——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
PROOF: https://imgur.com/a/K4dLSCz
🔒 2FA enabled! 🔒 Proof pics will always have my custom -CRH- bar & I can always send video proof if requested. Stay Safe!!
More pics and vids below / non Coins on Pmsforsale
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
US COINS: https://imgur.com/a/Ma4RViB
• 1884 CC Morgan PCGS MS63PL CAC - 500
• 1888 S Morgan PCGS AU58 (under graded imo) - 375
• 1919 Mercury Dime PCGS AU58 (clearly FB but not designated) - 70
• 10fv 90% Washington Proof Quarters (all BU 1955-64 / no 56) - SOLD
• 1878 S Trade Dollar (artificial toning / altered surfaces) - 175
• 1878 S Morgan Dollar BU - 100
• 1891 Morgan Dollar BU - 150
• 1924 Peace Dollar BU - 35
• 1893 Columbian Half Dollar BU (monster toner) - SOLD
• 1963 Franklin Proof Half Dollar (pink / blue toning) - 30
• 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar BU (monster toner) - 30
• 1968, 1969 & 1970 Unc Mint sets w/ 40% halves (low mintage 1970D 50c) - SOLD
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
WORLD COINS: https://imgur.com/a/UzLHK7e
• 1945 D Philippines 20C PCGS MS66 (beautiful toning) - 80
• 1944 S Philippines 50C - 12ea (3)
• 1915 Cuba 40C - 20ea (2)
• 1967 80% Canadian Dollar - 17
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
NOTES: https://imgur.com/a/ypXIHZK
• 1899 $1 Silver Cert “Black Eagle” w/ case - 180
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
Everything Priced to Move! Make me an offer, never hurts to ask! NO trades!
Payment: Zelle / Venmo ONLY - NO notes on payment! 🍕pls!
Shipping: 5 Ground / 10 Priority - CONUS ONLY! Insurance extra at your request
Reply here, then send chat
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———

——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
Kitco ask at time of post: Silver 30.49
PROOF: https://imgur.com/a/K4dLSCz
🔒 2FA enabled! 🔒 Proof pics will always have my custom -CRH- bar & I can always send video proof if requested. Stay Safe!!
More pics and vids below / non PM on Coinsales
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
999 SILVER: https://imgur.com/a/CR4elaS
• 10oz Fleur de Lis Bullion bar - SOLD
• 3oz Vintage Omega M&B Mining bar - 200
• 3oz Nevada Coin Mart bar (MH on back) - 180
• 3oz Nevada Coin Mart bar (unmarked) - 100
• 1oz Vintage Extruded 99 bar (1980s / unknown maker) - 70
• 1oz 1973 Foster Inc Silver Eagle bar (beautiful toning) - 60
• 1oz Johnson Matthey Republic Nation Bank of New York bar (<10k) - 55
• 1oz World Wide Mint American Eagle bar - 40
• 1oz Heraeus Jumbo Jet Boeing 747 bar (mint sealed) - 40
• 1oz SilverTowne New Athena Owl round w/ leather pouch - 40
• 1oz Scottsdale “The One” bars (mint sealed) - 33ea (7)
• 1oz 2023 American Liberty Medal w/ misprinted CoA - 80
• 1oz 2024 W ASE Proof w/ ogp - SOLD
• 1oz 2024 US Liberty/Britannia Medal - 100
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
US COINS: https://imgur.com/a/Ma4RViB
• 1884 CC Morgan PCGS MS63PL CAC - 500
• 1888 S Morgan PCGS AU58 (under graded imo) - 375
• 1919 Mercury Dime PCGS AU58 (clearly FB but not designated) - 70
• 10fv 90% Washington Proof Quarters (all BU 1955-64 / no 56) - SOLD
• 1878 S Trade Dollar (artificial toning / altered surfaces) - 175
• 1878 S Morgan Dollar BU - 100
• 1891 Morgan Dollar BU - 150
• 1924 Peace Dollar BU - 35
• 1893 Columbian Half Dollar BU (monster toner) - SOLD
• 1963 Franklin Proof Half Dollar (pink / blue toning) - 30
• 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar BU (monster toner) - 30
• 1968, 1969 & 1970 Unc Mint sets w/ 40% halves (low mintage 1970D 50c) - SOLD
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
WORLD COINS: https://imgur.com/a/UzLHK7e
• 1945 D Philippines 20C PCGS MS66 (beautiful toning) - 80
• 1944 S Philippines 50C - 12ea (3)
• 1915 Cuba 40C - 20ea (2)
• 1967 80% Canadian Dollar - 17
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
COOPER: https://imgur.com/a/dPHlizK
• 13oz+ Lot - 10oz Geiger bar sealed / 3 1oz Rounds / 5 Asian dragon coins - SOLD
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
Everything Priced to Move! Make me an offer, never hurts to ask! NO trades!
Payment: Zelle / Venmo ONLY - NO notes on payment! 🍕pls!
Shipping: 5 Ground / 10 Priority - CONUS ONLY! Insurance extra at your request
Reply here, then send chat
——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———

The one thing missing in every budgeting application is the "Spending Commitment".
Definition: "A thing I am already committed to paying for"
This concept a fundamental part of any budgeting system. Why?
Let’s back up. Why does one create a budget in the first place? I have thought hard to distill a clear answer for this. Here it is.

A good budget must answer:

1. Is my lifestyle sustainable?
2. Should I buy this thing in front of me right now?

To answer the first question, I absolutely need to know how much money I’ve already committed to spending. These are all those repeating payments I have. This total will tell me if my lifestyle is sustainable. If it is not, I will need to make dramatic changes like move, get a cheaper car, or add a side job.
To answer the second question, I need need to know how much cash is not already committed. To get this number, I take my income and subtract the committed spending. This is my "free cash". Can I buy this thing in front of me right now? If I have the free cash to spend, yes, otherwise no.
In so many budgeting apps, this information is not prominently displayed.
Take the classic bar chart of how much I've spent each month. This was my go-to chart in Mint for years. Since my committed and free spending are not separated, even if I was the most frugal I've ever been during one month, a single large yearly expense would make it appear that I overspent. The data is polluted. I would need to make an extra effort to see if I actually overspent or not. Maybe you've felt this pain too. We need to clearly separate the things we can control month-to-month (free spending) from the things we can't (committed spending).
A chart that only shows me how much free cash I've spent each month would be so much more helpful. It would compare apples to apples. If the bar is high one month, it actually meant that I went crazy with the credit card.
This separation of committed spending and free spending is so helpful for understanding your personal finances, I'm surprised it's not built in to most budgeting apps.

My wife and I just returned from our 12 day adventure and I woke up at 4:00am with jet lag so perfect time for a report!
Day One
We landed in Dublin and got to our hotel around 2:00 after an overnight flight from California, so we were feeling pretty wrecked, but forced ourselves out to the National Archeology Museum. The gold collection and the bog bodies were incredible. Went back for a nap before venturing out again. Checked out a cool bookstore called Hodges Figis, walked down Grafton and got dinner at Nearys pub. Got a pint at a cool pub/hardware store nearby before calling it a night.
Day Two
Tour of Kilmainham in the morning. This was definitely one of the highlights of our Dublin trip. Tickets sell out immediately when they get released so don’t sleep on it! Checked out Marsh’s Library, a preserved library from the 1700s, and we were going to tour Teelings but we were both too tired, so we walked through St Stephen’s Green on the way back to our hotel. Dinner at Trocadero, based on someone’s recommendation in this sub, and we loved it! Been around since 1957 and it had a great old school steakhouse vibe. We went to an awesome packed show at Workman’s Club and closed out the night at The George.
Day Three
Picked up our car at the airport and time to head to Strandhill. Everyone is right, two days in Dublin definitely felt like enough. We were going to stop at Trim Castle on the way but we were feeling tired and adjusting to driving so we just drove straight there. Stayed at the Strandhill Lodge and it was so nice! We had a room with a balcony overlooking the ocean, and we spent a lot time just relaxing and reading on the deck. Walked down to the beach before getting dinner at The Strand Bar- fantastic food and a cozy fire.
Day Four
Went to Carrowmore Megalithic cemetery and I was shocked at how uncrowded it was! Felt like we had the whole place to ourselves which was an amazing experience. In the afternoon we went to the Voya Seaweed Baths and it was a highlight of the trip for sure! We got their ocean view room with two baths and a steam room, and it was such a special, relaxing experience. Walked around town for a little bit before we went to the barestaurant next to our hotel to read our books. Decided to stay for dinner and we had amazing seafood. All the seafood in Ireland was truly incredible! Went to Brees Bar after dinner for some local music and a few pints.
Day Five
We loved Voya so much we booked massages for the morning and had another wonderful, relaxing experience. We then drove to Parkes Castle on Lough Gill. There was only one other couple there, so we got to explore basically all on our own. Interesting history in a beautiful place. Next stop was Glencar Waterfall and a quick cup of tea to warm up before doing the Benbulben Forest Walk. Someone on this sub recommended this hike and I’m so glad they did! The scenery was spectacular, only ran into a handful of people, and the end of the walk went by an old ring fort that was such a cool surprise. Drove back to Strandhill before having dinner at Stoked, a neat little tapas place on the beach.
Day Six
We were so sad to leave Strandhill, so we got teas and sausage rolls and watched the surfers for a bit before doing the Killaspugbrone Church walk. A lovely walk through the sand dunes that ends at the ruins of a 12th century church. Afterwards it was off to Connemara! We got to Kylemore Abbey around 4:00 and it was pouring rain, which definitely dampened the experience but lessened the crowds. Cool to see, and I’m sure would’ve been more enjoyable with better weather, but I think I would have felt a bit let down if we’d gone way out of our way to visit. Afterwards we made it to Ballynahinch Castle (our splurge accommodation for the trip) and had an amazing four course dinner overlooking the river at the Owenmore restaurant (another splurge). Closed the night with live music in the pub and great conversation.
Day Seven
Took a tour of DK Connemara Oyster farm. Great tour that ends with an oyster tasting, would definitely recommend. Next up we did the Diamond Hill hike (just the lower loop), a bit crowded, but the views could not be beat. Started getting rained on pretty hard so we went to Veldons for seafood chowder (best I had on the trip) and watched the Dublin/Galway hurling match. Weather was still pretty bad so we went back to Ballynahinch and read our books by the fire and drank Irish coffees. After dinner the weather cleared up so we explored the grounds, it’s a beautiful estate with miles of trails.
Day Eight
Drove to Ashford Castle for a hawk walk. This was SO COOL. Cannot recommend enough. Our guide was so nice and knowledgeable and we even got to fly their Eurasian Eagle Owl at the end as a bonus. Walked into Cong and explored the abbey and the monks fishing hut, before coming back to Ashford for afternoon tea (LUX and we definitely felt underdressed, but the food was amazing). Headed back to Ballynahinch and had a relaxing night with room service. It probably would have logistically been a bit easier to stay the night in Galway, but we’re not fans of constantly changing hotels.
Day Nine
On the road to the Burren! Stopped at Corcomroe Abbey, before getting lunch at Monks Ballyvaughn. The seafood really was amazing on the west coast. Next up Poulnabrone Dolmen and the Burren Perfumery. They do tours of the perfumery and I was sad we were too late to go on one, but we bought some great gifts and walked around their gardens. I loved The Burren. It’s such an otherworldly environment with a rich ecology. I wish we’d had more time to go on a hike. We got to our hotel in Miltown Malbay and it was… not so great. More like a hostel and our room was on the ground floor, right on the sidewalk. Then we had a weird night in town. I’d hoped there would be music but the town was DEAD and then we got hassled by this dude in the pub. Got turned away from the one restaurant in town that was open. During the weekend I’m sure it’s much better, but it was a miss during the week.
Day Ten
Our plan had been to go to the Aran Islands on this day but the weather was looking super windy, so (especially after being disappointed the night before) we decided to pivot our plans and found a last minute hotel in Kilkee. Before we left we did the hike from Hags Head to the southern view of the Cliffs of Moher and WOW. Hiking from Hags Head was way less crowded, and I would definitely recommend. Some of the wind gust were intense and a little scary when you’re on a cliff edge, but we were lucky the sun was out and it was a great hike. Drove south and did the loop head drive, saw the lighthouse and the Bridge of Ross. Beautiful area, and one of the locals mentioned that they keep the big tour buses out to try to limit the crowds. Checked into our new hotel in Kilkee and were so glad we moved. It was right on the beach and Kilkee is a really fun old Victorian resort village. Had a fun night out and met some awesome people.
Day Eleven
Since we skipped the Aran islands we decided to do a day tour of Scattery Island. Picked up sandwiches from the deli and headed to Kilrush to pick up the ferry. It was a short 20 minute trip, but a bit cold because you’re completely exposed and I kept getting hit by sea spray. The first hour on the island there is a guided tour of the monastic sites. This was interesting and gave a very full history of the island and its previous inhabitants (last residents left in 1978). There were also wildlife rangers that gave a presentation on the Hen Harriers and helped point them out. We then had 90 minutes to explore the island on our own. We enjoyed our picnic before walking over to the lighthouse and the Napoleonic battery. There were only about 20 people on the island with us, so it felt super uncrowded and relaxed. Had a chill last night in Kilkee with more good food and good conversation.
Day Twelve
By this point of the trip I thought we would be completely wrecked and ready to go home, but we did not want to leave the west coast! Before heading back to Dublin we did the Kilkee cliff walk, gorgeous and uncrowded, and then got one last sausage roll for the road. Dropped off the car at the airport, and checked into our hotel in Smithfield. This was a great area for our last night, less crowded than our first Dublin hotel in the city centre. We did the Jameson tour and tasting and then got dinner at Fish Shop (amazing wine list). We wanted to go to the Cobblestone for trad music, but the crowd was spilling into the street, so we hit up a few local bars and met Rocco the parrot who we’ve been told is a staple of the Dublin bar scene.
Final Thoughts
Everyone we met was so nice! We were told Irish people were kind, but everyone we met was truly so hospitable, helpful and friendly. We had no problems talking to people and made new friends all along the way.
Definitely pick hotels that include breakfast. They were always great with lots of options.
Strandhill and Sligo was our favorite area. It didn’t feel crowded, the sights were beautiful, the seaweed bath was incredible and everyone we met was so nice.
Seafood chowder in pubs is perfect lunch. Usually was only 8-9 euros, filling, fresh and delicious.
Get out of Dublin as soon as possible!
We kept our driving times in between places to a max of 3.5 hours and that felt fine, but only because we stayed 3 nights in each place. All in all though driving didn’t feel too bad, but that might be because we’re used to twisty, narrow costal California roads.
We can’t wait to come back. Thank you to everyone for your tips!

Waldo could feel the tension in his body. He hated breaches. He used to be a general in the armada. Waldo had not figured out exactly what happened but in a few weeks leadership had changed all across the galaxy. Waldo had sensed something was different and Waldo had changed his identity adding himself to a low level unit while he tried to figure out what had caused the change. However, his contracts slowly disappeared and he was having a hard time cultivating new ones. Waldo had heard the name Bastion a lot in the changeover and Jonah seemed to have fallen off his radar, which Waldo found very distressing. So now he was just a lower level grunt Waldo had to follow orders and keep his identity hidden. That meant he saw lots of action thus why he was on a breaching team. All the prep in the world never made him feel safe on a breach and they had no prep time for this one. Toby slammed the charge on the handle of the Iron door and deftly ran the blasting cord around the frame, in a single smooth motion. Waldo felt Juan tense in front of him as they prepped for entry after the blast. Waldo would be second in on this one having lost the coin toss. Not that he really minded due to the lack of information. Juan would be going right, Waldo had the left, and Brett would be going down the middle. Juan, Waldo, or Brett always led the breaching team; they were their units cowboys. At least, that is what they called themselves. Their lieutenant Frank called them his lovely ladies but everyone was a girl to Frank. Waldo didn’t care about it, Brett would get angry with Frank out of combat, and Juan only ever laughed over it. Waldo was pretty sure Brett was putting up a show as he had caught Brett offering to be a bottom to a guy at a bar three months ago, which had led to him swearing secrecy over it. Waldo found himself smiling as Frank started into it.
“Lovely ladies, Juanita, Betty, and Wilma. Tina is spreading her legs in three.” Frank said loud enough for the breaching team to hear as he raised his hand holding up three fingers starting a countdown to Waldo’s 4th breach of the day. As the door blasted in they moved smoothly forward like a well rehearsed dance. Juan moved through the door into a hallway with Waldo close on his tail. Waldo saw it a second too late as Juan had completely missed the tripwire. Waldo grabbed Juan a hair too slow as Juan’s foot hit the wire tripping whatever the trap was. Waldo felt the magic in the blast before he heard the tremendous roar. Waldo felt himself pushed back by Juan while trying to pull him. Waldo felt certain he had Juan’s pack firmly gripped as he fell back. Suddenly, there was nothing in his hands. The air felt cool and instead of the hot sun beating down he felt a warm glow off to his left.
Waldo rolled to his feet and spun, assessing the room, but everything was wrong. He had lifted his rifle up to sight as he spun but it was missing so instead in the middle of the spin he drew his side arm. However, as he finished his spin his arm fell loosely to his side. Waldo stood in the middle of three empty round tables. In what, he would call the common room of a themed bar or restaurant. He saw humanoid creatures standing near a long wooden bar with 4 patrons seated at it and another dozen or so scattered around the room with more on the two levels above him. Off to the side of a warm glow that Waldo realized there was a fireplace with a fire happily burning in it and there was a stage. Waldo would have loved to hear the music from the group on stage with their odd assortment of instruments but it was at this moment Waldo realized the blast had deafened him. Waldo felt certain no one would attack him, having noticed an odd assortment of humanoids. Waldo saw gnolls, tabaxi, and maybe lizardperson. Waldo holstered his side arm but in looking down he noticed a growing pool of blood at his feet and saw a piece of rebar sticking out of his arm. Waldo saw the enchantments engraved in the rebar and part of him said magic wasn’t real then something else said that humans were the only intelligent race. Waldo pushed those back knowing better. He had seen lots of races and humans were just one of them. Waldo felt more than one voice trying to take control and he pushed back, calming his mind. Waldo attempted to quiet his mind as he was flooded with memories and thoughts he did not recognize as he pushed against them he felt someone or something help him in quieting his mind.
Waldo had not noticed the pain of his injury because of how much adrenaline was pumping through him. Waldo examined the rebar seeing the blood running down his arm. Waldo estimated he had ten minutes before blood loss would start to impact him if it did not clot on its own. Waldo glanced around the room seeing a few gnolls who had noticed him but no one seemed to care and decided he could care for the wound. Waldo grabbed the quick releases on his backpacks shoulder straps letting his bag fall onto a table he positioned behind him. Waldo quickly turned to face the bag and flipped it over so he could easily access it. Waldo grabbed a strap on the pack and deftly released it. Wrapping the loose strap above where the rebar was sticking out of his arm. Waldo smoothly grabbed his folding knife, flicking it open and cutting the sleeve away. Waldo placed the sleeve on the table and checked to see if it was all there or a piece was missing. Waldo grimace realizing a piece of sleeve is probably in his muscle. Waldo flicked the knife closed and placed it next to the sleeve. Waldo pulled out a bottle of water, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, a healing tonic, and a sealed bandage for once it was clean. Waldo was so focused on what he was doing at the table he had not noticed the small group that had gathered behind him.
“I don’t think he can hear us.” Strisk, a large drake, said, preparing to tap the strange human’s shoulder to get his attention.
“Really, Strisk. You don’t think the guy bleeding on the floor that I shouted at can hear us?” Lydia, the only human in the commons, asked angrily, placing her hands on her hips.
“I think he is going to pull that piece of metal out of his arm.” Kna, the gnollish innkeeper and owner of the establishment, said surprised. Watching Waldo’s back tense as he stretched his arm out to the table. Grabbing the rebar in his other hand.
“Sir! Don’t!” Lydia screamed as Waldo ripped the 4 inch piece of rebar stuck halfway in his arm out.
“Fuck!” Waldo yelled as the piece of metal came free. Waldo looked it over for cloth finding a small piece that he carefully removed from the end of the rebar and placed in the hole of the sleeve and frowning seeing there was still more. Waldo screamed as the onlookers watched him shove his fingers into the hole in skin.
“Strisk, help me stop him.” Lydia said. Grabbing Waldo’s arm. Strisk hesitated. A moment before grabbing Waldo’s other arm.
"Stop! There is more fabric in my arm!” Waldo screamed as the two strangers forced his arms apart. Waldo looked at the sleeve. Unsure if they could even understand him. The strangers released Waldo as he attacked the problem again.
“Aer, go get me water. I will clean this up once he is done” Lydia said, to a gnoll barmaid nearby, deciding to stay next to this stranger.
“I’ll get the mop and some rags to help.” Kna said not wanting to watch anymore and stepping away.
Waldo pulled out a piece of fabric and placed it in the sleeve. Smiling now that he could account for all of the sleeve. Waldo grabbed the water bottle using his teeth to remove the lid and poured it down his arm. Followed by the rubbing alcohol to which he could not help but scream again as it burned.
“That looks bad.” Strisk said, fingering a potion at his hip. Seeing Waldo was prepared to heal the slow way. Strisk was trying to decide whether or not to help the stranger out by giving him the healing potion he carried as a city guard.
Waldo was looking at the hole in his arm knowing it would take time to heal even with the help of the tonic. He estimated it would be a day or two. Waldo looked back at the lizard person standing behind him in armor. Waldo grimaced as he drank the healing tonic. Waldo looked at the only human girl in the commons. Waldo instantly recognized her but could see she did not recognize him. Waldo hated this feeling but took his time looking over her sandy blonde hair and the gentle curves of her face. Waldo let his eyes wander across her chest and down her legs to the floor even though there was not much to see since she wore a high neck dress that was rather plain. Waldo expected she worked here and was not one to take crap from the patrons. However, Waldo knew her face and her shape as just as he remembered her, he did not need her clothes off to tell this. Waldo turned back to the table and opened the bandage and applied it to his arm. “He took his time looking you over.” Strisk said, eying Lydia himself.
“At least, he seems to know not to touch.” Lydia said, without looking at Strisk. She had been rebuffing advances from him and other drakes like him since she took the job. She hated the drakes, which was not unreasonable as they had burned her home to the ground, killed her parents, her betrothed, and enslaved her for five years. Lydia had fled to the nearest city not under drake control once she was freed. Lydia knew that not all drakes are slavers but getting over somethings are easier than others.
“Do you think he can hear us?” Strisk asked, ignoring the jab not wanting to be thrown out by Kna again. Strisk still was fingering the healing potion not having decided on whether or not to offer it. The human seemed to be taking things to remedy his condition. Strisk stood over the two humans by about a foot when he extended to his full height at the moment he was hunched down a bit so he did not tower over them. Strisk thought he looked good this evening having cared for his bronze scales before coming to Kna’s inn. Waldo rolled up the sleeve and piece of rebar and placed it in his pack then pulled out a healing tonic with a dropper on it and a tin a bit larger than his hand slipping the tin into a pocket. Waldo used the dropper to put a few drops of his second healing tonic down each of his ears. Waldo knew it would take a minute for the tonic to kick in and heal enough damage to restore hearing. Waldo returned the spare tonic to the pack and turned around letting his eyes meet Lydia’s. Waldo thought he saw her eyeing him and she had a small smile on her face as their eyes met. Her face made various emotions flare inside him and it had to focus to stay in control feeling a bit like someone else was trying to take control. Waldo felt his hearing return as the sounds of the room washed over him.
“Hello.” Waldo said, smiling at the woman ignoring the large lizardperson or dragonkin. Waldo could not really tell but he knew getting it wrong would probably offend them.
“Hey, I am guardsmen Strisk.” Strisk said. Waldo glanced at the drake and then looked back at the woman. She crossed her arms and her smile turned to a frown. Waldo could not help but think crossing her arms only accentuated a certain feminine feature of her form.
“Any chance I could get your name?” Waldo asked, meeting the woman’s eyes.
“Lydia. Why are you bleeding on our floor and where did you come from?” Lydia asked, feeling her pulse raise with the way he was looking at her. Lydia had not been in the presence of a human male for ten years. Lydia had not been avoiding them there just weren’t many humans in the city she had fled to and she would not risk going back to drake territory as much as part of her wanted certain things, saving up to get off his continent had been her focus. Human also from what she had seen human men did not survive long under the abuse the drakes applied to there slaves in the nearby Xalas empire. “I am Waldo Winter.” Waldo introduced himself looking at Lydia. “As for why I am bleeding, I think it was an explosion of some kind. The shockwave knocked out my hearing. I am from Halcyon. I was in an outlying district at the time of the explosion and the wood in this room tells me I am not there anymore.” Waldo stated calmly.
“So you entered Protham via an unauthorized teleport?” Strisk asked, trying to sound official.
“One I did not initialize or agree to but yes. Are you going to arrest me?” Waldo asked.
“I will have to report it. I will let someone else decide if you should be arrested. Assuming you don’t cause additional trouble.” Strisk said.
“It is an honour to make your acquaintance Strisk. Thank you for not arresting me.” Waldo said, giving Strisk a smile before turning back to Lydia.
“Why were you caught in an explosion?” Strisk asked the strange human, smiling back at him since he was being respectful.
“Well that is a little difficult. I was entering a suspected criminal's residence just before finding myself standing in this lovely room.” Waldo said deciding to omit details since it would be simpler than explaining. “There was an explosion of some kind and then I was here. I have to assume the hunk of metal hit me before I appeared here somehow.”
“Sounds like a teleport spell gone wrong.” Lydia said, allowing herself a moment to look over Waldo since he was not causing trouble. She could see the muscles in his arm and thought she recognized his jawline but knew that could not be the case since she had no idea where Halcyon was.
“I wouldn’t know much about that. I can only hope my brothers are alright. Can one of you tell me where I am?” Waldo asked, masking his face, wondering if he had died. The blast had been strong enough to rupture his ears. Waldo was not sure he could have actually survived, even with Juan in front of him. Waldo expected he had died and this was some sort of reincarnation. Waldo knew he could not return home if the was an arrival on this planet as a child of Halcyon he had heard of this experience but this was his first time. As he thought about this he realized he did not want to go back even if he could. He had been in hiding and now he was probably well outside of the problems he had and doubted anyone hunting him would keep it up after death if he had died. If not then he was incredibly lucky he had landed in a place where he did not die instantly. Looking at Lydia something told him that someone powerful had intervened but Waldo could not imagine who. Jonah had abandoned him and Waldo could not think of another player with enough power to do anything who would also care about him.
“Spriggan Inn, in Protham.” Lydia said, looking carefully at Waldo. Aer walked over carrying a rag and pushing a bucket of steaming water. Kna walked over with a mop and an empty bucket to wring the mop out.
“Oh, thank you.” Waldo said, taking the mop from Kna and starting to clean up.
“Protham is nowhere special, Lydia. We are a weeks travel from Neakar City. Neakar is the district capital here and a port city.” Strisk said, looking at Lydia.
“You don’t have to do that.” Kna said, as Waldo deftly cleaned up the blood on the floor. “Just let him. He is probably in shock.” Strisk said, as they watched Waldo clean the floor easily.
“Just a bit.” Waldo said after a moment, having finished mopping and given the mop back to Kna. Waldo used one of the rages Aer had to clean the table his pack had been on ending by wiping the drying blood from his ears. Waldo looked down and realized he was a mess.
“How far did you travel?” Aer asked, frowning having heard the conversation.
“Far enough, those names mean nothing to me.” Waldo replied.
“So you are gonna need work.” Strisk half asked and half told Waldo.
“Seems like that would be wise.” Waldo said, placing the rag over the edge of the bucket holding the dirty water from Waldo’s cleaning efforts.
“Protham needs good city guards.” Strisk said, smiling. “I can get you an interview tomorrow. I will come by tomorrow morning and get you. If you are interested?”
“I’ll need some training on your laws, but sounds interesting to me.” Waldo said, sticking out his hand to Strisk. Strisk looked at it a moment then realized he was supposed to grab it and did with his clawed hand.
“Thanks, for your help Strisk.” Waldo said, firmly shaking Strisk’s hand.
“Sounds like you want a room for the night. Unless, Strisk is offering to pay. Do you have any money?” Kna asked, frowning at Strisk.
“You can put one night on my tab, Kna.” Strisk said.
“Only if you pay your tab off tonight.” Kna said, feeling a bit bad but knowing Strisk’s tab was getting out of hand.
“Do you accept silver?” Waldo asked, before Strisk could reply to Kna.
“Yes, take a seat and I will get my scales.” Kna said, having heard enough to know she was going to need to calculate an exchange.
“I am glad you happened to have some coin on you.” Strisk said, frowning at Kna’s back.
“Yeah, my dad was big into carrying certain things every day. Good thing, I listened to him cause I bet my country's paper money is worthless here.” Waldo said, pulling the tin out of his pocket and carefully opening to make sure it was the right one then closing it again.
“Well, your bag is probably worth quite a bit. I have never seen anything like it. Fine craftsmanship.” Aer said, examining his pack.
“I would rather not part with it if possible.” Waldo said sitting down at the table his bag had been on since he moved it to the floor beside the table in cleaning the table. Strisk sat down across from him as did Aer with Lydia sitting close and she was still looking at him.
“Lydia, you are being weird.” Aer said, quietly.
“Looks like Lydia wants to bed the man.” Strisk said, frowning at Lydia.
“Watch it, Strisk.” Lydia said to Strisk with an edge in her voice. “Waldo just reminds me of someone.” Lydia followed up with a softer tone.
“Good memories I hope. I think I’d like to get to know you.” Waldo responded, not looking away from Lydia. “You remind me of… Someone.”
“Well, be nice and maybe we can share some memories.” Lydia replied, not breaking his gaze. Waldo felt there were some additional implications in her words.
“Is there a price?” Waldo asked, before he could stop himself. Waldo was not entirely sure where the words had come from in saying them they just burst from his lips like someone else was running the show. The words had sent Lydia’s hand flying. Waldo easily caught it mid air. “I will take that as a no, which is nice. A woman with a price isn’t a woman worth having.” Waldo said, speaking again without being sure where the word came from. Waldo wondered if he was going mad but something told him he was not. Waldo edged closer to Lydia as he thought this and realized he seemed to be of multiple minds in this moment. Words and actions happening that he was not sure were all him. Aer and Strisk were watching in surprise. “Maybe I misinterpreted your words.”
“If you can pay for your room. I am willing to let the words go. Now if you would let me go.” Lydia responded, carefully feeling the strength in his arm and seeing the ease with which he caught her slap. She had used a skill to hit him, one that had landed on Strisks and other guardsmen when they got out of hand. She felt he could be dangerous and even though he had caught the slap and was easily holding her arm in place he was not hurting her. In fact once she relaxed, from making the slap, she realized how relaxed he was in stopping her slap. She saw him considering letting her go. She met his eyes letting her anger show at being held in place. Lydia realized how close he had come moving a little to block her slap and left him close enough she felt his breath on her face. Lydia realized she was breathing on him too and something in his eyes seemed to be enjoying the closeness they were sharing.
“I want a taste.” Waldo said, kissing her before she could react and sliding his hand along her back. Lydia wanted to struggle but part of her had been aching for this for years and she did not put up a fight. After a moment she found she was kissing him back for a moment and just as she was about to pull away. He did first. Waldo had been wanting to kiss her since he had laid eyes on her and at least this time he was sure that was him. “Well, that was… special.” Waldo felt a memory tug at him in the back of his mind. One of a girl that looked just like this woman.
“Maybe, for you.” Lydia said, trying to hide how much she enjoyed it. Waldo released her hand and turned looking for Kna. Waldo watched Kna approach with the scales. Waldo quickly opened the tin, pulling out a bundle of five carefully wrapped gold coins before closing it again and placing the tin back in a pocket.
Waldo unwrapped the coins asking “What exchange rate can you offer on these?” Aer gave a quiet gasp at the sight of them. Waldo feared he had made a mistake. As kna set the scales on the table.
“You have gold?” Strisk asked. Kna seemed unphased as Kna placed the coins on one side of the scale and started to carefully weigh them.
“Just a little. For an emergency.” Waldo responded.
“That should be enough to live here for a month.” Strisk stated, watching Kna carefully.
“You underestimate my rates. This will buy you three weeks.” Kna stated, as the scales balanced.
“What? That is highway robbery!” Strisk said.
“I have to take them to a blacksmith to get them minted in local coinage, they will need to be paid. Or I will have to take them to a money changer, who will also take a cut.” Kna stated.
“What would that include?” Waldo said, realizing his hand had wandered from his leg and found Lydia hand grabbing it tightly. Waldo felt Lydia tense as Waldo grabbed her hand but noticed she did not pull away from the sudden contact.
“A room, hot bath every day, standard laundry service, the common breakfast, and dinner daily with one pint of house ale. You will have to pay for lunch if you come here to eat.” Kna said, listing from memory the services she included in her standard room offering.
“Sounds good to me.” Waldo said smiling and looking out the window confirming it was dark. “I assume we are in the middle of dinner?” Waldo asked, hopefully.
“Yes.” Kna answered.
“May I take dinner in my room? I would like to wash myself before bed. It has been a surprising day.” Waldo asked Kna.
“Yes! I will grab you a plate and show you to your room.” Lydia said, releasing Waldo hand and standing. Waldo let her hand go as she stood. Kna at Lydia with what Waldo expected was motherly concern. As Lydia turned away to get the room key and a plate of food.
“Is there running water in the room?” Waldo asked Kna.
“Yes, but I cannot recommend using it for anything other than bathing.” Kna said.
“It is fine I can purify water. Can I get this filled with water?” Waldo asked, holding out a metal canteen.
“Yes. Aer go fill this and bring it back.” Kna said, handing the canteen to Aer who quickly walked off. “Leave Strisk. I would have a word alone with this man.” Kna growled at Strisk looking angrily. Strisk knew better than to argue with Kna when she gave him this look.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Waldo.” Strisk said standing to his whole sevenish feet of height stretching as he walked away. Waldo only now realized how small he was compared to Strisk.
“Indeed.” Waldo said to Strisk and turned back to Kna.
“I have never seen Lydia take to a man as she has to you. Have you cast a spell on her?” Kna asked Waldo. Waldo burst out laughing, taking a moment to control himself.
“I have no skill in that kind of magic. If you know how to test one for magic I would happily submit. I suspect I know why she has taken to me but there is nothing magical about it.” Waldo said, having gained control of the strange urge to laugh at magic.
“Why?” Kna asked, eyeing him coldly.
“Now why should I answer you?” Waldo asked. “What do you care for, of freed slaves? Or are you not her enslaver?” Kna drew back surprised.
“You said you knew nothing of this place?” Kna replied.
“I have never heard of this city in my life or this land, but I have eyes. Lydia is the only human here beside me. You are a gnoll and Strisk is one of the scaled people’s. I never been around any of them long enough to learn to tell them apart. Lydia clearly has some aversion to Strisk which seems to be unconscious on some level. That suggests it is not that she does not simply dislike him but something more than that. It is obvious to me that she does not belong here and would choose another home, but something prevents that. When I kissed her I ran my hand down her back. I felt the cursed marks of a whip. Is she a free woman or do you own her?” Waldo said, sliding his hand to the knife attached to his lower back.
“My people do not enslave others. She is free. I did not know she hated it here.” Kna said going from angry to crestfallen. “I did not know she had been a drake's slave.”
“You will say nothing of this. If you value your friendship with her. I did not say she hated it here. She works for you, which I expect is because you are not a drake and probably more than that. I get the sense she misses her people. How long has she been here?” Waldo replied, smoothing his voice.
“Several years.” Kna said, drifting in her own thoughts.
“If she hated you she would have left. You must make her feel safe in a dark place so she does not wander from your light.” Waldo said.
“All the more reason to not let her be abused.” Kna said, gauging Waldo.
“You misunderstand something. I will always respect Ma laska.” Waldo said, changing languages without thinking and looking to where Lydia stood talking to Aer as a memory flooded over him for a moment. Waldo felt the other part of him pushing forward for a moment. “Good help you have. Deftly slowing Lydia while we talk.”
“What is ma laska?” Kna asked. Waldo hesitated, surprised by Kna's words, then realized he had called Lydia by accident. Waldo knew what it meant somehow but decided he better not translate it directly.
“A woman’s right.” Waldo said, choosing a lie over the truth. “Or at least that is a close enough translation in this context.”
“So that is another language?” Kna asked.
“Yes, one from my a place long ago.” Waldo answered. “Have we not strayed topics at this point?”
“I think I have made myself clear and you have made yourself clear now.” Kna said, glancing at Aer and making a low growl. “I will let Lydia make herself clear as she chooses. Now that I do not think you will take something Lydia does not freely offer.”
“Have you accepted her as your cub?” Waldo asked, turning to look at Kna.
“I ha... “ Kna stopped herself, looking surprised at Waldo.
“I see it in your eyes, witness it in your fur, and hear it in your voice. She is a daughter in your house. Does she know or do you keep it a secret from all but those who know how to see?” Waldo asked, calmly moving past Kna’s surprise.
“You said.” Kna started to accuse trying to remember his words.
“I have not seen another race in so long. I cannot tell the scaled races apart. However, I ran with a pack for six years. I was a brother to a gnoll, and son to his parents. I sat at their table and went on their hunts. I sang the rights and washed in their bath. I was once an adopted son, which fills me with pride. If you are not a slaver then I would call you friend.” Waldo said quickly as Lydia approached. Just as he finished speaking he gave a quiet howl in the gnoll tongue he had learned many years ago living on the plains of Halcyon long before the war that had landed him here. Aer stopped mid-step and stared at Waldo as the gnolls in the room turned looking at the grimy human who had named himself to the room in gnollish. Kna openly stared surprised Waldo had been named and knew the proper introduction for himself in a public place. Lydia was confused as to her it appeared Waldo was growling threateningly at Kna. Suddenly, the room responded with a quite gnollish welcome that made Lydia jump. Aer gently placed her hand on Lydia’s shoulder.
“They are greeting Waldo in our tongue.” Aer explained to Lydia, seeing she did not know what was happening in the room.
“He speaks gnollish?” Lydia said surprised.
“I guess.” Aer said, pulling her hand back and moving forward again.
“Why did you not say something before?” Kna asked, Waldo as Lydia and Aer walked up. Aer set his canteen on the table.
“It was not the time. All things have a place and now was this things place.” Waldo responded.
“You are a strange human, but I am comforted and feel as if there is nothing to fear.” Kna said to Waldo then turned to Lydia. “Lydia, you may do as you will the rest of the night and I will not interfere.”
“Thank you. May we call this the end of my shift then.” Lydia asked, feeling a little excited. Aer turned moving around the room with the other staff in the inn.
“Away with you before I find a need for your aid in tending to my customers. Who I have ignored, too long.” Kna said quickly moving away to help her staff tend to tables. Waldo picked up his pack and canteen.
“Lead on, Ma laska.” Waldo said, nodding to Lydia.
“Ma laska?” Lydia questioned not saying it quite right.
“Sorry, my lady. Old habits.” Waldo said, lying again feeling unsure as to why he felt like he was fighting to stay in control. Lydia raised an eyebrow questioningly but led on. Waldo followed her up the stairs to the second floor and down a hallway lined with six doors. She stopped in front of the door and placed a brass coin over the lock which clicked and the door swung open. Led him into a good sided room with an all wood floor and completely open. A large bed was on one side of the room, a table with two chairs by the door. Space at the foot of the bed. There was space between the bed and a bathtub with a toilet near the back wall with a screen by the toilet and a sink between the tub and toilet. The room was lit by glowing stones fixed to the walls Waldo saw what appeared to be a control for the glowing stones by the door before the table and chairs. There were towels by the sink. Lydia set the plate on the table and the brass coin next to it. Waldo set his bag at the foot of the bed and started to strip away his body armor until he heard the door shut causing him to turn. Waldo smiled seeing Lyida had not left.
“Would you like help?” Lydia asked, slowly walking to him with a gaze that excited Waldo. The kiss he had stolen had aroused something in Lydia and the urges she had been pushing back had rushed forward.
“I can manage. I am just removing some outer layers. They are deceptively heavy.” Waldo responded.
“Please allow me. I want to.” Lydia said, stepping next to him quickly. Waldo allowed her to help him, carefully guiding her hands to the straps holding the armor in place and allowing their fingers to get tangled. “You seem to be intentionally making this difficult.” Lydia accused, after it took almost a full minute to unhook one strap.
“Does it bother you?” Waldo asked, playfully nudging her and Lydia realized he was enjoying the delay.
“Your food will get cold…” Lydia said, blushing as she started to enjoy the fumbling of their hands and his contact.
“Hot or cold it is still food. However, this moment... is all its own.” Waldo said, dragging out her helping him remove his outer layers, which took another five or more minutes. After which, they sat across from each other as he ate his dinner. Lydia studied him as he ate.
“Have we met before?” Lydia asked, feeling at ease in his presence.
“After a manner…I believe so but not for more than a lifetime.” Waldo responded. “Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“Reincarnation?” Lydia asked not being familiar with the word.
“My people believe when you die a piece of you, what we would call a soul, starts a new life.” Waldo explained.
“I am not much for religion. In my homeland, they said the gods are dead. The Drakes of Xalas seem to think there are gods and people have souls. Most of the gnolls of Grofeas say there are no gods but there is a temple to the gnoll god in Protham and I believe the high priestess is the wife of the city's guard captain.” Lydia replied.
“Xalas? Grofeas?” Waldo asked, suspecting these are countries.
“Neakar, a large city in the Xalas empire. It even has a palace for the emperor. I don’t think it is the capital of the Xalas empire but I might be wrong. The Grofeas plains are ruled by the gnoll tribes. There are not very many cities on the Grofeas plains and Xalas has tentative peace with the plains gnolls that largely control Grofeas. Protham is the first city in the Grofeas plains after leaving the Xalas empire. Mostly, the Drakes have mined the Grofeas plains of all they are interested in so they leave them alone.” Lydia explained.
“What is your home land called?” Waldo asked.
“Northumbria, but last I heard it fell to the drakes in the war. I was captured before the Northumbrian king fell. The Teaniel Empire is the last human hold out against the drakes and if it falls the drakes will effectively rule the continent of Atios. Not that they bother much with the Grofeas plains.” Lydia explained.
“Ah, so you stay because there is no easy human stronghold to flee to?” Waldo questioned.
“I am trying to save up to go to Ibrix but that is a long boat ride off after traveling to the only gnoll port city because I refuse to go back into the Xalas empire. Only problem is Grofeas port city is three hundred leagues to the south east of here. The roads are less than safe and each year there are only about three caravans that make the trek. If I were to cross alone it is unlikely I would make it. The cost of going from here to Ibrix are a little more than a year's wage working here.” Lydia explained sadly.
“How many humans reside in Protham?” Waldo asked.
“Twelve. All women. Eight are too old for the trek and two are too young to go alone.” Lydia said.
“All former slaves of the drakes I assume.” Waldo said.
“What?” Lydia said surprised.
“I worked interrogations. I learned to read what was left unspoken. You have nothing to fear from me. Slavery is the evilest form of commerce.” Waldo said, kneeling by his chair with his back to Lydia and bearing it. Lydia saw thin white scars from wounds that had healed and been reopened only to heal again over and over again. Lydia was speechless. After a moment Waldo covered himself and sat down facing her.
“How did you know?” Lydia questioned. Waldo slid his chair close to her so they were a breath apart. Lydia stared at him waiting for an answer when he kissed her. This time she felt his hand running down her back touching her hidden marks. Waldo pulled back from the kiss after a moment.
“Slavers tend to have the same tricks. They leave the same marks on one's body and some people's souls.” Waldo said quietly as he sat a breaths distance from Lydia’s face. The moment stretched as shared history passed between them and without a word spoken they had shared secrets too dark to udder in the quiet of the room then there was a roar of cheers from the commons breaking the spell that dark secrets of shared history had woven for a moment.
“I hope we can talk more.” Lydia said, after a moment now that the spell was broken. Lydia stood now that her head had cleared. Lydia was not sure what she would do if she stayed and questioned what she wanted.
“Will you stay?” Waldo asked, gently touching Lydia’s hand. Lydia did not pull away. Standing Lydia moved to the door. She intended to open the door and leave but she grabbed the night lock turning the knob. Waldo was not sure what he expected but he would not stop her from leaving. Waldo heard the door lock click into place, Lydia took a few steps toward the bath and moved her hair to one side exposing the ties along her back. Waldo stood and moved to her beginning to untie her dress. Once he was done. Lydia let the dress fall to the floor. Time stretched and shortened all at once and before he knew it exhaustion took them as they lay on the bed together. Lydia snuggled up to him and in a moment her breathing was even and gentle. Waldo knew she had fallen asleep in that moment of respite. Waldo watched her for a moment only to realize how tired he was and started to doze off but just as he heard a voice speak in his mind.
“Class gained Soldier, Level one. Skill gained, find allegiance.”
“Cancel! Reject!” Waldo whispered, angrily not wanting to wake Lydia.
“Class and level canceled.”
Waldo was fully awake now. Realizing he is on a game world, Waldo frowned. He considered this for a moment. Waldo had heard of these but never been on one. Now the injury made more sense. He had died on Halcyon. Waldo wondered if Jonah even cared that he had died. Waldo took a moment to consider the implications of being on a gaming world. There would be no intergalactic armada base here. Waldo knew the gaming worlds had been cut off, largely due to proximity. All the gaming worlds were the opposite side of the galaxy. The armada was still a thousand years of growth away. Waldo now knew with certainty there was no simple way back. As he considered this he realized there might be a way. Waldo thought about it for a few minutes as the idea grew in his mind and realized he truly did not want to go back. “I am a God.” Waldo thought to himself, Waldo felt something rush to the front of his mind, something that believed it or he was a god.
“Class gained God, level one. Skill gained, anoint worshiper. Quest assigned, claim domain.”
Waldo smiled, surprised it was that simple. Waldo considered trying to cancel it but part of him said if he was going to stay here he might as well be a god. Thinking he could do anything as a god. Another part said it was a bad idea and it would not be easy. Waldo wondered why he was feeling so conflicted about everything and why he did not feel like he was in perfect control. Then he wondered if the gods were dead on this world, would he be the only god around, and if so what domain he should claim. Waldo slowly drifted to sleep with these conflicting thoughts.

Two individuals, one that resembled a mountain man and the other a small girl, trudged through the harsh snowstorm. Despite the apparent futility of their journey, they had been walking for days and were determined to reach their destination.
As they walked through the dreary forest, Clementine, the small girl wearing a baseball hat and a sky-blue rainbow jacket, eventually asked the man a question.
"Kenny, is it time for a rest yet?"
"Are your legs starting to act up, darling? If so, we can rest." Kenny was a big, burly man in his mid-fifties with a vast grey beard protruding from his face; he also had a blood-soaked bandage covering his left eye.
"Yeah," replied Clementine, "they are starting to ache with every step."
"Very well, we can rest for now." Kenny agreed while taking off his backpack and taking a can of beans out.
"Do you want me to set up the tent as you hold AJ?" Asked Clementine sedately while she moved towards Kenny to hand him AJ.
AJ was the adorable, tiny baby that Kenny and Clementine were nurturing after his real mother, Rebecca, died shortly after giving birth to him.
"Are you sure you can handle it by yourself, Clem? I can help you," Kenny said while he had his eyes on AJ.
"Yes, I think I can take care of it, Kenny," Clementine responded rather begrudgingly as she took the olive green tent from Kenny's backpack and began setting it up. After a few moments, the tent was finally set up correctly, just as the stars started to appear in the sky. The sky itself was becoming more and more extraordinary, with fiery oranges and reds painting the horizon, and the occasional snowfall making it look like feathers were coming down from the sky.
During this time, Kenny made himself useful by getting some firewood for tonight's supper; when he returned, he found Clementine tendering to a crying AJ.
"Shh, shh; I'm here, goofball. It's okay," said Clementine, swaying him in her arms while also smiling at him.
"Aww," said Kenny as the pair both sat on a log as the campfire burned into the night. "I bet Lee would be proud of you for raising him as he did with you."
Just then, Clementine's smile dropped a little, as was evident; even three years later, she still missed Lee.
"I didn't mean to say it like that, daring. It's just hard not to think about it. As I said, when we met for the first time again, back at the ski lodge, you were two peas in a pod."
"I know," replied Clementine, still looking at AJ, "he would be proud, but I wish he was here; you know."
"True, I do hope Wellington is out there, Kenny."
"I know it is, Clem; hopefully, we get there in one piece."
Wellington was supposedly this enormous, populous, and well-protected camp in the glacial north, made mostly from abandoned shipping containers.
"Clem, you know what?" Kenny said while tendering to the fire, "How about some supper while you are doing that? I can feed AJ."
"Sure," agreed Clementine, "you can do that."
After supper, Clementine decided she could put AJ in the tent so he could sleep before coming out of the tent and sitting back on the log she had done before.
"Is he asleep yet?" Kenny asked, putting his arm around Clementine.
"Yeah, but can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Well," said Clementine, taking off her hat and moving to Kenny a bit more, "you said before that it’s just hard to not think about Lee being dead. What about Katjaa and Duck? You must still miss them, right?"
"I do, Clem, every day and night. But when Duck’s grandmother died, Katjaa said to Duck, "Look for the brightest star in the night, and that’s them." In the same way, that’s where Lee is."
"Yeah, I get that," replied Clementine, looking at her hat after looking at the star, "but I genuinely still miss him. All I got of him is the blood on my hat," she pointed to it, "and... memories."
"That’s a good thing, darling; it shows what relationships can mean to people. I assure you, he was lucky to have you," Kenny spoke calmly as he and Clementine gazed at the glittering stars in the sky, shining like diamonds against the black expanse. Suddenly, a shooting star raced across the horizon. Clementine put her hat back on, and after chatting with Kenny about various topics, they decided it was time to go to bed.
As was their custom before going to bed, Clementine asked Kenny what their plans were for tomorrow. Which was mostly trying to get Wellington in one piece; after that, she asked what she should dream about.
As the new day dawned, the world was blanketed in a strange serene calmness. The sky above was a stunning canvas of colours, painted in fiery oranges and reds that radiated a warm glow across the horizon. The birds had already begun their morning routine, their sweet melodies filling the air with a symphony of sound that was both melodious and enchanting.
"Good sleep, Clem?" Kenny said as he had back to her, but he was facing the fire with AJ in hand.
"Yeah," responded Clementine, going to sit on the log beside him. "Pretty much, it would be better with a bed, but we don’t have one. What about you?"
"Fine, but I think AJ wants to be with you," Kenny gave Clementine, AJ, and an old granola bar for breakfast. Afterwards, they dismantled the tent, packed it into Kenny’s backpack, and continued their journey towards Wellington. On the way, they encountered a walker who attempted to attack them, but Kenny managed to shoot it before it could get too close for comfort.
"You and AJ, okay?" He asked before saying they moved on.
"Sure," replied Clementine, while she swayed AJ in her arms while also smiling at him. "As long as you and AJ are fine. I’m fine."
"Good. Let’s get going."
As they continued to brave the cold with snow relentlessly pouring down upon them, the two companions engaged in a conversation about their plans once they reached Wellington. Eventually, Clementine and Kenny arrived at the foot of a colossal hill, with billowing clouds of grey smoke rising into the sky.
“Come on, Clem, that must be it. I’ll race you,” Kenny said, starting to run up the hill with AJ in his arms and Clementine running behind him. There it stood: Wellington.

it wasnt a shampoo bar or a shampoo that was bottled, it was in a tub the exact same as the big shampoo packaging. it smelled very strongly of mint, and had chunks of something (for lack of a better word) that when lathered dissolved. white coloured and after using it my hair felt squeaky clean! i know for sure it was not big because the chunks of sea salt werent there. it also wasn't roots (was asked this on another post on a different community) because i'm 100% sure it was a shampoo. please let me know the name or if it’s discontinued or smth!! if you wanna read past this and hear the backstory go ahead, i blabber on a lot sorry lol
so i have dandruff, not super severe but unless i use heads&shoulders any other shampoo fucks my hair up. the thing is, heads&shoulders is 1. really bad for your hair and 2. not even my best option because it stops working for me after a few weeks. anyways, i went to a big lush shop where loads of testers are given in october 2023, and i asked about a shampoo that was good for dandruff. the lady recommended a white, minty smelling shampoo which had chunks in it but it was NOT big! this shampoo was perfect. i used it twice and my dandruff was completely cleared!! but quite obviously i’ve run out. i’ve looked on their official website for any ‘white’ and ‘mint’ products but there’s absolutely nothing, i really want to find this shampoo!! thank you so much guys in advance <3

Thank you guys for all your nice comments on my previous post! Here's my followup post walking through the anthology - I apologize for the delay, but I wanted to sit with this half of the album a bit longer. This analysis will be slightly different: first I’ll go through themes present throughout the anthology, and then walk through each song individually, since it’s not as consecutive of a story as the first album. As with my first analysis, I tend to also stay away from literal details as proof that a song is about a certain subject or muse – to me, it’s easier to understand the album when you think first about what the song’s overarching meaning is, rather than getting caught up in literal details (and I think Taylor often throws these in as red herrings). Moreover, it’s important to note that it’s likely that the literal detail she’s thrown in is one that only she and the muse will understand (i.e. her referencing a lilac skirt in imgonnagetyouback is unlikely to be one we’ve ever seen her wearing in public, so it’s useless to paternity test based on that detail!).
Firstly, the word anthology means a collection of assorted literary works. As a result, I think there are more themes scattered through this album, and it’s meant to be a little harder to parse than the first one. I think this album is what TTPD would have been before it crystallized into a tighter theme – similar to the 3 AM tracks for Midnights, the majority of which were written prior to the standard edition’s tracks.
There are a few themes throughout this album. From a romantic context, to me, this album is primarily about Joe. I’ll walk through why I believe that, but this album feels less muddled to me in terms of its muses, and I think that is in part due to the fact that her self-described mania from the standard edition is not a theme on the anthology. This work also covers her own relationship to celebrity and fame, and how that affects her romantic relationships and her personal life in general. And finally, I think the final theme throughout this collection is the idea of childhood, of formative experiences, and how our author goes about processing events that happen to her.
The Black Dog
What happens when you intimately know someone, when you share every aspect of your life with someone, and then it's over? Six weeks after their breakup, she’s barely holding it together (“I move through the world with the heartbroken”). She even tried to rebound her pain away (“I took the miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary”), and wasn’t able to succeed. Meanwhile, she sees him go to a bar, and she has the sudden realization that he may be able to do what she failed to do – he might be able to move on, with someone new. Reckoning with that realization is horrifying. If he is able to pull it off, what does that mean about the love they shared? When he had told her for years that he was who he was for her, and her alone?
You said I needed a bravе man
Then proceeded to play him
Until I believed it too
And it kills me
How could they go from being so intimate that they shower together, that she’s aware of his every move, to being so distant from each other that she wonders if making her fall in love with him was a hazing? And the cruelest part of it is – she doesn’t want either one of them to be able to move on, and give validity to the fact that they weren’t right for each other, even though she knows they have to. Moreover, she’s already *tried* to move on at this point, and failed – she tried to manufacture a counterfeit version of their intimacy, but what if he’s able to perfectly replicate it? And to really drive in the knife, what if it’s with someone younger than her?
And you jump up, but she's too young to know this song
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Given that a theme throughout the first album was her feeling like she’d given him so much of her youth, so much of her childbearing years, with nothing to show for it, what does it feel like to know that he can essentially reset time, by being with a younger woman, but she’ll never be able to get that time back?
imgonnagetyouback
We know that her and Joe took a break or two while they were together (see: Hits Different, The Great War, in addition to PR articles). To me, this song is about when you do take that break from your partner, and you’re trying to make a point to them that they’re not going to find anyone better than you (I can tell when somebody still wants me, come clean) – the two of you are too intimately intertwined to find a suitable replacement. You know what to wear, what to say, what to do to bring them back to you:
I, I hear thе whispers in your eyes
I'll make you wanna think twice
You'll find that you were never not mine
This song also has a lot of similarities to So Long, London, which is why I attribute it to Joe. To me, it provides a deeper story to some of the lines she touches on in So Long, London:
I didn't opt in to be your odd man out
I founded the club she's heard great things about
And to some of the lines in Hits Different:
I washed my hands of us at the club
You made a mess of me
I pictured you with other girls in love
Then threw up on the street
//
Bet I could still melt your world
Argumentative, antithetical dream girl
imgonnagetyouback is a story of one-upmanship – of trying to out-jealous your partner, of proving to them that nobody knows them better than you do. And maybe this time when they’re both playing this game, it works:
Push the reset button, we're becomin' something new
Say you got somebody, I'll say I got someone too
Even if it's handcuffed, I'm leavin' here with you
//
We broke all the pieces, but still wanna play the game (Oh)
Told my friends I hate you, but I love you just the same
Pick your poison, babe, I'm poison either way
The spacing to me is a deliberate red herring (the 1975 very famously made a song called fallingforyou), and a way to illustrate that the subject of the song wants space from her – but she’s not going to give it to him. This is another theme that calls back to Joe – in So Long, London, she describes him as constantly pulling away (Pulled him in tighter each time he was driftin' away). Matty didn’t pull away – he was all in for two weeks, until he chose to ghost her, and leave abruptly. There was no slow death, no push and pull to her relationship with Matty – it was a meteoric rise and fall.
The Albatross
This song feels like a sister song to “peace” – she describes what it’s like to love her. It’s a little more twisted, however, as she describes her love for her partner as both a danger, and a rescue from the danger she’s imposing on him by being involved with him:
Wise men once said
"Wild winds are death to the candle"
A rose by any other name is a scandal
Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her
She’s described herself as wind and liquor in her relationship with Joe previously, in Mastermind:
I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails
And the liquor in our cocktails
She has empathy for the narrator, but disdain for herself. There’s also acceptance though: she knows that she tried to prevent it, and tried to warn him about the danger she posed. In the end though, he chose this life with her, and he chose the danger – there’s only so much she can protect him from.
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I'm the life you chose
And all this terrible danger
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
This song feels like another sister song to The Black Dog – how does she cope with the idea that her long-time partner might move on? How does she cope with the fact that if she chooses to leave, she also chooses the future in which they both move on? A future in which they don’t know each other? It also touches on her wondering if she should move on with Matty, and how feasible it would be to know someone else instead of her partner:
If you want to tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
This song, more than anything else, illustrates that moving on with Matty was nothing but a way to move past Joe – what she really wants, more than anything, is a response greater than indifference from Joe:
As the decade would play us for fools
And you saw my bones out with somebody new
Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school
And you just watched it happen
There’s also the realization that Joe may never love who she is now – who she was at the beginning of their relationship will always be who he prefers:
If you want to break my cold, cold heart
Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were'
She’s trying desperately to find some way to make up for the fact that she had to leave Joe, that there was nothing she could do to stay – she tried changing everything about herself, but still, the need to leave him eventually caught up with her:
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools
Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules
All to outrun my desertion of you
And you just watched it
And she wonders whether despite his indifference, and the distance between them, she should still stay:
Could it be enough to just float in your orbit
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses
Cooler in theory but not if you force it
To be, it just didn't happen
But now, they are merely ghosts of who they once were – it’s not possible to force the relationship anymore.
How Did It End?
When a long-term relationship ends, you can point to the factors that led to its demise: a difference of opinions on money, on marriage, on children, and so forth. It is easy to determine the “what” and the “why” of an ending. But what is harder to diagnose is how you both became the versions of yourselves that weren’t on the same page, that were unable to discuss these topics, that couldn’t move past these dilemmas. That is much, much harder to pinpoint, and this is the question Taylor asks in this song. She knows what killed them:
We hereby conduct this post-mortem
He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman
//
We were blind to unforeseen circumstances
We learn the right steps to different dances (ohh)
And fell victim to interlopers' glances
Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?
But what she still doesn't know is how it happened – how did it end? She also finds the empathy from the media and from the public to be false and selfish – they only want to know what happened to feverishly spread the news like wildfire.
Come one, come all
It's happenin' again
The empathetic hunger descends
We'll tell no one
Except all of our friends
We must know
How did it end?
//
Soon they'll go home to their husbands
Smug 'cause they know they can trust him
Then feverishly calling their cousins (ohh)
//
Say it once again with feeling
What the feeding frenzy wants more than anything is gossip, and they don’t care that she is utterly lost – lost as to why this happened, and lost physically and mentally:
Guess who we ran into at the shops?
Walking in circles like she was lost
How does she give an answer to quell the empathetic hunger, when she herself doesn’t understand exactly how it happened?
So High School
In an album that touches so much on feeling like she’s running out of time to have the future that she wants, and running out of youth to give the various men who come into her life, it is interesting and heartwarming that the song about Travis on the anthology is one that describes being with him as regaining her youth:
The brink of a wrinkle in time
Bittersweet sixteen suddenly
Moreover, another detail to note in this song is the difference in how she describes alcohol and drugs – in nearly every other song on TTPD, alcohol is a vice she uses in her moments of despair, and drugs are what her previous partners turn to in their moments of strife (she also describes the influence of drugs on her partners as something she detests – “sinking in stoned oblivion” and “you needed me but you needed drugs more”). With Travis, she’s not imbibing in any substances – instead, his thoughts and jokes are enough for her:
I'll drink what you think, and I'm high
From smoking your jokes all damn night
Travis is giving her back her youth, making sober promises, and the impression that we get is that they’re building this dreamlike reality together – it’s wholesome, all-American, and high-school-inspired, yet still grounded in something tangible, unlike the promise of fate and destiny, which powered her relationship with Joe and her entanglement with Matty.
I Hate It Here
More than anything, I think this song illustrates how Taylor sometimes uses escapism and maladaptive daydreaming to ignore the reality of the situation she’s dealing with. She recognizes that it’s not possible to stay where she is, locked inside this prison of stagnation and boredom:
If comfort is a construct
I don't believe in good luck
Now that I know what's what
She recognizes that this isn’t what she used to be, and that she never intended to choose this life of secrecy, perhaps alluding to all those years she spent “locked inside her house”:
You see I was a debutante in another life but
Now I seem to be scared to go outside
She describes herself as finding hope in the places her mind creates (seemingly alluding to her creation of characters and places for folklore and evermore):
I hate it here so I will go to
secret gardens in my mind
People need a key to get to
The only one is mine
I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child
And her escapism into her past, and imaginings of what could have been in Midnights:
I hate it here so I will go to
Lunar valleys in my mind
When they found a better planet
Only the gentle survived
I dreamed about it in the dark
The night I felt like I might die
All throughout the song, there’s recognition that she doesn’t want to be here – she doesn’t want to feel as if the only place she can be free is in these imaginary worlds she creates. But there’s also concession – is she perhaps only destined for an eternal consolation prize? For loneliness? For imagined romanticism? For the fantasy of how she imagined her life and her love to be?
I'm lonely but I'm good
I'm bitter but I swear I'm fine
I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I'll get lost on
purpose
This place made me feel worthless
Lucid dreams like electricity, the current flies through me,
and in my fantasies I rise above it
And way up there, I actually love it
​​thanK you aIMee
This song, along with a few others in the latter half of the anthology, discusses the loss of innocence she felt in key moments of her life. This one quite obviously alludes to Kim Kardashian, and their infamous feud. I will make a separate post on this, but I think people describing this song as petty may not remember the depth of the hate aimed at Taylor in 2016. Kim and Kanye organized a revenge porn music video for Famous, and held a museum exhibit so that people could take pictures with the naked dolls. The night the snapchat videos were released, every Kardashian family member descended upon social media to gleefully celebrate the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty. The amount of hate Taylor got was so unprecedented that Instagram actually built their comment filtration system because of this incident. It really was that bad.
And every baby step Taylor took (for example, even just posting that she had a good 2017 was met with immediate media backlash) was quite literally mocked across the internet. People thought the reputation era was cringey, that she was over, and that she deserved everyone’s ire because she was “proven” to be a liar. She describes this in the song:
Each time that Aimee stomped across my grave
And then she wrote headlines in the local paper
Laughing at each baby step I'd take
And it was always the same searing pain
But the whole time, despite the pain and blood, she was dreaming of the day that she would heal, and dreaming of the day that she would climb her way back to to the mountaintop:
And our town, it looks so small from way up here
//
So I pushed each boulder up that hill
Your words were still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head
What still irks her though, is that this bully who created this entire hate train and organized her downfall will pretend as if it never happened – she will undoubtedly reframe things to make our subject seem overdramatic, petty, and unable to move past the incidents of years ago. Taylor, however, has always been clear about one thing: sometimes, no amount of time can heal you from something that deeply traumatized you.
I Look in People’s Windows
This song to me feels like a sister song to The Black Dog, but a few months after the official end of a relationship. A sub theme that runs through Taylor’s songs about the Joe breakup is the loss of being understood – when you are no longer with a long-term partner, how do you cope with the fact that you move through the world knowing everything about this person, but at the same time, not knowing them anymore? Would you peek into their windows just to get a glimpse of what their life looks like now? As anyone who has gone through a breakup knows, the hardest part is often not being privy to the mundane details of that person’s world – their dinner parties, their wine, their friends, and so on.
I look in people's windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
They have their friends over to drink nice wine
I look in people's windows
In case you're at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
The Prophecy
The Prophecy is devastating. More so than any other song Taylor has ever written, it is full of desperation and longing. All she asks for is to be known, to be understood – to not be perceived as an idea of a woman, or a starlet with no humanity:
Please
I've been on my knees
Change the prophecy
Don't want money
Just someone who wants my company
Let it once be me
Who do I have to speak to
About if they can redo
The prophecy?
It’s striking especially considering how much she laments that leaving Joe means she’s giving up being known – it’s also striking given the fact that in the epilogue poem, she states that neither Joe or Matty ever truly knew her:
He never even scratched the surface
of me.
None of them did.
What she desires beyond fame, beyond notoriety, beyond money, is to be loved and to be known. The song also alludes to her being in therapy, and to finding some sort of consolation that she will find someone to share her life with:
I'm so afraid I sealed my fate
No sign of soulmates
I'm just a paperweight
In shades of greige
Spending my last coin so someone will tell me
It'll be ok
Cassandra
This track is a sister song to ​​thanK you aIMee, and continues exploring the theme of fraught public womanhood we see in Clara Bow and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me. In this song, Taylor discusses how the validation of women is never publicized in the way that the crucifixion of them is:
When the first stone's thrown, there's screaming
In the streets, there's a raging riot
When it's "Burn the bitch, " they're shrieking
When the truth comes out, it's quiet
Moreover, when women speak up about an issue, they’re often viewed as overdramatic, and unserious. Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was cursed by Apollo to always predict the future accurately, but never be believed. We see this happen every day to women in politics, in the media, and in pop culture:
So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they set my life in flames, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
And for Taylor, it’s reminiscent of all the times she’s been the first to speak out about something in the industry – for example, against Scooter Braun and his well-established pattern of bullying, or of the exploitation of artists on streaming services – but never been supported broadly by her peers. They believe her later, but at that point, very few people give her the credit for speaking up in the first place. It’s reminiscent of the Kimye scandal. When the news broke originally, the hatred she received was widespread. But when she was acquitted by the long-form video that leaked, it didn’t receive anywhere near the level of coverage that the original scandal received.
Peter
Peter is another song that touches on both the male muses for this album, and in turn, on the promises various men have given her over her life (we’ll circle back to this in The Manuscript!). It also touches on the theme of waiting that’s seen throughout this album, especially on her songs about Joe – how much time is enough time to give?
Both Matty and Joe were 25 when they met her, and it’s abundantly clear that both men made promises to her: promises of marriage, of children, and of a future. But how long can she wait for these promises to be fulfilled? To Joe, she gives six years of her life and youth, and to Matty, she gives him a chance to prove that he was reformed from the time she knew him last: both men eventually fail. Neither man is ready to give up their childish whims, and she has no choice but to lose hope that either of them ever will.
And you said you'd come and get me but you were 25
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the lost boys chapter of your life
Forgive me Peter, please know that I tried
To hold onto the days when you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
Another thing to note is the interesting double meaning of the song title. To peter also means to diminish gradually – much like her faith in both men’s promises.
The Bolter
A lot of the songs Taylor has written about Joe in this album deal with the question of “when is the right time to leave?” When you know that things are stagnant, and you know that you’ve given everything you have to a relationship, you know that you have to leave – but it’s easy to convince yourself if you have a history of “leaving before you get left” that you should ride out this wave, and that this pain might just be temporary.
The Bolter, to me, reflects on Taylor’s history – it seems like she prided herself on being able to see the warning signs, and being able to get out in time.
She's been many places with
Men of many faces
First, they're off to the races
And she's laughing drawin' aces
But, none of it is changin'
That the chariot is waitin'
Hearts are hers for the breakin'
There's an escape in escaping
It’s relevant to TTPD, because likely, she saw not bolting as a sign of growth and maturity. You know that you’ve grown as a person when you don’t abandon ship at the first sign of trouble, but what if there are so many signs of trouble that the truly mature thing to do would be to leave?
Robin
Robin leads into this theme of childhood and innocence that we see further in The Manuscript. The track name is also the name of Aaron Dessner’s child. She ponders how beautiful and sweet it is that we work so hard to protect childhood naivete:
Strings tied to levers,
slowed down clocks tethered,
all this showmanship
To keep it, for you,
In sweetness
And there’s an element of wistfulness to it – don’t we sometimes wish that we could also be protected from the worst the world has to offer?
You have no room in your dreams for regrets
You have no idea
The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean
You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline
But now we'll curtail your curiosity
The Manuscript
This song is perhaps the most climactic song on the album. It covers her romantic history up until that point, and starts at the moment she feels everything went awry – and it predates Joe and Matty. Instead, it calls back to the first time she experienced a proper heartbreak, and the first time she lost her childlike innocence in the world – her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal (a time she described as her transition from childhood to womanhood). She describes how they compared licenses, and how he told her that if they had sex, and it was as good as the conversation was, then they would get married, and have a family. He was the first man to make her these promises:
He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was
Soon they'd be pushin' strollers
But soon it was over
He tells her that it’s ok that they have an age gap, because she’s so advanced for her age:
She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years
Everything had been above board
She wasn't sure
While dating him, she desperately wants to be older, and starts emulating his behavior:
In the age of him, she wished she was thirty
And made coffee every morning in a French press
And when it’s over, she regresses, and turns back into a child – unable to sleep alone without the comfort of her mother, and unable to eat anything substantial besides the sugary cereal of her youth:
Afterwards she only ate kids' cereal
And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed
She forces herself to date boys her own age, to not rely on the maturity of an older man to guide her through adulthood, but she can’t help but feel disappointed in their youth:
Then she dated boys who were her own age
With dart boards on the backs of their doors
Finally, as she creates the All Too Well short film, she recognizes the damage he did to her, and how the consequences of that affair have shaped her life since:
And the years passed
Like scenes of a show
The Professor said to write what you know
Lookin' backwards
Might be the only way to move forward
Then the actors
Were hitting their marks
And the slow dance
Was alight with the sparks
And the tears fell
In synchronicity with the score
And at last
She knew what the agony had been for
Everything calls back to this first man, and these original promises – everything she’s been chasing since is reminiscent of this first scar. And just like how releasing All Too Well transformed and healed her, she hopes that by releasing this additional manuscript into the world, it will heal her again. As she describes in the epilogue poem, she is entering all her thoughts, emotions, and pain into evidence – she now asks the audience to process it with her, and thus conclude this process of healing.
The only thing that's left is the manuscript
One last souvenir from my trip to your shores
Now and then I reread the manuscript
But the story isn't mine anymore
If you read all of this - thank you! I enjoyed writing it, and I'm excited to discuss with you all in the replies :)

Short intro:
I’m a 23 y/o guy, working in a college town. I had 0 bar experience previously, but got hired without even bringing in a resumé - I’ve been barbacking at this place for about three months now, and getting my state required TIPS certification in two days! Ideally I’ll be serving drinks (legally) within the week and couldn’t be more excited.
What I’ve learned in these three months:

• Get to know your bartenders! If you’re in a barback position, odds are you’re looking to bartend at some point. Learn how they operate their wells, if they prefer a different setup in their stadiums or with their garnish, etc. It’ll help to learn these small things to make their lives easier. More specifically, however, take some time to just shoot the shit when it’s slow. If a bartender is having a bad day, see what you can do to try and put a smile on their faces beyond your basic duties as a barback. No matter the position you’re working, smiles all around is the goal!
  
• Watch how they communicate with customers! Obviously it depends on your bar but as a barback, you won’t be really communicating with customers on too deep of a level, besides a welcome and offering watea menu to start if your bartender is busy with another customer. Every bartender has their own little quirks just like everyone else, but you have a good opportunity here to see how they talk to people. Happy customers generally leads to good tips!
  
• Learn your menu! It’ll depend on location but at my bar, we have seasonal craft cocktails that change throughout the year. For example, we serve a drink called a Garden Spritz (gin, cucumber juice, st germaine, lemon juice, mint simple, garnish with cucumber - freaking delicious) but only during the spring and summer basically. As this drink is a fan favorite when it’s toasty out, lots of customers are looking for this year round. Having this knowledge isn’t completely necessary, but it helps to be able to provide a better answer to a customer than “Sorry, don’t have it!”
  
• Figure out what is expected of you beyond the normal barbacking duties! (stocking wells/stadiums, keep on top of refilling ice and garnish, changing kegs, etc.) Those lemons aren’t gonna cut themselves. Keep a mental note of what you have out at the bar and what is being kept in the walk-in/fridge/freezer (if that applies). You’re the one that’s gonna generally have the best idea on what you have, what you’re running low on, and what is ready to be 86’d. If you’re running low on lime juice, tell a bartender to leave a note for whoever is opening the next day (I do prep for the bar in the mornings, but I know this will vary by location or preference) that this needs to be prepped. Or better yet (as long as you’ve got time), juice those limes ASAP! Less time spent prepping real-time means more time for bartenders to sell more drinks.
  
• Stay ready for your workday! The hours can be long on busy days, sometimes hours longer than you’re scheduled for - especially when closing. If you’re working a late-night, make sure you get sleep! If you’re gonna be lifting kegs, hit the gym (or ask for help)! Injuries happen often when you’re not at full focus, whether that is lifting with your back rather than legs, not looking where your fingers are when prepping garnish, etc. If you’re moving slow, odds are you’re slowing your bartenders down too.
  
• Stay on top of cleaning, bussing, guest engagement, and stocking. I know this is broad but this should be mostly common sense and felt it should be on this list.
  
• Communicate! If your dishwasher stops working, your sink wont drain, you hear customers complaining, say something! Talk to a bar manager, let them know ASAP so the problem can be fixed.
  
• CLEAR THE BARTOP. Clear the cups/plates, wipe that shit down, make sure it’s ready for the next customer. This is definitely one of the basics, but I have trained barbacks in these last couple months that just haven’t been able to implement this into their routine. Get those cups washed and ready.
  
• You’re an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands. If a customer puts in a big order of cocktails, beers and shots, get the shots and beers (if legally allowed, and communicate this so drinks don’t get double poured) so the bartender can craft the cocktail. Keep the people moving. If you notice someone at the bar that might be a little too drunk (or just seeming out of the ordinary) that a bartender may have missed, let a bouncer or bartender know.
  

I’ll probably edit this at some point because I’m sure I left some stuff out as I’m honestly pretty tapped out after opening for the last week. To end it off though, just because you’re a barback doesn’t mean your job is unimportant. It really is hard work and as long as you find a good place to put in the hours, you’ll find your hard work generally pays off. It is one of those jobs where you might think, “anyone could do this job,” but I wouldn’t really consider that the case. You gotta be willing to give 150%, because there’s gonna be days where you’re gonna HAVE to give 150%, and not everyone is capable of that. I love the job, and if you have interest in bartending like I do, this barback gig really helped me wrap my head around the clusterfu*k that working in a bar can be, and sometimes is.
I’m not a bartender yet, so if anyone wants to add to this list on what you should be looking for in a barback, feel free to leave some notes! I’d also love to hear from other barbacks, I’ve always got room to improve too!

Dracula: World of War --- The Violet Reaper ---- Humans Don’t Make Good Familiars Book 1 ---- The Lonely World --- Discord ---- YouTube --- My Patreon --- My Author's Page --- ArcAngel98 Wiki ---- The Next Best Hero ---- HDMGF Book 2 ---- Jess and Blinx: The Wizard ---- The Questing Parties ---- Zombies ---- Previous
Jake’s POV
One more, rather intense, sparing session later, and I was back in Suma and Luna’s room. I was being treated for the injuries I’d received during the third round. It was a simple place. Stone walls, those glowing braids sewn into the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The furniture, if you call it that, were just metal and wooden bars and poles placed around the room. In the corner of the room were two boxes, with drapes hanging over the only opening, and a cushion made of animal pelts to sleep in. Lying on the floor, Suma was standing at my side, casting healing spells.
“Jake, these injures are terrible! What happened?” Suma asked. Luna was out with Ciel and his son at the moment, getting seeds and other things from the local market.
“I ran out of mana in the third round of training, and got hit by easily thirty spells in less than ten seconds; from all sides.” I groaned, wincing in pain with every other breath.
“Well, after training with the Royal Mages, I suppose I cannot be surprised that you were injured. How did your other teammates fair?”
“No, it was just me versus them.” I said. Suma gasped snorted in shock.
“W-what?! Then it is no wonder you were injured so badly! Why did they not stop after the first round if they were not going to at least heal you?”
“I wasn’t hurt until the end of the third round. Actually, they ended it because I was injured. They had healers there, but I wanted you to heal me instead since you know-” I coughed hard, feeling my chest rattle and bringing my hand to cover my mouth as I did. Pulling it away, I saw some blood and a cold chill ran straight down my spine and into my stomach. “Oh, that’s probably not good.” Suma immediately fluttered over to my chest, and started another healing spell.
“Never before have I been so grateful for all those confusing lessons on your people’s anatomy.” She said in a frustrated huff.
“Just wish I could have made it through that final round. If I hadn’t run out of mana, my magnetic barrier spell would have stayed up.”
“Jake, it is nothing short of a miracle that you lasted one round, let alone two. And alone no less!”
“You know I won those first two rounds.” I said, smugly.
“You have a head injury, Jake.” Suma said, unfazed. “Once you have stopped spitting up blood, I will treat that too.”
“No, really!” I protested. “And I think I could have won the third one too.”
“If they had not pelted you relentlessly with attack spells?” Suma asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Exactly.” Reaching a hand into my pocket, I pulled out a small wooden plank, engraved with runic symbols and the Queen’s seal, and showed it to Suma. “Got this though.”
“Oh, a Rune-Maker’s permit?”
“Yup. Totally worth it.” I said, just before my toe suddenly popped back into place, sending a sharp and stabbing pain through my entire foot. “AHH! Son of a… ow!”
“That was the last of your injuries. Please, in the future, if you plan on breaking every bone in your body again… change your plans.”
“It wasn’t every bone.”
“But it was quite a lot of them.” She shook her head, probably annoyed. “What are your plans now that you have your license?”
“Nothing immediately, but when we get back to Zach-Ashem, it’ll help with my work with Sela-Car.”
“And what about for the rest of the day? Not another sparring session, I hope?”
“No, but I wish it were.” I said, suddenly feeling anxious. “It’s time.”
“For?”
“To learn how to heal myself.” Holding up my missing hand, she suddenly realized what I meant.
“Ah, do you want me to stay with you while you do?” Suma asked, trying to be gentle, but I’m sure she was still nervous after what happened in the desert. She was no more excited about this than I was.
“Yeah, that…” A deep guttural sigh escaped my lip, almost without me even noticing. “That’d be nice.”
Lying down on the floor, Suma by my head for moral support, it was time to delve into Deyja’s memories. Falling into darkness, I felt that haze wash over my whole body. Searching for information about how he healed himself, despite famously having Death-Mage, I opened the first memory I found. Slowly, everything came into focus as the memory took shape. The first thing I noticed was how high up I was; Deyja was tall. On my, or rather his, left, stood Ashem, who looked different from the last time I saw a memory with him in it. He looked younger, smaller. Both were in a field of rolling hills, surrounded by flowers; some of which came up to their knees. He was using magic to create illusions, and they both were watching them.
“Let us begin our lesson.” Ashem said, his voice rolling like thunder, even despite his youth.
“Thank you again, my friend. I have been wanting to learn to dual-cast for a century now, but have had little time while managing my sections of the project.”
“It is my pleasure, Deyja. I know how hard you have been working with the Neame, and am more than happy to help.” The illusions began to take shape, however it was not pictures, but words written in a language I did not know, floating in the air.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Queen Ompera’s POV
“Leave us.” I ordered my staff. “Svend and I must have a private conversation regarding important matters of state.” Immediately, they all left my private chamber, leaving myself and Svend alone; finally. We laid down in my roost, my head resting on his wing. It had been a long day, full of boring military and diplomatic talks and meetings. All I wanted now was to rest and enjoy my time with him alone.
“Important matters of state? I am certain they all know the truth by this point. Why bother keeping it secret from them further, Ompera?”
“Those gossips would tell our whole kingdom if I ever actually confirmed anything. Let them keep whispering rumors quietly.” I told him, closing my eyes and relaxing.
“Did anything interesting happen today?” Svend asked.
“The campaign to push out the Union from Island of Sangu has officially started. Forces left today, prepared to use Tactical-Scale magic. Evacuations will begin immediately. But I do not want to talk about that.” I told him.
“Okay, then what about the Viking familiar. You went and watched his training today, yes? What did you think?”
I stopped for a moment, unsure how to answer. “He terrifies me.”
“Someone is scary enough to frighten you? He must be quite the intimidating fellow then.” Svend joked.
“Never once in my life have I met someone with so much mana, and such complex and powerful spells. When I requested the General to test him under the guise of training the Royal Mages, I knew what to expect somewhat. I’ve used my Mana Gaze on him before, but I have never seen his complex spells in use until today.” Images of the training flashed into my mind.
“What did he look like?”
“The sheer amount of mana that the spell he used to protect himself with was staggering. It would burn through the entire mana reservoir of the Royal Mages in less than a minute. Yet he sustained it for almost ten minutes. Maybe longer. It looked like wave after wave of mana was just devoured by the air itself. Mana flickered in the air like lightning. Regarding complexity, the only thing I have ever seen even come close to it was Ritual-Magic, and Tactical-Scale magic. But none of that was what truly frightened me.”
“Then what?” Svend asked, listening intently. Clearly uneasy with my descriptions.
“He won.”
“His team won?”
“He fought alone, and still overwhelmed an entire attack squadron of Royal Mages, twice. He was only defeated because he ran out of mana; sacrificed to that monstrous spell. And even when he was finally hit by attack magic, he suffered minimal injuries; until all of the remaining mages seized the opportunity to attack him all at once. But still he refused healing, preferring to have his master heal him instead. Despite how severe his wounds were, he was able to contact his master and left without complaint after receiving his permit.”
“Is this true?” Svend asked, then after a moment of silence he had another question. “Permit?”
“He went through all of that just so that I would issue him a Rune-Crafter’s permit.”
“So, he is insane?”
“Perhaps… But still, to use spells so advanced that they outclassed rituals, and were more powerful defenses that most of the spells used by the dragons; if the records are accurate that is.” I said, suddenly very sure that asking him to go to the islands was the correct choice. “His Drake Squadron should arrive tomorrow. I look forward to seeing the results of his mission.”

Dracula: World of War --- The Violet Reaper ---- Humans Don’t Make Good Familiars Book 1 ---- The Lonely World --- Discord ---- YouTube --- My Patreon --- My Author's Page --- ArcAngel98 Wiki ---- The Next Best Hero ---- HDMGF Book 2 ---- Jess and Blinx: The Wizard ---- The Questing Parties ---- Zombies ---- Previous
Jake’s POV
One more, rather intense, sparing session later, and I was back in Suma and Luna’s room. I was being treated for the injuries I’d received during the third round. It was a simple place. Stone walls, those glowing braids sewn into the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The furniture, if you call it that, were just metal and wooden bars and poles placed around the room. In the corner of the room were two boxes, with drapes hanging over the only opening, and a cushion made of animal pelts to sleep in. Lying on the floor, Suma was standing at my side, casting healing spells.
“Jake, these injures are terrible! What happened?” Suma asked. Luna was out with Ciel and his son at the moment, getting seeds and other things from the local market.
“I ran out of mana in the third round of training, and got hit by easily thirty spells in less than ten seconds; from all sides.” I groaned, wincing in pain with every other breath.
“Well, after training with the Royal Mages, I suppose I cannot be surprised that you were injured. How did your other teammates fair?”
“No, it was just me versus them.” I said. Suma gasped snorted in shock.
“W-what?! Then it is no wonder you were injured so badly! Why did they not stop after the first round if they were not going to at least heal you?”
“I wasn’t hurt until the end of the third round. Actually, they ended it because I was injured. They had healers there, but I wanted you to heal me instead since you know-” I coughed hard, feeling my chest rattle and bringing my hand to cover my mouth as I did. Pulling it away, I saw some blood and a cold chill ran straight down my spine and into my stomach. “Oh, that’s probably not good.” Suma immediately fluttered over to my chest, and started another healing spell.
“Never before have I been so grateful for all those confusing lessons on your people’s anatomy.” She said in a frustrated huff.
“Just wish I could have made it through that final round. If I hadn’t run out of mana, my magnetic barrier spell would have stayed up.”
“Jake, it is nothing short of a miracle that you lasted one round, let alone two. And alone no less!”
“You know I won those first two rounds.” I said, smugly.
“You have a head injury, Jake.” Suma said, unfazed. “Once you have stopped spitting up blood, I will treat that too.”
“No, really!” I protested. “And I think I could have won the third one too.”
“If they had not pelted you relentlessly with attack spells?” Suma asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Exactly.” Reaching a hand into my pocket, I pulled out a small wooden plank, engraved with runic symbols and the Queen’s seal, and showed it to Suma. “Got this though.”
“Oh, a Rune-Maker’s permit?”
“Yup. Totally worth it.” I said, just before my toe suddenly popped back into place, sending a sharp and stabbing pain through my entire foot. “AHH! Son of a… ow!”
“That was the last of your injuries. Please, in the future, if you plan on breaking every bone in your body again… change your plans.”
“It wasn’t every bone.”
“But it was quite a lot of them.” She shook her head, probably annoyed. “What are your plans now that you have your license?”
“Nothing immediately, but when we get back to Zach-Ashem, it’ll help with my work with Sela-Car.”
“And what about for the rest of the day? Not another sparring session, I hope?”
“No, but I wish it were.” I said, suddenly feeling anxious. “It’s time.”
“For?”
“To learn how to heal myself.” Holding up my missing hand, she suddenly realized what I meant.
“Ah, do you want me to stay with you while you do?” Suma asked, trying to be gentle, but I’m sure she was still nervous after what happened in the desert. She was no more excited about this than I was.
“Yeah, that…” A deep guttural sigh escaped my lip, almost without me even noticing. “That’d be nice.”
Lying down on the floor, Suma by my head for moral support, it was time to delve into Deyja’s memories. Falling into darkness, I felt that haze wash over my whole body. Searching for information about how he healed himself, despite famously having Death-Mage, I opened the first memory I found. Slowly, everything came into focus as the memory took shape. The first thing I noticed was how high up I was; Deyja was tall. On my, or rather his, left, stood Ashem, who looked different from the last time I saw a memory with him in it. He looked younger, smaller. Both were in a field of rolling hills, surrounded by flowers; some of which came up to their knees. He was using magic to create illusions, and they both were watching them.
“Let us begin our lesson.” Ashem said, his voice rolling like thunder, even despite his youth.
“Thank you again, my friend. I have been wanting to learn to dual-cast for a century now, but have had little time while managing my sections of the project.”
“It is my pleasure, Deyja. I know how hard you have been working with the Neame, and am more than happy to help.” The illusions began to take shape, however it was not pictures, but words written in a language I did not know, floating in the air.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Queen Ompera’s POV
“Leave us.” I ordered my staff. “Svend and I must have a private conversation regarding important matters of state.” Immediately, they all left my private chamber, leaving myself and Svend alone; finally. We laid down in my roost, my head resting on his wing. It had been a long day, full of boring military and diplomatic talks and meetings. All I wanted now was to rest and enjoy my time with him alone.
“Important matters of state? I am certain they all know the truth by this point. Why bother keeping it secret from them further, Ompera?”
“Those gossips would tell our whole kingdom if I ever actually confirmed anything. Let them keep whispering rumors quietly.” I told him, closing my eyes and relaxing.
“Did anything interesting happen today?” Svend asked.
“The campaign to push out the Union from Island of Sangu has officially started. Forces left today, prepared to use Tactical-Scale magic. Evacuations will begin immediately. But I do not want to talk about that.” I told him.
“Okay, then what about the Viking familiar. You went and watched his training today, yes? What did you think?”
I stopped for a moment, unsure how to answer. “He terrifies me.”
“Someone is scary enough to frighten you? He must be quite the intimidating fellow then.” Svend joked.
“Never once in my life have I met someone with so much mana, and such complex and powerful spells. When I requested the General to test him under the guise of training the Royal Mages, I knew what to expect somewhat. I’ve used my Mana Gaze on him before, but I have never seen his complex spells in use until today.” Images of the training flashed into my mind.
“What did he look like?”
“The sheer amount of mana that the spell he used to protect himself with was staggering. It would burn through the entire mana reservoir of the Royal Mages in less than a minute. Yet he sustained it for almost ten minutes. Maybe longer. It looked like wave after wave of mana was just devoured by the air itself. Mana flickered in the air like lightning. Regarding complexity, the only thing I have ever seen even come close to it was Ritual-Magic, and Tactical-Scale magic. But none of that was what truly frightened me.”
“Then what?” Svend asked, listening intently. Clearly uneasy with my descriptions.
“He won.”
“His team won?”
“He fought alone, and still overwhelmed an entire attack squadron of Royal Mages, twice. He was only defeated because he ran out of mana; sacrificed to that monstrous spell. And even when he was finally hit by attack magic, the injuries he suffered minimal injuries; until all of the remaining mages seized the opportunity to attack him all at once. But still he refused healing, preferring to have his master heal him instead. Despite how severe his wounds were, he was able to contact his master and left without complaint after receiving his permit.”
“Is this true?” Svend asked, then after a moment of silence he had another question. “Permit?”
“He went through all of that just so that I would issue him a Rune-Crafter’s permit.”
“So, he is insane?”
“Perhaps… But still, to use spells so advanced that they outclassed rituals, and were more powerful defenses that most of the spells used by the dragons; if the records are accurate that is.” I said, suddenly very sure that asking him to go to the islands was the correct choice. “His Drake Squadron should arrive tomorrow. I look forward to seeing the results of his mission.”

To clear up a common misconception that this is something that only happens extremely rarely, here's a list of every time more than 4 words have fit one of the categories and what number puzzle it occurred in. The first 4 words are the answers and every word after that in parenthesis are words that fit that category but were part of another group. Also, category names might not be exactly the same as the ones used.
Edit because some of the comments think I'm actually angry about Connections doing this: Some people think that I compiled this list because I'm anti-overlap when it's actually the opposite case. I actually like the overlap since I think it makes for a more interesting puzzle. I feel like every so often there's an angry comment about more than 4 words fitting a category and acting like this has never happened before so partially out of pettiness and a love of useless stats I decided to make this list to serve as proof that this has been a deliberate part of Connections since the start.

#4 Cleaning Verbs

Possible answers: DUST, MOP, SWEEP, VACUUM, (IRON)

#5 Condiments

Possible answers: KETCHUP, MAYO, RELISH, TARTAR, (MUSTARD)

#5 Clue Characters

Possible answers: GREEN, MUSTARD, PLUM, SCARLET, (PEACOCK)

#6 Shades of Blue

Possible answers: BABY, MIDNIGHT, POWDER, ROYAL, (SEA)

#6 Rappers

Possible answers: COMMON, FUTURE, ICE CUBE, Q-TIP, (CHANCE)

#9 Shirts

Possible answers: CAMI, HALTER, TANK, TEE, (POLO)

#9 Vegetables

Possible answers: BEET, CARROT, CORN, ONION, (SQUASH)

#9 Insects

Possible answers: ANT, BEETLE, MANTIS, TERMITE, (CRICKET)

#10 Countries

Possible answers: CHAD, GEORGIA, JORDAN, TOGO, (TURKEY)

#10 Birds

Possible answers: CRANE, JAY, TURKEY, SWALLOW, (KIWI)

#11 Spices

Possible answers: CARDAMOM, CLOVE, CORIANDER, CUMIN, (GINGER)

#11 Terms of Endearment

Possible answers: BOO, HONEY, SUGAR, SWEETIE, (BABY)

#12 Animal Group Names

Possible answers: FLOCK, PACK, POD, SCHOOL, (PRIDE)

#12 Deadly Sins

Possible answers: ENVY, GREED, LUST, PRIDE, (SLOTH)

#13 Airlines

Possible answers: FRONTIER, SPIRIT, UNITED, VIRGIN, (DELTA)

#13 Greek Letters

Possible answers: BETA, CHI, DELTA, IOTA, (NU)

#13 Silent G's

Possible answers: GNAT, GNAW, GNOCCHI, GNOME, (GNU)

#14 Famous Brothers

Possible answers: JONAS, MARX, WARNER, WRIGHT, (MARIO)

#14 Honda Vehicles

Possible answers: ACCORD, CIVIC, PASSPORT, PILOT, (CANOPY)

#15 Colors

Possible answers: BROWN, PINK, TURQUOISE, VIOLET, (SILVER)

#15 Fishing Equipment

Possible answers: LURE, REEL, ROD, TACKLE, (HOOK)

#16 Nuts

Possible answers: ALMOND, CASHEW, PECAN, WALNUT (PEANUT)

#17 Neck Accessories

Possible answers: ASCOT, BOLO, TIE, SCARF, (BOW)

#19 Disagreement

Possible answers: QUARREL, ROW, SPAT, TIFF, QUARREL, (BEEF)

#20 Grains

Possible answers: BARLEY, OAT, RYE, SPELT, (RICE)

#20 Royal Titles

Possible answers: BARON, EARL, KING, PRINCE, (DUKE)

#23 60's Band Member

Possible answers: BEACH BOY, BEATLE, BYRD, MONKEE, (ROLLING STONE)

#23 Dance Fads

Possible answers: DOUGIE, MACARENA, MASHED POTATO, TWIST, (VOGUE)

#25 Desserts

Possible answers: CHEESECAKE, FLAN, MOUSSE, TIRAMISU, (FUDGE)

#25 Animals with Tusks

Possible answers: ELEPHANT, HIPPO, NARWHAL, WARTHOG, (WALRUS)

#26 Countries (Holland is technically a region but it's often used as an informal name for the Netherlands)

Possible answers: DENMARK, GREECE, POLAND, PORTUGAL, (HOLLAND)

#26 Spelled with Roman Numerals

Possible answers: DILL, LIVID, MILD, MIX, (MIMIC)

#27 Body Parts

Possible answers: HEART, LIVER, LUNG, KIDNEY, (SPINE)

#28 File Extensions

Possible answers: GIF, PDF, TIFF, ZIP, (DOC)

#28 Fruits

Possible answers: BANANA, COCONUT, MANGO, PINEAPPLE, (KIWI)

#30 Joints

Possible answers: HIP, KNEE, SHOULDER, WRIST, (ELBOW)

#33 Boats

Possible answers: FERRY, JUNK, TUG, YACHT, (SUB)

#33 Cuts of Beef

Possible answers: FLANK, LOIN, ROUND, SHANK, (CHUCK)

#34 Smell

Possible answers: AROMA, BOUQUET, FRAGRANCE, SCENT, (FUNK)

#34 Music Genres

Possible answers: BLUES, COUNTRY, FUNK, SOUL, (ROCK)

#35 Metals

Possible answers: IRON, LEAD, TIN, ZINC, (NICKEL)

#36 Animals

Possible answers: KANGAROO, KOALA, WALLABY, WOMBAT, (MOLE RAT)

#38 Trees

Possible answers: ASH, CEDAR, MAPLE, PINE, (ELM)

#38 Land Formation

Possible answers: HILL, MOUNTAIN, PLATEAU, VALLEY, (PLAIN)

#38 Bagel Flavors

Possible answers: EVERYTHING, ONION, PLAIN, POPPY, (SESAME)

#41 Islands

Possible answers: CUBA, JAPAN, MALTA, PALAU, (FIJI), (JAVA)

#42 Punctuation Marks

Possible answers: COLON, COMMA, HYPHEN, PERIOD, (DASH)

#43 Birds

Possible answers: BOOBY, GULL, PELICAN, PUFFIN, (CANARY)

#45 Modes of Transportation

Possible answers: BOAT, CAR, PLANE, TRAIN, (SUBWAY)

#46 Cities

Possible answers: CHICAGO, MUNICH, PHILADELPHIA, RIO, (MANHATTAN)

#46 Fashion Magazines

Possible answers: ALLURE, ELLE, GLAMOUR, W, (COSMOPOLITAN)

#46 Storms

Possible answers: BLIZZARD, CYCLONE, SQUALL, TORNADO, (HURRICANE)

#48 Apparitions

Possible answers: GHOST, PHANTOM, SPECTER, SPIRIT, (GENIE)

#49 Relatives

Possible answers: AUNT, COUSIN, MOTHER, NEPHEW, (GRANDFATHER)

#49 Offbeat

Possible answers: DAFFY, KOOKY, QUIRKY, WACKY, (CUCKOO)

#49 Fictional Ducks

Possible answers: DAISY, DEWEY, DONALD, SCROOGE, (DAFFY)

#50 Imperial Measurements

Possible answers: FOOT, INCH, MILE, YARD, (QUART)

#52 Rodents

Possible answers: GERBIL, HAMSTER, RAT, VOLE, (MOUSE)

#52 Musical Instruments

Possible answers: HARP, HORN, ORGAN, TRIANGLE, (KEYBOARD)

#52 Complain

Possible answers: CARP, GRIPE, GROUSE, MOAN, (HARP)

#53 Animal Group Names

Possible answers: COLONY, HERD, PRIDE, SWARM, (FAMILY)

#53 AP Classes

Possible answers: BIO, CHEM, GOV, STATS, (LIT)

#54 Places for Worship

Possible answers: ALTAR, RELIQUARY, SHRINE, TEMPLE, (ABBEY)

#54 Presidents

Possible answers: CALVIN, CHESTER, GROVER, HARRY, (GARFIELD)

#56 Dances

Possible answers: HUSTLE, SALSA, SWING, TANGO, (TAP)

#57 Patterns

Possible answers: HOUNDSTOOTH, PAISLEY, PLAID, STRIPES, (DOT)

#58 Arachnids

Possible answers: MITE, SCORPION, SPIDER, TICK, (BLACK WIDOW)

#58 Fish

Possible answers: CHAR, EEL, PERCH, SHARK, (CATFISH)

#58 Superheroes

Possible answers: BLACK WIDOW, BLADE, FLASH, STORM, (TICK)

#59 Quantity

Possible answers: FEW, HANDFUL, SEVERAL, SOME, (PAIR)

#59 Celestial Objects

Possible answers: ASTEROID, COMET, MOON, PLANET, (SUN)

#60 Sports Venues

Possible answers: COURT, DIAMOND, FIELD, RINK, (RING)

#60 Jewelry

Possible answers: ANKLET, BANGLE, BROOCH, PENDANT, (RING), (CHARM)

#62 State Abbreviations

Possible answers: CO, MA, ME, PA, (LA)

#62 Period Table Symbols

Possible answers: FE, HE, NA, NI, (CO), (PA), (LA), (TI)

#63 Slang for Zero

Possible answers: JACK, NADA, NOTHING, SQUAT, (ZIP)

#63 Exercises

Possible answers: CURL, LUNGE, PLANK, PRESS, (SQUAT), (CRUNCH)

#63 Captains

Possible answers: CRUNCH, KANGAROO, OBVIOUS, PLANET, (JACK)

#64 Dog Names

Possible answers: FIDO, LUCKY, ROVER, SPOT, (REX)

#64 Perceive

Possible answers: CATCH, NOTICE, OBSERVE, SEE, (SPOT)

#64 Fishing Terms

Possible answers: BAIT, CHUM, FLY, SINKER, (CATCH)

#65 Energy

Possible answers: JUICE, SPIRIT, STEAM, VIGOR, (GAS), (FIRE)

#66 Time Periods

Possible answers: CENTURY, DECADE, MILLENNIUM, YEAR, (MONTH)

#66 Breakfast Foods

Possible answers: CEREAL, OMELET, PANCAKE, WAFFLE, (BACON), (EGG)

#67 Desserts

Possible answers: CAKE, COBBLER, PIE, TART, (FUDGE)

#67 Occupations

Possible answers: FISHER, MASON, MILLER, SMITH, (DOCTOR)

#68 Extremely

Possible answers: AWFUL, QUITE, SUPER, VERY, (REAL)

#68 Currencies

Possible answers: RAND, REAL, STERLING, WON, (POUND)

#68 _____Cake

Possible answers: CARROT, COFFEE, POUND, SPONGE, (CUP)

#69 Shoes

Possible answers: CLOG, PUMP, SLIDE, WEDGE, (MARY JANE)

#69 Slang for Marijuana

Possible answers: GRASS, HERB, MARY JANE, WEED, (BUD), (POT)

#70 Camping Supplies

Possible answers: COOLER, LANTERN, SLEEPING BAG, TENT, (CAMPER)

#70 Insult

Possible answers: BARB, DIG, DISS, JAB, (SLIGHT)

#71 States

Possible answers: ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEVADA, UTAH, (KANSAS), (MONTANA)

#72 Santa's Reindeer

Possible answers: COMET, CUPID, DASHER, VIXEN, (DANCER)

#72 Seen on Valentine's Day

Possible answers: CARD, HEART, CHOCOLATE, ROSE, (CUPID)

#73 Facial Hair

Possible answers: BEARD, GOATEE, MUSTACHE, STUBBLE, (HANDLEBAR)

#73 Pursue

Possible answers: DOG, FOLLOW, TAIL, TRACK, (SHADOW)

#74 Failures

Possible answers: BUSTS, FLOPS, MISSES, TURKEYS, (DUDS)

#75 Social Gathering

Possible answers: BASH, BLOWOUT, PARTY, SHINDIG, (MIXER)

#75 Found in a Kitchen

Possible answers: COUNTER, MIXER, RANGE, SINK, (ISLAND)

#79 Depart Quickly

Possible answers: BOOK, BOUNCE, RUN, SPLIT, (JET)

#79 Shades of Black

Possible answers: EBONY, JET, ONYX, RAVEN, (BLACK)

#80 Influence

Possible answers: CLOUT, PULL, WEIGHT, SWAY, (IMPACT)

#81 Appetizer Unit

Possible answers: FRY, NACHO, POPPER, WING, (CHIP), (CRACKER)

#81 Response to a Correct Answer

Possible answers: BINGO, CORRECT, RIGHT, YES, (DING)

#82 Drink Vessels

Possible answers: GOBLET, SNIFTER, TUMBLER, STEIN, (FLUTE)

#82 Woodwinds

Possible answers: CLARINET, FLUTE, OBOE, SAXOPHONE, (BASSOON)

#82 American Poets

Possible answers: BISHOP, FROST, OLDS, POUND, (STEIN)

#83 Unclothed

Possible answers: BARE, NAKED, NUDE, UNCLAD, (BUFF)

#83 Football Actions

Possible answers: FUMBLE, PUNT, SACK, SNAP, (TURNOVER)

#83 Finger Actions

Possible answers: BUFF, CLIP, FILE, POLISH, (SNAP)

#84 Female Animals

Possible answers: COW, DOE, HEN, MARE, (EWE)

#84 Pronouns

Possible answers: I, IT, THEY, WE, (YOU)

#84 Roman Numerals

Possible answers: D, L, M, V, (I)

#86 Information Displays

Possible answers: CHART, DIAGRAM, GRAPH, MAP, (PIE)

#86 Additional Benefit

Possible answers: BONUS, EXTRA, ICING, PERK, (GRAVY)

#86 Creatures in Folklore

Possible answers: GNOME, GOBLIN, OGRE, TROLL, (DRAGON)

#89 Alcohol

Possible answers: CIDER, PORT, SAKE, STOUT, (SPIRIT), (SCOTCH)

#89 Pixar Movies

Possible answers: BRAVE, CARS, COCO, UP, (SOUL)

#90 Baseball Calls

Possible answers: BALL, OUT, SAFE, STRIKE, (WALK)

#90 Fish

Possible answers: CARP, CATFISH, FLOUNDER, SMELT, (SALMON)

#91 Jungle Animals

Possible answers: ANACONDA, CAPYBARA, JAGUAR, TOUCAN, (LION)

#91 Lowest Point

Possible answers: BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION, (LEGS)

#92 Halloween Decorations

Possible answers: BAT, COBWEB, PUMPKIN, TOMBSTONE, (BONES)

#93 Animal Sounds

Possible answers: BUZZ, CLUCK, MEOW, OINK, (BARK)

#93 Inside Info

Possible answers: DIRT, DISH, SCOOP, SKINNY, (TEA)

#95 Songs that are Names

Possible answers: ALEJANDRO, LOLA, MICHELLE, STAN, (IRIS)

#96 Animals

Possible answers: BUFFALO, COW, GOAT, SHEEP, (HORSE)

#96 Gymnastics Apparatus

Possible answers: FLOOR, HORSE, RINGS, VAULT, (BEAM)

#97 Fairy Tale Figures

Possible answers: GIANT, PRINCESS, WITCH, WOLF, (QUEEN)

#97 "Peanuts" Characters

Possible answers: CHARLIE, PEPPERMINT PATTY, PIGPEN, WOODSTOCK, (LUCY)

#98 Fruits

Possible answers: APRICOT, FIG, GRAPE, LIME, (BERRY)

#98 Luxurious

Possible answers: DELUXE, GRAND, LAVISH, OPULENT, (SWANK)

#99 Intelligent

Possible answers: BRIGHT, CLEVER, QUICK, SHARP, (SMART)

#100 Web Browser-Related

Possible answers: BOOKMARK, HISTORY, TAB, WINDOW, (LINK), (POCKET)

#100 Dirty_____

Possible answers: DOZEN, JOKE, LAUNDRY, MARTINI, (WINDOW)

#101 Bowling Terms

Possible answers: ALLEY, BALL, LANE, PIN, (SPARE)

#101 Common Merch Items

Possible answers: MUG, PEN, TEE, TOTE, (PIN)

#102 Vehicles

Possible answers: BUS, CAR, MOTORCYCLE, TRUCK, (SCOOTER)

#102 Muppets

Possible answers: ANIMAL, BEAKER, GONZO, SCOOTER, (CHEF), (PIGGY)

#103 Soda Fountain Orders (Concrete can mean a type of milkshake or frozen custard)

Possible answers: FLOAT, MALT, SHAKE, SUNDAE, (CONCRETE), (SPLIT)

#104 Robust

Possible answers: FIT, HEALTHY, SOUND, STRONG, (WELL)

#104 Water Sources

Possible answers: FOUNTAIN, SPRING, TAP, WELL, (SINK)

#105 Kitchen Utensils

Possible answers: GRATER, LADLE, PEELER, WHISK, (CLEAVER)

#106 Wedding Items

Possible answers: BOUQUET, RING, TRAIN, VEIL, (CAKE)

#106 Encase

Possible answers: CAKE, COAT, COVER, CRUST, (VEIL)

#107 Snakes

Possible answers: BOA, MAMBA, PYTHON, VIPER, (GARTER)

#108 Produced by Trees

Possible answers: ACORN, CONE, POLLEN, SAP, (GUM), (NEEDLE)

#108 Candy

Possible answers: CHOCOLATE, GUM, LICORICE, LOLLIPOP, (SUCKER)

#108 Target of a Scheme

Possible answers: CHUMP, FOOL, MARK, SUCKER, (SAP)

#109 Rap Subgenres

Possible answers: BOUNCE, CRUNK, DRILL, GRIME, (TRAP)

#110 Golf Clubs

Possible answers: IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD, (CLUB)

#112 Coffee Counter Items

Possible answers: CUP, LID, STIRRER, STRAW, (STICK)

#114 Talk

Possible answers: BLATHER, CHAT, GAB, JABBER, (YAK)

#115 Christmas-Related

Possible answers: MISTLETOE, REINDEER, SNOWMAN, STOCKING, (PRESENT), (CANDY CANE)

#116 MLB Teams

Possible answers: ANGEL, CUB, MET, RED, (NAT)

#119 Celebratory Occasion

Possible answers: ANNIVERSARY, BIRTHDAY, SHOWER, WEDDING, (RECEPTION), (SERVICE)

#120 Crops

Possible answers: CORN, CUCUMBER, PEPPER, TOMATO, (MELON)

#121 Bible Books

Possible answers: ACTS, JOB, KINGS, MARK, (GENESIS)

#121 NHL Teams

Possible answers: FLAMES, KRAKEN, STARS, WILD, (KINGS), (RANGER)

#123 Conceal

Possible answers: BLOCK, COVER, HIDE, MASK, (SHIELD)

#124 "L" Cities

Possible answers: LAGOS, LIMERICK, LINCOLN, LUXOR, (LIMA)

#124 Poetry Terms

Possible answers: LINE, METER, RHYME, VERSE, (LIMERICK)

#125 Butt

Possible answers: BOTTOM, BUNS, SEAT, TAIL, (BOOTY)

#126 Tools

Possible answers: HAMMER, FILE, LEVEL, SAW, (WRENCH)

#126 Keyboard Shortcuts

Possible answers: COPY, FIND, PRINT, SAVE, (FILE)

#127 Days of the Week

Possible answers: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, THURSDAY, (WEDNESDAY), (TUESDAY)

#127 Go Bad

Possible answers: ROT, SOUR, SPOIL, TURN, (FESTER)

#129 Bit of Air

Possible answers: BREEZE, DRAFT, GUST, PUFF, (PANT)

#130 Falsify

Possible answers: FABRICATE, FAKE, FIX, FORGE, (FUDGE)

#130 TV Shows

Possible answers: FARGO, FIREFLY, FLEABAG, FLIPPER, (FRIENDS)

#131 Animal Homes

Possible answers: DEN, LAIR, HIVE, NEST, (WEB), (WARREN)

#131 Equitable

Possible answers: EQUAL, EVEN, FAIR, JUST, (GOOD)

#132 Tableware

Possible answers: BOWL, DISH, PLATE, SAUCER, (CROCK), (CUP)

#133 British Food

Possible answers: MASH, ROAST, SCONE, TRIFLE, (BANGER)

#133 Predicament

Possible answers: BIND, PICKLE, SCRAPE, SPOT, (JAM)

#134 Impel

Possible answers: DRIVE, INSPIRE, MOTIVATE, SPUR, (SPARK)

#135 Compound Words

Possible answers: BACKPACK, BIGWIG, DOWNTOWN, RAGTAG, (TEXTBOOK)

#136 Grammar Tenses

Possible answers: FUTURE, PAST, PERFECT, PRESENT, (SIMPLE)

#136 The 12 Days of Christmas

Possible answers: DRUMMER, LADY, RING, SWAN, (LORD)

#137 Excellent

Possible answers: ACES, KEEN, NEATO, NIFTY, (SWELL)

#137 Bubbles

Possible answers: FOAM, FROTH, HEAD, LATHER, (BUBBLE)

#138 Metals

Possible answers: COPPER, GOLD, NICKEL, SILVER, (BRASS), (MERCURY)

#139 Aesthetics

Possible answers: DRESS, LOOK, MANNER, STYLE, (TASTE)

#140 Mishmash

Possible answers: HASH, JUMBLE, MEDLEY, STEW, (LITTER)

#143 Filler Words

Possible answers: ERM, UH, UM, WELL, (LIKE), (ER)

#146 Clue Weapons

Possible answers: CANDLESTICK, KNIFE, ROPE, WRENCH, (PIPE)

#147 Unchanging

Possible answers: EVEN, LEVEL, STABLE, STEADY, (UNIFORM)

#147 Long, Sharp Objects

Possible answers: LANCE, PIN, SKEWER, SPIT, (PITCHFORK)

#148 Musical Format

Possible answers: LP, PLATTER, VINYL, WAX, (CD)

#148 Cube-Shaped

Possible answers: BOUILLON, DIE, ICE, SUGAR, (STOCK)

#150 Equivocate

Possible answers: HEDGE, SEE-SAW, WAVER, YO-YO, (FLIP-FLOP), (WAFFLE)

#151 Podcasts

Possible answers: RADIOLAB, SERIAL, UP FIRST, WTF, (FRESH AIR), (REPLY ALL)

#152 Intelligent

Possible answers: BRIGHT, QUICK, SHARP, SMART, (SAGE)

#152 Medieval Weapons

Possible answers: CLUB, MACE, SPEAR, SWORD, (AXE)

#153 Filmmaking Equipment

Possible answers: BOOM, DOLLY, LENS, TRIPOD, (GRIP)

#154 Sports Professionals

Possible answers: COACH, GM, PLAYER, SCOUT, (SUB)

#154 Car Companies

Possible answers: BMW, HONDA, JAGUAR, SUBARU, (FORD), (GM)

#156 Vocal Fanfare

Possible answers: BEHOLD, PRESTO, TADA, VOILA, (SURPRISE)

#157 Magazines

Possible answers: O, OK, US, W, (EW), (SI)

#157 Yes

Possible answers: HAI, JA, SI, DA, (OK), (OUI)

#158 Animals

Possible answers: BUFFALO, DEER, FISH, MOOSE, (BULL), (STEER), (SEAL)

#160 Quick Observation

Possible answers: GANDER, GLANCE, GLIMPSE, LOOK, (PEEK)

#160 Parts of a Mountain

Possible answers: CLIFF, CRAG, LEDGE, RIDGE, (BLUFF), (PEAK)

#161 _____Day

Possible answers: EARTH, GROUNDHOG, LABOR, MAY, (BIRTH)

#162 Primates

Possible answers: BABOON, BONOBO, GIBBON, GORILLA, (APE)

#162 Fashionable

Possible answers: CHIC, HIP, HOT, IN, (VOGUE)

#164 Area Between Mountains

Possible answers: CANYON, GULCH, PASS, RAVINE, (GORGE)

#165 Food

Possible answers: PASTY, PIE, TART, TURNOVER, (PARFAIT), (RAGOUT), (CURRY)

#165 Countries

Possible answers: JAPAN, POLAND, TUNISIA, TURKEY, (JORDAN)

#166 Reality Shows

Possible answers: ALONE, CATFISH, CHOPPED, SURVIVOR, (BACHELOR)

#168 Municipalities

Possible answers: CITY, TOWN, COUNTY, VILLAGE, (CAPITAL)

#171 Parts of the Foot

Possible answers: ARCH, BALL, SOLE, TOE, (HEEL)

#171 Dog Commands

Possible answers: COME, DOWN, SIT, STAY, (HEEL)

#173 Ways to Remove Hair

Possible answers: SHAVE, THREAD, TWEEZE, WAX, (CUT)

#174 Hold Back

Possible answers: CAP, CHECK, CURB, LIMIT, (HAMPER)

#175 Excite, with "Up"

Possible answers: AMP, FIRE, HYPE, PUMP, (GAS)

#177 TV Shows

Possible answers: CHEERS, EUPHORIA, FELICITY, GLEE, (FRASIER)

#178 Found on Sheet Music

Possible answers: CLEF, NOTE, REST, STAFF, (SCALES)

#178 Zodiac Symbols

Possible answers: BULL, CRAB, SCALES, TWINS, (VIRGIN)

#180 Absolute

Possible answers: PURE, SHEER, TOTAL, UTTER, (STARK)

#180 Express

Possible answers: AIR, SPEAK, STATE, VOICE, (UTTER)

#181 Cooking Oils

Possible answers: CORN, OLIVE, PALM, PEANUT, (RICE)

#183 Luxurious Fabrics

Possible answers: CHIFFON, SILK, SATIN, VELVET, (LACE)

#185 -ough

Possible answers: BOUGH, COUGH, DOUGH, TOUGH, (ROUGH), (ENOUGH)

#189 Used to Build a Snowman

Possible answers: CARROT, COAL, SNOW, STICKS, (STONES)

#190 NYC Avenues

Possible answers: BROADWAY, FIFTH, MADISON, PARK, (SECOND), (FIRST), (ELEVENTH)

#191 Accessories

Possible answers: BELT, BRACELET, TIE, WATCH, (CHARM)

#199 Name Prefixes

Possible answers: GEN, MS, PROF, REV, (DR)

#200 Parts of a Car

Possible answers: BUMPER, HOOD, TIRE, TRUNK, (DASH)

#201 Single Letter Homophones

Possible answers: BEE, EX, GEE, JAY, (TEE)

#203 New Years-Related

Possible answers: BALL, COUNTDOWN, FIREWORKS, KISS, (PARTY), (RESOLUTION), (CHAMPAGNE)

#207 Gift-Giving Accessories

Possible answers: BOW, BOX, CARD, WRAPPING, (MESSAGE)

#210 Kinds of Exams

Possible answers: BAR, FINAL, ORAL, PHYSICAL, (EYE)

#211 Long, Skinny Objects

Possible answers: POLE, ROD, STAFF, STICK, (CLUB)

#212 Cooking Elements

Possible answers: ACID, FAT, HEAT, SALT, (PEPPER), (SMOKE)

#213 Seen at a Casino

Possible answers: CARDS, CHIPS, DICE, SLOTS, (POKER)

#213 Ways to Prepare Cheese

Possible answers: CRUMBLE, MELT, SHRED, SLICE, (GRATE)

#217 Thieve

Possible answers: PINCH, ROB, STEAL, SWIPE, (JACK)

#218 Medicine Formats

Possible answers: CAPSULE, CREAM, SYRUP, TABLET, (POD)

#221 Colors

Possible answers: BLUE, GREEN, WHITE, YELLOW, (SCARLET)

#222 Minced Oaths

Possible answers: CURSES, DARN, RATS, SHOOT, (FUDGE), (NUTS)

#224 Contains Wax

Possible answers: CANDLE, CRAYON, HONEYCOMB, SEAL, (EAR)

#229 Baseball-Related

Possible answers: BALL, BASE, BAT, GLOVE, (STRIKE)

#233 Mario Power-ups

Possible answers: FEATHER, STAR, MUSHROOM, FLOWER, (HAMMER)

#234 _____Pit

Possible answers: BARBECUE, ORCHESTRA, SNAKE, TAR, (FIRE)

#235 Make Shorter

Possible answers: CLIP, CUT, PARE, TRIM, (PRUNE)

#235 Muscular

Possible answers: BUILT, JACKED, RIPPED, SWOLE, (TRIM), (BUFF)

#237 Farm Fixtures

Possible answers: COOP, PEN, STABLE, STY, (RANGE)

#238 Unexciting

Possible answers: BORING, DULL, MUNDANE, VANILLA, (ROUTINE), (DRY)

#239 Ecclesiastical Titles

Possible answers: BISHOP, CARDINAL, PASTOR, PRIOR, (BROTHER), (LORD)

#251 Media Attention

Possible answers: COVERAGE, EXPOSURE, PRESS, PUBLICITY, (MEDIA)

#254 Little Bit of Liquid

Possible answers: BEAD, GLOB, DROP, TEAR, (DRIP)

#257 Shades of Green

Possible answers: OLIVE, FOREST, LIME, MINT, (CACTUS)

#260 Ilk

Possible answers: KIND, SORT, TYPE, VARIETY, (MANNER)

#263 Propel into the Air

Possible answers: HOP, JUMP, LEAP, SPRING, (VAULT)

#266 Large Amount

Possible answers: MASS, SEA, SLEW, TON, (WAVE)

#266 Fall under Pressure

Possible answers: BUCKLE, CAVE, COLLAPSE, GIVE, (FLOP)

#268 Pop Stars

Possible answers: GRANDE, MARS, STYLES, SWIFT, (LEGEND)

#269 Found at an Airport

Possible answers: HANGAR, RUNWAY, TARMAC, TERMINAL, (WINDSOCK)

#269 Ends in an Article of Clothing (A Mac is a raincoat)

Possible answers: FOXGLOVE, GUMSHOE, TURNCOAT, WINDSOCK, (TARMAC), (LAWSUIT)

#271 Food Preservation Techniques

Possible answers: CAN, CURE, DRY, FREEZE, (SPICE)

#272 Space_____

Possible answers: BAR, CADET, HEATER, STATION, (BLANKET)

#273 Keyboard Keys

Possible answers: COMMAND, CONTROL, OPTION, SHIFT, (SPACE)

#283 Seen at a Sports Stadium

Possible answers: ASTROTURF, JUMBOTRON, SCOREBOARD, SKYBOX, (KISSCAM), (JOURNEYMAN)

#284 Animals

Possible answers: COW, DOE, HEN, EWE, (YAK)

#284 Palindromes

Possible answers: BIB, EYE, GAG, POP, (EWE)

#285 Olympic Sports

Possible answers: BREAKING, HOCKEY, TRAMPOLINE, SKELETON, (CRICKET), (SQUASH), (VOLLEYBALL)

#289 Plant Growths

Possible answers: BLOOM, BUD, SHOOT, SPROUT, (CORONA)

#290 Quarrel

Possible answers: FIGHT, ROW, SCRAP, TIFF, (WAR)

#290 Games of Chance (Poker is technically a game of skill but it's still highly associated with chance)

Possible answers: BINGO, LOTTERY, ROULETTE, WAR, (POKER)

#291 Whale Species

Possible answers: BLUE, FIN, GRAY, RIGHT, (PILOT)

#293 Food Preservation Techniques

Possible answers: CANS, CURES, SALTS, SMOKES, (JAMS), (PICKLES)

#296 Thrust

Possible answers: JAB, POKE, PROD, STICK, (ELBOW)

#301 _____Horse

Possible answers: CHARLEY, CRAZY, DARK, GIFT, (PRIZE)

#302 Brief Moment

Possible answers: FLASH, HEARTBEAT, JIFF, WINK, (ZIP)

#302 Dispute

Possible answers: CLASH, TANGLE, SCRAP, TIFF, (SPAT)

#303 Hair Care Items

Possible answers: BRUSH, COMB, DRYER, IRON, (OIL)

#307 Seen at the Circus

Possible answers: CLOWN, RING, TENT, TRAPEZE, (LION)

#310 Parts of a Theatre

Possible answers: BALCONY, BOX, ORCHESTRA, STAGE, (FLOOR), (FLAT)

#312 Golden_____

Possible answers: FLEECE, GIRLS, PARACHUTE, RULE, (MEAN)

#315 Starting with the Same Sound

Possible answers: CYMBAL, SCIMITAR, SIMMER, SYMPHONY, (SYMBOL)

#318 Mexican Food-Related

Possible answers: CILANTRO, LIME, ONION, SALSA, (PICO), (WRAP), (MOLE)

#328 _____Sale

Possible answers: BAKE, CLEARANCE, GARAGE, SAMPLE, (YARD)

#329 Enjoy

Possible answers: FANCY, LOVE, RELISH, SAVOR, (LIKE)

#330 Quantity

Possible answers: FEW, MANY, SEVERAL, SOME, (COUPLE), (HANDFUL)

#333 Restrict

Possible answers: CHECK, CONTAIN, CURB, LIMIT, (CAP)

#334 Things that Spin

Possible answers: CAROUSEL, GLOBE, RECORD, TOP, (MERCURY)

#336 Cuts of Meat

Possible answers: CHUCK, FLANK, LOIN, ROUND, (RIB)

#339 Forthright

Possible answers: DIRECT, FRANK, OPEN, STRAIGHT, (PLAIN)

#342 Games

Possible answers: CATEGORIES, CHARADES, FISHBOWL, WEREWOLF, (MOUSETRAP)

#345 Billiards-Related

Possible answers: BALL, CHALK, CUE, RACK, (POCKET)

#348 Things You can Crack

Possible answers: EGG, KNUCKLES, SMILE, WINDOW, (CORN)

#351 _____Iron

Possible answers: PUMP, STEAM, TIRE, WAFFLE, (FLAT)

#355 Things People Shake

Possible answers: HANDS, MARACA, POLAROID, SNOWGLOBE, (BODY)

If you would like to buy, please check my thread on /gamesale.
  Photos upon request.
 

Storage Solutions	Condition
Thin Jewel Case for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray	New. Clear front, black back
Standard Jewel Case for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray	New. Clear front and back
Genesis/Famicom Retro Protection	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
Super Famicom Cartridge Retro Protection	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
SNES Cartridge Retro Protection	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
NES Cartridge Retro Protection	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector

 

amiibo	Condition
Tears of the Kingdom Link	Loose
Ocarina of Time Link	Loose
Majora's Mask Link	Loose
Smash Bros. Link	Loose
Skyward Sword Link	Loose
Zelda & Loftwing	Loose
Wind Waker Link	Loose
Wind Waker Zelda	Loose
Twilight Princess Link	Loose
Wolf Link and Midna	Loose
Callie	Loose
Marie	Loose
Inkling Boy [Neon Green]	Loose
Inkling Girl [Neon Pink]	Loose
Inkling Squid [Neon Purple]	Loose
Splatoon 2 Pearl	Loose
Splatoon 2 Marina	Loose
Splatoon 3 Inkling [Yellow]	Loose
Splatoon 3 Octoling [Blue]	Loose
Splatoon 3 Small Fry	Loose
Zelda Loftwing	New In Box
Sanrio amiibo cards	Sealed Pack
Mario Cereal Box	Cereal Removed/Flattened
Isabelle Summer Outfit	Open Box
Cyrus/K.K./Reese	New In Box/Damaged box
Tom Nook	New In Box
Mabel	New In Box

 

Digital Codes	Condition
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD-STANDARD EDITION-US	Switch Digital Code

 

Figures	Condition
Chrono Trigger Chrono (Crono)/Robo/Eira (Ayla) Formation Arts Figure	Loose figure, most limbs are detachable by design, no missing parts
Pit Figma Figure	First Edition, Open Box, Contains everything but AR cards
Lillie (Pokemon) Nendoroid	Sealed. US edition from the Pokemon Center
Pixel Pal Mega Man	Sealed, damaged box
Pixel Pal SMB3 Mario	Sealed
Pixel Pal SMB3 Luigi	Sealed
Tracer Nendoroid (730)	Sealed
Tracer (Blizzard Entertainment Cute But Deadly Series 2 Vinyl)	Loose figure

 

Switch	Condition
Adventure Acedamia	Sealed
Atelier Ryza 3	Complete in Box
Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack	Sealed
Bendy and the Ink Machine	Complete in Box
Ender Lilies	Sealed, Japan Import
Grim Fandango Remastered	Complete in Box, no slip cover
Labyrinth of Refrain	Loose
Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom	Sealed
Monster Hunter Stories 2 Collector's Edition	Sealed
The Mummy Demastered	Complete in Box
River City Girls	Complete in Box, US Copy, Best Buy Variant
Shadowverse Champion's Battle	Loose
Shantae	Sealed
Shantae Risky's Revenge	Sealed
Shantae Collector's Edition	Sealed
Shantae Risky's Revenge Collector's Edition	Sealed
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection	Sealed
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap	Complete in Box
Yu-Gi-Oh Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution	Loose

 

Wii	Condition
Batallion Wars 2	Game and Case
Castle of Shikigami III	Complete in Box
Okami	Game and Case

 

WiiU Games	Condition
Batman Arkham City Armored Edition	Sealed
Disney Infinity 2.0	Sealed
Nintendoland	Complete in Box
Star Fox Guard	Complete in Box
Turbo Super Stunt Squad	Complete in Box, Art/Manual damage

 

DS	Condition
Animal Crossing Wild World	Game, Case, and inserts. No Manual
Chrono Trigger	Loose
Dragon Quest IV	Loose
Final Fantasy Fables Chocobo's Dungeon DS+	Complete in Box, Japanese Import
Izuna 2 The Unemployed Ninja Returns	Loose
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded	Complete in Box
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ	Cart and Case, no manual. Cartridge label is stained.
Super Scribblenauts	Loose
Witch's Wish	Game, Case, and Registration Card
A Witch's Tale	Complete in Box

 

3DS	Condition
Kid Icarus Uprising (Japanese)	Game, Manual, and Case (No Big Box)
Kid Icarus Uprising	Complete in Box, Includes Big Box, Stand and AR cards
Senran Kagura Deep Crimson Double D Edition	Sealed

 

GBA	Condition
Car Battler Joe	Loose. Label imperfections
Chocobo Land A Game of Dice	Loose
Lady Sia	Loose, EU import
Lady Sia	Loose. Label imperfections
Super Mario Advance	No label

 

GB	Condition
Alleyway	Loose
Kid Dracula	Loose

 

NES	Condition
Adventure Island II	Loose
Faria	Game and Box. Box has some wear
Kid Icarus	Game, Box, and Manual; Box shows wear; Protective case for box and manual included
Rainbow Islands	Loose
Super Mario Bros & Duck Hunt	Loose

 

SNES	Condition
Chrono Trigger	Loose, Bad Label Damage, damaged shell
Metal Marines	Loose
Secret of Mana	Loose
Super Punch-Out	Loose
Super Scope 6	Loose
Wild Guns	Loose, Bad Label Damage

 

Gamecube	Condition
Cubivore	Loose disc
Pikmin	Player's Choice, Complete In Box
Star Fox Assault	Loose disc
Resident Evil 0	Player's Choice, Case and Discs, no manual
Resident Evil	Player's Choice, Complete In Box
Resident Evil	Complete In Box
Resident Evil 4	Complete In Box, Disc 2 has label wrinkles
Super Mario Sunshine	Game and case, no manual

 

Sega Genesis	Condition
Jurrassic Park	Loose cartridge, Sharpie on Label
Phantasy Star IV	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Quackshot	Complete In Box
Rocket Knight Adventures	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Spider-Man	Loose cartridge, Label Damage

 

Sega Saturn	Condition
NiGHTS Into Dreams	Complete in Box, Not for Resale Edition
Night Warriors Darkstalkers' Revenge	Loose

 

Sega Dreamcast	Condition
Project Justice	Complete in Box, page 2 detached from manual.
Power Stone 2	Loose

 

PSP	Condition
Daxter	Loose, Greatest Hits, Not For Resale
Power Stone Collection	Loose
Silent Hill Origins	Game and Case

 

PS1	Condition
Castlevania Chronicles	Complete in Box
Chocobo Racing	Loose
Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon	Complete in Box, Japanese Import
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	Complete in Box, Manual is badly water damaged
Dark Stalkers	Loose slim case version
Dark Stalkers 3	Disc and Manual, no back art
Rival Schools	Complete in Box
Silent Hill	Loose disc, Greatest Hits
Valkyrie Profile	Discs and Case, no manual
World of Dragon Warrior Torneko The Last Hope	Loose
Xenogears	Complete in Box

 

PS2	Condition
Avatar The Last Airbender	Disc and Case
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Bully	Greatest Hits, game & artwork
Burnout 3 Takedown	Complete, Water Damage on back cover art
Burnout Dominator	Case and Disc, Disc has superficial scratches but still boots
Castlevania Curse of Darkness	Loose, Disc has light scratching
Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Dragon Ball Z Budokai	Complete in Box
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Final Fantasy X	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Final Fantasy X-2	Complete; Greatest Hits
Haunting Ground	Complete in Box, Water Damage on art and manual
Killzone	Complete in Box
Grand Theft Auto Vice City	Disc, Case, Poster, No Manual
.Hack Quaratine	Discs and Case, no manual
Marvel vs Capcom 2	Cracked Disc, won't boot for me. Comes with case, no manual
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2	Disc and Case
Need for Speed Underground	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Need for Speed Underground 2	Complete in Box
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Resident Evil Dead Aim	Game and Case, No manual
Scarface	Complete; Greatest Hits
Simpsons Road Rage	Loose, Greatest Hits
Valkyrie Profile 2	Complete In Box, some wear on the artwork and manual
Tekken Tag Tournament	Disc and Case, Greatest Hits, Full side Movie Gallery sticker on DVD face

 

PS3	Condition
Sports Champions	Complete in Box

 

PS4	Condition
APEX Construct	Sealed
Gravity Rush Remastered	Loose
J-Stars Victory VS+	Loose
SteamWorld Dig 2	Sealed

 

PS5	Condition
Battlefield 2042	Complete in Box
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Deluxe Eiditon	Sealed

 

XBOX One	Condition
Watchdogs	Sealed

 

Consoles	Condition
Monster Hunter Rise Edition Switch	New in Box (No game code)
Oculus Quest 1	Complete in Box
Playstation 2 w/FreeMcBoot	Original PS2 "Fat" system. Won't read PS1 or blue PS2 discs. Laser could be ready to go bad, or just need re-alignment. Comes with a Yellow PS2 Memory Card that has FreeMcBoot on it. Free McBoot will allow you to to play games off of a hard drive if desired. No cords/controllers included.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Edition OLED Switch	New In Box
SNES Jr.	Includes Deck, RF Coax Cable, Third Party AC Adapter, and Third Party Controller. Small crack on the corner.
Splatoon 3 Edition OLED Switch	New In Box

 

Controllers	Condition
FortniteWildcat Joy-Con Set	Comes from the Fortnite Edition Console, never used
Joy-Con Grip	Bagged/Unused - Came with console
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Left Controller	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Right Controller	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Platinum Gamecube Controller	Third Party, no nintendo logo, wired, good condition
Joy-Con (Left/Gray)	Good, no drift
Joy-Con (Right/Neon Red)	Good, no drift, Factory refurbished
SNES Controller	Third Party, no nintendo logo
SPIN Z WiiU Pro Controller	Black, Near Mint

 

Misc.	Condition
Chocobo White Mage Plush	Good
Chocobo Mystery Dungeon Everybuddy Pin	Thief costume
Chocobo's Dungeon Card Game Monsters Expansion Pack	Sealed
Black MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
Yellow Nyko MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
The Art of Splatoon 2	Sealed
Mario Kart 8 Target Pre-Order Keychain	Sealed. Cut in the film.
Nintendo Switch AC Adapter	Gently used
Nintendo 64 Memory Jumper Pack	OEM/Authentic Regular Pack, not to be confused with the expansion
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pre-Order Coin	Sealed
Breath of the Wild Sheikah Coin	From BotW Special Edition, Good condition
Pokken Art Cel Pre-Order Bonus	Sealed
Blastoise New 3DS Plates	Plates are mint and unused
Nintendo 3DS Stand	OEM, Came with Kid Icarus Uprising
Kid Icarus Uprising Players Guide (Imported from Japan, no AR cards)	Shows a little wear
Kid Icarus AR Card Set (205/404)	Contains 249/402 different North American (AKDE) cards, no duplicates. An itemized list can be provided upon request.
Kid Icarus AR - Pit Rally Cry Sealed Pack	Sealed pack of cards that contains AKDE-403,014,086
Shantae Risky's Revenge 2 LP Soundtrack Vinyl	Sealed
Super Mario Wonder Framed Art Print	Comes from Best Buy, Sealed
Tears of the Kingdom Pin Set (The Legend of Zelda)	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Tears of the Kingdom Art Book (The Legend of Zelda)	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Tears of the Kingdom Poster (The Legend of Zelda)	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Portal 2 Wheatley LED Flashlight	Sealed

 

Cases/Boxes/Inserts	Condition
Chrono Trigger Manual	SNES, Slight Wear
Chrono Trigger Orange Border Map	Slight Water Damage, 2 Pin holes in the folds, frame optional
Chrono Trigger Green Border Map	Slight Water Damage
Disgaea 1 Rosen Queen Edition	Everything but the game
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	Greatest Hits Artwork
Shantae Slip Cover	Limited Run Nintendo Switch 5 Game Slip cover with protector
Burnout Revenge	PS2 case and manual
Doom Eternal Steelbook	PS4 Sealed, no game
Dot Hack (.HACK) Infection	PS2 case and manual
Dot Hack (.HACK) Mutation	Empty Case only
Dot Hack (.HACK) Outbreak	PS2 case and manual
Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	PS2 Greatest Hits Case Only, damaged clips but artwork is in good shape
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition	Includes everything but the game
Metroid Dread Special Edition	Box only, damaged from shipping
God of War Chains of Olympus	Case and Manual Only
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec	PS2 case only, 'Not For Sale' version
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Nintendo Switch ConsoleBox Only	Empty Box, good condition
Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	Empty Box, good condition
Pokemon Dialga & Palkia Switch Lite Box Only	Empty Box, good condition
Rival Schools Front Artwork	Just the front artwork
Fortnite Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	Empty Box, good condition
The Witcher III Wild Hunt	Empty Case, good condition
Tears of the Kingdom Steelbook (The Legend of Zelda)	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Empty Case, Mint
Witch's Wish Box	Empty Box, good condition

 

Freebies	Condition
Playstation 2 IDE Connector	Upgraded my HD Adapter to SATA, these are the old/leftover connectors.
Nintendo Switch Cart Caddy	3D Printed. Holds 16 carts. Can connect to an OEM dock.
Yoshi Mario Kart Keychain	Good
Small Jotaro Kujo Figure	3D Printed. From Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle-R
Large Jotaro Kujo Figure	3D Printed. From Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle-R
2 Cartridge DS Travel Case	2 Cartridge DS Travel Case
4 Cartridge DS Travel Case	4 Cartridge DS Travel Case
Wonderswan Display Stand	3D Printed. Does not fit Wonderswan Crystal
Lavos Figure	3D printed in PLA Wood Filament. Not my model, found on thingiverse.

 

Wants	Console
Kid Icarus Uprising AR Cards: AKDE-025 AKDE-039 (Will consider others)	None
Asheron's Call Memorabilia	PC
Game & Watch Devices (Excluding 35th Mario & Zelda editions)	G&W
Trip World	GB
Classic NES Series: Excitebike	GBA
Classic NES Series: Dr. Mario	GBA
Classic NES Series: Pac-Man	GBA
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble	GBA
Pokemon Puzzle Challenge	GBC
R.O.B. Accessories	NES
Yo Noid	NES
Pirates Of Dark Water	SNES
Chrono Trigger Box/Inserts	SNES
Marvel Super Heroes War of the Gems	SNES
Ribbit King	NGC
Mario Wonder Cards/Pins Pre-Order Bonuses	None
Metal Gear Acid	PSP
Racing Lagoon	PS1
Parasite Eve 2	PS1
Red Ninja (Art/Manual)	PS2
Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge (Case & Manual Only)	Saturn
Wonderswan Games	Wonderswan
DS Download Station 1-8,10,11,12,14,16,17,20	DS
Oni	PS2
Sega Master System Games	Master System
ROG Ally Extreme	PC

Prices are subjective, negotiable, and do not include shipping.   If you would like to trade, check out my thread on /gameswap.   Also accepting Cashapp and Venmo.   One Freebie per order.   Photos upon request.
 

Storage Solutions	Price	Condition
Thin Jewel Case for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray	1/per	New. Clear front, black back
Standard Jewel Case for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray	1/per	New. Clear front and back
Genesis/Famicom Retro Protection	1/per	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
Super Famicom Cartridge Retro Protection	1/per	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
SNES Cartridge Retro Protection	1/per	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector
NES Cartridge Retro Protection	1/per	New, PET acid-free plastic cartridge protector

 

amiibo	Price	Condition
Tears of the Kingdom Link	25	Loose
Ocarina of Time Link	25	Loose
Majora's Mask Link	30	Loose
Smash Bros. Link	20	Loose
Skyward Sword Link	20	Loose
Zelda & Loftwing	15	Loose
Wind Waker Link	20	Loose
Wind Waker Zelda	20	Loose
Twilight Princess Link	50	Loose
Wolf Link and Midna	25	Loose
Callie	20	Loose
Marie	20	Loose
Inkling Boy [Neon Green]	15	Loose
Inkling Girl [Neon Pink]	25	Loose
Inkling Squid [Neon Purple]	17	Loose
Splatoon 2 Pearl	20	Loose
Splatoon 2 Marina	20	Loose
Splatoon 3 Inkling [Yellow]	22	Loose
Splatoon 3 Octoling [Blue]	20	Loose
Splatoon 3 Small Fry	20	Loose
Zelda Loftwing	30	New In Box
Sanrio amiibo cards	12	Sealed Pack
Mario Cereal Box	15	Cereal Removed/Flattened
Isabelle Summer Outfit	40	Open Box
Cyrus/K.K./Reese	18	New In Box/Damaged box
Tom Nook	12	New In Box
Mabel	9	New In Box

 

Digital Codes	Price	Condition
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD-STANDARD EDITION-US	10	Switch Digital Code

 

Figures	Price	Condition
Chrono Trigger Chrono (Crono)/Robo/Eira (Ayla) Formation Arts Figure	100	Loose figure, most limbs are detachable by design, no missing parts
Pit Figma Figure	90	First Edition, Open Box, Contains everything but AR cards
Lillie (Pokemon) Nendoroid	300	Sealed. US edition from the Pokemon Center
Pixel Pal Mega Man	30	Sealed, damaged box
Pixel Pal SMB3 Mario	30	Sealed
Pixel Pal SMB3 Luigi	30	Sealed
Tracer Nendoroid (730)	30	Sealed
Tracer (Blizzard Entertainment Cute But Deadly Series 2 Vinyl)	8	Loose figure

 

Switch	Price	Condition
Adventure Acedamia	30	Sealed
Atelier Ryza 3	90	Complete in Box
Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack	40	Sealed
Bendy and the Ink Machine	30	Complete in Box
Ender Lilies	55	Sealed, Japan Import
Grim Fandango Remastered	45	Complete in Box, no slip cover
Labyrinth of Refrain	65	Loose
Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom	60	Sealed
Monster Hunter Stories 2 Collector's Edition	160	Sealed
The Mummy Demastered	55	Complete in Box
River City Girls	120	Complete in Box, US Copy, Best Buy Variant
Shadowverse Champion's Battle	15	Loose
Shantae	50	Sealed
Shantae Risky's Revenge	50	Sealed
Shantae Collector's Edition	150	Sealed
Shantae Risky's Revenge Collector's Edition	150	Sealed
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection	30	Sealed
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap	40	Complete in Box
Yu-Gi-Oh Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution	18	Loose

 

Wii	Price	Condition
Batallion Wars 2	11	Game and Case
Castle of Shikigami III	75	Complete in Box
Okami	10	Game and Case

 

WiiU Games	Price	Condition
Batman Arkham City Armored Edition	40	Sealed
Disney Infinity 2.0	15	Sealed
Nintendoland	10	Complete in Box
Star Fox Guard	10	Complete in Box
Turbo Super Stunt Squad	200	Complete in Box, Art/Manual damage

 

DS	Price	Condition
Animal Crossing Wild World	35	Game, Case, and inserts. No Manual
Chrono Trigger	80	Loose
Dragon Quest IV	70	Loose
Final Fantasy Fables Chocobo's Dungeon DS+	25	Complete in Box, Japanese Import
Izuna 2 The Unemployed Ninja Returns	70	Loose
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded	25	Complete in Box
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ	120	Cart and Case, no manual. Cartridge label is stained.
Super Scribblenauts	5	Loose
Witch's Wish	110	Game, Case, and Registration Card
A Witch's Tale	90	Complete in Box

 

3DS	Price	Condition
Kid Icarus Uprising (Japanese)	40	Game, Manual, and Case (No Big Box)
Kid Icarus Uprising	120	Complete in Box, Includes Big Box, Stand and AR cards
Senran Kagura Deep Crimson Double D Edition	75	Sealed

 

GBA	Price	Condition
Car Battler Joe	180	Loose. Label imperfections
Chocobo Land A Game of Dice	15	Loose
Lady Sia	30	Loose, EU import
Lady Sia	50	Loose. Label imperfections
Super Mario Advance	13	No label

 

GB	Price	Condition
Alleyway	5	Loose
Kid Dracula	240	Loose

 

NES	Price	Condition
Adventure Island II	25	Loose
Faria	200	Game and Box. Box has some wear
Kid Icarus	180	Game, Box, and Manual; Box shows wear; Protective case for box and manual included
Rainbow Islands	35	Loose
Super Mario Bros & Duck Hunt	10	Loose

 

SNES	Price	Condition
Chrono Trigger	190	Loose, Bad Label Damage, damaged shell
Metal Marines	90	Loose
Secret of Mana	55	Loose
Super Punch-Out	25	Loose
Super Scope 6	22	Loose
Wild Guns	270	Loose, Bad Label Damage

 

Gamecube	Price	Condition
Cubivore	350	Loose disc
Pikmin	50	Player's Choice, Complete In Box
Star Fox Assault	30	Loose disc
Resident Evil 0	15	Player's Choice, Case and Discs, no manual
Resident Evil	25	Player's Choice, Complete In Box
Resident Evil	27	Complete In Box
Resident Evil 4	30	Complete In Box, Disc 2 has label wrinkles
Super Mario Sunshine	40	Game and case, no manual

 

Sega Genesis	Price	Condition
Jurrassic Park	10	Loose cartridge, Sharpie on Label
Phantasy Star IV	70	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Quackshot	40	Complete In Box
Rocket Knight Adventures	37	Loose cartridge, Label Damage
Spider-Man	12	Loose cartridge, Label Damage

 

Sega Saturn	Price	Condition
NiGHTS Into Dreams	40	Complete in Box, Not for Resale Edition
Night Warriors Darkstalkers' Revenge	50	Loose

 

Sega Dreamcast	Price	Condition
Project Justice	225	Complete in Box, page 2 detached from manual.
Power Stone 2	90	Loose

 

PSP	Price	Condition
Daxter	10	Loose, Greatest Hits, Not For Resale
Power Stone Collection	30	Loose
Silent Hill Origins	50	Game and Case

 

PS1	Price	Condition
Castlevania Chronicles	165	Complete in Box
Chocobo Racing	55	Loose
Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon	20	Complete in Box, Japanese Import
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	70	Complete in Box, Manual is badly water damaged
Dark Stalkers	70	Loose slim case version
Dark Stalkers 3	50	Disc and Manual, no back art
Rival Schools	130	Complete in Box
Silent Hill	105	Loose disc, Greatest Hits
Valkyrie Profile	325	Discs and Case, no manual
World of Dragon Warrior Torneko The Last Hope	90	Loose
Xenogears	150	Complete in Box

 

PS2	Price	Condition
Avatar The Last Airbender	10	Disc and Case
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance	17	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Bully	15	Greatest Hits, game & artwork
Burnout 3 Takedown	11	Complete, Water Damage on back cover art
Burnout Dominator	9	Case and Disc, Disc has superficial scratches but still boots
Castlevania Curse of Darkness	60	Loose, Disc has light scratching
Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Dragon Ball Z Budokai	11	Complete in Box
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	15	Complete in Box; Greatest Hits
Final Fantasy X	6	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Final Fantasy X-2	6	Complete; Greatest Hits
Haunting Ground	300	Complete in Box, Water Damage on art and manual
Killzone	15	Complete in Box
Grand Theft Auto Vice City	10	Disc, Case, Poster, No Manual
.Hack Quaratine	300	Discs and Case, no manual
Marvel vs Capcom 2	60	Cracked Disc, won't boot for me. Comes with case, no manual
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2	10	Disc and Case
Need for Speed Underground	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Need for Speed Underground 2	24	Complete in Box
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2	10	Greatest Hits, Used, Disc and Case
Resident Evil Dead Aim	50	Game and Case, No manual
Scarface	40	Complete; Greatest Hits
Simpsons Road Rage	15	Loose, Greatest Hits
Valkyrie Profile 2	40	Complete In Box, some wear on the artwork and manual
Tekken Tag Tournament	10	Disc and Case, Greatest Hits, Full side Movie Gallery sticker on DVD face

 

PS3	Price	Condition
Sports Champions	10	Complete in Box

 

PS4	Price	Condition
APEX Construct	15	Sealed
Gravity Rush Remastered	60	Loose
J-Stars Victory VS+	30	Loose
SteamWorld Dig 2	20	Sealed

 

PS5	Price	Condition
Battlefield 2042	20	Complete in Box
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Deluxe Eiditon	150	Sealed

 

XBOX One	Price	Condition
Watchdogs	15	Sealed

 

Consoles	Price	Condition
Monster Hunter Rise Edition Switch	420	New in Box (No game code)
Oculus Quest 1	180	Complete in Box
Playstation 2 w/FreeMcBoot	80	Original PS2 "Fat" system. Won't read PS1 or blue PS2 discs. Laser could be ready to go bad, or just need re-alignment. Comes with a Yellow PS2 Memory Card that has FreeMcBoot on it. Free McBoot will allow you to to play games off of a hard drive if desired. No cords/controllers included.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Edition OLED Switch	400	New In Box
SNES Jr.	120	Includes Deck, RF Coax Cable, Third Party AC Adapter, and Third Party Controller. Small crack on the corner.
Splatoon 3 Edition OLED Switch	400	New In Box

 

Controllers	Price	Condition
FortniteWildcat Joy-Con Set	120	Comes from the Fortnite Edition Console, never used
Joy-Con Grip	8	Bagged/Unused - Came with console
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Left Controller	115	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Oculus Quest 1/Rift S Right Controller	115	Used but very good condition. Comes with silicon case
Platinum Gamecube Controller	20	Third Party, no nintendo logo, wired, good condition
Joy-Con (Left/Gray)	35	Good, no drift
Joy-Con (Right/Neon Red)	35	Good, no drift, Factory refurbished
SNES Controller	10	Third Party, no nintendo logo
SPIN Z WiiU Pro Controller	25	Black, Near Mint

 

Misc.	Price	Condition
Chocobo White Mage Plush	20	Good
Chocobo Mystery Dungeon Everybuddy Pin	5	Thief costume
Chocobo's Dungeon Card Game Monsters Expansion Pack	25	Sealed
Black MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	20	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
Yellow Nyko MagicGate 8MB PS2 Memory Card	20	Has Free McBoot loaded onto the card
The Art of Splatoon 2	300	Sealed
Mario Kart 8 Target Pre-Order Keychain	10	Sealed. Cut in the film.
Nintendo Switch AC Adapter	20	Gently used
Nintendo 64 Memory Jumper Pack	20	OEM/Authentic Regular Pack, not to be confused with the expansion
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pre-Order Coin	15	Sealed
Breath of the Wild Sheikah Coin	25	From BotW Special Edition, Good condition
Pokken Art Cel Pre-Order Bonus	7	Sealed
Blastoise New 3DS Plates	200	Plates are mint and unused
Nintendo 3DS Stand	30	OEM, Came with Kid Icarus Uprising
Kid Icarus Uprising Players Guide (Imported from Japan, no AR cards)	30	Shows a little wear
Kid Icarus AR Card Set (205/404)	600	Contains 249/402 different North American (AKDE) cards, no duplicates. An itemized list can be provided upon request.
Kid Icarus AR - Pit Rally Cry Sealed Pack	20	Sealed pack of cards that contains AKDE-403,014,086
Shantae Risky's Revenge 2 LP Soundtrack Vinyl	55	Sealed
Super Mario Wonder Framed Art Print	25	Comes from Best Buy, Sealed
Tears of the Kingdom Pin Set (The Legend of Zelda)	20	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Tears of the Kingdom Art Book (The Legend of Zelda)	65	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Tears of the Kingdom Poster (The Legend of Zelda)	20	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Mint
Portal 2 Wheatley LED Flashlight	120	Sealed

 

Cases/Boxes/Inserts	Price	Condition
Chrono Trigger Manual	100	SNES, Slight Wear
Chrono Trigger Orange Border Map	80	Slight Water Damage, 2 Pin holes in the folds, frame optional
Chrono Trigger Green Border Map	80	Slight Water Damage
Disgaea 1 Rosen Queen Edition	150	Everything but the game
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	5	Greatest Hits Artwork
Shantae Slip Cover	100	Limited Run Nintendo Switch 5 Game Slip cover with protector
Burnout Revenge	5	PS2 case and manual
Doom Eternal Steelbook	15	PS4 Sealed, no game
Dot Hack (.HACK) Infection	20	PS2 case and manual
Dot Hack (.HACK) Mutation	20	Empty Case only
Dot Hack (.HACK) Outbreak	30	PS2 case and manual
Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi	10	PS2 Greatest Hits Case Only, damaged clips but artwork is in good shape
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition	100	Includes everything but the game
Metroid Dread Special Edition	5	Box only, damaged from shipping
God of War Chains of Olympus	15	Case and Manual Only
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec	5	PS2 case only, 'Not For Sale' version
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Nintendo Switch ConsoleBox Only	90	Empty Box, good condition
Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	20	Empty Box, good condition
Pokemon Dialga & Palkia Switch Lite Box Only	30	Empty Box, good condition
Rival Schools Front Artwork	25	Just the front artwork
Fortnite Nintendo Switch Console Box Only	20	Empty Box, good condition
The Witcher III Wild Hunt	20	Empty Case, good condition
Tears of the Kingdom Steelbook (The Legend of Zelda)	30	From the TotK Collector's Edition. Empty Case, Mint
Witch's Wish Box	50	Empty Box, good condition

 

Freebies	Price	Condition
Playstation 2 IDE Connector	Free with purchase	Upgraded my HD Adapter to SATA, these are the old/leftover connectors.
Nintendo Switch Cart Caddy	Free with purchase	3D Printed. Holds 16 carts. Can connect to an OEM dock.
Yoshi Mario Kart Keychain	Free with purchase	Good
Small Jotaro Kujo Figure	Free with purchase	3D Printed. From Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle-R
Large Jotaro Kujo Figure	Free with purchase	3D Printed. From Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle-R
2 Cartridge DS Travel Case	Free with purchase	2 Cartridge DS Travel Case
4 Cartridge DS Travel Case	Free with purchase	4 Cartridge DS Travel Case
Wonderswan Display Stand	Free with purchase	3D Printed. Does not fit Wonderswan Crystal
Lavos Figure	Free with purchase	3D printed in PLA Wood Filament. Not my model, found on thingiverse.

 

Background

My wife and I have been to Disney World a few times with another trip planned later this year. However, an opportunity came up for us to be in California for a few days and we figured that we would visit Disneyland for a day. We sprung for Park Hoppers and Genie+ in order to make the most of our time here. We visited on Sunday, May 26 (the day before Memorial Day). We stayed two nights in Anaheim at the Fairfield Inn on Harbor and had an 8th floor room that overlooked the Matterhorn. We were actually able to enjoy the Disneyland fireworks from just outside our front door on the night before our park day. Overall, it was a great hotel (despite the lack of free breakfast and the lackluster pool) and I would happily stay there again.

Morning: Disneyland Park

We were out of the room by 7am and through security and at the turnstiles for Disneyland Park by 7:15. There were about 20 people ahead of us in our line, so we were pretty close to the front. We were through the turnstiles at 7:30, where I booked my first lightning lane, Hyperspace Mountain, with a return window of 8-9am.
Originally we planned to head around the right side of the castle, hitting up Alice in Wonderland first before moving onto other Fantasyland rides, so we chose the area to the right of the Partners statue for rope drop. But seeing how close we were to the front of the pack, we decided that we were going to try for Peter Pan’s Flight instead (we had originally planned on skipping it). So at rope drop, we crossed the bridge through the castle (doing our best to walk as we watched all of the YouTubers take off in a full sprint ahead of us) and were on the ride by 8:12. Very happy that we rode this one here, I personally enjoyed it a bit more than the Magic Kingdom version despite having the inferior queue.
After that, we went over to Snow White which was essentially a walk on, we were on it by 8:17. This is a seriously underrated ride. The effects are really top notch as far as these old-school “book report” style dark rides go. I got a little teary-eyed riding this one. We followed that up with Pinocchio (again, a walk on) which was pretty underwhelming, to be honest. And then we rounded out this section of rides with Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which had about a 5 minute wait at this point. I’m not terribly familiar with the IP, so I didn’t understand much of what was going on in the story, all I knew is that it was pretty bonkers and I enjoyed it just for the sheer ridiculousness of it, even though it too was pretty underwhelming from a design standpoint. We were off of that by 8:35, so 4 rides in 35 minutes. Not too bad.
Alice in Wonderland was up to a 25 minute wait by this point, so we decided to skip it for now and go on to Hyperspace Mountain. Posted wait was 30 minutes, we had about a 5 minute wait here with Genie+. Man, what a ride. I enjoyed this so much more than Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain, and not just because of the Star Wars overlay. The track itself was just a lot smoother and more fun in my opinion.
After scanning into the lightning lane, we booked Indiana Jones Adventure which had an 11:30am return time, which was quite a bit later than I was expecting. After riding Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters next (5 minute wait), it was 9:15am and Indiana Jones had a 30 minute standby wait posted, so we called an audible and decided to get in the standby line for that while switching our lightning lane to Big Thunder Mountain (9:30-10:30 return window). Indy was about a 25 minute wait, overall a pretty good ride though we hit a couple of parts where the ride just froze up for a bit (no sort of announcement, just an awkward pause) which sort of killed the frenetic pacing of the ride. I didn’t end up enjoying it quite as much as I had hoped, but it was still fun.
Big Thunder was next, we got on the ride at about 10am. (side note: I’m pretty sure that I observed some people just walking right through the Lightning Lane tapstiles without actually scanning anything, and the CM was distracted by someone else at the moment so she didn’t notice. The signage wasn’t terribly clear here and the people didn’t seem to be native English speakers so this may have just been an honest mistake rather than malicious intent.) Big Thunder is a great ride as always. I tried to do the “goat trick” that I’ve heard so much about but it did nothing for me, unfortunately.
Pirates was next, again booked with Genie+ with a near-immediate return time. It’s crazy how much longer this ride is here than on the east coast. Again, a great ride, but I’ll be honest, I think I might actually prefer Magic Kingdom’s version more! Please don’t shoot me. After scanning in for Pirates at 10:30, I booked GotG Mission Breakout as our next lightning lane, however, that return time was not until 1:30pm. I tried doing the old “fiddle faddle” trick for a while to get an earlier return time, but no such luck. We took a break while we strategized next steps. I got a mint julep and some peach beignets from Mint Julep Bar, she got an iced coffee from Tiana’s Palace. All excellent.
It was around 11am that I noticed that Grizzly River Run had gone down and was offering lightning lane return times at 11:15, so I switched my Mission Breakout booking to that. Sure enough, Grizzly River stayed down and I got a Multi Experience Pass at 11:15. I rebooked the ride immediately with a return time of 11:35 and got another Multi Experience Pass then. At that point, it seemed like other people were following the same strategy as the Grizzly River return time was now 1pm, so I went back and re-booked Mission Breakout with a return window of 3:30pm - 4:30pm.
After finishing our snack, we headed toward the front of the park but decided to stop off at the Enchanted Tiki Room first. We hadn’t done this yet at Magic Kingdom and thought that it would be fun to check out. It was. Cute little show, it’s amazing how more and more of the room decor is revealed to be animatronics as the show progresses. We did a little bit of shopping along Main Street then hopped over to DCA around noon.

Early Afternoon: DCA

I grabbed a virtual queue for World of Color and I got the 9pm showing. We wanted to get lunch at Pym Test Kitchen, so Avengers Campus was our first stop. We got there just in time to catch the TaskmasteBlack Widow/Black Panther show in front of the Avengers building. Decent little show, not my favorite but glad I saw it. Lunch was the “not so little chicken sandwich” for me, the kids’ grilled cheese meal for my wife, and the giant pretzel for us to share. I liked my chicken sandwich alright, but my wife’s grilled cheese was cold. The pretzel was enormous and we ended up putting most of it away and snacking on it throughout the rest of the day.
We headed for Soarin’ next, as it’s one of my wife’s favorite rides and I figured we’d use a Multi Experience Pass on it. However, when we got there, the lightning lane queue was almost all the way out to the walking path, so we decided to skip it for now and come back to it later. We instead headed for Little Mermaid, which had a 35 minute standby wait. It’s a decent ride, but it’s very similar to Magic Kingdom’s version so I would have been fine with skipping it. While waiting, we could book another lightning lane, so we booked Spider-Man Web Slingers for 5:30pm - 6:30pm. We did circle back to Soarin’ after this, which had a more manageable lightning lane at this point, so we rode it using the Multi Experience Pass. Always a great ride, and we ended up in the middle section, which is always a plus. I wish that it had been Soarin’ Over California, but Around the World is still nice.

Mid Afternoon: Disneyland Park

We decided to head back to Disneyland Park around 2:30 to kill some time while waiting for some of these lightning lane windows. We rode the train from the Main Street station to the Toontown station. Rode Small World around 3:00 (5 minute wait), this one is slightly more enjoyable than the Magic Kingdom version due to the incorporation of the characters as well as the outdoor facade and loading station. The Magic Happens parade was going during this time, so it had gotten quite crowded around the ride at this point. We did manage to take a path over to Alice in Wonderland though, this was about a 25 minute wait. Another underwhelming dark ride, coupled with some ridiculously uncomfortable seats for people with bigger legs. Sometime around here, I ended up booking Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway for an 10:30pm return time.

Late Afternoon/Evening: DCA

It was about 3:45 at this point, so we hopped back to DCA and headed for Mission Breakout. The parade in DCA was about to begin too, so we had to fight crowds to get into Avengers Campus and I caught the very tail end of the Spider-Man show as the stunt-tronic flew through the air. Queue management was kind of a nightmare over at Mission Breakout, as the standby queue was literally blocking the way to the lightning lane queue, we had to squeeze behind a trash can in order to get to it. But oh, man. The ride itself was incredible. Tower of Terror is amazing as well, but Mission Breakout works so well precisely because it subverts your expectations from the moment that those elevator doors close. I was laughing the entire time, it was such a brilliant way to rework the existing ride mechanisms. I honestly can’t remember what song we had because it was just so much to take in and I wasn’t even thinking to pay attention to it, but it may have been “I Want You Back”.
With an hour until our Web Slingers LL, we decided to head for Monsters Inc: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue I asked one of the CMs at the entrance about the Buddy Pass, and he told me that the line was pretty backed up right now, but that I could check back in 15 minutes. So we went over to one of our Disney World favorites: Mickey’s Philharmagic. This is always a great show, although the 3D felt a little off here. I could tell that the theater was repurposed from Muppetvision 3D, so I wonder if that had something to do with it, as I think that the screen was smaller in this one. Anyway, we checked back in at Monsters Inc and the Buddy Pass line had cleared out, so we were able to get on in just a few minutes. This is a great little ride, based on one of my favorite Pixar movies. There must be a cast member controlling the Roz animatronic at the end, as I was filming the ride and I got a “You in the third row with the camera, make sure you get my good side” comment from her, which was a fun little surprise. I also booked a LL for Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin at 10:30pm.
After that was Web Slingers, which I ended up enjoying way more than expected, but man, what a workout! The 3D in this one was great, and the motion tracking seemed to work very well. Plus, the preshow is a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll be getting more Tom Holland Spider-Man in the MCU. From there, we headed over to Cars Land to check on the single rider queue for Radiator Springs Racers. I was prepared to buy ILLs for us if necessary, but the CM said that single rider was about 35 minutes, so we were willing to wait that long. What a great ride. I love the first segment when you’re just on a leisurely cruise outside and you go through the tunnel to see the waterfall, it felt straight out of the movie.
It was about 6:30PM at this point. We walked through San Fransokyo Square (nicely themed area, though we didn’t stop anywhere) and on to Pixar Pier, where we grabbed a drink and a Bing Bong Churro from the Señor Buzz Churros cart. We used our remaining Multi Experience Pass on Incredicoaster. Yet another fantastic ride. The theme felt very pasted on (which, in all fairness, it was), but the coaster itself is phenomenal, probably Disney’s best, at least here in the States. I grabbed a lightning lane for Soarin’ with a 9:30 return time, as I knew that my wife wanted to ride it again.
With sunset rapidly approaching, I knew that I wanted to get back to Cars Land. We ordered dinner from Flo’s (cheeseburger for me, chicken tenders for her, both good) and managed to grab a table out near the street. Sh-Boom started around 7:55, and it was a magical moment. The videos you see online really don’t do it justice. That’s my favorite scene in the entire movie, and just being there while it was happening was surprisingly emotional for me.
World of Color - One was a priority for me (I was okay with skipping Fantasmic and a castle fireworks show since I can see both of those at Disney World even if they are different), so we ended up heading there around 8:15 to secure a good spot. We ended up on the blue side, close to the center, on the staircase between the lowest tier and the second lowest tier (just outside the splash zone). This ended up being a fantastic spot for us, especially because my wife is significantly shorter than me and she was able to be on the top step while I was down a step from her. Wow…what an amazing show this is. It seems like some people think that it’s inferior to the original World of Color, but I don’t really feel like this show fell short at all. A lot of really fantastic segments here, I was surprised that so much focus was on older IPs (including original trilogy Star Wars!) rather than the newer stuff. I don’t know if I’d say that I like this more than a Magic Kingdom show like Happily Ever After, but it’s definitely up there.
After the show ended, we headed back to Soarin’ to redeem our lightning lane, and I booked Star Tours with a 10pm return time. Once again, we ended up in the middle section, but the right section of our theater wasn’t seated at all, presumably something was broken over there.

Late Evening: Disneyland Park

We headed back to Disneyland, checked in for Star Tours, and I booked Smuggler’s Run with an 11:30pm return time. We got the Mando and Grogu hologram as well as the new scene with the purgill (space whales). Fun ride as always.
Headed to Toontown next and did Car Toon Spin, another “meh” dark ride made slightly better by the spinning mechanic. Runaway Railway was after that, which almost got derailed when the ride went down when we were next in line to board. But thankfully, it was only down for about 15 minutes and we were able to ride. The Mickey and Minnie balloon animatronic in the amusement park scene was in B-mode, which I didn’t realize was a thing. Other than that, great ride as always.
At that point, it was about 11:30 and we were both ready to call it a night. We still had a Smuggler’s Run LL to redeem and we hadn’t actually even set foot in Galaxy’s Edge that day, but it was too long of a walk to justify going over there for. We’ll be back at Disney World later this year and will have lots of time to spend in Galaxy’s Edge over there. So we headed for the front of the park, did a little bit more shopping, and headed back to our hotel.
Overall, our day at Disneyland was fantastic. We accomplished a ton, and we made full use of Park Hopper and Genie+. I can certainly see why so many people prefer Disneyland to Disney World. Even if there isn’t as much to do, you can accomplish so much more in a day, and overall, people just seem a little more relaxed and chill. Plus the weather is so much more pleasant! We would definitely love to come back someday with the kids!
If you're a Disney World fan reading this and are wondering if it's worth it to make the trip out to California, even if it's just for a one day trip, I would answer with a resounding "yes".

A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
Credit to: who has beta read just about every chapter, and the only reason it's readable half the time
for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
Credit to for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
First
Chapter 33:

Reqellia:

It was the darkest part of the night, and yet I could hear the energetic commotion of Ruhal blearily heating up food for a famished human along with the clinks of dishes and silverware.
“One more day.” I felt glued to the bench as I stared back into the silver mask I hadn’t worn for almost [twenty-five years] prior, and had hoped never to put on again. I cursed my old girlish wishes when I first joined up, wanting to be a war hero, and then a mother afterwards. To grow old and see my own child in uniform. I had even wanted a son since I was already demanding the impossible.
I never believed in the gods, but now I’m sure that I’ve tempted Niosa to grant my wishes, but only after I made my peace with them that they would never come true.
Klein bounced around the suite’s kitchen, eating enough for two Shil women and already wearing his armor’s underlayment. The chair creaked a bit as he sat, his own horror-show mask on the dining table next to him staring back at him unblinking.
And It was a horror show.
He’d wake up cheerful and happy, and I’d watch over the day as every bit of his energy was drained out of him. The daily exercise routine of a morning run and gym day in a month being performed in a few short hours. Every time Klein finished a trail faster, or performed a more grueling task, the trainers would make him do even more as his contract offers rose another level.
I didn’t blame the instructors, it was their job to challenge each applicant, but Klein blew through all their expectations, so they just kept piling more onto him. Many of those same instructors had asked me if they were pushing him too far, but all I could do was shrug. Even I didn't even know where his potential ended.
I blinked and looked up. He was in his full armor now, with only the mask off.
“Ready to go?”
I nodded and stood up, quickly heading over to Ruhal, who in turn looked at me with sleep deprived eyes. Worn out as I was, he was worse, playing subject matter expert on all things human around a bunch of high ranking officers desperate for information not tainted by censorship.
“Stay safe out there,” he politely ordered as he kissed me.
I kissed him back and held his hand. “You too.”
Sighing,I left to let him rest, popped my back, and donned my own mask.
As Klein paced the door, I begged for safety. “One more day, please let everything be okay after today.”
I shouldn’t have tempted Niosa again.

Itaro:

I quietly padded out of the children’s den to a chorus of snoring from my siblings. The well carpeted securely fastened to wooden floors muffled my footsteps. I opened the large storm shutters and then pulled open the sliding glass door to the patio. I couldn’t sleep anymore, excitedly bouncing from one foot to another.
Klein and Au'tes were coming home tonight! Au'tes had sent me her contract offers that came from a dozen different Imperial departments and bureaus. Dad already agreed years ago she could move in with us, a pack sister was always welcome. Now she wouldn’t feel like a burden if she had to.
And Klein… Well, I wouldn’t be bothered by a few love-marks.
“I see that smile. Excited?” I heard my father’s deep voice like distant thunder. I turned around to his massive form only a few steps away. We both had learned to walk silently when my siblings were just pups and the discovery that they were light sleepers had been made.
I felt my ears droop just a little to see his melancholic face. He had gone out of his way the last few weeks to spend more time with just me now that I had a pack of my own. There was always a soft smile on his face, but the way his tail hung low to the floor was a dead giveaway on his mood.
I tried to cheer him up. “I am. It’s been weeks since I got to speak to Au’tes, and Klein…” I trailed off, the insinuation clear. He smirked. He had met Klein in passing, but I wasn’t bringing him home yet. Hario on the other hand had made one or two bawdy jokes at the dinner table after a second glass of her favorite liquor.
First time Klein spends the night, you might want to check up on Itaro, make sure she didn’t keel over from exhaustion.
“At this rate I’m going to have to teach you sword fighting to beat back other male suitors from poaching you for their own packs!” My father joked. Stepping off the patio landing, he hit the ground noiselessly, bending his legs to absorb the shock.

After letting out a quiet grunt indicative of an age he tried to keep hidden, he turned around and looked back up at me. “Want to come with me for a walk?”
I jumped down and followed him into our little patch of forest my mother’s terraforming job paid for. The early morning was already warm without a cooling vest, but not intolerable. The chirping of birds and the soft whistle of wind tinged with just a hint of salt made everything feel fresh.
It was like when I came home from school and my father would stop construction for the day. We’d explore the forest, play on the beach, go into town for groceries.
Except now my father didn’t run and have me chase him. He carefully inspected the trees for pests, and our conversation was far more practical than whimsical. “Your mother’s coming home next month. Can you write her a message before she meets Klein, just so she has a better idea of your pack?”
I nodded. “Of course. How long is she going to be home this time?”.
Her terraforming jobs always lasted months, if not years. I never faulted her for the huntress life, but it made connecting with her difficult. She was more a guest of honor than a mother to the household, always bringing a fatted Sou’ta carcass home as a present, but rarely cleaned dishes, or the house.
Or really any chore…
He shrugged before crouching next to a felled tree, trimming away small branches for kindling with a tiny hatchet he hand pulled from his tool pouch. “Might be a good long while this time. The last message I got said her department only had small projects and a few hazard jobs on the periphery. Besides, we might need an extra set of hands more than the money now.”
I scoffed. “Her, a house mother!? No offense, but mom is a terrible cook, and a worse caretaker. Remember the time she nearly burned down our kitchen boiling water?”
He laughed with me as he pocketed the hatchet. Standing up with two sticks, and then threw me one. I caught it as he swung his own stick in my general area. “Defend yourself! I did say I needed to teach you sword fighting. How else are you going to fight off possessive men when they realize what a catch you are?”
He didn’t teach anything but how to rough house on a lazy Shel morning.
We played and swung the flimsy branches until I accidentally hit him square in the chest. The branch, already crumbly and dry, disintegrated on impact. It didn’t stop him from dramatically acting out a death scene. Falling to his knees in an overly theatrical fashion. “Oh, woe is me! Cut down by my own daughter in cold blood!”
I let him pretend to be on stage for a few moments longer before standing over him to offer a hand. He took it, and then yanked me down to the grassy patch, holding me for a long, quiet minute. “I’m going to miss you.”
For the first time I noticed the stray white hairs around his muzzle, I knew what he meant, but I tried to play it off. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He just held me for a silent heartbeat longer, then let go and stood up.
He proclaimed cheerfully to mask his wet eyes. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up. You can’t look like a pup out of a mud bath for your victorious pack! I even scheduled a visit at Tulo’s for a haircut. Ruhal’s treat.”
My mind played with potential futures as we headed home. Between the three of us, we could write our own life together. Maybe I could even stay close to home.
I looked up to the rising light.
“One more day!”

Klein :

The mountains of gear and equipment around us were illuminated by harsh flood lights. We stood in formation with each person, regardless of species, showing physical signs of exhaustion. Drooping shoulders and bent knees, unfocused and slow eye movement.
Instructor Li’kele was wearing full battle rattle today, complete with a compact lasrifle holstered to her leg.
“Good morning applicants! It’s the last day of selection! Your assignment will be to support your sisters in the combat section in the wargames! You see all this critical equipment? Our first assignment will be to load all of it on auto-turoxes and hover-wagons. Unfortunately we don’t have enough capacity , some of you will need to carry gear on your person as we make the [ten mile] trek into the forest. Applicants 849, 734, 236 and 953 step up after we finish loading! You are our extra carriers.”
I knew I was going to be picked. It was easy to not let it bother me though. Reqellia had explained that the instructors were just trying to push us to our limits, and every extra duty and handicap meant a better contract with a brighter future.
Still, after hefting thousands of [pounds/kilos] of stuff onto the squat legged drone’s cargo cages and the little platforms that would float once powered, dread formed in the pit of my stomach as an entire counter-battery system was cinched onto my person. I trudged as we formed up for our road march.
The combat selection team rolled in as we took positions, already covered in mud from what I could guess was their own morning fun, their las-rifles at the low ready. Their own instructor, a severe looking Hyena-like Kortika woman with fur that trimmed short and smooth. She yelled out orders to the gaggle of applicants under her command. “Form on either side of the supply train and defend them at all costs! If they get shot because you weren’t doing your job, then it’s your ass that will be carrying the extra gear!”
We marched out of the base, clinking and clunking as we traveled uphill. The weight wasn’t too bad now that it was evenly distributed on my body, but it would be hell taking it off and putting it back on anytime we stopped.
“Isn’t that the new shock trooper ? What’s he doing with the non-combat selection?” I heard one of the combat applicants say idly. It was easy to pick up conversation in the nearly silent dawn as we marched on a dirt path extending across an expanse of grassland in the reddening sky. It was really pretty, watching the light play on the green forested hills in the distance.
Their Instructor sidled up to the commenting girl silently, ears swiveled back in anger. She grabbed her shoulder, growling low. “Cut the chatter, girl. ”
Silence followed for the next hour in the pre-dawn light.
We got the first taste of the wargames when red beams bolted over our heads and dropped one of our auto-turoxes. “Everyone get down!” yelled one of our instructors, and I threw myself on the path.
With all the weight on me, the impact on the ground hurt . I looked up and saw red beams blink in and out over me. Their flashes brought back memories.
The red glow through convenience store windows . An alien invasion.
I blinked furiously and turned my head to see what was going on with the combat teams on the sides of the road. They had already taken out two of the ‘raiders’ who stood up, hands in the air as they walked away. Another minute clicked by before a squad decided to double check the tall grass and found a third raider hiding. All had the insignia of the instruction cadre commandos.
“Everyone, up !” Instructor Lik’ele belted out in a two-word shout, and I had to push up off the ground, creaking under the weight. My arms burned as I got to my knees, then raised a hand and called out, “assistance!” One of the unnumbered girls gave me a hand to steady myself, and I rocked a bit trying to stand.
“Thank you,” I said, but between the voice distorter and my mask, the girl backed away as soon as I was up, fear registered in her eyes.
[At the bus stop, a classmate backed away from me. scared of me for some reason mumbling ‘you're bleeding’. Warmth on my upper lip, a coppery taste.]

I shook my head, trying to banish the weird memory surfacing, I hadn’t had a nosebleed since I left Earth. I looked back up, but the girl had already gotten back in formation and we started moving again.
It wasn’t quite noon when we stopped for lunch. I got help removing my kit, and stretched to work out the kinks. Reqellia stood next to me as I sat down on the hard packed surface. I took off my gloves, and jammed them under my chest holster.
I was technically ‘armed’ right now. We had gotten the thirty-minute las-pistol training yesterday on how to safely handle them, and then ran through a quick range. They were nothing more than glorified laser pointers though. They could lock up a suit set to respond to the laser signal, but they wouldn’t so much as redden skin otherwise.
Reqellia had let me in on their real purpose, to see if we could be trusted with a dangerous object and not play with it.
Eating was a pain, I had to lift my mask halfway up and eat blind. The meal pack was cold, but eh, it was food. Goddess, I was hungry.
“How are you holding up?” Reqellia asked, the silver mask obscuring any expression, and the voice distorter deadening any intonation, but by the angle of the head tilt, I could guess the question was more concern than curiosity.
“It’s not too heavy, but it’s awkward trying to move around,” I admitted as I put my mask back in place and pulled out my omni-pad. I tried not to boggle at the contract offers I was getting. It was a straight up bidding war, including furnished houses, years of leave after an initial stint, even minor titles.
Ruhal had helped me, even filled out the forms himself with less than a day for submission. He had also messaged me about the fine print of many of these absurd offers. The watch word was ‘Relocation’.
“They will send you back to Earth. Right now, you are the only human any department can recruit who might know an obscure piece of human signage or culture that got skipped during their culture crash courses, has the physical ability to keep up during an operation, and they can implicitly trust it is loyal to the Imperium.”
I scrolled past the too-good-to-be true proposals and to the ones without relocation, not ridiculously overpaying, but still plenty. Maybe I would follow Ka’tel into ICAD, or…
“We need to get moving!” Li’kele barked and I signaled for help again. This time Au’tes was ordered to help me with my gear. Now seeing her up close, she was definitely worse for wear. She smiled, but it was the kind of tired smile that had almost no energy in it. Her usual well controlled movements were slurred by exhaustion, and she leaned on me after buckling the packs on my shoulders, her own extra gear was a large backpack of energy cells.
“Damn, girl runs away in fear from combat selection after spending years in the militia and now plays valet. Bet whatever is underneath that suit is more would eat her alive if unmuzzled,” I overheard one of the combat applicants snicker. Au’tes winced, just a bit, at the barb from her former youth militia group.
“Lift your visor.” I said. It was dumb, it was really dumb, but I wanted to give her at least a reminder of what she had that they didn’t. Au’tes had a flicker of confusion, but flipped up the visor on her suit’s helmet.
I lifted my mask just enough to kiss her. It was honestly a gross kiss and wished I could have brushed my teeth beforehand. But when I dropped my mask down there was the manic Au’tes again, full of energy and gusto. I looked past her to the shocked combat applicants. I put my finger to roughly where my mouth was and whispered in my distorted voice, “No one will believe you.”
Au’tes brought her visor down and squeezed my hand for a second longer before leaning in close “Thank you for letting me know you still exist under there.

Reqellia:

The dirt trail up the hill was easy enough for my legs. I stayed in the same general area as Klein, but with my augments I already had his pinpoint location and medical data, I could even access his helmet camera. I didn’t want to get in his way while the instructors gave him snap secondary tasks to complete on our journey up to the outpost location.
I kept myself entertained by listening in on the comms chatter that I could pick up on the wargames going on about us at large. I had enjoyed playing the no-holds-barred opposing force when I was a commando on rotation here.
Right now there was a particularly fun little drama going on up north of our location. A mechanized assault unit tasked with taking out an anti-orbital battery got one of their exos stuck in mud because of a poor assessment of the ground composition. The armored crane they had first ordered to pull it out was now also stuck.
The Lieutenant was trying to get an exception to the wargame rules to bring a drop ship in to pull them both out, but the higher-ups told her to figure it out. The whole point of these wargames was to discover how things could go wrong. The Lieutenant tried to pull title to overrule them, only to get a nasty conversation from her commander.
A small beep from my monitoring systems told me Klein’s heart rate had slowed and I looked up to see the front of the supply train had been ordered to halt. Up ahead was the “fort,” a clearing on top of the hill with nothing but some half buried holes.
The Kortika woman got to the front of the formation and gave her orders. “Listen up! Combat selection is going to set up a perimeter while the Auxiliary builds us a structure safe enough to hold during an assault. All weapons are going ‘live’, but for those in the non-combat teams I will again warn you to only use them in self-defense. If you wanted to shoot people for a living you should have signed up for it.”
I tried not to flinch as I watched Klein and his compatriots start to offload all the gear they had packed this morning and attempt their best effort at setting it up with basic instructions from Li’kele and the manuals that came with the equipment. Just another test to see how the applicants would handle the technical situation.
At this point they were at their limit, physically and mentally exhausted as they tried to bolt frames together, wrestle antennas, install expandable barriers, and put together the foundations of a forward operating base.
Klein had all but given up on the counter battery system he schlepped here and handed that responsibility off to a Senthe Boy while speaking a rough northern dialect of Satenthia. The boy was more than happy to talk to someone who knew even a few words of his native tongue.
I opened a small window on my HUD and watched with amusement as the early contract offers rose and fell. Klein’s offer from naval engineering, already paltry compared to other, more suitable jobs, dropped to barely above standard. Intelligence and Law branches, however, rocketed upwards again.
I could almost hear the recruiter’s comments as the numbers and terms changed. Does not have familiarity with Shil military equipment. Comfortable with speaking multiple languages. Works well with multiple species.
I watched them work. Klein, in usual Klein fashion, pushed himself. After getting the counter battery laser hooked up, he volunteered for other physically demanding tasks. Pile driving in the foundations that hold the columns of the structure. The rhythmic thump gave me ghost aches when I had done the same thing out in the periphery while getting pot shotted by roaches.
I shook my head. It was going to be another rough night for him by the way he was bunching up his shoulders as he braced the handheld pile driver. Thankfully, tomorrow he’d be home and with an appointment with Cee who might force him on bed rest for the next month.
I started to chuckle at the thought of how protective Itaro was going to get after taking one look at Klein. I came back from deployment once missing three fingers from a plasma grenade and Bahtet waited on me and foot, wouldn’t so much as let me handle a kitchen knife until they were replaced later that month.
A few stray red beams were thrown our way, even a flash bang or two from the commandos tasked with harassing us came and went. As the ramparts of the temporary base were finished, I took up station on the second level to oversee the whole complex. Klien was working with a combat team, helping them put a second defense line in. They had driven stakes into the ground to support parallel knee-high thermocast plates with an arms-length gap between them, which Klein was filling in with dirt to act as a wall and platform for the heavy, crew served lasgun.
I was thankful there would be a shuttle to pick us up soon. I played the opposing force for Selection a few times, and I still remembered the script. Right now we were in a lull that would last until dusk, then at least three full commando teams would assault the base. The battle would be made as realistic and demanding as possible with creeping dark to add to the complexity.
The Selection team would always be wiped out, but it was how they performed against overwhelming odds that would shift the contract offers that last bit before everything was locked in place.
I heard the whirr of a counter battery system swiveling around, and then the crackle of it firing. I turned to see what it was aiming for but all I saw was a cloud of smoke . Then a fast moving object came through the cloud before I heard the crackle again and another exploded .
Blanketing everything in a tar-black fog .
My stomach dropped. This wasn’t the cadre commando team, and they were attacking too soon. I got on the comms with Li’kele “HALT, HALT, HALT! We need to stop the exercise!”
I got a crackle on the comms. Then Li’kele’s voice came in that terrifyingly calm voice used to keep control of a combat operation. “I can’t get a signal out, I need a report on the situation.”
Instead of trying to explain I sent her my video feed as I jumped down from the ramparts and started to sprint for Klein. I needed to get him out of here , but I hadn’t had time to prime my augments. I started the cold power cycle as I cursed myself for letting my guard down.
I was already too late . I watched as our own counter-battery laser weapons were used against us, acting as the triggers for each smoke grenade engulfing Klein’s team right in front of me, their signal dropping right out. I got a response from Li’kele that alleviated at least some of my terror. “Dammit! It’s the 171 st Raiders from the wargames, they mus-”
And then I was enveloped in darkness and static. The smoke was so thick I could only see a few paces away in all spectrums. I tried my internal radio and….
Nothing. I was alone and with nothing to guide me, and then I saw to the right of me a few weak beams of red, and then a ball of light of a simulated explosion. I let my gnawing panic subside and walked their way with a observers flag in my hand. I was practically on top of them before I saw the combat selection team that had been ‘killed’, their frowning faces and hands up as they sat there grumbling.
The Raiders appeared soon after. A four woman squad. Two Helkam, a Rakiri, and a Shil’vati hefting a large antiquated grenade launcher. I called out “Do you have a way to call a emergency stop to the battle?”
The squad leader responded. “Did someone get seriously injured? I can fire off a flare and our medic teams will be here to extract them.”
“No! This is Selection, we aren’t supposed to be part of the Wargames.” I argued, but she waved me off.
“We got orders to assault the base up here. Trust me, our commander is mighty pissed at getting tasked with a frontal assault on the youngest and toughest the Imperium has to offer, with adding insult to injury if we lose to kids. That’s why we broke out the smoke screen.”
“One of the Selection members is the first of their species. Higher ups want them monitored at all times,” I partly lied.
The gears whirred and the team lead brought her weapon up again, eyes a little wider. “ Blue Eyes is here? Shit, girls ready up and head on a swivel!”
The team reformed in a circle facing outwards, a tactic specifically meant for ambushes and roach suicide drones. I stood there, confused. “Blue eyes?”
The team lead started to move into the smoke again, but explained, her eyes darting around. “Yeah, the freaky creature in the mask, toyed with an unmanned Exo before annihilating it with a shipcutter! A close quarters combat specialist with heavy armor and a real mean streak . You’re telling me they’re loose in a forest with enough concealment to sneak up on us and tear us to shreds? Ma’am the only ones in immediate danger are us. ”