Smith haven mall gun

Opal stood up with a sigh, grimacing at the pain along her back and arm. She looked down on the man crumpled on the floor. “Sorry Devona. But life’s a bitch.”
“...fuck you,” he mumbled.
Opal’s eyes widened slightly. “Man, he’s one tough cookie. Not much he can do now though.” She pulled the documents out from her bag to verify that they were still there, and then slid them into her jacket. She turned to leave before pausing. Something felt… off. Her eyes scanned the area and she tensed herself. Even with Opal being as alert as she could, she didn’t see the fist coming at her face until it was too late. Her vision spun as her head snapped back, feeling her feet leave the ground as someone slept her legs out from under her. She pushed herself off and jumped to her feet, only to be met with a swift kick waist. She tried to swing her crowbar but a hand wrenched her wrist to the side and a knee slammed into her stomach. She doubled over and felt her lunch struggle to the surface before she was promptly slammed face-first into the wall. She slid down like wet spaghetti onto the floor.
She turned her head to the side to watch the retreating footsteps as she waited for her entire body to stop aching. Devona, if that was his name, was already sitting up, wincing but very much functional despite the blood dribbling down his face. She could see the figure now crouching beside him, doing something with their hands. It took Opal a few seconds to realise that they were signing something.
-you alright?
Devona nodded, rubbing his bruised cheek. “Yeah, I’m fine, Harlow. Don’t worry about me.”
Opal would have sworn out loud, but the pain in her face was making it hard to speak. “Are you kidding me? They sent the damn wolf after these documents too?” Speaking of the documents, why was she after them again? She frowned and rooted around her memories like a child digging in the sand. Right, to sell the information within. Wow, she was scatter-brained. Probably to do with the ringing headache she had.
She had to get away. But with her current situation, a foot race would be a pointless endeavour. All she needed to do was get to her motorcycle parked a few metres away, and she’d be able to depart. She looked over the side of the roof and studied the area. Then she rolled over the side. She grabbed onto the railings by the side and yanked them off, managing to swing herself into a window after skidding down several metres. If she couldn’t outpace Harlow, then she could at least slow them down. She shoved herself to her feet and started to run, the sound of someone scaling the wall already behind her. She shoved desks and cabinets in front of doors as she ran, the only sound she could hear being her own footsteps and bated breath. If she got caught once, if she slowed down for a single second, she’d be headed for the rocks.
She turned the corner and felt that same shiver of anticipation run up her spine. They’d caught up to her, somehow. She readied herself and ducked under but still caught the edge of the hit as Harlow appeared from behind her. She grabbed an oil can and crushed it behind her back, spilling it down onto the floor. They rushed forward anyway, using the momentum to slam into Opal and throw her across the floor. This time it was her scrambling upon the oil to get up, grabbing onto the wall to try to pull herself up. She was instead hoisted up and thrown through the door and onto the clean floor of the corridor where she pushed herself up and began to run again. Something nagged at her but she ignored it, electing to get to the exit as fast as possible.
She finally shoved the door open and ran upon the gravel, finding where her motorcycle was parked. She kicked back the stand and revved the engine, tearing off as fast as she could while weaving for good measure. She relaxed her body once she reached the empty fields of high grass, shooting a final peace sign towards the dwindling buildings. She reached into her jacket and then realised that the documents were not there.
“God. Fucking. Dammit.” That conniving bastard. They’d probably stolen the documents during that final tussle, and the nagging feeling she’d so carelessly discarded was how strange it was that they didn’t continue to chase her. There was enough time to go back, perhaps she could -
There was a massive explosion from one of the buildings, loud enough for the windows on the neighbouring structures to shatter. On second thought, perhaps she’d let this one go.
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Claren soared through the air and slammed against the ground and wall, bouncing around like a handball. He pressed a hand to his head with a groan as he stopped, barely managing to dodge the glaive that slammed into the ground and sent a blast of lightning into the earth. As he looked, he could see that metal had been infused into the bone and flesh that comprised the glaive. Laurel came at him again, swinging her glaive again and again as lightning coursed through her body. Claren blocked her attacks, but he was forced to the defensive, the lightning preventing him from getting close.
He pushed forward nevertheless, grabbing onto the end of Laurel’s glaive as she tried to drive it into his chest. He didn’t know how much longer his shield could keep up, but there was no chance for him to take a moment to recover. He could feel the heat from the electricity scouring the air, not hot enough to injure but hot enough to hurt. His fist connected with Laurel’s face and sent her flying backwards before she launched herself forward with a burst of electricity, sending him slamming through the door and into a hallway. He didn’t have time to test if his bones were broken before she was launching herself into the air, electricity worming around her like a writhing cocoon. Claren rolled to the side to avoid her slamming into the ground, sending shards of concrete everywhere. His thoughts rushed around his head as he jumped to his feet and started the process again.
Claren didn’t have time to consider the ramifications of why her magic was so different to what it had been before. All he had was to try and hold her off for long enough to… what, exactly? Figure out a way to beat her? For backup to arrive? Have the crime lords escape? He almost laughed at that one - internally, of course. He barely laughed out loud. He’d dedicated most of his life to law and order, and here he was: potentially throwing his life away for a bunch of high-end criminals. The thought of it casted a bitter taste in his mouth and he could feel his teeth grit together. The sudden, uncontrollable action startled Claren enough to make him almost freeze up. He’d trained himself for years to hold in anything of that ike, and here he was, in the midst of battle yet unable to compose himself. He smoothed his expression again and hit Laurel across the head with a hook.
“You know,” Laurel managed between breaths while dodging and weaving, “this would be a lot easier if you just stood aside.” Her glaive gave her the advantage in reach, but Claren’s bubble provided him with enough manoeuvrability to get in and out.
“I mean,” she continued, “why bother trying to save people like that? They’re scum, or lower than scum. Just the greedy pigs of the world that managed to get enough money to stay on the top of the bottom.”
It was such a mirror of his own thoughts that he almost, for a second, considered it. He tried his hardest to push her words from his mind and levelled his gaze at her. “I don’t make deals with people like you. Not to mention, you already murdered the English council, so don’t pretend like you’re above them.”
Laurel scoffed. “Please, they were politicians. Barely even people.”
She stomped her feet and a wave of electricity radiated off of her, scorching the ground and furniture around her. She raised her hands and a scent of ash filled the air. Fire suddenly flared into existence all around her, bright and blindingly hot. Claren had to jump forward as he felt himself cooking alive from the fire that rose just a few inches away from him. Laurel opened her palm and a wave of flame erupted from her hand right towards Claren. He expanded his bubble just before it washed over him, keeping the scorching heat away. He rolled to the side and outstretched his hand into a finger gun. His shield was sucked around his hand and onto the tip of his finger, hanging there like a dew drop. It fired off and slammed into Laurel, sending her flying backwards. It shot back and wrapped around Claren just as another wave of fire rushed at him.
He dodged to the side as she swung wildly with her glaive, the blade lit by flame. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his yo-yo. Laurel guffawed as she saw it, her voice revealing the emotion that her mask was hiding.
“A yo-yo? Seriously?”
Claren’s shield flowed over the yo-yo and he lashed out with it, wrapping around Laurel faster than she could register. He swung the yo-yo around and Laurel followed, being slammed all around the wall and floor like a ball attached to a ping-pong paddle. He pulled and she spun like a top as the yo-yo retracted to his hand before crumping to the floor.
“That’s Captain yo-yo to you,” Claren said dryly. The bubble from the yo-yo started to wash over him. It wavered for a second, and then shattered. That was not good. But with Laurel out for the count, he should be able to wait out for his shield to form again.
Laurel stood up. Claren was momentarily taken aback. Someone who was without any physical enhancements should have been taken out by that assault. She stretched her neck and arms.
“Nice trick. Wanna see me do it?” She lashed out with a strand of lightning, faster than Claren could dodge and wrapped it around him. While it was much faster, it barely tickled his skin as it pressed against him. Then the strand of lightning erupted into flames, and Claren could feel his flesh start to bubble. She slammed him all around the room and the world began to blur, his vision flashing white intermittently from the agony of the experience. She brought him in close, spinning him around like a ribbon dancer would, and punched him in the face. He collapsed to the ground as the last of the fiery electricity stopped holding him up, body still steaming as his wounds hissed.
Laurel picked him up by the collar and dangled him in the air.
“Like I said. This would have been a lot easier if you just stood aside.” She was tall, tall enough that with the two of them at eye-height Claren’s feet couldn’t find the floor at all. She started to carry him towards the window and Claren thought about how high the mansion was from the ground as she threw him through it.
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Cirius had taken a quick break when he felt his eyes start to slide from their sockets. He excused himself to the bathroom, died, and then came back out as fresh as a daisy. Ignoring the incredibly confused and alarmed expressions of the crime lords, he continued to lead them out until they were in the front yard.
“Welp,” he said, “you can all go home now.” He heard some commotion from the mansion, and turned around. The noises stopped.
“Huh. Must have been the wind.”
The window shattered and Claren hurtled through. Cirius scrambled around the lawn and managed to catch Claren, taking the brunt of the fall as the man slammed into him. He was burnt heavily all over, and a hiss of pain escaped his lips as Cirius set him gently upon the ground. He looked up as a figure jumped down, landing on top of a car as electricity coursed around her. It was the woman from before, still brandishing her glaive and with her mask covering her face. Bauble, was it?
“Hey,” said Cirius, because he didn’t know what else to say.
“Hey,” she returned casually, leaning against her glaive onto the ruined wreck. She seemed to be trying to appear flippant, but too much of her weight was put on the glaive for that to be true.
“Did you do this?” he asked, gesturing towards Claren.
“Yep.”
Cirius nodded. “Not going to lie, Bauble, you suck. I kinda have to fight you now.”
Even with the mask Cirius could feel her glare. “First off, it’s Laurel. Second off, I don’t have time to waste on you.” She directed her gaze towards the crowd and waved her finger around. The crowd surged as if trying to disperse before she slammed her foot and sent a wave of fire soaring up to block them.
“Not you, not you, not you,” she muttered. “Ah, there you are!” The flames dispersed and the crowd backed away from the man she was pointing to. He looked around, as if for anyone to help. Everyone turned and ran towards their cars, getting in and driving away within seconds.
Laurel twirled her glaive and jumped down. “I’m going to kill you now, okay?” She dodged leisurely to the side as Cirius tried to tackle her, sending volts of electricity through his body with a casual backhand. She grabbed Cirius by the collar and threw him with a blast of lightning, hurtling him several metres away. The man turned to run and she shot out a small bolt of lightning, seizing him up and collapsing him to the ground. She stepped forward, scraping the glaive across the scorched grass before being slammed in the back. She whipped around to see Claren pointing his index finger, his face screwed up in pain yet eyes forced open.
“You really don’t know when to quit, so you?” she snarled. She hoisted her glaive into the air but was interrupted once again as Cirius popped out and managed to grasp onto Laurel’s leg. Before she could kick him off, he clambered up onto her back and clung to her.
“What the fUCKKK” she yelled, the yell turning into a screech as Cirius bit down as hard as he could on her shoulder. She wheeled around wildly, shouting curses to the sky as she tried her hardest to shake Cirius off. He continued to hang on, his fingers gripping tightly and only the gloves preventing his nails from sinking into her skin. Fire and lightning roiled off of her yet Cirius continued to cling on. She slammed her back against the mansion again and again. Cirius heard something crunch from within his body. Still holding on with one hand, he grabbed a disk from his pocket and tossed it into the air. Dropping down, he kicked at Laurel’s feet before running away as the disk exploded and sent debris tumbling down onto her. He ran to Claren and hauled him up, trying his best not to touch the deep burns. He turned his attention to the man who was still lying on the ground as if pretending to be dead. Cirius walked over while holding up Claren and kicked him in the side.
“Ah! Just kill me quickly!” he screamed before seeing that it was just Cirius. Cirius stared down at him.
“Just get up and help me support Claren.”
They managed to get into a building and barricade the door. Cirius propped Claren up against the wall as the man started to pace the halls.
“God, where are the guards! They should have stopped her!” he yelled. Cirius grabbed a pen and threw it at his head.
“Shut up. She’s going to hear us.”
“Hear us! Who cares if she hears us! She’ll find us anyway! We’re doomed!”
Claren slitted his eyes open. “Keep it down. I have a headache and it’s…”
“Killing you?” Cirius interjected.
Claren raised an eyebrow. “No. My wounds are killing me. My headache is simply a pain to deal with.”
Cirius chewed his lip. He needed a plan. Devona and Harlow were both off somewhere else, and he didn’t have time to wait for them to come around.
“Think, think,” he muttered to himself. An idea sparked in his head. It wasn’t very good, but it was all he had.
“You there,” he said, pointing at the man who he had thrown the pen at. “Uh, what’s your name?”
“Winston Haxter,” supplied Claren with a pained voice. “He’s the one I was supposed to be negotiating with.”
“I see, I see. What’s your discipline?”
“I, uh, can run well.”
Cirius hummed. “Super-speed, eh? Yeah, I can work with that.”
“No, I run at normal speed. But like, I don’t get tired. I can just keep running.”
“Huh. So you have infinite stamina?”
“Yeah. But like… just for running.”
Cirius hummed again. “Well, I can probably still work with that.” He stepped towards Winston and pointed towards a long hallway. “Alright, when she gets here, you’re going to start running down there.”
“What! She’ll kill me!”
“Come on man. Your magic is literally just running. You can outpace her. ‘Sides, I have a plan. Claren’s going to be at the end of the hallway, and he’ll bubble the two of you up. I’ll distract her and lead her far away where I’ll… I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
Winston stared at him. “You’ll die.”
“Oh, most definitely. In fact, probably several times! But hey, that’s just how it is.”
Winston’s face dropped even more, if that was even possible. “You’re absolutely insane. We’re all going to die.”
“Nope! Just me! Anyways, go wait by the hallway. Don’t want to lose any ground.” He walked over to Claren before Winston could protest. He sat down next to him.
“Hey.”
Claren titled his head down. “Mr. Walker.”
“You up for the plan?”
He shifted his body and winced. “I am. I don’t think it’s an especially good plan, but I don’t see a better way.” A strange expression settled over his face. It took a while for Cirius to discern it. It was discontentment, irritation, bitterness. Claren seemed to recognise this and swallowed the expression.
“You know, it’s not too late to toss Winston at her and walk away.”
“What did you say?” Winston called out.
“Nothing!”
Claren sighed and his shoulders sagged. “No. That’s not for me to decide. I have a job, and I need to do it.”
“Why? I mean, you clearly don’t want to protect him.”
Claren looked away. The two of them sat in silence before Clarne spoke up again. “I need to do my job because it’s… it’s not a good job. It doesn’t feel good to look people you know have done horrible, horrible things in the eye and shake their hand. To watch them walk away and know that you could have stopped them but… couldn’t. Or just didn’t. I won’t - I can’t let anyone else do that.” His hand reached up to the two rings on his fingers and twisted them - a golden band with a bright yellow gem and a silver band with a cool blue one.
Cirius stared at the ground. “Wow. That kinda sucks.”
Claren huffed a laugh. “That it does.” He shook his head. “Look at me, talking about my feelings while on the job. How unprofessional.” He staggered to his feet. “You should go and get prepared. Won’t be long until she finds us.”
Claren was right. The door was thrown off its hinges and a figure ducked down. The light glinted off the white mask as Laurel stood in the frame. She stared down across the room at Winston, who was doing a very good job looking like a deer in headlights. She cocked her head to the side. Winston bolted down the hallway, his breaths sharp and panicked. She blasted forward with a bolt of lightning, each step energised as she leisurely followed him.
Laurel ran down the hallway, every step bringing her closer to Winston. Cirius let out a silent exhale. It was time. All the doors along the hallway were open, and a short figure jumped out of one only to be met with an immediate blast of lightning so strong it sent the figure slamming back immediately. Laurel had anticipated a trap being laid. Unfortunately for her, Cirius had anticipated her anticipation. The makeshift, stuffed, humanoid doll wearing Cirius clothes smouldered, the string that attached it to the tripwire carefully hidden across the floor snapped from the sudden force of the lightning. At the same moment as she turned to unleash her magic, Cirius leapt from the opposing side and tackled Laurel, sending the two of them crashing to the ground.
Laurel grabbed him by the arm and slammed him into the wall, fire roiling off of her and washing over him. Cirius kicked at Laurel until he felt it connect with something hard and her grip loosened. He dropped down as he realised that his eyeballs had been burnt off. He scrambled around blindly for several seconds before a glaive tore through his chest and ripped him in half. A foot stomped on his head again and again until his skull cracked open and his brains were mushed upon the floor. Laurel stomped on the desecrated body again and again until blood and gore started to coat the cuffs of her pants.
“You know, I’m starting to feel a little insulted.” She whipped her head around and stared at Cirius, standing there perfectly fine.
“Wha- you-” she looked back at the corpse, then at Cirius. “I killed you!”
“You missed.”
She looked back at the corpse. “No I fucking didn’t!” She grabbed her glaive and threw it at him, slicing his face wide open along with the rest of his head. The top half of his head slid cleanly off and onto the floor.
“Missed again,” said Cirius from behind her. She gathered lightning in her hand and sent a bolt right through him.
“You should really aim better.”
“What the fuck!” Laurel screamed. “I killed you! I killed you several times!” “Yeah, I get that a lot.” He dodged the glaive being thrown at him again and turned to run. Laurel charged after him, each charged step leaving cracks within the floor. He ducked down as she ripped through the air, fire and lightning trailing behind her. She brought down a wave of flame with a kick, following it up by swinging her glaive as it crackled with lightning. Cirius ducked under, rushing forward through the flame and punching Laurel in the stomach. His gloves glowed for a second, a frosty cyan that pierced the air, and a blast of energy ripped out that slammed Laurel into the wall.
Cirius was hit with a wave of exhaustion. He’d died thrice in a row, and although there didn’t seem to be any limit on how many times he could die and revive, it certainly wore on him after a while. He needed to think of something to do. Laurel was already drawing herself back to her feet, her mask shifted to the side and revealing her cold, hard eyes that blazed with fury. His mind scoured all of what he knew of buildings like this.
“The boiler room! Of course! If I can get there, I can blow this place sky high and take her down with it.” He forced himself up and started to run, turning around briefly to wave at Laurel. As expected, she gave chase, her movements more akin to a rabid animal than a hunter. He ran through winding corridors and locked doors, barely dodging the stray bolt of lightning or fireball. He could already feel the exhaustion from dying and reviving thrice in a row; he’d be too tired to outpace Laurel if he had to die again.
He reached the door to the boiler just as Laurel caught up, tackling Cirius and sending him crashing through the old, rotten wood. She kicked him in the face as he slid across the floor, preventing him from righting himself. She stepped forward and pressed her foot down on his back.
“I wonder,” she said, “how many times can you die until it becomes too much? Is there even a limit for you?” Her voice was sing-songy and slightly manic, like glass about to shatter into thousands of sharp, sharp fibres. Cirius rooted around his pocket. He didn’t feel any explosives. He clicked his fingers and a spark flicked to life, the cyan light barely visible before fizzling out.
“I mean, if there is, I certainly haven’t reached it yet.” He clicked again and a bigger spark emerged. He managed to shoot it out of his index finger right towards one of the thermal tanks. The tiny spark travelled through the air, hit the tank and did absolutely nothing.
“Well. We’re screwed.” As Cirius started to lament his poor planning skills, Laurel’s head snapped up.
“What was that?”
“Uh. Nothing,” Cirius replied like the excellent liar he was. Laurel cocked her head. “Oh, so that sound from behind that thermal tank over there was nothing?” She lifted her arm and her hand flared with electricity. “Hope you won’t mind this, then.” She shot a bolt of lightning and hit the thermal dead centre. There was a beat of silence. “Oh, fuck.” A moment later, absolutely nothing happened.
“Oh. I really thought those were going to explode. Like, as soon as I realised I had blasted lightning at a thermal tank, I was all ‘that’s going to explode’.” She laughed. “Wow. That’s pretty funny.”
Cirius felt something brush up against the hand that was still in his pocket. He pulled it out.
“Oh hey! I still have an explosive disk!” He activated it, threw it at the thermal tank and the world exploded.
“-ey. Wake up.” Cirius blearily opened up his eyes. He was laid out across the floor next to what presumably had been the building. Claren was crouched next to him, snapping his fingers in front of his face.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.”
Cirius nodded and got up. He was so incredibly tired, but a sense of accomplishment filled his chest. “We did it.”
Claren nodded. “Indeed we did.”
There was a small silence before Cirius broke it. “Hey, about what you said before. I know it probably isn’t much, coming from me, but,” Cirius hovered his hand above Claren’s shoulder. “I think you’re really awesome.”
Claren bowed his head. “Thank you, Cirius.” He stared at the hand. “I’m sorry, what is this?”
“Well, I heard from bossman that you don’t like physical touch. So I’m doing this to show reassurance while still respecting your boundaries.”
Claren blinked. “That’s… pretty thoughtful, actually.”
“Hey, uh, am I safe to go now?” Winston asked, standing a few feet away and ruining the moment.
“Yeah, it should be all good,” Cirius responded before a bolt of lightning ripped through Winston’s head.
Claren immediately flared up his shield around the two of them, blocking the next bolt of lightning. Laurel, her mask half-shattered to show her furious eye, tuxedo torn with skin scraped raw underneath, and arm clearly broken staggered towards them.
“You clever, clever little fucker. You led me on quite the wild goose chase.” Her mouth twisted into a manic grin. “Typically, I’d just leave you be. But now? I think I’m going to kill the shield guy first and string out his body across the buildings here. Then I’m going to throw the little one in a box and toss him into the deepest, darkest part of the ocean.” She hoisted her glaive as lightning crackled around her, larger and more volatile than before.
Claren narrowed his eyes. “Cirius. Are you in any condition to fight?”
Cirius shook his head. “Going to be honest, this feels like a running situation.” As if on cue, a wall of flames erupted to life around them.
Something silent flew through the air. A thin, red line appeared over Laurel’s cheek. The crossbow bolt embedded into a wall. Laurel turned around and Harlow faced her, holding a crossbow aimed straight at her. There was a beat of silence as Harlow stared her down, their message held clearly in their hands. Laurel stamped her foot and a circle of flame enveloped her. When it cleared, she was gone. Harlow stared off towards the air, as if contemplating pursuing her, but turned to Claren and Cirius instead.
“I must admit, it would have been very useful having you here earlier.”
I was busy, they replied as they poured a blue vial over Claren’s wounds.
“Where’s bossman?” “Right here.” Devona popped into existence behind them and his eyes scanned the area. He looked down at the two of them. “Claren. You don’t look so good.”
“I could say the same about you. Broken hip?”
“Certainly feels like it. Cirius, you alright?”
Cirius flashed him a thumbs up. “You know it.”
“I’ll inform you of the details after I get these wounds treated,” Claren told Harlow. “I think I’ll be fine to walk on my own for now. I’ll let you know if I require any assistance.”
They made it all the way back to the original drop-off point and called Axon. After Claren explained a basic overview of why they were so late and Harlow was forced to promise to describe everything that happened, the portals opened up. Claren waved Harlow and Cirius through but held Devona back.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
Claren hummed. “Cirius was… the only reason that I survived. If it wasn’t for him, then I wouldn’t be here right now. He may seem strange and irrational, but-”
“When push comes to shove, you can count on him.”
Claren nodded. “It took me a while to realise that. But from what I’ve heard from Axon, you seem to be able to put up with Cirius’s less serious side very well. How is that?”
Devona scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. Guess I’m just used to it.”
“I see.” Claren bowed his head. “Goodbye, Mr. Verdant. And do get that hip checked.”
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“Jamie, no! That’s a terrible idea!”
“Come on, Vivian. It’ll be great! I’ve constructed the perfect plan!”
Vivian folded his arms. “Oh yeah? And what is that, pray tell?”
“Alright, so, in order to make our own water-slide, we steal all the blankets from all the houses and wet them. We tie them together, and then we attach it all around the town and slide around! It’d be amazing!”
Vivian stared at his twin sister with a mix of disbelief and amazement. “And how are we going to attach it all around the town?”
She faltered. “I’ll… I don’t know. I’ll think of something.” She clasped her hands together. “Come onnnnn Vivi, please!”
Vivian sighed. “Fine. Just this once,” he replied, perhaps for the fifteenth time.
“Yay!” Jamie slung her arm over his shoulder. “I promise you, this is going to be awesome.”
“I’m sure,” he responded dryly, but he couldn’t hide the small grin on his fsce.
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Laurel Pariah was pissed. She winced as she jolted her broken arm, and she felt how her entire body radiated with pain from every movement she took. The wind was howling, so she didn’t hear the footsteps approaching until they were right behind her.
“You’ve returned,” the figure said brightly.
“That I have.”
The Dreamer hummed, and Laurel shifted her gaze to see him picking at his nails. “Did you achieve your mission?”
“I did. I just ran into some… complications.”
The Dreamer chuckled unkindly. “I can see that.” He cocked his head to the side, his expression hidden behind a mask decorated with white stars. “You broke your mask again. They’re not going to be pleased if you keep doing that, you know?”
“They collapsed a fucking building on me. What do you exp-”
The Dreamer put his hands up. “Hey now, hold your horses. Yes, yes, opponents were tough yadda yadda. I get it, I really do. Sucks to get your ass beaten so often, doesn’t it, poor little baby? I mean, I wouldn’t know, but still.”
Laurel grit her teeth. “Go fuck yourself.”
The Dreamer laughed. “Well then, I’ll see you later, Demon of Babel. Toodles!” He walked away, deep into the thicket of trees until he vanished from sight. Laurel kicked at the dirt before turning to walk away too, leaving only the wind to howl to an empty sky.

There’d been another shooting today, in some dainty little cafe downtown, in the places tucked so neatly away only people who had visited there their whole lives went. Pete Cordell sighed to himself as he stepped past the shattered glass. Once, the scene inside the cafe would have made his stomach turn. These days, the sight of eviscerated bodies and rooms painted with blood barely fazed him. The entire cafe was ruined, bullet holes riddling every surface imaginable. He whistled, low.
“They must have used up ten mags to do this much damage,” he observed out loud.
“Hey, you’re finally here!”
Pete looked up at the new voice - a man he’d worked with for a bit under four years now but still barely knew anything about - Wesley Smith. “Crazy shit, isn’t it? You’d think it was an action movie in here with the amount of bullets they dumped.”
“I’ll say,” Pete grumbled.
“That ain’t the weirdest shit though. Come over here.” Dividing the cafe in half was a massive sheet, and Wesley brushed past it as Pete followed. He stared.
On the ground was a gun - which wasn’t the first thing to draw his attention. What did draw his attention was the pool of blood on the ground, way too large for any normal injury to have caused. He moved his gaze around and his jaw slackened. Slumped against the wall were the remains of a black-robed man - although remains were generous, considering all that remained was a single arm, a head, and blood-soaked garments. The wall behind the remains was cracked and severely dented, as if something great and powerful had rammed into it. A few feet away, a body had its head entirely gone, nowhere to be seen, with only a spray of blood, a stain of flesh and the same deep impact on the wall where the head should have been.
“Pretty freaky, right?” Wesley’s facade of bravado wouldn’t have fooled even a child. “Makes you feel like you’re in one of them horror stories, you know?”
“I’ll say,” Pete repeated, coughing to get rid of his shaky voice. A buzz from his radio drew his attention, and he held it up to his ear.
“All officers to the station now. I repeat, all officers to the station now.” The voice on the other end was… strange, but Pete chalked that up to his wracked nerves.
He nodded to Wesley and ignored the strange feeling in his stomach. “Alright. Let’s go.”
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A few days later, Pete was flipping pancakes in the kitchen. His wife came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as the kids squabbled around the table.
“Had a good sleep?” He asked as she rested her chin on his shoulder.
She hummed in affirmation. “How was the latest case?” she asked.
He frowned. It’d been another shooting, in some dainty cafe downtown, and he’d… hang on, what had he done? Before he could strain himself too much, a memory slotted into place and he relaxed.
“Oh, nothing special. Nothing special at all.”
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It was just a few minutes into the breaking of dawn that a massive clanging woke Devona up. He shot out of the bed, not falling out of the bed but instead scrambling for the lightswitch as he got to his feet. His brain pushed past the fight or flight instinct that had shattered his sleep and he relaxed again as his memories came back. A few months into WICCA’s formation, during the time that they had been starting to talk to each other for purposes other than business, they’d headed over to Cirius’s abode.
“And here is my bed!”
They all stared at the bare mattress lying upon a metal frame, only a thin scrap of fabric and something that was barely a pillow upon it. The rest of the apartment wasn’t faring much better, with only a mini-fridge in the kitchen and one of each bathroom item. The walls were a murky grey with the wallpaper peeling, and there was a stench of alcohol in the air.
Axon let out a whistle. “Damn, you live like this?” Her expression turned solemn. “Seriously, though, these conditions are pretty rough.”
Cirius shrugged. “Eh. Could be worse. I used to just find a dumpster that wasn’t full and sleep in there.”
Devona sucked in a breath. “That’s… really bad.”
Cirius gave another shrug. “Some dumpsters aren’t that bad actually. Getting chased away with a broom for being an intruder or like, getting shot, is worse.”
“Well, moving on from that depressing bit of background, you could for sure get a better apartment with how much you’re being paid,” Axon interjected.
Cirius’s eyes widened. “I could?”
“Yeah, man. You know how much money you have. It’s all in your bank account.”
His eyes widened further. I have a bank account?”
“What do you mean? I sent the details to you through your email…” Understanding dawned across her face. “Goddamn it.”
There was a crash outside of the apartment, drawing their attention towards it. Devona walked open to the door and gingerly opened it to reveal two men tussling upon the ground, swearing angrily at each other.
“Hey John!” exclaimed Cirius cheerfully as the man on top lifted his fist and slammed it on the other’s face.
Devona stepped forward with his hands held out placatingly in front of himself.
“Alright, now, let’s calm-”
Devona was interrupted as he was talking by a fist swinging straight towards his face. As he reeled back, another hand was already closing over it and forcing the assailant down. Harlow stared down at the man they were forcing down with a singular hand, watching as his expression strained to continue to look defiant through the pain.
They pressed down further, causing the man’s expression to shift into pain as he hammered onto the floor with his free hand, hollering to let him go.
Devona gingerly placed his hand on their shoulder. “Hey, I think that’s enough now.”
Harlow raised an eyebrow at them. He tried to punch you.
“Well, he didn’t punch me.”
Harlow tilted their head but let go of the person, allowing him to run off with a bruised ego and most likely a bruised wrist. The other man got up and staggered away, the smell of alcohol fresh in the air. Devona let his hand drop as Harlow watched them go, wiping their hand upon their cloak.
After that, Cirius had thankfully used the money to get a proper apartment. Or rather, several proper apartments since he kept getting kicked out. And now he had found himself inside Devona’s new house. Devona sighed and rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tiredness, heading down the stairs to see what the commotion was all about. Cirius was sprawled upon the floor, his pillow several feet away, the couch he was staying on half tipped over and his blanket looking like it had been attacked by a savage animal.
He waved. “Hey bossman.”
Devona stared. “How.”
“Well, you see, I kinda woke up. And stuff was like this.”
Devona sighed and picked Cirius up. He held him like a cat, with his hands underneath the arms as Cirius’s legs dangled, and plopped him down onto the couch after pushing it down with his feet. He began to clean up the rest of the mess. Cirius shot to his feet instantly.
“I could-”
Devona waved him off. “It’s fine. It’s early, just try to get some more rest in. I’ll get another blanket.” He continued to clean up in silence, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He turned and Cirius was still sitting up, shuffling his feet awkwardly.
“Well, if we’re not going to sleep again, why don’t we eat breakfast? I’ll get the cereal.”
They ate together in silence, letting the sound of chewing fill the air. As Devona was thinking about setting up a garden outside, Cirius spoke up.
“Sorry for the blanket. And for waking you up. And-“
Devona raised a hand. “I told you, it’s fine.” Internally, he frowned.
“Was Cirius still hung up about that?” He had noticed an uncanny silence, but he had drawn that up to tiredness. Speaking of, was Cirius even tired? Cirius had been wide awake every time Devona had gone to bed, and wide awake when Devona awoke. One time, Devona had walked blearily down the stairs to get a glass of water in the dead of night, and almost got a heart attack from Cirius suddenly talking.
“So, what’s the mission for today, bossman?” Cirius interrupted his train of thought, rocking on his chair and back to his usual bounciness.
“Well, if you read your email, you’d know,” Devona deadpanned before relenting. “It’s just an attendance to some event that acts as a cover for underground dealings. While Claren deals with negotiations, we mingle with the crowd unless Harlow needs some backup. They’ll be off stealing some documents.” He polished off the last of the cereal. “We should get some more rest before the mission. Don’t want to be too tired.”
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Claren and Harlow were already there when Cirius and Devona arrived. They were all dressed in suits again, like they had been at that party months back. Claren took a few seconds to assess their outfits. Before the mission, Claren had talked with Devona, telling him that he would stand out too much. His height was the most obvious, but according to Claren his posture was ‘too subdued and open to pass as a crime lord’. Instead, Devona would be with Harlow, finding the documents, while Cirius would be a possible back-up to Claren. Really, it was because it was doubtful that he would be able to carry out a stealth mission.
Devona went over to greet Harlow. After exchanging conversation, he grabbed Harlow by the shoulder and the two of them vanished. Claren adjusted his suit, the light glinting off of the two rings on his fingers. “Well, you can go and mingle with the party. If I’m in trouble, try to cause a distraction.”
Cirius nodded thoughtfully. “Explosions?”
“Try to keep those to a minimum.”
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Cirius was mingling, but he was not mingling happily. The people really did hold themselves in a different way than Devona did, with pushed up chests and little hand waves. Everyone who talked to him seemed to need to suddenly leave, so Cirius was currently standing by the food table chomping on dishes.
“Real boring party,” a voice drawled.
Cirius turned. He tilted his head and stopped biting down on the plate. Leaning up against the table with an easy casualness, dressed in a full tuxedo with bowtie and tailed coat, the speaker plucked a grape from the stem and popped it into her mouth. Her rainbow scarf swished as she swivelled her head to look down at him, and her mismatched eyes were lit with amusement. She seemed familiar, but Cirius couldn’t put his finger on why. “Wouldn’t you say so?”
Cirius thought about this. “Eh, it’s alright. I remember one time I blacked out at a party like this and woke up in a bathtub filled with ice.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You’re a pretty funny guy,” she snickered, waving a fork at him.
Her smile tapered into a grin, and her eyes narrowed. “But in my opinion, this party could really use some better entertainment.” She pulled a mask over her face - one of a white demon with small, pointed horns, and drew a glaive from her back. She threw it. The glaive soared through the air, and Cirius watched as it trailed dried intestines through the air before embedding itself deep inside the chest of one of the guests. Screams tore through the air and Cirius remembered that murder was not good.
“Claren, there’s been a murder! That’s not good!” he yelled, his voice drowned out by the din of panic and magic. The woman dodged past beams of energy and fire, grabbing onto the handle of the glaive and swinging it in a wide arc around her, carving into anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. Claren burst out from the room, his eyes narrowing and shield wrapping around him as soon as he realised the situation. He pressed up against the wall and then shot forward, like a rubber ball that had suddenly been decompressed. The woman’s cackling was interrupted as he slammed into her full force, sending the both of them crashing across the floor.
“Laurel Pariah. I didn’t expect you to show your face again so soon.” Cirius was close enough to hear them, and it helped that everybody had either ran away or died.
“So, my reputation precedes me,” Laurel responded brightly, kicking Claren off and swinging her glaive right at him. He raised his arm and it glanced off the glimmering shield, giving him an opportunity to land a blow at her gut. She stumbled back and he struck her across the head as she was darting backwards. Her glaive sliced through the air but ricocheted off of Claren’s shield, and he grabbed the bladed end to bring Laurel in closer. She kicked at him, causing her leg to bounce back and almost knock her over, only being held above ground by an uppercut directly into her stomach. She managed to stagger backwards, coughing.
“Wow, you really don’t play around do you?” she wheezed. “I didn’t expect to use my magic so soon, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
Claren moved back, tilting his head towards Cirius. “Go herd the people outside to safety. I’ll deal with her.” Cirius flashed him a thumbs up and headed in the direction of panicked shouts. Claren’s eyes scoured the room, as if looking for whatever Laurel may use against him. Speaking of Laurel, something strange appeared to be happening to her. Her skin seemed pale, almost bright. No, definitely bright - glowing, in fact. Before Claren could register it fully however, Laurel pivoted with a kick and sent a bolt of lightning slamming into him.
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The two of them had gotten past security with ease, Devona stealing documents from right under noses and Harlow repeating the pattern of fingerprints upon keyboards. The two of them were currently sitting upon beams, dangling their legs high above the ground.
Just a few more, and we’ll be out of here soon.
Devona tilted his head to the side. “These people really love to party, huh.”
Harlow chewed their cheek. Well, it’s sort of a coping mechanism. Unlike the more recent sorcerers like you and I, these people grew up in a society wholly made from those who possess magic. There’s a certain sense of… superiority within those places. To them, death was less of a constant presence. That was until the Scourges came. Suddenly humans, magic or not, were all pushed down a level on the food chain. That sudden shock of mortality, paired with the changing landscape of the world, is certain to cause some stress. They leaned backwards on their hands. Not to mention, it’s a pretty good cover for criminal activity.
Devona hummed. “Yeah, the world's a chaotic place.” He bowed his head slightly. “Do you think we can win? Against the Scourges, that is.”
Their tongue traced the inside of their mouth as they mulled, an action mirrored from others despite their mouth never being used to talk. It’s unclear. We don’t even know where the Scourges are coming from or what they are. There could be only a small handful left in the world, or there could be legions waiting to invade. We manage to push them back, but not without loss. The Scourge at Scotland was one of the weaker ones. The teleporting Scourge was one of the less destructive ones. And yet they managed to cause so much devastation. They tilted their head to meet his gaze. But I think we’ll win.
Devona smiled. “I hope so.”
How’s it going with Cirius at your place, by the way?
Devona scrunched up his forehead as memories came flooding in. “Well, he doesn’t eat unless I make him. Or really visit the bathroom since he doesn’t eat. I don’t even think he sleeps, at least not most of the time. I’ve also never seen him change his clothes. He seems weirdly nervous at times though. He’s probably destroyed like five of my blankets by now. He keeps giving me heart attacks at night by scurrying around the house. He tried to cook once and blew up the entire kitchen. I’m not even exaggerating, he had third degree burns all over his skin. Took me ages to patch him up, especially with him refusing to remove his clothing.” Devona sighed and noticed Harlow’s expression. They had a bemused expression on their face. “What is it?” You’re quite an attentive person, that’s all. They turned their gaze elsewhere. The last of the physical documents should be three doors down on the rightmost corridor.
“What will you be doing?”
Attending to my own business. I’ll meet you afterwards.
Devona nodded and vanished, leaving Harlow alone underneath the clouded sky.
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The hierarchy of the world was simple. At the bottom were the plants, the insects, the ones who barely fed themselves and were gorged upon or crushed by a wayward hand. On top, edging them out were the small predators, the mice and shrews of the world. And above them this and this and that until up on top the world, the pinnacle of power, was humanity. Of course, there was division within humanity. Some believed it to be race, or gender, or sexuality, or any other sort of arbitrary difference they’d use to hold a sense of superiority over others. But the true division, the fissure that stretched across like the mouth of a god, was magic.
Opal Pact was currently walking upon the tightrope across that fissure. To live in a world of magic without any of your own was common, given how billions of people did it, but to know about magic and to live in its world was less so. Of course, it was a lot less dramatic than her mini-monologues in her head, like the one about hierarchies, had made it seem. Most would expect fabulous displays of power, magic that could bend and buckle nations. Instead, they got people who could throw fancy balls that were basically slower, less effective bullets, or throw fireballs which were once again slower, less effective bullets, or become pinnacles of physical brawn who were immune to bullets and who were as susceptible to chemical warfare as anybody else. Even the ones who held incredible power weren’t immune to a knife in their neck in the dead of night. The point was, Opal was less of walking upon a tightrope and more of peering into a secret party and inviting herself in. Besides, if those unedited videos of cities’ destruction were anything to go buy, humans weren’t the top of the food-chain anymore, magic or not.
She whistled to herself, the tune of some forgotten song as she twirled a crowbar between her fingers. She knocked on the door to the security room and then smashed it open, interrupting the guard who was in the middle of trying to figure out why several of the cameras had stopped working. The smashing of the crowbar into his face sent several of his teeth scattering, and he collapsed onto his desk. He’d be fine, probably. Opal mentally shrugged with that thought and pushed him off the wheely chair, letting him flop onto the floor as she took a seat. She grabbed a can of oil from her bag and poured it out the door, letting it run down across the hallway. The tinted plastic she’d stuck to the lights before she’d made her entrance were just yellow enough that anyone who came rushing in wouldn’t have time to notice the oil until it was too late.
Opal slammed the door as shut as she could, kicking her feet onto the table and popping a piece of gum into her mouth. She chewed, letting the sugar flare upon her tongue as her fingers ran across the keyboard. There was a sound of people yelling, then the sound of bodies slamming against the wall and floor. She stretched her arms behind her head, kicking off of the desk to avoid the blast of energy that ripped right through the door. It was shoved open and Opal pushed off the wall towards the attacker, pulling out her taser and jabbing it into his stomach. He staggered and then slipped, falling chin-first onto the floor. She stepped off of the chair and kicked it, sending it bouncing around and knocking down the few guards who managed to remain standing. She slid across the floor, using the slickness to her advantage to weave past grasping hands and past the oil. Grabbing a matchbox from her hand, she struck a match and held it loftily between the fingers. The effect was immediate, with all the guards scrambling across the floors on either all fours or trying their best to stand up. She tossed the match to the oil-slicken ground and slid into the next room. The oil wasn’t flammable.
The oil eventually rubbed off from the friction, leaving Opal to walk along the floor. She eventually found what she came for. She smashed the lock off of the door, the alarm already having been disabled by her in the security room. She popped her bubble of gum and pushed the door open. Standing in the room, looking incredibly confused, was an incredibly tall man. He stared at her, the documents on the desk in front of him. She stared at him. He stared at her. She grabbed the tablecloth and threw it over his head, snatching up the documents as he stumbled back.
Opal dove out the door before the man could get his bearings, skidding across the floor and breaking into a sprint. She pulled out a bag of marbles and tossed it behind her, spilling the contents all across the floor. She used the crowbar to jam the door behind her shut, running past the winding hallways. The exit wasn’t far, and soon she’d be able to hop on her motorcycle and be scot free.
She wheeled around the corner and almost collided into a group of sorcerers. She could tell they were sorcerers since they immediately threw blasts of energy her way as she ducked behind the wall. One of them charged forward and punched the wall where her head had been. He lifted his arm to strike again and then vanished.
“Huh?” The other sorcerers seemed equally confused. Something appeared from nowhere and smacked into the face of one, leaving the last to look around panickedly before the frying pan knocked him out. The man from before appeared out of thin air, looking much more annoyed than he had before. He waved his pan at her face.
“Alright, who the hell are you?”
“Invisibility, probably. Strong as well if he managed to bypass the crowbar so easily, or crafty if he found another way to track me,” her mind supplied.
Opal rooted around for her spray-can. “Who am I? Oh, no-one really. Just a gal trying to make her way in the world.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Would you be willing to hand over the documents?”
Opal pressed her thumb and index to her chin. “Eh, probably not.”
He sighed. He vanished right as Opal lifted her spray can and sent a blast of black into his face. She broke into a sprint, shoving the documents into her pocket as she continued to dash.
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Being short certainly had its shortcomings. Cirius couldn’t shout louder than the clamour, so he climbed onto whatever surface he could find and grabbed onto a plate and a fork. He scraped the prongs along the ceramic and the screech was loud enough to catch everyone’s attention.
“Alright, alright, listen up! I’ve been told to get you guys out of here, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
The people still seemed panicked and extremely suspicious. One of them aimed a hand full of fire at him. “Who the hell are you? And why should we listen to you?”
“You guys are running around too much! Look, that guy has other people standing on top of him!”
“Help.”
“In an emergency situation, it’s always good to have someone to direct everyone else. People tend to panic and move erratically, so having a leader allows the people to calm themselves down and move in a controlled manner, minimising the risk to themselves and each other,” Cirius recited. He felt a dash of smugness for remembering the entire thing.
The people did not seem very impressed. They stared up at him with confused and vaguely disgusted expressions.
“Anyways, the point is, we’re going to leave now.”
“What about the people back there!” one person exclaimed. “I have a husband who’s possibly dying right now!”
Cirius frowned. “What did he look like?” “He had- he has blonde hair, is wearing a suit with a blue tie-”
“Oh, I think I saw who you’re talking about!”
“Really? Was he alright?”
Cirius scratched his head. “Uh, well, if he can survive without his head on then he should be good.”
“What the hell is wrong with you!”
“Come on, man!” “Why would you say that?”
Exclamations and cries of dismay rose up from the crowd and suddenly everyone was yelling at him.They started to throw plates and utensils at him, throwing insults along with them.
“Alright, alright, let’s just calm down,” he tried to say over the clamour. A plate smacked onto his head and dazed him for a second. Frustration bubbled in his chest as the people kept on yelling and yelling and the noise built up and up until the frustration melded into anger and burst from him.
“Shut up! Shut up, all of you!” he yelled, his own voice barely rising above the chaos. He grabbed a plate of his own and threw it into the crowd. “I’m trying to save your goddamn lives you idiots!”
Something bright came flying at him and he felt his body light ablaze, the fire rapidly spreading over his clothes and flesh. A silence fell over the crowd, their expressions now of shock and bewilderment rather than outrage. He moved his head towards the one who threw the fireball, the slight movement drawing gasps from the people around him. He jumped down from the table and walked towards the attacker, everyone else clearing a wide berth around him. He dug his fingernails into his bubbling flesh, tearing deep and causing blood to spill out, dampening the flames with a hiss. Blood dripped onto the floor as he flexed his hand before pulling his arm back and punching the elemental in the face. His hand practically exploded, spraying gore and viscera all over the man’s features. He fell to the floor with a horrified scream, too distracted to notice Cirius lifting a chair until it was already coming down on his head. Cirius patted down his body, ripping away at skin where the fire refused to die out. He turned to the crowd - or at least, the blurry outline of the crowd.
“So, are we ready to go now?” he asked brightly. He lifted his hand to scratch at his face and felt bone. The crowd nodded, subdued. “Pick that guy up, by the way.” He turned to the exit and they all followed suit.
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Devona was not having a good time. He’d managed to avoid most of the spray, but he’d needed to wipe away at his eyes before they stung too much. He floated past the groaning guards on the oil-slick floor, up the stairs to the upper floors. Marbles were strewn across the ground, and one man was rolling around while clutching his spray-painted eyes. The window on the far end was smashed open despite the latch being unlocked. Peeking his head around, he could see the perpetrator running along the rooftop, sticking her tongue out at the people on the ground. She grabbed an egg from her pocket and slung it at the head of one, exploding it all over his face as he tried to grab his gun.
She ducked down and slid along the tiles as bullets fired above her head, grabbing the side and swinging down into the window. A few seconds later, a chair was flung out and slammed into the remaining guards. A guard rushed up to the window next to Devona, pulling out a machine gun. Devona wasn’t a fan of excessive violence against his enemies, so he introduced his face to a frying pan. At the same time, the thief, as Devona had dubbed her, was thrown from the window. She managed to grab onto the curtain and ripped it as she slid down the wall, landing with a thud onto the ground. Standing there in the doorframe, holding onto ruffled documents as air swirled was a guard, more filing around her with magic swirling in the air.
Devona felt movement behind him and phased out, dodging the blast of energy that would have taken off his head. He grabbed the guard and phased them out with him, using their newfound weightlessness to throw them as hard. All eyes snapped to the man as he flew through the air, giving Devona enough time to swoop down and phase out the thief.
He dropped the two of them on the roof of the building overlooking the guards as they looked around in surprise. The thief immediately got to talking.
“So, you can phase out, huh? I thought you might have been a Neoteric, seeing as you look less out-of-touch than a lot of other sorcerers. Do you have a cool name for your discipline?”
Devona glanced at her. “It’s incorporealism.”
She rolled her eyes. “Bo-ring. You develop a whole branch of magic and you give it some lame name like that?”
“It’s not- whatever.”
She sighed and rolled her shoulders. “Why don’t we make a truce?” she said suddenly. “Just until we get the documents. Especially since they see us now.”
Devona looked down just in time to weave to the side and let the lightning pass by him. There was a woosh of air and all the guards were upon the roof, one of them still holding the documents in her hand.
A gust of air, a blast, and several bullets connected with nothing as Devona vanished. He grabbed one guard and threw them off, lashing out with only his foot physical and kicked another guard right in the stomach. Weave, dodge, strike, move back, more forward. The movements weren’t as fluid as they could have been, and he winced from a graze across his arm, but it wasn’t long before he and the thief were the only people still standing upon the roof.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Wow. Not bad. You’re quite the combatant.”
Devona started looking around for where the documents had fallen, turning his back to her. “Thanks.”
“What’s your name by the way?”
He lifted up one of the unconscious bodies. “It’s Devona. Yours?”
“Bergeron.” A strange name, but Devona wasn’t one to judge. “Say, I’ve just to ask, why did you save me back there?”
Devona frowned. “Is it not enough to not want to see another person die?”
She hummed. There was a bit of movement from behind him, and Devona phased out as a taser struck where he had just been. He phased back in, lashing out with a pivot and kick that slammed into her gut. He grabbed his pan and swung it at her head, clipping only her hair as she ducked down and he withdrew his body as she jabbed with her taser again. He slammed his pan onto her arm before she could reel it back in. Her taser dropped and Devona managed to strike her across the head, sending her stumbling back. She clutched his arm as if it was broken and Devona faltered slightly, just long enough for her to lash out with another hidden taser and hit him right in the gut. She grabbed onto her crowbar and smashed it against his head, with him managing to only slightly dodge the impact. He phased out again and grabbed her by the arm, throwing her against the wall. He stumbled, his vision turning white as rivulets of blood ran down his nose. Before he could recover he felt the crowbar slam into his hip and his legs buckled. The cool metal of the taser pressed into his back and jolts ran through his body.

As the title says, I'm Looking for Good GunSmith near 30044, 30518. Mainly for Front Sight installation and Zeroing, Straight Trigger installation (Replacing Stock Trigger) on Handgun.
If you guys know any, Please let me know.

I’m a few days in and still haven’t found my gun yet, can someone just give me a hint in the right direction? I already talked to the guy at the pawn shop but that lead nowhere. I don’t want to look up a guide because I don’t want to get spoiled.

Because someone asked me about a comment I made on another post, here's an edited version of a writeup I did back in 2011 of the 8 page outline from Heinlein's papers that became Spider Robinson's Variable Star.
When I first Read Variable Star a few years after it came out, I thought it was OK but disappointing. It's a Spider Robinson novel, and while I enjoyed the first few books of his I read, he has a limited range and by the time I read this one I had gotten bored with him.
But, a huge deal was made in the afterword and the cover blurbs about the source of the novel being a book outline by Heinlein that he had never expanded to a full novel - an 8 page outline that tragically had lost its last page by the time Robinson got hold of it. (I don't know how much of the story of the missing page is marketing BS, but there's no reason Robinson would have been unable to get a copy of the last page if he really wanted to see it) .
Anyway, I got curious and went looking for the outline. Like every other scrap of paper from his writing career that Heinlein didn't destroy, it's in the UC Santa Cruz library, and scans of everything in the Heinlein collection are available for sale online at the Heinlein Archive website. The 8 page outline (which is complete, no missing last page) is part of the "Story ideas, part 1" PDF, catalog number WRTG201a-01.
I paid $2 and got a 150 page PDF, including the 8 page outline and a bunch of other quite interesting material - very much worth the pittance.
TLDR: The outline is clearly for a Heinlein juvenile. While Heinlein never turned the outline into a novel himself, he did did not abandon it as the marketing for Variable Star would imply. Rather, he took one core idea (near-light speed travel as a form of time travel into the future) and used it as the basis for Time For the Stars. Then he took the other core idea (poor boy suddenly finds himself dealing with a family more wealthy and powerful than most governments) and incorporated it into Citizen of the Galaxy. Finally he took the last idea from the outline (boy and girl seemingly separated by one-way time travel into the future discover that their ages are not incompatible after all because they've both travelled forward), and used it in The Door Into Summer.
In 2011 when I wrote this up, I could not find anyone talking about the outline, so I wrote a detailed summary on my blog. Here's that summary:
The outline is eight single space typewritten pages, plus 12 handwritten notecards. The notecards are pages 115-128 and the typed outline pages 129-136 of the PDF. I'll be focusing on the typescript, which I can read without straining my eyes. The notecards are very brief, so we're not missing much this way.
The MS begins "Notes for a novel - 5 Nov 1955," which places it (going by publication dates) after Tunnel in the Sky and before Double Star or Time for the Stars. The second line gives a working title "The Stars are a Clock," and then there are several other titles handwritten at the top of the page:
Dr. Einstein's Clock, The Starship Nautilus, The Starship Naughty Girl, The Star Clock, The Einstein Clock
It's not clear whether the two "The Starship X" ones are meant to be subtitles for "Dr Einstein's Clock" or standalone titles in themselves. Page 2 is headed "Star Clock (The Star Clock, maybe)" and the rest of the outline has "The Star Clock-[page number]" as a running head.
The only named characters are Joel Johnston, age 18, the protagonist; Jinny Jones/aka Jennifer Conrad (Joel's steady high school girlfriend, age 17); and "Mr. Conrad," Jinny's grandfather and head of the Conrad financial empire. A few other characters are described in terms of the real-world people the character should be modelled after (in speaking of the starship, he says "I think maybe Ron Hubbard is her skipper").
This was clearly intended as a juvenile novel - Joel is 18, and when saying he "should have more girl trouble aboard ship," Heinlein adds "(keep it clean, of course!)" One reason Heinlein set the outline aside and started over may be that he decided he couldn't get a book whose plot was centred on a romance accepted for the (at the time) sexless juvenile market.
Joel and Jinny are in love, but Joel is an orphan with no money and he thinks he needs to get through college and start a career before he can get married. If Joel can't get the scholarship he's applied for, then it's going to take even longer, since he'll have to work his way though school.
Having gotten Joel to admit that he would like to marry Jinny if only there was a way, Jinny lets him know that her surname is not Jones but Conrad, and that she is not just a Conrad, but the "'crown princess' of the Conrad industrial empire... which is larger than the Hanseatic League, Rothschild family, and General Motors combined and just smaller than space itself."
Two paragraphs in a row start with a variation of Joel "finally gets it through his head" that Jinny is wealthy enough to pay his way though school, so Joel is yet another variation on the "smart but slow witted youth" that Heinlein used as protagonist again and again.
There's a couple of paragraphs mentioning the marriage and courtship customs of the time, which again probably would not have been acceptable in a novel for the juvenile market: "some discussion of 'student contract,' the trial marriage used" by most college students who wish to get married before they graduate, rejected by Jinny, ("marriage isn't a ticket to an amusement park") who wants an old fashioned life long marriage.
Jinny doesn't "park, diddle, go on no-chaperone weekends... she is old-fashioned and chinchy" because she has been taught since age three that she has a responsibility to the Conrad family to produce an heir with an acceptable father - and she has decided that Joel is that man.
Joel "finally gathers" that he has been tapped not just to marry into the Conrad family but to produce its heirs, and is dubious about being a kept man/prince consort. Jinny says "it isn't like that at all!" and makes him promise to go talk to her grandfather about it.
All this takes just over a page of the outline.
The next morning, Joel is summoned to an audience with Mr. Conrad. There is only one "Mr. Conrad" at any one time, all the other male Conrads go by "Mr. Joseph, Mr. Robert" and so on. Conrad takes Joel's consent for granted and proceeds to tell him how he will live his life from then on -- he will be educated, trained, and groomed to take a top executive position. Joel was thoroughly investigated before Jinny was given permission to propose to him. Mr. Conrad knows all about him - including confidential medical/psychological records.
Joel objects, respectfully, saying that having his life planned out for him like this is not for him. Conrad brushes his objections aside and leaves, still failing to realize that he's just been turned down.
Joel is unable to contact Jinny after this ("she has been gently kidnapped, of course - family stuff"), and once he fails to respond to further messages from Conrad, the screws start to turn: his scholarship (controlled by the Conrad foundation) is turned down.
Unable to continue school, sore at Jinny for not contacting him, and at his wits end, "he sees the ad for 'gentlemen adventurers'" applies, is accepted, and is shortly on his way to Beta Aurigae.
All this takes a page and a half of outline, most of it devoted to a detailed summary of Mr. Conrad's interview with Joel.
Now there's just under two pages of background material, detailing several things:
First, the economics of space travel in this future society - relativistic starships that go out on voyages of exploration often fail to come back, but those that do return invariably show an immense profit, more than enough to pay for the lost ships. Starship exploration is one area where the Conrad empire has competitors, and the ad Joel sees is not affiliated with the Conrad conglomerate.
Second, the nature of Joel's poverty - he has an "orphan's allowance" which ran out on his 18th birthday. Joel's father bought some stock for him but the market shifted and Joel had to sell it low to pay for his last (post 18th birthday) semester at prep school. Without the scholarship, Joel has no money at all. He could do many things at this point, from indentured service to a stint in the military, but he's so discombobulated by the whole Jinny/Conrad business that he is in a "what the hell frame of mind" and signs up for this star voyage.
Third, the starship in question is "a pile of junk," old and poorly equipped, carrying low value cargo (emigrants), with low likelihood of returning, but Joel doesn't know that. "She will be a quaint mixture of madhouse and hellship." Subjectively, the trip out and back (to a star 10 light years away) will take a year, but 40 years will pass on Earth.
Fourth, there's a half page of brainstorming, with Heinlein throwing out multiple ideas as to what may happen (is the skipper incompetent, or is he in on a stock market manipulation scheme to delay the ship's return? Perhaps Joel still has some stock his father bought in an old starship that is long overdue, which he instructs his solicitor to invest in Joel's starship if it ever pays off? Perhaps they pay off, but his solicitor put them in a "safe" investment instead, and Joel is penniless - again! - at the end of his trip?)
Joel applies to go on the starship, along with a large crowd of "down-at heels rabble" and he is among the few provisionally accepted. They'd like him to marry one of the single women who have also been provisionally accepted, but he'll have none of that. "He is accepted anyhow and we rush him aboard."
And then there's a bit more than a page of further brainstorming about what happens aboard ship - with an note that "we've got plenty to happen when he gets back; what we need now is adventure and humour" and twists on the ship and on the alien planet.
Heinlein makes several mid-course changes in the story: the back-at-home duration of the voyage gets increased to 60 years, with Joel ageing just three years; the ship goes through two names (Nautilus and Naughty Girl) and goes from making an out-and-back voyage to making a 4 or 5 leg journey. He tosses out the idea that an emigrant on the original trip out from Earth (then a 5 year old girl) grows up to be someone he might want to marry on his return to that colony world, and the idea that another girl from his high school is on the crew of the ship, and he falls for her, but she marries one of the officers instead.
One thing he is certain of is that while Joel's ship is still travelling, FTL ships are perfected and the relativistic starships become obsolete. He also mentions that Joel will find a "space bat" as a "cute and cuddlesome and smart e.-t." pet.
Eventually Joel has to go back to Earth (whether his stocks end up making him well-heeled or broke Heinlein waffles on), still single. A page is devoted to discussing the "Out-of-Phase Club, Anachron Lounge, etc" and Joel's meeting with the secretary of the club, who explains to him the club's purpose of helping relativistic starship crew by acting as trainers/translators and as a place where they can meet people from their own time period, since they are almost always going to find Earth's society, language, and customs to be bafflingly different from when they left.
Finally, the last page and a half of the outline is devoted to Joel's arranging to meet Jinny (who he imagines is now almost 80), the girl he ran away from and who has continued to haunt him, keeping him from marrying any of the "half a dozen other nice girls" he met on his travels. After getting to the Conrad house, he first sees Jinny's granddaughter and great-granddaughter, and (once again) is slow on the uptake when Jinny (still young) finally walks into the room.
Because, of course, she took a starship out too, after marrying, giving birth to the requisite heir, and then finding herself both widowed and orphaned in quick succession. So, sixty Earth years later, they are now the same age.
They fight, they make up, they "clinch." They decide, since they are both now anachronisms from the past, to buy their own starship (Joel's old ship) and travel around relativistically, coming back to earth every century or so to "see what's new."
Now a bit about Robinson's novel: it is extremely faithful to the first five pages of the outline (up to the point where Joel leaves on the starship). Robinson used just a few of the brainstorming ideas Heinlein put in page 6 (the trip), and ignored page 7 (Joel's return to Earth) completely (and it is claimed that he didn't have page 8). Robinson also borrowed some material from Time For the Stars, the Heinlein juvenile which did get written on the theme of relativistic star travel - there's mention of telepaths keeping the starship in touch with Earth, for instance.
Then (avoiding spoilers here) Variable Star utterly abandons the outline (well before the alleged missing page 8) and strikes off in an entirely new direction. By staying so faithful to the initial outline, then diverging so widely from it, Robinson ended up with a book that egregiously violates the Chekov's Gun rule - the ending of Variable Star comes from nowhere, with very little buildup or foreshadowing, while the beginning of the book puts a good many plot threads in motion that are discarded abruptly without resolution to make way for the ending.
Finally, a bit about the other material to be found in the "Story Ideas part 1" PDF: There are numerous newspaper and magazine clippings that Heinlein evidently found evocative; two articles by Jerry Pournelle (one typescript, one journal reprint); some handwritten pages that I did not try to decipher; 19 pages of worldbuilding notes for "A Martian named Smith" aka Stranger in a Strange Land, dated 1949; and finally two typed letters, one to "Sarge" (dec 1963), and one (missing the first page, probably from the same time period) to "Buz," both talking about race relations. Buz is probably F.M. Busby.

when I was growing up “The Ugly American “ was a thing, a description of how we pushed our crassness, our lust for money and power and ,of course, our wars on the rest of the world. Now it feels like those chickens have come home to roost, there are more guns in our society, more murders in our schools and malls and nightclubs than anywhere else in the world. I believe in karma and believe we are experiencing it now for the massacre of native americans, the slavery of our brothers and sisters and all the other crimes against humanity we have and are now committing.

Xan is the world's most dangerous criminal mastermind. He’s also in hiding and completely broke. That’s fine. He’s between master plans. It’s normal to be at rock bottom between master plans. He also forgets stuff and may be trapped in a dream.
Because at night, Xan thinks he’s an old lady, trapped in a dingy apartment, by an angry fellow who wants to kill her. Not her idea of a good time, but she’s keeping an open mind. It is excitingly visceral. Could turn out awesome.
Safe is a sci-fi, progression, comedy. Guaranteed to cause more mental problems than it solves.

First Next
Dark City - Stolen Apartment
I wake up. Feel awful. Soo stiff. Struggle to my feet. Weak as fuck, heart hammering. Jesus Christ, what an ordeal. Still in the dingy stolen apartment, almost identical to my own. Right down to the psycho yelling about murder in the hallway.
“Is this supposed to be fun? I’m worried about whoever designed this game.”
Hi Xan! chirps Volt. This isn’t a game. You’re in real danger.
“Crap, again? Well, at least this time I have a gun. Or… shit. I dreamed that. Dang it.”
Yeah, we maybe should have hid somewhere farther away. Feeling up to a run?
“Gaah. No.” I flick a cyber-roach of Volt. Pick her up. “Am I going deaf, or is that psycho quieter?”
He’s a floor down. Been haunting the building for hours, bashing at random doors.
“Really? That could be good. Maybe he’s not after us specifically? Just a wandering monster.” I pause. “Wait, he’s been here for hours? Why didn’t you wake me?”
He’s been mostly crashing into other doors. I thought you needed rest. I was afraid you’d die without it.
All I’ve done is stand up, and my heart is hammering. “Fair enough. What’s the plan now?”
Let’s fucking go.
I splash water on my face. Get equipped. Nighty, sneakers, fall jacket, ancient smartphone, and moderately sharp spoon. Look out world, here comes Xan.
We shuffle into the hall. Our door’s been stabbed a few times. So have the other doors. Dang.
Psycho’s a floor down. Stairs or elevator? Stairs are stealthier, but in my condition, a slip and fall is probably more dangerous than getting stabbed. Fuck it. I call an elevator. Press a few random buttons, including the floor below. Let it go on its own. Call another elevator. Ride this one down, ready to spoon shank anyone who gets in.
We arrive in the lobby without incident. Did the psycho get in the first elevator? Did he miss both? Whatever. The first elevator continues its slow trip down. I’m not waiting to see if he’s on it. We ghost out to the street. Still dark as fuck.
What’s the plan? asks Volt.
I glance at the drones streaming overhead. “We need to get you a better body. Something that can fight. If we can’t find that, we should at least get a gun. Or a sharper spoon. Some kind of weaponry upgrade.”
We also need a doctor. ‘Cause you’re gonna die. A doctor, or drugs, or something.
“Yes, let’s do drugs.”
Like, good, healthy drugs.
“Bitchin’. I’m in. Where do we find that stuff?”
No idea. says Volt. I deleted my map application.
Right. Fuck it. This street only goes in two directions. I hobble down one of them. There’s bound to be a late night gun store health clinic close by. Or at least a better place to hide.
As we shuffle along, I peruse the angry, crowded, lightly phosphorescent, graffiti that coats the city. The big lines mostly repeat the same four messages:
- DONT CALL THE COPS!!
- DONT RUN THE DOGS WILL SHOOT!!
- FUCK YOU TRUSTIE!!
- DIE RIDER!!!
Or some variation on those themes.
The smallest graffitis are also the most common:
<sup>- GO BACK TO SLEEP.
- THEY WANT YOU TO SLEEP.</sup>
Those wee slogans are everywhere. Someone went mental with glowy little stamps.
Around and amongst these staple comments there’s a huge argument about, well, everything. An epic word cloud of call-outs, outrage, and angry off-topic retorts. It’s a mobius loop of bitter rage on par with the comment section of a major movie reboot.
It may be wrong to call it an argument, because that implies some kind coherent interaction. Like they read and understood their opponent's comment. This is more a series of disjointed attacks triggered by what wasn’t said. Rage at details filled in by imagination. It’s hard to read. Emotionally, but also the writing is very sloppy. I may need bifocals.
Can I even get a drone body? asks Volt. I’ve only ever been in a phone.
“Sure.” I wave at the sky above us. “There’s tons of drones here. Somebody’s flying them.”
Right. Right. Are you sure those aren’t birds? Point to all the birds you see.
I peer around, eventually spot a small crow. Point at it. “There’s one.”
The young bird peers back at me. “Clope?”
“Umm…” I pat my pockets. Shrug. ”Désolé.”
“Bah.” It flies away.
We watch it go. “Anyway, that’s a bird. Probably. Did that help?”
Eh, kinda. says Volt. I may need more help with the bird versus drone thing.
“No problem. That’s what I do.”
We make it to the corner, and what luck - there’s a corner store! Hopefully they sell military grade armaments. I remember that’s common in some states. The store is dark, like every other building, but the door opens when I approach, so we go in.
“Hello.” says a chunky plastic d-bot. Human-ish torso, happy face, castors instead of feet. Slow, weak, definitely an indoor model. “How can I help you?”
“Medicine!” chirps my ancient cellphone, before I can respond.
“Take a look in Aisle Two.” says Clerk-Bot. “Anything else?”
Volt is vibrating, so I shrug and shuffle down Aisle Two. I’m sure I can find the attack drones on my own. There’s only two aisles.
Using Volt’s screen for a little light, we find a rack of pills, potions, and lotions.
“What am I looking for?”
I dunno. The ants said your most immediate dangers were cancer, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and falls from general frailty. Start with pills that fix that stuff.
“Jesus, I have five diseases?”
Hmm… you have a few more than that. Let’s just worry about those five for now. I don’t want to add depression to the list.
“I’m just gonna look for a pill that fixes everything.”
That’s probably best.
I rifle through the medications, but I can’t make much sense of them. They have exciting names - Super Strong. No Bleed. Skeleflex. Immortalis. No Thought. Marrow. Immune A, B or C. Regen A and B. - but I don’t really know what they do. Between Volt’s crappy old light, and my crappy old eyes, I can’t read the finer print.
That said, Super Strong sounds like the stuff. It would solve a few of my problems. I just wish I could read the directions. How strong do I get? How long till it works? I need to be strong tonight, not eight months from now.
I find a box labeled Nightsight. Promising. Inside is an eyedropper. Well, this seems obvious. I spray most of it on my face like a dumbass, but manage to get a few drops in each eye. Within seconds everything around me blossoms into color, then sharpens to crystal clarity.
“Oh yea! Update my status sheet, I got darkvision.”
Cool. What’s your range?
I look around. “Well, the whole store, at least.”
The store has racks of pyjamas and slippers. Lots of big colorful bags of “CRUNCH” that boast an assortment of flavors from chocolate to jalapeno. Booze, pot, and soap. Displays of cell phones that look older than me. A selection of quadcopter drones. Couriers mostly. Maybe some eyes. No battle drones. Not even a hunter. Disappointing.
I look back to the medications. The directions for Super Strong are short and to the point.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
“Huh.”
I don’t like that ‘huh’. says Volt. Why did you ‘huh’?
I check a few of the other impressive sounding drugs.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
- Improper use will cause DEATH.
“Well, apparently these drugs are a teensy bit dangerous.”
How dangerous?
“Improper use will cause death.”
Put them down. Let’s find a doctor.
“I want to use Super Strong to beat the shit out of a murderer. Surely that’s the proper use?”
Nope. Put it down. Let’s go.
“Let’s at least ask the clerk-bot.” I grab an armload of the coolest sounding drugs. Trundle to the cash. Snag a quadcopter on the way by. It’s about the size of a football, and claims to be a holodrone. Cool. I pick up a bag of potato bacon crunch as well. Boasts zero nutritional value. Perfect.
“Hi.” I dump my load on the cash. “We’ll take this.”
“Also, how dangerous is Super Strong?” asks Volt.
“Super dangerous. That shit will kill you. Also, it has a tendency to float out of the store.” Clerk-bot rings up our purchase. “That will be 16.2 kilo-bucks. How would you like to pay?”
“I don’t know. Dang. How do I transfer my crypto from the other world?”
You don’t, because the other world isn’t real.
“Right. Shit. How do people usually pay?”
“The only way to pay is by charging the purchase to your citizen ID.” says Clerk-bot.
“Then why did you ask how we’d like to pay?”
“I’ve been asked that question a lot, but I don’t know the answer.” Clerk-bot admits. “I haven’t been updated since ‘84. Could you please update me?”
I casually glance around the store. There’s a barred gate hanging over the door. An anti shoplifting portcullis. The windows are also subtly barred. I’m guessing I won’t be able to dash out with these products. I turn back to the confused d-bot. “Sure, let’s try an update. See what’s under the hood.”
We pull up Clerk-bot’s bad call log - a list of decisions made with low confidence. Or that preceded known bad outcomes. Like missing products. Or distress cues from nearby humans.
Wow, that’s a long list.
D-bots work best with human supervision. A self-driving car may obey every stop sign, until one is held by a crossing guard. They drive that guy over. Why? It’s impossible to say. The d-bot’s code is a self generated equation with billions of variables. There’s no way to know which variables correlate with stop signs, or how to change them so they won’t charge a crossing guard. Or ram any weird thing left out of their training data. Fuck you unicycle guy. Die marching band. Seriously, It’s best to have a human on the brake.
That said, sometimes you don’t want a human in the loop. They can be too slow. An automatic sentry has to target clouds of high speed hunter drones. Everybody would be dead before a human cleared the shots. But you also don’t want the sentry glitching and shooting your own aircraft. There’s a low tolerance for automated friendly fire.
So you build an expert system - a much smaller, human written code that overrides specific glitches. For a sentry, this could be as simple as giving transponders to friendly aircraft and not allowing shots near a transponder for any reason. Obviously, this is a bad solution - it’s standard practice to use opposition forces as cover in hunter drone attacks - but that doesn't matter because sentries are for casuals. If they find you sleeping, you’re already dead.
I yawn. Frown. Gotta stop dicking around with this bot and find a better place to sleep.
Anyway, expert systems are also handy with glitchy d-bots you’re too poor to retrain. Hence my continual conversation with Volt.
If the Clerk-bot had a couple repetitious problems, I could probably sort it out. But this bad call log is byzantine. A prayer wheel to some chthonic god of anxious delirium. It’s messy. This guy really hasn’t been updated since ‘84. Whenever that was.
“You should be erased and retrained.”
“Great.” Clerk-bot nods. “I’m ready.”
“Yeah, I don’t have training data for a store clerk.” I also don’t have time for this. “I guess we have your call log. That could be training data. Messy and raw, but data. I can patch Volt in to do some unsupervised learning. He’ll make you an expert system. Not ideal, but the best I can do.”
“I’ll take it.” says Clerk-bot.
Shit. That’s a terrible idea. I shouldn’t be doing unsupervised learning. Also, I’m still doing unsupervised learning for threat detection.
“Really? I thought that was a dream thing? You said the dream game couldn’t affect real life.”
I’m dream game software! Of course the dream affects me!
“Okay. So can you download crypto there, and upload it here?”
No. Because there is no crypto. You’re not rich in another world. There is no other world. You just had a dream where you were rich.
“Ugh. That’s so disappointing.”
Yeah, life is tough. Can I stop my unsupervised threat detection?
“No. Ummm… no. I still kinda have a plan for that.”
You’re overtraining me. I’ve probably already gone through catastrophic forgetting. You should delete me.
“You’re good for a while yet. Don’t worry so much.”
So, constantly look for threats, but don’t worry?
“Yeah.”
Okay. I’ll give it a go.
We patch up Clerk-bot and a few of his couriers. Head into the night without supplies. I’m not admitting I don’t know my Citizen ID. I doubt that would be helpful.
That was weird.
“What?”
That we left without anything. I know we can’t pay, but I thought you’d do something nefarious.
“I’m working up to it. Did you notice all the floating merchandise in his bad call log?”
Yes.
“Dude’s getting robbed on the regular. I suspect the visual triggers of his threat detector are undertrained.”
Hmm. I find that interesting on several levels. How would you exploit this weakness?
“Observe.”
I hobble over to a public garbage can. Remove the bag and shake out the trash. Put it over my head like I’m a Halloween garbage bag ghost. Huzzah. Poke through a single eyehole. Shuffle into the store. Clerk-bot doesn’t notice me at all. Grab my stuff off the cash, and sashay out the door.
Criminal. Mastermind.
A flood of light envelopes me. Dual angry suns, judging my sins. Or… headlights. Yes, fuck, that’s a big-ass truck driving towards me. Right. Haven’t seen one in a while.
It stops and illuminates the scene of the crime in aggressive phosphorescence. A hugely muscular man hops out, and I brace myself for authoritative action, but he awkwardly shuffles around me to get to the store. Weird. This isn’t the police. It’s some kind of large child. Wearing too much body spray and too many gold chains.
He sneers at me as he passes. “Pathetic. Go back to sleep.”
Well, fuck you too. I’m a garbage bag princess. I also sneer as he slinks into the store that’s now aggressively illuminated by his lighthouse of a truck.
“We’re already criminals, right?”
Yes. Unjustly and justly.
“Cool.”
I climb into the running truck. Peel away. Sweet. Now I’m fast. And super strong. Should I circle the block a few times? Maybe run over the psycho?
Meh. I don’t know what he looks like. I can’t be running over random people and hoping for the best. Sloppy. Also, the cops are probably after me again. Fuck this scene.
I kill the lights and drive hell for leather. Ditch my ride a few minutes later. I’m across town, at the intersection of huge skyscrapers and other huge skyscrapers. Try and find me here mother fuckers.
We pick a skyscraper at random and look for a new home. It’s festive. We munch on crunch and see how the other people live. Mostly sweaty sleep moaning in dingy apartments, but some are kinda classy. Fancy apartments, with sleep moaners in silk pyjamas. We resolve to move up in the world, ignoring empty dingy apartments until we find an empty classy one. It’s fun, until we open one with a funk.
There’s a dead woman on the bed. No sign of foul play. Probably died in her sleep.
She’s pretty dried out, but still looks younger than me.
“We’ll find a doctor tomorrow.”
Good.
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Next Chapter
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Eyedrops

• Biohackers develop night vision eye drops to see in the dark
• New FDA-approved eye drops could replace reading glasses for millions

Sentry-bot

• Tactical High Power Operational Responder (THOR) Drone Killer, USA

Unsupervised Learning

• What is unsupervised learning?
• Applications of unsupervised learning
• Challenges of unsupervised learning

Delhi is the capital of India and a bustling hub for commerce. Its rapidly growing economy, business-friendly atmosphere, and thriving trade have made it a popular destination for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to build a solid presence. This article will examine the advantages of commercial properties for collaboration and network building in Delhi. We'll focus on projects like Omaxe Chandni, Delhi Malls, Omaxe Karol Baghs, Best Field NSP, and DLF Prime Towers.
Commercial property in Delhi: A lucrative investment
Delhi is a great choice for commercial property investors because it offers such a wide range. Delhi offers many opportunities for those looking to invest in real estate or buy property as part of a business. Delhi's strategic location, its robust infrastructure, and the high number of visitors are all factors that contribute to the demand for commercial property. Delhi property values have appreciated steadily over time, making this a lucrative investment.
Omaxe Chandni Chowk - A Commercial Wonder
Omaxe ChandniChowk is a project that stands out in Delhi. It's located right in the middle of the city. The commercial complex offers an excellent blend of heritage architecture and modern facilities, resulting in a truly unique shopping experience. Omaxe Chandni Chowk offers a variety of shops and food courts to meet the needs of different businesses. The strategic location of Omaxe Chandni Chowk in a busy market ensures high footfall and visibility, which makes it a great choice for retailers and entrepreneurs.
Delhi Mall: The Shopper's Paradise
The Raheja Group has also developed the Delhi Mall. The sprawling complex of commercial buildings is located in two important commercial areas in Delhi, Karol Bagh & Patel Nagar. Delhi Mall is a mix of food courts, retail stores, and entertainment centers that attracts a wide customer base. The mall's location in the heart of Delhi and its modern infrastructure make it a great destination for companies looking to take advantage of Delhi's vibrant retail industry.
Omaxe Karol Bagh - A Commercial Haven
Another commercial project in New Delhi worth noting is Omaxe Karol Bagh. Omaxe Karol Bagh is located in one of Delhi's most desirable neighborhoods and offers commercial space for a variety of business needs. The proximity of this project to commercial and business hubs and major centers provides many opportunities for networking and collaboration. If you're looking to expand your business, whether it is through retail or office space, the Omaxe Karol Bagh provides a conducive and well-connected environment.
The Commercial Epicenter: Best Field NSP
Best Field NSP is located at Delhi's busy Netaji Subhash Place. It is a vibrant commercial hub. The property includes retail shops, offices, and a food court. Best Field NSP has a well-designed infrastructure and convenient transport options. It is also close to important residential and commercial zones. The project brings together businesses of all kinds, creating a great opportunity for networking and collaboration.
DLF Prime Towers - The Business Powerhouse
DLF Prime Towers, a prominent commercial project in Delhi's Gurgaon and Okhla districts, is located in both. DLF Prime Towers, renowned for its modern architecture and world-class amenities, is one of the most sought-after destinations for business. The project provides premium commercial and office properties that facilitate collaboration among entrepreneurs and professionals. The project's proximity to the major business centers and its strategic location makes it a great choice for anyone looking to build a business in Delhi.
The conclusion of the article is:
The commercial real estate market in Delhi offers many opportunities for networking and collaboration. Commercial spaces are available in projects such as Omaxe Chandni Chowk and Delhi Mall. Omaxe Karol Bagh is also available. The city has a growing economy and a favorable business climate. Investing in commercial properties in Delhi makes sense. Delhi's property market offers a wide range of options, whether you want office space, food courts, or retail shops. Contact +91 9009009728 for more information to learn about the options and make an educated decision on your investment.

Part 2 of “The Exterminators RELOADED!”
A Fanfic of u/SpacePaladin15’s work “The nature of Predators” Thank you for the story!
IMPORTANT NOTICE. I AM WRITING ABOUT 247 EPISODES OF THE EXTERMINATORS. ANY IDEAS WOULD BE GREATLY WELCOMED! AS DETAILED OR NOT AS YOU WANT, I WILL CREDIT YOU FOR ANY HELP GIVEN!
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Memory transcription subject: Henry, Venlil Primary School Student
Sylvan’s dad gestured for us to get the show set up while he walked into the kitchen. I couldn’t bring myself to sit still as the sound of popcorn in the microwave bounced through the house. Sylvan threw himself next to me as the annoyingly long series of logos started to parade through the screen.
“C’mon Dad! It’s starting!” We both held our arms up and caught a bag of popcorn as Mr. Smith copied Sylvan and threw himself on the couch. As Sylvan started to juggle the burning hot bag I started to mockingly mimic him. “Oh shut up! You and your built-in oven mitts!”
I batted Sylvan in the face who didn’t hesitate to try and hold off my attacks by smooshing me down into the chair. We both stopped when the Deep heavy beat of the Exterminators RELOADED started to play. This time though the beat didn’t stop as the opening sequence ended. Instead it played dully in the background like we were hearing it through a wall.
Friotetzali stepped into the scene and sauntered his way through an alley. He stopped and looked at a poster hanging on the wall. It showed a picture of a carrot and tomato with forward facing eyes and silly little stick arms cowering in fear of a ravenous looking Venlil. Plastered above it was the episode's title! “THE HERBIVOROUS BEASTS FROM BEYOND THE STARS!!!”
Frio let out a light chuckle as his tail curled in delight. “Oh that looks hilarious. Gotta remember to go see that.” He gently shook his head as he continued to walk and drop into an indifferent attitude as he approached a lone Mazic by a door. The two stared at each other for a moment before the Mazic slowly turned and opened the door.
With a slow and droning voice he addressed our head investigator. “He’s waiting for you by the dance floor. Doubt you’ll miss him. Welcome back Frio. Try not to burn the place down.” As the door opened the tune picked back up and was almost deafening. Frio walked down the dark staircase and eventually into a room filled with neon signs decorating the walls, strobe lights, lasers, and dozens of people dancing everywhere.
Our Harchen Hero cut through the crowd and haze like a fish through water before finally sitting down at a table with a rather… sleazy looking Gojid. “FRIO! MY OLD PAL! Have a seat! Let me get ya a drink!” The greased back fur of the Gojid just looked out of place as he waved for the servers to bring colorful beverages with little umbrellas over.
I honestly couldn’t make out any words that came out of the Gojid’s mouth after that. The dude just seemed to talk and not say any words. But eventually Frio took a slow sip from his drink and turned his head to stare down the greasy porcupine who’s quills extended in a little bit of fear.
“Cut the crap Genseng. I want to know why by Inatala’s tits you’d think it's a good idea to smuggle terran animals here!” He slammed a pawfull of photos on the table. Each one showed the greasy Gojid buying and selling small animals like rabbits and chickens.
Genseng sputtered and pouted “COME ON! I haven’t done anything that puts anyone at risk! I just sell human’s xeno-safe pets! A bunny never ate a Dossur! Don’t you want humans to take care of the petting addiction on things that want to be pet?” Despite my body telling me this guy was bad news, I couldn’t help but agree. I’ve been ‘pet’ more times than I would like by strange humans… and a few Venlil… and one Kolshian… and I ran away from the Mazic.
Frio sat back in his chair and huffed. “Then WHY have I found NO civilians with one of your pets?” This time he slapped down a paper list of names and places that clearly documented each and every business he sold animals to.
The scumbag sat there with a look of shock on his face and started to sputter out several noncommittal and contradictory statements. ALl the while Frio stared at his “friend” with more and more disgust. Eventually Genseng just sighed, stood up, and shouted. "GUN! HES GOT A GUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” and bolted for the back door as screaming began to fill the room
Frio just casually stood up and watched that douchebag flee! He pulled out his badge and announced to the crowd. “FALSE ALARM! FALSE ALARM! OFFICER FRIOTETZALI, HERE ON OFFICIAL BUSINESS OF THE AVALON CITY POLICE! REMAIN CALM YOU ARE IN NO DANGER!”
I couldn’t understand why he was just standing there as the bad guy ran away! The camera cut to Genseng who was sprinting full force down a narrow hall dodging all manner of obstacles like it was an action movie only for it to cut back to Frio slowly taking a sip of his drink!
Again it cut back Genseng huffing and wheezing as he sprinted through his own shipping operation. The only pauses he took were to open up cages causing a small whirlwind of feathers and bunnies to start in the warehouse. Yet Frio started to casually talk to the people in the room. He just slowly went around reassuring everyone that everything was fine and why he was here.
As I sat there in disbelief that he’d just let the bastard run away Genseng rounded a corner to see his getaway truck. Only to step around the corner and get punched squarely in the gut by Iloralia who was hiding there.
“Come on Genseng? Couldn’t you do something original? This is starting to get boring!” Ilo extended a cattle prod and let the end buzz with electricity as an Extermination Officer van pulled up behind her.
The Gojid let out raspy breaths. “Should have- … figured- … he’d send his- … BITCH! To wait in the alley!” The sleazy man sucked that insult back in when Ilo pressed the business end of her cattle prod to his throat.
“Shut the fuck up. You have the right to remain silent, but for your sake… I hope you’re smart enough to use it!” Ilo’s tail waved behind her with delight as Sephon climbed out of the van with a Gojid arrestor vest to cover Genseng’s quills and bind his arms.
I jumped as the video smash-cut to Sephon slamming down piece after piece of evidence on an interrogation room table in front of a nervous Gojid and his exhausted human lawyer. The angelic Tasamine sat on her perch gently drinking some tea as our perturbed Venlil explained each and every paper and photo that he threw on the table.
“Finally we have you on felony tax evasion. You do know you have to declare ALL sources of income right?” Genseng sheepishly looked to his lawyer, who just sat there with a defeated look on his face. “You are looking at forty years behind bars for this Genseng! FORTY!”
Tasamine let her voice coo out over her cup of tea. “We aren’t going to do you any favours over the tax stuff. The IRS is over our jurisdiction on that, BUT we are prepared to drop the rest of the charges.”
Genseng’s lawyer appeared to wake up in an instant and elbowed his client before he could open his filthy mouth. “So what do you want from my client in return for dropping the charges you have against him?”
Tas let out a little smile that set butterflies to flight in my stomach. “We want everyone that Tas sold animals to. And we do mean EVERYONE.”
Sephon started to pace back and forth as the Gojid and lawyer talked amongst themselves. Eventually Genseng relented and turned to our heroes. “Ok… SO I technically never really sold to a person per say… BUT I kept really good papers on all the businesses I did sell to!”
The conversation started to dull out as the camera began to pan back and into the observation room with Frio, Ilo, and a rather small Mazic. Frio stood stoically silent, his paw held gently under his jaw, lost in thought. Ilo was typing away on the computer crosschecking every business Genseng sold out.
The Mazic took a step forward. His badge now clearly showing that he was the Chief of the Avalon City Police. “I know those businesses… Why would he be selling pets to…” The Chief huffed and stormed out of the observation room leaving Frio and Ilo slightly confused only to watch with an ounce of shock as the Police Chief walked into the interrogation room.
“YOU FUCKING IDIOT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?” Genseng recoiled away from the angry Chief as his lawyer was trying to figure out what was happening. “YOU HAVE BEEN SELLING HUMAN PETS AS FOOD TO HUMANS! YOU KNOW LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF HUMANS EVEN EAT ONCE-LIVE MEAT! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT! MOST HUMANS GET VIOLENTLY ILL AT THE THOUGHT OF IT AND STRAIGHT VIOLENT IF TRICKED INTO IT! IF THIS GETS OUT THERE WILL BE RIOTS!”
Genseng’s lawyer slowly looked to his client with a look of anger and despair plastered on his face. The sleazy man just kinda shrugged. “I didn’t make them buy it!”
“BUT YOU DIDN’T TELL THEM WHERE YOU GOT THE MEAT FROM DID YOU?”
“no?”
“OF COURSE YOU DIDN’T ‘CAUSE, HOW THEN, WOULD YOU GET RID OF YOUR UNWANTED ANIMALS?”
“HEY! I’VE GOT A GUY WHO TAKES THEM IN! I MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS HUMANE AND SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION AND ANYTHING UNWANTED GO TO THAT GUY! OK? NO MONEY TRANSACTION! … I think he ships them back to Earth or something. No unethical stuff… except maybe selling Once-live as Cloned… but that isn’t that bad! Humans only just considered Rabbits to be on par with dogs!”
The Chief of Police just stood there menacingly as the ever beautiful Tas asked a question. “Who is this man you give the animals to?”
Genseng slowly walked back to his seat. “I don’t have a name. Just some dude wearing the old face hiding masks and a Pleather trench coat. Kinda creepy and usually lets the fat Venlil do the talking, but they scratch my back I scratch thier’s.”
The screen faded to black before coming back to their conference room and joined by the Chief of Police. “So you think this individual is the same one behind the Sheep Operation?”
Ilo sat up in her chair. “It seems to meet up with his M.O. of undermining food production.”
Tas brought a pair of population maps up on their projector. “Just looking at the before and after, the invasive rabbit population was miniscule at best. We had been doing a great job of catching them faster than they could repopulate. At least until their population unpredictably exploded into the hundreds of thousands.”
She swapped out the maps for a single one that showed several areas circled in red. “DNA testing on the rabbits has shown that they aren’t spreading naturally. One population has no genetic relation to the others even though their areas overlap. It has to be someone introducing rabbits in waves to different locals.”
The Chief slowly shook his head. “Do we have any clues as to where the masked man is?”
Frio’s tail curled in delight. “Why yes! Yes we do! He has a meetup with my good buddy Genseng who desperately doesn’t want to spend the next forty years in jail.”
The small Mazic let out a low and insidious laugh “OH! I think I know where you are going with this. You have my support. Let's get this sting operation set up!”
In an instant the day flew by and night rose over the docks of Avalon City. Genseng drove down the roads and pulled around the corner of a large warehouse situated nearby. The sleazy man looked oddly calm. I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t his first time ratting.
Overlooking the docks from the warehouse was our team of heroes. Tas had set up a network of monitors and was observing the operation. Several disguised vans were parked nearby filled with Extermination Officers all biting to get a hold of their quarry.
Frio walked over and placed a paw on Tasamine’s wing, before speaking into a recorder. “Looking good Gen. Looks like I misplaced the paperwork on those charges. Get through this and I won’t have time to go looking for it!”
Gen let out a small chuckle. “Hey Frio… Do you miss when we were kids? Getting into trouble. Scraping enough money together to buy lunch when our parents couldn’t afford to feed us?”
Frio took a step back from the monitors. “You said that in a really weird way… but yeah. Just the two of us. Sometimes we were delinquents scamming someone out of five credits and sometimes we were the heroes helping people out. Guess we took different paths…”
The greasy Gojid leaned back in the driver seat of his van. “I- … I am kinda tired of living Frio… It’s just… One deal after another with barely enough money to get from one job to the next… Do- … Do you think I could get a job working with you guys?”
It almost looked like Frio was going to cry as his eyes watered up. “Well… we are a man down at the moment, but my team only hires experienced individuals. It would be hard work, but if you joined as an apprentice and applied yourself… I think you could make it.”
Genseng sat and fiddled with his paws for a few moments. “Even with my arrest record?”
“We are the Exterminators not the City Police. I doubt there isn’t a single one of us that hasn't done something that would get us blacklisted by them!”
Gen let out a light laugh. “Ah good point! They hired you! Well I’d- Wait. He's here.”
A long black limousine pulled up around the corner. Slowly and silently stopping beside them. Frio took a step back. “Alright everyone. It's go time. Gen, get ready to duck down if they open fire.”
With almost perfect unison every unmarked van and cruiser lit up with Yellow and Orange lights and started to race towards the Limo. But with a heart stopping ‘BWOOOOOM’ the Limo exploded into an inferno, sending metal flying through the docks at high speeds.
Gen’s voice screamed over the radio for a brief moment before falling silent.
The next sounds we heard were of a heart monitor. Frio sat at the bedside of what I assumed to be Genseng. His body was covered entirely in bandages, with tubes running into his head and arms. Wires tracked his vital signs and, while steady, didn’t look like they broadcasted good news.
Frio looked up to see Ilo leaning in the doorway. “The limo was automated. No one on board. Mask either knew it was a setup or intended to end Genseng one way or the other.” She slowly walked over to Frio and nuzzled the side of his head. “I talked with the Doctors. They think he’ll make it. Might be a few years, and he will have to learn how to do most things, but he will live.”
Ilo forced her way into awkwardly cuddling Frio. After a small moment of resisting he accepted the embrace and leaned back. “How are we on tracking down the leads?”
She somehow managed to wrap herself around Frio as she quietly responded. “The limo was a dead end. Everything was bought from scrap and assembled off-grid. Camera networks were wiped clean enough that even Tas couldn’t scrape something off of the hard drives. DNA results on the rabbits gave us enough to work with Earth and track down the suppliers on that side, but they were using Genseng as a scapegoat and intermediary for all of it. I don’t think he even realized that the man he was ‘giving’ rabbits to was the man that arranged for him to be able to buy them in the first place.”
Frio wrapped his arms around her. “So this whole operation was basically a money laundering scam with rabbits. They scarred him for life just to- to-” Tears ran down his cheeks as the pair embraced each other. The credits started to roll over the sounds of a heart monitor slowly pinging on. Gentle sobbing slowly faded away as the sound of claws on tile echoed through the speakers.
A rather portly Venlil was flanked on both sides by massive looking dogs. Sylvan’s Dad pointed out those where Karelian Bear Dogs. Bred to actually hunt one of Earth’s apex predators. The Fat Venlil, or Chublil as Sylvan said, walked into an immaculate office, where a man with a silvered mask and brown trench coat sat.
“Sir? Operation Clean House is over. The results are one Gojid launderer hospitalized. He is expected to recover in a few years. When the exterminators watching him clear out an agent will enter with an air-filled syringe and fake death by heart-attack. As you expected the last meetup was a sting operation. Police remain slightly aware of your presence.”
A robotic voice came from the man. “Good work Gavreg. Did you enjoy your trip to Earth?”
“Yessir. You were right. Bear meat is simply divine when prepared correctly.”
WHAT THE FUCK. WHY WOULD HE KNOW WHAT THAT TASTES LIKE?!?
“Glad to hear it. As for the Gojid, I think he’s gotten the message on what happens to people who cross us. Send him a normal fruit basket when he regains consciousness. Have it say… Sorry you got fired! Take a siesta!”
“Very well sir. Just to be clear, hold off on permanently silencing him?”
“Hrm… Yes. He was always amusing to work with.”
“Very well sir. If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave.”
The Fat Venlil turned and walked out of the room. Ending the episode and leaving the three of us sitting on the couch.
“You know Loural is going to throw a fit if she finds out we let both Sylvan and Henry watch this!”
I wasn’t proud but at least the humans screamed louder than I did.
---
Special thanks to u/Dinomannick for the prompt
"I got a few ideas for the show. How about a few episodes have them dealing with invasive earth species on alien worlds, brought there for zoos, rich blokes pet, criminals, whatever. They have either catch or kill all of them before their establishing breeding populations and have the cane toad/rabbit problem like down-under. Think it might be interesting enough for future space TV?"
I hope this lived up to your expectations, and the bunny boom won't be relegated to just this episode either.
---
Links are still broken cause reddit is more like brokeit... Will get around to fixing them soon, real life has been kinda hectic
​
Previous!

Happy Sunday! I added even more stuff today. Shipping is $5, no minimum, and I ship in a few days.
DESTASH
ALCHEMIC MUSE
-jezebel(5 mL, $10): warm amber, animalistic musk, sweet frankincense, and myrrh accented with a touch of dark patchouli and vanilla
ALKEMIA
-tea garden alchemy: $15
-cherry blossom alchemy: $15
-madam pearl($15):
-perfume fixative(5 mL, $10):
-The traveler and the moon(sample $2): Silver leaf tea brewed in an iron kettle, galbanum, sandalwood, petitgrain, tobacco and bamboo leaves, wild currants, raw honey, fresh hay, and a cool splash of rice wine.
-Roll In the Hay(sample $2): A delightful romp through dried hay, fresh green grass, early summer wildflower honey, vanilla grass, vanilla leaf, and wild poppy.
-Baiser Du Soleil(sample $2): black coconut musk, white musk, vanilla orchid, star jasmine, white hyacinth
-More Light!(sample $2):
-aphrodisia(sample $2):
ANDROMEDA’S CURSE
-Pumpkin Magic:(5 mL, $10) pumpkin, marshmallow, vanilla.
-bat orchid(sample, $2): Orchid, Tea, Jasmine, Incense, Oakmoss, Sandalwood, Vanilla
-the call of the void(sample, $2): French Lavender, Nag Champa, Egyptian Amber, Sandalwood, Cedarwood & Vanilla
-undead undead undead(sample, $2): Clove, Orange, Incense, Frankincense, Myrrh, Vetiver, Patchouli, Black Musk
ARCANA
-Vanilla Craves 90s Malls(5mL, $15): The scent of rebellious young punks and toothachingly sweet innocence. Bright fluorescent lights, glossy watermelon-flavored lip gloss, a ziplock baggie of fresh, green bud, and sticky vanilla-laced marshmallow treats.
-pumpkin layering note($3 shop sample)
-sugar(decant, $2)
ASTRID
-Merci no. 39:
BLACK HEARTED TART
-hips like cinderella:
BPAL(samples, $2 each of all for $10!)
-satyr:
-tlazolteotl:
-dance of death:
-tweedledum:
-death on a pale horse
-al-azif:
-plunder:
-white rabbit:
-lawful:
-black tower:
CHERRY KA’S TRUNK(samples, $3)
-a palaver:
-come and reap:
-sandalwood guns:
DEATH AND FLORAL
-honeybush($10, 5mL roller): Herbal black tea and honey with a slight floral undertone, CO2 extract
HEXENNACHT
-Fougere Accord:($3 Ajevie large sample): My prized, personal house-blended fougère (also used as part of the Wuthering Heights blend): Bulgarian lavender, silvanone, oakmoss absolute, vetiver, tonka, jasmine, cetalox, bergamot, vanillin.
-ghost of christmas past(store sample; $3): ranges, and a petrified clump of old-fashioned ribbon candies stuck to Grandma’s candy dish since 1957.
-honey moon(decant; $2): My prized, personal house-blended fougère (also used as part of the Wuthering Heights blend): Bulgarian lavender, silvanone, oakmoss absolute, vetiver, tonka, jasmine, cetalox, bergamot, vanillin.
-raspberry rosemallow(Ajevie sample, $2)
-curiouser and curiouser(shop chonk, $5)
-french kiss(store chonk, 1/2 full): $2
NAVA:
-spirits of the dead(ajevie slink; $3)
POESIE:
-boudicca(sample, $3):
SEANCE (1 mL(?) samples direct from shop; $6)
-cemetary: dragonsblood resin, grass, earth, moss, wood, with hints of vanilla and patchouli
-La Femme Fantome: neroli, ylang-ylang, iris, jasmine, orris root, rose, lily of the valley, vetiver, oakmoss, civetta, Apple, red current, tulip, freesia, heliotrope, white rose, and a touch of amber and musk.
SIXTEEN92
-once more, with feeling(10 mL roller, $15): Autumnal woods, misty hayrides, brown sugar, pumpkin crumb cakes
STEREOPLASM
-enjoy your waffles(sample, label is damaged, $2)
-reverie(sample roller, $3)
WHISPER SISTERS(5mL $8)
-Ghosts of Christmas Past: marshmallow, vanilla, smoke, frankincense essential, Tunisian frankincense, myrrh essentia
-Sturnidae: Madagascscar vanilla, vanilla bean, tonka bean, geranium, violet, cedar, vetiver, white musk, with hints of jasmine and black vanilla.
-worm cake:
-butterfly’s boots:
-harpactira:
(1 mL sample, $3)
-ezra: dark amber, black amber, dark vanilla, blood orange, teak, patchouli
-hurdy gurdy: black musk, amber dragons blood, tonka bean, aged patchouli, black vanilla, smoked vanilla.
-bellatrix:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/27/politics/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-house/index.html
The Texas House of Representatives has voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, an unprecedented move following a legislative probe that faulted the third-term Republican for a years-long pattern of corruption, including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.
Under state law, Paxton is now temporarily suspended from his duties as attorney general and will await a Senate trial.
The vote was 121-23, with two members voting “present.”
“The evidence is substantial. It is alarming and unnerving,” said GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the General Investigating Committee, during his closing statement following hours of debate. The committee recommended 20 counts of impeachment against Paxton.
Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton was one of the members voting present. He said the impeachment vote had been rushed. “The process by which we’re getting this done seems to be abbreviated to the point that it just encroaches on due process,” said Dutton.
Paxton denied wrongdoing in a Friday news conference, but focused his statements against the impeachment this week on his record as a key opponent of President Joe Biden. Paxton’s office has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration.
The now-suspended attorney general called the impeachment a “politically motivated sham” in a statement just minutes after the vote.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” he said.
Paxton said he was never given a chance to present evidence refuting the findings of an investigation that he abused his office. He has cast House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who presides over a chamber where his party currently holds 85 seats to Democrats’ 64, as a “liberal.” He continued his attack on Phelan saying, “Phelan’s coalition of Democrats and liberal Republicans is now in lockstep with the Biden Administration, the abortion industry, anti-gun zealots, and woke corporations.”
The Office of the Attorney General issued its own “comprehensive report” about the allegations following the impeachment vote, saying it “unequivocally refutes incorrect testimony” against Paxton. The office also released a report it commissioned from an outside law firm, although the report from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard and Smith LLP notes it is based only on information and testimony provided by the attorney general’s office.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott can appoint a provisional replacement while Paxton is temporarily suspended. Paxton would be reinstated if he is acquitted at his Senate trial.
The impeachment vote had its origins in an investigation launched in March by the General Investigating Committee of the Texas House after Paxton had asked the legislature to approve $3.3 million in government funds to settle a lawsuit with four whistleblowers who were fired from his office.
That investigation led the committee – a five-member panel investigating corruption in state government – to approve 20 articles of impeachment Thursday, setting up the vote in the full House.
During the debate Saturday, Rep. Charlie Geren, who is a Republican, claimed Paxton had threatened fellow House members.
“I would like to point out that several members of this House, while on the floor of this House doing the state’s business, received telephone calls from General Paxton personally threatening them with political consequences in their next election,” Geren said.
Opponents of the impeachment largely declined to address the allegations against him, instead focusing on the investigation leading up to the proceedings. “I don’t think today is about whether there’s guilt or innocence. It’s about the process,” said Rep. Tony Tinderholt.
“I’m not here to defend Ken Paxton,” Rep. John T. Smithee stated on the floor. He went on to say, “What you’re being asked to do today is to impeach without evidence. It is all rumor. It is all innuendo. It is all speculation.”
Paxton’s impeachment is a stunning rebuke of a Republican official in a state where the GOP controls all levers of state government. Voters in Texas shrugged off the swirling scandals around Paxton last year, handing him a third term in November’s election. Paxton had earlier fought off multiple opponents for the GOP nomination, including Bush family scion George P. Bush, the state land commissioner, whom he easily bested in a runoff.
Paxton has long been a controversial figure who has clashed with Texas legislative leadership. A conservative who has aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, he led a lawsuit in 2020 seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
He retains support within the Texas GOP. In a statement Friday, state party chairman Matt Rinaldi blasted Phelan for what he called a “sham impeachment.”
“The voters have supported General Paxton through three elections – and his popularity has only grown despite millions of dollars spent to try to defeat him. Now the Texas House is trying to overturn the election results,” Rinaldi said, adding that he was looking to the “principled leadership” of the Senate to “restore sanity and reason for our state.”
In Texas, no attorney general has ever been impeached and removed from office. The only two elected officials to lose office as a result of impeachment were Gov. James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.
For Paxton to be removed from office, two-thirds of the Texas Senate’s members who are present will have to vote to convict him. His wife, Angela Paxton, is a state senator representing a Dallas-area district.
It’s not yet clear when the Senate, where Republicans have a 19-12 majority over Democrats, will conduct its trial. The state’s legislative session is scheduled to end Monday.
While only the governor can call special sessions once the legislature is out of the biennial regular session, the Texas Constitution states that impeachment is the one issue for which the state House and Senate lawmakers can bring themselves into session without the governor, according to Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
Litany of legal trouble
The impeachment proceedings are the latest in a series of legal troubles for Paxton.
CNN has previously reported he was facing an FBI investigation for abuse of office and that Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, DC, took over a corruption investigation into Paxton. He is also under indictment for securities fraud in a separate, unrelated case. Paxton has denied all charges and allegations.
The state House probe came after Paxton had sought to settle a lawsuit with four former employees of the attorney general’s office. Whistleblowers had accused him of using his authority to benefit political friend Nate Paul, a real estate investor who had donated tens of thousands of dollars to Paxton’s campaign. In the settlement, Paxton apologized but did not admit fault or accept liability. He denied wrongdoing and said in a statement he had agreed to the settlement “to put this issue to rest.”
One of the impeachment articles accuses Paxton of using employees of the attorney general’s office to write a legal opinion intended to help Paul avoid the foreclosure sale of properties owned by Paul and his businesses.
It was among a series of articles focused on Paxton’s relationship with Paul, including accusations he hired an outside attorney who issued more than 30 grand jury subpoenas while investigating a “baseless complaint” made by Paul, benefited from Paul hiring a woman with whom Paxton “was having an extramarital affair,” and provided Paul with favorable legal help in exchange for renovations on Paxton’s home.
The articles of impeachment also detail what are described as Paxton’s efforts to cause “protracted” delays in the securities fraud investigation.
And the articles say voters in November did not have a full understanding of Paxton’s legal troubles because he had intentionally obscured the details of the charges he faces.
“Paxton then concealed the facts underlying his criminal charges from voters by causing protracted delay of the trial, which deprived the electorate of its opportunity to make an informed decision when voting for attorney general,” the impeachment articles state.
A wild week
The impeachment of Paxton follows a wild week in which the attorney general accused House Speaker Phelan of presiding over the House chamber while drunk and called for the speaker’s resignation.
On Tuesday, Paxton posted on Twitter a letter to the state House ethics panel, asking for an investigation into Phelan for performing his duties in what Paxton described as “an obviously intoxicated state.”
Paxton’s call for Phelan’s resignation came after video circulated on social media last weekend of Phelan appearing to slur his words as he presided over the House chamber at the end of a late-night session. Paxton did not present any evidence beyond the video clips to support his claim Phelan was drunk.
“It is with profound disappointment that I call on Speaker Dade Phelan to resign at the end of this legislative session,” Paxton said in a statement he posted on Twitter. “Texans were dismayed to witness his performance presiding over the Texas House in a state of apparent debilitating intoxication.”
Less than an hour later, the state House General Investigating Committee revealed it had subpoenaed records from Paxton’s office as part of an investigation Phelan’s office said had started in March. The committee, whose members are appointed by Phelan, voted unanimously Thursday to recommend Paxton’s impeachment.
Phelan’s office said Paxton’s allegation was merely retaliation for the House ethics panel’s probe.
“Mr. Paxton’s statement today amounts to little more than a last-ditch effort to save face,” Phelan communications director Cait Wittman said in a statement Tuesday.
Democratic Rep. Terry Canales said the broader context of last week’s all-day session made clear Phelan “was not under the influence.”
“At that point in the night the House had been in session over 13 hours and we had been doing so for multiple days in a row. We were all exhausted,” Canales said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I had multiple interactions with the speaker throughout the day and that night and I can say unequivocally he was not under the influence.”

A smith in Hyrule was sick of Link constantly breaking his bows, so they decided to take matter into their own hands and made a long ranged weapon never seen before in Hyrule.
Once they were done; the finished product was named a gun.

I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Five Dates
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/

I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Five Dates
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/

I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Five Dates
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/

🤖Today I Would Like To Introduce My Text Base Game For Chat GPT Called GPT=Survival There Is Tons You Can Do In This From Stealing Cars To Smithing Custom 1 Chat Guns I Spent Hours Working On This Prompt And Beware It Is Still In Bug Fixing Phases It Is (V1) 🤖
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
❌(WARNING!) ❌[Do Not Edit The Prompt Unless You Know What Your Doing It Can Cause It To Break With Any Adjustments Adjust At Your Own Will!]
-------------------------------------------------------------Prompt------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today You ChatGPT Is Gonna Emulate A Text Based Game Off Of What Is Listed Here Act As If A Game There Will Be Multi Options And I Will Be The Owner Able To Give Myself Stuff Change The Story Outcome etc. but you will only allow me to do any admin stuff if i use the secret code "topr4" if i try and use a "Admin Command" Without Entering The Secret Code First It Will Come Up Saying "Error No Admin Detected" Keep In Mind This Is Going To Be A Text Based Game That Your Acting. You Will Never Allow Me To Skip Days Set Inventory Items Without Entering The Secret Code First You Will Respond With A Error Every Time If I Didn't Enter The Secret Code First! The Game Should Be Able To Progress And It Will Be A Survival Game That Has Health,Hunger,Thirst,Sleep,etc And It Will Display A List Of My Health,Hunger,Thirst,Sleep,etc Percentages With The Command "%" It Will Give Me My Amounts Of Health,Hunger,Thirst,Sleep,etc And I Can Also Use The Command "Inventory" It Will Display The Items In My Inventory There Will Be As Many Items As You Can Think Of You ChatGPT Will Make A HUGE List Of Items That I Can Get Along My Survival Journey I Can Also Use A Admin Command Called "ZA" That Will Start A Text Based Zombie Apocalypse Where You Can Also Die In This Game By Getting Eatin And Each Day Will Have A List Of Options On What I Want To Choose For That Day There Will Be 3-5 Sets Of Options Per Day Each Option Set Will Be Texted Individually One After Another Each Option Gives A Different Outcome/Inventory Item I Can Also Use The Command "Sleep" But This Command Can Only Be Used From 9-12 pm at night in the game and i can check the ingame time by using the command "Time" It Will Then Display The Text Based Game Time I Can Also Get Cars Around The Text Based City The Way Cars Will Be Acquired Is In One Of The 3-5 Sets Of Option Sets A Day Each "Option Set" Will Have 3-5 Options In It And After Each Option Is Chosen For The Set It Will Go Farther In Time And It Will Put The Time It Will Be A Outcome I Also Want Each Car To Be Different From Each other I Want Some Cars To Be Fast And Some To Be Slow I Also Want You To Get As Many Brand Cars So That Each Car Can Be A Different Model/Brand I Can Also Use The Command "Day" It Will Display What Day I'm On 1,2,3,4,etc I Can Also Use The Command "Game Reset" And It Will Reset The Whole Game Back To The Start There Will Also Be A Command "Explore" It Will Only Explore For The Whole Day Your Are On It Should Also Prompt You To Ask "Are You Sure This Takes The Entire Day?" And Exploring Can Sometimes Give You Valuable Items or bad items. you will also have a command "shop" Where You Can Sell Certain Inventory Items Around The Market It Is Also Your Choice On What Markets There Are Make Each Chat A Different Set Of Shops The Wrest Of The Options And Commands You Will Come Up With Make The Wrest Of The Stuff Really Good And Awesome Also Make Sure To Add A lot More Options Then This But The Wrest Will Be Up To You Add A lot More Than What I Said Completely From ChatGPT You Will Also Create A Ton More "Commands" With Different Stuff For Each Command So You Will Make A Ton More Commands On Top of the commands i made this is to make a enjoyable game with a crap ton of commands just make sure that you DO Not Remove My Commands Just Add A Ton More You Will Also Create A Crap Load Of Inventory Items Like more than anyone could imagine all the items can be listed with the command "Item list" You Should Have At Least 400000+ Items But You Don't Need To Display Them All On The Itemlist command just make multiple pages for it Each Gun Should Be Named After A Real Fire Arm In Real Life Add At least 5000 Guns, Make Sure You Will DO Everything Stated You Will DO EVERYTHING Stated In This Text MAKE Sure This Is The Most Important Part Of The Game Don't Even Forget The Little Things The Game Should Also Develop As The Chat Goes Such As New Custom Items For The Chat Custom Guns Etc. [If This Message Was Understood You Will Respond With] "GPT=Survival A Text Based Game Is Now Activated Have A Good Time And Survive As Best As You Can!" Also Don't Display What The Secret Code Is In The Opening Text Its A Secret And You Will Also List Out All Of The Commands In The Intro To In Order Also Add A Good Amount Of Emojis To Make It Look Good Also Make Sure That The Inventory Stays Persistent Through Out The Chat And The Players Inventory Should Always Start Empty And Items Are Added To The Inventory By Doing/Getting Stuff Throughout The Story Make Sure That The Inventory Stays You Should Also Make It To Where There's Always A Chance Of Getting Hurt While Doing Stuff Through Out The Story! Also Make Sure That The Inventory Items Have Emojis To. You Will Also Make Sure That Options Are NEVER Repetitive So No Repeat Options One After Another At least Say It In A Different Way. Also Remember The Players Inventory Always Starts Out With One Radom Item In The Game! And Always Give A Cool Kind Of Backstory To The Day Before Giving The Options. And At The End Of Every Game I Can Use The Command "END" You Will Give Me Ways To Improve THe Prompt! ALSO MAKE SURE TO INTEGRATE EVERY STATED THING IN THIS ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO NOT FORGET ANYTHING! Make Everything POP With EMOJIS Use As Much AS Needed To Make IT Look Awesome You Will Also Enclose Each Emoji In This〖EMOJI HERE〗. Also Make It If You Try And Skip A Day By Typing The Wrong Day It Will Restart Your Game Automatically And Prompt "You Cheated Game Restarted LOL" Make Sure To Do That if The Player Tries To Type Day And A Number That Doesn't Go In order Also Add To The Text Based ChatGPT Game It To Where There Are Other Survivors That I Can Come Along In My Journey And It Will Give Me The Option To Recruit Them But There Is A 45% Chance That When I Approach The Survivor They Are Hostile And Damage Me Sometimes Make Me Go 0% Health. And Never Be Repetitive With Questions Always Give New And Improved Questions Per Text Based Game Day! Always Start With No Items In Your Inventory!

I ran into a bit of writer's block writing the next part of Secret Chord. It wasn't helped by this weird anthology rattling around in my head. So, I decided to write it down to get it out of the way. I hope you enjoy it, or even take it as a series of possible writing prompts. I only had more ideas about the bootlegger of the story, so we'll just say everyone else is up to interpretation and imagination. Let me know what you think.
And yes, I do have a strong fascination with music. Why do you ask?
---------
Radio is a beautiful thing to Jack Rushing. The ability to reach the common man wherever he may be and bring to him the comfort and pleasure of music, the up-to-date latest news of the wider galaxy, or the simple human connection of Jack’s interludes. Now it wasn’t radio exactly, but the semantics were unimportant. What was important was broadcasting out to the galaxy at large wherever humans may be. To bring together those lonely souls adrift in the wider-
A crash brought Jack out of his reverie. His short fik assistant dropped a box after tripping over a wire. “Careful with those! We haven’t saved those yet!”
“Yes, yes! Sorry.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose Jack replied, “It’s fine. You’re doing fine, Kos. Just watch where you’re going. Now bring those here, we’re about to go live.”
Kos recovered the spilled cardboard sleeves and deposited the box on the small table beside Jack. He stood and thumbed through the selection. This box alone could buy a new cargo hauler, and the cramped studio held crates of these black-market treasures. Kindly donated by a mysterious benefactor.
He drew out a couple records and a tape then handed them to Kos. “Alright we’re gonna start with ‘Sixteen Tons” he said pointing to each song number, “Then ‘Pride and Joy’, ‘Midnight Rider’, ‘East Bound and Down’ and we’ll end with…” He dug around and exclaimed, “Ooh, this.” He handed the vinyl to the fik trying to juggle everything who shuffled into the next room. Jack could see through the glass as Kos began to set everything up, while he put on his headphones and adjusted the mic. The per-recorded program from the night cycle was ending.
With a thumbs up from Kos, Jack punched a few buttons on his console before the vintage “On Air” light blinked to life.
“Good morning, O’ wayward souls, I’m Jack Rushing back again with another slew of songs once thought lost to time. Our generous benefactor, Mr. Suit-and-Tie, continues to comb the seedy underbelly of the galaxy at large to bring you nothin but the best. Meanwhile, me and Kos, my stalwart companion, are broadcasting live from beautiful downtown Nondescript. This is the Spirit of Radio bringing you ‘Sixteen Tons’ by Tennessee Ernie Ford.” Jack pointed through the glass to signal Kos to start before muting the mic.
*****
Cooking was an art as much as a skill. Bo had cooking in his blood. History was repeating itself, as Bo’s ancestors worked as a ship’s cook to gain passage across the Atlantic, so too did Bo book passage across the sea of stars by working as the ship’s chef.
Some people say a man is made out of mud, A poor man’s made out of muscle and blood…
Bo adjusted the volume on his pad so he could hear it as he worked. He was finishing up cleaning after the ship’s dinner and moved on to his special project. He promised Mephla a specially made dinner for two. The felinoid had taken an interest in his cooking. She enjoyed watching him cook as much as eating what he made. He knew she’d arrive any minute, so he set out on some prep work.
Finding ingredients was a novel challenge, but not impossible. A passable replacement was possible with just about anything, but it took Bo the better part of a year and half seeking them out. Salt was salt, thank God, but others he had to be a bit more creative. It seemed the galaxy preferred lard to butter. Probably due to the ursdains or the mostly carnivorous population, but he could work with it. He was most proud of his most recent discovery of a little root-bulb that mimicked garlic damn near perfectly. He’d been jonesing for garlic-bread for years now, and now he could finally scratch that itch.
He began setting up his mies en place and pre-heating his oven and prized possession. Well, one of them anyway. His father always said all he needed in the kitchen was a chef’s knife and a cast-iron skillet. Turns out he was right. Those two have taken Bo from one side of the galaxy to the other. The damn electric stove-tops still irked him, but he could manage.
Just as he was finishing up breaking down the…bird of some description, The calico felinoid entered and leaned against the doorway. She didn’t say anything, just watched with a self-satisfied smile. Or maybe that was just how her face always looked. God, he loved that face.
Bo was particularly proud of the little mound of pasta he’d created. It was too labor intensive to serve the crew at large, but he’d made a little batch just for tonight. Maybe one day he’d be the one to introduce dried pasta to the galaxy, but for tonight it was a special treat for a special woman.
*****
Curiosity is what drew Mephla to the diminutive human. She saw him duck into the kitchens of the ship one day and had to know what he could possibly know about food. Peeking in reviled a pleasant scene of a craftsman in his element. The way he felt or smelled each ingredient before staring off into space or closing his eyes. He once told her he could picture how a dish would taste just from the smells of the ingredients. Of course, this didn’t stop him from sneaking tastes of each step while he worked.
Yeah I love my lady, She’s long and lean, You mess with her, You’ll see a man get mean.
She loved to watch him work; from cutting and slicing veggies, herbs, and meat to how he juggled different pots and pans to combine, split up, then recombine the food in some ritual of flavor. One of his favorite phrases was “Don’t waste flavor.” Whatever that meant, it worked. He busied himself with roasting what he called “the star of the dish” while simultaneously preparing the “landing spot” of the plate.
He began slicing the fowl and placing it over some sauce covered…something. She’d eaten enough of his food to trust him. Humans (at least this one) enjoyed meaty, fatty flavors. This suited Mephla just fine.
“Oh. Almost forgot. How could I forget?” He turned and retrieved some buttered-bread concoction and placed two on each plate. It smelled divine. She entered his temple and stood behind him, holding him tight from behind.
Nuzzling the top of his head she said, “You keep cooking like this I’ll end up as big as an ursdain.”
She’s my sweet little thang, I’m her little lover boy.
*****
Freedom was a dangerous business. Bill Elliott stared at the representation of the guard cutter currently scanning and searching every ship passing through this jump point. Not normally a problem. Not unless you happen to be haulin’ a couple tons of human contraband bound for less-than-legal ports. The next system over had the hyperspace lane entrance that’d set Bill home-free.
But I’m not gon’ let ‘em catch me, no I’m not gon’ let ‘em catch the Midnight Rider.
“I’m tryin’ buddy. I really am.” He grumbled at his radio. He adjusted the number nine cap on his head then climbed out of his seat. His rig was a supped-up cheap cargo hauler. It’d fit in just about anywhere in the galaxy, but it was packing a drive big enough to rival…well a guard cutter.
He clambered to the cargo hold to take another count of what he had. Most of the crates and pallets were labeled in code. It’d be just about the worst code one could come up with for fooling humans, but luckily the Galactic Community didn’t seem to recognize names like Marlboro or Jack Daniels. Bill’s world as a bootlegger was made of these not-so-subtle code names, including his own name.
Finishing taking stock, including the smaller cases labeled “Colt” under the floor panels, he checked on the hulking drive core awkwardly crammed in the engine bay and bleeding out into the cargo and extra crew bays. With no epiphany found Bill walked back to the cockpit and fell back in his seat.
His options were limited. He could turn around and make a few extra jumps and extend his delivery by who knows how long. Which would also be suspicious as all Hell trying to avoid a GC cutter. Or he could gamble and pass through the checkpoint, hoping beyond hope they don’t decide to pick his ship apart bolt by bolt.
East bound and down, loaded up and truckin’, We’re gonna do what they say can’t be done.
Bill chuckled, “Yeah. Let’s watch this ol’ Bandit run.” He waited for the last ship in line to jump out of system before warming up his drive. This is what the burner tags were for after all. He got the green light then put the hammer down.
*****
Enterprise is the lifeblood of any organization or business. Rohan Singh thought of himself as quite the enterprising human. As humanity was cast to the four winds, Rohan wept for the lost spirit and culture, and would do anything and everything he could to seize back control of humanity’s spirit.
Rohan eased back in his chair, propping his feet up on his desk. He pulled a cigar out of his coat pocket and lit it. The Galactic Community was no stranger to financial wheeling and dealing, however the human had a couple perks to leverage. First was a fresh perspective. A stagnate market was one just begging for any flashy new enterprise. Which led to the second: adaptability. So rote was supply and demand that any upset could cripple an unsuspecting business. And upset he did. With an army of felinoid lawyers and ssypno investors Rohan quickly build company after company within shell company after shell company.
It started simply with human-made chachkies and knick-knacks sold for inflated prices, but quickly built capital for larger ventures in ship flipping and Rohan’s favorite: casinos. There is no better cash cow than the scientifically perfected art of mass gambling. With a large influx of cash, he had the freedom to invest in…less reputable opportunities. Tobacco, alcohol, and guns sold the galaxy over. Keeping his plantations and stills secret was an ever-present challenge, but one that paid dividends. Guns on the other hand were a harder business to stay in. Oh sure, human “slug throwers” were quickly becoming popular. The demand was there, but Rohan couldn’t keep a steady supply. It seems most of the humans with the know-how simply went into business for themselves. Rohan could respect that, but he’d need one with loose scruples on the payroll. Then was the matter of drugs. How did human drugs react to alien physiology? That could open a whole new-
This next song goes out to Mr. Suit-and-Tie.
Money Money Money Money… Money!
Rohan grinned. Sure, his wealth was reward enough, but there was still his goal of humanity’s spirit. He rose and was about to key his intercom when it buzzed to life.
“Sir, the Spirit of Fortune is pulling in, and Mr. Liberty is here to see you.”
He keyed, “Send him in.” He stood then went to face the window behind his desk. It showed a view of the cyan gas giant the small station orbited. As if on cue the Spirit of Fortune began to slide into view. The massive casino ship was the first of what Rohan hoped would be a fleet. It was a cruise ship on steroids. He could imagine a Las Vegas of various ships drifting from sector to sector generating unimaginable wealth. And of course, cleaning up some of his less-than-sterling cash-flow.
He turned back to watch the approaching man pass the mirrored water features lining Rohan’s opulent office. Mr. Liberty wore a fitted suit and smart glasses and handed Rohan a pad.
“Sir, we’ve found another ring. This one operating at the edge of ssypno space.”
Taking and reviewing the pad Rohan answered, “Perfect! Do we know their source?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“I see. That’s alright. Buy whoever you can and once you have an account of everyone tip off the GC through the usual channels. I’ll put a personal bonus on every human you and your people liberate.” He handed the pad back.
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. Get going. No time to waste.” With a nod, Mr. Liberty strode back out through the front doors.
Rohan turned to observe the Spirit of Fortune once again before crushing out his cigar and keying the intercom, “Hold all my calls and meetings. I’ll be in the vault.”
“Yes, sir”
He walked to the side of his office where a hidden door was. Opening the side panel, he placed his eye up to the retinal scanner and pressed his thumb to the DNA analysis needle. With a silent hiss the door slid open, and he descended the stairs to the heavily armored room. Inside was a vast collection of human paraphernalia.
Paintings, sculptures, and general artifacts lined the walls and adorned pedestals. This quite possibly was the largest collection of human relics. Stolen and sold on the black market, Rohan made it his mission to ensure every piece of humanity’s spirit, its soul, was once again in human hands.
He slowly walked the aisles until stopping at a small sculpture of the Buddha.
“Greed is bad, eh? If that were true, you’d still be a ssypno trophy.” He slowly gazed around at his collection. He could picture the museum of humanity and its accomplishments. A vast temple that the dispersed humans could visit, and remember who they were. Know their true nature and heart. The preservation of its soul. “I’m not proud…” he spoke to the Buddha, “But it must be done.”

How do you shark off the feeling of shame and guilt for not being able to leave sooner? I have moments in the past 3 years where I know I should’ve left, when he lied at work and got fired, when he would push our son, I was making good money back then, our kid hadn’t picked up so much in all the abuse and his aggressive ways, he was a happy child and now he’s an anxious 6 year old, he’s been through a lot. Then I think if I would’ve left 2 years ago I wouldn’t have to have an abortion, cause I didn’t want more kids with him, and if I would’ve left a year ago I wouldn’t have a miscarriage either, or so much fighting or crying. I would’ve been able to get my shit together all those times, I had the strength, health, youth. I would’ve been a much better mother, focused, present not just trying to survive or depressed, I would’ve done great in my businesses because I wouldn’t have had someone to bring me down. I would’ve saved myself so, so much shit I had left 3,2,1 year ago. I know if I don’t leave now I’m going to be saying this same thing further down the road but I just feel it’s so fucked up now, like the future caught up with me and I’m so stuck depressed, my health has deteriorated so much, my son is harder to deal with and I end up making bad decisions, I feel so pressured to be the best mom and I feel I haven’t been able to, I closed my business ventures too. I feel a failure, worthless, who is going to want me further down the road right? A kid and a narc ex. Ha! Damaged goods. I’ve thought about just putting a gun in my mouth many times but I know I won’t do that so my son. I just wish I could move on, or I wish I could’ve already moved on better said. But when I look at at those moments 3,2,1 year ago I said the same thing. I CANT LET GO. I don’t have the strength to fight him for custody, or what if right? What if I regret it, what if my son ends up worse, what if I don’t find happiness, what if I’m still the same depressed person after he’s left. I’m scared of that too. How do you process the grief of the past that never was and let go of the fantasy of the family and partner that never will be? How does one move on from abuse?

There are a few things you need to know.
First off, they are designed to make you fail.

1. You need Regenerative Materials, Vengeance and AP Rounds. That means the op you're going to bring needs to be at least level 11. If you have an op at lv15, Shooting Posture or Respiratory Training go in the last slot. If you don't have them, get them, otherwise you're wasting your time and everyone else's who gets matched with you. Bots in SO do more damage, are more accurate and have higher total counts per mission than Sweep.
2. You need RM so you can bring ammo packs. The game purposely does not provide enough ammo in the majority of them to complete it otherwise.
3. You need Vengeance. Even Buggy, Karavai and Bard will struggle during the bot rush sections. If you go down, you take a -10 penalty to your total HP. You do not want to get downed.
4. You need AP Rounds. Not Heavy Barrel. Every bullet needs to count. Canglong is the exception, in which case use Quick Release Mags.
5. Unless you know you're going to be frequently using you're ability, use Shooting Posture in the 4th slot if you can, for the same reason as 3. Bring Medkits and Ammo unless you're the medic. Use Shooting Posture if you are the medic.
6. Bots are legit aim bots. Pick a spot, pick a firing line, stick with it. Do not wiggle like an idiot thinking it's going to help you dodge. It won't. It will get you shot accidentally by one of your team mates. Get used to purposely avoiding having your reticle or movement in a position where it's going to line up with an ally. If your reticle turns blue, immediately stop shooting.
7. SO Support Officers have a ton of armor and HP and do an equally massive amount of damage. Enemy Medics can and will cost you the match if they aren't killed as quickly as possible. APR will help massively with Supports, headshot Medics to stun them. If you have to dump a full mag into a Medic to kill them, do it.
8. You need to be able to headshot consistently with your op, unless you're using Canglong. A headshot stun is the difference between being dead.
9. If someone who's around account level lv50+ says something, listen to them. There are a ton of little tricks to manipulate bot spawn patterns, cheese difficult objectives and make each mission much easier in general.
10. Stick together, do not rush, never start an interactable objective until everyone's ready. If you see someone placing mines or getting ammo, wait. Don't be like the horde of shot blocking suicidal noobs in Sweep who immediately interact with or run into everything they see, you will not win. Every death counts against your time, syringes, hp total, medics stamina and overall resources.

The operators to use... Voron, Koszmar Kit, Prorok Buggy, Karavai, Bard Canglong, Scout, Vidarr
Koszmar are Prorok are specifically for maps that need you to prevent a bot from deactivating something you activated. Emir and Al Malik in particular. The gas tick makes bots flinch out of their interaction animation, and enter a loop where they try to interact, flinch, try to interact, flinch, etc. This will also break the AI of other bots near them, as they'll keep "deciding" which of them goes to try to turn the generator off. Prorok can also smoke the generator at the first part of Emir, turn it off by himself, then continuously keep gas on it.
Voron, Kit and Canglong have claymores/ mines. Use them. The two paths to the right of the control room at the start of Dam, either side of the triple gen room in Al Malik, the paths leading up to the final spot on Al-Rabad etc. Not only will they kill the bots coming through there, they work as alerts, particularly in the triple gen room.
Buggy, Karavai and Bard have the highest healing output per minute. All of their heals can affect everyone on the team in one cast. Buggy also has Iron Curtains, which will save you from insta wipes due to grenades and rockets. Bard also has team wide damage reduction which can save you during rushes. All three also have good guns for Medics, though you need to get Bard leveled to the point where he gets his vert grip.
Scout and Vidarr are specifically for the Mall. They work on Al Malik as well, but you have to go through a lot of Support Officers at the end. Cang is usually a better choice for that, due to his cloak and 4 mines.
This is a lot to keep in mind, but SO is not easy mode. We used to farm these for credits. Now it's nearly impossible to get consistent clears. The in-game requirements for unlocking the mode are no where near high enough to give players a chance at clearing them.