before immediately stating "do not apply", would really really appreciate if people could look at my stats/experiences and give me advice. thank you!
Demographics:
ORM, 25F, and resident of Georgia.
Stats:
cGPA: 2.75 (includes smp)
sGPA: 2.65 (includes smp)
SMP at RWJMS: 3.38 gpa
Dunno if this is useful info but:
last 90 credits cGPA/sGPA: 3.1/3.1
last 60 credits cGPA/sGPA: 3.3/3.2
MCAT 2x: 506 (126/124/125/131) & 509 (128/124/126/131)
**I lost a parent during college and that fucked up 2 years of classes for me which is why even with the smp my gpa doesn't really budge. i do have an upward trend. i graduated college with a 2.62 lol.
Extracurriculars/Clinical Experience:
25 hours - Shadowing
400 hours - Medical Assistant (ongoing)
800 hours - Leadership in Sorority & Student Government
1000 hours - Established a program that provides free menstrual products to students on undergraduate campus (still involved)
250 hours - RWJMS Research Intern (1 abstract publication & conference presentation)
480 hours - Physical Therapy Aide
100 hours - Background Acting for Film/TV Productions
5000 hours - Jobs: front desk at a dorm and a restaurant delivery driver
125 hours - Volunteering
MD schools
Albany Medical College
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science
Creighton University School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Frank H Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Hackensack Meridian
Howard University College of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Medical College of Wisconsin
Meharry Medical College
Mercer School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont
St. Louis University School of Medicine
Tulane University School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Wayne State university School of medicine
West Virginia University School of Medicine
DO schools
A.T. Still University SOM - Arizona
Alabama COM
Midwestern University - Arizona COM
Arkansas COM
Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace SOM
Midwestern University - Chicago COM
Edward Via COM - Auburn
Edward Via COM - Carolinas
Edward Via COM - Louisiana
Idaho COM
Kansas City University COM - Joplin Campus
Kansas City University COM - Kansas City
Lake Erie COM
Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk COM
Michigan State University COM
New York Institute of Technology COM
Philadelphia COM - Georgia Campus
Philadelphia COM - South Georgia
Philadelphia COM
Rowan University SOM
Western University of HS COM of the Pacific - Oregon
William Carey University COM
University of Pikeville Kentucky COM

League Initiative:

Man of Iron-Anthony Kent/Kal-Ark (Tales of Action)

• Anthony Kent was the arrogant son of wealthy, manufacturer Howard Kent. Tony cared only about himself, but he would have a change of heart after he was kidnapped by terrorists and gravely injured with a piece of shrapnel in his chest. Pressured to create a weapon of mass destruction, Stark instead designed an electromagnetic harness to keep himself alive, and eventually, a suit of armor that could be powered by it. As he worked with the power source he found himself developing strange powers. After escaping he uses his vast resources and intellect to make the world a better place as The Invincible Man of Iron. Kent is a major name in the Marvel Universe and a founding member of the League. He ended up having his AI Jarv-El pull up redacted files that revealed that he was born on the planet Krypton, Kal-Ark was sent to Earth as a baby shortly before his planet exploded. Discovered and adopted by a couple living in their summer home, Kal-Ark, now named Anthony Kent, discovers that his old ship is a great conductor for his powers. Learning of his Kryptonian heritage, Anthony decides to dedicate his life to truth, justice, and the American way. Anthony currently lives a double life in the city of New Metropolis, as a mild-mannered absentee CEO for the Planet Industries, and as Man of Iron.

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• ThunderWoman-Diana Blake (All-Star Mystery)
• Long ago there was a war between the Greek and Norse pantheon. When concluded both sides were ravished and the world was thrown into chaos as they struggled to regain control. Acting fast they activated a unique Ragnarok that fused various gods and goddesses together, however, they were never able to find a suitable replacement for many gods including Thor. So instead they created Valkerzons who would take up Thor’s role while assisting in keeping in check the human populous. However, they soon become vain and spiteful, particularly to mortal men. As punishment, they were stripped of their powers and tech as their island was stricken from the sky. Century’s later, sensing a coming doom facing the mortals they tested the Valkerzon’s by sending a pilot crashing into their island. When young Diana found out he was being sentenced to death by her Mother she snuck into his chamber intending to save him despite knowing the consequences of doing so. This sacrifice for the sake of a stranger earned her Mjolnir restoring power to the island as she jumps into the Bifrost along with Steve Foster. Ever since then, she has dedicated herself to using her power properly showing her sisters that there is a better way than their isolation.

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• AquaPanther-T’Orin/Luke Curry
• T’Orin is the son of T’Lananta and a lighthouse keeper and the rightful king of Atkanla, though he was not born there. His mother left for home right after he had been born so he remained raised as Luke Curry outside of Atkanla. After finding his mother’s advisor Vuluri who told him of Atkanla being attacked by KillManta with the assistance OrcaApe. Wanting to help out he’d leave for his mother’s home to take the throne and save his people as the AquaPanther.

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• MarvelHawk-Sheiera Danvers
• An advance scout for the Kranagarian army, Sheirera and Mar-Hol were sent to Earth as sleeper agents to evaluate its worth as a potential stronghold for her species to occupy in advancing their war against a rival space empire. However, they were killed by a young Karla Savage who became jealous of the duo. This would indirectly cause the repeated reincarnation of Sheiera over the following centuries. In her most recent life, she would find herself having taken a job as an Air Force pilot before her amnesia began to wear off allowing her to use her powers and find her Nyth metal weapons. When she eventually regained full memory of her past life she turned against the Kreagaurd to defend Earth and other such planets.

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• Martian Vision-John Shade/Vitr’ J’onzz
• As the Martian people were threatened with extinction Vitr’ J’onzz was randomly selected to be one of the few to be jettisoned to the neighboring planet Earth, however, his ship ended up crashing leaving his ship to put him in cryosleep. He was later found by the villainous Flashtron who fused J’onzz’s body with vibchalcum metal and his own hardware planning to take control of the now cyborg alien. However, unbeknown to Ultraniac, Vitr’ was still conscious and fought back successfully turning against the villain and later joining forces with the League.

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• Green Sorcerer-Hal Strange (Strange American Tales)
• A brilliant but arrogant New York mechanic, Dr. Hal Strange's life was turned upside down when he was summoned to the site where Green Lantern Abin Yao had crashed while working on the cockpit of a plane causing him to injure his hands. Abin bequeathed his band and power battery to Stange before dying. Training under both Kilowan and Baron Sinestro, Strange went on to become a famed hero on Earth and beyond, helped found the League, and rose to the top of the Green Sorcer’s Corps. Sinestro, his traitorous former mentor, became his archnemesis.

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• BulletAnt - Barry Pym (Tales to Showcase)
• After his father was jailed for the murder of his mother, despite Barry knowing for a fact that he was innocent having seen something impossible attack his mother, Barry dedicated himself to proving the impossible to be possible. This would eventually lead to him staying in his lab late one day during the start-up of a particle accelerator. This would end up causing him and some strange particles he was working on to be supercharged by a lightning strike. As a result, he would end up being infused with the supercharged particles, allowing him to move at super speeds and allowing him to shrink and grow at will. Inspired by his late mother's death and the legacy of The Whizz Barry became a hero eventually being joined by Janet van West and later her nephew turned their surgery daughter Hope van West. Later after he began suffering mental issues caused by Pym particle exposure Barry passed the torch on to former thief Jessie Lang.

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• Hultrigan- Jason BanneBruce Blood
• Etrigan is a yellow-green-skinned and dark-eyed demon who was summoned by Merlin to aid Camelot against the forces of Morgaine le Fay. Years later he would be bonded with Jason Banner after being bombarded with a massive dose of gamma radiation while saving a young man's life during an experimental bomb test. Dr. Jason Blood Banner would end up going into hiding, taking up the name Bruce Blood, unable to control Hultrigan’s rage. In the present, Bruce Blood is a well-respected authority on demonology, is well-versed in the skill of magic and science, and has helped other superheroes on several occasions. Etrigan's habit of speaking in what can best be described as slam poetry.

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Part-Time Reserve:

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Arachni-Bat - Peter Wayne (Fantasy Detective Comics)

• Peter Wayne was the son of the fairly wealthy Mary and Richard Wayne who tragically died after being mugged by Joe Carradine. Peter would go on to be adopted by his aunt Lesslie Parker and their butler May Pennyworth. However, following that night the memory would stick with Peter driving him into an isolating depression becoming bitter and self-centered with only the Osborn siblings being able to break him out of his stupor. One seemingly arbitrary day Lesslie asked Peter to show news reporter Marry Jane Vale around one of Wayne Industries and show off what they’ve been working on. While there however Pete ends up bit by one of the projects, a genetically modified spider that had been mutated with bat DNA and a bit of radiation. This bite slowly begins changing Peter and over the next couple of days causes him to develop superhuman abilities. However instead of using his gift for good he just fell deeper in his stupor now seeing himself as a freak, even beginning to push away his aunt and becoming more callous to the people of his city, that is until tragedy struck. A few days later Peter would end up blowing up at MJ Vale leading Lesslie to take it upon herself to meet the reporter to talk things out. However, this would prove fatal as they’d be faced with a mugger that would accidentally kill Lesslie when she tried to defend Mary Jane. Filled with rage Peter took up a shotty disguise and hunted the crook, only when he did he’d find it was a former employee that he had fired early that month. Blaming himself for everything Peter vowed to make a difference for the better and to honor the responsibility his power warrants. He’d spin a year training under various teachers before returning to his home now with the secret identity of the Arachi-Bat, a snarky hero that protected GothamQueens, with a variety of neat tools at his disposal.

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• AmericanMarvel-Billy Rogers/Steve Batson
• Rejected by the army during World War II due to his age and poor health but still intent on serving his country, Billy Rogers volunteered for a Super Soldier project that would give him increased physical capabilities greater than those of the mightiest human athletes. Unknown to him the doctor conducting the experiment was in reality a powerful wizard that granted him god-like powers. The World's Mightiest Mortal, AmericanMarvel is one of Earth's most powerful heroes. Clad in his red and blue uniform and white-and-gold shield, Billy stands as a symbol of courage, strength, and kindness. Whenever he speaks the wizard's name—"SHAZAM!"—he is transformed into the mighty American Marvel! He became a patriotic symbol in his fight against the Axis powers before disappearing mysteriously. Flash forward many decades later and he was eventually thawed out by ARGUILDE. Taking on the new allies Steve Batson he continues fighting for the American way along with his slowly growing team of friends.

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• HuntingSpider-Helena Romanoff
• Helena Romanof was originally the daughter of Russian mobsters she was kidnapped and brainwashed into being a super spy for a Russian spy agency after they killed the rest of her family. She was however later snapped out of her brainwashing after being captured by young hero WarriorrSpirit. Since then she has turned to being a vigilante though one that often works with ARGUILDE, though she’ll turn against it in a heartbeat if she senses anything fishy.

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• FateRider-Nelson Blaze
• Nelson Blaze was a wannabe motorcycle stuntman who went with his father to an archaeological dig where his father would’ve met an early end. Would’ve because but was saved by his son making a deal with an ancient god Zababu, becoming his avatar, The FateRider.

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• Specter Knight/Detective Moon-March Sage/Jim Lockley/Charles Grant
• March Sage was once a U.S. Intelligence Officer, but quit and became a high-profile reporter, after a call from his old friend, a former pilot, and Professor Aristotle DuChamp, often referred to simply as "FrenchTot", to visit an Egyptian site along with his partner Alexander Bushman The trio soon found an archaeological dig that unearthed a temple of an old god named Specshu, with a statue of Specshu within. Bushman decided to loot the site, and in response, Sage picked a fight with Bushman that did not go as well as planned. As Sage lay dying, Specs appeared to him in a vision and offered to bring him back to life if he became the god's avatar on Earth. He did. As a consequence of his deal, his until then dormant, DID began to reemerge due to the stress.

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• BlindBowman-Oliver Murdook
• Son of the owner of a prized law firm head and well-respected boxing club owner. Oliver Murdock's life would take a different turn after his family yacht was attacked, killing his father and burning his eyes, forcing him to live on a deserted island. Using only his bow and his enhanced senses to survive, Oliver would eventually returns to civilization and use his newly honed skills to fight crime as the BlindBowman.

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• LightningClaw-Logan Pierce/Jefferson Howlett
• Though currently known as Logan Pierce LightningClaw was initially named Jefferson Howlett. Born a couple of hundred years ago with the ability to grow electricity-charged claws and a strong healing factor. He was later taken in by the Weapon X program where he’d get an atmentium coating on his claws. However, during his time in the program, he ended up losing his memory. Since then he has gone by Logan Pierce and ended up working as a school teacher in a run-down neighborhood. After rediscovering his powers he decided to become a vigilante by the name of LighntingClaw. He has also had an on again off again membership with the X-Patrol.

[First][Prev]
Memory transcription subject: Andes Savulescu-Ruiz, Human Director at the Venlil Rehabilitation and Reintegration Facility. Universal translator tech.
Date [standardized human time]: Dec 3 2136
I wandered up to the boys after Lihla got a bit bored of head scritches. Parents were still wandering around, but the three of them seemed pretty comfortable engaging in parallel play off in the back of the play room.
"Hello there," I said. I didn't have to be too mindful to avoid looming over them. They seemed largely unaffected by my size, and were themselves taller than some of the venlil nurses already. I wondered idly what the Arxur cut-offs for ages were. If we'd have to separate them from the girls.
"Your savageness," one said, bowing. "You honour us with your presence."
The other two bowed as well. The girls usually just scurried away, except for Lihla's insistence on "sitting with me". How differently had the boys been treated?
"That's um, that's not necessary," I said, gesticulating vaguely, "how are you boys doing?"
They stood up straight.
"I have been using the board to make squiggling lines," one said, pointing at the drawing board. "It is relaxing."
"I have been putting similar shapes together," said the next. He pointed at a table where he had sorted different blocks. One of the smaller girls looked tempted by his collection, and the fact that his attention was currently primarily on me. Just like Lihla, she moved in slow, incremental steps, ready to run away should her approach turn sour. I managed not to laugh, and kept my attention on the boys.
"I have been assembling the sticky triangles," said a third, and showed me a pretty good-looking geodesic dome he must have gotten just by building outward with the triangle magnets in a spiral pattern.
"Ah. Very nice. I was told you went to the doctor recently," I added.
"Yes, my teeth are very good and I am strong!"
"They tested my pain resistance with a big needle, but I did not scream," said the second one, clearly bragging.
"My appointment is later," said the third. I was a little impressed by how orderly they were. Like each of them knew their number in the order of who got to talk when.
"Well, that's good to know. If you find anything uncomfortable, please tell me so we can make it better for you," I said. They tilted their heads in confusion. "I'm Director Andes. You can ask to be brought to my office and any aide or nurse should be able to guide you there."
"I'm 857–" one started, and was quickly elbowed by the one next to him. He hissed in pain, then looked back at me and shook himself. "I'm Tito."
"I'm Julio."
"I'm Marco."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you boys," I said, smiling behind my visor. It was very exciting to hear them use the names they were given at the hospital. Aside from Lihla, none of the girls seemed very interested in getting names. A few of the nurses and aides had suggested some to them, but none had really stuck.
"It's nice to meet you, Savageness," Marcus said. To my and apparently his brothers' surprise, he jutted out a paw in front of him. I chuckled and shook it. The other two emulated Marcus, and I shook their paws as well. While I did that, the girl that had been eyeing Julio's collection stole a handful of blocks and scurried off to hide.
"Well, boys, I should be getting back to work now, but like I said, if you need help in any way, just ask for me."
They all nodded quickly. I gave Larzo a wave and headed back to my office. Once there, I updated Lihla’s file, made an appointment with Karim to discuss our situation, and finished the third batch of applications from prospective parents. I wasn't going to let him get his paws on it, especially given that they were in the lower income deciles. Venlil adoption incentives seemed to be meaningfully stronger than those of, say, Canada. In Canada, adoption often meant adoptive parents faced a wide variety of hurdles, but in Venlil Prime there were meaningful financial incentives that would more than make up for the cost of living of an average child. With special needs children, there was the added concern of accommodations. Venlil society was not well built for a neurodiverse population. Still, the financial incentive meant that I was looking for experience with children, a history of de-escalation of some sort, that sort of thing. I had no idea what Karim was looking for, but he did not strike me as a particularly charitable evaluator.
We already had verbal children with translator implants whose next step would be adoption and regular outpatient evaluations. We needed to ensure there were plenty of opportunities for them, including prospective human adoptive parents. So I erred on the side of generosity, with the knowledge that all of those whose application was accepted would still have to have interviews, and regular check-ins, to ensure nothing untoward happened to the children.
I took another walk near the end of my shift, and saw that Kanarel was being given a tour by a security officer. I gave him a little wave and he waved back. Only one claw after he'd been hired and he'd already hit the ground running! A few of the human volunteers were staring, and whispering to each other. His appearance might prove a little stressful, but I figured they'd get used to him soon enough.
I checked on the production labs, translator stock was solid and we could give the girls the implant next week. I ran through some reports, flagged a few things for later analysis, updated my own files in the shared database, pulled some files from other facilities for later reviewing. It was a very productive day, all told.
Eventually, I finished my shift and sent an email to the whole facility, first requesting that any invasive tests for the "predator" children seek my approval before going forward, and second explaining that I would be reducing my shifts to 2 or occasionally 2.5 claws. If I had actually been well-rested, I wouldn't have dismissed Varla when she tried to tell me about the boys' horns. I hadn't had a weekend in a month and a half, but that could wait. First, no more twelve-hour shifts.
Plus, if I had smaller shifts, maybe I could have days with a late start, and days with an early start. That might help fight the "sliding" schedule I had fallen into, with my 6-claw "days" of 24 hours failing to fit into a 20-hour paw.
Larzo spotted me as I was getting ready to leave.
"I would like to request the Upper Salwick game you owe me," he said, and I smiled behind the mask.
"That sounds great, actually."
We got to his place a few minutes later. His hensa was deep asleep on a bed of pillows Larzo assured me was her own making.
After a few minutes, the reason Larzo thought I was sure to win was obvious. "Upper Salwick" was some sort of weird, strategic Jenga. Each player had a set of parts, and each turn you had to play one of each type, as you built your little structure out of alien toy building blocks. Then, each player had five balls which were to be tossed at the other player's structure. Or shot through a little tube you could use as a dart gun. If both structures survived unscathed, you removed one piece and tried to knock them down with the balls again.
Larzo and I were mostly evenly matched in our ability to build something that wouldn't collapse on its own. The alien building blocks were not quite as stable as LEGO blocks, and made a very gentle, smooth sound when they hit the ground. Both structures would be elevated on a little platform made up of parts of the box re-folded (really clever design, actually). Any blocks that fell off the platform were a point in your enemy's favour.
I learned playing with Larzo that humans are much better at throwing things than the entire fucking galaxy. If you could score in paper football, you could beat almost any non-human sophont in Upper Salwick.
The standard "strategy" was to build the tallest, thinnest, most physically stable structure, on the grounds that your opponent would need a meaningful amount of luck (given the expected distances between the players and the size of the balls) in order to knock it over. People built in Upper Salwick to avoid being knocked down. A pyramid was the most stable structure I could design with those blocks. It was also the most likely to be hit, but it survived two or three hits before the first block fell off. I played to be able to withstand being knocked down.
Larzo built some sort of tower and I knocked it down on my second shot. He hit my pyramid five times and only one block fell down.
"I knew it. Those arboreal eyes of yours! Lulling me into a false sense of security with that miss…"
"I haven't played beer pong in ten years, cut me some slack," I said. I used my last three balls to knock the remnants of his tower off the platform. By the end of the first round, I had a pyramid minus one block, and he had literally two pieces left out of the starting twenty-five.
"Are we playing elimination or standard?" he asked as he gathered his fallen pieces.
"That should have been settled before we started, dude, I didn't know there were variations."
"Well, I assumed standard, but now I am looking for an excuse to play another game," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
I laughed. "I take it you underestimated how hard I would win?"
"I did not know it was possible to knock pieces off the platform after you had already collapsed your opponent's structure."
I struggled not to laugh. “Well, what do you want to do now?”
"Perhaps we could go to one of the human growling bars," Larzo said, and I nearly spat out my water.
"...The what?" I croaked, and had to clear my throat.
"They're not too far out by train, humans regularly walk from the refugee camps to them," he continued. I stared at him.
"Larzo, what the fuck is a growling bar?"
"I thought it was a human tradition," he said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Humans go to these bars and growl as loudly as they can, bellowing their grief of Earth's bombing. On occasion, I have passed by and heard screeches translated as 'yesterday, all my woes appeared to be distant, now it seems that they are permanent."
The realization hit me like a smack from Rodriguez. "No way. No. That's not–Are you calling that a growling bar?"
"Yes. What is the proper nomenclature, if not that?" he asked.
-----
Memory transcription subject: Lieutenant Asleth, Arxur Dominion Third Fleet.
Date [standardized human time]: Oct 19, 2136
When I volunteered to aid the humans after the bombing, I did not grasp the extent of their devotion to prey. I arrived at the Canadian space port near a vast, beautiful lake, and once there was taken to a hangar wherein I was made to wait.
And wait.
And wait, until that prophet-damned squealer would stop squirming with fear. They were not so far that I could not hear, but listening only exacerbated my exhaustion at the situation.
“You’re going to be perfectly safe,” said one of the humans. I worried that they would refuse our help altogether to appease it. That the only fellow sapients the Galaxy had to offer would reject us just the same as the prey had. That they would first love creatures that hated them, before any Arxur. No matter our help, our curiosity, our desire to join forces.
“No I’m not, and I’m not going to get myself eaten for you apes!” the creature squealed. How could humans stand for such disrespect?
“If you would like to resign, we can return you to your fleet–”
“No! I–I can do this, I can do this I—I can’t do this!”
“We specifically paired you with an Arxur whose job is primarily communications,” the human said patiently. “This is not a raider, or a front-line soldier.”
“It’s still a monster!”
I groaned from my place in the room, waiting on, and on… These tree-dwelling chatterboxes wouldn’t know an ally if they saved their species from extinction.
“I’m afraid we can’t turn down Arxur help right now. They’re much stronger than humans, having one on your team means we can send more of our own elsewhere. Help more people.”
“You’re telling me humans are too weak to protect me from those monsters?!”
“Well, no, we’ll still have armed men, but when it comes to pulling people out of rubble…”
There was a curious silence, after which the prey made a proposal.
“Call the translator tech. The one who worked with the prisoners. My friend worked with him. She said he could talk them down from anything. The [one who whispers at lizards].”
That was an interesting development. I leaned a little bit towards the wall, to see if I could hear better. There was a pause during what I assumed was the human speaker’s search for a communication device.
“Hey, Andes?.. You were scheduled to land today, would you by any chance still–Perfect. Can you come over to Hangar Bay five?.. I’m sorry, I know your contract–we’ll compensate you. Look, I have a Zurulian here who won’t set foot within prowling distance of our Arxur volunteer without you here… Not my fault you're famous... Time is lives, pal. See you in a few.”
“Well?” the prey creature squeaked.
“They’ll be here in a bit. We caught them just in time.”
The next few minutes were exhausting. Waiting in silence while mere metres away the humans coddled the terrified prey. Eventually, the door opened and I awakened from the haze of boredom.
In stepped a human in one of those formal sets of armour they wore with the white lining their ribcage, black layer on top, and the noose around their throats. Behind the human was the Zurulian, cowering, as they always did.
Behind the two of them came another human, wearing armour even less protective than the noose-wearer's. He(?) was further made distinct by the other humans in military armour, much like the ones I had seen around other bases, or in their communications network. Not to mention that the soldiers all stood straight, their bodies stiff, their jaws marked, while the civilian slouched and yawned, his body on its face weaker and softer than the soldiers’.
“Alright, Asleth was it?” the one in the black pelt with the noose said. I wondered briefly if it was a measure of trust. They wore a noose around their necks so that they could be more easily strangled, and thus their good behaviour was ensured…
“Yes,” I said. “I am Lieutenant Asleth, I work communications as you told the vermin, and volunteered to assist in the rescue of survivors from the city of Royalmount.”
“Perfect,” said the human. “This here is Dr. Rusen. These guys are Philippe, Francois, and David. And the newest recruit to the team, who will be working with Dr. Rusen, is Dr. Andes Savulescu-Ruiz.”
“Still not technically–” began Andes Savulescu-Ruiz, but the man in the noose waved him off.
“Close enough. You'll be doing first aid, checking victims for brain damage, so on. Anyhow, they’ll be working with you, Asleth, and keeping the peace for good ol’ Rusen here. All of you behave, the transport should be here real soon, and then it’ll be a long day’s work.”
The noose-wearing man gave us all a nod and wandered back out the door.
I looked at the least-armoured human and tried to remember their greeting rituals. He offered a hand and I shook it with my claws, doing my best not to dig into his flesh. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Andes Savulescu-Ruiz.”
“Just Andes is fine,” he said with a smile. I realized then that although the Zurulian was the only one cowering, the other humans were tense in my presence. This ‘Just Andes’ was the only one of the whole lot who did not make much distinction between me and his fellow humans. The rest seemed reluctant to approach, ready to betray my opened claw of friendship at a moment’s notice, should I prove a threat.
The transport arrived. It was two-tiered, with a front section large enough to seat five humans, and a back section that was very much an open box with some additional safety straps.
“We had to get a pickup truck to be able to carry the croc, I hope it’s not an issue,” said the human at the front of the vehicle. I did some quick accounting of the population and concluded I would likely be isolated in the back, waiting once again.
“I’ll ride with Asleth,” Andes said, “Rusen can go in the front with you guys."
There were a few nods, and the soldiers began to pour into the vehicle. I climbed aboard the back, and Andes hopped on as well with a litheness that surprised me given his looser, pudgier form in comparison to the soldiers. Within moments, the vehicle had begun to move and Andes had attached himself to it with a safety strap. Once on our way, he rummaged around in a bag to get a helmet much like the other soldiers’.
“So comms, eh? I’ve been working with a lot of Arxur in the past few months. I’m curious, can you tell me about your writing system?”
“...Our writing system?” I echoed. Of all the questions I expected to get from a human, this was not one of them.
“Yeah, I noticed that there are a lot of spikes, and the number of vowels--or analogues, anyhow--doesn’t seem to correlate with the length of a word, so I was wondering if you use diacritic marks, or…”
I stared blankly at him. “What are diacritic marks?”
His whole face lit up and he began to explain. The Arxur have teachers–we must, for we have things that ought be taught–but I had never before seen a creature so delighted by the opportunity to teach. Teachers were, in my experience, exasperated disciplinarians who disdained their duty to those who knew less than they. Andes found it joyous to speak, and it helped me find it joyous to listen. All humans, so far as I knew, had beautifully musical voices. Still, Andes’ had a light in it that I had heard from none others in my brief time on Earth, and my less brief time investigating their communications.
I wondered idly if my irritation at spending time with fellows was truly a mark of our people, or if we were simply not used to the joys of conversation that humans could bring forth. Perhaps this is what the Arxur of old had yearned for, before the Federation made itself known to us. A chance to converse with another sapient who was so very alien, and yet so much the same.
Translators had done a great deal to undermine the details of language. I did not much care if Zurulian was a subject-object-verb language or an object-verb-subject language, even as a communications officer. After all, what I heard was simply squealing in Zurulian, and most of my job involved sorting through potential alternative translations, investigating context, and discovering when a good time to attack might be. I had greater expertise in their (comically poor) encryption practices. Their tongue itself may as well have been a mystery. And why should an Arxur care for such lesser languages, anyhow? Could squealing like that truly be called a language at all? Or was the translator doing a great deal of the "heavy lifting", as it were?
“--Look, here, write me a sentence like ‘the rock falls in the water’,” he said, pulling forth a pad and a little wooden implement with graphite in the middle. I obliged though it felt rather odd to use an extra, wooden claw to write.
He looked at it. “Now please separate the words ‘rock’, ‘falls’ and ‘water’.”
I was confused. “That is not possible.”
His eyes grew, his pupils firmly focused on me. “...What?”
“It is not possible,” I repeated, “Rock is not just this,” I pointed to one of the sections. “It is also this,” I pointed to another. “Similarly, for it to fall on the water, then the falling must be…” My brow crinkled as I struggled for the term. He stared at me in anticipation. “The falling must be infected by the water.”
“Infected?” he asked.
“Yes. The words infect one another. Perhaps if I spoke of it as though it were a plan, ‘it is the arrangement for the rock to, in the future, fall upon the water’... Then the infection is that of the arrangement, and so rock, fall, and water are all affected by it, not by one another…”
I wrote it out in that fashion, and Andes stared in astonishment.
“Is this… Grammatical genders as tenses? Is this like the animate-inanimate distinction in Innu?” he mused, confusing me further. Were not all tongues so interwoven? “I swear, when this is all over, I need to go to Wriss. This is insane. What are those particles? How do abbreviations work? What’s the orthographic depth on this?”
I felt a need to thank the cowardly little creature for demanding Andes' presence. I realized at that moment that I had never seen a person be interested in the Arxur. We knew ourselves, or liked to think so. The Federation knew all they wished. His curiosity flattered me in ways I could not describe. It was an insistence, in itself, that I was worth learning about.
------
I will have to provide thanks to a variety of people, on the grounds that the past few weeks have not been good to my brain. u/Acceptable_Egg5560, u/cruisingNW, u/Liberty-Prime76, u/SavingSyllabus7788,u/AnEldritchroflcopter (who named Rusen), and someone whose reddit username I do not currently know, but will be editing in later if they so desire.
Everyone has been very kind, and I highly appreciate their generosity.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/bonus-bonanza
Header Image ^[Imgur]
Welcome to June. We are officially half-way through The Year of Our Arbiter 2023—isn't the passage of time terrifying!
Let’s get you caught up on all the latest happenings in the worlds of Halo, from Season 4: Infection news, an upcoming bonus XP weekend, getting your own Husky Raid maps into matchmaking, MCC modding, HCS DreamHack Dallas, and much more...

HALO INFINITE

BONUS XP WEEKEND INBOUND
Looking to finish up that Battle Pass before Season 4: Infection arrives later this month? Bonus XP has come to Halo Infinite to help you out.
Alongside the HCS Global Invitational at DreamHack Dallas, spanning June 2 through to 10AM on June 5, you can earn bonus XP for completed matches in Halo Infinite.
COMMUNITY DOUBLES MAPS
This week, the Community Doubles playlist arrived in Halo Infinite and we’ve added four new community-made Forge maps for you and your partner. Jump in to test the strength of your teamwork and skill.
The maps added are Daimyo, Arrival, Dead Water, and Last Broadcast.
SPARTAN CHATTER
Halo Infinite concept art for the Infection mode showing three Spartans infected by Iratus
“Spartan Chatter” is a new avenue we are exploring to provide direct updates to the Halo community through the Discord Stage feature on the official Halo server.
In our latest episode, Sean Baron, Head of Halo Infinite Live Service, stopped by to answer community questions, discuss player customization, and share new details on what to expect when Season 4 arrives on June 20—including Infection and Career Rank.
MAY UPDATE
On May 10, an update was released to address various community-requested quality-of-life improvements, sandbox tuning updates, and bug fixes, featuring developer commentary to break down each of these elements in further detail.
This blog details updates to modes (such as Super Fiesta’s addition of the campaign’s unique weapon and Equipment variants), sandbox balance tuning (including changes to the Disruptor, as well as Spike and Dynamo Grenades), Forge updates, and more.
HALO INFINITE MAY UPDATE
INTEL
The Season 3 run of Intel data drops came to a close this week, providing some additional lore and context to certain narrative elements of the season—from Spartan Dinh’s backstory, to Created activity on some of the new maps, and disruptions caused by Iratus.
HALO INFINITE ECHOES WITHIN INTEL
FRACTURE: FIREWALL & PRECIPICE
Fracture: FIREWALL key art depicting an army of Executors in a human city with High Auxiliary Sloan displayed on a building and a Guardian in the background
The Fracture: FIREWALL event will return one last time on June 13, giving you a final opportunity to earn customization rewards for your CHIMERA armor as part of the free 20-tier Event Pass and claim your FIREWALL Logo Pin as part of Season 3’s Halo Gear Rewards.
Alongside that, the accompanying Precipice Story Shard series will also conclude when the event returns. In the latest chapter, High Auxiliary Sloan has learned of the Assembly—a clandestine cabal of AIs we discovered in data pads back in Halo: Reach. What does this uncovered mystery mean for the future of the Created?
STORY SHARD: PRECIPICE
FORGE FEATURES & HUSKY RAID
Wanna get your maps into matchmaking? Well, we’re on the lookout for your best Husky Raid arenas as we look to bring the fan-favorite mode to Halo Infinite.
If you’re feeling up to the creative challenge, you can start your map from scratch, or if you’re looking for some prefab templates you can download and utilize these in the creation of your Husky Raid map.

• 343 Husky Raid – Alley Template
• 343 Husky Raid – Trench Template

Once you feel your map is ready to be published, don’t forget to tag it with 343ask-HuskyRaid and be sure to include a screenshot. Have ‘em ready for June 30!
For more information (and a showcase of more amazing community maps), check out our latest issue of Forge Features.
FORGE FEATURES 012
SHOP & ULTIMATE REWARD
Complete all of your challenges this week in order to unlock the Ultimate Reward: the Orchid Cluster visor.
Halo Infinite image of the Orchid Cluster visor ^[Imgur]
And head over to the Shop to grab the Synthetic Dawn bundle, featuring the following items for your CHIMERA armor:

• Noob Cube stance
• Flayer Crysknife shoulders
• Synthetic Dawn armor effect
• Flayed Nerve armor coating

Halo Infinite image of the SYnthetic Dawn shop bundle ^[Imgur]
UNITY
Happy Pride Month, Spartans! LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is a global celebration of self, identity, love, and freedom to be who we are. In the words of Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief himself: A Spartan's job is to fight for all of humanity. We're all stronger together, celebrating the things that make us unique as the foundation of our community.
Log in to Halo Infinite and MCC at any time during the month of June and you’ll receive the free Unity emblem and nameplate in each respective game.
Image of the Halo Infinite and MCC Unity emblems for Pride Month ^[Imgur]

MCC

Modtacular header showcasing eight community Halo mods
In case you missed it, we’ve been spotlighting a bunch of community-made mods for MCC.
We released our first issue back in April, where we looked at the likes of Cursed Halo Again, Halo 3: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 Uncut, Ultimate Forge, and more.
In May, we jumped feet-first into Flood-infected city streets. We unleashed mayhem on Sandtrap, battling against hordes of enemy AI—even the Didact and Gravemind showed up to the party! We saw Halo reimagined in Minecraft, and we fought the most terrifying boss of all... the Halo 3 rat.
HALO: MCC MOD SPOTLIGHT: MAY 2023

HALO ESPORTS

HCS GLOBAL INVITATIONAL AT DREAMHACK DALLAS
Banner for HCS DreamHack Dallas 2023
With online competition complete in split 1, we have determined who will be participating in the HCS Global Invitational at Dreamhack Dallas from June 2-4.
The top 16 teams (10-NA, 4-EU, 1-MX, 1-ANZ) based on HCS points from all events year to-date will be competing for their slice of the $125K prize pool.
Catch all the action, including your chance to earn new Twitch Drops, by watching Twitch.tv/Halo.
Learn more by visiting halo.gg and by following HCS on Twitter!
For you fine folks who are heading over to HCS DreamHack Dallas this weekend, you’ll be able to get hands-on with some Season 4: Infection content coming to Halo Infinite on June 20.
For those of you at home, tune into the stream to get all the event exclusive news on Season 4. Whether we’re seeing you in chat or at the event itself, we hope you’re ready to go once more unto the breach for an exciting weekend of competitive Halo (featuring the new Ember Hex weapon coating Twitch Drops).
Halo Infinite image of the Ember Hex weapon coating

HALO GEAR

PRIDE 2023 - HALO GEAR SHOP
Celebrate and show your support with the new 2023 PRIDE collection in the Xbox Gear Shop!
Image of 2023 Xbox Pride t-shirts
DR. SQUATCH x HALO
We partnered again with our friends at Dr. Squatch to re-release the legendary Halo Spartan Scrub and introduce the Spartan Shield deodorant. Hopefully, you were able to snag the new Spartan Shield deodorant before they sold out! If not, stay tuned for more availability later this year.
There’s still time to secure the Spartan Scrub and receive a code to unlock the exclusive Smellbringer Armor Coatings.
Head over to Halo x Dr. Squatch!
Image of Spartan Shield Deodorant from the 2023 Halo x Dr. Squatch partnership
HALO: EPITAPH
In May, we revealed the cover art for Halo: Epitaph, illustrated by Chris McGrath.
Halo: Epitaph is the next novel by Kelly Gay, which will explore the final fate of the Didact in the wake of his defeat at the end of Halo 4 —and his subsequent composition in the Halo: Escalation comic series.
Scheduled for release on January 2, 2024, stay tuned for chapter previews later this year!
PRE-ORDER HALO: EPITAPH
Stripped of armor, might, and memory, the Forerunner warrior known as the Didact was torn from the physical world following his destructive confrontation with the Master Chief and sent reeling into the mysterious depths of a seemingly endless desert wasteland. This once powerful and terrifying figure is now a shadow of his former self—gaunt, broken, desiccated, and alone. But this wasteland is not as barren as it seems. A blue light glints from a thin spire in the far distance…
Thus begins the Didact’s great journey—the final fate of one of the galaxy’s most enigmatic and pivotal figures.
Cover art of Halo: Epitaph by Chris McGrath depicting the hooded figure of the Didact with half a broken helmet in a desert environment, the tower of Halo 3's map Epitaph in the background

RADAR BLIPS

• CANON FODDER – DIDACT'S DELIGHTS: In the May edition of Canon Fodder, we take a closer look at the cover art of Kelly Gay’s upcoming novel, Halo: Epitaph, featuring the return of the Didact, and dive into some other lore goodness.
• COMMUNITY CORNER – MOTOSTREAMS: In our latest Community Corner issue, we're joined by Moto Streams to learn about her history with Halo over the years and how she cultivated one of the most wholesome streaming communities out there!
• WAYPOINT APP SUNSETTING: The Halo Waypoint app for iOS and Android platforms will officially be sunset on June 7, 2023. The Halo Waypoint website on mobile and desktop will remain the home for Halo game service records, file shares, leaderboards, franchise news, HCS, code redemption, and more.

THE ARTIST’S CORNER

This month’s piece from The Artist’s Corner is an illustration by David Heidhoff from Halo Mythos, depicting the Desecration of Ulgethon—a first contact encounter that would ignite decades of conflict between the Sangheili and San’Shyuum known as the War of Beginnings.
When the San’Shyuum landed on the desolate world of Ulgethon, a planet that appeared entirely uninhabited, the first pioneer detachment identified a repository of Forerunner relics. Upon arriving at the site, however, they found it inhabited by the Sangheili, and they spoke with their leader—an Arbiter known as Vema ‘Togad, who would come to be known as the Prophet’s Bane.
After learning of their intentions to excavate the ancient relics, ‘Togad slaughtered the San’Shyuum delegation and sent their severed heads back to the Anodyne Spirit as a warning. And so, the War of Beginnings erupted, with the San’Shyuum taking their dreadnought to the skies where it was met by a blockade of Sangheili ships, which is the scene depicted in the artwork below.
You can learn more about this fascinating period of early Covenant history in the Halo 2: Anniversary Terminals, the novel Halo: Broken Circle, and in the 2022 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia.
Halo Mythos art by David Heidhoff showing the War of Beginnings between the Sangheili and San'Shyuum on the world of Ulgethon ^[Imgur]
That brings us to the end of this Community Update.
Get started on those Husky Raid maps, check out some fantastic MCC mods, tune into the HCS stream this weekend, earn some bonus XP in Halo Infinite to round off your Battle Pass, and carve out some time in your calendar for January 2024 to reunite with the Didact in the Domain.
And, of course, prepare yourself for the wrath of Iratus when Season 4 arrives on June 20. The anticipation has been, shall we say... infectious.
This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

I am writing this with tears in my eyes as I have just lost the dearest thing in my life. She was just 4 months old, a beautiful mini dachshund that was not meant to live and passed away too fast.
I've always liked dogs but I hadn't thought of getting one before living in a big house with a yard. My girlfriend managed to change my mind about this and she convinced me to get a dachshund, and 1.5 months ago we stumbled online upon the most beautiful little creature and decided to bring her home. She immediately showed us so much affection and we responded by giving her all the love we had. We live in an apartment so we took her to the park multiple times a week, we walked her at least 6 times a day and played with her the whole day through. We were so motivated to do things right that we even followed a training course for little dogs and she already knew many tricks for her young age.
Four days ago, the wineries in our region opened their doors to everyone for wine tasting and it was a beautiful day along the lake so we took her with us. There are obviously a lot of vineyards so we were extremely careful to not let her go near the grapes. It was quite hot, around 24°C so we made sure to do plenty of breaks where our little baby could nap and drink water to hydrate. We were so careful. Later that day we sat outside at a bar, and we could feel our dog pull the leash. When we looked we saw that she was sniffing or licking some sort of vomit on the floor that we hadn't seen because the color of it was similar to the grass beneath it. We immediately changed table and our little baby fell asleep on my lap. A little bit later she woke up and puked on my shirt, we thought it was funny at the moment and that she must have eaten something that upset her tummy, probably the vomit which came from another dog. On the walk back home she was completely fine, wagging her tail and sniffing everything with her little snout as she usually did. We put her in her crate, kissed her goodnight and went to sleep.
The next day we woke up to her vomiting and being very lethargic. She didn't jump out of her crate like she usually did to greet us and lick our faces, she wasn't hungry while she usually destroys her meals in a few seconds and she didn't want to walk outside. She also randomly screamed in pain for a very brief moment here and there. We immediately called an emergency vet to come home because our usual clinic was closed for a national holiday. He came fast and examined her thoroughly, after which he concluded that it must be an acute gastritis, and provided some meds to make her feel better. However, our baby did not improve. She continued puking and screaming in pain after the vet left and we were already crying by then. We called the vet again and he came back, checked her thoroughly a second time by running an echograph and gave her an antispasmodic to stop the sharp pain. He still thought that it was a gastritis, and she would likely feel better very quickly, in a day or so. The antispasmodic made appeased her, she was still very lethargic but stopped having sharp pains so we were hopeful she would go back to jumping and running in no time.
Unfortunately, we woke up to her vomiting again. She hadn't eaten and barely drank for a day now, so I brought her to the emergency vet as soon as I woke up. They took her in very quickly to run an x-ray and other tests, and the doctor told me that she could have eaten something that stayed inside her in which case they would need to operate. Regardless, they kept her, and would call to give more information after getting the lab results. Not even an hour later, I was shopping groceries and I received the dreadful call. Her Potassium levels were way too high, the doctor was suspecting kidney failure and told me that she might need dialysis very quickly. There were two clinics that had the medical equipment necessary for this, one was 1 hour away but would be extremely expensive (~10k) and the other was 2.5 hours away and would be about half the price if not less. We are not rich by any means but to save our baby we would have paid the price... I asked her if the 1.5 hours extra would lower the chance of survival of our baby and she said no, so we decided to go with the second option. I called my girlfriend sobbing and she came home right away, after which we left for the clinic... When we arrived there, they told us to wait, which made me so mad because they told us to be there by a certain hour which we did. However when our little baby, which was so tired and fragile by now, started vomiting again, they took her in right away. The vet told her that because our dog is so small and weak they would not start with the dialysis right away and will try to lower the potassium levels by other agressive treatments. She also said that the puppy was in a very bad state and her survival is not guaranteed. We broke down crying. We asked to see our baby, and when we saw her she managed to wag her little tail and look at us with her loving eyes while we were struggling to keep our tears from pouring out. We wanted to look strong for our baby and not worry her, she looked so lost and fragile... I will never forget that look in her eyes. The vets obviously knew better, so we agreed to let them do whatever they think is best to save our baby... We were told she would stay there multiple days, and because my girlfriend needed to work the next day, we drove all the way back and would come see our puppy in a couple of days. On the drive home, we received a call from the doctor saying that they managed to lower her potassium levels with the treatment, and the pup peed by herself which were both very good signs. This gave us a glimmer of hope and we were able to stop crying for the night and start having positive thoughts when going to sleep.
And this is where it all comes crashing down. We were told to call after 11:00, so the wait until then was unbearable. I am not working at the moment so I was home alone, crying, shouting, trying to make sense of this situation that happened so quickly and unexpectedly. I just wanted to hear good news. It didn't have to be great news, just some improvement that would let us have a bit more of that hope we so desperately needed. My girlfriend called them at 11:00... the Potassium levels were back up, they didn't manage to stabilize them. They realized that a dialysis might not be needed because there were other factors that would point to other diseases such as her increased hormone levels. They didn't know what was causing our baby to be like this... they had no idea. They called again twice in the following hour to tell us that her health deteriorated and she was now under assistance to breathe. We decided to leave and go see her right then and there... Once we got here after the 2.5 hour drive, our legs were shaking. We did not want to face the situation, we had cried the whole way and could not stop having horrible thoughts. The vet took us in and calmly explained to us that our baby's brain had been damaged irreparably due to an acute reaction to the anesthesia they gave her. She said it would have happened either way, anesthesia or not. The dialysis would likely kill her now and would probably not even solve the problem, because they could not find the cause. The doctor said that they had never seen a case like this, for a dog's health to degrade so fast and aggressively, they even put their whole team to brainstorm on possible diseases that would act this way to no avail. We were told that the most probable thing was a disease, possibly autoimmune, that she carried inside her and was maybe triggered by a gastritis. They said she was not suffering although I don't know if that was just to make us feel better. I fell on the floor crying. I could not believe this was happening to our baby. We took her in at 10 weeks, she was just 4 months old, we didn't even have her for the biggest part of her life and yet we felt like she had been with us for an eternity. I had never loved and cared for another being quite like I did for her. I spent all my days with her, she was the only thing making me feel less alone while I stayed home looking for a job. She was our everything. And she was dying.
They let us see her. She had cables everywhere. She was in a coma, her eyes were half-open and had a viscous liquid in them. Her tongue was sticking out from the side. She looked dead and she wasn't even being sedated. That image keeps replaying in my head over and over. Just the other day she was wagging her little tail and now she looked like her soul had left her body. We broke down crying again... we talked to her a bit, telling her that it would soon be over and she would be able to go to sleep forever, and we would hopefully see her one day again. We kissed her on her forehead as we usually did to tell her goodnight. We had brought her favorite toy so she would feel less alone. We were so devastated. I asked multiple times if there was any chance she would recover, even a tiny one, but the doctor said that the damage she had suffered to her brain would not be able to be reversed. The only other choice we had is that they would keep her to run more tests and hopefully find out what caused this... but she would not come back. We were hurt enough by the situation and could not bear more suffering, so we decided to put her away without pain. We held her little paws when she left us and I rubbed her between the eyes like I used to do when she fell asleep on the couch. After it happened, I asked to take off all the cables and let me hold her again for one last time. I just hope she didn't feel alone in her last moments...
They brought her in the other room covered in a blanket. I closed her eyes, it looked just like she was asleep. I held her lifeless body in my arms and sobbed uncontrollably. We called our parents and we couldn't say a word, just cries. We stayed with our baby a little bit longer in the room, talking to her even if she was already gone. After a while we had to go... we decided to cremate her body and not keep the ashes as it would just be a sad memory of her. They told us that she would get an autopsy as a last chance to find the cause but the probability of finding it was very slim.
We drove back home. The house felt empty, dead. I have never cried so much in my life. When I thought I had no more tears left in my body, more would come and I would start sobbing again. We hugged. We told ourselves that there was nothing else we could have done, and she would have died either way sooner or later. My dad said the only thing that managed to make me feel a little better: dogs don't have the same perception of time as we do. Our baby doesn't know that she died so young, all she knows is that she lived happily and was loved very much throughout her life. When we got in the shower, a hair brush fell on the floor. It was the hair brush that our puppy would always grab and run away with and would make us go mad. We like to think that she was still being silly from up there and that she was telling us to be strong and that she's okay. We took all her stuff and put it in the cellar, except her favorite toy that we kept as a memory. We booked the first flight in the morning to go see my girlfriend's family because we could not stay in the house right now. Our baby was not meant to live... Everything happened so fast, not even four days ago we thought it was just gastritis, and now we will never see her again. I hope she didn't suffer. I hope that in her dying moments she thought of the good times when she was running in the park chasing dogs 10 times her size while we were watching her, laughing our ass off. I hope she knew we loved her very much and will never be able to replace her. I hope she's in a better place now and can eat all the food she wants.
If anyone has any tips on how to feel better I would be more than glad to know about them. Right now it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and I don't know how I will emotionally recover from this. We want to get another puppy soon but the void left by our baby in our hearts will never be truly filled. We already miss her so much, she was our everything. Rest In Peace baby girl.
​
TL;DR: Our 4 month old puppy died unexpectedly and brutally from an unknown illness and my girlfriend and I are struggling to make sense of the world right now.

"How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" Hint: A competition winner with dark hair
I can think of younger days when living for my life
What might have been your favorite year of childhood? What was your aspiration during that year?
Was everything a man could want to do.
What is one example of a manly aspiration/ambition?
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow.
Were you depressed then? Are you happier now? What kind of sorrow have you experienced or witnessed that you would like to help others overcome?
And how can you mend a broken heart?
Do you think you a complete piece of chocolate can help to heal? How about adding more male merchandise at ethnic fashion stores like around the Town Square? Adding more ethnic/Rated-G music to the repertoire within those stores?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How about an umbrella or a roof? Or praying that it doesn't rain? What is your favorite umbrella design and color of roof tiles?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
Do you pray for eclipses? Do you pray for the night to come, whether it is a new moon or not?
What makes the world go round?
Gravity. Tectonics. Magnetic/hematite/lava interior The tidal programming, related to sun, moon, water cycle, atmospheric pressure, air quality. Orientation of other planets and celestial objects, eg comets (c) Dr. Diana Hallare. (R)
How can you mend a this broken man?
Orthopedics. Cardiology. Medicine based on systems. Allowing having but not possessing more trustworthy friends. Discouraging discrimination based on education/skills levels. Encouraging dreaming by communication eg conference and Shark Tank and by REM eg at night, like a car needs to rest too on a road trip or on Instacart rounds.
How can a loser ever win?
As Whoopi Goldberg said, you might need a (low-fat) milk-based drink... to lose weight and win fitness. Sometimes in golf you might think you're losing numbers to win. Last night, I gave up my contaminated bags, even a new one and much content to save my life and save the world. I danced without at least two bags, to encourage fitness/health in society; I lost some sleep because I was woken up by interesting guards in white but I gained more miles on a pedometer. I had the opportunity to see a beautiful red jacket, reminiscent of what I would wear at church, where I read the Bible aloud. Upon seeing that jacket on the rack, I gasped. Then the alarm rang.
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.
Prescriptions:

1. If you don't want to waste the rest of your 6 month subscription to something like Tinder, maybe prescribe one of your songs per member you encounter on that site. You can ask about one word on the song that made them feel better.
2. Do you have a CPAP/AED/Wonderful orange?
3. Find out your favorite flavors of Gatorade.
4. Check if you'd enjoy Luke's Lightning Chips from Grocery Outlet.
5. If you would make a quilt or pillowcase in class eg after a ride or two with the St George Express, what design would you have? Would you need special laundry settings if your masterpiece is at least 1 year old?

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
Do you like the Carpenters' "Top of the World" song? What is your favorite leaf color? What is your favorite tree?
And misty memories of days gone by
Do you like Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were"? Would her career as a professor inspire you to teach which university class? How many students would you prefer to be the limit for that class? Do you also like Lionel Richie's "Hello"?
We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow.
What do you hope tomorrow to have/bring? What word can you describe about sorrow?
And how can you mend a broken heart?
Prescription: Would you talk (about dreams, plans, and issues) to an LPCC or more than one member of the Association of "Black" Therapists, eg MFTs? Teletherapy? Group therapy similar to AA or WRAP? Would you have a preference of race if you have a personal registered dietitian?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
Get a water park ion the roof? Or a roof garden like with Reese Witherspoon? (c) Dr. Diana Hlalare (R)
How can you stop the sun from shining?
Why do you want to stop it from shining? Do you want greenery on the mountains? Do you want no more rainforests? Do you want no more grass/hay for the sheep, horses, goats, zebras, giraffes, deer, oryxes, gazelles, antelopes, prairie dogs, cows, bulls? What would the mole in Thumbelina look forward to? What would the groundhog or bears hibernating in the cave look forward to? Is it easy to fly a kite at night like Benjamin Franklin did? What do you think about the Color Run? What do you think about biking at night? Would all our solar farms like of the MGM and Corcoran go to waste? Do you want another Ice Age? Should painted masterpieces be dried only with hair dryers?
What makes the world go round?
It is round shaped at least due to its rotations and revolutions. I remember in class, when you make egg soup and keep stirring it - or even if you stir Rainbiw/Nido/Klim milk, roundish clumps form. The solar system revolves around the sun.
How can you mend this broken man?
Do you like Chris Daughtry's and Amy Adams' "Broken"? Do you like CARE Channel? Do you like reading Better Homes and Gardens? How about the Superfan book (someone self-published)? How about books by Nick Vujicic - doesn't have to b e in Spanish?
How can a loser ever win?
Once upon a time, I lost a pingpong championship (Forrest Gump is still a champ) to my college best friend and a cool pianist who said he ducked into the oven when he heard gunshots outside his family member's home. But I remember well how I surprised myself too as I caught the ball mid-air above my head like a baseball player.
Another time, time was running out. Everyone else who were seated seemed to have left. I seemed to have lost time, but not been lost in time. I finished 20 recipes/list of 20 cookables for vegetable medley - frozen or canned. My handwriting I hope was ok. I hope the cleanup crew smiled. I seemed to have won a tiny bit of more paper to write about another international conference, at least once with 40,000 people... I may have won a tiny bit of paper because I forgot to check out like at the Disney hotel.
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.
It does not take only one person to heal your broken heart or to bring you back on course eg after a TIA or another incident. It does not mean you need 20 girlfriends in succession, 1 by 1, to heal you. But for instance, if you're a survivor of a crash, it takes the tow driver, the policeman, ambulance and firemen as needed, people with cellphones even if you already have your own to get through the night and beyond. It takes Uber, Lyft, Supershuttle, Greencab, the city transit, or your friends to get you back to your workplace and home if they are at least 30 minutes apart by Mustang.

If you want a TL;DR, we own 2 Kias and it's going disasterously.
So we just got our 2bd Kia, a 2008 Kia Sportage, back on Monday for the (we hope) final time after Friendship Kia of Beckley, WV forgot to bleed the brake lines after the replacement of our failed recall replacement HECU/ABS module. No, I didn't mistype that, we went and did the recall on the HECU/ABS module in March, like good little children, and a month later the HECU/ABS module failed. We originally towed it to our own mechanic who diagnosed it and found out the hard way that is a "dealer only part" so after a week at our mechanic we had to tow it a third time to the dealership where it arrived with 18 other tow-ins. So two weeks later, on Friday late in the day, we were finally called and told to pick up our car along with the 7 other customers that were waiting for the same service on their vehicle.
And Monday morning, Memorial Day, all 8 of us called in complaining and my partner caught the heated exchange between the service manager and the mechanic, including the lovely gem of "but the computer doesn't say to bleed the brake lines," so he did the repair, eight times, and somehow managed to miss the fact that 8 vehicles were a little dodgy on their brakes as he parked them in the parking lot for pickup.
Today I did the paper work so my partner could get reimbursed for the $1,200+ dollars all of that cost us.
Oh, but we have a second Kia, surely this allowed us to not have to rent a car, be inconvenienced, etc.
Oh you sweet summer child. Our second Kia is a 2016 Kia Soul 2.0L Nu GDI, that croaked on December 21, 2021 (yep, 2021, still in the pandemic, after the Knock Detection update recalls went out, before we knew what they were actually doing) at 105K miles that no one wants to touch it. Hence the emergency purchase of the 2008 Kia Sportage as it was truly the only vehicle we looked at in 2021 that didn't look like someone had just fished it out of a lake (remember, the car shortage).
I just sent a message to the law firm handling that case in hopes that maybe there's a way to get relief.
I'm 40, this was my first new car ever. And I am so disgusted by the whole situation I would rather never own a vehicle again. Like take my license, stick a fork in me, I'm DONE.
I'm trying to remain positive over here, and on that note, one positive thing I can say, at least I don't have to worry about it being stolen, guess that's one benefit of the engine failure.
Okay, that's all the toxic positivity I have in me. Truth told, I do worry about it because it doesn't "look" broke down and I'm afraid someone is going to bust out a window to make the attempt.
Anyone having any success out there in the midst of the lawsuits? Or is everyone feeling as violated as I am? Like, congratulations, you are a responsible vehicle owner who managed to safely drive your car out of its base warranty, you just won a giant middle finger and a the obligation to spend $10,000 on a new engine!
Kia, movement that inspires!
More like Kia, glacial movement after a lawsuit just to think about fixing the issue you already knew you had and done in a way that inspires people to need professional counseling.

Awhile back I made a post about how powerful Percy and how powerful he is. If you want you can view it here. This is a part two of sorts and will feature:
Corrections to the original post, a debunk, Curse of Achilles, and Eye of Nekhbet, Tl;dr end.
Correction:
I said that the explosion from the Mt. Saint Helens nearly killed him. However I reread this feat after it was pointed out that it was the exertion of power, not the explosion that nearly killed him. First the feat:

Afterward, I could never describe what happened. An explosion, a tidal wave, a whirlwind of power simultaneously catching me up and blasting me downward into the lava. Fire and water collided, superheated steam, and I shot upward from the heart of the volcano in a huge explosion, just one piece of flotsam thrown free by a million pounds of pressure. The last thing I remember before losing conscious was flying, flying so high Zeus would never have forgiven me, and then beginning to fall, smoke and fire and water streaming from me. I was a comet hurtling toward the earth. The Battle of the Labyrinth

Howerever, if you go forward a little bit you will read this.

That’s the last thing I wanted him to say. I hadn’t been in control of myself in that mountain. I’d released so much energy I’d almost vaporized myself, drained all the life out of me. The Battle of the Labyrinth

It drained him so much that he described it as draining him more than anything else he's ever done:

“Holy Poseidon,” I muttered. I looked as if I’d lost twenty pounds I couldn’t afford to lose. On the other hand, I really was weak. I couldn’t stay on my feet more than a few hours. Whatever I’d done in Mount St. Helens had drained me like nothing else I’d ever expected. The Battle of Labyrinth

However that wasn't an effect of the explosion, rather an effect from causing the explosion. So that increases his durability past what I originally said. Which I will recalculate after the next correction:
Percy reacting to the bullets. First, the quote:

They stepped from the trees on either side of the road. Instead of gray camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms...They drew their handguns The first skeleton fired. Time slowed down. I won't say I could see the bullet, but I could feel its path, the same way I felt water currents in the ocean. I deflected it off the edge of my blade and kept charging. Zoe and Bianca fired at their heads point-blank Six skeletons raised their guns. The other five came forward with batons. Fifty feet away. Forty feet... The other skeletons opened fire. I raised my lion coat for protection, but I didn't need it.
The Titan's Curse

Something I didn't think about was that the were equipped with New Mexico State Police equipment. Since they were using their gear, they were either using Smith & Wesson .357/.45 or the Glock 22/31. They both have have firing speed of 370-375 m/s.
The calculation for this feat was done here. u/FalseTrajectory calculated that it would require a reaction of 10.7 milliseconds to react to this speed. Which is a bit more inline with his lighting reaction feat. Which would require a reaction speed of 16 milliseconds.
Now for a corrected scaling. Here is what I originally said:

Scaling: So for durability, City level. While surviving the St. Helens explosion was impressive, it nearly killed him and Calypso had to nurse him back to health. Physical Strength is 4-5 tons. More than likely higher. Speed is also impressive and he is capable of running at well above peak human. His skills can't be scaled but are impressive. For his actual powers. He is definitely small mountain level. However, this one is debatable.
My First Post

For reaction, which I forgot to mention at all, I will say 10-16 milliseconds. Keep in mind that the average human can react at 250 milliseconds
And for the durability, it is getting buffed from city level to volcano level. I am going to move up to volcano level. The reason: he was still able to destroy Mt. Saint Helens. Mt. Saint Helens is a stratovolcano. They can get as tall as 10,000 feet (3048 meters). Mt. Saint Helens caps out at 9,677 feet (2,950 meters). The average volcano is 10000 ft or 3048 meters. So for that, I can say with confidence that he is volcano level.
And now, a debunk that is going to get me some hate: Percy can't blood bend. Yes, I know about him controlling the poison in Tartarus. And yes, he did that through controlling the water in the poison. However, he hasn't been shown to be able to control blood. And to be honest, we never will. I know it is a logical and easy jump to make, but for now that is only theoretical.
Next, Curse of Achilles Percy.
Since this is a amplified version of Percy, because of this, he scales above all of the previously mentioned feats. Although, an argument could be made that HoO feats shouldn't count, I say they should considering that was a Percy without the Curse, which amplifies his powers.
Some feats for this version of Percy:

It was the stupidest thing I've ever done. A hundred muskets fired at me, point blank. All of them missed. I crashed into their line and started hacking with Riptide. Bayonets jabbed. Swords slashed. Guns reloaded and fired. Nothing touched me. I whirled through the ranks, slashing redcoats to dust, one after the other. My mind went on autopilot: stab, dodge, cut, deflect, roll. Riptide was no longer a sword. It was an arc of pure destruction. I broke through the enemy line and leaped into the black chariot. Hades raised his staff. A bolt of dark energy shot toward me, but I deflected it off my blade and slammed into him. The god and I both tumbled out of the chariot. The next thing I knew, my knee was planted on Hades's chest. I was holding the collar of his royal robes in one fist, and the tip of my sword was poised right over his face. Silence. The army did nothing to defend their master. I glanced back and realized why. There was nothing left of them but weapons in the sand and piles of smoking, empty uniforms. I had destroyed them all. Hades swallowed. "Now, Jackson, listen here. . . ." He was immortal. There was no way I could kill him, but gods can be wounded. I knew that firsthand, and I figured a sword in the face wouldn't feel too good. "Just because I'm a nice person," I snarled, "I'll let you go. But first, tell me about that trap!" Hades melted into nothing, leaving me holding empty black robes. I cursed and got to my feet, breathing heavily. Now that the danger was over, I realized how tired I was. Every muscle in my body ached. I looked down at my clothes. They were slashed to pieces and full of bullet holes, but I was fine. Not a mark on me.
The Last Olympian

While he thinks that they were all missing, they were actually hitting him. He was just not registering it, and not only that, besides his clothes, he was unharmed.
He was temporarily able to fight Hyperion. Even causing the air to get charged with ozone:

I concentrated on the tidal wave and forced it to reverse. Just before impact, I jumped upward on a jet of water. "AHHHHH!" The waves smashed into Hyperion and he went under, his light extinguished. I landed on the lake's surface just as Hyperion struggled to his feet. His golden armor was dripping wet. His eyes no longer blazed, but they still looked murderous. "You will burn, Jackson!" he roared. Our swords met again and the air charged with ozone.
The Last Olympian

He was able to fight with Kronos and survive hits that shook the Williamsburg Bridge:

I met his first strike with Riptide. The impact shook the entire bridge, but I held my ground. Kronos's smile wavered. With a yell, I kicked his legs out from under him. His scythe skittered across the pavement. I stabbed downward, but he rolled aside and regained his footing. His scythe flew back to his hands.
The Last Olympian

He was even able to tank hits that break the cables of said bridge and was only mildly disorientated:

He struck the bridge with the butt of his scythe, and a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars went careening. Demigods—even Luke's own men—were blown off the edge of the bridge. Suspension cords whipped around, and I skidded halfway back to Manhattan. I got unsteadily to my feet.
The Last Olympian

Get sent back 300 yards (900 feet) by a blast from Hyperion with enough force to break every bone is his body if it weren't for the Curse of Achilles:

A wall of force slammed me through the air—just like the trick Kronos had pulled on the bridge. I sailed backward about three hundred yards and smashed into the ground. If it hadn't been for my new invulnerability, I would've broken every bone in my body.
The Last Olympian

The average 15 year old weighs 123.5 lb. (56.02 kg). It takes 4,000 N or 899.2358 ibs to break a human femur (it is the strongest bone in the human body and the impact would have broken all of his bones). That means he flew at a minimum of 3000 m/s. With this knowledge, we can calculate that the impact or 413172 pounds of force.
He was able to kill a Gorgon with a single slice of Riptide and later knock out another Gorgon with a single hit from a silver platter:

Gah!” Euryale stormed toward her sister. Percy took the opening. He grabbed Stheno’s platter, scattering poisoned Cheese ’n' Wieners, and slashed Riptide across Euryale's waist, cutting her in half. He raised the platter, and Stheno found herself facing her own greasy reflection. “Medusa!” she screamed. Her sister Euryale had crumbled to dust, but she was already starting to re-form, like a snowman un-melting. “Stheno, you fool!” she gurgled as her half-made face rose from the mound of dust. “That’s just your own reflection! Get him!” Percy slammed the metal tray on top of Stheno’s head, and she passed out cold.
The Son of Neptune

The same Gorgons was unscaved by a hit from a truck in the fast lane and getting dragged for a hundred yards:

“Gotcha!” shrieked Euryale. Percy turned as an arrow thudded into her forehead. Euryale tumbled into the fast lane. A truck slammed into her and carried her backward a hundred yards, but she just climbed over the cab, pulled the arrow out of her head, and launched back into the air…
The Son of Neptune

The average speed limit of a highway in California is 55m/h or 88.5139 k/h. The most common car to drive one the west coast of the US is the Toyota Tacoma. These can weigh anywhere from 3,915 to 4,550 lbs. Or 1775.8141 Kg to 2063.845. With all this knowledge we can calculate the force of impact would be around 263933 to 306742 lbf.
Eye of Nekhbet:
Being Nekhbet's Avatar gave him the access to thousands of years of knowledge:

Thousands of years of memories flooded my mind. I saw pyramids rising from the desert, the sun glittering on the Nile River. I heard priests chanting in the cool shadows of a temple, and smelled myrrh incense on the air. I soared over the cities of Ancient Egypt, circling the palace of the pharaoh. I was the vulture goddess Nekhbet—protector of the king, shield of the strong, scourge of the weak and dying.
Crown of Ptolemy

He is able to see on multiple layers of reality:

I saw layers of reality, like strata of glowing multicolored jelly, plunging down into infinity. On the surface, where the mortal and immortal worlds met, Setne was whipping the Duat into a storm—churning waves of color and frothy white plumes of smoke.
Crown of Ptolemy

He has enhanced strength:

I hefted the sword. Like so many I’d tried, it didn’t feel right in my hands. The hilt was too heavy for my wrist. The single-edged blade was curved awkwardly, like a giant hook knife. I tried a jab and nearly lost my balance. “This one doesn’t look like yours,” I told Carter. “Isn’t yours called a kopis?” “Mine is a khopesh,” Carter said. “The original Egyptian version. What you’re holding is a kopis…
Crown of Ptolemy (pre Eye of Nekhbet)
Setne, drop the crown.” I raised my kopis, which didn’t feel heavy with Nekhbet’s power flowing through me.
Crown of Ptolemy (post Eye of Nekhbet)

His reaction time is enhanced even further:

Thanks to Nekhbet, I realized what was going to happen a split second before it did, which saved our lives.
Crown of Ptolemy

He can tank an explosion capable of leveling a soccer field:

He strutted around the soccer field an black bell-bottomed slacks, a frilly white shirt, and a glittery purple trench coat-all of which clashed with his newly combined red and white crown.
Crown of Ptolemy
A ring of fire exploded outward from Setne.
A shell of purple light surrounded me, and the flames rolled harmlessly over translucent wings that that now extended on either side of me.
The Crown of Ptolemy
The fire blackened the entire field, instantly turning wet mud into steaming cracked clay.
The Crown of Ptolemy

The fire was so hot that it melted Celestial Bronze:

My new sword was a steaming line of bronze slag on the ground.
The Crown of Ptolemy

This Percy can fly:

Before Setne could finish casting his spell, I grabbed him in my spectral claws and carried him into the sky
The Last Olympian

Tl;dr: Percy has volcano level durability. He also volcano level powers. He can lift up 4-5 tons. He is faster than peak human. His skill is amazing.
Curse of Achilles Percy is even more powerful than base Percy so should be able to be moved up, however we never get the chance to see this (at its fullest) as Rick takes this away because it was to OP.
Eye of Nekhbet Percy is honestly, in my opinion, more powerful and has greater variety than CoA Percy.And of course, this is perhaps the most experienced Percy we see. However, Percy once again has this power taken away before it can be used to its fullest.
What are your thoughts? Has this post made you see Percy as weaker or stronger than you did before? What are your thoughts? Finally, who should I scale next?
Respect the Son Of The Sea, Percy Jackson!

TL;DR: Poison Control, an ARPG from NIS(A), has a lot going for it: a genuinely unique premise, unusual game mechanics mashup, strong aesthetics, fun characters, and a surprisingly good soundtrack. Sadly, poor implementation of the actual gameplay drags it way down to "B-game" status, something which might appeal to fans of quirky Japanese oddities but probably won't interest anyone else. At least it goes on sale pretty often.
By far the most interesting thing about Poison Control is its bonkers premise. Skipping over the hows and whys for brevity's sake, you're a mortal who somehow ended up in Hell. You're still alive (more or less) but with no memory how you got there. You quickly meet and befriend a demoness called Poisonette, who's also looking for a way out of Hell. Fortunately, there is a way.
This isn't the Christian Hell, rather it's a more Buddhist-style "hells of your own making," with realms created by ladies in distress - Hell's Belles. The Belles' mental distortions create monsters, and their emotional toxicity takes the form of the titular poison - ugly pools and lakes of the stuff covering their personal Hells. If you and Poisonette can clean up enough of these Hells, helping soothe the tortured soul in the process, you can earn a ticket to Heaven and the chance to ask for a wish that'll take you back to Earth.
So you flip between controlling your Mortal and Poisonette. As a Mortal, you can shoot a magic gun at baddies - with a range of different weapon types that can be unlocked - and operate mechanisms. As Poisonette, you can clean up the pools of poison, either by touching it directly, or making a circle around an area that grabs the whole space. Poisonette also has limited combat ability, in that an enemy who is touching poison as it's cleansed will take damage. Clearing poison also refills your health, helps your ammo replenish, and is your main source of Coins that pay for upgrades. So, it's typically your top priority.
This means that the game feels like a mashup of a third-person-shooter and Viscera Cleanup Detail, of all things. You know, if you ever wanted to try to clean up a dungeon while fighting off monsters the whole way.
Which would be all well and good if the gameplay wasn't so goddamned klunky and kludgy. Controls are stiff, aiming is imprecise, and it just doesn't feel very good to play - especially the shooting. The developers seem to be aware of the combat's shortcomings, so it's also remarkably slow-paced, with projectiles travelling at a downright leisurely speed and very few hitscan-style weapons. In addition, the start-and-stop nature of the gameplay is bound to be a turnoff to some players, since you will be constantly switching over to Poisonette and drawing circles to suck up poison, both during exploration and during combat.
OTOH, if you are the sort of person who enjoys 'cleanup games,' it does still provide that same vibe of a job well done, when you look at a floor that was previously covered in goop, now shiny and new.
Also strangely for a company mostly known for its RPGs, the RPG elements feel really half-baked. You gain levels as you go, but there is no screen that gives you actual stats. Even the weapons are just rated on a 1-5 star system, leaving a lot of guesswork and experimentation for finding weapon loadouts that will work for you. In addition, there are some personal stats you can raise between you and Poisonette via conversations. These unlock buffs but, again, it's often unclear how much effect the buffs have. And these conversations are remarkably rare, often going several missions between opportunities to make a choice. You won't come anywhere near maxing out all of the gauges in a single playthrough.
And the annoying thing is, everything else about the game is really good, at least if you enjoy Japanese weirdness. The various denizens of Hell are quirky and fun to talk to. I particularly liked a pair of bickering DJs on Hell's radio station, who give you mission briefings while snarking about your various exploits. Also, most of the individual dungeons/stages have an interesting mini-story, as you explore why the Belle created her Hell. These move fluidly between genuinely sad or tragic stories - especially a tearjerker about kids trying to make a picture book - and goofier episodes, like a girl who's declared war on trees because of her extreme allergies.
(TW: In the darker mission stories, uncomfortable topics such as child abuse and sexual assault do come up, although they're never depicted directly. Just discussed in dialogue.)
The core story is also surprisingly strong. Japanese games with such weird premises tend to see their stories fly off the rails, but this one actually remains pretty consistent throughout, with plot twists that feel consistent with the 'rules' of the world. Also, despite having two endings, it really isn't a bad ending / good ending situation. It's more like good ending / different ending. This is a rare game where I think it's actually worth seeing the regular ending first, then backing up and doing the (very obvious) thing needed to get the alternate ending. They complement each other, and each wraps up different elements of the story. I'm not even sure which one is "better" in terms of good-ness.
And the soundtrack is excellent. It's one of those multi-genre mashups that pulls from a lot of influences, sort of like the B-sides from a Persona OST, but it's all good stuff.
Overall, despite all its issues, I did enjoy Poison Control more than not. But I'm pretty forgiving towards oddball games of this sort, and there are a lot of reasons a player might quickly bounce off it. You really need to be here for the story and characters, and take some enjoyment from cleanup games, to get past how bad the combat feels. On top of that, I'd strongly recommend playing the PS4 version, rather than Switch, which is what I played. But I'll rant about the bad Switch port in a comment, since this has gone on long enough.
And being a game that didn't sell well, NISA tends to put it on deep discount from time to time. So if it sounds like something you might enjoy, you can get it for $5-$10 if you're a bit patient.

I've been experiencing some issues with my OpenCore bootloader and could really use some assistance. The problem I'm facing is that the "operncore" is getting stuck at "256:610 00:411 AAPL: #[EBLOG:EXITBS:START] 2023-05-29T14:36:42".
I've already tried troubleshooting based on the guidelines provided in the OpenCore documentation, specifically on the Kernel Issues troubleshooting page. I followed the steps under the "Booter Issues" section, which are as follows:

1. DevirtualiseMmio is disabled
2. SetupVirtualMap is enabled

• set EnableWriteUnprotector to Falseand enable RebuildAppleMemoryMapand enabled SyncRuntimePermissions

I hope these troubleshooting steps shed some light on the issues I've been facing. However, I'm still unable to resolve the problem with OpenCore being stuck at the mentioned point during boot.
For reference, my system's chipset is Intel Alder Lake - P PCH.
If anyone has any additional insights, suggestions, or has encountered a similar issue, I would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you in advance!
TL;DR: I'm having trouble with OpenCore booting and it gets stuck at "256:610 00:411 AAPL: #[EBLOG:EXITBS:START] 2023-05-29T14:36:42". I've followed the troubleshooting steps for Booter Issues, but the problem persists. My system's chipset is Intel Alder Lake - P PCH. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you need any further assistance.
The EFI Folder is https://github.com/488315/acer_a315-59-53er_hackintosh_efiand the specs of this laptop is https://github.com/488315/acer_a315-59-53er_hackintosh_efi/blob/main/EFI/readme.md
The logs are at https://pastebin.com/0UbVNTdN
Edit: forgot to add the logs

Where are you getting treatment? What treatment? Let's talk!
I was first diagnosed in 2017 by my dermatologist. I went to Memorial Sloan Kettering where the tumor was removed along with a few lymph nodes. I was then dx stage 3.
I had a metastasis on a lymph node near my stomach in 2024. After three treatments with Keytruda, my met vanished completely. Treatment was continued for another few months. It was terminated when I developed encephalitis. I was in and out of the hospital with side effects throughout 2020.
It's May of 2023 and I'm still okay-ish. I'm terrified every time I get a quarterly PET scan. My doctor has told me that she does not know what my options would be if it recurs. No one knows how long I will stay in remission. Apparently, I 'm a unicorn.
Is there another unicorn out there?

Tokyo - Yokohama - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Tokyo

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

Tips + Recommendations

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

Trip Report

Tokyo

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

Yokohama

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

Nagoya (Road Trip from Yokohama)

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

Kyoto

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

Osaka

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

Tokyo

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

Final Notes

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

Who will enter the Sierra? Who will take time off? Who will skip ahead to NorCal? TIME IS CURRENTLY TELLING and I am reporting.
All of my NOBO bb's have officially set off on their journeys which means....... It's almost time for dirty SOBO szn ;) Luv u bbs
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.

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Hiker	Trail Name	Start Date	Current Location-ish	Week 11 Update:
u/Schrodingers-cat-30	Ditto	MAR 2 2023 (NOBO)	Sierra Nevada	5/26: no update posted
u/TrailNicks, Link 2	Golden	MAR 5 2023 (NOBO)	not sure	5/26: Had a grand old time at KMS, but may be skipping north?
u/TrailHead42	Trailhead	MAR 10 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/juliozz59, Link 2	Spread	MAR 20 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: practicing fire safety on trail
u/emdem55	Keys	MAR 22 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: off trail to await snow melt
u/Beefandsteel		MAR 22 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: off trail to await snow melt
u/jacobburns		MAR 22 2023 (NOBO)	past mi 400	5/26: Cajon Pass McD's, hit mi 400, "had the final party at The Oasis in Agua Dulce before they banned alcohol"
u/ThrowAwayTheAT		MAR 22 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/7-legged-octopus		MAR 27 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/frankiehikes	Tabs	MAR 28 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: Off trail to await snow melt, flipping to NorCal
u/particularamphibian, Link 2, Link 3		MAR 28 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/yourgirlbribri		MAR 29 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: no update posted
u/Intrepid-Ad-4770, Link 2	Sweets	MAR 29 2023 (NOBO)	past Tehachapi	5/26: "Now this the desert i thoughtit would be! Hot and LONG water carries"
u/Future_Psychology_91	Dundee on the AT.. on the PCT?	MAR 30 2023 (NOBO)	Tehachapi	5/26: took a couple zero's in Tehachapi
u/Kalmes12345		MAR 31 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: Taking some time off to travel while waiting for snow melt
u/chroniclesofvanlife, Link 2, Link 3	Stitches	APR 1 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/nataliethisisnatalie	Bestie	APR 1 2023 (NOBO)	Big Bear	5/26: "Mile 369.3 - 266.1, Returning to trail after our weekend in Wrightwood felt natural and calm. Compared to the previous week, this one was a walk in the park!"
u/Phantom_dong		APR 5 2023 (NOBO)	Sierra Nevada	5/26: "There were multiple times that there were semi-fresh tracks on the trail that I would follow for miles. I even saw a baby print at one point… Along with all this, I passed both the 25% mark as well as 700 miles from the Mexico border. "
u/pelostrece	Spanish Inquisition	APR 5 2023 (NOBO)	SL Tahoe	5/26: decided to skip up to Tahoe
u/UtahHiker69	Fry Pocket	APR 6 2023 (NOBO)	KMS	5/26: winning the award for most fun had on trail so far!
u/shoebinn, Link 2		APR 7 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: hit mi 600 but posted this morning that they are taking a train from Bakersfield to Portland so might be off trail for a little?
u/evoncassier		APR 7 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: "The more I use my body, the quieter my mind becomes. Journaling is almost nonexistent. Dirt adds texture to your food but it’s a terrible seasoning."
u/RedNi12		APR 9 2023 (NOBO)	LA AQ	5/26: night hiked the LA AQ
u/tomnomnom17		APR 10 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: Wind farms for days
u/Beccatravels	Pepper	APR 10 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/jesshikes		APR 11 2023 (NOBO)	KMS	5/26: "The Desert: the first major section of the PCT—702 miles; full of snow, waterless exposed ridges, valleys, and lots of ice cream."
u/DrWolffe	Scrambles	APR 11 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: No update posted
u/mikenikey	Water Taxi	APR 12 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: had an unfortunate time and got airlifted to a hospital, getting back on at Walker Pass at a later date
u/woodsbearoutdoors		APR 14 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/pollyf		APR 14 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/hallroosevelt, Link 2		APR 15 2023 (NOBO)	past Tehachapi	5/26: night hiked the LA AQ,
u/AgentDouble00	Doppler	APR 15 2023 (NOBO)	Warner Springs	5/27: Warner Springs
u/Bullish_bear000		APR 19 2023 (NOBO)	Baden Powell	5/27: Crosscountry skiied into Wrightwood, broke a trekking pole, and then plans to crawl back up to Baden Powell
u/esahr	Guidebook	APR 19 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/27: No update posted
u/Just_karo	Flamethrower	APR 20 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/27: "Good times and good friends - what else do you need!"
u/charles1503, Link 2, Link 3		APR 21 2023 (NOBO)	mi 450ish	5/27: hit 400 mi mark! Getting awesome trail magic in the desert
u/B2Pats	Marine	APR 23 2023 (NOBO)	past mi 400	5/27: "I'm thinking I'll try the Sierra (Motor and Sister too), others don't. Things may change before then, but in the meantime, let's make the most of it."
u/loganlaliberte	Juice	APR 25 2023 (NOBO)	Mill Creek	5/27: catching beautiful sunrises in the desert
u/FishingFrank, Link 2	Papa Roja	APR 26 2023 (NOBO)	past Wrightwood	5/27: "Sunsets and a sunrise before making the last push into Wrightwood!"
u/Havasu-Hiker23, u/Havasu-hiker	Stix	APR 26 2023 (NOBO)	approaching mi 500	5/27: stayed in Acton, hit mi 400! Vasquez Rocks "The overcast skies were amazing all day, keeping the temperature down!"
u/MoonMoonMoonMooon		APR 27 2023 (NOBO - Section)	No update posted	5/27: No update posted
u/hejkathinka, Link 2	CEO	APR 28 2023 (NOBO)	mi 400ish	5/27: Beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the desert
u/Mschoee		MAY 1 2023 (NOBO)	past Cajon Pass	5/27: hot springs and McD's, need I say more?
u/loombisaurus	Daisy	MAY 1 2023 (NOBO)	approaching KMS	5/27: back on trail, dropped gear off at KMS and went back to make up miles, will attempt the sierra "it makes my hair stand on end and my blood vessels dilate."
u/MoogyzHikez, u/environmental-pop-11		MAY 4 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/27: On Trail!
u/sharkdork		MAY 5 2023 (NOBO)	approaching mi 400	5/27: hit 300 mi mark!
u/Kristi_Tho		MAY 6 2023 (NOBO)	Big Bear	5/27: "Now taking two “zero” days in Big Bear Lake to resupply and catch up on some luxuries (margaritas) #pct2023"
u/jkeller52		MAY 10 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: no update posted
u/Powerful-Plantain-84		MAY 10 2023 (NOBO)	Requested IG	5/26: requested access to IG
u/kinn0n14	Jabberwocky	MAY 13 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: Hit 100 mi mark!
u/dgerken81	Hot Pink	MAY 13 2023 (NOBO)	past mi 100	5/26: "Big Miles & Burnt out."
u/innoutberger	Jenga	MAY 14 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: "The snowpack continues to blanket the landscape, burying the trees, trail, water sources, and my sense of sanity along with it."
u/spiderwinder23		MAY 15 2023 (NOBO)	Off Trail!	5/26: Caught a stomach bug around MVM, taking a few days off but getting back on for SanJac region
u/niccolojoe		MAY 18 2023 (NOBO)	On Trail!	5/26: On Trail!
u/packfullofgoldbars		MAY 20 2023 (NOBO - Section)	past mi 100	5/26: Hit 100 mi mark!
u/bongwaterbaneRYO	The Bane	MAY 20 2023 (NOBO)	past Mt Laguna	5/26: second time on the PCT, made it to Mt Laguna. "Everything about the PCT has been just as magical as I remember."
u/bbqbaconsandwich		MAY 22 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/26: No update from trail yet
u/Big_Bad_Panda	Tinman	MAY 25 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/27: no update from trail yet
u/brick_50		MAY 25 2023 (NOBO)	No update posted	5/27: no update from trail yet
u/margot380, Link 2		JUL 2 2023 (SOBO)	Not Yet On Trail
u/jocheeseburger11	Early Bird	JUL 7 2023 (SOBO)	Not Yet On Trail
u/Sea_counter8398		JUL 8 2023 (SOBO)	Not Yet On Trail
u/lilmisscactus		JUL 8 2023 (SOBO)	Not Yet On Trail
u/Agreeable_Ad_5423		JUL 10 2023 (SOBO)	Not Yet On Trail
u/canthinkofone9	Sweet Rinn	JUL 26 2023 (SOBO - Section)	Not Yet On Trail

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For anyone in town who's looking for events to enjoy this Memorial Day Weekend and/or ceremonies to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, here's 28 local events you can enjoy and participate in.
1. 2023 Wilderness Road Bike Ride Bisset Park, Radford Saturday, May 27, 2023, 7:00 AM - TBD Youth Up To Age of 17: $40.00, Adults (age 18+): $50.00, Family of 3-5: $120.00 FCA Endurance SW Virginia presents the 32nd Annual Wilderness Road Ride titled "A Gran Fondo" starting and ending at Bisset Park's Shelter #2. The Wilderness Road Ride is a scenic and historical adventure through Southwest Virginia’s beautiful New River Valley, the ride follows part of Daniel Boone’s Wilderness Road. This is a recreational ride for all cycling levels to enjoy, with something for everyone, five routes to choose from ranging from a 26 mile relaxed journey for novices, to a century challenge for the fittest cyclist. This is a great ride for cyclists of all ages and athletic abilities. The start will be a rolling start open from 7:00-8:00 AM. Riders may also gather in front of Bisset Park Shelter #2 at the starting line at a designated time for an optional group start time. Those who sign up for the century and 80 miler must leave no later than 7:30 AM. All pre-registered riders are guaranteed a technical t-shirt and other goodies. ANSI or Snell Certified helmets are required. Riders under 16 must be accompanied by an adult and riders under 8 years old must have permission from the event director. All proceeds will benefit FCA Endurance ministries and missions projects in Southwest Virginia. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707984
2. Used Book Sale Park United Methodist Church, Christiansburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Price depends on book(s) purchased. Stop by for some summer reading. Hard cover, paperbacks and children's books will be available for purchase with something for everyone. Proceeds will support Park United Methodist Church's children's missions. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708111
3. Pearisburg Junior Woman's Club Junior Jamboree and Donut Dash Pearisburg Community & Recreation Center, Pearisburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Donut Dash: Children: $5.00, Adults: $15.00, Family Pack (2 Adults & Up to 4 Children): $40.00 Junior Jamboree Vendor & Craft Show Admission: Free The Pearisburg Junior Woman’s Club will be hosting the Junior Jamboree starting with the Donut Dash Day at 9:00 AM and the Junior Jamboree Vendor & Craft Show from 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Participants in the Donut Dash will stroll along the park trail with tasty donut stops along the way. They will make their way to the pavilion where gourmet donuts and coffee await along with a prize for each participant. At 11:00 AM, artists, crafters and food trucks will be set up on the lawn and in the gym of the community center. All proceeds from the event will help fund future community service projects through Pearisburg Junior Woman’s Club. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=697325
4. Music at the Villa with Stella Trudel Villa Appalaccia Winery, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free Relax and enjoy some great music along with great wine and food. Stella Trudel is a singer and songwriter who lives in Floyd, Virginia and winters in Canyon Lake, Texas. She is also the lead singer of the band Cocobolo. She loves to sing from the heart and consciously directs her attention and focus to music to see what will unfold. Kids and well-behaved dogs welcome. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707445
5. Jeff Levy in Concert Chateau Morrisette, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free Jeff Levy is a real country, old rock, bluegrass, Americana folk and gospel musician from Radford, VA. Food and non-alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase out of the Hut on Saturday and Sunday. Bringing seating is suggested as the tables fill up fast. Note: Music will cancel if there is inclement weather. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707485
6. 2023 Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad Open House Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad, Blacksburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free The Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad presents their 2023 Open House on Saturday, May 27, 2023. See what we do, be social, have fun and enjoy some free food! Get a tour of Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad's ambulances and see some of the special equipment they carry during their technical rescue demonstrations while enjoying free food, cotton candy and face painting. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708076
7. Dark Blue Paradox and Dan Fox in Concert Buffalo Mountain Brewery, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Dark Blue Paradox) and 6:00 - 9:00 PM (Dan Fox) Admission: Free Buffalo Mountain Brewery presents Dark Blue Paradox in concert from 1:00-4:00 PM and Dan Fox performing from 6:00-9:00 PM. Dark Blue Paradox is an acoustic-electric duo hailing from Richmond, VA. Dan Fox is a singer and songwriter performing primarily acoustic guitar music including many favorites and originals from a wide variety of genres including folk, rock, country and Americana. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707884
8. Shawsville Ruritans 75th Anniversary Celebration and Ice Cream Social Meadowbrook Center, Shawsville Saturday, May 27, 2023, 2:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free The Shawsville Ruritan Club and Meadowbrook Museum presents the Shawsville Ruritan Club's 75th Anniversary Celebration and Ice Cream Social. In addition to free ice cream (complete with toppings), the celebration will feature a "Shawsville Ruritans Through the Years" exhibit curated by the Meadowbrook Museum and music from 1948 and the surrounding period. The Shawsville Ruritan Club was chartered in 1948, making it one of the oldest clubs in the nation. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708095
9. 2023 Youth Film Festival Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 2:00 - 3:30 PM Admission: Free Support young filmmakers, both international and local, as The Lyric showcases their films to the New River Valley. Admission is free with a free complimentary popcorn. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708100
10. Ash Devine in Concert Moon Hollow Brewing, Blacksburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 4:00 - 6:30 PM Admission: Free Award winning songwriter, folk rock musician, caring clown Ash Devine is based the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville North Carolina. Ash Devine’s folk Fusion style gleans sounds of Appalachian traditional folk, Americana-pop and classic rock. Ash Devine is an accomplished instrumentalist on finger-style and flat pick style guitar and innovative original ukulele picking style. Her breathy and rich vocals are captivating and cathartic, reminiscent of Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young. Ash’s stage presence is dynamic, charismatic and steeped in audience connection and participation. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708091
11. The Salt Pond Pub Summer Kick-Off Party Mountain Lake Lodge, Pembroke Saturday, May 27, 2023, 5:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Celebrate Summer at Mountain Lake Lodge and kick-off Memorial Day Weekend. Enjoy good food, live music from The Untrained Professionals, giveaways, and more. The Untrained Professionals are an acoustic music duo featuring Clinton Scott and Chris Huddle. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=697573
12. High Country Grass in Concert Wildwood Farms General Store, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 5:00 - 7:00 PM Admission: Free High Country Grass is a bluegrass band that was established in 2014 by founder Charles McMillian. The kitchen will be open until 6:00 PM with a limited menu. The concert will be held inside. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708114
13. Blue Phoenix in Concert Rising Silo Farm Brewery, Blacksburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Blue Phoenix is a vibrant band based in Blacksburg, VA that brings together a powerhouse of talented musicians that take you on a musical journey that transcends genres and ignites your soul. From blues to classic rock, americana to jazz, and folk to country, Blue Phoenix masterfully blends these styles to create a unique sound that will keep you grooving all night long. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707873
14. Old Time Dance with The Crooked Road Ramblers Floyd Country Store, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 7:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: $12.00 The Crooked Road Ramblers are an old-time band from Southwest Virginia, steeped in the traditional music of the Blue Ridge. They have played at the Carter Family Fold, the Wayne Henderson Festival, HoustonFest, The Floyd Country Store & many other venues across Virginia and North Carolina. They have won 1st place in the old-time band category at the Ashe County, Alleghany County, Laurel Bloomery, Fries & Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in addition to a 2nd place finish at the Galax Fiddlers convention. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708079
15. Ian Vest in Concert The Mason Jar at Claytor Lake, Dublin Saturday, May 27, 2023, 7:30 - 10:30 PM Admission: Free Ian Vest is a Southwestern Virginia native, born and raised in rural Floyd County. Music has been his passion from a very young age: singing, learning to play several instruments, and performing in churches. Ian has a throwback style of country music that is reminiscent of those like George Strait and Randy Travis. His original songs are heavily influenced by the experiences in his life, faith in God, family, and pride of country. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707515
16. Timewave Zero in Concert Dogtown Roadhouse, Floyd Saturday, May 27, 2023, 8:00 - 11:00 PM Admission: $8.00 This group of all-star musicians hail from the New River Valley, up in the spine of the Appalachians where rock and blues meet to jam, where the mountains meet the sky and raise your spirits high, where psychedelic funk punch is just what’s for breakfast. Timewave Zero music drives crowds straight into the heart of the singularity connect today. With a band name inspired by Terrence Mckenna's i-Ching mathematics and eschatological explorations, TW0 is always at the ready for a live dance music adventure. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=697283
17. A Tribute To The Band's "The Last Waltz" Square 5 Public House, Blacksburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 8:00 - 11:00 PM Admission: Free Enjoy an evening of music from The Band and their historic 1976 farewell concert "The Last Waltz" featuring an all-star lineup of New River Valley musicians. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708092
18. Lost In Taste Cosmic Comedy Club Lost In Taste, Christiansburg Saturday, May 27, 2023, 9:30 - 11:30 PM Admission: $5.00 Enjoy a night of comedy hosted by Aayush Patodiya with featured comedians Andrew Gustafon, Katherine Rogue and Jordan B. and introducing comedians Garrett Brumfield and Taylor Reschka. For ages 18 and up. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708093
19. Sunday Mountain Music Series Kickoff with Ash Devine Mountain Lake Lodge, Pembroke Sunday, May 28, 2023, 4:00 - 6:00 PM Admission: Free Stop by Salt Pond Pub every Sunday starting Memorial Day weekend through Sunday, August 20th for live music and delicious food and drinks. Perfect for relaxing with the whole family (furry friends too). Award winning songwriter, folk rock musician, caring clown Ash Devine is based the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville North Carolina. Ash Devine’s folk Fusion style gleans sounds of Appalachian traditional folk, Americana-pop and classic rock. Ash Devine is an accomplished instrumentalist on finger-style and flat pick style guitar and innovative original ukulele picking style. Her breathy and rich vocals are captivating and cathartic, reminiscent of Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young. Ash’s stage presence is dynamic, charismatic and steeped in audience connection and participation. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=697572
20. The Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs in Concert Palisades Restaurant, Eggleston Sunday, May 28, 2023, 5:00 - 7:30 PM Admission: Free The Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs are a folk(ish)/Americana group hailing from Winston-Salem, NC. Their influences range from Neil Young to Regina Spektor. Blending their unique musical sensibilities, the band seeks to craft an entertaining experience that has a little something for everyone. Reservations are not required, but recommended for dining area seating. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707368
21. 2023 The Murph Workout Challenge Blacksburg Fit Body Bootcamp, Blacksburg Monday, May 29, 2023, 8:00 - 9:30 AM Admission: Free Blacksburg Fit Body Boot Camp is an official host location of The Murph. The Murph is a challenging workout that builds confidence, camaraderie, and honor to all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice serving our country. Participants can participate in one of three options, the Full Murph, the Full Murph (scaled), or the Half Murph. This workout is about challenging yourself. You can modify the movements however you need to and break apart the total reps in several sets. There is no set time to finish, just the goal to finish. The Full Murph usually takes about one hour and the Half Murph about 30 minutes. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Murph foundation. This year, Blacksburg Fit Body Bootcamp will also be hosting a Kids Lil' Murh at 10:00 AM, open to all ages. The Lil Murph will be a 0.1 mile run, 10 push ups, 20 mountain climbers, 40 body weight squats, followed by another 0.1 mile run. Parents are welcome to participate alongside their child. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708113
22. 2023 Jimmyfest Memorial Day Cruise-In & Cook Out Jones Car Company, Shawsville Monday, May 29, 2023, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM Admission: Free Jones Car Company presents the 2nd Annual Jimmyfest Memorial Day Cruise-In and Cook Out to celebrate the life of James "Jimmy" Buriak. Classic cruisers, muscle cars, off road SUVs, lifted trucks, euro specialties, and everything in between is welcome. No entry fees or awards, this is just for fun. Jones Car Company will be providing free hot dogs, chips and non-alcoholic beverages. Donations will be gladly accepted for the AWS1 James Buriak Foundation. AWS1 James "Jimmy" Philip Buriak, USN, died 31 August 2021 in a Naval helicopter crash on the coast of San Diego, where he served as a naval aircrewman rescue swimmer (AWS) with HSC-8. The legacy of a hero is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. This foundation was created in the wake of Jimmy’s death as a way to honor him and his memory, but also keep his purpose alive – to help others. Jimmy was a Salem High School graduate. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708096
23. 2023 Memorial Day Ceremony Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery, Dublin Monday, May 29, 2023, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Admission: Free The public is invited and encouraged to attend this tribute to honor and remember the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to our Nation. The keynote speaker for the ceremony will be former Chief Master Sergeant of the US Air Force, Rodney McKinley (US Air Force, Retired). Members of the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery Volunteers will place American flags on all graves prior to the ceremony. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708098
24. 2023 Radford Memorial Day Program Bisset Park, Radford Monday, May 29, 2023, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Admission: Free Radford VFW Post 776, American Legion Post 30, the NRV Marine Corps League, the Dublin-Radford Ruritan Club, the Radford News Journal, WRAD AM1460, and WPSK 107.1 presents the 2023 Radford Memorial Day Program. The ceremony includes a speech by the Radford Army Ammunition Plant Commander, a 21-gun salute and music. The Master of Ceremonies is Dana Jackson, the past Commander of American Legion Post 30. The program will serve to remember the veterans of all wars who have sacrificed to serve our country and also the families who have lost loved ones because of those sacrifices. The ceremony will be broadcast on radio across the WRAD Talk Network (101.7 103.5 and 1460 am) as well as streaming live. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708103
25. 2023 Memorial Day Cruise In and Car Show Narrows Fire Department, Narrows Monday, May 29, 2023, 12:00 - 3:00 PM Admission: Free The Narrows Memorial Day Committee presents the 2023 Memorial Day Cruise In and Car Show in the fire department parking lot. Vehicles of all types are welcome and will be on display. There will be a 50/50 raffle and food will be available for purchase. All vehicles are welcome and there is no entry fee for your vehicle to be included. Dash Plagues will be provided by Newberry Ford. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708101
26. Dedication Ceremony for the Field of Honor Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery, Radford Monday, May 29, 2023, 2:00 - 3:00 PM Admission: Free The Radford Noon Rotary Club presents the Dedication Ceremony for the Field of Honor on the grounds of Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery. The event will be the official start of the Field of Honor display of American flags sponsored to honor heroes of all types from service members to individuals who have made an impact on someone’s life. The ceremony will include remarks from multiple members of the community. Master of Ceremonies Dr. Richard Harshberger will lead the program, which will include Mayor David Horton, Radford VFW Commander Gary Harris, Grace Episcopal Church Rector William Yagel, and Virginia Delegate Jason Ballard. A 21-gun salute will be provided by the Dublin American Legion Post 58. The Field of Honor is comprised of flags sponsored by members of the community, and the proceeds will benefit 14 organizations. Those groups include the Radford University Scholarships for Students from Radford High School, Vittles for Vets, the Women’s Resource Center, Beans and Rice and the Glencoe Mansion. The Field of Honor display will be on display from Memorial Day through the 4th of July. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708097
27. Music Road Co Trio in Concert Rock House Marina, Pulaski Monday, May 29, 2023, 2:00 - 5:00 PM Admission: Free Rock House Marina concludes their four-day 2023 Claytor Lake Music Festival featuring the Music Road Co. trio. Music Road Company is a Floyd, VA based band that plays a great music featuring elements of rock, funk, reggae and fun for your dancing and listening pleasure designed to groove and move you. Food will be available for purchase. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=707887
28. 2023 Narrows Memorial Day Parade Downtown Narrows, Narrows Monday, May 29, 2023, 3:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free The annual Memorial Day Parade will feature floats, bands, cars, trucks, bikes, military & emergency vehicles and more. Following the parade, there will be a Hero's Dinners for all local doctors, nurses, EMTs, fire, rescue, veterans and active duty personnel / members and their families. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=708102
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Lore Compendium

Season of the Deep

The Last Days on Kraken Mare

Titan is evacuated while the Traveler moves from Io to Earth.

• The Sixth Seal, Part I — After learning that "the Anomaly" is real, Mia Van Der Venne orders the evacuation of Titan.
  
• The Sixth Seal, Part II — The citizens of Titan are alerted to the news that the Traveler has departed Io and is accelerating towards Earth.
  
• The Tenth Avatar — Military dropships arrive on Titan to help with the evacuation effort under Rasputin's orders.
  
• Faces Like Shields — Mia learns that the Exo squadron are searching for Shanice Pell.
  
• Kalki's Burning Sword, Part I — The evacuation ship carrying Shanice Pell is destroyed by one of Rasputin's Warsats under TWILIGHT EXIGENT morality.
  
• Kalki's Burning Sword, Part II — Morgan-2 informs them that the Warminds are now acting to maximise survival rather than minimising harm.
  
• SUNDOWN DISTRESS — As an outer force pulls Titan into an egg shape, the New Pacific Arcology prepares for the incoming tidal wave.
  
• The Water Sun, Part I — The outer force releases Titan from its grasp as the moon collapses back to its spheroid shape.
  
• The Water Sun, Part II — The tidal wave makes contact with the arcologies.
  
• No Survivors — "There's not enough seats."
  
• New Pacific Epitaph — No one is leaving Titan.
  
• Cold Comfort — A submersible dives into Titan's ocean, hoping to hide under the ice shelf and wait the chaos out.
  
• Greasy Luck — Death to the living, long life to the killers
  

Long-Boy in the Soup

Rumours persist of a leviathan of untold strength on Titan.

• "I heard it, too. No, you’re not imagining it. Some kind of biological waveform carrying across the waves." — Sloane
  
• "This system used to detect underwater vessels looking to dock at the shipyard. That's strange. It still works... And it's picking something up. Something below us... And very, very big." — Ghost
  
• The Long-Boy in the Soup — Eris and the Drifter discuss the "Long-Boy in the Soup".
  
• Treasures Buried in the Methane — Drifter heard tales of crews going missing in the waters of Titan.
  
• A Leviathan of Untold Strength — Eris understands that a leviathan of untold strength has made Titan her home.
  

Sloane, Weir-Walker

"Due respect, Commander? I was there when the Hive found us on Earth. I was there when we stopped them on Titan. And I'll be there when we wipe them out." — Sloane

• Overseer — Sloane realises that the Fallen on Titan are trying to leave.
  
• She Is a Firebreaker — Eris believes Sloane will not leave Titan willingly.
  
• Preparation: Titan — Sloane has noted that the Hive have been digging deep in the arcology for Golden Age tech.
  
• Fortifying Titan — While the Guardians defend again the Pyramid, Sloane begins to put a plan together to push back the Hive.
  
• Wavebreaker — Sloane and Amanda discuss repairing the support struts of Siren's Watch.
  
• Clearing the Decks — The Guardian retrieves a Golden Age battlesuit for Sloane.
  
• Riastrad — Sloane tears through the Hive on Titan with her new battlesuit.
  
• A Distant Pull — The claims of the Witch Sister are torn asunder. The banners of War are raised.
  
• Day 0 — Black skies quell storms as if they were fleeing omens.
  
• Day 3 — The Ghost of Titan walks on through sunless seas, having died long ago.
  
• Day 92 — Take and live.
  
• Day 278 — A rising pressure, signaling imminent danger.
  
• Day 402 — "YOU WEAR MY BANNER." —Xivu Arath, Hive God of War
  
• Bonded... We Live... — Ahsa communicates with Sloane.
  
• Crown-Splitter — Sloane's apartment in the City is vacated to make room for those moving away from the Eliksni Quarter.
  
• Yes, Zavala here. A parcel? I didn't order any — for Sloane? I see... you can deliver it to my office. Thank you. — Zavala
  

Beneath the Waves — Week One

The Vanguard receive a distress call from Titan.

• Enemy of Witness on Titan — Soteria warns that an Titan contains vital information, and an enemy of the Witness resides there.
  
• Akashic Revelation — Joxer approaches the portal in front of the Traveler.
  
• [Titan Has Returned]() — Zavala reveals that Titan has returned.
  
• Beneath the Waves — Zavala launches a Priority 1 rescue operation to extract Sloane from Titan.
  
• That Distress Call Wasn't For Me — Sloane reveals why she sent out the distress call.
  
• Her Name is Ahsa — Zavala & Drifter talk with Sloane about potential ideas to communicate with Ahsa.
  
• Debriefing — Zavala debriefs Sloane on everything that's happened since she's been gone.
  
• We Need More Intel on Our Enemy... The Witness — Sloane debriefs the Guardian on the mission.
  
• I Detected Something on the Ocean Floor — Drifter has a plan for how to amplify the psychic bond between Sloane and Ahsa.
  
• NPA Repulsion Regulator — The Guardian looks up information on the NPA Repulsion Regulator.
  
• Until Its Return — Zavala returns Sloane's Crown-Splitter to her.
  
• Rapacious Appetite — A report on the Aberrant Houseless Servitor, J4W-S.
  
• Operation Thunderbolt — With the technology the Guardians salvaged, Drifter has modified his Gambit bank to store the coral from the depths of Kraken Mare.
  
• The First to Be Claimed By the Deep — Ahsa speaks through Sloane through a psychic bond amplified by the Egregore.
  
• It Hasn't Sounded That Real Since... — Sloane has succeeded in momentarily boosting her connection with Ahsa, but it seems to have taken a toll on her.
  
• The Nine Taking the Long View — Zavala and Drifter discuss the possibility that the Nine helped the Drifter set up Gambit for this moment.
  
• Gone Fishin' — Hawthorne helps the Guardian with some fishing.
  

Higher Voltage

• Centrifuse — Excerpts from a pre-Collapse report, logged by Dr. Khatun-Rowe, a researcher in the Engineering Division of the New Pacific Arcology, Titan.
  
• "Impressive stuff. Cutting edge Golden Age tech. Some burnt out components, but… hmm… Yeah. There's potential here. Need you to do some calibrating first, though." — Banshee-44
  
• "Guess that answers what fried those components. Thought about how to fix the overcharging, but then I had a different idea. Let's see just how much power it can handle." — Banshee-44
  
• "Looks like it worked. Arcology's scientists were good, but they didn't have Guardians. Bet they never counted on channelling Arc Light through this thing. Heard about an old power source Sloane was carting around Titan for a time. Maybe this gun was meant to go with it. Guess we'll never know. Another memory, lost beneath the waves." — Banshee-44
  

Salvage

Rig

Secure the Rig:

• We got some nasties crawlin' all over the rig! Go shoo 'em away so we can get to work! — Drifter
  
• I got proximity alarms going off all over the Derelict! Must be some uninvited guests on the rig. Show 'em the door! — Drifter
  
• Sensors are indicating enemy contact on the rig; engage and eliminate. — Sloane
  
• Aha! Our enemies seek to disrupt our salvaging? Then we will drive them off! Go, fight! — Saint-14
  
• We must defend the rig! Go protect the machinery! I will advise from here. — Saint-14
  

Site Security:

• Aw, hell! Here we go again! Enemies are after our salvage. Light 'em up! — Drifter
  
• Gonna need somebody to keep an eye on all this stuff. Hang tight, and blast anybody that tries to get grabby with our loot. — Drifter
  
• So I got a task perfectly suited for ya: shoot ANYTHING that tries to take our stuff! — Drifter
  

Site Reliability:

• Come on down, fellas! We got all sorts of damage that needs repairs. — Drifter
  
• Got some doing what needs getting done out here, friends. Need you to lend a hand. — Drifter
  
• Well, looks like we got some maintenance to do! This old bucket's a few centuries old, or — I dunno, probably more. Be nice and gentle. — Drifter
  

Engineering:

• Damn. Looks like the cranes blew their fuses. Gonna need you to roll up your sleeves and get in there. — Drifter
  
• Welp, there goes the backup power relays. You mind lendin' a hand down there? Otherwise, we're dead in the water. — Drifter
  
• [grunts in annoyance] Electrical is fried. Gonna need you to get in there and see what you can do to fix it. — Drifter
  

Ordnance Disposal:

• Need you Guardians down here to disarm some volatile parting gifts our friends left for us. — Drifter
  
• We got explosive ordinance on deck! Need you to take care of it, hero. — Drifter
  
• Aw, you gotta to be kidding me! Well, looks like our visitors from before left some surprises for us. Gonna need you to clear this all out. Carefully. — Drifter
  

Locate the Disruption:

• Looks like all our salvaging might've drawn some unwanted attention. Tell 'em to go mind their own business. — Drifter
  
• So it looks like we got ourselves a problem. Gotta get wet to take care of it. Don't drown or nothin'! — Drifter
  
• Quick question: How do you feel about unfathomable depths and horrific abominations? Anyway, transmat firing! — Drifter
  

Kraken Mare:

• Uh... [laughs nervously] Ah... uh oh. — Drifter
  
• Something's down here, lurking in the weird. Shake it up — see what comes out. — Drifter
  
• We got a big nasty fella down here. Go give 'em a tap on the backside for ol' Drifter. — Drifter
  

Arcology

Secure the Arcology:

• This feels good. We strike back as one fist, crushing Xivu Arath's forces. Get to work! — Sloane
  
• Guardian, I'm picking up enemy signals in the Arcology; sweep through and clear 'em out! — Sloane
  
• Y'know, this place ain't half bad. Put up some string lights, invite some pals over, get some music going... it's got a vibe! — Drifter
  
• We gotta get to work, Guardians! Tell these jerks they don't gotta go home, but they can't stay here! — Drifter
  
• Guardian, the hunt begins. Push into the Arcology and wipe out the invaders. — Lord Saladin
  
• We will hold the line. Hunt down the enemy, and secure the Arcology! — Lord Saladin
  
• Look at you, leaping into battle! Show the enemy they cannot hold us back! — Saint-14
  
• The Arcology is under attack; repel the invaders! — Saint-14
  

Site Security:

• Hostiles inbound; get between them and the salvage. — Sloane
  
• They're not giving up. Protect our salvage, Guardians. — Sloane
  
• We have enemies incoming! They're going after the salvage deliveries; Guardians, intercept! — Sloane
  

Site Reliability:

• We have maintenance that needs to be done, and this area is too dangerous for anyone but a Guardian. Let's get to work. — Sloane
  
• We're in this fight together. Time to get this Arcology back in operation. — Sloane
  
• Let's get to work, Guardians... stronger together. — Sloane
  

Engineering:

• I'm detecting multiple systemic failures in engineering. Guardians, I need you down there. — Sloane
  
• That attack left us vulnerable. We need you out there handling repairs. — Sloane
  
• Power readings are abnormal. The invasion must have damaged some of the Arc relay fuses. They need to be replaced. — Sloane
  

Ordnance Disposal:

• The enemy left explosive ordinance primed to blow! I need your assistance on this Guardians. — Sloane
  
• Guardians, our enemies left explosives behind. We need to dismantle them before they damage the Arcology. — Sloane
  
• There's explosives rigged around the Arcology. We need to disarm them before they blow! — Sloane
  

Locate the Disruption:

• Guardians, we have enemies inbound on the seafloor. Brace yourselves. Transmat firing! — Sloane
  
• Our salvage operations have stirred up enemy forces on the seafloor. Sending you in, Guardians. — Sloane
  
• We have hostiles gathering on the seafloor. Sending you in to deal with them! — Sloane
  

Kraken Mare:

• Xivu Arath is marshalling her forces. Be prepared for anything. — Sloane
  
• [groans] I can feel... rage. Guardian? Something's near. — Sloane
  
• Guardians, stand strong. They're going to throw everything they have at us. — Sloane
  

Mission Complete

• He Found a Purpose. Learning. Teaching. Mentoring — Saint tells Drifter that Osiris found that he was looking for on Neptune.
  
• You Found Yourself a Suit of 'Power Armour' — Drifter asks Sloane about her power armour.
  
• She Wants to Understand Stasis and Strand — Caiatl has been asking Osiris to begin teaching the Cabal forces about the Darkness.
  
• You've... Missed a Lot Since You Were Gone — Saladin hopes that Sloane can learn to acclimate to the new world she's found herself in.
  
• I Mighta... Also Been Eatin' Lunch — Drifter was too busy eating to do any heavy lifting.
  

Deep Dives

200 Metres:

• Move out, fireteam. — Lord Saladin
  
• This is Tactical. Dive, green. — Zavala
  

400 Metres:

• Guardian, You Go Left, I Go Right — Zavala debriefs the Guardian on their mission to collect Egregore coral.
  
• Fly Like Lady Jolder, and Leave Nothing in Your Wake — Sloane teases Saladin about his "Valus" title.
  

Egregore Resonator:

• The pressure down here fossilizes the Egregore — looks like blue stone. Harvest what you can, and I'll keep their main guns off your back. — Sloane
  
• You're on-site, Guardian. I'll draw away their commander while you get the job done. — Sloane
  
• OK, partner. Get drilling while I get loud and make a diversion for you. — Sloane
  
• Get your Ghost on that gear. Let's see how they like a little sabotage. — Sloane
  
• Have your Ghosts disrupt those power stations. We'll seize everything here. — Lord Saladin
  
• You've reached the drill site. Extract everything you can as quickly as you can. — Lord Saladin
  

Low Fuel:

• I see a drill running low. Take care of it. — Lord Saladin
  
• Guardian, the drill is showing low fuel. — Zavala
  

Darkness Invoked:

• I AM WAR! YOU BEAR MINE BANNER LIKE A CRESTED TABARD. — Xivu Arath
  
• MINE BLADE IS AN INVITATION. — Xivu Arath
  

Harvest Coral:

• This sector is crawling with Hive and Taken. Let's head down and dodge some of this heat. — Sloane
  
• Almost like we planned it, Guardian. Let's sink a little more and do it again. — Sloane
  
• The only remaining sites in this sector are in the deeper shelves. Descend, and keep your weapons close. — Lord Saladin
  
• Well executed, fireteam. Your next objective rests at a lower depth, well behind enemy lines. Move carefully. — Lord Saladin
  
• Enemy counterattack converging on this sector. You've been cleared to continue operations at a lower depth to evade their advance. — Zavala
  

Samples Secured:

• Egregore samples accounted for — Guardian, we're clear to engage their commander. — Sloane
  
• Collection tanks are full and safe. Time to turn the tables. — Sloane
  
• All Egregore samples are safe in containment. Ready to punch a hole outta here? — Sloane
  

J4W-S:

• A MAD, FALLEN HOUND, EVER SEEKING PREY! BORN OF WRATH! DRIVEN BY WHIPS! — Xivu Arath

Midnight:

• That Darn Golden Age Suit Crapped Out on Me — Zavala tells Sloane that he's glad to have her back.
  
• What Shifted Your Opinion on the Cabal? — Sloane asks Saladin why his opinion changed on the Cabal.
  

Resonator (Midnight):

• Enemies incoming. We already lost these Guardians. Let's avenge them. Fix that extractor, and I'll pull the bulk of Hive away from you. — Sloane

Extractor:

• I'm not sure how, but it's working. Now defend this position. — Lord Saladin

Kudazad:

• KUDAZAD! BOUND BY WAR, CONQUERED FROM TRICKERY, I INVOKE YOUR DEBT. — Xivu Arath

Mission Complete:

• Got a Good Team on This, Sir. Even the Drifter — Sloane commends the team that Zavala has put together for this mission.
  
• You Fought At Twilight Gap, Did You Not? — Saladin loses a bet with Saint.
  

Ghosts of the Deep

• This just came in from a communications relay on Titan. The commander asked me to deliver it to you immediately. The Hive have a foothold there, but the deputy commander says the situation has changed. Something about a Lucent Hive ship entering Titan's atmosphere and diving into the ocean. Details look scarce. But whatever's going on can't be good. — Hawthorne
  
• Guardian, there's massive energy readings surging from below the arcology. All communication channels are affected. The Lucent Hive are forcing their way through from the Ascendant Plane. But there's something else going on. The formations I'm seeing are indicative of some kind of mass ritual to — Guardian, can you read me? Guardian? — Sloane
  
• Ahsa's Presence — Ahsa watches the Guardians from the deep.
  
• Picking you up again, the signal's clearing and I'm receiving your Ghost's feed of—is that... Oryx? Ugh, were the Lucent Hive trying to — this was a ritual to resurrect the Taken King! By force? We're lucky you were able to stop this, Guardian. I don't even know if what they were trying to do here was possible but... the risk alone... I'm going to contact Ikora immediately. She'll want the Hidden to secure Oryx's remains for study. — Sloane
  
• No one will tell me what happened down there. Whenever I ask, she says it's 'privileged information' and shuts me down. I won't ask you to go against Ikora's wishes. She's gotta be keeping secrets for a good reason. But I haven't seen her that shaken since she learned about Savathûn having the Light.... Actually... maybe it's better if I don't know. Sometimes the truth is more terrifying than your own imagination. — Hawthorne
  

Memories:

• Recalcitrant Host — Take what is not given.
  
• LONELY NAVIGATOR, WE HAVE TRAVELED SO LONG WITH ONLY EACH OTHER. I KNOW YOU LOVE TO HEAR AND SPEAK NEW TONGUES. COME, SIT IN THE FLESH GARDEN. I WILL READ YOU THESE STORIES I BROUGHT AT KAHARN. — Xivu Arath
  
• I WAS XI RO. I WAS WEAKNESS. FRAGILITY. THEN YOU DROWNED ME IN THE DEEP. MURDERED MY FLAWS. YOU ARE OUR NAVIGATOR, OUR GUIDE. LED ME DOWN THE BLADED PATH, TO BE REFORGED AS XIVU ARATH. I WILL REMEMBER YOU. OUR NAVIGATOR. OUR BROTHER. OUR KING. IN THIS, YOU ARE ETERNAL. — Xivu Arath
  
• [exhales] I REMEMBER THE LANGUID CONTEMPT OF OUR FATHER. THE COLD EYES OF OUR MOTHER. I SEE YOUR DETERMINATION ETERNAL. IT IS DETERMINATION THAT DEFINES YOU. CERTAINTY, CLARITY, FAITH — YOUR WILL IS A KNIFE, HEWING AWAY AT OUR LIES. YOU ARE TRUTH. WHEN I DOUBT, YOU NEVER SPARE ME THE BLADE. WHEN I FALTER, YOU NEVER SPARE ME YOUR WORDS, AND YET... I KNOW THERE IS MORE. — Xivu Arath
  
• YOU ARE DEAD. YOUR THRONE WAITS EMPTY. BLASPHEMY. BLASPHEMY! MY BROTHER — MY BROTHER IS VANQUISHED. COURT... SCATTERED. TEMPLES, RANSACKED! MY BROTHER IS DEAD! AND HIS KILLERS HAVE NOT ASSUMED THE MANTLE OF THE TAKEN KING. BLASPHEMY. BLASPHEMY! HOW? HOW CAN THE SPEAR THAT PIERCED A MILLION WORLDS BE KILLED BY THOSE WHO WOULD DENY THE ALL-EDGED TRUTHS? [weeps] MOTHER... ARE YOU LAUGHING? SISTER, ARE YOU SMILING? IS THIS THE FATE WORSE THAN EXTINCTION? WAS IT ALL FOR... NOTHING? — Xivu Arath
  
• I HAVE DIED... AND YET WAS SUMMONED BACK BY YOU. YOU, WHO REMEMBERED ME AS WAR? OUR SISTER DIED, AND WAS SUMMONED BACK BY YOU. YOU, WHO CONSPIRED WITH HER CUNNING? SO IT MUST BE FOR NOW. IF YOUR LEGACY IS TRUE, BROTHER, IT WILL COME UNTO US AND DEFEAT OUR BLASPHEMY. AND IF NOT... IF NOT, WHAT WE ATTEMPT CANNOT BE BLASPHEMY. FOR WE HAVE SURVIVED YOU. SURPASSED THE POWER OF YOUR WILL. AIAT. AIAT. — Xivu Arath
  
• THE SKY... IS FRAGILE. FLAWED. LIES. LIES! I SEE HOW EASILY IT IS CHAINED. BROUGHT TO THE HEEL, AND MUZZLED. THE TRUTH CANNOT BE SO EASILY BOUND. YOU SHOWED US THAT. TRUTH HAS WINGS. I TAKE FLIGHT IN YOUR STEAD. I BRING THE KNIFE OF TRUTH TO THE GRISTLE OF LIES. — Xivu Arath
  
• YOU WOULD HAVE SAVOURED MY TRIUMPH. HOW OUR SISTER'S GIFT TO ME WAS TREATED WITH SUCH CARE. SCREAMS LIKE A CHOIR AS THEIR MOUNTAINS TREMBLED. SCREAMS LIKE A CHOIR AS THEIR SEAS BOILED! I STEPPED DOWN INTO THAT WORLD, THRUST MY SWORD INTO THE HEART OF TOROBATL, AND CARVED LIES FROM TRUTHS. — Xivu Arath
  
• HERESY. HERESY! OUR SISTER DENIES YOUR TRUTH AND CRAWLS LIKE AN ANIMAL INTO THE SHADOW OF THE SKY! SHE BLEATS AND HOWLS, ALLOWING HERSELF TO BE PROFANED BY IT! SHE SPITS ON YOUR MEMORY! SISTER, YOU ALWAYS DOUBTED. BUT NOW, IT IS TIME TO TEST THEORY IN PRAXIS. — Xivu Arath
  
• SOMETIMES, TO WIN A BATTLE, YOU NEEDN'T RAISE A HAND. YOU LET THE IGNORANT FIGHT IN YOUR NAME, UNKNOWING. THEY MOVE THEMSELVES INTO POSITION, POSTURING THEIR VICTORIES, LEAVING THEIR SOFT FLANK OPEN. SISTER, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. YOU WERE WRONG. — Xivu Arath
  
• THERE IS AN END IN SIGHT NOW, CLEARER THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN IT. THE HORIZON NARROWS DOWN TO A SINGLE EDGE, SHARPER THAN HOPE. I SEE THE FINAL SHAPE COMING INTO FOCUS IN THIS CUTTING MOTION, AND THE DEEP SINGS ITS PROMISES. I CRACK MY WHIP UNTO THE RHYTHM. I GUIDE YOUR KNIFE IN BETWEEN RIBS! EVEN NOW, ALONE, YOU ARE MY NAVIGATOR. — Xivu Arath
  
• THE SKY'S LIARS ARE ELOQUENT IN THEIR TENACITY. THEY MAKE ME DOUBT MY OWN HAND... MY OWN RIGHT! OUR BLADES CLASH, AND I AM DRIVEN BACK, BACK! I HAD MY BLADE AT THEIR THROAT, AND THEY SLIPPED PAST MY GUARD. BUT IT IS TOO LATE NOW. EVEN THEIR DEEPEST CUTS ARE TOO SHALLOW TO KILL. I SEE THE FINAL SHAPE COMING FOR THEIR HEART. — Xivu Arath
  
• I COME TO YOU NOW TO SAY GOODBYE, BROTHER. THIS WILL BE MY LAST VISITATION. A FINAL KNEE AT YOUR GRAVE. I'M LEFT TO WONDER IF THERE'S ANYTHING OF YOU STILL IN THERE. I AM LEFT TO WONDER... WHAT IS THIS FEELING? THE SKY IS MORTALLY WOUNDED, BLEEDING OUT. YET... A PART OF ME LONGS FOR THE COMFORT OF THE GARDENS. OF YOUR STORIES. OF SISTER'S. I LONG FOR OUR JOURNEYS TOGETHER... BUT KNOW THEY HAVE COME TO AN END. WE WILL BE PROVEN RIGHT. YOU WILL BE PROVEN RIGHT. BROTHER. IF YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME ANYTHING, IT WAS TO NEVER DENY A TRUTH, EVEN WHEN IT GRIEVES US. WHAT IS THIS FEELING? I DO NOT WANT IT! — Xivu Arath
  
• The Navigator — I dive to understand.
  

Hidden Operation:

• 003-TAKEN-156 - I — Chalco offers Fenchurch and Lisbon a talisman to protect them on their mission.
  
• 003-TAKEN-156 - II — The Hidden trio dive deep into Titan's oceans in a Fallen submersible.
  
• 003-TAKEN-156 - III — The team approach the target of their operation: Oryx.
  
• 003-TAKEN-156 - IV — The Hidden believe the Lucent Brood were trying to forcibly resurrect Oryx.
  
• 003-TAKEN-156 - V — Fenchurch and Chalco present their notes of the mission.
  

Into the Depths — Week Two

• Word of Amanda's Death Hit Sloane Hard — Zavala has a mission update for the Guardian, now that Sloane has recovered enough to boost her connection with Ahsa again.
  
• Mayday, Mayday — Drifter has improved his coral banking device to work at greater depths.
  
• To Set the Example. To Be the Hope — The Guardian returns to the H.E.L.M. after another successful dive.
  
• A Silent God... Withholds a Deeper Truth — Sloane can use the extracted coral to strengthen her psychic bond with Ahsa.
  
• It's Hard to Make Sense of Ahsa's Thoughts — Sloane has succeeded in momentarily boosting her connection with Ahsa, but it seems to have taken a toll on her.
  
• You Use Her Ship to Jam My Messages — Saint confronts Saladin for jamming his messages to Sloane.
  
• Theory — Ikora notes that the Veil's signature has grown stronger since Titan's return.
  

Bounties

Sloane:

• Deep Storage: "Remember not to come back up too quickly." — Commander Sloane
  
• Deep Trouble: Fallen: "I guess some things don't change." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Deep Trouble: Hive: "We're just going to have to knock the Light out of them ourselves." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Deep Trouble: Taken: "Don't let them surprise you. It's hard to isolate the ozone smell down there." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Kinetic Aquanaut: "Can't go wrong with the old essentials." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Bladed Aquanaut: "Only one thing I trust more than a good sword." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Powerful Aquanaut: "They'll try to hit you hard and fast. Might as well return the favor." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  
• Tropical Storm: "The depths of the methane sea may seem calm, but there's always something on the move." — Deputy Commander Sloane
  

Drifter:

• Energetic Aquanaut: "Friendly advice: watch the Solar fire down there." — Drifter
  
• Quickdraw Aquanaut: "Underwater gunfights? You've got a real taste for the dramatic." — Drifter
  
• Deep Sea Angler: "Fishing's supposed to be relaxing. I say it leaves you open for potshots. Keep your eyes open." — Drifter
  
• Rig Shift: "Must be all kinds of salvage on Titan, way under the surface…" — Drifter
  

Valus Forge:

• Rifle Aquanaut: "It's the bottom of the methane sea. I'd go for range." — Valus Forge

Zavala:

• Spearfishing Aquanaut: "Plan for all potential engagements." — Commander Zavala
  
• Salvaged Equipment: "The Arcology on Titan was once a valued source of Golden Age knowledge. Perhaps it can be again." — Commander Zavala
  

Ikora Rey:

• Rapid Aquanaut: "Every breath counts." — Ikora Rey
  
• Fires in the Deep: "This will be a much more literal current, but the lesson holds true." — Ikora Rey
  
• Unnatural Electrolysis: "The Arcology used to be a relic of our past. Now it's become a portent of the future." — Ikora Rey
  

Saint-14:

• Automatic Aquanaut: "A war god we cannot defeat by fighting… This is unfair." — Saint-14

Crow:

• Destructive Aquanaut: "You think there are other giant sea creatures down there?" — Crow

Devrim Kay:

• Precise Aquanaut: "I trust you can keep a steady hand under pressure." — Devrim Kay

Events are listed by the day. Events that happen every week appear first, one time stuff after that. If you have anything you’d like people to know about, comment here or message me and I’ll add it in. If you’d like further info about any of the events, look it up! I usually don’t have any extra to add.
Large Scale, Ongoing, and Multi-Day Events

• The 71st annual Florida Folk Festival at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs. The festival is a three-day celebration of the music, dance, stories, crafts and food that make Florida unique. From Irish fiddle tunes, contra dancing and root beer floats to the wide varieties of music of immigrants, the state's cultural heritage reflects the lives of generations of Florida families and communities. Throughout the Memorial Day weekend, more than 300 performances will give voice and meaning to Florida's heritage. https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/stephen-foster-folk-culture-center-state-park/florida-folk-festival-schedule-highlights

Local Running, Walking, and Biking Info: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
OutdooFarmer’s Markets:

• Lake Ella Grower's Market: Wednesday, 11am-2pm. You can always find organic vendors, and foragers: The Holistic Cannabis Community, Artzi Farms, Hickory Nut Gifts, and others. Including Pita Queen! Farmer's Market Nutrition Program Coupons gladly accepted!
  
• Frenchtown Market: 524 N MLK Jr Blvd. Saturdays, 10am to 2pm. Come grow community and support your local farmers and makers, while you get your groceries for the week! Don’t forget! We match SNAP/EBT, so you DOUBLE your money to go towards locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables!
  
• Tallahassee Farmers Market: 2904 Kerry Forest Pkwy, Saturdays, 8am to Noon. Come see us at Tallahassee's longest-running farmers market! We are a year-round market, featuring local farms and vendors that provide the best seasonal produce, meats, baked goods, and more. We welcome you and your whole family (leashed pets included) to come out and meet your local farmers! Ample parking is available between our lot and the shopping center lot next door (by Red Elephant). Come early for the best selection.
  
• Tallahassee Downtown Market: Ponce de Leon Park, Saturdays, 10am-2pm. Join us for a stroll in the park among local makers, bakers, artists and farmers as live music is played by local musicians!
  

THURSDAY, 5/25

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour Pickfoolery. 5pm
  
• The Hub at Feather Oaks: Bingo. 6pm
  
• Dreamland BBQ: Weekly Open Blues Jam. If you'd like to sing, please bring your own mic. 6pm
  
• Blu Halo: Upside Avenue. 6pm
  
• Lake Hall: Thursday Night Paddle Series. Weekly paddles at Lake Hall every Thursday starting at 6PM. The park closes on a sliding scale each night dictated by sun set. The park entrance fee is $6.00 (the ranger station closes at 5:30 and they typically do not charge for entry after this time). While there is no fee for this event ALL paddlers must have filled out the ACKC insurance waiver. Link here: https://form.jotform.com/JLAagency/apalachee-canoe--kayak----club-waiv Welcome to our weekly Thursday night paddling event at Maclay Gardens State Park in Tallahassee, Florida. Our event is designed to be both casual and instructional, offering paddlers of all skill levels the opportunity to improve their kayaking abilities while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Starting at 6pm and ending at sunset, our weekly paddling event will provide participants with the chance to learn and practice different strokes, capsize recovery, and kayak rolling techniques. Sometimes there will be knowledgeable instructors on hand to provide guidance and instruction helping you to develop your skills and build your confidence on the water. Whether you are a beginner looking to learn the basics of paddling or an experienced paddler looking to improve your technique, our event is perfect for you. We welcome all skill levels and provide a supportive and encouraging environment to help you achieve your goals. Join us each Thursday evening at Maclay Gardens State Park and experience the thrill of kayaking while learning new skills and making new friends. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to improve your paddling abilities and explore the beauty of Tallahassee's natural surroundings. 6pm
  
• The Great Games Library: Solforge Fusion Sealed-Deck Tournament. Anyone interested in SolForge: Fusion, please come out! Thursday nights at 6:00pm to 9:00pm ish will be dedicated to SolForge Fusion gameplay and weekly tournaments. If you play or have played MTG but would like to spend less, this is a great alternative CCG with inexpensive entry and minimal purchases to enjoy playing competitively. In-store and online tournaments may be played with the same decks purchased at any store. SolForge was created by the same designer for MTG, Netrunner, and Key Forge, Richard Garfield, and the designer for Ascension, Justine Gary. 6pm/$35 Entry Fee for 4 Sealed Half-decks, Special Art Playmat Prize for 1st Place
  
• Oyster City Brewing Co: Open Mic Night! Join us on Thursdays from 6:30-9:30 PM for Open Mic Night hosted by the incredible Mike Ingram of The Brown Goose! 🎙️ 🎶 This is your chance to show off your skills! Whether you're a musician, poet, comedian, or have a hidden talent, we can't wait to see what you bring to the stage. 6:30pm
  
• World of Beer: Trivia Night. 7pm
  
• Lake Tribe III: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Smitty's Taphouse: Trivia Lab Thursdays. Teams of 6 or fewer players can compete for $30 / $20 / $10 Prizes + The Golden MacGuffin prize table! New format! Interactive smartphone answering for your comfort and safety! 6 Fun Rounds - 42 Total Questions. 7:30pm
  
• House of Music: Prime Rib Thursday & Karaoke. 7:30pm
  
• Cap City Video Lounge: Squirm: MST3K May the Fourth Double Feature. Join us Thursday as we climb aboard The Satellite of Love along with Joel, Tom Servo and CROOOOW as the Gang riffs bold a brassy to the southern fried revenge of nature horror film, SQUIRM! immediately proceeded by the legendary short A CASE OF SPRING FEVER! 8pm/free but donations encouraged
  
• Fire Bettys: Electronic Thursdays. There will be rotating music genres from local artists! 8pm/free/21+
  
• Poor Pauls: Trivia. 8/21+
  
• 926: Karaoke. 9pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Electronic Show. Join us for Experiment 002 and take a mind-bending trip into the sound of the future! Our electrifying music party will transport you to another dimension with cutting-edge beats and non-stop excitement. 9pm
  
• Bird’s: Karaoke with Nathan. 9pm
  

• My Favorite Books: Zine Workshop with Author JSK. Looking for a fun way to explore your creativity? This zine workshop will inspire you with writing prompts to create a short poem and then teach you how to create your very own zine. Zines are a compact and inexpensive way to share your voice with the world. All you need to bring is a notebook (or computer or Notes app on your phone if that’s your jam), a favorite writing utensil, and a curious heart. We'll provide the other supplies you'll need. If it would be helpful if you let us know that you're coming! 5:30pm
  
• Common Ground Books: Literary Open Mic Night. Join us for our monthly literary open mic night! This is the perfect safe space to share the poetry or fiction you’ve been working on. 6pm
  
• Midtown Reader: Story Slam: Taking Root. Join us Thursday, 5/25 at 7 pm to hear the winners of our Taking Root-themed Story Slam read their works! 7pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Free Jazz Thursday with the Longineu Parsons Trio. 8pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Michal Menert (formerly of Pretty Lights) and Arms and Sleepers. 8pm/18+
  
• The Bark: Queer Ren Faire Dance Party featuring music from Nervis, The Bishop, Box Test, and Old Creepy. 8pm
  

FRIDAY, 5/26

• Lake Tribe: Flannel Friday. Flannel Fridays will be featuring a wide range of fall themed 'Pop-up' activities such as food trucks, live music, campfires, s'mores roasting, new seasonal brews, and more! Come dawn your flannel and cozy up to the simpler things in life. Our beers taste like the outdoors feel, let our tasting room be your Friday cabin retreat. 4pm
  
• Gamescape: MTG Friday Night Magic. FORMAT: Standard Constructed. Swiss rounds as determined by the number of players with a maximum of 5 rounds. 7pm/$5
  
• Hobbit West: Friday Night Dart Tournament. Anyone can Enter! Sign ups at 7:30, Darts fly at 8:00/$10 entry fee
  
• Ouzts Too: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 8pm
  
• Club Downunder: CDU X Hip Hop Club Presents Freestyle Friday. Show off your freestyle rap or poetry skills at Freestyle Friday! Doors are at 7:30 with the show starting at 8:00 in Club Downunder! Send an email to [email protected] to sign up! 8pm
  
• The Bar at La Casa: Karaoke with DJ FUSION. 9pm
  
• Just One More: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm-11pm/21+
  
• 926: The Hot Friday Night Party and Drag Show. 9pm/$5/18+
  

• Blue Tavern: Everett Young. 5pm
  
• Hurricane: Upside Avenue. 6pm
  
• Fish Camp: Trey Grauer. 6pm
  
• Lake Tribe: One Eyed JAK. 6:30pm
  
• Island Wings: Free Wheelin' Band. 7pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Co: Suckerdust. 7pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Chris Seepersaud & Sasha Tuck. 7pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Jazz Night featuring Dionysus and Langston Michael & Friends. 8pm
  
• House of Music: Stephen Esteban LIVE 70s 80s 90s. 8pm
  
• Crum Box Gastgarden: CACAH - Comedians Against Cards Against Humanity. In a combination of CAH and comedy, local comedians will be reading, joking about, and scoring each team's card submission, with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place! This is an absolute blast and you don't want to miss it! 8pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Bubbles Brown. 9pm
  

SATURDAY, 5/27

• Brinkley Glen Park: Invasive Plant Removal. Join Master Gardener Volunteers at this weekly invasive plant removal event. This is a great way to learn to ID our invasive plant species and how to remove them. We recommend wearing long pants and sleeves, closed-toed shoes, gloves, a hat and mosquito spray. Bring gardening tools such as hand clippers, loppers, trowels, etc. if you have them. We are removing coral ardisia bushes and berries, nandina, tung trees, Tradescantia flumenensis, cat's claw vine, winged yam, Japanese climbing fern, skunkvine and more. Directions: The best way to get there is to take Meridian Rd to Waverly Rd, go to the next intersection and turn left onto Abbotsford Way, then turn left at the next road called Woodside Dr. At the stop sign turn left onto Lothian. Lothian ends in a cul-de-sac and there is a sign that says Brinkley Glen Park. 8:30am-11:30am
  
• The Rose Room: The Rose Revue. Performances by your favorite entertainers and special guests! Shows at 8pm, 10pm, & Midnight! A unique cast EACH show! 7pm
  
• Duke’s and Dottie’s: Line Dancing Plus Lessons. 7pm/21+
  
• Bird’s Oyster Shack: Laughterday Night Fever. This week: Five Year Anniversary Laughterday Night Fever! Join us every Saturday at Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack for a free comedy show! 8:30pm
  
• La Casa Bar: Karaoke With Nathan. 9pm-1am
  

• House of Cars: Florida Super Student Celebration. House of Cars Florida is excited to honor Tallahassee's 2023 Super Students in their completion of a successful year! On Saturday, May 27th from 11 AM to 1 PM, Super Students can redeem a FREE mainline Hot Wheels car and pick a summer reading book to take home. Free books available from author, illustrator, and designer Rebekah Phillips, of Farlee and Friends, as well as other excellent children's books. Runnin' Buzz Bartending will be on-site with delicious kid-friendly mocktails to help kick off the celebration. All students, K-5th grade who have all A's and B's OR can show significant improvement in a class they were struggling in, are eligible to become a House of Cars Super Student! For example, if your student received a grade of C or lower in math (but maintained good grades in other classes during a prior 9-week) and improved their math grade to passing (or excelling!) will be considered. Please Note: All students must be accompanied by a guardian and show proof of report card to be eligible for prizes. Prizes can only be redeemed on Saturday, May 27, 2023 between 11 AM and 1 PM. Quantities are limited, and on a first-come basis. 11am-1pm
  
• Fish Camp: Steven Ritter 1pm - 4pm and Salty's Saltwater Cowboy Band 5pm - 8pm
  
• Cascades: The Hails with Sofia Camille. 7pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Co: Dominic Milner. 7pm
  
• Square Mug: Geist, Spat, Lasso, Blazar, and Ideation. 7:30pm
  
• The Bark: Mourning Station with Callie Flemming & The Fifth Wave and Speed Runner. 8pm
  
• Lee Hall: Spotlight on Dance - 35th Anniversary. The annual Spotlight on Dance displays Pas De Vie Ballet's stunning diversity and effortless talent. Working with pieces that range from classical staples to contemporary originals, artistic director Natalia Botha and ballet master Charles Hagan have created breath-taking choreography to be performed by their dancers. 8pm
  
• House of Music: NightShift. 8pm/$10
  
• Fire Bettys: Local Forecast. 8pm/21+
  
• 926: Medians, Loyal Customers, Ravenous Tanuki, and Chaos & The Crimson Wing. 8:30pm
  

SUNDAY, 5/28

• Bicycle House: Sunday Ride. Ride at 10:30 AM from Bicycle House. We will ride the Cascades trail to the St Marks trail and down to Wakulla station and return, about 31 miles. Ride speed is 12 to 14 mph, with periodic regroups. Vernon Bailey is the ride leader. Vernon is a new CCC member who’s been biking for 50 years enjoys riding with small groups and weekend touring. 10am
  
• Ology Northside: Ology Jazz Brunch. 11:30am
  
• Gamescape: Pokémon League. Come learn, play, and trade with the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Pokémon video games! We LOVE seeing new players, so come learn how to play! We play both the Trading Card Game and the Video Game casually and competitively. The store offers lots of different seating arrangements to meet our group's needs, as well as food, drinks, and Pokémon products for purchase. We are also hold regular, officially sanctioned tournaments for Pokémon Trading Card Game and Video Game Competitions! 2-4pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Colby Scheib. 3pm
  
• House of Music: Songwriter Sunday. Songwriters of Tallahassee hosted by Rachel Hillman. Bring your original songs on Sunday - sign up is at 4:30. No Cover Songs please - this is an event celebrating original music. Accompanists and Bands Welcome - you must be able to set up within two minutes, so no crazy pedals or amp shenanigans. No Backing Tracks - Please find someone to play your song with you. 5pm
  
• The Plant: Open Jam. All instruments, all players welcome. 5pm-9pm
  
• House of Music: Perkins Street Pickers. 5pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: Comedy Night. Come have some laughs with us on Sunday nights! If you are interested in participating in the show, reach out to [email protected] 7:30pm
  
• The Rose Room: Synful Sunday. 8pm
  

• Common Ground Books: May Story Hour. Come join us for our May Story Hour! This is a free family friendly event for all ages. There will be a free craft for kiddos and coffee and conversation for grown-ups. This month’s books: Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Weather Together (a Not Quite Narwhal book) by Jessie Sima. 2pm
  
• Fish Camp: Far 2 Fresh. 3pm
  
• Riverside Café (St Marks): Cottonmouth Perry & G.B. Hammond RiverDogs. 4pm
  

**MONDAY, 5/29

• Just One More: Bingo. 5pm-6:30pm
  
• American Legion Hall: Cha Cha - Weekly Lessons. 6:15pm/$5
  
• Hangar 38: Bingo. 6:45pm
  
• Vino Beano: Tipsy Trivia. 7pm
  
• The Rose Room: Karaoke Night. 8pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: The Bachelor Watch Party! 8pm
  

• Redemptive Love Farm & Rescue: Farm Fun Day. Join us for an OPEN FARM FUN DAY! Enjoy visiting all our farm animals on our 12 acre farm, entering our petting area and swings & play equipment as we open our farm to the public once a month! 9am-4pm/$5
  
• Fish Camp: Memorial Day Jam with Steven Ritter and friends. 2pm
  

TUESDAY, 5/30

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour with Paddy League. 5pm
  
• World of Beer: Poker Night. 6pm
  
• The Rose Room: Drag Bingo and Open Stage Night ft. Britney T. Foxx! 6pm
  
• Crafty Crab: BOOMIN' Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Ology Midtown: Jazz Jam Sessions. 7pm
  
• Island Wings: Trivia. 7pm
  
• House of Music: Tuesday Trivia & Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Burrito Boarder: Karaoke with DJ Roldus. 8pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Tuesday is Blues Day. Every Tuesday is Blues Day @ the Blue Tavern and Blues Meets Girl is a Tallahassee favorite. This perfect, intimate venue provides just what you need for both a mid-week break and authentic blues music experience. 8pm
  
• 4th Quarter: Professor Jim's Tuesday Night Trivia. Popular for a reason! 8pm
  
• Argonaut Coffee: Trivia Tuesday. 8pm
  
• 926: Tacos and Trivia. 9pm
  
• Fire Betty’s: Comedy Show. 9pm/21+
  

WEDNESDAY, 5/31

• Rose Room: Women's Wednesday. Featuring Our Rose Roulettes and drink specials all night long. A night for all of our female-identifying friends to enjoy a safe space and an awesome happy hour! 5pm-2am
  
• Blue Tavern: The Wednesday Night Lab Session hosted by Jim Crozier. 5pm
  
• Sugar and Spice Tally: Game Night. Join us every Wednesday Night for community game night. Bring your own or use ours! Let me know if you need to reserve space for a large group. Free to attend! 5pm
  
• Tara Angel’s Magic: D&D Experience - Adult (18+) Group. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Candlekeep Mysteries. A one-shot is a D&D event that starts and finishes in the same session, typically lasting 3 - 4 hours. We have pre-generated characters for players to choose from. WHAT TO BRING: Pencils, Dice (can be purchased in store), Mask (encouraged for unvaccinated participants), Enthusiasm! Please sign up in advance to reserve a spot in this campaign. Tickets can be purchased in-store, over the phone, or on the website. For more information, please email [email protected], or call: (850) 878-4555 6pm-9pm
  
• Goodwood: Wonderful Wednesday. 6pm/$5
  
• Level 8 Rooftop Lounge: Trivia. 6pm
  
• The Great Games Library: Open Game Night. 6pm/free
  
• American Legion Hall: Sue Boyd Country Western and More Dance Class. Session 2 - Beginner 6:30 to 7:45 pm What: East Coast Swing and Waltz. Cost: $8.00 per person. Wear comfortable shoes you can turn in. 7:45 to 8:15 - Practice dance with paid admission. 8:15 to 9:30: Intermediate - 2 Step and WCS. $8.00 per person or $13.00 for both classes. Vaccines are required. Face masks are optional. Changing partners is optional. 6:30pm
  
• Perry Lynn’s Smokehouse in Quincy: Wed Night Open Mic w/ Steven Ritter and Friends. 6:30pm
  
• Hangar 38: Trivia. 6:45pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Tallahassee: Trivia. Teams up to 6 players for three rounds with 10 questions and a tie breaker each round. Winners are by round so don’t worry if you need to come late or can’t stay the whole time! Prizes include a round of beer, a 6 pack and a gift card! 7pm
  
• Proof: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Vino Beano: Wine Bingo. 7pm
  
• Fermentation Lounge: Trivia. 7pm
  
• The Bark: Oceans in the Sky, Dizzy Bats, and Medians. 7pm
  
• House of Music: Open Mic at House of Music. Join us Wednesday nights for open mic in the bar with host Mike Ingram of The Brown Goose. Come early for Happy Hour and dinner! 8pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Warehouse Wednesdays Open Mic Night. The open mic night that has run continuously for almost 20 years, once housed at the Warehouse, lives on at the Blue Tavern. Doc Russell continues as the host with the most. Sign up starts at 8pm/free to attend
  
• Fire Betty’s: Karaoke! 8pm/21+/free
  
• Dukes and Dotties: College Night and Line Dancing Lessons. 8pm
  
• The Bark: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 9pm
  
• 926: Dragged Out Wednesday. 10pm
  

My story starts with when I was 11, I was living with my mom, we were in poverty at the time. I start the day off by going to school, half way through the school day I get taken out of class and all of a sudden my sister's father who I knew nothing about (since we had different fathers and my mom had custody of us both) was there to take me. I get in in his car with him and his wife, we go and park outside my apartment I was living in with my mom and sister, just to see my sister with a big bag of all my stuff, my sister got in the car and we drove off. I still had no idea about where we were going, but I learned later, very suddenly that now I have to live with my sister's family who I didn't know at all( except for my sister ) my sister's family lived out in the country, which I wasn't used to at all, I had to do daily farm jobs which I wasn't used to, since I had been babies my entire life so I had no idea what a wrench even looked like. My chores consisted of doing wood work with my brother who had lived there for a solid few years already, since he was my half sisters full brother. (Hes about 5 years older than me) he had some form of autism which made him just never believe me when I couldn't hand him a certain tool because I didn't know what it was, so every time we worked, which was about everyday, he constantly verbally abused me. I also had to feed chickens and such. There were much stricter rules in this house that I wasn't used to, I had 1 hour of screentime a day and wasn't allowed food or drinks upstairs which was where the rooms were. By "rooms" I mean these little areas each of us were given, they were about 8 square feet each. One thing I was thankful for in this new household was that we got to eat proper meals, with real meat and not that 'tv' dinner kind of meat. Did I mention that there was no wifi here? I started going to a small school consisting of one hallway. I met decent friends and had some good memories. My life continued exactly like this each day with no major events.
After about 14 months of this, I finally found out why I was taken from my mother, it was because the CPS found out that I had missed a lot of school when I was with her (I did) keep in mind, this doesn't mean that my mother was a bad person, it was just because my spoiled whiny little ass couldn't stand to learn something and my mother wasn't strict enough.
I started to visit my mother for two weekends every month when I was 12, at this point I developed a Midwestern accent, since everyone I lived with had this, it wasn't a full Fletched accent, but I would pronounce "your" like yer, and that kinda stuff. Life kept going like that for a few months until my dad visited completely out of the blue, my dad hadn't been in contact with me for a while before that since he was living in a boat in a lake while covid was going.
During all this I had been talking to a children's lawyer to get me back to my mom, but one talk I had with her before a big court date, was the talk that decided my further, she asked who I wanted to live with. The options were, my mother, my father, and my sister's father, I chose my father, even though we didn't know each other that well, I genuinely believed he was a good man, just wanting to spend lost time with his son. After about another 8 months of grueling court sessions, I finally, finally found out that I could go live with my father. After about 3 days of living with my father, on the date of December 26 the day after Christmas, the birthday of my second brother who was my dad's son. We were celebrating with him, and at around midnight we caught on that the house was burning down, (my loony great aunt took the smoke detectos out) we rushed outside and called the firefighters while waiting in our truck. This house wasnt insured. The firefighters didn't even put an ounce of water on that fire, we and the firefighters just watched it burn down for what seemed like ages, I tried pinching myself multiple times to wake up, but I just didn't. We eventually were able to get a hold of a family friend that lived near, we had to walk to them since no cars could get in or out because of the fences the firefighters put up. We had to walk barefoot on a road that had ice all over it, my brother held me in his arms carrying me so I didn't feel the cold, he slipped though, even while slipping he held me up not even caring about himself getting injured. We got to our family friends car.
I woke up in the family friends house that morning when my brother had to go back to his apartment, and I had to go back to live with my sister's father for a month and a half while my father was busy buying a camper to live in with the last bit of his money. I was able to return to living with my father inside this camper. We lived on our family friends property for a while in the driveway while I attended school still. Unfortunately, I was back into the life of poverty because of this devastating event. After about a year of living in that driveway me and my dad had to leave because the family friend was moving. We didn't go with them because of a falling out. Now me and my father are living in the parking lot of a flying J (truck stop) with barely 100 dollars to live off of a week.
How can I cope with this shitty life? Tl; DR My life is shit, I need a way out.

Alternative title: The relation between Worms, Leviathans, and Ahamkara???
tl;dr - With the revelation about Worms and Leviathans, previous lore might indicate that ALL the big wormies (including Ahamkara) are related to each other and descened from the worms in the Garden.
^{Spoilers obviously.}
In this season, we learn that the Leviathan on Titan (presumably related to the one on Fundament) is biologically related to the Hive Worms. Via muddled psychic alien memories, Sloan comes to understand this:

"Some kind of… proto-worm?"
"Like HIVE?!" Síocháin deployed her blades.
"No… the Hive were something before they were Hive, right? The… worm gods were too. Ahsa is… her name, I think."

We then find out that some sort of corruption (likely related to the Witness) turned the proto-Worms against each other in much the way the Hive sisters were corrupted:

proclaim Deep magics once thought too cruel to utter. All in pursuit of a sacred, gifted logic.

Whether the difference between proto-Worms and Worms was a result of a metamorphosis or genetic evolution isn't clear, so Xita could be Asha's third cousin or 1,000 generations younger than her.
Either way, this directly connects one paracausal behemoth to another. But what about the third? Much like Worms and Leviathans, Ahamkara are ancient giants of Darkness. They also have two loose connections to Worms already:
First, syntax: the "oh, __ mine" is mostly associated with Ahamkara, but is occasionally used by other Darkness users, especially Worms: "listen closely, oh vengeance mine... "
Second, Unveiling: in a metaphor for the impossible time before time, the speaker of Unveiling describes life in the garden, listing among other things, "worms [that] slithered between the roots, feeding on what was and what might be." This sounds like a wink-wink-but-not-really way of stating that Worms originated in the garden, but

1. We now know that Hive Worms are not older than the universe itself
   
2. that description better fits Ahamkara. In Mara's words: "Beware the space between Reality-As-Imagined and Reality-As-Is, for it is abundant to those with appetite"
   

If there's any truth to Unveiling, that above line suggests either
A) Worms descended from something in the metaphorical garden
B) Worms and Ahamkara are related in some way
C) Both A and B
If C, a passage from Caiatl could explain how they become so varied, ranging between benign sea serpents, vicious bug-monsters, and shapeshifting dragons.
The Cabal believed that gas giants all over the universe were nurseries for either Hive Worms specifically, or for a broader type of "worm."
Umun Arath is quoted as saying, "In the heart of every gas giant, there is an abomination waiting to hatch." Calus describes the gas giant in question as "where the worms lurk... the grave-womb of the worms"
(keep in mind that the writers sometimes use "worm" in its etymological sense, i.e. refering to serpents and dragons as well.)
How "abominations waiting to hatch" get to the heart of every gas giant isn't stated. Maybe they occur just as naturally as causal life, but this could also tie back to Unveiling: they could possibly have been seeded by those originally worms pushed out of the garden: the "worms" who "thrashed and became large."
I'm not suggesting that all 3 are going to family reunions together, but that the "worms" in the "garden" may have been like pakicetus, ancestor of all whales.

Hi, and thank you so much for those of you who already responded to a couple specific questions I had. Your insight was very beneficial.
Context: 13 years ago, I did my first from-scratch build. It was a fun experience, and at the time, it was a beast of a machine. Other than upgrading the video card and migrating to an SSD, both at least 8 years back, it has been solid and served me well. But it's time to move on, and I'm building another machine, again hoping to have some staying power to last a few years. (Maybe not 13 this time, but we'll see.)
I've speced out what I think I'd like to purchase/build, and I was just hoping to ask the experts if you see any glaring errors in my build. (I totally understand no one has the time to do a deep-dive on other folks builds or anything like that, and I'd never blame anyone if you said you thought it would work and it doesn't. Like I said: I just wanted to make sure there aren't any glaring errors!)
Hopefully this isn't a violation of the rules...I don't think it counts as a spoon-feeding request because I'm not asking you to come up with a build for me...just asking if I did anything horribly wrong.
https://newegg.io/83a023dd
CPU Intel Core i9-13900K - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core (8P+16E) P-core Base Frequency: 3.0 GHz E-core Base Frequency: 2.2 GHz LGA 1700 125W Intel UHD Graphics 770 Desktop Processor - BX8071513900
MoBo ASUS TUF Gaming Z790-Plus WiFi LGA 1700(Intel 12th&13th Gen) ATX gaming motherboard(PCIe 5.0, DDR5,4xM.2 Slots,16+1 DrMOS,WiFi 6E,Intel 2.5Gb LAN,front USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C,Thunderbolt 4(USB4), ,Aura RGB lighting)
RAM G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 5600 Desktop Memory Model F5-5600J3636D32GX2-TZ5RK
Video Card GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 x16 ATX Video Card GV-N4080GAMING OC-16GD
Case Fractal Design Pop XL Air RGB Black TG ATX High-Airflow Clear Tempered Glass Window Full Tower Computer Case
PSU CORSAIR RMx Shift Series RM1000x Shift Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply
SSD WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe M.2 2280 4TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) WDS400T2X0E
Cooler Vetroo V240 Liquid CPU Cooler 240mm Addressable RGB & PWM Pump & Fans 250W TDP AIO Water Cooler w/Controller Hub for Intel LGA 1700/1200/115X AMD AM5/AM4
OS Windows 11 Home (USB)
My notes/questions/possible errors:

• Newegg estimates it at 730W, but I went with a 1000W PSU over 850 thinking it might have a little more stability/expandability/margin for error. That's ok, right? The PSU isn't going to consume the extra electricity if it isn't actually delivering it to components.
• I went with the Western Digital SSD even though there are less pricy alternatives because it claims "up to 7300 MB/s" on read speeds whereas most of the M2 SSD options are more in the 3000-4500 range. Is that 7300 actually achievable? Just wanted to make sure there isn't some gotcha like, "The SSD can theoretically read that fast, but current interfaces can't consume the data that fast."
• The cooler in my newegg link is different from the Vetroo one I selected here; for some reason I see it available on Newegg, but I can't add it in my build. But I don't see any reason it shouldn't be compatible. the radiator is supposed to fit in the case (280 mm / 2 fans), and the socket looks to match the CPU. I just figured it's half the price, gets great reviews, claims to be just as quiet and looks just as aesthetically pleasing. That being said, if anyone has a favorite 280mm radiator cooler kit, let me know. I do sort of which it had the temperature display, but only for aesthetics.
• I decided to go with the full Windows Home over OEM just in case. Last time around, I went with OEM and it was fine, and I doubt I'll ever upgrade the mother board without deciding to build a whole new system. But just in case, it seemed like it was maybe worth the little bit extra to be able to transfer the license. $20 on a $3k machine seemed like a worthwhile insurance policy. Mistake? There isn't extra bloat with getting Windows 11 Home over OEM?

Thanks!