Let me just start by saying—holy shit.
I found that after a few too many unpleasant trips that shrooms either just aren't for me, or I needed to take a hiatus from tripping, regroup, research, and try again further down the road. Hadn't decided, just went on living my life as normal, 100% sober. My last dose was in February.
This morning, I dreamed that I was suddenly stricken with moderate/severe HPPD.
The setting of my dream was fairly normal, split between my now-former (as of yesterday) workplace, and home. I began by going about my duties as usual, and found some egregious mistakes had been made by my replacement coworker. I began to point out said mistakes to her, she claimed no accountability, and shortly after, mid-conversation, I began to bug out.
I was home, inside my house. My house looked exactly the same as it does in real life, but for some reason, every time I looked out my bedroom window, my view was completely different. I went to take a picture of the woods outside on my phone because the sun shone through the trees and made a pretty scene. But when I returned to my window, that landscape was totally gone. This happened a few times, which not only confused, but annoyed me.
I went outside, and saw my real-life yard. But the grass was too bright, almost appearing a golden yellow in the afternoon light. It almost seemed, just barely, to shimmer. And wave. I recognized this phenomenon; it was a visual I had seen while high (albeit it was more of a weed than shroom visual in my experience.)
I suddenly seemed to suffer a bout of vertigo; I lost my sense of balance and fell down several times trying to walk over the lawn. I had to crawl back into the house. The whole time I was literally tripping, I was apprehensive of my surroundings; namely, being seen by my dad or neighbors.
I recovered my balance when making back inside, but was accosted by a blight of visuals reminiscent of my shrooms trips: Brightened colors, scrolling patterns on surfaces, flashes of lights/auras on objects, and the sensation of being inside a hermetically sealed bubble I felt trapped in, isolating me from the outside world—I was sober. I hadn't dosed in months. How the hell was this happening?
Once again, I dissociated. I fell out of touch with reality, and time stopped existing. Everything felt stuck, static. Except everything around me was alive and breathing.
I quickly became desperate to ground myself. I tried sleeping it off, but of course I was already asleep and dreaming, so that didn't work. I "woke up" and moved from my bedroom across the house. The grain and knots in the wooden floorboard spiraled and mocked me. I saw a spray of lavender aura wash over a chair (but realized my vision was distorted a light shining behind it). The walls were crawling.
I found my mom, and I was so distressed that I did not give a single shit further about the potential ramifications of telling her what was happening to me. I didn't care if telling her the truth about my trips would forever alter her perception of me as a person. Didn't care if I wouldn't ever be able to redeem myself to her. I knew it was very possible I'd have to seek psychiatric care to cure or cope with this affliction, but I didn't care if that's what it took. I was just desperate to reconnect again.
I got my mom to sit down with me, and I tried to explain my crisis, but I was so keyed up that I rambled and struggled to really describe it. How ever I tried to anchor myself to my mom and find stability in her company, I couldn't. She looked vacant, staring off into space, and I couldn't reign in her full attention. It was like I barely existed to her despite being right in front of her face. I pleaded and cried for her to listen to me. I needed help.
She commented that she was looking at the refrigerator in the kitchen, the next room over. I looked over my shoulder through the doorway. I couldn't comprehend how she was looking at the refrigerator when it was behind the wall next to us, out of our line of sight.
"What refrigerator? Where's the refrigerator?" I squeaked, hoarse. I squinted through the static sizzling in my eyes, and struggled to my feet. I stumbled to the doorway, glanced back at her, sitting absently. I peeked around the corner—there she was, peering into the open refrigerator in the kitchen. Mid-glance to look back into the room, I snapped awake.
Uncontestedly the worst dream I've had in many years. I've never been so relieved to wake up in my god damn life. For all of the bizarre elements that appeared, it felt extremely real to me. I really had a dreamscape confused with waking life for a good while there and I hope I never see shit like that in my sleep again.

Introduction

I closed Diablo IV today feeling saddened and disappointed. I didn't want to play anymore. Less than a week after the release of a brand new game in a series I hold dear to my heart, I've found myself burnt out and un-engaged with the flow of the game. I feel punished for playing the game in the ways I want to play, and frustrated with the pacing and flow.

This article is as much an exploration of Diablo IV from a mechanical perspective as it is a way for me to get off my chest how I feel about the latest in the Diablo series. I will be deep diving into the mechanics of D4, the 'workflow' of the game as you progress into higher difficulty levels, and the strengths and weaknesses of the itemization. For you, the reader, I hope you take away from this article my sincere passion for the Diablo series, to enjoy the story I have written, and to maybe learn something along the way.

Diablo III - A Story

I love Diablo III. I remember launch day and the hours of queues (and crashes). I remember the first time I beat Inferno Diablo (post-nerf, I wasn't that good). Critical Mass Wizards, MP10 Uber Runs, the RMAH and the changes to legendaries, sets, and the Mystic. I made top-1000 in Season 1 with Ball Lighting DH and while I only played a few seasons between S1 and S27, I came back full-force in S28 and peaked at #23 on the 2p boards playing support DH. Over the years, I've put in about 1,700 hours into Diablo III and I truly and sincerely enjoyed my time in the game. In many ways, I grew up with Diablo III the way many of you grew up with Diablo II.

It probably goes without saying, but I am an obviously high-investment gamer. I slept about 14 hours in the first three days of S23 to make top placements, and while I wasn't setting any world records, I was keeping pace with the big boys for the first few days. I wanted to put to bed the game that had brought me hundreds of hours of joy with a bang, and I gave it my all. I read strategy guides, optimized my gameplay, leveled as efficiently as possible, and 'did the grind.' I minimize my game settings to get the absolute maximum amount of FPS and the fastest response time. I find games most engaging when I am able to perform optimally, finding optimizations and strategies that allow me to progress. I enjoy the grind for new gear, each run pushing me towards a stronger character. I enjoy using the game mechanics to select a difficulty that provides an engaging and challenging experience with which to leverage both my mechanical skill and game knowledge.

By Season 28, Diablo III captures these desires brilliantly. The abundance of difficulty levels (both Torment and Greater Rifts) allows the player to fine-tune their experience. For those highly engaged, the ability to find and reproduce high-level builds is easy. I can both see what builds are working at the high-end of grifts, as well as to look up guides for builds designed for speed-farming and other miscellaneous tasks that Diablo III throws at the player (bounties, rifts, ubers, etc). The Alter of Rites created some 'busywork' that, for the most part, I didn't mind doing. I haven't farmed up Chiltara since I first made my Infernal Staff of Herding in the before-times; while it wasn't particularly fun here in Season 28, I didn't mind doing it because the payoff was going to be pretty sweet. It was a very cool way to create things to do in a game otherwise highly focused on the rift gameplay loop.

I closed Diablo III a few weeks after season start, content with my max gems, 150 GR clears, and nearly full ancient sets of gear for each Demon Hunter set. With nothing left to achieve, I looked forward at Diablo IV with hope. Not willing to be mislead by recent Blizzard decisions (I'm looking at you OW2), I decided to wait to hear from the game reviews and let others decide whether or not I wanted to purchase Diablo IV. With high praise coming from both critics and the general population, I bought into the game a couple days after the pre-release started and got started on the game.

Diablo IV - First Impressions

For Diablo IV, I really wanted to re-experience how Diablo III felt at the start. A blank slate with no preconceptions, no push towards any particular playstyle, and to give the game a fresh opportunity to wow me. To start, I would say it did. Any new game is relatively overwhelming at first, but I quickly found my groove and started finding builds I really enjoyed playing. I don't really follow or care about story and/or lore in my games (I know, it's unusual), so I just played through the campaign, doing side quests, dungeons, and skipping dialogue, cutscenes, and basically anything that wasn't "kill enemies, get stronger." This is where I ran into my first major problem.

The campaign is way too damn long for a player like myself. For me, I want to get to the end-game gameplay loop as quickly as possible. The game is fun when I have access to all of the tools to make myself better. The least fun part of Diablo III is leveling from 1-70, and I wouldn't say that I really get into the game until I've gotten all my legendaries I need for my build and I begin the farming loop. When a game arbitrarily restricts the player behind time gates, I begin to lose interest. Of course, I wasn't going to just give up this early so I pushed through and finished the campaign only a day or two after starting. The largest problem was simply that the decisions I made now didn't really matter. It wasn't worth taking the time to optimize a piece of gear that I would throw away in five levels. I didn't need to look at the smaller stats, I knew that I would find a major damage upgrade in a little bit that would make any investment into this piece of gear a waste of valuable resources. This was just a time sink before 'the real game' could begin.

In praise, I think the skill tree is awesome. I really enjoy how it flows, enabling players to adjust their builds in very nuanced and intricate ways. One of the things I loved having the flexibility to do in the early game was to swap around my build with ease. I didn't mind throwing a thousand gold into a full respec and I could try out all these cool new skills as time went on. I wish I could continue my praises though as the campaign came to a close and the endgame began.

Diablo IV - The Grind

Renown really sucks. It was neat at first - getting to explore this huge open world that had been made and the flow between different environments and mob types is very cool. I got on my newly acquired horse and began dashing around grabbing waypoints. I then began on some strongholds, another awesome addition that I enjoyed exploring. The Altars of Lilith were next, and this is where I ran into my first wall. One hundred and sixty altars. This isn't 160 Altars where at the end, I get some sick new piece of gear, a new skill, or a special legendary that pays off. I get +68 to all stats and a few paragon points. I thought to myself, y'know, this isn't very fun, but I guess riding the horse isn't that bad and the developers found something kinda cool to tuck into all the corners of the map. It wasn't particularly fun, but I finally finished all my altars and set my sights on renown five for each region. I obviously needed the paragon points to continue to progress, how bad could this be?

Do you remember how I mentioned 14 hours of sleep in three days when I grinded Season 28? I am no stranger to long gaming days filled with a monotonous grind. I still have not completed renown five in each of the regions. The most efficient way to complete it is to over-level yourself into World Tier 4, then go back to World Tier 1 and spend ten hours running around doing side quests and under-leveled dungeons as quickly as possible. The best way to optimize this process is to get yourself some higher level materials while doing side quests during Helltide, and to do 4-person split dungeons to knock them off as quickly as possible. Let's walk through this grind process. To run these dungeons, you have to teleport to a region (loading screen), hop on your horse (which can't sprint in town), hope your horse sprint doesn't run out by the time you get to your location (otherwise it has to run slowly), enter the dungeon (loading screen), complete the dungeon while ignoring all the loot and performing no meaningful game actions, exit the dungeon (loading screen) and then repeat the process another 100 times. This is not a fun grind. This is time consumption at it's absolute worst. I am not getting anything new or shiny to play with while I perform this process. Even with a build tuned to the highest level for speed, this grind still sucks hours of time down the drain. This is not a good grind. This is the Chilitara grind without the RNG but requiring tens of hours more time invested. I'd rather have a 1% chance to complete all five tiers of renown whenever I complete a dungeon because at least I could just run dungeons for gear or XP without having to spend this much time on a horse or in a loading screen without seeing or getting a new thing that is even remotely interesting.

And while I'm on the subject of gear, let's talk about itemization in Diablo IV.

Diablo IV - The Items

Diablo IV's itemization is really cool in a lot of ways. I love the return of named unique items from Diablo II. I think generally, the incremental strength of normal -> sacred -> ancestral to be an upgrade from normal -> ancient -> primal ancient from Diablo III. I like the idea behind extracting and imprinting legendaries, and the Codex is an incredible design that I think cannot be spoken highly enough about. It does a great job at enabling your minimum viable build extremely quickly without any RNG. The game truly begins when you have your build assembled and with few exceptions, most builds can be assembled with just the codex. (Dungeons feeding the codex is a great idea). You can make focused dedicated progress towards your build throughout the game and once you've completed your build, you can easily find new upgrades through 'actual' legendary drops. I think this is an incredibly well designed system and I cannot praise it enough.

I think we start to run into problems when the decision was made not to allow players to extract legendary affixes from items that they imbue. This creates a perverse incentive - that players are incentivized towards a behaviour that is unintended and broadly negative, hoarding. Players are required to 'invest' in their gear with a given legendary affix and once you go in, you can't go back. I cannot in good faith justify putting this 'perfect' rolled legendary affix on an item at level 50 with 2 wrong stats on it. I know I will probably find another eventually, but there is no incentive to risk having to grind for it later when I inevitably find that upgrade. I'll state it again, I don't mind grinding for a new item, but I really don't enjoy making decisions that will punish me in five, ten, or twenty hours from now when I realize I need a key piece of gear that I threw away on an item I can't ever get back. Part of the core fun in an end-game Diablo loop is that search for the next best thing. When you pair that next best thing with fear of missing out, you are provided a very un-fun experience. When is a gear piece 'good enough'? Diablo III has an investment system in the form of Caldesann's Despair (augmentation) and this system almost never felt bad. I could invest a 125 gem on a very nice ancient piece of gear at level 70 because I knew that the next time I'd find a piece of gear this good would be more time than the amount of time it would take to farm up another 125 gem. This system works really well at mitigating this perverse incentive. You can invest, it's okay, it won't burn you later.

Let's talk about burned.

Diablo IV - Skill Flexibility

Diablo III absolutely streamlined skill flexibility. With the single click of a button, I could pivot radically between full class sets and a six skill action bar full ready to go. Sure, the initial setup took a bit of time but it was very convenient when switching between different builds. One of the strengths of the Diablo series is the nuanced and interesting ways you can combine legendary effects with skills in a plethora of interesting ways. I really didn't mind Diablo IV's skill 'undo' button through the start of the game. You have to spend a bit of gold sure. It's not free, but it doesn't need to be free. I can stand taking 30 or 60 minutes to undo all my skill points, reassign them to a new build, and swap my gear around to some spares I've been hoarding for this very purpose. What I cannot stand is the sheer cost of doing so in Diablo IV. Gold is a limited resource, as is all crafting materials. This is a good thing! Diablo III had some big problems in the early days with a host of unnecessary materials and an abundance of excess (and meaningless) gold. The problem is that it is not, in any way, efficient or effective to try out a new build. I have to invest heavily into my gear, both with legendary affixes, upgrades, re-rolls, and the skill tree. It seems far easier to simply make a new character than it is to use my existing stash of loot that I've been grinding for.

I know that for the Diablo II players that this complaint may fall on deaf ears (and very reasonably so). This is a component that exists in other modern ARPG games like Path of Exile. You invest in a character, in your build, and you stick with it. This forces the player into a single style of play, which for some, is just fine. Plenty of folks are happy to just chug along with their WW Barbarian or lightning Sorcerer for the whole game and for you, I'm glad you're finding this decision a meaningful and enjoyable part of the game. I really enjoy flexibility. I want to be able to swap from traps to daggers to a bow build in an instant. I got a bit tired of Twisting Blades and I wanted to try out Penetrating Shot on my Rogue. I couldn't afford it. I would have to go grind up all the materials and gold I needed on a build I was already bored of before I could swap to something new. I would have to spend all my resources reconfiguring my build and if I was wrong (maybe I don't like the playstyle of Penetrating Shot), I would have to grind all those resources AGAIN to swap back to Twisting Blades. Alternatively, I can go complete the campaign again on a brand new character and I've already been over how miserable the campaign grind was for me.

It was looking at this cost that made me walk away from Diablo IV tonight. I was bored and couldn't try out something new. I had just competed three hours of renown grinding, found nothing new I wanted, hadn't improved my character outside of a few paragon points and an eighth of a level, and didn't have it in me to keep grinding.

Diablo IV - The Awesome

I don't want to leave this article on a sad note. I do love this game. I think the ability to equip both a bow and daggers on the rogue at the same time is an awesome addition to the genre. The depth of affixes means that each item really forces me to evaluate how it would change my build and really reminds me of Diablo II itemization. Diablo III has a very stale formulaic approach to affix prioritization and sets are highly limiting in build experimentation. Diablo IV has a baseline that really explores the depth available in the genre and I am so excited to see where Blizzard can take it from here. Legendaries and unique items are flavourful and the combinations exciting. The ability to extract and imprint affixes changes a core problem in Diablo III and I already love the way it flows in this game.

I love nightmare dungeons. Greater rifts are very formulaic and monotonous, and I really don't mind that horse ride over to a nightmare dungeon across this huge awesome world. I could do without the loading screens, even with an excellent PC it's still way more than 0 load time which is the standard I've come to expect from Diablo III. Helltides are a much better way to force players out into the world than bounties ever were, and I love seeing them pop up so I can crack open a mysterious chest and see what sick loot pops out. The world boss is a way to experience Diablo unlike anything ever seen before (I never got into WoW) and I absolutely love the experience.

Combat in Diablo IV is leagues above Diablo III's. The game flow during combat is meaningful and skill rewarding. Evasion of attacks, especially on boss fights, is an incredibly skill testing experience and I love the way each fight plays out. Diablo III had nothing of the sort and it really shines in the slower gameplay of Diablo IV.

Diablo IV has the baseline to become a far better game than Diablo III ever was. I think there are many ways that it stands to be improved, and while I know I will play in Season 1, I will struggle with many of the things I've outlined above. I know much of this article is pessimisstic, but it comes from my heart. I hope you are all enjoying the game, it is truly an excellent addition to the Diablo series. Knowing what Diablo III looked like at launch, I can expect to see much of this stuff fixed over the next few years, but it still pains me that from day one these are issues that are fundamentally pushing me away from the game.
At the end of the day, we all just want to kill some demons and watch our characters get stronger. Stay safe out there adventurers, Sanctuary is relying on you.

Post-Script

I had a few closing bullet-points I didn't have time to write about in the main article or didn't add to the flow of the discussion.

• Why do gems take up inventory space? Why is my ability to upgrade them gated by my level? Why does it cost so much to unsocket them?
  
• Why is the horse gated on its sprint? It's primary function is to cross the map efficiently, why are we forcing the player to spend any time at all moving slowly?
  
• Why are the core components of each town so far away? I don't mind walking around a large town during a gear respec where each artisan takes a fair amount of time, but when I'm going in and out of town to dump loot and then return to the hack and slash it takes forever to walk around.
  
• Why can't I decide how hard the mobs are during gameplay? Sometimes I want to fight against easy mobs, sometimes I want to fight against hard mobs. Nightmare dungeons let me choose the difficulty, why can't I make that decision for myself in the overworld?
  
• Why can't I party up from the main menu?
  
• Why does it cost so much to reroll my gear?
  

Introduction

I closed Diablo IV today feeling saddened and disappointed. I didn't want to play anymore. Less than a week after the release of a brand new game in a series I hold dear to my heart, I've found myself burnt out and un-engaged with the flow of the game. I feel punished for playing the game in the ways I want to play, and frustrated with the pacing and flow.

This article is as much an exploration of Diablo IV from a mechanical perspective as it is a way for me to get off my chest how I feel about the latest in the Diablo series. I will be deep diving into the mechanics of D4, the 'workflow' of the game as you progress into higher difficulty levels, and the strengths and weaknesses of the itemization. For you, the reader, I hope you take away from this article my sincere passion for the Diablo series, to enjoy the story I have written, and to maybe learn something along the way.

Diablo III - A Story

I love Diablo III. I remember launch day and the hours of queues (and crashes). I remember the first time I beat Inferno Diablo (post-nerf, I wasn't that good). Critical Mass Wizards, MP10 Uber Runs, the RMAH and the changes to legendaries, sets, and the Mystic. I made top-1000 in Season 1 with Ball Lighting DH and while I only played a few seasons between S1 and S27, I came back full-force in S28 and peaked at #23 on the 2p boards playing support DH. Over the years, I've put in about 1,700 hours into Diablo III and I truly and sincerely enjoyed my time in the game. In many ways, I grew up with Diablo III the way many of you grew up with Diablo II.

It probably goes without saying, but I am an obviously high-investment gamer. I slept about 14 hours in the first three days of S23 to make top placements, and while I wasn't setting any world records, I was keeping pace with the big boys for the first few days. I wanted to put to bed the game that had brought me hundreds of hours of joy with a bang, and I gave it my all. I read strategy guides, optimized my gameplay, leveled as efficiently as possible, and 'did the grind.' I minimize my game settings to get the absolute maximum amount of FPS and the fastest response time. I find games most engaging when I am able to perform optimally, finding optimizations and strategies that allow me to progress. I enjoy the grind for new gear, each run pushing me towards a stronger character. I enjoy using the game mechanics to select a difficulty that provides an engaging and challenging experience with which to leverage both my mechanical skill and game knowledge.

By Season 28, Diablo III captures these desires brilliantly. The abundance of difficulty levels (both Torment and Greater Rifts) allows the player to fine-tune their experience. For those highly engaged, the ability to find and reproduce high-level builds is easy. I can both see what builds are working at the high-end of grifts, as well as to look up guides for builds designed for speed-farming and other miscellaneous tasks that Diablo III throws at the player (bounties, rifts, ubers, etc). The Alter of Rites created some 'busywork' that, for the most part, I didn't mind doing. I haven't farmed up Chiltara since I first made my Infernal Staff of Herding in the before-times; while it wasn't particularly fun here in Season 28, I didn't mind doing it because the payoff was going to be pretty sweet. It was a very cool way to create things to do in a game otherwise highly focused on the rift gameplay loop.

I closed Diablo III a few weeks after season start, content with my max gems, 150 GR clears, and nearly full ancient sets of gear for each Demon Hunter set. With nothing left to achieve, I looked forward at Diablo IV with hope. Not willing to be mislead by recent Blizzard decisions (I'm looking at you OW2), I decided to wait to hear from the game reviews and let others decide whether or not I wanted to purchase Diablo IV. With high praise coming from both critics and the general population, I bought into the game a couple days after the pre-release started and got started on the game.

Diablo IV - First Impressions

For Diablo IV, I really wanted to re-experience how Diablo III felt at the start. A blank slate with no preconceptions, no push towards any particular playstyle, and to give the game a fresh opportunity to wow me. To start, I would say it did. Any new game is relatively overwhelming at first, but I quickly found my groove and started finding builds I really enjoyed playing. I don't really follow or care about story and/or lore in my games (I know, it's unusual), so I just played through the campaign, doing side quests, dungeons, and skipping dialogue, cutscenes, and basically anything that wasn't "kill enemies, get stronger." This is where I ran into my first major problem.

The campaign is way too damn long for a player like myself. For me, I want to get to the end-game gameplay loop as quickly as possible. The game is fun when I have access to all of the tools to make myself better. The least fun part of Diablo III is leveling from 1-70, and I wouldn't say that I really get into the game until I've gotten all my legendaries I need for my build and I begin the farming loop. When a game arbitrarily restricts the player behind time gates, I begin to lose interest. Of course, I wasn't going to just give up this early so I pushed through and finished the campaign only a day or two after starting. The largest problem was simply that the decisions I made now didn't really matter. It wasn't worth taking the time to optimize a piece of gear that I would throw away in five levels. I didn't need to look at the smaller stats, I knew that I would find a major damage upgrade in a little bit that would make any investment into this piece of gear a waste of valuable resources. This was just a time sink before 'the real game' could begin.

In praise, I think the skill tree is awesome. I really enjoy how it flows, enabling players to adjust their builds in very nuanced and intricate ways. One of the things I loved having the flexibility to do in the early game was to swap around my build with ease. I didn't mind throwing a thousand gold into a full respec and I could try out all these cool new skills as time went on. I wish I could continue my praises though as the campaign came to a close and the endgame began.

Diablo IV - The Grind

Renown really sucks. It was neat at first - getting to explore this huge open world that had been made and the flow between different environments and mob types is very cool. I got on my newly acquired horse and began dashing around grabbing waypoints. I then began on some strongholds, another awesome addition that I enjoyed exploring. The Altars of Lilith were next, and this is where I ran into my first wall. One hundred and sixty altars. This isn't 160 Altars where at the end, I get some sick new piece of gear, a new skill, or a special legendary that pays off. I get +68 to all stats and a few paragon points. I thought to myself, y'know, this isn't very fun, but I guess riding the horse isn't that bad and the developers found something kinda cool to tuck into all the corners of the map. It wasn't particularly fun, but I finally finished all my altars and set my sights on renown five for each region. I obviously needed the paragon points to continue to progress, how bad could this be?

Do you remember how I mentioned 14 hours of sleep in three days when I grinded Season 28? I am no stranger to long gaming days filled with a monotonous grind. I still have not completed renown five in each of the regions. The most efficient way to complete it is to over-level yourself into World Tier 4, then go back to World Tier 1 and spend ten hours running around doing side quests and under-leveled dungeons as quickly as possible. The best way to optimize this process is to get yourself some higher level materials while doing side quests during Helltide, and to do 4-person split dungeons to knock them off as quickly as possible. Let's walk through this grind process. To run these dungeons, you have to teleport to a region (loading screen), hop on your horse (which can't sprint in town), hope your horse sprint doesn't run out by the time you get to your location (otherwise it has to run slowly), enter the dungeon (loading screen), complete the dungeon while ignoring all the loot and performing no meaningful game actions, exit the dungeon (loading screen) and then repeat the process another 100 times. This is not a fun grind. This is time consumption at it's absolute worst. I am not getting anything new or shiny to play with while I perform this process. Even with a build tuned to the highest level for speed, this grind still sucks hours of time down the drain. This is not a good grind. This is the Chilitara grind without the RNG but requiring tens of hours more time invested. I'd rather have a 1% chance to complete all five tiers of renown whenever I complete a dungeon because at least I could just run dungeons for gear or XP without having to spend this much time on a horse or in a loading screen without seeing or getting a new thing that is even remotely interesting.

And while I'm on the subject of gear, let's talk about itemization in Diablo IV.

Diablo IV - The Items

Diablo IV's itemization is really cool in a lot of ways. I love the return of named unique items from Diablo II. I think generally, the incremental strength of normal -> sacred -> ancestral to be an upgrade from normal -> ancient -> primal ancient from Diablo III. I like the idea behind extracting and imprinting legendaries, and the Codex is an incredible design that I think cannot be spoken highly enough about. It does a great job at enabling your minimum viable build extremely quickly without any RNG. The game truly begins when you have your build assembled and with few exceptions, most builds can be assembled with just the codex. (Dungeons feeding the codex is a great idea). You can make focused dedicated progress towards your build throughout the game and once you've completed your build, you can easily find new upgrades through 'actual' legendary drops. I think this is an incredibly well designed system and I cannot praise it enough.

I think we start to run into problems when the decision was made not to allow players to extract legendary affixes from items that they imbue. This creates a perverse incentive - that players are incentivized towards a behaviour that is unintended and broadly negative, hoarding. Players are required to 'invest' in their gear with a given legendary affix and once you go in, you can't go back. I cannot in good faith justify putting this 'perfect' rolled legendary affix on an item at level 50 with 2 wrong stats on it. I know I will probably find another eventually, but there is no incentive to risk having to grind for it later when I inevitably find that upgrade. I'll state it again, I don't mind grinding for a new item, but I really don't enjoy making decisions that will punish me in five, ten, or twenty hours from now when I realize I need a key piece of gear that I threw away on an item I can't ever get back. Part of the core fun in an end-game Diablo loop is that search for the next best thing. When you pair that next best thing with fear of missing out, you are provided a very un-fun experience. When is a gear piece 'good enough'? Diablo III has an investment system in the form of Caldesann's Despair (augmentation) and this system almost never felt bad. I could invest a 125 gem on a very nice ancient piece of gear at level 70 because I knew that the next time I'd find a piece of gear this good would be more time than the amount of time it would take to farm up another 125 gem. This system works really well at mitigating this perverse incentive. You can invest, it's okay, it won't burn you later.

Let's talk about burned.

Diablo IV - Skill Flexibility

Diablo III absolutely streamlined skill flexibility. With the single click of a button, I could pivot radically between full class sets and a six skill action bar full ready to go. Sure, the initial setup took a bit of time but it was very convenient when switching between different builds. One of the strengths of the Diablo series is the nuanced and interesting ways you can combine legendary effects with skills in a plethora of interesting ways. I really didn't mind Diablo IV's skill 'undo' button through the start of the game. You have to spend a bit of gold sure. It's not free, but it doesn't need to be free. I can stand taking 30 or 60 minutes to undo all my skill points, reassign them to a new build, and swap my gear around to some spares I've been hoarding for this very purpose. What I cannot stand is the sheer cost of doing so in Diablo IV. Gold is a limited resource, as is all crafting materials. This is a good thing! Diablo III had some big problems in the early days with a host of unnecessary materials and an abundance of excess (and meaningless) gold. The problem is that it is not, in any way, efficient or effective to try out a new build. I have to invest heavily into my gear, both with legendary affixes, upgrades, re-rolls, and the skill tree. It seems far easier to simply make a new character than it is to use my existing stash of loot that I've been grinding for.

I know that for the Diablo II players that this complaint may fall on deaf ears (and very reasonably so). This is a component that exists in other modern ARPG games like Path of Exile. You invest in a character, in your build, and you stick with it. This forces the player into a single style of play, which for some, is just fine. Plenty of folks are happy to just chug along with their WW Barbarian or lightning Sorcerer for the whole game and for you, I'm glad you're finding this decision a meaningful and enjoyable part of the game. I really enjoy flexibility. I want to be able to swap from traps to daggers to a bow build in an instant. I got a bit tired of Twisting Blades and I wanted to try out Penetrating Shot on my Rogue. I couldn't afford it. I would have to go grind up all the materials and gold I needed on a build I was already bored of before I could swap to something new. I would have to spend all my resources reconfiguring my build and if I was wrong (maybe I don't like the playstyle of Penetrating Shot), I would have to grind all those resources AGAIN to swap back to Twisting Blades. Alternatively, I can go complete the campaign again on a brand new character and I've already been over how miserable the campaign grind was for me.

It was looking at this cost that made me walk away from Diablo IV tonight. I was bored and couldn't try out something new. I had just competed three hours of renown grinding, found nothing new I wanted, hadn't improved my character outside of a few paragon points and an eighth of a level, and didn't have it in me to keep grinding.

Diablo IV - The Awesome

I don't want to leave this article on a sad note. I do love this game. I think the ability to equip both a bow and daggers on the rogue at the same time is an awesome addition to the genre. The depth of affixes means that each item really forces me to evaluate how it would change my build and really reminds me of Diablo II itemization. Diablo III has a very stale formulaic approach to affix prioritization and sets are highly limiting in build experimentation. Diablo IV has a baseline that really explores the depth available in the genre and I am so excited to see where Blizzard can take it from here. Legendaries and unique items are flavourful and the combinations exciting. The ability to extract and imprint affixes changes a core problem in Diablo III and I already love the way it flows in this game.

I love nightmare dungeons. Greater rifts are very formulaic and monotonous, and I really don't mind that horse ride over to a nightmare dungeon across this huge awesome world. I could do without the loading screens, even with an excellent PC it's still way more than 0 load time which is the standard I've come to expect from Diablo III. Helltides are a much better way to force players out into the world than bounties ever were, and I love seeing them pop up so I can crack open a mysterious chest and see what sick loot pops out. The world boss is a way to experience Diablo unlike anything ever seen before (I never got into WoW) and I absolutely love the experience.

Combat in Diablo IV is leagues above Diablo III's. The game flow during combat is meaningful and skill rewarding. Evasion of attacks, especially on boss fights, is an incredibly skill testing experience and I love the way each fight plays out. Diablo III had nothing of the sort and it really shines in the slower gameplay of Diablo IV.

Diablo IV has the baseline to become a far better game than Diablo III ever was. I think there are many ways that it stands to be improved, and while I know I will play in Season 1, I will struggle with many of the things I've outlined above. I know much of this article is pessimisstic, but it comes from my heart. I hope you are all enjoying the game, it is truly an excellent addition to the Diablo series. Knowing what Diablo III looked like at launch, I can expect to see much of this stuff fixed over the next few years, but it still pains me that from day one these are issues that are fundamentally pushing me away from the game.
At the end of the day, we all just want to kill some demons and watch our characters get stronger. Stay safe out there adventurers, Sanctuary is relying on you.

Post-Script

I had a few closing bullet-points I didn't have time to write about in the main article or didn't add to the flow of the discussion.

• Why do gems take up inventory space? Why is my ability to upgrade them gated by my level? Why does it cost so much to unsocket them?
  
• Why is the horse gated on its sprint? It's primary function is to cross the map efficiently, why are we forcing the player to spend any time at all moving slowly?
  
• Why are the core components of each town so far away? I don't mind walking around a large town during a gear respec where each artisan takes a fair amount of time, but when I'm going in and out of town to dump loot and then return to the hack and slash it takes forever to walk around.
  
• Why can't I decide how hard the mobs are during gameplay? Sometimes I want to fight against easy mobs, sometimes I want to fight against hard mobs. Nightmare dungeons let me choose the difficulty, why can't I make that decision for myself in the overworld?
  
• Why can't I party up from the main menu?
  
• Why does it cost so much to reroll my gear?
  

I posted this to my Facebook as I posted Tate-related content there and upset but also pleased a few people so I wanted to make my mindset adjustment public. I'm gonna copy and paste it here with some extra stuff that I didn't want to say on my Facebook because it would shit-stirr my family but I truly want to get it off my chest a day spread my message.
After taking plenty of time to think about it. I've decided that I am no longer a supporter of Tate. When you're just another one of the many young man outcasted by society, having your masculinity blamed for everything wrong in your life, bullied by the popular kids in school, never having a girlfriend and being blamed for all of those things, it's easy to see why I fell for his trap.
Having already left Incels and decided I want to try to improve instead of just giving up, I saw a man who told you it's okay to be masculine, it's okay to want the hot chicks, it's okay to want to drive sports cars, it's okay to want to be rich, it's okay to want submissive wives, it's okay to want to fight, it's okay to be a man! It's very hard not to be drawn to it in a world that tells you these things are toxic and will keep you celibate, that this is the reason women aren't attracted to you. Tate comes along with his 4 wives, videos of him with women in bikinis, his big muscular physique, his hundreds of millions of dollars and his 4 world kick-boxing champion belts to prove that notion wrong.
"If I'm such a misogynist then how come I'm fuckin' and you're not fuckin'? If I'm such a misogynist then how come women are coming to me?"
"All I talk about is how men are better than women and I'm still fuckin' more pussy than you are."
It's hard to argue with that point. The answer is because being a misogynist doesn't stop you from being attractive.
But, that doesn't excuse it. Tate knows with his money, status, physique, influence, accolades and confidence that he can still have a plethora of shallow women at his disposal and still get away with spewing his sexist vitriol.
"Women should not be allowed to drive"
"Women have been trading sexual favours in exchange for career advancements for decades, it doesn't make it sexual assault just because of the metoo movement"- Response to Harvey Weinstein's scandal
"When women end up in senior management it's nothing but a shit-show and a bitch-fest"
"I'm a realist and when you're a realist, you're sexist. There's no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist"
"When a woman marries a man, she belongs to that man"
"I was getting on a plane and I could see through the cockpit that a female was the pilot and I took a picture and I said, ‘most women I know can’t even park a car, why is a woman flying my plane?"
"A woman cheating isn't even on the same level as a man cheating"
"Female promiscuity is disgusting and it has been looked down upon in every era of human history to the point where a female could be executed for it." "As they should be"- Another man on the podcast "Get the rocks"- Replied Tate
Men, there's nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself! You can work out, figure out how to make money outside of employment, learn how to increase your testosterone, do NoFap, quit porn, jaw-maxing, eating clean, learning how to pick up women(and let's be honest, accepting that their advice on how to do so sucks 😅) learn a combat sport, have submissive women, be polygamous(as long as it's not deceptive). This is not cringe, it is called AMBITION! But here's the news flash:
YOU CAN DO THIS WITHOUT DEEANING WOMEN AND TRYING TO TAKE AWAY THEIR RIGHTS 🤯
Some people will call you cringe for doing this. Because they want to keep you on their level. Most women will say that you need to be a feminist or you will stay single and that self-improvement is cringe. But just laught it off, it doesn't matter. And no you don't have to be a feminist either. You can just be a respectful person who doesn't want to divert women's rights they are entitled to in the modern day.
The reason us sexless, emasculated, envious, unloved men felt compelled to him is because he offered a way out. A way out of the deception that you have to be feminine, emotional and deceived by fourth wave feminism to be accepted in society and have women attracted to you. This is a lie. When these young men fall for this lie, it becomes hard not to be angry and resentful when women do not act the way our parents, the education system and the media tells us they do. That they don't like the assholes, the bullies, the jocks, and yes... the MISOGYNISTS. We were told just being a nice guy who respects women is enough.
When this lie unravels, many unfortunately go one of 2 routes:
The red pill- Aiming for self-improvement and maximisation in every metric of your value(nothing wrong with that). But unfortunately then using this to control the women in your life and preach oppression to make things the way they used to be.
The black pill- Where men convince each other that they will never be able to obtain sex/relationships no matter what and their situation is inescapable, to just give up. Some of which tell others to rape women; some of which do. Some of which tell others to commit mass shootings; Some of which do.
Many men have now left the black pill because of Tate which is great and it is better they idolise him than murderers like Elliot Rodger and Alek Minassian or content creators like EggWhite and WheatWaffles. Some never were black-pilled but admire Tate for preaching masculinity and stoicism in a world that demonizes it. I will reiterate to those men- YOU CAN DO SO WITHOUT DEMEANING WOMEN
So why does Tate do this? 2 reasons:

1. He is a misogynist and wants women to be oppressed because he is threatened by their freedom and wants to enjoy the pleasure of seeing them controlled, at his service, being dependant on men, not being allowed to lead in any corporate or industrial organisations because he believes they are incompetent in doing so. He doesn't listen to his own rule here. But just because you want that and it is feels better to live that way as a man, doesn't necessarily mean you should do it.
   
2. He doesn't care about you. He really doesn't, he just wants to profit off you. He knew that targeting lost young men, a group that is hated, lonely and angry could be easily radicalised. Same as Hitler did with the Nazis by telling them it's okay to be German and then pointing the finger at Jews to blame them for all the injustice dealt toward them. It's a classic trick that is yet to fail.
   

Tate's mindsets are helpful in many ways:
"Do what needs to be done regardless of how you feel"
Beat Tate at his own game! Self-improve, do the hard work even if you don't feel like it! But draw the line with the misogyny because wven thought it FEELS tempting, comforting and easy to do so, doesn't mean you should. Having that said, it is painful for me to acknowledge I was wrong and deceived by this evil genius. It's also very satisfying to know that a certain someone was seeing me support ideologies I knew would never be approved of and that the brainwashing, abuse and manipulation I was subjected to wasn't working. I wanted to stick it to you and show you how wrong you were for trying to strip me of my masculinity. I hate that you will be releived I am moving on and respecting women and that you will feel justified in the way you treated me. But:
"The most important part of being a man is not doing what you want to do but doing what you have to do. Your feelings don't matter as a man!" -Tate
Thanks for reading 💚
The "certain someone" was my mother. She made me sleep with her until I was 14, walked around naked in front of me and encouraged me to do the same. She would tell me my penis was big when it is in fact under-average. She used to constantly make small-penis jokes, say misogynists, show-offs and even rapists were projecting their small dick insecurity. She also told me my bullies had small dicks. This hurt when I realised I had one myself but she wouldn't listen and insisted me it was above average for my age and I'm still growing. My father on the other hand would open the door on me in the shower, wave his finger at me with a stupid smile and tell me I will never impress any girls with a small one. I of course didn't wanna say this on my Facebook with my real identity and my sister thinks my Mum is some kind of saint who can do no wrong and nags me for a justification for ghosting her and I obviously don't want to provide the details because a; I have to admit I have a small penis in order to do so and b; I know I will probably be accused of lying or just gaslight me and say it's all in my head.
The worst thing she ever did was when I told her this 13 year old disabled girl had a crush ok me and I was being bullied for it so she told me "I don't think I can trust you to not have sex with her. You have high testosterone and are treating girls like sex-objects." This is difficult to say but I remember never loving my mother again after she accused me of being a paedophile who would take advantage of a disabled THIRTEEN year old girl.
We suspect she has Munchausen Syndrome and she told me I was sick my whole life with things I wasn't. Every morning I had to wake up and drink celery juice with no breakfast be cause she was convinced I was poisoned with toxins I was given at the hospital as a baby after I got bitten by our cat.
She told me I was gluten and dairy intolerant, I have since eaten these things and am fine.
I had developmental echolalia throughout my adolescence(if you don't know, similar to Tourette's syndrome, causes involuntry ticks and is common in autistic pubsescents). Both my parents and my sister told me I was doing it for attention and I could control it. I would get bullied in school for it and they would continue to tell me I could control it or to just "cover my mouth" when I do it.
She told me that my sexual urges were unnatural and for a "boy like me", I should not be "Seeing women as sex objects": This was her reaction to me telling her I would get erections and sometimes ejaculate when I saw sexy women in skimpy clothing and I tried to refuse going to the beach because of the women in bikinis but she would still force me to. I would usually rub one out before leaving if I had time or try to go in the water until the boner went down.
She also assured me before high-school that because I'm so handsome and "wasn't like the other boys"(respectful gentleman she apparently raised me to be) that I would be very popular with all the girls. When this didn't happen, she said it was because I must street them like sex objects.
She told me I was "addicted to masturbating": Apparently 4-5 times a day was addiction which in reality is just normal all teenaged boy stuff.
I explained that I was attracted to the hot women and not the nerdy ones like she told me to be and asked why this was. She told me it was because I had entitlement problems and it was due to my high testosterone. She said to avoid the hot ones because they are "too much drama" and that no matter what my girlfriend looks like, I will enjoy sex with her just as much because the emotattraction is what counts and hit girls will only manipulate me and take me away from her.
Because of this she would cry and hug me, telling me I was going to grow up to be a suicidal sex addict. She then went to the adult store and bought me a fleshlight as per my father and his friend's suggestion. She told me it would satisfy my urges and stop the spontaneous ejaculatiobs in public. I told her it wasn't do she threw it out and kept buying different variants, tryto find tge one that would work. None of course did.
She would tell me I needed to be saved to prevent myself from taking advantage of all the women with bad fathers who would want to sleep with me and I couldn't resist it because my testosterone was too high. She told me I needed treatment for my "hypersexuality". I told her I was hesitant and she would say "I don't know why you want to be a sex-addict. Why do you want to live like this? Why do you want to be a misogynist who abuses women? I could never deal with losing my boy, so please get the help you need.
She then took me to accupunctural therapists to give me treatment for hypersexuals that constricts blood vessels to the genitals and would convince him to administer it by telling him the same bullshit she told me.
I now look at my small penis and hate her knowing that it could've been even just a little bit bigger if it weren't for her "treatment" and I will never forgive her for the physical and emotional damage she caused me. There is so much more I could get in to about how she and my father too abused me but it's gonna be too long.
I always get worried when I see mothers who say they want their son to be "different".
"I don't want him to rape, be a patriarch, stalk women who reject him, embrace his emotional side, be attracted to strong and independent women" etc.
To those mothers. I am warning you, allow your son to embrace his masculinity, teach him to be stoic, if he has a father figure, let him influence him as an adolescent, let him be attracted to who he is attracted to. Don't be like my mother or he will resent you, he will he scarred for what you do.
Thank you if you read this far. Feel free to follow me for more and comment your thoughts.

Angel had just driven away from police pursuit. Unfortunately, the car broke down after driving a few hundred meters, and unfortunately, the road is sparsely populated, so don't expect to catch a ride for a while.
"But I'm a criminal in the first place, it's better not to have anyone pass by." She thought ruefully as she walked along the road. After a long trek, Angel's bladder was in a hurry to release, and she went into the woods to find a place where the weeds were relatively sparse to solve the problem. Days of nervous tension and physical exhaustion made her unconscious, so she pulled one foot deep and one foot deep into the dense forest. When her sanity returned to her body, she realized that she had been lost in this vast forest.
But Angel is not a pessimistic person, and the most desperate moment of her life has passed: the long siren follows like a ghost, clinging to her eardrum. Almost disheartened, Angel felt like a hare about to be torn apart by a pack of hounds. But when she slammed the steering wheel a few times on the circling highway, unexpectedly, the chasing hounds disappeared, as if the owner had whistled, and they all quickly drove home.
Angel took a deep breath, thinking that the situation now would never be worse than before. And go and see, she cut a piece of clothing tied to a conspicuous place on a large branch with a knife, and continued to walk forward.
I don't know how long I walked, the mark on the branch has been left far behind by Angel, but she still hasn't found a specific direction to leave here. The only certainty now is that she is not going around in circles, but walking on a brand new, unfamiliar road. Under the impact of both psychological and physical exhaustion, Angel finally collapsed exhausted on an open grass. The trees here are not as shady as in other places, but the grass in the middle of the field does not grow more lush due to the abundant sunlight, but takes on a tender turquoise color. Angel fell asleep on the soft bed.
A faint light appeared on his eyelids for some time, although it was faint, but it still woke Angel. You can't expect an outlaw to have baby-like sleep, right? She struggled to stretch her half-awakened eyelids open, and Angel didn't know where she was until her mind was clear. She thought in a trance that she slept until dawn, and when she was a little awake, she found that she hadn't slept for a few hours, because it was the moon hanging in the sky, and at this time it was sprinkling a cold light on the ground.
Just as Angel rolled over to get some sleep, she caught a glimpse of a small black dot in the middle of the moon, slowly expanding. "Did I encounter a total lunar eclipse? "Angel is not smart, and her common sense reserves are just that, and the murder felony she commits is just a crime of passion. If the man didn't come over and talk like a silly fork, she wouldn't choose to use the wheel to touch his face. Just when she suspected that she had accidentally observed a precious astronomical phenomenon, the black spot had expanded to the level of a spare tire. Angel vaguely felt that the moon was too big tonight, and before she could come to her senses, the black dot bounced mischievously.
When she saw it clearly, an indescribable fear rose from the bottom of her heart that had captured her.
The huge ball of light is an eyeball, the black block in it is the pupil, and the part outside the eye socket is all hidden in the night, causing the eyeball to hang lonely in the air like a light ball, the owner of this eye wakes up from a long sleep, and Angel just witnessed the process of its awakening.
At this time, this eye is staring at her.

Source
I'm Iskarel. I maintain the PvE Thief builds and guides on Snow Crows
With a PvE perspective, I'm going to run through the changes, discuss their impact, and talk about current meta builds and how they're impacted.
Want the build-by-build cliff notes? Skip to the bottom, search for "tl;dr"
I know this is a lot. Think of it as a reference document.
A LOT has changed. The builds aren't unrecognizable but the texture has changed almost across the board.

Flanking is Dead (for most endgame bosse)

To make them more reliable in endgame PvE content, all effects that benefit when the player strikes from the flank or from behind now always apply their benefits when striking defiant foes.

Not all players know that "flanking" or "from behind or the sides" just means—don't be in front of the target.
Ever used a build with Thief runes? Just don't stand directly in front of the target.
What fewer players will know is that there's a small set of skills that actually need you to be ~180-degrees behind your target.

• Thief Backstab (deals double damage from behind)
• Thief Sword Stealth Attack (only dazes from behind)
• Ranger Greatsword Hilt (dazes from the front, stuns from behind. This basically doesn't matter in PvE)
• Mesmer Downstate phantasm (deals more damage if the phantasm hits from behind. Hey it's like a Thief!)

Which way does Keep Construct face when it descends back to the arena after the orb-rift-push phase?
Which way does Sabetha face during her Flame Wall?
I'm not going to answer these questions because the answers don't matter anymore! This skill expression is now gone.
Just backstab from any angle.
Ah but "defiant foes"? What isn't included there?
Can you backstab Primordus in the Harvest Temple strike if your group stays on the left vs right side, when looking from the center towards the dragon?

You would have to be on the right side. The left is the dragon's face.

Which way does Conjured Amalgamate face?

When approaching CA's platform, it is facing to your right. This also applies to the hands. Stand on the left side of the platform, and "above" the hands (closer to the portal leading away from this encounter).

Which way do the hands on Adina face?

2 o'clock (north), 5 o'clock (northwest), 7 o'clock (south), 10 o'clock (southeast)
No, I don't know why.
Just use your rifle and pierce two hands with Spotter's Shot + Death's Judgment! That's better than remembering these facing positions.

These are non-defiant "prop" type enemies. Also included here is Drakkar, the Octovine, and Tequatl. IIRC.
BTW Drakkar is made up 17 prop pieces, and you can only cast Deadeye's Mark on one of them. Don't play Deadeye here, you're trolling yourself. :D

Acrobatics Mental Gymnastics

Yeah this ain't it, chief. This is still a defensive and mobility-oriented traitline.
The damage modifier in Endless Stamina can't compete with Deadly Arts or Critical Strikes, even when combined with the Power in Swinder's Equilibrium.
The other stuff is maybe interesting for solo open world champions but Shadow Arts is already quite capable at that, and Condition Thief has a lot more toys to work with when solo compared to Power.
It's something but this traitline still feels ironically directionless.

Improvisational Theater of War

Improvisation: This trait now reduces the cooldowns of all utility skills by a certain percentage when you steal, instead of recharging a random skill.
Previously: this trait would randomly reset one of your utility skills, with a cooldown on the effect. If it chose a skill already on cooldown, it would have no effect. It could not reset the cooldown of an un-triggered but prepared Preparation.

Interesting! We can now use this trait predictably, resetting the cooldown of all our utility skills. On the surface that's good because it means we'll always get value out of the reset...unless our skill uses are staggered. More on that later.

Mag Bomb Delenda Est.

Currently this skill's damage-per-cast-time is roughly double that of Daredevil Staff 2, Weakening Charge. Notably, the cast time is short because it pulses damage.
The coefficient we have on the wiki, drawn from the Game's API, is 4.10. ANet lists a 1.50 (per hit, so 4.50 total) nerfed to 0.70. So... Uh...
Let's say Throw Magnetic Bomb's damage is nerfed to 50% of its current damage. Or there about.
So next patch, one Throw Magnetic Bomb is close to the damage of one Staff 2, but the damage comes out over time (during our Assassin Signet burst) and the cast animation is faster than Staff 2.

But is it worth losing Executioner?
Probably not. Executioner is approximately 9.52% damage on a fight that spends 50% of its time above 50% target HP and 50% of time below (due to Ferocious Strikes).
That's a lot of damage to be made up by another use of a stolen skill!

Daredevil's Bound to be Good

Bound: Increased power coefficient from 1.75 to 3.5

This ratchets up the damage of our dodge so that it beats the damage-per-cast-time of Punishing Strikes (skill 1 part C) and Staff 5, while still losing to Staff Strike and Staff Bash (skill 1 parts A/B), Staff 2, and Fist Flurry/Palm Strike.
This damage increase is valuable because

• (A) it makes dodging better for damage, on top of the damage modifiers provided by Havoc Specialist and Bounding Dodger
• (B) if we get excess endurance from our helpful allies, burning it off to maintain our modifiers hurts our DPS less on the future patch.

Auto chain go brrrr

Staff Strike, Staff Bash: Increased power coefficient.

... Uh oh.
This increase the DPS of the first and second part of the chain well beyond the last hit.
The optimal DPS rotation now involves interrupting the chain after the 2nd hit.
That's not easy to do on most professions, which have a limited number of viable interrupts, but we're Thief, baby!
Staff Strike, Staff Bash, Weakening Charge. Repeat. Throw in a Fist Flurry. Save your Palm Strike. Yeah. This sort of thing.
Calculations done by REMagic42 ( training-accident-36 ) show the following

• new auto chain interrupt rotation: 40,252
• old benchmark rotation: 38,593

A not insignificant DPS increase provided by this (unintended?) balance predicament.
You could just not do this. That's up to you. The build is getting buffed by ~4,000 DPS next patch but it still has all the old problems. Don't know those? Read here

Let's Get Physical (Lights out, follow the noise)

Various Physical Skill cooldown reductions

These are neat and strictly a positive.
Left, a great player who provides benchmarks for Power and Condition Daredevil, already tested Condition Daredevil with cooldown-traited Impairing Daggers and found them simply worse in group content vs Devourer Venom. You can read more on his benchmark.
So the Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction (CDR) doesn't matter to us.
A cooldown reduction for Channeled Vigor would've been cool!

This skill basically gives you a get-out-of-jail-free dodge if you're ever scared that burning all your dodges for Havoc Specialist will leave you vulnerable. You can get a dodge with Withdraw on a shorter cooldown but that travels backwards from your facing direction which can be scary.
This skill is also very useful for maintaining Lotus Training uptime when playing Condition Daredevil. If you can't keep hitting the boss with your auto-attack chain and F1 Steal, you will run out of endurance and lose your condition damage buff. Use Channeled Vigor to maintain buff uptime when you can't hit the boss. (This tip comes from Left!)

Impact Strike is still worse defiance-bar to cooldown ratio vs Basilisk Venom, but any improvement is nice. This skill is good when you can't guarantee all hits of Basilisk Venom will hit your target, or when you need to CC more frequently than Basilisk's cooldown allows.

Death-onate Plasma and "Boon Thief"

Farewell, Boon Thief. Without Quickness, we can no longer role-compress all those shiny boons in Plasma into a Quickness Build.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the damage of Detonate Plasma will not be worth its cast time purely from a DPS perspective, especially on a Condition Build, but you might still get some boon uptime from Daredevils on fights like Matthias and Twin Largos' Kenut.
You can now permanently sunset your Celestial/Ritualist gear for Boon Thief. Will you use it for Alacrity Specter later? I don't now, I don't know how much Alacrity is given by that trait. We'll talk more later. :)

Also Icebrood Saga exists

These really don't matter. Unstable Reagent is maybe a DPS increase, I don't have a log with it for cast time.
This is NOT Unstable Artifact BTW. That skill is still worth using for both Power and Condition DPS.
Cursed Artifact is like throw-Plaguelands, and an Ethereal field at that. It's free real estate on the Condition Build.
Time in a Bottle is squad-wide alacrity AND quickness. Take that, Chronomancer! It's only found in Cold War and randomly in EoD strikes. :)

Dumbed-down-eye

Deadeye Stolen Skill splash support

Stolen Skills now grant their beneficial effects around the caster.

These are mostly "splash" uptimes of boons, but you can also get superspeed and a modest heal. Neat! Deadeye providing a token amount of squad value beyond its DPS and CC output.

Deadeye Malicious Intent buff

Malicious Intent: Increased Malice gain from 1 to 2 in PvE only

This is actually big!
Firstly, this increases the damage dealt by the lower difficulty Be Quick or Be Killed Dagger Deadeye rotation (if you've ever heard someone described Dagger Deadeye as 5111151115111, that's this).

1 more Malice pip after each Mark and Stealth attack boost the damage modifier of Malicious Backstab. This should be approximately +800 DPS for the Backstabs alone (Backstab DPS will increase by 7.6%), but this rotation might take advantage of the reduced Shadow Flare cooldown.

Secondly, this is wonderful for the Dagger-Dagger Maleficent Seven rotation.

All Power Dagger skills (Heartseeker, Dancing Dagger, Cloak & Dagger) are single-damage packet skills (with the exception of Dancing Dagger when bounced from your main target, to another enemy, and back to your main target). This means they have only one chance to score a crit, and thus only one chance to earn 2 Malice instead of 1.
Power Thief derives 15% critical chance from Critical Strikes' Keen Observer trait, which demands the player stay above 75% HP. You won't have 100% uptime of this trait in many raid fights, especially if your healer is slacking. If the current Dagger Deadeye benchmark was performed at 75% player HP, without drastically altering gear to accommodate for the missing critical chance, the benchmark could lose up to 12,000 DPS!, dropping it nearly into support territory.
This Malicious Intent buff gives you a safety cushion for one of those Initiative skills to score a non-crit, making the rotation more robust in endgame encounters. It does NOT reduce the minimum number of Initiative skills needed to reach maximum Malice: that is still 3 with Malicious Intent and 4 without. It does reduce the maximum needed by 1 skill, which is also great!

Quickly Fire For Effect

This trait no longer requires a target to grant boons to allies.

Er, it doesn't require one right now. Specifically, if you Mark a target, you can use your F2 and gain boons even if your stolen skill is obstructed by terrain. If you have your enemy targeted while outside 1,500 range you will get an out of range error that stops you from casting F2, but simply untargeting the enemy will let you use the skill to get boons. If you are obstructed or out of range, you don't hit the target.
I assume what this means is that if you do NOT have a marked target, you can cast a cantrip to get a new F2. That's cool and rather handy for the new Quickness build.

Shadow Flare isn't real, it can't hurt you

Shadow Flare: Reduced cooldown from 30 to 20 seconds. This skill only damages once instead of pulsing. Activate the flip-over Shadow Swap to trigger another damage instance from your original location.

Deadeye dumbed down. Navigating self-reveal with pulsing damage skills on DPS Deadeye has been a hallmark of modern builds for several years—Shadow Flare for Power, Thousand Needles for Condition.
That problem is now eliminated for Power. You don't need to know the timing, you don't need to know where to throw Shadow Flare. Just Do your backstab, cast Shadow Flare for one damage packet, cast it again, go for another Backstab. No fuss, no skill expression, no frustration, no learning curve.
I don't like this change, I understand why other people like this change. I think it's dumb to change this. If you don't like self-reveal, consider not playing the class that uses Stealth and Revealed for its DPS output.

Fun in the Chamber

One in the Chamber: This trait now also increase the damage of F2 Stolen Skills in addition to its previous effects

In case anyone is unfamiliar with Deadeye—it doesn't have access to any core Stolen Skills. No Mag Bombs here!
This is a nice perk. The important thing is that this trait gives us an extra F2 charge every time we use a Stolen Skill...That's for Quickness.
This trait is also valuable to Condition Deadeye builds (particularly since there's a 4/9 chance they get a stolen skill that applies damaging conditions!) and to Power Pistol-Pistol Deadeye. See more of that here.

Binding Shadow, my beloved

Binding Shadow - Reduced cooldown from 30 to20 seconds in PvE.

Cool! I love—

This skill now immobilizes marked targets instead of knocking them down

Oh. Uhhh it already immobilized them. I assume it immobilizes them more? That sucks, this was an amazing breakbar skill, particular on Condition Deadeye where it applied several poison stacks (natively, and via Panic Strike with Immobilize) and gave an extra F2 charge from One in the Chamber.
It's lower cooldown on boonstrip which is neat? Matches No Pain No Gain time in Fractals, I suppose.
Just use a Power Mesmer, they passively breathe boonstrip.

Quickness Deadeye builds

Three options!
Oops! All cantrips

This option will spam out cantrip like nobody's business to meet the voracious demand of Might uptime.
Fire For Effect grants 8 stacks of Might for 12 seconds. The with-Alacrity cooldown of Cantrips are: 16 (Binding Shadow, Shadow Flare), 20 seconds (Malicious Restoration heal), 25 seconds (Mercy, Shadow Gust). When using Mercy, the cooldown of F1 is effectively the cooldown of Mercy, plus minimally the cast time of the F2, plus the cast time of F1 again.
So some of our Might is locked behind 25+ seconds. Building for 100% Might Duration would be devastating for our DPS output. We could cover 100% Might uptime with a single trio of F2 casts anyway—Binding Shadow, Malicious Restoration, Shadow Flare—but that would not take tactical advantage of the natural Deadeye's Mark cooldown.
Instead, we'll cover Quickness with two sets of F2 casts, staggered across the duration of our Might stacks. Left has an old benchmark demonstrating this technique.

So that's our 24-might upkeep option. It's not pretty, and it's Cantrip spam. ANet said we wouldn't have this in the game anymore.
Well, what if we don't have to generate Might?
Then we have two options:
3 cantrips with no Improvisation

This option will maintain a burst of 24 might as we apply quickness, or we can space out the stolen skills to maintain at least 8 stacks indefinitely. Sounds pretty good!

Improvisation

We'll probably still be using Shadow Flare because it's just good damage, and Improvisation selects for builds that use active utility skills, not passive signets. We might even be able to use Malicious Intent instead of One in the Chamber for this build, earning us more damage on Malicious Backstab.

So we have options.

Quickness Deadeye weapon options (We don't have those! )

Maleficent Seven is the only equalizer at work that allows bad weapons to do somewhat okay, and without that, we're back to shopping with the to the usual harsh restriction of "the best single skill out of all these weapons crushes the validity of all other options".
Stealth attacks? Naw, just spam F2s without Malice.
"Filler" initiative skills used to build up to an Initiative reset at max Malice? Nope, don't care, whatever has the best initiative-to-damage ratio is what we're running.
Thief Dagger is about matched with Thief sword for auto attack damage but Dagger is home to the centralizing Cloak & Dagger → Backstab combo. This does huge damage from any direction—flanking is gone!
Sword, by contrast, suffers a DPS loss when using any dual wield skill, Headshot, or Black Powder. The only DPS gain skills are Cloak & Dagger (but the stealth attack for sword is BARELY worth using, you could actually just cast Cloak & Dagger twice in a row and do just as well), and Sword 2...without using the return-to shadowstep. Meaning Sword 2 has a 15-second cooldown. Just to do slightly more than the auto-attack.
Need CC? Pack an off-hand pistol and fill time with auto-attacks, they're very good.
What about Pistol?

It's just weaker.

Shortbow?

It sucks really bad against single targets.

Rifle? This is the sniper spec!

It sucks if you don't have Maleficent Seven for infinite Initiative and either stealth utility skills or Silent Scope to unlock Death's Judgment.

Specter, rant about single-target/ally-target support

Ally-targeted scepter skills now also grant a lesser effect to additional allies in a radius around the target.

I don't know why ANet is so obsessed with single target support for PvE Specter, but they'll learn its untenable eventually. They've been gradually walking back the single target focus ever since release, and we are now about 15 months past Specter's official release and coming up on 2 years since it's beta.
Ally-targeting is clunky.
Single-target support is nonviable. We have encounters that apply arena damage to all players, and each player in the squad can take damage from the same AoE and it's the healer's job to keep the whole team up.
A "lesser effect". Reduced duration? Great, what's the point of that? You might as well just make it all the reduced duration.
Does "splashed" Shadow Sap not even grant protection to the other allies? Great, we won't use it.
Hopefully this will just be something like reduced Barrier or Healing, and the Boons are intact, but it's already been confirmed by the new member of the design team, Trig, on a Twitch Stream (Mighty Teapot's?) that Endless Night will not give Quickness to "splashed" allies.
Maybe this skill shouldn't give quickness at all. Why is the design team not skill splitting? What are they afraid of?

The Dark Side of Scepter Splash

If you paid attention to Specter during its beta testing, you might be aware of a very weird build that used Endless Night (Scepter Pistol dual wield beam skill that granted quickness and 7-packets of Barrier to 3 allies, if you could pierce through the allies).
This rotation was initially theorycrafted by Left when Specter was first showed off. I did some early proof-of-concept on the build, then Left took it over and improved it to around 51,000 DPS.
That's a lot of damage!
Watch that video briefly, and notice how I swap between the enemy and my allies, applying one skill to the target then the Endless Night beam to my allies.
When Specter applies barrier to an ally, they receive a stack of Rotwallow Venom, which applies a short-duration stack of torment to a single enemy just like normal venoms.
Each cast of Endless Night back then was 21 applications of Rotwallow Venom, with more Torment duration than we have now.
ANet killed that build back during beta by making the beam target a single enemy, nerfing the quickness application, nerfing Rotwallow Venom duration, nerfing Specter's Torment damage modifier, nerfing Consume Shadows to require charging up.... The list goes on.
Why do I bring this up?

Scepter Autos on Allies

Currently the scepter auto chain applies 54 seconds of Torment (in the form of multiple stacks). If the scepter auto chain can instead apply barrier to 3 allies, then this balloons to 72 seconds without Strength of Shadows, or 108 seconds with Strength of Shadows.
Yes.
The auto-attack chain will be twice as strong when targeting allies, vs targeting the enemy.
Endless Night is not worth using against an enemy target, but it might be worth using on allies. This rotation won't have room for auto attacks, so I'm not pinning any hopes to this.
No, the optimal damage rotation will probably be Twilight combo, Siphon, and Shroud skills on the enemy, then filling time with Scepter skills on allies. We will probably spend less time in Shroud because those autos are just so cracked...

Second Opinion, moving away from Consume Shadows

Ever since beta all forms of Specter have run Consume Shadows—Alacrity, DPS, Heal. This is because Consume Shadows can apply barrier to allies, giving them Rotwallow venom. The other adept traits are purely defensive, so they're not used by the DPS and Alacrity builds...and Consume Shadows is an extremely potent healing tool. So potent, it's been nerfed repeatedly!

Charged time reduced from instant to 4 seconds, maximum shroud cut by more than 50%, conversion ratio reduced from 100 to 50%

Second Opinion will grant bonus Condition Damage, more with a Scepter. This should be, at minimum, +80/+80, which will beat the ~800 DPS provided by perfect Rotwallow Venom application from Consume Shadows.
Perfect?

If your allies are too injured and Consume Shadows only heals them overflowing into Barrier, you won't give them Rotwallow.

Traversing Dusk no longer gives Alacrity

This is just a heal trait now. That's just what it does.

Shadestep is the new Alacrity trait

Oh. Uh. I'll keep it quick.

1. This reduces our gameplay from 2 separate rotations with their own quirks and different Shroud lengths, to 1—the DPS rotation.

How do you give alacrity? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
How do you do DPS? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
Alacrity Specter's Well cooldowns were inaccessible inside Shadow Shroud because we inherited a shroud, not just a kit like Druid's Celestial Avatar or Holosmith's Photon Forge.
Druid Spirits off cooldown while in CA? Don't care, you can push em.
Specter wells off cooldown while in Shadow Shroud? You might be gaining DPS from shroud skills, or healing from Consume Shadows, but you're losing Alacrity uptime. Is that tradeoff worth it?
Doesn't matter anymore. Just do the benchmark DPS rotation.
You're too slow? Then your alacrity uptime will suffer. You need to be on pace with going in and out of shroud, just like the DPS rotation. Difference is, if you're bad at this, it's going to frustrate other people.
This is not the hardest rotation in game to optimize and you of course have the option to make it easier with Ritualist gear (which you should do anyway if you plan to still run Consume Shadows, will be a two-fold personal DPS loss).

\2. Ever been kicked out of Shroud by incoming damage in a raid/strike/open world meta? No more Alacrity uptime for you. Better refill your Shadow Force quickly—and Larcenous Torment generates Shadow Force FAR more slowly than Traversing Dusk

Fun fact: Traversing Dusk's 1% Shadow Force per ally in your shadowstep scales indefinitely, not just up to 5 players. That gives you colossal Shadow Force generation in crowded metas and even raids.

Want to use your Siphon on ally? No you don't, that's valuable Shadow Force generation you need to maintain tempo for Alacrity.
Again, you can wear Ritualist gear to soften this loss.
Want to have the utility of Well of Bounty? Well, previously that utility was tied to your Alacrity uptime, your DPS uptime (lingering outside shroud for Well of Bounty was a loss), and your healing output (Traversing Dusk, and maintaining tempo in/out of Shadow Shroud for Consume Shadows).
Now you can take Well of Bounty and have it on demand, at a DPS loss.
Previously you could have just take advantage of the long Stability duration to cast this well early, or delay it slightly to cover the mechanic.

How much DPS will ANet allow this build to have?
We don't know. And now it's DPS is very closely tied to the DPS build because they're doing nearly the exact same thing.
This has never happened to Firebrand, trust me.

tl;dr It's dangerous to read all that up there! Skip to here!

Condition Daredevil

Unchanged by Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction

Power Daredevil

Buffed to ~38.6 if you do the old rotation.
Buffed to 40.2 if you do the new degenerate 1a 1b 2 1a 1b 2 rotation that interrupts our auto chain.
Still screwed by all the usual stuff.
Mag Bomb damage normalized. Cool. Still amazing utility on that skill.

Boon Thief

Dead. Deadeye killed it.

Power Dagger Deadeye

Much easier to play. Splashes some cute boons onto its subgroup, at random. Have to see if Shadow Flare is still worth using. Hopefully, right?

Power Rifle Deadeye

Silent Scope uses Shadow Flare, I hope that's still worth using.
No need to flank with Premeditation Rifle is nice. Swapping Impact to an Accuracy sigil (or not doing that, and losing crit chance) was ~1,200 DPS loss, so that's avoided. I don't mind losing flanking here that much because Flanking wasn't make-or-break adrenaline pumping like dagger. It was just a boring loss.

Quickness Deadeye

I hope you like pushing 5 and 1 a whole lot because that's almost all this is. Also pushing cantrips for F2 charges to provide quickness.
It will play okay, but pretttttttttty similar to utility-spam builds that people hate, with the added bonus of casting TWO skills for every application of quickness.
You can tune this to your liking BUT

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MANY WAYS THIS GAME'S ENEMIES CAN APPLY REVEALED TO YOU THEN YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT WHEN YOU PICK UP QUICKNESS DEADEYE NEXT PATCH :D

It won't really prevent you from applying quickness but it will tank your DPS and fracture your soul.
One of us. One of us!
This is getting no changes, by the way. It'd be a huge amount of effort from the studio's programmers for one elite spec, for one profession, largely in one game mode (instanced PvE), with a small player base.
Probably just not happening. Not a question of "want to", it's a question of resource management AND doing this right.
Remember stealth-tanking Old Lion's Court? Because they didn't apply Revealed, then they only applied Revealed once and Deadeye just Shadow Melded out of it?

DPS Specter

Buffed by Second Opinion, dubiously buffed by targeting allies with the auto chain.
You can still run Consume Shadows for team healing/barrier.

Alacrity Specter

I don't know. Presumably the shroud skills will allow us to provide at least 50% uptime with a non-degenerate rotation (one that doesn't have us spending all our time in shroud). Said degenerate rotation is naturally policed by the fact our shroud absorbs incoming damage.
Will it run Consume Shadows? Not for optimal damage anymore.

Alac Share Specter

Just change your grandmaster from Strength of Shadows to Shadestep and do the normal rotation. Should do at least 50% uptime, unless Alac specter is just nonviable and can't maintain Alacrity.

From the novel The Glade Within the Grove, by David Foster

By the time she was captain of a big prestigious girls' school, she new the name of every girl in the whole school, and the name of every girl who had gone to in her time there, and the names of all the school prefects and captains back to the First World War, and all the names of all staff members, still living, whether teaching or no. She soon knew the names of siblings, of every girl in the senior school, and the names of their boyfriends, past and present, ad their penfriends, and their girlfriends outside the school, and their brothers' girlfriends, and the friends of their brothers' girlfriends, and the husbands, and the children, of the married staff,
At school concerts, she was able to address every person present by their proper name, and knew their interests sufficiently well to be able to exchange a few chosen words, whether concerning their recent hospitalisation, or their nieces performance at the previous concert, or their son-in-law's prospects at the forthcoming yacht race, or the likelihood of the Council approving their neighbours' subdivision.
Having commenced with her own family and friends, and worked her confident way outwards, she is, at 21, knows every resident of Darlington and Chippendale by sight, if not by name, and all the shopkeepers of Newtown, by name and sight.
I have heard that she has been known, when drunk, to make tentative stabs at total strangers. 'Hello Claude,' she might say, 'is your little doggie feeling better?'

From the short story All the People, by R.A. Lafferty

He knew everyone in Salt Lake City, where he had never been. He knew everybody in Jebel Shah where the town is a little amphitheater around the harbor, and in Batangas and Weihai. He knew the loungers around the end of the Galata bridge in Istambul, and the porters in Kuala Lumpur. He knew the tobacco traders in Plovdiv, and the cork-cutters of Portugal. He knew the dock workers in Djibouti, and the glove-makers in Prague. He knew the vegetable farmers around El Centro, and the muskrat trappers of Barrataria Bay. He knew the three billion people of the world by name and face, and with a fair degree of intimacy.
“Yet I’m not a very intelligent man. I’ve seen only a few thousands of these billions of people, and it seems unusual that I should know them all. It may be a delusion, but it is a heavily detailed delusion, and it is not accompanied by euphoria. I feel like green hell just thinking of it.”
He knew the cattle traders in Letterkenny Donegal; he knew the cane cutters of Oriente, and the tree climbers of Milne Bay. He knew the people who died every minute, and those who were born.
“There is no way out of it. I know everybody in the world. It is impossible, but it is so. And to what purpose? There aren’t a handful of them I could borrow a dollar from, and I haven’t a real friend in the lot. I don’t know whether it came to me suddenly, but I realized it suddenly. My father was a junk dealer in Wichita, and my education is spotty. I am maladjusted, introverted, incompetent and unhappy, and I also have weak kidneys. Why would a power like this come to a man like me?”

The title is a tribute to Borges' story Funes the Memorious.

Now, I love Lou, but had to think of something to get two certain characters to Ericson to help save his life. One of them is a relative to one of the kids as the school. And after this chapter, Clem, will start to loosen her prejudice over Maya when they start to bond and work together to save Louis's life. She will start to look at Maya, and sees what Violet sees in her.
Over the next couple of days, Louis's pain in his lower right abdomen started to burn and hurt like hell. He thought it was hungry pains and found himself not hungry. Or it was weird after-sex pain that lasts several days after having sex the first time. Louis ignored the pain and eased up for quite some time when he, Aasim, and Willy were out hunting.
Louis fought through the pain of taking the rabbit out of the snare and held his side. Louis has a cold sweat now forming on his brow. Am I getting sick or something? Better not be. I am needed for hunting. Louis must be kneeling for quite some time as Aasim comes back hauling two rabbits.
"Dude you're okay?" Aasim looks at his friend.
Louis slowly rises and holds his right side. "Yeah...just...heartburn."
Aasim's eyebrows raise in concern, "Lou, you're not fine. You're sweating and it is freezing out."
"Let's just get the rest of the traps set for Thumper to run into them if they ever come out." Louis waves off Aasim's concern.
"Still think you should see Ruby." Aasim looks at him.
"Will you stop worrying about me? I'm fine, I don't need—" Louis pauses as he feels his stomach turn. Louis starts to gag and runs to a side of the tree and pukes.
Aasim drops the kills and tends to his friend. Aasim approaches Louis and sees him turning a different shade of color, "Come on, let's get you back home. Willy and I will set the traps later. You need to see Ruby now. Vomiting is not an indicator of fine Louis," Aasim spoke.
Louis nods and holds his right abdomen, as the pain steadily worsens. Willy finishes catching a rabbit and looks as Aasim walks close to Louis and sees Louis's pale brown now, "What is wrong with him?"
"Louis is sick. Taking him back to see Ruby. Take what we caught to Omar, and you and I will reset the traps later this evening." Aasim said.
"It is just the stomach bug, Aasim," Louis spoke, trying not to make it a big deal.
"Maybe, but let's have Ruby verify it first, okay." Aasim walks with him.
"Okay... I think you are wasting your girl's talents on something silly as the stomach bu—" Louis then felt a sharp pain now in his lower right side as it causes him to fall to his knees with a thud.
"Louis!" Aasim rushes to his side and sees his friend holding his side. "Shit.."
Willy looks to Aasim, "What is happening to him? Stomach bugs usually don't make people faint, do they?"
"No, they don't. Come on, I need your help." Aasim instructs Willy on what to do, and the rest of the way back Aasim carries Louis on his shoulder.
Violet is on watch duty when she sees Aasim carrying Louis, and she rushes down from the watch tower to open the gate. Once Aasim and Willy are through the gate, Violet asks, "What happened?"
"I don't know. We need to see Ruby ASAP. Something majorly is wrong with Louis." Aasim told Violet.
"She's in the greenhouse with Clementine." Violet pointed in the direction of the greenhouse.
Aasim nodded, "Willy, go fetch her and meet me in the nurse's station. Violet go to the library and find a medical book, any medical book."
"Why a medical—" Violet started to say.
"Because I think we are going to need it to find out exactly what is wrong with Louis," Aasim spoke. He heaves Louis up the stairs to the admin building. It was a long tiring climb but he laid Louis down on a soft bed in the nurse's station.
Violet comes in first with the book Aasim requested and didn't take long before Clementine and Ruby are at the door. Clementine rushes to be at her lover's side. She felt Louis's head as he breaks out in a cold sweat, and he looked pale. Clementine looks at Aasim, "What happened? What is wrong with him?"
Aasim rubs the back of his neck, "I don't know. He was acting strange when we were hunting and trying to reset the snares when Louis started to vomit, and then as we were walking back, he fainted and hasn't woken up since. He was favoring his right side."
Ruby stands by Louis and touches his forehead, "He's got a fever, that is for sure."
Clementine looks into Ruby's blue eyes, "Stomach bug?"
Aasim shook his head, "Stomach bugs don't make people faint. Or have severe lower abdominal pains"
Violet reaches for the book Aasim requested and asks Aasim to list off Louis's symptoms, "Aasim give me Louis's symptoms again."
Aasim looked at Violet and started to list off his symptoms, "He has a fever, vomited out in the woods, and been holding his lower right side. And fainted."
Violet looks to Clementine who is near Louis's right side, "Clem lift up Louis's shirt and lightly feel around where his hip is."
Clementine looks at Violet and does precisely what she instructed. When she touches the tender spot on Louis's stomach Louis groans, and his fist slams the bed, and he hugs his body. Violet looks and finds what is wrong with him, "Fuck...his appendix ruptured."
Clementine looks at her, "How do you know that?"
"A girl who used to live here, Maddy. Her appendix ruptured, and Ms. Martin had to take her to the hospital." Violet spoke.
Violet handed the medical book to Ruby and pointed the medical term out to her. Clementine looks at Louis and then back at the two girls, "Okay...what do we do? Pain meds."
Violet eyes Aasim and Ruby, and Ruby is first to speak, "Clem, Louis needs more than just medicine. He needs surgery."
Clementine eyes widen, "Surgery?! But we don't have that option around here." Clementine took her gaze off the two girls and looked at Louis, who looked to be in pain. She closes her eyes and is afraid to ask this question to get an answer she is afraid to hear. Clementine reopens her eyes and looks at Ruby, "What happens if Louis can't get surgery?"
Ruby reads what would happen if the appendix is not removed in time, and she is afraid to answer Clementine. Clementine looks to her as the only medical person in this school who know this stuff, "Well?"
Ruby swallows hard, "Louis could die Clem."
Clementine face falls and she holds his hand, and her eyes squeeze shut. She reopens them and looks at Ruby with tears in her eyes, "Can you do it? Or look it up somewhere on how to do it?"
"Clem...I...I know little about this kind of stuff. I didn't go to med school, I could make it worse." Ruby's voice broke.
"You're the best bet I have, Ruby!" Clementine raises to her feet.
"I'm not a surgeon, Clem. I only know basic medical knowledge of what Ms. Martin told me." Ruby looks at Clementine with empathy and wishes she knew more, but she doesn't.
The whole time when Clementine and Ruby are talking, Violet eyes Louis. Maya! Maya knows how to heal people. Maybe she can help Louis. Violet fixes her eyes on Clementine, "Maya might know how to help Louis."
Clementine and Ruby both turn to look at Violet. Clementine crosses her arms and eyes, Violet, "And how will your girlfriend know how to fix him? He needs a surgeon Vi, not an herbalist."
"Clem, Ruby needs help, and Maya knows some medical knowledge here that can help save Louis. It is not like we got a choice here in picking doctors here. I know you have trust issues with Maya, but she can help Clementine." Violet ignores the comment on her girlfriend, which Violet had every right to tell Clementine off but chooses not to as Louis needs her help more than her feud with Clementine.
Ruby looks to Clementine, "I can use another set of hands from a healer. And she is right. We don't have many options to choose from if we want to save Louis. If Violet can bring Maya here, the better."
Clementine looks to Ruby and then to Violet, and then her gaze rests on Louis, whose life is hanging in the balance. Clementine closes her eyes to think as she doesn't have much of an option but to take up Violet's offer and bring Maya here to inspect Louis and work with Ruby to save him. Clementine sighs, "Fine. But take Aasim with you. I don't want anyone from her group to come and know about this place, got it? Especially Arvo and Bonnie." Violet turns to her friend, and the two of them leave the nurses' station.
...
Violet and Aasim walk in the woods as Violet leads him down the pathway she takes to meet Maya. Aasim told her, "I am surprised Clem is being civil on this matter."
"Louis's life is on the line. So, she doesn't have much choice to hold onto her pride." Violet murmurs. "She loves him, and people will do anything to keep the person they love alive. I would have done the same thing if Maya was like this." Violet admitted.
Aasim looks at her, "Speaking of which, how do you know where she will be? Or know her whereabouts in her camp?"
Violet looks to him and then her eyes forward, "We worked out a coding system of leaving messages close by an opening in the wall by her tent in her group's camp. How she treated my shoulder a few days ago. Ruby is good, but the stuff Maya uses is better." Violet admitted. "Don't tell Ruby I said that. I'm grateful for her skill of taking care of me and everyone, but something about the stuff Maya uses...it is better, and feels like there are some magical healing properties."
Aasim holds out his hands, "I won't, and pretend I didn't hear you prefer your girlfriend's stuff over Ruby's."
Violet smiles a little, then focus on getting to Maya to help Louis. They are nearing Maya's group encampment, and she signals to Aasim to be quiet and follow her lead. They didn't get far into the caravan's territory when Violet pulled Aasim behind a bush for cover as they saw a red hair woman, Maya, and Aniya. Aasim whispers to Violet, "How are we going to get her away from those two."
Violet watches her girlfriend and notices they just come back from hunting. She looked and thought of a way to get her attention, "Stay here,"
Aasim looks at her, "Violet. No, this is suicide. We will wait for her to be alone."
"Louis may not have that kind of time, Aasim. Every minute counts, and Louis needs that surgery, now!" Violet hisses. "I will go and get her attention. Wait here, please!" Violet inches closer and closer behind the three females as the redhead is carrying a small bore and two rabbits. Maya had a bow and a quiver of arrows.
Maya looked back and halted in her tracks as she heard footsteps behind them or nearby. Bonnie notices her slight absence, "Something wrong, Maya?"
Maya peers through the trees as she holds up a finger to her leader to stay quiet momentarily. Maya zeros in on the sound and looks to see Violet. Her eyes widened, and she had to think of something, "I thought I heard something back there. But I guess it was a bird or a walker. There are those still around." Maya turns back, and with her foot, she writes a one and an m in the dirt for Violet to see. It was a subtle motion that Bonnie or her sister never saw what Maya did with her foot. Maya turns back and follows Bonnie and her sister up the trial that led to their encampment.
Violet waited until the three of them were out of sight, and she went to the spot where Maya paused, and in the dirt, she wrote one m. Violet took that to mean one moment or one minute. Violet nods and goes to where Aasim is hiding. "Okay, she saw me and wrote a message in the dirt. She will be with us momentarily. She needs to find a way to sneak away from her group. Give her a few minutes." Violet spoke.
"But you said." Aasim started to say.
"I know, but I also don't want us or her to get in trouble here," Violet answers him. "I'm going about this in a smart way where we don't have spilled blood. Just trust in her, okay." Violet grips the tree with her hand.
They waited five minutes or so when Violet heard Maya's sweet voice calling her, "Vi? Violet?"
Violet peers out from the bush and motions for Aasim to get up with her, "Maya over here."
Maya comes to Violet and hugs her. Violet melted in her embrace and loved the soft touch Maya brought in her warm hugs. Violet holds onto Maya longer than she planned, but her heart got in the way. Aasim saw the love Maya and Violet shared with each other and kindly made his presence known to them. Violet snaps out of her love moment and pulls back from Maya. Maya sees Aasim, and she looks at Violet, "Okay..this is new. You brought a friend with you."
"Clementine's idea, not mine. I will cut to the chase. Louis needs your help, Maya." Violet spoke gently to her.
Aasim looks to this Indian girl, "Violet says you are good with medicine and are knowledgeable with medical procedures. is that right?"
"Yes on some, what is this about?" Maya looks at the two of them.
"We need your help in helping Louis. His appendix ruptured, and he needs surgery. Clementine said you won't be a help because you are an herbalist, but I know you can help him." Violet urges her girlfriend.
Maya looks into Violet's eyes with sympathy, "Vi, I love you, and great you have faith in my skill as a healer. I hate to agree with your leader Clementine here, but she is right. I, too, don't have any knowledge of surgical procedures. I never was trained to be one, not even out in Jackson when studying to be a healer in my Tribe."
Violet looks into her lover's eyes, "So you can't help us?"
"I didn't say that entirely. I am not a surgeon, but I know someone who is or used to be one. Someone in my group was one before the zombie outbreak happened. I can go get him." Maya looks at Aasim and Violet. Maya eyes Aasim, "If that is okay?"
Violet looks at Maya and nods, "Go."
Maya nods and heads back down the pathway she came from. Aasim watches her go and leans to Violet, "Vi, we came to get Maya not bring others to the school."
"Maya knows her group members, and one of them just happens to be the miracle Louis needs. We are going to bring them back to the school rather Clem likes the idea or not. Not like we can go ask anybody else here if they know surgery." Violet spoke.
Aasim heaves a sigh, "I just don't know how I feel about this, Vi."
Violet looks at him, "I'm doing this to save Louis. And this person in Maya's camp is our only option." Violet sighs, "I won't lose another friend when we can have a shot at saving him. I won't lose someone else I care for. Not you, Louis, Clementine, Tenn, or Maya., not today not ever."
....
Maya enters through the hole and she secretly sneaks out. Maya sees Bonnie by the campfire and Alberto chopping away at some fresh kill. Aniya was playing with Alicia keeping her occupied as Maya zeros in on Robert's tent. Maya sneaks in and finds him snoozing on his cot. With a deep breath, Maya approaches him, "Robert. Robert, I need you to wake up." Robert was still in a deep slumber and groaned a little.
Maya then goes by his arm and pinches him hard to get him awake. Robert sprung up, "Son of a bitch! Who the Fu—" Robert looks at Maya, "What are you doing?"
"I need you," Maya spoke.
"With what? You don't look to be injured or need medical treatment." Robert eyes her.
Maya took a deep breath, "I need your skills as a surgeon, Robert. And I need you to come with me to my girlfriend's camp. Louis needs your help."
When Maya mentions Louis's name Robert sits up, "What happened to my son?"
"His appendix ruptured. He needs a surgeon, and he needs an operation, like now, he needs you." Maya looks at him.
Robert closes his eyes. "Maya, I can't." Robert looks away, "I..."
Maya goes and kneels down to him and places her hands on Robert's knees. "I know this pain you caused runs deep."
"It is not that Maya, I can...I can possibly kill him. I haven't been in the OR since the outbreak happened. And I don't have the equipment if things go south. What if I.." Robert shakes his head, "There is a reason surgeons are not allowed to do surgery on our own families or be near the operating room. We get too involved."
"Robert, Louis needs you now more than ever. I have seen how you tried to care for Mike after he got bit. But the difference between Mike and your son Mike was already too far gone to be fixed, where there is still time to save your son. You can do this, Rob." Maya squeezes her pressure on his knee. "Rob, Louis doesn't have much time. If you want that reunion with your son, you need to step up here. Otherwise, you might not get another opportunity. Please."
Robert lets out a sigh and then raises his gaze to look at Maya, "Okay. Take me to him."
Maya raises to her feet and heads out of his tent. Robert comes after her shortly, and when Maya starts to head to the opening where she sneaks out, Robert pulls her back, "We need a better plan to get out of camp. Because of this outing we are doing Maya, is going to raise questions. Especially Arvo and Alberto."
"Okay, doc, you have any ideas?" Maya eyes him.
Robert looks at the gate and then at his medical tent, "Actually, I do. Wait here." Robert goes to his med tent and grabs the supplies he needs for surgery. Maya paces in the sandy dirt while she waits. It took several moments as she watched Robert approach Bonnie and started talking to her. Maya couldn't make out their conversation, but she was surprised when Bonnie gave the okay. Robert then nodded and walked back to Maya. "Okay, all set, let's go."
Maya had a confused look as she followed Robert to the main gate. Arvo peers over the ledge and yells out, "Where are you two going?"
Robert looked at Arvo and calmly said without a nervous tone back at him, "Maya and I will be going into that small town little ways down the river looking for more medical supplies. I am running low on bandages and drugs. We will be back sometime this evening or late in the night. I cleared it with Bonnie."
Arvo eyes Maya suspiciously, "And why do you need her?"
"To watch my back in case I run into trouble with walkers," Robert said. "And to help me carry supplies back for the group."
Arvo sneers, "Think it is a waste but fine. Go."
Robert nods and motions to Maya to get a move on. Once they were away from the main gate, Maya looked up at him, "You really need supplies Rob, or was that a lie to cover up what you will help me with."
"Well, I still have bandages left, and some drugs, but will not have enough for our group after when I perform this surgery on my son. So in a way, it wasn't a total lie. Just won't be going to that town but to Ericson." Robert told her with his eyes forward.
Maya looks at him and can't believe he went against his own instincts and kind of lied to Bonnie. Just comes to show her how much Robert cares for his son. Maya then leads Robert to where Aasim and Violet are hiding. Maya looks at Robert, "Before you meet them, they are not too keen to have adults in their camp, and don't argue with them to pose you are a threat. Listen to everything they say, as we are on their turf, got it?"
Robert looks at her, "Why so hostile? Do they not have any adults?"
"Violet told me all the adults left when the world turned to shit and left the children at the school you sent your son to, to fend for themselves. So yeah they have trust issues with adults and do not take kindly to them. Promise me you will remain calm and not threatening." Maya advises Robert.
Robert nods, "Okay I promise." Maya nods and takes Robert down the path to the brush where Violet and Aasim are at.
Once Maya comes to the spot Aasim and Violet are shocked when a man in his early 40s comes with Maya. Aasim looks to Violet and Violet looks back at him. Maya looks back at them, "Okay I brought the only person I know who can help Louis. Led us to your camp." Aasim eyes Robert and Maya and before he can say anything, Violet urges them to head toward Ericson.
...
The walk to Ericson was tense as Maya felt the tension of Aasim's stare. The only thing keeping her somewhat calm was looking and gazing at Violet. She can sense she is worried for her friend as she keeps her distance a little bit from her. Maya half wanted to walk side by side with her lover to have Maya be her rock, and for Violet to help ease Maya's stormy seas.
The sun was just a little past noon when they walked into unfamiliar land that Maya had never seen before. They walk across a bridge and strange markings in the trees with ropes hanging down. Maya steals a glance at Robert as he looks back at her. The last time he saw this place was when it was still functional. So seeing the condition of the school now was a foreign concept to Robert. Up ahead Maya sees the iron gates she saw in her vision of Violet's past. And the walls and the towering building structures that lie beyond that gate.
As they got closer to the entrance to the gate of the school, Maya saw a sign that read 'Don't Fuck with Us!' next to a dead man tied around a tree whose body was half decomposed. Maya looked to the right on the edge of the school wall was a cart of some kind. She was distracted as the little boy named AJ shot a warning shot at them. Aasim comes up from behind Robert and Maya and yells, "No, AJ, don't shoot! We need them."
AJ comes down as Willy and Ruby usher in the new guests and Violet and Aasim. Ruby looks to her boyfriend, "I thought we were just getting Maya, not a fucking adult."
Aasim looks at her, "She says he is a surgeon Ruby."
"And you think bringing an adult man to school is a good idea, Aasim?" Ruby asks.
"What choice do we have. Louis needs a surgeon, and this guy is the best we got," Aasim admitted.
Ruby heaves a sigh, "Alright, Clem will not be pleased about this."
Violet talked with AJ to stand down and not threaten Maya and Robert, as Aasim talks with Ruby. Violet glances a worried glance at her girlfriend for bringing her inside her group's walls. She longed for this moment to happen, but not in this way.
Ruby and Aasim come back to Robert and Maya, "Take it one of you is the surgeon?"
Maya nudges Robert, as Robert comes forward, "Yes...I was told someone in your group needs medical treatment."
Ruby then orders, "Follow me."
Maya nods for Robert to follow the redhead with a southern accent as Maya awkwardly awaits by the walls of Ericson. Maya sees the weird looks of a boy Maya has never seen before with short brown hair. Another little boy with a burn scar across the right side of his face. And another teenage boy with puffy afro hair by a campfire staring at her. So this is where Violet lives. Huh, not what I envisioned. Maya looks around the structure. Sees good strong walls, and almost feels like home a little. And another strange feeling, Maya almost sees this is an excellent place to bring her sister, and they no longer have to feel threatened by walkers or any adult figure threatening them. It is the home Maya longs to give her little sister and to have a future with Violet.
Maya stood there and was about to sit by the stone wall of the gate when Violet came and stood next to her, "Come on, you don't have to be so standoffish, and look suspicious."
Maya eyes her girlfriend, "I get looks from your group members that they don't trust me, and I want to earn their trust some and not pose a threat."
"Standing by the gates, Maya is kind of sending a weird message. And we've been through a lot, so bringing anyone new into our walls, my group is hesitant about. Besides, Aasim told me to have you sit at a picnic table while your friend—is talking with Clementine." Violet said in a soft voice to ease Maya's anxieties. She then takes hold of Maya's hand and leads her to a picnic table close to the admin building, as they wait on the news of Louis.
....
Clementine holds Louis's hand as she waits for Violet and Aasim to return with Maya for help. She heard a knock on the door as Ruby came in with a person she least expected to see. Clementine got worried, and before she had a chance to speak, Ruby explained the situation, "Clem, before you start, this is Robert. He has come to help Louis. That is it."
Ruby nods for Robert. Robert nervously came forth as Maya was not kidding these kids had been through hell. Robert had seen this girl before, the prosthetic foot girl several weeks back who let Alberto, Aniya, and him go. Clementine was just as shocked to see him again too. Clementine slowly spoke, "You're a surgeon?"
Robert nods, "Been one for the past 24 years. Maya told me you have someone that has a dire need for surgery."
Clementine was still shocked and speechless this man was kind and not threatening to her, which was the first she saw in an adult figure that was not trying to fuck her over. And in some odd way, he has the same gentleness as Louis. Clementine looks to Ruby and then to this humbled man. "Louis is over here."
Clementine led this man of about 40 years of age by the bedside of the small nurses' station. Robert's blood runs cold as he sees his son looking so sick. And he felt like he was going to vomit. He doesn't want to give away to his son's girlfriend that that is his son, but Clementine is already starting to make some connection that this man is related to her boyfriend.
Robert examines his son's abdomen, and Maya's diagnosis is right on the money. Robert turns to the two girls standing at the end of the bed, "Okay, I am going to need assistance here. Out of the two of you, who has more medical care skills and is not afraid of blood and guts? If both of you aren't, I am going to need Maya's help."
Clementine looked to Ruby, and Ruby came forth, "I am the healer here."
"That counts for something." Robert looks at the young redhead. "What's your name, kid."
"Ruby." Ruby offered out her name.
When Clementine heard Robert speak the word kid, had the same wavelength as Louis's voice. Clementine looks at her boyfriend and then at the man standing over him. Same eyes as Louis, even down to the same kind of freckles around his nose, cheeks, a little bit of his chest, and hands. Clementine looks at Robert and ponders. No, he can't be. Louis had a falling out with his father. Why would his father come to him now? What broke Clementine's thoughts was a soft touch of Ruby's hand on her arm, "Clem, we need you to vacate the room."
"No, I am not leaving him, Ruby. I love him. What if something happens, and I am not there in his last moments." Clementine protests. "He is the love of my life Ruby!"
Ruby held onto her leader's cheeks, "I promise to come to get you, but Clementine, we need this space to work and save Louis's life here. Please wait outside. I will fetch you when he is through. Please."
Clementine closes her eyes and reopens them to look back at Robert and then at Louis, and she slowly exits the room with a thorn in her heart. She knows Robert heard her calling Louis the love of her life.

I’m selling a large inflatable. It sat outside and the condition is unknown. I sold it for insanely cheap to reflect this. The listing stated it and said “sold as is”. Am I protected them if an incident happens on it after I sell it? How can I protect myself in case someone does get hurt? I’m being as transparent as possible on the condition but am still worried

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Without that horrendous bat flapping around and causing a mess for me, I'm now able to focus all of my efforts on bringing down the blinded bear colossus. It is unfortunate that I lost too many owls in the aerial battle, and that Alexa is too exhausted to help out herself, as that means I won't have any reinforcements available from them coming to Jackie’s aid any time soon. That being said, I know just the fish who might be able to make an early return in their stead.
Since they’ve been resting since the start of the battle, Selene and Hecate have been able to recuperate a bit of their mana pools already. Considering that I’m near 100% confident that it doesn’t matter how much the big bear regenerates if it can’t breathe, plus the fact that it doesn’t take too much mana just to hold some water in place, there’s not much reason to keep them benched much longer. Somehow though, I doubt it’s going to be quite that easy to take the bear colossus down. So why don’t we improve the chances of success a bit with all of this free manna I find myself currently swimming in?
Thanks to the sheer quantity of invaders Deepholm is swarming me in, I’ve got more mana to make use of than ever before, and I’d be a fool not to put it to good use. The steep requirement of having to pay 4 times the mana as any of my other scions to upgrade them is hardly an issue at this moment, so I begin the process of pouring my power into my fish. All the while, I keep an eye trained on the battle at hand, waiting for whatever it is the bear will try next. Deepholm scions don’t just meekly turn over and accept their defeat after all.
While I’m only halfway through providing upgrades to my fish scions, my caution is proven entirely warranted as the bear scion bellows its frustration and rage at the top of its lungs. Unable to proceed along a straight path due to Jackie’s constant interference, the colossus hunkers down for a moment in my lake and covers its head with its paws. Then, as soon as its eyes have had a chance to regenerate once more, it peeks out and gets a lock on my location before Jackie inevitably puts more arrows through the freshly grown eyes. This time it hardly pays the attack any mind, reaching down to its flank with those huge claws and ripping free a sizable chunk of its own flesh. With a great heave, the bear scion sent the chunk sailing through the air where it crashed with a meaty splat against the trunk of my tree.
First of all, …gross. Secondly, that bear has surprisingly good aim to be able to nail the part of my tree trunk that is perfectly in line with where my core is. Lastly, heh-heh, I’m in danger. Unable to use its sight, and no longer able to rely on the bat scion for its sonic guidance, the bear has resorted to using smell to guide its way. And what better trail to follow with one’s strong sense of smell than the stench of one’s own blood and viscera? Without a moment of hesitation, the bear scion is back on its feet, and charging forward once more.
This time, there’s truly nothing we can do to stop its advance, the bear’s nose is too big to fully destroy the bear’s sense of smell, even with Jackie’s arrows desperately blasting pieces off of it. With a tremor that I can feel throughout the entire island, the bear scion slams headfirst into the high cliffs, which only serves to daze the beast for but a moment before it starts awkwardly clambering upwards. I curse vehemently, at this rate the colossus will reach my tree before I’m done with upgrading the twins. I can cut it short and make the current upgrade the last one, but it will still take a minute or so for the twins to become accustomed to their strengthened bodies.
It doesn’t take long for the bear’s claws to scramble against the top of the cliffs, digging in for extra purchase, shortly followed thereafter by the beast’s snarling and arrow-riddled cranium. The twins have only just finished absorbing the mana from the latest upgrade, they’re not going to make it in time. It is at that moment that my saviors made their gallant entry into the fray. Cutting a swathe through the remaining army of normal invaders charged not any of my scions, but the brave surviving members of my defensive forces. Having abandoned their defensive chokepoint in the entrance cave, a combined throng of brawler bunnies and leopards led the way as my froglings and flechette-pines provided cover fire. Beside me, I can feel the consternation roll off of Giorno as he tries to keep some semblance of organization in place amidst an attack that he had most certainly not ordered.
Though our tactics have done a great deal in leveling the playing field in the battle between denizens, there are still a lot of enemies left to deal with, and this attack will only open us up to many more unnecessary casualties. Underneath his annoyed countenance however, I do detect a hint of pride in their reckless attempts to buy me more time. An attempt that certainly pays its dividends.
With a series of tremendous leaps, the brawler bunnies and leopard forces bound up to the limbs of the bear scion and begin hacking away at it with sharp claws and stone swords. They scale up the beast, slashing at every joint and every digit along the way. The colossus roars in pain and slips from the cliffside as the tendons in each limb are systematically severed time and time again. But this moment of victory comes at far too steep a cost.
When the bear scion crashes back into the lake, its sheer mass flattens dozens of my brave denizens at a time. From there it thrashes about, crushing some more of my stalwart defenders and sending others flying through the air. Not wasting the opportunity, my denizens lead the enemy scion over to the remnants of the invader army, where both sides become equally devastated by the beast’s angry flailing. I try to call my denizens back, telling them to retreat, that they’d done enough already. When that failed, I resorted to using some of my mana to make it a direct order. Retreat already! The twins are on the way, swimming around the south side of the island as we speak. There’s no need for any more of you to die!
I can feel the mana drain away as the orders take hold, but then I got a unanimous response back through Alexa’s network. Every single one of them started the retreat and then volunteered themselves to be a rearguard to help cover the escape. Even though technically they were following through with my order, not a single denizen so much as turned around or took a single step backward. They were loopholing me! Those damnable, brave, fools were refusing to leave until my scions could arrive. Who the heck taught you bastards to test the limits of the rules and look for ways to bend them in your favor anyhow!?
It took less than a minute for my twins to arrive. But it took even less time for the bear colossus to finish with its rampage. Now the only living combatants faced each other over a lake stained to the same red as the bear scion’s eyes. As a healer, Selene has seen more than her fair share of nasty injuries, as well as plenty of corpses from my previous encounters with Deepholm’s invaders. But even still, all that experience could not have prepared her for the sight of the slaughter before her. All the violent thrashing had thoroughly frothed the water of the lake, but rather than help hide the bodies below with the white foam it only served to accentuate them by clinging to whatever pieces remained above water.
It left my poor fish heartbroken. Disgust and despair raged inside her alongside a powerful wave of guilt at not recovering fast enough to be able to come to their aid in time. I know, sweetie, I know. But those denizens out there? They bought us enough time to stop any more atrocities from happening. They bet everything on you two and Jackie, and now it’s time to make sure we don’t waste a single death. All that anguish and sorrow you’re feeling? I need you to use it. Use it to hone a blade in your heart to turn against those who spread such senseless violence. It’s time to take up the second half of the saint’s job and smite down that walking calamity of a bear. And you’re not alone, Hecate is right beside you along with Jackie, and together, I know you all can do this.
Pep talk done, Hecate gives her sister a loving nuzzle under her chin before turning her hate-filled eyes to the bear scion as well. She isn’t taking kindly to all the desolation wrought by the colossus either, and is especially pissed by how upset it is making her kind-hearted twin. The white crescent moon mark on her forehead glows faintly in response to her roiling emotions, while after a few deep breaths, Selene’s black crescent moon mark does the same, her eyes now steeled in vindictive determination.
As one, they lifted a massive ball of water into the air and slammed it into the bear scion’s face, completely covering it in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, I begin the process of funneling mana into Jackie for her own upgrades. The beast hasn’t shown any magical capacity besides its regeneration, but who knows? Maybe it has something up its sleeve that would save it from the same fate as its companion. Better safe than sorry in this case, no?
Evidently, I was correct to prepare for the backup plan, because rather than struggle against the water bubble encasing its face, the bear colossus calmly slurped the water down. The vast amounts of suction overwhelmed the amount of mana the twins could use to keep the water in place, and so it simply disappeared down the beast’s gullet with a taunting smile that seemed to say, “Thanks for the refreshing drink, I was feeling rather parched”. Not a smidge of magic was used, or needed, to easily trounce my hopes of drowning our problems away. What stood before us surely could not be described as anything but the epitome of relentless brute force, a fact which has now been hammered home rather insultingly by the defeat of my plans through lung power of all things.
With a challenging roar, the bear plowed forward while ignoring the twin’s follow up attacks. Right, plan B it is then. If we can’t suffocate him, then we’ll just have to overwhelm his regeneration with more damage than it can keep up with! In but a moment the bear scion has slammed into my cliffside and begins scaling it once more. This time, Selene and Hecate are there to stop it from making any meaningful progress, their watery slashes biting deep into flesh and disabling limbs long enough for the next attack to land. Where Hecate’s attacks strike necrosis quickly follows, seeping into the flesh until the entire mass falls off to be replaced by newly regenerated meat. Meanwhile, Selen’s strikes shine with the radiant power of her light mana, her slices digging deep through muscles, tendons, and all the way to the bones beneath.
Together they manage to keep the colossus pinned in place to the craggy wall of my island, allowing Jackie all the time she needs to hop around and unleash a torrent of her aether arrows. Rather than strike into the beast herself however, I have her shoot the cliffs themselves where she then sprouts much more massive vines than usual to grasp at the enemy scion and bind it in place. I know that the twins will run out of mana long before I can bleed this invader dry in a battle of attrition, so instead my goal here is to line Jackie up for one big shot to put an end to this colossus once and for all.
Bounding up to the top of the cliff, right over the massive head of the bear, Jackie grows the limbs of her bow out further than even its longbow form, one side planting itself firmly into the stone. With a mighty heave, she stands upon the bow’s limbs and pushes down with all the strength in her legs while hoisting up on the drawstring with her arms. A ballista-sized arrow grows into place, aimed straight down to the skull of the beast below. Through this, Jackie channels the full force of her wind aether. With my hand on her back, I speak softly to into her mind through the bond we share.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let’s do this Jackie, together!”
Through my hand I channel even more mana into Jackie than before, really packing it into her as fast as the upgrades can handle. 2 more, then 5, then 10. The power swirls around her like a maelstrom that would have left anybody else gritting their teeth to ride out the storm. But not my Jackie. As much as I pushed the mana into her, she matched me by pulling it into her control right away, weaving it into her aether flawlessly. Around the arrow tip the air began to swirl, faster and faster, like a drill turned up to turbo speeds.
This obviously did not go unnoticed by the bear scion, but it was too late for the behemoth to avoid its fate. Bound up tightly in Jackie’s vines while Selen and Hecate kept its prodigious strength locked away through their continuous onslaught. Their mana has already depleted dangerously low once again, but their combined efforts have bought us all the opportunity we need. All the enemy can do is flounder uselessly in its restraints, glaring balefully at Jackie and its impending doom.
With a boom the arrow disappears from Jackie’s bow, boring a path straight through the entire length of the bear scion and continuing deep into the ground beneath it. Jackei’s wind arrow had accelerated freely without any resistance, twisting the air in front of it out of the way and turning the space in front into a devastating drill. Meanwhile, just behind the shaft, the collapse of the resulting vacuum pushed the arrow along even faster than any projectile has ever flown before in this world.
The twisting motion of the air and the shockwaves from the collapsing vacuum bubble didn’t just serve to speed up the arrow however. Like a delayed reaction after the arrow had already sped through, I watched as a spray of blood exploded from the bear’s body, accompanied by the splash of water beneath its feet. I watched as the beast’s jaw was ripped away to hang loosely by a strip of flesh on the right side of its head. From there the arrow had traveled down into the beast’s shoulder and blazed a path all the way through its chest cavity, the aftershocks ripping the bear’s body apart and leaving its left side barely attached anymore. It looked as if some giant had cleaved its axe down the bear’s side, all the way from the shoulders to the hips.
The scion had managed to avoid an instantly fatal blow by twisting its head as far to the side as possible, but that proved to only postpone the inevitable at this point. With that much damage to the internal organs, it couldn’t hope to recover in time. We’d done it, we’d won!
Joyfully, I turned to Giorno, ready to send some mana down to Kelvin next, but what I saw froze me in my tracks. This whole battle, Giorno had been his usual calm and composed self, issuing orders and cooly commanding our forces. But now, he was trembling with a visual amount of fear, his skin blanched of all color. Thoroughly spooked, I racked my brain for anything I might have missed, but I got my answer sooner than expected.
“Kill it, kill it now! We don’t have any time, finish it before it's too late! It’s going to do something to the bear!”
Dutifully, Jackie and the twins ready their next attacks to hasten the bear scion’s demise, but something Giorno said stuck out to me. Wait, the bear is the subject of his sentence, not the object for some reason. But…, that would have to mean…
With wide eyes, I come to a dreadful realization, I never got a mana notification for the bat scion. No, no! No WAY that bastard survived, right? Feeling the sneaking march of dread closing in on my throat, I check the spot where the bat scion had crashed into my island. There it lay, wings in tatters and its chest caved in from impacting the ground, lying in a pool of its own blood. By all accounts, it appears to be dead. But that’s when I notice something off. The pool of blood is moving.
Right before my eyes, I watch as little bubbles capture air inside, and then get mixed in the blood as it slowly circulates out of the lethal wounds and then back into the bat’s body. It must have kept conscious through the crash and is now using its blood magic to just barely keep itself alive. Would that be all the bat was up to, I would have breathed a sigh of relief. But no, all around the crash were scattered splotches of fresh blood, drawn out into a foreboding set of interlocking symbols when viewed from above. The bat was casting something, using its own life as fuel. With a weak wheeze in place of a laugh, the bat scion spoke for one final time.
“Glory be to the Mountainlord. Blood Arts: Sacrifice.”
Accompanied by the ding of a new notification, I watched in horror as all the blood was forcibly wrested from the bat scion’s fresh corpse, instantly mummifying it into a dried-out husk. Then that mass of brackish liquid moved faster than it had any right to, thin tendrils shooting out from the main body quickly dragging the blob to the edge of the island. Before any of my scions could react, it had already latched onto the dying bear’s head and begun pouring itself forcibly through every orifice it could reach.
Writhing in agony at the black-red liquid shoving itself down its throat, nostrils, and eye sockets, my scions lashed into the bear’s body with as much strength as they could, but to no avail. The wounds would begin closing before their attacks could even finish, and from the bear’s torso sprouted several bloody tentacles which wrapped themselves around the dangling left side, pulling it back into place with a wet squelch. The newfound regeneration didn’t, perhaps couldn’t, stop there however. All over the colossus’s body something churned beneath its hide.
Every single muscle in the behemoth’s body squirmed as it doubled, then tripled in size, in some places rupturing the skin as it struggles to contain the roiling mass of flesh. Muscle fibers sprung from the fur like weeds sprouting out of fertile ground, twitching and flailing about looking for something to connect to, until the beast’s entire form was nothing but a bulging mass of undulating flesh vaguely shaped like a bear. From the monstrosity's head, the repaired jaw split open far wider than anything still attached to the skull should allow, revealing row after row of sharp fangs growing into place all the way down its throat.
With an unearthly screech, the monstrosity easily tore itself free of the vines and took a swipe at Jackie with its misshapen foreleg. Nobody must have told Deepholm that inflating your musculature so much is a direct reduction in flexibility however, because the blow was slow and cumbersome, allowing Jackie to easily vault backwards out of reach. But Deepholm didn’t need to care about such silly things like flexibility, or the limits of a physical body, as halfway through the swing a series of cracks could be heard as the bear monstrosity’s muscles broke every single bone in its arm, causing it to suddenly stretch out on just the muscles and ligaments, increasing in speed as the limb turned into an impromptu flesh whip tipped with giant claws.
Caught completely by surprise, Jackie could only try to form a hasty shield of roots with her life aether, but the abomination’s claws sundered it with ease, cleaving through her bow, then her arm, and finally raking across her torso. My girl hit the ground, hard, and didn’t get back up. Meanwhile, the twins were still desperately flinging any kind of attack they could think of at the bear horror, all to no avail. This affront to nature had such strong regeneration now that nothing in their repertoire could hope to leave any lasting damage.
With thundering steps, the abomination practically oozed up onto my island, all four legs standing firmly upon my territory for the first time. A few steps brought it close enough to brush up against my trunk, and then it sunk its claws deep into the bark and tore a ginormous chunk of wood free. As easily as tearing apart cardboard, Deepholm’s monstrosity began to dig its way deeper and deeper towards my sanctum, and inevitable destruction. From beside my core, a loud snap rang out as the inspector’s white-knuckle grip finally crushed the handle of her kanabo.
“Damn it all, I can’t just sit here and let this happen! I have to–”
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she took her first step forward, weapon raised with the intent to join the fray. Instantly she was beset by floating swords made of light on all sides, not even given enough time to swear before they all plunged into her body. With a gasp Lydia fell to the floor, covered in wounds. She’d managed to use her ki to shift the trajectory of enough blades away from her vital organs, but she was still grievously wounded and wouldn’t be doing any fighting any time soon.
In what felt like no time at all, the fleshy abomination had reached the final bit of wood separating me from the outside world. With a psychic scream of determination, Leonardo charged forth, combining his life and kinetic affinities to try and brace that final barrier, but his efforts were carelessly brushed aside as the bear’s claws crashed through anyways, collapsing a pile of splinted timber down upon my peaceful crafter. From above and behind, Alexa had joined the twins in trying to drag the enemy scion back, but with barely a sliver of mana left between the three of them, they were little more than flies buzzing uselessly through the air to it.
Fully exposed to the outside world for the first time since my birth into this world, I was now face to face with the monstrosity as it raised its claws for one final strike. But oddly, all the fear and terror that had frozen me still before was utterly absent. I couldn’t even focus on the looming mountain of death in front of me, nor on the panicked shrieks of my scions as they struggled to the last. Rather, my gaze fell upon the prone form of the very first scion I had designated. My strongest defender, and the most earnest girl you would ever meet. With my focus beside her, I could tell that my brave girl was just barely hanging onto life, but she wouldn’t last long at this rate. Every shaky breath was accompanied by a wave of anguish washing over the bond.
Even without a proper physical form, I knelt beside her and gathered her up into one final embrace. I’m so sorry Jackie. The UI might call you guys scions, but truthfully you have all been a family to me, right from the start. I never had one, back in my previous life, so I know I must have messed up so many times, in so many ways. But even still, I had a blast getting to know each and every one of you, wishing for each day to stretch into infinity so I could enjoy our time together forevermore. But I’ve failed you, I’ve failed you all. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a life full of happier days, and I hope whatever comes in the next life, you can forgive me.
“You’ve been the best daughter I could have ever asked for. I love you.”
Jackie PoV
Everything hurts. My ears won’t stop ringing, and everything around me is moving in super slow motion. Through blurry eyes, I can see my arm lying just out of reach, still clutching my bow tightly, well, half of it anyways. Further away, I can see the blurry shape of the gross thing from Deepholm tearing its way through Mama’s tree. The twins and Alexa were swooping around behind it, but there was no stopping the beast anymore. Pain throbbed through my chest, my heart heavy as it slowly pumped my blood out onto the ground.
I’d failed, again. Right when it mattered most. Some huntress I’d turned out to be. Sure I was able to handle the regular invaders, but against every enemy that ever posed a serious threat, I’d been beaten every time. When I first lost to Miss Lydia, it hadn’t been so bad. Mama told me to learn from it and grow stronger for next time. I’d been useless too against those water birds on the first day. So I trained, and then I trained and I trained and I trained some more. Till the calluses on my paws were bleeding, I practiced every day.
For some reason Mama didn’t like that though, so she forced me to take breaks pretty regularly after that. At first, it felt like she didn’t have faith that my efforts would help with anything, but that feeling faded pretty quickly. She’d always have a bowl of those red fruits she calls strawberries ready for me by her core. Then when I would get settled in beside her and begin munching on the sweet fruit, she would tell me unbelievable stories about the world she remembers from her past life.
Apparently, her old world had jackalopes too, or at least stories of them. Mama says they supposedly had lightning in their veins they could move so fast. Lightning! The big flashes in the sky that make the air go boom. That stuff! The jackalopes from Mama’s world must be really amazing if they could do that. Nervously, I asked her a bit more about it, feeling rather inadequate by comparison, but she ended up talking too much about how technically lightning is in every living creature, but just really really small amounts of it? And something even more confusing about something called eel-ektons that makes it charge based on if they’re in a good mood or not?
Mama does that a lot, going off on tangents about difficult subjects for a long period of time, but even though I couldn’t understand most of it, it is nice just to sit back and listen to her speak. Eventually, she would always notice her rambling, and swap to asking me questions instead. I felt really proud when she asked me so much about my experience training with ki, and later on aether as well. She’d always thank me for my hard work, and for helping her figure out how things work in this world. It made me happy to think that Mama needed me, and that all my efforts were slowly paying off.
And it really felt like I had been improving too! I’d wrangled all the rowdy brawlers into line, and chased off that group of novices. But then that big flying scion came and knocked me out of the fight before I could even tell it was coming. Kelvin was barely a few days old and he had to handle that nasty bat all on his own! And despite all the work I put into developing my aether, I then lost to Miss Lydia again right after that. It felt like I was stuck in place, running as hard as I could but never getting anywhere with it. I did my best to hide it from Mama since she’s so perceptive, but it really hurt.
And now, even after all the faith and strength Mama poured into me, I’d still managed to let her and everybody else down. They’re all going to die, because of me. I’m not sure which is worse at this point, the pain from my injuries or the pain from my failures washing over me. I watched through bleary eyes as the gross bear tore open the deepest part of the tree, and revealed Mama’s core for all the world to see. It’d been a few weeks since our last break together, so when I saw the soft green glow of Mama’s core, it stirred up a weird mix of relief and regret in my heart. I’d missed that comforting glow, but also the only reason I could see it now is because I’d doomed it to oblivion.
Grief filled me up to the brim, and all I could do is wordlessly apologize over and over again.
To my surprise, however, I could feel her presence nearby, and that comforting warmth brushed aside my apologies to fill our bond with light instead. I don’t get it, why is she here? Why is she focusing on me, when the enemy is literally right in front of her core, staring her down? Why is she wasting her time on me when I can barely even move anymore?! And even if I could, we both know I would just let her down some more. So why, why does it feel like I’m back by her side, listening to her tell stories at length, feeling so comfy and secure?
“I……ry….J..ki”
Go on, go! Leave already and focus on someone else, maybe they have a chance to save you, to fix things. Haven’t I failed you enough? I, I can’t do anything but disappoint you. I…I can’t be like the jackalopes from your stories Mama. I’m not good enough for that. I’m sorry.
“..b..en….f…….to me……..t…….ro……sta…”
Despite shoving my weakness, my numerous defeats and doubts to the front and finally showing Mama everything I’d tried to keep hidden from her through the bond, absolutely nothing changed. If anything, the feeling of closeness only increased and that warm feeling wrapped me up even tighter, never wavering for a moment. For a moment, the ringing in my head subsided, but my eyes must still be playing tricks because I thought I could see a bunch of golden sparkles floating in the air around me, forming the vague outline of a person with her arms wrapped around me. The next words came through confidently and clearly, and finally put a name to the feeling I always felt when Mama’s attention was on me.
“I love you.”
…Why? When I’ve already let you down so many times, when you’re about to die because of me…why spend your last moments on this worthless rabbit who couldn’t save anything? The bond held no answers for me, only that same persistent warmth, refusing to relent for so much as a moment. Over in the tree, the bear monster had raised its claw into the air, readying the final strike that would take Mama away for good. A few tears slipped free from my eyes and dropped down to join the blood at my feet. Belatedly, I realized that at some point I must have stood up, but that doesn’t really matter right now.
In fact, standing there, basking in the feeling of being wrapped up in Mama’s love, it felt like a lot of things didn’t matter. My doubts, my fear of not being good enough, and the pain of being proven right. It all felt like wisps of smoke being carried away on the wind. They scattered against the constant reinforcement pouring out from the bond, powerless before it. She’d seen all of my shortcomings, witnessed every downfall, and yet this was always her response. Yellow sparks crackled through my fur, and larger arcs of energy began to flicker back and forth between the branches of the antlers on my head.
Slowly, all the world began to fall away. The ground beneath my feet, the stench of death hanging upon the wind, even the tree itself, along with the slow-motion bear scion bringing its claws down for the kill. There was just me, and there in the distance, the light of Mama’s core, calling me home like a beacon. Under her light, I remembered the simple truth that Mama has always seen and understood so much more than me, guiding me as best she could and celebrating both my success and failures alongside me. For this moment in time, all those complicated and difficult subjects stopped being important. All those times spent hoping I could measure up to the lofty heights she spoke about seemed a silly waste of time. All I had to do was stop trying to become something else. Maybe, just maybe, I was already everything that Mama could see in me, and I just hadn’t realized it yet.
I crouch down low to the ground, those strange sparks increasing in intensity, coiling inside of me like a power I never knew I had. My ears and paws were starting to char black from all the energy flowing through me, but I didn’t feel a thing. After all, none of that mattered. With a mighty leap, I left the feeling of solid earth behind. Wait for me just a little longer, ok Mama? I’m coming to your side.
Blood flash-boiled.
Flesh charred into shattered lumps of charcoal.
Bones fragmented and caved under the tremendous forces at play.
Jackie never got to experience the joy where in this, her latest challenge to a race between herself and the sound carried along through the air, the wind finally lost.
Neither did she get to see how, for the first time in its life, the bear scion’s body was lifted fully up off of the ground and flung to the side like gravity had suddenly reversed its direction.
But perhaps..., someday, there would come a time when she’s relaxing with a bowl of those delectable strawberries once more, and she’ll get to listen to Mama’s voice as she regales her with another one of her wild stories. A story where one little rabbit made all the difference in the world, and through her actions did save the day. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
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Author Notes://
Here it is, the big one! I've had this chapter in mind since before I even started writing this story. In fact, it's what made me say fuck it, I'm gonna try writing it out and see what happens. Sorry again for the long delay on this chapter, I didn't want to split it into anything smaller, so it ended up pretty long. Also, yay! First scion PoV, just like you guys wanted right? xD
I hope you enjoyed reading this part, and I'll see you all again next time for the final conclusion to the Deepholm Arc.

Maya wakes up out of her vision and snaps forward as her head hurts like someone pounded a sledgehammer on it, and her nose once again started to bleed. Aniya looks back at her sister and sees she is awake and alert.
"Maya! You're okay," Aniya runs to her sister and hugs her.
Bonnie turns her focus from the walkers outside and sees Maya out from who knows what. Bonnie guards the exit in case the walkers comes close, as she looks at Maya, "Aniya keep your voice down we are not exactly out of the woods just yet with the walkers. Glad to you back to the world of the living, Maya."
Maya nods to Bonnie and holds her forehead of the sharp pain still surging through her brain. Aniya then lowers her voice so she doesn't attract the walkers here, "What exactly happened?" Aniya asks.
Maya leans forward and puts her head between her legs to stop the pounding headache, "Had a vision." Maya spoke in a low muffle voice.
"Yeah I know, but what caused you to go down like that? You had visions before and never go down and pass out like what you just did." Aniya puts her arms around her sister's shoulders.
Maya closes her eyes and brings her head up to rest on her knees, as she smears the blood from her nose onto the sleeve of her father's jacket. "I saw a deer."
Bonnie was listening in and turned her head when Maya mentions the word deer. "Deer? We didn't see any deer out there."
Maya eyes her leader, "Because it wasn't a physical one, Bonnie. It was a spirit. A spirit warning me of danger coming." Maya confesses.
Bonnie looks to Maya and doesn't believe, "Maya I think you need to rest, and must have hit your head or something when you collapse."
"I am not crazy and don't need rest and my head is fine. I see things that you can't see." Maya leans back as her head pounded again.
Aniya looks to Bonnie as she shakes her head still not believing Maya. Aniya ignores her and strokes her sister's forearm, "What did you see?"
Maya looks down at her sister and then tells her everything, "Violet, this young woman named Minerva, Louis, a boy I am not familiar with, another boy I've seen once but don't know his name, two other kids, AJ and Clementine on a beach after the boat we seen in the river, and what I am guessing Delta members." Bonnie now suddenly is intrigued and stood at the entrance to the cave as Maya retells her vision. "After when this woman named Minerva throws something I don't know a grenade at Clementine separating Clementine from her group, I look back at the same deer I saw in the forest, and a storm came over the river, flashes of light where I couldn't see, and blood all around in the sand I was standing on, and the sky red. I tried to ask the deer spirit who is going to die, and ask them what they want and who they are when the pain in my forehead started to burn." Maya spoke and hugs her sides.
"Red sky are you sure?" Aniya asks.
Maya nods and closes her eyes and puts her head in her lap again and hugs her knees, and she fits clutches her pant leg. Aniya looks at her sister and squeezes her forearm. "You know when?"
Maya shook her head, not saying anything with her head in her lap holding back tears. Bonnie then comes a little closer to the Lakota sisters, "You saw Clementine in your vision-like thing?"
Maya slowly raises her eyes to look at her leader, "Yes."
"Why was she on the beach, was she responsible for blowing up that boat that Alberto told me about?" Bonnie looks at Maya.
"I don't know I didn't see that far back. My gift is not a wind-up time machine it only gives me visions of what is important for me to know." Maya starting to get angry with Bonnie miss using her gift to serve her interest. "And it is warning me of someone's death on the horizon."
"Whose?" Bonnie asks.
"I don't know whose, but Red sky means death, or many, in my ancestors' teachings. And blood on the sand, from many, is another sign." Maya looks to her leader.
Gargling moans of walkers started to echo through the cave as Bonnie whips around at the entrance and sees at least five entering, "Shit,"
Aniya springs to action and grabs her knife and started to attack a walker. Maya pushes her pain away and takes hold of her father's knife and attacks the walkers to fight for her life. Maya defeats one walker and glances outside as more were filling in from the west. Maya remembers Violet telling her Clementine used walker guts to get past herds. Maya takes her knife and splits open the walker she just killed and covers herself up in walker guts. Aniya looks at her sister after she has slain a walker and asks, "Maya what are you doing?"
"Covering myself in walker guts, you should too if you want to get out of here," Maya said.
"I am not—" Aniya started to protest.
"Aniya, more walkers are filling in from the west and will be here in a matter of minutes. Get your fucking ass over here and put the guts on you!" Maya orders her sister in an urgent tone.
Bonnie slain the last walker and looks outside in the direction where Maya just said and her eyes widen as she is right. Bonnie hisses and grits her teeth, "Fuck," Bonnie takes her knife as well and started to open up the walker she just killed and did the same as Maya is doing. "She's right Aniya."
Maya fully covered in the guts looks at her sister, "Please Aniya, do you trust me?"
Aniya closes her eyes and throws down her knife, "Fine. Make it quick!"
Bonnie looks at the two girls, "I'll cover you two and make sure the walkers don't get too close, hurry Maya."
Maya digs in the dead walker and started to put the guts on her sister. Aniya moans at the smell as she tries to hold back her nausea. Maya manages to cover her sister in the guts and was about to put the dead walker's intestines around her sister when her sister moves away from her sister and vomits behind a rock.
Maya waited until her sister stopped puking and returns to back to her. Maya softly looks at her sister, "Here," she drapes the intestine around her shoulders, and Aniya gasped. "Relax, sis you are fine. Just don't think and you will be fine. Once we get out of these caves and to safety you can take it off you." Maya squeezes her little sister's hand.
"y—yo—you su—re this will work?" Aniya stutters in fear.
"Yes. Covering up in their blood will disguise your scent." Maya assures her.
Bonnie eyes the two teenagers, "Come on we got to go." Maya takes hold of her sister's hands and follows Bonnie out of the caves to someplace safe from the small herd.
.....
Louis follows Violet to her room and he softly knocks on the door. Violet had just plopped on her bed when she heard a knock. She lets go of the necklace Maya made her and goes and opens the door. To her dismay, Louis is at the door, "Louis? What, why are you here?"
Louis looks at her and eyes her suspiciously, "Can I talk to you?"
Violet looks at him and leans up against the door, "Sure, talk away Lou?'
"I mean in your room, privately?" Louis looks down the hallway and then back at Violet.
Violet follows his gaze and then back at him, "No one is around Louis," Violet spoke.
"I know but I feel comfortable talking with you behind closed doors if you don't mind." Louis looks at his best friend.
Violet rolls her eyes and shrugs, "Suit yourself, Lou," Violet moves away from the door and goes to her bed, and sits on it, leaning up against the wall. As Louis closes Violet's door and moves into the interior space. He hasn't set foot in this room since he comforted Violet after learning that Minerva and Sophie were killed by walkers. He still envisions that day of holding Violet in her bed where Violet is sitting now, and hearing her mournful cries until she cried herself to sleep. Louis shakes his head to clear it, and leans up against Violet's dresser and nightstand.
Violet looks at him with her hazel eyes, "Spill Lou? What is so important you need to talk to me behind a closed door?"
Louis took a breath, "Are you secretly sneaking out of Ericson to go meet Maya?"
Violet was caught off guard by that question, and she looked down, not meeting Louis's eyes as she bit her inner cheek. Violet closes her eyes for a moment then looks back at him, "What do you think I am meeting her?"
"Because you have a happy face when coming out of the graveyard, and I know visiting Minerva and Sophie's graves does not make you that happy. Especially after what Minerva did you on that beach." Louis reminded her. "I won't tell Clementine, I swear, I just want to know, so are you?"
Violet sighs and pushes herself off the bed and stands by the bedpost with sunlight shining down on her face. Violet looks up at Louis, "Yes. I've been sneaking out the past several weeks to meet her away from Ericson. And," Violet looks down with a slight glow on her face remembering Maya's sweet face staring back at her, that gets Violet weak in the knees and her heart racing. Violet heaves a sigh and looks at her best friend, "You're not the only Ericson kid around here who is in love. I, I fell in love with Maya."
Violet came out with the truth. She moves to the other side of Louis staring out the window. "I thought I would never find love again after, Minnie. Then fate or destiny happened, collided me with her a few months back. One thing led to another and I let my walls down. Or she came in with a sledgehammer and shattered my walls, as I fell for her. And tell you the truth Louis, I don't think I've ever fallen this hard for someone as I fell for Maya. Not even Minerva hit this deep and you know how crazy I was for her." Violet looks at her friend and brother figure.
Louis gave a little nod, "That I do yes. And I can tell by your face you glow especially when I see you coming in from the graveyard. Also, whatever happened between you and her that day I spot you by Clementine's tree house."
Violet smiles and a slight blush forms on her face remembering her first kiss with Maya, as that kiss felt so magical. She has never been kissed like that in her life. Not even her first kiss with Minerva was that magical and spectacular. When Maya kissed her, she really kissed her. More than just a peck on the lips, it was full-on lip action with some exchanges of tongue contact. Violet shakes her head, and her gaze falls on the hard surface of the dresser, "Please don't tell Clementine, she still has trust issues with her, and I don't blame her. I know she is trying to keep another Raiders situation from happening and I respect that." Violet then raises her gaze to look at Louis's soft brown eyes, "But I know Maya will never ever put me in danger or anyone here. She cares, really cares. And if it wasn't for her sister she has to take care of, I bet she would come and asks Clementine to stay. And we really could use her expertise here in this group. She will be a great asset to Ericson."
Louis looks at his friend and away, "Violet, how can you know? I know you want your girlfriend with you but how do you know she will be a good asset?"
"Well for one she can help Ruby with her medical skills. And you well know, she is an excellent huntress. And..." Violet closes her eyes and breaths out a sigh, as her eyes open to look across the room, "She is good at night watching. She stayed up all night when she and I were stuck up in the tree when the huge horde of walkers came. And she held me all throughout the night as I slept in her lap. She never let me fall." Violet looks at her friend.
Louis was hesitant, "Look Vi, I won't tell Clem of this, but you should tell her yourself what you just told me."
Violet looks away, "She won't listen to me, Louis. I tried that and she won't listen because she has a prejudice against Maya because she happens to be in the same group of people who did her wrong in the past."
Louis looks at his friend, "Can you blame her, Vi? I mean for a while when you first came here, you barely let people get close to you after the fucked up situation yourself what you had to deal with and the same age Clementine was shot at by a shifty person, and then have a group member leave you to die... A lot easier to ask forgiveness than to forget."
Louis looks and sees a new item around Violet's neck as she leans forward on the desk with her head bowed. He knows he is starting to get through, "I know you care for this girl, Vi, hell I wish there was something I could do to get Clementine to see your side and for both you and her to be happy. But I can't change her mind about extending that trust outward. She tried that with Minerva, and look where that went. Clem is still feeling that burn of trust from shifty people, and can't really blame her."
Violet then snaps her head up, "But Maya is not shifty!"
"I know, Violet, I know. From what I have seen when I met her, how she was quick to defend us against Arvo. I can see she has a good heart and knows when one is faulty and has a good sense of judgment. She could have shot me with her arrow if she wanted to, but she didn't." Louis said.
Violet was starting to get angry, "If you know this of her, then why are you standing on the sidelines on this one?"
"I don't like confrontation. You know this." Louis looks at her. "I don't want to fight you on this. That is something you and Clem, need to work on resolving this conflict on your own." Louis steps backward. "But I will be a friend for you if you need it."
Louis sees Violet not meeting his gaze and crossing her arms. Louis then looks at her, "For what it is worth Vi, I think you and Maya are good for one another. You may not see it, but she changed you in some way. In a good way. I haven't seen you light up this way ever. I mean, ever."
Violet looks up at him with a little surprised expression. Then shyly responded, "Thanks." And moves her own hair back behind her ear, like what Maya always does to her when she wants to seriously kiss her. Violet heaves a sigh as she looks up at him, and as he stands in the sunlight. Violet notices something new on his neck. "Lou, ah..what is on your neck?"
Louis looks at her with confusion, "What?"
Violet moves away from the dresser and pulls on Louis's shirt to get a closer look. A teasing smile falls on her face as she bites her lip to keep from laughing, "Oh...hmm...what did you and Clem do last night to let her give you a hickey?"
Louis's eyes were wide, "She did what to me?"
"You have a hickey on your neck Lou, oh...several in fact." Violet peers down Louis's shirt.
"Okay, that's enough. Let me see," Louis batted Violet's arms away and moves towards Violet's desk. Louis stands before a small dusty mirror to see what Violet is looking at. And his face went red as Violet moves to the spare bunk bed by the desk, laughing. Violet giggles a bit more, "What did you do to earn your badges of honor with her Lou?"
Louis tugs his jacket collar closer up on his neck, "nothing." He doesn't want to share his first sexual experience to give Violet any more ammunition for teasing rights.
Violet smirks and raises her eyebrows at him, "Never thought I see the day you out of all people will get to receive a hickey from someone. Especially from Clementine. Marlon sure, and Justin, but you?" Violet points her finger at him.
Louis covers his face now with his jacket, "Well since you are through being pissed...I am going to go fix the traps and walls." Louis hugs his coat closer.
Violet then giggles and teases Louis back from all the crap he pulled with her and Minerva, "Okay, just don't land on Clementine's lips again to create any more of those 'bruises,'" Violet laughs again.
Louis gave her a sneer back, "You are enjoying torturing my soul?"
"Yes after all the shit you done with me in the past on my first romance, yeah. It's payback time, Louis." Violet spoke.
Louis gives her the finger as he exits her room. He has to admit he likes it when Violet teases him back, even though he is embarrassed about it.

so, I believe that Og Freddy Fazbear is a old Fredbear animatronic renamed originating from Freddy Fazbear and i have evidence. So the thing that initially through me off with the springlocked animatronics coming from Fredbears family diner is the old phone guy tapes which say, "uh hello and welcome to ur new carrier as a performeentertainer for Freddy Fazbears pizza, right now we have 2 specially designed suits that double in both animatronic and suit." the game welcomes u to Freddy Fazbears pizza not Fredbears family diner which screamed as very important detail. so i tried to find a place that shows Fredbears family diner with out the spring bois and i found it. In the save him minigame we play as Freddy Fazbear not Fredbear. now incase u don't remember in the minigame save him u play as Freddy holding a cupcake ur task is to give the cake to children. this is where Charly dies. i searched and that sprite isn't an offical Fredbear sprite. so it has to be Freddy. but thats just a minigame circus baby wasn't really outside and the animatronic probadly didn't have 3 toes when standing outside the room what can we use to prove this. well after searching i found the anwser. look at the fredbears family diner photos. we see one of Fredbear and one of Spring bonnie right wrong. take a look at the old Fredbear poster again. the bear appears to be a bit closer to brown then yellow for that artstyle and look at the hat and bowtie all iderations of fredbear after fnaf 4 have had a purple hat and bowtie EVERY ONE and yet the fredbear poster has black hat a bowtie just like freddy fazbear. so there u go freddy fazbear used to be called fredbear and probadly had a cupcake instead of a microphone but what does that mean for the large whole. well it puts fredbears family diner as the first location that closes leading to the creation of fazbear entertainment more on that in a bit cuz it is other animatrionics that makes this impressive for this places the spring suits in freddy fazbears pizza just like the phone guy says it is. but what about springbonnie, well without a second animatronic other than the puppet when could serve as spring bonnie well none other than our favorite 5 fingered fellow glitchtrap. thats right this puts the old glitch trap suit originating from fredbears family diner. it serves as a reasonible explination. now one question is when would this supposedly be happening. well for that we need to turn to fnaf 1. in the fnaf one paycheck we have the date 11-12-xx and on saterday 11-13-xx and when we look at calenders from the 90's cuz the 90's had minimumwage of 4 dollars an hour we find the only year to have this date to be 1993. so fnaf 1 takes place during 1993, and phone guy says, "if i was forced to sing those same stupid songs for 20 years and i never got a bath then i would probadly be pretty irritable at night too." subtract 20 from 93 and we get 73 meaning that these guys have been around sense 1973. so fredbears family diner existed during 1973. now one final question that u guys might be having is that y would afton kill charly in 1973. the anwser his wife left him as simple as that. at this point the wife is gone. the lady that we see sitting in the chair watching the tv in midnight motorist that aint miss afton thats elizabeth, miss afton is long gone and probadly ded.

I'm a 28F currently dealing with a revenge obsessed ex-boyfriend (36M) who has been stalking me online for at least 2 years now and is hell bent on destroying my life. Basically I was his first GF in 7 years at the time and prior to the girl before me who cheated on him he claimed he never had a GF except girls who thought he looked like Harry Potter in middle school. He is 36 and doesn't have a lot of experience with women so the break up is apparently still difficult for him to process even though its 3 years later and we have not spoken except me asking him profusely to stop doing this stuff.
At the time we were dating a few years ago I was dealing with some identity issues during our relationship which I was honest with him about, (identified as bisexual at the time, but was questioning my sexuality). We had some disagreements about it and he would always ask why he couldn't stay over early on in the relationship (~1 month into it). I ended up breaking things off with him after roughly 4 months because I felt like we weren't compatible and also because I had lost my job at the time and was dealing with personal issues on the side (severely depressed, was in therapy for it).
We were friends for a short time after the breakup until things started getting VERY weird. He began circling the road next to my apartment several times per hour EVERY DAY. At the time I considered it strange but had a limited knowledge of technology other than basic CS classes I had taken in the past. The internet would randomly shut off for 30 mins - 1 hour for no reason. I would later find out in the logs the router was being hit with DOS attacks several times per day.
I would also see my documents on Google Drive opened by strange usernames of fake accounts, and eventually had a remote access trojan on my laptop after he sent me photos of us through Google Photos which I suspect he used to infect my computer. He would backspace while I typed, open and close windows, click random things on the screen, and straight up mess with me for several hours per day every day for MONTHS.
Then eventually the computer crashed and would never start again. It was a $1500 Macbook Pro. My new car also mysteriously got something poured in the fuel tank and after a few weeks and several hundreds of dollars of new parts no mechanic could fix the car. My apartment was broken into repeatedly with subtle signs of forced entry but nothing stolen. Examples: Pry marks on the inside of the front door, side door and back door, personal care items like body wash, underwear or bras stolen or moved, coming home to find personal documents like medical records, tax records, and bank info layed out on my bedroom floor shuffled around. I filed police reports each time it happened but couldn't prove it was him.
My car has also been broken into a few times now with my dashcam broken off the mount, hidden under the passenger seat, stick figures taking a dump drawn on my windshield, and nails in my back tire and spare tire. I believe he put a GPS tracker on the car because I have heard someone outside opening and closing the car door but nothing was stolen. So far no mechanic has been able to find a tracker and I couldn't either.
I had to stop using the wifi at my apartment because every device I use on that network gets hacked (multiple different laptops, 2 kindles, and 3 cell phones). I found a keylogger on my M1 Macbook Pro (~$2000) which he also placed persistent malware on and I can not get rid of despite wiping the hard drive 8 times since this January. He defaced my professional website I was trying to use to get a job twice (first time put a pic of nude child and set his hacker username as my bank account number, added a redirect link which I stupidly clicked on and then it downloaded some sort of spyware or RAT onto my device, 2nd time he put up 2 women doing the deed also nude).
He has had remote access to this computer for an unknown amount of time and I can not afford to replace it. My cell phone also booted up into safe mode the next morning and the background was changed on my work/school email account. I tried taking my computer to a repair shop and they claimed if he does have a RAT on it, it is likely hidden on the recovery partition and they weren't able to find it or get it off my computer. This is a $2000 M1 Mac and he already destroyed my previous Macbook Pro which cost me $1500.
I also had to buy a new cell phone after I kept getting creepy phone calls and phishing texts from unknown numbers. When he put the new keylogger on my computer recently I saw where he made a folder which he named the digits of my new phone number. I had just bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy and he already got the new phone number for it and hacked it. He kept enabled the camera and microphone and while I was eating turned on the camera and started recorded me while I was eating. I factory reset the phone and he was still able to control the camera and mic on it.
I have reported him to the FBI IC3 unit 6 times now in the last year and now he is getting cocky about it and knows he will get away with it so he keeps doing it. He knows I am broke with no money and can't afford a new computer, to move away, or to keep buying a new cell phone every month and he seems to get off on trying to destroy my whole life. I have not spoken to him in 3 years now and we do not talk at all. I sent him a FB message telling him to stop explaining to him I have been going through a lot since my sister died a few years ago and just want to be left alone. He keeps doing it and won't stop.
He also recruited my crush who I never mentioned to him to help him with the hacking (my crush is a system admin) and now my crush won't speak to me at all and hates my guts. I have no idea what he said to my crush or how he got them to come after me but they have been going full on nuclear and won't stop. I caught him staking me out a few days ago at the gas station across from a wifi hotspot I was using where he was just sitting there for an extended period of time watching me. Then when I started drive near him he inched his truck like he was thinking about if he was going to follow me or not. He also knows when I come and go at night and drives by my apartment minutes after I get home at different times.
This guy seems to think I owe him something and has a serious problem. He just keeps doing all this and will not stop. While I am not the type of person to do anything crazy back, the police have done nothing and in terms of the hacking there is not a lot they can do. What can I do to at least expose this guy. I don't think he is ever going to stop until he kills me and this has got to stop.

I'm a 28F currently dealing with a revenge obsessed ex-boyfriend (36M) who has been stalking me online for at least 2 years now and is hell bent on destroying my life. Basically I was his first GF in 7 years at the time and prior to the girl before me who cheated on him he claimed he never had a GF except girls who thought he looked like Harry Potter in middle school. He is 36 and doesn't have a lot of experience with women so the break up is apparently still difficult for him to process even though its 3 years later and we have not spoken except me asking him profusely to stop doing this stuff.
At the time we were dating a few years ago I was dealing with some identity issues during our relationship which I was honest with him about, (identified as bisexual at the time, but was questioning my sexuality). We had some disagreements about it and he would always ask why he couldn't stay over early on in the relationship (~1 month into it). I ended up breaking things off with him after roughly 4 months because I felt like we weren't compatible and also because I had lost my job at the time and was dealing with personal issues on the side (severely depressed, was in therapy for it).
We were friends for a short time after the breakup until things started getting VERY weird. He began circling the road next to my apartment several times per hour EVERY DAY. At the time I considered it strange but had a limited knowledge of technology other than basic CS classes I had taken in the past. The internet would randomly shut off for 30 mins - 1 hour for no reason. I would later find out in the logs the router was being hit with DOS attacks several times per day.
I would also see my documents on Google Drive opened by strange usernames of fake accounts, and eventually had a remote access trojan on my laptop after he sent me photos of us through Google Photos which I suspect he used to infect my computer. He would backspace while I typed, open and close windows, click random things on the screen, and straight up mess with me for several hours per day every day for MONTHS.
Then eventually the computer crashed and would never start again. It was a $1500 Macbook Pro. My new car also mysteriously got something poured in the fuel tank and after a few weeks and several hundreds of dollars of new parts no mechanic could fix the car. My apartment was broken into repeatedly with subtle signs of forced entry but nothing stolen. Examples: Pry marks on the inside of the front door, side door and back door, personal care items like body wash, underwear or bras stolen or moved, coming home to find personal documents like medical records, tax records, and bank info layed out on my bedroom floor shuffled around. I filed police reports each time it happened but couldn't prove it was him.
My car has also been broken into a few times now with my dashcam broken off the mount, hidden under the passenger seat, stick figures taking a dump drawn on my windshield, and nails in my back tire and spare tire. I believe he put a GPS tracker on the car because I have heard someone outside opening and closing the car door but nothing was stolen. So far no mechanic has been able to find a tracker and I couldn't either.
I had to stop using the wifi at my apartment because every device I use on that network gets hacked (multiple different laptops, 2 kindles, and 3 cell phones). I found a keylogger on my M1 Macbook Pro (~$2000) which he also placed persistent malware on and I can not get rid of despite wiping the hard drive 8 times since this January. He defaced my professional website I was trying to use to get a job twice (first time put a pic of nude child and set his hacker username as my bank account number, added a redirect link which I stupidly clicked on and then it downloaded some sort of spyware or RAT onto my device, 2nd time he put up 2 women doing the deed also nude).
He has had remote access to this computer for an unknown amount of time and I can not afford to replace it. My cell phone also booted up into safe mode the next morning and the background was changed on my work/school email account. I tried taking my computer to a repair shop and they claimed if he does have a RAT on it, it is likely hidden on the recovery partition and they weren't able to find it or get it off my computer. This is a $2000 M1 Mac and he already destroyed my previous Macbook Pro which cost me $1500.
I also had to buy a new cell phone after I kept getting creepy phone calls and phishing texts from unknown numbers. When he put the new keylogger on my computer recently I saw where he made a folder which he named the digits of my new phone number. I had just bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy and he already got the new phone number for it and hacked it. He kept enabled the camera and microphone and while I was eating turned on the camera and started recorded me while I was eating. I factory reset the phone and he was still able to control the camera and mic on it.
I have reported him to the FBI IC3 unit 6 times now in the last year and now he is getting cocky about it and knows he will get away with it so he keeps doing it. He knows I am broke with no money and can't afford a new computer, to move away, or to keep buying a new cell phone every month and he seems to get off on trying to destroy my whole life. I have not spoken to him in 3 years now and we do not talk at all. I sent him a FB message telling him to stop explaining to him I have been going through a lot since my sister died a few years ago and just want to be left alone. He keeps doing it and won't stop.
He also recruited my crush who I never mentioned to him to help him with the hacking (my crush is a system admin) and now my crush won't speak to me at all and hates my guts. I have no idea what he said to my crush or how he got them to come after me but they have been going full on nuclear and won't stop. I caught him staking me out a few days ago at the gas station across from a wifi hotspot I was using where he was just sitting there for an extended period of time watching me. Then when I started drive near him he inched his truck like he was thinking about if he was going to follow me or not. He also knows when I come and go at night and drives by my apartment minutes after I get home at different times.
This guy seems to think I owe him something and has a serious problem. He just keeps doing all this and will not stop. While I am not the type of person to do anything crazy back, the police have done nothing and in terms of the hacking there is not a lot they can do. What can I do to at least expose this guy. I don't think he is ever going to stop until he kills me and this has got to stop.

I'm a 28F currently dealing with a revenge obsessed ex-boyfriend (36M) who has been stalking me online for at least 2 years now and is hell bent on destroying my life. Basically I was his first GF in 7 years at the time and prior to the girl before me who cheated on him he claimed he never had a GF except girls who thought he looked like Harry Potter in middle school. He is 36 and doesn't have a lot of experience with women so the break up is apparently still difficult for him to process even though its 3 years later and we have not spoken except me asking him profusely to stop doing this stuff.
At the time we were dating a few years ago I was dealing with some identity issues during our relationship which I was honest with him about, (identified as bisexual at the time, but was questioning my sexuality). We had some disagreements about it and he would always ask why he couldn't stay over early on in the relationship (~1 month into it). I ended up breaking things off with him after roughly 4 months because I felt like we weren't compatible and also because I had lost my job at the time and was dealing with personal issues on the side (severely depressed, was in therapy for it).
We were friends for a short time after the breakup until things started getting VERY weird. He began circling the road next to my apartment several times per hour EVERY DAY. At the time I considered it strange but had a limited knowledge of technology other than basic CS classes I had taken in the past. The internet would randomly shut off for 30 mins - 1 hour for no reason. I would later find out in the logs the router was being hit with DOS attacks several times per day.
I would also see my documents on Google Drive opened by strange usernames of fake accounts, and eventually had a remote access trojan on my laptop after he sent me photos of us through Google Photos which I suspect he used to infect my computer. He would backspace while I typed, open and close windows, click random things on the screen, and straight up mess with me for several hours per day every day for MONTHS.
Then eventually the computer crashed and would never start again. It was a $1500 Macbook Pro. My new car also mysteriously got something poured in the fuel tank and after a few weeks and several hundreds of dollars of new parts no mechanic could fix the car. My apartment was broken into repeatedly with subtle signs of forced entry but nothing stolen. Examples: Pry marks on the inside of the front door, side door and back door, personal care items like body wash, underwear or bras stolen or moved, coming home to find personal documents like medical records, tax records, and bank info layed out on my bedroom floor shuffled around. I filed police reports each time it happened but couldn't prove it was him.
My car has also been broken into a few times now with my dashcam broken off the mount, hidden under the passenger seat, stick figures taking a dump drawn on my windshield, and nails in my back tire and spare tire. I believe he put a GPS tracker on the car because I have heard someone outside opening and closing the car door but nothing was stolen. So far no mechanic has been able to find a tracker and I couldn't either.
I had to stop using the wifi at my apartment because every device I use on that network gets hacked (multiple different laptops, 2 kindles, and 3 cell phones). I found a keylogger on my M1 Macbook Pro (~$2000) which he also placed persistent malware on and I can not get rid of despite wiping the hard drive 8 times since this January. He defaced my professional website I was trying to use to get a job twice (first time put a pic of nude child and set his hacker username as my bank account number, added a redirect link which I stupidly clicked on and then it downloaded some sort of spyware or RAT onto my device, 2nd time he put up 2 women doing the deed also nude).
He has had remote access to this computer for an unknown amount of time and I can not afford to replace it. My cell phone also booted up into safe mode the next morning and the background was changed on my work/school email account. I tried taking my computer to a repair shop and they claimed if he does have a RAT on it, it is likely hidden on the recovery partition and they weren't able to find it or get it off my computer. This is a $2000 M1 Mac and he already destroyed my previous Macbook Pro which cost me $1500.
I also had to buy a new cell phone after I kept getting creepy phone calls and phishing texts from unknown numbers. When he put the new keylogger on my computer recently I saw where he made a folder which he named the digits of my new phone number. I had just bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy and he already got the new phone number for it and hacked it. He kept enabled the camera and microphone and while I was eating turned on the camera and started recorded me while I was eating. I factory reset the phone and he was still able to control the camera and mic on it.
I have reported him to the FBI IC3 unit 6 times now in the last year and now he is getting cocky about it and knows he will get away with it so he keeps doing it. He knows I am broke with no money and can't afford a new computer, to move away, or to keep buying a new cell phone every month and he seems to get off on trying to destroy my whole life. I have not spoken to him in 3 years now and we do not talk at all. I sent him a FB message telling him to stop explaining to him I have been going through a lot since my sister died a few years ago and just want to be left alone. He keeps doing it and won't stop.
He also recruited my crush who I never mentioned to him to help him with the hacking (my crush is a system admin) and now my crush won't speak to me at all and hates my guts. I have no idea what he said to my crush or how he got them to come after me but they have been going full on nuclear and won't stop. I caught him staking me out a few days ago at the gas station across from a wifi hotspot I was using where he was just sitting there for an extended period of time watching me. Then when I started drive near him he inched his truck like he was thinking about if he was going to follow me or not. He also knows when I come and go at night and drives by my apartment minutes after I get home at different times.
This guy seems to think I owe him something and has a serious problem. He just keeps doing all this and will not stop. While I am not the type of person to do anything crazy back, the police have done nothing and in terms of the hacking there is not a lot they can do. What can I do to at least expose this guy. I don't think he is ever going to stop until he kills me and this has got to stop.

Hopefully this is the right place to post this, I read the guidelines and I think it is. My wife’s grandmother was fleeced to the tune of $21,000 from one of her grandsons and I am looking for some advice on what we can do in regards to getting it labeled as fraud or get him to pay it back.
A little backstory. Grandma has always paid grandson to do manual labor around the house. We’ve always known that she overpaid him, but it’s never been more than a couple projects every few months. We’re talking like paying him $300 - $1000 bucks to paint some rooms, build some shelving, put in vinyl flooring etc all the while buying all the supplies and tools and letting him keep the tools. We’ve told her that she shouldn’t and she could hire someone for cheaper but he’s her baby, he’s 40, and he could really use the extra money. She technically could afford it and it’s her money so we’ve always just kind of stood on the side saying she really shouldn’t.
Within the last year he put her credit card on his uber eats account and shopify and ran up a bill without her knowing for like a grand in a month. She didn’t know how long he had been doing it and willfully didn’t want to go and look outside of the one big month. I offered to do the work for her but she declined. She cancelled the card, we talked with her said don’t trust him and we thought that was that.
Fast forward a few months she loaned him like $10k for a car because his broke down. He’s been working around her house to pay it off, but she still pays him some cash and then deducts a little off to count it as a payment. Again, we tell her that’s not the way it works but he’s her baby and she tells us it’s her money and she can do what she wants because she worked her whole life for it. He’s still working and “paying it off” on a regular basis so we just chalked it up to she’s overpaying him again.
Again fast forward a few months to the last month or two. Turns out she opened a home improvement store credit card so he could do some work for her and buy the supplies and tools he needed. Yea you know where this is going. He ran up a $21,000 dollar bill. The credit card company understandably wouldn’t do anything about it because she opened the card and gave it to him. She does not have the money to pay it off.
Long story short she kind of went off the deep end the last 3 months, bought a Cadillac @ a $900 a month payment, went on a few vacations, purchased a $10k embroidery machine, basically blew through the last of her savings. She still has a pension payment that is enough to cover her basic expenses like car payment, bills and food but not enough with the new credit card payment.
Health problems have landed her in the hospital for the last few days which is how we found out. She’s worried about being able to pay for everything. We know she’s most likely not going to want to press charges against grandson. What can we do about the credit card charges if she ends up not wanting to press charges? Just looking to be pointed in the right direction here and if there is anything we can do?
Also kind of important. Grandma is bi-polar manic and over the last year or two has really went downhill. The last few months was exponential to say the least. She randomly decides to stop taking her meds on occasion which usually results in these spending sprees where the grandson has been able to take advantage. It’s never been more than a few hundred dollars to maybe a grand in the past, but it appears he really went over the top this time. When she got the Cadillac like 2 months ago the family started talking about options for power of attorney since she has the medical issue, and what we think is possibly early onset dementia. This has expediated the talks. Not looking for advice on the medical stuff, just put here for context.
Update: Grandma just got to our house. Turns out she never received the credit card and grandson has been taking the home appliance statements out of her mailbox so she wouldn't see them.
Update 2: The amount has grown to $31,000 on 2 credit cards. She authorized the purchases for the work to her house. Everything else was not and the 1 credit card was stolen without her knowledge. We are going to file a police report in the AM and start the official process to see what can be done. Any more advice is appreciated. I will let the siblings know about contacting APS because I believe that may be necessary due to the medical issues that have been prevalent in the past and the possible dementia now.

Honestly, the title is the TL;DR. This is rambly and my grammar is bad. I am really sorry for how long this is.
I have no support system. I have no savings. I am taking care of someone who means a lot to me and needs help, but can't get it yet. The point is, I have already been under so much stress that my work's reaction to all of this is simply pushing me over the edge and I don't know who else to ask. Who to reach out to. I don't know if things are going to be okay.
I picked up this really awesome field tech position a few months ago. After a month, my boss was no longer with the company... and it turned out he didn't train me at all. I learned more on my own the two weeks after he was gone than any of the month he was "training" me.
And over the course of the 4 months since, I have worked my butt off to keep this region afloat because I am the ONLY tech here. None of the equipment is updated. Vulnerable devices need to be located and liquidated ASAP. Purchasing is taking 3 and a half eons to get equipment out to sites so I have to work with not enough equipment... as all the old existing equipment begins to fail. None of the internal knowledge about the region was recorded either, so I had to identify that as well (ie what equipment we do have, what we don't, what is available for issue, what needs to be yeeted out a window, etc). The region is 2-4 hr wide in terms of drive time, so on average I usually end the day almost - but not quite - 2 hr away from home. I have to time it that way in order to reach all my sites before they close (often having to skip lunch and breaks). As a result, most of my drive time is at the beginning and end of the day.
It sucked. It meant that if I wanted this region to survive, I needed to put in excessive hours. But I am salary, and as far as I was told by that point, normal work in my region didn't qualify for any extra effort bonuses.
Now before I start, I want to address the why. Why did I tolerate all of this without pay, essentially? Well, to start, because as much as I would like to MC the hell out of them when they first started to drop the ball and make them realize how much I do, the client I take care of does amazing work for people and their communities. To only do my 40 hr a week would mean letting them suffer and fall. It would mean people not getting the help they need. And the other field techs were constantly getting recognized for much more minor things. What reason did I have to think I was going to be any different?
Now I managed to keep up. I put in 50-60 hr a week on average. It got to a point where I was solving so many issues simultaneously that if it wasn't major enough, I just didn't even put a ticket for it because I just didn't have TIME. Like, oh, you need a new mouse? Here is a cheap wired one I was about to throw away, try that.... as I work on these 40 other issues. I am not going to take 5 minutes to fill out a whole ticket about it when I start working at 8 am and finish working at 9 pm. I want to watch YouTube. I want to doomscroll Reddit. I want to sleep. I don't want to stay up making 40 tickets about people who don't understand how the monitor also has a power button and is in fact not a desktop. They are wonderful, beautiful people, and those issues and questions are very valid, so I take them very seriously. These people need to focus on their jobs that are helping so many people, not on petty IT problems. However... wasn't worth the effort of a whole ticket. Especially when I wasn't getting any extra effort pay. I used to do them at first but got burnt out too fast. On average my timecard now shows around 8.5-10 hr a day, sometimes the full 12-13 hr.
Now, I was about to start PTSD treatment so a couple of weeks ago I reached out to my boss to explain the situation. I told him the state of my region and that I will not be able to keep up with this anymore, especially when they keep asking me to find and wipe these old vulnerable devices to such an excess and in such a time frame that it was a full-time job on its own. I still had normal tickets and issues I had to resolve as well. I couldn't do both and only work 40 hr a week. That was when I finally got told that if I simply recorded all of this, I could have been getting extra effort hours the whole time!!! No one just bothered to tell me. Apparently no one actually looks to see if you worked an excessive amount each week, just that you work at least 40 hr. Because for some reason, as salary, we are required to do 8 hr of work a day, and if we don't, then PTO gets deducted hourly. Make that make sense.
So my boss tells me that the workload should be decreasing soon once all the old equipment is pulled (at once), and that I had been doing a good job.
This gave me some hope. I thought, maybe, I might have some work-life balance. I just had to make it another month. And since he said I did a good job, maybe I might finally get some recognition! Sure, by that point, I have seen colleagues get recognized for much smaller things over and over while I got nothing, but hey, it just wasn't my time yet, I guess.
So last week was a test of if I will get extra effort pay. I will find out at the end of the month, although I feel like the odds are very low. That week was my calmest week yet. I only worked 10-12 hr a day every day! I was done working by almost 7 pm every day, it was great. I was still exhausted, but I got everything done. People had functioning devices to get their jobs done.
Last Wednesday, I made the mistake of mentioning how I was thankful for all my drive time counting since I lived more than 20 miles (the minimum distance needed for expensing mileage) from any site. You see, the travel policy for field techs said that the first and last travel of the day (so to and from home) didn't count towards your timesheet unless it was more than 20 miles (aka a "normal commute") away. This was just how I had interpreted this rule the whole time and my original boss agreed because it just felt like common sense. However, it turns out, my brain placed a comma where there shouldn't have been and in fact, reading back, I interpreted it wrong. Apparently, first and last travel doesn't count at all unless it is outside your assigned region. My region was just big.
And that was all my boss seemed to care about. My first and last travel will never count. REGARDLESS of the distance. Sure, if I cross into the next state, he considered that excessive enough (so around 3-4 hr one way), but he specifically asked me for a list of sites over TWO HOURS AWAY ONE WAY. I am supposed to just give away 4 hr of my day for free? After everything I have done for thing company?
Nearly all of my sites are around 1 hr 30 min to just under 2 hr away from my home without traffic. My closest is about an hour away. I cannot efficiently stop by the closest site every time on the way home. It would mean adding an extra 30 min to an hour just to stop by my closest site. I think this first/last site policy was made for people who live like 30 min away from their closest site at most. I guess I was a type that was never accounted for.
This puts me in an impossible situation because it feels like I really have only three choices if I stay here and they don't change their policy in my case:

1. Stop by my closest site on the way to work and on the way home everyday: I wouldn't even be doing any work at this site or able to get into the building since it would be after closing hours, so I worry about it being considered a sort of time fraud, like, you only went there to get extra money! You did nothing billable there, you should have just gone home! It would also add an extra 30 min to 1 hr everyday, just to have 2 hr of total drive time not count in the end. Driving an extra 30 min to 1 hr simply to make 30 to 1 hr of that 1.5 hr drive home count toward my time card feels so stupid. I would rather just go home at that point. "But what if you just work 30 min to 1 hr less then to make up for it," I have too much work to do and I don't want to let down these people who need their technology to do the great work they do.
2. I could lie and say I went to my closest site on the way to and from home: personal principle here. I avoid lying at all costs - like Buddhist-level dedication here, just minus the actual Buddhism. Also, I feel like they can just later decide to fire me for time fraud after I end up being just too much hassle to deal. They can't fire me now, but what if they hire me some "help" who ends up simply being a replacement.
3. Plan my day to arrive at my first site by 8 am and leave at 5 pm for an 8 hr day: You see, ironically, in this case, my drive time will count... because traffic! Remember that 2 hr remark from my boss? When you add traffic, almost all my travel time doubles. I make an effort to avoid traffic conditions so I can spend more time... you know... working... Leaving during normal people times on normal people roads will mean I will be spending probably around 5-6 hr a day driving to and from home (my time driving between sites always counted so that isn't the issue). So I would regularly be getting 14+ hr days. This would be my only option where I get a lunch break though.
4. Keep doing what I am doing: I will only have around 8-9 hr count everyday, if even sometimes. On average about 3-4 hr of drive time will not count. I will be able to keep up with my region, not need to work as much as the other options, but I will never get any recognition. I don't have time for lunch breaks. I will be working for free. I have no motivation. It just makes me want to cry... I am also scared because with my mental health deteriorating, I know I cannot keep this up. I already collapsed these last two days, I am just so lucky my office managers and receptionists have been looking after me when I have been on site because I have been a complete mess. All I can think of is why? It makes me so hopeless.

I am currently trying to get them to compromise and let me just deduct 30 min each way to and from home every day, but to be honest, at this point, they have lost my trust. This isn't the first time they dropped the ball. My very first bonus was supposed to represent 40 hr of extra work I did over a 3-week period. What did I get? If converted to an hourly rate, it would be considered below the federal minimum wage. It was insultingly low. Apparently, most of what I did didn't count somehow! I was devastated. My interim boss at the time tried arguing that mileage reimbursement WAS the bonus. I was still pissed and upset, so they decided to give me an extra couple hundred dollars. Which was barely anything after taxes.
I don't trust them anymore. I want to get out. I feel so unsafe. I have seen the worst in humanity when it comes to management and corporate, so I know exactly how bad it can get. I just have no support system. My lease is coming up for renewal at the end of this month and the landlords haven't gotten back to us. I can't afford to move. My credit score sucks right now. What if they just decide they don't want us to stay and don't tell us until the day the lease expires?
Now I am looking for a new job, but the work that I do I have done in a short period of time. My biggest hang-up is the length of my work experience, not the quality or skillset, simply because I am doing a job with less than 1 yr recent experience that most need 3-5 yr for. HR often times won't believe me. I had one phone screen but unfortunately, I don't have hands-on experience in configuring VMWare (my last job started training me in it before they went under) which was too important to not have. Which makes sense, they are looking for that type of skillset, and I don't have that specific experience.
I am just so tired. I don't know what to do. I know my company would bend over backward to remedy this because they cannot afford to lose this, but I worry about potential retaliation since it is so easy to hide in seemingly unrelated things. I worry about them trying to hire someone behind my back, and then because no one will believe me when I say I can do the things I do, I end up never getting hired again... then getting evicted... then my best friend loses his only safe space and chance to recover... I have so much to lose. I don't know what to do.
Oh, and I just found out my new work insurance doesn't cover therapy apparently, so I can't do my treatment anymore. I still have to find out a way to fork over the $400 I now owe which I didn't know I would be.
Has anyone been through anything like this before? What did you do?

A few people (two) asked for help with the Universally Loved achievement, and I thought I'd just make a post here for everyone to access. There's probably already other guides, but I'll just drop mines here in case it's more useful to others.
Keep in mind it's organized chronologically, so don't move on from morning to afternoon without completing EVERYTHING necessary (minus the optional stuff if you don't want to do it).
And obviously, spoilers for the entire REAL WORLD section.
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REAL WORLD Guide
PROLOGUE (after 1st STAB)

• Attempt to confirm naming yourself OMOCAT (you can reload save file if you’d like) (achievement)
• Grab FIRST AID KIT from hallway and BANDAGE from dining room drawer
• Open door for HELLMARI, then she will appear in MOM’S room if WTF ≥ 6

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THREE DAYS LEFT
MORNING

• Brush teeth (every morning for achievement)
• High five KEL every instance you get (achievement)
• Encourage MINCY at FARWAY PARK
• Feed ORANGE CAT at monkey bars at FARAWAY PARK and get TRASH
• COIN located in front of FARAWAY PLAZA; there is no DOLLAR spawned from throwing this one into the fountain, so this is optional
• Talk to GRUFF GUY with leak; go to his house and watch his attempt
• Help ALL-AMERICAN GUY find his TV REMOTE (under the couch)
• Talk to the ARTIST and agree with all her advice
• PART TIME JOBS to do
  • Pizza delivery, save before starting the job
    • Quit the job, then do the job again (achievement)
    • Deliver all the pizzas on the first try to get a perfect score. Reload your save if you mess up
    • Get OTHERWORLDLY CD
  • Fly swatting
  • Organizing tools
• Pick up tutoring posters at OTHERMART, then tutor BRENT and JOY
  • BRENT (Math answers)
    • 1. 204
    • 2. 32
    • 3. -2
  • JOY (English answers)
    • 1. On
    • 2. Adverb
    • 3. “I think eggplant is the better tasting soft vegetable.”
• Buy PET ROCK (costs $10)
• Beat JACKSON and get MERRY CD
• Talk to SEAN and KAREN in FIX-IT
• Pick up YELLOW BUN GRANNY’S prescription
• Get KIM’S MOM’S SHEARS
• Get SEASHELL #1 at garden area of FIX-IT
• Beat all PET ROCKS opponents
  • Beat CREEPY GUY for FEDORA - optional if you want to collect it
  • Beat SHOPKEEP for NOSTALGIC CD
  • Beat AYEE (the fish stall lady at OTHERMART) for “YOU ROCK” CAP [tedious]
• Lose the battle to KIM and VANCE outside OTHERMART
• Beat SHOPKEEP’S high score of 6000 at arcade machine and get COOL GLASSES (costs $1 if you win on the first try)
• Donate $10 to SMELLY HOBO for GOLD WATCH or "GOLD" WATCH, the sell it to SHOPKEEP at HOBBEEZ
• Donate $30 to GUITAR GUY
• Buy x1 HERO SANDWICH ($5) - optional, if you want to use it later for a special fight)
• Buy x5 APPLE JUICE and ORANGE JUICE ($20 total) and get RED HEADBAND and ORANGE HEADBAND - optional if you want to collect the headbands
• Buy x5 CDS (DYNAMIC, CELESTIAL, LIVELY, CHILL, and BRUTAL) at HOBBEEZ ($50 total)
• Buy 1x MEAT and 6x FISH ($67 total)

AFTERNOON

• Encourage MINCY at OTHERMART
• Feed ORANGE CAT at roof of BASIL’S HOUSE and get TRASH
• COIN is located at yard of CLUMSY GUY’S house after sermon; after throwing COIN in fountain, DOLLAR spawns at MIKHAEL’S HOUSE
• Help CLUMSY GUY get WEDDING RING out of sink
• Help WRINKLY FOREHEAD choose a gift for his son at HOBBEEZ
  • Get SEASHELL #2
• Donate x15 TRASH

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TWO DAYS LEFT
MORNING

• Brush teeth
• Encourage MINCY at candy store in OTHERMART
• Feed ORANGE CAT at roof of SUNNY’s house
• COIN is at CHURCH; DOLLAR spawns at KIM’S HOUSE
• Talk to GRUFF GUY with leak; go to his house and watch his attempt
  • Get SEASHELL #3 from hole in wall
    • Give CRIS all 3 SEASHELLS to get SEASHELL NECKLACE
• Find ARTIST’S dog by KEL’S HOUSE and speak to dog (achievement)
• Do all PART TIME JOBS again
  • Pizza delivery
  • Fly swatting
  • Organizing tools
• Finish BRENT’S and JOY’S worksheets
  • BRENT (Math answers)
    • 1. 25
    • 2. 4, -4
    • 3. 7.103 (or 7.461 for older versions)
  • JOY (English answer)
    • 1. Re
    • 2. wt.
    • 3. Crawl
• Get PEPPER SPRAY from KEL’S MOM'S purse. Use it to defeat the HOOLIGANS later
• Interact with BEE HIVE; you don't have to win the battle
• Talk to BEBE’S MOM, then get the lamp from FIX-IT
• Reconcile WRINKLY FOREHEAD and his son
• Talk to CLUMSY GUY’S wife’s at GINO’S PIZZERIA
• Talk to CLUMSY GUY at candy shop
• Buy all 13 CHARMS in HOBBEEZ ($39) - optional unless you want to collect everything
• Before leaving BASIL’S house, save so you can reject KEL’S high five, then reload and high five KEL (achievement)

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AFTERNOON

• Save before leaving BASIL’S HOUSE, then choose not to high-five KEL, then reload the save and high five KEL (achievements)
• Encourage MINCY at garden area at back of FIX-IT
• Feed ORANGE CAT at tree outside OTHERMART and get ARCADE PIECE
• COIN spawns at WRINKLY FOREHEAD’S house; DOLLAR spawns between cars in front of FARAWAY PLAZA
• HELP ALL-AMERICAN GUY find his TV REMOTE (in the bathroom)
• Take KEL’S $20 from his wardrove (achievement)
• Play hide-and-seek with DAPHNE and BOWEN at MIKHAEL'S HOUSE
• Get SEASHELL #4 north of HANGOUT SPOT - optional if you want to collect it
• Fix arcade game at GINO’S PIZZA
  • Get 500+ points in SPROUT MOLE EATER and get SEASHELL #5 - optional if you want to collect it
• Go to CLUMSY GUY’S house
• Donate remaining CDs
• Donate x7 TRASH
• Donate all remaining MONEY to OLD HOBO (he will double it and give it back the next day if you need the MONEY)

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ONE DAY LEFT
MORNING

• Brush teeth
• Encourage MINCY at CHURCH
• Feed ORANGE CAT at HANGOUT SPOT behind FARAWAY PARK
  • Get SEASHELL #6 - optional if you want to collect it
• COIN at THICK EYEBROWS’ house; DOLLAR on fence in front of CHURCH
• Have AUBREY fix GRUFF GUY’S leak and get GHOULISH CD
• Help ALL-AMERICAN GUY find the TV REMOTE one last time (it's in the PIE in the kitchen)
• Send ANGEL back to ARTIST’S house
• PART TIME JOBS
  • Pizza delivery
  • Fly swatting
  • Organizing tools
• Get FLOWER CLIP from CHARLIE - optional, if you want to collect it
• Give GUITAR GUY packed lunch from JOY’S father to get SECRET CD
• Give FLOWERS to MARI (achievement)
  • Have a picnic with MARI
• Go to SEAN and KAREN’S house and help them cook
• Go to the HANGOUT SPOT, explore the RECYCULTIST'S HQ, and do the RECYCLEPATH
  • Give KEL ORANGE JOE and he'll be HAPPY! - optional
  • Give HERO the HERO SANDWICH and he'll be HAPPY! - optional
  • Win and get COOL BOTTLECAP (you only get the item if you win, but you get the achievement regardless)
• Donate x6 TRASH
  • Get ETHEREAL CD

AFTERNOON

• Encourage MINCY at FARAWAY PARK (you get a sketch of SUNNY and KEL)
• Feed ORANGE CAT at MARI’S GRAVE and get TRANQUIL CD
• COIN besides blue picnic blanket at FARAWAY PARK; DOLLAR at GRUFF GUY’S HOUSE
• Have a picnic at HANGOUT SPOT (achievement)
• Go to SEAN and KAREN’s housewarming party
• Donate remaining CDs