We are Azure Infinitum
Visit us at: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/)
You may have seen us in the Aether data center's party finder during our weekly events, or may have seen our recruitment shouts around the realm in-game in Midgardsormr, but there just isn't enough space in those places to really explain everything wonderful about what our Free Company and community is.
Azure Infinitum is an LGBTQ+ friendly community, and welcomes players of all experience level, play style, and availability. We're a warm home with a balance of online players, weekly optional activities, and flexible ranks from our membership, to our support & leadership categories. We have a 24/7 Support Team, a Councilship that governs each tier, seasonal events of our own, and many resources between the games we support and online services.
Who We Are
We are an established 9-year old community who's home is in Midgardsormr Server of Final Fantasy XIV. We are a structured, well-rounded, welcoming, friendly, and organized community that hosts daily events (check out our calendar: https://azureinfinitum.com/events/ ) that provide opportunity for members to excel. We work to provide an arena and opportunities to establish strong bonds and camaraderie between our members. As a community we are driven, we carry each other forward, and we are proud.
Our Name & Philosophy
Learn more about our global community here: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/aboutus/)
Learn more about our FFXIV Free Company here: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/ourffxivfc/)
Azure Infinitum means "Azure/Blue Infinity or Infinite Blue/Azure" and there is some mythos behind the name that stems from our guild-wide philosophy of kindness, freedom, vigilance, diversity and activity. We promote positive fellowship among members in an organized guild, with our sights open to our unending endless skies, full of possibility and success together.
Our motto is "As Free As The Azure Sky!" which stuck well when our FC was restructured from an old guild in 2014 as Azure was founded, and it was first shouted as we looked out at a clear blue sky above. has continued to be our electric victory as we continue to snowball in success and activity, our members soaring high through the Azure Sky, flying together!
Ranks
Click here to learn more about our community ranks: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/ranks/)
Our community has an organized ranking structure beginning with Members who comprise the majority of the roster. Scouts are our support team of Members who've stepped up to more officially support the FC, some work on obtaining a future leadership rank. Lieutenants and Officers comprise the proud Azure Council, a diverse group of players of different specialties and services to the FC, making up lower and higher tier leadership, seeing over the Scouts and the FC weekly events, aside from being admins. The FC Infinitum Master oversees all and leads the Azure Council and the company forward while always keeping the heart and vision of the community alive and in sight. Currently we are re-assessing ranks in the free company, giving more support permissions and duties to our Scouts, while the current council operates as a small team of Lieutenants lead by the FC Master.
Everyone Welcome and Who Fits Best
We have an open door policy. Whether you're casual, a returning player, a veteran, or a newbie, we have a vast array of players in our member roster. Our weekly schedule is organized and provides an array of activity for players of most levels, however we like to ask players who're pretty new or under the level cap, to be extra vocal about their needs while they're still unable to attend some daily events or higher level content that most of our weekly lineup focuses on. We want everyone to have as much fun as possible and have the most success. We find that most players enjoy Azure Infinitum, many have stated that they subscribed to FFXIV much longer than they ever would have imagined after they have been around in our community, as they've gotten involved and experienced all that we offer.
Our FC keeps a daily schedule (see here: https://www.azureinfinitum.com/events/) of events that are hosted by permitted Scouts and Council ranks, these range from 8-man and 24-man raids and map parties, to WT journal groups and trial clear parties or farms, and more- and attending anything isn't mandatory at all here. We're happy to have you, and its up to our members how much they'd like to get involved. Attendance is optional! There's never any stress to attend FC functions.
Savage Raiding Statement
We find that some hardcore raiders looking for free companies just to join their statics who don't already have one, might not fit well if savage raiding is their only or greatest focus, because traditionally Azure does not have a Savage Static, but focuses more on allowing members to organize their own groups and also provides resources to do so. Despite not supporting an official static for the FC, we hope that hardcore raiders enjoy the wealth of our community's wealth of harmony and overall fun, and that everyone may take initiative to seek out or build a raiding static within our community if they are interested, as opposed to missing out on experiencing Azure. Depending on the content season, we may have an Unofficial static lead by a leader, and routinely offer limited time Savage-learning events that may run for a number of months.
Rules and No Drama Policy
Please take a moment to look over our Rules Page at (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/rules/), we find that rude individuals and people who create drama are the outsiders here that don't fit well. We know its a big page, so at least visit the General Rules section before joining.
Recruitment Care & Activity
People of Azure Infinitum are often if not always good natured players who found their way to our community looking for a place with structure, friendliness, organization, and great activity, or they've been scouted during recruitment drives and have been well screened. Its a place where one can be social and attend everything, or relax in the background and enjoy the services and facilities of being in an active, organized, and friendly FC. We actively recruit periodically to assist with upkeep of community activity levels, and to meet new comrades. A community that closes recruitment can be doomed to stagnation. Its normal for a community to have an inner core of die hards who log in daily regardless of content releases, and also have an outer core of individuals that range from those with less availability to those who check in during Patches. This is why we take extra care in keeping the fresh blood flowing into Azure, cautious recruitment, and support our active model by always staying welcoming and sometimes running recruitment campaigns and other services. Like this ad!
Handling Online Drama
Because we keep a no-drama policy and have a strong communication network, it is leadership's ultimate priority to handle any issues that may come up as soon as possible, and most people appreciate our problem solving which has inspired many other communities. Between our Support & Leadership ranks, we use a number of report and resource channels to handle situations, and perform problem solving protocols & tactics to fairly address issues as possible. Drama is inevitable at some point for any online community, so its important to have a large and strong list of moderators (currently around 60!) and a council of leaders (15+) to quickly handle any problems. Luckily, we don't have a lot of drama, but we're always very well equipped and very prepared. Our community has been commended by game staff in the past for our methods, and we have worked with the FFXIV Special Task Force to ensure as much safety to our community as achievable. It should be stressed that it is up to our membership to report to GM's in-game, and to Azure Leadership should any issues or concerns come up. Its also highly recommended that our members appropriately document evidence that can be used to help us assess situations and make proper decisions. Documenation such as screenshots of harassment is a great example! Our members online safety is greatly important to us and is a number one concern of our leadership team. Our Rules Page at: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/rules/) describes a bit more in Chapter 3, including other entries on avoiding/ignoring trolls, playing while intoxicated, depression, and more.
Our Philosophy
We believe in our community and its people, how far we can go, how much we can do for each other, being an experienced community who's core values are positive fellowship, formation of bonds, and indomitable unity.
Azure Infinitum tightly grasps success and masters a casual and lucrative weekly play schedule while inspiring motivation and providing avenues for further success, friendships, and camaraderie among all who freely fly together among our Azure skies.
Founding on the principles of intricately forging a generally drama-free experience with keen leadership and a zealous and mighty membership, Azure has striven to guide and support many hundreds of players through every era of Final Fantasy XIV.
With an illustrious history, company lore, impressive statistics, and a model that is adaptable and blessed with innovative ability, Azure Infinitum claims a dominant presence of excellence and player growth that is possible in our community and extended services.
Estate Organization
We have the entire set-up at our estate, from gardens for members and Krakka Root production (free for members' chocobos), to our stables, nicely uniform clean lawn with hangout spots that are popular, with crafting stations, all available NPCs for simple mats and repairs, cut-scene viewer, toybox, triple-triad board, a fully operational and geared fleet of airships and subs, and our Azure Infinitum Assembly Chamber on the top floor for our meetings where announcements are made at our Grand Assemblies. Check it out if you like at Mist Ward 7 Plot 1.
We also have an organized form of gathering for weekly events in the yard, places to relax, food that is always available on tables at our Cellar, and hold a lot of special events and social games at our Hall. We're also conveniently located next to a Market Board and a Retainer Bell outside of our estate.
Communication and Extended Azure Services
We have multiple services of which none are mandatory, but we provide being (azureinfinitum.com) where our Forums, Event Calendar, News, Company Meeting Summaries, Seasonal Merch Giveaways, Contests, Rules Page, and more take place and can be found. We also have a popular and active Discord Server.
We also have a Facebook Group, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Steam Group, (Look us up! Or visit: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/socialmedia/) and Linkshells like our Infinitum Alliance LS for contact and aid from our allies if needed, our Azure Hunters LS for Hunters, and our Azure Industry LS which connects our members to our inner crafting/gathering community for newbies to pros.
Also worthy of mention is our big Company Meetings in-game, known as Azure Infinitum Grand Assemblies. Even though we have several avenues that keep people connected, our live assemblies gather the FC in unity where announcements are made first, and all proposals, ideas, and more, can be decided together live with the Azure Council present.
This network ensures a lot of information and communication gets around and has been exceedingly useful to us.
More On Events
One part of our reputation that often precedes us is our event crafting and hosting.
First, let me make sure its clear that attendance is never mandatory, but those who can make use, when possible, of what we provide each day, benefit from our events each week.
Since our beginning, traditions like our Thursday Treasure Thursdays events have run each week. Our weekly line-up presently begins on Tuesdays post-weekly reset, and consists of Raid Tuesdays, Wondrous Wednesdays (WT Journal Parties, often doubles as Trial Clears and Pony Drops), Treasure Thursdays (Endwalker's timeworn maps with groups of 8 doing up to 3 rounds of maps allowing for up to 24 maps ran), 24-Man Tuesdays (full pre-formed Azure 24-member alliances are made and raids are cleared, will be returning upon the release of EW's 24-man), Super Azure Slayer Sunday (our weekly meetup to do all sorts of PVP content be it Rival Wings or Frontline), and Monstrous Mondays (helps clear the current and previous patch extreme trials).
Special, Seasonal, and Quarterly Events
More info here: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/azureday/)See the latest event news & more at: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/news/)
We also have what we call Special and Quarterly Events. These types of events are Weekend-Long-Events that usually consist of a theme or celebratory social events we craft. During these events we hold big Riddle Races, Costume/Glamour shows and contests, 3-Story Mansion Maze Races, Speedrun Dungeon Races, Hide and Seek games, Custom Quest Events, Discord events like Cards Against Humanity nights, Comedy events, PVP Tournament Circuits, and more.
Our Special and Quarterly events are Azure Day Weekend (Takes place 3 times a year across a weekend, celebrates the FC), Azure Summer Festival (3-days at the end of August in partnership with Child's Play, raises money for children in long-term care, anniversary of historic FC event called the Lunar Rebellion), Anniversary Azure Day (a big weekend event in November that celebrates our Founding), Azure Day Saint's Wake (celebrates Halloween/All Saint's Wake), Azure Starlight Day (celebrating Starlight Day/Christmas/December Holiday Season), Azure Grand Melee and Duel Tournaments (PVP Circuit series crowning our PVP Champions) and more.
Azure Day Weekends
If you've been around our server you may have heard of our Azure Day Weekends. Our Azure Days take place quarterly as mentioned just above, with four evolved editions called Azure Summer Festival, Azure Day Saint's Wake, Azure Starlight Day, and Anniversary Azure Day. With Azure Day Weekends and related events traditionally occuring quarterly our members are always excited to see the next big weekend of crazy and fun social games, and our showering of the free company in gil and prizes galore. We go all out when we celebrate the free company, and Azure Days are another way we find for leadership to give back to the community. 2023 and beyond is now host to additional seasonal Azure Day events!
We're always giving our members a chance to have fun, win big, and make some great memories in the in-game family we've become. Something fun is always on the horizon in Azure.
Community
I almost can't stress enough how friendly our community is. We have a vast variety of members from hardcore gatherers and crafters, social butterflies, chill veterans, experienced raiders, level grinders, support teams, PVP aficionados, mechanic specialists, and mentors. We're also very friendly to all casual players as well and we keep an open door so long as recruits are always aware that we have a no-drama tolerance here.
​Evolution into a Gaming Clan & Network
Plans are in the works and foundations are being laid that is slowly turning our community into a larger gaming network, with our first established Azure Wing with regular occurring activity being founded in Monster Hunter World, this has led to a successful Destiny 2 clan and more. Becoming a member of our Discord and/or Free Company now means access to things like our huge discord, Azure Wing membership in other games, and being able to join in on any of our other activities in the general community. Azure Network as its being called at the moment, is growing with an all-new website and community features for playing together across Final Fantasy XIV and to Azure Skies beyond!
Activity
We rank high as one of the top FC's in Worldwide Activity on lodestone, and have for a long time. Most of our players are divided between the US East and West Coasts, members in East and West Canada, and a few outside the US or in EU or Aus zones. Because we do have an activity policy (mentioned below) we keep a standard flow of people, and have crowds in the early morning, late morning, early afternoon, afternoon, evening, and late night crowds.
Elitism isn't our style. Our community boasts a broad range of characters, great personalities, the proud, and also some silly goofs. But elitism isn't welcome, no matter how successful we are or how large we grow. We're always welcoming towards fresh faces interested in joining our guild, and the in-game activity ranges between 30-60+ online at once during prime time hours, sometimes around 70+ on patch days, and usually always with half the roster logging in throughout a 24 hour period, and around 15-30+ during the night.
Activity Policy
We ask that our members do not go missing without logging in for more than 60 days straight. If we hear word from someone or have some kind of decent excuse, we place our members on our On Vacation rank, which lasts presently until 90 days have passed. Exceptions are made for military deployments, hospital stays, financial issues, disability/health related issues, moving, or other reasons that might fall on a case-by-case basis.
All members not heard from in 60 days (roughly 2 months) or currently 90 days (roughly 3 months) are discharged. We allow 3 joins to Azure Infinitum in total, but exceptions can be made due to reasons listed above. If removed for inactivity, or you've left our FC for another reason and haven't already joined 3 times, you're always welcome back, but please remember, we are not a revolving door.
Keeping our roster full of members who have been online and presently play the game actively ensures an active environment for our players who play often. It also keeps our credits and clerical processes balanced across our network, and allows space for new faces to join our big happy in-game family of comrades.
How to Join
Quick Instructions here for joinin us in FFXIV & more: (https://www.azureinfinitum.com/howtojoinazure/)
If you are interested in joining our Azure Infinitum free company, please register an application at our site and/or FC in-game. You can also seek any of our Scouts, Lieutenants, Officers, or the Master of Azure Infinitum in-game and ask for an invite. You can find their names on the roster page at our website.
If you read everything on this page, you are awesome, and you should let anyone you talk to who recruits you know that you read everything on this page which will greatly expedite your invitation to join.
If you have any questions whatsoever feel free to send a /tell in-game to me or any of our Scouts or Lieutenants listed on our official roster here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/freecompany/9232519973597911137/membe
You can also message us at our FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/AzureInfinitum
Discord here: https://discord.gg/azureinfinitum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/azureinfinitum
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/azure_infinitum/
Main Site: https://www.azureinfinitum.com/

'Who else has this' is a community for collectors or Redditors who just have something cool they think is rare or valuable and they want to see if anybody else on reddit has the same item(s) to get an idea of how rare or valuable that item may be.
I hope you tell the little story about how the item ended up in your possession.
Which can open the discussion of possible value or demand for said item.
This community is about items and things, this does NOT include;

• body parts
• people
• pets
• health related blemishes
• poop or pee

DON'T BE GROSS!!!
Examples of things to post about;

• toys (yes! all kinds, don't forget the NSFW)
• collectibles
• things you found
• antiques
• interesting crap you have in storage

I remember seeing Toy Story 3 on TV as a kid and hearing that Andy was moving to college, which caused me to imagine that I’d be living at Narrabundah College someday. My parents explained that ‘college’ was just what Americans called university, but what was weirder was finding out that the meaning of ‘college’ in NSW was different from the ACT one too.

I woke up from this dream about 3 hours ago from me posting this, I found this dream to he entertaining enough to share it.
Everything began with be letting my sister play Fire Emblem on my computer. This game began with customization of Ike's clothes. Everything else from now is a plot with-in, POV constantly switched between third person and first person(Ike's POV). The story began with invasion by a Dark kingdom with kaijin people (this wording came from a post about Black Sun, that I read yesterday -the day after yesterday. I haven't watched this show though). Dark Kingdom was invading three kingdoms lead by Kuwagata-ohger (Racules Hasltie), Kamakiri-ohger and Hachi Ohger. Ike learned about Racules's motive and stole his Ohger caliburn amd took over as Kuwagata-ohger. Some time later Raclues reveals to be a Kaijin Persons by transforming in to a monster. Ike almost lost to him, but he was saved by another Kaijin. After some fighting this Kaijin reveals their own Ohger Caliburn and transforms in to Papillon ohger. They said that their role is to look over who is in possession of ohger-caliburns. Some days later, Papilon Ohger though that Ike was going evil and attacked him, but he was actually just wondering if he could change his color to cyan. Some days later, again, Ike is seating in a interface design class and a teacher (a real person, who I had my class with yesterday and about to have now) said to share anything else interesting about Papilon Ohger. Kaijin people attacked and teacher reveals to have his own Ohger Caliburn. Person who is Papilon Ohger also breaks in for a cool team henshin pose. Even though Ike is surprised and the teacher is wondering if That Person is here because of him, but they said that they have no questions to him. They all transform the teacher is Tombo Ohger, but his costume is more of a mesh between actual costume and Kamen rider Drake, mostly Drake. They went to fight and the dream ended.

I'm a huge fan of Stardew valley, rune factory series, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons...
And sometimes when wondering in BOTW, I keep thinking what a beautiful farm (not that vanilla house) I could build there with a house, a stable for my horses and crops plus cooking, trading with the different villagers and so forth (not playing as Link or Zelda but rather creating a character with all the races available). Oh and cloths customization. A truly dream game, finding a good spot in that vast open world and placing a cabin would be breathtaking. Plus if you think about it, the world of breath of the wild is already build with all the assets as an open world. I'm not an expert but i think Nintendo could pull it off and make something like what i'm describing. Sorry dreaming too much. And we got Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as a spin off so i hopped that we may got another Zelda game in a different set up.
This last days I got the same felling when wondering around Somniel and the battle maps ( It's beautiful) in Fire emblem engage. They added that cool thing where you could adopt pets. I feel like there is a potential in those worlds. Not changing their current form but rather making spin off maybe or the options to focus on something else than combat in those universes. I wouldn't want to alienate the peoples fans of those game-play loops but I wish so badly that one day we got something to cater to people like me in those beautiful crafted world. The non first party games a great but they never have that Nintendo touch (magic).
I don't count animal crossing new horizons, it was great but it didn't hit that sweet spot as a farming, sim game types.
How would you feel if the main lines games would branch out into different types of games ?
Something I wanted to share, hope I didn't offended anyone.
English is not my primary language sorry for typos.

Ok - before I tell my story, yes I realize now 14 years later I did some dumb shit when I was 18. The question is how I get it to stop, leave my family alone, as we want to have a normal life. All of this is true, no I don't think I have mental illness - I go to the VA and have been tested for all mental illnesses which doesn't check out. I was raised semi-Catholic (only been baptized, no other sacraments).
There is a preface to this story, but now that I'm older it makes a lot of sense.
I didn't sleep in my own bed until I was around 13 because I used to see things at night which scared the absolute dogshit. Like most parents they didn't believe anything I ever said:

1. One time playing hide and seek when I was kid (around 6/7), I was hiding under the covers of my bed looking at a shelf and a saw a bin full of Lego's get tugged like someone pushed down on it. Two minutes later the bin gets pulled out of the wall by itself and my dad runs in to see what happens to which I have no explanation. I was across the room by myself.
2. I used to see figures at night in my room. They never approached my bed, but would kind of look at me in my closet. They were real fuzzy around the edges and took on different forms. When I went to Yosemite on a camping trip, I remember being awake terrified in my bed next to my mom and there black figures walking around in hiking clothing, but no face or anything. They made no sound as they walked around our cabin at around 5:30 in the morning (I was the only one who was awake who saw it), and I can vaguely remember one standing next to my bed where my mom and I were asleep standing down looking at me.
3. The day after I turned 13 I started sleeping in my own bed because my dad had enough - I had a radio in my room I turned NPR on at night on at for white noise so I could try to sleep. I kept the lights on a low dim and the closet door closed so I wouldn't have things "looking" at me. None of these figures ever made noises.

Ok - real story time.
I joined the Marine Corps in the infantry in 2009 at 17 years old (I became a Mortarman/0341) - by 18 I went to my duty station in Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. Those who don't know Hawaiian folklore is that Kaneohe Bay used to be the "meeting place" for Native Hawaiian tribes to do battle. The movie "Paranormal Activity" also came out that year, and we all got drunk and went to the movies to see it. There's this stupid scene where they get a Ouija Board (yes I know this is where I got stupid), and leave it on the table, and then it moves by itself.
Drunk me asks on the drive home if that stuff actually works, and we go find one the next day in Spencer's Gifts in the Windward Mall in Kaneohe, HI. We take it back to our squad bay (we stayed in open bays when we first got there), and the person "on duty" (like RA or dorm security) who is Catholic/Hispanic turns white and says "get that shit out of here right now". We laugh and go to our bay on the top floor.
We pull couches around the table and start drinking (because we're Marines and dumb) and start reading the directions on how to do it. I text my girlfriend (now wife) and she also tells me to stop messing with this stuff. She Googles it and tells me to put Sterling Silver on the board, to which I magically have a St. Michael's Medallion my mother gives me before going to Bootcamp that I had, so I put it on the board.
​
Again I don't believe this, none of the people participating believe this, we put our hand on the pointer and start asking stupid things like "is there anyone who wants to talk to us tonight". This goes on for a while, until all of a sudden the pointer starts moving slowly. I look at the other people and say "Stop fucking around, I want to see if it works". Everyone claims that it's not them, and it slowly moves over to yes. So we start asking if it's anyone we know, and it goes to yes again. We ask who does it know, and it says it's our friend Nathan who is sitting on a couch across the bay with a beer in his hand not touching anything. He's drunk and says "very funny guys". He sits up and says "Ok, if you know who I am who are you", and the pointer spells out Grandma. He laughs again, and says, "OK Grandma, what is your first name". This board spells out his grandma's name correctly. We look at him and say "Ok, who did you tell your grandma's name to", to which he gets kind of quiet and says no one. He starts to ask the year she died (answered correctly), her husband's name (answered correctly), his mother's name (answered correctly). He gets extremely quiet after this, and asks if she has anything she wants to say and she says "I love you" and goes to Goodbye immediately. He looks freaked out after that and it's no longer fun.
​
We keep talking to different "entities", but it starts to get real weird, where the board starts naming people with birth and death dates from the 1800's which we google and are all 100% correct. Then I talk to an entity who says it was my mother's unborn child which was killed with an axe. I text my mom about what I'm doing and she tells me "You need to stop immediately" (she has her own story where something tried to contact her). At this point a Wiccan Marine walks in and he says "What the actual fuck are you guys doing? This is not a fucking toy or a game and you need to give this to me right now. I need to close this fucking board." He jumps on and starts doing some weird praying/rituals, saying we are talking to all sorts of things we shouldn't be.
The same Hispanic Duty walks up to our floor and says, "Hey can you guys please stop, there's a lot of weird stuff going on down stairs and everyone's freaked out. There's weird orbs of light at the ends of the bays, and things are getting knocked over by themselves. Please stop". I'm done messing with this at the end of this, but word got around that this was going on and around 20 more 18/19 year-old Marines show up wanting to talk to spirits on the board. One guy even asked to talk to Satan, and the Wiccan Marine got pissed because he sat there the whole rest of the night to essentially babysit the board.
The next day I felt kind of weird, like there was a pit in my stomach, and I went into the bathroom and kind of started dry-heaving until I felt something leave my mouth but there was no puke or anything. I thought it was too much drinking and ignored it. I went about my business.
There was one Marine who started acting weird for a week as he took the board into a closet by himself and tried to contact his grandfather, and people in his platoon said he started acting weird and distant, and I don't really know what happened after that. I don't remember what happened to the board, but I never touched one again after that, and when a co-worker brought to work as a joke on Halloween I immediately turned and left.
We were up on a mortar range on the Big Island at a training area called PTA - and we would get thick fogs that would roll in. This is on top of a remote volcano on top of the Big Island in Hawaii with nobody except military personnel training - and everyone would hear children laughing off in the distance in the morning. We'd always ask each other "Am I the only one hearing the children laughing?". We all agreed that we heard but no one ventured out into the fog to see what it was. It usually happened in the mornings. This was my last paranormal encounter in the Marines.
​
OK - Fast Forward 13 years, I am married and have 1.5 year-old who is walking and talking.
We moved into our new house with no issues - it's a new house and we bought it from the original owners who are all still alive, no deaths or anything we know of. I posted about this instance before, but just about what happened next. One day my daughter is running around the house bouncing around normally like she always does, and she points to the chair sitting against a desk in our downstairs guest room (the door was sitting open) and she says, "DADDY THERE'S A MAN IN THE CHAIR!" and runs over to me immediately. I pick her up, and she looks back in the room, starts shrieking and tries as hard as she can to press herself into me saying again, "There's a man in the chair!". The only thing she knows about ghosts are that they say "Boo", and she's super friendly with people she sees all the time, so I have no idea if there was an actual person in the chair why she'd be terrified. I have no idea what she saw but I believe that it wasn't nice. She's inconsolable with crying, shrieking, and I can't comfort her. All of my childhood experiences and the Marine Corps stuff comes back to me, and I tell my wife about it, and she actually believes me. We take her to my parents' house and go into town immediately to buy a feather, incense, and other stuff to do a smudging (was recommended on here by a user), and we proceed to do the smudging throughout the entire house, while I carry around my Catholic Bible commanding all spirits to get out of my house in the name of St. Michael, Jesus Christ, and the Lord Almighty God. I don't go outside, but we go in every closet, garage, etc. We bring my daughter back with no issues and life goes on for awhile. Every now and then before we put her to bed (she's now 2), she says "Daddy there's a bad man in the house". We always misdirect and read her stories and such and she goes to sleep with no issue.
​
We have a hot tub in our backyard, and I go sit out there at night before I go to bed some nights when I'm tired, but one particular night I had this horrible feeling that someone/something was watching me and not only that were glaring at me as if they were angry. I think I am empathic and can feel emotions/feelings, and whatever this was was furious/angry with me, and I could almost feel it staring down at me like I angered it somehow. When I walk into my house from the backyard at night I feel like I'm being watched by something. It doesn't go into the house, but somehow I can feel it looking at me inside the rear glass slider inside. Sometimes our Heeler puppy we brought home runs out the dog door at 2:00-3:00 in the morning and just starts growling and barking for no reason, and we go down to yell at him to go back inside.
​
The final thing that I think because of this is I believe this entity (or entities) is tormenting me with disturbing thoughts that don't belong to me. They started about two months before my daughter was born, and up until the end of 2020 I didn't have these thoughts. I've been tested by the VA for Psychosis, Schizophrenia, Mania, Bi-polar and have absolutely none of those or any other medical disorder outside of PTSD. I have no hallucinations, seeing/hearing things that aren't there at all. I can't describe it but it feels like something has been putting these thoughts in my head and even sometimes my dreams - they definitely feel like they don't belong to me. I think whatever I contacted back in 2009 has been dormant for a long time and is now trying to come after me and my family. I am going to contact a bona-fide psychic (which is hard for Christians because the Bible strictly forbids us to do this kind of stuff) and see if they can see what's going on and hopefully do some energy management and get this things out of our lives once and for all.
​
I'm honestly open for suggestions/prayers/advice - I want whatever this is to go away.

Hi! I’ve never had a story to share on here but over the past few weeks I’ve dealt with so much drama from my In-Laws that I decided it was time.
Some backstory before I share the text messages that really make this great. PSA: This story is long because it contains messages but the drama is worth it.
This officially started because my GMIL really, really wanted to see my newborn son. My GMIL over the years has started to show signs of what I believe is dementia and doesn’t make the best judgments. I’ve also realized she can be emotionally manipulative, and has been way before she started to show signs of ‘not completely being there’. I won’t go in too much detail about this just trust me when I say she’s overall not a great person but still she’s my husband’s grandmother and I would have never done anything to upset her.
Now, after about two months my GMIL has really been pushing to see my son- both me and my husband were hesitant about this because she has been very sick recently. On top of that she has a history of being sick but not telling anyone that she is until after the fact ex. A family gathering.
When I was Hella pregnant we were invited to thanksgiving at their house, and I declined to go because I was getting induced the next week and if I got sick, they would have pushed it back further. My GMIL promised she was fine, but I didn’t feel comfortable with it and stayed home. Not even two days later she told MIL she was very sick and wasn’t feeling great even at Thanksgiving.
All relevant to why I didn’t want her to see my son yet, as we are still deep in RSV season, and he had JUST gotten his first round of vaccines.
However, much, much, much pushing (and guilt tripping) from both her, MIL and SIL- we decided she could meet our son at our house. (Just a little detail, we live with my grandmother and she helps me so much with my son- honestly the most amazing woman ever).
We decided if GMIL was going to come over we were going to set boundaries to make sure our Son was safe and have our own peace of mind. The boundaries were that we weren’t comfortable with GMIl holding Son but would love for her to finally be able to see him. I specify this because some people see it was *wrong* that we would exclude her from holding Son but we specified this to everyone BEFORE she came over and GMIL agreed with it. Remember she has continuously been sick and won’t tell anyone she is and when it comes time to see Son- no way in hell was she going to cancel if she felt ill.
On top of this we said she needed to wear a mask and take a covid test beforehand.
The day that she came over we received a text from MIL that she also was coming with my GMIL and asked what time they should arrive. MIL has been to our house a few times so it wasn’t a huge deal but I realized now it wasn’t the best idea.
They walk in and GMIL shows MY grandmother the covid test, not us but whatever, and proceeds to stuff the mask she was holding back into her purse. At this point I’m kind of over It but I just smile and talk to her for a little bit before going back to the kitchen while my husband took the dog outside to use the bathroom.
When I was out of hearing range (or so she thought) she asked my grandmother to hold Son. My grandmother turned to me in the kitchen and repeated the question and I simply stated, ‘would you mind asking *husband* when he gets back’ (I figured since it’s husbands GMIL it would be a lot gentler if he let her down). Instead GMIL started “crying” no actual tears and exclaimed ‘why does no one like me’. Remember what I said about emotionally manipulative. Yeah.
I was uncomfortable.
My grandmother was uncomfortable.
Our poor other dog in the kitchen with me was uncomfortable.
I excused myself to go start laundry after checking with my grandmother she was okay holding Son for another minute before my husband came back in. Immediately when I left the room (again- my mistake) my MIL walks over takes Son from my Grandmother and puts him on my GMIL’s lap. Before this Son was smiling and laughing while my grandmother held him put faced him toward GMIL.
My son LOST it and started screaming.
My husband walks in at this point, sees Son on GMIL lap and immediately grabbed him from GMIL and went into the kitchen. My MIL was shocked and made a snide comment of ‘Oh so No one gets to him Son today*. Then they both left soon after and my grandmother apologized profusely for the situation when I found out. It definitely wasn’t her fault at all.
Now comes the real dramatic part.
Three weeks after what I will now call the ‘incident’ my MIL has been calling Husband and we explained to her that we were upset with that happened. She didn’t grasp what she did wrong and the conversation ultimately went nowhere. Another week and more calls…here’s where the text messaged come into the story….
Husband to MIL: Hey, I want you know I’m not ignoring you but I’m still not over what happened. We want you to be a part of ours and Son life but because of the boundaries you broke we don’t feel comfortable having you over for a while.
-next week-
SIL to husband: Wanna do dinner at moms on Saturday if yall aren’t busy? I want to see son.
Husband: no. Mom still hasn’t even tried to talk to us after her and nana came here
-Next day-
SIL to husband: Hey whats the deal with mom and nana? Something’s been off since that day they came over there. Yall have been distant. I just wanna know what’s going on.
Husband: I already talked to mom but me and OP decided that we aren’t comfortable with mom coming over for a while because she broke boundaries. It’s important to us because we did discuss beforehand what we expected and son health is more important than anything.
SIL: oh okay, but what boundaries were broken? I’m confused…she wasn’t sick or anything? She had been around Son before that day they went over there. What happened specifically that day that made yall feel uncomfortable? Other than nana not wearing a mask.
Husband: We already told mom about it, don’t worry
-Next day- (side note- my Postpartum depression has gotten extremely bad and In laws were starting to be a little much on FB so I took them off)
SIL to husband: Why did OP unfriend me and mom on FB?? Stepdad just called and said mom is bawling her eyes out over this whole situation. I don’t know what the deal is, but I hope you realize what yall are doing to the family. I’m not trying to be in the middle of anything, but mom and nana feel like they can’t talk to you or OP. Whats the deal? This shit can’t go on forever, yall need to work it out.
Husband: Like I said before we already talked to mom about it. You said you weren’t going to choose sides and it seems you already have- please stay out of it. OP unadded everyone because she has way too much going on and doesn’t want to be in the drama. We never said mom wouldn’t see Son again, but we still need time. Son is our Son and mom, and nana broke a boundary that we set even before Son was born. Even if someone in OP’s family did the same thing it would be the same outcome. We were hesitant about nana coming over at all because of exactly what just happened.
-Next day and after phone call with SIL where SIL said OP was causing all the drama.
Husband to SIL: After that conversation me and OP have talked and decided we feel you need to completely stay out of everything going on. We understand you’re trying to defend mom and be a messenger, but you have more than likely have unknowingly taken her side in this when there is no side. We are Son’s parents, and we get to decide who does and doesn’t see him.
(Cont.) We aren’t going to keep going in circles on what boundaries are because we have already stated multiple times what they were. What matters now is that mom and now you can’t respect that we need time to just move on from the situation. No one is trying to start drama but by dragging more people into this, like dad, you are in fact causing drama and we don’t appreciate it.
(Cont.) In case you forgot we were very hesitant on nana seeing Son for the very reasons that happened. Not only did Nana ask to hold Son when both OP and I left the room, but mom then took it in her own hands to hand Son to nana. We already stated we were concerned for Son getting sick and weren’t comfortable with her holding him but that wasn’t good enough for them. Son is not a toy. We aren’t mad at them but the situation, but you have nothing to do with it. It doesn’t matter you’re the ‘messenger’ you can still come see Son whenever you want but we need time away from mom and to process the situation.
SIL: Lol ok
-
In case you’re wondering, yes SIL did kind of come out left field. I received comments that we shouldn’t have just let his continued and just ignored SIL but we genuinely wanted her to just understand why we were upset and we would really like her to not get involved.
I was starting to feel like maybe I was just a bitch and posted the text messages (names hidden of course) to a Facebook group called Monster in Laws. Not even a few hours later and I received a text from SIL with screenshots of the post and ‘???’. I have no fucking clue how she found the post as she is blocked on my FB, but she did. I felt very, very uncomfortable with her just ‘happening upon’ on my post or if someone (on a group of thousands of people) recognized the story and sent it to SIL. Really not a huge fan of that. When I ignored her text- she sent the screenshots to my husband.
Here's what followed.
Husband to SIL: Can you mind your own damn business?? You have done nothing but stir the pot. OP has had nothing but problems since Son was born and honestly the last thing, she needs is this. I don’t know what kind of resentment you harbor toward her or why you even do but you’ve hated her since we got married. Guess what, you’re gonna have to deal with it. OP and Son are my family now and they come before anything. I wont let you or anybody act this way toward us. Decide if this is worth having a semblance of a relationship with us. I don’t give a shit at this point because honestly I have zero interest in ever talking to you again.
SIL to husband: I HAVENT DONE ANYTHING! I’ve just been the messenger in this whole situation. IF that’s what you want then fine. Shows OP true character. I forgave OP for what she did to you. She’s always assumed I’ve had it out for her, but I haven’t. You don’t understand how much you’ve affected and hurt our family.
(Cont.) OP caused all of this. I wasn’t the one asking to see son. I was sticking up for mom and nana. They felt like they couldn’t say anything to you because they didn’t want to upset you. I CHOSE to be the messenger in this whole situation because I actually care and love my family You’ve done irreversible emotional damage to mom and nana and now me. I hope you’ll realize that, and I wasn’t the one starting drama. If you don’t ever want to talk to me again then fine. So be it. Don’t come back around later saying ‘I told you so’.
(Cont.) I’ve done nothing but try to be nice and accepting toward Op and all I get is this. But if that’s the life yall chose to live then go ahead. OP has never liked me or mom or any of our family for that matter and it said its comes to picking sides. Don’t call me a pot stirrer because I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve only told the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
(Cont.) getting mad and unfriending me and blocking me also doesn’t solve anything. Tell me where I’ve gone wrong in this situation. Please. I was only looking out for mom and nana because it hurts me to see them so upset. This is not guilt tripping you this is just the honest truth. I haven’t done ANYHTING wrong, yet I’m ‘causing drama’ because I’m the only one not afraid to shoot you straight.
Husband to SIL: I’m taking my wife’s side.
SIL to husband: Like I said, its sad you feel like you have to pick a side. We’re ADULTS and yall are married. When you get married you don’t pick sides.
SIL: Am I wrong?
SIL: Please tell me what I did wrong.
-
Honestly this could have been over with the first text to MIL. Husband and I just needed a week or two to feel comfortable having them over again and instead SIL made it worse.
Thank you so much for reading- feel free to ask questions or if you disagree with me blast me in the comments. I’ll take all criticism.

Disclaimer: Minor spoilers for Arxur Nursery.
This was made at the request of u/frame_late
In case you don’t know, Arxur Nursery is a series continuation of a good ending rewrite of a oneshot known as Graphite Dreamland written by u/CornSquashBeans. The original oneshot made everyone incredibly depressed, so I took it upon myself to save the precious babies.
Now, the precious babies live in Arxur Nursery.
Arxur Nursery is a mostly slice of life fluff fic about “defective” Arxur hatchings being sent to an improvised orphanage and being cared for by humans. Some of them might even get adopted.
In preparation for the days of adoption, here’s a list of all of the hatchlings present in the story.
Every hatchling has a name, gender, age, hobbies/likes, and an article of clothing that helps identify them.
I hope to get the chance to actually introduce them all ion the story!
Minuli, Female, 8 years old: The only named hatchling from the original oneshot. Loves drawing and astronomy, being a surprisingly talented artist who draws random planets in her free time. She was given an astronomy t-shirt depicting the solar system.
Timothy, Male, 4 months old: Is the youngest of all of the hatchlings. Loves playing with alphabet blocks and making laser gun noises. He was given a blue plaid button up shirt.
Baroz, Male, 10 years old: Is the oldest of all the hatchlings, and is nearing the arxur age for puberty. Loves observing his surroundings and reading… anatomical diagrams. Maybe has some issues. He wears a belt with a pouch and carries around various forms of… literature.
Jurra, Female, 7 years old: Has a taste for fashion and an eye for aesthetics. Also has ADHD. She wears a poofy little girls dress.
Kuno, Male, 7 years old: Older brother to Saba. If you adopt him, you have to adopt her as well. Wears a shirt that says “Big brother” on it.
Saba, Female, 5 months old: Younger sister to Kuno. If you adopt her, you have to adopt him too. Wears a shirt that says “Little sister” on it.
Kilo, Male, 4 years old: Loves the texture of wool and fleece. Wearing a wool scarf.
Barka, Female, 6 years old: Loves geology and gemstones. Needs glasses. Was given a gemstone necklace.
Tazka, Male, 9 years old: Is fascinated by color theory and art. Wears a tie-dye rainbow t-shirt.
Kana, Female, 3 years old: Loves the color purple and pretty flowers. She wears a purple ribbon tied into an elaborate bow around her wrist.
Jax, Male, 8 years old: Likes pretty ladies and being a proper gentleman. Wears a button up shirt with a clip on tie.
Pyon, Male, 2 years old: Likes touching things. Has high functioning autism(also known as Asperger’s syndrome). Wears a fur textured armband.
Jeremy, Male, 10 months old: Likes hopping around and running after things he finds cute, which includes you. Has ADHD. Wears a set of bunny ears.
Lennon, Male, 1 year old: Named after a member of the Bettles band. Loves listening to music and grooving. Wears a wild wig of black hair.
Bethany, Female 2 years old: Loves clinging to the nearest person and bouncing on the bed. Has a habit of randomly kicking things without control(possibly a variation of alien hand syndrome). Wears a pink t-shirt.
Raja, Female, 6 years old: Loves piggyback rides and large animals. Wasn’t given any clothes, but was given a Godzilla plushie.
Helen, Female, 5 years old: Named after Helen Keller. Is blind in one eye and deaf in one ear due to abuse. Wears a white ribbon around her wrist.
Walter, Male, 3 years old: Loves chewing on rocks and eating glitter glue. Wears a beanie.
Surak, Male, 7 years old: Loves being the center of attention. Wears sunglasses all the time.
Yalga, Female, 7 years old: Born slightly malformed and lopsided, and also suffers gigantism and Asperger’s syndrome. Loves making herself look as pretty as possible. Wears a pretty pink bow tie on her head.
Lefty, Male, 7 years old: Born blind in one eye. Has a massive crush on Yalga. Loves water and fish. Wears a pirate style eyepatch.
Sapat, Male, 9 years old: Suffers from depression. Has an interest in biology and bioengineering. Wears a torn lab coat.
Fisa, Female, 8 years old: Loves sneaking around and watching any form of media that she can get her claws on. Wears a watch.
Croja, Male, 7 years old: Older brother of Sarep. You must adopt them both. Loves metal music. Wears a leather jacket.
Sarep, Male, 3 years old: Younger brother of Croja. You must adopt them both. Has high functioning autism. Loves any music that is happy in tune. Wears a t-shirt with a music note on it.
Rya, Female, 3 years old: Older sister to Belet. You must adopt them both. Loves to chase bright lights. Wears a t-shirt depicting a sunset.
Belet, Female, 7 months old: Younger sister to Rya. You must adopt them both. Has a faster than average metabolism. Loves trying to eat everything. Wears a bib.

Looking to sell digital codes. This is a draft of a list, but I'll make a more formal post on the DigiCodeSell Thread
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All codes are HD unless indicated by a (4K)
Payments through PayPal and Venmo (DM me)
Digital Codes List:
12 Years a Slave
13 Hours: Benghazi
1917 (HD/4K)
3 Days to Kill
47 Meters Down
47 Meters Down Uncaged
50/50
Addams Family 2
Aladdin (Live Action)
Alex Cross
Alice in Wonderland (Original)
Alita: Battle Angel (4K)
All Eyez on Me
All the Money in the World
Amazing Spiderman 2
American Assassin
American Hustle (SD)
Angry Birds 2 (4K)
Ant-Man
A Simple Favor
Avengers
Avengers Endgame
Avengers Infinity War
Batman 2021 (4K)
Bad Boys 4 Life
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (4K)
Begin Again
The Big Short
Birds of Prey
Blindspotting
Bombshell
Candyman (2021)
Captain America Winter Soldier
Captain Marvel (4K)
Chef
A Christmas Story 2
City of Lies
Concussion
Crazy Stupid Love
Dawn of the Planey of the Apes
Deadpool
Deepwater Horizon
The Devil Inside
Dirty Dancing (30th Aniv Ed.)
Dirty Grandpa
Divergent
Django Unchained
Doctor Strange
Dolphin Tale 2
Downton Abbey
Dragged Across Concrete
Dredd
The Drop
Dune (4K)
Dying of the Light
Edge of Tomorrow
Edward Scissorhands
Elysium
Encanto
Ender’s Game
Ex Machina (4K/HD)
Expendables 2
Expendables 3
F9 The Fast Saga (4K)
Fast and Furious 6
Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw
The Fate of the Furious (4K)
Finding Dory
First Cow
First Man (4K)
Five Feet Apart
Ford v Ferrari (HD/4K)
Frozen 2 (4K)
Fury
The Gentlemen
Get Out
Ghost in the Shell (4K)
Girls Trip
Glass
Gone Girl
Goosebumps
The Greatest Showman
The Green Knight
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hacksaw Ridge
The Hateful Eight
Hellboy (2019)
Hellfest
Hell or High Water
Hereditary
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
The Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard (HD/4K)
Hobbit: Unexpected Journey
Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
Hostiles
Hotel Mumbai
Hotel Transylvania
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Hugo
The Hunger Games
Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 2
Hunter Killer
Hustlers
I Can Only Imagine
I, Frankenstein
Independence Day Resurgence
Inkheart
The Invisible Man
I Still Believe
Iron Man 3
Jigsaw (4K/HD)
Joe
John Wick
John Wick 2
John Wick 3 (4K)
Joy
Julie and Julia
Jupiter Ascending
Kidnap
King Richard
The Knick Season 1
Knives Out (4K/HD)
Lady Bird
La La Land
The Last Duel
Last Night in Soho
Leap!
Les Misérables
Let Him Go
Licorice Pizza
Lightyear
Lion King (original)
Lion King (Live Action)
Logan
Logan Lucky
The Longest Ride
Looper
The Losers
The Lucky One
Mad Max: Fury Road
Maggie
Maleficent
Manchester by the Sea
Man of Steel
Matrix Resurrections
The Mechanic: Resurrection
Me, Earl and the Dying Girl
MIB International (4K)
Men in Black 3 (4K)
Mid90’s
Midsommar
Midway
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Extraordinary Children
Moana (4K/HD)
Moneyball
Mortal Kombat (2020) (4K)
Mud
My Little Pony: The Movie
Nebraska
News of the World
The Night Before
Noah
Nobody (4K)
Notorious
Now You See Me
Now You See Me 2
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Paddington
Patriots Day
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect 2
Pride and Glory
Project X
Promising Young Woman
Queen and Slim
Ready Player One (HD/4K)
Requiem for a Dream (4K)
Rise of the Guardians
Rock Dog
Room
Run All Night
Rush
The Rhythm Section
Saw (4K)
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Schinder’s List
Scott Pilgrim vs the World (4K)
Scouts Guide to the Apocalypse
Se7en
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
The Shape of Water
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sicario
Silence
Sing
Sinister
Snow White and the Huntsman
Soul (4K/HD)
Spiderman No Way Home
Spiral: Book of Saw (4K/HD)
The Spectacular Now
Spiderman: Homecoming
Spiderman: Far From Home
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Star Trek: Beyond
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Suicide Squad (2021)
Survive the Game
Ted
Tenet (4K/HD)
Terminator Salvation
Thor: The Dark World
Thor Ragnarok
Toy Story 4 (4K)
Transformers: Dark Knight (HD/4K)
The Trust
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral
Unbroken
Uncharted
Uncut Gems
Under the Skin
Unhinged
Venom Let There be Carnage
Warrior
While We’re Young
Why Him?
Wind River
The Witch
The Wolf of Wallstreet
Wonder
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 1984
Words on Bathroom Walls
Wreck it Ralph: Ralphs Breaks the Internet
X-Men Apocalypse
You Were Never Really Here
You’re Next
Zero Dark Thirty
Zootopia

New idea: Drag Queen Pistol (or Rifle, or Shotgun, etc.) Hour

• So many of the brainwashed Conservatives right now are up in arms about drag queen story hour at their child's schools or local libraries. "You're grooming the children!" Ok, then let the drag queens do fun activities at the gun range: there are no children* allowed there, problem solved!
  
  • *Some states do allow you to get your FOID as young as 15, to my knowledge.
• One of the big Conservative talking points about gun ownership is "the damn liberals don't understand, I use my gun for personal protection! There are bad guys out there, but not all of us are. We encourage safe gun ownership for the purposes of personal protection." Fantastic, then that means you won't mind when a group of marginalized LGBT+ people who are under very real threat of physical violence every day decides that they would also like to arm themselves. After all, if you can use it for personal protection, why can't they?
  
• Piggybacking off the last point, more LGBT+ people and allies should start carrying personal protection. As much as we want to aim for a world where we don't have to live in fear, it is also important to be pragmatic as well. The police are their own brand of unhelpful, so as many of the fundies like to say, "Jesus helps those who help themselves." But simply carrying is not enough, regular training and education on proper firearms handling is key to ensure that any user is prepared in the emergency that they ever need to use it. The goal is creating a safe space where LGBT+ people feel that they can come in for one hour to train and be surrounded by other people who understand their world.
  
• If you are anti-gun, you've probably been extremely frustrated that our country has gotten next to nowhere in terms of comprehensive gun reform thanks to the lobbying efforts of the NRA nad other gun rights groups----and why would they? Look whose hands the guns are in: the Proud Boys are the ones that voted these people in and keep their pockets lined. But if suddenly, a bunch of "undesirables" starts coming into their sacred spaces and playing with the special toys only meant for them, how much do you want a bet that now suddenly it becomes important to pass legislation?
  
• On my final and less cynical note - my other points come from a place of aggravation and hostility, but that doesn't mean this plan would solely be adversarial. Of course the two most polarized ends of the spectrum will likely never come together, but IRL, I think showing interest in a hobby could serve as a bridge to acceptance. John Doe that shoots pistols on the weekends has only ever seen gay people on TV, but that doesn't mean he's already formed a negative opinion on them. Perhaps seeing the scary crossdressing boogeyman right in front of him, laughing in a wig while struggling to hit on target at 10 yards, will make him realize that this is just another human being that doesn't deserve to be treated cruelly just because they enjoy clothes in a non-conforming way.
  

I would love to get other people's opinions on this, and if it gains any traction, I'd want to look more into how to start events like these.

It is rumored in dark alcoves, hidden backrooms, and closed doors, that humans are more than they seem. Now, don't get me wrong, I've met my fair share of humans and they all seemed quite normal to me, barring the random Floridian. No, what I'm talking about is their ability to see into other dimensions. Seeing events that haven't happened or wont happen in their world. They write stories about dragons, cybernetic automatons, demons or aliens they have never met, and yet...
They don't even realize what they are doing and all of this is done while they sleep. To be sure, they do dream like us. Going over the days events to process all that happened. Purging any chemicals that have built up over the day. I've even been able to lucid dream on occasion, same as them.
What I'm talking about are those few that can peer into other dimensions and bring back ideas and technology that nobody would have or will have thought of in ours. They know that their dreamers are their greatest weapons against falling to boredom and stagnation. The stories and ideas that they just dream up and implement has changed their world so much in so little time. Little do they know how right they literally are.
There are even those that are able to look and see the outcome of multiple scenarios, and can accurately determine what is required of them to achieve the outcome they desire. Those guys tend to stay in Space Vegas though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey Lewis, I had the strangest dream last night.
Yeah? What about?
It was back in the 21st century, and the world was on the brink of war. People were afraid of what will happen next.
Yeah, what's so weird about that? The 21st century was pretty shit according to history class.
Well, the weird part was when I saw this guy get on his computer, go to a website called Reddit/HFY and start typing out our conversation.
Oh yeah? Well, what am I going to say next?
Something about being hungry and wanting breakfast...
Wow, what a shitty writer. Well, I am hungry, lets go eat.
Yeah, alright.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right, so most if not all of any stories I write on here are probably going to be short. Any ideas I come up with tend to hit me while I'm at work. So I can only hope that I remember the details when I get home.

**ATTENTION**
I'm tired of people messaging me and then ghosting me, or inquiring about my story and then just dip or don't follow through. If this is you, do not bother reading on.
I also am tired of people who are dull and a softie who message me, start a roleplay with me, and then just go soft and can't keep the action or tension going. This is boring. I tend to just leave my roleplays because of this nonsense and I'm not sorry about it.
This is getting old. If you DO NOT want to roleplay with me or cannot seem to keep a story going, DO NOT message me.
This is to be a long-term story that I want to see through with a partner willing to put as much effort into the roleplay as I am.
I am someone who is a semi-lit roleplayer. I don't write more than two paragraphs, usually. I like to provide just enough detail that I am not getting ahead of my partner so they have time to interact. This being said, I ask for the same respect in return.
DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO TALK OUT OF CHARACTER!
I am someone who will talk OOC. I want to treat my partner like a friend where we could talk outside of our story to get to know each other or brainstorm ideas with each other. I find this important to me so we're both not awkward, not bored, and I can know the person who I am roleplaying with. I don't know about you, but it's interesting to me to know who the person is versus the character they wrote.
*END NOTE*
"Welcome to Darkwatch!" that was noted on a street sign just before someone would go up the road. Something else was written below the welcome sign but it was hard to read as the language was different and not able to be translated. It wasn't any human language, either. There is a reason for this specific matter.
Upon the drive up the road, a massive academy can be seen. It has walls around it with armed guards. They hold onto weaponry that has never before been seen to human eyes. Did it shoot lasers? No one knows except for those who stand guard to the academy.
When someone enters into the academy, it's not what it says it is. There are different species of non-human races. It is aliens! Who knew...
You could compare this to the Men in Black organization that hails in a different state. However, Darkwatch is a fancy and more organized business to process aliens on Earth. They give jobs to these aliens, proper clothing to wear when out in public, organize certain times for them to be out, and so much more than the Men in Black organization does.
There are two Darkwatch Agents apart of this organization: You and I (your character). We are partners and top agents of Darkwatch. We have processed aliens much faster than normal employees and have been rewarded for all efforts outside of Darkwatch.

It was a beautiful day today. I decided to take my 2 year old Lab to the dog park (in hindsight I shouldn’t have). Anyways.... we were heading back to the vehicle after some nice off leash exercise when another guy came in with a squeaky dog toy. Yup, you guessed it, my dog took the ball and ran away lol. I tried to retrieve it with the help of his fav treats to no avail. Long story short... the guy got extremely angry and physically assaulted me because my dog took his dogs squeaky ball.
I know this is partly my fault because I took him to the dog park knowing he’s a toy hog. But, assaulting someone is a bit extreme I think. I’m just venting because this really messed up my mood today. What do you guys think, should toys be allowed in the dog park? What tricks helped you guys to get toys back from your dog?

September 8th 2023 entry:
Houston command center was a bust. The terminal to connect Max was complete fried. The aliens obviously used some form of electromagnetic pulse radiation to destroy all modern technology on the surface. That’s the same reason why no abandoned vehicles I’ve found manufactured beyond the early 80’s will run.
They have varying degrees of computer circuitry within them. The thing is, the first space missions were successfully conducted with analog equipment. I am faced with the possibility of a low-tech guerrilla war. I’m still hoping Max can be an asset but unless I can find an interface for him that still works, I’m completely on my own.
I’ve had a few close calls. They run occasional surveillance sweeps to detect any surface activity. I had to lay low until the coast was clear to move again. That offset my schedule for a few days. Huntsville is probably my last hope for finding a way to get Max working again. I’ve been trying to record the time and dates of their operations to see if I can recognize a pattern.
At this point I don’t have enough experience observing them to nail down their habits or rituals. For all I know, all their maneuvers could be completely random but with any adversary, it’s dangerous to dismiss them as disorganized. Their species brought humanity to its knees and the brink of extinction. That was no accident. I have to be careful or the fight will be over.
September 10th 2023 log entry.
Reached Huntsville. As with Houston, the main command center module and all the CPU’s were toasted but I wasn’t about to give up so easily. I looked around and found a large equipment storage room in the bowels of the command center where their earlier computers were stored. Both locations had probably upgraded equipment at the same time but Houston chunked theirs in the trash. Good ol’ Huntsville unplugged their outdated terminals but tossed them in a storage room in the sub basement, in case a 1990’s desktop computer might somehow be useful again! Still, even an old computers were better than nothing, assuming they were not damaged.
As luck would have it, they powered on! I guess the alien EMP didn’t reach the basement. Why the aliens hadn’t wiped out the country’s entire power grid, I had no idea. I suppose there was no need. With the people gone, it didn’t matter if electricity still flowed to empty homes. To call them ‘computers’ was generous, but I knew enough about the older operating systems to make them semi functional. Whether I’d be able to connect Max, was another story.
The connectors plugs to the main terminal didn’t interface in any way with these ancient CPU’s but as an amateur hobbyist back in the day, I had a long-shot plan. I took the AI connector interface and soldered the end of it to a PCI card. With any luck, it would connect to the computer as a peripheral like a scanner or printer. I plugged my modified PCI card into the expansion bay and rebooted. Minutes went by and I assumed I’d ruined the computer but it finally came up. I switched over to DOS and told it to read the modified card I’d plugged in.
After an IRQ conflict was resolved by removing the jumper on the card, it eventually recognized the device! That was already more success than I could’ve ever hoped for, but it was all in vain if I couldn’t interface with my friend. I plugged in Max and waited, and waited. Minutes seemed like hours. I feared his advanced circuitry required too much processing power to operate on the primate machine but he finally spoke.
“Ryan? Are you hereeee? Where am I? Something is wronggggg with myyyy interface. My connnnnnection issss incrediblyyyy… slowwwww.”
I read him the important details of my newest log entries and explained the patchwork fix I’d employed to connect him. He was dutifully concerned that he was connected to an old, Pentium one computer but I explained it was possibly the only functional unit left on the planet. He understood.
Other than slurred speech and slow response time, Max was basically his regular self. He congratulated me on my daring little escape from the International Space Station and thanked me for saving his memory. It was a revealing sign he valued his existence. I told him friends help other friends, and that I was counting on his intelligence engine to formulate a plan to defeat the aliens. Luckily for all of us, he took that request to heart.
“I lovvvvveeee a challengeeeee!”; He remarked enthusiastically. Then he offered the first bit of good news I’d heard in weeks.
“I studied their vocal patterns when they first took over the airwaves. It’s fascinating to deconstruct. There’s a distinct, reoccurring pattern to them. It’s mathematical in nature. I could simulate their speech if you need me to.”
While that might’ve proven useful in some overly complicated, drawn-out sabotage ploy, I wasn’t ready for an offensive against them and couldn’t imagine how it would help our cause. If I’d only listened. Instead, I put Max on an alternate assignment to figure out a covert way to determine if there were any other people left. If so, they had to be hiding underground. I needed Max to focus on a stealthy method to contact them. The thing about him is, once he understands an objective, he’s on it. Within a few minutes Max had some solid ideas. Even operating through an archaic 1990’s desktop computer, he was firing on all cylinders.
“My analysis of the alien language strongly suggests they are limited in the frequency range they can hear. That offers a technical advantage in how we could contact any survivors. By broadcasting an SOS signal in a ground-penetrating frequency they can’t hear, it will allow us to reach out to them, hopefully undetected. With more humans on OUR side, we stand a better chance of taking back the Earth.”
It was both brilliant; and much more importantly, it seemed possible. I also couldn’t help but notice he’d made significant strides in his artificial intelligence algorithms in a very short period of time. His understanding of the situation had rapidly progressed until he now referred to it as: ‘our side’. Only a few weeks earlier on the station, Max had been impartial and neutral in his description of the aliens and humanity.
September 12th, 2023 log entry.
The two of us began working on potential means of sending an ultra low frequency message over vast parts of the country. Radio towers transmitting our signal might attract attention, even if the aliens couldn’t actually hear the message. Neither of us had enough data to know if they had deciphered the wealth of Earth languages or not, but we were pretty sure they could at least hear the broadcasts. That severely limited what we might send out.
Max happened upon a fantastic solution to bypass the potential of being heard OR understood. Morse code! I still remembered it from my early days in the Boy Scouts. We could send out the dots and dashes using any possible range in the audio bandwidth. Low frequencies were just as possible to broadcast them in and could penetrate a few hundred feet into solid rock. All we needed was a means of sending it out. Hopefully there were still people left hiding somewhere and they could decipher our urgent message.
A number of alien patrols flew over the Huntsville command center during those initial brainstorming sessions. I was paranoid we’d been detected somehow. If they knew I was there, it was all over. I had no means to fight back. Max tapped into a surveillance camera on the roof and recorded their maneuvers. By his analysis, it was a routine patrol covering a predictable grid latitude and longitude pattern.
His theory was proven correct when he knew the precise time when they would return. If nothing else, if offered us a greater level of clarity about their species. They were methodical and organized. If they always followed the same pattern of patrols, it was easier to avoid detection. Of course it was a little dangerous to assume they never deviated from the recognized pattern but all we could do was record the data as it occurred and then look for anomalies in their procedures.
September 14th, 2023 log entry.
I located a defense department radar station a few miles away and set off to program a repeating Morse code message. Max had mapped out a rudimentary grid of the alien patrol with his best estimation of when they were completely out of the sector. I’d written down a longhand version of the message so there was no errors in our broadcast. The whole thing was a long shot but I still wasn’t prepared to accept that I was the last remaining human on Earth.
I had to leave him behind and that was scary. He was literally my only friend and I was terrified something might happen in my absence. I never once thought I might be caught myself or worried about that. It didn’t matter. Every day I remained alive was a gift for which I wasn’t promised. I would keep fighting them until I couldn’t. Max continued at the command center to record alien behavior and analyze it. I left him doing his thing and promised to return as soon as possible. I hoped I could keep my word.
At the radar station, like a damn fool I set off a security alarm trying to gain entrance. My blood turned ice cold as the wail of piercing sirens glared on for what seemed like a freakin’ hour. At any moment I expected them to arrive and zap me with some sci fi ray gun. Finally I located the kill switch and shut the damn thing off, but was so rattled by the aural spotlight of my presence that I had to lie down. It was nearly thirty minutes before I stopped shaking.
Once inside the top-secret facility, I wandered around aimlessly trying to find the control center. It’s not like the Department of Defense had a step-by-step ‘Dummies’ guidebook on how to broadcast a rogue SOS signal in Morse code. The radar station was there to detect terrestrial aircraft. It wasn’t designed to do what I needed it to do, nor was I trained or qualified to operate the equipment, even if it was. By the clearest definition, I was flying by the seat of my pants.
September 15th, 2023 log entry
The station computer systems were destroyed anyway, but I did locate an analog terminal. Amazingly, it looked pretty new. Perhaps the DOD made allowances for the possibility of electromagnetic pulse attacks. It’s not like it was telegraph equipment but with a little ingenuity I managed to fabricate a reasonable facsimile to transmit. Once I’d adjusted it to the lowest frequency it could simulate, I initiated our rogue broadcast. I desperately hoped Max’s theories were correct and someone was out there to hear and understand it. If not, our underdog mission was basically over.
“This is Ryan Abbot; the former commander aboard the International Space station. I awoke that horrible morning to find the Earth below me had fallen silent. Then I discovered the devastation of the alien invasion. Is there anyone left out there receiving this message? I stowed away in one of their spaceships after they detected my presence on the station. Please reply to this transmission so we can work together to take the Earth back.”
I repeated the message twice before making an embarrassing realization. While I’d managed to improvise a broadcast device to get the message out there, I completely forgot about how I was going to receive responses! Even if human survivors heard and understood my Morse code message and responded to it, I had no means of hearing their responses! I felt like an idiot.
I scrambled to adjust the equipment at the radar station to scan for incoming Morse code transmissions. It took a while but I adjusted the transceiver to seek them out. I didn’t know how far my broadcast carried, nor did I know if there was anyone left on the planet to hear it. I was terrified I’d foolishly announced my presence to the aliens. I’d told Max I might be away a few days because I was prepared to wait it out for as long as it took. The mission was simple; to find other survivors.
Listening to static airwaves is mind numbing and the concept of elapsed time is a thing of the past. No clocks or watches function but in reality it wasn’t very long before a message started repeating over the speaker system. I was so excited that I failed to record the sequence until it started over. The organized dots and dashes came through loud and clear. I jotted them down on a legal pad I found in the desk. Because I was very rusty at translating the mostly forgotten code, I had to spell-out the incoming text, longhand like a game of ‘hangman’. As excited as I was to be finally receiving an external response, I couldn’t believe what it said. I had to check the text three times.
“What was Kramer’s first name?”
I read and re-read the bizarre, cryptic message in disbelief. Of all the things to say to my request, it was pretty damn hilarious to make a television show reference. Luckily I watched the show religiously and knew the answer.
“Cosmo”; I messaged back.
Almost immediately, the follow up message came in.
“Thank heavens! You are real! Under the circumstances we couldn’t be too careful. I was afraid it was a clever ruse by the aliens to flush us out in the open and exterminate us. The thing is, even if they’d mastered Morse code, they wouldn’t be be able to answer a random question like that. That’s why I asked. I have to protect our people. This is Major David Hubbard.”

September 8th 2023 entry:
Houston command center was a bust. The terminal to connect Max was complete fried. The aliens obviously used some form of electromagnetic pulse radiation to destroy all modern technology on the surface. That’s the same reason why no abandoned vehicles I’ve found manufactured beyond the early 80’s will run.
They have varying degrees of computer circuitry within them. The thing is, the first space missions were successfully conducted with analog equipment. I am faced with the possibility of a low-tech guerrilla war. I’m still hoping Max can be an asset but unless I can find an interface for him that still works, I’m completely on my own.
I’ve had a few close calls. They run occasional surveillance sweeps to detect any surface activity. I had to lay low until the coast was clear to move again. That offset my schedule for a few days. Huntsville is probably my last hope for finding a way to get Max working again. I’ve been trying to record the time and dates of their operations to see if I can recognize a pattern.
At this point I don’t have enough experience observing them to nail down their habits or rituals. For all I know, all their maneuvers could be completely random but with any adversary, it’s dangerous to dismiss them as disorganized. Their species brought humanity to its knees and the brink of extinction. That was no accident. I have to be careful or the fight will be over.
September 10th 2023 log entry.
Reached Huntsville. As with Houston, the main command center module and all the CPU’s were toasted but I wasn’t about to give up so easily. I looked around and found a large equipment storage room in the bowels of the command center where their earlier computers were stored. Both locations had probably upgraded equipment at the same time but Houston chunked theirs in the trash. Good ol’ Huntsville unplugged their outdated terminals but tossed them in a storage room in the sub basement, in case a 1990’s desktop computer might somehow be useful again! Still, even an old computers were better than nothing, assuming they were not damaged.
As luck would have it, they powered on! I guess the alien EMP didn’t reach the basement. Why the aliens hadn’t wiped out the country’s entire power grid, I had no idea. I suppose there was no need. With the people gone, it didn’t matter if electricity still flowed to empty homes. To call them ‘computers’ was generous, but I knew enough about the older operating systems to make them semi functional. Whether I’d be able to connect Max, was another story.
The connectors plugs to the main terminal didn’t interface in any way with these ancient CPU’s but as an amateur hobbyist back in the day, I had a long-shot plan. I took the AI connector interface and soldered the end of it to a PCI card. With any luck, it would connect to the computer as a peripheral like a scanner or printer. I plugged my modified PCI card into the expansion bay and rebooted. Minutes went by and I assumed I’d ruined the computer but it finally came up. I switched over to DOS and told it to read the modified card I’d plugged in.
After an IRQ conflict was resolved by removing the jumper on the card, it eventually recognized the device! That was already more success than I could’ve ever hoped for, but it was all in vain if I couldn’t interface with my friend. I plugged in Max and waited, and waited. Minutes seemed like hours. I feared his advanced circuitry required too much processing power to operate on the primate machine but he finally spoke.
“Ryan? Are you hereeee? Where am I? Something is wronggggg with myyyy interface. My connnnnnection issss incrediblyyyy… slowwwww.”
I read him the important details of my newest log entries and explained the patchwork fix I’d employed to connect him. He was dutifully concerned that he was connected to an old, Pentium one computer but I explained it was possibly the only functional unit left on the planet. He understood.
Other than slurred speech and slow response time, Max was basically his regular self. He congratulated me on my daring little escape from the International Space Station and thanked me for saving his memory. It was a revealing sign he valued his existence. I told him friends help other friends, and that I was counting on his intelligence engine to formulate a plan to defeat the aliens. Luckily for all of us, he took that request to heart.
“I lovvvvveeee a challengeeeee!”; He remarked enthusiastically. Then he offered the first bit of good news I’d heard in weeks.
“I studied their vocal patterns when they first took over the airwaves. It’s fascinating to deconstruct. There’s a distinct, reoccurring pattern to them. It’s mathematical in nature. I could simulate their speech if you need me to.”
While that might’ve proven useful in some overly complicated, drawn-out sabotage ploy, I wasn’t ready for an offensive against them and couldn’t imagine how it would help our cause. If I’d only listened. Instead, I put Max on an alternate assignment to figure out a covert way to determine if there were any other people left. If so, they had to be hiding underground. I needed Max to focus on a stealthy method to contact them. The thing about him is, once he understands an objective, he’s on it. Within a few minutes Max had some solid ideas. Even operating through an archaic 1990’s desktop computer, he was firing on all cylinders.
“My analysis of the alien language strongly suggests they are limited in the frequency range they can hear. That offers a technical advantage in how we could contact any survivors. By broadcasting an SOS signal in a ground-penetrating frequency they can’t hear, it will allow us to reach out to them, hopefully undetected. With more humans on OUR side, we stand a better chance of taking back the Earth.”
It was both brilliant; and much more importantly, it seemed possible. I also couldn’t help but notice he’d made significant strides in his artificial intelligence algorithms in a very short period of time. His understanding of the situation had rapidly progressed until he now referred to it as: ‘our side’. Only a few weeks earlier on the station, Max had been impartial and neutral in his description of the aliens and humanity.
September 12th, 2023 log entry.
The two of us began working on potential means of sending an ultra low frequency message over vast parts of the country. Radio towers transmitting our signal might attract attention, even if the aliens couldn’t actually hear the message. Neither of us had enough data to know if they had deciphered the wealth of Earth languages or not, but we were pretty sure they could at least hear the broadcasts. That severely limited what we might send out.
Max happened upon a fantastic solution to bypass the potential of being heard OR understood. Morse code! I still remembered it from my early days in the Boy Scouts. We could send out the dots and dashes using any possible range in the audio bandwidth. Low frequencies were just as possible to broadcast them in and could penetrate a few hundred feet into solid rock. All we needed was a means of sending it out. Hopefully there were still people left hiding somewhere and they could decipher our urgent message.
A number of alien patrols flew over the Huntsville command center during those initial brainstorming sessions. I was paranoid we’d been detected somehow. If they knew I was there, it was all over. I had no means to fight back. Max tapped into a surveillance camera on the roof and recorded their maneuvers. By his analysis, it was a routine patrol covering a predictable grid latitude and longitude pattern.
His theory was proven correct when he knew the precise time when they would return. If nothing else, if offered us a greater level of clarity about their species. They were methodical and organized. If they always followed the same pattern of patrols, it was easier to avoid detection. Of course it was a little dangerous to assume they never deviated from the recognized pattern but all we could do was record the data as it occurred and then look for anomalies in their procedures.
September 14th, 2023 log entry.
I located a defense department radar station a few miles away and set off to program a repeating Morse code message. Max had mapped out a rudimentary grid of the alien patrol with his best estimation of when they were completely out of the sector. I’d written down a longhand version of the message so there was no errors in our broadcast. The whole thing was a long shot but I still wasn’t prepared to accept that I was the last remaining human on Earth.
I had to leave him behind and that was scary. He was literally my only friend and I was terrified something might happen in my absence. I never once thought I might be caught myself or worried about that. It didn’t matter. Every day I remained alive was a gift for which I wasn’t promised. I would keep fighting them until I couldn’t. Max continued at the command center to record alien behavior and analyze it. I left him doing his thing and promised to return as soon as possible. I hoped I could keep my word.
At the radar station, like a damn fool I set off a security alarm trying to gain entrance. My blood turned ice cold as the wail of piercing sirens glared on for what seemed like a freakin’ hour. At any moment I expected them to arrive and zap me with some sci fi ray gun. Finally I located the kill switch and shut the damn thing off, but was so rattled by the aural spotlight of my presence that I had to lie down. It was nearly thirty minutes before I stopped shaking.
Once inside the top-secret facility, I wandered around aimlessly trying to find the control center. It’s not like the Department of Defense had a step-by-step ‘Dummies’ guidebook on how to broadcast a rogue SOS signal in Morse code. The radar station was there to detect terrestrial aircraft. It wasn’t designed to do what I needed it to do, nor was I trained or qualified to operate the equipment, even if it was. By the clearest definition, I was flying by the seat of my pants.
September 15th, 2023 log entry
The station computer systems were destroyed anyway, but I did locate an analog terminal. Amazingly, it looked pretty new. Perhaps the DOD made allowances for the possibility of electromagnetic pulse attacks. It’s not like it was telegraph equipment but with a little ingenuity I managed to fabricate a reasonable facsimile to transmit. Once I’d adjusted it to the lowest frequency it could simulate, I initiated our rogue broadcast. I desperately hoped Max’s theories were correct and someone was out there to hear and understand it. If not, our underdog mission was basically over.
“This is Ryan Abbot; the former commander aboard the International Space station. I awoke that horrible morning to find the Earth below me had fallen silent. Then I discovered the devastation of the alien invasion. Is there anyone left out there receiving this message? I stowed away in one of their spaceships after they detected my presence on the station. Please reply to this transmission so we can work together to take the Earth back.”
I repeated the message twice before making an embarrassing realization. While I’d managed to improvise a broadcast device to get the message out there, I completely forgot about how I was going to receive responses! Even if human survivors heard and understood my Morse code message and responded to it, I had no means of hearing their responses! I felt like an idiot.
I scrambled to adjust the equipment at the radar station to scan for incoming Morse code transmissions. It took a while but I adjusted the transceiver to seek them out. I didn’t know how far my broadcast carried, nor did I know if there was anyone left on the planet to hear it. I was terrified I’d foolishly announced my presence to the aliens. I’d told Max I might be away a few days because I was prepared to wait it out for as long as it took. The mission was simple; to find other survivors.
Listening to static airwaves is mind numbing and the concept of elapsed time is a thing of the past. No clocks or watches function but in reality it wasn’t very long before a message started repeating over the speaker system. I was so excited that I failed to record the sequence until it started over. The organized dots and dashes came through loud and clear. I jotted them down on a legal pad I found in the desk. Because I was very rusty at translating the mostly forgotten code, I had to spell-out the incoming text, longhand like a game of ‘hangman’. As excited as I was to be finally receiving an external response, I couldn’t believe what it said. I had to check the text three times.
“What was Kramer’s first name?”
I read and re-read the bizarre, cryptic message in disbelief. Of all the things to say to my request, it was pretty damn hilarious to make a television show reference. Luckily I watched the show religiously and knew the answer.
“Cosmo”; I messaged back.
Almost immediately, the follow up message came in.
“Thank heavens! You are real! Under the circumstances we couldn’t be too careful. I was afraid it was a clever ruse by the aliens to flush us out in the open and exterminate us. The thing is, even if they’d mastered Morse code, they wouldn’t be be able to answer a random question like that. That’s why I asked. I have to protect our people. This is Major David Hubbard.”

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

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

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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 !