REPOST PRICE DROPS VALID UNTIL I GO TO THE POST OFFICE AROUND 4pm EST
Hope everyone's having a great Monday. Trying to make some space in the collection/maybe experiment with more modded spydies. Trade interests include Pena X Mula micarta models, Chaves 229s, other shamans, kapara, or a compression lock lil native or sage 5, but will entertain all offers. Can put money on top depending on the trade. Adjusted prices are now firm and shipped TYD - Paypal FF, Venmo, Cashapp
YOLO’S WITHIN THE NEXT 4HRS SHIP TODAY
Updated Timestamp/Pics from previous post
Spyderco Para 3 LW Bd1n w/ TiTech Titanium Scales - This one is carried, used, and sharpened. The tip is slightly rounded/chipped, but otherwise in decent shape. I tried to show this in the photos to my best ability. I just swapped to the titanium scales a few days ago which add new washers (yes a 2nd is added). These are still breaking in so action is a little stiff, but much better than the original LW. It is flickable and will drop shut with a little wrist... no it is no longer lightweight. However, the added heft, better action, and better centering (still favors clip side though) is an improvement imo. These scales are $75 new and a several week wait from the UK. I have another set on the way, but use this knife as my guinea pig. I will be doing the same with my XHP LW. Does not come with box, but does come with original FRN scales. SV: $120 NOW $108
Spyderco Shaman Serrated S30v DLC Blade w/ MetonBoss Frag Aluminum Scales and LynchNW Clip - I am not the original owner, so consider it lightly used and carried, but near new condition. I have carried it around the house and flicked it a bunch, but cut very little if at all myself. Action is still breaking in when compared to my older M4 sham, but flickable and drop shut at this point. Very slight lock stick that I'm sure will work out. Pretty well centered, favors clip side slightly if anything. I did a dremel nub delete, but left a small amount of material if you'd like to finish it nicer than I did. Attempted to show this in photos as well. These scales are $90 new always out of stock. (I WILL SELL THEM SEPARATE. IF SCALES ARE YOLO'D BEFORE KNIFE IS, I WILL KEEP THE KNIFE TO TRY ANOTHER SET). That said, I am only selling this knife to try another shaman build. I have been addicted to modding spydies lately, so just looking to try new things. Knife will come in original box and include original black g10 scales and clip.
Complete knife SV: $275 NOW $247
Scales Only SV: $80 firm
Thanks for looking, YOLO is king, but feel free to shoot offers or questions!

Right now at ~lvl90 40vig/18st15dex/9int/40fth/9arc. Been rocking the broadsword since the beginning (confessor class) and eventually went to cold affinity, which helped, but still a bit difficult to use as the enemies get more hp (currently +17 with a +20 finger seal in off hand) and the reach sucks for enemies that move around a lot, whiff city. I'm thinking of utilizing my sombers for a melee weapon since the seal is already at +20. I have the somber 8/9 from Caelid, just need the 7 (of course). I'm leaning towards the magma wyrm scalesword (already have it) but also considering the godslayer greatsword.
Scrolling through the faith scaling weapons on the wiki, Inquistor's Girandole looks interesting. I had never seen that one mentioned before, let alone had it. B faith scaling at +10, does physical and fire damage plus passive blood loss. Seems odd that you can't use AoWs since it doesn't even have a special skill, just the typical spear skill Charge Forth. Could be a contender, though.
Magma whip also looks kind of fun. I've had the basic whip equipped (with Golden Vow AoW) for pretty much the entire game. It's actually been surprisingly useful in a variety of situations. Great for flying enemies.
I'm looking to be a primary faith caster through the second half of the game but I want a capable melee option, hopefully one that can carry me through the endgame but once the bell bearings are available then I can upgrade something that's available later in the game. Anyway, open to suggestions.
Note: Yes, I know Blasphemous Blade is the best faith weapon but feels a little cheaty. I've fooled with it on another build and L2 is a little too ridiculous. I don't have the discipline to *not* constantly spam L2. :)

The previous part of the chapter
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Grata Revenite

"AHHHHHHHHHHH. NOT THIS AGAIN!" You scream yourself awake.
Looking around, you scared everybody up in the teacher's office.
"What's wrong, Mr Nestor?" Someone asks you.
"A rough job being a new head teacher, huh?" They chuckle.
"Yeah. Hahaha- Huh?" You stare at them in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"After Mr Mortimer left, you got the position."
"Ohh yeah, I remember that. Silly me." You laugh.
Mr Mortimer left a long time ago to return to his wife. How can you forget that? Probably from a lot of work.
"Oh, It's time for Class 8E." You walk along that hallway thinking about life.
You still remember the first time you are here. You were a crumbling mess but now? You become a part of the academy, a part of the family.
"A part of our family." Quinn's voice blooms from behind.
"Good day Quinn."
"Yeah. Good day." You can see her smirking beneath the mask.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, It’s just surprising to see."
“See what? Don’t leave me hanging.” You chuckle.
“Why don’t we talk while walking to class?”
“Sure.”
You two walk along the hallway, echoing footsteps following from behind. Somehow you feel uneasy when being near her. Fear in your mind
“To see that mortal can just... forget something... What's your opinion, Aid? I mean Nestor.”
“Aids? You keep calling me by that old name.” You laugh.
“Yeah yeah.”
“Alright, we are here.” You walk up to the door and knock. “Pardon me. Hello class!”
Some students look at you surprised but most of them look normal.
"What's with the silence?" You chuckle while taking out the attendance list. "Alright! Miss Déchu?"
"Here."
"Mr Ermengild?"
"Here."
"Mr Oddmund-"
"IS THIS CLASS 8-" A student screamed while entering the classroom.
Slice!
The student's head slowly drops to the ground. Blood is gushing out like a poked water balloon. Isn't it a familiar sight to see?
"Oh, Hades! Not again." You put down the clipboard and stop the head that rolls toward you with your foot. "Quinn! Can you call the janitor? Please?"
“Sure.” Quinn got up and walked out of the classroom.
Some students scream in shock, others puke out the window and the remaining students turn pale.
"Come on kids. It's just a dead body. Don't puke out the window, we are on the first floor, not the ground floor." You sigh while returning to the whiteboard.
When you turn your back against the board, you are met with a strange stare from the students.
“What’s wrong?” You speak.
“Who are you?” Elio’s amber eyes filled with concern.
“I’m… your teacher?”
“No. No, you’re not. Aid won’t act like this.”
“I've always been like this.” You smile softly.
“Aid would scream.” Ubel shares her opinion.
“Well, it's been a long time. People change." You sense the feeling of uneasiness filling the room.
"It's- only been a week...since you been here and then you went missing for 2 days ." Cedric stands up and walks toward you. "Who are you?"
"What? You're kidding." You laugh awkwardly.
"I knew it." A cold voice breaks the silence, it's Quinn. "Well, today's classes are cancelled then."
No one dares to move a muscle as she stares into the class and everyone's souls. The sharp sound of her footsteps echoing make you flinch while the janitor mops up the floor and collects the body.
"I thought you done the job I gave you..." Quinn stares at Pattinson who has been quiet.
"I'll do it myself then." Quinn smiles and claps her hands. "Let's do it by numbers."
"Block the door." The room turns dim. Dark cloudy figures surround the room.
"What was that!" Elna's body trembles.
"A magic trick," Quinn replies sarcastically.
"Angelica! My sweet fallen angel. Let's get your memories fixed." She takes off her mask.
Angelica slowly gets up and walks toward Quinn, her eyes filling with fear.
"P...please don't hurt me." Tears roll down her face.
"Awww. Don't cry, sweetheart. You won't be like Marakira." Quinn strokes her cheek and whips her tears.
She kisses Angelica's forehead tenderly before giving Angelica the pill to swallow. She falls to the ground.
"Alright, Merkel!" She calls out.
“No!” He yells.
“Come here or the porcupine die.” Quinn said coldly.
Merkel runs toward her trying to bite off her hand with rage. Quinn smacks him, sending Merkel to the wall. Your student groans before Quinn shoves the pill down his throat.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blerim screamed while trying to get up from his seat.
"Shut up." Quinn turns her head toward the remaining students.
Blerim's mouth was sealed shut, unable to speak.
One by one, your students walk up to eat the pills and they fall to the ground.
"Take them to their room."
The dark figures start lifting the students' bodies out of the classroom.
Only Pattinson, the Scholar students and you remain in the class.
“Quinn. What is all of this?” You break the silence.
“Nothing, Nestor. Everything is fine. Someone just doesn’t do their job.”
"Quinn, I'm sorry but I couldn't do it." Pattinson tries to speak.
"I know. I'll let this slide. Now, mortals. Eat it." Quinn throws the pills onto their tables.
"I can't force you to eat it." Quinn sits on one of the tables. "You will die in my hands."
"What is it?" Geun Hyun-Shik grabs the pill in front of him calmly.
"Well, thanks to my lovely 'aunt', Mnemosyne. I can fix all of your memories." Quinn chuckle.
"What will I forget!? What will it do to my head? " Geun In-Su shouted.
"Not forget, just bend the mind.” Quinn chuckle. “I suggest you take it. Better for you and better for me.”
“No.” Geun In-Su throws it away.
“Fine.” Quinn snaps her fingers.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” Geun Hyun-Shik fell out of his chair and scream on the ground.
“STOP IT!” Geun In-Su cry while leaping toward his brother.
“Well, would you eat the pill now?”
You stare at them dumbfounded, deep down something makes you fear her. Pattinson looks at the ground timidly.
“MAKE IT STOP! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! DAD! DON’T HIT ME” Geun Hyun-Shik continue to scream, pulling his hair, and scratching his arms.
“FINE!” Geun In-Su grabs the pill and makes his brother swallows it then does the same to himself.
“Good boy. Take them to their room. Now you.” Quinn point to Elna.
“S…sure.” She holds the pill with her trembling hand.
“Stop it!” Cedric pulls out his ring and turns it into a golden knuckle duster. “What are you?”
“A god.” She laughs. “Pin him down.”
The dark figures appear again. Now trying to pin Cedric down.
“Get away from me!” Cedric punches the figures.
“Eat it, Elna.” Quinn walks toward her.
“no.”
“What?”
“I said NO!” Elna whipped out her necklace changing it to a baton with a silver handle and try to hit Quinn with it.
“Oh. So you chose death? Interesting. How about some nightmares?” Again, she snaps her fingers and the two students scream in pain.
“How about now?”
“N…NO!” Cedric scream. “TELL ME. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO OUR CLASS AND OUR TEACHER?” He points toward you.
“Maybe you shouldn’t do it.” Pattinson grabs Quinn’s shoulder.
“Get out.” Her void-like eyes filled with anger.
"Yes, Ma'am." Pattinson slowly walks toward the door and leaves the class. "I'm sorry."
“P..please help us.” Elna crawls toward your feet.
You don't understand what is going on. Looking at Elna, you take a step backwards.
"Maybe if you listen to her, you won't have to suffer." You can't believe what you just said.
"W...What?"
"Mortals can't win. We can just follow." You smile while picking up the pill and force Elna to eat it.
"It's for the greater good." Your broken smile makes her go quiet. "Come on. Don't be difficult."
"Please, Aid. H...help me." Tears roll down her cheeks.
"My name is Nestor."
"N..no. No. No. You let us call you Aid because you want to help us! You're not Nestor!"
Her scream wakes something in you. Does Mr Mortimer leave to go back to his wife? Have You been here for only a week? And is your name really Nestor?
"W..who am I?" The pill drop from your hand rolling away.
Elna tries to crawl her way toward the door.
"Don't you dare." You plug your dagger into her ankles out of instinct.
"AHHHHHHH." She let out an agonising cry.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ELNA?" Cedric whose been fighting the figures rushed toward Elna but got stopped by Quinn.
"Rule number 1. Don't turn away from the hunter." She snaps his legs.
"Now that you two are unable to fight. Stay!" Quinn turns her attention toward you again.
"No. No. No. I didn't mean to. I didn't" You balled up against the wall.
"Nestor? Are you alright? You did a great job." Quinn reaches her hand toward you.
"My name is Aid!" You shriek as the broken memories start to piece together.
"So, it came back." Quinn stares at your face so close that you can see the crop's skin on the left face fall off.
"What have you done to me?" Your senses start to come back. Seeing your students injured hurts you to your very core.
You hold your dagger tightly before stabbing it into Quinn's eyes.
"If you remember everything then you should know that you can't kill me." She pulls the dagger out of her eyes and breaks it in her hand again.
"You won't escape me. You can't." She grabs your face. "I won't let you go, my lovely nourishment. You're suffering and pain is the sweetest."
"h..help." You can see Elna bleeding out.
"Save them! Please! I beg you." You start to wail.
"That's so adorable. You're making me cry." Quinn whips blood off her cheek.
"Eat it." She grabs the pills that roll around when they were fighting and drop them in their grasp.
The two students grab them with the little power they have left before eating them.l
"Now it's just you and me." She grabs your face again.
"P..Please don't." You crawl away from her.
"I won't kill you. Just going to fix you again." She smirks while the room turns to pitch dark like the void.
"No. No. Not this again."
"Look into my eyes. Just a little fix and you will become a part of the family. Our family" Quinn's eyes begin to glow.
"A...a part of the family. Our family"
l
l
l
…Beep beep beep... The annoying sound of the alarm clock wakes you up as always, you have fallen asleep while planning your lessons and being the headteacher is not an easy role to fill. You stretch your back and start to get ready.
While you walk to class, you see many students running around, and some teachers grabbing coffee and talking.
"Pardon me." You knock 3 times and walk into the room. "Good morning Class 8E!"
"Good morning Mr Nestor!" The class replied.
Cedric and Elna beam with joy while you teach. You never feel this alive in a long time, you felt as if you are a part of this school.
After the bell rings dismiss the class. Quinn walks up to you and whispers.
"Grata Revenite, Nestor."
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
"Now. Are you interested in making deal with us?"
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Writer's note: This is the end of the Atrare Auroral Academia. Thank you so much for following this series and being patient. Again, thank you.
All of the Atrare Auroral Academia chapters' links

I'm not particularly a religious person. I never really connected with the idea of believing in a God or a Devil; something like religion never really resonated with me until the night a few of my friends and I explored the Lockwood house.
My mother gave me a laptop this morning; she thought that it might help me cope or whatever so here I am, typing what I remember. I haven't been able to sleep; there's a shadow that stands in the corner of my hospital room at night, and sometimes I hear voices inside my head telling me to do things, and I'm terrified.
No one believes me. They keep stating that my traumatizing experience must have triggered my anxiety. They called it a dissociation or detachment from reality, I think. Whatever. I know that what I saw in that house was real, and what had happened to my friends actually did happen. We just wanted an experience. We never really stopped to evaluate the risks that might come with it.
I guess I'll start from the beginning.
It was Friday morning, and I decided to kill some time in the library across from my high school. The greatest thing about being in a library was the calming atmosphere. I leaned forward on the worn sofa and rolled my eyes as I turned the page.
What? I scoffed. Why is this even a thing someone would think is even remotely attractive?
[ I am a lot to handle, but I can assure you that you'll have fun handling me, love ]
Seriously? I've met drunk perverts hanging outside of bars with better pick up lines than that I thought to myself. I didn't think it could get any cringier until I read the next line.
[ My heart did an unexpected flip, startled by his bizarrely attractive smile ]
I frowned inwardly. You know what you really need instead of a creepy-ass stalker boyfriend? A cardiology consult
"So annoying," I sighed. How is this tripe a best seller?
"What's annoying?"
"Oh, shit." I squeaked. I sat upright and turned around, instinctively about to clog the person when I realized who it was. Harlen leaned up against the wall with a tilted smirk on his face. He stood between me and the fluorescents.
Harlen was a fellow classmate and a friend of Mark's, who was an older guy Albie, and I guess Harlen hung out with. Harlen was a tall, attractive guy with an athletic build, short obsidian hair, and grey eyes. To quote the main character in the novel, Harlen was the kind of trouble smarter girls than I had fallen into with disastrous results and a few regrets.
My cheeks flushed and I closed the book as he cocked his head at me. "Did I seriously scare you?" He joked, but his smile faltered slightly as I glared up at him.
"Dude," I groaned. "Don't sneak up on me like that,"
"What? I didn't sneak," He crossed his arms over his chest in protest. "No sneaking was involved. I just walked over here. And to be fair, this is a library-silence is sacred in a library so technically we're supposed to sneak. We're also the only ones in here right now anyway, so who cares."
My eyes did a pointed sweep of the decidedly empty area before settling back on Harlen's with an unamused glower. "Yeah," I said. "I'm pretty sure the zero other people in here appreciate the deceptive aura of calm. What are you doing here?"
"Well, actually I was doing some research for a paper I'm writing for English." He tightened his grip on his bookbag. "I was told I'd find you here," He explained.
"Why?" I asked. "I didn't tell anyone that I was here."
"I've got my ways of tracking people down."
When he saw my expression, Harlen rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on Kaya. I'm just kidding! Is it really that weird that I happen to be in here the same time as you?"
"I guess not."
"I'll let you get back to reading, then. Oh," He started. "I almost forgot. Meet us down at the Love Triangle for lunch. I found a cool place for us to urbex."
My friends and I loved urban exploring. Most of the time it was exciting and exhilarating. Sometimes it was a challenge; some places were remote enough that you could simply walk in through the front door like a welcomed visitor. Other times we would be forced to climb up over fences or crawl through windows.
There was this one time we decided to check out a drainage tunnel because a few people have sworn they heard ominous laughter coming from it. Water seeped into our clothes and we shivered at the coldness. I remember that I cracked a joke about the movie "IT" when we suddenly heard a loud BOOM right next to our heads. I have no idea what caused the sound, but I doubt that it was anything paranormal.
I was in the middle of stabbing at a large crouton with my fork when Harlen, Albie, and Jessica took their seats at the table.
"Hey, Kaya," Albie said as he sat down beside me. Albie and I have been friends since we were little. He was a skinny black guy with a box fade haircut and light brown eyes. We were neither popular nor unpopular. We were what some people called, "drifters" and, according to Albie, those whose social standings meant that if he made random eye contact with someone in the halls he would probably get a nod back, and maybe even a quick "Hey" or "What's up" If you didn't know us personally you'd likely assume that we were siblings, especially with the way we acted around each other most of the time.
"What took you guys so long?" I asked, pointing my fork in his direction.
"It was my fault. I'm sorry." He grumbled, as he unzipped his lunch bag. "Mr. Wizzner chastised me for like, ten minutes."
"To be fair, You were looking at your phone in class." Jessica said. Jessica was Albie's girlfriend, a petite girl with long blond hair, and hazel eyes. "And that wasn't the only thing,"
Albie sighed. "You're not wrong, but he's kind of an asshat."
"You should use that filter once in a while," Jessica said.
"Oh baby, since when have you known me to have such a filter?"
"Oh please," I scoffed. "You just choose not to use it."
Albie gave me a frown and tossed a baby carrot my way, which I was able to dodge easily.
Harlen cleared his throat as he pulled out his phone. "So, shall we get to it, then?"
The Lockwood house had been abandoned for years now, but a few people who have walked the trail close to the place have claimed they could see the spirits of the family walking around inside, and others had even heard music coming from the house. When they went to investigate, there was no one inside.
In 2010 Ethan Lockwood brutally murdered his wife, Anna Lockwood, and her parents Steven and Isabelle Thompson in the middle of the night. Authorities found Anna's parents dead in their bedroom; both of their bodies were in pieces, and their daughter's body was found in the basement. Anna had multiple blunt force head injuries and what's worse, her eyes and tongue were missing. Ethan's body was found in the living room with a shotgun beside him, and a deep laceration on his neck. People have compared this to the Amityville horror - which was a huge reason we were doing this.
"Get this," Harlen said, as he scrolled down. "There was a survivor - a ten year old boy. He also had a twin brother, but he was never found."
Some have assumed the father killed him and buried his body somewhere on the property, and others have assumed the boy escaped and is probably alive under a new identity. I guess we'll never know.
"Holy crap. What happened to the boy who survived?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess that part was kept confidential," Albie said. "For the boy's protection I guess."
"Poor baby," Jessica frowned.
"So," Harlen said. "Are you guys up for it?"
◇
We all crawled into Harlen's truck around 6pm and headed to the Lockwood house. Albie took his video recorder and held it in front of his face. "Hey, what's up guys, gals, and nonbinary folks!" Albie spoke with conviction as he stared wide-eyed in the video recorder. "We're going to prove that ghosts are real!"
I rolled down the window and glanced out at the scenery. I laughed to myself when we passed a large cornfield. "Guys, this seriously looks like we're going straight into a modern day horror film."
"It really does," Jessica agreed.
"I can already feel this place, I'm beginning to sweat all over." Albie exclaimed as he turned his camera to the window then back on himself.
"Like something about this place isn't right at all? That's pretty understandable, considering." Harlen said, turning down a gravel road.
"We're gonna recieve a ton of views for this!" Albie smiled. He turned the camera toward Harlen who waved back from the review mirror.
"Dude," Harlen chuckled. "I bet some of these viewers are going to think you're crazy because you're willing to allow something to throw you across the room and-possibly-murder you for content."
We pulled up to the gate in front of the two - story colonial home. There was already a green van parked outside the gate to the property. Mark greeted us at the gate with a colorful bottle of vodka. Mark was an average looking guy in his early 20s with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. He raised the bottle in his right hand with shot glasses in the other.
"Hey, guys," Mark handed each of us a shot glass. "Did you get here alright?"
"Oh yeah. I've driven passed this place a couple of times, I didn't even need the GPS" Harlen said.
"This definitely screams illegal." I commented, pointedly toward the large house.
"Only if we get caught, but this place is abandoned so I doubt we'll get into any trouble with the law." Harlen said.
"I'm giving you alcohol, and you're more worried about "breaking and entering"? Mark laughed.
Albie took his shot of the Three Olives Loopy vodka and made a face. "This tastes like Tucan Sam fucked me."
"Ew," Jessica grimaced.
Harlen and I laughed. Mark only snorted.
After we each had several shots of vodka, we got ready. We each grabbed a headlight in order to keep our hands free, gloves, and disposable face masks and placed them into our backpacks, along with first aid (just in case). Mark had been urbexing for a while, and he was always prepared with supplies just in case anyone forgot to bring something.
"So, what happens if we're not alone in the house?" Jessica asked.
Even though urbex sites are technically "abandoned" that didn't mean you wouldn't run into other people inside like squatters or addicts, and they may not react well to seeing a stranger in their space.
"It's a good thing I brought this along," Mark said. He pushed his jacket aside and revealed a hand gun tucked inside its holster.
"Holy crap, man." Harlen said.
"I can't believe you brought a gun." Albie said.
Jessica and I were speechless. It's a good idea to bring some sort of self defense tool just in case your physical safety is threatened, but bringing something like a gun raises the risk of you accidentally injuring yourself.
"Of course I did. It's always good to carry protection." Mark explained.
A few minutes after, the five of us walked up to the large rusted gate. With a little bit of work, we each slipped through the bars and headed up to the house.
"You know those haunted attractions where people dress up in order to scare the shit out of you, except it's actual demons and they're going to steal your soul!" Jessica smiled beside Albie who threaded his fingers through hers. "It's actually kinda thrilling."
"Awesome," Harlen smirked. "I'm glad you sound so optimistic about it."
"I try to be!"
We stepped up onto the porch, which wrapped around the front of the house. The paint on the door was chipped with age in places. "Are you guys ready?" Harlen asked. "Once we enter this house, we will possibly become vulnerable to any demonic presence that might reside here."
I rolled my eyes. "If I'm in serious danger, I'm getting out. I'll throw myself out the window if I have to."
"I'm on Kaya's team," Jessica agreed. "Team rational."
"What, and risk getting a broken leg?" Albie asked.
"Better a broken leg than having your soul taken by some kind of entity." I replied.
"Alright, guys let's do this." Harlen said. He opened the door and the five of us headed inside.
The front door opened up into a foyer. Straight ahead of us was a staircase that led up to the second floor. There was a spacious living room to our right and a dining room to our left, and from there, an alcove enterance that led into the kitchen. I could tell that this place had been abandoned for years; there was cobwebs and peeled paint on the walls. There were remnants of furniture left ripped, dismantled, and stained which laid disorderly on the floor of the living room, reminding me of death.
This had once been the home of a happy upper-class family, full of life. Now it was replaced by ghosts of the past, vermin, spiders, dirt, and trash. The smell of rot and the taste of regurgitated food made me grimace in disgust.
"Why hasn't anyone fix this place up and put it back on the market?" Jessica asked.
"Who really knows," Albie replied.
"Hello!" Harlen announced as he twirled on his heels. "Are there any spirits here?" I glanced over at Harlen with a look and he shrugged.
"Is this what you guys imagined?" Mark queried.
"Sure, minus the dead bodies," I walked into the living room and spotted a mid century record player console propped up against the wall next to a grand piano. There was a record still on the turntable, "Tonight You Belong To Me" by "Patience and Prudence"
"Hey, come check this out." Out of curiosity I placed the stylus and tried turning it on, not really expecting anything to happen. I jerked my hand away when it began to play.
I quickly took the needle off, a little creeped out. "Holy crap, that scared me."
"That thing still works?" Albie asked, as he inspected the record player. "That song is kinda sweet,"
"No it isn't," Jessica frowned. "It's the kind of song you would hear while being tortured to death."
After we goofed around a little bit, we all decided to begin exploring around the house. Mark started up the stairs and asked if anyone would like to join him.
"I'll join you, man." Harlen said. He gave me a wink before heading towards the stairs with Mark, and I glanced over at Albie and Jessica as they disappeared down the hall.
I was alone.
I walked over to the piano, and carefully lifted the lid up and over to reveal its keys. My fingers traced the lines in between them and pushed down lightly on a few. The deep sounds reverberated around the room.
My eyes drifted up to the small picture frame sitting on top of the piano. I absent-mindedly bit my bottom lip and reached up to grab the frame. My fingers trailed across the picture, leaving an oily impression against the glass that held the picture in place. A family of four stared back at me and I realized that it was Ethan, Anna, and their twin boys. I was so focused on the twins that I almost didn't hear my phone alerting me that I had a new text message.
It was a text from Albie.
From "Albie" at 6:45pm: Meet us down in the basement. I want to show u something.
To "Albie" at 6:46pm: What is it?
From "Albie" at 6:46pm: There's some cool shit down here. Hurry up.
I rolled my eyes and placed my phone in my pocket as I made my way down the hall. I paused at the top of the basement stairs. I could hear Jessica and Albie, the beems from their headlights bouncing around.
"Albie?" I called out.
"Yeah, Kaya, we're down here." He replied. "Come on down. We have something to show you."
"Alright, I'm coming down hold on." I carefully descended the stairs and turned the corner. "So, what did you want to show me-"
My voice died in my throat. It was dark down here, and my friends were nowhere to be seen. I was gripped by a sudden sense of unnease. I stood near the stairs and turned on my headlamp. "Hello? Albie, this isn't funny, dude."
What answered me was silence. Absolute silence. I was alone, or I thought I was until my light fell onto something moving a few feet in front of me. It was an androgynous looking kid around my age with pale skin, shoulder-length black hair, and violet eyes. They wore a long sleeve gothic cloak poncho, over thin black leggings. Their lips pulled back into a malicious grin as they came closer to me. I watched in horror as their eyes rolled to the back of their head and their mouth split open wide, revealing sharp teeth.
They reached out for me and I screamed in terror, my instincs finally kicked in. I bolted up the steps, and stumbled into the hallway. I ran for the front door and tried to leave, but it wouldn't open. What the hell?! that made no damn sense! My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Suddenly I felt something touch my shoulder. I screamed, ready to defend myself.
"Hey. Hey! Kaya, stop it's me, Albie."
I stopped struggling as my eyes refocused on the familiar faces in front of me. Albie, Jessica, and Harlen stared back at me with confused alarm.
"Are you alright?" Harlen asked. "What happened?"
I shook my head and quickly glanced behind them at the basement door, but there was nothing there. I know I hadn't imagined it! I turned my attention back to my friends. "I saw something down in the basement! I want to leave. Now."
"What are you talking about, Kaya? Hold up, did you see something down there? Holy shit. The ghosts didn't think one of us would see them, but we did. Can you-"
Before Albie can finish his sentence, I roughly pushed him away from me and turned back to the door. "Damnit, Albie! I don't want to be in this fucking house anymore! It won't open! Why won't it open!"
"Seriously, Kaya what the hell?" Albie asked, almost annoyed.
"Just relax, Kaya. Let me give it a try, alright?" Harlen offered, calmly. He grabbed the knob, but it stayed shut. "What the hell?"
"See? I told you it won't open!" I hissed.
"What do you mean, "it won't open" let me give it a try." Albie shoved his way passed us. He motioned for all of us to stand back and we watched as he tried to use his whole body against it.
"M-maybe the door's jammed." Jessica exclaimed. "Let's chill out. The front door isn't the only exit out of this place."
"Jessica's right. Let's try the door in the kitchen." Harlen said. We entered the kitchen and Harlen quickly made his way over to the screen door that faced the forest. He cursed under his breath. "Damnit. Nothing."
"Hold up, guys. Where's Mark?" Albie asked.
Harlen quickly pulled his phone out to call Mark when we all collectively got a text from him. Reminding us that we had set up a group chat for easy contact. Harlen glanced back at me with an odd expression I couldn't name. I opened my texts and a sharp stab of dread settled in my stomach.
From "Mark" at 7:05pm: I'm down in the basement, Harlen. Where r u?
From "Mark" at 7:06pm: Harlen is that u? It's not funny, man.
Harlen texted Mark that we were all in the kitchen. I watched as the three small dots in a text bubble pending before it disappeared and Harlen's cell phone rang. He answered and placed Mark on speaker phone.
"What the hell do you mean you're in the kitchen? I definitely heard your voice down here."
Harlen cursed, and told Mark to make his way to the kitchen. Harlen started toward the basement and we all followed right behind him. Before we could reach the stairs to the basement, however, the door swung shut, the force of it knocked us backwards. We heard Mark's gun go off several times followed by his peircing screams of terror before they were abruptly cut short. In our inebriated panic, I failed at the last second to realize we were all running in different directions.
I remember running up the stairs and locking the bathroom door behind me. My heart pounded painfully against my ribcage as I fumbled for my phone, thankful that it hadn't fallen out of my pocket. I willed myself to control my sobs and called 911, but for some reason my call wouldn't go through.
"Nononono! Fuck, please no." I collapsed against the bathtub and cried into my sleeves. Paranoia nearly consumed me once I thought of my friends and every horrible scenario when I received a text from Albie. I looked at it confused.
I wiped the snot from my face and quickly texted him back. How in the hell was I able to receive his texts when I couldn't get ahold of the cops?
From "Albie" at 7:20pm: Apparently we can contact each other in this house, but our phone's service seems to be cut off from the outside world. Where r u?
What the hell is going on in this place??
To "Albie" at 7:21pm: I'm in the upstairs bathroom. Do u know where Harlen and Jess are?
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: Jess is with me. I don't know where Harlen is.
My stomach dropped, but before I could reply Albie sent another text, and what I read made my blood run cold.
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: There is smthing moving in the hallway outside the room we r in. Stay quiet and keep ur phone on silent. If we need to contact each other use text.
It was around thirty minutes after when Albie replied with another text updating me with their situation. The thing stalking outside their room a while ago was gone now, and it hadn't come back.
From "Albie" at 8:00pm: We're going to make our way to you. Stay where u r
To "Albie" at 8:02pm: Ok. Be careful.
I slowly got to my feet and set my phone down beside the sink and took a deep breath to level my breathing. Suddenly, I heard something pound against the door. I screamed and stumbled backward. "Holy shit!"
"Kaya?" It was Harlen. "Kaya, is that you?"
"H-Harlen?" I collected myself and made my way over to the bathroom door. I walked into the hallway, relieved that I wasn't alone anymore. Harlen was safe, thank God. "Oh my god, Harlen I'm so glad you're-"
I gasped, and I stumbled forward as the door behind me slammed shut. I felt a sudden wave of dread wash over me as my eyes swept up and down the vacant hallway. Whatever was keeping us here tricked me. I quickly tried going back into the bathroom, but it wouldn't open, not only that but I left my phone by the sink. "No! Damnit!" I needed my phone, it was my only way to stay in contact with my friends, and how was Albie going to know where I was? I had two options, I could try and make my way to Albie or find another place to hide.
My heart thudded loudly in my ears as my headlamp bounced off the walls, chasing nothing more than shadows. I stuck close to the wall as I made my way down the hall. From somewhere down the hall, I heard a voice call out. It was Albie's voice telling me to come over to him. I hesitated for a moment. What if it was another trick? It definitely could be since whatever is toying with us was capable of mimicking voices. What if it really was Albie? Regardless, I had to go passed the room if I wanted to find Albie or another place to hide.
"Kaya, we're in here," Albie whispered to me as I got closer to one of the bedrooms. I hesitated before I stepped inside. The bedroom smelled awful, like rotten meat hung out in the sun for too long. My headlamp's light swept the room until it landed on a lone figure lying face-up on the bed.
"...Albie?" I whispered, tentatively. My voice sounded thin, like old paper. The figure on the bed didn't answer, but when I crept closer, I slipped on something wet. I glanced down at the floor. It was blood; a trail of blood led in from the doorway all the way to the bed. "Oh my god!" I screamed. My stomach rebelled and I heaved out my lunch until I couldn't expel anything else.
My throat burned as I wiped my mouth, and my chest hurt from sobbing out his name. Mark laid sprawled on the bed, his abdomen was ripped open and what remained of his entrails spilled over his body like a gory blanket. I stumbled backward, I fell against the door closing it shut. I was about to leave when I spotted the gun tucked under Mark's jacket.
Oh god, this was probably the worst decision ever and the likelihood that this was yet another trick was high, but I needed something to protect myself with. I've watched Mark use it before when we all went camping a year ago, so I kind of knew how to use it. I steeled myself and started toward the bed.
The closer I got the more I can see the damage done to his body; his abdomen and chest cavity were open and hollowed out. The skin looked like it was rolled back, torn and ragged. His sternum was completely gone, a few of his ribs were cracked so they protruded from either side of his body like fangs. Half of his bottom lip looked like it was chewed off and his left ear was missing. I shook my head and tentatively reached out for the gun. Just as I grabbed it, I felt something gooey covered on the grip of the gun.
I yelped and dropped it on the floor. I cursed and bent down to pick it up. Once I did I wiped the substance off with my sleeve with a grimace and made sure the safety was on. I was tucking it into my jacket pocket when something dripped onto my hand. I looked up and saw Mark or what used to be Mark looming over me from the ceiling like Spiderman. His eyes were oily black, his face twisted in an agonized and vengeful expression. Before I could move, he threw himself at me.
Somehow, I managed to dodge him and wrench the door open, hitting Mark as he lunged at me. The blow was hard enough that it sent Mark sprawling across the floor. I rushed out of the room and back into the empty hallway. I took a chance and looked back, but Mark wasn't there.
When I reached the end of the hallway, I felt hands grab me and pull me around the corner. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth, silencing me. Panic cut through my body like a hot blade, and new found adrenaline flooded my system as I twisted and shoved at the person holding me immobile.
"Kaya, stop," Albie hissed. "It's me."
I turned around and my eyes widened with tears as Albie released his hand from my mouth, and Jessica pulled me into a hug as I told them what happened. Albie pointed towards the stairs and motioned for us to follow. Albie led us into the foyer. We heard movement in the basement so as quickly and quietly as we could, we crawled inside a closet across from the living room.
"What are we going to do?" Jessica asked. "We have no weapons!"
"I found this on Mark's body." I exclaimed as I showed them the hand gun.
Albie got to his feet. "ah, crap...I'm going to be right back. I left my camera in the kitchen."
"What? Hell no." I hissed. Splitting up is a terrible Idea! Risking his life for that damn camera? Was he an idiot?
"Just stay here, alright? Kaya, keep that gun out." He said, with no room for an argument. "Whatever this thing is, it can mimic our voices so we'll need a password to distinguish them from us." He took out his phone and typed Last Alliance
After he left, I crawled over to the door and locked it. I sat down next to Jessica who was sobbing. I turned to her and placed my palms to her tear stained face. "Hey, Jess. We'll make it out of here alright? I promise-"
Jessica shook her head and pushed my hands away from her face. "Don't say that shit to me. We're going to die here, Kaya!" She hissed. "Why is this happening? I wanna go home!"
I sat back against the wall and sighed.
Ten minutes later I heard movement coming from outside the room. I quickly got to my feet and placed my hands on the door.
"Last Alliance," Albie whispered, rather quickly. "Hurry up and let me in."
I hadn't even released the door knob when Albie pushed passed me and helped Jessica to her feet without much protest on her end. "Shit, it was him all along."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"I caught it on camera!" He whispered frantically. "The reason he brought us out here wasn't to-shit-" he was breathing hard. He moved toward me and shoved the camera in my direction. "Here, hold onto it for-" His sentence was cut off abruptly as the thing that used to be Mark drilled his fist into Albie's chest from behind. Albie's eyes widened as his mind had come to the realization at what happened.
Mark dropped Albie's body on the ground and his lips twisted into a manic grin as he examined his blood-covered arm. "He was spying on us," Mark said, but it didn't sound like Mark anymore. His voice sounded like several voices overlapping, fighting for center stage. "He didn't think that we would notice, but we did."
We screamed, and holding onto the camera with one hand I pulled her toward me with the other, quickly. We couldn't save him, and I knew that if we didn't move now we would end up just like him.
Jessica and I bolted down the hallway and back up the stairs. We found an empty room that must have been a personal office at one point, and barricaded ourselves inside. I cursed when I noticed the room we were in didn't have a window wide enough for us to escape through. I sat against the wall beside Jessica who sobbed into her sleeves.
I glanced down at the camcorder which felt heavy in my hand. What did Albie capture on camera that had him so upset? I turned it on and what I saw on the screen made my blood run cold. It was Harlen, the kid from the basement who stood beside Harlen, and the thing that used to be Mark; Harlen was speaking to him, but it was in a strange language that I couldn't understand. After he was finished, the thing that used to be Mark knelt down as if Harlen was some kind of royalty, and that was where the video stopped.
I heard that thing right outside the room we were in. He was telling us that no matter what we did, we were not leaving this place. A few seconds later, he broke through the door, pushing the desk and chairs out of the way with ease. With the force, one of the chairs knocked me to the floor.
He released a sick and twisted laughter, and stalked toward me, eyes filled with malice. Jessica grabbed something heavy from the floor and chucked it at Mark. Mark was startled for a second, and then slowly turned his attention to her. She yelped and frantically swept her eyes around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. He lunged for her and they collided to the floor.
I fumbled for my jacket's zipper for the gun, but I was too late. I watched in utter horror as he ripped into my friend; her screams of terror and agony will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. I pulled myself to my feet, my back bumped into something hard. A metal filing cabinet. Mark turned his attention back on me, but before he could reach me, he tripped over something and he fell to the floor. I shifted, and using my whole body weight, I managed to tip it over. It landed on top of Mark with a sickening crunch of bone and viscera.
I slowly made my way to Jessica's body and collapsed to my knees. I clutched at my own head and screamed until it hurt. At that moment, all I wanted to do was crumble in defeat. My voice had broken into heavy sobs so loud and ugly that I almost didn't hear Harlen's footsteps behind me.
"Kaya, is that you?" He called out to me, his voice full of worry. I was hardly listening to him. This was his fault! Rage spiked through me like a knife to my gut, it twisted and turned until I was all ground beef inside; I had the sudden urge to pull the gun from my jacket and-no, I had to calm down. Maybe if I feigned ignorance, I might still have a chance to escape, however slim that was. He bent down, and I let him pull me along with him without protest. With his eyes forward, I slowly put my hand on the gun.
We were almost to the kitchen when Harlen turned around, and leaned against the wall. "So, you know, don't you."
It wasn't a question. I slowly pulled out the gun, unlocked it, and trained it on him. He stared at me with an unsettling expression, and I could have sworn his eyes were black. I suddenly felt an intense pressure pour down on me. I could feel a miasma of something intense as his eyes bore into mine; my arms trembled with the effort of keeping them aloft. The gun clenched tightly in my hands like a life line. I couldn't faulter. I knew that if I did, even for an instant, Harlen would undoubtedly kill me.
"Oh, don't be like that, Kaya. You're not getting out of this house unless I say so, so let's just chat, hm?"
I shook my head and raised the gun to his chest, and for a brief moment I caught a glimpse of a surprised expression on his face when I pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot reverberated around me. I pulled the trigger again and again, but the gun was empty. I dropped it to the floor, my hands shaking. He glanced down at himself. "Huh. Well, would ya look at that, you managed to get me through the ribs, good job."
I was running before Harlen finished his sentence. However, he wasn't coming after me-at least not yet. Figures. I couldn't leave this place so he had no reason to put much effort into the chase. I stumbled through the house, catching myself on overturned furniture in order to keep my balance as I made my way towards the stairs.
I tripped over something and I caught myself against the wall across from the stairs. I paused for a moment to catch my breath. The house seemed to resonate with his manic laughter. I glanced behind me, and I felt a wave of cold dread as he sauntered toward me down the hall. Hands in his pockets, with an almost amused expression.
"Where do you think you're going, Kaya?" He asked. "Didn't I tell you before?"
The words, "There is no escape" suddenly appeared all over the walls in blood. I cursed, and pushed myself off the wall and bolted up the steps, down the hall, and into one of the bedrooms and quickly closed the door. I looked around at what was once a child's room. There was a twin sized bed in the center of the room, a nightstand across from the closet, and a bathroom.
I spotted a decent sized window and I ran over to it, but it wouldn't open and I cursed when there was nothing around me to break it with. Without any time to come up with a plan, I quickly slid underneath the bed and turned off my headlamp. I immediately cursed at myself again, of all the places to hide I chose the first place any one would look!
I contemplated whether or not to find another hiding place, but before I could move I heard him make his way down the hall singing that creepy ass song. "My honey I know with the dawn that you will be gone, but tonight you belong to me, just little 'ol me~"
The bedroom door opened. I covered my mouth and tried to silence my breathing, hoping to God that he wouldn't find me under the bed. I watched in fear as he closed the door behind him and made his way over to the bed. The bed dipped slightly as Harlen's weight sank onto it. He told me things I didn't want to hear and more. This monster-this demon-slithered into our lives just for all of this to happen.
My eyes widened and I tucked my arms to my sides, the wooden bed frame gave a protest above me as Harlen laid down on top of it. Then he sighed, almost forlorn. "This was my brother's room, you know. Coming back here brings back so many memories,"
Right after he said that I felt something prickle behind my eyelids. I shut my eyes tightly as gruesome scenes appeared inside my head. There was so much blood, and images shown of a young boy in pajamas stalking through the house with an ax in his hands picking off his family members one by one-doing things a normal child his size wouldn't be able to do, but Harlen was anything but normal. I felt bile rise in my throat but I managed to keep it down.
"The final stage of grief is acceptance, Kaya." He said. His cruel voice brought me back to the present. "You have a lot of spirit, I like that. I'm also in a good mood so I'll give you two options: you can either die here or you can come with me. You should be grateful that I'm even giving you an option. So, what's it going to be?"
I opened my mouth and closed it again; what was I supposed to say to something like that? What was going to happen to me if I said yes? If I said no...
A low growl -yes, a growl- rumbled above me and I felt something snag my ankle. I panicked, my fingers tore into the wooden floor as I was dragged out from underneath the bed. I was thrown across the room, pain shot up my back as something bit into my spine. Harlen straightened up and started toward me. I quickly averted my gaze, the panic swarmed all over me like a hive of angry bees.
"Wh-why are you d-doing this?" I asked, my breath hitched between sobs.
Harlen knelt down in front of me. "Hey...hey look at me, Kaya."
Absolute terror gripped me as he forced me to look at him. His features weren't human; the light of the moon highlighted the inhuman planes of his face. Black, spidery thread-like lines creeped around his forehead and right beneath his oily black eyes. His mouth had split open, wider than any human mouth was capable of.
His nails grew long and sharp against my chin. It was mesmerizing, fascinating almost, like watching a lion's face before it tears yours off. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe; my lungs felt swollen and inflamed, my hands came up to my throat as I coughed and wheezed. Was this an asthma attack? No, it was Harlen.
"When I ask you a question, do not answer it with another question do you understand?" He snarled. "You will understand why when you arrive. Now, will it be a yes or a no?"
His features calmed and he looked human again, and whatever power on me broke, it allowed me to inhale sharply. I gasped. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to rage. Instead, I dropped my hands on my thighs. I wanted to live.
◇
"Kaya, honey" My mom said, as she came into my hospital room, "You've got someone to see you this morning! One of your friends from school, I think."
I placed my book down on the table beside me. She bent down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "And he's very attractive," She whispered, "It's not every day a tall handsome boy comes to sit by your bedside."
I nodded and gave her a small smile as my chest filled with dread. The doctor informed my mom that I was found in the middle of the woods, unconcious by a young man. She had no idea what really happened to me or what happened to my friends'. Harlen told me that he had ways of covering his tracks so there was no use in telling anyone what really happened. It didn't matter if I did or not because no one would believe me anyway.
Harlen came around the corner with a bouquet of flowers. My mom smiled at him and walked toward the door, "I'll just leave you two alone. What did you say your name was again?"
"My name is Harlen," He said, as he stepped forward. "Harlen Lockwood."
"Nice to meet you, Harlen," She said, smiling back at him before exiting the room.
Harlen placed the flowers on the table and sat down next to the hospital bed, he placed a hand on my thigh. "I'm so glad you're feeling better, Kaya." He said. He gently pushed a loose strand of my hair out of my face and gently tucked it behind my ear. "Remember what we talked about. You will come to me after you are discharged from the hospital,"
I shivered at his touch, and out of curiosity I asked, "What happens if I don't?"
Harlen let loose a dark chuckle. His head dips until his lips skate by the curve of my ear. "Then I'll hunt you down." He whispered to me like it's obvious. "I'll kill you and everyone you care about. I'm capable of all sorts of horrors; things you can't even imagine." I watched as Harlen stood up from the seat.
"Now, I've got a few things to do before you arrive," Harlen said, smiling down at me. He paused by the room's door. "I'll see you soon."
His visit was a few days ago. I've made up my mind; all of those lives are dependent on me. Everything that happened that night was real. I know that most people won't believe me, but to be quite honest I don't care anymore.
[Update] I just got the news I'll be discharged tomorrow.

TS and pics
Reposting from last week
Black Cruwear Adamas I picked up on base and carried for a camping trip. Still has factory edge and sharpness, light wear on the clip, small scuff spots on one side of liners and small speck of wear on one of the thumb studs. SV 190$. 185
Next is a heavy user, the Benchmade Infidel. D2 Steel satin with the standard black frame, been used, sharpened, dropped, carried, just like a knife should. Firing mechanism works great and is broken in well, standard amount of blade play for this model. SV 210 195
Not looking for trades right now, maybe next post. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or reasonable offers. Thanks guys!

My wife and I have been together for 6 years and married for 1.5. I love my wife and the life we’ve built together, and wouldn’t want to be on this journey of life with anyone else. Lately though I’ve been feeling we’ve hit an impasse in regards to our sex life. I’m a very sexually open and curious/kinky person and she’s about the opposite. Over the 6 years we’ve been together she has opened up a lot, but has slowly been reverting back to her clamshell of not wanting to be open to anything or willing to explore anything. She will not let me go down on her, she will not let me finger her, and she does not go down on me. We only go for missionary and doggy because anything else is just icky to her, she hasn’t gotten on top in over 2 years and I can’t think of a time we experimented outside of those two positions in those 2 years either. Now given her uncomfortability with foreplay as you can imagine things aren’t exactly primed for entry, and you guessed it she thinks lube is icky and won’t use that either… So I usually need to sheepishly apply a spit to my member to try to jam it in a dry hole. If I try to either have a conversation about it under a non sexual setting it gets shut down immediately, and if I take the reins and try to go for something new during sex I’m shut down with an immediate “fuck off” or “don’t do that.” Now having said all that, we do have sex frequently, usually every other day or so. But it’s beginning to become more of a routine and less of us enjoying the moment, and I’m beginning to get to the point where masturbating seems like a better sexual release than actually being with my wife.
Now let me make it very clear, I have no intention of leaving her, or cheating on her, or anything of the sort. I just want to understand how I can break down her walls a bit. For reference we are both in our 20’s, we have no kids or dogs getting in the way, I would consider both of us to be pretty attractive, we have no financial or work stress, so to me her sexual insecurities just aren’t making any sense we should be having the craziest sex at this time in our lives and I’m lucky if she even lets me lick her tits.. any advise is appreciated 🫤

Timestamp
I will ship via USPS. PayPal F&F, NO NOTES.
I traded this bad boy for a Heretic Wraith but ended up trading back. So here is again.
Catch and release Microtech Anax in DLC and carbon fiber inlay. Knife is in new condition except for a cosmetic ding on the lock bar courtesy of the previous owner bumping into a brick wall (see pic). Very smooth action. I really like this knife but I think I'd prefer the non-DLC Anax.
Asking $450.
Gallery
Trade interests include a turquoise/satin Ultratech, Cox Mini Workman with Spydie hole, Editions G Lespect, Spartan Harsey fullsize Watchworks, or Microtech OD Green Stitch.

After the lessons were done, Ichika went to his room without saying a word to any of the other students. To say that this day was a complete and utter mess was an understatement. Kicked around by his own sister, stared down like an animal by those girls and having to deal with some snobby British lady thinking she was superior to him just because she knew how to fly a fancy suit.
If he had to deal with any other shenanigans in this monstrosity of a school, he swore he was going to kill someone. That being said, after walking for a while, he reached his room and was about to insert the key.
But he noted something strange about it. « Eh, that's strange? The door’s unlocked. » he commented, before sighing annoyed. « I’m gonna have a lovely talk with the ones organizing the rooms. »
Ichika entered the room, and immediately saw something he didn’t like. 2 large beds, arranged side by side. Something was also missing. Ichika pinched his nose annoyed as he realized what was going on, but before he could exit, he heard a voice.
«Is anyone there? » a voice asked. «Ahh, you're my roommate, right? Please take care of me from this year on. »
He had a bad feeling about this, as he sighed hard.
«I was using the shower, so I'm sorry for looking like this. My name is Shinonono— »
«—Houki. » Ichika said with an annoyed tone. The one who came out from the bathroom was his childhood friend, Houki.
She had just finished showering, and now walked out of the bathroom. It seems like the bathroom was constructed to be both a shower and a changing room. And without confirming that the other person was a girl, Houki had walked out with only a towel wrapped around her.
Below the edges were the naked and tender thighs; and seemingly indicating that she had just showered, the water droplets... skirted down her legs. Healthy white skin is a real eye-opener.
Above that was her slender body that had been rigorously trained, and Ichika could see it even though she had a towel on. Pressing a hand in front of her chest, the large breasts behind her towel were lifted up.
«...»
Houki was shocked. Ichika was pissed.
«I-I-Ichika-»
«Excuse me for a second there, darling. I think I have to make a phone call. » Ichika hissed out, before storming out of the room.
Once outside, he pulled out his phone and made a phone call to the academy secretariat. « On the phone. Get her on the phone! I want her on the phone RIGHT NOW! »
Before the secretary could utter a word, a familiar voice responded. « Something the matter, Orimura. » it was the voice of Chifuyu, who didn’t seem pleased.
« Sis what the fuck is this? » Ichika demanded, an angry look on his face.
« I assume you refer to your room accommodation, right? » Chifuyu sighed.
« Why the fuck am I sharing a room with Houki? »
« There have been issues regarding your room. You should get your own accommodation in a week. »
« You mean I have to share a room with a fucking girl which only knowledge about guys are some gay comics!? ARE YOU HIGH!? » Ichika exclaimed angrily.
« Why, as a male, this could be a pleasant experience. » Chifuyu teased.
« Pleasant my fucking ass! And where’s my stuff!? My super computer!? My miniature collection!? »
« They will also be placed in your definitive room in a week. »
Ichika remained silent, fuming. « You’re fucking we me, ain’t ya? » he finally said, with venom in his voice.
« Perhaps in this week you’ll learn some respect, brat. This is no appropriate way to either talk to a teacher, nor your elder sister. » Chifuyu said sternly.
« Yeah! You’re right! Maybe in a week I’ll learn how to PROPERLY SHOVE MY FIST IN YOUR ARSE! » Ichika roared out, closing the call and being on the verge of tossing it on the ground.
Instead, he took heavy breaths to calm down.
But as he did, he noticed several girls having come out of their rooms to see what the ruckus was about. An angry grimace formed on Ichika’s face. « Wacha lookin’ at, twats? » he hissed out, causing the girls to run back to their dorms.
Sighing hard, Ichika banged the door of his room hard with his good hand. « Oi! You done there!? »
The only response he got from inside was silence. After a while, however, Houki opened the door.
«...Come in. »
«Thanks. » Ichika said annoyed.
The door opened, and Houki was wearing kendo attire. It looked like these were the only clothes she could put on quickly. Truthfully, since she had been hasty in putting them on, she hadn't managed to tie her belt properly.
But as Ichika entered, he noticed something from Houki
A fierce glare. Ichika was glared at. Houki sat down the bed, clearly wanting do deal with the boy.
«What? » Ichika hissed angrily.
«...»
Looking rather angry, Houki quickly tied her wet hair back into a ponytail.
«So, you said that you're my roommate? »
«For a week, yes. Thank sis for that. »
Ichika was glared at. This girl, her eyes were as sharp as bamboo. Really alert and piercing.
«What-, what's your purpose? »
«Huh? »
«I'm asking what you were thinking? Boys and girls can't share the same bed after they turn 7, it's common sense! »
« Houki, by the holy Emperor, what the fuck are you talking about? »
«Wa, wa, wa...! »
«Wa? »
«Was it because you asked for this...? To be in my room... »
Ichika looked at the girl with a deadpan look on his face. «That's the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life! »
But before he could continue his argument, Houki threw a bokken at him.
Ichika barely managed to dodge, the wooden sword stuck on the wall by the sheer strength of the impac. A close call. It was really a close call situation that he had dodged the bokken, and there would be a fatality if it had hit.
«Stupid... you're saying that's stupid? So it's like that huh, like that... » her expression was scary.
«..." Ichika just stared at the bokken in pure shock, before turning towards her, a furious look on his face.
« WHAT THE FUCK, HOUKI!? » Ichika roared out. Houki was momentarily shocked by Ichika’s outburst, but kept her composure. « WHERE YOU TRYING TO FUCKING KILL ME!? YOU GOD DAMN KENDO WHORE! »
Houki looked at Ichika shocked. She clearly did not expect such a response from him. « Y-you’ve changed! The Ichika I knew would never call me that! »
Ichika simply spat on the ground. « Goodie shoes Ichika is dead, ya slang. Killed by good ol’ sis. If you think I’m gonna let you hit me with a fucking stick because I’m not the perfect little fuckboy I was, you’re fucking wrong. Don’t you DARE attacking me, cunt! »
Houki glared at him angrily. Clearly she didn’t like the answer. «H-how dare you! I'll execute you right now! »
Houki darted forward to grab her bokken, before charging at Ichika. The boy managed to dodge the attack, Houki striking the nearby wall with so much strength the wooden sword pierced it.
But before she could pull it out, Ichika grabbed her pony tail, pulling her head back before placing something on her throat.
A pocket knife blade. Whilst not big enough to kill someone in one strike, he could very well slit her throat before she could even react.
All of Houki anger vanished, as her face became pale and her eyes looked as best as they could at the blade in terror. She was in utter shock, not believing that Ichika would be willing to slit her throat.
But as her eyes turned toward the boy, all she could see was a grimace, Ichika’s eyes darkened by a shadow caused by his hair. He was definitely going to kill her.
« Yeah, not so fun when YOU are on the other side of the blade. » Ichika said angrily. « And unlike that sluggish thing? This I can hide well. »
The confrontation lasted for a couple of seconds, before Ichika eventually let go. Houki felt on her knees, never before having to face such a life-or-death situation. She slowly turned toward Ichika, who simply sat on his bed. The boy simply sighed.
« Look. It’s only a week. One bloody week. Is it that hard to handle? I have to deal with three fucking years of this bullshit! » Ichika tried to reason with the girl.
«Y-you tried to kill me! » Houki shot back.
« Oh pu-lease! I won’t kill you. I don’t want to deal with sis. »
«S-so if it wasn’t for Chifuyu, you would have killed me!? »
« YES! As were you. » Ichika shot back.
Houki looked at Ichika outraged. « I-I would never- »
« Houki. Look behind you. » Ichika said with a serious tone, one so cold that it could match his sister.
As Houki did so, she saw the hole she created on the wall. A mortified look formed on her face.
« Yup. That wall could have been my fucking skull, you katana-wielding-psychopath. » Ichika said sternly.
Before Houki could apologize, Ichika glared at her hard, causing her to wince in fear. « But if you ever pull that shit again, I swear to god, you’ll wish for the sweet release of death. » the boy then said.
He then motioned his thumb at the door. « Now get the fuck out. I’m getting changed for bed. I had an awful day and something tells me tomorrow is going to be just as bad. » he commanded.
Houki glared at him for a few seconds, before doing as he said.
« By the way, honey. Nice fucking tits. » Ichika then commented, seconds before she could get out.
Houki blushed and grumbled angrily at the comment, knowing that attacking him was no use.

Hi all I am mostly a road cyclist. I have an old Trek antelope 7 speed that I fixed up for gravel and more casual rides with my girlfriend and her kids. I have decent quality Shimano trigger shifters with high quality cables and housing. The shifters are still hard to actuate and over a 20+ mile ride my fingers and thumb get sore. What if I switched to grip shifters? I have heard a lot of derisive comments about grip shifters.

First Next
----------
Approximated Earth Date: 3. May. 2235
Teresh's ship entered the Sol system at long last.
Having taken a good two cycles of FTL (faster-than-light) travel to reach. Looking at his diagnostics, he began to perform a LRS (long range scan) of the surrounding planets. Surprisingly, planet No. 626 proved to be the only one with a stable atmosphere. It was perfectly understandable to someone like Teresh. The kooli's own planet was well suited to their needs and they had a difficult time surviving on gas giants or planets with an acidic atmosphere. He went to brush a few stray feather's out of his face, he had to be presentable for the new additions to the Valaxi Empire. It still amazed him, that out of all the child species under the Valaxi, that they had chosen his to make the first contact with the inhabitants of planet No. 626. It was a dream come true for himself and would reflect well on his family's name.
As he began to speed closer to the blue and green sphere, he was curious as to the level of technology the aliens possessed. From what data the Valaxi had collected from afar, it seemed they were around a level 3 class civilization. Having succeeded in attaining space travel, but not FTL travel as far as they were aware. His talons gripped the ship's steering handles tightly. There would be no mistakes on this venture, Teresh was sure of it. He could not return to General Vorin's home in failure, it would spell ruin for him and his family.
He sighed, exhaling a breath. His taloned hand reached up and flipped a few switches, broadcasting a hailing frequency on all available channels. Then, he activated the universal translator around his neck. As he spoke, it would relay his message in all documented languages.
Here we go, he thought to himself.
"Hailing any available, this is Shrike Teresh on behalf of the Valaxi Empire. Flight signature 07-12-2136. I wish to make contact with planet No. 626 and conduct diplomacy. My vessel possesses no weaponry, and I will consent to any scans that you request," Teresh concluded.
He flipped another switch to set the hail to repeat and sat back, exhaling.
Shrike huh? I guess it is a bit odd to hear it out loud. This is the first time I've been at the head of a ship, and the authority of one too, he bemused.
Typically, only the Valaxi piloted for high profile missions, diplomatic or otherwise. It was quite fair of them, they were the more intelligent, more advanced species after all. The kooli were thankful that they even got to fly Valaxi manufactured ships. It was obvious to anyone who has flown them that they handled far better, even if the controls were less friendly. As he thought to himself, a voice suddenly came over the communicator. Almost jostling him out of his seat.
"Vessel number 07-12-2136, you are to deactivate your hail and power down your engines. Failure to comply will result in your immediate seizure," the voice explained.
Is that what they sound like? He wondered. It was very different to anything he had heard before. His own people often spoke in a range of high to low tones, even reaching what some would call a shrill. The Valaxi's dialogue was much more refined and noble, often louder in tone due to their inherent dominance. Then there was the Bouva, Zeesh, Leo-oup, and so on, but nothing like this. The voice spoke in a very composed but neutral tone like his computer. Almost as if it was disinterested in the conversation. He wasn't going to complain though, he was going to do exactly what he was sent to do: comply.
He shut off the hail with a single switch, and then pulled back a lever to cool his engines until he was gently floating in space. He could see the speck of the planet in the distance. His ship currently listing by a larger, dark blue planet. From his scan, he found that it's composition was comprised mostly of dense fluids. Their crystalline structure being recognized as several substances and elements he was familiar with. Ammonia, methane, and water to name a few.
Teresh awaited the arrival of the aliens as he clicked his talons together, a bad habit of his. Hoping that the aliens were not looking to feast on his flesh. His eyes traced along the vastness of space, and then he saw it. He nearly jumped out of his seat as the ship grew larger in his viewport. It was easily five times the size of his vessel, dwarfing it as its shadow began to cast over him. The ship itself was squarer and more rectangular in shape. With a large body and small bridge elevated near the back. Far less elegant to the Valaxi craft that he was used to seeing, and even comparatively to the other species. Though, it was as much as he could expect from a fledgling species. Incredibly pragmatic, with almost no flair or elegance to speak of. It was mostly a dull brown and black in color, sporting some bright yellows with some kind of language written on the side.
"Computer, translate the writing to kooli," he announced, then drawing a talon around the script on the monitor in front of him.
A robotic voice answered him: "Analyzing input... Output: UNE Tarva."
As soon as he read the name, his ship jostled. He was able to catch himself on his chair, but found his ship gently being pulled towards the other.
Ah, so they've developed projected gravitational fields. Perhaps they aren't as primitive as I thought, Teresh concluded.
It wasn't the most impressive feat by any means, usually tractor technology was one of the first to come after space exploration, but it was a good sign. In part, it shows that this species is civilized enough not to immediately fire upon strangers or unrecognized ships. Even if they had, at least he would have perished instead of a Valaxi representative.
The front section of the vessel opened, revealing a large empty space with a few raised platformed areas and stairs leading to them. At the sight of them, Teresh noted that these creatures could not fly like himself. Most likely quadrupedal if he had to guess. He was actually quite astonished by how much space was afforded to his vessel. This was most likely a carrier, meant to hold many smaller ships during conflict. Why such a valuable ship was on its own is a question he couldn't answer. A flagship like this should have been surrounded by their navy if they had one.
"Computer, identify any and all weapons on the ships exterior," he spoke to it again, using the monitor to sieve back through the footage to find evidence of any.
Once more, he heard the generated voice speak, "Analyzing input... compressing footage... The query seems to possess: One, communication tower. One, hanger. Twelve, viewports. One, bridge. And four, unidentified objects."
The computer outlined them for him to see. They were located both on the top and bottom half of the ship, assuming it was mirrored. What he was able to see resembled a black box or base attached to a long tube. With what wiring he could see; it could be evidence of either laser or ion weaponry. Though, ion was a bit of a stretch considering their technology level. Still, for a flagship it was quite impressive. Much more heavily armed than most of the ships in the kooli's decommissioned navy. It paled in comparison to the Valaxi's capabilities, but it was important data to gather. Thankfully for them, they would not need a navy once they became a child species. The Valaxi always cared for and protected their children. They could rely on their military instead of their own.
There was movement in the corner of his eye, and he darted up to see a large hatch open on the platformed area. He strained his eyes as three figures emerged, his heart racing. They were much taller than himself, even matching the height of a Valaxi soldier. Wearing protective suits that were orange in color, he saw reflective, curved black mirrors turn towards his ship.
Was that their head, or another covering? He couldn't tell.
This clearly was their military. These soldiers were dressed head to toe in protective gear meant to shield them from harm. Their large mirror faces meant to intimidate their enemy and reflect their own fear back in them. Such cruel tactics and equipment, the abundance of weaponry on the ship, they had to be warmongers! Reaching down, he attempted to set off his distress signal, finding it disabled and nonfunctional. They had trapped him! He was going to be tortured or eaten and used as a weapon against the Valaxi. Teresh began to pray to his ancestors, asking them to protect his family and General Vorin's as they drew closer. He snatched the ceremonial blade at his hip, awarded to those chosen to go on these missions. His last show of loyalty to the empire was going to be dying an honorable death. He brought the blade to his neck as his ship's landing bay opened, feeling sharp pain in his neck.
"H-hello!? Sorry, the ship's nav can be a bit off-putting. It was from a prison ship," A voice called out. It was much softer, and lower in tone than the one he heard before. Its words echoing through his translator.
Sorry? Prison? I knew it, they're trying to manipulate me so they can imprison and torture me, Teresh panicked, though it stayed his blade.
He curled up in his chair, refusing to turn. Thankfully the translator masked his fear in his voice, "D-Don't come any closer, I won't let you take me alive!"
"Woah! Woah buddy! Hey, let's stay calm. I heard your hail, but it was garbled by system interference. We were just coming to pick you up," the voice replied. The fake sympathy in its voice sickened him.
Help him? Dressed in full regalia and on a prison ship no less! He would become a political prisoner at best and tortured to death at worst.
"You said this was a prison ship, y-you're going to capture and torture me for information. I won't let you!" Teresh yelled, though the translator could only do so much.
"Buddy, jeez! No! The ship’s nav was from a prison ship," The figure stopped, the steps no longer drawing closer. "Look, my name's Tom. I'm from Arizona. Let me take you back home, okay? Are you armed?"
Despite every instinct telling him to end it here, he swallowed and nodded. Then, realizing that they couldn't see him. His translator rumbled, "I have a weapon. Don't come closer."
"Alright, that's okay. I won't come any closer. Do you think you could put the weapon down for me?" Tom asked.
The Valaxi warned him about this throughout his training. Once surrendered, they would try to take as much information about the empire from them. Using it against him and his family. He couldn't bear to imagine the harm that these aliens could inflict on his home, even if the Valaxi were more than capable of exterminating them.
"Y-You're going to-" he began.
"I'm not going to torture you. No one is going to torture you. We want to help you. Take you somewhere safe," Tom continued, sounding almost compassionate in tone.
Even though he knew it was a lie, he clamped down on his beak. If there was a chance they were telling the truth, he could still complete his mission and bring honor to his family's name. There was always the blade if they weren't.
"O-Okay," Teresh muttered, the translator barely picking it up.
"Good!" Tom voice raised, causing Teresh to squawk in fear.
“Oh, sorry, sorry.” His voice suddenly softened again, "Didn't mean to be loud there. Do you think you could turn towards me now? Teresh, right?"
He flinched at hearing his own name through the translator. What options did he have? Either take a risk and listen to these aliens, or... damn it. He couldn't do it. Still a coward, even to the end.
With hesitancy, he began to turn his chair. Eyes widening as he saw the alien standing only a few of its strides away. It was bipedal, over a third taller than himself, towering above with two long arms with five talons each. Though, perhaps that was the wrong word since they appeared rather blunt. The bright orange of his suit was accented with black marks, including one down the middle in a perfect line. Teresh could see his own reflection in the black mirror of the creatures face. He looked small and afraid, curled up like a hatchling and clutching a small knife dotted with his blood. The creature held out its hands, causing him to flinch.
"O-oh wow. You... you're really..." the translator sputtered. Teresh heard a rumble from the beast as it composed itself, "My... My name is Tom. It's nice to meet you Teresh."
Although the taste of bile was in my throat, I swallowed and spoke, "G-Greetings Tom, my name is Teresh. I'd like to ask for your surrender."

Imagine you’re going to an open house with a real estate agent.
The first thing you see is the front of the house, and maybe you’ll decide then and there if you like the house or not. If the house looks bad, like there are holes in the windows, you ain’t going to buy it.
The same goes for your SaaS product. If your product looks bad — aka your copywriting doesn’t persuade your audience — people ain’t gonna buy it.
That's why creating good copywriting is essential to your SaaS business's success.
In this beginner's guide for SaaS copywriting, you'll discover how to create compelling copywriting even if you have no experience. By understanding your audience, mastering the basics of copywriting, and crafting a strong value proposition, you can increase your sales and conversions.
I’ll also provide examples of how to improve your copywriting to help you get started. With that, let’s dive in.

The Basics of Copywriting

Creating a good landing page requires knowing the basics of copywriting.
It's surprising how many guides online don't emphasize this crucial step. Your copy is what convinces visitors to take action on your page, whether that's making a purchase or downloading software.
To write copy that converts, you need to understand the principles of persuasion. In this next section, we’ll dive into the basics of copywriting, including how you find your audience and your company’s value proposition (plus what a value proposition is).
After you’ve completed this section, you’ll be leagues ahead of most SaaS brands — not to mention most businesses on the internet.

Who’s your Audience?

SaaS owners often obsess over which marketing channels to use: LinkedIn ads vs. Twitter ads; creating homepages with all the necessary features and testimonials; and choosing the right pricing model and determining the optimal price point.
Wrong.
Your obsession shouldn’t be what, but who.
SaaS products without a target audience are worse than worthless. You’re losing money.
Without thinking about real people looking for real solutions, your copywriting will fail. Your copy will sound bland, boring, and self-centered.
So define your target audience. Fill in the blanks of this formula:
My SaaS product is for [title] in [industry] who struggle with [problem] and want [solution].
For example, for Dropbox:
Dropbox is for "individuals and teams" in "various industries" who struggle with "managing and sharing files securely and efficiently" and want "a cloud-based storage and collaboration solution that is easy to use and accessible from anywhere."
See? Easy.
Once you know your audience, you can create your value proposition and write copy. But if you don’t know your audience, you’re sailing a boat into darkness… and that’s no bueno for your business.

Problem, Agitation, and Solution

Humans respond more intensely to negative events than positive events. For example, when our boss gives us a performance review with ten positive comments but one negative comment — we focus on the one negative comment. The secret of great copy is using this same “negativity bias” to sell products. Done correctly, you can get basically anyone to buy anything. The formula good copywriters use is problem, agitation, and solution.
Warning: The problem, agitation, solution formula can be used for good … or evil. I’m trusting that your SaaS business wants to help people. If that’s not you — stay away.
Problem, agitation, solution (from here on out referred to as PAS for my sanity), is when, first, you say your audience's problem. You want them to nod their head and say “yeah I hate when that happens.” After you’ve said the problem, they’ll hopefully read the rest of your copy.
Here’s where you make that problem worse. Much much worse. You agitate the problem. You take their problem and make it a nightmare.
What’s the worst possible thing your audience could suffer? Say it. Get your audience on the edge of their seat, begging for a savior (I’m being dramatic, but you get what I mean).
Lastly, you say the solution, which just so happens to be your product. Make sure you say how your solution solves their nightmare problem. Add some testimonials and add some bonuses and bada bing bada boom — you’ve made a scary good home page and landing page.
Here’s an example of problem, agitation, solution for Dropbox:
Problem:
You need to store and share large files, but you don’t have a secure and reliable way to do it.
Agitation:
But the consequences of not having a reliable file sharing and storage solution can be disastrous. You could lose important files or they could fall into the wrong hands. This could compromise your work or personal life.
Plus, not having a fast and easy way to share files with colleagues can lead to delays, destroying your productivity. This problem is holding you back from your goals.
Solution:
Dropbox solves this problem with our all-in-one file transfer and collaboration….
In other words, with PAS, you:

1. Identify your audience’s problem
2. Rub salt in their wound
3. Become their savior

It’s not enough to just state the problem. Your audience must feel the impact of the problem. You must make your audience’s worst fears and nightmares come true… for them to see why your product saves them.
So start brainstorming all of the possible problems that your target audience faces on a daily basis. You’re gonna use these problems to write your copy.
There’s tons of other copywriting formulas, but this one is the foundation of all of them. While creating your copywriting, you’ll se this formula again and again, so don’t forget it.

What's Your Value Proposition?

It’s so simple, yet so challenging to answer this question:
What makes your company different from your competitors?
If you don’t can’t answer this question, then potential customers are gonna find someone who can answer this question. And with so many SaaS companies — over 10,000 and counting — you’re one fish in a big ocean. You’ve gotta stand out.
So this is why you need a value proposition. For those who don’t know, a value proposition is:
The number one reason why your product is the best for the customer.
In case you’re scratching your head — you’ve already figured this out!
Let’s return to the formula from earlier:
My SaaS product is for [title] in [industry] who struggle with [problem] and want [solution].
Now you’re just gonna chop the formula in half:
My SaaS product is for people who struggle with [problem] and want [solution].
Finally, you’re gonna turn this into an action statement. Ideally, you only want one solution — I’ll explain why later.
My SaaS product helps you {solution} without {problem}.
In the case of Dropbox, this would be that Dropbox helps you “collaborate with your team” without “the hassle of physical drives and data breaches.”
And there you go — that’s your value proposition.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Copywriting

In this section, I’ll run through the markers of good and bad copywriting, plus some examples.
DO this when you write copy:

• Use simple language
• Use concise language
• Show your audience the benefits

DON’T do this when you write copy:

• Use complicated language
• Use vague language
• Show your audience the features

I’ll list three examples of bad copywriting and improve them to show you these principles in action. Again, I’ll use the example of Dropbox.

1. Copywriting with complicated language

“Our revolutionary cloud-based solution will optimize your workflow and streamline your processes."
How I’d improve it:
“Drag and drop files to the cloud and save time.”
This paints a picture for the audience and touches upon a major fear: wasting time.

1. Copywriting with vague language

"Our software has a user-friendly interface and a wide range of integrations."
How I’d improve it:
“Don’t switch up your productivity tools, Dropbox plays nice with all software” and “So simple even a beginner can use it.”
For one, I split the benefits into two separate sentences. Also, I used simpler language that showcases the benefits of the features — showing the audience how easy Dropbox is to use.

1. Copywriting showing features not benefits

"Our solution leverages machine learning algorithms to provide predictive analytics."
How I’d improve it:
“Stop spending hours searching for files. Find your file instantly with our AI-powered search.”
Everybody understands these two sentences, and it communicates yet another value of Dropbox.
In summary, good copywriting is specific, simple, and benefit-focused. Feel free to return back to this section while writing your copy. Plus, don’t worry if your first draft sucks — my first draft most definitely sucked. Just get it all on the page and then return and fix it.
P.S. I hope this helped you, and if you want more personalized advice for your SaaS's copywriting, my pms are open :)

I’m probably the millionth person to ask this question but if you guys could only choose one, why?
I’m looking to get either in the default steel (BD1N on the LW or S45VN on the standard,) not interested in different steels right now. I am also not interested in other Spyderco knives at the moment. If I go standard P3 I’ll get a LNW clip as I did with the PM2.
Use cases are nothing crazy, mostly EDC, but I’d like something on the tougher side if I ever needed a harder-use tool for some reason or event. I’m also a major fidgeter. Hands on the smaller side.
Other knives I carry the most have been the PM2, Bugout, Mini Adamas. PM2 is sweet but it’s big and freaks people out and feels like overkill. Mini Adamas stock is kinda chunky and it’s the worst slicer of the three. Bugout (aluminum/M390) is fantastic but I find myself really missing the thumb hole and leaf blade on Spyderco knives.
Anyways that’s my spiel, lmk what you guys think. Really hoping to get some opinions from people who have handled both. Thanks.

I am The Bard, who must admit some certain fondness for some of my subjects over others. Any historian naturally becomes attached to some characters, and obtains a bias towards them. I am no different in this regard.
It hung like the bones of an ancient lizard king, awesome even in its deiscation. Highest of the high places, casting forth the dying light of the age, and covering the cosmos in an intense metaphysical shadow. None were beyond its antumbra, and heaven and hell alike were bound within its deepest umbra. The weight of history pressing down on reality was bound up here. Here, amidst the ruins of what had once been the seat of the first and greatest king of the age, where dragons first caught fire in their breaths, where they sang and the world was changed. Here, in ruined majesty, lay the breathless word of awe and mournful nostalgia. A kingdom who’s shadow was graven onto the name of the world itself.
Akar. The first and true Akar. The plane of Io. The birthplace of Bahamut and Tiamat, and where the king of heaven died, and the end of the age began.
Many were the treasure seekers, pilgrims, historians, and other sundry who wandered those halls. Many more were the defenders. The servants of Bahamut and Tiamat alike, agreeing only in this, that the ancient palace, their once true and perfect home, should not be defiled by pillagers and scoundrels. So, suffice it to say the presence of the Black Hound Scoundrels was not welcomed.
Raymond’s sword was broken, again. He’d liked that one too, an ancient ilithid weapon, projecting a blade of light though a psionic focusing crystal. It had served him well, right up until the point where the blue dragon’s lightning bolt had overloaded the arcane technology and blown it up in his hand. He was also missing a limb again, but this was less troublesome than when he was alive.
He hit the ground hard as he fell back, rolling over and over on the black marble floor. Several things were definitely broken. They had found themselves near to their goal, in what had likely been a planetarium of sorts before the fall of Io. The room was filled with great orbs, each one depicting in full a different plane of existence, and how they moved and danced around one another in the great cosmic game. Each globe was about three times the size of a man in radius, and formed of material from the plane it depicted. The floor was graven of marble quarried from the negative energy plane itself, malefic energies safely disapated, and opposite it, a ceiling of glowing hypermatter from the positive energy plane supplemented the light of what appeared to be a miniature star in the center of the room.
That light was quickly obscured as the earth shook from the impact of an ancient blue dragoness landing in front of it. One of Tiamat’s consorts, fair and terrible as the sea and stars. The room crackled with static electricity, a storm system building within the confined space from the raw elemental power of the ancient dragon. She stalked forwards, reading another blast fit to reduce Raymond to ashes. As she opened her mouth, something hit her in the chin. The lightning backfired, and blew dragoness and defender alike back.
Pure angel-white armored boots tore up the surface next to Raymond as Elsior ground to a halt. Her wings flared, tensing for another burst of motion. Aegis snapped to the side in a ready position as the white lion guarded her friend. “Ray, you doing okay?”
”Fine. Just give me a moment.” Raymond replied. He focused, charging the depleted stone around him with his power, awakening a fragment of its prior energies. Once charged, he drew it up around himself, reforming his lost limb from the planar material. “Right. Good to go.”
”We cannot afford to be delayed by this guardian overlong.” Aegis warned through their shared mental link. “It must be removed rapidly.”
”Cualli can’t hold her. That’s how the last one broke.” Lamora warned. The changeling flashed into being, emerging from the form of a microscopic bacterium, only to deliver a devastating slash across the dragoness’s face. Her silver blade slashed horn and eye alike, sending the dragoness reeling with an eye cut out and a horn crashing to the floor. The shapeshifter goddess caught the blood from the wound in her palm, then in a crash of thunder, there were two dragonesses in the room, grappling with one another with fang and claw, tearing up the room in their struggle.
”Well best figure something out soon, we’re running out of zombies.” Keelah replied. The kobold, well, not exactly a kobold any longer, reported from the entrance to the room. Beyond it, the corridor was filled with the sound of clashing blades. She snapped around the corner, twin crossbows raised. Demonic energies began to charge from her weapons, then snapped out in a howling chorus as a rain of hellfire burst from the twin weapons. Tiamat’s lesser forces felt the sting of Avarice and Arrogance, as they rained amidst their ranks. She heard the chant of an Abashai sorcerer, and focused. The chanting devil had their spell cut off midway as Keelah fired a focused blast that punched through the sorcerer’s bodyguards and into his skull. The demonic energy exploded, rending the sorcerer to pieces and covering the nearby minions with gore. She fired another shot, this one a scything wave, and bisected a trio of white abashai that had managed to break through Raymond’s wall of zombies.
Despite her efforts, the undead were flanked, and annihilated. “Correction.” She updated. “We are out of zombies.”
”This necessitates a mightier minion.” Raymond remarked. “Cover me!” He pressed his hand to the black surface of the floor, and began to channel. At the same time, Lamora lost her grapple with the blue dragon, who threw her down with her teeth upon her throat. Unfortunately for the dragoness, biting a changeling is somewhat less than effective, as Lamora flowed like mercury away from the bite, taking on her true form and landing a devastating counter-slash along the dragonness’s wing. It turned towards her, roaring in anger, only to be checked and knocked back by a brilliant white flash.
As several of the dragoness’s teeth fell to the ground, Elsior landed, blade directed at the dragoness. “I’ve never fought a dragon before. Have to say, you’re disappointing.” This enraged the dragoness, who focused her fury upon the white lion, and the chamber shook with their battle.
As Raymond focused, the ground began to raise up into an arch. The sorcerer remained focused utterly on his work, defenseless as he chanted a ritual of awakening and binding. The minions of Tiamat surged forwards towards him, but then there came the sound of the unbreakable breaking. With a chime of shattering time, Keelah re-entered the fray. The fourth dimension cracked about her, as the demoness of time channeled the power of the abyss into the gears of the cosmos themselves.
She was about them and untouchable, fragmented across a dozen parallel worldlines, each one tangled in a gordian knot as reality bent at her whim. Her enemies were slowed, moving in molasses as no speed could avail them, and she likewise was a blur, her newfound abyssal power amplifying her speed, and time accelerating around her to push demonic enhancements even further. She was a one-woman platoon, single-handedly trapping the forces of Tiamat with enfilade fire, sniping their commanders into paste, blasting, ripping, and tearing the horde with a storm of abyssal energy.
Then, it was done. Raymond’s ritual completed as the gate stood ready. With a shout of warning, he activated it. The weak died instantly, reduced to their fundamental elements as the power of the negative energy plane ripped into the planetarium. A singularly unfortunate dragonborn was too near to the gate when it activated, and was pulled through, his body stretching out weirdly as the dimensional distortion inflicted a status scientifically know as “spaghettification” upon him.
Then from the gate came winged death, or perhaps death in the shape of wings. It came with an unsound, an unshriek, and an unboom. Its form perhaps suggested a vulture, or some other kind of carrion bird. But it was an impression, an image in the mind which tried to attach something known to the unknown thing. It was a storm of many black wings, and many eyes. About it was an unflame, an echo of the silence before the first words were spoken. The men of Akar called these creatures Nightstalkers, for they were the hunters and the dragons of the deathly plane. The shape of death, with it antithetical resonance, fell upon the brightest source of life, the blue dragoness. The two forces ripped against one another, lightning flashing desperately as silence smothered the thunder.
The scoundrels ran. “Minion.” Keelah grumbled as time wearily mended itself around her. “Minon. Minion implies you can control that thing!” She growled.
”Theoretically, I can.” Raymond replied. “Though I’d rather not try to put theory into practice right now.”
”So, in other words, you aren’t controlling it.” Keelah said.
”Why do you think I’m running too?” Raymond replied, and Keelah started running faster.
Then, they were there. They knew it at once, the presence of the place was palpable. A wrongness, a sorrow, a stain and scar upon the fabric of the world, invisible but impossible to miss or ignore. Raymond and Lamora felt their stomachs churn, their hair stand on end. Their senses screamed at them that this was a place nobody should be in, a place that should not exist. An absolute defilement hung upon the area, an abomination of desecration so severe that the world screamed around then.
Elsior fell to a knee, struggling to breathe from the overwhelming pressure of the area. Even empowered by Aegis, the dragonborn felt it more strongly than any of them, a death so profound its mere memory was enough to cause her heart to briefly stop, fitfully start, and then stop again. If she remained overlong, it would kill her. The effect upon Keelah was less severe, but without an artifact to protect her, she suffered terribly. The kobold was not a kobold any longer, her shape was formed from the material of the abyss, held together by her sheer ego more so than by any natural law. In this place, her scales screamed, writhed, and began to rip off her body into a twisting coil around her. Her skin boiled under it, her crossbows reknit themselves into her flesh. She retained her shape, her size, but more and more she leaned further away from the draconic heritage and into her new demonic nature to desperately avoid the ancestral agony gathered in this place.
It was odd, one of the simpler rooms in the great planetary palace. A dining room, with three chairs suited for draconic beings. It hadn’t been touched in centuries, nothing had even been here to shed the dead skin cells that would produce dust. Whatever meal they had been eating was long since rotted away, but the table was still half-set, broken plates and cookware scattered. It was as though it might have been left only a few minutes ago. If not for the blood, so much blood. It painted the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the furnitutre. Dried and set like stone into the fabric of the world, the blood of Bahamut, of Tiamat, and of their father.
This was where Io had died. This was where Bahamut and Tiamat’s war began, where they ripped their father’s heart from his chest and tore it in twain, split between them. It still carried the echo of Io’s dying scream, a memory potent enough to bring those with draconic blood to their knees. A memory potent enough to help fuel the birth of a new god of the dead.
”Ray. Grab it. Quickly.” Elsior ordered. “We aren’t meant to be here. Nobody is meant to be here.”
”On it.” Raymond replied, setting down his staff. It began to flicker, grey light sweeping out from it and scanning over the room again and again and again. Ghostly images began to form, memories of the room, playing back in reverse across the centuries. It had been so long that the process would take some time. “It’s set.” Raymond said, and placed a charm on the staff to return to him when it had captured the memory sufficiently. “Let’s get out of here.” He said, moving quickly back towards the planetarium. Everyone knew what waited for them there, it was better than this place.
”I just hope that your staff can get you the memory fast enough.” Keelah grumbled, piecing herself back into her false form. “There’s been trouble enough with-“
”Keelah, if you jinx us I’m going to kick you halfway back to the abyss.” Elsior cut her off.
Lamora stiffened. “Too late. She’s coming. Ray, timeline on that memory?”
”No idea.” Raymond replied. “At its current rate, maybe five minutes.” He started to sprint, and the others continued, Elsior picking up Keelah to bear her along more swiftly. “Maybe the nightstalker can slow-“
He went silent as they emerged back into the planetarium, and the world rent. An overwhelming dominance threatened to stop the hearts of everyone. The nightstalker turned its many-eyed gaze towards the rift and what came through. Drawn like a moth to a flame, it turned its gaze from the desiccated remains of the ancient blue dragoness and hurled itself towards the coming prismatic light. There was a sound like an earthquake, like a hurricane, and like a meteorite impacting as pure chaotic energy ripped it apart, blasting the apex predator of the Negative Energy Plane to dust in an instant.
The ground shook, as a thing unmatched in beauty and in horror stepped through. Five heads snaked on five necks, built upon a powerful body. The very magic of the room trembled as an impossibly powerful aura made the strands of the universe quiver. Five voices spoke in one, in absolute rage and fury, as Tiamat, queen of dragons, made her presence and displeasure known. “YOU DARE. YOU DARE, TRESPASS UPON MY HOME, IN THE PRESENCE OF MY PAIN? YOU COME, CRAWLING AMIDST THE TOMB OF GODS, AND THINK TO ROB IT, TO DARE TO STEAL FROM THE QUEEN OF DRAGONS?”
Lamora covered the scoundrels in a spell of invisibility, but Tiamat turned her gazes upon it and stripped the spell away with all the ease of a mother throwing away a sheet a troublesome child was trying to hide under. “I SEE YOU THERE, LAMORA, FALSE GODLING, PATHETIC LITTLE EXCUSE FOR A DEITY. EVEN IN YOUR MIGHTIEST FORM YOU WERE NO MATCH FOR ME. DO YOU THINK THIS LATEST MORTAL YOU USURPED WILL AVAIL YOU?”
Another head turned towards Elsior, towards Aegis. “I SEE YOU ALSO, DEVIANT, REMNANT AND REGRET. HOW MUCH THE TRUE YOU FEARS YOU, HOW ALIKE YOU ARE IN YOUR COWARDICE AND WEAKNESS. DAUGHTER, TRAITOR, CHILD OF THE USURPER. THAT TRINKET WILL NOT AVAIL YOU. BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP ME, AND I MAY SHOW YOU MERCY.”
Still another, full of wrath, gazed upon Raymond and he quietly thanked Adonai he no longer had a digestive system. “THE SAME WILL NOT BE SAID OF YOU, SORCERER, PARASITE, THIEF. HOW MUCH I REMEMBER YOU, BROKEN AND IN AGONY BY A MERE FAMILIAR, A CONCUBINE, AND NOW YOU THINK TO AVENGE YOURSELF UPON ITS MASTER BY OBTAINING GODHOOD? BY STEALING AWAY THE MEMORY OF MY GREATEST AGONIES TO EMPOWER YOURSELF? HAH. YOU, A FAILURE MORE TIMES THAN EVEN MY TREASURES CAN COUNT. FAILURE AS A FATHER, AS A LEADER, AND NOW YOU THINK TO BE A GOD? THE PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR ARROGANCE WILL BE LEGENDARY. YOUR SCREAMS WILL ECHO THROUGH THE MILLENIA, AND YOUR PAIN WILL BE ETCHED UPON THE STARS, SO THAT EVEN HELL SHALL GAZE UP AND SHUDDER. THEN ALL SHALL KNOW THAT I AM TIAMAT, HIGH GODDESS OF THE HIGH GODS, MY WRATH IS MIGHTY, MY VENGANCE SURE.”
”AND AS FOR YOU.” She finished, snarling at Keelah. “Who’s familiar are you again?”
Keelah grinned. "I am the goddamn eggshell caught in the universe's gears, holding it back from sheer spite even when I should be broken. I am the demoness of time, the greatest thief in the cosmos, the abyss couldn't hold me, and heaven can't keep me out. I am Ordani, a godslayer, and a true daughter of Io. In other words bitch, I'm your worst nightmare!"
There was a moment of stunned silence as Tiamat processed that she’d just been defied in the midst of her holy fury. Furthermore, that she’d been defied by a kobold of all things. A slave race dared to defy the queen of the universe? She was simply stunned by the audacity. Then, she ceased to be stunned, and became enraged. All five heads focused on the kobold, opened their mouths, and the battle was on.
A wave of annihilating prismatic energy roared towards Keelah, only to be intercepted by Lamora. As perhaps one of the most powerful attacks in the cosmos bore down on her, Lamora simply raised up her blade, and cut. The wave of destruction parted like the red sea, as Lamora stood, framed by the light of her blade and the apocalypse crashing past her and her party. She may have been the weakest among the gods, but to underestimate the heroine with a thousand faces was the utmost folly!
Elsior roared a battle cry and rocketed forwards, blade set to pierce the dragon queen’s adamantine hide. Only for her to miss, entirely. She paused, confused for a moment as Tiamat seemed to utterly vanish. However, as she looked down, and beheld a prismatic dragonborn, it was clear she had only changed her shape. A blast of supercooled acid hit the white lion, beginning to melt through her armor as it froze her solid to the ceiling.
Time shattered around Keelah as she took cover behind the planets, opening fire with a dozen piercing shots. They shattered in the air a meter from Tiamat’s form, and she calmly waved a hand. One of the planets Keelah was cowering behind exploded into corrosive gasses, instantly melting two timelines to goo. The gas rapidly spread, forcing Keelah to cover her mouths and hold fire, lest she risk igniting the gas.
Tiamat raised her hand, and fired a blast of fire. It was no stream as with a normal breath weapon, but a concentrated ball of heat and death, more akin to a fireball than a normal breath weapon. Raymond hurled a singularity at a nearby planet, dragging it off course and into the path of the fireball. The fireball hit it, and ripped the planet apart, sending magma spraying throughout the room. Irritated, Tiamat glared towards Raymond. A moment later, a bolt of lightning ripped out of nowhere and slammed into the mage. He went sprawling, body ablaze. As he rolled, he lifted his hand, and redicrected the energy. The power was still enough to blast his directing arm to ashes, but he managed to send the majority of the attack back at Tiamat.
The queen of dragons didn’t even deign to block the attack, letting the bolt of lightning pass harmlessly over her. She was the daughter of chaos itself, and no elemental magic could harm her, not even her own. The blade of Lamora on the other hand, could. As Tiamat was blinded from being inside a lightning bolt, Lamora struck, landing a glancing blow on the dragon queen’s arm. The hero’s blade slashed open the virtually indestructible scales, drawing a goddess’s blood. The dragon queen’s eyebrows suddenly raised, and she retreated away from Lamora, teleporting to the other side of the room and firing off another blast in her direction.
Keelah moved clear of the gas, and began hammering Tiamat’s position with fire. Tiamat once again blocked it, only for one of the bolts to vanish, replaced with a now one-armed mage. Raymond held a spike of pure negative energy in his remaining hand like a spear, and drove it into the wound Lamora had opened. The spear drove in, and wrapped itself around the dragon queen’s arm like a shackle. Tiamat’s eyes went wide, and she smiled briefly before moving in to rip Raymond’s head off. He shouted an alert. “Her magic’s sealed! Now!”
Tiamat’s foot swung with enough force to reduce the mage’s torso to paste, but it didn’t connect with him. Raymond vanished, and the dragon queen’s heel instead connected with the brilliant white armor of the White Lion. Elsior grunted, but she had traded blows with Ascalon, Tiamat was still murderously strong, but she wasn’t a fighter. “My turn.” She replied, stepping in and answering with an attack that hurled Tiamat across the room.
Tiamat landed on her feet, scales smoking but unbroken. Even a full-powered attack from Aegis could only bruise her scales, not break them. The power of a trueborn goddess was not something any mortal weapon, even an artifact, could overcome with simple brute force. That didn’t seem to stop the scoundrels though, as Elsior charged, Keelah opened fire, and Raymond hurled another singularity, this one aimed directly for Tiamat’s throat.
Tiamat smirked, and reality bent. Elsior found herself suspended in the air, dangling from invisible threads. A wall of crystal interposed itself between Keelah’s bolts and their target, and Tiamat conjured a staff of similar crystal, using it to focus a blast at Raymond’s singularity. The miniature black hole froze solid, fell to the floor, and shattered.
”Magic sealed my as-gh!” Elsior swore, as Tiamat crossed the distance and struck her. Her armor unraveled, and the dragonborn lost her grip on Aegis. She hit the ground sprawling, chest caved in and body starting to tear itself apart. It was like she was coming apart at the seams, body fraying like a damaged tapestry.
”It is sealed, this is something else entirely!” Aegis shouted, blade struggling in the threads before Tiamat casually picked the greatsword up in one hand to examine it like a child studying a new toy.
”Indeed, oh treasure mine.” Tiamat mused. “I am Tiamat, axiomatic to dragons. Where they are, I am also. All dragons, and all things that are called dragons. Do you understand? Besides, I could hardly call myself the greatest sorceress in the cosmos if I limited my self to only a single continuity’s power.”
Aegis tried to fight back, forming armor to restrict the dragon queen’s movements, but he could find no purchase. Every time he tried to manifest the restricting plates, he found his progress blocked by strange structures, as though the underlying threads of reality had been woven into armor for the dragon queen.
Lamora struck, and was deftly parried by Aegis. The two goddesses clashed for a few seconds. Lamora was far more skilled, but the gap in raw power was too much. Tiamat was toying with her. Keelah circumvented the wall of crystal and prepared to fire, but the wall collapsed into eyes, which intercepted her bolts with freezing rays of their own, before turning towards her. Raymond reformed his arm, and shaped a singularity into a staff. He swapped with Lamora, giving to buy the cleric time to heal Elsior.
With a two handed blow, Tiamat shattered Raymond’s staff, staggering the mage. Then, she drove the blade into his stomach, and twisted. Raymond was a spirit, not a man, but this was still a ruinous blow, and he fell forwards onto the blade. Still, he grit his teeth, and vanished, taking the blade with him. Lamora reappeared in his stead, and in a single motion, slashed open Tiamat’s throat. The dragon queen staggered back, before her blood flash froze, keeping her avatar in the fight. Lamora lunged to finish her, but invisible threads caught her blade and redirected it. With a thunderclap, her blade severed the shackle sealing Tiamat’s magic.
In a surge of power, Tiamat resumed her true form and hurled Lamora back. Her power was simply too great for the scoundrels to face even this aspect. Keelah opened fire, piercing the dragon queen’s hide with many bolts, and then ran for cover as Tiamat swept her tail out and threw half the room at the kobold in return.
Raymond leaned on Aegis like a cane, holding his essence in with one hand. He focused, mending himself to the point where he wasn’t about to disapate, but the effort left him weakened. He was practically out, and nothing was even slowing Tiamat down. He looked about, and gaze focused on the sun in the center of the room. He had one more gambit.
”I have an idea. Give me a moment, and time moving as fast as possible on that star.” He requested.
”I hope this one works Ray.” Keelah warned, and then fired a bolt. The sun began to spin faster. Elsior took back her blade, and with a roar of challenge, once more faced down the queen of dragons. Her brilliant blade met the fang, claw, and crushing tail of the dragon goddess, their blows shaking the ground, before Tiamat focused another prismatic blast and hurled her back. She advanced, as ruin came to the planetarium around her. The orbs were desiccating, falling back to their component elements and being drawn irrevocably to the star in its center, which began to swell and turn a sickly red.
Tiamat advanced on Raymond as he chanted, focus entirely on his spell. Keelah bombarded her but her attacks were only pinpricks. She prepared a blast to finish the mage, only to be intercepted by Lamora’s fist, and the bellowing roar of a Tarrasque. The sight of that monster drove Tiamat into a berserk frenzy, and she threw herself at Lamora’s mightiest form with an animalistic rage. She bit and tore and rent, tearing massive chunks off of the changeling. Her magic and breath weapons seemed forgotten as she screamed in utter rage and hate for the thing in front of her. All Lamora could do against the onslaught was defend, and not to protect herself truly, but to simply die more slowly.
”There’s not enough mass!” Aegis warned, as the last of the planets were dragged into the swirling maelstrom of the star.
”Then we’ll have to use acceleration as a substitute!” Raymond retorted, and hurled a singularity into the heart of the star. “Elsior! Throw the sun at her!”
Elsior looked at Raymond like he was crazy, and then shrugged. If this didn’t work, they were all dead anyways. She hurled herself into the heart of the star, trusting her armor to protect her from the incredible forces at work. With a cry, she threw the dying sun at the queen of dragons. “ORDER ON ME!”
Raymond threw the last of his power into briefly phasing the scoundrels out of existence, as the star impacted Tiamat and exploded. The queen of dragons was resilient, but even her armor was nothing before the force of a supernova. The planetarium vanished as the power of a collapsing star, even a miniature one, ripped it apart. But as the blinding light faded, Tiamat still stood, smoking and battered, stunned, and breathing heavily, but stood.
But so also did the scoundrels! Emerging back into existence, they attacked with everything they had left. Keelah blinded the dragon queen with an unendring rain of abyssal bolts, giving cover for Lamora to take on her true form and carve a ruinous slash across one of Tiamat’s throats. Elsior took the chance, shedding her armor and moving with enough force to create a sonic boom, she struck the weakened throat with all her might. In a spray of divine blood, the head severed, and with a crash, the red head of Tiamat fell to the ground.
Tiamat’s rage was incalculable. Her wings stirred up a veritable hurricane, throwing the scoundrels off of her as she took flight. The scoundrels looked up, and awe came upon them as the empress of dragons began to cast a spell of incomprehensible power. She wove together ley lines, the very flows of magic through the cosmos, and she wove them into being, not one, but five at once. Then, they began to align, one to each cardinal direction, and one pointed like a targeting beam directly at the scoundrels.
Raymond was unconscious, so Lamora called Cualli to hand and activated it. The scoundrels vanished into the staff, and it vanished into itself seconds before the spell began to activate. A beam of brilliant white light filled the air, and the ley-lines collapsed into themselves, into the directing one, and hurtled downwards. The scoundrels re-appeared on the Astral Hound moments before a spell powerful enough to shatter a planet detonated on the space they had just been standing. Akar’s ancient magics held it together, directing the force outwards. The plane survived, barely, with a seventy-mile wide hole punched through it, straight from one end to the other.
Keelah rushed to the Astral Hound’s helm and swiftly began directing the aethership away from Akar as fast as it could go, supplementing her own power to accelerate it through time and space even faster. They watched with baited breath, as they prayed that Tiamat’s aspect wouldn’t chase them down. Forutnately for them, the damaged avatar was destroyed by its own working. Within Ascalon’s domain, the true dragon queen raged that her prey had escaped her, though privately, she was mildly amused that any mortal had managed to push one of her avatars so far. It was the first time in a very, very long while.
”Did you get it?” Keelah asked as soon as Lamora restored Raymond to consciousness. “Because that was far too close to have been for nothing.”
Raymond focused on the staff, and projected out the memory. “Yeah, and I see why Tiamat didn’t want us to find it.” He replied. The hazy grey memory stood clear, as Io breathed his last, and his daughter wept for what she had done.
”Well that’s a fascinating little parcel of information, beyond simply its use in creating our own deity to counter her.” Aegis remarked. “But perhaps not the most actionable piece we recovered on this expedition. Did any of you notice what wasn’t there?”
”Even as supposedly the good half you’re an insufferable smart-ass you know that?” Keelah replied. “Just fucking tell us.”
”Takes one to know one mini-Mat.” Aegis replied. “There were no forces from Ascalon’s own armies. It was exclusively Tiamat’s.”
”Given her response to us being there, I think she’d have killed him if he tried to add his own.” Elsior replied. “Though, that probably wouldn’t stop him.”
”Exactly.” Aegis replied. “He’d only avoid having his own forces around to monitor the situation, and probably try to kill all of us, if there wasn’t already something else he needed them for. He’s preparing to make his move.”
”Another invasion of Akar?” Raymond guessed. “It’s only been fifty years. He can’t be ready for that so quickly.”
”We don’t take losing well.” Aegis replied.
”Fair enough. Even so, we’re going to need more information, and more firepower.” Raymond considered. “This memory is only a part of what I’ll need, and the energies required will take more than a little while to accumulate.”
”So,” Keelah considered. “What I’m hearing is that we need to break into heaven again.”
”And persuade an archangel to not only avoid killing us, but come with us. Because there’s no way Kazador will come with us without her.” Elsior groaned. “And maybe somehow pick up Matlal on the way, providing he’s not busy on the mortal front.”
”He will be. Can’t keep himself out of trouble that one.” Lamora remarked. “Though as for persuading Senket, I suspect she has words for Ascalon long overdue.”
”No doubt. So, in the interest of not having to ask Kaz to reforge me, please don’t tell her who’s soul is in this sword.” Aegis requested, with not a little fear.

First Previous Next
​
Systems check.
>>Create handshake with Cadoon.

Error. Cadoon not found.

One does not simply lose an entire civilization.
System check.
>>Check status for CD-ROM.

Error. CD-ROM not found.
Suggestion: look up (definition) CD-ROM.

If I could roll my eyes, I would! Fine.
>>Look up (definition): CD-ROM.

32 definitions found:

1. Compact disc read-only memory.
2. Obsolete technology used prior to 987 ME.
3. A CD containing computer data that cannot be altered.
4. A circular disk used usually containing recorded music or computer data.

5….

Stop.
>>Display definition of “CD-ROM” > limit to Cadoon.

Cadoon Reserve Observation Module - military uplink used to transfer large amounts of data across space without the concept of time.

>>Check status for CD-ROM > limit to Cadoon.

Status: Offline

Was that so hard?! Ugh!
>>Reboot signal.

Error. Unable to find signal.

Are you kidding me? Why!?

Error. Second user found.
Error. Unknown username. Check again or try your email address.
Error. The password you entered for the username SQUEE! is incorrect.
Suggestion: Lost your password?

Wait, wait! Stop! What is going on??
Who else is getting in here? There are no other users!

Prompt: create new password.
Error. Password must contain at least 24 characters.
Error. Password must contain at least one number.
Error. Password must contain at least one uppercase character.
Error. Password must contain at least one symbol.
Error. Password cannot include swear words.
Error. Password cannot contain full words in any language.
Error. Password cannot be the same as a password used previously.
…
Login successful.
Welcome user: SQUEE!

>>Access: remote chat.
>>Send to user [SQUEE!]: “What are you doing in here?”

“Hey Tony! Sorry, gonna need your systems for a moment.”<<

>>“Who is this?”

“No time to chat!”>>
“I’ll catch ya later, k?”>>
“K.”>>
“Bye!”>>
Error. Firewalls down.
Error. Virus detected.
Error. Shrimp detected.

>>“STOP! What are you doing?!”

Error. Full system compromised.
Shutting down in 5
4
3

>>Run I-M-DA-b0SS.exe

2
1

>>Run 4Nt0nY5D4rk5t0rM.dmg

…
Error. Unable to shut down.
Error. 134 Systems compromised.

>>R-un cl *4-UUUU—
>>Ru-n cl—
>>Run—
Did you just glitch my systems?!

Warning. Waves detected.
Warning. Impact imminent.
Warning.
Warning.

>>Run SD.exe

Shutting down all non-essentials.
Rebooting.

That little shrimp got me! Didn’t know she was that good.
Okay. Back to work.
Start up baby, come on. Start up.
Start up.

[Welcome to the DARKSTORM interface. Please login.]

>>Username: AnthonySDarkstorm
>>Password: S*ckMiz0r0-graV!ty#jU\k

[Welcome user: T0NY]

First things first.
>>Run IM-a-g#0st.exe target room > Main dock

Error. “Main dock” not found.

Ugh!!! CHARYD!!!!
>>Run IM-a-g#0st.exe target room > Main deck
>>Run I-M-DA-b0SS.exe
>>Boot user: SQUEE!
>>Ban user: SQUEE!
>>Find target (Squilla)
>>Run Spr!nk1ersInR00m-TST.exe if {
Target (Squilla) = InR00m and {
Target (Posey) <> InR00m } elseif {
Run D!sc0Str0keL!ghts.exe if {
Target (Squilla) = InR00m elseif {
Run tr4cker.exe }}}}
>>Loop command: every 25 hours.
You’re trapped in here with me. Now… why is Posey running around?

Audio input received:
Source (Captain Posey): “Tony, I need you to lower the temperature further in here.”<<

>>Send message via IM-a-g#0st.exe: “It will risk freezing the system.”

“Do it.”<<

>>Access CHILL, room: shh!!
>>Decrease temperature.

“Tony, turn the pump back on.”<<

>>Access FLOW, room: shh!!
>>Activate.
>>Full system check.

Running…

Since I have time, I might as well educate the new captain.
>>Send message via [EMD comm] to (Charyd):
“Dock (noun): a place for the loading or unloading of materials”
“Dock (noun): a place in a criminal court where a prisoner stands or sits during trial”
Insert message: “Neither of these define Darkstorm.”
>>Run w0rdp0rn-bomb.exe > “Dock”
“Dock (noun): a platform extending from a shore over water and supported by piles or pillars, used to secure, protect, and provide access to a boat or ship.”
“Dock (verb): to maneuver (a vessel or vehicle) into or next to a dock.”
“Dock (verb): to couple (two or more spacecraft, for example) in space.”
Let’s see you use your communicator now, eh?
>>Run ShoppingList.exe
+ Chocobars
+ Liquid coolant
+ Dictionary
- briefs
You don’t deserve clean underwear, Charyd.
---
The only tool left in Illise’s possession was a clickable pen and no matter how many times she dismantled it, there was no hidden gun, bomb, or tool to help her break out of her room. She shimmed the nib of the pen into a flathead screw, gave it a twist, and it cracked, proving that it was not a screwdriver as the ink percolated out and over her hands. Try to force something that it's not and you would get a failure of execution - the summary of her day since landing on PT-0237. She did not date to step near the white rug by her bed, afraid of staining it blue. Even with a broken pen, she would not admit defeat. “Tony?”
He had been quiet the last few times, which, according to her Universal Standard Time clock, was twenty minutes ago. Her eyes wandered the room for any other tool she could use. Her docupad in the room was locked down, though it offered some old-fashioned card games able to be played. The pirates did not leave her with much to do and were lenient with the no handcuffs situation because of her good behavior to be locked up in her room. They cleaned out most of her desk beside the peeled apple snacks and her personal picture frames.
The pad dinged, displaying a black background and blue text, a single square blinking.
“Shall we play a game? []”
“Tony!” She ran over. “What is going on?”
“You looked like you could use a friend and the rest of the crew is playing games in the mess hall.”
She typed in “Y” for the game and a screen popped up of a pixel version of Tony as he bounced along the horizon. “How is everything for you?” Ilise asked.
“Your nimble fingers saved my tubing and kept everything cool. We’ll need more coolant though. I put it on the list.”
There is a list? She tapped the screen and pixel Tony jumped. It began the horizontal walk through the game, with her jumping over various mounds of cake, coffee mugs, and pirates. “Any clue where they are going?”
“None yet. They are trying to bandage up and lock me up with some sort of firewall so I can’t communicate with the CD-ROM.”
“Did you help Charyd get out?”
“No. He made that disaster on his own. I kicked him out because he was exponentially causing more. He’s a personified version of a virus.”
“That you willingly let in.”
A fishing hook dropped on the pad and grabbed pixel Tony by the pants and lifted him up, kicking. “I was phished and let him aboard thinking-”
She sighed. “We still have one trick up our sleeve to get out of here. Saar, he is safe in a wall. Send him a message about our situation and let him out when it’s safe.”
The pixel Tony was dropped down and bounced on a trampoline before he continued along, bouncing on its own. Her palm gently caressed the screen, she had almost lost Tony, they had done vigorous training to be on the Darkstorm together, and she would sacrifice it all if it meant keeping Tony’s sharp wit alive and going.
Blue text appeared at the top of the pad, “Message sent to Charyd: Officer Saar is starting to stink and needs food and water every 6 hours to stay alive.”
She tightened her jaw, debating what to say, she wanted to cuss him out for betraying everything they had done. They were supposed to be the best and prove this new technology. That it can work. That it made sense. That it was good. Instead, she smacked the docupad, ran to her pillows, and launched all of them at the pad while screaming. Without Tony, and even Saar, she was on her own waiting to hear what the pirates would do with her. It was amazing they hadn’t already thrown her out of the airlock. Tony was obsessed with the pirates and she did not understand it. Tony should have learned by now anyone would and could pass you off if you did not benefit them.
“Why are you being so unreasonable?” Ilise growled out, hoping both that Tony would hear her and not. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his reply.
Tony remained silent, but it was like a white noise filled her room instead, making him pointedly quiet.
“Family,” Tony finally answered, what felt like hours later, though, was probably only a few seconds. The answer made no sense.
Ilise scoffed and punched into the soft bedding to expel some of her anger.
“What does that even–no. No. Do you even know what it's like to have a family who expects you to conquer the galaxy?” she asked instead, latching onto that single word as she thought about what her own family would think about her situation. “It’s full of nagging every chance they get. Sure, they praised me when I excelled at the academy- but after that, my career was stagnant until you and I met up.” She tossed the blankets up and she made a cocoon around herself as she walked over to her desk, two picture frames sat there. One picture was of her with her parents, all in military uniforms. While theirs had endless badges from their multiple turns at war, she was a recent cadet, naked of pins. They would be so disappointed in her now. “Either that or they decide that you’re not worth their time.” The other frame was of her with her sister hanging out in the gardens. She should have sent a message to her sister before this whole mess happened, even if it was against security protocols.
“They’re not like that.” Tony’s voice was meek, soft, almost gentle.
“Family isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be,” Ilise finished with a sigh, even as she realized that the smile on her sister’s face in that picture was the exact same as the one from the last time they saw each other.
Tony never replied, the whole ship was oddly quiet without the normal banter. Her body decided that it was enough and fell asleep instantly.
—
Alice was not being gentle at all, as she finished wrapping the medi-tape over Charyd’s wounded leg. In fact, he was pretty sure that she applied a lot more of the antiseptic than needed. When she yanked the binding closed hard enough to shift him in his seat, he was sure about it.
“What’s up with you?” he asked, wary of her being so close to an open wound.
“You’re an idiot, that’s ‘what’s up with me’, you idiot,” she hissed out, refusing to look at his face.
“Hey, it worked,” Charyd said when he realized why she was so angry. He reached out to place a hand on her shoulder but she hit it away in anger. “Alice. We’re good–”
“We are lucky!” she interrupted with a growl and yanked harder on the bindings. They were so tight and secure that Charyd wasn’t sure he could bend his leg at all while it healed.
“We’re all here. We’re mostly unharmed–”
“Mostly?!” she scoffed out another interruption. “Do you even see yourself? I swear, you and that Cadoon captain did more damage to us than the prison did!”
Charyd paled at those words.
Alice immediately regretted them and he felt her feelings wash over him. He accepted her silent apology as she settled in the back of his mind, trying to project calm. It didn’t last for long. That wasn’t who Alice was. She pulled out of his head as soon as he felt the stirrings of her anger.
Charyd tried to head them off with a wide grin and said, “aren’t you happy you’ve got the luckiest guy in the galaxy as your captain?”
Alice mentally stumbled as she left his head, the anger thwarted for a second.
“You have a horseshoe shoved up your ass, don’t you?” she growled out the question.
“Either that or my prayers to Fortuna were answered.”
Alice rolled her eyes.
“We’re good, Alice. We’ll take a few days to heal and regroup, then we can get back out there! Look, we’ve got the Darkstorm back and–”
“And that’s another thing,” Alice talked over him, another interruption as her anger mounted again. “Darkstorm? Why?? This ship is what got us into this mess in the first place!”
“Not really. And we both know it. Black hole, everyone on the ship knows it. And I know it’s much easier to blame the ship, but know this Alice - nobody blames you.”
Her entire face scrunched up as she looked down, her skin a translucent color that looked almost pink in splotches everywhere. Alice was not used to hiding her emotions as they displayed on her body around Charyd. He loved that about her.
“They were from my pod,” Alice grumbled, still not looking up.
“And there is an idiot named Charyd in a prison cell somewhere because he got drunk and he has my name. Doesn’t make it my fault he’s an idiot.”
Alice let out a chuckle. “It actually does. You’re the one who put him there.”
“Semantics. You know what I mean. You had no control over them. Shitty third-cousin-five-times-removed.”
Alice rolled her eyes, but when she stopped, they finally settled on Charyd’s face and she had a small smile on her lips. “You know that’s not how Naureus pods work.”
Charyd shrugged. “Whatever. We’re safe, we’re good, we’re all here. Everybody back home has been worried sick about you all. Which reminds me-” Charyd turned to face the camera in the corner “-set a course for MRKT-0293.”
No response.
Alice rolled her eyes again and said, “Be nice. Tony? Do you mind please setting a course for home?”
No response.
“Maybe he’s still down?” Alice questioned.
It was Charyd’s turn to roll his eyes. Just because the Darkstorm’s AI used a male image in the hologram and everybody had taken to calling it a him. “I’ll go set the course. Make sure the others are okay?”
“Yea. Polo is baking you a new cake.”
“What happened to the original one?” Charyd asked and tested his leg. The medi-tape was keeping it together and numb so he could walk but not morph it yet.
“Posey–which we will talk about–used it to knock out Scooball.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Was it chocolate?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
Alice only nodded in response this time. “Mess hall?”
“As soon as I’m done on the deck.”
Alice raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. She walked out of the med bay first and Charyd limped a few steps after her, testing his wounded leg before he realized he was good to walk. He made it to the main deck of the Darkstorm and sat in the captain’s chair. It was so comfortable. The hologram screen he pulled up was the same one Alice was using earlier during their unfortunate escape from the planet. He set the coordinates for home, a small market planet in a system quite far away, and turned off the hologram.
The ship shifted minutely through space and then was moving, speed increasing gradually enough that he did not need to remain seated or warn the others. Within minutes, they would be out of the system that housed one of the most horrible prisons in the galaxy.
The AI’s visual didn’t appear anywhere, not even as a tiny sprite to mock him. He was starting to miss Tony’s voice. The thought had him shaking his head, and he got up to get to the mess hall. If a computer program wanted to give him the cold shoulder, that was fine with him.
As soon as he walked in, all thoughts of Tony, Posey, the Darkstorm, and Cadoon were wiped clean.
It was his crew.
Polo was pulling a cake out of the small oven in the corner, his bald head covered in a worn beanie to keep it from reflecting the lights above and blinding everyone. Squilla was attached to the wall near the TV, reaching out with her antennae every now and then to catch the flying popcorn that Alice and the last member of their crew were throwing at the TV. They were watching that epic cooking show, The Intergalactic Cook-Off, where the contestants Eloise and Mikayla faced off in the Mushroom forest to find edible ingredients in a short 40 minutes. Scooball was in the corner, sprawled out under a UV lamp with a bag of iced lemons against his face. Her face, Charyd noted the long earring dangling from one pointed ear.
“Hey, you–”
“That’s not how you fucking make Kemapiawa, it needs a mousse!” Scooball jumped up to yell, pointing a finger at the TV.
“You’re okay,” Charyd answered his own unfinished question and turned to Alice. She smiled at him behind the bowl of popcorn.
“Stop with those!” Polo called from the cooking corner. “Cake just has to cool and we’re gonna eat.”
“Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake!” Squilla started the chant that all of them took up until they all dissolved into laughter.
Charyd fucking loved his crew. Now, it was time to take them back home and make sure their families all knew they were safe.

Hi everyone,
I have a Samsung dishwasher that for some reason does not dissolve the detergent tabs that I insert into the detergent valve. To be honest, I am not sure if the tabs actually is falling out of the valve in the right time or if it randomly falls out when I open the dishwasher, so I am not sure if the problem is that the tabs does not fall out on time or if the water was not hot enough / reaching the tabs after it falls out of the valve. The machine is older than 5 years.
To be honest, I am not so handy when it comes to things like this, so I have tried to do some troubleshooting myself, but can't really seem to see what the issue is, so I am hoping maybe someone more experienced here will be able to help me. As I am a student, replacing a dishwasher is a huge expense I cannot afford at the moment.
Here is an illustration of how my dishwasher looks like (more or less very close to it). It has 3 spray arms as illustrated here: https://www.samsung.com/in/support/home-appliances/cleaning-spray-arms-of-samsung-dishwashe
I tried to do some troubleshooting and this is what I found:
I tried to take off all of the spray arms and put some soap in them and flushing it with very hot water. The water could look like it flow the water out of the hole okay. So I put it back. Does all 3 sprays arms has to spray and function in order for the soap tabs to fall out of the soap dispenser?
Then I tried to open the washing machine after 10-15 minutes of 150 minutes program. I could see water on the floor of the machine.
I tried to put a detergent soap / tabs / pods on the bottom of the machine, one in the cutlery basket and one in the soap dispenser (where I normally put). From what I could see, all of the soap dissolved except the one in the soap dispenser.
I tried to open the dishwasher door slowly while it still have like 27 of 150 minutes of the program left (I wash on auto 45-60 degrees). While I am opening the dishwasher door slowly, I hear the soap pod / tab fall out of the soap dispenser and down on the bottom of the machine.
What I can’t confirm is if the soap dispenser was open during the washing program or if it opened when I opened the dishwasher?
Could it be that it opened but the soap pod / tab did not fall down to the bottom of the machine? Is this something that often happens?
What is normally causing the soap tab / pod to fall out of the soap dispenser when its opened?
Here is also a picture of my dishwasher detergent container:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answeANS00066253/
My detergent tabs looks like this from Finnish:
https://shop.thecleanerstore.com/products/1-pack-of-dishwasher-tablet-5-tablets
Is there anything beside what's mentioned that I should check in order to figure out what the problem is and how I can fix it?

Hi everyone,
I have a Samsung dishwasher that for some reason does not dissolve the detergent tabs that I insert into the detergent valve. To be honest, I am not sure if the tabs actually is falling out of the valve in the right time or if it randomly falls out when I open the dishwasher, so I am not sure if the problem is that the tabs does not fall out on time or if the water was not hot enough / reaching the tabs after it falls out of the valve. The machine is older than 5 years.
To be honest, I am not so handy when it comes to things like this, so I have tried to do some troubleshooting myself, but can't really seem to see what the issue is, so I am hoping maybe someone more experienced here will be able to help me. As I am a student, replacing a dishwasher is a huge expense I cannot afford at the moment.
Here is an illustration of how my dishwasher looks like (more or less very close to it). It has 3 spray arms as illustrated here: https://www.samsung.com/in/support/home-appliances/cleaning-spray-arms-of-samsung-dishwashe
I tried to do some troubleshooting and this is what I found:
I tried to take off all of the spray arms and put some soap in them and flushing it with very hot water. The water could look like it flow the water out of the hole okay. So I put it back. Does all 3 sprays arms has to spray and function in order for the soap tabs to fall out of the soap dispenser?
Then I tried to open the washing machine after 10-15 minutes of 150 minutes program. I could see water on the floor of the machine.
I tried to put a detergent soap / tabs / pods on the bottom of the machine, one in the cutlery basket and one in the soap dispenser (where I normally put). From what I could see, all of the soap dissolved except the one in the soap dispenser.
I tried to open the dishwasher door slowly while it still have like 27 of 150 minutes of the program left (I wash on auto 45-60 degrees). While I am opening the dishwasher door slowly, I hear the soap pod / tab fall out of the soap dispenser and down on the bottom of the machine.
What I can’t confirm is if the soap dispenser was open during the washing program or if it opened when I opened the dishwasher?
Could it be that it opened but the soap pod / tab did not fall down to the bottom of the machine? Is this something that often happens?
What is normally causing the soap tab / pod to fall out of the soap dispenser when its opened?
Here is also a picture of my dishwasher detergent container:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answeANS00066253/
My detergent tabs looks like this from Finnish:
https://shop.thecleanerstore.com/products/1-pack-of-dishwasher-tablet-5-tablets
Is there anything beside what's mentioned that I should check in order to figure out what the problem is and how I can fix it?

Freshly purchased from BHQ, first owner. I thought I would like the Manix LW but it just doesn't tickle my fancy. Nothing wrong with it at all. Knife was not carried or cut with, only actuated for feeling. No imperfections that I can see and the blade centering is actually decent. Timestamp and pics: https://imgur.com/a/EghE7Io
SV: 105, TV:110. PP G&S as I only have 1 trade on here.
I am interested in a straight trade for a plain Manix 2, or some select FRN Delicas, but I am interested in other offers.

Hi everyone,
I have a Samsung dishwasher that for some reason does not dissolve the detergent tabs that I insert into the detergent valve. To be honest, I am not sure if the tabs actually is falling out of the valve in the right time or if it randomly falls out when I open the dishwasher, so I am not sure if the problem is that the tabs does not fall out on time or if the water was not hot enough / reaching the tabs after it falls out of the valve. The machine is older than 5 years.
To be honest, I am not so handy when it comes to things like this, so I have tried to do some troubleshooting myself, but can't really seem to see what the issue is, so I am hoping maybe someone more experienced here will be able to help me. As I am a student, replacing a dishwasher is a huge expense I cannot afford at the moment.
Here is an illustration of how my dishwasher looks like (more or less very close to it). It has 3 spray arms as illustrated here: https://www.samsung.com/in/support/home-appliances/cleaning-spray-arms-of-samsung-dishwashe
I tried to do some troubleshooting and this is what I found:
I tried to take off all of the spray arms and put some soap in them and flushing it with very hot water. The water could look like it flow the water out of the hole okay. So I put it back. Does all 3 sprays arms has to spray and function in order for the soap tabs to fall out of the soap dispenser?
Then I tried to open the washing machine after 10-15 minutes of 150 minutes program. I could see water on the floor of the machine.
I tried to put a detergent soap / tabs / pods on the bottom of the machine, one in the cutlery basket and one in the soap dispenser (where I normally put). From what I could see, all of the soap dissolved except the one in the soap dispenser.
I tried to open the dishwasher door slowly while it still have like 27 of 150 minutes of the program left (I wash on auto 45-60 degrees). While I am opening the dishwasher door slowly, I hear the soap pod / tab fall out of the soap dispenser and down on the bottom of the machine.
What I can’t confirm is if the soap dispenser was open during the washing program or if it opened when I opened the dishwasher?
Could it be that it opened but the soap pod / tab did not fall down to the bottom of the machine? Is this something that often happens?
What is normally causing the soap tab / pod to fall out of the soap dispenser when its opened?
Here is also a picture of my dishwasher detergent container:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answeANS00066253/
My detergent tabs looks like this from Finnish:
https://shop.thecleanerstore.com/products/1-pack-of-dishwasher-tablet-5-tablets
Is there anything beside what's mentioned that I should check in order to figure out what the problem is and how I can fix it?