Having some issues running il-2 1946 from an old disk we had lying around. Managed to get it to install through wine (with 1-2 erros along the way) , following a guide that was for a later development of the game, however whenever i try to run i get this error:

0084:fixme:hid:handle_IRP_MN_QUERY_ID Unhandled type 00000005 0084:fixme:hid:handle_IRP_MN_QUERY_ID Unhandled type 00000005 0084:fixme:hid:handle_IRP_MN_QUERY_ID Unhandled type 00000005 0084:fixme:hid:handle_IRP_MN_QUERY_ID Unhandled type 00000005 0024:err:rpc:I_RpcGetBuffer no binding wine: Unhandled exception 0x80000004 in thread 24 at address 00000000 (thread 0024), starting debugger... Segmentation fault (core dumped) Can't attach process 0020: error 5 

Ive looked around online but haven't really found anything of value for a solution.
Running on wine-8.9, plus winetricks and using a specific wine prefix. using KDE Plasma through EndeavourOS (Arch).
Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers.

Chapter Sixty Six: Plotting with Puppy
Entering into the entrance hallway of the apartment Simone tentatively holds up her hand to inform the other two women to wait.
”Something wrong?” Chak asks before looking down at Zrume who sits at her side vigilantly.
The animal’s ears perk up and nostrils flare silently, keeping her own tabs on the situation.
“Hope not, but…” Simone replies in concerned thought, “While I was stranded on the Gratt homeworld and just getting to know Meeki, she was chased and attacked by big burly dogs like Zrume here. Not the same breed of course, but I wanna check in with her before waltzing in, you know? Her only experience with dogs being like that, she probably needs a warning.” she informs.
Chak’s eyes widen slightly and she quickly nods.
“Oh, of course. Yes, that’s a good idea.” she agrees before placing a lower limb on the mutt’s big head.
“Surprised you accepted taking it! You seemed very scared of it at first.” Sonla comments, having been keeping her own distance from the animal thus far.
“She’s a little scary, certainly. Definitely intimidating in size and stature…” Chak grants, “But that look in her eyes… she’s without a doubt a very good natured girl.” she says while gently petting the dog.
“I think so too, but we’re gonna have to be careful introducing her to everyone and make sure she knows who’s a friend. Don’t want her thinking any of them approaching you is of concern.” Simone says before walking ahead to enter the apartment, “You guys wait here, I’ll just be a sec.”
Entering the apartment proper, Simone looks around the circular center hub space. There’s a faint smell of pizza in the air as the empty boxes are still resting on the counter island in the kitchen area. However there is no sight of either Gratt or Terran outside their disheveled mess in the center media couch.
Simone would have felt a but more concerned with how late the three seems to be sleeping in, but the evidence around reveals that they just have been up late having fun while they can.
However, knowing that she still can’t surprise them with the pouch, she walks over to the Gratt’s room and knocks her knuckles against it.
Though when Troy answers it dressed in nothing but a blanket Simone looks over to the other room doors confused.
“Oh, morning dude. Sorry, did I forget who’s room is who’s?” she asks in a chuckle.
“Nope.” the sheepish man replies as he rubs the sleep from his eyes, “Uhm… shoot. Yeah, uhm… Meeki and Nodrin are just waking up too, need me to get ‘em out for ya?” he says as his cheeks redden.
Simone’s eyes gradually expand in realization as she tilts her head enough to see the partially collapsed fortress of pillows and blankets. Nodrin pokes their head and upper torso out from the draping wall in a stretch, while another pair of loving Gratt hands massage their torso in the usual process of separation.
“Hmmmm… morning good Simone.” Nodrin groggily utters as they more fully pull away from their softly chittering partner in a crawl out.
Returning her eyes back to Troy to grant the nude Nodrin a bit of privacy, Simone clears her throat and rubs the back of her head.
“Wow… It looks like you guys had a hell of a time. Uhm… congrats? It seems like it went well. Right, ahh… Yeah...” Simone rambles with several streams of thoughts going through her mind, but she eventually snaps to it by raising her voice slightly, “Meeki? Nodrin? I need you two to get dressed and step out asap. There’s something I need to run by you guys before Chak comes into the apartment.” she calls out to the Gratt before winking at Troy and stepping away and scavenging one of the few remaining cold slices of pizza in the fridge.
“Okay!” Meeki’s voice replies before Troy closes the door to get dressed himself.
Simone updates Chak on the situation with her Lens as she leans against the kitchen island, and only waits for about a minute before the three hurry on out more appropriately garbed. For the most part.
Troy is still shirtless as he wanders out and approaches the kitchen area and starts digging through the cupboards.
Meeki and Nodrin run up to the island by Simone and sit up on the stools. The female wears a gray shirt that’s way too big for her, answering why Troy’s outfit is incomplete.
“Well I’m not seeing much guys, we can try ordering in again. But there’s enough to work with here for some quick and dirty pancakes. Not seeing any syrup or jam, but I think I can make something real quick with these frozen fruit packs in the freezer. Maybe I’ll just throw ‘em into the batter and see if it works out?” Troy tells the duo, seeming to have picked up a conversation they were having while getting dressed, “Oh! And bacon! At least… something that looks like bacon. Definitely not from a Terran animal so I can’t be sure if it’ll cook the same.”
“Sounds much good!” Nodrin agrees as they rest their head in their hands, watching the half dressed Terran get to work, very much enjoying the show.
“What we need to discuss?” Meeki inquires the nearby redhead.
Simone nods before finishing off the slice in her hand.
“Chak and I brought some new friends back home with us, and I wanted to give you a heads up. Probably should’ve messaged ahead… but let’s just say we were a bit distracted. One of them is a Vorook named Sonla. She’s a bit of an infiltration expert and I have a good idea of what she can do in case things don’t go to plan. That said, hold back on details with her for now.” Simone says, to which the Gratt nod, “And… the other is a security service animal that was gifted to Chak by the Z’ah’tuck ambassador. Long story.”
“And I thought we had a wild night… Did you even manage to have that date?” Troy says over his shoulder as he mixes wet and dry ingredients in a bowl.
“Yes, actually. It was amazing, all this other stuff happened afterwards. Anyway, Meeki, Nodrin. I want to clear it with you before bringing the animal in because… it’s a dog. Meeki, I know for a fact that your introduction to dogs was harrowing to say the least, because they were the animals those Gaia people used while invading your home.” Simone addresses the two green folk, seeing a bit of confirmation of her concern in the responding fearful Gratt eyes looking to the entrance door of the apartment.
“The four legged beasts with fur?” Meeki inquires a bit nervously.
“Yep. But I assure you that this one will mean you no harm. Those Dogs that attacked you before were raised and trained to do so. But dogs themselves are domesticated animals that are broadly safe to be around, as long as you don’t make yourself a threat to them. And even then, they may just cower from ya rather than fight. That said, Chak’s new dog Zrume is trained to be a kind of bodyguard. It’s important to know to not act aggressively towards Chak when she’s ‘on duty’, alright? However I’d like to socialize her with you guys here in a sec while she’s ‘off duty’. You know, to make sure she understands you two are friends and permitted near Chak in times of crisis. Is it okay with you two to let them in?” Simone elaborates.
“So… this dog is nice?” Meeki questions for full confirmation.
“Chak called her a sweetheart herself. And I completely agree. As long as you don’t bum-rush Chak for some reason as soon as she walks in, you will be perfectly fine. Just don’t stare into her eyes until she’s comfortable around you. For dogs direct eye contact can be seen as a threat.” Simone answers, “Ready?”
Meeki blinks as she watches the door for a moment longer.
“Yes. Is okay to bring them in.” she nods.
The redhead pats Meeki’s shoulder reassuringly and messages Chak, informing her that she is cleared to enter.
Everyone within the apartment turns to get a look as the entrance opens up to the Cali princess holding a leash to an animal that weighs more than she does.
Meeki relatively takes hold of Nodrin’s hand, but otherwise remains calm as the god is brought closer to the kitchen area.
Chak stops and pulls up a list of provided commands that the canine is trained in.
“Zrume, at ease. Safe zone.” she states firmly, hoping that she did it correctly.
Immediately, Zrume’s posture loosens and even becomes a little wiggly as as she looks down and begins sniffing the ground and nearby furniture within range of the leash’s allowance. Although the leash straightens out, the gentle creature doesn’t pull against her owner’s grip, instead simply shifting her focus to something else.
Quickly that focus comes upon the two Gratt still sitting on stools. Coming closer with caution, Zrume approaches the strangers carefully.
“Lower your hands with palms out, let her say hi first.” Simone advises.
Nodding Meeki slowly obliges, twitching slightly as the animal starts to sniff her clawed hands. Then in a side-rub against Meeki’s legs the dog opens its mouth in a relaxed grin exposing her tongue.
Feeling like permission is granted, Meeki starts to pet Zrume’s shaggy fur along her vertical back.
Nodrin then lowers their hands as well for another sniff-inspection before being enthusiastically allowed to join in on the petting.
Meeki’s nerves gradually fade as the animal proves to be indeed very friendly and well mannered. Nothing like the animals that intended to tear her to shreds way back when.
“Hello Zrume.” she says in a relieving sigh.
At the sound of her name being spoken by this new person the dog arches her head back and up at the Gratt female. Her expression being only what can be defined as ‘goofy sweetness’ with big expressive eyes and a heavy swinging of her happy tail.
Simone covers her mouth, trying to not snort a laugh upon seeing the dog’s dorky nature. Removing her bag from her shoulder she turns to look at Sonla who has been very quietly looking around the apartment and the folks within.
“And this is Sonla. Sonla, this is Nodrin, Meeki and Troy.” the redhead introduces with a moving hand gesture.
The monkey-like lizard stood up from walking on her knuckles to give everyone a wave.
“Hi.” she says a bit awkwardly.
“Welcome to the circus!” Troy greets as he pours his pancake-fruit mixture into a heated and buttered pan. Leaving it for just a moment he leans over on the island and gives the Vorook a big smile, “Want any pancakes? I might have made a bit too much batter while trying to even out the texture.” he offers.
“I’m an obligate carnivore, so no thanks.” Sonla replies as she settles back on her thickly scaled knuckles.
“Oh, sorry, right. My bad.” Troy chuckles as he rubs the back of his neck, “Uhh… what about some bacon? The animal is uhm…” he turns sound to closely read the chilled packaging for the answer, “Premium cloned loamph? Not really sure how ‘premium’ cloned stuff is, but we got it!”
The man flips the package in the air with one hand while the other gives the lizard lady a thumbs up.
“Yes!” Sonla immediately replies as she maneuvers up to the remaining stool by the island, and adjusts it to compensate for her shorter stature.
“You got it!” Troy says with a finger-gun before turning around once more to tend to his cooking.
After a short while seeing the dog is handling the situation well, Chak takes off the leash. Zrume takes this opportunity to step away from the Gratt and further explore the space around her.
“She’s very nice.” Meeki says as she watches the animal sniff around everything that was in her path, “She play or no?” the Gratt inquires curiously.
“Oh yeah. I imagine she’d be happy to play things like fetch and tug-of-war. In fact Chak already ordered toys, food, a bed and a waste pad system to be eventually delivered to the Kwip-chap.” Simone answers before her fiance pressed up against her in a side hug.
“It’s only sensible to be prepared now, rather than later.” Chak defends in a chuckle as she keeps an eye on the pouch, “I just hope the children will like her.”
“I’m sure they will.” the redhead replies as she gently rubs the Cali’s back.
Meanwhile Sonla finds herself staring up directly at Nodrin with an unreadable expression.
“You… alright?” Nodrin asks.
“Why do you have four eyes?” Sonla bluntly counter-questions.
“Ah- uhm… because I was born with four? As most Gratt are. Four eyes not all that strange when it comes to other species. Truba, Carvv and Hallo as examples.” Nodrin answers, confused by the question,
“Well duh, but I mean why does your species have four eyes evolution wise?” Sonla clarifies, “Carvv and Hallo have four to see different light spectrums, and Dillo needed six to look upwards for falling debris in sandstorms and cliffsides. Runeani have eight! I think that is because they needed good depth perception.”
“Oh, so you much study biology science?” Nodrin assumes.
“No. It’s just kinda creepy to look at without context.” Sonla bluntly responds with a shrug,
Nodrin leans back a bit, finding themself a bit offended.
“Much rude… but if it make you comfortable to be around us then I’ll answer the best I can.”
“Sorry. But yes, it’ll help.” Sonla says, although to the Gratt her tone can stand to be a bit more apologetic.
“Very well. They help get more clear vision in dark places. Mostly they help us with close inspection and far distance seeing.” Nodrin explains before pointing at their pair of eyes furthest from the center of their face, “But outer eyes are much special. Our ancestors were aquatic animals and so Gratt’s outer eyes still have extra clear lids to see underwater.”
“Oh. Aquatic?” Sonla questions, “Where did head fur come from then? Are you like mammalian?” she adds with more genuine curiosity.
“I… don’t know…” Nodrin admits, “Gratt study past ancestors much, but we still know little. Though hope new tech from the stars can help with all our sciences.”
“I saw Terran article that said we closely resemble… uhm…” Meeki inserts herself into the conversation before trailing off as she forgets the classification used, “One moment…” she utters as she navigates her Lens to find the article she found, “Ah! Synapsids! Not exactly like, but much comparison. So we are compared to ‘Mammal-like reptiles’.”
Sonla blinks before looking back as the roar of bacon hits a hot pan.
“Huh… Neat!” she replies, “Vorook can’t really swim very well. We tend to sink and even if we don’t we are too top heavy so our heads get stuck underwater. Very funny to see, but also sad. But we are really good at climbing! We can hold on to and dangle from things for long periods of time!”
“But not holding on to speeding shuttles roofs, huh?” Simone teases, as she maneuvers her positioning to get a better line of sight on the sizzling bacon.
“N-no… Well maybe, if it didn’t get so cold so fast.” Sonla says,
Troy looks back at his fellow Terran with a furrowed brow.
“What did you guys get yourselves into?” he says as he breaks into a bewildered laugh.
“I’m sure you’ll know soon enough when you get the chance to look at the news. But by the end of it Chak managed to secure overwhelming Z’ah’tuck support for her and her efforts to take back the throne. Like… military support. Granted, they have a lot to gain from it, but so do we.” Simone reveals as she finds herself a bit closer to the plate where the man was putting down the greasy strips of crispy goodness.
Chak then lets out a genuinely humored giggle that borders on outright laughter.
Confused, Troy looks to Simone then to his other side where Chak is looking. Having somehow sneaked up on him, Zrume sits there while gazing up at him with big pleading eyes with a little line of drool dripping from her maw. Noticing that he is boxed in he turns to Simone and aims his tongs out at her.
“You already pillaged our leftovers, you can wait a few minutes for bacon!” he states sternly in his fake parental tone before turning to the dog.
“Sorry pupper… way too much sodium for you. It’ll upset your guts real bad.” he sweetly apologizes.
As he addresses the canine, Simone swiftly reaches over and silently snatches two hot strips from the plate and retreats back before he is able to notice.
“You motherf-” Troy laughs once he sees both Simone and Chak snacking on the stolen goods, but knowing he would do the exact same drops it immediately.
Simone smirks in victory as she wanders over to the circular center couch to make herself comfortable as they all wait for their other Terran comrades to return from their own mysterious mission.
-
“Well that wasn’t a complete disaster…” Brandy mutters as she strides ahead of Thorn and Devin with her arms crossed while marching into the apartment entrance hallway.
“Hard to believe we weren’t caught after that water tank collapsed… Almost didn’t have the time to scrub us from all the crossing security footage.” Devin groans in a low grumble.
“Getting caught? How about -oh you know- nearly crashing that tanker shuttle into a residential area!?” Brandy snaps back.
“Not my fault that the pilot passed out.” Devin argues.
“Sorta was, that kinda happens when you jumpscare a Zernth from behind like you did.” Brandy counters.
“It was either lose the target or try to convince the Zernth to turn left.” Devin sighs before he feels a mechanical hand press on the back of his shoulder.
Pushing him to hurry up, Thorn catches up with Brandy where he plants his other hand.
“Mmhmm. Not our best work. But we got the bastard and actually convinced the Squilla ambassador to help us out in our little operation here. Other than some spilled water, we managed to pull it off without a hitch. I say we all learn from the experience and get to what’s further down the trail. Remember what’s at stake.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But still… it’s those stakes that make every mistake feel like I’ve wronged the entire universe. Like it’s heavier than it has any right to be.” Brandy replies as she reaches the door, “One fuck up and who knows how many people will be hurt from it down the line…”
“Aye… but in the grand scheme of it all your actions have had the same weight your entire life, because it led you here doing what you’re doing. Still, you're right, it’s a lot to bear on the heart.” Thorn grants, “My advice? Take a note from Simone’s book. Just keep moving forward and rest in the arms of whoever you want to hold ya.”
“I honestly don’t know how she copes. It’d drive me into a downward spiral of stress and paranoia going through half of what she has.” the woman huffs as she reaches to open the door via indicator.
“Don’t compromise who you are, and preserve your capability to love throughout all of the hell life will march ya through. It’ll hurt, but it’s worth it because that’s how you win life.” the old man states right before the door opens.
“Yooo! Bout time! You guys want some cold pancakes? I can reheat ‘em if you’d like!” Troy cheers from the couch with two Gratt resting at his sides.
“I hope you three have moved from the couch at some point…” Brandy says with an exaggerated eye roll, “Have a good night?”
“Yeah we did!” the man answers both of Brandy’s sentences at once.
“I’m going to set up to get our finalized planning underway. Ten minutes.” Devin notifies as he peels off to his room.
“Good. I hear we have a new member to the crew?” Thorn says as he strides in with his hands on his hips.
As if summoned, Sonla’s head peeks out from behind the other side of the couch.
“That’s me! Master infiltrator Sonla at your service!” the Vorook introduces herself, now standing proudly upon the headrest.
“Master eh? Good… We’re definitely gonna need a master’s handiwork in our lil’ operation.” Thorn chuckles as he scratches at his five o'clock shadow.
“We were also told that we have a doggie?” Brandy asks as she looks around for any trace of the animal.
“Yup! Simone and Chak were just showing her off to their kids in a call.” Troy explains as he thumbs to their room.
As if summoned by Troy’s opposable digit, the door opens with Chak once again holding the leash of the dog.
“Welcome back, I hope everyone is alright?” the princess inquires as she guides Zrume out to meet Brandy first, “At ease, safe zone.” she reminds the animal.
“Why hello there! Oh my goodness I’ve never seen a breed quite like hers before! Like a big pitty and… African painted dog maybe? Has the color at least. Definitely some others mixed in there too, hint of mastiff or something else chunkier? But still all the pretty in a fluffy package!” Brandy says as she scratches under the dog’s wide neck, which is very much approved.
Though the angle of Zrume’s ears change to one of caution and alertness. Turning her head towards the old man who had yet to approach she released a low growl.
“It’s okay Zrume, safe zone.” Chak assures, but the animal’s stare remained intense on the cybernetic man.
Seeing the confusion and concern on everyone’s faces, Thorn raises his hand.
“Don’t worry about it, dogs and I don’t really mix. A shame really, but it’s something to do with how my non-organic bits emit a sound they find very agitating. Like a walking annoying dog whistle. I’ll see if Devin can do anything about that, but in the meantime it’s best if the dog and I keep separate.” he explains.
“Oh damn. Yeah I guess dogs never really approached you before. Bummer. I guess while we sort things out we’ll have her chill in our room.” Simone says apologetically.
“And I’ll bunk up when she needs some runnin’ around time.” Thorn nods back appreciatively, “She’s downright adorable by the way.”
As Chak turns back around to lead Zrume back in her room for the time being, Troy’s eyes go wide and he points at Simone dramatically.
“Shit dude I almost forgot! Someone came asking for you by name.” he reveals.
Looking to him with a bit of fear in her eyes Simone gave him her full attention.
“Who?” She demands.
“Don’t worry I never confirmed you were actually here and she seemed… not like the people we’re up against. She was a tall thin lady who said she was a friend of yours from your academy days? She left a contact card and before you ask, yes I scanned the hell out of it. She seemed to really really want to talk to you.” the man explains as he feels around his pockets and when he finds nothing he shoves his hand down the crevice of the couch until he victoriously pulls the card out of the furniture-void.
He holds it out to which Simone accepts hesitantly.
“Yeah, okay…” she mumbles while looking at either side of the card.
“Just be careful, our options of people who we can trust from your military career are thin at best.” Thorn cautions.
“I know. And… I think I know who it is. Honestly I have no clue how involved she is, if at all… but it’s quite the coincidence she shows up now of all times.” Simone admits.
“Is she gonna be a problem for what we’re planning to do?” Brandy asks.
“If she has nothing to do with the Terran terrorists, then I don’t think so. I’d ignore this completely, but I ought to at least know what she wants to talk about, clearly she knows I’m here anyway. No point in avoiding it, especially if she seeks me out during our operation regardless of her intentions we’re asking for trouble. The other big issue of course, is that she’s still with the Terran Union. This could just be a ploy to get me arrested and into Union custody.” the redhead says as she taps the card in the palm of her other hand.
“Then wherever she wants to meet I’ll come with you.” Chak announces as she returns to her Terran, “I’ll even request for Ambassador Zrreak’s attendance if possible, or at the very least have a representative of his there to show that arresting you would be a terrible political nightmare for the Union.” the princess adds sternly with an affirmative nod.
“Damn you're so hot when you get like this…” Simone replies in jest to alleviate her own nerves, “But yeah, I appreciate it.”
“But first before any of that potential shit-show…” Thorn says as he crosses his arms, “It’s time we put our main plan to paper. We have a president to possibly kidnap and hold at gunpoint after all.”
“Oh… wow. That’s a bit more than ‘less than legal’...” Sonla mutters with wide eyes “Good thing I’m a master of explosives too…”

Saw it fit to make a help thread for stickers since there's little to no guides on them yet. I'll update this post with the ones I can find.
First off, I'm pretty sure you need to have the camera equipped to actually take pictures of the stickers and collect them. You can get the camera from the present in Make A Star 2 (the sleepy guy's stage). It's on an RC car in the park area, very hard to miss.
Hot tip by the way, stickers are collected as soon as they're counted as being in a picture you take. You can quit out or fail the level, you wont lose the sticker.
Page 1

• The Tower of Babel - As Large As Possible 1 - On the calendar on the wall of the room (look up)
• Dragon Buster - As Fast As Possible 1 - On the underside of a picture frame that's serving as a bridge between the couch and the cabinet next to it.
• Namco Classic - As Fast As Possible 2 - Inside the doghouse near one of the start points. The dog will push you around, so stand back a bit.
• Dig Dug 2 - As Large As Possible 4 - On the center of the ferris wheel near the end of the level
• The Tower of Daruga 1 - As Fast as Possible 4 - On the central flag of a stadium screen where the 12m barrier is in Make A Star 5. Being guarded by a pterodactyl so be careful.

Page 2

• Family Stadium 2 - Flowers (As many as possible) - Behind the upright bear in the bottom area.
• Galaga 1 - Flowers (As fast as possible) - On the trunk of the tree that Ichigo is riding a deer around. Same tree that also has the present in it.
• Family Jockey - Saturn (Small) - On the balcony behind the pet food bowl where the present is, in a crack between two cinder blocks.
• Libble Rabble - Saturn (Medium) - Inside the fridge in the same room as Peso. You can get this one without moving from one of the start points at all.
• Mappy 1 - Saturn (Big) - At the end of the great wall of china, right below one of the spawn positions.

Page 3

• Mappy 2 - Cowbear - On a cargo container on the big cargo ship. You can climb onto the boat safely to the left of the stage where a game show is happening, then climb up to where the two person horse costume is.
• Metro-Cross - Only 50 - On the backside of the safari gate arch.
• Pac-Man 1 - Field of Sweets - On the wall immediately behind the start of the level. Hidden partially by a tree.
• Pac-Man 2 - Underwater (As large as possible) - On the front of the big tree stump above the lake.
• Rally X-1 - Campfire (Medium) - Behind the tent near where the present is. Keep in mind that your fire will burn out if you take too long taking your picture.

Page 4

• Dragon Spirit 2 - Snowman - On the door to the igloo.
• Dragon Spirit 3 - Fireflies - Behind the waterfall.
• Splatterhouse 1 - Cousins - Inside the umbrella that Lalala is laying under.

Page 5

• Toy Pop 2 - Study Time - In the bookshelf next to the start of the level, on the underside of the upper shelf.
• Valkyrie no Boken 1 - Study Time - On the underside of the bed in the part where you can go underneath it.
• Valkyrie no Boken 2 - Ballerina Hunt - In the water exhibit on the right side wall of the seating area.
• Wagyan Land - Ballerina Hunt - In the safari area behind the big safari sign near the start of the level (there's camels running around near it).
• Yokai Dochuki - Lots of Wheels - On the inner river side of one of the bridges of the racetrack.
• Mojipittan 1 - Extra Special Training - On the door to the cabin near where the student fan is in the fireflies level.
• Mr. Driller - Night School - On the wall in one of the bathroom stalls.

That's all I've got so far. Feel free to contribute, this seems like a fun collection to solve as a group.

I've been trying to wrestle with pipewire for a while now to get some sort of usable production setup. I know recently there was an update to pipewire-jack to get pretty close to native jack latency, and after much tinkering I was finally able to get pipewire-jack to work with Bitwig after screwing around with qjackctl. The latency was incredible, I was able to do some long awaited guitar tracking that I wasn't able to do due the latency I was getting just simply using pipewire as Bitwig's audio system (reported as 2ms but sounded more like 20ms). A day later I pull Bitwig back up and I'm getting what sounds like incredibly distorted bitcrushed audio on my outputs when using the jack option. I tried playing with settings in qjackctl, switching back and forth between audio systems, but I cannot get the audio playback to behave properly. I'm thinking about giving up and removing pipewire and just going back to pulseaudio and jack 2. For more context I'm using an Antelope Zen Go on Arch Linux. Not on the Bitwig 5 beta either. Any advice or reference to useful guides would be greatly appreciated.

When you don’t see someone for a while, they tend to look kind of different the next time you meet. That’s not because they’ve actually changed, but rather due to your memory being inaccurate. Still, I don’t think my roommate has always had barnacles growing on her.
Kit Sutton did indeed look different. Beautiful, but different.
In the short time we’d been apart, her hair had grown to an impressive length. It trailed after her through the water as she effortlessly hopped from rock to rock before landing in front of us. She was even more scantily clad than usual; in fact, she wasn’t wearing anything at all. Her normally olive skin had adopted a pearlescent sheen, interrupted by the algae, starfish and seashells clinging to her body. Her eyes shone in the light of our torch and she regarded us with an unreadable expression, putting a hand to her hip.
"I can't believe you're actually here." She shook her head, sounding like she wasn't even sure herself what tone to strike. "You… you'd better leave. And fast. I-it's nice to see you, though."
I took a step forward and hugged her. She felt slippery. "I've missed you."
"Yeah. Me too. You should still go now."
"You need to come back," I said. "I'm sorry I ever gave up on you. There has to be a way for you to come back."
She shook her head. "Eva, you saw what my father can do. You saw the wave and you just saw his grotto guard. There's, like, a thousand more where that one came from."
"What are you doing here anyways? Isn't this a kinda way too lonely spot for you to hang out?" Elijah asked. "Doesn't seem very you."
"Yeah. It's… not." She rolled her eyes. "I'm basically grounded. My Dad's gonna keep me here for the next two hundred years or so. I'm not allowed to leave until he trusts me again."
"Two hundred years?" Eli echoed.
Kit massaged her temples. "I don't like it either, believe me." Looking up, a hopeful expression crossed her face. "How's Nettie?"
"She misses you," I told her.
"She does? That's, um… nice."
"It's cool, I know about you two."
"Oh. Well. I'm really glad she's thinking about me. Is that mean? Because I don't want her to be unhappy, it just feels good, you know?"
"I can imagine," I answered. "And it only proves my point. We have to get you out of here."
"Dude, I said no. You actually can't beat my father. I wish that was an option, but it's simply not."
"Kit…"
"It's Chandra." She raised her head to fix me with a stern gaze. So empty, so joyless, so… unlike her. "It was nice being Kit and running around up top and living with you. Those were a good few years, and now here I am, paying the price. There is nothing you can do against my Dad."
Silence descended upon us for a sober couple seconds. I studied her expression, her set jaw and taut shoulders. "And what about you?" I asked. "Can you do something?"
Kit snorted. "You've never even seen me use any sort of powers."
"But you have them, don't you?"
"Actually, I do." She casually raised a hand, her wrist slowly describing a circle. Eli and I watched in astonished silence as a trail of water snaked its way up from the lake, arching above her head and trickling back down on the other side of the stepstone. Kit Sutton looked after it disinterestedly, then turned to us with a bored shrug. "I guess I can sorta control water."
Elijah was gaping at her. "Could you do this the whole time?"
"Nope. Only when I'm in my natural habitat. I'm the crown princess—" she spat out the words in discontent, forming air-quotes around them— "and the heiress to the throne, so I'm, like, ultra connected to my element or whatever. Not like my siblings."
"But as of now, you are stronger than them?" I queried. "Is there any possibility you could become stronger than your father, too?"
For a moment, she stared at me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "Actually, let me show you something." Her naked feet never once slipping on the wet stone, she proceeded towards the nearest platform rock, jumping off with ease and landing gracefully. After trading shrugs with Elijah Carter, we scrambled after her. She led us back a little ways and then down one of the other passages we'd glimpsed before, barely losing a word the whole time. I stopped trying to strike up a conversation, focusing solely on keeping up with her unnaturally sleek, swift steps.
"The olm you saw before was one of my father's guardians," she called out sharply over her shoulder. "The sea breeds giants, as they say. Or rather, Dad does. He keeps creating abominations like that, and he uses them to ward off outsiders in places where they don't belong. They're obviously not stopping me from running away again—you've seen that they'll obey me. But his Majesty has made it quite clear that if I break out, he's going to turn the town into a swamp. I'm not going to be responsible for people's deaths, or the loss of their homes. Especially not… not hers."
She came to a halt, squaring her shoulders. Above her head, I could make out the silhouette of an opening in the tunnel. "We're here. This… this should be enough proof that he'll make good on any threat he's ever uttered." She stepped aside to make way for us.
We hesitantly pushed past her and into the room that lay before us. It was different from all the others we'd seen thus far—it didn't lure one into a false sense of security with its descriptive beauty. In fact, the second the beam of our flashlight illuminated its interior, every last fiber of my being started to cry out to me, telling me to run. My flight instinct kicking in, I tried desperately to stay grounded somehow, to keep control. I couldn't allow myself to panic. This was a horrible time to end up going dimensions. I had to remain in this reality, no matter how difficult the sight before me was rendering the task.
I heard Elijah Carter gag beside me, his stomach revolting at what he saw. His hand abruptly flew to my shoulder, cold, sweat-slick fingers clamping down on my skin, hard enough to bruise. With my own stomach doing kick-flips inside my body, I could understand his reaction far too well. Instead of shrinking away, I reached up to graze his knuckles with my own, a fleeting touch I couldn't find the strength to hold. It was hard to be reassuring given the circumstances.
We were looking at a gallery of corpses. They lined the walls, the floor, the ceiling, all in different states of wholeness and decay. A viscous, transparent fluid was gluing them to the stone, fixing them in their respective places. In some spots, it looked quite shiny and fresh, while in others, it had hardened, encasing the dead bodies like clear, pale amber. It was an unorganized chaos, the carcasses strewn practically everywhere, some overlapping, some upside down. Some had their eyes still open, their faces eternally frozen in void, empty expressions of terror. Most bodies weren't even complete—arms, legs or heads were missing, pronounced bitemarks marring the aged yet well-preserved flesh.
Elijah and I found ourselves standing rooted to the ground, too terrified to move, too dazed to speak. My friend's dark gaze frantically raced over the walls, flickering across the horrid display, taking in the carnage. My own eyes seemed to be burning. My head was spinning, and I had to hold onto his arm to support myself—it felt as though my legs were about to give way beneath me.
A shimmering light at the center of the room caught my attention. Somehow finding it within me to steady myself, I took a couple faltering steps towards it. Elijah Carter followed suit and Kit Sutton wordlessly trailed after us. Stepping over the dozens and dozens of corpses in my way, I tried hard to keep my wits about me. When I finally reached its source, I was surprised to find it to be a pond, or rather a bottomless hole of water. Another connection to the sea, no doubt. The shine however seemed fine from within it, from down below where there would normally be just darkness. Looking in, the breath was once again stolen from my lungs. It felt rather like peering through a small window into a very large hall. I could only see a fracture of what lay beneath.
Hovering within the endless masses of water was the enormous statue of a woman. Her stony pale arms were raised, her hands reaching out almost pleadingly, as if she was hoping for someone to pull her up from her cold, abyssal grave. Her eyes, one of which was about the size of my head, were wide open, her colorless stare holding a wild, unreadable mix of emotions. Her lips were parted in a silent scream. An unearthly, bright glow surrounded her; it seemed to come from within her body rather than anywhere else. It was disturbingly beautiful.
"Her name was Calypso."
Kit's voice pulled me from my trance. When I turned to face her, she pointedly avoided my gaze. An idea took shape in my mind, created by the faint, wavery undertone of mourning in her words. "She was someone special, wasn't she?"
"My mother."
I swallowed, my pulse still thrumming in my ears. Stepping forward, I tentatively grasped my roommate's hand. She let go of a soft breath, the corner of her mouth twitching. "These people here have been rotting away for centuries. It's the worst punishment imaginable, isn't it. The lucky ones are dead before they get glued down, but the ones he's really angry at, he covers in that goo when they're, like, lethally injured. I don't quite know what this stuff is, but it slows down all those organic processes, the death, the decomposition…" She paused. "With Mom, it was different. He turned her to stone. The same kind that grows from the ground here, you know; that smooth, shiny kinda rock that looks real pretty."
"What did she do to piss off your Dad?"
"What did any of these poor fuckers do? Most of these are failed cult leaders, actually. You'd never guess how many cults the deep ones have dedicated to them. As for my mother, I don't know. I can't even remember her, to be honest." She shrugged with affected carelessness. "You see it now? My father is… just beyond comprehension."
"So are you, though, aren't you? If you think about it."
"Eva, I know you're trying to boost morale here, but it's not working. Please let me get you out of here. And for heaven's sake, don't come back."
She led us back through the labyrinth of tunnels and corridors, staying well behind when we caught the first glimpse of daylight.
"I promise I'll think of something," I told her. "I'll find a way to get you out."
She merely shook her head. "No, you won't. Just go home and look for a new roommate. Or move back in with Nettie. She'll be glad."
I clenched my teeth, but allowed Eli to press his palm to my back, guiding me towards the exit.
"Actually, just… just wait. Could you tell her I, like, miss her? A lot?" Kit shouted after us, a sudden note of warmth softening her voice.
Elijah turned back to her with a sad smile. "Of course."
We didn't return to the car straight away, instead walking along the shore for a little while. My extra limbs having retracted and Eli's face having returned to a less nauseous color, we didn't bear any outward traces of our experience in the cave. We didn’t talk much, but we almost leaned onto one other with how closely we stuck to each other’s side. Eventually, I gathered the strength to break the silence. “This can’t stand, obviously.”
“You still want to get her out?” He gave me a sidelong glance. “This is more for Nettie’s sake than anything else, isn’t it?”
“I do like Kit Sutton, and I miss her tremendously,” I stated. “But largely, it is.”
Elijah, having nothing else to add, gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Would you mind if I asked you something personal?” I asked.
“Try it and find out.”
“I was wondering about what Mary Markov said about you earlier,” I began. “An incident at a highschool.”
He sighed. Silence fell, and for a minute I thought he wouldn’t respond at all. Then, he slowed down, coming to a halt and turning to look out at the horizon. “So how do we do this, Shirley? You really want me to pour my heart out to you and let you in on my tragic past as we stare at the tossing waves? That’s a bit too romantic for the two of us, if you ask me.”
“But you’d let me in on your tragic past in a less romantic setting?”
“Oh sure, anytime,” he said lightly. “Well, not any time. I’d be okay talking to you about it, though. See, it doesn’t matter to me if you know or not, the problem is kinda the headspace and getting the words out of my mouth in the first place.”
“I’m glad you feel like you could do that with me.” I regarded his profile, noting how he swallowed and shut his eyes for a moment.
“Let’s go back to the car.”
So we did. Only that it wasn’t quite how we left it. Elijah noticed it first—a low, hissed curse escaped him as he bent down to inspect the damage. The back window had been smashed in. The brown folder Mary Markov had given me was gone.
X
1
2: deadbeat roommate
3: creepy crush
4: relocation
5: beach concert
6: First date
7: Temp work
8: roommate talk
9: a dismal worldview
10: warehouse
11: staircase
12: explanation
13: hurt
14: hospital
15: ocean
16: diner
17: government work
18: something in the caves
19: shopping cart
20: olms and Jewels

Hi. So I'm really close to getting this headset to work on Linux. Currently, I've found that Monado provides position and rotation for the headset itself. But now I'm having the issue of actually trying to get the headset functioning.
My first problem is that the headset won't display anything. No matter what I try using xrandr, the headset won't display anything. And every time I launch SteamVR, it's on one of my monitors. Does anyone have the command needed to get this headset recognized and running as a display? It appears in the display list, but it's marked as disconnected.
Secondly, I can't get Monado drivers to work in SteamVR. I've done the necessary driver registration, but when I start SteamVR and move the headset around, it doesn't detect any movements.
I'm on Arch Linux with an AMD Radeon 7900 XT GPU. I have the openhmd, xr-hardware-git, and monado packages installed, and I installed SteamVR-OpenHMD manually through Git. Using the SteamVR-OpenHMD drivers gets me HMD rotation but not position. Monado is needed for position.
I'm hoping that this post will be the end-all be-all guide for getting this blasted headset to (mostly) work on Linux.

Guide available! Go here.
Series beginning is here.
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Once we had taken down the camp, I loaded the cart with the animal carcasses using my Hands of Air. While I was strong, there was no way I was lifting a female Dire Bear. Once our quarry was loaded onto the cart, I helped my Haarthuu friends up as well. They all situated themselves in the front seat, and I took my place behind the handle.
“Off we go!” I exclaimed and pushed off from the ground. It was difficult to get the cart rolling, but once I did, keeping it there wasn’t too much strain.
We continued in this way for about five hours, which is when we came to a hill that I would be unable to climb with the cart, and I doubted my companions would be much help. I had stopped and was leaning against the handle, breathing hard and heavily.
“Well, I can’t climb this, and I don’t have it in me to tunnel through. What should we do, Liss-ran?” I asked, panting.
Liss-ran sat there in a slight panic. “Um, I’m not sure. If there were Uror nearby, I’d say to convince one of them to help?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! I’ll call Walter,” I said happily.
I closed my eyes and leaned on the cart.
“Walter?”
“Yeah, Boss? You okay? You sound beat.”
“I’m fine. Just kinda tired. Where are you located right now? I could use some help.”
“Yeah? Let’s see…. I’m about an hour or so away from where you are right now. What’s going on?”
“I’m pulling a cart through the woods back to Haruma. I’ve hit a hill that I can’t pull it over. It’s too loaded down, and I’m not strong enough.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I can be there in an hour. Or should I send someone else?”
“Well, this cart is narrower than the last. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you.”
“Okay. I can send a kid over to you. They’ll be able to carry you and pull the cart.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. She’s on her way right now. From a different herd, so she can get to you faster.
“Okay. Should I give her some of my magic so she can communicate with me, or are you the only member I will be able to speak with? I don’t know how this all works.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be able to understand you, and will take you home no sweat. If she decides to stick around, I might uhh… claim her. Have your woman try to bond with her.”
I laughed and let the matter drop. “Okay Walter. Thanks man. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. Oh. We’re leaving the week after last frost. Heading to Klearm. If you could meet us in Haruma beforehand, I’ll make sure you’re fed well and your coat is nice and shiny.”
“You got it, Boss! Looking forward to it!”
I pulled my Pack off, and removed a large piece of leather, as well as my tools. “Gonna need these in a few. We have a female Uror heading our way. I’m going to make a harness and a saddle for her once she gets here, and we will be on our way. Sound good?” I announced.
Four heads looked at one another, then at me. “How did you manage that, Ivor?” Liss-ran asked incredulously.
“Uh, I just reached out to Walter, the Uror that brought us here. Apparently when you bond yourself to a Uror, you can speak with them from great distances. He’s an hour away. The female should be here much quicker. She’s from a more local herd,” I explained. “I won’t be able to speak with her the same as I do Walter, but I was instructed to see if Elizabet would like to try and bond with her.” I concluded.
“Okaaayyy….. If you say so, Ivor. I guess we get to see a different Uror,” Liss-ran said, shaking her head.
I rested there, cutting some strips from the leather for makeshift reins, belts and straps. I also took the time to fashion buckles from the Duplicated knife blade I had in my Pack. About fifteen minutes after I had finished making those, a shaggy Uror trundled up and halted beside the cart. She snorted and stamped a paw on the ground, seemingly eager to get this over with.
“Hello, my lady! Thank you for answering Walter’s call to help us. I trust he has explained the situation to you?” I said to the shaggy beast.
She tossed her head twice, which I took as an affirmative. “Excellent. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to fit you for a harness so we can hitch you to the wagon. Would you mind if I got to work? I’ll do my best to make it as comfortable as possible. If it pinches or is uncomfortable, please snort twice,” I said, receiving another toss of her head.
I smiled and got to work, crafting the harness from memory and sizing it to fit the much smaller female. After a few mistakes, she and I fell into a routine, and I had the harness crafted in short order. Once I explained the concept of the saddle to her, I began the process of making that, with similar results. All in all, it took us the better part of an hour to finish the work.
“There we are. Hmm. You know, I can’t just call you ‘Uror’ or something like that. May I call you Lady?” I asked.
The shaggy beast was still for a moment, and then tossed her head twice. “Excellent, Lady! I am Ivor, and we are going to Haruma. I will direct you, if that’s okay?” Another head toss and she began to strain against the weight of the cart. I quickly climbed up, and we were off.
With the assistance of Lady, we made short work of the hill in front of us. I let her choose the pace, and we were slowly, but steadily, on our way to Haruma once more.
“Liss-ran? How long do you think we have until we get home?” I asked.
“At this rate?” she said, taking stock of our surroundings and pace. “We should be there around dinnertime, I’d say.”
“Awesome. Just in time to have some of Gon-rash’s amazing cooking. This day is getting better and better!” I said happily, shrugging my Pack back onto my shoulders.
We rode and chatted for another hour or so, and I saw how lifted everyone’s spirits were. Even Tren-sun was cracking jokes and smiling.
After an hour or so, Kilik-ma called out, “Hey Ivor. What kind of entertainment does your world have?”
“Entertainment? Well, we have books, plays, theater, dance, songs, musical bands, and a form of entertainment that absolutely doesn’t and hopefully will never exist on Chaia, television,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, Liss-ran was describing your music to me when we were hunting, and I was curious to hear some.”
“Oh. Well, that device is back in Haruma, actually. I left it with Elizabet for safe-keeping, so I can’t use it right now to show you my music,” I said regretfully.
“Oh. Okay,” Tren-sun said, sounding dejected.
“But I’m feeling pretty good, so how about I sing a song for you?” I ventured.
Four voices replied in the affirmative, and even Lady tossed her head. Looks like I was committed. I racked my brain, trying to think of a decent one that I actually knew all the lyrics to, when a shiver ran through me. That’s it! I took a deep breath and began…
“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?....” My rich baritone rang out through the forest, echoing off the trees and the mountain beside us.
As I was atop Lady and had my eyes closed, I was naturally unable to see the stunned reactions on the faces of my companions, as I was also facing away from them.
As I sang, the very air around us changed. The scent of snow that I had grown accustomed to had multiplied, finally depositing its bounty of crystalline glory across the entirety of the forest. Unnoticed by me, some of the buckles had been Duplicated, and now hung on the reins as small tinkling bells.
A smattering of small, blue birds had taken flight shortly after I began, wheeling their way south. The Haarthuu watched, openmouthed, as they took flight, as there had been no birds in those trees before.
Feeling joy course through my core, I opened my eyes to a forest covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. I continued, nearly trancelike, with my song, seeing the images from my mind’s eye blossom into being in a clearing to our left.
Two people made of snow, resembling myself and Elizabet, were building another snowman, giving him a defined beard and a book. These snowy puppets acted out the lyrics to the song I was singing, bowing and dancing about.
The scene shifted, and there was a fireplace made of snow, complete with dancing flames made of snow within. Two puppets, easily the size of a dire bear, pantomimed speaking and were then covered by a snowy blanket.
Once more, we saw an empty field, with the same three puppets from before. They danced and glided about the field, “speaking” to the snow-preacher.
As my song concluded, we saw the two puppets walking arm-in-arm beside the cart, and then they collapsed into a pile of wet snow once I closed my mouth.
As I came back to my senses, I realized I was sweating profusely, and my stomach was protesting loudly.
“Ivor. What. Did. You. Just. Do?” Liss-ran asked breathlessly.
I sat there, panting. Trembling, I reached into my coat for the jerky that I had taken to keeping there. I began stuffing piece after piece into my starving gullet, trying to stave off the unconsciousness that loomed on my horizon. I swallowed more and more of the meat, my mouth eventually going dry. I slung my Pack to the front, and pulled out the pitcher and drank deeply of its cool bounty.
My thirst slaked, my hunger staved off for the moment, I turned and looked at Liss-ran.
“I have no idea. It looks like I can’t be singing things like that. I hope I haven’t royally mucked up the weather…” I said in a shaky voice.
“Was that the Ancient Tongue?” asked Piri-thak.
“Huh?”
“Ivor, we couldn’t understand a word of that. Are you telling me that you didn’t realize you were singing in the Ancient Tongue?” Liss-ran asked gently.
Realization hit me like a truck. I sang the weather into existence. It was effortless and easy. I didn’t even register that I was doing so until after I was done and the shakes hit. What’s more, I sang what I saw in my head into existence. All the images I would see when I heard that song manifested in this world as snowy puppets and props. Even the bells that were on the harness were exactly as my mind’s eye saw them. I could only guess that I may have created a new species of bird. I felt mortified.
“No… I had no idea I wasn’t singing in your language. Well. Now to deal with the fallout. Is this the normal time the snows would begin, Liss-ran?” I asked quietly.
“Thankfully, yes. It’s a week early, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t worry too much about altering the weather. Those birds, though. That may be a different story. There _were _only twenty or so,” she replied.
I nodded and closed my mouth. This was a new lesson, and one that I needed to ensure stayed present in my mind. I zipped my coat up against the wind, and Lady trudged on.
As the skies darkened, we could see the main road that led into our home. Kilik-ma jumped down and raced ahead, probably to let the village know we were back a little early.
About ten minutes after he left, we had a throng of people rushing out to meet us. At the forefront were Elizabet, Talah-ma’at and our boys.
“Hi everyone! We’re a little early, I know. We’ve got some goodies in the back of the wagon, and a lot more in my Pack. Let’s get Lady into the city, and we’ll unload everything, okay?” I called out.
The crowd of maybe thirty individuals parted and walked beside us like an honor guard, leading the Uror into the central hall of Haruma. Once inside, I called the gentle beast to a halt, and dismounted. I unhooked her from the cart and began to remove her harness when she snorted twice.
“Lady? Is something the matter?”
The Uror walked out of the twin shafts of the cart and turned to face us. Or, more specifically, she faced Elizabet. She looked directly at her and tossed her head.
“Present your magic to her, Elizabet. See if she’ll take it,” I said softly.
Slowly, Elizabet raised a trembling hand and a small, iron-gray sphere rose from her palm and hovered four inches above it. She approached the shaggy beast with her outstretched hand, and waited.
Lady stepped forward and gently plucked the sphere from Elizabet with a delicate tongue. She stood there chewing on it for a moment, and it was then that I heard Elizabet gasp.
“She said her name is Lola. And that she’ll follow us wherever we go. And that you…” she trailed off and turned to stare at me with an arched brow. In a low, dangerous tone she said, “What. Did. You. Do?”
I knew that tone. I sighed and shook my head. “Thanks, Lola. I was going to get around to that shortly.” I said in a wry voice. I looked Elizabet in the eye. “I appear to be able to control the weather to a degree. I don’t know to what extent it goes, but…. I sang a song into existence,” I said, defeated.
Elizabet looked confused. “You… Wait, you can sing?”
Liss-ran piped up. “His voice is rich and deep, too! It was nice,” she said with a little giggle.
“And loud. He has some lung power, he does,” Tren-sun added.
“Does anybody else wish to make her even more upset with me than she already is?” I asked in a loud, exasperated tone. “No? Thank you.”
“Try it again, Ivor. Tell me what you did,” Elizabet said firmly, crossing her arms beneath her prodigious chest.
“Yes, genius. Tell us what wonder you pulled out of your ass this time,” Blainaut said, coming up from behind Elizabet.
“Oh, gods. Not again,” I said, hanging my head.
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Hey! I’m also uploading my work on RoyalRoad! Here is my profile IvorFreyrsson
Join me over at Words_From_Ivor for more!
Master List

so i just hit lvl 81 arch and got the 4th piece i needed for the mattock. i have artifacts to reach the 83 req but im not sure what to do really. i currently have a dragon mattock lv12 with honed5+impsouled6. now idk much about rs3 or archeology really, been back playing for a few weeks now after a 10+ year hiatus but my friend was telling me about how he needed to make more perks and a new dragon mattock for his imcando mattock. do i just siphon off the exp from my current lv12 mattock or dismantle it? do i just leave it alone for now, buy a 2nd dragon mattock for upgrading to imcando and make new perks for that? any insight would be appreciated greatly

Newbie here. Just got Arch a couple of days ago switching over from Windows. I downloaded steam after getting all of my display stuff working. Upon launching War Thunder (I got no display of the game), I got a crash report saying that Video Mode Initialization Error (88111000B). I did a quick search and followed the Arch Wiki's guide to installing the nvidia drivers but still, I got the same report. I thought I might have screwed up the install/configuration process and deleted all of the things i had downloaded so that I could start from scratch. I figured I would consult the community as I found no help for my problem elsewhere.
Sorry if this is obvious but I'm barely getting my feet wet here and, any help is appreciated.

The whirring blades of my MD-902 throbbed against the warm evening air, and I smiled.
From 5,000 feet, the ground flew by in a carpet of dark forests and kelly-green fields. The sun hung low on the horizon in a picturesque array of dazzling orange and gold, and I could make out the narrow strip of the Ohio River to my left, glistening in the fading daylight. This time of year, the trees would be full of the sweet aroma of fresh blossoms, and the frequent rains kept small pockets of fluffy white mist hanging in the treetops. It was a beautiful view, one that reminded me of why being a helicopter pilot trumped flying in a jumbo jet far above the clouds every day of the week.
Fourteen more days, and I’m debt free.
That made me grin even more. I’d been working as a charter pilot ever since I obtained my license at age 19, and after years of keeping my nose to the grindstone, I was closing on the final payment for real-estate in western Pennsylvania. With no debt, a fixer-upper house on 30 rural acres all to myself, and a respectable wage for a 26-year-old pilot, I looked forward to the financial freedom I could now enjoy. Maybe I’d take a vacation, somewhere exotic like Venice Italy, or the Dominican Republic. Or perhaps I’d sock the money back for the day I started a family.
“Remember kleineun, a real man looks after his own.”
My elderly ouma’s voice came back from the depths of my memories, her proud, sun-tanned face rising from the darkness. She and my Rhodesian grandfather had emigrated to the US when they were newlyweds, as the violence against white Boer descendants in South Africa spiraled out of control. My mother and father both died in a car crash when I was six, and it had been my grandparents who raised me. Due to this, I’d grown up with a slight accent that many of my classmates found amusing, and I could speak both English, and Afrikaans, the Boer tongue of our former home.
I shifted in my seat, stretched my back muscles, and glanced at the picture taped to my console. Both my parents flanked a grinning, gap-toothed six-year-old me, at the last Christmas we’d spent together. My mother beamed, her dark hair and Italian features a sharp contrast to my father’s sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Sometimes, I liked to imagine they were smiling at me with pride at how well I flew the old silver-colored bird my company had assigned to me, and that made the long, lonely flights easier to bear.
A flicker caught my eye, and I broke my gaze away from the photograph.
Perched in its small cradle above the controls, my little black Garmin fuzzed over for a few seconds, its screen shifting from brightly colored maps to a barrage of grey static.
Did the power chord come loose?
I checked, ensuring the power-cable for the unit’s battery was plugged into the port on the control panel. It was a brand-new GPS unit, and I’d used it a few times already, so I knew it wasn’t defective. Granted, I could fly and navigate without it, but the Garmin made my time as a pilot so much easier that the thought of going blind was dreadful.
My fuel gauge danced, clicked to empty, then to full, in a bizarre jolt.
More of the gauges began to stutter, the entire panel seeming to develop terrets all at once, and my pulse began to race. Something was wrong, very wrong, and the sludge inside my bowels churned with sour fear.
“Come on, come on.” I flicked switches, turned dials, punched buttons, but nothing seemed to fix the spasming electronics. Every gauge failed, and without warning, I found myself plunged into inky darkness.
Outside, the sun surrendered to the pull of night, the sky darker than usual. A distant rumble of thunder reverberated above the roar of my helicopter’s engine, and I thought I glimpsed a streak of yellowish lightning on the far horizon to my left.
Calm down Chris. We’re still flying, so it must just be a blown fuse. Stay in control and find a place to set her down.
My sweaty palm slid on the cyclic stick, and both feet weighed heavy on the yaw pedals. The collective stuck to my other hand with a nervous vibration, and I squinted against the abyss outside.
Beep.
I jumped despite myself, as the little Garmin on my panel flared back to life, the static pulling aside to reveal a twitching display. Each time the screen glitched, it showed the colorful map detailing my flight path over the ground below, but I noticed that some of the lines changed, the names shifting, as if the device couldn’t decide between two different versions of the world.
One name jutted out at me, slate gray like most of the major county names, appearing with ghostly flickers from between two neighboring ones.
Barron County.
I stared, confused. I’d flown over this section of southeastern Ohio plenty of times, and I knew the counties by heart. At this point, I should have been over the southern end of Noble County, and maybe dipping lower into Washington. There was no Barron County Ohio. I was sure of it.
And yet it shown back at me from the digital landscape, a strange, almost cigar-shaped chunk of terrain carved from the surrounding counties like a tumor, sometimes there, sometimes not, as my little Garmin struggled to find the correct map. Rain began to patter against my cockpit window, and the entire aircraft rattled from a strong gust of wind. Thick clouds closed over my field of vision like a sea of gray cotton.
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and I sucked in a nervous breath.
Land. I had to land. There was nothing else to do, my flight controls weren’t responding, and only my Garmin had managed to come back to life. Perhaps I’d been hit by lightning, and the electronics had been fried? Either way, it was too dark to tell, but a storm seemed to be brewing, and if I didn’t get my feet on the ground soon, I could be in real trouble.
“Better safe than sorry.” I pushed down on the collective to start my slow descent and clicked the talking button for my headset. “Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, over.”
Nothing.
“Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, requesting emergency assistance, over.”
Still nothing.
If the radio’s dead, I’m really up a creek.
With my hand shaking, I clicked on the mic one more time. “Any station, this is—”
Like a curtain pulling back, the fog cleared from around my window, and the words stuck in my throat.
Without my gauges, I couldn’t tell just how far I’d descended, but I was definitely very low. Thick trees poked up from the ground, and the hills rolled into high ridges with flat valley floors, fields and pastures pockmarking them. Rain fell all around in cold, silvery sheets, a normal feature for the mid spring in this part of Ohio.
What wasn’t normal, were the fires.
At first, I thought they were forest fires for the amount of smoke and flames that bellowed from each spot, but as I swooped lower, my eyes widened in horror.
They were houses.
Farms, cottages, little clusters that barely constituted villages, all of them belched orange flames and black pillars of sooty smoke. I couldn’t hear above the helicopter blades, but I could see the flashes on the ground, along the road, in between the trees, and even coming from the burning buildings, little jets of golden light that spat into the darkness with anger.
Gunfire. That’s rifle fire, a whole lot of it.
Tiny black figures darted through the shadows, barely discernable from where I sat, several hundred feet up. I couldn’t see much, but some were definitely running away, the streaks of yellow gunfire chasing them. A few dark gray vehicles rumbled down one of the gravel roads, and sprayed fire into the houses as it went. They were fighting, I realized, the people in the trucks and the locals. It was horrific, like something out of war-torn Afghanistan, but worse.
Then, I caught a glimpse of the others.
They didn’t move like the rest, who either fled from the dark vehicles, or fired back from behind cover. These skinny figures loped along with haphazard gaits, many running on all fours like animals, swarming from the trees by the dozens. They threw themselves into the gales of bullets without flinching, attacking anyone within range, and something about the way they moved, so fluid, so fearless, made my heart skip a beat.
What is that?
“Echo Four Actual to unknown caller, please respond, over.”
Choking back a cry of shock, I fumbled at the control panel with clumsy fingers, the man’s voice sharp and stern. I hadn’t realized that I’d let go of the talking button and clicked it down again. “Hello? Hello, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot out of Pittsburgh, over.”
An excruciating moment passed, and I continued to zoom over the trees, the fires falling away behind me as more silent forest took over.
“Roger that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, we read you loud and clear. Please identify yourself and any passengers or cargo you might be carrying, over.”
Swallowing hard, I eyed the treetops, which looked much closer than they should have been. How far had I descended? “Echo Four Actual, my name is Christopher Dekker, and I am alone. I’m a charter flight from PA, carrying medical equipment for OSU in Columbus. My controls have been damaged, and I am unable to safely carry on due to the storm. Requesting permission to land, over.”
I watched the landscape slide by underneath me, once catching sight of what looked like a little white church surrounded by smaller huts, dozens of figures in the yard staring up at me as I flew over a towering ridgeline.
“Solid copy on that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot. Be advised, your transponder shows you to be inside a restricted zone. Please cease all radio traffic, reduce your speed, climb to 3,000 feet and proceed north. We’ll talk you in from there. How copy, over?”
My heart jumped, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Roger that Echo Four Actual, my altimeter is down, but I’ll do my best to eyeball the altitude, over.”
With that, I pulled the collective upward, and tried my best to gauge how far I was by eyesight in the gathering night, rain still coming down all around me. This had to be some kind of disaster or riot, I decided. After all, the voice over the radio sounded like military, and those vehicles seemed to have heavy weapons. Maybe there was some kind of unrest going on here that I hadn’t heard about yet?
Kind of weird for it to happen in rural areas though. Spoiled college kids I get, but never saw farmers get so worked up before. They usually love the military.
Something moved in the corner of my eye, and I turned out of reflex.
My mouth fell open, and I froze, unable to scream.
In the sky beside me, a huge shadow glided along, and its leathery wings effortlessly carved through the gloom, flapping only on occasion to keep it aloft. It was too dark for me to see what color it was, but from the way it moved, I knew it wasn’t another helicopter. No, this thing was alive, easily the size of a small plane, and more than twice the length of my little McDonald Douglass. A long tail trailed behind it, and bore a distinct arrow-shaped snout, with twig-like spines fanned out around the back of its head. Whatever legs it had were drawn up under it like a bird, yet its skin appeared rough and knobby, almost resembling tree bark. Without pause, the gigantic bat-winged entity flew along beside me, as if my presence was on par with an annoying fly buzzing about its head.
Gripping the microphone switch so tight, I thought I’d crack the plastic, I whispered into my headset, forgetting all radio protocol. “T-There’s something up here.”
Static crackled.
“Douglas Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, say again your last, you’re coming in weak and unreadable, over.”
“There’s something up here.” I snarled into the headset, still glued to the controls of the helicopter, afraid to deviate even an inch from my course in case the monstrosity decided to turn on me. “A freaking huge thing, right beside me. I swear, it looks like a bat or . . . I don’t know.”
“Calm down.” The man on the other end of the radio broke his rigorous discipline as well, his voice deep, but level. “It won’t attack if you don’t move too fast. Slowly ease away from it and follow that course until you’re out of sight.”
I didn’t have time to think about how wrong that sounded, how the man’s strict tone had changed to one of knowledge, how he hadn’t been the least surprised by what I’d said. Instead, I slowly turned the helicopter away from the huge menace and edged the speed higher in tiny increments.
As soon as I was roughly two football fields away, I let myself relax, and clicked the mic switch. “It’s not following.”
“You’re sure?”
Eyeing the huge flapping wings, I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I’m well clear.”
“Good. Thank you, Mr. Dekker.”
Then, the radio went dead.
Something in my chest dropped, a weight that made my stomach roil. This wasn’t right, none of it. Who was that man? Why did he know about the thing I’d just seen? What was I supposed to—
A flash of light exploded from the trees to my right and shot into the air with a long finger of smoke.
What the . . .
On instinct, I jerked the cyclic stick to one side, and the helicopter swung to avoid the rocket.
Boom.
My world shook, metal screeched, and a dozen alarms began to go off inside the cockpit in a cacophony of beeps and sirens. Orange and red flames lit up the night sky just behind me, and the horizon started to spin wildly outside. Heat gushed from the cockpit door, and I smelled the greasy stench of burning oil. The safety belts dug into my shoulders, and with a final slip, the radio headset ripped free from my scalp.
I’m hit.
Desperate, I yanked on the controls, fought the bird even as she spun toward the ground in a wreath of flames, the inky black trees hurtling up to meet me. The helicopter went into full auto-rotation, the sky blurring past outside, and the alarms blared in a screech of doom. Panic slammed through my temples, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and for one brief second, my eyes locked on the little black Garmin still perched atop my control panel.
Its screen stopped twitching and settled on a map of the mysterious Barron County, with a little red arrow at the center of the screen, a few words popping up underneath it.
You are here.
Trees stabbed up into the sky, the belts crushed at my torso, glass shattered all around me, and the world went dark.
Copper, thick, warm, and tangy.
It filled my mouth, stank metallic in my nose, clogged my throat, choking me. In the murkiness, I fought for a surface, for a way out, blind and numb in the dark.
This way, kleineun.
My ouma’s voice echoed from somewhere in the shadows.
This way.
Both eyes flew open, and I gagged, spitting out a stream of red.
Pain throbbed in my ribs, and a heavy pressure sent a tingling numbness through my shoulders. Blood roared inside my temples, and stars danced before my eyes with a dizzying array. Humid night air kissed my skin, and something sticky coated my face, neck, and arms that hung straight up toward the ceiling.
Wait. Not up. Down.
I blinked at the wrinkled, torn ceiling of the cockpit, the glass all gone, the gray aluminum shredded like tissue paper. Just outside the broken windows, thick Appalachian bluegrass and stemmy underbrush swished in a feeble breeze, backlit by flashes of lightning from the thunderstorm overhead. Green and brown leaves covered everything in a wet carpet of triangles, and somewhere nearby, a cricket chirped.
Turning my head from side to side, I realized that I hung upside down inside the ruined helicopter, the top half burrowed into the mud. I could hear the hissing and crackling of flames, the pattering of rain falling on the hot aluminum, and the smaller brush fires around the downed aircraft sizzling out in the damp long grass. Charred steel and burning oil tainted the air, almost as strong as the metallic, coppery stench in my aching nose.
They shot me down. That military dude shot me out of the sky.
It didn’t make sense. I’d followed their orders, done everything they’d said, and yet the instant I veered safely away from whatever that thing in the sky had been, they’d fired, not at it, but at me.
Looking down (or rather, up) at my chest, I sucked in a gasp, which was harder to do that before.
The navy-blue shirt stuck to my torso with several big splotches of dark, rusty red. Most were clean slashes, but two held bits of glass sticking out of them, one alarmingly bigger than the other. They dripped cherry red blood onto my upturned face, and a wave of nausea hit me.
I gotta get down.
I flexed my arms to try and work some feeling back into them, praying nothing was broken. Half-numb from hanging so long, I palmed along my aching body until I felt the buckled for the seat belts.
“Okay.” I hissed between gritted teeth, in an effort to stave off my panic. “You can do this. Just hold on tight. Nice and tight. Here we go . . .”
Click.
Everything seemed to lurch, and I slid off the seat to plummet towards the muck-filled hole in the cockpit ceiling. My fingers were slick with blood and slipped over the smooth faux-leather pilot’s seat with ease. The shoulder belt snagged on the bits of glass that lay just under the left lowest rib, and a flare of white-hot pain ripped through me.
Wham.
I screamed, my right knee caught the edge of the aluminum ceiling, and both hands dove into a mound of leaf-covered glass shards on the opposite side of the hole. My head swam, being right-side-up again enough to make shadows gnaw at the corner of my eyes.
Forcing myself to breath slowly, I fought the urge to faint and slid back to sit on the smooth ceiling. I turned my hands over to see half a dozen bits of clear glass burrowed into my skin like greedy parasites, red blood weeping around the new cuts.
“Screw you.” I spat at the rubbish with angry tears in my eyes. “Screw you, screw you, screw you.”
The shards came out easy enough, and the cuts weren’t that deep, but that wasn’t what worried me. On my chest, the single piece of cockpit glass that remined was almost as big as my palm, and it really hurt. Just touching it felt like self-inflicted torture, but I knew it had to come out sooner or later.
Please don’t nick a vein.
Wiping my hands dry on my jeans, I gripped the shard with both hands, and jerked.
Fire roared over my ribs, and hot blood tickled my already grimy pale skin. I clapped a hand over the wound, pressing down hard, and grunted out a string of hateful expletives that my ouma would have slapped me for.
Lying on my back, I stared around me at the messy cargo compartment of the MD-902. Most of the medical supplies had been in cardboard boxes strapped down with heavy nylon tow-straps, but several cases had ruptured with the force of the impact, spraying bandages, syringes, and pill bottles all over the cluttered interior. Orange flames chewed at the crate furthest to the rear, the tail section long gone, but the foremost part of the hold was intact. Easily a million-dollar mess, it would have made me faint on any other trip, but today it was a godsend.
Half-blind in the darkness, I crawled along with only the firelight and lightning bolts to guide me, my right knee aching. Like a crippled raccoon, I collected things as I went, conscious of the two pallets of intact supplies weighing right over my head. I’d taken several different first-aid courses with some hunting buddies of mine, and the mental reflexes kicked in to help soothe my frazzled mind.
Check for bleeds, stop the worst, then move on.
Aside from my battered chest and stomach, the rest of me remained mostly unharmed. I had nasty bruises from the seatbelts, my right knee swelled, my nose slightly crooked and crusted in blood, but otherwise I was intact. Dowsing every scratch and cut with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol I found, I used butterfly closures on the smaller lacerations that peppered my skin. I wrapped soft white gauze over my abused palms and probed at the big cut where the last shard had been, only stopping when I was sure there were no pieces of glass wedged inside my flesh.
“Not too bad.” I grunted to myself, trying to sound impassive like a doctor might. “Rib must have stopped it. Gonna need stitches though. That’ll be fun.”
Pawing through the broken cases, I couldn’t find any suture chord, but just as I was about to give up, I noticed a small box that read ‘medical skin stapler’.
Bingo.
I tore the small white plastic stapler free from its packaging and eyeballed the device. I’d never done this before, only seen it in movies, and even though the cut in my skin hurt, I wondered if this wouldn’t be worse.
You’ve gotta do it. That bleeding needs to stop. Besides, no one’s coming to rescue you, not with those rocket-launching psychos out there.
Taking a deep breath, I pinched the skin around the gash together, and pressed the mouth of the stapler to it.
Click.
A sharp sting, like that of a needle bit at the skin, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the cut itself. I worked my way across the two-inch laceration and gave out a sigh of relief when it was done.
“Not going to bleed to death today.” I daubed ointment around the staples before winding more bandages over the wound.
Popping a few low-grade painkillers that tumbled from the cargo, I crawled wriggled through the nearest shattered window into the wet grass.
Raindrops kissed my face, clean and cool on my sweaty skin. Despite the thick cloud cover, there was enough constant lightning strikes within the storm to let me get glimpses of the world around me. My helicopter lay on its back, the blades snapped like pencils, with bits and pieces of it burning in chunks all around the small break in the trees. Chest-high scrub brush grew all around the low-lying ground, with pockets of standing water in places. My ears still rang from the impact of the crash, but I could start to pick up more crickets, frogs, and even some nocturnal birds singing into the darkness, like they didn’t notice the huge the hulk of flaming metal that had fallen from the sky. Overhead, the thunder rumbled onward, the feeble wind whistling, and there were other flashes on the horizon, orange and red ones, with crackles that didn’t sound quite like lightning.
The guns. They’re still fighting.
Instinctively, I pulled out my cellphone, and tapped the screen.
It fluttered to life, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get through to anyone, not even with the emergency function designed to work around having no service. The complicated wonder of our modern world was little better than a glorified paperweight.
Stunned, I sat down with my back to the helicopter and rested my head against the aluminum skin of the craft. How I’d gone from a regular medical supply run to being marooned in this hellish parody of rural America, I didn’t know, but one thig was certain; I needed a plan. Whoever fired the missile could have already contacted my charter company and made up some excuse to keep them from coming to look for me. No one else knew I was here, and even though I now had six staples holding the worst of my injuries shut, I knew I needed proper medical attention. If I wanted to live, I’d have to rescue myself.
My bag. I need to get my go-bag, grab some gear and then . . . head somewhere else.
It took me a while to gather my green canvas paratrooper bag from its place behind the pilot’s seat and fill it with whatever supplies I could scrounge. My knee didn’t seem to be broken, but man did it hurt, and I dreaded the thought of walking on it for miles on end. I focused instead on inventorying my gear and trying to come up with a halfway intelligent plan of action.
I had a stainless-steel canteen with one of those detachable cups on the bottom, a little fishing kit, some duct tape, a lighter, a black LED flashlight with three spare batteries, a few tattered road maps with a compass, a spare pair of socks, medical supplies from the cargo, and a simple forest green plastic rain poncho. I also managed to unearth a functioning digital camcorder my ouma had gotten me for Christmas a few years back, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to do any filming in such a miserable state. Lastly, since it was a private supply run from a warehouse area near Pittsburgh to a direct hospital pad in Ohio, I’d been able to bring my K-Bar, a sturdy, and brutally simple knife designed for the Marine Corps that I used every time I went camping. It was pitiful in comparison to the rifle I wished I had with me, but that didn’t matter now. I had what I had, and I doubted my trusty Armalite would have alleviated my sore knee anyway.
Clicking on my flashlight, I huddled with the poncho around my shoulders inside the wreck of the chopper and peered at the dusty roadmaps. A small part of me hoped that a solution would jump out from the faded paper, but none came. These were all maps of western PA and eastern Ohio. None of them had a Barron County on them anywhere.
The man on the radio said to head north, right before they shot me down. That means they must be camped out to the north of here. South had that convoy and those burning houses, so that’s a no-go. Maybe I can backtrack eastward the way I came.
As if on cue, a soft pop echoed from over the eastern horizon, and I craned to look out the helicopter window, spotting more man-made flashes over the tree tops.
“Great.” I hissed between clenched teeth, aware of how the temperature dipped to a chilly 60 degrees, and how despite the conditions, my stomach had begun to growl. “Not going that way, are we? Westward it is.”
Walking away from my poor 902 proved to be harder than I’d anticipated. Despite the glass, the fizzling fires, and the darkness, it still held a familiar, human essence to it. Sitting inside it made me feel secure, safe, even calm about the situation. In any other circumstance, I would have just stayed with the downed aircraft to wait for help, but I knew the men who shot me down would likely find my crash site, and I didn’t want to be around when they did.
Unlike much of central and western Ohio, southeastern Ohio is hilly, brushy, and clogged with thick forests. Thorns snagged at my thin poncho and sliced at my pant legs. My knee throbbed, every step a form of self-inflicted torture. The rain never stopped, a steady drizzle from above just cold enough to be problematic as time went on, making me shiver. Mud slid under my tennis shoes, and every tree looked ten times bigger in the flickering beam of my cheap flashlight. Icy fear prickled at the back of my neck at some of the sounds that greeted me through the gloom. I’d been camping loads of times, both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but these noises were something otherworldly to me.
Strange howls, screeches, and calls permeated the rain-soaked sky, some almost roars, while others bordered on human in their intonation. The more I walked, the softer the distant gunfire became, and the more prevalent the odd sounds, until the shadows seemed to fill with them. I didn’t dare turn off my flashlight, or I’d been completely blind in the dark, but a little voice in the back of my head screamed that I was too visible, crunching through the gloomy forest with my long beam of light stabbing into the abyss. It felt as though a million eyes were on me, studying me, hunting me from the surrounding brush, and I bitterly recalled how much I’d loved the old Survivor Man TV series as a kid.
Not so fun being out in the woods at night. Especially alone.
A twig snapped somewhere behind me, and I whirled on the spot, one trembling hand resting on the hilt of my K-Bar.
Nothing. Nothing but trees, bushes, and rain dripping down in the darkness.
“This is stupid.” I whispered to myself to keep my nerves in check as I slowly spun on the spot. “I should have went eastward anyway. God knows how long I’m going to have to—”
Creak.
A groan of metal-on-metal echoed from somewhere to my right, and I spun to face it, yanking the knife on my belt free from its scabbard. It felt so small and useless in my hand, and I choked down a wave of nauseas fear.
Ka-whump. Creak. K-whump. Creak.
Underbrush cracked and crunched, a few smaller saplings thrashed, and from deep within the gloom, two yellow orbs flared to life. They poked through the mist in the trees, forming into slender fingers of golden light that swept back and forth in the dark.
The soldiers . . . they must be looking for me.
I swallowed hard and turned to slink away.
Ice jammed through my blood, and I froze on the spot, biting my tongue to stop the scream.
It stood not yards away, a huge form that towered a good twelve feet tall in the swirling shadows. Unpolished chrome blended with flash-rusted spots in the faded red paint, and grime-smeared glass shone with dull hues in the flashes of lightning. Where the wheels should have been, the rounded steel axels curved like some enormous hand had bent them, and the tires lay face-down on the muddy ground like big round feet, their hubcaps buried in the dirt. Dents, scrapes, and chips covered the battered thing, and its crooked little radio antenna pointed straight up from the old metal fender like a mast. I could barely make out the mud-coated VW on the rounded hood, and my mind reeled in shock.
Is . . . is that a car?
Both yellow headlights bathed me in a circle of bright, blinding light, and neither I nor the strange vehicle moved.
Seconds ticked by, the screech-thumping in the background only growing closer. I realized that I couldn’t hear any engine noises and had yet to see any soldiers or guns pointed my way. This car looked old, really old, like one of those classic Volkswagen Beetles that collectors fought over at auctions. Try as I might, I couldn’t see a driver inside the murky, mold-smeared windows.
Because there wasn’t one.
Lightning arched across the sky overhead, and the car standing in front of me blinked.
Its headlights slid shut, as if little metal shades had crawled over the bulbs for a moment and flicked open again. Something about that movement was so primal, so real, so lifelike, that every ounce of self-control I had melted in an instant.
Cursing under my breath, I lunged into the shrubs, and the world erupted around me.
Under my shoes, the ground shook, and the car surged after me in a cacophony of ka-thumps that made my already racing heart skip several beats. A weather-beaten brown tow truck from the 50’s charged through the thorns to my left, it’s headlights ablaze, and a dilapidated yellow school bus rose from its hiding place in the weeds to stand tall on four down-turned axel-legs. They all flicked their headlights on like giants waking from their slumber, and as I dodged past them, they each blared their horn into the night in alarm.
My breaths came short and tight, my knee burned, and I crashed through thorns and briars without thought to how badly I was getting cut up.
The cheap poncho tore, and I ripped it away as it caught on a tree branch.
A purple 70’s Mustang shook off its blanket of creeping vines and bounded from a stand of trees just ahead, forcing me to swerve to avoid being run over, my adrenaline at all-time highs.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.
Slipping and sliding, I pushed through a stand of multiflora rose, and stumbled out into a flat, dark expanse.
I almost skidded to a stop.
What had once been a rather large field stood no taller than my shoestrings, the grass charred, and burnt. The storm above illuminated huge pieces of wreckage that lay scattered over the nearly 40-acre plot, and I could just make out the fire-blackened hulk of a fuselage resting a hundred yards away. The plane had been brought down a while ago it seemed, as there weren’t any flames left burning, and I threw myself toward it in frenzied desperation.
Burned grass and greasy brown topsoil slushed underfoot, and I could hear the squelching of the cars pursing me. Rain soaked me to the bone, and my lungs ached from sucking down the damp night air. A painful stich crept into my side, and I cursed myself for not putting in more time for cardio at the gym.
Something caught my left shoelace, and I hurtled to the ground, tasting mud and blood in between my teeth.
They’ve got me now.
I clawed at the mud, rolled, and watched a tire slam down mere inches from where my head had been. The Mustang loomed over me and jostled for position with the red Volkswagen and brown tow truck, the school bus still a few yards behind them. They couldn’t seem to decide who would get the pleasure of stomping me to death, and like a herd of stampeding wildebeest, they locked bumpers in an epic shoving match.
On all fours, I scampered out from under the sparring brutes, and dashed for the crumpled airplane, a white-painted DC-3 that looked like it had been cut in half by a gargantuan knife blade. I passed a snapped wing section, the oily remains of a turbo-prop engine, and a mutilated wheel from the landing gear. Climbing over a heap of mud, I squeezed into the back of the ruined flight cabin and dropped down into the dark cargo hold.
Wham.
No sooner had my sneakers hit the cold metal floor, and the entire plane rocked from the impact of something heavy ramming it just outside. I tumbled to my knees, screaming in pain as, once again, I managed to bash the sore one off a bracket in the wall.
My hand smeared in something gooey, and I scrabbled for my flashlight.
It clicked on, a wavering ball of white light in the pitch darkness, and I fought the urge to gag. “Oh man . . .”
Three people, or what was left of them, lay strewn over the narrow cargo area. Claret red blood coated the walls, caked on the floor, and clotted under my mud-spattered shoes. Bits of flesh and viscera were stuck to everything, and tatters of cloth hung from exposed sections of broken bone. An eerie set of bloody handprints adorned the walls, and the only reason I could tell it had been three people were the shoes; all of them bore anklebones sticking out above blood-soaked socks. It smelled sickly sweet, a strange, nauseas odor that crept into my nose and settled on the back of my tongue like an alien parasite.
Something glinted in the beam of my flashlight, and my pulse quickened as I pried the object loose from the severed arm that still clung to it.
“Hail Mary full of Grace.” I would have grinned if it weren’t for the fact that the plane continued to buck and roll under the assault from the cars outside.
The pistol looked old, but well-maintained, aside from the light coating of dark blood that stained its round wooden handle. It felt heavy, but good in my hand, and I turned it over to read the words, Waffenfabrik Mauser stenciled into the frame, with a large red 9 carved into the grip. For some reason, it vaguely reminded me of the blasters from Star Wars.
I fumbled with a little switch that looked like a safety on the back of the gun and stumbled toward a gap in the plane’s dented fuselage to aim out at the surrounding headlights.
Bang.
The old gun bucked reliably in my hand, its long barrel spitting a little jet of flame into the night. I had no idea if I hit anything, but the attacking cars recoiled, their horns blaring in confusion.
They turned, and scuttled for the tree line as fast as their mechanical legs could go, the entire ordeal over as fast as it had begun.
Did I do that?
Perplexed, I stared down at the pistol in my hand.
Whoosh.
A large, inky black shadow glided down from the clouds, and the yellow school bus moved too slow to react in time.
With a crash, the kicking nightmarish vehicle was thrown onto its side, spraying glass and chrome trim across the muddy field. Its electro-synth horn blared with wails of mechanical agony, as two huge talon-like feet clamped down on it, and the enormous head of the flying creature lowered to rip open its engine compartment.
The horn cut out, and the enormous flying entity jerked its head back to gulp down a mass of what looked like sticky black vines from the interior of the shattered bus.
At this range, I could see now that the flying creature bore two legs and had its wings half-tucked like a vulture that had descended to feed on roadkill. Its head turned slightly, and in the glow of another lightning bolt, my jaw went slack at the realization of what it was.
A tree trunk. It’s a rotted tree trunk.
I couldn’t tell where the reptilian beast began, and where the organic tree components ended, the upper part of the head shaped like a log, while the lower jaw resembled something out of a dinosaur movie. Its skin looked identical to the outside of a shagbark hickory but flexed with a supple featheriness that denoted something closer to skin. Sharp branch-like spines ranged down its back, and out to the end of its tail, which bore a massive round club shaped like a diseased tree-knot. Crouched on both hind legs, it braced the hooked ends of its folded wings against the ground like a bat, towering higher than a semi-truck. Under the folds of its armored head, a bulging pair of chameleon-like eyes constantly spun in their sockets, probing the dark for threats while it ate.
One black pupil locked onto the window I peered through, and my heart stopped.
The beast regarded me for a moment, with a curious, sideways sniff.
With a proud, contemptful head-toss, the shadow from the sky parted rows of razor-sharp teeth to let out a roar that shook the earth beneath my feet. It was the triumphant war cry of a creature that sat at the very top of the food chain, one that felt no threat from the fragile two-legged beings that walked the earth all around it. It hunted whenever it wanted, ate whatever it wanted, and flew wherever it wanted. It didn’t need to rip the plane apart to devour me.
Like my hunter-gatherer ancestors from thousands of years ago, I wasn’t even worth the energy it would take to pounce.
I’m hiding in the remains of the cockpit now, which is half-buried under the mud of the field, enough to shield the light from my screen so that thing doesn’t see it. My service only now came back, and it’s been over an hour since the winged beast started in on the dead bus. I don’t know when, or how I’m going to get out of here. I don’t know when anyone will even see this post, or if it will upload at all. My phone battery is almost dead, and at this point, I’m probably going to have to sleep among the corpses until daylight comes.
A dead man sleeping amongst friends.
If you live in the Noble County area in southeastern Ohio, be careful where you drive, fly, and boat. I don’t know if it’s possible to stumble into this strange place by ground, but if so, then these things are definitely headed your way.
If that happens . . . pray that they don’t find you.

Sir David
Far across the Capital city from the impromptu Sarkin wedding feast Sir David and Ariane were walking around the Imperial district, hand in hand, lazily enjoying the light breeze and the warm sun as they played tourist.
Sir David couldn't help but glance over at Ariane constantly, both to enjoy her, and to listen to her next piece of interesting information.
One place he had some mutual hobbies with Ariane was in history, and Ariane had devoured human history and mythology by the truck load once she'd gotten access to the Tear's internal comm net. Her reading speed and retention rate was truly something you had to see to believe.
She'd also proved she was quite crafty in the arts and crafts sense. After she'd found out about the minotaur of Greek myth, she'd set herself to work designing some new outfits that mixes ancient Greek and traditional Agela fashion, then partnered with Mama-san the Pavorus tailor aboard the Tear to produce them.
The result in this particular case was a stunning white dress that was just sheer enough in some places to be more than a little distracting, while not being at all lewd or erotic. Or anything but conservative by galactic standards.
Sure, with a slit in the skirt to her upper mid thigh, and some actual cleavage, she was showing off more skin than an Apuk girl might on average, but anything more than a micro bikini could be considered 'conservative' by galactic standards. Paired with her usual concealed shifter belt which showed off her waist and the sheer intensity of her curves in a delightfully subtle way, she'd then left her bountiful golden hair curly and put it up with a pair of pins.
The total effect between the colors of her body, her rich caramel skin, the blue of her eyes, her shining golden hair, and the various whites and creams of her not quite toga made her look the part of an actual goddess of Greek myth. Ari was an absolute gem of a woman, and was just as beautiful in sweat pants as she was all done up... but Sir David certainly appreciated the results when Ariane took the time to get all gussied up.
It was only due to David's sheer force of will and decades of self discipline that he wasn't all over her like a teenage boy on his prom date to use an American idiom. The temptation alone was... intense. The desire was strong.
Yet.
Sir David wanted to hold back. For his own sake. For Ariane's sake. He wanted to build a bond in more than mutual physical desire... and he had to remember what being... touched... was like. How to touch. How to accomplish the physical parts of being a lover.
He could hear Mary scolding him for ignoring her when she'd told him to seek out someone else to help keep his life fulfilled and happy... letting what were once well developed skills in how to be a partner, how to be a lover, how to be a friend in a context outside the military, atrophy deeply. Then again, could Mary have known just how badly her death was going to hurt him? She'd have likely scolded him for that too, but still. He just couldn't give the old girl up... and with Ariane around to stand next to the ghostly love of his life, and not in place of... well. Maybe Mary would forgive him for waiting just a little bit longer to find the right woman.
That more women could quite easily follow was... something that was becoming somewhat intriguing to David. There was, after all, near limitless potential in the galaxy.
Perhaps he was talking to Jerry too much about such things in the Ward Room after the female officers had mostly left for the evening, but the man made a persuasive, if somewhat self-serving argument in the name of plural marriage in the galaxy. Sir David himself didn't have a religious or moral objection to such things, and considering he already had more or less agreed with his... girlfriend for lack of a better term. Fiancée perhaps. That she would be his second wife per galactic terms, to respect the mother of his first children made the question of a third or fourth wife seem... much easier than simply considering a second. If the right woman showed up... why not?
"Oh! David! Look!"
Before David can be completely shaken from his thoughts he's been dragged through an ornate gate set into a stone wall into a garden. David's eyes wander the place and automatically map out the details. They're just passed through a stone wall onto a platform resting on what appeared to mostly be a natural hill, with a small set of steps leading down to the actual ground level and the stone path that ran through the grass.
The garden itself is quite large, and beautifully crafted with paths, not just of stone but within the plants themselves winding naturally through the stunning blooms and leading towards what appeared to be an altar at one end of the garden and a large set of stairs at the other.
The stairs lead up to a balcony, over which loomed a fortified building some distance behind it. David recognized it as an old fort, in a style endemic to older Apuk architecture that David had seen a few times with Ariane so far this morning while touring the Imperial district.
David makes his second sweep of the area, now looking for even more fine details this time around. Looking up a bit higher finds ten statues lining the area, each paying homage to a larger statue of a woman in armor behind the altar.
She was posed with a warblade that was nearly as long as she was tall, and she appeared to have been very tall in life, regardless of how the sculptor had scaled her up. Still, the detail in the sculpture was remarkable. The warrior woman's smile warmed the garden that was clearly a memorial like she was standing there with them that moment, no matter how long it had been since her death.
Ariane sighs with pleasure at both the exquisite sculptures around them, but also the skillful display of horticulture, taking a brief moment to sniff a vibrant blue bloom before pulling up her guide book.
"Let's see... Yes, this is the Memorial Garden of the First Battle Princess. Hmm. Some warning in the Apuk language I can't read, where's the... ah! Here we are!"
Ariane grins at her success at finding what she was looking for and starts to read the contents of the page to David.
"Princess Mira'Tok Crownborn was the title that she ended her life under many thousands of Centris standard years ago at the dawn of pre-space flight modern Apuk history. Mira'Tok was the first to receive a crown directly from the hand of the woman who would become the first Empress of Serbow, and is the predecessor of every battle princess to ever wear a crown."
The Agela woman's eyes glimmer as she continues to read, clearly excited by both the history and the craftsmanship around them.
"The statues displayed around her are her ten companions, her battle sisters... and there's a twelfth statue behind her, of the Sorcerer Dus'Kvun, her husband. Not to deemphasize him, but rather their display rotates with the Princess being displayed forward by day, and her husband by night when bioluminescent plants from the dark forest naturally light the garden up! Seems the statues automatically rotate into their different positions after sunset and at dawn. The guide suggests this was a commentary on the two halves of martial supremacy on Serbow... and a more traditional depiction of both male and female."
David arches an eyebrow and leans over to read over Ariane's shoulder a bit. "Really, she was the first? Interesting... How old is the statue then? It's incredible. Almost like she's about to start laughing and tell us a story about her adventures."
Ariane nods. "She was famous for doing just that. This garden is a few thousand years old, commissioned early in the current Imperial family's reign. Mira'Tok was named a... it's hard to pronounce it, so I'll just translate, a sword saint. So like the kensei from Japan on Earth that we discussed the other day. So Mira'Tok is a religious figure as well as a historical and martial figure. So this memorial garden was dedicated as an official war shrine of the Apuk Imperial military. What's the mean though?"
Ariane flicks through a few more screens, focused entirely on learning something new about the place they'd found themselves in.
"Here we go! As an Imperial War Shrine, the garden of the mausoleum plays host to a variety of ceremonies annually including the Empress praying for the Imperial military, officers being commissioned or promoted, and senior enlisted swearing fresh oaths of enlistment. To be offered or granted permission to swear your oaths in the garden is a significant honor and marks out either a highly distinguished, or extremely loyal individual with many years or service... or the type of fresh face who's on the fast track to bigger and better things. It's not automatic even for battle princesses who take up Imperial military service."
Ariane pushes her communicator towards David, pointing to a specific paragraph. "Ooh, look! Apparently it's not uncommon for the Empress to turn up unannounced and receive the oaths of those permitted to make their oaths in Mira'Tok's mausoleum personally."
Sir David raises an eyebrow at that. "Dear God, I don't think her majesty ever surprised anyone to take their oaths of service personally... though she did knight me and award me my Victoria cross personally, as was the standard of the age. To take an oath of service personally like that from her warriors. That's truly special for those Imperial officers and enlisted who are privileged to offer their oaths like that I'm sure. To make oaths of loyalty and service personally to your liege. Ye gods and little fishes, it's right out of a fairy tale!"
"I know! Isn't it great?" Ariane clearly suppresses a squeal, doing her best to remain respectfully calm in this sacred space.
Suddenly however, a concerning thought struck Sir David.
"Say, Ari, are there any issues with us being here as outsiders? This is, as you say, sacred ground."
Ariane puts her nose back in her communicator and reads through a few pages quickly.
"Well it says this shrine isn't considered super popular to visit because it's small and somewhat out of the way, though many warriors make pilgrimage here to entreat Mira'Tok's blessing and invoke her courage, so this part of the war shrine is proudly open to the public. Though offworld visitors are of course asked to be respectful to the gardens and the spirits of the Princess, her husband and her shield sisters. In fact... as a warrior yourself you should be able to access the inner shrine if you'd like. There's apparently some rare artifacts related to Mira'Tok, and there's usually a few Wardens, retired senior members of the Apuk Imperial forces, around who are always happy to chat with a fellow warrior. While they nominally guard the shrine, apparently they also give regular discussions and talks about the history of this place, the Imperial military, and Mira'Tok. It's by appointment only, but they also only need like thirty minutes notice."
David nods, looking around again and admiring some more of the sheer effort that had gone into this beautiful little slice of serenity in the capital.
"Sounds like we should register for one of their talks if they wouldn't mind an audience of two. Heh, registering for a tour from wardens of a tower in the capital city of an Empire. It's so familiar it's almost a touch nostalgic."
David gestures upwards at the tower that was clearly the inner shrine.
"It's just like the Tower of London back home in some ways, right down to the wardens. The Yeoman Warders of the Tower back on Earth are all retired senior enlisted military personnel. Next you'll tell me they keep a local species of black bird here. Still, this other part of the shrine, the inner shrine, I can gain access to it? But you made it sound like you couldn't? Why's that?"
David gazes over at the now blushing Ariane.
"No such luck on the black birds. As to the inner shrine... It. Ah. Access to the inner shrine is limited to warriors and their... well. It says husbands but considering you're the warrior I'm sure they'd make exception for your spouse but we aren't married and I-"
Sir David leans over, cups Ariane's cheek and chastely kisses her on the lips, a mark of affection Ariane eagerly returns with a loving sigh.
"Ooh..."
"Maybe I'm not so worried about that any more. Forgive an old man his foibles my dear... besides. I'd say you're at least my fiancée, and I. Well I don't want to presume, but I'd be. It."
David feels his tongue tangle a bit as he remembers he hadn't expressed a lot of his feelings on this subject to Ariane yet.
"I... Ari. I'd be a fool not to marry you. I think I might have done you a great disservice in not being more clear about that. I ah. Yes. It's. You're to be my wife. If you'll have me of course... Bollocks that came out wrong."
Ari looks back at David, her long lashes fluttering as she gives him a coy smile.
"You're impossible sometimes you know that?"
"I'm unfortunately aware."
"I love that about you. I suspect Mary did too. Yes David. I'm going to be your wife. You're going to be my husband. There's no need to ask, it's set in the stars and has been from the moment we first made eye contact when you came to rescue me. Because for all your desire to take it slow, I've utterly failed to honor your desires and I fall more and more in love with you with every passing minute of every passing day. How can I not? I'm a girl who loves fairy tales after all, and here at last is my gallant knight to carry me away. I do prefer the human style role swap honestly. Much more fun to be carried off on horseback by you instead of carrying you off. Makes me feel all delicate."
The first kiss was nice. The second kiss was like nothing else David had ever experienced in his life apart from kisses with Mary, and in that second kiss he wasn't worried about having to remember how to be a lover to someone anymore.
Ari's lips warmed him from the tips of his ears down to his toes, making him melt just slightly as they embrace among the flowers, which seem to bloom all the more brightly in the face of such a passionate act of mutual affection, turning up to the couple ever so slightly as if they were the sun itself.
Then the spell is broken by a sharp wolf whistle and a leering cackle from nearby.
"Hey sister, care to share some sugar?"
Three well dressed Apuk, with what David recognized as gang markings peeking over their collars or out of their sleeves saunter through the gate, slowly spreading out.
"Told you girls I smelled a man. Cute too... So what's the slice sister, you the first wife?"
"S-Second. I'm his second wife." Ariane stutters for a second but quickly gets more confident in her tone, her powerful body tensing.
One of the toughs, a woman with poorly maintained reddish purple locks, looks at the senior tough, a woman with vibrant green hair that's clearly much better taken care of.
"...Why are you asking? We just want to have a little fun right? Make this trip up to the Imperial district worth it?"
"Yep, and all the better if sister here is willing to share. Might even make some easy credits girlie."
Ariane tenses a bit more, as her cheeks color with what David recognizes as anger. Then he notices Ariane's hand subtly going towards the controls for her shifter belt.
"Did you seriously just ask me to whore my husband out to you dirtbags?"
"Hey now, dirt bag's a mean way to put it!" The gang leader's tone takes on an oily, play acting hurt tone as the three women begin to spread out a bit more. "Might just hurt my feelings, and you know girls, when my feelings are hurt there's just about only one thing that'll really quench the fire it starts in me."
"...Bout a liter of this bitch's blood boss?" Says the redhead again, leering at Ariane as she speaks.
The gang leader's smile gets extra toothy, making her look like she was part Cannidor for a moment.
"Yep, and a couple rounds with old boy over there while she bleeds out on the stone. Hey. Call some more of the girls over, I think this might end up being a grand old time."
First Last

Okay, this will be a long post but I hope people will stick with it and give me their honest feedback. I've been considering posting to this Subreddit for a while now, but I'm really rubbish at using Reddit! I want to tell people about my encounter with a somewhat notorious ghost and how to this day, I can't explain what happened to me.
Back in 2019 I attended the Edinburgh film festival and it was my first time visiting the city. I had an amazing time, and one night I decided to take some time off watching films to do some tourist-like activities. In the hostel where I was staying I saw a leaflet for the Edinburgh Vault tours which I thought would be fascinating as I'm a serious history buff. If you don't know what the Edinburgh vaults are they are are a series of chambers formed in the nineteen arches of the South Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland which were used to house a number of different businesses until they became a shelter for the homeless (more info here). The tour was a 'Ghost' tour of the seedy part of old town in Edinburgh, and despite having some slightly paranormal experiences in the past, I felt pretty confident that I could handle going on my own.
The first part of the tour took place above ground and to be honest, it wasn't particularly great as it was the middle of June and despite being around 6-7pm, it was sunny and bright which didn't really create the right atmosphere. The tour guide led us to the entrance of the vaults, which we entered through a normal building and down a flight of stairs. Before, we went into the vaults, she told us to make sure our shoe laces are tied (I double-tied my laces as I didn't want to trip up as the floor was very uneven).
This was where the tour really started to get interesting. The guide told us about the history of the place and the ghosts that apparently reside there. One is Mr Boots, who is an evil spirit who can be heard stomping around in boots. The other is a small boy that attaches itself to women he considers to be a 'motherly' figure and he likes to grab their hand and is known to untie shoelaces. The un-named boy is apparently scared of Mr Boots. As a tour group, we walk from room to room as the tour guide recounts different stories of ghostly encounters.
We enter one room where there used to be a fireplace, which the guide is in front of. In the archway there's a couple and I'm stood next to them facing the guide and the couple. I decide to take a photo of the guide and the couple when suddenly behind the couple I see this man.
I've never seen a face full of so much hate and evil in all my life. I can't even find the words to describe how menacing they looked, their face looked twisted with hate. They looked human. A tall figure, wearing a long black coat or a cloak, wearing a top hat. They had white pale skin. The figure wasn't transparent, but solid.
The moment I saw him, the entire left side of my body went numb and cold. And, I mean cold as if that side of my body had frozen. I felt something yank at my left hand and I pulled my eyes away from the figure in the archway to look down at the left hand-side of my body. There's nothing next me, no-one pulling on my hand, and when I go to look up Mr Boots is gone. Thank God!
The guide starts to move everyone to the next room, and I seriously don't want to walk through the archway but I know I can't stay in the small room any longer. I go to move when I look down at my left shoe to see the shoe lace is undone. Only, it's not just undone. The shoelace looks like its been wrapped around someone's finger and they have piled it on top of my shoe. I can't help but gasp out loud and call the guide over. She looks at it baffled and says she's never seen that happen to anyone before! I don't know why but I was too scared to tell her about seeing Mr Boots, because I felt like I couldn't tell her like I would somehow get into trouble? I felt like I was suddenly back to being a little kid.
I wasn't the only person in the tour group to have a paranormal experience. There was this big body-builder type man who clearly thought the whole tour was just nonsense, he was stood in a corner of this room next to a wall just minding his own business when suddenly he jumped and looked behind him. Apparently, he heard someone clap in his ear but there wasn't anyone behind him and no-one in the group had clapped.
I'm nearly at the end of this story, so thank you for sticking with me so far. The last bit is what happened to me back at the hostel when I returned after the tour. I had been sharing a room with a few other girls and I re-telling my experience (minus seeing Mr Boots because I thought no-one would believe me), the girls thought the tour sounded really interesting and we chatted for a bit about Scotland in general before I decided to go to sleep.
As I was lying in my bunk (which was on the bottom), I was suddenly overcome by that feeling of being frozen and paralysed again like I had experienced back in the vault. My eyes were half open and I could see the two girls still talking sat on a bed. I remember wanting to call out to them but I couldn't. I don't know how long I was stuck like this but eventually I found that I could open my eyes fully and I could move again. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.
If people are interested in some context, I have always had strange experiences on the left hand-side of my body. What I mean by this, is that whenever anything paranormal happens, I feel a shiver go down the entire left hand-side of my body. You know, that feeling you get when someone walks over your grave? Well, that's what I feel. When I was three I was involved in a terrible accident where my dress caught on fire and I was badly burnt. The part of my body most affected? The left part.

I'm an old man as far as Reddit goes (41). I grew up on JRPGs on my NES/SNES, back in the day. Lots of video store rentals of FF6, Chrono Trigger and random terrible JRPGs that I played as it was summer and I had no money but a lot of time (Beyond the Beyond and Tecmo Secret of the Seven Stars, I'm looking at you).
I had the worst year of my life this past year. Lost a ton of money to a successful business tanking, lost my marriage and lost my wife. I literally was ready to just throw in the towel on life.
Luckily, I got a lot of help and life has taken a new path and new opportunities. That being said, I am fairly broke and I have a lot of free time and a need to have some low-stakes distractions.
These past six months, the Switch really helped me have fun and pass the time while working on my mental health. Video Games can become addictive and can take over someone's life, but playing a lot of games have really given me a good distraction when the walls felt like they were closing in.
All these games are over a year old, so I figured they are fair game
Live A Live - What an unexpected gem. I had no idea that there would be enough interest in an old Japan-only release to have them clean it up and re-release it with full translation for an English audience. This is the kind of thing I dreamed of when I read my EGM back when I was a JRPG fanatic.
This really took me back to my younger days with my SNES. The game looked beautiful, most of the story arcs were really well done and diverse, the combat was a bit so-so but everything else was very polished and fun.
I sat and played through the game over the course of a few weeks. The final 'final' boss was a treat and I loved how the stories all culminated to tell an over-arching narrative. It was also delightfully weird in all the right ways. My favorite character was 'cube', hardly any combat skills but my little robot buddy had a heart of gold.
Fire Emblem Three Houses - This was the first title I picked up and it kept me busy for two months of midwest winter. This is the type of game I didn't even know I needed in my life.
I played through the game 4 times to get each of the endings and enjoyed playing on the hardest difficulty (I did use NG+, not quite the masochist required to start fresh without those boosted benefits).
I've read a lot in my life and I was impressed at how well the narrative was crafted. I was genuinely surprised at some of the twists and turns to the game. The opening anime intro had me invested in the story right away.
The grotesque human/technology 'monsters' hit an HP Lovecraft vibe that hits a very specific spot for me. Sure, some of the tropes were a bit 'meh' but each of the main characters had their own arc that was very satisfying. They also did a really smart thing by completely changing how each main character acted if Blyeth was with them or chose another route. It really helped sell how important you were to the narrative.
My favorite path was Silver Snow as I felt like it was the path I would likely take in the 'real' world. I also thought it told the perfect story of a religion coming to terms with itself and the destruction it can bring upon the world...even with the best of intents. I didn't get to makeout with the leader due to some missed choices but I can't deny that she was a very well done thirst-trap pope vibe.
A+ game, sad to see there is nothing else like it but also glad I got to have the experience.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I always found Zelda games to be a bit too hard for me to find them enjoyable. Rather than bash my head against a wall, I just used a guide for each of the legendary beast puzzles and found myself having a fun time.
I fought all the bosses with my own wits but just never found much enjoyment by figuring out extended puzzles. I loved the technology betrays the creator stories and BoTW really hit on those notes really well.
I know people say Tears is the better of the two, but I found BoTW to be the far superior game with the more interesting main baddie and the more interesting story of technology turning on those that created it. That is a story I'll take over most other stories.
I know everyone says it's a 10/10 masterpiece...but for me, it's a really fun 8/10 game. I liked the darker notes and wanted more of that but I also understand Zelda has a light-hearted feel to it and can never go down a path too dark for its audience.
And...that's it!

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title is clickbait.
this is less of a whiny copypasta (but you can use it as such if it does become stupid) and more of an attempt at walking through my experiences and hoping to keep an open mind about whether or not continuing the series would be worth it.
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Warning: my writing tends to be more or less an incoherent mess as I jump around and write what I think of off the top of my head.
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I read the manga up to the current chapter and at the end was left in a pretty negative vibe and hesitant on whether i'd enjoy the rest of the anime and LN if I invested time into it.
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Prologue:
I was browsing youtube and the scene with Zanac discussion and beheading came up. I tend to care less about major plot points getting spoiled and will usually read through summaries of things in advance. I value twists/big plot points less than how well they are executed. Interesting enough so I decided to read the manga. I chose manga over anime/LN because 20 minutes per episode usually doesnt slot well and LN requires more mental imagination of things.
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The Manga:
Gonna break down my reactions based on first time reading them

The Undead King Arc

Yup pretty chill intro, we get to see some of the basic things going down w Momonga, e.g. friendship, his relation to the guardians, his [guild's] cool crib, his overpowered abilities. Off to a start with Momonga helping the village and giving free items.
Nice villain premise seems solid
Guardians deciding to go for world domination interesting.
My expectations for the story based on this arc: "Ainz will become the anti hero who fights evil with killing so at least it isnt shit ass talk no jutsu I guess"

The Dark Warrior Arc

Momonga does some basic isekai/adventurer shit. Seems legit I guess.
First taste of good guys dying brutally. Corpses get defiled not cool.
My expectations for the story based on this arc is same as above really, good guy who isnt above killing.

The Bloody Valkyrie Arc

Ainz realizes there are people with power. Possible challenge? Ainz might have to exert some effort?
My expectations for story are same as above + seek revenge on the strong NPCs motivation, gonna fight a lot of mini enemies before reaching top of organization.

The Lizard Man Heroes Arc

I skim/read really fast but yeah the "Biped Sheep" went over my head as much as it did Ainz's. Honestly the giveaway should've been the lack of wool mentions and just directly talking about skin w/o stuff like meat or innards since it would make sense to make use of all parts of a sheep.
Lizardmen sex haha funny.
First taste of real evil brutality and it was underwhelming tbh.
At this point I kinda expected at least Zaryushu to be revived and Crusch to survive because they had baby making. yeah just based on that. honestly i believe baby making > actual children in terms of plot armor.
Interesting/funny how Demiurge and Albedo guide Ainz's reasoning unintentionally.
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Overall, nice of Ainz to let Cocytus step up, sorta gives the parent teaching kid vibe.
Cocytus choosing to spare the Lizardmen of his own volition, showing that the guardians can act independently of Ainz and have their own personalities. I understood Cocytus's choice was out of honor rather than mercy.
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My expectations for the story based on this arc is will Demiurge notice that Ainz isnt really the super mega genius brain he is and manipulate Ainz into pushing his own goals (or just Nazarick's goals). Alternatively Demiurge instead of intentionally manipulating, simply subconsciously manipulates.

The Men in the Kingdom Arc

Meeting the other guys.
Sebas being a good person baited me into thinking that Nazarick would really be nice guys after all. After finishing the manga I feel like Ainz's compassion for the sister thing was too much of an asspull. In order to justify keeping that girl alive they had to make her related. Because otherwise there was no way Ainz would've had any reason to keep her alive. It doesnt seem like she appears later so she more so functions as a bait to keep the reader thinking that they're really good people after all (in the manga).
Demiurge being Demiurge I guess, absolute murder happy feller.
My expectations for the story based on this arc is above + will the guardians become nicer + Ainz will continue pushing a hero persona while instigating the villainy himself. Evil yes but it'd be interesting to watch him be a fake good guy.

The Invaders of the Large Tomb Arc

He said they would die so I expected them to die. They died.
I honestly put 0 value into anime waifus. None whatsoever. Arche sad backstory? Yeah cool but I already knew she wouldn't be an exception so she died. The End.
Honestly? I got the kick out of watching the guardians exert their skills or personality to handle intruders.
The only slight nagging I had at the back of my brain was "Is Momonga going to do anything (is Ainz going to let them go to keep Momonga's identity intact)". I honestly dont know what was up with this line of reasoning but it was still sorta "Ainz is still technically good" copium. Turns out I didnt need to worry about Momonga identity at all because it gets buried and nobody ever really thinks about or brings it up again since he decides to go into Sorcerer King mode.
My expectations for the story based on this arc: "Ainz will kill people to 'protect' Nazarin from shit like looters/adventurers who dare trespass"

The Two Leaders Arc

Woah check out the side characters. Remember these guys Ainz helped? They're doing normal stuff and just trying to chill but get jumped by monsters!
Ainz decides to kill some more high end monsters! yippee!
My expectations for the story based on this arc same as before

The Magic Caster of Destruction Arc

bro killed 70k real people just to summon some murder monsters to kill even more. yeah honestly, what's the point i cant fuck with this anymore.
even though I didnt expect anyone to survive its still not a fun thing to just watch everyone get murdered.
My expectations for the story based on this arc: "Ainz will just kill almost everyone i guess and then enslave the rest"
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Epilogue:
After hitting the chapter 76 (last chapter I could find), I just felt subdued disappointment.
I dosed partial copium in two aspects

1. It's still a "game". Yes I know its another world but there are constant reminders that everyone else is an NPC, MC is looking for players, etc etc. The New World might as well still be the video game and MC is killing everyone simply because they aren't real people.
2. Undead = less morality. I would say the isekai shifted his personality though we dont see much of it in the manga. There's no way this guy would've passed any sort of mental health test. Then again its a dystopian future so they might not even have enough funds for mental health check.

Yeah I definitely did the seething and coping but I just decided that eh whatever it just isn't worth pushing manga/LN for if this is the series going forward. It felt like a shift from the first two arcs for sure.
Copying the names for the arcs it turns out the part where Ainz announces his utopia thing is right after it, which might've changed my mind on continuing the manga.
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Then I went on reddit

Browsing the Hot Posts

some good memes, not too much to talk about tbh

Searching for "evil"

Seeing some diverse opinions that were all pretty well received
"He is evil"
"He is just benefitting Nazarick at the expense of everyone else"
"He is justice/based"
I get last ones a meme and I'm honestly with number 2/3 combined ones where they acknowledge from a general moral compass perspective it is evil but his intentions are to further Nazarick.

Searching for "redo"

I'll admit, this was just kinda copium trying to find hypocrisy where there is none. I barely touched redo, looked at a few chapters, its just hentai with adventurer element trying to do a story. Still came up in my mind since I wanted to compare the "blatantly villain guys"
Specifically wanted to see the subset of fans that dunk on redo for rape specifically (rather than shitty story/hentai) and mentally calling them out for being okay with genocide but not rape.
I did see someone who mentioned how certain animes trigger them because of violence/sexual violence but Overlord is fine since its from Ainz's perspective but that's honestly acceptable and isnt a real good indicator of hypocrisy since PTSD can manifest differently.

Searching for "tanya"

I actually never read tanya but I already mentally had a dislike of the thing because of the "child hitler" thing. Yes yes imperial germany but the whole child conducting war crimes premise was not a great hook for me.
Turns out overlord and tanya are homies and thats just great i guess. Mass murderers rise up.

Searching for "arche"

Yup I agree with the common sentiment "Arche simps are cringe. Backstory =/= survivable". Gonna pat myself on the back for being so uncringe.

Searching for "arche sisters"

On this I regained strong feelings.
I would've been completely fine if it was "le salt mines". I would've been fine if they died in an orphanage fire. I would've been fine if Ainz just teleported, time stopped and killed them w one touch insta kill.
But really...
really?
as forgone as it was in terms of dark world + no other forms of child labor, I cant for the life of me imagine 5 year old children in that kinda situation ever and people casually joking about it. Given the non zero amount of fans who joke about it and the non zero amount of fans who enjoy the Overlord genocides there is definitely a non zero number of fans who got off on that. I would also argue there's definitely a difference between 5 and 10. Specifically, school starting at 6 years old (in modern societies technically). If the author chose 10, maybe less fucked up idk since they'd have awareness. Man could've chosen 1 year old and had the parents sell their baby children and it wouldn't have been that fucked up.
Idk how new fans would process this information while being called degenerates for simping Arche by the same people who joke about this.
I guess I'll keep snorting the "they died mercifully" copium instead of the alternative.
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Overall reasons for disliking

1. Manga format.Honestly I should've read the LN because the manga is both behind anime and still kinda graphic in presentation. Also cuts some details compared to the LN format. LN allows the reader to tone up/down their mental images and allows some readers to just read w/o imagining at all.
2. Switches up goals/personalities way too quickA lot of the early stuff feels like isekai bait. Switches from hero to world domination really fast. Momonga personality dropped and gone. Idk how much smoother the transition is in the LN compared to the manga
3. Arche's sisters too fucked up
4. Horny/sexualization out of place. Straw that broke the camel's back for me. Honestly the whole dark humor story didn't need horny tacked on. It feels grossly out of place to read Albedo thirsting over Ainz and then Ainz murdering everyone. If I'm being honest I've never enjoyed horny in manga where story isnt about horny. Curious how Albedo's body pillow never got brought up after he murdered all the trespassers... edit: taking this even further, i think the idea of best girls in this is silly. Ainz has 0 sex drive or romantic motivation and shipping any of the characters to Ainz seems futile. well shippers gonna ship I guess. edit: changed to out of place because yes I agree the sexualization is less compared to other isekais.

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Everything aside, I've never really gotten into Isekai at all.
I read SAO once. once. pretty much killed all interest in isekai after that. and the sexualization is not my jam.
I've guilty pleasured some power of friendship stuff like MHA but that's never been my bread and butter.
Honestly might've moved past shonen as a whole.
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Two of my favorite mangas are Moriarty the Patriot (anti-hero, alternative history of Moriarty but from a sympathetic perspective. Commits murder for a goal, willing to sacrifice self to better country) and Ya Boy Kongming (Alternative version of famous chinese strategist Kongming, uses his military strategies to help singer succeed in market)
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Maybe the real issue is that I dont like isekai. I'd love to hear any armchair psychologist thoughts you guys might have and some refutations to any shit points I made.
I'm willing to give LN another shot but I want to hear some rebuttals or agree/disagree on opinions stated
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tl;dr
overlord kills way too many people that i wish he'd just instant kill 80% and just slave the rest, no point in getting interested in characters outside of nazarick because they'll just get dumpstered.
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edit: I understand that there are people with WCI and therefore its still important for him to be conscious of that. I retract that part and apologize for not considering that.

So lots of people have incredibly strong opinions about which team was morally correct at the end of the series. Was Eren correct to do the Rumbling? Or did Zeke have a better plan? What about the alliance? The plans set by the alliance were pretty vague due to their team consisting of many people with different values. So I bring my own potential pre-rumbling solution to the conflict between Eldia and the world. Paradis Israel
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What this post is and is not:
This post is not meant to be an alternative ending, I think the one that happened was fine. Rather, the purpose of this post is to show that another solution apart from the rumbling or euthanasia was possible. It shows how people like Eren and Zeke were guided by their own anger and emotions rather than acting strictly in the best interests of everyone.
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What is Paradis Israel?
After Paradis discovers the outside world, why didn't they seek peace? I know this was sabotaged by Eren, but some AOT fans act like Eren had no choice. Here's my solution: Paradis begins negotiations with the outside world, with the help of Hizuru. If things go really badly and the outside world prepares an invasion, Eldia can destroy their fleets with a partial rumbling (as planned by the alliance). After that, the outside would be severely weakened, and it would be up to Paradis to help them rebuild. The main reason Marley attacked Paradis in the first place was for resources. Paradis could use these resources to help all the other nations.
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Hizuru is proof that non-eldian nations can learn to get over their prejudice and get along with Paradis. Lots of the other nations fear and hate the Eldians living within their borders, why not deport them to Paradis where they can live in freedom?
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It would take a long time for the outside world to forgive Eldia for its crimes in the past, but it would happen eventually. This is why I named the solution after the nation of Israel. In the real world, the Arabs view the Israelis as their enemies for stealing their lands, plus some anti-Semitism. This anger lasted a long time, but in recent decades the anger has been dying down. Nations like the UAE have been seeking to normalize ties with Israel and open trade relations. A similar thing could happen with Eldia. Countries would be incredibly hostile to Eldia at first, but given the opportunity of economic assistance and trade, they would normalize ties eventually. There may be conflict but as long as it's kept to a minimum there's no reason why peace couldn't come in the long term. Additionally, Marley seems to be the arch-enemy of Eldia, Marley also seems to be the enemy of lots of other nations in the world (Season 4 starts with them at war with multiple other countries). Eldia could help other nations become free from Marley (via the partial rumbling), and help curry favour with everyone.
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Plus Paradis has a key difference with Israel, there are no Palestinians. Lots of the conflict in the middle east comes from a battle for land between the Jewish state and the Palestinian state. For Paradis, the whole island would be a safe zone for Eldians.
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Is this not what happened at the very end of the Manga? The outside world invaded anyway.
The ending of the manga is similar to my solution but with a few key differences lowering the chances of long-term peace.
1: The outside world is almost completely destroyed at the end of the manga. This would make the citizens of the world never forgive Eldia, or at least it would take a much longer time. All the average citizen has against the Eldians before the rumbling was A: racism and B: anger from a conflict hundreds of years in the past. It would be much easier for the world to forgive Eldia for the empire long ago rather than the rumbling.
2: Eldia is hostile to the outside world at the end of the manga. At the end of the manga, we don't see a friendly Eldia opening up to the world. We see a hostile militaristic Eldia, one far more likely to incur conflict.
3: There are no more colossal titans at the end of the manga. The outside world would be able to destroy Eldia and get away with it. That's probably why they did so in the last few pages of the manga.
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Overall, this solution isn't perfect. There is bound to be of some kind of conflict in the future, as is one of the key themes of Attack on Titan. The solution isn't perfectly bloodless, it requires using the colossal Titans to crush any invaders from the outside world. Plus it doesn't fix the titan curse or interference from rogue actors like Eren or Zeke. But one thing should be obvious: This solution is infinitely more humane than the rumbling or euthanasia and has a reasonable chance of success. Eren and Zeke weren't back into a corner with no other options. They were just so traumatized from their own life that they wanted to wipe the whole world away rather than continue to fight for a better world for everyone.

I'm getting ready to build a little media center pc and am deciding on exactly how I want to run it.
Ideally, I'll put on steam, kodi, and some emulators (I haven't decided the best way to link these UIs together).
If steam OS is nothing more than the steam client on debian, then I'll probably opt to grab debian 11 and run with that. (Configuring apt repos doesn't scare me). However, if it's a lot more than that I might decide to go with steamos as the base.
So, what does steamos bring to the table over plain ole debian + steam?
Why would I opt for plain debian? Because I want to do zfs on root to get some sweet zstd compression + snapshotting going on with my server. Might still be possible with steamos, but there's a handy guide for it in the debian manuals.
EDIT Just realized steam 3.0 is based on Arch... my bad. Same question though.