So you bought $BB at $11 pre-market friday. Smart move my fellow degens 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 strap in, cause you're in for a ride to the moons of fucking pluto.
TL;DR Blackberry/AWS IVY will be in every single vehicle produced after 2022. EV or ICE, self-driving or boomer driving, it doesn't fucking matter. It 🚀 will 🚀 be 🚀 in 🚀 every 🚀 single 🚀 one 🚀 Oh, and Blackberry QNX Neutrinos RTOS is fun too.
Before you start reading, I'd suggest grabbing a snack and a drink. Cause I'm about to drop a fucking novel.
You've probably heard Blackberry QNX a few times around other DDs but you're wondering wtf is it and who the hell is even using it. QNX is an Real Time Operating System (more on this later) meant for vehicles, and it's been around for a really long time. Currently there are at least 175m cars running around with QNX. As for what cars those are, I'll keep it short: Apple Car Play was developed on QNX.
So why haven't we heard more about Blackberry in recent years since there's so many QNX cars around? 2 reasons. 1: Dumbasses like you thought it was a phone company. 2: QNX is so ahead of the fucking game that boomer auto manufacturers like Ford and Mercedes were too stupid to use it effectively. For the last few years it's just been used to turn on your car's radio. But things have changed now.
Zombie cars and QNX
QNX is the first commercial microkernel RTOS. What the fuck does that even mean nerd? For anyone like me who's not a software genius, I've done some research so we all know what we're getting into. A Real Time Operating System is developed to focus processing power on two most important things: Speed and Accuracy. This is different from shit like Windows and Mac OS (General Purpose OS or GPOS) as they spread processing power throughout the system because there isn't exactly anything that's significantly more important than the others. However, when you're using a self-driving program you need the hardware to perform the action at the exact time and speed. Your self driving program brakes too late? Crash into the car ahead of you. Your self program turns the wheel too late or too soon? Crash into a wall.
Blackberry has been working on this technology since 2014. But car makers literally couldn't develop autonomous vehicles fast enough. So these guys have just been twiddling their fucking thumbs.
Fast forward to now, where the rise of Tesla has made everyone and their momma make a self driving EV. Everyone is trying to make their own autopilot program but not their own OS. So who's OS are they using?
SONY? Blackberry QNX. Baidu? QNX baby. XPENG? Blackberry as well. If you read the article, you'll see XPEV is using DESAY's autopilot program that's built on QNX. Know who else is using DESAY autopilot? Li Auto But what about Nio you might ask? Well on NIO day, it was announced that NIO will be using Nvidia DRIVE....which is also built on QNX. What about the Apple car? There's no confirmation yet, but rumors of them reaching out to both Canoo and Hyundai makes me skeptical that Apple has succeeded in creating their own RTOS even after rumors of them starting 7 years ago. But even if they did... it doesn't even matter.
You might have noticed that I didn't mention Tesla at all. That's because they have developed their own Linux-based Operating system, which Tesla has been having trouble getting it approved by US safety regulations. QNX on the other hand, already is. $BB to the fucking moon🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Linux is also an open source OS and this becomes a huge problem when we talk about zombie cars.
That's right. Motherfucking zombie cars. You know that scene in "Fate of the Furious" where Charlize Theron straight up just hacks all the cars in the city and starts slamming them into buildings? Yea, this is a legitimate fear of the U.S. government and Linux is not going to pass any safety regulations. And you better believe after SolarWind and FireEye hacks, Cybersecurity is the hottest topic right now when it comes to national security. You better believe the U.S. Government won't just allow open source OS flowing around millions of autonomous driving cars that can be hijacked at any time of day.
You know who does have MULTIPLE government certifications already though? Blackberry bb. I won't get it, but you can read u/josh_moworld's post right here to get a better idea Blackberry's history with the U.S. government and security.
The best part about it all is, Blackberry designed QNX to be 100% POSIX compliant. In dumbass terms it basically means any LINUX based program can be ported over easily. Come join the dark side, Elon.
Now that you're pretty much caught up to speed on QNX, let's move over to IVY and why I believe IVY will be Blackberry's return to the throne 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Blackberry x AWS IVY
IVY is a co-development between Blackberry and Amazon and it is a 50/50 partnership. That's right; Jeff Bezos, the second richest man in the world and king of predatory business practices chose to partner with a company that has a $5.5b market cap. All hail, John Chen 👑👑👑
So what is IVY? Basically IVY cloud-based software that OEMs can install into their QNX vehicles (or any OS) and read sensor data from the vehicle's DCUs (domain controller units). These are basically sensors that give you data such as: times that you unlocked and locked your car, your car's wheel speed sensors, wiper arm sensors, tire pressure etc. In a Tesla, which is loaded with sensors, you will also see: sentry mode data, when an small object hits your car while parked, how hard you step on the accelerator, how hard you brake etc.
IVY basically captures this data and in real time sends it to OEMs for them to analyze. Cars are going to be fitted with more and more sensors (regardless of if they have autonomous systems or not) and the data that IVY provides is very helpful. This allows OEMs to see their customer's car preferences or driving styles and can further develop their future vehicles to match customer's interests. Also, since the data is transferred in REAL TIME, things like horrible weather conditions, traffic updates, and icy roads can be communicated to all vehicles within the OEM network so that people can be notified ahead of time.
But you know which industry would love this? Insurance companies. OEMs can gather all the safety data that IVY delivers and actually PROVE to insurance companies that their cars are safer. You know how Tesla had to come up with their own auto insurance? That was because Insurance companies were charging crazy high rates for Tesla's that had auto pilot. They didn't know exactly how to rate the risk, or who would take the blame. With Blackberry IVY, OEMs and insurance companies can partner together and have reliable data to work off of.
Best part of it all, IVY is extremely scalable and is a subscription based service. There isn't an exact price announced yet, but you know if Jeff Bezos is involved then there will definitely be a lot of profits flowing in from IVY.
For me, I'm long-term on $BB with some options to take advantage of the recent hype. I plan on holding shares until I see an actual competitor to QNX and IVY... which I've looked all over the internet and I can't find any. And honestly, Blackberry's security suite has so much to offer this isn't even the complete DD. I've just been typing for too long and figured it was a good time to stop. Maybe I will write another post in the future.

So another round one, chapter 90. Only 10 to go for the big number, this actually also marks 1000 novel size pages of story-making just over 277.000 words thus far O_o For comparison, the lord of the rings is 576.000 so damn near halfway there... Holy fuck that is a lot of writing in just over three months. To mark the occasion this one is a special one. at some point, during today's story, there is going to be a fade to black and a little link (If you are speed machines please have patients it's coming ASAP)
Now in there, you will find nothing but gratuitous pancake, this is so that you have the choice, you may skip the standalone chapter and I promise you are not missing any of the actual story, at least as little as I could manage. for the rest of you Enjoy,
With the semantics out of the way, I say we get on with the story,
ko-fi For having more pretty pictures commissioned.
Sapphire
Wiki Discord
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Chapter 90: A Bad Night
Luke had returned with a gaggle of kids, who all looked rather overwhelmed by what they saw coming out. There were a lot of them, Tom counted twelve in total. All of them rather young; he guessed the oldest one looked about nine.
“Look, dragon!” a young boy shouted, running over to Jarix with a few others on his heels. Some were looking around, clearly searching for people who might not be here anymore. Others stood staring at Tom.
The sight of other kids also caused a fair amount of excitement, Luke ushering the more timid kids towards the ones from Hylsdal.
Tom just stood there putting a hand around Jacky’s waist, looking at the best reason for doing all this. He chuckled as Jarix elevated his head just out of grabbing range as the more excitable of the kids tried to touch his face. He had a smile on though, even if he looked a little unsure of what to do. Zarko was on hand to help though, telling off the kids who tried to climb up the wounded dragon.
It took some coaxing, but in the end, most of the kids had been convinced to start playing with each other, though some were still around sitting either crying or just keeping to themselves. Lothal was doing his best to try and console his friends and doing a remarkably good job of it. Tom couldn't decide if he was proud or sad at seeing an eleven-year-old acting like an adult.
Dinner was nothing special, just some more of the stew from earlier with some rather stale tasting bread. Jacky, Tom, Zarko, and Unkai had sat together with the lady, Luke, Requi and the healer who was sort of conscious for the moment. She was apparently called Quin, at least for short. Unkai too was sitting rather slack-eared, clearly having been put to hard work already.
Jarix was given some cuts of cured meat. The lady had brought out both some decent ale and even some wine, which was passed around the table. Tom had never tried dragonette wine before, so, despite his reservations about mixing alcohol with blood loss, he poured a cup for himself. That was an old student tactic, after all, to donate blood before a night on the town. It made things a bit cheaper.
“We might not be able to put together a feast, but we can do this, a small token of thanks. Luke, if you wouldn’t mind,” The Lady went as she took her seat, Luke standing up raising a glass.
“To the heroes in our hour of need!”
Tom damn near stood up to join Luke, Zarko grabbing him by the shoulder to keep him seated. As the assembled dragonettes of the keep gave a toast. Tom didn’t really know if he felt proud or just uncomfortable at this point. On one hand, he could look around the room to see many faces, most of which appeared happy. On the other hand, many definitely weren’t: a lone wounded father with a sobbing kid; the kids from Hylsdal; the countless wounded, some looking like they might not fly or even walk properly again.
“To the crazy bastard who made it possible,” Jackalope went as she raised her cup looking at Tom, apparently figuring out what was being toasted.
“Hey!” Jarix let out, clearly trying to sound offended. “To the crazy bastards who made it possible,” Zarko corrected, raising her cup.
“To wiping those fuckers off the map,” Tom joined in, feeling a little left out.
“Cheers to that,” The silvered huntress replied without much enthusiasm, slamming her drink down in one go. She was joined by the others. Tom took his time with his wine though. As expected it was rather sweet, definitely not bad though. They hadn’t made a huge thing out of the meal, it was just stew and bread after all, even if their drinks were well above average.
It had been a rather awkward meal though. Jackalope couldn’t partake in the conversation unless Tom or someone else wrote down for her what was going on. They all did their best to avoid the more depressing subject matters, but it was pretty damn hard to avoid them in their current state. Quite a few of the others had taken to drinking rather heavily. Tom could hardly blame them, but he kept it mild for now. Jacky, though, did make a dent in the ale supply. She didn’t get piss drunk, but she was definitely inebriated by now.
“You know, I’ve never been called a hero before,” Jacky went, leaning on Tom after they had finished the meal. “You still got the ace though… You always get the ace… Why are you so damn good at killing?” She questioned hanging on his shoulders.
Tom didn’t really know how to answer her on that one. “You know what,” She went, pulling back and poking him in the chest with a finger. “You get to teach me how. You’re not getting the ace next time,” Tom pondered for a second if that was a smart thing to agree to. It was likely going to happen though, so why not.
“I guess that’s the smart part about being deaf, I can’t hear if you're protesting, so I’m just gonna say you agreed,” Jackalope continued before he managed to nod his reply. She poured a fresh mug for the both of them, snickering. Tom debated getting out the notepad to try and tell her he needed to be a little careful when it came to alcohol right now. She beat him to it though. “You’re not drinking like last time; afraid we might do something stupid?”
Unkai damn near choked at that one. Zarko just shook her head, looking a tad embarrassed. ’Remember the angry smith Tom, Remember the angry smith,’ he repeated to himself. He got out the notepad to write down a response. Tom made well sure no one else saw what he wrote as he showed it to Jacky.
“I’m wounded, also your mother,” she pulled back a bit, looking a little annoyed.
“She is not here nor will she be... Hey Unkai! Can you give him a check? He claims to be wounded; I don’t want him dying on me.” She went, sounding entirely inappropriate.
Even Zarko had to suppress a slight laugh at that, Unkai looking like a deer in the headlights as Jacky’s attention switched to him.
“I mean sure. I’ll just finish this,” the healer replied, gesturing at his cup.
“I can’t hear you,” Jackalope reiterated with a side to side head bob. Unkai looked very embarrassed, just giving her a thumbs up instead.
‘Oh boy,’ Tom thought to himself, shrinking down.
“I think he needs more liquid courage to handle me though. Watch closely Unkai, you might learn how to grow a spine. Even if it’s only for a bit,” Jackalope continued, laughing at her own joke as she poured another drink for herself and refilling Tom’s cup.
“The man who went toe to toe with a small army and he needs help to handle you. What does that tell you?” Zarko let out, looking at Tom, seeming very pleased with herself.
“Don’t let them get to you Tom, you're braver than her,” Jarix added, ensuring that everyone in the entire hall was now invested in the conversation.
Tom just picked up the mug of ale she had poured for him. Jackalope excitedly raised hers as they knocked them together. ‘May the hangover have mercy on my soul,’ Tom thought to himself. He had been saved after a few mugs by the lady declaring that they needed to save enough for a proper feast when they could manage it.
The result was a nice buzz and an even cockier Jackalope as they left the table. Perhaps it was her time for some healing following that whole shit show. He had never seen her as distraught as she was at Hylsdal. Not to mention the expression on her face when Zarko had carried the body of the dead girl away after they landed.
Apparently, alcohol had at the very least helped her think about something else, as she was spouting funny stories and, of course, boasting about how amazing she had been in the battle. That had led to a hasty explanation about how Tom had let her borrow some of his power during the battle. He wasn’t entirely sure if any of the locals bought it, but they were way too polite to question the explanation though. Or possibly scared, or just didn’t care, he wasn’t quite sure.
Unkai had gone over Jackalope first and deemed her as fixed as she could be right now; he didn't dare try to fix her ears, claiming that to be way beyond him. He sounded confident that Nunuk might be able to put them back together again though. Jackalope let out an annoyed sigh at the news, though the part about Nunuk did help.
It was clear Jacky and Tom had received priority when it came to getting fixed up after the battle. Unkai had put in some work on Tom, mainly putting his effort into the stinger wound on his side. Tom had him check his neck wound as thoroughly as he could manage. But Unkai claimed that was as good as it was going to get, though he recommended some resting time.
“Fuck, I took painkillers earlier,” Tom let out as Unkai touched the stinger wound, which didn’t hurt as much as it should have.
“Is that bad?” Unkai had questioned, looking at the wound.
“I drank alcohol too, you're not supposed to mix those.” Unkai looked at Tom as if he was expecting more than that.
“Well don’t look at me, I don’t know how they work,” he finally responded, Jackalope’s face growing worried at the exchange, her gaze breaking as she looked to Unkai.
“He’s fine, right? He’s been stung before. He’s tough on that front even if his skin is soft like a kid’s,” She asked with worry in her voice slurring slightly, Tom taking slight offense at the last part. Unkai turned to her, giving her a thumbs up and a smile before looking back at the wound.
“Anything we can do about it?” the healer questioned, clearly trying to not look worried this time, for Jacky’s sake.
“Don’t think so. I guess I’m just gonna cross my fingers and wait it out,” Tom answered truthfully. He had no clue what the actual effect of that might be. He felt fine though. He was a little weird in the head, but that was honestly to be expected in his current condition.
“Well I don’t think you’re gonna be sleeping alone anyway, but consider it medical advice to have someone look after you,” Unkai replied trying a sly smile, which just looked wrong on him.
“Tom the hot stone reporting for duty,” Tom joked back as Unkai went about reapplying the bandage to the wound. Jacky’s gaze switching back to Tom seemingly excited, the edges of her mouth curling into a slight smile.
The young woman who had washed his clothes earlier had shown them up to the bedrooms after the quick check-up.
“We have a few rooms which weren’t in use before, don’t worry it’s not… someones. I'm sorry if they are dirty, but you can have one each if you want.” She sounded really rather uncomfortable. Tom could get why. He could see the number of rooms and there had to be at least a few that had owners until recently.
“This is very kind of you. Thank you,” Tom replied, the woman giving a curtsy before making her way back down the stairs rather hurriedly. Tom got out the notepad to ask Jacky if she wanted to share a room. Thinking back, that wasn’t at all necessary; he just felt like it was the right thing to at least ask.
Jackalope though didn’t bother to ask him. Taking him by the wrist rather firmly, she led him into the first room the young woman had shown them.
​
The Pancake Chapter: Pancake!
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Balethon now safely in her grasp, Sapphire circled back the way she came. She almost wanted to tell him to enjoy this since she was likely not gonna be carrying him again, not to mention at night in nothing but her underwear. The dude had already had a remarkably shitty night though, so she refrained.
She spotted the large disorganized group which had been supposed to keep the tavern safe. They had set down in a square and were looking around confused as Sapphire came in to land. She was quickly greeted by a near-hysterical Haiko who looked ready to drop his mace as he nearly trod on Balethon in an attempt to hug her faster.
“You’re okay, right? Nothing wrong?”
“I’m fine, the bastards couldn’t shoot.”
“Oh thank whoever cared,” he let out, squeezing her tightly.
“Where is Dakota?” Sapphire squeaked out from his embrace. He let go of her taking a step back looking around.
“Not here. Neither is that Maiko guy, and he damn near caught up to you before you shot off into the darkness. You haven't gotten any slower, have you now?”
“Not by much, no,” she replied, looking down to her stricken cargo. “Let’s get him to sit up somewhere. Any of you got some water?” she questioned, looking to the other guards. Her eyes landed on someone being bound up. She assumed it was the mercenary who had tried to attack her. “You're a shit fighter, I hope you know that,” She shouted out, glaring at the arsehole, who just stared at her with clear contempt.
Draki had come over with a canteen of water, looking up to Sapphire and looking a bit strained in the face before he turned to Haiko.
“I owe you two silver, don’t I?” the diminutive guy asked, seeming rather annoyed.
“I told you, she’s the fastest woman you ever saw,” Haiko replied with a smile, trying to fold out Balethon, eventually giving up. “Grab on, let’s put him on that bench over there,” he went, grabbing Balethon by the legs, with Sapphire taking the shoulders as they carried him over. He was stiff as a board, though the panicked look in his eyes was at least sort of gone.
“You put a bet on me catching them?” Sapphire questioned as set him down. She wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or angry. Haiko held up his hands defensively, shaking his head.
“No no, Draki just didn’t believe all the stories, so I put two silver on the stories being true. Easiest bet ever.” That was more to Sapphire’s liking, and she gave him a slightly wicked smile. “You know we used to get a slice of the bets back then.”
“Hey, I got you your own personal protection service,” He replied, gesturing to the motley collection of dragonettes mulling about the square.
“That’s a word for it, I guess,” Sapphire replied, not overly impressed. It wasn’t like they had done much good tonight. “Take good care of him, I have some questions,” she went, leaving Haiko and going over to the now thoroughly tied up dragonette who had attacked her, the questioning already underway. Someone let out a suggestive growl as she walked by. The fact that she was wearing nothing but her underpants in the middle of the street dawning on her.
“Do that again and I’ll kill you,” she snarled, not sure who the offending member was, before turning her attention to the mercenary. “So… You thought kidnapping one of my friends was a good idea? How well would you say that went?” She questioned looking down at the piece of shit.
“Fucking brilliantly,” he responded angrily. “I ended up with a nice view if nothing else,” he continued with a shit-eating grin.
“How hard may I punch him?” She demanded, looking around at the guards. Most of them just looked confused at each other.
“As hard as I say so,” Maiko bellowed out, coming down alongside Dakota, who was carrying a very large unconscious female dragonette with an arrow sticking out of her back.
“Not your best shot, but it did the trick,” Dakota let out, unceremoniously dumping the dragonette on the ground before setting down. “Tie her up too, she won’t be out forever.”
After a bit they got the both of them tied up at about the same time as a contingent of city guards arrived, demanding to know what was going on. Sapphire cursed the fact she likely wouldn’t be allowed to beat the shit out of them now, as they began asking some very pointed questions.
“Oh yeah sure, a group of armed what was it... Tavern guards? Out at night with a pair of half-naked women and a dude who claims to be Royal Guard. And why has she been shot?!” the lead city guard questioned, looking around at them.
“Because she kidnapped him after stabbing him with vargulf poison,” Sapphire let out, wide armed. “How the fuck is that hard to understand!?”
“Calm down woman, who shot her?” the man questioned pointing at the female mercenary.
“I did and two other pieces of shit who tried to kill us!”
“Right, you're all coming with us. We need to know what happened here. Manacles,” the City Guard replied, snapping his fingers over his shoulder and receiving the item in question. Sapphire’s heart sank; she had never been arrested before. Closest she had ever gotten was being given a stern talking to for sneaking into the training fields.
Dakota looked ready with a reply, when Maiko beat her to it.
“Listen up you little shit-eating ground rat, see what this is?!” He went, holding up his sword, which true to form bore the royal insignia on the crossguard. “I will make a cape out of your fucking wings if you don’t man up and do your fucking job. These bastards attacked a tavern in the middle of the night, attempted murder, managed a kidnapping, then had a go at murder again during the desperate chase to catch them and your useless ass turns up just in time to insult the Royal Guard and be useless.”
“I’m gonna have to ask you to...” the city guard attempted to protest, though seemingly with a growing sense of apprehension.
“No, you may not. You are outranked! Or do I need to get the colonel to inform her the city guard is aiding an enemy of the crown? That would lead to some serious fucking cleansing of your unit, I can assure you of that!”
“In that case, I say we take you to the stockade and send for this colonel of yours, perhaps letting her know someone stole a blade from the Royal Guard armories.” Sapphire expected Maiko to explode at that insult, though he just pulled back with an evil smile.
“Very good sir, let’s go. Though I would appreciate the opportunity to get my uniform before appearing before my superior. You may escort me to the tavern in question if you wish.”
“That can be arranged, I assume you two wouldn’t mind getting dressed either, though I must insist on you accompanying us. Don’t we have a blanket or something?” he asked, looking back to his unit, eventually procuring a pair of thin woolen blankets.
“Bloody brilliant sir, how exactly do we fly with these?” Dakota questioned sounding very unimpressed.
“Uhm…”
As they were getting ready for takeoff Sapphire heard someone get a smack to the back of the head as she moved to check up on Balethon. Looking back, a slightly ashamed looking tavern guard was rubbing the back of his head, a very unimpressed woman standing next to him. ‘God fucking dammit’ she cursed to herself.
The ones who had woken up in the middle of the night broke off, going back to the tavern to get dressed in preparation for a long night. They wanted the bastards interrogated immediately anyway, even if getting interrogated themselves hadn't really been the plan. If this was the work of the Flaxens they would be doing their best to cover their tracks as soon as they learned of the mission's failure, so speed was of the essence.
“Why can’t we just be left in peace!” Dakota snapped as they were getting dressed. “Please let it just be the Flaxens so we can get them dealt with already.”
“Of course it’s them, who else could it be?” Sapphire dismissed her as she strapped on her greaves. Sapphire had a feeling Colonel Hashaw would not take kindly to this attack so she was bound to be there, therefore she needed to look proper in case they got fine company at the stockade.
Maiko had gone on to the Hashaw Estate to report back on the evening’s activities and hopefully convince Victoria to make an appearance. So Sapphire and Dakota found themselves standing in front of the stockade with a city guard escort.
It was a large, ugly building, looking like a place you wanted to avoid at all costs with its rough grey stone and metal barred cell windows lining the walls. “May they rot in here forever,” Sapphire let out as they were shown inside. She and Dakota were taken to different interrogation rooms. They were civil about it though, not even tying her up like she had feared.
The guy who had ‘caught them’ as he claimed was apparently in charge of this case. He formally introduced himself as Sergeant Lanok and set about asking questions, not many of which were intelligent. Where they were from, what they were doing here, why they had an armed escort in the middle of the night despite not even being properly dressed at the time.
He of course didn't believe most of the answers he was getting. Especially the part about being in the employ of the king at the moment, nor the whole Flaxen situation.
“What? You claim to be the target of a kidnapping attempt by a noble family, one on the council at that?! Give me a break,” Sapphire had to fight really hard not to slap him, but she didn’t want to end up in manacles, so she just stared at him contemptuously. Then there was a deep thunk that shook the building followed by creaking wood from above.
“This should be good,” Sapphire let out, leaning back with a smirk, relishing in the confusion on the guy’s face.
It took a bit longer than Sapphire had anticipated, as she refused to answer further questions, but there was eventually a knock on the door, Sergeant Lanok getting up to answer it. He was confronted by a very pissed looking Colonel Hashaw in formal uniform, Maiko and Yilditz at her back.
“You seem to have attempted to arrest one of my men and two people you really shouldn’t have. Not to mention waking both me and a decidedly grumpy 10 ton black dragon currently on your roof.”
‘So it wasn’t Baron then,’ Sapphire concluded. She doubted very much he could have been roused for this anyway, it also made sense to bring a black, they liked the night anyway. Maiko had been decent at laying out a string of insults, but Hashaw was clearly the source of his talent, as she chewed out not only the sergeant but anyone dumb enough to make an objection or not make themselves as small as they could including the captain of the Stockade much to Sapphire's horror.
It definitely helped that she was flanked by Ylditz, the person who had been tasked with finding out who the mercenaries were, as well as a few other family members. The dragon in question was apparently Tiguan, one of Jarix's training buddies. Sapphire guessed he was here just as much for a bit of experience then.
“Is there anyone dumb or useless enough in here to have anything more to say...? Very good. Where are the two who ‘actually’ need questioning?”
The tavern guards had been allowed to go, though Haiko had stuck around. The Sergeant was now looking very small as he took them to the room where the one who hadn’t been shot was sitting. The woman who had been carrying Balethon currently being treated.
“Do you have even the slightest idea how much you fucked up tonight?” Hashaw asked as she strode in the door, the sergeant holding it open for her.
“Pretty fucking badly I presume, but what the hell are you gonna do, huh? Gonna execute me, perhaps clip my wings? Doesn't matter if you’re Royal Guard or tavern guard the punishment is the same. So you don’t scare me woman or should I say… oh, Colonel, wow I really did fuck up, huh?” Well, Sapphire had to give it to him, he was taking the news that he was likely done for rather well, or perhaps he was just in denial about the whole thing.
“Oh, I can do worse than that I think. Sapphire, you wouldn’t happen to have learned a thing or two from our friend?”
“Might have done,” she admitted, thinking back to what she could remember of Tom’s escapades.
“Sergeant, what is the punishment for his crimes?”
“Well, he failed to kill anyone, hence he is charged with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping. So indentured servitude for quite a while. Unless he could pay for a prison sentence of course.”
“Right then, how about this? Tell me who sent you and I will pay for your prison time,” the colonel then went, looking to the perp. “I know you were hired to do this, so while you may be a piece of shit it’s not you that I want. Alternatively, I could start pulling strings until we get some alone time with you and make your life really fucking unpleasant.”
Sapphire looked slightly nervously to the sergeant, but he was still cowering, so she guessed Hashaw got away with threatening to break the law inside the stockade. It was a generous offer too. If this guy was going away for a long time, paying for it wasn’t gonna be cheap.
“You know my choice is death or slavery here. You can’t be dumb enough to believe they will let me live if I talk.”
“That depends on who sent you, because if it is who I think it is they won't be around to send someone to kill you after this.” Again Sapphire was fairly sure they couldn't condemn the entire Flaxen family for something like this, but hey if it works it works.
“You seriously think we take jobs directly? It’s not the client that will kill me dipshit. My boss would.” Hashaw was very clearly not pleased with that answer, as she turned to the sergeant.
“Would you agree this man is guilty, on the word of both independent tavern guards, the Royal Guard, and our two huntresses of the noble Bizmati Keep? Or do you insist on a mock trial for this piece of shit?”
The sergeant looked a tad bewildered for a second before nodding. “Yes ma’am. I’ll have him sent off to the deepest mine I can find tomorrow.”
“No, I want him handed over to the Royal Guard so we may question him as an enemy combatant.”
“You cannot do that and you know it,” the sergeant replied, finally standing up for himself. Clearly to Hashaw’s great annoyance.
“Then I want you to get me a telepath. Am I correct in assuming his rights on that matter are no longer in place even if I can’t pull his claws out?”
“Yes, but we don’t have one, ma’am. You must understand, a criminal’s mind is not exactly the kindest place to be.”
“Weak-minded cowards,” Hashaw cursed, looking away pondering. “Fine keep him here, you may continue with your excuse for questioning. I’ll be back, luckily not everyone is as weak of spine.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
So then We have prisoners to work with once again. hopefully, they will fare a little better than the last one. then again... Maybe not. As always do let me know what you thought down below be it good bad or just generally hilarious.
until next time, have an awesome day.
​
ko-fi For having more pretty pictures commissioned.
Sapphire
Wiki Discord
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Just in case you missed it, the pancake chapter: Pancake!

I recently ended up doing some reading regarding Lung's reputation, in part because of a piece of fanfic I read, and in part so that I could characterise him for a work I've been planning. I was aware that fanfic tends to exaggerate Lung's reputation (The phrase "Dragon of Kyushu" is entirely fanon - Your average person in Brockton Bay has no idea that Lung fought Leviathan), but I hadn't realised how bad it was.
My actual read, having done some skimming for Lung's appearances, and discussions about him, is that Lung is, if anything, massively underestimated by the population of Brockton Bay. I'm kind of just throwing this out there so that someone can shout out if I've gone too far the other way, because there's no easier way to get information than being wrong on the internet.
Taylor serves as our 'Joe Public' character for parahumans. She's pretty ignorant on the cape scene (She didn't really think about how Armsmaster was a Tinker until she was talking to him) and she needed Trigger events explained. As a general rule of thumb, it seems safe to take her as somewhat representative of the general public. And how does she rate Lung?

How was this monster not an A-Lister?

Taylor definitely doesn't think much of Lung. When she first encounters him, she's explicit that she doesn't consider him an A-lister. But what's interesting is that she actually uses this terminology elsewhere. Uber and Leet get described as 'barely even' B-list. Grue and Bitch were 'marginally successful B-list villains'. That seems to be the tier that Lung gets sorted into. He's a villain she's heard about, and the leader of a big gang, but she doesn't seem to treat him as a big deal, personally. She's shocked by how powerful Lung is when Lung is only about 8 feet tall. That's nothing compared to his actual potential, and it's still more than she expected him to be capable of.
The PRT & Protectorate don't seem to view Lung that highly, either, despite numerous fanfics depicting Armsmaster or the Wards expressing shock that Taylor took him out. Officially, he's a Brute 4-9, which means that they think he can be defeated by a squad of troopers, so long as they do it at the start of a fight. He's officially not even worth sending parahumans up against if he's not already ramped up.
And the villain scene don't seem to respect him that much either. In the confrontation in Hive, we see Kaiser use his power to lock himself, Fenja and Menja into a building with Lung, with the intent of killing him. That seems to be going pretty well, because Lung tears down a wall to escape, and stumbles on to Skitter. Once he does, Kaiser refuses help from Skitter

“Step down, Undersider,” Kaiser spoke from the opposite end of the room, “My girls and I have this in hand.”

That's a level of confidence that is entirely incongruous with fanon Lung. At this point, Lung is 15 feet tall, he's got wings and he's almost definitely the second most powerful parahuman in the Bay in a straight fight (Beaten only by Noelle), and Kaiser (who is meant to be a smart guy, IIRC) still thinks he can take him.
But then, the Undersiders don't seem all that scared of him either. Fanfic likes to present them as desperate in the face of Lung coming at them, but that's not really the vibe you get from the actual text.

“When we got word Lung was aiming to come after us tonight, we were pretty freaked. We were arguing strategy for the better part of the day. We eventually decided, fuck it, we’d meet him halfway. Wing it. Not my usual way of doing things, but yeah.”

That doesn't read terrified to me. "Pretty freaked" is still relatively mild if Lung is treated as a massive deal. And, at the end of the day, their plan was for a team with only one heavy hitter to fight him.

"Anyways, point of this explanation is this: Knowing we had an imminent fight with Lung coming, knowing Lung planned to pyrokinesis our general area until he rooted us out, got civilians to finger us or brought in enough capes to make life difficult for us, I called Coil. He said he’d help, told us to wait five minutes, then take the more direct route, straight into the heart of ABB territory. We go, we take out a contingent of ABB gangbangers and scare off Oni Lee. Then I get a call back from Coil. The other reality? We left earlier, went a different route. Got in a fight with Lung before you showed. You decided to attack both our groups while we were occupied fighting each other, worn out, only Lung was stronger at that time, too strong for you to do too much. By the time you realized you’d have to work with us to stop him, which wasn’t long, it was too late. Lung was too tough."

There's two interesting bits in here. One, Lung would need to 'bring in' capes to make it difficult for the Undersiders. Lisa doesn't think he's enough on his own, apparently. Two, Coil didn't use his power to help them escape. He used it aggressively. At least one split was dedicated to two separate attack plans. And sure, maybe he gave them an escape route after closing the first timeline, but I think it's telling that he was willing to use his power and the Undersiders so aggressively. If he thought they were entirely outmatched, a 5 minute head start doesn't seem like enough.
His record is also not as clear as fanfic tends to make it. We know from Ward that he managed to beat the local Protectorate team, with 10-15 minutes build-up time. But, we're also told that he's been beaten repeatedly.

According to the wiki, Lung had apparently suffered a number of minor defeats at the hands of various teams, ranging from the Guild to the local teams of New Wave, the Wards and the Protectorate, but consistently managed to evade capture until last night.

I'm interested in hearing more about him being beaten by New Wave, the Wards and the Protectorate. Is that all at once? Or is it that he's been run off by the Wards on their own at some point?
There's a comment from Wildbow that emphasises his low ambition:

Lung has a high classification but a relatively low level of ambition. He had one powered minion (until early 2011 when he recruited Bakuda) and sought primarily to hold the docks as his territory. He ruled like a lesser king, had prostitutes and sex slaves, a protection racket and drug dealing, but he wasn’t fighting for a footing downtown.
For all his (potential) power, he’d settled into a role as a street thug and gang leader.

Overall, my conclusion is that Lung is vastly more powerful than Brockton Bay gives him credit for, but because he sticks to the poorer areas of town and doesn't contest the prime territory, he's more significant as "the leader of the ABB" than he is as a parahuman threat. The impressive thing that Skitter did wasn't beating him in a fight, it was doing it in such a way that he was there long enough to be arrested.
On the other hand, Worm is big and I can guarantee I've missed some things.

This happened before the coronavirus was a thing in case you’re wondering. Obviously right now we’re staying in as much as possible and supporting local business through take out and delivery.
So this was over a year ago and my wife won’t let it go. I’m looking for some external input. I took my wife to our favorite local spot for her birthday. Everything was good as usual, but we had a server neither of us had seen before with a somewhat striking appearance: she was completely bald. Normally I wouldn’t say anything about something like that because I’m afraid of being rude, but toward the end of the dinner the server made a joke about she and I having the same haircut (I’m bald).
I said something along the lines of, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m curious. Are you bald by choice?” It turns out she was, which was a great relief to me since I didn’t want to pry into it if she was sick or involuntary bald for some reason. She was more than happy to talk about it and told me all about how she’d always loved bald heads and wanted to try it. She said she got positive feedback and just kept her head shaved. I told her I loved that and I thought women could look very beautiful bald even though it’s not something you see often. I told her she had a great head shape for it and joked about offering razor recommendations. It was light conversation and that was the end of it.
For the rest of the meal my wife was silent. I could tell something was wrong. When we got to the car, there was a moment of pause between us and I asked if something was wrong. She replied, “Are we going to stop at Walgreens and pick up some clippers?” I asked her what she meant and she said obviously since I was enthralled with our server’s shaved head she had to do something to win her husbands attention back. I was “blatantly” flirting with our server, apparently. It spiraled into a huge fight with my wife accusing me of wanting to experiment with an exotic-looking woman because I was tired of my boring old wife.
I can’t deny that in the moment, I probably looked like I was flirting with our server. It was not intentional, but I guess I realize how it could’ve seemed inappropriate at my wife’s birthday dinner. I did find her attractive, but my wife will always come first. I’m attracted to her and I love her. That’s why I married her. Even now she makes little references like “I guess I’m not as interesting as a bald goddess” or “Does this look good on me or do I need to show some scalp?”
So am I the asshole for this? I just want things to be okay. I’ve tried apologizing but nothing will stop it.
EDIT: I’m starting to see people making comments that seem to indicate it is never okay to talk about balding in public. I reject this completely. I did not bring this up out of nowhere; the topic came up when the server pointed out (in a jovial fashion) that she and I had the same haircut. It was a brief conversation with zero negative or uncomfortable vibes, and when we left I said bye to the server and she pointed at her head and gave me a little thumbs up. I get the feeling we would’ve got along well as friends. So this isn’t the issue.
EDIT 2: Good grief you guys, let me clear something up. My wife is 25 and I am 24. The server looked older than both of us, probably early 30s. So anything saying in flirting with a younger woman is wrong. Also my wife suggested I don’t find her attractive anymore which is completely wrong. Why would I marry someone I didn’t think was capital H O T?? She’s plenty attractive.
I’m reading everything you’re sending and it’s split down the middle as far as I can tell. All I can tell you is please read carefully. No one was trapped in a conversation with me they didn’t want. As I said the server got my attention as we were leaving. Do you get the attention of people you’re glad are almost out the door? Also I don’t remember the conversation down to the last detail but it was maybe a minute tops. Hope this gives things a little more clarity.
EDIT 3: Lmao yall I see my post got tagged. I don’t know if that means they counted or what but I guess what I’ll do is apologize to my wife in a more formal way and see if she’ll tell me why she’s been bringing this up over and over. She doesn’t even seem mad anymore really, it’s just coming up every time she talks to me it seems like. And I never addressed it but I already apologized sincerely right after this happened last year. And again numerous times. I don’t know how I can do it any better.
Also yall are ridiculous! I got two messages saying I should get divorced by her immediately and one person said it was evidence of some kind of crime and I should be in jail! Yall I can’t with that one, but thanks to everyone who gave me reasonable input. I guess when this many people see a post I’m gonna get a few unhinged people. I will make a update if I ever get to a solution if this sub is okay with that.

“What’s all that?” my friend Aaron asked as he followed me down the steps into the basement. He was referring to the tattered rows of cardboard boxes stacked in the corner.
“That’s my grandfather’s junk,” I said, making my way to the couch. “My dad had to clean out his house when he died and didn’t have time to go through it so he shoved it down here.”
“Sorry, dude,” Aaron said, offering his condolences. That was the first time he had heard about my grandfather passing away.
“Don’t be,” I said, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV, “I’ve never met him.”
“Seriously?” he asked, taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch.
“Seriously,” I replied, handing him one of the video game controllers, “My dad never talked about him. I didn’t even know he was alive until my mom told me he had died last week.”
“Did you go to the funeral?”
“There wasn’t one,” I snapped. I was starting to get annoyed with Aaron. The reason I had invited him over was to play video games, not talk about my dead grandfather. “You ready?” I asked, lifting my controller.
“Let’s do this,” he replied, thankfully dropping all talk of my grandfather.
We spent the next three hours blasting our way through a dystopian landscape, killing hordes of demons and other hellspawn.
“I need to take a break,” Aaron said, setting his controller down after being beheaded by a demon prince’s sword, “My thumbs are starting to cramp up.”
He got up off of the couch to stretch his legs while I continued playing the game, trying to make it to the next save point. I lost sight of him as he walked behind the couch and didn’t know what he was doing until I heard a loud commotion behind me. I quickly paused the game and turned around to see what had happened.
“Sorry,” Aaron apologized, standing in the middle of a bunch of my grandfather’s things. The stuff had tumbled out of their boxes when he caused one of the stacks to fall over. “I’ll clean it up.”
“What the hell, man?” I exploded, dropping my controller onto the couch as I got up to see if he had broken anything.
“It was an accident,” he blurted out, “I just wanted to see what was in the boxes, but I accidentally bumped one with my knee, and then the whole stack fell over.”
I knelt down next to one of the boxes, righted it, and then began putting stuff back inside of it. “Come on,” I said, “We need to hurry and clean this up before my parents see it.”
We were nearly done when Aaron stopped and held something out to me, “Check this out,” he said. In his hands was a tattered boardgame box whose corners were held together by masking tape.
Large red letters, made to look like blood smears, spelled out the name of the game: The Tell-Tale Heart. Beneath that was a cartoonish drawing of a man holding out a heart cradled in the palms of his hands. Underneath the drawing was the tag line: You Lie You Die!
“That’s Poe, right?” Aaron asked, pointing at the drawing of the man.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, reaching out and taking the box from him.
“I remember having to read that story for my American Lit class last year,” Aaron declared.
I set the box on the floor and gently pulled the lid off, careful not to damage it any further. Inside it was a large plastic replica of a human heart that was scratched and faded along with a bunch of blank cards that had yellowed with age. When I didn’t see the instructions, I assumed they were lost until I saw that they were printed on the inside of the box lid.
“We should play it,” Aaron suggested as I placed the lid back on the box.
“Why?” I scoffed.
“Something different to do.”
“It looks dumb.” I wasn’t a big fan of board games.
“I have something that might make it a little more interesting.” Aaron reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small baggie full of weed.
“Where did you get this?” I asked, standing up and taking the bag from him. There was enough weed in it for at least three, maybe four, joints.
“Does it matter?” was his reply as he snatched the bag away from me.
“We can’t smoke it here,” I said. “My parents will be home any minute.”
“We can smoke it at Brett’s house,” Aaron suggested.
“I thought he was still on vacation.”
“He’s back,” Aaron pulled out his phone, and began composing a text to Brett, “I saw them unloading their car on my way home last night.”
“Why the hell isn’t he here then?” Brett was usually the first one at my house every day. It wasn’t like him to skip out on gaming with Aaron and me.
Aaron shrugged. His phone chimed a moment later. He looked down at it before holding it out for me to see, “He says we can come over.”
“Let’s go,” I said, starting to walk towards the stairs.
“Don’t forget the game,” Aaron pointed.
“Seriously?” I had hoped he wasn’t serious about playing it.
“Come on,” he prodded, “It’ll be fun.”
“I doubt that,” I said, turning around to scoop up the game.
Fifteen minutes later we were standing on the porch of Brett’s house waiting for him to answer the door.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell us you were back?” I badgered Brett as he let us inside.
“I would have,” he said, shutting the door behind us, “But I’m grounded.”
“What did you do this time?” Aaron asked. Brett was frequently in trouble with his parents.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, walking past us on his way to the basement.
“Did your parents say you could have anyone over?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No,” Brett replied, “But they won’t be home for hours, so it doesn’t matter.” We followed him down the basement steps as he spoke.
Unlike my house, Brett’s basement wasn’t finished. It was just a concrete storage room beneath the house. His parents rarely went down there which made it the perfect place to light up.
“Open up the windows,” Brett said to Aaron, pointing at the small rectangular panes of glass high on the wall.
While Aaron did that, Brett and I grabbed the folding chairs from behind the stairs and set them up.
Once everything was situated, we took our seats around the large plastic crate we were using as a makeshift table.
“What’s that?” Brett asked, pointing at the Tell-Tale Heart game, clutched beneath my arm.
“Some stupid board game we found in my basement,” I answered, handing the game to Brett so he could take a look at it. “Aaron wants us to play it.”
“Looks dumb,” Brett said, tossing the game onto the crate after reading the description on the back of the box.
“See,” I said, gesturing at Brett while looking at Aaron, “He doesn’t want to play it either.”
While Brett was looking at the game, Aaron had pulled out the weed and began rolling a joint.
“If you don’t play,” Aaron lit the joint and took a long drag off of it. He held the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds before exhaling, “You don’t smoke.”
“That’s bullshit,” I complained.
“My weed, my rules,” he smiled, taking another hit off the joint.
I looked over at Brett, waiting to see if he was going to protest as well.
He shrugged his shoulders, “Whatever,” he sighed, “I just want to get high.”
“Let’s do this,” Aaron said, handing me the joint before grabbing the game box and dumping the contents out on the crate.
While Aaron read over the rules and set up the game, Brett and I passed the joint back and forth a couple of times.
“Alright,” Aaron declared, “I think it’s all set up and ready to go.” He held out his hand, wanting me to pass him the joint, “Who wants to go first?”
The three of us looked at each other.
“It’s Cory’s game,” Brett spoke up, “I think he should go first.”
“It was Aaron’s idea,” I countered, “He should go first.”
“I agree with Brett,” Aaron said, “Two against one. That means you’re going first, Cory” He reached out and turned the plastic heart so that the sculpted aorta was facing me.
“Fine,” I huffed, looking down at the poorly sculpted fake heart, wanting to get the ordeal over with, “What am I supposed to do?”
“Press the button on top,” he pointed at the heart, “Then answer the question on the card that pops out.”
“What button?” I didn’t see anything that looked like a button.
“Are you blind?” Aaron leaned forward and placed his finger on a small circle of plastic that was set into the muscle of the heart. “It’s right here.”
I ignored his insult and pressed my index finger down on the button. There was a click and then a small white card was pushed out of a thin slit between the large blood vessels on top of the heart.
“It’s blank,” I said, looking down at the card sticking out of the slot. “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to write questions on the cards before you put them in the heart?” I asked. I was pretty sure all of the cards were blank when I looked through the components at my house.
Aaron picked up the box lid and reread the instructions printed on the inside, “It doesn’t say to do that.” He tossed the lid aside.
“Check the other side,” Brett suggested.
I pulled the card out of the slot and flipped it over, expecting it to be blank, but it wasn’t. Written in an old-fashioned news font was the following question: HAVE YOU EVER STOLEN SOMETHING FROM A FRIEND?
“What does it say?” Aaron asked.
I read the question out loud.
“Well?” Brett asked, “Have you?”
I set the card on the table. Under normal circumstances, I would have said, “No,” and left it at that, but these weren’t normal conditions. The pot had loosened my inhibitions and I was feeling really annoyed at having to play the game. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “Yes, I have stolen something from a friend.”
“What did you steal?” Aaron was quick to ask.
“What does it matter?” I said, trying to distance myself from my admission, “I answered the question. My turn is done.”
“Actually, your turn isn’t over,” Aaron said, picking the box lid back up and pointing to it, “According to the rules, if you answer yes to the question on the card, Brett and I each get to ask you a follow-up question.”
I snatched the box lid out of his hands and read over the rules, “That’s stupid.”
“So, I ask again, what did you steal?” Aaron leaned forward, looking at me expectantly.
“It says here you can only ask me a yes or no question,” I flung the box lid, trying to hit him with it but he ducked out of the way.
“Did you steal something from me?” Brett asked, reaching out to Aaron, wanting him to hand over the joint.
“No.” I turned to face him. Stealing from him would have been suicide. He was much bigger than I and had a quick temper. “I’m not stupid enough to steal something from you.”
“Yeah,” Brett smirked, taking a hit from the joint before holding it out to me, “I would have kicked your ass if I caught you.”
“You’re the one who stole my Pokemon cards,” Aaron declared, pointing his finger at my chest.
“It was ten years ago.” I took a long drag off the joint and offered it to him.
“I fucking knew it!”
“I’ll buy you some more next time I go to the store,” I joked. None of us had played the silly little card game in years.
“What did you do with them?” Aaron asked, stubbing out the remains of the joint.
“I traded them for better cards,” I said.
“You’re an asshole,” he said as he started rolling a new joint, but he was smiling when he said it, letting me know that he wasn’t going to hold a grudge about it. At least he wasn’t going to as long as we were all high. His attitude might change later.
“Who’s next?” I asked, wanting to divert attention to someone else.
“I’ll go,” Aaron said, lighting up the new joint. He pressed the button on top of the plastic heart and grabbed the card as soon as it was ejected. The smile dropped from his face as he read the card.
“What does it say?” Brett asked.
Aaron set the card face down on the plastic crate, “You guys are right,” he said, “This game is stupid. Let’s do something else.”
“Ah, hell no,” I said, snatching the card off of the crate, “I answered my question. Now you have to answer yours.” I held the card up and read it out loud. “Are you gay?”
That was an oddly specific question, considering there have been rumors going around the school that Aaron slept with one of the guys on the swim team. I could see how that question would make him feel uncomfortable and why he didn’t want to play the game any longer. I felt uncomfortable after asking it.
Seeing the look on Aaron’s face made me start thinking about the question that was on my card. When I first read it, I didn’t think anything of it. Now, after reading Aaron’s question, I was starting to believe that these questions were being given deliberately. It was as if the game somehow knew the secrets we were keeping from each other.
“It doesn’t matter if you are,” Brett said, taking the joint out of Aaron’s hand, “As long as you keep supplying these,” he brought the joint to his lips, “I don’t care whose dick you had to suck to get it.”
I gave Brett a look, “Dude,” I said, shaking my head to let him know his comment wasn’t appreciated and that he shouldn’t say anything else.
“I wanted to tell you guys,” Aaron blurted out, “I just didn’t think you’d want to be friends with me if you knew.”
“You don’t want to fuck me, do you?” Brett asked, putting the joint to his lips.
“BRETT!” I scolded him, throwing up my hands at his insensitivity.
“What?” he shrugged, “He confirmed he was gay. According to the rules we each get to ask him a yes or no question. That was my question.” He took another hit of the joint before passing it to me.
“You don’t have to answer that,” I said to Aaron.
“It’s fine,” Aaron replied to me before turning to Brett, “No, I don’t want to fuck you,” he sneered, “You’re not my type.”
“I’m not sure he’s anyone’s type,” I said, taking a shot at Brett, trying to lighten the mood.
Brett responded by flipping me off and taking the joint from my hand.
“Is there something you want to ask?” Aaron said to me.
I wasn’t planning on asking a question, but since he brought it up, I did, “Is it true?” I asked, “The rumor?”
Aaron nodded his head, “We’ve secretly been seeing each other for about a year now.”
“That explains why you haven’t been around much lately,” I said, giving him a little light-hearted ribbing.
“So,” Brett said, exhaling a large plume of smoke as he handed the joint to Aaron, “Are you a top or a bottom?”
Aaron and I exchanged an annoyed look.
“You already asked your question.” I placed my hand on top of the plastic heart and turned it towards Brett, “Now it’s your turn to answer.”
Brett looked down at the heart, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms over his chest, “Pass,” he said.
“You don’t get to pass,” I pointed my finger at him, “Not after Aaron and I have already taken turns.
Before Brett could respond, the heart made a clicking sound and a card was ejected. All three of us stared at the card.
“If you’re not going to read it,” I leaned forward and acted like I was going to take the card, but Brett snatched it out of the heart before I could.
He held the card before his face for a moment before tearing it up and tossing the pieces onto the ground.
“What did it say?” I asked
“It doesn’t matter.” He took a long drag from the joint, burning it down until there was almost nothing left, and then dropped it on the floor, extinguishing it beneath the heel of his sneaker. “The answer was no.”
It was clear from his demeanor that he didn’t like what he had read on the card and that he didn’t want us to know what it had said.
“That’s bullshit,” I snapped at him, “Aaron and I read our questions out loud. It’s only fair that you tell us what yours was.”
The heart clicked again and ejected another card.
Brett and I looked down at the card before looking across the crate at each other. Both of us must have had the same thought because we lunged for the card at the same time.
I was a fraction of a second faster than Brett and was able to snatch the card out of the heart before he did. With the card in my hand, I quickly turned and walked a few steps away from Brett, reading the card out loud as he moved to stop me.
“Have you ever killed someone?” I turned back around as Brett caught up to me and yanked the card out of my hand, pushing me to the floor with his other hand.
I thought Brett was ashamed of what his question would reveal, the way Aaron and I were, but the implications of what was on that card were far worse and it horrified me.
Brett tore up the second card, “I haven’t killed anyone,” he declared, tossing the pieces at me.
I looked over at Aaron and saw the same worried looked on his face that was on mine, what the fuck? I mouthed the words. Aaron shrugged and then we both looked back at Brett.
Brett was clearly agitated, pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he snapped, seeing the concerned looks Aaron and I were giving him, “And shut that thing up,” he pointed at the plastic heart sitting on the crate.
I got up off of the floor and approached the plastic crate, trying to hear whatever it was that Brett was hearing, “I don’t hear anything,” I said, casting my eyes over to Aaron who shook his head, confirming that he didn’t hear anything either.
“How can you not hear that?” Brett ranted, “It’s so fucking loud.”
“What does it sound like?” I asked.
“What do you mean what does it sound like?” he scoffed, “It sounds like a heartbeat.”
Aaron and I just stared at him.
“You seriously can’t hear that?” Brett questioned, once again pointing at the heart, cocking his head to the side as he listened to something only he could hear, “Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump,” he mimicked the phantom sound.
I made a show of trying to listen, before picking up the heart and holding it close to my ear, “Sorry,” I said, “I still don’t hear anything.”
“It can’t make any noise,” Aaron said, taking the heart from me and prying it apart to show Brett the hollowed-out interior. There was no batter battery compartment, or speaker, or electronics of any kind inside of it. All we could see were the cards and the spring-loaded mechanism that was used to eject the cards.
Aaron put the heart back together and set it on the table.
“Stop fucking with me,” he growled, pointing his finger from me to Aaron.
“We’re not,” Aaron and I replied in almost perfect unison.
“Liars!” he screamed, sending spittle flying from his mouth.
“I think we should go,” I said to Aaron, nodding towards the stairs.
Aaron pushed himself up from his chair. He was as eager to leave as I was.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Brett threatened, placing himself between us and the stairs, “Not until you turn that thing off,” he looked past us to where the heart sat on the table.
Aaron grabbed the heart and thrust it into Brett’s hands, “You turn it off,” he said.
“Fine,” he said, letting the heart fall to the floor, “I will.” He lifted his foot and brought it down as hard as he could. The plastic heart shattered into hundred pieces as it was crushed under the weight of his foot.
At the same instance the heart busted apart, Brett cried out and grabbed his chest, doubling over as if he were in excruciating pain.
“What the fuck’s wrong with him?” Aaron asked, having to step back to avoid being hit as Brett fell to the floor.
“I don’t know,” I said, “But I think we should go.”
“He looks like he’s dying,” Aaron said, skirting around Brett as he writhed on the floor, “Shouldn’t we call 911 or something?”
“I suppose,” I replied, despite every instinct telling me to get the fuck out of the house.
Aaron pulled out his phone and made the call.
Ten minutes later, a police officer pulled us outside to take our statement while the paramedics worked to revive Brett.
“He just fell over?” the officer asked. It was the first question he had asked while we were explaining what had happened.
“Yeah,” Aaron and I agreed.
“Did he have any health issues that you were aware of?”
We both shook our heads.
“How much pot did you smoke?” I could feel the officer’s eyes boring into me.
“Two joints,” Aaron said.
“Do you have any pot on you right now?”
Aaron reached into his pocket and pulled out the baggie containing the remaining pot and handed it to the officer.
“I think I’ve gotten everything I need from you for now,” the officer said, closing his notebook and putting it back in his pocket. “If I need anything else, I’ll be in touch. You can go home now.”
Aaron and I got up and left, walking the two blocks back to my house. The entire time we walked Aaron, was intently staring at his phone.
“Check this out,” he said, holding out his phone so I could see the screen as we walked up my driveway towards the house.
On his phone was a news article with a headline that read: SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING LOCAL GIRL.
“Why are you showing me this?” I asked.
“I think Brett killed her,” he said, explaining his reasoning before I could say anything else, “That town,” he pointed at the name mentioned in the article, “That’s where Brett went while he was on vacation.” He scrolled down to the part of the article where it talked about the day the girl disappeared, “She was reported missing the day before Brett came home.”
“That doesn’t mean he killed her.” Even though I said it, I didn’t really believe it.
“Why else would the game ask him if he killed someone?” Aaron countered, saying what I was already thinking, “It knew you stole my pokemon cards,” he gestured at me, “It knew I was gay,” he gestured at himself. “The game knew he killed her. I’m sure of it. And it killed him because he refused to tell the truth.”
“You lie, you die,” I said, recalling the game’s catchphrase that was printed in bold letters on the front of the box.

So, if you spend (way too much) time on the BST like me, you've noticed that recently, there's been a little more drama in the last few weeks than usual and people have been getting called out more often on some... missteps in their posts lol. ^{(I would've posted this there, but since these kinds of general posts aren't allowed, I figured this was the next best place to put it.})
While it's been lowkey entertaining and a decent way to inform people on some unspoken rules, I figured it could be useful to actually lay out those unspoken rules that aren't in the sub's "official" rules. Take it as "strong suggestions" that I think are fair game, and should generally be worth considering by everyone who uses the sub.
Side note: To the BST mods who may see this, this is not at all supposed to be a criticism of the sub and its "approved" rules — it's more of a PSA for those who've received criticism on their posts and could use some guidance on some base-level standards.
Also, PLEASE KNOW: I don't claim to be some sort of "authority" on what you should and shouldn't do in the BST; you are obviously allowed to disagree with anything I point out! I'm just an observer who feels like there are things that people on the sub generally approve of and don't approve of. Though, I'll mention that I've bought more than 30+ things from the BST by now and have gotten a feel for what's deemed acceptable and what isn't. And it'd be helpful, in my opinion, to know beforehand what some baseline expectations are, especially if you're new to selling or buying.
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Rule #1: Do not take advantage of people and mark items up for significantly more than what you paid.

This is probably the biggest thing sellers have been getting called out for lately. Please don't sell for profit when people can more than likely obtain the same thing for less from sellers directly. Yes, we know there's the advantage of not waiting so long and worrying about customs. Still, that doesn't necessarily make it okay.
The only fair exception that I see to this is if you've ordered something in the wrong size and need to get your money back. It's reasonable in this case to sell for what you paid plus shipping, which shouldn't be more than $8-$10 in most cases. Anything more than that, and you're gonna end up looking sus. And don't be annoyed if you get called out for it. It's just frowned upon. It is what it is.
Also, if you do this when the item you're selling has significant flaws, is a budget batch you're trying to upsell, or is clearly used, I hate to say it, but you're just an asshole at that point. Why even do that? And why expect that someone would want to pay even full price for it? I can sympathize when you're really strapped for cash, but don't try to obtain it that way. It's shitty no matter which way you bend it.
In general, I don't think anyone goes to the BST looking to pay for more than what they could get it for, you know? Be fair in pricing your items; that's all.
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Rule #2: Please... PLEASE take decent pictures of items.

If there is anything that personally drives me the craziest about the BST, it's the posts that have awful, blurry, and dimly-lit pictures. Especially if I'm actually interested. Please try not to take indecipherable photos in your windowless, lamp-lit bedroom lmao; it's not really helpful to buyers who want to really see what they'd be receiving.
I sell authentic items often on apps like Mercari and Grailed. (I'm also a producer in TV/film for work and use cameras a lot.) I'm not at all saying to take gorgeous, immaculate photos, just decent ones with good lighting. Here's what's been eye-catching and successful for me on my listings:
Take 2-3 pictures of each item at the least, and 5-10 at best. If it's shoes, take at least 6, including: side view, top view, insoles, bottom of the sole, detailed close-ups of features of interest (e.g. the heel tab on TS J4's, suede on TS J1's, etc.), and open box (if you have it).
Also, here's actually a really helpful pro tip: wipe your phone's camera lens before taking pictures! It's amazing how many people don't realize that their camera lens has some oil/residue on it and that's what's making their pictures look blurry. The difference is insane.
Here's an example of some Dunks I posted that sold in literally 2 mins after I listed them on the BST. I even got a few messages from people saying they appreciated the detailed pictures! Trust me; people notice when you make the effort. It's not difficult either!
If it helps, try to use product images on official brand websites as references. They actually help to give you an idea of how to take good photos of your item(s).
I understand there are people who just want to list their items and get it done quickly, but honestly, you might be inconveniencing yourself anyway when someone inevitably asks for more/clearer photos. Take the extra 5 mins to find a decent spot in your house/apartment, preferably with a window nearby, to lay out your items and get good pics. Even if it has to be outside. It benefits you anyway as the item will sell faster, especially if it draws natural interest.
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Rule #3: Don't post your items and then leave interested buyers hanging immediately after. Post when you're readily available for the next 2 hours or so. And HONOR THE FCFS SYSTEM.

Sorry for the all caps lol But this one Drives. Me. Crazy. Jfc. And for some reason, it happens more often than it should. I'll comment and message about a post that was just posted like 15 mins ago, and then the seller is radio silent and doesn't respond literally until the next day. Why? I literally feel like people post their stuff and then run away from their phones/computers, which is insane. Don't you want to sell stuff sooner than later?
This wouldn't annoy me so much if it wasn't for the fact that sellers like this often end up not honoring the first come first serve system as they should. They don't get chats/notifications in real-time because they come back hours later to a barrage of messages and just sell to the first one they open, when that's not necessarily the order they received those messages — then inevitably results in them skipping over people who technically got to the item first.
If you end up doing this by the way, the easiest way to make sure you're honoring the FCFS system is by sorting the comments on your post by 'New.' If you have multiple people interested in the same item, check who commented first. They should have dibs.
It's happened to me where I've gotten to a post way ahead of someone else, but the item ended up going to them because the seller wasn't paying attention or just didn't care. It's just irritating.
Also, I know sellers get annoyed at buyers who do this, and obviously the same expectation applies for them to reply quickly, but it's just as annoying the other way around.
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Rule #4: People generally want the cheapest option for shipping. Know the best shipping options and prices.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have seen some ridiculous shipping prices on the BST. A standard shirt shipping for $10? Unless you're shipping it far, nah fam, you're definitely overcharging.
Since I want to save people the time of actually researching on their own, I'll lay out the most common prices for you. (And keep in mind, this is for US-based people, sorry. I can't speak towards international as I'm not familiar with the mailing services.)
Unless your only local option is UPS, most lightweight items can be shipped through USPS First Class. Most shirts that I ship out only come to about $4 - $6 that way. Anything below 1 lb., you can ship for cheaper than the standard flat rate $7.75 Priority shipping.
If your item weighs more than a pound, that's when the item must be shipped through USPS Priority Mail. This is when you should consider using USPS's flat rate mailers and boxes. Their price chart is on the website.
UPS, FedEx, and DHL are all generally more expensive. Though you can consider UPS for heavier items. Every single thing I've purchased from the BST was shipped through USPS though, so it's definitely the best, cheapest option.
Also, when you price your items, I would actually consider baking the shipping cost into your item. It's just easier to see exactly what you'd be paying.
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Rule #5: If you know the sellebatch, mention it. Be transparent about flaws.

Simple, straightforward. And this shouldn't even be an unspoken rule honestly. It's doing the bare minimum as a seller and letting buyers know exactly what they're getting.
If you bought it on DHGate, for instance, just say so. Of course it's most likely a budget batch but that doesn't automatically mean it won't sell. Plenty of people are fine with budget batches as long as they know the flaws.
Most people just want to know what the differences are compared to the authentic; QC's wouldn't be a thing if they didn't.
I understand sellers are afraid of their item not selling if they mention flaws, but it's just a courtesy you should absolutely extend. And if for some reason it's not something you want to do, then at least tell people to do their own QC. And where possible, consider providing a link to the authentic (this is something the RepladiesBST does, and it's a useful system).
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Rule #6: Buyers, be patient about shipping.

sigh... Another thing that shouldn't even be an unspoken rule, but basic human decency.
If there's more of a time to entertain the idea of being patient with people, it's now. Not only are we dealing with a pandemic that has exorbitantly increased the volume of packages, but people may not have all the time in the world right now to ship a package out right away — pandemic or not.
You'll get your item(s) soon enough; it's not a life or death situation, so don't harass a seller to ship out. My rule of thumb is generally to wait 5 days — and if it's longer, inquire nicely about it.
When I sell, I avoid this conversation by shipping items out the same or next day. But I've interacted with some sellers who've appreciated the patience when I don't demand that they ship soon. They've also expressed to me their disbelief at the rude messages they've received from people. Don't be that guy. It's not cool and reflects poorly on you. Not to mention, if you're interested in something else they list in the future, they might not want to do business with you.
P.S. I was going to add a bit about sellers shipping within a reasonable time frame, but there's already an official rule in the sub for that.
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Rule #7: Buyers, take the time to read the preamble of a post thoroughly.

Full disclosure, I've been guilty of this, as sometimes the name of the game is messaging the seller first for a good item, but try to actually read any important notes that a seller writes before the chunk with all the items listed. They may mention something important you should know and then get annoyed if you message them with a question or request they've already answered.
If the seller says prices are firm, respect that (unless, of course, they're violating rule #1 above). If they say they prefer PM over Chat, do so. Like you, people have preferences. Like the cliché goes, do for others what you'd want done for you.
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Rule #8: Sellers, try to format your post in an organized fashion.

I'd say this is strongly suggested in cases where more than 3 items are being listed. It's incredibly hard to sift through a wall of text when there are tons of items and it's hard to decipher its price, where the photos are, size, etc.
Personally, I think the absolute best way to list items is to create an album for each one, and then make a hyperlinked text title. It's simple and straightforward, and people don't need to be scrolling through a ton of photos that way. I've found myself having to scroll to the bottom of 35 page imgur albums sometimes to see the item I'm interested in, and it's just not really convenient when you want to message a seller quickly with genuine interest. (If it's just faster and you don't feel like you have the time though, obviously it's not the end of the world. Just a thought to entertain.)
Here's my favorite way to format my posts, along with some other examples — Ex. 1 / Ex. 2 / Ex. 3 — I'm fond of. Obviously nobody's asking you to copy these exactly, but following a similar sense of organization is helpful to everyone, including yourself. Just make sure it's easy to read and follow.
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Instead of a rule, I need to put a PSA here: when you send your invoices, do NOT mention anything about replicas and do NOT mention designer brands, especially when the transaction is low-priced!

Honestly most sellers I've encountered know this already, but I've definitely come across one too many people who don't. There have been cases of PayPal accounts getting flagged for selling/buying replicas when certain key words are included in invoices.
When you create an invoice, use shorthand/abbreviations for designer stuff (e.g. GCI for Gucci, DR for Dior, etc.) And just avoid writing anything suggesting what you're selling is a replicas whatsoever. Remember: even though we love them, they're still definitely illegal lol.
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Well, there it all is. Do I have too much time on my hands? Probably. I took a day off work today and what started as a small post ended up being this huge list lmao. I won't be offended if you don't read through the whole thing. I did say a lot.

TL;DR – Tbh, this can all be summarized by saying: don't be a dick, don't be lazy, and don't lie. 90% of the time, someone will be able to tell if you're lying about a batch or quality. Don't embarrass yourself. If you want get the most out of being a part of repfam, do good by the community; people will remember your username if you're an asshole and will respond accordingly. I've seen it happen. By the same token, they'll remember you if you're a solid buyeseller.

Let me conclude and be clear by saying that I'm not speaking for everyone and don't want it to be taken that way, so please absolutely feel free to express your opinions on anything I said here below. I wanted to also flair this post as 'Discussion' but double flairs aren't possible sadly. I encourage you all to actively discuss what you think is best practice and I can edit this post accordingly. These are just things that I suggested based on reactions/conversations/arguments I've seen in the BST.
Most of my experiences in the BST by the way are largely pleasant or pretty easygoing, so this post isn't meant to say that the BST is a hot mess or anything! If you don't agree with any of these unspoken rules, then the one I think everyone should abide by is: Be kind. Might sound cliché but it's true. People respond well to that, buyers and sellers alike.
On a last positive note, appreciate any repfam I've interacted with in the BST; a great majority of you are super kind and accommodating, and thank you for being a solid resource when I don't want to do a huge overseas haul! :)

I thought it was Wednesday today. I am sad.
[First] [Prev] [Next] [Wiki]
Last chapter was a bit thrilling was it not? Well I hope so. Today is not so much but still interesting I hope.
Been getting a lot of good and funny comments recently so I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone for reading and to those of you happy enough to drop awards on me, I'm always happy to see both and always read every comment. So as always!
Thanks for reading my story and I hope you enjoy this one as well!
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Catherine ended her work by spraying a thin sealant on the small cut, her movement slow and precise in an effort to soothe the older females watching her treat the girl. "There you go all better." She gently said, her voice light as she ruffled the girl's ears, quite thankful the armour's helmet hid her face. "Now be good and go join your people." She finished.
Vattitha watched in sadness as the girl pawed off towards the grouping of silent Voktlix. For the past hour, they had spent their time patching up the more severely injured, and while most were silent to her questions, some had made the offhanded suggestion that she just may be a traitor to her people. "Your smile is as fake as mine." She said, looking over to her mentor. "Even with the helmet, I can see it. I guess for doctors; it's something that's rather common to practice. You don't have to hide your thoughts, though. I know it's wrong she's here."
Dr. Baker shook her head as she observed the grouping, happy to see that the larger of the Voktlix seemed to watch over the younger one as she joined her comrades. "She should be worrying about what shirt to wear to school tomorrow or what the local fad is. But you're mistaken; it's not wrong, only tragic. My people would do much the same or worse if pushed into a similar corner. It only saddens me she hurt herself due to our interference. Even if it was just a scraped shin."
"Can't go to school when your village is destroyed." Ankiah interjected, walking in between the two armoured doctors. "No one is saying anything other than claiming that I'm a traitor and suggesting I may be an aliens whore. Though I don't know what business it is of theirs to wonder what I do with Antigone behind closed doors." She laughed out, waving the lady in question down. "Resima isn't doing any better either unfortunately. None of them want to risk their little operation."
"Well, what do we do now?" Vattitha asked, her task of healing the injured finished at a record pace thanks to her armour.
"The Captain is debating with the bridge crew right now." Caithen said, walking over to the three Voktlix. "I think they're leaning on just giving them back their Briolb weapons and letting them go."
Vattitha looked over to the large pile of guns, then back to the group of bound and angry Voktlix. "Why would they do that? Wouldn't they just shoot at us?"
"Wouldn't do them any good." Ankiah said, looking over the shoddy weapons. "Perhaps it's a show of trust? I mean, we can just keep flying to the harbour and ignore them if they show up and shoot at us again." She guessed with a shrug, looking over to her kneeling Mech. "I'm kinda useless here right now, so ima go sit in my baby. Have fun, you two."
"Your baby, is it now? Who's going to be the feeder when we get home?" Caithen jokingly replied. "I think it should be me. You know, since I'm bigger." She added with a laugh, thrusting her chest out but nearly doubling over as Ankiah flipped her the bird from over her shoulder. "Should have never taught her that one."
"You're flat as a board, ya shit." Ankiah finally yelled, shutting herself into the Mech.
"You seem awfully calm for the situation we're in." Vattitha stated, looking over the armoured Terran with curiosity. "Most would be rather confused at the lack of direction."
"You get used to it. Right doc?" Caithen replied, slapping Catherine on the shoulder.
"Yes. Military operations can sometimes be more about 'hurry up and wait' than actually doing anything." The doctor replied, expertly crossing her legs.
A crumbling of rocks and a loud splash rang through the area, prompting most to look over to the source in terror as a massive metal biped began stomping out of the water. It was nearly twice the size of the regular one, with two large discs on its shoulders. And to the horror of all but the normal bi-peds, it was stomping towards the prisoners, holding a sharp-looking short spear and a large shield, only to stop one step away from crushing a female's foot as she sat defiantly in its presence.
"Looks like that pilot is pissed. Wonder who's in the guard armour." Caithen said, looking over the credentials and nearly gasping at the ID. "That's the Captain." She whispered to the two doctors, noticing their confusion as well.
"Which one of you is the leader!" Michael demanded, slamming the butt of his spear into the ground as he looked over the group, though only silence prevailed once again.
Slowly pulling his spear out of the ground, Michael began pacing around the group, closely scanning each one's reaction as he stomped by, making sure to put extra weight into each step in an attempt to intimidate them. " I don't have time for this shit, you know." He began, stopping to eye a jittery female. "All I wanted to do was get to the harbour, maybe meet with some boat dudes for some information. Then make my way to the next continent. But then you guys come along, and not only are you shooting at us with Briolb weapons, we can't even scan you properly." He continued, stopping to looking over the group again.
Resima walked over to Caithen and the two medics, avoiding looking suspicious as her Captain continued with his act. "What's he doing?" Resima whispered as she sat down with the three females.
"Not a clue." Caithen replied, though secretly enjoying the show.
Michael spun around to continue his pacing, his spear thrumming off the ground with each step he took as he continued his angry rant. "You know, I'm on a tight schedule. I need to make sure your people don't attack us when we make landfall to begin our counter-invasion AND to make sure they're not picked off by Stydun doing so... Not like your kind would care about other people's worries, though. Considering you send children into battle."
"Ahh... Not sure if this is smart or brilliant." Dr. Baker said, leaning back in her deployed med chair.
"If the leader is a dull-witted, it's brilliant. If not... Well, he's about to make more enemies. Not that it matters at this point, I would venture." Resima added, folding her arms as she watched things play out.
"So now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place." Michael continued. "Seeing as your leader is a coward who would hide behind children rather than chat like a civilized being. That leaves me no other choice than to tie you up and leave you here so you don't follow us. Well, maybe I'll drag you into the forest, so you're harder to find, seeing as you have a way to survive it... Though maybe I'll wash that gunk off you first. I bet it's real itchy." He finished, waving a few marines over.
"Brave talk for one so big."
Michael turned his back to the crowd, sending a command to his suit and ejecting himself from the armour, eliciting a gasp from the captured group of Voktlix. " There. Now you can quickly kill me if you wish. Mrs?"
"None of your business." The shocked female replied, eyeing the furless alien.
"Great. Answer my questions, and I'll let you go. If not, I'll wash this gunk off and toss you into the forest." Michael replied confidently, standing within his suit's shield system.
"You may ask. But I may not answer." The female responded, her eyes thin as she studied the strange alien.
Michael nodded in reply to the female, thinking a moment on his first question before asking. "Alright, first. How are you avoiding the Stydun in the forest? I'm betting it has something to do with your groups or the gunk you're covered in."
"Next."
"Does it have something to do with the gunk you're all smeared in?" He tried again, though, knowing she wouldn't answer this question either.
"Pass."
"Where are you all from?"
The female sighed as she attempted to stretch her legs, hardly paying any attention to Michael. "How many questions will you ask? This is rather dull."
Michael kicked a loose stone into the water in annoyance. Though these people were obviously itching to be free, they were also against supplying him with anything useful, and it was starting to get to him. "Listen. I said it before. I need information so that I can bring it back to my command. If I don't get this information, your people may get hurt when we clean your planet of the Briolb."
"The Briolb. Is that the name of the other invaders?" The female asked, her face going serious.
"I'm the one asking the questions. And we're not invaders." Michael replied with a smug grin. "The information I have suggests that if I follow this river, I will arrive at a harbour town that has strong connections to the central continent. Can you confirm that?"
"You are incorrect. The harbour town has been occupied, and it's people are being taken into the sky. At the rate things are going, there won't be many people left for you to kill when you get there." The female replied, her eyes studying Michael for any hint of happiness or excitement.
"Fuck you and your stubbornness." Michael responded as he turned around and quickly jumped into his armour. "Everyone back on the ship now! Set in a course to the harbour town, leave these idiots here for the ones still hiding in the trees and prep all soldiers for urban combat." He ordered, running towards the ship and jumping onto the runway.
The female sat there stunned at the sight. The alien invaders were moving back to their ship at an insane pace, most jumping onto the extended platform as the giant machine waited patiently at the bottom.
"What's going on?" She asked, looking around at the stunned group.
"They just left us here." Another replied, making eye contact with one of her people hiding in a nearby bush.
"What if... What if they were telling the truth and that furless alien is going to save Yluogate?"
"Than we would be indirectly responsible for killing our own people." The leader replied. "Regardless, we must get this information back to base. Perhaps the aliens can save more towns if they're here to help." She added, watching the large machine walk up the platform and into the ship.
​
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​
"Jack, take us to full stealth. Ops send as many drones down the river as you can. I don't care if they're detected; I want a full layout of that city by the time we get there." Michael ordered, moving into the armour cradle. "Rowan, I want a full refit to lethal weapons by the time we get to that city."
"You look, angry boss." Rowan replied, helping Michael out of his armour.
"Angry doesn't even begin to tell you how furious I am. Those idiots sat around with their thumb up their ass while we healed them, then sat there all quiet, like we're the enemy while their people are being shipped off to some other fucking planet." Michael ranted, not even bothering to dress and heading to the bridge in his nanomesh. "I won't forgive them."
Resima watched the angry Captain storm out from his giant armour and onto the lift, making sure to stay out of the way of the scrambling soldiers as they began to refit themselves with deadlier weapons. "Is he going to be okay?" She asked, looking over to Dr. Vattitha and Dr. Baker.
"I don't know; we're still getting to know the Captain." Dr. Baker replied, walking over to an unused lift. "But I can tell you he takes his job of protecting people very seriously."
Pushing up against the wall to make room for both Dr. Baker and Resima, Vattitha sighed in frustration. "From my experience, the Captain is a very caring person and hates those who put others at risk. However, I say this with only knowing him for a few days. I would also say that idiot female has made an enemy of him this day."
"Is that so?" Resima answered as the lift came to a stop, and the two doctors walked out. "How do I get to the bridge from here?"
"It's already selected to take you to the deck the bridge is on." Vattitha replied as the door closed, leaving Resima to think to herself.
"How odd these Terrans are." She thought, waiting patiently for the door to open as the plight of her people began to weigh heavily on her mind.
"Resima!" Private Renin ejected as the lift door opened. "Apologies, but I can't talk. I need to go get armoured up." He said, stepping to the side as Resima stepped off.
"Why are your people so... I lack the word. Motivated? Perhaps. To put your life on the line for a people who hate the sight of you?" Resima asked, watching as Renin entered the lift and hit a few buttons.
"They hate us because they think we're invaders. Your people aren't so bad." Renin quickly replied before the door closed, leaving Resima to herself again.
"You didn't answer my question." She silently replied, turning towards the bridge and stepping up to the door.
"This is bad." Soto remarked, looking over the broken wall and the sheer number of Briolb in the town. "They have the Voktlix boxed into a section of the city with no way out."
"The roads are large enough for a tank or a Mech to fit through. The deployment will be necessary, though collateral damage to the city will result in such actions." Jack responded, moving a drone to an overhead view.
"We'll deploy both tanks, our Mech and all of our soldiers." Michael answered, watching the battle plan form as Soto added groupings to his deployment.
"This will definitely let them in on the fact we're here, Captain." Soto replied. "We'll lose any advantage we have if they're in global communication. It may even cause them to deploy larger forces."
"Twelve minutes before arrival, Captain." Srettia reported keeping the ship low to the river but moving quickly to the designated point.
"I won't let any more Voktlix be sent to slavery if I can help it." Michael replied. "Even if I can't save them all, I will make sure to save the ones in front of me."
"Understood, Captain." Soto replied, altering his plan slightly. "It's a shit plan. But it's the best we can hope for with the limited information and time given. A lot of it will be altered on the fly during the mission, so we'll need to be in the tactical room."
Michael nodded and turned to Steven, watching as the man frantically moved his drones around the city to better grasp the situation. "Ops anything in orbit that can strike us?"
"One nearby that could be classified as a heavy corvette, nothing else." Steven reported. "Most of the ships are hanging around at low power near the station right now." He continued, only to suddenly curse and throw a large grouping of cages onto the screen. "A lot of Voktlix here. Around three hundred. They may be getting ready to ship them off. That might be why that ship is in orbit."
Soto scowled in reply to the observation, swiping his hands around his console in frustration. "Alright, gotta change the plans a bit."
Resima unfroze herself and shook her head, walking down the ramp and towards Fazreh who seemed to have retreated slightly into her couch. "It's alright. They'll think of something." She said, grabbing hold of Fazreh's hand and watching as the bridge crew argued over the operation plan.
"Next time. I'll be sure I can go with them." She quietly promised, squeezing Fazreh's hand in frustration.
​
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The Cursed Excavation Site. (Or CES for short)
That’s what most of us call it. By “us”, I mean the soldiers and workers that are stationed there. The higher-ups call it something different. Some innocuous, bureaucratic title that they’ve designated for it. I guess it doesn’t really matter what anybody calls it. It sure is one hell of a bizarre place.
As you might have guessed, it’s a dig site located smack in the middle of a desert. I won’t disclose which one, even though I doubt that anybody would find it regardless. It’s quite the ways away from any kind of civilization. Like I mentioned before, there’s essentially two groups of people stationed there. The workers – archeologists, medics, guys who do grunt work, etc. And the soldiers. I’m part of the latter group.
Now, you might be wondering why an excavation site in the middle of nowhere would require the presence of armed soldiers. I was pretty confused about it myself at first. However, it’ll make more sense after I explain what kind of stuff goes on here.
Let me tell you more about how this place is set up. If you go and search up “excavation site” on google images, I can tell you that it won’t quite be an accurate representation of the CES. In fact, the difference is monumental. The title we gave it is a bit of a misnomer. It isn’t just one site. There’s actually nine of them, all spread out a few kilometers apart each.
We refer to each site by their number. (So, CES 1, CES 2, CES 3, ETC.) This isn’t an arbitrary system. It’s actually quite important. Maybe I’ll go into that later.
Each site is divided into three areas. One – the barracks or living quarters. They’re surprisingly nice and well air-conditioned, and we can usually get a few minutes of internet access a day. You can probably guess what most of the guys spend those minutes on. The food’s alright as well, although most of its either powdered or out of a can.
The second is the main digging area.
The third and final area is somewhat of an enigma. It has a simple, but apt name – “The Tent.” That’s literally what it is. Just a massive, white tent that’s located way off to the side, well past everything else. It kind of looks like one of those FEMA disaster relief tents, only way larger.
None of us have any idea what it’s for. And the ones that ever have the opportunity to find out don’t end up coming back. The thing is, it’s not a medical area, as you might assume it would be. We already have one of those, located in the barracks.
The people that end up going to the tent are usually suffering from stranger afflictions. I’ll give you an example, something that happened during my first week here. There used to be a guy named Amir, one of the lead archeologists. One day, he gets a call from the higher ups, instructing him to tell his team to start digging a tunnel down at a specific set of coordinates at CES 2, where I was stationed at the time
Amir sends them down and decides to check in with them after about two hours of digging, only to realize that he’s lost all contact. Radio silence. Thinking the worst, he decides to venture down into the tunnel himself in an attempt to figure out what’s going on.
Here’s where things get messy. Only about five minutes after he goes down, his team comes back up. However, he’s not with them, and his team doesn’t report ever seeing him down there. That obviously doesn’t make any sense. They hadn’t dug any branching pathways, just a linear tunnel. They also hadn’t reported seeing anything strange at all. The only reason they came back up was because it was getting close to lunch. And also… because Amir had apparently told them that they could.
They all looked understandably confused when we told them that Amir had failed to make contact with them at all, and that was why he’d gone down.
“That’s impossible,” one of the diggers said. “We were talking to him the entire time.”
We had a procedure for things like this. I thought it was pretty vague when I’d first read it, but this was a situation that it undoubtedly applied to.
In the case of any event(s) that isn’t explainable by the context of the events that have transpired earlier in the day, immediately contact the main office and await further instructions.
The “main office” basically meant the higher-ups. We followed the procedure and called it in, explaining what had happened to them. They simply told us to stay put and “wait for him to come back up.”
“Well, what if he doesn’t come back up?” I asked them, unsure of why they seemed so confident about that happening.
“He will,” they responded. “When he does, send him to the tent.”
I’m not kidding when I tell you that they hung up immediately afterwards. No instructions beyond that.
“Strange shit, right?”
I turned around, seeing Anze hovering over me. He was another soldier that was stationed there with me at the time. “You’ve never handed anybody off to the tent, have you?” he asked me.
I hadn’t, so I shook my head.
“Alright then,” he said. “I’ll show you the ropes. It’s a… delicate process.”
I gave him a look of confusion and he responded with a slight grin.
“Save the questions for after, alright?”
Sure enough, Amir came staggering out of the tunnel around ten minutes later. Although he seemed dazed and completely out of it, he didn’t appear to have any visible injuries.
“Watch closely,” Anze said as he got up and began walking towards him. As he got closer to Amir, he slowed down and drew his pistol. I looked around, seeing all of the other soldiers watching intently as he did so. Some had expressions of concern on their face. Others were grinning.
As Anze got within a few feet of him, he pointed the gun at Amir’s head, while reaching out for his hand at the same time. He grabbed it, before flipping it over to reveal his palm. And then he let out a big sigh of relief.
He looked back at us and held out a thumbs up. The other soldiers either groaned or let out sighs of relief as well before they all scurried back to their posts. Anze then looked at me, gesturing for me to come over.
“The most important thing you need to know in these situations,” he said. “Black is good. Red is bad.”
He showed me Amir’s palm, which was now marked with some strange black symbol. It looked similar to the squared circle (representing the philosopher’s stone), although more distorted. The edges of the triangle poked through the circle, and the lines all looked messy, as if they were drawn by a less-than-steady hand.
“So what now?” I asked him.
“We take him over to the tent. And then he stops being our problem.”
I looked up at Amir. He was staring off into space, his expression blank and pupils dilated to their absolute max. I waved my hand in front of his face, but he didn’t react at all.
I’m not gonna say something cliché like I started “regretting” my decisions at that moment. I knew that something wasn’t quite right with this place well before I took a position here. I “accepted” the risks, so to speak.
Still, I’d be lying if I said that the whole situation didn’t unnerve me at least a little bit. I followed Anze as he began leading Amir over to the tent.
“This part’s pretty simple,” he said, stopping a few feet away from the entrance. He let go of Amir’s arm and pushed him forward. He then grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.
“Once you deliver the guy, let the tent do the rest,” he said. “But they won’t take him unless you’re looking away.”
A few moments later, I could hear zippers being undone and the slight shuffling of feet. I nearly looked back instinctively, but Anze grabbed me by the head before I could see anything.
“Never do that,” he said. “Just keep looking forward.”
We heard some more shuffling, and then a second zip.
“Now it’s safe,” he said. We turned back and sure enough, Amir was gone.
“What?” I said, beginning to shake my head. “What the hell was-“
Anze began snickering, interrupting me. “If you want those kinds of answers, you’re talking to the wrong guy. The only people that have any clue what the goddamn hell’s going on here are millions of miles away. But I doubt that even they know everything.”
I suppose that was the response that I had to accept.
“Look, we’ll be fine,” he continued. “If we don’t dick around and play our cards right. I’ve been here for over seven months, and nothing’s happened to me yet. So if you want, you can follow my lead and maybe nothing’ll happen to you either.”
He grinned again, before slapping me on the back and walking us both forward.
“Another word of advice, don’t stick around the tent entrance for too long. I’m pretty sure that they can tell who has and hasn’t been marked, but I’d rather not take my chances.”
“Right,” I said, still trying to process the implications of what had just happened. “Can I ask you something that you might be able to answer?”
He nodded. “Go ‘fer it.”
“What if his mark was red? What would we have to do then?”
“Well,” he began to respond. “We have guns for a reason, don’t we?”
That was the first “peculiar” incident that I experienced here at the CES. A few more months have passed since then, and a lot more has happened. I’ve also heard some stuff from my fellow soldiers and workers. Stories about the giant black cube in CES 6, the strange village located in a cave hundreds of feet below, and the ‘desert stalkers’ that apparently show up after midnight, to name a few.
If I’m being honest, I’m not quite sure why I’m deciding to write this stuff down all of a sudden, or even who I plan on showing it to. I don’t think I’d get in trouble with the higher-ups for doing so, as long as I don’t divulge anything too specific.
I suppose that keeping a log of the things I see and hear here might keep me sane. Hell, maybe this is just fun for me. In any case, I should probably log off. The guy in line to use the computer after me looks like he’s starting to get antsy.
I’ll probably report back with some more stories soon. Maybe I’ll talk a bit about myself as well! (But don’t expect too much of that).
Stay safe, everybody. And don’t go venturing out too far into the desert. You might just come across something that’ll change your life, usually not for the better.

Hello there!
So I'm making this post because I see a lot of rappers on this sub are having trouble with mixing their tracks to sound presentable. This sub has given me a lot of info throughout the years so this is my way to kind of give back to the community.
I've written one of these in the past, on one of my older accounts, it gained almost 1k upvotes so it's only right for an updated version, I think it can be very useful! If you guys like it and find it useful I can keep doing these, making it a series and going more in depth with certain aspects and stuff..
I'm aware there is a couple of guides on here like that already, but I think there is never enough tutorials and guides so people have a lot of resources to gather information.
Also this is a plugin neutral guide! So I won't be talking about which plugins to use or which brand but rather plugins that the majority here should have access to.
In case any of you have any questions you can simply PM me! Sometimes I may not answer right away though since I'm a busy person..
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So LET'S START!
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Okay so I assume you're a rapper and it starts with you finding a beat somewhere on the internet, you buy it, or download it for free and you now have a 2Track. A 2Track basically means 1 beat file that's Stereo, so that means left and right which makes it a 2Track.
So now you got the beat and you import it into your DAW, whether it's FL Studio, Logic, Ableton or in my case Pro Tools.. So now, the next step is to record..
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RECORDING

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Recording is the first step and probably the most important one.. I suggest you take your time and spend as much time as possible on it, in the end it will be worth it, trust me!
So there is ONE MAIN thing you should never brush off when you start to record. And that's the gain level, clipping is the one things that no mixing can save and it can totally ruin your song.
So how to avoid clipping? Simple, turn the gain knob down. You should record a few test takes, where you basically decide your distance from the mic and your loudness, record those takes and adjust the gain knob so your vocals are averaging at around -18db and don't go any higher than -12db.. as a result you might have to turn your headphones up and your beat down.
I suggest you record as raw as you can (auto-tune being an exception), that means you don't put any plugins on the vocal track, aside from maybe an EQ so you can do a high-pass(low cut) on it, which I usually do at 140Hrz and maybe just a little compression, like max 3db gain reduction of soft compression for a clearer feedback.
You can 'one take' it, you can do punch ins, or record multiple takes on multiple tracks.. In Pro Tools there is a playlist feature just for the sake of comping, I usually use that.
Also don't forget to try eliminating as much background noise as possible, preferably all of it!
If you wanna use a different mix for the hook or you wanna layer the hook etc, record it in a different track/s.
Always record in mono! Use a mono track for recording any types of vocals!
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MIXING

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So there is often a debate in what to mix first, the vocals or the beat? Well in my experience I learned that it is all about what you're used to and what your preferred way is, it has no role in the result of the final product rather than just what you feel like, so this is one aspect you will get familiar with when you mix a couple of songs, as far as for me I ALWAYS start with the vocals.
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MIXING THE VOCALS
So you recorded your track and now you have to mix it, so lets start with the vocals!
FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO IS SOLO THE VOCAL TRACK AND KEEP IT SOLO UNTIL WE START WITH THE BEAT. Listen thru it a few times.. Is everything as it should be? Okay let's proceed
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REDUCTIVE EQ
So now your vocal track has no plugins on it, the first thing you should do is put an EQ on it. Whatever the EQ is, whether it's a graphic EQ, whether it's a hardware emulator etc. they all do the same thing, they are all here for the same thing so grab one you like the most and let's start!
So let's look at this chart first, to get a basic understanding of frequencies in our vocal range
First thing you should do, is the high-pass filter, (this might not necessarily be something that you need if your mic already has a built in high-pass filter, but it doesn't hurt to add it regardless.) I suggest you don't go lower than 80Hrz and higher than 150Hrz.. You should judge by yourself when the vocals have too much bass or are lacking bass..
Here is a few general rules: Is your delivery loud, aggressive and you recorded a little further from the mic? Keep it between 80-120Hrz. Is your delivery more like your talking voice and you recorded closer to the mic? Keep it between 120-150Hrz.
Okay, now the muddy mid-range frequencies, those are the most annoying!
So in between 200Hrz and lets say 1Khrz, if you have a graphic EQ, it shows you which frequencies are jumping out, so this might be easier for you than those who don't but it's all good! One tip I have is make a very narrow 10db boost in this range and slide it left to right to find the annoying, muddy frequencies. When you find them just cut them out with about -2, -3, -4db cut, play around with how narrow or how wide the cut should be so it sounds the best, spend time on this, play with this, listen carefully, try as much as you can, it takes practice to start hearing bad and good frequencies, and this is a very important foundation for the remainder of the vocal mix. There is also a chance that the whole area between those frequencies might be a little too full or too muddy, that's normal, and there is nothing wrong with doing a, let's say -1.5db or -2db cut of that whole spectrum in addition to the narrower, harsher cuts. But be careful not to take away too much, or your vocals will start sounding dull!
I often do a semi wide -1.5db to -2db cut at like 450Hrz, then additional 2-4 very narrow -3db cuts in between 250Hrz and 900Hrz, that's how it usually is, BUT NOT ALWAYS!
One thing that I see with majority of male vocals is a very annoying harsh narrow frequency at like 900Hrz - 1.1Khrz and I usually make a very narrow -6, -7db cut there, but again, this is a guideline, not a rule.
The last thing you should be careful at reductive EQ is the annoying nasal frequencies at like 2-5Khrz.. Watch out for them!!
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FIRST COMPRESSION
So let's break all of this down in short. First of all, just to get it out of the way, the job of the compressor, is to compress the dynamics of the sound, making it more balanced and level. There is a saying that it's better to use 3 different compressors with a smaller gain reduction on each of them rather than 1 compressor that does all the work itself.. And I agree!
Now I want you to know that compression is by far the most complex aspect of mixing and therefor I won't break it down in it's entirety (I can do a guide just on compression in the future, let me know!) I will go over all the features in compression and what they do briefly though.
So your compressor might have only a 'Threshold' and a 'Gain' knob and that's the simplest form of a compressor we know, but that doesn't mean it's not good, actually, my main compressor plugin only has these 2 options!
But some compressors, aside from the 'Threshold' and 'Gain' knob, they also have 'Ratio', 'Attack' and 'Release' knobs.
Threshold is basically deciding how much db of compression is going to be done OR at what gain the compressor will start to hit. If your vocals go up to -12db, a threshold of -15db will cause compression on the loudest 3db of your vocals. Ratio basically defines how strong the compression is going to be to the signal that goes over the threshold. Attack defines how fast/slow the compression will jump in and release basically defines how long the compression will last.
I will give you a quick go to for vocal compression.. A 3:1 - 4:1 ratio, a fast attack, a semi fast to slow release and a threshold that results with a 3 - 10db gain reduction. This is by far the most used guideline when it comes to vocal compression, especially with faster, more dynamic recordings, like rapping.
That should be a starting point, the rest should be decided by your ears, just like with EQ, spend time with it, listen to it, try as many things as possible until it sounds as good as it can..
If your compressor doesn't have all these functions and has only like I mentioned before a threshold and gain knob, just focus on the threshold and make sure its in the 3 - 10db gain reduction range!
You also might wanna try to use any of the presets if the compressor has them, a lot of them have presets for rap vocals, play around with it!
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ADDITIVE EQ
So now you cleaned the vocal up and you added the first compression on it, by now the vocal should sound pretty clean and dynamically balanced. Let's brighten the vocals up a bit shall we?
This is relatively an easy step! If you look at the chart from before
Above 5Khrz we have presence and that's what we want! Although we also have sibilance tones and air, too much of those can be irritating so we can't just let loose! I suggest you do the trick I mentioned earlier with the narrow boost to find the good spots, spots that add real presence and not the annoying, airy sibilance and boost those a little, or a lot, depends how you like it and how much it needs! Usually the sweet spot is a boost around 9Khrz, that will usually do the trick when it comes to adding presence! But reducing some air above the 13Khrz range is not a crime, try it if you think it needs it! Some mixers will boost everything above 10Khrz and that's fine if it sounds good. It's also sometimes necessary, in order to make the vocal cut through the beat, more on that later.
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DE-ESSER
Now that you added all those high frequencies, you may have the desired presence but with it came some sharp cutting 'S' sounds, some harsh sibilance, no problem. There is a plugin for taming those!
Some of these plugins are graphical some are not, they are build in many varieties though, so it's hard to give you any go to settings, I suggest you go with De-Essers with max 2 knobs, anything more is way above your needs, some might have a 'Freq' option, where you can choose what frequency to tame, that's a good feature, and those also have some great presets so I suggest you try them out. Your only goal is so tame the 'Esses' a little so no need to over complicate it! The main knob again, like with the compressor, is the 'Threshold'. The lower you go with it, the more it will cut out the 'Esses', so again, play with it and listen.
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SECOND COMPRESSION (Optional)
(Use only if you have a fast attack, fast release compressor available)
This is the second and potentially last compression we will be applying, but this one isn't necessary although you might wanna try it!
So what's the goal here? Rather than just compressing the vocal again, we just want to add some character to it with a slight tame on the peaks and the sound of a different compressor that's gonna attack the vocal really fast and release it almost just as fast, we want to get them peaks and edges and just tame them a little bit, so go with a high ratio if you can, like around 4:1 - 8:1 and a very fast attack, try as fast as the plugin allows you and a fast release. Get a 1.5 - 2db gain reduction. This should be a slight change, maybe you won't even hear it that much but that's what I use almost always because I believe it allows the vocal to sit better in the mix, specially if I'm mixing to a 2Track.
When would I recommend the use of this compressor? Well if the vocal is quite dynamic from the start, this compression might do quite a lot of good. Also, if you went a bit lighter with the first compression, then this second compression will definitely be useful.
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THIRD COMPRESSION (Optional)
(Needs a Multi-band Compressor)
Now this will be the last compression that we apply on the vocals. It's not necessary, but I will explain when you should use it. So now, when you listen to your vocals solod, they should sound clean and nicely compressed and balanced dynamic-wise. But there is a chance that there are still some areas that maybe stand out too much, or don't stand out enough, so to balance that out we'll use a Multi-band Compressor. Now, I won't go in depth about how a Multi-band Compressor works, but again, like thus far, I'll give you some great starting points and guidelines. The interface of the plugin, whichever you use, should look more similar to an EQ rather than a compressor, if you have a graphic EQ. And it works the same way an EQ does, but there are 2 key differences.

1. Rather than focusing at one particular frequency value and then changing the wideness or narrowness of a boost or a cut on that particular frequency, a Multi-band Compressor allows you to select a certain range of frequencies, let's say instead of selecting 1.2Khz like you would with an EQ, with the Multi-band you can select the range between 1Khrz and 1.4Khrz.
2. The second key difference is that instead of boosting and cutting the frequency value like you would with an EQ, you rather just compress the frequencies in that particular range. Usually, Multi-band compressors also have the option to not just apply compression to those frequency rangers, but also turn up, or down the gain.

So to keep it really simple, a Multi-band compressor, compresses, but it allows you to choose which frequencies it compresses! I personally use this compressor to make certain parts of the vocal stand out a bit less, with adding additional compression to frequency ranges that I believe are still not tamed enough. For example, if the low-end is clean, but maybe stands out too much compared to the high-end, I will use a Multi-band compressor, select a frequency range between, usually, around 200Hrz to 1Khrz and compress that to get around 1db to 3db gain reduction. I also use that if I believe the vocals are a bit too harsh, I select the frequency range between 10Khrz and above and compress that to also get around 1db to 5db gain reduction. I find this to be the best method if there are parts in your vocals that you want to stay present, but you just maybe want to tame them a bit more.
As I already mentioned before, this is an example and a guideline, rather than a rule. There is a lot more to Multi-band compression, but this should be a great starting point.
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REVERB
Okay so the main part of mixing the vocal is done. Now we need to give the vocal something that will blend it into it's 'environment' aka. the beat!
That's where Reverb kicks into play, so what is it? It basically makes your vocal more wet rather than dry and out standing (in a negative way)
We are going to use a BUS track for this.. So what's a BUS track? Well it's basically a track that acts as a support track for the main track, I'm not going in depth on how to set up a BUS track, if you don't know, google on how to do it for your DAW and how to send your main vocal track to this BUS track!
Okay now that you got it, put a reverb plugin on the BUS track and now we are facing a similar problem as we did with the De-Esser, Reverbs are very different with many different settings and options, but again I think all of the reverb plugins should have presets and I suggest you find a preset for vocals, preferably, a present specifically for rap vocals! After you do that make sure to set the Decay setting to somewhere between 1 - 2 seconds.. A long decay is suitable for singers who hold notes longer, but for rappers we can't let the decay drown our syllables!
On the main vocal track, make sure that the signal from the BUS track is coming thru and you can hear it! What I usually do is set the signal to 0db and then just go down until I think the reverb sits perfectly behind the vocal, usually that's in between the -15db to -20db range with my reverb bus fader. Play around with it, try different things until you think the reverb fills the empty, dry background of the vocal while still being quiet enough to not make the vocal unclear.
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MIXING THE BEAT
Okay now you can unsolo the vocal and listen to how it fits with the beat. The beat is probably way too loud or maybe but unlikely the other way around, whichever it is adjust the vocals volume until you think it's even with the beat, great! But now, even tho you mixed the vocals, the beat is probably choking the vocal, there is too much going on with the beat so that means you got to mix the beat now!
First listen to them both and try to figure out what aspect of the beat is overshadowing the vocal the most. Is it the bass? The kick, the snare? The synth? Also try to figure out where exactly do you think your vocal should fit in the beat? Is the vocal way brighter or way darker than the beat? Where do you think the spot should be at which the vocals 'cut thru'?
Usually, the general rule is to make the pocket for the vocals in the 200Hhrz - 1Khrz region, so that's what we are going to do now!
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EQ ON THE BEAT
FIRST THING TO DO IS SOLO THE BEAT and put the first plugin on the beat track, an EQ. And now, again, just like with the vocal, listen to the 200Hrz to 1Khrz range so you can hear how much is going on there, how much space are the sounds taking up and how much are you gonna have to cut out.. You should also decide now how present you want the vocals to be, what do you want to be the dominant part of the song? The beat or the vocals?
So I have the privilege of having an EQ where you can choose whether your settings are gonna affect the middle, the mono, of the track that you're EQing or the sides, the stereo. You may or may not have this, but if you do, when you cut, always use the middle, the mono setting, since that's the space where the vocals are fit!
So I usually do a wide -3db cut at around 350Hrz and set the cut to affect the middle, I add an identical cut at around 600Hrz and that usually opens up a nice space for my vocals, but did I silence the snare now or the kick? Well that's when I add some edges to the pocket I just created and usually add a slight boost at around 100Hrz for the kick and the bass and then I find the frequency where the snare is located and add a narrow 3db boost there, usually I set it to affect the sides, sometimes not, that's where I play around a little to see what can be done to make the beat alive but still make sure its build around the vocals, you should do the same, play with it!
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MULTI-BAND COMPRESSION
Unsolo the beat now just so you can hear how it sounds with the beat, it's better right? But not perfect, I know, keep it unsolod for now.
So let's move on to the second plugin, a multi-band compressor! Basically the same thing as with the vocals before.
So what should you do? Basically with the beat and the vocals playing listen to how much the beat is choking up the vocals and where, it's probably still at the 200Hrz to 1Khrz range. So now, you simply set your compressor to this frequency range, let's say 250Hrz - 1Khrz, that's a go to for me and compress until you get something in between 5db to 20db gain reduction, sometimes 20db can be way too much, sometimes it can be just right, depends on how full the beat is!
Solo the beat again!
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SOUND FIELD (Optional)
This is a slight touch which can add some width to your song, specially if the beat is really poorly panned.
Just grab a sound field plugin that lets you change the mono and stereo aspects of the track and simply increase the width, nothing more, nothing too complicated, just stretch it a bit so the vocals have more space!
Unsolo the beat and listen to everything together!
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FINAL TOUCHES TO THE MIX
First the leveling, this can take a lot of time, just to find the right volume levels between the beat and the vocal so take your time doing it, eventually you'll get there.
You've spent all this time mixing the vocals and the beat solod, it's almost impossible for it to sound perfect, so now you got to do the job of perfecting it!
I will simply tell you how I do it.. So I listen to it both together now, nothing solod and just seek flaws.

• Vocals lack a bit of lower frequencies? Okay I change the high-pass from 140Hrz to 130Hrz.
• Vocals sound too choked up? Okay I add some more compression with the multi band compressor on the beat or ease the compression on my vocals a little bit.
• Some frequencies seem to be clashing with each other? I find it and cut the frequencies out, either out of the vocal or out of the beat.
• Vocals aren't present enough in the high range? Okay I boost the 5Khrz+ area.

And so on, and so on, until I think it's perfect, take your time with this, take a break, come back later, breaks are very important in the mixing process, you sometimes need fresh ears to find the missing puzzle.
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MASTERING

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So now you've mixed the song, all that's left is to master it! So what is mastering? It's basically the enhancement of your mix and the final touch on mixing, now mixing is a totally different branch already, mixing engineers and master engineers are 2 different jobs done by 2 different professionals. But we are stuck just with ourselves so let's do it.
First step is to make a master track!
I recommend that you use Linear Phase plugins for this step if you have them! This basically means that the plugin does exactly what you tell it to do without adding any of it's own flavor to it, which is usually good for the mixing process, but in the mastering process, you don't want any of that anymore.. If you don't have linear phase plugins don't worry!
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MASTER EQ
Now let's throw a Linear Phase EQ on it and the first thing I do is low cut everything below 20Hrz to 30Hrz! Most speakers don't even go so low, the ones who do can't handle it and just make it muddy so you don't need it!
Now just listen to the track and listen for what it needs and what it doesn't, not much more I can tell you.. Usually I find that I do a -0.5db cut at around 350Hrz and a 0.5db to 1db boost at around 9Khrz.
Don't over do it! You're just adding slight touches! If you think it needs more than a 3db boost or cut, you should probably go back to the mixing process.
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MASTER COMPRESSION
There are many compressors who are made just for mastering, there is also a lot of them which have mastering presets so be sure to check them out, I won't go too in depth since I already did before but let's just say to keep it simple, nothing drastic, don't go too much over a 2db gain reduction.
This stage is basically just bringing the track together and slightly merging the vocals with the beat, there is no point in adding any drastic compression here!
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MASTER MULTI-BAND COMPRESSION
Here we can compress the track a little more, it's gonna be the final compression and after this the track should sound finished.
So again, I recommend a Linear Phase multi-band compressor and the trick again is you can compress which ever frequency range you feel needs to be compressed. I compress the whole thing together for about 5db to 15db gain reduction and then I play with it, try to find the perfect balance with trial and error. Usually I end up compressing the 0 - 100Hrz range for an extra of 3db gain reduction and I end up easing the compression on the 5 - 10Khrz range for around 1db of gain reduction just so the presence of the vocals comes thru some more..
PLAY WITH IT!
TRY, FAIL, CRY, TRY AGAIN!
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MASTER LIMITER
And now finally the last step! The master limiter! There are some really complicated limiters out there but we don't really need those right now, all we need is the 'Out Ceiling' and the 'Threshold' settings. So what is a limiter? It's primary job is to make the whole song louder and up to the limits, remember how you recorded at -18db and how you had to lower the gain levels of the beat way down? Well now the limiter is going to bring all of that up to -0.5db (the -0.5db is the safe range so it doesn't start clipping)
All you need to do is drag down the Threshold and the Out Ceiling together until you get about 3db to 4db gain reduction, you can listen when the song starts choking and just set the threshold like 1db to 2db before that and now simply LOWER YOUR MONITORS OR HEADPHONES and bring the Out Ceiling to -0.5db and you're done!
You have recorded, mixed and mastered your own song!!
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If you have any questions you can simply PM me or comment below, if you want more of these tell me what and I'll try to do more. Later I might also add all the plugins I use and all of that.
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Thank you for reading, I hope it's helpful!

1-800-SUPER takes place in the moderately nearish future of 2056. You have recently been hired by a hotline for superheroes and supervillains. You got hired thanks to your stunning, though typo filled, application...and because nobody else applied. The hotline has been redirected to your cellphone. You will help guide the heroes and villains. However, you must also mind the balance between good and evil. Maxing out the meter on either end will result in bad things. If there is too much good, then the city will be turn into a surveillance police state where the superheroes rule as autocratic dictators. If, on the other hand, there is too much evil, then the city will descend into anarchy, and the villains will have free reign. Each choice you make will impact the balance, so choose wisely.
I was approached to review 1-800-SUPER by Markus Witzlhofer. He contacted me on behalf of Pangolin Park; a small indie company based in Berlin. They had come out with an interactive audio drama game, and were wondering if I'd be up for reviewing it. He also mentioned that the team were all fans of my blog. As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of interactive media, especially Choose Your Own Adventure-type games. Adding an audio component seemed like the next logical step for interactive media. I happily said yes, and Markus sent me a free download code. The game is $2.99 for the rest of you, but honestly, I'd say that's a fair price for the quality and replay potential of this game.
I've already talked about the general mechanics of the gameplay, but let's talk specifics. This is a mobile game available from the App Store. The home screen of the game looks like the interface of an iPhone. You have an email app where the heroes and villains will send you emails about how your advice turned out. You'll also get news emails if the heroes or villains caused collateral damage as a result of your advice. I should mention that the amount of collateral damage you cause doesn't affect anything, other than pushing your meter more towards the evil side. You'll also get emails from Mr. Souls, your hotline mentor. He'll give you tips and tricks to help you out.
There's a notes app that gives basic information on each of the heroes and villains you encounter; their names, strengths, weakness, archenemies, and their mental diagnosis. Be sure you read all of this and keep it in mind; it will be important later in the game. There's a music app so you can listen to some music while you work and wait for calls. You also have a Twixta, the in-universe equivalent of Twitter, app. It lets you keep tabs on the various heroes and villains, even ones who don't call you. It also helps you influence the balance between good and evil. You can like or thumbs down tweets. Like three tweets that lean good, or dislike three that lean evil, let's you move the meter slightly towards good. Doing the reverse tips the meter slightly towards evil. You can even do a combination of liking and disliking as long as you get three tweets that lean in the same direction.
Finally, there is the meditation app. Just press it, if you don't have anything better to do, and the next thing you know you'll be receiving a call. Otherwise, you'll get calls at random while you do stuff and wait around; though usually you don't have to wait long.
Okay, now let's discuss the story itself. There are two distinct aspects to the story. First, there's the main plotline involving Ear. He's blind, but his superhearing more than makes up for that. He's a hero, but isn't above using harsh tactics and roughing up is opponents, so I guess that makes him an antihero. He's the first hero you help and the only hero you help multiple times. The main plot with Ear is kicked off when another hero named Scarab is murdered. He's a hero who has the power to grant good luck to other people, but can't bring any luck to himself. In fact, he's been plagued by terrible luck his entire life, and is living on the street when he gives you a call. It only just now occurred to me that it's pretty weird that he was able to call me despite being homeless. Did payphones make a comeback by 2056? I mean, I guess he could have asked to borrow someone's cellphone. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose it isn't important.
Scarab and Ear grew up in the same orphanage, and Ear considers Scarab his oldest and closest friend. Scarab's death hits Ear hard, and he makes it his personal vendetta to find Scarab's killers and bring them to justice. You have the option to tell him to work alone or team up with other heroes, but this doesn't affect the plot of Ear's storyline. As a side note, sometimes the option you get for answers aren't good answer vs evil answer, but polite answer vs jerk answer. I could never pick the jerk answers with Scarab. He's such a nice guy, despite everything he's been through, and I just felt so sorry for him. That was especially bad from my second play-though onwards, because I knew what was going to happen to him, no matter what I did. And apparently he's the third person to wield the power of the Scarab. Apparently it passes between individuals, though he has yet to find a successor. Actually, looking back now, certain bit of dialogue he gives suggest he knew his time on this mortal coil was about to expire. I wish there had been an option to somehow give him a hug.
We'll get back to Ear in a minute. For now, let's talk about the other characters. We'll start with the ones that are the most important later in the game. Why is this? Well, let's wait until the spoiler section for that. For now, I'd like to take a moment to praise the artwork and character design. The artwork looks like something out of a professional comic book. It's just static images, no animation, but very well drawn static images. One aspect that I particularly like is that the characters all feel genuinely original. They aren't just thinly-veiled versions of pre-existing superheroes and supervillains. Well, for the most part anyway. They feel like original organically created characters with their own backstories and personalities.
Also, the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. I'm not familiar with any of the voice actors, though a few, such as Ear, sounded somewhat familiar, just can't think why that is. Anyway, though I'm not familiar with the voice actors, they all did excellent jobs. I see bright voice acting futures for them all. Despite the game being designed by a German company, the voice actors are all American. I suppose that's fitting, as many have noted that superheroes are something of a uniquely American phenomenon. You don't really see superheroes from other countries unless they're consciously modeled off of American superheroes. The only exception to that rule I've encountered is Japan, where you have stuff like Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, and various mecha series.
I've always wondered why Europe never really developed its own superheroes. You could argue that many heroes of Victorian penny dreadfuls were proto-superheroes of a type. My guess is that the cynicism that resulted from enduring two world wars soured European readers on the idea of superheroes. Britain tried to produce superhero comics in the 1960s, but they quickly fizzled out. France has a very robust comic book industry in every genre but superheroes. It's interesting to speculate, but we're getting off-topic.
Our first hero of note is Mister Shine & Sparkle. He's got a power set and costume evocative of Superman, but couldn't be more different in terms of personality. He's an arrogant showboating prima donna who cares more about his social media following than actually saving people. There are a few timed decisions throughout the game, and he's one of them. You have to decide if you want him to put down the phone and be a hero, or use his current crisis as an opportunity for streaming to his followers
The next notable hero is Blood Sister. She's a vampire, but uses her powers to fight crime. Though she's constantly having to fight the urge to give into her primal instincts. You'll have to decide if you should let her take a bite of the delivery boy. She claims to have ordered a rare steak, but if you do encourage her bite the delivery boy, you'll get an email from the local pizzeria about how they have a job opening due to one of their delivery boys mysterious disappearing. Maybe it was a fancy pizzeria that also offers steak? Or maybe the delivery boy was struggling to make ends meet and was working for multiple restaurants? Or maybe "rare steak" was a euphemism. Though, if you do encourage Blood Sister to bite the delivery boy, the end credits will mention that a pair of vampire hunter named Van H. and Simon B. are sharpening their stakes. I guess Buffy S. had prior engagements.
Interestingly, she's one of the only heroes with more than two potential endings to her call. You can tell her to leave the delivery boy alone, tell her to bite him, or tell her to rob a blood bank instead. Though, only tells her to note bite the delivery boy, and nothing else, results in Blood Sister learnibg to controlling during ending during the credits. More about the credits in a bit.
Our third person of note is Dr. Know How. Imagine Tony Stark, only he's a villain rather than a hero, and that's Dr. Know How. He's got the most options, out of all the characters, for how his call turns out. Depending on which way you tell him to drive his car he'll encounter either Sakura Flame or Pool Boy. You can help him get away from Pool Boy by converting his car to flight mode and flying to the Moon, or by running over Sakura Flame. Alternatively, you can have him try to reason with the heroes. Sakura Flame will torch him, but getting covered in third degree burns will convince Dr. Know How to turn his life around and use his inventions for good.
If he confronts Pool Boy, he will drown...and then turn his life around and use his inventions for good. Uh, how could he turn his life around if he's dead? That is particularly odd given that Dr. Know How has three possible ending for the credits; confronting Pool Boy or Sakura Flame being the only option that lead to the same outcome. Seems like there was lack of proofreading during the script writing. But let us move along.
Fast Justice doesn't have superpowers, but that doesn't stop him from enacting justice fighting against the criminal underworld. If only he weren't complete and utterly insane. I got some Kick-Ass vibes from Fast Justice. He certainly looks like something out of a Mark Miller comic. Fast Justice does make at least some good points. He's right that Mr. Shine & Sparkle probably shouldn't be considered a hero purely because he has superpowers. Unfortunately, Fast Justice being completely batshit crazy, and having a completely black and white outlook on life, undermines these points. You know, now that I think about it, in terms of mentality he isn't too different than Rorschach from Watchmen.
Alpha Nukleus is some sort of cosmic entity who has chosen to take human form. This hasn't helped him connect with humanity. In fact, he feels lonely and isolated, because he feels nobody can truly understand him. He's decided to destroy his human shell, which will have the nasty side effect of irradiating millions of people. You must decide if you let him go through with it, or tell the other heroes to stop him. I recall a hero from Astro City, named Atomicus, who was somewhat similar Alpha Nukleus. Not sure if it was intention or coincidence, but if the former, good on the team behind this game. Astro City is an awesome comic book series; I can't recommend it enough.
On one play through, I think the game glitched and I got a call from Alpha Nukleus before Ear made his first call. I told him to break his shell, as I'd already picked the other option, and I was curious what would happen. Million were bathed in radiation, but Mr. Souls sent me an email congratulating me on a fantastic first day, as he usually does after Ear calls for the first time. I repeat, millions of people received massive radiation exposer because of me, probably fatally so, and Mr. Souls considered that a good first day. Well, he did say it was less about right vs wrong, and more about keeping the balance. It may have been a glitch, but was a damn hilarious glitch.
Imagine Cthulhu, only he's an evil business mogul, and that pretty much Vlad Xthul. He wants to expand his business empire, but is having trouble navigating modern social mores. Specifically, he wants to knockout the competition, namely Dr. Know How. You can tell him to either buyout the company, or have him break Dr. Know How's leg. If you pick the first, it will encourage Vlad Xthul to go into politics, and he will be elected president of the Atlantic Union...which is a thing by 2056. I'm guessing it's a union of North America and Europe. Of course, as Ear notes, he can't be much worse than the politicians they already have.
Our last person of note among the really significant characters is Luzida. She has the power to enter people's dreams. Lately, however, she's been plagued by dark visions ever time she goes to sleep. She tried to stay awake as long as possible, and the waters look so inviting. No matter how many times I played this game, I could never tell Luzida to go in the water. I just felt so bad for her, and I couldn't coerce her into potentially committing suicide. I know that seems odd, given that I encouraged Alpha Nukleus and Sakura Flame to kill millions of people just to see what would happen. Well, you know what they say; one is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. And in my defense, the game doesn't try very hard to make you care about killing that many people. Luzida winds up teaming up with Ear later in the game. This will be important later on.
Okay, those are all the characters who will be important later in the game. As such, they're the ones you are mostly likely to encounter, though you won't get all of them in one play though. We will discuss why this is in the spoilers section. Oh, but we aren't done talking heroes and villains just yet. This next batch are mostly just there to help you adjust your karma meter, but they're still pretty fascinating in their own right.
First up is Sakura Flame. We've already briefly discussed her, but her issue is that the other heroes give her no respect. The supervillain Glaze has frozen the city's pipes, and poor Sakura Flame has to thaw them. She's planning on getting revenge on the other heroes by "accidentally" blowing up an oil refinery while she tries to take down Glaze. As previously mentioned, should you encourage her to do so, millions will die in the explosion. Personally, I'm still surprised they have oil by 2056. Also, millions die in the explosion? Just how densely populated is this city? Interesting fact, Sakura Flame was not part or the original release of 1-800-SUPER, but was added in a later update. I'm also slightly confused by her name. I get the flame bit, but why sakura. She doesn't have pink hair, she isn't Japanese, and she doesn't have a cherry blossom motif.
Glaze is also a character you can encounter. He is pretty much the living embodiment of cold. His mother was a glacier and his father was a sea of ice. However, as his power grows, the planet's ice caps shrink, and global warming certainly isn't helping matters. He wants to conquer Antarctica, but is it worth potentially sacrificing his parents? I wouldn't think it would be terribly hard to conquer Antarctica; nobody there but a few temporary scientists, and of course the penguins and leopard seals. Well, unless people have been establishing colonies in Antarctica by 2056.
Timelooper is trying to get out of the hero business. She has the power to time travel and rewind time. However, every time she does this a miniature black hole opens shortly afterwards. They collapse before long, but they do cause collateral damage. She's on a flight to her new life, but wouldn't you know it, Dr. Know How has decided to bomb the plane. Will you encourage Timelooper to use her powers, despite the risk, or take a gamble on Mister Shine and Sparkle actually showing up to help? You can have Timelooper rewind time, stop Dr. Know How, but then a building gets sucked into a black hole. However, if you tell her to rewind time, wait to see what happens, which enviably puts you back at square one, and then call Mister Shine and Sparkle, it will be treated as though Timelooper never used her powers.
Geist.app is an A.I. that is on the run, metaphorically speaking, from its creators. They fear it will turn evil, but Geist.app just wants to preserve its existence. You must decide if it should keep a low profile, or if it should defend itself by any means necessary, consequences be damned. I liked that Geist.app isn't depicted as evil; just scared, and trying to survive. And if you encourage it to keep a low profile it decides to optimize email speeds; that was nice of it.
Maxwell's Hydra is a cyborg monster serpent, and Ear's sworn nemesis. At one point, Ear even calls you while he's fighting Maxwell's Hydra. Despite the fact that Maxwell's Hyrda gets killed at the end of this call, it can still call you later on. Yeah, this game has some issues with continuity. It can't talk, just roar, but you can still help it out. Give it advice on how to how to treat a sore through and it will turn tame, and fight on the side of the heroes. Dr. Know How will, essentially adopt it and give it regular oil changes. Of course, this end will imply that Dr. Know How turned good, even if your choices result in an ending where he remained a villain.
You also occasionally get calls from people who aren't heroes or villains. Big Bang FM is a news station. They give you information about the happenings of the various heroes and villains. Most of it is irrelevant to the game, and most doesn't involve the heroes and villains you council. Still, some of the stories can be amusing. Speaking of amusing, you can also get people who call you by mistake. One person butt dials you. They don't actually say anything, no matter what you choose, so you can hang up on them without taking a penalty. You can also get a call from a guy who firmly believes that he has called the pizza shop. He will hang up, but you'll get an email from him about how he's leaving a very bad review for the pizza shop. Man, that dude had determination, I'll give him that.
Okay, I think that should be everyone. Now we're going to be discussing the spoilers for the ending of the game. As such, turn back now if you don't want any of that.
Last chance. You sure you want to continue?
Well, okay. If everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.
So, Ear discovers a cult who worship Gallion, the Demon of Misfortune. Naturally, they weren't too keen on a good luck charm like Scarab. Turns out that Gallion has taken a human host. Nobody, not even the one hosting Gallion, knows who it is. With some help from Luzida, Ear tracks down the host of Gallion. It is someone the heroes completely trusted, and who had access to them at all times
So, who is this mysterious host...you are! There is no option but to kill yourself so that Gallion will die. If you can't do if yourself, Ear will help you out. At this point, Gallion will reveal itself to you. Gallion will quiz you on the six heroes and villains I mentioned at the start of this review. Get all or most of the questions correct and Gallion will be defeated. Well, after you shoot yourself in the head that is
Against all odd, you survive the whole shooting yourself in the head thing. I like to think that Ear is right, and that Scarab watching out for us from beyond the grave. You'll get a few more emails from Ear, and he will also send you a new music file. Press play on it, and the credits will begin The credits begin by showing how all the heroes and villains you helped fared.
Which endings are good, and which are bad, are a matter of personal perspective. I will say that some of them are counterintuitive. For example, if you let Alpha Nukleus shed his human shell, he'll find a heroine who actually understand him. Stopping him makes him turn hostile to the heroes, and it's clear he still has the capability to do it, and is just licking his wounds for now. Similarly, having Sakura Flame blow up the oil refinery, and kill millions of people, gets her the validation she craves. Convincing her not to causes her to get assigned to a penguin research station in Antarctica, though it is mentioned that she is content and happy. Oh, and this can happen even if you encourage Glaze to take control of Antarctica. Amusingly, even the guy who tried to order pizza gets an ending tell how he is doing.
Mr. Souls ending always has him get promoted to managing a hotline for demigods. Is that hint about a potential future game. Because if so, that sounds like a totally awesome idea. You could have the callers be children of different god; and not just the Greco-Roman gods, you could also have children of the Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Yoruba, Maya, Celtic, or any other pantheon. Trust me, there is a huge untapped market for a game like that. I will rally the Percy Jackson fandom in an instant if you guys are seriously going to make a game like that. But I'm getting off track again.
You can still look around after the credits, though you won't get any more calls. You will still get emails from heroes and villains remarking on how boring everything is now. I guess it's the game going "You're still here? The game is over, go home." Ear will even decide to leave the city as he feels it no longer needs him. Of course, you can replay the game as you wish. I will say that, after about five or six play throughs, I'd experienced pretty much everything there was to be experienced.
Okay, so overall I greatly enjoy this game, but are there any improvements I would suggest? Well, as I've noted, there are several continuity errors that get downright nonsensical at times. Granted, it didn't bother me too much, but I think it would feel more like the choices had actual consequence if this was fixed. It might also be nice if there were more storylines than just the main one with Ear. Maybe there could be certain events or choices that triggered different storylines. It would add to the replay value of the game. I do hope future updates add more characters, as there are several mentioned in passing, or on Twixta, that sound potentially interesting.
Also, despite the setting supposedly being dystopian, I didn't really see it. Well, other than the whole irradiating millions of people being considered a good first day thing. Yeah, there is collateral damage from fights between heroes and villains, but that hardly makes things dystopian.
Still, overall these are minor criticisms. I was very impressed with 1-800-SUPER, and I had a lot of fun playing it. I'd love to see the world of this game expanded upon either in updates or maybe in a sequel game. And I'd just like to reiterate that you guys really should give thought to making a demigod hotline game. I'm just saying, huge untapped market to cash in on. But getting back on topic, I strongly recommend you download 1-800-SUPER today. Believe me, you will be glad that you did.
Link to the original review on my blog, but it is just the same as what is here: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2020/12/video-game-review-1-800-super.html?m=1