[This is an aftermath sequel to Sanctuary. Please read it for context.]
Humans could get used to anything, given enough time and patience.
Intellectually, I am aware that I used to be Human, that prior to my exit from the dungeon, I'd had an entirely different life, that everything I knew from my past was a convenient lie to keep me trapped and servile.
There are many fanciful tales of Humans being taken, and through sheer willpower recalling their past lives and successfully destroying a dungeon's Core.
I know better, and I tell that to every would-be Adventurer who walks in through those doors.
When we were safely out of danger, John, Jimmy, and myself had come to an impasse on how to proceed. My entire life was gone, I was a monster, pure and simple, and even standing benignly in town got me more than a few terrified looks.
Dungeon Withdrawal is not unlike recovering from an addiction, I had to be locked up in a cell because every now and again, I got violent, demanding a Human to take me to the nearest dungeon.
The irony was not lost on me as I was indeed brought to a dungeon.
They kept me fed on a ration of meat and milk, both of which tasted horrible to me, because a dungeon sustains its monsters through mana, it's why several vicious monsters could coexist without killing each other.
But as it ran its course, the food began to taste better, and though they kept me for a week longer than necessary, once I was fully removed from the dungeon's influence, I was free to go.
John and Jimmy couldn't stay, they still had their own lives to live, and returning home victorious with both their manhoods intact was certainly going to make their lives easier.
They took one fourth of the loot each, at my direction, during one of my more lucid moments, and they ensured the Adventurer's Guild kept my half safe for me.
When I went to the Guild for my loot, it was given to me, coinage exchanged for viable currency, offers made on magic items that I staunchly refused to sell until I knew what I was going to do with my life.
Plus, that dagger is mine, I killed for it.
Because I didn't have any life to return to, the only clue being a letter that meant nothing to me taken from the body of a brother whose memory was utterly gone, save for the fact that my first and only look at him was a split skull and the look of fear in his eyes.
I didn't mention the funerary cannibalism to anyone, even if I didn't have any issue with it, the Humans certainly did and dragged me away from the body before I could even begin to explain.
It was the least I could do for someone who had once meant something to me.
The Guild also offered me a job, Monstrous Adventurers were valuable, they couldn't be taken by a dungeon with the right protections- and I had those protections tattooed beneath my scales- and their innate understanding of how a dungeon worked gave most adventuring parties an edge.
Plus, dungeon Cores were pretty, and could do practically anything if you removed it and bound it to you. Which I did. More on that later.
They had a Grandmaster Wizard try to recall my memories, he couldn't, the letter only indicated an empty house with very little of note or value to me, but since it was mine, I sold it for a modest sum.
It was a pair of brothers who entered the Guild, the sight of them joking and laughing dredging up unpleasantly sad emotions that had nothing attached to them except whatever remained of love for a brother that I had.
"We're here to register." The older of the two called out, completely missing the fact that I was there.
"Do you have an entry fee?" I asked as I climbed the step-ladder to address them. They screamed, I yelled, they screamed even louder. It was good fun, I liked scaring Humans.
"Now that you've sufficiently hurt my ears, do you have an entry fee?"
"It's a little lizard thing!"
"Kobold!" I snapped. "I am a Kobold, and you will stop acting like a bloody arse or I will have you thrown out so you can calm down!" Latent hatred for Humanity aside, I didn't have a particularly good temper, and when stabbing was a more efficient way to get your point across, I wasn't allowed my dagger.
They elected to calm down. Progress. They approached cautiously, as all newcomers do, and said, in a hesitant voice. "We're here to register?"
"Congratulations, you've echoed something I've already heard twice. Allow me to echo something a third time. Do. You. Have. An. Entry. Fee?"
"Entry fee?" He asked.
"Yes. An entry fee guarantees you basic armor and weaponry properly assigned for your roles. Without one, you will have to provide your own. The entry fee is fifty silvers."
"We, uh, we don't have enough for that." The younger said.
"We, uh, also don't have any weapons." The elder added.
"Bloody brilliant. You Humans cease to amaze me. Come this way, I can give you a quick job to earn enough to pay. You're going to need this."
I led the duo to a door, this was my door, because before I got a job here, it did not exist.
"Are either of you familiar with dungeon Cores?" I asked.
"They're really powerful." The eldest said with a nod.
"They create dungeons?" The younger asked uncertainly.
I sighed. I really did not have the patience for this. "Beyond this door is a dungeon. It is my dungeon. I aided a party in destroying a dungeon and claimed the core after giving them free rein on the loot."
I opened the door, which led into a recreation of the dungeon I had once called home. That was largely due to the fact that the same dungeon Core that dwelt in this one had come from that one. "Dungeons are graded based on what they create. This is a Grade 1 Dungeon. It is the safest and easiest of dungeons to survive in, and because it is under my command, this one is even safer."
I paused, making sure they understood.
"This dungeon does not have many monsters in it. This makes it the kind where, if you stay too long inside, you become a monster. This is something I cannot change, and I keep it this way because there are people who simply want a completely fresh start. There are ten Kobolds in this dungeon, they are the ones who did not get out in time, even with my help."
"Why are you showing this to us?" The older brother asked.
"Because it is the most expedient way for you to earn enough to pay for the fee, or to find enough armor and weapons to kit yourself out. The Kobolds in this dungeon are passive, but become hostile if you start taking things. Killing them is allowed, I can resurrect them without issue. But do bear in mind they used to be Humans."
I paused again, they nodded.
"You will experience the beginnings of the dungeon claiming you after one hour inside, this will manifest in growing scaly patches, your limbs becoming non-Human..." I explained the process of being claimed, which I described in exact detail. "After twelve hours, if you fail to return, you will be claimed, your memories utterly destroyed, and your will belonging to the dungeon Core."
I looked at both of them. "Now, would you like to opt for a cleaning job instead?"
"Once you lose your memories, you cannot retrieve them." I warned as I led them through the dungeon. I had given them both a dagger to defend themselves, once they staunchly insisted on doing things the expedient way.
They were going to run this dungeon regardless, but under easier terms.
"I was minutes away from being claimed, and I only got out because I had given a pair of Humans a bag of loot that I was damned and determined to retrieve."
I stopped at the first intersection and turned around. I stomped one of my feet. "Now, unless you want to become Kobolds- which I will happily oblige- you will navigate this dungeon by yourselves. I will be observing you, ensuring you don't die, but I won't prevent you from being injured."
I teleported to the Core, its glossy blue surface growing translucent as I observed the Humans running through the hallways.
I raised the floor a step, causing them both to stumble and fall to the floor. "You have triggered a trap." I said. "You are dead now."
They pushed themselves up and kept going. I set a few traps ahead, non-lethal ones, ones designed to capture and hold. The elder brother fell into a small pit, just high enough that he couldn't climb out on his own. The younger brother immediately helped him out.
"Excellent instinct." I said. "Your survival in a dungeon depends on your capacity to cooperate and protect one another."
I directed a Kobold toward their direction. They weren't mindless, certainly intelligent, but utterly incapable of being removed from the dungeon, even if I tried. Severing them simply killed them, returning their mind and soul to the core.
I told him there were intruders who were after our shinies, he immediately attacked.
They were cognizant of what this dungeon was meant to be, a home for myself, and a place to train Adventurers. They understood this intellectually, but they were fanatical when it came to protecting what the dungeon produced.
Even I still got a little grumpy, seeing Humans grabbing my treasures. Generally, the angrier I was by the end of the run, the better their grade.
The Kobold attacked with a dagger. Their duty was to incapacitate and imprison Humans so that they became Kobolds. I let the Humans out, of course, unless they were too far gone by that point, at which point I simply gave them the choice of staying or leaving.
Most people were surprised they elected to leave, though they always came back after they were severed.
The elder brother kicked the Kobold, knocking him down and making him drop the dagger. I watched, and shook my head when they ran.
The Kobold pushed himself up, scooped up his dagger, and went into a side tunnel, moving through the walls and catching up to them. He ambushed them, leaping from the inside of a wall and tackling the younger brother, dagger already jabbing into his side.
The elder brother immediately moved to protect his sibling, and this time, he didn't hesitate to kill.
"The Kobold you just killed is the same one you left alive." I said, the elder brother tensed, horrified. "Understand, you cannot assume you will outrun an enemy, your brother's blood is on your hands, he has paid for your choice."
It was brutal, but it was an important lesson.
I moved a chest and a mimic near them. The mimic was a mindless construct, set to devour or entrap.
The elder brother helped his sibling stand, removing the dagger.
"Congratulations, you have now ensured his stab wound is bleeding freely, in any other dungeon, without any form of healing, this would be a death sentence. Do not remove daggers until you can treat the wound."
He began to panic, looking for anything that would save his brother, likely forgetting I wasn't going to kill them. He spotted the chest and the mimic and rushed over to them. I set up some non-lethal traps, to remind him not to hurry. I even had one resemble a mimic opening up to capture him.
He triggered them all, but managed to avoid getting hit. He hesitated at the chest and mimic.
Good.
He took off one of his boots, letting out a sharp cry of shock as he saw his little toe had transformed. He gingerly touched it, the dungeon Core fed him pleasant sensations to make him want to stay.
Particularly weak-willed Humans would find themselves enjoying the sensations, not realizing that they were becoming monsters, until it was too late.
He pulled his hand back, still unsettled, and threw the boot.
The mimic triggered instantly, grasping at the air in front of it before resetting, taking the boot with it. He took the other boot off, letting out a cry of distress as he saw all of the toes on that foot had already transformed. He threw the boot at the other chest, determined it was safe, and opened it.
The trap struck him in the torso, flinging him backward.
"Remember, your brother is currently sitting on the floor, bleeding, an easy target for the Kobold who's heading in your direction." I said. That was a flat-out lie, but it got him moving. He checked the chest, took out a red potion, and ran for his brother.
He gave the potion to him, the wound sealed shut.
"I'm not evil." I said. "I ensured you would have a means of healing your brother. At the same time, never drink a potion you cannot identify. That could have just as easily been a potion of transformation, or even poison."
"What's a potion of transformation do?" He asked.
"Costs you an hour." I replied. "Outside of a dungeon, it just flat out turns you into a monster. One with memories intact, mind you, but a monster nonetheless."
His brother healed, he led him carefully to the chest and they grabbed the armor within. It was piecemeal, a single pauldron, a breastplate, and a ring.
The younger brother got the breastplate, which shrunk to fit him, the brother wore the pauldron, and picked up the ring. This was a Ring of Binding, it accelerated the process of transformation, it is a cursed item.
I sensed someone entering my dungeon, it was the Guild Master. I teleported him to me. An old man, he was one of the strongest men in the Guild, and that was only because old age had worn him down.
"Prospective members?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." I replied. The older brother stowed the ring in his pocket. "Good instinct, never wear unidentified magic items." They continued, the elder brother removing his ruined socks and going barefoot. They slowed down, started paying attention to their surroundings.
"Do you expect them to survive this?" He asked.
"I do not interfere, Guild Master." I said. "Unless I absolutely have to or it's necessary to teach them a lesson." I looked at him. "The younger brother will absolutely make it out fine, the elder brother might, if he doesn't put on that ring. The moment he puts it on, he would have to run and avoid every threat between him and the exit."
The Guild Master nodded. "I expect-"
That was when the younger brother collapsed.
Dungeonrunning is extremely dangerous, even in this 'tame' one, death was possible.
The younger brother was still alive, but he had certainly fallen unconscious.
"No! Not now!" The elder brother shouted.
"What condition is the younger in?" The Guild Master asked, concerned. I reached out and felt his energy, his soul.
"He has a condition that causes him to faint." I replied. "One that is treatable with medicine, and expensive magic." I shook my head. "He should not have brought his brother with him, now he has dead weight he has to protect.
"Hey! Kobold! Can you help me?" The elder brother asked.
"No." I said. "Interference is not permitted by Guild regulation unless absolutely necessary. Your brother is not dying, he is not in any present danger of death. However, he is along the same level of change as you."
The brother looked desperate. "If I have to rescue him, he will be considered unfit for the job. Indeed, his condition may be serious enough that we could not- in good conscience- put him in anything but a clerical position."
Now, the question remained if the brother was sensible, or stupid.
Given that he almost immediately chose to lift him up and carry him on his back, stupid was the answer.
"A shame." The Guild Master remarked.
I moved some Kobolds in their path, the Guild Master raised his brow. "Are you intentionally sabotaging his progress?" He asked in mock offense.
"It's only sabotage if you intend for them not to succeed." I said. "If he's willing to risk his brother's safety instead of forfeiting his brother's chances of joining the Guild, then he will have to live with the consequences of his actions."
The Kobolds set up an ambush, creating a noticeable fake trap that the elder brother would have to walk around to avoid. To their utter shock, as well as mine, he just ran across it.
"Did he intuit the trap was fake, or was he just that bullheaded?" I asked as the Kobolds moved to intercept. They got ahead of him, prepared an ambush, and the moment he was close, they jumped out, punching and kicking him and cackling with glee.
"I still find it disturbing how monsters delight in Human suffering." The Guild Master remarked.
"Quiet, this is the best part." I said. They tied the elder brother up and dragged the unconscious younger brother into a panel. He screamed out a name. "Daniel!"
"I'm giving him half an hour before I fail him." I said. "That should be enough time to determine his competence."
The elder brother, legs bound together, arms behind his back, began to desperately inch away from where he'd been put, toward the dagger that he had dropped. I nodded approvingly, that was a sensible plan. But then he inched past it and deliberately triggered a trap.
I gaped in absolute shock as the trap sliced cleanly through the ropes, barely missing his wrists. He then got up, grabbed the dagger, and freed himself.
"Resourceful lad." The Guild Master remarked. "Yet his brother has been abducted."
The brother went toward the wall they'd taken Daniel, who was already halfway across the dungeon and heading straight for the holding cells. One of them requested to grab a Transformation Potion to speed things up.
"Reserve that for later." I said. "I want to see how the elder brother handles this."
The brother in question gave up, and began searching around desperately for something. There was a chest nearby with a proper sword and more armor, even a non-cursed magic item and a scroll. He kept searching, keeping his hand along the right wall, until he found it.
"He has an uncanny sense of what he's doing." The Guild Master remarked. "He might be an untrained time mage."
"That would explain the bravado with the fake trap and the willingness to push forward. He might not even be aware of why he's doing what he's doing." I remarked. He threw one of his ruined socks at the chest- "He still had those!?" I yapped- and proceeded to dig through its contents.
By now, his feet were fully Kobold, with his legs beginning to accommodate. He would be off balance for a while.
"Greaves, bracers, a standard short-sword, a werewolf's skin, and a scroll." The Guild Master remarked. "Not a bad find for a dungeon of this caliber."
Werewolf skin was a fun item that turned the wearer into a monster. The effect was effectively the same as being in a newly formed dungeon, and was meant to bring about some diversity to to the monster population.
It was also one of the few ways a monster could return to Human form, if it merged with them.
"Ragnar is a Werewolf, isn't he?" I asked.
"Aye, he is. He's been looking for one of those for his wife."
The brother seemed to know what it was, or at least, what its properties were, and tossed it back into the chest, that's when he pulled out the cursed ring.
"He's going to be sorely disappointed." The Guild Master remarked. "That's a Ring of Binding if I've ever seen one."
The scroll burst into flames, and he looked at the ring, wincing as his mind was filled with knowledge he didn't have before. He stared at the ring in his hand, clearly disappointed by the fact that it was utterly-
"Did he just put it on!?" The Guild Master sputtered. He was right, the brother had put the ring on and was beginning to transform faster. He then opened the wall panel and began following along the path the Kobolds had gone.
"Pull him out." The Guild Master commanded. "You've engineered a desperate situation, and we can clearly see he's not capable of rational thought in such instances."
"No." I said. "Look." The brother was stepping out of the walls, grabbing gear and other items, before going back in. "Kobolds are innately good at dungeoneering. Even in a foreign dungeon, we can figure out where we are in relation to everything else. But in your native one, especially one that's actively claiming you..."
"He's deliberately doing what he can to salvage the situation." The Guild Master remarked. "How much time does he have left?"
"Approximately one hour before the transformation is irreversible, so thirty minutes with the Ring of Binding on." I ran the time in my head. "Even if he manages to rescue his brother in time and gather enough gear for the both of them, by the time we could remove the ring, he would already be a Kobold."
The brother got as much armor on as he could, continued making his way to the holding cells, where Daniel was already bound, the transformation proceeding just as slowly as normal.
His eyes opened, he shifted around on the table, unable to get out.
That's when he began to grow fur.
"He's a Werewolf." I said numbly.
"If his brother doesn't get him out, he'll be a Kobold Werewolf." The Guild Master remarked. "Those are technically among the more powerful of the moderately dangerous monsters, all of the strengths of a Werewolf, plus the innate understanding of a dungeon? Terrifying creatures."
"Don't give me ideas." I said. "Ragnar needs a gift for his wife still, right?"
I moved the chest with the Werewolf Skin over to me and, wincing at the idea of taking it out and removing it from the dungeon, put it into my bag.
The brother was almost there, and Daniel was undergoing a transformation.
"Going unconscious suddenly is a commonality with natural born Werewolves," The Guild Master remarked. "He's still in danger of being claimed by the Dungeon, but this is something he is naturally."
The younger brother broke his restraints, and with a feral growl lunged at the Kobolds, tearing them to shreds and beginning to eat them.
"Ferality, not a good sign." I remarked. "Go get Ragnar ready, I'm on retrieval."
I teleported the Guild Master out, then the elder brother, who looked around in confusion.
"Out. Now. There is an emergency." I said. He ran out of the dungeon, and then I teleported Daniel to the entrance, where he bolted out into the Guild Hall.
I teleported over and saw Ragnar wrestling with Daniel, keeping him pinned to the ground while the older brother stared in confused horror.
"You have ten minutes before your transformation becomes irreversible." I said. He looked at me, "Nine, if you keep staring at me like that."
"What's wrong with my brother? Why is he like that?" He asked.
"Congratulations, you and your brother are natural-born Werewolves, which explains why you had such good flashes of intuition in there, and why you refused to abandon him. Eight minutes."
He held his hand out, but then brought it in, holding it against his chest.
"I don't particularly care if you want to be a Kobold- in fact, I welcome it, we need more Kobolds in this city- but if you do, and you don't want to be, then let me take the ring off."
"I... don't really want to." He said. "All I could think of when I saw the first changes was, I wanted it to go faster."
"Ah." I said. "Well, then. You were doomed from the start. Lovely. Once you're finished with that ring, we'll have it on your brother so he can finish transforming and calm down. Since you're out of the dungeon, you should be relatively safe, but for both of your sakes, we'll need to hold you for a while.
He nodded.
Ragnar finally got Daniel to calm down, he was whimpering, clearly experiencing pain.
"Aye, pup, let it all out." Ragnar said, gently petting his fur. "There's a good pup, inner peace, lad." Daniel started thrashing about again. "Inner peace, not outer squirm!"
"Also, yes, this does count as failing." I said to the elder brother. "However, due to the circumstances- and the fact that your brother would have doubtlessly been a mindless beast if left in there- the Guild Master will talk to you about your options after your holding period."
He nodded. His transformation finished, I clapped him on the back, took the ring, and- with Ragnar's help, got it on the Werewolf pup's finger so he could get it over with faster.
Once the two were in holding, I walked over to Ragnar, pulled out the Werewolf Skin from my bag, and held it out to him.
"You know what to do with this." I said.
He looked surprised, then nodded, taking it. "Aye, lad. I do."
I thought about what other things I needed to do. "Oh, right. I need to resurrect the Kobolds." I said, before walking into my dungeon.
It did take about a week for Daniel to finally calm down.
At first, there was some concern that the nature of his transformation had left him potentially feral, but the morning he was meant to be let out, he was in Human form
I was the one who went in, covered him with a blanket, and put some spare clothes out for him.
"Where am I?"
"A holding cell." I said.
I heard him shoot up, accompanied by a sound I was familiar with, in that his fur suddenly floofed up. "W-what happened to me!?" He howled in fear.
"You are a Werewolf." I said matter-of-factly. I looked at him, he was looking at his claws with a mixture of horror, fear, and joy. I had vague feelings of that same mixture of emotions. "More specifically, at least one of your parents was a Werewolf."
"Wait, then is Jason-?"
"He became a Kobold." I replied. "He used an item to speed up the transformation so he could rescue you. If you had maintained your sanity in that moment, I would not have interfered. But you didn't, and you are going to need training to keep yourself in check whenever you're scared or angry."
"I- see." He said.
"For what it's worth, you won't pass out anymore, so your reason for coming has ultimately resolved itself."
"What's going to happen to Jason?" He asked.
"The same thing that happened to me. He will live." I replied. "He has retained his memories, due to accepting that he was likely going to be lost, just to save you. Even though he could have forfeited at any point like I told him."
"Aye, Kobold, is he safe?"
"Yes." I said.
The door opened, Jason stepped inside, then ran over to his brother and hugged him. "Little big brother, meet big little brother." I snarked.
They both looked at me, and then they laughed. I let them have some time together, to talk and acclimate.
After their reunion, I brought them with me to the Guild Master.
"So." He said. "You have a few options. One, we tattoo dungeon protections on you and have you sign on to helping clearing out dungeons, or two, we let you go, except you return every week so Ragnar can train you to keep yourself under control."
"Dungeon protections?" Jason asked.
I nodded. "We are monsters." I said. "Without the proper protections, a new dungeon can claim you, making you a part of its system." I looked at them both. "I don't think it need said why you should refrain from going inside dungeons without it."
"What happens to those who do?" Daniel asked.
"The dungeon claims them." I said. "They lose their memories of their past life, becoming convinced they always lived in it. They become trapped inside, forever."
They both looked at each other, then looked at us. "We, uh..." Daniel started.
"We actually wanted to go back." Jason replied.
"You want to be claimed by the dungeon." The Guild Master said.
"When I was looking for my brother, all I could think of was how much I liked being there." Jason replied. "That's honestly why I put on the ring."
"And I'm not leaving my brother alone." Daniel said. "We've only had each other our entire lives."
I nodded. "As the master of the dungeon, I will approve this." I said. "Any arguments against, Guild Master?"
He sighed. "Just go." He said.
With the brothers close behind me, I led them to the dungeon entrance. "Understand, by doing this, you are consigning yourself to protecting what is effectively a practice dungeon." I said. "You will be killed and brought back."
Jason nodded. "I know."
He opened the door, and they walked in.

Respect Yangchen

" I presume you’ve heard of the waterbending saying, ‘A feather’s weight moves a wagon’s load’? This scheme, as you put it, is where I apply the feather."

History: Suffering powerful visions of her past lives from an early age, the Air Nun Yangchen discovered she was the Avatar before she was even 11. Her unprecedented spiritual attunement to her past lives allowed her to claim their endless wisdom and experience as their own. However, it had a cost.
Yangchen lost her companion Jetsun in the Spirit World during Yangchen's first journey there, and the emotional toll of exploring her past lives left her with the weight of unbelievable regret and anguish. Following her mastery of the elements and her duel with General Old Iron, Yangchen became an adept spymaster pulling strings in secret throughout the world to shape the balance she sought to restore. She left behind a greatly-revered legacy of hard fought peace among the Four Nations, but beneath her legend lurked mistakes and regrets of her own whose impact resounded through the centuries.

Source Key: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season # Episode # = ATLA S#E# The Rift = TR The Dawn of Yangchen = DoY The Shadow of Kyoshi = SoK Note: Chapter citations within image links 

Avatar RTs for Reference:

• Respect Avatar Wan
• Respect Avatar Kuruk
• Respect Avatar Kyoshi
• Respect Avatar Roku
• Respect Avatar Aang
• Respect Avatar Korra

Physicals

Strength

• Her grip around Kavik's wrist is described as iron-like, and he reflects that she is stronger than she appears ^DoY

Durability

• Takes a punch from Old Iron and gets back up to do battle with him evenly throughout the night ^{TR 2}

Speed

• Within half a second, interrupts Kavik' attempted escape by re-freezing ice around him he melted to pass through ^DoY
• Considers herself excellent at reacting to airflows, considering a fruit thrown at her as moving at a snail-sloth's pace before airbending it into her hand ^DoY
• Boosts her speed with airbending to run past guards, crossing a field in the blink of an eye while her feet barely touch the ground ^DoY
• Amplifies her speed as she races past an explosion, then leaps up to a balcony to land quietly ^DoY

Airbending

Mobility

• Flies herself out to sea on a column of air to speak with Old Iron ^{TR 2}
• Eavesdropped on conversations by air-spouting beneath windows at the age of 11 prior to mastering airbending ^DoY
• Uses her glider to fly discreetly over Kavik's head to follow him ^DoY
• Launches herself forward while crawling through a secret passageway, keeping herself from harm before stopping ^DoY
• Leaps from her bison over Kavik's head to the ground ^DoY
• Flies between islands on her glider ^DoY
• Slows her descent off a cliff with airbending before suspending herself in the air with the Avatar State ^DoY
• Boosts her speed to run past guards, crossing a field in the blink of an eye while her feet barely touch the ground ^DoY
• Amplifies her speed as she races past an explosion, then leaps up to a balcony to land quietly ^DoY
• Raises herself and a companion on columns of air, then joins them together to land both on a cliffside overhead ^DoY

Breath

• Amplifies her scream to alert guards, blowing out a nearby oil lamp and hurting Kavik's ears even through his hands ^DoY
• Whistles at a pitch too high for humans to hear that summons her sky bison ^DoY
• Raises herself onto her bison with a small tornado ^DoY
• Inflates a raft with a single breath ^DoY
• Shouts, sending papers in the surrounding room flying ^DoY

Air Blasts

• Blows her hair out of her face with a wave of her hand ^DoY
• Shoves Kavik out of her way with a wave of her fingers ^DoY
• Hurls several blasts in dance-like motions that keep her propelled in the air, floating between columns as she lets out her rage ^DoY
• Presses a man into the ground with a slice of her hand, holding him there with a gust of wind ^DoY
• Tears channels into the sea with slices of air to let out her rage ^DoY
• Creates a dust storm from loosened ground, bark, and splinters that blinds several guards, obscuring her infiltration of a city ^DoY

Control

• Sucks Kavik back into a building after he leaps out of it, attempting to escape ^DoY
  • Kavik did not realize Yangchen was the one resisting him until later ^DoY
• Reflects that she is not as adept at ignoring temperatures as other airbenders ^DoY
• Forms a small cyclone with a flick of her wrist that redirects a fruit thrown at her into her hand ^DoY
• Spouts a man upwards, then down into the ground to KO him ^DoY
• Scoops Kavik off her bison to drop him in nearby water ^DoY
• Catches a fainting person from across a room as they fall ^DoY
• Circles around a whirlwind of dust she creates ^DoY
• Drains the air from a room she stands outside, making it impossible for a combustionbender to bend and rendering he and another man incapacitated ^DoY
  • Repeats the process again, incapacitating another target from outside their room without alerting them ^DoY
  • The technique is said to render targets unconscious without them realizing it within ten seconds and threatens to kill them soon after if it continues ^DoY

Waterbending

General

• Freezes water back into ice as a waterbender passes through it, trapping him halfway through the barrier ^DoY
  • Kavik did not realize Yangchen was the one resisting him until later ^DoY
• Reflects that she can feel the faint tug of water from buckets nearby ^DoY
• Raises several bucketloads of water into the air to carry them upstairs ^DoY
• Condenses clouds into drinkable water ^DoY

Healing

• Heals Kavik after he suffers a beating, reducing swelling in his cheek and sealing a gash before repairing damage to his hands from frostbite ^DoY
• Heals a head injury bleeding profusely ^DoY
• Heals a woman who is sick and dying, utilizing extra water and Kavik's help to save the woman's life ^DoY
• When Kavik's broken nose is healed enough to reduce the swelling and allow him to smell he reflects that it still was not on the level of Yangchen's abilities ^DoY
• Yangchen is said to have treated "many gruesome injuries and illneses, seen the worst kind of physical damage" ^DoY
• Stabilizes a woman bleeding arterially from her collar to save her life ^DoY

Earthbending

• Creates a small shelter for herself beneath a storm ^{TR 2}
• Opens and seals brickwork beneath plaster to access a secret passageway ^DoY
• Catches several falling tiles in a tunnel collapsing around her, though there are too many to catch all of them ^DoY
• Tunneled herself out from beneath a building and emerged to the surface without anyone noticing ^DoY
• Slams her feet down, quickly bending a large amount of earth around she and a companion thick enough it keeps out the roar of the nearby ocean waves ^DoY
• Loosens the frozen dirt across a field so that she can blow up a dust storm ^DoY
• Pulls sod from log walls hard enough to KO two men while knocking over and disarming a third ^DoY
• Raises enough stone to block a door from being closed with a flick of her foot ^DoY
• Sledged 3 unconscious men across town, transporting them discreetly ^DoY
• Throws a huge chunk of a street that crashes through a wall ^DoY

Firebending

• Can warm herself with the Breath of Fire technique, those she finds it draining ^DoY
• Creates a candle's worth of flame for light ^DoY
• Snaps her fingers to create a flicker of flame for light ^DoY
• Burns paper in her hands into ash ^DoY
• Opens up her hand to create enough flame to light a small enclosure, which she maintains when her hand is grabbed and stokes as she breathes ^DoY
• Surrounding oil lamps row dim in connection with Yangchen's emotional state ^DoY

Avatar State

• The Avatar State overtakes her, forming a sphere of the four elements around her as she does battle with General Old Iron that includes blocking his blows with walls of earth and gusting him over with gale force winds ^{TR 2}
• Battled evenly with General Old Iron throughout the night, leaving the surrounding city in ruins ^{TR 2}
  • The city was considered the grandest of its time
  • Rumor's start that the city's destruction was due to a typhoon ^DoY
  • The destruction of the city was so thorough that the residents had nowhere to live ^DoY
• Suspends herself in the air while melting and clearing away a field of snow, accomplishing in minutes what would normally take an entire season's worth of change ^DoY
• Gusts the wind across an open field, blowing back grass, trees, and clouds surrounding her ^ATLA
  • Yangchen often used this exercise for practice ^SoK

Spiritual Abilities

Accessing past lives

• As a child, suffered visions of her past lives that left her incapacitated as she accessed their memories ^DoY
• Considers herself keen-eyed, and detects an oncoming threat her experience with her past lives assesses as troublemakers rather than assassins ^DoY
• Sudden panic while crawling through a secret passageway activates a past life's claustrophobia, though she manages to stifle the unbidden memories ^DoY
• Avatars in general are considered prodigious and fast learners, and Yangchen picked up on the skills of spycraft, trickery, and falsehoods ^DoY
• Yangchen is extremely well-read, though she has difficulty remembering which books she read herself and which ones she read in a past life ^DoY
• Attributes her deft understanding of commerce to being an accountant in a past life ^DoY
• Yangchen is exceptional among Avatars for her ability to commune with her past lives ^DoY
• Yangchen has combed through dozens upon dozens and dozens of her past lives' experiences ^DoY
• Past lives are incapable of forming new opinions, fresh predictions, or make decisions for Yangchen in the present world ^DoY

Spiritual Contact

• Meditated into the Spirit World on her first attempt ^DoY
• After mastering the elements, but before fully attuning to the Spirit World, senses General Old Iron approaching from the sea for an attack ^{TR 2}
• Communes with Kyoshi when Kyoshi meditates ^SoK
• Communes with Aang when Aang meditates to speak with his past lives ^{ATLA S3E19}
• Contacts Aang several times and gives him visions, though she is unable to speak. Aang honoring an ancient tradition in her honor allows her to communicate with him and explain that severing Roku's connection limited her ability to contact him, and when next she appears she is silent again ^{TR 1-2}

Skills/Equipment

• Despite Kavik utilizing his experience at evading people following him, Yangchen easily manages to do so by discreetly gliding overhead ^DoY
• Measures Kavik's pulse by grabbing his wrist to tell if he is lying ^DoY
• Quickly determines the best element to use in a fight, then misdirects her opponent with a feint ^DoY
• Flies her sky bison, Nujian, through a storm
• Nujian flattens a crowd with the wind from a paddle of his tail ^DoY
• Communicates with Nujian through subtle motions ^DoY
• Possesses a bison whistle so others can summon Nujian across the span of an island ^DoY

Respect The Dai Li

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

The Dai Li are the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, a secretive police force responsible for protecting the heritage of the Earth Kingdom's capital city. Their members are recruited at an early age and trained to become an elite and covert earthbending task force specializing in securing, imprisoning, and conditioning political dissidents.
Avatar Kyoshi first formed the Dai Li to preserve Earth Kingdom traditions on behalf of the Earth King. However, over time they became corrupted away from the Earth King's influence, eventually coming under the command of Grand Secretariat Long Feng. Under Long Feng, the Dai Li insulated the Earth King from political influence as they imposed a paranoid police-state over the city. When Princess Azula outmaneuvered Long Feng for leadership of the Dai Li, the force became the city's undoing as she seized control of the capital for the Fire Nation. After serving as Azula's personal guard, the Dai Li returned to obedience under the Earth Kingdom's monarchy when Azula dismissed them during a fit of paranoid mania.
Most recently, the Dai Li faithfully served the Earth Queen in the Era of Korra where they were tasked with collecting and training newly-fledged Airbenders into a military force. Korra and her friends ultimately saved the new Airbenders, and the Dai Li have not been seen since their defeat at the hands of the Red Lotus who subsequently assassinated the Earth Queen to plunge Ba Sing Se into anarchy.

Source Key Avatar: The Last Airbender Season & Episode = AS#E# The Legend of Korra Season & Episode = LS#E# Archived Nickelodeon Website = ANW Escape from the Spirit World = ESW Avatar: The Last Airbender: Art of the Animated Series = AoAS 

Scaling: 1) Aang 2) Toph 3) Katara 3) Zuko 4) Sokka 5) Appa 6) Jet and the Freedom Fighters 7) Iroh 8) Korra 9) Tenzin 10) Mako 11) Bolin 12)New Airbenders 13) Red Lotus

Combat

Durability/Evasion

• Knocked away by Toph's columns of earth ^AS2E17
• Jet knocks a Dai Li out by slamming him into the ground, and Aang blasts others away with air ^AS2E17
• Knocked away by Toph's earthbending ^AS2E17
• Blasted away and knocked unconscious by Aang's airbending ^AS2E17
• Several Dai Li are scattered when Appa charges through their stone wall, and Toph and Aang launch more into the lake nearby with earthbending ^AS2E17
• While surrounding Zuko and Iroh, manage to avoid being burned by Iroh's fire breath and give chase ^AS2E20
• Knocked out of a fight by a column of stone from Aang ^AS3E11
• Hit by a jutting of earth from Toph and them imprisoned in metal ^AS3E11
• Dodges a point blank air blast from Kai and brings the ground up around him to bind his limbs ^LS3E4
• Evades attacks, but are ultimately knocked out by attacks from Mako, Bolin and Kai ^LS3E4
• Blasted away by Tenzin and Korra's airbending ^LS3E4
• Quickly taken down by the Red Lotus, who block and evade their attacks ^LS3E10

Projectiles - Gloves

• Discreetly projects earth gloves that grab Katara and Toph and pulls them in ^AS2E14
• Two Dai Li fire their rock gloves against Toph, who intercepts the gloves and knocks the Dai Li away with columns of earth ^AS2E17
• Two Dai Li grab Sokka and Katara with earth gloves from a distance away to reel them in, but are interrupted by an earth wall from Toph ^AS2E17
• One Dai Li manages to grab Toph with an earth glove from behind, but he is interrupted and several Dai Li attacks are intercepted by the Freedom Fighters soon after ^AS2E17
• A projected rock glove pierces through a straw dummy's chest and removes its head ^AS2E17
• Dai Li launch their earth gloves at Team Avatar, binding their wrists behind their backs, though Aang easily escapes the bindings with earthbending ^AS2E18
• Launch pieces of stone from their gloves that tear apart the wall they hit ^AS2E20
• Follow their own shield by launching earth gloves at Zuko that bind his hands and feet to the ground ^AS2E20
• Use earth gloves to grab the fleeing Kai, turn him around and restrain him ^LS3E3
• Fires stones from a surrounding hallway and their gloves at Mako and Bolin, with one managing to grab and retrieve Jinora from a distance ^LS3E4

Projectiles - Misc.

• Dai Li send out columns of earth as attacks ^AS2E17
• Launch several clay discs that explode against Airbenders, injuring them in a training session and then launches more discs more rapidly to overwhelm Kai ^LS3E4
• Fires stones from a surrounding hallway and their gloves at Mako and Bolin, with one managing to grab and retrieve Jinora from a distance ^LS3E4
• Launch earth projectiles that zip past a fleeing sky bison, and fire rocks rapidly that eat into the ground behind a fleeing Mako and Bolin ^LS3E4
• Launches cubes of stone pulled from the ground at Aang, and latch onto the walls when Toph tosses them away to return stony columns at her in response ^AS3E11
• Launch stones at Iroh that explode against his body ^AS2E20

Bindings

• Raises crystals from the ground to bind Iroh in place, though he later escapes ^AS2E20
• Raise crystals from the ground to imprison Iroh after he gives up his fight ^AS2E20
• Catches Jet's hook sword in their earth-gloved grasp and then use the gloves as handcuffs to secure Jet ^AS2E14
• Use surveyors chains to bind Long Feng's wrists in place ^AS2E18
• Restrains the Council of Five with surveyors chains while ambushing them ^AS2E20

Barriers

• Several Dai Li raise massive walls of earth to trap Team Avatar ^AS2E17
• Two Dai Li intercept Zuko's flame attack, raising a piece of the ground as a shield for Azula ^AS2E20
• Two Dai Li close walls of stone together to block off Aang's attack at Azula ^AS3E11
• Raises a large stone wall when Team Avatar breaks apart their first one ^AS3E11
• Races along a wall, outpacing Aang, and raises a wall to impede him, though knocked out of the fight when Aang juts a column into the Dai Li that launches him away ^AS3E11

Mobility

• Dig their earth-gloved fingers into walls to climb up them ^ESW
• Several Dai Li drop from the ceiling and suspend themselves upside down with their rock boots secured against a cavern to ambush Team Avatar ^AS2E17
• Dai Li run on walls and ascend on columns of earth, but are hit away by Toph's earthbending ^AS2E17
• Several Dai Li cling to sheer rock walls to surround Team Avatar ^AS2E17
• Dai Li skate across the ground to quickly maneuver behind Team Avatar ^AS2E18
• Races along a wall, outpacing Aang, and raises a wall to impede him, though knocked out of the fight when Aang juts a column into the Dai Li that launches him away ^AS3E11
• Keeps ahead of Aang and Toph while also using columns to boost Azula's jumps, though hit by a sudden attack from Toph, disarmed, and imprisoned in metal shortly after ^AS3E11
• Slides down a wall of Ba Sing Se to land safely at its base ^AS3E1
• Dai Li leap a vast distance and quickly surround Korra, Tenzin, and the other Airbenders ^LS3E4
• Dig into the ground to hold their place against several Airbenders combining their powers into a continuous gust of wind ^LS3E4
• Use columns to amplify jumps even while in a narrow hallway ^LS3E4
• Use columns of stone to amplify jumps ^LS3E4

Misc.

• Trained from an early age to become master earthbenders ^ANW
• Forms their earth gloves around their hands to contour like a plaster mold ^AoAS
• Explode apart the swell of earth Aang rides atop, tossing him a distance away ^AS2E20
• Explodes apart Toph's earthen binding around Azula and then drops from the ceiling ^AS3E11
• Slides down a wall of Ba Sing Se to land safely at its base, combining their strength to bring the wall down after they land to allow in Fire Nation forces ^AS3E1
• Opens the floor beneath the restrained Mako and Bolin to drop them into a prison, then seals the hole back up ^LS3E10

Intelligence/Tactics

Espionage

• Originally trained by Avatar Kyoshi as an elite force of earthbenders who would be silent, precise, and feared by all ^ESW
• A Dai Li agent poses as a citizen who lies to Team Avatar about Appa's location successfully ^AS2E17
  • His name is Old Sweepy, and he was deliberately lying rather than brainwashed ^ANW
• Two Dai Li agents spy on Team Avatar discreetly from a rooftop nearby without detection ^AS2E17
• Lurks on rooftops, detecting Appa soon after he enters Ba Sing Se ^AS2E16
• Two Dai Li agents spy on Team Avatar discreetly from a rooftop nearby without detection ^AS2E17
• A Dai Li patrolman pursues Zuko, unwittingly falling into a trap ^AS2E17
• Dai Li cling to the columns of a building to spy on Mai and Ty Lee ^AS2E19
• Iroh secured one Dai Li as a prisoner for interrogation ^AS2E20
• Azula states that the Dai Li are the key to controlling Ba Sing Se ^AS2E19
• The Dai Li organize a coordinated ambush that secures the Council of Five and seize control of Ba Sing Se ^AS2E20

Brainwashing

• Brainwashes Jet in secret ^AS2E14
• Jet's brainwashing is so complete that Toph cannot tell he is lying, and he seems to wholeheartedly believe the brainwashing ^AS2E17
• Joo Di's brainwashing is triggered with a phrase that instantly calms her down and brings her to heel ^AS2E17
• Long Feng triggers Jet's brainwashing with a secret phrase, forcing Jet to turn on his allies ^AS2E17
• A whole room of Joo Dees are brainwashed at once, speaking in unison ^AS2E17
• Joo Di's brainwashing is triggered with a phrase that instantly calms her down and brings her to heel ^AS2E17

Respect Long Feng

Physical

• Appa bites Long Feng's leg and tosses him into the lake, skipping him across the surface, and he appears soon after unharmed save for a bite mark on his ankle ^AS2E17-18

Earthbending

• Overturns the ground beneath Appa and himself suddenly^AS2E16
• Strikes Jet with a column of stone killing Jet a short while later ^AS2E17

Intelligence

• Manipulates Katara and Toph in a social setting without arousing suspicion ^AS2E14
• Uses a bison whistle to lure Appa into a trap ^AS2E16
• Remained in control for the Dai Li even after his arrest for a time, though Azula successfully seized control of the Dai Li from Long Feng ^AS2E20

Respect Kyoshi

Only justice will bring peace.

History: Long ago, the Four Nations did not always live in harmony. The Avatar, the sole master of all four elements reincarnated in each generation, was responsible for bringing balance to the world, and the world was in disarray after the previous Avatar's death. It was up to the new Avatar, an abandoned street urchin named Kyoshi, to discover her destiny and save the world.
Kyoshi went on to become a legendary figure in her 230 years of life. She trained the elite Kyoshi Warriors and the Dai Li, defended the world from conquerors and kings alike, and remained a mythic figure hundreds of years after her death.

Source Key Citation in link: The Rise of Kyoshi = RoK [Chapter Title] The Shadow of Kyoshi = SoK [Chapter Title] Citation in superscript: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season # & Episode # = A:tLA S#E# Escape From the Spirit World, Chapter 2 = ESW 

Notes:

• Feats during RoK occur when Kyoshi is 16, with little training
• Feats during SoK occur when Kyoshi is almost 18, when she is more experienced
• All animated feats occur during Kyoshi's adulthood, after reaching full mastery

Scaling: Jianzhu,Rangi, Yun, Shirshu, Wan

Strength

• Lifting/Throwing
  • Lifts a heavy container she carries through a manor
    • The container is so heavy it would take two grown men to lift it
  • Picks a man up by the neck one-handed and cracks an ice wall behind him while strangling him
  • Bowls over men with a dense wooden game board before flinging it at others
  • Rangi stands on her knee while Kyoshi does exercise squats
  • Throws a teenager a distance away out of a vault and into a hallway
  • Pulls away a big man in a blink
  • Flings one man into two others, bowling them over
• Striking
  • Catches herself from an attacker beneath her pulling her under ice, then stamps her foot down and crushes their face before pulling herself free from the ice
  • Swings a maul at a trunk repeatedly and splits it apart
    • Another woman could not pull the maul out of the stump Kyoshi retrieved it from
  • Kicks over a cauldron large enough to immerse a grown man
  • Tackles two men at once, sending them flying away from the men around them
  • Tears people fighting eachother apart, knocks their heads into eachother, and tramples over them when running

Durability

• Injured while freeing herself from ice and gives pursuit while bleeding
• Fights through paralytic poison incapacitating her moments ago to tackle a man off a mountain side, ignoring the pain when she lands to start fighting
• Lifted into the air and slammed into the ground before being nearly suffocated into unconsciousness
• Falls a distance onto a hard stone ground and gets up to do so again throughout her training
• Endures lightning that nearly snaps her spine in two, allowing further bolts to pass through her into the ground before counterattacking and entering the Avatar State to win her duel before ultimately passing out from the pain
• Fights through a garrote coated in shards of glass around her neck
• Pelted with clay training discs Yun flings at her, taking the last one to the jaw, and keeps fighting

Speed

• Using earthbending she catches a stone thrown at her and returns it hard enough to draw blood
• Uses earthbending to bisect pebbles thrown at her and returns them
• Catches a man striking out with his knife and breaks his fingers with her fan in one swift motion
• Blocks poisoned darts fired at her instinctually
• Instinctively guards her face with her gauntlets from shrapnel
• Evades several rapid fire projeciles from Yun while delivering attacks of her own
• Blocks a spike of earth Yun attacks her with, grinding it down a foot from her face

Earthbending

• Projectiles
  • Pulls a room-sized boulder toward her from behind her opponent
  • Pulls a massive cube of stone out of a canyon from a distance away
  • Using earthbending she catches a stone thrown at her and returns it hard enough to draw blood
  • Kicks rocks at targets and raises walls
  • Uses earthbending to bisect pebbles thrown at her and returns them
  • Alters the trajectory of thrown stones, sending them out to see so far their splash is inaudible
  • Fires bullets of stone off a giant column in the center of a room, then throws the entire column so that it slices through the manor she is in to the outdoors
• Structures
  • Constructs a training area, including a balance beam
  • Creates a 50 foot ramp and surrounds a manor with a massive trench
    • Reference for estate's size
  • Raises and lowers a bridge
  • Raises a ramp up to an isolated cliff
  • Raises a crag to the isolated hut to allow those on it to leave, something noted earlier to require an extremely skilled bender
• Ground
  • Creates a trench in a street to try to entrap shirshu's leg
  • Sinks Rangi into the ground up to her shins to trap her in place
  • Attempts sinking Yun's limbs into the earth to trap him
  • Sends out a radial blast that throws the men surrounding her away ^ESW
• Power
  • Jianzhu refers to her as possessing the ability to break mountains whenever she remembered to
  • Bounces a teahouse into the air a half inch
  • The teahouse was large, possessing a partially-built second story
  • Lifts the teahouse again in combat, tilting it to one side to spill out several people
  • Fires a pebble at Jianzhu and struggles for control over it with him before struggling for control over an entire building Jianzhu tries to bring down, matching even the greater effort of his death throes as Jianzhu dies. The building then lifts up and slams down and Kyoshi needs a brief pulse of the Avatar State to hold it together
    • This was a 3 story building described as larger than the teahouse Kyoshi lifted earlier
    • Kyoshi and Jianzhu were both recovering from poison during this struggle
  • Rips the foundations away from a hut and nearly collapses a cliff, holding it into place
  • When Yun rips apart a grove and separates the trees with tremendous effort he notes that Kyoshi could have done it easily
• Mobility
  • Sprints through several walls, crushing through them as though were rice paper
  • After initial failure, learns the unique art of dust stepping to reach higher ground
  • Uses dust stepping to escape a militia
  • Plows downward through 14 stories of a building
• Misc.
  • Reaches through a brick wall and pulls someone through it
  • Suffocates several men with clay to intimidate them
  • Retrieves shards of glass from a wound around her neck
  • Blocks a spike of earth Yun attacks her with, grinding it down before it ever touches her
  • Engraves a tombstone

Firebending

• Blasts
  • Breathes fire her first time firebending, but could not summon more fire shortly after
  • Lost control of a spout of flame her second time firebending
  • Soon learned to firebend properly and felt like a natural at it, and kicks out a crescent of flame
  • Rockets herself forward into a tackle, then releases a massive ball of flame that destroys a stone defense Yun hastily raises
• Utility
  • Heats up an iron lock between her hands in order to break it
  • Summons a tornado of fire and air
  • Lights her way down a dark hallway with fire
  • Heats up iron shackles, preparing to break them
• Misc.
  • Notes that she has bending strength far surpassing the best of the best firebenders as she deflects, catches, and charges through their fireblasts

Airbending

• Blasts
  • Throws a ball of wind to blast away a man next to her sending the man flying down a hallway
  • Flattens a clump of people fighting one another
  • Holds a door shut with a continuous blast of air while whipping men around a hallway into the walls and ceilings until they collapse
  • Kicks out air that fills a hallway, smashing scrubbing it clean and smashing tables to bits
  • Gusts the clothing off a man ^{A;tLA S2E5}
• Utility
  • Plays with a breeze
  • Summons a tornado of fire and air
  • Catches several papers thrown into the air

Waterbending

• Utility
  • When caught by surprise she waterbends the first time by catching some thrown at her
  • Creates a raft to quickly navigate the canals of Ba Sing Se
  • Lifts herself and another to the surface from underwater and holds them there
  • Amplifies her swimming to sink faster
• Power
  • Aided by the moon and a waterbender providing control, Kyoshi lifts the contents of a pond and washes it through a building to spill out the guards within
    • Reference for estate's size
  • Sweeps a ship 100 yards out to sea and snaps the ropes mooring it to shore, then freezes it in the air with talons of ice
  • Lures Yun into arm's length to place her palm on his chest, then freezes his lungs solid to kill him
    • The technique is said to require too much raw power for most benders
    • Kyoshi spent a month learning healing before gaining the technique
• Healing
  • Heals a cut around her neck, though the water doesn't glow like it normally should
  • Heals superficial injuries of wounded guards, and knows how to stop bleeding and pop joints into place
  • Spends a month studying healing
  • Stabilizes Rangi and helps to save her life after Rangi suffers impalement

Avatar State

• Pulls a column of stone from a sea floor that tilts over a boat, then washes pirates away with a wave of water and pulls up more earth that snap ships apart as she boils the sea
  • Bent earth from over 200 paces away, exceeding the capabilities of Jianzhu
  • This was her first time entering the Avatar State, and she was so exhausted afterward she immediately passed out
• Described as imbuing her with the skills and knowledge of all past Avatars as well as vast amounts of energy and the previous Avatar destroyed an island before mastering the Avatar State
  • Further detail about the destroyed island
• Blacks out, waking up to find she ripped trees up by their roots, pushed over hilltops, and caused landslides, though she retains consciousness thereafter
• Raises herself and an opponent into the sky on a column of air, lights soldiers and fields of rice ablaze, creates a vortex where her opponent cannot breath, redirects flame he fires at her, and drops him to his death
  • Afterwards she reflects that she was in complete control of herself, and after a few minutes passes out from the pain of the lightning bolts she endured
• Opens up the ground to reach the well water beneath, then uses it to heal Rangi's impalement and save her life
• Throws 2 massive statues ^{A:tLA S2E3}
• Creates a fissure in the earth, raises a wall of lava, and gusts off the end of a peninsula to create Kyoshi Island ^{A:tLA S2E5}

Skill

• Combat/Tactics
  • Prior to training she could move large amounts of earth easier than precise amounts, the reverse of how most earthbenders learned
  • Teaches herself to levitate a small clay turtle, but accidentally breaks it
  • Underwent grueling training to implement her fans into a fighting style
  • Trained in firebending while balancing during sparring sessions and was comfortable dropping to her stomach on the balance beam
  • Studied Jianzhu's tactical manuals, navigating a fight within a building using said knowledge
  • Takes out over two dozen armed men while fighting in a confined space
• Stealth
  • Learned to step quietly during her time as a servant
  • Sneaks up on Kirima
  • Automatically scans her environs for weaknesses in their security
• Spirituality
  • Unconsciously recited a previous Avatar's poem word for word
  • Feels a prickle on her neck in a spiritually resonant location
  • Meditates to summon the previous Avatar to speak with her
  • Possesses a later Avatar's body to testify in court after her death ^{A:tLA S2E5}
  • Experiences difficulty communicating with her previous life at first
  • Communing with past lives is said to be extremely difficult
  • Connects with Kuruk's memories upon meditating with a spiritual guide, who is impressed with how quickly she did so
  • Nearly drowns herself to successfully establish contact with Kuruk
  • Proves skilled at detaching herself from the physical world, and connects with her past life Yangchen

Equipment

• Wears chainmail armor
  • Protects her from an arrow
  • A sword breaks against her shoulder
  • Makes her chainmail even heavier
  • Stands up to earthbent shrapnel that killed several others, including armored guards
• Uses her mothers bronze war fans, headdress, and makeup
  • Her fans helped her mother continue to airbend as her powers dwindled
  • They also help her to waterbend for the first time
  • Her fans assist Kyoshi in bending with precision so well it feels like cheating
  • Breaks a man's fingers fingers with her fan in one swift motion
• Wears armored metal gloves that do not impede her bending and guard against darts

                                                      The Transfer

    Adrenaline spikes travel through his limbs, dancing across his scales and down his limbs, as he takes his first step onto the pristine concrete platform. As the boundary-line grows nearer he breaks out into a cold-sweat, shaking hands, tingling body. Can't get rid of that [Dangersense] whine, which has been blaring since he got to the Waystation a few hours ago. Screaming warnings for something it doesn't even understand. Annoying. After about fifteen minutes of waiting an announcement finally interrupts his thoughts with a jolt.
    "Transference to Pallass from Atlanta will begin in five minutes, please ensure you are standing within the boundary line and have all luggage secured."
    A few other passengers pass around a nervous look, packing themselves tighter like really eager sardines, trying to ensure minimum risk of injury. Drezill checks religiously to ensure his tail isn't sticking out of the boundary, but he's well within it, still pushing further into the crowd just in case.
    "Transference to Pallass from Atlanta will begin in 30 seconds. Please keep all limbs within the boundary line and secure your luggage."
    Closer to the Transfer. More adrenaline, faster heartrate. Lub dub, lub dub. Somewhere his heart is pounding, but he no longer feels it, clutching his suitcase tighter, rubbing against his scales. [Dangersense] is screaming at him, and he's compelled to let it scream. Oh, god-
    
    
    The change is instantaneous. Gone is one Transfer platform, with transparent ad-ridden hologram walls and blue mage-lit lines, replaced with another, almost identical. Probably designed by some evil [Architect] in a stroke of corporate genius to confuse dimwitted passengers into spending more money. It feels like the entire platform heaves a collective sigh of relief as they arrive unscathed, and then he picks up his suitcase and walks out into the Waystation proper.
    Lines of people are strewn throughout the terminal, a series of biological walls, giving up one sardine can for another. The species seen are more varied, less Humans, more Drakes and Gnolls. All either Transferred in or Teleported over from all over the world, all stuck here, placed into queues, surrounded by blue and grey walls, lit by dim MLED light. A [Guard] takes out a handheld device and scans his Chip, holding it in place to get an accurate read, and Drezill stands still, waiting in nervous silence, until he hears the mystical mental beep and the guard nods, directing him to a shorter line, the one that says "Incoming Transference".
    It surprises him that the first thing he feels is alienation. He was always different, being a Drake, but this is different. The [Guard] sits in front of a metal box that has a small flashing green light, information about his entire life being beamed directly into her brain. Her eyes glint in the dim red light, scanning lines of information he can't see.
    "What's your name?"
    He can count the number of times he's said his full name on one hand. It builds a feeling of uncomfortability within him, accompanying already high levels of distress.
    "Drevill Silverwing Williams."
    "Where are you coming from, Mr. Williams?"
    "Atlanta, Georgia, The United States of America."
    A bead of sweat rolls down his forehead, refracting the light, the green blinking pinpoint reflected inside. He knows he's done nothing wrong, but somehow the woman manages to pull any stress he has to the forefront.
    "How long are you planning on staying in Pallass, Mr. Williams?"
    "I plan on living here, I have a work-visa."
    There's a pause, purposefully planned. They sit in silence for a few seconds, no ambient noise, just the sound of him shuffling in his seat, cringing against the cold metal, tail wavering.
    "Purpose of visit?"
    As if he didn't already answer her question.
    "Work. Living here. I repair pseudo-sapients."
    The questioning stops. Fingers twitch, typing something on that invisible interface, then a pause. Door slides open, blinding. No smile.
    "Welcome to Pallass, Mr. Williams."
    
    
    There is no city in his sight, in its place is something else, different than any city he's ever seen. Dotting the horizon are endless lines of buildings and megastructures, surrounding a stone square, like a precious gem surrounded by a jewelry box. The sky is so high here, but still the skyscrapers push upwards, ever reaching hands searching for limit, and finding none. The amount of lights is overwhelming, all sorts of colours spilling out over the landscape below, looking more like stars than the ones that hang in the sky above.
    For a moment his breath catches, head involuntarily moving closer to the window, straining to pick out all the details. Far down below is a different world. Similar, yet so different than his own, his own? So different than any other. Millions of people living and working here in a world that 200 years ago hadn't even industrialized.
    The magilev cab skitters past a massive glowing purple-scaled Drake that raises a can of Coca-Cola™ to her lips, before taking a dignified sip. She smiles and speaks, the words captured and deposited into his brain via the Chip. "Mmm, you just can't beat the taste of Coca-Cola™! It's as fine as any gemstone found in Salazsar!" Her voice caresses his mind, making his throat feel a bit parched.
    "The city sure is something, huh?"
    The Gnoll [Driver] speaks and motions a hand at the window, illuminated by passing purple light, startling Drevill into conversation.
    "Huh? Oh. I've never seen any city like this, even on Earth. Everything is so... packed together."
    The Gnoll grunts ambiguously. "Drakes sure love their cities, no offense. They say Pallass is the most urbanized city in the Worlds, but it's something else to see it."
    A pause in the air, contemplative.
    "Are you not from here?" Drevill queries.
    "Me? No way. I'm from Oteslia. Lived here about 10 years, but I'm planning on moving back some day. Problem is so much more work is here."
    The [Driver] doesn't say another word, just shakes his head, and they continue on in silence, broken up only by the sputtering engine and dying rasp of distant advertisements.
    
    
    His form is dwarfed by the buildings around him, vision denied even a horizon-line, every space covered up by more things. Massive statues sit, watching over sections of the city, stoic. A new one is being constructed, carefully built and placed. Meant to last thousands of years. His Chip wants to speak up, proffering information on the origins of, and identities of, each looming figure. He ignores it.
    High above are a few blinking dots, more magilev cars heading to destinations. Beneath his feet a rumble, slithering trains snaking beneath the city to all parts, fast and efficient. He feels out of place, too many Drakes, less Humans. Ironic, but that's just how it is. Drevill hopes he'll get used to it, at least they speak the same language.
    Winding streets lead away from the city center, hotels fading away, more sparingly placed now. Like a good Drake, Drezill follows the line. Tracing it through backstreets, around corners, past herds of pedestrians, until the apartment complex appears. And complex is the right word for it. Skills give rise to odd building codes, structures that are safer than they should be, safer than they appear to be. The building seems to lean outwards, lots of concrete, tiny balconies. He sees the top of a few Drake's heads poking above the balconies, lazing about, a few Gnolls enjoying the evening.
    The front door opens, and he enters, sneaking through the closing gap left by a departing Human. The lobby is tiny, probably to leave room for more apartments, just staffed by a pseudo-sapient, anyone with a Class and a Skill working somewhere better. He gets on an elevator and rides it up, 14th floor, room 8. It glides up stopping at the 14th floor, doors open with a ding, nobody outside. Drezill steps off furtively, glancing down the hallways, still clutching the suitcase, it rolls conspicuously.
    When he closes the door he breathes a sigh of relief. Finally that's over with. He plops the suitcase down and opens it, not a normal suitcase in actuality, but a cleverly disguised suitcase of holding. He heaves and pulls out a body, a Drake looking very much like himself, the spitting image, in fact. It looks real, and with a few Skills, it will become real. He takes a second to unpack everything else, before copying his relevant Chip data and inserting it into the pseudo-sapient. With any luck it will last a few months, and a few months is all he needs. After a moment, he leaves the room and rides the elevator down, passing by identical floors and identical rooms.
    Ding. Once again in the quiet lobby, soon replaced by bustling crowds, magilev cars, and rumbling trains. A few Drakes and Gnolls grab kebabs from a stall sitting on the side of the street, laughing and eating, timeless. Everywhere he looks are buildings and people. Drezill picks a direction, then calls a cab and gets on. The [Driver] doesn't even look up, just asks:
    "Where to?"
    The door slides shut, cab hovering in place, for a moment cut off from the outside world, as if separated by time and not just place.
    "To Liscor, please."

I’m at my wits end. I have a 16 week old golden puppy and I wish I could attach photos of the damage he’s caused to me and others (including children).
He displays what I’d consider resource guarding, and will absolutely go demonic if I try to take away anything he shouldn’t have in his mouth - which goldens CONSTANTLY put everything in their mouths. It happens probably 5 times a day, and I leave the leash on him 24/7 when not crated as it helps me control him but I can’t get things out of his mouth without being ripped to shreds. It’s hard to believe how strong he is. It sounds silly but I genuinely believe he could take down my adult pit bull. This dog is pure muscle and strength. I still have nerve pain in one of my fingers from weeks ago.
I’m terrified of him. He’s fine otherwise, it’s only when taking away something he really wants. I’ve raised several amazing puppies in my life, including my sweet pit bull, and have NEVER seen anything like this. It’s astonishing. I always thought aggressive dogs were just a product of poor pet parents.
We already did a “puppy package” training session for 3 weeks but we have to wait until he’s 20 weeks old before starting full blown training. They don’t offer anything until he gets a bit older.
I guess my question is - have any of you raised a puppy with serious aggressive outbursts like this and successfully corrected it? After 2 months working tirelessly with him (6 hours of direct one-on-one training) I’m a single mother and can’t put my child at risk anymore. He has bitten my son - this isn’t play biting either. I want to make it abundantly clear I know the difference and this is 100% aggression. I’m losing hope that he can be saved.

I was raised by two traumatized adults, one by physical and sexual abuse, the other by a war refugee experience; both complete narcissists who thought they could solve the world’s problems by raising kids- who then promptly ignored us with decades of addiction issues… but I digress. I started chewing my fingers (and toes when I was flexible enough as a child) and then with encouragement from my mother to use a rubber band (several) to snap my wrists whenever I felt I needed it—- I’m 40 and that hand still doesn’t act right - I assume from the constant swelling over years of self abuse. My nails are crap- flaky and rippled, I have no cuticles. I would be punished for chewing my fingers with not being included in on holiday celebrations, or Halloween, etc. that surely didn’t fix me.
TLDR: I’m coming to a realization that CSP is more of a self harm addiction.
Any thoughts?

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/oKzcmeP
Pics of the items: https://imgur.com/a/IjTEock
Let’s get rid of this gun stuff to make room for other gun stuff! Hoping to sell as much as I can in bundles to save on shipping. If you want to make an offer drop a comment then send a PM.
BRACE, RMR MOUNT, HAND BREAK, & MOE GRIP(“super cool custom camo combo”) for only $160 $120 shipped

• SBA3 Brace, light salt pretty much sat in the safe, cool custom camo rattle can by yours truly, $40 shipped
  
• Emissary Hand Break M-lok, like new, also cool camo, $35 shipped
  
• Scalarworks LEAP/04 RMR mount, 1.57”, light salt, cool camo, have box and screws that I got with it, $100 shipped
  
• Magpul MOE AR15 Grip, cool camo, comes with hardware, $5 add on only
  
• Arisaka Finger Stop M-Lok, catch and release, $20
  
• Grip Pod, it’s a grip and it’s a bipod, light salt but works fine, $30
  
• 2 point sling, coyote, has magpul attachment points on both sides, $30
  
• Magpul 9mm subgun magazine assist, catch and release, $5 add on only
  
• M-lok handguard, 7inch😏, $30 shipped
  
• Quad rail Handguard, also 7inch, $30 shipped
  

Also I am open to SOME trades for things for G17.5, G.48, Sig P365xl/macro, ar15, ar10. Just let me know what you’re interested in trading.

I recently got pulled into a discussion at work after one of my colleagues noticed the way I counted on my fingers, claiming it was "weird". Briefly...

1. Right index finger
2. + right middle finger
3. Swap around to right middle, ring, and little fingers
4. + right index finger
5. + right thumb
6. + left thumb
7. + left index finger
8. Swap around to all eight fingers, no thumbs
9. + right thumb
10. + left thumb

Try this, I bet it's really counterintuitive for most of you! :D But it is completely natural for me, despite the fact that it's not what I was taught at school or at home. Indeed, I've never seen another person count on their fingers in anything like the same way.
So I decided to have a little conversation with ChatGPT. It suggested several reasons, some of which I immediately discounted:

• Copied from someone influential in my youth - no, see above
• Traditional for my culture - no, see above
• Favouring symmetry - not really, 6 and 7 are very asymmetrical
• Visualising numbers - interestingly, I visualise a QWERTY keyboard when spelling, but I don't think I've ever visualised numbers
• Related to a physiological issue - Hmm...

Armed with this suggestion, I paid closer attention to why I switch finger extensions. Interestingly, the switches are on 3 and 8. So the issue, whatever it is, occurs on both hands. I tried some more traditional counting methods (index to little finger then thumb, thumb to little finger, little finger to thumb), and failed with each one.
Not because it was unusual for me to do these counting methods - I can do them reasonably (if a little slower than my own ordering), but I can't do them WELL. The ring finger gets trapped, painfully so in fact, when I have the middle finger up and the little finger down. OR if I have the little finger up and the middle finger down.
I described this test and its results to ChatGPT, and it explained in detail why I could not raise my ring finger without both the middle AND little fingers also raised. It said that some degree of codependency between the ring finger and the fingers both sides of it is normal for the vast majority of people, but that in some the interconnection can be much tighter to the point of causing pain when attempting this relatively awkward combination of finger positions.
So now I know, thanks to ChatGPT, why I can't count on my fingers the "normal" ways the next time somebody asks me (which they may or may not) - because I have to raise all three of those fingers together. Just a little quirk of myself, but it helped me to work out why, which is cool. :)

Respect Wolverine

"Maybe your mutation isn't about healing at all. It's about surviving."

History: Years of torture and tampering with his memories made much of Wolverine's past a mystery. Though it's known he was a Canadian paratrooper during WWII, the man known as James "Lucky Jim" Howlett became one of the most influential figures in history when government experiments turned him into the world's first mutant.
Eventually renamed Logan, by the time he escaped the Weapon X program he became better known as Wolverine. He was given enhanced senses, an accelerated healing factor, and razor sharp claws. His entire skeleton was coated in an indestructible metal known as adamantium, and his memories were rewired to optimize their battle efficiency. He was the perfect weapon...and then he escaped.
Though he served Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, Wolverine turned on Magneto to serve the X-Men as one of its fiercest proponents. Inspired by Xavier's dream, Wolverine never quite uncovered the secrets of his past, nor did he find much happiness in his present. But when he gave his life to save the world he proved his redemption, and survived in the memories of the X-Men who cared for him and the son that never knew him.

Source Key: Ultimate Marvel Team-Up = UMT Ultimate X-Men = UXM# Ultimate Spider-Man = USM Ultimate Nightmare = UN Ultimate War = UW Ultimate X-Men & Fantastic Four = X4 Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk = WvH Ultimate Power = UP Ultimate Origins = UO Ultimates 3 = U3 Ultimatum = UTM Ultimatum: X-Men Requium = REQ Ultimate Comics Wolverine = UCW 

Scaling - Apocalypse - Captain America - Colossus - Cyclops - Deathstrike - Gambit - Hulk - Iron Man - Magneto - Mister Fantastic - Nightcrawler - Rogue - Sabretooth - Spider-Man - Storm - Thing - Xavier

Physiology

• The experiments that created Wolverine began as a project to create a super soldier like Captain America ^UO#1
• Wolverine regenerates from every injury he endures until he is nearly skeletonized and then reduced to ashes and every cell in his body is killed ^{UTM#5 & REQ}
• His bones are coated in adamantium, a material frequently referred to as unbreakable and indestructible and which is shown to be far stronger than steel ^UXM#2
• He was built to be radar-invisible, and uses that to ambush Iron Man ^UW#4
• He is heavy enough that Storm believes carrying him would rip her arms out of their sockets ^UXM#60
  • Storm manages to fly with him in tow not long after, but does make note of his considerable weight ^UXM#65

Strength

Striking

• Kicks in a locked door, shattering it and knocking a man on the other side across the room ^UXM#8
• Breaks out of an ice encasement created by Iceman ^UXM#17
• KOs a man with an elbow to the face ^UXM#29
• Shatters apart a wooden door ^UXM#48
• Dazes Gambit with a headbutt, then with a kick ^UXM#53
• Kicks in a door ^UXM#100
• KOs the Shocker with a punch ^USM#67
• Punches through a thick wall of ice and knocks the Thing over while so sick he collapses afterwards ^X4#2

Lifting

• Carries a survivor for 17 hours across the desert after surviving an explosion ^UXM#11
• Uses one arm to hold a man over his head ^UXM#59
• Pushes a wrecked car off himself ^USM#67
• Holds a person aloft with one arm ^X4#1

Throwing

• Grabs a person by the hair with one hand and throws them a distance away ^UXM#37
• Throws and kicks people across a barroom ^UXM#59
• Rips off a Sentinel's head and throws it into others, dominoing them against eachother ^UXM#86
• Throws Sabretooth a considerable distance away ^MTU#1

Misc.

• Makes an impressive leap ^UXM#24
• Closes a commercial plane's cabin door after it opens mid-flight ^WvH#6

Durability

Concussive
High material reference

• Fistfights Cyclops, then gets blasted through a thick concrete wall reinforced with rebar before bouncing right back ^UXM#22
• Hit by a missile that busts him through a wall and still manages to flip over the missile and escape before it detonates directly on him and remains in fine shape right after ^UXM#35-36
• Hit by one speeding car, smashed into another, and then a car lands on him and he pulls himself out of the wreckage without injury ^USM#66-67
• Partly cratered into a wall by Mister Fantastic and gets back up ^X4#1
• Takes a hit from the Hulk that tears him through trees and then another hit ^WvH#3
• Fights through several hits from the Hulk that smashes him through stone and trees before being ripped in half and climbing up a mountain ^WvH#3
• Busted through several walls and has his eye gouged out by She-Hulk and still fights back to gain the upperhand ^WvH#6

Low material reference

• Knocked out by Jean Grey hurling him against an outcropping ^UXM#2
• Blasted by Jean Grey into a mirror that shatters and is fine ^UXM#6
• A reality-warper tosses the convertible he is driving through a building hard enough that Xavier estimates it will take 9-10 minutes for Wolverine to recover ^UXM#19
• Unaffected by Gambit shattering his staff over Wolverine's head ^UXM#50
• A man shatters a chair over his head and he is unaffected ^UXM#59
• Fights through a blow from Sabretooth and Storm embedding his face into a car frame ^UXM#67
• Dazzler blasts him into stone that cracks around him and he gets right up ^UXM#91
• Fights through sonic screams that blast him away and warp metal ^UXM#97
• Busted through the wall of a shack by Magneto throwing a cauldron at him and tumbled off a mountain, and gets up back ^U3#3

Scaling w/reference

• Downed with a blast from Cyclops, who later describes the blast as him cutting loose ^UXM#32-33
• Recovers quickly from a blast from Cyclops ^UXM#73
• Bounces back from a punch from Colossus ^UXM#46
  • Colossus elsewhere shatters a large stone with a punch ^UXM#73
• Guardian blasts him from Westchester, NY to Maine and he comes back the same day without injury ^UXM#94
• Hit by the Juggernaut and gets back up ^U3#4
  • The same charge from Juggernaut tears through trees and craters a boulder

Minimal reference

• Gambit kicks his knee in and he pops it back into place to continue fighting ^UXM#53
• Tackled by Cannonball, and comes back a short while later having defeated him ^UXM#63
• Survives a fall from a plane into water and swims himself to shore ^UXM#65
• Takes a punch from Nightcrawler ^{UXM Annual 2}
• Nick Fury hits him over the head with a rifle stock and he keeps fighting ^UN#5
• Punched by the Thing down a hallway and into a wall and gets back up ^X4#1
• Falls from a plane mid-flight confident he'll survive and walks away fine ^WvH#6
• Takes a hit from a weakened Hyperion ^UP#8
• Tumbles off a cliff with a dinosaur after him, and returns to the clifftop extremely soon after ^U3#3

Gunfire
Long guns

• Before the adamantium-bonding process, several soldiers shoot to kill Wolverine, shooting him in the head, but they can see the wounds immediately begin to heal ^UO#1
• Downed by automatic gunfire from multiple Weapon X shooters ambushing him and wakes up with nothing worse than a hangover ^UXM#2
• Shot with an automatic rifle as Wraith muses on how he used to shoot, stab, beat, and burn Wolverine for amusement on a regular basis, all of which he recovered from ^UXM#2
• 20 seconds after someone pulls a gun on Wolverine he is seen riddled with bullets and having downed several of the men around him, eventually hospitalizing 50-60 ^UXM#28
• Riddled with bullets from a hit squad and manages to escape, making it from Brooklyn to Queens and fully recovering after two days^UXM#34
• Shot by a helicopter-mounted Gatling gun and gets back up, saying the bullets going clean through him would help him recover faster ^UXM#37
• A shotgun blast point blank to the face does little more than tear the skin off his face ^UXM#84
• Captain America downs him with an automatic rifle ^UW#4

Handguns

• Attacks men through gunfire, and his skull resists adamantium bullets fired at point blank range, later pulling them out of his skin so they immediately heal ^UXM#37
• A pistol shot to the head makes a metallic sound against his skull as he walks out of prison, and the wound seals up as soon as the bullet is pulled out of his skin ^USM#67
• Charges through Hawkeye firing pistols into his face and chest without issue ^U3#3

General

• Had a reputation in WWII for getting back up no matter how many times he was shot ^UW#2
• Only notices bullets embedded in his skin when he showers after a fight ^UXM#20
• Though riddled with bullets, Wolverine restores his major organs and becomes fighting fit a short while later ^UXM#21

Piercing

• Stabbed in the back with debris by Magneto, downing him ^UXM#6
• Cuts his own throat open and ambushes a team of assassins following him moments later, with the injury fooling the assassins because they were tracking Wolverine by his vital signs ^UXM#35
• When his own pinky is severed off it regenerates almost immediately ^USM#66
• Stabbed in the xiphoid, which hadn't fully ossified when adamantium was bonded to his skeleton, and his nervous system shuts down until the blade is withdrawn ^UXM#60
• Sabretooth slices a chunk out of his abdomen and it heals a few moments later ^UXM#68
• Takes a slash across the chest from Cable and keeps fighting through more wounds ^UXM#75-76
• Ends an extended fight while being impaled on 4 adamantium claws, saying afterward it will take him a few hours to heal ^UXM#89

Explosions

• Survives his Humvee getting blown up in well enough condition to kill 14 soldiers around him, then to carry a survivor's body 17 hours through the desert back to base ^UXM#11
• Gambit creates an explosion in Wolverine's mouth that blows off his face and Wolverine gets up shortly after unconcerned ^UXM#50-51
• Charges through gunfire and emerges from a helicopter exploding seemingly uninjured ^UXM#60
• A grenade explodes in his face and he is seen conscious and uninjured a moment later ^UN#5

Heat/Electricity

• Survives being frozen in a snowdrift and then being hit with "enough napalm to hold off the Viet Cong" ^UXM#10
• Phoenix lights Wolverine aflame to melt away thick metallic bindings around him, and he immediately leaps into action as his skin regenerates within moments ^UXM#74
• Energy from the Fenris twins hurts him, but he recovers quickly ^UXM#86
• Gets up from a bolt of lightning from Storm ^UXM#90
• Half his face is fried off and it only seems to piss him off ^UP#8
  • It regenerates within the same fight

Multiple Damage Types

• Tackles Sabretooth off a building, then exchanges several blows and slashes with him before ultimately prevailing and then regenerating from the damage he sustained in moments ^MTU#1
• Bound and shot by 3 automatic rifles ^UXM#11-12
  • Then back up a short while later taking slices from Sabretooth
  • Then freed and starts fighting back
  • And engages in a prolonged fight where a tree snaps apart when he's thrown against it
  • Sabretooth then attempts to drown him before Wolverine tackles him off a 300 ft. cliff
  • And ultimately walks back to his team by the end of their mission ^UXM#11-12
• Inhabited by a mutant who burns up his body's soft tissues, then hit with lightning, then ran over by a semi ^UXM#17
  • Starts regenerating quickly enough it's "like an autopsy in reverse," with his healing factor prioritizing his head ^UXM#17
• Takes a slash across the chest from Cable ^UXM#75-76
  • Keeps fighting through an energy weapon and getting electrified before consecutive bombs blasting holes in his chest downs him
  • Gets up again before the fight is complete
• Touches Rogue so she can absorb his energy, still charging into battle and dropping when a shotgun blasts away a piece of his abdomen ^UXM#77
  • Yet back up and fighting moments later with the wound healed ^UXM#78
  • Rogue used Wolverine's healing factor to survive losing her arm and later regenerate it
  • Elsewhere, Rogue briefly touching Sabretooth and Toad knocks them unconscious ^UXM#98
• Fights through hits from Apocalypse even after Apocalypse rips off his arm ^UXM#91
  • Tries to brush off the injury as Nightcrawler makes note of his blood loss
  • Taken to a hospital and still insists on fighting before he's healed up ^UXM#92
  • And participates in the ongoing battle against Apocalypse ^UXM#92
• Fights through punches from Colossus before Colossus rips off his leg ^UXM#97
  • It is later reattached ^UXM#97
• Ripped in half by the Hulk, and 3.5 minutes later begins to climb 4 miles up a mountain to retrieve his legs ^WvH#1
  • Then has a conversation while he continues to bleed ^WvH#3
  • It is clarified later that his spine popped out of his hip bone ^WvH#6
  • The question of his joints was raised earlier in the comic ^WvH#1
  • Immediately preceding all this he was battered around by the Hulk ^WvH#3
• After the above, he then survived a nuclear bomb being dropped on him, waking up as a severed head that breathes through its skin, and continued to survive in stasis without oxygen even when put in a depressurized vacuum ^WvH#5
  • Wolverine was considerably close to ground zero
  • He is completely fine once he is put back together
• When She-Hulk busts him through several walls and gouges his eye out the eye takes a day to heal, as Wolverine says it is "complex machinery" ^WvH#6
  • He clarifies there's about an hour left in its healing process ^WvH#6
• While attacking Magneto, has Cyclops and Iron Man nearly skeletonize him, then still manages to stab Magneto again, and is finally annihilated only when Magneto tears the adamantium from his bones and reduces him to ash ^UTM#5
  • The process killed every cell in Wolverine's body ^REQ

Toxins/Poisons

• Remains in close quarters for an extended duration with a mutant he is confident cannot hurt him
  • Earlier, the mutant's power vaporized everyone in his radius
  • The mutant's powers were said to utilize a series of toxins and acid-like poisons ^UXM#41
• Tattoos only last a few hours before Wolverine's healing factor erases them ^UXM#48
• A bartender says they have seen men twice Wolverine's size die from drinking as much alcohol as Wolverine has ^UXM#84
• Hit with a supervirus that makes him sick ^X4#1
  • Goes on a mission despite shaking so hard he can barely walk
  • Gets in a brief fight before passing out entirely ^X4#2
  • The virus was a retrovirus that mutates every 7 seconds to outpace Wolverine's healing factor, though Mister Fantastic injects him with antibodies that cure him within a week

Misc.

• Sought out a mythic witch in a foreign land hoping to discover some means of killing himself ^U3#3
• A mutant who deteriorates the bodies he inhabits says Wolverine's body regrows soft tissue as fast as the mutant burns it up ^UXM#17

Speed

Against Superhumans

• Charges Sabretooth to stab him in the chest and hits away each of his bodyguards before fleeing ^UMT#1
• Races past Colossus and Beast, who fail to detain him ^UXM#2
• Ambushes an injured Quicksilver from around a corner, then takes a swipe out of him ^UXM#3
• Cable, an older version of Wolverine, notes that the younger is faster ^UXM#76
• Tackles Bishop out of the way of a beam from the Fenris twins ^UXM#87
• Evades Thing in close-quarters before knocking him down and pinning him, even while sick ^X4#2
• Ambushes Quicksilver and stabs him in the chest ^U3#3

Against humans

• Swipes apart a gun pointed at him without the gunman firing ^UXM#8
• Murders his way across a room and removes the hand of a suicide bomber before they could activate their detonator ^UXM#20
• 20 seconds after someone pulls a gun on Wolverine he has already downed several of his attackers ^UXM#28
• Retracts his claws and grabs an agent holding a gun before they can aim and fire at him ^UXM#37
• Intervenes to slash off a man's outstretched gunhand before he fires on a woman ^UCW#1

Against objects

• Reacts to a missile fired at him, stabbing it after it hits him and flipping over it before it fully detonates ^UXM#35

Claws

Guns

• Slices apart a gun ^UXM#8
• Kills two men and slices apart the barrel of a rifle ^UXM#11
• Slices rifles and bodies to pieces ^UXM#20
• Slices apart a hunting rifle, and stabs into the floor to hold himself against Storm's wind ^UXM#59

Robots

• Slices through a Danger Room robot ^UXM#21
• Cuts into the hull of a Sentinel robot as he falls, slashing down its chest with Wolverine's weight ^UXM#44
• Decapitates a large Sentinel ^UXM#85
• Slices through more Sentinels ^UXM#86
• Rips through even more Sentinels ^UXM#86
• Beheads a Sentinel ^UXM#87
• Stabs through the face of an android version of Hulk ^U3#5

Vehicles

• Wraith has seen Wolverine's claws tear through the side of a tank, though they cannot cut through adamantium bars used to imprison him ^UXM#2
• Quickly cuts a hole into a helicopter large enough to accommodate his body ^UXM#60
• Embeds into a plane flying at cruising altitude, allowing him to climb outside the cabin ^WvH#6
• Slices a large hole in the hull of a Helicarrier ^{X4 Annual 2}

Special materials

• Slashes apart Iron Man's armor ^UW#4
• Clashes evenly with Deathstrike's adamantium claws before he lands a blow on her abdomen ^UXM#60
• Cuts a metal specially-designed collar off Bruce Banner's neck ^WvH#6
  • The collar was designed to be unbreakable and withstand 81 billion tons of pressure, roughly the weight of moon ^WvH#5
• Executes an alternate timeline version of himself that had been horribly experimented upon ^{X4 Annual #2}
• Slices off the Juggernaut's helmet ^U3#5

Scaling

• Beheads Sabretooth ^UXM#30
  • Sabretooth later survives, revealing a few threads kept his head attached ^UXM#67
• Slits Sabretooth's throat and then executes a monstrosity derived from his own powers ^UXM#89
• Slices and stabs Apocalypse ^UXM#91
  • Scaling for Apocalypse's piercing durability
• Cuts out Colossus' heart ^UXM#96
  • Scaling for Colossus' piercing durability ^UXM#1
• Stabs into Hulk's chest ^UP#9
  • Scaling for Hulk's piercing durability
• Slashes Hyperion to no avail ^UP#8
• Slashes a metallic Russian super soldier abomination to no avail ^UN#3
• Punctures She-Hulk's abdomen, with each claw aimed at a different organ ^WvH#6

Misc. materials

• Eviscerates a small army of zombie soldiers despite their skin being built from superhard alloys ^UXM#24
• Efficiently kills a grizzly bear ^UXM#33
• Slices through a face mask and costume of goons ^UXM#72
• Stabs through a manhole cover ^WvH#5
• Stabs through body armor ^UCW#2
• Impales a gameboy ^UN#2
• Digs into the side of a mountain so he can climb it ^WvH#1
• Spider-Man pops them out accidentally and the cut apart a phone receiver and slices off Wolverine's own finger ^USM#66

Misc. abilities/information

• Scrapes his claws together to spark flammable materials ^UXM#97
• Uses his claws to light a torch ^UN#3
• When Spider-Man inhabits Wolverine's body he has difficulty controlling the claws ^USM#67
• Spider-Man pops them out accidentally into his own arm ^USM#66
• Stabs through a jail cell's lock in order to release himself ^USM#67

Senses

Tracking

• Tracks down a man by his cologne as that man flees from him in a full-speed vehicle ^UXM#2
• Tracks several marines, determining that they all died and were killed without firing a shot, detects an approaching dinosaur before Cyclops, and only missed Shadowcat stowing away on their plane because she remained intangible the entire flight ^UXM#23
  • He then continues to track the marines through a complex ^UXM#24
• Tracked Spider-Man to his house without Spider-Man realizing it ^UXM#34
• Tracks Gambit despite the scent fading over an hour and Wolverine suffering from a blown up face at the time, then regains the trail when Storm puts the wind in his favor, picking up on Gambit's day-old crawfish smell ^UXM#51-52
• Despite his powers being messed with, still manages to track down a teenager in an isolated cabin in the midst of a blizzard ^UXM#100
• Smells his own legs from 4 miles away up a mountain ^WvH#1
• Tracks the Hulk across the world using one sniff of the serum Hulk used, tracing him through a village in the Himilayas before finding him in a mountain fortress ^WvH#1
• Sniffs out Hank Pym amidst a massive Helicarrier ^{X4 Annual #2}
• Tracks down his own scent ^{X4 Annual #2}

Detecting

• Detects a black ops team about to snipe him down ^UXM#2
• Scent forewarns him of an attack from behind from zombie soldiers ^UXM#24
• Detects a hit squad tracking him from outside before Spider-Man's spider sense does so ^UXM#34-35
• Detects a missile launched at him before Spider-Man does ^UXM#35
• Smells Nick Fury elsewhere in the mansion while Wolverine himself is in the Danger Room ^UXM#44
• Sits in a window brooding, and smells Sabretooth watching him from the treeline outside ^UXM#74
• Despite ventilation systems working against him, Wolverine smells 2 women hiding behind a wall, their soap, and the Altoid one is chewing ^WvH#1
• Smells a man hiding in a toilet ^WvH#5
• Detects a new presence his surroundings ^UCW#2

Identifying

• Smells that a man is still alive by his blood ^UXM#11
• Smells the old books on Daredevil from across an alleyway ^UXM#36
• Describes how his super senses pick up on subtle indications of what people really think of him ^UXM#38
• Smells the blood on an apparently clean man who murdered someone the night before ^UXM#59
• Confirms Beast is who he says he is, and says that it would be difficult to fool his sense of smell ^UXM#88
• Confident he could identify his children based on the similarity of their scent to his own ^UXM#89
• Can smell Dazzler on Nightcrawler ^{UXM Annual 2}
• Identifies Captain America in disguise as the Black Panther ^U3#3
• Identifies another person previously present at a scene ^UCW#1
• Identifies a robot as pure metal, oil, and hate ^{X4 Annual #1}

Statements

• After failing to detect any scent or trace of Mister Sinister, determines Sinister must have a superhuman ability to evade detection ^UXM#47
• Claims he could smell someone coming from a mile away if they wore half as much aftershave as Cyclops ^UXM#62
• Baffled that a mutant could deceive his senses ^UXM#73

Misc.

• Can see in the dark fine when others around him feel they need flashlights ^UN#3
• Spots a person drop from a jet breaking the sound barrier and implies his eyes are better than the Hulk's ^WvH#3
• Can ordinarily use his senses to determine if someone is lying ^X4#1
• Says he isn't allowed at poker nights because he can smell deception ^WvH#3
• Again implies he could sense deception if the Hulk had been using a code phrase ^WvH#6

Skills

Combat

• Murders all of the X-Men during an advanced VR simulation ^UXM#3
• Sneaks up on Magneto in the midst of a fight to stab him in the back ^UXM#6
• Hospitalized 50-60 men in a fight while avoiding killing any of them ^UXM#28
• Severs a bartenders fingers off with a swipe while managing to keep any of the bartender's blood from falling on the floor ^UXM#84
• Rides a motorcycle across rooftops while evading 4 SHIELD helicopters, then quickly takes out all 4 units after making a jump onto one of the aircrafts ^UW#4
• Amidst a fight, stabs She-Hulk so precisely that he puts one claw in her kidney, one in her spleen, and keeps a third claw sheathed as he informs her that he could pop it into her liver to kill her ^WvH#6

Statements

• Magneto considers him a qualified assassin, and he kills a dinosaur ^UXM#1
• Magneto considers him the shadow-world's most highly-trained assassin ^UXM#2
• Colossus refers to him as the most dangerous mutant in the world, and describes his Weapon X training as battle plans and murder techniques that replace his memories ^UXM#10
• Said to have a three figure personal body count ^UN#4
• Captain America considered him a special forces hotshot back in WWII ^UW#2
• Served in the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion during WWII, and Captain America says Weapon X added "fancy fight maneuvers" when they wiped his memories ^UW#4

Noncombat

• Somehow bypasses the metal detector at airport security ^UXM#2
• Communicates a last minute plan to Jean while driving a beaten car through hazards, then jumping it off a cliff to land in the Blackbird ^UXM#3
• Sneaks through a window into an active crime scene where officers are present without being detected ^UXM#47
• Sneaks past the metal detectors in the airport by slipping a grenade into another traveler's luggage ^WvH#6
• Shadowcat considered Wolverine stealthier than herself, despite her own ability to mute her footsteps ^REQ

Telepathic Resistance
Statements

• Magneto selects Wolverine for a mission to assassinate Xavier because of Wolverine's immunity to the powerful telepath ^UXM#1
• Wolverine is considered by Xavier and Jean to be the only membered of the X-Men who can resist SHIELD's telepaths ^UW#3
• Nightcrawler's Weapon X interrogation defenses are compared unfavorably to Wolverine's ^UXM#28
• Nick Fury notes Wolverine is the only person whose mind Xavier cannot read ^WvH#1

Showings

• Xavier cannot identify Wolverine through Cerebro by reading his mind ^UXM#2
• Said to be the only member of the Brotherhood who could shield his thoughts from Xavier, and does so as he stands next to Xavier ^UXM#3
• Blocks Jean Grey from reading the thoughts he doesn't want her to read ^UXM#4
• Xavier needs Wolverine to let down his psychic defenses so he can be sure Wolverine's mind is not inhabited by another mutant ^UXM#17
• Xavier considers seeing into Wolverine's mind impossible for anybody, though Jean sees flashes of his memories with the aid of the Phoenix Force ^UW#3
• Jean Grey taps into the power of the Phoenix Force to look past his psychic defenses, but does not seem fully successful ^UXM#28
• Even when Wolverine cooperates with him, it takes Xavier 12 hours to access Wolverine's memories and it still gives Xavier a headache ^UXM#38
• His healing factors aids in overpowering mind control ^UXM#100

​
We settled our deal with a handshake and Elincia guided me across the valley just as the sun hid beneath the western mountains. Despite her early warnings, we cut through the forest instead of sticking to the mountain. Elincia shushed me and mentioned that the ravines were faster and safe enough given that she knew perfectly well where we were going. I didn’t push back because I thought she was in a hurry for her kid. We quickened our pace and reached deep into the path as the day died.
“There shouldn’t be any monsters beyond this valley but better safe than sorry.” Elincia said before climbing a rock with nimble jumps. The evening sun casted red shadows on her pale skin as she inspected the path ahead.
My suspicion about Elincia having a skill to survey the surroundings increased when I noted the mana swirling around her eyes. She wasn’t just beautiful, there was a certain elegance in her feline movements that I haven’t seen in any woman before. After a minute during which I couldn’t take my eyes off Elincia, she descended from the boulder and left her satchel on the ground.
“We should be safe here.” Elincia gave me the thumbs up.
A weird gesture considering she lived in a completely different world.
“Were you using a skill up there?” I asked curiously as I left my backpack on the ground and sat down on the carpet of dried leaves with my back against an old tree. My feet thanked me.
“Maybe.” Elincia mysteriously replied, sitting in front of me. “That’s not a thing you ask a lady.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to...” Was the only thing I managed to say but I felt my face blushing.
Different worlds, different customs. I was wondering if character sheets were considered something private when Elincia started giggling under her breath.
“You are a bit gullible. Even for a Scholar.” Elincia gave me one of her signature smartass glances.
I rolled my eyes, not that sure if I liked her ‘blunt’ style anymore. She might have been an Alchemist but she surely loved to banter like my father’s hunter friends. Elincia opened her mouth to continue with the Scholar banter when a sudden distant howl echoed through the hills.
“On second thought, we should keep going a bit more. There is something disturbing the pack.” Elincia bit her tongue.
“The thing that killed those wolves at the ravine?” I asked, putting my blanket inside my backpack and standing up. My feet complained.
“Maybe. Monsters from the Inner Farlands sometimes stumble into the outer valleys.” Elincia retrieved her satchel and resumed our march.
The path meandered around the boulders that had found their resting spots on the bottom of the valley. Elincia said there were Stone Giants living in these mountains and they liked to roll boulders down the slope, but once again, I couldn’t tell if she was making a joke or not.
The evergreen canopy darkened the last sun rays, making it hard to walk without tripping on loose rocks and protruding roots. In less than a hundred meters, I almost ended up on the ground two times. Elincia helped me to get up every time, mumbling about how clumsy Scholars were but a quick glance at her eyes told me she had a skill to see in darkness.
By the third time I fell, Elincia stopped the march for good. When she turned around to help me stand, I saw her eyes shining like a cat in the night.
“You can see in the darkness?” I asked, rubbing my knee.
I had landed on a particularly pointy pebble.
“Perks of having mixed blood.” Elincia said, pulling back her cloak for the first time since I met her.
Amidst the bright silvery cascade that was her hair, two delicate and pointy ears jutted out. I must’ve been staring because Elincia blushed and covered them.
“You are an elf!” I exclaimed.
“Half elf, you deaf piece of Scholar. I just said my blood is mixed!” Elincia replied, still flustered. She put her satchel down and sat against a rock.
“That also explains why you can jump like a cat. I thought I was the sluggish one.” I pointed out, scratching my chin. In hindsight it made sense, normal people weren't that good at moving around.
“You are a bit sluggish though.” Elincia said with a shit-eating grin as she drank her waterskin dry. As much as she wanted to annoy me, she had a point. It had been a long while since I was in shape.
“Yeah, I’ve been sitting on my ass for a few years now.” I conceded, putting my backpack down and pulling my shoes off. My feet were killing me.
“Just bear with me a month or two and I’ll make a ranger out of you.” Elincia grinned.
Our dinner time was silent. And dark. Elincia urged me to not light a campfire so we ate a few Hermit Gold’s fruit each. Corrupted Black Wolves had keen eyes that could spot a point of light from miles away. And there was the other thing, whatever was disturbing the wolf pack was in the same valley as us.
“You don’t loot monsters around here?” I asked, remembering that Elincia had just ignored the corpses.
“The meat is bad and the skin is tainted with corrupted mana but if you want a souvenir from this adventure we can always make you a wolf tooth necklace.” Elincia shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m good, thanks.” I replied trying to not sound like the absolute noob I was. A wolf tooth necklace didn’t sound that bad. Laura, my ex-girlfriend, would’ve hated it, but I have always been a bit of a geek. My old katana replica could bear witness to that.
“I guess a Glutton class could make a meal out of a corrupted Black Wolf, or a Chef class could cook it into something edible.” Elincia pointed out after a moment of silence. “I guess a Hexmage or a System Zealot could technically ‘uncorrupt’ it, but having such powerful classes is a hassle sometimes.”
Elincia cleaned up the juice of a Hermit’s Gold fruit from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and asked for another one. I obliged.
“Entering cities without a guild invitation is a pain for combat classes. You know, a high level Fire Mage or Assassin could cause quite a havoc unlike an Alchemist or a Scholar.” Elincia sighed.
As a teacher I had missed a lot of work opportunities because I was a dude. Lots of job offers asked for female teachers and a large number of principals still found a man who worked with children suspicious. In the end I had pursued a different career entirely, but I doubted a combat class could do the same in this world.
“You will not have trouble entering Firecrest as a Scholar but you will have to appear before the Marquis as you are not a subject of the king.” Elincia said as she kept a watchful eye on the animal trail.
“I’ll be in trouble?” I asked. In this world I was a low level peasant. If the social hierarchy in this world was any similar to medieval europe, then I could count my civil rights with a single hand. And most of them would be tied to a noble’s whims.
“Don’t you have nobility in the City of Light? I mean, you are a Scholar. Weren’t you employed by some local lord?” Elincia’s confused facial expression was cute.
“We had nobility long ago, but then we put them through the guillotine or turned them into powerless tourist attractions with excellent salaries.” I explained, trying to be vague enough to not arouse suspicion. “When I was a teacher, I wasn’t employed by a lord but by the Depart… the Ministry of Education.”
Elincia’s shocked expression was even cuter than her confused expression.
“The City of Light sounds like an interesting place.” Elincia managed to say.
“Do you think I could find work in Farcrest? I’m not a fan of starving to death.” I asked.
Now that I had Elincia escorting me to Farcrest, I was starting to plan my next steps to settle in this world. Unfortunately, adventuring didn’t seem to be a Scholar’s ‘thing’, so I couldn’t rely on my monster slaying skills to pay the bills. Elincia thoughtfully tapped on her lips as she usually did when she was deep in thought.
“I don’t know if there is a lot of demand for Scholars in Farcrest, we are lacking Farmers, Anglers, Lumberjacks and Blacksmiths. Even a couple of extra Stonemasons and Herbalists would be nice.” Elincia finally said. “The Marquis already has a dozen Scholars and Scribes leaching from Farcrest’s treasury but I know for a fact Scholars are always welcome at the Imperial Library of Ebros. You might want to go there, maybe you will find a way to return to your homeland or someone who knows how.”
I could tell Elincia didn’t have Scholars in a particularly high regard but I decided to overlook it for the time being. The fact there was an Imperial Library was an exciting piece of news. Even if I couldn’t fight my way through the continent like an adventurer, I might be able to study its secrets from the safety of the Imperial Library.
Returning to Earth was not in my plans.
I rubbed my hands like a plotting fly while my mind ran wild through the world of possibilities the Imperial Library might offer. The amount of knowledge I could offer wasn’t as exciting as the things I could learn there. Learning how to cast spells without an elemental affinity would be a nice middle finger to the System. If there was even the slimmest chance of turning [Mana Manipulation] into a fake spellcasting skill I was going to find out how.
“You are not thinking about finding a way back home, are you?” Elincia interrupted my train of thought. “You are thinking about going to the Imperial Library to study this continent!”
I raised my hands in defeat. Did Elincia have an [Awareness] skill like me or was I being transparent as day? The woman sighed and shook her head, muttering something about reckless Scholars and people forgetting their roots.
The last trace of sun faded away and night closed around the ravine. The wind swayed the tree branches producing a soothing melody that numbed my consciousness. I have rarely been so physically tired during the last few years. My legs hurt and the sole of my shoes felt like red iron against my feet. As much as I wanted to keep talking to Elincia but my eyelids were getting heavy.
“Is being so comfortable in the Farlands an Alchemist thing or an Elincia thing?” I made conversation, trying to remain awake.
“I chose to become an Alchemist but in reality I wanted to be a Hunter.” Elincia admitted, letting her guard down for an instant. “I always liked to spend time here in the woods when I was a kid, alone, far from the city. Just me, my skills, and my bow…” Her emerald eyes got lost into the horizon as if she was reminiscing scenes from the past.
“What happened then?” I asked and for a moment I thought she wasn’t going to answer.
“Life happened I guess.” The woman shrugged her shoulders, avoiding the topic. “I'm sorry. I didn’t want to sound like an ungrateful bitch. Being an Alchemist is also great. Having an Advanced class from the beginning is really helpful plus I can brew useful potions and I get to spend a lot of time in the woods gathering materials.”
As much as she sounded confident, I noticed there was a lot more Elincia wasn’t telling me. I wondered if it had something to do with her child or with her own story.
“What about you? Did you choose to be a Scholar or did the System bestow it on you?” The woman asked.
“It was given to me, and I’m not going to complain, it has some nifty skills.” I said, drinking from my own water bottle. “But fireballs would probably be more fun though.”
Hearing my words, Elincia genuinely smiled for the first time since we met. Her smile was charming, a bit shy considering her outgoing personality, and she was absolutely out of my league.
“So, you are one of those adventure-junkies?” Elincia’s mischievous grin returned to her face. Support classes yearning for adventure had to be a common occurrence in this world.
“I guess adventure-junkies can detect each other.” I returned the jab.
Elincia laughed again, this time harder and more genuinely than before. I praised myself for defusing the situation, going from threats with bow and arrow to charming laughter was quite a step in the right direction. I had to remind myself that she had a kid and maybe a husband.
“You are not too bad for a Scholar, Robert Clarke. I’ll take the first watch, you go to sleep.” Elincia said.
Her words were like a lullaby, or maybe it was the fact that I had company for the first time since I arrived in this world. I instantly fell asleep with the certainty Elincia would wake me up if any monster roamed nearby.
My rest didn’t last long because I suddenly woke up to the sound of a howling wolf. It was still night time and the forest was shrouded in complete darkness except for a pair of glowing yellow eyes down the trail. I felt Elincia’s soft hand pressed against my mouth and I saw her eyes shining by my side. I wished I had a night vision skill because the wolf’s yellow eyes disappeared and I completely lost sight of the beast.
By my side, Elincia nocked an arrow and waited in silence for the creature to make a move. The Black Wolf was really close but our best bet was the creature not seeing us. Which was unlikely considering the glowing yellow eyes veered off the trail and stalked us in silence. I shouldered my shotgun, hoping that it was the only Black Wolf nearby.
I wanted to hide the true nature of the shotgun from Elincia, or from every inhabitant of this world for that matter, but if it came down to surviving until reaching Firecrest then I didn’t have a choice but to use it.
Elincia shot and the arrow dug deep into the creature’s flesh just over the neck. The Black Wolf faltered but didn’t fall. Elincia cursed under her breath as she masterfully nocked a second arrow but the creature leaped, crossing half the distance that separated it from us.
Elincia shot again but this time the arrow was lost in the darkness.
I saw a glimpse of the creature’s eyes just a few meters from us but it wasn’t near enough to aim my shotgun. Elincia nocked a third arrow and I saw the tip emitting a white gleam. Then, a sudden idea popped into my brain. Before Elincia could shoot, I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, then, deaf because of the blood rushing through my ears, I activated [Mana Manipulation].
A blue flare lit up the forest for an instant, just enough for me to aim at the wolf. As the afterglow of my skill vanished, I pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening and the darkness of the night impeded me from seeing if my aim was true. However, a System prompt popped up in front of my eyes.
Black Wolf (corrupted) slain.
Level up!
Level up!
You have obtained a new skill.
[Stun Gaze] acquired.
The system message floated brightly before my eyes, only visible for me. My brain was again suddenly turned into dough as the information about [Stun Gaze] was imprinted directly into my mind. Just like during the previous level ups, I felt a wave of relief washing through me, however, the sensation fell short when the screeching roar of a second broke the silence of the night. This time it wasn’t a wolf but an unnatural shiver-inducing sound. And it was close.
“We have to get out of here.” Elincia said with a panicked voice.
The woman grabbed me by the arm and dragged me through the wilderness. I stumbled behind her, unable to see where my feet were going as branches wiped my face and brambles trapped my feet like skeletal hands of the undead. Even if I couldn’t see, I heard the sound of trees being torn apart behind us. The creature was near.
Suddenly, a deafening howling chorus of Black Wolves filled the night and a dozen bright yellow eyes shone in the darkness. We were surrounded. Elincia pushed me behind a rock and covered my mouth with her hand.
“What’s that?” I muttered as I loaded another shell into the shotgun.
“Danger.”
Elincia listened to the night. Silence only broke by the sudden growl in the distance. Whatever the new creature was, it didn’t have trouble keeping the Black Wolves at bay. Elincia drew her bow and put an arrow on the string without tensing it. A gust of wind swayed the canopy and for a moment I was sure the trees were extending their branches toward us.
I peeked over the boulder we were using as cover and saw a figure moving behind the trees lit by a stray moonbeam.
Wendigo Lv.39. Magical Abomination. Man eater. Monster eater. [Identify] Wendigos live deep in the Farlands. Once a powerful shaman, high concentrations of magic corrupted its body and mind turning it into a monster. Weakness: Magic. Holy Magic.
Elincia grabbed my jacket and dragged me back. The sheer level of the creature startled me. I wasn’t used to the measurements of the System but the Wendigo’s level was more than five times mine. That was obviously not good news. Even if levels weren’t absolute, a level 39 had a clear advantage against a level 24 and a level 7.
“I think we can slay it. Your call.” I said looking at Elincia dead in the eye. I was not going to die in the Farlands when there was an entire library of magical knowledge waiting for me in the heart of the kingdom.
“Are you crazy? Wendigos are high level monsters, we can’t fight nor flight.” Elincia hushed. “We stay down and hope the Black Wolves attract it down the ravine. If the Wendigo sees us it's over.”
We squeezed behind the rock while we heard the Wendigo fighting against a group of Black Wolves. The sound of flesh tearing and bone splintering sent a shiver through my spine as [Awareness] informed me it wasn’t the Wendigo that was getting hurt.
Elincia trembled like a leaf but I couldn’t help but wonder about how many levels I’d get if I managed to gun the Wendigo down.
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Styx: Master of Shadows
Squids Odyssey
Pendula Swing - The Complete Journey
Mists of Noyah
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Jotun: Valhalla Edition
Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 2
Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Special Edition
Undead Horde
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
Stirring Abyss
Scarlet Tower
Blood And Zombies
One More Island
Doorways: Prelude / Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh
Slain: Back from Hell
Lucius/Lucius 2/Lucius 3/Lucius Demake
Aragami
Deliver Us The Moon
Anuchard
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Darkwood
Intravenous
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy
Interstellar Space: Genesis
Survive the Nights
Blasphemous
Unto The End
NUTS
Cat Quest
Cosmic Star Heroine
Degrees of Separation
Pure Farming 2018
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
SUPER CHICKEN JUMPER
Syberia/Syberia II/Syberia 3
The Innsmouth Case
Tinytopia
Sniper ghost warrior contracts
Trine 4
Risen 3
Shadowgate
How to Survive
FORCED
Psychonauts
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Special Edition
Sniper Elite 3 + Season Pass DLC
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 - Season Pass Edition
METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES
Strange Brigade Deluxe Edition
Call of Duty® Modern Warfare 3™
Sniper Elite 3
Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe Edition
Amnesia: Rebirth
PGA 2k21
Jurassic World Evolution
Darksiders Genesis
Endless Space® 2 - Digital Deluxe Edition
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VI : PLATINUM EDITION
F1 2020
Titan Quest
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Witch It
BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION
CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience
Mighty Switch Force! Collection
Gone Home + Original Soundtrack
The WB Batman Collection
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
Beholder
Beholder 2
We Were Here Together
Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition
GRIP: Combat Racing *-GRIP: Combat Racing - Cygon Garage Kit *-GRIP: Combat Racing - Nyvoss Garage Kit *GRIP: Combat Racing - Terra Garage Kit *GRIP: Combat Racing - Vintek Garage Kit
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Miscreated
Second Extinction
Survive or Die
Breathedge
Dead in Vinland
Die Young
Empyrion - Galactic Survival
How to Survive 2
The Wild Eight
One Finger Death Punch 2
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Slap City
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition
Civilization: Beyond Earth – The Collection
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Primal Carnage: Extinction
Due Process
SimpleRockets 2
Killing Floor 2
For the King
For The King: Lost Civilization Adventure Pack
Pro Cycling Manager 2020
Tour de France 2020
Infectonator 3: Apocalypse
Warhammer: Chaosbane
Project Highrise
LAST OASIS
The Beast Inside
Terminus: Zombie Survivors
Crown Trick
Discolored
Everhood
Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands
Nomad Survival
Sparklite
The Ramp
Valfaris
Dusk Diver
Neverinth
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Zengeon
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Unmemory
Nigate Tale
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Liberated
Neversong
Nine Parchments
The Walking Dead
Secret Government
Monsters' Den: Godfall
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle
Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED]
THIS WAR OF MINE: COMPLETE EDITION
Cats in Time
Afterparty
Battlecruisers
Astronarch
Save Room - Organization Puzzle
PlataGO! Super Platform Game Maker
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
Warhammer vermintide collector's edition
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Tank Mechanic Simulator
The Uncertain: Light At The End
INSOMNIA: The Ark
Darkside Detective
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
GIGA WRECKER
Panty Party
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
Tannenberg
Golf It!
Heroes of Hammerwatch
The Battle of Polytopia *DLC1. Cymanti Tribe *DLC2. ∑∫ỹriȱŋ Tribe *DLC3. Aquarion Tribe *DLC4. Polaris Tribe
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Lornsword Winter Chronicle
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
N++ (NPLUSPLUS)
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Virgo Versus The Zodiac
They Bleed Pixels
Maize
Smile For Me
The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
A Hole New World
Sumoman
Shape of the World
Evan's Remains
Ministry of Broadcast
She Sees Red - Interactive Movie
A Long Way Down
Depraved
Helheim Hassle
Neurodeck : Psychological Deckbuilder
Tropico 5 - Complete Collection
Escapists 2
Worms Rumble *Worms Rumble - New Challengers Pack *Worms Rumble - Legends Pack *Worms Rumble - Armageddon Weapon Skin Pack *Worms Rumble - Captain & Shark Double Pack
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics
Turmoil
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels
Rogue Stormers
Torchlight
Fictorum
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
Moon Hunters
No Time to Relax
Overpass
Blood Bowl 2
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Conarium
Brawlout
F1 RACE STARS Complete Edition Include DLC
Killing Room
Tenta Shooter / The 触シュー
Everreach: Project Eden
Railway Empire
Looterkings
Headsnatchers
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
AIdol
Livelock
The Letter - Horror Visual Novel
F1 2018
Tacoma
Hard West - Collector's Edition
Hard West: Scars of Freedom DLC
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
The Shrouded Isle
Joint Task Force
The World Next Door
Verdant Skies
DISTRAINT 2
Ittle Dew
Ittle Dew 2+
Oxenfree
Monstrum
Strikey Sisters
Do Not Feed the Monkeys
Cyber Ops
European Ship Simulator
Fishing Adventure
Internet Cafe Simulator
Zen Chess: Mate in One, Mate in 2 , Mate in 3 , Mate in 4 , Champion's Moves (5 games)
Transport INC
Shoppe Keep 2 - Business and Agriculture RPG Simulation
Desolate
GRIP: Combat Racing + DLC
OUTBUDDIES DX
Eidolon
Pizza Connection 3
Spartan Fist
River City Ransom: Underground
Saints Row: The Third
Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards] *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.1 DLC *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.2 DLC *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.3 DLC
Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
Princess Kaguya: Legend of the Moon Warrior
Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
Chaos Reborn
Driftland: The Magic Revival
Shadows: Awakening
Caveblazers
Fallback: Uprising
Mordheim: City of the Damned
WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
Mana Spark
Autonauts
Nusakana
Shift Happens
Crash Drive 3
Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora
Automachef
Demolish & Build 2017
Resort Boss: Golf
Out of Space
Narita Boy
Aven Colony
Alien Breed Trilogy
Tools up
Mount & Blade
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
BLACKHOLE: Complete Edition
Detention
Downfall
Miasmata
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Silver Chains
White Night
The Cat Lady
Syberia 3
Textorcist
GARAGE bad trip
Guts and glory
Swag and Sorcery
Fort Triumph
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength
FRAMED Collection
ROTASTIC
As Far as the Eye
Cepheus Protocol
Overruled
Ageless
Giana Sisters 2D
Prank Call
Hotshot Racing
Undead Horde
Streets of Fury EX
Rec Center Tycoon
JumpJet Rex
Hyper Knights
Vectronom
Levelhead
I am not a Monster: First Contact
Papo & Yo
Crookz the big heist
Iron Fisticle
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
Reventure
Smoke and Sacrifice
American Fugitive
The Signal From Tölva
Medieval Kingdom Wars
Rebel Galaxy
XIII - Classic
Comedy Night
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
FLATLAND Vol.2
The Chess Variants Club
Armada 2526 Gold Edition
Toybox Turbos
Sudden Strike Gold
Airport Madness: World Edition
King's Bounty: Warriors of the North
Planet Alcatraz
NecroVisioN: Lost Company
Star Wolves
Konung 2
Men of War
A.I.M.2 Clan Wars
Parkan 2
El Matador
Ascension to the Throne
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
The Flame in the Flood
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Bomber Crew
10 Second Ninja X
The Sacred Tears TRUE
Fred3ric
Lovecraft's Untold Stories
Path to Mnemosyne
CastleStorm
Crush Your Enemies
Semblance
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
Radio Commander
Boneless Zombie
Robot Squad Simulator 2017
Pretty Girls Panic!
Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
VVVVVV
Warhammer Space wolf
Blazing Chrome
Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
Pang Adventures
Party Hard 2
REKT! High Octane Stunts
Thief of Thieves: Season One
Trailblazers
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
Demetrios - Deluxe Edition
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues
GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
Shadowhand: RPG Card Game
Survivalist: Invisible Strain
We Were Here Too
Blacksad: Under the Skin
Heroes of Hammerwatch
Leisure Suit Larry 1-7
Murder by Numbers
Redout: Enhanced Edition
Rise of Industry + 2130 DLC
Ziggurat
They Bleed Pixels
Sunblaze
Noosphere
Train Valley 1+2
Door Kickers: Action Squad
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
Vambrace: Cold Soul
The Void
The Vagrant
Republique
Nephise: Ascension
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Knock-knock
Jewel Match Atlantis Solitaire - Collector's Edition
Healer's Quest
Fictorum
A Robot Named Fight!
Skautfold Chapters 1-4
Hero of the Kingdom: Trilogy
198X
Danger Scavenger
Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
Dread X Collection
Going Under
My Lovely Daughter
Rage in Peace
Flashback
Garfield Kart
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy
Black Moon Chronicles
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy
Red Riding Hood - Star Crossed Lovers
Chicago 1930 : The Prohibition
Sinking Island
Haegemonia: Legions of Iron
Occultus - Mediterranean Cabal
Gevaudan
Windscape
Ultra Space Battle Brawl
Through the Woods
This is the Zodiac Speaking
The Uncertain: Light At The End
The Uncertain - The Last Quiet Day
Tales
Tales of the Neon Sea
Styx: Master of Shadows
She and the Light Bearer
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
A Wolf in Autumn
The Music Machine
Jalopy
Insane 2
Clustertruck
Antigraviator
All-Star Fruit Racing
Constructor Plus
Ice Lakes
Knights of Pen & Paper 2
Victoria II
Kingdom Come: Deliverance – Band of Bastards
Kingdom Come: Deliverance – From the Ashes
Mindustry

Games
Cube Runner
Slash It Ultimate
Slash It 2
Slash It
Cybercube
Poly Island
Spin Rush
Upside Down
Neon Space
Hungry Flame
Charlie's Adventure
Neon Space 2
Duke of Alpha Centauri

VR Games
House Flipper VR
Telefrag VR
Slinger VR

Wishlist

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Region: NA (Canada)
Price are in USD. Fees on buyer.
CTRL + F to find your games in terms of name
Humble Keys <------ Click Here to see a full list of humble keys
BENDY AND THE DARK REVIVAL
BUILDER SIMULATOR
BEHIND THE FRAME: THE FINEST SCENERY
THE INVISIBLE HAND
Yakuza: Like a Dragon Legendary Hero Edition
Two Point Hospital
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition
BIOMUTANT
Jurassic World Evolution 2
Golden Light
Hero's Hour
Monster Crown
Rogue Lords
Call of the Sea
Trek to Yomi
Shadow Warrior 3
OlliOlli World Rad Edition (EU)
Encased
Grow: Song of the Evertree
Conan Chop Chop
Hokko Life
The Serpent Rogue
BATTLETECH MERCENARY COLLECTION
BATTLETECH Shadow Hawk Pack
Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
Knights of Pen and Paper - Haunted Fall
KNIGHTS OF PEN AND PAPER 2 - DELUXIEST EDITION
Knights of Pen and Paper 2 - Here Be Dragons
Deathloop
Hell Let Loose
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
F1 2019 Anniversary Edition
Valkryia Chronicles 4 Complete Edition
Mafia Definitive Edition
Mordhau
HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED ™
GAS STATION SIMULATOR
IN SOUND MIND
MIND SCANNERS
EMILY IS AWAY <3
OMNO
ATOM RPG Trudograd
Banners of Ruin
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Legend of Keepers
Yes, Your Grace
Endzone - A World Apart
60 Parsecs
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION
PGA 2K21
Bioshock Collection
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Collector's Edition
JUST CAUSE 4: COMPLETE EDITION
Plague tale
Gas station simulator
Mind scanners
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DEADLOCK SEASON ONE
Gamedec
Command & Conquer Remastered (Origin)
Surviving The Aftermath
Genesis Noir
Dirt Rally 2.0

Stand With Ukraine Charity Bundle
Gang Beasts
Tinkertown
Cloud Gardens
Blightbound
Stick Fight: The Game
Railway Empire
Mad Experiments: Escape Room
ibb & obb Double Pack
The Falconeer
Truberbrook
At Eve's Wake
Interrogation: You will be deceived
Hoplegs
Cannibal Cuisine
Necronator: Dead Wrong
Awesomenauts All Nauts pack
1993 Space Machine
8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I
ChromaGun
Baby Dino Adventures
Click and Slay
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon
Cosmonautica
Crash Drive 2
Dimension Drive
The Way
Explosionade
Gelly Break Deluxe
Guppy
Journey For Elysium
Last Resort Island
Lumini
Marooners
Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! HD
Pizza Connection 3
Pressure Overdrive
Renowned Explorers: International Society
Tales of the Tiny Planet
TaniNani
THE CORRIDOR
AWAKE - Definitive Edition
Treasure Temples
Shu
Combat Tested
Unexplored
Rayon Riddles - Rise of the Goblin King
Circles

Other Games
AVICII Invector: Encore Edition
10 Second Ninja X
The Indie Mixtape
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Heroes of Hammerwatch
Monster Slayers - Complete Edition
My Big Sister
Red Ronin
Heal
Cat Lady - The Card Game
Undungeon
Tangledeep
Styx: Shards of Darkness
Styx: Master of Shadows
Squids Odyssey
Pendula Swing - The Complete Journey
Mists of Noyah
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Jotun: Valhalla Edition
Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 2
Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Special Edition
Undead Horde
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
Stirring Abyss
Scarlet Tower
Blood And Zombies
One More Island
Doorways: Prelude / Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh
Slain: Back from Hell
Lucius/Lucius 2/Lucius 3/Lucius Demake
Aragami
Deliver Us The Moon
Anuchard
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Darkwood
Intravenous
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy
Interstellar Space: Genesis
Survive the Nights
Blasphemous
Unto The End
NUTS
Cat Quest
Cosmic Star Heroine
Degrees of Separation
Pure Farming 2018
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
SUPER CHICKEN JUMPER
Syberia/Syberia II/Syberia 3
The Innsmouth Case
Tinytopia
Sniper ghost warrior contracts
Trine 4
Risen 3
Shadowgate
How to Survive
FORCED
Psychonauts
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Special Edition
Sniper Elite 3 + Season Pass DLC
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 - Season Pass Edition
METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES
Strange Brigade Deluxe Edition
Call of Duty® Modern Warfare 3™
Sniper Elite 3
Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe Edition
Amnesia: Rebirth
PGA 2k21
Jurassic World Evolution
Darksiders Genesis
Endless Space® 2 - Digital Deluxe Edition
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VI : PLATINUM EDITION
F1 2020
Titan Quest
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Witch It
BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION
CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience
Mighty Switch Force! Collection
Gone Home + Original Soundtrack
The WB Batman Collection
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
Beholder
Beholder 2
We Were Here Together
Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition
GRIP: Combat Racing *-GRIP: Combat Racing - Cygon Garage Kit *-GRIP: Combat Racing - Nyvoss Garage Kit *GRIP: Combat Racing - Terra Garage Kit *GRIP: Combat Racing - Vintek Garage Kit
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Miscreated
Second Extinction
Survive or Die
Breathedge
Dead in Vinland
Die Young
Empyrion - Galactic Survival
How to Survive 2
The Wild Eight
One Finger Death Punch 2
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Slap City
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition
Civilization: Beyond Earth – The Collection
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Primal Carnage: Extinction
Due Process
SimpleRockets 2
Killing Floor 2
For the King
For The King: Lost Civilization Adventure Pack
Pro Cycling Manager 2020
Tour de France 2020
Infectonator 3: Apocalypse
Warhammer: Chaosbane
Project Highrise
LAST OASIS
The Beast Inside
Terminus: Zombie Survivors
Crown Trick
Discolored
Everhood
Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands
Nomad Survival
Sparklite
The Ramp
Valfaris
Dusk Diver
Neverinth
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Zengeon
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Unmemory
Nigate Tale
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Liberated
Neversong
Nine Parchments
The Walking Dead
Secret Government
Monsters' Den: Godfall
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle
Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED]
THIS WAR OF MINE: COMPLETE EDITION
Cats in Time
Afterparty
Battlecruisers
Astronarch
Save Room - Organization Puzzle
PlataGO! Super Platform Game Maker
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
Warhammer vermintide collector's edition
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Tank Mechanic Simulator
The Uncertain: Light At The End
INSOMNIA: The Ark
Darkside Detective
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
GIGA WRECKER
Panty Party
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
Tannenberg
Golf It!
Heroes of Hammerwatch
The Battle of Polytopia *DLC1. Cymanti Tribe *DLC2. ∑∫ỹriȱŋ Tribe *DLC3. Aquarion Tribe *DLC4. Polaris Tribe
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Lornsword Winter Chronicle
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
N++ (NPLUSPLUS)
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Virgo Versus The Zodiac
They Bleed Pixels
Maize
Smile For Me
The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
A Hole New World
Sumoman
Shape of the World
Evan's Remains
Ministry of Broadcast
She Sees Red - Interactive Movie
A Long Way Down
Depraved
Helheim Hassle
Neurodeck : Psychological Deckbuilder
Tropico 5 - Complete Collection
Escapists 2
Worms Rumble *Worms Rumble - New Challengers Pack *Worms Rumble - Legends Pack *Worms Rumble - Armageddon Weapon Skin Pack *Worms Rumble - Captain & Shark Double Pack
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics
Turmoil
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels
Rogue Stormers
Torchlight
Fictorum
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
Moon Hunters
No Time to Relax
Overpass
Blood Bowl 2
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Conarium
Brawlout
F1 RACE STARS Complete Edition Include DLC
Killing Room
Tenta Shooter / The 触シュー
Everreach: Project Eden
Railway Empire
Looterkings
Headsnatchers
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
AIdol
Livelock
The Letter - Horror Visual Novel
F1 2018
Tacoma
Hard West - Collector's Edition
Hard West: Scars of Freedom DLC
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
The Shrouded Isle
Joint Task Force
The World Next Door
Verdant Skies
DISTRAINT 2
Ittle Dew
Ittle Dew 2+
Oxenfree
Monstrum
Strikey Sisters
Do Not Feed the Monkeys
Cyber Ops
European Ship Simulator
Fishing Adventure
Internet Cafe Simulator
Zen Chess: Mate in One, Mate in 2 , Mate in 3 , Mate in 4 , Champion's Moves (5 games)
Transport INC
Shoppe Keep 2 - Business and Agriculture RPG Simulation
Desolate
GRIP: Combat Racing + DLC
OUTBUDDIES DX
Eidolon
Pizza Connection 3
Spartan Fist
River City Ransom: Underground
Saints Row: The Third
Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards] *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.1 DLC *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.2 DLC *Koi-Koi Japan : UKIYOE tours Vol.3 DLC
Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
Princess Kaguya: Legend of the Moon Warrior
Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
Chaos Reborn
Driftland: The Magic Revival
Shadows: Awakening
Caveblazers
Fallback: Uprising
Mordheim: City of the Damned
WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
Mana Spark
Autonauts
Nusakana
Shift Happens
Crash Drive 3
Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora
Automachef
Demolish & Build 2017
Resort Boss: Golf
Out of Space
Narita Boy
Aven Colony
Alien Breed Trilogy
Tools up
Mount & Blade
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
BLACKHOLE: Complete Edition
Detention
Downfall
Miasmata
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Silver Chains
White Night
The Cat Lady
Syberia 3
Textorcist
GARAGE bad trip
Guts and glory
Swag and Sorcery
Fort Triumph
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength
FRAMED Collection
ROTASTIC
As Far as the Eye
Cepheus Protocol
Overruled
Ageless
Giana Sisters 2D
Prank Call
Hotshot Racing
Undead Horde
Streets of Fury EX
Rec Center Tycoon
JumpJet Rex
Hyper Knights
Vectronom
Levelhead
I am not a Monster: First Contact
Papo & Yo
Crookz the big heist
Iron Fisticle
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
Reventure
Smoke and Sacrifice
American Fugitive
The Signal From Tölva
Medieval Kingdom Wars
Rebel Galaxy
XIII - Classic
Comedy Night
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
FLATLAND Vol.2
The Chess Variants Club
Armada 2526 Gold Edition
Toybox Turbos
Sudden Strike Gold
Airport Madness: World Edition
King's Bounty: Warriors of the North
Planet Alcatraz
NecroVisioN: Lost Company
Star Wolves
Konung 2
Men of War
A.I.M.2 Clan Wars
Parkan 2
El Matador
Ascension to the Throne
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
The Flame in the Flood
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Bomber Crew
10 Second Ninja X
The Sacred Tears TRUE
Fred3ric
Lovecraft's Untold Stories
Path to Mnemosyne
CastleStorm
Crush Your Enemies
Semblance
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
Radio Commander
Boneless Zombie
Robot Squad Simulator 2017
Pretty Girls Panic!
Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
VVVVVV
Warhammer Space wolf
Blazing Chrome
Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
Pang Adventures
Party Hard 2
REKT! High Octane Stunts
Thief of Thieves: Season One
Trailblazers
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
Demetrios - Deluxe Edition
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues
GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
Shadowhand: RPG Card Game
Survivalist: Invisible Strain
We Were Here Too
Blacksad: Under the Skin
Heroes of Hammerwatch
Leisure Suit Larry 1-7
Murder by Numbers
Redout: Enhanced Edition
Rise of Industry + 2130 DLC
Ziggurat
They Bleed Pixels
Sunblaze
Noosphere
Train Valley 1+2
Door Kickers: Action Squad
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
Vambrace: Cold Soul
The Void
The Vagrant
Republique
Nephise: Ascension
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry
Knock-knock
Jewel Match Atlantis Solitaire - Collector's Edition
Healer's Quest
Fictorum
A Robot Named Fight!
Skautfold Chapters 1-4
Hero of the Kingdom: Trilogy
198X
Danger Scavenger
Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
Dread X Collection
Going Under
My Lovely Daughter
Rage in Peace
Flashback
Garfield Kart
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy
Black Moon Chronicles
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy
Red Riding Hood - Star Crossed Lovers
Chicago 1930 : The Prohibition
Sinking Island
Haegemonia: Legions of Iron
Occultus - Mediterranean Cabal
Gevaudan
Windscape
Ultra Space Battle Brawl
Through the Woods
This is the Zodiac Speaking
The Uncertain: Light At The End
The Uncertain - The Last Quiet Day
Tales
Tales of the Neon Sea
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This will be a rather long story about my father, and I hope I won't bore anyone.
My father is a person who is pathologically jealous and completely devoid of any emotions or empathy. I'm not a doctor, so I can only speculate, but I believe he may also have schizophrenia and who knows what else.
My mother is a very kind person, highly sensitive, and I love her dearly. I inherited her high sensitivity, and I am completely different from my father.
When I was a child, I witnessed my mother crying several times (which is quite strange because usually, when you're younger than 10, you don't remember things well. However, I recently realized that you remember negative things several times more than positive ones because they were hurtful to you or someone close to you).
My father wouldn't allow my mother to go out with anyone, not even friends. When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, we went to an outdoor swimming pool. I was afraid to go in, so my mother put on her swimsuit and went in to help me. When we returned home, I approached my mother and quietly asked if we would go there again sometime. She put her finger to her lips, signaling for me not to say anything. But my father overheard and hid her swimsuit.
He would search her bags at night, call her and ask where she was going and why. Sometimes he would even follow her. I saw my mother helpless and in tears multiple times, knowing that she was like imprisoned and had wasted her life.
As I grew older, she told me she wanted to leave him because she couldn't take it anymore, but she was afraid he would kill all of us (me, my mother, siblings, and even someone from our family). Back then, I didn't fully understand it, but now I know she was right, and it's very possible if he had nothing to lose. They are both almost 60 years old now.
I am mentally destroyed by my father, by several things - by seeing my mother suffer and feel helpless, and by the fact that when I was 10 to 16 years old, helping him with anything, he treated me like trash. All it took was for me not to hold the net too tightly, and he would start shouting at the top of his lungs, saying he would "fuck me up, kill me, that I'm a piece of shit," or if I couldn't tie a bucket with a knot to lift it to a higher level of the building, he would scream so loudly that I turned my head around to see if the neighbors were looking.
He would yell, "tie it, for fuck's sake! Show me how you do it, tie it because I'll kill you!" I would go to my room, close the door, and cry - convincing myself that I was stupid, an idiot, worthless. I would ask myself why I had to be so dumb, why I couldn't do anything - after all, in my country at that time, it was believed that "the older person is wiser, knows better, and should be obeyed." Because of him, I have absolutely no self-esteem. I'm not saying my self-esteem is low - I simply don't have it. I don't believe in myself. When something doesn't work out, and I struggle with some things and need more time, but then manage to handle them normally, I feel like crying and ask myself why I have to be so unintelligent.
Father and mother.
My father has something in his head, and when my mother's brother (from the same mother) comes to our country (he has been living in another country for many years), my father stays at home. When my mother's brother hugs her, my father immediately gets up from the couch and watches the hug. When my mother sits with her brother in the kitchen, my father keeps walking around the kitchen every minute, watching what they are doing.
Once, when it happened that my uncle stayed overnight at our house, my father wouldn't let them sleep in the same room. He was convinced that something inappropriate would happen between them. My mother and her brother have a normal, loving sibling relationship, but my father's jealousy and paranoia create constant tension and distress in our family.
I apologize if the translation is not perfect, as it is generated by an AI language model.
And he went to sleep and closed the door, and my father, whose room is next to mine, also went to lie down - but suddenly he fell asleep. When he woke up, he quickly got up and realized that my mother wasn't there, so he went after her to the store because he was afraid that she went somewhere with her brother - he drove after her (she went shopping, to buy groceries), while her brother was still sleeping behind closed doors. Whenever my mother is in the garden doing something and her brother steps outside for a moment and my father sees them talking, he panics and grabs any documents and goes outside to my mother - he runs instead of walking.
He even once installed listening devices in the house when her brother was there.
Moreover, my father is a very aggressive person - very much so.
Today, as I write this, my father has accumulated enormous debts because he loses a lot of money on sports betting - gambling. His business is doing very poorly, but he still loses everything and incurs debts without paying the suppliers for the goods.
We don't really know the full extent of the debts and our financial situation because it's impossible to talk to him about it.
He started giving my mother very little money for the household, so it's not enough for her, and she only humiliates herself by asking him for money. So she found a job - after all these years, she started working (if she hadn't met him and married him, she would have had a very good education and would have earned a great salary in her profession, but she gave up all of that) - after the divorce, he became ten times more problematic.
The job she found involves cleaning for a few hours a day, after everyone has left work - only the security is present. She has a restroom, a roof over her head, and warmth in the building. My father went mad; recently, he came to the gate and started yelling, cursing, and tried to force his way through the gate (it's a government facility), and if he had succeeded, the police would have been called immediately. He yelled that he didn't care, he wanted to go in, and that my mother should come out - she recorded him.
The security guards sympathized with her for having such a partner. He sat by the gate for several hours. He's completely destroying her mentally, and she no longer wants to live like this; she doesn't have the strength. She could earn money for her living expenses (there's high inflation), bills, and dental care, but this psycho probably won't let her, and she's very afraid that he will do something terrible - unfortunately, it's a very real fear.
Unfortunately, in my country (in Europe), even if you go to the police and they issue a restraining order or something similar, it doesn't help if the person has severe mental problems. This year, a man in my country killed his children, wife, and parents. In the previous year, there were a few similar cases - maybe 2 or 3? Where a man killed his own children and wife, and one case happened in my city. She wanted to leave him, get a divorce, and he found out about it, so he killed his two daughters (around 10 years old) and his wife with some tools. Such incidents happen in other countries as well, whether it's the USA or other countries.
Now he has returned during the night and started slamming things again while preparing food. If something doesn't go as he wants, he raises his voice and slams objects. He was talking to my mother about something, and when she disagreed, he started slamming the cupboard doors, chairs. My mother went to sleep or tried to sleep. He walked with his food in front of the TV and muttered under his breath, "You'll have your fucking secrets." Even if he were to keep her chained up in a closed room without light and people, he would still believe that she has secrets. And he certainly betrayed her, and we don't know what he has been doing.
Even if he had her under constant control, his mind would still create scenarios that she has secrets, and he would believe in them.
I love my mother very much, and I don't really know what to do. She is suffering greatly and doesn't want to live like this anymore. But she's afraid that he will kill her and us at home.
I'm completely helpless, and I'm ready to die for my mother or do something to protect her if things get really bad. I don't know what to do because I know that a restraining order and other measures won't stop someone like him. It would be best if women in such situations could receive training in self-defense and handling firearms and have access to a weapon temporarily, but it's impossible, even to possess a firearm. (I enrolled in university at nearly 30 years old, and I can't even concentrate on studying because I have so many things on my mind. It's difficult to read any books or focus on anything else)

YAY! Chapter 4 already done and ready for posting! WOOO! I really hope that you enjoy it, dear readers!
I've Been Reincarnated as a Bunny Girl?! (Chapter 4)
by
ShadowDragon88
"I love when the merchant caravan comes to town!" Valay cheered from where he was sitting on Kiana's shoulders, making his soon-to-be sixteen-year-old big sister wince. At age nine, the twins were being accompanied by Kiana as they walked through main street in town. Twice a year the merchant caravan, often accompanied by adventurers or mercenaries as guards, came to Starlight Rose. Ever since the destruction of The Spire, the town had started to see more traffic as travelers no longer had to worry about traveling through the narrow gaps in the mountain range, past a source of evil. In the six years since its destruction, Starlight Rose had bloomed and doubled its population.
​
Walking past the stalls and the games, Kiana smiled, feeling a festive atmosphere. She looked down at Malay, who was wearing a seafoam green dress, the young wolbet not caring that it had been a hand-me-down from Kiana, and clutching a giant blue stuffed fox almost as big as she was. Kiana was wearing a bright yellow sundress, having stated that on such a warm day, it was the best option to help keep from getting overheated. Her mother and sister had both smiled knowingly, not the least bit tricked by Kiana's professions. Kiana would often just not think about it.
​
Valay, in contrast, was wearing a simple red shirt and brown shorts and some small stick-on bandages on his shins and knees. The young boy wolbet was holding a purple dragon plush. Kiana had won them from a game booth. It was the classic 'throw a ball at a stack of bottles to knock them over' game, and like a cliche, she had seen her little brother throw a ball, hit the stack in the dead center, and they didn't move an inch. That's when big sister had stepped in. Kiana looked back at the booth... or rather where it had been. The attendant was still standing there, staring in a daze, as only half of the structure still remained.
​
"I'm glad you two like it," Kiana said, picking her brother up off her shoulders and setting him down next to his twin. Mirabelle rubbed up against his leg, making him giggle. The tiny snake, that had been small enough to sit coiled comfortably in the palm of a younger Kiana's hand, was now the size of a Saint Barnard, and just as affectionate as one. The blue-green snake had a tendency to try and sneak food, mainly cookies, when she thought she could get away with it, and had developed quite the set of sad puppy eyes when caught.
​
"So Kiana," Malay asked, looking up with her forest green eyes, a twinkle in them, "gunna go meet with Davtio later?"
​
Kiana smiled and rolled her eyes. Malay loved asking Kiana about her love life, or rather lack thereof. The older girl reached over and ruffled her little sister's headfur.
​
"Davtio and I are just friends," she said, having the day before gone on a walk with the elf-boy from her graduating class, gently letting him down after he had made his courting intentions known. The day after Kiana's birthday, which would be two days after the biannual festival, she was going to be leaving Starlight Rose to become a traveling adventurer. Davtio, with his long and practically glowing golden locks and eyes the color of the deep blue sea, had been disappointed, but he understood.
​
Jorba the goblin boy, however, had been far less formal as well as far less respectful with his own declaration. Said green-skinned bat-eared boy had walked over to where Kiana was retying her new forest green boots and given her bottom a swat, just below her cotton tail, puffing out his chest and informing Kiana that he had decided she was the finest female in their age group in the town and therefore, will be his woman. Slowly, Kiana had straightened herself and turned around, her eyes glowing with a blue light. With a swipe of her legs and a downward punch, that Kiana had been careful not to be too hard with, she effectively punched the disgusting goblin, literally, into the ground. Still alive and not crippled, but definitely in a lot of pain.
​
"I know that he liiiiiikes you, though," Malay said, rocking back and forth on her heels, reaching down to stroke Mirabelle's head, making the large reptile loosely wrap herself around the young wolbet girl's ankles.
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"I don't feel the same way and I told him as much, so we've agreed to remain friends," Kiana said, making her sister let out an exasperated sigh.
​
"GAH! That is so just like you, Kiki!" Malay said, using the name she and Valay had called Kiana shortly after they had first learned how to talk. "Someone likes you, but you're just happy being just friends!"
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"Hey, friends are awesome to have," Kiana said, picking Malay up and setting her on her shoulders, taking Valay's hand/paw into her own. Malay just rolled her eyes and continued to hug her fox.
​
"So," Valay piped up, glad that the girls had quit talking about romance stuff, "whatcha gunna buy with the money you saved up?" Valay was speaking of the jingling pouch of coins on Kiana's hip. She had earned extra coin around town doing things like babysitting and helping Mr. Fresto build a new stone wall around his garden, and the like. Making deliveries for the new offta restaurant in town had been fun for the teen bunny, and not because offta was the name for what turned out to be pizza in this world either! Tapping into her powers, she was able to sprint all across town and even over to Lake Phantom and back, often in under a minute.
​
"Well, I've already bought a bunch of supplies and a pack for my journey," Kiana said, taking note of Valay's ears drooping a bit, as well as sensing that Malay's ears were probably doing the same.
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"So... you really mean to leave?" Malay asked from Kiana's shoulders. Kiana smiled and rubbed her little sister's leg, before rubbing her little brother's head.
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"Yeah, I really do. But like I've told papa... repeatedly, actually, I'll come back to visit a whole bunch! And I'll be able to tell you all some cool stories about my travels!" Kiana said, brightening their moods.
​
"Are you going to learn magic?" Malay asked. As the twins edged closer towards their tenth birthday, that meant that they were nearing when they'd be old enough to take an exam to determine their magical abilities. Malay had accidentally turned a handful of flowers to stone when she sneezed at age seven. She also accidentally set a patch of grass on fire just outside her bedroom window after a bad dream a couple months back. According to a very excited Felixin, these were signs that Malay had a high aptitude for magic, and might actually be a sorceress, someone born with raw magical power within them.
​
Felixin went on to explain that anyone, with study and practice and skill, could eventually learn to use magic, but people like that fell under the category of a wizard. He went on to explain that witches were similar to wizards, but were more like hippies out dancing in the woods. Sorcerers and sorceresses were born with raw magical power already in them, that as they grew older, they needed to learn how to control, lest it become dangerous to them and those around them.
​
Druids, he continued with his explanation, were similar to witches, but less studious and more concentrating on attuning themselves to the energies of the surrounding natural world. He also said they had a tendency to eat certain mushrooms and fungus that they claimed could open one's third eye, but her father dismissed that notion as them just being addled by the chemicals in said fungi. Clerics were also magical, but their magic derived from whichever god they'd devoted themselves to, much like paladins, but with more study and significantly less combat training.
​
Finally, there were warlocks. Felixin was not shy about making his feelings regarding warlocks known. Instead of taking the time to learn and practice and concentrate and actually earn their magical power, they were rare people who instead bound themselves to an entity of great magical power, often something very sinister. In exchange for this power, they would do their new master's bidding, oftentimes not even fully understanding why such entities would want such requests done. He even recounted one warlock whose only task was to go out on the road and find a specific boulder, and then move it three inches south. Said warlock just shrugged when asked why, and stated that it was the only task his master ever asked of him.
​
What Felixin apparently didn't know was that there was a final category. The monk. When the master dragon monk had come to evaluate Kiana, after he had recovered from his shock, he had explained that monks were ordinary people who trained both their minds and their bodies. They would learn to tap into their inner power, their ki, and harness it through their bodies. This was of course after years and years of training and meditation. Of the different kinds of monks, the dragon monks were the most powerful. Once they passed a certain threshold, they would become as powerful as a dragon; which kind of dragon depended on which advanced school of training they most identified with. According to the master, Kiana practically oozed the aura of a storm dragon, which was capable of moving as fast as lightning.
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"Kiki!" Valay called, tugging on Kiana's hand. She shook herself and smiled down at the wolbet boy. Kiana looked up in time to see Mirabelle stealthily reaching up at a nearby picnic table where those sitting weren't paying any attention and was trying to drag a plate with an entire rotisserie chicken on it nearer to the edge. She snapped her finger, making Mirabelle recoil and slither right back over to her legs, making the sad eyes at her. Kiana ignored the big orange orbs with the black slits and returned her attention to her brother.
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"Sorry, buddy, I guess I got lost in my memories there for a sec."
​
The boy rolled his eyes and pointed to a large red and white tent that covered a wide area. There were no walls, and plenty of people were milling about inside, looking at the various goods. What had caught Valay's eye were the weapons. Already the boy had begged their mother to teach him swordfighting and, only recently, Pumala had agreed. She took note of how quickly Valay had taken to practicing the basics every day after school, always starting back to stance one. Kiana was certain that he was going to grow up to be quite the fighter.
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"Okay, let's take a look and see what they've got for sale," Kiana said, turning them to an opening, Mirabelle following close behind. Together they walked down the set up shelves and displays. Valay was entranced by the swords and daggers, especially the throwing knives and shurikens. Scratch that, Kiana thought to herself with a giggle as she set her little sister down to look at the magical staves, thinking about how much Valay loved hiding and planting stink bombs for pranks and using smoke bombs to make his escapes. He'll probably grow up to be a great ninja or something.
​
Keeping her younger siblings and Mirabelle in sight, Kiana started to look through the different weapons. There were plenty made from low-quality materials that would probably break upon the first real usage, including an ornate-looking gold sword encrusted with jewels. She stopped just past the flails and nunchucks, spying several different tetsubos. The tetsubo was a weapon of the ancient samurai, at least that was the case for her home world. They were long, thick wooden clubs, in this case as tall as Kiana was, so around five feet in length. Going down the sides of the weapons, stopping only at the ends at the tops and just before the handles at the bottoms, were rounded or spiked metal rivets.
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She pushed past some ornately carved ones, and spotted what appeared to be a plain brown tetsubo. It was polished and its rivets were spiked and black. The handle was wrapped in a comfortable-feeling leather. Some instinct deep within her liked this weapon, it liked it very much. Carrying it with one hand, she approached a man wearing a lapis lazuli-colored turban, and some matching lapis with gold trim robes. His skin was a pitch-black, with a shock of long white hair, signifying that he was a dark elf.
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"How much for the tetsubo?" Kiana asked, hearing Valay and Malay hurrying to her side. She could practically feel their wide eyes staring in wonder at the weapon.
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The merchant smiled, his purple eyes twinkling. "So this is the weapon you have selected? Quite the interesting choice."
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"Uh, thanks?" Kiana said, now looking the tetsubo over and wondering if it was cursed, or if the guy before her was going to turn out to be a demon or something and that every item in the shop was cursed in some karmic way like the old cliche.
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"It is made from a healthy branch of steelwood. Note that I said made, and not carved. As exquisite as a weapon or armor made from carved steelwood is, it pales in comparison to one that is made with secret techniques to sing the form it was always supposed to be straight from the trees themselves. Doing so ensures that any weapon or armor crafted this way will never dull or break. And the price will, of course, reflect as much..."
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"Ah," Kiana said, understanding what the merchant before her was getting at.
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"That particular tetsubo I cannot part with for less than a platinum," he said.
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"Sold," Kiana said, pulling open her pouch and jangling it as her hand disappeared inside. After a moment of her rooting around and sifting coins aside, she found what she was looking for. Out she pulled a single platinum coin. Her brother and sister, as well as the merchant, looked at Kiana in shock.
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"Where'd you get a platinum piece?" Malay asked, watching transfixed as Kiana handed the coin over to the still stunned dark elf, who took it and slipped it into a pocket in his robes.
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"I found it just outside of town, when I beat down a giant shambling plant creature-thing. I think it ate a traveling merchant or something, 'cause I found a pouch with ten of them in it," Kiana whispered with a wink. She looked up to see that the merchant had the coin back in his hands and was examining it with a jeweler's loupe, nodding in approval as he pocketed both and gave Kiana an award-winning smile.
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"A happy transaction," he said, his voice much more jovial than it had been, "please, look around some more for any more weapons that might catch your eye. And please, remember to ask for F'nnickly the Weapon Merchant if ever you're in the cities of Thassles, Ghostflower, or Midnight Tree. I have shops in all of them!"
​
"I certainly will," Kiana said, meaning it. She imagined she would be seeing more of this F'nnickly on her travels. She then turned to her brother and sister and knelt down, while the merchant turned to address another customer. "Alright, you two, did you guys find anything you wanted? I'll buy it for you."
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"But... your birthday money?" Valay asked, looking torn. Kiana gave him and then his twin a kiss on their foreheads.
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"You're my cute little brother and sister. If I want to spend money on you guys, I will," she said with a warm smile that only grew wider at the sight of the two now sporting excited grins. They both ran off and started to look more earnestly at things that had caught their eyes.
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"Papa probably won't be too happy with me buying them weapons, but I'm sure he and Mama will teach them how to be responsible with them," she thought. She was still crouched to the twins' level and was about to stand back up, when she spotted something else that caught her eye. It was a pair of seemingly plain polished brass knuckles lying inside a small glass display case on a shelf to her left. They looked to be made of a bright silvery metal. Opening the case and picking them up, they weighed next to nothing, but like the tetsubo, something about them called out to Kiana on a level she couldn't quite identify. Smiling, she stood up with them and tapped F'nnickly on his shoulder.
​
After learning that they were a pair of master-crafted mithril brass knuckles, Kiana bought them for five hundred gold, which was just half of another platinum piece, so she got some change to fill her coin pouch with. Valay was the first to return, carrying a set of shuriken that were enchanted to return to the thrower's hand with a snap of their fingers, a steel dagger, and a chain and sickle that F'nnickly identified as a kusarigama. Kiana had to stop Valay from spinning the weighted end as well as the sickle. Malay returned with a corkscrew oak carved staff that ended with a glowing purple jewel at the top, floating just above the tip. Right below it were human faces carved in, all with sinister-looking grins. It was a swamp dragon staff, meaning that it was great with poison, disease, and paralysis-related spells. With some practice, a dedicated magic user could use it to help with healing very nasty injuries and infections. Together, their purchases ended up costing Kiana another platinum piece plus another fifty gold.
​
Kiana smiled down at her beloved little brother and little sister, seeing their excitement as they marveled at their new equipment. Mirabelle, not understanding just why they were excited, was still wriggling happily nonetheless. Kiana looked around at her town, beyond the merchant booths and the games, looking at all the sights she had grown up again with, feeling a pang of sadness at knowing in two days, she was leaving. She saw all the familiar faces of her neighbors and friends and everyone else in this town she had grown to love. But it was time, and she knew it. And she had meant what she had said, she was going to visit often. Plus, she'd have Mirabelle with her, so she didn't expect she'd feel too homesick.
​
Two Days Later...
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Kiana's travel pack was fully loaded with spare clothes, food, her mithril knuckles, a couple health potions (not that she was expecting to have to use them), a canteen of fresh water, some alchemical flameless torches, some books, other assorted supplies and, when she was certain no one was looking, Mr. Wolfy. She grabbed her tetsubo and looked at her bedroom, smiling at the bookshelf filled with all sorts of titles and books about faraway lands. Her bed was made, the soft pink comforter that made cold winter nights just so warm. Her closet that was closed, containing a bit fewer dresses than it did a couple days ago, with them safely packed away in her bag. Sighing, she exited.
​
She was wearing her forest green boots with gold trim up the laces. They matched her green and gold hot pants and matching halter top. Kiana hadn't been too sure about leaving her midriff open like this, exposing her grey back and white tummy, but she had to admit that she had a pretty decent range of movement. And besides, compared to some other female, and some male, adventurers out there wearing what were basically bikinis or lingerie, this was much less revealing.
​
Out in the living room, her family was waiting. Pumala stood there, holding Kiana's platinum star-shaped badge, signifying the girl was a registered adventurer. Valay had asked Kiana about the badge that had been hand-delivered by guildmaster Graval the day before, the human man wishing the new adventurer a happy birthday. Kiana had explained that she was now officially an adventurer, but a freelance adventurer. She then had to explain that the local guild was a branch of the international inter-adventurer guild association. For freelance adventurers, a platinum ranking was the highest ranking they could achieve. If they wished to rank higher, they needed to join an official guild, like Unicorn Riot or Phoenix Phist. Basically, the guild in their town was just for beginners. The bunny girl was considering joining a real guild, but wanted to first travel and do some missions, and then look in on the different guilds and find out which one she would be most comfortable with.
​
"Go out there and have an awesome adventure!" Valay said, his voice choking up a bit. He looked away and wiped his eyes before hugging Kiana.
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"Yeah, and be sure to tell us all about the places you go and the things you do!" Malay said, her own eyes moist. Kiana felt the hot prickle of tears at the back of hers and furiously blinked them away as she returned their hugs.
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"Count on it," she said with a smile. The two letting go, Pumala stepped forward and pinned the badge on Kiana's halter top, her own eyes misty.
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"I'm so proud of you, honey-bunny," she said, now doing the hugging. Kiana hugged back, having to blink away some tears again.
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"I love you, Mama," she said, being kissed on her forehead.
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"I love you too, baby," Pumala said. The older bunny woman, who now had a slight baby bump again, stepped back as her large wolf-man husband strode forward. He tried to look stern, but the silent tears streaming down his face ruined the impression. He threw his arms around Kiana and wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug.
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"Oh, my little princess is going awaaaaaaaaay!" he sobbed, much to everyone's collective embarrassment.
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"I'll be back to visit, Papa," Kiana said, trying to gently pry his arms off.
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"Be careful out there on the road, sweetie!" he sobbed again, his tail tucked between his legs.
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"I will, Papa, I promise." Kiana smiled as he let go, and walked to the door. She turned and waved to her family, before turning back and opening the door. Just after she took her first step, she felt a jolt and something wrap around her right leg. Looking down, she saw her father, clinging to her leg like a toddler.
​
"Feli, let go of Kiana's leg right this instant!" Pumala called, while the twins, still saddened by their big sister's departure, shared a giggle at their father's antics.
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"Never!" he called back, tightening his grip. Kiana rolled her eyes and smiled back at her mom.
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"Don't worry, he'll fall off or I'll manage to shake him off before I get to the bridge," she said, starting to walk, albeit with an awkward gait. She whistled and Mirabelle, now sporting a new pink ribbon around her neck, came slithering after. Kiana's friends were near the gate for a send-off, which was made a little awkward by the still sobbing grown wolf clinging to the now mildly annoyed bunny girl's leg. She thanked them all and hugged each one, before stopping at the gate itself. She raised the leg her father was on, and began to shake. After a few moments, Felixin went flying and landed in the dirt with an 'OMPH!' Kiana waited as he got up and dusted himself off, wiping his face with the sleeve of his red robes, and walked over to her.
​
"I love you, Princess," he said, looking Kiana in the eyes and forcing a smile, "from the very day you were born, you were always my little princess, and it's just so hard to see you go. But please, know that I love you, and that not only am I already proud of what you've managed to accomplish, but that I know I'll be proud of the things you do out in the world."
​
Kiana, fresh tears of her own falling, pulled her Papa into one more hug, now the one making it a bone-crushing hug.
​
"I love you, Papa. I'm so lucky that I got to have you and Mama for parents. I'll be back before you know it," she said, wiping her own eyes. Felixin stepped back and continued to smile at his little girl. Kiana smiled back and, snapping her fingers to pull Mirabelle away from a gate guard's unattended bag lunch, the two set off, with Kiana turning back once to wave goodbye, before they finally crossed the bridge, and were on their way out into the wide world.
Name: Kiana
Species: Beasta (Rabbit-Kin)
Age: 16
Skills: Sibling Wrangler, Babysitter, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Master Martial Arts, Brawling, Heavy Weapon Proficiency, Sarcasm Mastery, Eyerolling Mastery, Beast Taming Level 3.
Class: (Official) Master-Level Dragon Monk: Storm Dragon School
Str: 140
Int: 12
Dex: 139
Cha: 12
Wis: 10
Con: 170
Languages: Common
Equipment: Adventurer's Pack, Steelwood Tetsubo, Mastercraft Mithril Knuckles (x2), Rope (25 Ft.), Canteen (Full), Road Rations, Spare Clothes, Bedroll, Health Potion (x2), Books (x3)
Sniffle. And there you have it, folks! I loved writing about Starlight Rose, but now it's time for us, along with Kiana, to explore the wide world! Thanks for reading this new chapter, and be sure to consider leaving a comment or review.
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Prev - First - Next

I have been no contact with my father since last Sunday.
This is going to e a long story. So...strap in, I guess?
In 2018 my father was living with my grandfather in an apartment. My grandfather had finally gotten to a point with his age (90) and health (bad) that he couldn't be left alone while my dad worked. He had fallen a few times, and wasn't really capable of making his own lunch or breakfast. So the family made the decision to move my grandfather into an assisted living facility.
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My father had originally planned to move in with a friend of his. She had a spare bedroom she was going to rent him. Well, not long before this all set to happen, she backs out and says that she thinks he is too messy, and doesn't want to deal with him. Man...if I would have just listened then.
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I had just bought a 12'x28' building from a friend. He had built it as an addition on his house, however decided to move and was open to selling the addition. We literally sawzalled it off his house, and had a roll on tow truck come haul it a few miles to my house where I had it put on a slab. I was planning on turning it into like a man cave / home office type thing since I work from home a lot.
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Well, given the situation with my father, and that he couldn't afford to live alone on his $13 an hour job, I said hey, we work close to each other. Why don't I turn this building into a mini-house and you can live there and we can ride to work together. We agree to a very low rent amount, with the agreement being he will help out around the house, watch our kids occasionally, that sort of thing.
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First few months of him living with us went fine. He was respectful, helpful, my only complaint was he'd chain smoke in my car on the way to and from work and I hated going to work smelling like smoke.
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Then COVID hit. He worked at a pharma company doing packaging, and was laid off. A week after he was laid off he said a friend of his from work was going to come by and hang out. Well, turns out that friend was a woman, and very very quickly it turned into a relationship. And then soon after that we realized...he basically thought it was ok for her to live with us. I explained to him many times over that I had turned that building to a home for him, and just him. There was not room for a 2nd person, and with his extremely low rent, I wasn't paying for a 2nd persons utilities. But worse, she was a non-functional alcoholic. She drank and drank and drank, non stop. She would drive drunk. She would basically drink until she passed out, wake up and wash, rinse, repeat. That is literally all she did. She refused to interact with the rest of the family at all. She wouldn't even look at us. She was a grifter, she was just looking for a free place to live and drink. She didn't eat. I never once saw her eat.
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We went on vacation summer of 2020, and my dad came with us. She stayed in his tiny home while he was gone, to watch our dogs and keep an eye on the place. Well, a massive limb fell out of the one tree in my backyard and crushed about 20 feet of my fence, RIGHT NEXT to the tiny home. She didn't notice. My neighbors called me and let me know. My dad called her and she was oblivious, and even pretended to go outside and check, and said she saw nothing. About 2 cords of wood fell out of the sky 20 feet from where she had been sleeping and crushed my chainlink fence. Then, when we came home, I check my security cameras. She only had been letting our dogs out once a day. We had to basically re-house train our dogs because they'd spent 10 days shitting in the house because she wasn't doing the one job she was supposed to do and that I was paying her $250 to do. Of course my dad defended her and said she'd done everything asked, he couldn't explain why she didn't notice the massive limb down. Just excuses.
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Halloween 2020, she finally comes out of the tiny house and agrees to help pass out candy on our porch. She was extremely intoxicated. I mean drunk as hell, barely coherent. My wife and I were pissed that her and my father thought this was acceptable around our kids, or any kids. The next morning both claimed she hadn't had a drop to drink the previous day. They told me this at 9am, while she was drinking box wine out of a 20oz tumbler. Suffice to say, I didn't believe them.
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At this point we finally started pushing very hard on him that she needed to leave. She was welcome to spend a night or two a week, but she wasn't moving in, and she needed to go home. This enraged my dad. He called me and my wife all sorts of horrible names, and then told me if I wanted her out, I had to tell her. Oh man, he had no idea how happy that made me. I marched right on out there and told her to pack her shit and be off my property in the next 5 minutes or I was calling the Sheriff and having her trespassed.
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I go back in my house. 10 minutes later I get a text from him asking to talk. I go back out. He asks if she signs a lease, could she live here? I said what part of no to her moving in here did either of them not understand? We went back and forth more. Finally I said she was no longer welcome on my property, and she needed to leave. Now.
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The next morning I get up, and guess who's car is back in my driveway? I went out, basically kicked his door open, and tore into the both of them and kicked her out again. He was testing me. He wanted to see how serious I really was.
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Then the medical problems started. So the entire time we had been battling the girlfriend issue, he had an infection in his big toe. Finally, January 2021 he had to have it amputated, none of the antibiotics had worked. Then he had to have a 2nd surgery to remove more infection. Then he was on a wound vac for 2 months. Now, I understand how big of a pain in the ass the wound vac is, especially on your foot. So, I was more than helpful in this time-frame. I made him dinner and brought it out to his tiny house every night for him. I would run to the store whenever he needed. Just generally trying to be helpful to a guy laid up on bed rest.
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And this is when things REALLY started, with him taking advantage of me. I would make him meals, and he would always have something nasty to say about it. He basically destroyed my love for cooking, because everything I made he would have something shitty to say. I made chicken fried rice and he bitched that it was dry. I explained that fried rice doesn't have a sauce, its not stir fry, its fried rice. "Well it was dry and it needed a sauce." But then, when I would bring his food out, he would be sitting at his TV tray with a knife and fork in his hands like waiting on me. But then always the nasty comments on my cooking.
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And the running and getting him stuff went from once or twice a week, to daily. Or multiple times a day. I work from home, and would get texts from him demanding I go to the store. I'd say I'm in meetings, I can go after work. So he'd say shit like "I'm having a panic attack" or "I really need this stuff." And of course it was always stuff that could have waited a few hours like cigarettes and coffee.
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THEN, one time he forgot something on the list, and asked me to go back for it. The dollar store is like half a mile from my house, so it really wasn't a huge deal. But after that....he started forgetting stuff almost every time. Because he liked making me have to go back out.
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He also wanted me to bring him ice. So he was dealing with kidney failure, and was supposed to drink a lot of water to keep things flushing through. He wouldn't consider a tap filter, or like a brita pitcher. He demanded I buy him gallons of spring water and bring him ice from my ice maker. He wouldn't get ice cube trays because he said they were too big a pain in the butt.
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One night, I was taking him out some ice, and I tripped in the dark and ended up tearing a huge flap of skin on my arm that caught on an exposed screw on the side of my house. 40 something stitches. He was pissed he didn't get his ice that night.
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Things continue on this way. He had to get a heart cath and have antibiotics injected into his heart 2x a day. He refused a home health aid and said his son would do it. Never asked me. I'm not a doctor, and I was incredibly uncomfortable doing this, but he demanded I do it and refused to do it himself.
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That summer (2021) I took my family to the beach. His kidneys had continued to shut down, and he was retaining water like crazy. He looked like the Michelin man. He was so swollen his penis wouldn't come out of his pubic fat area, so when he urinated, it just went everywhere. And because of the meds they had him on, he was peeing every 20 minutes. He was IRATE that I wouldn't bring him along. His "solution" to the pee problem was that he would shove a towel down his pants and pee into that, if he had to. His solution was to sit in the backseat of my fairly new car and piss himself, while sitting next to my daughters. He would berate me and scream at me and say all kinds of guilt ridden stuff at me about how doesn't he deserve to go to the beach one more time? And why would I take that away from him? That I owed this to him. And then finally that he was scared to be home by himself because of his health. But somehow...wasn't scared to travel 900 miles to Tampa? I almost broke, and my wife made it very clear that she did not want him on this trip, that it was a family trip for our family, and him being along was only ok if he was helpful, but spending the entire time being his nurse would not be a vacation. And of course she was right, and I am glad I finally listened.
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We came home from vacation, and I spent 10 days without him. It was wonderful. And then we came home. And things continued down hill.
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I don't know if you guys know what Kratom is, but its a drug from south east asia, its the ground up leaf of a plant. It hits the same receptors in your brain as opiates, but it doesn't get you high. Helps some people with pain. And he had restless leg syndrome, and became convinced this kratom stuff fixed it. He started taking it sometime around 2016. His dosage slowly ramped upwards. He wouldn't listen when I explained he needed to change things up, try different strains, and take tolerance breaks. He just took more and more and more.
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Not only does kratom effect your kidneys, but it also can cause alzheimers like symptoms with chronic use. Recommended max dose is 15 grams, 3x a day. He is now up to around 2 kilograms a month. So, so do the math on that.
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We tried to tell him many times that we were worried the kratom was impacting his health. His kidneys continued to fail and he ended up having to start dialysis. He also continued to be more and more demanding. He wouldn't ask you to do something, he'd just say "Go to family dollar and buy me some smokes." He basically treated me and my wife like rented mules. Just beat on us whenever he wanted.
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He would put on these massive guilt trips about how he's all alone out in his tiny house by himself with no one to talk to. He would demand I come out every day and spend time with him, and when I'd say no, I have a wife and kids that need my time too, he would insult me, call me nasty shit or just flat out say he needed me more than them.
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If you told him no, or tried to tell him how nasty he was being, he would do what I started calling the "(His Name) 3 step".
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1. Insult.
2. State what he could no longer do, because of you
3. Stomp away like a toddler.

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So if you said "Dad, I don't want to take you out on the boat anymore, you are miserable to fish with, you treat me like shit the entire time, and its not enjoyable for me."
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1. FUCK YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT
2. THAT WAS MY RETIREMENT PLAN, NOW I CANT GO FISHINg, WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
3. Stomp away.

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It got to where I would start holding up my fingers and counting while he did his little act, and it would piss him off so badly.
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Finally, I cracked. I couldn't take the abuse anymore. And I told him that he needed to find somewhere else to live. I wasn't kicking him out, I was going to help him find somewhere, but he needed to go, and if he didn't take my help, well he could go live in his car I guess.
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We found him an apartment at a senior and disabled apartment complex. His rent was $100 cheaper than he had been paying me. Utilities were low. He was about a mile from our house, you could easily walk it on a nice day. Not only that, he had really nice neighbors. He instantly became friends with his neighbor, and they would go fishing together.
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Things actually seemed like they were looking up. He even told me several times he was very thankful I had helped him find an apartment, he was enjoying being independent, and that he kind of had needed a push to go make some friends.
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A few months ago, we started noticing he was talking about his neighbors less.
Then, a few weeks ago, he texts and asks me about buying a gun because "I guess I have to go fishing by myself now and I want protection."
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Friday before last, he texted and asked me to come over. He was not in good shape. His other foot (not the toe missing one) was hurting very badly. He refused to go to the hospital, he said he was waiting until Saturday because the doctor that worked at the ER on the weekends gave out better meds.
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Saturday afternoon, I drove past and saw the EMTs hauling him off on a stretcher.
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About 10 minutes later, I get a facebook message from his neighbors girlfriend, and she asks me to call them. So I call, and then I say you know I'm 2 minutes away, let me just come over and we can talk.
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We end up talking for close to 3 hours. They told me everything that had been going on. And frankly, I am disgusted.
He was stalking a home health aid that worked for the lady behind him, He learned her schedule and would stand in the hallway waiting for her and make nasty and lewd remarks. Apparently she had been cleaning his apartment for him as a side job, and he offered her $50 for sex. After that, she wouldn't talk to him or be near him, but he continues to try to approach her over and over.
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He was sexually assaulting his neighbors girlfriend. He would grab at her, or pretend to trip and then grab her chest. Make horrible nasty comments to her. Wait for her boyfriend (his neighbor) to leave the room and say like "I don't know why you are dating him, and not me." or "He's a piece of shit, you should dump him and date me instead." and worse. I'm trying to be clean here. Some of the things she told me he'd said were just disgusting.
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Finally, and most concerning, he had originally been buying a little weed from his neighbors now and then. That turned into him demanding weed. And money. And food. Food stamps got cut back, and instead of cutting back on the kratom and smokes, he would just beg and demand his neighbors feed him, give him money, and weed. When they wouldn't, he would start screaming he was going to go kill himself. THAT was why he had asked me about a pistol. However, he has a shotgun.
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That apartment complex has 2 rules on the front page of the lease. No guns. No drugs. And here he was begging for drugs and when he didn't get it, saying he was going to go off himself with his gun.
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I probably shouldn't have, but I went and confronted him at the hospital. He denied everything. Said I was crazy and his neighbors made everything up. Everyone was lying except for him. I told him that was BS, everything his neighbors had told me he'd done lined right up with the things he'd done to me, so I knew he was full of crap. He kicked me out of his room. I told him that was fine, but I was going to talk to a social worker because he needed help.
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The nurses got a social worker for me, and I sat down with her for about 45 minutes and explained everything. He was threatening suicide. There was no food in his apartment. His apartment is disgusting, his bedroom reeks like feces. His neighbors do not think he can take care of himself. He is addicted to that kratom stuff and its causing dementia issues, or he just straight up has dementia. But he has something going on. He doesn't take his medications correctly, he just kind of takes what he wants, when he wants. And, he doesn't go to dialysis. He's supposed to go 3 days a week. He goes once, maybe twice, and he only stays about half the time. So that was likely causing him mental issues as well.
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I've not talked to him since last Sunday. I can't do it anymore. I have tried so hard to help him, and he treats you like shit. I am absolutely disgusted at the sexual stuff he was doing. He's also made comments around my daughters, like some tampons were left out and he acted like it was kryptonite and went on and on about how disgusting a package of tampons was and he didn't want to be around it. I have twin daughters, with autism, and the last thing they need to hear from someone they see as an authority figure is how disgusting their periods are. He's made horrible comments about my wife. I honestly think he was pushing me to get a divorce, back when he lived with me. He'd say horrible shit about my wife and then say I should just leave her so that me and him could spend more time together.
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He hasn't tried to contact me. He did text his neighbors a bunch (and they forwarded me everything) and basically demanded to know what all they had told me and why they did that. So...he knows he's guilty. He's embarrassed, and he knows I'm not putting up with his crap anymore. And I just flat out don't want to even talk to him.
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I have been taking care of paying his bills for him, I log in to his checking account and move bill money to a separate account every month and pay his bills with that. I also pay his car insurance and cell phone out of my pocket. Well, thats over with. Both get turned off at the end of the June billing period.
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I put a letter together for him with all of his bills, amounts, where to mail checks, etc, and explained he needed to find his own cell plan and car insurance. I would send it certified mail, but I know he won't go sign for it because he's lazy. So I'm probably just going to go tape it to his front door when I know he's not home.
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I am worried he is going to try to retaliate against me. He is going to be very mad I talked to a social worker and both my wife and his neighbors opened adult protective service investigations. He's made threats in the past that if I didn't do what he wanted, he would make false accusations about me to CPS and the police.
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And on top of all of that, I am going on vacation next week, taking my family to the west coast, so we won't be home. My neighbors know what is going on, and I asked them to let me know if they saw him creeping around.
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I do know that is foot is broken, and the other foot is missing the big toe and has a lot of pain, his wound care doctor wants to remove the rest of his toes on that foot. So at the very least he's going to be in a boot and a walker. But I strongly suspect since its been a week and he's not home yet, he's probably being sent to a nursing home to recover.
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Sooner or later he is going to try to reach out. Either with a bullshit apology, or just more insults and demands. I'm worried about him making false accusations, but I would hope the APS cases being open against him would show he's a nutjob. But the last thing I want to deal with is a CPS investigation because he called and said I hit my kids or something.
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For the last several years, I have just wanted him to go away. And now I REALLY want him to go away. I don't want him to bother me. I just want to be happy and live my life, and I am so much happier when he isn't around.
I'm worried he is going to wait until I am on vacation to do something, or start problems, because he knows how big of a headache it will be for me.
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I just want this anxiety to go away that every time my phone dings, its going to be him with a new insult or demand or threat, telling me to do what he says or else.

Author's Note:
Fitting that the final chapter of the beta test would need to be split for length. Thanks for reading, everyone! Your feedback has been very helpful. The story will continue in the future once we've built up a backlog (and made any minor adjustments as needed).
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--
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I’m giving myself six months before I say screw it and run out of here. Adam may have had a plan, but he wasn’t married to it. He was absolutely not going to stay there for twenty years. He was, however, willing to spend six months there to learn more about the world…and to test out a theory.
To do that, he had to find out more about Aspreay. What made the man tick? Why was he the way he was?
Adam’s next few days were more comfortable than anticipated. He expected to be little more than a prisoner, but was instead quickly moved to an isolated room in the back of the castle. Sure, the place wasn’t really much better than his cell, but at least it was more dignified.
The day after that, Lord Aspreay called upon him. “Observe and paint,” he said, in a dry voice. “I want you in the Great Hall with me. Find a quiet corner and stay quiet. Your job is to capture what you see. Paint me as I respond to petitioners, meet with foreign lords, and conduct my business. Capture me rightly, yes? Do not commit to the canvas any imperfections. Are you capable of it?”
“Yes, my lord,” Adam responded, bowing gracefully. “It will be my honor.” Posh bastard.
“Will you capture my image beautifully and accurately?”
Adam smiled. “I will capture it beautifully.”
The lord nodded. “Wonderful.” This appeared to satisfy him. “Go set yourself up then.”
Adam quickly found a corner. The castle’s servants set him up with canvases, tarps, and other supplies. It was an odd place to work, but he could make do.
There were worse things to endure.
“My lord, I – I have come here to…” The hunchback trailed off, aiming eyes low and hat crumbling between shaky hands. He was quiet, but his mouth was hung open and his lips quivered faster than the sweat dripping from his forehead. “I…I have…come…to….”
“Speak.” Lord Aspreay’s voice cut like an icy knife. “Let us not pretend we do not understand what our roles are. A petitioner petitions, and a ruler rules. I cannot fulfill my role until you fulfill yours.”
The hunchback took this as encouragement. Adam wasn’t sure he should have. “My lord, thank you! I…” He shook his head and appeared to gain some confidence. “Winter will be harsh this year, you see, and…and my family will starve. W–we can barely afford to pay for our house, let alone our food!”
Lord Aspreay’s voice remained unchanged from its businesslike tone. “Why?”
“My lord?” The man looked up in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Why will your family starve? I would not call you young, so this is clearly not your first winter. Your family did not starve last winter. What differs?” Lord Aspreay leaned forward on his throne. “Have you gambled away your Orbs?”
“No!” the petitioner cried out. “My lord, I used to be a blacksmith. Every year until the last, I used to work day and night to provide for my family. The fire from my forge kept us warm, and the weapons I sold kept us fed. But the incident with those foreigners…”
“Ah.” Aspreay relaxed into his throne, leaning back and resting the side of his head on three outstretched fingers. When he spoke again, the lord’s tone was solemn. “You have been a hunchback ever since?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“How much do you need to live through winter?”
“Five – five thousand orbs, my lord. We are a family of five.”
Lord Aspreay nodded at his cloaked servant. “Roland, give this man and his family six thousand Orbs.” Before the petitioner could react, Aspreay added, “You will not receive this boon again. Make sure your sons are trained to take over your job come spring.”
Adam’s hands joined the applause that followed, even if his heart did not. There were plenty of cheers and boisterous claims that their lord was just, kind, but how many of them actually meant it? Probably not too many. Anyone standing in this hall knew that kissing the lord’s ass was probably the best way to stay alive.
Then again…I didn’t expect that, Adam considered as he watched on. Aspreay handed the purse of Orbs to the man, then waved him off. I saw him launch an innocent woman through the goddamn walls just because she went to a different city first. How come he’s behaving like this? Is he kind to his citizens, just not to foreigners?
It sounded like a good hypothesis, but it was disproven only two days later, when another petitioner knelt before the throne. This one announced himself as Conde, a once-farmer.
“Our farmhouse burned down, milord, nothin’ left but ashes,” he pleaded. “We don’t have the Orbs to build it again, not even close. It’s been a good season, milord but if we don’t have somewhere to store it…”
Aspreay held a hand to silence him. The lord studied a piece of parchment Roland had brought him, and nobody dared speak. The farmer remained kneeling on the ground, visibly trembling as he waited. Throughout it all the lord would occasionally sigh, look up at the petitioner, then glanced back at the parchment.
“We have need of this farmhouse,” Aspreay muttered. “Our city cannot afford to waste valuable grain come winter. Roland, see to it that the storage house is rebuilt—”
“Thank you milord,” the farmer cried out, bowing on his knees, “you are the kindest, most wise—”
“—and then start the process of handing the farm to someone else,” he finished, in a bored tone. “Hand me a list of candidates with a farming adjacent Talent. Give me their background, family history, everything our archives have on them. We need that list done in a few days, you hear me?”
Roland nodded at once. The farmer stood up, mouth hanging open and eyes so wide his eyelids appeared hidden. “Milord, have mercy! My family…it was an accident! It couldn’t be avoided!”
“It hardly matters why the infernal thing burnt down,” Lord Aspreay fired back. “If by accident, then you should have been more careful. If by victim of some lowlife, then you should have protected it better. What matters is that Penumbria cannot afford to lose our crops. As for your punishment–”
What the hell, Adam thought, forcing himself to focus on his canvas, are your priorities? Why did you punish this man and not the last? Are you just hardcore set into protecting the city even at the cost of its citizens? Is that it?
Adam was hesitant to describe Lord Aspreay as having a set of principles. In truth, he was hesitant to describe him at all. There was something weird about him.
Maybe…he’s just a utilitarian psycho who justifies sacrifices by telling himself that it’s for the greater good…or something. It was the only theory that didn’t conflict with anything else so far. It would explain why he let Adam live, why he banished that woman, why he helped the hunchback blacksmith, and why he hadn’t helped that last man.
Well, mostly. There was nothing about the injured blacksmith that really benefited the city. Maybe Aspreay needed the man to pass down his skills to his sons? It was a bit odd, but Adam still felt like it was a valid theory.
When he’d finally set himself on accepting that as the likely truth, Lord Aspreay disproved it the very next day.
“…that is why I was wondering if maybe, maybe you could give me aid, milord?” the petitioner begged. This one had the Talent of carpentry. He’d worked as a builder up until the day he fell from a two-story building and broke his back. Adam paid careful attention to his story, noting that there was nothing the man had done wrong. “I–I do not ask it for free. If there is anything a man with a broken back can do for you, milord, please tell me. My life is yours.”
Aspreay remained silent for longer than usual. He set his wine glass on the throne’s arm. His face turned dark, his brows furrowed, and his eyes shifted over the parchment multiple times. Twice he opened his mouth before closing it again without saying anything. At one point he called Roland over, gestured at the parchment, then sent him away. When the cloaked servant returned with a different roll of sheets and a shake of his head, the lord let his head hang low for a moment before speaking.
“We cannot help you,” Aspreay said, without looking up. “Penumbria suffers. We can only offer our prayers.”
“Milord, I beg of you, my family–”
“Guards,” Aspreay said, in a tired tone, “take him away.” Then, hesitantly, added, “Be gentle. Do not hurt him further. This is a good man.”
“MILORD—!”
Only the carpenter’s desperate screams echoed throughout the Great Hall. The tables full of nobles and royal guards didn’t dare to move a muscle. No one even sipped their drink. Long after the double-doors had shut and sealed the petitioner away, the silence remained, growing thicker, denser by the second.
Then, without warning, Aspreay shattered his wine glass against the wall and shouted, “DAMNED BE THE EMPEROR!”
No one dared to even look in his direction. No one but Adam, who studied him from behind his canvas with a burning curiosity. What exactly are your morals, Aspreay?
“That bastard – our people are suffering! Does he have no heart? Someone should kill–”
Roland put a hand to his arm. “My lord, those are dangerous words to utter.”
Aspreay shook the hand off, but did not finish the threat. Instead, he grit his teeth and said, “We cannot help them. There’s not enough bloody Orbs for the amount of people we…we need more!”
The lord lifted his gaze and aimed it at his courtiers. None dared to look at him, and Adam felt all too relieved that Aspreay appeared to have forgotten of his existence. The painter thought that maybe the lord planned on laying some of the blame at his courtiers’ feet. Reason prevailed, and instead he merely stood from his throne and stormed out of the Great Hall.
He only came back an hour later, appeased by a theater troupe brought on to perform for him, and by the Great Hall being converted into a stage. After the second fight scene, he cracked a smile, and by the time the juggler performed their soliloquy he nearly appeared back to normal.
Once he called forth a lavish dinner and was greeted by a particularly indulgent display of meat, it was as if the incident had never happened.
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Aspreay was serious about not allowing Adam to speak a single word. If not for Tenver, Adam was pretty certain he’d have forgotten the sound of his own voice. Not that it would be the first time that happened. Between part-time jobs and his school workload, he was pretty used to being alone.
Both he and Tenver were lacking in friends and found themselves drinking a nightly cup of tea. Adam was neither allowed to speak in the Great Hall nor leave the castle at all, so his room was where they met.
“Okay, I’m gonna be honest – I really don’t get this guy,” Adam grumbled. “He’s always ready to send someone flying. Banishment, execution, he’s down with everything. But sometimes he seems like…he genuinely wants to help. Like he’s frustrated when he can’t.”
Tenver laughed. It looked genuine, but Adam detected a note of bitterness. “Aspreay is…difficult. There’s good in him, yet I can’t deny his good actions anymore than I can deny his atrocities.”
Well, at least the lord seemed as odd to everyone else as he did to Adam. If everyone in this world was that weird, he might have just given up.
“I need to understand that bastard,” Adam muttered. “Need to find out what exactly drives him.”
Tenver leaned forward. “That’s good. Don’t lose that spirit.” He stared straight at Adam, his gaze turning more serious. “Everyone around here likes to consider him insane. They assume he can’t be reasoned with.”
“You disagree?” Adam raised an eyebrow.
“Not quite. But we need to reason with him regardless, so who cares if he’s mad? Things have to change. The city…”
Adam remembered the tumor growing from the side of decayed houses. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
“Things can’t stay like this. They have to change, and only Aspreay has a Lord Talent. No one else does.”
“I take it…that’s a rare talent?”
Tenver stared at him blankly before realization dawned on him. “Sometimes I forget that you forgot,” he joked. “Yeah. It’s one of the rarest Talents there are. It’s not one you can just learn. You have to be born with the aptitude for it.”
There was another brief note of bitterness on Tenver’s face. He’s a nobleman, but his Talent is Swordsmanship, not Lordship. Maybe his parents had it and he didn’t? “I guess that means you can’t just request the Emperor to send a replacement, huh.”
“No, because first of all that would be treason,” Tenver laughed. “But second of all, yeah, the Empire doesn’t always have enough lords laying around waiting to be used. And even if they do, they wouldn’t be in a hurry to send someone here. We are at the edge of the Empire, way too close to the Rot.”
Adam considered asking more about the Rot. It felt like he could ask more about it, and yet…something kept his words from leaving his throat. He didn’t know why. Yes, it might be dangerous if people found out he was from another world…but surely he could trust Tenver at least a little bit, right?
Trust doesn’t come easy, Adam thought, bitterly.
Better to be safe. People here were paranoid about the Rot – they’d nearly executed him just because he mentioned fighting a monster that had been affected by it. What if they thought he was a weird death cultist or something? No reason to risk it. He could find out more about it through osmosis, just by remaining on the court.
“I don’t get that guy….” Adam muttered. “Wish he made a bit more sense. Guess I gotta keep trying ’til I figure him out.”
Tenver widened his grin. “That’s right. Don’t give up that attitude. Things aren’t perfect, but we have to approach it properly. Using force alone won’t solve anything – we need to have a dialogue with him. Aspreay isn’t a good ruler, but I don’t think he’s beyond salvation. There is good in there, somewhere.”
Adam sighed and said nothing. He peered into his wine glass, contemplating his immediate plans. There was much he didn’t know about this world, but he was learning more and more every day. It would be easy to get complacent, to stay in the city for too long…and that was why he wanted to make sure his plans were moving forward.
Six months. I won’t allow myself to stay here any longer. Before that date, I have to understand Aspreay as much as I can. What makes him tick? Is there really ‘good’ in him like Tenver says?
--
One month in, and Adam was nowhere closer to understanding the man.
Aspreay’s judgment remained as passionate as it was unpredictable. At times he would show surprising kindness, and at others he would disdainfully – if not sadistically – enjoy dishing out punishment. Strangest of all, sometimes he expressed regret at the same decisions that, in the moment, he would make without batting an eye.
It was easy to think of him just as a madman, but there had to be more to it.
What was the pattern? There had to be one!
“Send him to the dungeons – he will remain there for twenty days, then be escorted in the next royal trading caravan to his home city,” Aspreay declared, to a man who entered Penumbria illegally.
“For your crimes, you will be banished,” Aspreay declared later that same day, to a man guilty of the same crime, from the same city as the one before. He flicked his wrist, and the man was sent flying through the dividing wall.
Occasionally he would grant Orbs to those begging for help, and sometimes he would banish them. Though he would wax poetry about their faults and favors regarding the city, there didn’t seem to be a noticeable difference between them.
The only common factor Adam noticed was that Aspreay tended to be less judgemental in the morning. BUT WHY?
It was during one such morning, when his mood was considerably better, that he seemed to remember Adam existed. For the first time since he’d welcomed him into the court, Aspreay walked up behind the canvases to see how his paintings were turning out.
“Remarkable,” he said, his mouth hanging open. “Utterly breathtaking.” He gestured at the set of canvases laid side by side. “Those are of the petitioners?”
Adam nodded. “My lord doesn’t usually see them for very long, so they aren’t very detailed for the most part.” Truthfully, Adam mostly sketched out an outline during the petitions and did the full painting later in his cell. He had nothing if not free time. Maybe the result wasn’t always completely accurate to what they looked like, but it was close enough.
“These are not very detailed?” the lord asked incredulously. “They look nearly like pictures!”
The lord stretched out his fingers toward one, when Adam cried out angrily, “Don’t!” He hadn’t meant to shout. It wasn’t until he saw the lord’s expression that he realized his mistake. Ah. Crap. Aspreay didn’t even look angry. His face was blank, his brow furrowed, as though Adam had spoken in a foreign language. Have to fix this somehow. What do I say? Ah—Ahh—
*“*The paint isn’t dry, my lord,” Adam told him. “It would be my….” How would someone from this world phrase this? He closed his eyes and drew a deep, if quick breath. “A stain on your fine clothes would be a stain on my honor, my lord.”
Slowly, surprise gave way to a satisfied smile. “Ah, of course. Your caution is appreciated, painter.” His eyes shifted back to the painting Adam was working on. “Still, I must say, your work is impressive. You have forgotten your life, but not your purpose. Good.”
Adam had to fight himself to not like the man a little.
He despised Aspreay’s abuse of power, his callousness towards matters of life and death. But the lord praised his art, and Adam hated how much it made him want to excuse the man’s other crimes.
“Marvelous,” the lord repeated. He remained in that awkward position, standing behind Adam with a hand to his shoulder in silence. Come on. What now? No shot you expect me to keep working like this. After a long pause, Aspreay said, “You will paint the city’s treasures at night.”
Adam noticed that he wasn’t given a choice on whether he would want to do that or not. He could understand the subtext well enough. “It will be my honor, my lord.”
“I will have a guard walk you to the treasure room and wait for you there,” Aspreay said. When Adam eyed him curiously, he said with a smirk, “Those are important treasures. Would you have me trust someone to be in the treasure room alone?”
His tone made it clear that the lord worried for both Adam and any of his guards attempting to do something with those treasures. “I would never ask you to trust anyone other than yourself, my lord.”
It was a callous response, and Adam nearly regretted it before he saw a smile creep into the noble’s face. “See, Adam, I knew I liked you for a reason. At times you understand things with greater deftness of wit than my advisors.”
In response, Adam smiled politely and nodded along. He’d amused the man, somehow, and didn’t mean to waste the chance. Gotta keep him happy. What should I say? He’ll probably smell out my bullshit if I’m not half-honest. What would he want to hear that I also would like to say?
Slowly, Adam opened his mouth, a bitter smile coming to his face. “I understand little, my lord, but I know the perils of trust.”
“Maybe I should banish Roland and have you become my advisor instead,” Aspreay laughed.
For that lone moment Adam imagined it all too clearly. With the position of advisor, he would slowly lead Aspreay toward slowly becoming less cruel, more practical. Maybe make him use his Orbs more wisely, in a way that benefited the common people of Penumbria more. In that vision, the reckless lord slowly saw the error of his ways and became a wiser, kinder version of himself. He even helped Adam find out why he had been sent to another world, purely out of the goodness in his heart.
Never gonna happen, Adam reminded himself. It wasn’t a distressing thought; just a realistic one. Dreams didn’t come true that easily. Someone like Aspreay could joke about it, but he would never elevate someone he saw as a ‘commoner’ to a high-ranking position in his court.
​
--
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Link to Part 2

To start, I’ve had head aches and migraines my entire life. I’m 33 now. I got it from my mom who has it chronically. I also have terrible sinus cavities that apparently swell and get inflamed per my Dr.
That being said, all my life I’ve chased every solution and nothing has been more consistent and effective than redbull and Advil liquid gels. And I don’t understand why.
I don’t drink energy drinks often, maybe once a week if that once a month sometimes depending on sleep, going out with drinks and work schedule.
Trying to figure it out I did the common problems like drink water due to hydration, nope. Drink soda or coffee for caffeine deficiency. Nope. Tried other energy drinks like Celsius, more “healthy” options. Nope. Advil on its own. Nope. Vitamins. Nope.
For some reason almost every and any head ache I have now. The literally second I drink redbull and take 3 (600mg) Advil liquid gels 95% of my headaches get numbed down or flat out go away.
Anyone know why? Or can finger this out with me? I’m seriously baffled why this specific combo is the only thing that helps.

The parade was about to commence and all of the tributes gathered in the holding tunnel to prepare themselves. The District 6 entourage arrived at their chariot on time and walked down the tunnel. Jack was surveying the competition and felt intimidated by the career tributes up front. The side eye given by Andrei (2) and the vacant, empty stare of Vista (3) certainly didn’t help matters. He complained about the nut costume looking similar to Olivine (1)’s ballerina costume while Cat commented on the tightness of her bolt costume. Phoebe assured them that they were more than the costumes and just had to deal with them. She added that if the costumes are poorly received, that would be all the comeuppance Sasha needed.
Thankfully, Sasha wasn’t present, having passed out drunk an hour ago. Morrana met them at the chariot and advised them to play into the absurdity of their costumes. Cat said she had some ideas and asked what Jack thought. Jack wasn’t listening as he was watching some more tributes enter the tunnel. He shuddered at the sheer size of Wolvthorne (7) and chuckled watching Wren (5) slap her district partner Terry (5) and get reprimanded by her mentor Ashley Chen (victor of the 13th Hunger Games). However, he was perplexed by the arrival of the District 4 tributes coming from the opposite direction. Cat snapped him back to reality and asked what was going on. He pointed towards the District 4 tributes and swore one of them looked familiar.
Gill led his mentees down the tunnel to their chariot. Pearl was overwhelmed by the mix of emotions displayed on the tributes’ faces. She felt sorry for little Logan (11), who was struggling to hold it together. She glanced at the tall John (9), who yelled “What are you looking at!” at her. Mortimer, who was ignoring everyone at that point, asked if he had a problem. The two were about to butt heads, but Gill and Tris Plummer (victor of the 8th Hunger Games) pulled the two apart. The three arrived at their chariot and reunited with Minerva. She asked the two if they were ready to which both said yes. In a sudden change of character, Mortimer thanked Minerva for the tattoo work, describing her new addition as “worthy of the Kraken”. Pearl asked if she could get a sneak peek before the show to which Mortimer obliged. When he opened his shirt, he happened to look up behind him and spot Wolvthorne (7) giving Mortimer a hard stare. He didn’t hear Pearl and Gill’s compliments to the stylist as he returned the stare.
Gill snapped him out of it, reminding him not to make enemies too early. Mortimer simply pointed him out, asking his mentor if he looked like the Wharf Village troublemaker Adrian Carrack if he was buff. Gill squinted and annoyedly said, “Wow. The resemblance is uncanny.” Pearl said she lived in the Anchor Square, but claimed the name sounded familiar. Gill explained he was one of the bad apples he mentioned earlier. He was described as a tall muscular ginger boy with freckles and three front teeth missing. Mortimer commented how he would occasionally steal from the more affluent families as well as his boat and constantly hit on his girlfriend while also giving himself credit for two of the missing teeth. Pearl recalled Adrian’s identity, claiming to have seen him skulking around both the Slippery Shell and The Brine, guessing that’s how Gill knew of him. Mortimer commented how he wouldn’t mind killing Lionel (1) in the games as well, but Gill warned him not to antagonise him during training.
The parade finally began and the tributes’ chariots rolled out. Surprisingly, the District 1 sported elegant ballroom costumes Ulysses Blanco himself considered mediocre, but gave props for Olivine and Lionel (1) trying to sell it. He was greatly impressed with the District 3 costumes, which resembled smartphones but considered the despondency of the tributes’ faces a buzzkill, commenting on Shoya (3)’s flimsy hand waving. When District 4 was revealed to the world, Pearl and Mortimer stood proud and strong as the audience ate up their outfits. Pearl waved her hand and flipped her hair around, wowing the audience with her grace. Mortimer twirled his fake trident in the air and tipped his crown to the ladies in the audience. Suddenly, Mortimer ripped his shirt off, exposing the newly polished Kraken tattoo with a new open treasure chest tattoo on his chest with the tentacles attached as if holding it. The crowd went wild for the art etched on his skin, even more so when Pearl leaned against him and pointed at the Kraken.
Soon enough, the District 6 chariot rolled out and reception towards Cat and Jack’s costumes were mixed at best. At first, Cat and Jack simply smiled and waved but weren’t receiving much love. Suddenly, Cat asked Jack to trust her and to get on his shoulders. Jack hesitantly relented and allowed her to climb on. The audience were confused at first, but noticed the bolt costume perfectly lined up with the nut costume as if it was being inserted in the other. Jermaine Blanco admitted they utilised their painfully mediocre costumes well. However, at the end of the parade, the title of Blanco Fashion Magazine’s Best Dressed was awarded to District 8 for their bright and colourful mix and match outfits.
In the District 4 apartment, Minerva felt slightly dejected by her loss but was reassured by Pearl that the audience still enjoyed her work. Gill poured her a drink and ordered some Capital cake. Mortimer thanked Minerva for the improved look of his tattoo, wishing his girlfriend Meridia thought of it sooner. He caught himself after blurting this out. Everyone had confused looks on their faces. Pearl deduced Meridia was the one who drew the initial tattoo. Mortimer’s silence confirmed this, Gill exclaiming, “I knew it!” Mortimer felt embarrassed and stormed off to his room, Minerva yelling that she had good steady hands. Pearl asked Gill how her partner could ever nab a girl with his sullen and abrasive attitude. Gill knelt down and explained that Meridia is the only girl who was kind to him and only one he let in. Gill further explained that she assisted in taking care of Mortimer’s father and usually spent time with him after work hours, despite her father’s protests. Before Pearl could ask more questions, the Capital cake arrived. Pearl walked to Mortimer’s door and apologized for putting him on the spot, asking him to come and join them. After several minutes, he obliged.
Two stories above them, the District 6 entourage returned to see a disheveled Sasha standing in the middle of the room. She blamed Morrana and Phoebe for the near disastrous parade performance. Jack insisted this was all her fault, accusing her of laziness while Cat simply stood with her fists balled up. Sasha raised her hand, but Cat was quicker and slapped Sasha clean across the face. Cat yelled at Sasha, going into detail of how much at fault she was over the preceding events, citing Jack’s laziness point and bringing up her alcoholism. She praised Morrana for stepping up to care for them, give them advice, and make them feel at home. All this while Phoebe watched on with a proud smile on her face. Cat finished it all off by declaring they will be more than happy to complain about her any chance they got. Sasha didn’t dare to try again as Phoebe and Jack stepped closer to Cat. Sasha snatched a whiskey bottle and left the room, crying “Good riddance you little brats!”
Everyone applauded Cat’s bravery and Phoebe ordered some room service. Cat and Jack sat down on the couch with some fruit punch and discussed the parade. Jack claimed to have seen the District 4 male before, during the fated smuggling operation he was arrested for. Cat asked if he thought the boy recognized him, but Jack was unsure. He didn’t want an alliance with him, claiming he appeared untrustworthy. Cat shrugged and pointed out he was able bodied and would be a more viable option compared to Districts 1 & 2. She suggested they approach and talk to them during training after they watch them for a bit. Jack hesitantly agreed. With a new plan in order, everyone in the District 6 apartment relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the day.
The next morning, all of the tributes dragged themselves out of bed to prepare for their training session. There was an incident at the penthouse apartment when Jassy (12) tripped over her partner Neutron (12) and slammed her head on the floor. Her mentor Andrew “Corpse” Beckford (victor of the 10th Hunger Games) put a bandage on her head and gave her aspirin. As soon as everyone gathered in the training room, Training Master Feldman gave the routine rundown and twirled his water cannon. All of the mentors gathered in the mentors lounge at the corner of the room, conversing with each other. When he was listing reasons for him to use it, he noticed Horace (10) concealing a middle finger directed towards him. Feldman sprayed him and warned all tributes of offending him. He eventually dismissed the tributes.
Jack and Cat both gravitated towards the survival station and began working together in the shelter building section. The two spent the first hour crafting a tent while simultaneously surveying their surroundings. A half hour before lunchtime, they were quizzing themselves in the plant identification section. Cat was spying on Carnelia (11), who had successfully started a fire, taking in her technique. She had to avert her eyes as soon as the muscular Laurel (7) began staring her down from the second fire station. She asked Jack if he found any potential allies, claiming District 7 was off the table after Laurel’s disapproval of her watching the same tribute. Jack claimed he had only been watching the District 4 male, finally learning his name to be Mortimer. He explained he had now recognized him as part of the District 4 crew who had smuggled Tobias Stephens and some warmweed into their district. Cat asked if he did anything noteworthy, but Jack shook his head saying he was quiet and strangely the only one not immediately putting his hands on the contraband. Cat asked where he was, volunteering to talk to him. Jack pointed at the chemistry station, where he was spotted using a dropper of glowing green liquid on a petri dish. Cat admitted to being surprised by someone as big as him spending time in that particular station.
Jack asked if her therapy skills told her anything about the other tributes. Cat made only two observations: Ryetta (9) was most likely the weakest tribute and Wolvthorne (7) was arguably the most dangerous. Jack asked how they would find allies to combat him. Cat suggested she talk to Mortimer. Jack objected at first, but Cat pointed out how he must be skilled at chemistry, otherwise he wouldn’t be there at the station. She added that from a therapeutic standpoint, she found him fascinating and difficult to read. Jack relented and also made clear his intentions to practice camouflage. She told him to look after himself and then walked over to Mortimer. Jack stayed put for a few more minutes before transitioning to the camouflage station. He first attempted a tree background and had trouble with the intricate details of the bark. He tried a few more times and slammed his fists in the wall in frustration. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Ryetta (9). She offered to show him some tricks to which he begrudgingly accepted. She worked with him until he was able to successfully blend in with the tree.
The first station Pearl set her roots in was the aquatic station. She started off by swimming laps, enjoying the solitude of being the only tribute there. While she was timing her breaths, Andrei (2) walked into the station and slipped into the pool. Pearl didn’t notice his presence at first, but was able to pick up his splashes as he freestyled towards her. Pearl didn’t want to be alone in the station with a career, so she climbed out of the pool and discretely went to the craft table to practice fishing lures. As she fashioned a makeshift fishing pole, she watched Andrei as he struggled to keep form. He hit his head on the pool’s tiled wall while doing the backstroke. Pearl involuntarily giggled to herself, but unfortunately for her, Andrei heard her. He hopped out of the pool and marched towards her, asking if anything was funny. She muttered out a meek apology before trying to leave. He followed her at first, but was dissuaded when he noticed Feldman watching from the mentors lounge with his water cannon visible. Andrei backed off while Pearl retreated to the plant identification simulator. Coincidentally, she arrived seconds after Jack had left, so she had the entire station to herself. She excelled at the memory simulation for an hour, but was unable to surpass Carnelia (11)’s high score. During lunch break, she visited Gill and began to converse with him about training. Gill told her she was off to a good start, but urged her to choose a weapon to try. Pearl didn’t feel safe going to any weapon station with the careers nearby, notably Andrei. She decided to find Mortimer and ask him to accompany her. Gill said it was a good idea. He commented on how strange it was that he hadn’t approached the weapons station either.
Mortimer’s day was relatively uneventful. He started off in the newly implemented yoga studio doing some stretches on the mat. He paid no heed to the confused looks of some of the tributes and mentors but was surprised and relieved to have Peggy (8) join him in the studio. She tried asking for an alliance, but he silently rebuffed her. After a relaxing stretching routine, Mortimer made his way to the chemistry station. He spent the next few hours at this station, brewing some experimental potions. He also used his time analyzing Olivine (1) and Nikita (2), both of whom were in the archery station. When Wolvthorne (7) entered the axe throwing station, Mortimer diverted his scanning eyes to him. He watched his masterful target practice all the while inching his way closer to his first successful healing potion. Suddenly, he heard, “Who are you looking at?” Mortimer nearly dropped his flask and looked up to see Cat standing on the other side of the table. Embarrassed and annoyed by the surprise, he asked what she wanted. Cat guessed he was watching Wolvthorne, claiming to not blame him as she considered him the greatest threat as well. Mortimer was confused by the out of left field accurate assumption and told her to mind her own business. Cat apologised and made her intentions clear to him. She asked for an alliance with her and Jack, commenting how he had seen him before. Mortimer found Jack in the corner of the camouflage station and stared back down at his work. He guessed he told her about the “exchange program” the two districts had. Cat confirmed this. She also relayed Jack’s description of his demeanour and hesitance to gorge on warmweed. Mortimer simply stated he wasn’t a junkie. Cat defended herself, “I didn’t say that. I mean, based on the station you’re in, I assume you know how to separate the SHC and the TBA.” Mortimer stared at her with wide eyes, asking how she knew that. Cat introduced herself and said she was a therapist working under Phoebe’s tutelage. She asked if they could have an alliance, arguing that they could be a great team against Wolvthorne and their careers. Mortimer was surprised for a moment, but refused the offer, claiming that trusting people in a death game was for fools. Cat put her hands up and apologized for bothering him and to find her if he changed his mind. Before she left, she said, “By the way, I recommend boiling the moldroot before mixing it with the plasma.”
Mortimer continued his attempts at a healing potion, each time met with failure. He sat annoyed with himself for a few moments. He then recalled Cat’s suggestion and decided to try it. He was surprised to see the finished potion successfully clear the training dummy’s discolored skin. He sat in disbelief for nearly an hour when Pearl walked up to him. She came to check on him, asking what he learned. Mortimer showcased his successful healing potion, choosing to neglect Cat’s recommendation. Pearl asked if he could accompany her to the weapons station because she wanted to practice a weapon and didn’t feel comfortable going by herself. Mortimer groaned and relented, replying how he needed to pick up the trident anyway. The two spent the remainder of the training session in the trident section, with Mortimer giving Pearl some pointers on the proper swing. He became aware of Cat entering the sword station next door and waving to him. He ignored her and continued to instruct Pearl. The two sparred with each other after the proper stance was established. It took until the final five minutes of training day before Pearl was able to nab her first win.
The next day, the training assessments began. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm cut off the power as Lionel (1) entered the assessment room. The Capital’s finest technicians were in a scramble to fix the power while Lionel proceeded to showcase his swordsmanship. The fix was predicted to take longer than expected, so Head Gamemaker Grimstone was ordered to commence with the assessments as planned and simply have the activities and scores be announced later on. It wasn’t until three hours before the tribute interviews that all of the scores were announced. The highest score was 11, which was awarded to Wolvthorne (7) for his deadly axing skills and brute strength. Lionel (1) and Nikita (2) both scored 10 for their swordsmanship and archery skills respectively. Mortimer scored a 10 as well for his trident skills and his unexpected chemical gifts. Pearl nabbed a 5 for her lackluster attempts at the trident, but impressive underwater breath holding time. Jack scored a 6 for his camouflage skills and decent shelter construction. Cat surprised the gamemakers by scoring a 7 for her impressive campsite construction and decent 7/13 sword duel score.
Back in the District 4 apartment, Gill Henderson congratulated Mortimer for his high score, making him a Powerful Pina Paradise. Pearl felt dejected over her low score, but Gill assured her that what mattered is that she tried her best. He also disclosed that Dolan (D4 tribute of the 12th Hunger Games) had a lower score of 3. The three began discussing the interviews and Gill asked them what they would say. Pearl suggested she disclose some waitress stories and maybe divulge some behind the counter secrets. Gill appeared satisfied by this answer, but reminded her to continue playing into her cuteness like at Darius Dock. Mortimer begrudgingly asked if sob stories were really necessary, admitting his life wasn’t as interesting. Gill argued that it was interesting, reminding him of his smuggling pastime. He warned him that both hosts are provided information by the Capital’s top journalists and peacekeepers. Mortimer said, “So, my personal life will no longer be personal.” Gill sadly confirmed and suggested he use his life story to his advantage and lean into the fact he was caught smuggling. Mortimer admitted how as much as he didn’t want to, he had no choice as he knew the importance of sponsors. He dismissed himself to his room to change. A stunned Gill asked Pearl why the sudden change in character. Pearl recalled spotting Cat talking to him, but was too far away to hear their conversation.
Phoebe was happy her tributes scored very well for her district and ordered Capital cake for them. Jack felt relieved for his 6, but expressed how nervous he was for the interview. Phoebe did remind them this was their last chance to make an impression before the arena. Jack complained how easy it would be for Cat as she had a bounty of therapy stories to pull from. Cat told him to not sell himself too short as he did have his girlfriend to talk about. Jack felt better hearing this. He changed the subject, asking if she convinced Mortimer of an alliance. Cat said he rejected the offer but had a strong feeling he would reconsider. When asked to elaborate, Cat explained how she corrected his healing potion and how it led him to a 10. She theorized that behind the standoffish persona was a smart and compassionate man who needed help in more ways than one. Phoebe patted her on the back, claiming to have taught her well. Jack cautiously hoped she was right as he wasn’t planning on confronting the careers or Wolvthorne (7) by himself. Cat jokingly responded, “When all else fails, just do what Oslo did. There will be no lions to stop you.”
The three ate a light dinner before Morrana arrived with their new outfits. She told them the great news of her promotion to Hunger Games designer after Sasha’s suspension from the Hunger Games fashion industry after drunkenly admitting to neglecting her duties. The four celebrated with some fruity nonalcoholic drinks. Jack excused himself and went to the bathroom. He pulled his tiny contraband pouch from his shoe and contemplated taking it. Against his better judgement, he swallowed its contents and flushed the pouch down the sink before rejoining the others.
The interviews came later that evening. Artemis and Luther were giving their opening monologue, quipping back and forth. Luther kept his fingers crossed for this year to give them their next Golden Victor. Artemis played off this, revealing there to be a newly erected council of gamemakers and President Rain himself who would together discuss whether the victor is Golden Victor material. The first round of interviews started off as normal. District 1’s tributes were strong if not slightly cocky. Andrei (2) bragged about his swordsman skills and said he couldn’t wait to cut down certain tributes. He refused to elaborate, claiming it to be a surprise. Vista (3) was a nervous wreck, rattling on about her job of scrapping tech, thus making the audience uncomfortable and wishing the interview over.
The Juicy Tidbits podcast revealed a notable backstage story that took place during the opening monologue. Pearl walked back and forward nervously backstage, prompting Cat to go over to her and assist her in calming her nerves through breathing exercises, introducing herself as a friend of Mortimer. Jack felt immense relief as he had been avoiding her and Phoebe once the warmweed started to kick in. Mortimer skulked in the background picking at the appetizers, watching the interaction with fascination, shutting down Ryetta (9) when she tried talking with him. Fortunately, Cat's breathing exercises worked so when Shoya (3) was applauded, Pearl was ready to jump on to the stage, nearly doing so before she was introduced.
When Capricorn Luther introduced Pearl, she pranced onto the stage wearing a flowing blue dress that started with darker shades at the top with them becoming lighter as they descended down the dress. Artemis complimented the design of the dress, Pearl returning the favor by praising her zebra print dress and Luther's antelope suit. Artemis wondered where her manners came from, calling her the nicest tribute from District 4. Luther attributed this to her waitress job and asked how long she had been working. Pearl explained she waited tables for The Brine ever since she was eleven, assisting her parents in pulling in more customers of her age demographic. Artemis asked whether they find themselves rivalling the Slippery Shell, despite not selling liquor. Pearl confirmed The Brine was labelled as a liquor free zone, which is why it came close to their high revenue. She commented on the lengths her parents went to keep her from the negative influence of alcohol. She went on to share some lighthearted waiting stories, most of them comedic by nature. The audience were entranced by Pearl’s youthful spark and fascinated by the ongoings of the restaurant business in the districts. Luther asked Pearl what she felt about her partner, remarking how he seemed like an interesting character. Pearl agreed he was different from the teens she interacted with, but still regarded him as a good man. She said he could’ve easily snapped at any time, but showed restraint, telling her there was a misunderstood soul under there who needed help in more ways than one. Artemis opened her mouth but caught herself and closed it. A couple analysts spotted this and speculated that she nearly repeated the controversial question she gave Mihika (D10 female tribute) the previous year. Luther thanked her for her time and wished her luck, dismissing her to moderate applause.
Artemis appeared excited to interview the next guest. She described him as a mystery man sporting a sexy frontal tapestry. Mortimer entered the room wearing a seagull grey three piece suit with a capri tie and his once wavy hair gelled and combed back. Audience members noticed an ever so slightly upbeat step in his walk as opposed to his slow trudge. Artemis welcomed him to the stage, saying he made quite the entrance at the train station. Mortimer quipped, “While it wasn’t my choice, I’m still happy to entertain.” Luther decided to get to the point and bluntly asked why his girlfriend Meridia was the only person he interacted with in District 4 besides his father, whispering to the audience she was the one who etched the tattoo. Mortimer said she followed him around for a couple weeks, asking to help him and he let her as he started to fall for her. Artemis remarked, “Makes me sad that her father and half of District 4 thinks you’re a hoodlum.” Mortimer retorted that enough people have screwed him over for him to share common courtesies. Luther diverted the topic to his impressive training score, wondering where his chemistry skills came from. Mortimer said, “Before you bring it up, I will say it outright” admitting to assisting in the smuggling of fish and hooks across the Orkney Stretch in exchange for warmweed, joking “Getting caught wasn’t the highlight of my day either”. He assured everyone he didn’t ingest the drug himself, but learned to separate the SHC (medical component) from the TBA (psychoactive compound) through trial and error, feeding the SHC to his father to relieve his pain. Artemis read a document, stating his father Edward Beckett was a former Faroe Island Base engineer who fractured his back in a work accident and was medically discharged. Luther asked what he would do if he won the games. Mortimer pondered over this and declared he would give his father the proper care he needed and prove to Meridia’s father and all of District 4 he was more than a delinquent with a chip on his shoulder. Artemis said she was rooting for him, dismissing him to rapturous applause, cementing him as a new favorite.
After a mediocre interview with Terry (5), Artemis and Luther welcomed Cat to the stage, using her full first name Catalina. Cat revealed herself, wearing a sparkling amber dress with laced high boots, tiara, and a pair of glasses she specifically requested. As she sat down, she told everyone to call her Cat. Artemis first asked what the glasses were for, Cat playfully saying they made her look smart. Luther brushed past the “How is the Capital?” pleasantries and brought up her job back home. Cat explained to the audience she was a therapist working at her mentor’s Kento Rehabilitation Centre under her tutelage. She considered Phoebe an amazing role model and attributed her people reading skills to her. She even added how her games inspired her to practice the sword. Artemis asked her to tell them something about Phoebe nobody else knows. Cat disclosed that Phoebe’s platinum blonde hair is in fact natural, despite the rumors spread in District 6 and the Capital. She proceeded to highlight her occupation by relaying some patient stories, choosing to not reveal any names for confidentiality purposes. Audience members noticed she never portrayed her patients in a negative light, understanding her compassion for the lowly members of District 6’s society. Artemis commented how her initiative and compassion must attract some cute boys. Cat mentioned how she regrets never asking out one of her coworkers. Luther said she could do so if she wins. Cat made clear she would receive her therapy licence and improve the rehabilitation centre first before worrying about “relationship quarrels”. Artemis remarked, “Go get the bag sis!” Luther dismissed Cat to great applause, many calling her a dark horse.
Jack was the next to be called onto the stage. He stumbled out from under the curtain wearing a basic black and white suit and buckled shoes with the golden chain and top hat being the standouts. While wandering onto the stage, he nearly fell forward but fortunately caught himself. He sat on the chair and told Artemis and Luther to call him Jack. Artemis remarked how much a coincidence it was for two tributes in a row to have nicknames for themselves. Luther appeared slightly suspicious of Jack being unable to keep his head still, noticing it slowly nodding back and forth. He asked him about his life back home, bringing up his refinery work in the hovercraft warehouse. Jack simply stated, “It gets hot in there.” The audience was put off by his demeanor and began to whisper amongst themselves whether he was high despite his previous moments of clarity. Artemis, who was also having second thoughts, diverted to the topic of his girlfriend Tyre. Jack tiredly said she was the only light in his bleak existence. He called out his parents for always being absent and leaving him to his own devices to go get high on warmweed. Luther asked if this was the reason he smuggled warmweed to the Orkney Stretch with the older kids before getting caught. Jack bitterly said someone had to put food on the table, catching his drooping head while saying that statement. Artemis expressed her hopes that he could make it back to Tyre and be together. Jack gave her a death glare and told her he didn’t believe she cared whether he died or not. He boldly stated that if she wanted him to be with Tyre so badly, then he wouldn’t have been reaped in the first place. The second he finished that statement, he threw up all over her shoes, narrowly missing Luther’s. The crowd began booing him and calling for his death in the games. Luther quickly dismissed the boy as he was carried away by peacekeepers. A quick investigation unearthed the flushed pouch and a blood warmweed count (BWC) of 0.05%.
The rest of the interviews went along swimmingly, with Wolvthorne (7) becoming a Capital favorite. Things also became emotional when Mishti (10) cried about missing her pet dog. While Head Gamemaker Grimstone expressed his hopes for a successful games, the tributes returned to their apartment.
Gill congratulated Pearl and Mortimer on their interviews, favorably comparing them to the previous year. Pearl had hopes this would translate to more sponsors, but Gill told her there was no guarantee and it was up to the Capital. Mortimer responded, “Where have I heard that before?” Gill was slightly offended and asked what he meant. Mortimer said he did nothing to help his dad after his accident on the Faroe Island Base. Gill claimed he tried, but he didn’t have jurisdiction outside of the application process. He added that he did offer him independent compensation out of his own pocket but was angrily turned away. Pearl added how her father also wanted to help, calling Mortimer arrogant and selfish. Mortimer tried to object, but Gill warned him to be careful of his words. He claimed to know more about what he’s going through than anyone, citing his former Azores Island Base employed father, once disapproving father-in-law, and self-bestowed status de facto man of the house as proof. Gill then declared, “I admit I haven’t endured the same trials as you, but don’t you dare say I don’t have even a hint of what is going on inside that head. I know exactly who you are, boy! Because you’re me!” Mortimer and Gill stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, the latter standing in absolute shock and silence before responding with, “What a pair we are.” He stormed off into his room and never came out for the remainder of the night. Pearl asked if he would be okay, Gill answering that he’s done all he could for him. Pearl thought there was still hope for him, remembering that he didn’t shut his girlfriend Meridia out.
Back in the District 6 apartment, Phoebe was berating Jack for lying about having warmweed. She revealed he made an absolute fool of himself and was now the least liked tribute of the year. Jack, who was now in withdrawal, tried to apologise in between puking fits. Phoebe said he destroyed his chances of sponsorship and hoped he didn’t ruin Cat’s. Cat pleaded with her to calm down and knelt beside Jack. She patted his back as he returned the last of his dinner. When he was finished, he apologised to everyone and expressed how difficult it was to stave off warmweed. Phoebe’s demeanour softened and assured him she understood more than anyone. Cat told him that regardless, she will be more than happy to fight by his side in the arena. Jack thanked her before retiring to the bathtub. Phoebe expressed her worries about him experiencing withdrawal in the arena. Cat said that he had something she didn’t in her games: someone to watch over him. The two embraced, Phoebe saying she will miss her terribly if she doesn’t make it. Cat promised she would fight her hardest to ensure one of them would make it out. The two were unaware of Jack listening in from behind the cracked door of his room.
The next morning, all tributes were escorted to the holding rooms located in the underbelly of the arena. This year’s arena attire consisted of dark lycra suits with the district numbers on the right breast with black plimsolls for their feet. When Minerva entered Pearl’s holding room, she spotted her staring at her teal blue district number. Minerva assured her everything would be alright and that she believed in her. Pearl shrugged, saying it would be nice to give the Capital another fourteen-year-old victor. Minerva exclaimed, “That’s the spirit!” reminding her she had an excellent ally to help her along. The two gave a final embrace before Pearl entered her tube. Mortimer was visited by Gill and the two were silent for half of the allotted two minutes. Mortimer said he thought everything over and admitted that they were in fact very similar. He commented how he probably should have at least accepted his help. Gill expressed how glad he was for them to have worked things out, commenting how the two could’ve been good friends. Mortimer swore he would try to win, but asked him to promise to kick Adrian Carrack’s ass for him. The two shook on it and Mortimer stepped into his tube.
Phoebe visited Cat in her room, stepping in to see her doing breathing exercises. The two immediately embraced, both shedding some tears. Phoebe lamented not having her good friend let alone her best therapist leaving her. Cat promised she would use everything she taught her to bring herself and Jack to the end. She added that she had someone else who will help her out, hinting at Mortimer. Phoebe promised to take care of her patients and keep an eye on her brother. Cat thanked her and stepped into the tube but not before she said “Avskedslärare’, which in the old Swedish tongue translated to “Goodbye teacher”. As for Jack, he was visited by Morrana. He seemed resigned to the fact Phoebe didn’t visit him, saying he didn’t blame her. Morrana assured him she would’ve come if it were allowed. Jack lamented his newfound infamy, stating how he would have to do something great to redeem himself. Morrana told him he had nothing to prove and that he should focus on trying to win regardless of what other people thought. Jack sighed and thanked her for trying, but he remained unconvinced. He promised to do right by Cat and help her make it to the end. He hugged Morrana, thanking her for stepping up. He stepped into the tube. When all tributes were in the tubes, they all rose into the arena.