Like what dose happen to Cj or Kandl.Dose grov street stay at the top or falls down again do ballas take over again.Dose an other gang take over not ballas.Who replaced Big Smoke and ryder.Dose Cj go to Las Venturas or San Fierro. Dose grov street expend to a city like San Fierro. Ic just a too good of a story to froget.

Not sure if this is the place to ask but my partner and I will be visiting by taking the ferry tomorrow, and staying for weekend. It seems there won’t be any ferries or flights out of PTown back to Boston until about Tuesday. Anyone know why this might be? The guy on the phone for CityExperiences didn’t explain the cancellations. I get Pride and the weather but any other recommendations on heading on out?

I'm from the US and hoping to visit Bolivia through the Chilean border around San Pedro-Uyuni.
I've been backpacking LATAM for 6 months now and don't travel with a plan or itinerary, so I'm just learning about visa requirements for Bolivia.
I was told mixed information and have researched mixed information about the Yellow Fever Vaccine. Some people say they didn't have it and were never asked for it, some have, and then some say Bolivia doesn't require it if your coming from certain countries/areas.
Can anyone give me some info/clarity on the immigration process for US citizens?
Thanks!

Disclaimer before I get going here that this is going to be long and verbose, because that's what I found to be the most helpful in my own research. I've labelled various sections to hopefully make this more digestible.

Preamble

When I started the long journey of pursuing GRS in February last year, I made extensive use of community resources to learn about the various procedures, surgeons, and methods out there. After narrowing down my choice to GRS Montreal, I continued browsing resources to learn about their team and what to expect. This was a huge help in soothing my anxieties and curiosities about surgery, and so as I am now nearly at the finish line, it feels right to give back to the community and share my experience.
In this first post, I hope to share what the process looks like as an Ontarian in the time leading up to surgery.

Beginning the process, February 2022

I am very fortunate to have a clinic in my city with a dedicated trans health care team that knows their stuff. Because of this, there was very little confusion in the application process. The first step would be to acquire provincial funding through OHIP; there are various requirements for this that you can look up, but I met all of them at the time. That being said, they were concerned that because I had an involuntary hospitalization last November, my mental health might disqualify me for funding, even though I was mentally in one of the best places I'd ever been by that February (new antidepressants that actually worked, started my path towards education again -- overall things were looking fantastic for me at this point). I was able to connect my psychologist with them to sort this concern out, but it was a very scary learning experience: you have to be in a good mental state for them to be satisfied to proceed with funding. There's probably something to be said about how messed up it is that dysphoria-induced suicidal thoughts can disqualify you from a surgery that resolves that dysphoria, but that's for another post.
By the end of March 2022, my application for provincial funding for OHIP was received by the Ontario Ministry of Health. Little did I know that this was going to take a while.

A really, really long time of waiting, March - October 2022

As is often the case with the Ontario health care system, OHIP applications for surgery funding were severely backed up in the wake of the pandemic. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this wait was brutal, and if you go to transontario posts from around this time you'll see a whole bunch of people stuck in the same boat where they were waiting nearly a year for the government just to respond to their funding applications. I frequently sent emails to the SRS program (you can reach them at [email protected]) asking about the status of my application, which ultimately wasn't super helpful, but they did tell me which months of the backlog they were working through at least. My application was eventually approved September 26th, 2022, but I wasn't told by anyone until I inquired again with the Ministry in mid-October. The good news is that this part of the process has seemingly improved quite a bit from when I had to do it. Applications seem to be approved in 4-6 months now, significantly more palatable than the 9-12 months that was often seen.
My advice for this part: once your application is in, try to put it to the back of your mind as best you can. Don't obsess over it like I did. Time passed fastest when I was just living my life, not constantly checking reddit and emailing the Ministry for updates. Only send emails once it feels like you should've gotten an update.

I Can't Believe It's More Waiting, October 2022 - April 2023

Before I get started here, I have to stress this was not Montreal's fault and was entirely caused by my own mismanaged expectations.
If you thought you were close to the finish line, bad news, bucko. You now get to wait on the preoperative team at GRS Montreal to evaluate your file. Once they've received your OHIP approval, they'll contact you to let you know that you have to send them a bunch of additional documents. These include:

• A health status form that has to be filled out by you and signed by a doctor
• An ID and preoperative questionnaire
• A consent form for use of images (NOTE: This is probably where a lot of the "NDA" misinformation comes from. This is basically them just asking if they can use pictures of your surgery results to show prospective patients [only people who are already approved, not randoms] and for the purpose of improving the procedure. You can decline this with zero problems, I said yes to it since I don't think there's anything you can really be identified through here and I wanted to help future patients.)
• Your letters of recommendation (you already have these by now if you were approved for OHIP, whoever you got them from just has to send them to Montreal too)
• Hormone therapy report provided by your prescribing doctor (no idea about the specifics of this one tbh, I just let my clinic handle it)
• Up to date list of medications from your pharmacy (you can just call your pharmacy to ask about this, they'll print out a sheet and then you can scan it and email it to Montreal)
• Two-sided scan of your provincial health card

Whew, that's a lot. Now, I prepared for this beforehand and had already send a lot of these documents during the OHIP waiting period because I was extremely antsy; don't do this. I ended up having to redo several forms because they ended up being too old. Only send them forms once they actually ask for the forms.
By the end of October, my file was sent to the pre-operative team for evaluation. I was told this would be a 6-10 month wait, which I thought was a really long estimate given I'd heard of other people being approved much faster. Nope, it actually took 6 months. I think this might have been because I misunderstood that some people getting approval faster were in the process for top surgery, but never looked into it too much. I got really antsy here and thought something was wrong when in reality it was completely fine; when they tell you 6-10 months, expect 6-10 months. I sent them way too many emails during this period because of how anxious I was (thanks for putting up with me, Brenda). Don't do this.

The finish line, May 2023

Late April 2023, I was sent an email from the pre-op team with a whole bunch of questions. This was basically to make sure that the information provided was still accurate, checking up on a few minor health concerns (I have asthma and chronic back pain, so they wanted to be sure those would be managed), checking surgery availability, making sure I'd have an okay environment to recover in, etc. Nothing crazy here but I got really excited because this was the first time they'd reached out in a while.
On May 1st, they confirmed that my file was complete and that I would get a call soon to schedule surgery dates. I was called the next day and asked when I would be available for surgery; given I'm going into university next fall, I asked for it to be as soon as possible and was offered a date of June 5th with Dr. Alex Laungani, which I accepted.
A brief note on Laungani: while he doesn't have nearly as many results posted online compared to Brassard, I was completely happy going with him due to his fairly prestigious record and a few anecdotes of very happy patients. It does bug me a little bit that I couldn't find out as much about his results as I wanted to, but I still have confidence I'm in good hands.
If the waiting before was brutal, waiting while knowing the exact date of your surgery is mega brutal. Not gonna lie, I'm extremely lucky that Tears of the Kingdom released during this period, which made it a lot easier. Same idea as before applies: the time goes by a lot quicker when you're not thinking about it, even if that's going to be extremely difficult by this point.
For transportation, I'm opting to fly there and back. I live in Southwest Ontario, and it would be about an 8-ish hour drive if I'm lucky. Flying cuts this down to a bit over 3 hours including a 1 hour layover. This was a lot more expensive than I expected for a domestic round trip, and I ended up paying over $700 CAD just for the flights. I was okay with this because I had been saving since I decided I was getting surgery, but just be aware that this option can be really expensive if you go for it.
Speaking of expenses, there are some random expenses here and there that you're going to have to pay for. There's a list of aftercare items I had to buy (you can find these on their website in one of the vaginoplasty booklets) that ended up being around $140 CAD, I had to pay $75 for post-operative medication, and I'll have to pay a $50 deposit for the hotel once I'm there (the hotel stay itself is covered). Food is covered once I'm at the hotel seemingly through a $50/day Uber Eats credit.

Where I'm at today, June 1st, 2023

Excited, antsy, a bit nervous. The fact that this is actually happening is starting to hit; before now it felt distant, like a pipe dream. Not really worried about the plane flight itself, not really worried about anything going super wrong in the surgery, but it's a big life change that will be my focus for the next few months during recovery. Probably should start loading up my Steam Deck with games instead of writing up reddit posts, to be honest.
That's all for this one. I'll write again, I dunno, whenever I feel like it to be honest lol. Maybe once I'm back home from surgery, maybe while I'm bored in the recovery home; we'll see how much energy I have to actually do stuff. I extend a massive thank you to everyone who's shared their experiences in the past, and I hope this post and the ones to follow will prove helpful to prospective patients at GRS Montreal.

I’m visiting NYC for 10 days in July. One of the things that has happened in the decade+ that I’ve been gone is that I’ve become a watcher of football and fan of the Giants - are there any places worth visiting from a Big Blue angle? Places of historical value, Giants-leaning sports bars? Could be in the city or in Jersey. Also, is MetLife worth visiting during the off-season?
In case someone’s about to recommend it, I’m unfortunately going to be leaving just as training camp starts :/ Didn’t think to check the dates before booking flights.

I am a huge grocery outlet fan (there are almost certainly dozens of us!), and currently the closest one to me is in San Rafael (and imo, the best in Marin is in Novato -- great wine selection). I was excited to hear via a post on NextDoor that there were indications that Grocery Outlet was coming to the Marin Gateway Shopping Center in Marin City.
The other day I was out there and had the opportunity to gather some evidence myself. Indeed it looks like another Gross Out is coming to Marin City. Frugal grocery shoppers rejoice!

First
Capes and Conundrums
Alviara lets out a slight gasp as they reach the apex of the motion and then they begin to fall. They land on a lower tier of a skyscraper and he seems to accelerate in a smooth movement. Then gravity presses down on Alviara as Robin leaps again and they hurl through the air, out of the traffic lanes and startling a few different Sonir as they easily crest in height and land lightly hundreds of feet higher than their last start point.
“I’m never going to get tired of doing that.” Robin notes and Alviara lets out a slight laugh.
“Easily amused?”
“If by easily amused you mean ‘enjoys breaking the laws of physics as previously understood’ then yes, I’m easily amused.” Robin notes with a grin. “I’d ask if you’re comfortable on my back, but you clearly have the cushioning to take it.”
“What was that supposed to be? I’m fairly average as women go, although I understand that puts me on the level of spine cracking for a human woman.” Alviara notes and Robin offers her a smirk over his shoulder. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and simply can’t reach her hands around the other side. Robin may not be as big as some of the other soldiers, but he’s still so much massively trained man that he dwarfs her in almost every respect. “So what was it? An observation? A compliment? An insult?”
“Hmm...” Robin considers out loud and the tensing of his legs is all the warning Alviara gets before they’re suddenly rising upwards fast. The slight arc of the movement has them land on the top of a gargoyle before Robin slides down it’s back with trivial ease and a casual gait. “I’m not sure, it just sort of slipped out. What did it sound like?”
“You’re toying with me.”
“Well yes, aren’t dates supposed to be fun?” Robin asks shortly before a small swarm of Sonir swoops in.
“Since when could Trets fly like that!?” One of them asks.
“I’m not a Tret and I can’t fly.” Robin says quickly. “She’s a Tret and I jump good.”
“... Either you took a shot in the head and lost some verbal skills or you’re quoting something.” Alviara says.
“It’s a quote.” Robin remarks. “Now do you girls want something or...?”
The swarm scatters, but not too far.
“They’re going to be following us for hours.” Alviara notes.
“How about we give them something to chase then?” Robin asks.
“Go.” She tells him and he races along the tier of the skyscraper and launches off. Alviara has to use Axiom to keep her grip as the wind resistance to the sudden movement is like being caught in a storm. There is no arcing in this jump, it’s a straight shot from one skyscraper to another with neither rise nor dip. HE also doesn’t land on the next skyscraper. He kicks off it and suddenly they’re going diagonal and up before kicking off again and going down.
The bit of freerunning turned mad game of human ping pong as he zips through the city before Robin launches himself up and then slowly comes down on the top of a skyscraper. Grabbing onto it’s highest point and hanging on by what seems to be only his fingertips. A slight wirl of ash and smoke wave around them in the higher winds of the city where just a hint of the brimstone from the volcanic trench the city’s cave is carved into.
“Having fun?” He asks her and she gives him an odd look.
“Giving people something to chase generally stays a little further down from the sound barrier.” Alviara chides him despite smiling at the absurdity. He looks over his shoulder with a roguish grin before easily pulling himself up to the next level. The pull is with such force that he easily crests to the top and lands lightly at the very tip of the skyscraper’s spire.
“Really? I never would have guessed.” He says as he holds his arms out, turns and then regards the city below before glancing at the blimps above. “Can you spot them? If they want to play, then they can be fun to play with.”
“What are you planning?”
“Nothing hurtful or harmful. Not even a crass word.” Robin assures Alviara.
“Over there, to your left. Two blocks forward. I recognize the bandana.” Alviara says and he nods.
“And she’s moving at... okay, time to say hello.” Robin says. “Do I need to say hang on?”
“At the end of this you’re going to need a prybar to get me off.”
“Poor choice of words!” Robin taunts before a twitch of his legs and they’re soaring through the air.
Swooping is not generally associated with wingless beings. Especially not with apes. Let alone an ape giving a piggy back ride to another ape.
But damnit if Robin doesn’t live up to his name and swoop right past the young Sonir who flares out her wings in shock and flutters around a bit in complete surprise. Robin has kicked off the side of a skyscraper and launched himself away before any further reaction can be mustered.
“You are a cruel, cruel man...” Alviara chides him as she laughs.
“Oh yes, by all means. Tell me how naughty I am.” Robin says with a grin over his shoulder and she flicks him in the forehead for that. He clutches at his heart and begins staggering in jest. Despite them being over twenty stories straight up with no railings he mock staggers harder and she slips off his back in time for him to ‘fall’ to the floor with a dramatic. “Blarg I am dead!”
“Could you get any goofier?” Alviara asks dumbfounded and Robin laughs.
“Not without going to a literal school for clowns. But I think I do pretty good without formal education.” Robin remarks and she scoffs.
“Tell me something, when it comes between The Undaunted and the rest of humanity... how far apart from the common man are you? Physically I know you’re near the peak of the peak. But behaviour wise?”
“We’re more chaos prone and a lot more energetic so we get up to a lot more. But it really depends on the person. Sure, there are broad averages, but you’ll never meet an actually average person. A normal human is a mathematical concept, not a real thing.”
“And those averages are?”
“Alone, a human is smart, adaptable, quick to learn and quicker to overcome. In groups we can be dumb panicky and downright incapable of understanding even the simplest concepts. There’s good and bad.” Robin explains.
“That sounds very normal. Peer pressure making monsters of people the galaxy over.” Alviara says before considering. “I guess it was a dumb request to be honest.”
“Then why did you ask it?” Robin asks.
“Well... you’d think that a species that came out of Cruel Space would be very different. But... well you’re Apex Tret with redundant biology basically. As a species. But The Undaunted you... you do things so very differently than most Trets. Like Cannidors or Apuk or Dzedin. You’re predators in a concrete jungle.”
“And like most predators when well fed and safe they get fat and lazy in a hurry. When humans become common throughout the galaxy the only way to tell the difference between Human and Tret will be when you watch them eat or some kind of disaster strikes.” Robin returns. “Besides, name one military that doesn’t make powerful predators out of the people they recruit.”
“Hmm... well are we counting armies in name only?”
“We’re counting armies that can be reliably expected to run into combat.”
“Not any that I know about. Even armies specializing in drone use and remote piloting prosthetic bodies for combat tend to have a certain assurance and quick reflexes.”
“Exactly.” Robin says before kipping up and standing next to her. “There are some things that are just universal to combat.”
“It still doesn’t explain how differently you humans are acting. First contact is generally a bit more... I’m not certain. You should be having a harder time of this or... I don’t know.” Alviara says and Robin shrugs.
“I’m hardly an expert on first contact situations.”
“You’re in one.”
“Am I though? Remember, Earth was sent a beacon to teach the languages and explain that the rest of the galaxy couldn’t come to us, we had to go to it. Is that normal?”
“No but...”
“Then why would we act in a normal way? We’re cut off from the homeworld and what resources it has. Which means it’s time to adapt or die. There’s also ways in which we have to test the galaxy, so we can learn from it and understand it. And you don’t stress test something by being gentle or predictable. You do it by pushing it to it’s limits.”
“Really?”
“At least that’s how I figure things. Do note I’m not part of the diplomatic core. Still... on the subject of diplomacy my hobbies seem to have...”
Robin is cut off when the swarm of Sonir Teenagers arranges itself around them. “Really!? It took you this long?”
“Not everyone had a communicator on and had to be chased down.” One of the girls says.
“Okay, you need to do something about that because communication is the most important part of being in a team. Otherwise someone WILL screw things up.” Robin remarks to them before turning back to Alviara. “Anyways, as I was saying, we’ve been following some of my hobbies. But not so many of yours, so in the light of getting to know each other more. Where to next?”
“Well, if that’s what you want...” Alviara says as she takes a couple of steps and leaps away. “Follow me!”
“To where?” Robin asks as he lands beside her moments later.
“You’ll see, but don’t think you’re the only one who can use Axiom to get around. It’s easy.”
“I’m aware of how easy it is. But I don’t see many people using it like that. Why?”
“People are a lot less eager when they think they might run into a wall.” Alviara explains.
“Hey wait for us!” A girl from the swarm of Sonir declares and the entire flight gives chase.
“The third wheels are catching up.” Robin notes calmly as she leads him through several more jumps and then... a rooftop garden. In a shadowed part of the dark city is a small rooftop garden. It’s dim phosphorant glow invisible from a street over, but these are clearly darkness adapted plants that thrive on the warmth in the air and the richness of the thin amount of ash that is always ever so slightly swirling about.
It then hits Robin that the garden is an inversion of the world itself. A single patch of life in a dark and dreary looking city, the opposite of the lava trenches of Skathac who are individual and relatively small scratches of concentrated death on a world otherwise fed keenly and deeply by it. Robin wonders what it would look like to have something from this garden escape and claim an entire skyscraper.
Would that even be a bad thing for a building to be covered in flowering vines? He supposed that depends on the flower.
“I... I didn’t expect this.” Robin admits before looking around. “The glow is so pale that the lights on the other buildings drown it out entirely.”
“A little touch of life. It’s a wonderful place to read. A place to calm down after a bad case.”
“Ah... that makes sense.” Robin remarks as he sees the Sonir swarm swooping down around them to look around. More than one of them seem to be completely surprised that the garden is here at all. “How did you find this place? You’re not a Skathac native from what I understand.”
“No, but getting lost can sometimes be an advantage. And a place to just think is useful.”
“Hmm... I suppose that makes sense and...”
“Are you one of the supervillains?” One of the girls asks interrupting him.
“Alright, do you girls understand just how rude this is?” Robin asks and there’s a pause. “I’ve played back a bit but following people around and having a full on search grid is going far too far.”
“It’s not too bad if we’re just following.”
“You’re getting very close to a crime though. So can you please knock it off?” Robin asks and there are some sighs of disappointment as the swarm flutters off. “Now, where were we?”
First Last
PS: Nothing like writers block to conk you on the head when you’re trying to type it out. Yeesh. I wanted to have more fun, I wanted to write references all over the place. But the moment I sat down to write my head went blank and it's stayed that way. I'm sorry.

Hi all! First time posting here, hopefully we can get some advice. I'm so sorry for the ranty long post!
My SO and I both moved around a ton in our lives and we're both exhausted from it because we can't seem to find a place to settle down at and afford to continue living there. I make roughly $59k/yr, she makes $48k/yr give or take. We also honestly really hate California. She grew up in the Bay area, I grew up near Philly.
My SO and I are debating moving out of our current city (San Jose, CA) due to cost of living being unaffordable even with dual income. Almost all apartments here don't allow animals, tend to be $2500+ a month not including utilities or pet deposits, and we're just basically priced out of the area.
We were debating Sacramento, CA where we can rent a decent place with a yard and garage for roughly $1700 - which we can afford - but she'll need to switch jobs regardless of where we move, and I work remotely so that's less an issue for me. Problem with Sacramento is that we need to earn 3x the income, and if we move, she loses her job. Meaning we will just barely not qualify for a place. We could settle temporarily somewhere cheaper for a year, but moving again will exhaust us I think..
Second option is Pittsburgh, PA. Way more affordable, and I grew up in PA so I'm a little more familiar with how everything works versus here where I got an extreme culture shock when I initially moved here. The cost of living is cheaper, and since I work remotely, I can actually qualify for the rent requirements in PA. The people are generally nicer, areas tend to be quieter, but maybe I'm extremely biased.
Could anyone put their inputs in on either areas? Any advice on how to make the right choice?
TL;DR: Wanna move, either to Sacramento or Pittsburgh. We're both kind of over the type of interactions we have in California - and I low-key really miss my home state and diverse weathecheaper living. Is Pittsburgh a good option, or should we move to Sacramento?

Wk 14 covers match day 15 and does not include midweek games on May 31st. Freeborg Power Index will be dropped next week if there is no update from that list. Methdology, sites used and bias as well as link to full data is in the source article.

Wk 13 Pos	Wk 14 Pos	Team	Wk 13 avg	Wk 14 avg	St. Dev	2023 Avg	Wk Best	Wk Worst
1	1	Los Angeles (FC)	1.21	1.47	0.51	1.4	1	2
2	2	Cincinnati	1.93	1.87	1.7	4.07	1	8
3	3	Nashville	3.79	3.47	0.94	6.55	1	5
5	4	Philadelphia	5.21	4.6	1.77	8.48	2	8
6	5	St. Louis	5.93	4.93	1.98	19.75	2	10
7	6	Seattle	6.86	6.4	2.03	4.57	4	12
4	7	New England	5.07	6.47	1.7	5.91	4	9
8	8	Dallas	8.71	8.73	2.52	10.93	6	16
10	9	Atlanta	9.5	9.2	4.42	8.23	6	26
9	10	Columbus	9	11.33	3.84	10.81	5	18
11	11	Orlando	13.43	13	3.25	14.75	9	21
14	12	San Jose	14.07	13.2	3.3	15.25	10	23
16	13	Minnesota	14.93	15.13	3.97	12.85	10	27
13	14	New York City	13.86	15.6	4.93	11.17	7	24
14	14	Vancouver	14.07	15.6	3.89	18.75	8	22
12	16	D.C.	13.71	15.87	4.77	20.84	9	28
19	17	Houston	18.79	15.93	4.39	18.65	9	23
21	18	Charlotte	20.36	17.93	4.36	23.76	10	24
17	19	New York (RB)	18.14	18.6	5.06	17.32	7	26
22	20	Chicago	21.14	19.2	4.31	20.3	12	29
24	21	Montreal	22.79	20.4	5.87	22.68	4	29
18	22	Portland	18.29	21.2	3.76	19.19	11	26
20	23	Austin	19.71	21.33	3.8	17.51	13	27
26	24	Toronto	24.86	23.53	4.59	19.75	13	29
25	25	Salt Lake	24.29	23.6	4.11	22.4	12	28
28	26	Kansas City	27.14	24.53	2.74	24.25	19	29
23	27	Miami	22.21	25.07	2.09	19.28	21	28
27	28	Colorado	26.86	27.6	2.57	24.56	18	29
29	29	Los Angeles (Gal)	27.36	28.13	1.71	21.58	24	29

• Highest Standard Deviation: CF Montreal 5.87
• Lowest Standard Deviation: Los Angeles FC 0.51
• Biggest Rise: Charlotte, Minnesota, Montreal up 3
• Biggest Fall: D.C., Miami, Portland down 4

<< < > >>
Book: Black Canary
Set: 85
Arc: Fletching
 
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
 
Oliver ran when he heard her scream. The supersonic sound waves shook the top floor of the building and he didn't even bother to pull on a shirt before he was racing for the spare bedroom.
 
Dinah Lance stood standing near the bed, staring at the empty space with abject horror. Ever so slowly her blue eyes swiveled to pierce him on the spot.
 
He suddenly understood why her former team had been called the Birds of Prey.
 
The woman who looked out at him tilted her head slightly, like a predator who had spotted a small animal. Her mouth twisted in seriousness and Ollie slowly slid into the most defensive position he could assume and offered her a suave smile.
 
“Not a morning person, ey?” The cocky side of him urged him to cross his arms and lean casually against the doorframe, but something in her eyes stopped him from making any unnecessary moves.
 
“Oliver.” Her voice was firm, but clipped. Different from when she had called him and had been so pent up with rage. This was a different beast entirely. “I’m trying to give you a chance to explain, but you are not helping.” Her chin jutted towards the empty bed, her face pale at whatever her eyes beheld.
 
He ran a list of possible scenarios through his mind quickly, trying to understand what magic might be lingering, and what it might be causing her to see.
 
“Dinah, I promise it’s not what it looks like.” The excuse sounded weak even to his ears and he cringed internally. Taken out of context he really did sound like the flippant playboy he was renowned to be.
 
A tense muscle worked in her jaw, and her fingers clenched and unclenched in a tight fist. “How is William Zard dead in the bed not what it looks like.”
 
It was not a question, and Oliver could tell he was quickly running out of time to state his case before the heroine decided that he had gone rogue and crossed the unbreakable line that most heroes refused to cross.
 
“You were placed under a strong illusionary magic. You’ve been out for more than a month. You’re dad's fine. Thinks you're still in Markovia” He winced. “Sorry about lying to him, but I couldn't exactly explain why you would be staying in Oliver Queen's penthouse spare bedroom.” Oliver took a deep breath. “Whatever you’re seeing isn't there, Dinah.”
 
Her eyes flashed with quickfire anger but she took a long moment to look at him as if seeing him for the first time. Dinah blinked, clearing some unreadable emotion from her eyes before turning a glance back to the bed and heaving a deep sigh.
 
He waited.
 
“Can you get me a laptop and a coffee? I have a feeling that isn't the last we’ll hear of William Zard.” She asked quietly, and Oliver watched as the woman became the heroine and piece by piece locked her face down into a mask of neutrality.
 
He could only offer a nod, shifting himself into the Green Arrow mindset and leaving her to become who she needed to be to face the villain.
 
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
 
Dinah breathed in and out. Again. Closed her eyes and reopened them. One moment the body of William Zard had been laying on the bed, an arrow through his chest and the next it was gone.
 
Magic, Ollie had said. After everything that had happened…..Dinah breathed again. How long ago was Markovia now? Had everything in Seattle settled down? How was her dad?
 
Her hand itched for her phone, but it was no use messaging her dad now, especially if he thought she was still out of the country. Better to keep him safe, stop him from worrying.
 
And Oliver? Of all people in the world for her to fall under some magic spell around it ended up being him? Dinah resisted the urge to smack her head into the wall repeatedly. She made a habit of appearing strong around men like Oliver Queen. Not someone to be messed with, and she had gone and fallen immediately into a magical coma.
 
“Not your finest moment Di.” She shook her head, clearing it of the wayward thoughts and focusing instead on the issue at hand - William Zard.
 
It was clearer now that she was thinking clearly that it had all been an illusion. But the question was why? She had been mostly out of the spotlight until the vampire incident in Markovia and everything had happened so quickly afterwards it was almost impossible to imagine word spreading that quickly.
 
Ollie cleared his throat behind her, a courtesy gesture made so that he didn't surprise her. The fact that he had enough empathy to do even that was surprising enough.
 
“I only have a spare Lenovo, if that works for you?” He held up the offending piece of machinery and Dinah had to resist shaking her head. The laptop looked brand new, rarely if ever opened. Maybe a sponsored gift for the playboy who already had more technology then he knew what to do with.
 
She decided not to speak, gesturing with her chin to the small glass table at the end of the bed where she’d been sleeping. It was only then that she noticed what she had assumed was a single laptop based on the width was actually two.
 
He gave her a look that was immediately familiar as the ‘don't even think about denying me this’ that she had often offered to others and took his seat silently.
 
Furrowing a brow, Dinah took the laptop and settled into the chair opposite Oliver Queen and began to work.
 
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
 
Ollie was not used to being so…..distracted while he was in the guise of the green archer. He thought it would be easy to slip back into the rough edged vigilante around Dinah, since she too, had seemingly slipped into her Black Canary personality as if it was a weapon to be used against him.
 
But then the damned woman would furrow her brows and mumble something under breath and Oliver Queen would find himself snapped out of his brooding reverie and forced to look at her. Every time he did he found himself more and more reluctant to return to being the brooding piece of shit he knew as Green Arrow.
 
It wasn't, after all, the Arrow part of him that had decided to save her.
 
He watched as Dinah’s eyes widened, a sure sign that her magic with technology had worked wonders and she had found exactly what they were searching for.
 
“What is it?” His voice got deeper as he asked the question, forcing himself into the rough-edged disguise to the point where he saw surprise quickly flash in Canary’s eyes.
 
“Zard. He went to the same university my mom did. Studied the same course.” Oliver stared at her blankly. She gave him a pointed look then sighed deeply when it became clear he wasn’t exactly following. “My bet is he was obsessed with her. And when she died and he couldn’t get her ....” Dinah’s voice trailed off, her blue eyes staring off into the middle distance, clearly remembering something from the illusions.
 
“He took you.” There was a strange sense of violence to his voice that snapped the Canary back from wherever in her mind she had traveled. She nodded, her only sign of acknowledgement.
 
Oliver clenched and unclenched his fingers. He was not necessarily a violent man, despite what others thought of him. It was one of the reasons he had chosen arrows as his main source of damage. They were quick, efficient, and wouldn't kill anyone unless shot incorrectly. But the quickfire image of his arrow piercing The Wizard's chest was almost welcome, after all the illusionist had done to Dinah.
 
“How do we track him?” The question hung in the air between them for several seconds while Dinah watched him reign in his anger.
 
“We don’t.” He went to interrupt, but she continued on, silencing him with a look. “We need help. Magical help more precisely.” She bit her lip, obviously running names and ideas through her head. “I think I might know someone. A friend of a friend that I used to work with.” Dinah dug the mobile from her pockets, wincing as she ignored the many calls and texts from her father.
 
“Who?” Oliver didn't like working with others. He had been there. Tried that. It never worked out in his favor.
 
Dinah offered him a quick smile as her fingers blurred across her screen.
 
“Zatanna Zatara.”
 
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰  
Dinah told Oliver that it would not take the magician long to respond to the text. She had not, however, told the archer that Zatanna’s preferred method of local travel was portal.
 
The two women rarely talked after Dinah left the Prey Birds, but she had kept the magician's number in her cellphone. Just in case. She hadn’t had much hope when everything in San Fran happened, and after, with Markovia the two hadn't exactly had a lot of time to catch up.
 
She huffed a laugh, ignoring the look Ollie gave her. She was damn well allowed to laugh whenever she wanted.
 
As the thought crossed her mind a small golden circle with runes the color of the night sky appeared in the center of the sitting room. Oliver jumped several meters, retrieving a bow and arrow from the heavens knew where as the dark haired young woman stepped through the portal, the last words from her spell echoing in the air as the tear in space closed in on itself.
 
Zatanna surveyed the room quickly, dark eyes coming to rest on Dinah and a large smile spreading on her features. “Canary!” She swept Dinah up into a hug, twirling her around to get a good look at her. “It’s been so long. I always knew you’d end up with….” Her voice faded off as she finally took a moment to look between Dinah and Oliver, a light blush spreading across her features.
 
“Well. I can see I’m here for business and not for a pleasurable catch up.” The other woman gave Dinah a pointed look before turning a tight lipped smile on Oliver who had procured his green mask while the two embraced. “You must be Green Arrow. I’m Zatanna Zatara.”
 
The two shook, which, Dinah supposed, was more than she had bargained for.
 
“What’s up BC?” Zatanna wrinkled her nose after shaking Oliver's hand. “You smell like magic.”
 
Dinah grimaced, sniffing her hand like she would be able to catch the whiff of illusionary magic like Zatanna could. “Do you know of someone called William Zard? Powerful illusionist, studied magic in Tibet.”
 
The other magician's smile disappeared immediately and she nodded slowly. “He disappeared off the scene a few years ago, right about the time….” The young girl's eyes widened. “Right about the time you dropped out of the limelight.”
 
Dinah grimaced. “We think he was obsessed with my mom, and now me.” She hated saying those words aloud. It brought some type of strength to them, giving Zard the power instead of her.
 
Zatanna merely nodded, her mind clearly spinning.
 
“We need to find him.” Oliver offered resolutely, his bow lowered, but the arrow still knocked. It seemed he couldn't help but be wary of the magic user, even though he knew she was on their side. “Any ideas where to look?”
 
Zatanna glided to the door. Her eyes scanning the neon horizon, mumbling something incoherent under her breath before waving her gloved hand over the city-scape in front of her.
 
Magic, Dinah thought, as the large building appeared not even two blocks away, was kinda fucked up when one could hide a 10 story building in the middle of a city.
 
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
 
Dinah and Zatanna did not have to wait long for William Zard to try to work his magic. Mirrors greeted them on every surface of the rooftop, reflecting the slightly terrified look in each of their eyes and the thick smoke flowing through the area.
 
A dark laugh echoed from wall to wall, and the mirror in front of them began to change in front of their eyes. Zard’s pointed mustache and beard appeared first, before the dark blue-gray eyes and the rest of the man's lean build until he was before them.
 
Dinah gasped as she was eye to eye with The Wizard from her first night in the Firefly Lounge. Zard wore a long cloak and tophat along with a dark purple vest and black tie with golden clip to complete the ensemble of party magicians.
 
“Ah, the pretty songbird has finally returned to me.” The man in the mirror stepped to one side disappearing from the center mirror and appearing in the one next to Dinah instantly. His voice dropped to a whisper and a phantom finger stroked its way down her arm. “If you think it was good in your dreams, imagine what it will feel like in the real world.”
 
The next instant the mirror shattered. Dinah covered her eyes as the remnants of the lightning-yellow bolt from Zatanna’s hand simmered down to a more bearable midday glow. She shot her a grateful smile. She wasn't sure what she would have done in another moment or two.
 
Afterall, the illusions hadn't been all that bad. Had they?
 
She was saved from having to think about it any further by Ollie’s arrival to the rooftop. The stubborn man had chosen to climb instead of taking the easier, faster, magical method.
 
Zard’s image appeared in another mirror. His jovial demeanor switched for one of menace and anger. The Wizard turned a scorching eye on Dinah, his gaze flicking between her and Oliver. “You think this…..this……arrogant, idiot of a man can replace me? Me?”
 
His laugh this time was deeper, darker. Dinah couldn't help but slide a step closer to Ollie, afraid for the first time in a long time.
 
The move was not lost on William Zard, who offered her a sneer. “You’ve made your choice then. Just like your mother did. And now you’ll pay the same price she did.” As the last word fell from his lips Zard’s mirage multiplied onto every mirrored surface that the rooftop bar had to offer.
 
The once dark gray fog covering them began to shift as each of the Zard’s in the mirror chanted, turning a sickly green color that was already making Dinah choke and splutter. In one smooth motion Ollie grabbed an arrow in each hand, reaching out to shatter each of the mirrors on either side of him.
 
The smoke’s spread slowed, just barely.
 
“Break them.” He ordered, choosing not to think about the way Dinah had moved in front of him. As if she could protect him. As if she needed to protect him.
 
He still watched out of the corner of his eye the way the two women worked together to smash or shatter the remaining mirrors until each and every one had at least a chunk missing out of it, or was in pieces along the rooftop floor.
 
A slow clap echoed from the back of the room and Ollie immediately trained one of his arrows on the emerging William Zard. It was funny, beneath the clothing he looked just like any other love-sick obsessed man. A man with far more to gain than he had to lose.
 
William Zard sketched a slow bow, offering his hands in surrender to placate Ollie before he turned a saccharine smile to Dinah. “My sweet, special Miss Lance.” Dinah flinched, and Ollie tightened his grip on his bow string. The Wizard barely spared him a glance as he continued, taking a step closer to Dinah. “We don’t have to do this. You don't have to do this. Life could be easy. No more fighting, no more fear. Noone you love will ever get hurt because of who you are, or what you do.” At these last words Zard did finally spare a glance for Ollie, his steel eyes seemingly staring into his soul, into the problems he had caused just by simply being Green Arrow.  
The Wizard offered his hand in a flourish to Dinah. The two were so close now that it was clear that any act on Ollie’s or Zatanna’s part would put her in danger as well.
 
Oliver Queen watched the war rage on Dinah’s face. The pain and hurt, determination and guilt. He watched her lift her hand.
 
“Dinah.” Her name left his lips without his bidding, and her blue eyes flicked to his, brimming with some unclear emotion. “Don’t.” He wasn’t sure if he was asking or begging, nor did he care that voice broke on the word.
 
Oliver Queen also wasn’t sure whether his heart broke, or if the hole in his heart mended when Dinah Lance chose not to take The Wizards hand and instead chose to kick William Zard straight in the balls.

Hey folks! I'm wondering if anyone has advice on the most cost-effective way to transport lumber across the country (from a home near New York City to a home near San Francisco). These are rough walnut slabs (3 in thick, about 2 feet wide) - I have 5 12-foot slabs, and 7 8-foot slabs.
I was considering the mobile shipping containers that pickup/dropoff at your home, but that doesn't seem like a very good use of space. Wondering if there are other options I could consider?
Thanks for any help!

Looking to form a FwB that meets daily/weekly. Down to be a tops oral provider but ultimate goal is to have a top/cock I can count on to fuck me (and fuck hard hopefully).
I live in Redwood City and work in San Jose. If you are a top that wants a dedicated/safe FWB between those areas - please hit me up and be down to swap face/cock/body.
My goal is to find a married top that wants to meet as often as possible to:
A. Get sucked off while standing - I love to suck while on my knees, your hands on my head pushing your cock all the way in. B. Get sucked off laying down/sitting - I love to suck while you sit, having me bury my face in your crotch and having you tell me when to suck yours balls and dick C. Having you fuck my face/throat - I ultimately love getting my face/throat fucked and fucked hard and long. Especially love to hang my head over a bed so that you can really fuck my face until you blow a load. D. The biggest goal is to have a top that I can trust enough to fuck my super nice ass.
Me: 5’10 white/Latino masc gay married bottom 210 7.5”c - cannot hit but down to travel and meet in car that has enough space for you to throat fuck me in

Looking to form a FwB that meets daily/weekly. Down to be a tops oral provider but ultimate goal is to have a top/cock I can count on to fuck me (and fuck hard hopefully).
I live in Redwood City and work in San Jose. If you are a top that wants a dedicated/safe FWB between those areas - please hit me up and be down to swap face/cock/body.
My goal is to find a married top that wants to meet as often as possible to:
A. Get sucked off while standing - I love to suck while on my knees, your hands on my head pushing your cock all the way in. B. Get sucked off laying down/sitting - I love to suck while you sit, having me bury my face in your crotch and having you tell me when to suck yours balls and dick C. Having you fuck my face/throat - I ultimately love getting my face/throat fucked and fucked hard and long. Especially love to hang my head over a bed so that you can really fuck my face until you blow a load. D. The biggest goal is to have a top that I can trust enough to fuck my super nice ass.
Me: 5’10 white/Latino masc gay married bottom 210 7.5”c - cannot hit but down to travel and meet in car that has enough space for you to throat fuck me in

This is an ongoing tale but I've been wanting to share its progression for quite a few days now, plus it has been going on for quite some time now. You can look up the sort of property I work at from my post history, though the only necessary piece of information for this tale is that this is in Europe.
Do take a seat, I'm not keeping it short.
The cast goes as such: Me - yours truly, FDA Anna - an FDA coworker of mine Ray - returning problem guest from abroad
Our tale begins on a cold winter night, the month I can't quite recall. I've got the night shift, 7pm to 7am, still waiting for some arrivals. In walks Jay with a reservation from Hostelchairs, CC guaranteed but not pre-paid. As we're going through the paperwork he asks if I could guess where he's from. I'd just finished scanning his passport when he asked that but I did not think to look at the passport itself or the data that we just received in our system, going only by his last name I took a wild guess and nearly hit a bullseye - the general area he's from tends to have languages and cultures overlap way past country borders. Moving on, while still making small talk I ask how he would like to pay for the room - he insists he's already paid. I double check both our system and Hostelchairs but he's only ever given a guarantee. We have a little back and forth about this but eventually he pays out and heads for his room.
Months later he pops in again, this time with a membership to our brand and starts staying rather regularly - every two or three weeks, always for 5 or so nights. Some time goes by and my coworkers begin telling me how he always comes by the front desk to chat, especially when Anna is in. I jokingly mention he might have a crush on her - she is an attractive young woman after all. This is where the end of the fun begins. A few days go by and Anna says that Ray found her on social media, started messaging her, too. She's declining any and all advances he's trying to make but he keeps on trying. It's at this time we start getting to know more about him. It was pretty obvious he was in our city for business since he always came and went in expensive looking suits and always had a really nice car pick him up in front of the hotel. Turns out he's a CEO of at least one company, co-founder in some others and the heir to another pretty big company in his home country. And he's begun to try his luck more and more often, and more and more agressively. The moment we realized trouble might be brewing was when he had one of his associates - his goons, we call them - bring a 250$ bouqet of roses to Anna while she was working at the front desk. This associate didn't even ask if she'd accept them, just asked if she was indeed Anna and shoved the bouqet in her hands, turned around and left.
She went on to try and shut him down on a near daily basis now, to no avail.
Some more shenanigans happen, he hosts a couple of his own events at our confetence rooms (because they've been kicked out of all their previous locations) but nevertheless, let us fast forward to just a little over a month ago. I wasn't present for this part of the story, I've only heard it from my coworkers.
Anna was just relieved after her night shift and was leaving, when just outside the door he got in front of her and wouldn't let her go on her way, always stepping in front of her when she tried to get past him. He wanted her to get in his car, go somewhere with him for a date and let him take her home. Drew noticed and told him to leave her alone, which provided sufficient enough at the time.
After all this, Anna did not think it necessary to bring all this to management's attention because she didn't want to be the talk of the company and because from her own perspective she was handling it just fine - or at least this is what she told me.
After another time skip of three weeks, I go to relieve Anna from the night shift - Ray is seemingly just checking out. Turns out he'd been there for at least 10 minutes when I got there and stayed there for 15 more. As she was handing the shift over he kept interrupting us with questions to Anna, mostly regarding why he can't find her on social media anymore - and repeatedly asking for her number after being told flat no-s each and every time. It was the fifth time he'd asked when I couldn't just listen to it anymore and told him 'Look, if she said no then she said no. Knock it off.' He looked baffled for a moment then turned around and went to stand at the lobby windows for a solid 15 minutes. During these 15 minutes Anna went and changed from her uniform and came back to relax in the back office located just behind the front desk until she were to leave for her train. Not long after she entered the office Ray came up to my desk and started going off on me mostly about how:, -he's a customer, and a VIP at that (yeah, you always book through whichever 3rd party you find cheapest, not exactly a VIP), -he's very good friends with my GM (GM has never even seen this man, he probably meant our coworker from Sales who arranged his events) -he's going to own this company very soon (it's in Chinese hands at the very end of the chain, good luck getting it from them) -none of what's happening around me is my business (it literally is, especially if it concerns the safety of my colleagues) -I should just stick to doing my job and nothing else (see above) -and that he never wants to see me again. (I'm assuming he meant he's going to get me fired. Spoiler: not happening)
Now, this guy is not that threatening, I'm a 5'9" guy with some pounds to spare. He's a good few inches taller than me, and he was trying his very best to scare me with his body language, too - and he did manage to trigger my fight or flight response. I am sorry to say that I did not give him the decking I believe he deserved but it did take pretty much all my willpower to stand still and not do anything stupid.
After his rent he left the lobby - but this is not the last we heard of him that day, though, seeing as this post is already a wall of text, I'll return to tell the remainder at another time.

Guide available! Go here.
Series beginning is here.
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Once we had taken down the camp, I loaded the cart with the animal carcasses using my Hands of Air. While I was strong, there was no way I was lifting a female Dire Bear. Once our quarry was loaded onto the cart, I helped my Haarthuu friends up as well. They all situated themselves in the front seat, and I took my place behind the handle.
“Off we go!” I exclaimed and pushed off from the ground. It was difficult to get the cart rolling, but once I did, keeping it there wasn’t too much strain.
We continued in this way for about five hours, which is when we came to a hill that I would be unable to climb with the cart, and I doubted my companions would be much help. I had stopped and was leaning against the handle, breathing hard and heavily.
“Well, I can’t climb this, and I don’t have it in me to tunnel through. What should we do, Liss-ran?” I asked, panting.
Liss-ran sat there in a slight panic. “Um, I’m not sure. If there were Uror nearby, I’d say to convince one of them to help?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! I’ll call Walter,” I said happily.
I closed my eyes and leaned on the cart.
“Walter?”
“Yeah, Boss? You okay? You sound beat.”
“I’m fine. Just kinda tired. Where are you located right now? I could use some help.”
“Yeah? Let’s see…. I’m about an hour or so away from where you are right now. What’s going on?”
“I’m pulling a cart through the woods back to Haruma. I’ve hit a hill that I can’t pull it over. It’s too loaded down, and I’m not strong enough.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I can be there in an hour. Or should I send someone else?”
“Well, this cart is narrower than the last. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you.”
“Okay. I can send a kid over to you. They’ll be able to carry you and pull the cart.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. She’s on her way right now. From a different herd, so she can get to you faster.
“Okay. Should I give her some of my magic so she can communicate with me, or are you the only member I will be able to speak with? I don’t know how this all works.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be able to understand you, and will take you home no sweat. If she decides to stick around, I might uhh… claim her. Have your woman try to bond with her.”
I laughed and let the matter drop. “Okay Walter. Thanks man. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. Oh. We’re leaving the week after last frost. Heading to Klearm. If you could meet us in Haruma beforehand, I’ll make sure you’re fed well and your coat is nice and shiny.”
“You got it, Boss! Looking forward to it!”
I pulled my Pack off, and removed a large piece of leather, as well as my tools. “Gonna need these in a few. We have a female Uror heading our way. I’m going to make a harness and a saddle for her once she gets here, and we will be on our way. Sound good?” I announced.
Four heads looked at one another, then at me. “How did you manage that, Ivor?” Liss-ran asked incredulously.
“Uh, I just reached out to Walter, the Uror that brought us here. Apparently when you bond yourself to a Uror, you can speak with them from great distances. He’s an hour away. The female should be here much quicker. She’s from a more local herd,” I explained. “I won’t be able to speak with her the same as I do Walter, but I was instructed to see if Elizabet would like to try and bond with her.” I concluded.
“Okaaayyy….. If you say so, Ivor. I guess we get to see a different Uror,” Liss-ran said, shaking her head.
I rested there, cutting some strips from the leather for makeshift reins, belts and straps. I also took the time to fashion buckles from the Duplicated knife blade I had in my Pack. About fifteen minutes after I had finished making those, a shaggy Uror trundled up and halted beside the cart. She snorted and stamped a paw on the ground, seemingly eager to get this over with.
“Hello, my lady! Thank you for answering Walter’s call to help us. I trust he has explained the situation to you?” I said to the shaggy beast.
She tossed her head twice, which I took as an affirmative. “Excellent. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to fit you for a harness so we can hitch you to the wagon. Would you mind if I got to work? I’ll do my best to make it as comfortable as possible. If it pinches or is uncomfortable, please snort twice,” I said, receiving another toss of her head.
I smiled and got to work, crafting the harness from memory and sizing it to fit the much smaller female. After a few mistakes, she and I fell into a routine, and I had the harness crafted in short order. Once I explained the concept of the saddle to her, I began the process of making that, with similar results. All in all, it took us the better part of an hour to finish the work.
“There we are. Hmm. You know, I can’t just call you ‘Uror’ or something like that. May I call you Lady?” I asked.
The shaggy beast was still for a moment, and then tossed her head twice. “Excellent, Lady! I am Ivor, and we are going to Haruma. I will direct you, if that’s okay?” Another head toss and she began to strain against the weight of the cart. I quickly climbed up, and we were off.
With the assistance of Lady, we made short work of the hill in front of us. I let her choose the pace, and we were slowly, but steadily, on our way to Haruma once more.
“Liss-ran? How long do you think we have until we get home?” I asked.
“At this rate?” she said, taking stock of our surroundings and pace. “We should be there around dinnertime, I’d say.”
“Awesome. Just in time to have some of Gon-rash’s amazing cooking. This day is getting better and better!” I said happily, shrugging my Pack back onto my shoulders.
We rode and chatted for another hour or so, and I saw how lifted everyone’s spirits were. Even Tren-sun was cracking jokes and smiling.
After an hour or so, Kilik-ma called out, “Hey Ivor. What kind of entertainment does your world have?”
“Entertainment? Well, we have books, plays, theater, dance, songs, musical bands, and a form of entertainment that absolutely doesn’t and hopefully will never exist on Chaia, television,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, Liss-ran was describing your music to me when we were hunting, and I was curious to hear some.”
“Oh. Well, that device is back in Haruma, actually. I left it with Elizabet for safe-keeping, so I can’t use it right now to show you my music,” I said regretfully.
“Oh. Okay,” Tren-sun said, sounding dejected.
“But I’m feeling pretty good, so how about I sing a song for you?” I ventured.
Four voices replied in the affirmative, and even Lady tossed her head. Looks like I was committed. I racked my brain, trying to think of a decent one that I actually knew all the lyrics to, when a shiver ran through me. That’s it! I took a deep breath and began…
“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?....” My rich baritone rang out through the forest, echoing off the trees and the mountain beside us.
As I was atop Lady and had my eyes closed, I was naturally unable to see the stunned reactions on the faces of my companions, as I was also facing away from them.
As I sang, the very air around us changed. The scent of snow that I had grown accustomed to had multiplied, finally depositing its bounty of crystalline glory across the entirety of the forest. Unnoticed by me, some of the buckles had been Duplicated, and now hung on the reins as small tinkling bells.
A smattering of small, blue birds had taken flight shortly after I began, wheeling their way south. The Haarthuu watched, openmouthed, as they took flight, as there had been no birds in those trees before.
Feeling joy course through my core, I opened my eyes to a forest covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. I continued, nearly trancelike, with my song, seeing the images from my mind’s eye blossom into being in a clearing to our left.
Two people made of snow, resembling myself and Elizabet, were building another snowman, giving him a defined beard and a book. These snowy puppets acted out the lyrics to the song I was singing, bowing and dancing about.
The scene shifted, and there was a fireplace made of snow, complete with dancing flames made of snow within. Two puppets, easily the size of a dire bear, pantomimed speaking and were then covered by a snowy blanket.
Once more, we saw an empty field, with the same three puppets from before. They danced and glided about the field, “speaking” to the snow-preacher.
As my song concluded, we saw the two puppets walking arm-in-arm beside the cart, and then they collapsed into a pile of wet snow once I closed my mouth.
As I came back to my senses, I realized I was sweating profusely, and my stomach was protesting loudly.
“Ivor. What. Did. You. Just. Do?” Liss-ran asked breathlessly.
I sat there, panting. Trembling, I reached into my coat for the jerky that I had taken to keeping there. I began stuffing piece after piece into my starving gullet, trying to stave off the unconsciousness that loomed on my horizon. I swallowed more and more of the meat, my mouth eventually going dry. I slung my Pack to the front, and pulled out the pitcher and drank deeply of its cool bounty.
My thirst slaked, my hunger staved off for the moment, I turned and looked at Liss-ran.
“I have no idea. It looks like I can’t be singing things like that. I hope I haven’t royally mucked up the weather…” I said in a shaky voice.
“Was that the Ancient Tongue?” asked Piri-thak.
“Huh?”
“Ivor, we couldn’t understand a word of that. Are you telling me that you didn’t realize you were singing in the Ancient Tongue?” Liss-ran asked gently.
Realization hit me like a truck. I sang the weather into existence. It was effortless and easy. I didn’t even register that I was doing so until after I was done and the shakes hit. What’s more, I sang what I saw in my head into existence. All the images I would see when I heard that song manifested in this world as snowy puppets and props. Even the bells that were on the harness were exactly as my mind’s eye saw them. I could only guess that I may have created a new species of bird. I felt mortified.
“No… I had no idea I wasn’t singing in your language. Well. Now to deal with the fallout. Is this the normal time the snows would begin, Liss-ran?” I asked quietly.
“Thankfully, yes. It’s a week early, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t worry too much about altering the weather. Those birds, though. That may be a different story. There _were _only twenty or so,” she replied.
I nodded and closed my mouth. This was a new lesson, and one that I needed to ensure stayed present in my mind. I zipped my coat up against the wind, and Lady trudged on.
As the skies darkened, we could see the main road that led into our home. Kilik-ma jumped down and raced ahead, probably to let the village know we were back a little early.
About ten minutes after he left, we had a throng of people rushing out to meet us. At the forefront were Elizabet, Talah-ma’at and our boys.
“Hi everyone! We’re a little early, I know. We’ve got some goodies in the back of the wagon, and a lot more in my Pack. Let’s get Lady into the city, and we’ll unload everything, okay?” I called out.
The crowd of maybe thirty individuals parted and walked beside us like an honor guard, leading the Uror into the central hall of Haruma. Once inside, I called the gentle beast to a halt, and dismounted. I unhooked her from the cart and began to remove her harness when she snorted twice.
“Lady? Is something the matter?”
The Uror walked out of the twin shafts of the cart and turned to face us. Or, more specifically, she faced Elizabet. She looked directly at her and tossed her head.
“Present your magic to her, Elizabet. See if she’ll take it,” I said softly.
Slowly, Elizabet raised a trembling hand and a small, iron-gray sphere rose from her palm and hovered four inches above it. She approached the shaggy beast with her outstretched hand, and waited.
Lady stepped forward and gently plucked the sphere from Elizabet with a delicate tongue. She stood there chewing on it for a moment, and it was then that I heard Elizabet gasp.
“She said her name is Lola. And that she’ll follow us wherever we go. And that you…” she trailed off and turned to stare at me with an arched brow. In a low, dangerous tone she said, “What. Did. You. Do?”
I knew that tone. I sighed and shook my head. “Thanks, Lola. I was going to get around to that shortly.” I said in a wry voice. I looked Elizabet in the eye. “I appear to be able to control the weather to a degree. I don’t know to what extent it goes, but…. I sang a song into existence,” I said, defeated.
Elizabet looked confused. “You… Wait, you can sing?”
Liss-ran piped up. “His voice is rich and deep, too! It was nice,” she said with a little giggle.
“And loud. He has some lung power, he does,” Tren-sun added.
“Does anybody else wish to make her even more upset with me than she already is?” I asked in a loud, exasperated tone. “No? Thank you.”
“Try it again, Ivor. Tell me what you did,” Elizabet said firmly, crossing her arms beneath her prodigious chest.
“Yes, genius. Tell us what wonder you pulled out of your ass this time,” Blainaut said, coming up from behind Elizabet.
“Oh, gods. Not again,” I said, hanging my head.
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Once we had taken down the camp, I loaded the cart with the animal carcasses using my Hands of Air. While I was strong, there was no way I was lifting a female Dire Bear. Once our quarry was loaded onto the cart, I helped my Haarthuu friends up as well. They all situated themselves in the front seat, and I took my place behind the handle.
“Off we go!” I exclaimed and pushed off from the ground. It was difficult to get the cart rolling, but once I did, keeping it there wasn’t too much strain.
We continued in this way for about five hours, which is when we came to a hill that I would be unable to climb with the cart, and I doubted my companions would be much help. I had stopped and was leaning against the handle, breathing hard and heavily.
“Well, I can’t climb this, and I don’t have it in me to tunnel through. What should we do, Liss-ran?” I asked, panting.
Liss-ran sat there in a slight panic. “Um, I’m not sure. If there were Uror nearby, I’d say to convince one of them to help?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! I’ll call Walter,” I said happily.
I closed my eyes and leaned on the cart.
“Walter?”
“Yeah, Boss? You okay? You sound beat.”
“I’m fine. Just kinda tired. Where are you located right now? I could use some help.”
“Yeah? Let’s see…. I’m about an hour or so away from where you are right now. What’s going on?”
“I’m pulling a cart through the woods back to Haruma. I’ve hit a hill that I can’t pull it over. It’s too loaded down, and I’m not strong enough.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I can be there in an hour. Or should I send someone else?”
“Well, this cart is narrower than the last. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you.”
“Okay. I can send a kid over to you. They’ll be able to carry you and pull the cart.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. She’s on her way right now. From a different herd, so she can get to you faster.
“Okay. Should I give her some of my magic so she can communicate with me, or are you the only member I will be able to speak with? I don’t know how this all works.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be able to understand you, and will take you home no sweat. If she decides to stick around, I might uhh… claim her. Have your woman try to bond with her.”
I laughed and let the matter drop. “Okay Walter. Thanks man. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. Oh. We’re leaving the week after last frost. Heading to Klearm. If you could meet us in Haruma beforehand, I’ll make sure you’re fed well and your coat is nice and shiny.”
“You got it, Boss! Looking forward to it!”
I pulled my Pack off, and removed a large piece of leather, as well as my tools. “Gonna need these in a few. We have a female Uror heading our way. I’m going to make a harness and a saddle for her once she gets here, and we will be on our way. Sound good?” I announced.
Four heads looked at one another, then at me. “How did you manage that, Ivor?” Liss-ran asked incredulously.
“Uh, I just reached out to Walter, the Uror that brought us here. Apparently when you bond yourself to a Uror, you can speak with them from great distances. He’s an hour away. The female should be here much quicker. She’s from a more local herd,” I explained. “I won’t be able to speak with her the same as I do Walter, but I was instructed to see if Elizabet would like to try and bond with her.” I concluded.
“Okaaayyy….. If you say so, Ivor. I guess we get to see a different Uror,” Liss-ran said, shaking her head.
I rested there, cutting some strips from the leather for makeshift reins, belts and straps. I also took the time to fashion buckles from the Duplicated knife blade I had in my Pack. About fifteen minutes after I had finished making those, a shaggy Uror trundled up and halted beside the cart. She snorted and stamped a paw on the ground, seemingly eager to get this over with.
“Hello, my lady! Thank you for answering Walter’s call to help us. I trust he has explained the situation to you?” I said to the shaggy beast.
She tossed her head twice, which I took as an affirmative. “Excellent. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to fit you for a harness so we can hitch you to the wagon. Would you mind if I got to work? I’ll do my best to make it as comfortable as possible. If it pinches or is uncomfortable, please snort twice,” I said, receiving another toss of her head.
I smiled and got to work, crafting the harness from memory and sizing it to fit the much smaller female. After a few mistakes, she and I fell into a routine, and I had the harness crafted in short order. Once I explained the concept of the saddle to her, I began the process of making that, with similar results. All in all, it took us the better part of an hour to finish the work.
“There we are. Hmm. You know, I can’t just call you ‘Uror’ or something like that. May I call you Lady?” I asked.
The shaggy beast was still for a moment, and then tossed her head twice. “Excellent, Lady! I am Ivor, and we are going to Haruma. I will direct you, if that’s okay?” Another head toss and she began to strain against the weight of the cart. I quickly climbed up, and we were off.
With the assistance of Lady, we made short work of the hill in front of us. I let her choose the pace, and we were slowly, but steadily, on our way to Haruma once more.
“Liss-ran? How long do you think we have until we get home?” I asked.
“At this rate?” she said, taking stock of our surroundings and pace. “We should be there around dinnertime, I’d say.”
“Awesome. Just in time to have some of Gon-rash’s amazing cooking. This day is getting better and better!” I said happily, shrugging my Pack back onto my shoulders.
We rode and chatted for another hour or so, and I saw how lifted everyone’s spirits were. Even Tren-sun was cracking jokes and smiling.
After an hour or so, Kilik-ma called out, “Hey Ivor. What kind of entertainment does your world have?”
“Entertainment? Well, we have books, plays, theater, dance, songs, musical bands, and a form of entertainment that absolutely doesn’t and hopefully will never exist on Chaia, television,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, Liss-ran was describing your music to me when we were hunting, and I was curious to hear some.”
“Oh. Well, that device is back in Haruma, actually. I left it with Elizabet for safe-keeping, so I can’t use it right now to show you my music,” I said regretfully.
“Oh. Okay,” Tren-sun said, sounding dejected.
“But I’m feeling pretty good, so how about I sing a song for you?” I ventured.
Four voices replied in the affirmative, and even Lady tossed her head. Looks like I was committed. I racked my brain, trying to think of a decent one that I actually knew all the lyrics to, when a shiver ran through me. That’s it! I took a deep breath and began…
“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?....” My rich baritone rang out through the forest, echoing off the trees and the mountain beside us.
As I was atop Lady and had my eyes closed, I was naturally unable to see the stunned reactions on the faces of my companions, as I was also facing away from them.
As I sang, the very air around us changed. The scent of snow that I had grown accustomed to had multiplied, finally depositing its bounty of crystalline glory across the entirety of the forest. Unnoticed by me, some of the buckles had been Duplicated, and now hung on the reins as small tinkling bells.
A smattering of small, blue birds had taken flight shortly after I began, wheeling their way south. The Haarthuu watched, openmouthed, as they took flight, as there had been no birds in those trees before.
Feeling joy course through my core, I opened my eyes to a forest covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. I continued, nearly trancelike, with my song, seeing the images from my mind’s eye blossom into being in a clearing to our left.
Two people made of snow, resembling myself and Elizabet, were building another snowman, giving him a defined beard and a book. These snowy puppets acted out the lyrics to the song I was singing, bowing and dancing about.
The scene shifted, and there was a fireplace made of snow, complete with dancing flames made of snow within. Two puppets, easily the size of a dire bear, pantomimed speaking and were then covered by a snowy blanket.
Once more, we saw an empty field, with the same three puppets from before. They danced and glided about the field, “speaking” to the snow-preacher.
As my song concluded, we saw the two puppets walking arm-in-arm beside the cart, and then they collapsed into a pile of wet snow once I closed my mouth.
As I came back to my senses, I realized I was sweating profusely, and my stomach was protesting loudly.
“Ivor. What. Did. You. Just. Do?” Liss-ran asked breathlessly.
I sat there, panting. Trembling, I reached into my coat for the jerky that I had taken to keeping there. I began stuffing piece after piece into my starving gullet, trying to stave off the unconsciousness that loomed on my horizon. I swallowed more and more of the meat, my mouth eventually going dry. I slung my Pack to the front, and pulled out the pitcher and drank deeply of its cool bounty.
My thirst slaked, my hunger staved off for the moment, I turned and looked at Liss-ran.
“I have no idea. It looks like I can’t be singing things like that. I hope I haven’t royally mucked up the weather…” I said in a shaky voice.
“Was that the Ancient Tongue?” asked Piri-thak.
“Huh?”
“Ivor, we couldn’t understand a word of that. Are you telling me that you didn’t realize you were singing in the Ancient Tongue?” Liss-ran asked gently.
Realization hit me like a truck. I sang the weather into existence. It was effortless and easy. I didn’t even register that I was doing so until after I was done and the shakes hit. What’s more, I sang what I saw in my head into existence. All the images I would see when I heard that song manifested in this world as snowy puppets and props. Even the bells that were on the harness were exactly as my mind’s eye saw them. I could only guess that I may have created a new species of bird. I felt mortified.
“No… I had no idea I wasn’t singing in your language. Well. Now to deal with the fallout. Is this the normal time the snows would begin, Liss-ran?” I asked quietly.
“Thankfully, yes. It’s a week early, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t worry too much about altering the weather. Those birds, though. That may be a different story. There were only twenty or so,” she replied.
I nodded and closed my mouth. This was a new lesson, and one that I needed to ensure stayed present in my mind. I zipped my coat up against the wind, and Lady trudged on.
As the skies darkened, we could see the main road that led into our home. Kilik-ma jumped down and raced ahead, probably to let the village know we were back a little early.
About ten minutes after he left, we had a throng of people rushing out to meet us. At the forefront were Elizabet, Talah-ma’at and our boys.
“Hi everyone! We’re a little early, I know. We’ve got some goodies in the back of the wagon, and a lot more in my Pack. Let’s get Lady into the city, and we’ll unload everything, okay?” I called out.
The crowd of maybe thirty individuals parted and walked beside us like an honor guard, leading the Uror into the central hall of Haruma. Once inside, I called the gentle beast to a halt, and dismounted. I unhooked her from the cart and began to remove her harness when she snorted twice.
“Lady? Is something the matter?”
The Uror walked out of the twin shafts of the cart and turned to face us. Or, more specifically, she faced Elizabet. She looked directly at her and tossed her head.
“Present your magic to her, Elizabet. See if she’ll take it,” I said softly.
Slowly, Elizabet raised a trembling hand and a small, iron-gray sphere rose from her palm and hovered four inches above it. She approached the shaggy beast with her outstretched hand, and waited.
Lady stepped forward and gently plucked the sphere from Elizabet with a delicate tongue. She stood there chewing on it for a moment, and it was then that I heard Elizabet gasp.
“She said her name is Lola. And that she’ll follow us wherever we go. And that you…” she trailed off and turned to stare at me with an arched brow. In a low, dangerous tone she said, “What. Did. You. Do?”
I knew that tone. I sighed and shook my head. “Thanks, Lola. I was going to get around to that shortly.” I said in a wry voice. I looked Elizabet in the eye. “I appear to be able to control the weather to a degree. I don’t know to what extent it goes, but…. I sang a song into existence,” I said, defeated.
Elizabet looked confused. “You… Wait, you can sing?”
Liss-ran piped up. “His voice is rich and deep, too! It was nice,” she said with a little giggle.
“And loud. He has some lung power, he does,” Tren-sun added.
“Does anybody else wish to make her even more upset with me than she already is?” I asked in a loud, exasperated tone. “No? Thank you.”
“Try it again, Ivor. Tell me what you did,” Elizabet said firmly, crossing her arms beneath her prodigious chest.
“Yes, genius. Tell us what wonder you pulled out of your ass this time,” Blainaut said, coming up from behind Elizabet.
“Oh, gods. Not again,” I said, hanging my head.

I moved a grand total of 6 times during this time period. Some by choice, others by — well — not by choice.
So, after finishing University in my hometown, Florida, I became very bored of the mundane "work, eat, sleep" life. So, I sporadically booked a flight to the sunniest place in Germany — Freiburg im Breisgau. I took a German class in highschool, so I thought why not learn another language while I'm out and about in a place I've never been before. I enrolled in a language school, where they would provide me a visa that lasted 1 year. Now here's where things get juicy.
I arrived by plane (obviously) and was escorted by the language school to my 'family'. I chose to live with a host family because I wanted to learn about German culture, and I wanted to really get into the whole "language speaking" thing. When I arrived, a woman greeted me at the door. She was in her mid 50s, and very tiny. I greeted her and quickly found out that she didn't speak any English. Like, at all. But that was okay with me because that means that I'd be forced to speak German. The issue is that she didn't really speak much German either. Well, somewhere between A2 and B1. Better than me, but... you know. I made myself comfortable in my room and went downstairs for dinner.
Two other students joined us. I asked through Google translate why they were here, because I was informed that I would be the only student. She said that Turkish would be better for her because she didn't understand the question when it was presented in german. It turns out that I was the only student from MY language school. She was working with other language schools, and hosted up to 6 students at a time. Okay, cool. I respect the grind!
I quickly befriended a few people at the language school. These students also had host families, and rambled on about how wonderful they were. Evidently, these hosts made breakfast for the students. It was in the contract, but I assumed that it was optional for the host to provide breakfast. I asked my host 'mom' why I didn't have breakfast and she replied that she didn't want to get up that early, because work for her starts at 10am. ( I leave the house at 8am) I asked if it would be possible for her to provide me with some sort of salami or cheese for breakfast every now and then. She begrudgingly agreed, and the next day I was provided with the worst quality salami I've ever seen in my life. (No offence to Netto) Keep in mind I'm paying this woman 990 euros a month for an 8m² room that includes breakfast and dinner. Yikes.
I offered for her to pay me back a few euros so I could make my own breakfast. She told me that she wasn't able to do that, because she needed the money. So, I had to buy my own things for breakfast. One day, she told me that I was taking up too much fridge space. I didn't understand exactly what she meant because her Turkish accent was very hard to understand, so I nodded my head and moved all of my things to the corner of the fridge. (It was 4 items: salami, cheese, mayo, and mustard) She raised an eyebrow at me, sighed, and left the room. One of the students who was sitting in the kitchen at the time told me that she told me to remove my things from the fridge altogether because they were taking up space and it was disrespectful. Oh man. Okay. I just threw everything away because I was so frustrated.
She also had these weird "rules" I had to follow.
- Doing laundry was 5 euros per load.
- I was not to open the window at night. It was SO hot at night and I would wake up at 4am with my bedsheets drenched in sweat. She said that if I wanted to wash my bedsheets more than once very other week, I would be charged accordingly.
- If I had a friend come over, it was 30 euros if they stayed past 9pm.
- No meat was to be eaten unless it was a Friday.
- No alcohol (I'm 23 years old???)
But I sucked up these rules becuase at the end of the day, it was HER house. I just thought that because I was paying a large sum for so little, I'd be allowed a little more control.
Anyway, a week or two after me moving in, my host mom asked me to come with her to meet her friends. I felt like we got off on the wrong foot so I thought I'd tag along. Keep in mind this is August, so it's about 28C outside. I wore a tank top and some pants. When I greeted her outside, she looked me up and down and told me to change. Politely, though. I changed into one of my sleeveless turtlenecks. When she saw this, she sighed and handed me her jacket. Weird, I thought, but it was a friendly gesture — right? Hmm. We drove to a park nearby our village and there was a large group of people waiting for us. They were all dressed rather modestly for the weather, but I thought nothing of it. She then explains to me that she's a Jehovah's Witness, and that this is a Jehovah's Witness meeting. Oh, okay. I have no issues with religion, but MAN. I'll spare you the details. Everyone at the meeting was incredibly kind, but they kept on trying to talk to me about God and the Bible.
They added me to a groupchat and told me to meet with them every Friday. If I wasn't able to make it in person, then I could join on Zoom. I didn't know what to say. It was around this time that I got a message from the school saying that they were going to move me to a new host family. Just my luck! This was because she was going to see her mother for 3 months in Turkey.
A few days after I got the notice, I was scheduled to be picked up and driven across the village by my new host 'dad'. He was a German man in his late 60s. He seemed to be kind although kinda' standoff-ish. My room was above his. Great! It was nearly 28m², and I had tons of light flowing into my room. He told me the rules of the house. Pretty basic and very understandable. However, there was something that stuck out to me. I had to ring the doorbell every time I wanted to use the kitchen.
I asked him why. He said "I'm a nudist, so I must make myself presentable when you come down." Oh god, okay. It's HIS house, ya know? I asked him about midnight snacks, because I occasionally come home late (over the weekend) and during the week I generally eat later. He said that it wouldn't be possible for me to use the kitchen past 10pm. He added that no snacks were allowed in my room. Sternly, he told me that my "late nights" would have to come to an end. Hah! I asked my German friends if this was normal and they said he was "just being German".
There was a butcher shop about a 4 minute walk from the house, so I thought I'd get him a "welcome" gift. I knew he ate meat, because for dinner we ate weinerschnitzel. I picked out a nice link of salami and handed it to him the next time we sat down for dinner. He seemed to be pleased. He asked where I bought it from, and I told him it was from the nearby butcher shop. When I say the atmosphere changed, it CHANGED. He looked down on me with a slight glare and said "I do not want such a thing. Do you know where this meat is from? I do not know. That shop probably treats the animals horribly. I do not support that." Well, the rest of dinner was awkward.
There was an instance where two Italian students were staying with us, and we had dinner with them. They spoke B2 German, and I was still at A1 (if that, honestly). They were chatting up a storm and I sat quietly and tried to listen. One of the Italian girls asked me in German if I was shy and I told her that I wasn't but I just couldn't keep up with the conversation. The host 'dad' laughed and told them in English that I "refused to speak German" because "[my] German was embarassingly bad." Hmm, that didn't feel too good. I didn't speak to him in German ever again and till this very day I struggle with speaking because I keep hearing him in my head. Ah!
Now, around this time (about 2.5 months in) I've been making more local friends and they've been telling me that I can easily rent my own apartment for the amount of money I'm paying the school. The thought of independance got me excited, so I called up the school and said HEY, refund me all the money for the host families — I'm moving into my OWN place! I hopped on WG Gesucht and found a room with a guy right in the city center of Freiburg. Hell yeah! 350 Euros a month, too. The lease was limited to about 3 months, though.
The man was in his early 30s and he told me that he preferred to keep a quiet household. Totally fair, as I literally lived in the livingroom and there wasn't much space for guests. Throughout my whole stay, he probably spoke a good 30 combined minutes to me. Like, in total. These 30 minutes consisted of him telling me to limit my bath time to 5 minutes. I'm not saying he would stand outside the bathroom and count the seconds I was in the tub, but he would coincidentally knock on the door and tell me that my 5 minutes was up whenever he was home. When I told him that I wouldn't mind sending him extra money for the water usage, he said "Oh, would you like to support the Russian government?" Uh, what? I gave up on showering/bathing when he was around. He charged me 70 euros extra anyway, and said that he didn't have the water bill on paper but that these costs were correct.
While all of this was taking place, my language school friends convinced me to download Tinder. Sure, why not. After a few dates with some kind men, I met this German guy "Steve" and we clicked pretty well. He unfortunately had a ski trip planned for when I moved out, so I wasn't able to stay with him in his apartment while I searched for my own.
Anyway, I went back on WG Gesucht in an effort to find another room/flat to stay in. And I did! Oh, it was lovely. A 1 bed 1 bath, 70m right next to the Alt Stadt. I could finally have privacy! I spoke with the landlord and she gave me the greenlight to rent till August of 2023. Perfect! I was to sign a contract 2 weeks before the move-in date. When the sign-date arrived, I got a call from her saying "actually we decided to give this to a different tenant. Thank you for your time!" Ooookay, so I'm basically homeless in 2 weeks. I spoke with my current landlord, and he told me I could stay an extra 2 weeks till I found a place. Great! I went back on the WG-Gesucht grind again. I found an even BETTER apartment closer to the city center, and the landlord seemed to be lovely. Just 3 days before I moved in, I got a text from the current landlord saying that they were unable to offer me the apartment due to an "unforseen circumstance". Bro. What? I'm going to be homeless in 3 days. Are you serious? I signed a contract and everything.
Well, it turns out that the contract wasn't valid because they weren't the landlords. They're tenants. And their "landlord" IS ALSO A TENANT. Apparently the actual landlord found out that they were subleasing illegally, so they were being evicted. How fun!
So at this point, I'm pretty desperate. The friends I made were gone, because guess what. It's almost December, and everyone flew back home. My German friends are all students so they went back to their little German villages in the middle of nowhere and couldn't take me. I desperately put ads up on Kleinanzeigen and WG Gesucht, but to no avail. Everyone is on vacation! Hotels were 100+ Euros a night, but it seemed that that was the only option. I found an Airbnb that charged only 650 euros for 15 nights, which should give me enough time to find another room. So I booked my stay. Just a day before I moved out, I recieved a message on Kleinanzeigen. A room in Waldkirch — a village about a 25 minute train ride away. Fine. I'll take it. When I tell you I RAN into that apartment, I was literally shaking the landlords hand with teary eyes telling her how much I appreciated it.
I canceled my AirBnB, but they didn't give any refunds. Yeah, it was in the description before I made the purchase, but I'd rather live in my own little room in the mountains than some 12m room shared with absolute strangers. So, I'm out 650 bucks — BUT I HAVE A PLACE! My current landlord charged me 45 euros because I begged for one extra night. He didn't even have anyone moving in my room for another 2 weeks, but oh well.
Back to Waldkirch. Now, this cute little place was in an Altbau tucked between the mountains. It was wonderful. The kitchen was all cute and old, Edeka was a 1 minute walk away, there was a local market that was open every Saturday and Sunday... the people around me were all 60+ and smiled when I attempted to speak German to them. God, I loved it. My landlord also would cook for me when she had free time. I had my own little bathroom and I had a castle view from my window. My room was also nearly 30m²!
Unfortunately, the landlord told me that I had to be out by Feburary. However, I was becoming closer with Steve, the Tinder guy. He had a temporary job in Freiburg and because it was coming to an end and he was going to start Med school in Berlin, things seemed pretty gloomy. But I had this crazy thought. Because my language school was in two locations, Freiburg and Berlin, I could just switch schools and still legally reside in Germany. I could just... live with him. Crazy? Crazy. My parents and friends threw a fit. Anyway, I packed my bags and moved in with him to Frankfurt, where his parents stayed. Best month of my life. I made sure everything was okay at my language school, and we made the switch.
So, now we had to hunt for an apartment in Berlin. And man, let me tell you guys. That's HARD. After a while of searching, we finally landed a place in Moabit. March, April, and May have passed. Unfortunately for us, our lease ends in August. So guess who's moving again! Me! At least now I have someone with me to hold my hand through this stressful process. (If anyone has any long-term flats for rent... help!)
I've fallen too in love with this man because I'm now about to apply for the self employment visa so I can stay in germany until his med school finishes. It's been a crazy ride, but I'm so glad I came to Germany. Maybe I'll make a post about all of the other crazy non-housing related German stories!