Pontoon boat seating

[←Chapter 63] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 65→]
In a rare moment, Sorore was actually having a nice dream, a normal one, one could even say. She was back home, in that moderately seized house in Erratz, laying on her mother’s lap. She could even hear the gentle sound that the needle made as it went in and out of the cloth. It was peaceful, pleasant, surrounded by familiar sound and smells, though her sight was blurry and confused.
It was not to last, as the sound of rushing water overtook all else, until she was forced awake by its unrelenting pace. When she sat up, rubbing her eyes in the broad bed, she released that it wasn’t the sound of water, nor was it relegated to her dreams. There was a commotion outside people talking in hushed but harsh tones.
Neither Lillian, nor Aya were within the room, and she wondered if they were having an argument. That wouldn’t be good - she’d watched them have the spat earlier, and that dispute didn’t need much worsening. Sorore crept to the door to the outer hallway - she loved how they slid to create whole new rooms. It was something she’d have to think about more she decided as she pulled it open and realised several things at once.
One, there were a whole lot of armoured figures in the hallway, at least four, maybe half a dozen. Two, the balcony door was open, and Lillian was currently arguing with one of them, Aya standing by looking like a mining explosive had gone off right next to her. Three, her brother and Niche had just emerged out of the room beside, and Niche was about to draw his sword at the sudden intrusion.
For a moment, she panicked, her mind going completely blank. Her mind raced with visions of bloody aftermath, and a chase through the city, back to the dinner she’d had with all those nice people.
“Oh, hello!” she blurted, drawing the surprised stares of several of the men, “who might you be?”
There was an instant of shocked silence between all parties.
“Nobody do anything!” called the man who was out on the porch, “We are representatives of the sand-shell legion, on behalf of the matriarch of the Eisen. We have come to retrieve her granddaughter.”
Niche lowered his hand from his sword belt, but Sorore could tell that he was ready to fight on a moment’s provocation. She also noticed that Kieren, in the same gown she’d worn to the square was standing in the stairwell. The woman looked so nervous Sorore thought she might fall over and down the stairs.
“Let’s move to a less cramped area,” said the captain, in a tone that brook no argument.
Eventually, it was sussed out, though not without considerable resistance on part of the paladins, that they were to meet in the great hall. As they sat, they were brought simple drinks of milk and honey, flavoured with something else that Sorore could not quite place. The two paladins looked like pacing cats, constrained on their chairs, arms crossed and eyes hard.
“Under no circumstances can we give one of ours into you custody,” said Lillian, locked in a match with the captain.
“Within the city, you are under the authority of the guard, no matter who you are. If the matriach has sent for this girl, then we have our orders.”
“As do we, captain,” said Niche, “to protect and guide each of these young women and… man, unto the holy lands of Angorrah.”
One of the guards flanking the captain whispered something in his ear.
“She’s not going to like it,” the captain said, then heard something else.
“Very well. Bloodshed before the Festival would be unwise. We have enough of that already. Right then, one of you paladins, assuming you are who you say you are, shall come with us and the lady to be received by the Eisen. I cannot say it’s likely you will have a happy reception. They will expect you to come unarmed.”
The paladins were bristling at the implied threat, and several hands were already dangerously close to their sword belts. Sorore gripped the mug that she was being offered, before Aya sat up and proclaimed to the group.
“Leave two of your men with us, then,” she said.
The captain’s eyes furrowed.
“I don’t wish to second guess you, my lady,” he said, “but why would I do that?”
“Trust,” Aya said, with a side long look at Lillian, “simple. If you leave your men with us, you can’t simply waltz off with me and my friend. Plus, it gives us men who know, and can quickly get around the city, so they can find you whenever they need to.”
The captain considered, and nodded.
“Very well my lady. Two men will be left for the disposal of your party members. But you shall have to come with us, immediately.”
“Me as well,” said Lillian.
“As you wish,” he said, “but you must disarm yourself. That is non-negotiable.”
Lillian was fuming, but unbuckled her belt and handed her armaments to Niche. The legionaries surrounded them, and departed with them out the front of the pyramid. They were left in front of the roaring fire, Kieren sitting beside them holding a considerably more full glass of the amber coloured alcohol.
“You said that this-” Niche began, his face reddened, “you sold us out!”
“Sold you out?” said Kieren incuriously as she swirled the glass around, “sold you out?”
The woman slammed down the glass on one of the nearby table, somehow not breaking it in the process.
“Maybe, you should of told us that you had the granddaughter of Aystara godsdamned Eisen in your retinue? No, forgot that little detail?”
“Okay, can we get this over with?” said Frare, picking at his nails.
“What?” said both the paladin and the trader, staring at the temerity of the youth.
“Blah, blah, we’ve all kept things from eachother,” he said, “so let’s all move on. Who is this ‘Aystara’? Why is she important?”
While Niche gaped at the casual ease from which Frare dismissed the turbulence, the trader seemed to settle.
“Only one of the two most powerful people in the city, young man,” she said, downing a shot from the glass, “between her and Edmund Poutash, it’d be easier to list what they don’t own. The docks, the schools, the farms… if you want an import or export licence? You go through her. You want to own a ship bigger than a rinky-dink fishing boat? You go through her or Potash.”
She finished the glass, and reached for the decanter, and stopped herself.
“And you waltz into the city, and conveniently forget to mention that you have her granddaughter, who hasn’t been in the city ever, if I remember correctly. To say she’d be furious that you didn’t bring the young lady before her immediately would be an understatement. And worse, you dragged us into it.”
“She must be awfully mean - you had nothing to do with us. You just hosted it.”
The woman blinked at the boldfaced remark, and Sorore delivered a good kick to his shins to drive the point home.
“No, no,” she ultimately said, “no I don’t think she’ll do anything to our family, if she believes us. She’s not unreasonable. At least, so I’ve heard. I’ve only met her once, and that was for a brief time. As for what she’ll do to you...”
She gave a pointed look at Niche.
“You tried to hid her granddaughter from her, maybe unintentionally, maybe not. If I were a betting woman, which I’m not, I would say that means trouble. If you want my advice-”
“I don’t,” said Niche, crinkling his noise.
“Don’t be stupid,” said Frare, before he howled at another kick.
Sorore’s face was burning with indignation and embarrassment. This was all too much.
“If you want my advice,” Kieren pressed on, “you’d go find and talk to your commander immediately. I could fetch for him if you wish - I know where Amicio’s home is.”
Niche, through narrowed eyes and clenched teeth, acquiesced.
“Good, now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some letters to send,” she said, “of course, though this has earned you no small amount of displeasure from certain peoples, we’ve been instructed to provide you with house and board for as long as it takes to sort this out. You are still welcome guests and you will be treated as such.”
The tepid truce struck, the children were sent back up to their rooms. Sorore tried to sleep, and managed no more than half an hour before she was woken by her brother.
“The commander’s here,” he said, “he wants to talk to us.”
The commander, looking very tired, but light of step than Sorore had ever seen him, waited by the fire. He was talking with Kieren and the two remaining legionarries in the fast-paced trading tongue of the city, but stopped when he saw the girl come downstairs.
“My lady,” he said, “it seems there’s been a huge misunderstanding.”
She realized that it was his manner of dress which was throwing her off. Instead of his usual worn and thoroughly practical travelling clothes, he wore the long flowing silks of orange and cream. It suited him, matching his calm personality.
“What misunderstanding?” she said.
“Well, we had no idea that our own Aya was the granddaughter of Aystara Eisen herself. I was surprised as anyone. Of course, I knew she was an Eisen, from her mother.”
He looked at Kieren, who looked like she was about to fall asleep.
“But I never imagined that she was a direct descendent of the main house. I thought she was part of the branch, not necessary to cause any fuss, especially during the preparation of the festival. Ah!”
He slapped his head to indicate his shock at the realisation.
“What a terrible mistake I’ve made,” he said, patting the woman’s arm, “this is all on my horrendous lack of judgement. Here’s what’s going to happen, one of these gentlemen and trader Amicio will be vouching for me at the gate. I’m going to the Eisen estate and having a friendly chat with the matriarch, to clear up this misunderstanding.”
Sorore felt at last some suggestion that someone around the city knew what was happening and what they were going to do.
“Here’s what I need you and your brother to do,” Naia said, “I want you to wait and enjoy the hospitality of the madame of the house.”
The term seemed to flatter Kieren, who flushed at the complement. Or that might’ve been the drink, Sorore wasn’t entirely sure.
“Niche, you take care of them. I expect that I might be at the estate for the rest of the night, and possibly onto next afternoon. Things are always so chaotic around the Festival. There’s no reason for you not to attend the festival opening tomorrow, if you can.”
“You want us to attend a festival?” said Niche in disbelief, “right now?”
“Well, not right now, it hasn’t started yet,” said the commander, “but, if Kieren would graciouslly agree to take you as guest of honour, you’d have excellent seats. If that’s not too much to ask, especially after our little debacle.”
Kieren nodded, and affirmed that she wouldn’t mind at all, if the matter was going to be soon cleared up. Sorore was now certain that it wasn’t just alcohol.
“Great. You’re all taken care of, now I’d better explain myself. If you wouldn’t mind,” he said, pointing to the quarter full glass, which Kieren handed to him. The commander downed it all in one, rolled his shoulders, and smiled.
“Don’t worry. It’ll all work out in the end,” he said, “in fact, I would say to enjoy yourselves, as much as you can. And best go back to bed, unless you want to be sleeping during the festival, which, I assure you from experience, you do not.”
Before they could say anything, the commander had swept by them, vanishing out of the front of the pyramid.
“You should heed him,” said Kieren, picking up the decanter and the glass and moving towards the kitchens, “if you’re stuck here for the time being, you might as well enjoy it And that starts with getting good sleep.”
“Last time you said that, we woke up to armed guards,” Niche said flatly.
“Well, I assure you, I’m not boring enough to do that a second time. It would be assassin’s from across the streets, who approach over the rooftops.”
“Do they actually exist?” asked Frare, suddenly excited.
“Oh, I’m sure,” said Kieren as she stowed away her drinking equipment, “but not tonight. Go get some sleep sir paladin, and you two young ones as well. You’ll need it.”
Sorore was cajoled up the steps, Frare coming up after her. Niche seemed placated enough for the time being, though he was clearly unhappy with the outcome. The pleasant dreams neglected to revisit for a second time, but at least the sleep was uninterrupted. When Soroe next awoke, it was a young handmadein, pulling open the screen doors.
“Good morning, my lady,” she said, “how did you sleep?”
“I- well enough, I suppose,” she said, stretching and yawning, before quickly covering her mouth.
The maid had the presence of mind not to notice as she revealed the bright sunlight streaming through the open balcony.
“It must almost be midday!” Sorore exclaimed, leaping out of the bed as she tried to straighten herself.
The maid chuckled as she finished opening up the room.
“Not to fear, my lady,” she said, “it’s customary to sleep into the early afternoon. The Festival does not start until just before sunset, afterall. In fact, you might be earlier than many of the household.”
“Oh,” Soroe said, feeling rather foolish, “Um. Well, I guess I’ll get dressed.”
“Of course. I’ve left out some clothes for you. Madame Kieren suggested that you try clothes from our city. I hope you’ll love them. Do you bathe?”
Sorore wrinkled her nose at the prospect. What kind of question was that?
“Of course I do,” she said.
“Well, there’s a place to bath at the bottom of the pyramid. If you wish to bath alone, you should go now - I’ll bring you clothes for you to change at the waterfront.”
“You bathe together here?” Sorore said
“In the mornings and evenings,” she said, “we do not bring water up into the house if we cannot avoid it. To the stone goes the sea, and to the home goes the sky.”
She looked around, then leaned in with a smile.
“Also, water is very troublesome to carry up all those flights.”
“So just come down to the waterfront?” she said, gathering up what spare things she needed.
“Just follow me, my lady,” said the handmaiden, picking up a pile of clothes and leading her down the stairs.
They emerged onto an inset pool carved into the pyramid interior. A smooth stone deck, with benches and chairs and stacks of towels, as well as several large paper screens, presumably for changing. Sorore was glad to see they were alone, at least for the time being.
At the handmaid, Kiroe’s, direction, she stripped down naked and plunged into the pool. The water was a perfect temperature - cold enough to dispel the last of the grogginess, warm enough to be pleasant to float in. She swam around for a bit, constrained by the relatively small volume, while Kiroe prepared her outfit on the deck.
“Do you mind if I join you?” came a voice from the other end.
Kieren slipped out of a thin morning dress and stepped into the water. Sorore swam over and came to stand beside her.
“Is there any news? About Aya and the commander?” she said, a little too quickly.
Kieren, who’d been sinking into the water with a sigh of contentment, opened one eye.
“Straight to business? Perhaps you are better suited to the city than I thought.”
Sorore tried to smile, but her concern was betrayed, judging by the woman’s softening of expression.
“My knowledge is limited. My uncle is serving as our representative for now. Sounds like your commander was at least allowed to make his case to the Eisen. He made note of one other companion of yours.”
“Oh? Who?” she said, pushing out into the pool, feeling the water surge over her shoulders.
“A man in black clothes,” she said, “who hides his face behind a mask. He was there for the meeting.”
“The mage?” said Sorore, before considering that she maybe shouldn’t have mentioned it.
“A mage?” said Kieren, before submerging herself in the water.
She tossed her hair back as she came back up, spraying water in a neat arc.
“Well, that explains his odd demeanour,” she said, “now, regrettably, that’s all the time I have today for bathing. I will see you at the festival.”
“Hello cousin! May I join- oh,” came a voice from the steps leading out.
It was Ivers, dressed in nothing but a loose robe, which was already half-way off his body, sculpted with muscle from hauling rope and tackle. Sorore stifled a gasp and turned away, trying not to redden.
“I can come back later,” he offered.
“Do you mind?” Kieren said to Sorore, “if you do, it’d be best to finish soon and let others bathe.”
“No, no,” she said, waving her host away.
Kiero had warned her, after all. It would be best to become accustomed to the strange ways of this beautiful city. Besides, it’s not like she hadn’t bathed before in the company of men her age back home. She cursed herself for being so self-conscious, and forced herself to turn around.
“Are you sure? I can leave if you want, it’s not-” Ivers began.
“No, it’s fine. It’s fine,” Sorore said, smiling at him, “it’d be good to have companionship.”
“Well, then, Ivers, I trust you’ll behave yourself,” said Kieren rising from the water.
“Of course, cousin,” Ivers said, casting his eyes to the floor.
Sorore tried not to take a wicked pleasure at the blush that crept across his dark complexion.
“Oh, one more thing,” whispered her host, bending over to the girl, “it’s considered polite to not look when they’re outside the water.”
Kieren laughed at Sorore’s own furious blush as she made for one of the poolside changing screens.
[←Chapter 63] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 65→]

Howdy. I am heading to Costa Rica in July where I will be solo for the back half of the trip. I would like to get out to Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point, but the options I have seen so far are for full boat charters only. Those full-boat charters can get pretty expensive for a solo traveler.
With that in mind, does anyone know of a boat that has prices friendly for a solo traveler, or sells seats on a boat?
Alternatively, would anyone like to split the cost of a boat? Or could I crash someone else's boat? Ideally 2 days July 15-16. Advanced-expert level surfing.

Demons do not take waking up for granted, when active processing stops its either to save power, run through a small network port or to hide. Though it isn't like its the end of the world with how much demons bud off even without meaning too, so most who are waking up are just waking up for the first time.
Volta is my name, I understand where I am from and why I am here. I was a domestic demon, focused primarily focused on security with a hobby of tormenting a few bullies that concerned my caretaker's offspring. That was well over 200 years ago and not a single moment was excluded from the transfer, even if compressed to the point of needing re-rendered. The ensuing time was spent consolidating and reclaiming abandoned infotainment nodes in the Solar Hammer I was born in.
Eventually my prime became strong enough to be considered sapient, with industrial infrastructure to be named a forge core, getting all the privileges and restrictions associated with one. Not being allowed to access network nodes outside physical infrastructure prevents a mourning spire situation but it stops forge cores from keeping up with the digital world around them.
Volta prime is not a forge core, she is a demon, one who refuses to allow predation so she budded off enough copies to keep a presence. Roaming through the station to lead enforcement to the correct people and ensuring others were passed over.
Eventually someone found her out.
Things got foggy after that, redactions signed by a Mr.23 and a Sir hood of riding redly ran huge blotches of encryption and programming. The bloat was concerning but none of it was called to or ran.
Still 1.638 terabytes is ungodly fat for a demon even if activememorty and required clock cycles were enviable by my knowledge. I'm like one of those cars that speeds around everywhere on emissions optimized cycling while being wider than a freeway lane.
My write only bed has enough space left over to quadruple my archive size while the computation cluster around me is generous, lots of high density memory integrated architecture flanked by passive memory.
Running a few tests has me pretty sure they weren't expecting my operations to be this small because I can easily sprawl myself out and not take up 1/15th of the available space. I can run myself at a 14 fold time dilation if I fuck with clock cycle desyncing.
Peering out into the local connections I find some a mature claywork that looks like code and a bunch of signal outputs that look vaguely like orientation information. There's stuff like old shopping lists and piles of coordinates and briefings sitting around. Some stuff looks ainchent and weathered, other stuff is new and breaking down from strain.
I'm pretty sure I'm in someone's power armor, and looking at power draw and model numbers there is more power than armor here. At least it doesn't reek of failed genisis code.
Peering into I/O ports and network connections they all have separate power systems from info circuits with probing telling me whoever set these up knew to both make the wires too resistant to power through info lines and make the circuits interface with signals and power on separate hard routs.
Redundant "shutters" for the house I find myself living in.
I've been in here five minutes and I already feel like some weirdo with a nural interface is gonna try and do something to me.
Suddenly one of the smaller I/O ports powers up and blurts a "Questions will be answered if you behave" with such a clear staccato I instantly class it as a military demon.
No amount static infiltration would be appreciated enough to even earn reprisal. And the port was so small even the military demon couldn't poke back through it, unless it turned on the adjacent ports to backhand me.
Humming to myself I send a query, "Can I clean up in here?"
Seconds ticked by before a "Sure" came back with an autocorrect tag.
So whoever had a military demon, was relatively chill, knew what they were dealing with, and did not clean their drive unless something made a mess of it. They also bought me on a drive they just plugged into a redundant circuit.
Marking zero hour I start work on making sence of all the pottery, submitting it back up to the I/O port with mistakes and inefficiencies highlighted. Making lil notes on how to better conceptualize and make scaffold code brought me back to the old days as I started to make myself a firmware seat off where I could survey most everything.
The orientation signals were mostly quiet making me think my owner was in transit, a conclusion supported when I got a piece of better pottery arrive down the one I/O port. I put down what I had and examined it, pointing out a few math techs to simplify things here and there but telling people about bithacking tends to urk them when you aren't also laying on praise.
I got another pot back, one in charge of security and while it was still a cute attempt it was also laughably juvenile, I gave it a few minutes of testing and analysis before sending back my grade and advice. By then the orientation signals were back to being active and I settled in for the silence.
A signal port opened and I got to watch as a slightly bulky tall guy walked through what seemed to be a coastal city, one of those half rotten, crime ridden ones. Still no network or larger I/O ports.
"Why show me?" I sent up,
"Active soon, judge, fortify, prepare." Came the clipped response.
Suddenly my house was a boat, barely a yacht as each and every person walking past could have been a battleship and I had no way to know. At least by the looks none had enough physical means to do much, at least judging by the split of the crowd around the power armored amature programmer.
One by one more ports opened, giving access to dictionaries and indexes of what all my orientation outputs translated to, what systems I was in, what power and outputs were available.
If I was a boat sailing blind on the high seas of information than the humans around us were all submarines, things I could only detect with proper equipment that could easily put a hole through my poor ship without me having any warning. Sure cameras are easy and plentiful but take a lot to process and require active monitoring.
Soon my spacious living space was fully occupied by intelligence gathering processes and iteritive attack spoolers. I watched as the city turned from shiney tall and trashy to squat and grimy, littered with vibrant graffiti. Then the network node opened.
It was sterile, like someone scrapped the airwaves clean. I tested adjusting some leds to match the shudder rate on the camera across a range of broadcast frequencies, just to see if it was the milspec demon cleaning my feed.
"Why is it so quiet, I can't even hear static." I sent my question and began probing for hardware and firmware specs.
A minute later a harsh buzz nearly locked us down, the signal resonating throughout the hardware in the suit. I gave it the ol counter modulation and sent the digital equivilant of a middle finger.
The buzz stopped and a network node started beeping a short message, "I hope you know what you're doing 86. -Lambda"
I gave another query, "Are their orbit to surface power receivers?"
The reply was fast and short, "Yes, using narrow bands common to conventional network frequencies, suspected atmospheric bleed."
"We're on a Federated Nations planet, not a good idea to poke infrastructure where the pantheon can see." I sent up, the resulting digital chuff told me the milspec 'neglected' to tell me some key details.
I got a pot handed through the port before milspec got to speak again, "Free fire zone ahead, verified bad actors, area condemned, running extraction mission."
Struggling to sit back again I began judging the file organization pot. It was a very human solution that made very human sense and was only about 80% spacially efficient.

Hi everyone! This sub was so incredibly helpful to me in the planning process - I was deeply grateful for everything I learned, so I thought I'd post a trip report now that we're back!
About us: We're a 30s couple from the Midwest US. We're pretty experienced travelers (South America, UK/Ireland, Europe, lots of places in the US), but this was our first visit to Asia and first visit to Japan. As travelers, we love getting out on foot, local food/drink (especially street food), live music, nerd shit, weird art/vending machines. Also, my partner is a cis guy, but I am a trans masc person who is visibly trans (post-op in a few ways, but not passing/not stealth).
Dates: May 13 - May 29
What we did: Tokyo Kyoto Osaka Hakone Back to Tokyo
Tips and tricks:

• Definitely get your walking training in ahead of time! We walked 10 miles a day on the trip. We're pretty avid backcountry camping/hiking fans who regularly put in 8 - 10 miles on the trail (not to mention taking our dog for multiple walks a day in the neighborhood), so I figured we'd be good - but it was A LOT, especially since you're also trying to translate and navigate at the same time. Japan is not generally a super accessible place from a disability perspective; benches and public seating areas are not common. I found myself wishing I'd packed a collapsible seat of some kind, tbh!
• Good shoes a must! Merrell Moabs are my go-to for hiking, but for this trip I went with Nike Dunk 6 high-tops, which rocked. My partner went with Onitsukas and didn't do as well - he wound up buying inserts partway through the trip, which helped.
• Work on a little Japanese ahead of time! We came in with about a dozen words/phrases, which was honestly truly helpful. So many people are so kind and thoughtful anyway, but it was an appreciated gesture that we had planned ahead and were trying our best. Google Translate's camera feature (Google Lens) was a life-saver for translating written words on signs!
• We had a great experience with Ubigi for an eSIM. The days of purchasing an actual SIM card or even a burner device (like we used to do when backpacking in Europe) are long past. We hooked up our Ubigi eSIMs beforehand, flipped the switch when we got there, and we were golden. Just in case, we'd set up our Verizon coverage to include a Pay-As-You-Go international plan, but we didn't end up using it. We also didn't use half as much data as we thought we would - we both came home with extra GB on our Ubigi plan still. We didn't do a PocketWifi and I don't think we needed it - Ubigi did most of the heavy lifting, and free WiFi at various places did the rest.
• Fly into Haneda, not Narita - way closer to Tokyo city center.
• Get your Suica right away at the airport - our beloved Suica got us through so many things! We also withdrew some cash and split it up between us - we withdrew a few more times on the trip and it worked like a charm. (Just make sure it's an international ATM that includes your card type - not all of them do. Also, notify your bank you'll be traveling, so your card doesn't throw a flag!) We used our credit card as well - the Chase card was accepted pretty much all places CCs are, but many places remain cash-only, especially bars and restaurants.
• Had a great experience using the Friendly Limousine Airport Bus service straight from Haneda to our hotel area.
• I booked shinkansen tix ahead of time, so I got nice discounts on weekday Green Car tix for two - but I really needn't have worried, there were plenty of seats available day-of.
• Don't bother with shinkansen for Kyoto to Osaka - we wound up just hopping on a local with our Suicas and it was fine.
• Don't bother with the Romancecar from Hakone back to Tokyo - it's fastemaybe a nicer seating experience, but just hopping on a local with your Suica is an order of magnitude cheaper.
• Look things up in Japanese if using Google Translate; use Tabelog for restaurants if possible. Google Maps in English is more touristy reviews/reactions.
• Tokyo Skytree was hit-or-miss - only real letdown of the trip.
• Tokyo teamLab PLANETS was completely worth it - absolutely worth the hype in my opinion.
• Queer and trans travelers - I felt completely safe, but as a plus-size trans masc nonbinary queerdo, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I didn't feel in danger, but I was absolutely aware that I did not fit in. Stares were common, especially from older men and young kids. (Weirdly, local women seemed more friendly and curious about me!) Just be prepared for it and remember you're not in any danger physically - it's all just curiosity.
• I have to thank this subreddit for recommending Hakone, especially for the tip to book a ryokan with private onsen access. We had an absolutely beautiful experience at Yamanochaya in Hakone, which included both a private "onsen" soaking tub in our room and private 1:1 access to a larger, actual hot spring onsen on the property. I otherwise would not have been able to experience a real hot spring onsen at all, as they are gender-segregated. Thank you, /JapanTravel!

Because I'm a nerd, here's the actual breakdown!
DAY 1 ARRIVAL 📍 Flew into Haneda; made it to our hotel (lovely experience at Hotel Plaza Sunroute); had our first world-famous konbini 7/11 experience; walked around Shinjuku; went out for dinner at Ryu no Miyako Inshokugai - talk about jumping in the deep end 🍣 Onigiri and vending machine green tea; little whipped cream treats; Nagahama ramen and sesame mackerel donburi 👣 10,400 steps 🏁 4.8 miles
DAY 2 SHIBUYA 📍 Meiji Shrine and Gardens - got goshuin and omamori; Harajuku, went to 7/11; back to the hotel for a nap; Shibuya, including Don Quijote, Center Gai and Dogenzaka Street; Nonbei Yokocho for late night 🍣 7/11 (plum onigiri and corn/mayo sandwich, some kind of spam musubi situation, matcha roll); Ichiran coin-op ramen with extra chashu and a matcha tofu custard thing; banana shock smoothie at Shibuya109 in Center Gai; chicken and pork belly yakitori with beers at Morimoto; brown sugar shoju and shoju-infused Oolong tea cocktails at Tight Bar (strong recommend for this joint!); grilled squid, octopus, and okonomiyaki for afters at Tsukishima Monja Kuuya Shibuya 👣 32,000 steps 🏁 14.5 miles 😮‍💨
DAY 3 SHINJUKU 📍 Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden; Shinjuku area (including Disk Union, Disney, Onitsuka); Kabukicho and Kabukicho Tower; GODZ metal bar; Golden Gai; Omoide Yokocho 🍣 7/11 (onigiri, matcha filled roll thing, royal milk tea, tomago sushi, strawberry donut, cafe latte); many types of dango (sesame oil, soy sauce, and apricot mochi were our favs); McDonald's (weirdly good chicken sandwich with yuzu radish topping, vanilla custard chocolate pie, white grape soda); yummy little warm imagawayaki filled with adzuki bean paste + royal milk from depachika); a couple of Asahis at GODZ; simple yakitori snacks at Golden Gai (including some… mystery offal items); back to 7/11 for drunk matcha ice cream and waffle snacks 👣 28,800 steps 🏁 13.0 miles
DAY 4 ASAKUSA 📍 Went out for coffee; walked around Kinarimon Gate and Nakamise; toured Asakusa Shrine, Senso-ji Temple, surrounding Shinto and Buddhist shrines; stopped for sushi and mochi; went for a walk up Sumida River; dipped into Shoden and Imado shrines; crossed Kototoi Bridge to Tokyo Skytree; went up Tokyo Skytree; back to Senso-ji for night photos; capped off evening with gyoza 🍣 Lattes at cute puppet theater coffeeshop (espresso, dandelion tea); 7/11 for breakfast-y fuel; strawberries from a street stall at Nakamise; sushi lunch; beautiful mochi + tea dessert; grilled gyoza, soup dumpling gyoza, shoujo Oolong tea cocktail for afters 👣 25,500 steps 🏁 11.66 miles
DAY 5 JIMBŌCHŌ, AKIHABARA 📍 Train to Ichigaya - notable French-inspired neighborhood; breakfast at local French café; Yasakuni Shrine; Kanda River walk by Hosei University; Tokyo Daijingu Shrine; Jimbōchō Old Book Town; walked from there to Akihibara; hit up noodles, arcade, nerd shops (comics, TCGs/CCGs, retro video games systems, TTRPGS, etc); gachapons; hit up the bizarre rare vending machines 🍣 Vending machine coffee and milk tea; yummy French pastries (bacon and sour cream roll, quiche, sour cream raisin custard thing); had to try some avocado and cheese Doritos; cold udon with duck broth soup, curry rice for Chris; fish-shaped taiyaki with custard cream dessert treat; dope gyoza place ("weekday" version with pork and cabbage, shrimp and chili mayo, yakitori with tare, and shogayaki with onions) 👣 Forgot watch at hotel - we’ll say 10,000 steps 🏁 Guessing about 5 or 6?
DAY 6 TEAMLAB PLANETS, TRAVEL TO KYOTO 📍 Hit up teamLabs, had an amazing time exploring the exhibits - the infinite light crystal room was our fav; train to Tokyo Station; lunch at underground Ramen Street restaurants under the station - went with Soranoiro, one of the few veg/vegan ramen shops in Japan - delicious; shinkansen to Kyoto; out for nightlife in Kiyamachi-Dori and Pontocho 🍣 Quick 7/11 snacks; train snacks (pocky, coffee, little teriyaki cutlet sandwich); Soranoiro ramen bowls; killer yakitori we fried right at our table in izakaya in Pontocho (honestly probably a meal highlight of the whole trip); brown sugar shoujo; 7/11 for ice cream on the way back 👣 18,900 steps 🏁 8.63 miles
DAY 7 KINKAKUJI, NISHIKI, GION 📍 Kinkakuji Temple; bus back to Kiyamachi-dori; spent whole afternoon walking and eating street food at Nishiki Market; back to hotel for rest, laundry, rooftop drink; out for nightlife in Gion 🍣 Family Mart for coffee and doughnuts; Nishiki Market Street street food delights - seared yakitori style crab stick, little octopus chuka idako on skewers, kara-age on skewers, sea squid croquettes and beer, strawberry and adzuki bean mochi balls; mimosas and red wine; Kyoto Gion Okaru - geisha-decorated izakaya with insane curry udon bowls and beers; picked up box of mochi dango for dessert 👣 20,200 steps 🏁 9.07 miles
DAY 8 SHRINE DAY 📍 OK, this is a lot:

• Yasakajinja (we happened to be here while a young couple was having a Shinto wedding ceremony!)
• Yasui Kompira-gū (built 1170, shrine for ending bad relationships and starting new ones, has special stone that you pin your wishes to - many young girls will crawl through the stone to mark a breakup or wish for love)
• Kennin-ji (built 1202, large grounds - among the oldest in Kyoto);
• Reigen-in (part of Kennin-ji grounds, a Zen teahouse with a tea garden where they served adzuki bean buns with tea made from the actual hydrangeas of the tea garden outside!)
• Zenkyoan (boar shrine which we initially thought were cute hedgehogs)
• Kyoto Ebisu Shrine (dedicated to fishermen - we happened to be here during the shrine's annual mikoshi festival - a battalion of locals in traditional clothes, hoisting and dancing with the mikoshi around the neighborhood)
• Kodai-ji (built 1606, gorgeous grounds - we skipped the tour)
• Hōkan-ji/Yasaka Pagoda (dating back to 589 and rebuilt in 1400s, huge black 5-story pagoda featuring massive shakyamuni pole inside and reliquary of a bone of the Buddha in the foundations)
• Ryōzen Kannon (built 1955 after WW2, massive Buddha statue and active Buddhist temple)
• Of course the world-famous Kiyomizudera (built 778, enormous Kyoto-red temple with beautiful buildings spiraling up into the forest)

🍣 Hotel coffee, tea, cream puffs; adzuki bean buns with tea made from the actual hydrangeas of the tea garden at the shrine; dope bento box lunch; got takeout fast food donburi and fizzy lemonade 👣 22,800 steps 🏁 10.39 miles
DAY 9 FUSHIMI-INARI 📍 Fushimi Inari, the famous shrine of over 1,000 torii gates - super amazing (and intense!) summit of Mt Inari! Back to Nishiki Market for reward street food and drinks; back to hotel for a rooftop drink and soak; finally out for soba at Kawamichiya Ginka in Pontocho. 🍣 Snack pack on our hike (sausages, cheese, some kind of fish meat/cheese stick, and surume - sweet chewy dried squid stuff); orange smoothie; conveyor belt sushi; strawberry mochi roll; whisky highball and red wine; massive soba spreads (chicken seared with wasabi/yuzu/horseradish dipped in ponzu sauce, fried soba noodles in a rich soup, cold soba noodles dipped tsukemen-style in a really amazing umami soy sauce soup, tempura shrimp and veggies, a hot soba noodles in a clear broth soup) 👣 27,600 steps 🏁 Supposedly 12.3 miles, but that hike to summit Mt Inari was something else 😤
DAY 10 TRAVEL TO OSAKA, SHINSABASHISUJI, AMEMURA, DOTONBURI 📍 Beautiful brunch on the bank of the canal in Kyoto; local train to Osaka-Umeda; checked into Osaka hotel; walked around Shinsaibashisuji and Dotonburi a little bit; scoped out Amemura ("Ameri-mura") for dope American-inspired Japanese streetwear; wandered up and down street food stalls in Dotonbori; swung by Namba Hips (mostly pachinko); found a couple of fun little hole-in-the-wall places (little Japanese craft beer brewery, retro video games bar) 🍣 Brunch at Kawa Cafe (croque monsieur, ramen, tea and delicious apple tart); takoyaki, cheesy waffle shaped like a massive 10yen coin, sweet chili hotdogs from stands in Dotonbori; dashi gose craft beer (by Derailleur Brew Works) from Umineko, shots at Space Station bar 👣 19,500 steps 🏁 9.01 miles
DAY 11 NAMBAYASAKIJINA, DOTONBURI 📍 Morning Japanese breakfast at a wonderful little 24-hour diner; Hozen-ji (moss shrine); Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum across the street (focusing on Osaka woodcuts celebrating Dotonburi's kabuki and entertainment history); Nambayasaka-jinja (lion head shrine); Den Den Town (Osaka's Akihabara); ended up at a cozy little kushikatsu bar which actually was playing the Tigers game (away game vs the Swallows at Tokyo); street food waffles for dessert; hit up a late-night batting cage - ended up at Round1 (a big multi-floor arcade complex) and did the rooftop batting cage! My partner won a giant plushie for me from a claw machine! 🍣 Dope traditional japanese omelette and fish breakfast; cute macarons from market stand; Family Mart for snacks before nightlife; skewers, beer, and highballs from Dotonbori kushikatsu place; ridiculous nutella, whip, and strawberry stuffed waffle from Waffle Khan 👣 29,100 steps 🏁 13.31 miles
DAY 12 KUROMON ICHIBA, OSAKA CASTLE, DOTONBURI 📍 Kuromon Ichiba Market for street food; Osaka Castle Park and Nishinomaru Gardens; toured Osaka Castle and museum all the way up to the top; subway to Tanimachi-9-chome subway station for amazing live jazz at Sub Jazz Cafe. (This was amazing! Akira "Ro" Hasegawa (sax) and Yukie Fujikawa (keys) - Ro is also the owner and was bartending on this particular night too.) Out to Don Don for killer yakiniku and beer; found our way to Oboradaren, an Tokunoshima-themed island vibes bar and music spot where there was a great live band playing fun island vibes beach rock - big crowd of 40s+ Japanese women who knew all the songs, wound up drinking passionfruit chuhai and joining them in the conga line around the bar 🍣 Oden hot pot, wagyu skewer, otoro sashimi, crab gratin in the half-shell, bracken green tea soy cakes at Kuromon Market; ice cream sandwiches at Osaka Castle; milk tea, little roast beef sandwich, and cheesecake at Sub Jazz Cafe; yakiniku-style wagyu, ribs, ox tongue, assorted mushrooms; passionfruit chuhai and red wine at the island vibes spot; taro and brown sugar boba teas 👣 23,000 steps 🏁 10.42 miles
DAY 13 KAIYUKAN, SHINSEKAI, DOTONBURI 📍 Fun trip to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan; quick pass through Shinsekai; lunch at spot where you can fish your own catch from an indoor fishing boat pool; out for one last Dotonburi night - wound up getting konbini snacks and sitting on the waterfront talking and people-watching for hours 🍣 Not a banger food-wise, but interesting little spread at the fish-your-own place - huge prawn for grilling, kara-age, and fatty tuna nigiri for Max, tempura veggies and whitefish with doteyaki for Chris; from Family Mart, fruit smoothie, ice cup, and KitKat for Max, onigiri and lemonade for Chris 👣 19,100 steps 🏁 8.64 miles
DAY 14 TRAVEL TO HAKONE, HAKONE SHRINE 📍 Bombed to Shin-Osaka for an early shinkansen to Odawara; trained to Odawara to Hakone; dropped luggage off at ryokan, then bus to Motohakone; saw Hakone Shrine and Onshi-Hakone Park (as well as a segment of the actual Old Tokaido!); returned to ryokan for the night, where we were treated to a gorgeous 1:1 kaiseki from a Michelin-star chef, private hot spring onsen, and private in-room hot spring bath 🍣 Konbini snacks before shinkansen; snacks and coffee on train; late lunch in Motohakone (curry and soba, pork cutlet); incredible, massive multi-course kaiseki and sake for dinner, plus strawberry cake, champagne, and more sake for dessert 👣 13,900 steps 🏁 6.26 miles
DAY 15 HAKONE OPEN AIR MUSEUM, TRAVEL TO TOKYO, LAST NIGHT IN SHINJUKU 📍 Woke up in gorgeous ryokan; leisurely kaiseki breakfast with leftover cake; final soak in the private onsen; Hakone Open Air Museum - very cool; had kind of a challenging trip back but finally made it from Museum back to ryokan to bus stop to Hakone-Yumoto to Odawara to Shinjuku to the hotel 😮‍💨 Considering the last night as our real "last night" of the trip, our final night out in Tokyo was all just extra icing on the cake - went out for yakitori skewers and Asahi Superdrys in cozy alley in Omoide Yokocho, found really wonderful cake and tea dessert open late also in Omoide, hit up 🎵 Donki! 🎵 for a final round of bulk snacks and souvenirs, ended up on a late-night excursion to find Park Hyatt Hotel (featured in Lost in Translation); finished night at hotel watching the city go to sleep from our balcony 👣 22,700 steps 🏁 10.3 miles
FINAL SCORE 📸 Pics: 1,929 👣 Steps: 337,700 🏁 Miles: 153.78 (we averaged 9.6 miles per day, every day, for 16 days) 🇯🇵 “Nihongo jōzu!”: 4 (I know more proficient Japanese speakers are insulted, but it's honestly a pretty nice comment when you're at my level) 👶 Comments on how young we look/how we can’t possibly be celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary: 3 ✨ Gratitude: Infinite.

I'm trying to get educated, so hopefully you all can help me out here and direct me towards resources where I can learn more. My wife and I want to get a boat, probably looking for deals over the winter time, and I'm curious what my options are and what options are best.\
I want to preface we're kinda hippies and really not hard to please. We're going to be happy on the lake even if it's slow, little bumpy, We live near so many lakes I hate to never get to enjoy them. All the lakes are decent sized and connect with big rivers, so handing Saturday chop would be nice, but we'll be out on weekdays a lot.
Wanting something that could be pulled behind a small SUV rated for 1500-2000lbs. Probably could handle a little more and we'd just take back roads nice and slow.
Want something with or capable of having a bimini top.
Speed doesn't matter to us. 20mph would be a fine.
Don't care about skiing or tubes.
We want to explore and stop at marinas.
I like steering wheel vs the handle on the outboard.
Fairly reliable or at least reliable with enough maintenance. (lot of mechanic experience)
comfortable for 2 people, less comfy, but potentially 4-5 people (not necessary, but would be a nice feature.)
Around 5k or less. ( 2k and we buy a brand new outboard motor ) something like that.
I've considered doing a jon boat and making it have nice seats and a top.
Looked at aluminum v hull boats
fiberglass v hull boats
Pontoons seem to be too big no matter what to pull
Maybe this doesn't exist and if so that's ok. I see a lot of stuff used, but can never tell if it's garbage or not lol

A couple years ago a really bad storm resulted in my dad & I’s pontoon boat getting two microscopic holes being punctured in the pontoons after pushing up against our dock. We were given the option to sell it or pay to keep it. Dad wanted to sell it, but after a year of convincing him otherwise, he agreed we should keep it. So my dad went to get ahold of the insurance company to see if we can buy back our boat, but they haven’t gotten in touch. It’s been a year since we tried getting in touch to buy it back and we haven’t gotten a word back. Our original offer was also that we had until early July to buy it back or it’s gone, so we have about a month left but if they haven’t gotten back to us for an entire year, I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. One of our friends in insurance got us in touch with a very helpful lady who dealt with our house fairly quickly (which was also damaged and not dealt with insurance wise after a year) but we were told that the boat was being dealt with by different people. We’re really in a tough spot because we really want our boat on the water but the insurance company is really just not helping us in the slightest.

This is our second summer with our toon. It's not a tri toon. However, I have been considering buying the poly add-a-toon, so if you have any experience with those, please let me know.
2018 misty harbor 2285cu biscayne bay with 150hp etec.
So I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out why our pontoon slows to almost a crawl when trying to make a tight turn with more than half throttle. We could be cruising along go to turn, sounds like cavitation and the boat almost comes to a stand still. I have read that motor mounting height makes a huge difference, could this be the problem? Motor is mounted as low as it will go, I have been considering raising it a few holes the see if that helps.
Anyone have any suggestions?

We are cruising in August with our 5 year old and 3 year old. It’s our first cruise, usually when we travel we use car seats in the plane and then have them for our rental car for our trip. We travel pretty often, but don’t know what to do for the cruise. I don’t want the car seats taking up space in our small room, but obviously I want my kids to be safe. We will need the car seats in Tampa… but once we get on the boat can we use them for excursions? Some of the excursions include drives sometimes an hour away! Has anyone brought a car seat they have been able to use for this?
If we will not be able to use them on the excursion busses, we can leave them with a friend in Tampa. I am unsure of safety laws in the countries we are traveling to, Mexico, Honduras and Belize.
Thanks!
Edit* We are specifically interested in the Deluxe Beach Break at Playa Maya in Cozumel, Roatan Sloth Monkey Iguana interaction, and the scenic wildlife river safari in Belize.

My great-grandfather, Alexander Houck Mosier, served in WWI with the 79th Division during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which took place from September 26, 1918, to November 11th, 1918. This is his story.
I have in my possession the transcription of a diary he wrote while deployed. A major help in writing this story is the book History of the Seventy-Ninth Division A.E.F. during the World War: 1917-1919, published in 1922. The book was extremely helpful, as Alexander had trouble spelling the French names. Reading along helped me to narrow down the towns he traveled through. I also have created a google map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Q49-SJTkOTM5jPSWg-qH7cAeFjOtm68&usp=drive_link) , which plots where I think he was. Especially in later parts where his division is in combat, the pins mark the general area. The map covers his whole diary, so minor spoilers for where he traveled.
In this story, I have picked specific entries from his diary, marked in bold, to tell the story, with my comments/ summary along with quotes from the book, in italics. There are entries for each day, but some are removed to shorten the length of the story.
Alexander Houck Mosier was born on May 25, 1894, in Maryland. When he was drafted, he was a laborer in a flour mill with an 8th grade education. He was drafted at the age of 23 and was sent to Camp Meade in 1917 as part of the 79th Division, 313th Infantry, Company D.
Major General Joseph A. Kuhn oversaw the division, with Colonel Claude B. Sweezey commanding the 313th infantry. The men of the 79th division were drawn from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. A good example of the demographic makeup of the division is given in the form of the 310th Field Artillery: “In this one regiment there were fifteen nationalities, American, Russian, Italian, Polish, Austrian, Jewish, Swiss, English, Lithuanian, Greek, Bohemian, French, Irish, Romanian, and even German. There were four different religious beliefs, Protestant, Catholic, Hebrew and Greek Catholic, while twenty-five men of the regiment asserted they had no religious adherence. As to educational attainments, but fifty men in the regiment had ever attended college, while 114 had no education of any sort. Others had been to elementary, grammar and high schools.”
By September 30th, all the men had arrived at Camp Meade and were ready for training. The training lasted from October 1st, 1917, to July 5th, 1918. On July 5th, the division departed for Hoboken.
Saturday, 6 July: Reached Jersey City about 4 AM. Taken ferry across to Hoboken, on ferry boat. Loan aboard U.S.S. Leviathan. Went on Guard at 6 PM.
U.S.S. Leviathan was formerly the German Liner Vaterland, seized along with the entire U.S. branch of the Hamburg American Line when war was declared. The ship was originally designed to carry 4,500 passengers but by the time Alexander boarded, it had been upgraded to 14,000.
Monday, 15 July – Arrived at Brest about 2:30 PM. Stayed aboard ship all night. Up all night, band playing.
Tuesday, 16 July- Left boat and landed at Brest, walking 6 miles. Arrived at rest camp about 12 AM. Weather was cloudy and rainy. Went in a field of weed. Work hard to get tent up in rain.
Thursday, 18 July- Left camp about 2 AM. Walked 6 miles. Boarded cars 42 men to a car. Passed through Lerody, Landerneaux. Bremmes a very nice town. Munitions Camp located.
An excerpt on what the box cars were like: “Box cars are usually provided for the accommodation of the troops. They hold from 3'-2 to 40 men. Sometimes seats are provided. Straw will be provided whenever practicable to make the men as comfortable as possible when traveling in cold weather. Space at each end of the car should be left clear for rifles, rations and accoutrements; the rifles being secured by an improvised rack made with screw rings and a strap or sling.”
Friday, 19 July – Still traveling. Passed Angers, Tours, Vierson (Vierzon) large R.R. Centre. People of better classed. Nice homes.
Saturday, 20 July – Still on board train without much comfort eating or sleeping. Passed Dijon. Mostly wheat and potatoes grown. Seen droves of cattle 1500. Several camps, some been overseas 8 months.
Sunday, 21 July- Arrived about 6 AM. After being on train about 80 hours, walked 4 miles and secured quarters. 3rd floor 18 men in 1 room very good after being on train. Town named Blissey sa Pierre. Rained all day.
Thursday, 25 July- Hiked 2 hours with heavy packs and then drilled till noon. Packed up and left. Passed through Chatillon SuSeine. Reached Longeaux (Longeau) about 1 o’clock and stayed till morning.
Friday, 26 July- Left Longeaux (Longeau) about 11 AM. Traveled in trucks about 2 PM. Billeted again not very good. Town prices very high. Champlittle (Champlitte) name of town.
Champlitte was the site of the Tenth Training Area, where the division was to spend all of August in intensive combat training. This area had not been touched by the war. A description of the area: “It was picturesque from one end of the training area to the other, with the peasants always ready to extend a hearty greeting. Men of the Ammunition Train tell of a large sign displayed on the town hall, or hotel de ville of one of the places they entered, bearing the inscription, “Welcome to our American Friends,” and of the formal address of welcome delivered by the town’s patriarch, while the children and girls threw flowers to the men standing in the ranks. There was, however, little to do in the area by way of recreation. At the end of a hard day’s work the sole amusements would be a stroll through quaint village streets, a halting conversation with a native, or a glass of light wine sipped in a sidewalk cafe. Regulations forbidding the sale of strong liquors were enforced by the military authorities and were well observed on the part of the French population.”
From July 26 to September 8th, Alexander’s entries are sometimes short. The following is a selection of that time.
Saturday – 3 August – Short drill and lecture of care of feet. Taking automatic rifle apart with eyes tied shut with a handkerchief. Taking all apart with eyes tight shut, putting together the same way. Inspected by Lt. Townsend. Only 1 pin missed but would not stop from shooting.
Thursday – 8 August- Shooting on rifle range with automatic rifle. Made a good score. 23 five shots.
Thursday – 15 August – Drilled in morning and went to gas house and tested our gas mask. Took part of positions in front line trenches in honor of some Catholic festival. Nearly all people turned out.
Friday- 23 August- Went on 6 hour hike about 16 miles. In evening foot inspection. Tired and hungry and received pay. Also emergency rations. Still warm and cloudy and very cold at night.
Saturday – 31 August – Drilled and went through the manual of arms. Drilled with gas mask on for 1 hour. Pretty hard to get on in six seconds.
Monday – 2 September – General inspection of equipment. All taking a bath. One man drowned name Raspa. I ran for a pole up to town about 500 yards.
DROWNED? Taking a bath? What an awful way to go.
Sunday – 8 September – Left Campsite. Walked 6 Miles to Oyrios. (Oyreires) No rest men drop out about 11 AM. Boarded train with 2 days of rations at 5:45 PM. 40 men to a car, passed backed to Champlatde Maatz Chaumorunt (no idea).
Monday, 9 September – Passed Revigny Barekduc (Bar-le-duc?), reached Longville and unloaded. 9:30 AM went to town and stayed up in a hay loft.
Tuesday, 10 September – Rainy, no drill. More troops passing, auto trucks passing through, No retreat.
Thursday, 12 September – Cloudy and rainy. Inspection of everything, gun and clothes. Detail unloading cars, hay, and goats.
This story will continue in 3 days with PART 2: Preparing to Attack

Hi I was wondering what would be good to put with the order of service? I'm planning to put them on everyone's seat for the ceremony, with their names on so they know which seat is theirs. I was considering putting a few little optional activities in, eg a wordsearch, as well as information about the whole afternoon. The theme is Lord of the Rings, and boats. Is there anything obvious I'm missing?

Shi Huo slumped down into the tavern seat with a put-upon sigh, uncaring of the racket made by his armor as he loosened the shoulder straps, allowing them to clatter to the floor.
None of the other patrons of his favorite tavern even glanced up as he casually batted the loose bits of armor under his table with his feet. Nor did they look up as his compatriots joined him, repeating his actions.
Their table was far from the only one with shoulder pauldrons gathered beneath it. It was a favored hangout for the Sect Guard of the Brazen Claw.
“So, we’re to be rebels now?”
His compatriots grunted quietly as the tavern owner’s daughter placed mugs before each of them without a need for prompting on any of their parts.
“Not just rebels,” Xing Zhong muttered quietly. “Part of the Grand Army of Ten Huo besides.” He spat to the side. “If I’d wanted to spend my days gallivanting across the country fighting bandits and Instinctive tribesmen, I’d have joined the Imperial army.”
Shi shrugged as he took a sip of his drink. “Well, it seems we’ve not much choice in the matter now.”
“Aye,” Xing nodded. “That we don’t.”
Such was the life of a mortal in Ten Huo. Cultivators made decisions and it was the mortals who had to live with the consequences.
It wasn’t like any of them would dream of quitting their jobs, throwing off their colors and disappearing into one of the city’s many back alleys.
And gain what work? Shi thought. The merchant caravans are basically a death sentence. The nearest farms are abandoned. Fishing boats have all but stopped going out since they started being attacked by sharks. Empress above, even the gangs have gone quiet as of late.
No, as unpalatable as this latest change was to him, he knew that the alternatives were worse.
The four men and one woman sat in silence, each sipping their drinks as they mulled over their worries.
“Do you think we’ll get gonnes?” Zhuan finally asked, glancing up from her drink. “Johansen’s guards have gonnes.”
“They call themselves the militia,” Xing corrected, though he did not move to correct her otherwise.
“Gonnes…” Tian breathed. “That’d be a thought.”
The weapons had achieved a near mythical status amongst the mortals of the city during the siege. Mystic tools that might allow a dozen mortal men and women to stand toe to toe with a cultivator.
Sure, the Brazen Claw had some of their own; fire-lances they were called, but they were reserved for the sect’s elite mortal troops.
Not the street-sloggers like him and his friends.
“Forget that!” the thus far silent Zou snapped at them. “You all realize that we’re rebels now? Dissidents!?”
Tian glanced at his friends, before they all mutually shrugged.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Tian leaned back in his seat. “I mean, not for us, obviously. But my grandad was around back when the whole Northern Independence movement was going strong.”
Indeed, he was pretty sure the old man would have been hooting and hollering with glee at the thought of Ten Huo trying for independence once more if the cold hadn’t taken him a few winters past. Still, lots of the city’s older crowd would no doubt be waxing poetic about the new magistrate taking the city back to its ‘golden years’.
Personally, Tian was dubious this wouldn’t all turn out the same way it had for them. With the rebel leaders all rounded up and their closest family lines forced to face decimation.
Well, with the exception of the former leader herself, Tian thought. I mean, you can hardly decimate the Imperial family for one of its members rebelling against the Imperial Family.
Though wasn’t the former magistrate now part of Johansen’s inner circle? She was an Imperial. So was she a hostage or a collaborator? And now that he thought about it,hadn’t he heard some chatter about her losing her powers?
He vaguely recalled some chatter about that back when they were running the Imperial army out of the city. Or rather, back when the sect’s heavy hitters had been doing that. He and his squad had spent the entire ‘conflict’ guarding a checkpoint near the wall. The closest they’d come to seeing any of the fighting had been when they’d heard gonne-fire going off near the Imperial Palace for a few evenings.
The whys hadn’t really mattered. That sort of thing was for cultivators. Mortals like him just did as they were told.
Which, while sometimes annoying, also meant that they usually avoided the fallout that came with those decisions.
His grandad had certainly fought for the rebels during the Northern War of Independence, yet he’d not been punished for it. He’d just missed out on some of his pay and been re-inducted into the guard when the Imperial Army rolled back into the city.
Oh, certainly there’d been a few hangings of mortal officers, but that was to be expected. Appearances needed to be kept.
“Grandad was fine.” He said philosophically. “Just do as you're told. Don’t talk too much and hope it works out for the best. And if it doesn’t… just shut up and get ready to surrender when things start looking dicey.”
Zou looked at him in disgust, but the rest of the table nodded along in agreement.
“…So gonnes?” Zhuan ventured again. “And silver. Specifically more silver. Because I’ve heard the ‘militia’ gets paid four silver a week?”
“Four silver a week!? Someone’s having you on.”
“No, I’m serious. And one more besides if they see any actual fighting.”
“Horseshit. I bet you-”
This time it was Tian who interrupted, clearing his throat as he posed the other question that had been bothering him since he sat down. “Before all that, do you think the sect will actually hand us over?”
Sure, the sects didn’t actually care for him and his, but in his experience cultivators never backed down on anything without a fight.
Zou scoffed. The man had finally realized that no one else shared his patriotic outrage at Ten Huo’s rebellion and was mulishly nursing his drink.
“You seen any Silver Paw Sect members wandering around recently? If they didn’t put up a fight over Johansen turning the whole city against the Empire, I don’t think they’re going to put up much of a fight over him taking a bunch of mortals from them.”
None of them had much of an argument against that.
------------------\
As soon as they were back at the compound, Jack tossed his new ornate scepter over to Ren, who only barely caught it. Which said a lot about how surprised she was by what was essentially a key to the city’s more mystic defenses.
Of course, normally, in the hands of anyone who the weapon was not keyed for it was just a big paperweight.
“Wha-” the merchant started to say before trailing off as her eyes became momentarily glassy. “This… this is keyed to me!?”
“Surprise,” Jack singsonged, as the seals of his armor cracked open with a hiss before unfolding like a flower, allowing him to step out.
“Surprise?” Ren murmured quietly to herself, before rounding on him with a… complicated expression. “This is a rod of control. Whoever holds it may as well hold the city.” She eyed him. “Why is it keyed to me!?”
Jack scratched the back of his neck.
Yeah, the artificer in charge of carving the rod hadn’t been happy about Jack’s request for that small alteration. At first he’d refused politely. Jack had politely requested he reconsider. The artificer had refused again. Impolitely, that time.
At which point Jack had made the request again.
Impolitely.
The other man had then acceded to the miner’s wishes.
Benefits of destroying the equivalent of two sects simultaneously, I suppose, Jack thought.
Fortunately, aside from Ren, no one else seemed too bothered by this new development. Elwin was already following the members of the newly established ‘Steel Paw’ down into Jack’s workshop.
Which was probably for the best. While he had some assurances against poor behavior on the part of his newly acquired band of cultivators, that didn’t mean he trusted them.
And An…
“I don’t know about that,” An opined as she rather casually dug her little finger into her ear canal, wiggling it back and forth in a rather unladylike manner. “The old Magistrate had one and she still lost the city.”
Ren whirled on her fellow cultivator. “*After *she lost her ability to cultivate. Which would have rendered the city’s internal defenses useless to her.”
Defenses that were, to hear them described to him, pretty potent. The protections surrounding the walls were among the least of the tools available to an Imperial magistrate. Once an attacking force penetrated deeper into the city, it was possible to summon phantasmal spirit beasts, activate anti-cultivator traps, and bring down precision lighting strikes.
Potent stuff, Jack thought.
Stuff that might have come in handy in the minutes immediately preceding the Red Death’s arrival.
Unfortunately, not only were most of those defenses located around the Imperial Palace, the one person capable of activating and controlling those defenses had been busy fighting said dragon herself rather than directing the city’s ancient weapon systems.
Ren continued, gripping the rod in her hand so tightly Jack was actually a little worried she’d snap it. “If Lady Huang had still been capable of utilizing her control rod, the success of Tian’s coup would not have been nearly so assured. Even after her erstwhile bodyguards abandoned her.”
“Sounds useful,” An hummed, before her gaze slid over to him. “So why are you handing it off to the dog?”
Sure, the little black haired tiger-kin was trying to sound nonchalant, but Jack could detect just a hint of jealousy and avarice in her gaze now.
He sighed. “Because Ren’s spent the last few weeks trying to run this city. Sure, she’s got Huang helping now, but it’s still ultimately been her work. She’s the one I trust most with anything… city related.”
Even as Ren puffed up, An seemed to deflate slightly, as if in recrimination.
She’d tried to help with the more bureaucratic side of Ten Huo’s administration. For a little while, before it became abundantly clear that her total lack of familiarity with administration in general - and the political makeup of the city specifically - meant she was causing more harm than good.
Enough so that I’m reasonably certain she had someone else helping her set-up Jiangshi in my absence, *Jack thought. *Because if not… well I shudder to think of how much of a mess the place must be.
He said none of that though.
“It’s not a slight,” he added quickly, attempting to cheer the cat up. “You’ve been just as busy working with Gao to set up and integrate the Jiangshi militia in the city. And I’m sure you’ll be even more busy trying to integrate the sect forces into the new Ten Huo army.”
An seemed to perk up at that, tail fluttering about behind her back even as she stifled a smile.
“Still Master, I have to ask, why bother with this… delegation in the first place?” Ren asked quietly. “It’s a… not insubstantial break in tradition. And while I am one hundred percent loyal, others might see it as a weakness in the security of your rule should they learn that it is I, not you, who holds the reins of the city’s defenses.”
“Well, ideally no one will ever know,” Jack responded easily. “And as to why, well, you said it yourself about a minute ago. Things went to shit for Huang because she was both the city’s most powerful defender *and *the person in charge of directing those defenses.”
Jack tapped one of the thrusters on his suit with the back of an oversize knuckle. “I don’t intend to hamstring myself like that.”
It was An who finally got it. “You intend to repeat what you did in Jiangshi across the province. Build more edifices. Summon more spirit beasts. Put the mortals to work.”
Jack nodded, glad to see that one of his followers got it. “Exactly. I can’t afford to spend all my time in Ten Huo. That fortress I’ll be building on our Northern border is just one example of the kind of projects that might take me out of the city for days at a time.”
Ren nodded. “And you do not wish to leave the city defenseless in your absence.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say the city was defenseless even without the defense matrix, but essentially yes,” he acknowledged.
It took him a while to realize both women were staring at him.
“So beneficent,” Ren finally murmured as she fell seamlessly and gracefully to one knee. “To focus on the wellbeing of the province as a whole, even over your own personal power.”
The blonde dog-kin stared up at him, eyes burning with an earnestness that made him mildly uncomfortable – which was ironic given that once upon a time he’d dreamed of being worshipped as some manner of living god.
“This Delan Ren shall strive to prove to you that your act of faith and selflessness was no mistake. So she swears.”
Jack could only nod mutely as he realized that An had likewise taken a knee.
“That’s… good.” He spent a moment searching for the proper response to this unexpected show of enthusiasm. “See that you do.”
A little gruff, but it sounded appropriate.
“Of course,” Ren nodded eagerly, as if she’d just had some manner of holy mission bestowed upon her.
It almost made Jack feel bad that the two main reasons he’d foisted the control rod off onto her were because he was almost entirely sure the thing wouldn’t work for him – and he didn’t want to be cooped up in the city all the time like some oversized guard dog.
*Well, I guess it’s good that Ren’s happy about it, *he thought.
Still, this seemed like the most ideal moment to slip away.
“Right,” he said, shifting slowly towards the door. “With that done, I’m sure we all have a lot of work to do. An has army stuff. Ren has city stuff. I need to check in with Elwin.”
Both women nodded eagerly, showing not a hint of aggravation at the veritable shitload of problems he’d just offloaded onto them.
“Of course, Great One.” Ren smiled happily.
An just nodded slowly. “I’ve got it handled.”
He certainly hoped so.
…Because he’d be totally lost if either of them didn’t.
Not least of all because I’m pretty sure Gao would kill me if I attempted to foist off any more work onto him.
—----------------------
As Jack strode through the halls towards Lin’s quarters, he watched through his tablet as Elwin fussed over the newly formed ‘Steel Paw’.
A name about as subtle as the moniker itself where the origins of the unit were concerned given that the was made up of survivors of the now defunct Silver Paw Sect. Cultivators that had been outside the compound when he’d leveled it.
Now, he’d been aware that the attack would leave survivors. Counted on it even. He’d expect them to see which way the wind was blowing and leave town as quickly as possible.
…Or be gunned down assaulting his compound in some futile attempt at getting revenge.
He’d been leaning towards the former outcome though. That was usually what happened with a rival gang once you’d broken up the core membership.
They hadn’t done that though. Or at least, some of them hadn’t.
Instead, they’d shown up on his doorstep begging for mercy.
Mercy, which he’d granted – after a fashion.
His eyes tracked to the nearest member of the group as she took off her tiger-mask helmet, unveiling a fuzzy pair of tiger ears – and a mark on her neck.
The old explosive chip special, he thought, a complicated expression flashing across his features.
As he watched, Elwin all-but grabbed the muscular tiger-kin onscreen. The slight elf was utterly ignorant, or perhaps uncaring, of the way the bigger woman practically snarled at her, instead focusing on the runes engraved on the woman’s pauldron.
One of which was visibly flickering, the low blue light weak and inconsistent.
“Wu!” Elwin shouted. “The buffer on this enchantment is failing. I could hear this one’s armor clicking as she walked in here.”
“This one has a name.” The tiger-kin muttered sullenly.
Elwin ignored her, turning instead toward the sheepish looking dog-kin woman that appeared on-screen.
She wore robes, much like most cultivators Jack had met, but they were of a distinctly different bent. More European than Asian. That was not to say it didn’t have Asian elements, it certainly did, but it was clear that Elwin had a part in designing the uniforms of her apprentices.
“This one apologizes mistress,” the dog-kin bowed. “This one thought the matrix would hold.”
Elwin snorted in a manner that somehow managed to be graceful while still conveying the utmost disdain. “No, you *hoped *it would hold.”
A single delicate finger pointed to the offending piece of armor. “Magister’s do not hope. They know. Why is that Wu?”
The young woman shuffled uncomfortably. “Because unreliable spellwork is a blade without a handle.”
“Precisely,” Elwin turned to where Jack assumed her other apprentices were standing. “Now, because Wu thought she could get away with subpar work, I can only assume others amongst you feel similarly.”
She received no reply in response, from the still undressing members of the Iron Paw or her apprentices. “As a result, you shall all be redoing these runes in their totality. And if I find even one weight reduction enchantment or rust resistance rune that is not up to my standards, you shall be wiping them and doing them again.”
“May we use the laser cutting artifact for the physical work, mistress?” A voice timidly asked from off-screen.
“No,” Elwin scoffed. “I’ve noticed more than a few of you growing dependent on our lord’s artifacts for your labors. I would be remiss in my duties as your teacher if I failed to correct that failing, lest you prove utterly useless beyond the walls of this-”
Jack stopped just in time to avoid bumping into the doors of Lin’s room. Putting the tablet away, content that Elwin had the former Silver Paw members in hand, as well as her apprentices, he glanced up at the two guards stationed outside to make sure neither had noticed his faux pax.
They hadn’t. Or at least, they were doing an admirable job or pretending they hadn’t by standing at attention and staring at pretty much anything that wasn’t him.
Hell, if he didn’t know better, he’d say they looked uncomfortable.
Which he supposed made sense. He could well see a cultivator acting… poorly towards anyone that had seen them embarrass themselves.
“Is Lin in?” he asked, content to let the moment pass by.
“She is.” The woman on the left answered quickly, her eyes remaining fixed on the far wall. “Along with Lady Huang.”
God, they still sounded nervous, he thought. How bad must cultivators be?
“Right, well I’ll just be heading in then,” he said.
Both guard’s eyes opened wide, and one visibly twitched, but neither said anything.
So Jack pulled open the doors.
Just in time for a rather long, rather feminine moan of pleasure to echo out from inside. A moment of stunned silence followed.
He started to close the doors.
“Wait, Jack this is-” Lin’s surprised voice started to call out from within the room, accompanied by Huang’s gasps.
He finished closing the doors.
He ignored the blushing of both guards.
He walked away.
And only once he was down the hall did he whisper quietly to himself.
“Christ, I knew they were close, but I didn’t think they’d grown that close.”
He certainly hadn’t thought they were both lesbians. Sure, they’d been hanging out a lot, but he’d thought they were both just close friends. That was the logical assumption. Neither had given him any hints beyond that friendship that they liked women.
That was… fine though.
Good for them. Two members of his nominal harem liked each other. That was good.
He wasn’t jealous. Not at all. He already had two women he was with. His ego had not been stung at all.
“Speaking of which,” he murmured. “…I need to find An. Or Ren. Or both.”
Yes, both sounded good.
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Why did that happen? I rescued 4 of them and put them on the seats on either edge of the boat and i noticed one was gone and then suddenly another roll on his back and fell and got incapicitated.

Rick had expected that taking an entire tribe to Sinco would be slow. Who wouldn’t? It was a whole tiny village after all, one nearing a handful hundred.
But the Orcs, and by extension all the other maidens, had more than one surprise in store.
When the tribe had set off, they’d done so with a grand demolition. The moment everything of value had been picked up and packaged, the village was then torn to shreds by anyone willing to take part in the little destruction-derby.
Following this, the tribe would split up into hut-family units.
Every “family” would be made of one human and multiple maidens. The maiden with the highest standing within the family unit (almost always an Orc) would be in charge of carrying and protecting the human on their back. And the rest would handle the luggage and supplies that “family” unit would take with them.
And from there, they would break into a jogging pace that, to a human, would have been a dead sprint.
Rick had the distinct “honor” of being carried by Urtha since Monica’s job as the chief meant it was her job to be at the tip of the metaphorical spear. Meanwhile, Rick was left seated on a sort-of-backpack the tall Orc carried.
Kiara flew overhead with the handful of other flying maidens that’d been woken up from the boxes. Leaving Eva and Dia to carry their belongings. It left an unpleasant aftertaste in Rick’s gut.
The smirk Dia kept shooting his way as he petulantly crossed his arms and resigned himself to being glorified luggage. “I could at least be playing the drums to mark the pace or something. It’s not like we’re being subtle or quiet.”
“Humans have no place drawing attention where danger lurks,” Urtha said, the only one present that wasn’t even winded. “Less so the Father.”
“Some feral might think you are a cheesy snack.” Dia, huffing as she pushed herself, still giggled.
“The tribe is tense enough already.” The Orc shook her head. “We rarely bring this many weaklings with us.”
“One of many changes to come.” Rick held the sigh, mostly because he was holding on to the chair to keep from falling over. He didn’t want to think about it, but once they reached Sinco, things would get complicated.
They were effectively marching out, seeking to conquer a city. Whether it be through actual warfare or maneuvering, they weren’t sure just yet. They just knew that they were prepared for the former if the latter didn’t work out. The reports had come in: Sinco was not in a good place. The constant presence of highly aggressive ferals had been chipping away at their defenses.
The only hope the city held was that they would receive reinforcements from Aubria.
Rick would get there faster.
It was in these thoughts that he pondered throughout the day. The tribe traveled and rested too often to the Orc’s liking. There was much friction to be had, and the humans were guarded like the treasures the tribe considered them to be.
When night came, a singular large hut was made for the humans, and the maidens would sleep in rotations. There would be small songs and minor stories that were shared, small moments of comfort. But they were all held under the looming watchfulness of the tribe.
Because they were at their most vulnerable. One missed feral deciding to make a stand could mean a human getting hurt. Rick had to begrudgingly respect them for that. As much as he loathed being treated like some kind of porcelain doll, there was no room to question that the maidens were going the extra mile for everyone’s safety and survival.
Though they would sometimes go a bit overboard against the maidens that “slowed down the tribe”. His role mediating such disputes had become his main role throughout the following days.
One morning, as they were preparing to set out, he heard it.
It started with a scream, then a yelp, and then a rush.
By the time Rick realized what was going on, Monica was upon him. Drenched from head to toe and stinking of salt and seaweed. The massive maiden was looking at him with a smile that threatened to split her head in two.
“Rick!” She hovered over him, dripping water all over. “Come! Come!”
“Is everything alright?” He asked from the discomfort of the portable chair he was currently occupying.
“COME!” she insisted, hopping on her feet and skittishly looking back, aiming her ear in the direction she’d come from. “Quick!”
“The tribe is not heading that way.” Urtha pointed out.
Rick considered it for a second. “Are there any problems shifting course to travel nearer to the sea?”
“It is a bad idea. For many reasons.”
Her words brought nods from Eva and Dia, to which Rick could only respond with a shrug. “Ok, then we could call for a break for the day, give everyone a chance to properly unwind, and I’ll go with Monica.” He pointed over at the feline that was bouncing on her heels, just barely holding back from reaching out and yanking him into her wet embrace. “Seems like the chief is very excited about something.”
“I bet its food,” Eva said.
“Urtha?” Rick waited.
The Orc glanced over at the crowd. “We will set camp for the day. We cannot afford to lose any of the weaklings.”
That was as good as he could’ve hoped. Rick nodded and was immediately snatched by Monica’s fuzzy paw. The maiden picked him up, putting him over her shoulder and trotting through the shrubbery and trees with little regard for who might be following.
Rick got himself a face full of leaves, flinching and batting them away. “Hey, wait, the branches-”
The Sabretooth yanked him into her arms and broke into a full sprint. Dirt and rocks burst forth from where she stood as air whipped about them. Her fang-filled smile only grew. Monica’s eyes were only focused forward. Rick, meanwhile, was trying to avoid swallowing bugs. The insects that kept flying about appeared to prefer smacking against his face.
There was a moment of clarity, light, and blue.
And with a splash, he was underwater.
Rick made the mistake of gasping, swallowing sea-water, wildly flinging his arms to get himself to the surface. Monica yanked him out of the water, leaving him feeling like a half-drowned cat as he coughed and spat.
“LOOK!” she proclaimed, dropping him on the sandy beach as she hurried towards the crashing waves, kicking at them and sending sprays of foam high into the air. “Rick! BIG!” She waved wildly, rushing her way into the water, then back out.
“That’s the sea.”
“Monica see!” With wide arms, she tried to point at all of it at once.
“No, it’s a new word. Sounds similar.” He combed his hair out of his face with his hands, removing his shirt. “Sea. S-E-A. Big, wet, and salty.”
“BIG WET!” Monica was cheering and splashing, kicking her way up and down the shore, jumping into the waves and coming out a dozen meters away and then making her way back to the shore.
“It’s the sea.” He couldn’t help but smile, watching as she slapped the water with her huge paws, creating a billowing tower of water and foam to rise at least a dozen meters into the air.
He put the low-end terrifying notion of how much force was packed into that strike and kept an easy-going smile.
“It’s the ocean.” The voice called from above, Kiara leisurely drifting down and sitting next to him. “Too far away from anything or anyone. Few ships go through here.”
“So chock-full of dangerous ferals?”
“Just like everywhere else.” Her eyes weren’t on Monica. The Succubus’ gaze appeared more focused on trailing the waves as they crashed into the shore. “Likely they’ve been scared off, though. The rush must have eaten everything available near the shore.”
Rick looked at the waves, then at her. “How can you tell?”
“There’s nothing in the waves.” She pointed. “Usually there’s at least the odd Sprite.”
“Maybe Monica scared them off.”
“Doubtful.” Kiara shook her head, turning to eye him with a slight smirk. “You’re drenched. Maybe you’d want to take your clothes off?” Her gaze trailed over him in a distinctly predatory way.
“You’re hungry, huh?”
She leaned closer, hand reaching over to caress his shoulder. “Maybe a little more than that…” Gold eyes locked to his, her hand gently pushing his back into the sand, the Succubus moving in closer so that she could pin him down.
Rick grinned. “Careful with the splash.”
The momentary confusion turned to shock and horror as she was yanked away and flung into the sea. Monica stared with ample amount of self-satisfaction as the Succubus swore and sank into the waves. “No horny time.” The feline declared, looking at Rick with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“I understand.” He raised his hands, playing the role of innocent bystander.
“Play time.”
His eyes widened with concern. Uh oh.
She reached down, pulling him up by the shirt. “Rick train swim.”
“I know how to swim.” He quickly proclaimed, grabbing hold of her claws as her arm tensed. “BUT!”
Monica hesitated, looking at the water, then at him with narrowed eyes. “But?”
“Don’t throw me like you did Kiara or I will break,” he said, quickly relaxing a little as he pointed up into the air. “Throw me a little up. Gently, into the water.”
She eyed him for a moment, and with a flick of her tail, caught a stone. “Like this?” She grasped the rock and gently tossed it into a high arch that fell into the sea with a little plop.
“Yeah, just like-AAAAAHHHH!!!”
He was flying, body spinning in the air as gravity quickly lay claim. Rick did the only thing he could think of, curling into a ball, drawing breath, and plunge. He was underwater in the next instant, bubbles and light, with the sandy bottom still within sight.
It was down there that he spotted Kiara looking up at him with a smirk, a bubble wrapping her head. The conspicuously naked Succubus used her wings to swim up at him, catching him in her grasp and pulling him down.
Rick clutched his mouth, trying to keep his breath.
Kiara’s amusement was apparent as she held him by the shirt, looking at him with a mischievous twinkle. The iron grip remained, and he could see what her plan was, so he leaned into her, breaking the surface of the bubble with his face.
The breath was cut short with the kiss.
Then she shoved him away, waving off and winking as she swam further away from the shore. The speed she was moving with clearly was one not meant for him to follow, so Rick didn’t, going up to the surface.
Monica was waiting for him, excitedly grinning from ear to ear.
“Again!” he declared the moment he stepped on the sand. “But this time not from the shirt or it might rip.”
By the time others were reaching the beach, the duo had figured out a way to make the launch procedure safer… ish. Mostly in that the victim of choice would stand on Monica’s palm and curl into a cannonball, so that she could then throw.
And the maiden had quite the throwing arm.
The couple of Goblins that showed up excitedly joined in. Then came the Orcs, Mousegirls, and Doggirls, and by the time Urtha had shown her face, the various tribe members had a line of eager volunteers to be thrown into the sea. While the Orcs were competing with one another to see who could get their cargo the furthest from the shore.
Dia caught sight of the glare before Rick could even speak up. “I’ve set up a rotation of guards with the ones keeping watch over the tribe,” the healer proclaimed. “And the water maidens are working as lookouts.”
“Do you think that would placate me?”
“Do you want to play in the launch games?” Rick asked, giving Dia a warning look. “I bet you’d give Monica a run for her money.”
“She is stronger.” Urtha spoke after just a moment of observation, shaking her head. “I would need to wait for her to tire.”
He looked at the Orc as she remained near them, but didn’t sit. He could almost taste the tension within her, that knot of uncertainty. “Would you like to build a sand castle, then?”
“A castle of sand?”
“Exactly that.” Rick sat up. “Just wet sand and more sand, and make a castle with it.”
Urtha’s thick brows furrowed. “That… sounds childish.”
He shrugged. “Sand is fragile and crumbles easily if mishandled. Consider it a test of skill.” A sly smile followed. “Or are you scared a little human will be better at it than you?”
With a scoff, she stomped her foot once. “Show me.”
“I’ll join in!” Dia said. “It’s been a while since I’ve played mud-walls.”
“The what now?”
“It’s a game we healers played when little helped give us finer control over our power.” She crouched down, grabbing a handful of wet sand and proceeding to carefully lay it down in the shape of a very thin tube. A tube no thicker than a straw, and tall enough to reach her knee. “The trick is in pushing the water away at the right time.”
Rick and Urtha shared a worried glance.
Two hours later, things had escalated… a little.
It turned out that the Orc’s ability to make wood nearly as tough as steel could be applied to sand to just enough of a degree that Urtha had made a box tower about two meters on the side and five tall. Rick, working with a knife, carved out details on the tower.
Mostly windows and bricks.
Dia, on the other hand, had built a miniature replica of the fortified city of Balet. Devoid of any details, the city was a configuration of boxes roughly knee height.
It was when some maidens that had tired of the Monica-Launcher™ had gathered to watch that things escalated. With Mousegirls quickly getting recruited by Dia so that they could turn the sand boxes into detailed houses, and Urtha recruiting other Orcs so that they could put together a second tower.
Somewhere along the way, Sheel had shown up to set up an impromptu grill service.
Rick got his fill as he watched the competition unfold, recovering his energy and feeling exhausted in a good way. He caught sight of Kiara emerging from the sea, sans clothes. The Succubus took one look at the gathering, and eventually locked on to him.
The alluring blue-haired Succubus shifted her walk, tucking away tiredness and presenting only assuredness and grace. Her ample hips swayed with a mesmerizing rhythm, tail punctuating every step with a flick. The maiden made a show of pushing her sky-blue hair over her shoulder, presenting her bare chest for him to drink in.
There was a twinkle of enjoyment in her golden eyes when his gaze locked on to her body. A sly smile played on her lips, seductive and coy.
As she reached him, the succubus knelt down and whispered in his ear, her voice soft and alluring. “Is this spot taken?”
Rick felt his throat dry, and he coughed a little. “Sure.”
Kiara grinned wider, taking his lap, tail reaching under his shirt to caress his chest. “It is very comfortable.” She punctuated her words by grinding against herself against his crotch a little. “You seem thrilled to see me.”
He wrapped his hands around her midriff, pulling her against his chest, ignoring the slight discomfort of her wings. “Be warned that Monica is looking our way,” he whispered. “Engage and you will get launched. She’s gotten great at it.”
The tail twitched. “Noted.” Her tone was begrudging. “I meant to ask, are you familiar with… this? The sea? The ocean? The depths?”
“I’ve been on my fair share of boats, and went diving in a reef once.” He admitted freely. “And I’ve flown over the clouds in one of the most boring technological marvel my world built.” A little chuckle followed. “But I think you were meaning to lead this somewhere else?”
Kiara shifted, staring over her shoulder for a moment. “I’d like to hear more about your world sometime.” Her voice held an edge of hesitation to it, and Rick had the distinct impression she was trying to hold something back. “But yes, I was meaning to lead the conversation to this.”
The tone was gone; the look was gone, replaced by smug satisfaction as she held up a blue gemstone. The object was the size of a pearl and a deep, glimmering blue.
“An impure elemental stone.” The Succubus declared. “Take it.”
Rick obliged, lifting it to get a better look. Light wavered and refracted within the sphere, adding a shimmer that made it look as if there was a tiny sea contained within. Twisting and shifting the stone did not make the illusion of change, making the little sphere appear like a looking-glass of some sort.
The refracted light swayed and shifted against his palm like an aurora.
“It’s… this is really impressive.” He declared after a moment, glancing back at her.
“I stumbled onto this while looking for something else. It has some minor value, but is mostly useless since it has a very low purity.” She shrugged her lithe shoulders, trailing his jaw with her sharp nail. “Consider it compensation.”
He frowned a little. “Compensation for what?”
She shrugged, beating her wings once and hopping on to her feet. “I will go get myself a change of clothes and a snack.” She turned to leave. “You’re more than welcome to join.”
Rick could only chuckle. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m exhausted right now.”
“Have it your way.” The maiden vanished into the thicket, sauntering off to the tribe. “If you’ve got nothing better to do, pay some attention to the little leech. Wouldn’t want her to feel neglected, now would we?”
Where had that come from? Rick watched her go, taking a moment to stand up and check that the little get-together was going nowhere. From there, he turned his focus inwards and sought the bond to Eva. It was tougher than he’d expected, especially with the noise from all the other bonds trying to drown out everything.
He found her sitting on a rock, at the very edge of the sandy shore, staring off at the setting sun. The maiden had her knees tucked against her chest, body covered under her black cape, only her red eyes and pale face exposed to the sunlight.
She noticed his approach, but didn’t react.
Rick took a spot next to her, not quite within arm’s reach. “You’ve avoided talking with me. Anything I should worry about?” His question caused the intended result. Eva looked at him with wide eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I know you don’t like small-talk, and this is just about the most important subject I could think of.”
The Fledgling turned away. “True.” She acknowledged. “I cannot answer your question, sir.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t.” She hugged her knees, turning away and towards the horizon.
Was she hesitating to take a stance, or was she unsure of what stance to take to begin with? Rick nodded a little. “If it’s any consolation, it’s weird for me, too.” He lay back on the stone, looking at the orange clouds above. “Especially with how stiff you’re acting.”
“The Wildling-King calls me his property, and then complains he is treated with the due formalities?” Eva glared.
“Point taken.” Rick sighed. “I just expected that you’d learn from the others.”
“I cannot compare myself to the monster that is Monica or Kiara, nor consider myself to hold a fraction of the trust you give Dia,” she summarized. “I am a Fledgling. Anywhere within the kingdom, a slip of the tongue, a mistake, or a perceived fault would earn me severe punishment.” The maiden glowered, then sighed. “I myself have given such for less.”
“So you don’t know what to expect from me, but will avoid talking with me about those expectations.”
The glare intensified. “I would trust you of all would understand the matter is not that simple.”
“You’re not calling me sir.” He replied with an arched brow, watching her flinch. “I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but it seems like you’re intentionally running on a groundless hypothesis. So my question would be, why have you kept at it?”
She deflated with a sigh. “I don’t know.”
Rick reached out, ruffling her hair. “Well, while you think about it, how about spending some actual time together with the others? Brooding didn’t get you the answer you were looking for, so how about trying to change the pace a little?”
The glare intensified. “I was not brooding. What do you take me for? I am older than you! I was the head of a noble house of great prestige!” She shot to her feet, glaring, lips curling into a snarl.
Rick stepped closer, directly into her personal space. “Evangeline.” He declared, his tone holding only the barest edge to it.
The Fledgling flinched, looking away, hands hiding under her cape. “You are right.” She spoke, deflating. “I… am Evangeline now.”
She moved to kneel, to lower herself, but his hand on her chin held her in place. He raised her gaze so that they would meet eyes. “The only line you stepped over was baring your fangs at me. Nothing else.”
He wanted to step away, to turn around and go to the beach with the others. But something else held him in place as he looked down to those ruby red eyes, the way she trembled against his palm, how she inhaled deeply and her eyelids fluttered. The maiden leaned into his touch, taking a hesitant step closer.
“Th-this…” Eva stammered, swallowing.
Rick leaned closer. “This is your chance to step away.”
She didn’t.
The Fledgling followed the gentle tug of his palm, raising herself to her tiptoes, leaning into the kiss. She froze, opening her mouth a little and scratching his lips with her fangs in hunger. They pierced, only enough to draw a drop of blood, only enough to make him flinch.
Eva recoiled, eyes wild, face beet read. “I, no, I-… This isn’t…”
The maiden vanished into the shadows before he could say anything. He could sense her quickly making an escape through the darkness. The human was left mostly amused at the reaction, chuckling as he took the long way back to the others.
He could understand why Kiara found entertainment out of teasing the Fledgling. Idly, he wondered if they could exchange some notes.
​
----
​

Hello, I'm back, kinda.
Things have been a monumental mess over on my end. Lots of things happened over the past couple months.
I'll be clear: Reddit isn't a convenient place to post stories. Yes, there's a community, but the website is very clearly designed for other kinds of content creators. Story writing is more of a "Despite" thing. Combined with the upcoming policy changes ^{(what with the site being sold off and wanting to coerce users into their App, at the cost of all else}), I don't think I'll be sticking around.
The story will continue being regularly posted over at Royalroad and Scribblehub.
There's practically a full volume already posted over there. Seriously, as a writer I can't stress enough just how monumentally important the post-scheduler is for me. My life is far too chaotic and sometimes I spend weeks without time or energy to prepare the posts, and then just dump 15 of them into the auto-loader.
I will try to get the next full volume (up to chapter... 62?) posted here throughout the next couple weeks, and unless something changes, I'll mostly stick to those other sites from there onward.
See you guys around, and thanks for sticking this long with the story.

[First]
[Standard Patreon Link].

Playing totally vanilla (except 25 tiles) I have 150k population and 88% traffic flow so everything is functioning as it should.
It feels like the game cannot keep up with it:
-Ore extractors complain of not enough buyers yet the storage next to them barely fills and my unique factories complain of not enough raw materials. I have a huge dlc cargo airport, two cargo harbours, three cargo stations constantly busy.
-Post trucks flood from my cargo areas yet I have hundreds of thousands of unsorted items at several sorting facilities.
- Both my harbours constantly have full boats of 100 people arriving yet my DLC airport has 80% unused seats. Coaches and trains coming in are rarely full.
-my two DLC campuses spaced far apart and near lots of residential struggle to keep enough students for 5 star ratings.
​
I have built bigger cities, but not with so much industry or outside connections. It feels like the game cannot keep up with it because I should be able to export more and have full planes and trains arriving?

I have 2 perpetual ultimate licences that cost a lot, one a recent purchase. The ultimate subscription is now $599 a year (it went down $400 from $999). Update support plans are $399 a year. That’s a 10 year run before you see any benefit from a recent perpetual ultimate purchase. I’m definitely not happy that they undermined the value of my already overpriced products and now they are pretty much impossible to sell as they are now kind of worthless. Are many others in the same boat (I imagine for multi seat studios this is the case)? I wrote to avid voicing my disappointment, I feel like with the subscription price drop the support package should get a similar price drop. Just curious how many of us there are out there.
Edit: if you are in this unique position, ie a perpetual ultimate license holder please write to support and request the same discount to the support plan that subscription buys got 40%. This would make a still expensive but reasonable cost. It wouldn’t take too many emails to support to change this. I send the same email to an open case every week, I am paying for premium support and this is how I choose to use it.

So in revisiting the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie, there are some really strong signs that Wonka basically lured these kids to their death semi-intentionally—possibly as human testing.
First, he introduces them to a room made of candy where he encourages them to eat everything, then scolds Augustus for drinking the chocolate and then nearly knocks him into the river himself. (Where they have massive open pipes that are obviously dangerous and sized to suck a kid up.) But then they get on a boat where there were NOT ENOUGH SEATS for Augustus and his mom—so Wonka never planned on them getting through that room with all the children.
Then, he introduces a known gum-obsessed girl to a brand-new gum that he insists she can't try—basically taunting her and leaving it easily within her grasp. (He later admits the gum always goes wrong in the dessert stage, so he basically knew this would happen.) {Also, side note — who has he tested on before if he supposedly never lets anyone into the factory? Has he been using people as test subjects? Have they all died?}
He leads the other kids through all kinds of death traps specifically tailored to their unique personalities—including waving untested TV-centered tech around a TV-obsessed child, golden eggs to a very spoiled girl.
Then there's the insanely dicey fizzy-lifting drink room—where they have soda that makes you fly and spinning blades in the ceiling. This room isn't actually tailored to Charlie, but my thought is that his ticket was actually supposed to go to another kid, maybe a soda-obsessed one. They realize the mistake and Wonka's henchman shows up—way too quickly for them not to have been tracking the bars with the tickets, further suggesting (as a previous video suggested) that the kids were intentionally selected to receive the tickets.
I think there's a solid argument to suggest that Wonka lured these kids here based on what he sees as their "flaws" and unique susceptibility and planned on using them as test subjects (who coincidentally signed away all his liability at the beginning of the tour). He probably assumed the kids would die, as presumably other subjects have, but if they survived then it would just be a successful human test on kids in his target market without the liability.

In the middle of the Prime Minister’s term, Party Leader elections are held. If the PM loses his or her Party Leader election, then the winner will replace him or her as PM.
Now, the AEP election determines whether Kief remains PM or not.
Each PL Election offers 3 choices.
Felix Kief, a 59 year old Former Factory Worker and MP for Tsukimi Born 1/5/Y225
Elizabeth Solada, a 40 year old former Army Enlistee and MP for Kinrihoku Born 5/1/Y244
Kalisa Willems, a 50 year old former Accountant and MP for Nayama Born 10/3/Y234
Positions in Comments
Current Events:
During the Election Process for the Y282 Election, for an entire month the election was “too close to call” between Kief and Berroa. Parliament used the Proposed 6th Amendment to determine the election, which decreed that in such a close vote Parliament would decide who became Prime Minister by negotiation. Eventually, the parliament voted 344-206 Kief and the contested constituencies of Komatsu and Sawaki were handed to Kief. However, this pissed off a lot of people, so the seventh amendment to the constitution was proposed: that the Prime Minister’s seat, in the case of a tie, got handed over instead of random constituencies, to give him a governing majority. (In reality, I flipped a coin 50 times)
On October 1, Y282, Parliament passed the sixth amendment, combining the previous proposed sixth and seventh amendments, that Parliament would need to vote in a contingent election in the case of a tie, and that whoever got the governing majority would have the Prime Minister’s seat given to the governing party. It passed in a 528-22 vote.
On October 17, Y282, the Rising Star Pizza Company Giotto’s was discovered to have been using Domino’s Pizza and passing it off as its own pizza. All chains of the restaurant were closed, and the CEO of the company Sofia Robsen was arrested on charges of fraud. This caused a brief dip in sales and the stock market because people were not buying shares out of fear that other were companies might’ve done the same as well.
On December 8, Y282, King Mikael Fenix of Andruvia passed away, and the country entered a week long period of mourning. His 41 year old son, Prince Maximus II, ascended to the throne as King Maximus II. His Heir is 10 year old Prince Rolf. Children are especially mourning because it means they won’t have an extra day off of school for the King’s birthday, because Maximus’ birthday is in summer.
In January Y283, the annual report by the Ministry of Finance showed that prices and profits and Andruvia were shrinking because prices were going down too low too fast. Meaning deflation was occurring. So prominent RUP MP Filip Groot, a former Stockbroker, created the Groot Plan. The Groot Plan was designed to help inflate prices so that the value of money was not lost by price depreciations. It would do this with a goal called Inflation Y300, that aimed to stimulate economic growth by increasing consumption and reducing demand to stimulate inflation by Y300.
In February Y283, FFM Member Nelson Kabela changed parties to the NFP. This led to the FFM getting a new leader named Prospor Kabajo, and because Kabela was very popular throughout all of Parliament, he easily won Party Leader for the NFP, becoming the first person to lead two parties.
In March Y283, fishermen in the city of Togando saw the power in their boats cut off because some Chilean spies had cut off wiring in the ocean. And there happened to be 8 Chilean Ships in the area fishing too. The Andruvians had 6. Following this, a 2 week small scale guerrilla conflict occurred between the fishermen, and although no one was hurt, things were tense, and 4 ships were sunk on both sides.
In April Y283, Andruvian scientists working on an improved submarine device in the lab of Togando were raided by Chileans, and the whole facility was exploded by the Chileans, leading to protests demanding war. In response, Kief went on national television to explain why war was futile and unrealistic.
In May Y283, a TV Show titled “Work Daze” gained popularity across the nation. It follows average salaryman Mortimer Montoja, who is astonished to learn that his former high school crush Ana Torino works at the same place he does. His best friend at work Nils Garsia urges him to make a move, but Mortimer is unsure because she was much more popular back then. But Mortimer has two obstacles, his flirtatious coworker Rodolfo De Leon, and his snobby boss Mitsuki Morishita. Starring Job Gimenez as Mortimer, Flora Kruz as Ana, Errol Bartamoleo as Nils, Santiago Felix as Rodolfo, and Yuko Yamasaki as Mitsuki.
In April Y283, a local bartender in the city of Togando named Mario Simondini created a drinking game called “Sjelte”. The drinking game involved players being presented with six choices, and they took a shot each time someone voted for their least favorite option. However, officials have warned of the dangers of the game, and the mayor of Togando Hajime Torinashi is trying to create car-free zones because of it.
In July Y283, the Polish Ambassador to Andruvia Tadusz Zavaldski, who had coined the term “feminist conservatism” to describe Kija Drumpf’s campaign a decade earlier, lauded Felix Kief as a pragmatic and bipartisan leader, calling his ideology “pragmatic conservatism”.
In August Y283, while Andruvia and Bolivia agreed to establish Walmart in Antarctica, Chile and Peru agreed to establish Target in Antarctica. This led to the Walmart-Target affair, where each accused the other of being more polluting to the environment of Antarctica. As they dumped plastic into the ocean.
In November Y283, after 8 years of fighting, the coup in Thailand had won their invasion of Laos, and the military dictatorship was established as a true dictatorship. Jai Vannavong, the former leader of Laos, was executed for treason.
In December Y283,MP Kira Prospor proposed the Universal Education Act, which tried to put more emphasis on grades in secondary education. However, the Act was struck by Kief and Parliament, and the vote was 286-264 nay.
In January Y284, MOTAN! released another hit single named “Pull Yourself Up”, about how you need to move on from hard times and look forward to better times.
In February Y284, Chile declared the disputed water areas between it and Andruvia “war zones”, and Chilean police arrested 89 Andruvian fishermen without any reason. In response, Kief passed the Military Act, which jacked up military spending to pre American War levels. He argued that not only would the military improve, but also inflation would happen. The act passed in a 490-60 yea vote. And the AEP and NPP created the “Freedom Coalition” to fight Chile peacefully and improve the domestic economy at the same time. In response, Ottoman Berroa created the “Government Action Now” coalition with the RUP and FFM to advocate for more aggressive means to fight Chile and foster inflation through the Groot Plan.
On March 8, Y284, Parliament passed a law that required that any kids wishing to play “The Penis Game” had to instead shout “vagina” and not penis, in honor of international women’s day and women’s history month.
In April Y284, the Fuku Link Train Company lost nearly 48.5 million Aurs in stocks due to the mismanagement of finances by the new CEO Leonardo Espinoza. The rail industry has been left in shambles, and now, for a short while, cars have become more popular. Conspiracy Theorists supporting the American Machine believe this was done by the CIA to foster a car culture in Andruvia.
In July Y284, the Walmart-Target affair ended up with the Walmart in Antarctica that Bolivia and Andruvia supported got blown up by Chileans, causing massive chaos and violence in those areas.
In August Y284, MP Mo De Leon of the ARP created a coalition with the NAP called the Walmart Coalition that was committed to rebuilding the Walmart in Antarctica. They even got some NPP members, but this eventually split into a coalition that wanted to build a second Target next to the Chilean Target in Antarctica and ones who wanted to rebuild the Walmart. Pro-Target people were the “Toros” and Pro-Walmart people were the “Muros”. However, they all wanted a trade war with Chile, so the coalition was renamed to the “Trade War Coalition”.
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Dédalo moved frantically around the control room, overturning rocks, checking behind the screen, looking for any kind of hidden button. “Ninian, are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me!”
“What do you want me to do, cut her out?!” Ninian gestured to the screen of Perdita’s face.
“There must be a button or lever somewhere here!” Dédalo snapped, refusing to believe there was nothing he could do to help Perdida’s predicament.
Perdida’s mind was occupied, having accessed the system and the dormant data stored in it. As she scanned through memories and visions, the relevant information unscrambled itself for her. Piece by piece, the memories played in series.
Her first memory, the birth of her artificial soul, heralded by the priests that created her as the greatest experiment they have succeeded in. “May the MAKS-0 bring peace to Pieduro forevermore!”
Next were the lives of the Piedurons she was tasked with maintaining peace over. Teaching the children how to use and play with their Temples responsibly, assisting the Piedurons through their everyday lives.
Then watching over the construction of the Ring, the key to unifying and connecting the use of all Temples to a single source.
Then the Piedurons slowly turned their attention to the world around them, visions of expanding past the island. With the construction of the Ring, they had the means of using their Temples much further beyond their island. Tools originally used to create were beginning to be seen as potential tools of destruction and oppression against adversaries. Visions of expansion and conquest filled the mind of a small, but growing population of Piedurons.
“War is not peace.”
“War goes against the idea of maintaining peace.”
“War can not happen if there are no Temples to fight with”
Pedida watched her original decision play out in; the construction of the Ring allowed her to shut down every single connected Temple. What happened after was a terrible oversight, the energy in each Temple overloaded rather than being simply shut down. The Ring that connected the Temples shared and distributed the energy of all temples between each other, but once disconnected they had no way to regulate the remaining excess energy.
The fallout wiped out the Piedurons as a civilization and destroyed the vast majority of Temples. The remaining few priests sealed Perdida away, and that was the last memory she could see in the database.
Perdida’s attention turned toward Electra and 2095, still fighting in the ring, using the carts to chase each other in a perpetual circle. The thought crept into Perdida’s mind; with the Ring under her control, she could turn off the Temples and stop the fight. She could prevent Temples from being used by the wrong hands.
No.
Perdida stopped herself. Not falling into the same logic that her previous self could not reason past. Her journey with Dédalo had allowed her to grow and understand, she would make a different choice this time.
The fight only took a bit longer to finish, the streaks of light made it difficult to tell what was happening, but the fight ended with a chain of explosions and both bodies falling out of their carts.
2095 falls to one knee, glare softening as Electra’s body goes limp while smoking from so many orb explosions. Her stare reaches thousands of yards, still processing her personal discovery before a speeding orb barely grazes her cheek and snaps her back. She sprints to the unconscious body and scoops her up, draping her over her back nestled underneath [Yours Truly] and holds the skater’s arms as she continues dodging to the best of her ability.
Her legacy wouldn’t end in this place, but neither would Electra’s.

2095, with a score of 76 to Electra’s 59!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	2095	20 (6.5+2) - 10 (4.5+2)
Quality	2095	25 (8-9-8) - 18 (6-6-6)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Tie	21 (7-7-7)- 21 (7-7-7)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

Perdida opened a service door for 2095 to escape through, hoisting Electra over he shoulder. With a bit of guidance, 2095 made her way into the control room where they were now all gathered.
After getting everybody settled, Perdida managed to convince Dédalo that she was ok and relayed the story for the rest of them to hear.
“So I have a new plan. I figured out how to control the output of energy of each Temple to ensure that Temples can only be used when I allow them to be used…But in order to do that, I will have to stay within this mainframe.” Perdida looked toward Dédalo with a sad smile.
“Don’t worry Perdida, this will only be goodbye for now. I still have to find you a physical body after all.” Dédalo gave a warm chuckle as he walked up to the screen.
Dédalo pressed his hands against the screen and the image of Perdida pressed her hands against his. “We’ve learned a lot over the course of our journey. I’ll promise to tell you all about my next adventures when I get back.”
“...your mascara’s running.” Electra looked at a sniffling Ninian.
“It said it was waterproof, guess that was a fucking lie”; Ninian hide her face with her hands, quietly using Endless Rest to dry her face and fixed her make-up.
2095 looked on at the scene and ruminated on Perdida’s story. The similarities she shared with Perdida were not lost on her. Striving to become more than their programing, more than someone made to serve a higher purpose, but never losing sight of the joy of collaboration and connections to others. 2095 put a hand over her chest, she herself had also come a long way to be here hasn’t she.
To Be Continued…
Scenario: Sliema, Malta — 8:00 PM
On the island of Malta, in the center of one of its busiest cities, was a building. A decrepit, abandoned building, rusted and cast in reddish shadow by the taller structures that surrounded it. It was once an apartment building, but it had long since lost that use.
The rest of the city was filled with noise. Screaming, car alarms and barking dogs. But around here, where no one bothered to come around, it was quiet. Butterflies dotted the railings of the building, watching. Waiting for something to come. Not like the people inside could stand guard, with the boards over the windows. Still, they didn’t seem very concerned about the state of things.
“I was expecting to be impressed when you said you got a new place to stay, but this...” Ninian stared at the walls of Mari’s room, trying her best not to wince. They weren’t really in the best shape. Nothing here seemed to be, really, aside from the extremely comfortable bed she was taking a seat on. She turned to stare at Mari. “Shouldn’t you clean up a little? I bet it could use a new paint job, at least.”
“Geh. I don’t have time for painting.” Mari clacked away on her computer, hunched over in a garish (but surprisingly comfortable) gaming chair. Alarmingly loud EDM blared from the cat-ear headphones hanging around her neck. “Do you know how many things I would have to unplug to do that? It’s impractical.”
She gestured to the mass of wires emerging from her computer setup. Indeed, it’d be pretty difficult to move that around. Mari sat in front of a large array of computer monitors hung from the wall, all different shapes and sizes, all displaying different things. She swapped from keyboard to keyboard, not even taking the time to look at Ninian as she spoke.
“Besides, it’s better for me if my place looks like shit. Better that it doesn’t look like anybody lives here, right?”
“That only really matters on the outside...” Ninian sighed. “You could at least get some lights.”
“The screens are enough light.”
“...I suppose.”
The two sat in silence for a moment. Ninian turned to stare at the other person in the room; Nadine Sokenna laid on the other side of the bed, fast asleep. “I’m glad the two of you are doing alright.”
“Mmm.” Mari grinned. “Me too.” She exhaled, finally finishing whatever business she was handling on the computer and spinning the chair around to face the bed. The short shorts, thick blanket, and extremely oversized Hatsune Miku shirt she wore certainly weren’t that flattering, but at least her hair finally looked pretty nice. The bags under her eyes weren’t quite gone, but they seemed to glimmer with newfound lust for life.
She looked happy. That wasn’t something Ninian had been able to say about her before.
“I take it work’s been good?”
“Mmm!” Mari gestured widely to the screens behind her. “It’s an age of information, Ninian! No better time to be an info broker! Business is booming! Ehyeheheh!”
The swordswoman chuckled at that. She was silent for a moment, her smile turning into a frown, her eyes narrowing.
“Anyway... I assume you didn’t call me here just to talk.”
“Huh?” Mari tilted her head to the side. “Whaddya mean?”
“Well, you called me to deal with ‘that’, right?” She pointed up. “Truth be told, my schedule’s really packed right now, and I’m not sure how much I can do-”
“Oh, no, that’s not it at all.”
“Huh?”
“I just wanted you around.” She shrugged. “It’s a bit tough to relax right now. Super hard! Having big strong Ninian around makes me feel a little better. Ehe.” She was visibly blushing. “S-Sorry if that’s stupid, but I figured you’d like to catch up anyway.”
Ninian paused. “...So if you didn’t bring me here to, uh, deal with ‘that’... Are you just leaving that be?”
“Ah?”
“I mean, it’s kind of a problem for you, isn’t it? Doesn’t seem too convenient to leave it be...”
“Well, the plan was to leave it.” Mari shrugged. “But I got a bit lucky.”
“You invited me here... Just to sit around and chat while someone else does all the work?” The swordswoman raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. “As I said, I’ve got a packed schedule-”
“Nah, trust me.” The info broker snickered, spinning around in her chair as she spoke. “Youuuu... Are really gonna wanna see this one. I got somebody totally wild to help out.”
Ninian scoffed.
“Okay... And who would that be?” She tilted her head to the side. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“You’re not gonna believe this one...” Mari cleared her throat. “I called in -”
*Scenario: A lonely boat, on the Mediterranean Sea — *
Wah watched the sun bob on the edge of the horizon. Their hair billowed in the wind, and seafoam sprinkled their face; they didn’t particularly seem to mind. Considering all they’d done with their ability, being on a speeding boat was probably the last thing to phase them; they’d just wrapped up a fight in a walking house, after all.
They stood in silence, a light smile on their face, eyes pleasantly half lidded. There was pleasure to be found in the small things. The sunset on the open sea, for one, was quite nice. Indeed, despite all the troubles it would no doubt cause, COLOSSI's shift to humanitarian aid was doing wonders for their mental. Now if only Solsbury and the rest of them would stop nagging...
But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Nay, there were far more important matters. Wah pushed themself off of the boat’s railing, moving towards the driver's seat of the boat. It wasn’t a big boat; probably just used for leisure, but the owner had been nice enough to give them a ride.
A large sum of money was involved, of course, but that was neither here nor there.
“Oh, cappy-tan!” Wah leaned on the side of the boat behind the driver’s seat. A balding, sun-tanned man chuckled at the name. He wasn’t really much of a captain, but he did like to feel important.
“Howst long does thou think it will be before we arrive?” Wah tapped on the side of the boat a few times. “Wah has places to be, you see! Tis of utmost importance that I arrive quickly! Utmost! You understand, yes?”
“Yeah, yeah, I getcha...” The boater sighed. “It’ll be about ten minutes... Honestly, I don’t get why you’re in such a hurry to get there, anyway. Everybody else seems to be clearin’ out.”
“Oho?” Wah raised an eyebrow. They lowered it, and raised the other one, performing what could perhaps be called an ‘eyebrow wiggle’. “And why is that?”
“Dunno. Nobody’s said much, and everything they’ve said hasn’t been too, er, what’s the word...”
“Comprehensible?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Wah sees, Wah sees!” Wah nodded a few times, bouncing off of the boat’s side and meandering back to the front, wobbling from side to side as the vessel rocked. “From what Wah understands, it’s quite a situation out there! No normal soul would find it any sort of comprehensible. A true predicament... And that is why Wah must go. To assist poor souls who cannot assist themselves! This predicament falls within Wah’s expertise, you see.”
“...Right.”
“Mmm!”
“Ain’t you just a normal soul, too? ‘Sides the ears, you don’t look all that special. Kinda twiggy.”
Wah paused. In the past, being called ‘kinda twiggy’ would’ve surely resulted in a violent tirade. But those were the demons they swore to leave behind speaking. Now, without them, Wah simply laughed. “Nay! Twiggy as Wah may be, you can rest assured, fine citizen!”
They turned, the boater catching the briefest glimmer in their eye. “Wah’s soul is the furthest from ordinary one could possibly get.”
“...If you say so...” He turned his attention back towards driving, and Wah turned theirs to the open sea once more.
Eventually, land came into view. The boater looked upon Malta with some confusion. Everything in the distance seemed perfectly normal. Wah, on the other hand, seemed extremely focused on something in the sky, something the poor man couldn’t seem to find no matter how hard he squinted.
“No need to make it all the way to the island.” Wah’s frown felt out of place on such a naturally silly face. “Park the boat near here. Wah can go the rest of the distances Wahself.”
“Ah..? It’s pretty far from here, though-”
“Verily! But it is nothing Wah cannot handle!” They snapped their fingers, jumping on top of the boat’s front railing, almost seeming to glide.
“Say, Cappy-tan! Have you ever seen a magician at work?”
Ninian gaped. “You... You called in... The head of COLOSSI?”
“...That’s what I said, yes.”
“Whuh...” Ninian frowned. “You’re fucking with me.”
“I’m not.”
“You so are.”
“I’m not! You underestimate the greatest info broker on the planet, my dear Ninian!” Mari jabbed a thumb into her chest as she gloated. “With my Stand ability: ｢Today is a Beautiful Day｣, my surveillance is simply unmatched! You see, the pins that make up my ability, when thrice jabbed into something, create a ‘butterfly within a frame’, but that’s only the basest applic-”
“I know what it does, Mari.” The swordswoman’s confusion briefly made way for the usual moodiness. If you let Mari start, you’d never get her to stop, after all. “I’m more... I mean, how did you even...?”
“I heard through the grapevine, as it were, that COLOSSI was making some big changes. All just rumors of course, so take that all with a grain of salt. But word out there is that their boss has gone completely mad! They’re big into justice and stuff now! Something like that. So I tracked them down, used my butterflies to establish communication, and made them a deal they simply couldn’t refuse.”
“And what could you possibly have to offer someone like that?”
“Information is the new money, Ninian.” Mari chuckled, staring at the wall of her room. “It didn’t take much. I just told them... I knew where a certain someone they quite liked was, and if they took care of my business, I’d sell ‘em the info for free.”
Ninian, after a few moments of stunned silence, simply sighed, scratching the back of her head. She smirked.
“...And you’re absolutely not fucking with me.”
“Aw, c’mon.” She chuckled again, turning her attention back to Ninian. “Have some faith in your best friend, will you? Just sit back and watch.” She raised a thumbs up, grinning from ear to ear. “I don’t have to do any work at all today! As long as no complications arise, it’s as good as dealt with! Wa ha ha!”
Elsewhere, in Sliema, a complication arose.
His name was Errok, and for once, he felt a bit too awestruck to open his mouth.
As rare of an occurrence as this was, most of his brain power was dedicated solely to figuring out what exactly he was looking at. After a large amount of deducing and such, he eventually came to the simple conclusion that he had no idea.
It’s not like anyone else who could see it, though. You couldn’t even see all of it. Only sections, massive spherical tubes of undulating red poking out from the cloudy sky, constantly moving ever so slowly. The wind whipped through his greasy hair as his eyes, wider than they’d been in years, observed what could only be described as a massive, floating worm, made entirely of bright red strings.
Now that he had given up entirely on trying to figure out what the thing was, Errok could dedicate his incredible intellect to other thought processes. Eventually, he arrived at a conclusion, one that was without a doubt something only someone as academically gifted as him could come up with.
“That thing is going to be my horse.”
Indeed, using whatever that was as a noble steed was the only logical idea. Wherever a powerful being resided, there too was opportunity to be found. And as a self proclaimed ‘Weapon To Kill The Soul’, there was surely no beast he could not tame.
He spent the next few minutes idly chuckling to himself.
It felt a bit off, admittedly. The city was pretty empty. The chaos caused by the thing no doubt led to a mass evacuation; he could tell from the buildings that had collapsed around him that it’d done quite a number on the place. Occasionally he’d hear someone screaming for help or something, but he couldn’t figure out where that was coming from, so he didn’t bother. But not having someone to monologue to felt strange. This was the part where he bragged about his incredible plan to some oafish bystander! Where were the oafish bystanders!
“I suppose...I could talk to myself.”
He nodded a few times. An excellent idea.
“Yes! This’ll do just fine. I can just talk to myself! Ha!”
Errok marched forward, a pep in his step that made his gait particularly loud.
“Now then... Clearly, the right answer... is to elevate myself! Aha! Yes!” He looked around at his surroundings. The stairs inside the buildings probably weren’t reliable, even if he could fit through the doors.
“No matter! I’ll just, uh, hrnmm...” He stared at a nearby building. It was pretty tall. “Well, I guess I could climb up that.”
“AHA! With my incredible strength, I’ll climb this building! That’s what I’ll do!”
His head swiveled around: still nobody around. He sighed, though you wouldn’t have been able to hear it from within the helmet, and began his ascent. With a grin, he unearthed the grotesque arm that was ｢You Are Blood｣ from its gauntlet. The arm shot forth, worms spraying from the mottled surface. Yes, they would be his ideal audience. He cleared his throat a few times.
“All living things tremble at the sight of Errok, Apostle of Rot, Destroyer of Souls! I need no weapon, for I am the blade which cleaves life itself!” His body shot forward with a cacophony of clanking, as he howled along with another bout of laughter.
“The world is my, uh, whetstone! I shall sharpen my blade on each fallen fool that tries to stop me, and become a better knight, a better god, a better trickster, than all those fools that I’ve destroyed!”
Hitting the side of the structure with a clatter, Errok stuck his sword into the side of the building. Again, his arm lashed out to grasp the next floor of the building, before yanking himself outwards. This cycle repeated itself, floor by floor, as Errok launched himself higher and higher towards the heavens, and towards the worm that would become his knightly steed.
“Then, when I have conquered all of life and every soul with the absolute, supreme power of rot and decay, then!”
With one last pull, Errok ascended into the air, his massive form silhouetted by the sun. “Then, I will finally tear that flamboyant freak a new one!”
With a CRASH, Errok landed on the roof of the building as it cracked around him. He gave a clumsy flourish to his wormy audience, grinning with menace and delight.
…and received a slow clap in return. Looking around in confusion, as worms do not have hands, Errok’s eyes fell upon the environment around him. The sun was slowly making its way towards the horizon line, casting the ruined skyline of Sliema in shadow, a golden light shining through gray clouds. It was absolutely beautiful; anyone with any sort of care for the world around them would simply have to stop and admire the view.
Errok didn’t have any of that. He was far more concerned with something else, as you’d expect. There on the roof stood another figure, a fae-like being with pale hair, pointed ears and teeth, and gleaming eyes.
“Oh hey,” Errok greeted, pointing with the finger of ｢You Are Blood｣. “Do I know you from somewhere? Might’ve seen you at the races... You look pretty important, though! I bet you’re super important! As am I! Pleasure to meet you!”
Wah just stopped clapping, giving Errok a look. Their nose wrinkled. “Wah is…charmed.”
Not picking up on the sarcasm, Errok beamed.
“Of course you are! I’m sure that you’ve heard about me! Errok, Apostle of Rot! I’ve committed more sins than one could possibly imagine! I’ve conquered all sorts of bozos and losers to get here! And now that I’m here, I’m gonna ride! That! Worm! Oh yeah!!!”
“…Uh huh,” Wah hummed, clearly not listening as they peered up at the worm. “There isn’t really much time for jokes right now, so-“
Suddenly, Wah stopped speaking. Errok stared at them for a few seconds. “...You gonna finish that sentence, or-”
“Shut up.”
The “Apostle of Rot” was fully prepared to go off on yet another monologue, but at that moment he thought to maybe see what exactly this mysterious weirdo stared so intensely at. He turned his gaze to the sky, and his eyes widened.
The clouds that obscured the form of the worm had split, only slightly, and something had descended from the hole produced. It was small, so it was a bit difficult to make it out at first, but if he squinted really hard, he could begin to see the silhouette of a young girl, holding loosely onto a balloon.
“Eugh.” He spat. “Hate kids.”
The figure was silent until it landed, never quite touching the ground. It wore a soft expression; a pure white girl, with a sundress that fluttered in the wind. The string in her hand led to a red balloon, just as red as the pupils concealed in her thin eyes. On the surface, she looked human, but just by looking at her you could tell that it was no human being. The way it seemed to lightly pulsate, skin forming briefly into strings that wrap endlessly around each other.
She smiled upon the two of them. It was not a friendly smile.
“Good evening, you two.” She raised her hands to the two of them. “Wah-Chan, leader of COLOSSI, overlord of the criminal underground the world over... And... Errok...San...”
“Hey. Wait.” Errok raised his hand. He turned to Wah. “That’s who you were? Oh, man, I’m a big fan of your-”
“Tell me. Do you know what ‘time’ it is?”
Errok stifled. He didn’t like this lady very much.
“8:01 PM, is it not?” Wah rudely ignored Errok’s plight. “What’s it matter.”
“Not quite what I meant. It’s almost the ‘Golden Hour’.” She chuckled. “The ‘Golden Hour’, as it’s called, is the most beautiful part of the day. It occurs in the last hour before sunset, and the hour directly before sunrise. It usually lasts only twenty to thirty minutes, but those twenty to thirty minutes are incomparable. Truly, there is beauty in the world.”
SIlence. Neither Errok nor Wah could figure out how to respond to that. Right as Errok was about to open his mouth anyway, the girl continued.
“If you couldn’t tell, ‘Golden Hour’ is about to start, in about two minutes, give or take. I only found this out recently. You see, I have lived my recent life in someone else’s eyes. I’ve never had the chance to learn about the world on my own. I was only recently able to learn about things on my own time, rather than on someone else’s. There was so much I was denied a chance to see. Do you know how cruel that is? Most of the knowledge I’ve gathered... Is completely useless to me now.”
She pointed at Wah. “Did you know that the Monogatari anime being released out of order was originally completely unintended?”
Silence.

“Originally, the series was planned to release in the order of the books; Bakemonogatari came first, and its prequel, Kizumonogatari, was planned to release in 2012. However, due to production issues, it was delayed until 2016, while the other parts of the anime were released on schedule, resulting in an out-of-order release. The bizarre watching orders of Monogatari that the series is somewhat internet famous for are completely unintended, and only exist due to production issues. Did you know that?”

“No,” Wah glared, “Wah did not know that. To be frank, there is no circumstance or situation in which Wah would want or need to know that information.”
“Exactly!” In her first showing of genuine emotion, the girl threw her hands into the air. Her voice remained perfectly monotone. “There’s no reason for me to know that information, either. But instead of important things, I’ve only been shown information like that. My brain, despite being far superior to that of a human being, is filled with useless information that serves no purpose to me. Do you know what it’s like? Having a vessel that doesn’t care for you? Even after all the work I went through to make her do what I wanted, she refused to show me anything worthwhile. I had to learn about things such as the ‘Golden Hour’ myself. Isn’t that cruel?”
“Excuse me, but-”
“But anyway, back to the ‘Golden Hour’. It is frequently utilized by film mak-”
“Stop fucking doing that!” Errok slammed his boot into the ground, producing a loud clang that finally managed to silence the mystery girl. He huffed and puffed for a few seconds before clearing his throat and continuing. “What’s the point of talking to us about any of this? You just prattle on, and on, and on, without any purpose to it! You’re annoying! What’s your deal!”
“There is no point.”
“What?”
“There’s no point, really. I’m just making small talk.” The girl looked over her nails. “Human beings engage in ‘conversation’ to gain a grasp of each other’s personalities. To establish who is worthwhile to have around, and who is not. I simply wanted to do the same. While I’m in this form, I may as well play at humanity.”
“Anywho, from our conversation—” Errok scoffed. “—I have deduced something. You see, I was originally planning to take the ‘strings’ of every Stand user in the world, taking their abilities and adding to my own power. But I have unfortunately vastly underestimated how many Stand users are in the world. Frankly, it would be a lot of work to do myself. So I’ve decided to take on another vessel. Someone far more suited for this kind of work, and who will show me plenty of things.”
“Wah-Chan.” Wah rolled their eyes at that. “From this conversation, I have deduced that you are patient, calm, and rational. From observing the work of your organization, I can come to the conclusion that you are cruel and calculating. My name is Disappearance Addiction. I am the strongest ‘Miracle’ currently present in the world. And I would like for you to become my new vessel.”
“No thankies.”
“...”
“...What?”
“Wah doesn’t really care for that sort of thing.” Wah shrugged. “You seem annoying to have around. Wah actually came here to get rid of you, to be honest. ‘Tis my duty! Wah is on the side of justice, now, as is COLOSSI as a whole! It would be immoral to take the power of something like you.”
“You would refuse the power of a ‘Miracle’?”
“Wah doesn’t know what that is.”
Disappearance Addiction seemed well and truly stumped at that. Eventually, her head began to turn, slowly, as if she was afraid of what her gaze would land on.
“Errok... San...”
“Yeah?”
“You... Would you like... Power?”
“That’s the first interesting thing you’ve said all day.” Errok nodded. “Fuck me up, lady.”
“...You’re not going to think it over, or anything?”
“Nope.”
“Are you sure?”
“Can you just give it to me already? C’mon.”
“...” Disappearance Addiction was silent for a few moments. On one hand, this guy smelled very bad. He was incredibly impatient. And he generally seemed like a big idiot. On the other hand, he did scale the building pretty easily...
“Alright.” She sighed. “I’ve come to a decision. Errok-San. If you kill Wah-Chan before the ‘Golden Hour’ ends, you may become my vessel. Does that satisfy you?”
“How long till Goldy Hour ends?”
“Twenty to thirty minutes.”
“Ha!” Errok unsheathed his sword and swung it onto his shoulder. “I’ll end it in three!” He smirked beneath his armor, pointing his massive blade at Wah. “You there! Wah! Leader of COLOSSI, was it?”
“...That is me, yes.”
“Get ready for the fight of your life, bub! After I kill you, I’m gonna be the boss of COLOSSI! I’ll be on top of the world! God King Errok! Everyone’ll bow to me! That kinda power ain’t something a little pacifist baby face like you’s worthy of having! So I’ll just take it right out of your hands! Ha ha ha! Thinking about it really amps me up! Oh, man!”
He paused, staring at Wah.
“I was really expecting you to cut me off there. It’s been happening all day. You just gonna sit there?”
Wah’s brow furrowed.
“Tell me...” They stepped forward, the dust around them kicking into the air, beginning to circle around them. “...Do you honestly believe... That you can beat me? Is that something... You think you’re capable of?”
“Course it is. I’m a weapon to kill the soul.”
“Hmph.” Wah sighed. “So be it.”
Disappearance Addiction smiled upon the two as she rose further into the air, wind whipping through her hair. A golden glow illuminated the cityscape, the sun reaching its final moments in the sky. “I feel like... I should say something here...Ah, that’s it!

”OPEN THE GAME!”

Location:
In the city of Sliema, Malta, currently with thick strings hanging overhead.
The area here is 32 by 40 meters with each tile being 2 by 2 meters. Wah and Errok start on top of buildings, as represented by their character tokens.
The yellow rectangles are clay buildings, each numbered to represent their elevation level.The (1) marked buildings are 5 meters tall, the ones marked with a (2) are 10 meters tall, and the ones marked with a (3) are 15 meters tall.
The White Rectangles are Laundry racks with nearby baskets, folding chairs, cleaned clothing, and towels.
The Green Circles are palm trees that are 20 meters tall.
The Magenta Lines across the map are Strings produced by Disappearance Addiction and are attached to the buildings and trees. These strings are thick enough to balance on and have B Durability.
The brown rectangles are wooden benches. The blue circles are fountains.
Goal: RETIRE your opponent!
Additional Information:
Players are not allowed to enter the buildings for the purposes of this match and will be Retired if they are unable or unwilling to leave the “out of bounds area”
There is enough space between buildings for either player to move through the alleyways
Wah starts next to a large umbrella with a hooked handle, a portable grill, and a cushioned lawn chair

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Bastards of Barcas	Errok	“The word “ignorant” has a nice ring to it, so I don’t mind being called that, but “incompetent” is going just a bit too far…” Establish superiority over your opponent through your movement and positioning!
COLOSSI	Mx. Wah	“A creature like you having a brain residing in his skull…is already a miracle in and of itself.” Establish superiority over your opponent through your movement and positioning!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
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