Heavy duty wall mounted folding table

The latest Chapter for the on going story, New World Order is now available for everyone's viewing. It can also be found at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13535599/21/New-World-Order

‘Did you really have to threaten to open fire on one of your fellow countrymen?’ I hear Jensen ask via an overhead speaker.
“Jensen,” I start, wincing slightly as I readjust my position in the makeshift bed, I had been forced into despite my many protests, “I don’t make threats. If I say I’m going to do something, I’ll make it happen.”
‘That doesn’t help,’ Jensen replies, ‘It also doesn’t help that you delivered that statement to an Enlisted Officer.’
“He’s lucky that’s all I did,” I reply, “Mark was a self-entitled bully back when we were at school. And his attitude certainly hasn’t improved based on our brief encounter the other day.”
‘They’ve lodged an official complaint,’ Jensen states, ‘Apparently they want know why a Nazi flagged ship entered the harbour, threatened the Coast Guard and then simply sailed off.’
“They don’t want to know anything about the attempted air raid, or the battle just off the coast that repelled that air raid?” I ask.
‘There is no mention anywhere in their complaint of seeing any aircraft above the harbour,’ Jensen replies, ‘Although they are also wanting to know about the mystery figure they spotted skating around one of the islands in the harbour.’
“Out of interest,” I ask, “Has anyone from the Chinese Government made a statement about this?”
‘Not officially,’ Jensen answers, ‘Although there have been some back-channel discussions. From what they have disclosed to us, they did witness the air raid and the defensive actions your fleet took. As to their inaction. They were unable to verify our warning to them in time to be able to raise the warning with their boats.’
“That entire engagement lasted almost two hours,” I say shaking my head in disbelief, “If they want answers, I’ll answer them if they can tell me why their only response was to send a single Coast Guard cutter out to investigate.”
‘As I said,’ Jensen begins, ‘They make no mention of seeing any of this in their complaint.’
“Then they are either covering it up, are incompetent or both,” I state, “The lack of action from the Chinese ships that were in the harbour can probably be explained as not wanting to start an International Incident. But I’m not buying the story that no one else saw what was going on that morning.”
‘It certainly does seem that someone is trying to cover this up,’ Jensen agrees, ‘However, without a full investigation into what happened, it’s your word against theirs. And being as you withdrew from the area almost as soon as the battle was over you can see why it doesn’t look good.’
“They’ll have a hard time explaining away all the evidence from the battlefield,” I say, “The boys at the lab are going to be busy for a while documenting everything.”
‘What evidence?’ Jensen asks.
“Well aside from numerous parts from the aircraft that attacked Darwin,” I begin, “The reason I withdrew as fast as I could was, we were able to recover one of the enemy boats.”
‘Have you learned anything about how they work?’ Jensen asks.
“I haven’t been aboard,” I admit, “I’ve been confined to bedrest for the last week.”
‘Its not like you to follow doctors’ orders,’ Jensen comments, ‘You normally ignore most medical advice.’
“What doctor?” I ask, “I still have to be given the all clear from the medical team once we get back to Midway.”
‘Sounds serious,’ Jensen replies, ‘What happened?’
“A concussion of some sort and what I believe to be at least two broken ribs,” I answer, “The ship came under direct attack and Eugen was forced to make some rapid course changes, which sent me bouncing through a hatchway on my way to the deck.”
‘So how long until you reach Midway?’ Jensen inquires.
“Probably two weeks at best guess,” I reply, “Between the slow speed we need to maintain due to having a heavily damaged ship under tow and the rough weather down here it’s making for a slow return voyage.”
‘Well keep in briefed,’ Jensen comments before I hear the audible click as the phone connection ends.
**
As the skies slowly began to illuminate marking the start of another day, I found myself out on deck during one of the rare moments I had been allowed to leave my quarters.
In the distance the outline of the main laboratory building came into view as Eugen skilfully navigating her ship around the atoll towards the area reserved for offshore mooring of large ships that visited Midway.
As the ship rounded the western most edge of the atoll, the details of the upgrades the team had been working on became apparent. The barge which had been used to transport the huge generator from Darwin had been beached not far from the main power station.
Another larger building had also started to take shape not far from the main laboratories although its purpose was lost on me given the last reports, I had read indicated that we were only using around sixty percent of the facilities storage and research spaces and under forty percent of the living areas.
“It would seem that the team has been busy in our absence,” I comment aloud.
As I say this the rising sun clears the top of the main building, bathing the waters around the atoll in light. Taking in the sight I spy Bogue’s ship moored in the distance. My gaze is soon captured however as in the growing light across the waves a pair of large, heavily armed gun boats lay at anchor.
As Eugen slows her ship and in the near distance I hear the rattle of numerous anchor chains, I take in the details of the closest ship. From the stern flag post a white flag with a red pattern hangs limp in the still morning.
As I scan across the length of the ship, I take note of the numerous sets of gun turrets spread along the length of the main deck from just below the bridge structure running back to just ahead of the number four main battery.
My attention however is soon drawn away to the second of the gun boats, this ship despite from the distance appearing to be slightly smaller in size projected more fear despite fact that like the other ships anchored around the atoll was simply floating at anchor in the low morning swells.
I put the additional sense of projected fear down to the fact that the entire ship appeared to be painted in a flat black paint from the waterline all the way to the very top of the super structure. The only hint of another colour was the flag hanging from the stern post.
**
“Do you have any lingering effects from the hit to your head?” the doctor asks.
“No,” I reply with a shake of my head, “The headaches cleared up about three days after. The burly vision and ringing in my ears cleared up around the same time.”
“Well,” the doctor says turning off the torch he had been using a moment before, “I’d say you have a minor concussion. But if you aren’t suffering any of the after effects now, you should be fine to return to your regular duties. As for your ribs.” He continues turning to a scan pinned to a light board on the wall. “They are healing well. But you definitely broke two. There’s not much else we can do to speed up your recovery there. Just take it easy.”
“That’s easier said than done,” I retort sarcastically.
“Yes,” the doctor agrees, “You do have a habit of being right where the action is.”
“Speaking of action,” I say changing the subject, “What have I missed here?”
“A lot,” the doctor admits, “However the Professor said he’ll brief you once we were finished here.”
**
Five minutes later, after the doctor signed off on my medical reports, I enter the main research room to find the Professor sitting in front of his usual multi monitor setup rapidly scrolling through an endless stream of what appeared to be computer code from a distance. “Pull up a chair Nathan,” he says, “We’ve got a lot to discuss.”
“It would seem so,” I answer remaining standing a short distance away next to a table littered with pages of reports. “Can we begin with an update from the Global Explorer. Surely Jim has reported in by now?”
“He sent a pair of video data folders yesterday,” Professor Strickland answers, “Two separate files he says are from two different locations. He labelled them with the co-ordinates.”
“Anything interesting in the videos?” I ask.
“Plenty if you’re interest lies in the contour of the ocean floor,” Strickland answers with a slight chuckle, “But aside from that. Nothing of importance. I still don’t know why you sent him to either of those locations.”
“Because I needed to confirm a theory,” I reply, “Both of those sites he checked out are where the wrecks of the Akagi and Kaga were found.”
“And that proves a theory?” Strickland asks.
“It certainly lends a lot of support to my theory,” I reply, “Whoever is behind the attacks out at sea has been testing us. Well testing our military at the very least. So far, they’ve employed tactics from our history against us, and are using weapons from our past against us as well.”
“To what end though?” Strickland asks, “None of that makes any sense.”
“I agree,” I say, “But look carefully at what we know. Pearl Harbour was attacked in very similar fashion to how the Japanese did at the start of the Pacific War. And what do we find floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean but a ship that matches perfectly to one of the very ships that was involved in the original battle. A ship that by rights should be on the bottom of the Pacific a couple of hundred nautical miles away from this atoll.”
“But we still don’t know the who or the what,” Strickland insists, “We also don’t know how far this goes?”
“I think we can safely say it goes as far as every ocean on the planet,” I reply, “I’m certainly no expert when it comes to warfare. But whoever is behind this is playing for keeps. They’ve already openly attacked at American Naval Base, a British Fleet out at sea and conducted two Air Raids on major ports in Australia. Plus, there’s enough evidence to believe they ambushed an American Fleet as well.”
“So, your theory is that we are at war with an unknown enemy?” Strickland presses.
“Yes,” I answer, “So far though. I believe they have only been testing our abilities. Otherwise, this would be on every news network around the globe. Right now, the only reason we know anything is through sheer luck.”
“It would seem that you are not alone in thinking that,” Strickland admits, “One of our newest arrivals is of the same opinion.”
“Yes,” I begin, “I meant to ask earlier about the two ships anchored off the atoll. Care to fill me in on that?”
“Do you remember the briefing before you left,” Strickland says, “Where we covered our theory on what those cubes we keep finding are.”
“I remember,” I reply, “The theory is that they contain data of some sort. Only the scanners could not complete the scans due to overheating.”
“The new generator solved that problem,” Strickland announces proudly, “With the extra power, we were able to stabilize the power supply and run additional cooling. We’ve also been able to read quite a few of those cubes now. We found a few of them to be blank however.”
“Blank?” I ask.
“Yes,” Strickland confirms, “Blank. Nothing on them at all. So, one of the junior programmers wondered what would happen if we tried to load data into a cube.”
“What sort of data?” I ask in a worried tone.
“It started off simple,” Strickland admits, “The team transferred about a dozen different ship designs into a couple of cubes. Then transferred data about various types of weapon systems, radars, tactical data from reports that we obtained from Jensen.”
“Does Jensen know about that?” I ask.
“He said it was okay,” Strickland answers, “He said most of the reports were public knowledge already and those that weren’t, were not subject to any privacy laws.”
“Okay, so now we have a bunch of cubes that contain technical and tactical data,” I say, “How does any of that equal two ships anchored off shore?”
“We subjected some of them to a large electrical charge,” Strickland answers simply.
“You didn’t,” I say feeling the colour drain from my face at the prospect.
“We sure did,” Strickland admits, “In fact your timing is perfect. Our first arrival from those experiments has just arrived.”
Turning towards the door, I notice a tall woman with long brown hair step through the open door to the lab. As she makes her way towards us a feeling of familiarity hits me. Everything about her appearance feels oddly like someone I had met before. From the prominent fox-like ears, numerous tails lazily waving behind her, even the style in how she wore her hair.
Then it hit me. Aside from the lighter shade of colour in her hair and the more modest choice of clothing, she nearly was identical in appearance to Akagi. Someone who for the last several weeks had barely been out of my presence as she had insisted on making certain I had remained in the makeshift medical bay to recover from the injuries I had sustained during the battle.
“Please forgive my lateness, Professor,” she says in a voice that despite its calm nature, hints that should the occasion require, could dominate the room. “I lost track of the time studying the history papers you gave me.”
“No need for apologies,” Strickland replies, “I was just briefing the Captain on the latest progress the research team had been making.”
Turning to me, “Allow me to introduce our senior Captain, Nathan Harrison. He oversees our research ships and is one of the teams leading theoretical researchers.” Strickland announces, “Nathan, this is Amagi. Her presence here is the result of one of the experiments I mentioned a moment ago.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” I say with a smile.
“The Professor has spoken of you often,” Amagi says, “He mentioned that you lead from the front and take a very hands-on approach to the projects you oversee.”
“I certainly try to keep myself busy,” I reply, “Being able to have full control of the ship certainly makes the research side of my job easier given I have a greater control over the variables.”
Amagi nods silently in agreement.
“Would I be correct in assuming that the larger of the two cruisers anchored off shore is yours?” I enquire.
“You assume correctly,” Amagi replies, “Are you familiar with Japanese Naval History, Captain?”
“I have a very limited knowledge when it comes to naval history or even tactics for that matter,” I admit, “However I’m certainly learning a lot recently given the events of the past several months.”
“From how the Professor explained my arrival here and the arrival of the other members of the fleet,” Amagi explains, “It would seem that the cubes used in my creation have taken the form from my original design.”
“Your original design?” I ask.
“My ship was original designed to be a battle cruiser, before an attempted conversion to an aircraft carrier was halted due to my hull being badly damaged,” Amagi replies.
Before I can reply, the phone on the table beside the Professor buzzes. Picking it up, the Professor listens in silence before speaking, “We’ll be over in the minute.”
“Problem?” I ask seeing the worried look on the Professors face.
“Maybe,’ he replies, “The radio guys are picking up a radio call from the Global Explorer. They say it sounds like a distress call.”
**
Crossing the room to where one of the team’s radio operators was listening closely through a headset. As we approached, he held up a hand to prevent any of us from speaking. After a brief pause, he removed the headset and turned to face us. “I have cleaned up the recording as much as possible. But there is a lot of static.”
“Play it,” Strickland says.
‘Glo..l Explorer .. Midway. Encount.. hostile ….. Attack.. Sink… Host… head… fo. Mi..ay. Se..nt..n hour. No..h w.st. R.n’
Sharing a look with the Professor as I mentally replayed the message in my head filling it the blanks with the most logical word. As I realized the full message my eyes widened in shock. Going to the nearest computer and sliding the operator out of the way, I rapidly log into the facility’s secure server.
As the opening page loads on the monitor, I take note of the spinning icon in the lower left corner of the screen. Double clicking on the icon, my worst fears are confirmed. “The Global Explorer is dumping its logs onto the server,” I report.
“What does that mean?” I hear Amagi ask in confusion.
“It’s the last action taken before abandoning ship,” I reply, “It’s either manually activated by one of the senior crew before they leave the bridge, or automatically triggered if the ships internal sensors detect multiple compartments flooding.”
“Any chance that it’s a false alarm?” the Professor asks.
“None,” I reply, scrolling through the data logs, barely giving them time to finish loading before moving to the next. “I don’t know what happened out there. But the engine room temperature spiked to over a thousand degrees before dropping down to eleven. Both the forward cargo compartment and rear loading deck compartment sensors are indicating flooding. And the trim sensors are showing a forty-degree list to starboard.”
Looking away from the computer and taking a deep breath to compose my thoughts, “That and the radio message,” I say, “It was definitely Jim. He clearly said hostile and attack and that whoever they were, are headed this way.”
**
Standing in the conference room fifteen minutes later, the realization that with the apparent loss of the Global Explorer and the loss of the Intrepid and the very real possibility of a hostile enemy closing in on Midway, the team stationed here had lost both main pre-planned escape options we had prepared for in situations that required the rapid evacuation of the atoll.
Behind me I hear various people entering the conference room and taking a seat. As the scrapping of chairs being moved dies down, I turn to face those gathered. Before I can speak, a couple of late arrivals step in through the open door.
The final member of this group is a young woman with short, light peach coloured hair. Who on seeing me, turned away from the group and ran straight for me. On reaching me she wrapped both arms around me drawing me into a tight embrace.
“I see you’ve met Roon,” I hear the Professor call from the doorway as he enters the room.
“So it would seem,” I struggle to reply, “I take it she is the second result of your experiments,” I add.
“Yes,” Strickland replies joining me at the front of the room, “It would seem that she’s a hugger.”
“Would it be possible to have my body back please?” I ask.
Slowly releasing me, Roon steps back, before silently re-joining the others seated in the room.
“I think she likes you,” The Professor comments.
“What makes you say that?” I ask gently feeling my ribs which feel like they are on fire.
“The fact she followed your request,” Strickland answers, “You’re the first who’s been able to get through to her.”
“That’s great,” I mutter sarcastically, “We just need to work on her introductions then. I swear she just re-broke my ribs.”
“If its any consolation,” Strickland begins, “Her combat prowess is second to none based on what little we’ve learned to date.”
Shaking me head in quiet disbelief at the Professor’s continued unyielding push for results rather than showing any concern for how those results were obtained. I scanned the room to find that everyone was looking in my direction.
Everyone save for Akagi. Who was staring through narrowed eyes towards Roon sitting a few rows away.
Clearing my throat, “As some of you may already know. We have received a warning of a possible hostile enemy that is heading straight for us,” I explain, “To those of you who are in senior positions. I need you to wind up any work your departments are working on. And execute our evacuation protocols.”
“Where are we going?” someone from the back of the room calls out.
“The team will evacuate towards Hawaii,” I reply, “There they will either report in to the Navy Yard. Or if advised carry on to the main land.”
As I finish this brief explanation. Over half of those gathered, stand up and walk out to begin the evacuation. As the door closes behind the last of them Professor Strickland speaks up, “Do you really intend to run?”
Looking across at the Professor I reply, “I intend for you and the others to run. In case the rest of us fail to stop the enemy from reaching Midway.”

Due to the increasing pollution of drinking water, water purifiers have become a part of every Indian household. Though wall-mounted water purifiers or table-top purifiers are very common in Indian homes, they are not suitable for modular kitchens. An under sink water purifier or under-the-counter water purifier is similar to a regular RO purifier, but it can be installed under the sink counter instead of a wall-mounted counter. They are designed to be installed in modern kitchens with built-in sinks to hide the purifier and keep the kitchen interior to a minimum. This article takes a detailed look at the best under sink RO in India. Now let us look at Top 3 Under Sink Water Purifier. Cleanjal is No. 1 Water Purifier in india. Cleanjal brings an exquisite range of RO Systems for home that comes with its unique hot water option. If you live in an area with high TDS level, then this is for you.

I'm from EU,so GAMES SHOULD work pretty much anywhere
NOT BUYING GAMES,ONLY TRADES - games for games or selling for paypal
No interest in TF2 keys
BUYER covers the FEES (if outside EU,EU F&F only)
My Steam account so you don't offer me something I own
My Wishlist
My SGSRep
My IGSRep

Only looking for Steam games - so don't offer origin,uplay,rockstar,bnet or ANY other launcher
100% of my games keys are bought by me from official stores & I expect the same in return,so don't offer me keyshop games or game keys you got in a trade as I will decline
I retain the right to ask for proof of ownership for ANY game I want - just like you have the right to ask me the same
Don't offer me VR games as I don't own a VR headset

List of games I have:
Also have the Earthquake Relief bundle,but reddit wont let me write all the games cause my topic would be too big - just ask
7 Billion Humans
8Doors Arum's Afterlife Adventure
10 Second Ninja X
60 Seconds!
112 Operator
140
198X
911 Operator
A Case Of Distrust
A Year Of Rain
Absolver
Aeolis Tournament
Age Of Wonders III
Ageless
Airport CEO
AI War 2
Alien Spidy
Aliens Vs Predator Collection
All You Can Eat
Almost There The Platformer
American Fugitive
Amnesia A Machine For Pigs + The Dark Descent (1 key for both games)
Amnesia Fortnight 2012
Amnesia Fortnight 2014
Amnesia Fortnight 2017
Amnesia Rebirth (X2)
Among Us (X2)
Ancestors The Humankind Odyssey (EU & Africa lock)
Aragami (X2)
Archamon
Armello
Army Men RTS
Attack Of The Earthlings
Automobilista
Aven Colony
Avernum 3 Ruined World
Azkend 2 The World Beneath
Back 4 Blood (EU region lock)
Backbone
Band Of Defenders
Banished
Baseball Riot
Batora Lost Haven NEW
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
Beholder 2
Bendy And The Dark Revival
Bendy And The Ink Machine
Betrayer (delisted)
Between The Stars (X2)
Beyond Eyes
Beyond The Wire
Biomutant NEW
Bionic Commando
Bird Of Light
Black Paradox
Blade Assault
Blasphemous
Bohemian Killing
Book Of Demons
Bomber Crew Deluxe
Borderlands 3 + Director's Cut (EMEA region lock)
Boreal Blade
Broken Age (X2)
Brothers A Tale Of Two Sons (X2)
Butcher
Call Of Juarez
Call Of The Sea (X2)
Call To Arms Basic Edition
Call To Arms Gates Of Hell Ostfront
Car Mechanic Simulator 2018
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition (X2)
Cities In Motion 2
CivCity Rome
Clone Drone In The Danger Zone
Clouds & Sheep 2
Coffin Dodgers
Cook Serve Delicious 3
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection (Origin key)
Company Of Heroes Complete Edition
Control Ultimate Edition NEW
Corridor Z
Cosmic Osmo And The World Beyond The Mackerel
Crash Drive 3
Creatures Inc
Crookz The Big Heist
Crossbow Bloodnight
Crusader Kings Complete
Crying Suns
Dagon The Eldritch Box
Danger Scavenger
Day Of Infamy
Dead Age
Dead By Daylight
Dead In Vinland
Deadly Premonition Director's Cut
Deadbeat Heroes (X2)
Dear Ester Landmark Edition
Death Squared
Deep Dungeons Of Doom
Deep Sky Derelicts
Demon Turf NEW
Deployment
Desert Child
Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor
Dicey Dungeons (X2)
Dimension Drifter
Distraint 2 + Soundtrack
Divekick
Dog Sled Saga
Double Fine Adventures Complete Series Deluxe
Downwell
Drawful 2
Draw Slasher
Dreadlands
Dread Templar
Dread X Collection
Dreamscaper NEW
Driftland The Magic Revival
Dry Downing
Duke Nukem Forever Collection
Dungeon Marathon
Dungeon Of The Endless
Dungeons 2
Dungeons 2 Complete
Dungeons 3
Dusk
Dwarfs!?
Eador Imperium
EarthX
Eastside Hockey Manager
ECHO
Edge Of Eternity NEW
Effie
Elderborn
Eldest Souls
Elden Path Of The Forgotten
Embr
Emily Is Away
Empyrion Galactic Survival
Epic Manager
E.T. Armies Deluxe Edition
Etherborn (X2)
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Europa Universalis IV
Evergarden
Expeditions Viking
F1 2018 (delisted)
Family Man
Fantasy Blacksmith
Fantasy Versus
Farmer's Dynasty
Farming Simulator 17
FIA European Truck Racing
Figment (X2)
Finding Paradise
Fire Ungh's Quest
First Class Trouble
Five Dates
Fling To The Finish
Fluffy Horde
Fobia St. Dinfna Hotel
Forgive Me Father
Framed Collection (X2)
Friday the 13th: The Game (X2)
Frog Detective 1 The Haunted Island (X2)
Full Throttle Remastered
Fun With Ragdolls The Game
Fury Unleashed (X2)
Gang Beasts
Garage Bad Trip (X2)
Gas Guzzlers Extreme
Gas Station Simulator
Gauge
Genesis Noir
Ghostrunner
Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams + Rise Of The Owlverlord
GNOG
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Goat Of Duty
Goetia (X2)
Going Under (X2)
Golden Light
Golf Gang
GoNNER
Gotham Knights
Grand Ages Medieval
Grand Pigeon's Duty
Greak Memories Of Azur
Gremlins Inc.
Grip Combat Racing + Cygon + Nyvoss + Terra + Vintek DLC (X2)
Guts And Glory (X2)
Hack'n'Slash
Haiku The Robot (X2)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
Hammerfight
Headlander
Heal
Hedon Bloodrite
Hell Let Loose
Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice NEW
Hello Neighbor
Hellbound
Hero Defense
Hero's Hour NEW (EU region lock)
Hexologic
Hidden & Dangerous Action Pack
Hidden & Dangerous 2 Courage Under Fire
Hive Jump (X2)
Hiveswap Act 2
Hiveswap Friend Sim
Hiveswap Friend Sim Complete
Homeworld Deserts Of Kharak
Hotshot Racing
Hot Tin Roof The Cat That Wore A Fedora
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Hover (X2)
Human Resource Machine
Hurtworld
I Am Bread
I Am Not A Monster First Contact
Ice Lakes
If Found...
Ikenfell
Impact Winter (delisted)
In Between
Industria
Infinite Air With Mark McMorris (delisted)
Inmost
Internet Cafe Simulator
Interplanetary Enhanced Edition
Intruder
Ion Fury
Iron Danger
Iron Harvest
Jack Axe
Jalopy
Jet Set Knights
Juanito Arcade Mayhem
Jump Stars
Jurassic World Evolution
Jurassic World Evolution 2 NEW
Just Die Already
KartKraft
Kathy Rain Directors Cut
Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes (X2)
Kill To Collect
Kingdom Classic (X2)
Kingdom New Lands
Kingdoms Of Amalur Re-Reckoning Fate Edition
King Oddball
Last Oasis
Last Tide
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Lead And Gold Gangs Of Wild West (X2)
Legacy Of Dorn Herald Of Oblivion (delisted)
Legend Of Keepers Career Of A Dungeon Master
LEGO Movie Videogame
Leisure Suit Larry Retro Bundle (1 to 7)
Lethal League Blaze
Liberated (GOG key)
Lifeless Planet Premium Edition
Light Fall
Little Big Workshop
Love Is Dead
Lust For Darkness
Lust From Beyond M Edition
Magicka
Magrunner Dark Pulse
Maid Of Sker
Main Assembly (X2)
Mainlining
Mars Horizon
Masquerade The Baubles Of Doom
Max Payne 3 (Rockstar Launcher)
Midnight Protocol
Mind Scanners
Mini Metro
Miscreated (X2)
Monster Crown NEW
Monster Train Collectors Edition
Moon Hunters
Morbid The Seven Acolytes
Mordhau
Mosaic
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
Motorsport Manager
Mount And Blade Warband
Mountain
My Lovely Daughter
Nairi Tower Of Shirin
Naruto To Boruto Shinobi Striker
Nascar Heat 5 Ultimate
Nebuchadnezzar
NecroVisioN Lost Company
NecroWorn
Neighbours Back From Hell
Neo Cab
Neon Abyss
NeuroVoider
Neverout
Niche
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl (X2)
Ninjin Clash Of Carrots
No Time To Relax
Not Tonight
Numba Deluxe
Obduction
Observation
Octahedron
Odyssey The Story Of Science
Of Orcs And Men
Old School Musical
OlliOlli World Rad Edition
On Rusty Trails
One Finger Death Punch 2
Onikira Demon Killer
Orbital Racer
Orcs Must Die 2 Complete
Original War
Orwell Ignorance Is Strength
Out Of Reach Treasure Royal
Overlord II
Overpass
Override Mech City Brawl
Oxenfree
Pacer
Paint The Town Red
Paper Fire Rookie
Paradise Lost
Pathfinder Wrath Of The Righteous
Pathologic 2
Path Of Giants
Paw Paw Paw
Payday 2 + Big Mike mask
Peaky Blinders Mastermind (delisted)
Penarium
People Playground (X2)
Per Aspera
Perfect Heist 2
PGA Tour 2K21 (X2)
Phoenix Point Year One Edition
Pikuniku
Pine
Pinstripe (X2)
Pixplode
Plane Mechanic Simulator
Playne The Meditation Game
Poöf
Popup Dungeon
Post Void
Pound Of Ground (X2)
PowerSlave Exhumed
Prehistoric Kingdom
Primal Carnage Extinction (X2)
Project Cars GOTY (delisted)
Project Hospital
Project Warlock
Pumped BMX+
Punch Club
Purrfect Date
Quest Of Dungeons
RAD (X2)
Radio Commander
Rad Rodgers Radical Edition
Railroad Tycoon 2
Railroad Tycoon 3
Railway Empire
Raji An Ancient Epic
Rebel Cops
Rec Center Tycoon
Red Faction Armageddon
Red Solstice 2 Survivors
Redeemer Enhanced Edition
Redout Enhanced Edition
Re-Legion
Relicta
Remothered Broken Porcelain
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil Revelations (X2)
Resident Evil Revelation 2 Deluxe Edition
Retimed
Retrowave
Reventure
Ring Of Pain
Rings Of Saturn
Riot Civil Unrest
Rise Of Industry
Rise Of Insanity
Riven The Sequel To MYST
Roarr! The Adventures Of Rampage Rex
Roboquest
Rogue Heroes Ruins Of Tasos
Rogue Lords NEW
Rogue Stormers
Rover Mechanic Simulator
RPG Maker VX
Rustler
Sable NEW
Salt And Sanctuary
Satellite Reign
Satisfactory
Saturday Morning RPG
Say No! More
SCUM (X2)
ScourgeBringer
Serious Sam 2
Serious Sam BFE (X2)
Serious Sam Classics Revolution
Serious Sam Double D XXL
Serious Sam HD The First & Second Encounter (1 key for both)
Serious Sam HD The Second Encounter Legend Of The Beast
Serious Sam HD The Second Encounter Serious 8
Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack
Serious Sam The Random Encounter
Serious Sam Bogus Detour
Shadow Tactics Aiko's Choice
Shady Part Of Me
She Remembered Caterpillars
She Will Punish Them
Shing!
Shock Troopers
Shuyan Saga
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Sid Meier's Railroads
Simulacra Collection
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Skully
Slay The Spire
Slime Rancher
Slinger VR
Smoke And Sacrifice (X2)
Sniper Elite V2 Remastered
Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe + Season Pass
SOMA
Song Of Iron
Soulblight
Spacebase DF-9
Space Hulk Ascension (delisted)
Sparkle 2
Sparkle Unleashed
Spellcaster University
Spelunx And The Caves Of Mr. Seudo
Stacking
Starsand (X2)
Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic
Stasis
State Of Decay 2 Juggernaut Edition (X2)
State Of Mind
Stealth Inc 2 A Game Of Clones
Steel Rats
Stick Fight The Game (X3)
Stories Untold
Streets Of Fury EX
Strider
Struggling
Stubbs The Zombie
Styx Shards Of Darkness
Submerged Hidden Depths
Suchart Genius Artist Simulator NEW
Super Indie Carts
Super Magbot
Supraland
SurrounDead (X2)
Surviving The Aftermath
Suzerain
Swag And Sorcery
Sword Legacy Omen
Swords And Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon
Swords And Souls Neverseen (X2)
Syberia II
Syberia 3 Deluxe Edition
Syberia The World Before NEW
Syndrome
System Shock Enhanced Edition
Table Manners The Physics-Based Dating Game
Tabletop Playground
Tacoma
Take On Helicopters
Tales From Candlekeep Tomb Of Annihilation (delisted)
Tales Of Monkey Island Complete
Talisman Digital Edition + City,Frostmarch,Sacred Pool (trading only as a bundle)
Talisman Origins
Tank Mechanic Simulator
Tannenberg
Telefrag VR
Teleglitch Die More Edition
Tennis In The Face
Tennis World Tour (X2)
Tesla Vs Lovecraft
Tharsis (X2)
The Amazing American Circus
The Ambassador Fractured Timelines
The Adventure Pals
The Battle Of Polytopia
The Battle Of Polytopia Moonrise Deluxe
The Count Lucador
The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope
The Dark Pictures Anthology Man Of Medan
The Free Ones (delisted)
The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour
theHunter Call Of The Wild (X3)
The Journey Down Chapter Three
The King Of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
The Last Blade
The Long Dark Survival Edition (X2)
The Manhole Masterpiece Edition
The Mims Beginning
The Night Of The Rabbit
The Serpent Rogue
The Signifier Director's Cut
The Textorcist The Story of Ray Bibbia (X2)
The Uncertain Last Quiet Day (X2)
The USB Stick Found In The Grass
The Walking Dead Season 1 + 400 Days
The Wild Eight (X2)
There Is No Game Wrong Dimension
They Bleed Pixels
Think Of The Children
This War Of Mine
Thronebreaker The Witcher Tales
THOTH
Through The Darkest Of Times
Timeshift
Time Recoil
Titan Quest Anniversary
Toejam & Earl Back In The Groove
TOEM
Tohu
Tools Up
Tooth And Tail (X2)
Torchlight (X2)
Total Tank Simulator
Toto Temple Deluxe
Tower Of Time (X2)
Tower Unite
Townscaper (X2)
Townsmen A Kingdom Rebuilt
Toybox Turbos
Tracks The Train Set Game
Train Station Renovation
Treasure Hunter Simulator (X2)
Tribes Of Midgard
Tropico 4
True Fear Forsaken Souls Part 1
Tyranny Deluxe Edition
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Unexplored
Unloved
Unmetal
Vambrace Cold Soul
Vane
Velocibox
Verdun (X2)
Vikings Wolves Of Midgard
Volcanoids (X2)
V Rally 4
Wanderlust Travel Stories (GOG key)
Wandersong
Warhammer End Times Vermintide
Warlock Master Of The Arcane
Warpips
Warsaw
Wasteland 2 Director's Cut NEW
We Are The Dwarves
We Should Talk
West Of Dead
Western Press
We Were Here Together
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine
While True: Learn() Chief Technology Officer Edition
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
Wooden Sen'SeY
Worms Rumble + Legends DLC
Wrath Aeon Of Ruin
XCOM Complete Pack
XCOM Ultimate Collection
Xenoraid The First Space War
X Morph Defense + European Assault + Last Bastion + Survival Of The Fittest (1 key for all)
XIII Classic
Xuan-Yuan Sword The Gate Of Firmament
Yet Another Zombie Defense HD
Ylands Exploration Pack
Yoku's Island Express
Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair
Zack 2 Celestine's Map
Zombie Kill Of The Week Reborn

DONT TRY TO SEND A PM BEFORE YOU POST IN THIS TOPIC - WILL NOT DEAL WITH YOU!

Hey guys, early chapter because I'm going to be busy the next few days.
I'm also going to be overhauling the first 15 chapters to get them up to standards.
ELIJAH COMMISSION SOON!
Azeline Commission
The Little Menace
Worship Her
If you want to read ahead, check out my Patreon, I'm up to chapter 26!
Support me by upvoting me or leaving a comment!
I also have the series uploaded to Royal Road, come leave a comment and give me a review by clicking HERE
Here's a map of where the area they landed HERE
Join my Discord!
If you're interested in my first series click HERE
[First] [Previous] [Next]
-
“Before the first records of history, the realm of mortals was ruled by a slew of unholy and demonic monstrosities only known as the old ones.” The Oracle said as the group approached the massive mural in the back of the temple.
Looking up both Bennett and Elijah couldn’t help but gawk like tourists and marvel at the masterful artwork displayed on the wall. Tylas was depicted with a commanding presence, holding a bleeding heart in one hand and pointing his two-pronged spear towards what appeared to be a baptismal pool. Surrounding him were what looked like common folk, kneeling and praying in reverence or offering their gifts of bread.
However, their gaze was interrupted when Azeline sent a sharp jab into Elijah’s ribs with her elbow and shot him a glare as a reminder of why they were there.“Hurry up and do whatever you’ve come here to do you fool!” She hissed in a hushed tone.
Just as Elijah dug into his pocket to grab his bio scanner, the hobbling Oracle spun around with open arms. “And these vile and wretched beings only sought the souls of mortals to fuel their never-ending machinations for power, damning whomever they consume to oblivion!” He said, looking up towards the interior of the dome.
Yanking his hands out of his pocket before the oracle saw him, Elijah nervously looked up to see what the old man was looking at. His face contorted in confusion when he only saw the untouched surface of the ceiling, and brought his hand back into his pocket.
“BUT! As the ages passed, those wretched thing’s ambitions only fattened along with their festering arrogance!” The Oracle bellowed, causing Elijah to stiffen once more. “Not even the souls of the damned could saite their infernal hunger!” The man slammed his hands down on a podium that was just in front of the pool of water. “They FLOGGED the world with their wars! Bringing nothing but butchery and destruction to the mortal realms!” he spoke with a gurgling venom as he described the unimaginable horrors their ancestors endured.
Feeling as if the oracle was yelling at them, Bennett and Elijah cringed while the elder man frother at the mouth. Used to this type of sermon, Azeline just inwardly sighed and waited for the most opportune time to interject and possibly divert the old man's attention away from them, but it seemed the old man was just too into his sermon.
“And in this time of darkness and despair… Rose a beacon of hope; Tylas! He and his peers were the first to strike down one of those false gods and claim its soul for themselves!”. The oracle continued his tale, his voice growing with excitement as turned around and gestured towards the Mural once more.
Seeing an opportunity had presented itself, Elijah bent over and brought his device just to the edge of the pool of water and allowed it to start scanning while the Oracle continued giving his oration. "With their found power, a new Pantheon was born and together, they banished the Old Ones from the mortal realms to never return! Long gone were the days of servitude! Long gone were the days where we forfeited our lives! Our souls!” Elijah’s eyes narrowed as his bio scanner displayed a green light, signaling that whatever was in the pool showed signs of a large population of whatever pathogen was plaguing the town.
Leaning his head back and letting out a cathartic sigh, a small tear fell from the old man’s eyes as he felt a surge of reverence. "And there… The heart of all Aethari. The symbol of his gift. A symbol of strength… A symbol of hope.” His hands came down slowly as she shuddered. “It serves as a reminder that Tylas had given back to us what was stolen… our souls." The oracle slowly spun around, his expression proud. "And that is why we, the oracles of Tylas, exist. For we shepherd generations yet towards the path of righteousness.”
Jabbing Bennett in the ribs with his elbow, Elijah subtly showed him his device displaying the amount of pathogens that was in the pool. “We found our contaminated source,” he said in hushed whispers.
Looking over at the device, Bennett's eyebrows raised in surprise that this town’s place of worship was actually the hotspot. "This is worrying," he said, a hint of alarm creeping into his voice. "I highly doubt the population has been shitting in here, so that means…" He trailed off a bit and went silent.
“It means someone intentionally contaminated the pool.” Elijah finished for him, narrowing his eyes. “I have no idea who’s insidious enough to poison somewhere where people pray, but we’re also not exactly in tune with the geopolitics of this world.” He whispered while scratching the side of his face.
Bennett simply gave a grim nod in agreement, "But how do we deal with this? Seeing how this dude reacted,” he pointed his entire hand at the oracle who was still orating, “we can’t exactly be like ‘oh ya, your shits fucked up sorry.” He replied.
The two men shared a difficult look when Azeline jabbed Bennett in the ribs, causing the engineer to wince and pain and look up to see the oracle staring at them. "Is everything alright, young men?" He asked with a stern look on his face.
With swimming eyes, Bennett flushed and tried to come up with an excuse on the spot. "Ahh.. yes. We were just wondering how this pool of water holds significance to uhh, Tylas’ glory." He replied, straightening up. Closing his eyes briefly to fight off the desire to pinch the bridge of his nose, Elijah simply nodded along in agreement, "Yes… We noticed how his wondrous spear was pointing towards the pool, and we couldn’t help but ask why."
Having dealt with the youth all his life, the Oracle gave a magnanimous smile. He was used to the fact young men’s attention spans were prone to wandering, but he was more than happy to answer any questions they had.
However, just as the Oracle opened his mouth to answer, a strange feminine voice emanated from one of the strange men’s chest.”Whose GLORY?” Elijah was full of panic when he tried to grab at the psychotic little fairy as she managed to unzip his pocket and darted out towards Bennett.
“Are you talking about those idiot useless LOSER brothers Tylas and Darden!?” Yana yelled, hovering in front of Bennett’s face. “You know those… those FUCKING idiots decided to lie and claim MY achievements for their own!?” She continued with her hands on her hips.
Everyone had their eyes open in complete shock as Yana stuck her finger out and jammed it into Bennett’s cheek. “I was the one who trapped that Old One, I was the one to take its soul and it was ME who shared the knowledge with others!” Yana punctuated each point by jabbing her finger into Bennett's cheek. “And what did those stupid Aethari whelplings do!? Get slapped around like IDIOTS while swinging their stupid spears around like stupid FUCKS!!“ She spat out hatefully.
Her little chest rose and fell rapidly as she shot a heated glare at the Engineer, absolutely furious the words ‘Glory’ and ‘Tylas’ were uttered in the same sentence together. Meanwhile, everyone in the temple was deathly quiet as they all struggled to regain their composure, taken aback by her sudden outburst.
Elijah stood there with hung shoulders with his hand smothering his face while a crazy cocktail of emotions flowed through him, each of them negative. Azeline, on the other hand, was standing ramrod straight as her eyes were so wide open they looked as if they were bulging out. She was in a state of utter disbelief and fear at the turn of events, never in her life would she have thought she would be in this psychotic situation.
Her eyes slowly and hesitantly jerked over towards the Oracle and saw the man pointing at the Vanir with a flapping mouth and shaking limbs. “Y-Y-Yo-You!! YOU VILE THING! YOU BLASPHEMER! YOU HERETIC!” The old man screamed in a high pitched voice. “A mere PIXIE dare utter such! SUCH SACRILEGE!!” He frothed at the mouth.
“PIXIE!?” Yana shreeked as her face contorted in uncontrolled rage. “I am the great Yanaiyániuoa! You dare mistake the Goddess of magic and ALL Fae during the Autumn Solstice with a mere PIXIE!?!?” Turning her head to Elijah, she pointed at him “ELI! KILL HIM!!” She demanded.
The Oracle scoffed and opened his mouth to let out another round of insults when his face froze. He finally noticed the elemental breeze flowing from its head, the pulsating violet blur as its wings and the glow of its eyes… That was no pixie.
“By Tylas… you’re a… a…” The oracle stuttered in fear. “VANIR!!!” He screamed as loud as he could as he stumbled towards the group. “KNIGHTS! KNIGHTS HELP! GET THE DEACON! HELP ME!!!” He shouted as he ran towards the group and the grand doors.
Elijah’s eyes went wide as the yell echoed throughout the temple, he immediately looked behind him to see why such a frail man would advance towards them and saw the doors were still slightly open from when they first arrived. “FUCK!” He cursed as he and Bennett bolted forward to silence the elder man. Bennett grabbed his left arm and tried to shove it behind his back while Elijah started twisting the Oracles wrist and used his body weight to try to control him.
However, even though they both were much stronger than the old man, anyone with a lot of adrenaline coursing through them was a bitch to handle. “THERE’S A- OOF!” The old man was only able to struggle for a second before Elijah sent a vicious blow to his face stunning him. All three of them went stumbling to the ground as the Oracle’s legs gave out from underneath him causing everyone to scramble back on top of him. “A VA- ACK!” The oracle tried to finish what he was screaming about, but Elijah went around his neck locking him into a rear naked choke.
“BY THE GODS! OH HEAVENS!” Azeline yelled in complete distraught while clutching her head. Never in her life had she been so conflicted as to what to do as she watched all three of them roll around the ground while the oracle yelled in terror and flailed his arms. Should she help her companions? Should she help the oracle and pray the more than likely knights would be lenient with her? Or should she just simply flee? Suddenly the same Vanir that had caused the situation had zoomed past and placed her tiny hands on the Oracle head as he began to lose consciousness.
“H-Hold his head still!” She ordered, understanding the gravity of the situation. But just as she said that, the oracle’s arm flopped limply to the side as his eyes stared vacantly in the air. Yana then massed a large portion of her remaining power and concentrated in order to cast a powerful mind spell she had stolen from the Old Ones.
Elijah loosened his strangle hold in an effort to not kill the old man when a flash of violet nearly blinded him. “Argh!” He moaned as he and Bennett pushed themselves to their knees standing above the unconscious Oracle.
Suddenly the faint noise of an aggravated sigh came from the large Temple doors as they swung open. “Yes, Oracle? What do you want-” The knight's voice stopped as he saw the Deacon’s guests were hovering over the collapsed and limp body of the Oracle “Now…” Silence reigned as both parties stared at each other for a moment before the Oracle suddenly started violently spasming as if he was having a seizure.
“H-Hurry and get the deacon!” Elijah suddenly yelled, pointing at the door. “Quickly now! He collapsed!”
The Knight’s eyes went wide as he nervously took a step back “Y-yes! Yes sir! Right away!” He responded and started to run. Luckily, the knight didn’t even notice Yana’s tiny head sticking over Elijah’s shoulder as they stumbled out of the door in a dead sprint.
Not having the time to be satisfied with his quick thinking, Elijah quickly turned his attention back to the Oracle and watched as he convulsed and writhed violently. The rest of the group stood in confusion, unsure of what to do or how to help while they looked at each other nervously.
“Ah… ahahaha. Oops…” Yana laughed nervously. “I think I used too much mana.” She admitted, causing everyone’s heads to immediately turn towards her.
Each and every single one of them looked at her with disbelief as they struggled to grasp the insanity that had just unfolded. But before anyone could say anything, the Oracle suddenly tensed up with his back arched in an exaggerated way before falling limp back onto the ground. Again the group exchanged nervous and confused glances before Elijah cautiously reached out and checked the old man's pulse with his fingers.
…
“He’s uh… he’s dead.” The medic said flatly.
Bennett nervously ran his hand over the side of his head and pulled at his shaggy hair as he glanced nervously towards the door. "Umm… so...what do we do now?" Azeline asked, speaking up for the group as they all looked towards Elijah.
Elijah covered his mouth with his hands and kept for a while staring at the Oracle's body. The man finally let out a deep sigh as his hand dragged down his growing unkept beard before looking up at the ceiling, muttering a single word, "Why."
Taking a deep breath and standing up, shaking his head. "I guess we should just go with; he collapsed after we came to inspect the temple for contamination." Elijah shrugged, offering little reassurance to the others. “I dunno man, I got nothin’ else.”
Seeing their only source of bullshit completely stumped, silence once again filled the entire temple until it was broken by the sounds of distant yelling and clanks of metal feet just outside the temple. Realizing they had no more time to prepare, the group did what they could to muster their courage in order to keep a straight face.
Elijah knew he was going to have to be the one to do all the talking and bullshiting, so he took a deep breath and looked over to yana who was sitting on his shoulder. “Get in and keep quiet, I might be able to get us out of this.” He ordered and opened his pocket wide. “Can you do that thing again where you fry someone's brain?” He asked as the fairy floated down and pulled herself in.
Yana paused and put a finger to her head. “I can probably do it one more time, but then I’ve exhausted everything I have…” She admitted. “After the binding ritual, you two kind of took everything I have left.”
Bringing his fist to his mouth, the man thought for a second. If worst comes to worst, they’d be able to fry the Knight Captain and snag the Deacon as a hostage in order to make their escape.
“The moment I let you out, you beeline for the one in armor.” he said, looking down at the small being as she nodded her head.
With a plan of action and a contingency plan, Elijah turned around towards the grand double doors with a renewed sense of confidence. However, his confidence was short lived as he saw the individuals that came running in. A certain 6 foot, heavily armed and armored ‘Demigod’ came sauntering in with his magnificent blonde hair swaying with each step.
“Shit shit shit shit shit shit.” Elijah cursed under his breath.
It seemed if this went sour, they were really going to see if the man was a Demigod or not.
"Master Eli-jah!" Theodius called out, his eyes alight with excitement as he rushed over to the group. "Master Eli-jah, what's happened here?" He knelt down mid stride and slid next to the body, his gaze fixated on the fallen Oracle. "Pray tell, what might we be able to learn from this!?" The deacon asked eagerly, eagerly awaiting Elijah's insights.
Elijah took a step back, looking uncomfortable and bewildered, as Theodius rushed over to the group with excitement written all over his face. Salvanius and Rhea were right behind him, but Salvanius let out a sigh of frustration after he watched Theodius' reaction. “Brother, now is not the time for your strange obsessions!” He snapped.
Seeing her lieges reaction Rhea quickly kneeled down and placed a hand on Theodius' shoulder and tried to calm him down. "Deacon, we need to focus on what's important here. Let's see if we can help the Oracle." she said in a soothing voice.
Turning his head back at Rhea with a Dejected look, Theodius let out a sigh and moved his hand to the Oracle's face. “Hmm…” He murmured while opening the old man’s mouth and yanking on his tongue.
Not understanding what the Deacon was doing, Elijah’s disturbed and confused look deepened as he watched the oracles head jerk forward with a particularly hard pull before his head slammed back down onto the floor. “What the… Th-Theo- I mean your Holiness, he’s already dead.” The medic stuttered.
Theodius' excitement spiked again as his head swiftly snapped towards Elijah with Eyes ablaze. “He’s dead? How do you know? What tests have you developed to check for true death?.” The man shotgunned questions causing the subject of his interest to slowly recoil away further. “How do you make a diagnosis! YOU MUST TELL ME!”
Salvanius clicked his tongue, “BROTHER, PLEASE! FOCUS!” He shouted in frustration.
Looking between her Liege and the Deacon anxiously, Rhea quickly knelt down and put her hands around his shoulders. “Y-your holiness, please. We can indulge your curiosity after we finish.” She said, helping the man stand to his feet. “I shall even see to it that your every question be answered.” She said, shooting Elijah a look.
Theodius nodded, looking momentarily remorseful. "Of course, I apologize. I simply got carried away," he said, composing himself. "It’s not often I’m in the presence of a man more learned than myself. Regardless, let's focus on finding out what caused the Oracle's collapse."
Nodding in satisfaction, Salvanius felt his frustration dissipate. "Good good. I apologize for raising my voice brother." he said before glancing at Elijah. “Now, you said the Oracle had already passed?”
Taken aback by the strange scene in front, Elijah simply nodded and explained his findings. "Yes, we can confirm death if the heart is no longer beating," he said. He was about to elaborate on the idea of brain death and the time frame that typically occurs after the heart stops beating, but he decided against it. The Oracle simply knew too much to be worth raising any suspicion that there was a chance of resuscitation.
Rhea furrowed her brows. "That makes sense… The heart IS the most important part of the body.” She spoke to herself with her arms folded. “But did he collapse?" The Knight Captain asked, looking up at Elijah. “He was rather old and somewhat sickly, but he seemed fine earlier in the day when I last saw him.” Salvanius chimed in, his tone laced with suspicion, "Yes, I agree, For him to just collapse and die like that seems rather peculiar…” He said, rubbing his smooth chin. “. What business did you have with Oracle in the first place?" Salvanius asked, looking at Elijah inquisitively.
Bennett and Azeline shifted nervously in the background as they eyed the two large doors, plotting their escape plan in case they had to flee. Elijah quickly inhaled a deep breath, knowing full well they were in a dangerous position and their lives hung in the balance of how well he could bullshit. "Well, we were only here to ask him a few questions, but he ended up having an impassioned sermon about the virtues of Tylas after he learned we were foreigners." Elijah explained while shrugging. “I’m not quite sure why he collapsed, but he seemed quite sluggish and unsteady when we first came in.” He tried to make it sound like he wasn’t quite sure why the Oracle collapsed.
Rhea removing her helmet, Rhea revealed her striking features and long black hair tied in a bun as she stared at Elijah with a stern expression. "You're telling me that's all that happened? You merely asked the Oracle a few questions?” She asked with a piercing gaze. “Your task was to uncover the source of the Miasma, not take a tour of the temple. What type of questions could you have possibly had for the Oracle?" Rhea continued with a skeptical tone, clearly not content with Elijah's answer. "It's concerning that a healthy man suddenly died right after you spoke with him. Why would a foreign visitor take an interest in our patron Lord?”
Seeing Salvanius’ eyes start to narrow as his hand rested on the pommel of his sword, Elijah felt the conversation had started to turn for the worst. It was obvious these people weren’t stupid since they were a part of literally this world's version of the inquisition and had potentially years of hunting down heretics or whatever. But it also wasn’t like he had much to work with in the first place.
“Look, we weren’t here for pleasure, but every source of water in the town is clean and this place was the logical conclusion for possible contamination.” Elijah defended himself and rested his hand on his chest, right next to the zipper. “This place has a water source, so we came to check it out.”
Salvanius' expression hardened as he listened to Elijah's explanation. "You… You dare!?” He barked out. “Barge into these sacred grounds and utter such… such HERETICAL accusations!?”
Just before Rhea opened her mouth to voice her agreement, she paused and furrowed her brow as her eyes glanced over at the body on the ground.
Ignoring Rhea’s reaction completely, Salvanius gripped his sword tightly and stepped forward with fury on his face. "The Oracle was nothing but a SAINT to me and my Knights! And you dare accuse him and these hallowed halls of containing corruption!?" The Demigod’s voice became dangerous, sending a chill down Elijah's spine.
Rhea’s eyes shot up to Elijah while he slowly retreated from the bellowing Demigod with a difficult look on her face. She didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t help but remember how adamant the Oracle was for her and the rest of her knights to pause and take part in a divine ritual where they consumed this temple's holy water. Rhea of course refused the lowly Oracle's attempts at Ingratiating himself tremendously above his station, but there were still a few of her men and women that took him up on his offer.
And every single one of them lay sick with the miasmatic plague in the makeshift hospital…
Glaring at Elijah intensely, Salvanius' face soured further when he finally noticed the odd mana that was lingering in the air. “I’d also like an explanation as to why I sense traces of magic only used by the most powerful Mages in the air.” The scowl on the Demigod’s face deepened as he slowly drew his sword.
Seeing the situation rapidly deteriorate, Theodius stood there flabbergasted, unsure what to do.
On one hand he wanted nothing more to cast Elijah a life line, so sure the man had no involvement with whatever befell this old man. However, never in his life could he go against his brother, especially when it came to his sacred duty of stamping out corruption and protecting Tylas’ faithful.
Elijah's right hand gradually moved towards the back of his waist, while his left hand firmly clasped the zipper that housed Yana. It appeared that they were going to test if a 'Demigod' could die just like everyone else. However, he still had the added benefit of plausible deniability and he could still make one last effort at deflecting blame. “Your uh, holiness. I can easily prove my innocence.” He said with confidence.
The look of interest flashed across Salvanius' face as he narrowed his eyes at Elijah. “Make your case mortal, or I shall have you burned at the stake.” He said with venom in his voice.
“It’s simple, all you have to do is ask those who are sick if they drank from this pool or not.” Elijah said absolute confidence. “And ask those who are still healthy, if they did not.” He finished, returning Salvanius glare with conviction.
Doubt momentarily clouded Salvanius' vision as he looked down in thought, but he looked up in rage. “LIAR-”
“My lord!” Rhea spoke up, cutting the Demigod off, causing him to snap his head towards her. With that statement from Elijah, Rhea had made her decision and looked Salvanius dead in the eyes.
“My lord, I believe there's… there’s a great deal of merit in his words.”

[First] [Previous] [Next]

Be me
School slut
Just doing my duty of fucking all the lonely guys so they don’t become school shooters
Therapist says I’m full of shit, but fuck him
Wait, I already did
Anyways a few guys approach me and ask me to fuck their friend for his 17th birthday
Offer me $500 dollars
Wait, I could’ve gotten paid for this?!
The day arrives and I meet up with the friends of guy
On the drive to his house I suck them all off as a warm up
Make it to his house
A stench hits me but before I can ask, they push me towards the basement and lock the door behind me
The smell grows more intense with each step and is making me light headed, I dig my nails into the paint peeled walls to keep myself from stumbling down the wooden stairs
It’s not enough and I trip, thankfully though on the last step, and it’s my hands and knees that meet the cold concrete
I hear the squeaking groan of an office chair as I turn towards the sound
That’s when I see him-no, it
A practically naked blob of flesh, garbed in only what looks like tightly whities just barely peeking out from a massive fold of belly fat, turns to meet me
He takes in a deep breath as he hoists himself up from the chair and begins to waddle towards me
I look away, only for my gaze to be met by jugs of yellow fluid, numerous crusty socks, and MLP plushies
I look back at him just in time to see him remove his underwear
Shit stretches from his asshole to his underwear like an elastic band before snapping into the brown and yellow stains that make up his underwear
I’m hit with a miasma of death and disease from between his legs
I can’t even see his dick, but little bits of smegma flakes are visible, falling like autumn leaves from beneath his folds
I begin to cry as he pulls me up and wraps his arms around me
He’s so fucking sticky
“YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS!”
I think he intended to whisper that, but I’m too distracted by his rancid breath
As I squirm to get away from his, my lips hit his cheek
I think I’m about to vomit
He lets me go and I bolt up the stairs
Thankfully the door is now unlocked
I run past his friends and fucking sprint all the way home
It was 10 miles away
I become a nun

It was a cold winter's night in Freeport. My husband and I were seated watching TV, he in his chair and I on the couch. Across the room (the length of our single-story ranch house), there is a lone window looking directly into the living room from the yard. I noticed the figure approaching slowly before subsequently ducking down so that only his eyes were visible. He knelt down and began to watch us. And watch and watch and watch. The room was mostly dark, and the pale moonlight blanched him dimly - either his eyes were enormous, or they were sunken into deep, hollow sockets. He looked like a lunatic. A chill crawled up and down my flesh.
My heart began to race, and my blood pressure had catapulted so quickly that my head began to throb and pound, and, despite the internal hurricane taking place, I at first pretended not to notice. I kept my eyes fixed on my husband, chatting and laughing as if nothing horrifying was taking place. I kept the intruder in birds eye view for several minutes, hoping he'd just up and leave, taking no interest in our ordinary, sedate state of affairs. Let me also mention that it was six degrees outside.
I continued on with just the same frame of attitude as the time I was robbed at gunpoint years before. I learned that I have a unique ability to remain externally calm despite the fire in my veins and the quaking of my being. Outside, I'm ice, but inside, I'm a tree shaken of all its leaves. Verily, after about ten minutes (I swear that every time I looked at the blank face and noticed it was still there, peeping in a polar vortex, I nearly screamed) I made a decision. Inside, I was absolutely breaking. Each moment that I turned to the TV and then shifted back, my heart skipped several beats.
Finally, with my face turned away, I said to my husband through my teeth, "honey, do NOT look and do NOT react, but there is a man looking at us through the window right now. Don't look!". Despite my urging, his impulse got the better of him. The moment he rose from the chair and turned, the peeper had leaped from view. I told him we needed to call 911. However, before I could even turn on my screen, the knob to the front door began to tremble and shake convulsively.
My husband commanded me to run to our room, a command which he followed as well, which, in such a tumultuous moment, was our only defense - because by then, the intruder was throwing himself against the front door. The jamb and hinged were audibly cracking, all of the items on the glass living room refectory table had begun to tremble and clatter, and the walls all reverberated thunderously.
With all of my strength (my husband had fused disks in his back, so he was totally incapable of assisting), I grasped the bureau by the legs and with all my puny might dragged the son of a bitch across the floor and finally, in one final throe of desperation, pushed it against the door. In the midst of this midnight whirlwind, the front door had been kicked opened and the footsteps, incredibly heavy ones, had tramped down the hallway as if his legs were leaden with 200 pound blocks of ice, though it hadnt sunk in until I, fresh out of breath and flushed in icy hot sweat, had tumbled backwards onto the bed.
"I have a gun!", my husband shouted repeatedly as the intruder began throwing his weight against the door. Assuming he might also be armed, we slunk to the far side of the bed and ducked down. I phoned 911, and they assured me the police were currently in pursuit. It's an incredibly small, derelict steel town in Western Pennsylvania, hollowed out by the terminus of the steel boom. The police arrived imminently, but in between the call, the threats, and the arrival of PD, I noticed something strange. Something that truly chilled me to the bone.
At some point, the intruder halted, and in a shrill, gravelly tone that sounded devilishly feminine, shouted a few simple words, which had been repeated several times - "this isn't yyyyyourrrrr house! This is NOT YOURRRR HOUSE!". He pounded furiously on the door as he shouted (if you could even call it 'shouting') these words with an almost compendious conviction. My husband, who at the time had been battling bronchitis, was gasping for elusive gulps of air with such severity, I was afraid he might faint or, worse, succumb to asphyxiation.
In a flash, the police had arrived. The thousand pound footsteps retreated, but not before a throng of screams rang out from the front doorway. Shots were fired, and voices had gone frenetic. I removed the dresser and ran out. An officer was splayed out on his back half in and half out of the house and was screaming, screaming with every fiber of his soul. All I could see was blood everywhere. Smeared on the walls, even.
"Don't come out here!", shouted an officer as he called for a medic. But the image was burned in. The first-responding officer had been slashed from temple to chin, left to right, and was screaming and rolling chaotically, as if he was being immolated and had desperately taken to putting himself out. That haunting vision has only grown stronger and with greater clarity since. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see the flashing terror in his eyes and the gaping of his mouth as he cried out, "I'm blind! Gary, I'm fucking blind! I'll never see her again! Diane! Diane!"
We watched out the window of the bedroom as flashlights played upon the black, frozen woods like strobes. Seeing them spread so broadly only made my heart sink, and soon after, an officer came calling.
"Do you have a friend or relative you could stay with tonight?".
This being a most disheartening sign, we went and stayed with our son and daughter - in - law for two nights until we could fortify the house with new doors, triple paned windows and a full alarm system. For weeks, months, even, we walked around on our toes while continuously throwing glances over our shoulders everywhere we went, but what was most disconcerting was that we felt more vulnerable locked behind closed doors.
To this day, the intruder hasn't been found. I looked into previous owners of our house. We had been living there 18 years by then, and the scent on the trail of discovery was nonexistent. I still don't know what about our house "isn't" ours, and I'm not sure I want to know. This occurred in 2020, just as COVID had begun to scorch the earth. One thing I know intuitively, however, is that no matter how much time passes, unless I grow a third eye on the back of my head, I will never be comfortable again.

Despite the early afternoon hours, the jovial Iron Tankard tavern was packed full with noisy patrons. Mostly regulars, craftsmen, artificers, merchants, off-duty guards, though an occasional mercenary misfit could also be spotted, scurrying around the bounty board or chatting down the innkeeper for job suggestions. The walled town of Ashenfort was relatively small, it being a passing, yet reputable, trade-post along the main road that connected the capital city and the coast-line settlements. Travelers came and went by the hour, never staying for long, turning over goods and coin, but also services. If one was in search for an uncanny set of hands to help along a most arduous task, then this was certainly the place to look.
The joyous, drunken and merry chattering continued through the crowded chamber, with the tavern workers doing their utmost to squeeze past the countless customers and bring the desired orders to their tables. Everyone seemed so keenly busy, to the point nobody noticed the unseemly figure push their way through the front door.
Taking but a single step further, Sir Andrew of the noble house Medellin, had to visually keep himself from recoiling. Unused to the tavern stench, the fickle smell of alcohol, combined with sweat, grease and perhaps even vomit, assaulted his noble nostrils and almost triggered a gag reflex "By the king.." He grumbled under his breath, fixing that ragged traveling-cloak that flapped over his chest and hiding the armored plate underneath. His deep-sea eyes peered across the board, eyeing for someone it seemed, before his gloved hand rose to his lips, covering them as he adamantly cleared his throat. Ignored. Taking a deep breath, the knight stepped forward, brushing his wave-like, sand-blonde hair behind his ear before trying again "Excuse me, gentlemen-"
Dismissed, again, with only a few pitiful glances being thrown his way, more out of irritation for being too close to the table than anything else. The young knight huffed in annoyance, briefly closing his eyes, before opening them as his stern, dramatic voice cried out
"Hear me, men and women of Valeron! I am Sir Andrew Medellin, sword-paladin to the arch-duke of the western-fold, banner-man to his holy grace- Augustus Percivalus Drakefort the third. I was quested by our noble king with slaying the terrible dragon that's been ravaging our western borders, laying waste to our precious serfdom and leaving nothing but scorched earth behind. Though I accepted the task honorably and in good faith, my sword yearning to pierce the foul dragon's wicked heart, I will admit that I find myself outmatched. The dragon's vision is far and great, its breath a flaming sundering.. I have no hope of meeting it face to face in the open. For this, I require to enter the lair of the beast and catch it off-guard.. I require assistance, from one of you, noble characters, someone versed in the art of.. Stealth and deceit, whom could perhaps assist in shrouding my noble approach into the jaws of evil?"
Silence, attention, all eyes on him. The tavern had its breath taken away by the man's speech, but just as a smile of triumph crept onto his tender lips, Andrew was bombarded by a chortling choir of laughter. Amused, some within the crowd nearly choked on their drinks, while Andrew's grumbling expression faded in excitement. After another moment of silence on his side, he added, though with far less enthusiasm in his sighing voice, enough only for a select few to hear- Or rather, anyone that paid attention still.
"I am also willing to compensate you for your troubles.. 2000 coins up front, plus another 8000 when the quest is done. Additionally, the king has given me leave me with issuing amnesty to any.. Unsavory characters that had a run in with our law in the past, pardoning all of their heinous crimes in return for assisting me."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simple and, relatively short, premise to a medieval-fantasy prompt that revolves around a pair of unlikely allies teaming up to stop a much bigger, looming threat! If you have any ideas/suggestions or thoughts of your own that you'd like us cleared in advance, feel free to let me know. World-wise this is more or less a blank slate, so in regards to races, magic, politics, geography etc. we'll be able to include a variety.
For this story I'd really like to explore the relationship between a noble, religiously truthful, honorably overzealous, naive knight and a deceitful, witty and playful sort of rogue-like character contrast. My own pitch idea would be an assassin character, perhaps someone who already had a close-encounter with the lord of Medellin in the past, a fact that will be brought up and/or revealed at a crucial moment to intensify their situation or perhaps even strengthen their bond? I have a soft-spot for enemies-turned-friends-turned-lovers sort of dynamics, so this is what I was trying to go for with- Judge me all you want~
I'd preferably not know much about your character in advance, wanting to explore their pasts and stories through the RP, but if you feel it crucial and/or want to take your character in a completely different direction- Do let me know.
I normally write 2-3 paragraphs of detail, with the range mostly varying from how fast the scene is progressing. I prefer quality over quantity and will never nag you if you require more time to reply. I will, however, be nit-picky if you respond to a full-fledged, action-packed, word-exploding essay with a meager 3 line reply -.-
I mostly prefer writing on Discord and Reddit PM's (easiest for me to manage and read), and use chat only to make contact so we can exchange ID's
I am alright with including NSFW themes in regards to story progression and character development, but they are *completely* optional and in no way necessary. Feel free to let me know in advance, otherwise I will assume they are to be omitted.
Hope to hear from you wonderful writers soon!~

Link to original story
https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/10meqmh/the_big_rock_candy_mountain_part_1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
The floor of the cell is covered in decades of mildew and dust. This disgusting carpet does nothing to dull the pain as I skip across it, thrown in by someone with the intention of making a point.
My Name’s Mike, and if any of you are the types to go on a deep dive, you probably know A little about me already.
For those of you that don’t, Jesus I don’t know exactly where to begin.
The Cliff’s notes would be that I spent a little over a decade either being a serial killer or a vigilante. I won’t try to justify my actions, both of those are just sides of the same shitty coin. I’m not a person to be idolized or emulated, so I choose not to plead my case.
Now, while I thought that was just about as screwed up as life could get, one day, out of the blue, after burying my best, fuck, my only friend I found myself, somewhere else. A world that looked and felt like mine, but one where the things that go bump in the night actually existed.
Where I came from, I’d seen monsters, to be sure, but only the kind that happen when people break.
Since I’ve been here? Got caught up in some demented gameshow for demons or something, threw a massive shit in the punch bowl of the thing running the production, and got the world’s unluckiest man his freedom.
And that leads me to my current situation, staring down the rage filled, mildly bruised face of that asshole, that fucking, demonic Ted Turner, Art.
He runs a hand aggressively through his slicked back hair, standing at the door to my cell.
“Looks like your little plan didn’t work, exactly as I predicted, you fuck.
I mean, great try with the little cat thing you had, honestly didn’t see that coming. But, Jesus, Mike, what was your end game? “ Art gloats.
“Cards on the table? It was a lot better, but shit fell through, that whiskey abomination, it was the one that ratted me out I assume?
That being said, still got Kev out. And you can’t really ‘flip off his lightswitch’ if he didn’t let you screw around with his wiring, can you? “ I grin, I keep it, even as a Gucci shoe slams into my face.
Am I scared? Of God damn course I am, I’ve been pissing myself (metaphorically speaking.) since I realised that the rules of reality don’t really apply any more.
Every new grain of sand on the beach of hell my life has become, tosses me further down the road of mental failure. Shit, that’s half of what fucked up my last plan in the first place.
If I could have just kept my shit together long enough, I’d be sipping a beer with Kev in some shit hole town somewhere. But the only thing harder than trying to stamp down fear in the face of God’s and monsters, is trying to do it while projecting some kind of ‘death fears me ‘ persona.
Between you and I? Death doesn’t fear me, in fact, it seems to love to hang around. And every day I have to stare down that grim spectre, the closer I get to losing the tenuous grip on reality I have .
“Oh, fuck Kev. He’s smart enough to stay off my radar, and too stupid to figure out a way to come back at me.
He's got a 1 bedroom in Idaho or something? Salud, good on him.
You, I had high hopes for, and then you decide to wipe your ass all over my carpet, cost me more than I could even explain, and even, get me a little roughed up. My favorite shell, anyway.
I want to recoup some loses Mike. So, you, get to be a part of another one of my projects.
You thought The Path was bad? Oh, you literal, fucking clown, you haven’t seen anything.
I won’t spoil it for you, the devil’s in the details and all, but you know what everyone loves?
Prison.
Not being in it themselves, of course, but seeing others, especially those they hate in there.
This place isn’t fair, the path was a boxing match with Queensbury rules, this is a handcuffed knife fight.
And I can’t wait to see you figure out, all the little surprises it has in store for you. “ Art laughs and tosses me a battered, ancient looking smartphone, “ Feel free to drum me up some good press online if you want. “
My heart is pounding, I have to use every bit of will I have to stop from shaking, to roll my neck and sit against the cold, padless cement bed behind me.
I feel sick, my stomach boiling and gurgling.
“For the love of whatever the demonic equivalent of Christ is, why not just kill me? I’m right here, I have no way of fighting back, and you know damn well that if you give me enough time, I’m going to find a way to wipe my ass on your doorframe next. “ My tone is flippant, or at least, I hope it is.
“The ego on you kid, you think you’re that guy don’t you?
They exist, don’t get me wrong, probably a couple thousand folks capable of taking me out, but trust me, you are not one of them.
This isn’t some ‘Arch’ idiocy where I leave my greatest rival alive. This is me watching you squirm because I can, and making a little profit on the deal.
Don’t flatter yourself. “ Art has produced a long thin knife as he talks, he spins and rolls it absently.
“Before your guys dragged me off, I met something. A corner store, I don’t know if it was haunted, possessed, or if it was some kind of creature that just decided to look like a knock off 7-11.
Point being, it was out there, ethereal, I couldn’t hurt it, outwit it, even slow it down. I ran from that thing as fast as I could. It gave me some serious Lovecraft vibes.
You, Art, are not that guy. “ I notice myself tapping my finger nervously on the slime covered floor, I focus, stopping the tic.
The tip of Art’s knife glows, the sick, grey sheen isn’t heat, but something that makes me start to back up.
“I am, but you will never see that. You’re not worth the effort.
I want to give you a little something though. “ Art stalks toward me, I stand as I back into the farthest corner of the cell, “ Proud of your face paint were you? “
Art grins, and for a moment lets some of his true self slip through. For just a moment I see timeless horror in his eyes, a dark black void of consumed souls and unrestrained evil.
That knife parts my flesh with pain like a whip. Without even using the blade, it’s presence flenses my face, opening up raw, textured furrows in my flesh.
He leaves after he is done, laughing to himself.
The pain makes me black out, my stomach is boiling, I come to dry heaving, the effort sends me back into the oblivion of sleep.
I don’t know how long has passed, my face feels like it is on fire, and the thick steel bars of my cell door are closed.
It takes me two minutes of cupping my hands under the grime laden steel tap to get enough water to clear off a spot on the rusted, old, wall mounted steel mirror.
No mortal hand could have scarred me as accurately as Art did. The wounds, not healed, but cauterised as to not make me bleed out, used depth, and width, to create a colorless replica of my makeup.
I know trauma, physical as well as mental, and these are scars that will never heal. As the fact sinks in that my face is literally no longer my own, I scream, heart pounding, I split open my knees on the cold cement floor.
Pain flares, threatens to send me back to the bliss of unconsciousness, but I don’t care.
I read Kev’s journals, and they paint me in a really… positive light, in a sense.
What I mean is, going by what he thought he saw, I’m some kind of supervillian or something. Tossing three hundred pound air conditioners ( it was the outer shell, seventy pounds, physics and luck did the rest.), wrestling Art ( I was clinging on for dear life, had it not been for Jr and the mass of denizens, I’d have been killed with a flick of his wrist.), or appearing like a ghost (people, even immortal are very unobservant. Especially in an emergency.).
I’m great at seeming horrifying, and that’s a weapon in and of itself, but at the end of the day, that’s all it is.
Kneeling in my own blood, vision blurry with pain, I realise how small, vulnerable, and unarmed I truly am.
By the time daylight shines through the yellow reinforced glass window, I’m already awake. I’ve spent an hour and a half calming myself, trying to find some focus, some centre to keep me going.
I’ve been in prison before, back home, first and last time I tried plying my trade outside of America.
Being the stupid payaso gringo that I am I bit off so much more than I can chew that I wound up choking on it for 2 months in a Mexican prison.
The routine of, count, lineup, chow, remained the same.
The demographics of the population on the other hand…
Being observant is one of my main skills and as I was brought into the absurdly sized cafeteria, I was taken aback at just how many people were here.
Tens of Thousands, easily, maybe a hundred. I try and think of how many missing person cases this accounts for, and even that math doesn’t quite add up.
I quickly inventory the groups that make up the place, not that it wasn’t obvious.
The first, of course are the guards. Some, the majority, appear to be human, well geared up and in intimidating physical condition.
But a handful, they are clearly, something else. Some are smooth featured ebony skinned giants, carrying truncheons that could crush a car engine. Others are grinning, pale skinned bad attempts at human copies, wild eyed and twitching.
Second would be what I called the cultists. They all appeared to style themselves after certain tropes and urban legends, clearly human, but dressing, tattooing and mutilating themselves to appear like, myths, legends, and monsters.
The subtle violence I see tells me I’ve found the gangs.
Third are the Everymen, I can’t see any kind of pattern to them, but they seem to make up the majority of the population. They keep their distance from the guards and the cultists, but on more than one occasion I see then stand, united against attempts at extortion.
The last group, I call the candles, people that are clearly on their way out mentally and physically. Sunken eyed, and set upon from all angles, at any moment these folks could be simply snuffed out.
I keep my distance, and stay respectful, the meandering, twisting line seems to take hours to get me my thick slice of crumbling yellow bread, and thick red slurry that reminds me of porridge masquerading as meat.
My coat is gone but I’m left with the majority of the clothing I fashioned back in the path. I see a mix of unwashed orange uniforms and ‘civilian’ clothing, some of the cultists, bordering more on costume than wardrobe.
As the massive, butchers apron wearing man in smeared clown makeup sits down, I wish I’d have been issued something more generic. I saw this coming the second I noticed a lump of Chlorophiles in blood stained getups.
“You sit with us. “ I can’t tell if it’s an accent or speech pattern, the clown sounds strange, either way.
I eat a spoonful of the red sludge.
“No disrespect intended, I’m not one for clubs. I’m going to make no waves, no plays, nothing. I’m a ghost. “ I say, levelly, avoiding eye contact.
Why, you might ask, having been told about my adventures in murder.
Well, that’s just it. Murder is easy, and any time you saw me end a life, it was just that.
A fight, that’s another thing entirely, especially against someone with a significant weight and height advantage.
“Not asking. You got friends. “ The massive clown moves his bulk closer, it’s like sitting next to a forklift.
I eat the bread, it tastes amazing until I swallow, then has a foul, chemical aftertaste.
I drink some tepid, burgundy fluid that might be caffeinated.
No weapons nearby, no one watching that might step in. I’m full of bruises and sprains, and probably anemic from blood loss. Not to mention one eye is running at about fifty per cent. Art didn’t sever the optic nerve last time, but he wasn’t gentle. My heart races.
“I don’t play well with people who take clowning and slap a coat of dark paint on it.
You guys are Clown Killers. You are good at killing, I’m sure, but the clown part, it’s tacked on.
Myself, I’m a killer clown…. “ I had a really good rant planned, honestly, it was a corker, douche bags would have used it in memes for a decade.
But before I can react, with one massive hand, he bounces my face off of the pitted steel table.
It rings my bell, but not as much as I let on. In clowning terms, what I do Is called a pratfall.
For those of you that don’t speak nerd, I oversell the hit, falling backwards, eyes fluttering.
I tip backwards, reaching out my left arm, as if to steady myself. The meat mountain is unbothered, knowing I have no chance unarmed, in this close, he let’s me grab one shoulder of the butchers apron. The material is thick, and matted in stains that will never come out, literally or metaphorically.
If you want to take someone out, in a relatively harmless way, you don’t want to choke them. It takes forever, usually ends up killing them, and generally is a bad idea for everyone involved.
Your goal is go cut off blood flow to the brain as quickly and fully as possible.
I hook my thumb around the opposite shoulder strap, and snap my body backward, the apron acting as an impromptu Garrotte.
His right arm is knotted through my left, as he tries to struggle, to put his murderous intent and ability to work, the choke only becomes tighter.
I don’t want enemies here, and I only have so many tricks to play before things come to a knock down drag out fight, so I leave the clown unharmed.
I do need friends, but the look I get as I take a seat at a loose collection of men is cold and fearful.
A red haired guy, five foot nine or so, makes eye contact, “Anything we can help you with? “ he says, fearless.
“Yeah, despite the face work I’ve had done, I have fuck all in common with any of those penny wise, Icp, Gacy dressed, assholes.
I need a tribe guys, you all look like the unlucky ones around here, but I don’t want to get involved in bloodshed.
I’m Mike “ I know, that’s only mostly true, but I mean it, either way. I extend a hand.
“Chris. “ the red haired guy says, he wears a white dress shirt and surprisingly blue jeans, “Those stains around your cuffs tell me otherwise.
If you’re telling the truth, that’s great. If you are lying, and still sane enough to keep your word, that’s even better. “ Chris’s tone is mirthless, I read him easily. He’s been here a long time for a short life, he looks thirty max, and I shudder to think how young he may have been when he came in.
Chris catches me up on the ins and outs of this place, beyond what a general knowledge of prison would give.
Everyone here has crimes they were not convicted of, that would, otherwise put them in jail for life. A large amount, obviously are murderers, torturers, real bastards.
But a significant minority are just regular folks, maybe a bit thoughtless, but that have collected a litany of small, petty, in cases almost victim less crimes.
No one seems to be aware of the… reality t.v. Meets demonic fast food aspect of things, but there is a Doom cherry on this fear Sunday.
There is a single way someone can get out. To earn 20 tokens.
And how does one earn these tokens you ask?
Each day the prison holds an event, to call it a challenge would insinuate a level of fair play that is simply not there. The events range from somewhat fair, a fight or game of chance, to esoteric rituals complex enough to rip someone’s soul from their body.
These tokens are also the sole form of currency in the prison, they can buy everything from commissary snacks to literal free passes from guards.
The economy has created a cut throat society, the heads of the cults not even taking advantage of being able to be free, but simply reveling in the power of being psychotic and enabled.
The weak are enslaved, their lives traded on the off chance at tokens.
So, of course, braindead asshole that I am, I signed myself right up. Feeling a little more confidant after climbing Mount Bozo.
It's 8pm and the volunteers are rounded up and brought to a massive room that has all the trappings of a gymnasium, but the scale is large enough easily hold the focus of tonight’s events.
In tiered bleachers all around us, our fellow prisoners cheer and scream. The smell of thousands of unwashed, men is overpowering, the din of excitement is deafening.
But my attention is focussed on the small, single floor home, sitting out of place in the middle of the polished wood floor.
What I wouldn’t give for Demi to appear right now, give me the low down on all the supernatural bullshit that is heading my way. But the longer we stayed in the mountain the less and less the most useful voice in my head could, or would, make an appearance.
I study each of my fellow volunteers, the goal seems simple, last the longest in the home. Men enter and leave within minutes. They come out looking shaken, with minor lacerations, and a general sense of shell shock.
By the time my turn arrives, I think I know what I’m in for.
I’m wrong.
As the baby blue door closes behind me, nothing immediately in the home causes me concern. The fixtures and furniture is a bit out of date, the lighting is, not inviting, and there is a general fog of gloom hanging around.
I smile, I’ve felt this before. Granted I had Demi feeding me supernatural errata at the time, but, I’m positive I can wing it.
“So, I think I may have met one of you guys before. Back in New York, a Happy-Face corner store, anyone you know?
Scary dude, took a couple of pieces out of me.
But this, it’s more like an MMA fight, right? I tap out when you start kicking my ass? “ I stretch, trying to see if I’m getting any kind of reaction.
I inventory the objects around me, last time everything that wasn’t nailed down, shifted, changed and tried to take me apart.
You may have noticed by now, I love using the phrase ‘ last time’, and that’s because up until this moment, I haven’t learned a fucking thing here.
Mike’s first rule of paranormal survival, last time means nothing.
“It’s you” the voice is young, late teens, and male.
I spin, expecting violence, then, wishing violence.
I know the young man, not this pale, older, revenant with a self inflicted gunshot wound, but I know him none the less.
I’m not being metaphorical when I say my heart misses a beat, I almost fall over, pounding at my chest to stop it’s arythmatic pounding.
I knew what happened to him, found it out long after I could do anything about it. And wasn’t in the best of places when I did.
I’ll call him a ghost for simplicity sake, but this kid, he’s my first, and biggest mistake.
I based who I turned into on finding what I thought was one of the worst people on earth. This kid’s father.
I did things to him worthy of what I knew he did. And to top it all off, I had him die by his wife’s hand.
Well, a decade later I find out, the guy wasn’t a Saint, but he didn’t do anything worthy of the twisted shit I put him through.
I got wind of some false information put out there in a moment of rage by a tech savvy ten year old. The kid never intended it to see the light of day
“I found out about you Mike, I saw that you were a hero. “ The voice is thin echoes like a stuck record.
“No kid, don’t think that. “ I mumble, I’m shaking, the air is freezing, each breath comes out as white mist.
I’m sitting on the flower printed couch now, and it hits me.
I’d assumed because Art couldn’t screw around in my head last time, the same went for everything here.
Remember what we said about last time.
“My told me what happened one night, what I made you do.
I destroyed her memory of him, I made a real Hero kill him, I couldn’t keep hurting people. “ I can see images, flashing in my mind, memories that are not mine.
I’m counting seconds, trying to focus, trying to stay long enough to get the token. It has to have been fifteen, twenty minutes at least.
I try to work up a smirk, to convince myself that I’m just being played by the paranormal equivalent of a heckler.
That’s not it though, This place, this house, is reaching inside me and finding places to look. As I stare into the young man’s rotted eyes I know this is some part of him, torn away from whatever rest he was entitled to.
The lights dim, then turn off. The house is silent.
Hollywood gets being both a lunatic and a hitman wrong in equal measure. No matter how much morality you want to inject into the profession, there are going to come times when you make mistakes.
As the lights slowly turn to a dull orange glow, I’m surrounded by the hovering, mutilated forms of mine.
Those that died that could have been spared, those that died because of my inaction, or stupidity. I’ve never forgotten them, I use them to make sure I never make the same mistakes again, but having them looming, screaming, all demanding I hear their stories, their accusations, their placations.
It's too much, I stumble from the couch, trying to avoid the icy touch of these phantoms. For a moment I find some last scrap of courage, I close my eyes, shut out the shrieking din of the dead.
The silence hits like a truck, I focus, trying to calm my burned out nerves.
Then they are reignited like a fucking welding torch.
“This place didn’t bring us here.
We’ve been right next to you for years Mike. We can’t leave. “ The voice of my first mistake.
Like a toddler I try to run with my eyes closed, I trip over a glass coffee table, clawing my way up the door, grasping at the handle.
I can feel a slight pull now, almost magnetic, trying to drag me backwards.
My hands shake too much, I have to steady my right wrist with my left hand, the floor becomes slick, I see the door, escape start to move further away as I’m pulled backward.
I've taken a hit or two, and had a couple of three day benders that have made me piss myself. But as I stumble, trying to make progress on the nearly friction less floor, I have another unpleasant first experience.
I grab the handle, pulling myself out of the house, launching my body into a skin peeling tumble across unforgiving plank flooring.
I’m a shaking, fetal wreck, by the time I’ve pulled myself together enough to take in my surroundings, I see the red Led clock displaying my time.
42 seconds. Bottom of the barrel. The jeers and booing from the crowd do nothing for my frayed nerves or the storm of fear and anxiety going through my mind.
I’m exhausted, but I can’t sleep, it has nothing to do with the concrete slab that serves as my bed.
My stomach has been knotting and cramping, with each passing second I get more worried I blew some internal gasket in one of the many life or death struggles in the past months.
When I finally manage to vomit, the urge is strong enough I get no where near the filth crusted hole in the floor that serves as my toilet. And my worst fears are confirmed as I see the massive pile of vomit is mostly blood.
… and bones? Is that an eyeball? A piece of fur?
The mass begins to pull itself together, bits and pieces forming the most rudimentary attempt at a face.
“Junior? “ I say, stunned.

I tried a couple of load order templates I found online and the current one has been pretty good at making sure the mods worked as intended across a few character builds but recently started having the game crash more often without any change to it, or the game failing to even start on Xbox. So hopefully someone who knows modding better can help me out this mod list in a more reliable order or suggest a better mod or if any are known to cause issues and should be removed. Here’s my current load order:
USSEP
Reforging - to the masses
Modern brawl bug fix
[XB1] Simple time scale change
Civil war quest immersion bundle
Paarthurnax - quest expansion
The enemy of my enemy
Sursummer assault
Night mother’s embrace - an assassin’s tale
A dishonest day’s work
Destroy the thieves guild
Destroy the dark brotherhood
Penitus oculatus
Return to helgen SE
The forsworn we’ve been waiting for
Where darkness dwells
Where darkness dwells: shadow kingdom
Mythic dawn expansion
Good guys quests
Better thieving alternate
Castle volkihar rebuilt
[XB1] recover cities
Crusader - a dawnguard bundle
Soljund’s sinkhole
Windstad mine
Training adjustments
Guild leader perks
VioLens
Summermyst- enchantments of Skyrim
Heart of gold - an adoption bundle
Free player home hearthfire bundle
Better vampires 8.7
[Xbox One] vampire lord perks
Double perks
Rich merchants of Skyrim
Better courier
Improved slow time shout
Effective blocking
Wards act like shields
Magic scales with level
Buffed bound weapons
Simple paladin [X1]
Archery skill set
Convenient horses
Scales one-handed attack speed for Ordinator
Faster casting SE for XB1
Vampire underwater suffocation fix
[XB1] truly absorb dragon souls
Berserker rage for everyone
Run for your lives
Better vampire NPCs 1.9
Serana infinite
Populated forts towers places
Tolft TG fence
Auri updated - song of the green
Immersive patrols lite
Warrior poet powers
Cloaks of Skyrim
Elemental walls redone
FYX - 3D Skyrim
Realistic water two
Enhanced lights and FX
Enhanced blood textures
A quality world map - vivid with stone roads
Dawnguard map markers
Wear multiple rings
King ports - arvak replacer
Better shadowmere (armored)
Auri re-imagined CBBE
Gritty animations requiem 2.0
Animated mounted casting
PrivateEye’s heavy armory - new weapons lite
PrivateEye’s heavy armory - USSEP patch
Jlmountainkeep (must fall keep player home I think, deleted from Bethesda net)
Better vampire weapons 1.4
Dark dawnguard armor
Nether mage armor
Ebony blades - by CrazyLion
Summerset shadow armor
Dragon infused daedric armor
Dragon knight armor
Clipsymoon weaponry artifacts
Silver elven armor
Silver dagger
Kynreeve armor
Vampire Mira armor
Molag bal - armor
Volkihar knight armor
Ebony Damascus crossbow
Liliths harbinger custom sword
Hoodless dragon priest masks
Green thumb - rare curios
ARs Metallica
Tweaks crafting recipes v2
Vortikai’s playable clothing
Jewelry of power
Elemental vision of Skyrim
Improved spellbreaker ward
Simple upgradable leveled list items
Ring of carry weight
Instant mastery
CBBE
Unique uniques by insanitysorrow
aMidianBorn steel pack
aMidianBorn dark elven armor
aMidianBornnordic carved
Molten glass armor & weapons replacer
Ancient shrouded armor replacer
Mxblack dawnguard weapons & armor
Visage of mzund replacer
Superior harkon’s sword
CL’s weapon replacer 5 in one
True dawnbreaker
Unlimited sprinting
Visible favorited gear
Relationship dialogue overhaul
RDO - USSEP patch
Undead beloved - Serana bundle
Serana dialogue add-on
Serana dialogue add-on castle volkihar rebuilt patch
Serana dialogue add-on RDO patch
SDA convenient horses patch
Stones of barenziah quest markers
Critical weapon mastery
[xb1] vampire sun damage clothes covering
Tweaked arrows and bolts
Convenient arrows and bolts
My home is your home
Awesome artifacts - anniversary edition
Unique thane weapons
XP32 maximum skeleton + realistic ragdoll and forces
Weapons on back - swords and quivers
Dawnguard as a vampire
No vampire cure on rumors
Ordinator - perks of Skyrim
Apocalypse - magic of Skyrim
Ars arcanum nova
Apocalypse - Ordinator compatibility patch
Odin - Ordinator compatibility patch
Sustained magic
Sustained magic apocalypse patch
[xb1] proper aiming
Growl - were beasts of Skyrim
Mannequin maker
Xbox - disenchanting overhaul
[ICS] enchantments unleashed
Infinite charges
Debug menu

You Matter to Her in a Way No One Else Could
When you died and were reborn, you became divine. You were love, and you were violence, and you were my miracle. A God sprung forth from the decaying machinery of your broken body. Koishi, the God of Love and Hate—have mercy on us all.
Down by the shore of one of the great Lunar seas, there sat a lonely shack thatched with feathers. Inside, there was a massive wani no less than eight leagues long… and her infant son. To that crocodile who had never known true familial love, that delicate little child—who cooed and smiled at his mother’s every move—was nothing less than a miracle. Such a delicate life in her claws, who knew nothing but unconditional love for his mother—to the crocodile, it was proof there was still good in the world.
She was tired, but the crocodile forced herself to stay awake. There was something she needed to do—a memory she wanted to share with the most important person in her life.
So, with all the caution and tenderness in the world, she picked up her child with her jaws and coaxed him into her throat pouch. The newborn child, perhaps having some shared instinct with his crocodilian mother, did not cry or struggle. Instead, he let out a giggle as he poked his head out from between his mother’s jagged teeth. With a snort, the dragon climbed out of her thatch hut, and crawled along the shore, drawing a meandering trail in the sand as she went.
When she reached the point where the water came to shore in gentle waves, the crocodile set herself down in the sand, letting the waves wash in and lick at her child in gentle sprays. Her child giggled as the Lunar sea’s tickled him with its pure waters, and as he did, his mother couldn’t help but feel at peace.
Nothing. Nothing at all would be able to take this from her.
Her miracle.
Toyohime opened her eye to clear blue skies.
She flexed her fingers, and instead of feeling the cold steel of the ship she started to tear apart, she felt so many tiny pebbles, warmed by their time in the sun. Sand? She brought a fistful of the stuff into her vision, before letting it fall through her fingers and run down her face. It was too real to be a dream.
Toyohime sat up to observe her surroundings. As far as the eye could see, there were infinite stretches of sand collected into wind-swept dunes that obscured the horizon. It was hot. Unbelievably so for what was supposedly the void. She felt a gentle gust of warm wind pass by her and toss her hair. This place… this impossible place… was she dead?
She rose to her feet, fighting biting aches and pains from her battle not too long ago. No—not dead. Somehow, she had survived—there was no other explanation. And as she looked down to assess the damage she had taken, her suspicions were only confirmed. Her right arm was missing, and in its place was nothing but a healed stump. The nasty cuts and bruises she had received in the fighting had all healed over for the most part, the only evidence they happened at all being residual scars that were yet to disappear. The ground was covered in dried blood. She must’ve been laying here in this sand trap for hours.
She brought her free arm, completely healed, up to the general space where her right eye was to find an arrow still protruding from it. Wrapping her fingers around the shaft, Toyohime tore it out in a fluid motion, causing the wound to reopen and drip blood onto the sands below. But, through some miraculous action, it was mere moments before the flow of blood stopped as the wound healed shut. Her right eye was still inoperable, but this healing ability was downright uncanny, even for a god.
She flexed her fingers. It felt like there was a hole in her head from which memories and feelings poured out. The mystery of how she got here, who she killed, and whether she could even trust her own senses had no answer—Toyohime knew she herself had made sure of that. She supposed there was a good reason. The less she knew, the better. That was something she could trick herself into believing.
Though no matter how much she forced herself to forget, she had the horrible feeling she had done something unforgivable—something she would kill over. In a sea of atrocities however, she could hardly even begin to suppose what that might have been. Maybe the heat was starting to fry her brain.
After spending a few minutes snapping the arrows lodged in her body by their shafts, Toyohime looked to the horizon, and then up. Ahead, there was a massive sand dune, no less than five times her height, and beyond the crest—a black pillar of smoke. Toyohime was not alone.
As she made her way up the shifting incline, Toyohime got to thinking about her next course of action. If this wasn’t a hallucination, then it most certainly had to be some extension of Koishi's will. Land in an impossible space… the creation of something impossible like that could only be a factor of a deteriorating mind, or God. And Toyohime had no time to consider the possibility of a crumbling psyche—not when she had a duty left unfulfilled.
But then… that would mean this was the paradise of Koishi’s mind. Surely, by her side is where she would find her salvation. She had already come to terms with it—that there was nothing left for her in the old world. Koishi could pervert and corrupt reality in whatever twisted ways she wanted—as long as it was the creation of her heart, it would be sufficient. Everything beyond that was not worth saving to the former princess.
… But that also meant there would be more enemies. More people she had to kill. She was ready. Ready to kill and ready to die in the name of love.
And as she planted her boot upon the peak of that sand dune, she saw the whole world become bare before her. A fair distance away was the crashed wreck of a golden ship, releasing plumes of black smoke as it burnt away. From this distance, it was difficult to make out any finer details, but she was sure the occupants had escaped. Satori was resourceful and stubborn, if nothing else. Dying in a crash was an impossibility.
She then traced a line from the ship through the shifting sands—to a city upon the horizon. Massive towers of glass and steel pushing against the sky, half buried in the sand, bending light around them as they reflected the intense heat of the sun. It gave the sight an unnatural fuzziness, as if the city was threatening to disappear at any moment.
As she traced the decaying visage of those buildings upwards, she saw a thin line reach beyond and into the sky. The line separated into two before converging back on itself. Above the city, etched upon the sky itself, was a pitch black gap in reality, opened and filled with so many eyes. And above still, the object of Toyohime’s desires and her sole driving factor—Koishi Komeiji.
Though the God’s eye was open, as well as the myriad collection of smaller eyes and drooling jaws that had lined every square inch of her squirming appendages, it was hard to tell if she was awake or conscious. Toyohime knew Koishi best, and if she had any guess as to what Koishi had been doing in the time they spent apart, it was receding back into the numbing comfort of her own mind. Even now, Toyohime figured she was still dreaming, avoiding the cruel weight of her responsibility. What manifested outside of her mind must’ve been some sort of twisted runoff.
Down there, hidden in the dunes, Toyohime knew there were those who would take this dream from Koishi. Those who would hurt Koishi. Those people would’ve done just as well to dig their own graves and build their own coffins. Because so long as Toyohime drew breath, she would protect Koishi with everything she could muster—that was her promise and the nature of her impossible, unconditional love.
Koishi was Toyohime’s second chance.
This time, one way or another, there would be no opportunity for a third.
Mima, on the other hand, had woken up quite a bit earlier than Toyohime had.
She had not suffered any fatal wounds or debilitating strikes leading up to the point where the reality around her started to crumble and distort—but she had briefly lost consciousness regardless. She figured that might’ve been a good thing; an action so absurd and so against everything she knew, perpetrated by an impossibly powerful being… even if a mere glimpse didn’t physically tear her mind to ribbons, she had no interest in trying to understand such a nonsensical event.
Mima awoke not in a desert, but in a grand sprawling city of seemingly human construction. Though the sun still hung overhead, the impossible hills and mountains of sand that caged the city in, always seemed to shift and move in the most calculated way… such that the sun was always put out. Caught in the shade, the city looked like it was in a perpetual night, in spite of the blinding yellow of the endless desert just beyond its limits.
Though that was the case, the city was far from dark. Street lamps, blinding neon signs, blinking traffic lights, apartments and houses with windows illuminated by the fluorescent lights within… It gave the impression the city was alive. It seemed exactly as a real bustling city at night, with its breathing and blinking—but there were no people. No matter how far Mima walked, no matter how many buildings she popped in, she would encounter no souls. She would find, in those buildings, immaculate setpieces filled with lived-in charm, hints and implications of life—but not people. Not even Yukari, who she wandered the streets in search of.
She recognized this place. This city—Tokyo. It couldn’t have possibly been, but it was the same Tokyo she grew up in, back before the Moonlight Descent and before the Kaiju. Before her chance meeting with the youkai who used to be her friend. This city, trapped in the middle of the desert, caught in an artificial night that obscured the flow of time—somehow it managed to be the perfect recreation of a long lost city, as if someone had taken a scalpel to the part of Mima’s brain that held onto the precious memories of her past life. It was comforting, being back in familiar territory, but it also carried along a pervasive uneasiness. The nostalgia said it was real, but the rational mind knew better than to buy into an impossible mirage—made all the more uneasy by the deathly silence of its streets.
After wandering around for a dozen minutes or more, Mima eventually came to find Yukari in a 24-hour fast food joint. She was sitting, out of her suit and miraculously healed, on a stool that faced the street outside, with her head down and a small pool of drool collecting at the point where the corner of her mouth met the countertop. Renko always said Maribel could fall asleep anywhere.
Mima floated back and forth around the gently snoring form of Yukari for a bit, considering her options. She changed back into her Renko form for a second, and after adjusting her hat a little, she reached over to tap Yukari on the shoulder… but then shied away. Glancing at Yukari, then back to her bag, she rummaged through its bottomless contents and pulled out a whole host of items: hand mirrors, makeup kits, two liter bottles of listerine, mints and peppermint breath spray and assorted beauty products.
She stole a quick glance back at Yukari to make sure she was asleep before going at it—in one go, she dumped every minty product she could into her mouth before swishing the unholy mixture in her mouth. It was not a moment later that she coughed out all of that liquid ice with a retch and a gag. Sheepishly, she turned her head to see if Yukari had woken up in all the commotion. Luckily, she was still knocked out something fierce. Mima might’ve guessed she was dead, if it weren’t for the occasional snore.
Undeterred, she opened a hand mirror and began to apply her makeup. Carefully. There was a subtle art to it—she only needed enough to hide any unsightly blemishes she might’ve gotten from her rather shut-in lifestyle as a ghost. Anything more, and Maribel was bound to notice Mima was purposefully fixing her appearance around her. None of that. Mima was trying for a more subliminal approach… It’s what worked in the past, after all.
Well, upon further thought, Mima figured “worked” was too strong a word. She did die before she saw any results, after all. But enough of that, Mima thought—now that she regained her memories, she’s finally gotten another shot. This being the apocalypse and all, she figured she should probably make it count.
She clicked close her portable hand mirror and, along with the rest of her stuff, threw it back into her field bag. She stole one last glance at Yukari, who was still sleeping soundly, before straightening her hat and clearing her throat.
“Maribel…” she said in a quiet, sing-song voice. She placed a hand on Yukari’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. “Maribel, wake up.”
No response. Mima pouted as she shook her around again. “Merry? It’s so scary around here—I need someone super strong and amazing by my side. Maybe we could hold hands?”
Nothing but more snoring. Mima’s expression fell. “... Okay, seriously. Wake up.”
“Don’t make me break out the big guns, Merry,” Mima said, digging through her bag and pulling out an airhorn. “I’ll do it. You think I’m bluffing?”
A tense beat passes. Mima stows away the airhorn. “... Ah, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t do something like that to you. You’re too cute, hehe.”
“I’m not above this, though.” She reaches back into her bag and pulls out a spray bottle filled with water… before giving Yukari’s face a couple of quick spritzes.
That quiet, tranquil expression to Mima seemed almost a timeless representation of the relationship she shared with Maribel quickly contorted into one of disgust. After a moment of being pelted with spray after spray of water droplets, Yukari finally was roused from her sleep, a squinty, grouchy mess.
“Who..? Urgh…” She mumbled with a groan. When Yukari saw Renko, immaculately constructed before her with enough accuracy to convince her she came straight from her memories, she froze. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “... Renko?”
“Hehe… Yep, it’s me! Your best friend. Best girl-friend, even. That is, a girl who is also a friend. Not a girlfriend, you know? Aha… Unless? Kidding, kidding.” Mima flashed an easy smile. “Glad you’re awake. Hey, before you say anything else—how do I look? I look cute, right? I know we’re in the middle of saving the world and everything, but I’ve actually been spending a lot of time taking care of my appearance.”
As Mima continued to ramble on and Yukari continued to wake up, her expression made a slow and gradual pivot. Where at first Yukari couldn’t hide her bemusement from her face—as well as that strange pained expression someone would have, seeing a loved one they have long since finished mourning appear upon their doorstep—she eventually came to settle on an empty stare and a neutral, apathetic expression. It hurt Mima a little, seeing such a radical turn in her demeanor.
“Oh,” Yukari muttered. “It’s just you.”
Mima didn’t think she intended it, but there was a layer of latent annoyance in her words. Or maybe it was disappointment? A thousand years or more apart did a lot to shift their relationship. That much was clear—and it hurt.
Yukari took a moment to look Mima up and down. With a scoff and a roll of her eyes, she delivered an unceremonious answer. “You look fine.”
Mima sighed in response. “Hey, I’ll take it.”
“More importantly…” As Yukari continued, she craned her neck around to absorb every detail of her surroundings: everything from the light fixtures above to the tables that were so meticulously set and prepared. “... Where are we?”
Her eyes naturally gravitated toward the front counter and the kitchen section that was just behind—meticulously wrapped burgers and fresh fries, set underneath heat lamps… it was as if they were all made recently. But that wasn’t even the strangest detail Yukari’s eyes were able to pick out. Upon one of the tables was a tray, filled with half eaten food—as if the patrons ceased to exist in the middle of their meal. This was beyond a mere liminal space, where it gave the impression of once being a place where people gathered—it was closer in relation to the scene of an ongoing disaster, where people had left in a hurry.
In that way, it didn’t carry much of the surreal quality of a place no longer meant for humans—it more so felt like a place with a cursed history, its sinister and mysterious narrative etched into its skin and flesh through the vestiges of human presence. Mima could tell, being a ghost herself, there was more to this place than the physical construction. As to what ‘more’ was, she could not place.
She could tell Yukari was thinking something similar by the way she walked around and took in the feeling of the place. Her posture was rigid and cautious, but not necessarily ready and waiting for danger. There was a quiet dread to the things that weren’t, but should’ve been.
“I’m trying to figure that out myself,” Mima replied, following Yukari around with her arms folded behind her back. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but… I think we’re back in Tokyo.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” Yukari replied. She walked over to the table with the food and traced a finger across its top. No dust clung to the surface of her finger, as if the tabletop had recently been cleaned. She brought the back of her palm close to the food. It was still radiating just a little bit of heat, as if it had been freshly served. “That’s the part that scares me.”
“... Assuming this is all very much real, this must be Koishi’s doing,” Yukari declared, taking a moment to look down at herself. As she flexed her fingers, her eyes narrowed. Mima figured she might’ve just realized she had been healed and mysteriously back to her usual outfit. She still looked younger and weaker than she once was, but there was an undeniable, albeit subtle increase in the vitality she seemed to convey. As Yukari’s eyes wandered to the empty city street outside, Mima couldn’t help but notice that expression—that idle, faraway gaze that looked like Yukari had trapped herself in a vivid daydream. She couldn’t help but realize how much Maribel had changed—and yet stayed the same.
“Whatcha thinking, Merry?” Mima tried, shuffling up to Yukari’s side.
“Yukari.”
“Oh. Right. Ha, that’s my bad. My bad…”
“I’m thinking: why Tokyo specifically?” With a wave of her hand, Yukari opened a gap next to her. Through that little tear in reality was a bird’s eye view of the whole city, as well as the infinite desert that surrounded it. “... There must be some significance to this location, but I couldn’t possibly imagine what it could be. Not right now, knowing what we know.”
“Hey, I grew up in Tokyo, you know? Maybe it has something to do with that? And… y’know, we were teaching in Tokyo before…” Mima gestured vaguely around herself. “... Everything, I guess. Maybe Koishi’s reacting to our memories.”
“Could be. Could just as easily be something related to Koishi. Could be nothing at all.” The view through the gap eventually fizzled out, leaving nothing but the inky blackness of the pocket dimension Yukari held dominion over. She let out a sigh before stitching the gap closed with a wave of her hand. “I’d suggest we keep on moving. Collect as much information as we can about this place. But only what we need—the plan is still largely the same. There’s no telling when she will appear again. Best be as quick about it as we can.”
“Oh. Uh… Alright. That’s cool.”
“... What?”
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong? You disagree?”
“Oh no, ah…” A sheepish grin crawled across Mima’s face. “I was just thinking about how much you’ve changed, is all. It’s just… you know, a huge city missing all of its people is pretty mysterious, huh? Don’t you want to do more exploring? Poke around a bit and take in the sights? Like we used to—just one last time?”
There was an unsettling period of silence where Yukari stared straight through Mima with that flat look. She averted her eyes for a passing moment. When Yukari returned her gaze to Mima, it was steely and cold. “No. Neither of us are kids anymore. We have duties and responsibilities that we can not abandon. Not for anything.”
Yukari brushed past Mima. The gesture wasn’t very rough at all, but Mima felt it come at her hard. As Yukari opened the door, she looked back at Mima and gestured to her to follow.
“Let’s go.”
Orin did not want much from life.
There was Satori, her master, who she cared about deeply. There was Okuu, her best friend, who she loved. There was Koishi, the younger sister of her master, who she felt obligated to take care of. And of course, there was her job of transporting corpses, which she could do endlessly and without tiring. Those things more or less encompassed everything she cared about—Orin was a simple person.
So as she crawled out the emergency hatch located at the top of the ship her master had so recklessly buried into a sand dune, she couldn’t help but feel so hopelessly out of her depth. With a groan, she hoisted herself over the lip of the hatch before losing her balance and tumbling over.
As she tumbled downward, bumping her head against every little edge the ship had on her way down, the visor to her suit cracked and then shattered. But as she flopped down into the warm sand, her arms and legs spread in a state of absolute fatigue, she couldn’t really bring herself to care about the warning tones in her helmet—or the fact she was able to breathe the air here, in what used to be the void. Frankly, all she could think about was how much she wanted to go home.
“Orin! Are you okay?” A familiar voice called from somewhere outside her field of vision. It was followed by the hasty clattering of boots on metal as they no doubt clambered down the ship in a hurry.
All Orin could offer in response was a weak grunt and the extension of a thumbs up.
“Are… are you insane?” Another voice called soon after, all breathless and hoarse. It cracked with exertion, as if it had already been worn out by so much screaming. “Satori, what form of devil possessed you to do that? We could’ve all died!”
Satori, of course, didn’t respond. Not before she entered Orin’s field of view, her own helmet long since thrown away. Her face was etched with a rare look of concern, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw Orin manage a weak smile. Wordlessly, Satori jostled off the smashed helmet from Orin’s suit and brushed away any remaining debris… before pulling her into a tight embrace.
Orin, dazed and shocked from the crash, could manage little else than to rest her head upon her master’s shoulders as she was pulled in. But through whatever stores of energy she had left, she managed to raise her arms and wrap them around in loose reciprocation.
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
Satori pulled back from the hug, but stayed kneeling by Orin’s side. Cautiously, she looked to the horizon, as if she had caught a vanishing glimpse of something stalking them from behind the shifting sands. She extended an elbow for Orin to grab on to. “Let’s go. Can you stand?”
“I… I think so,” Orin mumbled, hooking one of her arms around Satori’s elbow and placing a hand on her shoulder for support. Her master lifted, and in response Orin tried her best to stumble onto her feet, with mixed results. As she straightened herself out with the help of Satori, she heard her bones shift and crackle in strange ways—followed by an absolute lightning strike of localized pain in the leg and the fuzzy static that came to replace it.
After a sharp intake of breath and a pained wince, Orin settled into a decidedly unconvincing posture—she plastered a smile on her face and shifted all of her weight onto the other leg in a poor imitation of nonchalance, but Satori’s face only got graver. It broke Orin’s heart. For a moment, Orin tried to separate herself from her master so she could stand on her own—but Satori only squeezed her in closer, as if she would’ve lost Orin the second she let go.
That didn’t surprise Orin much. She knew better than anyone that the events one year ago were still fresh in her master’s mind. Even now, it haunted her every action, and now the consequences were starting to catch up with everyone involved. But to Orin, that didn’t matter. It never did—not so long as Satori was her master, and Orin was her pet. Satori could march to the deepest pit of Hell, pick a fight with a God, oppose reality itself… and Orin would march along right beside her, no matter what.
Patchouli, on the other hand, did not share the same sentiment. She marched up to the two, at least temporarily uncaring of the fantastical environment they found themselves in, and went straight to airing out her grievances.
“Recklessly engaging with Toyohime like that, against all better logic… one day, and this day might very well come sooner than you think, your obsession with that cursed woman will hurt someone you care about,” Patchouli snapped. As she looked to Orin, whose body was riddled with evidence of blunt trauma, her expression softened. “... It already has.”
“As if we had any other choice. It was our best shot to kill her, once and for all,” Satori replied, stone-faced and cold. “... Besides, let Orin speak for herself. As if you know what she does and doesn’t wish for.”
“... Orin wasn’t the only person who got hurt. Or killed.”
“It just so happens that Eirin conveniently falls outside my definition of ‘people I care about.’ I fail to see the issue.” Satori snorted with disgust, as if offended by the mere implication. Orin wanted to speak up and cut between the fighting, but couldn’t find the strength to oppose her own master. “That aside, who says I was the one who got her killed? She got herself killed, following her own incomprehensible mess of half-baked ideas and strategies. What are you coming at me for?”
“How could you be so cold toward someone like her? Especially since we were all fighting out there together, as comrades? Have you no shame?”
“I’ve no love for her. Not after what she did to my sister.” Satori stared straight into Patchouli’s eyes. Sometimes her master was like this—staring straight ahead through a person, as if judging the content of their soul itself. Sometimes, this was literally the case, given that she made liberal use of her opened third eye. “We might be fighting beside each other, but we’re fighting for completely different things. Yukari, Eirin, Kaguya, even you and I—we’re all fighting for something different. Those are just the facts. Just as it was a fact that Koakuma had darkness in her heart. It’s that kind of fact.”
“How cynical. Aren’t we friends?”
Satori fixed Patchouli with a steady glare as she thought through her answer. Even with an open eye, Orin found her master’s thought process difficult to parse.
“... No. We aren’t,” Satori settled. “It’s not a secret—I’m fighting to get my sister back. I’m fighting to kill the person who turned her into a monster. I’m fighting to protect my family. You are doing none of those things—you’re fighting for a more abstract reason: protecting the world, or preventing human suffering, or whatever other justification you assign to your actions. It’s admirable, but recognize that It’s only by convenience that we’re here, helping each other out.”
“... Is that right?” Patchouli muttered under her breath. “Then if it came between Yukari, or Eirin, or me, or anyone else… and your family. Who would you choose?”
Silence.
“It’s best to be honest with ourselves. It saves us the heartache.”
“I see.”
In the silence that came after, the atmosphere seemed to become heavier. Orin spent each passing beat being suffocated by the pressure. Her eyes darted from Patchouli to her master, and then back again.
“Er…” Orin started. “Let’s ah… could we just figure out what we’re going to do next, maybe? Without fighting—that would be nice.”
“Good plan, Orin,” Satori said. Though strangely enough, she wouldn’t take her eyes off of Patchouli. “I’m not quite sure what we would do without you.”
Patchouli looked away. Orin couldn’t help but feel vaguely responsible—though the second the thought even popped into mind, Satori squeezed a little tighter, as if in reassurance.
“... There’s no use in arguing,” Patchouli said with a heavy sigh. “Or rather, it’s a subject for later, when we aren’t all in danger. For now, I agree—we should figure out our next steps.”
The guns had long since run quiet.
Those satellites—their powerful bodies forged by the greatest minds, cast in the strongest metals, and mounted with the fiercest weapons humanity could muster—how could they have possibly matched the horror of God’s wrath? They could never, and for their hubris, their bodies and their souls were scattered and broken as a million glittering lights upon the ocean.
Those were the kinds of things Kaguya Houraisan thought about as she sat beside a flickering fire, her only source of light deep in the darkness of a desert night, not a few meters from the turned and battered wreckage of the CNS Beyond the Sun. In the void, It was battered by unseen force, turned three times—and upon the fourth, struck down and consumed by the void, as was the divine will of God. To its crew, it might have seemed like nothing less than a castigation of divine nature—but Kaguya knew it was nothing more than the temper tantrum of a child. As infant children must necessarily cry, Koishi must necessarily kill—it was her unconscious will.
Woe upon humanity, as its greatest accomplishment was brought low and made worthless before a child. Her own child. What a dubious honor it was—being the mother of such a terrifying, omnipresent killer.
Kaguya was on the ship when it was attacked by Toyohime. She was there to see Eirin march on to meet her. And she was there to see her die. It didn’t bother Kaguya too much—after all, she had watched Eirin die countless times. She will likely watch her die countless more, before all is said and done. But it was there, seized by the temporary shock, that Kaguya lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was deep within the fresh wreckage of humanity’s greatest weapon—alone. On what happened to her crew, and why Kaguya was spared, she could only make guesses.
With no direction and no plan, Kaguya spent what felt like hours wandering the claustrophobic halls of that great metal cage of a ship. But she was alone. Alone in such a way that not even the impression of humanity remained. Even the spot where she saw three men become atomized by Toyohime’s attack, which had burnt dark impressions of their silhouettes into the steel, was mysteriously void of any sign they were killed at all. The damage remained, but the people were gone—erased from existence in a way only God could manage.
When she eventually emerged from the dark recesses of the ship into a darker night, with nothing but the stars above and the inexplicable ground below, she could do nothing but start a simple fire. The night was cold, and she had a feeling it would be long. Warmth would be needed.
This, alone and huddled by a dying fire, must have been the end. Kaguya shifted closer to the flame, and held her knees closer to her chest. She didn’t know what to do. When her own daughter had sought her out, she didn’t know what to say. All she could do was recognize—that in pursuit of an easy life, she had made things so much worse. She wondered if it was too late to make things right between herself and Koishi. If Kaguya had looked up to her daughter now, and said sorry, would she hear? Would she care?
She wasn’t sure. And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out.
As she stared at the stars above, Kaguya heard the shuffling of boots displacing the sand. The sounds came in an irregular, halting motion. When it came to a stop, Kaguya lowered her gaze to the figure who stood at the edge of her fire’s light.
A moon rabbit in a pilot suit, all ripped up, tattered, and blackened by combat. In the gaps of her suit, her skin had melted away from severe burns—and froze in place, creating large patches of gangrenous tissue that covered her body. As Kaguya’s eyes drifted downward, she noticed a patch of body that had a view to the other side. Somehow, by some miracle of medicine, the wound remained stable and closed.
Her face was concealed by her helmet, tinted and patterned by a spider web of cracks, but by the way she stood, so still and lopsided, Kaguya had the impression of an empty gaze just behind the facade.
The moon rabbit carried in her left hand a revolver, its chambers empty and on display as the mechanism that connected the grip to the top half of the hung loose. In her other hand, was an ax, splintered in half at the handle from excessive use and its blade caked in a thick layer of blood.
Without a word, the moon rabbit collapsed into a heap by the fire.
Kaguya rushed to the moon rabbit’s side and, upon removing her helmet, froze.
Atonement—she wondered if it was even possible.
Previous Chapter:
Interim Chapter 11

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced woodworker, having the right tools can make your job easier and faster. One of the most important tools you'll need is a jointer, and luckily, there are many great options available on the market today. In this article, we'll take a look at six of the best 6 inch jointers on the market today.
HERE ARE SOME TOP PICKS
1.Powermatic 54HH, 6-Inch Jointer with Helical Cutterhead, 1HP, 1Ph 115/230V
The Powermatic 54HH 6-Inch Jointer with Helical Cutterhead is a high-quality jointer designed for professional use. It features a powerful 1HP motor and a helical cutterhead with 40 four-sided carbide inserts, providing efficient and precise cuts.
Powermatic 54HH, 6-Inch Jointer with Helical Cutterhead, 1HP, 1Ph 115/230V (1791317K)
The jointer has a 6-inch cutting width and a 1/2-inch maximum depth of cut, making it a great option for a range of woodworking projects. It also has a unique parallelogram design, which allows for easy adjustment and a smooth, accurate cut.
The Powermatic 54HH 6-Inch Jointer has a sturdy and durable construction, including a cast iron table and a heavy-duty steel base. The jointer also features a built-in dust collection system, which helps to keep your workspace clean and free of debris.
2.JET JJ-6HHDX, 6-Inch Long Bed Jointer, Helical Head, 1Ph 115/230V
I've been using this jointer for a few months now and I can confidently say that it's the best jointer I've ever used. The helical head provides incredibly smooth and clean cuts, and the long bed allows me to work with longer boards. The build quality is excellent and the setup was a breeze.
I was hesitant to spend so much money on a jointer, but I'm glad I did. The helical head makes a huge difference in the quality of the cuts, and the long bed is great for working with longer boards. The machine is built like a tank and feels like it will last for years
JET JJ-6HHDX, 6-Inch Long Bed Jointer, Helical Head, 1Ph 115/230V (708466DXK)
I've been using the JET JJ-6HHDX for a few weeks now and I'm blown away by the quality of this jointer. The helical head cuts incredibly smoothly and quietly, and the long bed allows me to work with larger boards. The machine is also very easy to adjust and maintain.

This jointer is worth every penny. The helical head produces incredibly smooth and clean cuts, and the long bed is great for working with longer boards. The build quality is superb and the machine is very easy to use and maintain
3.RIKON Power Tools Jointer with Helical Head
Helical Head: The RIKON jointer features a helical head with 12 carbide inserts, providing efficient and precise cuts. The helical head also produces less noise and vibration than traditional cutterheads, making it a great option for a quieter workshop.
Powerful Motor: The jointer has a powerful 1HP motor, providing plenty of power for a range of woodworking projects. The motor also features a safety switch, which helps to prevent accidental startups.
RIKON Power Tools Jointer with Helical Head
Adjustable Fence: The jointer has a 4-inch adjustable fence, allowing for precise and accurate cuts. The fence also tilts up to 45 degrees, making it easy to work with angled cuts.
Large Table: The jointer has a large 6-1/8-inch by 47-1/4-inch table, providing plenty of space for working with longer boards. The table is also made of cast iron, providing a sturdy and durable workspace.
Built-in Dust Port: The jointer features a built-in dust port, which helps to keep your workspace clean and free of debris.
4.WEN JT3062 10-Amp 6-Inch 2-Blade Benchtop Jointer, Black
This jointer is fantastic. It's compact and easy to store, but still powerful enough to handle most woodworking projects. The two-blade cutterhead produces smooth and precise cuts, and the dust port makes cleanup a breeze. I highly recommend this jointer.
The WEN JT3062 is an excellent benchtop jointer. It's easy to set up and use, and the two-blade cutterhead produces clean and accurate cuts. The adjustable fence is also a great feature, allowing for precise cuts at different angles.
WEN JT3062 10-Amp 6-Inch 2-Blade Benchtop Jointer, Black
I'm very impressed with the WEN JT3062 jointer. It's powerful, yet compact, and the two-blade cutterhead produces smooth and even cuts. The table is also very easy to adjust, making it a breeze to work with different sized boards.
For the price, you can't beat this jointer. It's powerful, compact, and produces clean and accurate cuts. The adjustable fence is also a great feature, and the dust port makes cleanup a breeze.
5.Shop Fox W1876 6" Benchtop Jointer with Spiral-Style Cutterhead
Spiral-Style Cutterhead: The Shop Fox W1876 features a spiral-style cutterhead with 12 HSS inserts, providing efficient and precise cuts. The spiral-style cutterhead produces less noise and vibration than traditional cutterheads, making it a great option for a quieter workshop.
Powerful Motor: The jointer has a powerful 10-amp motor, providing plenty of power for a range of woodworking projects. The motor also features a safety switch, which helps to prevent accidental startups.
Shop Fox W1876 6
Adjustable Fence: The jointer has a 4-3/8-inch adjustable fence, allowing for precise and accurate cuts. The fence also tilts up to 45 degrees, making it easy to work with angled cuts.
Large Table: The jointer has a large 6-inch by 28-1/2-inch table, providing plenty of space for working with longer boards. The table is also made of cast iron, providing a sturdy and durable workspace.
Built-in Dust Port: The jointer features a built-in dust port, which helps to keep your workspace clean and free of debris.
https://howleraudio.com/best-6-inch-jointers-for-small-wood-shops/

Ezra arrived at the oil rig early in the morning, after a long and arduous journey that left her feeling exhausted. The helicopter ride was bumpy, and she struggled to keep her breakfast down as they flew over the vast expanse of ocean. But despite her queasy stomach, Ezra couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sight below her. The crystal-clear waters were so blue that they seemed almost unreal, while small islands dotted the horizon like emerald jewels.
As she stepped off the helicopter onto the deck of the offshore rig, Ezra was immediately struck by the deafening noise. The sound of machinery whirring and clanging filled her ears, making it hard to hear anything else. But even though it was loud, there was something comforting about it - like a steady heartbeat that kept everything running smoothly.
The workers who greeted her were all men, their faces weathered by years of exposure to wind and sun. They wore hard hats and reflective vests that made them stand out against the dull grey metal of the rig. Despite their gruff appearances, they welcomed Ezra with open arms and showed her around like an old friend.
Fred, in particular, stood out to Ezra. He had a thick beard that covered most of his face and eyes that twinkled mischievously behind his safety goggles. He spoke in a deep voice that rumbled like thunder whenever he laughed or joked around with his colleagues.
Throughout the day, Ezra worked alongside Fred as he taught her how to operate machinery and carry out routine maintenance checks. She struggled at first with some of the heavy equipment - wrenches and hammers that felt awkward in her hands - but soon got into a rhythm as Fred patiently showed her what to do.
The smells on the rig were intense too - a heady mix of salty sea air mingled with diesel fumes from the generators that powered everything on board. There was also a faint tang of oil in the air - not overpowering but enough to make Ezra feel like she was part of something important.
During lunch break in the dining hall, Ezra sat down at one of the long tables with Fred and several other workers from different departments. The room was plain but functional - stainless steel benches lined up against white walls with fluorescent lights overhead casting an artificial glow over everything.
Despite being surrounded by strangers who worked in such different roles from hers, Ezra felt comfortable here. The workers chatted amicably about their work experiences between bites of their meals while occasionally ribbing each other for fun.
Jake caught everyone's attention when he told an outrageous story about getting lost on another rig where he used to work before joining this current one. His laughter rang across the room causing other diners' heads to turn towards him while Mike listened quietly but amusedly from across their table.
As the day wore on, Ezra felt more and more at home on the rig. She had always been a hard worker, and the physical labour of her job gave her a sense of satisfaction that was hard to describe. There was something about being part of a team that worked together to keep everything running smoothly that made her feel alive.
But towards the end of the day, things took an unexpected turn. As she was packing up her tools, one of her coworkers - a man named Dave - approached her with a sly grin on his face.
"Hey Ezra," he said, "you excited for Nude Week next week?"
Ezra felt her heart drop into her stomach as she realized what he was talking about. Nude Week was a tradition on some offshore rigs where workers would shed their clothes for an entire week while they worked as a way of bonding and having fun.
She had heard about it before but hadn't given it much thought - after all, it wasn't common. But now she felt like she had been blindsided by this question from Dave.
"I...uh...I don't know," she stammered, feeling suddenly self-conscious.
Dave just chuckled and slapped her on the back. "Don't worry about it too much," he said. "It's just a bit of fun. But I gotta warn you - we get pretty wild during Nude Week."
Ezra tried to laugh along with him but couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling in her gut. She didn't want to seem prudish or uptight, but the idea of being naked around these men made her nervous. Her boyfriend Tom was the jealous type and they've always been exclusive with each other, she wondered what he would think if he heard about her working around a bunch of fit young nude men, possibly even being nude herself.
She tried to put the idea out of her head, it was something she could worry about next week.
As she made her way back to her cabin, Ezra couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience of working on an oil rig. It was hard work, no doubt about it - physically demanding and mentally exhausting. But there was something exhilarating about being part of such a vital industry - one that kept economies running and people's lives moving forward.
She knew that there would be many more challenges ahead of her in the days and weeks to come - long hours, rough seas, and tough conditions. But with support from people like Fred, Jake, Mike, and even Hank, she felt confident that she could handle anything that came her way.
And as she settled into bed that night with the sound of machinery humming around her like a lullaby, Ezra felt at peace knowing that she was doing something meaningful with her life - something that mattered not just to herself but also to countless others who depended on the oil industry for their livelihoods.
Despite the grueling schedule, she found herself enjoying her time here more and more. The other workers had become like family to her - a close-knit community of people who relied on each other for support in this harsh environment.
Ezra had even struck up an unlikely friendship with Hank, one of the older workers on board. He was rough around the edges but had a heart of gold underneath it all. They would often sit together during breaks sharing stories about their lives back home or making jokes at each other's expense.
But as Nude Week drew closer, Ezra began to feel anxious once again. It wasn't just about being naked in front of these men - it was also about what might happen afterward- whether she could resist temptation no matter how strong that desire inside became?
She tried not to think too much about it as she went through her daily tasks but couldn't help feeling nervous every time someone mentioned Nude Week within proximity.
The morning of Nude Week had arrived, and Ezra felt like she was walking to her doom. The mere thought of being naked in front of her male colleagues made her feel queasy. She tried to psych herself up by telling herself that it was just a bit of fun, but it didn't help much.
The morning of Nude Week had arrived, and Ezra felt like she was walking to her doom. The mere thought of being naked in front of her male colleagues made her feel queasy. She tried to psych herself up by telling herself that it was just a bit of fun, but it didn't help much.
As she stepped out onto the deck, Ezra found that most of the other workers were already nude, milling around and chatting as if this were perfectly normal. Some of them were even carrying out their work duties while completely naked.
Ezra tried to avoid looking at anyone for too long, but it was difficult. Everywhere she turned there seemed to be another naked man - some old and wrinkled, others young and toned.
She could feel eyes on her immediately as she walked around the rig. Some men looked away quickly when they saw her coming, while others stared openly at her body in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and exposed.
Despite trying not to stare too long at any one man's body, Ezra couldn't help but notice every contour of muscle rippling beneath tanned skin or every vein that ran down an erect penis standing proud between muscular thighs.
The sight of so many naked bodies all around her had awakened something deep inside her- something primal and raw- a hunger for sexual indulgence unlike anything she had ever felt before.
Every time Ezra caught sight of a man's bare chest or butt or genitals, she felt an intense surge of desire wash over her. And as the day wore on, these feelings only grew stronger until they became nearly unbearable.
It wasn't just physical either - there was something about being surrounded by so many naked men that made Ezra feel wild with lust. She found herself flirting shamelessly with some of the guys who showed interest in talking to her - batting her eyelashes and swaying her hips suggestively as she talked about work-related topics.
But despite all this sexual tension building up inside her, Ezra knew that she couldn't act on it openly. She was here to do a job after all - one that required focus and concentration if she wanted to make sure everyone came home safe at night.
During breaks from work activities though things got even more heated because now some men were starting to make crude remarks which only added fuel to the fire within making things worse than before!
And then there was Fin...
He looked like he belonged back in high school rather than working on an oil rig among experienced veterans twice his age but he had caught Ezra's eye early on during Nude Week because every time he thought nobody was looking he'd steal glances at her body too quickly followed by averting his eyes trying not get caught staring directly at anything inappropriate which made him seem even more adorable somehow!
They started working together later in the afternoon when they both got assigned to the same task. Fin seemed nervous at first, fidgeting with his tools and avoiding eye contact as they worked side by side.
It wasn't long though before Ezra noticed how fit he looked underneath all that grease - tight muscles bulging against taught skin with every move he made- especially when he bent down over equipment exposing his lower backside for all the world (and Ezras' hungry gaze) to see! Her own nipples hardened as arousal coursed through every fiber of her being making it hard to focus solely on their task ahead while being surrounded by such temptation!
Her gaze drifted lower until she noticed his ballsack hanging low between his legs- round and full like ripe fruit waiting for someone's eager mouth or hand...or both! It took everything within Ezra not to pounce onto him right then and there, to wrap her hands around that tantalizing sac and massage it until he was moaning her name.
But Ezra knew better than to act impulsively. She was still in a committed relationship with her boyfriend back in Idaho, after all. She couldn't let herself get carried away by these wild desires, no matter how much she craved the touch of another man's body against hers.
Still, the temptation was too much for her to resist. As they worked side-by-side, Ezra found herself getting bolder and more daring with every passing moment. She pretended to drop something near him and reached down between his legs from behind to grab it and brushed her hand against his ballsack as she did so.
"Oh! Sorry!" She said giggling.
Fin looked startled but didn't seem to mind her touch. In fact, Ezra could see his penis twitch in response growing more prominent with each passing moment.
She bit her lip and felt a flush spread over every inch of exposed skin as she realized how much he was enjoying this illicit contact between them. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab hold of those tender orbs- squeezing gently until they spilled over into ecstasy.
"D-Don't worry about it" he said.
But their brief contact seems to have stuck with him, several minutes later while she was replacing a fuse in a blasting cabinet she looked down and saw Fin laying on a creeper seat with his head and shoulders under the machinery and his bottom half sticking out laying upright on the floor below her.
Even several minutes after their brief touch his penis was hard and erect as if in anticipation of her welcoming hole. Ezra's own arousal surged to even greater heights as she realized what he wanted from her.
As she worked on the machine above him, she stretched out her leg just enough that it brushed against Fin's inner thigh. He gasped slightly at the contact, but didn't move away.
Ezra took that as a sign of encouragement and looked around too see if any other coworkers could see them.
Luckily, everyone else was busy with their own tasks and there were no prying eyes around to catch them in the act. Emboldened by this newfound sense of secrecy, Ezra quietly closed the fuse-box and stepped over Fin with one leg. She slowly squatted down with her legs apart, positioning herself over Fin's hard cock. She give one more quick glance around to be sure nobody was watching and then lowered herself slowly and quietly onto Fin's throbbing erection.
Fin gasped with shock, which made Dave look up from his desk in their direction. Ezra looked back like a deer caught in the headlights. Dave was on the other side of the room and could see her squatting down in front of the machine, but couldn't see Fin underneath her so he returned to his schematics.
Ezra was still frozen with fear of being caught, but she felt Fins hands grasp her waist and lift her up until only the tip of his penis remained inside. Then he pulled her back down with a soft grunt.
Ezra let out a sigh of relief as she felt Fin's hard length slide deeper inside her, filling her with an intense pleasure that left her gasping for breath. They moved together slowly and quietly, their bodies rocking in perfect rhythm as they tried to keep their activities hidden from the other workers.
Dave glanced in her direction again but this time she didn't stop moving.
She continued to bounce up and down on Fin's hard cock, feeling the pleasure build within her with each thrust. She was so close to the edge of release that all she could think about was how good it would feel when she finally let herself go.
And then suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching from behind them. Panic set in as Ezra realized that someone had caught them in the act.
But it wasn't a coworker come to catch them red-handed- it was just Fred who had finished his work under the machine and decided to check on their progress.
"Hey guys," he said, poking his head into view. "Everything alright?"
Ezra froze mid-thrust for what seemed like an eternity, but then she stood up quickly, pulling herself off of Fin's cock with an audible 'pop' and leaving a ring of wetness around him. Her face flushed with embarrassment and arousal.
"Uh...yeah," she said, trying to sound casual. "Just fixing this machine."
Fred raised an eyebrow and then asked: "Fin in here?"
Ezra nodded, feeling relieved that they weren't caught in the act. "He's under the machine," she said.
Fred narrowed his eyes at her: "Okay... just make sure you clean up when you finish."
Ezra couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement at Fred's words. She knew that he was winking at her, letting her know that he was aware of what she and Fin had been up to.
Despite the embarrassment she felt earlier, Ezra realized that part of her wanted to be caught - wanted someone else to know about the illicit encounter between them. It made it all the more exciting and dangerous somehow.
As Fred walked away with a knowing smirk on his face, Ezra turned back to Fin who was still lying on his creeper seat looking dazed from their intense experience moments ago.
"Is everything okay?" she asked him softly.
Fin nodded silently, his eyes glazed over with pleasure as if unable to speak or move after such an intimate moment "Yeah..." he said breathlessly."That was... amazing."
Ezra grinned widely in response feeling grateful for this unexpected connection they've shared today. Despite how risky it had been both physically (they could have been seen by anyone) and emotionally (both were already in committed relationships), there was something inexplicable pulling them together- something primal and fierce like fire raging within each other's bodies demanding release until satisfied completely!
And even though Nude Week would end soon enough leaving nothing more than just memories behind; yet those memories will last forever etched into their minds reminding each other of this incredible day years down the line when they think back upon life changing events- maybe someday they'll even meet again!

It had been two nights since the attack, but Dale's pain wasn't to stop with the Starbreaker. Upon his arrival at the gates of Highpoint, the castellan had been whisked swiftly away to Maester Alwyn, who had insisted on immediate treatment of the break in his nose.
Even with a strong dose of milk of the poppy, the pain had been agonizing; first he cauterized the inner nostril, and next he took to straightening Dale's nose. The pain was enough for him to fall unconscious, by fortune, and he awoke the next day with cotton-stuffed nostrils.
"Don't dare remove those," he recalled Alwyn saying, "or you'll regret it."
His hands were in similarly grisly shape; their deep gashes still stung at him mightily, and he could scarcely bear to hold a quill. Most of his time had been spent bedridden, at any rate, and it was early in the morning when Alwyn paid him another visit.
"How do you feel?" he asked, arms crossed.
"As well as you'd expect. How do I look?"
The corner of the old maester's mouth curled in a wry smile.
"As well as you'd expect."
Dale rolled his eyes, sitting up in the bed. He crossed the room, grabbing a hand mirror from his desk.
Alwyn made no lie; half of Dale's face had blackened and swollen beyond recognition, one eye forced nearly to closing. He set the mirror down with a grunt.
"That one really gave me a beating. I'm surprised that I made it out in one piece."
Alwyn's eyes moved to the castellan's left hand; noticing the maester's gaze, Dale rolled his eyes and lifted his hands.
"I know, I know. That was my least favourite pinkie anyhow."
Alwyn let out a restrained chortle, earning a cocked eyebrow from Dale.
"What is it?"
The old maester sighed.
"Dale... you've been summoned to meet with the remainder of the family."
Dale felt a wave of confusion come over him.
"What's this? What do you mean, remainder?"
Alwyn let out a softer sigh, this one accompanied by a grimace.
"I... believe that it would be best to allow the council to explain. We should go; they're expecting us."
Dale followed Alwyn to the meeting chamber, outside whose entrance they found the brothers Wendell and Walder Warrick, swords at their hips. They bowed their heads respectfully, more cordial by far than Dale had ever known them to be.
"Dale." said Walder, some hesitance evident in his tone.
"I'm sorry. We're glad to see you safe." he continued, Wendell nodding beside him in solemn agreement.
"I suppose it's what I deserve for leaving without the two of you in tow."
They followed Alwyn and Dale as they entered the [meeting chamber](https://on.soundcloud.com/M5gLMpabVbXN4AFZ9), which had been occupied already by a handful of his kinsmen; taking a quick count, he tallied six in all – making seven with Dale's arrival.
Pairs of the elite household guard stood vigil at each entrance, each resting his offhand on the pommel of their sword. The Whitehills too wore swords at their hips, an uncommon sight. Stranger yet, another guard offered Dale a blade of his own – which he responded to by holding up his bandaged hands. The man nodded, handing the blade to Walder instead.
Taking a seat, Dale cast a quick glance to the ceiling; sunshine came down in beams from seven stone-etched stars, revealing specs of dust floating through the air, accompanied by a familiar morning chill.
Before him sat a hot cup of tea, steam rising restlessly above it. He turned it awkwardly and slid it nearer with his right hand, carefully servicing the handle so as not to pain his palm before taking a sip.
When Dale set down the cup, his uncle, Ser Conan – the justiciar of Highpoint – cleared his throat, glancing about the table dourly at the men in attendance.
"Now that the castellan has arrived, let us begin."
Conan gave Alwyn a glance, opening his mouth again to speak.
"Have you given Dale the details?"
The old man shook his head.
"No; I suspected that it would be best he hear it from another member of the house."
Conan sighed.
"Very well, then. Dale, how well do you recall the attack?"
He shrugged.
"Well enough. I was discussing productivity with a handful of my foremen when those fanatics stormed the village. I made for the stables in flight, but two of them intercepted me."
He waved his hands over his own features.
"I managed to kill them and escape, and after that I rode here."
Dale's twenty-year-old cousin, Delwen, raised an eyebrow in response to Dale's recollection.
"You dispatched two men by yourself? I can't recall ever seeing you at the sparring grounds, cousin."
Dale glared back at him.
"Steady now. You'd be fighting with rusty blades were it not for my work, lad."
Delwen's face twisted in a scowl.
"That's *ser*, pinchpurse. Perhaps you'd have put up a better fight against that rabble if you took to a real man's 'work'."
In a fit of rage, Ser Conan brought his fist down hard on the table, spilling his own tea over its ironwood surface. Grown red in the face, he barked out as if he were drilling the keep's garrison.
"Shut your fucking mouths, or I'll shut them myself!"
Dale sighed, taking another sip of his tea; Dafyn – Delwen's father – and Daniel, the elder of his sons, stared indignantly at the justiciar, while Conan's son Connor and their cousin Waltyr sat in silence.
His expression having lessened in anger by a hair, Conan continued.
"Your account matches an eyewitness report I received during my investigation of the attack – a man who called himself 'Twiggy'. You know him?"
Dale nodded.
"Aye, that's one of my foreman – and what of the others?"
Connor shook his head sullenly.
"It was a slaughter. What few weren't cut down burned in the torching."
Dale grimaced.
"Gods... those were some of our best craftsmen. You say they cut down everyone in the village? There were at least a hundred people there; how did the Starbreakers kill them all?"
Conan's brow furrowed at Dale's question.
"Perhaps you took note of their weaponry; that was not rabble you faced. Those men armed themselves with Whitehill steel, stolen from our own armoury."
Dale looked incredulously at the justiciar.
"Stolen, you say? Then there are Starbreakers within our walls? I know not of a man among us ascribed to the old ways."
Conan shook his head.
"Those were not our men that attacked the village; we tallied no desertions, and of the dead Starbreakers, none were identified among any of our settlements."
Dale frowned.
"Passing strange. They come from afar, then – but why here? The faith is nothing new in these lands."
Waltyr chimed in next, offering a shrug.
"These savages grow emboldened by the day. Lord Domeric has killed plenty of them; perhaps they sought revenge on an easier target."
This time Dafyn cut in, giving a resolute shake of his head.
"How in seven hells would a random assortment of rabble infiltrate our keep and pilfer our barracks? We examined the wounds of the dead villagers; these were trained killers. Whoever sent them was out for blood."
Dale puzzled as his uncle spoke. The more he learned, the less sense it made.
"But why Pinewood, of all places? The Pine and Poplar was the only reason for anyone to make the trek there."
Conan gave Dale a nod.
"Aye, I'm told it served the cheapest ale within leagues of Highpoint – and that one man was known to frequent the establishment regularly."
Dale's eyes widened.
"Me."
Conan nodded again.
"Aye, you. Whoever ordered that attack wanted you dead."
With a groan, Dale took another sip of his tea.
"Lovely. I don't recall anyone threatening my death of late, though."
Conan's lips thinned in a frown.
"We have discussed a number of explanations. We suspect that your cancellation of the ironwood contract did you no favours with Lord Tarly."
Daniel groaned.
"If the Tarlys were behind it, they could afford their own swords. Besides, they wouldn't have gained anything. It was a shit deal, and I'll wager they knew that."
Dale snorted. Daniel had always been the wiser of Dafyn's children. Waltyr offered his thoughts next.
"It must have been someone else in the North. I think we should address the obvious – the Forresters envy us! Our power grows by the day, while theirs subsides with the wind. They wish to sabotage our castellan in order to drag us down to the dirt alongside them."
None of the other men seemed to question the idea. The Forresters' envy for the might of Highpoint was no question, after all. Dale had known the spawn of Ironrath to be neither honourable nor noble.
"Aye, I would not put such a thing past the Forresters. But why would they risk so bold a move? It is Lord Corin demands the spread of the faith – and his wife is a Forrester, if you've forgotten. They're spineless, the lot of them; they don't have enough assurances to take such a risk."
"Nor would they be wise to," said Conan, "but that question is the key to it all – or half, at any rate."
Dale raised an eyebrow.
"Half? What do you mean?"
Conan closed his eyes with a grimace.
"There is something you must know, Dale. The attempt on your life is not the true reason for our assembly this morning."
Dale looked about the room; it was a strange gathering, in truth. Conan and Dafyn were the only council members present, aside from Dale.
"Will Lord Willas be joining us, then?"
The room grew silent.
"No. Lord Willas..."
Conan sighed.
"It appears that some of these assailants infiltrated the keep in advance of the attack; while I investigated the torching at Pinewood, much of the family sheltered within the sept in prayer. There were plenty of guards inside – more than enough to protect them all.
"But the cowards didn't face our men head on. They barred the doors tight, and they set the sept alight."
Dale could scarcely believe it. He had always been a black sheep at Highpoint, but he could not begin to fathom committing such a crime.
"I see. How many were there?" asked Dale glumly, looking to the chamber doors.
"And who else has yet to arrive? Wilmer, Glendon, and Alvin? This is early an early morning, after all. Perhaps they are paying their respects to Willas? I would join them–"
Conan shook his head stoically.
"They're dead, Dale. All of them. Glendon, his wife, his children. Irma. Alvin, his wife and little Arthur. Wilmer and his wife..."
The eyes at the table moved to Waltyr, Wilmer's only son.
"And Waltyr's wife as well."
Dale's cousin wore a morose expression.
"And your daughter, Jessica...?"
"Is unharmed," said Waltyr, "for she has been ill. She was resting when the attack occurred – as was Irma's bastard, Simon. I kept watch over them with a handful of men during the attack."
When Waltyr finished, Conan continued with a sigh.
"My... wife was there, as was Dafyn's – and their daughter, Doris."
Daniel and Delwen looked as sullen as their father. Dale leaned forward
"What of Cormac and Conrad?"
Conan gritted his teeth.
"Cormac stood guard outside the sept when the attack took place; the assailants shot them down before burning it.
"As for Conrad... he was a brave lad. He was always a brave lad. He managed to break down the door when the fire was discovered, but... when he tried to rescue the children, the rafters gave in to the flames. He died with all the rest."
Dale knew naught what to say. He had never been a nurturting man, after all. Silence took the table for what felt like an eternity.
"All told, that leaves nine of us. Ten, if you count the bastard boy." said Conan in a tired tone.
Dafyn cleared his throat.
"Eleven, if you count our father. He draws breath yet in Crowtown, last I heard."
Conan shook his head.
"It doesn't matter. Father's duty is to the Watch now; I will not trouble him with our failings. What matters now is that we maintain the strength of Highpoint, and that Lady Alice is protected at any cost."
Conan looked to Waltyr.
"I shall trust you with the safety of our lady and your daughter. See that our most elite men remain with them at all times."
Waltyr nodded.
"Of course."
"We are all the men remaining to the house in this very room," said Conan, "and we must be vigilant. There could be another attack any day now."
Dale's ears pricked up at Conan's last statement.
"Wait, uncle."
The room's eyes turned to face the castellan.
"There is one Whitehill you've forgotten."
Conan seemed confused. Dale look first to the justiciar, and next to Dafyn.
"Your brother – Gared."

Tap water is one of our most important basic necessities. However, the tap water provided by the municipality is worrying because it contains a lot of substances harmful to the human body. You need a water filter that will allow you to drink safe and pure water and stay away from the threat of water pollution.
The Tap Water Guidelines specify that water "should contain no harmful concentrations of chemicals or pathogenic micro-organisms, and ideally it should be aesthetically pleasing in regard to appearance, taste and odour".
Water authorities use settling, coagulation, filtering and disinfecting to ensure the safety of our drinking water, using sufficient disinfectant to stop the re-growth of microorganisms as the water travels through the pipe system to your home.
The downside of ensuring safe drinking water is the lingering taste and smell of disinfectant. If you fill up a jug with tap water and leave it to sit for a couple of hours, the disinfectant smell and taste will gradually dissipate, but many people opt for a water filter system.
When you turn on your tap, you should see clear, uncloudy water. If not, or it tastes strange, then there are ways to find out why.
Water Filter Profiles
The basic pros and cons of each type of filtering system are included below, as well as a rough estimate of initial costs. Ongoing costs can be determined by checking the volume or time it claims to filter before requiring replacement.
Be sure to factor in the cost of replacement water filter cartridges and always replace as instructed, as spent cartridges can themselves harbour micro-organisms. What each cartridge can filter varies even within the different types of dispensers.
Jug Filter(Water Pitcher Filter)
Pros: Convenient, small, and easy to use and replace filters.
Cons: Some are slow, prone to clogging and have short filter lives, meaning higher ongoing costs.
Water Pitcher Filter is one of the commonly used household water filters. It is easy to use and you can place it directly on the table.
Tap Water Filter
Pros: Most convenient at tap filter, small, and easy to use and replace filters. Easily swap between filtered and non-filtered water.
Cons: Slows the flow of water and cannot be used on all taps.
The faucet filter can be mounted on the faucet for easy installation; however, you will need to change the water filter cartridge frequently to ensure that pure water is available for long periods of time.
Counter-top
Pros: Filters large amounts of water without plumbing modification. Less likely to clog than jug or tap-mounted filters.
Cons: Clutters countertops and cannot be used on all taps.
Under-sink
Pros: Filters large amounts of water without cluttering up countertop, or attaching to existing tap. Less likely to clog than jug or tap-mounted filters.
Cons: Takes up under-sink space and requires plumbing modification. Most expensive option.
The RO System is a common Under-sink water filter that filters almost all contaminants in the water. You can drink it directly from the filtered water.
Other Water Filter Options
You can also buy shower water filters or ones built into fridge ice and water systems. These are generally carbon filters.
There is also an option to fit out the entire house, but they're expensive and generally only justified in quite specific situations (for example, if you have a poor-quality water supply).
Water Filter Mediums
All the filter systems above can have different types or combinations of filter mediums. Your choice depends on what you want to filter out.
Filtration/Adsorption: Water Filter involves using a substance, typically carbon, to make contaminants adhere to the many pores (like pumice) within the carbon source, also called adsorption. The source of carbon can be coconut, charcoal, ceramic, etc. This helps remove odour, taste and particles in the water.
Softeners: If you have a hard water source, you will notice a build up in kettles, bathtubs and sinks. These are normally a result of large amounts of minerals in your water. A softener water filter medium will reduce the amount of minerals.
UV Treatment: This uses ultraviolet light to disinfect water. However, it only works on relatively clear water, otherwise the light doesn't penetrate sufficiently.
Reverse-Osmosis: This passes water under high pressure through a thin membrane. Most contaminants are physically blocked and washed away. It uses a lot of energy and water; up to 85 percent of the water can be wasted in the process. However, it does remove a wide range of contaminants.
Distillation: This is also energy intensive. It boils the water, collecting the condensing water to remove many contaminants, though not all.
Does Water Filter Work?
How can you be sure these water filters do what they say, without proof? One thing to look for is certification. The NSF International provides a range of certifications for products that involve initial and periodic testing:
NSF 42 covers aesthetic effects such as chlorine, taste, odour and particles.
NSF 53 covers health effects such as cysts (giardia, cryptosporidium), a range of organic chemicals (such as THM and pesticides) and heavy metals.
The Australian standard AS/NZS4348 covers a wide range of contaminants, such as taste, odour and microbiological and chemical impurities. There are also standards for water softeners (cation exchangers: (NSF 44), reverse-osmosis (NSF 58) and distillation (NSF 62) systems.

First/Prev

“Father?”
Mogan relaxed, wearing something like a small loincloth as he stretched out in something that was either a chair or a bed. After more than a week he still couldn't really tell which. He was leaning towards “bed” simply because he dozed off so often in it, but he thought that had more to do with his schedule than his age. At least, so he hoped.
“Father?”
At that, he was wearing more than most of the people here. Many walked around in clothing that seemed made mostly of strings. While it was an interesting view, he imagined it must be uncomfortable to walk in. Considering how warm it was, most of the San had picked up the local fashion quickly, although a lot of the tourists still considered them pretty conservatively dressed.
Last time he was on a beach like this it was with Hyeshi. Her clothing had been just about as minimal as his, and while he certainly didn't mind the view it had also been easier to see that she was showing with Ellisan.
Mogan had spent some time on the various types of watercraft, and even some of the small fliers, although he took it easy with those—not like Ellisan, certainly—but his schedule was too busy for most of that.
“Father!”
Mogan snapped out of his doze. “Sorry. What is it?”
“They've returned. The... ones... that were escorting the guests.” Even here, she was more careful about references to warriors or soldiers than most.
“Good. They're a day or two late, but I forgot sometimes how slow those guys travel.”
“And everything is fine. Nothing that really needs to be worried about.”
Mogan caught the hesitation around 'really,' heaved a sigh, and sat up.
“It can wait; you're wearing yourself out fixing everything here!”
“Did somebody do something stupid?”
Ellisan sighed. “Yes.”
“Is it something that will cause us trouble?”
She paused. “...Probably.”
“Then I can't just leave it.”
“Maybe, but you've got to delegate at least some of it. You didn't come home last night until almost morning. Breaking up the fight at the Seafront, dealing with the two idiots who got cheated in gambling at the Moonsrise, and then stopping that incident when some fool tried to start some bets on fighting.”
At least she didn't know about the two people he had to carry home because they were too drunk to move.
“Plus those two people you had to carry home because they were too drunk to move!”
Damn it.
“It's getting better.”
“It is.” Ellisan nodded. “They're not stupid, just not used to any of this. But you've done more than enough work. You should be out here enjoying yourself, not catching up on your sleep because you were cleaning up other people's messes all night.”
“Can't. There are two thousand people here, Ellisan, and they've all been through blood and fire the last few months. Most of them are drinking too much, but I don't know how to just cut them off. Tonight there'll be another fight at the Seafront—the owner doesn't care how many fights there are as long as he makes money selling drink. And there was almost a fight down at the walk, over the women offering... services... there. I'll need to be there part of the night. And—”
“And someone else will.”
“The chieftains are already busy.”
“Then tell someone else off,” she continued relentlessly. “Inton, that guy isn't stupid—let him handle the Seafront. And Burjit is the galaxy's premiere expert at dealing with men's stupidity; she can handle the walk just fine. Half of the time you know who the problem people will be, so find something to keep them busy instead of doing something stupid.”
Mogan sighed, defeated. “Alright. I'll delegate away all the hot spots for tonight. But for now, I have to see what this problem is.”
Ellisan shook her head, but lead him to the small gathering area under a few tents where the chieftains were relaxing. Mogan noted that they didn't look nearly as tired as he, which he found irritating. Burya nodded to him.
“I told you you didn't need to take care of every problem, Mogan. None of them tonight. For now... Have a seat. This should be interesting.”
Mogan wasn't sure he liked the way Burya said “interesting.” It sounded a bit like the way Ellisan had said “really.” But he sat, and someone handed him a drink that tasted something like fruit juice. Ellisan wasn't sent away. What her status was now, nobody knew, but she'd obviously saved enough lives to earn a spot in the circle. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, and then Logog spoke.
“I presume everyone is familiar with my hunter Chadnov?”
“He's not the sharpest spear in the quiver,” Skalli nodded. “But he's certainly the biggest.”
Logog sighed. “That's the one. He was with the escorts. And over the next six days they traveled, everybody spent a lot of time talking. Sort of got to know each other, and...”
“And one of the soldiers is with child, isn't she?” Skalli snorted.
“We didn't know this was possible!”
Ellisan stared at Logog, raising an eyebrow. “You didn't know that humans and Sylfa could breed?” Her lower set of arms waved. “What in the Frozen Valley do you think these are: antlers?”
Logog snorted, trying not to laugh. “It wasn't a Sylfa, Ellisan.”
“There weren't many Shawing there, but they're good people in general.” Mogan nodded. “We should speak to her.”
“It... um... She, uh...” Logog was staring intently at the sand between his toes. “She's not a Shawing either.”
There was a horrified silence, that extended for two full minutes before it was broken by Ellisan's horrified giggle.
“Well....” Mogan paused. “Let's, uh, let's bring in the happy couple.”
“Her name is apparently Karshta,” Logog said, “one of the blade-walls. It seems the Sovereignty will pay them for having Meht children. They're generally considered stupid, so even though their Meht are smaller they're considered to sort of have the best of both worlds. I think we can all agree we don't want the Sovereign to find a Meht with that kind of power and our.... traits.... yes?”
Mogan chuckled. “Too bad Akin isn't here. He really wanted to do a wedding for someone. Still, if she wants to mix her strength with someone else's intelligence, she might have wanted to pick someone... different.”
“The situation is what it is, not what we'd rather it be.” Burya shrugged. Mogan swore he sounded more like an old man than any of the old men present. “But if she's up to it, a marriage would be a good way to solve the problem. She stays with us so the child doesn't end up in the Sovereignty's hands, we get her contributions, and Chadnov has a wife three times his height to keep him from getting a roving eye.”
The others voiced their agreement, and a runner was sent for the happy couple.
They were a nervous couple when they arrived, the man ahead of the Mantu. Chadnov was a huge man, easily the tallest and heaviest of the San. Mogan was of average height, and he didn't even come up to the man's shoulder. He probably weighed twice what Mogan did, for that matter, and he doubted any of it was fat. He had often amused the children—and the ladies—by lifting whatever seemed heavy: barrels, logs, stones, vehicles, prey, whatever couldn't run away. In hunts, he was often known to cast his spear straight through an animal so hard that it stuck into the ground or trees several yards behind it. Mogan wasn't completely sure who was the stronger of the pair. Or the smarter.
Karshta looked fairly petite for a Mantu, which meant that she was a little less than three times his height and probably weighed a little less than a bison. Her legs were bent, but he doubted they could straighten much more, at least not enough to stand any taller, and her feet were three-toed and longer than a spear, with claws that dug into the sand as she walked. A heavy tail trailed behind her, occasionally brushing the ground, and Mogan had no doubt that even without the armor they wore it could be a definite hindrance to any combatant behind her. Her hands were also three-fingered, like her feet. Mogan had thought of her as much like that strange and fearsome lizard he had fought back on New Klon, but those had tiny, useless arms, with sharp claws that were probably never used. Karshta's arms were so long that they almost reached the ground, and while the three fingers, one opposable, had claws, they were clipped and smoothed.
She had a longer neck than any human, or most animals he had seen, but not exactly snake-like, and her muzzle was more than a foot and a half long, big enough that she could probably grab a human by the waist and powerful enough that she could then touch her teeth together. Four eyes marked the front of her head, and two more closer to the sides, smaller ones.
It was a certainty that if Chadnov's attentions were not welcome, she could have made him aware of this in a fashion that left no room for confusion and little for healing. What wasn't certain was just how they had managed in the first place, but Mogan shook his head. That way led to the madness of the Auels.
He was amused to find three of the others shaking their heads as well. What had attracted Chadnov was also something of a mystery. Her own clothing was of the three-strings variety, but she had no breasts, nor hips, and the shape of her legs was mostly the shape of a lizard's legs.
“Welcome, Chadnov and Karshta.” The way Ansam paired the two, as if he was stating one name rather than two, was certainly deliberate. “This will take some time, and we don't want you to be any more uncomfortable. Sit, relax.”
The two sat, looking somewhat nervous. For Karshta, it simply meant folding her legs under her, although Chadnov sat cross-legged.
“Now,” Ansam began. “Rumor has it that you're expecting.”
“Expecting what?” The two spoke together, and brought another moment of stunned silence to the circle.
The silence stretched, as they stared at the two and the two stared at them, with growing expectation, until finally Ellisan broke it.
“The baby?”
“Oh. Yes, I will be giving birth.”
Mogan nodded. “Well... why don't you start with that? Do you lay eggs?”
Karshta seemed offended, but she told them. Apparently Mantu birthed live young, often three or four at a time but usually just one or two for their Meht, after a pregnancy of nearly a full year. While other species often looked down on their Meht, Mantu valued them immensely. This was only in part because the Sovereignty offered a hefty payment, and in part because Meht were able to get jobs that most other species could not. Mantu were often the heavily-armored barrier for Sovereignty armies—blade-walls, they were called—but were often not intelligent enough to manage vehicles or guns. Mantu Meht could carry massive weapons, or carefully pack and load valuable goods, or even serve as police forces or intimidating guards with far less chance of mishaps.
They did not have milk, but the babies were immediately able to eat mashed meat; they were apparently like dogs in that they were generally carnivores but could eat some plants. And perhaps because they had less brain to develop, they grew to adulthood in a shorter time. This made Chadnov quite nervous until he discovered that she was in her nineteenth year, and they usually lived to their sixties.
“And you're certain that Chadnov here is the father?”
Chadnov winced, but Karshta nodded. “He is a cute little thing.” Chadnov winced again.
“Well!” Ansam nodded. “Congratulations to the both of you, then.”
Chadnov's eyes widened in horror as he continued. “That means, of course, that our people have certain duties. We'd like you to come with us, Karshta.”
“You'll need help raising your children now,” Mogan added, “and we can do the marriage right here, if you'll take him.”
“You are referring to... a husband? A... human husband?”
Chadnov stared, and they could almost hear the wheels creaking as they turned. The hunter could refuse the wedding, of course. But “of course” meant the same as “really” and “interesting” in this case—it would be the end of his reputation and his aspirations. He would have a hard time leading anyone, joining hunting parties, or getting near a woman again if it was known that he had gotten a woman with child and abandoned her. All he could hope for was that she would refuse him, and by the look of it that wasn't going to happen.
“And all of your children will be Meht. Here's hoping you have many.”
The smile she turned upon her new fiance was downright predatory, and Chadnov found himself chuckling.

Here is the first chapter of The Chieftainess’ Reincarnated Wife. It will be for a more mature audience. Especially, the dreams (memories). Please enjoy and tell me what you all think:
The Chieftainess’ Reincarnated Wife
Fate’s Call
779 A.C. Scandinavia, Skinwalker Clan Stronghold
Two women stood outside the great hall as their servants and advisors looked over their dresses and appearances one last time. They wore their crowns. One had dark ginger hair with dark bright eyes. The other had dark blonde hair and bright white eyes. When given the approval, they looked in each other’s eyes and smiled at each other.
The blonde asked, “Are you ready for this, my Chieftainess?”
Chieftainess replied, “Yes, my Queen. We should get this over with.” The Chieftainess looked at the high advisor before she continued. “High Advisor, announce us.”
The High Advisor put his fist across his chest. “As you command, Chieftainess.” The High Advisor said.
He turned and walked towards the doors of the great hall as the guards opened them. He walked to the center of the room as those already in the great hall became silent and looked towards him.
The Chieftainess and her Queen walked in the main hall as he began to speak. “I present to you all Chieftainess Elsha Ulfsdottir, the daughter of wolves, most favored by Lord Odin, the shield breaker, and first of her name. As well as Queen Chara Frydenlund the faithful and last of her name.” The High Advisor said.
Elsha and Chara made their way to the two thrones sitting at the far end of the great hall. Those in the room would salute them as they passed by. When they made it to their thrones, they turned to face everyone, and they sat down. The High Advisor approached them.
Elsha said, “Let’s get this started, High Advisor.”
“As you command, Chieftainess. I present to you Birger Unfrid the Brave.” The High Advisor said.
Birger Unfrid walked and stood in front of Elsha and Chara. He saluted them.
Elsha said, “I know why you are here, Birger. You come to fulfill the oath that the former Chieftain had with
your father to give him our blessings for and expedition to find lands across the great sea. Your father passed away, and you are going to fulfill that dream. To honor the oath, I give you my blessings for your expedition and may Lord Odin himself watch over your endeavors.”
“I appreciate your blessings, Chieftainess, but I think you are mistaken in the oath that your father gave to mine.” Birger said.
“Mind your tongue, whelp.” The High Advisor said.
“I mean no offense towards you or your queen, Chieftainess. The oath was that he would lend his entire fleet and able bodies to the expedition.” Birger said.
Elsha raised her hand to silence everyone as she spoke, “I along with my queen and advisors will review the oath. If it is as you say that it is, I will lend to your expedition our entire fleet. Also, the entire clans, including my queen and myself, will accompany you and your clan on this expedition of yours. If not, you will leave my great hall with my blessings alone. You shall have our answer in three days. You and your kin are welcomed to stay until then.”
“Thank you, Chieftainess. I look forward to your answer.” Birger said as he saluted and started to leave.
Elsha said, “Oh, one more thing, Birger. If we do this, your clan must pledge allegiances to my queen and I alone. We are in charge, and everyone will listen to us. Do I make myself clear?”
Birger was shocked. “Yes, Chieftainess. It will be as you command.” Birger quickly replied before he saluted once more and left with his kin.
The great hall doors shut.
Present Day, Tokyo, Japan, An apartment
There was a sudden knock on a bedroom door. A girl groaned as she slowly woke up. She looked at the time and it was eight thirty in the morning. She reached over and grabbed her inhaler and took a couple deep breaths from it.
“Ohayo, Chaisa. Happy birthday. I know that it is summer break, but we have an important visitor who has legal matters with all of us. Please, get dressed and come to the kitchen as soon as you can.” The woman at the door said.
Chaisa groaned in protest and said, “Ohayo and ariagatou, Okasan. I will be there in a few minutes.”
“Hurry up and don’t forget to take your pills.” Chaisa’s mom said.
Chaisa screamed as she got out of bed, “I won’t forget!”
Chaisa quickly got dressed and put on her glasses. She went to the bathroom and filled a cup with water. Chaisa took a sip of water and swallowed her pills. She brushed her teeth and combed her hair. Chaisa headed towards the kitchen where she could hear her mother talking to a man. For some reason, the voice sound familiar to her. She walked to the dining room and was stunned when she saw the man. He looked exactly like the man from her dream. Except, he had a business suit on and not a Viking outfit. Chaisa noticed that her little sister was holding a black stone with some type of symbol on it. When her little sister saw her, she put the stone on the table and ran over to her. She hugged Chaisa around her waist and looked up at her.
“Ohayo, Onee-Chan. Happy Birthday!” Chaisa’s sister said as she smiled brightly at her.
Chaisa smiled as she hugged her sister back and said, “Ohayo, Akahana-Chan. Thank you.”
“He, he, he,” Akana laughed.
“Good morning, Chaisa. I am sorry to bother you on this important day. Let me introduce myself. I am Birger Unfrid, and I have come a long way to meet you and your family.” Birger took a deep breath before he continued. “Kaede, would you please hold the stone for one moment, please?” Birger said.
“Umm…sure. I would be happy to.” Kaede replied as she picked up the stone.
She held it in her palm with the symbol facing her. After a few moments of nothing happening, Kaede handed the stone back to Birger. He took it from her and looked at Chaisa while she couldn’t help from feeling a sense of Deja-vu. Chaisa noticed that he was staring at her.
“Chaisa, don’t be rude. Come and sit down with us.” Kaede said as she looked at her.
Chaisa blushed and said, “Oh right. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
Chaisa sat down and put her hands on her lap as Akahana stood between Chaisa and Kaede.
Birger held out the stone to Chaisa. “I know that this might seem unusual. Please, humor me for a moment by holding this stone for a few minutes before we get started with why I am here.” Birger said.
Chaisa looked at her mother. Kaede nodded. She sighed as she slowly took the stone out of his hand and held it in her right hand. She was drawn to look at the weird symbol on the stone. Chaisa was amazed with how familiar the stone felt and looked, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. Suddenly, the symbol began to pulse as she felt a slight pain in her forehead. The stone started to turn a milky color before shinning a bright white light. Chaisa blinked, and the stone was back to normal. She looked at Akahana and Kaede, but they didn’t seem to notice. She looked at Birger as she reached out to hand the stone back to him. Chaisa noticed the shocked look on his face like he did notice. He took the stone from her as he set his briefcase on the table. Birger opened it and put the stone up before he pulled out some papers and a pen. He set the briefcase aside as he put the papers down in front of him. Then, he looked at Akahana, Chaisa, and Kaede.
Birger folded his hands on top of the paper. “I really do appreciate you welcoming me into your home, and I want to apologize once more for the unannounced visit to your home.” Birger said.
Kaede waved her hand. “There is no need to apologize. I am sorry for the state of my home. It must be quite a mess. You said that you had business concerning my late husband.” Kaede said.
“Yes, of course. I want to extend my condolences for the loss of your husband. I am sure that he was a loving husband and father. But I am sorry for the confusion. The business doesn’t pertain to him specifically, but a distant relative of his who recently passed away. How much do you know about his family?” Birger said.
“I appreciate your kind words. He was a very loving husband to me and cared for our daughters very much.” Kaede paused for a second as she thought before she continued. “I really don’t know much about his family line. He said that he came from Scandinavia or something like that. He never called them, and they never came to visit. Why do you ask?” Kaede replied.
Akahana climbed onto Chaise’s lap as they continued to listen to them speak.
“It is true that he and much of his direct family lived in Scandinavia for a long time. But he had a
Distant relative who lived in Canada that was rich and owned a considerable amount of land. That relative recently passed away from an unknown illness, and they left your family their entire fortune, home, and land. However, there are some criteria that must be met before all of it will be passed on to you all.” Birger replied.
Chaisa interrupted by asking, “What are those criteria that you referenced?”
Birger looked at Chaisa. “The criteria is that you all agree to move to Canada to become the legal landowners. The fortune will also be signed over to you all as well at that time.” Birger replied.
“What happens if we refuse to accept these conditions?” Kaede asked.
Birger shifted uneasy in his seat as he looked at Kaede. “The money will be seized by the local government, the home torn down, land auctioned off, and the last of your husband’s legacy lost forever.” Birger said.
Chaisa asked quickly, “What if we say yes? Then what?”
Birger smiled as he looked at Chaisa and Akahana. “If you all agree; all of your and your father’s medical bills will paid in full. Your belongings will be shipped to your new home. You all will never have want or have to scrape by. You all will begin a new life in a new home and have servants who will take care of all of your needs.” Birger held the papers before he continued. “By signing these papers, you enter into a legal obligation to fulfill all of the conditions. Then, everything will be taken care of from there.” Birger replied.
“If I sign those, when would we leave?” Kaede asked.
“If you sign these, your all will be on a plane to your new home on Thursday morning. Then, the following Monday, you have a job interview with the mayor of the town.” Birger replied.
Chaisa asked, “Do we have to decide now, or do we have a few days to decide?’ “Unfortunately, once I leave your apartment today, the inheritance will be lost forever. So, I need your
answers today.” Birger stood up before he continued. “Pardon me. I need to use your bathroom to give you all time to decide.” Birger replied.
“Of course, take your time, and thank you.” Kaede said.
Birger waved at them before he closed the door and locked it. Chaisa and Kaede leaned towards one
another to get close.
“What do you all think?” Kaede whispered.
Chaisa whispered, “It will be tough for Akahana-Chan and me to leave everything that we know, and this sounds too good to be true. But… it would be great to see you a lot stressed out and worrying so much. It would also be good to know something more about dad’s past. I say… let’s go for it.’
“Me too.” Akahana said as she smiled brightly.
“Are you sure? You are almost a year from graduating high school.” Kaede whispered.
Chaisa nodded as she whispered, “I am sure, Okaasan. I think that a new place could be good for all of us to start over. Maybe, Canada will do all of us good.”
Kaede smiled. “I agree. We should go for it and leave all of our woes behind. I will tell him yes when he gets back. Would you like some coffee? I just brewed it before you got up.” Kaede said as she got up.
Chaisa smiled and replied, “That would be great. Thank you Okaasan.”
Kaede went to the kitchen and took out a mug out of a cabinet. She put creamer and sugar in the mug. Then, Kaede poured coffee into the mug before she stirred the coffee. She brought the mug to Chaisa as Birger unlocked and opened the bathroom door. He walked out towards the dining room. He sat down at the same time that Kaede did.
Birger looked at them. “So, what did you all decide on the matter?” Birger asked.
Kaede looked at Chaisa. She nodded, and Kaede looked back at him. “We have decided to accept the inheritance.” Kaede replied.
Birger smiled. “I am happy to hear that. I just need you to sign these papers.” Birger said as he passed the papers and pen to Kaede.
Kaede took the papers and pen away from Birger. She went over the paperwork as he went over the paperwork with her. Birger would point where Kaede would have to sign. After she was done
signing where she had to, Kaede passed the paperwork to him. Birger looked over the paperwork. When he was satisfied, Birger took the pen from Kaede. He put the paperwork and pen back into his briefcase, closed it, and grabbed it as he stood up. Kaede stood up as well.
Chaisa asked, “What now?”
“Now, you all must pack your bags for what you all will need to take with you. The movers and plane tickets will be sent over later today. I hope you have a great birthday, Chaisa, and best of luck in your new home.” Birger said.
Kaede began to walk Birger out the front door before Chaisa asked, “Wait, where are we moving to in Canada?”
Birger smiled. “I believe it is a little town called Hunangsfall.” Birger replied before he walked out the front door.
As he walked away, Kaede closed the door behind him. When he heard the door closed, Birger smiled and faded away. They decided to start to pack just in case it was true after they had finished eating breakfast. After they had cleaned up from breakfast, Kaede received a phone call from the hospital informing her that all of her medical bills had been paid for. They were shocked, so they started to pack in earnest. After lunch, a courier came with an envelope marked “Urgent”. Kaede opened it and found their plane tickets and itinerary. Kaede contacted their landlord, and he informed them that everything was already taken care of. She just needs to drop her keys off before they leave and wished them luck before they hung up. Chaisa began to help Akahana start to pack her bags, when they heard a knock on the apartment door. Kaede opened the door to discover a moving company was there to start to pack their belongings. Kaede, Chaisa, and Akahana finished packing their bags and watched over the packers. The packers were careful as they packed Chaisa’s father’s shrine and urn. Just before dinner, everything was packed in boxes and had been taken out of the apartment. They looked around their apartment and were amazed on how it looked so bare and empty without all of their belongings in it. They had to throw out the remainder of the food, because they had nothing to cook it with. They decided to eat out as it was Chaisa’s birthday, and it was their last night there. Kaede wanted to let. Chaisa decide where they eat at, but she decided to let Akahana decide. They ate at Burger Palace, and each got a slice of pie for Chaisa’s birthday. When they got home, Chaisa and Akahana took turns calling their friends to let them know that they were moving the next day. Chaisa wrote down her friends’ social media information and helped Akahana get her friends’ numbers. It was soon time for them to go to bed. They changed, brushed their teeth, and Chaisa took her pills as Kaede set an alarm clock for them to get up on time. Then, Chaisa and Kaede laid out a blanket for them to share that evening. Akahana laid down between Chaisa and Kaede. Chaisa put her glasses where she could reach them, but they were safe from harm. They told each other good night. Akahana was the first person to fall asleep. Soon, Kaede had fallen asleep. But, Chaisa felt like she would never fall asleep before it was time to go to the airport. Her eyelids slowly became heavy, and she slipped into a vivid dream.
779 A.C. Scandinavia, Skinwalker Clan Stronghold
Elsha and Chara laid cuddling in bed with just a thick fur blanket covering them. Elsha noticed that Chara was having trouble following asleep. Elsha looked at Chara and kissed her lips.
Elsha was concerned as she asked, “What troubles your heart so much that keeps you from fallen asleep, my love?”
Chara nuzzled Elsha as she replied, “It’s this whole exploration. I don’t know if it was wise of us to accept it.”
Elsha asked, “What do you mean? The High Father Odin has personally blessed our voyage.”
Chara replied, “I know and that’s not what bothers me. Everyone knows that the world is flat and is surrounded by a vast ocean. What if we sail and find nothing but endless ocean or the edge of the
world. Then, our voyage would be for not.”
Elsha silently rubbed Chara’s back before she responded, “It could happen and most likely be true. We sail for eternity and eventually come to Jörmungandr. We would just turn around and come back home knowing more about our world than ever before.” Elsha paused before she continued. “However, what if there is more out there than we could ever expect. What if we find new lands during our travels and new people to blunder. It would make us the first of our kin to sail farther than anyone else ever has. Wouldn’t that be worth it?”
Chara smiled as she sat up to look down at Elsha. Her hair fell around her face, and they giggled before Chara kissed Elsha’s lips. She replied, “Yes, it would be worth it. Besides, we gave Birger our oath. If we back out now, we will be known as oath breakers and be cursed by the gods for all time.”
Elsha smiled as she brushed Chara’s hair out of her face before flipping her onto her back. Chara laughed as Elsha climbed on top of her. Their bodies touching each other’s as they passionately kissed. Some time later, they were cuddling once more as they breathed heavily and were covered in sweat. Elsha laid behind Chara as she kissed the tattoo going sown her back.
Chara said as she sighed happily, “I love you, my Chieftainess, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth.”
Elsha smiled and said, “And, I love you, my Queen, and I will walk with you the entire way to the edge of eternity.”
They soon fell fast asleep as they held each other close.
Present Day, Tokyo, Japan, the next morning
Chaisa woke up groggily the next morning from the sound of Kaede’s alarm clock going off. They slowly woke up as they got up. Chaisa used her inhaler and took her medicine. She went to the bathroom and got dressed. Chaisa helped Akahana get ready as Kaede was getting ready as well. Chaisa put on her glasses before she packed all of her stuff away. They made sure that they had everything packed and wouldn’t leave anything that they would need before they grabbed their stuff and walked out of the apartment. Kaede closed the door behind them and locked it for the last time. They made their way downstairs where Kaede placed their keys into an envelope with their apartment number on it. Then, she placed the envelope in the drop box. They walked out to the street and made their way to the subway. They got on the subway train and rode it to Tokyo International Airport. When it arrived, they got off the train and made their way into the airport. They went to the check in station and checked in their check in luggage at the counter. Then, they went through security and made their way to their terminal. They realized that they still had some time before boarding call, so they made their way to a Konbini to get breakfast. Shortly after they had eaten, it was boarding time. They realized that their tickets were first class, so they loaded first. They had three seats near a window. Akahana wanted to sit near the window. So, it was Akana, Chaisa in the middle seat, and Kaede had the isle seat. They followed all instructions as they put their seatbelts on.
Chaisa asked, “Akahana-Chan, are you excited about your first time to fly in an airplane?”
Akahana looked at Chaisa as she smiled brightly. “Yes, Onee-Chan. I am very excited.” Akahana said.
Chaisa smiled and said, “That’s good. Me too.” Chaisa looked at Kaede before she continued. “What about you, Okaasan?”
Kaede looked at Chaisa and Akahana as she smiled. “I am excited because you two are excited. But this isn’t my first time flying. I have flown from one side of Japan to the other, but this is my first time out of Japan.” Kaede replied.
Soon, the pilot’s voice could be heard over the airplane’s intercom system as the plane backed out of the terminal. The flight attendants checked everyone’s seat belts, seats, and tray tables as the airplane approached the runaway. Then, they made their way to their seats and buckled in. The airplane began to gain speed as it barreled down the runway. Soon, it lifted off of the ground and climbed higher in to the early morning sky as it climbed higher and higher. It flew towards the west with the rising sun behind them. After forty-five minutes, the flight attendants came around with refreshments. Chaisa started to feel motion sickness and just wanted a seltzer. When the seltzer arrived, she used it to take her motion sickness pills. Chaisa put her glasses on her tray table before she leaned her seat back. Akahana started to watch a movie, and Kaede read a book as Chaisa slowly fell asleep while listening to calming music. She was soon dreaming once more.

Please note what items from my list you are interested in when commenting.
Please also pay attention to what system you are looking at as there are sections of Japanese (NTSC-J) games
Have
Working systems come with necessary cables and controller unless otherwise stated.
Systems/Handhelds

System	Notes
PS1 1001 fat
PS1 7501 fat
PS1 7501 fat
PS2 fat
PS2 fat
Sega Model 2	rf, power, oem 6 button controller
Sega Model 2	rf, no power cable, oem 3 button controller.
Sega Model 2
Sega Model 3	no av cable. 3rd party controller, 6 button
32x
Black gamecube	3rd party controller
Wii U	screen light scratches. all cables, dock, sensor bar
Wii U	gamepad right joystick issues. all cables, dock, sensor bar
Xbox 360 S R2D2	C3P0 controller, kinect, 320gb
Wii RVL-001	Eject button doesn't click, but does work
TurboGrafx Express	Includes tv tuner, car charger
PSP Black 1001	includes oem charger, soft case. battery holds charge
Original DS Blue NTR-001	rough shape. screens are pretty scratched
3DS XL Red	Overall good condition. Screens have no visible scratches. OEM charger, sd card, and carrying case
PS Vita Dev Kit PDEL-1000	Great condition. On 3.570.011 FW currently. No charger included

Atari Jaguar Games

Game	Notes
Raiden	sealed
Fever Pitch Soccer	sealed
Zool 2	sealed
Theme Park Designer Series	sealed
Skiing and Snowboarding	sealed
Zoop	no manual
Cybermorph	sealed
Doom	manual cover seperated
Troy Aikmen Football	cib - box in below average condition
Pinball Fantasies	no manual
Rotary controller w/ Tempest cart	Tempest is setup, ready. Rotary installed in place of dpad
Super Burnout	cart only
Ultra Vortek	cart only
Alien vs Predator	cib
Ruiner pinball	cib
Cannon Fodder	cib
Wolfenstein 3D	cib
Towers II	cib
Flip Out	cib. box has some liquid damage
Bubsy	cib
Checkered Flag	cib
Worms	cib
I-War	cib
Attack of the Mutant Penguins	cib
Brutal Sports Football	cib
Hover Strike	cib
Rayman	cib
Zero 5	cib
International Sensible Soccer	cib
Flashback	cib
Dino Dudes	cib
Dragon Bruce Lee Story	cib
Missile Command 3D	cib
White Ment Can't Jump	cib
Kasumi Ninja	cib w/ headband
Supercross 3D	cib
Club Drive	cib
Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy	cib
Fight for Life	cib
Power Drive Rally	cib
Atari Karts	box only

CIB for TurboGrafx includes jewel case, not outer cardboard box unless noted
TurboGrafx Games

Game	Notes
Alien Crush	cart only
Keith Courage	cart only
Power Golf	cart only
Turrican	cart only
World Class baseball	CIB
Victory Run	CIB
Vigilante	CIB
TV Sports Hockey	CIB
Keith Courage	CIB (no comic)
Bonks Adventure	CIB

For carts with manuals, I am willing to sell manuals/carts independently. Not seperating boxes and manuals.
NES Games

Game	Notes
720
1942
10 yard fight	5 screw
A Boy and his Blob
Adventure Island
Adventures of Dino-Riki
After Burner	tengen cart
Air Fortress	sticker on label
Airwolf
Arch Rivals
Astyanax
Back to the Future	bad condition. appears to have spray paint on front of cart
Bad Dudes
Bad News Baseball
Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach
Baseball
Baseball Simulator 1000
Baseball Stars	sticker on label
Bases Loaded
Bases Loaded II
Bayou Billy
Bigfoot
Bill Elliott's Nascar Challenge	Box + game, no manual
Black Bass
Blades of Steel	Box + game, no manual
Blades of Steel
Break Time National Pool tour	Box, manual, no game
Burgertime
California Games
Championship Bowling
Cobra Triangle
Commando	5 screw
Contra Force	comes with cart protector
Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder
Destination Earthstar
Super Dodgeball
Donkey Kong 3	5 screw
Donkey Kong Classics
Double Dragon	cart + manual
Double Dragon II
Double Dragon III
Double Dribble
Dr Mario
Dragon Warrior
Duck Hunt	5 screw
Ducktales	top of label damage. includes reg card
Dynowarz
Family Feud
Fantasy Zone	tengen cart
Magic Johnson Fast Break
Faxanadu
Fester's Quest
Freedom Force
Friday the 13th
Galaga: Demon's of Death
Gauntlet	tengen cart
Gauntlet
Golgo 13	cart + manual
Gotcha
Gradius	5 screw
Gyromite	5 screw
Heavy Barrel
Hogan's Alley
Hollywood Squares	sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, slightly visible)
Hoops	sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, but visible)
Hunt for Red October
Hydlide
Ikari Warriors II Victory Road
Infiltrator
Iron Sword
Iron Tank	cart + manual
Jack Nicklaus' Championship Golf	cart + manual
Jeopardy
Jeopardy 25th Anniversary
John Elway's Quarterback
Jordan vs Bird
Joust
Karate Kid
Kickle Cubicle
King of the Ring	cart + manual
Kings of the Beach
Knight Rider
Knight Rider
Legacy of the Wizard
Legendary Wings
Major League Baseball
Maniac Mansion	sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, but visible)
Marble Madness
Mario Bros Arcade Classics Series	5 screw
Mario Bros Duck Hunt
Mario Duck Hunt Track Meet
Mickey Mousecapade
Mighty Bomb Jack
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
Milon's Secret Castle
Mission Impossible
MTV Remote Control
Narc
NES Cleaning Kit	CIB w/ box protector
NES Cleaning Kit	CIB w/ box protector
NES Play Action Football
Ninja Gaiden 2
Operation Wolf
Pac-man	tengen cart
Platoon
Pro Wrestling
Pro Wrestling	5 screw
Punch-out
Qbert
R.C. Pro-Am
Racket Attack
Rad Racer II
Rampart
RBI Baseball	tengen cart. includes reg card
Renegade
Roadblasters
Rollerball
Rolling Thunder	tengen cart
Romance of the Three Kingdoms	cart + manual
Rush'n Attack	5 screw. sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, but visible)
Section Z
Seicross
Sesame Street ABC
Silent Service
Silent Service
Simpsons Bart Vs the World
Skate or Die 2
Ski or Die
Solstice
Spy vs Spy
Star Force
Star Soldier	Box + game, no manual
Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Star Tropics	Box + game, no manual
Star Voyager	5 screw cart, manual, poster
Super C
Super Glove Ball
Super Mario Bros	cart + manual
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3	cart + manual
Super Off Road
Super Pitfall
Superspike V'ball
Sword and Serpents	cart + manual + poster
T&C Surf Designs
Talespin	top of label damaged
Target Renegade
Techmo Bowl	Cart + manual
Tecmo Super Bowl
Tennis
Terminator 2	Box + game, no manual
Terminator 2
Terminator 2
The Addams Family
The Fantastic Adventrues of Dizzy
Thundercade
Tiger-Heli
TMNT II Arcade Game
TMNT Manhattan Project	cart + manual
Top Gun
Top Gun Second Mission
Total Recall
Track & Field
Track & Field
Trick Shooting	CIB
Trojan
Twin Eagle	sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, slightly visible)
Vice Project Doom	label damage
Code Name Viper
Wheel of Fortune	sharpie on label (mostly cleaned, slightly visible)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Willow
Win Lose or Draw	writing on label
World Class Track Meet
Nintendo World Cup	Box, no manual - writing on front of box
Wrestlemania	cart + manual
Wrestlemania
Wrestlemania Challenge
Xenophobe
XEXYZ

SNES Games

Game	Notes
Aaahh Real Monsters
Aladdin
Arkanoid - Doh It Again!
Bass Tournament of Champions
Batman Forever
Battle Clash
Best of the Best Championship Karate
Bubsy
Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage
Championship Pool
Cleaning Kit
Clue
Cool Spot
Daffy Duck The Marvin Missions
Family Feud
Fifa International Soccer
Final Fight
Home Alone 2
Inindo	Label damage
Jeopardy
Judge Dredd	Some label damage
Jungle Strike
Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Run
King of the Monsters
Kirby Avalanche
Lethal Enforcers
Lion King
Looney Tunes Basketball	Label damage
Madden 94
Mega Man X
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat 3
NBA Give N Go
NBA Jam
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
NBA Live 95
NCAA Basketball
NFL Quarterback Club
NHL Stanley Cup
Nigel Mansell's World Championship
Operation Europe Path to Victory
Paperboy 2
Power Moves
Primal Rage
Revolution X	Not working. Contacts look very stripped.
Road Runner's Death Vally Rally
Scooby Doo Mystery
Space Invaders
Speedy Gonzales Los Gatos Bandidos
Spider-man and the X-men in Arcade's Revenge
Starfox
Street Fighter II	Faded label
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II turbo
Stunt Race FX
Super Bases Loaded
Super Battletank: War in the Gulf
Super Black Bass
Super Empire Strikes Back
Super Mario Kart
Super Pinball Behind the Mask
Super Play Action Football
Super Punch-Out
Taz-Mania
Tecmo Super Bowl
Tecmo Super Bowl III
Tetris 2
The Jungle Book
The Pagemaster
Tory Aikman Football
Warlock
We're Back A Dinosaurs Story
Wing Commander The Secret Missions
Word-Tris	Damaged Label
Zoop

N64 Games are cart only unless noted
N64

Item	Notes
Battle Tanx
F-1 Grand Prix
Gex 64
Madden 64
NFL Blitz
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire
War Gods
Wayne Gretzy 3D Hockey
Wipeout 64
N64 HoriPad Mini Black
N64 HoriPad Mini Yellow
N64 HoriPad Mini Red
N64 HoriPad Mini Blue
N64 HoriPad Mini Clear Ocean Blue
OEM Controller Gray
OEM Controller Atomic Purple
OEM Controller Ice Blue Clear
OEM Controller Black
OEM Controller Red
OEM Controller Watermelon Red Clear
OEM Controller Black & Gray
OEM Controller Blue
Hudson Turbo JoyCard Controller

Gamecube Games

Game	Notes
Bionicle	Disc only
Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex	Disc only
Fantastic 4	No manual
Fantastic 4	Disc only
Godzilla	Disc only
Harry Potter Goblet of Fire	Disc only
Harry Potter Prizoner of Azkaban	Disc only
Harry Potter Sorcerer's Stone	Disc only
Kids Next Door Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E	Disc only
King Kong	CIB
Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events	Disc only
Lord of the Rings Return of the King	Disc only
Madagascar	CIB
Mario Kart Double Dash Bonus Disc	disc only
Mario Kart Double Dash	No Manual
Mario Power Tennis	Disc only
Mario Superstar Baseball	No manual
Mega man Network Transmission	Disc only
Metroid Prime	Disc only
Monsters Inc Scream Arena	Disc only
Nascar Chase for the Cup 2005	Disc only
Nascar Thunder 2003	Disc only
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	CIB, Players Choice
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	Disc only
NFL 2K3	Disc only
One Piece Grand Adventure	Disc only
One Piece Treasure Battle	Disc only
Over the Hedge	CIB
Paper Mario Thousand Year Door	CIB, Players Choice
Rocket Power Beach Bandits	No manual
Scooby Doo Unmasked	CIB
Shrek 2	CIB
Shrek 2	Disc only
Sonic Heroes	Disc only
Spiderman 2	Disc only
Spongebob Lights Camera Pants	CIB
Spongebob Squarepants Creature from the Krusty Krab	CIB
Star War Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast	Disc only
Star Wars Rebel Strike Rogue Squadron III	Disc only
Taz Wanted	No manual
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Disc only
The Hobbit	Disc only
The Incredibles	Disc only
The Incredibles	Disc only
Wave Race Blue Storm	CIB

Wii Games

Game	Notes
AC DC Rockband Track Pack	CIB
Balls of Fury	Disc only
Bass Pro Shops The Strike Tournament Edition	Small sleeve version (no plastic case)
Batallion Wars 2	Disc only
Ben 10	No manual
Boom Blox	No manual
Cabela African Adventures	CIB - game art faded
Cabela Dangerous Hunts 2013	Disc only
Cooking Mama Cook Off	CIB
Cruis'n	Disc only
Dead Space Extraction	CIB
Disney Sing It Pop Hits	CIB
EA Active	CIB
Golden Compass	Disc only
Guitar Hero 3	CIB
Guitar Hero World Tour	CIB
Heavenly Guardian	sealed
Hollywood Squares	Disc only
Hot Wheels Battle Force 5	no manual
House of the Dead 2&3	Disc + manual
House of the Dead 2&3	CIB
House of the Dead Overkill	Disc only
Just Dance 2	sealed
Lego Batman 2	no manual
Mad World	CIB
Madden 11	CIB
Mario Super Sluggers	Disc only
Marvel Ultimate Alliance	CIB
MLB 2K10	CIB - game art slightly faded
Monster High Ghoul Spirit	Disc Only
Monster hunter 3 tri	No manual - art very faded
Netflix disc	Disc only
New Super Marios Bros	Case and manual only, no game
Ninja Reflex	No Manual
Pikmin	No manual
Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands	Disc only
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing	No manual
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing	Disc only
Redneck Jamboree	CIB
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles	CIB
Sonic All Stars Racing	CIB
Sonic Secret Rings	CIB
Sonic Unleashed	CIB
Spiderman Edge of Time	No manual
Spongebob Squiggleplants	No manual
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 Masters	CIB - art on front slightly faded
Trivial Pursuit	CIB
UFC Trainer	No manual
Ultimate I Spy	CIB
Wii sports	Disc + manual
World of Zoo	No Manual
Victorious Boxers Revolution	CIB

WiiU Games

Game	Notes
007 Legends	CIB
Disney Infinity 3.0	Disc only
Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams	CIB
Lego Avengers	CIB
Lego Movie	CIB
Mario Kart Wii U System Box	System Box + both tray inserts
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate	CIB
Pokken Tournament	CIB
Star Fox Zero + Guard	CIB w/ Outer box, actual games are sealed
Super Mario 3D World	CIB
Super Mario Maker	CIB w/ Outerbox + idea book
Tekken Tag Tournament 2	disc only
Twilight Princess HD	CIB
Wii Party U	CIB
Wii Sports Club	CIB
Windwaker HD	disc only
Xenoblade Chronicles X	CIB
Yoshi's Wooly World	Sealed

Switch Games

Game	Notes
Atelier Lydie & Suelle	PAL version - CIB
Bravely Default 2	CIB
Moonlighter	CIB
Sakuna Rice and Ruin Divine Edition	Sealed
Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack	CIB
YS 8 Standard Edition	Sealed

PS1 Games

Game	Notes
Air Combat	CIB GH
Asteroids	CIB
Breakout	CIB
Destruction Derby	CIB Longbox (cardboard)
Destruction Derby 2	disc only
Destruction Derby Raw	CIB
Driver	Missing Manual / Front art of Jewel Case
Driver 2	CIB
Frogger	Missing Manual / Front art of Jewel Case
Gran Turismo	CIB
Gran Turismo 2	CIB GH some cracks in case
Gran Turismo 2	CIB
IHRA Drag Racing	CIB
Interactive CD Sampler Pack Vol 3	Disc Only
Interactive CD Sampler Pack Vol 3	Disc Only
Invasion from Beyond	CIB
Iron & Blood	CIB
Jeremy McGrath Super Cross 98	CIB
Math Gallery Collection 1	disc only
Nascar 98	CIB
Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit	CIB GH
Pac-man World	CIB GH
Pong	CIB - case hinge kinda broken
Street Sk8ter	CIB
Striker 1945	Blockbuster sticker on disc
Syphon Filter 2	disc only (has discs 1 and 2)
Tomb Raider 2	CIB
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater	CIB
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2	CIB
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	CIB
True Pinball	CIB
Wheel of Fortune	disc only
Wipeout	CIB flat longbox americanized cover variant
World's Scariest Police Chases	CIB
You Don't Know Jack	CIB

PS2 Games

Game	Notes
007 Agent Under Fire	CIB
Acme Arsenal	disc only
American Choppers 2	CIB
ATV Offroad Fury 2	CIB
Blitz The League	disc only
Blowout	CIB
Bully	CIB
Cars	No manual
Dance Dance Revolution Super Nova	CIB
Dukes of Hazard	CIB
ESPN 2K5	CIB
Fight Night 2004	CIB
Final Fantasy XII	Disc only
Frogger The Great Quest	CIB
Gran Turismo 3	CIB
Gran Turismo 4	CIB
GTA 3	CIB w/ Map
GTA Liberty City Stories	no manual
GTA Vice City Stories	CIB w/ Map
GTA Vice City Ultimate Codes	CIB
Guitar Hero III	CIB
Jaws Unleashed	No manual - sharpie on front
Kengo	CIB
Lord of the Rings Two Towers	Disc only
Medal of Honor European Assault	Disc only
Nascar 06	Disc only
Nascar Dirt to Daytona	CIB
NBA Live 2005	Disc only
NCAA Football 07	Disc only
NCAA Football 2004	CIB
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	CIB
Need for Speed Most Wanted Black	CIB
Need for Speed Pro Street	CIB
Need for Speed Pro Street	Disc only
Need for Speed Underground	GH CIB
Need for Speed Underground 2	CIB
NFL Street 2	no manual
Pinball Hall of Fame	CIB
Pirates Legend of the Black Buccaneer	No manual
Rock Band	No manual
Sly 2 Band of Thieves	GH CIB
Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves	GH CIB
Sprint Cars 2	CIB
Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville	CIB
SSX 3	GH no manual
SSX On Tour	CIB
Test Drive Eve of Destruction	disc only
The Sims	Disc only
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 01	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 02	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 02	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 03	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 04	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 04	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 05	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10	CIB
Wave Rally	CIB

PS3 Games

Game	Notes
Assassin's Creed	CIB
Assassin's Creed	GH CIB
Assassin's Creed II	CIB
Assassin's Creed Revelations	Sealed
Batman Arkham City	CIB
Battlefield 3 Limited Edition	No manual
Battlefield 3 Limited Edition	No manual
Battlefield 4	CIB
Battlefield 4	CIB
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition	No manual
Beijing 2008	disc only
Borderlands 2	disc only
Borderlands 2	disc only
Borderlands 2	CIB
Brutal Legend	CIB
Call of Duty Black Ops	CIB
Call of Duty Ghosts	CIB
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2	CIB
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3	CIB
Call of Duty World at War	GH CIB
Dark Souls	CIB
Dark Souls	CIB
Dark Souls	CIB - Disc is greatest hits, case is regular
Dark Souls II	Disc is greatest hits, case is regular
Dead Space 3 Limited Edition	CIB
Destiny	CIB
Destiny	CIB
Def Jam Icon	Case and game, no manual
Demon Souls	CIB
Devil May Cry	CIB (art is sunfaded a bit)
Diablo 3	No Manual
Diablo 3	Disc Only
Dragon Age Inquisition	No manual
Dragon's Crown	CIB
Dragon's Crown	CIB
Duke Nukem Forever	Disc only
Duke Nukem Forever	Disc only
EA Active 2	CIB
Facebreaker	CIB
Family Game Night 4	disc only
Far Cry 3	CIB
Fifa 14	Disc only
Fifa 14	CIB
Fracture	disc only
God of War Ascension	CIB
God of War Collection	CIB
God of War III	CIB
God of War Origins Edition	CIB
God of War Saga	Sealed
Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition	CIB
Gran Turismo 5	CIB
Gran Turismo 6	no manual
Gran Turismo 6	Disc only
Grid	Disc only
GTA 4	GH CIB w/ map
GTA 4	GH CIB w/ map
GTA 5	no manual or map
GTA San Andreas	Disc only
Guitar Hero 3	CIB
Guitar Hero Live	CIB w/ dongle
Heavy Rain	Disc only
John Daly's ProStroke Golf	CIB
Kane & Lynch Dead Men	No manual
Killzone 2	CIB
Killzone 2	no manual
L.A. Noire	CIB
Lego Movie	no manual
Little Big Planet	GH CIB
Madden 13	Disc only
Madden 13	CIB
Madden 25	CIB
Madden 25	CIB
Madden 09	disc only
Madden 07	CIB
Mass Effect 2	CIB
Mass Effect 3	CIB
Metal Gear Solid 4	CIB
Metal Gear Solid 4	CIB
Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor	No manual
MLB The Show 12	Disc only
NCAA Football 09	Disc only
Need For Speed Rivals	Disc only
NHL 11	CIB
NHL 11	No manual
NHL 13	CIB
NHL 13	disc only
NHL 15	disc only
PlayStation Move	Disc only
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing	w/ Big Box, rod, game, and rod dongle/receiver
Ratchet & Clank Future A Crack in time	GH no manual
Ratchet & Clank Future A Crack in time	GH no manual
Ratchet & Clank Future A Crack in time	CIB
Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction	CIB
Resident Evil 5	CIB
Rock Band 2	CIB
Saints Row The Third	disc only
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments	CIB
Skylanders Giants	CIB
Skyrim	CIB GH (no map, unsure if GH had map)
Sly Cooper Thieves in Time	No manual
Smackdown vs Raw 2009	CIB
Socom 4	disc only
Soul Calibur 4	no manual
Sports Champions	CIB
Sports Champions	CIB
Start The Party	No manual
Tekken 6	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11	CIB
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10	no manual
Time Crisis 4	No manual
Timeshift	disc only (2x available)
Uncharted	CIB
Uncharted	GH No manual
Uncharted 2	no manual
Uncharted 2	CIB
Uncharted 2	CIB
Uncharted 2	CIB
Uncharted 3	CIB
Uncharted 3	CIB
Uncharted 3	CIB

PS4 Games

Game	Notes
Agents of Mayhem	disc only
Anthem	cib
Battleborn	disc only
Battleborn	disc only
Bayonetta Vanquish	CIB
Binding of Isaac	CIB
Bloodborne	CIB
Brunswick Pro Bowling	CIB
Call of Duty WWII	CIB
Cyberpunk 2077	CIB
Destiny 2	CIB
Deus Ex	disc only
Fifa 14	CIB
Fifa 15	CIB
Minecraft Story Mode	CIB
NHL 15	CIB
Nioh	CIB
Rock Band 4	Disc only
Spider-man	sealed
Ys VIII	disc only
Zombieland Double Tap	CIB

Original Xbox

Game	Notes
Outlaw Golf	CIB
LA Rush	No manual
Greg Hasting's Tournament Paintball	CIB
Madden 06	Disc Only
Lego Star Wars Video Game	No Manual
NFL Street	CIB
Roadkill	No Manual
Midtown Madness 3	No Manual
Flat Out 2	CIB
Grabbed By The Ghoulies	CIB

Xbox 360 - All collector's / limited editions are 100% complete. Many of the extras are still brand new or were kept in their box
Xbox 360 Games

Game	Notes
Army of Two 40 Days	Disc only
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood	CIB
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Collector's Edition	CIB
Assassin's Creed III Limited Edition	CIB
Battlefield 4	CIB
Big Bumpin	Sealed
Boderlands 2 Limited Edition Ultimate Loot Chest	CIB
Call of Duty Ghosts	CIB
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3	CIB
Dance Central 2	CIB
Dance Central 2	CIB
Dead Space 2 Collector's Edition	CIB
Disney Infinity 2.0	CIB
Disneyland Adventures	CIB
Disneyland Adventures	No manual
DJ Hero 2	CIB
DJ Hero 2	CIB
Elder Scrolls Oblivion Collector's Edition	CIB
Elder Scrolls Skyrim Collector's Edition	CIB
Fallout 3 Collector's Edition	CIB
Fifa 12	CIB
Fifa 12	CIB
Fifa 13	CIB
Fifa 14	CIB
Forza 3 / Halo ODST Double Pack	CIB
GTA V	No manual - only 1 insert
GTA V Collector's Edition	CIB
Just Dance 3	CIB
Just Dance 3	CIB
LA Noire	Discs only
Madden 25	CIB
Madden 25	no manual
MLB 2K13	CIB
MX Vs. ATV Alive	CIB
MX Vs. ATV Reflex	CIB
Naruto Rise of a Ninja	sealed
NBA Ballers Chosen One	No manual
NBA NK11	no manual
NBA NK13	CIB
NBA NK13	CIB
NBA NK13	no manual
NBA NK13	no manual
NHL 13	no manual
NHL 13	no manual
NHL 14	no manual
Pocket Bike Racer	Sealed
Rock Band 2	CIB
Shadow of Mordor	Discs and manual. No game art
Skate	No manual
Skate 2	Disc only
Skylanders Giants	No manual
Sneak King	Sealed
Soul Calibur IV	Disc only
Table Tennis	CIB
Tansformers War For Cybertron	No manual - art is sun faded
The Wolf Among Us	No manual
Tomb Raider Collector's Edition	CIB
Witcher 2	disc 1 only

Xbox One

Game	Notes
Doug Flutie's Maximum Football 2019
Dragonball Xenoverse XV
Fifa 14
Fifa 15
Fifa 15
Fifa 16
Madden 15
Madden 15
Madden 16
Madden 17
NBA 2k15
NBA 2k16
NHL 15
NHL 15
The Division	disc only
The Wolf Among Us
This is the Police
Wreckfest
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2
Tempest 4000
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

Sega CD Games

Game	Notes
Slam City	Box w/ all 4 Discs, no manual
Fifa Soccer	Case and manual, no game
Corpse Killer	CIB

PSP Games

Game	Notes
Daxter Greatest Hits	CIB
Jeanne D'Arc demo disc NFR	Sealed
Game shield cover	small umd protector (3x avail)
Monster hunter freedom	umd only
Spiderman UMD Movie	CIB
Star Wars Battlefront Elite Squadron	CIB
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force	CIB no cards

Amiibo are loose unless noteed
Amiibo

Amiibo	Notes
Wolf	SSMB

32x Games

Game	Notes
Moto Cross
Virtua Racing	Label damage

Super Famicom

Game	Notes
Chrono Trigger	CIB
Derby Stallion 3	cart only
Dragon Ball Z	CIB
Dragon Ball Z 2	CIB
Dragon Quest I & II	CIB
Dragon Quest III	CIB
Excite Stage 94	cart only
Excite Stage 96	cart only
Exhaust Heat	CIB
F1 Grand Prix Part 3	CIB
Family / Famista Stadium 4 Baseball	cart only
Fire Emblem Genealogy Of Holy War	CIB
Kirby Super Star	CIB
Motoko's Wonder Kitchen	cart only
Mountain Stream King Fishing	cart only
Pachi Slot Monogatari: Universal Special	cart only
Prime Goal 3	cart only
Rockman X2	cart only
Sim City 2000	cart only
Space Bazooka	CIB
Space Invaders	cart only
Street Fighter II	CIB
Super bomberman 2	cart only
Super Bomberman 3	CIB
Super Donkey Kong	cart only
Super Goal! 2 (aka Takeda Nobuhiro no Super Cup Soccer)	CIB
Super Kyukyoku Harikiri Stadium	cart only
Super Zugan 2	cart only
Yoshi's Safari	CIB
Yoshi's Safari	CIB

Japanese N64 Games

Game	Notes
1080 Snowboarding	CIB
1080 Snowboarding	cart only
Animal Crossing / Doubutsu no Mori	cart only
Baku Bomberman	cart only
Banjo Kazooie	cart only
Banjo Kazooie 2	CIB - excellent condition
Banjo Kazooie 2	CIB - small writing on front of box
Bass Tsuri No. 1 Shigesato Ito Fishing	cart only
Blast Dozer	cart only
Bomberman 2 Baku	cart only
Bomberman Hero	CIB
Custom Robo V1	cart only
Custom Robo V2	cart only
Densha De Go	cart only
Derby stallion 64	cart only
Derby stallion 64	CIB
Diddy Kong Racing	cart only
Donkey Kong 64	cart only
Donkey Kong 64	CIB
Donkey Kong 64	Big box - No expansion pak items (insert, pak, or box). Otherwise CIB
Doraemon 2 Temple of Light	cart only
Excitebike 64	cart only
F-Zero X	cart only
Famista Family Stadium Baseball	cart only
Famista Family Stadium Baseball	CIB
Ganbare Nippon Olympic 2000	cart only
Goemon Mystical Ninja	cart only
Goldeneye 007	cart only
Harvest Moon 2	cart only
Hey You Pikachu	Big box - CIB w/ VRU
Hey You Pikachu	Big box - missing inserts and smaller game box. Includes game + vru
Hey You Pikachu	cart only
Hiru No Ken Twin Flying Dragon	cart only
Human Grand Prix	cart only
Human Grand Prix	CIB
J League 1999 Perfect Striker 2	cart only
J League Perfect Striker	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2000	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2001	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 4	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 5	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 6	cart only
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 6	Boxed - no manual
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 6	CIB
Jikkyou World Soccer 3	cart only
Kirby The Crystal Shards	CIB
Kirby The Crystal Shards	CIB w/ extra control guide "hyper copy technique"
Kirby The Crystal Shards	cart only
Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask	cart only
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time	cart only
Magical Tetris Challenge Featuring Mickey	CIB
Mahjong Master	cart only
Mario Golf	cart only
Mario Golf	CIB
Mario Kart 64	cart only
Mario Party 1	cart only
Mario Party 2	cart only
Mario Party 2	Boxed - no manual
Mario Party 2	CIB
Mario Party 3	cart only
Mario Party 3	CIB
Mario Party 3	CIB
Mario Party 3	CIB
Mario RPG / Paper Mario	cart only
Mario Tennis	cart only
Mario Tennis	CIB
MRC Mutli-Racing Championship	cart only
Nushi Tsuri	CIB
Nushi Tsuri	cart only
Ogre Battle 64	cart only
Olympic Hockey 98	cart only
Ozumo Sumo Wrestling	cart only
Pilotwings	cart only
Pokemon Snap	cart only
Pokemon Stadium	cart only
Pokemon Stadium 2	Boxed - no manual
Pokemon Stadium 2	cart only
Pokemon Stadium Gold & Silver	cart only
Pro League 64 Baseball	cart only
Pro Mahjong Kiwame	cart only
Pro Yakyu King of Pro Baseball	cart only
Puyo Puyo Sun	cart only
Robot Ponkottsu	cart only
Shin Nihon Pro-wrestling Toukon Road Brave Spirits	cart only
Snowboard Kids	cart only
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer	cart only
Star Wars Rogue Squadron	CIB - outer box has some wear
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire	cart only
Starfox 64	cart only
Super B-Daman Battle Phoneix	cart only
Super Mario 64	cart only
Super Mario 64 Shindou / Rumble version	cart only
Super Mario 64 Shindou / Rumble version	CIB
Super Mario 64 Strategy Guide
Super Robot Taisen	cart only
Super Smash Bros	cart only
Super Smash Bros	CIB
Tamagotchi World	cart only
Tamagotchi World	Boxed - no manual
Transformers Beast Wars	cart only
Utchan Nanchan Flame Challenger	cart only
Wave Race 64	cart only
Wonder Project J2	cart only
Yoshi Story	cart only
Yoshi Story	CIB
Yoshi Story Strategy Guide

Japanese Wii

Game	Notes
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2013	CIB
Mario Strikers Charged	CIB
Wii Simple 2000 Series Vol 2 The Party Game	CIB
Donkey Kong Returns	No manual
Your First Step to Wii	No manual
Super Mario Collection	No manual
Mario Super Sluggers	No manual

Japanese Vita

Game	Notes
Dynasty Warriors Next	CIB
Exist Archive the Other Side of the Sky	CIB
Fate Extella	CIB
Fate Extella Regalia Box	Missing extras - Just LE box and Vita case + game
Freedom Wars	CIB
God Eater 2	CIB
God Eater 2 Rage Burst	CIB
Gravity Daze (Gravity Rush)	CIB - "The Best" version
Kaleido Eve	CIB
Legend of Heroes Blende of Locus II Limited Edition	CIB. CD still sealed
Monster Hunter Frontier G "Beginners Package"	CIB
Persona 4 Golden	CIB
Power Smash 4	CIB - "The Best" version
Professional Baseball Spirits 2013	CIB
Professional Baseball Spirits 2014	CIB
Ragnarok Odyssey	CIB
Soul Sacrifice	CIB
Super Robot Wars OG Taisen Saga 3 Pride of Justice	CIB
Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment	CIB
Sword Art Online Hollow Realization	CIB
Sword Art Online Lost Song	CIB
Sword Art Online Lost Song Limited Edition	CIB - game itself sealed
Uta No Prince Sama Repeat Love Premium Princess Box	Sealed
Utawareumono Mask of Truth	CIB

Wonderswan

Item	Notes
Beatmania	cart only
Beatmania	cart only
Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon	cart only w/ protector
Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon	cart only w/ protector
Detective Conan Case Closed	cart only
Digimon Adventure Anode Tamer	cart only
Digimon Adventure Cathode Tamer	cart only
Hataraku Chocobo	CIB
Mahjong Touryuumon	cart only w/ protector
Nice On Golf	CIB - sticker residue on front of box
One Piece "From TV Animation"	cart only w/ protector
Rockman & Forte	cart only w/ protector
Super Robot Taisen Compact	cart only w/ protector
Super Robot Taisen Compact	cart only w/ protector
Tarepanda no Gunpey	cart only w/ protector
Trump Collection	cart only w/ protector
Vaitz Blade	cart only w/ protector
Vaitz Blade	cart only w/ protector
Wonder Stadium 99	cart only w/ protector

Wonderswan Color

Item	Notes
Digimon Tamers Battle Spirit	cart only
Digimon Tamers Battle Spirit	cart only w/ protector
Digimon Tamers Digimon Medley	cart only
Final Fantasy	CIB
Final Fantasy	CIB
Final Fantasy	CIB
Final Fantasy	cart only w/ protector
Final Fantasy II	CIB
Final Fantasy II	CIB
Final Fantasy II	CIB
Final Fantasy II	CIB
Final Fantasy II	cart only w/ protector
Final Fantasy II	cart only w/ protector
Hunter x Hunter Determination	CIB
Hunter x Hunter Determination	cart only
Hunter x Hunter Determination	cart only
Inuyasha Kagome's Dream Diary	cart only
Kinnikuman Nisei Choujin Seisenshi	cart only
Mobile Suit Gundam Vol. 1 Side 7	cart only
One Piece Grand Battle	cart only w/ protector
One Piece Treasure Niji no Shima Densetsu	cart only
SD Gundam G Generation Mono Eye Gundams	cart only w/ protector
Shaman King Asue no Ishi	cart only w/ protector

Japanese PS1

Item	Notes
Arc the Lad I	CIB w/ Spine card
Arc the Lad I	CIB
Arc the Lad II	CIB w/ Stickers
Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu Art Truck Battle	CIB
Bastard Utsuronaru Kamigami no Utsuwa	CIB
Beatmania	CIB
Beatmania Append 4th Mix	CIB w/ Spine card
Beatmania Append Gotta Mix	CIB w/ Spine card
Bomberman Land	Manual + Disc + Blank jewel Case
Bomberman Wars	CIB
Breeding Stud	CIB w/ Spine card
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon	CIB
Cyber Sled	CIB
Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) 2nd Remix Append Club Ver 1	CIB
Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) 2nd Remix Append Club Ver 2	CIB
Densha De Go	CIB
Derby Stallion 99	CIB
Dragon Quest VII	CIB w/ Spine card
DX Jinsei Game II Game of Life	CIB
DX Monopoloy	No manual
DX Nippon Tokkyou Ryokou Game Let's Travel Japan	CIB
Fighting Illusion K-1 GP 2000	CIB
Final Fantasy Tactics	CIB
Final Fantasy V	CIB
Final Fantasy VIII	CIB
Fist of the North Star	CIB
Gekitotsu Toma L'Arc: Tomarunner vs L'Arc-en-Ciel	CIB
GPM Gunparade March	CIB
Gucho de Park	CIB
Gundam the Battle Master	CIB
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	CIB
Honkaku Mahjong Tetsumen Special	CIB "Best" version
Hots Shots Golf 2	CIB
I.Q Final	CIB
Itadaki Street Gorgeous King	CIB
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 95	CIB
Kawa no Nushi Tsuri: Hikyou o Motomete	Disc only
Kileak the Blood	CIB
Kouryuu Sangoku Engi	CIB
Martial Beat	CIB
Mingo Country Club Golf	CIB w/ Spine card
Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counter Attack	CIB
Monster Farm	CIB
Moon Remix	CIB
Pass Max 2	CIB
Pocket Fighter	CIB + Pocket fighter stickered memory card
Pop'n Music 6	CIB
Pop'n Music 6	CIB
Puyo Puyo 2	CIB w/ Stickers
Quest for Fame Aerosmith	Big Box Complete w/ Pick
Rockman X4	CIB
Rockman X5	CIB w/ Spine card
Rockman X6	CIB
RPG Maker 3	CIB
SaGa Frontier I	CIB
SD Gundam G Generation	CIB
Shin Super Robot Taisen	CIB
Simulation Zoo	CIB
Super Robot Wars F	CIB
Tales of Destiny	CIB w/ Spine card
Tales of Eternia	CIB
Tenchu Shinobi Hyakusen	CIB w/ Spine card
Tennis no Oji-Sama: Sweat and Tears	CIB
Tetsunoko Fight	CIB w/ Spine card
The Chess Simple 1500 Series Vol 9	CIB
The Crown is For You Baseball	CIB w/ Spine card
The Fifth Element	CIB
The King of Fighters 95	CIB
The Tetris SuperLite 1500	CIB
Thirteen of Black / Kuro No Juusan	CIB
Tokyo Majin Gakuen Gehoujou High School Limited Edition	CIB
Trap Gunner	CIB w/ Spine card
Wedding Peach Doki Doki Oironaosi	CIB

Japanese PS2

Item	Notes
Canvas 2 Rainbow Color Sktech	CIB
D.C. II P.S. Da Capo II Plus DX Box Set	CIB
Dragon Ball Z 3	CIB
Everybody's Golf 3	CIB
Final Fantasy XI Special Art Box	CIB
Gachinko Pro Yakyuu Professional Baseball	CIB
Gekikuukan Pro Yakyuu At the End of the Century 1999	CIB
Gundam Musou Special	CIB
Kamen Rider Blade	CIB
Kanokon: Esuii	CIB
Kao no nai Tsuki Select Story DX Edition	CIB
Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Let's Ansatsu!?	CIB
Mahjong Taikai III Millenium League	Disc only
Mobile Suit Gundam	CIB
Mobile Suit Gundam Climax U.C.	CIB
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed	CIB
Mobile Suit Gundam VS Z Gundam	CIB
Mobile Suit Gundam Z: AEUG vs. Titans	CIB
Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon DX	CIB
Mystic Heroes - Chou Battle Housin	CIB
Naruto: Uzumaki Ninden Chronicles	CIB
Onimusha	CIB
Puyo Puyo 2 Perfect Set	CIB
Ratchet & Clank	CIB
Ratchet & Clank 2 Going Commando (GaGaGa!)	CIB "The Best" version
Ratchet & Clank 3	CIB "The Best" version
SD Gundam G Generation Neo	CIB
SD Gundam G Generation Seed	CIB
SD Gundam G Generation Spirits	CIB
Shin Onimusha Dawn of Dreams	CIB
Soul Eater Battle Resonance	CIB
Sui Year Zun Sweet Season	CIB
Taiko Risshiden IV	CIB
The Prince of Tennis Smash Hit! 2	CIB
To Heart	CIB
Viewtiful Joe A New Hope	CIB

Japanese PS3

Item	Notes
Power Smash 3 Virtua Tennis	CIB
Tales of Vesperia	CIB - "The Best" version
Wining Eleven 2013	CIB

Japanese PS4

Item	Notes
Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online Limited Edition	CIB

Want
Pokemon game wants (NTSC/US)
GBC pokemon crystal cart
GBA pokemon fire red cart
DS pokemon pearl CIB or cart only
3DS Pokemon Ultra Moon CIB
Gamecube Pokemon Colosseum CIB (main game, not bonus disc)
PS5 Wants
Neptunia Reverse
Record of Lodoss Wonder Labyrinth
Returnal
Kena bridge of spirits
Star Ocean
Valkyrie Elysium
Potentially other PS5 Offers
Box/Case/Manual wants
2DS XL Pokeball Edition Box & Inserts only
Code of Princess EX - Switch Case
DS Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - case and manual
DS Chocobo Tales - case and manual
DS Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - case and manual
DS pokemon white 2 Case and manual
DS pokemon black - Case and manual
DS Shin Megami Tensai Devil Survivor 2 - Case and manual only
Harvest Moon DS - case + manual
New Nintendo 3DS XL Galaxy Edition Box & Inserts only
Mario & Luigi Dream League 3DS XL Box & Inserts only
Mario Power Tennis Gamecube - Case + Manual
Phantasy star 1 & 2 plus gamecube - manual only
Pikmin 2 gamecube - manual only
Pokemon Channel Gamecube - Case and Manual
3DS Pokemon Art Academy - Case and manual
Pokemon XY Red 3DS XL Box & Inserts only
Puppeteer PS3 - Manual only
Other wants
Capcom Fighting Collection - Switch
Chrono Trigger - DS complete with map or just the map
Dreamcast light gun - needs to be a US model that will work with house of the dead 2.
Enter the gungeon - Switch
F-Zero - Looks for Gamecube (cib for gcn) and N64 cart
Final Fantasy 1 - NES cart
Final Fantasy XI collectables - open to offers if you have any
Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - Switch
Fire Emblem games for 3DS
Ikaruga - Gamecube
Katamari Games - Looking for the Vita, Xbox 360, and PS2.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Switch
Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe - Switch
Legend of Zelda offers - open to offers on non explicitly stated zelda games, merch/items, etc.
Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks - DS CIB
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - Switch
Muramasa - PS Vita
Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol 1 - Switch
PS2 Light gun offers - looking for Light Gun games such as the time crisis series and a guncon for ps2.
Rabi-Ribi - PS4/Vita
Ratchet and Clank Quest for Booty PS3 (physical version, I think it's PAL exclusive)
Ratchet and Clank Vita Collection (physical version, I think it's PAL exclusive)
Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash All service edition - PS4
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - Switch
Tales Games for PS3 - Looking for Xilia 2 and Graces F
Tornado Outbreak - PS3
Virtual Boy - looking for a working system and some games (need system before game offers)
Wii U - Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - special edition
Wii U - HD Windwaker Limited Edition (the one with the figure/statue)
Ys games CIB (mostly looking for PSP and older)
Zone of the Enders HD Collection - PS3
In the rare event anyone has a IIDX DJ DAO Phoenix Wan controller they want to swap I am looking for one.
Looking to work towards complete collection for Wii U - feel free to send offers for Wii U games you may be looking to trade off. Only interested in CIB items.
Potentially open to PS3-5/Vita/PSP/N64/GCN/Switch/3DS/DS offers. I am primarily interested in JRPGs (especially action RPGs), 2D platformers/action games, arcadey games, schmups, beat em ups, etc., but feel free to send me a list to look at!
Willing to consider Pokemon TCG trades as well (English or Japanese, singles/slabs/sealed)
I am not interested in digital codes for games (primarily seeking to add to physical collection).

Build. (along is DELL 1907FP Monitor) used as a third monitor
Example of it happening.
The name of the error is a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. Either it blue screens immediately with no pause and immediately restarts upon freezing, as in the video, or it freezes on the BSOD screen and stays at 0% until I hold down the power button to restart it.
This happens when the device is under heavy loads such as call of duty or Minecraft. Usually does not happen while idling or when listening to YouTube or working on a spreadsheet.
This began happening after I moved. When transporting the PC I failed to remove the GPU from the mobo socket so it might have jiggled around while I was driving. Additionally, it is now powered through a power strip plugged into an extension cord plugged into the wall to a ground outlet that I grounded myself.
Notes:

PC is using ethernet (wifi crashed too)
I built it myself and never used the static wrist strap ever (I have one now)
PC plugged in same power strip as monitors
One monitor is prone to burn-ins
When initially building it I had to seat and reseat the GPU several times to eventually figure out the reason why my display wasn't lighting up was that I had the HDMI plugged into the mobo rather than the GPU (whoops!)
GPU utilization used to randomly spike when the PC was doing nothing (this stopped happening)
In the fall of 2021 (October) my SATA SSD fried while running several programs leaving no data left to recover. I switched to the m.2 that I now am using. Am wondering if this is an m.2 issue, and for whatever reason if my mobo is prone to blowing up SSDs.
SOMETIMES BUT NOT LATELY upon blue screening and restarting, it pretends to not know which device I want it to boot using. Although when I enter the BIOS settings and manually select my m.2 that always works fine.
The motherboard seems to intermittently find a USB that is plugged into the mobo directly and just fuck with it. It fucked with my wifi dongle where it couldn't download anything one day and then be fine the next; then that next day my mouse dongle wouldn't work.
No minidump file is written. The BSOD never advances past 0% if it stays on that blue screen rather than IMMEDIATELY restarting.

-----
I have tried:

Replacing CMOS battery
Putting a lego tower underneath GPU to prevent sagging
Cleaning
Reseating components (did not reseat CPU)
Actually applying thermal paste under the CPU rather than just using what the cooler came with
Updating every driver on this damn thing (including mobo)
Running chkdsk
Trying a different outlet
System scan

I'll suck your dick dry if you find a solution I swear to god

[OC] New World Order - Chapter Twenty One