I am crying as I write this because I don’t know why I made the mistake of posting in a med school subreddit asking for advice about proceeding in my exams while giving context of coming from a toxic family and having to cut ties. A commenter said I am blaming my parents and that they bet most of the debt my parents are facing is because of my education and then added how they studied in the worst country in the world and passed and I should suck it up and stop making excuses.
I literally posted asking for motivation because I was already feeling so low and this comment made me feel even worse and I just deleted the post all together. I went to their page and realized they just got back their results and their posts before were about having low grades themselves. It’s sad that the first chance they got after passing was to put someone else down but that brings me back to what my post was about.
I was asking for someone who had been in a similar toxic situation in med school to please encourage me because my school’s advisors already viscously my ripped apart my grade, my first clinical experience I was told was bad and I feel extremely demotivated. My ndad isn’t in debt because of my education and that comment really triggered me. He made poor financial decisions and took out tons of loans for other reasons and my nmom hasn’t been contributing financially.
I went to one of the cheapest med schools in Ukraine miles away from home. My school fees were $3100 US for the year. I removed a lot of the fees through scholarships, I’ve gotten so many, made a GoFundMe, asked for sponsorship and worked to reduce the load.
All throughout my studies my nMom was putting me down and my nDad would call to triangulate against my mom to me while I was studying for exams. I left due to the war to another school and was struggling to transition to their curriculum. A week before my exam my nDad said all his children are “pieces of shit” we should “fuck off” that he’s disowning us and that he’s in debt because of us.
For some context my nDad made my nMom manipulate him into taking out over $30,000 US in loans to send my little brother to school in Canada, he did it to appease her since they are always competing, he also got a new car then took out other loans to start businesses. Remember I said that my school fees were $3100 for the year?
I am not ungrateful and I’m thankful for the support I got but for my dad to blame all his loans on me is so ridiculous. I worked my entire life and got A’s and scholarships from highschool all the way up. So why do they still make it seem like I did nothing? I’ve tried everything. The whole point of me getting an education and staying focused would be in an ideal and healthy family to come back and help them. I am literally in my final year. I’ve done everything to be a good child, everything.
On top of telling us to “fuck off” while I was studying for my exams, there was constant fighting and shouting happening around me coupled with my nMom verbally and emotionally abusing me. Ofcourse I ended up failing my exam and one lecturer just told me it was a disaster and the worst grade he had ever seen that further led to the depression and PTSD I was already facing from fleeing the war.
Med school can be filled with tons of unempathetic people and posting in the med school subreddit made me even more sad because all I wanted was for one person in a similar situation to tell me I can do it. My nMom brings me down, my nDad brings me down and throws back everything he has done, even my GC/nBrother convinced me to drop out so many times. I suffer from so much imposter syndrome and worry where my next dollar is coming from to survive.
I know I made the right decision leaving my toxic home environment and I don’t doubt my intellect. I know I can do it when I’m in a more peaceful environment, but right now I’m crippled with anxiety. I just want one person to tell me they’re proud of me and encourage me to do it. Just one. Sigh. I just feel like a complete failure and that nothing I do is ever enough.
Any med students/past med students in this subreddit too, I welcome your support. 🙏🏽

Trying to do decidueye raids is absolutely impossible, when you have three people who try to run a miraidon strat, and the 4th person who joins auto locks annihilape, Instantly dying and triggering the shield so we can’t even remotely do any damage and our stat drops disappear. Why would you bring a fighting type to a flying type raid? I regularly come across so many players who just lock in something random or outright is a bad type matchup, am I the only one? This seems way worse than SwSh ever was, it’s like people have forgotten 25 years of what would be common knowledge in this community, pretty much the core aspect of the entire game is type matchups. Someone please give me hope.

So my life. Life hit its first bump at five. Dad got locked up. Got 3 to 15. Didn’t understand but I knew I wasn’t gonna get to see my hero. That triggered a chain reaction. At 7 I started lying and stealing. At 12 started smoking and doing other drugs. Dad got out by this time and I was sneaking out to him but mom was keeping me from him. Then be next bump hits. I get locked up. Not going to say why cuz I’m not going to lie to you. But I was locked up for 14 months. First little bit I thought I was hard but found out I wasn’t. Got my ass beat everyday. And from the streets I learned not to snitch but here if you do you get stabbed. So I took it. I knew how to take a punch and I’ve been in fight but not like this. I was always in punished there, always was doin shit to get in trouble. But I got my act straight and learned to fight better. One day they came up in the kitchen part while we were cleaning and I hit it the guy with a pan over the head. Still got my ass beat but didn’t happed again except a few fights. I gained respect. But I knew my place. I bettered myself. Read a lot. Got really good at chess. My body best ever. But I also found peace for the first time ever. I wasn’t always depressed but I never was particularly happy. But I found it. I had a routine, knew my place, some of the guards there I deemed family, and some of the other kids. This is four months in. The days felt like weeks but the weeks felt like days, if that makes sense. I got a job there folding the clothes and shit. We washed everything at the jail. But with that job I got radio headphones. First time I fell in love with music. I escaped with it. To listen I became amazing with my job. I handed out clothes before showers and I knew everyone’s size and it folded perfectly, I had a little more security in life. It felt good. Don’t get me wrong freedom is better but the the first time I was happy. Here’s the next bump. I have a neck pain I find. This is month 5. I wouldn’t find out this set me back for a year. Everyone was telling me it was a basketball injury but I knew it wasn’t. Find out I haven’t ha my final court date cuz they didn’t know what to do with me. My mom wouldn’t take me but wouldn’t let my dad take me. They finally put me in a low secure program.this is 6 months and 12 days in This is good and bad news. It was definitely a lot more freedom. I had a pillow. That was new. I had my own cloths. All to small cuz I grew a lot in 6 months. But they were mine. The doors were unlocked. There were couches. Uncomfortable af couches but they were couches. Still had to ask to get up, ask another human being to go to the bath room. That’s humiliating. But it was a upgrade. I have mris and shit for the neck and was in hella pain but nobody believed me. In the end they wet e going to press charges against my mom for child abandonment so she let my dad have me. Day one was like a acid trip. It was surreal. I had my own room.I could go to the bathroom when I wanted, get food when I wanted, sleep when I want, I had a dog. It was awesome. I still had a lot of pain and couldn’t turn my neck.well one day my dad got me a mri scheduled and I got it. The rushed me into a c coller and put me into a ambulance. We went to the bigger hospital and I was there for 21 days. I was told I have a tumor in my neck. The did a biopsy and turned out I had less then 6 months. That was awesome. I was 14 almost 15 at the time. I got wasted and high every day. Like fuck it. Mom took me back. Imagine that. Only reason I went back was for my siblings. I couldn’t leave them. I hadn’t seen them in two years. That was the hardest part. So I went there 50 50. It turned out the misdiagnosed me. But what I had was super rare. First person in my state to have it. It was a ini1- chardoma. They didn’t the best was to treat it but chemo was the way to go. They just didn’t know what ones were the most effective. I took it tho. And I reacted amazingly. Better then they thought. I had a chance of living now. Basketball was out of the picture now. I had to drop out of high school. But it is what it is. I went through and accepted death. One of my lowest points. High chance I move wrong one day and it on my spinal cord could paralyze me form the neck down and I die. I used to be suicidal and tried to take my own life at one point. I couldn’t care to a extent. I still valued life. I still had time with my siblings. That’s what counts. But I want afraid of it. I’ve been shot at before on multiple occasions. Saw my best friend get shot and killed. I had to decide wether to stop and get shot or keep running so I don’t die but by doing so leaving my friend. I left him. My biggest regret. I would of rather die trying to help him then hold the weight of his death. I put that life behind me. I had a lot of enemies. Couldn’t do to some places without the crew. But that’s the consequences of my actions. But what I’m saying I’ve looked at death in the eyes. Now it’s sitting next to me flirting. Almost fell for it tbh. But like I said I had people. I lived. I got surgery. Post surgery was the lowest point in my life. Not only couldn’t I go to the bathroom whenever I had to have people helps me. I lost all my rights again it felt like. I told myself I’ll die before I get locked up again. I was happy was so depressed there. But anyway. I lost basketball and I lost cross country. Recovery was hard. But I’m here now. 16 years old making hella money. I think it all worked out for me. Still have some minor bumps it nothing I can’t handle.

This is mainly a rant, but this night has been pretty rough in terms of the people who I have matched with. I have been playing sense season zero and it is really confusing how to me a very chill community of people has gone down the drain in terms of quality of human beings. I have met some really nice people through the years that I still play with and talk to. Recently, I haven't been able to play as much b/c of work, so I have just been playing pubs, and working on my movement. I have been all over diamond with peak D1, and would like to push for masters when I get the chance. But almost every other game I get a toxic, open mic, man-child that will int or we just get beat by a better team all to then curse us out/ call us slurs to then leave before anyone can even get a word in, in pubs, pubs for crying out loud. I am all for some classic cod lobby trash talk, but to essentially leave like that shows how fragile your ego is and it just completely kills the vibes for everyone else. I'm sure other people have mentioned the other types of players from the "it's never my fault", insta leavers, leave at drop to get to bot lobbies, and so on. I love this game, but having to deal with people like that multiple times a session is really ruining the experience for me. I also know I can just mute them, but I genuinely enjoy talking with people here and these types of players usually stay quite the whole game till those situations. I will ask what they want to do or recommend a call and it is just radio silence till something like mentioned above happens. Overall, its just sad that there seems to be more of them than there used to be and I wouldn't mind if they recorded voice chat and banned them. I'm not planning for this thread to go anywhere, but if you happen to be one of those players why do that in pubs or even ranked? If you think you have something constructive then say it in a decent manor. Players like you ruin the game for everyone and keeps new players from wanting to play when they have to deal with you.

I work really hard at my job but when people start micro managing me or being overly critical for no reason I start to get really angry. When people tell me " you can't speak that way" " dont think that way" " calm down " " go to your happy place" I loose my shit. Then I refuse to speak to them for long periods after. I feel like I'm being spoken down to and I don't know how to calm the anger before my mouth opens. I feel like this is a trauma response? I grew up in a very bad dilapidated shack of a house with two drunks as parents that neglected me almost completely. By 15 I was drinking constantly, taking prescription pills regularly, smoking cigarettes not going to school almost at all. 10+ years of all that on and off with increasingly bad relationships with men. The last two years ive really been working to improve myself. Stopped pills but my prescriptions my doctor gives me for depression, drink very rarely and never in large amounts. Dropped cigarettes for a vape, not good I know but it's an improvement for me. I just want to get a handle on my hairline trigger of a temper. I feel like it comes when I'm being disrespected and treated like I'm dumb. I feel judged by my older co workers ( most of my issues are with people 40+) for my tattoos. I'm almost 30 I just want to feel like a normal person but God I hate it when people treat me like a child with no life or work experience or like I'm just suppose to kiss the ass of everyone that comes across my path. I'm not overtly rude for no reason, but I do make it clear when I feel disrespected, but it always comes back to me like I'm just suppose to take it?
Edit : sorry if this is segmented oddly, I'm upset and tired

I've been trying to pull myself out of a long depressive episode and I've picked up a lot of my old hobbies again but I'm a bit clueless on how to balance everything. I feel like everything is all over the place. Like here's a list of what I'm learning/doing right now.
Art: projects in design, 3d modeling, & digital illustration, making comics
Music: practicing guitar & piano, making tabs/sheet music
Writing: writing a novel
I'm also trying to get my career in order so I job hunt and do projects for my portfolio (This is my main priority).
I've been just cycling through all the different projects but its getting kind of hard to keep up with my ideas. Also a bunch of other problems like sometimes I'll drop a project to work on another one and then come back lost. On top of that, I really don't have a lot of energy in a day cause of my mental health.
I know the classic advice is to prioritize and go from there but I find it pretty difficult when I have multiple ideas I want to create for all these different things. Any tips?

I got Shuri pinned but I'm worried she's gonna get nerfed soon or drop in series. Should I pull the trigger or are my worries justified?

I switched from a ceramic heat emitter to a deep heat projector with black slate, and an Arcadia shade dweller uv bulb around october of last year. For the winter my leo mostly sat around in her hot hide, occasionally cryptically basking, but remained interested in food so I don’t think she brumated. For the past few weeks, she has been much more active, and has even been basking on top of her hot hide during the day.
Hot side ambient temp is around 82 F, the surface of the slate in her basking spot gets to around 99-101. Her cool side is 75. I drop the hot side temp by 10 degrees at night.
Is this normal behavior triggered by a more natural-feeling heat source than she’s used to?

All prices include shipping.
AR-15 Stuff
Holosun 512C Red (Safe Queen, Never got to see the range) - $280
Fortis K1 Locking Castle Nut in Red - $30
Sig 365 Accesories and Mags
Wilson Combat P365XL Grip Module (Manual Safety Version) with Armory Craft tungsten weight kit installed - $70
Armory Craft Extended Mag Release Button (new never installed) - $30
Crossbreed OWB Drop Side holster for Sig P365xl with TLR6 - $50
Tactical Development Pro Ledge baseplates for P365xl mags - $30 for the pair
Sig P365xl Magazines x3 12 rd - $120 for the bundle
Random Stuff
Hogue 1911 Wrap Around Grips - $18
Magpul MOE AK Grip in black - $15
https://imgur.com/a/B19fJj8

I was alone in my bedroom when I first started talking to Lili Hope. My parents were out of town and I was stuck at the house on a dark and stormy night. It was another lonely weekend for me considering I had no friends in college, let alone a girlfriend. I had long started regretting the decision to stay home in Americus and attend Georgia Southwestern but tonight really emphasized my alienation. Here I was in the middle of nowhere in a house surrounded by roaming woods and dirt roads. And to top all this misery off, I was only twenty so I couldn’t buy alcohol.
But still there was Lili. In my room, I ignored the steady rain overpowering my classic rock YouTube playlist. I could ignore the February cold and it was all because of her.
I’d met Lili on MeetMe, a really shitty free dating app. But she stood out. Not just because she wasn’t a spambot either. For one thing, she was close. Buena Vista (that's BEW-NUH VISS-TUH), Georgia was only thirty minutes away and it was a town I was familiar with given how much my parents and I enjoyed visiting Eddie Martin’s Pasaquan art exhibit.
I could tell Lili enjoyed talking to me for more than just compliments and sexting (though I certainly wasn’t complaining about that). We discussed horror movies, The Beatles, and how we were made for each other given we were both pale Hispanic emos. She was my age but had dropped out of Georgia Southwestern after her first semester because she had no money or support from her shithead father. Now Lili was working at a gas station in Buena Vista, but her dreams of being an actress or a model persisted. She certainly had the looks no matter what hair color she ran with. And unlike most of the girls I encountered on MeetMe, Lili never used make-up or excessive SnapChat filters to disguise her acne or slight belly. She stayed true to herself.
After that magical night, she and I talked more over the next few weeks. There were phone calls, Facebook chats, text messages. Even FaceTime calls in which Lili thrilled me when she said I was even cuter on video. I could’ve said the same about her. Call it an emo romance, but to me, what we had was true love.
Through our talks, I did find out more about Lili's family. Her mom had died when Lili was only eight so she became very close to her dad. She showed me many of her old family photos but I was a little confused when I never saw one of her mom. Lili’s dad on the other hand looked old even though he was only in his mid-forties. He was a shorter man with dark long hair and a dark long beard. About the only thing he and Lili seemed to have in common were their big brown eyes.
I felt like Lili had rescued me during all those lonely school days and even lonelier weekends. I liked to think I saved her from the customer service depression as well. And then finally, the dream happened: we made plans to meet in person.
Spring Break arrived, and per usual, I had no plans. Lili gave me her address and on a quiet Monday while my parents were out of town, I got ready to head over to Buena Vista. I threw on my coolest band tee (my Ramones shirt), my nicest pair of jeans, and even had my straight dark hair perfectly combed over to the side. I felt the adrenaline of a prom night I never got to experience.
In the kitchen, I stopped to see a violent storm outside the sliding glass doors. Cold air had already seeped into the house. I threw on a yellow windbreaker to both stay warm and to prepare for the barrage of rain that was about to hit me like bullets.
But before I left, I needed something to calm my nerves: I grabbed one of my dad’s Miller Lites. But I needed music too. I looked toward our Amazon Echo standing by the Keurig, trying to decide on the perfect theme song for Lili and I's first date.
"Alexa, play 'Born To Run'!" I finally said.
"Okay," Alexa's calm, robotic voice replied.
Springsteen's classic roared over the downpour. The beer also did the trick even though I cringed with every sip. I had enough of a buzz to calm the jitters but not enough to get me a DUI. "Thank you, Alexa!" I said to that sweet machine.
"No problem," she stated. "No problem at all, Demian.”
In the Corolla, I turned on the heat before accessing the Waze app on my phone. I plugged in Lili's address then pulled out of the driveway. The app started to talk to me off my phone… only this wasn't the bland monotone Waze usually greeted me with. This was my voice.
Thanks to the beer buzz, I just chuckled at first. Especially once I heard myself giving the directions, the fusion of my deep voice and Alexa's deliberate tone amusing me. I put on a Spotify classic rock station to further calm the nerves.
The decreasing mile marker signs leading to Buena Vista excited me like a New Year's countdown. And soon, the route got more and more secluded. The highway got bumpier, the houses less frequent. Darkness soon blanketed whatever daylight I had left… even though it wasn’t even five o’clock yet.
Unease crept inside me as the ferocious storm never went away. Even over the music and my own methodical Waze voice, I could hear and feel the thunder. My windshield wipers worked overtime. I felt my tires spray water everywhere on this ocean of rugged pavement. Rather than a fearsome sight, the lightning actually became a helpful co-pilot for my Corolla's weak headlights.
The spiraling drive took me past Buena Vista's downtown ‘square,’ a conglomeration of decrepit historical buildings, the rundown gas station I figured Lili had slaved away at, and a seedy Subway.
"Turn left on Tenney Road," Waze Demian stated in a voice smoother than I could ever conjure in the real world.
I followed orders and turned on to the dirt road. The fact my Corolla didn't get bogged down shocked me. Rather than water, my tires now kicked up slushy mud. Lili had said she lived in the country, but this was something else: this was a fucking forest.
Needless to say, the headlights didn't help much. Leaning forward, I strained to see through the darkness and buckets of rain. The raindrops now drowned out all other noise. Up ahead, all I could make out was the faint trace of a driveway and a metal mailbox painted in harsh shades of red.
"What the hell..." I muttered.
"Your destination is on the left," Waze Demian said, his monotone struggling to contain excitement.
My unease only grew but I had to see Lili. I'd already come this far.
"Your destination is on the left," Waze Demian repeated for emphasis.
The closer I got to the mailbox, the more my fear intensified. I actually started to sweat on this dark, cold night.
"Your destination is on the left," my Waze voice continued to chant.
As I pulled into the driveway, the radio and headlights all cut out in a flash. My car came to a sudden stop. Darkness dominated the scene as I saw nothing and heard nothing except the merciless app.
"Your destination is on the left," Waze Demian repeated.
Panicking, I flicked on the headlights but nothing worked. I was trapped. "Fuck!"
Lightning flashed to give me a terrifying sneak peek of Lili's ‘home’:
Less than fifteen feet away from me stood three people dressed in red robes. Their hoods were pulled up and behind them lurked an isolated tree.
"Your destination is on the left," Waze Demian said.
Without warning, my headlights and radio roared to life. Only instead of classic rock, I got greeted by loud, distorted audio resembling the sound of a looped tape being grated by a machine.
"Your destination is on the left," I could hear Waze Demian say over such a horrifying sound.
I screamed when I saw through headlights that were way brighter, the chilling scene before me. I recognized Lili standing in the red cloak and her father right next to her. Both of them displayed painted smiles on those pale faces.
Ropes and chains were wrapped around the old tree. The tree tilted to the side, its long branches without leaves extending out like restless hands clamoring for me. I could even make out weird symbols carved into the tree's flesh, the engravings so deep they practically made the bark bleed.
I never got a good glimpse of the third person. They kept their cloak hood pulled over their face, every inch of their body disguised in red.
"Fuck this..." my quivering voice said in an antithesis to the calm cadence of Waze Demian.
Beneath the hard rain, Lili marched straight toward me to the tune of the unsettling noise from the radio, her steps slow and steady. Her confident eyes glued to me. I saw where Lili's smile was sharper than the long curved knife she held.
"Your destination is on the left," my Waze voice stated.
Lightning flashed as Lili raised the blade. Her red hair oozed out beneath the hood to blend into the cloak. Raindrops slid down her face. She was now less than ten feet away and only getting closer.
"Shit!" I cried. With a trembling hand, I put the car in reverse. The tires scrunched up dirt as I backed out on to Tenney Road in a reckless flourish.
Turning, I saw Lili reach for the passenger side's door handle. Goddamn, she was fast! And even through the darkness, I could see her gaze and feel it pierce straight into my soul.
"Your destination is on the left," my own voice seemed to taunt me.
Right when Lili grabbed the handle, I mashed the gas pedal and sped off into the night. Far from whatever Lili and her dad had in store for me.
I stole one glance at the rearview mirror to see Lili standing there in the middle of the road. The knife was now dangled by her side, her eyes still stuck on me.
"Your destination is on the-," Waze Demian started before I turned off the fucking app. I killed the radio to quash that fucking static. Now all I heard was soothing silence save for the steady raindrops.
Despite the lingering fear, I guided my Corolla all the way back to Americus. I called 911 and told the police everything and they said they'd send a car out to the address, but according to them, no one had lived on Tenney Road for years.
Back home, I staggered back into the kitchen. I was beyond sober and still scared. I grabbed another beer. Maybe getting a buzz would help me overcome the fear.
Thunder erupted outside. Startled, I looked toward the sliding glass doors but saw nothing but the black night. I let out an exasperated breath and took another swig before shifting my gaze to the Echo.
"Alexa, play 'Ninety-Six Tears'," I said.
The Echo light cut on. But instead of ? And The Mysterians's keyboards, I got my own chilling, calm voice:
"Your destination is on the right," Waze Demian stated.
I stumbled back against a wall. I was too frightened to scream.
"Your destination is on the right," Waze Demian repeated, louder this time so that my robotic voice echoed through the house.
I looked at the glass doors just as lightning flashed to form a perfect spotlight for the terrifying sight on our back porch.
Lurking behind the doors were the three robed figures: Lili, her dad, and the third person who I now saw was a middle-aged woman. Thanks to a beam emanating from a cell phone she held with the Waze app on, I could see the woman's entrancing eyes, flowing long hair, and wicked smile. I knew she had to be Lili's mom… Lili certainly took after her.
An agonizing screech sent chills down my spine.
Lili was sliding the curved blade all down the door for a long tease. One she carried out with a beaming grin on her face.
"Your destination is inside," Waze Demian stated.
rhonnie14FanPage

July, 2020.
Ever since my colleagues and I became unwilling test subjects in my psychotic professor’s experiments into awakening the supernatural, we have had multiple people trying to hunt us down. Whether they were renowned scientists desperate for the serum for themselves or random people obsessed with cutting us open and seeing how we ticked, these assholes didn’t care that we were human beings, that we were ex researchers ourselves.
They wanted us dead or alive, in pieces, or splattered across concrete. As long as they got that precious serum dripping from our frontal lobe, they didn’t give a fuck. There were varieties of hunters. Some of them tried to play nice with their own nefarious agenda, while others were completely fucking insane. Like the ones who saw us as a mistake; a curse sent from god to end humanity as we know it.
Yeah. They thought we were the next coming of the Antichrist.
Have you ever been stripped completely naked and forced to bathe in salt water for three days without food and water?
That is when I lost my will to fight.
I still remember the sensation of flames licking at my feet, rope wrapped around my wrists pinning me to a tree. They wanted me to admit I was a monster. That I was a curse from the devil and belonged in hellfire. I’ll spend this post elaborating on what exactly our professor did to us, and the burden forced onto our backs—but I will say it saved us at points. For example, the freaks who tried to cleanse us in salt water (and then burn us under a full moon) got their comeuppance. 2020 is probably a year in your lives which didn’t feel real.
You were locked inside and you probably compared what was happening to a movie. We had a similar problem. But while you were struggling through lockdown, trying to fight a wave spreading globally, we found ourselves with bounty’s on our heads. Because we were no longer human to these bastards, and to them? Anything went. Which was bad news for our professor who had fought to keep his research as private as possible, choosing to show only a select group with shiny money bags for eyes. It turns out, no matter how much you think you’re hiding something, it will always be leaked. And people will find out.
Bad people.
The kinds of people in all of my favorite movies as a kid. You know, the evil trigger-happy British guy obsessed with finding buried treasure? Him. But tenfold. I might have felt special about the multi-billion price-tag on me, but knowing all they wanted me for was to dissect and slice me apart like meat to the slaughter—yeah. I can’t say I was thrilled to have so many people after our little group. 2020 was the year when people stopped being human. Stopped trying to be human. All morality down the drain.
Of these certain groups trying to capture us, there was a specific one which I will always remember. Seth’s gang. I’ll remember them because it was the first time I realised my colleagues and I weren’t human anymore, and maybe the freaks trying to label us as The Devil’s Children were right. There were a lot of people after us, as I said. But Seth and his gang, however, just wanted us for the sake of gloating. After hearing of our professor’s experiments, these guys decided they didn’t want the serum, or the research.
They just wanted us. For what, I still don’t know. They weren’t scientists, or in the medical field. They definitely weren’t at the auction, I would have seen them. I’m pretty sure these were just ordinary guys seeing us as nothing but trophies to parade around. I don’t think they knew the significance of the serum, or the danger of it. They saw something shiny and thought to hell with it. Which, I guess looking back, was why we were always two steps ahead despite having 9mm Glock’s shoved in our faces. The hotel room we were being held in was a step up from the cage I had been trapped inside in the lab for the last several months.
It actually had air-con.
Sitting blindfolded on the edge of a queen sized bed wearing the same clothes which were practically glued to my flesh, the graze of cool air brushing the back of my neck and relieving blistering skin was euphoric. I hadn’t had a proper shower in weeks. Maybe months.
It was the first time in a long while I actually felt human. Even when my wrists were pinned behind my back, a slab of ductape suffocating my mouth and nose. Now, I wasn’t completely sure, but I wondered if there was a duct tape shortage on the island. After being kidnapped and held in multiple places, I had never been gagged with duct tape. It was always filthy clothing fashioned into a makeshift gag, or ties and shoelaces. I will never forget some asshole stuffing a pair of panties in my mouth.
Seth’s gang were the first to actually have duct tape and proper blindfolds. I sensed the front-man’s footsteps as he paced in front of us. Despite being blindfolded, I knew he had a gun tucked into his belt, a dagger strapped to his ankle, and a grenade for emergencies. I wasn’t sure what emergencies would justify blowing up a fancy hotel room. Next to me, Riss was practically vibrating with fury. She knew not to act on her fear, because when we did, bad shit happened.
But Riss was a different breed. She didn’t listen to me when we were human, and definitely didn’t listen to me when we were freakish experiments contorted into something resembling a human. No matter how many times I nudged her with reassurance, she inched away from me like I had the plague. “Project Mildew, huh?” The front-man had one hell of an aussie accent. Without my sight, the rest of my senses were expanding, igniting.
Smell. I could smell the stink of myself, body odour and filth caked into my skin. Taste. There was copper in my throat and coating my teeth and tongue. Every step the man made, I felt it prickling in my bones. I sensed him crouching in front of Kaian, who thankfully didn’t move. I was waiting for him to. If I concentrated, I could feel the air crackling with electricity, the hairs on the back of my neck and arms standing up. Just being shoulder to shoulder with my colleague allowed me to feel exactly what he was feeling.
And like Riss, the guy was dangerously close to blowing a fuse. Kaian wasn’t stupid though. If we did something, he knew the consequences of that something. And none of us wanted that. So, staying quiet and submissive it was.
“Alex Quincy’s diamonds!” The front-man flicked me in the forehead, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to avoid going into sensory overload. He continued in a sing-song voice, his steps becoming playful, like he was dancing. Every so often I sensed his fingers wrapping around his 9mm. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as I initially thought. “Project Mildew.” He repeated. “You looked better on camera.”
Riss scoffed under her gag. I don’t think this asshole understood that on camera we were still human. It’s not like I was planning on going to a fashion show, but the shorts and t-shirt combo I had been wearing for weeks were comfortable.
Another step. Holding my breath, I gripped the ropes entangling my wrists and prayed they were physical enough to be an anchor.
“The testers who became the tested!” He continued. “Ohhh, man. I’ve heard about you. You’re famous here. Professor Quincy’s human lab rats! And successful ones too! You’ve got a lot of eyes on ya, ain’t cha? Too bad we gotcha first. Yeah, that’s right. We got here first.”
The guy laughed, and I felt both Riss and Kaian start to tremble. Fuck. Not now. I had to keep them at bay, even when my methods weren’t exactly stellar. I had to keep them from plunging. The rope around my wrists wasn’t too tight, and I knew I’d be able to get out of it easily. But that would require strength and energy which was for sure a trigger. There were a lot of triggers. Anger and pain. Sometimes even happiness.
It turned out basic human emotions was what this thing thrived off, so to avoid us going nuclear I had to stay stoic. No matter how much I wanted to tear off this asshole’s face, I had to keep myself together. It only took one slip up before things got really fucking brutal, really fucking fast. I wasn’t surprised my colleagues were losing control. Seth was quite the character, almost like a cartoon villain.
“Damn. I’ve been looking for guard dogs, but I think we’ve found something better, aye.” His palmy fingers wandered where they shouldn’t have, grazing over my left breast and delving under my shirt, causing my body to seize up, and then relaxing slightly when he pulled off my blindfold.
Blinking rapidly, I found myself eye-to-eye with the guy who had snatched us from the lab and thrown us into the back of his truck. I only got glimpses of him during our kidnapping, thanks to the ski-mask covering his face. Now I was looking at a man who was maybe in his early thirties with a balding head and a vicious cartoon smile twisted with mania. His eyes glinted when I found myself shuffling back, my gaze flashing to the Glock strapped to his side. Seth pulled off the other’s blindfolds.
“Now, I don’t want any funny business, alright? I watched that conference, and I know what you can do.” He stuck the barrel of his 9mm into my right temple, and next to me, Kaian ducked his head. “I’m watching you sweetheart.” Seth’s smile widened into a sickening grin. “If you start any weird shit, I’ll blow your brains out.”
I did my best to nod, and he ripped the tape off of our mouths too.
“Alright!” Seth straightened up, eyeing us like we were hunks of meat. “Nice to meet cha! I’ll be looking after you guys from now on.”
“Looking after us?” I spoke up, my voice gravelly. “You mean you’ll be cutting into us and selling our brains on the black market.”
Seth laughed like a fucking hyena. “What?” He scratched the back of his head with his gun. “Nah, that’s fucked up. We just want dogs.”
The man’s smile dampened, however, when his gaze settled on Kaian. Gesturing to my colleague with his gun, he scowled. “What’s wrong with him? Did Quincy rip out the guy’s tongue?” Before I could answer, Seth crouched in front of Kaian with narrowed eyes. “You all spoke at the conference,” he murmured. “Sure, your professor forced you, but you introduced yourselves. All of you did, even your fourth."
His smile curled. "All except him."
Fuck.
A shiver ripped its way down my spine when Seth shot out a finger and pointed at my colleague, and my mouth started to dry up.
Kaian was perfectly reading his lips, every word curled under his tongue, his eyes flicking back and forth to drink in each one, and each word brought more heat, brought more goosebumps pricking on my arms and legs. Kaian’s body pressed against mine was overheating.
I could feel the sensation coming over my body, like a wave of pressure. Riss made a squeaking noise, and I concentrated on Seth—who didn’t seem to notice it. I’ve come to realise, whether you are a human, an animal, or a badly fucked up experiment created in a lab, it doesn’t matter what you are capable of. If you initially appear weak and powerless, the stronger will single you out. Seth was enjoying himself so much he didn’t realise the skin in his cheeks start to crack from all the moisture being sucked from the air. Kaian didn’t move or speak, and that seemed to thrill him even more.
“Speak.” Seth snarled, leaning closer until he was inches from my colleagues face.
“Speak!”
“He’s deaf.” I gritted out.
Seth’s eyes darkened. “Deaf, huh? He better be worth it.” Kaian didn’t flinch when the man grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back. He was completely stoic, like a puppet severed from his strings, allowing the asshole to stick his Glock between his eyes. I noticed the air move slightly around us, blurring and then coming together. It was a blink and you’ll miss it moment, and I had spent months being taught how to notice it. “Three and a half million dollars each, hmm?” Seth said in a breath, dragging the butt of his gun down my colleagues face, grazing it across the flesh of his neck. “I don’t remember paying for a fucking mute. You can learn to talk, kid."
Again, Kaian didn’t even acknowledge the man, and that infuriated him even more. “Hey!” Seth grabbed his jaw, forcing Kaian to look at him. “Are you fucking listening to me? Open your mouth. You either speak or you die. Like I said, I didn’t pay half a million each for a mute.”
Riss must have noticed the significant change in the air and temperature. Between the two of us, it was our job to stop Kaian from plunging.
“You didn’t spend shit on us.” She spoke up with a hiss. Riss was already panicked, and that wasn’t good. “You took us from the lab while everyone else was at the auction because you couldn’t afford us. Which makes me wonder how you afforded this fancy five star hotel."
I had to swallow a yell. I wanted her to stall, not give the guy a reason to start going trigger-happy.
Seth’s narrowed eyes found Riss’s. “Your professor and I had an agreement, sweetheart,” he said. "How 'bout I blow your brains out, huh? Since you like speaking out of turn. And I don’t like my doggies speaking out of turn.”
As Seth moved closer to her, I sensed Riss freaking out. It was too early for her to start the plunge, but she was the most unpredictable out of the four of us. Just like when she was human, her emotions were all over the place. Still though, she maintained a scowl and refused to move when Seth was practically eye to eye with her, hot breath grazing her cheeks. The man prodded her in her right temple. “I bet you’re filled to the brim with all that fancy ass Quincy serum." He dragged his filthy finger down her cheek, and she squeaked. “I’m pretty sure I can just crack you open and take it for myself.”
“Then…” Riss swallowed, choking on her words. I nudged her again, this time enough to shake the bed. But she wasn’t looking at me, her eyes starting to lose vacancy. Next to me, I knew the same thing was happening to Kaian.
But I wouldn’t look at him yet. If I did, I would lose it myself. “Then you’ll be losing valuable cargo.” I was surprised when her lips broke out into an equally psychotic grin. I had no doubt the plunge was taking hold of her. She leaned back almost casually, and the air seemed to move around her, seeping into her skin and taking an unyielding hold. "Considering the crazy lengths you took to capture all of us, I doubt you want that. You're all bark with no bite, asshole."
“Riss.” I said through my teeth, at the exact same time as the air-con behind us blew a fuse and crashed to the ground. “Shut up.”
The plunge started slow, but even when it was barely a prickle in the air it was already beginning its slow purging of every particle.
I watched a mosquito that had been in mid-flight towards the fancy looking lamp on the nightstand bleed into invisible folds of energy which were becoming progressively more visible to the naked eye the more my friends plunged. I could see it perfectly. Like the world around us was beginning to splinter apart. Ignoring Riss, who could stand up for herself, Seth’s attention went back to Kaian, who couldn’t. Or at least that was his façade. Kaian had been labelled the most dangerous out of all of Quincy’s experiments. But it wasn’t just because of the plunge.
“I’m talking to you!” Seth prodded my colleague’s chest, and a wave of heat slammed into me, stealing my breath away. I watched, knowing it was all going to be over in matter of seconds. The front-man grabbed my colleague by the collar of his shirt and yanked him violently to his feet. “You’ve got two seconds to speak,” He spat, before slamming the butt of his gun into Kaian’s head. “Speak, or I give you a frontal lobotomy.” Seth continued in seething breaths, and got closer and closer, failing to notice he was already losing. But so were we.
His lips split into a grin. “Speak, or I start asking questions. Like why I bought four of you— and there are three of you.” He poked the metal prongs sticking from Kaian’s head. I liked to call them horns to make them sound cooler. But in reality, they were agonising when I was human—two pieces of metal drilled directly into the top of my skull. They had been a part of me for a while, but I wasn’t going to forget how they had been forcefully inserted into my skull. While I screamed. “Three. Little. Freaks.” Seth’s lips were practically kissing my colleague's temple.
He prodded the metal horns, and Kaian’s lip twitched. “Without their fourth.”
That struck a chord in both of them—and I knew if I didn’t do something, like right then, a fate worse than death awaited all of us.
"Leave him alone.” I found my voice tangled in my throat. But I could barely bring myself to speak. I felt like I was being fucking suffocated by two separate energy’s around me slowly but surely ripping atoms apart. In the corner of my eye, things were starting to melt into the ground, disappearing completely. The carpet in the room was suddenly singed black, and the wave continued, slicing off the tips of my hair I had only just managed to grow back. “He can’t hear you, asshole.” I said through lingering breaths. “Professor Quincy said he was deaf.”
"Deaf?” Seth let out a belly laugh. “He's my new guard dog and he's expected to fucking bark.” His lip curled,” Now. Speak.”
A second went by.
Then another.
Absent-mindedly, I licked the taste of rusty coins from the corner of my lip.
“I said speak!” Seth slammed the butt of his gun into my colleagues face again, but this time his words broke apart in his throat. I sensed every individual letter shattering into pieces when his body was flung back by an invisible force. I knew that invisible force. I knew the phantom fingers wrapping around his throat and slamming the man into the wall until he was screaming, begging, his feet hovering several feet from the ground. Kaian didn’t even have to pull apart his restraints.
Riss was already screaming, turning to my colleague. Her hands were free, and she was signing desperately. Don’t. Her eyes were wide, lips twisted. Because she knew exactly what would follow. Seth, somehow, managed a spluttered laugh between broken teeth like tiny yellow chicklets sticking from his mouth. “Oh, you don’t like that do you?” More brilliant red spurted like a fountain, and yet the asshole kept laughing. “Look at you! Quincy didn’t hold back on you did he?”
I’m not saying my colleague enjoyed crushing Seth’s windpipe without even lifting a finger—but that is exactly what I am saying.
With a simple incline of Kaian’s head, the front-man was rupturing from the inside, choking on organs erupting into his throat.
And like it thrilled him, the idea of death, the idea of dying at the hands of a supernatural force, Seth continued to roar with laughter.
My colleague was pressing pressure points which shouldn’t be pressed. Especially pressure points in a genetically fucked up man whose trauma had turned him into the wildcard of our group. The amount of shit we had all gone through inside Quincy’s lab was enough to send us into insanity. Except my colleague, according to Quincy, hadn’t responded correctly at the beginning. And being a researcher myself with rabbits before I became a lab rat, I knew the only way to get results was to cause pain.
I never initiated that pain in the rabbits, but I was an enabler. I watched my professor torture these subjects to make sure they were prepped and ready for the serum. Maybe our karma was that the exact same happened to us. But to Kaian, it was on a much larger scale. I was never briefed on what exactly happened to him during the months from March to June. Though it was obvious he had had it the worst. I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand why his brain was different, or maybe he was more resilient. He had been better at fighting it.
Kaian hated two things. Being kidnapped and said kidnappers mentioning our fourth member. And it was those things which made him plunge. Which made him lose all sense of humanity and morality and emotion, essentially turning him into a mindless beast. That was one half of the plunge. “Do you want me to say his name?” Seth coughed up spattered scarlet, and I could already see what was happening to him. Kaian had done enough damage externally. Internally, however? That was another story.
Internally, I sensed every organ starting to peel apart and splinter, bursting into nothing. It started with pressure on his heart which was slow and dragged so he felt everything. Then the brain began to expand. When blood ran in sharp rivulets from every orifice, and Seth screamed, howling like an animal, I looked away, just in time for the rest of the man’s body to pop like a balloon, and a chunk of his skull to land right in front of me. Riss started screaming, and I was half aware of a slight taint of warm blood like paint splattering the side of my face.
When I twisted back to look at him, his body was still hovering without a head, a skeletal hand lifting and waving at us.
Riss dropped to her knees, her head in her hands, trembling, and I followed her, trying to get some semblance of control.
“It’s been a week.” Riss whispered, sobbing, swiping at her eyes with bloody hands, making them worse. “Oh god, what if… what if I was right? What if we’re too late? I knew this was… this was a bad idea. But nobody listens to Riss. I knew he wouldn’t come. Fuck. I knew it.”
“Calm down.” I said. “Concentrate on happy birthday, okay? Do you want me to sing it with you?”
Riss spluttered. “We’re going to dieeee,” she sang. “Can you feel it? I’m plunging, Wren. God, it feels so fucking good.”
She knocked her head into the wall with crazy eyes.
It took exactly half a second for our brains to decide whether we were going to fight it or give in to it.
“Hey. Riss.” I spoke in reassuring hisses, grasping her shoulders and forcing her to look at me. “Happy birthday.” I choked out. “Three times. It has to be three times.” When she didn’t respond, I shook her until her cloudy found mine. Riss was plunging. Like Kaian. The blood vessels in her eyes had popped, her lips cracking apart. If I concentrated, I could see her bare knees starting to melt into air, wisps of her hair starting to disintegrate. “Do it, now!”
I shrieked when Kaian finally let go of the man’s body, and it hit the ground in front of us like a bad joke. “Happy birthday.” I said the mantra over and over again, shaking my colleague until she was responding. “Three times, Riss. Right now.” When she shook her head, screeching, I grabbed her hands and entangled her fingers with mine. “I’ll start, okay? And you follow me.”
To my surprise, Riss nodded—and for the fraction of a second, my colleague, or what was left of her, stopped bleeding into visible particles which were now around us, like a glistening wave of ocean water enveloping us. “Happy birthday to you…” I whispered, squeezing her hands tighter, relieved when she repeated the verse. When I was sure Riss was anchoring herself, I turned to Kaian who was sitting cross legged in front of the mutilated body.
My gaze went to the door. It would only be matter of time before Seth’s goons figured out something was wrong, and the last thing I wanted was them to walk in mid-plunge. “Happy birthday to…” I continued, allowing Riss to fill in a name—before focusing on my other colleague. I’m not exaggerating when I say Kaian was covered head to toe in blood, like it was his canvas, like he belonged in it. It was too late for him. I could already see that in his vacant and foggy eyes and playful smile that he had accepted the plunge.
Willingly.
“Gross.” Kaian signed, pulling a face. He turned his nose up at mutilated flesh and bone, and I had a hard time looking him in the eye.
I exhaled out a breath.
“Kaian.” I spoke and signed calmly, but my skin was prickling and scalding. I could feel the flesh on the backs of my hands peeling off. “Happy birthday.” I made sure to emphasize every word clearly, even when I knew he could read every word from my mouth without even trying.
He started to shake his head, and I glimpsed that panic, the trauma of the last several months starting to bloom behind his eyes.
“No, you have to do it.” I hissed out. “Look around you.” I signed. “If you don’t do it, we’re going to plunge.”
I was practically slamming my hands together with frustration, but he shook his head, his gaze going elsewhere.
“What if I…” He paused signing, his lip curling, “Like it?”
Do you know when you know something is wrong but you keep shoving it to the back of your head until you can’t ignore it anymore?
Yeah, this was one of those moments.
I loved Kaian. I loved him like a brother. But there was something about his face, the way he delved his fingers into startling red pooling on the carpet, that made me want to get as far away from him as possible. Swallowing hard, I shook away the thought and grabbed hold of his hand.
Once I did, the air around us wavered, and flesh on his cheeks started to flake. “Happy birthday…” Riss, who was sitting with what was left of her knees pressed to her chest, choked out a sob, “This isn’t working… Wren. This isn’t fucking working. I can’t.. I can’t fucking do this.” When she beat the floor with crumbling fists, the whole room jolted. The ground beneath us shook, and Kaian shot me a panicked look. Even plunging, he was still scared.
And I didn’t blame him.
After telling Riss to continue, I managed a smile and signed, “Earthquake.”
My colleague’s lips split into an unusual grin, and he mouthed the words, “Yeah right.”
With steely eyes, Kaian’s smile faded and for once he actually looked serious. “Jem.” He signed. “I don’t think he’s coming for us.”
Ignoring a conversation I really didn’t want to have, I focused on the body. “Check his pockets,” I signed back. “We don’t have much time.”
I pulled out a passport, some Indonesian currency, and an old plane ticket.
Checking his phone didn’t help. I was just reminded the boarders were still shut, and this asshole had a whole group chat gloating about his so-called guard dogs.
“Wren!”
When I lifted my head, Riss’s wild eyes were flickering around the room, drinking in parts of reality being sucked away.
Her mouth became lopsided, lips drooping like my colleague was having a stroke from the pressure building around her.
See, I describe this in a lot of detail like this lasted around five to minutes long. But no, all of this happened in the space of around two minutes. When footsteps sounded outside, and Kaian’s head snapped to the door, his eyes darkening, a sour paste crept up my throat.
Professor Quincy didn’t just take away our humanity. He twisted us into something resembling an animal inside a human body.
We spoke and acted and felt like humans. But once a stranger was nearby, or footsteps on territory we had unknowingly snatched as our own, we turned feral. I already knew Kaian was a whole new level of unpredictable and unhinged after what the experiments had done to his brain—but seeing what he was capable of even before the plunge, I froze.
The world was coming apart around me and I was plunging, but I couldn’t move. I watched him get to his feet, his fingers curling into fists at his sides. The footsteps were closing in on us getting louder and louder, and Kaian could sense every vibration. I could tell with the way his lips twitched, a whole new darkness clouding his eyes and stripping away what was left of his humanity. I had seconds.
There was no use in happy birthday
I remember jumping to my feet and diving on my colleagues back, bringing him to the floor like a lion would a deer. When the two of us hit the ground, I watched Riss rupture in front of me, her face glitching, becoming moving static, before her body followed. “Seth?” The voice caused Kaian to attempt to wrench out of my grasp, but I had a firm hold of him. The first three weeks of being inhuman, I was taught how to kill people. Kill my fellow subjects.
Apologising profusely into hair which smelled of blood and dirt and Quincy’s lab, I struggled to keep myself from plunging, knowing the room was already half gone, and I was going to get caught in it anyway. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I’ll make it up to you, okay? You should have sang happy fucking birthday, but you are so goddamn stubborn,” I sobbed with what I hoped was reassurance. I knew he and Riss and Jem would do exactly the same to me.
“So fucking stubborn.” I couldn’t help myself, nestling my face into his hair and heaving in breaths while my skin started to peel away.
“Just take a deep breath and close your eyes, okay?” I whispered into his flushed skin. “We’ll find him, Kaian. I promise you.”
He stopped struggling, and for a moment I thought my colleague was actually listening to me before the ceiling began to crack apart.
The ground rumbled again, and I lost my grip on the guy before forcing him onto his back and straddling his legs. Just when his free arm was flying out with intention to send me crashing into the back wall and ending all reality in that room, encompassing us, I snapped Kaian’s neck.
And with the last of my energy, I fucking screamed while my own flesh melted from my face while the plunge enveloped us both.
…
…
…
March 2020.
It was on the 17th day of captivity inside a cell made of glass panes meant to keep in rabbits, when I met an unlikely visitor. There comes a time when giving up is better than screaming until you have lost all of the breath in your lungs, and your throat feels like sandpaper. I hadn’t eaten in days, and what was left of my meals, curry and mash potatoes, painted my cell walls—a real work of art if I concentrated and imagined carving shapes inside congealing potato and day-old curry.
So far, I had tests. I had tests which were an invasion of privacy which I will not expand upon. I had tests where my professor’s gloved fingers ran over my scalp and marked places where he was going to insert the same headset on the rabbits. He didn’t listen to my cries.
He didn’t tell me where my colleagues were. I was nothing to him. I was a subject stripped of my rights. So, I was doing the little I could to protest. Even if it was small, I was refusing to eat. I knew subjects had to eat to stay healthy—to get results. The piece of shit wasn’t going to get much further if I died of starvation after days of no eating. How sad. I was on my second day of refusing to eat, and my gut felt like it was folding in on itself. To combat this, I sat against clinical white walls with my knees pressed to my chest, and my head buried in my lap. I ignored the rumbling of my stomach and my aching joints, the weird squiggly lines in my vision when I bothered lifting my head.
It’s weird. In that cage, I was the coldest I’ve ever felt on an Indonesian island. I didn’t remember the temperature affecting the outcome of the rabbit subjects, but maybe it was different for humans. Still though, I had my solace. I imagined standing in glittering water, bioluminescent plankton washing over my bare toes. I imagined the full moon bathing the sky in warm light, and it was enough to make me feel safe— even so far from home. Far from normality. If I squeezed my eyes shut, and envisioned wading deeper into the shallows, until the water was lapping my thighs, I could calm myself and tell myself to breathe.
Then the water was at my waist, the panic subsiding. Neck deep, ice cold water filling my mouth and suffocating my nose. But if I thought past it, if I plunged myself into the deep, I could trick my brain into imagining that I was escaping, swimming across the wide expanse of ocean. All the way back home to my family.
I was brought out of my imagination when a scratching noise pulled me back to my senses, and I was back inside my cage.
Lifting my head, I searched for someone. But there was nobody there.
“Over here, genius.”
The voice startled me. It wasn’t quite a voice, more of an attempt. Though I could definitely make out the language bursting out. When my eyes swivelled, I found myself staring at a blur of white. I squinted.
No, not just a blur of white. It was Subject Fifteen. The rabbit which had stolen Jem’s heart, and possibly taken control of his mind.
For a moment I tried to blink myself awake, but no matter how many times I pinched myself, the rabbit was still there, pressing its tiny face against glass, and I can see blood staining its fur. Initially, I thought he was a hallucination until I blinked, and he was still very much there.
He was part of reality, lightly smushing its bloody mouth against glass panes. The sight of dark red tainting its fur twisted my gut, and I had a thought which suddenly wouldn’t leave me alone. If the serum did that to the rabbits, what exactly would it do to us? “Well.” Fifteen’s beady eyes found mine, and I swore its rabbit mouth twisted into a grin. It's voice mimicked both me and my colleagues, the perfect imitation of us. I could hear all of us, even the professor, in every curl of its words.
It wasn’t just intelligent, it was something else—something fucking monstrous. Which should have been put down.
No. It never should have been a subject at all.
I slowly crawled towards it and held my breath. I must have looked pretty fucking funny to Fifteen. I was the tester who had become the tested. The one who wore the lab-coat, to the rat forced into light blue scrub like clothes sticking to me. I can’t say I wasn’t curious, though. Baffled.
I was inches from a fucking talking rabbit, and the last time I checked rabbits weren't supposed to talk. Their mouths haven't evolved to form words. But somehow it was figuring out speech. Fifteen was learning fast. That terrified me. After several attempts at speech, it had almost fully mimicked a human’s expression. It cocked its head, and in Jem’s voice, asked,
“Well? How does it feel to be the one in the cage?"
“You’re not real.” I told the rabbit which sounded like Jem.
To my shock, it laughed, and its bloody mouth almost formed a snarl. “Are you sure about that?”
I crawled over to the screen, pressing my hands against glass. “How does…” I licked my lips. “How does what feel?”
The rabbit’s eyes followed me and I shuffled back, a sour paste creeping its way up my throat. “You were always my least favorite,” it murmured. Its nose twitched. “I think you humans call it karma—- and whether you believe in it or not, every action must have an equal reaction.” It moved closer, pressing its face against the glass. I noticed the fur around it’s mouth was stained red. “You drilled into my head, Wren. You hurt me day after day and hid behind a sense of morality that you were a good person because it was for the good of the human race.” Fifteen edged closer. “I wish I could feel sorry for you. I wish I could feel the sympathy you humans use as a pathetic fucking barrier. But aren’t you just… the cutest?”
The thing was mimicking my own words from the start of the experiments. I had pressed my face against the plastic cage, peering at Subject Fifteen, who was hiding in the corner. Quincy told me to turn off my humanity, but that didn’t stop me as seeing them as cute little fury bunnies. It never crossed my mind that Fifteen could hear exactly what we had been saying.
I thought back to a few months back when I had picked it up from its cage and nuzzled its fur. “Aww! Isn’t he just the cutest?”
Fifteen knew the exact moment I gave up, my hands slipping from the glass. It gestured to the band aid uncomfortably sticking to my scalp.
“Nice horns.”
“You have intelligence.” I whispered through a sob. I leaned closer. “Quincy. You need to tell me what he’s doing to the others.”
“You already know what he’s planning to do, Wren.” The rabbit chuckled, lifting a paw in a mocking wave. “Why are you asking me, hmm? What if I am in fact an illusion? You’re not eating. Your mind has been played with. Are you sure you are really speaking to a talking rabbit?”
It cocked its head. “How do you know I’m not Jem?”
“Or Riss.” It’s voice twisted into hers, and then the professor’s.
“I’m losing my mind.” I whispered, pinching the flesh on my bare thighs. “I’m losing my fucking mind.”
“Maybe.” It said, “or you’re witnessing the consequences of your actions. You did this to me if you remember. I told you to stop hurting me, but you didn’t hear me, Wren. You never heard me. Only him. And when I was strong enough, I made him force you to finally listen to me.”
Jem, I thought hysterically.
“You little—“ I slammed my hands into the glass, unable to resist a snarl when it turned to hop away. “Hey! Wait! What did you do to Jem?”
“I didn’t do anything,” the rabbit responded in a scoff. “Your professor, however… have you ever heard of teleportation?”
I stared at it blinking rapidly, until it laughed. “No, not that kind! I mean the new kind. I’m talking about what Quincy is trying to perfect.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it.” The rabbit’s nose twitched, “What you have been working on and researching—what if it was possible in humans?”
I shook my head. There was no way. If professor Quincy wanted to test on us, it would likely be psychokinesis which was possible in rabbits.
“That’s impossible.” I managed to grit out. “With rabbits it’s one thing, and it’s barely even stable! With humans… it’s...”
It’s barbaric.
The rabbits which went through that procedure and survived… their brains were drastically altered. They were never the same.
That’s what I wanted to say.
I trailed off at the thought of forcing a living and breathing human to shatter apart into atoms and forcefully moved from one place to another. I remembered Subject 12. The tiny little thing coming apart slowly, piece by piece, a mixture of fur, blood and bones filling its cage.
No way.
There was no way my psycho professor would attempt it in humans.
The rabbit hopped away. “Huh. Well, you’re dumber than I thought. I guess I’ll be going if you’re just going to look at me like that.”
When I thought it was going to leave me, the furry little shit twisted its head. “Do you want to know a secret?”
It hopped right over to the glass. “Come closer, and I’ll tell you. I want you to get really close so I can see how adorable you are.”
Too desperate to feel humiliated, I swallowed a shriek and pressed my ear to the glass.
“Jem was the first.” The rabbit started to say but was cut off by the speaker above me crackling, a familiar voice slicing into my ears.
“Good morning. I will be with you shortly. I would like you to raise your hands above your head. I will be administering a gas.”
At the corner of my eye, Fifteen was disappearing behind the corner, and I let out a frustrated hiss. “Professor Quincy.” I managed to force my voice into professional, despite the rabbits voice in my mind. Jem was the first to what? I hadn’t seen either of my colleagues in weeks— or heard from them. I swallowed hard. “Professor Quincy, Subject Fifteen is on the premises and is showing signs of heightened intelligence!”
The rabbit tskked. “And to think I was going to help you. Good luck with the experiments. I will have a front row seat.”
Before it left me in puddling static however, the rabbit didn’t hesitate to drop a bombshell which sent me crumpling to my knees.
“Oh, yeah! I forgot to say.” Subject Fifteen’s words slammed into me as I was choked once again with gas filling my mouth and nose.
“Jem was the first to die.” It said in a sing-song symphony of all of our voices, “And you don’t even know the best part!”

The gameplay showcase last year gave us a pretty good look at the skills in the game and how they'd be doled out, but it happens very fast, and it isn't explained thoroughly. Since then, various folks have pieced together and picked at the presentation sufficiently to construct a more in-depth look at the skill system, but that's generally been done in comment threads so I figure a post-level overview might be useful... especially to newcomers trickling in now that we're closer to release. One thing to keep in mind: this post is primarily based on a year-old build of the game, so things may have changed significantly in the meantime.

1. The Basics

The core of the skill system is gaining skill points by leveling up your character, which you do by collecting good ol' fashioned experience points. These are earned in Fallout style from activities like killing things and discovering new locations, likely among others. In addition to three skills granted by your character's starting background, skills can be unlocked by spending a single skill point. To unlock a skill, however, you need access to that branch of the skill tree.
The skill tree is divided into five categories, each of which is subdivided into four descending branches or levels. The uppermost level of each category is unlocked from the beginning, and it's from these branches that the background starting skills are drawn. Each descending branch requires a certain investment of skill points in the branches above to unlock it before you're allowed to spend points on those skills, although we don't yet know exactly how many points are required, or if the points need to be in the adjacent level or not. (Example skill tree)
Skill points can also be spent to increase the level of an already unlocked skill, but before you can do that you are required to complete a challenge particular to that level of that skill. This brings an Elder Scrolls-like element of "get good at something by doing the thing" to the game, without tracking lots of different XP bars. Each skill looks like it can be leveled up three times after it's unlocked, granting a stacking bonus each time; the bonus isn't necessarily the same type or magnitude at each level.
Counting them up, it looks like there will be somewhere between 70 and 80 individual skills in the game. Past this point, I'll be getting into more speculative territory as I cover each category of the skill tree in depth, with as much info as we have on each individual skill. Any text in italics is highly speculative, and largely drawn from my own fevered imaginings.

2. Physical Skills

The Physical category includes only two skills we know about for sure, seven whose existence we can only infer, five unnamed icons, and three partial icons.

• A spooky ghost. A starter skill. Possibly a stealth skill. We know the game will have sneaking and pickpocketing, so it would make sense to have a stealth skill available as a starter.
  
• "Weight Lifting - Increase total carrying capacity by 10 kilograms." A starter skill. Self explanatory.
  
• "Wellness - Immediately gain 30 points of health." A starter skill. "Immediately" is an odd adjective to use in a skill descriptor.
  
• A sweeping, dodging motion. Possibly a martial arts skill, or maybe related to throwing weapons.
  
• Some food balanced on a sort of pyramid. Probably related to nutrition, and how effective food-related bonuses are for you.
  
• Something like a cybernetic migraine. There isn't enough info on the game's cybernetics ("Neuroamps") to be sure of anything, but it's interesting that this skill is here instead of the Tech category.
  
• A spiritual symbol related to the chakras. My best guess is that this skill might help you resist negative mental effects from various sources, but that's a pure guess.
  
• SNAKEPUNCH. If it's not related to martial arts, they've got some real mixed messages going on here.
  
• Some not-quite-concentric circles and a jagged shape. My guess is a lightning bolt and a snail, so maybe a speed related skill.
  
• The last Physical skill; it looks like a cross between a lotus and a phoenix. Both are symbols of resurrection, which leads me to believe this is a "last stand" skill that triggers on or near death.
  

3. Social Skills

The entire Social category is visible, which gives us sixteen skills to work with. Four of these skills are also visible in character backgrounds, so we have even more detail.

• "Bargaining - Buy items for 5% less and sell for 10% more." A starter skill. Self explanatory.
  
• "Diplomacy - You can force a target NPC at or below your level to stop fighting for a while." A starter skill. The same skill effect appears in Fallout 4 in a couple contexts. Remember, leveling up this skill will grant totally different bonuses.
  
• "Gastronomy - You can craft specialty food and drinks, and research additional recipes at a Research Lab." A starter skill. It seems likely that several other skills might include a Research component, unlocking other crafting recipes.
  
• "Persuasion - Gain an increased chance of success on speech challenges." A starter skill. Even having seen a speech challenge in the first Constellation Questions video, I don't feel confident speculating on what, exactly, this skill does.
  
• A chest full of coins and bullets. Considering how Fallout and Skyrim handled things, this could be either a skill that improves quest rewards, or more likely one that improves scavenged loot generally.
  
• A credit chip, or cab-hailing device. In the Q&A video referenced earlier, it's mentioned that the game previously had a system for calling for help when you ran out of fuel, that has since been removed. This may be related to that system.
  
• An angry gorilla. Most likely, it's a bonus to intimidation-based options in speech challenges.
  
• A coin changing hands. Since we already have a trade skill, this might be bribery related.
  
• A scraggly hand snagging a gem. This looks pretty definitively like a pickpocketing icon.
  
• A very... abstract image of some people and a match. Maybe related to "matchmaking," or the relationship system.
  
• A lone spaceman. My only guess: this is a "Lone Wanderer" playstyle skill that gives bonuses when you're alone, but the Introvert trait already exists.
  
• A two-spaceman team. The exact opposite of the previous, I'm guessing this gives bonuses for teaming up... but again, the Extrovert trait is already a thing.
  
• A habitat dome. Most likely, this is tied to the social aspects of the outpost system.
  
• Puppeteering. While it would be great to actually be able to use puppets, I suspect this relates to controlling enemies or micromanaging your hirelings.
  
• A weird gas pump, or steering yoke. This probably has something to do with managing your ship, or possibly with robots. Not much to go on.
  
• I have no idea. This one looks like some kind of psychic connection to an alien bug-beast.
  

4. Combat Skills

The Combat category is the one we have the most information about; seventeen skills, many with full names and effects, are revealed in the trailer. They're also the least interesting, largely consisting of percentage bonuses to damage with specific weapon categories.

• "Ballistics," a starter skill, is the one we know the most about; we see every bonus the skill can grant, and the challenge that unlocks the final rank (250 kills with ballistic weapons).
  
• "Dueling - Melee weapons do 10% more damage." A starter skill. Self explanatory.
  
• "Lasers - Laser weapons do 10% more damage." A starter skill. A broad category like Ballistics.
  
• "Pistol Certification - Pistols do 10% more damage." A starter skill. Self explanatory.
  
• A break-action shotgun. A starter skill. Most likely a shotgun damage bonus.
  
• "Demolitions." The rank 3 challenge is to "Kill 125 enemies with explosives," which grants "Explosives do 30% more damage and have a 30% larger radius." We might infer that ranks 2 and 1 do the same, but at 20% and 10% respectively, if we use Ballistics as a template.
  
• "Heavy Weapons Certification." The rank 4 challenge is to "Kill 250 enemies with a heavy weapon," which grants "Gain 30 Damage Resistance while aiming down the sights with a heavy weapon."
  
• Highly ambiguous, it looks like some stars and a comet. This could be just about anything.
  
• A Kalashnikov. Most likely the automatic weapons or assault rifles skill.
  
• "Marksmanship." This may be a general ranged weapons skill, or a skill specifically for bows.
  
• "Particle Beams." Like the Lasers and Ballistics skills, this probably covers a range of weapons; being on a later branch, these must be more rare and advanced.
  
• "Rapid Reloading." The rank 4 challenge is to "Reload 150 empty magazines," woe betide anyone who reloads before they're empty habitually. The rank 4 unlock bonus is "Gain a chance to reload your weapon twice as fast as normal."
  
• "Sniper Certification - Scoped weapons are steadier and have less sway." Self explanatory. Odd that there aren't any numbers for those stats.
  
• "Targeting." The rank 3 challenge is to "Kill 125 enemies without aiming," down the sights, presumably. The rank 3 unlock is "Greatly increased accuracy and range when shooting without aiming."
  
• Some pierced body armor. An armor-piercing skill, probably.
  
• A knee joint. Either a limb damage skill, or a crippling ability.
  
• A simple crosshair. Frequently, games use this symbol when talking about critical hits.
  

5. Science Skills

The Science category is a bit sparse, with only three starting skills; seven visible skills, three partial ones, and five inferred skills make fifteen total.

• A sciency symbol combining an atomic model and planetary orbits. A starter skill. Most likely, a basic research enhancer.
  
• Half of what looks like an alien abducting a crystal. A starter skill. Possibly related to gathering or scanning for mineral resources.
  
• "Medicine - Med Packs heal 10% more." A starter skill. We know what this game's Stimpak equivalent will be called, then.
  
• An alien bouquet beneath a moon. Likely related to botany; we see plants being scanned in the Kreet segment of the showcase.
  
• A flag on an alien landscape, and a spaceman. The flag seems like it might be related to the outpost system, or exploration generally. Not much to work with.
  
• Some paperwork with a chart. Maybe related to the resource cost of running outposts... or taxes.
  
• A barcode scanner. This looks a lot like an object seen on a research bench elsewhere; probably the scanning tool. My guess: it increases scanning range.
  
• Pharmaceuticals. Either enhances the effects of, or allows you to research various drugs.
  
• Stereotypical sci-fi reactor icon. A space spark plug. Maybe increases ship reactor power.
  
• Another world with a flag on it, more stylized. The similarity to the earlier image makes this even more mysterious.
  

6. Tech Skills

The Tech category isn't visible in the footage we have, but the name appears in the interface and a couple skills are visible.

• "Security - You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and 2 auto attempts can be banked." A starter skill. It seems like there are no longer separate hacking and lockpicking activities.
  
• "Robotics - You deal 10% more damage to Robots and Turrets." A starter skill. Two enemy types we've seen in Fallout return.
  
• "Starship Design." During the ship customization sequence, various parts appear to require different levels of this skill to install.
  

... And that's it! Feel free to challenge any of my speculations.

Just to make sure I provide the essential details, starting with the setup.
Velocity proxy, Paper lobby, two Paper subservers, one modded Fabric subserver. The plugin stack is largely irrelevant other than the modded Fabric server as you'll see.
Any client (vanilla, fabric with only client mods, heavily modded fabric, etc) can connect to lobby through Velocity no problem. Any of them can portal to either of the Paper subservers no problem. They can also issue /lobby and return, also with no problem.
Obviously only an appropriately modded Fabric client can portal to the modded Fabric server. This is fully expected and fine.
The problem is that when connecting perfectly through the Paper lobby to the modded Fabric subserver with the modded Fabric client, everything is forwarded as it should be and everything just works. Until you try to /lobby. Then, some behavior of tagging that is outside my understanding boots you from the lobby, forcing you to reconnect if you want to move to a different server.
This is the error in the lobby server logs (there are no errors in Velocity):

[03:13:40 ERROR]: Couldn't register custom payload java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot register channel 'mythicmounts:request_server_taming_items'. Too many channels registered! at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkState(Preconditions.java:590) ~[guava-31.1-jre.jar:?] at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_19_R3.entity.CraftPlayer.addChannel(CraftPlayer.java:2193) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.server.network.ServerGamePacketListenerImpl.handleCustomPayload(ServerGamePacketListenerImpl.java:3534) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.network.protocol.game.ServerboundCustomPayloadPacket.handle(ServerboundCustomPayloadPacket.java:37) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.network.protocol.game.ServerboundCustomPayloadPacket.handle(ServerboundCustomPayloadPacket.java:15) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.network.protocol.PacketUtils.lambda$ensureRunningOnSameThread$0(PacketUtils.java:51) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.server.TickTask.run(TickTask.java:18) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.doRunTask(BlockableEventLoop.java:153) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.util.thread.ReentrantBlockableEventLoop.doRunTask(ReentrantBlockableEventLoop.java:24) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.doRunTask(MinecraftServer.java:1341) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.d(MinecraftServer.java:197) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.pollTask(BlockableEventLoop.java:126) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.pollTaskInternal(MinecraftServer.java:1318) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.pollTask(MinecraftServer.java:1311) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.managedBlock(BlockableEventLoop.java:136) ~[?:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.waitUntilNextTick(MinecraftServer.java:1289) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.runServer(MinecraftServer.java:1177) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.lambda$spin$0(MinecraftServer.java:319) ~[paper-1.19.4.jar:git-Paper-468] at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) ~[?:?] [03:13:40 INFO]: THEPLAYER lost connection: Invalid payload REGISTER! 

It is safe to ignore the mythicmounts: error, because it seems to change which mod throws the error when trying to return to the lobby. Sometimes it's bumblezone:, or any other number of Fabric mods that result in exactly the same error in the end, which is being kicked from the Lobby with the message Invalid payload REGISTER!
Is there some magic that can be used through Velocity that when issuing a proxy command (/lobby is just an alias to /server lobby), it can strip any 'channels' active on your character before dropping you in the Paper lobby, as if you were negotiating a completely fresh connection?
Or some other solution.
I did put forth a very weak effort to move to a Fabric lobby instead, but Fabric lacks the ecosystem of plugins that work exceptionally well for lobby servers and it seems like something that probably has a more elegant solution with which I'm just unfamiliar. I'd rather stick to the Velocity / Paper setup for the proxy frontend.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1149460/view/3718323737483112361
Icarus Week Sixty Eight Update Performance Improvements across the board
Improvements in the UI and Animal AI feature in our across-the-board performance improvements.
Week Sixty-Eight’s update is here, and with it comes a batch of performance improvements that have been championed by our dedicated performance team, and tested by our community.
Improvements to Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance are the core focuses, and you can read more detail about what these changes mean for performance, and how we went about identifying and improving them, below.
Jump in and have a read.
Performance Improvements
As mentioned last week, our dedicated performance team has been busy looking for areas in Icarus where we can find optimizations. If you want to read in detail about the 6 areas of focus for our team, you can do so here in our Week 59 update. To summarise, these are Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection.
This week's fixes fall under Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance.

• Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’. This should improve performance with animals moving around, as it limits how many events can happen when an animal moves around an area of the map
• Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
• Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn. This was a small bug which duplicated the process and caused a small hitch when animals spawned
• Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
• Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having its own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (on average about 5 seconds faster). This had an effect when moving from the character select > HAB > Prospect
• Fixed a use case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
• Improved performance of ‘talent requirement checks’ by avoiding data lookups where possible
• Fixed settings from auto-saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
• Fixed the settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
• Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
• Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change. This speeds up the host working out which stats need to be sent to clients when stats change
• Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
• Removed all Critical Hit logic from the stats system. Critical Hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilize on Throwing Knife crit
• Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
• Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players' stat container updates
• Removed expensive gathering function from the atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
• Changed dropship parts to no longer tick and no longer animate while not rendered
• Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
• Objects that can be sat on no longer tick when they aren't in use
• Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions. Audio systems being moved to the physics tick is due to them being a good candidate as they don’t influence object positions and therefore can be done separately
• Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
• Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
• Optimized some calls to the firearm controller in the players animation bp
• Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers. This was an obsolete update cost that impacted performance due to servers not rendering cosmetic meshes
• Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits by improving the time required to access categories in the data tables.

Part of this week's optimization patch has been focused on reducing the performance costs of animals in the world. The cost on the CPU of animals can be broken down into three categories: processing their AI, moving them/updating their collisions, and updating their animations. In particular, we’ve focused on improving the performance related to animal movement.
When an animal moves, it continues along a path that the AI has already picked out and updates its collision along the way, which requires it to update its physics and this causes further physics checks to be performed. Animals not only have a skeleton and a collision that is updated but also some additional colliders which are used for overlap checks in various different cases during gameplay.
In assessing the additional colliders it was determined that many of the events they where setup to trigger overlap events which where being handled elsewhere or had been removed. Due to this we were able to disable many of the channels that these colliders where responding to and in some cases removing them all togethers, drastically reducing the number of update triggers.
A single overlap has limited impact on the CPU, but this would trigger a ripple of other physics updates such as animal animation, sending the position of the animal to the server and then relaying this information to the local PC, and this could happen for every animal active at that time. When you consider ten animals, each with colliders triggering overlap events, updating three times per frame, you can see how this cost would become noticeable to performance. Though these events are generally quick to handle, any reduction in the amount of calls reduces the load on your computer.
Our change ‘Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’ directly addresses this issue, removing obsolete overlap events and limiting the number of events occurring simultaneously.
We hope this explanation gives you some insight into the details of our ongoing performance optimization!
Galileo Progress
This weeks progress on Galileo has been focused on our bestiary rewards, connecting progress to the rewards so they are correctly granted to players.
We also spent time working on the various UI elements related with these milestones, and the system is making Steady Progress towards a viable test product.
We have also added 5 other different ways to gather information about creatures, so there is variation in the available milestones rather than just pure ‘hunting’ totals.
Changelog v1.2.43.108956
Optimisation

• Reworked creature spawning to be spread over multiple frames. This should reduce hitches when new animals spawn in
• Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be non-physical. This should improve performance with animals moving around
• Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
• Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn
• Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
• Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having their own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (about 5 seconds faster)
• Fixed case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
• Improved performance of talent requirement check by avoiding data lookups where possible
• Fixed settings from auto saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
• Fixed settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
• Prevented multiple refreshes from happening in one frame in the cheat overlay
• Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
• Moved map manager saving of map state to code. Merged map manager save data gathering functions to prevent additional iterations of the map tiles
• Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change
• Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
• Removed all Critical Hit logic from stats system. Critical Hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilise on Throwing Knife crit
• Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
• Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players stat container updates
• Removed expensive gathering function from atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
• Changed dropship parts to no longer tick, and they no longer animate while not rendered as it was still happening in the background
• Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
• Objects that can be sit on no longer tick when they aren't in use
• Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions
• Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
• Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
• Optimised some calls to the firearm controller in the players anim bp
• Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers
• Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits
• Added missing D_StatAfflictions from previous commit
• Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips not showing alteration packs correctly
• Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips adding a copy of the set bonuses text each time the tooltip is hovered

Fixed

• Updates and improvements to distancing for the transport pod. Removing old profilers
• Update Maximum Loops to prevent PIE crash in new missions.
• REMNANT: Added failsafe tracking of radar scan locations (will now additionally be marked as complete if there is a scan in the area at any time, note this may not fix missions in-progress)
• Fix enzyme geyser audio, which was broken due to a change to OverlapAudioComponent which resulted in non-unique component names in subcomponents. Fixed by changing subcomponent ownership from the owning actor to the overlap component itself
• Remove execution pins from a new storm particle system that was added for DLC and is making it look like existing weather is severe (internal only)
• FIRE WALK: Re-apply cannot decay modifier on crate after reload to prevent cases where the modifier fails to load
• Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV
• Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV again
• IRONCLAD: Added failsafe for loss of snap points
• Fixed bug where animation played when receiving a new modifier sometimes obstructed crosshair

Future Content

• Fixing Caves On Green Quad and Updated Arctic Cave, Prometheus
• More visual updates on Prospector field guide UI
• Setting up Heatmaps for Olympus and Styx for the different fish spawn locations and creating spawn zones based on each heatmap
• Hooking up New Olympus & Styx Fish Spawning Heatmaps to their respective terrains
• Adding rockdog vomit audio, event and notify
• General clean up and polishing in Blue swamp, deep swamp underwater dressing in Green/Blue, DLC
• Aquariums now swap to use their dirty mesh when they are not connected to active power / water connections
• PRO_Story_5: Added audio-visual feedback quest step
• Adjustments to drop pod transport sonic boom audio and fixed rockdog NPC not having correct parent behavior for footsteps for new FS notify
• Fixing Caves On Green Quad, Prometheus
• Setting up Rhubarb, Kumara, Avocado & Strawberry datatables for items, growth states, rewards, so they can now be grown when aquired
• Adding rock dog vomit as a vocalisation event so its not interrupted by flinch sounds. Also lowering idle state vocals spawn rates
• Balance and spacializer updates to transport pods
• Enabled unlock all prospects cheat for PRO
• PRO_Story_5: Tweaked spawn locations, added obstacles
• General Landscape Polish & Clean Up, Fixed Caves in Swamp, Tundra, Arctic & Updated Cave Template on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map

Everything in my inventory is up for trade. The most valuable items are listed here, the rest you can find in My Inventory

Feel free to Add Me or even better send a Trade Offer. Open for any suggestions: upgrades, downgrades / knives, gloves, skins / stickers, patterns, floats.

All Buyouts are listed in cash value.

KNIVES

★ Butterfly Knife Freehand FN #1, B/O: $1867

★ Butterfly Knife Bright Water MW, B/O: $1098

★ Butterfly Knife Blue Steel BS, B/O: $907

★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet FT, B/O: $789

★ Butterfly Knife Stained FT, B/O: $695

⎯

★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth MW #1, B/O: $888

★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $727

★ Bayonet Doppler (Phase 2) FN, B/O: $608

★ Bayonet Doppler (Phase 1) FN, B/O: $521

★ Bayonet Rust Coat BS, B/O: $253

★ Bayonet Night FT, B/O: $251

★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Lore MW, B/O: $751

⎯

★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $1343

★ Karambit Damascus Steel FT, B/O: $774

★ Karambit Rust Coat BS, B/O: $537

★ Karambit Boreal Forest FT, B/O: $488

⎯

★ M9 Bayonet Fade FN, B/O: $1523

★ M9 Bayonet Fade FN, B/O: $1523

★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $1008

★ M9 Bayonet Blue Steel FT, B/O: $534

★ M9 Bayonet Rust Coat BS, B/O: $449

⎯

★ Flip Knife Fade FN, B/O: $703

★ Flip Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) MW, B/O: $509

★ Flip Knife Doppler (Phase 1) FN, B/O: $406

★ Flip Knife Freehand FT, B/O: $228

★ StatTrak™ Flip Knife Bright Water FN, B/O: $332

⎯

★ Falchion Knife Doppler (Phase 2) FN, B/O: $292

★ Falchion Knife Doppler (Phase 3) FN, B/O: $264

★ Falchion Knife Marble Fade FN, B/O: $258

★ Falchion Knife Bright Water MW, B/O: $133

⎯

★ Stiletto Knife Fade FN, B/O: $822

★ Stiletto Knife Slaughter FN, B/O: $569

★ Stiletto Knife Doppler (Phase 1) FN, B/O: $530

★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web FT, B/O: $396

★ StatTrak™ Stiletto Knife Scorched FT, B/O: $172

⎯

★ Gut Knife Doppler (Sapphire) MW #1, B/O: $830

★ Gut Knife Fade FN, B/O: $204

★ Gut Knife Tiger Tooth FN, B/O: $138

★ Gut Knife Bright Water MW, B/O: $104

★ Gut Knife Freehand FT, B/O: $92

★ Gut Knife Urban Masked FT, B/O: $82

★ StatTrak™ Gut Knife Rust Coat BS, B/O: $93

⎯

★ Shadow Daggers Fade FN, B/O: $258

★ Shadow Daggers Doppler (Phase 3) FN, B/O: $165

★ Shadow Daggers Blue Steel FT, B/O: $82

★ Shadow Daggers Bright Water FT, B/O: $82

★ Shadow Daggers Blue Steel WW, B/O: $80

★ Shadow Daggers Rust Coat BS, B/O: $74

★ StatTrak™ Shadow Daggers Marble Fade FN, B/O: $186

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★ Classic Knife Slaughter MW, B/O: $311

★ StatTrak™ Classic Knife Stained BS, B/O: $163

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★ Talon Knife Slaughter MW, B/O: $605

★ Talon Knife Scorched MW, B/O: $290

⎯

★ Ursus Knife Marble Fade FN, B/O: $405

★ Ursus Knife Night Stripe MW, B/O: $162

⎯

★ Paracord Knife Stained WW, B/O: $125

★ Paracord Knife Forest DDPAT FT, B/O: $97

★ Paracord Knife Safari Mesh FT, B/O: $96

⎯

★ Navaja Knife Safari Mesh FT, B/O: $71

★ Navaja Knife Scorched WW, B/O: $71

⎯

★ Nomad Knife Fade FN, B/O: $1015

★ Skeleton Knife, B/O: $909

★ Bowie Knife Boreal Forest MW, B/O: $106

★ Survival Knife Forest DDPAT FT, B/O: $97

GLOVES

★ Driver Gloves Crimson Weave FT, B/O: $335

★ Driver Gloves King Snake BS, B/O: $270

★ Driver Gloves Lunar Weave WW, B/O: $113

★ Driver Gloves Overtake WW, B/O: $88

★ Driver Gloves Overtake BS, B/O: $67

⎯

★ Moto Gloves Transport MW, B/O: $171

★ Moto Gloves Polygon BS, B/O: $137

★ Moto Gloves Transport WW, B/O: $71

★ Moto Gloves 3rd Commando Company BS, B/O: $62

⎯

★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Kimono WW, B/O: $1027

★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike FT, B/O: $654

★ Specialist Gloves Mogul FT, B/O: $295

★ Specialist Gloves Lt. Commander FT, B/O: $277

★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web FT, B/O: $275

⎯

★ Sport Gloves Slingshot FT, B/O: $796

★ Sport Gloves Amphibious BS #2, B/O: $699

★ Sport Gloves Omega FT, B/O: $656

⎯

★ Broken Fang Gloves Unhinged BS, B/O: $60

WEAPONS

AK-47 Case Hardened BS, B/O: $130

AK-47 Bloodsport MW, B/O: $79

AK-47 Fuel Injector BS, B/O: $76

AK-47 Fuel Injector BS, B/O: $76

AK-47 Bloodsport FT, B/O: $70

AK-47 Neon Rider MW, B/O: $60

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AWP Fade FN, B/O: $864

AWP BOOM MW, B/O: $84

AWP Containment Breach FT, B/O: $69

AWP Containment Breach FT, B/O: $69

AWP Wildfire FT, B/O: $59

AWP Chromatic Aberration FN, B/O: $59

StatTrak™ AWP Hyper Beast FT, B/O: $65

StatTrak™ AWP Hyper Beast FT, B/O: $65

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Desert Eagle Blaze FN, B/O: $565

Desert Eagle Blaze FN, B/O: $565

Desert Eagle Printstream FN, B/O: $155

Desert Eagle Cobalt Disruption FN, B/O: $58

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M4A1-S Icarus Fell FN, B/O: $414

M4A1-S Printstream MW, B/O: $204

M4A1-S Printstream MW, B/O: $204

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M4A4 Poseidon FN, B/O: $1402

M4A4 The Emperor FN, B/O: $152

M4A4 Asiimov WW, B/O: $97

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USP-S Kill Confirmed MW, B/O: $65

USP-S Printstream FT, B/O: $69

StatTrak™ USP-S Kill Confirmed FT, B/O: $123

StatTrak™ USP-S Neo-Noir FN, B/O: $106

⎯

AUG Flame Jörmungandr FN, B/O: $218

P2000 Ocean Foam FN, B/O: $139

Souvenir SSG 08 Death Strike MW, B/O: $81

CZ75-Auto Emerald Quartz MW, B/O: $61

Trade Offer Link - Steam Profile Link - My Inventory

Knives - Bowie Knife, Butterfly Knife, Falchion Knife, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Huntsman Knife, M9 Bayonet, Bayonet, Karambit, Shadow Daggers, Stiletto Knife, Ursus Knife, Navaja Knife, Talon Knife, Classic Knife, Paracord Knife, Survival Knife, Nomad Knife, Skeleton Knife, Patterns - Gamma Doppler, Doppler (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, Black Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald), Crimson Web, Lore, Fade, Ultraviolet, Night, Marble Fade (Fire & Ice, Fake FI), Case Hardened (Blue Gem), Autotronic, Slaughter, Black Laminate, Tiger Tooth, Boreal Forest, Scorched, Blue Steel, Vanilla, Damascus Steel, Forest DDPAT, Urban Masked, Freehand, Stained, Bright Water, Safari Mesh, Rust Coat, Gloves - Bloodhound Gloves (Charred, Snakebite, Guerrilla, Bronzed), Driver Gloves (Snow Leopard, King Snake, Crimson Weave, Imperial Plaid, Black Tie, Lunar Weave, Diamondback, Rezan the Red, Overtake, Queen Jaguar, Convoy, Racing Green), Hand Wraps (Cobalt Skulls, CAUTION!, Overprint, Slaughter, Leather, Giraffe, Badlands, Spruce DDPAT, Arboreal, Constrictor, Desert Shamagh, Duct Tape), Moto Gloves (Spearmint, POW!, Cool Mint, Smoke Out, Finish Line, Polygon, Blood Pressure, Turtle, Boom!, Eclipse, 3rd Commando Company, Transport), Specialist Gloves (Crimson Kimono, Tiger Strike, Emerald Web, Field Agent, Marble Fade, Fade, Foundation, Lt. Commander, Crimson Web, Mogul, Forest DDPAT, Buckshot), Sport Gloves (Pandora's Box, Superconductor, Hedge Maze, Vice, Amphibious, Slingshot, Omega, Arid, Big Game, Nocts, Scarlet Shamagh, Bronze Morph), Hydra Gloves (Case Hardened, Emerald, Rattler, Mangrove), Broken Fang Gloves (Jade, Yellow-banded, Unhinged, Needle Point), Pistols - P2000 (Ocean Foam, Fire Element, Amber Fade, Corticera, Chainmail, Imperial Dragon, Obsidian, Scorpion, Handgun, Acid Etched), USP-S (Printstream, Kill Confirmed, Whiteout, Road Rash, Owergrowth, The Traitor, Neo-Noir, Dark Water, Orion, Blueprint, Stainless, Caiman, Serum, Monster Mashup, Royal Blue, Ancient Visions, Cortex, Orange Anolis, Ticket To Hell, Black Lotus, Cyrex, Check Engine, Guardian, Purple DDPAT, Torque, Blood Tiger, Flashback, Business Class, Pathfinder, Para Green), Lead Conduit, Glock-18 (Fade, Candy Apple, Bullet Queen, Synth Leaf, Neo-Noir, Nuclear Garden, Dragon Tatto, Reactor, Pink DDPAT, Twilight Galaxy, Sand Dune, Groundwater, Blue Fissure, Snack Attack, Water Elemental, Brass, Wasteland Rebel, Vogue, Franklin, Royal Legion, Gamma Doppler, Weasel, Steel Disruption, Ironwork, Grinder, High Beam, Moonrise, Oxide Blaze, Bunsen Burner, Clear Polymer, Bunsen Burner, Night), P250 (Nuclear Threat, Modern Hunter, Splash, Whiteout, Vino Primo, Mehndi, Asiimov, Visions, Undertow, Cartel, See Ya Later, Gunsmoke, Splash, Digital Architect, Muertos, Red Rock, Bengal Tiger, Crimson Kimono, Wingshot, Metallic DDPAT, Hive, Dark Filigree, Mint Kimono), Five-Seven (Neon Kimono, Berries And Cherries, Fall Hazard, Crimson Blossom, Hyper Beast, Nitro, Fairy Tale, Case Hardened, Copper Galaxy, Angry Mob, Monkey Business, Fowl Play, Anodized Gunmetal, Hot Shot, Retrobution, Boost Protocol), CZ75-Auto (Chalice, Crimson Web, Emerald Quartz, The Fuschia is Now, Nitro, Xiangliu, Yellow Jacket, Victoria, Poison Dart, Syndicate, Eco, Hexane, Pole, Tigris), Tec-9 (Terrace, Nuclear Threat, Hades, Rust Leaf, Decimator, Blast From, Orange Murano, Toxic, Fuel Injector, Remote Control, Bamboo Forest, Isaac, Avalanche, Brother, Re-Entry, Blue Titanium, Bamboozle), R8 Revolver (Fade, Blaze, Crimson Web, Liama Cannon, Crazy 8, Reboot, Canal Spray, Night, Amber Fade), Desert Eagle (Blaze, Hand Cannon, Fennec Fox, Sunset Storm, Emerald Jörmungandr, Pilot, Hypnotic, Golden Koi, Printstream, Cobalt Disruption, Code Red, Ocean Drive, Midnight Storm, Kumicho Dragon, Crimson Web, Heirloom, Night Heist, Mecha Industries, Night, Conspiracy, Trigger Discipline, Naga, Directive, Light Rail), Dual Berettas (Flora Carnivora, Duelist, Cobra Strike, Black Limba, Emerald, Hemoglobin, Twin Turbo, Marina, Melondrama, Pyre, Retribution, Briar, Dezastre, Royal Consorts, Urban Shock, Dualing Dragons, Panther, Balance), Rifles - Galil (Aqua Terrace, Winter Forest, Chatterbox, Sugar Rush, Pheonix Blacklight, CAUTION!, Orange DDPAT, Cerberus, Dusk Ruins, Eco, Chromatic Aberration, Stone Cold, Tuxedo, Sandstorm, Shattered, Urban Rubble, Rocket Pop, Kami, Crimson Tsunami, Connexion), SCAR-20 (Brass, Cyrex, Palm, Splash Jam, Cardiac, Emerald, Crimson Web, Magna Carta, Stone Mosaico, Bloodsport, Enforcer), AWP (Gungnir, Dragon Lore, Prince, Medusa, Desert Hydra, Fade, Lightning Strike, Oni Taiji, Silk Tiger, Graphite, Chromatic Aberration, Asiimov, Snake Camo, Boom, Containment Breach, Wildfire, Redline, Electric Hive, Hyper Beast, Neo-Noir, Man-o'-war, Pink DDPAT, Corticera, Sun in Leo, Elite Build, Fever Dream, Atheris, Mortis, PAW, Exoskeleton, Worm God, POP AWP, Phobos, Acheron, Pit Viper, Capillary, Safari Mesh), AK-47 (Wild Lotus, Gold Arabesque, X-Ray, Fire Serpent, Hydroponic, Panthera Onca, Case Hardened, Vulcan, Jet Set, Fuel Injector, Bloodsport, Nightwish, First Class, Neon Rider, Asiimov, Red Laminate, Aquamarine Revenge, The Empress, Wasteland Rebel, Jaguar, Black Laminate, Leet Museo, Neon Revolution, Redline, Frontside Misty, Predator, Legion of Anubis, Point Disarray, Orbit Mk01, Blue Laminate, Green Laminate, Emerald Pinstripe, Cartel, Phantom Disruptor, Jungle Spray, Safety Net, Rat Rod, Baroque Purple, Slate, Elite Build, Uncharted, Safari Mesh), FAMAS (Sundown, Prime Conspiracy, Afterimage, Commemoration, Dark Water, Spitfire, Pulse, Eye of Athena, Meltdown, Rapid Eye Move, Roll Cage, Styx, Mecha Industrie, Djinn, ZX Spectron, Valence, Neural Net, Night Borre, Hexne), M4A4 (Howl, Poseidon, Asiimov, Daybreak, Hellfire, Zirka, Red DDPAT, Radiation Hazard, Modern Hunter, The Emperor, The Coalition, Bullet Rain, Cyber Security, X-Ray, Dark Blossom, Buzz Kill, In Living Color, Neo-Noir, Desolate Space, 龍王 (Dragon King), Royal Paladin, The Battlestar, Global Offensive, Tooth Fairy, Desert-Strike, Griffin, Evil Daimyo, Spider Lily, Converter), M4A1-S (Welcome to the Jungle, Imminent Danger, Knight, Hot Rod, Icarus Fell, Blue Phosphor, Printstream, Master Piece, Dark Water, Golden Coil, Bright Water, Player Two, Atomic Alloy, Guardian, Chantico's Fire, Hyper Beast, Mecha Industries, Cyrex, Control Panel, Moss Quartz, Nightmare, Decimator, Leaded Glass, Basilisk, Blood Tiger, Briefing, Night Terror, Nitro, VariCamo, Flashback), SG 553 (Hazard Pay, Bulldozer, Integrale, Dragon Tech, Ultraviolet, Colony IV, Hypnotic, Cyrex, Candy Apple, Barricade, Pulse), SSG 08 (Death Strike, Sea Calico, Blood in the Water, Orange Filigree, Dragonfire, Big Iron, Bloodshot, Detour, Turbo Peek, Red Stone), AUG (Akihabara Accept, Flame Jörmungandr, Hot Rod, Midnight Lily, Sand Storm, Carved Jade, Wings, Anodized Navy, Death by Puppy, Torque, Bengal Tiger, Chameleon, Fleet Flock, Random Access, Momentum, Syd Mead, Stymphalian, Arctic Wolf, Aristocrat, Navy Murano), G3SG1 (Chronos, Violet Murano, Flux, Demeter, Orange Kimono, The Executioner, Green Apple, Arctic Polar Camo, Contractor), SMGs - P90 (Astral Jörmungandr, Run and Hide, Emerald Dragon, Cold Blooded, Death by Kitty, Baroque Red, Vent Rush, Blind Spot, Asiimov, Trigon, Sunset Lily, Death Grip, Leather, Nostalgia, Fallout Warning, Tiger Pit, Schermatic, Virus, Shapewood, Glacier Mesh, Shallow Grave, Chopper, Desert Warfare), MAC-10 (Hot Snakes, Copper Borre, Red Filigree, Gold Brick, Graven, Case Hardened, Stalker, Amber Fade, Neon Rider, Tatter, Curse, Propaganda, Nuclear Garden, Disco Tech, Toybox, Heat, Indigo), UMP-45 (Fade, Blaze, Day Lily, Minotaur's Labyrinth, Crime Scene, Caramel, Bone Pile, Momentum, Primal Saber), MP7 (Teal Blossom, Fade, Nemesis, Whiteout, Asterion, Bloosport, Abyssal Apparition, Full Stop, Special Delivery, Neon Ply, Asterion, Ocean Foam, Powercore, Scorched, Impire), PP-Bizon (Modern Hunter, Rust Coat, Forest Leaves, Antique, High Roller, Blue Streak, Seabird, Judgement of Anubis, Bamboo Print, Embargo, Chemical Green, Coblat Halftone, Fuel Rod, Photic Zone, Irradiated Alert, Carbon Fiber), MP9 (Wild Lily, Pandora's Box, Stained Glass, Bulldozer, Dark Age, Hot Rod, Hypnotic, Hydra, Rose Iron, Music Box, Setting Sun, Food Chain, Airlock, Mount Fuji, Starlight Protector, Ruby Poison Dart, Deadly Poison), MP5-SD (Oxide Oasis, Phosphor, Nitro, Agent, Autumn Twilly), Shotguns, Machineguns - Sawed-Off (Kiss♥Love, First Class, Orange DDPAT, Rust Coat, The Kraken, Devourer, Mosaico, Wasteland Princess, Bamboo Shadow, Copper, Serenity, Limelight, Apocalypto), XM1014 (Frost Borre, Ancient Lore, Red Leather, Elegant Vines, Banana Leaf, Jungle, Urban Perforated, Grassland, Blaze Orange, Heaven Guard, VariCamo Blue, Entombed, XOXO, Seasons, Tranquility, Bone Machine, Incinegator, Teclu Burner, Black Tie, Zombie Offensive, Watchdog), Nova (Baroque Orange, Hyper Beast, Green Apple, Antique, Modern Hunter, Walnut, Forest Leaves, Graphite, Blaze Orange, Rising Skull, Tempest, Bloomstick, Interlock, Quick Sand, Moon in Libra, Clean Polymer, Red Quartz, Toy Soldier), MAG-7 (Cinqueda, Counter Terrace, Prism Terrace, Memento, Chainmail, Hazard, Justice, Bulldozer, Silver, Core Breach, Firestarter, Praetorian, Heat, Hard Water, Monster Call, BI83 Spectrum, SWAG-7), M249 (Humidor, Shipping Forecast, Blizzard Marbleized, Downtown, Jungle DDPAT, Nebula Crusader, Impact Drill, Emerald Poison Dart), Negev (Mjölnir, Anodized Navy, Palm, Power Loader, Bratatat, CaliCamo, Phoenix Stencil, Infrastructure, Boroque Sand), Wear - Factory New (FN), Minimal Wear (MW), Field-Tested (FT), Well-Worn (WW), Battle-Scarred (BS), Stickers Holo/Foil/Gold - Katowice 2014, Krakow 2017, Howling Dawn, Katowice 2015, Crown, London 2018, Cologne 2014, Boston 2018, Atlanta 2017, Cluj-Napoca 2015, DreamHack 2014, King on the Field, Harp of War, Winged Difuser, Cologne 2016, Cologne 2015, MLG Columbus 2016, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019, RMR 2020, Stockholm 2021, Antwerp 2022, Swag Foil, Flammable foil, Others - Souvenirs, Agents, Pins, Passes, Gifts, Music Kits, Cases, Keys, Capsules, Packages, Patches

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I just like the original ar556 more.

Hello everyone,
I was going to write a life story thing about why I did this, but it would take too long and this post is already going to be pretty hefty. So I'll cut to the chase, over the last few months, I did an Ace Combat Marathon which also includes all the games I consider to be "Ace Combat Like". I did omit a few here and there, but it was either because they were too hard to obtain, too far from what I consider to be the Ace Combat formula or just not interesting enough. Now that it is over, I would like to tell you about my experience with all of these games, so, if you are interested, have a good read !
​

DISCLAIMERS :

- English is not my native language and I am brain dead so if me no write good me sory.
- These entries are not reviews but simply a summary of how I felt about each game.
- Spoilers
​
Here are the games, in the order that I played them in :
​

Games that, in my opinion, constitute the main continuity :

​
Air Combat / Ace Combat 1 :
- Gameplay : Dated, but still very usable by modern players.
- Graphics : I mean... it's a 1995 game. But the emulator gave it a good coat of paint.
- Story : Just enough to justify the game happening, it's no big deal, we all know where the series goes later on. I just love the idea of an island-nation sized terror group having a giant air force, aircraft carriers, a supersized stronghold and a flying fortress (the first of the ace combat series).
- Music : Pure 90's juice, get ready to rock and synth.
​
Ace Combat 2 :
- Gameplay : Great for the time, it's completely servicable to this day.
- Graphics : A noticable improvement from the first AC, specially good with the right emulator settings.
- Story : Literally the same as the first AC but on a bigger scale, gets expanded upon in the remake.
- Music : In my opinion, the best from the PS1 series, Lode Stone is still stuck in my head.
​
Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere (Japanese version with english text patch, necessary since, for those who don't know, the international version got most of its content cut out.) :
- Gameplay : The best of the PS1 series, feels much more like flying a plane than in the previous ACs. Plus the special missions where you fly a stratospheric bomber, a parasite fighter or a hecking starfighter are something else.
- Graphics : Again, an improvement on the previous entry, although less drastic, the art style is the most noticable feature.
- Story : Who put planes in my metal gear solid story line ? My man went from zero story to a five branches storyline about revenge, corporatism and transhumanism in a cyberpunk universe with unique missions and 2d animated cutscenes.
- Music : Extremely... unique and hard to describe, it wouldn't be out of place in a horror game or a creepypasta about some haunted retroware.
​
Ace Combat 4 Shattered skies :
- Gameplay : Wierdly it's not too different from AC3 in my opinion, but hey, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.
- Graphics : The transition to the PS2 is truly impressive, it's just great to look at. Although, beware, it has some graphical issues with emulation.
- Story : Far less complex than AC3, but perhaps told with more style, it's more heartfelt and relatable. And of course, this is kind of where the strangereal universe is starting to become more established.
- Music : The first game in the series where the sky starts speaking latin, it establishes what the Ace Combat music style is going to be from then on.
​
Ac Combat 5 The unsung war :
- Gameplay : More or less the same as in AC4, perhaps a little bit more arcadey ? Great plane diversity though.
- Graphics : Maybe it was because of emulation and the UI but I felt like it was a slight downgrade from AC4, probably not the case though.
- Story : Kind of a balance between the war story theme of AC4 and the over the top sci-fi conspiracy vibe of AC3, most of the series will adopt this dynamic from then on.
- Music : Same vibe as AC4, with more latin singing for us to enjoy.
​
Ace Combat Zero The Belkan war :
- Gameplay : Similar to the two previous entries, although with more bossfights.
- Graphics : Also similar to the rest of the PS2 trilogy, it's not like there was much room to improve within the limits of the console's hardware.
- Story : Something something borders bad, buddy, funni country nukes itself, V2, it's time, bottom text. A good story that establishes a solid fundation for the strangereal lore.
- Music : The sky speaks latin, flamenco edition.
​
Ace Combat X Skies of deception :
- Gameplay : The engine was recycled from AC4 so it's similar, which is good, although everything is slowed down to help with the PSP controls.
- Graphics : About as much as you could squeeze out of the PSP for a flight sim, which is pretty neat.
- Story : A step back from previous entries, but more than enough to get all those good ace combat tropes in there, superweapons galore, conspiracy, zealous characters, the whole nine yards.
- Music : A suprising return to the PS1 trilogy vibe, probably to go easy on those poor little PSP speakers. Though it's not at the same level of quality; most of the ost would make Minasha Please, your freestyle dance teacher, go crazy.
​
Ace Combat 6 Fires of liberation :
- Gameplay : The first big improvement since AC3, with the notable introduction of post stall maneuvers. Also the scale of the missions are unprecedented thanks to the transition to the xbox360, with loads of units on both sides.
- Graphics : New platform, new graphics, and boy is it gorgeous ! Still very much holds its own to this day, although they had to pay for it with the diversity of planes, which is the lowest in the series.
- Story : Very similar to AC4, down to the presentation, but more clumsy. It's not bad by any means, just kind of average.
- Music : Back to the AC classic formula, although the most memorable ost isn't the final latin one this time, but the aptly named "Liberation of Gracemeria".
​
Ace Combat X² Joint Assault (The most based Ace Combat in my opinion) :
- Gameplay : Similar to the previous PSP entry, but even slower. (That's not to say easier, some bossfights are downright bullshit.) Also you can pilot WW2 planes and a 747 so 10/10.
- Graphics : A bit of an improvement on Skies of Deception, but yeah... still PSP graphics.
- Story : Set in the real world, but whith all the over the top absurdity of strangereal and somehow even more. How about a story where Jeff Bezos hires the entire Romanian army to become terrorists in order to mount the biggest insurance scam ever, supplying them with usual ace combat tier superweapons, but the Romanians betray him and try to found Romania 2 electric boogaloo in Khazakstan; but you stop them and now have to face your rival who breaks down in tears about his parents mid boss fight before you shoot him down in his guitar looking ass superfighter, ending the story by personally flying your jet under amazon HQ in San Francisco to explode Jeff Bezos with a Maverick missile to the face ?
- Music : About as bonkers as the story, a mix of usual Ace Combat epic score, throwbacks to the PS1 trilogy ost, stereotypical middle eastern music, and some sort of hard rock ? Seriously listen to "In the Zone", it's pretty representative.
​
Ace Combat Assault Horizon :
- Gameplay : The game feels like it's been developped by a 12 years old high on sugar and aderall, the first mission almost gave me an epilepsy attack and I'm not even epileptic. It's obviously a huge departure from the traditionnal ace combat gameplay, and there are cool aspects like the attack helicopter missions, but the rest of the game feels like it's on rails, which for a plane game is kind of an oxymoron. The "dogfight mode" is basically a roller coaster simulator, some missions like the AC-130 and the Blackhawk door gunner ones are ripped straight from call of duty; and the one strategic bomber mission is literally on rails most of the time.
- Graphics : More or less average for the time ? I had a hard time seeing behind the Michael Bay level of explosions and particles going off everywhere, everytime all at once. Although the plane destruction animations are kinda cool, they just get old fast.
- Story : Basically Call of Duty or a Tom Clancy novel but with planes, I suppose they were trying to one up HAWX which came out a year earlier ? Some funny elements are the main big friendly general being french and dubbed by someone poorly imitating a french accent; also the main baddies, the Russian rebels, use the litteral waffen SS division symbols for their units, what's up with that ?
- Music : Strangely pretty cool ? Lots of competent rock and epic scores, very intense, in keeping with the theme, but not bad by any means.
​
Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown :
- Gameplay : Same basis as AC6 but improved, pretty much the best it's been so far.
- Graphics : Well, as the most modern AC, it's also naturally the best looking. Planes, effects, maps, art style, it's all great stuff.
- Story : Belka did it again, skynet edition. Also air force penal batallion sent on suicide missions with half the members convicted of relatively light offences and/or with investigations still pending, thanks OSEA, you truly are one of the democracies of all time. Overall the story is regular Ace Combat stuff, its highlights being, as often, the bonkers strangereal elements.
- Story (DLC) : Hunt for the red october, but lots of planes and also the characters are insane. 10/10
- Music : Back to good ol' latin choirs, latiner choirer, plus the usual cool epic scores, great as always.
​

Games that are outside the main continuity but I still consider to be Ace Combat games :

​
Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy+ (Despite the title, it's a remake of AC2) :
- Gameplay : Surprisingly great for a DS/3DS title, better than the PSP entries in my opinion. There are post stall maneuvers and a watered down, more digest version of Assault Horizon's dogfight mode.
- Graphics : Pretty good for 3DS hardware, it's obviously a huge improvement on the original AC2. Also there are some nintendo themed planes, it's pretty neat, now I know that if Luigi was a jet, he would be an F-35.
- Story : There is a story where there was almost none in AC2, so it's an improvement in my book. They gave your wingmen voice lines, and I love the fact that they made the original "Edge" Kei Nagase kind of a Tsundere. The best new feature is the added ACZero style special squadron bossfights, each being more absurd than the last, there's : Medieval LARPers in F-14s, Furry with anger issues, E-girl and her tier 3 simp squadron, Man who plays chess in his plane ; and finally, three fleshed out ZOE bossfights, where in the original AC2, ZOE was just kinda flying around, being an optionnal ennemy with more HP.
- Music : Most of the tracks were changed for a more modern aces combat feel, but there are some bangers in there nontheless.
PS : In the original release, mission 2, easy money, was mistranslated as easy monkey which made me die laughing because I have internet brain rot.
​
The Sky Crawlers Innocent Aces :
- Gameplay : As close as we'll get from a WW2 themed Ace Combat, and frankly, it's pretty good. The final boss is annoying and there is kind of a dogfight mode light similar to assault horizon legacy because of Wii controls, but other than that, they handeled a gameplay without missiles and with slow prop planes amazingly, while retaining the unmistakable Ace Combat flavor.
- Graphics : I'd say average for Wii hardware, the strong point being the designs and art style which is arguably more thanks to the original novel and animated movie, but the game renders is very well.
- Story : Set in the dieselpunk universe of the Sky Crawler, based on the novel series, the game's story still is more or less original as a prequel to the animated movie adaptation. The lore aside it's very much an Ace Combat story, with conspiracies, betrayals, sacrifices, superweapons, giant fortresses, ace duels etc. As for your main "rival", she's an unhinged tsundere immortal child soldier clone, make of that what you will.
- Music : It's mostly bangers, although not similar to any other Ace Combat game.
​

Ace Combat likes, either competition or hommage to the franchise (mostly competition though) :

​
HAWX :
- Gameplay : It's competent, the game is fun to play overall, although the flight mechanics are far more basic than in AC6; its contemporary AC title, even though it was two years old at this point. They tried to compensate with gimmicks like some sort of flight assist tunnel thingy to reach your target, which is pretty useless except when the game makes it mendatory. Also there is the "flight assit mode off" which allows your plane to perform post stall maneuvers at the cost of stability, which would have been great if it didn't force your camera into a disorienting and immersion breaking far away third person view, which doesn't even track your targets half the time. That's bad considering you need it to beat some adversaries like ennemy aces. The plane diversity is huge but they all handle mostly the same. As for the missions, most of them are escort which is pretty frustrating, also some borrow pretty shamelessly from AC with their objectives and sometimes even their plots.
- Graphics : It's not amazing to be honest. The planes and cockpit models are basic, the maps are below the quality seen in AC6, same for the effects and particles. Some model look downright like they were made for the PS2. The artstyle kind of reminds me of G.I Joe, especially the fictionnal units like the baddie's tanks and their super warship, it's got this "toy" aesthetics. They even have a fictionnal superfighter to unlock at the end of the campaign, but it looks like an F-22 drawn by an eight years old.
- Story : It's exactly what it says on the tin, what if Tom Clancy had to write an Ace Combat story. So yeah it's big non descript bad guy attacks and you need to save murica' and thu prasidunt. Also the ghost recons appears so often the game might as well be an ad : "look at this other, better series I've made".
- Music : So unremarkable I didn't even pay attention to it, it's a generic action movie score, nothing more to say.
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HAWX2 :
Unfortunately, I was unable to get HAWX2 to work due to server shutdown, thanks ubisoft, forcing games to be played online even in singleplayer was a great idea. Apparently the latest patch was supposed to make it playable offline but this somehow stil doesn't work. There was apparently a workaround using a crack which I was unfortunately unable to find despite giving my PC probably ten viruses, seven trojans and a dozen crypto miners trying to find it. Meh, not that big of a loss according to what I've seen on youtube and read online. The graphics even look like a downgrade from the previous entry somehow.
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Air force Delta :
- Gameplay : Very similar to AC2 with slightly better stall physics, a shame when you know it came out the same year as AC3. The missions are what you'd expect from an actual ace combat titles with fortresses, fleets, aces and giant planes bossfights sprinkled in. It's noticably harder than Ace Combat but not for good reasons in my opinion. Your missiles have somehow even worst tracking than in AC, but ennemy missiles seem guided by god. The ennemy AI has absurd turn radius and is seemingly unable to stall. Mission timers are also very short, which results in a situation where actual air to air fights are better avoided unless mandatory to have a chance to finish the missions. Fun fact, I'm pretty sure the final mission of AC5 was inspired by one of this game's missions where you also have to save a city from a falling giant satellite by shooting its "wings" off.
- Graphics : I'm not exactly familiar with the graphics capabilities of the dreamcast, but it looked pretty good in my opinion, I liked how the plane textures were stylised rather than completely realistic.
- Story : You get a big star-wars like lore dump at the beginning and then a few elements dropped in during briefings. The execution is pretty sloppy, for example, you learn who the big bad is right before the final mission where you face him in a duel, whithout even knowing there was a big bad to begin with. The entire story is like this, with things dumped in front of you right before the relevant mission, it feels made up along the way.
- Music : Very arcadey, I kinda liked it. Though it wasn't as good as AC2's ost.
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Air force Delta Storm :
- Gameplay : It's not bad overall, but the controls are cluncky, you feel like flying an airliner rather than a fighter jet most of the time. It alleviates some of the first entry's issues like bad missile tracking and overmaneuverable ennemies but barely. It's still much harder than any AC title. It also has this sort of "campaign map" with minor missions to play if you want to reach you main missions, with a grand total of two(2) copy pasted mini missions in slightly different maps at every minor checkpoints. Though some main missions have interesting level design, the final mission for example is literally the Star Wars six's attack on the Death Star two's reactor but with jets.
- Graphics : I'd say average for the OG Xbox, the game lacks a proper cockpit view but the incredible plane diversity makes up for it. Speaking of which, there are a lot of fictionnal fighter designs, some of them pretty goofy, but most are extremely cool looking and competently made. It's a shame there isn't a proper model viewer or display mode to admire them, the best you get is the replay mode which has a wierd striped filter making it hard to see clearly what's going on.
- Story : It's the apocalypse, two factions are at war over basic necessities and you're fighting for one of them, you win at the end. That's it. There are no characters, no story elements, nothing, you just fight and win the war. It's okay, I don't always need intricate conspiracies, character dramas and reflections about the nature of war and the human condition in my plane game. It just makes some missions extremely funny like one where you need to sink an ennemy fleet in a port while being careful about not hitting cruise ships. No world ending woe will slow down the cruise industry apparently.
- Music : Very unremarkable, even a bit obnoxious sometimes. You can rapidly get tired of hearing a generic electric guitar riff when epicly completing minor_mission_02 for the 65451th time in order to get where you need to go.
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Air force Delta Strike :
- Gameplay : At this point, it's literally just ace combat gameplay, maybe a bit more nervous and responsive, which honestly I'm not complaining about. The plane diversity is incredible inkeeping with the serie's tradition, ww2 prop planes, cold war relics, modern jets, (many) prototypes (some of them so obscure I didn't even know about their existence), vtols, space fighters etc. As for the missions... where do I start ? How about fighting VTOLs and railway tanks in a giant cyberpunk metro network with a P-51 Mustang ? How about dogfighting gundams during a huge star-wars like space battle onboard a Mig-29 with a mini spaceship duck taped under it ? Or maybe a canyon mission where an evil scientist tries to kill you with an array of comically large fans ? I could go on and on, there are so many wild and wacky missions in between more tame and generic stuff to give you some room to breathe. Side note, there is a space elevator arc so uhh... take that AC7 ? The game's difficulty has reached a managable balance, but it's still overall harder than ace combat. Inbetween missions the game functions almost like a visual novel, it's pretty confusing and you can even get a game over for not knowing what to do, so I highly recommend following a guide to avoid needless frustration.
- Graphics : It's quite a bit below it's contemporary, AC5, in overall quality, but the level designs are often great. The general aesthetics is : generic gundam anime, with designs ranging from hilariously goofy to suprisingly cool. The entire non-mission part of the game is a 2D visual novel format with character designs that are pretty high quality and diverse. Although many designs are uh... cultured. More on that in the character section. There is finally a cockpit view in this entry of the series, for which they went pretty hard, with all of the many aircrat having detailed interiors. The plane's liveries are many and all cool looking in my opinion so that's also a plus.
- Story : This entry finally has a story, and oh boy what a story. The Earth democracy "not the USA" people are at war with the dictatorial evil space people who are secretly controlled by an alien god on Mars. The plot mainly revolves around the characters, with varying level of interest from the narration, but who's concept and behavior makes them wierdly unique and memorable. The story has a few different endings and branching storyline depending on what character you play, how often you play them and also some missison requirements, again, I advise following a guide. It's nothing mindblowing or complex but it certainly is striking, bold and memorable.
- Characters : Yes, I'm adding a section for characters because I can't not talk about them. There are the good guys you play as, delta squadron, composed of : Shredded pixy tomboy Ruth Valentine, Generic MC with sad backstory™ Ken Thomas, Cringe edgelord furry John Rundal (With the most hilarious dialogues in the game), Geriatric ww2 larper Jamie Jones, Funny anime fat man Rick Campbell, Double cheeked up fantASStic dumptruck owner Alex Levine, Divorced dad Holst Prendre, Rejected Jojo character Pedro Glankert, litteral child soldier Brian Douglas, incompetent but rich trust fund kid David Smith and his bimbo gold digger twin wingwomen Collette and Constance Le Clerc. Delta's officiers are : Captain clueless boomer Robert Williams, Staff Officer loli but she's a genius lab experiment kid so it's not creepy I swear Lilia Mihajlovna and operator wholesome overworked MILF office lady Amelia Johnson. There's also the chainsmoking alcoolic mechanic Bob Takayanagi and the totally legit and thrustworthy plane seller Harry Garrett. Finally there are the bad guys, early antagonist and supposedly invincible ace pilot who you just bully in every mission he appears in "Emperor" Sergei Kinski, Giuseppe Ferretti... thats it, Slimy starscream backstabber ugly bastard Leon Kleiser, iamverysmart escapee Donald Chan, Generic rival of the MC Albert Ungar, the MC's brainwashed waifu Ellen McNichol (Who you can turn back to your side if you shoot her down enough while playing as Ken. Make of that what you will.), big tiddy tanned gyaru tomboy noblewoman Francine Davout and her boytoy butler Jake Emerson, bratty femboy supersoldier Pierre Gallo and alien with a god complex "Navigator".
- Music : Unremarkable but servicable, not bad by any means but I doubt any will get stuck in your head... not for good reasons at least.
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Project Wingman :
- Gameplay : It's pretty much Ace Combat but I mean... that's kind of the point. Also it's not a straight out copy, there are cool innovations and most important of all, it's very well done and fun to play. I should also mention, I have finished the entire campaign in VR and by the dust mother is it intense. The cockpits are extremely well done and immersive, being at the heart of such overwhelming action in VR is just something else. As for the missions, they're all fun, diverse and with good level design. Finally, the plane diversity is very good for such a small team working on detailed models with cockpits and multiple liveries, not counting the innumerable non graphic aspects.
- Graphics : I had to remind myself that this was an indie game, because appart for a few minor gliches here and there it's honestly incredible what they did whith what they had to work with. The fictional designs all look cool and very inkeeping with the Ace Combat theme. The effetcs were the most impressive, although they did go a bit wild with the whole orange magic energy near the end of the game, my retinas are still recovering.
- Story : Again, very faithful to what an Ace Combat story would be. Mercenaries, superweapons, conspiracies, war bad, and of course, insane characters (Special mention for Prez and Crimson 1). Also the lore is prettry expensive, the AC hommage did go as far as writing an entire alternate universe for your plane game. Overall it's well told, I like it.
- Music : Music is hard to make, music is expensive to make, but again, for an indie game, they managed to pull off something good. It's not the grandiose earporn fest that most Ace Combat are, but it's the best they could do and it's pretty neat. Also the sound design was another impressive aspect, big attention to details and lots of quality effects that really suprised me, specially in VR.
(PS : There is conquest mode, how neat is that ? It does wonders for the replayability of the game.)
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This concludes my recorded journey through the skies, it was one hell of an experience and I hope I managed to convey some of it through this post. As for me, I will continue to play flight sims I haven't tried but outside of this marathon format. I have Star Wars Squadron, VTOL VR, Warplanes VR (ww1/2) and DCS lined up, I think I'll even give VR chat flight sim a shot, I've heard they've got some suprisingly great stuff over there. I'm not about to touch ground any times soon.
In the meantime, fly safe(ish) and see you in the skies !

I recently pulled the trigger on a shiny new pair of Space Grey AirPods Max and upon only the second use/listen, they are dropping out/reconnecting at random. This minor annoyance infuriating catastrophe seems to be preceded by a dreaded popping noise in the left ear speaker before the right loses audio completely and they eventually just disconnect.

• The problem is exacerbated when I am actively moving around. When I sit stationary, they can behave normally for hours.
  
• This is when paired with an iPhone 12 Pro Max (iOS 16 Public Beta) and/or iPad Pro (12.9") 4th Generation running iPadOS 16.3.1.
  
• I've tried a hard reset followed by reconnecting to only one device at a time, with other devices' Bluetooth disconnected.
  
• Disabling Automatic Head Detection also makes no difference.
  

Perplexed by this curious little conundrum (aren't Apple products renowned for their seamless integration into existing Apple ecosystems, I thought to myself), I did a little digging and suffice to say, it did not take long to stumble into of the chorus of other owners pulling their hair out with the same or similar problem.
I'm still getting by with my MacBook Pro from 2012 and often sing Apple's praises because of the longevity I am enjoying. I simply can not believe that Apple have a product out there which is this woefully prone to problems - much less at such a premium price point. It's mind-boggling, really.
I've read a lot of people point to the likely culprit being firmware but, unless I don't know Apple (?), I feel like a fix would surely have been released in an update by now...
Unless anybody out there has discovered a silver-bullet solution, I'll be left with no choice but to return them unfortunately. It's a real shame because they are beautiful, excel in the comfort department and are at least on par with my Sony WH-1000XM4's in terms of sound quality and ANC.