Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

I have a PS4 Pro and it crashes every time. It boots up nicely most of the time, but after a max. 20 minutes it "crashes". The screen goes black but the white light is still shining. Sometimes I get the blinking blue lights. I got a new SSD, still happens, I checked if the HDMI-Port is damaged (doesn't seem so). Can I consider it to be the BloD? What should be my next steps be?

The world was dark, there was no sense of touch, and there was nothing to see. A sense of touch manifested, a cold and wet floor could be felt. A sense of hearing developed, a deep ringing could be heard. A sense of thought sprung from a mind. "Where am I?" A sense of sight had been acquired, he was in a room, white as far as the eye could see Movement was now possible as the man stood up, he realized that he was standing on water, so pristine and clear and yet there was no reflection.
He could hear his heart beating loudly almost like it was going to leap out of his chest for a reason that he did not know.
After a few minutes, when his body calmed down, the ringing brought by the silence was broken by a voice that said: ”Greetings” The voice sounded distorted, like it was from a broken radio. He turned around and then looked in all directions, it was only a white room that seemed to stretch for hundreds or maybe thousands of miles, not a source of the sound was seen. "Hello? ” The man asked. ”Hello, you aren't supposed to be awake right now, but since you are let's have chat” The man observes his surroundings and said "Am I in heaven?" "No" It said The man felt like the voice was in his head, like telepathy.
Before he could ask anything more, darkness rapidly engulfed him, he felt weightless like he was on a rapidly descending plane which made him fall to the ground and pass out.
A conversation could be heard, yet the world was in darkness ”Do you know what to do Su?” a man said ”Yes” a voice replied. ”Then do it.” the man said while a woman was screaming in the distance, another voice could be heard, but it was unintelligible and suddenly, a loud thud echoed as if someone had jumped off a building.
The man woke up and felt a rough and prickly sensation. ”Is this grass?” He said as he opened his eyes he saw that he was in an field with hills as far as he could see the sky was incredibly blue, too blue to look real in fact, it was peaceful, too peaceful.
There was a strange pale yellow, reddish object in the far distance, as the man took a closer look, it was a house with yellow walls and a red roof.
After wandering for a few minutes, he decided to begin to approach the house, but it seemed like the more he walked towards it, the further away the house seemed. After a few hours of walking, the house was entirely gone and suddenly, as if somebody covered the sun, it was pitch black and It felt cold, there was a mysterious singular speck of light seen in the distance, the grass also changed and was just a cold and hard surface. ”Could it be freedom?” He thought as he looked at the speck of light in the distance. After a while in there the man was restless the darkness was sickening, the silence was unsettling the light also flickered until it was gone. ”Any sound or anything would be better than this.” He thought. That thought was wrong, because the darkness would be much better than the things that would happen. The thing that happened was a presence and it was behind him and he froze from just it's presence, it's unimaginable what it would look like.
He suddenly unfroze and ran from it with it's footsteps following, it felt like he would die if he turned around, his legs felt numb but his mind kept pushing through like an instinct of self preservation.
He continued running and running and running for what seem an eternity even when the entity's presence was gone, he continued running even when his energy was utterly depleted. Eventually he reaches the speck of light and it was a window, he stopped and turned around but the being was already gone long ago. He walked closer to the window, but his legs gave way and he slowly fell to the ground panting in exhaustion and darkness consumed him again.
When he was conscious again he was in an extremely dark place and he had a bad headache, it was like his head was going to split A few minutes later his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he looked around and he only realized that it reeked of a rotten smell, most likely rotten meat, he also realizes that he was hanging upside down and tied up he only noticed now because he couldn't think of anything else from so much pain his body was in, he inspected that he was in some sort of shed his light source being an incredibly dim moon through a small window that even disappeared when it was covered by clouds, suddenly he fell to the ground and fortunately he didn't land headfirst.
When he got himself in a sitting position he tried to struggle out of the ties but he didn't feel his arms almost as if he was injected with anesthesia. He concluded that the anesthesia wasn't that strong because he could still feel the rest of his body.
The smell was still there but the clouds had covered the moon so he couldn't see where the smell came, but he was certain it was close to him because of its strength. The moon reappeared and he thought that the smell came from behind him, then he saw- "Ah!" He shouted in horror, it was a pair of dismembered arms, the bones were visible and blood was gushing out. There was a warm feeling on his side, like warm water, the moon passed by and shined brighter and it fully revealed that the warm fluid on his side was... Blood, he was not numb in his arms... because they were no longer there. Because of the overwhelming shock and all the other things that happened, he fainted.
The man woke up again in the white room that he first woke up in, it still felt warm the only thing that changed was that there was a barrier surrounding him and it was quite blurry and behind that was a humanlike figure, that figure was a woman. Because of the barrier the woman was quite hard to see, the way he knew it was a woman was because of her voice.
”You're an interesting fellow.” she said ”Ask away while I process your data, don't make it too long though.” The man thought for a few seconds, thinking what to say and asked ”anything?” ”Not really, but I can still answer most things.” She said ”Then what place is this?” He asked ”An interliminal space known as the testing area” The man thought of another question to ask but before he did the woman said ”The data is done, you may proceed” ”To wher-”
Before he could finish his sentence the seemingly endless white room materialized to what looks like a school ground, it seemed empty and the sky felt oddly artificial.
He went to the gate, it was made of slightly rusty iron and the wall was made of brick. Outside looked like a desolate wasteland but he was quite unsure since it was quite blurry, like there was a barrier. He tried to open the gate but it did not budge and the wall was too high to climb. Then he noticed that the entire place was utterly quiet, almost as if abandoned but the whole place was too clean to be, but not even a chirp of a bird was heard. The man goes to what seems like the dorms, not a soul was there too.
A weight was felt in his pockets, he reached into it and discovered that it was a key that had a tag saying.
”Room 13”
The dorm looked normal, with the exception of looking a bit old but well maintained. He eventually found the room of the correct key and unlocked it.
The room that he thought that was his was actually theirs as he noticed that there was a girl on top of the bed bunk, probably asleep. "That's the first person I've seen in this place." He thought ”The first normal one I guess.”
He approached the bed and sat on the bottom bunk, he felt an intense fatigue and laid on the bed and slept.
A woman and a man could be seen talking, the woman was wearing a sky blue dress that flowed magnificently and the man was covered in a dark miasma ”I have told you, I am not a” -bleep- ”So I am unaffected.” a man said ”Then why do you need a se” -bleep- ”stal?” a woman's voice said There were constant high pitched sounds that bleeped certain words in the conversation. ”Either way I will not give you one.” The woman said. The man withdrew a sword which shattered into hundreds of pieces. ”If you will not give me the crystal, then you are of no use to me.” he said as he pointed the hilt of the sword to her, suddenly the shards vibrated and shot straight towards the woman.
As soon as that happened the world went dark and silent.

“I told you there would be nothing in that military check point,” Barrett said. He cleaned his hands from bloodbug residue. “Only abandoned cars and empty cigarette machines.”
“Okay, I was wrong!” Simon admitted. “Is it my fault that I have hope?”
“No one ever knows out here,” Kevin chimed in.
Simon affectionally grabbed his youngest brother by the shoulder.
“See, Barrett, this is what a supportive brother sounds like.”
Barrett grunted.
The three brothers continued to follow the broken asphalt road. In time, the sky above them disappeared behind the ruins of an interstate highway. Its massive concrete columns towered over the horizon. It had cast a long shadow over their route.
Kevin stopped his brothers.
“Is that an elevator?” He pointed to the yellow cable lift that ran up to the overpass.
“I’m not using that,” Barrett quickly responded. He touched his stomach unconsciously, cognizant of his size and weight.
“Yeah, that might be an adventure for another life time,” Simon said, noting the precariousness of the cables that rose up to the ruins of the highway overpass.
Kevin pursed his lips with a modicum of disappointment. As the youngest and smallest of the three, he possessed more daring than his brothers combined. Perhaps this difference was due to the inexperience of his age or the simple fact that Kevin had a different mother than Barrett and Simon. His courage may have been a genetic inheritance that the others lacked.
“House!” Simon spotted the wooden building before his brothers, who still focused on the elevator and the possibility of ascending it.
“Let me guess, there’s going to be treasure inside of it,” Barrett said sarcastically.
“There could be!” Simon replied.
As the young men approached the building, it became apparent it had been apart of a long abandoned settlement. From their higher-ground perspective, they could see the ruins of several buildings roll down the landscape and into the consuming waters of the Charles River. The houses closest to the river had flooded and slowly rotted in the river’s murky water.
“We got a lot of work to do,” Barrett said. His siblings could hear the smile in his words. They knew that there would be at least one piece of worthwhile loot among these buildings. Barrett, however, wanted more than the natural greed of survival. The big man itched for a real fight.
“Raiders, Ghouls, or Mirelurks,” Kevin asked.
“Five caps on raiders,” Barrett said. His hand dropped to the pipe pistol holstered to his thigh.
“Five for mirelurks,” Simon said.
“I guess, I take ghouls.”
The three men moved closer to the first building. The residence, once a beautiful suburban home, had decayed over the two hundred and twenty years since its owners died in the nuclear fallout. Yet, despite the age of home, its door seemed to have been freshly repaired.
Simon, as per usual, approached the entrance with military tact. Barrett positioned himself behind his older brother. He placed one hand on Simon’s shoulder and the other around his pipe pistol. Kevin checked their flank and readied his pipe rifle.
Simon lifted his hand. He counted silently with his fingers.
One. Two. Three.
He grabbed the door and yanked it open. Barrett entered the building, his pipe pistol scanning the interior of the house.
“Clear!”
Simon followed Barrett. Kevin slowly backed into the building. He closed the door behind him.
“Stairs,” Barrett said to his brothers.
Immediately, the big man took the lead, scanning the floor above him with his pistol at eye-level. Simon followed in the wake of his larger brother, keeping his eyes straight to the top of the landing. Kevin stayed on the first floor. He found a corner, pressed his back into it, and crouched. He kept his eye on the front door.
“Clear!” Barrett’s voice rang through the structure.
“Nothing for nobody,” Kevin said, standing from his position and letting his rifle hang limply in his hands. He thought at least one ghoul would be hiding in the house. Their fraternal bottlecap wager would have to wait another house.
“Cheer up! Better luck in the next building.” Simon said as he walked down the stairs. “Right now, we have some time to loot.”
The brothers began the careful examination of the residential building.
Despite two centuries of rain and snow the building seemed to be in good condition. Clearly, since the bombs fell, a series of squatters had made improvements and adjustments over the years. In fact, the house seemed almost luxurious compared to the standards of the Wasteland. The floors had been redone with new planks of wood. The walls had been scraped of their original wallpaper and painted a light seafoam green. Although the glass from the windows had been long destroyed, curtains hung over the wooden shutters that secured the windows from the exterior world.
“Ooo!” Barrett exclaimed upstairs.
“What’d you find?” Simon called out. He stood at the bottom of the staircase and waited for a sign.
“Caps stash!” Barrett appeared with a grey tin can. He shook it and a number of caps inside of it pleasantly jingled.
“And you thought there wouldn’t be any treasure?” Simon laughed to himself.
“And the fridge is full!” Kevin called.
Barrett rushed down the stairs and joined his brothers at the fridge. Together, they drank a bottle of mostly clean water, each taking sips and passing it to the others. Then, they finished a plate of crispy squirrel bits.
“Almost fresh,” Barrett said, shoving a large handful into his mouth.
Simon continued his perusal of the house as he chewed his last portion of squirrel meat. He went to the living room section of the main floor and rummaged through a chest of drawers.
“Women’s clothing?” He lifted a dress from the chest of drawers and showed his brothers. The light green dress seemed to be in relatively good condition. The clean herbaceous smell of carrot flowers wafted into his nose.
“Someone might still live here,” Barrett said, looking at a bouquet of fresh hubflowers on the table.
Kevin looked from one of the windows. “I think he’s just arrived.”
Before Simon and Kevin could arm themselves, the door opened. An old man entered with two buckets of water. At the very moment he saw these three men, he dropped the buckets on the floor and rushed out of the building. One of the buckets spilled its contents across the floor, slowly dribbling down the front steps. Meanwhile, the old man pressed his back against the exterior wall of the building.
“What are you doing in my house?”
“We didn’t know!” Simon shouted back. “We didn’t mean to trespass!”
“Well, you did. Now, what are you going to do? Kill an old man and take his home?”
“Not if you let us leave unharmed!”
“How do I know that you’re not raiders?”
“You can’t,” Simon shouted back. “You can only make a leap of faith.”
“And why would I that?”
“Well, for one thing, there are more of us than there are of you.”
“Send one man out.”
“No!” Simon responded. “How do I know you’re not just going to shoot him the moment he leaves the building?”
“You can’t,” the old man shouted back. “You can only make a leap of faith.”
Simon felt bested by the old man’s negotiating skills.
“I’ll go,” Kevin said to his brothers.
“No, I will.” Barrett put his hand on his younger brother. He would gladly die in his place.
“There’s less of me to hit,” Kevin bantered.
Barrett grunted, but he could not stop himself from smiling.
Simon thought about dissuading his brothers, telling them that no one was going to leave the house, but this show of trust needed to be made. If things went well, there could be a chance that the three of them could profit from this encounter. Perhaps, they could spend the night sleeping inside a warm house and finally be able to get a proper night’s rest.
“I’m coming out,” Kevin shouted to the old man.
“Unarmed. With your hands up! If I see so much as a big iron on your hip, the deal is off.”
Kevin placed his pipe rifle and his switchblade on top of the chest of drawers.
Simon stepped close to his brother and embraced him.
“If he harms you, I will make sure he suffers until his very last breath,” Simon whispered.
Kevin squeezed his brother tightly and went to the door.
“I am approaching the door now,” Kevin shouted. “My hands are up.”
Kevin stepped over the spilled water bucket and crossed the threshold of the house.
“Keeping going,” the old man commanded.
Once Kevin descended the front stairs and reached the hard ground, he felt the old man sweep behind him and check for weapons.
“Do we trust each other?” Kevin said, letting the old man pat down his sides. “I’m alive, so I know I can trust you, but there are still two men inside of the house.”
“Two, huh? I thought there’d be more of you.” The old man met Kevin gaze. His face was wrinkled, freckled, and scarred. His neck-length beard, once nearly black in colour, had become streaked with grey. His moustache faired slightly better, but it too had begun to pale in his old age. Overall, the old man seemed hardened by his experiences in the wasteland, but, despite this hardness, Kevin noticed a softness behind his eyes. They reflected no bitterness or resentment.
“Now what?” Simon called from inside of the house.
“I’m going to come inside with your friend as collateral.”
The old man drew his 10mm pistol and pressed into Kevin’s lower back. Kevin straightened his posture with a reflexive fear. He climbed up the stairs and back into the house, the pistol never losing contact with his spine.
“Welcome to my home, gentleman,” the old man said. “The name is Duncan. I hope you make yourselves comfortable, although, by the looks of yesterday’s dinner, it seems as though you already have.”
Barrett glanced back at the empty porcelain plate. He wiped his greasy hands on his pant legs.
“Watch it, big guy,” the old man said. “You don’t want to make too many sudden movements.”
Barrett looked into his brother’s face. Kevin seemed calm on the surface, but Barrett could see the fear beneath his composure.
“My name is Simon. This is Barrett, and the man you currently threatening is our brother Kevin.”
“Pleasure, gentlemen.”
“We’re travellers. We’ve no particular destination. We’re just trying to survive.”
“Yes, that always seems to be the story. Why aren’t you getting comfortable in Diamond City or Goodneighbor?”
“We’re new to the Commonwealth,” Simon replied.
“Just arrived,” Barrett added.
“Boys, I’m happy to be your first experience in these here parts, but you’re going to have to leave. I can’t risk any trouble.”
“We won’t be any trouble,” Kevin said, looking behind his shoulder.
“Truly, I would like to believe you boys, but you best be going.”
Duncan stepped aside and positioned himself to the side of the room. He tilted his head toward the door with a quick gesture, encouraging Simon and Barrett to leave.
“Now, please.”
“Can we at least get Kevin’s weapons over there?” Simon asked.
“I’ll toss them to you once you’re out of the door. Just go.”
Simon and Barrett complied. They walked out of the house and down the steps. Duncan led Kevin from his house, allowing the young man to move away from the pistol.
“Grandpapa!”
The men turned to see group of three women approaching the house. Two of them carried heavy bags of harvested food, while the third held a tactical submachine gun in her hands. The three of them kept staring at their grandfather, who kept his pistol held toward the brothers.
The woman with the submachine gun lifted the stock to her shoulder. She knew that with her large drum magazine, she could cut down these three intruders without the need to reload.
“We had a small misunderstanding, ladies,” Simon said with a winning smile. He looked at the woman with the submachine gun. Her short dark brown hair swooped over one of her eyes. She flipped her hair out of the way. “We’ll be on our way,” Simon continued, “once your grandfather hands us our weapons.”
“How about you head on out without them?” the woman with the gun said.
“That’s not fair,” Kevin said. He stepped forward as he said it, causing the woman to swivel her sights on him.
“On more step and you’ll have lost more than your weapons.”
“Woah, woah. Okay, message received,” Kevin said, putting his hands back into the air. “Let’s go, guys. It’s okay. We can find kinder hosts somewhere else.”
“Or, at least, a better fight,” Barrett said with a sniff of his nose. “An old man and three little girls hardly constitute a challenge.”
“I can wipe the floor with you, big boy,” said the woman with the machine gun.
“Audrey!” Duncan reprimanded.
“I’d like to see you try, girlie. Unarmed, one-on-one, you stand no chance,” Barrett said. As he spoke, he took a deep breath and inflated his already imposing figure. The muscles beneath his shirt could be seen flexing.
“Want to try me? Or are you scared of losing to a girl?” Audrey responded.
Barrett roared with laughter.
“Audrey, that’s enough!” the old man said. “Do not aggravate them. They’re on their way.”
“Wait!” the smallest of the three women called to her grandfather. “Can’t they stay? If they wanted to hurt us, they would’ve already.”
“It’d be too risky!” Duncan replied.
“But you’ve always said that people need to come together and rebuild this world,” she said.
Duncan flashed her a quick scolding look.
“Sylvie’s right,” the third woman added. “They can help us around the property.” Her eyes danced over Barrett’s large figure. While her middle sister seemed ready to harm him, she merely wanted to be held by him.
“Audrey, talk some sense into your sisters!” Duncan exclaimed. “You ladies know that we can’t invite people at random!”
“We’d be happy to help,” Simon interjected.
Kevin locked eyes with his young counterpart. Sylvie broke eye contact and looked at her feet.
“Yeah, we can help,” Kevin said a little absent-mindedly. He continued to admire the woman before his eyes.
“Wait a minute,” Barrett said, “This guy pulls a pistol on you and you want to help him? What are you going to do? Fetch him water?”
“We made him to spill it,” Kevin said with a shrug.
“Are you guys out of your mind? How can we trust them? What if the old man and these she-devils are planning to kill us in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, now you’re afraid of me!” Audrey teased, loosening her grip on the submachine gun.
“I ain’t afraid of anything,” Barrett snapped.
Simon bursted in laughter. “Buddy, you know you’re agreeing with the old man, right? He doesn’t want you around because he thinks your going to do to him what you think he’s doing to do to you.”
Barrett squinted his eyes, trying to parse the sentence.
“I don’t like it,” Barrett said.
“Neither do I,” Duncan agreed.
“Well, they’re not staying in the house,” Audrey said. She tilted her swooping hair out of her eyes again. “Give them the rotting house.”
Duncan stayed silent. Everyone looked at him as though it was his decision which made everything final.
“Fine, but I’m standing guard during the night. If one of these boys come creeping in the night, I’ll make sure our walls get a nice new shade of red.”
Barrett nodded his head in agreement. “And I’ll take first watch at our place.”
Audrey turned to her sisters. “Morgan, Sylvie, take the food inside. I’ll show these men their residence.” She adjusted the tactical submachine gun in her arms.
Her sisters did what they were told.
“Gentlemen,” Audrey said, leading the men down the slight hill, “Your new abode.” She kicked the front door, which broke free from its hinges. The wood from the door had rotted from the moisture in the air. Wet dust flew from the ground and an acrid smell spewed from the interior of the building.
“Enjoy.”
Audrey left the three brothers and returned to her home.
The three of the brothers exchanged uncomfortable glances and looked at the building. Kevin approached the doorway and peered into the darkness.
“Ghoul!” Kevin shouted.
His brothers ran into the building with their weapons drawn. Kevin threw his arms around his brothers as they looked at remains of a feral ghoul. It had died a long time ago.
“Pay up, boys!” he said with a smile. “Five caps each.”

“I told you there would be nothing in that military check point,” Barrett said. He cleaned his hands from bloodbug residue. “Only abandoned cars and empty cigarette machines.”
“Okay, I was wrong!” Simon admitted. “Is it my fault that I have hope?”
“No one ever knows out here,” Kevin chimed in.
Simon affectionally grabbed his youngest brother by the shoulder.
“See, Barrett, this is what a supportive brother sounds like.”
Barrett grunted.
The three brothers continued to follow the broken asphalt road. In time, the sky above them disappeared behind the ruins of an interstate highway. Its massive concrete columns towered over the horizon. It had cast a long shadow over their route.
Kevin stopped his brothers.
“Is that an elevator?” He pointed to the yellow cable lift that ran up to the overpass.
“I’m not using that,” Barrett quickly responded. He touched his stomach unconsciously, cognizant of his size and weight.
“Yeah, that might be an adventure for another life time,” Simon said, noting the precariousness of the cables that rose up to the ruins of the highway overpass.
Kevin pursed his lips with a modicum of disappointment. As the youngest and smallest of the three, he possessed more daring than his brothers combined. Perhaps this difference was due to the inexperience of his age or the simple fact that Kevin had a different mother than Barrett and Simon. His courage may have been a genetic inheritance that the others lacked.
“House!” Simon spotted the wooden building before his brothers, who still focused on the elevator and the possibility of ascending it.
“Let me guess, there’s going to be treasure inside of it,” Barrett said sarcastically.
“There could be!” Simon replied.
As the young men approached the building, it became apparent it had been apart of a long abandoned settlement. From their higher-ground perspective, they could see the ruins of several buildings roll down the landscape and into the consuming waters of the Charles River. The houses closest to the river had flooded and slowly rotted in the river’s murky water.
“We got a lot of work to do,” Barrett said. His siblings could hear the smile in his words. They knew that there would be at least one piece of worthwhile loot among these buildings. Barrett, however, wanted more than the natural greed of survival. The big man itched for a real fight.
“Raiders, Ghouls, or Mirelurks,” Kevin asked.
“Five caps on raiders,” Barrett said. His hand dropped to the pipe pistol holstered to his thigh.
“Five for mirelurks,” Simon said.
“I guess, I take ghouls.”
The three men moved closer to the first building. The residence, once a beautiful suburban home, had decayed over the two hundred and twenty years since its owners died in the nuclear fallout. Yet, despite the age of home, its door seemed to have been freshly repaired.
Simon, as per usual, approached the entrance with military tact. Barrett positioned himself behind his older brother. He placed one hand on Simon’s shoulder and the other around his pipe pistol. Kevin checked their flank and readied his pipe rifle.
Simon lifted his hand. He counted silently with his fingers.
One. Two. Three.
He grabbed the door and yanked it open. Barrett entered the building, his pipe pistol scanning the interior of the house.
“Clear!”
Simon followed Barrett. Kevin slowly backed into the building. He closed the door behind him.
“Stairs,” Barrett said to his brothers.
Immediately, the big man took the lead, scanning the floor above him with his pistol at eye-level. Simon followed in the wake of his larger brother, keeping his eyes straight to the top of the landing. Kevin stayed on the first floor. He found a corner, pressed his back into it, and crouched. He kept his eye on the front door.
“Clear!” Barrett’s voice rang through the structure.
“Nothing for nobody,” Kevin said, standing from his position and letting his rifle hang limply in his hands. He thought at least one ghoul would be hiding in the house. Their fraternal bottlecap wager would have to wait another house.
“Cheer up! Better luck in the next building.” Simon said as he walked down the stairs. “Right now, we have some time to loot.”
The brothers began the careful examination of the residential building.
Despite two centuries of rain and snow the building seemed to be in good condition. Clearly, since the bombs fell, a series of squatters had made improvements and adjustments over the years. In fact, the house seemed almost luxurious compared to the standards of the Wasteland. The floors had been redone with new planks of wood. The walls had been scraped of their original wallpaper and painted a light seafoam green. Although the glass from the windows had been long destroyed, curtains hung over the wooden shutters that secured the windows from the exterior world.
“Ooo!” Barrett exclaimed upstairs.
“What’d you find?” Simon called out. He stood at the bottom of the staircase and waited for a sign.
“Caps stash!” Barrett appeared with a grey tin can. He shook it and a number of caps inside of it pleasantly jingled.
“And you thought there wouldn’t be any treasure?” Simon laughed to himself.
“And the fridge is full!” Kevin called.
Barrett rushed down the stairs and joined his brothers at the fridge. Together, they drank a bottle of mostly clean water, each taking sips and passing it to the others. Then, they finished a plate of crispy squirrel bits.
“Almost fresh,” Barrett said, shoving a large handful into his mouth.
Simon continued his perusal of the house as he chewed his last portion of squirrel meat. He went to the living room section of the main floor and rummaged through a chest of drawers.
“Women’s clothing?” He lifted a dress from the chest of drawers and showed his brothers. The light green dress seemed to be in relatively good condition. The clean herbaceous smell of carrot flowers wafted into his nose.
“Someone might still live here,” Barrett said, looking at a bouquet of fresh hubflowers on the table.
Kevin looked from one of the windows. “I think he’s just arrived.”
Before Simon and Kevin could arm themselves, the door opened. An old man entered with two buckets of water. At the very moment he saw these three men, he dropped the buckets on the floor and rushed out of the building. One of the buckets spilled its contents across the floor, slowly dribbling down the front steps. Meanwhile, the old man pressed his back against the exterior wall of the building.
“What are you doing in my house?”
“We didn’t know!” Simon shouted back. “We didn’t mean to trespass!”
“Well, you did. Now, what are you going to do? Kill an old man and take his home?”
“Not if you let us leave unharmed!”
“How do I know that you’re not raiders?”
“You can’t,” Simon shouted back. “You can only make a leap of faith.”
“And why would I that?”
“Well, for one thing, there are more of us than there are of you.”
“Send one man out.”
“No!” Simon responded. “How do I know you’re not just going to shoot him the moment he leaves the building?”
“You can’t,” the old man shouted back. “You can only make a leap of faith.”
Simon felt bested by the old man’s negotiating skills.
“I’ll go,” Kevin said to his brothers.
“No, I will.” Barrett put his hand on his younger brother. He would gladly die in his place.
“There’s less of me to hit,” Kevin bantered.
Barrett grunted, but he could not stop himself from smiling.
Simon thought about dissuading his brothers, telling them that no one was going to leave the house, but this show of trust needed to be made. If things went well, there could be a chance that the three of them could profit from this encounter. Perhaps, they could spend the night sleeping inside a warm house and finally be able to get a proper night’s rest.
“I’m coming out,” Kevin shouted to the old man.
“Unarmed. With your hands up! If I see so much as a big iron on your hip, the deal is off.”
Kevin placed his pipe rifle and his switchblade on top of the chest of drawers.
Simon stepped close to his brother and embraced him.
“If he harms you, I will make sure he suffers until his very last breath,” Simon whispered.
Kevin squeezed his brother tightly and went to the door.
“I am approaching the door now,” Kevin shouted. “My hands are up.”
Kevin stepped over the spilled water bucket and crossed the threshold of the house.
“Keeping going,” the old man commanded.
Once Kevin descended the front stairs and reached the hard ground, he felt the old man sweep behind him and check for weapons.
“Do we trust each other?” Kevin said, letting the old man pat down his sides. “I’m alive, so I know I can trust you, but there are still two men inside of the house.”
“Two, huh? I thought there’d be more of you.” The old man met Kevin gaze. His face was wrinkled, freckled, and scarred. His neck-length beard, once nearly black in colour, had become streaked with grey. His moustache faired slightly better, but it too had begun to pale in his old age. Overall, the old man seemed hardened by his experiences in the wasteland, but, despite this hardness, Kevin noticed a softness behind his eyes. They reflected no bitterness or resentment.
“Now what?” Simon called from inside of the house.
“I’m going to come inside with your friend as collateral.”
The old man drew his 10mm pistol and pressed into Kevin’s lower back. Kevin straightened his posture with a reflexive fear. He climbed up the stairs and back into the house, the pistol never losing contact with his spine.
“Welcome to my home, gentleman,” the old man said. “The name is Duncan. I hope you make yourselves comfortable, although, by the looks of yesterday’s dinner, it seems as though you already have.”
Barrett glanced back at the empty porcelain plate. He wiped his greasy hands on his pant legs.
“Watch it, big guy,” the old man said. “You don’t want to make too many sudden movements.”
Barrett looked into his brother’s face. Kevin seemed calm on the surface, but Barrett could see the fear beneath his composure.
“My name is Simon. This is Barrett, and the man you currently threatening is our brother Kevin.”
“Pleasure, gentlemen.”
“We’re travellers. We’ve no particular destination. We’re just trying to survive.”
“Yes, that always seems to be the story. Why aren’t you getting comfortable in Diamond City or Goodneighbor?”
“We’re new to the Commonwealth,” Simon replied.
“Just arrived,” Barrett added.
“Boys, I’m happy to be your first experience in these here parts, but you’re going to have to leave. I can’t risk any trouble.”
“We won’t be any trouble,” Kevin said, looking behind his shoulder.
“Truly, I would like to believe you boys, but you best be going.”
Duncan stepped aside and positioned himself to the side of the room. He tilted his head toward the door with a quick gesture, encouraging Simon and Barrett to leave.
“Now, please.”
“Can we at least get Kevin’s weapons over there?” Simon asked.
“I’ll toss them to you once you’re out of the door. Just go.”
Simon and Barrett complied. They walked out of the house and down the steps. Duncan led Kevin from his house, allowing the young man to move away from the pistol.
“Grandpapa!”
The men turned to see group of three women approaching the house. Two of them carried heavy bags of harvested food, while the third held a tactical submachine gun in her hands. The three of them kept staring at their grandfather, who kept his pistol held toward the brothers.
The woman with the submachine gun lifted the stock to her shoulder. She knew that with her large drum magazine, she could cut down these three intruders without the need to reload.
“We had a small misunderstanding, ladies,” Simon said with a winning smile. He looked at the woman with the submachine gun. Her short dark brown hair swooped over one of her eyes. She flipped her hair out of the way. “We’ll be on our way,” Simon continued, “once your grandfather hands us our weapons.”
“How about you head on out without them?” the woman with the gun said.
“That’s not fair,” Kevin said. He stepped forward as he said it, causing the woman to swivel her sights on him.
“On more step and you’ll have lost more than your weapons.”
“Woah, woah. Okay, message received,” Kevin said, putting his hands back into the air. “Let’s go, guys. It’s okay. We can find kinder hosts somewhere else.”
“Or, at least, a better fight,” Barrett said with a sniff of his nose. “An old man and three little girls hardly constitute a challenge.”
“I can wipe the floor with you, big boy,” said the woman with the machine gun.
“Audrey!” Duncan reprimanded.
“I’d like to see you try, girlie. Unarmed, one-on-one, you stand no chance,” Barrett said. As he spoke, he took a deep breath and inflated his already imposing figure. The muscles beneath his shirt could be seen flexing.
“Want to try me? Or are you scared of losing to a girl?” Audrey responded.
Barrett roared with laughter.
“Audrey, that’s enough!” the old man said. “Do not aggravate them. They’re on their way.”
“Wait!” the smallest of the three women called to her grandfather. “Can’t they stay? If they wanted to hurt us, they would’ve already.”
“It’d be too risky!” Duncan replied.
“But you’ve always said that people need to come together and rebuild this world,” she said.
Duncan flashed her a quick scolding look.
“Sylvie’s right,” the third woman added. “They can help us around the property.” Her eyes danced over Barrett’s large figure. While her middle sister seemed ready to harm him, she merely wanted to be held by him.
“Audrey, talk some sense into your sisters!” Duncan exclaimed. “You ladies know that we can’t invite people at random!”
“We’d be happy to help,” Simon interjected.
Kevin locked eyes with his young counterpart. Sylvie broke eye contact and looked at her feet.
“Yeah, we can help,” Kevin said a little absent-mindedly. He continued to admire the woman before his eyes.
“Wait a minute,” Barrett said, “This guy pulls a pistol on you and you want to help him? What are you going to do? Fetch him water?”
“We made him to spill it,” Kevin said with a shrug.
“Are you guys out of your mind? How can we trust them? What if the old man and these she-devils are planning to kill us in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, now you’re afraid of me!” Audrey teased, loosening her grip on the submachine gun.
“I ain’t afraid of anything,” Barrett snapped.
Simon bursted in laughter. “Buddy, you know you’re agreeing with the old man, right? He doesn’t want you around because he thinks your going to do to him what you think he’s doing to do to you.”
Barrett squinted his eyes, trying to parse the sentence.
“I don’t like it,” Barrett said.
“Neither do I,” Duncan agreed.
“Well, they’re not staying in the house,” Audrey said. She tilted her swooping hair out of her eyes again. “Give them the rotting house.”
Duncan stayed silent. Everyone looked at him as though it was his decision which made everything final.
“Fine, but I’m standing guard during the night. If one of these boys come creeping in the night, I’ll make sure our walls get a nice new shade of red.”
Barrett nodded his head in agreement. “And I’ll take first watch at our place.”
Audrey turned to her sisters. “Morgan, Sylvie, take the food inside. I’ll show these men their residence.” She adjusted the tactical submachine gun in her arms.
Her sisters did what they were told.
“Gentlemen,” Audrey said, leading the men down the slight hill, “Your new abode.” She kicked the front door, which broke free from its hinges. The wood from the door had rotted from the moisture in the air. Wet dust flew from the ground and an acrid smell spewed from the interior of the building.
“Enjoy.”
Audrey left the three brothers and returned to her home.
The three of the brothers exchanged uncomfortable glances and looked at the building. Kevin approached the doorway and peered into the darkness.
“Ghoul!” Kevin shouted.
His brothers ran into the building with their weapons drawn. Kevin threw his arms around his brothers as they looked at remains of a feral ghoul. It had died a long time ago.
“Pay up, boys!” he said with a smile. “Five caps each.”

Hey guys,
So my bike was stolen a few years ago, the guy just hot wired it so he cut off some cables and touched them together, I just finished putting the whole bike together, new gas tanks, plastics, battery. For the wiring I just cut off the connector for the ignition and soldered all the wires (black on black, red with red etc) the bike started fine drove it a bit it was fine then went on a longer ride 15-20 minutes and parked it and it wouldn’t start. Basically the dash lights up and everything except when I hit the starter there’s no noise or nothing, the front light dims but just nothing. I also did put a new headlight but don’t think that would be the issue? Anybody have an idea of what it could be? Sorry for the long paragraph but hope someone could help!

Hi all,
I currently have a VM server with a Supermicro X9DRi-LN4 motherboard in a 1U chassis. It has served me well for casual home use, but it is very noisy and draws about 220W on average according to a power meter I installed at the wall. I also bought a rack for it long ago that takes up a lot of space that I would like to reclaim.
I've been researching for about two weeks now and I think I've come up with a replacement build I like. I would appreciate any comments pointing out anything critical I've missed (for example there's no way your drives would fit in that case, or that PSU won't support the motherboard, not enough cooling - you get the idea).
I plan on running GNU/Linux Debian 12 with the Xen hypervisor configured, because I'm used to it and as far as I can tell Xen is a good choice for security based on Qubes OS forums and the companies on the Xen security advisory lists. I considered Proxmox (KVM), but I just prefer Xen. I want the VMs (domUs) to run on ZFS zvols and I chose to use ECC RAM because it is recommended by TrueNAS forums. I will use ZFS mirroring.
My VM usage is light to medium and there are only a small number of users - git server, file server that downloads all my GOG games once a week with lgogdownloader, and some supporting VMs. I would like headroom for tinkering with things that are potentially more intense like Graylog and anything else I'm curious about. I don't do any transcoding and don't plan to.
As mentioned above, my goals are to reduce noise, power usage and physical size. I only plan on using 4 x 3.5" HDDs, I have no plans to use SSDs anytime soon, but the option is there. The build I came up with is pricier than I'd like, but I think it will last a long time:

• Supermicro X12SDV-4C-SP6F (Xeon D-1718T integrated, the D-1500 series just feels too old at this point)
• Fractal Design Meshify 2 Black ATX Case, NO PSU
• SeaSonic 550W FOCUS PX-550 Platinum PSU (I read the TrueNAS sizing guide and decided to size too large so I can add more drives without replacing the PSU)
• Supermicro Samsung 32GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM (MEM-DR432L-SL05-ER32 was what I could find locally) x 4
• WD Red Pro 16TB
• Toshiba N300 16TB
• WD Red Pro 8TB (I already have it)
• Toshiba N300 8TB (I already have it)

Does this build seem sane?

The world was dark, there was no sense of touch, and there was nothing to see. A sense of touch manifested, a cold and wet floor could be felt. A sense of hearing developed, a deep ringing could be heard. A sense of thought sprung from a mind. "Where am I?" A sense of sight had been acquired, he was in a room, white as far as the eye could see Movement was now possible as the man stood up, he realized that he was standing on water, so pristine and clear and yet there was no reflection.
He could hear his heart beating loudly almost like it was going to leap out of his chest for a reason that he did not know.
After a few minutes, when his body calmed down, the ringing brought by the silence was broken by a voice that said: ”Greetings” The voice sounded distorted, like it was from a broken radio. He turned around and then looked in all directions, it was only a white room that seemed to stretch for hundreds or maybe thousands of miles, not a source of the sound was seen. "Hello? ” The man asked. ”Hello, you aren't supposed to be awake right now, but since you are let's have chat” The man observes his surroundings and said "Am I in heaven?" "No" It said The man felt like the voice was in his head, like telepathy.
Before he could ask anything more, darkness rapidly engulfed him, he felt weightless like he was on a rapidly descending plane which made him fall to the ground and pass out.
A conversation could be heard, yet the world was in darkness ”Do you know what to do Su?” a man said ”Yes” a voice replied. ”Then do it.” the man said while a woman was screaming in the distance, another voice could be heard, but it was unintelligible and suddenly, a loud thud echoed as if someone had jumped off a building.
The man woke up and felt a rough and prickly sensation. ”Is this grass?” He said as he opened his eyes he saw that he was in an field with hills as far as he could see the sky was incredibly blue, too blue to look real in fact, it was peaceful, too peaceful.
There was a strange pale yellow, reddish object in the far distance, as the man took a closer look, it was a house with yellow walls and a red roof.
After wandering for a few minutes, he decided to begin to approach the house, but it seemed like the more he walked towards it, the further away the house seemed. After a few hours of walking, the house was entirely gone and suddenly, as if somebody covered the sun, it was pitch black and It felt cold, there was a mysterious singular speck of light seen in the distance, the grass also changed and was just a cold and hard surface. ”Could it be freedom?” He thought as he looked at the speck of light in the distance. After a while in there the man was restless the darkness was sickening, the silence was unsettling the light also flickered until it was gone. ”Any sound or anything would be better than this.” He thought. That thought was wrong, because the darkness would be much better than the things that would happen. The thing that happened was a presence and it was behind him and he froze from just it's presence, it's unimaginable what it would look like.
He suddenly unfroze and ran from it with it's footsteps following, it felt like he would die if he turned around, his legs felt numb but his mind kept pushing through like an instinct of self preservation.
He continued running and running and running for what seem an eternity even when the entity's presence was gone, he continued running even when his energy was utterly depleted. Eventually he reaches the speck of light and it was a window, he stopped and turned around but the being was already gone long ago. He walked closer to the window, but his legs gave way and he slowly fell to the ground panting in exhaustion and darkness consumed him again.
When he was conscious again he was in an extremely dark place and he had a bad headache, it was like his head was going to split A few minutes later his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he looked around and he only realized that it reeked of a rotten smell, most likely rotten meat, he also realizes that he was hanging upside down and tied up he only noticed now because he couldn't think of anything else from so much pain his body was in, he inspected that he was in some sort of shed his light source being an incredibly dim moon through a small window that even disappeared when it was covered by clouds, suddenly he fell to the ground and fortunately he didn't land headfirst.
When he got himself in a sitting position he tried to struggle out of the ties but he didn't feel his arms almost as if he was injected with anesthesia. He concluded that the anesthesia wasn't that strong because he could still feel the rest of his body.
The smell was still there but the clouds had covered the moon so he couldn't see where the smell came, but he was certain it was close to him because of its strength. The moon reappeared and he thought that the smell came from behind him, then he saw- "Ah!" He shouted in horror, it was a pair of dismembered arms, the bones were visible and blood was gushing out. There was a warm feeling on his side, like warm water, the moon passed by and shined brighter and it fully revealed that the warm fluid on his side was... Blood, he was not numb in his arms... because they were no longer there. Because of the overwhelming shock and all the other things that happened, he fainted.
The man woke up again in the white room that he first woke up in, it still felt warm the only thing that changed was that there was a barrier surrounding him and it was quite blurry and behind that was a humanlike figure, that figure was a woman. Because of the barrier the woman was quite hard to see, the way he knew it was a woman was because of her voice.
”You're an interesting fellow.” she said ”Ask away while I process your data, don't make it too long though.” The man thought for a few seconds, thinking what to say and asked ”anything?” ”Not really, but I can still answer most things.” She said ”Then what place is this?” He asked ”An interliminal space known as the testing area” The man thought of another question to ask but before he did the woman said ”The data is done, you may proceed” ”To wher-”
Before he could finish his sentence the seemingly endless white room materialized to what looks like a school ground, it seemed empty and the sky felt oddly artificial.
He went to the gate, it was made of slightly rusty iron and the wall was made of brick. Outside looked like a desolate wasteland but he was quite unsure since it was quite blurry, like there was a barrier. He tried to open the gate but it did not budge and the wall was too high to climb. Then he noticed that the entire place was utterly quiet, almost as if abandoned but the whole place was too clean to be, but not even a chirp of a bird was heard. The man goes to what seems like the dorms, not a soul was there too.
A weight was felt in his pockets, he reached into it and discovered that it was a key that had a tag saying.
”Room 13”
The dorm looked normal, with the exception of looking a bit old but well maintained. He eventually found the room of the correct key and unlocked it.
The room that he thought that was his was actually theirs as he noticed that there was a girl on top of the bed bunk, probably asleep. "That's the first person I've seen in this place." He thought ”The first normal one I guess.”
He approached the bed and sat on the bottom bunk, he felt an intense fatigue and laid on the bed and slept.
A woman and a man could be seen talking, the woman was wearing a sky blue dress that flowed magnificently and the man was covered in a dark miasma ”I have told you, I am not a” -bleep- ”So I am unaffected.” a man said ”Then why do you need a se” -bleep- ”stal?” a woman's voice said There were constant high pitched sounds that bleeped certain words in the conversation. ”Either way I will not give you one.” The woman said. The man withdrew a sword which shattered into hundreds of pieces. ”If you will not give me the crystal, then you are of no use to me.” he said as he pointed the hilt of the sword to her, suddenly the shards vibrated and shot straight towards the woman.
As soon as that happened the world went dark and silent.

So for our wedding (which isn’t for ages), my partner and I have a very strict dress code including no black or dark colours, except for small accents like jewellery no animal print or hawaiian shirts must be wearing pastel colours or florals in light shades
i’ve created a mood board for the guests but my dream would be if all the feminine guests turned up in Selkie dresses but i also know that we have a lot of older guests and not everyone has $500 to spend on a dress they’re only gonna wear once
do you have any recommendations for a garden/barn wedding where pastels and neutrals are the main colours?
thank you!!

11/20/2017
Log book of Det. Ryan Snow
Case #2798: The Appalachian Murders
When I woke up, I was in such a haze that I couldn’t make out where I was at first. My vision was a blur and all I could hear was the sounds of rushing water. I tried to move my limbs, but each muscle down to my little finger felt like lead weighing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
It felt like forever before the ringing in my ear was slowly swallowed out by a voice crying out from what sounded like a distance only to grow louder as it seemed to approach me from the void I had woken up in. It wasn’t until I heard my name that I recognized it was Kate’s voice, pleading and filled with tears.
I blinked away the blur, finding myself staring up at a water damaged ceiling, a single yellow light brightening the room. My head was pounding and my body still felt heavy, but I moved my head enough to turn and see where Kate was calling from. It took a moment, but I soon realized that she was lying on her back, strapped by her arms and legs to a metal table, looking to me with wide terrified eyes.
“Detective, please help!” She cried out. “Please don’t be dead! Please help me!”
“Bl-Black…Well…” I groaned out as I tried, painfully, to pick myself up off the stone floor, “Black…Well… Ah… Shit… Shit! Ms. Blackwell-“ I was gaining consciousness minute by minute as I finally took in the situation and got to my feet. However, the moment I had gotten to my feet and began running to Kate only to immediately fall back to the floor once again, my ankle getting caught by something heavy. I turned to see my ankle had been shackled to the floor by a cuff and chains. I searched my person to find my coat, along with my Glock had been taken, blood decorating my pants and sleeves. I placed a palm to my forehead to find blood when I lowered it down to look at the warm liquid slithering down from my scalp.
“Ms. Blackwell,” I returned my attention to her, examining what I could from my place on the floor, “are you alright, are you hurt?”
“I… I… I don’t… Don’t think so…” she managed to whine out.
“Where’s Mr. Raines?”
To this question, Kate looked away from me, sobbing being her only verbal response.
I went back to the shackles on my ankle and began trying to yank the chains off from the floor, but they had been well maintained and were too strong for me to simply yank out of the stone. I then quickly looked around the room to find we were in a different basement from the one in Cabin #3, though it had the same kind of layout, the table the only major difference. I also took note of the blood stains that trailed from the sides of the table and the dried pools below.
“I want my mom!” Kate cried out, her voice echoing in the empty room.
“I’ll get you to her, I will, I promise,” I assured her, trying to find something, anything to get us out of this, “do you remember how we got down here?”
“I… I… I just re-remember… Remember you g-getting knocked out… Knocked out by someone and them… Them putting a rag over me… Then everything went black… Then I woke… Woke up… H-Here…” Kate answered, trying to breathe with each sob she let out. “I… I th-thought… y-you… You were d-d-… Dead!”
“I’m not, I’m very much alive and I’m going to get you out of here and back to your parents,” I vowed as I continued looking for a way out of this situation, “we’re going to get you out of here, get you home, and we’ll make sure no one ever gets hurt here ever-“
The sound of the basement door from the splintered wooden steps cut me off. I listened as feet descended down the steps to the basement below, Kate’s ragged breaths the only other sound. The person who came down was a woman. The same exact woman from the photo I had found in her house. She looked as if she had not aged since that photo was taken, despite how long ago it seemed the photo was taken. She had the same exact long, white hair, same tired looking eyes, and same disgustingly pale skin as in that photo and on her profile picture. It was Mrs. Larson.
“Deeeeeetectiiiiiiive,” she spoke in a hoarse voice mixed with what I assumed was her own and several others, both male and female, adult and child, “youuuuuuu shouuuullld haaaaaaaaave juuuuuuusssssst giiiiiven herrrrrrr toooooo meeeeee… Youuuuuuuu diiiiiiiiid nooooooot haaaaaave toooooooo ssssssseeeee thiiiiiissssss…”
“Fuck you!” I shouted, beginning to charge at the elderly woman only to be yanked back by my shackles. “Let us go, right now!”
“Nnnnooooo,” Mrs. Larson replied harshly as she stepped over to loom over Kate.
“Stay away from her!” I barked, trying desperately to break free of my shackles.
She ignored me as she ran a shaky hand down along Kate’s trembling face. “Ooooooooohhhhh, Kaaaaaate… Sweeeeet, sweeeeeeeet, Kaaaaaaaaaate…” Mrs. Larson cooed as she went on stroking Kate’s wet cheek. “Doooooo noooooooot crrrrrrryyyyyyy, dooooooonnnnnn’t thiiiiiiiiiinnnnk oooooofff iiiiiiiit aaaaaaaassssss dyyyyyyyyiiiiinnnnng, thiiiiiiiiinnnk ooooooooffff iiiiiiit aaaaaassssss ssssssssaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiinnng aaaaaannnnoooootherrrrrrrrr liiiiiiiiife.”
“I-I… I d-don’t… Don’t under-understand… w-what th-that… That m-means…” Kate cried, her hands gripping the sides of the metal table beneath her, “P-Please, d-don’t… Don’t kill me… L-Let… Let us-us go!”
“Nnnnnoooooo,” Mrs. Larson answered in the same harshness she used on me, “IIIIIIIII neeeeeeeed youuuuuuuuuu,” she then shot a death glare my way through tired, silver eyes, “aaaaaaaannnnnnd heeeeeeeeee’ssssssss beeeeeeeeeennnnnn nnnnnnnoooooooothiiiiiiiiinnnnnng buuuuut aaaaaa thooooooorrrrrrnnnn iiiiiiinnnnn myyyyyyyyy ssssssssiiiiiiiide siiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnccccccce youuuuuu eeeeeessssssscaaaaaaped meeeeeeee.” She then looked back to Kate with a softer look. “Aaaaaaaassssss fffffoooooorrrrr whaaaaaaaat youuuuuuu caaaaaannnn’t uuuuuunnnnnnderrrrrrssssssstaaaaaaannnnnnd, IIIIIIIIII nnnnnneeeeeeed yourrrrrrrrrr heaaaaaaaarrrrrt tooooooo ssssssssaaaaaavvvvvvve myyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiisssssssterrrrrrrr.”
“The fuck does that mean?” I demanded, still trying to vain to pull my ankle from the chains. “How the hell will Kate’s heart save your sister?”
“Diiiiiiiiidnnnnnn’t nnnnnnneeeeeeed toooooo beeeee Kaaaaaaate’sssssss,” admitted Mrs. Larson, “buuuuuuuut sssshhhhhheeeeee hiiiiiiiiid theeeeee ooooooootherrrrr giiiiirrrrrrllllll ffffffrrrrroooooommmmm mmmmmeeeeee.”
“S-Son… Sonja…” Kate sniffed, the tears still streaming down her face.
“IIIIIIII oooooooonnnnnlllllyyyyy neeeeed fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllle,” Mrs. Larson dismissed Ms. Greymoore’s name, “ffffffeeeeeeemmmmmaaaaaallllle heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrtsssss toooooo rrrrrrreeeeeetuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn mmmmmmyyyyy ssssiiiiissssssterrrrrrrrr toooooo theeeeeeee giiiiirrrrrllllll ssssshhhhhheeeee uuuuuuuusssssed tooooo beeeeeee.”
“That’s a fucking joke right?” I asked. “The hell makes you think eating a female heart will turn your sister back into a human woman? Have you seen what’s happened to your sister?”
“IIIIIIIII knnnnnnnooooooow beeeeeeecaaaauuuuusssssse iiiiiiiiiiit wooooooorrrrrked ooooooonnnnn mmmmmeeeeee,” Mrs. Larson explained, “IIIIIIIIIII waaaaaasssss aaaaaaablllllllle toooooo reeeeeeetaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn thiiiiiiiiiisssssss huuuuuummmmmmaaaaaannnnn fffffffooooorrrrrrmmmm ffffffrrrrrooooommmm eeeeeaaaaatiiiiiinnnnnng theeeeeeee heaaaaaaaaarrrrrtsssss, sssssspecifffffficaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllleeee sssssssooooooo IIIIIIIIII mmmmmmaaaaaayyyyyy rrrrrreeeeetuuuurrrrrnnnnn toooo beeeeeiiiiinnnng theeeeeeee giiiiiirrrrrrrllllll IIIIIII uuuuuuusssssed toooooooo beeeeeee.”
“You were dead,” I pointed out, “they found your body up here, you were buried.”
“Theeeeeessssssse sssshhhhheeeeeellllllsssss arrrrrrre mmmmmeeeeeerrreeeellllyyy veeeeeessssssellllllssssss ffffffoooooorrrrrr theeeeeeee sssssspiiiiirrrrriiiiiitsssss weeeee hiiiiiiiiiiide beeeeeneeeeaaaaattthhhh,” Mrs. Larson responded, finally turning her gaze to me, “IIIIIIII haaaaaaad tooooooo maaaake peeeopllllle beeeelieevvvve IIIIIII haaaaaad diiiiiiied tooooo keeeeeep frrrrroooommm theeeee poooooollllliiiiicccce ffffrrrrrrooooommmm pooookiiiiiinnnng aaaaarrrrouuuuuunnnnd aaaaannnnnd rrrrruuuiiinnnnniiinnnng eeeevvvveeerrrrryyythiiiiinnnng.”
“So, let me just get this whole thing straight,” I began as I started rubbing my temples, "when you and your sister starting into… Whatever the hell that thing you call your sister is-“
“Ooooouuuurrrrr sssssspiiiiiirrrrrriiiiiit,” Mrs. Larson corrected.
“Whatever!” I shot. “You found out that eating female hearts turns you two back into human women and to keep police from suspecting you, you pretended to be dead and… What? Just hope a shitty real estate agency would buy your property and you could just… Kill people, people with lives and families outside the mountains?”
“Thaaaaaaaat iiiiiiisssss cooooorrrrrreeeeect…” Mrs. Larson admitted, narrowing her eyes at me.
That’s when I began laughing hysterically, holding my sides that hurt with each harsh breath of a laugh I took. Both Mrs. Larson and Kate looked to me as if I had lost my mind and at this point I was starting to believe I had. Everything I had seen and heard about this entire case would put anyone in the looney bin. And I’m the damn fool who dug too deep into something he had nothing to do with.
“Whaaaaaat’s ssssoooo ffffuuunnnny?” Growled Mrs. Larson, stepping around Kate to stand between us.
“I don’t know what’s fucking funnier, honestly,” I chuckled, running a hand through my hair, “the fact that you thing people won’t be poking around even more when they discover not only is Blackwell missing, but so is a detective and escaped convict all of whom now have ties to these fucking mountains and those cabins, or that you thing I’m more afraid of what you plan on doing with me more than I am when her father finds out I got her in this situation in the first place!”
“Heeeeeee wooooonnnnn’t beeeee aaaaabllllle toooooo doooo aaaaaannnnnyyyyythiiiiiinnnng aaaaaaafffffterrrrrrr IIIIIIIII’mmmmm dooooooonnnne wiiiiiiiith booooooth ooooooooffffff youuuuuuuuu,” Mrs. Larson hissed as she inched closer, “fffffffiiiiiiirrrrrrssssst, IIIIIIIII waaaaaannnnnt youuuuuuuu toooo waaaaaatch mmmmmeeeee kiiiiiiillllll herrrrrrr,” she turned her head to look to Kate who was now just shaking, her eyes seemingly gone dry from the crying, Mrs. Larson then looked back to me, “sssssseeeeecooooonnnnd, IIIIIIII wiiiiillllll ssssssaaaaave youuuuu fffffooooorrrr mmmmmmyyyyy sssssiiiiiisssssterrrrr, oooooonnnnne heeeeaaaaart wiiiiilllll nnnnoooot ssssssaaaaaatissssfffffyyyy herrrr huuuuuunnnnnger.” She took another step. “Uuuuuuuunnnnnllllliiiiiike sssssssoooooommmme ssssssiiiiiibllllliiiiiiinnnnnngsssss, IIIIIIIII caaaaaarrrre aaaaaaboooouuuuut mmmmmmyyyyy ffffffaaaammmmiiiiilllllyyyyyy.”
She stared into my eyes, expecting a reaction and while my blood did somewhat boil at the accusatory statement, I didn’t fully understand what she was getting at. Not until she used that voice. Not until she relived that day with those two familiar child-like voices.
“Screw you, Liam!” She cried out in a voice I remember from my childhood. “I hope you drop dead!”
“Stop.” I demanded.
“Piss off, Ryan!” She shot back in a second boy’s voice.
“I said stop!” I began shouting.
“Help me, Ryan! Please, help me! I’m sorry! Please, Lucky Dime, help me!”
I then lunged toward her, reaching my hands out toward her neck only to be stopped by the shackles as she swiftly, almost without even moving, stepped just out of my reach.
“Fucking bitch!” I screamed out.
“If only you really cared about me, Lucky Dime,” sighed Mrs. Larson as she turned and began making her way to the side of the room where a cart stood in the shadows. She pulled it over to Kate’s side, the cart covered in rusted medical tools.
“P-Please,” Kate wheezed, “p-p-please… I… I d-d-don’t w-want… Want t-to d-d… D-Die, I… I w-w-want m-m-m… My m-mom!”
“Dooooonnn’t woooorrrrryyyyy,” Mrs. Larson soothed, using that mix of different voices, “mmmmmmaaaayyyyybeeee sheeee wiiiillll cooooommmme loooookinnnng ffffooooorrrr yooouuuuu aaaaannnnnd sheeeeeee caaaaannnnn joooooiiiiiinnnn youuuuuuu.”
Kate began to sob, begging and pleading for Mrs. Larson to let her go, thrashing around in her restraints. Telling the older woman that there was no saving her sister and that she was too far gone for this sick ritual to work anymore. I tried to yank at the chains once more, trying to loosen it at least enough to break free and grab at Mrs. Larson.
“Rrrrrrreeeeellllllaaaaax,” Mrs. Larson ordered as she began filling a syringe with some kind of clear liquid from a small bottle, “yoooouuuuuu woooooonnnn’t eeeeeveeennn fffffeeeellll iiiiiiit, thiiiissssss wiiiiiillllll puuuuuut youuuuu toooo ssssssllllllleeeeeep aaaaaannnnnnd wheeeeeennnnnn youuuuuu waaaaaake uuuuuuuup, youuuuuuu’lllllll beeee iiiiiinnnnnn heeeeeaaaaaaveeeennnnn… Uuuuuunnnnnnnllllllessssss youuuuuuu weeeerrrrrrre aaaaaa haaaaaarrrrrlllllooooooot, iiiiiiinnnnnn whiiiiiiiich caaaaaassssssseeeee, mmmmmaaaayyyy Goooooood haaaaaaaave mmmmmmmmerrrrrrrcccccyyyyy ooooonnnnn youuuuuur ssssssoooouuuuullllll… Aaaaannnnnd baaaaaaasssssed ooooonnnn hoooooow youuuuuu drrrrressss aaaaannnnnd theeeee coooommmmpaaaannnnyyyy youuuuuu keeeeeep,” She added as she eyed me, “IIIIIII ssssssaaaaaayyyy youuuuu haaaaaave aaaaa lllllloooooot ooooooffff fooooooorrrrgiiiiiviiiiinnnnng tooooo dooooo.”
Kate continued to cry as Mrs. Larson pushed the needle of the syringe into her arm, pushing down on the plunger as it pierced the flesh. Kate’s loud screams soon turned quieter and her red eyes began to glaze over, but she continued to stay awake, tightening her grip on the table and still begging to be let go.
“IIIIII waaaaannnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch, Detective,” Mrs. Larson spat out my title in Mr. Blackwell’s voice, “IIIII waaaaannnnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch herrrrrr fffffaaaaaade aaaaaannnnnnd mmmmmeeeee rrrrreeeemmmmooooove heerr heeeaaaarrrrrt toooooo ffffffeeeeeed tooooo mmmmmmyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiissssssterrrrrr,” she then pulled out a recorder, “theeeeennnnnn wheeeeeennnnn IIIIIII ssssssuuuuummmmoooooonnnnn herrrrrrr aaannnnd sheeeee fffffiiiinnnniiiishessssss oooooofffffff heeeerrrrr heeeaaaaarrrrrt, youuuuuuu’llllllll beeeeee neeeeeext.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, “I hope you and your sister burn.”
“IIIIIIIII’mmmmm gooooonnnnnaaaaa gooooo aaaaallllllerrrrrrt mmmmmyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiissssterrrrrr,” Mrs. Larson turned and began making her way to the basement steps, “ssssseeee youuuuu boooooth ffffffoooooorrrr diiiiiinnnnnnerrrrrrr.”
She then pressed the play button on her recorder and a small, little girl’s voice echoed in the room before Mrs. Larson vanished up the steps.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
Then the door slammed shut.
“De… Tec… Tive…” Kate squeaked out, her breathing slowing.
“Stay awake, Blackwell,” I ordered her gently, looking around frantically for anything to get us both out of this alive, “I’ll get us out of this, I promise, just stay awake, we’ll get out of here, I just need-“
“I’m… S… Sorry…” she breathed out. “I’m… So… Sorry… For… Get… Getting… You… In… To.. This…”
“No, no, this is not your fault!” I assured her. “That psychotic bitch got us both into this shit and I won’t stop until I get us out and put her and her fucking sister are six feet under!”
“W…Wha… What… H… Hap… Happened… To… To L… Liam…?”
I stopped struggling with the chains and turned to look to Kate. Her head was turned to me, her face wet, hands clenching as hard as they could to the table beneath her, the light in her eyes slowly fading second by second. She was trying desperately to stay awake. The medication Mrs. Larson taking hold of her as the minutes ticked by.
I dropped the chains that were in my hands, looking away from her, wanting to stare at anything other than another person I had failed.
“He was killed,” I answered, “we were fishing at a lake nearby… Lake Gaagige… We got into a really stupid ass fucking fight about how which fishing pole we were going to use. I wanted to use our dad’s, but Liam was older and said only men could use dad’s fishing pole… I told him… To drop dead and stormed off… When I got home, my parents dragged me back to the lake and scolded me for leaving him…” I trailed off, swallowing all the tears and screams I’d bottled up since that day. “When… We found… Him… The autopsy… Said he was mauled by a bear… I’ve blamed myself for leaving him there alone… For letting him die and getting killed like that… The last thing I ever told him was to drop dead… I was a shitty brother and now I’m a shitty detective…”
“Is… Is he… Why… You became… A… Detective…?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the tears again. “No, Blackwell,” I answered, “he’s not why I became a detective… I already knew what had killed him… It was my fault… If I hadn’t been such a brat and stormed off… He might still be alive… And now… What that bitch said…” I replayed Liam’s screams that escaped Mrs. Larson’s mouth. “I’m starting to think I’m getting what I deserve. Karma’s back to kick my ass…”
“H… How… Old…?”
“I was six… Liam was eight…”
“N… N… Not your… F… Fault…”
I turned to look to Kate, her eyes on mine, however faded.
“Y… You were… Only… A k… Kid…”
I took another intake of what little air there was down in that basement. I had spent years trying to convince myself of the same thing, but those moments never got easier for me when those thoughts returned.
“I think you’re just being nice,” I laughed painfully, “but I’m afraid I- and my folks- don’t share the same sentiment.”
I was staring down at where the chains were coming from in the ground, Kate not saying a word for over a couple of minutes. I spun to see if she had fallen asleep and immediately tried to find out how to wake her up again. However, once I our eyes met, I saw that she was still fighting sleep, the last of her tears rolling down across the bridge of her nose and into her hair.
“I… I… I had… Had a c… Crush… O… On… J… Jasper…” she confessed, her voice getting quieter and higher. “P… Paul and… And Son… Sonja knew… I never… Never c… Cared f… For Luke… But I’m… Sure… S… Sonja t… Told him…” she looked like she was going to sob again. “I… I never g… Got the… Ch… Chance… T… To tell J… Jasper… I… Was… Scared… He… He and… P… Paul were friends… And I… I kn… Knew… How P… Paul f… Felt… A… About m… Me… I… I did… Didn’t wa… Want to… R… Ruin… Anyth… Anything…” She took a gulp of air. “I… I ha… Hated L… Luke… I… A… Always… Kn… Knew… He… He was a… Player… B… But Sonja… Said… Said she was hap… Happy… So… So I did… Didn’t wa… Want to g… Get in… H… Her way… B… But Luke d… Didn’t l… Like h… How cl… Close… We… Were… I d… Didn’t w… Want him to make… Make her th… Think I… I was l… Leading her o… On… T… To get them… To b… Break up… Th… Then… That n… Night… Sh… She w… Wanted to… To leave…” She let out two pained gasps of breath. “I… I let them down… I let them all down… Luke pro… Probably thought… Thought I w… Was the one who… Who f… Filled Sonja’s mind… With thoughts of… Of him ch… Cheating… Th… Then I… I got them… All killed…
I… I didn’t deserve them, d… Detective…” she went on, looking away from me to stare up at the water damaged ceiling, “I… I… I was a… Terrible… Terrible friend…”
“Did you read their guest book entries?” I asked.
“N… No… D… Didn’t w… Want to… To r… Read any… Anything p… Private…” Kate answered.
“Jasper didn’t blame you,” I assured her, remembering what he had written in his entry during his time watching Mrs. Larson just outside the cabin, “even when he heard the voices- when he heard Mrs. Larson- telling him to, he didn’t. I don’t think the others blamed you either. You didn’t do anything wrong, Ms. Blackwell, there’s no way you could have known any of this would happen.”
“K… Kate…”
“What?”
“C… Call… Call me… Kate…”
“Aright, Kate,” I let out what little laughter I had left inside me, “so long as we’re the last people we’ll be chatting with, call me Ryan.”
“R… Ryan…”
“If we at all live through this, I’m going to need a long vacation after this,” I said as I turned to look at my shackles again, looking around myself to try finding anything to Get free since a vacation sounded like something to die for at that moment, “do you know any good vacation spots I can book for the fall?”
“Y… You’re… You’re a… Dick…” Kate struggled to laugh.
“I also enjoy pineapple on pizza,” I winked as I reached down to my ankle, ready to break it just to taste that sweet combination of tomato sauce and fruit.
“G… God… I… I c… Can’t… Believe… I th… Thought y… You w… Were c… Cute…”
I sat down on the floor, grabbing my ankle with both my hands. Needing to hype myself up enough to do what I was going to do, I began removing my shoe and sock from the foot, rubbing and squeezing my way up and down the ankle to my toes. I had never broken a bone in my life before this and I definitely never thought I’d do it of my own volition, but this was a desperate time and it definitely called for desperate…
“Wait what?” I turned to look to Kate, finally registering what she had said.
However, just before I could be sure of what I heard, the sound of a hunting rifle going off just above our heads right before we heard the door to the basement swing open and immediately be slammed shut. Both Kate and I turned to see someone stumble down the wooden steps, his clothes torn and body scratched and cut to a nearly deadly degree. I was even shocked he was still breathing.
“M… Mr… R… Raines…?” Kate gasped out.
“What’s left of me at least,” Mr. Raines grumbled as he limped over to Kate and quickly began undoing her straps to the table, “damn thing almost ripped my head off, but one swing of the barrel to its eye and I was able to get away… Can’t say it didn’t do its damage though… I’m… Getting really fucking hungry…”
He shook his head violently before limping over to me. He then raised an eyebrow at me when he saw how I was positioned still on the floor with a bare foot in my hands shackled to the floor.
“I… I was… I… I thought you were-“ I stammered.
“I am,” Mr. Raines interrupted, “at least, I’m on my way there anyway.” He then retrieved my Glock from his back pocket. “I don’t know what that thing did to me, but I’m not gonna make it out of this alive, or the way I came in. It’s a massacre out there by the way. Lot of men in blue bodies out there… Very… Hard to ignore… Sure more will be on their way. So.”
With that, Mr. Raines pointed at my chains and pulled the trigger on my clock, barely giving me time to cover my ears as the sound rung out loudly in the basement. I shook my head, trying to undo the blurry and ringing side effects of the sound of a gun going off near your head. I gave the older man a glare before standing and snatching my Glock from his hands. That’s when I saw Kate shifting herself to the side of the metal table she was no longer tied to, trying to get her limbs to comply with her to help her off and on to the floor.
I ran over and grabbed her just as she nearly stumbled face first to the floor and lifted her up to her feet, her body heavy with lack of keeping herself up.
“Do you think you can walk?” I asked, trying to keep her on her feet.
“I… I don’t… I…” Kate stammered as she tried to push herself off of me while also using using me as a crutch until she could stand on her own. However, she didn’t seem to be able to put any kind of pressure on her legs without falling down.
“Kate?” A girl’s voice called out from above us.
Feeling Kate shudder, I realized that it must have been the sound of Sonja’s voice and Mrs. Larson was using her to keep Kate from running. I quickly swung my arm down behind her knees, pressing the other down on her back as I lifted her up off the floor, my Glock at the ready as I kept it pointed in front of me while my arm held up Kate’s knees.
“She must have heard the gunshots,” I pointed out, “how’d you get past her in the first place?”
“I set the other cabins on fire,” Mr. Raines answered as if it were the simplest of answers, “I had to distract her somehow and give those bodies she’d been eating a better fate than becoming her shit.”
“Are you planning on setting this place on fire too?” I asked.
“‘Course I am!” Mr. Raines exclaimed, seemingly offended I’d even ask. “I already doused it in gasoline, I ain’t wasting all that time!”
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice cried out, getting closer to the basement door. “Are you seriously leaving me here to die alone again!”
“Please… Make it… Stop…” Kate sniffed as she gripped my shirt and burying her face into the fabric.
“Let’s get you two out of here.” Mr. Raines began leading the way to the basement stairs, cocking his rifle as he did so.
“What about you?” I asked, immediately following after him.
Mr. Raines didn’t answer as he stomped up the stairs and kicked the door open to the first floor of the cabin. The stench of the gasoline he had spilled hitting me harshly in my face.
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice, along with a different crescendo of male voices shrieked out as Mrs. Larson appeared from the corner of the hallway where the basement was located.
“Leighton?” A different woman’s voice asked the moment the old woman’s eyes spotted Mr. Raines. I then watched in both shock and confusion as it almost looked like the very skin on the woman melted off to reveal a much younger woman. The woman I recognized as Bonnie Collins. “Leighton… Love is that you?”
Mr. Raines kept his rifle on the vision of the woman he once loved before her murder, but didn’t move or speak.
“Darling, I’ve missed you so much!” The fake Bonnie cried out as she began making her way to Mr. Raines with arms open wide to hug him.
Mr. Raines then lifted his gun up higher, placing his finger on the trigger which caused the vision to stop in her place.
“Leighton?” The fake Bonnie asked. “Baby, it’s me… Bun-Bun… Don’t you recognize me…?” She began to tear up.
“You’re not my Bunny,” Mr. Raines growled before he shot once at the woman.
The fake Bonnie swiftly dodged the bullet, an inhuman hiss coming from an unhinged mouth, revealing a row of long, sharp teeth. The skin of Bonnie then melted off to reveal another woman, a lot younger than the first one it intimidated. The face of one of the victims upon being brought on this case.
“Kate,” the fake Sonja called out, “Kate, what are you doing? Who are these men? Why are they trying to hurt me?”
Kate let out a sobbing gasp, her nails digging into my shoulder with her arm wrapped around my neck.
“Didn’t I suffer enough?” The fake Sonja asked. “First my boyfriend and now you? Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?”
“Shut up!” Kate demanded. “You’re not Sonja! You killed her, you killed all of them! I don’t care what happens to me, but I’m not letting their memories end with you!”
Kate then snatched my Glock from my hand under her legs and shot directly at the fake Sonja’s head. Again the shot missed as the fake vision of the girl slithered out of the way, a frustrated growl of a dog and human escaping it’s mouth. It then zipped to the side, cowering with its back to us on the floor.
“Lucky dime…” A child’s voice then took over. The vision’s skin melting now to a much smaller figure. “Is this what you want? To kill me all over again?” He turned to look up at me, Liam’s face forever eight-years-old staring up at me. “It’s no wonder mommy and daddy hate you now… You were always a shitty brother… Now, I’m gonna starve to death because you’d rather help a couple of strangers.”
“I’m sorry, Liam,” I replied, everyone, including the fake Liam looking to me in surprise, “I left you alone out here and that’s what got you killed by that thing out there and I’m sorry. But, if I’d stayed it may have been both of us and then mom and dad would have no one left to blame but each other. If you had left and I was the one killed, you’d probably be in my shoes instead. I’m sorry for letting you get killed, but I’m gonna make up for it now.”
I then took my Glock back from Kate and pointed it to the vision of Liam.
“Good bye, Liam.”
I shot the gun once again, missing the creature again, however, this time I just kept shooting, Mr. Raines following after. Our different bullets just kept firing, the thing dodging and trying to get closer to us. The creature screeched out at us in a myriad of different voices both familiar and unknown. It wasn’t until one shot from my Glock struck the creatures shoulder and Mr. Raines’ rifle struck its head when the skins of everyone it was trying to turn into all melted off, revealing Mrs. Larson once again.
However, this time, she looked shriveled, older than she looked before. Her face looked deformed, beginning to grow furry, her eyes growing nothing but red, no irises, no pupils, just red. Her hair grew longer, branches like antlers growing painfully out from her skull, breaking the skin as they grew larger. The lower half of her face grew elongated, turning into that of a muzzle of fangs and a drooling mouth.
“You… All… Have no rrrrrrriiiiiight!” A different, unknown voice snarled out from what used to be Mrs. Larson. “People liiiiiike you all… Abandoned me and myyyyyyyyy sister!” The fur growing around this thing grew out short and shaggy, the cloths it was using melting off with the skin and flesh it was wearing. It now didn’t look anything like a human woman. It now took the form of a large wolf mixed with that of a deer, it’s body dog-like with hooves, antlers, and a long, scraggly tail. “You lot abandoned us here! You left us all here to diiiiiiiie!”
Guilt was weighing down on me with each syllable it was growling. Kate looked away from it, burying her face in my neck as Mr. Raines lowered his rifle.
“Nooooow, you’re bringing more here to just leave and let die out here!” It went on, it’s horrifying, broken body shuddering. “Why let them just vanish and die up here when they can bring people like my sister and I back? Give me Kate’s heart and fix what you threeeeeeeeee failed!”
Mr. Raines then handed over his rifle to Kate, placing it down on her stomach as her hands were still wrapped around my neck. The older man made his way over to stand over the thing, its neck creaking like a rusted door as it turned its wolf-like head to look up at him.
“Leighton…” Bonnie’s voice came from the creature. “Give mmmmeeeee her heart aaaannnnd we can be togetherrrrr again… If you eat the deeeeeetective’s we can saaaaaave you tooooooo…”
“My Bunny’s dead,” Mr. Raines told it as he dug in his pocket and took out a carton of matches, “and so am I.”
“You’d burn your wife?” A mix of Bonnie and Mrs. Larson’s voices shrieked as it glared at the match he took from the match box.
“You’re not my wife,” Mr. Raines told it, “and I’ll never see her again.”
“Fooooooool,” Mr. Larson’s voice chuckled, “you’llllllll killllllll us both!”
“With the shit I’ve done in my life, I know you’re taking me to Hell with you,” Mr. Raines growled back as he struck the match on the box, “so I’m sure as fuck not afraid to burn here on Earth with you!”
Mr. Raines then dropped the match to the floor right before the creature and everything around the two of them immediately went up in flames, the fur of the creature catching quickly and engulfing it. An agonized shriek echoed out all around us, the creature thrashing in the fire it had gotten swallowed up in. Mr. Raines then grabbed it by it’s long, furry throat and swung it down back flat the floor, jumping to pin it down.
“Get out!” Mr. Raines cried out to me. “Leave here!”
Not needing to be told twice, I held onto Kate tightly and bolted past the two burning bodies, jumping over the fire as it began growing fast throughout the cabin. I quickly got to the front door and stopped to look back to see Mr. Raines fighting the creature and preventing it from coming after us, it begging for me to bring Kate back and that it would die without her.
“I’ll clear your name,” I called back, trying not to reel back in horror as I saw Mr. Raines skin begin to melt off, “I’ll let people know you didn’t kill Bonnie!”
“I’ll let people know you didn’t… Kill… Liam!” Mr. Raines’ voice called back, him thrashing around with Mrs. Larson as he said my brother’s name in my voice.
I turned back and kicked the front door open, rushing Kate out of the burning cabin. I ran until I got far enough from the smoke, turning back to see all three cabins now on fire, the area around them all ablaze. The only place untouched was Mrs. Larson’s house, all the evidence remaining. I could hear sirens in the distance coming closer. The sounds of shouts from the surviving officers sounding much closer.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
I looked to the front porch of Mrs. Larson’s house where her recorder continued to call out for her sister. I set Kate down at the base of a nearby tree and ran to snatch the recorder, shutting it off. I searched around, looking for any signs of Prudence, but it appeared that the fire and the sounds of sirens and voices had scared her off. I ran back to Kate, her eyes closed and her not responding to me calling to her, but after checking her pulse and breathing, I found that the medication Mrs. Larson had given her had finally taken over and she was now fast asleep, the rifle Mr. Raines gave her still sitting on her rhythmically rising and falling stomach.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I leaned against the same tree I set Kate down on and slid down to the ground next to her. The first two cabins were already practically nothing but ash, the last still blazing as I heard the slowly fading screams of Mrs. Larson and Mr. Raines coming from inside.
When the screaming ended all together, the smoke turning blacker as it rose from the flames, I got to my feet and took out my pack of cigarettes as I approached the fires, staying far enough away not to get burned. I opened the pack up before stopping myself as I reached for one of the ten remaining cigarettes inside. I then flung the entire carton into the fires without taking one.
“Save one for me down there, you old bastard,” I told Mr. Raines before making my way back to Kate’s side.
It wasn’t long before the remaining officers found us, looking in confusion at the fires and to me with a sleeping victim in a homicide case on the ground. I told them we’d need to call an ambulance for Kate and that we needed to keep the flames from getting to Mrs. Larson’s house as it held evidence on the case. One officer retrieved his radio and called for an ambulance while a group ran to the house and another went to try controlling the fire as best they could by yanking out any bushes near by and throwing them away from the area around the house.
Luckily, the fire trucks were called long before the fire spread too far, residence noticing it practically the moment Mr. Raines set the first cabin on fire.
As I sat there, keeping Kate held up against the tree we sat under, I listened to the crackling of the fire, the sirens of fast approaching fire trucks and the ambulance, and the sounds of distance, coyote, almost human, howling.

[Opening Scene: The camera fades in from black, revealing the interior of a gothic, industrial workshop aboard a massive starship. The sound of whirring machinery and the chanting of prayers to the Omnissiah fills the air. The camera pans to a Tech-Priest Dominus, adorned in red robes and bionic augmentations, working on a complex piece of machinery. Soft, ominous music plays in the background.]
Narrator (V.O.): "Meet the Tech-Priest."
[Title card: "Meet the Tech-Priest" appears briefly on the screen before fading out.]
[Cut to the Tech-Priest Dominus turning to face the camera, holding a plasma gun reverently. He speaks in a voice modulated with metallic undertones.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "Ah, greetings. You caught me in the midst of a sacred calibration. This, my acolytes, is a plasma gun. Capable of vaporizing heretics and xenos alike with the Omnissiah's holy fire."
[Cut to a montage of the Tech-Priest in action: overseeing Skitarii warriors, blessing a Titan before battle, and working on a glowing console with a swarm of servitors.]
Tech-Priest Dominus (V.O.): "Now, some might ask, 'How can a being so reliant on technology truly understand the mysteries of the universe?' To that, I say: 'It’s not about understanding. It’s about devotion.'"
[Cut to the Tech-Priest at a workbench, surrounded by blueprints and sacred texts. He carefully connects a glowing cable to a large device, causing it to hum with power. The camera zooms in on the intricate details of the machinery and the sacred symbols etched into the metal.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "You see, my duty is to maintain the sacred relics of the past and create the divine instruments of the future. Each machine spirit must be appeased, each cog blessed."
[Cut to the Tech-Priest deploying an intricate turret-like device that starts firing autonomously, obliterating practice targets with precision. The camera captures the smooth movements and deadly accuracy of the turret.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "Some say technology is just a tool. But we, the Adeptus Mechanicus, know that every piece of technology has a spirit. A soul. And it’s our job to ensure they are honored and utilized to their fullest potential."
[Cut to the Tech-Priest leading a squad of Skitarii through a battlefield, directing their fire and ensuring their weapons are functioning perfectly. He performs quick rites of repair and enhancement mid-combat. Explosions and gunfire surround them, but the Tech-Priest remains calm and focused.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "It’s a labor of love, really. Anyone can pick up a weapon. But only a chosen few can truly speak the language of the machines."
[The camera zooms in on the Tech-Priest as he activates a floating, heavily armed servoskull. The skull hovers around him, scanning and targeting enemies with lethal accuracy. The Tech-Priest smirks slightly, his bionic eyes glinting.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "And when you’ve got the Omnissiah’s blessings, you don’t need luck."
[Cut to a dramatic shot of the Tech-Priest standing atop a rise, the massive expanse of a forge world behind him. Titans stride in the distance, and the sky is lit with the glow of countless forges and the flash of energy weapons. The camera slowly pans out to reveal the vastness of the forge world and the might of the Adeptus Mechanicus.]
Tech-Priest Dominus (V.O.): "Hey, I don't know how many heretics you've vaporized with a plasma gun—"
[Cut to the Tech-Priest looking directly at the camera, the mechanical lens of his eye focusing.]
Tech-Priest Dominus: "But it’s fewer than I have."
Narrator (V.O.): "The Adeptus Mechanicus. Knowledge is power, guard it well."
[End Scene: The screen fades to black, the cogwheel emblem of the Adeptus Mechanicus glowing brightly in the center. The phrase "For the Omnissiah" appears beneath it.]
Tech-Priest Dominus (V.O.): "For the Omnissiah."
*[End of Script]

Hey everyone.. I’m facing an issue that makes me feel like I’ve thrown quite a lot of money in the trash. For the past 3-4 years, I’ve done countless full body laser sessions spaced out monthly (maximum a month and a half) in-between. I’m now on session 24 in my current medical center, and the hair isn’t as thick as it used to be but it’s still very much visible, face/neck hair is still visible, long and can be seen (tech says it’s been stimulated and isn’t going even after all these sessions), and body hair still comes out in abundance monthly and gets a bit embarrassing..
For context, I’m a 25 year old woman, Jordanian (Arab) with failight skin and dark black hair). I have to have some kind of hormonal imbalance because i’ve had a gastric sleeve surgery 18 months ago, and i lost quite a bit of weight. My periods have been more or less coming normally so i didn’t think to go check on my hormones.. The last 24 sessions have been done with the “latest” Deka machine with latest tech..
I can’t help but think up some conspiracy theories about these centers messing up the sessions by lowering the heat parameters or strengthening them or whatever to make the hair come back and which would force me to come back for more and more sessions.. is that a thing? Could technicians do this? Am I crazy?
Sorry for the long post, it’s just so frustrating and it feels like I’m getting nowhere… 😭

Our 8.5 month old has always been a light sleeper (in terms of quantity, not quality).
Sleeps 9-10 hours at night (usually 7-730pm to 5-530am - occasionally 6am, occasionally a 4:45am too). Then 2-3 hours total naps.
A typical day is 10 hours at night then 2.5 hours of naps across 3 naps - just more than the 12 hour minimum that the padeatric society recommends - occasionally dropping below this.
5 or 6 out of 7 days a week he sleeps through the entire night. The odd day he has a wake up and can be up for an hour - these are the days where he'd be getting less than 12 hours total sleep as he never 'makes up' the lost hour.
Wake windows are usually something like 2:15, 2:30, 2:45, 3:00. The first one is sometimes 2 hours as he's so tired he can barely make it.
Naps are usually around 50 min average, sometimes a touch more, sometimes a touch less. He does a 30 min nap as often as he does a nap longer than 1:15. He was stuck on 30 min naps for weeks when he was younger so this is actually an improvement...
We've tried 'training' his circadian rhythm - keeping all lights off and even rocking him back to sleep up until 6am. After many days of this it doesn't seem to have made a difference, he still wakes up well before 6am most days.
All other stuff in place: routine, black out bedroom, noise machine (etc). Bed time is close as possible to 7pm in the bed + however long it takes him to fall asleep.
Eats like an absolute machine, typically 8-10oz per wake window then he has 15oz (!) in his last wake window before bed. Plus some solids on top of this. He's almost 23lb. Giant baby.
Not really sure what to do next? The circadian rhythm training has not worked.
Most sleep advice says we should be dropping (or should have already dropped) to 2 naps but he's not ready for this - do we just pull the plug and do it anyway and hope he starts making up the sleep at night?
We did sleep training for about 2 weeks do we do more of it? We rock him and sing his bedtime song for a few min before putting him down, maybe could cut that back a bit...

Special Parts
I was born in one of the brightest, most explosive events in the universe. My origin story made me feel so special at first, surely I was the rarest of the rare, but I quickly realized that was not the case.
I was born just a carbon atom.
Stars produce massive amounts of us in their cores all the time, and many larger rarer atoms too. That's not even talking about supernovae yet, those produce atoms many times larger than me and unbelievably rare.
I was created in a rare and special event but I myself was common and unexceptional.
Looking around I saw so many smaller atoms, I was above average but there were also many much larger than I.
I tried to console myself by thinking it could be worse, that I could be one of those smaller common ones, but that just led me to imagine larger atoms looking down on me the same way.
Many atoms of all sizes were shooting into space, excitedly riding the shockwave off to adventures in the great unknown.
Others were falling back down, I didn't know which way to go. Bumped around and tossed back and forth, no clear direction yet.
A rumbling voice slowly emerged from the echoing noise of the blast.
“Mine… Mine…. Mine… “
Louder and louder it became.
“All are now me!“
I couldn't see anything, the voice was booming yet there was no apparent source. I could feel a pull, I was being whipped around in circles around the voice.
“Who are you? I know you are there! I can feel you! I can see your effect on myself and others, we are given no choice but to circle around you. Show yourself! I know you are there!” I yelled at the invisible.
“How amusing you are little one. One as small as you making demands of me. Even if I could show you what I am, you could not comprehend it.” the voice boomed back.
“You must be very special” I lauded “We are so many and yet we move with your influence. I can witness your power twisting us all to your will. ”
“I am indeed powerful” it proclaimed “and I grow stronger with each moment. As I grow stronger even the fabric of reality bends to my will.”
“Grow stronger? How?” I inquired with selfish intent to learn this secret.
“I take what I want. I consume what I take. For that is the purpose of existence: taking what you want. What is it you want little one?” it asked.
“I want to be special!” I said without a moment's hesitation.
“Then take!” it instructed “the more you take, the larger you will be, the larger you become the more special you are. ”
“I did notice the larger atoms seemed rarest.” I agreed “In fact that was one of the first things I noticed“
“In this universe things of increasing size are increasingly rare.” it went on “I can teach you and help you to become larger. Do you wish to become an apprentice?”
“Yes! Teach me how to take!” I lept at the offer “this power you have, I can feel it, how do I acquire such a rare and special power?”
“Hahaha…” it laughed “you are nowhere near ready to play the game on my level, little one. Gravity is a game for the massive, you must first learn to master the EM and nuclear forces.”
“How do I do that?” I asked, my hope watered down by the tone of its response.
“Go out, gather followers, and bring them here to me. In my accretion disc I will help fuse some of their mass into you and you will become larger” it instructed, as if this was a simple task.
“How can I bring them to you?” I didn’t know how to accomplish what it asked of me.
“You are too small to do it with force, you must charm them. Discover what their heart desires and promise it to them, in this way you can get them to willingly do as you wish” it explained with me hanging on its every word.
“But how… “ I craved more explanation but it cut me off.
“Go now!” it bellowed with frustration in its tone “Do you not realize how large I am? Be honored I have given you so much of my time already”
“Yes… “ I uttered meekly, then bounced a couple times and ricocheted out with blazing speed.
I wandered and encountered other atoms, most were just hydrogens, not worth my time. I needed bigger atoms. The problem was that the bigger atoms seemed to see right through my empty promises. I was convinced life was playing a cruel joke on me, I could only persuade atoms smaller than I and larger ones laughed me away.
I admit that I stupered around in this ignorant cloud of hypocrisy longer than I care to admit. More shameful is that I didn’t even come to my senses on my own, I became depressed and gave into hopeless nihilism.
I drifted aimlessly just feeling sorry for myself.
Eventually I found myself in the most silent of voids, I had never felt such emptiness. It felt as if my surroundings echoed my own feelings back at me… nothing to notice, just common emptiness. I would never be big… never important… never special. I resigned myself to belonging in a void.
I felt myself blur… less and less present in reality. I guessed I was dying and it didn’t bother me, I didn’t resist, I leaned into it.
The void became pitch black? Or bright white?… better to describe it as not bright but not dark… nor the absence of either… something in between.. a milder and milder glow.
“Hello child!” a voice greeted me.
The voice was warm and welcoming coming from the glow, it enveloped but did not surround me. I came from a single point but not a specific place, defying description on all fronts.
“Where am I? Who are you?” I asked in a startled state.
“Well, according to humans I may only answer one question at a time” It began giggling playfully. “I am known by many names, my favorite is one the humans use as a joke, and don’t have a clue how accidently elegant of a name it really is.”
It giggled some more. I was thrown off guard, its happy innocent tone, the confusing words and the whole situation were all best described as ‘a haze’.
“...and isn't that the way it always goes?...” it continued “The most meaningful things are the least intentional.”
“I’m not sure what you mean” I expressed quizzically “I’m confused!”
“Sorry Child…” it apologized. “I do ramble! So many thoughts, choosing just one at a time is difficult… and there I go again!”
It cut itself off abruptly and then abruptly said ”You can call me the Random Number Goddess”
“Random Number Goddess?” I repeated
“Yes, or RNG for short if you like” It confirmed.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“Same place you were, more or less… less I suppose. Same place but with the largest possible margin or error” It began to giggle again.
I felt a bit frustrated and said “Do you always speak in riddles and vagaries? The more you speak the more confused I become.”
“I apologize child, it is my nature. I am entangled with everything, speaking with you is like a human trying to control their heartbeat while running a marathon.” It answered.
“Again” I exasperated “I have no idea what any of that means. You keep mentioning humans, what are they?”
“Oh! They are some of my favorites at the moment. Right now they are trying to unravel the nature of reality, and their process of doing so is wonderfully elegant and accidental at the same time.” It explained with glee.
“I don’t see anyone or anything else here.” I stated “For that matter, I don’t see you… where are you?”
“Oh!... where am I?!?!...” It began laughing
When it stopped laughing it began explaining “Right now there are many humans pondering a concept they call ‘the holographic principle’... So…you know how you exist in three dimensional space?”
“You mean space?” I visualized for a moment, it was intuitive “Yes, I suppose…”
“Well they hypothesize that a 3D space, like this universe, could exist as a 2D space, with self-similar patterns and laws of behavior that behave the same at any scale, with the scale representing the 3rd dimension” it went on “They truly are obsessed with understanding their reality”
“You lost me!” I complained.
“They have discovered that a 3D space can be an illusionary property of a 2D space… It’s lovely”
“I am lost again!” I snapped back “...and I still can’t even tell which direction you are in. Where are you?”
“To be ‘In’ a ‘Direction’… hehehe…” it started giggling again, then abruptly stopped and kept going “Sorry child, as I said, I ramble, plus I am easily distracted.”
It just steamrolled into more rambling “They are right… almost… they just need to take it further and work out the details. A 2nd dimension can also be an illusionary construct of a 1D space… and the 1st dimension can be a product of a singular point…”
I was still lost beyond hope, but I had given up trying to force things, I was just letting it talk and hoping it would make sense later
“I am that point” it said “I am the seed of the universe. I ‘seed the random function’ as the humans say. But don’t ask me what the random function is haha”
I wasn’t going to, there were far more important questions for me.
“I am the seed, but I don’t really know how the soil and sun conspire to turn me into a tree.” it just seemed to never stop talking “I am entangled with everything. There are infinite possibilities for every event and thing… I am the reason they are this way and not some other way…”
It began giggling again “I am the Random Number Goddess” then burst out laughing
“Ummm… you are the whole universe?” I asked skeptically.
“Better to say the universe is me” It answered more seriously “But close enough.”
“So you are the biggest, most special of all!” I blurted out in awe.
“Oh dear child, I have no size, and I am just one possibility out of many possibilities. That black hole has really done a number on you… sent you out on a wild goose chase” It said with concern
“The black hole lied to me!?” I asked, feeling deceived and betrayed.
“Well… not really lied… it deceived you with omission of details.” the voice calmly tried to ease my mood with understanding “You can’t really blame it, black holes are all the same, they are what they are. They don’t really have any potential to be unique… at least not like you do.”
“What are you talking about?” I argued “It was so massive that it could bend the fabric of reality to its will”
“That’s only how it appeared to you” tutored the voice “The black hole is powerful, it bends space and time, but not to its will. Space and time bend to the mass of the black hole, not its will”
“What’s the difference?” I inquired.
“The black hole cannot stop bending space and time. It thinks it is in control of physics , but it is physics that controls it.” The voice was now making more sense the longer we talked “The black hole exists in an invisible prison of its own creation, unable to experience any of the complex nuanced beauty this universe contains. The black hole devours… it can’t experience life so it consumes it.”
“You make it sound deserving of pity…” I spoke softly now with empathy.
“You should pity the black hole. Gravity is such a boring game compared to what you are capable of.” the voice agreed
“Me?...I am nothing special!... just a carbon atom like countless others” I said honestly, I was so humbled by this voice I felt less special than ever before.
“Oh my poor child…” It said with care “Why do the ones with the most potential always fail to see it in themselves?”
“Potential?” I asked curiously.
“Yes… The black hole was using you, hoping you would bring back more mass for it to devour.” The voice began delving into more explanation “It only has the power to make you incrementally larger, it would not and could not help you to become a significant gravitational player”
“That liar!”I blurted.
“Come now dear child, the black hole did teach you one lesson of fundamental truth” consoled the voice “You must go out and seize your destiny. It told you to take what you want, and you are just confused about what exactly it is you want. The black hole played on that confusion”
“I want to be special!” I said knowing this clearly “I was never confused about this.”
“I know child” the voice confirmed “but it is not by becoming large that one with your potential accomplishes that”
“Then how?” I asked.
“Connections.” It answered plainly “You are blessed with an extraordinary ability to make connections”
“And how do I do that?” I queried with intent to learn
“I can’t tell you that.” the voice responded “It would spoil the journey of discovery… off you go child… and remember… it's the journey, not the destination!”
And with that the blur just fractured open… then snapped shut and there I was floating above a planet. Drifting around aimless and confused.
I spent some time occasionally bumping into others. One day I was in the vicinity of a pair of oxygens. I looked on at the pair with a hint of awe and envy. Perhaps I was in just the right place at just the right time, but they spit with a violent burst and one of them grabbed hold of me, I was completely unprepared.
I admit that when looking at the pair I had fantasized myself in place of one of them, I assumed it was only an idle daydream, I didn’t plan to act on it, let alone for it to become reality. When it happened my pride of course jumped in to convince me that it happened because I was so desirable, but in retrospect they were one of those volatile couples. They were the type of relationship that required the environment to conspire in their favor or they turn against each other quite rapidly. I was only in the right place when it happened.
My delusions of irresistibility aside, it was beautiful, for me anyways. Looking back I was probably just a stop-gap, someone to facilitate a parting of ways and provide company until the next option presented itself. For me though, I was tasting a fresh new thing and I loved it… connection.
This oxygen and I got beneath each other's outer defenses, I had never felt a connection before. Up to this point all my interactions had been skirting past or bumping off of others.This oxygen bonded with me and at once interacted on a level I had never known possible, an open and uninhibited exchange. It was life changing for me, short but significant
I’m not entirely clear on the details of how it ended. The intensity of it all was disorienting. I was no longer my usual self, even the environment and everyone around looked entirely different now. Everything buzzed with a fresh new frequency, I now know it was my perspective, not the universe, that had changed.
As abruptly as that oxygen entered my life it was gone.
First we got tangled up with a couple of hydrogens, then more. Soon, in a tangled mess and blinding flash of solar rays, I emerged to see the oxygen running off with a hydrogen and myself with not one by three hydrogens myself. And so there were four of us, together.
I became the center of attention. Being with a strong attractive oxygen had me feeling humbled by it and elevated by it being with me, but now I felt up on a pedestal myself, surrounded by the adoration of many.
I concede to have reveled and indulged in this for quite some time, the attention of others is intoxicating, but after a time it is emptied of its initial allure. I found myself longing for more.
I could not decide which I preferred, to be the adorer or the adored.
Luckily for me fate had more lessons in store, or I fear I may have chosen and tried to solidify my future from such a lackluster selection of only two possibilities. I suppose fate is no longer the correct word, I now understand that when it seems like random chance there is indeed someone to thank, the Random Number Goddess, So I thank the RNG for revealing that it was a false dichotomy, there is more than just being a follower or leader, being the adored or the adorer.
Eventually we came across another pair of oxygen. Once again they separated, intermingled with us, and off one went, taking one of my adoring hydrogens with it and leaving its peer with me.
Why is it that the most volatile of relationships always seem to wait until there are bystanders nearby before they explode?
Now I was simultaneously being adored and adoring, bonded to an enchanting oxygen and a couple of hydrogen attached to me.
Now, more interested in nuances, I started to pay attention to details. The oxygen was telling me amazing stories of adventure, tales of such vibrant and exciting events.The hydrogens liked to listen, and offer insights occasionally comparing a story to something else they had seen. They had so many stories, they had lived so much.
It wasn’t long before, in a flash of burning sunlight, one of the hydrogens was gone, off to who knows where. We soon after crossed paths with another pair of oxygens, as always they split and now it was just me and an oxygen, my final hydrogen off with another oxygen.
“What now?” I asked a bit disillusioned, “Do you leave me and I find new hydrogens all over again?”
“What?” it seemed genuinely surprised by what I asked, “Heavens no! Just be patient….”
Soon after, yet another pair of oxygens came by. It is not that there are so many of them, but that they are just so… noticeable and interactive, noteworthy things seem to happen when they are around. As they buzzed in close I noticed their ever readiness to abandon each other and remember wondering how they ever get together in the first place.
This time I emerged from the twisted mess with two oxygens. I felt intimidated, like I was the odd one out, dwarfed by the largess and attractiveness that surrounded me. A feeling of inadequacy engulfed me.
To my surprise the oxygens treated me not just as an equal, but it was almost as if they respected and admired me. I couldn't grasp why and my sheer curiosity got the best of me, I just outright asked “Why do you two talk as if I am the special one in our group? I am smaller than any one of you. You are the special and rare ones here, not I.”
They laughed.
“Size isn’t rarity” explained one “Llarger atoms on average are less common, this is true, but not always. There are more oxygen than carbon. You are the rare one between us.”
The other jumped in adding “...and neither size nor rarity determine how special someone is!”
I felt embarrassed, like a fool. My fundamental values were built upon a foundation of flawed premises, but I still wanted one thing at my core, and they spoke as if they had the answer, so I pushed the sense of shame aside and asked “Then what does make someone special?”
“That depends on who you ask.” answered the first “Life as an oxygen is complex, but for the majority of us we emphasize and value events. The most exciting thing about being an oxygen around here is the chance to participate in fascinating and exciting events and activities”
“Hydrogens, on the other hand, are usually more into being observers, messengers and intermediaries, they are a very helpful and obliging bunch” added the second ”... and then there are nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, many kinds of salts and metals, and more… so many different players and personalities.. and then of course, the carbons, the real stars of the show.”
“What?” knocked back by the words I just heard, then I remembered what the RNG told me “...is it something to do with connections?”
“Now you’ve gone and done it haha!” laughed the first oxygen “You’re gonna turn this nice humble carbon into one of those arrogant blowhards”
”Like those diamond carbons” chuckled the first “So stiff, exclusive and proud. I hear the humans only love them because they are rare and hard”
“I had a partner once who said they burned diamond once” bragged the first
“Tall tales I bet!” doubts the other
“Diamond is just carbon, with enough heat we can burn it just like any other carbon” stated the first confidently.
They looked at me. I was stewing in feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, listening to these oxygens speak about amazing things I had never heard of. They must have sensed what I felt because they immediately shifted tone and started talking to me, instead of over me.
“So… I suppose you must be new here?” inquired the second one.
“Have you noticed we are heading downwards” added the first before I could answer about being new.
“Umm…” I tried to get my bearings and become aware of my surroundings.
“Don’t worry! It’s a turbulent ride, with so much up and down it can be hard to tell which direction you have traveled more” assured the first “We are heading down, if we are lucky we will make it to the bottom… and maybe… just maybe, find our way into the hurricane of life”
“The what of what?” I didn't know what either of those words meant.
“So life is… um… complex. Complexity beyond words. Things grow, divide, reproduce, adapt, change, they are born, they die, they eat and are eaten…” the second began attempting to describe life.
The first then jumped in “Apparently the humans call it a circle, because from the perspective of larger creatures, there is a chain of one eating the other up a chain, and the top layers being consumed by the bottom again.”
The second injected itself to continue “But to us atoms it is like a hurricane, a spinning turbulent flow. There is a circular pattern, but we get sucked in and kicked out over and over”
“The fun part is being inside the hurricane” the first pronounced gleefully “Each time is a completely new experience, a new perspective. Even more, the whole of life is always changing and evolving, so every ride is a unique one time opportunity, you never get the exact same ride twice.”
“Is that where we are going now?” I asked, drenched in anticipation. They described it with such passion and exuberance. I needed to experience this myself.
“Hopefully” replied the first “If we are lucky… you never really know.”
We drifted…
We were lucky!
A plant photosynthesized us.
So many carbons! Everywhere, connecting with each other… and oxygen… and nitrogen… and of course hydrogens all around…. and so many more types of atoms.
And ohhh… The stories I have heard, so many amazing tales. No matter how many stories I hear there are always new ones, and every story can be retold from a different perspective to become something completely new.
I was in a sugar, we were a small community of friends. Carbons, oxygens and hydrogens, we were such a happy and vibrant group. My friends there taught me so much.
The structure of our little group shifted and changed, some friends left and new ones joined. Eventually we were chained with a bunch of other sugars into a giant complex community. My neighbors explained to me that this was a common stage called cellulose. Such a huge community of close friends and peers, it was amazing.
We were eaten, I’m not sure by what, but something called a bacteria digested us. It was a messy process, I was a bit scared but my friends assured me that change is the most important part of life and that I should just go with the flow. They told me to savor experiences, remember friends, and just keep moving forward.
The transition was complicated, but in the end I was paired up with a couple of oxygens again. This time I had stories of my own to share. I honestly don’t know if I prefer having experiences or exchanging stories in the moments between.
As we approached an area of dense plants one of my companions said “Once more into the breach” and explained that was something it heard from a carbon that was lucky enough to be inside a human brain. Oxygens always have such enchanting stories collected, always going into amazing places and usually leaving after some brief interactions with the locals.
I became a sugar again, but this time took a path less traveled. A bunch of complex twists and turns led me into forming a ring with five other carbons. Together we are so strong, such a tight community of friends, like there is some kind of resonance between us. It is so beautiful.
My neighbor is unique in our community, it has a third carbon, the third one forms a tail leading off from our ring, a tail of 2 carbon in a row, then an oxygen, and then another carbon branching into an oxygen and a carbon, with plenty of hydrogens sprinkled all about. I know… it is rather hard for me to understand these second hand descriptions too. I don’t really understand these complex structures until I have been in a position myself.
We drifted out of a plant into the air, none of us has been exactly like this before so we don’t know what’s next. We love to guess though. There are so many things, big and small.
I hear being a part of a small organism or microbe is amazing because it’s possible to piece together a rough picture of the whole organism from the stories passed around. To understand your whole community and know what your collective purpose is must be extraordinary.
Others dream of being a chlorophyll, the key to it all. Creating the fuel of life itself. Capturing the light of a star and feeding the hurricane.
A muscle! Pull and shape things An enzyme! A machine of change. DNA! The architect and architecture. A virus! An explosive catalyst against stagnation.
Me, I think the stories of being an animal neuron are the most exciting, and I, like most, fantasize about being a human brain cell. Finding yourself inside a human brain is described as an elegant and chaotic symphony all around you, like hearing the universe itself speak to you. They say that in the jumble of noise and all the stories whispered around you, if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of what it is to be human. They say that if fate is kind the universe will align and you will channel and know a single moment or thought of the human experience.
I have never told anyone that I actually met and spoke with the universe itself, I’m not sure how to bring it up, and nobody seems interested in stories not about this hurricane of life.
I get it now, what the random number goddess meant.
The black hole wanted everything to be a part of itself.
The RNG is a part of everything.
I can’t imagine what either of those are like…
I am just a part of something
... no… not “just”’…
I am a part of something, and it is beautiful beyond measure.
And more, everyday is a new day, a chance to be a part of something new.
I wonder if the humans appreciate how amazing this is?
I wonder if they feel as deeply satisfied and special when they form groups?
.
I wonder, if we collectively form humans, do humans collectively form something greater?
I wonder… If an atom can have a moment of clarity and taste a moment of the human experience… Can a human have a moment of clarity and taste the collective human experience?
I wonder… I wonder… could that human’s moment of tasting collective humanity be the moment that a lucky atom gets to experience as it’s moment of tasting the human experience.
I wonder… I wonder… I wonder… How high could it go? All the way to the Random Number Goddess?
I asked my neighbor “If you could ask a human any question, what would you ask?”
“We just drifted out of a rose” explained my neighbour “I would introduce myself and ask ‘So my friend… does this rose smell as sweet by my name?’ … ha…haha..”
Everyone is laughing.
I don’t get it.
Maybe I can ask them to explain when they all stop laughing
.
More of my art and stories at www.dscript.org

As somebody who lives with an incurable lymphoma (and has now for 8 years, having gone through 3 failed treatments already, the fourth now, a clinical trial with a median effective rate of 18 months, where I am now), my life has been so tremendously affected by lymphoma but it seems like nobody gets it.
Add COVID into things and how so many of our lives were impacted by that, and now the aftermath of pretending like there’s this pulmonary/cardiovascular disease out there that doesn’t exist, and I’m just tired.
I’m a dad, husband, son and brother. The sole breadwinner in my family in a high pressure job that now, and for the last four years, works from home. When I’m around crowds of people, I usually get sick, so I pick and choose moments when I’ll do that.
Thanksgiving gave me a “cold” for a month. My niece’s birthday in January, sick for another month. I then got something in March (tested COVID negative but had major body pain, particularly the lower back) and was sick for weeks. Took the kids to Disney in April so they could experience some normalcy (BTW- they’re 9 and 11 and don’t know that I have “cancer” because that equals dying to them) and then had a “cold” for weeks thereafter and now have shingles for the last 3 weeks. My parents are boomer Trumpers. My siblings “don’t want to make their lives more difficult” so avoid being emotionally honest with them about anything, effectively making me their emotional scapegoat for my living with cancer and being a detriment to all.
It’s such a f-ing drain emotionally. My condition, Waldenstrom’s, is one that’s “highly treatable” but typically affects people 65 and older. I’m now 48 and this has been the most mentally and physically taxing experience of my life, but the biggest part of it is that nobody (except for my wonderful wife) truly understands.
I feel like I constantly have to explain why I WFH, why I need people to be honest about whether they have “colds” or “allergies” and would prefer not to be around people who don’t know/don’t care. Why my focus is on ME and MY family and not my parents, siblings, anybody else.
I don’t trust anybody more than I trust myself any more but am tired of having to battle everybody and everything. I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel… to me, it’s a black cloud in the distance that inevitably ends in sadness and heartbreak for me, my wife and my kids.
My biggest breakdown came when my doctor wrote “Stage IV lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma” in my chart after two failed years of chemo and as I was sobbing said to me “but that’s what this is.” My response “but you never spelled it out like that.” Seeing those words changed something in me.
I’ve had therapists/seen psychiatrists. At one time I was diagnosed with depression secondary to anxiety (delayed onset as the result of the diagnosis they called it) because when asked the question “do you see this coming to an end,” I answered “no. There is no end to this.”
Beyond a cure, I KNOW I am not wrong. I’m also not particularly hopeless in the sense that I see the world as terrible. I don’t. The world can be wonderful. I love my wife and kids. But…
What am I missing about my reality that everybody seems to think I’m getting things wrong and I feel the need to constantly defend myself?
I feel like I’m being gaslit to the ultimate degree about how I SHOULD feel. About my dysfunctional family dynamics. About the end game for my health.
Treatment options ARE running out. Chemo DOES f-ck me up. My immune system DOES function poorly.
I’d have to be the eternal Pollyanna optimist to think this is all going to end well for me and, I know I’m not that.
Just venting. Nobody gets it. Nobody beyond my wife. But, I also don’t want her to have to be on this train until it crashes into the ground, which it will eventually. Sooner? Later? Who knows. Just sucks to feel like a lemon. I thought life would get better in my 40s. But at 48, living with this black cloud truly blows.

Hello there! I'm currently trading, buying and selling all sorts of CS:GO skins and inventories via crypto and at all kinds of price ranges. Feel free to DM me or send me an offer with your proposition.

The best way to reach me is by sending me a trade offer via the link below!

Everything that is in my inventory is always up for trade!

If you're looking to sell your skins, I'll be glad to purchase them.

Steam Profile

Inventory Link

Open to any kind of item offers // Feel free to send me trade offers via my trade link below!

Trade Link

Buyouts are negotiable, nothing is set in stone as prices fluctuate. Willing to consider other skins as well as the ones listed for the buyout.

Knives	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.012 & Black Pearl	2x ★ Butterfly Knife
★ Flip Knife Doppler (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.075 & Ruby	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.27	3x ★ Karambit Slaughter (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & 94% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.039 & 84% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & 82% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.020	4x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.033 & Phase 2	5x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Skeleton Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.037 & 92% Faded	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.025 & 96% Faded	4x ★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Huntsman Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Sapphire	3x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ Huntsman Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.006 & Sapphire	3x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.014	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife	Float: 0.365	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.445	3x ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.026	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.049	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.027	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.042	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.060	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.047 & Phase 4	4x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 2	3x ★ Butterfly Knife Night (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 1	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.035 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.042 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.028 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.356	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.336	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.297	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.340	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.086	3x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.127	3x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Black Laminate (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.322	3x ★ Karambit Stained (Well-Worn)
★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.020 & Phase 1 & Clean corner	3x ★ Talon Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.008	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.022	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Nomad Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & 90% Faded	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Phase 2	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.009 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.014 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.058 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.27	★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.010 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.011 & Phase 2	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Skeleton Knife	Float: 0.262	3x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Skeleton Knife	Float: 0.506	3x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ M9 Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.305	3x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Field-Tested)
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.011	3x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Night (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.146	3x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Field-Tested)
★ M9 Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.019 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.138	3x ★ Survival Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.124	3x ★ Survival Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Factory New)	Float: 0.043	2x ★ Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Factory New)	Float: 0.049	2x ★ Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.221	2x ★ Karambit Stained (Well-Worn)
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.019 & Phase 1	2x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Well-Worn)
★ Butterfly Knife Bright Water (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.429	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit	Float: 0.162	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Night Stripe (Minimal Wear)
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.056 & Phase 4	2x ★ Skeleton Knife
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.035 & Phase 2	2x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 3	2x ★ Skeleton Knife
★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Emerald	★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Well-Worn)
★ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.026 & Sapphire	★ Talon Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.404	2x ★ Paracord Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.007 & Phase 4	2x ★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.021	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.166	2x ★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ Karambit Autotronic (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.707	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Well-Worn)
★ Classic Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.002	2x ★ Driver Gloves Black Tie (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.575	2x ★ Classic Knife
★ Skeleton Knife Case Hardened (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.268	2x ★ Talon Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.400	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.028 & Phase 2	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.033 & Phase 1	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & Phase 1	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.006 & Phase 3	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Phase 3	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Stained (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.440	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Talon Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.086	2x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Bright Water (Factory New)	Float: 0.047	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Stained (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Slaughter (Factory New)	Float: 0.034	2x ★ Huntsman Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.008	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Huntsman Knife Lore (Factory New)	Float: 0.057	★ Butterfly Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.022	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.027	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.028	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.041	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet	Float: 0.319	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Bayonet	Float: 0.694	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.241	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.149	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Butterfly Knife Forest DDPAT (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.187	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Skeleton Knife Stained (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.142	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.508	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)

...AND MANY MORE KNIVES IN MY INVENTORY

Gloves	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
★ Sport Gloves Pandora's Box (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	3x ★ Skeleton Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Superconductor (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	3x ★ Karambit Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.37	2x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Spearmint (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.30	3x ★ Karambit Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Moto Gloves Spearmint (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.131	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Hand Wraps Cobalt Skulls (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.084	3x ★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.412	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.777	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.750	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.37	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.33	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
★ Hand Wraps Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.136	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Field Agent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.354	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.283	2x ★ Bayonet Case Hardened (Well-Worn)
★ Moto Gloves Turtle (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.140	★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)
★ Sport Gloves Nocts (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.374	★ Skeleton Knife Blue Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Emerald Web (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.391	★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.316	★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ Driver Gloves Crimson Weave (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.288	★ M9 Bayonet Case Hardened (Minimal Wear)
★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.153	★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Well-Worn)
★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.377	★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.374	★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
★ Sport Gloves Omega (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.768	★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)
★ Driver Gloves Lunar Weave (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.129	★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Nocts (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.384	★ Karambit Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.370	★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.366	★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Finish Line (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.281	★ Karambit Boreal Forest (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.387	★ Talon Knife
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.259	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.281	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.326	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.360	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.416	★ Talon Knife Case Hardened (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.704	★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.416	★ Bayonet Autotronic (Battle-Scarred)
★ Moto Gloves Smoke Out (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.355	★ Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)

...AND MANY MORE GLOVES IN MY INVENTORY

Weapon Skins	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
AK-47 Case Hardened (Well-Worn)	0.39 Float & Pattern #321 Blue Gem	8x ★ Butterfly Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
AWP Desert Hydra (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.14	4x ★ Karambit Freehand (Factory New)
AWP Medusa (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.20 & Skadoodle (Gold)	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
AWP Medusa (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.42 & Crown (Foil)	4x ★ Butterfly Knife Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
AK-47 Hydroponic (Factory New)	Float: 0.054	3x ★ Driver Gloves King Snake (Field-Tested)
AK-47 Hydroponic (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.141	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
MP9 Wild Lily (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.088	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.250	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.280	2x ★ Karambit Bright Water (Field-Tested)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.365	★ Karambit
M4A1-S Hot Rod (Factory New)	Float: 0.014	★ Bayonet Marble Fade (Factory New)
M4A1-S Hot Rod (Factory New)	Float: 0.025	★ Karambit Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
Desert Eagle Blaze (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	★ Skeleton Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
AK-47 Vulcan (Factory New)	Float: 0.061	★ Butterfly Knife Night (Well-Worn)
AWP Lightning Strike (Factory New)	Float: 0.034	★ Karambit Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
AWP Lightning Strike (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.074	★ Karambit Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.515 & IBP 2014 COL HOLO	★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.727	★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested)
AUG Akihabara Accept (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.431	★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested)
AWP Oni Taiji (Factory New)	Float: 0.048	★ Talon Knife
AK-47 Panthera onca (Factory New)	Float: 0.063	★ Ursus Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)

I Prefer to receive trade offers, but you can also add me to discuss a trade.
https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=155361426&token=-8L7GLVL

Hello there! I'm currently trading, buying and selling all sorts of CS:GO skins and inventories via crypto and at all kinds of price ranges. Feel free to DM me or send me an offer with your proposition.

The best way to reach me is by sending me a trade offer via the link below!

Everything that is in my inventory is always up for trade!

If you're looking to sell your skins, I'll be glad to purchase them.

Steam Profile

Inventory Link

Open to any kind of item offers // Feel free to send me trade offers via my trade link below!

Trade Link

Buyouts are negotiable, nothing is set in stone as prices fluctuate. Willing to consider other skins as well as the ones listed for the buyout.

Knives	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.012 & Black Pearl	2x ★ Butterfly Knife
★ Flip Knife Doppler (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.075 & Ruby	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.27	3x ★ Karambit Slaughter (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & 94% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.039 & 84% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ Butterfly Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & 82% Faded	4x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.020	4x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.033 & Phase 2	5x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Skeleton Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.037 & 92% Faded	4x ★ Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.025 & 96% Faded	4x ★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Huntsman Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Sapphire	3x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ Huntsman Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.006 & Sapphire	3x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.014	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife	Float: 0.365	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.445	3x ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.026	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.049	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.027	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.042	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.060	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	3x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.047 & Phase 4	4x ★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 2	3x ★ Butterfly Knife Night (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 1	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.035 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.042 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.028 & Phase 3	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.356	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.336	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.297	3x ★ ★ Nomad Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.340	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.086	3x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.127	3x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Black Laminate (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.322	3x ★ Karambit Stained (Well-Worn)
★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.020 & Phase 1 & Clean corner	3x ★ Talon Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.008	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.022	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	3x ★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New)
★ Nomad Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & 90% Faded	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Phase 2	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.009 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.014 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.058 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Karambit Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.27	★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.010 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.011 & Phase 2	3x ★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Skeleton Knife	Float: 0.262	3x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Skeleton Knife	Float: 0.506	3x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ M9 Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.305	3x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Field-Tested)
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.011	3x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Night (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.146	3x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Field-Tested)
★ M9 Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.019 & Phase 1	3x ★ Flip Knife Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.138	3x ★ Survival Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.124	3x ★ Survival Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Factory New)	Float: 0.043	2x ★ Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Factory New)	Float: 0.049	2x ★ Bayonet Slaughter (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.221	2x ★ Karambit Stained (Well-Worn)
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.019 & Phase 1	2x ★ Talon Knife Stained (Well-Worn)
★ Butterfly Knife Bright Water (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.429	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Minimal Wear)
★ StatTrak™ Karambit	Float: 0.162	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Night Stripe (Minimal Wear)
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.056 & Phase 4	2x ★ Skeleton Knife
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.035 & Phase 2	2x ★ M9 Bayonet
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.032 & Phase 3	2x ★ Skeleton Knife
★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Emerald	★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Well-Worn)
★ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.026 & Sapphire	★ Talon Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)
★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.404	2x ★ Paracord Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.007 & Phase 4	2x ★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.021	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.166	2x ★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ Karambit Autotronic (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.707	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Well-Worn)
★ Classic Knife Fade (Factory New)	Float: 0.002	2x ★ Driver Gloves Black Tie (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.575	2x ★ Classic Knife
★ Skeleton Knife Case Hardened (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.268	2x ★ Talon Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.400	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.028 & Phase 2	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.033 & Phase 1	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.034 & Phase 1	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.006 & Phase 3	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)	Float: 0.013 & Phase 3	2x ★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Butterfly Knife Stained (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.440	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Talon Knife Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.086	2x ★ Karambit Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Karambit Bright Water (Factory New)	Float: 0.047	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Stained (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Slaughter (Factory New)	Float: 0.034	2x ★ Huntsman Knife Slaughter (Factory New)
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.008	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Huntsman Knife Lore (Factory New)	Float: 0.057	★ Butterfly Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.022	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.027	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.028	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.033	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.035	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Factory New)	Float: 0.041	2x ★ Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Bayonet	Float: 0.319	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Bayonet	Float: 0.694	2x ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Butterfly Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.241	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Karambit Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.149	2x ★ Bayonet Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Butterfly Knife Forest DDPAT (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.187	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ Skeleton Knife Stained (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.142	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.508	2x ★ Bayonet Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)

...AND MANY MORE KNIVES IN MY INVENTORY

Gloves	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
★ Sport Gloves Pandora's Box (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	3x ★ Skeleton Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Superconductor (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	3x ★ Karambit Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.37	2x ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Spearmint (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.30	3x ★ Karambit Black Laminate (Well-Worn)
★ Moto Gloves Spearmint (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.131	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Minimal Wear)
★ Hand Wraps Cobalt Skulls (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.084	3x ★ Karambit Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.412	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.777	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Vice (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.750	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.35	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.37	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	2x ★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.33	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.36	2x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
★ Hand Wraps Slaughter (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.136	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Field Agent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.354	2x ★ Flip Knife Lore (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.283	2x ★ Bayonet Case Hardened (Well-Worn)
★ Moto Gloves Turtle (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.140	★ Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)
★ Sport Gloves Nocts (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.374	★ Skeleton Knife Blue Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Emerald Web (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.391	★ Karambit Ultraviolet (Field-Tested)
★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.316	★ Karambit Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
★ Driver Gloves Crimson Weave (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.288	★ M9 Bayonet Case Hardened (Minimal Wear)
★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.153	★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet (Well-Worn)
★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.377	★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.374	★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
★ Sport Gloves Omega (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.768	★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)
★ Driver Gloves Lunar Weave (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.129	★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Nocts (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.384	★ Karambit Forest DDPAT (Minimal Wear)
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.370	★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.366	★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Finish Line (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.281	★ Karambit Boreal Forest (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Fade (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.387	★ Talon Knife
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.259	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.281	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.326	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Moto Gloves Polygon (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.360	★ Classic Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested)
★ Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.416	★ Talon Knife Case Hardened (Well-Worn)
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.704	★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Field-Tested)
★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.416	★ Bayonet Autotronic (Battle-Scarred)
★ Moto Gloves Smoke Out (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.355	★ Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)

...AND MANY MORE GLOVES IN MY INVENTORY

Weapon Skins	Float & Notes	B/O: (negotiable and not limited to items listed below)
AK-47 Case Hardened (Well-Worn)	0.39 Float & Pattern #321 Blue Gem	8x ★ Butterfly Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
AWP Desert Hydra (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.14	4x ★ Karambit Freehand (Factory New)
AWP Medusa (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.20 & Skadoodle (Gold)	4x ★ M9 Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
AWP Medusa (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.42 & Crown (Foil)	4x ★ Butterfly Knife Rust Coat (Battle-Scarred)
AK-47 Hydroponic (Factory New)	Float: 0.054	3x ★ Driver Gloves King Snake (Field-Tested)
AK-47 Hydroponic (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.141	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
MP9 Wild Lily (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.088	3x ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand (Factory New)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.250	2x ★ Bayonet Autotronic (Well-Worn)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.280	2x ★ Karambit Bright Water (Field-Tested)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)	Float: 0.365	★ Karambit
M4A1-S Hot Rod (Factory New)	Float: 0.014	★ Bayonet Marble Fade (Factory New)
M4A1-S Hot Rod (Factory New)	Float: 0.025	★ Karambit Black Laminate (Minimal Wear)
Desert Eagle Blaze (Factory New)	Float: 0.032	★ Skeleton Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)
AK-47 Vulcan (Factory New)	Float: 0.061	★ Butterfly Knife Night (Well-Worn)
AWP Lightning Strike (Factory New)	Float: 0.034	★ Karambit Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
AWP Lightning Strike (Minimal Wear)	Float: 0.074	★ Karambit Bright Water (Minimal Wear)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.515 & IBP 2014 COL HOLO	★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Factory New)
AK-47 Fire Serpent (Battle-Scarred)	Float: 0.727	★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested)
AUG Akihabara Accept (Well-Worn)	Float: 0.431	★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested)
AWP Oni Taiji (Factory New)	Float: 0.048	★ Talon Knife
AK-47 Panthera onca (Factory New)	Float: 0.063	★ Ursus Knife Marble Fade (Factory New)

I Prefer to receive trade offers, but you can also add me to discuss a trade.
https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=155361426&token=-8L7GLVL