Ninja foodi pressure lid
Recipes using the Ninja Foodi
2018.12.23 20:12 FelineFlunky Recipes using the Ninja Foodi
A place to share recipes using the Ninja Foodi. InstaPot recipes also welcome, or general pressure cooker recipes.
2023.03.25 02:32 YukiteruAmano92 There Will Be Scritches Pt.90
Previous Next First
---Phoenix---
---???????’s perspective---
---2681 Terran Calenda32 years BF---
The lid closes, sealing me into the coffin sized space.
I take a few moments to run a final diagnostic on my four artificial limbs. All returned values are nominal.
The parts of myself that I have to worry about are those still made of flesh.
The only sign that I’ve been accelerated to a whole number percentage of the speed of light is the slight shudder that the infiltration pod’s internal inertial dampeners are not able to compensate for and the vacuum light turning from green to red, indicating it’s not safe to exit.
My suit is sealed and pressurized around my organic head and torso, so it’s not as if I would suffocate… No… I’d just harmlessly splatter against the side of those monsters’ ship!
Not yet… I don’t give a damn about my worthless life but I do give a damn about making those scum pay for what they’ve done… So I can’t die yet… not until old Auntie Terra has seen a return on every last credit she’s invested in me!
I know what I am… I know what the Phoenix Brigade is…
Little more than suicide the long way around(!)
A home for the hopeless… a promise of the opportunity for some satisfaction before death.
Is it ethical… hell no!
Am I going to take every advantage of it… hell yes!
The light turns green and, a twentieth of a second later, the lid is blasted from my pod and me a long with it.
I’m thrown a full 17ft in the air and, once I’ve judge that I don’t need to brace myself against impact with the ceiling, I turn my attention downward.
The idiot xenos still have their ugly faces turned to the 8ft long missile that just crashed into their gun deck and not at the 6’7’’’s worth of black, durasteel death that just burst from it.
None of them are close enough for me to hit on the way down but I’m able to calculate exactly which direction I need to dash when I hit the ground.
I touch down and the ten retractable claws on my synthetic legs rip through the flimsy metal of the floor as I bound toward the largest and closest xeno here.
Its chest has the consistency of butter as I plunge the durasteel claws of my flattened right hand through it, point first.
The xeno sack of shit (I’d guess to be no more than 300lb, despite looking like it should weigh more than a ton) hits the deck and I’m already decapitating the one next to it with the edge of my palm.
The next one at least has time to draw its kinetic pistol before my fist punches a six inch hole in its weak plastic chest plate.
The final two scream, uselessly, as I surge towards them on all fours then smash their heads into eachother, silencing them.
I cast around, scanning for any hostiles I missed. Finding none, I shorten my legs and lengthen my arms to suit quadrupedal locomotion better before flying from the room.
My mechanical arms and legs are well within their tolerances as their claws tear into the deck for traction.
The same can’t be said for my organic hip and shoulder joints which are screaming protest at me for subjecting them to this much strain.
“Alkawa! Tarra na!” shouts a gardenworlder in a language my helmet can’t decode for me.
Its friend looks at it instead of me, an opening that I exploit to turn its head into a splatter pattern on the wall.
The one who noticed me has a quarter of a second to scream before I kick it to the ground and sever its head with a stomp to its neck.
I continue sprinting through the halls of the flagship that’s currently locked in battle with the dreadnought I was just shot from, about half a lightminute away.
My plasmadaggers stay in the compartments in my thigh cavities.
As much as they are useful tools for cutting through thick doors and the like, they have a major drawback when used against organic matter in confined spaces; the steam they generate hampers visibility.
Plus, their hardly more effective than just using my clawed hands!
Wherever I come across one of the monsters, I dispatch it with ruthless efficiency.
The sympathy that the rest of Terra squanders on these wastes of life is utterly infuriating to me!
But… they aren’t here… and I am!
These scum will see no sympathy from me!
I know that I’m approaching the Bridge from the map my helmet is feeding me when I round a corner and am confronted with a hastily erected barricade.
I dive back behind cover as a volley of kinetic and laser fire is levelled at me.
The wall panel behind where I was standing is crumpled and scorched by the barrage, though, given the overall quality of xeno construction, that doesn’t necessarily mean much!
I activate a miniaturized camera in my left index finger and slide just that finger around the corner.
The feed is displayed on the inside of my helmet and allows me to examine the fortification I’m about to assault.
It’s about 50ft away, down the hall, and made of what looks like office furniture.
The lip is around 10ft from the ground with a dozen or so xeno heads and weapons poking out over the top.
It takes me 1.4 seconds to choose a route of best approach from those my helmet suggests, deactivate my fingercam and break from cover.
I tear down the hall at a speed no one could ever match using biological limbs.
I’m obviously not fast enough to dodge lasers or kinetic pulses… but I don’t actually need to be… All I need to do is move my body out of the way faster than those moronic xenos can aim their guns!
I’m still hit a few times but it doesn’t do much more than buffet my body a little and make a few scorch marks in my armor.
When I’m practically point blank, I launch my self into the air.
Even though I have more than enough power to clear the top of the barricade in this weak gravity, I intentionally aim to clip the top of it with my body, my judgment being that flimsy xeno office furniture won’t stand up to the momentum of 500lbs of man and durasteel and that the impact will likely produce a blast of shrapnel like pieces that will eliminate some of the work of putting these fuckers down.
My gamble pays off.
The one standing nearest catches a shard in the neck and falls.
Three more are hit in less vital areas that will still be partially incapacitating.
Crossfire kills as many as I do over the next few seconds until the ones left have the sense to draw their swords.
A tall one brings a screaming edge down on me but my hand shoots up to catch its wrist, uses its blade to parry the blow following from the other side, a fifth of a second after, and kill two more who happened to be standing close enough before folding the big one’s arm back on itself, impaling it on its own weapon.
Discipline breaks and the remaining ones begin scrambling to get away… None of them do…
Dropping the head of the last of the barricade force onto the ground, I shorten my arms and extend my legs, making my way through the thick clouds of steam to the door of the Bridge.
It doesn’t open for me, obviously (even xenos aren’t that stupid) but, by the method of stabbing my claws into the seal, I’m able to gain enough purchase to leverage my enormous mechanical strength to force it open.
As I do I hear a round of pulse fire and enter the room to see the second to last of the Bridge crew slumping into its chair, its head reduced to pulp.
The only xeno left in the room, who neither died on the barricade nor spared me the effort by doing the job for me, is a 15ft tall, white furred, six legged creature that looks like a giraffe.
It’s four empty hands are raised up with the palms facing me.
“We surrender, Terran! We surrender!!!” It pleads in a language that’s been decoded enough that my helmet can translate it for me “There is no need-Aaaaagh!”
It screams as I close my fist and swing a right hook into its left clavicle.
I only hit it with enough force to crack the bone and bring out a bright goldenrod color bruise but, from the way the impact buckles its body, its spindly left foreleg very clearly breaks as well!
8ft of neck pass me by as the creature falls to the ground.
When its head is around a foot above mine, my left hand shoots up to grab one of its ossicone horns.
Suspending its head level with mine, I speak “Surrender?! You want to surrender!?!?!?… Don’t make me laugh!… Did my wife get the chance to surrender?! Did my daughter?”
I’ll give this giraffe thing credit: It’s braver than most who find themselves in its position. It hasn’t evacuated it’s bowels or bladder (or equivalents) that I can see and, while it’s clearly terrified and in agony, it’s still able to answer “I… would guess not… Though I couldn’t say for certain without knowing where they served…”
“Where they served…? Where they served?!?!?!… Oh, let me tell you where they ‘served’! My wife served as a technician at Clear Smiles Dental Office!… My daughter served as a fucking KINDERGARTNER at Blue Spruce Nursery in New Aspen! Her name was Sophie! She was six! She liked to fingerpaint!… New Colorado had barely heard the War had been declared when you showed up to rain fire down on our cities…!”
“Sir… You have the wrong man… I have never been to New Colorado and did not participate in its decimation!” the giraffe thing interrupts.
“And yet HERE you stood!!!” I scream “Until moments ago you stood here, commanding a fleet fighting for the proposition that Terrans have lost our existing privileges for nothing more than being frightening to you!!! You commanded forces dedicated to the genocide of MY people! You wear this uniform… and you claim innocence!?… As far as I can see, every single xeno in this fleet is just as guilty for what happened to my home as if they did the deed themselves!!!”
“I’m only doing what I’ve been told! I would have been shot for cowardice if I had refused!” bleats the creature.
“Ah… so… you were only following orders…(?)” I hiss, causing it to obviously realize that it said the wrong thing “…the last, desperate defense of every evil being ever confronted with their crimes!” my visor retracts, revealing a burned, mutilated face “Orders did this to me!… Your orders cost me my arms, my legs, my city, my friends, my family, my LIFE!… Do you have any idea what that’s like!?”
“I… don’t…” admits the thing.
“Is that so…? Well then, allow me to give you a taste of it!” I say, my visor closing.
Dragging it by its ossicone, I stride to the panel in the center of the room. It whines protests and questions but I’m not listening.
I identify the port that I’m looking for and a cylindrical plug extends from the heel of my hand.
I jam it into the port and a moment later a computerized voice plays that my helmet is able to translate as saying “New Commander recognized.”
I look to the creature who’s command I just usurped for its reaction.
Confused is my guess…
I drag it to the bowward window and hold its head so it can see what’s about to happen.
“Computer; Target all Galactic Union ships in range!” I command.
Over the translated pleading and begging of the giraffe thing who seems now to realise its situation, I am able to discern the computer saying “Commander; that has been flagged as an action that bears significant tactical disadvan…”
“Override! Target all GU ships!!!” I interrupt.
“All ships targeted, Commander.” announces the computer, its tone neutral, while the thing that’s horn I’m holding frantically and futilely attempts to countermand me.
“FIRE!!!” I scream.
The xeno shields (the only thing that allows them to stand up to our barrages) are all concentrated forward, so their flanks are entirely exposed to their own flagship.
The thing weeps as space is illuminated with the burning ships of its comrades.
---2714 Terran Calenda1 year AF---
My durasteel claws gouge marks into the stones beneath my feet as I watch my marks walking, 100ft below me.
Though they are heavily guarded, none of their guards are armed.
Carrying weapons on the xeno capital world is strictly against their laws.
An advantage of operating outside the law is that I can carry weapons!
‘The Terran representative to the xeno parliament and the half sister of the arch traitor will be nice little feathers in my cap!’ I think to myself, as I leap from the edge.
---
Thank you to my brand new Patreon supporter, Thelon!
---
Previous Next First
Dramatis Personae
submitted by YukiteruAmano92 to HFY [link] [comments]
---Phoenix---
---???????’s perspective---
---2681 Terran Calenda32 years BF---
The lid closes, sealing me into the coffin sized space.
I take a few moments to run a final diagnostic on my four artificial limbs. All returned values are nominal.
The parts of myself that I have to worry about are those still made of flesh.
The only sign that I’ve been accelerated to a whole number percentage of the speed of light is the slight shudder that the infiltration pod’s internal inertial dampeners are not able to compensate for and the vacuum light turning from green to red, indicating it’s not safe to exit.
My suit is sealed and pressurized around my organic head and torso, so it’s not as if I would suffocate… No… I’d just harmlessly splatter against the side of those monsters’ ship!
Not yet… I don’t give a damn about my worthless life but I do give a damn about making those scum pay for what they’ve done… So I can’t die yet… not until old Auntie Terra has seen a return on every last credit she’s invested in me!
I know what I am… I know what the Phoenix Brigade is…
Little more than suicide the long way around(!)
A home for the hopeless… a promise of the opportunity for some satisfaction before death.
Is it ethical… hell no!
Am I going to take every advantage of it… hell yes!
The light turns green and, a twentieth of a second later, the lid is blasted from my pod and me a long with it.
I’m thrown a full 17ft in the air and, once I’ve judge that I don’t need to brace myself against impact with the ceiling, I turn my attention downward.
The idiot xenos still have their ugly faces turned to the 8ft long missile that just crashed into their gun deck and not at the 6’7’’’s worth of black, durasteel death that just burst from it.
None of them are close enough for me to hit on the way down but I’m able to calculate exactly which direction I need to dash when I hit the ground.
I touch down and the ten retractable claws on my synthetic legs rip through the flimsy metal of the floor as I bound toward the largest and closest xeno here.
Its chest has the consistency of butter as I plunge the durasteel claws of my flattened right hand through it, point first.
The xeno sack of shit (I’d guess to be no more than 300lb, despite looking like it should weigh more than a ton) hits the deck and I’m already decapitating the one next to it with the edge of my palm.
The next one at least has time to draw its kinetic pistol before my fist punches a six inch hole in its weak plastic chest plate.
The final two scream, uselessly, as I surge towards them on all fours then smash their heads into eachother, silencing them.
I cast around, scanning for any hostiles I missed. Finding none, I shorten my legs and lengthen my arms to suit quadrupedal locomotion better before flying from the room.
My mechanical arms and legs are well within their tolerances as their claws tear into the deck for traction.
The same can’t be said for my organic hip and shoulder joints which are screaming protest at me for subjecting them to this much strain.
“Alkawa! Tarra na!” shouts a gardenworlder in a language my helmet can’t decode for me.
Its friend looks at it instead of me, an opening that I exploit to turn its head into a splatter pattern on the wall.
The one who noticed me has a quarter of a second to scream before I kick it to the ground and sever its head with a stomp to its neck.
I continue sprinting through the halls of the flagship that’s currently locked in battle with the dreadnought I was just shot from, about half a lightminute away.
My plasmadaggers stay in the compartments in my thigh cavities.
As much as they are useful tools for cutting through thick doors and the like, they have a major drawback when used against organic matter in confined spaces; the steam they generate hampers visibility.
Plus, their hardly more effective than just using my clawed hands!
Wherever I come across one of the monsters, I dispatch it with ruthless efficiency.
The sympathy that the rest of Terra squanders on these wastes of life is utterly infuriating to me!
But… they aren’t here… and I am!
These scum will see no sympathy from me!
I know that I’m approaching the Bridge from the map my helmet is feeding me when I round a corner and am confronted with a hastily erected barricade.
I dive back behind cover as a volley of kinetic and laser fire is levelled at me.
The wall panel behind where I was standing is crumpled and scorched by the barrage, though, given the overall quality of xeno construction, that doesn’t necessarily mean much!
I activate a miniaturized camera in my left index finger and slide just that finger around the corner.
The feed is displayed on the inside of my helmet and allows me to examine the fortification I’m about to assault.
It’s about 50ft away, down the hall, and made of what looks like office furniture.
The lip is around 10ft from the ground with a dozen or so xeno heads and weapons poking out over the top.
It takes me 1.4 seconds to choose a route of best approach from those my helmet suggests, deactivate my fingercam and break from cover.
I tear down the hall at a speed no one could ever match using biological limbs.
I’m obviously not fast enough to dodge lasers or kinetic pulses… but I don’t actually need to be… All I need to do is move my body out of the way faster than those moronic xenos can aim their guns!
I’m still hit a few times but it doesn’t do much more than buffet my body a little and make a few scorch marks in my armor.
When I’m practically point blank, I launch my self into the air.
Even though I have more than enough power to clear the top of the barricade in this weak gravity, I intentionally aim to clip the top of it with my body, my judgment being that flimsy xeno office furniture won’t stand up to the momentum of 500lbs of man and durasteel and that the impact will likely produce a blast of shrapnel like pieces that will eliminate some of the work of putting these fuckers down.
My gamble pays off.
The one standing nearest catches a shard in the neck and falls.
Three more are hit in less vital areas that will still be partially incapacitating.
Crossfire kills as many as I do over the next few seconds until the ones left have the sense to draw their swords.
A tall one brings a screaming edge down on me but my hand shoots up to catch its wrist, uses its blade to parry the blow following from the other side, a fifth of a second after, and kill two more who happened to be standing close enough before folding the big one’s arm back on itself, impaling it on its own weapon.
Discipline breaks and the remaining ones begin scrambling to get away… None of them do…
Dropping the head of the last of the barricade force onto the ground, I shorten my arms and extend my legs, making my way through the thick clouds of steam to the door of the Bridge.
It doesn’t open for me, obviously (even xenos aren’t that stupid) but, by the method of stabbing my claws into the seal, I’m able to gain enough purchase to leverage my enormous mechanical strength to force it open.
As I do I hear a round of pulse fire and enter the room to see the second to last of the Bridge crew slumping into its chair, its head reduced to pulp.
The only xeno left in the room, who neither died on the barricade nor spared me the effort by doing the job for me, is a 15ft tall, white furred, six legged creature that looks like a giraffe.
It’s four empty hands are raised up with the palms facing me.
“We surrender, Terran! We surrender!!!” It pleads in a language that’s been decoded enough that my helmet can translate it for me “There is no need-Aaaaagh!”
It screams as I close my fist and swing a right hook into its left clavicle.
I only hit it with enough force to crack the bone and bring out a bright goldenrod color bruise but, from the way the impact buckles its body, its spindly left foreleg very clearly breaks as well!
8ft of neck pass me by as the creature falls to the ground.
When its head is around a foot above mine, my left hand shoots up to grab one of its ossicone horns.
Suspending its head level with mine, I speak “Surrender?! You want to surrender!?!?!?… Don’t make me laugh!… Did my wife get the chance to surrender?! Did my daughter?”
I’ll give this giraffe thing credit: It’s braver than most who find themselves in its position. It hasn’t evacuated it’s bowels or bladder (or equivalents) that I can see and, while it’s clearly terrified and in agony, it’s still able to answer “I… would guess not… Though I couldn’t say for certain without knowing where they served…”
“Where they served…? Where they served?!?!?!… Oh, let me tell you where they ‘served’! My wife served as a technician at Clear Smiles Dental Office!… My daughter served as a fucking KINDERGARTNER at Blue Spruce Nursery in New Aspen! Her name was Sophie! She was six! She liked to fingerpaint!… New Colorado had barely heard the War had been declared when you showed up to rain fire down on our cities…!”
“Sir… You have the wrong man… I have never been to New Colorado and did not participate in its decimation!” the giraffe thing interrupts.
“And yet HERE you stood!!!” I scream “Until moments ago you stood here, commanding a fleet fighting for the proposition that Terrans have lost our existing privileges for nothing more than being frightening to you!!! You commanded forces dedicated to the genocide of MY people! You wear this uniform… and you claim innocence!?… As far as I can see, every single xeno in this fleet is just as guilty for what happened to my home as if they did the deed themselves!!!”
“I’m only doing what I’ve been told! I would have been shot for cowardice if I had refused!” bleats the creature.
“Ah… so… you were only following orders…(?)” I hiss, causing it to obviously realize that it said the wrong thing “…the last, desperate defense of every evil being ever confronted with their crimes!” my visor retracts, revealing a burned, mutilated face “Orders did this to me!… Your orders cost me my arms, my legs, my city, my friends, my family, my LIFE!… Do you have any idea what that’s like!?”
“I… don’t…” admits the thing.
“Is that so…? Well then, allow me to give you a taste of it!” I say, my visor closing.
Dragging it by its ossicone, I stride to the panel in the center of the room. It whines protests and questions but I’m not listening.
I identify the port that I’m looking for and a cylindrical plug extends from the heel of my hand.
I jam it into the port and a moment later a computerized voice plays that my helmet is able to translate as saying “New Commander recognized.”
I look to the creature who’s command I just usurped for its reaction.
Confused is my guess…
I drag it to the bowward window and hold its head so it can see what’s about to happen.
“Computer; Target all Galactic Union ships in range!” I command.
Over the translated pleading and begging of the giraffe thing who seems now to realise its situation, I am able to discern the computer saying “Commander; that has been flagged as an action that bears significant tactical disadvan…”
“Override! Target all GU ships!!!” I interrupt.
“All ships targeted, Commander.” announces the computer, its tone neutral, while the thing that’s horn I’m holding frantically and futilely attempts to countermand me.
“FIRE!!!” I scream.
The xeno shields (the only thing that allows them to stand up to our barrages) are all concentrated forward, so their flanks are entirely exposed to their own flagship.
The thing weeps as space is illuminated with the burning ships of its comrades.
---2714 Terran Calenda1 year AF---
My durasteel claws gouge marks into the stones beneath my feet as I watch my marks walking, 100ft below me.
Though they are heavily guarded, none of their guards are armed.
Carrying weapons on the xeno capital world is strictly against their laws.
An advantage of operating outside the law is that I can carry weapons!
‘The Terran representative to the xeno parliament and the half sister of the arch traitor will be nice little feathers in my cap!’ I think to myself, as I leap from the edge.
---
Thank you to my brand new Patreon supporter, Thelon!
---
Previous Next First
Dramatis Personae
2023.03.25 02:13 viper77707 [Technique] Making grain jars for the first time but keep getting excess water in jars.
![[Technique] Making grain jars for the first time but keep getting excess water in jars.](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/4sFyT6Tk7sB5Jlts4iPme7Z6K-5Ecs5KKQH0W7OlpXA.jpg "[Technique] Making grain jars for the first time but keep getting excess water in jars.") | I had a few grain spawn bags sitting around for a couple months that had standing water in them, so I figured I'd use the grains to try making my first grain jars since I have a few cc's of spores leftover. I dumped all of the wet grains from the bags into a colander, and then let them sit on paper towels, occasionally moving them around to get the excess moisture off of the outside of the grains. submitted by viper77707 to MushroomGrowers [link] [comments] For the sterilization process I, for the most part, used mycophilia (an amateur mycology youtuber)'s tek, using an instant pot and just adding 30 extra minutes (2h45m total) to make up for the slightly lower pressure. I had about 1.5 inches of water in the pressure cooker. The jar lids (with injection port and filter already installed) were turned upside down and put the bands on, leaving them just slightly loose, about 1/8th to 1/4 of a turn. The top of the jar was covered with foil to prevent condensation from dripping in per usual. After the sterilization process was done, I let the pressure cooker cool until fully depressurized before pulling the cans out. I have done this procedure twice with exactly the same result. As you may or may not be able to tell by the pictures, there is a serious excess of water on the grains and standing water at the bottom. I've watched quite a few videos about grain jars and it seems I've followed the technique many people use, so I have no idea what I need to do differently to keep the steam from filling the jars with what seems to be at least 10cc's of excess water. Am I missing something silly? |
2023.03.25 01:56 crazygrumpy S&P 500 advances moderately amidst the Deutsche Bank crisis, mixed US data
 |
In the mid-North American session, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones are climbing 0.10% and 0.06%, each at3951.28 and 32119.30, respectively. Contrarily the heavy-tech Nasdaq Composite is down 0.23%, at 11757.02. S&P Global revealed that business activity in the United States (US) during March improved, above estimates and the prior month’s readings. Nonetheless, the S&P Global Manufacturing PMI was shy of expansion territory, at 49.3, but smashed estimates and February’s data. Meanwhile, US Durable Good Orders plummeted 1%, beneath forecasts of 0.6% but exceeded the previous month’s 5% decline, reported the US Department of Commerce. Excluding transportation equipment, it remained unchanged. Albeit the report was better than January’s data, the cumulative tightening by the Federal Reserve (Fed) could begin to weigh on businesses, as traders are expecting a hard landing by the Fed. Sector-wise, the three main drivers of Wall Street are Utilities, Consumer Staples, and Real Estate, each gaining 2.08%, 1.37%, and 1.18%. The laggards are Consumer Discretionary, Technology, and Financials, down 0.79%, 0.45%, and 0.34%. In the FX space, the US Dollar Index (DXY) found a bid, gains 0.53%, at 103.135, despite falling US Treasury bond yields. The US 10-year Treasury bond yield falls six basis points, down at 3.372%, putting a lid on the greenback gains Federal Reserve officials were one of the reasons that underpinned the greenback, with Bostic and Bullard saying that the US central bank needs to get inflation under control. Bullard foresees the Federal Funds Rate (FFR) to peak at around 5.50% - 5.75%, meaning policymakers are short three-quarters of percentage points. Atlanta’s Fed President Bostic said there was a “debate” in the latest FOMC meeting about raising rates. HE confirmed that signs that the banking system is solid were the main reason to pull the trigger. S&P 500 Daily charthttps://preview.redd.it/p6ejv7a8aspa1.png?width=1812&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ce408eeb000604cc4a5f9d8044e7eed56b8b417 |
2023.03.25 01:36 vinit__singh How has competitive programming helped you get a job? Profile photo for Akash Deep
I have been an avid user of competitive programming for two years continuously during my college days and so I think I will be the right person to answer this question. Competitive programming is a type of programming competition where participants solve algorithmic problems under time pressure. In these competitions, participants are typically given a set of problems and a limited amount of time (usually a few hours) to solve as many of them as possible. The problems are often designed to test the participants' problem-solving skills, algorithmic knowledge, and programming proficiency.
https://preview.redd.it/wreu83zh6spa1.png?width=548&format=png&auto=webp&s=4483f32ae210ca4fed5b5ae31007eacb99351606
Competitive programming is popular among computer science students and professionals, and is often used as a way to improve programming skills and prepare for technical interviews. Many online platforms, such as HackerRank, Codeforces, and Topcoder, host regular competitive programming contests where participants can compete against each other from around the world.
My journey
In college, like everyone else, I also got a lot of suggestions to watch NPTEL videos or do courses from institutes like Coding Ninjas or Scalar. Lastly, I took demo classes of Logicmojo data structure course (since it was affordable) to start learning. I did that for around 2 weeks and that proved to be great. The instructor was an SDE at Amazon, they had other instructors from MAANG who were much more experienced but at the moment this was the only option for demo classes. In a word he was great. Since it was a demo class the instructor didn’t go in much deep on any topics yet covered a great number of problems asked in popular interviews with basic logics.
He used to take questions and would cover all possible solutions and complexity available for the problem. I was highly impressed by him and joined the course, finishing it within 4 months. In between I solved more than 300+ questions of coursework included in class and assignment. I started taking part in Codechef challenges and gradually moved to Codeforces. By the end of fourth month, I was a Specialist on Codeforces. After 8 months during my placement drive, I cracked Amazon and Credit Suisse. I also had past experience in LinkedIn as an intern. Overall, one thing that I can assure is that competitive programming really improved my coding and made me handle the pressure of an interview.
Few of the great benefits of competitive programming are –
Prepare you to go through a technical interview
You will be able to readily answer questions given in technical interviews if you have become accustomed to solving more complex problems in contests. Competitive programming also improves your problem-solving speed, giving you an advantage over other candidates.
Helps you in solving complex problems
When solving a question in competitive programming, you almost always get the wrong answer and fail. You will overcome your fear of failing by answering many questions. Competitive programmers work under pressure and develop a solution, honing their problem-solving skills in the real world.
https://preview.redd.it/mm9oufyi6spa1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b6efcdb824e8789fda67f3a140cff2df17c5db9
Showcase your talent in various projects
Problem-solving skills are well-known among competitive programmers. Competitive programmers demonstrate their abilities by participating in various challenges hosted by Codeforces, Codechef, Topcoder, HackerRank, HackerEarth, etc. On these platforms, competitive programmers make their reputation and gain renown, and as they do well, people begin to notice them.
Makes you faster and more focused
You will become faster in every aspect of your life. You start to finish your tasks quickly in your real life as well. This is an excellent skill which you develop. It helps you become more focused as your code gets accepted only when all your test cases pass. So you start developing a habit of analyzing every factor which can affect your code. Hence in life also you don’t miss any factor which remains unconsidered easily.
Grooms you to become an ideal candidate for top tech giants
Apple, Google, and Facebook are all looking for skilled and intelligent people to join their teams. As a result, these corporations watch programmers who outperform the rest of the world in international competitions.
Helps you understand how to work in teams
Many contests are held at the individual level, while others need team involvement. You compete in a group of two or three people. As a result, you begin to understand how to address a topic in a group setting. Some people are better at dynamic programming, while others code faster and conceive solutions more quickly. This teaches you how to divide tasks in a group.
https://preview.redd.it/r8btepvj6spa1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=f23f9e67b5e13ac8918d23d07a10ef32e6efa37d
Various platform where you can showcase your skills
https://preview.redd.it/bkea4eyk6spa1.png?width=338&format=png&auto=webp&s=3cbd31cce992d51b39fe743729a80207e414b650
Various yearly top competitions
Competitive programming can help develop skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and efficient coding. These can be valuable in a variety of careers such as software development, data science, and research. Many companies also use these programming problems as a way to assess job applicants. As a result, having a strong background in this can increase your chances of getting hired. However, it’s important to note that competitive programming alone doesn’t guarantee a successful career, you need to combine it with other relevant skills and experiences.
Thanks for reading, all the best.
submitted by vinit__singh to codingbootcamp [link] [comments]
https://preview.redd.it/wreu83zh6spa1.png?width=548&format=png&auto=webp&s=4483f32ae210ca4fed5b5ae31007eacb99351606
Competitive programming is popular among computer science students and professionals, and is often used as a way to improve programming skills and prepare for technical interviews. Many online platforms, such as HackerRank, Codeforces, and Topcoder, host regular competitive programming contests where participants can compete against each other from around the world.
My journey
In college, like everyone else, I also got a lot of suggestions to watch NPTEL videos or do courses from institutes like Coding Ninjas or Scalar. Lastly, I took demo classes of Logicmojo data structure course (since it was affordable) to start learning. I did that for around 2 weeks and that proved to be great. The instructor was an SDE at Amazon, they had other instructors from MAANG who were much more experienced but at the moment this was the only option for demo classes. In a word he was great. Since it was a demo class the instructor didn’t go in much deep on any topics yet covered a great number of problems asked in popular interviews with basic logics.
He used to take questions and would cover all possible solutions and complexity available for the problem. I was highly impressed by him and joined the course, finishing it within 4 months. In between I solved more than 300+ questions of coursework included in class and assignment. I started taking part in Codechef challenges and gradually moved to Codeforces. By the end of fourth month, I was a Specialist on Codeforces. After 8 months during my placement drive, I cracked Amazon and Credit Suisse. I also had past experience in LinkedIn as an intern. Overall, one thing that I can assure is that competitive programming really improved my coding and made me handle the pressure of an interview.
Few of the great benefits of competitive programming are –
Prepare you to go through a technical interview
You will be able to readily answer questions given in technical interviews if you have become accustomed to solving more complex problems in contests. Competitive programming also improves your problem-solving speed, giving you an advantage over other candidates.
Helps you in solving complex problems
When solving a question in competitive programming, you almost always get the wrong answer and fail. You will overcome your fear of failing by answering many questions. Competitive programmers work under pressure and develop a solution, honing their problem-solving skills in the real world.
https://preview.redd.it/mm9oufyi6spa1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b6efcdb824e8789fda67f3a140cff2df17c5db9
Showcase your talent in various projects
Problem-solving skills are well-known among competitive programmers. Competitive programmers demonstrate their abilities by participating in various challenges hosted by Codeforces, Codechef, Topcoder, HackerRank, HackerEarth, etc. On these platforms, competitive programmers make their reputation and gain renown, and as they do well, people begin to notice them.
Makes you faster and more focused
You will become faster in every aspect of your life. You start to finish your tasks quickly in your real life as well. This is an excellent skill which you develop. It helps you become more focused as your code gets accepted only when all your test cases pass. So you start developing a habit of analyzing every factor which can affect your code. Hence in life also you don’t miss any factor which remains unconsidered easily.
Grooms you to become an ideal candidate for top tech giants
Apple, Google, and Facebook are all looking for skilled and intelligent people to join their teams. As a result, these corporations watch programmers who outperform the rest of the world in international competitions.
Helps you understand how to work in teams
Many contests are held at the individual level, while others need team involvement. You compete in a group of two or three people. As a result, you begin to understand how to address a topic in a group setting. Some people are better at dynamic programming, while others code faster and conceive solutions more quickly. This teaches you how to divide tasks in a group.
https://preview.redd.it/r8btepvj6spa1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=f23f9e67b5e13ac8918d23d07a10ef32e6efa37d
Various platform where you can showcase your skills
- Codeforces
- Codechef
- Topcoder
- HackerEarth
- HackerRank
https://preview.redd.it/bkea4eyk6spa1.png?width=338&format=png&auto=webp&s=3cbd31cce992d51b39fe743729a80207e414b650
Various yearly top competitions
- ACM ICPC
- Code jam
- Hackercup
Competitive programming can help develop skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and efficient coding. These can be valuable in a variety of careers such as software development, data science, and research. Many companies also use these programming problems as a way to assess job applicants. As a result, having a strong background in this can increase your chances of getting hired. However, it’s important to note that competitive programming alone doesn’t guarantee a successful career, you need to combine it with other relevant skills and experiences.
Thanks for reading, all the best.
2023.03.25 01:04 Secret-Tomatillo5044 Why I can't swallow anything blue
I was raised by a single mother whose behavior grew odder over the years. I never doubted that she loved me, but I could tell she was changing. A couple of months after my 13th birthday she began appearing more sluggish. Falling asleep on the couch often, making confusing statements, and being generally groggy. Simultaneously she became more forgetful, asking about friends I hadn't talked to in years and being unable to remember my interests. My mom was fairly young so I didn't understand why she was losing her memory so fast. Whenever I questioned it she would get defensive, saying that I was the one who was out of sorts.
At one point she even berated me after I told her that I was getting worried. Naturally, our relationship soured as her negative behaviors outweighed her positive ones. It hurt to watch, especially because I could sense how hard my growing distance was impacting her. I even blamed myself for her state to an extent, which I realize now I should have never done. One thing remained good though, she was great at making butterfly pea tea. She would prepare it for me every morning and afternoon once I was home from school. It was a sapphire blue color that turned into a light purple when something acidic was added. It was simple but it always hit the spot. It helped that blue was my favorite color, so it was aesthetically comforting as well. Outside of the previously mentioned struggles with her, I lived a happy life. I got good greats and had reliable friends. It was mostly smooth sailing until the incident that changed my life.
I was fast asleep when I felt my bed-sheet get swiftly torn off me. Naturally, I realized it was my mom since no one else lived with us.
“Mom, what are you doing?” I asked in response. She gave no reaction apart from a strange high-pitched gasp. Not knowing what to say I sleepily rolled towards the electric clock. The numbers appeared as a reddish blur until I opened my crust-coated lids. Letting out a small irritated breath once the mucus cracked. I wiped the substance off and refocused on the time, finding that it was only 2:00 AM. I pushed myself up and reached for the lamp when my wrist was gripped tightly. I groaned with annoyance, rolling my eyes.
“Okay, you're starting to freak me out, seriously what’s going on?!” I spoke with as much defiance as I could muster at that hour. My mom remained silent, stepping forward with a notable thud. Her grip grew stronger, which made me start to panic. She'd had moments where she seemed out of it before, but it never got physical. She gave a wet cough before finally speaking.
“You forgot to wash your face, you always remember to do that, what went wrong?” she questioned sternly. I scrunched up my face, she’d gotten up at four in the morning just to berate him about skincare?
“I was tired, I just brushed my teeth to be done with the day.” I felt my justification was sound but my mom practically barked her response.
“Dammit! I told you it needs to be applied once a day, now you'll have to use it two times to make up for this!” My heart skipped a beat, surprised at her volume and harshness. It made me wonder if she was upset about something else but was letting it out on me. She was getting particularly stressed from work around that time. My mom sighed and relinquished her grip. I rubbed my wrist, hoping she'd get through her outburst soon.
“Please get up,” she said softer than previously, taking a couple steps back. I obliged, getting out of bed. When my feet touched the ground, confusion wafted over me. my socks quickly dampened as I realized that liquid was seeping through the carpet.
“Hey did you spill something earlier?” I asked, stretching my arms.
“No, I didn't.” she started plainly.
“Oh, well I think I might have stepped in some type of liquid,” I motioned to the lamp, but she quickly pulled me into her arms by my shirt.
“Let’s not worry about that Blue Bird, same goes for the lamp, you don't need light right now, you'll have it soon,” she assured me with a hint of excitement, I squirmed out of her hug, accepting the odd rules she set in place, I didn't want to argue with her.
“Just follow me,” she patted me on the shoulder and held my hand as we walked out to the backyard. It was almost impossible to see anything in our home with the moon being the only source of light, I didn't have a clue about how she navigated the space without bumping into anything. Still, I remembered how our home was set up and could tell that we’d already passed the bathroom. My nerves heightened with each step, I had so many questions. Why were we going into the backyard when my face wash was inside? What did I step in? What was wrong with wanting the lamp on? Those questions rang strongly in my mind. Nothing felt right, things had felt off before but never quite wrong. The anxiety of the situation gave me an uncomfortable rush of energy, I couldn't sleep now if I wanted to. When the sliding door opened the humid air hit my body with an unrepresented strength, something my mother didn't pay any mind to. I continued to follow her, even though I was scared.
“Go ahead and sit on that chair.” she motioned to a green plastic kiddie chair that fit me despite its childish design. I went along with her instructions, seating myself. My mom appeared in front of me and I realized she was wearing something on her face. It had the shape and construction of a surgical mask but it was woven with dying flower stems and grass. Before I could say anything she picked up a mug off the ground to my right. She smelled it through the mask, lovingly holding it to my face. I observed the steam and realized the vapor had a bluish tint.
“Go ahead, drink it.” she smiled with especially groggy eyes. I would have described them as bloodshot if the veins running up her sclera weren't sapphire. I leaned away from her and the beverage. Hiding it as another stretch, pulling my arms above my head while yawning.
“Well isn't that wonderful! Keep your arms there, I’ll feed it to you, it'll be like when you were an adorable baby, drinking out of a bottle in my stroller!” she said gleefully with an uncharacteristic giggle. I was now thoroughly unnerved, putting my arms down and pushing away the drink.
“God, what’s going on with you! And why are you wearing that mask!” I yelled out getting up from the chair. My mom groaned at my attitude, putting the cup up to my face again as I attempted to walk off.
“Nothing is going on with me, don't worry! I just thought this mask looked nice. I made this nice cup of tea and it would warm my heart if my baby boy drank it! You're growing into such a handsome man and this will help your complexion!” her enthusiasm grew as she pushed the hot cup against my lips. I whined from the sizzling heat, pulling back.
“Why are you so insistent on this?!” I shouted with a growing sense of anger. I despised the way she was speaking to me. Whenever she used baby talk around me it was a set up for something manipulative. An example being when she used it to guilt me into sleeping in the same bed with her. Saying I owed her since I was her baby. Sure she apologized, but it wasn't the last time she would do something like that. I couldn't even buy her excuse that it would help with acne. I’d had the tea many times before with her and we both knew it was unhelpful in that regard.
“Because it needs to be done for your sake!” Her shoulder cracked loudly as she spoke in a deeper, raspier voice I didn't recognize. I took a couple of steps back, reaching into the pocket of my sweat pants before remembering my phone wasn't on me. I swore under my breath as I looked at my mother with concern. I took my hand out and she pounced on me, spilling a majority of the hot liquid onto my left arm. I screamed at the sensation of the steaming beverage hitting my flesh. She held me down tightly with both arms. Her eyes glistened with a holographic finish that lit up amid the night. I had never seen her like this. At this point I stopped caring about what made her act this way. Regardless of what was causing her behavior, it wouldn't justify her current actions. I squirmed beneath her, screaming at her to let go. I still couldn't bring myself to fight back, so I resorted to begging.
“Mom please stop! I’m sorry for every inconvenience I’ve caused! We can go get you help and make up, just please get off of me!” I pleaded whilst trying to push her away.
“You're the one who needs help here! You’ve been going through life as a husk for years now! It hurts my heart to watch you deteriorate like this and I can't let it go on!” she grabbed onto the sides of my head and slammed it against the ground. I cried out in pain. The pressure pounding in my skull began in the center and spread down to my teeth. The agony pulsated through me stronger than anything I’d felt before. My mom removed a hand and pulled out a sippy cup from the pocket in her pajama shorts. It too was filled with butterfly pea tea. Taking this as an opportunity, I pushed past the damage and bit her arm. I felt awful attacking her, but my fear surpassed my guilt. As uncomfortable as it was I sank my teeth in as far as I could. She let out a throaty gurgle in response to the attack. I attempted to crawl out from under her, using my legs to pull myself up across the grass. I moved frantically, praying I could keep up the momentum. She clutched my thin hips with her legs to keep me down. I continuously smacked the container away with my free arm while I squirmed, my back smashing against the ground in my attempts. My mom covered the cap of the cup and rolled her eyes, pushing her entire body onto mine. Covering my face as I screamed for help.
“STAY STILL!” she screeched as a viscous substance seeped through her mask. Directly pouring down my forehead, making me tremble from its cold. Before I could plan another move she shoved me to the side. My face, experiencing a burn from the grit and speed. She ran to me, kneeled down, and forced her fist into my mouth. I coughed and cried while she pulled on my tongue. I wiggled it but her grasp only hardened with each movement. Her sweaty skin overloaded my sense of taste. I kicked around but nothing deterred her, even when she was hit. I couldn't focus on anything but how much I hurt, none of what was happening made sense.
She frantically opened the sippy cup, pried my mouth open, and made me guzzle down the drink. It was boiling and I screamed in ways I didn't know I was capable of. My entire body bent in all directions as I looked into the eyes of the thing before me. The initial blue glow transitioned further into a shining violet every time a new drop was swallowed. I felt powerless in the arms of my mother, I couldn't understand why she was torturing me like this. What did I do? Was she always like this and I undermined the signs so I’d live with a greater sense of safety? I continued to sob once I’d finished the tea. The burning made it sting every time I breathed.
My mom stared at me and for a brief moment, I saw a glimpse of the parent I was used to. Underneath the murky cool layers, I saw a speck of guilt. A single leaf in an empty pond, rippling through the surrounding water no matter how small. My mother sighed with a hint of sorrow, closing her eyes. Once she did, my energy died out, my cries grew softer, my body grew limp, and the world blurred. I couldn't even conceive a cohesive thought by the time my body slumped to the ground. All I was left with was confusion and a trace of dread.
“I’m sorry for earlier” rang through my ears once I regained my sense of touch. I grabbed the ground tightly, despite the presence of grass I knew I wasn't in our backyard. This grass was far too damp to be the dry patch I last resided in. I slowly opened my eyes, fearing where I’d find myself. I expected to be shrouded in darkness, laying in a stuffy deep hole in the ground, but I was met with the contrary. A perfect blue sky, a bustling variety of greenery, and a fresh breeze. I took a sigh of relief, still confused at where I was but happy it didn't appear threatening. I glanced ahead, finding a cluster of my favorite flowers at my feet. The smell of Jasmine and Orchids was heavenly, sweeter than fresh vanilla cake. Though the pleasant scent re-instilled unease in me. All of this was far too good to be true, and I still had no idea where I was. Did my mother take me here? If so, why? Was she somewhere here or had she abandoned him? I sat up delving headfirst into the flowers, groaning with frustration. The petals were soft, and damp like the grass, the water on them cool against my face. In any other situation, this would be a dream, but it only made him more nervous. Something this perfect had to be a setup.
“Blue Bird!” my mother happily exclaimed, I lifted my head, finding her standing over me. She was now wearing a polka-dotted dark blue dress instead of her nightwear. I shuffled myself back from her, her pupils had vanished and her mask was wilting.
“Mom, you're scaring me, I don't get what's going on. What are we doing here?” I asked shakily, she sighed and knelt to make direct eye contact with me.
“We're in a special place, a lush land that‘s available to very few. You don't have to worry, I just brought you here to rid you of your emotional pain.” her answer only confused me further.
“Emotional pain? Mom, I'm fine, the only thing causing me emotional distress is what’s happening right now. This place is nice but you're freaking me out.” I attempted to get up but something grabbed my legs. I shrieked as two bright green vines wrapped around my limbs.
“MOM WHAT THE HELL IS THIS! GET THESE THINGS AWA-” I was cut off by a much thicker vine logging itself into my throat. My eyes once again welled up with tears while multiple tendrils clenched onto me. Every time I moved another one would grab hold and the present ones would tighten. Nevertheless I continued screaming.
“I'm sorry my child, there’s something I've avoided telling you. I feed off the life force of living things. Cats, pigeons, people, as long as they’re not close to their death bed I can consume them.” I didn't fully understand what she was saying, but it only made my fear increase.
“Every time I take something from someone, I take them here. I've avoided taking things from you since you're the most precious thing to me. But my sweet baby boy, I've gotten so, so hungry.” Her pitch dropped while developing a defined rasp. I winced further from the nickname.
“I've tried to live off others, but I couldn't resist you anymore when you're so readily available. You’re so full of life, it's been hard not to contain my urges.” she stroked my cheek, frowning at my devastation.
“If I don’t get the nutrients I need, I'll turn into an awful thing. A monster incapable of complex thought that does nothing but destroys.” There was now a vine holding down every joint in my skeletal system, down to my fingers. Multiple small ones had been twisting themselves around my stomach, now making me struggle to breathe.
“Blue Bird, I have given my life to raising you, so please understand you have to give something back to me.” she explained solemnly.
The woven mask snapped off, quickly unraveling the horrifying contents beneath it. My pupils shrunk to pin drops, my screams of agony lessening from shock. My mother’s entire jaw had been dislocated, hanging onto her face by a couple of fleshy threads. The inside of her mouth was a bright blue with scaly gums. Her murky entirely cerulean eyes watered as she began panting. She extended her tongue to an inhuman length, thick saliva rapidly dripping down it. I wanted to believe that she wasn't going to hurt me, through all this she was still my mother. Yet I couldn't convince myself of that. Not when I felt multiple vines move through my body, entering through my mouth, eyes, and nose.
I couldn't bear to look at the thing I once called mom any longer. My ears buzzed while my eardrums were compressed by an increasing number of tubes. Their weight was breaking down the layers of skin and muscle preventing entry into my skull. Every orifice I had was on fire from pressure, yet I could tell this was only the lead-up to a crescendo of pain. A sharp fang poked through the tip of her and stabbed itself into my forehead. It punctured my skin, dragging in a curve. I twitched from the spike circling around my skull, extending my gash. Blood dripped on every side of my head, stinging harsher once the wind's currents grew.
By this point, I’d rather be in a wood chipper than deal with the cascade of agony invading every part of me. The blue-eyed thing licked up the gore flowing down and I wondered how I’d managed to go this entire time without throwing up. Her tongue was akin to sandpaper slathered in chili oil. In a last-ditch attempt to gain some power over the situation, I bit down into the vine as hard as I could. Which only worsened things when a miniature yet equally as strong vine sprung from the one I bit and wrangled my teeth. Forcibly spreading my jaw open further, making room for more to be stuffed in. A couple of tiny ones even slid between my front teeth. Thankfully, no more came after since the goal of the plant had been reached. The dam between the organic tendrils and my brain broke open, allowing each one to set roots in the vital organ. Each crevice of my intellect was invaded by a slithering, rough, nature. The impact was too strong and my senses shut down once more. My struggling limbs stopped what little movement they were capable of. My breathing slowed, my screams fell silent, and my eyes closed with tears still laying behind them. I didn't even realize I was shutting down, it just happened.
I was unconscious for an amount of time I can’t measure but knew was long. When I awoke my body felt infinitely more hollow. A loud ringing permeated my ears as I slowly took breaths. My jaw ached, my throat was painfully dry, and I could feel how cracked my lips were. My body fought with itself to not pass out, desperately trying to hold together.
“It’ll be all better soon,” My mother comforted while grabbing a sharpened knife. I was laying on her bed, but there were towels in place of sheets. Once she pulled my shirt over my head, I started to panic again.
“No, stop,” I mumbled, barely recognizing my weakened muffled voice. She made a series of meticulous cuts on my torso. Once the wound was opened she would squeeze as much blood as possible out of it and bag it away. I looked down, further horrified by the fact my blood was blue.
“I know it hurts, but it’ll be worth it,” She calmly told me as I bled out. The process went on for hours, resulting in me being unable to sleep for days after. I didn't feel safe in my house anymore, I locked myself in my room more than ever. Joining the longest after-school programs and visiting my friend’s house whenever I got the chance. Something my closest friend noticed most, he asked me what was wrong, but I told him it was nothing. I didn't expect him to believe anything about what happened, and the event was too awful for me to bring up. Meanwhile, my mother kept telling me I had a bad dream and that I was just moody. I showed her the scars as evidence but she accused me of making them myself to make her look bad. The next few years were tumultuous and before I knew it the initial incident became one of many. Every year she’d do it more often than the last, and each time it would take longer for me to recover.
It got to the point where the mere sight of gardens would scare me. The scents of my once favorite flowers grew sour, I didn't want to touch butterfly pea tea, and eventually, I couldn't even handle consuming things that are blue. It took me a long time to write this, as I’ve cried at multiple points by recounting what happened. There is a long road to recovery for me, which is even harder since everyone I’ve opened up to has called me crazy, but I'm done letting these memories fester and consume my life. I'm more than the worst things that happened to me.
submitted by Secret-Tomatillo5044 to creepypastachannel [link] [comments]
At one point she even berated me after I told her that I was getting worried. Naturally, our relationship soured as her negative behaviors outweighed her positive ones. It hurt to watch, especially because I could sense how hard my growing distance was impacting her. I even blamed myself for her state to an extent, which I realize now I should have never done. One thing remained good though, she was great at making butterfly pea tea. She would prepare it for me every morning and afternoon once I was home from school. It was a sapphire blue color that turned into a light purple when something acidic was added. It was simple but it always hit the spot. It helped that blue was my favorite color, so it was aesthetically comforting as well. Outside of the previously mentioned struggles with her, I lived a happy life. I got good greats and had reliable friends. It was mostly smooth sailing until the incident that changed my life.
I was fast asleep when I felt my bed-sheet get swiftly torn off me. Naturally, I realized it was my mom since no one else lived with us.
“Mom, what are you doing?” I asked in response. She gave no reaction apart from a strange high-pitched gasp. Not knowing what to say I sleepily rolled towards the electric clock. The numbers appeared as a reddish blur until I opened my crust-coated lids. Letting out a small irritated breath once the mucus cracked. I wiped the substance off and refocused on the time, finding that it was only 2:00 AM. I pushed myself up and reached for the lamp when my wrist was gripped tightly. I groaned with annoyance, rolling my eyes.
“Okay, you're starting to freak me out, seriously what’s going on?!” I spoke with as much defiance as I could muster at that hour. My mom remained silent, stepping forward with a notable thud. Her grip grew stronger, which made me start to panic. She'd had moments where she seemed out of it before, but it never got physical. She gave a wet cough before finally speaking.
“You forgot to wash your face, you always remember to do that, what went wrong?” she questioned sternly. I scrunched up my face, she’d gotten up at four in the morning just to berate him about skincare?
“I was tired, I just brushed my teeth to be done with the day.” I felt my justification was sound but my mom practically barked her response.
“Dammit! I told you it needs to be applied once a day, now you'll have to use it two times to make up for this!” My heart skipped a beat, surprised at her volume and harshness. It made me wonder if she was upset about something else but was letting it out on me. She was getting particularly stressed from work around that time. My mom sighed and relinquished her grip. I rubbed my wrist, hoping she'd get through her outburst soon.
“Please get up,” she said softer than previously, taking a couple steps back. I obliged, getting out of bed. When my feet touched the ground, confusion wafted over me. my socks quickly dampened as I realized that liquid was seeping through the carpet.
“Hey did you spill something earlier?” I asked, stretching my arms.
“No, I didn't.” she started plainly.
“Oh, well I think I might have stepped in some type of liquid,” I motioned to the lamp, but she quickly pulled me into her arms by my shirt.
“Let’s not worry about that Blue Bird, same goes for the lamp, you don't need light right now, you'll have it soon,” she assured me with a hint of excitement, I squirmed out of her hug, accepting the odd rules she set in place, I didn't want to argue with her.
“Just follow me,” she patted me on the shoulder and held my hand as we walked out to the backyard. It was almost impossible to see anything in our home with the moon being the only source of light, I didn't have a clue about how she navigated the space without bumping into anything. Still, I remembered how our home was set up and could tell that we’d already passed the bathroom. My nerves heightened with each step, I had so many questions. Why were we going into the backyard when my face wash was inside? What did I step in? What was wrong with wanting the lamp on? Those questions rang strongly in my mind. Nothing felt right, things had felt off before but never quite wrong. The anxiety of the situation gave me an uncomfortable rush of energy, I couldn't sleep now if I wanted to. When the sliding door opened the humid air hit my body with an unrepresented strength, something my mother didn't pay any mind to. I continued to follow her, even though I was scared.
“Go ahead and sit on that chair.” she motioned to a green plastic kiddie chair that fit me despite its childish design. I went along with her instructions, seating myself. My mom appeared in front of me and I realized she was wearing something on her face. It had the shape and construction of a surgical mask but it was woven with dying flower stems and grass. Before I could say anything she picked up a mug off the ground to my right. She smelled it through the mask, lovingly holding it to my face. I observed the steam and realized the vapor had a bluish tint.
“Go ahead, drink it.” she smiled with especially groggy eyes. I would have described them as bloodshot if the veins running up her sclera weren't sapphire. I leaned away from her and the beverage. Hiding it as another stretch, pulling my arms above my head while yawning.
“Well isn't that wonderful! Keep your arms there, I’ll feed it to you, it'll be like when you were an adorable baby, drinking out of a bottle in my stroller!” she said gleefully with an uncharacteristic giggle. I was now thoroughly unnerved, putting my arms down and pushing away the drink.
“God, what’s going on with you! And why are you wearing that mask!” I yelled out getting up from the chair. My mom groaned at my attitude, putting the cup up to my face again as I attempted to walk off.
“Nothing is going on with me, don't worry! I just thought this mask looked nice. I made this nice cup of tea and it would warm my heart if my baby boy drank it! You're growing into such a handsome man and this will help your complexion!” her enthusiasm grew as she pushed the hot cup against my lips. I whined from the sizzling heat, pulling back.
“Why are you so insistent on this?!” I shouted with a growing sense of anger. I despised the way she was speaking to me. Whenever she used baby talk around me it was a set up for something manipulative. An example being when she used it to guilt me into sleeping in the same bed with her. Saying I owed her since I was her baby. Sure she apologized, but it wasn't the last time she would do something like that. I couldn't even buy her excuse that it would help with acne. I’d had the tea many times before with her and we both knew it was unhelpful in that regard.
“Because it needs to be done for your sake!” Her shoulder cracked loudly as she spoke in a deeper, raspier voice I didn't recognize. I took a couple of steps back, reaching into the pocket of my sweat pants before remembering my phone wasn't on me. I swore under my breath as I looked at my mother with concern. I took my hand out and she pounced on me, spilling a majority of the hot liquid onto my left arm. I screamed at the sensation of the steaming beverage hitting my flesh. She held me down tightly with both arms. Her eyes glistened with a holographic finish that lit up amid the night. I had never seen her like this. At this point I stopped caring about what made her act this way. Regardless of what was causing her behavior, it wouldn't justify her current actions. I squirmed beneath her, screaming at her to let go. I still couldn't bring myself to fight back, so I resorted to begging.
“Mom please stop! I’m sorry for every inconvenience I’ve caused! We can go get you help and make up, just please get off of me!” I pleaded whilst trying to push her away.
“You're the one who needs help here! You’ve been going through life as a husk for years now! It hurts my heart to watch you deteriorate like this and I can't let it go on!” she grabbed onto the sides of my head and slammed it against the ground. I cried out in pain. The pressure pounding in my skull began in the center and spread down to my teeth. The agony pulsated through me stronger than anything I’d felt before. My mom removed a hand and pulled out a sippy cup from the pocket in her pajama shorts. It too was filled with butterfly pea tea. Taking this as an opportunity, I pushed past the damage and bit her arm. I felt awful attacking her, but my fear surpassed my guilt. As uncomfortable as it was I sank my teeth in as far as I could. She let out a throaty gurgle in response to the attack. I attempted to crawl out from under her, using my legs to pull myself up across the grass. I moved frantically, praying I could keep up the momentum. She clutched my thin hips with her legs to keep me down. I continuously smacked the container away with my free arm while I squirmed, my back smashing against the ground in my attempts. My mom covered the cap of the cup and rolled her eyes, pushing her entire body onto mine. Covering my face as I screamed for help.
“STAY STILL!” she screeched as a viscous substance seeped through her mask. Directly pouring down my forehead, making me tremble from its cold. Before I could plan another move she shoved me to the side. My face, experiencing a burn from the grit and speed. She ran to me, kneeled down, and forced her fist into my mouth. I coughed and cried while she pulled on my tongue. I wiggled it but her grasp only hardened with each movement. Her sweaty skin overloaded my sense of taste. I kicked around but nothing deterred her, even when she was hit. I couldn't focus on anything but how much I hurt, none of what was happening made sense.
She frantically opened the sippy cup, pried my mouth open, and made me guzzle down the drink. It was boiling and I screamed in ways I didn't know I was capable of. My entire body bent in all directions as I looked into the eyes of the thing before me. The initial blue glow transitioned further into a shining violet every time a new drop was swallowed. I felt powerless in the arms of my mother, I couldn't understand why she was torturing me like this. What did I do? Was she always like this and I undermined the signs so I’d live with a greater sense of safety? I continued to sob once I’d finished the tea. The burning made it sting every time I breathed.
My mom stared at me and for a brief moment, I saw a glimpse of the parent I was used to. Underneath the murky cool layers, I saw a speck of guilt. A single leaf in an empty pond, rippling through the surrounding water no matter how small. My mother sighed with a hint of sorrow, closing her eyes. Once she did, my energy died out, my cries grew softer, my body grew limp, and the world blurred. I couldn't even conceive a cohesive thought by the time my body slumped to the ground. All I was left with was confusion and a trace of dread.
“I’m sorry for earlier” rang through my ears once I regained my sense of touch. I grabbed the ground tightly, despite the presence of grass I knew I wasn't in our backyard. This grass was far too damp to be the dry patch I last resided in. I slowly opened my eyes, fearing where I’d find myself. I expected to be shrouded in darkness, laying in a stuffy deep hole in the ground, but I was met with the contrary. A perfect blue sky, a bustling variety of greenery, and a fresh breeze. I took a sigh of relief, still confused at where I was but happy it didn't appear threatening. I glanced ahead, finding a cluster of my favorite flowers at my feet. The smell of Jasmine and Orchids was heavenly, sweeter than fresh vanilla cake. Though the pleasant scent re-instilled unease in me. All of this was far too good to be true, and I still had no idea where I was. Did my mother take me here? If so, why? Was she somewhere here or had she abandoned him? I sat up delving headfirst into the flowers, groaning with frustration. The petals were soft, and damp like the grass, the water on them cool against my face. In any other situation, this would be a dream, but it only made him more nervous. Something this perfect had to be a setup.
“Blue Bird!” my mother happily exclaimed, I lifted my head, finding her standing over me. She was now wearing a polka-dotted dark blue dress instead of her nightwear. I shuffled myself back from her, her pupils had vanished and her mask was wilting.
“Mom, you're scaring me, I don't get what's going on. What are we doing here?” I asked shakily, she sighed and knelt to make direct eye contact with me.
“We're in a special place, a lush land that‘s available to very few. You don't have to worry, I just brought you here to rid you of your emotional pain.” her answer only confused me further.
“Emotional pain? Mom, I'm fine, the only thing causing me emotional distress is what’s happening right now. This place is nice but you're freaking me out.” I attempted to get up but something grabbed my legs. I shrieked as two bright green vines wrapped around my limbs.
“MOM WHAT THE HELL IS THIS! GET THESE THINGS AWA-” I was cut off by a much thicker vine logging itself into my throat. My eyes once again welled up with tears while multiple tendrils clenched onto me. Every time I moved another one would grab hold and the present ones would tighten. Nevertheless I continued screaming.
“I'm sorry my child, there’s something I've avoided telling you. I feed off the life force of living things. Cats, pigeons, people, as long as they’re not close to their death bed I can consume them.” I didn't fully understand what she was saying, but it only made my fear increase.
“Every time I take something from someone, I take them here. I've avoided taking things from you since you're the most precious thing to me. But my sweet baby boy, I've gotten so, so hungry.” Her pitch dropped while developing a defined rasp. I winced further from the nickname.
“I've tried to live off others, but I couldn't resist you anymore when you're so readily available. You’re so full of life, it's been hard not to contain my urges.” she stroked my cheek, frowning at my devastation.
“If I don’t get the nutrients I need, I'll turn into an awful thing. A monster incapable of complex thought that does nothing but destroys.” There was now a vine holding down every joint in my skeletal system, down to my fingers. Multiple small ones had been twisting themselves around my stomach, now making me struggle to breathe.
“Blue Bird, I have given my life to raising you, so please understand you have to give something back to me.” she explained solemnly.
The woven mask snapped off, quickly unraveling the horrifying contents beneath it. My pupils shrunk to pin drops, my screams of agony lessening from shock. My mother’s entire jaw had been dislocated, hanging onto her face by a couple of fleshy threads. The inside of her mouth was a bright blue with scaly gums. Her murky entirely cerulean eyes watered as she began panting. She extended her tongue to an inhuman length, thick saliva rapidly dripping down it. I wanted to believe that she wasn't going to hurt me, through all this she was still my mother. Yet I couldn't convince myself of that. Not when I felt multiple vines move through my body, entering through my mouth, eyes, and nose.
I couldn't bear to look at the thing I once called mom any longer. My ears buzzed while my eardrums were compressed by an increasing number of tubes. Their weight was breaking down the layers of skin and muscle preventing entry into my skull. Every orifice I had was on fire from pressure, yet I could tell this was only the lead-up to a crescendo of pain. A sharp fang poked through the tip of her and stabbed itself into my forehead. It punctured my skin, dragging in a curve. I twitched from the spike circling around my skull, extending my gash. Blood dripped on every side of my head, stinging harsher once the wind's currents grew.
By this point, I’d rather be in a wood chipper than deal with the cascade of agony invading every part of me. The blue-eyed thing licked up the gore flowing down and I wondered how I’d managed to go this entire time without throwing up. Her tongue was akin to sandpaper slathered in chili oil. In a last-ditch attempt to gain some power over the situation, I bit down into the vine as hard as I could. Which only worsened things when a miniature yet equally as strong vine sprung from the one I bit and wrangled my teeth. Forcibly spreading my jaw open further, making room for more to be stuffed in. A couple of tiny ones even slid between my front teeth. Thankfully, no more came after since the goal of the plant had been reached. The dam between the organic tendrils and my brain broke open, allowing each one to set roots in the vital organ. Each crevice of my intellect was invaded by a slithering, rough, nature. The impact was too strong and my senses shut down once more. My struggling limbs stopped what little movement they were capable of. My breathing slowed, my screams fell silent, and my eyes closed with tears still laying behind them. I didn't even realize I was shutting down, it just happened.
I was unconscious for an amount of time I can’t measure but knew was long. When I awoke my body felt infinitely more hollow. A loud ringing permeated my ears as I slowly took breaths. My jaw ached, my throat was painfully dry, and I could feel how cracked my lips were. My body fought with itself to not pass out, desperately trying to hold together.
“It’ll be all better soon,” My mother comforted while grabbing a sharpened knife. I was laying on her bed, but there were towels in place of sheets. Once she pulled my shirt over my head, I started to panic again.
“No, stop,” I mumbled, barely recognizing my weakened muffled voice. She made a series of meticulous cuts on my torso. Once the wound was opened she would squeeze as much blood as possible out of it and bag it away. I looked down, further horrified by the fact my blood was blue.
“I know it hurts, but it’ll be worth it,” She calmly told me as I bled out. The process went on for hours, resulting in me being unable to sleep for days after. I didn't feel safe in my house anymore, I locked myself in my room more than ever. Joining the longest after-school programs and visiting my friend’s house whenever I got the chance. Something my closest friend noticed most, he asked me what was wrong, but I told him it was nothing. I didn't expect him to believe anything about what happened, and the event was too awful for me to bring up. Meanwhile, my mother kept telling me I had a bad dream and that I was just moody. I showed her the scars as evidence but she accused me of making them myself to make her look bad. The next few years were tumultuous and before I knew it the initial incident became one of many. Every year she’d do it more often than the last, and each time it would take longer for me to recover.
It got to the point where the mere sight of gardens would scare me. The scents of my once favorite flowers grew sour, I didn't want to touch butterfly pea tea, and eventually, I couldn't even handle consuming things that are blue. It took me a long time to write this, as I’ve cried at multiple points by recounting what happened. There is a long road to recovery for me, which is even harder since everyone I’ve opened up to has called me crazy, but I'm done letting these memories fester and consume my life. I'm more than the worst things that happened to me.
2023.03.24 22:18 SCArchbold I just moved back to my childhood town... People are going missing now, and I think it has something to do with the coal mine... [Part 1]
People have been going missing in my hometown ever since I moved back. And things don't really feel the way they did when I was a kid. I don't know if those two are related.
This has been really nagging at me lately. I had no idea where to post it to get some help or peace of mind. I just really need some support right now before I drive myself crazy over it. Maybe I'm overreacting because it's been a stressful few months since my parents died, or maybe someone can shed some light on the events that have been happening and show me that I am just being crazy...
I guess, I should probably start by introducing myself? My name is Jeremy Coleridge, as a kid I used to live in a very small coal mining town of about 7000 in a desolate area of the north called Calkirk. Picture every single midwestern small town Podunk you've driven to on your way to a bigger city, and you would be pretty close to what Calkirk looks like
I was there until I was about 17, when I decided to live with my aunt in New York, where I threw away a lot of money going into journalism which, if I have to be honest, was probably the worst decision of my life at the time. But, with my parent's kind of disowning me for not agreeing with their very strong religious devotions I kind of had no place to go. My aunt pushed me to attend college a year after I graduated high school because I really liked writing and investigation, so what better to study than investigative journalism right? Plus; she said I had to be in school if she was going to let me stay with her. Well, do you want to know how many investigative journalists are in New York?
The answer is: A lot.
So, a few grand down and four years of school wasted, I can’t get a job with that degree. I ended up living in a 2-bedroom apartment bunking with another dude while I work 50 hours a week between two part time jobs because that’s all anyone wanted to offer, and I was struggling. My aunt Clair moved back to Calkirk to take care of my mom who was diagnosed with some rare disease that she wouldn’t tell me about. Now, I’m 24, my mom passed away 3 months ago from whatever disease it was that she had gotten, my dad committed suicide the next day…
My aunt paid for me to fly back to Calkirk for the funeral and the Will reading. Being their only kid, I guess my parents willed me their small 3-bedroom one bath house in the town and with that, a small inheritance that basically would pay my student loans off and still leave me a few grand of left over money to put in savings. The life insurance my dad had from working at the Calkirk mine for almost 40 years paid everything off. I wouldn’t owe a cent on a single thing except my utilities and food.
I had to go back to New York for a few weeks to get my assets in order. I waited for my roommates to find some new, desperate fool to move in, sold my old buick, sent off the final check for my bank to cover my loan, flipped off one boss as I walked out of one job, and gave a respectable 2 weeks notice to the other, then I paid a company to pack up my small amount of crap I had and bought myself a plane ticket back to Calkirk.
Well, I say “to Calkirk” but as you may or may not know, a town of 7000 doesn’t usually have an airport so I had to fly into a city about two hours from there and get my aunt to agree to pick me up.
Two weeks living in the house, I got bored sitting in the place alone and decided to apply for a few jobs in town. I was able to score a job at the Calkirk Times. And being the only news outlet in Calkirk, business was actually booming. But when I asked my interviewer why the position was open, he said something that sort of freaked me out.
“Well, the last kid with your job stopped showing up a couple weeks ago…his house is empty, skipped town, no one can find him...”
I was basically hired on the spot, and I accepted immediately, call me desperate. But what my new boss said gave me a weird feeling… Everyone knew about everyone in this town. How could one of only three journalists go missing and nobody knows where he went?
When I met my new coworkers Abbigale and Tommy, they said the guy, Jim Remus, was an out-of-towner from Texas who came to live here with his girlfriend, a local girl we went to school with. They both went missing two weeks ago with no sign of them anywhere. Abby and Tommy, both thought it was way weirder than what our boss thought, he denied any articles even mentioning it. He even reprimanded Tom for asking another coworker about it, saying it was personal business and we shouldn’t be talking about it at work...
The second weird thing I experienced was a couple weeks after that, when I officially emptied my parents' pantry of all the nasty old people food they had. I decided it was probably time to go grocery shopping. I got home late on Friday night after writing a pointless article about news that had come out almost a week previously in bigger outlets, but people here ate up the content like it was breaking news so, who cares. I decided Saturday would be a better time to go grocery shopping.
Now, let me explain Calkirk a little better before the next piece of my story. Like I said, Calkirk is an old mining town in the Midwest part of the United States. I’m not saying where because I don’t want anyone trying to find it and something bad happening to them.
The town sits a few miles from the highway and has one main road with everything that’s not a house on it. Two gas stations, one on each side of town, two bars barely 3 blocks away from each other, the post office, the fire hall, the grocery store on one side, the K through 12 school on the other, then there are a few buildings with random business scattered between, a small vet clinic, a photo lab, a small coffee shop, stuff like that. The jail sat smack dab in the middle of town between the two bars. The town itself probably wouldn’t be visible from the highway if the factory wasn’t billowing out thick clouds of what I assumed to be coal ash and soot 24/7.
The factory was supplied by the Calkirk Mines and a tunnel delivery system had been made to transport coal to the factory from the mine about 15 miles away. The mine sat in a deep coolie with hundreds of trees around it, near a river, and a few long dirt trails in and out. the tunnel system was a long belt covered most of the way by piping. Inside, there's train cars that run almost constantly to the factory. With only small viewing ports for maintenance every so often. All of this knowledge was thanks to my dad working there for 40 years and a few take-your-child to workdays before he and my mom basically disowned me.
I should also mention before I get too far, since I came back here about 8 weeks ago, there have been three massive dustings, which the locals call “Ash events”. An Ash event in this town is when the factory spouts out way more of its black smoke than usual and the town gets covered in layers of black soot like material, it’s easily washed away with a hose and the fire department goes around each time and uses a low-pressure hose to rinse basically everything off. I remember these events from when I was a kid, but they never happened this frequently, at least not in my memory, or maybe it was washed off before I noticed.
It usually happened overnight and if you woke up too early, you'd have to wash off your own cars if you want to get anywhere. Part of the city ordinance was no one drives in town with their cars covered in the ash. It can be met with an almost $2000 fine. And, with the amount of police officers with not much to do all day, they were posted everywhere after a good dusting, so you’d be seen.
The first Ash event since being back home happened about two weeks after I got to town, two weeks before I got my new job. The second ash event two weeks after that got my dad's truck that I had parked outside so I could work on a dirt bike in the garage when I was bored. It happened the night I decided to go grocery shopping. The third one was just a week ago as I’m writing this...
Anyway, when I woke up, I could smell the ash in the air. It leaves this really heavy burning smell like someone burning ham bones with wool. It's hard to explain, but it's one of those smells you could remember from anywhere if you smelled it again. When I walked out, I already knew what I’d see, the dark dust caked on my dad's truck. I unraveled the hose in the front yard and sprayed the whole truck down before heading to the store to get there right when they opened. And yeah, I realize most people would look at this and say, that's weird, but for Calkirk, you kind of just grew up doing that. It's a generational habit, everyone did it.
In the store, I shopped for about two hours, packed a cart full of groceries and went to the registers to check out. Two older ladies were sitting at a small booth beside the windows sipping coffee. I recognized them as ladies that live in my neighborhood that would often have contact with my parents and I when I was a kid.
“Did you see Genie this morning?” I overheard one say, the other shook her head and made an exasperated face.
“I was just gonna ask you, haven't seen her at all!”
“That’s so unlike her…”
“Do you think…” There was a pause and the other shook her head.
I listened as they went back and forth saying how this lady always met them on Saturday mornings, every year for the past 25 years, she never missed a day.
I paid, I rolled my cart over to them and said, “I Uh, couldn’t help but overhear, you said your friend is missing?”
The women gave me a skeptical look then both suddenly perked in an almost robotic manner then one smiled, “Oh, little Jeremy Coleridge, you sweet little thing, when did you get back in town!”
I responded with “Like 2 months ago…”
“So sorry about your parents dear. Hope the town is treating you well.”
I nodded, but like a lot of crap in this town, their sudden change in attitude freaked me out.
I tried to divert the conversation back to the missing friend “So Genie…”
“Oh, I remember when you were just a tiny baby waddling over to my house for candies with your mom!” One spoke.
“Yeah, I did. But I want to ask about your friend…” I began again.
“Oh worse, as a kid he would follow my granddaughter for hours outside while they played.” The other said. She waved her hand at the other, “You two are about the same age, you should remember her, her name is Abbigale.”
“Oh and what about that time Marty found him playing in the mud puddle in the backyard.”
“Listen” I said abruptly over their talking. “I’m with the newspaper now. You said your friend is missing, have you gone to her house yet!? Have you checked on her at all?”
Their moods changed again, they frowned deeply, and went rigid for a minute as if they were really mad… Then they suddenly smiled again, big wide creepy smiles that really freaked me out.
“She’s fine Jeremy.” One said in a tight-lipped smile. “Just… resting…” her creepy smile widened, her lip twitched at the word ‘Resting’. Then, she shoo’ed me away with her hand without another word. My attempts to ask after were ignored as if I wasn’t even there.
feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third ring, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…”
Feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third call, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…” I thought it was odd that her phone would go off after I had just called it three times.
I, at least, remembered where Genie lived from my childhood and decided I’d pay her a small visit before going about the day just to make sure she was okay. I mean, maybe she was sick or something and just stuck in bed, or maybe she fell and needed help? Maybe she didn’t have a life alert, she for sure did not have a cell phone, and I think she was a widow, and all her kid's left town when they turned 18. So, if her friends hadn’t checked in on her she could have been lying there alone for lord knows how long needing help.
When I got to her house it was really dark, and quiet, the only way I knew it was still her house was the name inside the mailbox lid said “Carlson”. I knocked on the door, waited for a bit, but nothing happened.
“Ms. Genie! Ms. Genie! It’s me, Jeremy Coleridge! Jan and Cals son!” There was no answer. I looked in the little window in the door, but it was dark. I stepped to the side and looked into the front window and found an empty house. Her porch had signs that the Ash Event was never cleaned up properly, but the blanket of ash was disturbed by boot marks that weren’t my own. I tried the door handle, it opened, but almost like something pulled it open from the inside.
The house was completely empty, except for large boot marks made of the black ash from the porch leading into the entryway. And a few small blood splatters on the wall beside the stairs. It was eerily quiet; the house didn’t creak the way old houses were supposed to creak. There didn’t even seem to be wind around me. The whole area, inside Genie's house and outside, was just still and silent.
Before I took another step, I called the jail and asked if they could send a cop. I told them that it looked like something weird went down at Ms. Genie’s. They told me to wait outside and not touch anything. So, I turned right on my heel and planted myself on the step of the porch. I pulled out my phone to distract myself from the scene behind me. It didn’t keep my leg from shaking though…
Sheriff Nixon showed up about 10 minutes later. He was old, looked like a corpse himself, but he had been the Sheriff in town since before I could even remember. He was always super friendly and had a smile on his face, even now while responding to a potential disappearance.
“Little Jer Coleridge. My, my son, you’ve grown.” He patted my shoulder hard, almost threw me off balance.
“Hey Pat… I think something happened with Genie Carlson…” I pointed to the door, thinking he would be more surprised than what he was.
“Now, why would ya‘ think that, son?”
I told him I saw Ruth and Beth Anne at the grocery store saying they hadn’t seen her today. I even told him about them saying she was “Resting” and how they smiled the whole time, not acting like they were really bothered by it at all.
“Well, let’s just take a look here then. Wait out here.” He went inside with a flashlight, looked around for a few minutes then came back out. He clicked the lock behind him and shut the door.
“Well Jer, looks to me Genie moved out.”
“Without telling Ruth and Beth Anne?”
He nodded and his face suddenly smiled widely, the same way Ruth and Beth Anne had done at the grocery store earlier in the day when I kept pressing them to tell me about Genie. “Looks like it.”
“But the boot prints, and blood…”
“Probably a movin’ accident.”
I shook my head at him, trying to talk some reason into him. That didn’t make sense at all. “Pat… Genie is in her 80s. Why would she just leave without telling anyone? Genie has been going to the store every Saturday for 25 years, she hasn’t missed a single day, she wouldn’t just leave without…”
“Now son…” Pat grabbed onto my shoulder and squeezed hard, causing me to pause. He raised an eyebrow at me. “I think you’re reading too much into this. I bet Genie was needin’ a change of pace in her old age, didn't want to hurt herself with the goodbyes.”
“Pat, I don’t think she’d…”
His voice suddenly dropped into an angry tone “Son, I think you’re meddlin’ in people's personal business too much.” He titled his head closer to me. One of his eyes twitched at me, just like how Ruth's had at the grocery store. “Think you need to take your investigative head and go home, forget what you saw here.” He then smiled brightly as if he didn’t say anything and patted my shoulder again. “Nice seein’ ya Jer.” He walked back to his patrol car then tilted his hat at me “I’m sure I’ll be seein’ you around, son.”
I mean, Am I the crazy one? I seem to be the only one who cares that Genie Carlson is missing... Ruth and Beth Anne don't seem to be bothered, and it seems like Sherrif Nixon couldn't be bothered. And that's not even getting into the guy and his girlfriend who went missing a few weeks ago...
I think I am going to look into it and see if I can track Genie down at least, to make sure she is okay. I have resources at work that could maybe help me. So, I'm going to check those out when I take my next break. In the meantime, I have to get back to work, But I'll post an update if I find anything out.
submitted by SCArchbold to nosleep [link] [comments]
This has been really nagging at me lately. I had no idea where to post it to get some help or peace of mind. I just really need some support right now before I drive myself crazy over it. Maybe I'm overreacting because it's been a stressful few months since my parents died, or maybe someone can shed some light on the events that have been happening and show me that I am just being crazy...
I guess, I should probably start by introducing myself? My name is Jeremy Coleridge, as a kid I used to live in a very small coal mining town of about 7000 in a desolate area of the north called Calkirk. Picture every single midwestern small town Podunk you've driven to on your way to a bigger city, and you would be pretty close to what Calkirk looks like
I was there until I was about 17, when I decided to live with my aunt in New York, where I threw away a lot of money going into journalism which, if I have to be honest, was probably the worst decision of my life at the time. But, with my parent's kind of disowning me for not agreeing with their very strong religious devotions I kind of had no place to go. My aunt pushed me to attend college a year after I graduated high school because I really liked writing and investigation, so what better to study than investigative journalism right? Plus; she said I had to be in school if she was going to let me stay with her. Well, do you want to know how many investigative journalists are in New York?
The answer is: A lot.
So, a few grand down and four years of school wasted, I can’t get a job with that degree. I ended up living in a 2-bedroom apartment bunking with another dude while I work 50 hours a week between two part time jobs because that’s all anyone wanted to offer, and I was struggling. My aunt Clair moved back to Calkirk to take care of my mom who was diagnosed with some rare disease that she wouldn’t tell me about. Now, I’m 24, my mom passed away 3 months ago from whatever disease it was that she had gotten, my dad committed suicide the next day…
My aunt paid for me to fly back to Calkirk for the funeral and the Will reading. Being their only kid, I guess my parents willed me their small 3-bedroom one bath house in the town and with that, a small inheritance that basically would pay my student loans off and still leave me a few grand of left over money to put in savings. The life insurance my dad had from working at the Calkirk mine for almost 40 years paid everything off. I wouldn’t owe a cent on a single thing except my utilities and food.
I had to go back to New York for a few weeks to get my assets in order. I waited for my roommates to find some new, desperate fool to move in, sold my old buick, sent off the final check for my bank to cover my loan, flipped off one boss as I walked out of one job, and gave a respectable 2 weeks notice to the other, then I paid a company to pack up my small amount of crap I had and bought myself a plane ticket back to Calkirk.
Well, I say “to Calkirk” but as you may or may not know, a town of 7000 doesn’t usually have an airport so I had to fly into a city about two hours from there and get my aunt to agree to pick me up.
Two weeks living in the house, I got bored sitting in the place alone and decided to apply for a few jobs in town. I was able to score a job at the Calkirk Times. And being the only news outlet in Calkirk, business was actually booming. But when I asked my interviewer why the position was open, he said something that sort of freaked me out.
“Well, the last kid with your job stopped showing up a couple weeks ago…his house is empty, skipped town, no one can find him...”
I was basically hired on the spot, and I accepted immediately, call me desperate. But what my new boss said gave me a weird feeling… Everyone knew about everyone in this town. How could one of only three journalists go missing and nobody knows where he went?
When I met my new coworkers Abbigale and Tommy, they said the guy, Jim Remus, was an out-of-towner from Texas who came to live here with his girlfriend, a local girl we went to school with. They both went missing two weeks ago with no sign of them anywhere. Abby and Tommy, both thought it was way weirder than what our boss thought, he denied any articles even mentioning it. He even reprimanded Tom for asking another coworker about it, saying it was personal business and we shouldn’t be talking about it at work...
The second weird thing I experienced was a couple weeks after that, when I officially emptied my parents' pantry of all the nasty old people food they had. I decided it was probably time to go grocery shopping. I got home late on Friday night after writing a pointless article about news that had come out almost a week previously in bigger outlets, but people here ate up the content like it was breaking news so, who cares. I decided Saturday would be a better time to go grocery shopping.
Now, let me explain Calkirk a little better before the next piece of my story. Like I said, Calkirk is an old mining town in the Midwest part of the United States. I’m not saying where because I don’t want anyone trying to find it and something bad happening to them.
The town sits a few miles from the highway and has one main road with everything that’s not a house on it. Two gas stations, one on each side of town, two bars barely 3 blocks away from each other, the post office, the fire hall, the grocery store on one side, the K through 12 school on the other, then there are a few buildings with random business scattered between, a small vet clinic, a photo lab, a small coffee shop, stuff like that. The jail sat smack dab in the middle of town between the two bars. The town itself probably wouldn’t be visible from the highway if the factory wasn’t billowing out thick clouds of what I assumed to be coal ash and soot 24/7.
The factory was supplied by the Calkirk Mines and a tunnel delivery system had been made to transport coal to the factory from the mine about 15 miles away. The mine sat in a deep coolie with hundreds of trees around it, near a river, and a few long dirt trails in and out. the tunnel system was a long belt covered most of the way by piping. Inside, there's train cars that run almost constantly to the factory. With only small viewing ports for maintenance every so often. All of this knowledge was thanks to my dad working there for 40 years and a few take-your-child to workdays before he and my mom basically disowned me.
I should also mention before I get too far, since I came back here about 8 weeks ago, there have been three massive dustings, which the locals call “Ash events”. An Ash event in this town is when the factory spouts out way more of its black smoke than usual and the town gets covered in layers of black soot like material, it’s easily washed away with a hose and the fire department goes around each time and uses a low-pressure hose to rinse basically everything off. I remember these events from when I was a kid, but they never happened this frequently, at least not in my memory, or maybe it was washed off before I noticed.
It usually happened overnight and if you woke up too early, you'd have to wash off your own cars if you want to get anywhere. Part of the city ordinance was no one drives in town with their cars covered in the ash. It can be met with an almost $2000 fine. And, with the amount of police officers with not much to do all day, they were posted everywhere after a good dusting, so you’d be seen.
The first Ash event since being back home happened about two weeks after I got to town, two weeks before I got my new job. The second ash event two weeks after that got my dad's truck that I had parked outside so I could work on a dirt bike in the garage when I was bored. It happened the night I decided to go grocery shopping. The third one was just a week ago as I’m writing this...
Anyway, when I woke up, I could smell the ash in the air. It leaves this really heavy burning smell like someone burning ham bones with wool. It's hard to explain, but it's one of those smells you could remember from anywhere if you smelled it again. When I walked out, I already knew what I’d see, the dark dust caked on my dad's truck. I unraveled the hose in the front yard and sprayed the whole truck down before heading to the store to get there right when they opened. And yeah, I realize most people would look at this and say, that's weird, but for Calkirk, you kind of just grew up doing that. It's a generational habit, everyone did it.
In the store, I shopped for about two hours, packed a cart full of groceries and went to the registers to check out. Two older ladies were sitting at a small booth beside the windows sipping coffee. I recognized them as ladies that live in my neighborhood that would often have contact with my parents and I when I was a kid.
“Did you see Genie this morning?” I overheard one say, the other shook her head and made an exasperated face.
“I was just gonna ask you, haven't seen her at all!”
“That’s so unlike her…”
“Do you think…” There was a pause and the other shook her head.
I listened as they went back and forth saying how this lady always met them on Saturday mornings, every year for the past 25 years, she never missed a day.
I paid, I rolled my cart over to them and said, “I Uh, couldn’t help but overhear, you said your friend is missing?”
The women gave me a skeptical look then both suddenly perked in an almost robotic manner then one smiled, “Oh, little Jeremy Coleridge, you sweet little thing, when did you get back in town!”
I responded with “Like 2 months ago…”
“So sorry about your parents dear. Hope the town is treating you well.”
I nodded, but like a lot of crap in this town, their sudden change in attitude freaked me out.
I tried to divert the conversation back to the missing friend “So Genie…”
“Oh, I remember when you were just a tiny baby waddling over to my house for candies with your mom!” One spoke.
“Yeah, I did. But I want to ask about your friend…” I began again.
“Oh worse, as a kid he would follow my granddaughter for hours outside while they played.” The other said. She waved her hand at the other, “You two are about the same age, you should remember her, her name is Abbigale.”
“Oh and what about that time Marty found him playing in the mud puddle in the backyard.”
“Listen” I said abruptly over their talking. “I’m with the newspaper now. You said your friend is missing, have you gone to her house yet!? Have you checked on her at all?”
Their moods changed again, they frowned deeply, and went rigid for a minute as if they were really mad… Then they suddenly smiled again, big wide creepy smiles that really freaked me out.
“She’s fine Jeremy.” One said in a tight-lipped smile. “Just… resting…” her creepy smile widened, her lip twitched at the word ‘Resting’. Then, she shoo’ed me away with her hand without another word. My attempts to ask after were ignored as if I wasn’t even there.
feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third ring, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…”
Feeling thoroughly unsettled, I left the store, packed my stuff in my truck, and drove it home. I put everything away and pulled out an old phone book my parents had in the house. The only Genie I knew was Genie Carlson. She worked at the school as a nurse for a long time before retiring. I found her number, dialed it, no answer. I dialed it again, same thing. On the third call, the ringer was cut after 2 rings and flipped to voicemail, like someone had sent the phone to the answering machine. “This is Genie Carlson, Sorry I missed you… Please leave a-” but it cut itself off. The next call didn’t go through, I just got a “The number you dialed is no longer in service…” I thought it was odd that her phone would go off after I had just called it three times.
I, at least, remembered where Genie lived from my childhood and decided I’d pay her a small visit before going about the day just to make sure she was okay. I mean, maybe she was sick or something and just stuck in bed, or maybe she fell and needed help? Maybe she didn’t have a life alert, she for sure did not have a cell phone, and I think she was a widow, and all her kid's left town when they turned 18. So, if her friends hadn’t checked in on her she could have been lying there alone for lord knows how long needing help.
When I got to her house it was really dark, and quiet, the only way I knew it was still her house was the name inside the mailbox lid said “Carlson”. I knocked on the door, waited for a bit, but nothing happened.
“Ms. Genie! Ms. Genie! It’s me, Jeremy Coleridge! Jan and Cals son!” There was no answer. I looked in the little window in the door, but it was dark. I stepped to the side and looked into the front window and found an empty house. Her porch had signs that the Ash Event was never cleaned up properly, but the blanket of ash was disturbed by boot marks that weren’t my own. I tried the door handle, it opened, but almost like something pulled it open from the inside.
The house was completely empty, except for large boot marks made of the black ash from the porch leading into the entryway. And a few small blood splatters on the wall beside the stairs. It was eerily quiet; the house didn’t creak the way old houses were supposed to creak. There didn’t even seem to be wind around me. The whole area, inside Genie's house and outside, was just still and silent.
Before I took another step, I called the jail and asked if they could send a cop. I told them that it looked like something weird went down at Ms. Genie’s. They told me to wait outside and not touch anything. So, I turned right on my heel and planted myself on the step of the porch. I pulled out my phone to distract myself from the scene behind me. It didn’t keep my leg from shaking though…
Sheriff Nixon showed up about 10 minutes later. He was old, looked like a corpse himself, but he had been the Sheriff in town since before I could even remember. He was always super friendly and had a smile on his face, even now while responding to a potential disappearance.
“Little Jer Coleridge. My, my son, you’ve grown.” He patted my shoulder hard, almost threw me off balance.
“Hey Pat… I think something happened with Genie Carlson…” I pointed to the door, thinking he would be more surprised than what he was.
“Now, why would ya‘ think that, son?”
I told him I saw Ruth and Beth Anne at the grocery store saying they hadn’t seen her today. I even told him about them saying she was “Resting” and how they smiled the whole time, not acting like they were really bothered by it at all.
“Well, let’s just take a look here then. Wait out here.” He went inside with a flashlight, looked around for a few minutes then came back out. He clicked the lock behind him and shut the door.
“Well Jer, looks to me Genie moved out.”
“Without telling Ruth and Beth Anne?”
He nodded and his face suddenly smiled widely, the same way Ruth and Beth Anne had done at the grocery store earlier in the day when I kept pressing them to tell me about Genie. “Looks like it.”
“But the boot prints, and blood…”
“Probably a movin’ accident.”
I shook my head at him, trying to talk some reason into him. That didn’t make sense at all. “Pat… Genie is in her 80s. Why would she just leave without telling anyone? Genie has been going to the store every Saturday for 25 years, she hasn’t missed a single day, she wouldn’t just leave without…”
“Now son…” Pat grabbed onto my shoulder and squeezed hard, causing me to pause. He raised an eyebrow at me. “I think you’re reading too much into this. I bet Genie was needin’ a change of pace in her old age, didn't want to hurt herself with the goodbyes.”
“Pat, I don’t think she’d…”
His voice suddenly dropped into an angry tone “Son, I think you’re meddlin’ in people's personal business too much.” He titled his head closer to me. One of his eyes twitched at me, just like how Ruth's had at the grocery store. “Think you need to take your investigative head and go home, forget what you saw here.” He then smiled brightly as if he didn’t say anything and patted my shoulder again. “Nice seein’ ya Jer.” He walked back to his patrol car then tilted his hat at me “I’m sure I’ll be seein’ you around, son.”
I mean, Am I the crazy one? I seem to be the only one who cares that Genie Carlson is missing... Ruth and Beth Anne don't seem to be bothered, and it seems like Sherrif Nixon couldn't be bothered. And that's not even getting into the guy and his girlfriend who went missing a few weeks ago...
I think I am going to look into it and see if I can track Genie down at least, to make sure she is okay. I have resources at work that could maybe help me. So, I'm going to check those out when I take my next break. In the meantime, I have to get back to work, But I'll post an update if I find anything out.
2023.03.24 21:47 paleolowcarbkat Ninja Foodi Tomato Sauce Pressure Cooker Recipe
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2023.03.24 20:55 paleolowcarbkat Ninja Foodi Tomato Sauce Pressure Cooker Recipe
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2023.03.24 20:51 calvin324hk [H] 800+ games/DLCs/VR Games [W] Games/Paypal/TF2 Offers
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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
Wishlist
submitted by calvin324hk to SteamGameSwap [link] [comments]
https://www.reddit.com/sgsflaicomments/of2wzu/flair_profile_ucalvin324hk/
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
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
Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
Endzone - A World Apart
60 Parsecs
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION
PGA 2K21
Bioshock Collection
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Collector's Edition
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
CRUSADER KINGS III
JUST CAUSE 4: COMPLETE EDITION
Plague tale
Gas station simulator
Mind scanners
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DEADLOCK SEASON ONE
Monster Hunter World
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 |
| F*CK CANCER Bundle |
|---|
| WWZ Aftermath |
| Dead by Daylight |
| PAYDAY 2 |
| PAYDAY 2 Bonus |
| Magicka |
| Dungeon of the Endless |
| theHunter: Call of the Wild |
| Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak |
| Homeworld Remastered Collection |
| Little Nightmares |
| Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons |
| Red Faction®: Armageddon™ |
| Hamilton's Great Adventure |
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
Ghost 1.0
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
EVERSPACE
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
John Wick Hex
Hiveswap friendsim
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
Counter Terrorist Agency
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
Neversong
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 |
2023.03.24 20:51 calvin324hk [H] 800+ games/DLCs/VR Games [W] Games/Paypal/TF2 Offers
https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/pikmri/calvin324hks_igs_rep_page/
https://www.reddit.com/sgsflaicomments/of2wzu/flair_profile_ucalvin324hk/
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
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
Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
Endzone - A World Apart
60 Parsecs
XCOM: ULTIMATE COLLECTION
PGA 2K21
Bioshock Collection
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Collector's Edition
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
CRUSADER KINGS III
JUST CAUSE 4: COMPLETE EDITION
Plague tale
Gas station simulator
Mind scanners
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DEADLOCK SEASON ONE
Monster Hunter World
Gamedec
Command & Conquer Remastered (Origin)
Surviving The Aftermath
Genesis Noir
Dirt Rally 2.0
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
Ghost 1.0
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
EVERSPACE
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
John Wick Hex
Hiveswap friendsim
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
Counter Terrorist Agency
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
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2023.03.24 19:06 Dragophy I need help building team
I decided to get into doodle World Pvp by building a hyper offensive team as hyper offensive is pretty easy to play.
Azelf
Djinneko @ Determination Jelly
Trait: Wish For Power
Equipment: Pale Sunbonnet / Sandstone Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Bee Summon
- Soulfire
- Disarm / Taser / Psycho Force
- Taunt
I started with lead Djnnecko as it has ability wish for power and a m atk boost you can apply offensive pressure immediately. The moves are bee summon for chip damage doodles as well breaking determination jellies. Soulfire so you don't get walled by a doodle have immunity to your move. Disarm for knock off items on doodles and taunt to shut down anything that uses setup moves or other leads. The other potential moves are PsychoForce for extra coverage, taser to slow down opponents.
Equipment is to make sure you out speed as much as you can and determination jelly for guaranteed bee summon and modifiers are self explanatory.
SD Ninja
Aluminja @ Cure Jelly or Dark Taffy
Trait: Sharp Reflexes
Equipment: Smoldering Hood / Ruby Pendant / White Chocolate ? Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Attack
- Sharpen
- Daze
- FTL Assault / Iron Slash
- Dark Slash
Aluminja is my physical sweeper as it is really fast and strong in competitive . I use sharp reflexes as aluminja has bad bulk so it's. It is not going to live any fire type attack or any attack in general so might as well have a chance to dodge a move instead. Sharpen to boost attack. Dark slash for spirit types and ftl assault as priority is better than iron slash as it's terrible offensive type and fighting hits all the types of metal hits and a couple other types.
Items cure jelly to avoid status conditions like burn or paralysis or taffy for one of the moves to nuke something cause gems are broken. Atk and speed equipment.
The Lizard
Corolizard @ Empowered Ring
Trait: Corrosion
Equipment: Pale Bonnet / Sandstone Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Goo Blast
- Psychoforce
- Tainted Water
- Gem Blast
Next up is my special wall breaker as corolizard learns some excellent coverage options. Goo blast to hit shifting winds users, and wave shot. Psycoforce to hit those crystal types like malzuri. Tainted water for fire and ground types and finally gem blast to Spirit types as well getting a shot at a magical attack boost. The Trait is corrision as it gets rid any harzards that got onto field maybe you can get lingering poision or status like paralyis on djnnecko but corrision seems more consistent.
Item is an empowered ring as I didn't want to run lethal ornament an d constantly losing health so the ring was the best cause of its great coverage moves. I decided to run max speed as corolizard is pretty slow I don't know if there is better equipment but yeah.
Roadrunna
Roadterra @ Lethal Ornament
Trait: Confidence
Equipments: Smoldering Hood / Ruby Pendant / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Attack
- Shatter
- Heat Bash
- Jet Strike / Savage Blow
- Hit-n-Run
Roadterra is probably one of the best wall breakers in the game. I'm running a pretty standard set but it is really good. I decided to run movement as we lack screens support as no doodle learns as of right now. Lethal ornament to maximize damage output even without confidence boost.
Time to Shine
Lumiline @ JetPack or Reflective Prism
Trait: Nitelite or Reflective
Equipment: Marshmellow Fedora / Juniper Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Glow Up
- Aurora Flash
- Opal Pulse
- Earth Surge
Is my final sweeper lumiline as this cat gets access to two pretty great abilities. Nitelite gives you dark resistance while light type moves doing more damage with the move glow up allowing to boost it moderate average m attack stat. Reflective is also great a ability as prevents hazards or status moves like curse that would normally make you invalid for these rest of game. I'm kinda confused on which one to use so I need help.
I decided for item either jet pack or reflective prism. Prism with nitelite allows you to boost light moves by 40% . Whiile jetpack gives you an immunity to earth type moves.
Huminbird
Humbiscus @ Decorative Fan
Trait: Vitality
Equipments: Marshmellow Fedora / Helpful Lanturn / Stick
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Plant Sap
- Wind Shear
- Calming Melody / Quick Strike
- Hit-n-Run
My final doodle is humbiscus with vitality trait in order to come into field and make sure to outspeed everything in the game. Decorative fan to boost the power of wind shear. Plant sap for a stab move while also giving it some recovery option to continue putting it in vitality range. The last moves I kinda just placed them their.
Like I said I never really played so kinda just slapped things together and see if it could work feedback is needed please.
Link to teamsheet
https://pokepast.es/c2e55ba61d96c19b
submitted by Dragophy to DoodleWorldRBLX [link] [comments]
Azelf
Djinneko @ Determination Jelly
Trait: Wish For Power
Equipment: Pale Sunbonnet / Sandstone Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Bee Summon
- Soulfire
- Disarm / Taser / Psycho Force
- Taunt
I started with lead Djnnecko as it has ability wish for power and a m atk boost you can apply offensive pressure immediately. The moves are bee summon for chip damage doodles as well breaking determination jellies. Soulfire so you don't get walled by a doodle have immunity to your move. Disarm for knock off items on doodles and taunt to shut down anything that uses setup moves or other leads. The other potential moves are PsychoForce for extra coverage, taser to slow down opponents.
Equipment is to make sure you out speed as much as you can and determination jelly for guaranteed bee summon and modifiers are self explanatory.
SD Ninja
Aluminja @ Cure Jelly or Dark Taffy
Trait: Sharp Reflexes
Equipment: Smoldering Hood / Ruby Pendant / White Chocolate ? Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Attack
- Sharpen
- Daze
- FTL Assault / Iron Slash
- Dark Slash
Aluminja is my physical sweeper as it is really fast and strong in competitive . I use sharp reflexes as aluminja has bad bulk so it's. It is not going to live any fire type attack or any attack in general so might as well have a chance to dodge a move instead. Sharpen to boost attack. Dark slash for spirit types and ftl assault as priority is better than iron slash as it's terrible offensive type and fighting hits all the types of metal hits and a couple other types.
Items cure jelly to avoid status conditions like burn or paralysis or taffy for one of the moves to nuke something cause gems are broken. Atk and speed equipment.
The Lizard
Corolizard @ Empowered Ring
Trait: Corrosion
Equipment: Pale Bonnet / Sandstone Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Goo Blast
- Psychoforce
- Tainted Water
- Gem Blast
Next up is my special wall breaker as corolizard learns some excellent coverage options. Goo blast to hit shifting winds users, and wave shot. Psycoforce to hit those crystal types like malzuri. Tainted water for fire and ground types and finally gem blast to Spirit types as well getting a shot at a magical attack boost. The Trait is corrision as it gets rid any harzards that got onto field maybe you can get lingering poision or status like paralyis on djnnecko but corrision seems more consistent.
Item is an empowered ring as I didn't want to run lethal ornament an d constantly losing health so the ring was the best cause of its great coverage moves. I decided to run max speed as corolizard is pretty slow I don't know if there is better equipment but yeah.
Roadrunna
Roadterra @ Lethal Ornament
Trait: Confidence
Equipments: Smoldering Hood / Ruby Pendant / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Attack
- Shatter
- Heat Bash
- Jet Strike / Savage Blow
- Hit-n-Run
Roadterra is probably one of the best wall breakers in the game. I'm running a pretty standard set but it is really good. I decided to run movement as we lack screens support as no doodle learns as of right now. Lethal ornament to maximize damage output even without confidence boost.
Time to Shine
Lumiline @ JetPack or Reflective Prism
Trait: Nitelite or Reflective
Equipment: Marshmellow Fedora / Juniper Necklace / Amber Trapped Fly
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Glow Up
- Aurora Flash
- Opal Pulse
- Earth Surge
Is my final sweeper lumiline as this cat gets access to two pretty great abilities. Nitelite gives you dark resistance while light type moves doing more damage with the move glow up allowing to boost it moderate average m attack stat. Reflective is also great a ability as prevents hazards or status moves like curse that would normally make you invalid for these rest of game. I'm kinda confused on which one to use so I need help.
I decided for item either jet pack or reflective prism. Prism with nitelite allows you to boost light moves by 40% . Whiile jetpack gives you an immunity to earth type moves.
Huminbird
Humbiscus @ Decorative Fan
Trait: Vitality
Equipments: Marshmellow Fedora / Helpful Lanturn / Stick
Modifiers: +10% Speed / +10% Magical Attack
- Plant Sap
- Wind Shear
- Calming Melody / Quick Strike
- Hit-n-Run
My final doodle is humbiscus with vitality trait in order to come into field and make sure to outspeed everything in the game. Decorative fan to boost the power of wind shear. Plant sap for a stab move while also giving it some recovery option to continue putting it in vitality range. The last moves I kinda just placed them their.
Like I said I never really played so kinda just slapped things together and see if it could work feedback is needed please.
Link to teamsheet
https://pokepast.es/c2e55ba61d96c19b
2023.03.24 18:09 techstar2000 [Amazon] Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender with 1200-Watt Auto-iQ Base, 72-Ounce Pitcher, and 18, 24, and 32-Ounce Cups with Spout Lids with 52% off, for $120
![[Amazon] Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender with 1200-Watt Auto-iQ Base, 72-Ounce Pitcher, and 18, 24, and 32-Ounce Cups with Spout Lids with 52% off, for $120](https://external-preview.redd.it/SOYlaAQr7-BRZXToShQRB_PNJbgSCIULTQcB0HsxK0k.jpg?width=108&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=07c4777c764089d00f84350813f6075aa6425d53 "[Amazon] Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender with 1200-Watt Auto-iQ Base, 72-Ounce Pitcher, and 18, 24, and 32-Ounce Cups with Spout Lids with 52% off, for $120") | submitted by techstar2000 to AllElectronicsDeals [link] [comments] |
2023.03.24 17:09 halflife_3 [Kitchen] Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender w/ 1200-Watt Auto-iQ Base, 72-Ounce Pitcher, and 18, 24, and 32-Ounce Cups w/ Spout Lids- $120
submitted by halflife_3 to DiscountedProducts [link] [comments]
2023.03.24 17:02 Kooky_Membership4564 Ninja Foodi OL701 - Temperature control using the thermometer
Hello! Would anyone know if there is any way to control the cooking temperature when using the thermometer to roast meat, for example? Thank you!
submitted by Kooky_Membership4564 to NinjaFoodi [link] [comments]
2023.03.24 16:39 SecretDecision3 Global markets tremble as Fed moves in and out
One
The mystery is solved. The recent huge shocks in the U.S. and European banking systems did not make the Fed press the "pause button" to raise interest rates; the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are not afraid of the dominoes knocked down by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
On March 22, local time, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FOMC) announced that the benchmark federal funds rate was raised by 25 basis points to a target range of 4.75%-5%, the highest level of the rate since 2007; this is the ninth consecutive rate hike by the Fed, and also the second consecutive rate hike slowed to 25 basis points.
"The toughest interest rate decision of the Fed Chairman Powell's tenure." This is how the market describes this rate meeting. In the past two weeks, a storm triggered by the Fed's aggressive rate hikes swept through the banking industry in Europe and the United States, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank collapsed one after another; the government brokered the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by Swiss banks; asset prices tumbled. Due to concerns about financial stability, the market hailed the Federal Reserve to suspend interest rate hikes; Goldman Sachs Group report even said that the pressure on the banking system has replaced inflation as the most pressing issue.
This round of cumulative rate hikes of 475 basis points, starting in March 2022, the Fed rate hikes gradually into the end, the dot plot implies that there is room for one more rate hike during the year; but the magnitude of the rate hikes, the pace of interest rate hikes is the fastest in the past 30 years of the five rounds of interest rate hikes.
On March 16, the ECB also raised rates by 50 basis points as expected, and on March 20, ECB President Lagarde admitted that the banking sector turmoil could force the ECB to suspend rate hikes if the recent market turmoil affects lending to eurozone businesses and households.
In fact, after the Federal Reserve, Switzerland, Norway and the Bank of England have announced interest rate hikes one after another. On March 23, local time, the Bank of England raised interest rates by 25 basis points, raising the policy rate to 4.25%, the highest level since 2008. It said continued signs of inflation suggest further rate hikes.
When the dovish March FOMC statement was released, the U.S. stock market was unperturbed, with the three major indices basically stable; unexpectedly, the heavy setback to U.S. stocks that day was U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen, who said in Senate testimony on the budget for the new fiscal year that the U.S. government is not considering expanding the scope of federal deposit insurance - denying the March 21 market news that the government is considering extending insurance to all deposits. Yellen said in her Senate testimony on the new fiscal year budget that the U.S. government is not considering extending federal deposit insurance - denying the March 21 market news that the government is considering extending insurance to all deposits.
Under the haze of global banking turmoil, Fed Chairman Powell did not deny that he had considered suspending interest rate hikes, but the decision to raise interest rates was unanimously approved by the members; and inflation is still too high, the job market is still overheated, and interest rates will be raised to a higher level if necessary, and rate cuts are not expected as a benchmark during the year.
When Powell mentioned at the conference to continue to raise interest rates to curb high inflation; Yellen, who is testifying in the Senate, the above statement caused U.S. stocks to plunge, U.S. bank stocks, including the first Republic Bank and other regional banks fell sharply during the day, spreading to the broader market, the three major U.S. stock indexes all retracted intra-day gains turned down.
After the FOMC statement was released, the S&P 500, 10-year U.S. bond yields, the dollar index fell sharply, and spot gold prices rose sharply. By the end of the day, the S&P 500 index fell 1.7%, the 10-year U.S. bond yield fell 18 basis points to 3.44%, the dollar index fell 0.6% to 102.6, spot gold rose 1.5% to $1969.6 per ounce. Xiong Yuan, chief economist at Guosheng Securities, believes that this combination of asset price performance is typical of recessionary trading, and the trading logic behind it reflects the fact that the Fed, on the one hand, said that the banking crisis could trigger a credit crunch and thus hurt the economy, but at the same time maintained its stance of not cutting interest rates during the year, leading to increased market fears of a recession.
However, after the testimony on the 21st led to a huge shock to the market, on March 23, Yellen reassured the market again, saying she was prepared to take new actions to protect deposits if necessary to ensure the safety of the banking situation; or to use important anti-risk contagion tools again.
After several major central banks raised interest rates, local time on March 23, Europe FTSE, Germany DAX France CAC closed 7499.60 (-0.89), 15210.39 (0.04%), 7139.25 (+0.11%); U.S. stocks opened up sharply, but the Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 finally closed 32105.25 (+0.25%), 11787.40 (+1.01%), 3948.71 (+0.30%).
The dollar index was at 102.28 intraday and the euro was at 1.087 against the dollar; the offshore yuan was at 6.818 against the dollar.
And related statistics show that market volatility was three times higher than that of the previous chairmen who tended to reverse the market's initial reaction to the committee's statement when Powell held his press conference.
In fact, before the March FOMC meeting, Franck Dixmier, Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Global Fixed Income, expected the Fed to raise rates by 25 basis points as core inflation remained high; its view was that the regional banking crisis created much uncertainty about the magnitude of future rate hikes, while investors' expectations of rate cuts put pressure on fixed income markets and any further revisions would lead to market volatility.
"Investors' expectations of a rate cut (90 basis points between June and December 2023) have become an unfavorable factor for the U.S. fixed income market. These aggressive expectations trigger market volatility and may put pressure on the middle of the yield curve." Franck Dixmier believes.
In times of storms, crises abound. "Danger" or "opportunity", fear is fleeting, one day ignite hope, the next day can be extinguished; and vice versa. And the market tremor is also in the transmission of some kind of instability and panic.
Two
In detail, the European and American banking crisis "shock", in the explicit goal of "anti-inflation" and stable policy objectives "financial stability", the dilemma of the Fed does have to choose between.
For example, although the Fed raised interest rates, but not 50BP, and the FOMC statement implies that the current round of interest rate hikes process is coming to an end.
At the macro level, the market consensus is that the Fed's aggressive rate hikes have led to a spike in market interest rates as a major cause of the banking crisis. The Fed is concerned that further stimulation of the market will lead to a collapse of its confidence in the U.S. banking sector. Therefore, some concessions, but did not press the rate hike "pause button", which may be to avoid conduction to the market speculation that the potential problems of the U.S. banking industry is very serious, thus triggering further panic in the market; furthermore, the Fed's inflation control work has not been completed.
"The Fed's 25 basis point rate hike is in line with expectations, and anti-inflation remains the primary goal." Wen Bin, chief economist at Minsheng Bank, believes that the Fed remains strongly committed to keeping inflation down to its 2% target, although FOMC members believe there are downside risks to economic growth; current U.S. payroll growth, while showing some signs of slowing, is still well above the long-term target of 2% for overall inflation, and the labor market is too tight to go a long way from reaching that target.
The Fed also released the latest installment of its economic outlook, lowering its 2023 gross domestic product growth estimate to 0.4% and its 2024 GDP growth estimate to 1.2%. At the same time, it raised this year's PCE inflation forecast to 3.3%, core PCE inflation forecast to 3.6% and lowered the unemployment rate target to 4.5%.
After the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco, the Fed raised interest rates by 25BP in March and expanded its table by nearly $300 billion through loan instruments. Data show that in the week of March 8 to March 15, the Fed balance sheet size increased by $ 297.6 billion. In terms of composition, the expansion was dominated by discount window loans ($148.3 billion) and FDIC loans ($142.8 billion), with a low share of new liquidity instruments BTFP ($1.2 billion). How to understand this seemingly contradictory policy mix?
In the view of Zhou Junzhi, chief macro analyst of Minsheng Securities, it is difficult for the liquidity from the Fed's expansion to flow into financial assets and the real economy for the purpose of "big release" and "big easing". These funds are mainly used to meet short-term liquidity needs, and medium- and long-term monetary tightening policy does not conflict. This also explains Powell's statement at the conference that "while the recent liquidity provision has increased our balance sheet, the intent and impact is different, with the balance sheet expansion reflecting short-term lending". It said that the recent balance sheet expansion is due to the bank bailout measures, does not represent the monetary policy stance, has not yet considered revising the tapering plan.
"From public information, the Fed has chosen a 'short dove and long hawk' approach to the banking sector storm." Zhou Junzhi believes. The "short dove" is mainly reflected in two points: the Fed will maintain the 2023 terminal rate at 5.1%, without further upward adjustment; secondly, the Fed will change the statement "continued rate hikes are appropriate" to "some additional Policy tightening is appropriate. This wording change seems to convey the signal that the May meeting will usher in the last rate hike.
In addition, the Federal Reserve slightly raised its interest rate forecast for 2024. At the same time, Powell stressed that "the baseline case this year is still no rate cuts". This is the Fed in conveying long-term hawkish signals to deal with inflation risks. The Fed's attitude in this meeting
attitude also implies that "financial stability has not given way to price stability".
Three
So, what happens next? In terms of monetary policy, in the short term (FOMC statement and statement) is indeed a dovish expression, the Fed will not choose to take the risk of raising interest rates beyond expectations when financial risks occur. But for economic growth, Zhou Junzhi believes that this means that the future "hard landing" may be the only direction of the U.S. economy.
Zhou Junzhi analysis, for the Fed, the future of only two situations: one is the bank credit conditions due to the Silicon Valley Bank incident and significantly tightened. The other scenario is that U.S. banks' credit conditions do not tighten consistently, at which point the Fed may have to raise interest rates beyond expectations in response to inflationary pressures. "We believe that the U.S. economy is likely to end its "tight money-easy credit" status since 2022 and head into recession in the future."
As mentioned earlier, the current portfolio of asset price performance is a classic recession trade.
In Franck Dixmier's view, in just two days last week, tensions in the U.S. banking system led to a major adjustment in the U.S. yield curve, triggering a sharp correction in market expectations for a Fed rate hike. Last month, investors appeared to make concessions, adding 100 basis points to their expectations of the Fed's terminal rate at the end of February compared to the beginning of the month. However, stress in the banking system reduced this expectation to almost zero, and investors now expect the Fed to cut rates by the end of the year. This unusual event completely overturned Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech to Congress in early March.
Although Franck Dixmier believes that the crisis currently exists only in regional banks, it is still too early to think that the event is now over, considering that banking crises often trigger a crisis of confidence in the market and depositors and lead to irrational market moves. A continued crisis could tighten liquidity and cause the Fed to suspend interest rate hikes. If the crisis can be resolved quickly, the Fed will continue its path of rate hikes. "But regardless of the level of terminal interest rates, we think the Fed will keep rates at a high level."
However, according to Bridgewater founder Rui Dalio, one cannot raise interest rates high enough to curb inflation or to enable holders of assets that are subject to inflation to be repaid, and a hard push to raise rates that high is bound to have a negative impact on economic activity.
Who would have thought that industry (the real world) might be more hurt by the global central banks' dilemma while the markets tremble and try to find certainty.
The high interest rates resulting from the Fed's continued aggressive rate hikes have not only punctured the tech bubble, but also burst the bubble of the short-term debt cycle and lifted the lid on the confidence crisis in the U.S. banking sector.
Now, unicorns are falling in droves. In the same week as the Silicon Valley bank run, Embark, a U.S. self-driving truck unicorn, reportedly announced its collapse, with 70% of its employees laid off and 30% left to handle the company's shutdown process. "Capital abandoned us, and we couldn't raise capital." said Alex Rodrigues, the company's founder.
Industry sources believe that high interest rates and the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley banks may bring more turmoil to the U.S. technology industry. Rising interest rates are making it increasingly difficult for startups to get funding, hindering them from improving their valuations and implementing ambitious projects.
Bear Park then suggests: the core risk of the U.S. economy in corporate debt rather than the banking sector, which has now begun to accelerate the release of corporate debt risk, with the probability of a recession in the first half of the year. Whether the Fed raises interest rates again in May is uncertain, but even if the May rate hike, June or July may still cut interest rates, and the rate cut before the end of the year may be up to 100 basis points.
"Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy, the surface reason is the failure of the investment strategy, the underlying reason is the corporate financing dilemma resulting in the depletion of deposits, that is, the U.S. corporate debt pressure is high, it is difficult to withstand a significant increase in interest rates." Xiong Yuan analysis, "the current scale of U.S. corporate debt defaults has risen significantly, banks have begun to contract credit to the public, which may lead to a recession in the first half of the economy."
A comparison of the U.S. federal funds rate and CPI trend curve (2009-2023) will show that the benchmark rate has remained at 0-0.25% between 2009 and 2015, while the CPI has been as low as -2.1% (July 2009) and as high as 3.9% in September 2011.
Between December 2015 and December 2018, the Fed began its fourth round of rate hikes, which lasted 36 months, with nine hikes totaling 225 basis points and an increase in the benchmark rate from 0.00% to 2.25%, during which time the CPI was as high as 2.9% (July 2018) and as low as 1.6% in January 2019.
Looking at January 2020 to date, the CPI is as low as 0.1% in May 2020 and as high as 9.1% in June 2022; the prime rate is as low as 0.00% from March 2020 to March 2022; and as high as 4.75% in March 2023; but looking at it in detail, it is easy to see that the CPI gradually lifts from January 2021, all the way up to 2021 The CPI rose gradually from January 2021 to 5.4% in May 2021, and then slightly retreated to 5.3% in August 2021, but then quickly soared to 9.1% in June 2022.
The Fed's fifth round of interest rate hikes began in March 2022, but the CPI had already soared to 8.5%; so the Federal Reserve stepped up to the plate and raised rates, and within a year, the benchmark rate soared to 4.75%. How can such a radical interest rate sensitive entities or market institutions not be "painless"?
I wonder if the Fed, which has admitted to underestimating inflation, will make another mistake? After underestimating inflation and overestimating the ability of interest rate hikes to suppress inflation, Tianfeng Securities suspects that, judging from the minutes of the previous rate meetings, the Fed may be making a third mistake - relying too much on employment indicators as a basis for judging economic conditions, and as a result underestimating the timing of the coming recession.
Could it be that the Fed is "betting big"? Wall Street warned: later this year to cut interest rates are too late to ease the pressure on debt-ridden companies.
According to foreign media reports, investment strategy analysts believe that the Federal Reserve officials may be "betting" banking liquidity crisis and the resulting contraction of the credit environment is finally under control, will not unduly endanger financial stability and economic "soft landing". But the likely reality is: U.S. financial conditions have deteriorated to their worst level since May 2020; the U.S. banking industry has begun to tighten lending standards across the board.
A "hard landing" or a "hard landing"? Between the Fed's advance and retreat, the market trembles more than the first "recession" when the transaction, debt companies also "tremble" non-stop ......
submitted by SecretDecision3 to stocks [link] [comments]
The mystery is solved. The recent huge shocks in the U.S. and European banking systems did not make the Fed press the "pause button" to raise interest rates; the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are not afraid of the dominoes knocked down by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
On March 22, local time, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FOMC) announced that the benchmark federal funds rate was raised by 25 basis points to a target range of 4.75%-5%, the highest level of the rate since 2007; this is the ninth consecutive rate hike by the Fed, and also the second consecutive rate hike slowed to 25 basis points.
"The toughest interest rate decision of the Fed Chairman Powell's tenure." This is how the market describes this rate meeting. In the past two weeks, a storm triggered by the Fed's aggressive rate hikes swept through the banking industry in Europe and the United States, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank collapsed one after another; the government brokered the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by Swiss banks; asset prices tumbled. Due to concerns about financial stability, the market hailed the Federal Reserve to suspend interest rate hikes; Goldman Sachs Group report even said that the pressure on the banking system has replaced inflation as the most pressing issue.
This round of cumulative rate hikes of 475 basis points, starting in March 2022, the Fed rate hikes gradually into the end, the dot plot implies that there is room for one more rate hike during the year; but the magnitude of the rate hikes, the pace of interest rate hikes is the fastest in the past 30 years of the five rounds of interest rate hikes.
On March 16, the ECB also raised rates by 50 basis points as expected, and on March 20, ECB President Lagarde admitted that the banking sector turmoil could force the ECB to suspend rate hikes if the recent market turmoil affects lending to eurozone businesses and households.
In fact, after the Federal Reserve, Switzerland, Norway and the Bank of England have announced interest rate hikes one after another. On March 23, local time, the Bank of England raised interest rates by 25 basis points, raising the policy rate to 4.25%, the highest level since 2008. It said continued signs of inflation suggest further rate hikes.
When the dovish March FOMC statement was released, the U.S. stock market was unperturbed, with the three major indices basically stable; unexpectedly, the heavy setback to U.S. stocks that day was U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen, who said in Senate testimony on the budget for the new fiscal year that the U.S. government is not considering expanding the scope of federal deposit insurance - denying the March 21 market news that the government is considering extending insurance to all deposits. Yellen said in her Senate testimony on the new fiscal year budget that the U.S. government is not considering extending federal deposit insurance - denying the March 21 market news that the government is considering extending insurance to all deposits.
Under the haze of global banking turmoil, Fed Chairman Powell did not deny that he had considered suspending interest rate hikes, but the decision to raise interest rates was unanimously approved by the members; and inflation is still too high, the job market is still overheated, and interest rates will be raised to a higher level if necessary, and rate cuts are not expected as a benchmark during the year.
When Powell mentioned at the conference to continue to raise interest rates to curb high inflation; Yellen, who is testifying in the Senate, the above statement caused U.S. stocks to plunge, U.S. bank stocks, including the first Republic Bank and other regional banks fell sharply during the day, spreading to the broader market, the three major U.S. stock indexes all retracted intra-day gains turned down.
After the FOMC statement was released, the S&P 500, 10-year U.S. bond yields, the dollar index fell sharply, and spot gold prices rose sharply. By the end of the day, the S&P 500 index fell 1.7%, the 10-year U.S. bond yield fell 18 basis points to 3.44%, the dollar index fell 0.6% to 102.6, spot gold rose 1.5% to $1969.6 per ounce. Xiong Yuan, chief economist at Guosheng Securities, believes that this combination of asset price performance is typical of recessionary trading, and the trading logic behind it reflects the fact that the Fed, on the one hand, said that the banking crisis could trigger a credit crunch and thus hurt the economy, but at the same time maintained its stance of not cutting interest rates during the year, leading to increased market fears of a recession.
However, after the testimony on the 21st led to a huge shock to the market, on March 23, Yellen reassured the market again, saying she was prepared to take new actions to protect deposits if necessary to ensure the safety of the banking situation; or to use important anti-risk contagion tools again.
After several major central banks raised interest rates, local time on March 23, Europe FTSE, Germany DAX France CAC closed 7499.60 (-0.89), 15210.39 (0.04%), 7139.25 (+0.11%); U.S. stocks opened up sharply, but the Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 finally closed 32105.25 (+0.25%), 11787.40 (+1.01%), 3948.71 (+0.30%).
The dollar index was at 102.28 intraday and the euro was at 1.087 against the dollar; the offshore yuan was at 6.818 against the dollar.
And related statistics show that market volatility was three times higher than that of the previous chairmen who tended to reverse the market's initial reaction to the committee's statement when Powell held his press conference.
In fact, before the March FOMC meeting, Franck Dixmier, Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Global Fixed Income, expected the Fed to raise rates by 25 basis points as core inflation remained high; its view was that the regional banking crisis created much uncertainty about the magnitude of future rate hikes, while investors' expectations of rate cuts put pressure on fixed income markets and any further revisions would lead to market volatility.
"Investors' expectations of a rate cut (90 basis points between June and December 2023) have become an unfavorable factor for the U.S. fixed income market. These aggressive expectations trigger market volatility and may put pressure on the middle of the yield curve." Franck Dixmier believes.
In times of storms, crises abound. "Danger" or "opportunity", fear is fleeting, one day ignite hope, the next day can be extinguished; and vice versa. And the market tremor is also in the transmission of some kind of instability and panic.
Two
In detail, the European and American banking crisis "shock", in the explicit goal of "anti-inflation" and stable policy objectives "financial stability", the dilemma of the Fed does have to choose between.
For example, although the Fed raised interest rates, but not 50BP, and the FOMC statement implies that the current round of interest rate hikes process is coming to an end.
At the macro level, the market consensus is that the Fed's aggressive rate hikes have led to a spike in market interest rates as a major cause of the banking crisis. The Fed is concerned that further stimulation of the market will lead to a collapse of its confidence in the U.S. banking sector. Therefore, some concessions, but did not press the rate hike "pause button", which may be to avoid conduction to the market speculation that the potential problems of the U.S. banking industry is very serious, thus triggering further panic in the market; furthermore, the Fed's inflation control work has not been completed.
"The Fed's 25 basis point rate hike is in line with expectations, and anti-inflation remains the primary goal." Wen Bin, chief economist at Minsheng Bank, believes that the Fed remains strongly committed to keeping inflation down to its 2% target, although FOMC members believe there are downside risks to economic growth; current U.S. payroll growth, while showing some signs of slowing, is still well above the long-term target of 2% for overall inflation, and the labor market is too tight to go a long way from reaching that target.
The Fed also released the latest installment of its economic outlook, lowering its 2023 gross domestic product growth estimate to 0.4% and its 2024 GDP growth estimate to 1.2%. At the same time, it raised this year's PCE inflation forecast to 3.3%, core PCE inflation forecast to 3.6% and lowered the unemployment rate target to 4.5%.
After the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco, the Fed raised interest rates by 25BP in March and expanded its table by nearly $300 billion through loan instruments. Data show that in the week of March 8 to March 15, the Fed balance sheet size increased by $ 297.6 billion. In terms of composition, the expansion was dominated by discount window loans ($148.3 billion) and FDIC loans ($142.8 billion), with a low share of new liquidity instruments BTFP ($1.2 billion). How to understand this seemingly contradictory policy mix?
In the view of Zhou Junzhi, chief macro analyst of Minsheng Securities, it is difficult for the liquidity from the Fed's expansion to flow into financial assets and the real economy for the purpose of "big release" and "big easing". These funds are mainly used to meet short-term liquidity needs, and medium- and long-term monetary tightening policy does not conflict. This also explains Powell's statement at the conference that "while the recent liquidity provision has increased our balance sheet, the intent and impact is different, with the balance sheet expansion reflecting short-term lending". It said that the recent balance sheet expansion is due to the bank bailout measures, does not represent the monetary policy stance, has not yet considered revising the tapering plan.
"From public information, the Fed has chosen a 'short dove and long hawk' approach to the banking sector storm." Zhou Junzhi believes. The "short dove" is mainly reflected in two points: the Fed will maintain the 2023 terminal rate at 5.1%, without further upward adjustment; secondly, the Fed will change the statement "continued rate hikes are appropriate" to "some additional Policy tightening is appropriate. This wording change seems to convey the signal that the May meeting will usher in the last rate hike.
In addition, the Federal Reserve slightly raised its interest rate forecast for 2024. At the same time, Powell stressed that "the baseline case this year is still no rate cuts". This is the Fed in conveying long-term hawkish signals to deal with inflation risks. The Fed's attitude in this meeting
attitude also implies that "financial stability has not given way to price stability".
Three
So, what happens next? In terms of monetary policy, in the short term (FOMC statement and statement) is indeed a dovish expression, the Fed will not choose to take the risk of raising interest rates beyond expectations when financial risks occur. But for economic growth, Zhou Junzhi believes that this means that the future "hard landing" may be the only direction of the U.S. economy.
Zhou Junzhi analysis, for the Fed, the future of only two situations: one is the bank credit conditions due to the Silicon Valley Bank incident and significantly tightened. The other scenario is that U.S. banks' credit conditions do not tighten consistently, at which point the Fed may have to raise interest rates beyond expectations in response to inflationary pressures. "We believe that the U.S. economy is likely to end its "tight money-easy credit" status since 2022 and head into recession in the future."
As mentioned earlier, the current portfolio of asset price performance is a classic recession trade.
In Franck Dixmier's view, in just two days last week, tensions in the U.S. banking system led to a major adjustment in the U.S. yield curve, triggering a sharp correction in market expectations for a Fed rate hike. Last month, investors appeared to make concessions, adding 100 basis points to their expectations of the Fed's terminal rate at the end of February compared to the beginning of the month. However, stress in the banking system reduced this expectation to almost zero, and investors now expect the Fed to cut rates by the end of the year. This unusual event completely overturned Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech to Congress in early March.
Although Franck Dixmier believes that the crisis currently exists only in regional banks, it is still too early to think that the event is now over, considering that banking crises often trigger a crisis of confidence in the market and depositors and lead to irrational market moves. A continued crisis could tighten liquidity and cause the Fed to suspend interest rate hikes. If the crisis can be resolved quickly, the Fed will continue its path of rate hikes. "But regardless of the level of terminal interest rates, we think the Fed will keep rates at a high level."
However, according to Bridgewater founder Rui Dalio, one cannot raise interest rates high enough to curb inflation or to enable holders of assets that are subject to inflation to be repaid, and a hard push to raise rates that high is bound to have a negative impact on economic activity.
Who would have thought that industry (the real world) might be more hurt by the global central banks' dilemma while the markets tremble and try to find certainty.
The high interest rates resulting from the Fed's continued aggressive rate hikes have not only punctured the tech bubble, but also burst the bubble of the short-term debt cycle and lifted the lid on the confidence crisis in the U.S. banking sector.
Now, unicorns are falling in droves. In the same week as the Silicon Valley bank run, Embark, a U.S. self-driving truck unicorn, reportedly announced its collapse, with 70% of its employees laid off and 30% left to handle the company's shutdown process. "Capital abandoned us, and we couldn't raise capital." said Alex Rodrigues, the company's founder.
Industry sources believe that high interest rates and the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley banks may bring more turmoil to the U.S. technology industry. Rising interest rates are making it increasingly difficult for startups to get funding, hindering them from improving their valuations and implementing ambitious projects.
Bear Park then suggests: the core risk of the U.S. economy in corporate debt rather than the banking sector, which has now begun to accelerate the release of corporate debt risk, with the probability of a recession in the first half of the year. Whether the Fed raises interest rates again in May is uncertain, but even if the May rate hike, June or July may still cut interest rates, and the rate cut before the end of the year may be up to 100 basis points.
"Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy, the surface reason is the failure of the investment strategy, the underlying reason is the corporate financing dilemma resulting in the depletion of deposits, that is, the U.S. corporate debt pressure is high, it is difficult to withstand a significant increase in interest rates." Xiong Yuan analysis, "the current scale of U.S. corporate debt defaults has risen significantly, banks have begun to contract credit to the public, which may lead to a recession in the first half of the economy."
A comparison of the U.S. federal funds rate and CPI trend curve (2009-2023) will show that the benchmark rate has remained at 0-0.25% between 2009 and 2015, while the CPI has been as low as -2.1% (July 2009) and as high as 3.9% in September 2011.
Between December 2015 and December 2018, the Fed began its fourth round of rate hikes, which lasted 36 months, with nine hikes totaling 225 basis points and an increase in the benchmark rate from 0.00% to 2.25%, during which time the CPI was as high as 2.9% (July 2018) and as low as 1.6% in January 2019.
Looking at January 2020 to date, the CPI is as low as 0.1% in May 2020 and as high as 9.1% in June 2022; the prime rate is as low as 0.00% from March 2020 to March 2022; and as high as 4.75% in March 2023; but looking at it in detail, it is easy to see that the CPI gradually lifts from January 2021, all the way up to 2021 The CPI rose gradually from January 2021 to 5.4% in May 2021, and then slightly retreated to 5.3% in August 2021, but then quickly soared to 9.1% in June 2022.
The Fed's fifth round of interest rate hikes began in March 2022, but the CPI had already soared to 8.5%; so the Federal Reserve stepped up to the plate and raised rates, and within a year, the benchmark rate soared to 4.75%. How can such a radical interest rate sensitive entities or market institutions not be "painless"?
I wonder if the Fed, which has admitted to underestimating inflation, will make another mistake? After underestimating inflation and overestimating the ability of interest rate hikes to suppress inflation, Tianfeng Securities suspects that, judging from the minutes of the previous rate meetings, the Fed may be making a third mistake - relying too much on employment indicators as a basis for judging economic conditions, and as a result underestimating the timing of the coming recession.
Could it be that the Fed is "betting big"? Wall Street warned: later this year to cut interest rates are too late to ease the pressure on debt-ridden companies.
According to foreign media reports, investment strategy analysts believe that the Federal Reserve officials may be "betting" banking liquidity crisis and the resulting contraction of the credit environment is finally under control, will not unduly endanger financial stability and economic "soft landing". But the likely reality is: U.S. financial conditions have deteriorated to their worst level since May 2020; the U.S. banking industry has begun to tighten lending standards across the board.
A "hard landing" or a "hard landing"? Between the Fed's advance and retreat, the market trembles more than the first "recession" when the transaction, debt companies also "tremble" non-stop ......
2023.03.24 15:07 Degermark [The Arcane Paladin] Chapter 43 - Updating the Quest Log
First Previous
Wiki RoyalRoad
Cover Art & Travis Portrait by Pedro Puglisi
Journal Entry #1
Heard the church bell ring while out checking the rabbit snares. Dropped the hare I was skinning and ran as fast as I could to the nearest gate. The town was in complete panic when I made it safe inside, and everyone was hysterical as they piled into the church.
Mom spotted me as I entered, then grasped me tightly in her arms as her entire body shook with intense sobs. She kept trying to speak, but couldn’t stop gasping for air as dad and Linn each put a hand on me, both with stern faces.
A knot twisted in my stomach, and I swiveled my head around, trying to find Petter, but my little brother wasn’t with us. I locked eyes with dad, too afraid to speak the words.
He shook his head, then spoke the infamous words that plague the nightmares of every single villager, “The monster got him.”
---
Travis
Windsday, the 25th of Eighthmonth
The veil of sleep pulled away from my mind, replacing it with absolute bliss as my body registered the soft and warm comfort of my bedsheets. Although it was tempting to stay in there all day, the increasing blood flow in my body was already making me grow restless, and eventually I couldn’t lie still.
“Good morning, I take it you’re feeling better?”
Looking over at the clock while I began my daily stretching routine, I noticed that it was the first time I’d awoken early since my encounter with Adamanrion and Apheros. It was also the first night I didn’t have nightmares waking me up in the middle of the night.
“Yeah, I guess so. Did I wake at all during the night? I can’t remember.”
“Nope, you slept like a log.” The room suddenly grew quieter, indicating that Arc must have casted a [Sound Barrier] to keep our next conversation from being overheard, “I know you’re starting finals today, but are you ready to talk about what happened at Adamanrion’s church?”
I let out a deep exhale, found a comfy spot on the bed, then picked up Arc to hold him in my lap, “I’m not sure how much I remember, and some of what I do went over my head.”
“I’d be shocked if you managed to retain everything. You were a bit preoccupied. What with you getting some very hard proof that I was talking to Addy.”
I chuckled, “I think I would have preferred the beard.”
“Can’t fault you for that, though I will say you handled it well, all things considered.”
I looked down at Arc, and narrowed my eyes, trying to determine if he was pulling my line, “You’re joking, right? I thought my heart was going to explode at one point, my vision kept going dark, and poor 5751054 had to endure me bear-hugging him in full armor wile I made a river of my tears and snot. How is that handling it well?”
“You remained standing and conscious despite physically feeling the presence of two gods. I can’t imagine what the overwhelming sensation was like for you.”
Gripping Arc’s handle, I thought back to the feeling I had when both gods invaded my attuned poleaxe, “Attuning something small is like drinking a cup of water, not too difficult unless you’ve already downed a few canteens. My poleaxe feels like I’m chugging a gallon of milk when I fully sync with it. Those gods… it was like my head was forced back, a waterskin was shoved into my mouth… and… when I looked up… it was attached to an entire ocean of water… the only thing stopping it was a hand pinching off the flow from drowning me.”
“That… that sounds horrifying… I guess that explains some of the night terrors you were having.”
Neither of us spoke for a few minutes as we sat there, enjoying the silence, but after taking a meditative breath, I finally thickened my bark up enough to start asking questions.
“So… you are a god?”
Arc sighed, “I guess I am? I’m still having a hard time believing it. It’s not like I can go around bending reality.” He paused, then sighed once more, “Then again, it’s probably a good thing I can’t. I’m already in enough trouble as it is.”
I smiled, “Things were simpler when I thought you were only a talking tree. I’m just glad you’re not being taken away from me.”
“Same here. Speaking of… your list of titles is starting to grow, how are you liking the new one?”
“Paladin of the Arcane… Why did you ask to include the article?”
“It sounds better that way. Trust me, it’s all about the presentation, a little gravitas can go a long way when you’re trying to make an impression.”
I rolled my eyes at my sword, “Great… you haven’t even been a minor god for a week, and its already going to your head. Are you going to start demanding I pray to you now too?”
“Umm… about that…”
My eyes narrowed at Arc, and I began to scowl, “Seriously?”
“Well… you see… you kinda… have been.”
That wiped the expression off my face, leaving me baffled, “Okay, please explain.”
“You know how we found out that all this time you technically didn’t have a blessing? Well… a prayer can be just about anything that you do to create a personal connection to a god, reciting prose, singing from a hymnal, practicing a divine tenet,” he made a quick pause, “giving them a friendly rub on their pommel…”
My eyes dawned with realization, “So, when Adamanrion said that you were sensing me trying to form a connection with you…”
“Yeah… not sure if it counts as heresy, but if it does, Apheros didn’t seem to care. Heck, he’s the one who officially made you my paladin. Even gave you a to-do list for your first duties.”
That sparked a memory, “Oh, that’s right, didn’t Apheros say I need to help you fix your housing or something? What did he mean by that?”
“He did…” Arc paused to make the sound of a deep breath, “Okay, before I can explain, I’m going to need to give you some very basic information about souls. So, no heroic sacrifices. Got it?”
Grinning, I nodded my head, “No promises.”
“Ugh… Well, for starters, every single sapient being, and a few non-sapient ones, have a soul. Souls expand in size and power by connecting to the physical plane of existence and experiencing life. Think of a plant sprout growing roots to collect the water in the soil. The soil is the physical matter your soul attaches to. For me, it’s my sword body, and in your case, it’s that growing meat sack you keep stuffing with food.”
As if on cue, my stomach growled from the lack of breakfast, making us both chuckle.
“Okay, I think I’m following so far, what do you mean by experiences though?”
“Anytime you interact with someone, something, or someplace, your soul will grow a little bit in size. Some experiences, however, will provide more nutrients than others. Remember back when you were training to trigger your mana for the first time? Challenging yourself by lifting just a little more weight, working hard to solve a tricky puzzle, exposing yourself to a new environment or culture, all of them are like adding liquid fertilizer to the soil for you to suck up.”
I nodded along, finding a lot of similarities between what Arc was saying and Apheros’ journey to obtain strength, knowledge, and wisdom. Which made sense, given the topic.
“Is that why Apheros no longer walks amongst us anymore?” His soul grew too big?”
“Probably. If your average person or animal is a flower, a minor god would be the size of a bush, and then a god would be the tree towering over everyone. Sadly, there is a downside to growing so large. Our bodies are like flowerpots, the bigger your soul gets, the harder it is to find a pot that you can fit in.”
The still fresh memory of being connected to the two gods and sensing their ocean-like enormity sent a shiver down my spine, “Yeah, I can’t imagine anything being able to contain that kind of power.”
“Exactly, it’s why I didn’t even consider the possibility that I’m a minor god. Though, I guess it’s possible that my definition is incorrect, given that it sounds like I’m not the only soul trapped in a weapon. But, back to the original topic, my housing. It’s not an immediate concern, but I am slowly running out of room for my soul in here. And I’m not sure if it’s related, but I also think I’m at my limit for mana density, I’ve only added a few motes over the past month.”
I activated my mana sight to give Arc a thorough look, but, like usual, his insides were a messy kaleidoscope of different mana types. Not just the blend of basic elements throughout, but a good portion of Metal Mana inside the fuller, a smudge of green Wood Mana near the tip, and even speckles of violet Ice and pink Lightning mana near the cross-guard.
“How can you even tell? Everything’s a jumbled mess in there.”
“Hey! Don’t body-shame me. I raised you better than that.”
Letting out an annoyed groan, I decided to get back on topic, “Sorry. Do you know what we need to fix?”
“Umm… I’m not sure… I guess we should have asked. Apheros mentioned that a necromancer wrecked my sword, scaring off the creature that was originally in here, so if I can figure out what its original condition looked like, maybe I can start fixing things.”
I frowned, “How did they even damage your body in the first place? I literally whacked you against a pile of Order infused stone and you didn’t even gain a scratch.”
“Huh… That’s a good question… Maybe that’s what I should focus on to fix my sword-body.” Arc began to groan, “Ugh, so many questions… And I never did get an answer to why it was my soul that was planted in here.”
“Yeah… I assume Torbolt or Aelder were supposed to tell you why, but I… kinda took you away before Torbolt’s Chosen could come get you.”
“True, but that’s not what’s irking me. What really scrapes my boat bottom is, ‘Why didn’t they tell me before placing me in this sword?’”
That left me stumped. Admittingly, Apheros isn’t known for being very intelligent outside of his domains, hence why he likely didn’t think anything was amiss with having Aelder babysit. But although my knowledge of Torbolt is lacking, I know one of his domains is military tactics. Not giving a pre-mission briefing before deployment seems out of character for him.
“I have a feeling we’re not going to find an answer anytime soon. Unless we figure out a way to ask Torbolt or Aelder.”
“Great… our options are an unreliable perpetual child, and a war god who’s super pissed at us.”
I sighed, letting out a long breath, “Oh yeah, we’re also supposed to figure out how to make amends with Torbolt. I hope you’re keeping track of all of this.”
“Don’t worry, I updated the quest log.”
Light and Shadow Mana drifted off Arc, and into the air in front of me before swirling into a readable text.
Quest Log:
· Buy posters and other decorations for room.
· Buy an apology gift for Issac
· Buy a secure lockbox for the aelderwood scraps Father Viburnum sent you.
· Get ear pierced so you can wear the gift Seleyna gave you.
· Help Arc fix his housing.
· Find a way to apologize to Torbolt.
· Carve mana channels into poleaxe.
· Make some drunken mistakes at a brothel, preferably with non-human companions.
I read through the list, preferring it greatly over having them spoken aloud, but raised my eyebrow at the last line, “Seriously, you added that?”
“He did ask nicely, maybe he’ll even give you a blessing if you father enough future spartans?”
I waved my hand through the list with a groan, disrupting Arc’s mana, then changed into my uniform and made my bed. Walking out of my room, I overheard Drozuk’s alarm going off, and was about to leave after grabbing my mail, but stopped when I noticed a wrapped gift in the wall-embedded mailbox.
“Who’s it from?”
“Hmm… don’t see a tag…” My hand began to reach forward to open it but was halted by Arc shouting.
“Wait! Don’t open it. There’s an object with a high amount of Metal Mana inside, and a glass container filled with something dense with Wood Mana.”
“You think it’s something harmful?”
“Well, you did anger a bunch of nobles from all three kingdoms just the other day and are now establishing a personal connection with the crown. I might just be paranoid, but a gift-wrapped explosive sent by a jealous rival wouldn’t be too surprising.”
I examined the gift with my own mana sight, annoyed that I couldn’t make out what was inside either, “Great, what do I do now? I don’t know how to disarm a bomb, I’m not a commando.”
“You got your Messaging Stone? Maybe Sir Tracy can help.”
Oh, that’s a smart idea. I haven’t talked to him yet, but he did say to Message him for help if I found myself in trouble.
I reached into my secured valuables pouch, then touched the stone, syncing a newly formed [Message] spell to match the same frequency as the stone’s, “Hello, Sir Tracy? Are you there?”
The sound of a groan, followed by a yawn emanated from my spell before the Royal Knight’s voice could be heard, “Travis? Is that you?”
“Yes, sorry for waking you, but… umm… I received an unmarked gift in the mail today… and, I’m probably just being overly cautious, but…”
“Ah, say no more. Just give me a sec, and whatever you do, don’t open or disturb the package.”
I stood there in silence, awkwardly still holding the gift in my hand, too scared now to set it down.
“Okay, just hang tight, I’ve sent a commando to assist.”
“Thanks, sorry again for the trouble.”
“None at all. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Besides, you and all the other students on campus shouldn’t be receiving unmarked packages. While we’re waiting, was there anything else I could help you with?”
“Umm… I do want to ask about what happened in the palace before I was suddenly forced to take four of my practical exams early and all at once, but I’d imagine that to be a long tale.”
Sir Tracy chuckled over the channel, “Yeah, that could take a while. It’d probably be easier for me to tell you in person, then I could bring in flow-charts to help disseminate all the political maneuvers and under-the-table deals everyone was trying to make. Speaking of, have you told anyone about the gift Seleyna gave you?”
“No, I’ve kept that hidden in my valuable’s pouch. Hey, I suppose I could ask you. I don’t know anything about artifice piercings, is there a particular spot on my ear it’s supposed to go?”
“There’s some flexibility in where you place it, but I’d recommend putting it in the inner conch of your ear. That way it will be difficult to see, even with mana sight.”
A knock came from my nearby door, and I checked through the door’s peephole to see a figure dressed in dark molded leather and cloth. I opened the door to allow them entry, and after they tilted their head towards the potential explosive in my hands, I handed the gift over to them.
“Okay, commando is here.”
The commando whipped out a tiny razor blade hidden in their sleeve, stepped into my bathroom, then shut the door. The sound of my shower running could be heard briefly, then after a few more moments, they walked out and handed the gift back to me with a thumbs up.
“False alarm?”
They nodded.
“Travis?” Drozuk shouted from his room, “Is someone here?”
“Just Bridget’s dad disarming a bomb.”
“What the?” Drozuk popped his head out of his room and frowned, “Ha, ha, really funny.” He then shut his door to get ready for breakfast.
Confused about his reaction, I turned back to thank the commando, but startled when I realized that they vanished.
“You still alive?” Sir Tracy’s voice echoed out of my spell.
“Sorry, all clear.” I opened the gift’s lid to look inside, “Oh, it’s just a fancy shaving kit. I don’t see a note or anything to indicate who it’s from though…”
“Could it be a late birthday gift?”
“Maybe? I’m not sure why someone would get me one, unless… ugh, they were trying to get underneath my bark…”
“Underneath your bark?”
“Err… parking the manure wagon a yard away from the pen?”
“What? No, I understood the first expression. Why would a shaving kit be a backhanded gift?”
Groaning with embarrassment, I explained over the channel, “My beard development has been painfully slow, and my friends are more than aware of my disdain.”
I looked down once more at the insulting gift. Everything was included, there was a single-edged razor blade, a bar of peppermint scented soap, a thickly bristled brush, a mug to foam up the lather, and a bottle of oil to apply after finishing.
“I’ll admit, it is a nice kit, the blade is even made of mid-grade dwarven steel.”
“Hmm… It’s possible it was given in earnest. When I was training to learn Blade enchantments, one of the things we used were shaving razors. Since they’re so small and thin, you need excellent mana control not just to create the spell formation, but to manipulate it afterwards. Trust me, you learn very quickly when even the slightest nick will make your neck spray out a geyser of blood.”
I joined Tracy as he chuckled over the channel, “Huh, you might be right. I heard we’ll learn weapon enchantments next semester, so maybe the person who gifted me this knows that?”
“Sounds like a reasonable assumption.”
“Hmm… that doesn’t really narrow down who could have given it to me though.” I sighed as my stomach grumbled, “I’ll have to worry about that some other time though, I’ve got more important things to do right now.”
“Right, it’s finals week. You’re up to your eyeballs in exams.”
“Actually, I was referring to breakfast, but you’re not incorrect. My schedule is still packed full, even with four less exams. I’ll try to find an hour to chat later this week. If not, I’m sure I’ll get bored while traveling for my assignment next week. Or are you going to be busy with your own Fall Expedition?”
“Sadly no, with the bulk of the kingdom’s military outside of the capital, the city’s defenses will be at their weakest, so I’ll be on watch here. Feel free to Message me whenever though, especially during your return trip, I’ll probably be just as bored. Monster attacks on the capital nearly drop down to zero towards the end of the Fall purge.”
“Okay then, it was nice chatting with you.
“Likewise.”
---
Arc
I impatiently waited for Travis to finish his second exam of the day, this one for Wind Spells 1, still irritated about how he made me repeatedly promise after lunch that I wouldn’t help him. To add insult to injury, the little bastard even pulled out a pen to write down his answers! My focus hovered over the vexing test booklet, the trace amounts of Wood Mana in the ink camouflaged perfectly into the Wood Mana of the paper, making it impossible for me to read both the questions and answers.
Honestly, the lack of trust really hurt. It’s not like I’d tell him the answers, just… maybe make a subtle cough if he got something wrong, or…
Travis closed the exam booklet, gave his neck a good stretch before standing up, then headed to the front of the room where his professor and teacher assistants were waiting.
“Travis,” Professor Quinsandoral motioned the teen over with an enthusiastic grin, “come chat for a bit while I have you. I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you yet.”
Travis walked over to the high elf, looking up at him with an inquisitive look as the professor waved their hands to weave their synced Wind Mana in the air into a formation. The mana lines formed a double-walled lattice, creating a [Sound Barrier], but there were a few additions to the standard spell.
Professor Quinsandoral chuckled as Travis used his mana sight to see the spell also, “A one-way Sound Barrier, really nothing too fancy, just attaching a Message spell to transmit sound through, but it does have a few advantages. Namely in that it prevents overly loud noises from entering.” He clapped a hand on Travis’ back, “Ah, look at me, already too impatient to wait for next semester. Let me start by saying how absolutely delightful it was to see the ambassadors teeming with anger after Queen Claudette teased that even if you were secretly a twenty-four-year-old knight, that it would hardly lessen your displayed skill.”
Travis pulled his head back in surprise, “People think I’m twenty-four?”
He chuckled boisterously, “That was my reaction as well. I didn’t even know you were eighteen until the registrar’s office told me that you’d be going on a Fall Expedition this year. Was quite upsetting actually, I was hoping to include you and Mattius in a… oh! Speak of the duck.” His arms extended outward, then gestured as if opening a curtain to create a part in his spell formation, “Young Master Tatian, come join us! I have something to give you.”
Mattius, clearly uncomfortable from the sudden attention, scratched the back of his head as he entered the [Sound Barrier], “You… seem to be in a good mood today professor.”
“I certainly am.” The high elf beamed, “Not only did I get to make Maeralya eat her words, but that advice you gave me worked like a charm.”
“Advice?”
“The suggestion to send my son on a camping trip.” Professor Quinsandoral paused to chuckle to himself, “He finally found out my scheme this morning and stormed into my office, had a full-blown temper tantrum, and screamed obscenities at me for nearly half an hour. I think it was the longest conversation I’ve had with him in months.”
Travis and Mattius exchanged glances as their professor giggled to themself while reaching into a satchel, then pulled out a folder, “Here we are.” He handed it to Mattius, “This is your copy of exemption for the practical exam. You’ve more than demonstrated competency in this semester’s curriculum during the guided practices in the spell range. I do apologize by the way, this was supposed to have been submitted before schedules were delivered, but… one of the elven consulates had to throw a duck into the works after they found out that Travis had the gall to perform well in classes.”
Mattius turned to look at Travis, who gave an awkward shrug in return, prompting the Packer to shake their head, “I guess nine exams are better than ten.”
Quinsandoral grinned, “Expect to receive a similar gift during your written exam for Earth Spells, Ingotborn has been very impressed with your skills, particularly in how you’ve been exercising your affinity.”
“Oh, umm… thank you. Your advice to keep a journal has helped out greatly, there’s a lot of inconsistencies with my affinity compared to everyone else’s.”
“That reminds me, how did your meeting with the Archmagus go?”
Mattius scratched the back of his head, “It was… interesting… They asked me a bunch of strange questions, then gave me this…” he reached into one of his side pouches to pull out a…
a…
A void of nothingness?
I moved my focus in close to double-check, but the cube-shaped hole in the universe was still there.
Huh, that’s weird. I’ve seen plenty of mana-dead spaces before (Wind spells often generate them when creating vacuums), but never an object that was completely void of mana. Even the least mana dense rock has enough traces of Earth Mana to still look like it’s made of clear glass.
Professor Quinsandoral looked down at the object and rolled his eyes, “Oh, one of Avem’s puzzle boxes. I take it for your initiation you’ll be expected to solve it?”
Mattius nodded, “Yeah, they said I could take my time, but to preferably return it before I die of old age.”
Quinsandoral shook his head, “Well, keep that maddening thing away from me. Avem’s warned me multiple times not to help anyone directly with those. It’s supposed to be you and you alone who solves that.”
Mattius turned to Travis, “Actually, they said I could ask you for help, but you’ll have to follow the same rule. No asking any person, god, or object for help, but we are allowed to ask the terrain.”
Oh, that is just…
Travis looked up from the mana-less cube to give Mattius a grin, “Ok, I’ll tell my sword not to help.”
The professor and Mattius both looked down at me, then at each other, before Mattius whispered, “He’s been really stressed out the last couple of days. I don’t think we need to worry just yet.”
---
Voltsday, the 26th of Eighthmonth
Of course, the one exam that I can see with my mana sight, is Travis’ best subject…
Travis’ hands moved with the dexterous precision of a watchmaker as he worked on the tiny cubic artifice, finishing the assembly of the outer metal casing, checked to ensure the aperture in the front opened when turning the dial, that the foldable legs on the other three sides seamlessly closed, the d-ring on top could be flipped up with a fingernail, and that the mount on the bottom could securely clip onto his helmet.
Satisfied with his inspection, he began attuning to the item, raising the pulse-rate until the condensing array inside ramped up high enough to reach critical mass and form a tiny [Light Orb] inside the palm-sized cube.
Travis smiled, taking a minute to play with his mana-powered flashlight/lantern, then proudly walked to the front of the classroom to submit his artifice for examination. The professor did a basic function test, pulled a slab of slate from a nearby pile, then began writing down measurements using an Earth inscribed stylus.
Curious, I brought in my focus, and was able to see how the artifice pushed on the surface of the stone tile, creating a trench on the stylus’ side and a protrusion on the other. Professor Oresword eventually finished marking down the measurements for minimum mana frequency input, Travis’ military identification number, the current date, and then handed the flashlight back to Travis.
“Excellent work, you’re getting full marks.” They chuckled as they passed the slate tile to the assistant next to them, “Not going to lie, I was a little worried that you did a rush job with how fast you worked, but I’m guessing you must be versed in tinkering? Clockmaker’s assistant perhaps?”
“I’ve taken apart a windup clock before, but I’d say most of my skill comes secondhand from working with the woodworker of my village. He had a book on fancy wood joinery that he let me try out and did highly detailed wood burnings in his free time.”
The professor nodded along as the assistant next to them placed the carved tile in a small printing press, pulled one lever to roll a coat of ink over it, then placed a card inside before pressing down. The beardless assistant then gave the still wet card to Travis.
“Here you are. Take good care of that lamp, should last you quite a few years before the dust needs to get replaced.”
Travis stepped back, completely left a gasp, “Wait, I get to keep this?”
The entire table broke out into laughter. Well… all but Durinn, who was shifting uncomfortably in their seat, fiddling with a puzzle box in their hands, and looking highly anxious overall.
“Durinn, are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Durinn snapped, “I’m not some youngling who can’t keep their fingers clean.”
Whoa, something’s clearly bothering the new artificer. Even the table was stunned by the reaction.
Professor Oresword gestured Travis to lean in so they could whisper, “They might not be in their right mind. Us bearded sometimes… forget about certain things when trying to meet a deadline.” They then took a piece of slate to carve out a picture of a shovel with one hand while holding up a finger to their lips with the other.
“Ooh…” / ‘Ooh…’ Travis and I both realized in unison.
“If they can burden the first eight hours, they’ll have a week or two… err… actually, their braidless, so probably only a few days to get their affairs in order before the need to survey locations grows too strong. I’ll send them your sympathies once their head finally clears up.”
---
Travis
Burnsday, the 27th of Eighthmonth
Bridget and I sat down for an early supper, enjoying our brief respite between exams by discussing our future plans.
“My aunt is making me join the wards for a training camp.” Bridget complained, “I know I need the martial combat training, but I just know they’re going to spend both months trying to convince me to switch weapons.”
“You mean a family of commandos don’t approve of you brutally smashing in an opponent’s skull with your mace?” I teased.
She glowered, “No… it’s because Ahkazriel was a member of the Mortymer family.”
“Ahkazriel!” My grin dropped in exchange for a shocked expression, “The minor god of healing? Ally of Trebellia, the Chosen of Torbolt?”
Bridget picked up my grin, “That’s the one. Unfortunately, since I want to study medicine after graduation, I’m expected to follow family tradition and use a staff.”
“Do you have to make one out of bound bushtail antlers and quill-dragon spines like he did as well?”
“Thankfully, no. I am allowed to change things up. Adding a spear tip, making it out of metal, attaching a flail for example, but… it still has to be a ‘staff.’”
“Well, if you ever decide to give in to familial pressure, just let me know. I’ll lend you the blueprints for the one I carry around.”
Bridget started laughing, “I might just do that out of spite.” She kept chortling as we finished our food, then made a show of looking around before leaning in, “Have you… umm… talked to Adrian lately?”
Puzzled about the shift in conversation, I leaned in to join her, “Not really, I only see him during group study nowadays, that new girlfriend of his keeps squirreling him away.”
She rolled her eyes at me, “I was hoping that you could fill me in on why he’s been acting so distant lately. I asked him last week if he’d be interested in visiting my family’s estate over the break, but he… dodged the question, and didn’t answer.” She paused, looking downtrodden, “Do you think he’s intimidated by my family?”
“I’ll admit, it’s stressful having to suddenly adapt to being around nobles. I was fortunate enough to get eased into it for the most part, but every now and then, I still have moments where I can’t shake the strong feeling that I simply don’t belong here. Maybe he’s feeling the same way? I know I keep forgetting that you’re from an inner-ring family, an invitation to visit might be too big of a step.”
Bridget leaned back in her seat to mull over my words, giving Arc a chance to chime in, “I suggest telling her you’ll talk to Adrian, he’s got a lot of things weighing on him right now, and has been hesitant to talk to anyone. I bet he’ll open up if you have a private conversation with him.”
I gave Arc a friendly rub for the advice, then reached across the table to give Bridget a pat on her shoulder, “I’ll pull him aside for a talk before I leave.”
---
Steelsday, the 28th of Eighthmonth
“Drozuk,” Professor Lambertson spoke to my orkish friend as we turned in our exams, “I’ve got that list of books for you. The marked ones are the references I recommend you purchase; the others should be available at the library here.”
Drozuk thanked him as we stepped out of Mage Civics 1 and made our way to the cafeteria. Just one exam left.
I looked up at the tall orc, “Doing some reading while you’re on expedition?”
Drozuk grunted with annoyance as he looked down at their list, “Yeah, it’s for…” He waved his free hand around, hoping to grasp what he wanted to say, “Remember last week’s lesson on fortresses?”
“Yes, did something in particular bother you?”
He nodded, “Okay, so… for context, my dad and uncle raised me at Coldwater Spring Fortress, located right against the Western Mountains and close to a mountain pass to the Elven Kingdom. We moved there because my dad wanted more consistent work that didn’t require leaving for long periods, and because my uncle’s coven is headquartered there.”
“I’m surprised there’d be more work. Wouldn’t the roads have higher security to protect the trade route?”
“You’d think so, but the area off the mountain paths is both craggy and swampy, practically a breeding pen for monsters.” Drozuk placed the list into his side pouch, “So, back to my point, the army only protects the roads; they don’t venture out to eliminate monsters before they become a problem since that’s the job of hunters.” He let out a huff, “I used to have to sit in the fortress lodge, listening to the soldiers and spartans complain loudly about how the local hunters were slacking off, and I’d grow furious because my dad would be on bed rest from nearly dying earlier that week.”
I gave the big guy a pat on his shoulder as he wiped the snot off his face, “So when Professor Lambertsen explained last week that any local Jarl can request an army battalion to come assist in eradicating monsters…”
Drozuk drooped, “Yeah, request. As long as the fortress and villages aren’t breaking any laws, the Queen won’t send out a battalion without being asked, and any Jarl requesting aid would get voted out the next election cycle by the hunters and witches for ruining their potential bounties.”
“Really? But… you just said…”
He sighed, “I know… I don’t like it one bit. Especially now that I know why dissemination of magical knowledge is so restricted.”
I let out my own sigh, “Yeah, necromancers tend to ruin everything.”
Drozuk snorted, “Ha, not for you, that attack on your village has turned into a footnote for your life’s story.” He turned to look at me, “Speaking of, have there been other attacks? I’ve haven’t heard or read about any follow-up attacks on villages.”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Not sure, but… I’m probably not the best person to ask. I barely have the energy to read the school’s paper every week.”
“Don’t your inner-ring buddies keep you up to date?” he teased.
“No, they’re too busy gossiping about their school clubs.” I switched to a sarcastic tone, “Did you know that the captain of the Dark Drakes got caught cheating on his fiancée with the wicketrunner of the Copperdillos?”
Drozuk tilted his head in clear confusion, “Umm, what’s a wicketrunner?”
“The ball carrier in Ruggleball. Their job is to grab the ball after the bowlers roll it back to them, then take cover behind the batters and listen to the captain shout movement commands. If they manage to carry it all the way to the opposing team’s wicket and touch it with the ruggleball without getting hit by a pigskin, they automatically win the game.”
My friend shook his head as we got into line for supper, “Never mind, I can’t be bothered to care. I just got my practical exam for Water Spells on Woodsday, and then I’m finally done. How about you?”
“Just got my written exam for Water Spells left, and I’ll be heading there after I’m done eating.” I gave his arm a friendly nudge, “Nice not having to take any general education exams, isn’t it?”
Drozuk smirked with his toothy grin, “I’m going to walk directly to the tavern after my last test. How about you?”
A familiar voice called out before I could answer, making me turn around, and then down towards a pink-haired dwarf.
“Travis! I was hoping to find ya. Durinn and I are hosting a kegger in a couple of hours over at the burrow. Think you can stop by with that poleaxe of yours?”
“I got an exam in an hour, but I’ll be free afterwards. I take it Durinn’s feeling better?”
Thramreat chuckled, “Oh, you could say that…” They then pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote out directions, “Here ya go. I’ll save you a mug.”
Drozuk and I watched the dwarf walk towards the carryout counter to rejoin the group they came in with, then pick up a massive order of boxes requiring half a dozen people to carry.
I grinned, “Looks like I’ll be having fun tonight.”
Drozuk twisted back to me, “You’re insane. You know that, right?”
Taken aback, I stammered in surprise before finally asking, “Umm… no, I don’t. Is there something I should know?”
He shook his head at me, “Be easier for you to see it yourself. Just don’t eat any of the food, or drink from the punchbowl. Oh, and bring earplugs.”
submitted by Degermark to HFY [link] [comments]
Wiki RoyalRoad
Cover Art & Travis Portrait by Pedro Puglisi
Journal Entry #1
Heard the church bell ring while out checking the rabbit snares. Dropped the hare I was skinning and ran as fast as I could to the nearest gate. The town was in complete panic when I made it safe inside, and everyone was hysterical as they piled into the church.
Mom spotted me as I entered, then grasped me tightly in her arms as her entire body shook with intense sobs. She kept trying to speak, but couldn’t stop gasping for air as dad and Linn each put a hand on me, both with stern faces.
A knot twisted in my stomach, and I swiveled my head around, trying to find Petter, but my little brother wasn’t with us. I locked eyes with dad, too afraid to speak the words.
He shook his head, then spoke the infamous words that plague the nightmares of every single villager, “The monster got him.”
---
Travis
Windsday, the 25th of Eighthmonth
The veil of sleep pulled away from my mind, replacing it with absolute bliss as my body registered the soft and warm comfort of my bedsheets. Although it was tempting to stay in there all day, the increasing blood flow in my body was already making me grow restless, and eventually I couldn’t lie still.
“Good morning, I take it you’re feeling better?”
Looking over at the clock while I began my daily stretching routine, I noticed that it was the first time I’d awoken early since my encounter with Adamanrion and Apheros. It was also the first night I didn’t have nightmares waking me up in the middle of the night.
“Yeah, I guess so. Did I wake at all during the night? I can’t remember.”
“Nope, you slept like a log.” The room suddenly grew quieter, indicating that Arc must have casted a [Sound Barrier] to keep our next conversation from being overheard, “I know you’re starting finals today, but are you ready to talk about what happened at Adamanrion’s church?”
I let out a deep exhale, found a comfy spot on the bed, then picked up Arc to hold him in my lap, “I’m not sure how much I remember, and some of what I do went over my head.”
“I’d be shocked if you managed to retain everything. You were a bit preoccupied. What with you getting some very hard proof that I was talking to Addy.”
I chuckled, “I think I would have preferred the beard.”
“Can’t fault you for that, though I will say you handled it well, all things considered.”
I looked down at Arc, and narrowed my eyes, trying to determine if he was pulling my line, “You’re joking, right? I thought my heart was going to explode at one point, my vision kept going dark, and poor 5751054 had to endure me bear-hugging him in full armor wile I made a river of my tears and snot. How is that handling it well?”
“You remained standing and conscious despite physically feeling the presence of two gods. I can’t imagine what the overwhelming sensation was like for you.”
Gripping Arc’s handle, I thought back to the feeling I had when both gods invaded my attuned poleaxe, “Attuning something small is like drinking a cup of water, not too difficult unless you’ve already downed a few canteens. My poleaxe feels like I’m chugging a gallon of milk when I fully sync with it. Those gods… it was like my head was forced back, a waterskin was shoved into my mouth… and… when I looked up… it was attached to an entire ocean of water… the only thing stopping it was a hand pinching off the flow from drowning me.”
“That… that sounds horrifying… I guess that explains some of the night terrors you were having.”
Neither of us spoke for a few minutes as we sat there, enjoying the silence, but after taking a meditative breath, I finally thickened my bark up enough to start asking questions.
“So… you are a god?”
Arc sighed, “I guess I am? I’m still having a hard time believing it. It’s not like I can go around bending reality.” He paused, then sighed once more, “Then again, it’s probably a good thing I can’t. I’m already in enough trouble as it is.”
I smiled, “Things were simpler when I thought you were only a talking tree. I’m just glad you’re not being taken away from me.”
“Same here. Speaking of… your list of titles is starting to grow, how are you liking the new one?”
“Paladin of the Arcane… Why did you ask to include the article?”
“It sounds better that way. Trust me, it’s all about the presentation, a little gravitas can go a long way when you’re trying to make an impression.”
I rolled my eyes at my sword, “Great… you haven’t even been a minor god for a week, and its already going to your head. Are you going to start demanding I pray to you now too?”
“Umm… about that…”
My eyes narrowed at Arc, and I began to scowl, “Seriously?”
“Well… you see… you kinda… have been.”
That wiped the expression off my face, leaving me baffled, “Okay, please explain.”
“You know how we found out that all this time you technically didn’t have a blessing? Well… a prayer can be just about anything that you do to create a personal connection to a god, reciting prose, singing from a hymnal, practicing a divine tenet,” he made a quick pause, “giving them a friendly rub on their pommel…”
My eyes dawned with realization, “So, when Adamanrion said that you were sensing me trying to form a connection with you…”
“Yeah… not sure if it counts as heresy, but if it does, Apheros didn’t seem to care. Heck, he’s the one who officially made you my paladin. Even gave you a to-do list for your first duties.”
That sparked a memory, “Oh, that’s right, didn’t Apheros say I need to help you fix your housing or something? What did he mean by that?”
“He did…” Arc paused to make the sound of a deep breath, “Okay, before I can explain, I’m going to need to give you some very basic information about souls. So, no heroic sacrifices. Got it?”
Grinning, I nodded my head, “No promises.”
“Ugh… Well, for starters, every single sapient being, and a few non-sapient ones, have a soul. Souls expand in size and power by connecting to the physical plane of existence and experiencing life. Think of a plant sprout growing roots to collect the water in the soil. The soil is the physical matter your soul attaches to. For me, it’s my sword body, and in your case, it’s that growing meat sack you keep stuffing with food.”
As if on cue, my stomach growled from the lack of breakfast, making us both chuckle.
“Okay, I think I’m following so far, what do you mean by experiences though?”
“Anytime you interact with someone, something, or someplace, your soul will grow a little bit in size. Some experiences, however, will provide more nutrients than others. Remember back when you were training to trigger your mana for the first time? Challenging yourself by lifting just a little more weight, working hard to solve a tricky puzzle, exposing yourself to a new environment or culture, all of them are like adding liquid fertilizer to the soil for you to suck up.”
I nodded along, finding a lot of similarities between what Arc was saying and Apheros’ journey to obtain strength, knowledge, and wisdom. Which made sense, given the topic.
“Is that why Apheros no longer walks amongst us anymore?” His soul grew too big?”
“Probably. If your average person or animal is a flower, a minor god would be the size of a bush, and then a god would be the tree towering over everyone. Sadly, there is a downside to growing so large. Our bodies are like flowerpots, the bigger your soul gets, the harder it is to find a pot that you can fit in.”
The still fresh memory of being connected to the two gods and sensing their ocean-like enormity sent a shiver down my spine, “Yeah, I can’t imagine anything being able to contain that kind of power.”
“Exactly, it’s why I didn’t even consider the possibility that I’m a minor god. Though, I guess it’s possible that my definition is incorrect, given that it sounds like I’m not the only soul trapped in a weapon. But, back to the original topic, my housing. It’s not an immediate concern, but I am slowly running out of room for my soul in here. And I’m not sure if it’s related, but I also think I’m at my limit for mana density, I’ve only added a few motes over the past month.”
I activated my mana sight to give Arc a thorough look, but, like usual, his insides were a messy kaleidoscope of different mana types. Not just the blend of basic elements throughout, but a good portion of Metal Mana inside the fuller, a smudge of green Wood Mana near the tip, and even speckles of violet Ice and pink Lightning mana near the cross-guard.
“How can you even tell? Everything’s a jumbled mess in there.”
“Hey! Don’t body-shame me. I raised you better than that.”
Letting out an annoyed groan, I decided to get back on topic, “Sorry. Do you know what we need to fix?”
“Umm… I’m not sure… I guess we should have asked. Apheros mentioned that a necromancer wrecked my sword, scaring off the creature that was originally in here, so if I can figure out what its original condition looked like, maybe I can start fixing things.”
I frowned, “How did they even damage your body in the first place? I literally whacked you against a pile of Order infused stone and you didn’t even gain a scratch.”
“Huh… That’s a good question… Maybe that’s what I should focus on to fix my sword-body.” Arc began to groan, “Ugh, so many questions… And I never did get an answer to why it was my soul that was planted in here.”
“Yeah… I assume Torbolt or Aelder were supposed to tell you why, but I… kinda took you away before Torbolt’s Chosen could come get you.”
“True, but that’s not what’s irking me. What really scrapes my boat bottom is, ‘Why didn’t they tell me before placing me in this sword?’”
That left me stumped. Admittingly, Apheros isn’t known for being very intelligent outside of his domains, hence why he likely didn’t think anything was amiss with having Aelder babysit. But although my knowledge of Torbolt is lacking, I know one of his domains is military tactics. Not giving a pre-mission briefing before deployment seems out of character for him.
“I have a feeling we’re not going to find an answer anytime soon. Unless we figure out a way to ask Torbolt or Aelder.”
“Great… our options are an unreliable perpetual child, and a war god who’s super pissed at us.”
I sighed, letting out a long breath, “Oh yeah, we’re also supposed to figure out how to make amends with Torbolt. I hope you’re keeping track of all of this.”
“Don’t worry, I updated the quest log.”
Light and Shadow Mana drifted off Arc, and into the air in front of me before swirling into a readable text.
Quest Log:
· Buy posters and other decorations for room.
· Buy an apology gift for Issac
· Buy a secure lockbox for the aelderwood scraps Father Viburnum sent you.
· Get ear pierced so you can wear the gift Seleyna gave you.
· Help Arc fix his housing.
· Find a way to apologize to Torbolt.
· Carve mana channels into poleaxe.
· Make some drunken mistakes at a brothel, preferably with non-human companions.
I read through the list, preferring it greatly over having them spoken aloud, but raised my eyebrow at the last line, “Seriously, you added that?”
“He did ask nicely, maybe he’ll even give you a blessing if you father enough future spartans?”
I waved my hand through the list with a groan, disrupting Arc’s mana, then changed into my uniform and made my bed. Walking out of my room, I overheard Drozuk’s alarm going off, and was about to leave after grabbing my mail, but stopped when I noticed a wrapped gift in the wall-embedded mailbox.
“Who’s it from?”
“Hmm… don’t see a tag…” My hand began to reach forward to open it but was halted by Arc shouting.
“Wait! Don’t open it. There’s an object with a high amount of Metal Mana inside, and a glass container filled with something dense with Wood Mana.”
“You think it’s something harmful?”
“Well, you did anger a bunch of nobles from all three kingdoms just the other day and are now establishing a personal connection with the crown. I might just be paranoid, but a gift-wrapped explosive sent by a jealous rival wouldn’t be too surprising.”
I examined the gift with my own mana sight, annoyed that I couldn’t make out what was inside either, “Great, what do I do now? I don’t know how to disarm a bomb, I’m not a commando.”
“You got your Messaging Stone? Maybe Sir Tracy can help.”
Oh, that’s a smart idea. I haven’t talked to him yet, but he did say to Message him for help if I found myself in trouble.
I reached into my secured valuables pouch, then touched the stone, syncing a newly formed [Message] spell to match the same frequency as the stone’s, “Hello, Sir Tracy? Are you there?”
The sound of a groan, followed by a yawn emanated from my spell before the Royal Knight’s voice could be heard, “Travis? Is that you?”
“Yes, sorry for waking you, but… umm… I received an unmarked gift in the mail today… and, I’m probably just being overly cautious, but…”
“Ah, say no more. Just give me a sec, and whatever you do, don’t open or disturb the package.”
I stood there in silence, awkwardly still holding the gift in my hand, too scared now to set it down.
“Okay, just hang tight, I’ve sent a commando to assist.”
“Thanks, sorry again for the trouble.”
“None at all. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Besides, you and all the other students on campus shouldn’t be receiving unmarked packages. While we’re waiting, was there anything else I could help you with?”
“Umm… I do want to ask about what happened in the palace before I was suddenly forced to take four of my practical exams early and all at once, but I’d imagine that to be a long tale.”
Sir Tracy chuckled over the channel, “Yeah, that could take a while. It’d probably be easier for me to tell you in person, then I could bring in flow-charts to help disseminate all the political maneuvers and under-the-table deals everyone was trying to make. Speaking of, have you told anyone about the gift Seleyna gave you?”
“No, I’ve kept that hidden in my valuable’s pouch. Hey, I suppose I could ask you. I don’t know anything about artifice piercings, is there a particular spot on my ear it’s supposed to go?”
“There’s some flexibility in where you place it, but I’d recommend putting it in the inner conch of your ear. That way it will be difficult to see, even with mana sight.”
A knock came from my nearby door, and I checked through the door’s peephole to see a figure dressed in dark molded leather and cloth. I opened the door to allow them entry, and after they tilted their head towards the potential explosive in my hands, I handed the gift over to them.
“Okay, commando is here.”
The commando whipped out a tiny razor blade hidden in their sleeve, stepped into my bathroom, then shut the door. The sound of my shower running could be heard briefly, then after a few more moments, they walked out and handed the gift back to me with a thumbs up.
“False alarm?”
They nodded.
“Travis?” Drozuk shouted from his room, “Is someone here?”
“Just Bridget’s dad disarming a bomb.”
“What the?” Drozuk popped his head out of his room and frowned, “Ha, ha, really funny.” He then shut his door to get ready for breakfast.
Confused about his reaction, I turned back to thank the commando, but startled when I realized that they vanished.
“You still alive?” Sir Tracy’s voice echoed out of my spell.
“Sorry, all clear.” I opened the gift’s lid to look inside, “Oh, it’s just a fancy shaving kit. I don’t see a note or anything to indicate who it’s from though…”
“Could it be a late birthday gift?”
“Maybe? I’m not sure why someone would get me one, unless… ugh, they were trying to get underneath my bark…”
“Underneath your bark?”
“Err… parking the manure wagon a yard away from the pen?”
“What? No, I understood the first expression. Why would a shaving kit be a backhanded gift?”
Groaning with embarrassment, I explained over the channel, “My beard development has been painfully slow, and my friends are more than aware of my disdain.”
I looked down once more at the insulting gift. Everything was included, there was a single-edged razor blade, a bar of peppermint scented soap, a thickly bristled brush, a mug to foam up the lather, and a bottle of oil to apply after finishing.
“I’ll admit, it is a nice kit, the blade is even made of mid-grade dwarven steel.”
“Hmm… It’s possible it was given in earnest. When I was training to learn Blade enchantments, one of the things we used were shaving razors. Since they’re so small and thin, you need excellent mana control not just to create the spell formation, but to manipulate it afterwards. Trust me, you learn very quickly when even the slightest nick will make your neck spray out a geyser of blood.”
I joined Tracy as he chuckled over the channel, “Huh, you might be right. I heard we’ll learn weapon enchantments next semester, so maybe the person who gifted me this knows that?”
“Sounds like a reasonable assumption.”
“Hmm… that doesn’t really narrow down who could have given it to me though.” I sighed as my stomach grumbled, “I’ll have to worry about that some other time though, I’ve got more important things to do right now.”
“Right, it’s finals week. You’re up to your eyeballs in exams.”
“Actually, I was referring to breakfast, but you’re not incorrect. My schedule is still packed full, even with four less exams. I’ll try to find an hour to chat later this week. If not, I’m sure I’ll get bored while traveling for my assignment next week. Or are you going to be busy with your own Fall Expedition?”
“Sadly no, with the bulk of the kingdom’s military outside of the capital, the city’s defenses will be at their weakest, so I’ll be on watch here. Feel free to Message me whenever though, especially during your return trip, I’ll probably be just as bored. Monster attacks on the capital nearly drop down to zero towards the end of the Fall purge.”
“Okay then, it was nice chatting with you.
“Likewise.”
---
Arc
I impatiently waited for Travis to finish his second exam of the day, this one for Wind Spells 1, still irritated about how he made me repeatedly promise after lunch that I wouldn’t help him. To add insult to injury, the little bastard even pulled out a pen to write down his answers! My focus hovered over the vexing test booklet, the trace amounts of Wood Mana in the ink camouflaged perfectly into the Wood Mana of the paper, making it impossible for me to read both the questions and answers.
Honestly, the lack of trust really hurt. It’s not like I’d tell him the answers, just… maybe make a subtle cough if he got something wrong, or…
Travis closed the exam booklet, gave his neck a good stretch before standing up, then headed to the front of the room where his professor and teacher assistants were waiting.
“Travis,” Professor Quinsandoral motioned the teen over with an enthusiastic grin, “come chat for a bit while I have you. I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you yet.”
Travis walked over to the high elf, looking up at him with an inquisitive look as the professor waved their hands to weave their synced Wind Mana in the air into a formation. The mana lines formed a double-walled lattice, creating a [Sound Barrier], but there were a few additions to the standard spell.
Professor Quinsandoral chuckled as Travis used his mana sight to see the spell also, “A one-way Sound Barrier, really nothing too fancy, just attaching a Message spell to transmit sound through, but it does have a few advantages. Namely in that it prevents overly loud noises from entering.” He clapped a hand on Travis’ back, “Ah, look at me, already too impatient to wait for next semester. Let me start by saying how absolutely delightful it was to see the ambassadors teeming with anger after Queen Claudette teased that even if you were secretly a twenty-four-year-old knight, that it would hardly lessen your displayed skill.”
Travis pulled his head back in surprise, “People think I’m twenty-four?”
He chuckled boisterously, “That was my reaction as well. I didn’t even know you were eighteen until the registrar’s office told me that you’d be going on a Fall Expedition this year. Was quite upsetting actually, I was hoping to include you and Mattius in a… oh! Speak of the duck.” His arms extended outward, then gestured as if opening a curtain to create a part in his spell formation, “Young Master Tatian, come join us! I have something to give you.”
Mattius, clearly uncomfortable from the sudden attention, scratched the back of his head as he entered the [Sound Barrier], “You… seem to be in a good mood today professor.”
“I certainly am.” The high elf beamed, “Not only did I get to make Maeralya eat her words, but that advice you gave me worked like a charm.”
“Advice?”
“The suggestion to send my son on a camping trip.” Professor Quinsandoral paused to chuckle to himself, “He finally found out my scheme this morning and stormed into my office, had a full-blown temper tantrum, and screamed obscenities at me for nearly half an hour. I think it was the longest conversation I’ve had with him in months.”
Travis and Mattius exchanged glances as their professor giggled to themself while reaching into a satchel, then pulled out a folder, “Here we are.” He handed it to Mattius, “This is your copy of exemption for the practical exam. You’ve more than demonstrated competency in this semester’s curriculum during the guided practices in the spell range. I do apologize by the way, this was supposed to have been submitted before schedules were delivered, but… one of the elven consulates had to throw a duck into the works after they found out that Travis had the gall to perform well in classes.”
Mattius turned to look at Travis, who gave an awkward shrug in return, prompting the Packer to shake their head, “I guess nine exams are better than ten.”
Quinsandoral grinned, “Expect to receive a similar gift during your written exam for Earth Spells, Ingotborn has been very impressed with your skills, particularly in how you’ve been exercising your affinity.”
“Oh, umm… thank you. Your advice to keep a journal has helped out greatly, there’s a lot of inconsistencies with my affinity compared to everyone else’s.”
“That reminds me, how did your meeting with the Archmagus go?”
Mattius scratched the back of his head, “It was… interesting… They asked me a bunch of strange questions, then gave me this…” he reached into one of his side pouches to pull out a…
a…
A void of nothingness?
I moved my focus in close to double-check, but the cube-shaped hole in the universe was still there.
Huh, that’s weird. I’ve seen plenty of mana-dead spaces before (Wind spells often generate them when creating vacuums), but never an object that was completely void of mana. Even the least mana dense rock has enough traces of Earth Mana to still look like it’s made of clear glass.
Professor Quinsandoral looked down at the object and rolled his eyes, “Oh, one of Avem’s puzzle boxes. I take it for your initiation you’ll be expected to solve it?”
Mattius nodded, “Yeah, they said I could take my time, but to preferably return it before I die of old age.”
Quinsandoral shook his head, “Well, keep that maddening thing away from me. Avem’s warned me multiple times not to help anyone directly with those. It’s supposed to be you and you alone who solves that.”
Mattius turned to Travis, “Actually, they said I could ask you for help, but you’ll have to follow the same rule. No asking any person, god, or object for help, but we are allowed to ask the terrain.”
Oh, that is just…
Travis looked up from the mana-less cube to give Mattius a grin, “Ok, I’ll tell my sword not to help.”
The professor and Mattius both looked down at me, then at each other, before Mattius whispered, “He’s been really stressed out the last couple of days. I don’t think we need to worry just yet.”
---
Voltsday, the 26th of Eighthmonth
Of course, the one exam that I can see with my mana sight, is Travis’ best subject…
Travis’ hands moved with the dexterous precision of a watchmaker as he worked on the tiny cubic artifice, finishing the assembly of the outer metal casing, checked to ensure the aperture in the front opened when turning the dial, that the foldable legs on the other three sides seamlessly closed, the d-ring on top could be flipped up with a fingernail, and that the mount on the bottom could securely clip onto his helmet.
Satisfied with his inspection, he began attuning to the item, raising the pulse-rate until the condensing array inside ramped up high enough to reach critical mass and form a tiny [Light Orb] inside the palm-sized cube.
Travis smiled, taking a minute to play with his mana-powered flashlight/lantern, then proudly walked to the front of the classroom to submit his artifice for examination. The professor did a basic function test, pulled a slab of slate from a nearby pile, then began writing down measurements using an Earth inscribed stylus.
Curious, I brought in my focus, and was able to see how the artifice pushed on the surface of the stone tile, creating a trench on the stylus’ side and a protrusion on the other. Professor Oresword eventually finished marking down the measurements for minimum mana frequency input, Travis’ military identification number, the current date, and then handed the flashlight back to Travis.
“Excellent work, you’re getting full marks.” They chuckled as they passed the slate tile to the assistant next to them, “Not going to lie, I was a little worried that you did a rush job with how fast you worked, but I’m guessing you must be versed in tinkering? Clockmaker’s assistant perhaps?”
“I’ve taken apart a windup clock before, but I’d say most of my skill comes secondhand from working with the woodworker of my village. He had a book on fancy wood joinery that he let me try out and did highly detailed wood burnings in his free time.”
The professor nodded along as the assistant next to them placed the carved tile in a small printing press, pulled one lever to roll a coat of ink over it, then placed a card inside before pressing down. The beardless assistant then gave the still wet card to Travis.
“Here you are. Take good care of that lamp, should last you quite a few years before the dust needs to get replaced.”
Travis stepped back, completely left a gasp, “Wait, I get to keep this?”
The entire table broke out into laughter. Well… all but Durinn, who was shifting uncomfortably in their seat, fiddling with a puzzle box in their hands, and looking highly anxious overall.
“Durinn, are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Durinn snapped, “I’m not some youngling who can’t keep their fingers clean.”
Whoa, something’s clearly bothering the new artificer. Even the table was stunned by the reaction.
Professor Oresword gestured Travis to lean in so they could whisper, “They might not be in their right mind. Us bearded sometimes… forget about certain things when trying to meet a deadline.” They then took a piece of slate to carve out a picture of a shovel with one hand while holding up a finger to their lips with the other.
“Ooh…” / ‘Ooh…’ Travis and I both realized in unison.
“If they can burden the first eight hours, they’ll have a week or two… err… actually, their braidless, so probably only a few days to get their affairs in order before the need to survey locations grows too strong. I’ll send them your sympathies once their head finally clears up.”
---
Travis
Burnsday, the 27th of Eighthmonth
Bridget and I sat down for an early supper, enjoying our brief respite between exams by discussing our future plans.
“My aunt is making me join the wards for a training camp.” Bridget complained, “I know I need the martial combat training, but I just know they’re going to spend both months trying to convince me to switch weapons.”
“You mean a family of commandos don’t approve of you brutally smashing in an opponent’s skull with your mace?” I teased.
She glowered, “No… it’s because Ahkazriel was a member of the Mortymer family.”
“Ahkazriel!” My grin dropped in exchange for a shocked expression, “The minor god of healing? Ally of Trebellia, the Chosen of Torbolt?”
Bridget picked up my grin, “That’s the one. Unfortunately, since I want to study medicine after graduation, I’m expected to follow family tradition and use a staff.”
“Do you have to make one out of bound bushtail antlers and quill-dragon spines like he did as well?”
“Thankfully, no. I am allowed to change things up. Adding a spear tip, making it out of metal, attaching a flail for example, but… it still has to be a ‘staff.’”
“Well, if you ever decide to give in to familial pressure, just let me know. I’ll lend you the blueprints for the one I carry around.”
Bridget started laughing, “I might just do that out of spite.” She kept chortling as we finished our food, then made a show of looking around before leaning in, “Have you… umm… talked to Adrian lately?”
Puzzled about the shift in conversation, I leaned in to join her, “Not really, I only see him during group study nowadays, that new girlfriend of his keeps squirreling him away.”
She rolled her eyes at me, “I was hoping that you could fill me in on why he’s been acting so distant lately. I asked him last week if he’d be interested in visiting my family’s estate over the break, but he… dodged the question, and didn’t answer.” She paused, looking downtrodden, “Do you think he’s intimidated by my family?”
“I’ll admit, it’s stressful having to suddenly adapt to being around nobles. I was fortunate enough to get eased into it for the most part, but every now and then, I still have moments where I can’t shake the strong feeling that I simply don’t belong here. Maybe he’s feeling the same way? I know I keep forgetting that you’re from an inner-ring family, an invitation to visit might be too big of a step.”
Bridget leaned back in her seat to mull over my words, giving Arc a chance to chime in, “I suggest telling her you’ll talk to Adrian, he’s got a lot of things weighing on him right now, and has been hesitant to talk to anyone. I bet he’ll open up if you have a private conversation with him.”
I gave Arc a friendly rub for the advice, then reached across the table to give Bridget a pat on her shoulder, “I’ll pull him aside for a talk before I leave.”
---
Steelsday, the 28th of Eighthmonth
“Drozuk,” Professor Lambertson spoke to my orkish friend as we turned in our exams, “I’ve got that list of books for you. The marked ones are the references I recommend you purchase; the others should be available at the library here.”
Drozuk thanked him as we stepped out of Mage Civics 1 and made our way to the cafeteria. Just one exam left.
I looked up at the tall orc, “Doing some reading while you’re on expedition?”
Drozuk grunted with annoyance as he looked down at their list, “Yeah, it’s for…” He waved his free hand around, hoping to grasp what he wanted to say, “Remember last week’s lesson on fortresses?”
“Yes, did something in particular bother you?”
He nodded, “Okay, so… for context, my dad and uncle raised me at Coldwater Spring Fortress, located right against the Western Mountains and close to a mountain pass to the Elven Kingdom. We moved there because my dad wanted more consistent work that didn’t require leaving for long periods, and because my uncle’s coven is headquartered there.”
“I’m surprised there’d be more work. Wouldn’t the roads have higher security to protect the trade route?”
“You’d think so, but the area off the mountain paths is both craggy and swampy, practically a breeding pen for monsters.” Drozuk placed the list into his side pouch, “So, back to my point, the army only protects the roads; they don’t venture out to eliminate monsters before they become a problem since that’s the job of hunters.” He let out a huff, “I used to have to sit in the fortress lodge, listening to the soldiers and spartans complain loudly about how the local hunters were slacking off, and I’d grow furious because my dad would be on bed rest from nearly dying earlier that week.”
I gave the big guy a pat on his shoulder as he wiped the snot off his face, “So when Professor Lambertsen explained last week that any local Jarl can request an army battalion to come assist in eradicating monsters…”
Drozuk drooped, “Yeah, request. As long as the fortress and villages aren’t breaking any laws, the Queen won’t send out a battalion without being asked, and any Jarl requesting aid would get voted out the next election cycle by the hunters and witches for ruining their potential bounties.”
“Really? But… you just said…”
He sighed, “I know… I don’t like it one bit. Especially now that I know why dissemination of magical knowledge is so restricted.”
I let out my own sigh, “Yeah, necromancers tend to ruin everything.”
Drozuk snorted, “Ha, not for you, that attack on your village has turned into a footnote for your life’s story.” He turned to look at me, “Speaking of, have there been other attacks? I’ve haven’t heard or read about any follow-up attacks on villages.”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Not sure, but… I’m probably not the best person to ask. I barely have the energy to read the school’s paper every week.”
“Don’t your inner-ring buddies keep you up to date?” he teased.
“No, they’re too busy gossiping about their school clubs.” I switched to a sarcastic tone, “Did you know that the captain of the Dark Drakes got caught cheating on his fiancée with the wicketrunner of the Copperdillos?”
Drozuk tilted his head in clear confusion, “Umm, what’s a wicketrunner?”
“The ball carrier in Ruggleball. Their job is to grab the ball after the bowlers roll it back to them, then take cover behind the batters and listen to the captain shout movement commands. If they manage to carry it all the way to the opposing team’s wicket and touch it with the ruggleball without getting hit by a pigskin, they automatically win the game.”
My friend shook his head as we got into line for supper, “Never mind, I can’t be bothered to care. I just got my practical exam for Water Spells on Woodsday, and then I’m finally done. How about you?”
“Just got my written exam for Water Spells left, and I’ll be heading there after I’m done eating.” I gave his arm a friendly nudge, “Nice not having to take any general education exams, isn’t it?”
Drozuk smirked with his toothy grin, “I’m going to walk directly to the tavern after my last test. How about you?”
A familiar voice called out before I could answer, making me turn around, and then down towards a pink-haired dwarf.
“Travis! I was hoping to find ya. Durinn and I are hosting a kegger in a couple of hours over at the burrow. Think you can stop by with that poleaxe of yours?”
“I got an exam in an hour, but I’ll be free afterwards. I take it Durinn’s feeling better?”
Thramreat chuckled, “Oh, you could say that…” They then pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote out directions, “Here ya go. I’ll save you a mug.”
Drozuk and I watched the dwarf walk towards the carryout counter to rejoin the group they came in with, then pick up a massive order of boxes requiring half a dozen people to carry.
I grinned, “Looks like I’ll be having fun tonight.”
Drozuk twisted back to me, “You’re insane. You know that, right?”
Taken aback, I stammered in surprise before finally asking, “Umm… no, I don’t. Is there something I should know?”
He shook his head at me, “Be easier for you to see it yourself. Just don’t eat any of the food, or drink from the punchbowl. Oh, and bring earplugs.”
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2023.03.24 13:55 prismlead87 What is the maximum weight limit for packers and movers?
 | Packing for a move is a time-consuming and complicated task as is, so the last thing you’d want is to make things even more difficult for yourself by committing any major packing mistakes. submitted by prismlead87 to u/prismlead87 [link] [comments] Below, we have highlighted 5 mistakes to avoid when packing for a move. More importantly, we focus on how to recognize those big packing mistakes early enough so that you can fix your errors before the actual move has taken place. Office shifting Services in Bangalore Here are the top 5 signs you’ve packed your boxes the WRONG way. 1. Wrong way: Your boxes are not double-taped anywhere Correct way: The bottoms and side edges of your cardboard boxes are double-taped for added protection. When packing for a move, your cardboard boxes will not only serve as mere containers for your prized possessions while the latter is being transported from Point A to Point B. No, the goal of your moving boxes should also to protect your valuable items so that they don’t get damaged along the way. One way your fragile things can get broken or badly damaged during a move is when the bottom of a cardboard box breaks under the weight and whatever’s inside it just drops straight onto the ground. Read More about Office Moving Service Near Me, Bangalore – Upright Big Guy Movers Are You Looking for Office Shifting Near Me? We are professional Office Shifting Movers & Packers in Bangalore & its surrounding areas. Call +919108520587 For Best Office Moving Services. And if whatever’s inside it happens to be heavy, then those heavy things can fall on your feet or toes, resulting in personal injuries of various types and severity. How to do it properly: Get quality packing tape and tape twice the bottom of each box and its side edges before you start filling it. This safety measure is especially important when you’re boxing fragile or heavy items for transport. 2. Wrong way: Your boxes are not labelled in any way Correct way: Each packed box is clearly labelled with its content, destination room and handling instructions on the top and at least one of its sides. Some mistakes when packing boxes have more serious consequences than others. For example, having a box break due to low-quality boxes or poor packing can lead to direct damage to the fragile items inside or to possible personal injury. Failure to label your moving boxes is not a critical mistake, but the end result will usually be a loss of valuable time and frustration after the move – two things you definitely want to avoid during the already highly stressful home moving process. Even if you do have a good memory, don’t skip the step of labelling your cardboard boxes after you fill them up with various items. It’ll take anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds to label a box, but those seconds will save you hours of having to dig through a mountain of freshly-delivered boxes and then opening random ones to find the boxes you need. How to do it PROPERLY: Take a black marker and write on each packed box what it contains, where it needs to go and how it needs to be handled for maximum safety. You can use colour markers as well. 3. Wrong way: Your boxes are too heavy to lift and carry safely. Correct way: Each packed cardboard box does not exceed the safe weight limit of around 50 pounds (22.68 kg). When using second-hand moving boxes instead of brand-new ones, that limit should be even lower. One of the most common packing mistakes is to assume that large cardboard boxes are meant to hold heavy items, while small boxes are designed for transporting or keeping light things. In reality, it’s the other way round – heavy items (books, kitchenware, small appliances, etc.) should go into small to medium boxes while lightweight items (clothes, bedding, etc.) should be packed into large cardboard containers. In your attempt to fit more items in a single box, you can easily make the container much heavier than necessary. As a result, you could get to experience the dire consequences of overfilling – one of the worst packing mistakes. Lifting and carrying boxes that are too heavy may lead to back injuries, especially if you fail to follow the proper lifting techniques. Also, when overloaded, a box is more likely to break even if you’ve double-taped its bottom as mentioned above. How to do it properly: Follow the rule of packing heavy things in smaller boxes and light items in large containers. Do not exceed the safe weight limit of roughly 50 pounds (22.68 kg) per box. 4. Wrong way: Your boxes are bulging with too much stuff. Correct way: Your boxes do not seem to be bursting at the seams with too many things packed inside them. The original shape of your cardboard boxes is preserved without any visible deformations. Obviously, making boxes too heavy to lift and carry safely is one of the big mistakes to avoid when packing for a move. But that’s not all. If you overstuff and overfill your cardboard containers so that they are bursting at the seams, that may change their original form and make them much harder to handle properly. Ultimately, deforming cardboard boxes due to overstuffing can lead to various moving day accidents. It can be really tempting to fit as many items inside a single container, but doing so will pose a risk later on when such boxes are being transported. As a general rule, you should be able to close the lids of a box without applying too much pressure on the top. If you do use excessive force to close a moving box, then you are likely to break whatever’s been packed on the top row. Also, boxes that have lost their original shape because of over-packing will be much more difficult to stack securely one over the other inside the moving vehicle. And when not properly packed and secured, then packing boxes can tip over during transport and create quite a mess. How to do it properly: Avoid overstuffing your moving boxes. Transfer some items onto another cardboard container if you can’t seem to close the flaps without having to press down hard. Don’t leave boxes half-empty, either. If you just don’t have enough items to fill up a box, use plenty of padding to eliminate any empty spaces inside it. |