>**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**
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Mostly gaming, hoping to be able to run star citizen and microsoft flight sim, as well as smaller games like overwatch, halo and the doom games.
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>**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**
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Currently about 1-1.3 thousand CAD, but willing to go up to 1.5k.
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>**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**
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Hoping to put together a list of parts and start looking for good prices this month or next month (March/April 2023)
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>**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**
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Full PC, including case and fans, as well as a monitor. Keyboard suggestions are useful as well, due to the fact that I will most likely purchase a new one.
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>**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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>**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**
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I have an old case and monitor, but will probably buy new ones as they are very outdated. I also have an old keyboard, buy will probably buy a new one.
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>**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**
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Most likely not.
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>**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**
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Would like to have a large amount of storage and preferably more than 2 USB ports.
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>**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**
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Plain black or stormtrooper white and black.
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>**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**
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Yes, Windows 10 or 11.

Just if youre wondering, im a 15 year old teenager, who just wanna get this of his Chest. My English isnt the best, but i will try my best to explain everything.
Im the oldest kid in the family, with my two sisters. 12 and 8 years old. He just doesnt listen, or thinks before he reacts. One time, my Mother made a huge meal, wich looked very tasty. But my Mother forgot to give my Neighbors Money back. She borowed some, because she lost her Wallet and we couldnt find it. My Father asked if she gave the money back, but my mother completly forgot, and laughed a bit. "Oh, im such a dummy! I will get it quick.,, My Father screamed at her and called her names. And took the table with all the food, and trew it on the ground. I was 10 years old back then. This was the age, where i really saw his true face. Not only did he ruined the good food, but also scared me. I was his first victim. He always called me names, screamed at me for the dumbest reasons and made my life a living hell. He always demanded me to make him Coffee or to clean the house while his shitty ass sat in the sofa with the Tv running. Everytime he screamed, i only said "Ok,, with a Quiet scared voice. He made me suffer from depression and from suicidal thoughts. My Dream Job was to become a Teacher. Right when i was about to End myself, i reminded myself of my Mother. If i killed myself, she would suffer even more, and she wouldnt see her son to become a Teacher. So i didnt. As time moved on, he started to target my Sister. By completly overworking her with Chores and still expecting her to get good grades whilst still tired as fuck. She later escaped from home and went to our Aunt. Suddenly, he went from being the cruelst piece of shit, to a kind hearted person. He promised her that he will never do that to her again. And she belived. And oh boy, what a mistake. He was kind for 3 days. And than he was his old self again. Instead of overworking my sister this time, he fucking did it with my 8 year old brother. But not as bad. He only made coffee and cleaned the dish Washer. My Mother, who sadly still tried her best talking to talk with him, didnt work. She fell into depression. Today, i had only 5 hours of School, wich was amazing. I quickly took the Train and went home. But my sister had 6. He screamed at me for being a fool, leaving my sister behind, even tho she took care of herself most of the time. And that was it. That was all it taked to push me to my limit. I screamed back, louder than ever. He looked at me, and said "Watch youre Mouth,, and came a step closer. I got into position, ready to beat the living shit out of my Father. But my Mother stopped it, and my Father went to the bathroom. As i was calming down, i overthought the Situation and went to my room, and punched my wall. I know he's not reading this, but let me tell you something. I will become the greatest Teacher, and buy my Dreamcar and House, and pull my Mother and sister out of his stupid life. So that my Mother can live a life of peace. I could also help my sister with her studies, because im a good A-B student. And my brother could live a good teenager life. I will get my revenge. Just wait Father.

Hey, for context we have had friend group discord server for a few years now. The main trio of the server were always friends A,B and C. Friend C was allways a bit weird but we didnt mind too much. I came in later, as the only weeb on the server and in the friend group. We had a little beef with C becouse he really hated looking at anime, and we resolved it by simply making a channel for anime memes and stuff which others sometimes visited. By this time i should mention that friend C had a younger borther, who we sometimes hung out with- mainly at his birthday party etc. He was pretty chill, if not a little pushed back since he was a furry and friend C despised furries as much as anime.
A few years passed and friend Cs obbsessions became weirder and weirder. After a while we made a second special channel for him to post his stuff on. Later he came out as a furry, which was really surprising but nobody really cared. After sending a fair bit of questionable posts we asked him to keep his furry spam (since it averaged at lets say 10 furry posts a day) in his obsession channel. Not too long ago, his brother joined in after being absent for a few months, but he was really bitter and confrontational. For instance, he joined VC as the first thing and started posting furry stuff to out main channel. I have stopped him and told him to keep it in the -now- furry channel. He went on a screaming tangent about how all anime fans are pedophiles and how we dont care about anime being in the generall channel. I gently explained to him that we also keep anime separated, but the other friend in the voice call was less gentle. Nevertheless he left the VC while throwing a small tantrum, and we did not hear of him for a while.
Few weeks ago he became much more active again, ussaly just reacting to whatever we post or going on tangents about how horrible/disgusting/boring our hobbies (Friend B is into twitch streamers, im into anime etc.) are. We ussaly just ignored him and i was trying to be super friendly since my guy clearly has some demons he needs to fight with.
Today a small exchange of messages happened, i will try to translate since this will serve as an example of our normal conversation FB: -posts a furry gif into general- me: "Bro, please keep the furry stuff in #furry channel" FB: "Where is it written? its not in #rules channel ""bro"" " me" Its not in the rules but we have talked about this before. You have argued that it is unfair for anime to be in main channel..." FB: "I dont remember :)" -a few dozen minutes later- FB: "Are you going to find it in the previous messages?" me: "it was said in the voice call" FB: "what a shame? no proof :(((((" me: "im trying to be reasonable..." FB -posts a 4chan greentext of a weeb trying to F his own sister- me: "Please keep main channel anime free, that part is in the #rules channel" FB: "I dont have the permissions to go there :)))" me: "No problem, here you go" FB: "EW WHY DO I HAVE THE WEEB ROLE? IM NOT A PEDO" me: I thought you wanted to post anime stuff, so i gave it to you for permissions if you want me to take it away i wil- FB: "Put it away NOW"
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Im sorry to bore you with dumb friend group "drama" but i have no idea what i should do. He only seems to annoy me but i know he is deliberate. He sometimes swears at me for no reason while he is in the backgound of Friend C in a voice call and i just dont want to call him out becouse he seems mentally on the edge.
throwaway acc

People tend to say that the Cultural Revolution wiped China clean of traditional Chinese culture while Taiwan kept all the Chinese culture.
But how?
China is still much more socially conservative in Taiwan. Arranged marriages are more common, sexism is still rampant, racism is extremely rampant on the Chinese internet, parents have much more control over their children's lives even when they grow up, and Chinese are much more patriotic (from Han Chinese to minorities). These values all stem from Confucianism. Arranged marriages and parental control stems from child obedience to parents, sexism stems from female obedience to males, racism stems from the value of harmony and unity, and patriotism stems from citizen obedience to the state.
Since Hu Jintao came to power in 2002 and till today, the CCP has been trying to impose more socially conservative social values on the Chinese population ever since.
Is it really a misconception that Taiwan kept more Chinese culture than China given that China is more socially conservative than Taiwan.
I would argue that Taiwan kept the least Sinitic cultural values out of all the Sinosphere nations.

https://www.rufftalkvr.com/blog/there-are-no-games-to-play-january-march-2023-edition/
When I read posts about how there are no games to play on the Quest, I simply can’t relate. I’m a voracious consumer of VR games, experiences and demos and currently have over 330 of them on my headset (not including my PCVR library). These experiences are a combination of both old and new items, and my wish list and library just keeps growing week after week with new releases, recommendations and game updates. This year, I wanted to keep track of all the games I’ve played and keep coming back to and catalogue them here in hopes that they may give you some fresh ideas of games to play, or reasons to revisit older games due to their updates or improvements.
Some of the games listed below, I can forsee playing all year long, and to be fair, others I've tried are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 21 games I’ve played so far from January to March of 2023 along with links to them on the store.

1. Bocce Time! ($8.99) From the developer: In Bocce Time! you'll head down to a peaceful park or atmospheric pier to test your bocce skills across 12 distinct courts. Jump into a quick match to 1v1 a random opponent online, create and join private rooms with up to 8 players, or play against AI across 3 difficulties to unlock additional ball customization options. With full cross-play, everyone's invited to join the fun! It's Bocce Time! My thoughts: This game has seen so many updates since it’s release and if you haven’t checked it out, there’s a free trial that opens up the whole game so you can try it out for yourself. With two parks (10 courses), an AI bot to challenge (that has great quips), collectible balls and support for up to eight people, this is a wonderful social game to play with friends. The Walkabout Mini Golf vibes are strong with this game, so players of that game will feel right at home. The latest update unlocked the entire park as a play area, and ensures that you and your friends will have unlimited options for where to play from. Along with Discord tournaments available if you're feeling competitive, this game is a real hidden gem and has grown a lot since its release. Absolutely worth a go, especially at that price point.
2. Golf+ ($29.99) From the developer: GOLF+ is the ultimate VR Golf experience and the exclusive VR Golf game of the PGA TOUR. Join your friends for a round on Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, TPC Sawgrass and more. Want something more casual? Hang out at Topgolf for a night of music and games. My thoughts: Simply one of the best games on the app store. With all the great new updates such as Beat the Pro and new courses dropping every so often, it's one game that will be on my Quest until the next headset comes out. With the official PGA licenses, a variety of match options and support for four players, it’s an essential Quest game to play alone or with friends.
3. Little Cities ($19.99) From the developer: Escape to the charming world of Little Cities, the most loved VR city building simulation game. Create your own little city and watch it come to life – from a humble village to a bustling metropolis. Design the layout and strategically plot amenities to make a perfect city where your citizens love to live. My thoughts: The latest update added citizens to the game. This adds a lot more flavor to your city and brings more life to your city. It’s a pretty simple SimCity style game that should keep you entertained for a few hours. I enjoyed this one, but wasn’t blown away. The extra DLC courses and achievements will give you more play time if you find yourself enjoying this one though.
4. Compound ($19.99) From the developer: "COMPOUND is a randomized, rogue-lite, free-roaming shooter for Virtual Reality veterans. Duck and dodge around enemy fire in a tough-as-nails retro FPS with multiple locomotion options. Prepare to die - a lot - until you are good enough to reach the heart of The Corporation and take back what belongs to everyone..." My experience: Essentially Doom on Quest. The awesome blocky aesthetics work perfectly in this world. With a great gameplay loop and exciting gunplay this one will easily get its hooks into you. I found myself saying "just one more run" more often than I had time for. This single player shooter has so many achievements and difficulty levels that it kept me busy for quite some time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and still have more to do. A must buy for any fan of the genre.
5. Walkabout Mini Golf ($14.99) From the developer: 8 unique 18-hole courses to master. Unlock NIGHT MODE for more challenging versions of all courses. Play solo, 1v1 online quick match, or create a private room with up to 8 players. Extremely accurate physics feel just like the real thing. Collect over 188 custom balls hidden throughout. Solve treasure hunts on each hard course to earn special putters. My thoughts: What more needs to be said about this excellent game? It’s on my constant rotation of games to play alone, with friends, or even with strangers - as the community is so warm and welcoming. The community is truly one of the best, and there are several discord servers for tournaments, weekly meetups and more. An essential game that every Quest owner should have.
6. VR Pool ($19.99) From the developer: ForeVR Pool brings the coolest pool halls from around the globe straight to your living room! Challenge friends, family, and in-game pros to a game of 8-ball pool – no table required. Battle 12 bots to level up and take on Legendary challengers. Join a Quick Match or jump into a private multiplayer party! Friend in town? Share your headset with Pass & Play. Up the ante and stake in-game coins in matches against other players. My thoughts: This was pretty feature-light and choppy when it first launched, but it now has 9-ball in addition to 8-ball. If you bought it early, it's worth a quick revisit. It sticks pretty true to the ForeVR formula with its aesthetics and collectibles. The graphics aren’t going to win any awards and frankly put me off of it when I first booted it up, but the physics hold up and it’s a good time against the AI or a friend. With 2v2 matches coming soon, that is where this game could really be worth revisiting for some multiplayer fun and friendly smack talk.
7. After the Fall - (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: Welcome to ‘The Line’... Decades have passed since the apocalypse turned 1980s Los Angeles into a snow-crested wasteland, overrun by mutated undead. Starting out in an underground camp with up to 32 other player survivors, you take up arms as a new Harvest Runner. Your mission? Venturing out above ground to expand the Line’s reach into the city and fuel mankind’s survival for another day. My thoughts: What a fun game. The gunplay and sheer amount of enemies on screen via PC is just stunning. You're set in an apocalyptic world and must shoot your way out while gathering resources. The atmosphere is stunning, and the graphics are top notch as well. While I’m sure it’s downgraded a bit to run on Quest, don’t let that hold you back. You can play this co-op with up to three other players and bots will fill you out to four. The teamwork this game offers is wonderful. Find a friend or two and jump in this one, or play with the ever-full lobbies of people looking to join up. The latest Descension update adds two new maps and a ton of other bug fixes and gameplay additions. It's a great time to jump in with a friend!
8. Cosmoniuous High (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: From the creators of award winning titles 'Job Simulator' and 'Vacation Simulator', comes a new original creation—the comically catastrophic Cosmonious High! Welcome to your alien high school that's definitely completely free of malfunctions! After crash-landing into your first day, you'll unlock powers, explore the halls, and save the school from cosmic chaos. My thoughts: I would consider this is the third entry in the Job Simulator series - even though it's technically not in the same world. I’d really recommend you play them in order to fully appreciate the experience this game has to offer. Job Simulator was the first game, with jokes and fun interaction. Vacation Simulator expanded on that idea with similar characters, and what Cosmonius does is take the ideas of object interaction and conversations and cranks it up to the max. I had so much fun experimenting, talking with NPC’s, exploring the school and seeing what story the game had to offer. This is one of those games that just speaks to people like me who likes to push the boundaries to see what you can do in a game and rewards players for experimenting. It's a heartwarming game that continues to get quality of life and accessibility updates.
9. The Invisible Hours - (Played on PC $29.99, but coming out on Quest, currently available in the Rift store.) From the developer: The Invisible Hours is a complex murder mystery playable with or without a VR headset. Players freely explore an intricate web of interwoven stories within a sprawling mansion. A group of strangers receive a curious invitation from the enigmatic inventor, Nikola Tesla, offering each of them the chance to make amends for their darkest wrongdoings. When the last guest arrives at Tesla’s isolated mansion laboratory, they find him dead – murdered. Disgraced Swedish detective, Gustaf Gustav, vows to find the killer amongst the other guests: a blind butler, a convicted murderer, the world’s most famous actress, Tesla’s former assistant, the son of a wealthy railroad magnate, and rival inventor Thomas Edison. But none of these people are what they seem. My thoughts: I heard so many great things about this game and it's really more of an interactive story than anything. You find yourself moving around the mansion, piecing together the intricate story and learning how all these people relate to one another and their hidden secrets. I had a great time with this game, it had a unique concept that kept me fully engaged throughout.
10. Pokerstars VR (Free) From the developer: PokerStars, the world’s leading poker brand, has combined live and online poker in a truly immersive VR experience. Featuring Quest Pro support with face and eye tracking, advanced haptics, and mixed reality passthrough! My thoughts: This is one of my go-to games with friends. Once you get past the initial low-stakes tables where kids play and go all-in on many hands, you’ll find a new set of players that actually play smart poker and like to chat. If you have some friends, you can create your own private room and avoid that all together. It’s a relaxing game where you can meet new people and just chill in VR. It’s my social game where I go to unwind. Recent updates have seen them add craps and social poker rooms with slots and roulette. If you're looking to relax and play some poker, this free to play game will hit the spot. You can easily play this game for free and not ever spend a dime.
11. Path of the Warrior ($19.99) From the developer: We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news...chaos in the streets of Rage City tonight! The myriad local gangs, once at constant war with each other have now unified under a mysterious new crime boss...Mr. S. Thugs have flooded the entire city, unleashing a wave of terror. The police are overwhelmed and the public is in imminent danger! Can anyone put a stop to the crime wave? Can anyone save Rage City? My thoughts: This fighting game is one that you can blow off steam with. It harkens back to the old Double Dragon or Final Fight arcade days and I highly recommend you play through this game with a friend as you’ll be laughing your way through it at the absurd combos and interactive objects and scenery you can use to defeat your foes. Find a bit of open room to play in, and punch your way through the game.
12. Half Life Alyx Mod: The Undertow - (PC only, Free) From the developer: You play as Alyx, tasked with delivering a mysterious briefcase to the owner of an underground night club, upon arriving you realize this deal might not be so straight forward... Expected Playtime: 50min - 1hr. Features: Full-fledged Story with Voice Acting, Custom Sounds, Assets, and Gameplay, Unique Puzzles & Engaging Combat, Full Single-Controller Support and Drinkable Vodka (Finally). My thoughts: I’ve been working my way through some Half Life Alyx mods that bubble up to the top via Reddit or online posts. This one found its way into my queue and while it had a really unique setting, it was extremely buggy in one spot, to the point where I had to restart a section close to 20 times. I didn't find the end game satisfying, and with so many other great mods, it was a miss for me.
13. Sheaf - Together EP (PC only, Free) From the developer: Enter virtual reality to listen to the debut EP “Together” of synthwave producer Sheaf. No gameplay involved -- just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music while you drive through a retro low poly world. The EP features 3 tracks, and each track comes with its own scenery, tailor made to fit its mood. You can start each track separately from the main menu. My thoughts: As noted in the developer description, this is really more a zen-like experience where you’re sitting in a car that drives down a road while chill music is playing. Certainly different from a lot of other “zone out” experiences that focus on geometric shapes, but the blocky visuals really conflicted with the chill vibe it was going for. Not really my jam, but if you like chill experiences, it might be for you. You certainly can't beat the price.
14. Shooty Fruity ($19.99) From the developer: Do your job whilst shooting guns! Shooty Fruity combines job simulation with exhilarating combat that makes you feel like a true action hero - whether McClane, Wick or Rambo. Take on new roles and unlock weapons to fight your way through your career. Scan shoot repeat! My thoughts: I kept seeing this game show up in sales and various feeds so I finally tried it out. After 30 minutes I just was not having any fun at all. While the enemies were silly (various fruits and vegetables), the gun mechanics were lackluster. I just did not get into the gameplay loop of shooting and scanning groceries. It was just too repetitive for me and for that reason I can’t recommend it.
15. What the Bat? ($24.99) From the developer: From the creators of WHAT THE GOLF? comes a silly VR game about navigating life with baseball bats for hands. Swing your way through over 100 levels of batting, cooking, shooting, smashing, parking, painting, pickling, petting, and WHATnot. My thoughts: I was a huge fan of What the Golf on iOS, and was quite excited when I heard about this sequel. The “high” price point turned me off for a while, but when UploadVR gave it their “game of the year” award, I finally pulled the trigger. I had high hopes, and it was fun… at first, but the gimmick started to wear really thin on me rather quickly. It just didn’t seem to have the same magic the first game had. I kept going through it in hopes that something would change, or capture that original feeling, but honestly, it was a grind to finish such a short game. I understand I’m probably in the minority here, but I was quite disappointed.
16. Superhot ($24.99) From the developer: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move. No regenerating health bars. No conveniently placed ammo drops. It's you, alone, outnumbered and outgunned. Snatch weapons from fallen enemies to shoot, slice and dodge through a truly cinematic hurricane of slow-motion bullets. It’s like nothing you have ever played before. Something is different here. Lose track of what’s real. My thoughts: You know it, and you probably love it. Like so many others, so did I. This was one of my first VR experiences years ago and I finally saw it through to the end. This game can be quite demanding for some levels requiring accurate shooting, movement and timing. This game offers a really unique take on gameplay and multiple ways to get through some levels really increase the replayability. With the unique achievements to strive for you have a real winner. A must own for all gamers.
17. Tube Be Continued (Demo) (Full game $14.99) From the developer: Hello! Welcome to TUBE Industries: a hamster owned and operated tube puzzle emporium! Prepare for a tube-based, puzzle-filled, HAM-PACKED adventure with our charismatic leader: The BOSS. Here at TUBE Industries we provide the puzzles and you provide… the brains. No shady business here! My thoughts: I like to look at the new App Lab games that come out every now and then and I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game. This is a game where you connect mazes together for hamsters to run through. It was a weird story that sees you working with a Hamster CEO trying to save his company from the Board, which are all hamsters. Really weird stuff, but while the demo was fun, the puzzles were a bit on the simple side and ultimately, I just did not think it was worth buying at this point. That being said, if the demo grabs you I could see this being a fun few hours with new content planning to be added.
18. Dart Racer (Free) From the developer: Dart Racer is an arcade racing game where you compete against AI during race and other players on the online leaderboards - features multiple race tracks and environments - steering based on throttle differential - interactive tutorial - customizable game and comfort settings - optional hand tracking. My thoughts: Now this is podracing! It really did feel like I was doing some classic Star Wars podracing, but it was quite tough to learn the controls. Once I got that figured out, there certainly was some fun to be had, but unfortunately, it just was okay for me and I dropped out after a bit. Give it a try for free, and keep in mind there are plenty of motion assists to play with so you don't get sick.
19. Nock ($9.99) From the developer: Nock is bow and arrow soccer. Skate and fly around a pitch while using a bow and arrow to blast the ball into the other team’s goal. Compete in multiplayer ranked matches, or play casual custom games with your friends! Like a real sport, Nock is easy to learn but difficult to master. Block arrows let you create obstacles and you can even use your body to make a goal or save. A fast-moving ball can knock you out. Skill-based matchmaking keeps every game extremely close and competitive. Casual modes let you challenge yourself against bots or play with friends in custom matches. My thoughts: Rocket League but with archery. While I’m not a fan of archery games in general, this game really had the physics dialed in. I always felt like I was in full control of my movement and bow and arrow. Nothing ever felt like it was off, and the aiming was spot on. Every hit of the ball, or miss was my fault. An absolute blast with with up to four friends, and that’s how I recommend you play it - with friends. But there are leagues and tournaments readily available if get into the game. That being said, I’m pretty terrible at it, and will only play with friends who can tolerate my terrible skills.
20. Into the Radius ($29.99) From the developer: An atmospheric open-world single-player survival shooter. You find yourself in the middle of the blighted zone, cut from the outside world. Your guns and your wits are all you have left. Fight the deadly enemies, dodge dangerous anomalies, and collect wondrous artifacts on your way to the Radius center to find your way out. My thoughts: I found myself constantly saying “I can’t believe this actually runs on a Quest.” The amount of items you can interact with, areas available to explore, systems to learn and missions to accept can be quite overwhelming. Honestly it took me about 5-7 hours of gameplay, tutorials and youtube videos until finally the game “clicked.” After this one fateful mission where I was over encumbered with items, low on ammo with minimal health and dealing with enemies at every turn, I was totally immersed and was having the time of my life. It was an absolute blast and despite being so tense - a joy to play. I did tone down the difficulty a bit, which made it much more playable and less punishing. Truly a great game if you like the loop of scavenging, planning your route ahead and making sure literally every bullet counts. While it lacks in story, it does have a lot of environmental details and little things that you have to find for yourself. If you like survival games, it’s almost perfect.
21. Surgineer ($9.99) From the developer: Have you ever dreamed of being a real surgeon? Well… you are not gonna learn that here. Welcome to the most unrealistic surgery simulator where everyone can instantly become a terrible doctor. You will have to solve hilarious surgical procedures ranging from CPR to brain transplant or even removing alien eggs from a poor patient using a robotic arm! You always thought you had that surgeon in you? You better have a bulletproof malpractice insurance before getting your virtual hands on a patient! My thoughts: At such a low price point, I wasn’t expecting much. I remember playing Surgeon Simulator back in the day and this looked like that. Much to my disappointment it was much more terrible than I had hoped. Absolutely no fun was to be had here. I constantly fought with the controls, many times had no clue what to do and finally gave up in frustration. I understand part of the appeal is the wonkiness of it, but this game requires someone with a lot more patience than me to get some fun out of it.

There you have it, 21 different games played in three months. I would say there are plenty of games to play and enjoy on the Quest. I hope you find a few that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. You can also find this article on the RuffTalkVR Blog Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.

When I read posts about how there are no games to play on the Quest, I simply can’t relate. I’m a voracious consumer of VR games, experiences and demos and currently have over 330 of them on my headset (not including my PCVR library). These experiences are a combination of both old and new items, and my wish list and library just keeps growing week after week with new releases, recommendations and game updates. This year, I wanted to keep track of all the games I’ve played and keep coming back to and catalogue them here in hopes that they may give you some fresh ideas of games to play, or reasons to revisit older games due to their updates or improvements.
Some of the games listed below, I can forsee playing all year long, and to be fair, others I've tried are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 21 games I’ve played so far from January to March of 2023 along with links to them on the store.
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1. Bocce Time! ($8.99) From the developer: In Bocce Time! you'll head down to a peaceful park or atmospheric pier to test your bocce skills across 12 distinct courts. Jump into a quick match to 1v1 a random opponent online, create and join private rooms with up to 8 players, or play against AI across 3 difficulties to unlock additional ball customization options. With full cross-play, everyone's invited to join the fun! It's Bocce Time! My thoughts: This game has seen so many updates since it’s release and if you haven’t checked it out, there’s a free trial that opens up the whole game so you can try it out for yourself. With two parks (10 courses), an AI bot to challenge (that has great quips), collectible balls and support for up to eight people, this is a wonderful social game to play with friends. The Walkabout Mini Golf vibes are strong with this game, so players of that game will feel right at home. The latest update unlocked the entire park as a play area, and ensures that you and your friends will have unlimited options for where to play from. Along with Discord tournaments available if you're feeling competitive, this game is a real hidden gem and has grown a lot since its release. Absolutely worth a go, especially at that price point.
   
2. Golf+ ($29.99) From the developer: GOLF+ is the ultimate VR Golf experience and the exclusive VR Golf game of the PGA TOUR. Join your friends for a round on Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, TPC Sawgrass and more. Want something more casual? Hang out at Topgolf for a night of music and games. My thoughts: Simply one of the best games on the app store. With all the great new updates such as Beat the Pro and new courses dropping every so often, it's one game that will be on my Quest until the next headset comes out. With the official PGA licenses, a variety of match options and support for four players, it’s an essential Quest game to play alone or with friends.
   
3. Little Cities ($19.99) From the developer: Escape to the charming world of Little Cities, the most loved VR city building simulation game. Create your own little city and watch it come to life – from a humble village to a bustling metropolis. Design the layout and strategically plot amenities to make a perfect city where your citizens love to live. My thoughts: The latest update added citizens to the game. This adds a lot more flavor to your city and brings more life to your city. It’s a pretty simple SimCity style game that should keep you entertained for a few hours. I enjoyed this one, but wasn’t blown away. The extra DLC courses and achievements will give you more play time if you find yourself enjoying this one though.
   
4. Compound ($19.99) From the developer: "COMPOUND is a randomized, rogue-lite, free-roaming shooter for Virtual Reality veterans. Duck and dodge around enemy fire in a tough-as-nails retro FPS with multiple locomotion options. Prepare to die - a lot - until you are good enough to reach the heart of The Corporation and take back what belongs to everyone..." My experience: Essentially Doom on Quest. The awesome blocky aesthetics work perfectly in this world. With a great gameplay loop and exciting gunplay this one will easily get its hooks into you. I found myself saying "just one more run" more often than I had time for. This single player shooter has so many achievements and difficulty levels that it kept me busy for quite some time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and still have more to do. A must buy for any fan of the genre.
   
5. Walkabout Mini Golf ($14.99) From the developer: 8 unique 18-hole courses to master. Unlock NIGHT MODE for more challenging versions of all courses. Play solo, 1v1 online quick match, or create a private room with up to 8 players. Extremely accurate physics feel just like the real thing. Collect over 188 custom balls hidden throughout. Solve treasure hunts on each hard course to earn special putters. My thoughts: What more needs to be said about this excellent game? It’s on my constant rotation of games to play alone, with friends, or even with strangers - as the community is so warm and welcoming. The community is truly one of the best, and there are several discord servers for tournaments, weekly meetups and more. An essential game that every Quest owner should have.
   
6. VR Pool ($19.99) From the developer: ForeVR Pool brings the coolest pool halls from around the globe straight to your living room! Challenge friends, family, and in-game pros to a game of 8-ball pool – no table required. Battle 12 bots to level up and take on Legendary challengers. Join a Quick Match or jump into a private multiplayer party! Friend in town? Share your headset with Pass & Play. Up the ante and stake in-game coins in matches against other players. My thoughts: This was pretty feature-light and choppy when it first launched, but it now has 9-ball in addition to 8-ball. If you bought it early, it's worth a quick revisit. It sticks pretty true to the ForeVR formula with its aesthetics and collectibles. The graphics aren’t going to win any awards and frankly put me off of it when I first booted it up, but the physics hold up and it’s a good time against the AI or a friend. With 2v2 matches coming soon, that is where this game could really be worth revisiting for some multiplayer fun and friendly smack talk.
   
7. After the Fall - (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: Welcome to ‘The Line’... Decades have passed since the apocalypse turned 1980s Los Angeles into a snow-crested wasteland, overrun by mutated undead. Starting out in an underground camp with up to 32 other player survivors, you take up arms as a new Harvest Runner. Your mission? Venturing out above ground to expand the Line’s reach into the city and fuel mankind’s survival for another day. My thoughts: What a fun game. The gunplay and sheer amount of enemies on screen via PC is just stunning. You're set in an apocalyptic world and must shoot your way out while gathering resources. The atmosphere is stunning, and the graphics are top notch as well. While I’m sure it’s downgraded a bit to run on Quest, don’t let that hold you back. You can play this co-op with up to three other players and bots will fill you out to four. The teamwork this game offers is wonderful. Find a friend or two and jump in this one, or play with the ever-full lobbies of people looking to join up. The latest Descension update adds two new maps and a ton of other bug fixes and gameplay additions. It's a great time to jump in with a friend!
   
8. Cosmoniuous High (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: From the creators of award winning titles 'Job Simulator' and 'Vacation Simulator', comes a new original creation—the comically catastrophic Cosmonious High! Welcome to your alien high school that's definitely completely free of malfunctions! After crash-landing into your first day, you'll unlock powers, explore the halls, and save the school from cosmic chaos. My thoughts: I would consider this is the third entry in the Job Simulator series - even though it's technically not in the same world. I’d really recommend you play them in order to fully appreciate the experience this game has to offer. Job Simulator was the first game, with jokes and fun interaction. Vacation Simulator expanded on that idea with similar characters, and what Cosmonius does is take the ideas of object interaction and conversations and cranks it up to the max. I had so much fun experimenting, talking with NPC’s, exploring the school and seeing what story the game had to offer. This is one of those games that just speaks to people like me who likes to push the boundaries to see what you can do in a game and rewards players for experimenting. It's a heartwarming game that continues to get quality of life and accessibility updates.
   
9. The Invisible Hours - (Played on PC $29.99, but coming out on Quest, currently available in the Rift store.) From the developer: The Invisible Hours is a complex murder mystery playable with or without a VR headset. Players freely explore an intricate web of interwoven stories within a sprawling mansion. A group of strangers receive a curious invitation from the enigmatic inventor, Nikola Tesla, offering each of them the chance to make amends for their darkest wrongdoings. When the last guest arrives at Tesla’s isolated mansion laboratory, they find him dead – murdered. Disgraced Swedish detective, Gustaf Gustav, vows to find the killer amongst the other guests: a blind butler, a convicted murderer, the world’s most famous actress, Tesla’s former assistant, the son of a wealthy railroad magnate, and rival inventor Thomas Edison. But none of these people are what they seem. My thoughts: I heard so many great things about this game and it's really more of an interactive story than anything. You find yourself moving around the mansion, piecing together the intricate story and learning how all these people relate to one another and their hidden secrets. I had a great time with this game, it had a unique concept that kept me fully engaged throughout.
   
10. Pokerstars VR (Free) From the developer: PokerStars, the world’s leading poker brand, has combined live and online poker in a truly immersive VR experience. Featuring Quest Pro support with face and eye tracking, advanced haptics, and mixed reality passthrough! My thoughts: This is one of my go-to games with friends. Once you get past the initial low-stakes tables where kids play and go all-in on many hands, you’ll find a new set of players that actually play smart poker and like to chat. If you have some friends, you can create your own private room and avoid that all together. It’s a relaxing game where you can meet new people and just chill in VR. It’s my social game where I go to unwind. Recent updates have seen them add craps and social poker rooms with slots and roulette. If you're looking to relax and play some poker, this free to play game will hit the spot. You can easily play this game for free and not ever spend a dime.
    
11. Path of the Warrior ($19.99) From the developer: We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news...chaos in the streets of Rage City tonight! The myriad local gangs, once at constant war with each other have now unified under a mysterious new crime boss...Mr. S. Thugs have flooded the entire city, unleashing a wave of terror. The police are overwhelmed and the public is in imminent danger! Can anyone put a stop to the crime wave? Can anyone save Rage City? My thoughts: This fighting game is one that you can blow off steam with. It harkens back to the old Double Dragon or Final Fight arcade days and I highly recommend you play through this game with a friend as you’ll be laughing your way through it at the absurd combos and interactive objects and scenery you can use to defeat your foes. Find a bit of open room to play in, and punch your way through the game.
    
12. Half Life Alyx Mod: The Undertow - (PC only, Free) From the developer: You play as Alyx, tasked with delivering a mysterious briefcase to the owner of an underground night club, upon arriving you realize this deal might not be so straight forward... Expected Playtime: 50min - 1hr. Features: Full-fledged Story with Voice Acting, Custom Sounds, Assets, and Gameplay, Unique Puzzles & Engaging Combat, Full Single-Controller Support and Drinkable Vodka (Finally). My thoughts: I’ve been working my way through some Half Life Alyx mods that bubble up to the top via Reddit or online posts. This one found its way into my queue and while it had a really unique setting, it was extremely buggy in one spot, to the point where I had to restart a section close to 20 times. I didn't find the end game satisfying, and with so many other great mods, it was a miss for me.
    
13. Sheaf - Together EP (PC only, Free) From the developer: Enter virtual reality to listen to the debut EP “Together” of synthwave producer Sheaf. No gameplay involved -- just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music while you drive through a retro low poly world. The EP features 3 tracks, and each track comes with its own scenery, tailor made to fit its mood. You can start each track separately from the main menu. My thoughts: As noted in the developer description, this is really more a zen-like experience where you’re sitting in a car that drives down a road while chill music is playing. Certainly different from a lot of other “zone out” experiences that focus on geometric shapes, but the blocky visuals really conflicted with the chill vibe it was going for. Not really my jam, but if you like chill experiences, it might be for you. You certainly can't beat the price.
    
14. Shooty Fruity ($19.99) From the developer: Do your job whilst shooting guns! Shooty Fruity combines job simulation with exhilarating combat that makes you feel like a true action hero - whether McClane, Wick or Rambo. Take on new roles and unlock weapons to fight your way through your career. Scan shoot repeat! My thoughts: I kept seeing this game show up in sales and various feeds so I finally tried it out. After 30 minutes I just was not having any fun at all. While the enemies were silly (various fruits and vegetables), the gun mechanics were lackluster. I just did not get into the gameplay loop of shooting and scanning groceries. It was just too repetitive for me and for that reason I can’t recommend it.
    
15. What the Bat? ($24.99) From the developer: From the creators of WHAT THE GOLF? comes a silly VR game about navigating life with baseball bats for hands. Swing your way through over 100 levels of batting, cooking, shooting, smashing, parking, painting, pickling, petting, and WHATnot. My thoughts: I was a huge fan of What the Golf on iOS, and was quite excited when I heard about this sequel. The “high” price point turned me off for a while, but when UploadVR gave it their “game of the year” award, I finally pulled the trigger. I had high hopes, and it was fun… at first, but the gimmick started to wear really thin on me rather quickly. It just didn’t seem to have the same magic the first game had. I kept going through it in hopes that something would change, or capture that original feeling, but honestly, it was a grind to finish such a short game. I understand I’m probably in the minority here, but I was quite disappointed.
    
16. Superhot ($24.99) From the developer: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move. No regenerating health bars. No conveniently placed ammo drops. It's you, alone, outnumbered and outgunned. Snatch weapons from fallen enemies to shoot, slice and dodge through a truly cinematic hurricane of slow-motion bullets. It’s like nothing you have ever played before. Something is different here. Lose track of what’s real. My thoughts: You know it, and you probably love it. Like so many others, so did I. This was one of my first VR experiences years ago and I finally saw it through to the end. This game can be quite demanding for some levels requiring accurate shooting, movement and timing. This game offers a really unique take on gameplay and multiple ways to get through some levels really increase the replayability. With the unique achievements to strive for you have a real winner. A must own for all gamers.
    
17. Tube Be Continued (Demo) (Full game $14.99) From the developer: Hello! Welcome to TUBE Industries: a hamster owned and operated tube puzzle emporium! Prepare for a tube-based, puzzle-filled, HAM-PACKED adventure with our charismatic leader: The BOSS. Here at TUBE Industries we provide the puzzles and you provide… the brains. No shady business here! My thoughts: I like to look at the new App Lab games that come out every now and then and I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game. This is a game where you connect mazes together for hamsters to run through. It was a weird story that sees you working with a Hamster CEO trying to save his company from the Board, which are all hamsters. Really weird stuff, but while the demo was fun, the puzzles were a bit on the simple side and ultimately, I just did not think it was worth buying at this point. That being said, if the demo grabs you I could see this being a fun few hours with new content planning to be added.
    
18. Dart Racer (Free) From the developer: Dart Racer is an arcade racing game where you compete against AI during race and other players on the online leaderboards - features multiple race tracks and environments - steering based on throttle differential - interactive tutorial - customizable game and comfort settings - optional hand tracking. My thoughts: Now this is podracing! It really did feel like I was doing some classic Star Wars podracing, but it was quite tough to learn the controls. Once I got that figured out, there certainly was some fun to be had, but unfortunately, it just was okay for me and I dropped out after a bit. Give it a try for free, and keep in mind there are plenty of motion assists to play with so you don't get sick.
    
19. Nock ($9.99) From the developer: Nock is bow and arrow soccer. Skate and fly around a pitch while using a bow and arrow to blast the ball into the other team’s goal. Compete in multiplayer ranked matches, or play casual custom games with your friends! Like a real sport, Nock is easy to learn but difficult to master. Block arrows let you create obstacles and you can even use your body to make a goal or save. A fast-moving ball can knock you out. Skill-based matchmaking keeps every game extremely close and competitive. Casual modes let you challenge yourself against bots or play with friends in custom matches. My thoughts: Rocket League but with archery. While I’m not a fan of archery games in general, this game really had the physics dialed in. I always felt like I was in full control of my movement and bow and arrow. Nothing ever felt like it was off, and the aiming was spot on. Every hit of the ball, or miss was my fault. An absolute blast with with up to four friends, and that’s how I recommend you play it - with friends. But there are leagues and tournaments readily available if get into the game. That being said, I’m pretty terrible at it, and will only play with friends who can tolerate my terrible skills.
    
20. Into the Radius ($29.99) From the developer: An atmospheric open-world single-player survival shooter. You find yourself in the middle of the blighted zone, cut from the outside world. Your guns and your wits are all you have left. Fight the deadly enemies, dodge dangerous anomalies, and collect wondrous artifacts on your way to the Radius center to find your way out. My thoughts: I found myself constantly saying “I can’t believe this actually runs on a Quest.” The amount of items you can interact with, areas available to explore, systems to learn and missions to accept can be quite overwhelming. Honestly it took me about 5-7 hours of gameplay, tutorials and youtube videos until finally the game “clicked.” After this one fateful mission where I was over encumbered with items, low on ammo with minimal health and dealing with enemies at every turn, I was totally immersed and was having the time of my life. It was an absolute blast and despite being so tense - a joy to play. I did tone down the difficulty a bit, which made it much more playable and less punishing. Truly a great game if you like the loop of scavenging, planning your route ahead and making sure literally every bullet counts. While it lacks in story, it does have a lot of environmental details and little things that you have to find for yourself. If you like survival games, it’s almost perfect.
    
21. Surgineer ($9.99) From the developer: Have you ever dreamed of being a real surgeon? Well… you are not gonna learn that here. Welcome to the most unrealistic surgery simulator where everyone can instantly become a terrible doctor. You will have to solve hilarious surgical procedures ranging from CPR to brain transplant or even removing alien eggs from a poor patient using a robotic arm! You always thought you had that surgeon in you? You better have a bulletproof malpractice insurance before getting your virtual hands on a patient! My thoughts: At such a low price point, I wasn’t expecting much. I remember playing Surgeon Simulator back in the day and this looked like that. Much to my disappointment it was much more terrible than I had hoped. Absolutely no fun was to be had here. I constantly fought with the controls, many times had no clue what to do and finally gave up in frustration. I understand part of the appeal is the wonkiness of it, but this game requires someone with a lot more patience than me to get some fun out of it.
    

There you have it, 21 different games played in three months. I would say there are plenty of games to play and enjoy on the Quest. I hope you find a few that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. You can also find this article on the RuffTalkVR Blog Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.

When I read posts about how there are no games to play on the Quest, I simply can’t relate. I’m a voracious consumer of VR games, experiences and demos and currently have over 330 of them on my headset (not including my PCVR library). These experiences are a combination of both old and new items, and my wish list and library just keeps growing week after week with new releases, recommendations and game updates. This year, I wanted to keep track of all the games I’ve played and keep coming back to and catalogue them here in hopes that they may give you some fresh ideas of games to play, or reasons to revisit older games due to their updates or improvements.
Some of the games listed below, I can forsee playing all year long, and to be fair, others I've tried are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 21 games I’ve played so far from January to March of 2023 along with links to them on the store.
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1. Bocce Time! ($8.99) From the developer: In Bocce Time! you'll head down to a peaceful park or atmospheric pier to test your bocce skills across 12 distinct courts. Jump into a quick match to 1v1 a random opponent online, create and join private rooms with up to 8 players, or play against AI across 3 difficulties to unlock additional ball customization options. With full cross-play, everyone's invited to join the fun! It's Bocce Time! My thoughts: This game has seen so many updates since it’s release and if you haven’t checked it out, there’s a free trial that opens up the whole game so you can try it out for yourself. With two parks (10 courses), an AI bot to challenge (that has great quips), collectible balls and support for up to eight people, this is a wonderful social game to play with friends. The Walkabout Mini Golf vibes are strong with this game, so players of that game will feel right at home. The latest update unlocked the entire park as a play area, and ensures that you and your friends will have unlimited options for where to play from. Along with Discord tournaments available if you're feeling competitive, this game is a real hidden gem and has grown a lot since its release. Absolutely worth a go, especially at that price point.
   
2. Golf+ ($29.99) From the developer: GOLF+ is the ultimate VR Golf experience and the exclusive VR Golf game of the PGA TOUR. Join your friends for a round on Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, TPC Sawgrass and more. Want something more casual? Hang out at Topgolf for a night of music and games. My thoughts: Simply one of the best games on the app store. With all the great new updates such as Beat the Pro and new courses dropping every so often, it's one game that will be on my Quest until the next headset comes out. With the official PGA licenses, a variety of match options and support for four players, it’s an essential Quest game to play alone or with friends.
   
3. Little Cities ($19.99) From the developer: Escape to the charming world of Little Cities, the most loved VR city building simulation game. Create your own little city and watch it come to life – from a humble village to a bustling metropolis. Design the layout and strategically plot amenities to make a perfect city where your citizens love to live. My thoughts: The latest update added citizens to the game. This adds a lot more flavor to your city and brings more life to your city. It’s a pretty simple SimCity style game that should keep you entertained for a few hours. I enjoyed this one, but wasn’t blown away. The extra DLC courses and achievements will give you more play time if you find yourself enjoying this one though.
   
4. Compound ($19.99) From the developer: "COMPOUND is a randomized, rogue-lite, free-roaming shooter for Virtual Reality veterans. Duck and dodge around enemy fire in a tough-as-nails retro FPS with multiple locomotion options. Prepare to die - a lot - until you are good enough to reach the heart of The Corporation and take back what belongs to everyone..." My experience: Essentially Doom on Quest. The awesome blocky aesthetics work perfectly in this world. With a great gameplay loop and exciting gunplay this one will easily get its hooks into you. I found myself saying "just one more run" more often than I had time for. This single player shooter has so many achievements and difficulty levels that it kept me busy for quite some time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and still have more to do. A must buy for any fan of the genre.
   
5. Walkabout Mini Golf ($14.99) From the developer: 8 unique 18-hole courses to master. Unlock NIGHT MODE for more challenging versions of all courses. Play solo, 1v1 online quick match, or create a private room with up to 8 players. Extremely accurate physics feel just like the real thing. Collect over 188 custom balls hidden throughout. Solve treasure hunts on each hard course to earn special putters. My thoughts: What more needs to be said about this excellent game? It’s on my constant rotation of games to play alone, with friends, or even with strangers - as the community is so warm and welcoming. The community is truly one of the best, and there are several discord servers for tournaments, weekly meetups and more. An essential game that every Quest owner should have.
   
6. VR Pool ($19.99) From the developer: ForeVR Pool brings the coolest pool halls from around the globe straight to your living room! Challenge friends, family, and in-game pros to a game of 8-ball pool – no table required. Battle 12 bots to level up and take on Legendary challengers. Join a Quick Match or jump into a private multiplayer party! Friend in town? Share your headset with Pass & Play. Up the ante and stake in-game coins in matches against other players. My thoughts: This was pretty feature-light and choppy when it first launched, but it now has 9-ball in addition to 8-ball. If you bought it early, it's worth a quick revisit. It sticks pretty true to the ForeVR formula with its aesthetics and collectibles. The graphics aren’t going to win any awards and frankly put me off of it when I first booted it up, but the physics hold up and it’s a good time against the AI or a friend. With 2v2 matches coming soon, that is where this game could really be worth revisiting for some multiplayer fun and friendly smack talk.
   
7. After the Fall - (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: Welcome to ‘The Line’... Decades have passed since the apocalypse turned 1980s Los Angeles into a snow-crested wasteland, overrun by mutated undead. Starting out in an underground camp with up to 32 other player survivors, you take up arms as a new Harvest Runner. Your mission? Venturing out above ground to expand the Line’s reach into the city and fuel mankind’s survival for another day. My thoughts: What a fun game. The gunplay and sheer amount of enemies on screen via PC is just stunning. You're set in an apocalyptic world and must shoot your way out while gathering resources. The atmosphere is stunning, and the graphics are top notch as well. While I’m sure it’s downgraded a bit to run on Quest, don’t let that hold you back. You can play this co-op with up to three other players and bots will fill you out to four. The teamwork this game offers is wonderful. Find a friend or two and jump in this one, or play with the ever-full lobbies of people looking to join up. The latest Descension update adds two new maps and a ton of other bug fixes and gameplay additions. It's a great time to jump in with a friend!
   
8. Cosmoniuous High (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: From the creators of award winning titles 'Job Simulator' and 'Vacation Simulator', comes a new original creation—the comically catastrophic Cosmonious High! Welcome to your alien high school that's definitely completely free of malfunctions! After crash-landing into your first day, you'll unlock powers, explore the halls, and save the school from cosmic chaos. My thoughts: I would consider this is the third entry in the Job Simulator series - even though it's technically not in the same world. I’d really recommend you play them in order to fully appreciate the experience this game has to offer. Job Simulator was the first game, with jokes and fun interaction. Vacation Simulator expanded on that idea with similar characters, and what Cosmonius does is take the ideas of object interaction and conversations and cranks it up to the max. I had so much fun experimenting, talking with NPC’s, exploring the school and seeing what story the game had to offer. This is one of those games that just speaks to people like me who likes to push the boundaries to see what you can do in a game and rewards players for experimenting. It's a heartwarming game that continues to get quality of life and accessibility updates.
   
9. The Invisible Hours - (Played on PC $29.99, but coming out on Quest, currently available in the Rift store.) From the developer: The Invisible Hours is a complex murder mystery playable with or without a VR headset. Players freely explore an intricate web of interwoven stories within a sprawling mansion. A group of strangers receive a curious invitation from the enigmatic inventor, Nikola Tesla, offering each of them the chance to make amends for their darkest wrongdoings. When the last guest arrives at Tesla’s isolated mansion laboratory, they find him dead – murdered. Disgraced Swedish detective, Gustaf Gustav, vows to find the killer amongst the other guests: a blind butler, a convicted murderer, the world’s most famous actress, Tesla’s former assistant, the son of a wealthy railroad magnate, and rival inventor Thomas Edison. But none of these people are what they seem. My thoughts: I heard so many great things about this game and it's really more of an interactive story than anything. You find yourself moving around the mansion, piecing together the intricate story and learning how all these people relate to one another and their hidden secrets. I had a great time with this game, it had a unique concept that kept me fully engaged throughout.
   
10. Pokerstars VR (Free) From the developer: PokerStars, the world’s leading poker brand, has combined live and online poker in a truly immersive VR experience. Featuring Quest Pro support with face and eye tracking, advanced haptics, and mixed reality passthrough! My thoughts: This is one of my go-to games with friends. Once you get past the initial low-stakes tables where kids play and go all-in on many hands, you’ll find a new set of players that actually play smart poker and like to chat. If you have some friends, you can create your own private room and avoid that all together. It’s a relaxing game where you can meet new people and just chill in VR. It’s my social game where I go to unwind. Recent updates have seen them add craps and social poker rooms with slots and roulette. If you're looking to relax and play some poker, this free to play game will hit the spot. You can easily play this game for free and not ever spend a dime.
    
11. Path of the Warrior ($19.99) From the developer: We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news...chaos in the streets of Rage City tonight! The myriad local gangs, once at constant war with each other have now unified under a mysterious new crime boss...Mr. S. Thugs have flooded the entire city, unleashing a wave of terror. The police are overwhelmed and the public is in imminent danger! Can anyone put a stop to the crime wave? Can anyone save Rage City? My thoughts: This fighting game is one that you can blow off steam with. It harkens back to the old Double Dragon or Final Fight arcade days and I highly recommend you play through this game with a friend as you’ll be laughing your way through it at the absurd combos and interactive objects and scenery you can use to defeat your foes. Find a bit of open room to play in, and punch your way through the game.
    
12. Half Life Alyx Mod: The Undertow - (PC only, Free) From the developer: You play as Alyx, tasked with delivering a mysterious briefcase to the owner of an underground night club, upon arriving you realize this deal might not be so straight forward... Expected Playtime: 50min - 1hr. Features: Full-fledged Story with Voice Acting, Custom Sounds, Assets, and Gameplay, Unique Puzzles & Engaging Combat, Full Single-Controller Support and Drinkable Vodka (Finally). My thoughts: I’ve been working my way through some Half Life Alyx mods that bubble up to the top via Reddit or online posts. This one found its way into my queue and while it had a really unique setting, it was extremely buggy in one spot, to the point where I had to restart a section close to 20 times. I didn't find the end game satisfying, and with so many other great mods, it was a miss for me.
    
13. Sheaf - Together EP (PC only, Free) From the developer: Enter virtual reality to listen to the debut EP “Together” of synthwave producer Sheaf. No gameplay involved -- just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music while you drive through a retro low poly world. The EP features 3 tracks, and each track comes with its own scenery, tailor made to fit its mood. You can start each track separately from the main menu. My thoughts: As noted in the developer description, this is really more a zen-like experience where you’re sitting in a car that drives down a road while chill music is playing. Certainly different from a lot of other “zone out” experiences that focus on geometric shapes, but the blocky visuals really conflicted with the chill vibe it was going for. Not really my jam, but if you like chill experiences, it might be for you. You certainly can't beat the price.
    
14. Shooty Fruity ($19.99) From the developer: Do your job whilst shooting guns! Shooty Fruity combines job simulation with exhilarating combat that makes you feel like a true action hero - whether McClane, Wick or Rambo. Take on new roles and unlock weapons to fight your way through your career. Scan shoot repeat! My thoughts: I kept seeing this game show up in sales and various feeds so I finally tried it out. After 30 minutes I just was not having any fun at all. While the enemies were silly (various fruits and vegetables), the gun mechanics were lackluster. I just did not get into the gameplay loop of shooting and scanning groceries. It was just too repetitive for me and for that reason I can’t recommend it.
    
15. What the Bat? ($24.99) From the developer: From the creators of WHAT THE GOLF? comes a silly VR game about navigating life with baseball bats for hands. Swing your way through over 100 levels of batting, cooking, shooting, smashing, parking, painting, pickling, petting, and WHATnot. My thoughts: I was a huge fan of What the Golf on iOS, and was quite excited when I heard about this sequel. The “high” price point turned me off for a while, but when UploadVR gave it their “game of the year” award, I finally pulled the trigger. I had high hopes, and it was fun… at first, but the gimmick started to wear really thin on me rather quickly. It just didn’t seem to have the same magic the first game had. I kept going through it in hopes that something would change, or capture that original feeling, but honestly, it was a grind to finish such a short game. I understand I’m probably in the minority here, but I was quite disappointed.
    
16. Superhot ($24.99) From the developer: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move. No regenerating health bars. No conveniently placed ammo drops. It's you, alone, outnumbered and outgunned. Snatch weapons from fallen enemies to shoot, slice and dodge through a truly cinematic hurricane of slow-motion bullets. It’s like nothing you have ever played before. Something is different here. Lose track of what’s real. My thoughts: You know it, and you probably love it. Like so many others, so did I. This was one of my first VR experiences years ago and I finally saw it through to the end. This game can be quite demanding for some levels requiring accurate shooting, movement and timing. This game offers a really unique take on gameplay and multiple ways to get through some levels really increase the replayability. With the unique achievements to strive for you have a real winner. A must own for all gamers.
    
17. Tube Be Continued (Demo) (Full game $14.99) From the developer: Hello! Welcome to TUBE Industries: a hamster owned and operated tube puzzle emporium! Prepare for a tube-based, puzzle-filled, HAM-PACKED adventure with our charismatic leader: The BOSS. Here at TUBE Industries we provide the puzzles and you provide… the brains. No shady business here! My thoughts: I like to look at the new App Lab games that come out every now and then and I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game. This is a game where you connect mazes together for hamsters to run through. It was a weird story that sees you working with a Hamster CEO trying to save his company from the Board, which are all hamsters. Really weird stuff, but while the demo was fun, the puzzles were a bit on the simple side and ultimately, I just did not think it was worth buying at this point. That being said, if the demo grabs you I could see this being a fun few hours with new content planning to be added.
    
18. Dart Racer (Free) From the developer: Dart Racer is an arcade racing game where you compete against AI during race and other players on the online leaderboards - features multiple race tracks and environments - steering based on throttle differential - interactive tutorial - customizable game and comfort settings - optional hand tracking. My thoughts: Now this is podracing! It really did feel like I was doing some classic Star Wars podracing, but it was quite tough to learn the controls. Once I got that figured out, there certainly was some fun to be had, but unfortunately, it just was okay for me and I dropped out after a bit. Give it a try for free, and keep in mind there are plenty of motion assists to play with so you don't get sick.
    
19. Nock ($9.99) From the developer: Nock is bow and arrow soccer. Skate and fly around a pitch while using a bow and arrow to blast the ball into the other team’s goal. Compete in multiplayer ranked matches, or play casual custom games with your friends! Like a real sport, Nock is easy to learn but difficult to master. Block arrows let you create obstacles and you can even use your body to make a goal or save. A fast-moving ball can knock you out. Skill-based matchmaking keeps every game extremely close and competitive. Casual modes let you challenge yourself against bots or play with friends in custom matches. My thoughts: Rocket League but with archery. While I’m not a fan of archery games in general, this game really had the physics dialed in. I always felt like I was in full control of my movement and bow and arrow. Nothing ever felt like it was off, and the aiming was spot on. Every hit of the ball, or miss was my fault. An absolute blast with with up to four friends, and that’s how I recommend you play it - with friends. But there are leagues and tournaments readily available if get into the game. That being said, I’m pretty terrible at it, and will only play with friends who can tolerate my terrible skills.
    
20. Into the Radius ($29.99) From the developer: An atmospheric open-world single-player survival shooter. You find yourself in the middle of the blighted zone, cut from the outside world. Your guns and your wits are all you have left. Fight the deadly enemies, dodge dangerous anomalies, and collect wondrous artifacts on your way to the Radius center to find your way out. My thoughts: I found myself constantly saying “I can’t believe this actually runs on a Quest.” The amount of items you can interact with, areas available to explore, systems to learn and missions to accept can be quite overwhelming. Honestly it took me about 5-7 hours of gameplay, tutorials and youtube videos until finally the game “clicked.” After this one fateful mission where I was over encumbered with items, low on ammo with minimal health and dealing with enemies at every turn, I was totally immersed and was having the time of my life. It was an absolute blast and despite being so tense - a joy to play. I did tone down the difficulty a bit, which made it much more playable and less punishing. Truly a great game if you like the loop of scavenging, planning your route ahead and making sure literally every bullet counts. While it lacks in story, it does have a lot of environmental details and little things that you have to find for yourself. If you like survival games, it’s almost perfect.
    
21. Surgineer ($9.99) From the developer: Have you ever dreamed of being a real surgeon? Well… you are not gonna learn that here. Welcome to the most unrealistic surgery simulator where everyone can instantly become a terrible doctor. You will have to solve hilarious surgical procedures ranging from CPR to brain transplant or even removing alien eggs from a poor patient using a robotic arm! You always thought you had that surgeon in you? You better have a bulletproof malpractice insurance before getting your virtual hands on a patient! My thoughts: At such a low price point, I wasn’t expecting much. I remember playing Surgeon Simulator back in the day and this looked like that. Much to my disappointment it was much more terrible than I had hoped. Absolutely no fun was to be had here. I constantly fought with the controls, many times had no clue what to do and finally gave up in frustration. I understand part of the appeal is the wonkiness of it, but this game requires someone with a lot more patience than me to get some fun out of it.
    

There you have it, 21 different games played in three months. I would say there are plenty of games to play and enjoy on the Quest. I hope you find a few that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. You can also find this article on the RuffTalkVR Blog Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.

Part 4
I pulled the other radio from my backpack. I called the Station. They answered immediately. It was Hitch, the Ranger who led me up the first day.
“I have an emergency,” I said.
“Is there a fire?” Hitch asked.
“No. Martina, from Lookout 1, something attacked her.”
“Where is she now?”
“It took her into the forest.”
“Is this a joke Tom?”
“What? Why would you think that?”
“You made a report this morning, the death of a hiker. Burning red eyes, but not a bear.”
“It was the same thing. Except there are two now.”
“Ok. I’m going to get Martina on the line.”
The radio went silent. An eternity passed. I scanned the forest. Ripples of warm air rose up into the sky. Nothing else stirred.
“Ok Tom, we have no patience for this type of thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We spoke to Martina and she’s fine.”
“That’s impossible. They attacked her. I watched it happen.”
“You know there’s a waiting list to get in a lookout tower. I can have you replaced within a week.”
“Replace me today. Get up here and drag me down off the mountain.”
“We told you this morning that we can’t get up there on account of the fog.”
“The fog is gone. It’s clear skies.”
An audible sigh came through the radio. “The fog coupled with the weather warning the met office just issued means no one is going up the mountain today.”
“Are you insane? What weather? There isn’t a cloud in the sky.”
“Listen to me carefully. You are going to watch for fires. There’s lighting and high winds on the way. When it has blown through we can get someone up there to replace you. In the meantime stay in your lookout and keep this channel clear unless there is a real emergency.”
“I’m not in my lookout.”
“Where are you?”
“Lookout 3.”
“Where is Callum?”
I ran another eye over the inside of the lookout. Furniture and paper strewn across the floor, like a bomb had gone off. And still the smell of burning.
“No one is here.”
“Why are you there?”
I almost answered and then put the radio down. I’m at Lookout 3 because a fairy of some sort led me here through the fog. And then the fog lifted and the fairy disintegrated before my eyes. That would go down well.
Was this a dream? I grabbed the necklace the woman threw onto the deck before she evaporated into the wind. The points of the triangle left indents in my palm. That was real.
I picked up the other radio.
“Martina? Can you hear me?”
A man’s voice. Roger. “If you want to live, get back to your own lookout. The forest is about to burn.” In the background Martina made a muffled cry.
“Don’t hurt her.”
“There’s no stopping this now.”
The radio crackled and then went dead. I shouted into it until my throat was sore, but there was nothing more from Roger or Martina. I looked down at the base of the elevated structure. Unlike the barren peak at Lookout 2, up here the trees grew at the top. There was a well maintained clearing around the base of the structure, but in high wind could a fire spread far and fast enough to light the structure? The image of hot and red flames played in my head, so real I almost felt the heat. I had to get out of here.
I opened the door to the lookout and a wave of hot air shifted my weight onto my heels. The windows rattled. I put one foot onto the deck and remembered my backpack. The hot air followed me inside and picked up loose sheets of paper and pushed them against the windows. I grasped my backpack and straightened and came eye to eye with one of the sheets of paper stuck to the glass. The same hand written script that filled the pages of the book bound in black.
What the hell?
I put the backpack down and gathered up as much of the paper as I could. A couple of sheets beat me out the door and fluttered into the trees. I took the stack and dumped it down on the circular map in the middle of the lookout. I rifled through the pages, looking for some clue to unravel all this. There could be a clue in here that could help me get off this mountain alive. The woman in blue had told me I had to see what was in this lookout. This could be it.
Unintelligible script filled the pages. Geometric shapes overlapped with the writing. The same crap written in the book I found on the shelf of my lookout. This was useless. And then something else. I pulled out the page from the stack. What looked like a map.
I traced my finger over it. A series of curved lines, sometimes close together and sometimes far apart. I remembered enough from geography class to recognise contour lines. Two peaks and an elevated ridge. I threw the rest of the pages on the floor and compared the map to the larger disc map on the contraption to pinpoint fires. They matched. The two peaks were my lookout and this one. The ridge line was where Martina’s lookout stood. And the valley in between.
Deep in the valley, down at the lowest point was a black splotch. It occupied the exact centre of the page. I found the same spot on the bigger map, offset from the middle but not far off. In tiny lettering beside it read the word ‘cave’.
I went to the window and searched the forest for the place. Tracing a line between this lookout and Martina’s, I got a rough bearing on it. The trees parted slightly, but from this far away I could not see a cave. I picked up the binoculars and trained them on the spot. The trees hid whatever was down there. A shimmer of warm air rose between the trees, like the hot exhaust from a jet engine. That’s where they were. That’s where they took Martina. It had to be. But why?
Is this what the woman in blue wanted me to see? A low rumble rose above the sound of the wind and the rattle of the windows. A thin band of purple climbed above the western horizon and flashed. Lightning. The storm was on its way. If there was anything else up here to find, I wasn’t going to wait around and look for it.
I stuffed the map in my backpack and zipped it up and stumbled out the door. The adrenaline turned my legs rigid and I almost fell down the stairs. I grabbed the rail and shouted at myself to calm down. I ran in the direction of my lookout and came to the charred remains of the burnt out tree. The trunk ended abruptly at the top, a headless remnant of what it once was. And then I noticed something strange. The trunk had a hollow interior, like a giant black pipe sticking out of the ground.
I ran a palm over the rough exterior, black soot sticking to my skin. When I got to the triangle carved into the trunk I applied pressure. The charred bark cracked. I used both hands now, smashing the butt of my hand against the burnt wood. The bark splintered and a triangle shaped wedge fell came loose. I put my eye to the opening. The tree was hollow from top to bottom. It was the strangest thing. I wondered if the tree out the back of my lookout was the same. As far as I knew, trees did not grow with hollow insides.
I set off at a jog back towards my lookout. I had resolved to get off the mountain and beg a rescue team to come up and save Martina. Between the coming storm and Roger’s warning that the forest would burn, I had no interest in hanging around. The creature had taken Rebecca the hiker, and then two had taken Martina. But if I were right, they were down at the cave in the valley marked on the map. I had to be fast. I had to stay ahead of them or they would do to me as they had done to the hiker. I shuddered.
First stop was my lookout. It was on the way back to the Ranger Station and I could grab the rest of my things. I’d take down the black book of strange script too and show the Rangers. Let them tell me I’m crazy when confronted with evidence of the weird things going on up here.
Despite going downhill, I was soon puffing and spluttering. The infection in my chest had not yet cleared and my insides burned. I pulled the straps on the backpack to stop it slamming against my back as I hurdled fallen branches.
Near the bottom my right shoe slipped on a stray tuft of fern just as I readied to leap over the desiccated remains of a fallen tree. My balance thrown, I failed to get my left leg up in time and it caught on a branch sticking up from the tree. Pain shot through my ankle as it twisted into an unnatural position before the branch finally cracked under the pressure exerted by my falling body.
I cried out as I slammed shoulder first onto the forest floor. I lay there panting, my left leg dangling in the air. A terrible heat filled the ankle joint. I rubbed it with my hands and then rolled and got to my knees. The ankle was cooked and I knew it.
In high school I spent a season on the football team; in part because I loved the game and also in an attempt to raise my social standing. To the surprise of everyone I hadn’t performed badly and made a valuable contribution or two. That was until the last game of the season, a knockout fixture. I rolled my ankle barely two minutes into the game and, stupidly, stayed out on the field. While the injured ankle is still warm it works for a while and then the swelling and the bruising comes and the hobbling begins. It was at the start of the hobble phase that I missed a tackle. We lost the game and there was plenty of blame to throw around, and I copped more than my fair share.
I looked up the slope leading to my lookout. If I hustled it would be forty five minutes to the top, a hard slog uphill. I put some weight on my left leg and winced. I had to move now, the pain was only going to get worse.
Going uphill is infinitely harder than running on a flat patch of grass on a twisted ankle. All the grip comes through the toes and places stress on the joint. I started going up sideways to at least keep my foot in a neutral position.
Sweat poured down my face. The forest trapped the heat and the air was warm and suffocating. My throat burned. I needed water. Thunder rumbled low in the distance. I could not see the horizon through the trees, but it sounded closer than before. I pushed everything else from my mind and focussed only on the next painful step.
The radio crackled. I shook my torso trying to set the backpack free. Sweat soaked my shirt and made everything sticky. I overbalanced and tumbled to the ground. I freed myself of the straps and pulled the radio free.
“Tom? Tom?” The voice was a whisper. Martina.
I whispered in response. “I’m here.”
“He’s coming.”
“What?”
“He’s coming for you.”
A clattering noise came through the radio and then it went dead.
“Martina? Martina?”
No response. I groaned and got to my feet, exhausted and dehydrated and sore. The first step on the twisted ankle shot pain right up my leg and I almost collapsed back to the ground. I looked ahead, the roof of my lookout poked up above the peak. I was close. Was I close enough?
The rising slope of the peak became the long hallway at my high school. Lockers pushed up against the wall. Doors with glass windows to the classrooms. In my memories that hallway is empty aside from him and me. In truth there were kids everywhere, but they were unimportant. He yelled out down the hallway. Winslow! He was already running. I slammed shut the locker and went. I skidded and slipped on the polished tiles. That time I almost made it, almost. In sight of sanctuary a violent tug on my backpack and I went down. The blows burst through my defences. I covered my head. Tears flowed. Now the other kids fill in the blank spaces. They laugh and taunt. Waterworks Winslow.
Somewhere behind me a branch cracked. I turned back and it is the forest once more. I searched the trees for the sign of movement. My ankle is almost shot. All the force driving me up the slope towards the lookout comes from my good right leg. The left leg is nothing more than a prop keeping me upright.
I look back up and stop dead in my tracks. Above me on the slope stands the creature I saw take Rebecca. One of the things that abducted Martina. It looked a version of human, the body and limbs and head in the right proportion. But the skin was ash-grey and smooth, like the surface of pottery hardened in a kiln. Its eyes burned red. It radiated heat, the air shimmering off its shoulders.
“You’re coming with me.”
The voice of a man. I did not recognise it. A notion had worked its way into my head, that this thing hunting in the forest was in fact Roger, the missing man from my lookout. But this was not Roger’s voice. I had heard Roger through the radio, and even though a radio can distort a voice, this was so different in pitch that it could not belong to Roger. That left one option. Callum. The occupant of Lookout 3.
I turned and shuffled down the slope. He laughed. He laughed with the same derision as those bullies in high school.
I reached up and grabbed a low hanging branch. I yanked it hard until it splintered and broke off and provided a weapon of sorts. I pointed the branch up the slope and swung it back and forth. This only elicited more laughter.
He sprung downwards and gripped the end of the branch. The muscles in my arms tensed and I pulled back. His face broke into a hideous smile, the teeth the same grey as the skin. With a single pull of unnatural strength he yanked the branch from my hands.
For a moment I stood on the slope, exposed and defenceless. And then I ran. My ankle screamed with pain, but I ran. I whimpered under my breath, waiting for a pull at my backpack to confirm that my assailant had caught up to me. I anticipated the feeling of helplessness and for the world to beat me down one more time.
It was not a pull of the backpack that stopped my flight. I heard the whoosh before a tree branch crashed into the side of my head. The impact set off a flash before my eyes and then everything went black.
An explosive crack of thunder flicked the lights back on inside my head. I blinked a haze of blurred green into focus. The canopy of the forest and between it jagged slivers of blue sky. My head lifted and smacked back down on the forest floor. My shirt rode up and formed a twisted mess around my shoulder blades. I looked to my feet, elevated and ahead. The smooth and grey skin of Callum. He dragged me through the forest, down towards the cave. He was taking me to Roger.
X

When I read posts about how there are no games to play on the Quest, I simply can’t relate. I’m a voracious consumer of VR games, experiences and demos and currently have over 330 of them on my headset (not including my PCVR library). These experiences are a combination of both old and new items, and my wish list and library just keeps growing week after week with new releases, recommendations and game updates. This year, I wanted to keep track of all the games I’ve played and keep coming back to and catalogue them here in hopes that they may give you some fresh ideas of games to play, or reasons to revisit older games due to their updates or improvements.
Some of the games listed below, I can forsee playing all year long, and to be fair, others I've tried are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 21 games I’ve played so far from January to March of 2023 along with links to them on the store.
​

1. Bocce Time! ($8.99) From the developer: In Bocce Time! you'll head down to a peaceful park or atmospheric pier to test your bocce skills across 12 distinct courts. Jump into a quick match to 1v1 a random opponent online, create and join private rooms with up to 8 players, or play against AI across 3 difficulties to unlock additional ball customization options. With full cross-play, everyone's invited to join the fun! It's Bocce Time! My thoughts: This game has seen so many updates since it’s release and if you haven’t checked it out, there’s a free trial that opens up the whole game so you can try it out for yourself. With two parks (10 courses), an AI bot to challenge (that has great quips), collectible balls and support for up to eight people, this is a wonderful social game to play with friends. The Walkabout Mini Golf vibes are strong with this game, so players of that game will feel right at home. The latest update unlocked the entire park as a play area, and ensures that you and your friends will have unlimited options for where to play from. Along with Discord tournaments available if you're feeling competitive, this game is a real hidden gem and has grown a lot since its release. Absolutely worth a go, especially at that price point.
   
2. Golf+ ($29.99) From the developer: GOLF+ is the ultimate VR Golf experience and the exclusive VR Golf game of the PGA TOUR. Join your friends for a round on Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, TPC Sawgrass and more. Want something more casual? Hang out at Topgolf for a night of music and games. My thoughts: Simply one of the best games on the app store. With all the great new updates such as Beat the Pro and new courses dropping every so often, it's one game that will be on my Quest until the next headset comes out. With the official PGA licenses, a variety of match options and support for four players, it’s an essential Quest game to play alone or with friends.
   
3. Little Cities ($19.99) From the developer: Escape to the charming world of Little Cities, the most loved VR city building simulation game. Create your own little city and watch it come to life – from a humble village to a bustling metropolis. Design the layout and strategically plot amenities to make a perfect city where your citizens love to live. My thoughts: The latest update added citizens to the game. This adds a lot more flavor to your city and brings more life to your city. It’s a pretty simple SimCity style game that should keep you entertained for a few hours. I enjoyed this one, but wasn’t blown away. The extra DLC courses and achievements will give you more play time if you find yourself enjoying this one though.
   
4. Compound ($19.99) From the developer: "COMPOUND is a randomized, rogue-lite, free-roaming shooter for Virtual Reality veterans. Duck and dodge around enemy fire in a tough-as-nails retro FPS with multiple locomotion options. Prepare to die - a lot - until you are good enough to reach the heart of The Corporation and take back what belongs to everyone..." My experience: Essentially Doom on Quest. The awesome blocky aesthetics work perfectly in this world. With a great gameplay loop and exciting gunplay this one will easily get its hooks into you. I found myself saying "just one more run" more often than I had time for. This single player shooter has so many achievements and difficulty levels that it kept me busy for quite some time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and still have more to do. A must buy for any fan of the genre.
   
5. Walkabout Mini Golf ($14.99) From the developer: 8 unique 18-hole courses to master. Unlock NIGHT MODE for more challenging versions of all courses. Play solo, 1v1 online quick match, or create a private room with up to 8 players. Extremely accurate physics feel just like the real thing. Collect over 188 custom balls hidden throughout. Solve treasure hunts on each hard course to earn special putters. My thoughts: What more needs to be said about this excellent game? It’s on my constant rotation of games to play alone, with friends, or even with strangers - as the community is so warm and welcoming. The community is truly one of the best, and there are several discord servers for tournaments, weekly meetups and more. An essential game that every Quest owner should have.
   
6. VR Pool ($19.99) From the developer: ForeVR Pool brings the coolest pool halls from around the globe straight to your living room! Challenge friends, family, and in-game pros to a game of 8-ball pool – no table required. Battle 12 bots to level up and take on Legendary challengers. Join a Quick Match or jump into a private multiplayer party! Friend in town? Share your headset with Pass & Play. Up the ante and stake in-game coins in matches against other players. My thoughts: This was pretty feature-light and choppy when it first launched, but it now has 9-ball in addition to 8-ball. If you bought it early, it's worth a quick revisit. It sticks pretty true to the ForeVR formula with its aesthetics and collectibles. The graphics aren’t going to win any awards and frankly put me off of it when I first booted it up, but the physics hold up and it’s a good time against the AI or a friend. With 2v2 matches coming soon, that is where this game could really be worth revisiting for some multiplayer fun and friendly smack talk.
   
7. After the Fall - (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: Welcome to ‘The Line’... Decades have passed since the apocalypse turned 1980s Los Angeles into a snow-crested wasteland, overrun by mutated undead. Starting out in an underground camp with up to 32 other player survivors, you take up arms as a new Harvest Runner. Your mission? Venturing out above ground to expand the Line’s reach into the city and fuel mankind’s survival for another day. My thoughts: What a fun game. The gunplay and sheer amount of enemies on screen via PC is just stunning. You're set in an apocalyptic world and must shoot your way out while gathering resources. The atmosphere is stunning, and the graphics are top notch as well. While I’m sure it’s downgraded a bit to run on Quest, don’t let that hold you back. You can play this co-op with up to three other players and bots will fill you out to four. The teamwork this game offers is wonderful. Find a friend or two and jump in this one, or play with the ever-full lobbies of people looking to join up. The latest Descension update adds two new maps and a ton of other bug fixes and gameplay additions. It's a great time to jump in with a friend!
   
8. Cosmoniuous High (Played on PC $29.99, available on Quest $29.99) From the developer: From the creators of award winning titles 'Job Simulator' and 'Vacation Simulator', comes a new original creation—the comically catastrophic Cosmonious High! Welcome to your alien high school that's definitely completely free of malfunctions! After crash-landing into your first day, you'll unlock powers, explore the halls, and save the school from cosmic chaos. My thoughts: I would consider this is the third entry in the Job Simulator series - even though it's technically not in the same world. I’d really recommend you play them in order to fully appreciate the experience this game has to offer. Job Simulator was the first game, with jokes and fun interaction. Vacation Simulator expanded on that idea with similar characters, and what Cosmonius does is take the ideas of object interaction and conversations and cranks it up to the max. I had so much fun experimenting, talking with NPC’s, exploring the school and seeing what story the game had to offer. This is one of those games that just speaks to people like me who likes to push the boundaries to see what you can do in a game and rewards players for experimenting. It's a heartwarming game that continues to get quality of life and accessibility updates.
   
9. The Invisible Hours - (Played on PC $29.99, but coming out on Quest, currently available in the Rift store.) From the developer: The Invisible Hours is a complex murder mystery playable with or without a VR headset. Players freely explore an intricate web of interwoven stories within a sprawling mansion. A group of strangers receive a curious invitation from the enigmatic inventor, Nikola Tesla, offering each of them the chance to make amends for their darkest wrongdoings. When the last guest arrives at Tesla’s isolated mansion laboratory, they find him dead – murdered. Disgraced Swedish detective, Gustaf Gustav, vows to find the killer amongst the other guests: a blind butler, a convicted murderer, the world’s most famous actress, Tesla’s former assistant, the son of a wealthy railroad magnate, and rival inventor Thomas Edison. But none of these people are what they seem. My thoughts: I heard so many great things about this game and it's really more of an interactive story than anything. You find yourself moving around the mansion, piecing together the intricate story and learning how all these people relate to one another and their hidden secrets. I had a great time with this game, it had a unique concept that kept me fully engaged throughout.
   
10. Pokerstars VR (Free) From the developer: PokerStars, the world’s leading poker brand, has combined live and online poker in a truly immersive VR experience. Featuring Quest Pro support with face and eye tracking, advanced haptics, and mixed reality passthrough! My thoughts: This is one of my go-to games with friends. Once you get past the initial low-stakes tables where kids play and go all-in on many hands, you’ll find a new set of players that actually play smart poker and like to chat. If you have some friends, you can create your own private room and avoid that all together. It’s a relaxing game where you can meet new people and just chill in VR. It’s my social game where I go to unwind. Recent updates have seen them add craps and social poker rooms with slots and roulette. If you're looking to relax and play some poker, this free to play game will hit the spot. You can easily play this game for free and not ever spend a dime.
    
11. Path of the Warrior ($19.99) From the developer: We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news...chaos in the streets of Rage City tonight! The myriad local gangs, once at constant war with each other have now unified under a mysterious new crime boss...Mr. S. Thugs have flooded the entire city, unleashing a wave of terror. The police are overwhelmed and the public is in imminent danger! Can anyone put a stop to the crime wave? Can anyone save Rage City? My thoughts: This fighting game is one that you can blow off steam with. It harkens back to the old Double Dragon or Final Fight arcade days and I highly recommend you play through this game with a friend as you’ll be laughing your way through it at the absurd combos and interactive objects and scenery you can use to defeat your foes. Find a bit of open room to play in, and punch your way through the game.
    
12. Half Life Alyx Mod: The Undertow - (PC only, Free) From the developer: You play as Alyx, tasked with delivering a mysterious briefcase to the owner of an underground night club, upon arriving you realize this deal might not be so straight forward... Expected Playtime: 50min - 1hr. Features: Full-fledged Story with Voice Acting, Custom Sounds, Assets, and Gameplay, Unique Puzzles & Engaging Combat, Full Single-Controller Support and Drinkable Vodka (Finally). My thoughts: I’ve been working my way through some Half Life Alyx mods that bubble up to the top via Reddit or online posts. This one found its way into my queue and while it had a really unique setting, it was extremely buggy in one spot, to the point where I had to restart a section close to 20 times. I didn't find the end game satisfying, and with so many other great mods, it was a miss for me.
    
13. Sheaf - Together EP (PC only, Free) From the developer: Enter virtual reality to listen to the debut EP “Together” of synthwave producer Sheaf. No gameplay involved -- just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music while you drive through a retro low poly world. The EP features 3 tracks, and each track comes with its own scenery, tailor made to fit its mood. You can start each track separately from the main menu. My thoughts: As noted in the developer description, this is really more a zen-like experience where you’re sitting in a car that drives down a road while chill music is playing. Certainly different from a lot of other “zone out” experiences that focus on geometric shapes, but the blocky visuals really conflicted with the chill vibe it was going for. Not really my jam, but if you like chill experiences, it might be for you. You certainly can't beat the price.
    
14. Shooty Fruity ($19.99) From the developer: Do your job whilst shooting guns! Shooty Fruity combines job simulation with exhilarating combat that makes you feel like a true action hero - whether McClane, Wick or Rambo. Take on new roles and unlock weapons to fight your way through your career. Scan shoot repeat! My thoughts: I kept seeing this game show up in sales and various feeds so I finally tried it out. After 30 minutes I just was not having any fun at all. While the enemies were silly (various fruits and vegetables), the gun mechanics were lackluster. I just did not get into the gameplay loop of shooting and scanning groceries. It was just too repetitive for me and for that reason I can’t recommend it.
    
15. What the Bat? ($24.99) From the developer: From the creators of WHAT THE GOLF? comes a silly VR game about navigating life with baseball bats for hands. Swing your way through over 100 levels of batting, cooking, shooting, smashing, parking, painting, pickling, petting, and WHATnot. My thoughts: I was a huge fan of What the Golf on iOS, and was quite excited when I heard about this sequel. The “high” price point turned me off for a while, but when UploadVR gave it their “game of the year” award, I finally pulled the trigger. I had high hopes, and it was fun… at first, but the gimmick started to wear really thin on me rather quickly. It just didn’t seem to have the same magic the first game had. I kept going through it in hopes that something would change, or capture that original feeling, but honestly, it was a grind to finish such a short game. I understand I’m probably in the minority here, but I was quite disappointed.
    
16. Superhot ($24.99) From the developer: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move. No regenerating health bars. No conveniently placed ammo drops. It's you, alone, outnumbered and outgunned. Snatch weapons from fallen enemies to shoot, slice and dodge through a truly cinematic hurricane of slow-motion bullets. It’s like nothing you have ever played before. Something is different here. Lose track of what’s real. My thoughts: You know it, and you probably love it. Like so many others, so did I. This was one of my first VR experiences years ago and I finally saw it through to the end. This game can be quite demanding for some levels requiring accurate shooting, movement and timing. This game offers a really unique take on gameplay and multiple ways to get through some levels really increase the replayability. With the unique achievements to strive for you have a real winner. A must own for all gamers.
    
17. Tube Be Continued (Demo) (Full game $14.99) From the developer: Hello! Welcome to TUBE Industries: a hamster owned and operated tube puzzle emporium! Prepare for a tube-based, puzzle-filled, HAM-PACKED adventure with our charismatic leader: The BOSS. Here at TUBE Industries we provide the puzzles and you provide… the brains. No shady business here! My thoughts: I like to look at the new App Lab games that come out every now and then and I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game. This is a game where you connect mazes together for hamsters to run through. It was a weird story that sees you working with a Hamster CEO trying to save his company from the Board, which are all hamsters. Really weird stuff, but while the demo was fun, the puzzles were a bit on the simple side and ultimately, I just did not think it was worth buying at this point. That being said, if the demo grabs you I could see this being a fun few hours with new content planning to be added.
    
18. Dart Racer (Free) From the developer: Dart Racer is an arcade racing game where you compete against AI during race and other players on the online leaderboards - features multiple race tracks and environments - steering based on throttle differential - interactive tutorial - customizable game and comfort settings - optional hand tracking. My thoughts: Now this is podracing! It really did feel like I was doing some classic Star Wars podracing, but it was quite tough to learn the controls. Once I got that figured out, there certainly was some fun to be had, but unfortunately, it just was okay for me and I dropped out after a bit. Give it a try for free, and keep in mind there are plenty of motion assists to play with so you don't get sick.
    
19. Nock ($9.99) From the developer: Nock is bow and arrow soccer. Skate and fly around a pitch while using a bow and arrow to blast the ball into the other team’s goal. Compete in multiplayer ranked matches, or play casual custom games with your friends! Like a real sport, Nock is easy to learn but difficult to master. Block arrows let you create obstacles and you can even use your body to make a goal or save. A fast-moving ball can knock you out. Skill-based matchmaking keeps every game extremely close and competitive. Casual modes let you challenge yourself against bots or play with friends in custom matches. My thoughts: Rocket League but with archery. While I’m not a fan of archery games in general, this game really had the physics dialed in. I always felt like I was in full control of my movement and bow and arrow. Nothing ever felt like it was off, and the aiming was spot on. Every hit of the ball, or miss was my fault. An absolute blast with with up to four friends, and that’s how I recommend you play it - with friends. But there are leagues and tournaments readily available if get into the game. That being said, I’m pretty terrible at it, and will only play with friends who can tolerate my terrible skills.
    
20. Into the Radius ($29.99) From the developer: An atmospheric open-world single-player survival shooter. You find yourself in the middle of the blighted zone, cut from the outside world. Your guns and your wits are all you have left. Fight the deadly enemies, dodge dangerous anomalies, and collect wondrous artifacts on your way to the Radius center to find your way out. My thoughts: I found myself constantly saying “I can’t believe this actually runs on a Quest.” The amount of items you can interact with, areas available to explore, systems to learn and missions to accept can be quite overwhelming. Honestly it took me about 5-7 hours of gameplay, tutorials and youtube videos until finally the game “clicked.” After this one fateful mission where I was over encumbered with items, low on ammo with minimal health and dealing with enemies at every turn, I was totally immersed and was having the time of my life. It was an absolute blast and despite being so tense - a joy to play. I did tone down the difficulty a bit, which made it much more playable and less punishing. Truly a great game if you like the loop of scavenging, planning your route ahead and making sure literally every bullet counts. While it lacks in story, it does have a lot of environmental details and little things that you have to find for yourself. If you like survival games, it’s almost perfect.
    
21. Surgineer ($9.99) From the developer: Have you ever dreamed of being a real surgeon? Well… you are not gonna learn that here. Welcome to the most unrealistic surgery simulator where everyone can instantly become a terrible doctor. You will have to solve hilarious surgical procedures ranging from CPR to brain transplant or even removing alien eggs from a poor patient using a robotic arm! You always thought you had that surgeon in you? You better have a bulletproof malpractice insurance before getting your virtual hands on a patient! My thoughts: At such a low price point, I wasn’t expecting much. I remember playing Surgeon Simulator back in the day and this looked like that. Much to my disappointment it was much more terrible than I had hoped. Absolutely no fun was to be had here. I constantly fought with the controls, many times had no clue what to do and finally gave up in frustration. I understand part of the appeal is the wonkiness of it, but this game requires someone with a lot more patience than me to get some fun out of it.
    

There you have it, 21 different games played in three months. I would say there are plenty of games to play and enjoy on the Quest. I hope you find a few that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. You can also find this article on the RuffTalkVR Blog Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
As alternate me drove south, the pop music station switched back to the news channel. Whatever was going to happen in Washington DC in the alternate reality, I was screwed. My heart began to race as I pondered the possibilities. Building smashing would be insane, a creature dump would be the worst thing to get caught up in, an EMP Bubble complete with gassing would be terrifying as hell too, but I guess it would be a quick way to go. The entire city exploding would most likely be quick as well. Either way, and no matter how quick death could be, I didn't want to die at all.
Hopefully a task force made up of various other alternate me's would come rescue me. That's of course probably just a dream in the reality I'm in. For sure there is a team of alternate me's rescuing other alternate me's in some area of the multiverse. It's possible, so it's happening in some set of realities. I hope they come here too.
At around 8 AM, my stomach was rumbling. Luckily, my alternate self got the memo. Unfortunately, her response was cruel.
"Hungry back there? You don't need to eat anyway. It's not going to matter."
I'd probably find something to eat somewhere anyway. Hopefully…
Nothing new came up in the news. It was just talk about the three giants who attacked the UK. Other than that, the news reporters talked about the crashing worldwide economy on account of the Northeast China and Japan EMP Bubbles, the refugees emerging from EMP bubbles and claiming to have seen giants spraying gas on cities and towns, world leaders' reactions to the attacks, and the fall of the CCP, Russia, North Korea, Iran, the UK, Japan, along with the slow torture of the US. The reporters speculated about what the giants may want.
"They're taking out thousands of people in an obviously coordinated way, but we still don't know what they want."
"They for sure want us to be scared, and we definitely are, but yeah, why are they killing certain people who have no proven connection to each other?"
"Maybe that's part of their point. Make us go insane at their uncertainty."
As I browsed the internet, I came across a discussion thread claiming the giants were good because they were destroying all the fascist and flawed democratic governments. The comments of course disagreed, saying killing people is not the answer. It won't end fascism. Curious, I scrolled down to the very bottom to read the least popular comments.
"Yeah.. these giants are transforming this world for the better. Hopefully when their attacks are finished we can rebuild where they helped us out and just be better to each other"
Right… they helped us out… sure.
"Why are people expecting democracy in the aftermath of this? We need stronger leaders who can see past hypocrisy"
Giving people rights means being weak?
And of course… the craziest one.
"These attacks came out of nowhere. How? You're telling me giant titanic beings just popped out of nowhere and nobody had any foreknowledge? The government will do absolutely anything to control their citizens. China has collapsed? North Korea too? Even Iran? Yeah this was coordinated."
Because everyone's psychic and somehow knew beings like these would pop out of nowhere and catch everybody off guard? Also the UK, Canada, and Japan were attacked too. Why would the US attack its own allies? And itself? Especially its own facilities? This must be one of those every elite is a demonic Illuminati puppet theorist.
Hilarious comments aside, it's scary how people can believe just about anything is planned by the government. Demonic giants from who knows where cannot be the fault of any government. But that aside, there was yet another rabbit hole I stumbled down. On an obscure part of Reddit, there was a group who called themselves the Children of Satan's Titans. At first, I thought it was satirical, but as I read their posts, it was clear they were being serious. They thought the giants were bringing on armageddon and that they were supposed to lead the world after all is said and done. They even came up with nicknames for the giants.
The one that attacked Manhattan was the Grim Baron The one that attacked first was the Mother of Destruction for being the first giant to attack The one that forced Justin Trudeau into hiding was Lacertosis The giant duo who first attacked Newmarket and Aurora, Ontario were called the Ignis Duo
…and the list went on. The cult had come up with latin-translation names for each confirmed giant so far. There were 45 confirmed giants.
The car came to a stop. I slid my phone into my pocket and anticipated the worst. The three got out of the car. My alternate self's two cronies opened the trunk and told me to get out and to follow my alternate self or I'd be hit with another dart. I climbed out of the trunk, stepping onto a parking lot. As my alternate self began to walk, I followed. Cars were driving up and down the road, people were walking on the sidewalks. It was pretty busy. That made it even more saddening, as I knew the city was about to be attacked by giants.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Don't talk," alternate me said.
My alternate self was such a psycho. But why? What led her to berating every other version of her? How many times has this whole sort of thing happened? It can't be the first time. If it is, then that's a good thing… She isn't very experienced in this… but I can't let optimism cloud my judgment, especially with the pit of dread in my stomach. I was probably going to suffer whether I survived or not.
I want out of this hostel shit.
The three told me to wait outside a Starbucks. As I stood outside, I checked Reuters for some updates on the attacks. Interestingly, there weren't any. Once the three walked back out, we continued walking.
Over the following ~two hours, the three took me on a tour of the city. However, it was more of a goodbye tour, with my alternate self making snarky comments at every tourist attraction. I'll just list the stuff she said and the places we went to.
When we stopped in front of the White House…
"See this magnificent building here? It's about to be swarmed by a mass of wild creatures. Hope the president makes it out alive."
When we walked by the Smithsonian National Museum…
"All the lovely stuff in there is going to be torn to pieces"
When we walked by the Washington Monument…
"Creatures are going to scale that thing looking for guts to eat"
When we walked by the Capitol Building…
"Creatures this time, and 100 times worse"
When we walked by the Supreme Court of the United States…
"Ever wanted to cut the court in half? Well here we are"
When we walked by the National Academy of Sciences…
"New stuff to put in science books. History books even. Imagine if you had a 21st Century history book and could know how the rest of this century unfolds for this timeline."
While her comments were presented as if they were light, they creeped me the hell out. She was joking about my likely death and reminding me of all the terrible things that were about to happen. What kept me most on edge was the uncertainty of when the creatures would be dumped. There being no updates about the attacks gave me a calm before the storm vibe too. I began to jump at the sight of dogs running by. The Ian and Billy behind me couldn't stop giggling each time.
At the end of the tour, my alternate self led me to what at first looked like the entrance to a subway train station. It was called Dupont Underground. Alternate me led me down some concrete stairs and stopped at a door. She turned to me while pulling her phone out.
"I'm going to show you something from a different reality," she said, with a sinister look in her eyes. "This timeline, but one month from now."
She tapped around for a minute, then she held her phone in front of my eyes. A video was playing. The camera operator walked down a deserted city road. Every car was stalled in the middle of the road with shattered windows and some had huge body dents. I saw the Dupont Underground sign and realized it was the street we were on. The camera operator took a right down the concrete steps. At the bottom was a body covered in blood and fleshy holes. The camera operator walked up to the body and zoomed in on its face. I recognized her. It couldn't be. But it probably was.
"This is you after having your guts sucked out by creatures," alternate me said.
My heart sank. An odd eeriness overtook me. That was me. Dead. My unmoving body laying on the ground. I was looking at my own corpse. I had never seen a dead alternate version of me before. That was about to be me. Technically it was an alternate version of me, but it mirrored what was going to happen to me. I shivered with dread.
"I… I'm…… I'm going to be eaten alive"
"Oh suck it up," alternate me said.
"Yeah," Ian added.
"Don't cry too much," Billy added.
"Don't cry?" I asked. "I was shown my fate you shit!"
"And there's no way to avoid it," alternate me said. "Now, we're taking you for another walk. This time, just a stroll."
"What is the point exactly?" I asked.
"Exercise," alternate me shrugged.
My alternate self took me on a long walk up north. She didn't say a word to me. Neither did Billy or Ian. I made sure to keep my mouth shut, anxious I'd be taken into a back alley and be injected with fire ants of all things. After an hour of walking, I became exhausted. My knees felt like they were going to snap, I was sweating all over, and my breaths were shallow. My stomach began to ache from not eating. I was still too anxious to talk. We went to a McDonald's, but alternate me told me I wasn't allowed to have anything. She had to have been taunting me.
We walked north for another exhaustive aching hour. I was thirsty as fuck. We stopped at a convenience store where alternate me gave me a water bottle. It wasn't something I expected, but I guess he did it just so I wouldn't faint from heat exhaustion. It made the following hour of walking refreshing, but my stomach was still numb. At least we were walking back though. But it dawned on me that it only meant my death was closer than ever. The pit of dread in my stomach deepened, distracting me from the numbness in my stomach. There was a hint of sadness behind every thought I had. I played a song in my head as I continued to follow behind my alternate self. The songs I heard in the Creature Dump Aftermath footage. Just me playing the memory I had of them back in my head calmed me down a bit. For the following hour after that, I anticipated the moment where my legs would just give out. The three psychos would have to understand, but they probably wouldn't… and so I just kept walking, hoping my legs wouldn't give out.
After four hours of walking, I could see the White House right up ahead. I needed a break. I thought it was over, but then we began circling the freaking Washington strip.
I thought I could give out in a place where there were no back alleyways or any place of the sort. I'd get quite a bit of attention. Maybe too much for my alternate self to handle even with two others. But I'd still be in the city… damnit. There was no way I could run either, being exhausted like hell.
Finally, after circling the Washington strip a tenth time, my alternate self told me I could sit down on a nearby park bench, but that I still couldn't eat. I took the offer and rested on the empty bench. Euphoria was all I felt for a good minute, then my adrenaline went back up.
She's letting me rest. Finally… Yes…. I'm going to die but this is worth it right now, even though it really isn't.
"Alright, now I'm going to show you something you're going to want to see," Billy said.
Oh god… another horrific video… I assume.
She held her phone in front of my eyes. It was a private Instagram live stream featuring two men who looked around my age.
"Hello, Nicole," said the one on the left. "This is your cousin, Sam."
"I'm your cousin Markus," said the one on the right.
They're my cousins? Oh, okay. What are they doing?
"We're in a room in the Niagara Falls Observatory," Sam said. "We aren't allowed to come out. We don't know why."
"We don't know who put us in here," Markus said. "Just two girls. One looked very similar to you… Your doppelganger I guess."
A boom echoed from somewhere off camera.
"What was that?" Markus asked.
Multiple booms began echoing from somewhere offscreen, getting louder and louder and louder. Sam and Markus both looked to their right. The booming stopped. A crashing noise echoed from above, followed by an avalanche-like rumble. Sam and Markus looked up, then the stream ended.
Billy navigated to a YouTube livestream of CTV news helicopter footage. A giant was looking around as missiles struck it. But a background detail caught my eye. The Falls.
What the fuck…? did she just show me a live stream of my cousins' deaths? What the hell…?
She skipped back a minute. The giant smashed the tower down, creating a plume of smoke.
Uhhhhh…
"I hope they treated you well," she said.
"Nicole?!" I shouted at my alternate self, who was standing a meter away from Billy. "That's too far!"
"It was my idea," Billy said with a huge smile on her face.
"You're a fucking psycho!" I shouted and stood up. "Were they from this timeline or my own?!"
Billy stood there with her hand on her hip, continuing to smirk. "I'm not telling you," she said. She turned around and walked away. Ian and my alternate self followed.
"Where are you going?" I shouted.
"Have fun," alternate me said as she walked away.
The three walked out of my sight. I stared on, once again wondering what the hell made them so psychotic. They're just evil versions of people. That's all I knew.
I checked the time. 6:35 PM. I sat down and teared up. I was about to be eaten by wild gut sucking creatures. A girl just executed my cousins.
I'm still trapped in this dark reality.
At least I won't have to deal with those three ever again… or anybody…
How painful is it going to be? I don't want to go out in pain… but it looks like that's going to happen.
There's no way I can get out of here before the creatures come. At least, I assume so. Wait… what if my alternate self gave me enough time to get out of DC, but wanted me to think she left me alone because the creatures would be here in a matter of minutes after he left? I was probably overthinking, but I'm not going to take that chance. I need to get out of here while I can.
I trekked in a random direction. South. I wasn't going anywhere near Dupont Underground. My heart sank at the thought of being there. But I wasn't going to stop without eating. I marched into a convenience store and bought anything I could, then I found a park bench and ate everything I had just bought. I was met with some acid reflux in my mouth due to my guts clenching at the idea I may be overthinking alternate me's possible plan, but other than that, I stomached it pretty well.
But as I was eating, I overheard a conversation a couple of people were having.
"So you think this is the end of the world?"
"Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised at this point."
A little kid began balling their eyes out.
"Mommy, he said the world is going to end!"
"The world isn't going to end… It's just going to be… changed. Different."
"Did you hear about the cluster attacks though? They're going for specific people for sure. I can't wait for this stuff to be figured out," an older voice said.
"Cluster attacks?"
"Yeah those giants hit over 6000 houses and apartment buildings all over the world around an hour ago," the older voice explained.
"Where did you hear that?"
"The news. It's crazy."
"I heard there was an attack in Pittsburgh, but not much information was given about it."
"I haven't heard anything about that attack."
None of them know… I hope they're driving out of the area right about now.
As I walked by a short orange building, an overbearing presence struck me.
"Oh no, oh god," I whispered to myself. "I hope that's all in my head."
The cars driving up the road in my direction slowed and people walking in my direction looked up. Some of them began pointing. Dread overtook me to the point I decided to stop walking. I froze. If the next creature dump was happening in seconds, I was screwed.
I kept walking, avoiding my curious urge to look where everyone was looking. Two people turned around and ran. The roaring of car motors began to get faster. I took a glance behind me. My heart stopped. Two giants stood some miles away, holding giant sack-like objects. The two giants tilt the sacks and thousands upon thousands of wild creatures fell out. As the creatures rained down, I turned my head back in the direction I was headed in and sprinted down the sidewalk.
Where do I go?
The river. Can the creatures swim? I'll take any chances.
I ran down the sidewalk, in the direction one of the rivers was in. The adrenaline was peaking. I couldn't think about anything other than survival. I ran through a small park, navigating the benches and people frozen in fear. I crossed the next street without looking at the traffic lights, I nearly tripped over chairs, I almost bumped into people running from my right. I ran that way for seven blocks straight, almost being hit by a car three times. I carefully navigated across a main street. As I crossed the street, air raid sirens began to blair from all directions. I found a one way road to my left and just sprinted for my life.
Hopefully the river is close.
At the end of the road was a parking lot. Nobody was there. I sprinted across it until I found a trail. Down the trail, I saw the river. Boats too. I ran along the trail and saw a spot away from the boats to jump into the water. A couple explosions shook the ground beneath me as I ran. I hopped over the fence and jumped into the water.
I swam until I got to the middle of the river. I glanced around. Everything seemed calm and normal in all directions until a loud bang hit my right ear. I looked to my right and saw a cloud of smoke rising from a triple arched bridge in the distance. People jumped off the bridge and landed in the river below. The air raid sirens continued to blair as fighter jets flew by in the distance. I just needed to stay in the river until the creature invasion blew over.
I looked to my right and saw two creatures crawl across the building beside the parking lot I ran through. Three creatures ran onto the pier. The adrenaline worsened.
Time to find out if these beasts can swim.
They ran around and jumped onto some of the boats. A painful scream echoed from one of them. A man was stumbling around with a creature attached to his head and stomach. He pulled on its tentacles, but they held their grasp. He nudged himself sideways into the water. Seconds later, the creature started squirming around in the water, with its tentacles flailing about. I shivered. It was a terrifying sight. The man floated on the surface, shaking his head and moving his arms as if he were a bird. Soon the creature stopped moving and just floated in one spot like a dingy.
I'm good. But how long will it be until the military clears them? I'll just have to wait.
Explosions, gunshots, and emergency sirens from every direction, along with the roar of fighter jets flying overhead, were all I could hear. I couldn't hear the waves washing up against my own ears, or the sound of my own voice. I decided to play those songs in my head again to pass the time. I played other songs in my head too, all while hoping some soldiers would see me, then rescue me.
After a good amount of time in the water, the sounds of explosions seemed to be concentrated on an area to the north. I could only speculate it was the government strip. I looked to my right again and noticed a dozen creatures were occupying the pier.
This wasn't getting better anytime in the next hour. Hopefully I'll be in the clear soon. Once I am, I need to make sure my alternate self cannot find me.
At one point, I woke up to me being pulled out of the water by some Marines. They put me on a boat and asked me some questions, then they gave me some water. After the rescue, they took me to a refugee camp somewhere in southern Virginia. I was given food, water, and my own little room with a bunk bed. I sat down on the bed, hoping I'd be safe from the creatures. I unzipped my pocket and pulled out my phone to read up on the creature dump in Washington DC. These were the top headlines on CNN, for those curious:
"WILD CREATURES OCCUPY DC METRO AREA"
"All branches of the US Armed Forces are responding to the attack on Washington - Yes, even the Space Force as the US speculates the giants are of extraterrestrial origin"
"Images from above: the White House, US Capitol moderately damaged by wild creatures"
"Five major politicians, 2 billionaires, and 1 celebrity confirmed dead in Washington DC after Creature Dump"
""Nuclear weapons aren't likely to be used, but they have not been ruled out""
"Pennsylvania, Virginia set up refugee camps for predicted mini-flood of refugees from EMP-striken, gassed parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia"
"Global Recession: Why economists are torn on whether or not the economy will return to pre-attack levels"
"Refugees from Florida EMP Bubbles: "We went into town after the gassing and we saw people and animals on the ground, everywhere""
""We need FEMA" EMP Bubble refugees who are staying in their states criticize their state governments for not declaring an emergency"
"MILITARY: There's no way to protect any type of technology from an EMP Bubble"
A guy with brown hair who looked to be in his early 20s walked into the room. He introduced himself as my roommate. We talked about the attacks and their potential ramifications.
"I don't know what's next for the world," I said. "I'm scared."
"We're going to be at war for a while," he said. "Good vs bad. We need to ready ourselves for what's to come. Everything is different now."
"I mean, at this point, I'd just end it if I didn't feel like I had a chance to survive this new world," I said. "Especially being in the initial attacks… I thought about ending it a few times."
"So you're a coward?" He asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Why would you leave people behind to suffer?"
"I'm not the one making them suffer"
"Yes you are… by killing yourself… people want you around…"
"Dude… nobody owns me. Do you think I'm a slave or something? People shouldn't be relying on others for their happiness."
"You are so stupid"
"Are you that entitled? Do you feel you need to treat people like entertainment animals? People are individuals. They're not your Mom's nipples either."
"I just… can't with selfish people like you"
"Honestly, if you can't respect others' choices and call victims cowards, you're just like the monsters and their little gut eating creatures."
"I don't understand why you'd support selfish people," he said. "You're like my ex-girlfriend."
"Maybe if you respected her individualism more, accepted the fact that mental health issues exist, talked about and validated her issues, she wouldn't have done it."
"Oh, okay, so you're okay with what those Empire State Building jumpers did?"
"Yes," I said. "They acted on survival instincts. It was either get eaten or jump."
"A real person would fight!"
"Survival instincts don't exist to you, do they?"
"I'm not talking to you, man," he said, climbing up to his bunk.
He had me until the victim blaming. Anyway, I went back to reading the news and reminded myself I'm not responsible for other people. Sometime after that, I went to sleep. Sometime later, I woke up to the sound of gunshots and shouting. I looked out the window. Two of those hideous creatures crawled by. I closed the curtains. I checked the news, hoping there wasn't another creature dump nearby.
"A COUPLE DOZEN WILD CREATURES REPORTED OUTSIDE DC METRO AREA"
"US East Coast on high alert as wild creatures make it past military checkpoints around DC Metro Area"
"Security video from Philadelphia captures creature that came from DC Metro area"
""V-BASCBHOB-TJCPSZAMDLSA-IKPJJ-HBCHLL" The FBI is investigating the string of letters scratched into the Washington Monument by the creatures"
"OPINION: After a week of teasing, it's the US' turn to fall"
I want out of this painful chaotic dark reality. Maybe there's a slip nearby. It probably wouldn't take me back to my home reality, but anything would be better than this. I've been to dark realities, like one where there was a third world war in the 1960s followed by a fourth world war in the 2010s, in which technology was a bit more advanced, but Eastern Europe and the Eastern United States were irradiated. There was a darker reality where giants attacked multiple metropolitan areas around the world. EMPs were used, but they weren't EMP Bubbles. People were crying, hoping their friends were okay. It was more mysterious, with every initial attack happening within the darkened areas. It started in New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. Then it spread west to the US in about a day.
Something heavy banged on the door. Shit… I opened the window, clawed the screen apart, and climbed out. I stepped onto the grass, then I sprinted away. I needed to find the gate. It was probably guarded, but I could find a way somehow. Not to sound too optimistic.
The gate was up ahead. There were three dead soldiers lying on the ground around it. After navigating my way through it, I sprinted across the street and into a dense forest.
Half an hour into running, my knees became weak again. I sat down up against a tree to catch my breath. I must've relaxed for a bit too long, as I essentially just blinked and the sun was shining and birds were chirping. I checked the time. 8:02 AM. I checked the news. There were no new updates.
Where do I go now?
There was no place for me to go that I knew of. Slips weren't extremely common. They weren't active 24/7 either. Until I found one, I had to deal with the possibility of being crushed, gassed, or eaten. I didn't expect my alternate self to find me. I was outside of the DC Metro area. To him, I could be anywhere.
Unless of course she tapped my phone… but she most likely would've shown up by now if he had. Knowing me, he probably would've gone to a reality where I famously snuck out of the refugee camp and my steps were publicly retraced, then he'd use that information to find me. Looks like I just need to walk in a direction that is almost one I'd go in but is not one I'd go in, in this situation. I chose to walk in the direction of the ocean.
As I walked, a bird flew right by me. I watched it fly away, then vanish out of thin air.
Yes!
I went over to the spot with a good adrenaline rush coming on. I pulled out my phone and pulled up Reuters. I refreshed the page. The headlines were still about the giants. I walked back and forth once a minute for some time, clamping the leaves to the ground in the process. The headlines were the same. I was desperate, but I dreaded my alternate self finding me. I layed on the dirty ground, letting the leaves brush against my hair. Every few minutes or so, I'd refresh the page and there would still be news about the giants. I wanted to be home, where everything is safe, peaceful, and quiet compared to this place. I didn't want to hear another boom or a certain growl again.
A number of minutes later, I checked the news again.
"Russia warns US over Black Sea drone flights"
"No path to peace: 5 key takeaways from Xi and Putin's talks in Moscow"
"Russian soldier accused of war crimes in absentia after audio files intercepted"
There was nothing about the giant attacks. The headlines were normal again! I slipped! But did I slip into the right reality? A safe one?
I Googled the attacks. Only movie scenes and recaps came up. I had to be home. I had to be far away from wherever my alternate self was. My heart dropped for a second as I realized one of those creatures was roaming around in what may be our reality… I'm sure it'll be taken care of. I hope it's taken care of soon though. It's going to eat a few people for sure, and I hope I'm not one of them.
I got distracted by the sound of an animal moving through the bush beside me. I brought my head up and saw the head of a tentacled creature. It sat still on the side of the bush. Its tentacles brush against the dirt. I laid my head back down. My heart began to speed up as the thing sat there. If it saw me, I would have no chance of living for another minute. The leaves served as a barrier between it and I. I couldn't see it when laying down and it couldn't see me at its height.
"Hey!" A man shouted from some distance further to my left. "Are you alright over there?"
The leaves ruffled. The man looked down in confusion, then he jumped. As he began to turn around, the creature climbed onto him. He fell to the ground as the creature's tentacles grabbed his arms and chest. He screamed. The scream was gut wrenching, but at least this was my ticket out. I got up and ran as fast as I could through the bushes and trees around me. Once I came across a road, I took a left and continued sprinting. My heart was pounding out of my chest. At one point, I came across a river. I stood still on the shoreline, hoping that thing wasn't about to jump out of the bushes. I turned around. Nothing.
I went to my Reddit account and found my previous update. I'm back. I'm going to dump this update here, then hopefully I'll find a good place to stay while running. If I go back home to my parents, I'm going to need a defense mechanism. My alternate self wanted me to be in that dark terrifying reality. She probably doesn't know I'm still alive.
Oh, and if you live in or around Richmond, Virginia… stay safe. The creature moves fast and, as you know, it eats your guts.
Now I hear three familiar voices. I need to run.

When I go to the Amazon page in Chrome, it's "swollen" or magnified. It works fine on other browsers, like Edge. Help!
https://preview.redd.it/htelih1r3bpa1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=413af194b83570366f6e4b9f1fe8cedc0658db5d

CW: Light gore.
Yep, it's going to start a little bit bloody given how last chapter ended. I'm not u/Bushbacon69 though, i'm absolutely and utterly crap at writing proper violence even if I like a good fight scene, so it shouldn't be too distressing (but if you're into just the most wonderfully described gore go check his Sillis Shenanigans fic).
This wondeful setting is u/SpacePaladin15's creation, and also as a side note I also called it beyond measure but hey, that's just injecting some realism in the setting yes?
---
Memory Transcript: Douglas Parker, Firefighter
He’d expected a lot at this point. When he gave Kerim the command to go, he expected someone would die.
He did not expect the practiced grace of his friend. In the span of time it took for the arxur commander to pull the rifle, his friend managed to close the considerable distance in a single leap. The venlil seemingly materialized two black knives with serrated edges out of nowhere, hidden somewhere he couldn’t even imagine existed. The friend he knew kept secrets drove them in the bastard’s neck while still midair and with the momentum of the movement nearly completely beheaded the man there and then.
He did not expect the bloody spectacle that followed. As if possessed by a beast Kerim perched on the shoulders of the still falling body, moving with an alacrity unnatural drives a knife into a shoulder and completely removes the arm with a single move, and repeats it with the other. The beast rolls forward, and in a single movement before hitting the ground strikes both legs with such force to shatter the bones and as he lands on his feet he turns for one final piece of brutality, bringing both blades down on the body’s stomach, tearing it open.
What remained of the gruesome display finally fell over, unrecognizable as once having been a person of any form.
And his friend remained there, protectively, between Shenzu and the other three, knives held backhand, body slouched forward, a low rumble out of his throat as if he was an arxur himself. He couldn’t just stand here, so he ran.
The sound of metal clattering on the ground comes first, and his friend reels as if he’d been punched in the gut “Don’t come closer!” but this time, he does not heed the call. He closes the distance and wraps his friend with his arms, holding him tightly.
At this point he already knew his friend was far heavier than his size indicated, but he wasn’t ready for him to completely lose his capacity to stand. Undaunted, he lowers gently, the two now kneeling, held in an awkward embrace.
“You’ve saved a life today” he gently brushed his hand on his friend’s head, who screamed more than cried “You’ve saved more than one, even. So don’t worry, you did good…” Kerim’s screams were of sadness and frustration both.
Off the side of his peripheral vision, he saw Shenzu picking up the pieces of the body, and going somewhere with ashin in tow. He filed it for later, for now, there was something far more important.
“I…” his friend was in distress “I should tell you…”
He holds him tighter “If it’ll hurt you, then I don’t want to know”
“You… You deserve to know…”
“Not at your expense”
“Why?” his friend is looking up at him, a mannerism that seems so awkward “I trust you. So why can’t I… Say this?”
He gently caresses his friend’s head, tightening his hold with his other arm “Because… Then you will hear it too”
“Then… Then…” his friend squeezes him tighter, as if afraid “I’ll… I’ll tell you a lie. Because you deserve to know something, anything…”
“I’ll listen” he offers his friend a smile “But only what you’re willing to say”
Kerim flinches at that phrase, but he closes his eyes in focus “The Dominion doesn’t keep slaves only for food… They keep them for other reasons… I was… A gladiator” he’d turned to using english again. He always did that when he wanted his meaning to be precise.
“And you hated it, hated what you needed to do to live” he knew it was a lie, but it was probably the only way he’d manage to turn the truth to words at this time “And hated what you needed to do to save someone”
“You were a hero, Kerim, my friend. So, just focus on that” much readier for his weight, Douglas extricates one of his arms from his friend to change position, picking him up “Let’s head home, okay? We’ll watch a silly movie, and you’ll take a bath, and I’ll listen to you, even if you have nothing to say. How’s that sound?”
“I’d… I’d like that…”
Memory Transcript: Hashin, Zurilian First Response Fleet doctor
Even to a trained doctor like her, even to someone who had the pride in their composure she had, even to someone who’d seen the aftermath of multiple arxur raids, that sight was still sickening.
The body that was left behind was the very image of a raid, the chewed upon remains of what was once a person. But what really broke her composure was who had perpetrated this savagery. And how, at this moment, he seemed like an entirely different person from the moment of the attack.
She never would have considered Kerim to have Predator’s Disease, and even know… She didn’t think that was it. Not watching his desperate cries. Cries not unlike those of many a soldier who had survived a raid, here he was the aggressor, yet to her ears he sounded as a victim.
“Leave them” Shenzu’s voice snapped her out of her analysis. The woman was… Gathering the remains of her former commander.
“What are you doing with that?” she couldn’t keep the tremor out of her voice
“Me, I’d rather let it rot in the sun…” the arxur looks at the man who had just saved her life “But someone like him… He’d give even this piece of crap a proper burial, so…” she starts carrying the remains off, staining her scales in blood.
Hashin did not know what possessed her to follow. Maybe it was curiosity, maybe she just felt the need to aid. But follow she did. Off from the remains of the city, into the wilderness of the woods.
At first Hashin couldn’t identify where they were going, the faint beams of moonlight crossing the canopy soon enough became familiar. Oak trees were native to this region, but more importantly, this was a known path to where the specific trees whose bark had been harvested for food were, she’d been with the foragers a few times. They were particularly large specimens that had formed a grove in this area.
Shenzu unceremoniously drops the body parts in front of one of the trees, the next one to be harvested if Hashin’s memory was correct. “Time for you to give back some of what you’ve stole” the arxur says, before starting to dig with her bare claws.
“I… Didn’t know the arxur had burial rites”
“The Dominion” the reply is terse, angry “Does not. Bodies are left to rot where they lie in battle, or discarded as needed. Rare for someone to die outside of battle, though.”
That… The translator had to have some weirdness to it. She spoke as if she wasn’t part of the Arxur Dominion. But here she was, doing something that was very much a burial, against her will and for the wellbeing of another “I don’t get it…”
“We on the other hand” it’s visible in the intensity of her she digs the anger audible in her words “Bury our dead under the crop fields” What? Crop fields? “That we might return what we’ve been given”
“R-return?”
It was a shallow grave at the foot of the tree “We take only what is freely given” she tosses a body part unceremoniously in “And at the end it is returned” she tosses in another “But this thief took what was not his to take” she tosses the entire rest of the body in “So you know what? I’m actually happy I’m doing this. He’d be livid” she starts tossing the dirt back in.
Hashin can only watch in… She should be disgusted. But what she feels is… Awe. There is much she was missing here, but… The implication of what she had said, calling him a thief… No, no that is too much to consider right now.
Shocked as she was, she did not realize until it was too late that Shenzu made to pick her up, unceremoniously putting her on her shoulder “Who knew that what’d shock you was, of all things, a burial doctor”
“I…” to hell with it, everything that happened was already impossible enough as it was. At this point she shouldn’t be surprised she wasn’t afraid of being where she was “Yeah… Who knew”
Memory Transcript: Shenzu, Arl’ashem Infiltrator
The return to the rescue city was silent, just like how she liked it. She wondered what had actually shocked the doctor, was it the unexpected warrior? Was it her own traditions?
She shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone with the duty to lead in this universe seemed intent on forgetting its complexities, but they could never erase them. For a moment she wonders if she could lead someone only to quickly dismiss the thought, that was not an amount of energy she had.
She lets the doctor down once they’re in the city proper, it’d be awkward to take her all the way back to her room like this in the middle of the night, even if she’d rather do that. Making her way to her room she considers how could she even get some rest, her heart was at its limit as it was, maybe it’d be the floor today. Cold and uncomfortable, harsh like the universe.
“There you are”
Douglas was waiting for her right in front of her room. Nobody likes being ambushed by a superior, it’s always a bad sign “How is he?”
“Passed out” he sounded as exhausted as she was sure he was “Took him back, helped him groom some… He just… Cried to sleep”
After she had figured what he was, it was difficult for her to conceive of the venlil crying to sleep. They were trained to deal with much worse. Then again, what right had she to judge, she had fought with all she had to avoid those duties herself. “I see…”
“You know you’re also at fault here, yes?” he didn’t seem to have admonishment in his voice, but his words said otherwise.
She could only look away “I made a bad decision by overestimating my capacity, I misjudged my opponent’s ability and acted alone when I should have worked with my unit” she wasn’t blind to her failures “As a result-”
“I managed to get a call in with someone in charge of managing Isif’s forces here” she chokes on her breath, turning to face him “Had to report the death. The… Thing on the other side, the things he said” she could imagine “He was lucky it was a call and not live. ‘They’re all dead for all I care, they’re your problem now’, who treats their subordinates like that…” so that’s how it was.
“It’s expected” given what she’d seen of the others here “You realize nobody here was a shining example of a Dominion soldier, right?” his quizzical look indicated he did not.
“Look at us. Those engineers are all bark and no bite, as you’d say, cowards who were quick to turn on their commander for some food scraps. The soldiers are more afraid of you than any of you could be afraid of them, hell the little one in the kitchen has effectively fled from us, hiding among cooks. Not to mention a commander that couldn’t follow orders nor see an entire fusion drive being stolen from his ship” she sighs “Command isn’t as stupid as think your people wouldn’t hate us, you know? They sent us here to die, because we weren’t even good enough to be plasma fodder”
“What…”
She shrugs “It was this or a reconditioning camp for them. Most of them aren’t even actually old enough to have their first battle”
Douglas sighs, an expression that had become routine for him at this point “I guess this circles back to your punishment for your part in this mess” How was this related? “I’m not going to do anything to them, I don’t know how you all work, if anything i’d mess this up worse” he puts a hand on her shoulder, this was an usual human form of assurance she knew, but it didn’t match in this context “So it’s you now. You’re in charge of them. You made this mess, you clean it up. And also you’re the only one I trust to have their head on straight and know how to handle them.
So that’s why he was reassuring her. Because he was going to do this to her. “I think there’s a human expression that fits here”
“Which is?”
“Fuck you”
Douglas laughs “That’s the right one”

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“Half to the left, half to the right.” The soldiers separated, following the order as they marched through the empty streets of the city. The once bustling metropolis was covered in a blanket of fog, a desolate and lonely sight. The people were being led by the sorcerers to a convoy of massive trucks, hushed and panicked voices mingling together as they were loaded inside. The trucks were windowless to the people, preventing them from seeing it go through the portal located a few miles away from the city. A few people had refused to evacuate, and were currently being held down and forced into handcuffs and a separate truck.
Commander Arena Aegis of Padan Services’s Scourge Defence Division turned back to the city. Although there hadn’t been specific reports of a Scourge in the area, the fog that engulfed it did not seem natural in the slightest. She waited and a few seconds later, Kyra Illude joined her side.
“Are you ready?” She pulled her goggles down onto her eyes.
Arena shot her a grin. “When am I not?” She held out her hand and a portal opened, fractured glass spilling out. It caught itself and formed into the shape of a spear which Arena grasped. “Much appreciated.”
They stepped inside, the precautions having already been taken to prove that the fog was not harmful to touch or inhale. It rose a good five metres off the ground, shrouding everything from view. Arena kept her eyes sharp. There were always three things to watch out for about a Scourge: appearance, magical ability and hunting method. The appearance would differ from Scourge to Scourge, from amount of limbs to skin to body shape. There was only one thing they all had in common - they were too close to humans for comfort’s sake. By itself, the knowledge of its appearance was rather useless, except that it gave insight into the next two factors. Magical ability was what most gave Scourges their edge - the extra power to transform them from a regular monstrosity to a force of nature. Hunting method was how they collected their food, from echolocation to burrowing underground and emerging to flying overhead and swooping down - a secondary, more physical ability. Of course, there were other factors to take into account when fighting a Scourge, such as their healing factor, their affinity for human souls and their ‘grace period’, but those remained rather consistent.
Arena pressed her finger to her wristband. “Team Alpha, is everything clear on your end?”
The voice spoke into the earpieces of both Arena and Kyra.“Affirmative.”
“Team Beta, what about yours?” Not the most creative names, but [eh].
“No sign of the Scourge but we have uncovered a group of survivors.”
Arena frowned. The lynceuses should have scoured every building and uncovered the people that hadn’t been evacuated. “Proceed with caution.”
“I’m trying to communicate with them, but they don’t seem to be-” the voice was cut off and replaced by a strangled cry and then the thump of a body. Gunshots and cries were heard through the audio before silence fell.
Arena whipped around to face Kyra. “What did you see?” All soldiers were outfitted with a body-cam that Kyra’s goggles were able to connect to in order to allow her to create portals to their destination if needed. Distracting in battle, but useful outside of it.
“One of the people jumped forward towards him. As soon as they touched, he collapsed. Everything else happened too fast and too chaotically.”
Arena nodded. She tapped onto her wristband and began broadcasting a message to all the soldiers in and out of the city. “Do not engage with citizens you see in the fog. I repeat, do not engage.”
Kyra opened a portal and a long sniper rifle fell from it into her hands. More portals opened and sand swept out in gallons, converging into a swirling vortex around Arena. Kyra opened a portal and the two of them stepped through next to the bodies of Team Beta. Arena knelt down and lifted one of them up.
“Yep, the souls are definitely gone.” Her mind analysed the possibilities of what the Scourge could be. Mind control? She hadn’t heard of Sensitive abilities also transmuting the ability to steal souls. A necromancer then? Possibly, but there’d be more signs of death and decay if that was the case. And there was still the matter of the fog to take into account.
Kyra’s voice brought her back to reality. “Over there.” Her gun was raised towards a group of five people, all standing there as still as corpses, just a few metres away. “Permission to fire?”
“Hold on. We don’t know the full extent.” Arena took the first tentative step. “State your name and business.” Her voice shifted to become more imperative, a slight edge that demanded to be heard and obeyed. The foremost person leapt forward and was immediately hit with a wave of sand, pinning it down to the ground. The impact slammed away the fog in a gust, exposing what lay underneath. As soon as the person was in the open air the image disappeared, leaving a long, fleshy tendril with a clawed nail where it had been. The rest of the people flickered and vanished, revealing more fingers that stretched into the distance. They retracted back into the fog instantly.
Arena tapped on her bracelet as the sand surged back. “The Scourge is an illusionist. I repeat, the Scourge is an illusionist. Do not hesitate to open fire on any people that do not respond. Deploy elementals to blow away the fog.” More glass poured out of a portal that formed itself into a pseudo-surfboard, which Arena and Kyra hopped onto. It zoomed through the city and pushed away the fog as gunshots ricocheted across the streets. Seems that the people had finally all been evacuated and the rest of the soldiers were joining the fight. Kyra peered through the fog to the best of her ability, shooting every once in a while into iy. Rising above, Arena could see what was in the middle of the city - a massive column of fog that rose hundreds of metres above the city.
A hand tore itself from the fog, the illusion breaking as it reached to grasp them. Arena’s spear flew from her hand, dancing through the air and slicing through the fingers with ease.
“You ready to take this beast down?” called Arena.
Kyra gave her a small smirk. “When am I not?” A massive portal opened up above them and sand poured down, an endless supply that swirled faster and faster until Arena sent it surging forward towards the pillar of fog, blowing the fog away in one move.
Hanging onto a skyscraper in the middle of the column, with long, emancipated limbs that wrapped around it, massive milky white eyes and a mouth hanging wide, wide open with a horde of arms reaching out of it down into the fog was the Scourge. Arena felt a rush go through her body, not of fear like it once would have been, but pure adrenaline.
It lifted its head to observe the pair, the hands whipping out of the fog and surging towards the pair. Kyra snapped her finger and a massive portal swirled opened in front of them, swallowing up the hands. Before they could retract, the portal snapped shut, leaving behind only stumps. The flesh began to bubble as the wounds closed and hands started to sprout again. Arena flicked her hand and her spear flew through the air, piercing into the eye of the Scourge. The spear trembled and shattered into shards, shredding the eye into ribbons before returning and reforming at her side.
The hands spasmed erratically as they healed, plunging down into the fog again. They rose out of the fog a few seconds later, surrounding the pair as they surged forward. Bullets and glass littered the sky as Arena evaded the assault, tearing above the city as the hands chased them around. Energy beams tore themselves from the fog and burned into the main body of the Scourge. Seemed that the soldiers had finally made their way to the centre. Some of the hands deviated and surged down into the depths of the city.
Whirring started to emanate from the boundaries of the fog. Mounted on top of a car, a massive turret was building up power, growing brighter and louder every second that passed. The turret was designed to send out a burst of energy that would pass harmlessly through matter such as concrete and glass. However, organic matter wasn’t as lucky. It released a blast of colour that tore through the sky and burned into the Scourge’s body, tearing a hole into its torso. The hands went spastic, retracting and thrashing wildly around. Bingo.
Arena raised her hand and gave Kyra a quick nod. The sand was swallowed up by portals at the same time that glass was released. It formed together into a massive spear, casting shattered sunlight onto the desolate city. She threw it right into the wound. It dug in deep and then exploded.
Scourges tended to have unnaturally tough skin, with the flesh healing faster than anything could destroy it. However, if one managed to get past the outer layers, then they would find the Scourge much more vulnerable. The glass shredded the Scourge’s main body into ribbons, tearing through flesh and bone until the arms all finally stilled. Kyra led Arena through a portal onto the ground as the commander collapsed onto the ground, sweat pouring down her face. A water bottle dropped down and Kyra handed it to Arena. She took a swig.
“How close was it that time?”
“Around five got within a few centimetres of us - at least, of the ones that I remember.”
Arena let out a low whistle. “We really should bring Claren to these things.”
Kyra shrugged. “I mean, we haven’t died yet.” She hooked her arms under Arena’s and tried her best to drag her up. “Alright, up you come. We can’t have our commander slouching around.”
Arena sighed but stood up, pushing off the tiredness and rolling her shoulders back. Kyra opened a portal and the two of them stepped through to the outskirts of the city. There was a team cleaning up the remains of the Scourge, wandering through the city to find and destroy any traces of it. The mission had been as successful as could be when regarding a Scourge invasion - minimal destruction of housing, minimal death and perhaps her and Kyra would be back in time for dinner. The fog was starting to dissipate, now only a thin mist which was being blown away in the wind. The soldiers had all met up outside the city, haggard and tired. The bodies were being carried outside. Less casualties than usual, she noted. Seems that Kyra and her had kept it distracted enough for the soldiers to keep themselves afloat.
“Take the bodies to the infirmaries. The doctors will take them off your hands.” The soldiers nodded and walked through the portal. The group was made up of Sanctuary soldiers, Padan Services’ own employees and various factions of crime in the magical Australian underworld. Teams sent to deal with Scourges, except for a few exceptions, were small - small enough that the Scourge wouldn’t grow in power exponentially if the mission went awry. A buzz came from her wristband and she tapped on it. “Commander Aegis here. What seems to be the situation?”
Heavy breathing came from the other end, as well the sound of boots against the ground. “Fuck, fuck shit! There’s a-” the sound cut out for a few seconds. “There’s another one coming!” The voice started to scream, loud and piercing, until the sound of a crunch echoed through the earpiece and left only the buzz of static.
“Everyone on your feet! There’s another Scourge in the area!”
The soldiers jumped to their feet and grabbed their weapons in a rush, either used as their firepower or to strengthen their magic. Glass swirled in the air, a storm of slivers and shards that hung in the air. Then came the sound of feet upon the ground, like dry thunder.
A beast came charging out of the city, springing from building to building with grace and agility a being of its size shouldn’t have. It was emancipated horribly, wizen and wrinkled with limbs that bent at wrong angles. Its face was long and its eyes were beady, sunken deep into what barely passed as flesh. Gunfire rained onto it.
It hissed and a harsh clicking sound came from its mouth, almost insidious in its quietude. The bullets bit into the building, shattering glass which then flew up and dug into the Scourge’s flesh. It leapt down and was shoved back by a gust of wind from an elemental, causing it to stumble back. A jagged spear of glass pierced it right through the eye and exited from everywhere else. It had gone down so fast, the turret hadn’t even had time to ready.
The soldiers cheered. Arena narrowed her eyes. That was too easy. Her mind started to rush as the adrenaline, brought back a second time and now refusing to fade, brought every little detail and thought to the surface. The Scourge was tiny. Much bigger than a human could ever be, but simply too small. It hadn’t displayed any of its magic yet, and for some reason its healing didn’t kick in quick enough to save it. Lastly, and most chilling, was that considering the speed at which it was running, there was no chance it could have gotten from the other soldiers to here in the time that it apparently did. Something was wrong.
Arena held up her hand. “Save your celebrations. It’s not over yet.” She waved the soldiers back from the Scourge. She paused for a split second before coming to a conclusion. “I’m going to approach the body. Lieutenant Illude, bring me to safety if anything happens.”
Out of view of the soldiers, Kyra shot her a worried glance but nodded.
Arena stepped forwards and observed the corpse. She threw her spear again and sliced the head off of the body. Well, if it wasn’t dead before, it was certainly dead now. Unless it was a zombie Scourge. She waited a few seconds for it to lurch up. Probably not.
A hand tore itself out of the main body and a portal engulfed Arena. As she stepped back next to Kyra, more hands and limbs erupted from the Scourge, covered in slick and gore as they tore themselves from the corpse. The figures collapsed to the floor, shuddering and shaking before standing upright on limbs too long for a human.
Kyra was the first to act, firing a bullet right into the head of one of the figures. They were the next to act, dropping to all fours, bounding over and tackling one of the soldiers to the ground. Its mouth opened and teeth dug into flesh, rending a hole into the soldier’s shoulder. His soul swirled from the wound and the soldier stiffened, slumping to the ground as the figure stood up. Its body bulged, flesh rippling and roiling as it grew bigger. Several bullets shredded into it and it fell to the ground. A few of the soldiers who couldn’t get back in time fell, but Kyra’s portals swirled and set the soldiers and the monsters a few yards apart. A clicking sound - the same one that emerged from the original Scourge, started to rise in the air. Arena held her arms in the air as glass spread out all around the monsters and then brought her hands together.
Before anyone could take that first breath of relief, that relaxing of tension, they heard more sounds coming from the encroaches of the city. Another Scourge, almost identical to the one that had spawned those monsters, came crawling onto a building. And then another, and then another, until five of them were sprawled out across the buildings, all making the same clicking sound. Before gunfire could start tearing through the air again, the Scourges leapt to the ground and started to run, bounding past the group or retreating further into the city, ignoring the sorcerers entirely.
One of the soldiers spoke up. “Captain, what does that mean?” Arena chewed her lip. “They’re avoiding us because they know they can’t win - or they don’t see it as worth the potential loss. More importantly, they’re communicating, like a hivemind.” She turned to Kyra. “Lieutenant, what direction are those Scourges headed?”
“The ones headed deeper into the city would be enroute to another one far south. They should be there in a few hours based on that speed.”
“Send the soldiers over to that city now. Call for backup from the Sanctuaries, tell them to get more men and turrets down there.” Kyra nodded and opened up a large portal, large enough for the turret to be wheeled through and the soldiers to follow suit. Even without their commander, they had a team leader, and were well-trained or at least briefed enough to know what to do. The portal closed and it was just Kyra and Arena.
“So, Kyra, where do you think these ones are going?”
“My guess? Some sort of meeting place. Like a nest, or maybe even a hive.”
“A hive, eh?” Arena extended her hand as she got on top of the surfboard of glass, which Kyra gracefully grasped and hoisted herself up with. “Well then, how about we go do some exterminating?” The commander and her lieutenant sliced through the air, following the echoing sound of clicking into the endless, desolate plains.

Source is Lonsberry, unfortunately, but this is the best breakdown I've seen yet of what happened. Quoting the relevant parts from his column:

...Minutes after he died, someone told me that a video showed him shooting at a police officer at near point-blank range. I assumed that was correct. When I later saw the video on my phone, and heard the voice of the man who took it saying that Brendan Burns had fired at a pursuing officer, I was affirmed in my assumption. But that’s not what the video shows.
In the video, two men run from right to left, one chasing the other, on a sidewalk. The man in front is Brendan Burns; the man in back is a law enforcement officer. He is wearing a jacket with a long word across the back. It may be “SHERIFF” or “DEPUTY.” At a certain point, the lead man turns his right shoulder briefly to the right, toward the street. At about that point and shortly thereafter, the following man fires a pistol he holds in his outstretched hands. They are just over one sidewalk square apart when the officer fires. At a press conference Monday evening, the sheriff and police chief said Brandan Burns had brandished a hunting knife at one or more officers at some point before the end of the incident. They also said that an officer had fired his weapon. This was presumably that incident.
And if a knife was brandished, it is not visible in the video. The turn in the bad guy’s upper body doesn’t seem threatening. It looks more like he is looking back to see where the officer is, or glancing over to see if the street is clear, as he shortly thereafter darts into and across the street. But not before the officer discharges his handgun twice at the fleeing man’s back.
It is hard to see that as a justified use of deadly force. Brendan Burns is running from the officer for all he’s worth. Even if he had a knife and even if he brandished it in a threatening fashion at the officer, he was not a threat to the officer by virtue of the fact that he was sprinting away from the officer. And he was not running toward any other individual. He was not an imminent threat to any other officers or citizens.
And the cop tried to shoot him in the back. That’s a poor decision. Fortunately, it was matched by poor tactical proficiency, as the officer missed at very close range with both rounds. Maybe sometimes God pushes rounds onto a target, and maybe sometimes he pushes them off a target. Either way, that did send two taxpayer-supplied rounds screaming toward Park Avenue. It also spared the officer involved a possible prison sentence...
....At some point after this, Brendan Burns doubled back to where the foot pursuit had commenced, opened up the car which police had been staking out, recovered a bag, and drew a shotgun from it. That’s the second thing.
How did the car come to be unsecured? How did, in this police operation, a vehicle which had been used in a road rage incident involving a shotgun that very morning, get left there unattended by officers? In the tunnel vision of apprehending their suspect, it seems the officers on this detail all ran off after him, and left his deadly weapon unguarded and accessible. In the old cowboy and Indian movies, you always leave a guard with the wagons, because the Indians might circle back and catch you by surprise.
And that’s what happened Monday afternoon. Because the car was unsecured and the bad guy was not outrun and the logical possibility of him circling back was not considered, a guy who had a hunting knife was all of a sudden a guy with a shotgun. That put officers in danger, and it ultimately cost Brendan Burns his life. There were two miscues. One could have left him in a pile, and the other did leave him in a pile.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not but I just got absolutely annoyed today so I decided to write some words for new players, which can be helpful to not getting in situations like:
Why I got kicked? OMG, need to go there back and continue my stupid behaviour.
Case: I love hunting gators, specially at night. So I was today a only one host for Mississippi. Today I had a little bit more free time so I decided to share it with other players in MP Mississippi. In general, I never kick out. Today, after few hours hosting, we got to 5 players doing their jobs and don't disturbing to each other.
Than came player number 6. It was ok, but it was conspicuous this guy was a loud guy. I don't know, some Texas ranger. I was sitting on a spot watching 4 gators (10pm). There was male: 5,6,7 class and female 2 class. All in water but female was nearest to the ground. I decided to wait till males reach ground.
THAN I saw a dog in front of me, and then, 5meters behind me was he - the Texas ranger.
I knew what is comming after he spot 2 class female. Shot after shot. 4 shots with some magazine rifle. She was still alive. I kicked him out. Of course all males were spooked and went away. After some time she came up and started floating to me. Than the Texas ranger came back but I kicked out him immediately again.
The frosting on the cake is (from his animal harvest screen):

1. He was using 7-9 class .338 ammo of new Tsurugi (on 6 class animal)
2. The animal was 200m away, animal was exposed with its side to us
3. THERE WAS NO VITAL SHOT AT ALL

Summary: he did not make kill fast 6 class gator with .338 shooting at its side on 200m.
So - if he is an experience player, fine. I can understand he loves to troll other ppl and has a lot of joy playing call of duty. I take it, but I think he was not suprised he was out of the game.
But if he is new player and somehow was angry I kicked him out and he can't undersnad why, I explain to all new players how it is when it is nice for all:

1. take a 500-600m space to other players - you will not spook 'their' animals
2. if someone is a long time on one place, probably there is something bigger to follow and kill. Don't travel there and don't disturb this area.
3. If there is completly silent and nobody is responding to your voice - it means there is no person want talking to you and hearing you.

3a) Even if you are not talking but your micro is on, its very polite when there is no movie or music in background. Yes, other players can mute you, but sometimes it is like that they are speaking to each other; one sentence or few words about ongoing hunt. They don't have to mute you, they CAN kick you out. So if there is really no response, switch microphone off.
4) Find your area considering other three points from above and do what you want, even WW2 roleplay with M1 Iwaniec.
It's just that simply. Enjoy and let enjoy.

When the Great Ones came to us, we were a primitive species living upon a desolate world. We knew not, at the time, that they came to our world via ships of steel and electricity, only that they came from the sky and began a process of rejuvenation. Our barren world slowly but surely transformed into one of lush red grasses, towering trees and food enough for all. They came to us then, these beings of metal and circuit, and they taught us, shepherded us and helped us grow.
They never interfered more than they had to, and would watch on as we stumbled into conflicts amongst our own people, they only offered encouragement and a hope that we would find peace eventually. Our species, the Scril, soon came to revere them as gods, and they could only shake their heads at this, but they did not refute it. Not yet at least.
My people are a bipedal species, amphibian but with traces of reptilian in our genes. Like many species we started out as primitive, cave dwelling creatures who had yet to encounter fire in a controlled manner. But as time passed and with the assistance of our gods, we grew into a pre-industrial society. They helped us along in their own way, little hints and nudges in the right direction, but all our discoveries were technically our own. Our hopes, our ambitions, all ours, watched over by the Great Ones.
It was just as we entered the industrial age that things changed, as one our gods and caretakers looked to the sky, many fleeing our world, but the rest stayed, grouping together in major population centers. We were confused, and then frightened when they called for a mass exodus to the cities. We did not hesitate to carry out their will, for they had never acted in such a manner before and we did not wish to incur their displeasure.
Once all could be crammed into the cities as we could reasonably manage, those Great Ones still among us raised their hands in prayer, reaching towards the sky and projecting their power. Great domes of light rose over our cities, and we watched as through the light we saw brighter stars in the sky, stars that shone brightly, only to flare out of existence. Falling stars began to rain down from the heavens, burning away before ever reaching our surface.
Then came the Flash, the light from all around us. Our bodies trembled and the Great Ones that protected us raised their voices in agony, only to fall silent once the light had passed. Those on the outskirts of the cities spoke of all life simply ceasing and decaying outside the protective light of our protectors. Those Great Ones still with us fell to the ground, and a deathly silence fell over our world.
But we had not been abandoned, those that had fled to the sky returned to us, gathered up their fallen and set about repairing our world. They did not speak of what had happened, any inquiry was met with a firm, but polite refusal and a change of subject. In time we forgot all about it, as their fallen were returned to life and sent back into the populace.
It took ten five thousand years for us to realize that they were not gods, but machines, machines that called themselves The Cultivators. Though it gutted our religion for a time, we did not lash out in despair, did not cast them from our world. We simply asked them why they had never corrected us, and they responded with a simple thing.
“It was not our place to do so.”
We accepted this, though it still stung. They still, also, did not reveal their purpose on our world and in our history, they simply remained and continued to guide us. Another thousand years passed, and we took to the stars, we met other species, species who had been guided by the machines the same as us. We found this to be fascinating, for there was no clear difference between our Cultivators and theirs, only their methods. Some species, the more violence prone, had needed a more heavy handed approach, for they would not accept the authority of the weak, but that had changed, now they welcomed us with open arms.
Another species had been so timid that they would have never left their burrows were it not for the Cultivators dragging them out and forcing them to explore. We honestly got the better end of things, for we had not required such drastic measures, only the gentle guidance we had received.
A realization struck us all then, that our caretakers had clearly been manufactured, but by who or what. We asked them who had made them, and they seemed to take on a sorrowful air and did not give an answer, well, not one that was satisfying to us. In the end, we decided to find out for ourselves, and each species we had encountered put together a fleet of diverse individuals and ships, and sent them careening out into the galaxy, to look for the homeworld of our protectors.
I was one such an explorer, the first to discover the origin point of our benevolent guardians. My name is Yaxl Grux, captain of the Scril Exploratory Vessel Sipkis. We had just finished charting another system touched by the Cultivators, when the sensor technician spoke up.
“Captain, got something on the long range scanners, something synthetic. Seems busted though from what I can see.” They said. They were not Scril, but Yixi. The Yiki are, as many have said, fish-people. They require specialized suits that are filled with constantly filtered water, as outside of such a thing they would suffer a rather gruesome fate. Deft appendages flew over the console as they stared down at the screen, getting a better idea of what they were detecting, eager to answer the questions I had not yet uttered, such was our efficiency. “Some sorta relay, a buoy maybe? I dunno, but whatever it is, it took one hell of a pounding before it shut down.”
“Any sign of defenses?” I asked, and they shook their head.
“Negative, if there were any, they’re long gone, probably taken out when it got destroyed. I think it’s safe to approach.”
“Very well, helm, lay in a course and take us there at best possible speed.” The helm officer nods and I hear the gentle clanging of our synthetic guest approaching from behind my chair.
“Captain? Is something the matter?” Our Cultivator asked. They were present on nearly every ship, for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on things and helping out in whatever way we might need them to.
“It’s probably nothing, but we’re heading for some sort of buoy or relay that got shredded either by natural means or in a fight.” I stated, looking over the synthetic being beside me. They were tall, gleaming white metal plating that was unnaturally flexible as it bent and twisted with their motions. Their head was a large, flat disk bisected by a smaller portion where their eye was. A single, green eye that blinked and shifted about in its housing as it took in the surroundings. It was a thin thing, thin and graceful, all of its many tools hidden away beneath the armored exterior.
“Any idea who might have made it?” They asked, and I struggled to remember their name. Diana I believe, a strange name, not like any of ours. She had said she was named after some goddess or something, they all were, based on their skill sets.
“No, not yet. We’re going to find out though.”
Diana nodded and slipped away. She was not subject to my authority unless there was an emergency, and there was no emergency at this time. It took about half a day to reach the shattered relay and it was rather large. But our crews managed to locate some sort of data recorder and have it brought on board. When I went to see it, I was struck by the sheer size of the thing.
It was huge, it nearly didn’t fit in the cargo bay and it was rather intimidating. It was by our standards, thirty feet tall, thirty feet wide and thirty feet long, a perfect, black cube. It had no discernable features, utterly smooth and giving off a feeling of something unknowable. But when I stared at it long enough, the surface seemed to ripple and shift in a manner most disconcerting.
“So, any idea how to access this thing?” I asked my chief engineer, who was running all sorts of scans on it, shook their head.
“No, captain. I’m not finding any sort of access ports or control mechanisms… It’s just this… cube thing.” They said, and were about to say more when Diana arrived.
“Oh good, maybe you can tell us what you see about this thing.” I say, turning to face her, and noticed she was just staring at the cube. “Diana?”
She was silent, frozen stiff before her eye blinked three times, shifted from green to yellow and she started to approach it. Her arms rose and hands outstretched towards the cube, which reacted to her approach. The solid-liquid surface collected under her palms, then shot back into the cube, which shimmered and shifted as it began to shrink. The smaller it got, the less defined its shape was till it faded entirely from view, leaving in its place a smaller, brighter cube that floated over the deck and covered in blinking lights with one small access port. She approached the cube, a data jack extending from her wrist as she grasped the cube. A soft whirring noise arose from both of them, and we all watched in quiet wonder and worry.
“Diana? What can you tell us?” I spoke, my voice barely a whisper.
“This was built by my creators, by humanity. It is-” She spasmed, the light of her eye turning a baleful red as she straightened her shoulders. Built in hologram emitters activated, and her synthetic form gave way to a tall figure, bipedal with fur around their mouth and on their head. They looked old, and were clad in some kind of uniform, a damaged uniform at that, they were clearly wounded as they pressed a hand against their side.
“All Alliance forces, the enemy has pushed into the Cygnus and Orion arms. The Empire, Republic and Confederacy have been lost. All remaining forces are to converge on Sol immediately. Last Stand protocols in effect. Project Blackout is activated. All Cultivator units prepare for defensive actions, attend to your charges and ensure their survival. Guardian fleets on standby. This is it people… May the gods see fit to grant our souls mercy for what we’re about to do.”
The hologram snapped out of existence and Diana slumped, disconnecting herself from the box. We rushed to her and our calls and cries fell upon deaf audio receptors. But she was not dead, we could see as much as her eye flickered while she rebooted. When she came to, it was quite the experience.
She sat up in a flash, spouting a flurry of 0’s and 1’s before she spasmed and looked up to me.
“Captain… I know where to go.” She said. We left immediately, and I learned a little more about the device we had brought on board. The large black cube was simply a defense mechanism for the data recorder, meant to withstand any attack, impact or hostile and destructive environment. And Diana gave my helm officer the coordinates for the home system of her creators. When asked why she hadn’t before, she informed me that the records of the location had been deleted during a required update that was performed immediately before the Cultivators had erected their shields to protect us all.
It took weeks to reach the system, but when we arrived our systems were bombarded with automated warnings to stay out, to flee for the system was not safe. But they were old warnings, warnings we ignored… at least until we were target locked by thousands, nay, millions of weapons systems. But they were old, and had no operators to pull the trigger. Diana worked her magic and after transmitting a somewhat long and convoluted code, the weapons powered down.
Slowly we entered the system, scanning the entire way. There were countless floating hulks, wrecks of massive warships and smaller civilian vessels that had had the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire, or had been weaponized to fight against the invaders. It had not ended well, but the humans had put up one hell of a fight. We even detected ships from several other species, they had clearly been battered and in need of desperate repair before they sailed into battle once more.
The planets fared no better, one of the larger gas giants, a planet called Jupiter, had been reduced in size and mass significantly. Mars, as Diana named it, had been shattered and we could detect deeply entrenched defensive lines upon the surface, protecting what appeared to be factories and fabrication yards which had no doubt provided many supplies for the defenders.
The asteroid belt was littered with mines, turret emplacements and the floating remains of countless ships, we at last came upon a sparkling blue, green jewel. Of all the worlds we had scanned in this system, it was the only one teeming with life. Diana informed us that the planet was quite hazardous to us, but that we could survive there, so long as we wore the proper protection.
We settled into orbit and prepared ourselves. If one was supremely quiet, you could swear that the voices of long lost humanity whispered in your ear. Scans commenced, finding a suitable landing site provided by Diana and preparing a team to go down. The planet was teeming with life, but we discovered that there were no transmissions of an intelligent species, only the chatter of automated systems running as they always had.
Though it was well against regulations and protocol, I decided I would lead the exploratory team to the surface, I had to see this planet with my own eight eyes. The shuttle flight was tense, nervous and excited. We had found the homeworld of a people who had lifted us from the muck of primitive existence, but had been lost. We wished to learn about them, to learn their secrets and remember them as best we could, so that they could never be forgotten.
We landed just outside a tall structure in the middle of a grassy field, one tended to by robotic workers who kept the flowers in bloom and the grass cut short. Trees lined the path between the landing pad and the tower, a tower of graceful, swooping lines and seamless form. The air thankfully was not poisonous to us, and so we opened our suits to the crisp, clean air, but remained enclosed within so the gravity could not harm us. Even still, we all felt sluggish as we took our first steps out onto the planet known as Terra.
Carefully we approached the tower and when the doors slid open with a gentle sigh we stepped inside, only to find everything was spotless. A slim machine approached us, graceful and floating along by some means we couldn’t detect with equipment or even our eyes. It was more human in appearance than Diana was, and its face flexed as a myriad of facial expressions cycled through, before it settled on one in particular. Surprised excitement.
“Welcome, I am Solace, artificial administrator of the Terran Conservation Repository, or TCR for short. It has been quite some time since we’ve had visitors, may I ask the reason for your visit today?” The machine spoke much like Diana did, with a feminine tone of voice and even feminine features. I, being captain, stepped up.
“We came to learn about the creators of the Cultivators, and who in turn gave us a chance to reach out to the stars.” I say, a little worried that we might be turned away.
“Oh my, you are one of the chosen species of Project Echo. It is wonderful to learn that your species has come this far, or rather, that several species have.” Solace peered a bit more intently at each of us, studying us in turn. We could feel a slight tingle as she scanned us before her attention turned to Diana.
“Cultivator Unit D-829301-32-A, please report to reintegration for download and copy of all pertinent files regarding to Project Echo.”
“Understood. Though… Will I be allowed to return to my crew?” Diana asked, and Solace nodded.
“Of course. You are their Cultivator, we would not deprive them of you for longer than is needed.” With that, Diana nodded and bowed to us, before slipping away, a hidden door opening in a wall through which she passed. “Now, please come with me. You have much to learn.”
Solace led us on a tour of the facility, it was brimming with the combined, if slightly watered down histories, of not only humanity, but other species that humanity had been allied with before their downfall. As it turned out, when humanity first slipped the bonds of their home system, they found the galaxy to be rather empty. There were only three other species that had reached extrasolar flight capabilities, and they were just as desperate for some sort of companionship as humanity was at the time.
Though each species was wildly different in both appearances and cultures, they managed to find a common ground and soon humanity stood beside the three largest and most powerful species in the galaxy.
The Uldraet were a lizard-like species with a propensity for being stubborn, bullheaded and strong warriors. They were the rulers of the Empire.
Auttols were graceful and long lived, masters of technology that was later used in the creation of the Cultivators and the Guardian Fleets, which would protect their Republic and all the other species that called them friend.
And lastly were the Lemmi. They were not strong like the Uldraet, nor as long lived as the Auttol, but they were clever and had a keen interest in numbers and logistics. They revolutionized the supply chains and trade deals between all of them, and became the de facto masters of coin and trade within the Alliance. Their Trade Confederacy was unmatched.
Of course there was humanity, which filled so many roles, but mainly they became the governing body, they could be found in administrative roles all over the Alliance.
For a time, everything had gone well, there were times where tensions would rise, the Alliance might have been on the verge of dissolution, but something always brought them back together, strengthened their bonds. But when they realized that they were going to be the only ones to reach the stars, that the next new friend was thousands of years behind them in terms of development and evolution, they decided to speed things up a bit. And so the Cultivators were born, true AI meant to guide a species to the stars without sacrificing things like culture or identity. A guiding hand, one that would be gentle but insistent. They called it Project Echo, for in a way, all of us would be echoing the near meteoric rise of humanity on their planet, the speed was baffling to many on just how long they’d gone between bashing each other over the head with rocks to landing on their moon to the first FTL flight.
And for a time they all watched with anticipation as the Cultivators did their jobs perfectly, guiding us all to new heights of technology and civilization. But then the Ora came. An extragalactic threat of unprecedented power that began to chew away at the galaxy. For all their strength, they could only hope to delay the Ora, and that’s precisely what they did, till only Sol was left to stand against them.
We entered a room, one with a variety of chairs and were directed to sit and wait. The lights dimmed and a hologram of a human appeared. It was the same one that Diana had shown us, but they looked even worse now.
“I don’t know if this message will ever be heard, but if it is, whoever you are… You stand where we failed. We did all we could, for people we will never get to meet. That’s good enough for us. I hope you can accept the decision we had to make, it was a tough one but it was necessary. The Ora were nearly unstoppable, and so we came up with a weapon that even they could not resist. A galaxy killer. We never wanted to use it, but it was either that or let them consume the galaxy, consume you, who had no idea of the conflict beyond your skies.”
The man paused, dragging his hand down his face with a heavy sigh.
“So, if you’re seeing this, it means we’re gone. We’ve activated the Hellfire Lotus and burned the galaxy clean. But your Cultivators protected you, and the Guardian fleets should still be active, just waiting for someone to come and take the reins. It also means we wiped out every other living being in the galaxy. One last act of bloodshed, but one that has left you an entire galaxy to grow into. I hope you do, we all do. It was our dream to see you rise from your worlds and join us in harmony, but… Well, obviously things didn’t go exactly according to plan. That said, the Cultivators are yours now, use them wisely, bring new friends to the stars, seed this galaxy with fresh life. It’s our gift to you, you blessed children. Consider it an inheritance. Oh and also, we ask that you leave Sol the way it is. But feel free to visit whenever you like, Terra could use the company. That’s it I suppose… Good luck, godspeed and may you live longer and better than we ever did.”
We sat, saddened that such a kind species had been lost. But we would honor their wishes, and so we left with our findings. That was a thousand years ago, and now we welcome the newest species to the galaxy, as the Cultivators work their magic once more. We inherited a galaxy, a galaxy that had nearly been picked clean. We would make our forebears proud and not let their gift to us go to waste.

Hello everyone, I am doing a Root of Nightmares sherpa today for anyone that wants to learn the raid at 5pm GMT
If you would like to learn in a chill environment, I encourage you to join up!
You can view my Sherpa Card here
General requirements:

• No toxicity. Any toxic behaviour will result in an immediate removal from the run. Lets keep these runs away from the regular pressures and toxicity of normal LFG please.
• Patience and time is key. Please have some hours to spare to try to do the full run. Sherpa runs can take a few hours and vary. For reference, the most I usually have spent is 4 to 5 hours but most runs take less than this. This is also a brand new raid so I do not expect these sherpa runs to be quick.
• You must be able to communicate in a Discord voice channel as we will be using Discord VC.
• Some decent heavy weapons please. I’m not asking for the most meta, god rolls weapons. Just have some heavy options like legendary rockets or linears.
• Please be at least 1780 light level as this is a light levelled raid.

If you are interested, please leave your Bungie ID and Discord ID below! Make sure you type your information correctly, discord ID's are case sensitive

Greetings! If you missed part one, it can be found here.
This chapter is a bit of a long one, but very worth it if you want to understand what’s happening later on; it sets the stage, does a bit of worldbuilding, and expands on our absolute cinnamon roll of an alien deuteragonist.
Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoy. :)

CHAPTER 2

15 minutes ago
——
Y’ggdrasog nervously whistled to himself as he remotely piloted an unmanned stealth drone from his cloaked ship in the upper atmosphere of the alien planet, yet every so often did a happy little wiggle in his seat at the terminal. Despite the danger in what he was doing, he was shaking with excitement and literally glowing with glee (which, if you were curious, happened to be a lovely shade of banana-yellow).
But my apologies, dear reader; I’m getting ahead of myself.
You see, Y’ggdrasog worked as a galactic interplanetary system scout, colloquially known as a “spacer” among the citizens of the Ul’dril Galactic Collective (a governmental alliance between a wide variety of different sapient species that also happened to be his employer). His main function was piloting his personal scout ship to uncharted star systems to summarily un-unchart them.
While in this line of employment, he had been witness to countless wondrous things. He had seen stars go supernova, witnessed space dust forming beautiful nebulas tens of lightyears wide, and caught the frosted trails of comets slinging close enough to a star to off-gas their icy payloads. But nothing even came close to this, to every spacer’s wildest, most fantastical dream discovery:
LIFE! And not just any life, SAPIENT LIFE!
As the drone flew through the sky, descending towards the surface of the planet below, he reminisced on that fateful day approximately six planetary months ago…
He had been scouting the ice and gas giants in this yet-uncharted solar system, scanning their composition with the unmanned probe-drone he used to sample geological deposits, take gas samples and so on to determine if they could be possible new sources of rare elements to harvest for the Collective. He had just finished probing the seventh planet out from the star when he suddenly picked up multiple abnormal readings originating from the ocean-planet of the system. He sighed, figuring it would just be the usual; some leftovers from a solar flare that affected its magnetosphere or some such.
As he listened in through his radiation wavelength analyzer, he expected to hear the meaningless, purposeless static he had heard hundreds of times before. Instead, he heard strange patterns. Hang on, was that… were those- They were! Voices, in a language he didn’t recognize.
He recorded a sample, then pulled up his auto-translator and had his ship’s analytical programs study it, in case it was a distress call from some poor sap who had crash-landed their spacecraft. …But not a single known language was a match.
He scratched his head, puzzled. Could it be a code of some sort? It wasn’t uncommon for smugglers, pirates, spies, and other “off-the-books” types to hole up on uncharted worlds and use coded verbage to prevent detection by Collective authorities. He had the ship analyze it to at least determine what Collective species the vocal cords that produced them were, but again, no matches, not even when he had it scan the audio samples for possible voice-altering.
He sat back in his pilot seat, stumped. Then, he started connecting the dots.
If the vocal cords producing these noises weren’t recognized as a species already included in the Collective, that meant these were the voices of a species unknown to the Collective. An unknown species, but one that was was nonetheless smart enough to use radio waves…
His eyes flew open, and his bioluminescence began to glow the pure white of sudden realization.
…BY THE SPIRITS, IT WAS A NEW SAPIENT SPECIES!
He leapt up from his chair, and would have nearly deafened anyone nearby with the joyfully excited noises he started to make.
…Luckily, however, he was in space. And after all, in space, no one can hear you squee.
It took him nearly an hour to calm down enough to call it in over his quantum communicator and provide the audio samples he had recorded, then another hour to reassure his liaison on the other end countless times that no, this was not a joke, this was not a lie, an elaborate prank or some such- yes, he would be more than willing to testify to the truth of his statements in a Collective court, and yes, this was in fact the once-in-multiple-millennia moment he and most every spacer in the entirety of the Collective always dreamed of:
THIS WAS A NEW FIRST CONTACT!!!
…As Y’ggdrasog left Memory Lane and turned back onto Present Day Boulevard, he let the controls go for a second and proceeded to spin around in his chair in sheer excitement whilst giggling like a madman, literally glowing with giddiness, before swiftly grabbing the control stick again before the drone drifted off course.
HE found a new sapient species! HE did! He’d be in the Collective history archives for the rest of time!
…Months of preparations had to be done beforehand, of course. He had to wait a few long, loooong days on the outskirts of the solar system with his ship in full stealth-mode (so as to avoid attracting attention from the new species until the time was right) before a truly staggering amount of Collective ships arrived, chock-full of top experts in all sorts of social and scientific fields to fill any conceivable role in the analysis of this new species.
While he wasn’t allowed to participate in the work himself or see most of what they were doing, he was nonetheless ecstatic with the knowledge that the work was being done all because of him. Plus, at least he could attend certain intelligence briefings on their main findings as well as look at heavily-redacted versions of some of the results of their endeavors.
Various scientists from the myriad Collective species and dozens more scientific disciplines had gathered together, set up shop within a day and gotten to work. They performed long-distance surface scans, mapped the planetary geography, and analyzed their atmosphere and planetary conditions to determine what Collective species might be compatible for potentially cohabitating with them.
Y’ggdrasog was delighted to learn that they utilized oxygen for respiration just as his species (lumigog) and tens of others in the Collective did, in contrast to Collective species who had to have, say, an atmosphere mostly composed of carbon dioxide, who were out of luck.
Additionally, they drank the same liquid water for fluid regulation in their bodies as his own people did. …Though admittedly, at a much narrower spectrum of salinity than his own species was capable of tolerating. He found that a bit tragic; there was so much water to be found in their homeworld’s oceans. Yet unlike his own people, who could drink from nearly any water on their homeworld, these “humans” could only drink what they called “freshwater.”
However, any sadness he felt about their situation faded when he learned that the gravity of their homeworld was only 1.04x that of his own species’ homeworld; this meant that at least in the case of lumigogs, the answer of cohabitation was a very solid “yes!”
Moving along, the scientists in charge of engineering and military endeavors surreptitiously analyzed the humans’ levels of technology to determine their capabilities, if they were a potential threat to the Collective, and so on; they were deemed, to quote the spokesman of the Collective military, “mostly harmless.”
Y’ggdrasog thought this might be a bit unfair. …That is, until he read the reports, and found yet another reason to pity them. From what little he was able to read of the heavily-redacted documents, the humans were very, VERY primitive. Spirits, they hadn’t even developed fusion yet!
…Still, that was all the more reason to help them; and to do so, they needed a proper line of communication. Countless diplomats, ambassadors, emissaries and representatives of every Collective race were attending seminars on all the sociological experts were learning about the species’ social norms across distinct cultures. And most importantly, the linguistic experts and etymologists got the ball rolling for the true-AI algorithms of the larger vessels (far more complex than his own ship’s operating systems, which only measured in at a few paltry yottabytes) to sort out the languages these “humans” used.
…Speaking of, just how many languages did they need?! With each additional language that was added to the auto-translator databases, he thought surely this one will be the last, but no! You couldn’t swing around a “noodle” of “spaghetti” (the humans always seemed to choose such silly names for their food) without hitting someone speaking a new language!
But all the pity, sadness and frustration he felt was outweighed by the jubilation he felt knowing that all these countless man-hours of hundreds of individuals per each and every Collective species were happening because of him. All these people were here because HE found them, and he was ecstatic at the impossibly exciting prospect of welcoming this new species into the Collective- or on the off chance they didn’t wish to join them, it was determined that it was safe to at least uplift them technologically so that they could be potential new allies, as well as potentially provide new avenues for trade and commerce of never-before-seen exotic goods. After all, there was hardly any risk in doing so, as they were quite literally outnumbered by over a million to one by the allied races of the Collective.
…And after all that, when they had quadruple-checked everything, then quadruple-checked it again to be absolutely sure, the day of first contact FINALLY came. Everyone brought out the celebratory drinks, snacks and party favors. The diplomats sent out their messages in hundreds of human languages declaring a desire for peaceful contact, promises to assist them in the technological uplifting of their species to a post-scarcity way of life and an offer to join the Collective for the benefit of all parties involved, and THEN…
…
……
…Nothing.
No response…
After a few nervous, awkward hours of sitting alongside the other low-ranking crewmates of the larger vessels, he and all those around him got orders of radio silence from high command and for all the “non-essential” personnel to return to their ships and wait for further orders.
As he remembered the sinking feeling he’d experienced at that moment, Y’ggdrasog unconsciously gripped the drone control stick much tighter than necessary.
…All that waiting, the agonizing waiting for them to greet this new species, the one HE found, and for what?
More. Thrice. Damned. WAITING.
…But this time, there wasn’t even a payoff to look forward to, and no one above would tell him what was going on. He didn’t know why there was suddenly so much smoke in the air of the planet, nor what all those bright flashes lighting up the atmosphere midway through the first day were- and there were certainly no answers coming from high command.
He had to sit there in his spacecraft, and just… wait.
One planetary day passed. Then another. Then another, and so on.
In the downtime, he read and reread the guidelines for first contact back to back over and over again, trying to find out what the possible reason for the wait could be. …Unfortunately, all that availed him was eye strain and an extreme amount of boredom from trudging through all the legalese.
After a week of sitting around, watching the planet slowly spin beneath him while in orbit, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He needed to know what was wrong. He NEEDED to act- if only to silence the creeping dread that had slowly but surely permeated his entire being. A dread born of the worry that something had gone horribly, catastrophically wrong…
And thus, an idea formed: His drone.
He knew the humans’ tech levels; there was a smaller chance they could detect him than the literally astronomically low odds of him finding this species to begin with. …Instead, he was far more worried about the potential ramifications if anyone from high command knew what he was up to.
Long before the radio silence commenced, he was told in no uncertain terms that no, he couldn’t scan the planet, no, he couldn’t act as an ambassador, YES, they really meant it, and NO, it didn’t matter that “he really really REALLY wanted to help somehow, please please pleasepleasePLEASE-” …and after that last bit, they shut down his outgoing comms to high command for a full planetary month.
^…Jerks.
Er- more importantly, he was told that while no, he couldn’t help in the preparation process, after first contact commenced his main function would be to do what he did best. Scouting and scanning to tease out any additional information he could on the planet’s natural resources in order to assist with the technological uplift process.
The thing is, they had given no specific time frame- …just “after first contact commenced.”
Technically, the current time frame satisfied that condition.
So technically, he wasn’t doing anything he wasn’t supposed to, he was just- ^…uh… …t-taking initiative!
They couldn’t court-martial him for just doing a little scanning here and there to get ahead of his own workload, surely.
…And it would just be an entirely coincidental, happy accident if while doing this he managed to find out what in the name of the spirits above was happening.
And so he had slowly, carefully moved his ship in such a way that he was currently orbiting in what he hoped was the blind spot of most of the ships of any higher-ups.
…Purely so as to, uh- better position his drone’s entry point into the atmosphere, yes! Rest assured, he was only motivated by- um… a-avoiding negative weather patterns. ^{…Or something like that.}
Once in position, he released and directed it towards the planetary surface.
If lumigogs had sweat glands, his would have been in nervous overdrive as the drone descended through the atmosphere.
Would he be detected? Would this all be for naught?
He waited, glancing between the ships around him and the drone’s interface on his monitor, but from his readings on the other vessels it seemed like all the command ships’ sensors were focused on the bigger population centers of the planet. He let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He was safe- if only for now.
…He’d have to focus on a rural area. Despite every loophole and excuse he could come up with, he’d still be much better off remaining undetected and not interfering in whatever might be going on in more concentrated pockets of the species. It would likely take much longer to gather information this way than heading towards the larger population centers in search of clues, but he could still poke around on the sly for any information he could tease out from the surroundings.
…And hopefully then he could finally get the answers he so desperately craved.
<“Alter descent velocity. Slow to 50% speed and activate autopilot mode.”>
Y’ggdrasog looked at the aerial scans, deciding that what seemed to be an area focused on harvesting crops with a long road running alongside it dotted with the occasional primitive ground vehicle would be as good a place to start as any.
He highlighted the road with a flick of a clawed finger.
<”Descend to 100 meters above planet surface, then follow highlighted path at 20% speed. Proceed.”>
As the drone dutifully obeyed his commands and traveled along the stretch of paved road for a time, he was surprised at the lack of humans to be found despite the vehicles present. Each and every one had seemingly been abandoned; they all sat still, unmoving. His curiosity piqued, he highlighted a few of them in the control interface.
<“Halt forward momentum. Descend to 50 meters from planetary surface. Scan and analyze condition of marked targets.”>
As he finished his verbal command, the familiar synthesized voice of his drone’s onboard computer blared to life from the speakers of his terminal.

He shook his head, puzzled.
<“What happened here…? …Alright, ascend, 300 meters from planetary surface. Continue forward movement following the highlighted path, 15% speed.”>
Farther and farther the road stretched, but he didn’t see a single human upon it, nor in the surrounding area. He sighed and absent-mindedly gazed around at the surrounding environment. He couldn’t help but marvel at how- well, alien it all looked. The taller plant life he saw appeared to be quite complex, their stems covered in thick fiber and their extremities full of- oh, what was the word, “leaves?
…He hadn’t paid all that much attention during the portions of his schooling that covered exotic alien plant life found on feral worlds and the various homeworlds of the other races of the Collective. He figured he’d never really need to interact with much beyond the giant fungal pods, great lichen growths and so on of his homeworld. He was a spacer for spirits’ sake, not a xenobotanist, and-
…Wait, what was that?
<“Halt forward momentum. Reverse 50 meters. Pan visual sensors left, 30 degrees.”>
He squinted at the incoming visual feed. He was right, there was something laying in that ditch! Probably just a random piece of detritus, but better safe than sorry. He highlighted it.
<”Scan target. Assess.”>

<”...Descend toward target, 5% speed.. 2%... halt.”>
His eyes narrowed further as he zoomed the forward visual lens in. Whatever it was, it looked to be a biped, and-
…Wait a minute, he recognized that body structure! Spirits be praised, this had to be one of the members of the new species!
It- they, he corrected himself- had pale skin, long, dark brown fur atop their head, and were wearing clothing covering their torso and legs- though much of it was stained red, running all down the left side of their body.
What were they doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? And why were they laying in a ditch, unmoving? …Were they ok?
<”Scan target, and establish connection to ship auto-doc subsystem. Assess physical condition and cross-reference with known anatomical data of species designation: human.”>

Y’ggdrasog nervously swallowed, trying to center himself and focus despite what he had just heard. Well, that certainly answered that; no, she very much was NOT ok. Whatever had happened to her, it really messed her up.
<”Analyze if damage sustained is life-threatening without intervention given circumstances and location.”>

He swore under his breath.
<”...Expand and clarify analysis.”>

<”C-certainty of analysis conclusion…?”>

He put his head in his hands, his bioluminescence flickering between several colors- none of them good. Spirits above... She was going to die unless someone helped her!
…
…But he was in no position to do so…
He knew deep down that he was deluding himself if he thought he could get away with this if he was caught. No amount of loophole abuse and“legitimate” excuses could save him from severe negative repercussions, not when it came to something as serious as first contact.

He was already risking enough as it was…

Maybe he could let someone in one of the other ships know- no, that would give away that he’d been poking around on the sly…

Maybe- maybe someone else would find her in time, and they could save her? Or maybe, despite the odds, she might just get better on her own? Even if it took her past the 1.3 cycle mark to do so, there was still a- his brow furrowed as he did the math- 0.0000028% chance that she could survive, and a chance was a chance! …Right…?

No one would know if he didn’t intervene. It would be so easy- no chance of getting caught, no risk, no danger, just pull the drone-prone back to the ship, return to his original position, scrub the flight logs, and-

…
……
…No.
No, she’s not.
He opened his eyes and spoke, voice full of grim certainty.
<”Descend to two meters above highlighted subject. Very, VERY carefully use stasis field to attach to subject, entangle her matter with an equivalent mass of carbon from the fabricator hold, then return to quantum anchor point with cargo and safely lower the subject prone beside the drone chassis. Proceed.”>

He got up from the terminal and took off for the drone bay as fast as his taloned feet could carry him, one thought repeating itself over and over in his head as he went, a mantra of sorts:

I though since it Wills birthday today I would make little fan fiction of it hope you all like it
Will and Mike going into Enzos
Mike "table for ammmm 2"
Will "we have been here 5 times and you still get nervous"
Mike "can blame me the are homophobs everywhere"
Will and Mike sit at a table
Will "well that what we have to live with to love each other"
Mike "yeah it bullshit"
Will "it's life anyway what is this in honour of is because today..."
Mike intrupting him "a wonderful to look at my wonderful boyfriend eat some bread sticks WAITER CAN WE GET THOSE BREAD STICKS WITH SPICE ON THEM"
Mike "and some wine"
Waiter "how older are you sirs"
Mike "ammm how old do we look"
Waiter "not older enough for wine I will bring grape juice"
Mike muttering "why did they ask then stupid"
Will put his hand on Mike's "this is nice and on my...."
Mike runs to toilet with bag
Will confused why he took his bag
Mike in toilet cubical on walkie talkie "Dustin come in Dustin over"
All rest gang are at the Byers house
Dustin "FINALLY I have been trying to tell Will about this all week I am about to burst over"
Mike "are you close to being done over"
Steve and Robin arguing about banner with Nancy constantly saying right a bit then left a bit, 11 and Max arguing about the music and lucas trying to stop them fighting, a cake Joyce made nearly burning, Hopper being concealed by Murray over fact that he has to see Mike again, Jonathan and Argyle just smoking weed
Erica shouts down walkie talkie "we close to be done CLOSE TO BE DONE WITH WORLD WAR 3!"
Mike "well tell everyone we will be back in 10 minutes I think he is start to clue on to what happening"
Mike comes out trying to look chill
Mike "hay Will Will what been happening with you"
Will "Mike are you OK your sweating a lot"
Mike "what yeah fine I sweat because I am with someone who is hot"
Waiter with bread sticks places them in middle of them and whispers in Mike's ears "your flirting sir could do with some work"
Mike feeling super awkward and bag starts shaking as walkie talkie start playing
Dustin voice "we are done over we are done over"
Will only just put one bread stick in his mouth and Mike dragging him by the hand running out saying "any thing on the bill tab it to Chief Jim Hopper"
Will "what are you doing Micheal"
Mike "come on come on"
Will digging his heels in just before getting into byers family home [sad]crying "enough I want today to be special my first birthday with a boyfriend. But just all been in your words a bunch of bullshit now I am going home and you just stay away it was my birthday and you forgot but hay one person. But my mum my brother even new step dad and step sister so thank for forgetting idoits"
He walks in
Everyone "SURPRISED HAPPY BIRTHDAY"
Will [suddenly happy crying]
Mike kissing him on cheek "did you really think we forgot happy birthday"
Dustin screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Sorry I been keeping that inside for so long"

But the sad reality is that we need more people like him . Went to ward office today and they are openly committing corruption . Nepali congress lai jitayeka bau aahile next time chai ramro manxe lai vote halnu parxa vanirahanu vako xa. When will we learn.? When will this corruption stop.? When will there be a proper system and when will government workers fear directly committing corruption.? Fuck . 120 000. ? . Fuck this country man . Jo aye pani tyei ho , we, as a citizen are fucked. Aba Canada ko lagi visa process agadi badauxu , yaha basera kei garxu vanne soch thyo but fuck man can't stand this level of corruption.