainee. He couldn't stand by the orders of the Jedi as his friends and padawans were being mercilessly slaughtered. They saved the future but at the cost of the present. Cue heart wrenching scenes of Kylo disobeying the Jedi, breaking off to save the kids etc., while the Jedi stand their ground defending the military locations. Luke chases after Kylo after feeling that the threat has been handled. He reaches the home base to find a Kylo kneeling in the ruins, ashen remains of younglings around and his padawan in his arms. Luke approaches Kylo as he's giving a monologue about how they had to make the tough choice and Kylo is seething in rage. He crushes the bones of the ashen body, his sadness turning to anger while the Ruby bracelet his padawan used to wear is left behind as the only memory of his closest friend in his hands. He blames the Jedi for this tragedy, calls them monsters and as Luke tries to stop him, a battle ensues between them with Luke almost killing him. This cements both of their positions. Luke, withdrawn and head held down, apologizes to Kylo and tells him that he hopes he understands someday. That great sacrifices are needed sometimes. And that you cannot always save Everyone. In fact. It's only the sith that think along those lines. Luke retires. Realising that this time, they've gone too far. The Jedi have paid a price that cannot be justified in the name of the greater good. He quits and exiles himself while Kylo, seeking answers from the dark side is eventually led to Snoke. Po and Finn (with his new arm/leg) go on more buddy adventures replacing the whole Rose animal saving arc. Snoke wants Rey really bad so we keep that arc and Kylo boards Leia's ship instead of flying around to capture Rey and bring her in. Po and Finn aren't on board so it's free game for Kylo. A standoff ensues with a big fight which ends with Kylo raging about and losing control of his force powers. Blowing everyone in the room out into space. . the shields come on but not fully and Rey is stuck near the edge holding on to Leia with her dear life stopping her from flying off into space. Kylo is climbing up towards Rey and about to put the restraints to capture her. That's when he notices Leia and she looks him in the eyes. She let's go to Rey's horror and as Kylo strikes down in anguish, Rey dodges but he's too fast and slaps on the restraints. Kylo immediately jumps through into space after his mom while calling in ships to rescue them and bring Rey in. Cue scene like the Guardians of the Galaxy Part Two where Quill fails to save Yondu at the end. Leia uses her hidden force powers: NOT to shield herself and Marry Poppins her way into the ship. But to save her beloved son, despite everything. Kylo sheds tears breaking down as he holds his mother, feeling her last breaths through the force. He mutters "Not you. . Not you too". . She whispers "There's still some good in you. . And I see it in her too. . Ben. . Save her, she's . ... .." . . Silence. . as Leia's hand freezes while caressing Kylo's face and she dies. Kylo gets saved by the troopers and they depart to Snoke's lair, letting Leia's body float away into the deep dark nothingness of space. Entombed forever. Rey is tortured by a Kylo who is slowly losing his cool but she resists and puts up a force fight against his mind. Both end up in Snoke's room and the SAME shenanigans ensue. Snoke senses the confusion in Kylo and goes about treating him like a child. Snoke CHIDING Kylo and punishing him now makes more sense. While Rey tries her best to be the good guy and take on Snoke to only be mocked and thrown about. Snoke starts killing the resistance ships in space one by one. His minions have also captured a few of the rebels and brings them to knee in front of them - shock and awe as part of the folks kneeling are Finn and Poe. Here comes a major change and I feel Oscar Isaac would personally love this one. Poe gets a brutal ass fucking death with limb dismemberment etc. while everyone else tries to stop it but gets fucked up by Snoke and his incredible powers. Similar to that Negan scene from The Walking Dead and also makes more sense here as Poe's death in Part One as per Disney's initial plans would've been pointless (insufficient character growth to justify a meaningful death) Even Kylo is not cool with this and tries to intervene because this is too violent and too much but gets ragdolled like a bitch. Snoke even claims that HE was the one who put that distractiom in Kylo's memory, making him pull the trigger on the saber that killed Han. He gave Kylo the perfect memory at the perfect time to give him that one push over the edge. He influenced Kylo's rage, blinding him and making him take his own father's life. Snoke jeers and Kylo and Rey, claiming they're far more pathetic than he thought and they're unworthy of his teachings and presence. Poe is almost done for but being the badass that he is, musters what little strength he has to wink to Rey as she force pushes the blaster into his hands. Born out of pure fucking desperation to save his friends, Poe focuses his last ounce of strength and shoots Snoke straight in the face, blinding him in one eye. Buying just enough time for both Kylo and Rey to reach for the sabers, however, Rey gets hers first and absolutely wrecks Snoke as Finn rushes to Poe Dameron, holding him as he breathes his last. Kylo fends off an entire room of the Red guys 1v6. Rey vs Snoke is going on. Rey taps into the dark side. Juices up. Chops up Snoke and blows him up and as he's dying she still keeps going apeshit on him while Kylo has to step in and restrain her. Even he has a difficult time but manages to reign her in. Snoke dies. So does Poe. Kylo apologizes, saying this isn't how he envisioned things. As he's about to walk off, a sinister voice rises from the darkness beyond Snoke's corpse. Laughter echoing in the chambers as Snoke's remains, a lifelesss mangled corpse floats into the air with electricity arcing from his fingers and eyes. . And the ICONIC DIALOGUE is whispered in a booming growl "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side". . It's fucking Palpatine as a floaty ghosty mother frocker, grinning from ear to ear while Snoke's corpse collapses to the floor and this OMINOUS DEATH looking bastard rises into full frame. . movie ends. . Cut to black đ Palpatine was the one controlling Snoke all along and he somehow survived the atomization and explosions. However, at least here, he is in Ethereal form and not Corporeal so it's easier to digest the fact that a Sith so fricking hungry with immortality and power would manage to continue his existence. . somehow. It's palatable. It's also palpable. It's also. . Wait for it. . Palpa-TINE. . Badum Dish. . Drumroll please. . I got puns for days đ€Ł
PART THREE: Movie starts off like The Two Towers. Zooming shots throughout Snoke's Palace while the sound bytes of the Part Two's climax play through with camera panning into the Throne room as the final moments of Part two play out all over again. Sheer panic and dread has set in. Poe is gone. Snoke is but a puppet in the true sense. Emperor looms over Rey, Finn and a befuddled Kylo who's now questioning everything he ever fought for. Emperor plays with them like they're little ants, frying them, flinging them and ripping off Finn's fake (arm/leg). He's toying with them and torturing them. And just as he's about to do finish them, the massive ass heavy doors to the throne room are flung apart like paper. Standing in the corridor backlit by green is a cloaked figure that whispers "I thought I threw you into the abyss". . As the lightsaber ignites in Glorious Green and the green light cascades onto an incredibly PISSSED OFF Luke Skywalker. "It can't be. You were in exile!" mutters a grumpy Emperor. A ridiculously immense "feat of strength" battle ensues similar to that of Dumbledore vs Voldemort. Both parties pulling out force powers out of their ass in magnitudes that are ripping the ships internals to shreds and endangering everyone else. It becomes a stalemate and they escape with their lives. And now, the "Somehow Palpatine returned" dialogue makes sense, especially when it comes from LUKE's mouth and not frickin Meriadoc Brandybuck. Luke explains to everyone else how Palpatine was an ancient evil he once fought and destroyed with his father Anakin. Everyone's shitting bricks because the Emperor clearly never died in the true sense of the word and has remained busy in the shadows as Snoke, rebuilding his empire, pulling all the strings. That's also WHY EVERYTHING LOOKS AND FEELS THE SAME WITH THE VILLAINS. MOTIFS, VEHICLES, DEATH STARS. BECAUSE ITS THE SAME BAD GUY ALL ALONG. đ Cue a final desperate adventure where Kylo comes to terms with his failures and how he was being misled all along. Sombre scene between him and Luke. He tells Luke "I don't know what to do. I cannot seek forgiveness. I allowed all this to happen. So many lives. I thought I was doing this for the greater good. For the balance. I knew there would be no coming back from this for me. But others could thrive in a new world". . Luke replies.."The greater good. Some of the worst things in the world were started with the best intentions. The Jedi were noble but they were also human. .and flawed.".... ... "All those lives I've taken .. " says an absolutely shattered Kylo Ren.. ..Luke replies. . "Lives that can never be brought back. But you can pay for theirs with the life you own now..We can put an end to it. It's not too late to see it through to the end. .".. ..Luke locks eyes with Kylo "Your mother and father loved you more than anything Ben. As do I". . Luke also tells Ben about how his grandfather, Darth Vader chose to be a father in the end and helped destroy the Emperor, eventually dying as Anakin Skywalker instead. This can lead to the scene where Ben breaks the Darth Vader helmet memento to bits and sheds his own helmet too. Tearjerker scene can follow where Ben Solo has a Skype call with mom and dad force ghosts who also give a cryptic message that he should talk to Luke because Luke has something incredibly important to tell him) - instead of the dumb scene with Han where he's a "memory"?. . Self forgiveness FTW? đ Rey comes to terms with Luke's warning about giving in to the dark side and TRAINS HARDER while Finn baby takes over Poe's mantle and fills in the Ace Pilot spot, wearing Poe Dameron's jacket and colors. Macguffin adventure with Luke Skywalker ensues.
THE GRAND FINALE. Finn leads the way to fight in space and stop the death destroyers. Rey, Ben and Luke go to the ground game to finish the emperor, once and for all. While enroute, Luke sits the kids down and tells them why The Emperor wanted both of them and their powers. They're brother and sister, born as a dyad, a strong bond in the force that was so United, it posed a threat to the fabric of the force itself. This happens once every few generations and they had to separate them during childhood once they figured out that Snoke had sent assassins to capture them. This also makes INCREDIBLE SENSE as to why Han and Leia could not be seen together and why Rey had been hidden away on a desert planet somewhere. Rey's parent is a LITERAL SKYWALKER. Someone she's been talking to all this time and only now finds out that it's her actual mom. Fuck me in the heartstrings. They both break down, mend their differences and get ready for the final fight. The Emperor has grown way stronger. The battle does not go easy. Ben's own soldiers, the Knights of Ren are a menace and nearly bring both Rey and Kylo to their knees. Except. Kylo calms himself down and in a moment of PURE CHEER WORTHY AWESOMENESS, he focuses himself to the point where his SPUTTERING LIGHT SABER BECOMES SOLID STATE LIGHT. A true saber but in all of its red glory. The brother sister duo tap into the force and start fighting together, blending their styles instead of doing their own thing while Luke faces off against the Emperor again. The knights are finished eventually but Luke is not winning at all. The Emperor uses some cheap tricks and tries to one shot Kylo and Rey but Luke gets in front of them taking the full brunt of the hit. As Luke is unable to stop the massive force lighting and starts to disintegrate, he looks back at his niece and nephew, smiles and tells them to look into the force, "You will always find us there". . Luke disappears, the Emperor falters, and his force lightning fades for a brief second. And that's all the siblings needed to make full use of Luke Skywalker's noble sacrifice. They attack with everything they have, exchange banter in between and just as the Emperor launches another Salvo of Force Lightning saying "I am ALL the Sith", Ben and Rey cross their sabers together and block the lightning. While they struggle to keep the lightning at bay, all of the force ghosts appear together as a result of the Dyad fusion, supporting them from behind. The force ghosts light sabers materialise into reality and the duo join them to their own sabers and reflect the lightning back to the Emperor, while saying this quote in return "And we are ALL THE JEDI". Emperor destroyed for good now đ€ . . SOMEHOW. . NO. NO SOMEHOW. HE'S DEAD FOR GOOD.
No awkward, out of the blue cringe fucking kiss scene like between Ron & Hermione after killing the Basilisk. All those ReyLo fans can weep in a dustbin. And the Dyad now makes sense. Every legacy character's death makes sense and has meaning. Each death also is in sequence. Han goes first. Leia follows. And Luke is the last to kick the bucket. Emperor's comeback also makes sense. Somewhat. The ending makes even more sense. Kylo (Ben). Rey. Finn. Reunited. They re-build the Resistance. And also teach a new philosophy of Balanced approach. Neither giving in to the dark side. Nor being blinded only by the light side. A new way forward. Led by the Skywalker genes through the combination of an Organa and a Solo in a new temple. Finn and Rey profess love for one another. And the last scene is her burying the force ghost's sabers in the ground until they're needed.
Years pass. Dry af desert planet. Rey and Finn are building their home. Random ass desert camel lady passes by asking "I've not seen you around here". . Rey replies "We're new here", as she looks down at her pregnant tummy and Finn working on their home in the distance. "What's your name, my dear?" asks the dry as a stick camel lady. . "Rey. . " comes a quick reply . . "Rey who?" Asks the annoying dust bag old lady. . "Rey Organa" . . Says Rey in a contemplative low voice. . Taking a look back at Finn, she smiles and says with a slight tremble . . "and that's my husband, Finn Solo".. "Rey Organa and Finn Solo, from the Skywalker Clan" . . Says Rey with Utmost confidence now in her voice.. The screen fades to black on a sunkissed Rey's face as she is now looking into the future, sure of the legacy she wants to carry ahead.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC GETS LOUDER.
FADE TO BLACK on the Two Suns of Tattooine.
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Huge Star Wars Fan as that's one of my fondest memories of my late Grandfather. That and Godzilla. We never missed a showing of any of the films. I wish he were here to watch the new trilogy with me but given how disjointed and incoherent the new films turned out to be, I'm glad he's happy in heaven. Anyhoo. Honestly, I don't think we need to even rewrite these movies too much because they had all the ingredients to begin with. However, here's my painstakingly thought out Re-Write. This took a good part of two hours to write folks. Off the top of my head on a Friday midnight with bare minimum effort. I cannot fathom how a billion dollar studio couldn't afford writers who did not even understand basic setup and payoff, consequences to actions and building suspense and grand setpieces. What an incredibly wasted opportunity. Let me know what you think of my re-write of the plot. Aight. I'm a go cool off my aching fingers in some ice now while you peruse my rambling poorly structured sentences. đ
PART ONE: This remains largely the same. But Rey and Finn fall hard for each other eventually. Kylo is split between the dark and light and genuinely believes the Jedi were the ones in the wrong and wants to bring about balance by destroying both the Jedi and the Sith. Snoke is a major influence. Let him be present and not just a shadow. Good vs Evil yada yada. Kylo hesitates on the bridge scene with Han but something flashes in his mind and makes him grasp a Ruby bracelet on his wrist. Memories of a past he had suppressed. Han notices the turmoil in his son and says "Ben. . ". As he reaches out to embrace his son, the turbulent memories trigger the saber to ignite, killing Han Solo. Kylo accepts his journey to the darkness and gets shot by Chewie. Rey and Kylo stand-off near the end. Except Rey doesn't nearly win. Finn loses a leg or arm in his blinded rage for Kylo killing Han Solo. Kylo is freakishly strong. Rey and Finn are saved by the skin of their teeth as Poe saves their asses instead of some natural calamity. This cements their friendship further. Luke's history is detailed. How he retired. Blah blah. Rey then goes and finds Luke. The end. Oh and btw, Finn has a better relationship with Poe and deeper bond with Han Solo while Rey gravitates intensely towards Leia and is good friends with Poe (but only after Poe's skepticism that she can be a Jedi fades near the end of the plot) This will have a solid pay off later.
PART TWO: Luke begrudgingly allows Rey into his personal space. He also doesn't chuck the light saber but takes it back to his hut and begins to dismantle it. Rey fights him and in the tussle he breaks down and confesses about why he quit. The Jedi had to make a terrible choice in the past. To save younglings and mother's in a distant home base or protect the few hundred fighters they had remaining. The Jedi are left in this tough spot when facing the tyranny of the new order - something they presumed was a remnant of the Emperor's reign but in reality, was a slowly rising menace new to this time in the galaxy. Stuck in between a rock and a hard place, they chose wisely not emotionally. Which is what the Jedi are. They're pragmatic. Not the heroes. Kylo was a Jedi master at this time and not a trainee. He couldn't stand by the orders of the Jedi as his friends and padawans were being mercilessly slaughtered. They saved the future but at the cost of the present. Cue heart wrenching scenes of Kylo disobeying the Jedi, breaking off to save the kids etc., while the Jedi stand their ground defending the military locations. Luke chases after Kylo after feeling that the threat has been handled. He reaches the home base to find a Kylo kneeling in the ruins, ashen remains of younglings around and his padawan in his arms. Luke approaches Kylo as he's giving a monologue about how they had to make the tough choice and Kylo is seething in rage. He crushes the bones of the ashen body, his sadness turning to anger while the Ruby bracelet his padawan used to wear is left behind as the only memory of his closest friend in his hands. He blames the Jedi for this tragedy, calls them monsters and as Luke tries to stop him, a battle ensues between them with Luke almost killing him. This cements both of their positions. Luke, withdrawn and head held down, apologizes to Kylo and tells him that he hopes he understands someday. That great sacrifices are needed sometimes. And that you cannot always save Everyone. In fact. It's only the sith that think along those lines. Luke retires. Realising that this time, they've gone too far. The Jedi have paid a price that cannot be justified in the name of the greater good. He quits and exiles himself while Kylo, seeking answers from the dark side is eventually led to Snoke. Po and Finn (with his new arm/leg) go on more buddy adventures replacing the whole Rose animal saving arc. Snoke wants Rey really bad so we keep that arc and Kylo boards Leia's ship instead of flying around to capture Rey and bring her in. Po and Finn aren't on board so it's free game for Kylo. A standoff ensues with a big fight which ends with Kylo raging about and losing control of his force powers. Blowing everyone in the room out into space. . the shields come on but not fully and Rey is stuck near the edge holding on to Leia with her dear life stopping her from flying off into space. Kylo is climbing up towards Rey and about to put the restraints to capture her. That's when he notices Leia and she looks him in the eyes. She let's go to Rey's horror and as Kylo strikes down in anguish, Rey dodges but he's too fast and slaps on the restraints. Kylo immediately jumps through into space after his mom while calling in ships to rescue them and bring Rey in. Cue scene like the Guardians of the Galaxy Part Two where Quill fails to save Yondu at the end. Leia uses her hidden force powers: NOT to shield herself and Marry Poppins her way into the ship. But to save her beloved son, despite everything. Kylo sheds tears breaking down as he holds his mother, feeling her last breaths through the force. He mutters "Not you. . Not you too". . She whispers "There's still some good in you. . And I see it in her too. . Ben. . Save her, she's . ... .." . . Silence. . as Leia's hand freezes while caressing Kylo's face and she dies. Kylo gets saved by the troopers and they depart to Snoke's lair, letting Leia's body float away into the deep dark nothingness of space. Entombed forever. Rey is tortured by a Kylo who is slowly losing his cool but she resists and puts up a force fight against his mind. Both end up in Snoke's room and the SAME shenanigans ensue. Snoke senses the confusion in Kylo and goes about treating him like a child. Snoke CHIDING Kylo and punishing him now makes more sense. While Rey tries her best to be the good guy and take on Snoke to only be mocked and thrown about. Snoke starts killing the resistance ships in space one by one. His minions have also captured a few of the rebels and brings them to knee in front of them - shock and awe as part of the folks kneeling are Finn and Poe. Here comes a major change and I feel Oscar Isaac would personally love this one. Poe gets a brutal ass fucking death with limb dismemberment etc. while everyone else tries to stop it but gets fucked up by Snoke and his incredible powers. Similar to that Negan scene from The Walking Dead and also makes more sense here as Poe's death in Part One as per Disney's initial plans would've been pointless (insufficient character growth to justify a meaningful death) Even Kylo is not cool with this and tries to intervene because this is too violent and too much but gets ragdolled like a bitch. Snoke even claims that HE was the one who put that distractiom in Kylo's memory, making him pull the trigger on the saber that killed Han. He gave Kylo the perfect memory at the perfect time to give him that one push over the edge. He influenced Kylo's rage, blinding him and making him take his own father's life. Snoke jeers and Kylo and Rey, claiming they're far more pathetic than he thought and they're unworthy of his teachings and presence. Poe is almost done for but being the badass that he is, musters what little strength he has to wink to Rey as she force pushes the blaster into his hands. Born out of pure fucking desperation to save his friends, Poe focuses his last ounce of strength and shoots Snoke straight in the face, blinding him in one eye. Buying just enough time for both Kylo and Rey to reach for the sabers, however, Rey gets hers first and absolutely wrecks Snoke as Finn rushes to Poe Dameron, holding him as he breathes his last. Kylo fends off an entire room of the Red guys 1v6. Rey vs Snoke is going on. Rey taps into the dark side. Juices up. Chops up Snoke and blows him up and as he's dying she still keeps going apeshit on him while Kylo has to step in and restrain her. Even he has a difficult time but manages to reign her in. Snoke dies. So does Poe. Kylo apologizes, saying this isn't how he envisioned things. As he's about to walk off, a sinister voice rises from the darkness beyond Snoke's corpse. Laughter echoing in the chambers as Snoke's remains, a lifelesss mangled corpse floats into the air with electricity arcing from his fingers and eyes. . And the ICONIC DIALOGUE is whispered in a booming growl "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side". . It's fucking Palpatine as a floaty ghosty mother frocker, grinning from ear to ear while Snoke's corpse collapses to the floor and this OMINOUS DEATH looking bastard rises into full frame. . movie ends. . Cut to black đ Palpatine was the one controlling Snoke all along and he somehow survived the atomization and explosions. However, at least here, he is in Ethereal form and not Corporeal so it's easier to digest the fact that a Sith so fricking hungry with immortality and power would manage to continue his existence. . somehow. It's palatable. It's also palpable. It's also. . Wait for it. . Palpa-TINE. . Badum Dish. . Drumroll please. . I got puns for days đ€Ł
PART THREE: Movie starts off like The Two Towers. Zooming shots throughout Snoke's Palace while the sound bytes of the Part Two's climax play through with camera panning into the Throne room as the final moments of Part two play out all over again. Sheer panic and dread has set in. Poe is gone. Snoke is but a puppet in the true sense. Emperor looms over Rey, Finn and a befuddled Kylo who's now questioning everything he ever fought for. Emperor plays with them like they're little ants, frying them, flinging them and ripping off Finn's fake (arm/leg). He's toying with them and torturing them. And just as he's about to do finish them, the massive ass heavy doors to the throne room are flung apart like paper. Standing in the corridor backlit by green is a cloaked figure that whispers "I thought I threw you into the abyss". . As the lightsaber ignites in Glorious Green and the green light cascades onto an incredibly PISSSED OFF Luke Skywalker. "It can't be. You were in exile!" mutters a grumpy Emperor. A ridiculously immense "feat of strength" battle ensues similar to that of Dumbledore vs Voldemort. Both parties pulling out force powers out of their ass in magnitudes that are ripping the ships internals to shreds and endangering everyone else. It becomes a stalemate and they escape with their lives. And now, the "Somehow Palpatine returned" dialogue makes sense, especially when it comes from LUKE's mouth and not frickin Meriadoc Brandybuck. Luke explains to everyone else how Palpatine was an ancient evil he once fought and destroyed with his father Anakin. Everyone's shitting bricks because the Emperor clearly never died in the true sense of the word and has remained busy in the shadows as Snoke, rebuilding his empire, pulling all the strings. That's also WHY EVERYTHING LOOKS AND FEELS THE SAME WITH THE VILLAINS. MOTIFS, VEHICLES, DEATH STARS. BECAUSE ITS THE SAME BAD GUY ALL ALONG. đ Cue a final desperate adventure where Kylo comes to terms with his failures and how he was being misled all along. Sombre scene between him and Luke. He tells Luke "I don't know what to do. I cannot seek forgiveness. I allowed all this to happen. So many lives. I thought I was doing this for the greater good. For the balance. I knew there would be no coming back from this for me. But others could thrive in a new world". . Luke replies.."The greater good. Some of the worst things in the world were started with the best intentions. The Jedi were noble but they were also human. .and flawed.".... ... "All those lives I've taken .. " says an absolutely shattered Kylo Ren.. ..Luke replies. . "Lives that can never be brought back. But you can pay for theirs with the life you own now..We can put an end to it. It's not too late to see it through to the end. .".. ..Luke locks eyes with Kylo "Your mother and father loved you more than anything Ben. As do I". . Luke also tells Ben about how his grandfather, Darth Vader chose to be a father in the end and helped destroy the Emperor, eventually dying as Anakin Skywalker instead. This can lead to the scene where Ben breaks the Darth Vader helmet memento to bits and sheds his own helmet too. Tearjerker scene can follow where Ben Solo has a Skype call with mom and dad force ghosts who also give a cryptic message that he should talk to Luke because Luke has something incredibly important to tell him) - instead of the dumb scene with Han where he's a "memory"?. . Self forgiveness FTW? đ Rey comes to terms with Luke's warning about giving in to the dark side and TRAINS HARDER while Finn baby takes over Poe's mantle and fills in the Ace Pilot spot, wearing Poe Dameron's jacket and colors. Macguffin adventure with Luke Skywalker ensues.
THE GRAND FINALE. Finn leads the way to fight in space and stop the death destroyers. Rey, Ben and Luke go to the ground game to finish the emperor, once and for all. While enroute, Luke sits the kids down and tells them why The Emperor wanted both of them and their powers. They're brother and sister, born as a dyad, a strong bond in the force that was so United, it posed a threat to the fabric of the force itself. This happens once every few generations and they had to separate them during childhood once they figured out that Snoke had sent assassins to capture them. This also makes INCREDIBLE SENSE as to why Han and Leia could not be seen together and why Rey had been hidden away on a desert planet somewhere. Rey's parent is a LITERAL SKYWALKER. Someone she's been talking to all this time and only now finds out that it's her actual mom. Fuck me in the heartstrings. They both break down, mend their differences and get ready for the final fight. The Emperor has grown way stronger. The battle does not go easy. Ben's own soldiers, the Knights of Ren are a menace and nearly bring both Rey and Kylo to their knees. Except. Kylo calms himself down and in a moment of PURE CHEER WORTHY AWESOMENESS, he focuses himself to the point where his SPUTTERING LIGHT SABER BECOMES SOLID STATE LIGHT. A true saber but in all of its red glory. The brother sister duo tap into the force and start fighting together, blending their styles instead of doing their own thing while Luke faces off against the Emperor again. The knights are finished eventually but Luke is not winning at all. The Emperor uses some cheap tricks and tries to one shot Kylo and Rey but Luke gets in front of them taking the full brunt of the hit. As Luke is unable to stop the massive force lighting and starts to disintegrate, he looks back at his niece and nephew, smiles and tells them to look into the force, "You will always find us there". . Luke disappears, the Emperor falters, and his force lightning fades for a brief second. And that's all the siblings needed to make full use of Luke Skywalker's noble sacrifice. They attack with everything they have, exchange banter in between and just as the Emperor launches another Salvo of Force Lightning saying "I am ALL the Sith", Ben and Rey cross their sabers together and block the lightning. While they struggle to keep the lightning at bay, all of the force ghosts appear together as a result of the Dyad fusion, supporting them from behind. The force ghosts light sabers materialise into reality and the duo join them to their own sabers and reflect the lightning back to the Emperor, while saying this quote in return "And we are ALL THE JEDI". Emperor destroyed for good now đ€ . . SOMEHOW. . NO. NO SOMEHOW. HE'S DEAD FOR GOOD.
No awkward, out of the blue cringe fucking kiss scene like between Ron & Hermione after killing the Basilisk. All those ReyLo fans can weep in a dustbin. And the Dyad now makes sense. Every legacy character's death makes sense and has meaning. Each death also is in sequence. Han goes first. Leia follows. And Luke is the last to kick the bucket. Emperor's comeback also makes sense. Somewhat. The ending makes even more sense. Kylo (Ben). Rey. Finn. Reunited. They re-build the Resistance. And also teach a new philosophy of Balanced approach. Neither giving in to the dark side. Nor being blinded only by the light side. A new way forward. Led by the Skywalker genes through the combination of an Organa and a Solo in a new temple. Finn and Rey profess love for one another. And the last scene is her burying the force ghost's sabers in the ground until they're needed.
Years pass. Dry af desert planet. Rey and Finn are building their home. Random ass desert camel lady passes by asking "I've not seen you around here". . Rey replies "We're new here", as she looks down at her pregnant tummy and Finn working on their home in the distance. "What's your name, my dear?" asks the dry as a stick camel lady. . "Rey. . " comes a quick reply . . "Rey who?" Asks the annoying dust bag old lady. . "Rey Organa" . . Says Rey in a contemplative low voice. . Taking a look back at Finn, she smiles and says with a slight tremble . . "and that's my husband, Finn Solo".. "Rey Organa and Finn Solo, from the Skywalker Clan" . . Says Rey with Utmost confidence now in her voice.. The screen fades to black on a sunkissed Rey's face as she is now looking into the future, sure of the legacy she wants to carry ahead.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC GETS LOUDER.
FADE TO BLACK on the Two Suns of Tattooine.
2023.06.09 22:53 CaliCloudburst Ugh ..how do I endure 3 more months?
So I'm in a very toxic living situation and I've gone to the VA homeless outreach program at my VA hospital. So I went through the assessment and I qualify, but it's going to take about 3 months before I can get into a place. I've seen the apartments and they are GORGEOUS and best yet, they are affordable housing so my rent will be based on my income. My social worker told me that they were luxury apartments but the VA bought them and now are used for veterans who qualify. It's in a great area and I'm very excited, but shoot, how am I going to endure 3 months in my present situation. It's just awful and I'm so eager to move. Does anyone have any tips for getting through this next 3 months without going totally crazy? Anyone who has been in my situation, how did you bide the time until you got into a better space?
submitted by CaliCloudburst to badroommates [link] [comments]
2023.06.09 21:59 P0MP3I1 DCore: The Observatory
Chapter 1: A Dark Room
If somebody would have asked me how I'd like to have died, I wouldn't have picked being turned into a fine pudding by a rogue book cart. I'd spent the last 12 years of my life working in the George Peabody Library, going from a janitor to a full time librarian over my tenure. But one careless mistake was all it took to snatch it all away from me, and not in the most dignified of ways either. I wasn't sure if I was more upset at having my dream job torn from me, or the offer I received post mortem.
My old literary arts professor would have been through the moon to know there was in fact an afterlife. But I couldn't say the same.
Not even a few seconds into my afterlife I was confronted by an being who claimed to be my family's very own guardian angel. He told me my death wasn't fated yet, and that I didn't have to remain in the hereafter should I not wish to. He offered me a simple, if a bit odd, proposition. I could carry on my work as a librarian and more in my very own library, but to do so I had to become a dungeon.
"A dungeon?" I ask the odd being before me.
It nodded. "That is correct. Sadly I am unable to return you to your former life as your time in that world has come to an end, regardless of how prematurely as it was cut short."
I mulled over what the being offered. A chance to not only continue my passion, but to become my passion.
"I accept." I say with a smile.
I can feel the entity radiate a sense of joy as it snaps it's many fingers. I feel myself becoming lighter and my form scatters to dust.
"I'm glad I will be able to watch over you, a little longer." The entity says as everything goes dark.
--- Derelict Building, New Dungeon Manifested ---
I never thought I'd get to open my eyes for the first time, for the second time. But I don't really know how else to put it. I'm no longer floating in a serene space in the heavens, instead I'm staring into a dark and mostly empty room.
Moving really takes some getting use to but after a moment I get the hang of it. I can drift and focus my perspective on a number of rooms in fact, not just the one. I admit to spending more than a few minutes simply careening my sight around the few rooms I have under my control, at least until two things grabbed my attention.
Cat Spawner - Level 1
Slug Spawner - Level 1
The cat spawner was rather unassuming to my surprise, it was just a pile of crates covered in a few old bolts of cloth and a lot of dust. But sure enough a fluffy and healthy looking grey tabby hopped out from behind the cloth and simply began wandering around the room.
"Well aren't you just adorable." I cooed to it, trying to get it's attention.
The cat didn't even seem to hear me as it just kept sniffing and padding around the rather barren room.
"Alright be that way." I sighed in defeat as I shifted my focus a few rooms over to the slugs.
Their nest was far less subtle that the cat spawner had been. Instead of a pile of boxes the slugs already seemed to have a small corner of one of my lower rooms all to themselves. An almost coral like structure was molded into the wall of the room, and a decent handful of slugs were already in the process of slinking about.
The slugs themselves were either a muted blue or a sandy red color, but apart from that I couldn't spot any real differences between them.
I withdrew myself and let the slugs go about their business and was about to look around for other spawners before I noticed a smaller less pronounced presence in the room adjacent to the cat spawner.
Focusing in on it I read the label above it.
Core
It was my core.
And it wasn't much to look at either.
The core was about the size of a coffee bean and shaped in a rough spiralling pattern, it did give off a comforting blue light though. As it sat very exposed on the floor, in the center of the room.
I tried to move it but I couldn't see any way as to how. I tried willing it to move, but it stayed still. I tried to select it like the spawners, but nothing appeared.
Alert - Core In Danger
Snapping my focus from the tiny shard itself I noticed something approaching it... it was a frog?
A small slimy green frog hopped lazily across the floor, and directly towards my core. I began panic as I tried to interact with damn near everything in the room! Despite not having my former body I still had my near crippling anxiety in the face of pressure!
But before the frog could even make it halfway across the room, a cat bolted into the room and practically speedballed into the tiny amphibian. With as much mercy as any cat has towards small rodents the frog had swiftly been dealt with.
As the cat sauntered off once more a small meter appeared just in the top of my few, it just said mana. It was barely anything but at least that frog had generate some mana when it died, and it seemed safe to assume mana was going to be my primary currency going forwards.
Even though it didn't acknowledge me I gave the new black cat that had saved the core a generous mental petting. Focusing back into the cat room I noticed a few more cats had appeared not just the black cat and tabby. I did notice the new cats seemed to almost hear me when I spoke to them, but they still didn't seem to pay me any more attention than a cat normally would. However when I ordered a few of the cats to guard the room with the core, I was thrilled to see two of them actually went into the room and made themselves comfortable on a few old tables in the corner.
I watched them for a while as they ate and stemmed the slow but steadily flowing army of frogs that had slow begun to enter the building I was in, or the building I am? Still wasn't to sure on that.
I didn't have any working clocks or even a sundial in this place, and if not for the light coming in through a few windows I wouldn't be able to tell the time in here. I know I watched the cats for at least a few hours as late afternoon slowly approached. By now I had a decent stock of mana and decided it was time to put all those long hours working in logistics to work.
Now that I had my equivalent of money on hand I was able to actually do things!
The first order of business was upgrading my cats, as I already owed my continued existence to them. With the mana I had gained I made my first purchase in this new life and bought a cat! This one however was a bit different from the rest though, it was bigger and seemed more aware. It gracefully climbed from the boxes of the spawner it's white fur shining in the dim light, and better yet it seemed to glance up towards where my perspective was viewing it from.
"Can you hear me?" I tried asking it.
Of course it didn't say anything back but it's gaze didn't leave me for a few more seconds, then it just went about wandering like the rest of the cats.
Scion Cat - Tama
I'd have to wait a bit to upgrade my slugs as creating my new scion took most of what I had built up, but I wouldn't keep them waiting long. Their own nemesis has arrived, beetles.
I can't says slugs are the quickest things in the world to respond to being attacked, but they do get the job done. The beetles swarm a bit quicker than frogs do, but they are far less durable. The slugs actually seem to have a ranged attack that is perfect to deal with them, they can spit out streams of pressurized water that knock the little pest away like leaves in the wind.
My hyperfixation also gets the better of me again as I spend another length of time just watching the constant game of tower defense between my bold slugs and their chitinous rivals. Of course I have to shake myself from this and I decide to see what my new scion would be like.
I look towards the spawner and notice that it costs a bit more mana to spawn a slug scion than a cat, yet the upgrades for the spawner itself were cheaper.
But that would have to wait I still don't have the mana for it yet, and I may need a few more hours of tower defense before I could.
In the meantime it was time to actually defend my tower, and that started with picking a better spot for my core!
______________________________________________________
This story is a fan created project inspired by - Dungeon Life by Khenal
This story is a personal project and any criticism and advice is welcomed and appreciated, hope you enjoyed!
submitted by P0MP3I1 to HFY [link] [comments]
If somebody would have asked me how I'd like to have died, I wouldn't have picked being turned into a fine pudding by a rogue book cart. I'd spent the last 12 years of my life working in the George Peabody Library, going from a janitor to a full time librarian over my tenure. But one careless mistake was all it took to snatch it all away from me, and not in the most dignified of ways either. I wasn't sure if I was more upset at having my dream job torn from me, or the offer I received post mortem.
My old literary arts professor would have been through the moon to know there was in fact an afterlife. But I couldn't say the same.
Not even a few seconds into my afterlife I was confronted by an being who claimed to be my family's very own guardian angel. He told me my death wasn't fated yet, and that I didn't have to remain in the hereafter should I not wish to. He offered me a simple, if a bit odd, proposition. I could carry on my work as a librarian and more in my very own library, but to do so I had to become a dungeon.
"A dungeon?" I ask the odd being before me.
It nodded. "That is correct. Sadly I am unable to return you to your former life as your time in that world has come to an end, regardless of how prematurely as it was cut short."
I mulled over what the being offered. A chance to not only continue my passion, but to become my passion.
"I accept." I say with a smile.
I can feel the entity radiate a sense of joy as it snaps it's many fingers. I feel myself becoming lighter and my form scatters to dust.
"I'm glad I will be able to watch over you, a little longer." The entity says as everything goes dark.
--- Derelict Building, New Dungeon Manifested ---
I never thought I'd get to open my eyes for the first time, for the second time. But I don't really know how else to put it. I'm no longer floating in a serene space in the heavens, instead I'm staring into a dark and mostly empty room.
Moving really takes some getting use to but after a moment I get the hang of it. I can drift and focus my perspective on a number of rooms in fact, not just the one. I admit to spending more than a few minutes simply careening my sight around the few rooms I have under my control, at least until two things grabbed my attention.
Cat Spawner - Level 1
Slug Spawner - Level 1
The cat spawner was rather unassuming to my surprise, it was just a pile of crates covered in a few old bolts of cloth and a lot of dust. But sure enough a fluffy and healthy looking grey tabby hopped out from behind the cloth and simply began wandering around the room.
"Well aren't you just adorable." I cooed to it, trying to get it's attention.
The cat didn't even seem to hear me as it just kept sniffing and padding around the rather barren room.
"Alright be that way." I sighed in defeat as I shifted my focus a few rooms over to the slugs.
Their nest was far less subtle that the cat spawner had been. Instead of a pile of boxes the slugs already seemed to have a small corner of one of my lower rooms all to themselves. An almost coral like structure was molded into the wall of the room, and a decent handful of slugs were already in the process of slinking about.
The slugs themselves were either a muted blue or a sandy red color, but apart from that I couldn't spot any real differences between them.
I withdrew myself and let the slugs go about their business and was about to look around for other spawners before I noticed a smaller less pronounced presence in the room adjacent to the cat spawner.
Focusing in on it I read the label above it.
Core
It was my core.
And it wasn't much to look at either.
The core was about the size of a coffee bean and shaped in a rough spiralling pattern, it did give off a comforting blue light though. As it sat very exposed on the floor, in the center of the room.
I tried to move it but I couldn't see any way as to how. I tried willing it to move, but it stayed still. I tried to select it like the spawners, but nothing appeared.
Alert - Core In Danger
Snapping my focus from the tiny shard itself I noticed something approaching it... it was a frog?
A small slimy green frog hopped lazily across the floor, and directly towards my core. I began panic as I tried to interact with damn near everything in the room! Despite not having my former body I still had my near crippling anxiety in the face of pressure!
But before the frog could even make it halfway across the room, a cat bolted into the room and practically speedballed into the tiny amphibian. With as much mercy as any cat has towards small rodents the frog had swiftly been dealt with.
As the cat sauntered off once more a small meter appeared just in the top of my few, it just said mana. It was barely anything but at least that frog had generate some mana when it died, and it seemed safe to assume mana was going to be my primary currency going forwards.
Even though it didn't acknowledge me I gave the new black cat that had saved the core a generous mental petting. Focusing back into the cat room I noticed a few more cats had appeared not just the black cat and tabby. I did notice the new cats seemed to almost hear me when I spoke to them, but they still didn't seem to pay me any more attention than a cat normally would. However when I ordered a few of the cats to guard the room with the core, I was thrilled to see two of them actually went into the room and made themselves comfortable on a few old tables in the corner.
I watched them for a while as they ate and stemmed the slow but steadily flowing army of frogs that had slow begun to enter the building I was in, or the building I am? Still wasn't to sure on that.
I didn't have any working clocks or even a sundial in this place, and if not for the light coming in through a few windows I wouldn't be able to tell the time in here. I know I watched the cats for at least a few hours as late afternoon slowly approached. By now I had a decent stock of mana and decided it was time to put all those long hours working in logistics to work.
Now that I had my equivalent of money on hand I was able to actually do things!
The first order of business was upgrading my cats, as I already owed my continued existence to them. With the mana I had gained I made my first purchase in this new life and bought a cat! This one however was a bit different from the rest though, it was bigger and seemed more aware. It gracefully climbed from the boxes of the spawner it's white fur shining in the dim light, and better yet it seemed to glance up towards where my perspective was viewing it from.
"Can you hear me?" I tried asking it.
Of course it didn't say anything back but it's gaze didn't leave me for a few more seconds, then it just went about wandering like the rest of the cats.
Scion Cat - Tama
I'd have to wait a bit to upgrade my slugs as creating my new scion took most of what I had built up, but I wouldn't keep them waiting long. Their own nemesis has arrived, beetles.
I can't says slugs are the quickest things in the world to respond to being attacked, but they do get the job done. The beetles swarm a bit quicker than frogs do, but they are far less durable. The slugs actually seem to have a ranged attack that is perfect to deal with them, they can spit out streams of pressurized water that knock the little pest away like leaves in the wind.
My hyperfixation also gets the better of me again as I spend another length of time just watching the constant game of tower defense between my bold slugs and their chitinous rivals. Of course I have to shake myself from this and I decide to see what my new scion would be like.
I look towards the spawner and notice that it costs a bit more mana to spawn a slug scion than a cat, yet the upgrades for the spawner itself were cheaper.
But that would have to wait I still don't have the mana for it yet, and I may need a few more hours of tower defense before I could.
In the meantime it was time to actually defend my tower, and that started with picking a better spot for my core!
______________________________________________________
This story is a fan created project inspired by - Dungeon Life by Khenal
This story is a personal project and any criticism and advice is welcomed and appreciated, hope you enjoyed!
2023.06.09 21:53 RuariWilliamson Is Celina Coming Up In Duel Links But With a New Dub Voice Actor? Interesting Social Media Post From Emily Bauer Recently
Hi everyone,
I hope you're all well. I thought this might be of interest to fellow dub viewers and Duel Links fans. Emily Bauer Jenness, the dub voice of ARC-V's Bracelet Girls and Ray Akaba, who has already reprised Zuzu Boyle for Duel Links, made an interesting post on her Instagram recently. The post is in the link, but here's the text below:
"VOICE ACTORS AND ANIME FANS Itâs been a really rough road for the voice over industry and for voice actors in the fight for our rights against AI technology.
I was recently asked to voice a character I originated, but I had to turn it down. Why? The company wants to retain the right to use my voice for AI technology. This means they can choose to use my voice at any time for anything. They can Clone my voice, use it for games, commercials, TV shows or movies, AI trainingâŠyou name it, with no permission and no compensation. Effectively putting me out of a job.
If we knew 10 years ago what we know now, actors would have made very different choices about what rights they sign away. Well, here we are, and I am taking a stand.
I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen. I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting.
Much love to my fans. Many thanks to the producers who give us fair contracts. And a big thank you to my fellow actors out there who have and continue to turn down auditions and unfair contracts."
Firstly, to address the obvious if you didn't click the link. The body of Emily's post doesn't specifically mention Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Links, Celina, KONAMI etc. so there's always a chance it's referring to someone else, and I certainly would hope that to be the case. However, the picture Emily used for the Instagram post IS a still of Celina. I'd say that makes it more likely than not the character she's referring to is therefore Celina and it's a Yu-Gi-Oh! project.
Which Yu-Gi-Oh! project would make the most sense? Duel Links. If you watched ARC-V you know Celina is a very logical next addition of an ARC-V character to Duel Links, and if we only get one more ARC-V character this year I think it will be her. We just got Yugo last month and he and Celina debuted around the same time in the show. Yes, some other characters did too but Yuri became more prominent much later on and for Dennis more than half of his cards are still anime only, so if they want to print more of them it makes sense to hold back on Dennis too. Yuri and Dennis make more sense as 2024 inclusions anyway IMO.
That being said, this doesn't mean Celina is coming to Duel Links very soon. We just got Shay's unlock in February and Yugo's last month. So we're probably waiting at least another few months for Celina. We still haven't had our GX slot for the year, and I think we'll get at least one more character each for ZEXAL, VRAINS and ARC-V this year, but we also don't know for definite what the September plans are. So far this year we haven't had a skipped month for an unlock. In previous years either April or May was skipped. We usually get 12-13 new characters a year, so if you think about it, if we get no skipped months this year (including an unlock event in September instead of a new world) we'd still have the same amount of new characters.
Plus, to bring things back to Celina. As someone who has interviewed cast members that worked on Duel Links, both those reprising roles and new VA's taking on roles, they usually record at least a few months in advance of a character being added. I'm sure they record sooner in Japan than the dub does as well, but they record a few months in advance for the dub. A couple I remember off the top of my head are Justin Badger recording for Antinomy in April/May 2020, who was added to DL via a roaming event that July. Noah Benjamin recorded Yuma in June/July that year, who was then added of course with the ZEXAL World launch that September. So, even if Celina is recorded we might not see her in DL for a few months at least.
Of course, that also brings things back to Emily's post. She says: "I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen." It sounds like, whether this is Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina or not, she knows she will be recast. Obviously I'm not privy to details, but it doesn't mean Celina or whatever role it is has been recorded yet, but it could mean Emily was informed she'd be recast. I don't know how long it is between a cast member being contacted to reprise/an agreement being reached etc and their recording, so that's why I said I don't know if the recording is done, but it sounds like Emily knows one way or another she was (or will be) recast.
I've mostly been looking at it from a Yu-Gi-Oh! and Celina perspective but I do have a lot of thoughts on what Emily said, both Yu-Gi-Oh! wise and looking at it from beyond YGO too. First of all, Celina's one of my favourite ARC-V characters and naturally I'd love to hear Emily reprise her for Duel Links. I'll always prefer to hear the original voices reprise and, while I'm not opposed to recasts when needed and understand they sometimes have to happen, I'd always prefer the original voice reprisals. No shade to the Duel Links recasts as a lot of them have been good though.
However, this is also very different if Celina is indeed being recast. For starters, we have an amazing number of characters in Duel Links (over 90 different unlocks I think at this point) and only around 10-15 recasts which is also amazing really. However, we know why very few of the recasts happened. We've only become privy to a few of them. Cassandra Lee Morris choosing to decline reprising Yubel due to a videogame strike at the time. Eileen Stevens saying she decided to "segue out of" (move on from) non union work and become a Union VA and YGO, Pokémon etc are non-union. Sean Schemmel had a rant about being recast as Bronk (later recast as Paradox too) but nothing about why he was recast. He might not know himself as apparently he wasn't even asked to reprise Bronk. Schemmel's a Union VA too so that could've been the reason he was recast. They could risk it once with Crowler, but had to do the weird "Dr Crowler- Dr Crowler" credit where the latter should be the VA's name. Nothing definitive but I think not even trying to get Schemmel again was probably a Union reason.
However, this with Emily would be a first as it's a VA telling us in advance that they might be recast rather than acknowledging why after the fact. Certainly interesting to think about it like that. Again, it might not be Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina related, but I suspect it is since she used Celina as the picture for the post.
My thoughts on what Emily said though are this: I think it's a good thing Emily has come out and said this. Yes, I'll be disappointed if Celina's recast but I completely support her on this. The AI technology and what it can mean for voice acting shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm not a fan as it's no substitute for actual acting and I can't even imagine how the voice actors feel. The fact that a major company wanted to put a clause in Emily's contract, KONAMI or otherwise, saying that they could use the voice for AI use in the future, plus with no compensation, is crazy to me. If it's indeed KONAMI, I at least hope it was something the higher ups were pushing and not something voice director Darren Dunstan, also a major anime actor himself of course, and his team wanted. I can't imagine how a VA like Dunstan himself would be ok with it.
Emily also said: "I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting." I think it's a great thing Emily's still open to working with the company despite them trying to put the AI clause in. Not everyone would be, let's be honest. Maybe if it's too late for Celina they could still try and get her back for Lulu and/or Rin, but who knows? Maybe if they haven't already recorded Celina with a new dub VA replacement Emily putting the post out there might've made KONAMI want to get her back after all. If they have already recorded a new VA with Celina it's probably too late though. Would be wasting money doing another recording session after already paying the new VA.
Whether it's indeed KONAMI or a different company, trying to put AI clauses in contracts is not a good look. IMO it reeks of companies trying to find another way to save money. As Emily said herself, she wouldn't be compensated and would effectively be put out a job. Whenever they'd need new Celina dialogue, they could just use the AI to generate it. It's NOT the same as a VA recording new lines. I'm glad a well known anime VA is calling it out and warning other voice actors and fans about it. The fact that a major company would want to do this is awful IMO.
Some of you might be thinking why has this come up now when Emily reprised Zuzu a couple of years ago for Duel Links? I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of how the VA negotiations work for Duel Links, but I think there's most likely different negotiations if the reprisals are far apart like a couple of years. If a VA is voicing a couple of roles in quick succession, maybe they can do one negotiation, but I don't know. I'm sure some think it, but no, I also doubt they get someone like Emily to record Zuzu/Celina/Lulu/Rin in one session and then hold onto dialogue recordings for many years like that. No, IMO it's more likely whenever they need a VA they reach out to them again. Plus, the sessions from the VA's I've interviewed were a few hours, like 2-4. Considering on lots of lines they're probably doing multiple takes to find the best one, I really don't think they're recording multiple characters in one session. Maybe if there's a quick turnaround where the same VA is voicing characters coming to Duel Links around the same time, or also adding new dialogue on older unlocks (see DM/DSOD characters), but I doubt they're sitting on recording sessions they won't use for years.
Plus, here's another way to look at it. I might be wrong as voice actors will know it better than me, but it feels like the issues with AI technology replacing voice acting have become a lot more talked about in the last year or year and a half. I think it most likely wasn't a clause when Emily was asked to reprise Zuzu, but was a new clause added for this year when she was asked to reprise Celina or whoever the character was. That's why Emily has done the post and used a picture of Celina. Like I said, if the character is Celina it most likely was for a Duel Links recording, and now that AI is more talked about it was added as a clause.
Like I've said, I completely support Emily's stance on this and think it's a terrible a major company would try putting an AI technology clause in. KONAMI or otherwise, but I suspect it is because Emily used Celina as the picture for her Instagram post.
From a fan perspective, I also felt it was important to give fellow dub fans a heads up about this. One, because the AI thing is becoming an issue that is concerning the voice actors we like. Two, if Celina's indeed being recast I know I'd rather know in advance rather than open the game when she's added and find out she has a new VA. IMO it definitely feels different opening the game and finding out there was a recast than knowing/expecting it in advance. For example, despite preferring Paradox to Bronk of Schemmel characters it certainly surprised me less seeing Paradox recast after Bronk was. So despite it being disappointing now, if it's indeed Celina Emily was referring to (she's the character pictured in her post after all) IMO it's better to expect a recast now then only find out when she's added.
If she's indeed recast, curious to see who Celina's new VA will be. I sympathise with them especially when we already know why Emily will be recast if it's indeed Celina her post is about. I'm sure they'll do their best but yeah, knowing why Emily might be recast certainly isn't nice and I fully support Emily on her stance and sympathise with her too. The AI thing should not be a clause in any VA's contract.
I wanted to do this post, not just because of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but because I think this is also bigger than Yu-Gi-Oh! AI technology is becoming a much bigger thing and a lot of voice actors are talking about it. If you're a fan of voice actors you've probably seen some talking about it, but this is the first I've seen of a major company actually trying to include it as a contract clause.
What do you think about Emily's post though? While she doesn't name the character, Duel Links, KONAMI etc her choice of picture for her post is Celina. Certainly makes it likely she's the referred to character IMO.
submitted by RuariWilliamson to yugioh [link] [comments]
I hope you're all well. I thought this might be of interest to fellow dub viewers and Duel Links fans. Emily Bauer Jenness, the dub voice of ARC-V's Bracelet Girls and Ray Akaba, who has already reprised Zuzu Boyle for Duel Links, made an interesting post on her Instagram recently. The post is in the link, but here's the text below:
"VOICE ACTORS AND ANIME FANS Itâs been a really rough road for the voice over industry and for voice actors in the fight for our rights against AI technology.
I was recently asked to voice a character I originated, but I had to turn it down. Why? The company wants to retain the right to use my voice for AI technology. This means they can choose to use my voice at any time for anything. They can Clone my voice, use it for games, commercials, TV shows or movies, AI trainingâŠyou name it, with no permission and no compensation. Effectively putting me out of a job.
If we knew 10 years ago what we know now, actors would have made very different choices about what rights they sign away. Well, here we are, and I am taking a stand.
I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen. I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting.
Much love to my fans. Many thanks to the producers who give us fair contracts. And a big thank you to my fellow actors out there who have and continue to turn down auditions and unfair contracts."
Firstly, to address the obvious if you didn't click the link. The body of Emily's post doesn't specifically mention Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Links, Celina, KONAMI etc. so there's always a chance it's referring to someone else, and I certainly would hope that to be the case. However, the picture Emily used for the Instagram post IS a still of Celina. I'd say that makes it more likely than not the character she's referring to is therefore Celina and it's a Yu-Gi-Oh! project.
Which Yu-Gi-Oh! project would make the most sense? Duel Links. If you watched ARC-V you know Celina is a very logical next addition of an ARC-V character to Duel Links, and if we only get one more ARC-V character this year I think it will be her. We just got Yugo last month and he and Celina debuted around the same time in the show. Yes, some other characters did too but Yuri became more prominent much later on and for Dennis more than half of his cards are still anime only, so if they want to print more of them it makes sense to hold back on Dennis too. Yuri and Dennis make more sense as 2024 inclusions anyway IMO.
That being said, this doesn't mean Celina is coming to Duel Links very soon. We just got Shay's unlock in February and Yugo's last month. So we're probably waiting at least another few months for Celina. We still haven't had our GX slot for the year, and I think we'll get at least one more character each for ZEXAL, VRAINS and ARC-V this year, but we also don't know for definite what the September plans are. So far this year we haven't had a skipped month for an unlock. In previous years either April or May was skipped. We usually get 12-13 new characters a year, so if you think about it, if we get no skipped months this year (including an unlock event in September instead of a new world) we'd still have the same amount of new characters.
Plus, to bring things back to Celina. As someone who has interviewed cast members that worked on Duel Links, both those reprising roles and new VA's taking on roles, they usually record at least a few months in advance of a character being added. I'm sure they record sooner in Japan than the dub does as well, but they record a few months in advance for the dub. A couple I remember off the top of my head are Justin Badger recording for Antinomy in April/May 2020, who was added to DL via a roaming event that July. Noah Benjamin recorded Yuma in June/July that year, who was then added of course with the ZEXAL World launch that September. So, even if Celina is recorded we might not see her in DL for a few months at least.
Of course, that also brings things back to Emily's post. She says: "I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen." It sounds like, whether this is Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina or not, she knows she will be recast. Obviously I'm not privy to details, but it doesn't mean Celina or whatever role it is has been recorded yet, but it could mean Emily was informed she'd be recast. I don't know how long it is between a cast member being contacted to reprise/an agreement being reached etc and their recording, so that's why I said I don't know if the recording is done, but it sounds like Emily knows one way or another she was (or will be) recast.
I've mostly been looking at it from a Yu-Gi-Oh! and Celina perspective but I do have a lot of thoughts on what Emily said, both Yu-Gi-Oh! wise and looking at it from beyond YGO too. First of all, Celina's one of my favourite ARC-V characters and naturally I'd love to hear Emily reprise her for Duel Links. I'll always prefer to hear the original voices reprise and, while I'm not opposed to recasts when needed and understand they sometimes have to happen, I'd always prefer the original voice reprisals. No shade to the Duel Links recasts as a lot of them have been good though.
However, this is also very different if Celina is indeed being recast. For starters, we have an amazing number of characters in Duel Links (over 90 different unlocks I think at this point) and only around 10-15 recasts which is also amazing really. However, we know why very few of the recasts happened. We've only become privy to a few of them. Cassandra Lee Morris choosing to decline reprising Yubel due to a videogame strike at the time. Eileen Stevens saying she decided to "segue out of" (move on from) non union work and become a Union VA and YGO, Pokémon etc are non-union. Sean Schemmel had a rant about being recast as Bronk (later recast as Paradox too) but nothing about why he was recast. He might not know himself as apparently he wasn't even asked to reprise Bronk. Schemmel's a Union VA too so that could've been the reason he was recast. They could risk it once with Crowler, but had to do the weird "Dr Crowler- Dr Crowler" credit where the latter should be the VA's name. Nothing definitive but I think not even trying to get Schemmel again was probably a Union reason.
However, this with Emily would be a first as it's a VA telling us in advance that they might be recast rather than acknowledging why after the fact. Certainly interesting to think about it like that. Again, it might not be Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina related, but I suspect it is since she used Celina as the picture for the post.
My thoughts on what Emily said though are this: I think it's a good thing Emily has come out and said this. Yes, I'll be disappointed if Celina's recast but I completely support her on this. The AI technology and what it can mean for voice acting shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm not a fan as it's no substitute for actual acting and I can't even imagine how the voice actors feel. The fact that a major company wanted to put a clause in Emily's contract, KONAMI or otherwise, saying that they could use the voice for AI use in the future, plus with no compensation, is crazy to me. If it's indeed KONAMI, I at least hope it was something the higher ups were pushing and not something voice director Darren Dunstan, also a major anime actor himself of course, and his team wanted. I can't imagine how a VA like Dunstan himself would be ok with it.
Emily also said: "I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting." I think it's a great thing Emily's still open to working with the company despite them trying to put the AI clause in. Not everyone would be, let's be honest. Maybe if it's too late for Celina they could still try and get her back for Lulu and/or Rin, but who knows? Maybe if they haven't already recorded Celina with a new dub VA replacement Emily putting the post out there might've made KONAMI want to get her back after all. If they have already recorded a new VA with Celina it's probably too late though. Would be wasting money doing another recording session after already paying the new VA.
Whether it's indeed KONAMI or a different company, trying to put AI clauses in contracts is not a good look. IMO it reeks of companies trying to find another way to save money. As Emily said herself, she wouldn't be compensated and would effectively be put out a job. Whenever they'd need new Celina dialogue, they could just use the AI to generate it. It's NOT the same as a VA recording new lines. I'm glad a well known anime VA is calling it out and warning other voice actors and fans about it. The fact that a major company would want to do this is awful IMO.
Some of you might be thinking why has this come up now when Emily reprised Zuzu a couple of years ago for Duel Links? I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of how the VA negotiations work for Duel Links, but I think there's most likely different negotiations if the reprisals are far apart like a couple of years. If a VA is voicing a couple of roles in quick succession, maybe they can do one negotiation, but I don't know. I'm sure some think it, but no, I also doubt they get someone like Emily to record Zuzu/Celina/Lulu/Rin in one session and then hold onto dialogue recordings for many years like that. No, IMO it's more likely whenever they need a VA they reach out to them again. Plus, the sessions from the VA's I've interviewed were a few hours, like 2-4. Considering on lots of lines they're probably doing multiple takes to find the best one, I really don't think they're recording multiple characters in one session. Maybe if there's a quick turnaround where the same VA is voicing characters coming to Duel Links around the same time, or also adding new dialogue on older unlocks (see DM/DSOD characters), but I doubt they're sitting on recording sessions they won't use for years.
Plus, here's another way to look at it. I might be wrong as voice actors will know it better than me, but it feels like the issues with AI technology replacing voice acting have become a lot more talked about in the last year or year and a half. I think it most likely wasn't a clause when Emily was asked to reprise Zuzu, but was a new clause added for this year when she was asked to reprise Celina or whoever the character was. That's why Emily has done the post and used a picture of Celina. Like I said, if the character is Celina it most likely was for a Duel Links recording, and now that AI is more talked about it was added as a clause.
Like I've said, I completely support Emily's stance on this and think it's a terrible a major company would try putting an AI technology clause in. KONAMI or otherwise, but I suspect it is because Emily used Celina as the picture for her Instagram post.
From a fan perspective, I also felt it was important to give fellow dub fans a heads up about this. One, because the AI thing is becoming an issue that is concerning the voice actors we like. Two, if Celina's indeed being recast I know I'd rather know in advance rather than open the game when she's added and find out she has a new VA. IMO it definitely feels different opening the game and finding out there was a recast than knowing/expecting it in advance. For example, despite preferring Paradox to Bronk of Schemmel characters it certainly surprised me less seeing Paradox recast after Bronk was. So despite it being disappointing now, if it's indeed Celina Emily was referring to (she's the character pictured in her post after all) IMO it's better to expect a recast now then only find out when she's added.
If she's indeed recast, curious to see who Celina's new VA will be. I sympathise with them especially when we already know why Emily will be recast if it's indeed Celina her post is about. I'm sure they'll do their best but yeah, knowing why Emily might be recast certainly isn't nice and I fully support Emily on her stance and sympathise with her too. The AI thing should not be a clause in any VA's contract.
I wanted to do this post, not just because of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but because I think this is also bigger than Yu-Gi-Oh! AI technology is becoming a much bigger thing and a lot of voice actors are talking about it. If you're a fan of voice actors you've probably seen some talking about it, but this is the first I've seen of a major company actually trying to include it as a contract clause.
What do you think about Emily's post though? While she doesn't name the character, Duel Links, KONAMI etc her choice of picture for her post is Celina. Certainly makes it likely she's the referred to character IMO.
2023.06.09 21:51 RuariWilliamson Is Celina Coming Up In Duel Links But With a New Dub Voice Actor? Interesting Social Media Post From Emily Bauer Recently
Hi everyone,
I hope you're all well. I thought this might be of interest to fellow dub viewers. Emily Bauer Jenness, the dub voice of ARC-V's Bracelet Girls and Ray Akaba, who has already reprised Zuzu Boyle for Duel Links, made an interesting post on her Instagram recently. The post is in the link, but here's the text below:
"VOICE ACTORS AND ANIME FANS Itâs been a really rough road for the voice over industry and for voice actors in the fight for our rights against AI technology.
I was recently asked to voice a character I originated, but I had to turn it down. Why? The company wants to retain the right to use my voice for AI technology. This means they can choose to use my voice at any time for anything. They can Clone my voice, use it for games, commercials, TV shows or movies, AI trainingâŠyou name it, with no permission and no compensation. Effectively putting me out of a job.
If we knew 10 years ago what we know now, actors would have made very different choices about what rights they sign away. Well, here we are, and I am taking a stand.
I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen. I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting.
Much love to my fans. Many thanks to the producers who give us fair contracts. And a big thank you to my fellow actors out there who have and continue to turn down auditions and unfair contracts."
Firstly, to address the obvious if you didn't click the link. The body of Emily's post doesn't specifically mention Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Links, Celina, KONAMI etc. so there's always a chance it's referring to someone else, and I certainly would hope that to be the case. However, the picture Emily used for the Instagram post IS a still of Celina. I'd say that makes it more likely than not the character she's referring to is therefore Celina and it's a Yu-Gi-Oh! project.
Which Yu-Gi-Oh! project would make the most sense? Duel Links. If you watched ARC-V you know Celina is a very logical next addition of an ARC-V character to Duel Links, and if we only get one more ARC-V character this year I think it will be her. We just got Yugo last month and he and Celina debuted around the same time in the show. Yes, some other characters did too but Yuri became more prominent much later on and for Dennis more than half of his cards are still anime only, so if they want to print more of them it makes sense to hold back on Dennis too. Yuri and Dennis make more sense as 2024 inclusions anyway IMO.
That being said, this doesn't mean Celina is coming to Duel Links very soon. We just got Shay's unlock in February and Yugo's last month. So we're probably waiting at least another few months for Celina. We still haven't had our GX slot for the year, and I think we'll get at least one more character each for ZEXAL, VRAINS and ARC-V this year, but we also don't know for definite what the September plans are. So far this year we haven't had a skipped month for an unlock. In previous years either April or May was skipped. We usually get 12-13 new characters a year, so if you think about it, if we get no skipped months this year (including an unlock event in September instead of a new world) we'd still have the same amount of new characters.
Plus, to bring things back to Celina. As someone who has interviewed cast members that worked on Duel Links, both those reprising roles and new VA's taking on roles, they usually record at least a few months in advance of a character being added. I'm sure they record sooner in Japan than the dub does as well, but they record a few months in advance for the dub. A couple I remember off the top of my head are Justin Badger recording for Antinomy in April/May 2020, who was added to DL via a roaming event that July. Noah Benjamin recorded Yuma in June/July that year, who was then added of course with the ZEXAL World launch that September. So, even if Celina is recorded we might not see her in DL for a few months at least.
Of course, that also brings things back to Emily's post. She says: "I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen." It sounds like, whether this is Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina or not, she knows she will be recast. Obviously I'm not privy to details, but it doesn't mean Celina or whatever role it is has been recorded yet, but it could mean Emily was informed she'd be recast. I don't know how long it is between a cast member being contacted to reprise/an agreement being reached etc and their recording, so that's why I said I don't know if the recording is done, but it sounds like Emily knows one way or another she was (or will be) recast.
I've mostly been looking at it from a Yu-Gi-Oh! and Celina perspective but I do have a lot of thoughts on what Emily said, both Yu-Gi-Oh! wise and looking at it from beyond YGO too. First of all, Celina's one of my favourite ARC-V characters and naturally I'd love to hear Emily reprise her for Duel Links. I'll always prefer to hear the original voices reprise and, while I'm not opposed to recasts when needed and understand they sometimes have to happen, I'd always prefer the original voice reprisals. No shade to the Duel Links recasts as a lot of them have been good though.
However, this is also very different if Celina is indeed being recast. For starters, we have an amazing number of characters in Duel Links (over 90 different unlocks I think at this point) and only around 10-15 recasts which is also amazing really. However, we know why very few of the recasts happened. We've only become privy to a few of them. Cassandra Lee Morris choosing to decline reprising Yubel due to a videogame strike at the time. Eileen Stevens saying she decided to "segue out of" (move on from) non union work and become a Union VA and YGO, Pokémon etc are non-union. Sean Schemmel had a rant about being recast as Bronk (later recast as Paradox too) but nothing about why he was recast. He might not know himself as apparently he wasn't even asked to reprise Bronk. Schemmel's a Union VA too so that could've been the reason he was recast. They could risk it once with Crowler, but had to do the weird "Dr Crowler- Dr Crowler" credit where the latter should be the VA's name. Nothing definitive but I think not even trying to get Schemmel again was probably a Union reason.
However, this with Emily would be a first as it's a VA telling us in advance that they might be recast rather than acknowledging why after the fact. Certainly interesting to think about it like that. Again, it might not be Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina related, but I suspect it is since she used Celina as the picture for the post.
My thoughts on what Emily said though are this: I think it's a good thing Emily has come out and said this. Yes, I'll be disappointed if Celina's recast but I completely support her on this. The AI technology and what it can mean for voice acting shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm not a fan as it's no substitute for actual acting and I can't even imagine how the voice actors feel. The fact that a major company wanted to put a clause in Emily's contract, KONAMI or otherwise, saying that they could use the voice for AI use in the future, plus with no compensation, is crazy to me. If it's indeed KONAMI, I at least hope it was something the higher ups were pushing and not something voice director Darren Dunstan, also a major anime actor himself of course, and his team wanted. I can't imagine how a VA like Dunstan himself would be ok with it.
Emily also said: "I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting." I think it's a great thing Emily's still open to working with the company despite them trying to put the AI clause in. Not everyone would be, let's be honest. Maybe if it's too late for Celina they could still try and get her back for Lulu and/or Rin, but who knows? Maybe if they haven't already recorded Celina with a new dub VA replacement Emily putting the post out there might've made KONAMI want to get her back after all. If they have already recorded a new VA with Celina it's probably too late though. Would be wasting money doing another recording session after already paying the new VA.
Whether it's indeed KONAMI or a different company, trying to put AI clauses in contracts is not a good look. IMO it reeks of companies trying to find another way to save money. As Emily said herself, she wouldn't be compensated and would effectively be put out a job. Whenever they'd need new Celina dialogue, they could just use the AI to generate it. It's NOT the same as a VA recording new lines. I'm glad a well known anime VA is calling it out and warning other voice actors and fans about it. The fact that a major company would want to do this is awful IMO.
Some of you might be thinking why has this come up now when Emily reprised Zuzu a couple of years ago for Duel Links? I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of how the VA negotiations work for Duel Links, but I think there's most likely different negotiations if the reprisals are far apart like a couple of years. If a VA is voicing a couple of roles in quick succession, maybe they can do one negotiation, but I don't know. I'm sure some think it, but no, I also doubt they get someone like Emily to record Zuzu/Celina/Lulu/Rin in one session and then hold onto dialogue recordings for many years like that. No, IMO it's more likely whenever they need a VA they reach out to them again. Plus, the sessions from the VA's I've interviewed were a few hours, like 2-4. Considering on lots of lines they're probably doing multiple takes to find the best one, I really don't think they're recording multiple characters in one session. Maybe if there's a quick turnaround where the same VA is voicing characters coming to Duel Links around the same time, or also adding new dialogue on older unlocks (see DM/DSOD characters), but I doubt they're sitting on recording sessions they won't use for years.
Plus, here's another way to look at it. I might be wrong as voice actors will know it better than me, but it feels like the issues with AI technology replacing voice acting have become a lot more talked about in the last year or year and a half. I think it most likely wasn't a clause when Emily was asked to reprise Zuzu, but was a new clause added for this year when she was asked to reprise Celina or whoever the character was. That's why Emily has done the post and used a picture of Celina. Like I said, if the character is Celina it most likely was for a Duel Links recording, and now that AI is more talked about it was added as a clause.
Like I've said, I completely support Emily's stance on this and think it's a terrible a major company would try putting an AI technology clause in. KONAMI or otherwise, but I suspect it is because Emily used Celina as the picture for her Instagram post.
From a fan perspective, I also felt it was important to give fellow dub fans a heads up about this. One, because the AI thing is becoming an issue that is concerning the voice actors we like. Two, if Celina's indeed being recast I know I'd rather know in advance rather than open the game when she's added and find out she has a new VA. IMO it definitely feels different opening the game and finding out there was a recast than knowing/expecting it in advance. For example, despite preferring Paradox to Bronk of Schemmel characters it certainly surprised me less seeing Paradox recast after Bronk was. So despite it being disappointing now, if it's indeed Celina Emily was referring to (she's the character pictured in her post after all) IMO it's better to expect a recast now then only find out when she's added.
If she's indeed recast, curious to see who Celina's new VA will be. I sympathise with them especially when we already know why Emily will be recast if it's indeed Celina her post is about. I'm sure they'll do their best but yeah, knowing why Emily might be recast certainly isn't nice and I fully support Emily on her stance and sympathise with her too. The AI thing should not be a clause in any VA's contract.
I wanted to do this post, not just because of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but because I think this is also bigger than Yu-Gi-Oh! AI technology is becoming a much bigger thing and a lot of voice actors are talking about it. If you're a fan of voice actors you've probably seen some talking about it, but this is the first I've seen of a major company actually trying to include it as a contract clause.
What do you think about Emily's post though? While she doesn't name the character, Duel Links, KONAMI etc her choice of picture for her post is Celina. Certainly makes it likely she's the referred to character IMO.
submitted by RuariWilliamson to DuelLinks [link] [comments]
I hope you're all well. I thought this might be of interest to fellow dub viewers. Emily Bauer Jenness, the dub voice of ARC-V's Bracelet Girls and Ray Akaba, who has already reprised Zuzu Boyle for Duel Links, made an interesting post on her Instagram recently. The post is in the link, but here's the text below:
"VOICE ACTORS AND ANIME FANS Itâs been a really rough road for the voice over industry and for voice actors in the fight for our rights against AI technology.
I was recently asked to voice a character I originated, but I had to turn it down. Why? The company wants to retain the right to use my voice for AI technology. This means they can choose to use my voice at any time for anything. They can Clone my voice, use it for games, commercials, TV shows or movies, AI trainingâŠyou name it, with no permission and no compensation. Effectively putting me out of a job.
If we knew 10 years ago what we know now, actors would have made very different choices about what rights they sign away. Well, here we are, and I am taking a stand.
I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen. I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting.
Much love to my fans. Many thanks to the producers who give us fair contracts. And a big thank you to my fellow actors out there who have and continue to turn down auditions and unfair contracts."
Firstly, to address the obvious if you didn't click the link. The body of Emily's post doesn't specifically mention Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Links, Celina, KONAMI etc. so there's always a chance it's referring to someone else, and I certainly would hope that to be the case. However, the picture Emily used for the Instagram post IS a still of Celina. I'd say that makes it more likely than not the character she's referring to is therefore Celina and it's a Yu-Gi-Oh! project.
Which Yu-Gi-Oh! project would make the most sense? Duel Links. If you watched ARC-V you know Celina is a very logical next addition of an ARC-V character to Duel Links, and if we only get one more ARC-V character this year I think it will be her. We just got Yugo last month and he and Celina debuted around the same time in the show. Yes, some other characters did too but Yuri became more prominent much later on and for Dennis more than half of his cards are still anime only, so if they want to print more of them it makes sense to hold back on Dennis too. Yuri and Dennis make more sense as 2024 inclusions anyway IMO.
That being said, this doesn't mean Celina is coming to Duel Links very soon. We just got Shay's unlock in February and Yugo's last month. So we're probably waiting at least another few months for Celina. We still haven't had our GX slot for the year, and I think we'll get at least one more character each for ZEXAL, VRAINS and ARC-V this year, but we also don't know for definite what the September plans are. So far this year we haven't had a skipped month for an unlock. In previous years either April or May was skipped. We usually get 12-13 new characters a year, so if you think about it, if we get no skipped months this year (including an unlock event in September instead of a new world) we'd still have the same amount of new characters.
Plus, to bring things back to Celina. As someone who has interviewed cast members that worked on Duel Links, both those reprising roles and new VA's taking on roles, they usually record at least a few months in advance of a character being added. I'm sure they record sooner in Japan than the dub does as well, but they record a few months in advance for the dub. A couple I remember off the top of my head are Justin Badger recording for Antinomy in April/May 2020, who was added to DL via a roaming event that July. Noah Benjamin recorded Yuma in June/July that year, who was then added of course with the ZEXAL World launch that September. So, even if Celina is recorded we might not see her in DL for a few months at least.
Of course, that also brings things back to Emily's post. She says: "I had hoped that instead of replacing me, this major company would put a clause in their contracts prohibiting AI use and protecting actors. This didnât happen." It sounds like, whether this is Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina or not, she knows she will be recast. Obviously I'm not privy to details, but it doesn't mean Celina or whatever role it is has been recorded yet, but it could mean Emily was informed she'd be recast. I don't know how long it is between a cast member being contacted to reprise/an agreement being reached etc and their recording, so that's why I said I don't know if the recording is done, but it sounds like Emily knows one way or another she was (or will be) recast.
I've mostly been looking at it from a Yu-Gi-Oh! and Celina perspective but I do have a lot of thoughts on what Emily said, both Yu-Gi-Oh! wise and looking at it from beyond YGO too. First of all, Celina's one of my favourite ARC-V characters and naturally I'd love to hear Emily reprise her for Duel Links. I'll always prefer to hear the original voices reprise and, while I'm not opposed to recasts when needed and understand they sometimes have to happen, I'd always prefer the original voice reprisals. No shade to the Duel Links recasts as a lot of them have been good though.
However, this is also very different if Celina is indeed being recast. For starters, we have an amazing number of characters in Duel Links (over 90 different unlocks I think at this point) and only around 10-15 recasts which is also amazing really. However, we know why very few of the recasts happened. We've only become privy to a few of them. Cassandra Lee Morris choosing to decline reprising Yubel due to a videogame strike at the time. Eileen Stevens saying she decided to "segue out of" (move on from) non union work and become a Union VA and YGO, Pokémon etc are non-union. Sean Schemmel had a rant about being recast as Bronk (later recast as Paradox too) but nothing about why he was recast. He might not know himself as apparently he wasn't even asked to reprise Bronk. Schemmel's a Union VA too so that could've been the reason he was recast. They could risk it once with Crowler, but had to do the weird "Dr Crowler- Dr Crowler" credit where the latter should be the VA's name. Nothing definitive but I think not even trying to get Schemmel again was probably a Union reason.
However, this with Emily would be a first as it's a VA telling us in advance that they might be recast rather than acknowledging why after the fact. Certainly interesting to think about it like that. Again, it might not be Yu-Gi-Oh!/Celina related, but I suspect it is since she used Celina as the picture for the post.
My thoughts on what Emily said though are this: I think it's a good thing Emily has come out and said this. Yes, I'll be disappointed if Celina's recast but I completely support her on this. The AI technology and what it can mean for voice acting shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm not a fan as it's no substitute for actual acting and I can't even imagine how the voice actors feel. The fact that a major company wanted to put a clause in Emily's contract, KONAMI or otherwise, saying that they could use the voice for AI use in the future, plus with no compensation, is crazy to me. If it's indeed KONAMI, I at least hope it was something the higher ups were pushing and not something voice director Darren Dunstan, also a major anime actor himself of course, and his team wanted. I can't imagine how a VA like Dunstan himself would be ok with it.
Emily also said: "I hope that we can work together again someday, with respect for the talent of voice actors and the art of voice acting." I think it's a great thing Emily's still open to working with the company despite them trying to put the AI clause in. Not everyone would be, let's be honest. Maybe if it's too late for Celina they could still try and get her back for Lulu and/or Rin, but who knows? Maybe if they haven't already recorded Celina with a new dub VA replacement Emily putting the post out there might've made KONAMI want to get her back after all. If they have already recorded a new VA with Celina it's probably too late though. Would be wasting money doing another recording session after already paying the new VA.
Whether it's indeed KONAMI or a different company, trying to put AI clauses in contracts is not a good look. IMO it reeks of companies trying to find another way to save money. As Emily said herself, she wouldn't be compensated and would effectively be put out a job. Whenever they'd need new Celina dialogue, they could just use the AI to generate it. It's NOT the same as a VA recording new lines. I'm glad a well known anime VA is calling it out and warning other voice actors and fans about it. The fact that a major company would want to do this is awful IMO.
Some of you might be thinking why has this come up now when Emily reprised Zuzu a couple of years ago for Duel Links? I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of how the VA negotiations work for Duel Links, but I think there's most likely different negotiations if the reprisals are far apart like a couple of years. If a VA is voicing a couple of roles in quick succession, maybe they can do one negotiation, but I don't know. I'm sure some think it, but no, I also doubt they get someone like Emily to record Zuzu/Celina/Lulu/Rin in one session and then hold onto dialogue recordings for many years like that. No, IMO it's more likely whenever they need a VA they reach out to them again. Plus, the sessions from the VA's I've interviewed were a few hours, like 2-4. Considering on lots of lines they're probably doing multiple takes to find the best one, I really don't think they're recording multiple characters in one session. Maybe if there's a quick turnaround where the same VA is voicing characters coming to Duel Links around the same time, or also adding new dialogue on older unlocks (see DM/DSOD characters), but I doubt they're sitting on recording sessions they won't use for years.
Plus, here's another way to look at it. I might be wrong as voice actors will know it better than me, but it feels like the issues with AI technology replacing voice acting have become a lot more talked about in the last year or year and a half. I think it most likely wasn't a clause when Emily was asked to reprise Zuzu, but was a new clause added for this year when she was asked to reprise Celina or whoever the character was. That's why Emily has done the post and used a picture of Celina. Like I said, if the character is Celina it most likely was for a Duel Links recording, and now that AI is more talked about it was added as a clause.
Like I've said, I completely support Emily's stance on this and think it's a terrible a major company would try putting an AI technology clause in. KONAMI or otherwise, but I suspect it is because Emily used Celina as the picture for her Instagram post.
From a fan perspective, I also felt it was important to give fellow dub fans a heads up about this. One, because the AI thing is becoming an issue that is concerning the voice actors we like. Two, if Celina's indeed being recast I know I'd rather know in advance rather than open the game when she's added and find out she has a new VA. IMO it definitely feels different opening the game and finding out there was a recast than knowing/expecting it in advance. For example, despite preferring Paradox to Bronk of Schemmel characters it certainly surprised me less seeing Paradox recast after Bronk was. So despite it being disappointing now, if it's indeed Celina Emily was referring to (she's the character pictured in her post after all) IMO it's better to expect a recast now then only find out when she's added.
If she's indeed recast, curious to see who Celina's new VA will be. I sympathise with them especially when we already know why Emily will be recast if it's indeed Celina her post is about. I'm sure they'll do their best but yeah, knowing why Emily might be recast certainly isn't nice and I fully support Emily on her stance and sympathise with her too. The AI thing should not be a clause in any VA's contract.
I wanted to do this post, not just because of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but because I think this is also bigger than Yu-Gi-Oh! AI technology is becoming a much bigger thing and a lot of voice actors are talking about it. If you're a fan of voice actors you've probably seen some talking about it, but this is the first I've seen of a major company actually trying to include it as a contract clause.
What do you think about Emily's post though? While she doesn't name the character, Duel Links, KONAMI etc her choice of picture for her post is Celina. Certainly makes it likely she's the referred to character IMO.
2023.06.09 21:43 Guilty-Coconut3150 Massive die off
I got home a week ago with a big peace of driftwood new plants and 5 khuli loaches and 4 honey gourami i already had a heavenly planted 180 liter aquarium with green neons pygmy corydora and otocinclus after adding the new fish and things went down hill i lost 9 green neons all my khuli loaches and 1 honey gourami in 4 days time i tested the water still good as usual and are currently dosing esha 2000 in case its a disease my new fish brought with them it is rough on me i really used to enjoy the hobby but are clueless on what to do it is all falling apart đ
submitted by Guilty-Coconut3150 to Aquariums [link] [comments]
2023.06.09 21:39 lbabinz Weekly Top Deals Sale at Best Buy: June 9 - 15 (PS Days of Play, Xbox Digital Games / Controllers, Meta Quest 2, SEGA, Square Enix, Play at Best Buy, more)
Top Deals
Play at Best Buy
Smart Home Sale
Outlet Center Sale
LEGO Sale
Video Games
submitted by lbabinz to VideoGameDealsCanada [link] [comments]
Play at Best Buy
Smart Home Sale
Outlet Center Sale
LEGO Sale
Video Games
Video Games
Play at Best Buy
Top Deals
Outlet Center Sale
Smart Home Sale
2023.06.09 21:34 DistributionEven8358 This tomato can reminds me of the One by One album cover
 | Just the fonts are similar and the placement of the tomato but thatâs just me submitted by DistributionEven8358 to Foofighters [link] [comments] |
2023.06.09 21:32 FullMeltxTractions Let's talk Harvest Window, FFWP vs Dried, and prep and pre-processing
 | In my last couple text posts we've discussed genetics selection, as well as how to grow for whole plant extracts. So now it's time to get into harvesting and processing your crop in preparation for extraction. submitted by FullMeltxTractions to BubbleHash [link] [comments] First off, how do we know when to harvest our crop? How can we tell when it's ready? Looking at the trichomes is the most accurate and foolproof way of telling when your plant is ready to be harvested. But it is important which trichomes you look at. The trichomes on the sugar leaf will always mature faster than the trichomes on the bud, so always scope the bud when checking your trichomes. Funny story, back in my teens, when I was first reading up on how to grow cannabis, for the first few years, I kept misreading the word trichome as trichrome. What I didn't notice till recently, was that, both of those terms mean something in Greek, trichome, being the anatomically accurate term, meaning plant hair, and my mispronunciation, trichrome, meaning three colors in Greek. So really, what we have on cannabis plants can accurately be called the Tri-chrome Trichome. Since they are glandular plant hairs that exhibit three main colors that give us an indicator as to when it's time to harvest. Clear, Cloudy and Amber. Clear heads are immature with low active cannabinoid and terpene content. Cloudy heads are mature with high cannabinoid and terpene content. Heads that are beginning to turn Amber are in the process of converting THC to CBN and other cannabinoids that will produce a more sedative effect. If you're going for a more energetic and sativa like effect, harvest with less than 10% amber. If you're looking for a more balanced effect, you might want to wait until 15 to 20% are amber. People looking for a more sedative indica effect, commonly wait for 25 to 40% of the trichomes to amber before harvesting. Some even prefer over 50% amber. With different strains of cannabis, flowering time is going to vary, even with different phenotypes of the same strain. This is why you can't necessarily go by your breeders recommended flower time. Every seed is unique genetically, and even among genetics where the seeds all grow very similarly or homogeneous, some plants may take longer to finish than others. Even if you're growing a clone of a plant that's known to finish in a certain time in one person's garden that doesn't necessarily translate into it finishing in the same timeframe in the conditions of your garden. The color of the pistil hairs is not a reliable indicator of ripeness either. Pay attention to the individual plant and what its trichomes tell you. For myself personally, when it comes to more narrow leaf or sativa dominant strains, I prefer to harvest between 10 to 15% amber. As far as more broadleaf, or indica dominant strains, I'll harvest between 20 to 30% amber. If I want a more balanced effect from a strain I'll shoot for 15 to 20% but really, when you should harvest is all just down to your personal preference and the cultivars that you grow. Once you've decided it's time to harvest your plant, the next step is to process it in preparation for extraction. Before cutting it down, I prefer to remove all the easily accessable fan leaf up top and on the sides, then cut the plant at the base and invert it and hang it upside down, exposing the rest of the fan leaves I couldn't easily get to with the plant upright. At the same time as I'm removing these leaves I'll cut the non frosty tips off all sugar leaves with less than 50% trichome coverage. When you harvest for flower, you tend to leave some fan leaf on there to help moderate your drying process. When you're preparing for a WPFF or whole plant fresh frozen extraction, however, you're freezing the plant live, so no drying occurs. And the fan leaf/non-frosty tips can do nothing but contaminate your process so it's best to just get them out of there. Once you're left with a hanging plant with only sugar leaves and buds on the branches, start cutting off individual branches, and snipping carefully at the nodes, trying to avoid cutting into bracts (or calyxes as some people call them) snip the buds away from the stems into nickel to quarter sized pieces. I like to snip them directly into hard plastic containers, such as cereal totes. Many people use bags, but I have found bags don't tend to freeze material quite as hard as a hard plastic container will. And you want your material frozen hard but in my opinion there is such a thing as freezing it too cold. I don't recommend deep freezes that freeze material well below zero for freezing your cannabis, especially long-term. They seem to encourage more ice crystallization which has a tendency to burst cell walls such as the ones in trichomes. If you have a deep freezer but it can be turned down to the regular freezer range, it's recommended to do so. Combination refrigerator freezers are fine, and require no special settings. Freeze your product for 8 to 12 hours, and you are ready for extraction. Does FFWP Yield Poorly? Does it Yield Better? The Same? I think a lot of new hashmakers, or people on the outside looking in, thinking of getting started in solventless extraction look at the raw yield numbers posted by people doing live extractions and others doing dried, cured extractions, and come to the incorrect conclusion that live extractions are a poor yielding process, without understanding the context of those numbers, namely that with live extractions over 3/4 of the input weight is water weight. So to get a true comparison with dried cured yields you would have to multiply your yield percentage by at least four. Others may have tried fresh frozen extractions, but due to problems in their genetics, growing, prepping or extraction process, truly did yield poorly, say, under 2% and from that, just assume that fresh frozen is a poorly yielding process. The problem with that thinking is that any individual grower's results do nothing to change the fact that fresh frozen hash very commonly yields between a 2% and 8% return of Rosin. 2% being around average and 8% being an exceptionally yielding batch. Compare that to dried cubed material where 10% is approximately average and 25% is an exceptionally yielding batch. As I mentioned a moment ago, with fresh frozen material being at least 3/4 water weight, to get an accurate comparison of yields from dried to fresh, you need to multiply your fresh frozen yield percentage by at least four. So 2% to 8% becomes 8% to 32% So on the low end it seems to yield about the same, but on the high end it seems to yield a noticeable bit better. Considering that you preserve more terpenes and essential oils of the plant in a live extraction, this makes complete sense to me, those extra preserved compounds weigh something after all. So let's talk a little about the mechanics of extraction, specifically, fresh frozen extraction versus extraction from dried cured material. Anyone who's grown in the past, knows that in the time between being harvested and fully dried, flowers lose about half their size and over Ÿ of their weight, mostly due to evaporating water. As you might imagine, this means that working with fresh frozen, or "live" material means you are sifting trichomes off of a considerably larger surface area, and this is an advantage to working with fresh frozen along with maximizing the preservation of terpenes and other essential oils, but live extraction also comes with it's disadvantages. Put simply, the square cube law of mathematics says that as the size of an object increases, its surface area increases by the square while its volume increases by the cube. So the surface area, and therefore, ease of sifting is indeed considerably increased when fresh, but nowhere near as much as the overall volume of the flower. Since It has proportionally less surface area to support its volume compared to dried cured material, fresh frozen is not as structurally sound, it breaks apart easier in the wash, so with fresh frozen, it's easier to over agitate to the point of contaminating your wash. This is partly why working with dried cured material is more forgiving and easier to work with. Yes, it's partly because the resin is not as sticky any longer, but it's also due to its decreased volume to surface area ratio. Even with a good presoak it never gets back to its original size. This makes it structurally stronger than fresh frozen material which has the same cellular structure supporting a proportionally much greater volume in comparison to its surface area. This, along with its lack of chlorophyll content in comparison to fresh frozen material means you can wash dry material harder for longer without it getting beat up quite as much, and without getting as much green in your wash, assuming you didn't let it get super brittle and dry, and assuming you did a good presoak. But if we're truly trying to preserve the most accurate possible profile of what we've grown, really the only game in town is live extraction. There's nothing that does that job better. But we also know, that not every strain is suited to water extraction. So how can we get an idea if we've never extracted from the cut that we've got growing if it's worth washing or not? This is where test washes come in handy. You can use a mason jar around half filled with ice, chill the jar in the freezer first, snip off one or two lower branches (enough to fill the other half) trim off the non frosty bits and snip the flowers into nickel/quarter sized pieces, freeze them, then put them in the jar, fill jar to an inch or so from the top with cold water. Wait 30 seconds to a minute for the temperature to equalize. Then shake the jar really good for a couple minutes. Set it aside in your refrigerator and wait 20 minutes. A good washing hash cut should have a nice layer of trichomes on the bottom. If you get little to nothing you might want to try pressing rosin or keep that one as flower. Oftentimes a failure to wash well does not necessarily mean a particular cultivar lacks potency. Some types of trichomes are not conducive to the water extraction process but still can be easily extracted through dry sift or rosin tech. If all else fails, there's also always one of my personal favorite methods of solventless extraction, vaporization. But that's a topic for another day. Happy hashing#!! |
2023.06.09 21:29 VapoursAndSpleen Frugal Gardening Tips
Just thought I'd share some tips because in the Northern Hemisphere, it's gardening season.
On thing is your tools. Use them for their intended purpose. A trowel is not a hammer, for example. Putting a strain on a tool in a weird way can cause it to break/fall apart.
Another thing about tools is that they have a strange tendency to disappear into the garden. Go to the store and get some bright colored duct tape (for example, highway orange or hot pink) and wrap the handles of all your hand tools with the bright tape. Just enough to be visible. You don't have to mummify it. I can find a digging tool in seconds because it is hot pink and contrasts with the green or brown of my garden.
If you want to buy some plants, especially 1 gallon and up, dig the holes before you go on your shopping trip. Most people who have been gardening for more than one season have a stash of empty used pots and those can be a guide to whether the hole is big enough for the plant. A recommendation to working people is to buy the plants on Friday evening or Saturday morning and get it all planted and watered by Sunday midday or you are going to have some dried out and dead plants in pots the next weekend. Plants are not a good aspirational purchase like non-living hobby materials. They are especially vulnerable to stresses in pots and not the ground.
If you find yourself building all sorts of structures to protect your plants from birds, deer, rabbits, bugs, etc., consider putting in the time to research plants that are less likely to be subject to predation. I have met so many gardeners whose yards look like a junkyard with all the jerry-built crapola like random chicken wire around rosebushes or 40 to 50 cut up plastic bottles on small vegetable plants. Be realistic and take time to look things up on the internet before planting them.
submitted by VapoursAndSpleen to Frugal [link] [comments]
On thing is your tools. Use them for their intended purpose. A trowel is not a hammer, for example. Putting a strain on a tool in a weird way can cause it to break/fall apart.
Another thing about tools is that they have a strange tendency to disappear into the garden. Go to the store and get some bright colored duct tape (for example, highway orange or hot pink) and wrap the handles of all your hand tools with the bright tape. Just enough to be visible. You don't have to mummify it. I can find a digging tool in seconds because it is hot pink and contrasts with the green or brown of my garden.
If you want to buy some plants, especially 1 gallon and up, dig the holes before you go on your shopping trip. Most people who have been gardening for more than one season have a stash of empty used pots and those can be a guide to whether the hole is big enough for the plant. A recommendation to working people is to buy the plants on Friday evening or Saturday morning and get it all planted and watered by Sunday midday or you are going to have some dried out and dead plants in pots the next weekend. Plants are not a good aspirational purchase like non-living hobby materials. They are especially vulnerable to stresses in pots and not the ground.
If you find yourself building all sorts of structures to protect your plants from birds, deer, rabbits, bugs, etc., consider putting in the time to research plants that are less likely to be subject to predation. I have met so many gardeners whose yards look like a junkyard with all the jerry-built crapola like random chicken wire around rosebushes or 40 to 50 cut up plastic bottles on small vegetable plants. Be realistic and take time to look things up on the internet before planting them.
2023.06.09 21:22 Mattysanford [For Sale] Fun For Everyone: Joanna Newsom, Thom Yorke, Jessica Pratt, DIIV, Darkside, lots more metal, indie, electro, oddball stuff.
Please add $4 each for CONUS shipping, though I will always bundle where possible. I will entertain offers for bundles, trades from my wantlist, and/or negotiations. Thanks!
Some of these releases fluctuate in price all over the place. Please know Iâm flexible and willing to entertain what you think is fair!
Goldmund - The Time It Takes - Marigold - NM/VG - $20
How to Dress Well - Total Loss - Pink/White Marble - NM/NM - $20
Daniel Bachman - River - NM/NM - $15
Shlohmo - Bad Vibes - EX/NM - $50
Atramentus - Stygian - Aqua/Electric Blue w/ Mustard Splat - NM/NM - $25
Black Taffy - Elder Mantis - NM/NM - $25
Beachy Head - Beachy Head - Mustard/Orange Crush - NM/NM - $30
Thom Yorke - Suspiria - Pink - NM/NM - $25
Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs - White - NM/NM - $35
Darkside - Spiral - Glass - NM/NM - $25
DIIV - Deceiver - Galaxy - NM/NM - $45
CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Reve - EX/EX - $15
Jim O'Rourke - Eureka - missing poster, but I will continue to look for it... - EX/EX - $40
Braid - Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5 - Green - EX/NM - $60
Oranssi Pazuzu - Varahtelija - 1st Press - NM/NM - $35
Rhye - Blood - Blood - NM/NM - $45
Wino & Connie Ochs - Heavy Kingdom - EX/NM - $30
V/A - Psych Funk 101 - NM/NM - $30
V/A - Quentin Tarantinoâs Death Proof - NM/NM - $25
Dillard & Clark - Through The Morning, Through The Night - G/VG+ - $20
Have A Nice Life - Sea of Worry - Coke Bottle w/ Black Splatter - NM/NM - $20
Mogwai - Atomic Soundtrack - Orange & Black Swirl - NM/NM - $35
Richard Houghten - Music For Drifters - Neon Pink w/ Hologram Etch - NM/NM - $115
Joanna Newsom - Divers - NM/NM - $25
Holy Sons - Raw and Disfigured - Translucent Orange* - NM/NM - $15
Holy Sons - Fall of Man - Mustard - NM/NM - $15
Karate - Karate - Teal âGasolineâ - NM/NM - $30
VA - Call Me By Your Name OST - NM/NM - $60
Marisa Anderson & William Tyler - Lost Futures - Foxglove Purple - NM/NM - $30
Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena - West Kensington - Purple - NM/NM - $25
submitted by Mattysanford to VinylCollectors [link] [comments]
Some of these releases fluctuate in price all over the place. Please know Iâm flexible and willing to entertain what you think is fair!
Goldmund - The Time It Takes - Marigold - NM/VG - $20
How to Dress Well - Total Loss - Pink/White Marble - NM/NM - $20
Daniel Bachman - River - NM/NM - $15
Shlohmo - Bad Vibes - EX/NM - $50
Atramentus - Stygian - Aqua/Electric Blue w/ Mustard Splat - NM/NM - $25
Black Taffy - Elder Mantis - NM/NM - $25
Beachy Head - Beachy Head - Mustard/Orange Crush - NM/NM - $30
Thom Yorke - Suspiria - Pink - NM/NM - $25
Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs - White - NM/NM - $35
Darkside - Spiral - Glass - NM/NM - $25
DIIV - Deceiver - Galaxy - NM/NM - $45
CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Reve - EX/EX - $15
Jim O'Rourke - Eureka - missing poster, but I will continue to look for it... - EX/EX - $40
Braid - Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5 - Green - EX/NM - $60
Oranssi Pazuzu - Varahtelija - 1st Press - NM/NM - $35
Rhye - Blood - Blood - NM/NM - $45
Wino & Connie Ochs - Heavy Kingdom - EX/NM - $30
V/A - Psych Funk 101 - NM/NM - $30
V/A - Quentin Tarantinoâs Death Proof - NM/NM - $25
Dillard & Clark - Through The Morning, Through The Night - G/VG+ - $20
Have A Nice Life - Sea of Worry - Coke Bottle w/ Black Splatter - NM/NM - $20
Mogwai - Atomic Soundtrack - Orange & Black Swirl - NM/NM - $35
Richard Houghten - Music For Drifters - Neon Pink w/ Hologram Etch - NM/NM - $115
Joanna Newsom - Divers - NM/NM - $25
Holy Sons - Raw and Disfigured - Translucent Orange* - NM/NM - $15
Holy Sons - Fall of Man - Mustard - NM/NM - $15
Karate - Karate - Teal âGasolineâ - NM/NM - $30
VA - Call Me By Your Name OST - NM/NM - $60
Marisa Anderson & William Tyler - Lost Futures - Foxglove Purple - NM/NM - $30
Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena - West Kensington - Purple - NM/NM - $25
2023.06.09 21:14 SoftPois0n Bengaluru: Former live-in partner kills Hyderabad woman
 | submitted by SoftPois0n to hyderabad [link] [comments] |
2023.06.09 21:00 Trash_Tia Thereâs been a secret ongoing war between the Starbucks stores in my city where employees are bloodthirsty for coffeeâ and they will do anything to get it.
Does anyone know how to get out of a Starbucks contract?
I just started my new job and I already want to quit. I REALLY want to quit. Because this shit isnât normal. I mean, is it? Do you guys have experience with this type of shit, or is it a normal thing when moving to the city? Iâm a small-town girl so Iâm not used to this. We didnât even have a Starbucks. Just a diner that had been broken into multiple times over the years.
Do you know the bad feeling you get when something bad is going to happen, but you ignore it for the sake of staying sane? .Yeah.
It was one of those situations.
But I needed cash. I needed a job. College in the city is expensive, especially in my mid-twenties. Uber Eats every night and various subscriptions, such as Netflix and Spotifyâas well as basic living needs required cash. So, naturally, I looked for part-time jobs I could use to fill up my weekend and nights. When it came to job hunting, I was fairly lazy. So, the Starbucks job kinda came out of nowhere.
I wasnât even looking for it. I was applying for a job in the local music store when it caught my eye. Someone to work late evenings and nights on weekdays and Saturdays. The job description didnât say much, just basic pay details and a full paragraph dedicated to talking about âThe Starbucks Familyâ. Skim reading it, I skipped to the APPLY NOW button and sent in my resume via email. Two hours.
It had taken two hours to get an email back offering a video interview the next dayâand a guaranteed job if I didnât screw it up. The video interview went well to my surprise. The woman who conducted it acted more like a friend, asking me what my favorite movies and TV shows were, and then going into detail about her own.
It didnât even feel like an interview. More like a chat. Which was exactly what the email said it was going to be. The interviewer was my momâs age, a total mom-like persona. She offered me iced tea before laughing and realizing we were on a video call. Her cat popped up halfway through her introducing several staff members by name. A large tabby whom she picked up and hugged to her chest. I wasnât sure what to do except repeatedly say, âAww.â and force an even bigger smile.
The woman who for some reason did not introduce herself finished the interview with a more formal and thorough talk-through of rules and regulations. Which went in one ear and out the other. I think I was too excited about the job as a whole. Thereâs something almost mythical about working at Starbucks. Iâve seen barista TikTok complaining about customer service and harping about in the back rooms. It looked fun. Plus, free drinks? I figured working at the famous coffee chain would at least have benefits and freebies.
The woman spoke to me for almost two hours about certain drinks, telling me I would be trained up, and then going on to explain the dos and donâts in a working environment. It was kind of patronizing, but I figured she had to be to remain professional. I tuned out when she started talking about a certain âfeudâ they had with another store down the road. The woman didnât go into detail, but her expression did darken significantly when she leaned closer to her screen and repeated the phrase, âDo you understand me?â I had to backtrack and try and go over what she had been saying, but I had found myself mesmerized by the gilded sword in the background. It hung from the back wall in all of its glory, and I was having a hard time trying to figure out why exactly a Starbucks manager had a sword hanging from her wall.
âSim?â Inclining her head, the manager cleared her throat. âDid you hear me?â
I did. Sort of. Under no circumstances must I visit or go near 2nd Street Starbucks. If I did there would be dire consequences and I would face losing my job, or worse.
I wasnât sure what âor worseâ was, but from the way her expression twisted from funny-cat-lady to a potential employer, I didnât want to ask.
Yikes.
âUh, yeah,â I said. âI canât go near the 2nd Street store.â I almost choked on a glass of water I had been slowly sipping throughout the interview. I had been sweating most of the day, dying in the intense June heat. It was a lot cooler in the evening in the city, but I was used to draining at least ten glasses a day. âIs that real?â I couldnât help asking, pointing to the sword behind her.
I know you are supposed to maintain a certain professional persona and façade during professional work interviews with potential managers. However, I really wanted to know if that ancient thing was real, it was driving me crazy. Because questions were arising in my head: How did she get it? Was it hers? Was it for some kind of aesthetic and feng-shui, or was there more to it? From the look on the interviewerâs face, she seemed startled.
Whipping her head around, her strict grey ponytail hitting the screen, she nodded before turning back to me, her gaze flicking down to what I presumed was a script she was reading offâor maybe she was skimming through my printed-out resume. I wanted to ask her more about the elephant in the room, but she seemed satisfied with answering my question with a nod. She asked me more questions, mostly about my work ethic and if I enjoyed working in a team and independently, if I had any special requirements, and oddlyâif I had ever held a firearm. Now, that caused alarm bells. Along with the gilded sword dangling from this forty-something-year-oldâs lounge wall, I was definitely starting to question the exact nature of what I would be doing at this job. Serving coffee was an obvious one, though I was pretty sure Starbucks barista's didnât require military-style training.
When I didnât know what to say, she seemed to back-pedal. âOh, itâs in case of a robbery.â She said. But her expression stayed stoic. Speaking in the tone of being joking, but not being joking. âIt is rare. However, it is a precaution we must take.â Choosing her words carefully, the interviewer steepled her hands in front of her face, leaning her chin on her fingers. âOur employees are given basic fire-arm training in the instance that one day we may face a difficult situation. Now, I am not saying it is inevitable, but due to certain behavior throughout the years, it is, of course, better to be safe than sorry.â
âOh.â I tried to smile. âNo, I havenât,â I paused, hoping my lack of ability to hold a gun wouldnât screw up my chances. âBut I can learn?â
I said it like a question because it was a question. I was questioning myself why exactly I would take up my time learning to shoot a gun I most likely never would need. To my surprise though, the womanâs smile brightened and she looked down at whatever she was writing.
âOf course,â she said. âSim, I am very happy to hear that. We love employees who do their best to learn and thrive in our working environment,â she paused and typed something on her laptop before her gaze found mine. âIâll put you down for lessons on Friday mornings. How does that sound?â Before I could answer herâbecause I was starting to seriously question why she was so obsessed with training me to use a goddamn gunâshe was nodding to herself. âI will put Jude in charge of you. I think he is working on Friday, so your induction and welcome can be completed in the morningâŠâ
She trailed off into her own murmured conversation to herself before clearing her throat. I jumped. I didnât mean to jump, but her whole presence was putting me on edge. The lady had been nicer on the phone, and earlier on in the interview when she was grilling me on which Frozen character was my favorite.
âOkay!â The interviewer gathered up her paperwork, beaming at me through the camera. âCan you start tomorrow? Letâs sayâŠâ her eyebrows furrowed together. â5:30? I will not be there for the first hour due to certain obligations,â she traced her lip with the tip of her index. âHowever, I have four employees working the front desk, Iâm sure they will give you a warm welcome.â I noticed something twitch on her lips. It was almost like she was trying to stop herself from laughingâwhich was childish from a standpoint where I was the younger one, while she was the senior. She was supposed to be setting some kind of standard, and yet for some reason was more inclined in teasing me about workplace friendships, and apparently how âcloseâ my colleagues were. I wasnât stupid, I knew what friendship was like in the workplace. Itâs not ârealâ because youâre all there to do a job, not making lifelong friendships.
âIâm looking forward to meeting them,â I said when she snorted out a laugh that twisted up my gut.
"Absolutely," she responded. "The team is very close, so don't take it personally if they're initially cautious. I'm confident that you'll all become great friends! Kai is a kind-hearted sweetheart, while Ana may seem standoffish initially, but she'll warm up to you once you get to know her. Jude, on the other hand, will be your guide during the orientation, so it's best to stay close to him. In fact, it's recommended to shadow him during your first few hours since he's our top performer! Frankly, Sim, I can hardly wait for you to meet them! They're a great group!" This woman seemed to suddenly discover the use of expletives, or maybe she had noticed I visibly wanted to crawl into the ground. The way she was describing the other employees, I was expecting cartoon characters when I walked through the door.
âRight,â I said. I was starting to regret applying. âIâll be there.â
She ended the call with a bright smile, and her stupid cat walking on the keyboard, causing her to squeak out in horror. I shut my laptop, my cheeks burning. Well, that went� Well? Could I really say it went well when the manager had spent the last five minutes implying my work colleagues were going to hate me? Fuck.
I didnât want to go. I trashed my application and deleted her number from my phone. But the morning after, however, I came to the quick realization through precious morning caffeine, that I needed cash. So, no matter how much I didnât want to goâI had to. So, I headed to classes and tried not to think about it. It was 5:34 when I stepped into the familiar glow of the famous storeânot before being stopped in the middle of a crowed by a girl wearing bright pink ray-bans and a scowl. âDo you work there?â she turned and pointed to the store.
I shrugged. âI guess.â
She scoffed, slipping off her ray-bans and fixing me with a bitchy smile. âYour funeral.â
Normally, in situations when strangers say odd things to me on the street, I just laugh it off. But this? This seemed personal.
âWhat?â
The girl didnât say anything before turning and walking or rather running away.
Well, that was weird.
After that encounter, I was weighing the positives and negatives of taking up the job. The positives would be cash and something to occupy my mind away from classes, and the negatives were being stuck with insufferable colleagues and a manager who was the embodiment of unprofessional. The store was pretty empty when I stepped through automatic doors, reveling in the cooling fan blasting icy cold air in my face. A dark-haired college girl had her back to me, cleaning tables. But I noticed her stiffening up when I took a step forward. She straightened up like a cat going into territorial mode, before relaxing and holding a two-fingered hand up.
The store was empty so I had no idea who she was signaling to. It wasnât a greeting to meâI had no idea what it was. I was halfway to the counter before a guy popped up out of nowhere, mid-way through drying a cup with a washrag. His hair was the first thing I noticed. Bright red.
In contrast to his pasty skin, this guy would definitely stand out in a crowd. He was my age or maybe a little older, mid twenties, with a wide smile and not much of anything else, kitted in a short-sleeved shirt, and a Starbucks apron over the top.
I expected quirky cartoon-like weirdos and I got an average Joe. I wasnât complaining.
Initially, I thought this guy was just another jock-like college guy. But looking closer, the friendliness in his eyes wasnât sincere, and his smile was strained. Keeping up a professional attitude, he regarded me with a smile, leaning across the counter. But his eyes kept flicking to the door in quick succession like he was waiting for a certain someone to come in. âYou.â He pointed at me, trailing his finger to the door, swiping hair from his face with his hand. The guy was bouncing on the heels of his toes, I noticed. He couldnât stand still, like a hyperactive child. âYouâre Sim, The newbie Iâm supposed to be training.â
I nodded, offering a nervous wave.
âJude.â He introduced himself, though clearly distracted, his gaze flicking to and from the door. His facade was friendly enough, but very fake. It was the same smile I presumed he flashed at customers who complimented his looks. âHey, Sim.â
Instead of holding out his hand for me to shake, he folded his arms across his chest. Jude cocked his head, drinking me in before his lips broke out into a beam.
"Shall we get started?"
Jude started the tour, showing me the store itself, then the back, the storage room, the staff room, and bizarrely, a wooden door which he referred to as, âThe Drinkâ. I had no idea what that meant, but I made a mental note to steer away from it.
The backrooms of the store turned into a labyrinth. The place was covered in mold, peeling paint on the doors and old rugged floor tiles. Jude spoke way too fast like he was intentionally trying to confuse me. By the time I was struggling with my apron, he was turning on his heels with a brow raised. âYour hair is too long so you need to tie it up. You can shadow me this evening but donât get in my way. We have two twenty-minute breaks and during them, we are contractually obligated to go down to the Second Street store and throw eggs at their windowsâooh, and the girl you just met who didnât say a word? Thatâs Ana. You will get used to her.â His smile reached a level of fake I didnât think was possible. âWhy donât you follow me?â
âWhat?â I managed to hiss out when Jude was leading me down a long, winding corridor that dipped into various rooms, out-of-order elevators, and the creepiest set of stairs I had ever seen leading into the pitch dark. I was still trying to register his words.
Jude twisted around with a frown. âWhatâs up?â He nodded at a passing blonde girl who shot me a smile, and hive-fived Jude before disappearing through a door.
âYou throw eggs at the store down the road?â
The guyâs lip twitched into the start of a smile. He turned around, quickening his pace. âDid I say that? Obviously, I was joking.â
I stumbled after him, knocking into a dark-haired younger guy carrying a tray of cupcakes. He and Jude seemed to exchange words without speaking before Jude gestured to the stranger. Somehow, I figured out their telepathic conversation through eye movements and strained smiles, they werenât talking about me. âThatâs Kai,â Jude said, pushing through the doors back to the main storefront. He took a customerâs order, retaining that stupid smile. âIf you need any help with making those annoying TikTok drinks that take a millennia to make and have probably broken several Geneva convention rules?â He playfully knocked into me while preparing a drink, his hands knowing where everything was, preparing and serving a latte in a matter of minutes, âKai is your guy! He runs our social media page and is practically a connoisseur on the next big trend. He'll deal with zoomers."
I was slowly starting to ease my way into this job, and my colleagues seemed pretty cool. Jude actually helped me all the way through the evening, introducing his home life and how he grew up as he cleaned tables and conversed with the othersâalways throwing me into their chatting so I didnât get left out. I ended up sorting through cookies and making price labels with Aurora, the perky blonde who high-fived Jude earlier. She spoke to me like we had been best friends for years, and that part of her charm made me instantly adore her. She was tiny for her age, but a menace when it came to her sharp tongue and language. I didnât think a tiny thing like her could swear like a goddamn sailor, but it was cute. Jude and Aurora had a sibling-type thing going on, though every time I caught Kaiâs eye, he was smirking. It seemed everyone knew they had a thing except them.
I was actually having fun with the others, bobbing my head to the radio while serving a group of kids, when Jude, who was next to me, seemed to go rigid all of a sudden. His laughing smile carved into something else. I had never seen an expression change so fast.
But he wasnât the only one. Aurora, cleaning tables and giggling at Judeâs joke, straightened up, her eyes flashing to the door. Kaiâs head snapped up from where he had been grinding coffee. Following their gaze, I found myself face-to-face with the manager who interviewed me. But unlike the night before, she was not smiling. The woman dropped her bag at the door before marching towards the counter. Jude leaned over; his expression apprehensive.
âWell?â
His eyes as well as his tone had darkened significantly. All of my colleagues had taken off these masks, these facades of joking smiles and bright eyes, and now I was seeing a glimmer of what they were hiding. What Jude had been looking for all evening, sneaking glances at the door. I watched his gaze follow the manager as she paced back and forth, chewing her nails. âWhere is he?â
âI donât know.â She finally said, lifting her head. Her lips were twisted. âBut.â She said, spitting each word, as she rounded the counter, helping herself to coffee. âYouâre going to pay a visit to them right now, andâŠand sort this out once and for all.â Her voice resembled that of a mother talking to her children. She was assertive to them, her eyes piercing. Do you understand me?â The woman nodded at Jude. âYou can go.â Her eyes found mine. âTake the new girl, she needs to be inducted.â Finally, she turned to Ana, who was standing in the corner silently. âYou are too. I need brains, and Jude is just brawn. Keep him on his toes, young lady."
With a hint of sarcasm in his tone, Jude uttered a brief "Thanks," and then proceeded to take a coffee cup and a Sharpie. Swiftly, he scrawled some words on the side of the cup, before placing it inside a bag and plonking it in front of me. As Jude reached for his coat at the back, he put it on over his green Starbucks apron, creating a striking contrast with his denim blue sherpa. With his mop of red curls, this guy was in no way going to be as incognito as he thought. "We'll manage the conversation,â he said hurriedly, visibly excited. Jude seemed to lead the others in their expressions, his confidence and wit causing them to brighten up, adapting wide smiles. He shoved his hands in his pockets, âAll you gotta do is hand them this, okay?â
âIs that a goodâŠâ Kai drifted off on whatever he was about to say, ducking his head when Jude shot him a glare.
âI think itâs a perfect idea!â The manager beamed at me. âWhat a way to fully bring you into our family!â
I took the coffee cup (the empty coffee cup) hesitantly. âWhat is it?â
âItâs a gift!â Jude said, moving towards the door in long strides. It was all too noticeable that this guy was practically vibrating with an energy I had never known. It was almost manic. âI want to let them know we appreciate them! Yâknow! Rival to rival.â
Kai stepped in front of him on the way out.
âBe careful,â he said in a low hum. Aurora joined him, but she wasnât speaking, her left-hand tugging at the waistband of her jeans. âKeep your head down when you go in because theyâll be expecting youâand theyâll be expecting a retaliation.â
âRelaaaaax, itâs Cora! We used to date!â he cocked his head. "I think."
âI mean it. "
Judeâs gaze found mine for a moment before his smile grew. âWell, we have enough eggs donât we?â He grabbed my arm, pulling me along. Ana was already gone. I could see her figure already slinking down the street, bleeding into the shadow.
When the two of us hit the cool night air and Jude quickened his pace into a power-walk, his eyes set forwards, jaw set, I figured I should ask what his deal was. If this guy was serious about vandalizing a rival Starbucks, and not just that, urged by his manager, then I had to say something.
The thought of ending up in jail being petty over a rival store made me feel nauseous.
âSo, what is this about?â I asked, catapulting myself into a half-run to keep up with him. The guy had abnormally long legs, so he was halfway across the sidewalk while I was barely two steps in front. âArenât you taking this a little too seriously?â
Jude didnât reply, instead remarking on the sky being filled with stars.
âHey, Ana!â He shouted. âWait up!â
Second Street Starbucks was like walking into a palace. I could tell why these guys were rivals. The place was a three-floored beast, a glass building made up of a Starbucks downstairs, a library, and a private apartment. I found myself mesmerized by the twinkling lights on the door, the mini water fountain through large windows showing an even bigger storefront with rich-looking wooden tables and reclining chairs. The store was closing. When we stepped in front of the door, there was a sign which clearly said CLOSED on the front.
Still, though, Ana pushed her way through it, followed by Jude, pulling me along with him. Two employees were working, a guy with short blondish hair mopping the floors, and a girl standing at the counter, going through the register. The moment we stepped inside, the guy cleaning up stopped mopping from side to side, his fingers visibly tightening around the mop handle. âHey there!â
With one of his best fake smiles, Jude raised his arms in surrender. âWeâre from the Starbucks down the road. We come in peace, donât worry!â He gestured to me.
âCan we talk to your manager?â
He took a step, his lip twitching, eyes glinting, which caused a stir in the air. The girl at the counter stopped flicking through a wad of cash in her hand and delicately put it down, and the guy turned to face us with wary eyes.
As Jude took another stride forward, his movements resembled a dance, and I noticed he was having fun teasing them. His eyes sparkled with a childlike glee that was unexpected for a person in his twenties. "Would you like to try our latest coffee recipe? It's like sipping on liquid sunshine." He nonchalantly brushed his jeans, and I half-expected him to pull out an egg. âButâŠâ Jude took another step, and Ana situated herself behind the blonde boy, her expression blank. âYouâve already tasted it, havenât you?â
The girl behind the counter finally stopped counting cash, delicately placing a wad back inside the register before leaning forward, an amused smirk curving on her lips. âJude.â Her voice was a low murmur. âI didnât think I would see you here so soon.â
âCora.â Judeâs lips quirked. âTrust me, I donât want to be. But hey, it's the boss's orders.â
She inclined her head, her eyes drinking all of him in. The girl rested her fist on her chin. She was surveying him like a piece of meat. âAnd you obey her?â
His grin widened, and I saw his hand once again brush the front of his apron. âLike a dog.â
âYou know her?â I hissed out, grasping hold of the coffee cup in my hand.
âCora?â Jude turned to me. âOh yeah, we used to be the Romeo and Juliet of coffee shop rivalry â back when we were both newbies, and our store kidnapped me as a last resort. To keep the peace, I stayed.â He shrugged. âThatâs what Iâm told, anyway.â
Starbucks lore was getting dark.
These guys had to be joking around.
I took a step back, eager to head towards the door and be as far away as possible from what I was pretty sure was going to be a lot of eggs, and several arrests. âYou worked here?â I couldnât believe my mouth was still moving and forming words as I took slow steps back. Before Jude caught my arm.
âApparently.â He said, dragging me back by his side. âWhy donât you give âemâ their gift?â
Fuck.
Unwrapping the bag and pulling out the cup, I nodded and took slow strides toward the counter, placing it down in front of her.
Cora frowned, before picking it up, her gaze going to the side.
âGo fuck yourself 2nd street bloodsuckers.â She read out loud, her brow raising into her hairline.
Shit.
âI should probably go.â I managed to say, backing away. âI donât think is the job for meââ
The latter half of my words exploded in my head when something slammed into my ears, a physical force sending me to my knees. Initially, I didnât know what it was. It sounded like a nuclear bomb had gone off. When the ringing in my head subsided, I was aware I had my head buried in my knees, my hands clamped over my ears.
But when I tried to listen past the relentless shrill ringing in my skull, I heard them one after the other. Pop, pop, pop! Gunshots. The crack of each bullet ricocheted in my skull. It was a robbery, I thought dizzily. We were being robbed. No, Second Street was being robbed. When I lifted my head to try and find Jude and Ana to see if they were okay-- I expected them to be cowering like me, Jude, under the table, muffling yelling into his hand, and Ana, calmly pulling him to safety. But that wasn't what I saw. Instead, I must have been fucking imagining things. Jude had not moved from his spot-- and perfectly melded into his hand, was a gun. A gun he was holding like a pro, his hands wrapped around the butt, index teasing the trigger.
His trajectory was directly between Cora's eyes. Jude had not been the one who shot the gun. In fact, neither had Ana, who was still standing stiffly behind the blonde guy.
It was a girl behind the counter who had come out of nowhere wielding the type of gun I expected to see in movies. I noticed from his stance Jude had maybe stepped to the left and then the right to avoid being hit, but the way his demeanour was fully and completely relaxed sent shivers creeping down my spine. "The deal is off, Cora," he murmured. "You fuck with us, so we fuck with you." he lowered his gun slightly, his eyes darkening. "Where's Ren? He came here to sniff you out, so where is he?"
Cora seemed remarkably calm. She started to raise her hands, her lips forming the words, "I don't know what you're talking about" before she stopped, her body going limp. It took me a disorienting moment to realize Jude had taken the shot, followed by another, both landing right between her eyes. When Cora hit the ground, the whole world around me exploded.
I was dragged to the ground by Jude, as he dived across the floor, pressing himself into the back of a table, twisting around, and taking out the barista who almost shot me in the face. There were five of them, all of them good shooters. Too good. Ana easily took out a blonde and brunette with her own magnum, followed by a bald guy who crashed through the counter which collapsed under him.
Jude fell into a manic shoot-out with a guy who would not give up, and after several attempts, re-loading, and attempting to finish him from the ground, my colleague got tired and stood up, dropped his gun, and leaped across the counter. I didn't know what to watch. Ana, who was destroying their coffee machine, or Jude, who snapped the boy's neck with a single twist of his fingers, before ripping out his eyes. He hauled the dead guy over his knees, grazing his teeth across the pasty flesh of the boy's neck, his eyes flickering. I wouldnât say they turned a different color, but there was something inhuman about them, a certain tint around his iris. "Urgh."
He shoved the corpse away, jumping up. "He reeks of it." Treading through broken glass and pooling red on the floor, my colleague grabbed a cup, downed it, and then spat it out. âThat.â He sputtered. âIs the worst fucking thing Iâve ever tasted.â
Ana stepped in front of him, handing the boy his gun. âWhen one of any clan is murdered for with no reason, there is an imbalance, and the coffee is tainted. We must restore the balance before this gets out of hand,â she surprised me by speaking, with a tinge of an Aussie accent. The girl side-eyed me before shooting Jude a knowing look. âDonât let her get in our way.â
âAye, aye, captain.â He mocked a salute before nodding to me. âAll right! Sim, you grab a sample. Weâll go find the altar.â
Something ice-cold slipped down my spine.
âWhat?â
âCool it. Itâs more fun than it sounds,â was all Jude responded with. âGrab the samples.â
I was running on adrenaline, doing exactly what he said. I grabbed two coffee cups. âWhat do we do now? We go home, right?â
He swiped at his lips with a sound of disgust. âAre you kidding? No, man. We get coffee which ainât tainted.â
Ana took out two guards in the back before leading us both through a heavy metal door that led into tunnels, tunnels, illuminated by candlelight. âYou just killed multiple people,â I finally managed to choke out, following the two of them deeper into the dark. âOver coffee.â I couldnât resist a nervous laugh that spluttered into a cry. âYou just murdered seven baristas over fucking coffee!â I found myself backing away at points, scanning for a way out, an exit away from this fucking nightmare.
Jude turned to me, the glitter in his eyes reflected in the candlelight. âOh, please,â His voice echoed down the tunnel in a chuckle. âDo you really think this is just about coffee?â
I didn't understand what he meant until we came to the end of the tunnel, which dipped into an alcove leading us into a large cave-like room. Drawing his gun, Jude scanned the dark. "Anyone in here?" He said, and Ana hit him. Silence answered, and I found myself paralyzed to the spot. I didn't know what to stare at first. The ten-foot-tall Starbucks Siren looming over us, illuminated in flickering orange candlelight, or the old swimming pool filled to the brim. When I took a step forward, my foot sunk into something soft, and I made the mistake of looking down. Bodies.
I guessed that was "The Drink".
I felt myself fall back, but Ana's warm arms were guiding me away from decomposing flesh which decapitated heads poisoned in a way that I could almost call ritualistic. There were bodies everywhere, all of them curled up or had died in a position of prayer. Jude crouched in front of a guy still in his Starbucks apron. His eyes had been cleanly plucked from his skull. Jude's expression was beautifully sombre in the candlelight. "Fuck, dude," he whispered.
"Looks like they got you."
âWhich explains how they got their hands on our recipe.â Ana pulled out her gun and clicked off the safety. The girlâs eyes were suddenly sad, her lip wobbling. I had a hard time believing a girl who had taken out three baristas at point-blank range was crying.
"Through him."
âWhat is this place?â I whispered. "What the fuck are you doing in here?â
Jude straightened up. Ana moved behind him, and I noticed her hands holding her gun were trembling. She raised her arm, pointing it at the back of his head. Jude didn't retaliate, only sending me a sickly smile. "It used to be ours," he said. "Until other stores started opening, and it became a fucking free-for-all." Jude sighed, rocking back and forth on his heel. Ana's trigger finger followed his movements. "We have a peace treaty..." Jude trailed off. "Sorry. HAD a peace treaty." He nodded to his colleague. "Second Street has always been obsessed with this particular blend we have that other stores don't." His lips curved. "They're greedy, and thought they could fuck with us. First, they took our last manager. He was like a dad to us. Sliced him up and sent us his head." He gestured to his friend. "And then they took Ren. They brought this shit upon themselves."
As he spoke, Jude dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, bowing his head in front of the Siren. Ana didn't move. "Are you ready?"
âAlways.â
I screamed, slamming my hand over my mouth when this time when Ana shot Jude point blank in the back of the head. When his body crumpled to the ground, something inside me snapped in two, and I couldnât breathe suddenly. I thought the two were playing some kind of sick game before I caught unmistakable seeping black pooling across the alter.
In the blur of orange candlelight, it was almost a mesmerizing sight. âShush!â Ana sent me an annoyed look, before gathering his body in her arm. âMake yourself useful and grab a bucket,â she said, stumbling towards the pool. I watched her, my heart diving into my throat. When I didnât move, Ana hissed out and twisted around.
âDid you not hear me?!â she yelled. âGet a bucket and start collecting it!â The girl gestured towards a large, rusted pipe looming over the pool, a stream of murky brown water leaking into the pool. When I started forwards, the girl shook her head. âNot yet.â She said, before heaving Judeâs body and throwing him into the darkness. I heard the splash, but I didnât even see his body hit the surface. Part of me wanted to demand what the fuck she was doing, but I did what I was told, with trembling hands, grabbing a bucket and shuffling over to the pool edge. Ana hissed out again. âI said not yet!â Before I could speak, she held a finger to her lips. âDo it now!â
âThe pool water?!â I shrieked.
She raised a brow. âYou think thatâs water?â
Before I could coerce some kind of speech, I was interrupted by what felt like a sudden earthquake. The ground rumbled under our feet, and I hesitated before dropping the bucket into the water and scooping up as much as I could. I quickly realized it wasnât water. It was thick with the constancy of blood, coffee brown and yet sticky and warm like blood.
Above us, the pipe seemed to come to life, a brand new stream of murky brown solution coming down in a waterfall. I didnât think about the pieces of flesh floating on the surface, the decomposing heads I caught bobbing around, or the fact that I was dipping my hands in blood. Coffee and blood. My stomach was trying to projectile my lunch, but I swallowed it down. I took advantage, managing three buckets before Ana was grasping my shoulders and pulled me back. I didnât realize I was sobbing until she was handing me a handkerchief, and I was staring at her and it, like, âWhat do you expect me to do with this?!â
Still in shock, I tried to get another bucket full before she dragged me from the pool edge. âYou can stop now,â she said. âWe have enough.â
"Enough what?!"
I staggered back when the surface of the pool rippled. I donât know what I expected to come out.
Dead bodies?
Decapitated heads?
Not Jude, covered in the brown murky shit I had filled the buckets with. When he broke the surface, I almost threw one of the buckets at his head. Despite being covered in coffee and blood, his skin was oddly free of flaws. The guy was also really naked, which should have been a minor problem compared to what I was seeing, which was a real resurrection in front of a ten-foot statue of the Starbucks siren. Which was completely normal.
But I still found my cheeks heating up. Jude ran a hand through soaked curls sticking over his eyes, shaking them like a dog before pulling himself out. I couldnât help noticing there was no gunshot wound. It was almost as if his body was completely new. I took in abnormally grey-looking skin, like dead flesh, before averting my gaze. âDid we do it?â He gasped out, immediately covering himself. Once out of the pool, he knelt on the ground, sucking in breaths of air before seemingly realizing the state of himself.
âFuck. I didnât think this through.â
âI did.â Ana reached into the backpack she had brought, pulling out a shirt and jeans, reverting her eyes, and throwing him the bundle. âGet dressed.â She said, But there was a slight smirk on her lips. âYes. I think we managed to appease them.â
âSweet!â Jude grinned, dressing quickly. He sucked the tips of his fingers. âMmm.â He nodded at Ana. âThat tastes a lot better.â
He gestured to her, and to my disgust, the girl delicately licked his fingers and nodded with her own smile. âIt tastes like cherry blossom.â
His eyes fell on me, and I saw that inhuman gleam in his eyeâthat had been very much there before he was resurrected in a pool of coffee. His lip quirked. I could still see coffee-- or blood dripping in thick rivulets down his temples and cheek. âShould we?â
Jude turned to Ana. âI mean while weâre here, right? We can induct the newbie.â
Immediately, I knew what he was talking about. I stepped back, but he was following me, getting closer and closer until his breath was in my face, and I was teetering on the edge. I sensed something in his eyes, something I never expected from a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Envy. Another step, and I would be falling into what I was sure was a pool full of decomposing bodies and resurrecting coffee. âNot now,â Ana murmured, and Jude snapped out of it, taking a step back.
âBuzzkill.â He muttered.
But he did step away, allowing me to inch away from the pool.
âLater,â Ana said. âSheâs shaken up. We can do it first thing tomorrow.â
To my surprise, there were no cops at the scene at Second Street. Because there was no scene.
The store was back to normal, and I didnât have the energy to question why. When we returned, Aurora wrapped me into a hug I tried to get out of as quickly as possible, eager to get the fuck away from that place. But. I had to finish my shift. I had watched a man resurrected by coffee in a fucking Starbucks shrine, and yet somehow I had to keep making drinks until my shift ended. It was nearing closing time when the doors opened, and I found myself face-to-face with the girl from earlier. The one wearing the pink ray-bans.
She didnât say anything, but the blade of her knife grazing my gut told me everything I needed to know. With a knowing look when she slipped off her raybans, she pressed something into my hand before leaving, and I handed it to the manager, who opened it up, almost died laughing, and then threw it in the trash.
âYou work for psychopaths.â I managed to get out, sidling in front of Jude while he was clocking out.
âAlso, didnât you⊠didnât you fucking die?â
Jude didnât look up from his phone. âItâs complicated.â His lip quirked. âYouâll find out tomorrow during your induction.â
âBut⊠you work for these people!â I lowered my voice. âAnd youâre not trying to get away?â I gestured to Kai and Aurora standing by the door, the two of them locked in conversation. âNone of you?â
Jude frowned, and I caught the first hint of annoyance. I had only seen this guy smiling, so seeing him scowling was quite the change. âIâm sorry, do you⊠do you think I have a choice?â
He surprised me with a laugh. âMe? A choice? You really think I wake up every morning and WANT to do this shit?â He got close, his breath in my ear. âYou came here willingly. I didnât. In fact? I donât even remember coming here. My interview, my first day? Nothing. I donât even remember my time at Second Street.â He threw a towel at me before I could coerce words. âFinish clearing up, all right? Iâll see you tomorrow for induction.â
There was something cruel in his smile like he was waiting for whatever my induction had in store for me.
I couldnât help myself. When everyone was gone, and I was tasked with locking up, I picked the discarded note out of the trash, smoothing it down.
âYou pieces of shit just declared war. Sleep with one eye open! đâ
Cora xx.â
âŠ.
I cut my finger with a knife this morning. When I sucked it and grabbed a band-aid, I tasted coffee. I went home and threw up coffee.
I am peeing coffee.
I showered 8 times and I still fucking smell of coffee.
I donât think Iâm going to go to work tomorrow.
Edit: Thereâs been a break-inâ and the manager wants me to come in early. Jude and Ana woke me up in the middle of the night to go over tactics. We are taking down Second Street during closing time.
I guess I am going to work tomorrow.
Does anyone know how to use a gun?
submitted by Trash_Tia to nosleep [link] [comments]
I just started my new job and I already want to quit. I REALLY want to quit. Because this shit isnât normal. I mean, is it? Do you guys have experience with this type of shit, or is it a normal thing when moving to the city? Iâm a small-town girl so Iâm not used to this. We didnât even have a Starbucks. Just a diner that had been broken into multiple times over the years.
Do you know the bad feeling you get when something bad is going to happen, but you ignore it for the sake of staying sane? .Yeah.
It was one of those situations.
But I needed cash. I needed a job. College in the city is expensive, especially in my mid-twenties. Uber Eats every night and various subscriptions, such as Netflix and Spotifyâas well as basic living needs required cash. So, naturally, I looked for part-time jobs I could use to fill up my weekend and nights. When it came to job hunting, I was fairly lazy. So, the Starbucks job kinda came out of nowhere.
I wasnât even looking for it. I was applying for a job in the local music store when it caught my eye. Someone to work late evenings and nights on weekdays and Saturdays. The job description didnât say much, just basic pay details and a full paragraph dedicated to talking about âThe Starbucks Familyâ. Skim reading it, I skipped to the APPLY NOW button and sent in my resume via email. Two hours.
It had taken two hours to get an email back offering a video interview the next dayâand a guaranteed job if I didnât screw it up. The video interview went well to my surprise. The woman who conducted it acted more like a friend, asking me what my favorite movies and TV shows were, and then going into detail about her own.
It didnât even feel like an interview. More like a chat. Which was exactly what the email said it was going to be. The interviewer was my momâs age, a total mom-like persona. She offered me iced tea before laughing and realizing we were on a video call. Her cat popped up halfway through her introducing several staff members by name. A large tabby whom she picked up and hugged to her chest. I wasnât sure what to do except repeatedly say, âAww.â and force an even bigger smile.
The woman who for some reason did not introduce herself finished the interview with a more formal and thorough talk-through of rules and regulations. Which went in one ear and out the other. I think I was too excited about the job as a whole. Thereâs something almost mythical about working at Starbucks. Iâve seen barista TikTok complaining about customer service and harping about in the back rooms. It looked fun. Plus, free drinks? I figured working at the famous coffee chain would at least have benefits and freebies.
The woman spoke to me for almost two hours about certain drinks, telling me I would be trained up, and then going on to explain the dos and donâts in a working environment. It was kind of patronizing, but I figured she had to be to remain professional. I tuned out when she started talking about a certain âfeudâ they had with another store down the road. The woman didnât go into detail, but her expression did darken significantly when she leaned closer to her screen and repeated the phrase, âDo you understand me?â I had to backtrack and try and go over what she had been saying, but I had found myself mesmerized by the gilded sword in the background. It hung from the back wall in all of its glory, and I was having a hard time trying to figure out why exactly a Starbucks manager had a sword hanging from her wall.
âSim?â Inclining her head, the manager cleared her throat. âDid you hear me?â
I did. Sort of. Under no circumstances must I visit or go near 2nd Street Starbucks. If I did there would be dire consequences and I would face losing my job, or worse.
I wasnât sure what âor worseâ was, but from the way her expression twisted from funny-cat-lady to a potential employer, I didnât want to ask.
Yikes.
âUh, yeah,â I said. âI canât go near the 2nd Street store.â I almost choked on a glass of water I had been slowly sipping throughout the interview. I had been sweating most of the day, dying in the intense June heat. It was a lot cooler in the evening in the city, but I was used to draining at least ten glasses a day. âIs that real?â I couldnât help asking, pointing to the sword behind her.
I know you are supposed to maintain a certain professional persona and façade during professional work interviews with potential managers. However, I really wanted to know if that ancient thing was real, it was driving me crazy. Because questions were arising in my head: How did she get it? Was it hers? Was it for some kind of aesthetic and feng-shui, or was there more to it? From the look on the interviewerâs face, she seemed startled.
Whipping her head around, her strict grey ponytail hitting the screen, she nodded before turning back to me, her gaze flicking down to what I presumed was a script she was reading offâor maybe she was skimming through my printed-out resume. I wanted to ask her more about the elephant in the room, but she seemed satisfied with answering my question with a nod. She asked me more questions, mostly about my work ethic and if I enjoyed working in a team and independently, if I had any special requirements, and oddlyâif I had ever held a firearm. Now, that caused alarm bells. Along with the gilded sword dangling from this forty-something-year-oldâs lounge wall, I was definitely starting to question the exact nature of what I would be doing at this job. Serving coffee was an obvious one, though I was pretty sure Starbucks barista's didnât require military-style training.
When I didnât know what to say, she seemed to back-pedal. âOh, itâs in case of a robbery.â She said. But her expression stayed stoic. Speaking in the tone of being joking, but not being joking. âIt is rare. However, it is a precaution we must take.â Choosing her words carefully, the interviewer steepled her hands in front of her face, leaning her chin on her fingers. âOur employees are given basic fire-arm training in the instance that one day we may face a difficult situation. Now, I am not saying it is inevitable, but due to certain behavior throughout the years, it is, of course, better to be safe than sorry.â
âOh.â I tried to smile. âNo, I havenât,â I paused, hoping my lack of ability to hold a gun wouldnât screw up my chances. âBut I can learn?â
I said it like a question because it was a question. I was questioning myself why exactly I would take up my time learning to shoot a gun I most likely never would need. To my surprise though, the womanâs smile brightened and she looked down at whatever she was writing.
âOf course,â she said. âSim, I am very happy to hear that. We love employees who do their best to learn and thrive in our working environment,â she paused and typed something on her laptop before her gaze found mine. âIâll put you down for lessons on Friday mornings. How does that sound?â Before I could answer herâbecause I was starting to seriously question why she was so obsessed with training me to use a goddamn gunâshe was nodding to herself. âI will put Jude in charge of you. I think he is working on Friday, so your induction and welcome can be completed in the morningâŠâ
She trailed off into her own murmured conversation to herself before clearing her throat. I jumped. I didnât mean to jump, but her whole presence was putting me on edge. The lady had been nicer on the phone, and earlier on in the interview when she was grilling me on which Frozen character was my favorite.
âOkay!â The interviewer gathered up her paperwork, beaming at me through the camera. âCan you start tomorrow? Letâs sayâŠâ her eyebrows furrowed together. â5:30? I will not be there for the first hour due to certain obligations,â she traced her lip with the tip of her index. âHowever, I have four employees working the front desk, Iâm sure they will give you a warm welcome.â I noticed something twitch on her lips. It was almost like she was trying to stop herself from laughingâwhich was childish from a standpoint where I was the younger one, while she was the senior. She was supposed to be setting some kind of standard, and yet for some reason was more inclined in teasing me about workplace friendships, and apparently how âcloseâ my colleagues were. I wasnât stupid, I knew what friendship was like in the workplace. Itâs not ârealâ because youâre all there to do a job, not making lifelong friendships.
âIâm looking forward to meeting them,â I said when she snorted out a laugh that twisted up my gut.
"Absolutely," she responded. "The team is very close, so don't take it personally if they're initially cautious. I'm confident that you'll all become great friends! Kai is a kind-hearted sweetheart, while Ana may seem standoffish initially, but she'll warm up to you once you get to know her. Jude, on the other hand, will be your guide during the orientation, so it's best to stay close to him. In fact, it's recommended to shadow him during your first few hours since he's our top performer! Frankly, Sim, I can hardly wait for you to meet them! They're a great group!" This woman seemed to suddenly discover the use of expletives, or maybe she had noticed I visibly wanted to crawl into the ground. The way she was describing the other employees, I was expecting cartoon characters when I walked through the door.
âRight,â I said. I was starting to regret applying. âIâll be there.â
She ended the call with a bright smile, and her stupid cat walking on the keyboard, causing her to squeak out in horror. I shut my laptop, my cheeks burning. Well, that went� Well? Could I really say it went well when the manager had spent the last five minutes implying my work colleagues were going to hate me? Fuck.
I didnât want to go. I trashed my application and deleted her number from my phone. But the morning after, however, I came to the quick realization through precious morning caffeine, that I needed cash. So, no matter how much I didnât want to goâI had to. So, I headed to classes and tried not to think about it. It was 5:34 when I stepped into the familiar glow of the famous storeânot before being stopped in the middle of a crowed by a girl wearing bright pink ray-bans and a scowl. âDo you work there?â she turned and pointed to the store.
I shrugged. âI guess.â
She scoffed, slipping off her ray-bans and fixing me with a bitchy smile. âYour funeral.â
Normally, in situations when strangers say odd things to me on the street, I just laugh it off. But this? This seemed personal.
âWhat?â
The girl didnât say anything before turning and walking or rather running away.
Well, that was weird.
After that encounter, I was weighing the positives and negatives of taking up the job. The positives would be cash and something to occupy my mind away from classes, and the negatives were being stuck with insufferable colleagues and a manager who was the embodiment of unprofessional. The store was pretty empty when I stepped through automatic doors, reveling in the cooling fan blasting icy cold air in my face. A dark-haired college girl had her back to me, cleaning tables. But I noticed her stiffening up when I took a step forward. She straightened up like a cat going into territorial mode, before relaxing and holding a two-fingered hand up.
The store was empty so I had no idea who she was signaling to. It wasnât a greeting to meâI had no idea what it was. I was halfway to the counter before a guy popped up out of nowhere, mid-way through drying a cup with a washrag. His hair was the first thing I noticed. Bright red.
In contrast to his pasty skin, this guy would definitely stand out in a crowd. He was my age or maybe a little older, mid twenties, with a wide smile and not much of anything else, kitted in a short-sleeved shirt, and a Starbucks apron over the top.
I expected quirky cartoon-like weirdos and I got an average Joe. I wasnât complaining.
Initially, I thought this guy was just another jock-like college guy. But looking closer, the friendliness in his eyes wasnât sincere, and his smile was strained. Keeping up a professional attitude, he regarded me with a smile, leaning across the counter. But his eyes kept flicking to the door in quick succession like he was waiting for a certain someone to come in. âYou.â He pointed at me, trailing his finger to the door, swiping hair from his face with his hand. The guy was bouncing on the heels of his toes, I noticed. He couldnât stand still, like a hyperactive child. âYouâre Sim, The newbie Iâm supposed to be training.â
I nodded, offering a nervous wave.
âJude.â He introduced himself, though clearly distracted, his gaze flicking to and from the door. His facade was friendly enough, but very fake. It was the same smile I presumed he flashed at customers who complimented his looks. âHey, Sim.â
Instead of holding out his hand for me to shake, he folded his arms across his chest. Jude cocked his head, drinking me in before his lips broke out into a beam.
"Shall we get started?"
Jude started the tour, showing me the store itself, then the back, the storage room, the staff room, and bizarrely, a wooden door which he referred to as, âThe Drinkâ. I had no idea what that meant, but I made a mental note to steer away from it.
The backrooms of the store turned into a labyrinth. The place was covered in mold, peeling paint on the doors and old rugged floor tiles. Jude spoke way too fast like he was intentionally trying to confuse me. By the time I was struggling with my apron, he was turning on his heels with a brow raised. âYour hair is too long so you need to tie it up. You can shadow me this evening but donât get in my way. We have two twenty-minute breaks and during them, we are contractually obligated to go down to the Second Street store and throw eggs at their windowsâooh, and the girl you just met who didnât say a word? Thatâs Ana. You will get used to her.â His smile reached a level of fake I didnât think was possible. âWhy donât you follow me?â
âWhat?â I managed to hiss out when Jude was leading me down a long, winding corridor that dipped into various rooms, out-of-order elevators, and the creepiest set of stairs I had ever seen leading into the pitch dark. I was still trying to register his words.
Jude twisted around with a frown. âWhatâs up?â He nodded at a passing blonde girl who shot me a smile, and hive-fived Jude before disappearing through a door.
âYou throw eggs at the store down the road?â
The guyâs lip twitched into the start of a smile. He turned around, quickening his pace. âDid I say that? Obviously, I was joking.â
I stumbled after him, knocking into a dark-haired younger guy carrying a tray of cupcakes. He and Jude seemed to exchange words without speaking before Jude gestured to the stranger. Somehow, I figured out their telepathic conversation through eye movements and strained smiles, they werenât talking about me. âThatâs Kai,â Jude said, pushing through the doors back to the main storefront. He took a customerâs order, retaining that stupid smile. âIf you need any help with making those annoying TikTok drinks that take a millennia to make and have probably broken several Geneva convention rules?â He playfully knocked into me while preparing a drink, his hands knowing where everything was, preparing and serving a latte in a matter of minutes, âKai is your guy! He runs our social media page and is practically a connoisseur on the next big trend. He'll deal with zoomers."
I was slowly starting to ease my way into this job, and my colleagues seemed pretty cool. Jude actually helped me all the way through the evening, introducing his home life and how he grew up as he cleaned tables and conversed with the othersâalways throwing me into their chatting so I didnât get left out. I ended up sorting through cookies and making price labels with Aurora, the perky blonde who high-fived Jude earlier. She spoke to me like we had been best friends for years, and that part of her charm made me instantly adore her. She was tiny for her age, but a menace when it came to her sharp tongue and language. I didnât think a tiny thing like her could swear like a goddamn sailor, but it was cute. Jude and Aurora had a sibling-type thing going on, though every time I caught Kaiâs eye, he was smirking. It seemed everyone knew they had a thing except them.
I was actually having fun with the others, bobbing my head to the radio while serving a group of kids, when Jude, who was next to me, seemed to go rigid all of a sudden. His laughing smile carved into something else. I had never seen an expression change so fast.
But he wasnât the only one. Aurora, cleaning tables and giggling at Judeâs joke, straightened up, her eyes flashing to the door. Kaiâs head snapped up from where he had been grinding coffee. Following their gaze, I found myself face-to-face with the manager who interviewed me. But unlike the night before, she was not smiling. The woman dropped her bag at the door before marching towards the counter. Jude leaned over; his expression apprehensive.
âWell?â
His eyes as well as his tone had darkened significantly. All of my colleagues had taken off these masks, these facades of joking smiles and bright eyes, and now I was seeing a glimmer of what they were hiding. What Jude had been looking for all evening, sneaking glances at the door. I watched his gaze follow the manager as she paced back and forth, chewing her nails. âWhere is he?â
âI donât know.â She finally said, lifting her head. Her lips were twisted. âBut.â She said, spitting each word, as she rounded the counter, helping herself to coffee. âYouâre going to pay a visit to them right now, andâŠand sort this out once and for all.â Her voice resembled that of a mother talking to her children. She was assertive to them, her eyes piercing. Do you understand me?â The woman nodded at Jude. âYou can go.â Her eyes found mine. âTake the new girl, she needs to be inducted.â Finally, she turned to Ana, who was standing in the corner silently. âYou are too. I need brains, and Jude is just brawn. Keep him on his toes, young lady."
With a hint of sarcasm in his tone, Jude uttered a brief "Thanks," and then proceeded to take a coffee cup and a Sharpie. Swiftly, he scrawled some words on the side of the cup, before placing it inside a bag and plonking it in front of me. As Jude reached for his coat at the back, he put it on over his green Starbucks apron, creating a striking contrast with his denim blue sherpa. With his mop of red curls, this guy was in no way going to be as incognito as he thought. "We'll manage the conversation,â he said hurriedly, visibly excited. Jude seemed to lead the others in their expressions, his confidence and wit causing them to brighten up, adapting wide smiles. He shoved his hands in his pockets, âAll you gotta do is hand them this, okay?â
âIs that a goodâŠâ Kai drifted off on whatever he was about to say, ducking his head when Jude shot him a glare.
âI think itâs a perfect idea!â The manager beamed at me. âWhat a way to fully bring you into our family!â
I took the coffee cup (the empty coffee cup) hesitantly. âWhat is it?â
âItâs a gift!â Jude said, moving towards the door in long strides. It was all too noticeable that this guy was practically vibrating with an energy I had never known. It was almost manic. âI want to let them know we appreciate them! Yâknow! Rival to rival.â
Kai stepped in front of him on the way out.
âBe careful,â he said in a low hum. Aurora joined him, but she wasnât speaking, her left-hand tugging at the waistband of her jeans. âKeep your head down when you go in because theyâll be expecting youâand theyâll be expecting a retaliation.â
âRelaaaaax, itâs Cora! We used to date!â he cocked his head. "I think."
âI mean it. "
Judeâs gaze found mine for a moment before his smile grew. âWell, we have enough eggs donât we?â He grabbed my arm, pulling me along. Ana was already gone. I could see her figure already slinking down the street, bleeding into the shadow.
When the two of us hit the cool night air and Jude quickened his pace into a power-walk, his eyes set forwards, jaw set, I figured I should ask what his deal was. If this guy was serious about vandalizing a rival Starbucks, and not just that, urged by his manager, then I had to say something.
The thought of ending up in jail being petty over a rival store made me feel nauseous.
âSo, what is this about?â I asked, catapulting myself into a half-run to keep up with him. The guy had abnormally long legs, so he was halfway across the sidewalk while I was barely two steps in front. âArenât you taking this a little too seriously?â
Jude didnât reply, instead remarking on the sky being filled with stars.
âHey, Ana!â He shouted. âWait up!â
Second Street Starbucks was like walking into a palace. I could tell why these guys were rivals. The place was a three-floored beast, a glass building made up of a Starbucks downstairs, a library, and a private apartment. I found myself mesmerized by the twinkling lights on the door, the mini water fountain through large windows showing an even bigger storefront with rich-looking wooden tables and reclining chairs. The store was closing. When we stepped in front of the door, there was a sign which clearly said CLOSED on the front.
Still, though, Ana pushed her way through it, followed by Jude, pulling me along with him. Two employees were working, a guy with short blondish hair mopping the floors, and a girl standing at the counter, going through the register. The moment we stepped inside, the guy cleaning up stopped mopping from side to side, his fingers visibly tightening around the mop handle. âHey there!â
With one of his best fake smiles, Jude raised his arms in surrender. âWeâre from the Starbucks down the road. We come in peace, donât worry!â He gestured to me.
âCan we talk to your manager?â
He took a step, his lip twitching, eyes glinting, which caused a stir in the air. The girl at the counter stopped flicking through a wad of cash in her hand and delicately put it down, and the guy turned to face us with wary eyes.
As Jude took another stride forward, his movements resembled a dance, and I noticed he was having fun teasing them. His eyes sparkled with a childlike glee that was unexpected for a person in his twenties. "Would you like to try our latest coffee recipe? It's like sipping on liquid sunshine." He nonchalantly brushed his jeans, and I half-expected him to pull out an egg. âButâŠâ Jude took another step, and Ana situated herself behind the blonde boy, her expression blank. âYouâve already tasted it, havenât you?â
The girl behind the counter finally stopped counting cash, delicately placing a wad back inside the register before leaning forward, an amused smirk curving on her lips. âJude.â Her voice was a low murmur. âI didnât think I would see you here so soon.â
âCora.â Judeâs lips quirked. âTrust me, I donât want to be. But hey, it's the boss's orders.â
She inclined her head, her eyes drinking all of him in. The girl rested her fist on her chin. She was surveying him like a piece of meat. âAnd you obey her?â
His grin widened, and I saw his hand once again brush the front of his apron. âLike a dog.â
âYou know her?â I hissed out, grasping hold of the coffee cup in my hand.
âCora?â Jude turned to me. âOh yeah, we used to be the Romeo and Juliet of coffee shop rivalry â back when we were both newbies, and our store kidnapped me as a last resort. To keep the peace, I stayed.â He shrugged. âThatâs what Iâm told, anyway.â
Starbucks lore was getting dark.
These guys had to be joking around.
I took a step back, eager to head towards the door and be as far away as possible from what I was pretty sure was going to be a lot of eggs, and several arrests. âYou worked here?â I couldnât believe my mouth was still moving and forming words as I took slow steps back. Before Jude caught my arm.
âApparently.â He said, dragging me back by his side. âWhy donât you give âemâ their gift?â
Fuck.
Unwrapping the bag and pulling out the cup, I nodded and took slow strides toward the counter, placing it down in front of her.
Cora frowned, before picking it up, her gaze going to the side.
âGo fuck yourself 2nd street bloodsuckers.â She read out loud, her brow raising into her hairline.
Shit.
âI should probably go.â I managed to say, backing away. âI donât think is the job for meââ
The latter half of my words exploded in my head when something slammed into my ears, a physical force sending me to my knees. Initially, I didnât know what it was. It sounded like a nuclear bomb had gone off. When the ringing in my head subsided, I was aware I had my head buried in my knees, my hands clamped over my ears.
But when I tried to listen past the relentless shrill ringing in my skull, I heard them one after the other. Pop, pop, pop! Gunshots. The crack of each bullet ricocheted in my skull. It was a robbery, I thought dizzily. We were being robbed. No, Second Street was being robbed. When I lifted my head to try and find Jude and Ana to see if they were okay-- I expected them to be cowering like me, Jude, under the table, muffling yelling into his hand, and Ana, calmly pulling him to safety. But that wasn't what I saw. Instead, I must have been fucking imagining things. Jude had not moved from his spot-- and perfectly melded into his hand, was a gun. A gun he was holding like a pro, his hands wrapped around the butt, index teasing the trigger.
His trajectory was directly between Cora's eyes. Jude had not been the one who shot the gun. In fact, neither had Ana, who was still standing stiffly behind the blonde guy.
It was a girl behind the counter who had come out of nowhere wielding the type of gun I expected to see in movies. I noticed from his stance Jude had maybe stepped to the left and then the right to avoid being hit, but the way his demeanour was fully and completely relaxed sent shivers creeping down my spine. "The deal is off, Cora," he murmured. "You fuck with us, so we fuck with you." he lowered his gun slightly, his eyes darkening. "Where's Ren? He came here to sniff you out, so where is he?"
Cora seemed remarkably calm. She started to raise her hands, her lips forming the words, "I don't know what you're talking about" before she stopped, her body going limp. It took me a disorienting moment to realize Jude had taken the shot, followed by another, both landing right between her eyes. When Cora hit the ground, the whole world around me exploded.
I was dragged to the ground by Jude, as he dived across the floor, pressing himself into the back of a table, twisting around, and taking out the barista who almost shot me in the face. There were five of them, all of them good shooters. Too good. Ana easily took out a blonde and brunette with her own magnum, followed by a bald guy who crashed through the counter which collapsed under him.
Jude fell into a manic shoot-out with a guy who would not give up, and after several attempts, re-loading, and attempting to finish him from the ground, my colleague got tired and stood up, dropped his gun, and leaped across the counter. I didn't know what to watch. Ana, who was destroying their coffee machine, or Jude, who snapped the boy's neck with a single twist of his fingers, before ripping out his eyes. He hauled the dead guy over his knees, grazing his teeth across the pasty flesh of the boy's neck, his eyes flickering. I wouldnât say they turned a different color, but there was something inhuman about them, a certain tint around his iris. "Urgh."
He shoved the corpse away, jumping up. "He reeks of it." Treading through broken glass and pooling red on the floor, my colleague grabbed a cup, downed it, and then spat it out. âThat.â He sputtered. âIs the worst fucking thing Iâve ever tasted.â
Ana stepped in front of him, handing the boy his gun. âWhen one of any clan is murdered for with no reason, there is an imbalance, and the coffee is tainted. We must restore the balance before this gets out of hand,â she surprised me by speaking, with a tinge of an Aussie accent. The girl side-eyed me before shooting Jude a knowing look. âDonât let her get in our way.â
âAye, aye, captain.â He mocked a salute before nodding to me. âAll right! Sim, you grab a sample. Weâll go find the altar.â
Something ice-cold slipped down my spine.
âWhat?â
âCool it. Itâs more fun than it sounds,â was all Jude responded with. âGrab the samples.â
I was running on adrenaline, doing exactly what he said. I grabbed two coffee cups. âWhat do we do now? We go home, right?â
He swiped at his lips with a sound of disgust. âAre you kidding? No, man. We get coffee which ainât tainted.â
Ana took out two guards in the back before leading us both through a heavy metal door that led into tunnels, tunnels, illuminated by candlelight. âYou just killed multiple people,â I finally managed to choke out, following the two of them deeper into the dark. âOver coffee.â I couldnât resist a nervous laugh that spluttered into a cry. âYou just murdered seven baristas over fucking coffee!â I found myself backing away at points, scanning for a way out, an exit away from this fucking nightmare.
Jude turned to me, the glitter in his eyes reflected in the candlelight. âOh, please,â His voice echoed down the tunnel in a chuckle. âDo you really think this is just about coffee?â
I didn't understand what he meant until we came to the end of the tunnel, which dipped into an alcove leading us into a large cave-like room. Drawing his gun, Jude scanned the dark. "Anyone in here?" He said, and Ana hit him. Silence answered, and I found myself paralyzed to the spot. I didn't know what to stare at first. The ten-foot-tall Starbucks Siren looming over us, illuminated in flickering orange candlelight, or the old swimming pool filled to the brim. When I took a step forward, my foot sunk into something soft, and I made the mistake of looking down. Bodies.
I guessed that was "The Drink".
I felt myself fall back, but Ana's warm arms were guiding me away from decomposing flesh which decapitated heads poisoned in a way that I could almost call ritualistic. There were bodies everywhere, all of them curled up or had died in a position of prayer. Jude crouched in front of a guy still in his Starbucks apron. His eyes had been cleanly plucked from his skull. Jude's expression was beautifully sombre in the candlelight. "Fuck, dude," he whispered.
"Looks like they got you."
âWhich explains how they got their hands on our recipe.â Ana pulled out her gun and clicked off the safety. The girlâs eyes were suddenly sad, her lip wobbling. I had a hard time believing a girl who had taken out three baristas at point-blank range was crying.
"Through him."
âWhat is this place?â I whispered. "What the fuck are you doing in here?â
Jude straightened up. Ana moved behind him, and I noticed her hands holding her gun were trembling. She raised her arm, pointing it at the back of his head. Jude didn't retaliate, only sending me a sickly smile. "It used to be ours," he said. "Until other stores started opening, and it became a fucking free-for-all." Jude sighed, rocking back and forth on his heel. Ana's trigger finger followed his movements. "We have a peace treaty..." Jude trailed off. "Sorry. HAD a peace treaty." He nodded to his colleague. "Second Street has always been obsessed with this particular blend we have that other stores don't." His lips curved. "They're greedy, and thought they could fuck with us. First, they took our last manager. He was like a dad to us. Sliced him up and sent us his head." He gestured to his friend. "And then they took Ren. They brought this shit upon themselves."
As he spoke, Jude dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, bowing his head in front of the Siren. Ana didn't move. "Are you ready?"
âAlways.â
I screamed, slamming my hand over my mouth when this time when Ana shot Jude point blank in the back of the head. When his body crumpled to the ground, something inside me snapped in two, and I couldnât breathe suddenly. I thought the two were playing some kind of sick game before I caught unmistakable seeping black pooling across the alter.
In the blur of orange candlelight, it was almost a mesmerizing sight. âShush!â Ana sent me an annoyed look, before gathering his body in her arm. âMake yourself useful and grab a bucket,â she said, stumbling towards the pool. I watched her, my heart diving into my throat. When I didnât move, Ana hissed out and twisted around.
âDid you not hear me?!â she yelled. âGet a bucket and start collecting it!â The girl gestured towards a large, rusted pipe looming over the pool, a stream of murky brown water leaking into the pool. When I started forwards, the girl shook her head. âNot yet.â She said, before heaving Judeâs body and throwing him into the darkness. I heard the splash, but I didnât even see his body hit the surface. Part of me wanted to demand what the fuck she was doing, but I did what I was told, with trembling hands, grabbing a bucket and shuffling over to the pool edge. Ana hissed out again. âI said not yet!â Before I could speak, she held a finger to her lips. âDo it now!â
âThe pool water?!â I shrieked.
She raised a brow. âYou think thatâs water?â
Before I could coerce some kind of speech, I was interrupted by what felt like a sudden earthquake. The ground rumbled under our feet, and I hesitated before dropping the bucket into the water and scooping up as much as I could. I quickly realized it wasnât water. It was thick with the constancy of blood, coffee brown and yet sticky and warm like blood.
Above us, the pipe seemed to come to life, a brand new stream of murky brown solution coming down in a waterfall. I didnât think about the pieces of flesh floating on the surface, the decomposing heads I caught bobbing around, or the fact that I was dipping my hands in blood. Coffee and blood. My stomach was trying to projectile my lunch, but I swallowed it down. I took advantage, managing three buckets before Ana was grasping my shoulders and pulled me back. I didnât realize I was sobbing until she was handing me a handkerchief, and I was staring at her and it, like, âWhat do you expect me to do with this?!â
Still in shock, I tried to get another bucket full before she dragged me from the pool edge. âYou can stop now,â she said. âWe have enough.â
"Enough what?!"
I staggered back when the surface of the pool rippled. I donât know what I expected to come out.
Dead bodies?
Decapitated heads?
Not Jude, covered in the brown murky shit I had filled the buckets with. When he broke the surface, I almost threw one of the buckets at his head. Despite being covered in coffee and blood, his skin was oddly free of flaws. The guy was also really naked, which should have been a minor problem compared to what I was seeing, which was a real resurrection in front of a ten-foot statue of the Starbucks siren. Which was completely normal.
But I still found my cheeks heating up. Jude ran a hand through soaked curls sticking over his eyes, shaking them like a dog before pulling himself out. I couldnât help noticing there was no gunshot wound. It was almost as if his body was completely new. I took in abnormally grey-looking skin, like dead flesh, before averting my gaze. âDid we do it?â He gasped out, immediately covering himself. Once out of the pool, he knelt on the ground, sucking in breaths of air before seemingly realizing the state of himself.
âFuck. I didnât think this through.â
âI did.â Ana reached into the backpack she had brought, pulling out a shirt and jeans, reverting her eyes, and throwing him the bundle. âGet dressed.â She said, But there was a slight smirk on her lips. âYes. I think we managed to appease them.â
âSweet!â Jude grinned, dressing quickly. He sucked the tips of his fingers. âMmm.â He nodded at Ana. âThat tastes a lot better.â
He gestured to her, and to my disgust, the girl delicately licked his fingers and nodded with her own smile. âIt tastes like cherry blossom.â
His eyes fell on me, and I saw that inhuman gleam in his eyeâthat had been very much there before he was resurrected in a pool of coffee. His lip quirked. I could still see coffee-- or blood dripping in thick rivulets down his temples and cheek. âShould we?â
Jude turned to Ana. âI mean while weâre here, right? We can induct the newbie.â
Immediately, I knew what he was talking about. I stepped back, but he was following me, getting closer and closer until his breath was in my face, and I was teetering on the edge. I sensed something in his eyes, something I never expected from a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Envy. Another step, and I would be falling into what I was sure was a pool full of decomposing bodies and resurrecting coffee. âNot now,â Ana murmured, and Jude snapped out of it, taking a step back.
âBuzzkill.â He muttered.
But he did step away, allowing me to inch away from the pool.
âLater,â Ana said. âSheâs shaken up. We can do it first thing tomorrow.â
To my surprise, there were no cops at the scene at Second Street. Because there was no scene.
The store was back to normal, and I didnât have the energy to question why. When we returned, Aurora wrapped me into a hug I tried to get out of as quickly as possible, eager to get the fuck away from that place. But. I had to finish my shift. I had watched a man resurrected by coffee in a fucking Starbucks shrine, and yet somehow I had to keep making drinks until my shift ended. It was nearing closing time when the doors opened, and I found myself face-to-face with the girl from earlier. The one wearing the pink ray-bans.
She didnât say anything, but the blade of her knife grazing my gut told me everything I needed to know. With a knowing look when she slipped off her raybans, she pressed something into my hand before leaving, and I handed it to the manager, who opened it up, almost died laughing, and then threw it in the trash.
âYou work for psychopaths.â I managed to get out, sidling in front of Jude while he was clocking out.
âAlso, didnât you⊠didnât you fucking die?â
Jude didnât look up from his phone. âItâs complicated.â His lip quirked. âYouâll find out tomorrow during your induction.â
âBut⊠you work for these people!â I lowered my voice. âAnd youâre not trying to get away?â I gestured to Kai and Aurora standing by the door, the two of them locked in conversation. âNone of you?â
Jude frowned, and I caught the first hint of annoyance. I had only seen this guy smiling, so seeing him scowling was quite the change. âIâm sorry, do you⊠do you think I have a choice?â
He surprised me with a laugh. âMe? A choice? You really think I wake up every morning and WANT to do this shit?â He got close, his breath in my ear. âYou came here willingly. I didnât. In fact? I donât even remember coming here. My interview, my first day? Nothing. I donât even remember my time at Second Street.â He threw a towel at me before I could coerce words. âFinish clearing up, all right? Iâll see you tomorrow for induction.â
There was something cruel in his smile like he was waiting for whatever my induction had in store for me.
I couldnât help myself. When everyone was gone, and I was tasked with locking up, I picked the discarded note out of the trash, smoothing it down.
âYou pieces of shit just declared war. Sleep with one eye open! đâ
Cora xx.â
âŠ.
I cut my finger with a knife this morning. When I sucked it and grabbed a band-aid, I tasted coffee. I went home and threw up coffee.
I am peeing coffee.
I showered 8 times and I still fucking smell of coffee.
I donât think Iâm going to go to work tomorrow.
Edit: Thereâs been a break-inâ and the manager wants me to come in early. Jude and Ana woke me up in the middle of the night to go over tactics. We are taking down Second Street during closing time.
I guess I am going to work tomorrow.
Does anyone know how to use a gun?
2023.06.09 20:51 Ramrawd Spyderco Paysan Drunken TI PM2, 20cv Griptilian, ShepardCC Sebenza Scale, AD15, TwoSun TS177 and TS328, Ultratech Clone, XM18 Clone, Giantmouse GM8, Tactile Maverick Ti
TIMESTAMP
Accepting Paypal Friends and Family for payment. Will consider Venmo/Zelle on a case by case basis.
Insured USPS Priority Mail included in Sale Value price for knives over $50. First class mail for knives under $50. Shipping to US only please. Will ship out this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning.
Please comment in thread and then send me a chat or direct message.
Definitive claims have priority over currently ongoing negotiations, chats, and messages.
If you've got any questions or need more pics just let me know!
Always looking for an Anthem or a Lochsa clone but otherwise no trades please. Happy to entertain reasonable offers.
Thanks!
Spyderco Paysan CQI - VID - S90v Blade Steel - This is like new. Opened it, flipped it a few times and then it went in my safe. Never disassembled, never sharpened, never cut, has never seen a torx bit. Has that characteristic lock stick that these come with new. From what I've seen it works itself out with some use. Amazing mirror stonewashed finish. Comes with original spydie pouch and docs.
SV$675 OBO
Spyderco Drunken - VID - S90v Blade Steel - This one is absolutely brand new. Just opened it for the video/pic. Never taken apart, never sharpened, never tuned. Action is smooth but needs some breaking in/lube for the drop shut stuff. Comes with original spydie pouch and docs.
SV$420.69 OBO
Spyderco Paramilitary 2 - VID - S45VN - This PM2 has been babied and I haven't really cut much with it. Edge is factory and has never been sharpened/stropped. Swapped some ti scales and a matching clip on to it. Centering is nearly perfect and action is drop shut with a tiny tiny amount of blade play. Can be tuned out at the loss of some drop shuttyness. Includes original camo scales, clip, paperwork, and box.
SV$200 OBO
ShepardCC Chris Reeve Large Sebenza Scale - VID - PICS - Custom made red micarta scale for a Large Sebenza 31. Purchased this and carried it for about a week. Ended up going back to the ti scales. Just like how chunky the ti feels. Scale has been washed and looks brand new. Only minor scuffing on the inside of the scale where the washer rubbed on it a bit.
SV$70 OBO
Benchmade 20CV Griptilian With G10 Scales - Vid - LNIB special edition 20cv grip. No longer being made. Beautiful knife that I picked up with intentions to mod but could never bring myself to do anything to it considering its relative rarity. 2nd owner but the 1st owner claimed it was also lnib and I believe them. No flaws anywhere on this one. I sliced some paper with it but that's about it. Still needs breaking in or a little tweaking to get that action perfect. Comes with all original accessories/box.
SV$200 OBO Pending sale
Cold Steel Ad-15 - Pics - S35vn - LNIB Not much to say about this one. This one is practically brand new. Got it, played with it a bit and then put it back in the box. No visible wear. Never been disassembled. Never cut anything. Still needs some breaking in. Beast of a knife but just not for me.
SV$125 OBO
TwoSun TS328 SN#189 - Pics - M390 - LNIB Absolutely beautiful knife. Satin finish on the blade that is so well done you get a rainbow effect on it as it reflects light. Great ceramic bearing action. Machining on the scales is spot on. Has cut some paper and maybe been stropped once. No real visible wear on this one. Was a safe queen for me. Never could bring myself to carry it.
SV$165 OBO
Take both TwoSuns for SV$300
TwoSun TS177 SN#523 - Pics - M390 - LNIB Just like the ts328 has a beautiful satin finish on the blade. Ceramic ball bearing action. Same great machining. Has lived an easy life and sliced some paper but otherwise hasn't been used. No visible wear or blemishes.
SV$165 OBO
Take both TwoSuns for SV$300
GreenThorn XM-18 CLONE - VID - D2 Blade Steel - Really nice XM-18 clone that's running on washers. Stupid nice action and is nearly drop shut with no blade play. Gorgeous milling on the scales. Has maybe sliced some paper but is otherwise LNIB. This one is a bit too chunky for me but glad I found that out without having to plunk down on the real thing. Comes with taco pouch.
SV$100 SOLD
GiantMouse GM8 - VID - Product Link - M390 Blade Steel - Have a gorgeous example of a GM8 up for sale. This is number 286 of 300. I've swapped some skiff bearings into this one and the action is smooth and controlled but not exactly drop shut. No noticeable flaws and the blade is still the factory edge. Unfortunately, I don't carry this much so I've gotta let it go to slim down my collection a bit.
SV$400
Microtech Ultratech CLONE - VID - D2 Blade Steel - Fires like a rocket and had been very reliable. Uses regular old torx bits so it's easy to disassemble and maintain. I tried sharpening the edge on this one but as you can see in the vid, I kinda suck at it. The bevel on the show side is a bit uneven to say the least. That said, it's sharp and doesn't effect the function of the blade. Comes with box and a belt pouch.
SV$40 SOLD
Tactile Maverick TI - VID - Magnacut Blade Steel - Up next is my Ti Maverick in excellent condition. Just to get it out of the way early, yes there's some side to side blade play on this particular example. I've got the pivot tightened to where the action is smooth and to where you can't feel any play during use. Factory Edge. No blemishes on the handle and there's one little finishing line on the blade that came that way from factory. See pic for detail. Comes with box and info card.
SV$295 SOLD
Kizer Genie Carbon - VID - S35vn Blade Steel - This thing is light and has really amazing action. Fun little fidget machine for sure. No blemishes and is rocking the factory edge. Great little office carry knife. Include box and all original documents.
SV$85
submitted by Ramrawd to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]
Accepting Paypal Friends and Family for payment. Will consider Venmo/Zelle on a case by case basis.
Insured USPS Priority Mail included in Sale Value price for knives over $50. First class mail for knives under $50. Shipping to US only please. Will ship out this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning.
Please comment in thread and then send me a chat or direct message.
Definitive claims have priority over currently ongoing negotiations, chats, and messages.
If you've got any questions or need more pics just let me know!
Always looking for an Anthem or a Lochsa clone but otherwise no trades please. Happy to entertain reasonable offers.
Thanks!
SV$675 OBO
SV$420.69 OBO
SV$200 OBO
SV$70 OBO
SV$125 OBO
SV$165 OBO
Take both TwoSuns for SV$300
SV$165 OBO
Take both TwoSuns for SV$300
SV$400
SV$85
2023.06.09 20:43 ElphieDear Howdy Hello Misfits!
Good morning, afternoon and good night depending on where you are. Elphie popping in to say hello and check in, how is everyone? I wanna hear about it! Successes, failures and everything in between.
I'll start first: I am not doing well. My life is constantly falling apart and I'm having to literally rip myself away from FP because it's clear I won't be allowed to leave unless I just cut the cord. But I'm taking it a day at a time, and I'm slowly planning so I can get into a better situation for me and my mental health.
If you are struggling, I am so sorry and you have my never ending support. If you're thriving, that's amazing and I am so proud of you! You go Glen Coco!
If you're not quite sure where you are, that's okay! We all have our bumps in the road and unsure times, but every step forward is progress.
Best wishes! Elphie xoxo
submitted by ElphieDear to BPD_Misfits [link] [comments]
I'll start first: I am not doing well. My life is constantly falling apart and I'm having to literally rip myself away from FP because it's clear I won't be allowed to leave unless I just cut the cord. But I'm taking it a day at a time, and I'm slowly planning so I can get into a better situation for me and my mental health.
If you are struggling, I am so sorry and you have my never ending support. If you're thriving, that's amazing and I am so proud of you! You go Glen Coco!
If you're not quite sure where you are, that's okay! We all have our bumps in the road and unsure times, but every step forward is progress.
Best wishes! Elphie xoxo
2023.06.09 20:24 Mean-Classic-7739 Something in the blizzard pt.2
Part 2
Day 11
The pain was excruciating and all over my body. A thousand knives seemed to dig into me. I lay there for a minute with the dead creature still on top of me. I was trying to muster enough strength to get up and move this horrible thing off me, but I couldnât. Finally, after what seemed like lying there for an hour Chloe came over and helped me move its dead body off me.
She froze when she saw me. I mustâve looked horrible so much had happened to me in the last 10 minutes. I saw her eyes move to my left hand. I found my tired eyes looking over, and what I saw was horrifying. My left hand was a bloody broken mess, fingers were missing, bones were sticking out in odd places, and a huge chunk of my palm was completely gone. I puked all over myself. Chloe looked like she was trying so hard to keep herself together.
The next few minutes were tense. Chloe tied one of her layers to my arm as a makeshift tourniquet. Then we slowly made our way home with Chloe practically dragging me.
They had to stitch my wounds while I was still conscious due to us not having anesthetics, and those were the most painful moments of my life. I felt the needle go in and out of my skin, I felt the small string pull my muscle and skin back together, and I felt when they had to cut one of my fingers off. It was absolutely excruciating and after it was done I passed out.
Chloe sat on the couch feeling awful and tired. Sheâd just spent an hour trying to get the food that had been in the fridge into coolers, but her mind was so busy she hardly cared. She felt awful about everything. There was so much she couldâve done, so many ways she couldâve helped me. So many ways that led to me still having a hand. If only I hadnât been a coward, she thought, if I just hadnât stood there maybe he would still have his hand. If only sheâd just shot it again. She wiped her face trying not to cry. She had to be the strong one now, she had to be brave.
She was very curious, she wanted to know what exactly had happened to Carl. Joey hadnât had the time to tell her whether or not the man was dead. She assumed he was due to the blood and the creature, but there was a small chance. She told Gretchen and Ronda (my mom) what her plan was. They agreed and she went to get ready.
She brought two guns, the sniper and the semi-automatic. She also found an old motorcycle helmet and decided to use that as a makeshift helmet. She knew if I had been awake I wouldnât have not in a million years let her go, so she made her process quick just in case I did wake up.
Crunch! The snow had melted slightly the night before so now it felt more like walking across huge ice sheets. As she walked she realized she didnât even have to use the GPS because of the blood trail. She followed it for a while, the snow constantly attacking her. After a couple of minutes, she found it. Lying in the middle of the street now with a fresh layer of snow on it was the creature, the hound as sheâd begun to refer to it in her head. She hadnât gotten a good look at it like I had so her eyes went wide when she saw the body. She was struck by how much its exoskeleton looked like big chunks of rocks. She also noticed the now frozen yellow-greenish blood around the body. Chloe leaned down to examine what was left of the head. What was left was a hollow shell of the exoskeleton; the gunshot in the mouth had practically liquefied everything in its head. She remembered how everything had exploded from the mouth and eye holes. The image of the eyes getting blown out from behind disgusted her.
She found herself examining the rest of the body and she couldnât help but keep looking at the four legs. They looked so out of place on the body. They looked so mammalian for such an insect-like creature. They literally looked like stretched-out bald dog legs. She had a feeling of deja vu as she looked at the legs, she couldnât help but think of the black dog theyâd seen the other day. She made a note in her head that she wanted to take the body with her on the way back.
Finally, she stood up and started making her way towards the store. Like before she just followed the blood. She remembered when Joey ran into her he was covered in blood, like heâd slipped into the trail. She dreaded to think what heâd found in the showers. Her trek was slow and eerie. Then as she got closer the dead silence was cut by a ticking sound. She vaguely recognized it as something those spiders had made. Specifically the stinger ones. She kept the semi-automatic raised and got ready for a fight, but the ticking sounds slowly faded and she kept moving.
The store was just as she had left it early that morning. It was still a complete wreck. She hurried past the shattered glass and toppled shelves, through the small break room, and into the bunk room. It looked even worse than before. It looked like the creature had destroyed a few more things after it caught the headlamp. She specifically noticed a new deep gash in the bunk theyâd hid behind.
As she walked into the shower room she heard a faint dripping sound. She started going one stall at a time to find it. First empty, second empty, but the third she wanted to throw up. Carl lay in the back of the stall, his body a bloody mess. His torso was almost gone. Everything inside of it had been ripped out along with most of his flesh. His ribs were shattered and lying on the floor. His spine was cracked and twisted. It looked like it had been broken. She threw up and stepped away from the sight, making her start to sob. Pull yourself together, she thought to herself, now isnât the time. She wiped the tears off her face and continued. He had a daughter and a wife. She had to know what happened to them. So with much hesitance, she continued.
Fourth room empty, fifth empty, sixth empty, seventh empty, she stood next to the eighth stall dreading what sheâd find inside. She didnât want to see what was in there, but she would never forgive herself for not looking.
Two cocoon-looking things lay in the stall. They were white and pulsating slightly. They looked like the web cocoon the stingers had wrapped around the dog, but these were too big to be dogs. Instantly she knew what had happened to his wife and daughter. Chloe stepped away so she didnât have to see it anymore, and then she had a thought. They wouldnât leave them unattended, would they? She became much more nervous and started cautiously making her way from the room. She started to hear the ticking noises outside again and her hands started to shake. She took a deep breath and kept walking.
She walked into the main part of the store and saw a dozen or so stingers crawling in through one of the broken windows. She gasped, then in a hurry ducked back into the breakroom. Her whole body was shaking as she stood there listening to them scurrying around the store. Then after a minute one walked into the breakroom didnât see her and disappeared into the bunk room. Then another went through, then another, then another, then another, and soon all but one had passed through. Her whole body was trembling when finally it walked through. This one was walking more slowly and looking around much more than the others, and suddenly its small beady eyes met hers. Scre⊠Rat-a-tatata! Four quick bullets cut through the stinger. All four hit it right in the head. She had a small feeling of triumph then Screech! The other stingers started running into the room. She hurried out in such a rush she didnât watch where she was stepping and slipped on a piece of glass.
Smack! Her helmet slammed into the ground and then the rest of her. She watched them hurriedly crawl towards her. She tried to get a shot but they were just too fast. Then she felt a sharp pain in her leg. One of the stingers had sunk their stinger into her calf. Another was about to sting before she made her move. She grabbed a large piece of glass and stabbed it into the one on her leg, and then quickly stuck the shard into the other one that was about to sting her. Then she quickly stood up. Her body was starting to feel heavy and she was getting a little loopy. The other stingers were screeching and running toward her. Rat-a-tatatatata! She shot 10 rounds into the remaining nine stingers. Seven exploded when the bullet made contact, another got three legs blown off, the last wasnât hit, and before she could shoot again it had lodged its stinger in her boot. She stopped for a second realizing that the stinger hadnât actually pierced her foot then Rat-a-tat! She shot two bullets into the thing and then pulled it off her foot.
Her adrenaline was wearing off and the venom was doing its work fast. Her eyes were starting to close and she had to concentrate just to keep them open. I need to get somewhere safe, she thought looking around, and then her eyes fell on an intact door.
She locked the door to the women's restroom and then slumped against it as she felt her consciousness begin to slip. All she could think of was me hoping that I was okay, and hoping that sheâd be able to see me again. Then finally she blacked out.
Her eyes fluttered open to see she was in the same place sheâd passed out. There was a small puddle of blood around her calf. She weakly reached over and touched the wound. It wasnât bleeding any more. I mustâve been out for a while. She thought, gingerly beginning to put weight on her leg. It hurt but she could walk. Click, she unlocked the bathroom door, raised the gun, and opened the door. She was nervous, worried that maybe more of them had come while she was out. It didnât look like too much time had passed, and even more importantly there were no stingers. She looked over and saw her footprints were still visible through the heavily falling snow. Good not much time must have passed, she thought. Then she pulled out the phone and called Gretchen.
BzzzâŠ
âGretchen, I got stung and passed out. What time is it?â She asked.
Gretchenâs relieved voice cut through the phone: âOh Chloe thank goodness, itâs 2:42. You left around 12.â
Day 13
I woke up to giggling and laughter. I sat up and looked at the doorway and on the other side I could hear the boys quietly playing together. I moved the covers and tried to move my legs, but instantly daggers of pain went up my right leg. I wanted to do it more slowly but nothing seemed to help.
âChloe!â I called and immediately heard something clatter upstairs followed by fast footsteps into the basement.
In a second Chloe had sprinted into the room and was on top of me giving me a huge hug. She pulled away and gave me one of her pretty little smiles.
âHow are you feeling?â She asked.
My stomach growled and that answered her question.
âYouâve been asleep for almost two days, no wonder youâre hungry.â She said, I froze and looked over at the clock, but nothing showed on it. It was just a blank black screen.
âWhen did the power go out?â I asked, turning back toward her.
âNot long after you fell asleep.â She said, âWe put as much food as we could into coolers, but most of what was in the fridge and freezer has gone bad.â
Her face was sad and grim. I reached for her hand with my good hand and squeezed it.
âWeâll get through this just like everything else. Weâll make it through if we stick together.â I told her starting to realize how hoarse I sounded.
She smiled then looked up at me again: âIâll go get you some food⊠and a water bottle.â She said walking back out of the room.
I lay there in deep thought when Alan poked his head in.
âUncle, are you okay?â He asked, sitting down on the foot of the bed.
âIâll be fine,â I said, smiling at him.
He smiled back, âUncle youâve got a Lego hand now.â He yelled pointing to my left hand.
I looked at my hand and saw the way they wrapped it did look like a Lego hand.
âHa⊠yeah I suppose so.â I chuckled, Alan nodded and disappeared into the hallway.
A few minutes later Chloe appeared in the doorway with a plate and Mom and Gretchen tailed her.
âSweety, are you ok?â My mom asked, walking over to the bedside and putting her hand on my forehead.
âYes Mom Iâm ok, Iâm as ok as I can be right now,â I told her.
âWell Iâm glad youâre ok,â She said, hugging me.
âMe too,â Gretchen added, hugging me.
After a minute they broke away and Chloe gave me my plate. It was some dry cereal and a piece of toast.
âSorry⊠thatâs all I could scrape together.â She said her expression was sad.
âHow much is left?â I asked her.
âA few days maybe, the water situation is even worse though,â She said grimly.
I felt a crushing sense of defeat at that.
âWeâre going to need to do something now,â Gretchen said, âBefore we canât do anything.â
âAgreed, but what? There is no chance of leaving without a snow plow.â I grumbled, becoming more disheartened.
âWhat if we had a snow plow?â Chloe asked.
âWhat?â Me and Gretchen asked.
âI mean, they keep it at the tractor place just a mile away. We could get the snow plow.â She suggested a hint of hope in her eyes.
âI donât think weâll all fit. Let alone supplies.â I told her.
âSo then we bring two vehicles,â She said, âOne or two of us go to the place, get the snow plow, and come back to the others in the other vehicle and follow behind.â
It was actually a pretty good plan, but it was still wishful thinking. They had a lot of variables on that.
âThat might work, but it will take time and we donât exactly have time,â I said.
âWell then let's get some more time. We might be able to find more food in other homes,â My mom said.
âYes, in theory, that would work, but we donât have two people to go,â I said.
âIâm out of commission, Gretchen isnât leaving her boys, and not in a million years am I letting you go, Mom,â I argued.
âShe can handle herself, she did the other day,â Mom argued back.
âWhat?... no I was with herâŠâ I turned toward Chloe in confusion.
I saw a guilty look on her face and she told me that sheâd gone to the store on the 11th day after they were done treating me.
I pulled her into a tight hug and whispered in her ear: âIf you do that again I will use whatever force necessary to make your stay here.â
She looked at me, her eyes darkening: âJoey if I donât go, we will starve. Iâm terrified too but if that is what needs to be done Iâll do it.â
âI⊠I⊠I donât want to lose you.â I sputtered out.
Her face turned red before she said: âI donât want to lose you either, or any of you guys and that's why I need to go.â
I finally relented, Gretchen and my mom left the room, and Chloe sat and chatted with me while I ate my mediocre breakfast.
She perked up and said, âJoey I need to show you something.â
She got up and helped me get out of bed. Getting out wasnât that hard unless I had to move my left leg or arm. Once I was standing she helped me over to the restroom and then helped me sit down.
âWhat am I supposed to be looking at?â I asked, looking around the bathroom.
âThis,â She said, pulling the shower curtain open and revealing what was inside.
Lying inside the tub was the body of the dog bug creature.
âWhy the heck did you bring that in?â I asked.
âArenât you curious what it is?â She asked, an almost crazed look in her eyes.
âFair, I am curious,â I said. âFound anything out so far?â I then asked.
âWell a no, not yet,â She said looking disappointed now, âI just know it isnât anything science knows of.â
âNothing, nothing interesting?â I inquired.
âWell yes there are interesting things,â She said, âLike look at this.â
She grabbed a knife covered in yellowish-green blood and used it to open a previously cut incision into the body. I looked inside and saw something quite strange. This thing still had an endoskeleton.
âNothing that we know of on earth has an endo and exoskeleton, and I honestly donât know why an animal would have both.â She said looking up at me.
âHmm⊠mind if I take a look?â I asked.
She nodded and I moved over and took the knife with my right hand. I used the knife to hold open the incision and I looked at the bone. It looked normal but I was suspicious so I set the knife down, reached in, and yanked the femur Iâd been looking at out. The femur was the size it shouldâve been for a normal dog, but for this creature, it was extremely undersized.
âJust as I thought,â I said, looking over at her.
âCan you explain to me what it is that you just figured out?â She asked, very confused.
âLook how small this femur is, it should be double the size for this creature, but it is the adequate size for a normal dog. The way I figure this is that during the metamorphosis that changed the dog into this thing the bones were not destroyed or changed. Thatâs why they are still there but not the right size.â I explained holding the bone up to her.
âI suppose that your theory makes sense,â She said after a short pause.
Day 14
Chloe sat on the bed strapping on the extra gear I was making her take. I knew I couldnât stop her from going so I decided I would make her as safe as possible. I dug through old boxes and found my dad's old Kevlar vests. There were two so I cut one up to make guards for her arms and legs. Then I made her put on an extra coat to add one more layer of protection, as for other parts I agreed that the motorcycle helmet was the best helmet we had so she put that on.
Now she was sitting on the bed with the helmet sitting next to her while she was loading her weapons. She was bringing the semi-automatic and the sniper rifle with extra ammo for each. She also had a hunting knife strapped to her belt saying it wouldâve come in handy last time. I looked at her and gave her a tight hug.
âIf you donât come back Iâll find you and teach you a lesson.â I jokingly threatened her.
She let out a giggle, âIâll try my best.â
Again she made her outside into the blizzard. It raged on around her as it had been for days. She had to climb the almost four-foot-tall pile of snow before she could really start exploring. Theyâd assumed that the people who had left town wouldnât have much food in their homes, so she planned to hit Carlâs house and the Garrisonâs house today. Then check out a few other houses the next day, but right now she had to focus on simply taking the next step because anytime she stepped wrong sheâd sink further into the snow. Slowly through the whipping wind and freezing snow, she walked. It was exhausting especially with her still being sore from a couple of days ago, but she continued despite the pain and weather. Despite it all she kept taking step after step after step, and the whole time the blizzard's icy claws were digging into her.
Eventually, she saw the destroyed store and walked past it, her eyes eyeing the shattered windows for any movement but nothing happened. She continued onward knowing that Carlâs house was now only a block away. She walked carefully and precisely trying not to step in the wrong place. Then she saw it. Carlâs house was a small colonial-style two-story home with a big wrap-around porch, but now it looked horrible. The door was ripped out of its hinges and two or three windows were shattered. She slid down a short snowy slope and onto the porch. Crack! One of the wooden planks that made the porch broke from under her foot and her foot slipped down. She pulled it out of the hole and slowly walked into his house.
There was a trail of snow leading in from the fallen door almost like a carpet leading her into this place. It was horrible on the inside. It reminded her of the store. Furniture was thrown every which way, some bearing deep gashes. The closest door to her had a hole going straight through it. She walked over a vast sea of shattered glass and turned into the kitchen. The granite countertops had been ripped from their places and shattered on the tiled floor. A large gash was in the door of the now fallen fridge. She walked over and kneeled down near the fridge, ripping open one of the doors. As she suspected, everything in there was frozen solid. Sitting in there was cheese, deli meat, assorted fruits and vegetables, shattered glasses of condiments, and two steaks. She grabbed everything and stuffed it all into one of the duffel bags sheâd brought. Then she saw a loaf of bread lying on the ground near her and grabbed that too. She stood up and looked around the kitchen. She noticed a box of pasta sitting next to a pot on the stove. The box was full, so she grabbed it. The pot was partly melted onto the stove and frozen tomato sauce sat inside.
The picture of what had happened began to emerge in her head. Carl had likely been walking home from the store when it attacked. It chased him inside, breaking down the door and destroying everything in its path. His wife, Greta, had been making spaghetti for dinner when it happened. He ran into the kitchen and grabbed his wife with the beast following him. It destroyed the kitchen as it chased them.
Chloe pushed those thoughts from her head and opened their pantry to see if there was more food. There were lots of boxes but her eyes fell on the cans that lined the bottom of the pantry. There were dozens of them, probably a hundred or two cans. She kneeled and started eagerly grabbing the cans and putting them in the duffel bag. She even took out the cheese and pasta to make for more room.
She stopped her eager collecting when she heard a slight ticking noise. Stingers she thought and then pulled her knife from her belt in preparation. The ticking was slight and distant. It probably just walked in, she thought. With the ticking, she heard the slight creaking of the wood floor in the hall as it approached the kitchen. Then a scraping tapping sound as it began walking on the tiles. She gripped the knife tightly and got ready to stab the thing. ScrâŠ! The stinger managed to give off a faint screech before the sharp hunting knife pierced its windpipe. She yanked the knife out of its neck severing the head from the body. Then she resheathed the knife and quietly got back to what sheâd been doing. She didnât stop until the bag was bulging then she zipped it closed and heaved it under her arm. It was heavy but she wasnât weak.
She walked over to the front door and set the duffel bag next to it. She wanted to check out the rest of the house before she left.
She crept down the hall and into the master bedroom. It was intact, everything looked right and nothing was broken. She walked over to the dresser and started going through the drawers. Darn, just clothes. She thought as she dug her hands in shuffling the clothes around. She opened the drawer and start thrashing around the clothes when she felt something hard. She pulled a box of ammo out of the drawer. It was for the revolver she looked to see how much but it was empty.
Almost every stair on the way upstairs bore scratches and one or two were cracked. They creaked so loud she began to worry that the noise would get the stingerâs attention but nothing came. Then finally she arrived upstairs. The second floor of their house was composed of two rooms, a restroom, and his daughter Lacyâs bedroom. The bedroom door and a dresser lay on the room floor scratched and broken. The rest of the room was torn apart. The bed was shredded and a mirror lay shattered on the ground. Her eyes fell to the window which was propped open.
The rest of their story seemed to fall into place. Carl and Greta ran upstairs chased by the hound, and into Lacyâs room. They barricaded the door as the creature tried to get it, and then they all quickly slipped out of the window onto the porch roof and then to the ground. They ran to the store and bunkered there. The creature searched the whole shop but couldnât find them. Then later the hound came back and Carl went to fight it. He told Greta and Lacy to hide in a stall and made his way to the main part of the shop. There he was killed and then dragged into the shower stall to be eaten, and at some point during that time the stingers and slugs got to Lacy and Greta.
She shivered, theyâd tried so hard but it still got to them. Maybe if heâd had more bullets he couldâve survived. Thinking of the empty box and the two shots that had woken them that night.
She walked out of the bedroom and back downstairs. She found her eyes wandering around the destroyed first floor again, and it struck her that something bigger had to have done this. There was no way the deer-sized hound would have destroyed this much. She hurried over into the kitchen again and looked at the gash in the fridge. Thatâs too big. Way too big! She thought looking at the huge gash. She started to think about the store and the same inconsistencies began to appear in the memories. All the damage, the claw marks, the strength, it was all too much, too big, there was no way the hound had done this.
As she was thinking she noticed a doorway she hadnât been through. Next to her was the doorway to the basement stairs with the door wide open. She peaked down and saw light down there, not much probably from a window, but it was something.
Creak! Her first step of descent was loud and made her worry again that something would hear her. She stopped and listened, but nothing. So as carefully as she could she continued. Every step was as loud as the first and every step made her jump in her skin and wait for something to happen. But after what seemed like ages she arrived at the bottom.
The basement was large with two spare bedrooms and a large storage room. She slowly walked down the hall looking into the bedrooms on both sides of her. They were bare with nothing much more than beds, so she walked forward and into the main storage room.
The storage room had large shelving units across the whole room. The shelves were partially filled with labeled boxes. She walked over to one shelf and started reading the labels. Christmas, no, I don't need that. Halloween, not that. Games, nope. Sports could be useful. She thought as she grabbed the heavy crate and set it out in front of her. She grabbed the latches on either side, undoing them and popping the lid off.
Suddenly a ripping sound erupted from another part of the basement. The ripping had a sort of wet sound to it. Chloe started to walk over to the sound far too curious not to. Screech! It came from the same direction as the ripping sound. She got the gun ready and then jumped from around a shelf not facing what was making the sound. She watched one of those hound things fully emerge from a cocoon and look over at her. A chill ran down her spine as its four eyes met hers; the two to the left were icy blue and the two to the right were dark brown. This one was also slightly smaller but much stockier than the other. Rat-a-tatatata! She released a quick barrage of bullets hoping to stop the disgusting thing, but it just started charging for her. Quickly she moved to the other side of the shelving and pushed it down. Her whole body was shaking, but she had to keep calm and keep fighting. The hound howled in pain and started cracking through the wooden shelf to get to her. She took this time to aim a good shot at its face. Rat-a-tat! She shot two quick bullets into its face. One sunk into its exoskeleton the other buried itself into one of its eyes. SCREECH!!!!! It broke through the shelf and made a quick dive toward her. It pinned her to the ground, knocking her gun away in the process. It sunk its jaws into the helmet and it started to break and crack. She started to cry. This thing was going to eat through her helmet then her face, but during this moment of panic she remembered something. She pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed it into the hound's semi-exposed underbelly. It screeched again in pain so she stabbed again. She then shoved the hurt thing off of her and dove for the gun. She felt one of its praying mantis talons slash her vest and then her upper leg, so she turned around and fired. Rat-a-tatata! She shot it four more times, one hitting its forehead, the second hitting its mouth, the third mouth as well, and the fourth badly damaged its lower jaw. Its face was covered in yellow-greenish blood and it was throwing up blood onto the floor. Just as she thought it might be dying it made a quick sprint toward her. It bit her right knee, its teeth sinking in and actually managing to make her bleed. But then crash! It shoved forward and caused her to fall on top of it. Not having a good shot she grabbed the knife and started stabbing anywhere she could until it finally stopped fighting.
She lay there catching her breath until finally she stood up. Her vision was disrupted by the cracks in the helmetâs visor. She tore the helmet off and threw it down onto the dying hound. Even as it lay there it still tried to get toward her and attack her. She thought about executing it but decided that would just be a waste of a bullet and in a weird way she found its attempts to attack entertaining.
The sports crate sheâd opened earlier didnât have much use. It contained a few balls and two or three different types of rackets. She continued looking through the shelves until she found a box labeled camping. She slid it off the shelf and onto the floor, undid the latches, and popped the lid off. Inside the box were all sorts of goodies. At the top of the box were two big mummy sleeping bags. She pulled those out to see fire starters, water purifiers, bug spray, sunscreen, a small tent, utensils, pots and pans, and a large hatchet. Excitedly she grabbed her other duffel bag and moved everything from the crate into it.
She heaved the duffel bag under her arm and carried it back upstairs. She set it next to the other and turned around. She wanted to check one more place before she left the house. She walked across the house and to the backdoor pushing it open and looking outside. In their backyard half buried in snow was a shed. She hurried over to the shed through the deep snow. The doors were almost completely covered in snow and she knew she wouldn't be spending the whole day shoveling. Luckily there was a small window near the top of the shed. She gave it one good kick and the window popped open. She slid through the hole and dropped down into the shed.
The shed was small with very little inside. There was a lawn mower and a few tools but that was it. The one thing that did catch her eye was a small wooden sled with a rope tied to the front. She picked it up thinking how much easier it would make carrying the bags.
Chloe carefully shoved the sled through the window frame and then squeezed through herself. She carried the sled into the house, used tape to keep the bags secure on it, and then started pulling the sled back towards home. Carlâs house was near the top of a small hill, so for a short couple of seconds, she rode the sled as it slid down the icy slope. It made her feel like a little kid and she wished it would have lasted longer.
After a long walk through the blizzard she arrived home tired and her face feeling like it was freezing off. Gretchen hugged her the moment she walked in.
âAre you ok? We thought we heard gunshots.â She said a little worried.
âYou did⊠I had to kill another hound thing. Just like the one in the tub. The armor worked like a charm though, I hardly felt its bite.â Chloe said motioning to the rip in her pants around the knee.
âOh shoot you bleeding,â Gretchen said looking at her leg.
Chloe looked down to see a cut on her thigh and a few small nicks on her knee.
I sat in bed. I'd just heard Chloe come in and I waited patiently for her to come down. After a couple of minutes, I heard footsteps come downstairs and start creeping down the hall. Then I saw her face poke in from around the door. She smiled and walked in when she saw I was awake.
âHi babe, how are you feeling?â She asked, taking a seat next to me.
âI mean my hand still hurts like heck, but yeah Iâm fine.â I joked.
She smiled, âSeriously though, are you feeling alright?â She asked.
âIâm feeling fine,â I lied trying to get her to stop worrying.
âI want to hear about everything that happened,â I said sitting up.
So she told me everything that happened, even her theory on what exactly happened to Carl and his family.
âDid they have a dog?â She asked me after finishing her story.
âYeah⊠a pitbull I think,â I replied, trying my best to remember the odd times when Carl talked about his dog.
âThat explains it, that hound was a lot stockier than the one you shot.â She said, âAlso it destroyed the helmet so I need a new one before I go to the Garrisonâs house.â
I gave her a worried look, âDo you need to go?â I asked.
âYES!â She insisted, âWe donât know what happened to them, and Iâd like to find a little more food.â
âBut do we need more food?â I asked, âYou got a lot of cans.â
âJoey, this has already been going on for two weeks. Who knows how long it will last? More preparation never hurts.â She argued, sounding a little angry now.
âOk⊠Ok⊠Just be safe,â I told her and gave her a big hug.
Gretchen found an arguably better helmet in the garage, a big metal welding helmet. It fit Chloe almost perfectly, and as a backup, she wore two thick hoods to protect the back of her head. She had a very bad feeling this time, as she stood there by the door she couldnât help but shake. She wanted someone to come with her, and as big Herman came over to say his goodbyes she had an idea.
She marched through the deep snow with Herman atop the sled she pulled. Sheâd try to have him follow on foot, but the snow was just too high and he kept getting stuck. But she didnât care that he was just extra weight because she was just happy that she wasnât facing this alone. She slowly made her way down the street, the blizzard more relentless than ever. It seemed to her the longer the blizzard continued the stronger it was becoming. The snow continued to pound down on top of her slowly wearing down her will to continue, but it didnât stop her. She took one step after another after another. She was starting to tire and the pain of the injuries was beginning to wear on her. But every time she seemed to slow Herman would give a little woof, and she would keep on going.
The snow had become so hard to see through that more than an outstretched hand was invisible to her. Her vision was so bad she didnât know the group of crawlers and slugs were there until she was practically right on top of them
MeanwhileâŠ
âHey, we should probably start clearing the driveway now,â Gretchen said suddenly to her mom while they both sat at the kitchen table.
âThatâs probably a wise idea,â Our mother said with a smile.
Gretchen and Mom began their efforts with large snow shovels. Gretchen did most of the work as Mom had to take frequent breaks. They shoveled and shoveled as the day wore on going over their work with salt so as to not let more snow accumulate. Gretchen was exhausted from the work, but she continued nonetheless. She kept digging ad digging until she heard the shovel scrape concrete then she moved to the next section. Despite the cold, they were both dripping with sweat.
I sat by the window watching them work while the boys played. I so wanted to go help but knew I couldnât. I couldnât do anything but sit and watch them work. I felt horrible as I watched, and then my mind started thinking of Chloe. I pulled out the walkie and pressed the button to talk.
The first thing Chloe heard was Screech! The stinger was right in front of her clearly just as surprised by her as she was of it. But it wasnât alone from her restricted view; it looked like there were about 10 stingers and 3 or so slugs.
She tried to raise her gun but they were scattering around far too quickly. Then she heard a ripping noise as one of them drove a stinger into her boot. She pulled out the hunting knife and made quick work of the stinger. Two more stingers were charging straight for her and one was coming from her left. Before she could do anything the snow under the two erupted and they were dragged down into it. She wasnât able to see what it was and she began to shake as it did the same thing to the one coming from her left. In a sudden panic, she turned around to see the sled empty with a hole in the snow right next to it. She let out a small cry whatever was under the snow had gotten Herman and the stingers, but there was no time for mourning as more of the stingers began coming for her. Again the snow erupted under them but this time she got a better look. Whatever was under the snow was big and white. She got the gun as the thing took out the rest of the slugs and stingers. She assumed it was coming for her next. She hurried and jumped atop the sled so it couldnât take her down easily. She stood there ready to fight whatever monster thing had gotten everything. Horrible images of twisted spider mole creatures flew through her head. Suddenly the snow next to the sled exploded open and she saw the large white beast jump out of the snow and on top of her. She closed her eyes expecting to feel teeth begin to sink down, but after a second she heard a lapping sound. She opened her eyes to see Herman on top of her licking her helmet. She smiled and let out a laugh.
âGood boy!â She said encouragingly.
Herman was completely covered in snow; he looked more like a polar bear than a dog. She brushed some of it off but didnât bother to do much. She helped the big dog back onto the sled and continued forward. She walked another block before she finally saw her destination to her right was the Garrisonâs large house broken and beaten from obvious attacks. It stood there somehow feeling more eerie than the surrounding houses. She stepped onto the wooden porch and there was a loud creak. Ever so more carefully she and Herman crept across the porch and into the house. If only theyâd known what they were about to walk into.
submitted by Mean-Classic-7739 to LighthouseHorror [link] [comments]
Day 11
The pain was excruciating and all over my body. A thousand knives seemed to dig into me. I lay there for a minute with the dead creature still on top of me. I was trying to muster enough strength to get up and move this horrible thing off me, but I couldnât. Finally, after what seemed like lying there for an hour Chloe came over and helped me move its dead body off me.
She froze when she saw me. I mustâve looked horrible so much had happened to me in the last 10 minutes. I saw her eyes move to my left hand. I found my tired eyes looking over, and what I saw was horrifying. My left hand was a bloody broken mess, fingers were missing, bones were sticking out in odd places, and a huge chunk of my palm was completely gone. I puked all over myself. Chloe looked like she was trying so hard to keep herself together.
The next few minutes were tense. Chloe tied one of her layers to my arm as a makeshift tourniquet. Then we slowly made our way home with Chloe practically dragging me.
They had to stitch my wounds while I was still conscious due to us not having anesthetics, and those were the most painful moments of my life. I felt the needle go in and out of my skin, I felt the small string pull my muscle and skin back together, and I felt when they had to cut one of my fingers off. It was absolutely excruciating and after it was done I passed out.
Chloe sat on the couch feeling awful and tired. Sheâd just spent an hour trying to get the food that had been in the fridge into coolers, but her mind was so busy she hardly cared. She felt awful about everything. There was so much she couldâve done, so many ways she couldâve helped me. So many ways that led to me still having a hand. If only I hadnât been a coward, she thought, if I just hadnât stood there maybe he would still have his hand. If only sheâd just shot it again. She wiped her face trying not to cry. She had to be the strong one now, she had to be brave.
She was very curious, she wanted to know what exactly had happened to Carl. Joey hadnât had the time to tell her whether or not the man was dead. She assumed he was due to the blood and the creature, but there was a small chance. She told Gretchen and Ronda (my mom) what her plan was. They agreed and she went to get ready.
She brought two guns, the sniper and the semi-automatic. She also found an old motorcycle helmet and decided to use that as a makeshift helmet. She knew if I had been awake I wouldnât have not in a million years let her go, so she made her process quick just in case I did wake up.
Crunch! The snow had melted slightly the night before so now it felt more like walking across huge ice sheets. As she walked she realized she didnât even have to use the GPS because of the blood trail. She followed it for a while, the snow constantly attacking her. After a couple of minutes, she found it. Lying in the middle of the street now with a fresh layer of snow on it was the creature, the hound as sheâd begun to refer to it in her head. She hadnât gotten a good look at it like I had so her eyes went wide when she saw the body. She was struck by how much its exoskeleton looked like big chunks of rocks. She also noticed the now frozen yellow-greenish blood around the body. Chloe leaned down to examine what was left of the head. What was left was a hollow shell of the exoskeleton; the gunshot in the mouth had practically liquefied everything in its head. She remembered how everything had exploded from the mouth and eye holes. The image of the eyes getting blown out from behind disgusted her.
She found herself examining the rest of the body and she couldnât help but keep looking at the four legs. They looked so out of place on the body. They looked so mammalian for such an insect-like creature. They literally looked like stretched-out bald dog legs. She had a feeling of deja vu as she looked at the legs, she couldnât help but think of the black dog theyâd seen the other day. She made a note in her head that she wanted to take the body with her on the way back.
Finally, she stood up and started making her way towards the store. Like before she just followed the blood. She remembered when Joey ran into her he was covered in blood, like heâd slipped into the trail. She dreaded to think what heâd found in the showers. Her trek was slow and eerie. Then as she got closer the dead silence was cut by a ticking sound. She vaguely recognized it as something those spiders had made. Specifically the stinger ones. She kept the semi-automatic raised and got ready for a fight, but the ticking sounds slowly faded and she kept moving.
The store was just as she had left it early that morning. It was still a complete wreck. She hurried past the shattered glass and toppled shelves, through the small break room, and into the bunk room. It looked even worse than before. It looked like the creature had destroyed a few more things after it caught the headlamp. She specifically noticed a new deep gash in the bunk theyâd hid behind.
As she walked into the shower room she heard a faint dripping sound. She started going one stall at a time to find it. First empty, second empty, but the third she wanted to throw up. Carl lay in the back of the stall, his body a bloody mess. His torso was almost gone. Everything inside of it had been ripped out along with most of his flesh. His ribs were shattered and lying on the floor. His spine was cracked and twisted. It looked like it had been broken. She threw up and stepped away from the sight, making her start to sob. Pull yourself together, she thought to herself, now isnât the time. She wiped the tears off her face and continued. He had a daughter and a wife. She had to know what happened to them. So with much hesitance, she continued.
Fourth room empty, fifth empty, sixth empty, seventh empty, she stood next to the eighth stall dreading what sheâd find inside. She didnât want to see what was in there, but she would never forgive herself for not looking.
Two cocoon-looking things lay in the stall. They were white and pulsating slightly. They looked like the web cocoon the stingers had wrapped around the dog, but these were too big to be dogs. Instantly she knew what had happened to his wife and daughter. Chloe stepped away so she didnât have to see it anymore, and then she had a thought. They wouldnât leave them unattended, would they? She became much more nervous and started cautiously making her way from the room. She started to hear the ticking noises outside again and her hands started to shake. She took a deep breath and kept walking.
She walked into the main part of the store and saw a dozen or so stingers crawling in through one of the broken windows. She gasped, then in a hurry ducked back into the breakroom. Her whole body was shaking as she stood there listening to them scurrying around the store. Then after a minute one walked into the breakroom didnât see her and disappeared into the bunk room. Then another went through, then another, then another, then another, and soon all but one had passed through. Her whole body was trembling when finally it walked through. This one was walking more slowly and looking around much more than the others, and suddenly its small beady eyes met hers. Scre⊠Rat-a-tatata! Four quick bullets cut through the stinger. All four hit it right in the head. She had a small feeling of triumph then Screech! The other stingers started running into the room. She hurried out in such a rush she didnât watch where she was stepping and slipped on a piece of glass.
Smack! Her helmet slammed into the ground and then the rest of her. She watched them hurriedly crawl towards her. She tried to get a shot but they were just too fast. Then she felt a sharp pain in her leg. One of the stingers had sunk their stinger into her calf. Another was about to sting before she made her move. She grabbed a large piece of glass and stabbed it into the one on her leg, and then quickly stuck the shard into the other one that was about to sting her. Then she quickly stood up. Her body was starting to feel heavy and she was getting a little loopy. The other stingers were screeching and running toward her. Rat-a-tatatatata! She shot 10 rounds into the remaining nine stingers. Seven exploded when the bullet made contact, another got three legs blown off, the last wasnât hit, and before she could shoot again it had lodged its stinger in her boot. She stopped for a second realizing that the stinger hadnât actually pierced her foot then Rat-a-tat! She shot two bullets into the thing and then pulled it off her foot.
Her adrenaline was wearing off and the venom was doing its work fast. Her eyes were starting to close and she had to concentrate just to keep them open. I need to get somewhere safe, she thought looking around, and then her eyes fell on an intact door.
She locked the door to the women's restroom and then slumped against it as she felt her consciousness begin to slip. All she could think of was me hoping that I was okay, and hoping that sheâd be able to see me again. Then finally she blacked out.
Her eyes fluttered open to see she was in the same place sheâd passed out. There was a small puddle of blood around her calf. She weakly reached over and touched the wound. It wasnât bleeding any more. I mustâve been out for a while. She thought, gingerly beginning to put weight on her leg. It hurt but she could walk. Click, she unlocked the bathroom door, raised the gun, and opened the door. She was nervous, worried that maybe more of them had come while she was out. It didnât look like too much time had passed, and even more importantly there were no stingers. She looked over and saw her footprints were still visible through the heavily falling snow. Good not much time must have passed, she thought. Then she pulled out the phone and called Gretchen.
BzzzâŠ
âGretchen, I got stung and passed out. What time is it?â She asked.
Gretchenâs relieved voice cut through the phone: âOh Chloe thank goodness, itâs 2:42. You left around 12.â
Day 13
I woke up to giggling and laughter. I sat up and looked at the doorway and on the other side I could hear the boys quietly playing together. I moved the covers and tried to move my legs, but instantly daggers of pain went up my right leg. I wanted to do it more slowly but nothing seemed to help.
âChloe!â I called and immediately heard something clatter upstairs followed by fast footsteps into the basement.
In a second Chloe had sprinted into the room and was on top of me giving me a huge hug. She pulled away and gave me one of her pretty little smiles.
âHow are you feeling?â She asked.
My stomach growled and that answered her question.
âYouâve been asleep for almost two days, no wonder youâre hungry.â She said, I froze and looked over at the clock, but nothing showed on it. It was just a blank black screen.
âWhen did the power go out?â I asked, turning back toward her.
âNot long after you fell asleep.â She said, âWe put as much food as we could into coolers, but most of what was in the fridge and freezer has gone bad.â
Her face was sad and grim. I reached for her hand with my good hand and squeezed it.
âWeâll get through this just like everything else. Weâll make it through if we stick together.â I told her starting to realize how hoarse I sounded.
She smiled then looked up at me again: âIâll go get you some food⊠and a water bottle.â She said walking back out of the room.
I lay there in deep thought when Alan poked his head in.
âUncle, are you okay?â He asked, sitting down on the foot of the bed.
âIâll be fine,â I said, smiling at him.
He smiled back, âUncle youâve got a Lego hand now.â He yelled pointing to my left hand.
I looked at my hand and saw the way they wrapped it did look like a Lego hand.
âHa⊠yeah I suppose so.â I chuckled, Alan nodded and disappeared into the hallway.
A few minutes later Chloe appeared in the doorway with a plate and Mom and Gretchen tailed her.
âSweety, are you ok?â My mom asked, walking over to the bedside and putting her hand on my forehead.
âYes Mom Iâm ok, Iâm as ok as I can be right now,â I told her.
âWell Iâm glad youâre ok,â She said, hugging me.
âMe too,â Gretchen added, hugging me.
After a minute they broke away and Chloe gave me my plate. It was some dry cereal and a piece of toast.
âSorry⊠thatâs all I could scrape together.â She said her expression was sad.
âHow much is left?â I asked her.
âA few days maybe, the water situation is even worse though,â She said grimly.
I felt a crushing sense of defeat at that.
âWeâre going to need to do something now,â Gretchen said, âBefore we canât do anything.â
âAgreed, but what? There is no chance of leaving without a snow plow.â I grumbled, becoming more disheartened.
âWhat if we had a snow plow?â Chloe asked.
âWhat?â Me and Gretchen asked.
âI mean, they keep it at the tractor place just a mile away. We could get the snow plow.â She suggested a hint of hope in her eyes.
âI donât think weâll all fit. Let alone supplies.â I told her.
âSo then we bring two vehicles,â She said, âOne or two of us go to the place, get the snow plow, and come back to the others in the other vehicle and follow behind.â
It was actually a pretty good plan, but it was still wishful thinking. They had a lot of variables on that.
âThat might work, but it will take time and we donât exactly have time,â I said.
âWell then let's get some more time. We might be able to find more food in other homes,â My mom said.
âYes, in theory, that would work, but we donât have two people to go,â I said.
âIâm out of commission, Gretchen isnât leaving her boys, and not in a million years am I letting you go, Mom,â I argued.
âShe can handle herself, she did the other day,â Mom argued back.
âWhat?... no I was with herâŠâ I turned toward Chloe in confusion.
I saw a guilty look on her face and she told me that sheâd gone to the store on the 11th day after they were done treating me.
I pulled her into a tight hug and whispered in her ear: âIf you do that again I will use whatever force necessary to make your stay here.â
She looked at me, her eyes darkening: âJoey if I donât go, we will starve. Iâm terrified too but if that is what needs to be done Iâll do it.â
âI⊠I⊠I donât want to lose you.â I sputtered out.
Her face turned red before she said: âI donât want to lose you either, or any of you guys and that's why I need to go.â
I finally relented, Gretchen and my mom left the room, and Chloe sat and chatted with me while I ate my mediocre breakfast.
She perked up and said, âJoey I need to show you something.â
She got up and helped me get out of bed. Getting out wasnât that hard unless I had to move my left leg or arm. Once I was standing she helped me over to the restroom and then helped me sit down.
âWhat am I supposed to be looking at?â I asked, looking around the bathroom.
âThis,â She said, pulling the shower curtain open and revealing what was inside.
Lying inside the tub was the body of the dog bug creature.
âWhy the heck did you bring that in?â I asked.
âArenât you curious what it is?â She asked, an almost crazed look in her eyes.
âFair, I am curious,â I said. âFound anything out so far?â I then asked.
âWell a no, not yet,â She said looking disappointed now, âI just know it isnât anything science knows of.â
âNothing, nothing interesting?â I inquired.
âWell yes there are interesting things,â She said, âLike look at this.â
She grabbed a knife covered in yellowish-green blood and used it to open a previously cut incision into the body. I looked inside and saw something quite strange. This thing still had an endoskeleton.
âNothing that we know of on earth has an endo and exoskeleton, and I honestly donât know why an animal would have both.â She said looking up at me.
âHmm⊠mind if I take a look?â I asked.
She nodded and I moved over and took the knife with my right hand. I used the knife to hold open the incision and I looked at the bone. It looked normal but I was suspicious so I set the knife down, reached in, and yanked the femur Iâd been looking at out. The femur was the size it shouldâve been for a normal dog, but for this creature, it was extremely undersized.
âJust as I thought,â I said, looking over at her.
âCan you explain to me what it is that you just figured out?â She asked, very confused.
âLook how small this femur is, it should be double the size for this creature, but it is the adequate size for a normal dog. The way I figure this is that during the metamorphosis that changed the dog into this thing the bones were not destroyed or changed. Thatâs why they are still there but not the right size.â I explained holding the bone up to her.
âI suppose that your theory makes sense,â She said after a short pause.
Day 14
Chloe sat on the bed strapping on the extra gear I was making her take. I knew I couldnât stop her from going so I decided I would make her as safe as possible. I dug through old boxes and found my dad's old Kevlar vests. There were two so I cut one up to make guards for her arms and legs. Then I made her put on an extra coat to add one more layer of protection, as for other parts I agreed that the motorcycle helmet was the best helmet we had so she put that on.
Now she was sitting on the bed with the helmet sitting next to her while she was loading her weapons. She was bringing the semi-automatic and the sniper rifle with extra ammo for each. She also had a hunting knife strapped to her belt saying it wouldâve come in handy last time. I looked at her and gave her a tight hug.
âIf you donât come back Iâll find you and teach you a lesson.â I jokingly threatened her.
She let out a giggle, âIâll try my best.â
Again she made her outside into the blizzard. It raged on around her as it had been for days. She had to climb the almost four-foot-tall pile of snow before she could really start exploring. Theyâd assumed that the people who had left town wouldnât have much food in their homes, so she planned to hit Carlâs house and the Garrisonâs house today. Then check out a few other houses the next day, but right now she had to focus on simply taking the next step because anytime she stepped wrong sheâd sink further into the snow. Slowly through the whipping wind and freezing snow, she walked. It was exhausting especially with her still being sore from a couple of days ago, but she continued despite the pain and weather. Despite it all she kept taking step after step after step, and the whole time the blizzard's icy claws were digging into her.
Eventually, she saw the destroyed store and walked past it, her eyes eyeing the shattered windows for any movement but nothing happened. She continued onward knowing that Carlâs house was now only a block away. She walked carefully and precisely trying not to step in the wrong place. Then she saw it. Carlâs house was a small colonial-style two-story home with a big wrap-around porch, but now it looked horrible. The door was ripped out of its hinges and two or three windows were shattered. She slid down a short snowy slope and onto the porch. Crack! One of the wooden planks that made the porch broke from under her foot and her foot slipped down. She pulled it out of the hole and slowly walked into his house.
There was a trail of snow leading in from the fallen door almost like a carpet leading her into this place. It was horrible on the inside. It reminded her of the store. Furniture was thrown every which way, some bearing deep gashes. The closest door to her had a hole going straight through it. She walked over a vast sea of shattered glass and turned into the kitchen. The granite countertops had been ripped from their places and shattered on the tiled floor. A large gash was in the door of the now fallen fridge. She walked over and kneeled down near the fridge, ripping open one of the doors. As she suspected, everything in there was frozen solid. Sitting in there was cheese, deli meat, assorted fruits and vegetables, shattered glasses of condiments, and two steaks. She grabbed everything and stuffed it all into one of the duffel bags sheâd brought. Then she saw a loaf of bread lying on the ground near her and grabbed that too. She stood up and looked around the kitchen. She noticed a box of pasta sitting next to a pot on the stove. The box was full, so she grabbed it. The pot was partly melted onto the stove and frozen tomato sauce sat inside.
The picture of what had happened began to emerge in her head. Carl had likely been walking home from the store when it attacked. It chased him inside, breaking down the door and destroying everything in its path. His wife, Greta, had been making spaghetti for dinner when it happened. He ran into the kitchen and grabbed his wife with the beast following him. It destroyed the kitchen as it chased them.
Chloe pushed those thoughts from her head and opened their pantry to see if there was more food. There were lots of boxes but her eyes fell on the cans that lined the bottom of the pantry. There were dozens of them, probably a hundred or two cans. She kneeled and started eagerly grabbing the cans and putting them in the duffel bag. She even took out the cheese and pasta to make for more room.
She stopped her eager collecting when she heard a slight ticking noise. Stingers she thought and then pulled her knife from her belt in preparation. The ticking was slight and distant. It probably just walked in, she thought. With the ticking, she heard the slight creaking of the wood floor in the hall as it approached the kitchen. Then a scraping tapping sound as it began walking on the tiles. She gripped the knife tightly and got ready to stab the thing. ScrâŠ! The stinger managed to give off a faint screech before the sharp hunting knife pierced its windpipe. She yanked the knife out of its neck severing the head from the body. Then she resheathed the knife and quietly got back to what sheâd been doing. She didnât stop until the bag was bulging then she zipped it closed and heaved it under her arm. It was heavy but she wasnât weak.
She walked over to the front door and set the duffel bag next to it. She wanted to check out the rest of the house before she left.
She crept down the hall and into the master bedroom. It was intact, everything looked right and nothing was broken. She walked over to the dresser and started going through the drawers. Darn, just clothes. She thought as she dug her hands in shuffling the clothes around. She opened the drawer and start thrashing around the clothes when she felt something hard. She pulled a box of ammo out of the drawer. It was for the revolver she looked to see how much but it was empty.
Almost every stair on the way upstairs bore scratches and one or two were cracked. They creaked so loud she began to worry that the noise would get the stingerâs attention but nothing came. Then finally she arrived upstairs. The second floor of their house was composed of two rooms, a restroom, and his daughter Lacyâs bedroom. The bedroom door and a dresser lay on the room floor scratched and broken. The rest of the room was torn apart. The bed was shredded and a mirror lay shattered on the ground. Her eyes fell to the window which was propped open.
The rest of their story seemed to fall into place. Carl and Greta ran upstairs chased by the hound, and into Lacyâs room. They barricaded the door as the creature tried to get it, and then they all quickly slipped out of the window onto the porch roof and then to the ground. They ran to the store and bunkered there. The creature searched the whole shop but couldnât find them. Then later the hound came back and Carl went to fight it. He told Greta and Lacy to hide in a stall and made his way to the main part of the shop. There he was killed and then dragged into the shower stall to be eaten, and at some point during that time the stingers and slugs got to Lacy and Greta.
She shivered, theyâd tried so hard but it still got to them. Maybe if heâd had more bullets he couldâve survived. Thinking of the empty box and the two shots that had woken them that night.
She walked out of the bedroom and back downstairs. She found her eyes wandering around the destroyed first floor again, and it struck her that something bigger had to have done this. There was no way the deer-sized hound would have destroyed this much. She hurried over into the kitchen again and looked at the gash in the fridge. Thatâs too big. Way too big! She thought looking at the huge gash. She started to think about the store and the same inconsistencies began to appear in the memories. All the damage, the claw marks, the strength, it was all too much, too big, there was no way the hound had done this.
As she was thinking she noticed a doorway she hadnât been through. Next to her was the doorway to the basement stairs with the door wide open. She peaked down and saw light down there, not much probably from a window, but it was something.
Creak! Her first step of descent was loud and made her worry again that something would hear her. She stopped and listened, but nothing. So as carefully as she could she continued. Every step was as loud as the first and every step made her jump in her skin and wait for something to happen. But after what seemed like ages she arrived at the bottom.
The basement was large with two spare bedrooms and a large storage room. She slowly walked down the hall looking into the bedrooms on both sides of her. They were bare with nothing much more than beds, so she walked forward and into the main storage room.
The storage room had large shelving units across the whole room. The shelves were partially filled with labeled boxes. She walked over to one shelf and started reading the labels. Christmas, no, I don't need that. Halloween, not that. Games, nope. Sports could be useful. She thought as she grabbed the heavy crate and set it out in front of her. She grabbed the latches on either side, undoing them and popping the lid off.
Suddenly a ripping sound erupted from another part of the basement. The ripping had a sort of wet sound to it. Chloe started to walk over to the sound far too curious not to. Screech! It came from the same direction as the ripping sound. She got the gun ready and then jumped from around a shelf not facing what was making the sound. She watched one of those hound things fully emerge from a cocoon and look over at her. A chill ran down her spine as its four eyes met hers; the two to the left were icy blue and the two to the right were dark brown. This one was also slightly smaller but much stockier than the other. Rat-a-tatatata! She released a quick barrage of bullets hoping to stop the disgusting thing, but it just started charging for her. Quickly she moved to the other side of the shelving and pushed it down. Her whole body was shaking, but she had to keep calm and keep fighting. The hound howled in pain and started cracking through the wooden shelf to get to her. She took this time to aim a good shot at its face. Rat-a-tat! She shot two quick bullets into its face. One sunk into its exoskeleton the other buried itself into one of its eyes. SCREECH!!!!! It broke through the shelf and made a quick dive toward her. It pinned her to the ground, knocking her gun away in the process. It sunk its jaws into the helmet and it started to break and crack. She started to cry. This thing was going to eat through her helmet then her face, but during this moment of panic she remembered something. She pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed it into the hound's semi-exposed underbelly. It screeched again in pain so she stabbed again. She then shoved the hurt thing off of her and dove for the gun. She felt one of its praying mantis talons slash her vest and then her upper leg, so she turned around and fired. Rat-a-tatata! She shot it four more times, one hitting its forehead, the second hitting its mouth, the third mouth as well, and the fourth badly damaged its lower jaw. Its face was covered in yellow-greenish blood and it was throwing up blood onto the floor. Just as she thought it might be dying it made a quick sprint toward her. It bit her right knee, its teeth sinking in and actually managing to make her bleed. But then crash! It shoved forward and caused her to fall on top of it. Not having a good shot she grabbed the knife and started stabbing anywhere she could until it finally stopped fighting.
She lay there catching her breath until finally she stood up. Her vision was disrupted by the cracks in the helmetâs visor. She tore the helmet off and threw it down onto the dying hound. Even as it lay there it still tried to get toward her and attack her. She thought about executing it but decided that would just be a waste of a bullet and in a weird way she found its attempts to attack entertaining.
The sports crate sheâd opened earlier didnât have much use. It contained a few balls and two or three different types of rackets. She continued looking through the shelves until she found a box labeled camping. She slid it off the shelf and onto the floor, undid the latches, and popped the lid off. Inside the box were all sorts of goodies. At the top of the box were two big mummy sleeping bags. She pulled those out to see fire starters, water purifiers, bug spray, sunscreen, a small tent, utensils, pots and pans, and a large hatchet. Excitedly she grabbed her other duffel bag and moved everything from the crate into it.
She heaved the duffel bag under her arm and carried it back upstairs. She set it next to the other and turned around. She wanted to check one more place before she left the house. She walked across the house and to the backdoor pushing it open and looking outside. In their backyard half buried in snow was a shed. She hurried over to the shed through the deep snow. The doors were almost completely covered in snow and she knew she wouldn't be spending the whole day shoveling. Luckily there was a small window near the top of the shed. She gave it one good kick and the window popped open. She slid through the hole and dropped down into the shed.
The shed was small with very little inside. There was a lawn mower and a few tools but that was it. The one thing that did catch her eye was a small wooden sled with a rope tied to the front. She picked it up thinking how much easier it would make carrying the bags.
Chloe carefully shoved the sled through the window frame and then squeezed through herself. She carried the sled into the house, used tape to keep the bags secure on it, and then started pulling the sled back towards home. Carlâs house was near the top of a small hill, so for a short couple of seconds, she rode the sled as it slid down the icy slope. It made her feel like a little kid and she wished it would have lasted longer.
After a long walk through the blizzard she arrived home tired and her face feeling like it was freezing off. Gretchen hugged her the moment she walked in.
âAre you ok? We thought we heard gunshots.â She said a little worried.
âYou did⊠I had to kill another hound thing. Just like the one in the tub. The armor worked like a charm though, I hardly felt its bite.â Chloe said motioning to the rip in her pants around the knee.
âOh shoot you bleeding,â Gretchen said looking at her leg.
Chloe looked down to see a cut on her thigh and a few small nicks on her knee.
I sat in bed. I'd just heard Chloe come in and I waited patiently for her to come down. After a couple of minutes, I heard footsteps come downstairs and start creeping down the hall. Then I saw her face poke in from around the door. She smiled and walked in when she saw I was awake.
âHi babe, how are you feeling?â She asked, taking a seat next to me.
âI mean my hand still hurts like heck, but yeah Iâm fine.â I joked.
She smiled, âSeriously though, are you feeling alright?â She asked.
âIâm feeling fine,â I lied trying to get her to stop worrying.
âI want to hear about everything that happened,â I said sitting up.
So she told me everything that happened, even her theory on what exactly happened to Carl and his family.
âDid they have a dog?â She asked me after finishing her story.
âYeah⊠a pitbull I think,â I replied, trying my best to remember the odd times when Carl talked about his dog.
âThat explains it, that hound was a lot stockier than the one you shot.â She said, âAlso it destroyed the helmet so I need a new one before I go to the Garrisonâs house.â
I gave her a worried look, âDo you need to go?â I asked.
âYES!â She insisted, âWe donât know what happened to them, and Iâd like to find a little more food.â
âBut do we need more food?â I asked, âYou got a lot of cans.â
âJoey, this has already been going on for two weeks. Who knows how long it will last? More preparation never hurts.â She argued, sounding a little angry now.
âOk⊠Ok⊠Just be safe,â I told her and gave her a big hug.
Gretchen found an arguably better helmet in the garage, a big metal welding helmet. It fit Chloe almost perfectly, and as a backup, she wore two thick hoods to protect the back of her head. She had a very bad feeling this time, as she stood there by the door she couldnât help but shake. She wanted someone to come with her, and as big Herman came over to say his goodbyes she had an idea.
She marched through the deep snow with Herman atop the sled she pulled. Sheâd try to have him follow on foot, but the snow was just too high and he kept getting stuck. But she didnât care that he was just extra weight because she was just happy that she wasnât facing this alone. She slowly made her way down the street, the blizzard more relentless than ever. It seemed to her the longer the blizzard continued the stronger it was becoming. The snow continued to pound down on top of her slowly wearing down her will to continue, but it didnât stop her. She took one step after another after another. She was starting to tire and the pain of the injuries was beginning to wear on her. But every time she seemed to slow Herman would give a little woof, and she would keep on going.
The snow had become so hard to see through that more than an outstretched hand was invisible to her. Her vision was so bad she didnât know the group of crawlers and slugs were there until she was practically right on top of them
MeanwhileâŠ
âHey, we should probably start clearing the driveway now,â Gretchen said suddenly to her mom while they both sat at the kitchen table.
âThatâs probably a wise idea,â Our mother said with a smile.
Gretchen and Mom began their efforts with large snow shovels. Gretchen did most of the work as Mom had to take frequent breaks. They shoveled and shoveled as the day wore on going over their work with salt so as to not let more snow accumulate. Gretchen was exhausted from the work, but she continued nonetheless. She kept digging ad digging until she heard the shovel scrape concrete then she moved to the next section. Despite the cold, they were both dripping with sweat.
I sat by the window watching them work while the boys played. I so wanted to go help but knew I couldnât. I couldnât do anything but sit and watch them work. I felt horrible as I watched, and then my mind started thinking of Chloe. I pulled out the walkie and pressed the button to talk.
The first thing Chloe heard was Screech! The stinger was right in front of her clearly just as surprised by her as she was of it. But it wasnât alone from her restricted view; it looked like there were about 10 stingers and 3 or so slugs.
She tried to raise her gun but they were scattering around far too quickly. Then she heard a ripping noise as one of them drove a stinger into her boot. She pulled out the hunting knife and made quick work of the stinger. Two more stingers were charging straight for her and one was coming from her left. Before she could do anything the snow under the two erupted and they were dragged down into it. She wasnât able to see what it was and she began to shake as it did the same thing to the one coming from her left. In a sudden panic, she turned around to see the sled empty with a hole in the snow right next to it. She let out a small cry whatever was under the snow had gotten Herman and the stingers, but there was no time for mourning as more of the stingers began coming for her. Again the snow erupted under them but this time she got a better look. Whatever was under the snow was big and white. She got the gun as the thing took out the rest of the slugs and stingers. She assumed it was coming for her next. She hurried and jumped atop the sled so it couldnât take her down easily. She stood there ready to fight whatever monster thing had gotten everything. Horrible images of twisted spider mole creatures flew through her head. Suddenly the snow next to the sled exploded open and she saw the large white beast jump out of the snow and on top of her. She closed her eyes expecting to feel teeth begin to sink down, but after a second she heard a lapping sound. She opened her eyes to see Herman on top of her licking her helmet. She smiled and let out a laugh.
âGood boy!â She said encouragingly.
Herman was completely covered in snow; he looked more like a polar bear than a dog. She brushed some of it off but didnât bother to do much. She helped the big dog back onto the sled and continued forward. She walked another block before she finally saw her destination to her right was the Garrisonâs large house broken and beaten from obvious attacks. It stood there somehow feeling more eerie than the surrounding houses. She stepped onto the wooden porch and there was a loud creak. Ever so more carefully she and Herman crept across the porch and into the house. If only theyâd known what they were about to walk into.
2023.06.09 19:56 scaryterry94 I'm only home for half the year...looking for the best investment solution.
I (single, 31, no debt) work outside the US in 2-3 month increments followed by an equal time off. When I'm working my housing is paid by my employer, and I take home around 150K before taxes.
For the past couple years I've basically lived out of a suitcase, travelling, staying in airbnb's and with friends in my off time, and saved a decent amount doing so. But I feel that it's time to have a place of my own again.
An obvious solution seems to be to buy a condo (300k range in northern VA) and make it a managed airbnb when I'm away. I hate paying rent on a vacant apartment, and a house just seems too high maintenance for my situation, not to mention out of my budget. Does anyone see a better solution?
Thanks!
submitted by scaryterry94 to RealEstate [link] [comments]
For the past couple years I've basically lived out of a suitcase, travelling, staying in airbnb's and with friends in my off time, and saved a decent amount doing so. But I feel that it's time to have a place of my own again.
An obvious solution seems to be to buy a condo (300k range in northern VA) and make it a managed airbnb when I'm away. I hate paying rent on a vacant apartment, and a house just seems too high maintenance for my situation, not to mention out of my budget. Does anyone see a better solution?
Thanks!
2023.06.09 19:54 BobDaisuki Your Ultimate Guide to S-rank every single Challenge song! Part 3: Nijigasaki(Finale)
 | Apologies for getting this out extremely late, real life hasn't been too kind in my free time. But now that I have some more once again let me finish off this trilogy of guides once and for all! This will be the finale so if you want to see how to beat all the Aqours songs instead or want more context on why I'm doing this, I'll be linking Part 2 and Part 1 here respectively. submitted by BobDaisuki to SIFallstars [link] [comments] With that out of the way...let's begin. Starting off with Love U my friends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Love U my friends(Natural-attribute)Ah, this song. Let's look at the base gimmicks now shall we...[Show Specialty] During the Live Show, base appeal of Non-Natural attribute school idols will fall by 50%and [Show Specialty] During the Live Show, base skill Activation Rate of non-Natural school idols will fall by 50%Just like Jingle Bells ga Tomaranai, do not bring anything but natural-attribute URs into this song(unless they are the appeal boosters). But unlike that pure-attribute abomination, this one is significantly easier. Will still be very rough if you lack strong natural frontliners however. The main things to watch out for in this song are those 80% stamina dmg notes that pierces through shields. Those will hurt a lot if you face-tank them, luckily there's a way to deal with them that doesn't involve too much RNG. Those being DR on swap LSAs. The first one shows up quite early, on note #16 to be exact. If you have Fes2 Hanayo(Natural GD), she'll make this song much easier to deal with. All you will have to do is either swap into your blue strategy(of GD-type healers) and tank it before swapping back after, or just start the song in your GD-side strategy and then swap to your frontline then. No worries if you do not have her, try to look for one as the guest assist in that case. She will also work just fine here despite the 30 note cooldown because all the 80% max health piercing notes are spread very far apart. Not much to say about AC#1(Gain a total of 1,298,000 Voltage) and AC#2(Gain a total of 2,465,000 Voltage). They're pretty standard voltage ACs, the first one boosts all SP-type skill activation and the second one boosts all SK-type skill activation. Relying on those buffs will not be mandatory though so no need to stress over these(and the other voltage ACs in this song tbh). AC#3(Maintain 80% or more of your Stamina). I hope you were very healthy after eating that first 80% note in the beginning because you do not want to swap back into the GD side-strat for this AC. If you didn't pass it either spend more time healing back at the start of the song or reset for better frontline healing RNG. The reason you do not want to swap back into the GD side-strat too early is because of the upcoming 2nd 80% piercing note. If you waste Fes2 Hanayo's swap on DR LSA it's gonna make eating this note very painful. Otherwise it comes right before AC#4 begins. So swap into your side-strat, and immediately swap back to green strat because... AC#4(Gain a total of 801,000 Voltage with SP Skills). Oh boy this appeal chance. I hope your frontline has at least one SP-type UR because otherwise you're going to fail this AC. It demands over 800,000 voltage...and you only get 23 notes to pass it. There is not enough time for three SP-skills so you better two-shot it. At least it buffs both SP-type fill rates and skill activation, on top of adding a single trick note that fills the SP gauge by 10%. AC#5(Maintain 80% or more of your stamina). If you need to swap back into the GD side-strat to pass this AC that's fine. The 3rd 80% piercing note doesn't come for a long time so you can heal back up if your frontline wasn't able to keep you green during the AC#4. AC#6(Gain a total of 2,074,000 Voltage) is just another standard voltage AC so not much to talk about. AC#7(Gain a total of 400,000 Voltage with SP Skills). If you passed the 800k SP AC this one is much easier, so no need to sweat. It's shorter but it's also significantly smaller of a bar to pass so you should likely be fine. AC#8(Gain a total of 1,560,000 Voltage) is the final standard voltage AC, not much else to say. However after it's over be prepared to swap into the GD side-strat one last time because the 3rd and final 80% piercing note arrives. AC#9(Maintain 90% or more of your Stamina). Either stay in your GD-side strat to heal back up or swap back to your frontline after eating the 3rd 80% piercing note. It'll be a gamble but either way, pray your healers are strong enough so you can pass this very last appeal chance. Some of the good URs for this song: https://preview.redd.it/raca60pb115b1.png?width=808&format=png&auto=webp&s=b77790a1786ade4d6a847703fd0e9470751320e5 -Fes3 Yoshiko: Best Natural frontliner in the entire game. Extremely good here. -Party Karin: Yoshiko but slightly lower stats. Still extremely good here. -Fes3 Nico: Solid filler, will help towards passing the voltage and SP ACs. -Fes2 Dia: Nico except she comes with SP-Overcharge instead. Really helpful for that 4th AC where you need 801,000 voltage from SP-skills. -Fes3 Nozomi: Solid frontliner in general for this song. -Fes2 Hanamaru: Same as Nozomi -Fes2 Rin: Same as Nozomi -Fes1 Mia: You don't really need SP-skill voltage boosters in this song but this UR can probably help pass AC#4 if she's paired with an actual SP-filler. -Party Eli: Best natural healer in the entire game. The strongest frontline you can ask for if you're gonna be frontlining a sustain this song. Extremely good here. -Dream Kanata: Weaker version of Eli but most likely can work as well. -Fes2 Hanayo: The best GD for this song period, there is no one that can replace her in the side-strat. Is the song doable without her though? Yes, but it'll be much rougher. -Vampire Riko: The UR designed specifically for this song. Heals on tap skill and can also simultaneously shield with her LSA. Really good here. -Fes1 Hanamaru: Riko but reversed. She primarily shields and has a chance to heal on her own taps. Not as good as Riko but can be used. -Summer Nozomi: Solid natural healer. -Cheer Lanzhu: Same as Nozomi. -Sakura Dia: Healers are better than shielders here but at least this Dia can give you three free shields at the beginning of the song which is nice. Honorable Mentions: -Fes4 Hanamaru(Natural SK): Was released after I had already finished with this section of the guide, but will be an amazing frontliner here. This was the team I used to S-rank the song: https://preview.redd.it/2xe8m32f115b1.jpg?width=1945&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3d31ace61e08ff76d1db55fdbc94b98f8758607 https://preview.redd.it/47g8sh8g115b1.jpg?width=1835&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b0fb8b04ec1897bd2b59690354cb6d870267c61 -Red strategy(appeal boosters): Standard appeal boosters, the higher the tech the better so your SP-skill will hit very hard. Two belts is more than enough, when I beat this song my 3rd one was only LB1. s(group) insights go here. -Green strategy(GD side-strat): Not much to say, best natural GD-healers go here. I didn't have a 3rd one at the time so I used this Dia instead. I started the song in this side-strat only because swapping twice for the 1st 80% note was pretty annoying. s(group) insights go here. 3 necklaces go here. -Blue strategy(frontline): Yes that is indeed a LB0 Fes2 Ruby and Fes2 Dia, only my Party Eli was MLB in the frontline. This song gives so much voltage if you can pass all the ACs so super strong frontliners weren't 100% necessary from what I saw. Ruby and Eli also didn't have board 100 at the time either. Same strategy/attribute insights go here. Brooch + double bangles is recommended. For the guest it's highly recommended to borrow Fes2 Hanayo if you don't have her. If you do have her though then any other appeal booster like Thanksgiving Mia can work just fine. Bond Boards: -For the appeal boosters higher is better, but board 35 for level 84 URs will be the bare minimum. -For the frontline get at least board 50 for the 10% attribute match. -For the GD side-strat anything past board 35 is nice but not mandatory. This song overall would probably be like a high 6, maybe even a 7/10 on the difficulty scale depending on your roster of natural-attribute cards. For me personally it's like a 4/10. Borrowing a Fes2 Hanayo guest as well just made it so the 80% piercing notes did next to no dmg whenever I swapped into the GD side-strat. Frontline Party Eli also meant healing wasn't an issue whatsoever. I have seen the nightmare this song can be for the people that lacked one or even both of those URs however. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cheesing Love U my friendsDo you have Natural healers? If you answered no then skip right ahead to the next section because otherwise you'll likely just die. Borrow a Fes2 Hanayo for the guest, as her DR on swap LSA actually matters a lot here.-Red strategy: Any 3 URs sorted by highest stamina, you won't be tapping with these. 3 necklaces go here but can be replaced by bracelets. -Green strategy: Your 3 best natural sustain go here. It's fine to run one or even two shielders if you're lacking healers, but you will want at least one. 3 necklaces go here but can be replaced by brooches. -Blue strategy: Any 3 SK-type URs. You don't want to be staying for very long here. Can use 3 GD-types if those 80% stamina notes are really giving you some issues though. 3 necklaces go here. Swap into blue whenever you're about to tap on those stamina-piercing trick notes. Immediately swap to green asap. Face-tank everything else otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nijiiro Passions(Cool-attribute)Oh...this song. If you don't have Party Shioriko, Fes3 Ai, or Christmas Lanzhu I'd recommend just skipping over to the next section to be honest*. The reason being because this song passively reduces the base appeal of all non-Cool attribute cards by 50%. There are a decent amount of 30k notes as well but those are the least of your concerns when this song has very large SP ACs that boost specifically Nijigasaki skill activation only. How large exactly? Well...-AC#1(Gain a total of 662,000 Voltage with SP skills). Starts immediately upon song start and you only have 30 notes to two-shot this thing. -AC#2(Gain a total of 457,000 Voltage with SP skills). Only lasts 7 notes so you need to one-shot it. -AC#5(Gain a total of 1,133,000 Voltage with SP skills). You get 33 notes for this AC, but at least there's time to get three SP skills off in here if you had saved one to use at the very start. -AC#6(Gain a total of 381,000 Voltage with SP skills). Only 6 notes long but if you can pass the others before this you can one-shot this one as well. -AC#9(Gain a total of 471,000 Voltage with SP skills). Only lasts 6 notes as well so you need to one-shot this one too. *Edit: Fes4 Ayumu(Cool SP) came out after I had already finished writing this section. Sheâs easily the best frontliner here if you can use her. The pool of strong Cool-attribute fillers is very small. How small exactly? Let me show you with these recommended URs... https://preview.redd.it/r8gwfu96215b1.png?width=712&format=png&auto=webp&s=99865d87ec5e64b02f09112d36081c7351d50c9d -Fes3 Ai: The best cool filler in the entire game, and will remain that way by the looks of it. Extremely good here. -Party Shioriko: The second best cool filler in the entire game. Extremely good here. -Christmas Lanzhu: Good thing the ACs boost all Nijigasaki skill activation because this card isn't a SP-type. 11% chance to fill is really unfortunate but at least her LSA and those Niji buffs will help remedy it. -Spotlight Ruby: This over two year old card is unironically...our third best cool filler in the entire game as of me typing this. However she won't be receiving the Niji buffs so it'll be much more RNG compared to the two best options. -Fes2 Chika: Lanzhu but is a limited UR and also doesn't receive the Niji buffs. Will be extremely RNG, even more than Ruby. -Fes2 Nozomi: Pair her with either of the two best fillers and you can do just fine. Not an ideal choice here but at least she's cool-attribute. -Fes1 Karin: Nozomi except much weaker. At least she'll be receiving those Niji buffs unlike her though. -New Year Yoshiko: The best cool healer right now. Won't need those Niji buffs to keep you alive as long as she doesn't sleep too hard. -Fes3 Kasumi: She might be losing 50% of her appeal because she isn't cool-attribute, but with those Niji buffs and her 2022 stats she's still more than strong enough to be frontlined here. -Fes1 Mari: Yoshiko but weaker. -Fes1 Shizuku: If she's MLB she can be frontlined here with ideally little to no issues. -New Year Emma: Can go in a side strategy to help you pass those skill activation ACs. -White Day Rina: Same as Emma. -Knitting Setsuna: Same as Emma. Honorable mentions: -Fes3 Kanata(Cool VO): Like Fes2 Nozomi, if you pair her with one of the two best fillers she can be frontlined here. -New Year Ayumu(Cool VO): Same as Kanata. -Moonlit Umi(Cool VO): Same as Kanata This was the team I used to S-rank this song: https://preview.redd.it/przsc9me215b1.jpg?width=1930&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f72174d11df2ab3050ebecb56e6b61bd3b310d0 https://preview.redd.it/m21e6ydf215b1.jpg?width=1829&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0099d3cad8ec7ca3f694972a62ce07ae2b6488a2 -Red strategy(appeal boosters): Highest technique appeal boosters go here, those belts need to make your SP skill hit super hard. I needed at least one bracelet in this clear so that's why instead of putting 3 belts here I moved the 3rd one to the frontline instead. s(group) insights go here. -Green strategy(frontline): Pulling Fes3 Ai off a reroll banner a very long time ago was really lucky, she's by far the best UR for this song. It meant I could pair her with Fes2 Nozomi and two-shot all the super large SP ACs(except for the 1st one which I just failed on purpose). Same strategy/attribute insights go here. -Blue strategy(GD side-strat): Those 30k dmg notes both come in triplets before the skill ACs starts so I needed healers to bring me back to green stamina. Luckily the song boosts Niji skill activation so they didn't necessarily need to be cool-attribute. s(group) insights go here. For the guest I recommend borrowing SP-Overcharge if you don't have Fes3 Ai who comes with her own. If you are using her then any standard appeal booster like Fes3 Dia or Party Nozomi will work too. Bond Boards: -For the appeal boosters get it as high as you can. Board 35 for level 84 URs should be the bare minimum though. -For the frontline get them to board 50 for the 10% attribute match bonus at least. -For the GD side-strat anything past board 35 will be nice but not necessary. Actual difficulty-wise this song would be like 3 or a 4/10. I'm giving it an 8/10 simply because your options of good URs for this song are extremely small. Unfortunately if you lack one of two good URs for this song, better hope you have that Lanzhu UR MLB or I'd recommend just skipping over this song to save the sanity that'd be spent resetting for RNG again and again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheesing Nijiiro PassionsUnlike S-ranking, cheesing this song is very easy to do.-Red strategy: Any three URs sorted by highest stamina. Three necklaces or bracelets go here. -Green strategy: Your three best Nijigasaki healers or shielders go here, they don't even have to be cool-attribute. I'd personally recommend 2 shielders and a healer but I've cheesed this song with 3 shielders in the past before. 3 necklaces or brooches go here. -Blue strategy: Any three URs sorted by highest stamina. Three necklaces go here. Stay in green and just face-tank everything, that's all you have to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neo Sky Neo Map(Active-attribute)Oh boy...this song. If you don't have at least 3 MLB Nijigasaki VO cards I'd recommend just skipping onto the next section. First off youâll be dealing with this base gimmick of the song:[Show Specialty] During the Live show, base Appeal will be reduced by 50% for all school idols not members of Nijigasaki.So don't bring anyone but Niji girls then? Well not exactly, if the girls are both active-attribute and are VO-typing they might be usable despite the appeal loss but you'll have a much rougher time. The bigger emphasis for team-building will be that the frontline mainly consists of VO-type cards. Why the need for VOs specifically? This song heavily...and I do mean HEAVILY buffs them to the stars above. Also, if you want to S-rank this song then playing on manual is going to be next to mandatory. From here on out I'll only be going over how to S-rank this song on manual. The difference between the two ways of playing is massive and even that in itself is an understatement. To get a small glimpse on what you'd need, I don't recommend trying to use autoplay unless you have 6 MLB Nijigasaki VO cards. This is the team we'll be using: -Red strategy: Appeal boosters, preferably VOs. -Green strategy: 3 MLB VOs. Non-Niji ones can be used but I would not recommend trying with more than one. Non-Active Niji VOs will work just fine though. -Blue strategy: 2 shielders and a healer. They all need to be active-attribute to take advantage of the massive skill activation buffs you'll be receiving later. These are the appeal chances and how you tackle each one: -AC#1(Gain a total of 237,000 Voltage): You're supposed to use VO cards that give a percentage of their own appeal upon skill activation to clear this AC. If you fail it just try again because it is slightly RNG. It is possible to pass this with only 2 VOs that do this while having the 3rd one boost all voltage gained with their tap skill instead, however it will be much more RNG. -AC#2(Gain a total of 2,194,000 Voltage): Just fail this AC on purpose, it's not worth trying to pass it. This is because during the AC you'll be constantly barraged with 30k dmg trick notes again and again. After passing AC#1, swap to your blue strategy immediately and just start building up those shields. With all the skill activation buffs you'll be receiving you'll just barrel through all those 30k notes and the AC failure dmg. If you swap at any point you'll lose the skill activation buffs and you're going to have a much rougher time trying to pass the next AC. Speaking of... -AC#3(Maintain 100% or more of your Stamina): By the time you enter this AC you should have a pretty sizable shield built up. This is why two shielders is recommended, because there is zero room for error here. Once you pass this AC swap back to your green strategy, and you'll notice that your SP gauge is starting to fill really quickly. That's because of the buff obtained from passing the 3rd AC, save your SP skill though because you'll need it for... -AC#4(Gain a total of 2,952,000 Voltage): This AC will nerf all tap voltage to zero like AC#1, but there's no possibility of gaining that much voltage off tap skills alone so you'll want to save your SP skill for the very start of the AC and then use it again asap to clear this AC. That way you cleanse the debuff and can start scoring again. Once you pass this AC swap to your blue strategy and then swap back to green asap. This is to cleanse all the SP-gauge gain debuff trick notes you just barreled through. Then...comes the roughest part of this song. -AC#5(Gain a total of 3,764,000 Voltage): This AC has four of those -50% voltage gain reducing trick notes if you tap on them. Key word being if you tap on them. This is why manual is required, you need to purposefully miss every single one because then it allows you to keep tapping with your green strategy. If you can pass this AC while dodging all those trick notes, you're on the home stretch towards beating this song. -AC#6(Gain a total of 4,096,000 Voltage): Our first "regular" AC. Nothing too special about it, ignore the buff to GD-types and continue tapping with your green strategy. -AC#7(Maintain 100% or more of your Stamina): Also why two shielders is recommended. Your shields should not have broken by this point, so if you still have some left you can simply continue tapping with your green strategy. There's a single -50% voltage gain debuff trick note, but it's easy to avoid. Technically you only lose the VO-type appeal buff(from AC#5) if you swap more than 3 times so you could swap back into your shielding strat to pass this if you need a couple more shields, but I recommend just staying in your frontline if you can by this point in the song. -AC#8(Gain a total of 10,007,000 Voltage): Oh boy that's a lot of voltage needed. Luckily if you passed AC#7 you will currently temporarily be able to spam the SP-skill which'll help towards passing this beast. The final four -50% voltage gain debuff trick notes are in this AC, they're much easier to avoid compared to AC#5 so just focus on tapping everything else. This AC also gives a massive boost to your appeal based on the number of Voltage types in your team, which is why it's recommended for your appeal boosters to also be VOs. By the time you enter AC#8 you should have around ~39 million voltage. You will indeed get the other 12+ million voltage needed off this AC alone, it's crazy good. If you made it to the end after dodging all those trick notes I hoped you scored enough for S-rank! These are some of the good URs for this song: https://preview.redd.it/pg2ae2zk215b1.png?width=781&format=png&auto=webp&s=83e79a66c48a470fdef3c15a779a156d820cabc2 -Fes3 Rina: The single best frontliner in this song. Extremely good here. -Fes2 Karin: Not the same power level as Rina but still really strong. Extremely good here. -Cheer Ai: The non-limited UR released for this song specifically. Pretty good here. -Fes1 Setsuna: Despite being well over 3 years old if you have her MLB already she is actually really good here. -Fes2 Ayumu: Probably the single best non-Active Niji frontliner for this song. -Fes3 Setsuna: Her tap skill isn't ideal for AC#1 but otherwise she's extremely good here. -Fes3 Dia: Probably the best non-Niji Active frontliner you can use here. -Fes1 Kanan: Dia but much weaker. -Jewelry Ai: Probably one of the best, if not the best shielder for this song. Extremely good here. -Fes2 Eli: Same as Ai. -Snow Mia: Thick shields will allow you to stay in your frontline for longer. -Fes1 Rina: Same as Mia. -Chinese Maid Rin: Mia but much weaker. -Initial Ruby: Mia but much weaker. -Around the World Kasumi: Solid choice of a healer here. -Sweets Deco Ayumu: Same as Kasumi. Honorable Mentions: -Fes3 Shioriko(Elegant VO): Pretty good here -Party Mia(Elegant VO): Same as Shioriko -Fes2 Shizuku(Elegant VO): Same as Shioriko -Easter Shizuku(Active GD): DRs GDs aren't ideal vs. a 2nd shielder...but they can work if your other two defenders are strong enough. This was the team I used to S-rank this song: https://preview.redd.it/boa8hogm215b1.jpg?width=1923&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b80f5be6983a3ca9a2216b024b25f7cf06ba150b https://preview.redd.it/aj0j1mbn215b1.jpg?width=1823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e1c6b06c5df7b41cb0fb0514f251ab2251afe79f -Red strategy(appeal boosters): Preferably these ones are VOs as it makes AC#1 less RNG the more you have. All 3 girls are on s(group) insights. 3 necklaces go here. -Green strategy(frontline): My three best Nijigasaki VOs. Rina is on same school, Karin is on same strategy/attribute, and Ayumu is on same strategy insights. Choker + both bangles is recommended because even without extremely good boards it's super easy to tap for 300k+ each during the final AC. -Blue strategy(shieldehealing side-strat): I did not have any of the good active defenders when I S-ranked this song so I was forced to limit break these super old URs instead. Ideally they all have s(group) insights. 3 necklaces go here. For the guest just borrow any standard appeal booster like Thanksgiving Mia, Party Nozomi, etc. Bond Boards: -For the appeal boosters anything past board 35 for level 84 URs will be nice but not necessary. -For the frontline I strongly recommend board 50 for the 10% attribute match bonus minimum. If they are non-Active or even non-Niji URs, then I recommend getting it as high as possible. -For the shielding/healing side-strat anything past board 35 will be a nice little bonus. This song is an easy 10/10 on the difficulty scale. Requires super specific URs, your frontline + side strategy of shielders/healers need to be pretty much MLB, and to top it all off purposefully missing some notes is clearly not intended by the developers but trying to play the song normally will just turn this behemoth into an even bigger of a headache to play. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheesing Neo Sky Neo MapIt's relatively simple to do.-Red strategy: Any three URs sorted by highest stamina. Three necklaces go here but can be replaced by bracelets. -Green strategy: Three active-attribute shielders or healers. They do not need to be GD-type, but you do want them to be active at least so they can take advantage of all those skill-activation buffs. Either 3 necklaces or brooches go here. -Blue strategy: Any three URs sorted by highest stamina. Three necklaces go here. Just sit in the green strategy for the entire song and eat all the AC failures. If you are going to be using GD-types however, you will need to cleanse the -100% skill activation debuff for GD-types. After AC#5 is over just switch into either side-strategy after eating that trick note and then swap back to green. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Love the Life We Live(Pure-attribute)Where...do I even begin with possibly the worst Challenge song in the entire game? First off I strongly recommend just ignoring this song altogether. While there isnât a massive debuff to appeal for non-pure cards you will be dealing with these two gimmicks for the entire song:[Show Specialty] During the live shows, the activation rate of SP-type basic skills is reduced by 50%and [Show Specialty] During the Live show, base Appeal will be reduced by 25% for all school idols not members of Nijigasaki.So don't bring SP-types and bring only Niji units? Not necessarily, you will see later that despite not being able to use any skills SP-types are far and away still the best choice for frontliners here. As for the non-Niji debuff it's only -25% so you'd still be able to use girls from the other schools...assuming they have a mega strong bond board. While there are no 100k dmg notes, shield-piercing max health notes, or even a massive -50% appeal debuff to non-pure cards...there is just one tiny little category of trick notes. That single one turns this song from challenging...to a complete and utter nightmare. Trick Notes: 100% Voltage reduction(Decreases voltage gained by all cards for 15 notes. Always activates.Well that doesn't seem so bad at first glance right? The real problem lies in the number of them...NINE OF THEM...and THEY APPEAR IN EVERY ALMOST EVERY SINGLE APPEAL CHANCE. How do you deal with these then since neither swapping into another side strategy nor avoiding them like in Neo Sky Neo Map works? Well, do you remember your little old friend called cleansers? These are all the ones in-game if it helps jog your memory. You will have to win the 20-30% chance on swap(depending on the card), or the 50% chance on SP-skill, for ALL NINE OF THOSE TRICK NOTES. Though technically only 7 of them if you do run a cleanse on SP card, since there's no physical way to get your SP-skill in time for the first two -100% voltage notes. If you do use those however you'll still need a second cleanser that activates on swap because getting rid of the first two trick notes is mandatory. The sad thing is it's not like passing the voltage ACs is any easy either if you do successfully cleanse those awful trick notes. All the voltage ACs require over 100k taps on average to clear them, so you will need not only strong cards but also ones with really good bond boards. You'll also want them to be SP or SK-types preferably as well. All the ACs except the stamina ones give a massive 200% appeal boost to those types upon AC success, so despite SP-types being unable to use any skills in this song they're easily the best choice for the frontline here. Unfortunately you lose the massive -200% appeal buff the second you do any strategy switching so you'll want to take advantage of them for as long as possible. That may or may not be a little hard to do however since... To add insult to injury, there are 30k dmg notes that appear before every single stamina AC begins and while inside of them they'll also increase the dmg taken by 700%. You will need a side strategy to DR this dmg or your stamina will just fall apart. Luckily there isn't much to say about AC#5(Gain a total of 478,000 Voltage with SP skills). It only lasts 7 notes long so you better one-shot it or you'll eat an unnecessary 28k dmg. Some of the good URs for this song: https://preview.redd.it/flq5trtr215b1.png?width=790&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7c414e4c83d6e06fffaff21ad5f8c7e1debec42 -Fes4 Rina: Really good stats, is part of Nijigasaki, and SP-type. Comes with SP-Overcharge too so you might not even need a second belt to pass the 5th AC depending on how strong your frontline is. Extremely good here. -Fes3 Karin: With a 200% appeal buff she should be tapping extremely hard after passing the ACs. Extremely good here. -Fes2 Rina: Fes4 Rina except with smaller stats. Still a pretty good choice here. -Fes1 Kasumi: Same as Fes2 Rina, only with even smaller stats. -Party Nozomi: She might not be Niji but the appeal debuff is only -25% so you could probably make her work here with really good boards. -Fes3 Riko: Same as Nozomi -Fes3 Chika: Same as Nozomi. -Christmas Dia: Same as Nozomi. -Party Honoka: One of the few frontline sustains you could probably use here. -Halloween Umi: Honoka but instead shields and is much weaker. -Fes3 Eli: Still our strongest Pure healer in terms of raw stats. -Jewelry Kotori: Pretty comparable to Eli, if you have her MLB she can work just fine too. -Initial Riko: DR lasts for a long time and comes with the ability to cleanse. Extremely good here. -Carnival Dia: Pretty solid choice of a DR here. -Wonderland Kasumi: Same as Dia -Halloween Ruby: Appeal boosting passives are pretty hard to find on GD-types, probably a decent choice here. Honorable mentions: -Party Shizuku(Smile SK): She might not be pure-attribute but sheâs still far and away your best possible choice of a frontline defender for this song. -Fes3 Kasumi(Elegant SP): She might not shield a single time in this song but she still has the recent high af base stats and will be receiving that massive 200% appeal buff upon passing ACs. -Fes2 Ayumu(Pure VO): Will not be receiving the 200% appeal buffs being a VO-type but sheâs still usable if your other two frontliners can take advantage of those buffs instead. This was the team that I used to S-rank this song: https://preview.redd.it/94scplws215b1.jpg?width=1902&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4093e582ccdf483a4232e0b3bcc021ae3e49d13 https://preview.redd.it/wn4s5out215b1.jpg?width=1839&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a78ab77f0ae49ce8b216efbf7b2627a8cda5ba0 -Red strategy(appeal boosters): Your best ones go here. M(Group) insights are highly preferred on them, but s(group) might be fine depending on your frontline. Fes3 Rina is on same school insights though. I was able to get away with only one belt in the past, but for this one that actually S-ranks the song I needed two of them. 2 necklaces because this song does a lot of dmg. -Green strategy(frontline): I've experimented with a lot of cards, ultimately using ones that were both Niji and also SP/SK-types tended to have the best results. They were all on same strategy insights, but same attribute also works if your frontline is mono-pure. Needed a second belt to pass AC#5, otherwise brooch + double bangles will be good. -Blue strategy(GD side-strat): The recommended strategy uses double cleansers minimum, this song is indeed that awful. Riko and this specific Emma SR act as DRs so they can fulfill multiple roles at once. s(group) insights go here. 3 necklaces go here. Bond Boards: -For the appeal boosters board 35 for level 84 URs should be the bare minimum. -For the frontline board 100 is next to mandatory. But I personally highly recommend board 120 for the pure frontliners. Scoring in this song is extremely tight so you really need to be able to pump out as much as you can with every single tap. -For the GD side-strat anything past board 35 will be nice but mostly unnecessary. For the guest I highly recommend borrowing Party Nozomi if your frontline is all pure-attribute. Otherwise Fes3 Dia instead or Thanksgiving Mia if you do decide to run a single off-attribute as well will be fine. Final thoughts on this song...whoever designed this monstrosity is beyond worth saving. You will need to reset for crit RNG, cleanse RNG, DR RNG, and healing/shielding RNG all at the same time. There are so many possible things that can go wrong in this song that it'd be physically impossible for anyone to lay out every single scenario. This is an easy 100,000/10 on the difficulty scale. Simply because there are one hundred thousand other better things you could be doing than playing this abomination of a song. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheesing Love the Life We LiveLuckily, cheesing this song is infinitely easier than S-ranking it. Essentially plays out the same way as you'd cheese Snow Halation.-Red strategy: Any 3 URs sorted by highest stamina. 3 necklaces go here but can be replaced by bracelets. -Green strategy: Your three best sustain(either shielders or healers), doesn't necessarily have to be GD-types but I recommend them for the 5% DR each you get for using them. 3 necklaces or brooches go here. -Blue strategy: 3 DRs or 2 DRs and a healer. Shouldn't matter what kind of DR you use but 4-5 note ones will be good. 3 necklaces go here. Just stay in the green strategy until those stamina ACs appear. Swap into blue for those and then swap back to green once they're over. Rinse and repeat until you're done with the song. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh my goodness it's finally over...this took me forever to complete, apologies for that. Nijigasaki just has some of the most awful Challenge songs to both beat and explain how to beat by far. Well with that I don't have much else to say but good luck on your attempts if my guides gave you the inspiration to try any of these Challenge songs. If you have any further questions though feel free to leave them down below. Otherwise...take care everyone. This has been u/BobDaisuki, signing off o7 |
2023.06.09 19:40 andrewgg98 [WTS]/[WTT] Spyderco Exclusive's and Sprint's! + EMPEDC, ZT, and More!
Hey all! Looking to off-load some of my Spyderco collection along with some others! Just getting to be a bit too much and a don't carry these anymore. Payment via PayPal F&F, no notes, and will ship via USPS, lower 48 only! YOLO trumps chat. Mainly looking to sell right now, the only trade I'd be interested in right now is for a REC Shaman or a St. Nick's Shaman.
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ZT 0562CF in Satin 20CV - SV: $125 SOLD for $125
Got this one a bit back on the swap here. This thing is an amazing user. Has been sharpened a few times by the original owner and most definitely carried. The blue anodizing was done by USA Made Blade. Indentation from hardness testing, sample tested at 61 HRC. I did disassemble it when I first got it to clean it. So, it has been deep cleaned and the pivot oiled, action is buttery smooth. Centering is perfect. Got this thing for a great deal so just want to pass that on. No box on this one.
Benchmade Bugout Aircraft Aluminum in DLC M390 - SV: $140 RETRACTED
Benchmade Osborne 940 BladeHQ Exclusive in DLC M4 - SV: $155 SPF
Blade HQ exclusive right here. It is still available on their website, but if you're looking to save a good amount on a mint example then look no further. Previous owner carried it twice and only cut paper. I never ended up carrying it myself. Drop shut action, centered blade, smooth engagement. No marks, just a little tiny smudge in the DLC, shown in the video. It's barely noticeable. Also does come with a deep carry clip, cannot confirm the brand, but looks like MXG. No box or papers on this one.
EMPEDC Nymble-T in Satin M390 - SV: $240
Picked this thing up here on the swap a bit ago. I'm the third owner, previous owners did carry it, I did not, and they babied this thing. Still has a super sharp factory edge on it. Only visible marks on this knife are on the pocket clip, nothing on the scales or blade. Only reason I'm letting this go is because it's a bit too small for my liking. DOB is July 2022, 1st Run. Comes with case, COA, cloth, and stickers.
Chris Reeve Knives Large Inkosi Tanto in S35VN - SV: $375 / TV: $390
Picked this up not too long ago here off the swap. I wanted to try out my first Chris Reeve knife and I was not disappointed. This thing is an absolute elegant tank. This one in particular is definitely a user. I'm at least the third owner. Snails on both sides of the blade. Blade was sharpened to a mirror edge by one of the previous owners. Has an aftermarket clip, unsure of the brand. Blue anodization is a bit worn off the thumb studs. Missing some of the goodies that it normally comes with in the box like; no grease, loctite, or Allen keys. DOB: 12/23/2019. Just trying to get back exactly what I payed for it.
Now for the Spyderco's
Spyderco Tenacious in Satin 8CR13MOV - SV: $60 RETRACTED
Spyderco Stretch 2 Ivory Sprint Run in Satin VG-10 - SV: $115
As the title says, this is the Sprint Run version with Ivory scales. Scales are in great condition and are very clean. These are a rit-dyers dream I imagine. Blade appears to have been used by previous owner and has some scratches. Also comes with RGT titanium clip. When I received this, the body screws and pivot screw were all reversed, and I'm weird so it bugged me a shit ton. I took it apart (worst idea ever), cleaned everything inside, and got it all back together with the screws in the right orientation. I would NEVER advise taking this thing apart again, I'm really good with Spyderco disassemblies, but this was a monster. It's been deep cleaned and oiled well so shouldn't need to be taken apart anyways. Oh and the action is amazing. Got this for a steal so just looking to get back what I payed for it and cover the shipping, Comes with box and papers.
Spyderco Stretch 2 in Satin K390 - SV: $120
Had this one for a while now. I honestly favorite it over my PM2 quite a bit, the length and shape are very similar. This has definitely been used, there is also quite a bit of patina on it. However, the edge is incredibly sharp. I have only carried it a handful of times myself. Lock-back is super sturdy. Tons of life left in this user. Small little scuff on the pocket clip. Comes with box and papers.
Spyderco Worker Sprint Run Green G10 in Satin VG-10 - SV: $120 SPF
Has remained in the box since I got it a few months ago. I am the third owner. Previous owner did carry it and use it but it has not been sharpened nor disassembled. Green G10 scales show very very light use, with almost no visible wear on the blade. Very solid lock-back, riding between liners. Slightly off-centered I think, as most lock-back Spyderco's are. Feel like these don't pop up very often. Comes with box.
Spyderco Para 3 Bento Box Exclusive in Satin M390 - SV: $165 SOLD for $150
Got this one off the swap for a deal so it was an impulse buy. I'm trying to move away from Para 3's but I just couldn't pass it up, but its time to pass it along for someone to enjoy. I am the second owner. Original owner put a 17 DPS 4000K mirror edge on it with a KME. It has been used since then. Action is very smooth with a slightly weak detent in my opinion. Comes with a Lynch clip for the Para 3. Comes with box, papers, sticker, and original clip.
Spyderco Para 3 Cutlery Shoppe Exclusive in Satin XHP - SV: $165
Got this one a while ago during my big Para 3 phase. Really nice example. Has been carried and used. I'm at least the second owner. Centering is dead on, action is great, drop-shut. Small amount of tiny scratches on both sides of the blade. It does have a mirror edge on it right now from the previous owner. Scales are in great condition. Comes with box and papers.
Spyderco Paramilitary 2 Tanto in Satin S30V - SV: $280 SOLD for $280
Acquired this tanto quite some time ago, but I only carried it once. If the previous owner carried it at all, you can't really tell. It's in amazing condition. I threw on some RGT titanium dark stonewash honeycomb scales. Also added a blue timascus deep carry clip from Lynch. I think it's a really subtle but nice pop of color. Centering is dead on, no rubbing. Ever so tiny scratch on the show side of the blade, it's so minuscule that I don't know if the camera will pick it up, but I'll try to show it. Action is flawless and just buttery smooth. No lock-stick. I would be willing to sell the scales and knife separate, but ONLY if I find a buyer for the scales FIRST. I don't want to be stuck with the scales if the knife sells lol, I only bought them for this knife and have no use for them on a different PM2. Got the scales for $110 here off the swap so I'd let them go for $90? Also want to add that there is currently no lanyard plug/hole in the knife right now. I could never decide on a color I wanted to put in, so it just remained like this, but it's honestly fine if you don't run lanyards anyways. Saves on weight and it don't need it anyways because of the scales, there is no flex down on the bottom part of the knife. The titanium is super sturdy on its own. However, I'll throw in a lanyard tube if you want one, it'll be a random basic satin one. And yes, I know that I might have a better chance of parting this thing out cause Spyderco's don't hold their value too well when it comes to modifying, I've had to do that once already. Im hoping the tanto effect will draw someone in. Comes with box and papers.
submitted by andrewgg98 to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]
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EMPEDC Nymble-T in Satin M390 - SV: $240
Picked this thing up here on the swap a bit ago. I'm the third owner, previous owners did carry it, I did not, and they babied this thing. Still has a super sharp factory edge on it. Only visible marks on this knife are on the pocket clip, nothing on the scales or blade. Only reason I'm letting this go is because it's a bit too small for my liking. DOB is July 2022, 1st Run. Comes with case, COA, cloth, and stickers.
Chris Reeve Knives Large Inkosi Tanto in S35VN - SV: $375 / TV: $390
Picked this up not too long ago here off the swap. I wanted to try out my first Chris Reeve knife and I was not disappointed. This thing is an absolute elegant tank. This one in particular is definitely a user. I'm at least the third owner. Snails on both sides of the blade. Blade was sharpened to a mirror edge by one of the previous owners. Has an aftermarket clip, unsure of the brand. Blue anodization is a bit worn off the thumb studs. Missing some of the goodies that it normally comes with in the box like; no grease, loctite, or Allen keys. DOB: 12/23/2019. Just trying to get back exactly what I payed for it.
Now for the Spyderco's
Spyderco Stretch 2 Ivory Sprint Run in Satin VG-10 - SV: $115
As the title says, this is the Sprint Run version with Ivory scales. Scales are in great condition and are very clean. These are a rit-dyers dream I imagine. Blade appears to have been used by previous owner and has some scratches. Also comes with RGT titanium clip. When I received this, the body screws and pivot screw were all reversed, and I'm weird so it bugged me a shit ton. I took it apart (worst idea ever), cleaned everything inside, and got it all back together with the screws in the right orientation. I would NEVER advise taking this thing apart again, I'm really good with Spyderco disassemblies, but this was a monster. It's been deep cleaned and oiled well so shouldn't need to be taken apart anyways. Oh and the action is amazing. Got this for a steal so just looking to get back what I payed for it and cover the shipping, Comes with box and papers.
Spyderco Stretch 2 in Satin K390 - SV: $120
Had this one for a while now. I honestly favorite it over my PM2 quite a bit, the length and shape are very similar. This has definitely been used, there is also quite a bit of patina on it. However, the edge is incredibly sharp. I have only carried it a handful of times myself. Lock-back is super sturdy. Tons of life left in this user. Small little scuff on the pocket clip. Comes with box and papers.
Spyderco Para 3 Cutlery Shoppe Exclusive in Satin XHP - SV: $165
Got this one a while ago during my big Para 3 phase. Really nice example. Has been carried and used. I'm at least the second owner. Centering is dead on, action is great, drop-shut. Small amount of tiny scratches on both sides of the blade. It does have a mirror edge on it right now from the previous owner. Scales are in great condition. Comes with box and papers.
2023.06.09 18:59 Chance-Ad4773 The Californian Cannabis market: a case study in over-regulation
You may be used to seeing headlines extolling the tax revenue of Cannabis in recent years[1][2][3]. Cannabis sales generated billions in revenue for states over the last few years, and the states have put the revenue of those sales into different social programs like education or racial equity funds. This makes it seem like the legal cannabis markets are thriving in these states, but I'm here to tell you that some of these markets are actively collapsing
In California, the state approaches new dispensary licensing as "may-issue". You are not guaranteed a license, and whether or not you can open a dispensary in your area is also up to the municipality. The lack of licenses has made it difficult for MSOs (Multi-State Operators) who operate at a more efficient economic scale to get a foothold in the market. As a result, some MSOs have willingly exited the California market (the largest cannabis market in the United States) entirely[4][5]. The lack of licenses and high excise tax (15% in California), the burden of which is placed on cash-strapped retailers, has made it difficult for legal retailers to compete with a still-thriving illegal market:[6]
Cannabis retailers are also unable to take advantage of many tax breaks available to other businesses, such as writing off the cost of marketing expenses on their yearly taxes. This has ripple effects on other businesses (such ad advertising companies) which serve the cannabis market, but don't directly sell cannabis themselves.
Passing the SAFE Banking act[12] would legitimize these businesses at the federal level and lead to economic growth on the sidelines of the cannabis industry as well by allowing them to take advantage of these tax incentives.
References
[1] California cannabis tax revenue totals more than $200M in first quarter of 2023
[2] Colorado Earned $423 Million In Marijuana Tax Revenue Last Year
[3] Michigan reaps $271M total marijuana revenue
[4] Trulieve to Shutter Operations in Massachusetts, California
[5] Curaleaf Announces Closure of Operations in California, Colorado and Oregon
[6] California legalized weed five years ago. Why is the illicit market still thriving?
[7] A Reefer Recession? The forces behind Michiganâs plummeting cannabis prices
[8] No New Cannabis Business Licenses in San Francisco Until 2028
[9] The casualties of California legalizing pot: Growers who went legal
[10] Adult-Use Cannabis Delivers $15 Billion in Tax Revenues
[11] How the marijuana âgreen rushâ fell apart
[12] SAFE Banking Act
submitted by Chance-Ad4773 to neoliberal [link] [comments]
In California, the state approaches new dispensary licensing as "may-issue". You are not guaranteed a license, and whether or not you can open a dispensary in your area is also up to the municipality. The lack of licenses has made it difficult for MSOs (Multi-State Operators) who operate at a more efficient economic scale to get a foothold in the market. As a result, some MSOs have willingly exited the California market (the largest cannabis market in the United States) entirely[4][5]. The lack of licenses and high excise tax (15% in California), the burden of which is placed on cash-strapped retailers, has made it difficult for legal retailers to compete with a still-thriving illegal market:[6]
Voters passed a law in November 2016 making recreational marijuana legal. But today, the vast majority of the market remains underground â about 80-90% of it, according to expertsThis is compounded by a political culture in California which is afraid of enforcing the law on the illicit market. In Michigan, similar pressures have led to a collapse in prices which has affected growers[7]:
...
In the places that do allow pot shops and grows, business owners say high taxes, the limited availability of licenses, and expensive regulatory costs have put the legal market out of reach. And many of the Black and brown entrepreneurs who were supposed to benefit from legalization have actually ended up losing money. Meanwhile, consumers remain confused about whatâs legal and whatâs not.
The industry has, for the past year or so, tried to sidestep the oversupply issue by pointing to illegal marijuana making it into the legal market.Because it has proven historically near-impossible to enforce marijuana laws in the United States, the illegal market continues to out-compete to legal market at every level (retail, distribution, growing). States have responded not by increasing enforcement or deregulating, but by doubling down on restricting supply. San Francisco, in order to prevent the market from lowering its prices to compete with the illicit market, has recently announced that it will not issue any new licenses until 2028 [8]:
The theory is that mass amounts of distillate, used in making vapes and edibles, is being shipped in from out of state at a steep discount and finding its way to store shelves. The other gripe is that marijuana grown by individuals is finding its way into retailers and growers without being entered into the state's tracking system.
âIf there is a continued illicit market and a continued saturation, many of these businesses that weâve put effort and energy into wonât survive,â said board member Ahsha Safai, who wrote the moratorium bill.It seems San Francisco will try anything other than enforcing the law or deregulating. Growers in California have also suffered from increased regulation[9]:
Safai said that roughly 60% of the cannabis trade in San Francisco is illicit and that stalling new licenses will help the existing businesses stabilize.
As a result, the state is now awash in tax revenue, much of it from the industrial-scale farmers and retailers, and in marijuana, a market glut that has gutted wholesale prices and left farmers such as Barber unable to break even. The state rules and omissions have also empowered a still-thriving black market for marijuana â once a chief target of state regulators â whose growers sell their product illegally across state borders and still fetch a lucrative price.The net result of the collapsing cannabis market is that Cannabis tax revenue has slightly decreased between 2021 and 2022[10]:
âIn addition to the persisting illicit market and plummeting wholesale prices, extreme delays in local licensing have been cited as a cause for the decline,â the report said.In summary, the pressures on the California market (and other states) are almost entirely government-imposed. Growers and retailers would benefit from wholesale deregulation. I believe the following measures should be taken:
- Issue an unlimited number of licenses to whoever complies with health and safety regulations. Become a will-issue state instead of a may-issue state
- Remove the excise tax on marijuana and charge the regular state sales tax. Slash taxes between growers, distributors, and retailers, where as much as 40% of the value is captured by the state [11]
- Regulations on cannabis sales and growing should only cover product quality and safety. Cannabis should be tested for THC levels to guarantee a high quality product (which is another issue in many states)
Cannabis retailers are also unable to take advantage of many tax breaks available to other businesses, such as writing off the cost of marketing expenses on their yearly taxes. This has ripple effects on other businesses (such ad advertising companies) which serve the cannabis market, but don't directly sell cannabis themselves.
Passing the SAFE Banking act[12] would legitimize these businesses at the federal level and lead to economic growth on the sidelines of the cannabis industry as well by allowing them to take advantage of these tax incentives.
[1] California cannabis tax revenue totals more than $200M in first quarter of 2023
[2] Colorado Earned $423 Million In Marijuana Tax Revenue Last Year
[3] Michigan reaps $271M total marijuana revenue
[4] Trulieve to Shutter Operations in Massachusetts, California
[5] Curaleaf Announces Closure of Operations in California, Colorado and Oregon
[6] California legalized weed five years ago. Why is the illicit market still thriving?
[7] A Reefer Recession? The forces behind Michiganâs plummeting cannabis prices
[8] No New Cannabis Business Licenses in San Francisco Until 2028
[9] The casualties of California legalizing pot: Growers who went legal
[10] Adult-Use Cannabis Delivers $15 Billion in Tax Revenues
[11] How the marijuana âgreen rushâ fell apart
[12] SAFE Banking Act
2023.06.09 18:11 ExpertAndy WTS Batman/Joker themed Bugouts
Hello, got 2 custom bugouts up today. Shipping via USPS, payment via F&F (if you banned let me know, we can work something out), Yoloâs beat DMs. If my prices are off, please let me know.
Edit: forgot, they both have boxes, bags, and inserts.
Timestamp
SOLDBatman Bugout 535BK-2 (Black and yellow/gold) â SV: $220 SOLD for $200 per dms
First owner, bought directly from BM. This build has over $250 in it. Scales are from Aramis Akhmedov, got those from the swap. Hardware was either from u/bolts-n-bytes or etsy. Backspacer and bead came from etsy. Light carry, little use. I tried so hard to like the bugout. Itâs a great knife I just prefer other models over the bugout, like the Freek. Has been disassembled, I did the scale and hardware swaps. Blade has not been sharpened or stropped. Action is great, a little wiggle like most bugouts. Can be taken out usually, as long as you got the patience and locktite. But a little wiggle never bothers me as long as the knife is safe. Batman bead has one or two tiny dings in the finish. No marks on the blade that I can see and the clip barely has snails, might just be the blackwash really. Also includes original black g10 scales.
Joker Bugout 535 (Purple and Green) â SV: $175
At least second owner, got from the swap. This one was a little over $200. Scales are dyed and from u/bolts-n-bytes or Esty, possibly someone else on the swap, donât remember, it's been a while. Hardware was either b-n-b or Esty. Backspacer was from Esty, bead was from eBay. Has been taken apart, I did the swaps. Never been sharpened by me, doesnât look like the previous owner did either. Carried this one a bit more, as I had it longer. But still light use. Blade doesnât look brand new, but its stonewashed. You can see a few spots catch in the light, but it could just be the stonewash, see vid of blade and you decide. Blade has a little wiggle, like the DLC one. Comes with the original blue g10 scales as well.
Proof of life for the original scales
If you want the pair, I will do $380 for the bundle and upgrade to priority shipping. I donât plan on customizing anymore bugouts. The axis lock/pivot is just too much of a PITA. Thanks for looking, any questions just ask. Hope everyone has a good day.
submitted by ExpertAndy to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]
Edit: forgot, they both have boxes, bags, and inserts.
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SOLD
Joker Bugout 535 (Purple and Green) â SV: $175
At least second owner, got from the swap. This one was a little over $200. Scales are dyed and from u/bolts-n-bytes or Esty, possibly someone else on the swap, donât remember, it's been a while. Hardware was either b-n-b or Esty. Backspacer was from Esty, bead was from eBay. Has been taken apart, I did the swaps. Never been sharpened by me, doesnât look like the previous owner did either. Carried this one a bit more, as I had it longer. But still light use. Blade doesnât look brand new, but its stonewashed. You can see a few spots catch in the light, but it could just be the stonewash, see vid of blade and you decide. Blade has a little wiggle, like the DLC one. Comes with the original blue g10 scales as well.
Proof of life for the original scales
2023.06.09 18:03 cognitiveclamshell Things are going well, what do now?
I (27F) have been seeing this guy John (28M) for 2 months now. We had more than 10 dates and spent a whole weekend together. Things have been really great. Honestly I was so used to dating (unsuccessfully) emotionally unavailable men and had a prior toxic relationship, this is my first time experiencing a 'healthy' dating after 6 years and I don't know how to navigate myself in this.
John is funny, smart, caring, and respectful towards me and other people. I like the gestures he makes for me for example thoroughly planning most of our dates, walking me home in the morning after I spend the night at his place (and also picking me up to his when I could straightly walk there on my own), looking at me in the eyes and admiring me, making me coffee in the morning, cooking for me, introducing me to his friends, and keeping everything consistent for the past 2 months including texting every single day. He also ticks all the preliminary boxes I want in a man (high education, good job, etc).
All green flags so far except:
- At most two times he went from being playful and funny (that's his default mood all the time) - we had a silly argument - then he suddenly went seriously dismissive (letting go of my hands abruptly) and sulky for couple of minutes which I had to profusely apologize, then back to playful.
- He admitted he used to be addicted to porn. I asked him when was the last time he watched porn which he replied years ago. Then there were times where he had a dysfunction down there and he confessed it's cause of the addiction and I was like but I thought you quit years ago and turns out he lied cause he was very insecure about this. However I know he's on therapy and support groups and sex is getting much better. I honestly don't judge him about his addiction but this is the only time I caught him lying I don't know if it's a red flag or should I let it go cause he's in a very vulnerable state.
- My best friend Michael is in town visiting me and he hung out with John about two times. When I talked to him about John like how he treats me and responding to me etc it's always been a positive approval from Michael. Michael said what I have with John is healthy and said John is 'normal' unlike my ex whom everyone collectively hates. However he said John has a dickhead vibe but it's also because they two are polar opposites, but then Michael said he's the type I go for and as long as it's healthy just go for it, but also he said I can get someone better if I want to??
But in any way, everything has been going so smoothly and what's also interesting is how I don't feel anxious about us. I used to always feel very insecure whenever I'm dating someone and my daily life is impaired from (negatively) thinking too much about them especially when we're apart (like do they like me? Are they seeing anyone else? etc etc). But with John, we both know we're not seeing anyone else at the moment, I can still live my own life, and I have the reassurance that he genuinely likes me as a person. I feel happy and comfortable with him.
Things have been amazing but I don't know where to go from this? I want to be his girlfriend but I'm still somewhat scared so I'm happy with whatever we are right now, but should I address something about our status? It's also quite annoying since I've been withholding some 'boyfriend-worthy' treatments that I really want to give him. Is 2 months in too soon for that? I made a mistake not asking him what's his dating intention in the first place, and I always have a hard time communicating things. I don't even know what kind of talk we're gonna have, or if we should even have the talk. Or should I just let it be and keep aware of other potential red flags (like what for example?). I'm very new to 'normal' dating.
TL;DR: I have a (seemingly) healthy dating dynamic with this person I really like for 2 months, what should I do know?
submitted by cognitiveclamshell to dating_advice [link] [comments]
John is funny, smart, caring, and respectful towards me and other people. I like the gestures he makes for me for example thoroughly planning most of our dates, walking me home in the morning after I spend the night at his place (and also picking me up to his when I could straightly walk there on my own), looking at me in the eyes and admiring me, making me coffee in the morning, cooking for me, introducing me to his friends, and keeping everything consistent for the past 2 months including texting every single day. He also ticks all the preliminary boxes I want in a man (high education, good job, etc).
All green flags so far except:
- At most two times he went from being playful and funny (that's his default mood all the time) - we had a silly argument - then he suddenly went seriously dismissive (letting go of my hands abruptly) and sulky for couple of minutes which I had to profusely apologize, then back to playful.
- He admitted he used to be addicted to porn. I asked him when was the last time he watched porn which he replied years ago. Then there were times where he had a dysfunction down there and he confessed it's cause of the addiction and I was like but I thought you quit years ago and turns out he lied cause he was very insecure about this. However I know he's on therapy and support groups and sex is getting much better. I honestly don't judge him about his addiction but this is the only time I caught him lying I don't know if it's a red flag or should I let it go cause he's in a very vulnerable state.
- My best friend Michael is in town visiting me and he hung out with John about two times. When I talked to him about John like how he treats me and responding to me etc it's always been a positive approval from Michael. Michael said what I have with John is healthy and said John is 'normal' unlike my ex whom everyone collectively hates. However he said John has a dickhead vibe but it's also because they two are polar opposites, but then Michael said he's the type I go for and as long as it's healthy just go for it, but also he said I can get someone better if I want to??
But in any way, everything has been going so smoothly and what's also interesting is how I don't feel anxious about us. I used to always feel very insecure whenever I'm dating someone and my daily life is impaired from (negatively) thinking too much about them especially when we're apart (like do they like me? Are they seeing anyone else? etc etc). But with John, we both know we're not seeing anyone else at the moment, I can still live my own life, and I have the reassurance that he genuinely likes me as a person. I feel happy and comfortable with him.
Things have been amazing but I don't know where to go from this? I want to be his girlfriend but I'm still somewhat scared so I'm happy with whatever we are right now, but should I address something about our status? It's also quite annoying since I've been withholding some 'boyfriend-worthy' treatments that I really want to give him. Is 2 months in too soon for that? I made a mistake not asking him what's his dating intention in the first place, and I always have a hard time communicating things. I don't even know what kind of talk we're gonna have, or if we should even have the talk. Or should I just let it be and keep aware of other potential red flags (like what for example?). I'm very new to 'normal' dating.
TL;DR: I have a (seemingly) healthy dating dynamic with this person I really like for 2 months, what should I do know?