Period: 1191.73 days

	Submissions	Comments
Total	996	4401
Rate (per day)	0.84	3.69
Unique Redditors	206	1060
Combined Score	69328	15944

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

1. 13263 points, 214 submissions: BigSurround2
   
   1. [OLD] JNU Professor Nivedita Menon tells students "Hindu Society" is the most violent society in world (186 points, 79 comments)
   2. this (144 points, 5 comments)
   3. Construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is an important milestone for indigenous civilizations, all around the world. It must start the revolution. #RamMandirAyodhya (141 points, 33 comments)
   4. Chicago, London, Auckland, Brisbane, Perth, Toronto, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Moscow, New Delhi, Mumbai, Banglore, Kolkata ... 100 such cities will join the Protest on 14th June Sunday. World will witness amazing unity among Hindus against murder of #AjayPandita (119 points, 1 comment)
   5. True Indology: "In 1400, Sikandar killεd Brahmins who refused to discard Janeu & convert. 37 kg of Janeu collected from dead & burnt. Now, they killεd last Hindu Sarpanch of Kashmir. Janeu turns red. Kashmir "struggle" is 620 year war to eliminate Janeu. Never let anyone tell you otherwise." (119 points, 2 comments)
   6. It's time for the world to pay the due attention. We won't be silenced now. #MainBhiKashmiriHindu #KashmiriHindus (116 points, 0 comments)
   7. THE GREAT OPRESSION THEORY (115 points, 1 comment)
   8. “Hindus do not come, your names are not on the list.” Sad story of 'Hindus' in Bangladesh. #HumanRights (110 points, 16 comments)
   9. Pseudo secularism: a curse for Hindus.. A mini comic.. (108 points, 5 comments)
   10. करिश्मा का करिश्मा #Azan #karishmaBhosle #Azaan #लाउडस्पीकर_जिहाद (104 points, 1 comment)
2. 8260 points, 138 submissions: Fluid-Lock
   
   1. Fake news propaganda. (133 points, 9 comments)
   2. Tweets of tru indology banned in India. Even though the source is verified. (113 points, 12 comments)
   3. Saffron Tilak Challenge (97 points, 0 comments)
   4. The terrorist that killed 25 Afghan Sikhs was from Kerla. (96 points, 9 comments)
   5. Foubd this on comment section of latest Shekar Gupta video (95 points, 0 comments)
   6. In Communist ruled Bengal (1982), 17 Sadhus including a woman were dragged out of a taxi and lynchεd to death by a mob in broad daylight. They made SAME allegation. That those Hindu Sadhus were child lifters. Allegation turned out to be FAKE. Beware of left-liberal FRAUD! (95 points, 2 comments)
   7. This is what RSS has done for people of India during Corona Crisis. (95 points, 13 comments)
   8. Anoop Singh Cop in Jammu and Kashmir today lost his life in a Terror Attack by Radical Muslim terrorist organisations. May he Rest in peace. (93 points, 4 comments)
   9. Taqqiya - The art of lying (90 points, 0 comments)
   10. He was lynched for carrying the national flag. (88 points, 0 comments)
3. 5137 points, 82 submissions: Glass-Earth
   
   1. this (149 points, 5 comments)
   2. Palestinian Islamic Scholar Nidhal Siam at Al-Aqsa Mosque Rally: The Only Response to the “Cow-Worshipping” Hindus’ Affront to the Prophet Muhammad is to Declare Jihad to Eradicate Them (131 points, 32 comments)
   3. 6 June, 1674 (Jyeshta Shukla Trayodashi) - a historic day! 346 years ago this day - coronation of 'Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj', at the Raigad Fort. The beginning of a new era. The era of 'Swarajya'. (118 points, 0 comments)
   4. 'The Wire' has managed to make the Telinipara, West Bengal riots an anti-Muslim pogrom (115 points, 27 comments)
   5. [Nupur J Sharma] OpIndia is all set to release a 350 page report on the Delhi Riots 2020 that trace the genesis of the violence right from 1st December 2019 till the 26th of February. Islamists, their support system and the grand conspiracy covered in a comprehensive report by OpIndia. Soon! (107 points, 4 comments)
   6. True Indology: "When loudspeakers were FIRST introduced in India in 20th century Both Deoband & Tablighi Jamaat OPPOSED loudspeaker. They called it Haram western innovation. Were those traditional Mμslims "Islαmophobes"? STOP shouting 5 times a day on loudspeaker that only your God is real." (98 points, 1 comment)
   7. Such ads have become common in Jammu. The region is going through an aggressive demographic change. People of Jammu have been pleading for help, but the central government is not listening. (91 points, 8 comments)
   8. A journalist 'Rizwana Tabassum' was found dead in Uttar Pradesh. See what Newslaundry chose to highlight first. And then see what was in the actual story. (89 points, 2 comments)
   9. Several books banned, countless people put behind the bars, careers and families destroyed. Section 295 A of IPC has a long history of silencing Hindu voices. Here is its history. #Repeal295A (87 points, 1 comment)
   10. जय श्री राम।। (86 points, 2 comments)
4. 3522 points, 51 submissions: Busy_Art
   
   1. "Feminism" in India (110 points, 10 comments)
   2. Comparing an innocent animal with a rioter is highly condemnable (107 points, 1 comment)
   3. “It’s a curse to be born in an Islamic country” says mother of the 14-year-old abducted Hindu girl in Sindh, Pakistan (107 points, 19 comments)
   4. True Indology: "Thousands of terrorists indulge in killiηg & bombing. They swear by one Arabic holy book. Secular gang: Terror has no religion! One Brahmin goes criminal. Killεd fellow Brahmin police officers. Doesn't swear by any Brahmin/Hindu book. Secular gang: Oh look! Brahmin terrorist!" (105 points, 1 comment)
   5. Hindus have been requesting Netflix to stop insulting Hindus and their deities; but it seems they do it intentionally. Clip from their latest movie 'Chippa' where they are mocking Hanuman and are not even pretending to be subtle. Movie is written and directed by Safdar Rahman (104 points, 25 comments)
   6. Muslim mob torched properties of Hindus till 24th Feb night, burnt Dilbar Negi alive: Fresh charge sheet against 12 in Delhi riots (104 points, 2 comments)
   7. Anti-Hindu Delhi riots: The Wire and NDTV whitewash how a Muslim school was used as an attack base by Islamists and how a Hindu owned school was brutalised (103 points, 0 comments)
   8. It’s only when Brahmins display casteism that the caste gets mentioned in the headline. If perpetrators of caste-based discrimination are non-Brahmin Hindus, headlines say ‘upper caste’. If perpetrator is a Muslim, it’s simply ‘man’. (95 points, 4 comments)
   9. Look at their age, and what’s being said in the audio. Go to the audio of this particular post, and you’ll find 100s of videos spewing hatred on other religions. THESE ARE KIDS, FOR GOD’S SAKE. And they're glorifying kiIIing of people (91 points, 8 comments)
   10. #Breaking Ayodhya: Construction of Ram Mandir begins. (88 points, 11 comments)
5. 3389 points, 42 submissions: sarinmall85
   
   1. Yogiji bulldozing illegal mosque of bareilly (175 points, 12 comments)
   2. Hindu warrior kids chasing ladies missionaries by chanting "Jai Shri Ram" (161 points, 6 comments)
   3. Massive protest in Nepal against communist government. They are demanding Hindu monarchy again (147 points, 11 comments)
   4. Tableau of Ram mandir that you will see tomorrow in republic day parade (133 points, 4 comments)
   5. Bajrang dal & VHP activists protest against demolition of temple by Kejriwal Govt (128 points, 2 comments)
   6. Keralites celebrating BJP victory in their own style with elephant & Music (128 points, 7 comments)
   7. School children singing Hanuman Chalisa (127 points, 3 comments)
   8. Hindu Procession in kashmir after 35 years (118 points, 5 comments)
   9. You may have seen Muslims offering Namaz on public places but rarely you may have seen any Brahman Offering evening on Public place. This is from Lucknow Airport. Brahmans are offering prayers fearlessly under Yogiji (116 points, 4 comments)
   10. 2 year kid chant mantras fluently (113 points, 1 comment)
6. 2746 points, 12 submissions: Hindutva_Soldier
   
   1. Aawaz mat Uthao bhaiyo (412 points, 20 comments)
   2. Jai Bhavani , jai shivaji (387 points, 16 comments)
   3. Found this on YouTube (332 points, 3 comments)
   4. A great tribute to our Great ancestors , they fought when they were given two options either convert or die , hope it inspires mordern hindus (297 points, 7 comments)
   5. Why I killed Gandhi , do watch this movie ,congress is trying to ban this movie (285 points, 2 comments)
   6. Kindly support him (252 points, 4 comments)
   7. Sab Dekhenge (252 points, 8 comments)
   8. Future pm of india (126 points, 4 comments)
   9. kindly support this guys (112 points, 9 comments)
   10. Hanuman chalisa - Everyday 7 times without fail (105 points, 6 comments)
7. 1632 points, 24 submissions: TheInsaneM
   
   1. "Aurangzeb paraded Sambhaji Maharaj in clown's dress and had Mughal soldiers laugh at Sambhaji Maharaj before killing him"? My response to a recent post on India. (166 points, 76 comments)
   2. Mughal India - The biggest holocaust in world history (151 points, 24 comments)
   3. The shocking reality of Ghazwa-e-Hind. They won't tell you this. It is happening. (114 points, 34 comments)
   4. The legend of Veer Savarkar. The man you know, the story you don't. (103 points, 10 comments)
   5. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. A forgotten story. (92 points, 4 comments)
   6. Modern problems require Sanatan solutions. (91 points, 0 comments)
   7. How Communists tried to destroy Indian culture. (70 points, 1 comment)
   8. Bhavani ke veero, jaag jaao isse pehle ki der hojaye! (61 points, 2 comments)
   9. 18 Hindu houses burnt in Telangana as a result of anti-CAA protests. No mainstream media has covered this news. BJP urges the Hindu society to unite and retaliate. (59 points, 1 comment)
   10. The Mitrokhin Archive — The Special Relationship With India [Part 1: The supremacy of the Indian National Congress] (57 points, 16 comments)
8. 1128 points, 6 submissions: TheZodiac66
   
   1. Made it today 🚩Jai Shri Ram 🚩 (275 points, 11 comments)
   2. made it today! (235 points, 7 comments)
   3. God of Gods Lord Shiva Supremacy! check comments for more insta vids! (223 points, 4 comments)
   4. Lord Indra Supremacy check comment for more vid. (148 points, 12 comments)
   5. JAI HANUMAN! Check comment for insta link. (141 points, 4 comments)
   6. Om Indra Devaya Namah! 🕉️ (106 points, 3 comments)
9. 894 points, 7 submissions: EyePrior5087
   
   1. I support Nupur Sharma ji (321 points, 31 comments)
   2. not oc ( Ig - @theangryvaanar) (210 points, 9 comments)
   3. did you know that? (124 points, 8 comments)
   4. From ig - @theangryvaanar (78 points, 1 comment)
   5. From - The Angry Vaanar ( additional information in comments) (62 points, 2 comments)
   6. size of soul according to our scriptures ( source _ @theangryvaanar Ig ) (57 points, 4 comments)
   7. origin of violin through Ravanhatha ( credits - @theangryvaanar ig) (42 points, 0 comments)
10. 815 points, 11 submissions: Rishx
    
    1. ISKCON devotees distributing arabic edition of Srimad Bhagavad Gita to muslims. (131 points, 4 comments)
    2. A compilation of speeches given by some prominent muslim leaders who have spoken about Hindus. (102 points, 22 comments)
    3. District wise percentage of muslim population on Bengal region. (91 points, 10 comments)
    4. That's how it's done. (81 points, 1 comment)
    5. He is right. (76 points, 0 comments)
    6. Some Hindus get so angry when so called Hindu jewish unity is questioned. Guess who is supporting 'dismantling global Hindutva' event? (76 points, 17 comments)
    7. Oops..I think he dropped /s . (73 points, 2 comments)
    8. District wise percentage of muslim population in Assam. (60 points, 2 comments)
    9. Hypocrites. (48 points, 0 comments)
    10. [Swarajya Magazine]India's own BBC : Prasar Bharati to set up DD International channel to Project India's point of view. (40 points, 1 comment)

Top Commenters

1. BigSurround2 (589 points, 155 comments)
2. Fluid-Lock (353 points, 89 comments)
3. TheInsaneM (335 points, 51 comments)
4. Resurgence28 (292 points, 47 comments)
5. Busy_Art (195 points, 38 comments)
6. DauntlessDev (163 points, 21 comments)
7. Glass-Earth (149 points, 35 comments)
8. ProfessorOak11 (139 points, 17 comments)
9. realist_optimist (137 points, 17 comments)
10. mystiquemystic (123 points, 26 comments)

Top Submissions

1. please share as much as possible by Hindutva_ (668 points, 17 comments)
2. Aawaz mat Uthao bhaiyo by Hindutva_Soldier (412 points, 20 comments)
3. . by IshaanOberoi (402 points, 15 comments)
4. Jai Bhavani , jai shivaji by Hindutva_Soldier (387 points, 16 comments)
5. Jaiiiiiii Shree Ram 🚩 by anshbanka_9281 (379 points, 10 comments)
6. Found this on YouTube by Hindutva_Soldier (332 points, 3 comments)
7. I support Nupur Sharma ji by EyePrior5087 (321 points, 31 comments)
8. A great tribute to our Great ancestors , they fought when they were given two options either convert or die , hope it inspires mordern hindus by Hindutva_Soldier (297 points, 7 comments)
9. Why I killed Gandhi , do watch this movie ,congress is trying to ban this movie by Hindutva_Soldier (285 points, 2 comments)
10. Made it today 🚩Jai Shri Ram 🚩 by TheZodiac66 (275 points, 11 comments)

Top Comments

1. 37 points: Insane-M's comment in They're distorting. What're we supposed to do?
2. 36 points: Kaptanprithvi's comment in As a South Indian, I have a genuine question to all the Hindi speakers here.
3. 35 points: Tony_stark_2020's comment in They're distorting. What're we supposed to do?
4. 33 points: deleted's comment in "Aurangzeb paraded Sambhaji Maharaj in clown's dress and had Mughal soldiers laugh at Sambhaji Maharaj before killing him"? My response to a recent post on India.
5. 33 points: ProfessorOak11's comment in Hindus have been requesting Netflix to stop insulting Hindus and their deities; but it seems they do it intentionally. Clip from their latest movie 'Chippa' where they are mocking Hanuman and are not even pretending to be subtle. Movie is written and directed by Safdar Rahman
6. 33 points: chaturthyam's comment in The shocking reality of Ghazwa-e-Hind. They won't tell you this. It is happening.
7. 32 points: thande_papa12's comment in Islamisation of Maharashtra has started by Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena. Now they won't need to burn Police Stations, but they will use them to kill Hindus.
8. 31 points: Resurgence28's comment in Won't even pay respect.
9. 31 points: realist_optimist's comment in Yogiji bulldozing illegal mosque of bareilly
10. 29 points: Pranavboi's comment in After Muslims complain about ‘idol worshiping’, PUBG removes a mode from their mobile game that allegedly involved it

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I rarely even attempt to add vocals to my music, simply due to being fairly tone-deaf and sounding like a Sasquatch in heat when I sing. But, I am wanting to explore collaborating with real vocalists more.
I have created a song and everything is [mostly] in key (modulating between two, actually), and I simply laid down a separate track with choral "aahhs" to make sure the flow of my lyrics work. Once I got that track working well in the song, I worked backwards to document the precise notes that each of my synthesized "aah" syllables landed on.
My question is probably really so basic, but I cannot find much information on this - How do I best document this to pass to a vocalist to get them to return double tracked vocals with some flourishes to me? Am I dictating too much? Should I just pass them the chord progression and let them do their thing? Or, is it ok to actually want each and every syllable sung at a certain time and note? If that's ok, how do I relay that to the vocalist so that they can best understand it?
For example, say a repeating line in a hook or break is "Freeing me", would this be ok, or too much, or what?:
D D F Free-ing me... D D E Free-ing me... D D G A G Free-ing mee-eee-eee...
How do you vocalists like to get such direction, or do you? Should I go all traditional and put this on a proper staff sheet? Is a text file full of the above ok, assuming it's accompanied by two versions of the song: one without any vocals, and another with the "aahs" as a scratch?

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Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
​
---
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Hi all. I hope this post fits here. Apologies if it is a bit long-winded; I just needed to rant, and I did not proofread.
I struggle with the idea of calling my mum “toxic”, because she has good qualities and can be kind and sweet. But she also gets very defensive, tends to gaslight in subtle ways and also does not always seem very self-aware in why her actions or words are being received badly, and just generally… there are some red flags.
I am currently staying with her (which has its ups and downs). I am the youngest child and have probably struggled a bit to break away from trying to be “the good girl” and people-pleasing to some degree in my family.
Currently I am about 20kg (44lbs) heavier than I want to be, and have been for a while. I grew up quite skinny but have always liked food. I would eat a lot as a child and teen but, aside from some occasional comments of frustration if I was eating something mum didn’t approve of (perhaps foods with lots of sugar or generally pastries/cakes/sweets or foods that mum had bought such as cheese or dip but was “saving” and thus not supposed to be eaten… even though she’d tell me off at other times for asking her if I was allowed to eat something because I wouldn’t be sure if it was a special food or an “allowed food”), she generally didn’t tell me off. There were things she would have double-standards around when it came to food, and she often seemed to police what my siblings and I would buy or eat, and she’d also shame my dad too when he ate “unhealthy” things.
For all of us, this lead to behaviours of squirrelling away food, or sneaking it and eating it very quickly and privately when she wasn’t looking. Again though, before my weight gain, there didn’t feel to be as much shame around this, but it was awkward.
When I moved out of home, I did go overboard in buying the things I wanted to eat but previously wouldn’t have generally been allowed to, or foods that would have been considered a luxury of sorts. Even things like flavoured yoghurts, or deli meats and cheeses. So I started eating these things, but still in a way that seemed to indicate some shame. (Not feeling very comfortable eating around other people, and feeling ashamed of the volume I ate.)
I have never felt bad for loving food the way I do, but especially since I started putting on weight (which really started when my dad died), it’s like I don’t feel that I am allowed to show that enjoyment.
Anyway, to get to the heading of the post. Mum knows I want to lose weight, and has had some compassion around that. I have also told her a few times that I don’t need her policing what I eat; that I appreciate support and encouragement, but I also want to try and normalise foods and not actually feel ashamed of my body or where I am at. In all honesty, I feel like my issue ties in more with binging that is triggered by shame, rather than me generally finding it hard to eat whole/‘healthy’ foods. So she’s been encouraging me and is happy to see I am losing some weight. But… If I talk about food, or indicate I’m hungry or think out loud about lunch or dinner (even when it’s an appropriate time to do so), she tells me off for “thinking about food so much”. She keeps mentioning how she doesn’t think about food, and feels like our culture is too obsessed with food and it‘s disgusting. If she’s made cupcakes for my sister’s family and I ask if I can try one, she tells me that I don’t need it and that I should stop thinking about food. (To clarify, I know it’s not great to eat cupcakes all the time, but I also think a healthy diet is one where a food can be eaten once or twice a week, and just enjoying it as a treat rather than having an idea that it’s not okay to eat at all, especially when carrying extra weight. I would rather incorporate a healthier lifestyle overall, than feel I have to completely abstain from any specific thing, because I know that makes me want it more.)
Also, if I am in the kitchen, even if I’ve just made a salad or if I’m not cooking but just using the scissors from the kitchen drawer, she will come in and say “what are you doing?” in an accusatory voice. If I call her out on it or get defensive, she will tell me off for taking things too seriously and not being able to take a joke.
Intellectually I know I am responsible for my life — I am an adult now and get to make my own choices. So I feel bad saying I act in certain ways because of my mum… But at the moment it feels really hard to separate emotionally enough to not feel driven by her behaviours to some degree… when she tells me off or when I feel attacked by her comments, I often feel the urge to binge eat, or to buy foods that I don’t identify as healthy and to secretly eat them.
So, I don’t know. I just needed to get that out. As I said, I can feel torn because I don’t actually think she’s a bad person, and she can be really kind too. But I don’t feel her behaviour is okay, and I do feel she has toxic attitudes and behaviour around this, and won’t own her preferences and choices vs. the right of other people to make their own decisions, even if they’re poor decisions at times. I also feel judgemental of myself to some degree for feeling so influenced by her and not standing in my own power and choices. Yet I would not judge a friend for acting the same, so I am looking to let go of that feeling a bit more.
Thanks for the space to vent!

Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
​
---
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Thank you very much for reading
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I decided to go through with it, and finished my first chapter. I've posted it on AO3 'n stuff, figured I'd put it here anyway. I also wanna preface the chapter by briefly saying what it's about to avoid (some) confusion.
"Displacement" is a line of self-insert fanfics I'm writing where a random person get's "Displaced" into the universe of the series it's based on. There's no lore to the teleporting, but the teleporting does happen more than once, and it happens at often crucial times to put the character into a new scenario.
Any text with italics without " " will be the thoughts of the MC, which I'll constantly just be referring to as "you". I really should start writing in 3rd person, but right now I'm stuck in a horrible loop where I keep writing in a mix.
I preface each chapter by putting lyrics from the song it's named after, which are emboldened and put in italics.
​
​
Chapter 1 - Dead On Arrival
As dawn arrives, we still survive.
Nobody knows what's goin' on, Tearin' my town limb by limb.
Where are your mom and dad..?
Was it shocking for you?
Somethin is scaring you?
Enemies will hunt you, no matter what you do!
But we'll fight for you, to defeat them all.
​
If not, there's no way out.
​
What in the hell just happened?
You'd landed on your hands, which ached immensely from the poor angle you somehow fell from. In absolute confusion, you flipped onto your back and used your elbows as supports to lean on, looking upwards.
Above you was but a regular ceiling with lights, nothing out of the ordinary. It seems you had fallen through the ground by some contrivance and into an archaic office of sorts.
There was a total lack of memory from anything that had transpired both leading up to the events that had just occurred, and even some memories predating that.
Such simple things such as your name were somehow eluding you. Questions of who you were rebounded in your head over and over like an echo-chamber filled with nothing.
As your thoughts spiraled, you had a splitting headache. A pained groan escaped your lips as you stood up in defiance. You looked around the room, trying to assess your situation the best you could.
Multiple red banners fit with black Iron Crosses decorated the walls.
An underlying sense of dread built up as you continued exploring the room in search for answers. You approached curtains behind the desk, they seemed relatively well cleaned. With a gentle tug, you pulled them back.
Lying beyond the curtains was a view you thought you'd never see.
Just where in the hell am I?
Looking down from the window, you could see huge warships docked at a port. Some people down below, the size of pinpricks, were walking along the concrete ground. More crimson banners littered the streets away from the docks.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no..." You whispered to yourself, backing away from the glass.
In an attempt to find out where you were, you flew open the desk drawers. Paper flew like confetti as you looked for answers.
A date eventually stood out to you.
"1-1941?!" You said out loud, dumbfounded.
You continued sifting through the pages in denial, finding the very same date over and over again. After a while, you were surrounded by a sea of white sheets each imprinted with evidence of the impossible.
The drawers all lay empty with nothing more to prove.
You looked towards the multiple banners in the room and silently cursed.
Where the fuck am I? In the Führer's office?
Two doors were present in the room. One opposite the desk, and another to your right.
Testing your luck, you opened the one opposite where you currently were.
It was in the middle of a clean carpeted hallway. The walls were an ivory white, while the carpet was a bleeding vibrant red. Even more banners littered the walls.
This was no time to just start wandering around the Reichstag.
Well... Did Hitler live in the Reichstag? Was this the equivalent? The Reichstag was never built so close to the sea, let alone having a view right over a German port...
A figure turned the corner from down the hall, which you quickly noticed. After silently closing the door, you quietly opened the 2nd.
It was a relatively well kept bedroom with an unidentified blonde woman sleeping on the bed. On the bed-side table was an officers cap fitted with a rising golden eagle alongside a red and white band.
A window view facing the sea was left open; letting in a cooling breeze drift into the room.
An idea struck your mind.
If I'm were going to escape this place alive, I'm gonna need some kind of disguise. Atleast, something other than a T-shirt and shorts.
You could only imagine what they'd do to you if they'd found some random person in what you thought was the Führer's quarters.
As silently as was humanly possible, you crept up to the wardrobe.
You thought "What woman was high-ranking during World War 2? ".
Perhaps the woman sleeping was Hitlers wife or something?
The closet responded to your touch with a high pitched squeak. Despite it being an inanimate object, you motioned for it to shut up with your hand. Your head spun around to see if the woman had woken up.
She did not.
With a silent thank you to god, you looked inside for some kind of uniform. What you instead found was... Womens' apparel?
You reached further in and looked deeper. There was no men's uniforms, which was quite surprising. Further scanning the wardrobe, you came across what appeared to be her undergarments.
You would've slammed the door shut, but the sound of the woman behind you snoring left a constant reminder that there was a SLIGHT element of danger.
Instead of risking it making another creaking sound, you left it open and left the room with a blush. You dove back into the marked papers and read them more thoroughly. Mentions of... Ship girls? Wisdom cubes?
No, no, no, that can't be right.
Standing back up, you struggled to formulate any kind of plan.
If you were going to survive, you'd need a weapon. Surely you could kill one with a surprise attack, then take his gun, and perhaps find a way out of here.
...
The closest thing resembling a weapon was a pen on the table.
Yep, that's fine, I'll just John Wick them...
You huffed and sat down on the more throne-like chair. It was quite comfortable, but it didn't spin like an office chair. It'd be 35 years before office chairs would be invented unfortunately.
The pen wasn't a ballpoint such as the ones you were used to; instead it was a dip pen. A half empty inkwell laid next to it. Out of boredom, you opened it. The smell of ink wafted out of the glass container.
Didn't they have fountain pens by now? Weird.
Your eyes were drawn to a map on the wall to the right of you. It depicted a slightly distorted version of the world you once called home. If you were uneducated, it wouldn't be unfeasible to identify it as the real thing. Perhaps even interchangeable should you be intoxicated enough, there were only slight discrepancies which broke the illusion.
You shook your head in disbelief. Either you were truly out of your depth or what you thought were the Nazi's were just pitifully incompetent.
At that point, it felt like you were in one of those TV pranks. You started probing the room for cameras or hidden microphones. With one glance at the open doorway, you immediate ignored it and continued the search elsewhere.
With a sigh, you surveyed the room one last time while leaning in a corner.
This couldn't be some sort of prank or something. Nobody would spend all of this money just to get a reaction from someone.
Your eyes traced the boundaries of the window.
Especially with all of those battleships and the like. God, the steel alone would cost millions...
The door leading to the bedroom slammed shut due to the wind from the open window.
You snapped your neck around to look at it, terror and trepidation coiled around your soul like a knot. Well... Now that's just great, isn't it?
The noise was so loud, you unconsciously held your ears in reaction to it.
You ran towards the window behind the desk and tried to get it open. There was no handle or any sort of way to open the window unfortunately.
Panic rushed through your body as you heard rapid footsteps approaching from the hallway on the other side of the wall. Grabbing the pen, you dashed over to get yourself in a good position to stab whoever was going to enter.
By the time I kill the first guard, I'll easily be able to deal with the girl in the other room. Shouldn't be too difficult as long as I land this blow.
Eventually, a figure opened the doors.
"Bisma-"
The pen somehow deflected off of her head, even though you used all of your strength.
"Eh? "
A dumbfounded look was imprinted onto your face, and she returned the expression.
Both of you stared at each other awkwardly, both of your minds were trying to assess the situation. She had a skirt that was a mixture of a brilliant red and foggy grey. Despite the look on her face, she had quite an imposing stature. Alongside her flat chest were golden buttons fitted to the exterior; 8 in total.
The pen tip was completely bent and disfigured, unlike the persons face you'd just attempted stabbing. There wasn't a single scratch or mark from your inept strike.
You crept around the stunned girl and into the hall, almost tripping on your own feet. As you backed up, she turned around and apprehensively pointed at you.
"You! What do you think you're do-" She was interrupted by the door to the bedroom being burst open.
"That man! Hipper! Detain him at once!" A tall half-dressed blonde ordered from the doorway.
You started backing away, you knew you had to run but it almost felt like you'd forgotten how to.
The inimical woman in front of you was poised to lunge at you, but her eyes gazed at something beyond you. Eventually you had backed up into something warm.
With a gulp, you slowly turned around.
You were face to face with, yet, another female.
Why were they all women? It's only 1941, surely they're not being pushed on all fronts?
An Iron Cross adorned her neck along with two more embroidered onto the wrist section of her clothing. Instead of blonde, her hair was a chalky white that was tied up in twin tails. Something else you noticed is that they all had thigh-highs on.
"Eugen, I order you to capture that spy!"
"Whatever you say, sis~" Eugen replied with a teasing grin.
"This is a huge misunderstanding! If you'll just let me-" You squealed shortly before being picked up by your shoulders. Her strength was extremely surprising to say the least. You attempted to maneuver yourself out of her grasp, but had no such luck.
Eugen effortlessly tossed you like a speeding missile down the hall and through a door labeled "Canteen".
"Why did you- EUGH! YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!" A irked Hipper scolded before giving chase.
"Oops~ " Eugen giggled with content, following with a gait of elegance.
The blonde put on her cap, and finished getting dressed before rushing in the opposite direction.
...
You'd just breached the doors of the cafeteria, landing on your shoulder and tumbling into the floorboards. You released a loud groan of agony as you made a clumsy uncoordinated attempt of rising to your feet.
Your mind was briefly rendered into tomato soup for a good few seconds before you regained your bearings.
How the hell did she just whizz me around like that? And how did that other girl just completely ignore my strike? What in the name of Christ is going on here..?
As you finally stood on two feet, one of your hands instinctively reached for your shoulder. It really felt like you broke something, but you knew that if you really had broken something, you'd probably be on the floor crying.
"Who is that?"
Your eyes widened as you realized you were in a room full of women draped in all kinds of modified Kriegsmarine uniforms. Some of them forewent their uniforms entirely, wearing skimpy, very revealing clothing for god knows why.
They were of all shapes and sizes. Though, putting it like that makes it sound like they're abnormal godless creatures.
It wasn't too far from the truth, some of them had what seemed to be horns. A good number of them also looked like children.
You struggled to get some words out in a very poor attempt of deception.
"I-I, uh... Für den Kaiser? " You stuttered in a horrible German accent. Everyone was silent. "No? Too early? Damn..."
A feminine voice crackled in from the P.A system, a ringing alarm repeatedly blared.
"Intruder alert! Spy in the base! Prevent him from leaving at all costs!"
Chatter erupted all over the room.
"There's a spy in the base?" Someone repeated.
Only fragments of conversations were intelligible from the mess of different voices and German. The talking slowly died down until the room was in absolute silence. Every single one of them were staring at you.
Your eyes went from face to face, they were innumerable.
You immediately turned you back on them and began your great escape.
It started with a thundering of rushing and mangled cries of "Get him!" and other variations of apprehensive phrases. Multiple lunch trays clattered to the floor. The flat blonde you'd met before burst through the doors, using her arms in an X fashion as a brace.
Hipper didn't see you slip out of her way and slink back into the hallway before continuing into a sprint.
"W-where did he go?" She sputtered in a blunder. Her breath was raggedy and frequent.
They all pointed behind her, some of them started running towards her which prompted an annoyed groan from Hipper, who began to give chase to the human.
...
A look of steely determination was imprinted onto your face as you ran with all of your might. Crimson banners, vanilla wallpaper, and the wall-lamps all whizzed by in a amalgamated blur.
You looked behind you to see how much a lead you had.
They were gaining, Hipper was still leading the charge. In a panic, you hurriedly chose a random door flying by.
Eenie, meenie, miney, mo!
You braced and charged through the wooden pair of doors. What you saw in that room was interesting to say the least.
Yet another woman was sitting on some sort of throne. The masonry itself was crumbled at the edges, armrests draped in light amethyst hair.
The woman herself was crossing her legs with her hands joined in her lap. Behind her was a large cathedral-like window showering the room with light, unveiling the darkness. Unlit wax candles ran along the walls with two golden chandeliers hanging above.
She cocked her head slightly to the right, intrigued by your form. Her presence alone sent chills up your spine. Something about her gave off an incredibly ominous vibe.
As you stood there, stunned, the girls behind you had finally caught up. But instead of entering the room and apprehending you with shouts and whatnot, they were quietly gossiping behind closed doors.
"... Think he'll come out alive?"
"August is scary!"
"Quiet, morons!" Hipper hushed them with a quick strike to their foreheads. Muffled whimpers of pain came from the other side of the wall while the figure in front of you stared you down.
There was a profuse silence that was eventually broken by the woman speaking to you.
"It seems you're this Spy. "
She spoke with an air of sophistication and superiority. More silence followed before being broken up yet again. with a sigh she stood up, albeit slowly.
"I must admit, you caught me off guard. "
You watched in a combination of wonder and horror as a mass of azure cubes passed through the floor and walls, amassing themselves into a metal dragon. Instead of wings, it had half of a deck of an aircraft carrier on each wing.
"Your bravery is worthy of admiration, although whether it is folly or valor..." The dragon took a thunderous step towards you, turrets on the deck seemed to be locked onto your head. "I shall decide."
Each of the steps towards you made you flinch.
"You... Want me... To fight... That?" You said while backing up against the door. "What in the name of Christ..? "
What kind of world was this? A world where dragons just... Exist? A world where someone can just pick you up and hurl you without any effort?
This was but another wake-up call to where you had been thrown into.
"Will you falter in the face of such trials?" She ignored your very obvious indirect plea for mercy.
Your hands wrapped around the knob of the door and turned it violently. The door did not open. In a desperate escape attempt, you rammed your shoulder into it repeatedly to no avail.
Seeing how it wasn't working, you backed up towards the dragon and prepared to ram the door down one last time with all of your might.
"Have you given up already?" The woman sneered, a hint of disappointment rang in her voice.
You ran at the door and made one poor excuse of a dropkick while closing your eyes.
...
It felt... Warm. Your body impacted the ground without ever hitting anything with your feet.
For the second time that day, you were dropped onto the floor. Hard.
You let out an exasperated gasp after opening your eyes. Sunlight hit your body from above, no longer held back by a structure.
You were now in a street, occasionally people would pass by. Some looked on with concern, but without the courage to assist. Wooden buildings lined the busy streets, the archaic stone pathway was littered with the tapping of footsteps.
It was just like when you had first arrived here. Though this time, you remembered.
With a silent thank you to whatever deity might've saved you, you stood up with a grin.
Elsewhere...
"Where did he go?!"
"I'm afraid that's not something I know."
"B-but... How?! He can't just vanish! Unless..."
Hipper scratched her chin, her right eye twitching in increasing frustration.
"He must be a submarine! He might have some... Some sort of camouflage! Yes, that must be it!" She whipped around to the crowd of startled onlookers. "Scour the base! I want no stone unturned! Every cabinet, wardrobe and desk!"
Most of the ships saluted with a coordinated "Jawohl!" before dispersing in different directions. Some merely nodded in a sultry state, upset that their lunch had been ruined.
The ones remaining infront of her were none other than Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
"I just got my rigging on too! Damn him!" Admiral Hipper raised her shaking fist to the sky in rage.
"I'm sure you'll get him next time~" Eugen jokingly assured Hipper, slinging her arm around her sisters neck.
Already teetering on the edge of rage, she had an outburst.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT ANYWAY!" She flew Eugens arm off her shoulder. "I-if you didn't toss him like you did, we could've easily-"
"Eugen, don't go overboard on your games. What is done is done, though do expect to hear from me in the coming days."
Eugen let out a "Hmpf. " and walked away.
Bismarck approached Hipper with a serious gaze. She immediately got the message and composed herself, straightening her posture.
"I believe you were closest to him. Can you describe his face? Eye color, or anything of the sort?"
Admiral Hipper profusely nodded.
"Good."
​
And that ends the first chapter. As you can probably tell, I'm a novice writer, and most of you are probably twice my age. (Surprisingly, most of you seem to be above the age of 20.) I'm also very new to the fandom, and am looking to improve my writing of dialogue and vast amount of personalities (most of which are tropes), and I'm quite afraid I wrote August/Eugen wrong.
I also have a few questions for any hard-core Azur Lane fans that I'd appreciate if you could answer:
1: Is the German language just called "Ironblood"? Is Japanese called "Sakura" or something? 2: Does the game or anime happen first? Or, are they in separate timelines? I haven't seen Crosswave myself, so I don't know. I was going to follow the events of the anime, then maybe into the game, then into Slow Ahead.
3: (most important one) Are men just... Really rare? Is there a reason why all the ships are females, or why we never see any men, anywhere?
If you've somehow read all of this, thank you, I appreciate people reading my work. Cheers from Australia.

I wish I was born in a country where overpopulation wasn't a problem. Everyone thinks overpopulation is an issue, yet no one stops having children. Life is tough enough for me, and I can't imagine the challenges my kids would have to face, if I have any.
One of the outcomes of overpopulation is a rigid hierarchy. Every society needs to quickly categorize its population into a hierarchy to avoid being overwhelmed. Overpopulated societies require a more stringent hierarchy to avoid wasting resources on re-categorization. In our context, we take a test after 12th grade, and the system categorizes us accordingly. It then becomes incredibly challenging to climb the ladder because the system cannot handle the volume of resources needed to re-evaluate those who want to move up. It's better to keep people where they are, even if they're below their potential, then to spend time and resources testing their potential.
You can see this in our business outlook, where we primarily hire based on the college someone studied at. Skills matter far less than what you'd like to believe in a seemingly meritocratic system like capitalism. Our society is far less interested in optimizing the utilization of its human capital, which is why we have been a "developing" nation for decades. If it's working, it's good enough is the subconscious motto of our people.
I love coding and find joy in frontend web development, but the endless supply of engineers in the current job market forces me to keep learning more and more, even for just a junior developer role. Don't get me wrong, I want to learn more, such as design, but the pressure to keep earning is high. If you're not making money, you're wasting time, and that means you'll have a "gap" in your resume, which is terrible. It doesn't matter if I'm editing excel sheets; most roles require two years of experience.
The need to learn a lot of things quickly has sucked the joy out of coding for me. I can see that my foundation is shaky, and I want to spend more time learning, but I can't. It's similar to how JEE sucked the joy out of maths for me. I knew the formulas, but I was robbed of the fun of learning math for its own sake.
Anyway, the advent of AI will undoubtedly choke the Indian IT and software industry. I won't lie and say that I'm not looking forward to it. As evil as it may sound, the system must be entirely dismantled for people like me to enjoy life a little. I am fortunate enough to stay jobless and live with my parents. I will take my time and learn building websites on my own.

Today I’m shifting my focus away from fruits and vegetables (which I know I have explored in ample depth in my earlier articles) and talking about something that has featured less on my blog, but is still so important for a balanced diet – grains. Don't forget to check out VARUN VENAIK
So why are grains so important in our diet?
Grains are packed full of fibre, which is important for us to feel full and satiated after our meals (which lessens the likelihood of reaching for those often unhealthy snacks in between meals). All grains contain complex carbohydrates as well as other nutrients and important vitamins and minerals, but not all grains are equally as good for you – for the best health results, you should be choosing whole grains over refined grains. Whole grains are those grains which we consume either in their whole form, or as a ground product, but while retaining all the important parts of the seed. Whole grains are higher in many nutrients than refined grains – nutrients like vitamin B, potassium and magnesium. On the other hand, refined grains have been milled in order to remove germ and bran which results in these grains having a much finer texture and a later use by date. However, milling these grains has the effect of eliminating or reducing a number of important nutrients including fibre. So in other words, while whole grains can give you the full suite of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, refined grains, through the milling process are stripped of some of their important nutrients. Refined grains are those that you will typically find in your tasty but not very healthy snacks like crackers, pastries and sweet cereals. It is recommended that at least a half of the grains that we consume should be whole grains, in order to have a balanced diet and maximise our nutrient intake.
In this article I am going to take you through the 5 best whole grains to include in your diet from today.

1. OATS

I’ve included oats at the top of the list because they are so great for you, and so easy to introduce into your diet. Oats have antioxidants and beta-glucan fibre which is known to strengthen the immune system and reduce cholesterol. Oats are also so incredibly easy to include in your diet, especially at breakfast time – in winter you can whip up a porridge to start your day on a warm note and in summer you can make homemade muesli and enjoy it with some fresh fruit and yoghurt.

1. QUINOA

Quinoa is high in magnesium, iron and folate contains a number of essential amino acids. It is also a very good source of protein (often consumed by vegetarians as a protein source) and as a bonus, it’s also gluten free! Quinoa is relatively easy and quick to cook – many people simply us a rice cooker.

1. SORGHUM

Even though many people have never heard of sorghum, it has actually been around for centuries – hence why it is termed an ancient grain. Sorghum is packed full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals such as iron, magnesium, copper, calcium and zinc. You can see why it has been widely termed a superfood! It is also an excellent source of protein, with around 22 grams of protein in one cup. Sorghum is also very rich in antioxidants and carries a significant amount of fibre. Do you need any other reason to introduce this powerful grain into your diet? Sorghum can be used in your porridge, or you can add it into your lunch soup, stew or salad.

1. TEFF

Teff is a fine grain originating from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It has a wonderful earthy taste and is rich in a number of important nutrients, being packed with high protein, fibre and iron.

1. BUCKWHEAT

Buckwheat has gained popularity in the last decade, often being used to make pastas or noodles and pancakes. You might be surprised to learn that soba noodles, which are often used in Asian (particularly Japanese) cooking is made from buckwheat. It has high amounts of iron, antioxidants and magnesium. Some people often think buckwheat contains wheat because of its name – but it’s actually a completely different grain! Buckwheat can be used in place of oats in porridge, or you can introduce it into your next salad or in place of rice in your next meal. Alternatively, you can grind buckwheat it and use it in place of flour when you’re next making crepes or pancakes.

As a continuation from last time, here is how you should feed our favourite Outrider and her favourite Trainee Forest Ranger.
Amber isn't very picky, and Collei learned from her, so both will be happy to eat most dishes:
Don't forget that you agreed to teach her how to cook
Make sure our little Colleiflower is well-fed
However, eating cold dishes upsets Amber's stomach, so don't give her any Mint Jelly, Satisfying Salad, or Cold Cut Platter. Also, Collei really doesn't like mushrooms, so don't give her any Mushroom Pizza or Chicken-Mushroom Skewer:
Stop upsetting her stomach
Give her better food
While Collei is fine with Sticky Honey Roast, it is one of Amber's all-time favourites, so make lots of them for her. On the other hand, Amber is content with Mondstadt Grilled Fish and Fried Radish Balls, but Collei loves eating those. Now if there's one dish you should make, it's the dish that Amber makes for us all the time: Steak. Both Amber and Collei love this dish, so make sure to give them lots of it:
Happy Amber
Happy Collei

Hi I been having a hard time caring about life. I don't get enjoyment from most things and my entire life has been very awful. Both my parents had ended up abandoning me before I was half way threw my early teens. The relatives who they tossed me to aren't much better than them. Everyone one of them is a hypocritical, narcissistic, piece of human garbage who deluded themselves into thinking there smarter than everyone because by some miracle everyone they ever mange to attract are even dumber than they are. Oh and everyone time you call them out on there complete lack of integrity they get completely defensive about it. Most of the people I ever mange to became friends are no different than they are. I don't really care about social relationships though, I was a social outcast as a child and I didn't make any friends until middle school but that time friendship was just a way for me to entertain myself and it had no significant value to me. It was also one of the few ways I actually got to live. That piece of shit I use to call my dad has instilled an internalized fear of the world in me by the time I was little just so he could turn me into another version of himself. That fear is still inside me but I don't really care anymore. I missed out on so many experiences because of it until high school. I was alone and just decided to start living dangerously because of it. I hanged with a bad crowed, did drugs, drank alcohol, and did a who bunch of stuff I'm honestly surprise I didn't get arrested for. Now though I'm just completely empty. I find that most people find motivation to care about life because of love, self-love, or social relationships. Well love is a completely foreign concept to me. It's hard to understand something you where never given and I don't care about relationships because for the longest time I was all alone. So tell me is there any reason to care about living when most of your entire life has been spent in darkness?

So my sister in law is getting married this weekend in Las Vegas so we flew out to celebrate and be part of the wedding . My wife paid for the car rental and the room, I worked 14 hrs a day for the past month and a half to be able to enjoy the weekend we brought our children both from previous relationships on the trip also. The plane ride getting here wasnt that bad till we arrived to our destination her aunt and her family flew in on the same flight which they're cool people i dont mind them at all. As soon as we get to the luggage pick up she starts aggressively yelling at me to pick up the luggage which I didnt mind but she yelled at me in front of her aunt, uncle and cousins, plus the crowd that were picking their things up also I was so embarrassed but I let it go. We get to the rental car place and she yells at me to put the luggage in carefully which im already aware of since its not our car let it go again. She starts driving the car out of the garage becuase its under her name as she's driving to the hotel I start talking with the kids pointing out places she tells me to be quiet because she can't focus, which ticked me off because she's always telling me how I dont pay attention to the road because im always distracted, when I'm driving she's always telling me to slow down or speed up or why didnt i make a turn. To be honest I get anxious when I'm driving because Im afraid she'll critize me and I'm prone to mistakes because of that. Fast forward to today we decided to get breakfast near where they were having the wedding rehearsal we're on the express way and traffic suddenly stops cause of an accident I brake a little hard but stop safely she screams at me why did i do that(mind you the speed limit was 75 mph it was a miracle no one crashed into the back of us) so I ignore her nagging at me because it's way too early and I didnt feel like arguing. A couple of minutes later a truck cuts me off and she ask me why did you brake when that car cut us off I couldnt take it anymore and told her she has alot of opinions for someone who doesnt like to drive and that I need to focus so she should stop bickering with me . She flipped out saying she should be able to ask me questions and I shouldnt be so sensitive the kids were in the car so I tried to calm down. She kept coming at me saying she can ask me a question and I tell her I don't have to answer which when we get to she demands I give her the keys to car and for me to get out of the car and go somewhere else in front of the kids. (I felt extremely bad becuase my son doesn't live with me and I dont spend as much time as I want to ) I ask her if she's serious she said yes and told me if I didnt give her the car keys she was going to call the sheriff on me for not giving her the keys and leaving. (Im a Daca recipient and cannot afford to get into trouble with the law) I give her the keys and stay in the car for a little bit not knowing what to do and to be honest heart broken earlier on in our relationship when we moved in together she would tell me she was going to leave and or call the cops on me. So I left the car and walked to a pub thank God it was open it took all of my strength not to cry while I was one of the only 3 people in the pub. I put my phone on do not disturb told my son i was ok through text and ate alone. The only time she texted me was to ask if I was going to show up to the rehearsal I ignored her message. Fast forward to tonight she refuses to see it was wrong to threaten me I was at a point I wanted to fly my son and I back home tonight but I felt bad that he would miss out on fun activities so I stayed. He text me if my wife was kicking us out I told him no not to worry. Now I found out she told everyone that they can use our hotel room to get ready at 6am everyone is going to arrive and well since I didn't apologize I get to sleep on the floor its almost midnight and I'm sitting at a table writting my thoughts to strangers because I dont want my friends to know I live like this.

Introduction

I have been using Samsung Galaxy devices for 11 years, with my first Android/Samsung Galaxy device being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (got the Galaxy Nexus in January of 2012) and with me currently daily driving the S22 Ultra (since May 2022).
I have been using iPhones for more than 12 years, with my first iPhone being the iPhone 4 (got the iPhone 4 in December of 2010) and with me currently daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro Max (since September 2022) and the iPhone SE (2020) as a secondary iPhone for iOS development (since March 2022).
Here is my daily driver history:
Android:

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
• Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
• Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
• Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
• Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

• iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
• iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
• iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
• iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
• iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
• iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
• iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
• iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
• iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
• iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

• iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
• iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
• iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
• iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

• notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
• Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
• Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
• there is a real back button on Android
• No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
• There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
• On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
• Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:

• iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

Even though the iPhone batteries are mostly very good during the first year of usage and have extremely good standby compared to Android phones due to software optimisation, by around July 2016, my iPhone 6S's battery is starting to fail, and I did need to rely on battery packs for my iPhones to survive as the iPhone 6S's battery would go from 100-0 after 4-6 hours of heavy use. My cousins did replace the iPhone 6S battery in October of 2017, but by October 2020 (please note according to battery health, IIRC, the 6S stands at 85%), on iOS 14, the iPhone 6S would drain from 90 to 35 in as little as 10 minutes and sometimes, during cold weather, the iPhone 6S's battery (on iOS 14) would die at 30%. Turns out this is not only an issue on my 6S as I bought a 6S on eBay in 2021 for my smartphone collection and that phone (with 80% capacity) also behaved the same, draining from 80 to 25 in around 10 minutes. The iPhones before the 6S also had a poor battery life after a year in my experience, and even though the iPhone 7 Plus, X, XS Max, and 11 Pro Max's battery holds better than the 6S due to the batteries being bigger, the batteries still started to become bad after 1-2 years.
My iPhone 12 Pro Max (I got rid of it in December of 2021 after it accidentally fell out from my nightstand drawer and the back cracked a month before) started seeing its battery fail sometime in September 2021, when the 13 Pro Max came out. Say I leave the house at 10:00 and were to return home at 19:00. By 17:00, with medium usage + hotspot, the iPhone's battery would have depleted to around 20 percent. Plus, my iPhones typically consume more battery if devices are connected to hotspot than my Samsung Galaxies are.
Also, I did receive the Galaxy S7 Edge (2019), Samsung Galaxy S9+ (earlier this month as my cousin's husband upgraded to the S23+), and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (last year), and given that I would sell these phones on the second hand market, I would test the phones for a week or two to see the phone's condition before assessing it and selling it on the second hand market. What I found is that even though the S10+ cracked and therefore, I donated it rather than sold it, all three phones seem to have solid battery, considering their ages. The S7 Edge with its 3600 mAh battery under heavy use after 3 years would go about for 6-8 hours before needing a recharge, and my S9+ would go about for around 5-6 hours as well before hitting down to 20% of battery (that is after 5 years and given the fact my cousin's husband is a power user), and even though the S10 cracked, it would go for 8-10 hours under heavy usage before draining to around 20%. I also got back my Note5 from 2015 once my cousin's son upgraded to my cousin (50M)'s S8 Active in 2019 once my cousin upgraded to the Note10+, and even on that phone, the battery is still very good considering its age and its 3000 mAh size, doing around 4-6 hours going down from 100-20.

• My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Even though all the 4 Samsung Galaxy S phones I have repossessed were slightly slow compared to when they were first purchased, all of them, apart from the front cracks on the S10+, are still highly reliable, and according to my usage as well as from the 4 people who have used my phones, they have commented that the phones I gave to them gave them minimal issues and they JUST WORK. Fun fact: during my ownership, I have never experienced any major problems with any of my Samsung phones.
Fun fact, my cousin (28M) switched from the iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in March of 2019 and is now currently using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. From his 4-year long experience using just the Galaxy S10+ (he bought the ceramic colour with 512GB of storage and currently his father is using the S10+), even though he is a power user with him customising the phone with themes, being a heavy user, and having cracked his S10+ last year, the phone was still extremely reliable, working fully as intended, apart from the battery, which has been shortened to 6 hours of heavy usage before dying.
My iPhones however, were not so bright. Even though pre-2015 iPhones are mostly reliable during my time using it, since the 6S, there have been some phones which have showed issues here and there, sometimes within the first year of ownership. As for the iPhone 6S, it is basically only the battery, which has been extremely bad after a year and the fact it would sometimes shut off at 30% during cold weather.
Starting with the iPhone 7 Plus however, and there started to be a lot of problems. Even though my iPhone 7 Plus didn't show any problems during my ownership, even though my cousin took good care of the 7 Plus, when I got her 7 Plus in November of 2020 (she got the phone brand new at Verizon in November 2017), the silent switch started to wear down and get stuck, meaning it is hard to turn on silent switch, the charging port pins started to wear, making it very hard to charge the phone or connect the phone to the computer, and the battery started to struggle real hard.
Starting with the iPhone XS Max and there started to be real struggles. Even though I didn't see any problems with either the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max during my ownership and took good care of these two phones, when these two phones got passed to their second owners, problems started to arise. For the XS Max, in May of 2020, it got bricked, and it wouldn't turn on even if he plugged it in the charging cable or through iTunes, and my cousin's husband had to bring it to service, and that got him to purchase an S20+ given he prefers Android over iOS, and after fixing the XS Max, he gave it to his daughter (17F), who is his only child. For the 11 Pro Max however, the phone's battery drained fast and my cousin always had to rely on the charger, and plus, there are issues of connecting Bluetooth devices as well as with calls and volume whilst connected to Bluetooth devices, and my cousin always complained about these issues and even though I did attempt to fix, the issues didn't get resolved (I am tech savvy by the way, so I could get through a lot of issues, such as reset my bricked iPad using iTunes, etc.).
And now onto my iPad Pro 9.7. I bought the iPad in June of 2016, and even though I used it mostly for watching YouTube videos, Udemy and edX courses, the iPad started having a bricking issue in November of 2017. What happened was that I was charging and overnight, the iPad just shut itself off and never powered on again. I tried connecting it to iTunes and even though iTunes could recognise the device, whenever I reset it, errors keep on popping up and it is impossible to reset. I tried bringing it to the Apple Store, but they couldn't reset it either and they suggested that I replace the iPad Pro 9.7 with an iPad Mini 4 for $300. Then, I started taking matters into my own hands and finally resetted the iPad Pro successfully after multiple attempts in January of 2018. Four months later (in May 2018), the iPad bricked again, and I had to do the same process, and it took until August of 2018 after at least 5-10 tries for it to work again. And then in August 2020, whilst charging overnight, the iPad turned off and I thought it was toast. Turned out it was, as after countless times diagnosing the issues on iTunes, the iPad would keep on bricking after multiple reset attempts and after more than 2 years. Then, there was a miracle. In November of 2022, I finally got my iPad working again and I felt like I was very lucky, because I thought that the iPad was bricked forever and wouldn't go back on, ever.
Then, finally, it is my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought the phone on 20 November 2020, and by mid-September 2021, things started to go south for this phone. The top speaker started to fail and even though I cleaned it, the speaker was so muffled that I could barely hear anything from the top speaker. I brought it to the Apple Store and they said it is a digitiser issue and they couldn't even clean it for me, and around that same time, the touchscreen started to act up. With a lot of ghost touches, it started to become very hard to use the iPhone (and keep in mind, I have never replaced the screen since I never cracked the front screen). In October 2021, the phone started to have lose cellular signal when I enter the MBTA train and still didn't recognise cellular signal for minutes after I exited the MBTA and was at least a mile from that station on my bike, but luckily, resetting network settings did fix the issue with the cellular signal however. By the time the phone accidentally fell to the ground and the back did suffer some cracks in November, I started to give up on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and in December, I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max.
Even though my Galaxy Buds and my cousin (28M)'s Galaxy Buds did not show any issues (he bought the Galaxy Buds in March 2019 and after heavy usage, it still held up very well and he even gave it to his father), all 4 of my AirPods, even the AirPods Pro 2, have shown issues here and there. My first AirPods (January 2017-July 2018) basically stopped working, and hence, I bought another pair of AirPods in July 2018 and used it until February 2022, when I dropped it in the toilet. Even though I was using the 2nd pair of AirPods half the time (July 2018-January 2020, December 2020-April 2021, November 2021-February 2022), by late 2021, the AirPods started showing major problems. First off, the battery drains so fast even indoors that it only lasted about an hour. Then, once I am outside, the right side would disconnect after only 5 minutes of usage and the left side would keep soldering on. Once it fell to the toilet, it was game over (however, I still kept the AirPods, it is just in the nightstand sitting there, and I did clean it as well). I bought the AirPods 2 in February 2022, and after 2 months, at least once every week or two, the right side would discharge, even in the case (the case is clean by the way), until it went out of battery. I tried resetting the case and putting the case to charge again, but to no avail, and it took several reset attempts for it to return to normal. The same exact scenario happened to the AirPods Pro 2, which I got in October as my cousin wanted to gift me the AirPods Pro 2, in exchange for my AirPods 2. Except that sometimes, my iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn't even connect to the AirPods Pro 2 or even recognise it.

• Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

I currently have two phone plans: my main Verizon phone plan with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my secondary MetroPCS phone plan with my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I do carry a third phone with me (without a phone plan), which is the iPhone SE 2020. Due to me not having a phone plan on my iPhone SE 2020, I do have to rely on hotspot when I am outside. For my iPhone SE 2020, I primarily use it for music streaming and to test my mobile applications, whilst my two other phones are used for more intense purposes, with me spending the most time on my Samsung.
For my iPhone 14 Pro Max and previous iPhones (iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, etc), personal hotspot is very buggy. My Samsung connects just fine to the iPhone hotspot, but my iPhones don't. To preserve the battery, after several minutes, the iPhone SE would get disconnected from the iPhone 14 Pro Max hotspot (which is acceptable), but it gets worse. Even if I am currently streaming Apple Music on my iPhone SE with the screen on as well, the iPhone would disconnect from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is very hard to connect it to hotspot. Sometimes, the iPhone SE would say 'Unable to join network' and others, it said 'Personal Hotspot Failure', which would force me to restart both the iPhone SE and 14 Pro Max. Now the Remote Hotspot Failure started happening since I got the 11 Pro Max in 2019, and at the time, my 16:9 phone was the iPhone 6S, and even then, there were hotspot failure problems. I restarted the 11 Pro Max, but the hotspot failure would return after a week or two. Even after resetting network settings in 2021 right before my 13 Pro Max because my iPhone 12 Pro Max would lose cellular connectivity even after I exited the MBTA tunnel and I am outside a mile from the MBTA station, once I got my 13 Pro Max, the remote hotspot failure still appears. My Samsung Galaxy over the years connects to the iPhone hotspot without any issues, and would stay connected even if I am not using the phone until I basically turn off hotspot on my iPhone.
Now due to the fact connecting my iPhone SE to the iPhone hotspot is so bad, I would typically use the Samsung hotspot as a backup (keep in mind my iPhone plan gives unlimited hotspot whilst Metro only gives 5 GB). Both iPhones connect to the Samsung hotspot flawlessly, without any issues.

• On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Sometimes, I don't want my main iPhone 14 Pro Max to connect to the Samsung hotspot due to it having its own data. I would turn off Wi-Fi on the control centre and after 5-10 minutes, it would reconnect the Wi-Fi, therefore wasting hotspot data on my Samsung metroPCS plan and making me mildly angry. iPhone does say turning off until tomorrow but in reality, Wi-Fi is turned on after 5-10 minutes. For Samsung, I turn off Wi-Fi on the quick settings until I turn it back on or I flick on airplane mode, which seems more intuitive in my case. However, when I am at home without any hotspot devices, whenever I use quick settings for iPhone, nearby Wi-Fi does disconnect until tomorrow

• Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Pretend I have two Bluetooth devices (AirPods Pro, JBL Clip 4), and I wanted to connect to the JBL speaker. On the Samsung, if I accidentally clicked on the AirPods Pro, I could click JBL Clip 4 immediately and within 5 seconds, I would be connected to the JBL Clip 4 speaker. For the iPhone however, things are not so bright, as if I were to accidentally click the AirPods Pro, I had to wait 15 seconds for Apple to search for the AirPods Pro, and then once it says it couldn't find the AirPods Pro because I left my AirPods Pro at home, that is when I could click on JBL Clip 4 and connect it. That turns a 5 second process into something like a 15-20 second process.

• Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

On several occasions since 2021, my iPhones would sometimes not pay using Apple Pay and would fail to pay. Sometimes, the iPhone couldn't even detect a reader even though the reader does work. Once I use Samsung Pay on my Samsung Galaxy devices as a backup, the payment did go through and it finally worked.
Yesterday, I was at the MBTA station, and I was attempting to pay for the Monthly pass. Ironically, even though the reader did work, the iPhone 14 Pro Max kept on saying 'Hold near Reader', and even though I held it near the mobile payment reader for 10-15 seconds, it still didn't do anything. Fed up, after the second time, I repaid the MBTA ticket and used my S22 Ultra and the payment did go through. However, at the restaurant around 1 hour later, even though I didn't restart the iPhone, Apple Pay finally worked again as I was able to pay my meal using Apple Pay.

• Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

My Samsung automatic updates are set overnight, and even with airplane mode turned on during the night, my Samsungs are always up to date without ever having to go to the settings app to update the firmware to Android 13. As for iPhone, they did schedule automatic updates between 4-5 am, but in reality, automatic updates keep failing even with Wi-Fi turned on overnight. If I wanted to update my iPhones, I would typically have to manually update via settings

• Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

I attended university between 2018 and 2022, and in late 2021, at university (I majored in CS by the way), my iPhones, iPads, and Macs would often struggle with Wi-Fi. My iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 7 Plus (as of November 2021) would sometimes even outright refuse to connect to Wi-Fi and same goes with the MacBook 15' Core i9 (2019) (I have since upgraded to the M1 MBP 16 since the logic board on the MBP 2019 failed in November 2021), and if connected, at some parts of the university, they are extremely slow, and sometimes, borderline unusable. My S21 Ultra however, at the same place, worked far better and was able to load websites. Even my Windows laptop was able to load websites as well as my Galaxy A51 (I brought an A51 one day to MIT to see if the Wi-Fi issues only occurred on Apple products).
Fun fact: the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first phone to offer Wi-Fi 6E and not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max supports this feature
Then in July 2022, during a flight from Dallas back to Boston, my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone SE 2 would fail to connect to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network several times and if connected, the Wi-Fi was painfully slow and near unusable whilst my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra connected to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network just fine and worked as expected, with websites loading reasonably quick, just like at my university with the S21 Ultra.

• USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.
TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

Welcome to another month! That means it's time for our monthly update on retiring sets. Not many changes this time around, but there were a lot of sets added to the database!
As always, we owe a massive thanks to ZombieYeti from the BrickHound Discord for providing this valuable data. If you're looking for real-time in-stock/deal alerts for Lego.com and other sites, make sure to check out his server.
This information is scraped directly from Lego's website, and all dates are subject to change. ZombieYeti is currently developing a website to host this data and offer real-time updates. In the meantime, here is a list of every set and their corresponding retirement date as per LEGO's system!
FULL LIST ON GOOGLE SHEETS HERE <--
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Due to Reddit's character limits, we can't include everything here, but the full spreadsheet contains every set.

• CHANGELOG FOR APRIL:

Theme	Set #	Set Name	Old Date	New Date	Change
Creator	40646	Daffodils	Dec 31, 2025	Dec 31, 2023	-2 years
Icons	40516	Everyone is Awesome	Dec 31, 2023	Dec 31, 2024	+1 year
Promotional	60369	Mobile Police Dog Training	Dec 31, 2023	Dec 31, 2024	+1 year
Minifigures	71038	LEGO® Minifigures Disney 100	N/A	Aug 31, 2023	NEW
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40624	Alex	N/A	Dec 31, 2023	NEW
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40625	Llama	N/A	Dec 31, 2023	NEW
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40626	Zombie	N/A	Dec 31, 2023	NEW
Indiana Jones	77012	Fighter Plane Chase	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Indiana Jones	77013	Escape from the Lost Tomb	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Indiana Jones	77015	Temple of the Golden Idol	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Jurassic Park	76957	Velociraptor Escape	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Jurassic Park	76958	Dilophosaurus Ambush	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Jurassic Park	76959	Triceratops Research	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Jurassic Park	76960	Brachiosaurus Discovery	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Jurassic Park	76961	Visitor Centre: T. rex & Raptor Attack	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Mario	71423	Dry Bowser Castle Battle	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Star Wars	75346	Pirate Snub Fighter	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Star Wars	75358	Tenoo Jedi Temple	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Star Wars	75361	Spider Tank	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Star Wars	75363	The Mandalorian's N-1 Starfighter Microfighter	N/A	Dec 31, 2024	NEW
Duplo	10998	3-in-1 Magical Castle	N/A	Dec 31, 2025	NEW
Icons	10317	Land Rover Classic Defender 90	N/A	Dec 31, 2025	NEW

• RETIRING IN 2023:

Theme	Set #	Set Name	Retirement Date
Minifigures	66733	Minifigures - Series 24	Apr 30, 2023
Classic	11015	Around the World	Jul 31, 2023
Creator	31123	Off-Road Buggy	Jul 31, 2023
Disney	10780	Mickey and Friends Castle Defenders	Jul 31, 2023
Disney	43203	Aurora, Merida and Tiana's Enchanted Creations	Jul 31, 2023
Dots	41962	Unicorn Creative Family Pack	Jul 31, 2023
Mario	71404	Goomba's Shoe	Jul 31, 2023
Mario	71407	Cat Peach Suit and Frozen Tower	Jul 31, 2023
Mario	71409	Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge	Jul 31, 2023
Mario	71412	Big Bad Island	Jul 31, 2023
Mindstorms	51515	Robot Inventor	Jul 31, 2023
Minecraft	21187	The Red Barn	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71738	Zane's Titan Mech Battle	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71754	Water Dragon	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71756	Hydro Bounty	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71759	Ninja Dragon Temple	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71762	Kai's Fire Dragon EVO	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71770	Zane's Golden Dragon Jet	Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago	71773	Kai's Golden Dragon Raider	Jul 31, 2023
Technic	42129	4x4 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck	Jul 31, 2023
Minifigures	71038	LEGO® Minifigures Disney 100	Aug 31, 2023
Architecture	21054	The White House	Dec 31, 2023
Art	31203	World Map	Dec 31, 2023
Art	31205	Jim Lee Batman Collection	Dec 31, 2023
Art	31206	The Rolling Stones	Dec 31, 2023
Art	31207	Floral Art	Dec 31, 2023
Avatar	75571	Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch	Dec 31, 2023
Avatar	75573	Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson	Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz	40540	Lion Dance Guy	Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz	40541	Manchester United Go Brick Me	Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz	40542	FC Barcelona Go Brick Me	Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz	40554	Jake Sully & his Avatar	Dec 31, 2023
City	30638	Police Bike Training	Dec 31, 2023
City	30639	Dog Park and Scooter	Dec 31, 2023
City	41723	Donut Shop	Dec 31, 2023
City	41726	Holiday Camping Trip	Dec 31, 2023
City	60253	Ice-Cream Truck	Dec 31, 2023
City	60313	Space Ride Amusement Truck	Dec 31, 2023
City	60314	Ice Cream Truck Police Chase	Dec 31, 2023
City	60315	Police Mobile Command Truck	Dec 31, 2023
City	60317	Police Chase at the Bank	Dec 31, 2023
City	60318	Fire Helicopter	Dec 31, 2023
City	60319	Fire Rescue & Police Chase	Dec 31, 2023
City	60320	Fire Station	Dec 31, 2023
City	60321	Fire Brigade	Dec 31, 2023
City	60322	Race Car	Dec 31, 2023
City	60323	Stunt Plane	Dec 31, 2023
City	60324	Mobile Crane	Dec 31, 2023
City	60325	Cement Mixer Truck	Dec 31, 2023
City	60327	Horse Transporter	Dec 31, 2023
City	60330	Hospital	Dec 31, 2023
City	60332	Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike	Dec 31, 2023
City	60333	Bathtub Stunt Bike	Dec 31, 2023
City	60335	Train Station	Dec 31, 2023
City	60338	Chimpanzee Smash Stunt Loop	Dec 31, 2023
City	60339	Double Loop Stunt Arena	Dec 31, 2023
City	60341	The Knockdown Stunt Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60342	The Shark Attack Stunt Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60343	Rescue Helicopter Transporter	Dec 31, 2023
City	60346	Barn & Farm Animals	Dec 31, 2023
City	60348	Lunar Roving Vehicle	Dec 31, 2023
City	60349	Lunar Space Station	Dec 31, 2023
City	60350	Lunar Research Base	Dec 31, 2023
City	60351	Rocket Launch Centre	Dec 31, 2023
City	60353	Wild Animal Rescue Missions	Dec 31, 2023
City	60354	Mars Spacecraft Exploration Missions	Dec 31, 2023
City	60355	Water Police Detective Missions	Dec 31, 2023
City	60356	Bear Stunt Bike	Dec 31, 2023
City	60357	Stunt Truck & Ring of Fire Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60358	Cyber Stunt Bike	Dec 31, 2023
City	60359	Dunk Stunt Ramp Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60360	Spinning Stunt Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60361	Ultimate Stunt Riders Challenge	Dec 31, 2023
City	60371	Emergency Vehicles HQ	Dec 31, 2023
City	60382	Vet Van Rescue	Dec 31, 2023
City	60385	Construction Digger	Dec 31, 2023
City	60388	Gaming Tournament Truck	Dec 31, 2023
City	60390	Park Tractor	Dec 31, 2023
City	60393	4x4 Fire Truck Rescue	Dec 31, 2023
City	60394	ATV and Otter Habitat	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11014	Bricks and Wheels	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11018	Creative Ocean Fun	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11019	Bricks and Functions	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11021	90 Years of Play	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11022	Space Mission	Dec 31, 2023
Classic	11031	Creative Monkey Fun	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	30641	Panda Bear	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	30642	Birthday Train	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	30644	Vintage Car	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31111	Cyber Drone	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31118	Surfer Beach House	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31127	Street Racer	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31128	Dolphin and Turtle	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31130	Sunken Treasure Mission	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31131	Downtown Noodle Shop	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31132	Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	31143	Birdhouse	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	40461	Tulips	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	40469	Tuk Tuk	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	40568	Paris Postcard	Dec 31, 2023
Creator	40646	Daffodils	Dec 31, 2023
DC	76181	Batmobile: The Penguin Chase	Dec 31, 2023
DC	76220	Batman versus Harley Quinn	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	10777	Mickey and Minnie's Camping Trip	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	40521	Mini Disney The Haunted Mansion	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	41168	Elsa's Jewellery Box	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43187	Rapunzel's Tower	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43189	Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43194	Anna and Elsa's Frozen Wonderland	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43196	Belle and the Beast's Castle	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43197	The Ice Castle	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43198	Anna's Castle Courtyard	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43199	Elsa's Castle Courtyard	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43202	The Madrigal House	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43204	Anna and Olaf's Castle Fun	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43207	Ariel's Underwater Palace	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43208	Jasmine and Mulan's Adventure	Dec 31, 2023
Disney	43209	Elsa and the Nokk's Ice Stable	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40377	Donald Duck	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40378	Goofy & Pluto	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40476	Daisy Duck	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40477	Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey & Louie	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40550	Chip & Dale	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40553	Woody and Bo Peep	Dec 31, 2023
Disney / BrickHeadz	40622	Disney 100th Celebration BrickHeadz	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41801	My Pets Bracelet	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41802	Unicorns Forever Bracelet	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41803	Extra Dots series 8	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41805	Creative Animal Drawer	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41806	Ultimate Party Kit	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41807	Bracelet Designer Mega Pack	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41808	Hogwarts Accessories Pack	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41809	Hedwig Pencil Holder	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41811	Hogwarts Desktop Kit	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41947	Mickey and Friends Bracelets Mega Pack	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41948	Cute Banana Pen Holder	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41950	Lots of DOTS - Lettering	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41951	Message Board	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41957	Adhesive Patches Mega Pack	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41959	Cute Panda Tray	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41960	Big Box	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41961	Designer Toolkit - Patterns	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41963	Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Stitch-on Patch	Dec 31, 2023
Dots	41964	Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Back-to-School Project Box	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10411	Learn About Chinese Culture	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10872	Train Bridge and Tracks	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10882	Train Tracks	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10899	Frozen Ice Castle	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10930	Bulldozer	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10938	Dinosaur Nursery	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10944	Space Shuttle Mission	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10948	Parking Garage and Car Wash	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10949	Farm Animal Care	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10955	Animal Train	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10956	Amusement Park	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10960	Belle's Ballroom	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10962	Buzz Lightyear's Planetary Mission	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10963	Spider-Man & Friends: Funfair Adventure	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10964	Bath Time Fun: Floating Red Panda	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10968	Doctor Visit	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10972	Wild Animals of the Ocean	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10973	Wild Animals of South America	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10974	Wild Animals of Asia	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10976	Santa's Gingerbread House	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10977	My First Puppy & Kitten with Sounds	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10978	Creative Building Time	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	10979	Wild Animals of Europe	Dec 31, 2023
Duplo	30648	Whale	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	30633	Skate Ramp	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	30634	Friendship Flowers	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41443	Olivia's Electric Car	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41677	Forest Waterfall	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41696	Pony-Washing Stable	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41697	Turtle Protection Vehicle	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41699	Pet Adoption Café	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41703	Friendship Tree House	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41704	Main Street Building	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41705	Heartlake City Pizzeria	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41707	Tree-Planting Vehicle	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41708	Roller Disco Arcade	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41711	Emma's Art School	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41712	Recycling Truck	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41713	Olivia's Space Academy	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41714	Andrea's Theatre School	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41715	Ice Cream Truck	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41716	Stephanie's Sailing Adventure	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41717	Mia's Wildlife Rescue	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41718	Pet Day-Care Center	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41719	Mobile Fashion Boutique	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41720	Water Park	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41721	Organic Farm	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41722	Horse Show Trailer	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41729	Organic Grocery Store	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41732	Downtown Flower and Design Stores	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41733	Mobile Bubble Tea Shop	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41735	Mobile Tiny House	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41741	Dog Rescue Van	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41742	Cat Hotel	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41743	Hair Salon	Dec 31, 2023
Friends	41751	Skate Park	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	75968	4 Privet Drive	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	75969	Hogwarts Astronomy Tower	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	75979	Hedwig	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76386	Hogwarts: Polyjuice Potion Mistake	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76398	Hogwarts Hospital Wing	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76399	Hogwarts Magical Trunk	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76400	Hogwarts Carriage and Thestrals	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76401	Hogwarts Courtyard: Sirius's Rescue	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76403	The Ministry of Magic	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76406	Hungarian Horntail Dragon	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76408	12 Grimmauld Place	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76409	Gryffindor House Banner	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76410	Slytherin House Banner	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76411	Ravenclaw House Banner	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter	76412	Hufflepuff House Banner	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter / Brickheadz	40495	Harry, Hermione, Ron & Hagrid	Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter / Brickheadz	40560	Professors of Hogwarts	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	30643	Easter Chickens	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40426	Christmas Wreath 2-in-1	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40522	Valentine Lovebirds	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40523	Easter Rabbits Display	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40570	Halloween Cat and Mouse	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40571	Wintertime Polar Bears	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	40575	Year of the Rabbit	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	80110	Lunar New Year Display	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	80110	Lunar New Year Display	Dec 31, 2023
Holiday	80111	Lunar New Year Parade	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10255	Assembly Square	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10265	Ford Mustang	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10266	NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10270	Bookshop	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10273	Haunted House	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10276	Colosseum	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10278	Police Station	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10289	Bird of Paradise	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10290	Pickup Truck	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10292	The Friends Apartments	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10293	Santa's Visit	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10299	Real Madrid - Santiago Bernabéu Stadium	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10306	Atari 2600	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	10497	Galaxy Explorer	Dec 31, 2023
Icons	76989	Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck	Dec 31, 2023
Ideas	21325	Medieval Blacksmith	Dec 31, 2023
Ideas	21326	Winnie the Pooh	Dec 31, 2023
Ideas	21329	Fender Stratocaster	Dec 31, 2023
Ideas	21331	Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone	Dec 31, 2023
Ideas	21337	Table Football	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76943	Pteranodon Chase	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76945	Atrociraptor Dinosaur: Bike Chase	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76946	Blue & Beta Velociraptor Capture	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76947	Quetzalcoatlus Plane Ambush	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76948	T. rex & Atrociraptor Dinosaur Breakout	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76950	Triceratops Pickup Truck Ambush	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76951	Pyroraptor & Dilophosaurus Transport	Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park/World	76956	T. rex Breakout	Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear	76830	Zyclops Chase	Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear	76831	Zurg Battle	Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear	76832	XL-15 Spaceship	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71374	Nintendo Entertainment System	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71406	Yoshi's Gift House	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71413	Character Packs Series 6	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71414	Conkdor's Noggin Bopper	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71415	Ice Mario Suit and Frozen World	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71416	Lava Wave Ride	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71417	Fliprus Snow Adventure	Dec 31, 2023
Mario	71418	Creativity Toolbox	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	10781	Spider-Man's Techno Trike	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	10784	Spider-Man Webquarters Hangout	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	10790	Team Spidey at Green Goblin's Lighthouse	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76187	Venom	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76193	The Guardians' Ship	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76206	Iron Man Figure	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76207	Attack on New Asgard	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76208	The Goat Boat	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76209	Thor's Hammer	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76211	Shuri's Sunbird	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76212	Shuri's Lab	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76213	King Namor's Throne Room	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76214	Black Panther: War on the Water	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76215	Black Panther	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76216	Iron Man Armory	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76225	Miles Morales Figure	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76226	Spider-Man Figure	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76230	Venom Figure	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76241	Hulk Mech Armor	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76242	Thanos Mech Armor	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76243	Rocket Mech Armor	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76245	Ghost Rider Mech & Bike	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76253	Guardians of the Galaxy Headquarters	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76255	The New Guardians' Ship	Dec 31, 2023
Marvel	76256	Ant-Man Construction Figure	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21164	The Coral Reef	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21170	The Pig House	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21172	The Ruined Portal	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21177	The Creeper Ambush	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21180	The Guardian Battle	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21181	The Rabbit Ranch	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21183	The Training Grounds	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21184	The Bakery	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21185	The Nether Bastion	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21186	The Ice Castle	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21188	The Llama Village	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	21190	The Abandoned Village	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft	30647	The Dripstone Cavern/The Stalactite Cave	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40624	Alex	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40625	Llama	Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft / BrickHeadz	40626	Zombie	Dec 31, 2023
Misc	40174	LEGO Chess	Dec 31, 2023
Misc	40382	Birthday Set	Dec 31, 2023
Misc	40584	Birthday Diorama	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	30656	Monkey King Marketplace	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80008	Monkie Kid's Cloud Jet	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80030	Monkie Kid's Staff Creations	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80032	Chang'e Moon Cake Factory	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80033	Evil Macaque's Mech	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80034	Nezha's Fire Ring	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80035	Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80037	Dragon of the East	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80038	Monkie Kid's Team Van	Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid	80039	The Heavenly Realms	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	30649	Ice Dragon Creature	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71757	Lloyd's Ninja Mech	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71760	Jay's Thunder Dragon EVO	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71761	Zane's Power Up Mech EVO	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71763	Lloyd's Race Car EVO	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71765	Ninja Ultra Combo Mech	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71766	Lloyd's Legendary Dragon	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71767	Ninja Dojo Temple	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71768	Jay's Golden Dragon Motorbike	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71769	Cole's Dragon Cruiser	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71771	The Crystal King Temple	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71772	The Crystal King	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71774	Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71775	Nya's Samurai X MECH	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71776	Jay and Nya's Race Car EVO	Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago	71781	Lloyd's Mech Battle EVO	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30435	Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30509	Yellow Yoshi's Fruit Tree	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30510	90 Years of Cars	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30560	Pineapple Photo Holder & Mini Board	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30584	Winter Holiday Train	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30590	Farm Garden & Scarecrow	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30646	Moana's Dolphin Cove	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30651	Quidditch Practice	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30652	Doctor Strange's Interdimensional Portal	Dec 31, 2023
Polybag	30657	McLaren Solus GT	Dec 31, 2023
Promotional	40393	LEGOLAND Fire Academy	Dec 31, 2023
Promotional	40534	LEGO House Chef	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76900	Koenigsegg Jesko	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76901	Toyota GR Supra	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76906	1970 Ferrari 512 M	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76907	Lotus Evija	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76910	Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and Aston Martin Vantage GT3	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76911	007 Aston Martin DB5	Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions	76912	Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger T	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	30654	X-wing Starfighter Polybag	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75288	AT-AT	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75292	The Razor Crest	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75300	Imperial TIE Fighter	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75301	Luke Skywalker's X-wing Fighter	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75309	Republic Gunship	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75312	Boba Fett's Starship	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75317	The Mandalorian & The Child	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75318	The Child	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75320	Snowtrooper Battle Pack	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75322	Hoth AT-ST	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75323	The Justifier	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75324	Dark Trooper Attack	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75326	Boba Fett's Throne Room	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75327	Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75329	Death Star Trench Run Diorama	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75330	Dagobah Jedi Training Diorama	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75332	AT-ST	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75333	Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75334	Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75335	BD-1	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75336	Inquisitor Transport Scythe	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75338	Ambush on Ferrix	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75339	Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75342	Republic Fighter Tank	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75343	Dark Trooper Helmet	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars	75344	Boba Fett's Starship Microfighter	Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars / Brickheadz	40539	Ahsoka Tano	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	30655	Forklift with Pallet	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42096	Porsche 911 RSR	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42107	Ducati Panigale V4 R	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42111	Dom's Dodge Charger	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42117	Race Plane	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42118	Monster Jam Grave Digger	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42122	Jeep Wrangler	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42123	McLaren Senna GTR	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42125	Ferrari 488 GTE 'AF Corse #51'	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42127	The Batman - Batmobile	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42128	Heavy-Duty Tow Truck	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42131	Cat D11 Bulldozer	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42132	Chopper	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42133	Telehandler	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42134	Monster Jam Megalodon	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42135	Monster Jam El Toro Loco	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42137	Formula E Porsche 99x Electric	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42138	Ford Mustang Shelby GT500	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42139	All-Terrain Vehicle	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42140	App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle	Dec 31, 2023
Technic	42144	Material Handler	Dec 31, 2023

Introduction

I have been using Samsung Galaxy devices for 11 years, with my first Android/Samsung Galaxy device being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (got the Galaxy Nexus in January of 2012) and with me currently daily driving the S22 Ultra (since May 2022).
I have been using iPhones for more than 12 years, with my first iPhone being the iPhone 4 (got the iPhone 4 in December of 2010) and with me currently daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro Max (since September 2022) and the iPhone SE (2020) as a secondary iPhone for iOS development (since March 2022).
Here is my daily driver history:
Android:

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
• Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
• Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
• Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
• Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

• iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
• iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
• iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
• iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
• iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
• iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
• iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
• iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
• iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
• iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

• iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
• iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
• iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
• iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

• notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
• Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
• Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
• there is a real back button on Android
• No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
• There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
• On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
• Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

​
However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:
​

• iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

Even though the iPhone batteries are mostly very good during the first year of usage and have extremely good standby compared to Android phones due to software optimisation, by around July 2016, my iPhone 6S's battery is starting to fail, and I did need to rely on battery packs for my iPhones to survive as the iPhone 6S's battery would go from 100-0 after 4-6 hours of heavy use. My cousins did replace the iPhone 6S battery in October of 2017, but by October 2020 (please note according to battery health, IIRC, the 6S stands at 85%), on iOS 14, the iPhone 6S would drain from 90 to 35 in as little as 10 minutes and sometimes, during cold weather, the iPhone 6S's battery (on iOS 14) would die at 30%. Turns out this is not only an issue on my 6S as I bought a 6S on eBay in 2021 for my smartphone collection and that phone (with 80% capacity) also behaved the same, draining from 80 to 25 in around 10 minutes. The iPhones before the 6S also had a poor battery life after a year in my experience, and even though the iPhone 7 Plus, X, XS Max, and 11 Pro Max's battery holds better than the 6S due to the batteries being bigger, the batteries still started to become bad after 1-2 years.
My iPhone 12 Pro Max (I got rid of it in December of 2021 after it accidentally fell out from my nightstand drawer and the back cracked a month before) started seeing its battery fail sometime in September 2021, when the 13 Pro Max came out. Say I leave the house at 10:00 and were to return home at 19:00. By 17:00, with medium usage + hotspot, the iPhone's battery would have depleted to around 20 percent. Plus, my iPhones typically consume more battery if devices are connected to hotspot than my Samsung Galaxies are.
Also, I did receive the Galaxy S7 Edge (2019), Samsung Galaxy S9+ (earlier this month as my cousin's husband upgraded to the S23+), and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (last year), and given that I would sell these phones on the second hand market, I would test the phones for a week or two to see the phone's condition before assessing it and selling it on the second hand market. What I found is that even though the S10+ cracked and therefore, I donated it rather than sold it, all three phones seem to have solid battery, considering their ages. The S7 Edge with its 3600 mAh battery under heavy use after 3 years would go about for 6-8 hours before needing a recharge, and my S9+ would go about for around 5-6 hours as well before hitting down to 20% of battery (that is after 5 years and given the fact my cousin's husband is a power user), and even though the S10 cracked, it would go for 8-10 hours under heavy usage before draining to around 20%. I also got back my Note5 from 2015 once my cousin's son upgraded to my cousin (50M)'s S8 Active in 2019 once my cousin upgraded to the Note10+, and even on that phone, the battery is still very good considering its age and its 3000 mAh size, doing around 4-6 hours going down from 100-20.
​

• My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Even though all the 4 Samsung Galaxy S phones I have repossessed were slightly slow compared to when they were first purchased, all of them, apart from the front cracks on the S10+, are still highly reliable, and according to my usage as well as from the 4 people who have used my phones, they have commented that the phones I gave to them gave them minimal issues and they JUST WORK. Fun fact: during my ownership, I have never experienced any major problems with any of my Samsung phones.
Fun fact, my cousin (28M) switched from the iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in March of 2019 and is now currently using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. From his 4-year long experience using just the Galaxy S10+ (he bought the ceramic colour with 512GB of storage and currently his father is using the S10+), even though he is a power user with him customising the phone with themes, being a heavy user, and having cracked his S10+ last year, the phone was still extremely reliable, working fully as intended, apart from the battery, which has been shortened to 6 hours of heavy usage before dying.
My iPhones however, were not so bright. Even though pre-2015 iPhones are mostly reliable during my time using it, since the 6S, there have been some phones which have showed issues here and there, sometimes within the first year of ownership. As for the iPhone 6S, it is basically only the battery, which has been extremely bad after a year and the fact it would sometimes shut off at 30% during cold weather.
Starting with the iPhone 7 Plus however, and there started to be a lot of problems. Even though my iPhone 7 Plus didn't show any problems during my ownership, even though my cousin took good care of the 7 Plus, when I got her 7 Plus in November of 2020 (she got the phone brand new at Verizon in November 2017), the silent switch started to wear down and get stuck, meaning it is hard to turn on silent switch, the charging port pins started to wear, making it very hard to charge the phone or connect the phone to the computer, and the battery started to struggle real hard.
Starting with the iPhone XS Max and there started to be real struggles. Even though I didn't see any problems with either the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max during my ownership and took good care of these two phones, when these two phones got passed to their second owners, problems started to arise. For the XS Max, in May of 2020, it got bricked, and it wouldn't turn on even if he plugged it in the charging cable or through iTunes, and my cousin's husband had to bring it to service, and that got him to purchase an S20+ given he prefers Android over iOS, and after fixing the XS Max, he gave it to his daughter (17F), who is his only child. For the 11 Pro Max however, the phone's battery drained fast and my cousin always had to rely on the charger, and plus, there are issues of connecting Bluetooth devices as well as with calls and volume whilst connected to Bluetooth devices, and my cousin always complained about these issues and even though I did attempt to fix, the issues didn't get resolved (I am tech savvy by the way, so I could get through a lot of issues, such as reset my bricked iPad using iTunes, etc.).
And now onto my iPad Pro 9.7. I bought the iPad in June of 2016, and even though I used it mostly for watching YouTube videos, Udemy and edX courses, the iPad started having a bricking issue in November of 2017. What happened was that I was charging and overnight, the iPad just shut itself off and never powered on again. I tried connecting it to iTunes and even though iTunes could recognise the device, whenever I reset it, errors keep on popping up and it is impossible to reset. I tried bringing it to the Apple Store, but they couldn't reset it either and they suggested that I replace the iPad Pro 9.7 with an iPad Mini 4 for $300. Then, I started taking matters into my own hands and finally resetted the iPad Pro successfully after multiple attempts in January of 2018. Four months later (in May 2018), the iPad bricked again, and I had to do the same process, and it took until August of 2018 after at least 5-10 tries for it to work again. And then in August 2020, whilst charging overnight, the iPad turned off and I thought it was toast. Turned out it was, as after countless times diagnosing the issues on iTunes, the iPad would keep on bricking after multiple reset attempts and after more than 2 years. Then, there was a miracle. In November of 2022, I finally got my iPad working again and I felt like I was very lucky, because I thought that the iPad was bricked forever and wouldn't go back on, ever.
Then, finally, it is my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought the phone on 20 November 2020, and by mid-September 2021, things started to go south for this phone. The top speaker started to fail and even though I cleaned it, the speaker was so muffled that I could barely hear anything from the top speaker. I brought it to the Apple Store and they said it is a digitiser issue and they couldn't even clean it for me, and around that same time, the touchscreen started to act up. With a lot of ghost touches, it started to become very hard to use the iPhone (and keep in mind, I have never replaced the screen since I never cracked the front screen). In October 2021, the phone started to have lose cellular signal when I enter the MBTA train and still didn't recognise cellular signal for minutes after I exited the MBTA and was at least a mile from that station on my bike, but luckily, resetting network settings did fix the issue with the cellular signal however. By the time the phone accidentally fell to the ground and the back did suffer some cracks in November, I started to give up on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and in December, I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max.
Even though my Galaxy Buds and my cousin (28M)'s Galaxy Buds did not show any issues (he bought the Galaxy Buds in March 2019 and after heavy usage, it still held up very well and he even gave it to his father), all 4 of my AirPods, even the AirPods Pro 2, have shown issues here and there. My first AirPods (January 2017-July 2018) basically stopped working, and hence, I bought another pair of AirPods in July 2018 and used it until February 2022, when I dropped it in the toilet. Even though I was using the 2nd pair of AirPods half the time (July 2018-January 2020, December 2020-April 2021, November 2021-February 2022), by late 2021, the AirPods started showing major problems. First off, the battery drains so fast even indoors that it only lasted about an hour. Then, once I am outside, the right side would disconnect after only 5 minutes of usage and the left side would keep soldering on. Once it fell to the toilet, it was game over (however, I still kept the AirPods, it is just in the nightstand sitting there, and I did clean it as well). I bought the AirPods 2 in February 2022, and after 2 months, at least once every week or two, the right side would discharge, even in the case (the case is clean by the way), until it went out of battery. I tried resetting the case and putting the case to charge again, but to no avail, and it took several reset attempts for it to return to normal. The same exact scenario happened to the AirPods Pro 2, which I got in October as my cousin wanted to gift me the AirPods Pro 2, in exchange for my AirPods 2. Except that sometimes, my iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn't even connect to the AirPods Pro 2 or even recognise it.
​

• Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

I currently have two phone plans: my main Verizon phone plan with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my secondary MetroPCS phone plan with my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I do carry a third phone with me (without a phone plan), which is the iPhone SE 2020. Due to me not having a phone plan on my iPhone SE 2020, I do have to rely on hotspot when I am outside. For my iPhone SE 2020, I primarily use it for music streaming and to test my mobile applications, whilst my two other phones are used for more intense purposes, with me spending the most time on my Samsung.
For my iPhone 14 Pro Max and previous iPhones (iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, etc), personal hotspot is very buggy. My Samsung connects just fine to the iPhone hotspot, but my iPhones don't. To preserve the battery, after several minutes, the iPhone SE would get disconnected from the iPhone 14 Pro Max hotspot (which is acceptable), but it gets worse. Even if I am currently streaming Apple Music on my iPhone SE with the screen on as well, the iPhone would disconnect from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is very hard to connect it to hotspot. Sometimes, the iPhone SE would say 'Unable to join network' and others, it said 'Personal Hotspot Failure', which would force me to restart both the iPhone SE and 14 Pro Max. Now the Remote Hotspot Failure started happening since I got the 11 Pro Max in 2019, and at the time, my 16:9 phone was the iPhone 6S, and even then, there were hotspot failure problems. I restarted the 11 Pro Max, but the hotspot failure would return after a week or two. Even after resetting network settings in 2021 right before my 13 Pro Max because my iPhone 12 Pro Max would lose cellular connectivity even after I exited the MBTA tunnel and I am outside a mile from the MBTA station, once I got my 13 Pro Max, the remote hotspot failure still appears. My Samsung Galaxy over the years connects to the iPhone hotspot without any issues, and would stay connected even if I am not using the phone until I basically turn off hotspot on my iPhone.
Now due to the fact connecting my iPhone SE to the iPhone hotspot is so bad, I would typically use the Samsung hotspot as a backup (keep in mind my iPhone plan gives unlimited hotspot whilst Metro only gives 5 GB). Both iPhones connect to the Samsung hotspot flawlessly, without any issues.
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• On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Sometimes, I don't want my main iPhone 14 Pro Max to connect to the Samsung hotspot due to it having its own data. I would turn off Wi-Fi on the control centre and after 5-10 minutes, it would reconnect the Wi-Fi, therefore wasting hotspot data on my Samsung metroPCS plan and making me mildly angry. iPhone does say turning off until tomorrow but in reality, Wi-Fi is turned on after 5-10 minutes. For Samsung, I turn off Wi-Fi on the quick settings until I turn it back on or I flick on airplane mode, which seems more intuitive in my case. However, when I am at home without any hotspot devices, whenever I use quick settings for iPhone, nearby Wi-Fi does disconnect until tomorrow
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• Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Pretend I have two Bluetooth devices (AirPods Pro, JBL Clip 4), and I wanted to connect to the JBL speaker. On the Samsung, if I accidentally clicked on the AirPods Pro, I could click JBL Clip 4 immediately and within 5 seconds, I would be connected to the JBL Clip 4 speaker. For the iPhone however, things are not so bright, as if I were to accidentally click the AirPods Pro, I had to wait 15 seconds for Apple to search for the AirPods Pro, and then once it says it couldn't find the AirPods Pro because I left my AirPods Pro at home, that is when I could click on JBL Clip 4 and connect it. That turns a 5 second process into something like a 15-20 second process.
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• Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

On several occasions since 2021, my iPhones would sometimes not pay using Apple Pay and would fail to pay. Sometimes, the iPhone couldn't even detect a reader even though the reader does work. Once I use Samsung Pay on my Samsung Galaxy devices as a backup, the payment did go through and it finally worked.
Yesterday, I was at the MBTA station, and I was attempting to pay for the Monthly pass. Ironically, even though the reader did work, the iPhone 14 Pro Max kept on saying 'Hold near Reader', and even though I held it near the mobile payment reader for 10-15 seconds, it still didn't do anything. Fed up, after the second time, I repaid the MBTA ticket and used my S22 Ultra and the payment did go through. However, at the restaurant around 1 hour later, even though I didn't restart the iPhone, Apple Pay finally worked again as I was able to pay my meal using Apple Pay.
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• Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

My Samsung automatic updates are set overnight, and even with airplane mode turned on during the night, my Samsungs are always up to date without ever having to go to the settings app to update the firmware to Android 13. As for iPhone, they did schedule automatic updates between 4-5 am, but in reality, automatic updates keep failing even with Wi-Fi turned on overnight. If I wanted to update my iPhones, I would typically have to manually update via settings
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• Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

I attended university between 2018 and 2022, and in late 2021, at university (I majored in CS by the way), my iPhones, iPads, and Macs would often struggle with Wi-Fi. My iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 7 Plus (as of November 2021) would sometimes even outright refuse to connect to Wi-Fi and same goes with the MacBook 15' Core i9 (2019) (I have since upgraded to the M1 MBP 16 since the logic board on the MBP 2019 failed in November 2021), and if connected, at some parts of the university, they are extremely slow, and sometimes, borderline unusable. My S21 Ultra however, at the same place, worked far better and was able to load websites. Even my Windows laptop was able to load websites as well as my Galaxy A51 (I brought an A51 one day to MIT to see if the Wi-Fi issues only occurred on Apple products).
Fun fact: the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first phone to offer Wi-Fi 6E and not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max supports this feature
Then in July 2022, during a flight from Dallas back to Boston, my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone SE 2 would fail to connect to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network several times and if connected, the Wi-Fi was painfully slow and near unusable whilst my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra connected to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network just fine and worked as expected, with websites loading reasonably quick, just like at my university with the S21 Ultra.
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• USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.
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TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

This happened a couple years ago when I used to live in foster care after my family passed away in a house fire which I luckily survived because I was at an after school club. I don’t like to go too into the incident because the wound still feels fresh, even though it already been8 years since this happened.
I was 14F when I got placed into a foster care home, I lived with 7 other kids in the house who were also orphans, and two adult cares(1M,1F). At the time I was a very shy, introverted teenager, so you can only imagine how hard it was for me to make friends in the home with a bunch of other kids who were loud, some a bit disturbed due to trauma and some just straight up disrespectful and mean. There was one girl in particular who was always picking fights with me and just did not like my presence since I moved in. We were also the same age and the youngest, maybe that’s was the reason? I will name her Sarah for sake of this post. As I mentioned before Sarah was always on my case for not being talkative and used to ask me why I did not hang around with her. I will be honest here, the first few months I lived in that place, I was definitely not approachable, I was not rude verbally, but I would give one word replies when people spoke to me and just overall did not want to be social because I was still trying to mentally grasp the fact that I lost my whole family in space of 48hrs couple of months ago. Another reason that probably participated into Sarah hatred for me was that we used to get compared a lot due to being the same age and the care takers in the house and other kids would say “why can’t you just be sensible like(me)”, since she was very loud sometimes bratty aswell. So that probs contributed to her 14yr old jealousy.
However that does not excuse what she did to me. So the problem started when we had an argument one day over her over using bedroom space, since we shared the same room. Sarah was a body mist addict and collector, so much so she started using my drawer’s space to “display “ her collection. I liked the top of my drawer to be clear and to only have a photo frame of my sister with her favorite band(bts). The photo was revived from the house fire and it was miracle it was not in ashes. The point is that’s the only physical memory I had left of my dead sister, didn’t even have any photos of my parents because of the fire. Back to the argument, I told Sarah clearly to stop linning up her body mist on top of my drawer and to keep it on her side idc if she used up all her space. She took her body mists of my side for the time being that morning. When I came back from school that day I saw the body mists there again , it was covering my photo that I had displayed. She must have put it back when I left for skl since we went to different skls and leave and arrive different times.
So when I saw that she had did it again, out of anger I threw all the body mist she put on top of my drawer, unto her side of the room beside her bed on the floor. We had a big argument. She in return the next morning when I had left for school took the photo of my sister out it’s frame and put it into the toilet the boys share down the hall. I came back from school that day into our room to see if she placed her body mist on my table again, which she didn’t but I realized the photo was missing. I asked her if she has seen, she said no, I also asked everyone in the house they said no. The boys came home and one of them screamed “ who threw effing paper drawing in the toilet” everyone said I don’t know including me who is clueless as to what the paper was. When the 1M adult who lived with us came to take a “paper” out he realized it was photo. He also asked who’s photo it was . I came running because I wanted to confirm if it was the photo of my deceased sister, turns out my suspicion was fucking right and I could not BELIVE Sarah would go that far. I confronted her whilst I was angry, let’s just say the confrontation went with her denying it with a grin on her face and me pouncing on her and pulling a patch of her hair out. That night I was forced to sleep in the living room, because according to the adults I was a “threat” to her. I was so mad all night how they took her word for it, even after I explained to them the events that took place before this and how it’s her revenge for throwing her “expensive “ perfumes on the floor . Few days after the incident, when I calmed down a bit I decide I wanted her to know how it feels to have the last memories of her dead family member not only destroyed but also urinated on since the boy only saw the photo stuck in the toilet after he tried to flush after pissing on it unknowingly.
My revenge is where people say I am the ass for because I apparently took it too far. After I had been let back into our room and was forced to “ reconcile “. I stayed home from school the day after. She went to school so that gave me the opportunity to give her taste of her own medicine. I took her mothers ashes with me out during the day placed it under a tree I used to always see our locals dogs piss on. The tree was located 4 doors down before you reach our house. She must have thought it looked familiar when walking towards our house that day back from school ,because as soon as she barged into our room she checked under her bed for the jar that held it and she found nothing there. She ran back outside and found that the jar was wet and the jar filled with liquid. I however when confronted said straight up yes because I just wanted to see the hurt on her face and smirk like she did to me.
However I did face consequences for my action, and everyone in the house did look at me differently after that like I was some evil person, except one boy who believed that it was Sarah’s karma. 8 years later I feel bad.