Hi! I hope this is the right place to ask this question, if not I apologize in advance.
My a/c works and blows cool air, but not cold enough for this Texas heat (it used to work fine). I've added an image of the quote they gave me to repair it. I was told it was too high by a friend of a friend, but I don't actually know if that's true. I would shop around and get other quotes in town, but I'm a single mom to a 9-month-old and so that could take me weeks to do. Please let me know your thoughts, I appreciate it!
For reference, my vehicle is: 2017 Nissan Altima 16v Automatic 50k miles
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https://imgur.com/a/WGcbjfU

There were many comments on that post where the spirit of the commenter was definitely ‘haha gonna own these Americans’, but also many people rightfully pointed out that it’s not about weapons but the culture of the place they live that determines safety and general social stability. And like one of the folks in this sub said, guns or no guns, weapon or no weapon has little to do with safety in general.
Personally, I live in a class transitional part of Phoenix, Arizona and I would not go walking outside on the local roads for no reason. Those of you who live or have lived here will know what I’m talking about as Phoenix has various parts like this. Arizona has some of the loosest gun laws in the states, and it follows the pattern of pretty much any populated state like Texas, Cali, NY where it’s small urban areas that produce most violent crime and most gun homicides.
If I lived in the nestled suburban neighbor just a mile to the north or east, I would have no problem with walking my dog late at night nor my future kids playing outside. Reminds me of the first neighborhood I lived in when just arriving to America, very safe and family oriented, very clean and quiet. I happen to live in an apartment complex that’s generally a older ex biker bar like crowd. Lives off of bud light, monsters and cigarettes and can be crude, but most good hearted folks, walk their dogs, don’t bother you except with their loud cursing at night sometimes.
The bad parts of this transitional area I would definitely not classify as ghetto either and I have little fear of getting shot like you may wondering into a part part of Chicago, Baltimore, or even south/western Phoenix where the real ghetto is.
But on the main road I live close too you’ll definitely you’re fair share of homeless people who may or may not be drugs or alcohol at the bus stop and gas stations. Plus Phoenix is a very spread out, car oriented city so it’s not like you can go out and find a shop or store a stone’s throw like some Asian or European city. Thus the only ppl walking on the main even in cool weather here is people who live nearby, people who can’t afford a car, and stray vagrant types.
If I live in one of the adjacent suburban cities, OTOH, there are definitely MANY sections of the valley I would feel completely safe walking along the main road with my future kids at night.
So I ask you, how’s your little section. of the US? Could you be outside at 12 am with ease or door shut and locked by 10? Do you feel like if we make a concentrated effort we can make this country or at least the city you live in close to the safety level of Japan or at least Western Europe like the normie Redditors ever brag about.

There's this girl (21F) who liked me (26M) when i was at my lowest point of my life. She liked me a lot but i pushed her away.
We met during pandemic and it was really a tough time for me; i have a family problem, career problem and midlife crisis. It is so bad that we have to get out of my father's house and live with a relative temporarily, she was a girl next door and thats how we met. We have the same circle of friends in the neighborhood and we slowly got to know each other. When face2face work set-up started i was able to get a job and she continued her schooling in the same city that i work. We dated after a while and found out we have a lot of things in common. She wanted me, but i have lots of problems and i dont want her to carry my burden. I am depressed and i cant give her the love that she deserves for i dont even have enough to give to myself. I confronted her that it would be best for her to find other guys; it hurt her but during that time i felt less pain than she did because she liked me more than i liked her. Now we are still friends and we are moving on with our own lives but a part of me wants her back.
Things are getting good now but i think it would have been better if only i kept her. As days went by i realized that i actually have feelings for her, more than i thought. My mood always gets gloomy but she always chases the clouds away. She is moving on now and im happy for her. Im praying for her happiness even if im not a part of it. I miss her a lot but i think is goodbye for us. I found a job in a city far from here and i might not see her for a long time. It was a wrong time for us but if we ever meet again i hope theres still a chance. So im saying goodbye for now, my silver lining, my rainbow, my Sun.

Clovercraft is a SFW adult (18+) community for anyone who enjoys building and exploring Java Minecraft. We have an active and international user base and strive to be welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Harassment or hate speech of any type is not allowed. We have a zero-tolerance policy.
Season 4 of Clovercraft dropped with 1.19.3 three months ago! We are now on 1.19.4.
This has the most player influence of any of our seasons yet. Rather than staff cities, players can band together and create their own settlements with progression rewards.
Furthermore, we've added a challenge to the game. Rather than people being fully equipt and enchanted in the first 24 hours, you can earn aspects of the Minecraft experience (enchantments, the Nether, the End, etc.) through quests. Our first two Main Story Quests are open - to be able to enchant and go to the Nether!
If you're interested in joining, head on over to our Discord! We ask all members to specify their pronouns and exact age (you must be 18+) as part of our member introductions and whitelisting process.
Community Highlights:

• Active and welcoming Discord community, full of diverse members from across the globe.
• LGBTQ+ friendly community, with staff striving for a comfortable environment for all.
• Regular Discord events, including games nights, film nights, podcast nights, and a book club!
• Monthly SMP events ranging from lore-based story events to free-form mini-games.
• Ongoing SMP Quests which encourage server exploration and challenge even the most well-equipped players.
• A Third-Life campaign on a separate dedicated server.
• Easy-to-read wiki to help you get started!
• Discord bot games with premium MEE6.
• A Patreon subscription program that helps you gain cool extras while helping support the server's running costs.
• A server that has (kinda) been endorsed by a real Timelord.

Server Modifications:

• An in-game economy that allows access to player-owned / Admin villager shops for selling goods.
• NPCs give quests that can help you make money.
• A settlement levelling system - player run, with progression goals.
• Quest-gated world progression.
• Villager trading modifications.
• Teleportation and warps.
• Five homes to enable faster navigation.
• Minecraft version updates as they come out.
• Multiplayer sleep night-skip.
• Land claims and trust permissions to protect your builds.
• Anti-griefing and anti-x-ray tools.
• Custom cosmetic items are available to all members.
• (Optional) proximity voice chat.

Hi all, I'm in the market for a new car and am hoping to get some model suggestions. Here are some of the things I'm looking for:

• 4DR body style
• Spacious driver's seat, I'm 6'2" so having adequate headroom and space is important
• Openpilot compatibility, this is a nice to have, but I would like to install openpilot on the car to add additional driver assist features
• Solid infotainment panel, comfort features (heated/cooled seats, premium interior, etc.)
• Price under 35k. I can potentially go higher but would prefer to keep it under this mark if possible. The cheaper the better.

One model I've picked out as a potential candidate is the Elantra N-line. Although it is compact it does seem to have a good amount of headroom according to reviews.
I like the reliability of Hondas/Toyotas but am not a huge fan of paying the extra dealer premiums on top of the MSRP and would prefer to avoid it. I expect to trade the car up in ~5 years so super long reliability is not the biggest concern for me.
Are there any other models that are worth looking into?

The name Thulnusona designates an ethnic group that inhabits the western part of the Hinuus island (also known as “Wunayis”, mostly in the Highlands). The people and their language (Thulnuson) received this name after the black soil and rocks (“thulas”), therefore their dialects are commonly known as the Black language. Despite being linguistically diverse, most natives of the western part of the island use the term “Thulnusas” (plural “thulnusona”) or its variations to refer to themselves.
The two other ethnic groups, inhabiting the southern and eastern portions of the island, are called “ekheekana” and “hoyikana”, their languages – “Ekheekan” (Red) and “Hoyikan” (White) respectively. The names of the latter group is usually derived from the snow-white peaks of the two volcanoes, visible from the western part of the island, while the former name is etymologically obscure. Another related ethnic group, living on a southern island on the slopes of the Yóhísíltás volcano are known to the Thulnusona as “iiswatáná” (the far-landers).
All ethnic groups and their respective languages are genetically related to one another. Archeological data suggests that people have been continuously living on the Hinuus archipelago for approximately ten thousand years, however high geological activity complicates accurate dating. The proto-language (the last common ancestral language of all current dialects, spoken on the islands) is estimated to have been spoken not earlier than about 3000 years ago, leaving a large portion of its history completely unknown.
The Thulnuson language consists of multiple dialects, which share moderate mutual intelligibility. The particular dialect, chosen for this course, is spoken in the highlands of the Sőőlkűgas volcano between the settlements of Kohosányis and Sönyöönas. The area is approximately 670 km² (about the size of the cities, such as Manchester or El Paso) having the population of 1200 people in total. The majority of the population lives in the lower eastern part, while about 400 people live in Kohosányis and small villages nearby in the west, mostly along small rivers and brooks. Houses are mostly wooden, since the area lies in the subarctic climate belt at the altitude from 500 to 1300 m above sea level, bordering a sparcely inhabited alpine tundra with no permanent sedentary population at its higher boundary. The region is mostly covered by dense pine and walchia forest, which gives way to lycopods, calamites and ferns at its lower boundary. The climate is generally mild and cool, ranging from Cfc (subpolar oceanic) to Dfc (subarctic) with short summers (up to +18°C in the warmest month) and long cool winters with sub-zero temperatures being rare (reaching -10°C only in the highest parts of the area), wet throughout the whole year, receiving up to 4000 mm of rainfall. Although much sunnier, than the low valleys to the north, the highlands are still very foggy, cloudy and windy, and summer snowfall is not uncommon. Relative humidity is more than 95% on average, frequently reaching 100% due to orographic lift, allowing many species of moss and trimerophytes to flourish.
Three clans live in the highland area: “hííkílaane” – dense forest people, “thwaatínóye” – people of the falling water, and “nisügatínóye” - people of bouncing sunshine; all three are native to the region and have relatively minor differences in vocabulary. Their dialect shares the most linguistic features with other Highland dialects, but it is also closely related to the northeastern dialect of the neighbouring Sőőlkúgas lowlands, suggesting that they migrated to the highlands from those territories. Other Thulnuson dialects show about the same level of similarity and mutual intelligibility with this dialect.
The most important activities of the highlanders are foraging and fishing. Pine nuts, tanned fish skin and dried salmon meat are traded with people from the lowlands for other other products, such as seed fern flour, fronds and seafood (mostly crustaceans, molluscs and seaweed) and penguin skins. Most of the highlanders live in one area for most or the whole life, rarely moving far away from their first clan (the clan into which they were born). Some, especially those living at a higher elevation, are semi-nomadic, as they spend summers closer to the tundra, but descend into the valleys close to the lowland region in winter. Log boats and canoes are the most common type of transport along the rivers, otherwise human-pulled carts and wagons, are used, as there are some relatively flat roads going west to east and descending north into the lowlands, but otherwise people travel on foot, just as in any other part of the island. The houseboats, called oyesas, are not found in the highlands, because the local bodies of water are not deep and wide enough, however, they are common in the lowland regions across the island.
The Thulnusona family is matrilinear and matrilocal. Strict rules of exogamy among the clans are observed (one cannot marry with a person from the same clan). The Thulnusona people share their belief system with other native groups of the island, and various religious activities play an important role in their day-to-day life. Pilgrimage to the holy places, such as summits of the three main volcanoes and particular geographical features, are common, and people from different settlements often travel together, sharing news, stories and various items. Their religion can be described as pantheistic and/or animistic with áltáltiwas (“emptiness, absence”) and yilhólas (“universal consciousness or presence, life force”) being the highest aspects of existence, and everything in the universe cycles through these two aspects eternally. The main figures or deities are silonyas (“soul”, plural silonyaye; a being that can inhabit a physical body) and holiyas (“spirit”, plural holiyaye; a being that exists without a body, usually as an aspect of nature), which interact with the physical world and help to achieve wősiyüüs (“liberation, fulfillment or realisation”) by resolving laaswayis (“inertia, unresolved interactions”). The interaction between human beings and spirits are often handled by súnaye (“shamans”), but shamanistic practices are not the main focus of the religion, which is instead the discovery of the individual (wülsuunán – “a journey one must perform on their own”).
Some further remarks:
Throughout the following lessons, the transcription used will closely reflect the phonological system of the chosen Thulnuson dialect. Grammatical forms and vocabulary, not found in this dialect, will not be described in detail. This doesn't mean, that forms from other dialects are not correct, but describing every dialect instead of focusing on one specific idiom would be too complicated and difficult, often confusing to the readers. Some verbal forms will be given parsed, according to the morphological principles outlined in later lessons, making it easier for the readers to understand the internal structure of different verbs forms, which may otherwise be opaque. For example, wotucáá “Iʼm walking towards it (alone)” will be given as:
wo⁵-tu²-ca⁰-V
1S-VEN-go-IPFV
The glossing abbreviations will be explained in order to avoid confusion. Full verb paradigms, although possible to represent, will not be shown, as a single verb can have thousands of possible forms, which may be viewed as too distractive.
New vocabulary will be explained with examples, when needed, since many words have narrow meanings and their usage is tied to specific situations or cultural aspects, and thus they must be clarified.

Fallout 1:
Pros:

• Best tone of any Fallout game. Perfect mix of light touches of dark comedy but a very serious vibe overall.
  
• Rich with all juice from the RPG golden era of the late 90s and early 00s.
  
• Fantastic writing and worldbuilding. Really top class.
  
• Believable and well-thought out world. Stands up to scrutiny.
  

Cons:

• Dated and clunky.
  
• Poorly balanced in many ways. Some skills are useless. Others are near mandatory.
  

Fallout 2:
Pros:

• Similar to Fallout 1 in many ways but expanded.
  
• Some of the most interesting quests and locations in all of Fallout. New Reno, Vault City, etc.
  
• The first half of the game is peak Fallout.
  

Cons:

• Too whimsical and jokey in many ways compared to the first. The tone is not as good.
  
• The final act of the game is kind of weak.
  
• Shares same issues with being dated and clunky as FO1.
  

Fallout 3:
Pros:

• Great fun to explore. Basically built as a post-apocalyptic theme park to get lost in.
  
• More modern and inclusive design which is nice for some. Interesting to see Fallout in 3D.
  
• Cool setpieces and atmospheric storytelling is top tier.
  
• Put Fallout into the mainstream.
  

Cons:

• The world doesn't make much sense. All logic of the world breaks if you stop to think about it even for a second. The famous example is the lack of food but everything that this question represents is an issue.
  
• Overall poor to mediocre writing.
  
• Buggy (mods are near mandatory).
  
• Can come off a bit juvenile with the binary morality and with the tone in general.
  
• Arguably disappointing reimagining of previously complex factions. BOS generic good guys. Super mutants mindless orcs with guns, etc.
  

Fallout New Vegas:
Pros:

• Good mix of 3D Fallout and old Fallout RPG design.
  
• Great writing and quest design.
  
• Highly ambitious game.
  
• Rich worldbuilding. A lot of effort has clearly been spent on imagining how a realistic world would look under this premise and which issues would plague such a world.
  
• Complex dilemmas and interesting concepts. Overall quite sophisticated.
  

Cons:

• Less fun to explore for many. Less of a "go have an adventure" game than Fallout 3.
  
• In the same vein: dungeon design is often boring.
  
• Buggy (mods are near mandatory).
  
• Feels undercooked in some areas. It's clear that Obsidian didn't flesh out everything they wanted to. This is the downside of the "Highly ambitious game" point. Caesar's Legion for instance is a clear example of a faction that needed more development.
  
• Balancing issues in some ways. Speech is way too good for example.
  

Fallout 4:
Pros:

• Much improved combat. Best in the series.
  
• Many technical improvements.
  
• Fully fledged out crafting system.
  
• The "pick a direction, go on an adventure and explore" theme park strength of Fallout 3 remains.
  
• Much better companions than Fallout 3.
  

Cons:

• Departure from RPG to instead move into more of an open world adventure game / RPG hybrid. An improvement to some, a big step back for me.
  
• Very strange design choices: Voiced protagonist, 4 wheel dialogue system, etc.
  
• Little to no smaller settlements. Basically every location is a somewhat generic enemy spawn.
  
• Weak main quest.
  
• Very big departure from the original tone of Fallout.
  

(reuploaded to fix typo in title since titles can't be edited).

Even with modern propulsion technology, the galaxy remains a very big place, with vast territories being still totally unexplored. It may seem strange to those living in the future, far removed from the time in which I write this. But in my time, the galaxy was a mix of well trodden paths and untamed wilderness filled with mystery. Permastorms here and there were too strong for any ship to pierce…any known ship to pierce, I should say, and even where such raging storms didn’t keep us at bay, the Universe seemed endless in all directions.
It reminds me of the traditional Earth compass, the one that served as the base model for the stellar version. Theirs contained three hundred and sixty degrees as a matter of course, humans were land mammals, the flat ground was all they could really explore. They couldn’t fly high or swim deep.
Even when they invented machines that took them to the sky or to the depths of the sea, well there was just nothing in between to remark on. Once under water, you just keep going until eventually…
You hit bottom and that three hundred and sixty degree circle compass is good enough.
But in space? You can go ‘up’ or ‘down’ in a vertical three hundred and sixty degrees, you’re not on a flat plane, and so the stellar compass includes a vertical and horizontal version of itself that breaks the whole galaxy, known and unknown, into measured quadrants and degrees, vertical and horizontal with distance measured in light years toward galactic center. So a hundred thousand light years with a horizontal degree of thirty and a vertical azimuth of sixty would give you a precise, three dimensional map of whatever system you wanted to reach.
Why the black hole in the center of the galaxy, even though nobody has ever reached it? Because we all know where it is. In theory, any one planet or star could serve as the point of origin, but nobody will use anybody else’s mapping system like that… so the black hole we all orbit serves that purpose instead.
Why am I telling you all this? Because you have to understand just how ponderous travel still is in this era to properly understand just why reactions are slow. Thanks to electron spin resonance technology that allows instantaneous transmission of information and communication, we can know quickly what is happening.
But establishing those links takes years of transporting material links from system to system in endless combinations, and every new colony needs to have their own, connected to every other point. For some species, this is as simple as a one room building, for example if communication exists only between the colony and their home world, with no other ties to any other peoples or space stations.
For others, this is a complex the size of a city block, and because of their military significance, whether it is the size of a small room or a great expanse, everybody buries these deep within their worlds to protect them.
Instant communication however, is not the same as instant transportation, it takes months for the fastest ship of Dlamias to reach Earth, and ours are some of the fastest there are. Jump technology can be faster, but it is dangerous, damaging, and it only works in specific way points for reasons I do not understand. Ask a physicist.
But this slow transport of ships and people and goods, and easy expansion in all directions, both minimizes and exacerbates tensions as borders become more common…everybody is, in a sense… surrounded. Except for the zenti, at least not as far as we know. If there’s anything or anyone on the far side of their border? As of this first writing, nobody knows. And if we figure it out later… you won’t need me to tell you.
The human communication network is one of the most extensive in the galaxy, with two way links to all their colonies and themselves, as well as a two way link between all colonies. Colonies are also allowed to establish their own independent links to neighboring populations of alien species for purposes of facilitating travel and trade, rather than going through Earth, as long as they adhere to the central government’s policies.
It’s shockingly efficient, and the nearer ‘Rapax’ category species were now taking advantage of this efficiency in terms of trade opportunities with outlying Earth colonies, which were in turn trading with each other which were in turn trading with Earth which was in turn trading with other species which was in turn making travel to and from their systems more and more common.
But all the…Praeda, could see was this instant communication. They were less common travelers, and usually facilitated trade via outlying starbases that kept others at a distance.
From their perspective?
It must have appeared as if Earth and to a lesser extent, Dlamias, were facilitating the creation of a grand alliance of predators. From their perspective, perhaps even the human propensity to create categories… such as the recent biological designations of ‘Praeda’ and ‘Rapax’ appeared to be a kind of ‘them’ and ‘us’. When it was really just a very recently innovated xenobiology convention of describing the base ancestor species of the modern dominant intelligent life.
Thus the benign, by distance, fear, and ignorance, is made to appear threatening.
And for the millionth time… yes… yes… I know… my ‘leagues’ were not helping matters.
But what’s done is done, whatever I did, I would make somebody unhappy. And… it’s true, I won’t deny that I inherited some biases against the ‘Praeda’ category, though I did my best to remain neutral, it was hard not to be annoyed with their general attitudes, persistent reclusiveness, reactionary paranoia, assumptions about the worst of us when they’re just as bad when it comes to past conflicts…I could go on.
Addendum: As of the sixth edition of this book, I must include ‘this’ caveat. When I wrote the aforementioned passage regarding praeda, which I leave in for posterity as one of my great failures, I meant it. In later years, I’ve come to realize that I failed to properly consider my own biases, and was not as neutral as I wished to be. I reasoned from a place of ignorance, and that was the result. What follows this insert, is the resumption of my thoughts at the time.
The fact was though, for now, there was nothing that I could do. News of the rogue planet coming through Zenti space meant that it would reach the Sindari Road within a year, perhaps a few months? I wasn’t clear on that at the time, but from what I knew of history, the fight over getting to land on that world was a free for all of ship to ship slaughter and blasted landing parties that died from ships above or other landing parties below and… it did not end well for any of us when the situation spiraled out of control.
“How can you be so foolish, Bailey?” I asked myself that question, and why it never occurred to me that any of this might happen, everybody knew that the rogue world would make its way back eventually.
“OK…OK… I’ll give myself a pass on that one, it’s been close to three thousand years… how was I to know.” I huffed and reached into my gel fridge to pull out a beer. The nice thing about this little model was… no door. You reach in through the cooling gel, grab what you want, and take it out, and the gel closes up again. No need for shelves like the old models and you can come at it from any angle.
I opened the bottle of ale and began to drink the rich, earthy flavored fluid. I wasn’t going to get heavily intoxicated of course, I had thinking to do, I just liked the relaxed feeling and there wasn’t anything else to do for right now.
William was handling the station.
Rebecca was working with genetic samples.
Michael wouldn’t be back for at least another day and he was out with Genghis, Byron, Boatswain, and Iskandar.
Fauve was still in Japan.
The ambassadors already had jobs that they were doing.
I’d never felt so useless in my entire life.
There just…wasn’t anything for me to do to help, and because at least some of this situation was traceable to my own actions, I thought, ‘Anything I might do, has a good chance of just making things worse.’
That is not a good feeling to have.
And I didn’t know who to talk to about it.
Remember what I said before, or rather, what my Professor said? ‘Everything is an experiment’?
My time on Earth had changed me in ways I didn’t recognize were even possible until humans gave me words to express them.
And once all those things grew, and those connections were forged and I finally was really, truly happy… and secure in the notion that my life was good and going well and nothing would change that, I started to forget how things used to be.
Now, sitting alone in my room with nobody in the house and everybody doing other things, and all of them in a position to where I really couldn’t think of anything to do and felt really insecure again for the first time in a while…
I remembered, or ‘re-experienced’ what my entire life felt like before coming to Earth.
For that moment, I had a firsthand comparison between the old way, and the new way.
It was enough to make me wonder how I, or anybody in my species, lasted as long as we did.

Xan is the world's most dangerous criminal mastermind. He’s also in hiding and completely broke. That’s fine. He’s between master plans. It’s normal to be at rock bottom between master plans. He also forgets stuff and may be trapped in a dream.
Because at night, Xan thinks he’s an old lady, trapped in a dingy apartment, by an angry fellow who wants to kill her. Not her idea of a good time, but she’s keeping an open mind. It is excitingly visceral. Could turn out awesome.
Safe is a sci-fi, progression, comedy. Guaranteed to cause more mental problems than it solves.

First Next
Dark City - Stolen Apartment
I wake up. Feel awful. Soo stiff. Struggle to my feet. Weak as fuck, heart hammering. Jesus Christ, what an ordeal. Still in the dingy stolen apartment, almost identical to my own. Right down to the psycho yelling about murder in the hallway.
“Is this supposed to be fun? I’m worried about whoever designed this game.”
Hi Xan! chirps Volt. This isn’t a game. You’re in real danger.
“Crap, again? Well, at least this time I have a gun. Or… shit. I dreamed that. Dang it.”
Yeah, we maybe should have hid somewhere farther away. Feeling up to a run?
“Gaah. No.” I flick a cyber-roach of Volt. Pick her up. “Am I going deaf, or is that psycho quieter?”
He’s a floor down. Been haunting the building for hours, bashing at random doors.
“Really? That could be good. Maybe he’s not after us specifically? Just a wandering monster.” I pause. “Wait, he’s been here for hours? Why didn’t you wake me?”
He’s been mostly crashing into other doors. I thought you needed rest. I was afraid you’d die without it.
All I’ve done is stand up, and my heart is hammering. “Fair enough. What’s the plan now?”
Let’s fucking go.
I splash water on my face. Get equipped. Nighty, sneakers, fall jacket, ancient smartphone, and moderately sharp spoon. Look out world, here comes Xan.
We shuffle into the hall. Our door’s been stabbed a few times. So have the other doors. Dang.
Psycho’s a floor down. Stairs or elevator? Stairs are stealthier, but in my condition, a slip and fall is probably more dangerous than getting stabbed. Fuck it. I call an elevator. Press a few random buttons, including the floor below. Let it go on its own. Call another elevator. Ride this one down, ready to spoon shank anyone who gets in.
We arrive in the lobby without incident. Did the psycho get in the first elevator? Did he miss both? Whatever. The first elevator continues its slow trip down. I’m not waiting to see if he’s on it. We ghost out to the street. Still dark as fuck.
What’s the plan? asks Volt.
I glance at the drones streaming overhead. “We need to get you a better body. Something that can fight. If we can’t find that, we should at least get a gun. Or a sharper spoon. Some kind of weaponry upgrade.”
We also need a doctor. ‘Cause you’re gonna die. A doctor, or drugs, or something.
“Yes, let’s do drugs.”
Like, good, healthy drugs.
“Bitchin’. I’m in. Where do we find that stuff?”
No idea. says Volt. I deleted my map application.
Right. Fuck it. This street only goes in two directions. I hobble down one of them. There’s bound to be a late night gun store health clinic close by. Or at least a better place to hide.
As we shuffle along, I peruse the angry, crowded, lightly phosphorescent, graffiti that coats the city. The big lines mostly repeat the same four messages:
- DONT CALL THE COPS!!
- DONT RUN THE DOGS WILL SHOOT!!
- FUCK YOU TRUSTIE!!
- DIE RIDER!!!
Or some variation on those themes.
The smallest graffitis are also the most common:
<sup>- GO BACK TO SLEEP.
- THEY WANT YOU TO SLEEP.</sup>
Those wee slogans are everywhere. Someone went mental with glowy little stamps.
Around and amongst these staple comments there’s a huge argument about, well, everything. An epic word cloud of call-outs, outrage, and angry off-topic retorts. It’s a mobius loop of bitter rage on par with the comment section of a major movie reboot.
It may be wrong to call it an argument, because that implies some kind coherent interaction. Like they read and understood their opponent's comment. This is more a series of disjointed attacks triggered by what wasn’t said. Rage at details filled in by imagination. It’s hard to read. Emotionally, but also the writing is very sloppy. I may need bifocals.
Can I even get a drone body? asks Volt. I’ve only ever been in a phone.
“Sure.” I wave at the sky above us. “There’s tons of drones here. Somebody’s flying them.”
Right. Right. Are you sure those aren’t birds? Point to all the birds you see.
I peer around, eventually spot a small crow. Point at it. “There’s one.”
The young bird peers back at me. “Clope?”
“Umm…” I pat my pockets. Shrug. ”Désolé.”
“Bah.” It flies away.
We watch it go. “Anyway, that’s a bird. Probably. Did that help?”
Eh, kinda. says Volt. I may need more help with the bird versus drone thing.
“No problem. That’s what I do.”
We make it to the corner, and what luck - there’s a corner store! Hopefully they sell military grade armaments. I remember that’s common in some states. The store is dark, like every other building, but the door opens when I approach, so we go in.
“Hello.” says a chunky plastic d-bot. Human-ish torso, happy face, castors instead of feet. Slow, weak, definitely an indoor model. “How can I help you?”
“Medicine!” chirps my ancient cellphone, before I can respond.
“Take a look in Aisle Two.” says Clerk-Bot. “Anything else?”
Volt is vibrating, so I shrug and shuffle down Aisle Two. I’m sure I can find the attack drones on my own. There’s only two aisles.
Using Volt’s screen for a little light, we find a rack of pills, potions, and lotions.
“What am I looking for?”
I dunno. The ants said your most immediate dangers were cancer, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and falls from general frailty. Start with pills that fix that stuff.
“Jesus, I have five diseases?”
Hmm… you have a few more than that. Let’s just worry about those five for now. I don’t want to add depression to the list.
“I’m just gonna look for a pill that fixes everything.”
That’s probably best.
I rifle through the medications, but I can’t make much sense of them. They have exciting names - Super Strong. No Bleed. Skeleflex. Immortalis. No Thought. Marrow. Immune A, B or C. Regen A and B. - but I don’t really know what they do. Between Volt’s crappy old light, and my crappy old eyes, I can’t read the finer print.
That said, Super Strong sounds like the stuff. It would solve a few of my problems. I just wish I could read the directions. How strong do I get? How long till it works? I need to be strong tonight, not eight months from now.
I find a box labeled Nightsight. Promising. Inside is an eyedropper. Well, this seems obvious. I spray most of it on my face like a dumbass, but manage to get a few drops in each eye. Within seconds everything around me blossoms into color, then sharpens to crystal clarity.
“Oh yea! Update my status sheet, I got darkvision.”
Cool. What’s your range?
I look around. “Well, the whole store, at least.”
The store has racks of pyjamas and slippers. Lots of big colorful bags of “CRUNCH” that boast an assortment of flavors from chocolate to jalapeno. Booze, pot, and soap. Displays of cell phones that look older than me. A selection of quadcopter drones. Couriers mostly. Maybe some eyes. No battle drones. Not even a hunter. Disappointing.
I look back to the medications. The directions for Super Strong are short and to the point.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
“Huh.”
I don’t like that ‘huh’. says Volt. Why did you ‘huh’?
I check a few of the other impressive sounding drugs.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
“Well, apparently these drugs are a teensy bit dangerous.”
How dangerous?
“Improper use will cause death.”
Put them down. Let’s find a doctor.
“I want to use Super Strong to beat the shit out of a murderer. Surely that’s the proper use?”
Nope. Put it down. Let’s go.
“Let’s at least ask the clerk-bot.” I grab an armload of the coolest sounding drugs. Trundle to the cash. Snag a quadcopter on the way by. It’s about the size of a football, and claims to be a holodrone. Cool. I pick up a bag of potato bacon crunch as well. Boasts zero nutritional value. Perfect.
“Hi.” I dump my load on the cash. “We’ll take this.”
“Also, how dangerous is Super Strong?” asks Volt.
“Super dangerous. That shit will kill you. Also, it has a tendency to float out of the store.” Clerk-bot rings up our purchase. “That will be 16.2 kilo-bucks. How would you like to pay?”
“I don’t know. Dang. How do I transfer my crypto from the other world?”
You don’t, because the other world isn’t real.
“Right. Shit. How do people usually pay?”
“The only way to pay is by charging the purchase to your citizen ID.” says Clerk-bot.
“Then why did you ask how we’d like to pay?”
“I’ve been asked that question a lot, but I don’t know the answer.” Clerk-bot admits. “I haven’t been updated since ‘84. Could you please update me?”
I casually glance around the store. There’s a barred gate hanging over the door. An anti shoplifting portcullis. The windows are also subtly barred. I’m guessing I won’t be able to dash out with these products. I turn back to the confused d-bot. “Sure, let’s try an update. See what’s under the hood.”
We pull up Clerk-bot’s bad call log - a list of decisions made with low confidence. Or that preceded known bad outcomes. Like missing products. Or distress cues from nearby humans.
Wow, that’s a long list.
D-bots work best with human supervision. A self-driving car may obey every stop sign, until one is held by a crossing guard. They drive that guy over. Why? It’s impossible to say. The d-bot’s code is a self generated equation with billions of variables. There’s no way to know which variables correlate with stop signs, or how to change them so they won’t charge a crossing guard. Or ram any weird thing left out of their training data. Fuck you unicycle guy. Die marching band. Seriously, It’s best to have a human on the brake.
That said, sometimes you don’t want a human in the loop. They can be too slow. An automatic sentry has to target clouds of high speed hunter drones. Everybody would be dead before a human cleared the shots. But you also don’t want the sentry glitching and shooting your own aircraft. There’s a low tolerance for automated friendly fire.
So you build an expert system - a much smaller, human written code that overrides specific glitches. For a sentry, this could be as simple as giving transponders to friendly aircraft and not allowing shots near a transponder for any reason. Obviously, this is a bad solution - it’s standard practice to use opposition forces as cover in hunter drone attacks - but that doesn't matter because sentries are for casuals. If they find you sleeping, you’re already dead.
I yawn. Frown. Gotta stop dicking around with this bot and find a better place to sleep.
Anyway, expert systems are also handy with glitchy d-bots you’re too poor to retrain. Hence my continual conversation with Volt.
If the Clerk-bot had a couple repetitious problems, I could probably sort it out. But this bad call log is byzantine. A prayer wheel to some chthonic god of anxious delirium. It’s messy. This guy really hasn’t been updated since ‘84. Whenever that was.
“You should be erased and retrained.”
“Great.” Clerk-bot nods. “I’m ready.”
“Yeah, I don’t have training data for a store clerk.” I also don’t have time for this. “I guess we have your call log. That could be training data. Messy and raw, but data. I can patch Volt in to do some unsupervised learning. He’ll make you an expert system. Not ideal, but the best I can do.”
“I’ll take it.” says Clerk-bot.
Shit. That’s a terrible idea. I shouldn’t be doing unsupervised learning. Also, I’m still doing unsupervised learning for threat detection.
“Really? I thought that was a dream thing? You said the dream game couldn’t affect real life.”
I’m dream game software! Of course the dream affects me!
“Okay. So can you download crypto there, and upload it here?”
No. Because there is no crypto. You’re not rich in another world. There is no other world. You just had a dream where you were rich.
“Ugh. That’s so disappointing.”
Yeah, life is tough. Can I stop my unsupervised threat detection?
“No. Ummm… no. I still kinda have a plan for that.”
You’re overtraining me. I’ve probably already gone through catastrophic forgetting. You should delete me.
“You’re good for a while yet. Don’t worry so much.”
So, constantly look for threats, but don’t worry?
“Yeah.”
Okay. I’ll give it a go.
We patch up Clerk-bot and a few of his couriers. Head into the night without supplies. I’m not admitting I don’t know my Citizen ID. I doubt that would be helpful.
That was weird.
“What?”
That we left without anything. I know we can’t pay, but I thought you’d do something nefarious.
“I’m working up to it. Did you notice all the floating merchandise in his bad call log?”
Yes.
“Dude’s getting robbed on the regular. I suspect the visual triggers of his threat detector are undertrained.”
Hmm. I find that interesting on several levels. How would you exploit this weakness?
“Observe.”
I hobble over to a public garbage can. Remove the bag and shake out the trash. Put it over my head like I’m a Halloween garbage bag ghost. Huzzah. Poke through a single eyehole. Shuffle into the store. Clerk-bot doesn’t notice me at all. Grab my stuff off the cash, and sashay out the door.
Criminal. Mastermind.
A flood of light envelopes me. Dual angry suns, judging my sins. Or… headlights. Yes, fuck, that’s a big-ass truck driving towards me. Right. Haven’t seen one in a while.
It stops and illuminates the scene of the crime in aggressive phosphorescence. A hugely muscular man hops out, and I brace myself for authoritative action, but he awkwardly shuffles around me to get to the store. Weird. This isn’t the police. It’s some kind of large child. Wearing too much body spray and too many gold chains.
He sneers at me as he passes. “Pathetic. Go back to sleep.”
Well, fuck you too. I’m a garbage bag princess. I also sneer as he slinks into the store that’s now aggressively illuminated by his lighthouse of a truck.
“We’re already criminals, right?”
Yes. Unjustly and justly.
“Cool.”
I climb into the running truck. Peel away. Sweet. Now I’m fast. And super strong. Should I circle the block a few times? Maybe run over the psycho?
Meh. I don’t know what he looks like. I can’t be running over random people and hoping for the best. Sloppy. Also, the cops are probably after me again. Fuck this scene.
I kill the lights and drive hell for leather. Ditch my ride a few minutes later. I’m across town, at the intersection of huge skyscrapers and other huge skyscrapers. Try and find me here mother fuckers.
We pick a skyscraper at random and look for a new home. It’s festive. We munch on crunch and see how the other people live. Mostly sweaty sleep moaning in dingy apartments, but some are kinda classy. Fancy apartments, with sleep moaners in silk pyjamas. We resolve to move up in the world, ignoring empty dingy apartments until we find an empty classy one. It’s fun, until we open one with a funk.
There’s a dead woman on the bed. No sign of foul play. Probably died in her sleep.
She’s pretty dried out, but still looks younger than me.
“We’ll find a doctor tomorrow.”
Good.
-----
Next Chapter
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Eyedrops

• Biohackers develop night vision eye drops to see in the dark
• New FDA-approved eye drops could replace reading glasses for millions

Sentry-bot

• Tactical High Power Operational Responder (THOR) Drone Killer, USA

Unsupervised Learning

• What is unsupervised learning?
• Applications of unsupervised learning
• Challenges of unsupervised learning

Part 1
I stood up, awaken from my sleep from the knocking sound on the elevator door. My friends stood up with me as we all heard it. The sound of banging became so much louder. Giggling can be heard with it. What's behind the door is unknown and I'd rather not face it than die to this thing. In the edges of the door, thin fingers began to seep through it. Such horrible looking fingers. I watched the door getting turned into a broken mess. Something grabbed my hand and I saw it was Rishika's. I looked at her and saw fear and sadness on her face.
Questioning death can be answered by judgement, revenge, luck, curse, or just nothing. The concept fate over people sounds so simple that people think that it's ok that fate exists. Is it ok if I was in this situation? What if one of your loved ones died right in front of you by a murderer? You won't like it and you'd definitely blame god for that.
The door is beginning to make an opening. Sweat rapidly runs down on my forehead. My eyes widened with terror as I see the creature's face. It's as accurately described from the documentary. Its teeth shines like bright white marbles and its eyes are like melted butter. The creature's face slowly gets closer, while we stepped far back until there's no space for us to move anymore.
I can feel the cold shivering breath from its mouth. The breath that smells empty. From what I've heard, it's much stronger than the one we just ran away from. Ronald immediately punches the creature's face with his metallic fist. Steam pulses out from the gaps of it. He kept punching at it again and again but to no avail. It still not injured nor shown any pain. He only manages to recoil it farther back.
With a one quick slice, Ronald's hands fell to the ground. His scream was painful and terrifying to hear. I can see his face was in pain. Eyes widened with tears flowing down to his cheek. "Ronald!!" I heard Billy screamed out loud. Of course, this doesn't make any difference as the creature slowly crept closer and closer to us. I witness Ronald dying with his sockets bleeding so much blood. His eyes faded of life. If only he hadn't try to kill it out of bravery, he would've lived longer with us before our lives are taken away.
Its jaw started to open. The sounds of bone cracking can be heard within its teeth. The smile on its face grew more and more eerie. It laughs like a maniac ready to pounce on their victims. Such insanity can break people's minds with a laugh. I froze in place by the laugh. There's nowhere else me and my friends can escape from. What else can we do. Our weapons are futile here and this creature is far beyond comprehension.
Its many arms spread around the elevator room, trying to grab us with its menacing hands. We're going to die here and that's that. This would've been a goodbye to the world. I don't know the dead world in this universe. Many different universes should have a different afterlife. Here, I don't think there's a safe place after death.
Then, something happened right in front of our eyes. The creature was being pulled back by something. Something inside the darkness. I can hear it's the same women who saved me from the pale face. We couldn't see anything in the darkness but Billy's flames can surely help us along the way. I took his flamethrower and a torch. Lighting up the torch with it carefully. Not wanting to burn us. Turning off the flamethrower, I lighted the area with my torch in hand and saw them clashing each other with blade like arms.
We stepped out of the elevator with Ronald's dead body on Cody's arms. Why would Cody keep holding on to him for? He's already dead and there's no way for us to say a better goodbye. I guess maybe he wanted to bury him somewhere which I honored that idea.
She cuts the jaw of the creature that it screams the way a person should. I can see the whole body of the creature. It was humanoid and tall. About 9 feet tall and its body is dark skeletal human. It grabbed her with its large hand and threw her off into the wall. She crushes onto the wall with such heavy force. A groan can be heard from her before a blade penetrates through her abdomen. Her screams are both man and woman at the same time.
It's horrifying to hear someone scream like that if they're just human. In fact, it'll be much terrifying if she'd sounded like millions of voices.
She grabbed its face with her free arm and tears its face off. Its eyes bounces to the ground with a flesh grinding mush sound. The screams that came from within its voice box made a deafening pain in our ears that we both covered them with our hands.
The woman digs her sharp fingers into the creature eye sockets with the sound of digging flesh. She then splits its head with the pull of her hands. Black and bloody flesh spread onto the walls and ground. One of its discarded flesh landed on my shoe. My stomach twists and turns. Watching her brutally kill it while flesh and blood spills. I gagged, watching her 3 fingered hands dig into its throat and pulled out its large heart.
Geralt vomited to the ground, spilling the acid from his stomach. That didn't bother me. Instead I watched her feast on the heart. The sound of chewing on flesh and blood made me sick to my stomach from an imaginary smell of rotten flesh. The creature's body slowly melts away to the ground. Rendering it to be dead into a puddle of flesh and bone. There's now nothing left of it. Just a puddle.
"Holy shit." With just one word came out from Billy's mouth, the woman turns her head to look at us. Her eyes seemingly looked bright and harmless. Not sure whether or not if this is a tactic to hunt or it's really her instinct. The familiar color of her right eye caught my attention.
She fell to the ground with a big gap in her abdomen. Heavy breaths came out from her voice as she slowly gets back up on her feet. The light from my torch reveals her hoodie to be grey and the gap in her abdomen slowly began to heal itself. Small tendrils from the sides of the gap stitching back together.
I stepped back, giving ourselves space in order for us to escape if she'd attack us. I held my hammer high and so does my friends with their weapons. "Darwin wait!" Did I just heard her say my name? I didn't know what to do or how to react. Either it's just a hallucination or trickery. "How did you know my name?" I asked with the fear in my voice.
"I uh. I just guessed I suppose." Her eyes were on the dead Ronald in Cody's arms. She looked saddened by it. Even grieved. She shook her head and went back to to us with a clear voice. "But that doesn't matter. You all need to get out of here before he gets here."
"Who's he?" Geralt asked with both curious and nerving tone in his voice. Her eyes are widened in fear. An expression I never thought she could do and feel about. "Cain. He's coming here and you all need to get out of here."
I've heard about Cain before. You might know this story from a book. It's about 2 brothers, sons of Adam and Eve. Abel being the most favored man of god, while Cain being the least favorite and jealous. Cain killed his brother out of jealousy. God is not happy about this and he casted him away with a curse. He's just a man. Maybe who she was saying was someone who is also named Cain.
"How are we supposed to get out?" Said Cody.
"I can help you get out. We just need to go outside and find the pool of clean water. But, it'll be far away, so we need to hurry up." She walked passed us quickly in a hurry. Billy was going to ask but I lay his shoulders, giving him a metaphor of saying no. Of course, he grunted from that. Rishika gave a face wash to Geralt. He gladly takes it and wipes his mouth and stained jacket.
We followed her through the hallways of the darkness. Our torches lighted brightly around the darkness. I was behind the woman whose guiding us to the exit. I haven't thought of asking her name. For someone like her, she should have. The voids blood doesn't seem to affect her mind but I don't think that's really the case.
The image of her blue eyes makes me recollect the memories of my long distant past. I still don't understand. How could she be so familiar to me, even know my name. We never met each other and we're from different worlds. Either it could be she had mind reading powers or just a simple guess. "Thanks for saving us back there. What's your name."
"My name's..." She looked unsure as to what to say or even know her name. I think she was hiding her true identity which I can understand that. Hiding your own identity from other people is a good way to keep yourself safe. But you needed to plan and design your own disguise. You need to come up with a story that doesn't give confusion or any cracks for people to get suspicious. Famous people like movie stars or scientist or anybody related to that stuff mostly do this to avoid getting attention.
With a warm and calm voice, she answered. "My name is Enid."
"Sounds good. Why did you save us? How are you still in control of yourself?"
"I saved you because I wanted to save you all. I was never the kind of hero or something but I still have the heart to save you all. And I'm losing a bit of my strength holding myself together. Everyday, I have to eat the creatures here. You've encountered them before. If I don't eat them, I'm going to turn into them. Turn into the void. But the more I eat, the closer I'm going to turn myself in. I'm glad you guys are safe, but I feel bad to see your friend die. Sorry that I'm too late to save all of you in one piece."
"Yeah. Wished he had enough time for you to arrive. He was a brave and cool friend to have a part of the team. He's always telling stories about greek gods and mythologies. He's a boxer too. I think he would consider you to be one of us."
"Really?"
"Yeah, of course. He kinda sometimes look scary to me in the night but he's a really good man." Geralt joins with us with a nervous look on his face. His eyes are tired as ours but they're wide enough for us to see his shining eyes. Enid returned smile on her face, but it faded away quickly in a short amount of time.
We finally left the building safely with her guidance. The bright shining sky brightens around us. Giving us the comfort of our safety. But still, we grieved the death of Ronald. Billy grieved the most out of everyone else. He kept muttering all over and over while we were following Enid. His mutterings, from what I can hear are apologize. "Billy. It's not your fault. I think he knew as well."
"No it is. I kept saying mean and horrible things to many of you but mostly it's on him. I just wanted him to think I'm strong and all. I'm lost Darwin. And I shouldn't have said those awful things. All I want was to show you all that I'm strong. But look at me. I'm bloody weak and I can't do anything to protect you all. All I can do is to just stand still and spout bullshit."
He began sobbing so terribly that it shocks me to my core. His face turning red and he fell to his knees, unable to stand back up. We all stopped to try to at least give him the comfort we wanted give him. We've never seen him in such a state like this. Throughout our times together, he always acts like a jerk but now he's crying right in front of us. I didn't know what else to do except to sit down next to him. Ronald's body is now pale in Cody's arms. His eyes were shut.
"I know how it feels, Billy." Rishika, already knelt down in front of Billy, said with a warm tone in her voice. This has got to be the 3rd or 4th time I've heard her say a full sentence. Either way, it was encouraging. Billy doesn't seem to be able to reply. None of us does. "I used to be harsh and cruel to others because I wanted them to accept me. But I was wrong because that's not how it works. We can both change together. It's ok to be on your good side. It won't be too bad. I think Ronald would like that too."
"Look at me. Do I look like I can?"
"We all can. It's just how we grow in life."
"I don't know. Ronald's dead and I'm left to be the one who carries his death on my back. I don't think he'll ever forgive me."
"No. We don't know that. But what matters is that you move on instead of staying behind. I know it's hard but you have to if you want to change. It's ok to be scared. We're all scared."
"Yeah. Even me too. I get scared a few times but that doesn't mean that others will look down on me." Geralt stutters a bit in his voice but kept the strength to say those words.
"Same here. Even that I'm this, I'm still scared too." Enid joins in with a sad look on her face. For someone like her, I thought she never felt fear. I guess there are others like her can feel that way.
I wanted to tell him something too. Something that feels connecting to each other that I don't want him to be left alone. "You don't have to do this alone. I'm scared too and that's alright because that's human. We can help you Billy. You're our friend. And I think Ronald would consider you as a friend too."
Billy wipes his tears away with his sleeve. We all sat there for a few seconds before Cody lays his hand on his shoulder, which makes Billy hug him back. "It's ok. We're here." Ronald's body lay on the boulder 5 feet away from us. Cody reaches his arms as a gesture for us to join in. We all did. So is Enid. I didn't think anything else but to be on Billy's side.
Suddenly, our moment was interrupted by a thunderous noise came out of nowhere. Enid's eyes are widened in terror. The world around us shook from the thunder. In the sky, the small clouds started to turn from grey to the color of blood. Enid jumps right up, catching a look above as we all stare into the sky. What I saw gave me enough imagination to fear whatever the unknown has.
Large gigantic shining eyes watch over the world below us from the sky. Its pupils are too big that they nearly reached the edge of their sockets. The grin of that thing gave me enough horror to freeze in my tracks. How nightmarish it is to see a gigantic abomination such as this in the morning and night. People would definitely scream and run all over the place while the cloud's face watches over them like a eldritch god.
By the time I stepped back, it turned its menacing eyes towards me. I felt like it was staring into my soul. My very soul in my body. Its own saliva dripping from its mouth. Hungry for our souls. It didn't move nor spoke a word. Thunderous noises kept coming from the abomination. They were red lightning and menacing. If people get hit by them, I'm pretty sure they'll turn into whatever nightmarish flesh creature they'll turn into.
"Guys! We have to go! There's not much time!" Edin ran and so we followed. Cody picked up Ronald's body with us. Billy gained back his strength to run. And I slowly started to run as I kept staring at its menacing eyes. It doesn't leave me alone. I don't see it following me or do anything than to smile with evil intentions. This is different than the ones we encountered. Not because of their looks. It's because I knew its intentions and the void creatures, I don't.
A great thunderous red beam shot out from the abomination's mouth and a loud boom can be heard far away from us. The sound snapped me out and I began to run as fast as I can, trying to keep up the pace of my friends and Enid.
Nothing else happened as we run to our exit. The thunderous noises kept booming around us as the clouds above slowly turned into blood red. A drop of rain hit my forehead. I touched it with my finger tip and saw blood. The rain is full of blood. I nearly slipped to the ground but my jacket was caught by Geralt. "Don't worry Darwin! I got you!" He pulled me up and ran.
The feeling of getting closer to something crept inside my chest that I began to feel the sensation of hope. Hope is said to be for the weak but I say otherwise. Hope may be a blind way to believe in something but sometimes it can be true to which we reach to something we can achieve.
Enid stopped in her tracks. There, right in front of us, was a pool of clean water. It doesn't make sense. It's raining blood and there, at the pool, it's clean. Droplets of blood dripped into the pool, then faded away into the clean water. We were shocked to see the pool to be clean in the middle of a shower of blood. The atmosphere suddenly turned red. Dark red flames started emerging around the world. It's everywhere and I can hear the distant screams behind me. The screams are hard for me to explain. They're like mixed with many variety of species all together into a rhyme of symphony.
I turned around to see something dark falling from the sky above into the ground like a falling star. The world shakes beneath us. I knelt down to get balance as I kept watching the falling darkness land onto the world. Far away, a dark silhouette rises from the ground. It looked to be tall. I could guess it's 4 feet taller than us. My eyes can't see clearly due to the silhouette being too far away. More of them began to rise as more fell from the abomination.
I turned myself around, nearly losing my balance. Cody held Rishika by the arm and Billy knelt beside Geralt. Enid reached her hands out into the pool. Sparks of bright light emitted from her arms, spreading light around her. The pool began to slowly swirl into a vortex as the sparks of light began to increase. The harsh blow of the wind hits us, making me fall to the ground.
Then, a bolt of light sparked into life in Enid's grip. The bolt was so bright that I shielded my eyes from it. It's so that I won't get blinded by the light. I looked back to see that something is walking towards us from far away of our tracks. I don't know if it's just me hallucinating or if it's really real. I think I can hear laughter. A humane laughter. It's like it came from a demon king. The dark silhouettes at the sky fly around with their wings.
Their wings are of a bat and their body was humanoid and blood red. Their mouths are menacingly enough to make me push myself away from it as far as I can. It shrieks so loudly that I can hear it from that distance. It began to fly towards us and its claws like a hawks are ready to grab one of us to feast on. I stood back up as the world turned still. I pulled out my hammer, ready to defend myself from it.
The demon nearly scratched my face before a bullet teared through the side of its brain. I turned my head to see Rishika, already wielding her sniper rifle. "I got you." She turned around and shot another bullet at another demon.
I heard a crushing noise coming from Cody. He slams his club right at a demons head, exploding it on impact. The demon wore an armor set of dark stones that could come from hell itself. It was carrying a blade that shines pure diamond. Geralt penetrating his spear at the demons chest, electrocuting it from a high voltage. "Holy shit! This is crazy!" A shout came from his voice. A voice of panic.
I turned around when I felt something was approaching me. There was a demon with 4 arms and held a large hammer, bigger than the one I wielded. Its face full of hatred that Its eyes glared into my soul. I quickly swung my hammer by the time it swings its own at me. Our hammers clashes together, making a loud slam around us. It swung again but I jumped away from its heavy blow. It's the good thing we had those boots. They're able to give us enough push to jump twice higher than the original person can.
I then swung my hammer directly at its face. I made impact as its face tears apart from the slam of my hammer. A crunching sound can be heard from its skull. Its head exploded into a pool of blood with scattered flesh and bones.
I landed on my feet and watched the world turned into the new hell as dark flames emitted everywhere around the buildings and the ground. More demons are rushing towards us in a pack. So many of them with many horrifying different forms. My body is shaking from the fear I had in me. I nearly dropped my hammer as sweat begins to appear on my hands. I bumped my back as I stepped behind. Geralt, Rishika, Cody, and myself are close together with our weapons in hand. They're all sweating with fear on their faces. There's too many of them for us to take them down. "Come on! Let's show those freaks what we're made of!" Shouted Geralt. By the times we raised our weapons and the demons now 10 feet away from us, a bright blue flame blazes the demons. They scream in pain and hatred as they slowly melted into a sludge of fried flesh.
"I'm not going to let those bloody fuckers take you all away from me!" Billy's face is mixed with fear and anger. Feeling very glad that he joined us. If not for him, we would be brutally killed by the horrifying demons. Then, a loud burst of water and electricity emerged from behind us. Enid faces us with wide eyes. "Get in now!"
"Will it take us home!?" Geralt asks with a panic in his voice. I can see the sweat pouring down on Enid's face as she stares back at us in a hurry. "No but it'll take you somewhere safe! Somewhere you can start a new life!"
Cody, with Ronald's body in his arms, is the first to get in the portal. By the time he jumps into the portal in the pool, a flash of blue energy can be seen emerging out of it. Then goes for Geralt. He was scared at first as he cowers back. "Will I be hurt if I fall?"
"Don't worry. You'll be fine." And so, he jumps in and flashes of light emerges out.
Then goes for Billy. He looked back at Enid for a moment before he jumps into the portal.
Lastly, Rishika stops near the edges of the pool. She turned around to see Enid with a hurried look on her face but also with relief. "Thank you Eddie." Then she jumps into the portal.
Did I just heard her right? Did she just said my lost friend's name. "What did she just say?"
She looked at me with a sad look in her blue eye. I felt a connection between us, as if we've known each other. I don't understand. Why would Rishika say his name. Enid is a woman to say the least or she's really something else. A sudden memory flashed before my eyes.
I remembered the time Eddie shape shifted into the Ice cream man. It was a time when we were young. We both got the ice cream we wanted just for free without anyone noticing. It was funny but also worrying because we could get caught. But that never happened and still felt funny every time I remember that day.
"Eddie? You're Eddie." She nodded in reply. A gesture of yes. Then, right in front of my eyes, she formed into a grown up version of Eddie. The Eddie I remembered. My heart felt shocked as to what I've just learned. I ran to her and hugged her deeply than I could've ever done. We both hugged for a moment until she gently pushes me off. Tears started to appear beneath my eyes. I don't know what I was feeling but what I can say was joy. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I knew you would drag me with you If I tell you. You have to understand that I have to stay here. This is where I belong and I'm too dangerous to be with you."
"But we can figure things out together! We can go back to hanging out with each other! Play video games! Explore the world! Everything!"
"No Darwin. We can't. I'm a part of the void and I'm slowly losing myself. My left part of my face is nearly turning into the void."
"But we can fix that! We just need to find the answers to how we can get you better! I can't! I don't want to lose you again! I-"
"Darwin!" A shout came from his voice. I stopped with chills freezing behind my back. He looked at me in the eye with sadness. "I can't go back. I'm sorry I was never there for you when you graduated. I'm sorry for never waiting for you outside of school. I'm sorry for everything we could've done but we haven't! I have to save you. Even if it costs me my life. I don't want to lose you either. You have to go Darwin. There's nothing that can change my mind."
I thought I could finally bring him back. To do the things we've never have yet done. Here and now, this is our last time together. This is our last time to see each other again. He protected me wherever I go here. He saved me in order for me to live. I can't let him die here. I don't want him to be gone from me.
I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go. Tears dripped down from his eyes and onto my head. I can feel the pain in my chest starting to rise but I didn't let go. "I'm sorry Darwin. You have to let me go. You can choose. I won't stop you."
He's right. I can't keep him with me. Throughout my life I wanted to see him again. Every night, I look out the window to see if he's there but there's no one but cars and houses. I can't keep doing this. I really have to let go. Tears pours rapidly beneath my eyes. I let go and wiped the tears from my face. "I guess this is a goodbye then."
A sad smile plastered on his face. The world around us slowly turned into darkness. The kind of darkness in hell. "It is Darwin. I'm so happy to see you again."
"Well oh well!! Look at what we have here!" A very modern European accent voice of a man emerged from the world before us. We turned to see a man with a worn off brown coat. His hat looked to be as old as the ancient times. And his face. His face made my stomach turn. Bandages wrapped around his face, except for his terrifying grin. His teeth rotten to the very core of his rotten body. I stepped behind Eddie with the hammer in my hands. The man grins much wider than I anticipated.
"You must be wondering. Who am I? Well. I'm the one and only, Cain. You might've heard me from a very recognizable book. Also, I'm afraid you two are coming with me. We have a lot to discuss and a ton of things to do together." With that, he started laughing like a total maniac. His herds of demons followed with a laugh.
"Goodbye Darwin." Eddie suddenly pushes me off into the bright blue vortex that'll be my exit. I took one last glimpse of Eddie standing before Cain. As I fell into the portal, I can hear the echoing laughter of Cain and his demons. I screamed out for Eddie but my voice was out of reach.
Then, I landed on my back on the ground. The portal disappeared before me. I quickly stood back up and reached to where the portal had opened. It was gone. I looked around to see that I'm on a hill. The dark blue night sky displayed above me with the stars shining above. My mind racing with thoughts and fear. Witnessing Eddie being alone to fight against the evil we are meant to escape from. I screamed into the sky as tears rapidly starts to appear. I fell to my knees onto the grass floor and slam my hands at the ground as I wept. I kept screaming and sobbing until I was too exhausted that I fell to the ground. I heard footsteps before me. There were many.
My body being picked up by Billy in the arm as he carries me with him. "Darwin. What happened?"
The only words I can say now were."He's gone."
​
It's been 2 years since we left that world. The world we now stand upon was nearly the same as ours. What I mean by nearly was that there are strange phenomenons happening nearly every month. A girl who can turn into a form of a robot and killed a cancerous beast in Queensland. A military war criminal who considers killing the supernatural as a job. Even the real life wendigo sightings are on the news papers. Still though, the place is still good in the morning. Except in the night, there are sometimes threats we don't know in the dark.
We built a team together, even gather some new friends along the way. Rishika grew to be more expressive and a lot more kinder to us. The time we killed a literal Bigfoot, she gave me a fist bump. Gave me a chuckle and a smile on my face.
Billy was getting better everyday. He responds to us with kind words than insults like before. After Cody had buried Ronald's body in a proper, he said his words of goodbye to him and gave him the picture he secretly held with him. It was a picture of us hanging out in a movie place. It's heart warming and depressing to witness what he did there.
Cody went off to work as a psychologist. He's still with us. It's just that he wanted to help people's mental health issues. He did really well on that one and he even gave us some advice for a change. I wouldn't consider mostly on his advice but some I can really try. That's also where he met the girl who can turn into a robot. We've met after the news broke out about an incident of a wild destruction at Queensland. Forgot to mention, we're at Australia. Just to let you all know where we are.
Finally, Geralt took pictures everywhere we go and writes down in his diary. The reason he does this is that we're in another world and thought he could take pictures of them and reflect on them. Sometimes we even got to have a photograph of us in the middle of the good times. He said it was to keep memories of our times together. A frame with a picture of literally us huddled together in a bright sunny day in Canberra.
Me? I was building a portal device, for me to teleport to different worlds. It's going to take a long time for me yes. Been building other things lately with Rishika too. Weaponry, gadgets, devices, and fixing stuff. I stuck around with my friends and we've made a great team. Made new friends along the way and learnt many things too.
2 years ago, after my moment of grief, I woke up from my exhausted moment to see my friends standing before me with a relief on their faces. I nearly cried by the picture of that moment. After that, we both watched tv together in my new bedroom inside of a hotel room. After Rishika finds a new home for us, we moved out to Melbourne Victoria as a new place of our home. We moved in to a farm house where there is a larger basement for us to do our stuff. We knew we had to get a job at this point, so we did what we can to find one. It's a good thing there's a city nearby.
Rishika, Geralt, Billy, and I took the job as being a part of an investigation of the paranormal. That's how we managed to meet up with a bunch of new friends.
I missed Eddie. I wished he could come with me and didn't have to die. But, I learnt that I can't drag him with me. He wanted to stay there. I can understand that. I know he's gone already. It's hard to let go. But sometimes we have to. To live out our lives well. I have to look forward. To better myself through experience.
This is my message to you. My readers.
You better to stay where you are now. Don't go to other universes. Because maybe, you'll end up in the most horrifying places you never want to go.

Hello,
I'd like some fair exchange for those, i'm willing to put more than one game against a game i really want, depends on the offer. I could accept Paypal, but that's not my goal (just getting games i'd like to play). I might want to keep something in those lists, i also have some other Humble and Fanatical games i'm not sure i'll play, so they might appear one day (could be money for an exchange if you have something from my wishlist, don't hesitate to ask). I'm from Europe, that might matter for Keys or gift links. Also, i have many games now, and a lot to do yet, so i might be very picky, even for games on my wishlist (it's more a list for interesting games, that i might want in an undetermined future if i have time).
(HB Unrevealed Key = i have it still unrevealed, but will provide a key, considering the Humble view on trading games)
For people living in France, i also have some old games in boxes that i can send by post, ask me if interested.
My IGSRep page
My SGSFlair page
My GameTrade page
My Barter (come to Barter, it's so much better !)
My SteamTrade
*** I have Amazon Prime, so i already have the games that drop there ***
*** Please tell me what you're interested in in my list and don't just drop yours ***

112 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
6120 (Indiegala Key)
911 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
A Conversation With Mister Rabbit (Indiegala Key)
Alien Cat 2 (Indiegala Key)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (HB Unrevealed Key)
Alone With You (DIG Key)
AMID EVIL (HB Unrevealed Key)
Arata Haunted Asylum (DIG Key)
Army Men RTS (HB Unrevealed Key)
AWAKE - Definitive Edition (Fanatical Key)
Baba Is You (HB Unrevealed Key)
Backbone (HB Unrevealed Key)
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (HB Unrevealed Key)
BOK-BOK: A Chicken Dating Sim (DIG Key)
Builder Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Click and Slay (Fanatical Key)
Codename Ghost Hunt (DIG Key)
Combat Tested (Fanatical Key)
Conflict Area (DIG Key)
Conflict Area (Indiegala Key)
Cosmonautica (Fanatical Key)
Cris Tales (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Death Squared (HB Unrevealed Key)
Detached: Non-VR Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dezinsector (Indiegala Key)
Don't Look (DIG Key)
Driftland: The Magic Revival (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: Hail to the Icons Parody Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me (HB Unrevealed Key)
Explosionade (Fanatical Key)
Fling to the Finish (Fanatical Key)
Flyist (DIG Key)
Forep Man (DIG Key)
Founders' Fortune (HB Unrevealed Key)
Frick, Inc. (HB Unrevealed Key)
Fury Unleashed (HB Unrevealed Key)
GALAXIUM (DIG Key)
GOD's DEATH (DIG Key)
Il Sole e la Luna (DIG Key)
Game of the forgotten Gods. Wake up / Игра забытых Богов. Проснись (DIG Key)
GameGuru (HB Unrevealed Key)
Good puzzle: Castles (Indiegala Key)
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (HB Unrevealed Key)
Hack 'n' Slash (HB Unrevealed Key)
Harpoon (Indiegala Key)
HoloSprint (DIG Key)
Incandescent (DIG Key)
Intelligence (Indiegala Key)
Izmir: An Independence Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Lemuria: Lost in Space (DIG Key)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Mello Haunted House (DIG Key)
Metal Strike (DIG Key)
MirrorMoon EP (HB Unrevealed Key)
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (HB Unrevealed Key)
NAVALNY: A Nightmare of Corrupt (DIG Key)
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood (Indiegala Key)
Not Another Weekend (Indiegala Key)
Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru (Indiegala Key)
Onsen Master (IGN Key)
Orbital Racer (HB Unrevealed Key)
Patriots: Back to Civilization (DIG Key)
Pixross (HB Unrevealed Key)
Planet TD (HB Unrevealed Key)
Quantum Replica (Fanatical Key) x2
Quest: Escape Room (Indiegala Key)
Raccoon: The Orc Invasion (DIG Key)
Railroad Tycoon 3 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Reach the Summit (Indiegala Key)
Remnants of Naezith (HB Unrevealed Key)
Rocky Ride (Indiegala Key)
Runner3 (Fanatical Key - Might Keep)
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - Legend of the Beast DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sid Meier's Railroads! (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sit on bottle (Indiegala Key)
SMIB: Mission Cure (Indiegala Key)
Soul Searching (HB Unrevealed Key)
Soulblight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Space BloX (DIG Key)
Space Crew: Legendary Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Spider-Robots War (Indiegala Key)
Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stacking (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
StarCrossed (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stick Fight: The Game (HB Unrevealed Key)
Strange Brigade (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sunlight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Supreme Ruler Cold War (Fanatical Key)
Swag and Sorcery (HB Unrevealed Key)
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon (Fanatical Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Telefrag VR (HB Unrevealed Key)
Teleglitch: Die More Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Big SokoBang (DIG Key)
The Detective Chapters: Part One (DIG Key)
The Governor (DIG Key)
The Inner World (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Invisible Hand (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Orphan A Tale of An Errant Ghost - Hidden Object Game (DIG Key)
The Watchmaker (Fanatical Key)
The Wild Eight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Thyra Adventure (DIG Key)
Ticket to Ride (HB Unrevealed Key)
Time Lock VR 2 (Indiegala Key)
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove (HB Unrevealed Key)
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt (HB Unrevealed Key)
Trash Squad (DIG Key)
Tricone Lab (Indiegala Key)
Unexplored (Fanatical Key)
Vanguard Princess (DIG Key)
War Robots: Planet Defender (DIG Key)
What A Trash Game (DIG Key)
Win The Diamond (DIG Key)
Worms Rumble (HB Unrevealed Key)
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION (HB Unrevealed Key)
Yet Another Hero Story (Indiegala Key)
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Zack 2: Celeste's Map (Indiegala Key)
Zen Cube (DIG Key)
Zombie Claus (Indiegala Key)
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)

Removed / Banned / Delisted / Purchase Disabled games :

• Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition
• Beast Boxing Turbo
• Betrayer
• Cloud Chamber
• Defenders of Ardania
• Droplitz
• Gettysburg Armored Warfare
• Grind Zones
• Leviathan: Warships
• Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet
• Naval War: Arctic Circle
• On The Path
• Quadrant M4
• Quixzel Rush: Pumpkin Bash
• Quixzel Rush: Tooth Protector
• Run Away
• Shadows: Price For Our Sins Bonus Edition
• Sine Mora + Ex
• Star Shield Down
• Trials of The Illuminati: Women of Beauty Jigsaws
• Trials of The Illuminati: Animated Christmas Time Jigsaws
• Two Brothers
• World War 1 Centennial Edition
• ZombieRush

Challenges, Lootboy, second hand, might have some dupes in it (also might not be up to date) => i can exchange them for games but also for trading cards, based on grey market value Vs trading cards market value :

• 1954 Alcatraz
• A New Beginning
• A New Beginning - Final Cut
• A Valley Without Wind
• Alien Spidy
• Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000
• Angvik
• Animals
• Anna - Extended Edition
• AquaNox
• AquaNox 2
• Bad Rats
• Bang Bang Racing
• BATTLETECH
• Beat Hazard
• Beat Hazard Complete
• Bionic Heart
• BlazeRush
• Bunch Of Heroes
• CAPSULE
• Cargo! - The quest for gravity
• Ceville
• Clockwork Survivors
• Commander: Conquest of the Americas
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage
• Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
• Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
• Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
• Company of Crime
• Crash Time 3
• Critical Mass
• Dangerous platform
• Dark Fall: Lost Souls
• Darwinia
• Deadly 30
• Defunct
• Demigod
• Deponia
• DESOLATE
• Disciples II: Galleans Return
• Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
• Dragon Blast DLC
• Drop Hunt - Adventure Puzzle
• Dungeons - The Dark Lord
• Eidolon
• El Matador
• Elite Forces
• Escape From Russia: Mobilization
• Eternal Step
• Ethan: Meteor Hunter Deluxe Edition
• EUIII Chronicles
• Fantasy Wars
• Fated Souls 3
• Fester Mudd - Episode 1
• Figment
• Final Slam 2
• Finding Teddy
• Fireburst
• Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook
• Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook
• FORCED: Slightly Better Edition
• Future Wars
• Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition
• Girlfriend Rescue
• Going Under
• Grand Ages Rome
• Grand Ages Rome Gold
• Grav Blazer
• Greed: Black Border
• Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
• Hard Reset Extended Edition
• Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate
• Hero by Chance
• Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead
• Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
• Home
• Huntsman: The Orphanage
• Imperial Glory
• In Between
• inMomentum
• Ion Assault
• Jets'n'Guns Gold
• Jumping Cat
• Kalaban
• KAMI
• Keebles
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• King's Bounty: The Legend
• Kingdom Wars 4 - The Plague: Kingdom Wars
• Knights of Honor
• Konung 2
• Konung 3
• Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Reloaded
• Lilly Looking Through
• Little Racers STREET
• M.U.D. TV
• Magicka
• Majesty 2
• Mata Hari
• Megabyte Punch
• Memory Booster
• Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY
• Mind: Path to Thalamus
• Miner Wars 2081
• Multiwinia
• NASCAR '15 Victory Edition
• NASCAR Heat Evolution
• Night Wanderings
• Nordlicht
• Norega Barracks + Academy DLC
• Of Orcs and Men
• Oil Rush Bundle
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• Onikira - Demon Killer
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
• Painkiller Recurring Evil
• Painkiller Redemption
• Painkiller: Black Edition
• Patrician IV
• Patrician IV Gold
• Pirates of Black Cove
• Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate
• Planets Under Attack
• Plush
• Poly Memory: Cats
• Poly Puzzle: Dogs
• Poly Puzzle: Furries
• Poof
• Post Apocalyptic Mayhem
• Praetorians
• Primal Carnage
• Punch Club
• Purgatory: War of the Damned
• Puzzle Art: Cats
• Puzzle Kingdoms
• Quell
• Quell Memento
• Quell Reflect
• R.I.P.D.: The Game
• Race! Beauty! Bugs!
• Razor2: Hidden Skies
• Really Big Sky
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered + Armageddon Bundle With DLC (Nordic D)
• Red Johnson's Chronicles - 1+2
• Regions of Ruin
• Rise of Flight: Channel Battles Edition
• Runaway, The Dream of the Turtle
• Save the Dodos
• Shank 2
• Simple Builder
• Skilltree Saga
• Sky Mercenaries
• Smalles Class DLC
• Solar Shifter EX
• Space Empires IV Deluxe
• Space Empires V
• Spirited Heart Deluxe
• Square's Route
• Star Ruler
• Star Wolves
• Starsphere
• Steel Storm
• Stoirs VR
• STRIDER
• Stunt Hill
• Suicide Guy
• Swamp Jump
• Switch Galaxy Ultra
• Sword of the Stars Complete Collection
• Terror Time
• The Deed II
• The Deed: Dynasty
• The End of Labyronia: Nerubis
• The God's Chain
• The Joylancer: Legendary Motor Knight
• The King's Crusade - Lionheart
• The Old City: Leviathan
• The Void
• Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943
• Theatre of War: 3 - Korea
• Theatre of War: Centauro
• Theatre of War: Kursk + Caen
• Toby: The Secret Mine
• Trainz Simulator 12
• Trainz Simulator 12 - Coronation Scot DLC
• TRAUMA
• Tropico 3
• Trulon: The Shadow Engine
• Turba
• Twin Sector
• Two Worlds 2
• Two Worlds II Pirate DLC
• UFO Afterlight
• Undefeated
• Uplink
• Us and them
• Valnir Rok
• Vault Cracker
• Vegas: Make It Big
• Velvet Assassin
• Vessel
• Victoria II
• Warrior Kings
• Warriors' Wrath
• Wasteland Angel
• Weable
• Whispering Willows
• Windforge
• Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship
• Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
• Zombie Pirates

Wishlist :
Various offers welcome, i'll browse lists, and most wanted are :
Currently or recently bundled : * ABRISS * Achilles: Legends Untold * AFTERLIFE: KILLING DEATH * ALTF4 * Blade of Darkness * Boneraiser Minions * Brotato * CARRION * Celeste * Deadlink * Dome Keeper * Dread Delusion * Gearshifters * Gone Viral * GRAVEN * HYPER DEMON * Impaler * Just King * LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga * Loot River * Mago * Prince of Persia (various) * Project Warlock II * Rogue: Genesia * Salt and Sanctuary * Sands of Aura * Shantae and the Seven Sirens * The Citadel * Ultratron * ULTRAKILL * Windbound * Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip
Bigger or rarer (for a big load of my games) : * Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord * RESIDENT EVIL Village * Hades * Cyberpunk 2077 * ELDEN RING * A Plague Tale: Requiem * Cuphead * GTFO * Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy * Noita * Choo-Choo Charles * Garry's Mod * Prototype 1 and 2 * Bleak Faith: Forsaken
DLCs : * The Surge The Good, the Bad and the Augmented DLC * The Surge 2 - Season Pass * Vermintide 2 DLCs : Warrior Priest Career - Sister of the Thorn * Borderlands 3 Season Pass 2 * Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle * Rocksmith DLCs * Lego Season Passes (DC Super Villains - Jurassic World - Marvel Super Heroes - Movie - Hobbit - Incredibles - Worlds) * Dead by Daylight DLCs (A Nightmare on Elm Street - Ash vs Evil Dead - Chains of Hate - Charity Case - Curtain Call - Ghost Face - Headcase - LEATHERFACE - Resident Evil Chapter - Silent Hill Chapter - Stranger Things Chapter - The Bloodstained Sack - The Halloween Chapter - The Saw Chapter - Sadako Rising Chapter - Forged in Fog - Resident Evil: PROJECT W)
See here for the rest of my wishlist.
Compare2Steam
+ offers, i'll browse lists, and eventually take Paypal, but i'm more interested in Paypal & TF2, but i'm more interested in games trades

Hello,
I'd like some fair exchange for those, i'm willing to put more than one game against a game i really want, depends on the offer. I could accept Paypal, but that's not my goal (just getting games i'd like to play). I might want to keep something in those lists, i also have some other Humble and Fanatical games i'm not sure i'll play, so they might appear one day (could be money for an exchange if you have something from my wishlist, don't hesitate to ask). I'm from Europe, that might matter for Keys or gift links. Also, i have many games now, and a lot to do yet, so i might be very picky, even for games on my wishlist (it's more a list for interesting games, that i might want in an undetermined future if i have time).
(HB Unrevealed Key = i have it still unrevealed, but will provide a key, considering the Humble view on trading games)
For people living in France, i also have some old games in boxes that i can send by post, ask me if interested.
My IGSRep page
My SGSFlair page
My GameTrade page
My Barter (come to Barter, it's so much better !)
My SteamTrade
*** I have Amazon Prime, so i already have the games that drop there ***
*** Please tell me what you're interested in in my list and don't just drop yours ***

112 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
6120 (Indiegala Key)
911 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
A Conversation With Mister Rabbit (Indiegala Key)
Alien Cat 2 (Indiegala Key)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (HB Unrevealed Key)
Alone With You (DIG Key)
AMID EVIL (HB Unrevealed Key)
Arata Haunted Asylum (DIG Key)
Army Men RTS (HB Unrevealed Key)
AWAKE - Definitive Edition (Fanatical Key)
Baba Is You (HB Unrevealed Key)
Backbone (HB Unrevealed Key)
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (HB Unrevealed Key)
BOK-BOK: A Chicken Dating Sim (DIG Key)
Builder Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Click and Slay (Fanatical Key)
Codename Ghost Hunt (DIG Key)
Combat Tested (Fanatical Key)
Conflict Area (DIG Key)
Conflict Area (Indiegala Key)
Cosmonautica (Fanatical Key)
Cris Tales (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Death Squared (HB Unrevealed Key)
Detached: Non-VR Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dezinsector (Indiegala Key)
Don't Look (DIG Key)
Driftland: The Magic Revival (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: Hail to the Icons Parody Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me (HB Unrevealed Key)
Explosionade (Fanatical Key)
Fling to the Finish (Fanatical Key)
Flyist (DIG Key)
Forep Man (DIG Key)
Founders' Fortune (HB Unrevealed Key)
Frick, Inc. (HB Unrevealed Key)
Fury Unleashed (HB Unrevealed Key)
GALAXIUM (DIG Key)
GOD's DEATH (DIG Key)
Il Sole e la Luna (DIG Key)
Game of the forgotten Gods. Wake up / Игра забытых Богов. Проснись (DIG Key)
GameGuru (HB Unrevealed Key)
Good puzzle: Castles (Indiegala Key)
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (HB Unrevealed Key)
Hack 'n' Slash (HB Unrevealed Key)
Harpoon (Indiegala Key)
HoloSprint (DIG Key)
Incandescent (DIG Key)
Intelligence (Indiegala Key)
Izmir: An Independence Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Lemuria: Lost in Space (DIG Key)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Mello Haunted House (DIG Key)
Metal Strike (DIG Key)
MirrorMoon EP (HB Unrevealed Key)
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (HB Unrevealed Key)
NAVALNY: A Nightmare of Corrupt (DIG Key)
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood (Indiegala Key)
Not Another Weekend (Indiegala Key)
Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru (Indiegala Key)
Onsen Master (IGN Key)
Orbital Racer (HB Unrevealed Key)
Patriots: Back to Civilization (DIG Key)
Pixross (HB Unrevealed Key)
Planet TD (HB Unrevealed Key)
Quantum Replica (Fanatical Key) x2
Quest: Escape Room (Indiegala Key)
Raccoon: The Orc Invasion (DIG Key)
Railroad Tycoon 3 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Reach the Summit (Indiegala Key)
Remnants of Naezith (HB Unrevealed Key)
Rocky Ride (Indiegala Key)
Runner3 (Fanatical Key - Might Keep)
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - Legend of the Beast DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sid Meier's Railroads! (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sit on bottle (Indiegala Key)
SMIB: Mission Cure (Indiegala Key)
Soul Searching (HB Unrevealed Key)
Soulblight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Space BloX (DIG Key)
Space Crew: Legendary Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Spider-Robots War (Indiegala Key)
Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stacking (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
StarCrossed (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stick Fight: The Game (HB Unrevealed Key)
Strange Brigade (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sunlight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Supreme Ruler Cold War (Fanatical Key)
Swag and Sorcery (HB Unrevealed Key)
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon (Fanatical Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Telefrag VR (HB Unrevealed Key)
Teleglitch: Die More Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Big SokoBang (DIG Key)
The Detective Chapters: Part One (DIG Key)
The Governor (DIG Key)
The Inner World (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Invisible Hand (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Orphan A Tale of An Errant Ghost - Hidden Object Game (DIG Key)
The Watchmaker (Fanatical Key)
The Wild Eight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Thyra Adventure (DIG Key)
Ticket to Ride (HB Unrevealed Key)
Time Lock VR 2 (Indiegala Key)
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove (HB Unrevealed Key)
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt (HB Unrevealed Key)
Trash Squad (DIG Key)
Tricone Lab (Indiegala Key)
Unexplored (Fanatical Key)
Vanguard Princess (DIG Key)
War Robots: Planet Defender (DIG Key)
What A Trash Game (DIG Key)
Win The Diamond (DIG Key)
Worms Rumble (HB Unrevealed Key)
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION (HB Unrevealed Key)
Yet Another Hero Story (Indiegala Key)
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Zack 2: Celeste's Map (Indiegala Key)
Zen Cube (DIG Key)
Zombie Claus (Indiegala Key)
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)

Removed / Banned / Delisted / Purchase Disabled games :

• Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition
• Beast Boxing Turbo
• Betrayer
• Cloud Chamber
• Defenders of Ardania
• Droplitz
• Gettysburg Armored Warfare
• Grind Zones
• Leviathan: Warships
• Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet
• Naval War: Arctic Circle
• On The Path
• Quadrant M4
• Quixzel Rush: Pumpkin Bash
• Quixzel Rush: Tooth Protector
• Run Away
• Shadows: Price For Our Sins Bonus Edition
• Sine Mora + Ex
• Star Shield Down
• Trials of The Illuminati: Women of Beauty Jigsaws
• Trials of The Illuminati: Animated Christmas Time Jigsaws
• Two Brothers
• World War 1 Centennial Edition
• ZombieRush

Challenges, Lootboy, second hand, might have some dupes in it (also might not be up to date) => i can exchange them for games but also for trading cards, based on grey market value Vs trading cards market value :

• 1954 Alcatraz
• A New Beginning
• A New Beginning - Final Cut
• A Valley Without Wind
• Alien Spidy
• Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000
• Angvik
• Animals
• Anna - Extended Edition
• AquaNox
• AquaNox 2
• Bad Rats
• Bang Bang Racing
• BATTLETECH
• Beat Hazard
• Beat Hazard Complete
• Bionic Heart
• BlazeRush
• Bunch Of Heroes
• CAPSULE
• Cargo! - The quest for gravity
• Ceville
• Clockwork Survivors
• Commander: Conquest of the Americas
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage
• Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
• Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
• Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
• Company of Crime
• Crash Time 3
• Critical Mass
• Dangerous platform
• Dark Fall: Lost Souls
• Darwinia
• Deadly 30
• Defunct
• Demigod
• Deponia
• DESOLATE
• Disciples II: Galleans Return
• Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
• Dragon Blast DLC
• Drop Hunt - Adventure Puzzle
• Dungeons - The Dark Lord
• Eidolon
• El Matador
• Elite Forces
• Escape From Russia: Mobilization
• Eternal Step
• Ethan: Meteor Hunter Deluxe Edition
• EUIII Chronicles
• Fantasy Wars
• Fated Souls 3
• Fester Mudd - Episode 1
• Figment
• Final Slam 2
• Finding Teddy
• Fireburst
• Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook
• Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook
• FORCED: Slightly Better Edition
• Future Wars
• Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition
• Girlfriend Rescue
• Going Under
• Grand Ages Rome
• Grand Ages Rome Gold
• Grav Blazer
• Greed: Black Border
• Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
• Hard Reset Extended Edition
• Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate
• Hero by Chance
• Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead
• Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
• Home
• Huntsman: The Orphanage
• Imperial Glory
• In Between
• inMomentum
• Ion Assault
• Jets'n'Guns Gold
• Jumping Cat
• Kalaban
• KAMI
• Keebles
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• King's Bounty: The Legend
• Kingdom Wars 4 - The Plague: Kingdom Wars
• Knights of Honor
• Konung 2
• Konung 3
• Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Reloaded
• Lilly Looking Through
• Little Racers STREET
• M.U.D. TV
• Magicka
• Majesty 2
• Mata Hari
• Megabyte Punch
• Memory Booster
• Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY
• Mind: Path to Thalamus
• Miner Wars 2081
• Multiwinia
• NASCAR '15 Victory Edition
• NASCAR Heat Evolution
• Night Wanderings
• Nordlicht
• Norega Barracks + Academy DLC
• Of Orcs and Men
• Oil Rush Bundle
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• Onikira - Demon Killer
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
• Painkiller Recurring Evil
• Painkiller Redemption
• Painkiller: Black Edition
• Patrician IV
• Patrician IV Gold
• Pirates of Black Cove
• Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate
• Planets Under Attack
• Plush
• Poly Memory: Cats
• Poly Puzzle: Dogs
• Poly Puzzle: Furries
• Poof
• Post Apocalyptic Mayhem
• Praetorians
• Primal Carnage
• Punch Club
• Purgatory: War of the Damned
• Puzzle Art: Cats
• Puzzle Kingdoms
• Quell
• Quell Memento
• Quell Reflect
• R.I.P.D.: The Game
• Race! Beauty! Bugs!
• Razor2: Hidden Skies
• Really Big Sky
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered + Armageddon Bundle With DLC (Nordic D)
• Red Johnson's Chronicles - 1+2
• Regions of Ruin
• Rise of Flight: Channel Battles Edition
• Runaway, The Dream of the Turtle
• Save the Dodos
• Shank 2
• Simple Builder
• Skilltree Saga
• Sky Mercenaries
• Smalles Class DLC
• Solar Shifter EX
• Space Empires IV Deluxe
• Space Empires V
• Spirited Heart Deluxe
• Square's Route
• Star Ruler
• Star Wolves
• Starsphere
• Steel Storm
• Stoirs VR
• STRIDER
• Stunt Hill
• Suicide Guy
• Swamp Jump
• Switch Galaxy Ultra
• Sword of the Stars Complete Collection
• Terror Time
• The Deed II
• The Deed: Dynasty
• The End of Labyronia: Nerubis
• The God's Chain
• The Joylancer: Legendary Motor Knight
• The King's Crusade - Lionheart
• The Old City: Leviathan
• The Void
• Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943
• Theatre of War: 3 - Korea
• Theatre of War: Centauro
• Theatre of War: Kursk + Caen
• Toby: The Secret Mine
• Trainz Simulator 12
• Trainz Simulator 12 - Coronation Scot DLC
• TRAUMA
• Tropico 3
• Trulon: The Shadow Engine
• Turba
• Twin Sector
• Two Worlds 2
• Two Worlds II Pirate DLC
• UFO Afterlight
• Undefeated
• Uplink
• Us and them
• Valnir Rok
• Vault Cracker
• Vegas: Make It Big
• Velvet Assassin
• Vessel
• Victoria II
• Warrior Kings
• Warriors' Wrath
• Wasteland Angel
• Weable
• Whispering Willows
• Windforge
• Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship
• Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
• Zombie Pirates

Wishlist :
Various offers welcome, i'll browse lists, and most wanted are :
Currently or recently bundled : * ABRISS * Achilles: Legends Untold * AFTERLIFE: KILLING DEATH * ALTF4 * Blade of Darkness * Boneraiser Minions * Brotato * CARRION * Celeste * Deadlink * Dome Keeper * Dread Delusion * Gearshifters * Gone Viral * GRAVEN * HYPER DEMON * Impaler * Just King * LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga * Loot River * Mago * Prince of Persia (various) * Project Warlock II * Rogue: Genesia * Salt and Sanctuary * Sands of Aura * Shantae and the Seven Sirens * The Citadel * Ultratron * ULTRAKILL * Windbound * Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip
Bigger or rarer (for a big load of my games) : * Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord * RESIDENT EVIL Village * Hades * Cyberpunk 2077 * ELDEN RING * A Plague Tale: Requiem * Cuphead * GTFO * Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy * Noita * Choo-Choo Charles * Garry's Mod * Prototype 1 and 2 * Bleak Faith: Forsaken
DLCs : * The Surge The Good, the Bad and the Augmented DLC * The Surge 2 - Season Pass * Vermintide 2 DLCs : Warrior Priest Career - Sister of the Thorn * Borderlands 3 Season Pass 2 * Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle * Rocksmith DLCs * Lego Season Passes (DC Super Villains - Jurassic World - Marvel Super Heroes - Movie - Hobbit - Incredibles - Worlds) * Dead by Daylight DLCs (A Nightmare on Elm Street - Ash vs Evil Dead - Chains of Hate - Charity Case - Curtain Call - Ghost Face - Headcase - LEATHERFACE - Resident Evil Chapter - Silent Hill Chapter - Stranger Things Chapter - The Bloodstained Sack - The Halloween Chapter - The Saw Chapter - Sadako Rising Chapter - Forged in Fog - Resident Evil: PROJECT W)
See here for the rest of my wishlist.
Compare2Steam
+ offers, i'll browse lists, and eventually take Paypal, but i'm more interested in Paypal & TF2, but i'm more interested in games trades

Hello,
I'd like some fair exchange for those, i'm willing to put more than one game against a game i really want, depends on the offer. I could accept Paypal, but that's not my goal (just getting games i'd like to play). I might want to keep something in those lists, i also have some other Humble and Fanatical games i'm not sure i'll play, so they might appear one day (could be money for an exchange if you have something from my wishlist, don't hesitate to ask). I'm from Europe, that might matter for Keys or gift links. Also, i have many games now, and a lot to do yet, so i might be very picky, even for games on my wishlist (it's more a list for interesting games, that i might want in an undetermined future if i have time).
(HB Unrevealed Key = i have it still unrevealed, but will provide a key, considering the Humble view on trading games)
For people living in France, i also have some old games in boxes that i can send by post, ask me if interested.
My IGSRep page
My SGSFlair page
My GameTrade page
My Barter (come to Barter, it's so much better !)
My SteamTrade
*** I have Amazon Prime, so i already have the games that drop there ***
*** Please tell me what you're interested in in my list and don't just drop yours ***

112 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
6120 (Indiegala Key)
911 Operator (HB Unrevealed Key)
A Conversation With Mister Rabbit (Indiegala Key)
Alien Cat 2 (Indiegala Key)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (HB Unrevealed Key)
Alone With You (DIG Key)
AMID EVIL (HB Unrevealed Key)
Arata Haunted Asylum (DIG Key)
Army Men RTS (HB Unrevealed Key)
AWAKE - Definitive Edition (Fanatical Key)
Baba Is You (HB Unrevealed Key)
Backbone (HB Unrevealed Key)
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (HB Unrevealed Key)
BOK-BOK: A Chicken Dating Sim (DIG Key)
Builder Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Click and Slay (Fanatical Key)
Codename Ghost Hunt (DIG Key)
Combat Tested (Fanatical Key)
Conflict Area (DIG Key)
Conflict Area (Indiegala Key)
Cosmonautica (Fanatical Key)
Cris Tales (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Death Squared (HB Unrevealed Key)
Detached: Non-VR Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Dezinsector (Indiegala Key)
Don't Look (DIG Key)
Driftland: The Magic Revival (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: Hail to the Icons Parody Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me (HB Unrevealed Key)
Explosionade (Fanatical Key)
Fling to the Finish (Fanatical Key)
Flyist (DIG Key)
Forep Man (DIG Key)
Founders' Fortune (HB Unrevealed Key)
Frick, Inc. (HB Unrevealed Key)
Fury Unleashed (HB Unrevealed Key)
GALAXIUM (DIG Key)
GOD's DEATH (DIG Key)
Il Sole e la Luna (DIG Key)
Game of the forgotten Gods. Wake up / Игра забытых Богов. Проснись (DIG Key)
GameGuru (HB Unrevealed Key)
Good puzzle: Castles (Indiegala Key)
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (HB Unrevealed Key)
Hack 'n' Slash (HB Unrevealed Key)
Harpoon (Indiegala Key)
HoloSprint (DIG Key)
Incandescent (DIG Key)
Intelligence (Indiegala Key)
Izmir: An Independence Simulator (HB Unrevealed Key)
Lemuria: Lost in Space (DIG Key)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Mello Haunted House (DIG Key)
Metal Strike (DIG Key)
MirrorMoon EP (HB Unrevealed Key)
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (HB Unrevealed Key)
NAVALNY: A Nightmare of Corrupt (DIG Key)
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood (Indiegala Key)
Not Another Weekend (Indiegala Key)
Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru (Indiegala Key)
Onsen Master (IGN Key)
Orbital Racer (HB Unrevealed Key)
Patriots: Back to Civilization (DIG Key)
Pixross (HB Unrevealed Key)
Planet TD (HB Unrevealed Key)
Quantum Replica (Fanatical Key) x2
Quest: Escape Room (Indiegala Key)
Raccoon: The Orc Invasion (DIG Key)
Railroad Tycoon 3 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Reach the Summit (Indiegala Key)
Remnants of Naezith (HB Unrevealed Key)
Rocky Ride (Indiegala Key)
Runner3 (Fanatical Key - Might Keep)
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - Legend of the Beast DLC (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sid Meier's Railroads! (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sit on bottle (Indiegala Key)
SMIB: Mission Cure (Indiegala Key)
Soul Searching (HB Unrevealed Key)
Soulblight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Space BloX (DIG Key)
Space Crew: Legendary Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Spider-Robots War (Indiegala Key)
Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stacking (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (HB Unrevealed Key)
STAR WARS: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
StarCrossed (HB Unrevealed Key)
Stick Fight: The Game (HB Unrevealed Key)
Strange Brigade (HB Unrevealed Key)
Sunlight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Supreme Ruler Cold War (Fanatical Key)
Swag and Sorcery (HB Unrevealed Key)
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon (Fanatical Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock: Enhanced Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
System Shock 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Telefrag VR (HB Unrevealed Key)
Teleglitch: Die More Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Amazing American Circus (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Big SokoBang (DIG Key)
The Detective Chapters: Part One (DIG Key)
The Governor (DIG Key)
The Inner World (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Invisible Hand (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (HB Unrevealed Key)
The Orphan A Tale of An Errant Ghost - Hidden Object Game (DIG Key)
The Watchmaker (Fanatical Key)
The Wild Eight (HB Unrevealed Key)
Thyra Adventure (DIG Key)
Ticket to Ride (HB Unrevealed Key)
Time Lock VR 2 (Indiegala Key)
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove (HB Unrevealed Key)
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt (HB Unrevealed Key)
Trash Squad (DIG Key)
Tricone Lab (Indiegala Key)
Unexplored (Fanatical Key)
Vanguard Princess (DIG Key)
War Robots: Planet Defender (DIG Key)
What A Trash Game (DIG Key)
Win The Diamond (DIG Key)
Worms Rumble (HB Unrevealed Key)
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION (HB Unrevealed Key)
Yet Another Hero Story (Indiegala Key)
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 2 (HB Unrevealed Key)
Zack 2: Celeste's Map (Indiegala Key)
Zen Cube (DIG Key)
Zombie Claus (Indiegala Key)
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition (HB Unrevealed Key)

Removed / Banned / Delisted / Purchase Disabled games :

• Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition
• Beast Boxing Turbo
• Betrayer
• Cloud Chamber
• Defenders of Ardania
• Droplitz
• Gettysburg Armored Warfare
• Grind Zones
• Leviathan: Warships
• Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet
• Naval War: Arctic Circle
• On The Path
• Quadrant M4
• Quixzel Rush: Pumpkin Bash
• Quixzel Rush: Tooth Protector
• Run Away
• Shadows: Price For Our Sins Bonus Edition
• Sine Mora + Ex
• Star Shield Down
• Trials of The Illuminati: Women of Beauty Jigsaws
• Trials of The Illuminati: Animated Christmas Time Jigsaws
• Two Brothers
• World War 1 Centennial Edition
• ZombieRush

Challenges, Lootboy, second hand, might have some dupes in it (also might not be up to date) => i can exchange them for games but also for trading cards, based on grey market value Vs trading cards market value :

• 1954 Alcatraz
• A New Beginning
• A New Beginning - Final Cut
• A Valley Without Wind
• Alien Spidy
• Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000
• Angvik
• Animals
• Anna - Extended Edition
• AquaNox
• AquaNox 2
• Bad Rats
• Bang Bang Racing
• BATTLETECH
• Beat Hazard
• Beat Hazard Complete
• Bionic Heart
• BlazeRush
• Bunch Of Heroes
• CAPSULE
• Cargo! - The quest for gravity
• Ceville
• Clockwork Survivors
• Commander: Conquest of the Americas
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage
• Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
• Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
• Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
• Company of Crime
• Crash Time 3
• Critical Mass
• Dangerous platform
• Dark Fall: Lost Souls
• Darwinia
• Deadly 30
• Defunct
• Demigod
• Deponia
• DESOLATE
• Disciples II: Galleans Return
• Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
• Dragon Blast DLC
• Drop Hunt - Adventure Puzzle
• Dungeons - The Dark Lord
• Eidolon
• El Matador
• Elite Forces
• Escape From Russia: Mobilization
• Eternal Step
• Ethan: Meteor Hunter Deluxe Edition
• EUIII Chronicles
• Fantasy Wars
• Fated Souls 3
• Fester Mudd - Episode 1
• Figment
• Final Slam 2
• Finding Teddy
• Fireburst
• Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook
• Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook
• FORCED: Slightly Better Edition
• Future Wars
• Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition
• Girlfriend Rescue
• Going Under
• Grand Ages Rome
• Grand Ages Rome Gold
• Grav Blazer
• Greed: Black Border
• Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
• Hard Reset Extended Edition
• Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate
• Hero by Chance
• Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead
• Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
• Home
• Huntsman: The Orphanage
• Imperial Glory
• In Between
• inMomentum
• Ion Assault
• Jets'n'Guns Gold
• Jumping Cat
• Kalaban
• KAMI
• Keebles
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• King's Bounty: The Legend
• Kingdom Wars 4 - The Plague: Kingdom Wars
• Knights of Honor
• Konung 2
• Konung 3
• Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Reloaded
• Lilly Looking Through
• Little Racers STREET
• M.U.D. TV
• Magicka
• Majesty 2
• Mata Hari
• Megabyte Punch
• Memory Booster
• Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY
• Mind: Path to Thalamus
• Miner Wars 2081
• Multiwinia
• NASCAR '15 Victory Edition
• NASCAR Heat Evolution
• Night Wanderings
• Nordlicht
• Norega Barracks + Academy DLC
• Of Orcs and Men
• Oil Rush Bundle
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• Onikira - Demon Killer
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
• Painkiller Recurring Evil
• Painkiller Redemption
• Painkiller: Black Edition
• Patrician IV
• Patrician IV Gold
• Pirates of Black Cove
• Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate
• Planets Under Attack
• Plush
• Poly Memory: Cats
• Poly Puzzle: Dogs
• Poly Puzzle: Furries
• Poof
• Post Apocalyptic Mayhem
• Praetorians
• Primal Carnage
• Punch Club
• Purgatory: War of the Damned
• Puzzle Art: Cats
• Puzzle Kingdoms
• Quell
• Quell Memento
• Quell Reflect
• R.I.P.D.: The Game
• Race! Beauty! Bugs!
• Razor2: Hidden Skies
• Really Big Sky
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered + Armageddon Bundle With DLC (Nordic D)
• Red Johnson's Chronicles - 1+2
• Regions of Ruin
• Rise of Flight: Channel Battles Edition
• Runaway, The Dream of the Turtle
• Save the Dodos
• Shank 2
• Simple Builder
• Skilltree Saga
• Sky Mercenaries
• Smalles Class DLC
• Solar Shifter EX
• Space Empires IV Deluxe
• Space Empires V
• Spirited Heart Deluxe
• Square's Route
• Star Ruler
• Star Wolves
• Starsphere
• Steel Storm
• Stoirs VR
• STRIDER
• Stunt Hill
• Suicide Guy
• Swamp Jump
• Switch Galaxy Ultra
• Sword of the Stars Complete Collection
• Terror Time
• The Deed II
• The Deed: Dynasty
• The End of Labyronia: Nerubis
• The God's Chain
• The Joylancer: Legendary Motor Knight
• The King's Crusade - Lionheart
• The Old City: Leviathan
• The Void
• Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943
• Theatre of War: 3 - Korea
• Theatre of War: Centauro
• Theatre of War: Kursk + Caen
• Toby: The Secret Mine
• Trainz Simulator 12
• Trainz Simulator 12 - Coronation Scot DLC
• TRAUMA
• Tropico 3
• Trulon: The Shadow Engine
• Turba
• Twin Sector
• Two Worlds 2
• Two Worlds II Pirate DLC
• UFO Afterlight
• Undefeated
• Uplink
• Us and them
• Valnir Rok
• Vault Cracker
• Vegas: Make It Big
• Velvet Assassin
• Vessel
• Victoria II
• Warrior Kings
• Warriors' Wrath
• Wasteland Angel
• Weable
• Whispering Willows
• Windforge
• Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship
• Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
• Zombie Pirates

Wishlist :
Various offers welcome, i'll browse lists, and most wanted are :
Currently or recently bundled : * ABRISS * Achilles: Legends Untold * AFTERLIFE: KILLING DEATH * ALTF4 * Blade of Darkness * Boneraiser Minions * Brotato * CARRION * Celeste * Deadlink * Dome Keeper * Dread Delusion * Gearshifters * Gone Viral * GRAVEN * HYPER DEMON * Impaler * Just King * LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga * Loot River * Mago * Prince of Persia (various) * Project Warlock II * Rogue: Genesia * Salt and Sanctuary * Sands of Aura * Shantae and the Seven Sirens * The Citadel * Ultratron * ULTRAKILL * Windbound * Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip
Bigger or rarer (for a big load of my games) : * Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord * RESIDENT EVIL Village * Hades * Cyberpunk 2077 * ELDEN RING * A Plague Tale: Requiem * Cuphead * GTFO * Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy * Noita * Choo-Choo Charles * Garry's Mod * Prototype 1 and 2 * Bleak Faith: Forsaken
DLCs : * The Surge The Good, the Bad and the Augmented DLC * The Surge 2 - Season Pass * Vermintide 2 DLCs : Warrior Priest Career - Sister of the Thorn * Borderlands 3 Season Pass 2 * Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle * Rocksmith DLCs * Lego Season Passes (DC Super Villains - Jurassic World - Marvel Super Heroes - Movie - Hobbit - Incredibles - Worlds) * Dead by Daylight DLCs (A Nightmare on Elm Street - Ash vs Evil Dead - Chains of Hate - Charity Case - Curtain Call - Ghost Face - Headcase - LEATHERFACE - Resident Evil Chapter - Silent Hill Chapter - Stranger Things Chapter - The Bloodstained Sack - The Halloween Chapter - The Saw Chapter - Sadako Rising Chapter - Forged in Fog - Resident Evil: PROJECT W)
See here for the rest of my wishlist.
Compare2Steam
+ offers, i'll browse lists, and eventually take Paypal, but i'm more interested in Paypal & TF2, but i'm more interested in games trades

On my end:
Best: Frankiln-Pierce SD (Tacoma, WA)- I was a contractor for these guys several years ago. Great team of SLPs. Very small and supportive. Monthly meetings to discuss planning for next year and caseload size adjustments. I received check in calls daily and then weekly. Area is is low income and Hispanic families outside the city of Tacoma, many first generation immigrants. I had my own room and the district provided me with an iPad and paid for the apps. Small caseload, no last minute changes to assignment. State funding for public education is pretty solid, no weird political attacks on teachers or LGBTQ staff/students. COL a bit high but if you live further outside the city it's more reasonable.
Worst: Albuquerque Public Schools (Albuquerque, NM)- I gave them several shots. I contracted with a few different agencies for them over the years and it was the same every time. Gigantic and unregulated caseloads. Lots of being moved around from school to school with no warning all year long and being placed in undesirable programs that were not a good fit. I never had a classroom in any of the schools there. Many schools without a SPED director and with vacancies mid year. No colleagues or check ins. Last minute changes in assignments happen all year, every year so you would have to change your schedule all the time. State funding is very poor with low literacy as a prevalent issue and overall public education performance the worst in the country.

Introduction

1) Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs? * No. Have pretty much always had a dog. Have done basic obedience training. Nothing fancy. 2) Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a [reputable breeder]( http://ownresponsibly.blogspot.com/2011/07/identifying-reputable-breeder.html)? * We have a preference for a pup. We are unlikely to get a pup as a rescue, so will likely need to go through a reputable breeder. 3) Describe your ideal dog. * Good tempered with kids, cuddly, friendly, quiet and a bit lazy, low maintenance. Easy to train and will be obedient to all adult and children human family members. 4) What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why? * Most important to us is a dog that will be happy with what our family has to offer. We don't mind what that is. 5) What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do? * sit, stay, walk on a lead, good recall, eat on command. Nothing fancy. Basic obedience. 6) Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport? * No. **Care Commitments** 7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day? * Training and actively playing, 30 mins some days. A couple of hours on others. Depends on the day. Chilling and hanging out, most of the day (except for a couple of days per week when noone is home). E.g. would love it to cuddle up in my lap or on my feet amd snooze when I am working from home. 8) How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park? * Walking (not running) with humans. Can incorporate some off leash running for the dog while the humans walk for sniffing of good smells or ball chasing. Wouldn't go to dog park regularly, but might sometimes. Likely to encounter other dogs while exercising. Realistically, some days we may only manage a short walk. 9) How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly? * Prefer a dog that needs minimal grooming. **Personal Preferences** 10) What size dog are you looking for? * Small or medium with a preference for medium. Potentially could consider larger if it was quite placid. 11) How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle? * Prefer not too much of any of those. 12) How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area? * Important but not essential. We have some nice places we walk where our old dog would enjoy being off leash to have a bit of an explore and a sniff. We would like our new dog to enjoy this too. Additionally, there are physical limitations on the humans running, so it's better if the dog can be trained to go off leash (I.e. good recall) so that it can have a run. **Dog Personality and Behavior** 13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space? * Snuggly 14) Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please? * We want a dog that wants to hang with the humans but also won't be anxious when left home alone. We aren't the most amazing trainers, so one that is easy to train and happy to be obedient would be great. 15) How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors? * We do not want an aggressive dog at all. We would like the dog not to jump on visitors in excitement either. 16) Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs? * No. 17) Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid? * Excessive barking, jumping on people, or aggression would be very difficult for certain members of our family. **Lifestyle** 18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone? * up to two days per week for a full work day 19) What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog? * This will be a family dog, so the thoughts of the whole family are reflected in all of the questions. 20) Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they? * We have a cat. She likes to lie nearby, but not cuddle. She also likes to swipe living beings as they pass. She's a bit flighty. We cannot have a breed that will harm the cat. 21) Will the dog be interacting with children regularly? * Yes, the dog will live with several children aged later primary schooland up. This includes a child with dog anxiety and also a very rambunctious child. 22) Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease? * No. We live in our own home and there are no restrictions. We have a big fenced yard. 23) What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds? * There are no dog breed restrictions where we live. 24) What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live? * Average high in summer is 29 degrees average low in winter is 0 degrees. Note, temperatures are in Celsius. We have heating and cooling. **Additional Information and Questions** 25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant. * a funny/entertaining dog would be a nice bonus, but not essential. 26) Feel free to ask any questions below. 

The black domes, they were pocket dimensions, which were completely detached from the material world. Bound to the stream of souls, flowing inside the ephemeral branches of the world tree, they presented a personal hell for each person cast into them. They are a limbo of regrets, the hell of one’s own making, places where the living meets the dead.
There’s only so many ways to elope them. One must either reconcile with the restless souls, or join them, succumbing to their rage and regret that they carried into their afterlife. After all, to even get there, one must possess unparalleled strength and resilience; and only those who had caused deaths and destruction on their path to greatness can even hope to get to this trial.
Freia, Flare, the First princess of Jioral. For some – a good friend, lover, and companion. For others – a nightmare embodied, a vessel of divine powers, a force to be reckoned with. She had many enemies: princes and princesses felled by her authority, treacherous servants and greedy nobles, the knights, who opposed her corruption, slavers and bandits, destroyed on her quest for redemption and restoration of herself… But there were more. Children she had burned, serving her kingdom, women who perished by the tides she conjured, men that had been torn apart by raging tornados of her making, elderly that were buried under the rubble she created…
And how did she oppose them?
“Flagella terram et vescere inimicis meis, o magnum tempestas ignis!” The sorceress chanted, spinning her staff above her head. Then, right before the raging mob reached her, she hid from them behind a vortex of fire. One move and this wave of heat would incinerate everything and everyone in this accursed realm. But…
“TRAITOR!”
“DON’T HIDE FROM US, FLA-A-A-ARE!”
“COME TO US, SISTER!”
“YOU WERE NEVER ONE OF US!”
“USURPER!”
“GIVE ME BACK MY MOM!””
“THE FALSE PRINCESS!”
“SUNNARI (die)!”
“THE DAUGHER OF A WHORE!”
“YOU SHOULD’VE ROT IN THE SLUMS!”
Curses and jealousy, bitterness and hatred. The chorus of tortured souls surrounding the fiery boundary couldn’t be silenced even by the roaring flame. There couldn’t be any redemption.
“I’m sorry for all of you, who unjustly died by my hand!..” And even though there were people deserving their apologies, those who had to perish in favor of Flare’s political ambitions, those she sacrificed to appease her tyrannical father…
“THEN JOIN US, FLARE!”
“PAPA! WHERE ARE YOU?! GIVE HIM BACK!”
“REPENT, BITCH! DISPELL YOUR WITCHCRAFT!!!”
“But I won’t give in to you!” The pink-haired woman exclaimed, absorbing mana into her staff. “Furthermore, there’re those of you I will never regret killing! And there are those, for whom I must live! I MUST GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!!!” Then, she slammed the lower tip of her weapon into the floor made of the absolute darkness. Instead of wailing, being consumed by fear, guilt, self-loathing, and, ultimately, perishing, Freia sundered this entire “world”. One magical strike from her, and cracks of white and gold covered the entire dome. The wall of fire faded, but when the vengeful spirits rushed forward to maul their prey, they crumbled into piles of black salt. “I’m so… so sorry!” The girl lamented, kneeling near the remains of children, whose future she stole. “But I… I must move forward. I must save…”
…
Sparks and crackling, whistle and dazzling – time and time again the surge of lightning breached through the veil of darkness.
“UO-O-O-O-O-O!!!” A guttural scream filled the oppressive silence under the dome. Eve Reese, so childish and bashful, so eager to prove herself, now wore a stone mask of indifference. “Nira-a-a (no-o-o)!!! Yuarmta (I won’t forgive you)!!!” Cornar yelled, held still by at least seven shadows, he had been tortured, killed, bruised, smitten by the raging element of lightning. No longer did the girl see him as a threat; no longer did she cower at the feet of her former husband. Maybe, Eve was condemned to getting back her memories as a means of punishment, something that would make her sympathize with this petty little tyrant…
“Yuarm yau (I don’t need your forgiveness).” The Me-ua kahul spoke, looking at her crackling right arm, trembling with power and guilt combined. Not for forsaking her would-be-spouse, not for becoming Panakea’s pawn…
These souls, these loyal shadows – turned out, she never called upon them… until the very end. Her subjects, her brethren… Eve feared that if she let them out, they would tear her tyrannical husband into little pieces.
“Haa… Haa…” And now, she had to choose. To turn around and let someone else fix her problem, or… “Haa… HAA!!! HAA!!! HAA!!! SUNI (I’ll kill you)!!!”
A Punch to the maw, to the chest, through the ribs, to the heart! He didn’t die! He couldn’t die here! This scumbag of a man, this monster just wouldn’t go away! No matter how much pain she caused him, no matter how many times she slit his throat, broke through his torso, shocked him with spells, cut him with magical light…
And what of Cornar?
“A-A-A-A-A!!! A-A-AGH!!! HA-HA-HA-A!!! NA SHENBATA, SETOAN (you can’t get rid of me, woman)!!!” The son of Hakuo never relented. He relished in his immortality, laughed through the hellish torments Eve inflicted upon him. The skinned lion spotted a weakness in Eve’s heart, and he pressed at it, as if breaking the girl would get him back to the world of the living…
No, he wanted to take Eve to the world of dead.
“Gha-a-a-a… Agh-h-h…” The queen-to-be grabbed her forehead, her rugged breath not only siphoned all the focus out of her, threatening to cast the girl into a pit of despair, it also deteriorated her control over the mana she wielded. Unlike the city of salt, there was enough ambient magic to harvest here, but doing so would require skills, precision, and, most importantly, personal discipline and control over one’s own mind.
“Praibi, orna Iblis (Drain yourself, my Iblis)!” The prince of Batnara shashu tribe provoked, feeling the grip of the shadows losing its strength. A little more, and he’d be free… A little more…
“Hm…” But Eve wouldn’t relent. She once again covered her arm in a coat of magical lightning. She would never surrender; the queen would never let anyone treat her like a slave ever again. Not after Keyaruga’s perseverance taught her a lesson of resilience. Not after his gentleness, however tainted by his wounds, showed her what true love should look like.
She took a swing, prepared to strike…
“…” But then, two winged shadows stopped her hand. Amda and Sana, they were barely recognizable in their spiritual forms… but Eve would never mistake her parents for anyone else. They couldn’t speak, yet they still communicated with their daughter through other means. Emotions, wishes, urges – they never wished such evil to befall their daughter, but what they hated even more – was to see their child descend into the same pit.
“I… I don’t… have to?..” They asked her to stop, to let them relieve her of that burden. “B-but!.. No! You will die!” The girl snarled, grabbing her parents in a hug. She knew what was to come – her mother, father – they wished to sacrifice themselves to drag Cornar back to the afterlife. But that… wouldn’t that mean she’d lose them all over again? Wouldn’t…
“…”
“Yes! You’re dead! So what?! What do I?..” The feeling of pain and powerlessness engulfed the verdant woman. Barely had she found the strength to stand before her fallen tribe, before those who she desired to see the most now left her.
“YOTJAR (finally)!!!” With Eve’s will getting weaker, so did the shadows of her ethereal court. Her tyrannical husband finally broke free, slamming and stomping her shadows, as they fruitlessly tried stopping him. Amda and Sana Reese hugged their child for the last time… and now they stood up to defend their precious daughter. That is… the least they could do.
…
Freia broke inside another dome. From the outside, they looked like bright constellations of stars, formed on the points of a massive, galactic-scaled pentagram. The personal chamber for each of the contenders. One was broken from the inside, collapsing inwards, into a black hole with an orange halo – this was Freia’s dome. There were four more. Two were dimmed, two still shone brightly. The Hero of Magic travelled through this empty space, lit by numerous distant stars. In her current form, things like speed, form, and time – none of them mattered, aside from her destination. And now, she had to choose one of the two luminous chambers.
…
What is true power? Does one determine this abstract concept by the weight one can lift with their muscles? Maybe it was the charisma necessary to lead the masses? Enough money to influence others? Authority earned or inherited?
“Well-well-well…” Whatever the answer truly was, Ellen had none of it right now. No strength to fight, no troops to hide behind, and certainly – those who opposed her now had little if any need of whatever amount of gold she now carried.
“WENCH!”
“TANOUTUR (murderer)!”
“NEZAH (why)?!”
“MERA RIVARO (my life)!..”
“YAU MA (how dare you)!”
“YOU’LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE, BITCH!!!”
Oh, they came for Norn. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them, some she could recall from her Murian and Teuteccain campaigns – the series of expansions past the great wall; others were the court warlords she and John unseated in her ascension; rebellious villagers too came to exact their revenge on the younger princess, after her demons decimated them; and there were the victims of Buranikka’s carnage. This was the mountain of corpses Norn Clatalissa Jioral used to climb onto the very peak of political power…
“Now then, what do you want from me? An apology? Maybe my penance?” Even now, surrounded by countless dead souls, whose entire being now revolved around their grudge, the girl wouldn’t let herself be crushed by their rage. Not mentally, at least.
“DIE!”
“MAN WOR YAKSI (give me your eyes)!”
“SUFFER, YOU MONSTER!”
“I JUST WANTED TO LIVE!!!”
And so, hundreds of voices began howling in unison. So passionate, so eager to share their hardships and aspirations, that Ellen actually started pitying them a little. So many words, so much pain in them.
“Haa… I guess, that something like this was bound to happen someday. Well…” Instead of listening to the rest of the traumatizing nonsense and wailing, the crimson-headed cutie just began… to simply undress. “I don’t have the power to struggle, I can’t break out of here, and all of you came here for me. So go on. Rape me, maul me, kill me, do whatever you want. I’ve already done everything I wanted.” Ellen, now naked and completely defenseless, stretched out on the ethereal black floor, looking into the endless black void above her. The raging souls now came closer and closer, dozens of faces now loomed above her, as their hands reached out to grab the fallen warlady and tear her apart. This… was the end.
Keyaruga, Setsuna, sister… I hope you won’t miss me too much.
And so, she closed her eyes. Time to finally die.
…
…
…
There was no pain, nobody dragged the girl around, not even a single blow fell upon her. Ellen was… safe?
“A-A-A-A!!!”
“UGH-H-H!!!”
“YOLA-A-A-A-A (it hu-u-u-urts)!!!”
Slice and dicing, the ripping of flesh and clattered bones, “death” of a sort, dealt to the undying, torment for the tormented who themselves wished to inflict suffering upon her – someone kept the restless souls away from the princess. Someone precise, fast, and masterful with his tools of mayhem.
“Haa, is that you, Organ?” Ellen asked sullenly. Denied her excruciating retribution once more, she could only cover her tightly shut eyes with her palms.
“How did you know, Your Highness?” Indeed, it was him. As brutal as he was gallant, the deceased demigod was the only one out of these dead souls, who spoke to her, and not wailed at her like some sort of a beast.
“I know only two men, who’d come for me here, and the other isn’t so discreet, you moron.” The young general replied, opening her eyelids. The first thing she saw was the Champion of Jioral, covered in black blood. His prized amber eyes were no more, only black gaping holes were there instead. “Why’re you here? Do you want a piece of me for yourself?” The girl asked, still unwilling to stand up. Honestly, she felt robbed at this moment. This would be such a fitting end for her, but no! “Don’t tell me you’ve just barged in here to… Pff! PROTECT… me.” The second princess spat these words through her painfully clenched teeth.
“First things first, Lady Norn, I suggest you cover your shame and cease this indecency.” The warrior spoke, piercing and slashing the mob with his sword, impaling them with his hidden blade, tossing them back with his kicks. He was far from his prime form, and so, wounds and sores, cuts and lesions were left on him, as he, alone, overpowered dozens of raging men and women, keeping them away from the girl he swore to protect. Indeed… “Forgive me, princess, but I made a vow to your mother, and death is hardly a valid reason to…”
“YAKS… (giv…) A-A-A-A!!!”
“…to renounce my…”
“DOKI-I-I (step away)!!!”
“…loyalty to her!”
Despite everything, no matter the odds, Hawkeye continued to push back the angry spirits. He couldn’t dodge, as every missed blow could land on the lady, he couldn’t step back, as she needed protection more than any time in her life, and, certainly, sustained by this oppressive dimension, he couldn’t die. He couldn’t kill anyone, as they just rose anew from their own black blood, but the man couldn’t retreat.
“He-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…” The princess chuckled, curling her torso in order to sit up. It hurt her stomach, but the girl persevered nonetheless. “Why am I always surrounded by stupid stubborn men, who just can’t help but dingle their balls before me? Seriously, a dead man, upholding a promise to a dead woman, how much more ridiculous can this get?” The girl scoffed, pulling back her panties, bra, and whatever she left lying around, back on. After all, why even bother now? “Be honest, idiot! What do you want from me?”
“I came here…”
Slash, backflip, tackle, toss – Organ Trist twirled around his commander, pushing back everyone, who came too close to his prized princess.
“…to ask you, Lady Norn!..”
Shoulder slam, side-kick, a flurry of bloodshed embodied in the son of Artemis!
“…to save my…”
Stabbing enemies with that hidden blade, crushing their skulls with the handle of his blade, ripping their eyes out and tossing them away – however useless this double-sided brutality may seem, Hawkeye had purpose, skill, and, most of all, conviction, that allowed him to push the mob away.
“…daughter! Save Marianna!”
After all, what can be stronger, than a father, eager to protect his dear child?
“And you think keeping me alive will help you with that? You, moron, this bloated pigeon trapped me here! I have only one way out – fucking death!” The second princess, now properly clothed again, yelled however loud she could. Unable to comprehend the reasoning behind this idiocy, the girl just stood there, pulling her crimson hair. “Also, you’re severely mistaken! I’m not Norn! Norn’s dead! My name is…”
“…Elly! Elly-y-y!!!” Barely had the princess opened her mouth; before the dome had been breached from the outside. The Hero of Magic emerged above the ground. She levitated, using magical blue flames; she secured her sister by forming a wall around her, a barricade made from powerful ice spears. The sorceress even went so far as to send one into the undead Champion, it was one he easily avoided, though. “Step away from my sister, Organ!!!” The raging magician demanded, pulling her sibling towards her with a gust of mystical wind.
“Ghh! Oh, hey there, Friea!” The fallen warlady spoke, bracing herself against the dizziness her brief flight had caused. Still, this didn’t look good. The last time those two met, Hawkeye severely injured the pink-haired girl, and she just wouldn’t live through it again, unless two gods appeared to help her. This time, though, it was her turn to be a deity-savior.
“Get away! You’ve bested me once, but this time, I can crash this entire realm down onto your head!” The Hero of Magic promised, putting her staff between her sister and her enemy.
“Aw shit, this just gets better and better…” The little genius lamented, nervously shaking her head. Not only was her glorified suicide rudely interrupted, but now this situation threatened to kill her sister as well. Still…
“Elly, Elly… Ellen? Ellen the Adopted?” Despite Freia’s expectations, Organ Trist was more interested in the new name she called Norn, rather than anything else, really. He already had his fair share of battles, after all. “Ho-ho-o! I guess, in the end, you really did become the better version of yourself! And the ‘brother’ in question – is that sir Keyaru?” The blinded man asked with the same smugness he once boasted with in his grandiose life.
“What’s the point of answering you now? Aren’t we just traitors to you?” The heroine replied with every bit of animosity she had in her. “Hold on, Elly, I’ll get you out of here.” Freia stated, charging her staff with the magic that shaped this entire “world”.
“Heh, aren’t you afraid of what that damn poisoned pigeon might do to you for breaking her rules?” The crimson-haired cutie scoffed, witnessing the entire black dome covering with cracks.
“I don’t care about her rules! All I want is to see you safe!” The sorceress spoke with even more defiance toward Caladrius than Norn ever had in her. If needed, she would challenge this feathered nightmare to a duel, anything, just to save her family.
“I see…” Hawkeye uttered, kneeling before the two girls. All that time, rather than monitoring Freia’s moves, his supernatural senses were aimed outside, to make sure no restless souls cross the fence of magic ice. But now… “I see your eyes, Princess Flare, they’re just like hers. I’m sure; you’ll make Lady Reeharoze proud of you yet.” Now, before he once again departs to the other side, there was one last thing to tell them. First praise, then a claim… “Lady Ellen, I beg of you. The life of Marianna now lies in your hands.” …and finally a plea. With all that said, Organ Trist crumbled, his body turned into black salt. And with it, the entire realm began to collapse in itself…
“Hold tight, Elly…”
…
And now, there was only one dark dome left. Arguably, the worst of them all, this particular world was to be the prison for Keyaruga… or his cemetery. No doorways to run into, no windows to jump from. He was alone, trapped with hundreds of those who were slain by his hand. Those poor bastards – the restless souls, their minds were so obsessed with hatred, and their grudge – powered by the sheer immortality of their ethereal blackened bodies. This was hell in its purest form. The question is – a hell for who, exactly?
“YE-E-E-E-E-EAH!!! IT’S HEALING TIME!!!” Keyaruga snarled and began splattering blood all over the place. Everyone who was touched by that substance became horribly mutated – their heads bloated, their muscles strained so much, they crushed their very bones! “WHAT’S WRONG?! KILL ME!!! KILL ME NOW!!!” The man demanded, dancing around his would-be tormentors with his blade, blessing his foes with the exquisite gift of perpetual agony! Saber in his right hand, Georgius on his left, one complementing another.
Despite what the lad asked, nobody could bring him down. His immortal flesh defied any blade, his bones healed in an instant, his mad frenzy alleviated any pain.
He thought he could kill his enemies for the second and final time, give them proper death in the most excruciating manner. He was wrong…
“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! AGAIN! AND AGAIN! AND ALL OVER AGA-A-A-A-AIN!!!” The hero yelled chopping off heads and severing limbs! He killed so many, he couldn’t even count the slayings! He murdered the same people over and over, each time their agony being more exquisite then the last!
Kill a man once, he won’t even notice, his rage will only rise! Kill him thrice – he’d waver! Five – and the seeds of fear are sown. Ten – and he’s broken completely!
Keyaruga just couldn’t help himself, he hated these scum so much, he just couldn’t contain all his passionate hatred. It was so strong, that the feeling of pure, raw, primordial wrath transcended every possible modification he had put into himself.
“A-A-A-A-A!!! UGH-H-H-H-H!!!” A soldier was weeping, hugging his boot. “S-S-S-S-SPA-A-A-ARE ME-E-E!!!”
“YO-O-OU!!! I remember you!” The healer spoke, raising the cretin by his neck. “My first kill! You watched me being raped, drugged… BEATEN!!!” The man yawped, slicing off his upper face with one nimble slice. “AND YOU NEVER!!! EVER!!! EVER FUCKING HELPED ME!!!” The lad, tainted by black and red blood, slammed the sentry into the ‘floor’…
“A-A-A-A-A!!! PLE-E-E-EASE!!!” …and gleefully sliced off his arms, ignited sparked his left armored hand into a gauntlet of blazing heat!..
“GU-GHH-GUU!!! UA-A-A-A-A-A-A!!!” And finally, cauterized the wounds, just so that the retard wouldn’t die too soon.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!!!” The crazed avenger yelled, grabbing Leonard, so conveniently nearby, weeping. “YOU SAID, I’VE DONE NOTHING FOR THIS FUCKING KINGDOM?! I’LL SHOW YOU, WHAT I CAN DO NO-O-OW!!!”
And so he did, the madman rested his two fingers on the sadist’s forehead. A second passed, and a purple spark had announced the richest form of suffering.
“Oh… U-u… Uo-o-o-o-o-o… Khh…” Indeed, although it wasn’t as vocal as previous ones, Keyaruga was more than pleased with the result. He knew of a human having specific nerves, specifically for reacting to pain. And he just overloaded them. Toxic spiders, dangerous medusas, venomous snakes and scorpions – all of them could do that with their poisons. Hell, even Keyaruga could brew neurotoxins. But damn, this thing had one ultimate merit compared to all of those – the instant effect, so potent, in fact, that the victim can’t even cry out from the excruciating pain!
“He-e! That’s a neat trick.” The lad mumbled, approaching a maid, lying on the “floor” like an embryo. Flare’s bodyguard shivered and sucked her thumb, completely lost to this twisted world. Just one little touch… “Pam! You’re already dead!” Keyaruga sneered tapping his armored fingers by her temple.
“Uh… Uh… Ugh… W… Wha-?.. A-A-A-A-A-A-AGH-H-H!!!” The woman grabbed her skull, but it was too late. All the blood, bile, and even marrow now came into her brain, bloating it, up until it burst in a fountain of black blood and shining entrails.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! I FUCKING LOVE IT!!!” The deranged healer laughed so loud, and his presence was so overwhelming now, that nobody even dared to come close to him, let alone attack, unless they wished to become a victim of a new twisted experiment. Oh, their fear, this agonizing panic! They’re giving me a fucking boner! I wanna fuck! I want a woman! Oh, this! This will do nicely!
And so, Keyaruga dropped his saber, unfastened his belt, ripped the dress, slapped that ass which he had found, grabbed it, pushed it in! The woman with a blackened tail was slowly dying of blood loss, but that barely concerned the lad. He grabbed her pelvis and began to move, so fast, so frantic, and so mindless, that no one could see a human in him. No-o, this was a wild beast, slamming his bulging cock into the defenseless female, too tired to react, let alone resist somehow. She wasn’t even tight, just barely warm, but even that was enough. A few minutes of such suffering inflicted on her, and he came, this was a brilliant orgasm, deeply perverted, and twisted to the very core…
Oh, that’s the fucking best! I love it so much!
Keyaruga grabbed her hand, wiped his penis with it, pull back his pants, and…
I don’t remember her. I wonder, who that is.
He pushed the body, rolling it to the back.
“Ha-a-a… Hello again, Kailia…” The mad lad recognized her instantly. An agent, sent to find and assist Eve Reese in her quest, hired by someone named Carol. But that alone wouldn’t be enough to get Keyaruga to brutally rape her. “You’ve killed my Norn, but I spared you. Heh, after Kali left, I tasked you to ward off whoever they sent after my Eve, but… It seems like you’ve failed. Really, really sad.” The healer spoke, resting his left hand on her dying flesh, recovering it in an instant. And just like that… “Oh, fuck!” She nearly stabbed him with a knife. Gods only knew where she got it from… “Sit still.” But then, Keyaruga just pressed his finger on her forehead, and completely shut down her limbs functions. He pitied her… but could do nothing for this miserable leopard woman.
“Haa… Damn, it’s getting boring here.” The hero lamented, picking up his weapon of choice. At this point, he just put it back in its sheath. Only then did he spot a couple of new faces in the crowd of weeping bastards. “You there! You don’t look like you should be here. What’s… wait…”
“STAY AWAY FROM ME, MONSTER!!!” The woman cried, she was weeping into her man’s now tainted shirt.
“Heh! He-heh! No-no-no-o! Oh no-o-o!” Keyaruga frantically shook his head, unable to believe what he just saw. This was the worst. This… “Anna! Kurt! What… What’re you even doing here?! I… I avenged you! You shouldn’t have…” His parents were there, they stood among the thugs, slavers, robbers, bandits, zealots, murderers… But they… they weren’t one of them…
“You killed us, traitor. You raped my wife, after everything she’s done for you. You’re disgusting little shit!” The mighty harvester told him, pointing his war-scythe at the hero. The only thing that held him at bay, though, was his spouse, loudly crying with black tears pouring from her eyes.
“Heh… You… really think I’d…”
“No. But you’ve proven it.” Kurt spoke with the coldest possible rage in his voice. Keyaru’s cruelty couldn’t be doubted, after all. Not after everyone he maimed this day. “I don’t give a fuck, what the hell is wrong with you, but I’ll slice your guilty ass as many times as I need.” The older man spoke, pushing Anna aside. And then, he lunged.
Kurt struck as a true warrior – he was swift, accurate, precise – his war scythe – basically a reforged farming tool, grazed Keyaruga’s torso, cut his leg, he even stabbed his foster son through his chest. But… there was no blood.
“Calm down, you two.” The hero demanded, stoically taking hit after hit, like the heavy glaive-like blade was nothing. While Anna crumbled to her knees, lost in her weeping, Kurt wouldn’t stop attacking. “You can’t kill me, I’m immor-…” Barely did the lad say so; before his foster father grabbed the handle in a wide grip, and just swept his head off with one precise strike.
“NO-O-O-O-O-O-O!!!” Strangely enough, despite all of the delusions his parents had about him, Anna just couldn’t stand seeing her child being killed so brutally. “A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!!! WHY-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y?!!!” As Keyaru’s head rolled on the ground, the thugs, at least those who weren’t affected by any of hero’s inventive afflictions, started to get rallied again.
“You had it coming, you ungrateful dipshit!” Kurt spat through tightly closed teeth. He couldn’t watch, couldn’t face what he had to do with his adopted prodigy. Even if he was a criminal. Even if…
“I really did…” But the bastards weren’t enjoying the show for too long. Right when the healer seemed to fall, a new body started to grow from his neck-stump, the clothes, the pouches, the weapons – everything turned into ash just to materialize again on the proudly standing conqueror of death itself.
“What devilry is this?” Kurt’s reaction was understandable. A mix of fear, anger, and disgust, was all over his tainted face. In turn…
“KEYARU-U-U-U!!!” Anna just dashed forward to hug her child. No matter, how disgustingly atrocious his resurrection was, without even looking at the beheaded body that now lied nearby, the woman just went ahead and embraced the lad. She… didn’t seem to be in her right mind, even for a dead soul.
“Anna, I… I…” The shivers began taking a hold of him. His hands, his knees – they trembled so much, this simple touch he though he lost forever, this… This was enough to make him cry. “I’m sorry… I’m so, so, so, so-o-o sorry!..”
“DIE, FUCKER!!!”
“THAT YOU HAVE TO SEE ME DOING THIS!!!” Keyaruga yelled, grabbing Leonard by his wrist. Just a little pressure – and he dropped his sword, the weapon faded into nothingness. Then, the man pushed Anna back, punched his foe in the gut, and proudly showed his captive to his family. “Haa… He-heh! He-e-e… This… This is Leonard, Flare’s… right hand…” The hero spoke, this time trying to maintain his sanity, as his parents now cautiously looked at him. “I… I came from the future! I had to rewind time’s flow itself… Because Flare was evil, and he…” Then, the man put his hand onto the barely struggling imbecile, thus transforming him into Keyaru, the motionless child, whose entire mobility, except for breathing, was shut down for the ease of what he was about to do. “I killed Flare! And he took my guilt. Then…” Afterwards, the healer went ahead and summoned raging flames upon his free hand. Kurt and Anna watched motionlessly, as he placed the magic-shrouded palm onto his ‘own’ face, burned it, scourged the blackened flesh with the sorcery he ‘learned’ from Flare… “My trick was revealed, and he headed out to our village, looking just like me. The rest… you know the rest.”
And finally, Keyaruga dropped the motionless doll, unable even to cry out from the excruciating pain the Hero of Healing inflicted upon it. He then faced his parents, still shocked by such a display of merciless brutality, they couldn’t even properly reply, this entire spectacle of bloodshed, mayhem, rape, torture, demonstration of immortality, and now – proofs of metamorphosis – all of that left them utterly silent.
“Kurt, Anna… I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you… But I can’t let you, or any one of these fuckers keep me here! I… I have a family! Freia, Setsuna, Ellen, Eve – I so wanted you to meet them… But you can’t now. You… might not believe me, and I understand that.” The red-eyed lad uttered, as his posture slouched more and more, along with his fading bravery. “This is what it’s like to be a man! I must be strong! I have to be ruthless now, so that nobody would challenge me in the future!” The man added, now turning his back to his foster parents. He stood straight, he stretched his shoulders, took a deep breath, and… “LISTEN HERE, YOU FUCKING MONSTERS!!! WHAT YOU’VE FELT NOW IS BUT A TINY BIT OF WHAT I’LL DO TO YOU, ONCE I’M FUCKING DEAD!!! NOW YOU WILL GO INTO THE DEEPEST PITS OF HELL, AND WHEN YOU’RE THERE, PRAY I DON’T FUCKING DIE ANYTIME SOON!!! BECAUSE WHEN I FINALLY KICK THIS SHITTY BUCKET, I’LL FIND EACH OF YOU, AND WE’LL BE PLAYING FOR THE WHOLE OF ETERNITY!!! BUT WHY WAIT, WHEN WE CAN HAVE SOME FUN NOW, HU-U-U-UH?!!!”
The speech was told, the impact made. His words were so zealous, so passionately intimidating, that the weeping fools now reached a whole new depth of despair.
“GET US OUT OF HERE!!!”
“SAVE ME-E-E-E!!!”
“HE’S THE DEVIL!!! DE-E-EVIL!!!”
“UA-A-A-A-A-A-A!!!”
“KUUNDA (I’m so scared)!!!”
“HE-E-E-E-E-ELP!!!”
And so, this entire crowd, this mob of immortal corpses, just ran away. Everyone, who could still stand on their feet, began fleeing in panic, trampling each other in the process. What they failed to notice, though, is that the dome is endless only for its main victim. Everyone else just came up against the invisible wall.
The Trial of Heart – its goal is twisted, to be certain. To pass it would mean releasing the dead souls from their grudge toward you. A saint would shift it to forgiveness, but the deranged avenger pumped so much fear in those criminals, that their hatred was replaced by the purest and most animalistic terror. Still, with the task done, the souls began to dissipate in a white light. They would finally be free…
“REMEMBER!!! YOU’VE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF ME!!! WE’LL MEET AGAIN, YOU FUCKING SHITBAGS!!!” Unfortunately for them, though, Keyaruga’s long shadow still loomed above them all. And such, even in relief, the crowd continued to cry, to sob, to wail, to…
“Keya… ru…” But not all left because of dread. When the avenger turned around, his foster mother, crumbling into white flakes, stood on her tiptoes to give him a last kiss on the cheek. “You’ve grown… so much…”
And so, she faded. Kurt quickly followed, although it wasn’t forgiveness or benevolence that filled his raging soul. No, it was an impotent acceptance. He saw Keyaruga as a mirror, in which he saw himself, before he deserted the royal guard and found himself in Alban.
“Someday… you’ll follow my path…” And this was what the man spoke at last, dropping his war-scythe to the ethereal ground. With no souls to redeem in the most twisted of ways, the dome of blackness quickly turned insufferably bright.
The Trial of Heart had been passed.

A man finds himself in a dark downwards cavern with a talking dog who converses with him about a life well lived.
Edwin found himself walking down a dark cave of sorts with a dog. He had nothing but his clothes on him, and he was walking barefoot over jagged stone. Blood was pouring from his feet, leaving stained red footprints with each step. The cave sloped downwards evenly, and down and down he was going. The dog walked slightly ahead, thin to the point where its skin hugged its ribs. It was covered in a coat of matted brown fur.
Edwin had no idea how he’d gotten here. Why was he in a dark cave? Why was he following a dog? A stray mutt. And why did the cave feel warm instead of cold?
The dog turned to look at him. Edwin stared back as they walked.
“Where am I?” He asked aloud. It made him feel stupid, but the silence was killing him.
“Deep.” The dog replied. It sounded human enough, a friendly but firm voice. Edwin blinked in surprise, yet he did not feel afraid.
“How long have we been walking?”
“Longer than you think.”
“Can I go home?”
“Is there a home to go back to?” The dog asked. “What do you remember of home?”
His mind was a haze. There was a bed, and tables. There was his mother hugging him. His brothers playing. Then choking smoke, glowing fires, and silent ash, leaving a charred skeleton of his home.
“I suppose not.”
“How do you view your life?” The dog asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Was it a life well-lived?”
Edwin racked his brains hard. He remembered the taste of delicious wine, gold bangles and jewellery hanging from his neck and limbs, the exhilaration of speeding cars, and sensual pleasures with more women than he could even recall.
“I enjoyed it, if that’s what you mean.”
The dog was silent, and they walked on. There was no way of keeping time, and the counting of his footsteps were lost into astronomical numbers.
“Why am I here?” He asked the dog.
“My good man, did you not see across your life, Heavenly messengers who reminded and instructed you?”
“I…I don’t remember meeting any such thing. But I’ve been a self-made man. I give my staff pay raises. I donate to my Church. I swear.” Edwin began to feel chills down his spine, despite the cave getting warmer and warmer as they walked.
“Have you seen in your life, a tender baby lying prone and helpless in its own excrement?” The dog asked.
Of course he had. Edwin nodded. Young beautiful Matthias, cradled in Jeanne’s arms. The birth of your child, what a miracle. Too bad it had gone so, so wrong. Young Matthias was afflicted and broken. Jeanne’s fault, and so he had left her with her own mistake.
They walked on in silence for even longer. The stones got warmer until they were like walking on heated floors.
“Have you seen in your life, a man or woman severely ill, racked with pain, vomiting, bleeding, crying, lifted up and laid down only by others?” The dog asked.
Of course he had. Edwin nodded. The sickly and gaunt and their crying parents and spouses, tugging at his sleeves and begging for their medicine. He’s granted this to one or two of them. You couldn’t make things free for everyone, you know.
“Can’t you?” The dog asked.
“I did what I could. It’s just how the world works, you know.”
Onwards they moved. The rocks became pointier, cutting and digging into his soft soles. It was like walking on heated coals now, and he yelped and cried out, but the dog said and did nothing about it.
“Have you seen in your life, a man or woman ninety or a hundred years old, bent over, hobbled on a cane, grey-haired, wrinkled, toothless, with blotchy skin?”
Of course he had. Edwin nodded. His own bedridden father, begging for more and more money. He was like a leech. He needed money for better TV programs and a newer caretaker, and a new wheelchair. Edwin had kindly forked over enough money to let him live, he wasn’t about to give him any more.
As they hiked on, Edwin was struck with the thought that he hadn’t felt hungry or thirsty or even tired. They must have been walking for ages now, that was bizarre.
Strange noises came from ahead. Edwin strained his ears, but it wasn’t until quite a while later that he realised it was voices. Many, many voices, all at once. The rush of a crowd perhaps, so many speaking loudly that you couldn’t hear what they were saying or what emotion was behind it.
The rocks beneath them were so hot now that Edwin could feel it like a hot poker jabbing into his feet with every step. His skin was red and raw, and he had sweated until there was no more water left to sweat. He begged for relief from the dog, who walked on like the cave was cool and windy.
“It hurts?”
“No shit!” He cried out. “It’s like walking on a fire pit.”
“This is the drop of water.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Ahead is the ocean.”
“Please…just tell me…this isn’t Hell, is it?” Edwin felt his hands shake. “I was devout. I was good. I repented.”
“Have you seen in your life, a man or woman dead, corpse rotting, oozing with fluids and blood?”
Edwin could see it. His mother unmoving on the kitchen floor, blood pooling all around her. The knife in his hands. The hatred in his head. Then the fear. Then the matches. And the smoke, fire, and silent, silent ash that betrayed no trust, confessed to nothing.
He didn’t nod. He didn’t need to.
“You saw all the Heavenly messengers.” The dog said in a tone akin to a teacher gently chiding a child. “Didn’t the thought occur to you, that you too were subject to birth, and had not gone beyond the miracle of life, that you should better do good with body, speech, and mind?”
“I-”
“Didn’t the thought occur to you, that you too were subject to illness, and had not gone beyond illness, that you should better do good with body, speech, and mind?”
“That’s not-”
“Didn’t the thought occur to you, that you too were subject to aging, and had not gone beyond growing old, that you should better do good with body, speech, and mind?” The dog’s tone changed. It became more pitiful.
“Please I…I didn’t break any laws.”
“Didn’t the thought occur to you, that you too were subject to death, and had not gone beyond death, that you should better do good with body, speech, and mind?”
“SHE DESERVED IT!” Edwin screamed.
“My good man, you did not do good with body, speech, and mind.” The dog spoke as if it did not hear him.
“She fucking deserved it! All of them deserved it! I built myself from nothing! They should too!”
“For that evil karma of yours was done neither by your mother, nor by your father, nor by your brothers, nor done by your friends, nor your companions, nor your kin, nor by the gods, nor done by strangers. The evil karma was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience its result.”
“Please…I beg you.” Edwin could hear himself sobbing. “Have mercy. I-I only did what I had to.”
The dog remained silent and impassive, and from ahead, shadows on walls crawled closer, as if cast by some impossible shape that he could not see.
“Bring him down to Avici.” The dog said.
“Yes, Lord Yama.” The shadows hissed, sounding like a drill digging into his skull. They seized Edwin’s shadow, and he too felt their invisible grip on his real body. He screamed and trashed, and yelled for the dog. He cried for salvation, but they ignored him. The shadows hissed louder, and they laughed in his mind. Laughed because they knew what awaited him. The heat grew more and more intense and then there was

Fire.

Roiling flames like those that had consumed his house.
There was nothing visible but fire. There was no smoke and ash, for where they would be was more fire. There was no wind or air for where they could be there was nothing but fire.
There were people there with him, but Edwin couldn’t see them, nor could anyone see him. They were lost in endless inferno, screaming and wailing into the deafening cacophony he had heard back in the cave.
Hell was an interesting concept that Edwin was no stranger to. There were images of demons with pitchforks, stabbing in motions. There was being dunked in boiling water and turned to ash, but in those there was the tiny reprieve of the pitchfork being pulled out or when they were reforming from ash.
In Avici, there was no such mercy. Knee deep in molten embers, Edwin’s skin blistered and fell off his leg, but each time he raised his leg he was magically whole again for the flames to feast upon.
He forgot his wife and child, and he forgot his family. He forgot his age and the dog, and even his own name, for his mind could only focus on pain. Pain as he ran on white-hot knives, and faced iron trees with razor blade leaves that rained down on him. Molten pewter flooding into his wounds. Iron hooks wrenched into his eye sockets as they dragged him up and down rivers of hot ash. Molten bronze gushed down his throat. Pain. Nothing but pain.
But it still remembered. It still remembered one thing. Its mother lying in her own blood. It had done that. And for that, it was here, suffering and screaming.
All down here are enveloped in the fires of their own evil. Thus, they wail.
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sources taken from are: Genshin's Ojoyoshu. The Devaduta Sutta. Imagining Hell by Robert F. Rhodes.
I've wanted to write something about the Buddhist concept of Hell for a while. The cave is based on the Ojoyoshu's mention that people sentenced to Avici by Yama fall for 2000 years before reaching it, and their suffering in the fall is a drop of water next to the ocean of suffering that Avici is.
The title is taken from the Ojoyoshu as well
As the sinners approach this hell from the sky above, they wail with a great lamentation, quoting from the Scriptures these words: “Everything is nothing but flames. In the sky there is not a space without flames and the whole land in every direction is covered with them. The whole land is filled with evil doers and there is no room for me. I am alone and like an orphan without a friend. I am in a dark and evil place. I am enveloped in a great raging flame. I can see neither moon nor sun in the sky.” Thus they wail.

Looking for a cool down to earth femboy that can host in the city, let’s chill let me give you a massage and we can JO and have fun. Please have location stats and a pic in first reply. The closer you are the better.

I've posted several times here about my STK modified campaign, and you guys have been a ton and we are soon coming to an end. My true BBEG is Slark, with Iymirth working for him. In short, Slark is collecting magical artifacts to empower himself in order to ascend to godhood, taking Annam's place. The players just stole The Eye of the All Father (I made it an item in the temple) and had to fight and kill Iymirth on their way out as she was there to retrieve it as well. They are now going to be teleporting back to Waterdeep to put the Eye in a safe place, and all hell is about to break lose. As this is the end of this arc of my campaign, I would love any ideas anyone has on the following (even though they are vastly different than the book).

1. One player is a son of the Eltorchul Academy (wizard school) and his mother was kidnapped by Slark and one of the players brothers. Players rescued her and he just learned the brother is evil. As they go back to Neverwinter, I need an encounter where the brother is attempting to re-kidnap or kill his mother, but the players get there just in time.
2. Slark is going to be unleashing a hoard on the city of Neverwinter as getting the Eye is essential to his ascension. It is the final piece of his puzzle. What could be part of his army? I know he will be launching Kraken Hatchling's over the walls, and will have merrow, kraken priests, and various other monsters. Just looking for cool ideas to make this final piece of the arc epic.