Hi Guys,
I have been following this sub for some months and i actually don’t know what to think.
Many comments like “I’ve owned gens, but since i got my first rep i will be selling my gens” -> How real is this?
Why do people overly hype Hont, while there are many other TD’s, yet very few talk about them?
How many real users(consumers) does this sub have? Many times it feels like content is being posted and hyped by sellers / factories.

Hey guys Marc Watson here with a new collection of some rarer cards for you guys? Same stipulations apply:
-looking to sell the whole lot for ease of access but can do bits and pieces. -Always willing to haggle if it means making a sale. -Conditions of all are NM and sleeved the second they're acquired. -Basic deck box and sleeves are included in addition to bulk rares as thanks.
Hit me up if interested, I'd be happy to make about 50 on this.
https://imgur.com/a/PnTYC81

The guy from Seymour, Indiana, home of John Mellencamp. He called Clay and midway through the call, he promoted a place he was selling beads at or something and Clay went berserk. Does anyone have the date of that call? It was hilarious and I would love to listen to it.

Another Madden $70 re-skin is upon us, so let's take a moment to explore the history of all the people who have been featured on the cover of an pro football video game.
While the selection of the Madden cover athlete is now an event, there was a wild wild west period of football games from the 80s to the mid-2000s where anybody with a computer could and would build football games, with the selection of the cover being all over the place. Roger Craig was the first cover athlete in 1985 on NFL Challenge for MS-DOS. Madden's first game was in 1988, then by the mid-90s getting a cover athlete or spokesman for your football game was pretty standard.
I wanted to compile those games and covers based on this Wiki article (and a few that it was missing from that list) and see who was on the main cover of all of those games (some games were almost completely irrelevant, so I left them off this list). Some of these may have more alternates with other people, but I'll stick with the main cover.

Covers by Position

https://preview.redd.it/1dzua4o2hl2b1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=79174425f34c9090dacddd78d3679923182d5f3a
*These are heavily boosted by John Madden being on 10 Madden covers
Obviously QBs dominate here, but I didn't realize how little defensive players have been on football game covers (9%), with none being on a cover since Richard Sherman in 2014. I'd love to see more defensive players on the Madden cover. Who would be the most likely defensive guy in the near future? Aaron Donald, TJ Watt, Nick Bosa, Myles Garrett, or Sauce Gardner?

Covers by Team

https://preview.redd.it/8f29df4ygl2b1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=cfa6fba341321f2fb7be68a4be1d0e89404f9e40
If a team's player was not a lead on the cover or was not any identifiable player, I gave them a *
The Re-skins/Commanders?, Jags, Panthers, and Bills have appeared on a cover but never with an athlete as the lead or with a real person. Only the Texans have never appeared at all on the cover of any football video game. I'd say the Bills are most likely to get one next (Josh Allen), then the Jags (Trevor Lawrence), then the Panthers/Texans if either hits a home run with Young or Stroud. The Commanders have a long road ahead to getting a feature cover athlete, unless you ask Sam Howell who thinks he should be this year's Madden cover athlete.

Most Prolific Cover People

https://preview.redd.it/5axoymcakl2b1.png?width=2871&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ead25140a20a056d3e02e6cf5fdc14918a9ca51
Kordell Stewart, Daunte Culpepper, and Donovan McNabb (and possibly Lamar Jackson, still too early for him) are the only players with multiple appearances that are either not or are unlikely to make the Hall of Fame. McNabb is the only guy to appear in multiple covers in the same year. Also of note, 7 athletes were on a cover without ever making a pro bowl in their careers: Brad Muster, Pat Terrell, Gordon Laro, Chris Zorich, Albert Fontenot, William Floyd, and Peyton Hillis (Hillis was the only one to be the primary cover athlete).
I'll list all the games and their respective covers by their era below. I'll also attach some of my favorite covers from each era. If the cover person was a Hall of Famer, I'll mark them with a ^\). If they're very likely to make the HoF but they're not yet eligible, I'll mark them with a ⁺

Covers by Era

Decade	# of Games	# of Games w/Cover Athletes	# of Cover Athletes
60s	1	0	0
70s	4	0	0
80s	11	2 (18%)	2
90s	36	32 (89%)	21
00s	40	38 (95%)	36
10s	14	10 (71%)	12
20s	8	4 (50%)	5
Total	114	86 (75%)	76

We didn't see the first cover athlete until 1985 with Roger Craig. They didn't really become standard until the early to mid-90s after Madden became a big selling point for the early Madden games. The dip in the last 2 decades is because there's just less games, so any generic football games will have a large effect.

The Early Days: 1965-1982

1978: Football! for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 was the first football video game with a cover, but obviously the cover athletes are generic.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1965	FTBALL	NA	NA	NA
1972	Football (Magnavox)	NA	NA	NA
1978	Football!	Generic players	NA	NA
1978	Football (Atari)	Generic players	NA	NA
1979	NFL Football	Generic players	NA	NA
1982	Realsports: Football	Generic players	NA	NA

The 2D Era: 1983-1996

1985: NFL Challenge was the first football game with a real cover athlete (Roger Craig). This was the original bar for realism in football simulation, to where it was used in a 1988 ESPN Program \"NFL Dream Season\" where they simulated the greatest teams of all time against each other.
1988: John Madden Football released on the Apple II, MS-DOS, and Commodore 64/128 (partly being developed by Bethesda), which was the beginning of the most dominant franchise in football video games. They featured no NFL teams due to a lack of an NFL license.
1991: Tecmo Super Bowl is probably still my personal favorite football video game. It's totally timeless, and if you pick the Raiders then you're a cheater.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1983	10-Yard Fight	Generic Jersey	NA	NA
1984	Super Action Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1985	NFL Challenge	Roger Craig	49ers	RB
1987	4th & Inches	Generic players	NA	NA
1987	Tecmo Bowl	Generic players	NA	NA
1988	TV Sports: Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1988	John Madden Football ('88)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1989	ABC Monday Night Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1989	NFL	Generic players	49ers, Raiders, Oilers, Broncos, Re-skins	NA
1989	PlayMaker Football	Equipment	NA	NA
1990	Joe Montana Football	Joe Montana*	None	QB
1990	John Madden Football ('90)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1991	John Madden Football II (or '92)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1991	Tecmo Super Bowl	Generic player	NA	NA
1992	NFL Sports Talk Football '93	Joe Montana*	49ers	QB
1992	Front Page Sports Football	Generic players	NA	NA
1993	Capcom's MVP Football	Brad Muster	Bears	FB
1993	Madden NFL '94	John Madden*	NA	HC/Announcer
1993	NFL Football '94 Starring Joe Montana	Joe Montana*	Chiefs	QB
1993	Mutant League Football	Mutant	NA	NA
1994	ESPN Sunday Night NFL	Chris Berman	NA	Announcer
1994	Madden NFL '95	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1994	Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition	Generic player	Cowboys	NA
1994	Troy Aikman NFL Football	Troy Aikman*	Cowboys	QB
1995	Emmitt Smith Football	Emmitt Smith*	None	RB
1995	Madden NFL '96	John Madden*, Pat Terrell, Gordon Laro	NA, Panthers, Jags	John Madden, DB, TE
1995	NFL Quarterback Club 96	Steve Young*, Chris Zorich, Albert Fontenot	49ers, Bears	QB, DL
1995	Sterling Sharpe: End 2 End	Sterling Sharpe	None	WR
1995	Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition	Generic players	Raiders, Bills	NA
1995	NFL GameDay	William Floyd	49ers	FB
1996	Madden NFL 97	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1996	NFL '97	Kordell Stewart	Steelers	QB
1996	NFL Quarterback Club 97	Dan Marino*	Dolphins	QB
1996	NFL GameDay '97	Daryl "Moose" Johnston	Cowboys	FB

​

The Parity Era: 1997-2004

1997: NFL Blitz came from Midway studios and was a breath of fresh air for football games. They had mostly been stagnant trying to hone in on realistic simulation in 2D form, whereas Blitz came out in 3D and threw realism out the window. I definitely spent too much money on the arcade version of this game.
2000: Madden 2001 started the tradition of having their games feature a cover athlete in this format, which consolidated into nearly everyone following this trend.
2001: Backyard Football 2002 was a more kid-friendly version of a football video game, and they also had other games for other professional sports. I definitely played this a lot on my old Windows Me computer, and Pablo Sanchez is a god.
2002: NFL Fever was Microsoft's foray into football video games on the original Xbox. All 3 of their games featured Peyton Manning as the cover athlete.
2002: NFL GameDay 2003 was 989 Sports' exclusive for Sony on the PlayStation platform.
2004: ESPN NFL 2K5 was the last great football game before the NFL exclusively gave their license to the EA. It was this game that definitely led to NFL's decision though, as they slashed their release price to an unheard of $20, which forced Madden 2004 to release at $30 instead of the typical $50. This pissed off the NFL, who decided to have less competition instead.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1997	NFL Blitz	Kordell Stewart	Steelers	QB
1997	NFL Quarterback Club 98	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1997	NFL GameDay '98	Jerome Bettis*	Steelers	RB
1997	Madden NFL 98 (64)	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1998	NFL Xtreme	Mike Alstott	Bucs	FB
1998	NFL Quarterback Club 99	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1998	NFL GameDay '99	Terrell Davis*	Broncos	RB
1998	Madden NFL 99	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1999	NFL Xtreme 2	John Randle*	Vikings	DL
1999	NFL Quarterback Club 2000	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1999	NFL GameDay 2000	Terrell Davis*	Broncos	RB
1999	NFL 2K	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
1999	Madden NFL 2000	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1999	Backyard Football	Steve Young)*, Jocinda Smith, Amir Khan	49ers, Generic	QB
2000	NFL Quarterback Club 2001	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
2000	NFL GameDay 2001	Marshall Faulk*	Rams	RB
2000	NFL 2K1	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
2000	Madden NFL 2001	Eddie George	Titans	RB
2001	NFL Quarterback Club 2002	Brett Favre*, Rich Gannon	Packers, Raiders	QB
2001	NFL GameDay 2002	Donovan McNabb	Eagles	QB
2001	NFL Fever 2002	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2001	NFL 2K2	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
2001	Madden NFL 2002	Daunte Culpepper	Vikings	QB
2001	Backyard Football 2002	Drew Bledsoe or Donovan McNabb	Pats or Eagles	QB
2001	ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002	Edgerrin James*	Colts	RB
2002	NFL GameDay 2003	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2002	NFL Fever 2003	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2002	NFL 2K3	Brian Urlacher*	Bears	LB
2002	Madden NFL 2003	Marshall Faulk*	Rams	RB
2003	NFL GameDay 2004	LaDainian Tomlinson*	Chargers	RB
2003	NFL Fever 2004	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2003	Madden NFL 2004	Michael Vick	Falcons	QB
2003	ESPN NFL Football	Warren Sapp*	Bucs	DL
2003	Backyard Football 2004	Jeff Garcia	49ers	QB
2004	NFL GameDay 2005	Derrick Brooks*	Bucs	LB
2004	Madden NFL 2005	Ray Lewis*	Ravens	LB
2004	ESPN NFL 2K5	Terrell Owens*	Eagles	WR
2004	NFL Street	Ricky Williams	Dolphins	RB

​

The Madden Era: 2005-Present

2005: NFL Street 2 was the second in the NFL Street series as a kind of spiritual successor to NFL Blitz. EA tried to have some diversity in their football video games outside of the Madden franchise, so they had the short-lived Street franchise under \"EA BIG\"
2006: NFL Head Coach was a new perspective on NFL Games where you play as the coach instead of the players. I enjoyed these although they could get a little boring.
2007: All Pro Football 2K8 was 2K's attempt at keeping the 2K football franchise alive without the coveted NFL license. They got three HoF players on the cover in Elway, Barry, and Rice, but not the actual license to any NFL team. This game received praise for its mechanics, but poor sales showed that a non-NFL licensed game would always struggle to make it.
2011: Madden 12 was maybe the last good Madden game. Also, Peyton Hillis. The only guy on a NFL football game cover to never make a Pro Bowl. This guy is an actual hero though, so good for him.
2019: Doug Flutie's Maximum Football was a mix of american and CFL football as another attempt at making a football game without the NFL license to poor results. They have announced a new game as a free to play title on new platforms, but no games in this franchise have released since 2020.
2020: Retro Bowl is a mobile game more in the style of Tecmo Super Bowl than Madden. It's probably the most successful non-Madden game since ESPN NFL 2K5, and it's pretty fun. People should definitely give this one a try since it's free to play on any mobile platform.
2022: Madden 23 gave the cover back to Madden for the first time since 1999 to honor the passing of the legend John Madden. Unfortunately the game inside the cover was crap, has been the style of Madden games for over a decade.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
2005	Madden NFL 06	Donovan McNabb	Eagles	QB
2005	NFL Street 2	Jeremy Shockey, Xzibit	Giants, Pimp My Ride	TE, Rapper
2005	Blitz: The League	Generic players	NA	NA
2005	Backyard Football 2006	Daunte Culpepper	Vikings	QB
2006	Madden NFL 07	Shaun Alexander	Seahawks	RB
2006	NFL Head Coach	Bill Cowher*	Steelers	HC
2006	NFL Street 3	Chad Johnson	Bengals	WR
2007	Backyard Football '07	Ben Roethlisberger+	Steelers	QB
2007	Madden NFL 08	Vince Young	Titans	QB
2007	All-Pro Football 2K8	John Elway*, Barry Sanders*, Jerry Rice*	Generic	QB, RB, WR
2007	Backyard Football '08	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2008	NFL Tour	Shawne Merriman	Chargers	LB
2008	NFL Head Coach 09	Tony Dungy*	Colts	HC
2008	Backyard Football '09	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2009	Madden NFL 10	Troy Polamalu*, Larry Fitzgerald+	Steelers, Cards	DB, WR
2009	Backyard Football '10	Frank Gore+, Eli Manning+, Kurt Warner*, Peyton Manning*, Adrian Peterson+, Jason Witten+	49ers, Giants, Cards, Colts, Vikings, Cowboys	RB, QB, TE
2010	Quick Hit Football	Logo	NA	NA
2010	Madden NFL 11	Drew Brees+	Saints	QB
2010	Backbreaker	Generic player	NA	NA
2011	Madden NFL 12	Peyton Hillis	Browns	RB
2012	Madden NFL 13	Calvin Johnson*	Lions	WR
2013	Madden NFL 25	Barry Sanders* or Adrian Peterson+	Lions or Vikings	RB
2014	Madden NFL 15	Richard Sherman+	Seahawks	DB
2015	Madden NFL 16	Odell Beckham Jr.	Giants	WR
2016	Madden NFL 17	Rob Gronkowski+	Pats	TE
2016	Axis Football 2016	Generic player	NA	NA
2017	Madden NFL 18	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2017	Axis Football 17	Generic player	NA	NA
2018	Madden NFL 19	Antonio Brown+	Steelers	WR
2019	Doug Flutie's Maximum Football 2019	Doug Flutie	Generic (Stampeders)	QB
2020	Sunday Rivals	Helmet	NA	NA
2020	Retro Bowl	Generic player	NA	NA
2020	Legend Bowl	Silhouette	NA	NA
2019	Madden NFL 20	Patrick Mahomes+	Chiefs	QB
2020	Madden NFL 21	Lamar Jackson	Ravens	QB
2021	Madden NFL 22	Tom Brady+, Patrick Mahomes+	Bucs, Chiefs	QB
2022	Madden NFL 23	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
2023	NFL Pro Era	Lamar Jackson	Ravens	QB

So, it seems like the RNG of matching is this game is, to put it nicely, }+%*%. I managed to get to 57 (whoopdey-doo), but I’m down to 42. I seem to be constantly paired with people whose deck has cards I have never even seen, let alone are able to counter. And that’s not counting when I’m being $@@&&& 80% of the time by locations. Like today’s, for example. One location has no reveals? Most of my decks are now handicapped by 33% (and then you get the nice guy who plays Cosmo on one of the other two). Not to mention everyone’s favorite “draw from your opponent’s deck”.
It’s sad to note that my best performing deck was built with the concept of “be the biggest jackass you can”.
I do enjoy the game, and it’s fun making different strategies. But it’s relentlessly frustrating being matched with people who clearly have been playing a hell of a lot longer than I. It’s not like I expect to make Infinite my first season or whatever it’s called. At least the game does give something on a loss. I just wish matching was more even.

A friend and I went to the Hippo Campus concert yesterday at Rabbit Rabbit and it sucked. Doors opened at 5:30, so we arrived around 1:30-2:00 to make sure we were up front near the band. Like, barricade near the band. This SHOULD have been possible considering we were maybe 15th in line for general admissions. However, about an hour before doors were supposed to open, people start lining up in a "VIP" line. They were let in about five minutes before everybody else-- no matter if they waited five hours or fifteen minutes. It was some real bullshit because by the time we were allowed inside the ENTIRE barricade was covered, even two rows back in the center. Literally the first people in the GA line had been waiting since 10AM and were only in the third barricade row.
This is not how VIP tickets are supposed to work! Typically, a VIP ticket will grant exclusive merchandise or time with the band. Or, if allowing early entry, VIP ticketholders will have their own "exclusive" space, usually with tables & chairs. I have NEVER been cut in line by dozens of people-- sanctioned by the venue-- simply because they paid more. You could even upgrade your ticket at the box office, and they encouraged it. I even asked a staff member when they first started lining up the VIP line if they'd be let in before GA and her response was "only by about 5 minutes." Like, that is all the time it takes to walk up to the barricade. They're getting the best spots.
Also, because they line up only an hour before doors, you can be standing in the GA line and be excited for hours only to realize you're actually not the fifth and sixth people in line, but rather sixty-five and sixty-sixth. There also doesn't seem to be any cap on the number of VIP tickets distributed, so there could be literally hundreds of people ahead of you without your knowledge.
Probably not a great idea to be insulting your most devoted attendees. Usually the only people who are willing to wait that long before doors are the ones who frequently go to concerts. I have definitely felt insulted by Rabbit Rabbit because of this, and have heard numerous other complaints about them on this subreddit. This is an easy fix, guys.
tl;dr Rabbit Rabbit is screwing over their most dedicated fans who have waited in line 4+ hours before a show by selling out VIP early-entry tickets, and that's not how VIP is supposed to work.

I have no idea where to post this question but I really need help guys. Fairweather clothing basically stole my money because when I went to get my shirt refunded, they put the money onto a gift card. And then when I went to use that gift card a few days later, they said that there is nothing on the gift card. The manager and no one has done anything to help me. It's been an entire month. I contact the manager regularly but she is just beating around the bush. I provided my proof of purchase, time of purchase, everything. I tried contacting fairweather through their email but they have not responded at all. I tried tweeting them, messaging them on Instagram, nothing. What kind of company is this? By the way, I live in Toronto, and the fairweather I went to was in Scarborough. What do I do with these thieves?

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
• publix
• Raceway
• Scheels
• Shell Gas Stations
• Spotify
• Tractor supply
• Xbox Canada or UK
• Xbox live gold

Any fees are built into the price.
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
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originally posted to mathematics
So yeah, turns out the Maya were brilliant numerical analysts who knew that around this day and age some unknown emo kid would figure out that the Germans would be the only egocentric sheeple who'd rather bully us into suicide than to let us know too much and that any one of us could've figured this out, individually or collectively,
I'm tired of metaspamming and being ignored just because you guys were raised to be annoyed by my people, it's not my fault after all and I gave us all the quantum bitchslap back into Garden Eden because I never believed in the concept of "knowing too much" and always had fun browsing Wikipedia, but I won't wait for those guys to stop debating "not relevant enough".
Turns out we were too stupid to understand our own language or other languages as the Germans would always be an egocentric sheeple stupid enough to fall for simple marketing psychology / the oldest trick of humankind and of course anarchy / communism was what we all wanted but were told to detest.
All that the prophets ever tried to sell us was "have fun at work" and never advocated for any of the fascist homo-/trans-/xenophobic bullshit that we were indoctrinated to believe.
Love me, hate me, I don't give a flying fuck what you make out of me as a person but you'd better fucking respect me, I figured out what jihadism was about and that it does not require terrorism but means "keep calm, smoke ganja, prepare your webpage and rejoice".
You were raised to be bigoted disbelieving dicks, but I am the "God" / illuminate (wise elder) who "knew too much" and didn't give a flying fuck as I jihaded away at my keys, telling Republicans what to do as I was sick and tired of being lied to and to be pitted against my own fucking mother who still believes I deserve to be a mental health patient for all eternity and deserves a punch in the face by anyone who walks past her for being such a bigoted self-centered stupid ignorant Nazi bitch.
Flow with the tide, the city will be the city and that's beautiful, to be annoyed by ads was just marketing psych bullshit as well, Trump may have been a narcissistic liar but he too knew it wiser to be a bro who cheated others out of their money but taught them to be self-employed moguls and his style of politics was admittedly very funny.
The secret services are bound to know what's up and all I expect of you guys is to collectively ring up the media to finally report on what happened and to stop blindly believing everything you were told as that is the psychiatric definition of paranoid schizophrenia.
Educate, don't indoctrinate. It's wiser to be a fascist who forces world peace than to ever be trolled out of paradise by my people who will always be a bag of bigoted dicks and who still believe that I'm an insufferable nutjob who mentally and sexually abused my best friend when all that I tried to tell her was that she too could be a physicist but that she doesn't need a diploma and that she should just let me be her mentor.
Please digitise all of the books that aren't on Library Genesis (https://libgen.is) yet, I'm the dude who forced all of the recent leaks and told the CIA to go fuck themselves and I expect nothing more of you guys than an amazing prom festival over at Campus Duisburg some time next month and for us to finally all be bros again.
Autism is nothing bad but our natural state of being, and idiocy only means to have better things to do than to care about news and politics.
Greetings, a modern-day war chief, serious academic, "messiah" and the wisest emo kid of his generation who'd of course rather write his dissertation on a tour bus than to wait for my fascist uni pals to give me an office or 2nd mail address. HOUGH! <3

Link in French – Guerre en Ukraine : les relations économiques de l'Autriche et de la Grèce avec la Russie
​
Greek and Austrian flags at a meeting between the two heads of government in 2015
The war in Ukraine has not prevented some countries from maintaining close economic ties with Russia. Austria, for example, has not cut its ties with Russia, especially when it comes to gas. Before the war, Austria imported 80% of its gas from Russia. This share logically fell after the Russian invasion. But since December 2022, it has risen again to 71%. And yet, the Austrian government has set itself the goal of becoming totally independent of Russia by 2027. However, the contract between the Russian giant Gazprom and the Austrian energy company OMV runs until 2040, with no possibility of withdrawal. Even the government does not know the details of this agreement, according to the Austrian Chancellor. Enough to make some experts doubt whether the 2027 target will be met.
>>> Embargo: Russia's new oil route to circumvent sanctions
Banks such as RBI (Raiffeisen Bank International), which is still present in Russia, are also highly profitable, with record profits for 2022 of 3.6 billion euros. Some 60% of these profits come from its Russian subsidiary. Although the bank announced at the end of March that it intended to sell or spin off its Russian subsidiary, no timetable has been put forward, and both options are now difficult due to Russian legislation, which has hardened since the start of the war.
Greek shipowners and Russian oil
Greek shipowners control half of Europe's tonnage, and some are accused of circumventing international embargoes. Greek shipowners are omnipresent on the world's seas, with 59% of the European fleet and 21% of world tonnage, 49% of which is oil. For Nicolas Varnikos, shipowner and President of the International Chamber of Commerce, "Greek shipowners are not doing anything illegal". Despite this, Ukraine has repeatedly denounced the practice. It has even publicly accused five Greek shipowners of transporting Russian oil and gas. They have all denied this. Trade with Russia has been a tradition since the XIXᵉ century.
>>> War in Ukraine: four questions on the European embargo on Russian oil.
According to the Greek press, in April this year alone, Greek shipowners transported 50% of Russian oil worldwide. And transport routes have now changed: gone are the easy routes like the Bosphorus Strait. Among the goods, 40% are transported by tanker, i.e. oil, and 25% by gas. How much of this comes from Russia? That's still a mystery. It seems that Russian oil is mixed with oil from countries that are not under embargo, which nobody can control. And even if the benefits are real, the sanctions against those who violate the embargo are derisory, so there's no end in sight.

Given the shadow changes that happened over the past year with regard to large Warbond sales, should the Subscriber Discount be updated or upgraded?

THE ISSUE:
Sometime over the past year (after May 2022), CIG removed the ability to group and purchase multiple Warbond items as one sale, and hid from Backers they were doing so. I was told by a RSI rep that this is as intended, but no message was sent to Backers about the change, and most wouldn't have thought about it as Subscribers tend to save discounts for one of two things, reducing the cost of an expensive ship, or purchasing LTI Tokens.

With regard to LTI Tokens it means that if you were to purchase $25, $35, or $50 LTI tokens for you and/or your Org Mates, you couldn't just purchase 10 items or more as a group, you have to purchase them individually. Which makes the processes slow, inefficient, and an inconvenience. Not to mention more expensive over time. I guess CIG were possibly thinking no one would notice given that such purchases usually happen during LTI Token sales, which we typically only get once a year. May 2022's $25 Hoverquad sale for example, was a major LTI Token hit after all, and I'm sure plenty of us used a discount on that. But it does create one issue that some Subscribers may not have thought about, the change removes the value of the Subscriber discounts with regard to LTI Tokens.

Basically, it forces Subscribers to only use their discounts for large purchases just to get a decent discount, as no one in their right mind is going to use their 10% or 20% discount on a $25, $35, or $50 item. As you know for the higher tier subscription, the max discount is $100, which is helpful, but it was more helpful if you purchased a ship or vehicle that was $500, or more importantly you purchased in bulk $500 worth of LTI tokens. For the discount coupons it is always best to make out the savings potential or risk losing what is unused. But now due to the change you can't bulk purchase and use your max discount potential on those Warbond LTI Tokens.

Now some of the new Backers will say, just purchase the bundle packs if you want that many ships and/or vehicles. For example, bundle packs such as the Fury Twin Pack, the Fury Quad Pack, or the Fury Formation Pack, but that suggestion leads to the second problem.

You cannot use Subscriber discounts for Warbond bundles.

Yeah, I didn't get the memo on that change either. They are pushing these package items for sale, but you can't use your discount on them. Now again, new Backers are going to say that this was a mere oversight, but to those of us who have been around for a long while, 10 years is more than enough time to prevent such oversights from reoccurring. We've played the "oversight" game multiple times already. This was no oversight. CIG are pushing for this to be the new normal. They tout how they are all about being open and transparent but hide such changes. Let's not forget what used to happen when this issue is raised during a major concept sale. You waited out in hopes that it would get fixed before the sale ended and would miss the sale.

Compared to the toys, junk ship paints, and disturbingly ugly clothing, the Subscriber discount was the one item with real potential value and now CIG have reduced that value.

So, should the Subscriber discount get updated or upgraded? If yes how so, and if no, why not?
POSSIBLE OPTION:
I think a possible update may be a multiple use discount coupon that functions like a virtual gift card you can use until it is maxed out, while and upgrade could be an increase from the current max discount up to $200? What are your ideas?

NOTE: If there was a message sent out about this change, please provide a link to the release from CIG addressing this.

Art of Simone's upgraded power armor and crystal sword!
Chapter Sixty Five: Allies and Scritches.
Looking around, the redhead finds herself standing in the middle of a dark and damp forest. But despite the gentle waves of the breeze moving the flora, there’s no sound. To the Terran’s recognizing eye as well, the plant life appears to be a blending mingle of those on the Gratt homeworld and the fateful operation on the Whista owned world.
Moving forward, her surprisingly lucid mind comes to the conclusion that she is once again ‘dreaming’, no doubt being brought on by the growth in her braincase.
She finds a loose path reminiscent of an overgrown hunter's trail that snakes her deeper into the silent landscape. Although something instinctual in her demands to be fearful of the situation, Simone can’t help to be more curious than anything due to the fact this hasn’t happened in a little while.
After some time of traversing the blending path she catches something glinting off past nearby foliage. Freezing for a moment she stares it down in an attempt to make out what it is. When it proves to not be a barrel of a weapon, she approaches it and reaches out. Her bare hand touches the glint, causing it to fully take form before resting in her palm. In a light dug she draws the dangling object free from a thin branch and brings it up close to her face.
On a thin necklace chain is a bent dog tag and a small grimy triangular device. Manipulating the tag, Simone is not at all surprised to find her own name on it. But as for the device, she surmises that it’s very similar to the thing implanted to her forehead after being kidnapped by the children of Gaia, though clearly a differing model with possibly a very different purpose.
For a moment Simone is almost compelled to put the triangle to her head, but knowing better than to trust the bits of a Manarian mad scientist in her brain she resists and decides to continue down the path. But to her concern the path is no longer there when she turns around. Instead before her is a cliffside overlooking a wide field of absolute chaos.
Down in the valley she overlooks is an expanse of a visceral battle playing out. No longer silent, the explosions and cries of vocals are significantly muffled as if her own hearing was going out.
Still, she steps closer to the drop to get a fuller view. Far down below, yet in perfect clarity to her dream eyes are various sized armies of every known species defending incoming forces from the dark encircling treeline. From the trees themselves are lines of armored Manarians consistently pressing more and more into the valley. From all sides the defenders are overwhelmed from their foes. Few Manarian’s drop in their compressing march. Simone witnesses that as they approach individuals of other species, the defenders throw down their arms before kneeling in surrender. Like an aura of instant submission, those who don’t fall in battle give in to the invaders in an instant. More and more the Manarians gain ground, only seeming to slow as Deathworlders put up the most fight.
Finding the location of the Terrans, Simone’s heart sinks. A small but effective population is fighting against the bulk within their own lines. Disarray ensues as the Terrans divide their bewildered attention from within and what approaches, unable to give support to others or eventually themselves.
Suddenly the majority of the Cali forces turn to their neighboring species and join in on the Manarian’s side. In the midst of this they release a devastating additional army of Malchite that help carve the Manarians an easy path towards the most united and powerful section of the defenders.
In mere moments, ‘Central’ falls, sending a cascading wave of despair to all the remaining defenders. Before the Manarian’s even get close now, swaths of species begin to surrender seeing their best chance at maintaining a defense is obliterated.
Thankfully the Terrans have seemed to have taken care of the internal conflict, but unfortunately it's far too late for it to matter as they practically stand alone in this fight.
Some species flee to bolster and hide behind the Terran’s lines. To their credit, if not for a moment, they fight back hard enough to pause the Manarian advance. There’s moments of grim yet heroic sacrifices, ground freely given in order to lure the enemy into effective traps, and some Terrans manage to not give into the aura of submission long enough for others to run. It’s damn inspiring to see the unstoppable force stall.
But of course, it’s not enough.
Lines break, encampments burn, leaders fall.
Eventually Terrans are reduced to a single circular formation as they stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of the little they have left.
They hold until their ammunition and other supplies run dry. Expecting surrender the Manarains extend the option to stop the fighting then and there.
In a moment of consideration, the Terrans under the flag of their last standing leader charge outwards in a hopeless defiant melee. The fighting is visceral and brutal, but eventually only one Terran stands against an entire universe.
The individual has no energy left to strike out. In their grasp is a tattered and burned flag that can no longer be made out. But the Terran stands, using it as a brace.
A Manarian leader comes up and hammers the final Terran to the ground demanding submission. A few now utterly silent moments pass by before the Terran drags themself up the flagpole into a standing position.
With another blow the Manarian strikes them down again.
But the Terran refuses, and gets up once more.
Having run out of patience the Manarian shoots a leg cleanly free from the Terran.
Yet with a scream, they remain standing, utilizing the pole even more.
Deciding that it’s no longer worth trying, the aggressor levels their weapon to the Terran’s face.
Just before being vanquished for good, Simone realizes that through the cracked open helmet of the Terran that they were looking straight up at her. Despite the distance, the two sets of eyes lock together. There is not pleading in the wounded Terran’s eyes, no fear, no judgment, nothing Simone would ever expect.
What the redhead sees in them can only be expressed in one simple word;
Hope.
As the final shot sings out the valley is encompassed in shadow, resembling more of an massive endless pit.
“I know what’s at stake. Why am I being shown this? You of all people should be elated that this is coming.” Simone thinks for Sharra to possibly pick up.
But instead of an expected occurrence, she feels a warmth from behind her.
Turning her back from the void she immediately sees a small campsite. There’s a tent, a stack of scavenged firewood and a strange cliché knight sitting on a log by a roaring fire.
Feeling her heart skip a beat Simone practically runs to him, expecting it to be an aspect of her father. But she soon realizes that the person’s frame is far too small to be an avatar of him.
Noticing her, the armored individual raises a hand in greeting before staring at the fire. The area behind their visor still pitch dark.
“What is this?” Simone skeptically says in her mind, not trusting this in the slightest.
The knight then speaks up.
“A fire.” they say.
“I mean… all of this… What’s going on?” the Terran presses.
You’re dreaming, and thus your mind is molding things in the manner minds do when slumbering.’ the knight states.
“Okay… so what are you supposed to be? Because with what’s going on with my head a lot of things I ‘dream’ are actually literal things affecting me, like you actually answering my question so directly is pretty suspicious. This a Sharra thing? Usually it’s my dad in the knight get-up, so what are you?” Simone responds in questioning.
“Nothing of substance at all. Or… something vitally important. That’s really up for you to decide really. This is your mind after all, I’m simply here because your mind thought it necessary to conjure me.” the Knight replies.
“But this isn’t how dreams are normally supposed to work, even more lucid ones… right? This is getting real fucking weird.” the redhead argues.
“Then perhaps your mind’s ailment is affecting your mind quite a bit.” the Knight shrugs.
“No fucking kidding…” Simone agrees as she steps up closer, “So… you wouldn’t know where I can talk with whatever’s left of Sharra?”
To answer this, the knight bends to the side and digs their hand into loose soil. Sitting back up they begin to massage it back out to the forest floor.
“Bits and pieces everywhere. Constantly trying to pull together, but is simply unable to be whole. Destined to eventually drive you mad.” they explain.
“Wait, what? How?” Simone asks.
“You have been affected by her unconsciously, have you not? Wanting to viscously bite your lover? Speaking in her tongue? Symptoms of her gradually melding into you. Although she’s not complete, you will eventually start to forget who you really are. Two minds sharing one consciousness… it spells disaster for ‘Simone Thatch’. I suggest you find a way to avoid this.”
“But… but Vermis told me that she’s too far gone to be a problem.” the redhead points out.
“She can’t take your body from you, but she’ll still seep. Regardless if she can even intend to or not. Your mind will survive, but your identity will slip to some degree.”
“Shit…” Simone responds as she plants her face to her hands, “So… your part of my subconscious that is telling me something is wrong?”
“Possibly. Makes sense if that’s the case.” the knight grants as Simone can hear the helmet be removed from the individual.
She attempts to pull her hands away, only to realize she was stuck in this realm of pitch black.
-
Simone’s eyes open from what was meant to just be a brief nap. Her brain was foggy, and the details of her dream was loose enough to question her actual lucidity during or if her dream simply tricked her into thinking she was in fact lucid.
Rubbing her face she sits up to see Chak having a conversation with Sonla across the hotel room.
“Hey hun, how long was I out?” she asks as she swings her legs off the side of the bed.
The princess stands up and begins moving over to the Terran.
“Just a few hours, I was planning on waking you in another hour anyway so don’t fret. You really needed it after everything.” Chak replies with a giggle as she reaches out to address her lover’s bedhead fur.
Allowing the Cali to fix what she can, Simone sighs out of soreness.
“Yeah, I did.” she agrees in a chuckle, “Our new infiltrator caught up to speed?”
“I haven’t shared certain details, but she knows that we are perhaps going to have a less than legal encounter with the Terran President. That won’t harm the president, hopefully.” Chak reports before finishing up with the Terran’s fur, “Oh, and I have purchased some new clothes for you to wear on our trip back. They were delivered not a standard half hour ago. Simple pants and shirt. Your dress has been cleaned and repaired as well.” she notified as she pointed to the closet area.
SImone leans out and kisses the Cali in a tender peck.
“You’re the best hun.” she whispers before standing up and stretching out the ache before striding over to the neatly folded pile of clothes.
“Only second to you.” Chak coyly replies as she enjoys the view for a few moments before snapping to it, “I’ll have our transport summoned.”
…
Before the three can even depart out the front door, as the elevator door opens there’s a crowd of people waiting for them in the lobby. Simone opens her mouth to ask what was going on, but Chak swiftly presses the indicator to re-close the door.
“Chakalata’motaas! One moment of your time!”
“Princess there’s some questions regarding public property damage!”
“When was the last correspondence you had with your father!”
“Is the Terran really your fiance or a roleplay consort?”
Among other raising voices upon seeing the Cali the reporters swarmed towards the elevator just before the door closed and started to go up a level.
“Wow…” Simone utters, “I thought we’d be a bit more shielded from them?”
“If they reserved rooms at the hotel after learning we were here… then there’s not much that can be done.” Chak replies a bit troubled, “We just need to find another way-”
As the door opens again, even more people stand in wait.
“Oh princess! Was your appearance on Thorba the truthful’s podcast really you or did he use A.I to replicate your voice?”
“Was it you present on Kamoi roughly a standard year ago where a restaurant was destroyed in a terrorist attack? Were you the target?”
“What business do you have in Central? Are you going to appeal to have your father’s authority be unrecognized?”
“Have you spoken at all to the Cali Ambassador?
“Care to share any details over the events that transpired with Ambassador Zrreak’s son last night?”
“Is the Vorook also a lover of yours?”
“Is your chitin really deep-dyed?”
“Are you still in fear for your life?”
“Are Terrans-”
The elevator door sealed again, this time needing Simone to hold back people from potentially creeping into the elevator.
“I guess we’re going back down to make a run for it?” Simone huffs in immense annoyance.
“Unfortunately that appears to be our only option.” Chak nods, her patience being tested as well.
“Want me to make big explosion as a distraction?” Sonla offers.
“No need for that.” Chak replies quickly.
“Here. I’ll march us out. Sonla, get on my back.” Simone says before she kneels down and scoops up the Cali in her arms, “Still as light as a feather.” she winks.
Chak’s eyes flash.
“They’ll be given quite the show.” she chuckles.
As told, Sonla clambers up the back of the Terran and gets a firm hold around her neck.
“If an explosion is needed, I’m ready!” she declares just before the doors open for the final time.
Using her cradling arm under the Cali’s back, Simone uses her curled up hand to protect Chak’s head as she marches straight into the crowd.
None wanting to test to see if the bulky Terran considers trampling a valid option, a path is cleared. However the barrage of questions does not let up in the slightest as they followed the trio towards the front doors.
“What was the intention of your stay here?”
“When and where will your wedding to the Terran occur?”
“Is it true that Simone Thatch is a war criminal?”
“Have you suffered any injury while being intimate with a Terran?”
“How many Terrans have you mated with? Are all the ones you brought with you your harem?”
“Are you certain that you are the last survivor of your family?
“Are the Gratt to be trusted?”
“Have you encountered any bouncy hunters in Central?”
“Is the famed Admiral Chucknuq still in your service?”
“Have you been hiding out this whole time on Vapor’perna?”
“Are you planning on commencing a civil war?”
“How much are you paying the Terran to be your mate?”
To the dismay of Chak and Simone, the crowd only grew upon leaving the hotel’s premises. And even contributed around where their shuttle was landing.
Although not completely serious about it, SImone started to humor the idea of Sonla causing a distraction before sharp roaring barks erupts from nearby.
The questions all stop and even a few calls of distress ring out as everyone catches sight of a dozen uniformed Z’ah’tucks approach. In a wide line formation they release warning -though no doubt perceived as outright ‘threatening’- vocalizations. More cries ring out as they unleash fur covered mammalian quadrupeds that run ahead to the trio and begin guiding the reporters away through fear alone.
Simone couldn’t help but laugh aloud at the sight of the Terran shepherd dogs doing what their breed did best.
A Tromple recoils in pale terror as they worm away from one of the canines, who did nothing but exist with an authoritative attitude.
Very effectively parting the crowd away from the three, the lead Z’ah’tuck waved Simone to come to her.
Seeing little reason not to, considering the rescue, the Terran nods and hurries the two other women on her to the line of dinos.
“Thanks, but… what’s this about?” she asks.
The pack of a dozen dinos encircle the three and start walking them away to another shuttle landing zone. The dogs loyally come back to their owners as they make sufficient distance.
“As an apology for you having to get involved with last night’s events, Ambassador Zrreak wishes to personally escort you back to your designated apartment.” she answers as three shuttles await them in the zone. The biggest and most armored of which opens up for the three to enter.
“Oh…” Chak utters in thought before Simone lets her down to enter the vessel.
As the princess steps on in, it’s clear this vessel is meant to fit many guests within on a regular basis considering the scuffing and scratch marks. But at this moment there is only one individual within.
Looking much like his son, Zrreak is of the larger variant of his species. Covered in various deep scars across his scales and adorned in high quality drapery he pets a smaller breed of dog in his lap.
“Thank you for accepting my invitation, Princess.” he greets with a respectful bow of his head.
“Of course, we very much appreciate your assistance with the media swarm.” Chak replies before she finds herself a seat.
“You can get off now…” Simone informs Sonla before following the Cali in.
The Vorook slowly slides down the Terran and does her best to position herself to hide behind the redhead as much as possible, eventually sitting down in a seat that has the larger frame of the Terran between her and the ambassador.
Simone looks the ambassador in the eyes with a hint of weariness. Although she isn’t necessarily suspicious, with the still very significant bounty on her fiance’s head… one can never be too careful. She waits until the seal of the shuttle door clicks shut before speaking up herself.
“Cute corgi, does it have a name?” she inquires.
“Hmmhmm” the Z’ah’tuck hums in amusement as he lightly scratches the canine on it’s rump, causing it to lift its head and perk its ears, “His name is Zioakaa, a play on the Z’ah’tuck title meaning ‘One who has seen the Abyss, and made it weep’. Such a title is usually reserved for artists or passionate leaders. People who can invoke a great shift of public morale, whether it be for sorrow, fear or hope. This dog? Although he is no small part of my public image, he has shifted my morale extraordinarily.” he answers in a relatively reminiscing voice.
Seeing his genuine soft appreciation for the animal is clear as day to Simone, she allows herself to relax as the shuttle takes off with two additional escorts.
“Dogs are pretty great, huh?” Simone chuckles.
“Possibly the best of everything your people have brought to the stars.” the man agrees, “Despite losing a long war with Terrans, Z’ah’tuck certainly gained from it in some aspects.”
“Crazy how that hashes out. And hey, more dogs in the universe? I’ll take it.” the redhead replies before peeking over to Sonla, who was tucking her legs up to make her silhouette smaller.
“Oh, how is your son fairing Ambassador Zrreak? And the others in his and his wife’s company?” Chak asks pleasantly.
“He has been advised to be in bed for a few days, but will make a full recovery. The others will recover as well, but those more substantially injured will of course need a fair bit more recovery.”
“That’s very good to hear. Be sure to pass along our best wishes.” the Princess replies with a nod of her head.
“I will. Though I must apologize for your involvement in his incident. Such business should have been avoided in the first place.” Zrreak says as he extends one of his hands out to Chak, which she accepts sooner than he would have expected from a Cali.
“Thank you for the gesture, the involvement was voluntary, I assure you. Believe it or not Ambassador, I have conducted myself in more perilous situations as you can no doubt imagine.” Chak says pleasantly, “Though I have a feeling you’ve brought us aboard your own personal shuttle with other motives in mind, yes?”
Simone tenses up again as the Ambassador’s raptor eyes focus on the Princess for a moment.
Tilting his horned head, Zrreak then lets out a ‘caught me red handed’ snicker before pulling his hand away.
“Yes, yes you’re right indeed. Though I assure you it has little to do with the price on your head. As much as I still enjoy a good hunt, I’m not one to prey upon my own allies. No, what I hope to discuss is ensuring you are reinstated as the prime monarch of the Cali people.” he reveals.
“Oh… pardon Zrreak… what exactly do you mean by that?” Chak asks as she recovers from such a bold notion.
“I’ve decided to place my bets on you, Chakalata’motaas. I bring you an offer already officiated over by my people’s leaders for you to respond. May I officially present it to you in this rather unofficial setting?” he inquires.
“Very well, but I cannot make a promise that I’ll be receptive to what you offer.” Chak grants as she crosses her lower limbs in her lap.
Zrreak presses an indication in a side datapad, activating a hardlight screen to appear along the middle open area of the shuttle. The text on the screen outlines the terms of the proposal to which the ambassador presents it aloud.
“This proposed bargain has been rattling around the Z’ah’tuck trade leaders since the coup of your father. Though it hinged on whether or not you or any of your siblings survived. Seeing you are indeed alive and making concerted efforts towards freeing your people from his tyrannical rule one way or another you fit the criteria. And so here it is; The Z’ah’tuck Conglomerate will publicly support your right to the Cali throne, and it is prepared to dedicate one-sixth of its war fleets and the Third-fang battalion to aid in the likely event of military conflict.” he pauses to let that settle before continuing, “In return, the Conglomerate requests that the Cali government agree to contribute Ten percent more Natural-grade product and twenty five percent more Clone-grade product to the Z’ah’tuck meat market trade for the next fifty standard year period. Secondly it is also requested that Cali shipyards produce Twenty five hundred trade-ships by Conglomerate provided specifications in the next five standard years. Thirdly, permit Z’ah’tuck trade businesses to set up shop on Cali colonies. Fourth and finally, vote and publicly advocate for the Z’ah’Tuck people to be officiated out of ‘Associate Species’ into ‘Member Species’ status in Central.” he finishes.
Chak scratches the sides of her head with her lower graspers as she seriously considers the alliance deal. It’s an incredible opportunity. With the Z’ah’tucks big economic pull among the carnivorous species of Central -despite them currently being of ‘Associate’ status- this could be very advantageous. But the cost for the support was fairly high, yet not totally unreasonable.
“Your offer is rather tempting, Ambassador. Though I cannot see myself agreeing to it as it stands. You see if open civil war does break out, then I fear my people will need a period of time to stabilize, especially economically. People will need to be fed, buildings rebuilt, and damage to our world repaired. So here’s my counter offer for your consideration;” she says as she reaches out in request for the datapad, of which is candidly handed to her for her to revise the terms for consideration, “Lower the twenty five percent for cloned product to twenty. Provide charitable relief shelter camps where displaced Cali can be warm and well fed during the war campaign, which may prove to be a great source of building up positive relations with not only my people but many others sitting in Member Central seats. And finally agree to grant Cali trade ships official access to Conglomerate trade routes with reduced fines by thirty percent. The rest of your terms are acceptable.” she responds.
“Hmmm…” Zrreak mumbles as he stares at the screen. He brings a claw to his armored muzzle, dragging it along a deep old scarring, “I have the authority to negotiate the terms within reason, and although I know a few trade managers will be disgruntled I believe your counter terms are acceptable.” he nods before transferring the developed agreement to the datapad for both parties to sign.
The Z’ah’Tuck signs first before handing the pad over.
Suppressing her eyes from blasting light to not give away how she honestly felt about this deal, Chak re-reads the entire agreement twice to make absolutely certain that there are no possible term manipulations. The Z’ah’tuck are known to be honerable in terms of business, but one can never be too careful in this realm of dealing.
Once she is certain of all the terms, Chak signs as well and hands it back.
“Your gamble on me is appreciated, Ambassador. I will do everything in my power to ensure that my father is deposed. With your aid, I see the path towards that even more clearer.” she assures.
“Time will tell. And to be honest, we stand to lose little until conflict is certain. The biggest risk we run is a prolonged open war with the Cali. Central history is not kind to Deathworlders declaring war on non-deathworlders, even under these circumstances we may risk being ousted completely from Central. Though I’m doubtful considering our stranglehold on the meat markets. Who else would they turn to? The Truba? With their reputation and recent enormous debacle? I don’t think so.” Zrreak chuckles as he returns to petting his lap dog.
“Such a travesty…” Chak agrees, “Is there more you can share regarding that situation?”
“Just that these Squilla understandably don’t have much of a government. They dwelled in deeper waters and complex cave systems in their comparative ‘iron age’. They are incredibly fast learners, however. Which gives most of the Central council the impression that the Truba have been suppressing the Squilla’s growth as a people for literal ages. I don’t think anything like this has ever happened in known galactic history. It’s still all a mess unfortunately, but important first steps have been taken. I’ve spoken to the representative of the Squilla only a few times, and seeing him come to terms with reality is bittersweet.” the ambassador explained.
“I see. Perhaps I may have a chance to meet him while I’m in central.” Chak says with a shrug.
“It’s a long line to privately meet in an official manner, which is to no surprise I assume?” Zrreak informs.
“Of course, perhaps not then.” Chak concedes.
Wide eyed, Simone looks back and forth between the two.
“Sorry, uhm… I feel like what just happened earlier is a pretty big fucking deal… Military support? Not that I’m complaining, but I’d imagine something like that having a bit more bureaucracy? A quick back and forth and it’s a done deal?” she questioned, utterly bewildered.
“This is how backroom deals tend to go, Simone, you know that.” Chak replies as she reaches a hand to take hold of one of the redhead’s.
She then squeezes in trembling excitement to show that she was putting up a polite professional act.
“Right. Yeah.” Simone corrects herself as she huffs a pant of jubilated air.
The ambassador turns to look at the Terran directly.
“Simone Thatch. If you're at liberty to confirm, through some dealings we have received interesting intel regarding a Terran group that calls itself the ‘Children of Gaia’. Have you encountered them previously?” he inquires.
“Ah, uhm… I know about them. But that’s all I’m really willing to share at this time. What sort of dealings are you referring to exactly?” the Terran responds.
“Nothing nefarious, at least at the surface. We have traded for strange breeds of dogs, tracing their origins to that group. We suspect that they are these ‘pirates’ that invaded the Gratt homeworld. Would that be correct?” Zrreak presses, now looking back and forth between the Terran and Cali.
Chak sighs but nods.
“That would be correct.” she admits.
“Why hide that fact?” the ambassador asks.
“Well, there's a reason to. And I’m afraid we can’t share why, but rest assured their identity will be broadly revealed in due time. Soon, if we can help it, but we have to secure a few things first.” Chak explains, “Apologies for withholding information from you, but I ask that the Conglomerate not share intel of the group for the time being.” Chak requests.
“I can’t promise such, but if it’s in your interest to wait, then it is likely ours as well.” Zrreak grants, “But if we found what we have, others are likely to as well. So I hope whatever you are planning comes around soon, Princess.” he adds.
“As do I, and trust me I understand.” Chak says as she squeezes Simone’s hand once more, “They are our enemies and what we intend to do is to dismantle them.” she assures.
“Ah, I hope you don’t mind a single stop before arriving at your apartment. I have a gift that I wish to present to you.” Zrreak announces after he seems to have received a notification on his Lens.
“Oh, how kind of you. What manner of gift?” Chak inquires.
“One that in some small way may bolster your personal security.” the ambassador vaguely answered a bit coyly.
“Oh joy…” Simone says, unsure if they’d be able to comfortably take on another staff member on the Kwip-chap.
…
Soaring down into a tight one way entrance tunnel, the shuttle eventually comes to a latching stop before being lifted up into an unloading room.
“Come, step out. It’s being brought to us.” Zrreak instructs as he stands and strides out.
Preparing themselves to politely turn his offer down, Simone and Chak step out after him. Sonla on the other hand decided then would be a perfect time to raid the fancy meat snacks she’d been eyeing for most of the trip.
As the three stand just outside the shuttle in wait, it takes only a few minutes for a Z’ah’tuck to turn a corner and enter the room.
“Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll have room to properly accommodate-” Chak begins to say before feeling her legs freeze up in sudden numbness as a beast comes trailing behind the Z’ah’tuck.
Simone’s eye tufts lift in surprise as she looks upon what she initially mistakes as a damn hyena as it shares the rusty red-brown color, stripes and even a shallow mohawk of longer fur going down its back. Though its pitbull-esk face and body structure clues her in that it is indeed a dog.
The thickly muscled domestic canine assertively pats its clawed paws across the floor towards them, passing up the handler it stopped and politely sat ten feet away.
Bending down, Zrreak sets down his corgi which without hesitation stamps quickly over to the comparatively titanous brethren. Sniffing up and around his new friend the loaf of a dog ran a circle around the other unbothered canine before splaying forward in a ‘play’ pose in front of it. Before then running off as if to invite a chase.
“Her name is Zrume, meaning ‘Wall of fangs and talons’. She is only two years of age, but understands commands in Galactic standard and is perfectly trained to guard her charge with her life.” Zrreak introduced before notifying the uncertain fright in the Princess, “She is also trained to assist as an emotional support companion. She can provide more Service-oriented work, but that hasn’t been a primary focus of her training. I thought that may suit someone of your nature, Princess.” he added before addressing the dog directly. “Zrume, at ease.”
The dog’s ice-blue eyes spark with hyper excitement as she breaks her statue pose to spaz out before engaging in play with the corgi, sniffing him in return greeting after easily catching up.
“She isn’t the best I can offer, but I believe she’d be perfect for you. May she approach to meet you?” the ambassador inquires.
“Uhm…” Chak utters before looking up to Simone for an opinion.
Biting her cheek, the redhead gave a tentative nod back.
“Oh, alright.” the princess agrees.
“Zrume, come.” Zrreak instructs.
Turning away and all but ignoring the corgi again, Zrume approaches much closer to the three. Her circular blue eyes look up at the ambassador loyally, only taking side glances of the two women.
“Transfer.” the Z’ah’tuck commands as he points to Chak first and then to Simone.
The head of the dog looked up at Chak, its head pretty much as large as hers.
“D-do I pet her?” Chak inquires.
“Of course, though I strongly recommend that you limit her social interaction to a minimum when she’s on the job. When she’s off, tell her ‘at ease’ so she knows.” Zrreak answers with an amused but serious tone.
“O-okay… Hello… Zrume… uhm… at ease? At ease.” Chak says directly to the animal.
Zrume sinks her head slightly forward to gently press against between the Cali’s lower arms. Looking up with her crisp blues she starts to wag her tail and lightly stamps her front paws.
Chak’s racing hearts start to relax as a familiar admiration feeling rises up within her. Glancing up at Simone, she caught her inwardly biting her lips to resist the broad smile from breaking out.
Looking back at the dog, Chak lifts all of her limbs and begins scritching at the places that she saw these animals enjoy in the media. Behind the ears, under the chin and the sides of the thick neck.
Zrume closes her eyes as her tail aggressively pats against the floor like a happy baton. And Chak swears the dog’s closed mouth smiled, though that could have been a trick to the angle she is viewing her.
“What do you think?” the ambassador asks, seeming to already know the answer.
“She’s so sweet…” Chak replies in giggle, “I don’t think I can say no…”
“Then in that case, I’ll have her supplies loaded up for you.”

In undergrad, I had a roommate who leeched money from us to the tune of several thousand dollars. We'll call him Gordon, after Gordon Gekko from Wallstreet, another famous embezzler. This is his tale.
I met Gordon living in the dorms freshman year. He was a few years older than me due to starting college after a military stint, and was a reliable older friend in my first year, in addition to also attending my church. Sophomore year, he and I moved into a rental property with five other college guys from our church group-- seven in a house. The house had six bedrooms, so it's not as crazy as it sounds. This was in the late 2000s and paying bills online hadn't fully taken off, so in lieu of trying to coordinate seven people paying bills on time, we decided that one roommate should put all of the bills in their name and collect the portions each month from the other roommates. Gordon eagerly volunteered.
Throughout our three years living in the home, we had several incidents of our power, water, and internet being shut off, as well as at least two emails from our leasing office stating that our rent was overdue. Gordon would put on a show about being mad at the company(s) and then disappear to give them a call; then, things would return to normal. College towns are a mess, right? We didn't question things until Spring of our third year in the house, when on one fateful day, we heard a commotion on our front porch. It was an eviction notice being heavily taped to your front door. When we asked the individual why they were taping it on so thoroughly, they said, "you must have lost the last one". This was our first time hearing of it. We immediately called an emergency roommate meeting like we were playing Among Us, and focused all attention on Gordon.
After much questioning and coaxing, Gordon broke down and admitted to us that he'd been struggling financially, and that he'd failed to turn in this month's rent on time, because he needed the money in his account to make ends meet. He apologized, promised that it would never happen again, and begged the roommates to forgive him. We almost did, until one roommate asked, "wait-- they said that there had been multiple eviction notices. What's up with that?". Gordon acted like he'd been caught all over again, and then explained that he had done this *several* times. He then said that he had come clean, and once again apologized, promised not to do it again, and begged us for forgiveness. Then, we asked about the utility outages.
Gordon was immediately defensive, and tried to leave the conversation. After the rest of us metaphorically held his feet to the fire, Gordon admitted that he had done the same things with utility bills that he had done with rent. This made sense, but we asked to see the utility bills themselves. He refused. We argued back and forth until he broke, a third time. He admitted that he had removed himself from bill calculations, splitting them six ways instead of seven, as a "fee" for managing them. Again, he made apologies, asked for forgiveness, the whole act. But we pressed further. Show us the bills, now. He finally did, and the bills were significantly lower than what we'd been charged, even split six ways instead of seven. Gordon broke down a fourth time, this time explaining that he'd been upcharging us each month to supplement his own income. If the bills called for $15 from each person, he'd ask for $20. When this price point felt established, he'd up to to $25. After a blowout argument, he admitted to having taken several THOUSAND dollars from us over the three years. This guy has been embezzling funds from us poor college kids for our whole college career. I, at the time, was living on $3 a day in food-- those extra few dollars would have been life-changing.
Our final question was: if Gordon wasn't paying rent and wasn't paying utilities, what did he need all of the money for? He initially said he'd needed it to pay his own bills, but those weren't even being paid. Things didn't add up. He had to be just pocketing all of the money, because he had no other outstanding debts. This discussion didn't get far, as he shut down, and we ultimately all ended up getting out of our lease renewal and going our separate ways (that is, after Gordon paid three months of our back rent by selling his car, to avoid legal action on our or the leasing office's part).
The story of Budget Gordon Gekko seems over, but there's one more fun detail. Gordon told many people in our church that WE had robbed HIM. He explained to people that he had to sell his car so that he could bail us out of our bad financial situation, and presented it as his noble sacrifice for his brothers in Christ. When he told this story to my best friend (a strange place to go and lie), she didn't buy it, and she also reported to me that he confessed to a strip club addiction in which he'd spend upwards of $200 a night out. It turns out, he'd been fleecing us for thousands of dollars so that he could blow it on exotic dancers.
A salute to Budget Gordon Gekko, who robbed poor college kids blind for years.
I will provide another small update if this takes off (or if it finds its way onto Smosh Pit's worst roommate stories). A preview: in a wild coincidence, this wasn't my last interaction with Gordon.

i've been looking to update my build soon, because its been almost 5 years since i built my desktop. i went to canada computers for a lot of the parts because i remember they had better prices than amazon, and i didn't want to worry about third-party sellers or potential scams, and on top of that i didn't need to wait for delivery. on top of that they sell things like cables or accessories for much cheaper than places like amazon does, and they hold up very well which i like.
i still like those perks of shopping in-person, however CC has given me bad experiences over the years that i cant shake off and brushed me the wrong way, specifically in two locations that were nearest to me:
Mississauga (burmanthorpe):

• salesman tried to sway me and change my build to an Intel when i told them i was set on AMD Ryzen (this was around the time AMD started to outperform Intel).
• another salesman stepped in to help me pick a AM4 motherboard like i asked- other salesman got upset about this, very professional
• same salesman convinced me and sold me a board that, with the CPU i wanted, would have overheated the VRM; i didn't know about this until i did research. we had to go back and exchange for the one i wanted in the first place
• laptop drive started failing; i asked the salesman for a 2.5' barracuda, and he handed me a hybrid firecuda (more expensive) thinking i wouldnt realize. i had to tell him that wasn't what i asked for and he gave me the stink eye

i get it, its your job to make sales and you wanna make commission, but when i know what i want youre not really making a good impression on yourself by trying to fool me. i bought the rest of my parts on boxing day, and thankfully the people behind the counter couldn't upsell me because of the amount of people there.
Burlington:

• sold my dad the wrong parts (incorrect RAM and CPU) during Black Friday that i couldnt use with my build. when he came back to return them, completely unopened, they refused a refund and my dad had to fight them for them to take it back. i understand return policy and everything but it was very shady for them to do that. manager ended up budging thankfully

overall with these two locations, i very much didn't appreciate them trying to pry at me/my dad thinking i didn't know any better about what i wanted, or what i wanted my build to be. it seemed to me like they depended on people not knowing anything about computer parts to make a sale and it felt really gross and awkward for them to go pulling this sort of thing.
however, in late 2020 they opened a brand new location in Oakville that was a lot closer to me. and i have to say, this place is a much better shopping experience. i went there to buy a replacement power supply and a new M.2 nvme ssd on sale, and no salesperson was haggling me; or trying to fool me; or upsell me on anything. they actually gave me what i asked and were pretty friendly!
now those things were pretty inexpensive... i'm still very weary of buying anything huge there like a CPU or motherboard or graphics card. are these guys still shitsters or can i really trust them with that? and if youve been to the newer oakville location, is it really better than the rest? i would love to support brick and mortar parts stores but if they're still gonna do this sort of thing to people, they can forget about it.

So the title might throw you off but this is something that affected me way more than I thought. So my ex and I were always on and off, but I guess you can say our feelings never went away. She hurt me a lot through the relationship, couple things being she would post ab her ex using tiktoks, she would ignore me at times and when we got into arguments she would say she didn't care about me but the next day she would. She also has depression and BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), I've always tried to be understanding of that and help her but she didn't make much progress. She would self sabotage and I was usually the only one she would go to. Despite these things, our chemistry was great and if they never happened, we would be together and happy.
But flash forward, things would get bad and I would try to separate myself from her because I didn't want to keep getting hurt but each time she would text me wanting me back and saying she'll work on herself. So I said ok, but it kept happening and I kept separating myself. Sometimes a little too often and she finally caved and said she shouldn't chase after someone who doesn't want her. In reality, I always had feelings for her and I told her I cared but she didn't see it that way and swore me off, went party hopping with other guys and went on dates. I did not talk to any other girls. But when she was having panic attacks and needed to go to the hospital for a sickness, I helped her. I never stopped thinking about her despite everything she did to me.
My grandmother passed away and while out on vacation from college she would drunk text me after I specifically told her not to because I would be mourning and in a funeral. Saying she didn't need me and didn't care for me. I got back and I thought to myself, she really hurt me with that but I always hurt her from separating so easily, maybe I caused this. One of my biggest mistakes and I was so ignorant. I tried making things right and wanted to stay committed but she didn't make it easy. A lot of times she would say she didn't care and then the next day she did, over and over again. We got into lots of arguments but I stayed calm and wanted to fix things despite she was hurting me.
Eventually she regained feelings and we were good for a time. Until we got into another argument about me not answering the phone after she went to Florida with family on spring break. I explained I was with family and couldnt answer because we were all eating, she took her time to answer my texts and so did I. It boiled up to a point where she ignored my texts and calls for the rest of the day, only answering at night when i was out with family again. I left and talked to her asking why and that I was pissed off how she just ignored me, I told her it didn't even seem like she cared. Not surprisingly, she said why would she care about a person who does that, as in her thinking I ignored her.
Ig a lot of the past just boiled up and either of us had a hard time letting it go. I did my best to and wanted to make it work so bad, even when I felt like I was wasting my time. I bought her gifts and on valentines day I bought her a gift bag full of stuff and fed her with my money. Despite all this she once again didn't care about me. I flipped out and got super emotional, after everything I did, she's doing that again. I told her I hated how she made me feel and went off, I told her maybe I should just stop because she was a piece of shit and she said fine settle for less and hanged up. Come to find out she went to a club with her cousin and her friends so I texted her asking why didn't you tell me.
Another argument occurred and I was breaking down over the phone to her and she said I was ruining her night. I hanged up and she called asking what do I want and I broke it off. Found out from her friend she went twerking on other guys after that and kept saying it was my fault things were the way they were. After that I never got back with her, but that didn't stop us from talking. She apologized a bunch texting me asking for me back but I never caved. But I did help her still when she needed it with her mental issues and we still acted like a couple being in bed together. We still had sex and she broke down when I was leaving college to go home.
I guess deep down no matter what happened I still cared about her even when she was suicidal. Everytime over the phone I always comforted her with the issues she had. You might be wondering if she's crazy or just not worth it, well when she was in highschool she was raped and cheated on and dealt with a lot of home problems. She never really recovered from that because she kept it to herself. She always asked for me back but I told her to move on. I couldn't bring myself to block her because it felt lonely and she used to be my best friend. We had a pregnancy scare and I told her to take a test and asked if she had sex with anybody.
She kept asking why and dodging the question but I persisted. Well come to find out that night before, she went out got drunk and hooked up with someone she says she barely remembers. She said it was nothing and said she accepted that she had to move on but it just hit me for some reason and we got into an argument. I told her I never want to speak to her again and that she lied about having to be in a relationship to have sex. That same night she was drunk texting me saying she was horny and wanted me. It felt like I got cheated on but I knew I couldn't feel like that. She said what do you expect, I was trying for you but you shut me down.
Well I ignored her then drunk texted her saying I hated what she did in the past and we could've been good. She left a hole in my heart and she took my virginity too. She was my first girlfriend I ever really had and she made me feel comfortable around her. I told her I was gonna give up on kindness and she said she always loved me and that i shouldn't because she knew she had problems but that i was a great guy. I just feel like crap still and I blocked her and we are not talking. I know I shouldn't feel like this but I can't help it.
I guess what I'm asking is how can I get past this, I went out clubbing and got several girls phone numbers and got drunk but it didn't even help. I felt insecure at the same time. I'm in my room and don't want to get out of bed, I've lost motivation and can't help but think of her. I have zero interest in any other girls right now. I just don't know how I can stop feeling like this or even if my feelings are justified. All I'm asking rn is how can I get past this?

Tokyo - Yokohama - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Tokyo

Hi all, going to go through our trip covering golden week and time around it (: It was myself (F21) and my partner (M24) and the reasoning behind the timing was mainly due to bank holidays in the UK being unfortunately placed perfectly in line with golden week this year! Despite this, I feel we actually got pretty lucky with it all. I'll put an emoji to note which days were for golden week but for the tl;dr we weren't affected that much.
Other important contexts, both interested in Japan for a few different reasons. Anime isn't a small one but I'm also a huge fan of the Yakuza games, he's into the JDM car scene, and we just enjoy travelling in general. We didn't do many things like Universal, Disneysea etc. but hopefully there's some things in here that people will enjoy hearing about! I'll go through some tips/recommendations for the casual readers first before going into the trip in depth - please let me know if there's anything else you want to know about!

Tips + Recommendations

Yamato Takkyubin Luggage Forwarding If like us you are going to be staying in quite a few different places, this service is so so so good I cannot overstate it. We had two big suitcases and one smaller one, we sent just the big ones for two of the trips and then for the final trip from Osaka to Tokyo we sent all 3 and just used our backpacks to bring essentials for the night.Pretty much all hotels will allow you to use the service, some may request you pay them with cash for the actual service but for all but one of ours we could use card. We sent Yokohama -> Kyoto, then Kyoto -> Osaka, then finally Osaka -> Tokyo. There are options for same day delivery I believe however we did both the next day and for a few days later. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I'll answer if I can!
Trip Planning I've been fortunate to be able to travel a lot so wasn't nervous about the actual travel, however Japan is such a far away country that I didn't want to go and get there then not know what to do and waste my time. In the past holidays with family were more about relaxing on a beach, or with my partner our city breaks are short as they are other European countries and so easier to return to if we wanted. I wanted to take a different approach to this trip so I made a big Google Sheet and Google Map with all the places I wanted to visit/see. It was never meant to be a strict itinerary as some people I showed seemed to assume 😅 But it really helped me to visually see where things I wanted to go to were, and then make a rough plan in case I did get stuck at some point.Anyway it was a really good idea in hindsight and I'm very glad we did it for this trip as our first time going! Here's a picture of the map looks like, we didn't necessarily do everything but we did most things - https://i.imgur.com/2xLyy7Y.png. I used mymaps.google.com, to be honest there's definitely betteeasier to use tools out there but I got this to work for me so I stuck with it.
Walking People aren't kidding about the amount of walking, although I think our top amount was still under 30k so don't worry too much. That said, if you don't walk a lot anyway then your feet are going to hurt. My partner was fine, I was awful. I thought my shoes would be fine and apparently they weren't so if you can pack walking boots please do. The other thing is I think the way you walk affects it too, my partner and I both had multiple pairs of shoes with us but where his converse boots were fine, the soles of my feet were awful in the same types of shoes 😭
Driving I am not a driver but my partner is. He has a full manual UK driving license and insurance, and so for Japan all he needed was to get the International Driver's Permit a little before we went. We rented a car for three different occasions, two times from the same place then the final was for a JDM rental. All was fine, the JDM place was confused for a moment as my partner has a Polish passport + UK license but we translated Poland for him and after that there were no issues! You'll need to check what you need depending on where you're from, it's easier for us due to the same driving side although when we rented for Daikoku and the Nagoya drive they did give us an automatic so just be aware of that if you want to request/drive manual. The rental places we used were Orix rent-a-car for the Daikoku and Yokohama -> Nagoya trip and we had a Mazda 2. For the JDM rental we used Omoshiro.

Trip Report

Tokyo

25/04 - Airport, Shinjuku hotel, Shinjuku We followed a similar first day that I'm sure many of these reports will begin with - arrived at the airport, we had filled out the VJW forms and had both QR codes ready to go. Immigration had about an hour wait so longer than normal but we were also near the back of our plane and there was at least another full plane in front of us. Actually going through immigration was a complete breeze. Once through and picked up our luggage, we got a Welcome Suica, then headed to Shinjuku. We reached our hotel about 4 hours early for check-in, wasn't sure what to do for that time but they were happy to take our bags until we could go to the room (something that is consistent with all the hotels we went to thankfully). Jetlag was pretty bad, I was flagging by afternoon but we pushed through it and took the few hours to just walk around and see the sights. We spent some time in Hakone-yama before heading back to the hotel and getting cleaned up/accidentally falling asleep too early.
26/04 - Akihabara, Golden Gai Of course woke too early by not being as proactive as we should've with warding off jetlag but used that to leave early for Akihabara. After getting some breakfast we saw the Yodobashi Camera and went in there for about an hour just looking at all the floors 😅 It was raining a ton but it surprised us with how warm it still was and quickly realised why people prefer umbrella with no raincoat!! Spent pretty much the whole day in Akihabara, went round a ton of shops and also went into our first of many many arcades we'd go to. We went back to the hotel to return the items we'd bought then walked to Golden Gai as our hotel was about a 15-20 minute walk ^^ Had some delicious ramen, unfortunately didn't drink as my partner was finishing antibiotics for the first few days but it was still great to be there. Slept a lot later which was good.
27/04 - Kabukicho, Shinjuku National Garden This was more a day for me to fufill my Yakuza game sightseeing. Being so close to Kabukicho I was so excited to visit a city and be able to make my way round without a map loool. It was just the end of the blue festival so the iconic arch was still blue although I did get to see it red at the end of the trip so I wasn't too bothered about that. We went around Kabukicho, the square, again spent tons of time in the arcades and discovered how much we enjoyed the MaiMaiDX machines. Ended up getting one of the passports that save your progress and give you an extra play so if you like arcades then I recommend them!! After this and some lunch, we were going to do a walk to the national garden then realised I went the wrong way so we took the train. As a side note here, the Suica and train system is so useful. Very similar to using a card for the underground except it's actually clean. Walked around the national garden, it was very sunny and warm. Didn't know it had it before going but there's a starbucks in the middle of the garden and we managed to join the queue about 10 minutes before they stopped taking new orders. Had a nice time watching the sun set in that garden before heading back to the hotel.
28/04 - Teamlabs Planets Wasn't something I was going to initially go to however I checked out tickets the day previously and saw some for this day and decided we could do it as we had a ton of free time. I had chosen 2:30pm for an entrance time however it was such a nice day so we left early and spent time just walking around the docks. It was so so sunny, the area didn't have loads going on however it was still very pretty. We spent time in the parks and walking alongside the water. Teamlabs was pretty cool, I did enjoy the water based sections although dodging both influencer and family photos might detract from your experience. This was also where I realised I'd already become the stereotype tourist and was sunburnt :') I guess I had to learn my lesson physically and I did thankfully stop any further burning after this with diligent sun cream appliance afterwards pretty much every day. After this we went back to Shinjuku and after food we packed up ready to go to Yokohama.

Yokohama

29/04 - Bashamichi, Daikoku, Cosmo Clock ✨Showa Day Left our hotel at 11 and hadn't yet discovered the wonders of luggage forwarding so we brought all our bags with us on the train to Yokohama! Not too bad though, we got to our hotel a little early but they took our bags as we went and had lunch before the room was ready. Went around Bashamichi (another game location lol) before taking the train to central Yokohama. We had pre-booked the rental cars all before we left to ensure availability but there weren't any problems. This was also my partner's birthday which is something the rental staff realised whilst we were sorting out all the documents 😆. For Daikoku, we didn't need to pass through any ETC gates from Yokohama but it was the first time on the Japanese roads. It was a little nerve-wracking at first as there's very slightly different rules to UK roads but in general driving is fine. We reached Daikoku PA around 20 past 6pm, and it was about 2 hours until police moved everyone along. My partner was in dreamland with the cars that we saw, if you're into the JDM scene at all or just a petrolhead then you'll love it but it is a bit of luck with what you'll see. After we left Daikoku, we went back to our hotel. We'd checked in with them previously that we could keep the car with them as the hotel we had chosen had parking available for an additional cost. We left the car at the hotel then went out for drinks and to see the cosmo clock. Didn't ride it but it was very cool seeing it all lit up over Yokohama. We bar hopped a bit, then went back.
30/04 - Recovery... Not much to say about this day, my partner was fairly hungover so we returned the car to the rental place and then spent the day just chilling at our ryokan hotel and around Yokohama. No drinks this time round as we had a very long trip the next day!!

Nagoya (Road Trip from Yokohama)

01/05 - Expressways, Onshi-Hakone Park, Expressways, Shinshiro, Expressways, Nagoya I'll condense this one a bit otherwise I'll type forever but this was a really fun time. The driving totaled almost 6 hours by the end so it's not for the faint hearted haha. The point was that we'd stop a few times along the way though which is what we did end up doing. We sent our luggage with the forwarding service (to the hotel after Nagoya as we were just staying the one night), then had an early start as we went to the car rental for 8. We chose the same place we rented from for Daikoku and had the same sales rep sorting out any documents so it was a bit quicker although this time we did get a quick explaination on the toll gates. Anyone going on the expressways will need to know how to use them, we were a bit confused the first time but once you've done it a couple times it'll be smooth sailing (and it's such a good system for people with the automatic cards too). We left Yokohama and set our location for Nagoya. We went for about 2 hours before stopping in Odawara for a quick snack and pee break. Pretty overcast day but despite this we still decided to do a stop in a park on the way and went to Onshi-Hakone Park. It was very cool/bit scary going up the winding mountain passes but wow the views are incredible. We spent again probably a couple hours at the park, had some lunch, no view of Fuji but we could see a lot of the other mountains around which are breathtaking in their own rights (: It's right on Lake Ashi so we did get to see the pirate cruise going round. After this break we did another couple hours or so driving before stopping slightly outside of Shinshiro. Something I will say about the expressways is that it is insane how fast people go 😂 We're not about to try anything so it was sticking to the 120 on the signs for us but people just whizz by. Anyway, we stopped at a familymart in this village for a quick break and I know I've said it already but the views are so beautiful. It's green in the UK but it's something else, I kept wondering if it's just viewing through rose tinted glasses/greener on the other side but I don't think that's true at least about those countryside views. It was also one of the reasons we wanted to do the road trip instead of train at least this time round, we could stop in these places and take it in. After our stop there, it was back onto the expressway until we reached Nagoya. It was roughly 6pm when we reached Nagoya, we had intially booked the car for the whole day with return the next morning but they allow early return with Orix so we did that instead before finding our hotel and having some dinner. Not too much time in Nagoya but it was the first time seeing the bullet train which was cool. Nagoya itself has some nice sights, we were thinking about going to Liberty Walk the next day but instead we just decided we'd head to Kyoto once we left the hotel.

Kyoto

02/05 - Shinkansen, Kyoto, Nishiki Market It was a really lovely day and we were taking the shinkansen for the first time. The shinkansen from Nagoya is only 34 minutes but we did end up buying reserved seats as the station was pretty packed. This is probably the main thing we noticed with Golden week, everything else was busy but not insanely so. Nagoya station was a lot busier but otherwise fine. We didn't have JR passes as when I used the online calculator it didn't come out to be worth it for our particular travel so it was full fare for us. The shinkansen itself was good, we would be using it again for Osaka back to Tokyo but due to Nagoya being closer to Kyoto I didn't reeeally think I'd need to book early. It's probably a good idea still lol but it worked out fine for us to book same day despite how busy Nagoya was. Once in Kyoto we took our time walking down to our next hotel. This was another ryokan style so that was nice, we also passed a garden which we noted to go to the next day (Shosei-en Garden). Our luggage had arrived and was waiting for us at the hotel already so we got refreshed then went out for the evening. We went up to Nishiki market then walked back towards our hotel again. Had a sushi train small dinner as we hadn't had any sushi yet and I've also only had a train once before. It might not be the best Kyoto had to offer but wow was it still better than anything I'd had in the UK!! We then spent hours once again in an arcade, if you like games the MaiMaiDX machines really are addictive :')
03/05 - Shosei-en Garden, Higashi Hongan-ji, Tō-ji Temple, Nijō Castle✨Constitution Memorial Day We woke up early, had breakfast at the ryokan, then went straight for the garden. It was a beautiful day once again so plenty of suncream applied. The Shosei-en Garden isn't the biggest but it's so beautiful, they have this pond that looks so still but my partner spotted a turtle and then you start to see more and more. They have some historical buildings around the place, we spent about an hour there before going to the next place. We walked down the road to the next place, this was Higashi Honhan-ji temple. Both locations weren't really that busy to be honest. Seeing this temple was nice but personally I did prefer the gardens. We next went Tō-ji temple. This is one of those locations that are on the 'must-do in Kyoto' but I did like it a lot. The 5 story pagoda was a cool sight. It wasn't so busy although we were going around lunch time so hungry crowds were likely taking a small break (: We spent an unreasonable amount of time just looking at the koi fish in the moat not even in the temple area 🎏 Finally we went to Nijō Castle. This was quite busy although we were one of the latter groups going around as it was nearing the end of the day. Another of the listed must do's but again I would say it's a cool place to see. If you do go, the tour around the main house is interesting and if you decide to climb the walls there's some nice sights of the area around. We finished up this day heading back to the market area and had dinner including a matcha beer. I'm not really a massive matcha person but I was up for trying all the different things, the beer sort of just tasted of normal beer but it looked exactly like a matcha-green coloured guinness.
04/05 - Arishiyama ✨Greenery Day This wasn't really a packed day as we were heading to an airbnb for a couple of nights. We used the luggage forwarding from the ryokan where they were concerned that we wouldn't get our luggage as soon as we wanted due to Golden week. I then let them know we were looking to get it sent for the 6th and they completely relaxed and said that would be perfectly fine 👌 For context if you've not been to Kyoto, the train system is alright but pales compared to Tokyo. Getting to our airbnb wouldn't be too long, about an hour, but as we didn't really have anything planned and only had our small suitcase with us we decided to walk to the next airbnb instead and waste time along the way. This way when we arrived it wouldn't be before check in time and it would keep us out and about. The walk was about 3 hours total although we lengthed it by stopping a few times. There were some celebrations happening due to Greenery day and Children's day being the next day. We stopped to listen to some music, stopped to have a starbucks, then finally we reached out airbnb in Arishiyama. The place was really nice, and it was fun to have a whole place for a few nights instead of a hotel. If you're wanting to, looking at airbnb's is a completely valid option when staying in Japan - you just might get warned before you arrive not to talk or laugh too loudly or the neighbours might complain/call the police 😅
05/05 - Fushimi Inari Shrine ✨Children's Day Initially were going to do both the bamboo/monkey forest and Fushimi Inari but ended up leaving a little later than planned so just committed to only Fushimi Inari. I was expecting fairly large crowds considering the day and the station was..... not great. That said, the station was very small and so although it was crowded we were also out of there fairly quick. This review of Fushimi Inari is going to follow almost everyone's - it was busy at the bottom and as you go up you'll get a lot less people. Even it being Children's day didn't stop us getting moments of just myself and my partner being alone so don't be deterred if the bottom is busy! Beautiful views, we did the full routes going to the top. It was a bit tricky at times but it's not a race, and you'll feel good doing the full thing. We reached the top, were able to partake in the prayers there, then had a great time going back down. There was a little area near the end with a bunch of cats; we turned a corner and saw one and a bunch of people crowding round to take a photo. Maybe only a few steps later you realise there's about 4 more just chilling around the place. It was a cool experience and definitely worth doing at least once if you're there.

Osaka

06/05 - Local train, Dotenbori, Den-Den Town We took a train from our airbnb to Osaka and went via the local train rather than the shinkansen. It was fine, we reached Dotenbori and our hotel was not far from the station. We got there a bit early again but our room was already available and our luggage had arrived too (: After getting refreshed we went out for the afternoon to Den-Den Town. This is Osaka's version of Akihabara, and we spent a lot of time with my partner looking in all the card shops. It was pretty rainy but not really a problem between the Lawson's umbrella and ducking into lots of shops ;) We spent time in an arcade for a while before heading out to Dotenbori market area and the bridges for the evening/night. Yet again another location in the Yakuza games so I had fun pointing out different places like the Mega Don Quijote or the crab restaurant. We had some food and ended up in a drinking place that used a QR code and website for ordering to the table which was dangerously easy to use haha. Had some really tasty sushi there too, I'll try and find the name if anyone is wondering! Took tons of photos there, the rain at night gave the city that classic look reflecting the neon lights everywhere.
07/05 - Kobe day trip We went to Kobe for the day, lots of rain but the main market area is all under cover so that was handy. My partner was looking for a new phone which he found, we also went to one of those places where they grill the food in front of you for dinner. It was great going in a scruffy elevator up to the restaurant and stepping out onto a really beautifully designed restaurant, and it wasn't very busy so we were able to go without reserving beforehand. Kobe itself is cool although we didn't explore too much outside the market areas due to just how hard it was raining, I think it was the heaviest on this day unfortunately.
08/05 - Nara day trip, Todai-ji We went to Nara and although the advice is to go early, we went for more mid-day time. It wasn't crowded at all so that was fortunate. We ended up walking past that famous mochi stall that you see on all the tiktoks of Nara. I wasn't expecting to see the making of the mochi and wasn't going to wait for it either however they started about 2 minutes after we found the stall so we did stay and watch and it was cool to see in person (: We tried the mochi, it's pretty good although for me it was a bit too dry from the powder. Was still tasty!!! Walked through towards the deer park and saw the pagodas around. When we reached the deer park of course we had to get some crackers and feed them. Oh my god they're so pushy!! It was actually so funny to interact with them, one tried to nibble me and we got headbutted a bit when we had the crackers but once you've given them all out then they'll leave you 😆. We sat on a bench for a bit and watched some other poor souls go through the same thing. Saw quite a lot of young fawns too which is cute. We kept walking up to Todai-ji, stopped for an ice cream, then went to the temple to see the huge Buddha statue. It was a good experience to see this temple, but at least for me it wasn't my favourite part of the trip. I know for many others though it's really great to see so don't knock it off your list if you're interested in it! I'm glad I went once but probably won't return. Spent some more time just chilling around Nara and looking at the temples and shrines around the place. We went back to Osaka for around 4pm. Spent the evening in Osaka again, no rain this time! Oh this was about the time I was developing a sore throat, a little bit nerve wracking but fully vaccinated + boosters and have had covid previously so was fairly certain it wasn't that. Even so, my partner was coughing a bit which is the start of the cold we both had for the rest of the trip 😔
09/05 - Osaka Aquarium, Dotenbori I didn't put the aquarium on my plan initially but we had another spare day in Osaka and I do like visiting aquariums + my partner likes penguins a lot and they had a lot there. It was a cool experience, a lot of families as to be expected but it wasn't packed so lots of opportunities to see the animals and fish :) The two whales were very cool, they're so massive. We also got to see their rockhopper penguin conservation area, you could see them sitting on their eggs. I recommend the aquarium to any families planning to be in Osaka, it's pretty easy to get to and the station gives clear directions on where to go to get to the aquarium and the nearby lego park. After the aquarium we went back to Dotenbori and looked around the various book-offs as my partner was looking for screen protectors. If you're interested in any Japanese media I can recommend them too, I found some games in there that were a lot cheaper than you find in the West in much better condition. Our coughs worsened by evening which wasn't great, we weren't doing much more in super crowded areas but it's obviously not good anyway. We were wearing masks everywhere beforehand but it made it more important. We did end up getting some Bron, if you're in Japan and have a cough then I do recommend it but just be aware that it contains codeine. We got some from a place that specifically had a pharmacy section, you bring the box to the cashier and they'll give you the actual bottle from behind the counter. Really really great stuff, much better than anything you can get without a prescription in the UK which was annoying as my cough was subsequently worse for about 5 days once I got back!! It's pretty much gone now though (lasted longer likely due to asthma but it was gone for my partner after a couple days of being back). Overall I really enjoyed Osaka, all the cities we went to were cool but for me Osaka was my favourite :)

Tokyo

10/05 - Shinkansen, Airbnb We left Osaka for Tokyo and took the Shinkansen back. We did splash out a bit and took the green car with seats on the Fuji side. I fell asleep for most of the trip but woke in time to see Fuji for the roughly 6-7 minutes it was viewable for. It was my only time to see Fuji due to the weather being almost clear that day aside from a single cloud going right across the mountain. It didn't block the peak though so I don't feel too robbed 😆. If/when we visit Japan again I would like to see it again closer but it was still a great sight. Once we reached Shinagawa station, we switched to the local train to head to our airbnb in Shinjuku once again (although closer to Shibuya this time whereas we were more North before). We were staying in a pretty close knit residential area but did a bit of a hello to the neighbours which was nice. We had done the luggage forwarding again but had set it to come the next day so we would be the people available for receiving it. Spent the time around the airbnb and also tried having an uber eats delivered (which worked great lol).
11/05 - Shibuya, Shinjuku We spent most of this day around Shibuya as we wanted a few souvenirs for family and also hadn't visited Shibuya properly. Went to the crossing, then spent time mainly shopping and going around one of the Donkis. Pretty rainy again but not a problem for a shopping day.
12/05 - RX-7 Day Trip (Lake Hinuma, Ibaraki Flower Park), Kabukicho We used Omoshiro Rent-a-car for the RX-7 (for those interested, here's the car - https://i.imgur.com/HRX4DYy.png ) and they were great. We had it pre-booked again before we arrived in Japan as it's a pretty sought after car to rent. Bit banged up but nothing major, and we had it booked for I think 8 hours? We did return it a little early as we didn't really have anything else to do and didn't want to be late with a return as the shop closed at the time we'd be returning it. A funny part of the terms you agree to is no Initial D style driving. For the trip itself, we didn't have anything major planned so I made a makeshift plan to just go a bit out of Tokyo and visit somewhere different. I found this lake on maps that'd be not too far, didn't realise until we were there that it's less a lake for sights and more for fishing 😅. No worries though, as the main reason was to get some driving in and enjoy having the car (which was achieved!). Got some snacks from a 7/11 then went off. We had a lot of time left so we drove to Ibaraki flower park, yet another quick find from scrolling around Google Maps. It was a very beautiful park, they have a rose market there as well as selling some fresh produce. It's a small charge to go in the park but it's worth it for the hour or more you might spend there and will go towards the park maintenance. Also being the middle of Spring of course it's going to be beautiful with all the new blooms (: We spent time there admiring the countryside and being sad about going back home the next day. We went back to the rental place afterwards, also during this drive was the time where we were finding it so funny how we were sticking to the speed limits in this beautiful car and being overtaken by massive trucks going so much faster. We did have a moment that was like from a movie though, we entered the expressway after the tolls and as we were pulling in an older Honda NSX was being driven next to us. The guy driving looked over and gave us a nod with a straight face before pulling ahead a little so we could be behind him. We ruined that movie mood by both being so excited by how cool the moment was but hey it's one of those things that won't be forgotten at least!! He zoomed off a few minutes later but we weren't risking anything to keep pace ahaha. We returned the car then went back to Shinjuku for our final evening in Japan. We went back to Kabukicho and I was able to see the arch in red :') Took photos of the karaoke place that's in the games, would've gone in but my throat was killing!! So we just stuck to being outside. We went back to the area around our airbnb, had our last dinner there then went and packed up ready to go home.
13/05 - Home :') Our flight was leaving a little before 9am so we were leaving the airbnb for 5ish. Early start but as we'd gotten packed up it wasn't too bad of a walk to the station. Grabbed our train, it was fairly early on one of the lines that goes direct to the station so we were able to get on with ease. The train was rammed by the time we reached the station. No problems getting through the airport, got to our gate and then flew home.

Final Notes

I had such a good time in Japan, I loved being there and hope to return within the next few years if life permits!! We definitely missed some of those 'must-do's' such as Osaka Castle, any of the theme parks, Arishiyama Monkey Park, actually doing Karaoke, and some of the food options due to my own anxieties walking into places lol. That said, I don't regret the things we did end up doing and it just means I'll have to fit some of those into my next trip 😉. Although my partner would like to visit more Northern areas like Hokkaido or Sendai so we'll see!
We didn't have probably as much packed into each day as could've been but for me this was perfect and a great time for my first time. If you managed to read all this then thank you very much, and please let me know if you have any questions about the trip!! I'll be happy to answer. Thanks for reading!

I haven’t played Fortnite in over a year or 2 and just want to sell my account, I’ll take a ps5 gift card as payment

I have been hitting the brick wall for many years now with the mystery of Carl Petter Schylander and Catharina. So I need all the help I can get!
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I and several others in Norway have long tried to find out about the origins of two Swedes who immigrated to Nordland on the coast of Norway. Namely the couple Carl Petter (b. c. 1764 - 28 April 1823) and Catharina PehrsdotteOlsdotter (b. c. 1764 - 1842). It is my ancestor which makes it interesting for me, but the circumstances of their coming to Norway is an exciting mystery in itself. Exactly when and why they came to Norway is a mystery. These were turbulent years in Europe, Denmark-Norway and in Sweden, so moving without further ado from Sweden via Nasafjell to Nesna and Dønnes in Norway was not an everyday occurrence. Immigration from Sweden to Norway and vice versa is not new, in the second half of the 19th century 100,000 moved from Sweden to Norway, a full three-quarters of the foreign population in the 1900 census was from Sweden. But this was after liberalization policies that had solved compulsory service, the obligation for the propertyless to take up work, ceased in Norway only in 1854, and the tradition of taking up new service only in spring and autumn persisted longer. The passport requirement was abolished even later, first in 1860.
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At the end of the Great Nordic War and until the peace of Nystadt in 1721, it became clear that Sweden had to have a fleet that could fight near the coast and in the archipelago. To take up the fight with Russia's new galley fleet that was ravaging the Swedish coast. The Swedish naval fleet was not created to fight in the archipelago. Tsar Peter the Great had in his service a Dalmatian Greek sailor, Admiral Count Ivan Botsis, who had previously served in the Venetian fleet and learned there to build galleys. A rowing galley that made it possible to attack even when the wind was calm. So after the peace of Nystadt, the Swedish leadership decided that the naval fleet should acquire a number of galleys and build a galley fleet. The galeiflåtta was stationed at Skeppsholmen in Stockholm and the squadron came to be called Stockholm's squadron. The fleet became known as Arméns flotta or Skärgårdsflottan and existed from 1756 to 1826. The fleet consisted of smaller vessels that could easily navigate and fight in the Swedish archipelago, corresponding to the Norwegian fleet force often called Roflotiljen. By royal decree 18 October 1756, the army fleet was officially created and was thereby separated from the naval fleet. The fleet's founder Augustin Count Ehrensvärd (1710-1772) and his son, Admiral Carl August Count Ehrensvärd (1745-1800), became commander from 1784 to 1790 of the fleet, which was developed with, among other things, knowledge from similar fleets in the Mediterranean. Gustaf 3's Russian war broke out in 1788, at the outbreak of the war the ancestor Carl Petter was approx. 22 years old. Two years into the war in 1790, former commander of the volunteer company, lieutenant colonel Johan Gustaf count Lagerbielke (1745-1812) as commander of the Stockholm Squadron.
Skeppsholm became Sweden's naval headquarters when the naval staff moved there in 1634 from the nearby old Skeppsholm, which is now called Blasieholmen. But not long after during the Scanian War 1675-1679, it was decided to move the military base to the newly founded Karlskrona in Blekinge to secure the newly acquired regions in the south. Skeppsholm's glory days as the navy's headquarters were over, but military activity did not end. It is here that first source of Carl Petter appears as volunteer no. 29 in the premier major's company at Skeppsholm's assembly in Stockholm where the fleet was stationed. Skeppsholm assembly in Stockholm also known as the Admiralty assembly or Holmkyrkan's assembly. Flottan's assembly was a non-territorial military assembly. Christina Charlotta Schylander is baptized here on 12 May 1794 by midwife Johanna Berggren. Pastor at Flottan Natanael Larsson Lithander (1790-1808) confirms three days later the baptism of the daughter of Carl Petter Schylander and his wife Catharina Pehrsdotter. Among the witnesses were lieutenant colonel high-born herr Axel Otto count Cronhielm (1751-1809) of Hakunge and lieutenant Ekstedt. Christina Charlotta does not appear again, and since it was an emergency baptism, it is likely that she died young.
The volunteers were enlisted personnel, i.e. permanent employees. They were also called "marinärer" and their main task was to operate the naval artillery. During the period Carl Petter was a "volantaire" Finland was and a central part of the area the Skærgårdsflottan was supposed to protect. The Skærgårdsflottan's greatest victory was the Battle of Svensksund in 1790 when a larger Russian force was defeated, but it was not enough to stop Russia finally conquering the Duchy of Finland from Sweden in 1809. At this time it was Johan Gustaf count Lagerbielke (1745-1812 ) who was commander-in-chief from 1790-1811. Carl Petter was around 30 years old in 1795, which makes it highly probable that he had all served in Gustav III's Russian war from 1788-1790, he would have been 24 years old at the outbreak of the war. If that was the case, he maybe participated in the Battle of Svensksund in 1789.
Carl Petter is listed as the father again the following year on 17. Sep. 1795 at the baptism of his son Carl Petter Sylander in Lövsta, Ed socken. He is still a volunteer at Armén's fleet and his wife Catharina Sylander is stated to be 28 years old. The godfathera are Lieutenant-Colonel count Cronhielm, his stepmother high-born countess Mrs. Christina Cronhielm, nee Baroness Rålamb, Fänrik (ranks above sergeant and below sub-lieutenant.) Mr. Conrad Vilhelm Ankarcrona (1733-1809) of Runsa and his daughter Miss Margreta Elisabeth Ankarcrona (1777-1838). Both Ankarcrona and Cronhielm had estates in the area.
Nasa silver works
Carl Petter and Catharina probably came around around 1800 to Norway from "Nasa Seilfver Grufvor in Pitteå Lappmark, Ærjeplougs Sochn." The mines were located by the mountain Nasa about 36 miles from Piteå, not far from the border with Norway. There was some traffic between the mines and Norway, probably per horse hoof. The Nasaleden, as this route is called today, mostly ran from Piteå. Nasafjell's silver works was a silver mining operation in Pite Lappmark that took place during two periods, 1635–1659 and 1770–1810. The management of The mill was taken over by the notary Fredrik Jonsson in 1797, a man with big plans but little experience of silver works. He soon got the mill people against him, and the workers who had been permanent residents in Adolfstrøm got tired and moved from there. Mining was therefore carried out on a small scale, and hut density was at an all-time low in 1797-1800. In the autumn of 1801, Fredrik Jonsson moved from Lapland and later went bankrupt. His rights in the company were transferred to one of his creditors, Major Georg Bogislaus Staël von Holstein (1740-1814) in Stockholm. He made great efforts for the Lapland colony station and "cultivation", but did not succeed in saving the silver works. Even with extensive repairs and rebuilds in Adolfstrøm led by the former geschworner at Dannemora mine, Leonard Horneman, silver production remained insignificant. Staël von Holstein became more indebted, and in 1810 he left Adolfstrøm never to return. Mining activity on Nasafjellet and in Adolfstrøm thus ceased completely. In 1821, the entire cottage facility burned down, except for the dwelling house. With this information many have assumed that Carl Petter and family just came via the area, and did not work or stay there.
Dr. Wayne Mitchell said that his grandmother claims that either Carl or Catherina came from a noble family and that they came from Russia. She also claimed that they had to flee the country and when they reached the border crossing between Sweden and Norway that they bribed the border guards with jewels. Harald Bertrand Eckhold from Kragerø told in 1988 that his mother-in-law Åsta Marie Isaksen (1898-1974), great-great-granddaughter of Carl Petter senior, told him in 1956 that Carl Petter Sjølander came to Norway with a small chest full of jewels. And that Carl Petter had said "No one should know who my mother is." That the Sylander family had some noble origin is probably very unlikely, but that it came to Norway in the form of them fleeing from something is a possibility. There is indeed a family with a similar name from Kalmar that was ennobled on 10 June 1812 with registry number 2225. The family possibly starts with Corporal Sven Christoffersson and Catharina Strømsten, who are believed to be the parents of Jonas Sylvander, born around 1700. He married in the 1730s with Sara Anna Hallenberg (1711-1785 in Målilla), daughter of Sheriff Gabriel Hallenberg and Maria Ljungstrøm (-1774 in Ljungby). Their son Johan Gabriel S. (1767-1833) in Stockholm married for the first time to Eva Elisabet Molin (1738-1776). They first had their daughter Anna Britta Sylvander (1762-1844) married to the ship clerk Clas Johan Zander. And then his son Josua Sylvander. Interestingly, Josua marries for the third time countess Lovisa Gustava Ottiliana Cronhielm af Hakunge (1788-1842), daughter of the previously named count Cronhielm and his wife baroness Amalia Fredrika Carlsdtr. Pechlin von Løwenbach (1867-1824).
Catharina's parentage.A possible person who may be identical, with Catharina Pehrsdotter Schillander but very uncertain, is Katharina Olofsdotter born on 7 April 1757 in Arjeplog, daughter of Olof Mårtenson "Nybyggare, expeditionslänsman och snickare i Sakkavare, Arjeplog" born ca. 1728 and died on 19 March 1786 and his wife Karin "Caisa" Persdotter born on 1731 and died on 15 November 1792 also in Sakkavare, Arjeplog. Olof Mårtensson and Karin Persdotter were married in Arjeplog on 11 April 1757. Karin Persdotter was the daughter of PePehr Larsson and Karin Olofsdotter Laestander. Year of birth is very uncertain but probably around 1710. At the court in Arjeplog on 30 January 1731 where her father Olof Laestander puts "church pastor" Sjul Granberg's son Per Larsson before the court, Karin is stated to be 24 years old but the following year, at the court on 26 February 1732, she is noted to be 19 years old. After Karin O. Laestander's death in 1739, Karin Persdotter was adopted by her maternal uncle Petter Olofsson Laestander. This Katharina Olofsdotter moved from Arjeplog around 1780 when one of the parents died, this must be the father Pehr Larsson, since the mother Karin O. Lestander is said to have died in 1739. The adoptive parents, i.e. her uncle Petter O. Lestander and his wife Margareta Svedberg cannot be, since they died later than that. Nasafjell is not far from Arjeplog. And especially considering Catharina uses two patronymics during her life, both Persdatter and Olsdatter, which is consistent with the possible use of patronymics if she did not really want to associate herself with her biological father, which one might think is the case if the reader between the lines. But again this is speculation!
In Norway.
The first definitive trace of Carl Petter in Norway is at Dønnes manor during the census in 1801. Carl Petter Schillander is listed here as the first servant of five to a visiting merchant Berg. Furthermore, in addition to the lords of the farm, there is a Lapland forster boy, eight maids and a widow "in the house of charity". The lord of the house is the widow of lieutenant colonel Isach Jørgen Coldevin (1724-1793), housewife Maria Anna Emahus Tønder (1731-1802) and their son and heir war councilor Hans Emahus Tønder Coldevin (1754-1835). Daughter Else Maria Coldevin (1753-). And in the "house of charity" the widow Anna Cathrine Tobine Sommer (1725-1811), sister of Isach Jørgen. The same census is Catharina Pedersdtr. Schillander with the children Carl Petter and Caroline stated as lodging with a homestead Slåttvik not far from Dønnes with the homestead family Gabriel Andersen (1752-1813) and his third wife Aleth Sophia Johansdtr. (1764-). Whether Carl Petter remained a servant for a long time with the Coldevin family is uncertain. But in 1803 they had a son Isak Jørgen Dass Siølander, baptized in Lurøy church named after the lords of Dønnes and Lurøy. It is Isach Jørgen's eldest daughter Stinchen Catharina Coldevin (1752-1845) and her husband skipper and merchant Christen Dass (1743-1791) who own Lurøy estate. Their son Isach Jørgen Coldevin Dass (1772-1836) is among the godfathers at Isach Jørgen Dass Siølander's baptism.
In 1815, Moflaget farm was vacant. Carl Petter and Catharina must have well liked with the venerable housewife Dass since she wanted them as tenants at Moflaget. Housewife Dass owned Sør-Solvær including Moflaget until 1825. This was an inheritance from Dønnes estate and not originally part of Lurøy estate. In the following land registry, Carl Petter and Catharina take over the building on the entire Moflaget in 1816. Two years later on 10 October 1817, the first of the children, Karl Petter Schiølander, marries Maren Hansdtr. Slåtterøy. And not long after at Solvær in 1818, the first grandchild Katrina Margrethe Sckelander arrives, unfortunately she will also be the first grandchild to perish when she all dies the following year. But all in 1823, Carl Petter probably perishes when he is lost at sea on 28 April 1823 at the age of approx. 58 years. But he leaves behind a family that will have many descendants in Norway, USA and more.
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Sources

• 12. mai 1794. Dåp av Christina Charlotta Schylander (1794-). Faddere: Axel Otto greve Cronhielm (1751-1809) av Hakunge, Axel Abraham Ekstedt (1766-1834) og Natanael Larsson Lithander (1790-1808). ”Skeppsholms församling i Stockholm - 1794 Maj 12/Dito(21) - Christina Charlotta. - Vol. no 29 Prem. Maj. Comp. Carl Peter Schylander, dess hustru Cathar. Pehrsdotter. Öfversteleutnanten Grefve Axel Cronhjelm. Leutnant Ekstedt. Pastorskan Lithander Demoiselle Nöddopet af Barnmorskan Johanna Berggren confirmerades d:15 af ord. Bat: Past: Lithander.". CI:3 (1787-1834) Bild 92 / sid 175 (AID: v89892.b92.s175, NAD: SE/SSA/0014).
• 19. sep 1795. Dåp Carl Petter Sylander. Faddere: Axel Otto greve Cronhielm (1751-1809) av Hakunge, hans stemor fru Christina friherrinne Rålamb gift grevinne Cronhielm, Conrad Vilhelm Ankarcrona (1733-1809) til Runsa og hans datter frøken Margreta Elisabeth Ankarcrona (1777-1838). "Stockholms län. Eds socken, Löfsta - Soffia - Carl Petter - född d.17 döpt d.19 September. Volontairen vid Armeens flotta Carl Petter Sylander, Hust. Catharina Sylander 28 år kyrktogs d. 3 octob. Vittnen Öfverste Leutnanten Högvälborne Grefvej Hr Axel Otto Cronhjelm. Statsfrun Högvälborna Grefvinna fru Christina Cronhjelm född Rålamb. Fendricken Herr Conrad Ankarcrona fröken Margreta Elisabeth Ankarcrona.”. Ed CI:2 (1745-1803) Bild 102 / sid 195 (AID: v94391.b102.s195, NAD: SE/SSA/1497.

The first source in Norway is the census of 1801 (Census 1801 for 1828P Nesna parish. Permanent page Link. Permanent picture link) where they are referred to as Carl Petter and Cathrina Pedersdatter Schillander. Where he is the first servant on Dønnes estate and she is Swedish and earns her living with hand work "Er svendsk og ernærer sig med haandarbeyd". Converted from the given age, they were born about 1764 and their son Carl Petter junior, 6 years old, i.e. born about. 1795. Furthermore, they and their descendants are well documented in Norway where they have many descendants.During the Napoleonic Wars, conscription was introduced in northern Norway and crew rolls were kept. Carl Petter is listed here with Stockholm as his birthplace in 1809 and 1811 (microfilm NT195). Converted from the stated age from the crew rolls, he should have been born in about 1766. In 1832, at her daughter Caroline Frederikke Sjølander's wedding, her place of birth is given as "Nasa Brug in Westerboten in Sverrig." (Nordland fylke, Lurøy, Ministerial book no. 839A03 (1825-1862), Ekteviede 1833, page 378. Permanent page link. Permanent image Link.). Slightly converted if the source is correct, she was born before 14 October 1803.
There are many sources about the family in Norway, but none that provide any more information about their Swedish origins.
Geni: Link
Frode sin Slektside: Link
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Some variations of the family name in Norway: 1801: Schillander (2x sources), 1805: Siölander (1x source), 1817: Schiölander (1x source), 1818: Sckelander (1x source), 1820: Sjölander (17x sources), 1823: Schjolander ( 1x source), 1823: Sylander (4x source), and more. I know that the ending -ander means man. But I'm not sure what the first link can come from. I have speculated whether it could come from Latin silva or Greek xýlon both meaning forest. But as likely as name researcher Eva Brylla answered me "Hi Mats! In Sweden the old name types are tied to the different places. Names in Greek. names with Latin endings in –(i)us. Often they were formed into a place name, like Sylvanus or Sylvander into a place name Skog = forrest. Schillander can therefore be formed into a place name in Skill(-), e.g. Skillberga . One such example was a Swede on his way to "London and beyond" via Ålesund in 1859. His name was Nils Peder Sylander and he came from Silonger parish in Sundsvall. But after searching a bit, there are quite a few places in Sweden and Finland that you can use as a starting point to form the first part of the family name.
Here are some of the forums that discuss Carl Petter and Catharina:
2000- Arkivverket: Link
2002-2008 Akrivverket: Link
2011-2017 Slekt og Data: Link
rotter.se: Link

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